WASHINGTON, DC - Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR) today issued the following statement after House Republicans posted legislative text for the omnibus.
“This legislation contains important provisions that will make a real difference in the lives of people all across our country. We are putting forward unprecedented support to combat the opioid crisis in our communities and dedicating more resources to improving mental health services. With this measure we are reaffirming our commitment to improving the physical and emotional well-being of the people of this country," said Chairman Walden. “I’m also incredibly proud to see inclusion of the RAY BAUM’S Act, legislation named after my dear friend and former Energy and Commerce Staff Director that reauthorizes the FCC for the first time in 28 years and will speed deployment of 5G across the country, setting the stage for the next great wave of technological innovation. Finally, our communities will be cleaner and more prosperous with the reauthorization of the Brownfields program for the very first time since the program’s enactment. The Energy and Commerce Committee is diligently advancing a wide array of consumer-focused policies and I’m glad to see the hard work of our members represented in this legislation."
The omnibus includes a number of Energy and Commerce Committee priorities, including:
Combating the Opioid Crisis:
* To boost our response to the opioid crisis, the bill provides $4 billion, the largest investment to date, to help address prevention, treatment, and enforcement issues.
* $130 million for the Rural Communities Opioid Response program, striving to reach rural communities that have been hit especially hard by the opioid crisis.
* $1 billion in new grants to be dispatched to the states and Indian tribes.
Funding Critical Mental Health Programs:
* The bill appropriates more than $2.3 billion in new funding billion for mental health programs and other training.
* Nearly 30 sections of mental health provisions within the landmark 21st Century Cures Act will receive funding, including the Mental Health Block Grant seeing a $160 million increase. Other items include: the National Traumatic Stress Network, the National Child Traumatic Stress Initiative, Mental and Behavioral Health Training Grants, Assisted Outpatient Treatment, and the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.
Continuing our Efforts to Deliver New Cures and Treatments:
* The bill boosts vital funding for the National Institutes of Health, providing $37 billion for NIH, a $3 billion increase over FY17 to fund additional research and development of cures for major diseases.
RAY BAUM’S Act:
* The Repack Airwaves Yielding Better Access for Users of Modern Services Act, or RAY BAUM’S Act is named for the former committee Staff Director, and long-time friend of Chairman Walden’s, who lost his battle with cancer earlier this year. This bill, which is the result of a bipartisan, bicameral agreement among House and Senate leaders, passed the U.S. House by voice vote on March 6, 2018.
* The bill reauthorizes the FCC for the first time since 1990, and includes reforms to ensure the commission continues to improve its efficiency and transparency, while also making improvements to services for rural residents, veterans, Native Americans, and public safety.
* It includes the critical spectrum auction deposit “fix" which allows the FCC to deposit upfront payments from spectrum bidders directly with the U.S. Treasury, enabling future auctions to take place.
* Enacts key provisions from the Senate-approved MOBILE NOW Act (S. 19) to boost the development of next-generation 5G wireless broadband by identifying more spectrum - both licensed and unlicensed - for private sector use and reducing the red tape associated with building wireless networks.
Spectrum Repack Allocation:
* The omnibus authorizes a repack fund to address the shortfall in funding available to relocate broadcasters being displaced following the successful Incentive Auction, and set up new relocation funds for translators, low-power television, and radio stations that will be impacted by the repack - supplemented by a consumer education fund.
* The new relocation funds will be allocated over two years, and includes $600 million for the first year and $400 million for the second.
Broadband Internet Expansion:
* The omnibus appropriates $7.5 million to NTIA to coordinate broadband mapping across the Federal government and reconstitutes mapping coordination at NTIA.
* It also includes provisions to expand broadband internet by streamlining the regulatory and permit process for broadband infrastructure deployment.
Brownfields Reauthorization:
* Brownfields sites are often abandoned, closed or under-utilized industrial or commercial facilities such as an abandoned factory, a closed commercial building or warehouse, or a former dry-cleaning establishment or gas station.
* EPA estimates that more than 450,000 brownfields exist across the United States, each of which has the capability to be remediated through the Brownfields Program which in turn will encourage economic development in the local community.
* The committee has been hard at work to reauthorize EPA’s brownfields program. In November 2017, the House of Representatives passed committee-led legislation - H.R. 3017, the Brownfields Enhancement, Economic Redevelopment Act of 2017 - by a vote of 409-8.
* The omnibus contains compromise text based on H.R. 3017 that has been agreed to by all of the authorizing committees and that makes several additional improvements to the brownfields law to ensure more sites are cleaned up.
