Ranking Member DeLauro Statement to House Rules Committee on Partisan Israel Supplemental

House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03) delivered the following remarks at the House Rules Committee in opposition to Republicans’ proposed supplemental:

Thank you, Chairman Cole, Ranking Member McGovern, and members of the Rules Committee.

Considering the escalating crises around the world we are called upon to respond to – in Ukraine, in Israel, in the Indo-Pacific, here at home and on our border – I expected we would be here to discuss a bill that adequately responds to each of these needs, without delay. Unfortunately, the bill under consideration does no such thing.

To the extent it addresses the war in Israel, this bill is totally without the humanitarian aid for innocent civilians caught in the crossfire that must be included in any emergency spending measure. I have called for a humanitarian pause in the fighting to allow for the restoration of power and water in the region and the rapid, safe, and uninterrupted distribution of humanitarian aid. I have also urged the unconditional release of all remaining hostages. We must do everything we can to protect innocent life. This bill uses a crisis of inconceivable consequence as a cover for a tax cut for billionaires and the wealthiest corporations.

The images we have seen of Israelis attacked by Hamas terrorists are harrowing and hearken back to the darkest days of the 20th century. This is the Holocaust; a different kind of massacre. The costs of Hamas’s rule in Gaza, to Israelis and to Palestinians, are intolerable and beyond the point of no return. We can and we must provide Israel with the resources it needs to defend itself from terrorist attacks and to crush Hamas.

This is precisely why we should be moving legislation that has the best chance of passing this body, gaining approval in the Senate, and moving across the President’s desk in the timeliest manner possible.

Instead, House Republicans have proposed a bill that will only delay providing critical support to Israel. It is outrageous that a major emergency funding bill, in response to the worst attack on Jewish people since the Holocaust, is tied to offsets. Israel, our closest ally in the Middle East, is reeling from a terrorist attack and urgently needs our support.

1,400 Israelis and 36 Americans were killed in their homes and on the streets in cold blood. Israel needs to know why we are conditioning aid.

This bill tells our allies that, should they find themselves in an existential war for their democracy and freedom, the United States cannot be counted on for support.

This bill tells innocent civilians caught in the crossfire that we cannot care for their safety and national security.

This bill tells America’s border communities that you cannot count on us for your security or support.

This bill tells the American people that if we are to support those fighting for democracy and against naked aggression abroad, we do not have their backs. You endanger our national security.

This bill tells our brave firefighters that risk their lives to keep us safe from wildfires that we do not care if their pay gets cut.

And, shamefully, by cutting the IRS by $14.3 billion, which CBO says has the effect of nearly doubling the cost of this bill with $27 billion in lost revenue, and $12 billion added to the deficit – and I know my colleagues care about the deficit – this bill tells billionaires and the wealthiest corporations that, in the eyes of House Republicans, they come first. This bill says that they come before our closest allies abroad, they come before fighting for freedom against Russia, and they come before helping the people of Maui recover from the wildfires, Guam from the typhoon, Florida and the southeastern United States from hurricanes, California and Vermont from floods, and Mississippi from tornadoes. Americans are struggling to recover from natural disasters and House Republicans are telling them to get in line behind the billionaires.

These messages are the antithesis of what we should be telling the world in this moment.

As the first bill under the New Speaker, this is an unserious bill that remains painfully partisan when the world asks so much more of America.

Russian tyranny and aggression threaten more than just Ukraine’s borders. We learned in Georgia, and we learned in Crimea – if you stand by while Russia takes an inch, they will take a mile. Vladimir Putin must be held to account for upending Europe’s security and peacetime for a pointless and bloody war which has disrupted energy markets and triggered food insecurity around the world. Ukraine’s fight for democracy and sovereignty requires decisive action and absolute support from the free world. We must act like the leaders of the free world. This is appeasement like the world experienced in 1938, and which led to a cascading murderous result. As Winston Churchill said at that time, “An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.”

Meanwhile, we must project strength in the Indo-Pacific as China seeks to undermine and overpower the region’s democratic strongholds. Curtailing China’s influence in the region is in the direct interest of American national security – yet it is nowhere to be found in House Republicans’ legislation.

And finally, we must prove – as we did in the years after World War II and throughout the Cold War – that we can protect, defend, and nurture global democracy as the preeminent form of governance at the same time we serve the American people. This has never been a question of either-or, and we should reject that dichotomy altogether. Something as simple and universally beneficial as supporting child care – lessening the burden on families and caretakers – should be in whatever legislative vehicle can move immediately.

As is clear to any lawmaker interested in governing: any government funding bill, whether an emergency supplemental or a full-year appropriations bill, will need the support of Democrats and Republicans in both the House and the Senate to become law. House Republicans know this legislation will not become law. The President will not sign it.

House Democrats are ready to work with House Republicans on legislation that supports our allies abroad including Israel and Ukraine, protects our national security, provides humanitarian assistance, and makes much-needed domestic investments, but House Republicans so far refuse to join us at the negotiating table.

Three weeks were squandered by partisan in-fighting. Our allies and the American people have no more time to wait. We must act now to defend our allies, protect civilians, and serve the American people’s urgent needs. This bill does none of the above, so I urge my colleagues to withhold their support. Thank you, and I yield back.

###