"Officials from the National Mass Fatalities Institute have been in New York since the September 11 attacks to help emergency crews who are conducting search and recovery operations," Grassley said. "In the face of continued terrorist threats, funding for NMFI is urgently needed in order to better train professionals in responding to these types of incidents."
Grassley said funding for could be included in the annual spending bill for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and Education. The Senate began debating the Labor, HHS and education appropriations bill today.
Grassley said that unlike other appropriations bills, the $407.3 billion Labor, HHS bill does not appropriate funds for individual programs. "That action is up to members of a House-Senate conference committee which will start work as soon as the Senate passes the bill," said Grassley. "The conference committee is responsible for working out details between the House and Senate versions of the bill and can specify funding for important programs such as the National Mass Fatalities Institute."
The final report submitted by the committee will be voted on by the Senate and the House before being sent to the White House for the president's signature.
Although the bill under consideration today by the Senate does not specify funding for individual items, the Senate Appropriations Committee did include language that expressed support for a number of measures, including the following Iowa items. These expressions of support are considered by the federal bureaucracy when funds are distributed.
?New Iowans Career Entry program at Des Moines Area Community College. The program aims to address workforce needs encountered with the growing migration to the state of Iowa.
?Northern Plains Healthy Start program. The program provides pre-natal care to Native American women throughout South Dakota, Iowa, North Dakota, and Nebraska.
?Centers for Disease Control Rural Health Assessment in Iowa. The committee encourages the CDC to conduct an assessment in Iowa of rural health problems, in particular, those that may be related to concentrated animal feeding operations.
?Efforts by the Iowa Department of Public Health to encourage the use of portable technology in improving the delivery of health care in rural areas by public nurses.
?Injury Control Research Centers. The committee included funds for an additional injury control center in Iowa.
?National Program for Playground safety at UNI. The program strives to raise awareness about the need for playground safety and injury prevention at the national, state and local levels.
?Methamphetamine prevention and treatment demonstration projects in Iowa. School-based prevention demonstration projects would teach the dangers of methamphetamine abuse and addiction as well as other emerging drug issues. The committee also urges NIDA research on prevention and treatment of methamphetamine abuse in Iowa and other Midwestern states.
?Medicare Transportation Demonstration Program in Iowa. Under this demonstration program, residents of an urban and rural community shall receive non-emergency transportation assistance for visits to hospitals, clinics and physicians. The purpose of this demonstration is to ascertain the obstacles, including costs, that senior citizens encounter in securing non-emergency transportation to health care providers.
?Virtual school classroom demonstration programs proposed by the Iowa Department of Education.