Ranking Member DeLauro to Attorney General Bondi at DOJ Budget Hearing: “We must understand why your Department is complicit in lawbreaking from the highest office.”

WASHINGTON — House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03) delivered the following remarks at the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Subcommittee’s fiscal year 2026 budget hearing for the Department of Justice:

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I want to thank you, and Ranking Member Meng, for holding this budget hearing. And I also want to say a thank you to our witness, Attorney General Bondi, for appearing before the subcommittee today. Welcome to the House of Representatives.

A well-functioning, well-funded, well-led Department of Justice is critical to the safety and the security of the American people. And the Department of Justice’s employees are dedicated public servants who work diligently and often in dangerous settings to keep criminals off the streets. But unfortunately, the Department of Justice, under your leadership, has become a tool of political retaliation, and the front door for criminals seeking to curry favors and pardons.

As I told Director Patel last month, pressure from the White House to investigate the President’s opponents or to quash investigations of his allies threaten the Department’s credibility and the very foundations, the foundation on which this nation stands, and that is the rule of law. 

The Attorney General must shield the rule of law from political pressure, not act as an instrument for implementing the President’s political hitlist.

Attorney General Bondi, the Department of Justice is not the President’s personal law firm. Loyalty – or disloyalty – toward the President or even the President’s agenda is not a valid measure of the performance of your employees, nor of the appropriateness of a particular criminal investigation.

President Trump is more focused on revenge, retaliation, and retribution than lowering high prices for everyday essentials, and the American people are bearing those costs.

The American people expected President Trump to address the high cost of living. But the President is not laser focused on the cost of living crisis – he is actually making it worse. 

Instead, he put billionaires like Elon Musk in charge of our government. And they are attacking civil servants who are not loyal to him, but to the Constitution and to the rule of law, and they are stealing funding for programs that keep America’s communities safe. 

This Administration is deliberately undermining agencies that protect the American people. 

Over four and a half billion dollars in Department of Justice grant money, including COPS grants and Office of Violence Against Women grants, has been unlawfully frozen – stolen from the communities that are counting on this funding to improve their own law enforcement capabilities. This funding supports reentry initiatives, violence prevention, it helps prevent hate crimes, provides services for crime victims, and supports underserved communities. Stealing this funding makes the American people less safe and more likely to become victims of crime. 

Freezing this money is an illegal impoundment. There is no lawful authority to unilaterally impound, or in my words, steal. You can continue to say there is an inherent authority. You can say it over and over and over again. But it is not true. And we are going to correct it over and over and over again. And how many times can the courts and the Government Accountability Office tell you so? 

Your Department is responsible for upholding the law. You must unfreeze grant money appropriated by Congress or be in violation of the law.

Moving to the next fiscal year, I am eager to learn about how the Department of Justice will continue to fulfill its mission with a proposed budget that significantly cuts our nation’s law enforcement agencies, key offices, and grant programs.

The President’s proposed budget would impair and defund the core law enforcement agencies that keep our communities safe. In essence, you are defunding law enforcement.

It slashes funding for the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, limiting Federal efforts to help our state and local law enforcement combat gun violence, drug trafficking, and organized crime. 

The budget also targets DOJ’s foundational legal divisions – cutting funding for civil rights enforcement, environmental protection, and even national security. It takes an axe to grant programs and other programs that support domestic violence survivors and local police departments. It dismantles DOJ’s Tax Division, which will only make it easier for prominent tax cheats to avoid prosecution, further increasing the burden on honest taxpayers who pay what they owe. They pay what they owe. Our largest corporations do not.

And why on Earth does your budget slash the Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General by 30 percent? Does this Administration want to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse, or not? 

Our government’s Inspectors General are absolutely critical nonpartisan offices that help Congress and the American people eliminate and prevent fraud and corruption – and this Administration has directly undermined and even removed over a dozen of these offices across our government. Waste, fraud, and abuse are not the targets of President Trump’s White House – they are the primary objectives.

This budget does not put the safety and security of the American people first. It puts white collar criminals, drug traffickers, and violent offenders first, while eviscerating your Department’s ability to stop them.

The Department of Justice exists to uphold the rule of law. The American people deserve assurance that everyone will be treated equally under the law. Instead, this Administration breaks the law with reckless abandon. 

President Trump, like every other American, must follow the law. Russ Vought must follow the law. Secretaries Noem, and Kennedy, and McMahon must follow the law. And we must understand why your Department is complicit in lawbreaking from the highest office.

I yield back.

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