Clarke votes for passage of massive $1.7 trillion spending bill
Caribbean American Democratic Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke said on Friday that she voted in favor of the bipartisan $1.7 trillion spending bill for fiscal year 2023 that passed in the United States House of Representatives.
The legislative package, known on Capitol Hill as the Omnibus Appropriations Bill, passed the House, with 225 votes in favor and 201 against, with one legislator voting present.
Clarke, the daughter of Jamaican immigrants, who represents the 9th Congressional District in Brooklyn, told Caribbean Life that the measure provides “significant funding” for several of her priorities.
She said the package also contains $17,816,141 in funding for community projects that she championed for her district.
“The crucial funding for local projects included in the FY23 (Fiscal Year 2023) appropriations government funding responds directly to some of the most pressing needs throughout New York’s 9th Congressional District in Brooklyn,” said Clarke, a senior member of both the House Energy and Commerce Committee and House Committee on Homeland Security, where she serves as chair of the Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection and Innovation Subcommittee
“Time and time again, the good people of Brooklyn have proven that, when they are provided the tools for success and the resources to reach it, they always will,” she added. “I am proud to announce that 15 community projects dear to me, and invaluable to our community, will receive significant funding for their continued growth and development with the passage of our FY23 appropriations bill.
“Brooklyn is a special family, and it is on an inexorable trajectory towards something bigger,” the congresswoman continued. “I consider it the blessing and privilege of my career to fight to get it there.”
She said the projects that championed that will directly benefit residents in the 9th Congressional District include $1,250,000 for the Brooklyn Children’s Museum; $2,200,000 for the Brownsville Community Development Corporation; $3,000,000 for the Capital Improvements for CAMBA headquarters; $250,000 for the COJO Adult Education Classes; US$445,000 for the construction of community food pantry; $750,000 for a community service center for the Council of Peoples Organization; and $450,000 for mental health services, education and other related activities at Emblem Health, Inc., New York.
The others are: $795,000 for the ENF Community Development and Housing Initiative Program; $2,200,000 for the Kings County Hospital Center; $2,200,000 for the New York Community Hospital; $800,000 for the New York Sun Works for hydroponic STEM classrooms, including equipment; $2,000,000 for the Ohel Children’s Home and Family Services; $750,000 for the renovation of a cultural center; $191,160 for the Research Foundation of the City University of New York (CUNY) for a literacy program; and $534,981 for CUNY Research Foundation for a pre-law program.
“The government funding package that passed the House will help Brooklyn families with the cost of living, create good-paying local jobs, support our most vulnerable communities, and provide crucial assistance to small businesses and restaurants that are key to our district’s economic future,” Clarke said.
“Taken together, the funding for New York’s 9th District and the funding increases for critical government programs will reverse decades of disinvestment in our communities and strengthen our nation as a whole,” she added.
The legislation is expected to be signed into law, in the coming days, by President Joe Biden.
Biden said the measure “advances key priorities for our country and caps off a year of historic bipartisan progress for the American people.
“This bill is further proof that Republicans and Democrats can come together to deliver for the American people, and I’m looking forward to continued bipartisan progress in the year ahead,” he added.
