Bills Strengthen Workforce Development, Education, and Community Health Services

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Gary Peters (MI) secured federal funding to support economic and workforce development initiatives and expand access to quality health care while helping the Senate Appropriations Committee pass both the Fiscal Year 2025 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act and Fiscal Year 2025 Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act. 

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives is considering their own funding bills. The Senate and House will then need to reach an agreement on a final funding bill and have it pass both chambers before being sent to the President to be signed into law.  

“This bipartisan legislation would fund important local projects and make key investments to strengthen Michigan’s workforce training programs, health care and community services,” said Peters. “I’ll continue working to get this bill passed into law to deliver these important resources to communities across our state.”   

The bill includes measures led and supported by Peters, including:  

Growing Workforce Development and Educational Opportunities:   

Masonry Workforce Partnership in Livonia: Peters secured $2 million for the Schoolcraft Community College District. Funding will be used in partnership with the Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers to create a collaborative learning model to prepare students for a trades career while earning college credit.   

Expanding Opportunities for Youth Summer Employment in Detroit: Peters secured $2 million for the City of Detroit to help expand its Grow Detroit’s Young Talent program, which addresses youth unemployment among Detroit's young population through fostering partnerships, increasing outreach, and providing comprehensive support to participants.  

Aviation Workforce Training in Battle Creek: Peters secured $909,000 for Western Michigan University to purchase training equipment necessary to prepare qualified graduates for the aviation industry.  

Career Tech Center in Grand Rapids: Peters secured $750,000 for the Kent Intermediate School District’s Career Tech Center. Funding will be used to increase enrollees at the Kent Career Tech Center (KCTC) to ensure that all students have access to courses that prepare them for high-demand careers in fields such as health care, manufacturing, information technology, and skilled trades.  

Expanding Educational Opportunities in Western Michigan: Peters secured $1 million for Grand Valley State University to develop and expand curricula to veterans and underserved students by blending regional campuses across Michigan with flexible online learning.  

Supporting Flint Students through Graduation: Peters secured $660,000 for Mott Community College to expand child care, mental health services, and non-academic resources at the Lenor Croudy Family Life Center. These programs aim to provide support to students as they work to complete their degree.   

Preparing Students for Great Lakes Careers in Sault Ste. Marie: Peters secured $600,000 for Lake Superior State University to support the Great Lakes Sustainability Project, which will prepare students for jobs that contribute to sustaining the Great Lakes freshwater supply, including natural resources, fisheries and wildlife management, conversation biology, parks and recreation, and education.  

Student Retention and Success Program at Ferris State: Peters secured $500,000 for Ferris State University to create the Finish Line Retention and Completion Program. The program will implement and scale a data-driven emergency financial aid intervention to ensure that at-risk students do not drop out due to financial hardship and are able to complete their credentials.  

Support Lake Huron Research at SVSU: Peters secured $1.5 million for Saginaw Valley State University. The funding will support equipment and technology upgrades for its Lake Huron Environmental Sciences Research Station, which will serve as the headquarters of the Saginaw Bay Environmental Sciences Institute, the Science and Sustainability Education Center, and the Mobile Sciences Laboratory.  

Improving Student Success in Warren: Peters secured $230,000 for Macomb Community College to support its Student Success Center. Funding will help further implement and scale up student tutoring and academic support to reduce achievement gaps and improve student success rates.    

Improving Cybersecurity Education in the Upper Peninsula: Peters secured $606,000 for Northern Michigan University to construct an advanced cybersecurity classroom and laboratory. The project will upgrade the school’s Auto and Truck Cyber educational program and add a mobile cybersecurity lab that can be brought to K-12 students.  

Preparing Students in Jackson for AI Workforce: Peters secured $600,000 for Jackson College to establish an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Incubator Center, which will offer specialized training to students to help them prepare for the AI workforce. This program will also provide collaborative opportunities for K-12 partners, as well as entrepreneurs and local industries.   

Supporting Job Training and STEM Research in Alpena: Peters secured $750,000 for Alpena Community College to improve its STEM Innovation and Education Center. This funding will help improve Alpena Community College’s outreach efforts to improve enrollment and help to advance its research into innovative clean energy solutions.  

Supporting Economic Development and Small Businesses:   

Supporting Michigan Communities through “Low Snow” Winters: Peters secured language in the bill that would seek to assist small businesses affected by a “low snow” winter by identifying reforms that would allow these businesses to secure federal assistance to help them through extreme weather situations that have impacted their economic well-being. In recent years, Michigan has faced record-high temperatures and drought conditions during winter months, impacting communities who depend on winter recreation and tourism to support the local economy.    

Improving Small Business Support in West Michigan: Peters secured $3.2 million for the City of Grand Rapids to support its Westside Service Center Renovation Initiative. The project will modernize the current office space of West Michigan Works!, enhancing services for small businesses, aspiring entrepreneurs, and job seekers across the region.    

Strengthening the Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund: The bill includes $354 million for the CDFI Fund, a major increase over FY2024 levels. Peters has previously championed efforts to support this program, which provides credit, capital and financial services to underserved populations and communities in Michigan and across the country.  

Supporting Michigan Small Businesses: Peters secured $42 million for the Small Business Administration’s Microloan Technical Assistance Program, which provides support for entrepreneurs and small businesses in underserved markets.  

Shiawassee County Career Readiness Center: Peters secured $267,000 for the Shiawassee Regional Education Service District. This funding will help upgrade equipment used in its Career and Technical Education training programs, helping to ensure students are prepared to fill good paying, in-demand jobs with regional employers.  

Supporting Wayne County Small Businesses: Peters secured $1 million for Wayne State University, which will support expansion of its entrepreneurial training and businesses development services, which are available across Wayne County.  

Preserving Historically Significant Lansing Publication: Peters secured $210,000 for Michigan State University, which will support the digital preservation of the Lansing Labor News. The project will digitalize the entire publication’s history, preserving local union history for future generations.  

Improving Access to Health Care:  

Behavioral Health Center in Saginaw: Peters secured $2 million for the City of Saginaw to construct a behavioral health center. In partnership with the Central Michigan College of Medicine, the center will seek to improve health outcomes for underserved populations across northern lower Michigan.   

Combating Youth Opioid Addiction: Peters pressed for $3 million to be included for the Youth Prevention and Recovery Initiative, a substance abuse program at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSHA) that expands access to medication to treatment for adolescents suffering from opioid addiction. Peters helped establish the program in 2018, and has introduced legislation that would reauthorize this critical program.

Addressing Substance Use Disorders and Mental Health: The bill includes new investments to address the rising toll of opioid overdoses fueled by fentanyl, improve access to substance use disorder prevention and treatment, and improve access to mental health services.  

Strengthening Public Health Response: The bill includes a $30 million increase in funding for the Strategic National Stockpile, the nation’s largest reservoir of potentially life-saving pharmaceuticals and medical supplies designated for use in a public health emergency.  

Biomedical Research: The bill provides $50.224 billion in base discretionary funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It also includes $127 million in Cures Act authorized funding to propel life-saving and life-changing cures and treatments across NIH’s 27 institutes and centers and the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H).   

Strengthening Pharmeceutical Supply Chains: The legislation includes a provision secured by Peters that seeks to develop and implement a plan for how to mitigate the national security risks associated with supply chains for critical drug products, as well as the key ingredients needed to make finished drug products. As Chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Peters has previously supported efforts to limit our reliance on foreign suppliers, and introduced bipartisan legislation this year to better understand the Department of Defense’s reliance on high-risk foreign suppliers for critical medications.  

Improving Access to Mental Health Resources in Grand Rapids: Peters secured $130,000 that will help the City of Grand Rapids Police Department’s Mental Health Crisis Co-Response Pilot Program. The program deploys a trained crisis intervention team officer and a trained mental health professional into the field to respond to calls where a mental health crisis exists.  

Providing Behavior Health Services in Kent County: Peters secured $750,000 for Kent County to support its Crisis Stabilization Unit, which delivers behavioral health services to individuals who are experiencing a mental health crisis.  

Improving Access to Senior Services: The bill includes $115,000 in funding for the City of Livonia, which will support relocation of its senior center to a new community center. This project will help improve access health, wellness, and recreation programs for Livonia’s seniors.  

Child Care and Early Learning Programs: The bill provides a $2.3 billion increase for early learning programs within HHS over fiscal year 2024. It provides $10.35 billion for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG)—a $1.6 billion or 18% increase over fiscal year 2024—which will help more families across the country find and afford the child care they need. It also provides $12.97 billion for Head Start, a $700 million increase over fiscal year 2024, which will support Head Start teachers and staff as local programs face ongoing staffing challenges. Sustained annual increases to our federal investments in child care and Head Start are critical in tackling the child care crisis holding back families, businesses, and our economy.  

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