WASHINGTON, D.C. – President Bush earlier this week signed into law a defense appropriations measure with more than $100 million in funding for projects in New Jersey sponsored by Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ).
“This bill provides critical funding for medical research and technology to better treat and protect our soldiers, to help military families with daily needs such as child care and counseling, and for equipment and training for our troops,” said Sen. Lautenberg in a release. “This bill is good for New Jersey and good for the nation.”
“These are the types of investments that support our New Jersey troops and their families, and they are the types of sound investments that Congress is working to make,” said Sen. Menendez. “This bill gives our troops the resources they need to stay safe and the care they deserve to stay healthy.”
The Defense Appropriations bill funds the Department of Defense and it includesa 3.5 percent pay raise for all military personnel. It also fully funds the military health insurance plan, also known as TRICARE, without additional cost to the troops and provides funding for Defense health programs such as peer-reviewed breast, prostate and ovarian cancer research.
The bill passed the Senate on Nov. 8, and was signed into law on Nov. 13. Below is a list of several New Jersey projects funded in the Defense Appropriations bill:
* $8 million for the Bayonne Local Redevelopment Authority for stabilization and repair of the Ship Repair Facility at the Military Ocean Terminal at Bayonne (MOTBY);
* $800,000 for the Garden State Cancer Center Vaccine Development Program in Belleville to help develop a vaccine against smallpox;
* $800,000 for the Military Biomaterials Institute for Acute and Regenerative Care at Rutgers University to develop innovative long-term tissue regeneration therapies;
* $4 million for Hackensack University Medical Center for the Mobile Rapid Response Prototype;
* $750,000 for Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck for the National Guard Global Education Program;
* $1.6 million for Englewood Hospital for the New Jersey Institute for the Advancement of Bloodless Medicine and Surgery;
* $2.4 million for the Cancer Institute of New Jersey and the Dean and Betty Gallo Prostate Cancer Center in New Brunswick;
* $2.4 million for VaxInnate in Cranbury for the Synthetic Malaria Vaccine program; and
* $2.4 million for the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken to develop techniques to secure critical defense communication networks.
