House Appropriations Committee Passes $93 Billion Fiscal Year 2021 Energy and Water BillThe Measure Includes Funding Increases For Critical Harbor and Shoreline Construction, Clean Energy Development And Other Hawai‘i Projects And Priorities Sought By Appropriations Committee Member Case
Washington,
July 13, 2020
(Honolulu, HI) – Congressman Ed Case (HI-01) announced today House Appropriations Committee passage of the Fiscal Year (FY) 21 Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, with funding to accelerate federal projects for critical improvements to state harbors and protect shorelines from sea level rise. “This bill makes critical investments in accelerating, improving and addressing Hawai‘i’s aging water infrastructure including our harbors, coastal erosion, and aquatic ecosystem restoration,” said Case. “By accelerating work on these infrastructure projects, we are also helping Hawai‘i by providing much needed construction jobs to contribute to economic recovery from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Case. Case serves on the House Committee on Appropriations, which is responsible for allocating federal funds to government agencies, departments and organizations on an annual basis. Each year the Committee must prepare 12 separate bills. The Committee’s Energy and Water bill funds the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Department of Energy and other related agencies and includes emergency appropriations for COVID 19-related agency operations. Funding requested by Case for national U.S. Army Corps of Engineers programs utilized for specific Hawai’i projects include:
Specific Hawai‘i facilities as to which Case secured further operations and maintenance funds include Barbers Point Deep Draft Harbor and Hilo Harbor. Funding requested by Case for national Department of Energy programs of particular interest to Hawai‘i include:
“Hawai‘i has led the nation when it comes to clean energy and this measure will ensure that our state can access sufficient federal funding to continue our leadership role by supporting new energy technologies such as reliable and resilient electric grid infrastructure to help our Hawai‘i’s ongoing initiative in achieving 100 percent clean energy by 2045,” said Case. In total, the draft bill includes $49,607,300 billion in regular appropriations, an increase of $1,264,300,000 above the FY 2020 enacted level. Additionally, the bill includes $43.5 billion in emergency supplemental appropriations for investments in economic recovery. “This bill also makes critical investments in environmental protection and land conservation, clean air and water to protect our communities’ health, earthquake and volcano warning systems, protecting our public lands and endangered species, tribal communities, and our territories,” said Case. ###
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