Washington, D.C. --- The U.S. Senate yesterday approved a giant Fiscal Year (FY) 2004 omnibus bill that included $175,000 U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) requested for the expansion of the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital’s Bristol-Myers Squibb Children’s Hospital (BMSCH) in New Brunswick. The New Jersey congressman requested the funds last year when the appropriations process began.

The BMSCH is New Jersey’s only free standing, state-designated, acute care children’s hospital. The hospital is a 70-bed, 147,000 square foot state-of-the-art facility, which serves the healthcare needs of children in New Jersey and surrounding states and is uniquely qualified to handle the most life-threatening illnesses or injuries. Pallone said the hospital serves as the flagship pediatric hospital for an array of children’s services that are unique for New Jersey and that allow children to receive advanced care and therapies in state. Previously, New Jersey’s families had to travel to New York City or Philadelphia to receive these services.

"As the healthcare needs of New Jersey’s children continue to grow, it’s critical that the state’s only children’s hospital expand to address those needs," Pallone said. "The funds approved in the Senate today are a down payment and a commitment from the federal government that this expansion will occur."

The funds were included in the $328.1 billion spending bill that combined seven appropriations bills into one omnibus bill funding domestic programs and foreign operations for FY 2004, which officially began on October 1, 2003. The Senate’s action yesterday came one month after the U.S. House of Representatives approved the same spending bill. The bill now awaits the president’ s signature.