to the Portland metro area—received $290 million to support street outreach, emergency shelter, homelessness prevention, and rapid re-housing assistance. HOME Investment Partnerships Program: The bill includes $1.5 billion for the program to provide states and localities with flexible resources to respond to their affordable housing challenges, including rental housing and paths to homeownership for low-income families. Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation: The program, also known as NeighborWorks America, received $166 million. The national nonprofit offers support for affordable housing and community development through public- private partnerships. Community Development: The bipartisan bill includes $3.3 billion for the Community Development Block Grant Program. This program funds vital housing rehabilitation, supportive services, public improvements and economic development projects in communities across Oregon and the nation while encouraging local investment. Health Care Rural Health: The bill includes critical investments in health care access and delivery in rural areas, including $145 million for the Rural Communities Opioid Response Program and $12.5 million for State Offices of Rural (CDC)—language based off Senator Merkley’s Rural Health Equity Act and a bipartisan priority he led the charge in championing. Nursing: The bill includes $300 million to support current nurses in Oregon and across the country and address the nursing workforce shortage. Merkley led 40 senators in a letter to the committee leaders to push for an increase in federal funding for nursing workforce development programs, which support nurses at all levels of education, training, and retention. Reproductive Health Care: The bill includes funding for reproductive health care programs, including nearly $300 million for the Title X Family Planning Program and $101 million for teen pregnancy prevention. Maternal and Child Health: The bill includes over $1.33 billion for programs to improve maternal and child health, including $324 million specifically to combat this country’s Health, including the Oregon Office of Rural Health. The bill also includes $5 million to establish an Office of Rural Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
maternal mortality crisis and $8 million in new funding to increase training and support for Certified Nurse Midwives with a focus on practitioners working in rural and underserved communities. Mental and Behavioral Health Care: The bill includes $1.01 billion for the Community Mental Health Services Block Grant—an increase of $150 million—to improve mental health services in all 50 states. Oregon benefited from over $22 million in program funding in years prior. The bill includes over $600 million for suicide prevention programs, including $501.6 million in funding for 9-8-8, the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. Medical Research: The bill includes a $2.5 billion increase in funding for the National Institutes of Health, totaling $47.5 billion in the fight against cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, ALS, and other devastating diseases. The bill also includes funding to further research and provide a more comprehensive understanding of COVID-19, including susceptibility and long COVID. Community Health Centers: The bill includes $1.86 billion in funding to support ongoing efforts to increase accessibility of medical services through community health centers. These centers serve a vital role in ensuring access to primary care for rural and underserved communities. Rebuilding our Public Health System: Bolstering our public health infrastructure is a matter of both public health and national security, and this bill includes a $760 million increase for the CDC to continue to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and prepare for future public health challenges. The bill also includes $965 million, an increase of $120 million, to improve and expand the Strategic National Stockpile, which is critical to ensuring that doctors, nurses, and other health care providers have the equipment and resources they need in the event of another public health emergency. Education Education Research: The bill includes $807 million for the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) to support innovation, research, and evaluation in education, including evaluating strategies to combat learning loss from the COVID-19 pandemic. Merkley led 19 senators in a letter to the committee advocating for this investment; the University of Oregon continues to be one of the top IES grant recipient institutions in the nation.
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January 2023 | The Business Review
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