At last night's House Rules Committee hearing, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) slammed the CR.
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NewsTranscript
00:00I now recognize Ranking Member of the Appropriations Committee, Representative DeLauro, you are
00:04now recognized for your time.
00:06Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and I recognize Chairwoman Fox as well and Ranking Member
00:11McGovern, members of the committee.
00:13I'm opposed to this one-year continuing resolution.
00:16This is not a clean CR.
00:19This bill is a blank check, a blank check for Elon Musk and President Trump.
00:24And as the White House has said, it creates more flexibility for this administration to
00:29steal from the middle class, from seniors, veterans, working people, small businesses,
00:34and farmers to pay for tax breaks for billionaires.
00:38Since January 20th, this administration has been undermining Article I of our Constitution
00:44and countless spending laws by stealing promised investments from American families, from children
00:51and businesses, unlawfully dissolving and dismantling agencies, and arbitrarily firing
00:57civil servants and canceling union contracts.
01:01I know our colleagues across the aisle have gone home to their districts and witnessed
01:05the rage from their constituents at these actions.
01:09They've been advised by their political consultants not to do town halls, to stop listening to
01:15their constituents.
01:17But really, as President Truman said, if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.
01:23And they're getting out of the kitchen.
01:25And maybe you should be getting out of being in charge.
01:28Now what should we do?
01:29The answer should not be a four-year continuing resolution that cuts non-defense investments
01:35by $15 billion and defense by $3 billion, compared to the Fiscal Responsibility Act
01:42agreement for 2025, which was reaffirmed by Leader Schumer and Speaker Johnson.
01:50A full-year CR transfers more power to the executive branch to shut off and repurpose
01:56funding as they see fit, the will of the Congress and people ignored.
02:01We are watching Elon Musk and President Trump meddle in Congress's jurisdiction already.
02:07With this full-year CR, the guardrails are off.
02:10It fails to lower costs for the American people, hurts the middle class.
02:14Elon Musk and President Trump would be able to fire thousands of employees at the Social
02:19Security Administration, resulting in office closures, longer wait times, unacceptable
02:25backlogs for Americans who are trying to access their earned benefits.
02:29Army Corps of Engineers construction projects would be cut by $1.4 billion, 44 percent.
02:37And President Trump, not Congress, would determine all project funding levels.
02:43And who gets the funding?
02:45Instead of helping our communities address housing costs, the bill cuts rent subsidies
02:49by more than $700 million, leaving landlords to foot the bill or evict more than 32,000
02:55households.
02:56High among the severe shortcomings of this bill are the broken promises to veterans.
03:01House Republicans wisely proposed $23 billion in advance funding for the Toxic Exposures
03:08Fund to care for veterans exposed to burn pits, Agent Orange, and other toxic substances
03:14in their own bill last summer.
03:17We do this with advance funding because we do not want to subject veterans' health care
03:23to shutdown threats or to political whims.
03:26That $23 billion in advance funding for toxic exposures has disappeared.
03:33This bill is also bad for our military.
03:35There is a reason the Department of Defense has never operated for an entire fiscal year
03:39under a CR.
03:41Trying that experiment now amidst the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the rising influence
03:46of China, would undermine the U.S.'s military effectiveness and readiness.
03:51The decisions about the investments we make cannot be entrusted in or controlled by one
03:56single officeholder.
03:59Government spending decisions must be the result of broad compromise among the people's
04:06representatives.
04:07That has been the historical past of the Appropriations Committee and its work.
04:14And that's for good reason.
04:16Our positions in this body are temporary.
04:19We are but stewards of our system of government.
04:22And that stewardship requires preserving the separation of powers and co-equal branches
04:29of government as designed by the framers of the Constitution.
04:35Defined by the Supreme Court, where Antonin Scalia opined on this, the President does
04:40not have inherent authority over the amount of money that is appropriated by the Congress.
04:47All we need to do here is to follow the law and make sure that the executive is not tampering
04:54with the decisions made by the Congress.
04:57I work to uphold and defend our power of the purse, even when that meant going against
05:01a Democratic president.
05:02I implore my colleagues to join me.
05:05Stand up for our constituents against an unelected billionaire, Elon Musk, who was stealing taxpayers'
05:12dollars from American families, from our children, and from businesses.
05:17We cannot forfeit our authorities over government funding, as laid out in the Constitution.
05:22To an unelected, unchecked billionaire, the consequences felt by all our constituents
05:28are too severe.
05:29We cannot allow government of the people, by the people, for the people, to become the
05:33government of billionaires, by billionaires, and for billionaires.
05:40The first step in doing so is to oppose this bill so that we can pass a short-term bill
05:46to give Chairman Kohl and I time to finish regular bills.
05:51We were very close, and still are very close, to getting this done, where we would have
05:57year-long bills in the regular order.
06:00I think that we can all agree that that would be an improvement over a continuing resolution.
06:07I thank you, and I yield back.
06:10The gentlelady yields back and now recognizes Ms. Fischbach for her time for questions.
06:15Thank you, Mr. Chair.
06:16First, I'd like to thank Mr. Kohl and Ms. DeLauro for being here, and I appreciate you
06:21putting together, Mr. Kohl.