Ten Ways the Bipartisan Government Funding Bill Helps New Hampshire

The bipartisan government funding bill supports a number of key New Hampshire priorities, from stepping up our efforts to combat the devastating opioid crisis to supporting the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and Pease Air National Guard Base, to boosting funding that invests in economic and community development in the North Country.

Here are just ten ways that the funding bill will support the Granite State:

1) Provides an additional $3.3 billion to combat the opioid crisis, including a set-aside of $142 million for the Trump Administration to distribute just to hardest hit states such as New Hampshire. I’ll continue to work with the entire delegation to ensure that the Trump Administration provides New Hampshire with a fair share of the funds for hardest hit states.

2) Fully funds the Department of Defense, including providing the biggest pay raise for our service members in eight years and supporting New Hampshire’s Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and Pease Air National Guard Base.

3) Funds the first nationwide PFC water contamination study — our people deserve to know the impact of PFCs on their water and their health.

4) Increases funding for the Northern Border Regional Commission by 50 percent, which provides critical support to boost economic and community development and job creation in the North Country.

5) Invests in K-12 education, college affordability, and job training, including increasing the maximum Pell Grant award to more than $6,000 (the largest increase in eight years), boosting career and technical education programs by $75 million, and adding $50 million for apprenticeship programs.

6) Rebuilds highways, roads, and bridges, including tripling funding for the TIGER grant program. New Hampshire was recently awarded a $10 million grant through the TIGER program for the I-89 Lebanon-Hartford Bridge Project.

7) Keeps our communities safe, including by boosting the FBI’s operational budget, doubling FEMA pre-disaster mitigation grants to make communities more resilient, and providing grants to keep our airports safe.

8) Provides an additional $2 billion to address VA facility maintenance and construction backlogs.

9) Includes $380 million in additional funding for grants to help states secure election systems and voting infrastructure.

10) Increases funding to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) by $3 billion.

While this bipartisan bill ​is an important step forward, we have far more work to do to ensure that all Granite Staters who work hard have the opportunity to succeed, and I will keep working with members of both parties to get results for the people of New Hampshire.