Golden votes for deal to finalize budget, avert shutdown
Bill includes important investments in defense and border security, including funding for Maine shipbuilding and Houlton Border Patrol
WASHINGTON — Congressman Jared Golden, ME-02, voted today for the final package of appropriations bills to fund the government through September.
“This spending package bolsters national security and the integrity of our border and preserves the Maine manufacturing base to support jobs and the economy, including with $6.6 billion in funding that will support Maine-based shipbuilders and $66 million for the Houlton border patrol station,” Golden said.
The package includes appropriations for the departments of Defense, Homeland Security, Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, as well as general government funding and state-foreign operations. The bill now goes to the Senate.
“While this package has my support, I am frustrated by the broken process that got us here,” Golden said. “The Fiscal Responsibility Act that we enacted in June 2023 ago set a bipartisan budget framework that met our nation’s needs and reduced the deficit. But to appease the extremes of their party, GOP leadership then spent the next nine months in political theatrics and a needlessly convoluted appropriations process that brought us to the brink of a government shutdown, only to land on roughly the same framework we set last summer. The FRA was a good deal, and sticking to it brought us to a good budget. But we could have — and should have — finished this work many months ago.”
The package also includes a $25 million increase for LIHEAP, an essential program that helps keep many Mainers warm in the winter, bringing funding for the program to more than $4 billion, which is essential to keeping many Mainers warm in the winter.
Other provisions include:
HOMELAND SECURITY:
- $19.6 billion for US Customs and Border Protection, including funding to hire 22,000 border patrol agents, the largest border patrol workforce ever.
- $66 million for the Houlton Border Patrol Station
- The establishment of a Northern Border Coordination Center for the centralized coordination of operations, information sharing, intelligence, training, and stakeholder engagement with Federal, state, territory, and international government partners along the northern border
- $1.1 billion to align TSA employee compensation with the federal workforce and expand collective bargaining rights for Transportation Security Officers
DEFENSE:
- A 5.2 percent raise for US troops, their largest pay raise in 20 years
- $4.5 billion for two Flight III DDG-51 Destroyers in 2024, one of which will be built at Bath Iron Works
- $1.6 billion in Advanced Procurement for a third DDG-51 Destroyer in 2025, providing stability to the shipbuilding defense industrial base
- $460 million for Navy shipyards, including $300 millions for improvements at Bath Iron Works and Ingalls
- $ 3 million for shipyard workforce training
- $1.2 billion for Drug Interdiction and Counter-Drug Activities, with most of the funding focused on synthetic opioids such as fentanyl
CHILD CARE AND EDUCATION
- $8.7 billion for Child Care and Development Block Grant, a 9 percent increase
- $12.3 billion for Head Start
- a $20 million increase for special education funding
HEALTH CARE:
- $4.6 billion for substance use prevention and treatment
- $1 billion for Mental Health Block Grants and $153 million for the Behavioral Health Workforce Education and Training Program
- $1.9 billion for Community Health Centers, including $55 million for school-based health centers
SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION:
- $140 million for Small Business Development Centers
- $18.5 million for Veterans Outreach
- $17 million for SCORE, a program of volunteer small business experts that provides mentoring, resources and education to Maine entrepreneurs
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