Kinzinger gives thumbs up to COVID-19 relief bill

After voting in favor of the year-end stimulus package, H.R. 133 – Consolidated Appropriations Act, Congressman Adam Kinzinger (IL-16) released the following statement touting the many wins included for the American people:

“Once again, the American people have been caught in the middle of a political standoff. Still, I’m glad to see so many Republican priorities included in this funding package, and relieved that our Democrat colleagues finally decided to negotiate in good faith on a COVID-19 relief package that we could get passed through Congress and on to the President’s desk.

“Despite this package being long overdue, I was proud to vote in its favor because of the many provisions that will positively impact the American people facing the hardships of the COVID-19 pandemic. This funding measure includes many bipartisan wins that take important steps to help provide COVID-19 relief through funding for vaccines, PPP loans, unemployment insurance, and $13 billion to support the agriculture sector, among other provisions.

“The package also includes spending bills that will protect our energy sector, our environment, our national security and cyber defenses, and our consumers. Several of my own bills have been included in this package like measures increase energy efficiency in the public and private sectors, and provisions to secure our telecom and information networks and their supply chains from foreign threats. The funding package also expands the telehealth grant program authorized under the CARES Act, ends the egregious practice of surprise billing, and funds community health centers (CHCs), and includes many other reforms to protect patients and taxpayers.”

A few of the different legislations sponsored by Kinzinger included in the year-end H.R. 133 funding package include:

• H.R. 1430, the Combined Heat and Power (CHP) Support Act - This legislation would reauthorize an existing program that encourages the use of energy efficient technologies by generating electricity and capturing heat (that would otherwise be wasted) to provide useful thermal energy.

• H.R. 2044, the Smart Building Acceleration Act - This bill assists in the building sector of adopting smart building technology to increase energy efficiency by requiring the Department of Energy (DOE) to establish a Federal Smart Building Program.

• H.R. 1420, the Energy Efficient Government Technology Act - This bill sets forth the requirements to increase energy efficiency of information technologies and data centers within the federal government.

• H.R. 8000, the Ensuring Network Security Act - This legislation amends the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act to expand eligibility from providers with 2 million customers to those providers with up to 10 million customers.

• H.R. 3079, the Energy Savings Through Public-Private Partnerships Act - The bill requires federal facilities to implement energy and water efficient measures.

• Following its passage in the House, the Senate moved to consider the Consolidated Appropriations Act, which passed 92 to 6.