Ranking Member DeLauro Statement at the Subcommittee Markup of the 2024 Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Funding Bill

Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03), Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Committee, delivered the following remarks at the Subcommittee's markup of the fiscal year 2024 Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies funding bill:

– As Prepared for Delivery –

Thank you, Chairman Cole and Ranking Member Quigley, for your work on this subcommittee. I would also like to thank the majority and minority staff, particularly Christina Monroe, Nora Faye, and Jackie Kilroy for all of the hard work on both sides of the aisle.

For business travel, commuting, leisure, and everything in between, life in America requires safe and efficient ways of connecting. Americans deserve the safest, most advanced systems in the world, across all forms of transportation. Yet we have seen our transportation systems fail to meet the needs of the American people. Between air traffic control interruptions, catastrophic train derailments, highways collapsing and record pedestrian fatalities, we should be increasing investments to keep people safe, not retreating from our transportation future.

Furthermore, the biggest issue touching every community is the lack of affordable housing. There is a shortage of 7.3 million affordable homes available nationwide. Ensuring affordable and adequate housing is available in the places Americans live and work – ensuring there are roofs over the heads of children and families – should not be controversial. Yet this bill fails to meet the housing needs of a growing and aging population.

The majority’s bill includes more of the same rescissions and budget gimmicks we have already seen. This includes pulling back over half a billion dollars for health hazard remediations in low-income housing, and weakening the enforcement of the IRS to benefit the wealthiest Americans. The $25 billion cut from the Internal Revenue Service’s Inflation Reduction Act funding would constitute a $51 billion tax break according to the Congressional Budget Office – so while billionaires would not have to pay the taxes they owe, hardworking American families will have a harder time commuting and keeping a roof over their head.

The majority’s cut of $7.2 billion for the Department of Transportation will make everything from commuting to shipping goods slower, more difficult, and more expensive for Americans. This bill guts rail investments – including a 64 percent reduction for Amtrak – resulting in service eliminations, delays to station improvements, and furloughs to its workforce.

The brunt of this cut is borne by the Northeast Corridor – from $1.3 billion to $99 million, or 92 percent cut. Northeast Corridor rail service is the lifeblood of the $5.8 trillion economic region that spans 12 states from Virginia to Maine. Business travelers and commuters – myself included – rely on this service every day to make our economy grow, and thousands across the region are employed, directly and indirectly, by rail service and the commerce it drives.

We are not just talking about how people get to and from New York City. There are seven million jobs within a five-mile radius of a Northeast Corridor station. Communities of every size line the route, from rural towns to suburbs to urban destinations, and those communities rely heavily on rail travel for connectivity and commerce.

This includes communities like Aberdeen, Maryland, that have their own stop on the Northeast Corridor – and communities like Roanoke, Virginia and Connellsville, Pennsylvania, which are connected to the region by intercity routes that would also see drastic cuts. I do not believe my colleagues want fewer trains connecting their constituents to family, events, business meetings, and hard-earned vacations.

We have seen the costs of inadequate rail infrastructure play out in real-time, yet this bill eliminates the Federal-state Partnership for Intercity Passenger Rail program and cuts the Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvement program in half, kicking the can down the road on major safety improvements for passenger and freight rail.

Several of our colleagues in the majority supported the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and even if they did not, they have not missed the ribbon cutting. Yet that law was never intended to replace annual appropriations. We cannot make that law’s historic investments in transportation while gutting the annual appropriations that close the funding gap on complex and costly projects.

In parallel with setting our transportation infrastructure back decades, the majority looks to set investments in housing back as well. This bill fails to do enough to expand housing for seniors, veterans, people with disabilities, and working families, and it fails to improve the safety of those in low-income housing.

Gutting the HOME program – the sole Federal program dedicated to affordable housing construction – by 67 percent will only further squeeze the housing supply. And the bill puts children and families at risk by rescinding $564 million for health hazard remediations in low-income housing, including lead-based paint hazards, jeopardizing the safety of our most vulnerable populations.

Like every other bill we have marked up this Congress, this bill includes harmful and political riders. No honest lawmaker can look at the history of housing in this country and say there is no and has never been systemic racism. The U.S. government was an active participant in creating the racial segregation we still see today, and this bill cannot be talked about without acknowledging that history. Black-majority neighborhoods were bulldozed to create urban freeways. Racial covenants, red-lining, and restrictive zoning were not just tolerated – they were frequently requirements of federal programs. We must be honest with one another and with the American people about this country’s history of housing discrimination, and why we have a Fair Housing Act to begin with.

Yet this bill goes even further to prohibit HUD from using funds to fulfill the requirements of the Fair Housing Act of 1968. By tying HUD’s hands, the majority is giving the green light to allow grantees to use taxpayer dollars to discriminate.

This bill would cripple our economy and eliminate thousands of jobs. It does nothing to address the historic lack of affordable housing, and makes our vulnerable populations less safe. With unthinkable cuts, indefensible riders, and untenable rescissions, the majority continues to diminish the relevance of the Appropriations Committee, and so for these reasons, I must vote against this bill, and I urge my colleagues to do the same.

Thank you, and I yield back.

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