WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.), a member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee, today lauded passage of the Omnibus Appropriations Act by the Senate, which keeps the federal government operating through Fiscal Year 2016, providing predictability and stability for our states, businesses and all Americans. While expressing strong reservations about certain aspects of the emerging legislation such as the lack of offsets, Senator Cardin called the government funding bill “overall positive for the nation and our economy.”

Senator Cardin: “This appropriations bill will create jobs. For our economy and for the American people, investing in our country’s physical infrastructure is one of the most important things that we can do beyond ensuring the safety and security of our nation. For Maryland, steady or even increased funding for our highways, railways and pedestrian walkways furthers development and will help tame the congestion within and around the National Capital Region. We’re literally laying the foundation for the livability and economic development with investments in Amtrak, Metro and the prolific TIGER grants for multimodal projects. We’ve solidified funding for the wide-ranging transit programs in the recently passed transportation bill (FAST Act) and jumpstarted the pipeline for new health-related discoveries and development with an increase of $2 billion for the National Institutes of Health research programs.”

The funding legislation just passed by the Senate includes:

• $1.4 billion for Amtrak – $19 million more than FY15
• $150 million for WMATA
• Funding for the FTA’s New Starts program at $2.18 billion – $57 million more than FY15
• $500 million in funding for the TIGER program
• $50 million for rail safety and infrastructure grants – $40 million more than FY15
• Funding levels for transit/highway grants consistent with the increases included in the FAST Act
• $16.3 billion for the FAA – $563 million more than FY15
• $32.1 billion for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) – $2 billion over the FY 2015.

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