Jeff Bingaman United States Senator from New Mexico

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman today said he is pleased that a key spending bill that will soon be considered by the full Senate contains funding he secured for the Flight Research Training Center in Roswell.

The Senate Appropriations Committee has approved the fiscal year 2009 Commerce, Justice, and Science (CJS) Appropriations Bill, which contains $250,000 from NASA to help Eastern New Mexico University—Roswell (ENMU-R), continue research and development of the Flight Research Training Center.

The center is a partnership between ENMU-R, the City of Roswell, the New Mexico Department of Transportation, CUBRC and Calspan and is focused on advanced maneuver and upset recovery training for pilots using in-flight simulation. Bingaman secured $1.7 million from NASA in FY 2008.

“Roswell’s Flight Research Training Center provided essential training to pilots in how to respond to situations where control of the aircraft is lost. This funding is an important investment in this program,” Bingaman said.

Bingaman said he is also very pleased that the bill sets aside significant funding for science, as outlined in the America Competes law he helped write. That law emphasizes the need to ramp up math and science education funding, and funding for scientific research. The FY 2009 CJS appropriations bill includes $6.9 billion for the National Science Foundation – which contains $790 million for math and science education and training programs -- and $809 million for the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Currently, the spending bill also contains the following Bingaman requests:

• $300,000 - New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department (CYFD), Pilot Juvenile Crime Prevention Program: Funding would be used for CYFD to implement a pilot program aimed at preventing juvenile crime through a collaborative effort of courts, probation offices, schools, local governments, support groups, and community volunteers. The program would be targeted at at-risk youth who are suspended, expelled, or who dropout and are subsequently arrested.

• $400,000 - New Mexico Administrative Office of the Courts, Drug Court Program: As part of a 5-year plan to place a drug court in every county, the state has established 35 drug courts in 24 of New Mexico’s 33 counties. Drug courts have been incredibility effective in New Mexico—the average drug court recidivism rate is 13.4 percent, compared with 27.5 percent nationwide. Funding will be used to continue and expand drug courts throughout New Mexico.

• $500,000 for Save the Children: Save the Children will use the funding to support after-school and summer literacy programs throughout rural New Mexico. This supplemental literacy approach helps many at-risk Native American and Hispanic children catch up, keep up, and excel in school. This program provides children with safe, educational after-school activities during the critical 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. window, when many parents are still working and juvenile crime rates triple.

The bill will now be sent to the Senate floor for consideration. It will be several months before it is signed into law.