Skip to content
Newsletter Signup
  1. News
  2. Press Releases
Published:

Senator Hassan Statement on Key New Hampshire Priorities in Government Funding Bill

WASHINGTON – Senator Maggie Hassan released the following statement on the key New Hampshire priorities included in the government funding bill, which implements the bipartisan February funding agreement and includes an additional $3.3 billion to combat the opioid crisis. As members of the bipartisan Common Sense Coalition, Senators Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen worked to pave the way for the bipartisan agreement in February.  

“This bipartisan funding bill is an important next step in our efforts to combat the devastating opioid crisis, and it will make critical investments to help expand economic opportunity for hard-working families, support innovative businesses, and keep our nation safe,” Senator Maggie Hassan said. “The number one thing that I hear from Granite Staters on the front lines of the opioid crisis is that they need more resources, and this bill will provide an additional $3.3 billion to combat the epidemic, including $142 million set-aside for the Trump Administration to distribute just to hardest-hit states like New Hampshire.”

“I am also glad that this bipartisan bill supports other key New Hampshire priorities, including supporting the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and Pease Air National Guard Base, boosting funding for the Northern Border Regional Commission which invests in economic and community development in the North Country, and funding the first nationwide PFC water contamination study,” Senator Hassan added. “In order to help lay the foundation for the next generation of innovative economic growth, this bill rejects Secretary DeVos’s backward agenda and invests in K-12 education and college affordability, and also increases funds to fix our highways, roads, and bridges, and expands efforts to bring broadband to rural and under-served areas. 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.

See below for some of the key New Hampshire priorities in this government funding bill:

 

  • Providing 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. Senator Hassan will work with Senator Shaheen and the entire delegation to ensure that the Trump Administration provides New Hampshire with a fair share of the funds for hardest hit states.
  • Fully funding the Department of Defense, including providing the biggest pay raise for our service members in eight years and supporting the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and Pease Air National Guard Base.
  • Funding the first nationwide PFC water contamination study.
  • Increasing funding for the Northern Border Regional Commission by 50 percent (the NBRC will receive a total of $15 million), which provides critical support to boost economic and community development and job creation in the North Country.
  • Preventing a burdensome at-sea monitoring fee from being imposed on New Hampshire fishermen this year.
  • Investing 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.
  • Rebuilding highways, roads, and bridges, including tripling funding for the TIGER grant program. The Senator recently helped secure a $10 million grant through the TIGER program for the I-89 Lebanon-Hartford Bridge Project.
  • $600 billion increase in funding to expand broadband in rural and under-served areas.
  • Adding $300 million in new funding for the Clean Water and Drinking water state revolving funds.
  • Keeping 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.
  • $380 million in additional funding for grants to help states secure election systems and voting infrastructure.
  • Providing an additional $2 billion to address VA facility maintenance and construction backlogs.
  • Increasing funding to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) by $3 billion.
  • A $2.37 billion increase for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) program, the largest single-year increase in the program’s history.

 ###