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A bipartisan spending deal passed by Congress and signed into law Friday by President Donald Trump includes money for projects in Maui County, such as $6 million for Haleakala National Park, according to an announcement from U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz.
The federal budget sets aside $10.4 million for the Maui Space Surveillance System, Schatz said, supporting the Defense Department's programs that help track, identify and characterize space objects of interest.
The senator said the federal budget also allocates $221 million to a high performance computing modernization program. It supports U.S. Department of Defense regional supercomputing centers, including the Maui High Performance Computing Center in Kihei, Schatz said.
That funding came despite Trump's proposed $39 million cut.
"Working with committee leaders, Sen. Schatz was able to increase funding for the program by $39 million above the president's budget to ensure that the Department of Defense has the funding it needs to upgrade the technology at MHPCC so that it can continue to support the military's current and future high-performance computing needs in Hawaii and the Pacific," the senator's announcement says.
Hawaii state and counties also will receive $7.6 million -- a $2.6 million increase from last year -- for public transit systems, including the Maui Bus, according to Schatz.
And, five Native Hawaiian health centers in Maui, Molokai, Oahu, the Big Island and Kauai will get $17.5 million, a $3.1 million increase, for critical access to health education, promotion, disease prevention and basic primary care services, he said.
Hawaii will see 10 percent funding increase to $248.7 million for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to continue to identify and remove unexploded ordnance at former military sites across the Neighbor Islands, he said.
And, despite proposed elimination by President Trump, Hansen's disease treatment in Hawaii will get $1.9 million in federal funding, he said.
"Under this Health Resources and Services Administration program, payments are made to the state of Hawaii for the medical care and treatment of persons with Hansen's disease in its hospital and clinic facilities in Kalaupapa and Honolulu," Schatz said. "Programs supported by HRSA to address Hansen's disease are particularly important in states like Hawaii that have large populations of immigrants from nations with high rates of the disease."
Federal highway and transportation funding for Hawaii rose $3.5 million from last year to $177.4 million, he said.
"With this bipartisan deal, Hawaii will receive a sizeable increase in federal funding," he said. "This is the best appropriations bill that we've seen for our state since I got here. This appropriations bill will give our state funding to create jobs, help our veterans, protect our environment and strengthen education and health care programs."
Schatz has been in the Senate since 2012.
The federal budget increases funding for clean energy projects and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs clinics in Hawaii. The measure also added funding for programs that support Native Hawaiian education, telehealth in Hawaii, affordable housing programs and the Honouliuli National Monument on Oahu.
Schatz is a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee.