Ranking Member DeLauro Statement to House Rules Committee on Republicans’ Power Grab Continuing Resolution

WASHINGTON — House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03) delivered the following remarks at the House Rules Committee in opposition to a rule for the House to consider Republicans' continuing resolution:

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and I recognize Chairwoman Foxx as well, and Ranking Member McGovern, and members of the committee. I am opposed to this one-year continuing resolution. This is not a clean CR. This bill is a blank check for Elon Musk and President Trump, and—as the White House has said—it creates more flexibility for this Administration to steal from the middle class, seniors, veterans, working people, small businesses, and farmers to pay for tax breaks for billionaires.

Since January 20, this administration has been undermining Article I of our constitution and countless spending laws by stealing promised investments from American families, from children, and businesses, unlawfully dissolving and dismantling agencies, and arbitrarily firing civil servants and canceling union contracts.

I know our colleagues across the aisle have gone home to their districts and witnessed the rage from their constituents at these actions. They have been advised by their political consultants not to do town halls – to stop listening to their constituents. 

Now what should we do?

The answer should not be a full-year continuing resolution that cuts nondefense investments by $15 billion and defense by $3 billion compared to the Fiscal Responsibility Act agreement for 2025, which was reaffirmed by Leader Schumer and Speaker Johnson. 

A full-year CR transfers more power to the executive branch to shut off and repurpose funding as they see fit, the will of the Congress and people, ignored. We are watching Elon Musk and President Trump meddle in Congress’ jurisdiction already. With this full-year CR, the guardrails are off. It fails to lower costs for the American people and hurts the middle class.

Elon Musk and President Trump would be able to fire thousands of employees at the Social Security Administration, resulting in office closures, longer wait times, and unacceptable backlogs for Americans who are trying to access their earned benefits.

Army Corps of Engineers construction projects would be cut by $1.4 billion, or 44 percent, and President Trump, not Congress, would determine all project funding levels, and who gets the funding.

Instead of helping our communities address housing costs, the bill cuts rent subsidies by more than $700 million, leaving landlords to foot the bill or evict more than 32,000 households.

High among the severe shortcomings of this bills are the broken promises to veterans. House Republicans wisely proposed $23 billion in advanced funding for the Toxic Exposures Fund to care for veterans exposed to burn pits, Agent Orange, and other toxic substances in their own bill last summer. We do this with advanced funding because we do not want to subject veterans’ health care to shutdown threats or to political whims. That $23 billion in advanced funding for toxic exposures has disappeared. 

This bill is also bad for our military: there is a reason the Department of Defense has never operated for an entire fiscal year under a CR. Trying that experiment now, amidst the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the rising influence of China, would undermine the U.S. military’s effectiveness and readiness.

The decisions about the investments we make cannot be entrusted in or controlled by one single officeholder. 

Government spending decisions must be the result of broad compromise among the people’s representatives, that has been the historical past of the appropriations committee and its work, and that is for good reason. 

Our positions in this body are temporary. We are but stewards of our system of government. And that stewardship requires preserving the separation of powers and coequal branches of government as designed by the framers of the Constitution.

Defined by the Supreme Court, where Antonin Scalia opined on this, the President does not have inherent authority over the amount of money that is appropriated by the Congress. What we need to do here is follow the law, and make sure the executive is not tampering with the decisions made by the Congress.

I worked to uphold and defend our power of the purse, even when that meant going against a Democratic president. I implore my colleagues to join me, and stand up for our constituents against an unelected billionaire Elon Musk who is stealing taxpayer dollars from American families, from our children, and from businesses. 

We cannot forfeit our authorities over government funding as laid out in the constitution to an unelected, unchecked billionaire – the consequences felt by all our constituents are too severe. We cannot allow government of the people, by the people, for the people, to become the government of billionaires, by billionaires, and for billionaires. 

The first step in doing so is to oppose this bill so that we can pass a short-term bill to give Chairman Cole and I time to finish regular bills. We were very close and still are very close to getting this done where we would have yearlong bills in the regular order. I think that we can all agree would be an improvement over a continuing resolution.

Thank you, and I yield back.

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