Conference Report on H.R. Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2019

Floor Speech

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Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the conference report which includes the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education appropriations bill.

The Labor-H funding bill for 2019 makes important investments in health, education, and in our families. It is a $1 billion increase over 2018, leaving us to deliberate $178.1 billion. Especially when I view that the Trump administration is pursuing the fundamental hollowing out of our Federal agencies, we secured critical investments in Democratic priorities that boost the middle class.

First, let me talk about health. This bill includes an increase of $2 billion for NIH research. It also includes increases across the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Health Resources and Services Administration, particularly to address health threats to pregnant women and babies.

We also secured increases for our country's youngest children and their families, including an increase of $50 million for childcare and $200 million for Head Start, including $50 million more for Early Head Start.

Turning to education, we won an increase for after-school programs and a raise in the maximum Pell grant, $100 for $6,195, to help students afford the rising cost of a college degree.

The bill also eliminates two longstanding riders. They had prohibited school districts from using education funding for transportation to address segregated schools.

So, from health, to childcare, to education, we achieved several great wins for the American people.

Importantly, the bill before us maintains the bipartisan amendments that House Democrats introduced to condemn the administration's policy of separating families, to demand a reunification plan, and to ensure that HHS upholds the highest standards of care for children in our custody.

I am proud of what we included. I am also proud of what we kept out. We held the line and kept out harmful ideological riders that would have sabotaged the Affordable Care Act, undermined women's health, and overturned the Flores settlement to allow the administration to keep kids in cages indefinitely.

All that being said, the bill is not perfect. For example, I am disappointed we missed an opportunity to say, once and for all, that the authors of the Every Student Succeeds Act never intended for Federal dollars to arm teachers, which, as I understand, is current law.

And I believe the Labor-HHS bill continues to be shortchanged. Based on the overall increase of $18 billion for non-defense discretionary spending, this bill should be receiving an increase of $5.5 billion.

Nevertheless, on the whole, this bipartisan, bicameral compromise is a positive result that helped provide the American people a better chance at a better life, and I urge my colleagues to support it.

I also take this opportunity to say a thank you to my working partner and good friend, Chairman Cole. I also want to say a thank you to the ranking member of the full Appropriations Committee, my colleague, Congresswoman Nita Lowey, and to the chairman of the Appropriations Committee, Rodney Frelinghuysen. I thank him for the great work on this effort, and we know you will not be joining us again next year, so thank you for helping us get this across the finish line.

For the Democratic staff: Stephen Steigleder, Robin Juliano; to my staff: Leticia Mederos, Liz Albertine, Caitlin Peruccio, Will Serio, Kris Fetterman; to the majority staff: Susan Ross, Jennifer Cama, Justin Gibbons, Kathryn Salmon, Karyn Richman, and Lori Bias.

Mr. Speaker, our names appear on the doors of the congressional offices, but it is the labor every single day of these outstanding staff people that help us put these bills together on behalf of the American people.

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