Rep. Chu Votes to Pass Bipartisan Government Funding to Feed and House Families, Protect Women’s Rights, & Confront the Climate Crisis

Package includes $17.6+ million in Community Project Funding that Rep. Chu secured for the San Gabriel Valley, halts workforce reductions at Pasadena-based NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, the House of Representatives voted 339-85 to pass H.Res. 1061, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024, a package of six domestic funding bills focused on helping families and communities across the United States. The Senate is expected to vote on the bill later this week.

“Once again, Democrats are doing the work of the American people as the shadow majority of the House of Representatives. With today’s vote, House Democrats put people over politics and passed a government funding package that invests in services and programs Californianscount on while addressing many of our country’s most significant challenges,” said Rep. Chu, who voted in favor of the legislation. “These domestic investments keep our government open and help Americans lowers their cost of living, confront the climate crisis, create good jobs with livable wages, protect women’s reproductive freedoms, and honor our sacred commitments to our Veterans. The package also promotes scientific discovery and our nation’s space exploration program by funding NASA’s Mars Sample Return mission, which is led by the Jet Propulsion Lab and Caltech in my congressional district. I am enormously relieved that the Republican proposal to reinstate the China Initiative was kept out of today’s legislation because its revival would undoubtedly have ruined more researchers’ lives and careers while exacerbating the racism and hate Chinese and Asian Americans continue facing from heightened U.S.-China tensions. I urge my Senate colleagues to swiftly pass this legislation and send it to the desk of President Biden, who has emphasized he will sign it.”

Rep. Chu championed funding for 14 projects within this bill that will directly benefit California’s 28th District residents. These include:

• $959,752 for the City of Pasadena for a new groundwater treatment facility
• $800,000 for the City of Rosemead for improvements to Garvey Park
• $959,752 for the City of Monrovia for the Rio Hondo Ecosystem Restoration Project
• $1,616,279 for City of Rancho Cucamonga to purchase and preserve land surrounding the Cucamonga Canyon Trail
• $750,000 for the Asian Youth Center in San Gabriel to provide a permanent facility for its Emergency Food Program
• $850,000 for Chinatown Services Center in Los Angeles to expand the workforce training program
• $850,000 for the City of Pasadena to rehabilitate a new facility for jobs creation, training, and education
• $500,000 for First Place for Youth for foster youth housing expansion in Pasadena
• $500,000 for the City of Alhambra to rehabilitate the exterior of Joslyn Senior Center
• $1,000,000 for Maryvale to improve and expand housing for single mothers and their children in Rosemead
• $1,500,000 for the City of Monterey Park to restore and improve Fire Station 61
• $5,500,000 for the San Gabriel Basin Water Quality Authority to continue groundwater cleanup in the San Gabriel Basin and Center Basin in Southern California
• $1,000,000 for the San Gabriel Valley Regional Housing Trust to increase affordable housing in its San Gabriel Valley Project Pipeline
• $850,000 for San Bernardino County Preschool Services Department to rehabilitate a new building for the county’s Upland Head Start preschool

“I am particularly pleased to vote for $17,635,783 in Community Project Funding I was able to secure in this bill that will have profoundly positive impacts across the San Gabriel Valley,” Rep. Chu continued. “These strategic investments will create good-paying jobs, educate our infants, provide workforce training for our neighbors, increase affordable housing, improve our water quality, and strengthen communities. I excitedly await a positive vote in the Senate to finalize these projects for my congressional district and begin to distribute needed funds to cities, non-profits, and local agencies.”

House Democrats rejected Republican cuts of 22% across non-defense discretionary programs and policies, and made strategic investments that will:

• Help with the high cost of living, by creating and sustaining tens of thousands of good paying jobs, fighting inflation, and providing full funding for key lifelines such as SNAP and food assistance for women, infants, and children, while maintaining and expanding rental assistance for millions and promoting homeownership.
• Protect women’s rights, by blocking Republican attempts to limit women’s access to reproductive health care, including medication abortion in pharmacies, and by increasing funding for gender-based violence prevention and prosecution programs in the Violence Against Women Act.
• Confront the climate crisis, by fighting climate change, and ensuring America’s energy independence through deploying clean energy technologies in communities across the country, and providing funding for cutting-edge scientific and climate-related research.
• Promote space exploration, by providing critical funding for the Mars Sample Return program, led by Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and Caltech, to unlock new scientific discoveries, and will prohibit future workforce reductions at JPL without Congressional approval.
• Honor our commitments to our Veterans, by ensuring they receive the benefits that they have earned, including abortion care, and investing in Veterans’ health care, with targeted investments that advance mental health, homelessness assistance, and women’s health, including abortion care.
• Fund community projects to address pressing needs in the San Gabriel Valley and districts like mine 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.

Click here to read the legislation.

Click here for a detailed summary of the legislation.