House Republican Funding Bill Shortchanges Veterans and Jeopardizes Their Care

Continuing Resolution Includes Trump’s Project 2025 Policies While Needlessly Putting Disaster Recovery Efforts at Risk During Hurricane Season

WASHINGTON — House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03) released the following statement on House Republicans’ failure to protect our veterans, national security, and families recovering from disasters in their misguided continuing resolution:

“Instead of joining House Democrats at the table to meet the most pressing needs of hardworking Americans, House Republicans introduced an extreme continuing resolution that fails veterans and families across the country and favors billionaires, big corporations, and tax cheats. Even with the introduction of a separate supplemental funding bill, House Republicans are shortchanging veterans and jeopardizing their care by kicking the can down the road until March and failing to fulfill the promises we made to veterans exposed to toxic substances. By continuing to avoid the work they have time and again failed to accomplish, Republicans are hurting our national security and military readiness. They are failing to help survivors in communities across the country recovering from disasters. And they are putting politics over people by letting the most extreme voices in their conference set the agenda.

“A six-month continuing resolution hurts veterans, the military, disaster assistance, and domestic investments:

1. The Administration has notified Congress that an additional $12 billion is needed by March to maintain medical care for veterans. The House Republican bill does not include the $12 billion, shortchanging veterans and jeopardizing the medical services they need and have earned.
2. Putting government funding on autopilot for six months prevents the Department of Defense and Services from winding down programs that are no longer necessary or strengthening modernization capabilities. It also constrains security programs at levels below what is allowed in the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA). As Secretary Austin has stated, the Department needs ‘on-time appropriations in order to advance our National Defense Strategy and position our military to meet the complex challenges of this century.’
3. FEMA is currently operating under an Immediate Needs Funding (INF) posture, which means it is so low on funds that it must pause public assistance projects to instead fund only lifesaving and life sustaining activities. The House Republican continuing resolution only provides $10 billion in new emergency funds, but the total supplemental funding requirement exceeds $24 billion. Even one major disaster could force FEMA to reimplement a pause on funding public assistance projects because FEMA must ensure that it has sufficient funding for lifesaving and life sustaining activities through September 2025. For context, as of September 6, after operating in this pause for just one month, FEMA has been forced to defer $6.1 billion of long-term public assistance recovery and hazard mitigation projects.
4. A six-month continuing resolution is a ploy to slash domestic investments in health care, education, job training, and all other discretionary resources. A continuing resolution to the end of March provides Republicans with more leverage to attempt to force their unpopular cuts to services that American families depend on to make ends meet.

“These four problems would be mitigated by simply changing the date from the end of March to mid-December.

“Just like last year, House Republicans squandered an entire year by forcing us to waste time considering extreme funding bills based on Trump’s Project 2025 that have no chance of becoming law. And just like last year, House Republicans’ refusal to meet House Democrats at the table has left us without time to pass all 12 full-year funding bills before the end of September. In short, we need a continuing resolution because House Republicans again followed their most extreme members and inclinations.

“The majority knows that we cannot fund the government without the support of both Democrats and Republicans in the House and the Senate. A half-year continuing resolution that includes Trump’s Project 2025 policies is no way to govern. While we must immediately pass the supplemental veterans benefits funding bill introduced this morning, we need a continuing resolution that ends in December and fully meets the needs of our veterans and their families, the brave women and men who continue to serve our country, and the hardworking Americans counting on Congress to act in their best interest.”

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