Congresswoman Barbara Lee Votes to Pass Bipartisan Government Funding Legislation to Lower Cost of Living, Protect Reproductive Care, and Confront the Climate Crisis
Washington, DC – Today, Representative Barbara Lee voted to pass the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024, a package of six domestic funding bills focused on helping families and communities across the United States. The investments in the bill will help families with the high cost of living, create and sustain good-paying jobs, invest in clean energy, and help vulnerable people.
“Despite nonstop GOP political theater and infighting, House Democrats have again put people over politics and passed a bill that rejects extremism while investing in working people. As an appropriator, I was proud to vote for a bipartisan government funding package that supports the programs and services that the people of the East Bay rely on while addressing some of our nation’s biggest challenges,” said Rep. Lee. “With these funding bills, Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate united and produced funding to make government work for people. These domestic investments keep our government open and help working people with the high cost of living, create good paying jobs, protect women’s rights, honor our commitments to our veterans, and confront the climate crisis.”
This first government funding package invests in America’s future and delivers for the American people by:
- Helping with the high cost of living, creating and sustaining tens of thousands of good paying jobs, fighting inflation, and providing full funding for key lifelines such as food assistance and more affordable housing and homeownership.
- Protecting women’s rights by blocking attempts to limit women’s access to reproductive health care, including abortion, and by increasing funding for gender-based violence prevention and prosecution programs.
- Confronting the climate crisis, fighting climate change, and ensuring America’s energy independence with robust, transformative investments in deploying clean energy technologies in communities across the country, and providing funding for cutting-edge scientific and climate-related research.
- Honoring our commitments to our veterans by ensuring they receive the care and benefits that they have earned and invested in veterans’ health care, including targeted investments that advance women’s health, mental health, and homelessness assistance.
- Tackling Hunger and Nutrition Insecurity, by fully funding the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and Child Nutrition programs, like school meals, which are now the healthiest source of food consumed in the United States.
- Funds community projects: Responds directly to pressing needs in the East Bay and districts across the country by supporting underserved areas and fostering the economic development that makes communities healthier, safer, and stronger through community projects.
This package includes the following funding bills: Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies; Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies; Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies; Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies; Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies; and Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies.
A detailed summary of the legislation is available here.
The remaining six appropriations bills for fiscal year 2024 are expected to be released in the coming days and be voted on ahead of their expiration on March 22.