[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 177 (Friday, November 18, 2011)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2108-E2109]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  CONFERENCE REPORT ON H.R. 2112, CONSOLIDATED AND FURTHER CONTINUING 
                        APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2012

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                         HON. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, November 17, 2011

  Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of today's 
appropriations bills, which--while far from perfect--marks a distinct 
and bipartisan improvement over the House's original product. Today's 
bill restores key investments in jobs, innovation and public safety 
that were eliminated in the original House bills. In addition, we have 
removed the extreme policy riders on issues ranging from Wall Street 
reform to women's health. Additionally, in order to give the 
Appropriations Committees time to complete the rest of their FY 2012 
work, H.R. 2112 extends the current Continuing Resolution through 
December 16, 2011.
  This conference report includes the Agriculture-FDA, Commerce-
Justice-Science and Transportation-HUD Appropriations bills for FY 
2012. Consistent with the $1.043 trillion cap on discretionary spending 
for FY 2012 set forth in the Budget Control Act, these three bills 
contain $128 billion in discretionary spending, with associated 
mandatory spending and transportation trust funds bringing the total to 
$297 billion. An additional $2.3 billion is provided for emergency 
disaster relief.
  The final Agricultural-FDA bill provides a total of $105.6 billion 
for domestic food assistance programs, including $80.4 billion for the 
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, SNAP, and $6.6 billion for 
the Women's Infant and Children, WIC, program. This result is $33 
million more than the Senate mark and $9.3 billion more than the 
original House bill, which is appropriate given the increased demand 
for food aid during this economic recovery. The Food and Drug 
Administration receives $2.5 billion, which is $334 million more than 
the original House level, and will allow FDA to continue implementing 
the landmark Food Safety and Modernization Act to better protect the 
estimated 48 million Americans sickened by food-borne illness each 
year. Of concern in the final Agricultural-FDA bill is misguided 
language barring USDA from implementing new child nutrition standards 
and clearly inadequate funding for the Commodity Futures Trading 
Commission which has been charged with regulating the rampant 
speculation that helped precipitate the financial crisis. Now is not 
the time to be under-resourcing our regulatory cops in this 
demonstrably troubled neighborhood.
  The final Commerce-Justice-Science bill allocates $751 million to the 
National Institute of Standards and Technology, NIST, including $128 
million for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership Program to provide 
training and technical assistance to U.S. manufacturers. The National 
Science Foundation, NSF, receives $7 billion, or $173 million above FY 
2011, to enhance the basic research necessary to accelerate innovation 
and enhance U.S. competitiveness. And the National Aeronautics and 
Space Administration, NASA, is funded at $17.8 billion, which is a 6 
percent increase over the original House level and includes $529.6 
million for NASA's James Webb Space Telescope.
  Finally, I'm pleased that the final Transportation-HUD contains $18.9 
billion for Section 8 vouchers and $9.34 billion for the project-based 
Section 8 program, as well as $45 million in housing counseling, which 
was not funded in FY 2011. Additionally, the THUD title in today's 
conference report preserves funding for key transit priorities, 
including $10.6 billion for the FTA, $1.95 billion for New Starts, $500 
million for TIGER grants and

[[Page E2109]]

$150 million for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transportation 
Authority, WMATA. Unfortunately, this bill also mistakenly zeroes out 
high speed rail funding and cuts Community Development Block Grants by 
12 percent.
  Mr. Speaker, while I do not agree with every choice made in this 
legislation, I commend my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for 
working through these issues on a bipartisan basis in a fiscally 
constrained environment and bringing this much improved product to the 
floor today.