Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard applauded today’s House passage of the Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Appropriations bill, which makes critical health, education, and workforce investments. Included in the legislation is $ 2.9 million in federal funding for important local initiatives to benefit the citizens of the 34th District and the greater Los Angeles community.
“This spending bill provides short term help to families struggling to make ends meet during the recession, and long term investments to help grow our economy,” Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard said. “The legislation strengthens our public health safety net with federal funding to allow states to provide health care to more of the uninsured and additional HIV testing to 600,000 additional people. It also includes a substantial increase for mental health services nationwide, providing mental health care to 11,000 additional children and an estimated 11,000 additional homeless and seriously mentally ill adults through community-based services.”
The FY 2010 Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Appropriations bill (HR 3293) passed the U.S. House of Representatives today (July 24, 2009) by a vote of 264 to 153. The measure provides $567 billion in mandatory funding for programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Supplemental Security Income. The $160.7 billion in discretionary spending in the FY 2010 bill funds a wide-variety of important programs relating to health care, K-12 education, and workforce training. After adjusting for inflation and population, discretionary spending represents a $5.6 billion increase above current spending. The measure awaits passage in the U.S. Senate.
“I am particularly gratified that the measure includes $2.9 million in federal funding for a wide variety of local initiatives benefiting families in the 34th District,” Congresswoman Roybal-Allard said. “I am pleased to have been able to secure funding for important community health care efforts to address critical issues such as the prevalence of diabetes, high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease in the Latino community. The legislation also provides funding for workforce training programs that provide job seekers with the skills needed to secure employment in today’s tough job market as well as afterschool educational programs to keep at-risk youth on the right track.”
At the request of Congresswoman Roybal-Allard, the following local projects (each described in more detail at the end of the release) received funding in the House-passed Labor, Health and Human Services FY2010 Appropriations bill:
• $300,000 to Homeboy Industries for a Solar Panel Training Program for former gang members.
• $100,000 to Southern California Rehabilitation Services (SCRS) in Downey for a Computer Resource and Rehabilitation Room to assist disabled clients.
• $200,000 to the City of Bell for the At-Risk-Youth Technology Intervention Program.
• $150,000 to the East L.A. Classic Theater for the School Based Literacy Program “Language in Play.”
• $500,000 to White Memorial Medical Center in Boyle Heights for the Diabetes and Chronic Disease Prevention Project.
• $250,000 to Lupus L.A. for the Lupus Cooperative of Los Angeles Demonstration Project.
• $400,000 to Good Samaritan Hospital in Downtown to upgrade and renovate its Peripheral Vascular Disease Lab.
• $250,000 to Childrens Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) for Camp CHLA, a pipeline health careers program.
• $250,000 to the Filipino-American Service Group in Historic Filipinotown for Case Management and Job Training for Homeless Adults.
• $500,000 on behalf of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus for the National Association of Hispanic Nurses’ mentorship program.
(A more detailed description of the above projects follows:)
• $300,000 to Homeboy Industries for a Solar Panel Training Program for former gang members. Funding will be used to support Solar Panel Installation Training and Certification to at-risk, formerly gang-involved, and recently released young men and women in Los Angeles. Classes enroll 40 clients at a time in 10-week cycles, providing concrete skills training and a pathway to jobs in a growing field, as well as supporting a city- and nation-wide commitment to green energy.
• $100,000 to Southern California Rehabilitation Services (SCRS) in Downey for a Computer Resource and Rehabilitation Room to assist disabled clients. Funds will be used to upgrade a computer workshop to teach and assist disabled clients with Microsoft Office Programs, Internet access and typing. SCRS seeks to improve the quality of life for disabled people living in Southeast Los Angeles County including the cities of the 34th Congressional District. The organization’s vocational services programs help disabled individuals retrain and secure employment. Upgrading of the computer workshop will expand SCRS ability to give their disabled clients the proper tools to enter the work force and find permanent employment.
• $200,000 to the City of Bell for the At-Risk-Youth Technology Intervention Program. The City of Bell is surrounded by the most populated region in the State of California. In addition, school aged children (ages 12 – 16) make up a large percentage of the population. Because of the socio-economic situation of the area, most families are comprised of two working parents or multiple working relatives. As a result, the area has one of the largest concentrations of “Latch Key Kids” in the State. Understanding that these children need instructive and comprehensive programming from 2 – 8pm, the City of Bell has created the “At-Risk-Youth Technology Intervention Program-City of Bell Computer Learning Laboratory” to provide comprehensive learning activities to School Age Youth during that critical time of the day. The program is designed to provide expanded and enhanced access to computer instruction and the Internet. The City of Bell provides services at four locations throughout the city. Funding will be used to purchase and install equipment for the innovative program.
• $150,000 to the East L.A. Classic Theater for the School Based Literacy Program “Language in Play.” Funding will be used to support in-school and after-school educational programs which seek to improve language, literacy and life skills for at-risk youth in Los Angeles schools. This funding will provide opportunities for 1,500 students to achieve academic success and social competency by addressing risk factors such as early academic failure, lack of literacy and speaking skills, lack of commitment to school, negative vision of the future, negative peer relationships, and poor behavioral models. The project seeks to address the student achievement in low academic performing schools, especially those that have a higher percentage of English language learners who are in dire need of such a successful academic enrichment program. Successful demonstration of innovative programs to enrich literacy skills is essential to national efforts to improve our educational system.
• $500,000 to White Memorial Medical Center in Boyle Heights for the Diabetes and Chronic Disease Prevention Project. The funding will be used by White Memorial Medical Center (WMMC) to integrate hospital inpatient care with community-based follow-up care for diabetes and other health-related complications and chronic diseases that have high frequency in the Latino community, including high blood pressure, obesity, and cardiovascular disease. The project will develop a new, replicable program utilizing trusted portals – churches, schools, and well established community agencies – to enhance quality of services and physician care to diabetics and those with chronic disease in our East Los Angeles community, which is 89 percent Hispanic and low-income. Treating patients pro-actively will reduce the complications of diabetes will save the federal and state insurance programs significant dollars in future care. The purpose of this new outreach program is to achieve higher rates of self-management in WMMC’s target population mostly located in the 34th Congressional District.
• $250,000 to Lupus L.A. for the Lupus Cooperative of Los Angeles Demonstration Project. Funding will be used for the Lupus Cooperative of LA (LCLA) to establish a demonstration project to improve health outcomes for people affected by this chronic illness who are living in underserved areas of the 34th Congressional District and Los Angeles County. The LCLA is a community-based, grassroots “cooperative” that creates an integrated network of community partnerships utilizing the already existing health and service providers to improve the quality, availability, and delivery of health care and support services for lupus patients and their families. This chronic disease management program is modeled after an extremely successful effort in New York City. An estimated 1.5 million Americans suffer from lupus—90 percent are women between the ages of 15 and 44 and are primarily women of color. Minority women tend to develop lupus at a younger age, experience more serious complications, and have higher mortality rates. Lack of education, diagnosis, and safe treatment of lupus is a growing health problem among minority and underserved urban populations.
• $400,000 to Good Samaritan Hospital in Downtown to upgrade and renovate its Peripheral Vascular Disease Lab. Good Samaritan Hospital seeks federal funding for a dedicated lab for the treatment of Peripheral Arterial Disease (PAD) to 1) raise the quality of cardiac and diabetic care available to patients in Southern California; 2) improve Good Samaritan’s capacity to treat the increasing numbers of patients with PAD; 3) ensure that cardiac and diabetic patients have access to immediate, state-of-the-art care in an emergency; and, 4) allow Good Samaritan’s Heart Institute to train new interventional cardiologists to perform complex procedures with a modern digital vascular and interventional imaging system. The hospital’s goal is not only to enhance its diagnostic and research abilities, but also to advance its limb salvage, acute myocardial infarction, acute stroke intervention, and heart failure programs.
• $250,000 to Childrens Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) for Camp CHLA, a pipeline health careers program. Childrens Hospital Los Angeles will use the funds to expand its successful “Camp CHLA” to offer four additional summer sessions (“camps”) and a spring break session to high school students, especially minority students, who are considering careers in nursing, medicine or related fields. The purpose of the program is to nurture the interest in health care already demonstrated by these high school students in order to encourage them to pursue higher education and health care training that will turn them into the next generation of health care professionals. Demand for the limited number of slots in Camp CHLA has exceeded supply; CHLA receives four applications for every available slot. This innovative project addresses the national challenge of attracting minorities to the health care work force.
• $250,000 to the Filipino-American Service Group in Historic Filipinotown for Case Management and Job Training for Homeless Adults. Funding will be used to provide case management and job training for the participants of the transitional housing program for homeless adult individuals, who are provided board and lodging at FASGI's 20-bed shelter. With the objective of placing the client in permanent housing and increasing his/her skills, income and sense of self-determination, clients receive case management, job training, integration into FASGI's supportive services, and follow-up service for up to a year.
• $500,000 on behalf of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus for the National Association of Hispanic Nurses’ mentorship program. The NAHN Mentorship Program will identify Hispanic students interested in nursing and support them throughout nursing school and through the beginning of their employment. The program will work with area community centers and nursing schools to identify and support those interested in the nursing profession. The United States is facing a nationwide nursing shortage. According to the American College of Healthcare Executives, 72 percent of hospitals experienced a nursing shortage in 2004. In a 2000 study, The Department of Health and Human Services found that the US was 110,000 nurses short of the number necessary to adequately provide health care. By 2020, it is projected that we will be more than 1 million nurses short of what we need for quality health care. By identifying and then mentoring nursing students, the NAHN hopes to combat the current nursing shortage and improve healthcare service in our country.
-- ### --
