DeLauro Statement on President Biden’s Fiscal Year 2022 Discretionary Budget
House Appropriations Committee Chair Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03) released the following statement on President Biden’s fiscal year 2022 budget:
“With his fiscal year 2022 budget, President Biden is setting the United States on the course for broad and inclusive prosperity. The overall increase of 16 percent in domestic spending – including a 41 percent increase for the Department of Education, a 23 percent increase for the Department of Health and Human Services, and a 22 percent increase for the Environmental Protection Agency – will make a tremendous difference in the lives of working families, the middle class, and the vulnerable. And, in recognition that every American has a stake in our prosperity, the budget builds a more equitable tax system, where big corporations and the wealthy pay their fair share and where the government cracks down on the biggest corporations paying no taxes.
“The budget has a relentless focus on creating jobs and expanding opportunity for all, including with a historic $20 billion increase for high-poverty schools, more subsidized child care places and Head Start slots, and a $400 increase in the maximum Pell Grant. To protect workers on the job, the budget includes a $304 million increase to protect wages, benefits, and rights. And to strengthen the safety net, the budget will unlock Housing Choice Vouchers for 200,000 more families and support nutrition assistance and expanded local food systems with nearly $4 billion in new funding.
“The coronavirus pandemic has exposed the deep fraying of our public health infrastructure. This budget begins to rebuild it, with record funding of $8.7 billion for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It also directly addresses the most pressing public health crises, with $10.7 billion for opioid research, prevention treatment, and recovery, $1.6 billion for the Community Mental Health Services Block Grant, $200 million for maternal health, and $200 million for gun violence research. I am also pleased that the budget strikes the Hyde Amendment, which is a major obstacle to low-income women receiving safe, affordable reproductive health care.
“We cannot prepare for a brighter future without addressing the existential threat of climate change, and this budget makes important investments to create jobs as we meet this challenge. The whole-of-government effort emphasizes climate research, clean energy technologies that create jobs and economic growth, and environmental remediation efforts that require good-paying union jobs as we clean up communities that have been left behind for far too long.
“As we strengthen our nation at home, we must also restore our place in the world. The discretionary budget funds the mix of defense, diplomacy, and development that the Pentagon says is needed to counter our adversaries, mobilize global action on climate change and other pressing challenges, and support the world’s most vulnerable people.
“The Appropriations Committee will turn this blueprint into funding bills that meet this historic moment. We are ready to get to work delivering the help the American people so desperately need.”
Additional comment from Chair DeLauro on the American Jobs Plan, American Families Plan, and other components of the President’s budget is available here.