Press Releases

Wexton Votes to Pass Bipartisan Appropriations Bill, Including Millions of Dollars for Key Local Projects

Washington, March 9, 2022

Washington, DC – Today, Congresswoman Jennifer Wexton (D-VA) voted to pass a fiscal year 2022 omnibus appropriations package which will help address challenges facing Americans at home and abroad, including lowering costs, providing support for working families, and confronting the unprovoked and unjustified attack on Ukraine.

“As a member of the Appropriations Committee, I'm proud of our work to write a bipartisan funding package that will lower costs for families, support good-paying jobs and high quality education, and provide for a robust recovery,” said Congresswoman Jennifer Wexton. “We are tackling head on the most pressing challenges facing us at home and around the globe today, including delivering critical military and humanitarian assistance to help the Ukrainian people. I'm particularly excited to have successfully secured funding for ten key projects in my district, such as road and infrastructure improvements, supporting local law enforcement, and boosting local affordable housing programs.”

This government funding legislation includes significant investments to:

  • Help Working Families with the Cost of Living: 
    • Expands child care and early learning programs to more working families, invests in America’s K-12 public schools, and makes college more affordable
    • Strengthens core government services Americans rely on like IRS customer service and Social Security
    • Provides a lifeline for those struggling to put food on the table through robust funding for SNAP and WIC and child nutrition programs
  • Improve Public Health: 
    • Rebuilds our public health infrastructure and invests in lifesaving biomedical research while addressing urgent health crises such as maternal health disparities, substance misuse, and gun violence
    • Provides increased funding for school-based mental health services
    • Supports survivors of gender-based violence by reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act and endorsing further domestic violence awareness and prevention efforts
    • Fully funds the Gabriella Miller Kids First Pediatric Research Program (Kids First) for research of treatments and cures for pediatric cancer and other rare diseases
    • Highlights the value of digital citizenship education such as healthy screen time, digital footprint awareness, and online communication and relationships
  • Protect Our National Security: 
    • Robust funding for defense, diplomacy, and global development, with a strong focus on cybersecurity and investments in responsible border and maritime security
    • $27.5 million for the implementation of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act
    • $10 million to support Customs and Border Patrol efforts to crack down on goods made with forced labor
    • 30% increase in allocation to Radio Free Asia to support critical work in covering human rights abuses
    • $15 million to support work being done in VA-10 to develop technologies to make GPS more resilient
    • Increased investment in national security space launch capabilities at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops Island
  • Restore Our Infrastructure: 
    • Unlocks funding allocated through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to rebuild roads, bridges, public transit, and more
    • Confronts the existential threat of climate change by investing in clean energy development and reducing emissions
    • Fully fund ongoing work to increase capacity at the Port of Virginia, which is key to strengthening supply chains
    • $150 million for WMATA under the newly authorized PRIIA provisions from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law
  • Strengthen Capitol Police Force and Boost Security:
    • Funding to hire up to 2,112 sworn officers and 450 civilian members, as well as resources for recruitment and retention 
    • Supports comprehensive mental health and peer counseling services for officers under the newly-established Howie Liebengood Center for Wellness
  • Support Local Priorities in Virginia: 
    • Funding for the final phase of certification of the remote tower pilot project at Leesburg Airport, the first of its kind in the U.S. and a key priority to improve safety and efficiency
    • Provisions to develop an agritourism resource guide at USDA and collect more data on the agritourism industry
    • Reimbursement for Dulles Airport to cover the costs of supporting Operation Allies Welcome to safely evacuate Afghan refugees

Aid to Support Ukraine Against Russia’s Unprovoked and Unjustified Invasion
In addition to the 12 fiscal year 2022 appropriations bills, the funding legislation contains a supplemental funding bill providing $13.6 billion to provide defense, economic, and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine, including:

  • $2.65 billion through USAID’s International Disaster Assistance program to provide emergency food assistance, health care, and other urgent support and $1.4 billion for Migration and Refugee Assistance
  • Strong support to Ukraine and American allies and partners in the Baltics and Central and Eastern Europe so they can defend themselves against Russian aggression
  • Flexible economic assistance to Ukraine and its neighbors to boost energy resilience and cybersecurity efforts and fight Russian disinformation

Virginia-10 Community Project Funding
The appropriations package includes funding for all ten community projects in Virginia’s 10th District that Wexton fought to secure. Those projects are:

  • Manassas Police Department Mental Health and Domestic Violence Case Management Team: $270,000 to increase domestic violence victim and mental health consumer access to services, while reducing the number of emergency police interventions in the community.
  • Prince William County Police Department Use of Force Assessment: $250,000 to enable the Prince William Police to hire an independent contractor to analyze the department’s use of force policies, training programs, police culture, supervision, de-escalation strategies, and tactics.
  • Frederick County Diehl Water Treatment Plant Improvements: $3 million to support new construction that will increase water quality and production, reduce the cost to treat the raw water, maximize efficiency, and better meet fluctuating customer demand.
  • Manassas City Water Transmission Main Replacement: $2.4 million to help replace 4,200 linear feet of pipe along Fitzgerald Way with new, high-quality pipe in order to increase the reliability and volume of water needed to meet the City’s current and future demand and that of its neighboring jurisdictions. 
  • Fairfax Community Services Board Secure Data Collection and Management System: $375,000 to create a secure data collection and management system for the administration of inpatient hospital bed purchases, establishing the capability for all Region II Community Services Boards (CSBs), including Prince William, Alexandria, Arlington, Loudoun, and Fairfax-Falls Church, to access a secure common interface.
  • George Mason University Quantum Science Workforce Initiative: $650,000 to support K-20 quantum workforce development efforts in Fairfax and Loudoun Counties, create some of the first elementary and secondary quantum curricula, and provide career-connected and experiential learning experiences for students and teachers. 
  • Fairfax County Homeownership Down Payment and Closing Cost Assistance: $1,030,000 to enable the Fairfax County Department of Housing and Community Development’s First Time Homebuyers Program (FTHB) to better meet the need of qualifying applications seeking financial assistance on their down payment and closing costs.
  • Pedestrian Crossing of Tuscarora Creek at Lawson Road: $935,000 to help construct a new pedestrian crossing of Tuscarora Creek at Lawson Road that will provide bicycle and pedestrian access to the W&OD Trail from residential communities. 
  • Middleburg Town Hall and Police Department Facility: $2 million to support the construction of a new town hall and police department facility in Middleburg that will serve as a community gathering space, host public meetings and events, and allow the town to best serve residents, businesses, and visitors.
  • Waxpool Road and Loudoun County Parkway Intersection Improvements: $2 million for the planning, design, right-of-way acquisition, and construction for widening improvements at the intersection of Waxpool Road and Loudoun County Parkway to ease the flow of traffic and improve commutes.

A full summary of the 12 regular appropriations bills is here, and a summary of the Ukraine supplemental is here.

The full text of the spending package can be found here. 

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