Washington, DC Dec. 19, 2009 – Today, the United States Senate passed the Defense Appropriations bill, which includes funding requested by U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and needed help for the unemployed.
The bill extends unemployment benefits, which were set to expire at the end of the year, for an additional two months. The bill also extends tax credits that help unemployed people afford health insurance. The measure, which passed by a vote of 88-10, now goes to President Obama for his signature.
The measure also includes $2.5 billion for 10 C-17 aircraft. Senator Boxer worked with Senator Kit Bond (R-MO) to make sure that the bill included funding for these critical aircraft.
Specifically, the bill includes the following investments requested by Boxer:
Military Burn Trauma Research and Clinical Trials Program
Recipient: Burns Outcomes Research Institute (BORI) at the University of California, Davis
Amount: $4,500,000
Funding will be used for nationwide competitive grants for multicenter clinical burn trials to advance the treatment of service members who suffer burns during military service. These clinical trials will work to solve issues related to scarring, limitations in function and movement, and returning to society as an independent and confident burn survivor.
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Battlefield Research Accelerating Virtual Environments for Military Individual Neuro Disorders (BRAVEMIND)
Recipient: University of Southern California Institute for Creative Technologies, Marina del Rey
Amount: $1,000,000
Funding will support advanced brain imaging technologies to diagnose and treat post traumatic stress disorder.
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Cleanup of Former Almaden Air Force Station (AFS), Mt. Umunhum, Santa Clara County
Recipient: Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District, Los Altos
Amount: $3,200,000
Funding will be used to immediately clean up toxic contaminants at the former Almaden Air Force Station. Current clean up activity at the site has moved at a slow place, and the toxic materials remaining are becoming an increasing threat to public health and the environment.
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Inland Empire Perchlorate Remediation
Recipient: Cities of Rialto and Colton, Fontana Union Water Company, West Valley Water District
Amount: $3,500,000
Funding will be used for ten new water treatment systems to remove perchlorate from water used by 250,000 people in western San Bernardino County. The new treatment systems will clean 31 million gallons of water per day.
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Neuroscience Center of Excellence-Neuropsychiatric and Neurotrauma in U.S. Warfighters
Recipient: Northern California Institute for Research and Education (NCIRE), San Francisco
Amount: $6,250,000
The Northern California Institute for Research and Education's Neuroscience Center of Excellence, which is the only research center of its kind associated with the Veterans Administration health care system, conducts research to improve prevention, diagnosis and treatment of post traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injuries and spinal cord injuries.
Recipient: National Automotive Center (NAC), Pasadena
Amount: $4,800,000
The National Automotive Center will help develop new technologies to give the military more advanced hybrid, clean-fuel vehicles. On top of the environmental benefits of using less fuel and producing fewer emissions, hybrid technology offers safety benefits, such as fewer refueling stops, to military operations.
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The Operating Room of the Future
Recipient: Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles
Amount: $2,000,000
The U.S. Army continues to partner with Cedars-Sinai to improve combat medicine and surgery. The design and development of a neurosurgery-orthopedic operating room with new flexible and mobile technology will be used to demonstrate and put into practice improved configurations for combat-zone operating rooms.
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High Speed, High Volume Laboratory Network for Infectious Diseases
Recipient: University of California, Los Angeles
Amount: $1,600,000
This is the final stage of funding for the High-Speed, High Throughput Laboratory initiative-a partnership between the UCLA School of Public Health and Los Alamos National Lab (LANL). This project will improve our nation's ability to respond to a bio-emergency by establishing a laboratory and network capable of quickly analyzing and processing high quantities of biological samples.
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Web Based Teaching Programs for Military Social Work
Recipient: University of Southern California, Los Angeles
Amount: $3,200,000
Funding will be used to address the growing need for social workers within the Department of Defense by revolutionizing training technologies. Efforts will focus on assisting the whole family, including spouses and children, who suffer the consequences of repeated deployments and tensions from separation and war.
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McClellan Air Force Base Infrastructure Improvements
Recipient: County of Sacramento
Amount: $800,000
Funding will be used for infrastructure improvements at the former McClellan Air Force Base, which has been closed since 1995, to continue converting the area from military to civilian use. This will allow for mixed-use development and further growth of the McClellan Business Park.
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Strategic Language Initiative
Recipient: California State University, Long Beach
Amount: $2,880,500
Funding will further the development of critical foreign language programs which will help meet America's national security needs. The initiative will help graduate more professionals with language skills and cultural knowledge in Arabic, Mandarin, Korean, Persian and Russian.
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Eagle Vision III Upgrades
Recipient: California National Guard
Amount: $4,800,000
Funding will be used to upgrade the California National Guard Eagle Vision III system, a mobile commercial satellite imagery collection and processing system. Given California's fire seasons, this upgrade is particularly crucial because it allows people, such as firefighters, to see through clouds and haze.
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