Rosa DeLauro

Ms. DeLAURO

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Chair I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Minnesota (Ms. Craig), the distinguished ranking member of the Agriculture Committee.

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Chair, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Hawaii (Ms. Tokuda).

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Chair, I am prepared to close, and I yield myself the balance of my time. Mr. Chair, I am proud, really, to support this funding package because I think it reasserts Congress' power of the purse. I think the process of the Appropriations Committee over the last several weeks has indicated that power of the purse resides in the Congress, and the appropriations process is the implementation of that power of the purse. I commend the chair of the committee. It has been an honor to work with him on reinstating the fact that the Constitution says that that power of the purse resides in the Congress and that, again, we are the implementers of that power. It rejects the Trump administration's attempts to eviscerate public services. It establishes guardrails to prevent executive overreach, and it protects important priorities that make our communities safer, healthier, and more prosperous. As the affordability crisis continues to strain family budgets, this package provides $8.8 billion for childcare and development for that block grant, an $85 million increase. Despite efforts by the Trump administration to defund and dismantle health research, this bill boosts funding for the Office of Research on Women's Health by $30 million, a roughly 40 percent increase. While the cost of housing climbs and rent prices reach untenable heights, this bill invests more than $66 billion in rental assistance programs, a forceful rejection of efforts by the Trump administration to slash this funding by 50 percent. As we work to provide stable and affordable housing for all those who need it, this bill increases funding for homeless assistance grants by $366 million and protects important housing programs like the Continuum of Care program from being unilaterally dismantled by this administration. This bill increases funding for medical research programs at the Department of Defense, including $1.3 billion for Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs. These are research initiatives that help develop effective treatments for service-related injuries or conditions, as well as diseases like cancer, Alzheimer's, and Parkinson's. There are $1.2 trillion in Federal spending accounted for in these bills, and through lengthy, diligent, and worthwhile negotiations, Democrats and Republicans forged an agreement that both sides can proudly stand behind. In an era of polarization, this is no mean feat. I am proud of my colleagues for their work on both sides of the aisle to craft this agreement. These are good bills, and I encourage all of my colleagues to support them. I yield back the balance of my time, Mr. Chair.

Ms. DeLAURO

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Chair, I claim the time in opposition to the amendment.

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Chair, I yield myself 2\1/2\ minutes. Mr. Chair, before I get into the specifics of this amendment, I will start with, hopefully, common ground. In this Chamber, we can all agree that Members know their districts best. I asked a question. Isn't that right? Isn't that what we always assert, that we know our districts best? Further, we often hear, mostly from the other side of the aisle, about how unelected bureaucrats in Washington, D.C., are making too many decisions about Federal spending. I don't subscribe to that view because true career civil servants work hard to ensure that programs are executed according to the law, but if my friends on the other side of the aisle want Congress to make more granular decisions about spending, then that is exactly what is happening through the community projects funding process, which we have established. This is not top down. It is bottom up, and it has been enormously successful since it has been implemented in the last several years for both sides of the aisle for communities all over this Nation. It is not wasteful, porkbarrel spending, and my friends don't get to have it both ways. Instead, it is a thoughtful process of House Members and Senators talking to their communities about their needs, balancing those priorities, advocating for inclusion in these bills, and delivering for their constituents in a clear, transparent way. These community projects have been posted online since last fall and no opposition has been raised. Yet at the eleventh hour, it seems that some Republicans, once again, are attempting to unravel a compromise by slashing funding for healthcare services and education programs for children and for the needy. Let me give you some examples. The amendment would eliminate funding to Seattle Children's Hospital for a behavioral health crisis stabilization unit. The underlying funding would enable Seattle Children's Hospital to create a dedicated space for children needing immediate, short-term psychiatric care.

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chair, the amendment would also eliminate funding to the Ann & Robert Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago for a violence recovery and intervention program. The underlying funding would serve pediatric victims of violence with trauma-informed mental health and recovery services. Should we not be doing that? Should that not happen for that community? The amendment would eliminate funding to Rady Children's Hospital in San Diego for pediatric mental health services. We have a mental health crisis in this Nation. It is particularly poignant for children. It is not under the radar any longer. It is out front. The underlying funding is intended to support mental health clinicians in pediatric primary care to improve care for pediatric patients. This amendment would eliminate funding for the Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems for maternal delivery and new infant projects to replace and modernize equipment across hospitals with labor and delivery units. This amendment would eliminate funding for Dartmouth Health to construct a perinatal substance stabilization unit. Let me repeat: Seattle Children's Hospital, the Ann & Robert Lurie Children's Hospital, Rady's Children's Hospital, maternity delivery units, and a perinatal substance use stabilization unit are all at risk. I will be clear that this amendment is not limited to children's hospitals. It would eliminate funding to hospitals and healthcare services that serve young adults and adults, as well. It will eliminate funding to the Denver Health and Hospital Authority for infrastructure to allow the hospital to continue to function as a medical safety net for the Denver community. It will eliminate funding to Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia to purchase modern, diagnostic X-ray technology equipment to strengthen outpatient care. The list goes on and on and on. It would also eliminate funding for K-12 education programs, higher education programs, and job training programs. Mr. Chair, I urge a ``no'' vote on this amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Chair, community projects have been successful. It is Senators and Members of the House talking to their communities about their needs, balancing priorities, advocating for the inclusion of these bills, and delivering for their constituents in a clear and in a transparent way. That is what we ought to be doing, is delivering for our constituents about the needs that they identify for all of us. I urge a ``no'' vote on this amendment. Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Chair, I demand a recorded vote.

Ms. DeLAURO

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 4 minutes. Mr. Speaker, I begin by thanking Ranking Member Cuellar for his work on this bill. He is a tough negotiator, and this bill is better for his efforts. I also thank the committee staff. In particular, Shannon McCully, Jamie Wise, and Jim Ellsworth. They spent many long hours and a lot of sleepless nights fighting to make this bill as good as it could be. The Homeland Security funding bill before us today has gotten a lot of attention over the past few days, and rightfully so. It deals with funding ICE, an agency that has shown itself to be lawless, vindictive, aggressive, cruel, and, thus far, unaccountable both to Congress and the American people. That is not all that the Homeland Security bill deals with, however. Before I return to the topic of ICE and its funding, I will share some of what else is contained in this bill. This bill rejects President Trump and Secretary Noem's attempts to eliminate FEMA, increasing funding for the agency by over $870 million, in addition to providing more than $26 billion for the Disaster Relief Fund. It increases funding for TSA by $149 million and provides a pay raise for air traffic controllers and uniformed members of the United States Coast Guard. This is important funding, and I am glad that these provisions which we fought for were included in the bill. The final product, though far from perfect, is better because of it. Despite these inclusions and others, it is impossible to ignore the impact that ICE's conduct had on completing this bill. ICE has operated with brutality, terrorizing our constituents, abducting our neighbors, and violently assaulting lawful residents who have done nothing but had the misfortune of crossing ICE's path on their way home from work. Unfortunately, this month, we saw how this unchecked lawlessness can have fatal consequences with the killing of Renee Nicole Good. This is a rogue agency. Substantial constraints must be placed on it. During negotiations, we proposed such constraints, but our Republican colleagues refused to include almost all of them. We sought to prevent any funds from being used to detain or deport U.S. citizens, a commonsense measure. They refused to commit to that. We proposed prohibiting interior enforcement by non-ICE personnel, like the Border Patrol. That was rejected, as well. We put forward a provision to ensure that Members of Congress can continue to conduct our lawful oversight of all ICE facilities, uninhibited. That, too, was deemed unacceptable. Democrats did win some battles in this bill, however. Under this bill, we reduce ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations budget by $115 million. We reduce their detention capacity, providing funding that could only be used for body-worn cameras. We increase funding for the Office of Inspector General, specifically for oversight of ICE detention facilities. These are good provisions. I am glad they are in this bill, but it is clear that more must be done. ICE believes it can act with impunity, and it is behaving accordingly. I trust that my colleagues have taken the time to review what is contained in this bill and have determined for themselves what is best for their constituents and communities. I have made my own determination, and that determination leads me to a ``no'' vote on this bill. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Cuellar), the distinguished ranking member of the Homeland Security Subcommittee.

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Massachusetts (Ms. Clark), the distinguished Democratic whip.

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Minnesota (Ms. McCollum), the distinguished ranking member of the Defense Subcommittee.

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 30 seconds to the gentlewoman from Minnesota.

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Lois Frankel), the distinguished ranking member of the National Security, Department of State, and Related Programs Subcommittee.

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Escobar), who is a member of the Appropriations Committee.

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Takano), who is the distinguished ranking member of the Veterans' Affairs Committee.

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Nadler).

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Rhode Island (Mr. Magaziner).

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, as I said in my opening, this is a bill that has gotten so much attention over the past few days, and I think that that is the reality of where we are. I have watched this bill over the years, and it has always been a struggle to deal with the Homeland Security bill. I thought that we were really on track to be able, this time around, to make some significant progress in the Homeland Security bill, and we were on track to do that. However, then we watched unfold an unspeakable tragedy in Minnesota: the unspeakable loss of a young woman who was killed. We have heard from my colleagues from Minnesota not just about the killing of Renee Nicole Good, but of the other unspeakable transgressions by an agency that has made a determination that they are not accountable to anyone, to no law, no rule of law, and even no higher calling of understanding how you treat human beings. They have run roughshod over United States citizens. No one here believes that criminals in this Nation shouldn't be deported or that they shouldn't face the legal system that we have because the strength of the United States is that we are a nation of laws; that we abide by the rule of law. This agency is defying this at every step of the way, every day, with the sanctioning of the President of the United States saying that we are going to work to increase the pain, that we are going to detain and potentially deport United States citizens. We asked for some simple reforms: Don't deport United States citizens. Require the training and hiring of personnel that are competent and capable for this job. Do you know that training has gone from 5 to 8 months to 6 to 8 weeks? The sensitivity around this issue has been broken, and the trust of the American people and the people of Minnesota has been broken. Children are frightened. Families are frightened. There is no need for that in this country. We need to have the rule of law reinstated. We can't have masked, armed people on the street pulling over anyone that they choose to based on the color of their skin or how they look. I said this in the Rules Committee when I testified. I actually have two grandsons who are adopted. I have one from Guatemala. Yes, he is brown-skinned, but he is a citizen. He lives in Los Angeles. I find myself telling him, ``Make sure you carry your passport,'' because it scares me that, because of his brown skin, he can be pulled aside, detained, and deported. He is a United States citizen. My other grandson's parentage is Uzbekistan, but he is a United States citizen. He is a youngster, and he could be snatched up and separated from us. This is the United States of America. We have watched and focused on Iran. We watched the SAVAK in Iran take people off the street, detain them, kill them, and never heard from them again. We are not going down that road. We cannot go down that road. The Congress cannot take us down that road. I was hopeful, as the ranking member of the Appropriations Committee--and my colleague and the chair knows this--to get what we need to get done, and we were on the road. We were on a good track, but we have to face the circumstances. We have to deal with the environment. We have to deal with what has happened in this country. We cannot turn a blind eye. We cannot say let's overlook it because if we overlook it, it will not get better. It is our responsibility now to make it better so that we can turn this around and make this agency work. I am not for abolishing ICE. There will be a lot of people who are going to be unhappy with my saying that, but so be it. We need to reform it. We need to turn it around. We need to make it work on behalf of the American people, not make it the fear that a KGB, a SAVAK, or other agencies have had in other countries that we oppose. We can't go down the road of making that who we are. It is our responsibility. It is our responsibility. I have said to my colleagues over and over again: Make the decision based on where your heart is and what you believe in. This is a moment and a vote that says you have to determine what you believe is the right thing to do, and that is the basis on which to do it. I have made that decision, and the right thing for me to do is to vote ``no'' on this bill. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Ms. DeLAURO

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 5 minutes. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of this package today, which includes the Financial Services-General Government and the National Security- Department of State-Related Programs appropriations bills. I begin by offering my gratitude to everyone who put in the long hours and late nights to craft this package: Ranking Member Steny Hoyer of Financial Services and Lois Frankel on National Security-Department of State, who led these negotiations and secured important provisions which we could all be proud of. I thank the Appropriations Committee staff in particular: Matt Smith, Erin Kolodjeski, Philip Tizzani, Ed Etzkorn, and Laurie Mignone, who worked tirelessly to produce this legislation. I thank our counterparts in the majority, led by my friend, Chairman Cole, and the subcommittee chairs, David Joyce and Mario Diaz-Balart. These two bills are a continuation of our efforts to reassert Congress' power of the purse, reject $163 billion in cuts proposed by the Trump administration, constrain the White House's abuse of the budget process, and protect Democratic priorities at home and abroad. This bill supports the small businesses and entrepreneurs that fuel the American economy by providing more than $1 billion for the Small Business Administration and increasing funding for entrepreneurial development programs by $13 million. Small businesses employ nearly half of the American workforce. At a time when so many families are feeling the weight of the affordability crisis and job prospects feel far and few between, we must do everything in our power to increase economic opportunities in the communities that need it most. In support of this goal, this bill also provides $324 million for community development financial institutions, rejecting efforts by the Trump administration to fully eliminate large portions of this program. As we look ahead to an election year, this bill increases funding for election security grants by $30 million, providing States and localities with the resources that they need to shore up our election infrastructure and defend our democracy against any form of interference that could deny us the most basic right. In addition to our right to vote, this bill protects our right to counsel codified in the Sixth Amendment by increasing funding for Federal public defenders by $315 million. This helps to ensure due process is not just a privilege reserved for the wealthy few, but a protection guaranteed to all of us, regardless of status. This package not only supports democracy at home but advances it abroad. It protects funding to fully meet our treaty obligations, affirming American leadership at the U.N. and other international organizations. It supports women around the globe, protecting funding for bilateral family planning and the U.N. Population Fund, and it facilitates American cooperation with international environmental initiatives by blocking policy riders that would have prevented our participation. In fact, there is not a single poison pill policy rider in these bills. Both we and our Republican colleagues agreed to leave these partisan provisions out of this package and pursue a reasonable compromise. I am glad that we could reach this agreement and move forward with a package that isn't perfect, but it is one that we can all support. While there are certainly some things that I would change about these measures, they are both vastly superior to yet another continuing resolution or a lapse in funding, either of which would afford the Trump administration greater leeway to abuse the budget process, which they have shown an eagerness to do from the moment they took office. Mr. Chairman, I am proud of the work that was done in a bipartisan fashion to produce this funding package. I look forward to voting for it, and I encourage my colleagues to vote for it. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Chair, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), the distinguished ranking member of the Committee on Financial Services.

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Chair, I yield an additional 1 minute to the gentleman from Maryland.

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Chair, I yield 6 minutes to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Lois Frankel), the distinguished ranking member of the National Security, Department of State, and Related Programs Subcommittee.

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Meng), who is the distinguished ranking member of the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Subcommittee.

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Chair, I yield an additional 30 seconds to the gentlewoman from New York.