Ranking Member DeLauro Opening Statement at Supreme Court Hearing

WASHINGTON –House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (CT-03) delivered the following remarks during an appropriations subcommittee hearing with Supreme Court Justices Elena Kagan and Amy Coney Barrett:

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and thank you and Ranking Member Hoyer. And maybe I’ll start with, “may it please the court;” may it please the Congress.

Justice Kagan and Justice Barrett, welcome. Thank you so much for appearing before this Committee today. 

The last time any sitting Justice of the Supreme Court appeared before this Committee was in 2019. And my hope is that this sets a precedent on the role of the United States House of Representatives. 

I fully appreciate the unique Constitutional role of the Court, and the immense responsibilities each of you carries as members of our nation’s highest tribunal. Judicial independence is fundamental to our Constitutional system, and nothing about today’s hearing should be understood as diminishing that principle. 

At the same time, independence does not preclude accountability. Cabinet secretaries, agency heads, and leaders of independent institutions routinely appear before Congress to explain how taxpayer dollars are being spent and to answer questions regarding their budget requests. The Supreme Court should be no exception.

Each year Congress exercises one of its core Constitutional responsibilities by appropriating funds for the federal judiciary. It is therefore entirely appropriate that the Court appear before this Committee each year to discuss its needs, to answer questions from the representatives of the American people. As two of our nation’s foremost Constitutional scholars, I thank you for recognizing that the Constitution vests the power of the purse in the Congress in bringing your budget before us today.

Turning now to your fiscal year 2027 budget.

No one can ignore the disturbing rise in threats directed at members of the federal judiciary. It is not lost on me or any of us the increasing prevalence and intensity of threats against not only you and your colleagues on the Supreme Court, but against judges throughout the federal judiciary. 

As of the first of July, there have been 370 threats made to federal judges, according to the U.S Marshals Service. During the entirety of last year, there were 564 threats made. At this rate, we are looking at a 31 percent year-over-year increase in threats against federal judges. That is simply and deeply an alarming rise. 

We are not strangers here to this heightened threat environment – members on both sides of the aisle have seen an increase in serious, credible threats of violence, as well.

This poses a danger not only to public officials, but to the institution of democracy as a whole. Our system cannot function without a reasonable guarantee of safety.

In recognition of this need, we approved – on a bipartisan basis – more than $890 million for lower court security for fiscal year 2026, an increase of over $140 million compared to the previous year.

In the Spring, this committee passed a funding bill which included over $920 million for lower court security, a further increase of almost $30 million and equal to the amount proposed in your budget request.

And we are carefully considering the additional funding requested to fortify the Supreme Court, and increase security for yourselves, your families, and your colleagues.

We are of course more than happy to provide the resources necessary to ensure the safety and security of the Judicial Branch, but we must be diligent in our duty as appropriators. For instance, will this additional funding for security be sufficient for the future, and how will that be measured? Will you need to come back again for further increases, or will this be a one-time infusion and will that suffice? This is a gravely serious issue, and we must make sure taxpayers’ money is handled well. What action is the Court taking to strengthen public confidence through ethics, transparency and accountability?

It is no secret that political divisions in our country have grown deeper over the past decade or more. That, I believe, is one factor that has contributed to an erosion of trust in our system, including the Supreme Court.

Various scandals have also plagued the Court in recent years, from leaked decisions to financial entanglements and conflicts of interest, contributing to a growing sense among the public that our government exists to serve special interests, and not the public good. 

The proportion of Americans who have confidence in our courts has declined from roughly 60 percent a decade ago to around 35 percent in 2024, according to Gallup.  A democracy cannot sustain itself if the public has no faith in its institutions. We must all work to rebuild the trust of the American people that has been lost.

To restore this trust we must provide more transparency – through increased financial disclosure requirements, and a binding, enforceable code of ethics.

The status quo of self-policing, voluntary disclosure, and unenforceable guidelines is woefully insufficient. I say this to provide the public with the reassurance they deserve that when a decision is handed down, it is the result of rigorous Constitutional analysis, not private parochial interest.

Over the past few weeks as we have approached and celebrated our nation’s 250th birthday, I have spent time reflecting on the founding, and on the genius of the Framers. Their insistence on an independent judiciary, that has, in Hamilton’s words, “neither force nor will; but merely judgement,” has proved indispensable to the endurance of our democracy.

I believe we all share a commitment to preserving both the independence of the judiciary and the public’s confidence in it. Independence and accountability are not competing values; they are complementary pillars of a constitutional democracy worthy of the public’s trust.

Thank you so much for appearing before us today. I look forward to your testimony.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman and I yield back.

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