‘Do Nothing Put Waste Time’: Tammy Baldwin Chides House's ‘Partisan’ Labor & HHS Bills

last month

During a Senate Appropriations Committee markup on Thursday, Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) spoke about the Fiscal Year 2025 Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act.

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Transcript

00:00Thank you, Chair Murray and Vice Chair Collins

00:04for your leadership in ushering bipartisan appropriations bills

00:08through the committee again this year.

00:10And I also want to thank Senator Capito for your approach

00:16and collaboration in developing this bill before us.

00:19The labor HHS bill includes a modest increase over last year

00:24that allows us to address bipartisan priorities

00:28and pressing needs facing families

00:30and the communities across our country.

00:33Our bill addresses kitchen table issues

00:35I hear about every day from Wisconsinites.

00:38It increases investments in child care for working families,

00:42research to discover life-saving cures for deadly diseases,

00:47prevention and treatment efforts to curb the fentanyl

00:50and substance use epidemic, mental health care,

00:54helping people get the skills and tools

00:56that they need to land family-supporting jobs

01:01and support for students and educators among others.

01:06These are bipartisan priorities

01:08that this committee has consistently supported.

01:11These investments help address the issues

01:15that all of our constituents are grappling with.

01:18Everywhere I travel in my state,

01:21I hear constant concerns about the high cost of

01:25and lack of access to child care.

01:28We can and must do more for families, businesses,

01:32and child care providers.

01:34Our bill includes a combined $2.3 billion increase

01:39for early learning programs,

01:40including a $1.6 billion increase for the Child Care

01:44and Development Block Grant

01:46and a $700 million increase for Head Start.

01:51When parents cannot find quality, affordable child care,

01:55it hurts families, businesses, and our economy.

01:59It deprives kids of consistent early learning opportunities.

02:05It means parents have to miss work

02:07or drop out of the labor force altogether.

02:10It means businesses can't find the skilled workforce they need.

02:15More needs to be done to fix our broken child care system,

02:18but this bill will help states ensure more working families

02:23have access to quality child care,

02:25including by supporting providers

02:27operating on razor-thin margins,

02:30particularly those in rural and underserved areas.

02:34Our bill also includes an increase

02:36of more than $2 billion for NIH to support life-saving research.

02:42Every American is affected by disease in their lifetimes,

02:46either themselves, personally, or a loved one.

02:50This bipartisan bill bolsters research

02:53to deliver the treatments and cures to help them.

02:56It includes $958 million to fully restore funding

03:01for the Cancer Moonshot, the BRAIN Initiative,

03:05and All of Us research programs.

03:08This will support research with the goal of cutting

03:11the cancer death rate by at least 50 percent

03:15over the next 25 years,

03:17accelerating our understanding of the human brain

03:20and the development of neurotechnologies

03:23to help treat diseases of the brain,

03:26and advancing precision medicine.

03:29It includes $275 million increase

03:33for mental health research,

03:35a $275 million increase for Alzheimer's disease research,

03:40a $266 million increase for cancer research,

03:45and a $130 million increase for the National Institute

03:49of Allergy and Infectious Diseases,

03:52and a $76 million increase

03:55for the Office of Research on Women's Health,

03:59a $20 million increase for research on maternal mortality,

04:03and a $10 million increase for opioid research.

04:08While our country continues to grapple with deadly poisonings

04:12and overdoses from fentanyl,

04:14we boosted our investment in programs

04:17that are helping our communities save lives.

04:20The bill includes a $215 million increase for substance use

04:25and mental health service programs

04:27that provide critical support for those struggling

04:30with substance use disorders and mental health challenges.

04:35In the first two years of operation,

04:37the 988 Suicide Prevention Lifeline

04:41has answered 10 million calls, chats, and texts.

04:45As the co-author of the bill to establish 988,

04:50that is both encouraging as well as a distressing sign

04:54of the number of individuals,

04:56especially youth, seeking crisis care.

04:59The bill includes an increase of $20 million for 988

05:04to ensure someone is on the other end of that call,

05:07and additional funding

05:08to increase our behavioral health workforce

05:11and expand access to mental health care,

05:14including a $10 million increase

05:17for the mental health crisis response grants.

05:20I'm also proud that our bill invests

05:22in our students and workers.

05:25With an ever-changing economy, getting the skills and tools

05:28to meet the job market looks different as well.

05:32Our bill includes targeted increases to career

05:35and technical education and apprenticeships

05:39that provide pathways to good-paying jobs and careers.

05:43Our legislation also invests in foundational elementary

05:47and secondary education programs,

05:49such as the Title I-A and IDEA formula grants,

05:55and boosts the maximum Pell Grant Award

05:58to help support students in post-secondary education.

06:02Given the breadth of issues important to both Democrats

06:06and Republicans that are covered in this bill,

06:09I could really go on and on.

06:11It strengthens our pandemic preparedness

06:14and biodefense programs,

06:16including helping ensure critical elements

06:18in our public health supply chain are made in America.

06:23It allows for more frequent nursing home inspections

06:26and will mean that Social Security can provide better

06:30service for the tens of millions of Americans that rely on it

06:34and have earned their benefits.

06:37I am proud of the investments

06:38that we are able to make in this bill.

06:41These investments will make the lives of our constituents better

06:45so that they can live healthy, fulfilling lives.

06:49But to be clear, I'm disappointed

06:51that we weren't able to do more.

06:53Women's health and reproductive rights

06:55are under attack in this country.

06:57Women are being denied the right to control their bodies,

07:00families, and future,

07:02while putting their health and well-being at risk.

07:07This will not be fixed in an appropriations bill,

07:10but we should do more, including increasing funding

07:13for family planning and other critical programs.

07:17This bill is very much a compromise

07:19that was developed in a fully bipartisan manner.

07:22It is in stark contrast to the House Labor

07:27HHS bill.

07:28The partisan approach of the House

07:31leads to constant threats of government shutdown

07:34that do nothing but waste time and resources.

07:37That's a disservice to Wisconsinites

07:40and communities across the country

07:42that rely on services funded in this bill.

07:46This is a bill that we can —

07:49this is a bill that can and should be passed by the Senate,

07:53passed by the House, and signed by the President.

07:57Finally, I want to thank the staff

08:00who helped put this bill together.

08:02Even before pencils went down on fiscal year 2024

08:06appropriations in March,

08:08these staff members were already hard at work on this bill.

08:12That includes my staff on the majority,

08:15Amanda Beaumont, Erin Dugan, Janie Delaney,

08:20Mike Gentile, Mark Leisch, Claire Montero,

08:25Megan Mott, Catherine Tumajan,

08:28and Senator Capito's staff on the minority,

08:31Ashley Palmer, Tom Pfeiffer,

08:34Lindsey Seidman, and Emily Slack.

08:37I also want to thank all of the other staff on the committee

08:41and at GPO and CBO

08:44who really worked around the clock to get us to this point.

08:48This is a good bill,

08:50and I'm proud to have my colleagues' support for it.

‘Do Nothing Put Waste Time’: Tammy Baldwin Chides House's ‘Partisan’ Labor & HHS Bills

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