The $12 million in federal funding for Oklahoma City was moved through the House successfully today in one of the House's last days of legislative session. Lucas voted in favor of the bill that passed by a vote of 409 to 14.

"Basically the push to get this additional funding request into a bill before the end of this legislative session came during the final hours of the debate on the VA-HUD appropriations bill in the conference committee meeting between the House and Senate," Lucas said. "House Appropriations Committee Chairman Bob Livingston was truly responsible for seeing that we came out of the meeting with a much-needed $12 million."

A conference committee is made up of members of both the House and the Senate appointed by leadership members to discuss and agree to the final version of a piece of legislation--this happens when legislation passes each of the two legislative houses with differing provisions and language that must be reconciled.

"Chairman Livingston came out to Oklahoma City upon my invitation in April this year to take a look at the still dilapidated buildings downtown and the hard work that is being put forth by city leaders and the city as a whole to rebuild," Lucas said. "I am just pleased that the Chairman's visit made a lasting impression and that the genuine need for additional funding was found meritorious by the conference committee.

"Additionally, thanks must go out to Congressman Istook, who sits on the House Appropriations Committee and did a great job of continually pushing for this necessary funding amongst the members of the committee," Lucas said. "Although we both had hoped for more, this $12 million will go a long way toward making Oklahoma City whole again."

Specifically, the VA-HUD appropriations bill earmarks $12 million of the FY99 Community Development block grant funding for the Oklahoma City Bombing aftermath rebuilding effort.

Th e $70 billion VA-HUD appropriations bill establishes the FY99 federal funding amounts for those federal departments and agencies named in the title of the bill. Very important to Oklahoma veterans are the provisions: funding for Veterans Affairs discretionary programs at $19.25 billion; increases in spending on medical care up $248.6 million in FY98 to $17.3 billion; VA medical research is funded at $316 million, $44 million more than FY98.

The bill must be approved by the Senate--likely to be considered this week--and signed by President Clinton to become law.