House Democrats Highlight How Republican 2025 Legislative Branch Funding Bill Falls Short
WASHINGTON — During today's House Appropriations Subcommittee markup of the 2025 Legislative Branch funding bill, House Democrats highlighted that while the legislation continues the bipartisan progress on funding levels made over the last few years, it is filled with unnecessary partisan policies that were removed in the final 2024 bill.
For 2025, the bill includes a total of $5.5 billion, an increase of $189 million or 3.5 percent, above 2024. This total excludes the Senate items. The legislation:
- Creates loopholes for a few Members of Congress who perform medical or dental services to be paid in addition to their congressional salary.
- Creates a license for employees to discriminate against LGBTQI+ people under the guise of religious liberty and prevents the federal government from adequately responding.
- On the heels of House Republicans closing the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, blocks programs and activities that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion training across the Legislative Branch.
- Fails to confront the climate crisis by removing a longstanding provision to eliminate or reduce plastic waste across the Legislative Branch and the requirement for Members to lease low-emission vehicles.
- Bars Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients from employment in the Legislative Branch.
"As Ranking Member of this Subcommittee, I would love to support this bill. The numbers seem reasonable. The bill provides modest increases to support the staffing and other resources needed by Congress to do its job well," Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee Ranking Member Adriano Espaillat (D-NY-13) said. "However, I cannot support this bill as written today because of harmful riders. This bill contains provisions limiting the rights of the LGBTQ+ community and stokes Republicans' fear of creating a diversified nation by blocking DEI training and restoring the independent Office of Diversity and Inclusion. I also want to express my profound discontent—that this subcommittee refuses to provide DACA recipients with the ability to work in our branch of government, especially when many of them are already interns and fellows throughout our branch of government. I cannot, in good conscience, support this bill. Overall, I want to vote for 12 bills that increase nondefense and defense funding levels by at least one percent as agreed to almost a year ago. I want to help our hardworking families."
Congressman Adriano Espaillat's full remarks as prepared for delivery are here.
"The bill before us today is not far removed from a bill that I would support. It builds upon our investments in the Legislative Branch that have enabled us to better serve the American people," Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03) said. "But unfortunately, the majority has included very harmful policy riders that create unfair and lopsided rules for certain Members of Congress, hurt our ability to attract and retain diverse and talented staff, and unwind important provisions that ensure we are doing our part to protect the environment…A strong and well-functioning Legislative Branch is essential to ensuring the House of Representatives can do the work Americans sent us here to do. If we cannot create an environment where all staff feel safe and welcome, we will not be able to serve people in the ways that they expect and deserve."
Congresswoman DeLauro's full remarks are here.
A summary of the bill can be found here. A fact sheet of the bill is here. The full text of the bill is here.
In keeping with longstanding practice whereby each chamber of Congress determines its own housekeeping requirements and the other concurs without intervention, the bill does not include funds for the Senate or Senate office buildings.
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