More than $1.2 million in funding for Valley projects including the bilingual nursing program in the Maricopa Community Colleges was approved today by the U.S. House Appropriations Committee, announced U.S. Rep. Ed Pastor, D-Ariz. Pastor represents the Fourth Congressional District of Arizona.

The projects were included in the Fiscal Year 2008  Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Appropriations bill. The bill will now be sent to the full House of Representatives for its approval.

"All of these programs benefit our overall quality of life," Pastor said. Pastor, who was instrumental in securing funding for these projects, is a member of the House Appropriations Committee.

The projects include:

• $300,000 to continue funding the Bilingual Nursing Program at Gateway Community College. This program helps address the critical shortage of  bilingual nurses in the Valley.
• $500,000 for laboratory equipment at the Translational Genomics Research Institute in Phoenix.
• $250,000 for the Phoenix Children's Hospital electronic medical record system.
• $100,000 for the "virtual" Heard Museum project, which would allow its collection to be viewed online, and
• $75,000 for the Arizona Eye Care Collaborative, which works towards the prevention of glaucoma and other eye diseases.