Haiti Development, Accountability, and Institutional Transparency Initiative Act
Floor Speech
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Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 973, I call up the bill (H.R. 2471) to measure the progress of post-disaster recovery and efforts to address corruption, governance, rule of law, and media freedoms in Haiti, with the Senate amendment thereto, and ask for its immediate consideration.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
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Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I have a motion at the desk.
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Ms. DeLAURO. 2471.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of our 2022 government funding legislation.
This package makes historic investments in the middle class and people who are living paycheck to paycheck. They deserve a government that, instead of catering to the wealthy and big corporations, bends over backwards to support them. By providing a 6.7 percent increase for nondefense funding, the largest increase in 4 years, that is exactly what we are doing.
What a marker we have put down. That is translated into funding for agriculture, increased by 6 percent; energy and water, increased by 6.6 percent; 5.7 percent increase for financial services and general government; 5.2 percent increase for interior and environment; a 7.5 percent increase for transportation and housing; 11.8 percent increase for legislative branch, which includes support for the Capitol Police who put their lives on the line defending this body; and a 7.5 percent increase for labor, health, and human services, and education to support Americans at every stage of their lives. That is what this bill represents after years of stalled investment in each area.
With the funding included in this package, we are helping working families with the cost of living; we are helping students pay for the high cost of education; we are giving hardworking families a better chance to own their own homes; and we are connecting rural communities to the internet so that they can reach their full potential.
We are putting Americans back to work by creating jobs here in America, helping small businesses, supporting job training, rebuilding our infrastructure, including unlocking the full funding provided by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
We are supporting the vulnerable by feeding the hungry and the food insecure through nutrition assistance, making housing more affordable, and addressing gender-based violence.
And we are tackling our toughest challenges. We are confronting climate change through environmental enforcement. We are supporting environmental justice with $100 million, an $83 million increase over last year. We are making historic investments in clean energy and climate science.
By rebuilding our public health infrastructure, investing in lifesaving biomedical research, with $3.2 billion, an increase of $104 million, for HIV/AIDS research, and confronting urgent health crises, we are making healthcare more affordable for more Americans.
And we are going to ensure that big corporations and the wealthy pay their fair share to support these investments by increasing funding for the IRS to $12.6 billion.
Think about the leaders that we hoped to emulate as we entered public life, all of us, leaders like Frances Perkins, the first woman to serve as the U.S. Secretary of Labor and one of the principal architects of the New Deal. She once said, ``I came to Washington to work for God, FDR and the millions of forgotten, plain common workingmen,'' and I add women.
She, as well as my parents, told me to battle for working people, never to take no for an answer. They said work for the everyday citizen.
With this government funding legislation, we are here tonight as well to stand in solidarity with the people of Ukraine. As the world watches in horror, civilians--including children, the ill, expectant mothers-- are being targeted by Russia's unprovoked and utterly inhumane attacks.
We are becoming witness to one of the worst humanitarian crises we have seen in generations, which is why this bill provides $13.6 billion in humanitarian assistance, defense support, and economic aid to help the Ukrainian people in their most desperate hour of need.
We care for our servicemembers and our veterans by providing $224 million for the military's child development centers; strengthening the VA with $598 million for suicide prevention outreach of veterans; and $840 million for gender-specific care and programmatic efforts for women.
At the Labor, Health, and Human Services and Education, and Related Agencies Subcommittee, which I am honored to chair, we go even further to expand access to education, Head Start, childcare, lifesaving biomedical research, public health, maternal health, mental health, job training, and worker protection; and we support workers and support the skills they need to succeed.
We deliver for our students by providing the largest increase to Pell grants since the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. By investing $14.5 billion for special education programs, $75 million for full-service community schools, $17.5 billion to support low-income students, we are giving millions of students a chance to access higher education and unlock a lifetime of opportunity.
We make healthcare more affordable and accessible; $8.5 billion for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. We bolster the public health infrastructure. We confront pressing health crises with $1 billion for maternal and child health, $2 billion for mental health, and $3.9 billion for substance use treatment.
Finally, we are strengthening lifesaving biomedical research, accelerating the pace of scientific breakthroughs with $6.9 billion for the National Cancer Institute, $1 billion to establish the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, ARPA-H. Together we are accelerating the pace of scientific breakthroughs for diseases such as ALS, Alzheimer's, diabetes, and cancer.
I must, however, express my disappointment that the Hyde amendment remains in this bill. I am the first Appropriations chair since 1977 to remove it, because I understand that this is an offensive and discriminatory policy which has shut out countless women from the reproductive healthcare that they deserve for more than 40 years. While Republicans blocked our efforts, I will never stop fighting to ensure equal treatment for women.
The ten bills in this package include community projects funding, which meets the urgent needs in districts across the country and sends a clear message to the American people that Congress is working for them.
I conclude with this comment from Frances Perkins, who said in her farewell address:
There is always a large horizon, and it is up to us to contribute some small part to a program of human betterment for all time.
I believe that through this government funding package, we are proving that that horizon is not only large, but it is endless.
There is no limit to what we can achieve, and for the first time in a long time I believe we show just how government can work for working people once again and to achieve the betterment of humankind.
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Ms. DeLAURO. Kaptur), the chair of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water.
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Ms. DeLAURO. McCollum), the chair of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense.
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Ms. DeLAURO. Wasserman Schultz), the chair of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies.
Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, I rise to support this far-reaching spending bill that lowers costs, creates jobs, and rethreads our safety net.
As chair of the Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies, I am very proud of our funding for veterans, servicemembers, and their families.
We steer $14.9 billion to critical base infrastructure to add new barracks and childcare centers and rid military family housing of mold and lead. It also invests in climate change and energy resilience on bases, devoting $150 million to PFAS contamination cleanup.
It provides more to NATO and the European Deterrence Initiative, devoting $631 million to confront Russian aggression.
For Veterans Affairs, it provides $112 billion to tackle disability claim backlogs, boost medical research, fully fund veteran medical care, and make major investments in women's health and mental health and suicide and homelessness prevention.
I thank Ranking Member Carter and Ranking Member Granger for our close work together on this good bill, and I thank both the majority and minority staff.
I am very proud of what this bill delivers to Florida, like investing $2 million into the Virginia Graeme Baker pool and spa safety grant program to curb drownings.
We also add a record $350 million to restore the Everglades, the lifeblood of south Florida. This is on top of the $1.1 billion President Biden just allocated to our River of Grass in the bipartisan infrastructure law.
Florida cities win, too, because we unleash infrastructure funds and provide local government formula funding and fund local community projects for the first time in more than a decade. For Dania Beach, that is $3 million to rebuild the C.W. Thomas Park Community Center. In Sunrise, it is $2 million for flood protection.
There is tons more, from increased breast cancer screenings and reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act to provide lifesaving funds to curb domestic violence and sexual assaults. We even create a cancer screening program for disadvantaged communities that honors our departed dear friend, Alcee Hastings.
Mr. Speaker, this bill helps every American every day. I urge my colleagues to support it.
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Ms. DeLAURO. Sherrill).
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Ms. DeLAURO. Will the gentlewoman yield?
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Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding.
The agreement permits the Army to use 2022 funds for the Strategic Long-Range Cannons so long as it produces a comprehensive funding plan and a detailed schedule of activities.
I thank Ranking Member Granger, our Senate partners, Chairman Leahy, Vice Chairman Shelby, our cardinals, and all of our Members. I salute the staff on both sides of the aisle. I won't mention all their names in the interest of time, but these are the most unbelievably professional individuals I have ever met. They do the job every single day and night and they are up all night.
Mr. Speaker, I urge support for this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.
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