News

Oregon’s U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley and Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (ME-01), the top Democrats on the subcommittees that oversee funding for the Indian Health Service (IHS), demanded urgent action from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to stop dangerous cuts to the IHS workforce, which is already facing huge challenges and staffing vacancies.

President Trump’s Administration is imposing a new policy to cap indirect costs for National Institutes of Health (NIH) research grants at 15 percent, which would cut billions of dollars in funding for life-saving research to develop cures and treatments for diseases. Under the leadership of House Appropriations Committee and Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Subcommittee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro, Congress enacted a provision that has been included annually in appropriations bills since 2018 that explicitly prohibits any Administration from making these changes.

WASHINGTON — House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro released the following statement after the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia paused the Trump Administration’s plans to put more than 2,000 critical U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) workers on paid leave:

U.S. Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03), Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Committee and the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, joined Senators Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Ranking Member of the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Related Agencies Senate Appropriations Subcommittee, in calling out the Trump Administration for the chaos and confusion they have unleashed by pausing communications and critical work, groundbreaking research, and funding for programs Americans rely on at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The legislators also demanded answers from the Trump Administration on the funding freeze that has impacted Medicaid, Head Start and other vital services in their states.

Washington DC – Today, U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL-25), Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Military Construction and Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Subcommittee, joined House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (CT-03), to demand that U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth explain why he expects taxpayers to pay for a $50,000 ‘emergency’ paint job on his furnished government house.

WASHINGTON — House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro released the following statement after the U.S. Senate confirmed Russ Vought to be the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB):