House Democrats Highlight How Republican Funding Bill Weakens U.S. National Security and Undermines Democracy at Home and Abroad

WASHINGTON — During today’s House Appropriations subcommittee markup of the 2025 Defense funding bill, House Democrats highlighted how the bill undermines democracy at home and abroad and includes harmful policy riders that divide our nation.

For 2025, the bill provides $833 billion, an increase of $150 million from the request and $8.6 billion, one percent, above fiscal year 2024. The legislation:

• Undermines democracy at home and abroad by allowing disinformation campaigns and extremist views to flourish.
• Eliminates support for Ukraine by not providing any funding for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative.
• Harms readiness with divisive provisions that undermine morale and fail to support our service personnel, by:
  • Further limiting women’s access to abortion by preventing service personnel from traveling to seek reproductive health care;
  • Cutting vital civilian positions;
  • Attacking the LGBTQ+ community with hateful policies; and
  • Banning funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.
• Fails to invest in critical climate change programs necessary to protect our military installations.

“In a 1948 speech to the British House of Commons, Winston Churchill said ‘Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.’ Well, the Fiscal Year 2025 Department of Defense Appropriations bill presented to us today repeats the same mistakes as the FY 2024 House proposal. Once again, this bill includes partisan social policy riders that were just rejected in the FY24 conference agreement,” Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Ranking Member Betty McCollum (D-MN-04) said. “Beyond divisive social policy, there are other provisions in this bill that I cannot support. The bill continues to treat climate change as if it is not happening and is not a national security threat – which we know for a fact that it is. It limits the ability for the Government to address mis-, dis-, or mal-information that could impact the military and their operations. The bill includes a new provision that would ban funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency.  According to a March report from The World Food Program, nearly half the population of Gaza – over 1 million people - have completely exhausted their food supplies. Palestinian civilians, many of them children, are struggling with catastrophic hunger and starvation. The Hamas terrorist attacks of last October 7th were barbaric, and a tragedy. But the suffering of the civilian population of Gaza will not make Israel safer – it is contributing to its insecurity. This new provision will only make the situation worse.”

Congresswoman McCollum’s full remarks as prepared for delivery are here.

“There is a path laid out for us to responsibly strengthen America’s national security and support our armed servicemembers. But instead, we are considering a bill that chooses chaos over our national security, and sows division instead of supporting our servicemembers’ morale and unity. This bill undermines democracy, here and around the world, and it disarms our military in the face of the climate crisis,” Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03) said. “Especially in an election year, we should not consider legislation that would neutralize the Department of Defense’s ability to counter disinformation campaigns, when we know foreign actors and our adversaries are seeking to meddle in our elections and democratic processes. And why, after this Congress has repeatedly demonstrated broad bipartisan support for Ukraine in its fight against Russian tyranny, are we considering a bill that fails to fund the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative? In addition to fighting Russian aggression, USAI helps Ukraine integrate with NATO and Western forces, directly supporting our broader national security and defense objectives. And recklessly, this bill ignores our military leaders. Even under President Trump, our military acknowledged and warned about the dangers climate change poses to our national security, our military assets, and our servicemembers around the world. Secretary Mattis said in testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee, ‘Climate change is impacting stability in areas of the world where our troops are operating today.’ We ought to be ensuring our military’s resilience in the face of a changing climate and worsening disasters, not denying the scientific and strategic reality of the threats we face.”

Congresswoman DeLauro’s full remarks as prepared for delivery are here.

A summary of House Republicans’ 2025 Defense bill is here. A fact sheet of the bill is here. The full text of the bill is here.

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