Ranking Member DeLauro Statement at the Subcommittee Markup of the 2025 Commerce, Justice, Science 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 2025 Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies funding bill:

Thank you, Chairman Rogers and Ranking Member Cartwright, and the majority and minority staff for your work on this bill, especially Bob Bonner, Nora Faye, Faye Cobb, and Shannon McCully.

The majority’s Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies bill for fiscal year 2025 in my view is dangerous, reckless, and makes Americans less safe from violence and crime, whether they are in their homes and in their communities. The bill politicizes and defunds law enforcement by cutting FBI and ATF agents and analysts, and the bill defunds prosecutors that keep dangerous criminals off our streets.

The bill continues the majority’s relentless campaign of attacks on American women’s health and their safety. This bill attacks law enforcement and threatens U.S. national security. It hurts rural communities, and it tilts the economic playing field against everyday Americans.

The majority’s bill defunds the FBI by nearly one billion dollars, inevitably leading to agents and analysts at the Bureau losing their jobs, and severely obstructing the Bureau’s ability to keep Americans safe and keep dangerous criminals off the streets.

I am baffled as to why the majority’s bill would inhibit federal law enforcement’s ability to do their jobs, keep the American people safe, and administer the rule of law.

The FBI works day in and day out, year-round and around the world, keeping American families safe.

Just in the last six days: a Missouri man was sentenced to 40 years in federal prison for sexual abuse against two girls; an Idaho woman was sentenced to five years in federal prison for causing the methamphetamine-induced death of her 7-week-old baby; ten gang members involved in narcotics and firearms trafficking were charged with various felonies in Minnesota; a former tribe president in South Dakota was sentenced on federal counts for defrauding the Oglala Sioux Tribe; a New York man pleaded guilty to straw purchasing the shotgun that was used to fire shots at Temple Israel in Albany; three Hells Angels were sentenced to life in prison for racketeering, conspiracy, and related crimes; and, an Indian national charged in connection with a foiled plot to kill American citizens in New York City was extradited to the U.S.

This all happened within the last week, thanks to public servants at the FBI, whose jobs may be eliminated under this bill. The FBI is helping to prosecute each of these crimes and bring these criminals to justice, as they do in each of our districts, every single day, without concern for politics.

And defunding law enforcement is not the only way this bill jeopardizes Americans’ safety – far from it.

The majority’s bill is leaving schools, grocery stores, churches, concerts, and communities vulnerable to more devastating mass shootings by making it easier for guns to end up in the wrong hands.

And they slash legal services, and cut the agencies and programs engaged in early intervention and crime prevention in our communities; Violence Against Women Act grants, Juvenile Justice grants, hate crimes grants, and other resources that prevent violence are all cut, leaving communities more vulnerable to crime.

Finally, this bill is bad for the economy. It is bad for rural Americans, as the majority’s bill cuts Economic Development Administration programs that create jobs, predominantly in rural communities.

And, this bill is bad for the everyday, hard-working Americans across the country who cannot keep up with the high cost of living, by cutting funding for the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division. After years of mergers across industries allowed the biggest companies, from grocery and home goods stores to airlines, to acquire their closest competitors, these corporations have relentlessly and shamelessly pursued – and acquired – record profits by price gouging Americans out of every dollar they can.

Corporations have limitless resources for lawyers and lobbyists to fight for their interests. We must ensure that the Department of Justice can go toe to toe and fight to keep the economy fair for everyday Americans. 

Because this bill defunds and politicizes law enforcement, harms women, hurts the economy, and makes our communities less safe from violence and crime, I cannot support this bill.

Democrats are at the table and ready to pass legislation that protects Americans’ safety. Please, I implore the majority to join us. It is time to govern.

Thank you, and I yield back.

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