Ranking Member DeLauro Statement at the Full Committee Markup of the Fiscal Year 2026 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies 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 2026 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies bill:

Thank you, Mr. Chairman for yielding. Before we begin, I want to say a thank you to all of the Agriculture, Rural Development, and FDA Subcommittee staff on both sides of the aisle for their work, and in particular, let me shout out Martha Foley, Tyler Coe, and Alex Swann.

We are holding this markup in a completely unprecedented time, with the Congress’s authority – and this committee’s relevance – being challenged by a lawless Administration. 

Since taking office, the Trump Administration has illegally stolen funding, funding that was appropriated by this committee, passed by Democrats and Republicans in the House and in the Senate, and signed into law by the President, for programs and services across the federal government that help grow the middle class, protect working people, support small businesses, and make sure that billionaires and mega-corporations pay their taxes. It is not a question of paying their fair share – there are over 50 that pay no tax at all.

We are in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis today that is also directly hurting farmers. But the president is not laser-focused on the cost-of-living crisis, which he is actually making worse. 

He promised to fight for working families but instead put billionaires in charge of the government. They are attacking programs created by Congress that assist farmers and feed hungry people, and that is all in order to pay for tax cuts for billionaires. $4.5 trillion in tax cuts. $4.5 trillion in tax cuts.

These cuts are not just numbers on a page – and they are not only felt in Washington, DC. They touch every one of our districts, including my own. 

Millions of pounds of food grown by American farmers have sat in warehouses or have gone to waste because of funding freezes and program cancellations. Over $1 billion for the Local Food for Schools and Local Food Purchase Assistance was terminated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture earlier this year, meaning not only did President Trump and Elon Musk determine that feeding our children and stocking our food pantries was not a priority – they decided the local farmers who produce the food for these children were no longer a priority, either. 

Connecticut is expected to lose nearly $4 million in funding from these two programs alone – $4 million in funding that goes directly to purchasing locally grown fresh fruits and vegetables. 

People may not have the ability to buy fresh fruits and vegetables if we cut off the opportunity to do that with their food stamp funds. I think it is ironic that the chair of the subcommittee, talking about trying to have people purchase healthy foods, says that unhealthy food purchases will be prohibited with SNAP dollars. But isn’t it unbelievable that we would cut off and eliminate the fruit and vegetable voucher for families? You cannot talk out of both sides of your mouth and be considered as being an honest broker.

You would think the party of “Make America Healthy Again” would want to increase access to fresh fruits and vegetables. 

Outrageously, hungry people, who will no longer have access to nutritious food, will suffer. But this also hurts the farmers who will no longer be able to count on selling their produce to these programs, such as the Local Food Purchase Assistance, or the LFPA. It launched in Connecticut in 2022 and invests in farmers, connecting them to foodbanks and schools.

Connecticut Foodshare, my state’s largest foodbank, said they are expecting to lose around $1 million of funding this year from this program alone due to USDA cuts, along with losing 34 truckloads of food from TEFAP, The Emergency Food Assistance Program, about $1.7 million worth of food. That is over $2.7 million in federal support for farmers and hungry people lost in just a few months. 

Will Dellacamara, a specialty crop farmer in my district, has a contract through the state for 600 food boxes a week for the Local Food Purchase Assistance program worth over $184,000. For specialty crop farmers in our state, this reliable source of income was critical for their financial stability. The farmer gets paid for something they produce. Hungry people get healthy and nutritious foods. This cut is taking money out of the pockets of farmers and food from hungry people. 

Moving to the bill before us, what House Republicans have proposed will further take food from the mouths of hungry people in America and around the world, they will make it harder for small farmers to make ends meet, and increase water infrastructure and housing costs for rural Americans.

At a time when families around the country are struggling with the high cost of living – living paycheck to paycheck, they have trouble buying food, they have trouble providing health care for their families, housing and so many other essentials – House Republicans are paying for a billionaire tax cut by cutting the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) fruit and vegetable benefit. $4.5 Trillion for the billionaires and the biggest corporations. I’ll bet those folks get three squares a day, and can purchase all the fruit and vegetable products that they need for themselves and their families. My God. Think about it, my friends. Think about what is being done in this bill.

Fruits and vegetables for vulnerable families are not waste. Forcing people into hunger does not create efficiency. 

And despite the lip service Republicans pay to rural Americans, this bill cuts investments in rural America – including grants that help hardworking Americans buy homes in rural areas, and programs to help build drinking- and wastewater infrastructure in the most disadvantaged rural communities. 

This bill turns our back on people around the world who are facing famine, with the lowest funding level for Food for Peace since 2002, and it pulls the rug out from under our farmers who provide the food for those hunger programs. This will cause more conflict and jeopardizes national security. Food aid is an incredibly important tool to keep America safe. When you see the bags of food and flour coming through, and it says USA, that shows not only our generosity, but the power of the United States. That will be traded for food aid that comes from China.

Instead of focusing on ways to help lower the cost of living and help farmers and hardworking people, House Republicans are using this bill to eliminate protections for small meat and poultry producers against large corporations that have dominated the market, forced small producers out of business, and price gouged consumers. Four companies control over 80 percent of the beef market, four companies control 70 percent of the pork industry, and four companies control more than half of the chicken industry – House Republicans’ bill will let these major companies dominate the market, grow their power, and increase prices on the backs of hardworking Americans. 

House Republicans have included many poison pill riders that have no chance of being enacted, including attacks on women’s health, corporate giveaways, anti-energy efficiency, and nutrition restrictions. These provisions only serve to make it more difficult to come to a final agreement that can become law.

This bill does not support farmers. It does not support workers. It does not support families, or hungry people. This bill supports corporations and billionaires, and it guts critical assistance in order to hand them yet another tax cut. $4.5 trillion.

I cannot support this bill. It is my hope is we can improve this bill to support our farmers, our families, and our communities. 

Thank you, and I yield back.

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