Congresswoman Cori Bush Passes 5 Amendments, Secures Millions for St. Louis Projects in House Appropriations Package
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Congresswoman Cori Bush (MO-01) released the following statement after sponsoring and successfully passing five amendments through the House of Representatives as part of H.R. 4502, a $620 billion appropriations package that includes fiscal year 2022 funding for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, Agriculture, Energy & Water, Interior, Transportation and Housing and Urban Development. These amendments will provide vital funding for initiatives that support housing vouchers for survivors of domestic violence, ensure health care for the unhoused community, and secure additional zero emissions buses. The bill also included nearly $10 million for St. Louis community project funding, and $100 million in brand new funding for mental health crisis response pilot programs.
“I’m incredibly proud that we were able to pass five amendments to the fiscal year 2022 minibus appropriations bill,” said Congresswoman Cori Bush. “These amendments will make this package more equitable and just. During a week filled with dozens of votes on various amendments, we stood up for our districts’ values, pressed for every last penny in funding for initiatives that will save lives, and secured millions of dollars to bring back to St. Louis. As we work to do the most for every person in Missouri’s First District, starting with those who have the least, we will continue to push forward in pursuit of a more just world for all of us.”
The following 5 amendments that the Congresswoman sponsored passed:
- Provides an additional $5 million in funding for the HUD incremental voucher program to support survivors of domestic violence and unhoused individuals and families. Reduces administrative and other expenses of public housing agencies in administering section 8 by $5 million.
- Increases funding by $5 million for Health Centers account to provide health care services, including COVID-19 testing and vaccine outreach, to the unhoused community. Reduces funding for the Office of the Secretary, General Departmental Management by the same amount.
- Increases and decreases funding by $1 million in the SAMHSA account to highlight the need for a GAO study on alternative and non-punitive behavioral health crisis response programs to determine the effectiveness of such programs in improving public health and public safety.
- Transfers $2.4 million from the Office of the Secretary at the Department of Transportation to the Zero Emissions Bus program
- Increases the Department of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy by $3 million by reducing the Department of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management by $4 million
The following 3 amendments that the Congresswoman co-sponsored also passed:
- Increases and decreases $500,000 from the Safe Schools and Citizenship Education account to direct the GAO to study the impacts of exclusionary discipline practices in K-12 remote education settings over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic including the ways in which these practices contributed to learning loss, negative mental health outcomes, and student involvement in criminal and child welfare systems, among other impacts. (Rep. Pressley [MA-07], Rep. Watson Coleman [NJ-12], Rep. Bowman [NY-16])
- Prohibits federal funds from being used to penalize persons experiencing homelessness for the life-sustaining activities of sleeping, resting and eating in recognition of the sharp increase in unsheltered homelessness. (Rep. Jayapal [WA-07], Rep. Pressley [MA-07])
- Increases and decreases funding for the IRS by $1,000,000,000 with the intent to ensure the agency reviews that flagged suspicious activity for credit mailings like economic impact payments or the child tax credit are not flagged due to the volume of mailings being sent to a homeless service providers, like shelters, receiving mail for unhoused individuals. (Rep. Jayapal [WA-07])
All 10 of the Congresswoman’s St. Louis Community Project Funding Requests were fully funded, totaling nearly $10 million dollars. These funds will be instrumental in uplifting community-led organizations working to build a more equitable St. Louis.
The following organizations received funding:
- Affinia Healthcare: $2 million
- BJC Healthcare - Hospital to Housing: $800,000
- The Minority Entrepreneurship Collaborative Center for Advancement (MECCA) at Harris-Stowe State University: $1 million
- St. Louis University Mobile Health Clinic: $500,00
- The Healthcare-based Crime Intervention Clinic: $1.3 million
- Gun Violence Response Network with Mental Health Access: $600,000
- Harmony Village - St. Patrick Center: $887,000
- CareSTL Health, The Ville Wellness Campus: $1,000,000
- Wellston Loop Mixed Use Development Project — Easton Development Corporation/Young Voices With Action: $916,900.00
- Mildred’s Casa de Paz — PotBangerz, Feed the Body Mission: $165,300
Following the Congresswoman’s leadership on the issue of transforming public safety, including the introduction of the People’s Response Act earlier this year, she also secured $100 million in new funding as part of this package for the Mental Health Crisis Response Partnership Pilot Program. This program will allocate grants so communities can create, or enhance existing, mobile crisis response teams that divert the response for mental health crises from law enforcement to behavioral health teams. These teams may be composed of licensed counselors, clinical social workers, physicians, EMTs, crisis workers, and/or peers available to respond to people in crisis and provide immediate stabilization and referral to community-based mental health services and supports.
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Congresswoman Cori Bush represents Missouri’s First Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives. She serves on the House Judiciary Committee and the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. She is also a Deputy Whip of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and a proud member of the Congressional Black Caucus. She is a registered nurse, a single mother, and an ordained pastor. Following the murder of Michael Brown Jr. by a now-terminated Ferguson police officer, she became a civil rights activist and community organizer fighting for justice for Black lives on the streets of Missouri and across the country.