Shaheen Discusses Arts Education in Claremont, Energy Efficiency in Springfield and Affordable Health Care in Canaan
(Canaan, NH) – Today, U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), a senior member of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, continued on her “Invest in NH Tour” to highlight Congressionally Directed Spending she secured in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 government funding legislation with visits to the Claremont Development Authority (CDA) – West Claremont Center of Music and Arts collaboration and HealthFirst Mascoma Community Health in Canaan. She also visited Durgin and Crowell Lumber to discuss recently announced federal funding for energy efficiency upgrades at the facility. Photos from all three events can be found here.
At the CDA – West Claremont Center of Music and Arts collaboration Shaheen was joined by local stakeholders and leaders to discuss the impact of the arts on local communities. Shaheen in Congressionally Directed Spending in the FY2024 government funding bills for building renovations and upgrades that will expand educational offerings in music and creative arts instruction to youth in and around Claremont.
“The CDA – West Claremont Center of Music and Arts collaboration will help revitalize the local art scene, providing arts education and programming not only to Claremont residents but to the entire region,” said Senator Shaheen. “I was proud to support funding for this project and look forward to seeing the future artists, musicians and creatives that find their passions through the Center’s programming.”
Shaheen then headed to Springfield where she met with business leaders at Durgin and Crowell Lumber to discuss federal funding for energy efficiency upgrades at the facility. Durgin and Crowell Lumber recently received $300,000 from U.S. Department of Energy and $1,000,000 from the U.S. Forest Service for a wood energy combined heat and power system. The project will improve energy efficiency, decrease costs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions at the facility. Shaheen has championed work to secure federal investments in clean energy and energy efficiency initiatives and to lower energy costs across New Hampshire. Shaheen was a lead negotiator of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which made huge investments in energy efficiency, including $550 million for Industrial Research and Assessment Centers and assistance for small- and medium-sized manufacturers to implement efficiency upgrades based upon her longstanding bipartisan legislation with former U.S. Senator Rob Portman. Shaheen also helped introduce legislation to enhance the Forest Service’s Wood Innovation Grant program that is providing funding for this project.
“As a longtime champion of initiatives to improve energy efficiency in every sector of the economy, I’m thrilled to see federal funds coming to New Hampshire that will help this business to decrease costs and emissions while benefitting the local forest-based economy,” said Senator Shaheen. “We must continue working to incentivize the adoption of energy efficient technologies, such as wood energy combined heat and power systems, to continue making progress toward our clean energy goals.”
Later, Shaheen visited HealthFirst Mascoma Community Health in Canaan and discussed how the facility will use $189,000 in Congressionally Directed Spending, which Shaheen secured, to expand its outreach and better deliver affordable health care services to the Upper Valley.
“Access to affordable and reliable healthcare is one of the most common concerns I hear about from folks in the Granite State, particularly in New Hampshire’s small towns and rural communities like Canaan,” said Senator Shaheen. “I’m glad to see federal funding, which I helped secure, coming to HealthFirst Mascoma Community Health to increase outreach efforts to reach the uninsured and under insured members of the surrounding community and help connect patients to the care they need.”
As a senior member of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, Shaheen secured $17,419,000 in Congressionally Directed Spending in the FY2024 government funding legislation to support health care and education needs in the Granite State.
Shaheen has long fought to lower health costs for families in New Hampshire, including leading the change that made the most significant improvement to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in a decade. Shaheen also successfully secured premium tax credit enhancement provisions from her legislation, the Improving Health Insurance Affordability Act, in the American Rescue Plan and the Inflation Reduction Act. Those provisions led to record Marketplace enrollment in 2023.
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