Ranking Member DeLauro Floor Remarks on Republicans’ Power Grab Continuing Resolution

WASHINGTON — House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03) delivered the following remarks on the House Floor in opposition to Republicans' continuing resolution:

Mr. Speaker,

I am opposed to this one-year continuing resolution. 

It is not a simple stop-gap that keeps the lights on and the doors open. This is Republican leadership handing over the keys of the government, and a blank check to Elon Musk and to President Trump. As the White House has said, this bill creates more flexibility for this administration to continue to undermine the constitution and countless spending laws by stealing promised investments from American families, children, and businesses, unlawfully dismantling agencies, arbitrarily firing civil servants, and canceling union contracts.

Read the constitution. Article I, Section 9, Clause 7. The power of the purse resides with the Congress, and not with the executive, and in fact the president has no legitimate authority meddling in the appropriations process. Our colleagues across the aisle have gone to their districts and witnessed rage from their constituents at these actions. They have been advised by their political consultants not to do town halls altogether. Why bother listening to the American people?

The answer should not be cutting nondefense programs by $15 billion and defense by $3 billion as compared to the Fiscal Responsibility Act agreement for 2025. They are in violation of the Fiscal Responsibility Act. There is an agreement with Senator Schumer and Speaker Johnson. We all voted for it here. But this is a violation. Why do they want to shortchange defense investments by $3 billion, I ask them?

Not only is it bad for our military – there is a reason the Department of Defense has never operated for an entire year under a continuing resolution – it also transfers more power to the administration to shut off and repurpose funding as they see fit, the will of Congress and the people, ignored. 

Elon Musk and President Trump would be able to fire thousands of employees – yes, we do not oversee Social Security, that’s in the purview of the Ways and Means Committee, however, we do have control over the administration of Social Security, and the President and Elon Musk would be able to fire thousands of employees at the Social Security Administration. They are talking about 7,000 positions, gone. What does that result in? Office closures, longer wait times, and unacceptable backlogs for Americans trying to access their earned benefits. In effect, you remove the staff and personnel, thereby crippling the agency to be able to do its job and yes, to provide benefits. It is nice if you can individually negotiate with the administration on your own to keep your Social Security office open. Forty-seven are on the docket to get closed. If one stays open, why not all 47?

The Army Corps of Engineers construction projects would be cut by $1.4 billion, 44 percent, and President Trump, not Congress, would determine who gets funding, what city, state, locality, and how much money that is there. 

Instead of helping address housing costs, the bill cuts rent subsidies by over $700 million. It leaves landlords to foot the bill or evict more than 32,000 households.

This bill breaks promises to veterans. House Republicans wisely proposed $23 billion in advanced funding for the Toxic Exposures Fund to care for veterans exposed to burn pits, Agent Orange, and other toxic substances in their own bill last summer. We voted for the PACT Act on a bipartisan basis. But that $23 billion in advanced funding has now disappeared. It is gone. 

And there is not enough funding for disaster relief. It abandons American families who have had their lives turned upside-down by extreme weather. Funding for disaster relief runs out in the spring. What about Kentucky that just had a storm in February? Families will not be able to get back on their feet and neither will businesses that had to shut down because of a natural disaster.

Decisions about the investments we make cannot be entrusted in one single officeholder. 

This Congress must decide: do we have the authority to control spending, as we were granted and is laid out in Article I of the Constitution? Why would we want to relinquish this to give this administration, which is already doing massive harm, dismantling agencies, firing people, telling them today they are no longer needed, the chaos and confusion caused by Elon Musk and President Trump – why would we want to turn over our authority to appropriate bills?

I implore my colleagues to join me and stand up for our constituents against an unelected billionaire Elon Musk who is stealing taxpayer dollars from American families, children, and businesses. 

Oppose this giveaway to the administration, pass a short-term CR, which I introduced yesterday, which would take us to April 11 to continue negotiations and pass regular bills. Let us finish the regular bills that we should all agree would be an improvement over a full-year continuing resolution.

I would just say to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, a shutdown will be the result of the Republican majority walking away from negotiations. We were that close. They pulled the rug out from under us and said “stop negotiating,” because Musk and Trump want to have control with a full-year continuing resolution.

I reserve the balance of my time.

###