Ranking Member DeLauro Statement at the Subcommittee Markup of the 2026 Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Bill
Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03), Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Committee, delivered the following remarks at the Subcommittee Markup of the 2026 Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies bill:
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am pleased to join you, and the Ranking Member, and the Chair of the full committee this morning.
This is, as Chairman Cole said, the first subcommittee markup for fiscal year 2026, and we do so completely unprecedented times, 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.
Since taking office, the Trump Administration has illegally stolen funding, appropriated by this committee and passed by the House and the Senate, and signed into the President, for programs and services across the federal government that help to grow the middle class, protect the working class, fuel small businesses, and make sure billionaires and mega-corporations play by the rules and pay taxes.
The president is not laser focused on the cost-of-living crisis, which he is actually making worse. He promised to fight for the working class but instead put billionaires in charge of the government.
They are attacking programs that support veterans – and firing thousands of veterans who serve in our government – in order to pay for tax cuts for billionaires.
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.
There are well over 100,000 veterans in Connecticut. My district hosts Connecticut’s only VA hospital that performs in-patient care, the West Haven VA Medical Center.
Staff at West Haven VA received resignation offers and Elon Musk’s “five things” email. Among them are Renee Luneau-Sheckfee, a registered nurse, who says morale among the center’s staff has been impacted by this Administration’s tactics and policies.
She said, and I quote, “I could tell you what I didn't do last week. I didn't take lunch a single day, and I didn't take a 15-minute break a single day, because we're trying to do a lot with what little we have.”
West Haven VA Medical Center, like VA facilities across the country, does not have too many staff, or too much funding. It is already doing a lot with a little – but this Administration has no boundaries when it comes to jeopardizing the programs and services the American people depend on, and that shamefully includes the programs that serve America’s veterans.
The bill before this subcommittee today will enact a key Project 2025 proposal by transferring billions of taxpayer dollars to private hospitals and clinics, leading to longer wait times, poor communication and coordination, diminished quality of care for veterans, and higher costs for taxpayers.
This bill would worsen quality of life for servicemembers and their families while putting veteran safety at risk. While our military faces massive recruitment challenges, the bill underfunds military construction by nearly $1 billion, hurting our recruitment and retention, and undermining our military readiness. And by undermining the ability to keep guns out of the hands of those legally barred from holding them, this bill endangers veterans’ safety.
The bill leaves military installations, servicemembers, and their families vulnerable to climate change and worsening natural disasters by failing to include dedicated funding to strengthen military installations against these threats, or to help them recover from past disasters.
Defense leaders, including during President Trump’s first term, have warned of the danger that climate change poses to our military, and the tens of billions of dollars in damage to military installations from recent severe weather reinforces their point. Former Secretary Mattis warned that climate change threatened American interests and the Department of Defense’s assets around the world, and said climate change is, quote, “a challenge that requires a broader, whole-of government response.”
The bill attacks women veterans, who are the fastest growing demographic served by the Department of Veterans Affairs, with a policy rider that limits abortion access and prohibits abortion counseling.
The women who volunteered to serve and defend our nation – to protect our country’s most sacrosanct rights and freedoms – should not come home to find their medical care and family planning decisions being made by anyone other than themselves, their families, and their doctors. These riders do nothing but put us on a path of partisan division that will make it more difficult to come to an agreement on full-year bills. Ending fiscal year 2025 with an unprecedented full-year continuing resolution was a missed opportunity to invest in our veterans and in our servicemembers. And I too, like the Ranking Member, believe that not including the advance funding for the PACT Act says volumes about what kind of commitment that this administration has for those who have suffered toxic exposures. That piece of legislation was bipartisan, bicameral, and was there to support all veterans. We should be working towards a bipartisan bill that can actually pass this year.
And finally, the bill undercuts our commitments to our military partners. The Trump Administration has already done a masterful job at alienating America on the world stage and turning our back on our closest allies, yet this bill goes even further, underfunding NATO infrastructure by almost $200 million and undermining infrastructure projects our own troops in Europe rely on. Our credibility as a national security partner has been trashed by this Administration – now is no time to retreat from our alliances even further.
The majority may suggest that they are supporting our veterans’ needs with this bill alone, but we all know that it does not contain all the programs the most vulnerable veterans depend on.
Programs and services from food assistance to education to health research, which this Administration has illegally frozen and dismantled, and which their budget decimates funding for, support veterans around the country. Losing that support will mean abandoning our responsibilities and our promises to our nation’s veterans.
I cannot support this bill. But it is my deepest hope we can improve this bill to support our veterans, our servicemembers, and to support workers and families.
Thank you, and I yield back.
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