From the Office of U.S. House Assistant Speaker Ben Ray Luján:

…Package Includes Direct Checks, Unemployment Benefits, Rental Assistance, Small Business Relief, and Funding for Vaccine Deployment

Washington, D.C. – U.S. House Assistant Speaker Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) voted for the House passage of a bipartisan omnibus appropriations package that includes COVID-19 funding.

The legislation funds the government through September and extends COVID-19 relief programs like federal enhanced unemployment benefits, economic impact payments, emergency rental assistance, and the Paycheck Protection Program.

It also includes billions of dollars to support mass vaccination efforts to curb the spread of COVID-19. The legislation now advances to the Senate, where it is expected to pass later tonight. 

“After needless months of delay, Congress came together to pass COVID-19 funding. Although this legislation is not perfect, it provides desperately needed help for struggling families and businesses, bolsters the public health response to the pandemic, strengthens our economic recovery, and keeps the federal government running,” Luján said. “For months, New Mexicans have been demanding this additional support to keep food on the table and a roof over their heads, and now they’re finally receiving it. But this pandemic isn’t over, and more help is needed to support New Mexico families, small businesses, and our state, local, and Tribal governments.”

Assistant Speaker Luján also secured key priorities for New Mexico as part of the appropriations package.

“This funding package boosts New Mexico’s economy by investing in Los Alamos and Sandia National Labs, improves access to quality health care in rural and underserved communities by implementing my ECHO Act, doubles federal funding for Comprehensive Opioid Recovery Centers, and supports Tribal and traditional communities,” he continued. “This package defends our public lands and water resources by instituting a moratorium on oil and gas drilling on federal lands near Chaco Canyon, a sacred place for the Pueblos and the Navajo Nation, and by passing the Navajo Utah Water Rights Settlement Act. Additionally, it includes my legislation to ensure state Medicaid plans across the country follow New Mexico’s lead by allowing all Medicaid enrollees to participate in potentially life-saving clinical trials. I’ll continue working to ensure that the voices of New Mexicans are heard in Washington and reflected in Congress’s funding priorities.”

The omnibus package includes the following COVID-19 relief provisions:

• $600 direct payments to most taxpayers and dependent children;
• $300 in monthly federal enhanced unemployment benefits through mid-March; 
• $25 billion in emergency rental assistance and an extension of federal eviction moratorium through the end of January;
• $284 billion in forgivable first- and second-time small business loans through an extension of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP);
• $20 billion in targeted Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL) for small businesses in low-income communities and $15 billion in targeted EIDL for hard-hit live venues; 
• A 15 percent increase in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits through the end of June;
• $30 billion for vaccine procurement and distribution;
• $82 billion in funding for colleges and schools, including support for HVAC repair and replacement to mitigate virus transmission and reopen classrooms;
• $10 billion for child care assistance to help get parents back to work and keep child care providers open; 
• $7 billion to increase access to broadband, including a new Emergency Broadband Benefit to help millions of students, families, and unemployed workers afford high-speed internet, $1 billion to support broadband connectivity on Tribal lands, $300 million to promote deployment to communities that lack access to broadband, and $250 million to promote telehealth; 
• An extension of a program allowing federal contractors, including those at Los Alamos and Sandia National Labs, to grant paid or sick leave to employees who can’t access federal facilities during the pandemic and can’t telework; and
  
• A measure providing state, local, and Tribal governments an additional year to use resources provided by the CARES Act Coronavirus Relief Fund.

The omnibus package includes the following provisions secured by Luján.

To bolster New Mexico’s economy:

• $5 million for Luján’s Department of Energy National Labs Jobs ACCESS Act, which will support apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs that support local high school, community college, university, and other higher education institution and workforce intermediary partnerships with the National Laboratories, to fill skills gaps in critical sectors of the workforce;
• $7.025 billion for the Department of Energy’s Office of Science for National Labs, including Los Alamos and Sandia National Labs in New Mexico, to continue making discoveries that spur innovation and economic development across the country;
• Authorizations to support scientists, entrepreneurs and innovators through the Lab-embedded Entrepreneurship and the Small Business Voucher programs. Luján has championed these programs and previously introduced H.R.5965 and H.R.3574 to fully authorize these important Department of Energy initiatives;
• A historic increase in discretionary funding for the Farming Opportunities Training and Outreach (FOTO) program to help socially disadvantaged and beginning farmers access USDA programs. The additional funding– $75 million, compared to $5 million last year– was provided in recognition of the impact of COVID-19 on vulnerable producers. Luján championed the creation of FOTO in the 2018 Farm Bill; and
  
• Language prohibiting Amtrak from eliminating, reducing, or substantially altering service on the Southwest Chief route.

To improve health care: 

• Luján’s CLINICAL TREATMENT Act to ensure all Medicaid enrollees can participate in clinical trials, protecting low-income patients’ access to cutting-edge care while improving the quality of clinical research data;
• Luján’s ECHO Act to authorize grants to support technology-based collaborative learning models like the University of New Mexico’s Project ECHO that connect specialists at academic medical centers with primary care providers in rural and underserved areas, funded at $4.5 million for fiscal year 2021, plus $1 million for a national telementoring training center;
• A provision doubling funding of Comprehensive Opioid Recovery Centers, to $4 million, to address the opioid crisis and bolster treatment and recovery services. These grants will support facilities that provide the full continuum of treatment services – including all FDA-approved methods of medication-assisted treatment, peer support, and wrap-around services for families – and develop best practices to improve treatment across the country;
• A prohibition on surprise billing for emergency care, scheduled in-network procedures, and air ambulance transportation;
• Requires the National Academy of Sciences to conduct a study and provide recommendations for federal policies and programs to reduce intergenerational poverty and improve child welfare.

To protect our land and water:

• A provision increasing settlement funding for the Aamodt Litigation Settlement Act and protecting the settlement’s access to the Reclamation Water Settlement Fund; 
• A provision to approve a settlement resolving water rights claims of the Navajo Nation on the San Juan River in the Upper Colorado River Basin in Utah;
• A moratorium on oil and gas drilling on federal lands near the Chaco Culture National Historical Park until a cultural resources investigation is completed, and $600,000 in additional support for the study;
• A provision to increase the storage capacity of the reservoir at Abiquiu by 30,000 acre-feet sand allow for additional storage of either San-Juan Chama or Rio Grande basin water;
• $220 million for Defense Environmental Cleanup to safely clean up contaminated sites at Los Alamos National Laboratory;
• $1.8 billion for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) to enable farmers, ranchers, foresters, and communities to implement conservation practices, as well as a provision ensuring acequia associations can apply directly to EQIP;
• Language requiring the Secretaries of Interior and Agriculture to recognize and provide for the traditional uses of community land grants and acequias within federal land management planning processes;
• $112 million for EPA Public Water System Supervision (PWSS) Grant Program, which supports New Mexico Environment Department efforts to monitor drinking water systems for the presence of PFAS and other contaminants; and
  
• $4 million for a long-term water quality monitoring program related to the Gold King Mine spill.

To support Native American communities: 

• An additional $5 million dollars to bolster Tribal Epidemiology Centers’ work to protect public health, including preparedness and response to the COVID-19 pandemic;
• $13 million for Esther Martinez Native American Language programs to fund community-based language revitalization efforts. Luján’s legislation to reauthorize this program, named after an Ohkay Owingeh language advocate, was signed into law in December 2019;
• $21 million for Early Childhood and Family Development programs at Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) schools;
• A study of BIE teacher and counselor pay to ensure compensation keeps pace with Department of Defense pay, as required by law, and to prevent resources from being diverted from other priorities that could impact students’ education;
• More than $5 million for the Native American Serving Non-Tribal Institutions (NASNTI) program, which makes grants to colleges and universities that enroll at least 10 percent Native American students. Four of the 37 NASNTI institutions in the country are in New Mexico: San Juan College, Eastern New Mexico – Ruidoso Campus, New Mexico State University – Grants, and Northern New Mexico College;
• Additional funding for the Bureau of Indian Affairs for Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) enforcement to protect cultural patrimony; and
  
• Funding to maintain school bus routes on Tribal lands to ensure poor road conditions do not interfere with a child’s access to education.