The $1.3 trillion omnibus package passed by the House on Thursday, with Rep. Chris Smith’s (R-NJ) support, provides a big boost for the Gateway project and transportation in New Jersey, ensures funding of jobs at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, and also increases funding of critical Alzheimer’s and NIH research and many other areas of need.

    Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst would see $158 million in federal funding for projects and jobs in the spending package, including $146 million to prepare the base for the arrival of the KC-46A tankers in 2021. Rep. Smith led a Congressional delegation letter in 2016 to have JB-MDL designated to house the tankers, ultimately helping protect and increase jobs at the base.

    The base’s funding is part of $659.6 billion in overall Defense funding, a much-needed support to the Armed Forces; it funds equipment upgrades and a 2.4% pay increase for military servicemen and women.

    The Gateway project—which would benefit the hundreds of thousands of daily rail passengers between New Jersey and New York—has the opportunity for funding under the omnibus through the Capital Investment Grants program, as well as through Amtrak funding and through Federal Transit Administration grant programs. The current North River Tunnel is over 100 years old, was damaged by Sandy flooding, and is in dire need of repair; the Gateway project would include construction of a new train tunnel. Overall, the spending package includes $21 million for U.S. infrastructure which had received a D-plus rating from the American Society of Civil Engineers in 2017.

    The legislation also incorporates provisions from Smith’s Kevin and Avonte’s Law, (HR 4221) which reauthorizes and expands a wandering prevention program designed to help children with Autism and Alzheimer’s patients.

    “Wandering is one of the most common problems facing both children with Autism and seniors with Alzheimer’s—and their guard­ians or caregivers who are usually family members,” Smith stated. “An estimated 60 percent of Alzheimer’s patients and almost half of children with autism—according to a 2012 Pediatrics study—have wandered from their caregivers at some point. Many tragedies can be avoided through mod­est support programs for seniors with Alzheimer’s and children with autism and for their caregivers, and I am glad the bill includes my provisions and will now be law.”

    Under the provisions championed by Smith, the omnibus bill expands the current law enforcement program to help Alzheimer’s patients, and now other persons like those with Autism, who wander. Originally called the Missing Alzheimer’s Disease Patient Alert Program, the new program will be known as the Missing Americans Alert Program.

    Smith was also pleased that the spending package includes a $414 million increase in funding of Alzheimer’s research. Smith is a co-chair of the Congressional Task Force on Alzheimer’s Disease and pushed hard for the funding increase.

    “This funding increase for Alzheimer’s research now can pay dividends years from now,” Smith said. “The number of Americans who will have Alzheimer’s—for which there is currently no cure—is expected to more than double by 2050, which would put an extraordinary burden on caregiving and health costs.”

    The omnibus also reauthorizes the Taylor Force Act, which passed the House in December with Smith’s support; the act bars U.S. assistance to the Palestinian Authority (PA) unless it ends the practice of “pay to slay,” where the PA sends money directly to families of Palestinian terrorists—and the terrorists themselves—who have murdered American and Israeli citizens.

    Opioids

    Overall, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) received a $3 billion increase over the previous fiscal year for research and development. Also, the bill included $4 billion to combat the opioid crisis through prevention, treatment, and enforcement. Rep. Smith, a member of the Congressional Addiction, Treatment, and Recovery Caucus, has pushed for funding of opioid treatment and prevention and supported the creation of an inter-agency task force to deal with the epidemic.

    The bill includes legislative improvements and funding for several other key programs that Smith has supported throughout the years.