WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins announced that more than $3.3 million has been appropriated for Maine programs in the 2007 Department of Labor and Health and Human Services, and Education spending bill.

Funding approved by the appropriations committee for area programs are as follows:

. $140,000, University of Maine, Sports Done Right: A Call to Action. The University of Maine Sports Done Right initiative is a statewide and emerging national model for defining, shaping, and maintaining healthy interscholastic and youth sports programs.

. $100,000, First Book’s Maine Rural Outreach Initiative. First Book’s Maine Rural Outreach Initiative gives children from low-income families the opportunity to read and own their first new books.

. $115,000, Challenger Learning Center of Maine, Helping Troubled Schools Project. The Challenger Learning Center proposes to support 81 Maine K-8 schools that failed to make “adequate yearly progress” as required by the No Child Left Behind Act. Twenty-four did not meet minimum standards in math or reading for several consecutive years.

. $100,000, Maine Alliance for Arts Education, Complete Education for Rural Students. Complete Education for Rural Students will provide access to high-quality arts education for students in rural and impoverished areas of Maine.