Bingaman & Udall: Key Spending Bill Contains Funding for New Mexico Initiatives

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Jeff Bingaman and Tom Udall today said they are pleased a spending bill working its way through the Senate contains funding they sought for New Mexico education, job training, and health care initiatives.

The funding is contained in the fiscal year 2010 Labor, Health and Human Services Appropriations Bill, which has been approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee.  The bill is now ready to be considered by the full Senate.

"This funding will support key health and educational initiatives that serve individuals and families throughout New Mexico .  I hope Congress will move fast to approve the bill and get it to the president's desk to sign," Bingaman said.

"Each of these projects would help provide New Mexico communities with critical health care support and educational opportunities," said Udall.  "I am committed to making sure New Mexico families have the necessary resources to enable our future generations to grow and succeed."

At Bingaman and Udall's request, the bill also contains the following:

$200,000 - AVANCE, Inc.: Funding would help AVANCE establish a regional office in Doña Ana County and expand their parent-child education programs to serve more families in southern New Mexico .

$200,000 - Inquiry Facilitators, Inc.: Funds would help the non-profit organization conduct up to 20 workshops throughout New Mexico to recruit participants and assist students and teachers in designing, building, programming, and testing robots as well as completing the required team engineering reports and blogs associated with robotics competitions.

$100,000 - La Familia Medical Center : The funding would help the center acquire written materials, exercise aids and staff, including a Promotora, a certified diabetes educator and a nutritionist to collaborate with a community diabetes education outreach program to provide on-site individual counseling and group classes for patients.

$200,000 - Hobbs Hispano Chamber of Commerce: Funding will help with renovation of the Hobbs Hispano Chamber of Commerce business incubator building, which will serve as a "one-stop shop" for start-up and fledgling business in the area.  The incubator will provide area entrepreneurs with an array of targeted resources and services to include accounting, management, marketing, and manufacturing information.

$150,000 - Save the Children: Funds will be dedicated towards curriculum and assessment materials, computers and technological equipment, and ongoing training and technical assistance needs, as well as towards equipment and supplies for a physical activity and healthy snack component of the after school literacy program.

$150,000 - City of Farmington : Funds will be used to hire 1-2 treatment counselors and retain one position as residential counselor to provide evidence based intervention strategies for public inebriates. The service population is primarily Native American and all programming will hold cultural competence and sensitivity.

$100,000 - Eastern New Mexico University: Funding would upgrade student labs and campus computers (software, hardware, peripherals and security) for students and faculty, with back-up power generator and servers for security protection.

$100,000 - Los Alamos National Lab Foundation: Funding would help the foundation establish the Teacher Corps programs.  It would help them recruit 20 recent math/science college graduates and provide training for alternative teacher licensure while they work in 18 school districts. These school districts are expected to hire these college graduates once they are licensed.

$100,000 - Semos Unidos: The nonprofit organization would use funds to cover staff salaries, office supplies and other equipment needed to develop and produce Hispanic learning materials for approx. 30,000 students.

$125,000 - Sierra County : Funds would help with the construction of a building to replace an out of code, old facility that serves as a critical care hospital.

$125,000 - YMCA Española Teen Center : Funds would provide salaries for instructional and administrative staff and support (i.e., transportation services) to serve 280 at-risk students for truancy, violence prevention, and provide remedial academic support.