Funding Is Contained in the Fiscal Year 2008 LHHS Appropriations Conference Report
Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senators Arlen Specter, Ranking Member of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Bob Casey, the Junior Senator from Pennsylvania, announced today the U.S. Congress has approved funding for several southeastern Pennsylvania health care, education and labor projects. The projects are contained in the Fiscal Year 2008 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Conference Report.
“I am pleased my colleagues have approved this important funding for southeastern Pennsylvania,” Senator Specter said. “Health and education are our nation’s greatest capital assets, and these projects are vital to ensuring quality health care and education for the area’s residents.”
“This money is great news for southeastern Pennsylvania and I am thrilled that Congress approved this funding,” said Senator Casey. “I will continue working with Senator Specter to ensure residents of the area have access to quality health care and education.”
The Conference Report must be approved by the full Congress and the President of the United States before funding is final.
Southeastern Pennsylvania projects in the Conference Report include (if a House Member also requested a project, their name is indicated at the end):
- $508,500 for Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Southeastern Pennsylvania in Philadelphia County for recruitment, placement, and oversight of school-based mentoring with the goal of decreasing truancy rates, increasing the rates at which students graduate to the next grade, decreasing student disciplinary referrals, and decreasing students' involvement with the juvenile justice system. This project is to be carried out in collaboration with the Philadelphia Public Schools.
- $339,000 for United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania in Philadelphia County for recruitment, placement, and oversight of school-based mentoring with the goal of decreasing truancy rates, increasing the rates at which students graduate to the next grade, decreasing student disciplinary referrals, and decreasing students' involvement with the juvenile justice system. This project is to be carried out in collaboration with the Philadelphia Public Schools.
- $169,500 for Albert Einstein Healthcare Network in Philadelphia County for college students health screening programs.
- $169,500 for Temple University Health System in Philadelphia County to renovate the physical infrastructure of Temple University Hospital - Episcopal Campus.
- $469,500 for Thomas Jefferson University Breast Cancer Center in Philadelphia County to develop a comprehensive breast cancer center, including construction and renovation associated with screening mammography and MRI equipment. (Robert Brady)
- $169,500 for University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia County to establish a National Center for Therapeutic Excellence to assist the FDA, through the development of new tools and methods, to lower the cost of drug discovery and the time to take a drug to market.
- $127,125 for Children's Hospital of Philadelphia in Philadelphia County for equipment that provides non-invasive, 4-dimensional imaging of the brain to detect developmental disorders, including Autism.
- $127,125 for Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia County for equipment for the Biobank, a facility dedicated to the collection and distribution of human subject samples, along with supporting personal and family cancer history data.
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