Congresswoman Chellie Pingree voted this morning for a spending bill that will keep the government operating for the remainder of the fiscal year (through September 30, 2016). The bill includes provisions Pingree inserted to improve health care for veterans and restore funding to an important pre-K program. The bill also contains important provisions affecting agriculture, taxes, clean energy, health care, the environment and defense.
Some of the provisions in the bill Pingree voted for include:
Education
· The bill restores $250 million in funding for pre-K. Pingree led the fight to have this money put back in the bill and it means over 1,500 Maine students will be able take advantage of new and expanded preschool programs around the state.
Veterans
· Pingree inserted language that will require the Veterans Administration to provide gender-appropriate prosthetics. She says she has heard from veterans who say that prosthetics are often designed to fit men but don't fit women correctly.
· Pingree was also able to insert language into the spending bill passed by the House today that requires the VA to increase efforts to find and address the causes of homelessness among female veterans.
Food and farming
· GMO salmon cannot be sold in U.S. until FDA comes up with mandatory labeling framework.
· For the first time in years, the bill does not include a GIPSA rider. Those riders blocked enforcement of GIPSA, a law that is supposed to protect contract chicken farmers who have been punished by big companies for speaking out. Comedian John Oliver highlighted the issue on his TV show earlier this year.
· Chicken processed in China will be banned in school meals. Since 2013, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has allowed the import of processed poultry products to the United States from China.
· Increased funding for programs that promote and support local and sustainable agriculture, including the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI), Sustainable Ag Research and Education (SARE), Food Safety Outreach Program to help small farmers comply with food safety regulations, Farmers Market Nutrition Program, Commodity Supplemental Food Program, and FDA’s Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria (CARB) program.
Tax breaks
· Creates a permanent enhanced tax break for businesses, including farms, who donate excess food to food banks and homeless shelters. This tax break was included in Pingree's Food Recovery Act legislation that she introduced earlier this month.
· Suspends the Health Insurance Tax (HIT) for 2017, which will result in a reduction in health insurance premiums.
· Extends the wind Production Tax Credit and the solar Investment Tax Credit for five years. Extending the solar Investment Tax Credit is estimated to create 61,000 jobs in 2017 alone. It is also estimated that the wind industry will grow to over 100,000 jobs over four years with the renewed wind tax credit.
Health care
· Creates a $5 million research program for tick borne disease, and includes language directing the CDC to increase efforts on Lyme disease, including improving diagnostics and researching long-term complications.
· Greater federal investment in surveillance and treatment of opioid abuse, including heroin, and the removal of a provision that would have prohibited any funding for syringe exchange programs.
· An increase of $2 billion in funding for the National Institutes of Health.
Environment
· Includes provisions that reauthorize the vital Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), which Republicans allowed to expire on September 30, for three years. The LWCF is one of our country’s most successful outdoor recreation and conservation programs. Over the last 50 years, it has conserved national parks and forests, farms and ranches, fish and wildlife refuges, trails, and state and local parks.
· Increases funding for NOAA to study ocean acidification. Bill includes $10 million for a program that coordinates research, monitoring, around the impacts of ocean acidification to marine species.
· Regional Coastal Resilience Grants. This bill doubles funding to $10 million for the program that helps build the resilience of coastal communities to climate change, including sea level rise and extreme weather.
Defense
· $1 billion for a DDG-LPD "ship swap" with Bath Iron Works. This funding will help pay for a new DDG51 destroyer to be built at BIW.
