Congress approves government spending bill

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congress today approved a $1.7 trillion spending bill that will fund the federal government through September and provide millions of dollars in direct funding to help address Denver’s homelessness crisis.

The legislation includes more than $24.2 million requested by U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO) to fund 14 projects in the Denver area, most of which are aimed at providing more housing and essential services to those experiencing homelessness in the Mile High city.

“This is a big, big deal for our community,” DeGette said after the legislation was approved. “These projects will make more housing and essential services available to those who need it in our area. While no one project, alone, will solve the crisis we face, each one of these projects will play a key role in strengthening the overall web of support we’re able to offer to those experiencing homelessness in our community.”

Among the funding DeGette secured for the Denver area is $4 million to help fund the construction of 74 new apartments for low-income single parents in Denver’s Warren Village; $4 million to help fund the purchase of the now-abandoned Clarion Hotel in North Denver and convert it into more housing for those experiencing homelessness; and $1 million for Habitat for Humanity to build several new homes in Denver’s Villa Park.

The measure also includes $2.2 million DeGette requested for Denver Health to provide essential oral health services in some of Denver’s most underserved communities; $1.2 million she sought to help the Food Bank of the Rockies purchase additional coolers to store and distribute more food to those in need; and $1 million she pushed for to help construct a new youth mental-health treatment center to help low-income children in the North Denver area.

In addition to funding these critical projects, the spending bill – which is now headed to President Biden’s desk to be signed into law – includes several other measures DeGette had introduced – including legislation she led to establish a new Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health within the National Institutes of Health to accelerate the search for new cures and treatments for some of the world’s most difficult diseases.

The new agency – known as ARPA-H – is modeled largely after the Department of Defense’s highly successful DARPA program, which has been responsible for developing some of the most consequential technologies of our time – including the Internet, GPS and self-driving cars.

Like DARPA, ARPA-H will bring together some of the nation’s greatest minds and give them access to the federal government’s virtually limitless resources to make the impossible, possible – and help shape the future of biomedical research.

Unlike other federal agencies, ARPA-H will be run by a relatively small number of program managers who will each be given a high degree of autonomy to choose which high-risk, high-reward projects to pursue. While the agency’s primary focus will be to accelerate the research and development of innovative new treatments and cures for some of the deadliest diseases, it will also be tasked with developing breakthrough technologies that would otherwise die in the commercial market.

Previous efforts to apply the DARPA model to biomedical research have proven successful – including in the rapid development of Moderna’s highly-effective COVID-19 vaccine. Further developing the mRNA technology used as the basis of that vaccine to prevent cancer is one of the projects that advocates for the new agency say it could pursue.

The legislation also includes several provisions DeGette introduced to improve our nation’s preparedness for future pandemics, including:  

• Requiring that the federal government create a national strategy to prepare for, and respond to future pandemics and public health emergencies. Under the provision led by DeGette, federal officials will be required to use lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic to improve testing, data sharing, vaccine administration and the overall readiness of medical supplies throughout the country.
• Strengthening the nation’s Strategic National Stockpile to ensure it has the items and equipment needed to respond to future health emergencies. The measure, led by DeGette, will, among other things, require federal officials to conduct more regular maintenance and inspections of the national stockpile and authorizes officials to remove and replace any items that are less than one year from their expiration date. It will also create a new pilot program to boost domestic manufacturing of some of the most critical supplies – including personal protective equipment and the supplies needed to administer vaccines – to reduce America’s dependence on foreign manufacturers during future pandemics.

In addition to the 14 Denver-area projects to be funded under the bill, DeGette also secured funding for several key programs aimed at protecting the environment and preserving public lands, including:

• $25 million for the Every Kid Outdoor Act, which provides more than one million fourth-grade children free access to any national park for an entire year. The funding will also be used to launch a targeted program to provide transportation for children with disabilities and those living in underserved communities to visit parks in their area.

• $34 million for the Bureau of Land Management’s Threatened and Endangered Species Program to continue its efforts to help recover 330 endangered species that live on BLM-administered lands.

• $21.4 million for Colorado River Compliance Activities to restore critical habitats, enhance stream flows, and manage fish populations.

• $108 million to support the Environmental Protection Agency’s environmental justice activities to help underserved communities overburdened by disproportionate levels of pollution.

• $61.6 million for the Bureau of Land Management’s National Conservation Lands System that manages more than 37 million acres of national monuments, national conservation areas and wilderness throughout the country.

More information on the 14 Denver-area projects funded under the legislation is available here.