Wyden, Merkley Secure Funding for Public Safety, Health, and Jobs Projects in Central Oregon
Washington, D.C. - Oregon Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley announced today that the Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009 includes nearly $250 million for Oregon projects including $2 million to purchase land in the Columbia River Gorge, $300,000 for an updated 9-1-1 service in Wasco County, $238,000 for a project to aid families to improve the physical and mental health of disadvantaged children, and $232,000 to boost the growth of central Oregon's technology industry. These funds are part of the annual funding for Fiscal Year 2009, and will complement the funding provided through the economic recovery legislation last month.
"Every Oregonian deserves the ability to keep their children safe and healthy and themselves gainfully employed," Wyden said. "The projects included in this bill will improve public safety and make sure rural Oregonians have access the same level of medical care as their urban counterparts."
"These innovative projects strengthen our local economies and meet critical community needs," Merkley said. "They create family wage jobs, expand rural Oregonians' access to quality health care and provide the support and equipment our first responders deserve."
With the approval of the Senate and the House of Representatives, the bill will now be sent to the President for his signature.
Some of the Oregon projects included in the Omnibus Appropriations bill are:
• Columbia River Gorge Land Acquisition- $2,000,000 to purchase land in the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area from willing sellers.
• Family Access Network- $238,000 for a partnership of local government, hospitals, school districts, and organizations that work together to help ensure school success by helping families to acquire basic needs and to improve physical/mental health of disadvantaged children. Federal funding will enable Deschutes County to ensure continuation of the FAN program at its current level.
• Bend Venture Catalyst-$232,750 to facilitate the growth and success of three Central Oregon economic sectors: small technology based entrepreneurs; the regional aerospace and aviation industries; and the regional alternative energy sector.
• Wasco County Interoperability 911 Center- $300,000 will be used to update communications equipment to better meet the needs of hazard response city wide.
• Integrated Health Care Facility at Cascade Locks- $143,000 will be used for final design of an integrated health facility that will provide a number of services -- health and nutrition counseling, WIC services, maternity care, acute illness diagnosis and outpatient treatment, dental services, pharmaceutical services, health education classes, mental health diagnosis, treatment and counseling services; and drug and alcohol prevention and counseling services, and urgent care.
• Oregon Institute of Technology Health Informatics Simulation Lab- $285,000 to support the newly launched Health Informatics undergraduate degree program and Medical Imaging and Clinical Lab programs.
• Multiple Sclerosis Network and Registry- $190,000 for a project of Providence Health Care Systems. Modeled after a successful stroke registry, the MS registry is an interactive network of health care professionals for Oregon patients and medical professionals to optimize healthcare for MS patients in urban and rural areas.
• Eastern Oregon Telemedicine Project $95,000 to create a tele-radiology system to serve eight rural Eastern Oregon communities in Umatilla, Grant, Morrow, Gilliam, and Wheeler counties as part of the Blue Mountain Diagnostic Imaging, Inc. project.
For more information on appropriation projects in the Omnibus bill please visit www.wyden.senate.gov.
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