Rep. Mike Garcia, R-Santa Clarita, announced this week he secured $1 million for College of the Canyons and $610,000 for Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital to be included in the 2022 Labor, Health, and Human Services Appropriations bill.
Funding for COC will support equipment purchases for the college’s machining production lab in its Advanced Technology Center.
At Henry Mayo, the federal appropriation earmarked by Garcia, who is a member of the House Appropriation Committee, will help purchase a mammography machine for the Sheila R. Veloz Center for Breast Health.
“I am pleased to have secured the allocation of funds for crucial medical research and equipment needs that would improve the quality of health care for Californians, as well as funds to improve workforce readiness,” said Garcia in a prepared statement.
Garcia’s advocacy in this area also led to $1.2 million for a City of Hope comprehensive cancer screening mobile van to provide mobile cancer screening in the Antelope Valley and $550,000 for equipment for the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles Transplantation & Cellular Therapy Laboratory.
Garcia voted against the bill in a roll call vote, and voted in support of an amendment to the bill that would “prohibit funds from being expended for any abortion or health benefits coverage that includes coverage of abortion, except if the pregnancy is the result of an act of rape or incest or the case where a woman suffers from a life-threatening physical condition.”
The amendment was not approved in a 32-27 vote.
Molly Jenkins, a spokeswoman for Garcia, said Garcia voted against this appropriations bill “because it included provisions that would enact elements of the job-killing PRO Act and provides a lack of parity between our nation’s defense spending and non-defense spending.”
Garcia announced he also secured $266.8 million as part of the 2022 Commerce, Justice and Science Appropriations Bill, which he also voted against.
Jenkins said Garcia is pleased to have secured “critical funding to help prevent wildfires, provide technological advancements in space exploration, and provide necessary improvement or law enforcement in California’s 25th district.”
Garcia voted against the bill because it “defunds police, something Congressman Garcia has loudly advocated against,” according to Jenkins.
“He is hopeful that when the legislation goes through conference negotiations with the Senate it will be modified in such a way that he will be able to support the legislation at large,” Jenkins told The Signal in a statement.
Both appropriations bills are headed to the House floor for a vote.