Alex Padilla U.S. Senator for California

Padilla led legislation, funding priorities included in appropriations omnibus

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) today announced he has secured over $428 million in federal funding for 200 projects across California. These projects were included in the bipartisan FY 2023 appropriations omnibus package passed by the Senate today. The appropriations omnibus now heads to the House for final passage before being signed into law.

“I am proud to have secured funding for projects across California that will provide cleaner water, upgraded transportation infrastructure, improved crisis and emergency response, and more educational and workforce development opportunities,” Senator Padilla said. “The appropriations package includes critical funding increases for wildfire detection and monitoring, higher education and apprenticeships, housing affordability and homelessness, and scientific research. Our communities will be safer, healthier, and more vibrant thanks to these investments. This legislation also includes my bills to protect communities surrounding the Salton Sea; give Tribal governments equitable access to public lands; help communities prepare for emerging air mobility technology; expand Rosie the Riveter National Historical Park; and give state, local, and tribal governments more flexibility to spend the assistance they received from the American Rescue Plan.”

Padilla secured funding for critical local projects across California:

• The Bay Area had 42 projects funded for over $69 million. Additional details here.
• Los Angeles had 36 projects funded for over $80 million. Additional details here.
• The Inland Empire had 24 projects funded for over $54 million. Additional details here.
• The San Diego region had 22 projects funded for over $63 million. Additional details here.
• The Central Valley had 22 projects funded for over $43 million. Additional details here.
• The Sacramento region had 18 projects funded for over $48 million. Additional details here.
• The Central Coast had 17 projects funded for over $31 million. Additional details here.
• Orange County had nine projects funded for over $23 million. Additional details here.
• Wine Country had three projects funded for over $3 million. Additional details here.

Legislation introduced by Senator Padilla that was included in the appropriations omnibus bill includes:

• Senator Padilla’s legislation to authorize the Bureau of Reclamation to provide grants and work with community and government partners to restore the Salton Sea and improve environmental conditions for surrounding communities. This includes efforts to mitigate dust impacts and improve water quality, fish and wildlife habitat, and recreational opportunities.
• Senator Padilla’s bipartisan Advanced Aviation Infrastructure Modernization Act to establish a pilot program to help state, local, and Tribal governments prepare for anticipated advanced air mobility operations. Advanced air mobility consists of a system to move people and cargo between places previously not served, or underserved, by aviation. The new technologies allow for new methods of air travel, including electric vertical take-off and landing of aircraft.
• Senator Padilla’s legislation to add Nystrom Elementary School to the existing Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park in Richmond, CA and authorize the National Park Service to add other historically relevant sites to the park’s boundaries.
• Senator Padilla’s bipartisan legislation to allow Tribal governments to participate in an existing program that allows the Bureau of Land Management to sell and lease certain public lands below market value if those lands will be used for recreational or public purposes. This will ensure Tribal governments enjoy the same opportunities for land acquisition as state and local governments.
• Senator Padilla’s bipartisan legislation to allow state, local, Tribal, and territorial governments to use American Rescue Plan fiscal recovery funds to support transportation and community development projects and to respond to natural disasters. This legislation will also deliver Local Assistance and Tribal Consistency Fund payments to consolidated city-county governments and help ensure the Treasury Department has the resources it needs to administer critical programs that support state, local, Tribal, and territorial governments.

Additional highlights of the FY 23 appropriations package include:

• $425 million for existing Capital Infrastructure Grant projects. This will help transit agencies–such as BART, Caltrain, and LA Metro–receive the necessary funding to complete transformational transit projects already under construction.
• Over $4 billion in emergency relief for agricultural producers and ranchers impacted by drought, wildfires, extreme heat, and freeze incidents in 2022.
• $8 million for space-based wildfire detection technologies through NASA. Padilla led fellow Senators in advocating for this funding.
• A $7 million increase for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s fire weather activities, including the establishment of a fire weather testbed to help test and develop new technologies to monitor and forecast severe weather that can cause wildfires. Padilla led fellow Senators in advocating for this funding.
• Language that will allow the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission to move forward on construction of a seawall and other permanent structures on federal land managed by the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. This local project is necessary to protect critical infrastructure and recreational space from climate change and sea level rise.
• $3.63 billion for Homelessness Assistance Grants, a 13.1 percent increase that represents the highest ever funding level for this program.
• $5 million, a 66 percent increase, for enhanced weather prediction and research on atmospheric rivers. Atmospheric river storms provide half of California’s annual precipitation and cause nearly 90 percent of flood damage in the state. This program funds observations, modeling, and analysis of the ocean atmosphere system in order to improve forecasts and prepare communities to better mitigate atmospheric river storm damage while retaining more water for dry years.
• A $10 million increase for an Educational Partnership Agreement between the Air Force and the two Cal Poly campuses at San Luis Obispo and Pomona. The funding will support multidisciplinary research and development projects in systems security integration for aerospace engineering. This will enable Cal Poly to collaborate with the Air Force on solving real-time technical challenges while developing a workforce pipeline in aerospace systems and STEM.
• A $25 million increase in funding for the National Labor Relations Board, the independent federal agency tasked with safeguarding our nation’s employees’ rights to organize and collectively bargain. This is the first funding increase for the Board in nearly a decade.
• $285 million, a 21 percent increase, for the Registered Apprenticeship Program to expand apprenticeship opportunities, including in traditionally underrepresented fields. 
• Increases the maximum Pell Grant award by $500, to $7,394 for the 2023-24 school year. This is the largest increase in the maximum Pell Grant award since the 2009-10 school year.
• $8 billion for the Child Care and Development Block Grant program, a 30 percent increase that will help the program serve more than 130,000 additional children.
• $1.5 billion for Advanced Research Projects Agency – Health, a 50 percent increase. The agency is tasked with accelerating innovation in health and medicine by investing in high-risk, high-reward research projects.
• Over $1 billion in funding for the Community Mental Health Services Block Grant and $500 million for the newly formed National Suicide Prevention Lifeline Program (9-8-8).

A full summary of the FY 2023 Appropriations Omnibus package is available here.

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