Ranking Member Frankel Floor Remarks on Republicans’ Rescissions Package

WASHINGTON — Congresswoman Lois Frankel (D-FL-22), Ranking Member of the National Security, Department of State, and Related Programs Appropriations Subcommittee, delivered the following remarks on the House Floor in opposition to Republicans' rescissions package:

-As Prepared for Delivery-

I rise in fierce opposition to the Republicans’ rescission bill—an outrageous attack on America’s values, global leadership, and moral standing in the world.

Let’s be clear: this isn’t a budget fix—it marks a dangerous turn toward indifference, isolation, and the betrayal of our global responsibilities.

Foreign aid makes up just a tiny fraction of our budget, but it delivers enormous returns—reducing the need for military intervention, creating new markets for U.S. goods, and strengthening global stability.

Military leaders have warned us for years: if we don’t lead with development and diplomacy, we’ll end up responding with bombs, boots, and blood.

This very bad bill axes the very tools that keep us safe, secure, prosperous and respected on the world stage.

This very bad bill guts programs that have saved lives, opened markets, and prevented conflict for decades. It is being done in the name of eliminating waste and abuse, but millions of dollars worth of food aid and contraceptives are wasting away and now awaiting destruction. Not because they aren’t needed, but because partisan politics has overpowered human decency. That is true waste.

These rescissions will continue the damage.

 We’re talking about pulling tens of millions of children out of school.

Cutting off small farmers from the seeds and tools they need to grow food.

Halting progress that has lifted families out of poverty and prevented children from suffering lifelong health consequences.

Ending efforts to bring clean water to communities—leaving them exposed to illness and death.

This bad bill also takes direct aim at women’s health—eliminating access to contraception for tens of millions of women and girls, setting the stage for more unintended pregnancies and maternal deaths, many in places already ravaged by conflict and crisis.

It abandons vulnerable people fleeing war and persecution—leaving women who’ve survived horrific violence without care, and families without access to shelter, food, or medicine.

And as we turn our backs, our adversaries are stepping in.

China is buying influence with surveillance technology and predatory loans.

Russia is sending mercenaries and spreading disinformation.

They are redrawing the rules of global engagement.

And this bad bill is more than a failure of our standing in the world. It’s a shocking forfeiture of congressional authority.

By rubber-stamping the executive branch’s decision to cancel funds Congress already approved, Republicans have effectively anointed a king—handing the power of the purse to one man. And this rescission bill is just the start of more to come. Just call us the disappearing U.S. Congress.

This isn’t how democracy works. This is how autocracy begins.

And let’s be clear: this bad bill won’t lower costs for American families.

It won’t shrink the deficit.

But it will make the world more dangerous and more likely to have to increase spending on weapons and war.

It is not just shortsighted. It is cruel. It is reckless. And it is beneath the values we claim to represent.

Let us defend the Constitution. Protect American leadership. And stand on the side of dignity, decency, and global stability.

I urge my colleagues to vote NO on this very bad bill.