Senator Peters Secures Major Funding Wins for Michigan, Helps Pass Initial Round of Government Funding Bills

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Gary Peters (MI), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, helped the Senate pass a bipartisan package of six bills to partially fund the government through Fiscal Year 2024, which runs through September 30, 2024. Peters secured major funding wins for local projects important to communities across Michigan in the bipartisan legislation. The legislation also includes provisions supported or led by Peters to protect the Great Lakes, upgrade critical infrastructure, support our veterans, and bolster domestic manufacturing. The package of bills now heads to the President’s desk to be signed into law. Once this package is signed into law, Congress must work to pass the remaining six appropriations bills on a bipartisan basis.  

“As a member of the Appropriations Committee, I fought to ensure that Michigan’s priorities received the resources they need, and that this bipartisan legislation will boost our economy, support our veterans, and keep our country moving forward. The critical resources included in these bills show just how much we can do for the American people when we work together in a commonsense, bipartisan way,” said Senator Peters. 

As a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Peters helped the committee pass all twelve annual appropriations bills. Peters is the first Michigan senator to serve on this committee since 1959.  

In this first tranche of appropriations bills headed to the President’s desk, Peters led or supported the following key provisions on issues important to Michiganders:  

Protecting the Great Lakes, Michigan’s Environment, and Access to Clean Drinking Water

• Great Lakes Center for Oil Spill Preparedness and Response: The bill provides funding to support Peters’ Great Lakes Center of Expertise for Oil Spill Preparedness and Response (GLCOE), which examines the impacts of oil spills in freshwater environments and helps develop effective responses. Peters led legislation that was signed into law in 2018 to establish the GLCOE, which is headquartered in Michigan at Lake Superior State University in Sault Ste. Marie and the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory in Ann Arbor. 

• Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI): This bill includes $368 million for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, which protects against threats to the Great Lakes, including invasive species, restores coastline habitats and prevents future contamination. Peters has been a champion for the GLRI and helped enact the single-largest-ever investment in the GLRI through the bipartisan infrastructure law, accelerating the restoration of nine high-priority areas in Michigan whose lakes, rivers and watersheds flow into the Great Lakes. 

• Great Lakes Coastal Resiliency Study: The bill provides the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers with $3 million to continue conducting its Great Lakes Coastal Resiliency Study, which is developing a coordinated strategy to protect 5,200 miles of Great Lakes coastline against flooding, erosion, and aging infrastructure.   

• Addressing PFAS Contamination in Michigan Communities: Peters secured a provision in the bill supporting the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) continued action to address PFAS contamination and lead PFAS mitigation efforts in communities across Michigan. The bill also includes language that directs $5 million for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to accelerate use of PFAS-free firefighting foams at airports and mitigate the impact of PFAS existing contaminates.  

• Lead Hazard Reduction Program: The bill provides $345 million for the Lead Hazard Control and Health Homes programs, which improves lead safety through enforcement actions and upgrades substandard housing units with healthy home interventions. This robust funding will help ensure these programs can continue protecting families from these easily preventable health hazards. 

Strengthening Michigan’s Economy and Infrastructure

• Soo Locks Funding: The bill includes $257.4 million for the Soo Locks project. This funding will allow the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to begin construction on a new lock. The new lock will be the same size as the 55-year-old Poe Lock, the only lock capable of handling the largest vessels that carry the majority of cargo on the Great Lakes, including iron ore pellets used to make steel for autos and appliances, between Lake Superior ports and those in the lower Great Lakes. The Soo Locks are vital to both Michigan and our national economy. Reports have indicated that if the Poe Lock were to suffer a long closure for any reason, it could lead to a national recession. 

• Rail Funding: The bill includes $2.4 billion for Amtrak and $2.9 billion for the Federal Railroad Administration, including key funding to improve railway safety.

• Brandon Road Lock and Dam Funding: The legislation includes language directing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to provide quarterly updates on the status and progress of efforts to prevent the further spread of invasive carp. It also directs the Corps to continue collaborating on the project with the federal and state partners at funding levels comparable to previous years.  

• Flood Management and Prevention Measures for Midland, Michigan: The bill includes $500,000 for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to help the Midland community rebuild and make their infrastructure more resilient to future severe weather.  

• Space Weather Research: The bill includes $5 million for Space Weather Research as part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) continued implementation of Peters’ PROSWIFT Act, which seeks to strengthen the United States’ ability to predict severe weather events occurring in space and mitigate their impacts. 

Michigan Military Investments and Support for Our Nation’s Veterans

• Protects Funding for Toxic-Exposed Veterans: The bill ensures full funding for fiscal years 2024 and 2025 for the Toxic Exposures Fund established by the Honoring Our PACT Act, which Peters helped pass in 2022. The PACT Act delivered VA health care and benefits to all generations of toxic-exposed veterans.  

• VA Medical and Prosthetic Research: The bill includes funding for VA Medical and Prosthetic Research. It also requires a report within 90 days regarding the Department of Veterans Affairs’ implementation of non-invasive FDA-approved screening technologies that save veterans from invasive procedures such as surgical lung biopsies that are often required to establish a diagnosis.  

• State Veterans Home Construction Grant Program: Peters led the effort to secure robust funding for the State Veterans Home Construction Grant Program. The bill contains $171 million for this program, which provides states with funding to construct, renovate, or repair state owned and operated Veterans homes. Last year, Peters announced that the State of Michigan received $57 million from this program to support construction of a new State Veterans Home in Marquette to replace the existing D.J. Jacobetti Home for Veterans. Peters has long advocated for funding this program, including during a hearing with VA Secretary McDonough in 2023. 

• Detroit Arsenal: The bill includes $72 million in funding to create research and development (R&D) laboratory space at the Detroit Arsenal to support its advanced tactical and combat system mission functions. This facility will contain advanced capabilities that directly address the assessment, evaluation, optimization, integration, and durability of reliability systems for both the current and future force combat vehicle fleet.  

• Battle Creek Air National Guard Base: The bill contains more than $24.5 million to construct two organic supply buildings and a vehicle wash platform. These buildings will form part of a Reserve Center that will serve as the single gathering point for base personnel for drilling and administrative meetings.  

Bolstering U.S. Manufacturing and Innovation, Michigan’s Automotive Sector

• CHIPS and Science Act: The bill provides $10.6 billion for federal science and technology programs to implement the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act to help drive U.S. economic competitiveness. Peters secured key provisions in the CHIPS and Science Act to support U.S. production of semiconductors necessary for the U.S. auto industry, and invest in scientific research to allow the United States to compete with the Chinese government and other competitors in fields that power our economy, such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing, microelectronics, clean energy, and advanced communications.  

• Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) Program: The bill includes $175 million for Manufacturing Extension Partnerships, which provide small and medium-sized businesses with services and access to public and private resources to enhance growth, improve productivity, reduce costs, and expand capacity. Michigan’s MEP, the Michigan Manufacturing Technology Center in Plymouth, specifically aims to help manufacturers in Michigan improve the strength of their supply chains. Peters announced $400,000 in federal funding for the Michigan Manufacturing Technology Center last year.  

• Department of Energy’s Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB): The bill directs the Department of Energy to prioritize optimizing operations for all nuclear physics user facilities, including the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) at Michigan State University in East Lansing. 

• National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Scientific and Technological Research Services: The bill includes more than $1 billion for the NIST Scientific and Technological Research Services to help fund key manufacturing, cybersecurity, and AI programs. NIST’s Scientific and Technical Research and Services provide industry, academia, and other federal agencies with world-class research capabilities in measurement science that form the foundation of the global system of weights and measures and enable innovation. 

• National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA): The bill includes $223 million in discretionary funds for NHTSA Operations and Research to improve roadway safety and support the future of mobility. Combined with mandatory funding, the total funding for this account is more than $424 million. This includes $17 million Senator Peters set aside to fully fund NHTSA’s new Office of Automation Safety, and language directing NHTSA to take steps towards the release of a regulatory framework for the safe and transparent deployment of autonomous vehicles.

Improving Health Care and Health Outcomes for Michiganders

• Community Health Centers: The bill extends the reauthorization of and provides funding to Community Health Centers, which provide primary care to uninsured and underinsured Americans.  

• Teaching Health Centers: The bill extends the reauthorization of and provides funding for Teaching Health Centers, which allow medical school graduates to do their residencies in rural and underserved areas.  

• Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP): The bill provides $122 million in funding for the SNAP program, which provides food benefits to low-income families to supplement their grocery budget so they can afford the nutritious food essential to health and well-being. 

• Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC): Peters helped secure full funding for the WIC program, which helps to provides nutrition and health care assistance to low income pregnant, breastfeeding and postpartum women, infants and children up to age 5, including more than 300,000 Michiganders who depend on WIC benefits each year.

• Disproportionate Share Hospital Program: The bill protects the Disproportionate Share Hospital program from cuts. This program supports hospitals that provide care to large numbers of Medicaid and uninsured patients. 

• Boosts Pay for Medicare Physicians: The bill provides a 1.68 percent boost in Medicare pay for doctors to decrease the impact of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Medicare Physician Fee cut. 
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Strengthening Michigan’s Representation and Protecting Michigan Communities

• U.S. Census Bureau: The bill includes language that Senator Peters requested to improve the Population Estimates to help ensure higher-quality annual data. This would help cities like Detroit who were impacted by undercounts in 2020. In 2022, Peters convened a field hearing in Detroit to examine the impact undercounts had on the City of Detroit.  

• Strengthening Police-Community Relations: The bill provides $256 million for Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) grant programs related to strengthening police-community relations. This funding will support Peters’ Strong Communities Act. Peters’ bill, which unanimously passed the Senate last year, would broaden the eligibility of this funding to include local law enforcement recruits who agree to attend school or academy and then serve in a law enforcement agency in their respective communities to build trust and better community relations. The bill also provides $10 million to train law enforcement on appropriately responding to situations when individuals are mentally ill or disabled, and provides $50 million for the Community Violence Intervention and Prevention Initiative.  

• Supporting Domestic Violence Survivors and their Pets: Peters led efforts to secure funding for the Emergency and Transitional Pet Shelter and Housing Assistance Grant Program. The bill includes the $3 million requested by Peters for the program, which provides funding to facilities who harbor survivors of domestic violence, along with their pets, as well as animal shelters that partner with domestic violence service providers. This program was established by Peters’ PAWS Act, which was first signed into law in 2018.  

The bill also includes funding secured by Peters for high-impact public local projects in Michigan that can benefit from federal assistance, including projects to rebuild our roads and improve infrastructure, train the workforce of the future, and improve public safety. For a full list of the projects Peters supported that were included in the bill, click HERE. 

Rebuilding Our Roads and Improving Infrastructure

• Capital Region International Airport Terminal Building Modernization: The legislation includes $8.1 million to support the renovation and expansion of the Capital Region International Airport as it continues to play a growing economic role in the region. 

• Grand Rapids Regional Airport Terminal Enhancement Project: The Gerald R. Ford International Airport Authority will receive $789,000 to support its ongoing Terminal Enhancement Project. This funding will be used to relocate the airports ticket counter locations, which will allow for improvements for TSA and baggage screening operations. 

• Michigan Technological University Standards Development Center for Automated Driving Systems in Inclement Winter Weather: The $2 million in federal funds for this project supports MTU’s efforts to work with partners from the automotive sector, government and other stakeholders to create a development center to test vehicle automated driving systems in inclement and winter weather.  

• Iron Belle Trail Bridge: This legislation includes $728,000 to support much needed repairs to the pedestrian bridge along the Iron Belle trail. This bridge provides the only safe pedestrian and cyclist crossing for the dangerous intersections of Hall Road (M-59) and Van Dyke Avenue.  

• Menominee River Deepening: The $281,000 funding for this project will be used by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and City of Menominee to complete a feasibility study for potential harbor infrastructure improvements in the Menominee-Marinette Harbor waterway. 

• Saginaw Transit Authority Regional Services (STARS) Infrastructure Improvements: The bill allocates $1.2 million in funding to help STARS make much needed improvements to their facilities, including their offices and a bus garage to ensure bus service can continue unhindered.  

• Michigan Department of Transportation Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer Bridge Project: More than $2.2 million is included in this legislation to support MDOT’s replacement of a portion of M-30 over the US-10 bridge in Midland, as well as the Lemay Street bridge over I-94 in Detroit. This project will improve traffic safety by reducing congestion. This project will also support Michigan’s economy by streamlining the movement of products to national and global marketplaces. I-94 through Detroit alone supports more than $80 billion in annual commodity flow and as an integral connection to Canada, Chicago, Milwaukee, and Minneapolis. 

• Capital Investment for the Startup of the Transportation Authority of Calhoun County: The bill provides $1.5 million in funding to support the expansion of county-wide transit options in Calhoun County. 

• City of Hamtramck Green Alleyways Project: The bill provides $965,000 for the City of Hamtramck to reconstruct twenty alleyways and a parking lot in five census tracts in the city using porous pavement and water retention rain gardens. This project addresses multiple high priority needs for residents and businesses including reconstruction of dilapidated alleys, residential street safety, creating a more walkable city, and strategies to combat basement flooding.   

Strengthening Education and Skills Training Programs

• Delta Schoolcraft Intermediate School District (ISD) Manufacturing Center Expansion: The bill provides $1.4 million in funding to support a new facility for Delta Schoolcraft ISD’s Career and Technical Center to expand workforce development programs for students and help train the workforce of the future.  

• Beecher High School Renovation: The bill provides $2 million to help build a state-of-the-art high school for students in Flint, Michigan. With the old Beecher High School building in a state of disrepair, high school and middle school students within the school district have been learning under the same roof in what was Dolan Middle School. This funding will support Beecher Community Schools’ efforts to renovate and reopen the old high school building. 

• Alpena Community College Student Housing: The bill provides $1,750,000 in funding to support the construction of additional student housing at Alpena Community College. This project will add 32 beds on the main campus in Alpena. Once complete, the project will increase the existing supply of on-campus student housing from 64 to 96 beds, alleviating an acute housing shortage that negatively impacts the college and entire Alpena community.    

Bolstering Public Safety and Emergency Operations

• Oakland Community College Security Camera Installation: The bill provides $867,000 in funding to support the installation of security cameras to improve public safety at the college. This project will help improve campus safety and security in the wake of threats like the shooting at Michigan State University. 

• City of Owosso Public Safety Building: The bill includes $1 million to support the construction of a new public safety building to replace the current building that was constructed in 1968. The new building will help support additional operations, including modern spaces for fire and police personnel. 

• Utica Police Cameras: The bill provides $153,000 in funding to support the purchase of new police body-worn and in-car cameras to improve transparency of police operations. 

• City of Inkster Emergency Warning System Replacement: The City of Inkster will receive $272,000 to replace its failing city-wide emergency siren warning system. Upgrades will help protect community members and improve emergency response efforts. 

Supporting Modern Water Infrastructure and Addressing PFAS Contamination

• PFAS Remediation for the Village of Hesperia: The bill provides $600,000 in funding to support efforts to address PFAS contamination in the Village of Hesperia’s water supply and provide safe drinking water to the community’s residents.  

• Clinton River Water Resources Recovery Facility Optimization Project: The bill provides $2 million in funding to support the replacement of critical components of the Clinton River Water Resources Recovery Facility. 

• Delta Water Resource Recovery Facility Reconstruction: The legislation includes $3 million to support the addition of a new water treatment process for the Delta Water Resource Recovery Facility in order to meet updated standards and better serve the community.  

• Detroit Water and Sewage Department: The bill includes $3 million to replace lead service lines throughout the city of Detroit.  

• Improving Water Infrastructure in City of Dearborn Heights: The bill includes $2 million to replace the City of Dearborn Heights’ obsolete water meter systems and remove existing lead service lines throughout the city.  

Promoting Affordable Housing and Strong Communities

• City of Portage Attainable Housing Project: Peters helped secure funding to support the City of Portage’s ongoing Attainable Housing Plan. The bill includes $1 million to develop workforce housing units on city-owned property on Portage Street in order to help address a local housing shortage.  

• Kchi-Noodin Kaamdaaking Affordable Housing Development: The bill provides $1 million in funding will help support affordable housing units for tribal members and their families. This investment will help address the rental housing deficit in Traverse City and Grand Traverse County communities. 

• City of Dearborn Housing Quality Improvement Initiative: The bill includes $1.5 million to support the Dearborn Housing Quality Improvement Initiative, which seeks to make upgrades to housing in high-poverty areas of the city including those that have reported flooding and water damage caused by recent flooding events impacting the region.  

• New Ionia Community Library: The bill provides $2.1 million in funding for the renovation of the former downtown Ionia Mercantile Bank building to support the new Ionia Community Library. 

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