Chair DeLauro Statement at Full Committee Markup of Fiscal Year 2022 Subcommittee Allocations

Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03), Chair of the House Appropriations Committee, delivered the following remarks at the Committee's markup of the Report on the Suballocation of Budget Allocations for fiscal year 2022, known as 302(b)s:

“Our first order of business is to consider the Suballocation of Budget Allocations for Fiscal Year 2022, also known as the ‘302(b)’s.’

“Despite that very technical name, this document is the nuts and bolts of the appropriations process, determining how the funding that we will appropriate this year is allocated among the 12 annual appropriations bills.

“The overall topline funding allocated this year is consistent with President Biden’s budget request and with the deeming resolution adopted by the House this month. It will allow for important investments across a wide range of areas, and I would like to highlight just a few.

“After decades of disinvestment and the devastation of the coronavirus pandemic, the American economy is seriously out of balance, favoring the wealthy and well connected and leaving working families behind.

“But we can reverse these trends. With our funding bills this year, we will invest in the American people: creating good-paying jobs, growing opportunity, and providing a lifeline to the middle class, working families, small businesses, and the vulnerable.

“And we will confront the many challenges that our country faces today, most of which have been exacerbated by the pandemic. These allocations will allow us to:

• Build support for families and children through expanded access to programs like Head Start and child care.
• Create good-paying American jobs through investments in a green economy and economic development in underserved communities.
• Repair our health and education infrastructure, investing in good schools, access to higher education, better health care, and lifesaving medical research.
• Rebuild our crumbling physical infrastructure, including with investments in roads, bridges, transit, and public housing.
• Tackle hunger and nutrition insecurity with funding for vital nutrition programs that feed American kids and families.
• Lift up rural communities with initiatives like rural broadband that will create jobs and deliver hope.
• Protect our democracy, from the Capitol Grounds to countering the Chinese threat around the world.

“As we make these specific investments, these allocations will also allow this Congress to close persistent racial disparities, foster equality for women and men, and confront the climate crisis with actions across the whole of government.

“The investments we are making are historic, they are transformational, and they are exactly what the American people need in this moment. I urge your support for these allocations.”