Haiti Development, Accountability, and Institutional Transparency Initiative Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. McCOLLUM. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the Consolidated Appropriations Act for fiscal year 2022.

As chair of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, I want to thank Ranking Member Calvert for his partnership and Chair DeLauro and Ranking Member Granger for their leadership.

For fiscal year 2022, the Defense bill provides a total of $728.5 billion. That is $32.5 billion above the 2021 level. The House bill that I wrote was a much lower number, but this is the number I was instructed to mark up to.

We prioritized critical investments and our most important national security asset, our servicemen and -women and their families.

Here are a few examples: a 2.7 percent pay raise for over 2 million uniformed servicemembers and 750,000 DOD civilian employees; an additional $167 million so all DOD personnel can earn at least a $15 minimum wage; an additional $397 million for basic housing and subsistence allowances so that our servicemembers can feed their children properly; $97 million to enact the Independent Review Commission on Sexual Assault in the Military; $37 billion for Defense Health and medical research programs, including $577 million for cancer research; historic levels of DOD investments in clean energy, climate adaptation, and facility resiliency; a $486 million increase of environmental restoration activities, including $210 million for PFOS/ PFOA cleanup; and an additional $686 million to respond to the Red Hill fuel spill in Hawaii.

This bill confronts Vladimir Putin's illegal and unjust invasion of Ukraine by providing robust funding for the Ukraine Security Initiative and NATO's partners and allies.

Mr. Speaker, this bill is long overdue. It is time for Congress to do our work to pass this omnibus bill and fund our government.

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