Ranking Member DeLauro Statement at the Subcommittee Markup of the Fiscal Year 2026 Homeland Security Funding Bill
Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03), Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Committee, delivered the following remarks at the Homeland Security Subcommittee's markup of the 2026 Homeland Security funding bill:
I am delighted to be here with you, Mr. Chairman and our Ranking Member and with our colleague from Oklahoma. The kind of work we have all done together is really what our direction should be for the future. I want to say thank you to the subcommittee staff for their work on this bill.
I am opposed to the bill before this subcommittee, because this Homeland Security bill and the budget that House Republicans propose will make Americans less safe and more vulnerable to growing security threats.
Despite the ever-increasing threats against American families, businesses, critical infrastructure, and national institutions, their bill weakens our national security, and leaves Americans vulnerable to attacks from our adversaries by sharply cutting cyber and infrastructure security.
Their bill fails to protect Americans from terrorism and violent extremism by eliminating Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention grants, which help local educators, leaders, and law enforcement agencies to identify threats and intervene before violence occurs.
House Republicans allow the Administration to abuse Americans’ constitutional rights by shuttering key civil rights offices, while blindly funding costly private-run detention centers with limited oversight, greenlighting sometimes illegal or mistaken deportations, abandoning due process protections, and defunding the community organizations that help these communities manage response to border issues.
Never mind the fact that we have still not 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 and Elon Musk have stolen resources, 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 to grow the middle class, protect the working class, support small businesses, and make sure billionaires and mega-corporations play by the rules and pay their fair share.
The cost-of-living crisis is felt by every American family – middle class families, working families, rural families, seniors and other vulnerable Americans. But the president is not laser focused on the cost-of-living crisis. He is actually making it worse.
They are attacking programs created by Congress that protect our national security and keep America safe.
Among the illegally frozen funding is over $100 billion awarded through FEMA for state and local governments to respond to disasters and mitigate future ones, protect against terrorism, secure our ports, and much more.
President Trump and Secretary Noem have proposed completely eliminating FEMA. When FEMA’s Acting Administrator Cameron Hamilton came before this committee and defended the existence of the agency he oversaw, he was summarily dismissed. He actually testified – and I asked him the question, “should we eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency” – and he said, while he believed there were some reforms to be made, that he would not make that recommendation of elimination. The very next day he was fired from his job.
I am aghast at the notion that this country would cease to lend our fellow countrymen a helping hand after disaster strikes, but that is the Administration’s goal.
Make no mistake – from housing to education to health care to disaster recovery, not one of our states can afford to take on the burden of everything this Administration seeks to shift upon them. Everyone in this room knows that.
They have cancelled the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program or BRIC, an incredibly popular and effective tool for state and local governments to help prevent the very damage and destruction FEMA responds to after disasters strike. It is hard to call this program – created in President Trump’s first term – wasteful, when research has shown mitigation efforts like BRIC save a minimum of $6 for every $1 invested, and that savings more than doubles when including economic relief. In fact, many of my Republican colleagues here today on this subcommittee pleaded with the Secretary to restore BRIC because they know how important this initiative is to their states.
These cuts are not just numbers on a page – and they are not only felt in Washington, DC. They affect all of our constituents. In the last year, Connecticut has been devastated by wildfires, historic flooding, and damaging storms.
Last fall, historic rainfall and flooding washed out several roads and bridges, and demolished a major shopping center in Seymour, Connecticut, called Klarides Village. 14 of 16 businesses in the center were destroyed, almost all of them family-owned.
Quote, “Everything is gone, everything is destroyed,” said Mike Abe, whose restaurant, the 67 Family Diner, ended up needing nearly $1 million in repairs.Connecticut announced a $5 million emergency grant program, but it was a FEMA federal disaster declaration that made enough funds, including SBA loans, available for the shopping center’s businesses to rebuild.
In the wake of disasters going back to Hurricanes Sandy and Irene and even before, FEMA has played a critical role in helping the people of Connecticut get back on their feet. But now, the Administration is leaving them behind by stealing FEMA resources.
Without the federal support my district needs to rebuild, mitigate future disasters, and staff emergency management offices, my constituents will be left hung out to dry as they try to piece their lives back together, and as they prepare for whatever storm strikes next.
New Haven, Connecticut, was slated to receive $25 million from FEMA for flood control – but this funding has been unlawfully frozen and is now putting our mitigation efforts in jeopardy, leaving my constituents exposed to the next flood. And in addition to mitigation efforts, Connecticut is losing emergency management support.
Connecticut’s Division of Emergency Management and Homeland Security relies on roughly a quarter of a billion dollars in support. Dozens of emergency management leaders are supported with federal funds, and like many other states, FEMA helps fund well over 100 local emergency management offices throughout Connecticut. And this Administration’s threats to FEMA’s existence endanger Connecticut’s capacity to manage future emergencies.
Bill Turner, Connecticut’s State Emergency Management Director, said and I quote, “the option of just getting rid of FEMA and dumping it all in the states and locals isn’t going to work.” End quote.
Emergency management, response, recovery, and mitigation is not waste. Helping our neighbors and fellow Americans rebuild their lives after disasters is not abuse.
In the bill before us, House Republicans are doubling-down on the Administration’s effort to throw the responsibility of disaster recovery and mitigation onto the states. In the face of worsening hurricanes, wildfires, and other natural disasters, they seek to reduce FEMA’s staffing, slash funding for climate resilience, and they ignore an $8 billion shortfall in the Disaster Relief Fund, even though they line up for aid when disaster strikes in their own districts.
Instead of focusing on ways to help lower the cost of living and help keep the American people safe from threats from our adversaries, extremists, and major disasters, House Republicans are using this bill to gut critical federal resources and advance their own agenda.
I cannot support this bill. But my hope is we can come together to improve this bill to support our country’s safety and security.
Thank you, and I yield back.
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