Murray Secures Funding Boosts to Help Families Afford Child Care, Protect Workers’ Rights, Tackle the Opioid Crisis, and Much More

Spending bill increases federal funding for child care by $1.8B, boosts the maximum Pell Grant award by $500, provides long-overdue funding for the NLRB, and much more

ICYMI: Senator Murray Secures Historic Investments for Working Families and Washington State in End of Year Funding Package – MORE HERE 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Chair of the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Subcommittee (LHHS), released the following statement on the much-needed funding increases she secured in the FY23 appropriations package to invest in child care, lower costs for students and families, invest in our nation’s public schools, support cutting-edge medical research and our public health and preparedness efforts, address the mental health and substance use disorder crises, and more. As LHHS Chair, Senator Murray led negotiations for the largest increase in nondefense spending across the 12 FY23 appropriations bills that comprise the end-of-year funding package.

“Right now, too many parents in Washington state are staying up late figuring out how they will find and afford child care, save up to help their kids go to college, and even just heat their homes this winter. This bill delivers much-needed relief to lower costs for working families in Washington state and across the country. It increases our federal investments in child care by $1.8 billion to serve 130,000 more kids, increases the maximum Pell Grant by $500 to help students cover tuition, and invests in lowering energy costs for families with the tightest budgets.

“This legislation also invests in our nation’s workers with a long overdue funding boost for the National Labor Relations Board that will help protect workers’ right to join and form a union and fight for better pay and working conditions. It invests in our nation’s public schools and provides more resources for communities across the country to address the mental health and substance use disorder crisis that have taken such an immense toll on our neighbors and loved ones. This bill also strengthens our public health preparedness and invests in cutting-edge medical research to speed up new breakthroughs.

“I come to the Senate every day to help solve problems for working families in Washington state and across the country, and this bill makes critical investments to do just that. And as this legislation makes its way to President Biden’s desk, I remain committed as ever to making progress on all the priorities we weren’t able to get done in this package—like investing more in Title X. Despite Republican’s extreme position on reproductive rights, I will never stop fighting to support the commonsense family planning program to provide birth control, STI testing and treatment, and cancer screenings to patients across the country.”

Among other things, the FY23 LHHS includes:

• A 30%—or $1.85 billion—increase in funding for the Child Care and Development Block Grant;
• A $500 increase, or 7.2 percent, for a $7,395 maximum Pell Grant award—the largest increase in more than a decade;
• $200 million more for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) to help families with the tightest budgets heat and cool their homes;
• $850 million more for Title I-A grants to support our nation’s public schools, and $904 million more for Special Education;
• A long overdue $25 million increase in funding for the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB);
• A $345 million increase in funding to address the opioid crisis;
• Over $500 million more to respond to the mental health crisis and bolster the new 988 lifeline;
• $325 million, a nearly 60 percent increase, for a targeted initiative to reduce the nation’s alarmingly high maternal mortality rate;
• A $2.5 billion increase in funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to support cutting-edge medical research;
• A $150 million increase in funding for our nation’s public health infrastructure.

A full summary of Senator Murray’s FY23 LHHS bill is available HERE.

Full text of the FY23 Appropriations bill is available HERE.

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