Pallone: Congress Approves $500,000 for Community Health Center of Asbury Park

Washington, D.C. --- The U.S. House of Representatives approved a giant funding bill for Fiscal Year (FY) 2005 that includes $500,000 for the construction of the Community Health Center of Asbury Park (CHCAP). U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) requested the funds earlier this year in a letter to the members of the House Appropriations Labor, Health and Human Services Subcommittee. The U.S. Senate is expected to pass the same bill later today.

Pallone says the $500,000 will be used in the construction of a new 8,000 square foot CHCAP facility that will include examination rooms, lab areas, consultation offices, and administrative and clerical space. Asbury Park ranks first in Monmouth County for social and health risk indicators and the CHCAP is the only comprehensive primary care center in the area with 24 hour access seven days a week.

"This funding will enable the Community Health Center of Asbury Park to build a new facility and enhance the primary and preventive health care services that it provides to the area's most vulnerable children and adults," Pallone said. "The new center will dramatically reduce the use of over-burdened hospital emergency rooms and better serve the area's residents."

The funds were included in a giant $388 billion spending bill that combines nine appropriations bills into one omnibus bill funding domestic programs and foreign operations for FY 2005, which officially began on October 1, 2004. The legislation now awaits the president's signature.