Ranking Member DeLauro Opening Remarks at Financial Services, General Government Fiscal Year 2027 Appropriations Full Committee Markup

WASHINGTON – House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03) delivered the following remarks during the full committee markup for the fiscal year 2027 Financial Services and General Government Appropriations bill:

Thank you Chairman Cole and Chairman Joyce.

And I want to start here today, by speaking for a moment about my friend the Ranking Member, Mr. Hoyer.

I have served with Steny Hoyer since my first day in office. Throughout it all he has been a thoughtful partner, an honest broker, and an untiring advocate for this institution. 

As you all know, this is Steny’s last Financial Services bill. I want to say at the outset here how glad I am to have worked with you all these years, Steny, congratulate you on a remarkable career, both in Congress and on this Committee – your heart has always been on the Appropriations Committee- and to thank you for everything you have given back to this institution. 

This place will not be the same without you, I will miss you, and I look forward to our work for the rest of this year but after that in terms of how we can collaborate together, so thank you very much Steny Hoyer.

I also want to thank the Committee staff, Matt Smith and Philip Tizzani on the minority, and on the majority side Kim Betz, Alex Yost, Mike Patterson, James Kalkowski, thank you all for your hard work in bringing these bills to the floor.

The bill we are considering today is yet another giveaway for the very wealthiest Americans and large corporations, who have raked in record profits under the Trump administration while ordinary working families struggle to keep up with rising costs.

Under this bill, more wealthy tax cheats will be able to get away with not paying what they owe, even while reaping the benefits of public services. 

Under this bill, the products that American consumers spend their hard-earned money on are more likely to be hazardous, broken, or harmful to their long-term health.

Under this bill, more large corporations will be able to merge together, reduce competition, and drive up prices for the rest of us while supercharging profits for themselves.

The Trump administration is a government of, by, and for the billionaires. The legislation that we are considering today is a reflection of that fact.

This bill cuts funding for the Consumer Product Safety Commission, that makes it easier for corporations to get away with pushing faulty or dangerous products onto American consumers.

Just last week, the CPSC issued recalls for a children’s toy with tiny pieces that pose a choking hazard and can cause serious injury or death; a tea kettle that could detach from its handle while it is boiling, posing a serious risk of severe burn injury; and a pressure washer that may electrocute the user.

Without strong guardrails to protect our families from these kinds of products, more and more people will get hurt, and the cuts proposed in this bill weaken those guardrails.

In yet another giveaway for the very wealthiest Americans, this bill cuts IRS enforcement by $1.4 billion. Even after passing $4.5 trillion in tax cuts that overwhelmingly benefit the rich – while cutting $1.2 trillion from Medicaid and stripping healthcare away from 15 million Americans – this bill makes it even easier for the rich to avoid paying what they owe. 

Our tax system is broken. Working families are forced to pay far more in taxes as a percentage of their wealth, while massive, multi-billion dollar companies routinely game the system to avoid paying any taxes at all.

The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) just released a report detailing 88 corporations that made more than $100 billion in profits but did not pay a penny – not one penny – in federal income tax. These are companies like: Tesla; Southwest Airlines; United Airlines; Live Nation Entertainment, which by the way, a jury found had a harmful monopoly over big concert venues for years; CVS Health; Yum! Brands – Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, KFC; and Disney.

I also want to quote from the Budget Lab at Yale and their recent report, “the IRS reductions from funding and layoffs have likely resulted in about $861 billion in decreased revenue. The layoffs from actions like DOGE alone have likely resulted in $597.8 billion in decreased revenue over the 2026-2035, and the clawback in IRS funding of $20 billion has likely resulted in $262.8 billion in decreased revenue over the same period.”

My friends, we have a revenue problem, not a spending problem.

Working families struggling to get by should not have to pay more in taxes than some of the largest, most profitable corporations in the country. We should be addressing this issue immediately. Instead, the Republican proposal lets the wealthy and large corporations get away with paying even less. 

This bill also cuts funding for the Small Business Administration and Entrepreneurial Development Programs, paring back support for hard-working Americans trying to get their business off the ground.

Meanwhile, big corporations continue to swallow up their competition. Mega-mergers in tech, media, medicine, and energy have eroded the market pressure that brings prices down and allowed corporate giants to emerge on a scale we have not seen since the Gilded Age.

Yet this bill underfunds the Federal Trade Commission and defunds the Federal Communications Commission, clearing the way for even more acquisitions, less competition, and higher prices for American families. 

This bill is a boon for the very rich and large corporations. It does nothing to alleviate the strain on working families who are struggling just to get by as the cost of living crisis continues unabated. In fact, it makes the problem even worse.

This bill also takes aim at our election infrastructure, defunding the Election Assistance Commission, weakening political fundraising guardrails, and allowing misinformation and disinformation to spread unchecked. 

We should be taking steps to shore up our election infrastructure from any and all interference, and make sure that states and localities have the resources they need to conduct elections that are free and fair, and that the American people can have faith in.

I encourage my colleagues to oppose the legislation before us today, and to craft a bill that offers relief for working families and cracks down on big corporations, not the other way around.

Thank you and I yield back.

A summary of the bill is here. A fact sheet is here. The text of the bill is here. 

Watch the full committee markup here.