Ranking Member DeLauro Statement at the Full Committee Markup of the Fiscal Year 2026 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 Committee's markup of the fiscal year 2026 Energy and Water Development, and Related Agencies funding bill:

-As Prepared For Delivery-

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I thank you, Chairman Fleischmann, Ranking Member Kaptur, and the subcommittee staff on both sides of the aisle for their diligent work, especially Scott McKee, Anisha Singh, and Adam Wilson.

I am opposed to this bill which will raise energy costs for American households and businesses, hurt our competitiveness, jeopardize our energy independence and weaken our national security. 

Never mind the fact that we have still not received a complete budget from the White House, we are holding this markup in a completely unprecedented time, with the Congress’s authority being challenged by a lawless Administration. 

Since taking office, the Trump Administration has stolen resources, appropriated by this committee, for programs and services across the federal government that help to grow the middle class, protect the working class, support small businesses, and make sure billionaires and corporations play by the rules and pay their fair share. 

The cost-of-living crisis is felt by every American family – middle class families, working families, rural families, seniors and other vulnerable Americans. But the president is not laser focused on the cost-of-living crisis. Instead, he put billionaires like Elon Musk in charge of the government. 

President Trump has attacked and destroyed programs created by Congress and funded by the Appropriations Committee that protect our national security and help increase domestic energy production. 

They are substituting Congress’ decisions and judgment with their own, turning Article I of the Constitution on its head.

These cuts are not only felt in Washington, DC. They affect all of our constituents.

Just a few months ago, states across New England, including my state of Connecticut, were ready to begin an ambitious and collaborative effort to increase energy transmission capacity across our region, to build resiliency and lower energy bills.

Nearly $400 million was going to be invested through the Department of Energy’s Grid Innovation Program to provide onshore connections for offshore wind power, improve the electric grid, and install energy storage through a project called Power Up New England. 

But the President’s Day One executive order abruptly halted offshore wind energy projects in their tracks, and the Department of Energy froze Power Up New England’s grant. That project was expected to bring enough energy online to power about 2 million homes, and reduce energy costs for customers by up to $1.5 billion per year.

The level of uncertainty and chaos now occurring is not an accident – it is a direct result of the Administration’s policies and lawlessness.

Energy demand is higher than ever and only increasing. Cheap, reliable energy is the basis of a successful economy, and the future lies with low-cost wind and solar, not more expensive oil, gas, and coal. We have to increase energy supply or costs will continue to rise for the American people – and we will be dependent on importing energy to meet our goals. 

Instead of focusing on ways to help lower energy costs, House Republicans are using this bill to further gut critical federal resources and advance their own ideological agenda. 

Their cut of nearly half the budget for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy is a direct attack on the programs that lower energy bills for working families, create good-paying jobs in our communities, and keep America competitive. 

Their bill revokes funding that supports hydrogen energy, battery recycling, and energy improvements in public schools, as well as support for public-private clean energy projects. 

Their bill undermines the very programs that help us stop the spread of nuclear weapons, detect nuclear activity, and uphold arms control efforts that make America and the world safer – and it underfunds efforts to clean up sites contaminated by our nation’s early atomic energy program. 

All of this mere days after Republicans passed and the President signed the Big Ugly Bill, a law that gives massive tax breaks to billionaires and the biggest corporations while driving up home energy bills for families by as much as 30 percent.

I cannot support this bill. Instead of working with Democrats to lower prices and invest in technology that promotes our energy independence, House Republicans are pushing a bill that raises energy costs for families and businesses, and eliminates good-paying jobs. 

Thank you, and I yield back.

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