Ranking Member DeLauro Statement at the Full Committee Markup of the Revised Subcommittee Allocations
Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03), Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Committee, delivered the following remarks at the Committee's markup of the revised subcommittee allocations:
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
These are incredibly challenging times to be an appropriator, on either side of the aisle. But, and I say this with respect to my dear friend, the Chair of the full committee, this absurd and opaque process is not making our jobs any easier.
We are marking up bill after bill without any idea of how much we are going to appropriate this year.
That is not how appropriations should be done, or can be done. When I led this committee, not once did the full committee mark up a bill without the full slate of subcommittee allocations in hand.
Mr. Chairman, you made an excellent point in this room just two days ago, when you suggested that members who want to work together on issues have those conversations and come to agreement before we get to the markup room.
But, Mr. Chairman, it is nearly impossible for us to do so. We do not know the overall spending level for the year. We do not know the allocations across each subcommittee.
We did not even know the allocation for the bill we just marked up until after the bill was reported out of committee.
We do not know if, when, or to what funding level, the seven remaining bills will be marked up. What crumbs will be left over for Energy-Water? What pittance will be afforded to Labor-Health and Human Services-Education? Financial Services, Interior-Environment, State and Foreign Operations, Transportation and Housing, Commerce-Justice-Science… How can we prioritize our investments in any bill without knowing what will be provided to all of them? So we can make sound decisions on what we are doing here.
I am deeply fearful that, at a time when appropriators must come together to defend our power of the purse, the path the majority has chosen will only serve to degrade the efficacy and credibility of what we are doing in this room.
We are not putting numbers on a page. This is not Monopoly money. What we do in this room matters greatly to the safety, to the prosperity, and to the livelihoods of the American people. And this committee cannot prioritize investments in the American people without a full picture of the scope of our annual appropriations.
I urge the Chairman to put forward a full slate of subcommittee allocations. I was there at the table in March working to get a full-year deal – I was still there when the Speaker cut bait and ran away – and I remain here today, ready to work out bills that reflect the bipartisan will of this Committee, this Congress, and most importantly, the people that we serve, our constituents.
Let us do this as quickly as possible, the right way, and make actual decisions that are not based on arbitrary and obscure numbers.
Thank you and I yield back.
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