Announcing District Wins. U.S. REP. JAKE AUCHINCLOSS.

 Last week, the House passed its annual appropriations package in a “minibus” that included key wins for the Fourth District, including of my Community Project Funding (CPF) requests. 

The Massachusetts Fourth, from Fall River to Brookline, is a powerhouse of talent and work ethic. From the life sciences to education to clean energy, we are innovators and builders. But for too long we have lacked the infrastructure we need to fully thrive. The investments included in this package will make our towns stronger and will lower costs for working families. They will make our water cleaner, our future greener, and our children healthier.

District Projects Included in Passage: 

•  Labor-HHS-Ed Project: Manet Community Health Center Satellite Clinic in Attleboro 

                     Amount of Request: $500,385 Amount Received: $500,000 

•  Labor-HHS-Ed Project: Bristol Community College’s National Offshore Wind Institute 

                   Amount of Request: $2,000,000 Amount Received: $2,000,000 

•  Homeland Project: Somerset Emergency Dam Improvements 

                 Amount of Request: $1,130,000 Amount Received: $975,000 

•  Homeland Project: North Attleborough’s Ten-Mile River Dredging Project to Mitigate Flooding 

              Amount of Request: $1,500,000 Amount Received: $1,500,000 

•  THUD Project: New Hope New Domestic Violence Shelter 

           Amount of Request: $2,000,000 Amount Received: $2,000,000 

•  THUD Project: City of Fall River Urban Renewal Plan Parking Lot and Facility Improvements

            Amount of Request: $1,500,000 Amount Received: $1,500,000

•  Interior Project: Town of Medway for Central Water Treatment Facility Improvements 

           Amount of Request: $2,750,000 Amount Received: $2,750,000 

•  Interior Project: Norton Water and Sewer Department for Source Water Well Replacement Project 

          Amount of Request: $1,475,000 Amount Received: $1,475,000 

•  Interior Project: Town of Plainville for Water System Capacity Expansion 

           Amount of Request: $1,500,000 Amount Received: $1,500,000 

•  Interior Project: Town of Hopedale for Water Supply and Storage Enhancement Project 

          Amount of Request: $2,000,000 Amount Received: $2,000,000


Additional Fourth District Wins: 

Housing 
I successfully advocated for an increase in funding to $100 million for the HUD Housing Counseling Assistance program. The Housing Counseling program provides assistance to first-time homebuyers before purchasing, homeless prevention counseling, and reverse mortgage counseling for seniors. Specifically to help our aging population, I secured  $1.03 billion for the Section 202 Supportive Housing for the Elderly program. 

Part of affordable housing is affordable home construction. Unfortunately, the cost to build homes has continued to increase. Factory-built housing can be built to the same high-quality standards as stick-built housing, but artificial barriers prevent widespread usage. The Democrats’ appropriations bill directs HUD to complete a study that measures the regulatory barriers to factory-built housing and the impacts they have on communities. I drafted this  language, and successfully advocated for its inclusion in the House bill.  

Safer Streets & Strong Towns
As a member of the Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, I am a champion of bikeable, walkable streets and additional investments in innovative public transportation options. The House Democrats’ spending bill incorporated my language to encourage municipalities to design streets in a safer, multimodal way, and to incorporate Massachusetts’ “Complete Streets” model into design and retrofits.

Clean Energy & Environmental Protection
I worked with my colleagues in the New England delegation to secure funding for renewable energy, clean water, and clean air. This included securing $7.5 million to support Southern New England Estuaries’ mission of preserving the ecological health of southeastern New England’s estuaries, watersheds, and coastal waters. Also to address the threat of climate change, I successfully advocated for a three-fold increase in EPA funding for Global Climate Change Research Programs. Finally, to develop new, renewable energy sources, I secured nearly $700 million for Department of Energy research into fusion energy.

Job Training
In Massachusetts' 4th Congressional District, 13,000 youth and 78,000 adults are eligible to receive federally funded job training . In 2020, the district received $1.9 million in Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) Adult and Youth State Grants.

House Democrats’ appropriations bill provides $3.1 billion in WIOA funds for job training for disadvantaged youth and adults, and for assistance to dislocated workers, an 8.8 percent increase over 2021.

This increase would provide $151,000 in additional WIOA funds for job training in the district. The additional funds support middle class and working families by helping youth and adults obtain good-paying jobs. 

Public Education
In Massachusetts' 4th Congressional District, an estimated 13,000 children benefited from federal Title I education funding in 2021 , including 8,000 children living in poverty, receiving monthly Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) , or in foster care. In 2021, the district received $13.5 million in Title I funds.

House Democrats’ appropriations bill provides $36 billion in Title I funds, a 118 percent increase over 2021.

This increase would provide $15.9 million in additional funding for schools in the district to support these children at risk of failing out of school. 

I successfully advocated for an additional $3 billion to be invested in child care, Head Start and Early Head Start programming nation-wide.

Veterans’ Health Care
In Massachusetts' 4th Congressional District, there were 10,000 veterans signed up to receive health care from the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) in 2020. The VHA spent $145 million in 2020 providing health care to 8,000 veterans in the district.

House Democrats’ appropriations bill provides $98.5 billion for veterans’ health care, an 8 percent increase over 2021.

This increase would provide an additional $32.0 million in funding for veterans’ health care in the district. These additional funds will enable the VHA to improve access to health care in key areas like women’s health, mental health, and opioid treatment; provide more veterans with home and community-based services; recruit and retain nurses and physicians; and support crucial medical research that improves veterans’ health and quality of life.

I also successfully advocated for Veterans Suicide Prevention Outreach Programs to be nearly doubled in funding, securing a total of $600 million for the program nationwide.

Biomedical Research
I championed record-level funding for biomedical research in the House Democrats’ appropriations bill, which will strengthen Massachusetts’ 4th Congressional District as a life sciences hub. The bill includes $3.4 billion in NIH Alzheimer’s Disease research funding, $7 billion for the National Cancer Institute and $2.2 billion for Community Health Centers.

Onwards,

 

Jake Auchincloss
Member of Congress