Capito Secures West Virginia Health, Education, and Workforce Priorities in Committee-Passed Funding Bill

To watch Ranking Member Capito’s remarks on the advancement of the bipartisan Labor-HHS funding bill, click here or on the image above.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (Labor-HHS), today announced that several priorities for West Virginia were included in the bipartisan Labor-HHS funding bill. 

This Senate bill, passed with bipartisan support in the Appropriations Committee, is a critical step in the process toward funding our government for Fiscal Year (FY) 2024. Ranking Member Capito has strongly advocated for regular order in bringing appropriations bills through the committee, the Senate floor, and working with the House and the administration to fund our government to try to avoid shutdowns, continuing resolutions, and omnibus packages.    

“I’m proud that in my first year as the top Republican on the Labor-HHS Appropriations Subcommittee, we have crafted an effective, responsible bill. I’m also proud that this is the first time in five years that we have marked up a Labor-HHS bill in this subcommittee. This bill maintains provisions critical to the departments overseen by the subcommittee, and does not include controversial policies that have derailed similar legislation in the past. Addressing the health, education, and labor needs of our country should not be partisan, and I believe this effort reflects that,” Ranking Member Capito said. “When I became Ranking Member of this subcommittee, I vowed to continue my efforts on priorities that are important to West Virginia – like pursuing cures to diseases like Alzheimer’s and cancer, attacking the addiction crisis, and supporting our health and education institutions. This bill reflects these very same priorities.”

CONGRESSIONALLY DIRECTED SPENDING HIGHLIGHTS:

Included in the legislation is $128,323,000 in Congressionally Directed Spending (CDS) measures that Ranking Member Capito authored after having consulted and worked with entities and organizations across West Virginia.

ITEMS BENEFICIAL TO WEST VIRGINIA THAT RANKING MEMBER CAPITO WORKED TO INCLUDE: 

Supporting Groundbreaking Medical Research and Expanding Access to Mental and Behavioral Health Care:

• National Institutes of Health: $47.4 billion in base discretionary funding, an increase of $943 million for biomedical investments in research. West Virginia institutions received $49 million in grants and contracts in 2022.  Investments in this bill include:
  • Alzheimer’s: The bill includes an increase of $100 million for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias research.
    
    
  • Cancer: The bill includes $7.380 billion for the National Cancer Institute, an increase of $276 million, including maintaining Cancer Moonshot activities and full funding for the Childhood Cancer STAR Act.
    
    
  • Mental Health: The bill includes $2.438 billion for the National Institute of Mental Health – a $239 million increase plus $86 million in CURES funding for mental health research and the BRAIN Initiative.
    
    
  • Opioids: The bill includes $655.6 million for the Helping to End Addiction Long-term (HEAL) Initiative, an increase of $20 million.
    
    
  • Diabetes: The bill includes $2.311 billion for the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, an increase of $10 million for diabetes research.
    
    

• Opioid Epidemic: $5 billion, an increase of $132.5 million, for improving prevention, treatment, and recovery services. Funding will support strengthening the workforce, especially in rural communities, and expanding research for critical needs, such as funding alternative pain medications. The bill continues to provide states flexibility to use opioid response funds on stimulants across multiple programs. In 2022, there were an estimated 109,680 drug overdose deaths across the country, emphasizing the need to continue these critical resources. Resources include:
  
  
  • State Opioid Response Grants: $1.59 billion, an increase of $20 million, from which West Virginia has received more than $70 million since FY18.
    
    
  • Substance Use Prevention, Treatment, and Recovery Services Block Grant: $2.05 billion, an increase of $40 million.
    
    
  • Rural Communities Opioid Response Program (RCORP): $155 million, an increase of $10 million.
    
    

• Mental Health: $5.5 billion, an increase of $181 million, for mental health research, treatment, and prevention, including:
  
  
  • SAMHSA Suicide Prevention Lifeline: $519.6 million, an increase of $18 million. Ranking Member Capito led the charge to establish the new three-digit Lifeline in 2020, 9-8-8, which launched in July 2022.
    
    
  • Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics: $400 million, an increase of $15 million.
    
    
  • National Institute of Mental Health: $100 million increase specifically for mental health research.
    
    
  • Mental Health Block Grant: $1.02 billion, an increase of $35 million.
    
    
  • Department of Education: $100 million is included for school-based mental health grants.
    
    

• Alzheimer’s Research and Care: The bill increases investments in groundbreaking Alzheimer’s research and caregiver support for one of America’s most costly and prevalent diseases. The bill provides:
   
  • Alzheimer’s Disease Research: $100 million increase specifically for Alzheimer’s disease research at the National Institutes of Health. Of the $100 million, $90 million is directed to the National Institute on Aging and $10 million to National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Strokes.
    
    
  • BOLD Infrastructure for Alzheimer’s Act: $40 million for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), an increase of $1.5 million to support provisions in the legislation.
    
    
  • Administration for Community Living: $31.5 million for expanding direct services through the Alzheimer’s disease program.

• Community Health Centers: Maintains $1.86 billion for community health centers and $55 million for school-based health centers, which Ranking Member Capito helped secure funding for in FY21. There are more than 425 sites in West Virginia that leverage roughly $80 million in federal grant funding to serve more than 500,000 patients.
  
  

• Rural Health: $364.4 million, an increase of $12 million, for the Health Resources and Services Administration’s programs that support rural health care facilities and provide capacity to address the unique challenges faced by rural communities. Funding includes new rural health outreach funding, up to $3 million, for a partnership with the Appalachian Regional Commission. The bill also continues $5 million for the CDC Office of Rural Health started in FY23.
  
  

Public Health Preparedness:

• Preparation, Response, and Recovery Support: $735 million for programs that help America’s communities and hospitals prepare for, respond to, and recover from public health and medical disasters and emergencies. These events include natural disasters, pandemic diseases, and man-made threats.
  
  
  • National Disaster Medical System: $96.9 million.
    
    
  • Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Agency: $970 million, an increase of $20 million.
    
    
  • Strategic National Stockpile: $965 million.
    
    

Supporting Students at All Stages and Preparing America’s Workforce:

• Early Education: The bill includes $21 billion, a total increase of $975 million, for the Child Care and Development Block Grant and Head Start.
  
  
• K-12 Formula Grants: The bill includes an increase of $175 million for Title I Grants to Local Educational Agencies and an increase of $175 million for IDEA Grants to States.
  
  
• Career and Technical Education: The bill includes $1.47 billion for CTE State Grants, an increase of $40 million.
  
  
• Apprenticeship Funding: The bill includes $290 million, an increase of $5 million, to support the apprenticeship program.
  
  
• Pell Maximum Award: The bill includes a $250 increase to the maximum Pell award for a total of $7,645 for the 2024-2025 school year.

Reducing Fraud, Waste, and Abuse of Taxpayer Dollars:

• Responsibly Allocates Resources: The Senate bill reduces funding for over 40 programs to better allocate limited resources. The last Senate Labor-HHS bill to cut funding for multiple programs was FY18.
  
  
• Reemployment Services and Eligibility Assessments: $382 million, an increase of $7 million, is provided to conduct enhanced, in-person assessments to accelerate the reemployment of Unemployment Compensation recipients to reduce the duration of their time receiving benefits and the likelihood of exhausting benefit coverage. These actions also help protect the integrity of the Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund by reducing improper payments. This program has been shown to save $2.60 for every $1.00 spent.
  
  
• Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control (HCFAC): $915 million, an increase of $22 million, is provided for the HCFAC Program. HCFAC produces an over 2:1 return-on-investment for the U.S. Treasury. This and future HCFAC investments will deliver over $14 billion in savings to federal health care programs over the next decade.
  
  
• Preventing Social Security Fraud, Abuse, and Improper Payments: $1.85 billion, an increase of $67 million, is provided for the Social Security Administration’s program integrity initiatives. This funding combats fraud and supports reviews and redeterminations to help ensure those receiving benefits still meet the proper eligibility criteria. Providing program integrity funding over the next decade is projected to yield nearly $80 billion in savings for U.S. taxpayers. 

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