Press Releases

"Thank you very much Mr. Chairman and good morning to everyone. It is a little earlier than we usually start these hearings, but this is such an important topic that it was important to all of us to have the opportunity for the full two hours with the distinguished panel. I am so thrilled to welcome Dr. Francis Collins, the Director of the National Institutes of Health, Drs. Fauci, Volkow, Insel, Lorsch, and Gibbons, to discuss the 2016 budget request for NIH.

Congresswoman Nita Lowey (D-NY), Ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, today issued the following statement on Senator Barbara Mikulski's announcement that she will not run for re-election in 2016:

"The State of Maryland and the entire country have benefitted from Barbara Mikulski's nearly four decades of leadership in the U.S. Congress. The longest-serving woman in the Senate and in Congress as a whole, she has left her mark fighting for equal rights for women, expanding opportunities for working and middle class Americans, and investing in priorities that will make our nation more secure and our economy more competitive.

"The Republican majority's continuing failure to enact a FY15 Homeland Security Appropriations bill is a staggering display of legislative incompetence.

"Democratic and Republican negotiators reached a deal on Homeland Security funding levels and related policy issues in December. Republican leadership made the political calculation to hold this funding hostage to ideological policy riders reversing the President's executive actions on immigration.

"Having failed to extort these policy concessions, the Senate will pass a clean Homeland Security funding bill. Yet five months after the beginning of the fiscal year, House leadership continues to dither with continuing resolutions, keeping alive the threat of shutdown affecting the agencies that protect our ports, borders, aviation system, communities, and more.

Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard (CA-40), the Ranking Democrat on the House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, spoke in the House of Representatives this morning about House Republicans' plan to fund the Department of Homeland Security for just three weeks with a new continuing resolution (CR), instead of passing a full-year DHS funding bill. The current CR to fund DHS is set to expire at midnight tonight.

The text of Congresswoman Roybal-Allard's speech follows:

Welcome, General Klotz, Dr. Cook, and General Davis. We appreciate you appearing before the Subcommittee this afternoon.

Since this Subcommittee last met to review the National Nuclear Security Administration budget, much has transpired. Russia's brazen intervention in Ukraine has caused great concern in this country and around the world. Just this week, the assassination of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov provided a deadly reminder of Russian President Putin's capability.

It is through that lens that we must assess our strategic future, including nuclear security.

There is nothing I take more seriously in my role as a Member of Congress than decisions of war and peace in general, and nuclear weapons in particular.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to welcome Secretary Moniz and thank him for coming before our committee today.

The President's budget request for fiscal year 2016 calls for investments in research, education, training, and infrastructure. It also calls for the end of the mindless austerity of sequestration, urging Congress to replace it with more targeted spending cuts, program integrity measures, and the closure of several outdated tax loopholes.

The effects of sequestration were immense, and are still being felt. Critical training was postponed; investments were put-off; and research abruptly halted. It was a worst-case scenario that never should have happened and absolutely should never be repeated.

Good morning, Dr. Moniz, it is good to see you again. I appreciate your recent visit to Ohio and your willingness to work with us to address the challenges faced by communities in the part of the country that I represent.

First among those, I remain focused on job creation. I appreciate several of your proposals to meet this need—in particular, a $200 million increase for the Advanced Manufacturing program, which could do great things for our region and nation.

Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), at today's Labor-Health and Human Services-Education Appropriations Subcommittee hearing, called for more support for the Social Security Administration (SSA) and the Administration for Community Living. Her opening remarks noted that SSA's operating budget, in particular, has been cut by more than $1.2 billion since 2010, after adjusting for inflation.

The below remarks are as delivered at the hearing:

"Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for holding this hearing on a set of programs that provide critical support to our Nation's seniors and people with disabilities. Commissioner Colvin, Assistant Secretary Greenlee, we welcome you to the Committee. I am pleased you are here. I think this is a great opportunity to bring attention to and question you on your agency's important programs.