Congressman García’s Statement on Government Funding Packages

Washington, D.C. - Today the U.S. House of Representatives voted on two legislative packages to fund the government through 2020. Congressman Jesús "Chuy" García (IL-04) voted for H.R. 1865, which funds domestic programs that include healthcare, environmental protections, roads and public transportation investments, workforce development and affordable housing. The Congressman voted against H.R. 1158, which funds the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), as well as the Department of Justice, Commerce and scientific agencies.

Congressman García issued the following statement after the votes:

"Today I voted for H.R. 1865, to give thousands of working families in my district better access to affordable and quality education and health care, affordable housing, and investments in clean air, clean water, and dependable infrastructure. Though not perfect, this funding package contains important workforce development measures that create and protect economic opportunities for youth, women, veterans and seniors.

"This bill also includes significant increases in land and water conservation and environmental protections to combat the climate crisis and honors our responsibility to our fellow Americans in Puerto Rico by extending and increasing urgently-needed, life-saving Medicaid funding. In addition, for the first time in 20 years, the Centers for Disease Control and the National Institutes of Health will be able to conduct life-saving research on gun violence."

Congressman Garcia successfully authored and included four provisions within H.R. 1865, which will bring direct benefits to Chicago:

• $5 million for transit workforce development training with a $2.5 million set-aside specifically for frontline bus and transit workers' professional development, including employees like those at Pace Bus, CTA, and Metra.
• A $5 million increase for renewable energy research and development, including cleaner and more efficient vehicles with a $5 million cut to fossil fuel research and development.
• A requirement that the Department of Transportation issue $15 million in grants for planning, design, and implementation of transit-oriented development projects which can support the development of affordable housing around public transportation.
• A provision to end Republican prohibitions that prevented the Army Corp of Engineers from expanding its work on ecological restoration and flood risk mitigation projects like the cleanup of Bubbly Creek.

"Despite good provisions including increased funding for the Census, the National Science Foundation, and for legal assistance for underserved communities, I ultimately could not support H.R. 1158 because it continues to enable Trump to terrorize immigrants and the thriving communities they support, including neighborhoods like mine in Little Village. This bill gives Trump $1.37 billion for his ineffective border wall and fails to restrict ICE and CBP's ability to transfer funds to increase their border enforcement, detention, and deportation activities. H.R. 1158 also does nothing to enact enforceable limits on the number of immigrants that ICE can hold captive in its inhumane detention facilities.

"At the end of the day, I voted with my neighbors and community members in mind. As an immigrant and Representative of a district that is over one-third foreign born and made up of mostly working families, I voted to ensure the federal government prioritizes programs that lift families out of poverty and gives them meaningful opportunities to improve their lives. I also voted against policies that militarize our immigration system and further enable Trump to exact his cruel and anti-immigrant agenda on the American people."

Division-by-division summaries of the bills are available here for H.R. 1865 and here for H.R. 1158.