Ranking Member DeLauro Opening Remarks at the Fiscal Year 2027 Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriations Full Committee Markup

WASHINGTON – House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03) delivered the following remarks during the full committee markup of the fiscal year 2027 Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies funding bill:

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and Chairman Rogers and Ranking Member Meng. Thanks so much, thanks for your work.

Let me also say a thank you to the committee staff, to Bob Bonner, Nora Faye, Jamie Wise, and Faye Cobb on the minority side, and their counterparts on the majority, Rob Yavor, Liz Porter, Chris Eckhardt, Nick Mitchell, and Mye Miller thank you for your hard work.

I oppose the bill we are considering today. It fails to meet the moment that Americans are facing. While American families struggle to afford basic goods and services, this bill weakens our economy and cuts off support for the middle class, the working class, and the vulnerable. 

While gun violence continues to terrorize our communities, this bill makes it harder to get illegal guns off the streets and hold those criminals accountable.

And while other countries increase their investments in scientific innovation and the technology of the future, this bill pares back our commitments to develop, educate, and employ the next generation of American leaders through severe cuts to STEM education and science programs.

This bill doubles down on the failed trade policies of the Trump administration. Since he took office, the President has imposed, withdrawn, reimposed, and then been forced to remove by the Supreme Court, a series of haphazard, harmful, and extremely costly tariffs.

Throughout 2025, these tariffs cost American families upwards of $1,700 in higher prices.

These tariffs were imposed on American businesses for the sake of boosting domestic manufacturing in America. But from February of last year through February of this year, the U.S. lost over 88,000 manufacturing jobs. That’s more than 100 manufacturing jobs per day – a fact, I might add, that Secretary Lutnick was unaware of when I asked him about it during his testimony last month.

The Trump economy is hurting the working class. And this bill before us today does nothing to change the track of this country, the track it is on. In fact, it would make our problems worse.

By cutting $144 million in funding from Economic Development Administration programs, this bill reduces investments that create jobs and revitalize distressed local communities – rural communities in particular. From 2018 to 2024, the EDA created or retained more than 727,000 jobs and spurred more than $80 billion in private investment. We should be increasing our investment in programs like this, not scaling back support when the American people need it most.

This bill cuts $142 million in funding from the International Trade Administration, which fights unfair trade practices in other countries and supports American businesses trying to expand their exports. Unfair trade practices were another reason given for Trump’s tariffs. Yet the Republican proposal is to take resources away from a crucial agency that combats these same tactics. 

There were over 44,000 gun deaths in 2024. Seventy-six percent of all homicides in this country involve a firearm. This bill impedes efforts by nonpartisan, nonprofit groups that work to help keep communities safe from gun violence. Groups like the Ethan Miller Song Foundation and Newtown Action Alliance in Connecticut. They conduct important work to get guns off the streets; they partner with local law enforcement to organize voluntary buybacks. This includes the work of my constituent, Kristin Song, who organized the Guilford gun buyback program in 2018 after she and her husband Mike lost their son, Ethan, to an unsecured firearm. 

This bill also defunds the ATF, significantly weakening our ability to track illegal arms dealers, run down gun smugglers, and catch dangerous criminals who put American lives at risk.

This bill proposes a more than $280 million cut to ATF’s budget, which would force the agency to reduce their workforce by more than one thousand positions. These officers work around the clock to keep us safe, but the Republican proposal is to put them out of a job. 

This bill undermines public safety by slashing critical Justice Department grant funding, including a $50 million cut to Juvenile Justice programs. It completely eliminates support for Community Violence Intervention and Prevention, Hate Crime Prevention, Law Enforcement De-escalation Training, and Police-Community Relations grants. These are proven tools that local law enforcement agencies rely on to prevent violence, build trust, and keep our communities safe.

The bill also decimates the Legal Services Corporation, cutting its funding by more than half. The LSC’s work helps veterans, seniors who are victims of financial exploitation, people with disabilities, renters who are facing eviction or living in unsafe housing conditions, and victims of domestic violence.

Earlier this month my Republican colleagues, alongside Democrats and the American people, celebrated the remarkable success of the Artemis mission. This was a groundbreaking achievement—the furthest manned space flight from Earth in human history. Chairman Rogers called it, and I quote, “a testament to remarkable innovation and public-private partnerships.” Chairman Cole correctly noted that this mission, and I quote, “starts with vision but is delivered by deliberate, sustained funding.” 

I could not agree more. But this bill does not do that – it includes significant cuts to NASA’s science, aeronautics, and education initiatives, and it cuts $1.8 billion from the National Science Foundation, undermining efforts to support basic scientific research, cutting-edge technology development, and STEM education. This is at a time when, for the first time in history, the latest data shows that China has surpassed the United States in total research and development investment. 

These cuts are a failure to invest in the future. We must ensure that the next generation of world class engineers, inventors, researchers and technicians are educated and employed here in the United States. These cuts hurt that effort.

We ought to invest in the safety of our communities, the resilience of our economy, and the future of our country. This bill fails on each one of those accounts. I encourage my colleagues to oppose this measure, and let’s work on a bipartisan basis to craft a bill that meets this moment.

Thank you and I yield back.

A summary of the bill is here. A fact sheet is here. The text of the bill is here.

Watch the full committee markup here.

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