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WASHINGTON, DC—Congressman Paul D. Tonko marked a decisive set of year-end legislative achievements today with the passage of H.R. 133, sweeping emergency legislation in the House and Senate, including a short-term COVID rescue package that funds testing, tracing and vaccine distribution and delivers support for struggling small businesses and families. The rescue legislation advanced as part of the broad funding bill to prevent a federal shutdown and includes major Tonko bills to tackle the climate crisis, phase down harmful refrigerants and expand investments in clean energy innovation, improve support for Alzheimer’s care, bring renewed integrity to the sport of horse racing, improve federal services and funding to expand broadband access, and much more.

“Despite its shortcomings, this legislation does provide some hard-won help for hard-hit American families, struggling small businesses and public health systems wondering how they will fund this critical phase of vaccine distribution,” said Tonko. “Our Capital Region will get some additional help from bills I have worked to advance for years including clean energy investments, improved services for Alzheimer’s patients, expanded broadband access and more. Sadly, it falls woefully short of what the American people need to weather the next six months of this pandemic, and it fails entirely to deliver on the urgent needs of our communities that need critical state and local funding to protect jobs and essential services that have kept us safe and kept us going during this difficult period. This legislation is much too little, and after seven months of obstruction by the Republican Senate, it is certainly much too late. We must be ready to move forward with a real emergency response the day the new Congress convenes on January 3^rd, and I will not rest until we have delivered the lifeline our communities, frontline workers, first responders and struggling families need to get through this.”

The package contains needed COVID-19 relief including:

• Billions administered to accelerate the free and equitable distribution of safe vaccines to as many Americans as possible as soon as possible
• Strong support for small business, with more than $284 billion for first and second forgivable PPP loans with key modifications to PPP to serve the smallest businesses and struggling non-profits and better assist independent restaurants
• $25 billion in rental assistance secured for families struggling to stay in their homes and an extension of the eviction moratorium.
• A new round of direct payment checks of up to $600 per adult and child, also ensuring that mixed-status families receive payments.  
• $300 per week in enhanced unemployment insurance benefits for 11 weeks.
• Increased SNAP and child nutrition benefits by $13 billion to help relieve the historic hunger crisis that has left up to 17 million children food insecure.
• Funding for colleges and schools, with $82 billion allotted to help mitigate virus transmission and reopen classrooms and $10 billion for child care assistance to help get parents back to work and keep child care providers open.
  

Tonko priorities in the omnibus bill include:

Improving Hope for Alzheimer’s
Last year, Tonko introduced H.R. 1873: Improving HOPE for Alzheimer’s Act, bipartisan legislation that would require the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to inform healthcare providers about care planning benefits for Alzheimer’s and dementia patients available through Medicare. The bill would also require HHS to identify other barriers individuals may be facing in accessing care planning.

Horseracing Integrity
For 6 years, Tonko has fought to modernize the sport of horseracing with H.R. 1754, the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act. The bill would designate the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority to design and implement uniform national horse racing medication and racetrack safety standards. This year, companion legislation in the Senate was introduced by U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and U.S. Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Martha McSally (R-AZ), and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA). 

Broadband Access
Tonko’s bipartisan ACCESS BROADBAND Act (H.R. 1328) helps expand broadband access in underserved areas and create a simpler process for small businesses and local economic developers to access federal broadband resources. The bill:

• Establishes an Office of Internet Connectivity and Growth at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), which already has the necessary infrastructure, resources and staff to oversee and track broadband funding across agencies.
• Directs this office to simplify access for small businesses and local communities, possibly including small business workshops and other support resources.
• Streamlines process for small businesses & local governments to apply for federal broadband assistance; improves coordination across government and the private sector

Clean Energy & Climate Action

As Chair of the Energy & Commerce Subcommittee on Environment & Climate Change in the House, Tonko fought to advance several major bills included in the omnibus package, including:

• H.R. 2041, the Weatherization Enhancement and Local Energy Efficiency Investment and Accountability Act, to reauthorize and improve the Department of Energy’s Weatherization Assistance Program, the largest residential energy efficiency program in the country, which makes efficiency improvements in low-income homes.
• H.R. 2659, which would expand a Department of Energy RD&D program to improve the efficiency of turbines.
• H.R. 3609, the Wind Energy Research and Development Act, which requires the Department of Energy to carry out a grant program to research, develop, and evaluate wind energy technologies and systems.
• H.R. 5544, the American Innovation and Manufacturing Leadership Act, which phases down production and consumption of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), highly potent greenhouse gases primarily used a refrigerants, by providing an orderly, innovation-driven transition to next generation technologies.
• H.R. 8232, the Bolster American Technology Through Expanding Recycling Yield (BATTERY) Act, to establish a research, development, and demonstration program at the Department of Energy that would support critical mineral recycling and reuse from batteries.

In addition to the five energy bills authored by Tonko, the package also includes significant tax incentive extensions for wind, solar, energy efficiency, and other critical clean energy technologies and infrastructure. During the 116^th Congress, Tonko led numerous efforts (see April 2019, October 2019, June 2020) in Congress to extend and expand these clean energy incentives.

$23,899,000 is included in the legislation to support National Heritage Areas across the nation that not only deliver significant economic returns to local communities, but also help reveal the diverse and sometimes hidden gems of our cultural heritage, restore and protect important sites, and fill us with a sense of place that brings our complex history to life.

Also included is a provision to increase funding for the National Mesonet Program, a proven public-private partnership demonstrating the commitment of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Weather Service (NWS) to cost-effectively leverage available commercial and other non-Federal weather data and enhance coordination across the private, public and academic sectors of the American Weather Enterprise. The provision provides no less than $22,200,000, an increase of $2,000,000 above the fiscal year 2020 enacted level.

Text of H.R. 133 can be found HERE.

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