LOWELL, MA – Today, Congresswoman Lori Trahan (MA-03) voted in favor of a year-end funding package to keep the government open and deliver meaningful progress for the Third District.
“I’m proud to announce that this year-end funding package delivers key wins for communities across the Commonwealth, including long-term priorities I’ve been fighting for since my first day in office,” said Congresswoman Lori Trahan. “I voted today for critical investments to strengthen access to health and mental health care, bolster our infrastructure, expand veteran services, and help end the addiction crisis. With these much-needed investments, we are building a safer and healthier future for Massachusetts families.”
Priority provisions in year-end government funding package include:
IMPROVING & EXPANDING HEALTH CARE
Ensures permanent, mandatory, and continuous coverage for the 40 million children enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP.
- Includes Trahan’s bipartisan legislation to reauthorize important programs established under the Garrett Lee Smith (GLS) Memorial Act, which support community-based youth and young adult suicide prevention efforts.
- Provides historic funding for the critical Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting initiative, which improves health outcomes for pregnant people and young families who live in underserved communities.
- Establishes strong guardrails to prevent disruption to families’ health coverage, as states resume Medicaid recertifications next year.
- Improves diversity in FDA clinical trials and finally provides FDA regulation of cosmetics.
TACKLING THE ADDICTION CRISIS
- Includes Trahan’s bipartisan Medication Access and Training Expansion (MATE) Act to standardize substance use disorder training to ensure that all prescribers of addictive medications possess baseline knowledge in evidence-based addiction prevention and treatments.
- Invests in mental health services to improve access to medication-assisted treatment, expand our mental health workforce and increase coverage of mental health services.
INVESTING IN PUBLIC HEALTH
- Extends Medicare COVID-19 telehealth flexibilities, which Trahan has advocated for repeatedly. Telehealth flexibilities will now be available for another two years, through December 31, 2024.
- Includes the Congresswoman’s Bolstering Infectious Outbreaks (BIO) Preparedness Workforce Act, which would strengthen the bio-preparedness and infectious disease workforce that has proven critical during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Passes the PREVENT Pandemics Act, which uses lessons learned from COVID-19 to improve preparedness for future public health emergencies.
SUPPORTING VETERANS
- Improves veterans' medical care by investing in mental health services, suicide prevention outreach, women’s health care, substance use disorder programs, opioid abuse prevention, and homeless assistance programs.
- Strengthens benefits administration by providing disability compensation and burial benefits to more than 6 million veterans and their survivors. These funds will help the VA handle the expected increase in the number and scope of claims associated with the Honoring our PACT Act while also addressing its claims backlog.
STRENGTHENING AMERICA’S UNIONS
- Increases funding for the National Labor Relations Board for the first time in over a decade. This funding is in response to the recent rise of organizing and will help workers defend the right to unionize.
DELIVERING FOR THE THIRD DISTRICT
- Delivers $20,747,873 in federal funding Trahan secured for local community projects across the Third District to positively impact individual communities and strengthen the region as a whole. View the full list of projects HERE.
Both chambers of Congress have passed this government funding package, which will now head to President Biden’s desk to become law.
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