Ranking Member DeLauro Statement at the Subcommittee Markup of the 2025 Agriculture-Rural Development-FDA Funding Bill

Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03), Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Committee, delivered the following remarks at the subcommittee markup of the 2024 Agriculture-Rural Development-FDA funding bill:

Thank you, Mr. Chairman for yielding, and my thanks go to you, to Ranking Member Bishop, and to the majority and minority subcommittee staff for all of the hard work. I especially want to thank Martha Foley, Tyler Coe, and Alex Swann.

After the majority’s failure last year to pass their Agriculture-Rural Development-FDA bill on the Floor of the House of Representatives, I hoped that we would markup a bipartisan bill in this subcommittee for Fiscal Year 2025 that responsibly and adequately funds the bill’s programs, and which discards divisive and harmful riders out of the gate.

Unfortunately, that did not happen. The majority is dragging us down a path to chaos, with bills that do not adhere to the law, and cannot become law, leading us to squander another summer rather than completing our work and passing appropriations bills on time with bipartisan and bicameral support.

This bill increases costs on workers and families in rural America for basic necessities like water, energy, and housing. This bill puts food assistance at risk for the most vulnerable Americans and people around the world, and this bill jeopardizes pediatric and community health across the country.

A host of cuts in this bill promise to raise the cost of living for rural Americans. Cuts to Water & Waste Grants threaten access to clean and reliable water for rural households and businesses.

A 90 percent cut to the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) and a pittance for the Rural Energy Savings Program will not help small businesses and agriculture producers keep up with soaring energy costs.

And cuts to direct loans that help rural Americans buy homes, and the elimination of grants for farm labor housing, will make it even more expensive for people in rural America to keep a roof over their head.

While rural Americans are contending with an elevated cost of living, increasing energy and shelter prices would be disastrous for their household’s bottom line.

The majority has told us that they are looking across the federal government for where they can responsibly reduce spending.

For this bill, the majority is applying their supposed X-acto knife approach by taking food from the mouths of hungry and vulnerable people, here in America and around the world, at a time when conflict on nearly every continent and climate change are drastically increasing global hunger.

This bill levies paternalistic restrictions on Americans in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly referred to as food stamps, by including the extreme “SNAP Choice” pilot program.

SNAP “Choice” is a misnomer, as this program eliminates choices for those on food stamps with restrictions on the types of food that can be purchased – with the added effect of reducing benefits, as the eligible foods are frequently more expensive. What we should be doing and looking into in this committee is the price gouging in the food industry making it impossible for families to put food on the table. There is no food shortage in the United States of America. Let us examine price gouging.

Furthermore, the majority proposes cutting Food for Peace by $688 million below last year, which would be the lowest level since 2002.

At a time of heightened conflict, humanitarian catastrophe and escalating risk of famine around the world, to deny basic nutrition assistance is to say that, while we send American-made arms and munitions around the world – we have nothing left for hungry children and families left reeling from war and destruction and disorder in their communities.

If humanity and selflessness are not reason enough to feed hungry people, please understand that failing to meet this need threatens America’s national security. There are conflicts around the world where we are arming our allies’ defenses – as we should, and as I have proudly supported.

But in each of these theaters, there are innocent civilians caught in the crossfire who are experiencing or are at risk of famine. I worry what it conveys about America’s values if bombs carrying our flag are still falling while food support for civilians dries up. I worry what the people in those regions will most remember America for.

Ensuring people do not go hungry – in our country, and around the world – is not a problem of growing food. We grow enough food.

There is no food shortage, and our farmers are eager to help. Hunger is a political problem – one that we share the rare and awesome power in this committee to meaningfully address. But this bill says that hunger is not our problem. And that should bring us all shame.

As if the cuts in this bill were not bad enough, the majority continues to load up appropriations bills with harmful policy riders that divide Americans and divide the Congress.

One rider is particularly barbaric – a provision in this bill would prevent FDA from stopping the use of an inhumane electrical shock device on young people at risk of hurting themselves or others, despite the well-documented dangers and shocking cruelty of this practice.

Additionally, the bill prohibits the FDA from finalizing rules on dangerous flavored tobacco and nicotine products, taking the side of Big Tobacco over the health of our children and our communities.

In short, this bill demonstrates the majority’s misguided priorities. Shortchanging assistance for hungry women and children, raising costs for rural Americans, and jeopardizing public health is not a responsible fiscal path.

I implore the majority - abandon this strategy and join Democrats at the table so we can work together on bipartisan funding bills that support the American people’s needs. It is time to govern.

Thank you, I yield back.

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