[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 122 (Thursday, July 30, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Page S6182]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              REBUILD ACT

  Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I join with my House colleague from 
Baltimore, Congressman Elijah Cummings, to introduce the REBUILD Act. 
The people who live in our most distressed neighborhoods deserve a 
government on their side--one that works as hard for them as they work 
for their own families and communities. This bill is about 
rehabilitating neighborhoods, making them healthier and safer, and 
creating jobs today and jobs tomorrow for communities that need it 
most. By supporting small businesses, rebuilding infrastructure, 
expanding opportunity for our young people and tackling crime, we will 
lay the foundation for a brighter future.
  The REBUILD Act is an emergency supplemental bill for fiscal year 
2015 to help inner-city neighborhoods across the United States. It 
focuses on four key areas: physical infrastructure, meeting compelling 
human needs, community safety, and assistance to small business owners.
  This bill provides robust funding for U.S. Department of Housing and 
Urban Development programs that will remove blight, rehabilitate aging 
housing properties, including those with lead paint, and fund youth and 
senior centers. I especially want to highlight the Community 
Development Block Grant funding to help those communities most impacted 
by violence and civil unrest this year. That includes my hometown of 
Baltimore. This bill also extends the moving-to-work contracts through 
2028.
  For meeting compelling human needs, this bill funds U.S. Department 
of Labor's job training and apprenticeship programs to help dislocated 
workers, veterans and youth make a living wage and learn new job 
skills. It also funds the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' 
Healthy Start Initiative. This program helps moms and infants get 
access to primary and preventative health care to reduce infant 
mortality rates.
  In the area of community safety, there is significant funding for 
targeted U.S. Department of Justice grant programs. This funding will 
help reduce youth violence, tackle crime hot spots controlled by gangs 
and rampant with gun violence, and reduce methamphetamine and heroin 
trafficking. There is additional funding for drug, mental health and 
veterans courts to break the cycle of drug use and criminal behavior.
  For our small business owners and entrepreneurs, this bill provides 
loans, grants, training and counseling services. There also is money to 
help underserved businesses with Federal contracting.
  Recent events like the riots in Baltimore remind us of the unmet 
needs of our Nation's inner city neighborhoods. We must do more. This 
means immediately getting to work on a sequel to the landmark Murray-
Ryan budget deal to replace sequester. The impact of the status quo and 
deep cuts to our Federal programs on the mission to lift up these 
communities is unacceptable. The opportunity of the American Dream 
should be within every American's reach.

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