Ranking Member DeLauro Statement at the Full Committee Markup of the 2024 Energy and Water Development, and Related Agencies Funding Bill
Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03), Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Committee, delivered the following remarks at the Committee's markup of the fiscal year 2024 Energy and Water Development, and Related Agencies bill:
– As Prepared for Delivery –
Thank you, Chairwoman Granger, for yielding and thank you Chairman Fleischmann and Ranking Member Kaptur for your work on this subcommittee. I would also like to thank the majority and minority staff, particularly Scott McKee, Jocelyn Hunn, and Adam Wilson.
My goals for the 2024 Energy and Water bill are to lower energy bills for families, create jobs by growing and supporting a robust manufacturing sector, promote American energy independence, and out-compete China. But that's not what this bill does.
The majority has put forth a bill that increases energy costs for American families, undermines growth and modernization of our energy infrastructure, weakens our national security, and would yield the world's energy future to the Chinese Community Party.
As much as my Republican colleagues may refuse overwhelming evidence, deny scientific consensus, and ignore the calamitous natural disasters that have become more severe and more common across the country, we have no choice but to transform our energy sector to reflect our climate reality.
The best path – the only path – that addresses climate change, reduces our dependence on fossil fuels, and ends our reliance on foreign energy is to diversify how we produce and how we store energy.
Wind. Solar. Hydroelectric. Hydrogen and geothermal. When it comes to addressing climate and driving a robust energy sector, our answer to the question "how" must be "everything under the sun." The Department of Energy's clean energy programs drive down energy costs, making it cheaper to expand domestic energy sources. This is the direction the world is going, and if we do not lead on new energy technologies, our competitors like China will be happy to lead instead.
For the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy account, the majority proposes cutting the Department of Energy's budget by $466 million from the 2023 level. This office researches and develops manufacturing, building, energy management, and weatherization technologies that are critical to our nation's growth and resilience. That is nearly half a billion dollars that will not be invested in our economic, energy, and climate future.
Furthermore, Republicans would cut $4.5 billion from the High-Efficiency Electric Home Rebate Program, $1 billion from the Assistance for Latest and Zero Building Energy Code Adoption, and $200 million from the State-Based Home Energy Efficiency Contractor Training Grants.
That means if American families want to reduce their home energy consumption and lower their monthly bills, Republicans say "no."
We must be innovative, creative, and aggressive in fighting for a clean energy future to make America resilient in the face of climate change. Which is why it is irresponsible to rescind $15 billion from DOE's Innovative Technology Loan Guarantee Program. That program supports critical projects that, for example sequester air pollutants – after watching the skies over parts of the East Coast and Midwest turn orange this month, I would hope we could agree that air pollution is a bad thing, but perhaps the majority feels differently.
Sustainability, at its core, is a demand that we responsibly steward the planet and its natural resources to future generations. The majority fails this demand.
This bill is full of gimmicks that expose hypocrisy. It shifts $576 million in domestic funding to defense programs by abandoning prior agreements on funding environmental cleanup.
And if the proposed abandonment of America's energy future and debasement of our ability to build a robust and diversified energy industry weren't enough reason to vote against this bill, then the offensive riders should be. Callouts to Critical Race Theory, DEI, and marriage equality make me think this is a messaging bill, and not something written by appropriators who are serious about governing.
Finally, I must reiterate: the majority is reneging on the deal that the Speaker of the House struck with the President just weeks ago. The bipartisan budget agreement was supposed to get us back to regular order. Instead, Republicans propose their harmful cuts agenda—not just $142 billion in cuts that failed in the initial McCarthy caps bill—but $159 billion to start, and as much as $189 billion if the majority fully flouts the Speaker's commitments in the law that they just voted to enact. I'll say it over and over again. I voted against the deal. But there's a basic civics lesson, how a bill becomes law. You pass it in the House, you pass it in the Senate, the President signs it into law. This agenda has no chance of becoming law.
For all of these reasons, I cannot support this bill. Thank you, and I yield back.
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