Ranking Member DeLauro Statement at the Subcommittee Markup of the 2026 State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs 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 2026 State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs funding bill:

Thank you for yielding. It is a pleasure to be here with you today, Chairman Diaz-Balart, Chairman Cole, and Ranking Member Frankel. I to want to share my appreciation for the subcommittee staff on both sides of the aisle, in particular, I want to shout out Erin Kolodjeski, Laurie Mignone, and Ed Etzkorn.

While I have the highest regard for my colleagues, I must oppose the bill before us today, which in my view dismantles American diplomacy and soft power, abdicates American leadership, yields the global stage to China and Russia, threatens women’s health, and abandons people around the world.

Never mind that we never received a complete budget from the White House, we are holding this markup in a completely unprecedented time, with the Congress’s authority being challenged by a lawless Administration. 

Since taking office, President Trump’s Administration has stolen resources, resources appropriated by this committee, passed by Democrats and Republicans in the House and in the Senate, for programs and services across the federal government, including several in this bill, that protect and promote American interests and security around the world.

Instead of being laser-focused on the cost-of-living crisis, President Trump and Republicans are making it worse. Their Big Ugly Bill is handing massive tax breaks to the wealthy and to corporations while driving up the cost of living for hardworking Americans, all while the Administration empowers billionaires and dismantles agencies and programs that save lives and protect our national security.

President Trump is aggressively pursuing an America-last agenda that will not only see America become weaker, more isolated and more ostracized – it is actively devastating impoverished regions and causing tragic, preventable death around the world.

They empowered Elon Musk, an unelected billionaire, who orchestrated the evisceration of USAID and a freeze on programs saving the lives of vulnerable people around the planet. 

Food grown by American farmers for people on the verge of famine, already on ships, was halted. Administration of live-saving treatments for diseases was stopped. 

Partnerships nurtured over decades to improve people’s wellbeing were severed. 

Make no mistake: children will die because of these cuts. Today, and in the future. It is despicable, it is shameful, and it is a stain on our nation that may never be fully erased. 

The funding freeze was made under the guise of eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse. But the American farmers who feed millions around the world are not waste, and the human lives they support are not either. 

I am all for finding and eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse – something Inspectors General Richardson and Martin, at State and USAID, respectively, were tasked with doing, before they were illegally purged in the dead of night. We are still waiting for these claims of waste to be brought forward.

And just last week, the purges of our diplomatic corps continued at the Department of State, where career, nonpartisan staff, who dedicated their lives to advancing American interests and who hold a wealth of irreplaceable knowledge and relationships, were fired. 

If you were China or Russia and you wanted to weaken America, what would you do differently? This self-destruction is inexplicable, unfathomable, and unforgivable.

It may be easy for some people to look the other way and assume that these cuts are only inflicting harm on the other side of the world. But this affects all of our constituents.

New Haven, Connecticut’s Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services or IRIS brings hope and builds community in my district. They selflessly help refugees and immigrants navigate their lawful – these are folks who are vetted, they are here lawfully – their lawful presence and build their lives in America where they can be free from oppression, free from destitution, and free to become an important part of their country’s fabric and economy.

But President Trump’s order freezing grants for refugee resettlement agencies across America is throwing IRIS – and the lives of refugees – into chaos. 

IRIS’s Director said, and I quote, ​“I work alongside Afghans who supported U.S. forces and came to the U.S. a few years ago, and they’re still waiting for family to come. Some of them were expecting travel orders for their family at any time. All of that stopped.” End quote. 

Snubbing our allies and turning our back to the world does not make us strong. It makes us weak. It makes us an unreliable ally and an untrustworthy partner. Unfortunately, this bill doubles-down on this America-last agenda. 

It slashes humanitarian assistance by more than a third, and foreign assistance by over 20 percent – creating a soft power vacuum that China is eager to exploit. And worse, the bill scapegoats our international partners. U.N. agencies and NGOs that deliver lifesaving aid to the most vulnerable people around the globe. Organizations, yes, like UNRWA, which this bill targets for political points, will be destroyed, making it harder to do the critical work, and leaving children and families in Gaza and other places around the world to starve and to die. 

When we are helping impoverished communities and nations treat diseases, when we are feeding starving children in conflict zones, and when we help ensure villages have drinkable water, we are using and gaining soft power. 

We do these things because of our generosity. We also do these things because they are in our own interest. They build influence, our global standing, and strengthen our national security. 

When we retreat from the global stage, China and Russia fill in the gaps, and the world becomes a more dangerous place. Whose name is on the sack of flour? Whose name is on the door of the clinic? Whose name is on the schoolbook? The United States of America. It must remain that way. 

This bill puts women and children at risk by prohibiting funding for the United Nations Population Fund, slashing support for bilateral family planning and responses to gender-based violence, and by cutting over $300 million from programs that improve maternal and child health and fight infectious diseases.

And this bill surrenders our efforts to combat the climate crisis – eliminating support for climate adaptability and clean energy, ignoring the nexus between climate, conflict, and migration, and jeopardizing the safety and security of our children, our grandchildren, and every generation to follow. 

I cannot support this bill. And I will not stop fighting to protect America’s interests, and against this Administration’s dangerous dismantling of our diplomatic and humanitarian efforts across the world.

I yield back.

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