Ranking Member DeLauro Statement at the Subcommittee Markup of the 2026 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 fiscal year 2026 Agriculture-Rural Development-FDA funding bill:

Thank you, Mr. Chairman for yielding.

We are holding this markup in a completely unprecedented time, with the Congress’s authority – and this committee’s relevance – being challenged by a lawless Administration. 

If it is true that there are Democrats, there are Republicans, and there are Appropriators, then now is the time for Appropriators to stand up and preserve our Constitutional authority over the power of the purse, so written in the United States Constitution in Article I. 

Since taking office, the Trump Administration has illegally stolen funding, appropriated by this committee, passed by Democrats and Republicans in the House and in the Senate, and signed into law by the President, for programs and services across the federal government that help grow the middle class, protect the working class, support small businesses, and make sure billionaires and mega-corporations play by the rules and pay taxes.

We are in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis today that is directly hurting farmers. But the president is not laser focused on the cost-of-living crisis, which he is actually making worse. 
He promised to fight for working families but instead put billionaires in charge of the government.

They are attacking programs created by Congress that assist farmers and feed hungry people in order to pay for tax cuts for billionaires. $4.5 trillion in tax cuts.

These cuts are not just numbers on a page – and they are not only felt in Washington, DC. They touch every one of our districts, including my own. 

Millions of pounds of food grown by American farmers have sat in warehouses or gone to waste because of funding freezes and program cancellations. Over $1 billion for the Local Food for Schools and Local Food Purchase Assistance was terminated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture earlier this year, meaning not only did President Trump and Elon Musk determine that feeding our children and stocking our food pantries was not a priority – they decided the local farmers who produce the food for these children were no longer a priority, either. 

Connecticut is expected to lose nearly $4 million in funding from these two programs alone – $4 million in funding that goes directly to purchasing locally grown fresh fruits and vegetables. People may not have the ability to buy fresh fruits and vegetables if we cut off the opportunity to do that with their food stamp funds.

Outrageously, hungry people who will no longer have access to nutritious food will suffer. But this also hurts the farmers who will no longer be able to count on selling their produce for these programs. 
Recently, Kris, a student at Common Ground High School in my district, reached out for help. 

Common Ground is an innovative educational, environmental, and community-building venture, combining a charter high school, an urban demonstration farm, and a community environmental education center. 

Due to the funding freeze, Kris said, essential programs at Common Ground like youth workforce development and community food relief, which help people afford food stamp purchases from local farms, have been shut down, and dozens of student workers have been laid off.  

Students like Kris are reaching out not just because their own future and education has been threatened, but because they see how their community is hurt by these cuts as well. 

The funding freeze is not just killing the crops at Common Ground – it is killing academic futures and new ideas for education. 

Moving to the bill before us, what House Republicans have proposed will take food from the mouths of hungry people in America and around the world, increase water infrastructure and housing costs for rural Americans, and make it harder for small farmers to make ends meet.

At a time when families around the country are struggling with the high cost of living – they live paycheck to paycheck, they have trouble buying food, because of grocery prices which have not come down since day one, they have trouble providing health care for their families, housing and so many other essentials – House Republicans are paying for a billionaire tax cut by cutting the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) fruit and vegetable benefit. Imagine. They believe that’s a program that should be cut. Fruits and vegetables for vulnerable families are not waste. Forcing people into hunger does not create efficiency. 

And despite the lip service Republicans pay to rural Americans, this bill cuts investments in rural America – including grants that help hardworking Americans buy homes in rural areas, and programs to help build drinking- and wastewater infrastructure in the most disadvantaged rural communities. 

This bill turns our back on people around the world who are facing famine, with the lowest funding level for Food for Peace since 2002, and it pulls the rug out from under our farmers who provide the food for hunger programs. This will cause more conflict and jeopardize national security. Food aid is an incredibly important tool to keep America safe. When you see the flour bags, and the food bags coming through, it says USAID, that is the power of the United States. That will be traded for food aid that comes from China.

Instead of focusing on ways to help lower the cost of living and help farmers and hardworking people, House Republicans are using this bill to eliminate protections for small meat and poultry producers against large corporations that have dominated the market, forced small producers out of business, and price gouged consumers.

This bill does not support farmers. It does not support workers. It does not support families, or hungry people. This bill supports corporations and billionaires, and it guts critical assistance in order to hand them yet another tax cut. $4.5 trillion.

I cannot support this bill. But my hope is we can improve this bill to support our farmers, our families, and our communities. 

Thank you, and I yield back.

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