Ranking Member DeLauro Statement at the Subcommittee Markup of the 2024 Energy and Water Development Funding Bill

Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03), Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Committee, delivered the following remarks at the subcommittee markup of the 2024 Energy and Water Development funding bill:

Thank you, Chairwoman Granger, Chairman Fleischmann, and Ranking Member Kaptur for your work on this subcommittee. I would also like to thank the majority and minority staff, particularly Scott McKee, Jocelyn Hunn, and Adam Wilson.

My goals for the 2024 Energy and Water bill are to lower energy bills for American families, create jobs by growing and supporting a robust manufacturing sector, promote American energy independence, and out-compete China. But that’s not what this bill does.

The majority has put forth a bill that increases energy costs for American families, undermines growth and modernization of our energy infrastructure, weakens our national security, and would yield leading the world’s energy future to the Chinese Communist Party.

As much as my Republican colleagues may want to refuse overwhelming evidence, deny scientific consensus, and ignore the calamitous natural disasters that have become more severe and more common in every one of our districts, we have no choice but to aggressively transform our energy sector to reflect our climate reality.

The best path – the only path – that addresses climate change, reduces our dependence on fossil fuels, and ends our reliance on foreign energy to is to diversify how we produce and store energy.

Wind. Solar. Hydroelectric. Hydrogen and geothermal. When it comes to addressing climate and driving a robust energy sector, our answer to the question “how” must be “everything under the sun.” The Department of Energy’s clean energy programs drive down energy costs to make it cheaper to expand domestic energy sources. This is the direction the world is going, and if we do not lead on new energy technologies, our competitors like China will be happy to eat our lunch, and charge us more for it, too.

For the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy account, the majority proposes cutting the Department of Energy’s budget by $466 million from the 2023 level. This office researches and develops manufacturing, building, energy management, and weatherization technologies that are critical to our nation’s growth and resilience. To reiterate – that is nearly half a billion dollars, stolen from our children and grandchildren’s economic, energy, and climate future.

Furthermore, Republicans would cut $4.5 billion from the High-Efficiency Electric Home Rebate Program, $1 billion from the Assistance for Latest and Zero Building Energy Code Adoption, and $200 million from the State-Based Home Energy Efficiency Contractor Training Grants.

That means if American families want to reduce their home energy consumption and lower their monthly bills, Republicans say no.

We must be innovative. We must be creative. And we must be aggressive in fighting for a clean energy future to make America resilient in the face of climate change. Which is why it is irresponsible to rescind $15 billion from DOE’s Innovative Technology Loan Guarantee Program. That program supports critical projects that, for example sequester air pollutants – after watching the atmosphere over the East Coast and in my state of Connecticut and my district, turn orange earlier this month, I would hope we could agree that air pollution is a bad thing.

Sustainability, at its core, is a straight-forward demand that we responsibly steward the planet and its natural resources to future generations. The majority fails this demand.

This bill is full of gimmicks that fully expose Republican hypocrisy. It shifts $576 million in domestic funding to defense programs by abandoning prior agreements on funding environmental cleanup. The majority is effectively proposing a $5.4 billion decrease in domestic allocations – 21.5 percent below 2023 levels – while defense sees a $1.1 billion increase.

And if the proposed abandonment of America’s energy future and debasement of our ability to build a diverse, robust, and diversified energy industry weren’t enough reason to vote against this bill, then the offensive riders that will never see the light of day should be.

Finally, I must comment: We are faced with a Republican majority that is reneging on the deal that the Speaker struck with the President just two weeks ago. My friends, the bipartisan budget agreement was supposed to get us back to regular order. Instead, Republicans propose their harmful cuts agenda—not just to $142 billion in cuts that failed as part of the initial McCarthy caps bill—but more drastic cuts—$159 billion to start, but as much as $189 billion if the majority fully flout the Speaker’s commitments, and the law that they just voted to enact. This agenda has no chance of becoming law.

For all of these reasons, I cannot support this bill. And I hope we can provide the resources needed for America’s energy future. Thank you, and I yield back.