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U.S. Sen. Harkin: Harkin secures over $9 million for eastern Iowa education, job creation and flood recovery initiatives
12/9/2009

Contact: Kate Cyrul / Bergen Kenny (202) 224-3254


Bill also provides additional $12 million for statewide programs

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chairman of the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Subcommittee, today announced that he has secured $9,315,000 million for vital education, job creation and flood recovery initiatives across Eastern Iowa in the FY 2010 Labor, Health and Human Services Appropriations bill. The funding is included in an omnibus Appropriations bill that was agreed to by a Senate-House conference committee last night. It will have to pass both chambers of Congress before it is signed into law by the President.

Harkin’s bill also provides an additional $12.4 million for initiatives that benefit the state as a whole, including $7 million for the Harkin School Grants program, which helps Iowa schools construct, repair and modernize facilities.

“The funding in this bill makes important, strategic investments in our state’s future,” Senator Harkin said. “It creates opportunities for educational advancement and job training, makes investments in medical research that will change lives and promotes initiatives that keep Iowans healthy and active. The programs supported by this bill will allow our communities to thrive.”

A full list of Eastern Iowa and statewide initiatives funded by this legislation is below.

EDUCATION

• CLARKE COLLEGE, DUBUQUE: $400,000 for its Doctor of Nurse Practitioner program, which may include equipment, technology and scholarships.

• LORAS COLLEGE, DUBUQUE: $200,000 for science education equipment.

• NATIONAL MISSISSIPPI RIVER MUSEUM AND AQUARIUM, DUBUQUE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, DUBUQUE: $500,000 for exhibit fabrication and installation.

• ST. AMBROSE UNIVERSITY, DAVENPORT: $600,000 for facilities and equipment.

• ST. LUKE'S HOSPITAL, ADULT BEHAVIORAL SERVICES, CEDAR RAPIDS: $400,000 for behavioral health services.

• ORCHESTRA IOWA MUSIC EDUCATION FOR CHILDREN, CEDAR RAPIDS: $400,000 to staff, create and supply the Orchestra Iowa Music Education Program.

• PALMER COLLEGE, DAVENPORT: $400,000 to expand a model integrative health care program for the treatment of pain.

• UNIVERSITY OF DUBUQUE, DUBUQUE: $400,000 to provide aviation flight students with a high end Flight Training Device (simulator).

• UNIVERSITY OF IOWA CARVER COLLEGE OF MEDICINE, IOWA CITY: $2,000,000 for an advanced biomedical research institute.

• UNIVERSITY OF IOWA, IOWA CITY: $165,000 for the National Institute for Twice-Exceptionality, which would be a resource for gifted students who have disabilities.

• UNIVERSITY OF IOWA, IOWA CITY: $1,000,000 for site preparation, equipment purchase and salaries for a public health academic facility.

• UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN IOWA, CEDAR FALLS: $750,000 for preliminary work on a proposed Center Literacy, Language & Disability Studies in Early Childhood Education to be located at the University.

• WATERLOO FIRE RESCUE, WATERLOO: $150,000 to keep current fire safety education programs running in the community.

JOB TRAINING

• NORTHEAST IOWA IRONWORKERS-CEDAR RAPIDS LOCAL 89, CEDAR RAPIDS: $250,000 to train over 100 new apprentices in the year to help meet the demand for skilled labor in commercial and industrial construction industry.

• HAWKEYE COMMUNITY COLLEGE, WATERLOO: $400,000 to develop a simulation center training workers in the high-demand fields of industrial maintenance, automated systems technology, and fabrication.

• NORTHEAST IOWA COMMUNITY COLLEGE, CALMAR: $300,000 to provide educational training programs in wind turbine maintenance, and repair and chemical technician training and to develop curriculum, purchase needed equipment, and provide faculty.

FLOOD REPAIR

• CEDAR RAPIDS PUBLIC LIBRARY, CEDAR RAPIDS: $500,000 to replace and upgrade the library's Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) system, due to losses during the 2008 flood. All equipment for the RFID system was destroyed in the flood.

• CZECH & SLOVAK MUSEUM & LIBRARY, NATIONAL: CEDAR RAPIDS: $500,000 to restore damage caused during the June 2008 Flood in Cedar Rapids.

STATEWIDE INVESTMENTS

• HARKIN GRANTS: $7 million for the repair, construction and modernization of Iowa schools. Since the beginning of this program, Harkin has secured more than $127 million to repair and modernize Iowa schools. Since 1998, 295 Iowa school districts have received Harkin Grants.

• IOWA ASSOCIATION OF SCHOOL BOARDS: $3.5 million to continue to provide administrators, teachers, students and parents in schools and school districts with the tools they need as well as guidance and expertise, to put essential standards and accountability in place to realize the goals of the No Child Left Behind.

• IOWA RADIO READING INFORMATION SERVICES (IRIS) FOR THE BLIND AND PRINT HANDICAPPED, INC.: $100,000 to provide digital receivers to the end users, allowing IRIS's blind reading service audio to be broadcast digitally on Iowa Public Television's digital transmission.

• AMERICAN OPTOMETRIC ASSOCIATION FOUNDATION FOR SCIENCE, EDUCATION AND CHARITY, AND THE AMERICAN OPTOMETRIC ASSOCIATION: $90,000 to support the InfantSEE program in the State of Iowa to provide professional eye care for infants.

• FREE CLINICS OF IOWA: $350,000 to continue the statewide support to provide assistance to member free clinic operations.

• IOWA STATE EDUCATION ASSOCIATION: $133,000 to provide Iowa’s students and educators with a variety of opportunities to explore and analyze the challenges and issues surrounding international trade and globalization from multiple perspectives.

• PE4LIFE FOUNDATION: $300,000 to assist in the promotion of health life style skills, started at early ages and to encourage the use of these health life skills through every stage of life.

• DELTA DENTAL OF IOWA: $150,000 for dental student loan repayment and recruitment.

• IOWA HEALTHCARE COLLABORATIVE: $750,000 to create a multi-state learning collaborative focused on the deployment of LEAN IN Initiative and other process improvement tools to assist with improving the efficiency and effectiveness of healthcare.




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