Ranking Member DeLauro Statement at Full Committee Markup of 2024 Legislative Branch Funding Bill

Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03), Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Committee, delivered the following remarks at the Committee's markup of the fiscal year 2024 Legislative Branch bill:

Thank you, Chairwoman Granger, and thank you Subcommittee Chairman Amodei, Ranking Member Espaillat, and the subcommittee staff for all the work that you do, especially Faye Cobb and Raquel Spencer.

We are now marking up in full committee the fifth 2024 funding bill under a Majority that seems all but determined to make this process and this body entirely irrelevant. House Republicans appear to be working based on a promise they made to each other to slash the programs that families depend on to survive.

Let me emphasize: the House Republicans have pledged to cut critical programs by at least $159 billion. And by the majority’s estimate, the bill before us today cuts more than $250 million from the Legislative Branch. A path forward has been paved for us by the Speaker of the House and the President of the United States. Our counterparts in the Senate appear to be taking that path. But the majority of this body has instead chosen a different path – they wish to renege on the deal they just made and take us back in time in pursuit of unthinkable cuts to appease the most extreme members of their caucus.

This bill falls short of ensuring we can continue to grow a strong and well-functioning Legislative Branch that is essential to our democracy. As an institution, we should be increasing our ability to serve our constituents and recruit and retain talented staff and United States Capitol Police Officers, not merely treading water or cutting. This bill eliminates the Office of Diversity and Inclusion and does nothing to facilitate the use of funds for collective bargaining rights for Congressional staffers. We made progress last Congress – but this bill takes us back.

Ranking Member Espaillat said this during the subcommittee markup of this bill, but I believe it is a point we should emphasize here with the full committee. We all have an obligation to make sure that our staff, whether they serve here in Washington, DC, or if they serve in our home districts, are safe. I support my colleague’s efforts to increase the funding to bolster their safety.

For all these reasons, I cannot support this bill, and I respectfully request that those on the other side of the aisle go back to the drawing board and come back with a slate of workable subcommittee allocations so that we are able to proceed with the important business of our 2024 appropriations work.

I yield back.