(Washington, DC): -- Congressman Michael R. McNulty (D-Green Island) has announced that the Fiscal Year (FY) 2008 Omnibus Appropriations bill, passed last night by the House of Representatives, includes $5,304,000 for projects throughout the Capital Region. The Senate must now pass the bill before it is sent to the White House for the President's review. The projects included in the bill, and proposed funding levels, are:

$487,000 for Hudson Valley Community College for a Weekend Nursing Program
More than 200 students at Hudson Valley Community College are waiting to enter the college’s Nursing Program. Funding will be used for a new part-time Weekend Nursing program that would allow it to expand its program by 32 students per year.

$312,000 for St. Peter's Hospital for the Breast Cancer Center
Funding will be used to expand the scope of services available on-site at St. Peter’s Breast Center through the construction of two procedure rooms. These rooms will contain six prep and recovery beds along with the associated equipment storage, utility rooms, and staff lockers. The new rooms would be located in the building that houses the Breast Center.

$312,000 for Albany Medical Center for a Children's Hospital Project
Funding will be used for the renovation of an existing adult floor within the hospital to be used for the Children's Hospital. The floor will provide an additional 10 to 20 pediatric beds, a playroom, a new step down unit to transition children out of the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit and a family counseling room where families would meet with medical and social professionals to discuss ongoing care and prepare for critical decisions.

$487,000 for Albany Medical Center for a Patient Safety Center–Virtual Learning Center
Funding would be used to create a “Virtual Learning Center” to educate and train medical students and residents, physicians, nurses, emergency response personnel (EMS) and other healthcare professionals. This virtual learning environment will use computer simulators, including computerized mannequins and specially designed rooms that can virtually mimic a trauma suite, an operating room, or a cardiac diagnostic lab.

$196,000 for the Unity House of Troy, Inc.
Funding will be used to replace the existing 18 bed shelter with a 25 bed shelter for victims of domestic violence that will also serve as a model for other providers. The new shelter will include secure private spaces, community spaces for recreation, dining, and skill building, spaces for therapy and health care, play areas for children, and office spaces for staff.

$490,000 for the I-90 Exit 8 Phase 2 Connector Project
This project includes the construction of an urban arterial roadway linking the existing Interstate 90 Exit 8 Phase 1 project in the southern portion of the Town of North Greenbush, Rensselaer County, New York, to Route 4 in the northern portion of the Town of North Greenbush. This amount will be added to the $16 million in federal funding designated for this project in prior appropriations bills.

$196,000 for the Capital District YMCA in Schenectady
Funding will be used towards the construction of a new Schenectady YMCA. The new YMCA will contain a pre-school aged childcare center, dedicated spaces for youth, teen, and senior citizen programming, community rooms, a state-of-the-art fitness and wellness center, an aerobics studio, an indoor running/walking track, a double gymnasium, a warm water pool, a six-lane pool, steam room, sauna and whirlpools. It is a facility designed to meet the health, wellness, and recreational needs of the greater Schenectady community, for residents of all ages.

$1.3 million for SUNY Cobleskill for a Bio-Waste to Bio-Energy Project
Funding will be used to develop a bio-waste to bio-energy center that will conduct research on a process that creates clean energy through the conversion of organic waste. The US patent-pending process to be tested in this project creates a renewable clean fuel and produces a material that can be used as fertilizer in agricultural applications.

$164,500 for the Albany Police Athletic League (PAL) After School Club
Funds will be used to support this juvenile crime prevention program which brings kids and cops together in non-law enforcement type settings. It will establish and maintain programming at several sites in the city of Albany as part of an after school club sponsored by PAL.

$188,000 for A Child is Missing (ACIM)
Funding will be used for maintaining and upgrading ACIM’s telephone technology and New York call lists. It will help cover the actual cost of making the calls in New York, support ACIM’s New York law enforcement training sessions, and establish community awareness meetings involving child safety issues throughout New York State.

$47,000 for the Albany Teen Challenge At Risk Youth Drug Prevention Program
Funding will be applied toward expansion of the highly effective Long Island Teen Challenge “Rock the Block,” “Super Saturday Kids,” and “Hoop Challenge” drug prevention programs into the Albany area. Programs will be tailored to the Albany area and replicated with equal effectiveness to those operated by Long Island Teen Challenge.

$94,000 for the AIDS Council of Northeastern NY At-Risk Youth Prevention Initiative
The requested funding will allow the AIDS Council to expand HIV prevention interventions to at-risk youth by establishing cutting edge projects that combine HIV/STD prevention, behavior change and development of life and vocational skills, including development of skills in the areas of computer and video technology, marketing and communication.

$540,500 for the Forensic Education and Research for the Future (FERF) Program
Funding will be used to support the development and advancement of a suite of forensic technology tools and programs for law enforcement. FERF plans to address the escalating demand for forensic science education and research across a range of disciplines including DNA, toxicology, chemistry, computer crime, Internet sexual predators, and white collar crime focused on Wall Street, among other areas where this technology has impacted the criminal justice system.

$490,000 for NYSERNet's Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Facility
Funding will be used to support the development of the center in Syracuse, NY while allowing participating institutions to direct their own funds toward acquiring the equipment and software necessary to implement mirrored solutions in the facility, thus enhancing their disaster recovery strategies. NYSERNet member institutions in the Capital District that will benefit from this project include Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the SUNY Albany Main Campus, Downtown Campus, and East Campus.

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