Ranking Member DeLauro Statement at the Full Committee Markup of the 2025 Financial Services and General Government 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 2025 Financial Services and General Government bill:

Thank you, Chairman Cole, and thank you Chairman Joyce, Ranking Member Hoyer, and the subcommittee staff for all their work, especially Matt Smith and Philip Tizzani.

I will get right to it: the funding level and policy riders in this Financial Services and General Government bill put forth by the majority are unacceptable. House Republicans are again proposing cutting critical agencies that make the economy fairer and safer for the American people by a staggering $2.6 billion.

Just yesterday, we received a letter from 97 organizations, led by Americans for Tax Fairness and representing a wide swath of American consumers and taxpayers, that spells out the shortfalls of the majority’s bill.

It reads, and I quote, “we write to share our deep concerns with and strong opposition to the House FY 2025 Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) proposal that would reduce revenues, exacerbate the nearly $700 billion annual tax gap, undermine our ability to invest in families, and imperil improvements in taxpayer services. Specifically, we urge Congress to reject provisions in the House FY 2025 FSGG appropriations bill that would slash the IRS’s regular annual funding, reducing it to levels not seen since the early 2000s, as well as a policy rider that would prevent the IRS from implementing its Direct File program.” End quote.

From the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) ensuring wealthy individuals and corporations pay the taxes that they legally owe, the Federal Trade Commission protecting Americans from corporate price gouging and scammers, the Consumer Product Safety Commission protecting children from dangerous products, and the Securities and Exchange Commission ensuring the fairness of financial markets, the agencies funded in this bill are critical to lowering costs, leveling the playing field, and protecting hard-working and honest Americans.

In cutting these agencies, House Republicans’ legislation will raise the cost of living, let corporate price gouging run rampant, expose children to dangerous products, leave Americans vulnerable to scams and predatory junk fees, further rig the economy in favor of the rich and powerful, and make our elections less secure and less transparent.

The vast majority of Americans are honest, hard-working people who pay their taxes. Who play by the rules. Who just want an economy that is fair, with an even-level playing field. I think we can agree on that.

But like the majority’s FSGG bill from last year, this legislation benefits scammers, fraudsters, and cheaters – billionaires, big corporations, and the well-connected – at the expense of hardworking Americans who play by the rules and pay their taxes.

We have seen a tremendous return on our investments in the IRS – just last week I saw a report of a 7-to-one return, with $86 billion collected through tougher enforcement against tax cheats and corporations. With the resources we provided for additional enforcement, the IRS collected $520 million in back taxes from just 1,000 delinquent millionaires and billionaires alone.

We know that for every dollar we fund IRS, we receive much more in revenue legally owed to the U.S. Treasury – to the American people – from delinquent millionaires, billionaires, and corporations who have gotten away with paying little to no taxes.

And we know that there are dozens of corporations who have avoided paying any taxes at all on their record profits. Corporations like FedEx, Nike, Dish Network, Salesforce, and dozens of others have gotten away with paying nothing at all on billions in profits.

These corporations that are price gouging honest, hard-working, taxpaying consumers turn right around and avoid paying their taxes. It is despicable and cannot be tolerated.

The majority’s legislation also entrenches the private tax preparation industry, ensuring Americans remain beholden to corporations in order to pay their federal taxes, even after the IRS has proven that their free and simple Direct File pilot program is ready to expand nationwide.

We must respect taxpayer dollars and complete the business of all Americans – that means keeping the playing field level, making the economy fairer, and keeping consumers safe from scams and dangerous products. The majority’s bill only protects the tax dollars and priorities of the wealthiest.

And of course, the majority’s bill does not stop there. Also included are some 80 problematic, pointless, and harmful policy riders that prohibit abortion, meddle in Washington D.C.’s traffic laws, and block implementation of the SEC’s climate disclosure rule.

As I said throughout last year and as we proved together this spring, final spending bills will be the product of negotiations between Democrats and the Republicans in the House and Senate.

The majority’s topline funding levels fall short of the American people’s needs, and short of what both parties just agreed to in March. 80 percent of the Appropriations Committee voted to pass the final 2024 appropriations Acts. Democrats will accept nothing less than a one percent increase over 2024 in nondefense and defense funding. That is what the law provides for.

Finally, I want to raise the point that there is a part of the government funded in this bill that, unlike other departments and agencies, has not been asked to come to this committee to explain and defend their request under scrutiny.

I am talking about the United States Supreme Court. For fiscal year 2026, I look forward to inviting our neighbors on the Court to cross First Street Northeast and allow us to conduct the oversight we wield over the rest of the federal government.

I cannot support this bill. I respectfully request that those on the other side of the aisle go back to the drawing board and come back with a new slate of workable subcommittee allocations across all 12 bills so that we can proceed with the important business of our 2025 appropriations work.

I yield back.

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