Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Representative Jill Tokuda voted to pass the second and final package of government spending bills for Fiscal Year 2024, providing critical funding for federal programs that support working families in Hawai‘i and across the country. The package, which includes funding for roughly 70 percent of the federal budget, including the Department of Education, the Department of Defense, the Department of Labor, and the Department of Health and Human Services, passed by a vote of 286 to 134.
“These two packages funding the federal government for Fiscal Year 2024 reflect bipartisan agreements that ultimately help address the cost of living, invest in our communities, support our working families, protect reproductive and LGBTQI+ rights, reinforce our national security and global leadership, and fight climate change,” said Rep. Tokuda. “Democrats successfully prevented the most harmful cuts and removed dozens of harmful policy riders proposed by Republicans to attack reproductive and LGBTI+ rights, ban diversity and inclusion programs, and undermine our efforts to tackle the climate crisis. We once again provided the votes necessary to keep government open and working for the people, and I will continue to ensure Hawai‘i’s priorities are met as we begin work on Fiscal Year 2025 appropriations.”
The spending package included the last of Rep. Tokuda’s 15 Community Project Funding requests: $1,440,000 for Hāna Health to support facilities expansion activities. The rest of Rep. Tokuda’s requested projects were funded through the first appropriations package passed and signed into law two weeks ago. In total, Rep. Tokuda has helped secure over $134 million in direct funding for community projects across Hawai‘i’s Second Congressional District in her first year in Congress.
Among the most significant victories for working families in Hawai‘i and across the country included in the package are:
- $21 billion for Child Care and Head Start programs, a $1 billion increase from last year;
- $18.4 billion for Title I Grants, an increase of $20 million from last year, to preserve and strengthen education and job training;
- $7 billion for the Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), a $1 billion increase from last year, and $33 billion for child nutrition programs;
- $1.4 billion for Health Workforce Training programs, including Nursing Programs and Children’s Hospitals Graduate Medical Education; and
- $365 million for Rural Health Programs, an increase of $12 million from last year.
Rep. Tokuda secured $4 million to establish the first-ever Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander Health Research Office within the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities. The two appropriations packages also included funding for federal programs that support Native Hawaiian communities:
- $27 million for the Native Hawaiian Health Care Program;
- $45 million for the Education for Native Hawaiians Program;
- $24.5 million for the Strengthening Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions Program;
- $22.3 million for the Native Hawaiian Housing Block Grant Program;
- $2 million for the Native Hawaiian Resource Center on Domestic Violence;
As a member of the House Agriculture Committee, Rep. Tokuda also fought for programs to help local Hawai‘i agricultural producers. The final funding bills included $5 million for Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian-Serving Institutions to educate the next generation of Native Hawaiian agricultural leaders and $5 million for the Micro-Grants for Food Security program to promote the quality and quantity of locally grown food.
For full summaries and text of the final Fiscal Year 2024 appropriations bills, please see here (first package) and here (second package).
This second and final appropriations package now heads to the Senate for consideration and is expected to be signed into law by President Biden as soon as possible.
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