Ranking Member DeLauro Statement at the Subcommittee Markup of the 2026 Financial Services and General Government Funding Bill

WASHINGTON, DC – Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03), Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Committee, delivered the following remarks at the subcommittee markup of the 2026 Financial Services and General Government funding bill:

Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman. And a pleasure to be with you, Chairman Joyce, Chairman Cole, both good friends, and good friends with Ranking Member Hoyer. I want to share my appreciation for the subcommittee staff’s work on both sides of the aisle, in particular, I want to say a thank you to Matt Smith and to Philip Tizzani. 

Let me just say to my colleague, Mr. Hoyer, I want to express my deep condolences to the family of Terrance Taylor. He worked incredibly hard for the people of Maryland as your District Director. And we know how, I always say, it’s the staff that keeps our names on the door. It is really true. Our prayers are with you and your staff as well as you mourn the loss of Terrance, and please convey our sentiments to his family. Thank you. 

I oppose the bill before us, which ignores the growing cost-of-living crisis, and instead provides cover for billionaires and the biggest corporations to continue hoarding and stealing wealth, while gutting protections that make the economy work for the middle class and for the working class.

Americans are struggling with rising costs of everyday necessities, and they are struggling every day. They live paycheck to paycheck. But the President, and House Republicans, are not laser-focused on the cost-of-living crisis. They are making it worse. 

Since taking office, President Trump’s Administration has stolen resources, that Democrats and Republicans appropriated, for programs and services across the federal government, including many funded by this subcommittee that help make the economy work and keep the playing field level for everyday Americans, and that keep products safe for our children. 

Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought has orchestrated a lawless upheaval of the entire federal government based on his deluded and debunked views of government, and of the law. Russ Vought is an unelected bureaucrat, much like those he professes to detest. He has decided that his views, and his priorities, are superior to the priorities, directives, and lawful decisions of the Democratic and Republican representatives in the United States Congress.

Vought does not care about the law. Vought does not care about the Congress. He has told us so, explicitly – he has stood up Republican members of this very committee. He wants to upend the bipartisan appropriations process. And he certainly does not concern himself with the plight of the American people. 

He wants to govern by reconciliation and rescissions – thereby getting around or eliminating the role of the Appropriations Committee, as it is set out in the Constitution.

Grover Norquist – and a number of people around this table remember Grover Norquist – founder of Americans for Tax Reform, said in 2001 he wants to shrink government to the size that you can, quote “drown it in a bathtub.” End quote. Russ Vought is pursuing Norquist’s vision. Russ Vought wants a government so broken, so dysfunctional, so starved for resources, so full of incompetent political lackeys and bereft of experts and professionals, that its departments and agencies cannot feasibly achieve the goals and the missions to which Congress has lawfully directed them. Russ Vought’s goal is privatization – for the biggest companies and the billionaires running this Administration to have unchecked power, and an economy that works for them alone, not for the working class or the middle class. 

While he unilaterally eliminates agencies, fires career civil servants, and steals funding from the American people, he is concentrating power and resources in his agency, determined to give himself unchecked control over the entire federal government. 

And at the same time Republicans’ Big Ugly Bill hands massive tax breaks to billionaires and to corporations, it also provides Russ Vought’s Office of Management and Budget with an unprecedented, unwarranted, and unjustified $100 million windfall, while he shutters and dismantles agencies that are delivering services the American people rely on. Our job is to just say ‘no’ to his budget request.

And unfortunately, the bill House Republicans have put before us goes even further to ensure that the economy works for no one. No one but the wealthiest billionaires and largest corporations. 

This bill says to billionaires and price-gouging corporations:

Your taxes? We are looking the other way.

Your consumer products? We take your word that they are safe.

Your scams and junk fees? Those are none of our business.

Market manipulation and insider trading? Go right ahead.

What does this bill say to middle class and working class families? 

You are on your own.

On the heels of a massive $4.5 trillion giveaway to billionaires and corporations in the Big Ugly Bill, this bill guts the Internal Revenue Service. 

An underfunded IRS means slower processing of Americans’ tax returns – and delays to crucial benefits like the Child Tax Credit – but it also means that those with the most resources, like billionaires and powerful corporations, can escape scrutiny, and avoid paying taxes, when the IRS cannot afford to ensure they are meeting their obligations.

On average audits, each dollar of IRS spending yields just over $2, a notable return on investment – but for the wealthiest tenth of one percent, audits produce nearly triple the return, with each dollar yielding over $6 in revenue.

In 2021, at least 55 of the largest corporations in America – in a year where they took in over $40 billion in pretax income – paid no federal corporate income taxes. Zero. Who are they? Nike, Hewlett Packard, and Dish Network, paid zero federal income taxes, profiting on the backs of honest American families. 

The U.S. Department of Treasury, with the resources that they had, they recovered $1.3 billion from high-income, high-wealth individuals in 2024 under the Inflation Reduction Act.

39 profitable companies paid no federal income tax in the first three years the Trump tax law was in effect. Elon Musk and Tesla, which at one point was valued at one trillion dollars, avoided paying federal income tax for three years. 

After Republicans already gave billionaires like Elon more tax breaks, now they are kneecapping the IRS, thwarting fair enforcement of the tax code.

This bill cuts funding for the Federal Trade Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission, meaning scam-peddling, price-gouging, and market manipulating corporations get a green light. 

Families trying to afford groceries and save for their retirement only get empty promises.

These cuts are not just numbers on a page. They have severe consequences for all of the American people.

In April, the Consumer Product Safety Commission recalled several products that posed a danger to toddlers in Connecticut and across the country. Children’s ride-on Tonka dump trucks were recalled due to burn risks. Wooden shape-sorter car toys sold on Amazon were recalled due to a choking hazard. No one in my district told me they voted for more dangerous toys for their children. 

Yet the following month, DOGE began weakening the Consumer Product Safety Commission, firing commissioners as the Administration seeks the dismantling of the Consumer Product Safety Commission. 

This bill furthers their goal by cutting the Commission’s funding, putting children at risk while enabling corporations to sell dangerous products. 

And while Republicans claim they are concerned with election security, they are taking steps to make elections easier to steal. At President Trump’s request, they are cutting funding for the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) by 40 percent – gutting the independent, bipartisan commission that helps keep elections fair and secure. 

Weaker consumer protections? Weaker election security? Do you really believe that the American people asked for any of this?

I would just like to make one point – I want to thank the people who have come from Free DC. This bill includes DC riders, those impact DC’s ability to manage their city. Those riders deal with anti-choice, criminal justice, and even traffic enforcement.

Americans cannot keep up with the ever-increasing cost of living, but instead of working with Democrats to make investments that can help lower their costs, keep Americans safe and our economy strong, Republicans have put forward yet another bill that favors billionaires and corporations; yet another bill that does not fight waste, fraud and abuse, but embraces it. I cannot support this bill. 

I yield back.

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