Sewell votes to pass second and final fiscal year 2024 government funding bill

The 2024 budget year is finally funded six months after it should have been – but the bipartisan agreement has passed avoiding a partial government shutdown. Congresswoman Terri Sewell (D-Selma) voted in favor of the legislation that includes an additional $3.3 million that Sewell secured for community projects in Alabama's seventh Congressional District

"I am grateful that my Democratic and Republican colleagues have come together to deliver for the American people by funding the programs that our communities rely on," said Rep. Sewell. "While no compromise is perfect, Democrats secured important wins for America's families including increases for cancer research, child care, and Head Start programs, as well as a 5.4 percent increase in the basic allowance for housing for military families. We also successfully protected Job Corps from Republican cuts and defeated a number of extreme attacks on women's reproductive health care."

Rep. Sewell secured an additional $3.3 million for two community projects in Alabama's seventh Congressional District. The package passed the House of Representatives on Friday by a bipartisan vote of 286 to 134 and the U.S. Senate 74 to 24 in the early morning hours on Saturday.

This package includes the following funding bills: Defense; Financial Services and General Government; Homeland Security; Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies; Legislative Branch; and, State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs.

The other six spending bills were passed in an earlier package that came before Congress.

This second package includes $3.3 million that Rep. Sewell secured for two community projects in the Seventh District. The two projects include:

• $2,700,000 for a new FEMA storm shelter in Demopolis

• $637,195 for a new 911 emergency communications facility in Pickens County

"I am particularly excited about the funding we secured for a new E-911 communications facility in Pickens County and a new storm shelter in Demopolis," continued Sewell. "These important investments will make our communities safer and stronger, and I am so proud to have played a role in making them possible!"

The package:

• Provides a $1 billion increase for child care and Head Start.

• Provides a $120 million increase in funding for cancer research at the National Institutes of Health.

• Protects funding for Job Corps and more than 20 K-12 and higher education programs.

• Provides a $1 billion increase in climate change and resilience activities at the Department of Defense.

The Further Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2024 was opposed by many Republicans including every Republican member of the Alabama House delegation

The bill made absolutely no efforts are all for securing the border of the United States or makes any meaningful reforms toward cutting the national budget deficit.

Sewell has represented House District 7 since her first election in 2010.