Statements

"This year’s T-HUD bill makes forward-looking investments in our housing and transportation infrastructure, while ensuring concerted attention to safety, the needs of the most vulnerable, and resilience. It will benefit all American communities – urban and rural – and lays the foundation for economic growth and opportunity. I look forward to working with my colleagues to enact it into law."

"This bill rejects cuts proposed by the Trump Administration, including those that would have harmed the ability of the EPA to keep our communities safe and healthy, defunded the Land and Water Conservation Fund, and decimated scientific research to combat climate change. Instead, we are choosing to make important investments to protect the air we breathe and the water we drink. We are honoring our federal trust and treaty responsibilities to provide for the health, safety, and education of our Native American brothers and sisters. And, we are prioritizing funding to research, combat, and adapt to climate change."

The budget proposed by the Trump Administration left a series of budgetary holes throughout the agencies that this subcommittee had to fill. They proposed eliminating programs that members on both sides of the aisle support. Thankfully, we have been able to do this job with an adequate allocation of $73.895 billion in funding for fiscal year 2020, an increase of $9.8 billion over fiscal year 2019. This amount includes a budget adjustment for the 2020 Census, which is an extremely high priority in this bill. Within this allocation, this bill makes significant investments in justice reform, economic development, and the science agencies. We also increased funding for programs and research focused on climate change, and for efforts to address gun violence."

"This bill makes critical investments toward combating climate change, advancing science and innovation, creating water infrastructure in states and territories and investing in critical nuclear security systems. This bill rejects the President’s drastic and short-sighted proposed cuts– including a 12% decrease to the Department of Energy, a 31% decrease to the Army Corps of Engineers, and a 28% decrease to the Bureau of Reclamation – and instead increases investments to these important programs to meet national priorities as our nation’s population is projected to grow from 325 million to 400 million by 2050."