WASHINGTON (WMBD) — U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) announced Thursday that the U.S. Senate passed three funding bills in Washington.

The bills passed are a “minibus” or package for Agriculture, Rural Development, and Related Agencies; Military Construction and Veterans Affairs; and Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development for Fiscal Year 2024.

Durbin and Duckworth said they were happy the Senate was able to come together to get the bills passed. They worked together to secure what they agreed were various priorities for Illinois in the bills.

The funding bills will be going toward to following Central Illinois agencies:

Agriculture, Rural Development and Related Agencies:

  • Capital Improvements, Peoria: $1.269 million to the National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research, a federal lab that has been responsible for countless agriculture, food safety, environmental, and health care discoveries since its inception, for necessary modernizations to the federal buildings that house laboratories of the Agricultural Research Service.
  • Capital Improvements, Urbana: $1.22 million to the Agricultural Research Service for necessary repairs and modernizations to their facilities in Urbana, Illinois.

Military Construction and Veterans Affairs:

  • National Guard Vehicle Maintenance Shop, Bloomington: $5.25 million to complete construction of a vehicle maintenance shop to support operations for the Illinois Army National Guard in Bloomington.
  • Peoria Readiness Center, Peoria: $2.4 million for planning and design for a new readiness center facility for the Illinois Army Guard in Peoria.

Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development, and Related Agencies:

  • Bus Safety Improvements, McLean County: $800,000 to Connect Transit to install collision avoidance technologies on its buses that will increase pedestrian and cyclist safety.
  • Stepping Stones Expansion, Bloomington: $850,000 to YMCA McLean County for capital improvements, including the renovation and the necessary expansion of its space for the Stepping Stones program, McLean County’s sexual assault crisis center.
  • Community Center, Galesburg: $1 million to the City of Galesburg to renovate a former school into a new community center for Galesburg residents. The community lost its last remaining community center to a fire in 2016.
  • EV Bus Procurement, Champaign County: $2 million to the Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District to purchase three new hybrid electric buses to replace existing diesel buses.
  • Lincoln Library Youth Services Renovation, Springfield: $1 million to the City of Springfield to renovate the Youth Services space at the Lincoln Library’s downtown location.
  • Microtransit Pilot, Decatur: $2.5 million to the City of Decatur to implement a Microtransit pilot program, using EVs to provide cost-efficient transit services to disadvantaged residents and fill geographical and schedule gaps in current transit service.
  • Airport improvements, Springfield: $1,800,000 Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport for the extension of the terminal aircraft-parking ramp, allowing for additional aircraft parking areas while providing safe distances from taxiing aircraft on adjacent pavements.