Ranking Member DeLauro Statement at Fiscal Year 2025 Hearing on President Biden’s Budget Request and Economic Outlook

Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03), Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Committee, delivered the following remarks at the Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee's fiscal year 2025 budget request and economic outlook hearing:

Thank you, Chairman Womack and Ranking Member Hoyer, for holding this important hearing. And thank you to our witnesses, Director Young, Secretary Yellen, and Chairman Bernstein, for being here and for your public service to our country.

Like the Appropriations Committee, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Department of Treasury touch every corner of our nation and impact people at every stage of their lives – OMB by preparing the President's budget request and then distributing funding after enactment, and Treasury by paying our Nation's bills and collecting our revenue that enables us to invest in families and communities.

Like Appropriations bills, the President's budget presents a vision for our nation. It tells the story of what the Administration cares most about in this country. The stakes for the American people are incredibly high, and I am thankful you all, like me, take this deeply consequential responsibility seriously.

You directly influence the government programs and services that hardworking Americans need in these challenging times for families. Programs and services that help with the cost of living, lower their taxes, reduce drug and child care costs, and support small businesses.

Most importantly, you share our vision to strengthen workers' hand to win higher wages, and weaken the hand of the biggest corporations and Wall Street.

Most families today are living paycheck to paycheck, it is a fact. They struggle with the high costs for food, childcare, health care, and education for their children.

While fiscal year 2024 is not yet closed out – I am pleased Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate united to reach a compromise spending agreement that supports working- and middle-class families, keeps our communities safe, and our economy more equal.

To continue this critical work, President Biden's 2025 budget calls for vital increases in investments in the programs and services that hardworking people, small businesses, and communities in need rely on.

The President said during the State of the Union, quote, "The way to make the tax code fair is to make big corporations and the very wealthy begin to pay their share." End quote.

The President's budget request shows how we can invest in American families while lowering the deficit by increasing taxes on the wealthiest Americans and big corporations. We have a revenue problem in this country, and the President of the United States is prepared to fix that problem.

Too many corporations pay little or no tax at all – and chronic underfunding of the IRS has allowed tax cheats and evaders to get by with limited scrutiny. I will continue to fight to ensure the IRS has the resources it needs to protect honest American taxpayers from those who skirt the law.

I know that this budget blueprint would not be possible without the tireless and dedicated work of the staff in your agencies that adapt and respond to the economic challenges of our day.

Secretary Yellen, I am glad to see a request for increased funding at the Department of Treasury. I look forward to discussing how the Department will ensure the wealthiest Americans and large corporations pay their taxes, improve the taxpayer experience, increase community development and job creation, combat money laundering, help implement the outbound investment review program, and support sanctions activity to weaken Vladimir Putin, Iran, and our other adversaries.

While I have you, Secretary Yellen, I want to say thank you for all your work on the Child Tax Credit.

There has never been a federal program that has had such a profound impact in such a short amount of time. The Child Tax Credit is the most effective tool we have in the fight against rising costs – it is the antidote to inflation. It is about financial stability for families.

I am proud of our hard work in securing what was the largest tax cut for working families in generations, and we must continue fighting to make the full, expanded credit permanent.

As the Appropriations process turns the page to 2025, I will continue working with my colleagues in both chambers and on both sides of the aisle to pass final funding bills that continue to help hardworking people.

Thank you again to our witnesses for being here today and for your testimony.

With that, I thank Chairman Womack and Ranking Member Hoyer, and I yield back.

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