Lowey statement supporting Motion to Instruct conferees to recede from FY 2019 Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill

I rise in support of the Motion to Instruct conferees to reject the right-wing House Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill and instead support the Senate’s bipartisan compromise.

The Labor-HHS-Education bill funds some of the most important priorities for our country – and it helps meet the needs of Americans at every stage of their lives. With this legislation, Congress funds child care programs and Head Start, Pell Grants and job training, Community Health Centers and NIH research, Social Security and Meals on Wheels.

Yet instead of robustly supporting these priorities, House Republicans have shortchanged all of these critical endeavors. Despite an $18 billion overall increase in the budget cap for non-defense discretionary spending, the House’s fiscal year 2019 Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill does not include a single dime of additional funding.

House Republicans have found $5 billion to pay for President Trump’s wasteful border wall. Yet they apparently cannot allocate anything to strengthen America’s schools, help families afford college, ensure workplace safety, or expand quality, affordable health care.

In fact, the policy provisions in their bill directly attack many of these priorities. Their riders sabotage the Affordable Care Act, threatening the health of tens of millions of Americans with pre-existing conditions and increasing costs for American families. This Republican bill undermines women’s health care by eliminating Title X family planning, prohibits millions of women from choosing Planned Parenthood as their preferred health care provider, and attacks the dignity of LGBT families.

The American people deserve better than this partisan bill. The Senate has done good, bipartisan work to provide additional resources for the Labor-HHS-Education bill while avoiding the kinds of right-wing riders that make the House bill completely unacceptable. I urge my colleagues to vote for this motion and reject House Republicans’ misplaced priorities and extreme attacks on American families.’