Press Releases

Today, House Appropriations Interior and Environment Subcommittee Ranking Member Chellie Pingree warned the Trump Administration that its ill-conceived federal hiring freeze will jeopardize National Park Service (NPS) operations at national parks like Acadia. Pingree called on Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum to immediately resume all seasonal hiring for the NPS and emphasized that the seasonal workforce is essential to safely and successfully operating parks for more than 325 million annual visitors.

WASHINGTON — House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (CT-03) and Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Ranking Member Marcy Kaptur (OH-09) released seven new fact sheets detailing how President Trump’s funding freeze is raising prices for Americans across the country. By continuing to steal Department of Energy (DOE) funds promised to help families pay their energy bills, the Trump Administration is not only hurting the middle class, it continues to violate recent court orders.

House Appropriations Committee and Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Subcommittee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro is raising the alarm on President Trump’s reported plans to sign an illegal Executive Order to dismantle public education – a move right out of the Project 2025 playbook. Elon Musk has already taken the first step to dismantle the Department of Education by canceling more than 100 education contracts and awards supporting special education, teacher recruitment, and other topics. This move from Presidents Musk and Trump will hurt children, students, families, and parents in every corner of the country.

House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro released the following statement on the Trump Administration violating the court’s order in light of recent comments by Vice President Vance.

Oregon’s U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley and Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (ME-01), the top Democrats on the subcommittees that oversee funding for the Indian Health Service (IHS), demanded urgent action from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to stop dangerous cuts to the IHS workforce, which is already facing huge challenges and staffing vacancies.

President Trump’s Administration is imposing a new policy to cap indirect costs for National Institutes of Health (NIH) research grants at 15 percent, which would cut billions of dollars in funding for life-saving research to develop cures and treatments for diseases. Under the leadership of House Appropriations Committee and Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Subcommittee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro, Congress enacted a provision that has been included annually in appropriations bills since 2018 that explicitly prohibits any Administration from making these changes.

WASHINGTON — House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro released the following statement after the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia paused the Trump Administration’s plans to put more than 2,000 critical U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) workers on paid leave:

U.S. Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03), Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Committee and the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, joined Senators Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Ranking Member of the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Related Agencies Senate Appropriations Subcommittee, in calling out the Trump Administration for the chaos and confusion they have unleashed by pausing communications and critical work, groundbreaking research, and funding for programs Americans rely on at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The legislators also demanded answers from the Trump Administration on the funding freeze that has impacted Medicaid, Head Start and other vital services in their states.