MADISON, WI – U.S. Representative Mark Pocan (WI-02), a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee, celebrates the final passage of the fiscal year 2022 omnibus appropriation legislation. This $1.5 trillion piece of legislation will fund the federal government through the remainder of the fiscal year and is expected to be signed by President Biden later today.

“It’s a momentous day for Wisconsin. This government funding bill sends tens of millions of dollars in projects to Wisconsin’s 2nd District. As a member of the Appropriations Committee, I’m proud to have fought to ensure these projects were included in the bill, and I look forward to seeing the impact they have on our community,” Rep. Pocan said.

The omnibus contains numerous provisions that will benefit Wisconsin’s 2nd Congressional District directly, including (but not limited to):

  • $39.7 million for constructing a new Plant Breeding Facility at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The existing World War II-era building, which is shared by U.S. Dept. of Agriculture researchers, is outdated and in severe need of replacement.
  • $2 million for a Men’s Homeless Shelter in Madison.
  • $1 million toward the construction of the Center for Black Excellence & Culture in Madison.
  • $500,000 for a new Boys & Girls Club in Beloit.
  • $220,000 for renovating a decommissioned elementary school into a Community Center in Reedsburg.
  • $200,000 for a Centro Hispano of Dane County Facility Expansion allowing it to provide additional programming and classes such as workforce and career development, family support services, and immigration support.
  • $200,000 for the Green County Aging and Disability Resource Center to create a mobile health outreach unit.
  • $1.2 million for Weather Satellite Instrumentation for UW-Madison that will support work performed by NASA and NOAA.
  • $174,000 for the Wisconsin Small Business Development Center located at UW-Madison.
  • $2 million for crop genetics research that will fund corn genetic research at UW-Madison.
  • $1.5 million increase in funding that will support cranberry research in Wisconsin.
  • $5 million for traumatic brain injury research at UW-Madison.
  • $26 million for the U.S. Geological Survey’s Cooperative Research Units which includes the Wisconsin Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit at UW-Madison.

Congressman Pocan also fought to remove a funding offset originally included in the bill that would have eliminated $225 million in state and local government funds previously promised to Wisconsin in the American Rescue Plan passed last year. A report on Wisconsin’s plans for its total allotment of funding is available here, Dane County’s initial report to the U.S. Treasury Department is available here, and the City of Madison’s report is available here.

Rep. Pocan continued, “I’ll always put Wisconsin first, which is why I helped lead the effort with Governor Evers and Senator Baldwin to protect $225 million allocated for our state through the American Rescue Plan. A small provision in this bill would have stripped this vital funding away for 30 states had my colleagues and I not intervened. Fortunately, Wisconsin’s promised funds have been preserved.”

This legislation contained numerous historic increases in federal funding, including:

  • $550 million for Rural Broadband Expansion (on top of $2 billion provided by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act)
  • $26.9 billion for Child Nutrition Programs ($1.77 billion increase)
  • $8.84 billion for the National Science Foundation ($351 million increase)
  • $3.2 billion for the Dept. of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy ($338 million increase)
  • $2.35 billion for Nuclear Nonproliferation Activities ($94 million increase)
  • $1 billion for the Small Business Administration ($109 million increase)
  • $3.26 billion for the National Park Service ($142 million increase)
  • $9.56 billion for the Environmental Protection Agency ($323 million increase)
  • $180 million each for the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities ($12.5 million increase)
  • $13.2 billion for the Department of Labor ($653 million increase)
  • $1.8 billion for Worker Protection Agencies ($42 million increase)
  • $108.3 billion for Dept. of Health & Human Services ($11.3 billion increase)
  • $45 billion for the National Institutes of Health ($2.25 billion increase)
  • $6.9 billion for the National Cancer Institute ($353 million)
  • $8.5 billion for the CDC ($582 million increase)
  • $2.5 billion for the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program ($71 million increase)
  • $11 billion for Head Start ($289 million increase)
  • $3.8 billion for Low-Income Home Energy Assistance ($50 million increase)
  • $76.4 billion for the Dept. of Education ($2.9 billion increase)
  • $31 million for the Special Olympics education programs ($7 million increase)
  • $525 million for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting ($50 million increase)
  • $112.2 billion for the Dept. of Veterans Affairs ($7.8 billion increase)
  • $1.97 billion for the U.S. Agency for International Development ($263 million increase)
  • $53.7 billion for the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development ($4 billion increase)

As a member of the Appropriations Committee, which is responsible for drafting all federal funding legislation, Rep. Pocan looks forward to Wisconsin – and Wisconsin’s 2nd Congressional District – receiving the funding it needs and deserves.

A full summary of the bill can be found here, and a summary of the $13.6 billion in aid for Ukraine also included in the bill can be viewed here.

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