Ranking Member DeLauro Statement at the Fiscal Year 2025 Budget Request Hearing for the Department of Commerce

Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03), Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Committee, delivered the following remarks at the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Subcommittee's hearing on the fiscal year 2025 budget request for the Department of Commerce:

- As Prepared For Delivery - 

Thank you, Chairman Rogers and Ranking Member Cartwright, for holding this hearing.

And thank you, Secretary Raimondo, for being here today, and for your public service. Shirley Chisholm, the first African American woman elected to the House of Representatives, said that public service is the rent you pay for space on this Earth. You have paid that rent many times over, and you set an example for the rest of us by continuing to do so.

When the Biden Administration took office three years ago, our nation was in the throes of an economic and public health catastrophe. But with your leadership and the help of this Committee, we have improved our supply chains, invested in our communities, increased manufacturing, and helped small businesses grow and thrive, both through annual appropriations and through generational legislative efforts like the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

Using investments made by Congress, you have overseen the expansion of broadband internet access and growth of semiconductor manufacturing, reshoring thousands of jobs, protecting our national security, and supercharging the economy across the heartland.

To build upon prior years’ accomplishments and to continue the work of creating a more fair and equitable economy for hardworking Americans, the President’s budget for 2025 complements the investments we have made in the Commerce Department with additional resources for NOAA to help ensure the on-time delivery of cutting-edge weather satellites to further improve our forecasting capabilities.

It increases funding for the National Institute of Standards and Technology to modernize research facilities and promote responsible innovation in artificial intelligence.

It provides additional funding for the International Trade Administration to fight China’s unfair trade practices, and it increases funding for the Census Bureau’s statistical gathering and the Bureau of Industry and Security’s domestic and overseas export enforcement.

I look forward to hearing more about how these and other investments in the President’s budget request will help make our economy stronger, more fair, and more secure.

I thank you again for appearing before the subcommittee and for your public service to our country. I yield back the balance of my time.