Huffman Secures Community Project Funding in First Round of Appropriations, Leads on Additional Priorities

July 20, 2022

Washington, D.C. – Today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 8294, the first “minibus” of fiscal year 2023 appropriations bills, which included significant victories for California’s Second Congressional District backed by Representative Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael). The package also includes over $9.5 million for North Coast community projects championed by the congressman.

“This year’s funding bills are a key tool for my Democratic colleagues and I to advance priorities that we and our constituents value: tackling inflation, supporting hard-working families, creating jobs, and preserving a livable planet for future generations. And once law, it will have an immediate, positive impact of the lives of the people we serve,” said Rep. Huffman. “For the second year in a row, I also had the opportunity to submit several community projects for federal funding, and I’m happy to see over $9.5 million dollars allocated for them in this bill. These projects will address some of the most pressing needs facing our region, and I will keep pushing to get this across the finish line.”

Rep. Huffman successfully led the charge to allocate funding for multiple priorities for northwest California that were included in the legislation. The bill:

  • Allocates $9,561,200 in Community Project Funding:
    • $1,800,000 for the SMART Rail Extension to Healdsburg; Preliminary Design - Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit District (SMART)
    • $750,000 for the Front Street Complete Street and Cultural Inclusion - Elk Valley Rancheria and City of Crescent City 
    • $2,000,000 for the Electric Vehicle Charger Program Expansion - Marin Clean Energy
    • $2,000,000 for the Trinity Headwaters Forest Conservation for Community Benefit; Pacific Forest Trust, Inc.
    • $820,000 for Housing Mendocino Coast, Hazelwood - City of Fort Bragg
    • $650,000 for Golden Gate Village - Lighting Energy Efficiency Upgrades - Marin Housing Authority of the County of Marin
    • $750,000 for Ending Veteran Homelessness and Creating Workforce Housing - Homeward Bound of Marin
    • $791,200 for Equitable Energy Resilience and EV Infrastructure - County of Sonoma
  • Provides $100 million to electrify the entire federal fleet and the aging US Postal Service fleet and directs the USPS to prioritize robust procurement of a Battery-Electric Vehicle fleet under the Next Generation Delivery Vehicle, which Rep. Huffman has advocated for since 2014, including through his latest legislation, the Postal Vehicle Modernization Act of 2021.
  • Reauthorizes the Shasta-Trinity marina fee retention authority, following legislation Rep. Huffman has championed. This critical request supports the outdoor recreation economy in Trinity County.
  • Includes report language highlighting concerns with chemical recycling, requesting that the EPA continue to regulate gasification and pyrolysis – two of the most common forms of so-called chemical recycling technologies – as “municipal waste combustion units,” despite an earlier move by the Trump administration to strip this provision from the Clean Air Act. Rep. Huffman led his colleagues in a letter to the EPA raising these concerns earlier this month.
  • Includes report language highlighting the growth in cage-free egg facilities and the importance of the Department in Agriculture in helping producers convert to cage-free housing. While serving in the California State Legislature, Rep. Huffman was the author of California's humane egg law that helped lead the nation in cage-free standards. 
  • Extends payments in lieu of taxes (PILT) to local governments through fiscal year 2023.
  • Includes report language directing Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service to prioritize the development and finalization of a humane and science-based rule to modernize its marine mammal regulations for marine mammals in captivity and to report back within six months on its progress in achieving that goal.
  • Provides $2 million, an increase from $1.3 million in FY22, for the Prescott Grant Program led by USFWS and provides funding to eligible stranding network participants regarding stranded sea otters, manatees, Pacific walruses, and polar bears.
  • Increases The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) commodities to $419 million, $19 million over FY22 enacted. TEFAP provides commodities to food banks, low-income households, soup kitchens, and homeless shelters.
  • Supports wildfire smoke taint research on wine grapes to identify the compounds responsible for smoke taint, establish a reliable database of background levels of smoke taint compounds occurring naturally in wine grapes, develop mitigation methods to reduce or eliminate smoke taint, and study compounds that can act as a barrier between the grapes and smoke compounds. Additionally supports research to establish standard methodologies for sampling and testing smoke exposed grapes and smoke affected wines.
  • Includes $13.6 billion for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), an increase of $1 billion above the FY 2022 enacted level. Included in this amount are robust increases to improve customer service, enforce fairness in the tax system, and modernize IRS systems, with a $682 million increase for enforcement.
  • Includes report language directing the Forest Service to develop tools to monitor and eradicate illegal marijuana grows on federal lands. The language also supports drone usage by Bureau of Land Management to identify illegal marijuana grows.
  • Includes report language supporting the Forest Service’s collaboration with the Bureau of Land Management to define, identify, and complete an inventory of old growth and mature forests on Federal lands.

Rep. Huffman also successfully co-led an amendment with Rep. Mikie Sherrill (NJ-11) that would allow civil penalties to fund remediation of environmental or public health hazards for environmental enforcement cases.

A detailed summary of the funding package is available here.

A number of other notable wins for American communities in H.R. 8294 supported by Rep. Huffman can be found here.

H.R. 8294 consists of six FY 2023 funding bills: Transportation, Housing and Urban Development; Agriculture, Rural Development; Energy and Water Development; Financial Services and General Government; Interior and Environment; and Military Construction and Veterans Affairs.

“The animal protection outcomes of the FY 23 budget package represent a bumper harvest of goodwill toward the creatures with whom we share our planet. Animals in laboratories, animals in the wild, animals in agriculture, animals in puppy mills and fighting rings, and horses at risk of being sored or slaughter are among the many beneficiaries of this extraordinary display of congressional concern and action,” said Sara Amundson, President, Humane Society Legislative Fund. “We are so grateful to Representative Huffman for helping lead the charge to encourage USDA to support farmers seeking to shift to producing cage-free eggs and crate-free pork.”