Ranking Member DeLauro Statement at Fiscal Year 2025 Budget Request for the United States Army

Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03), Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Committee, delivered the following remarks at the Defense Subcommittee's hearing on the fiscal year 2025 budget request for the United States Army:

Thank you, Chairman Calvert and Ranking Member McCollum, for holding this hearing on the 2025 budget for the United States Army.

And thank you to today's witnesses, Secretary Wormuth and General George, for appearing before the subcommittee today, and for your dedicated service to our nation. You keep our nation safe, you keep our troops safe, and you ensure our allies are supported wherever democracy and freedom are threatened around the globe.

Through the fiscal year 2025 budget, Congress has the sacred duty to ensure the Army has the resources to fulfill its mission, and to keep our country secure, and our troops protected and well-equipped.

The President's budget includes a $400 million increase for the Army that will ensure we are doing all that we can to support our soldiers and their families.

I am proud that in my district, Sikorsky Aircraft manufactures the UH-60 Black Hawk, a utility helicopter that has been used by the U.S. Army and other military branches in numerous roles around the world since its introduction in 1979.

So, I am especially pleased that the President's budget includes $25 million for research and development to upgrade the Black Hawk platform, keeping it in service for many years to come.

While we are here to discuss the 2025 budget, I must underscore how critical it is that Congress immediately pass a supplemental funding bill to address multiple ongoing national security concerns.

The U.S. Army is currently deployed – spending hundreds of millions of dollars – in Europe and the Middle East, and the longer we wait to buttress the Department of Defense's resources, the more our military will have to dip into annual funding to cover its rising costs.

Every moment this funding is delayed helps our adversaries, hurts our allies, and risks damage to America's military readiness and reputation.

We must ensure we are adequately backfilling our military equipment stockpiles that are being used in these theaters, and we must ensure we are sufficiently restoring our own industrial base – I look forward to discussing these items today.

Additionally, I want to hear about how the Army is addressing recruitment issues. The majority chose to inject culture war debates into last year's Department of Defense funding process, and I am concerned with how that may further hurt recruitment efforts, especially among women.

We must do all we can to ensure that any American who wants to bravely serve in the U.S. armed forces and defend our nation feels that they belong and that they are not going to be drawn into political warfare while confronting legitimate threats to freedom, democracy, and our national security.

Thank you, and I yield back.