This post was updated at 6:08 a.m. on Mar. 23.
[W]ASHINGTON — Congress passed a mammoth federal funding package early Friday morning that members of Vermont’s congressional delegation say will benefit the state in several important areas.
They pointed to items that will provide a significant increase in funding for the effort to clean up Lake Champlain, more resources for combating the opioid epidemic, and a hike in funding for a low-income heating assistance program.
The $1.3 trillion package, which now is awaiting President Donald Trump’s signature, funds the government through the end of the federal fiscal year at the end of September. The omnibus spending bill does, however, leave some major issues under discussion over the last several months unaddressed.
About 12 hours after the bill was filed, the House set about work to pass the mammoth, 2,232-page legislation that touches on everything from lamprey eels to polar weather satellites to minor league baseball labor standards.
The bill passed the lower chamber on a vote of 256-167 early Thursday afternoon. Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., voted in favor of it.
The Senate took it up later in the day, but votes were delayed because of objections from Sen. Rand Paul, R-KY, that lawmakers had not had time to read the major legislation before voting on it.
The bill cleared the Senate early Friday morning on a vote of 65-32. Vermont’s delegation split on the package. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., voted in favor, and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., voted against.
Many officials in Vermont contacted Thursday said they had not yet finished reviewing the package. However, Natural Resources Secretary Julie Moore noted the bill provides some relief from lingering uncertainty concerning federal funding that has loomed since the Trump administration released its budget proposal, which envisioned radical cuts to a broad variety of programs.
Leahy, who as vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee was a key player in compiling the package, was very positive about the omnibus.
“I could always find something more I might want, but we got so much more than we expected,” Leahy said in an interview Thursday afternoon.
Leahy said it was a victory to secure increased funding for many initiatives Trump proposed zeroing out altogether.
He said negotiations to complete the package were complicated by stances on the part of the White House that seemed to change through the process. However, he said, he has heard from fellow lawmakers who say they would like to return to a process of independently passing the 12 appropriations bills
“I think that this can be a turning point,” Leahy said. “I hope it is, because the country would be better off.”
Welch said the bill is a success in the sense that it ends a pattern of short-term funding resolutions that have kept the federal government running since the start of the fiscal year in October.
“Vermonters are going to get stability,” Welch said in an interview.
He also called it a victory that the package Congress passed did not include cuts Trump proposed to programs like heating assistance, Meals on Wheels, and many others.
“This is an outcome that’s very positive: stability and reasonable funding levels to help Vermonters help other Vermonters,” Welch said.
He particularly highlighted a $600 million appropriation for building out broadband in rural areas as a success. Welch said the funding is “a long way” from the total needed, “but the fact that we got $600 million in when there was nothing is an indication of progress.”
Welch conceded there are aspects of the package he does not like. The increase in military spending — a total of more than $654 billion — is “way more than makes sense,” he said. He believes there should be more scrutiny of American military actions, like involvement in Yemen and reviewing the authorization of military force in Afghanistan.
He also said it is “very disappointing” that there was not an extension of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. While some viewed the omnibus bill was the best shot to pass a fix for the program, Welch said that lawmakers needed to balance the desire to include DACA in the spending package with the impact of a government shutdown.
“The cause of the Dreamers is very righteous. The tactic of shutdown is very dangerous,” Welch said.
In a statement, Sanders, praised a series of initiatives that he said he, as the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, fought for — including child-care grants, a bump in funding for the Social Security Administration, and money to improve Veterans Affairs hospital infrastructure.
“In the wealthiest country in the history of the world, millions of families in Vermont and around the country should not be falling behind economically and struggling to pay their bills,” Sanders said. “This legislation provides some long-overdue assistance.”
A spokesperson for Sanders said mid-afternoon Thursday that the senator had not yet decided how he would vote on the package.
Some highlights of the bill:
Environment
The legislation directs $8.4 million to the Lake Champlain Basin Program, which will go toward cleanup efforts, according to Leahy.
Vermont Secretary of Natural Resources Julie Moore said the federal funding stream “helps us have confidence” that the state will have enough resources to complete its targeted work over the next several years.
“To have this piece fall into place is very exciting,” Moore said.
A number of other environment-related programs are also funded in the bill, she said, including funding for sea lamprey population control, a fishery study on Lake Memphremagog, and a national water quality loan program.
Human Services & Opioids
The budget includes a slate of initiatives aimed at addressing the opioid crisis nationwide, including funding for researching pain management alternatives, increasing law enforcement actions, and expanding access to substance abuse treatment.
The bill would increase federal funding for heating assistance, or LIHEAP, by $250 million nationally to a total of $3.6 billion. Leahy says that change will result in a total of $20.4 million in funding to LIHEAP in Vermont, an increase of $1.4 million.
Child care will also see a bump in funding under the package. The omnibus increases the appropriation for a child-care grant program nationally by $2.4 billion to a total of $5.2 billion. According to Sanders’ office, Vermont can expect to see an increase of $3 million under the program, which can serve 600 children.
Vermont Department for Children and Families Commissioner Ken Schatz said Thursday the funding is “great news for child care.”
The funding will support states as they implement a 2014 reauthorization of a law related to child care, he said. Schatz said the department is working to get more specific information about the amount of funding the state will receive as a result of the change.
Lawmakers did not include a plan to stabilize the insurance markets under the Affordable Care Act.
EB-5 & Marijuana
The package reauthorizes the EB-5 investor program, unchanged, for six months. The program allows foreign investors to get green cards in exchange for investing at least $500,000 in job-creating projects.
Scandals related to the program, including the Ponzi-like scheme related to Jay Peak and other Northeast Kingdom projects, have led to calls to reform the program.
Sen. Chuck Grassley posted on Twitter late last week that a reform proposal he backed was left out of the omnibus bill.
Leahy, who also backs the reform proposal, said he feels it’s “a mistake” to renew the program without changing it. He is optimistic the reform proposal will pass independently.
“We have a good bipartisan bill,” Leahy said. “I think if we can get it off as a stand-alone bill it would pass.”
The omnibus bill also included a provision Leahy has pushed for in past years that bars the Department of Justice from using funds to go after medical marijuana operations that are in accordance with state law.
Leahy and others had considered expanding that protection to recreational marijuana in states where that is legal, but that was not included in the final package.
“That was not my number one priority in this bill,” he said.
Infrastructure & Development
Several initiatives related to infrastructure are included in the bill.
The package dedicates $600 million to expanding high-speed internet infrastructure in rural areas.
It also puts $1.5 billion toward TIGER grants, a program that has helped fund initiatives like expanding Amtrak service in Vermont.
Grants that fund community development and affordable housing investment will also get a funding boost.