Ranking Member DeLauro Statement to House Rules Committee Opposing Republican Health Care Crisis

WASHINGTON — House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03) delivered the following remarks at the House Rules Committee in opposition to the Republican plan to allow health care costs to skyrocket for over 20 million Americans:

Thank you Chairwoman Foxx, Ranking Member McGovern, Members of the Committee. I really appreciate the opportunity to testify today. So glad to be here alongside my fellow Appropriator, Chairman Cole, whose partnership I appreciate.

First of all, welcome back. One point about the shutdown. It’s been several months where Democratic leadership has called for an opportunity to sit down, whether it has been with the House and Senate leadership, or with the President of the United States, where there was just that one meeting – he reneged on the first meeting that was involved – so that we could sort out a bipartisan agreement in trying to move forward. 

The offer was there to meet anytime, anyplace, anywhere so we could really try to move forward. As I said, rebuked at every turn. So, the shutdown stands firmly in the process of the president, who shut down the government rather than negotiate.

I’ll just give you two quotes, you can check on the quotes. He first said, “It’s a waste of time” to meet with Leader Jeffries and Leader Schumer. The second thing he said, and he admonished Republican colleagues, and said you need to “jam the Republican continuing resolution down the throats of Democrats.”

I don’t make it up, those are his words.

Anyway. I want to talk about why I oppose this bill.

I oppose this bill because it does nothing to address the Republican health care crisis that will send costs skyrocketing for more than 20 million Americans in a matter of weeks.

Nothing has changed since yesterday’s Senate vote. Health care costs are still poised to double or even triple for some folks practically overnight, worsening the cost-of-living crisis manufactured by President Trump. 

There is no restoration of premium subsidies. Of tax credits. This bill is an empty promise. As is the promise for a vote in the Senate and no guarantee of a vote on premium subsidies in the House.

All across the country, families are struggling to navigate an affordability crisis President Trump refuses to address. 

As a matter of fact, within the past 24 hours he talked about affordability as a con job. Get out there. Talk to the people of this nation, Mr. President.

Energy prices are up. Grocery prices are up. Housing costs are up. Everything is more expensive and now, on top of that, the Republican plan is to squeeze families even harder.

The report today came out that talked about families in the U.S. living paycheck to paycheck. The President went to the Supreme Court to deprive kids of food – unbelievable – and now wants to deny their parents health care. 

This is a point I’ve heard twice already this evening. Whether or not the government was open or shut, there was $6 billion in a contingency fund passed by Democrats and Republicans for food stamps to be used in the event of an occasion like this. 

It was the administration – President Trump – refused, refused, refused to let those monies flow to people who need it the most. It was not a question of whether or not the government was open or not, and let’s stop eliding the two of those efforts.

In my district, a mother of two named Renee – Renee Shallis – she will see her annual premium costs go up by $24,000 next year. She got her letter. That’s $2,000 more per month. On top of caring for her two children, she is the primary caregiver for the children’s father, a brain cancer survivor who is physically and mentally unable to work. She is working tirelessly to do the right thing by her family, but she is already stretched thin. She literally cannot afford this. 

I’ll just read you a couple of headlines from the Connecticut press. The New Haven Register, “How much more can we cut back? Connecticut families brace for soaring health insurance premiums.” The Connecticut Public Mirror, “For middle-income Connecticut residents, sticker shock looms with ACA health subsidies set to disappear.” Channel 3 Connecticut, “Richfield couple faces tripling healthcare costs as cancer survivor needs continued care.” That is a reality.

Renee’s story is not an outlier. This is going to make life significantly harder for people all across this country – in every state and in every district.

There are some 24 million Americans who get their health insurance through the Affordable Care Act. The Republican plan puts us on the path to destroying the Affordable Care Act, which quite frankly they have been trying to do, unsuccessfully, for 15 years now.

Some of you may not think health care is related to this continuing resolution. I beg to differ. Take a look at the authorizing titles in the continuing resolution. There are more than 50 pages’ worth just dealing with health care. We can solve this problem in this bill if we choose to. And isn’t the continuing resolution in the jurisdiction of the Appropriations Committee?

The entire House was marginalized in this process. Senate Republicans abruptly called off talks in the middle of negotiations, made their own bills public before reaching an agreement with all four corners. Unprecedented in the modern era. And yet, they made the House constitutionally impotent in moving forward.

In one of the most egregious examples of something the House was not even aware of before the bills became public, the Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee secretly added language in the Legislative Branch bill from the Senate Majority Leader, without the consent of the Chair or Ranking Members of the subcommittee or full committee, that allows Republican senators to sue the government for their involvement in the January 6 insurrection. Regardless of anyone’s opinion on what happened on January 6, it should be unacceptable to every member of the House that the Senate can secretly add language to a bill without even notifying us.

The result is a Legislative Branch bill that includes a provision to give Senators who may have participated in the insurrection as much as a $1 million payout each, while excluding a provision to hang a plaque honoring the police officers who put their lives on the line to defend our democracy from that same insurrection.

The Military Construction division excludes $51.7 billion, which was in the House bill, for advance funding for the Toxic Exposures Fund for 2027. This is a fund that helps victims of burn pits and Agent Orange get the care they deserve. 

In our markup in the summer, and Chair Cole will remember this, Ranking Member Wasserman Schultz and Chairman Carter negotiated a compromise to include this funding, but the Senate took it out before abandoning negotiations altogether. This is simply wrong. We have provided advance funding for medical care for veterans for the last 15 years. It’s Veterans Day today and this bill doesn’t even meet the funding level that President Trump and OMB Director Vought requested.

The whole reason we are here – Chairman Cole and I – is because the power of the purse belongs to Congress. But this package fails to protect that authority. 

Democrats fought to prevent President Trump and OMB Director Vought from stealing from our communities, withholding funding that was approved by Democrats and Republicans, blocking the issuing of illegal pocket rescissions, preventing President Trump from unilaterally reneging on any appropriations bill.

This package does nothing to address these problems. You cannot honestly expect Democrats to go along with any bipartisan funding proposal that can be rescinded with a party-line vote. Not after the trust has been broken by this process.

The main reason I oppose the bill is because it does not address the health care crisis Republicans have created, there are serious concerns with the appropriations divisions.

I strongly encourage my colleagues to oppose this measure. 

Thank you, and I yield back.

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