Statement : Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies

Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03), Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Committee and the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee delivered the following remarks at the Subcommittee's hearing on the fiscal year 2025 budget request for the Department of Education.

Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03), Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Committee and the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee delivered the following remarks at the Subcommittee's hearing on the fiscal year 2025 budget request for the Department of Health and Human Services.

House Appropriations Committee and Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Subcommittee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03) delivered the following remarks on the House Floor in opposition to H.R. 5894, the 2024 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies funding bill.

Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03), Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Committee and the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Subcommittee, delivered the following remarks at the Subcommittee's markup of the fiscal year 2024 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies funding bill.

Given the need to address these and other enduring shortages made much worse by the pandemic, this Committee made significant investments through the 2022 and 2023 appropriations bills to strengthen HRSA’s health workforce programs. This included a nearly $100 million increase in the 2023 package passed and enacted in December. We increased funding for nursing and midwife programs, mental and behavioral health workforce education and training, and Children’s Hospital Graduate Medical Education programs to train resident doctors. But more must be done.

"Americans depend on the work that CDC, NIH, and ASPR does. They rely on you to stay healthy. You improve our quality of life. You ensure we are constantly developing new treatments. You protect us from public health threats, including from the Covid pandemic, which has so tragically taken more than 1 million American lives over the last 3 years. That is why I must mention how deeply concerned I am over some of my House Republican colleagues’ calls for massive spending cuts to many of the programs that keep families and communities healthy."

"Investing in kids—not defunding their education—is how we make our economy stronger and our future brighter. We should be doing everything we can to increase access to these programs, not cutting off very basic education services for children who need them."

This subcommittee can and must do more to lift up our nation’s most vulnerable so that every person, no matter their background or zip code, has the opportunity to contribute, succeed and prosper. This means strengthening the programs we just spoke about, not gutting them.