Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2023

Floor Speech

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Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Chair, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding. I thank her for her unsurpassed leadership as chair of the Appropriations Committee, for reflecting the values of our country, based on her leadership in terms of listening to the American people and meeting their kitchen-table needs, and, again, advancing us into the future.

We said about many of these initiatives: When we pass this, we will be making history. Not only that, we will be making progress, thanks to the leadership of Chairwoman Rosa DeLauro, chair of the committee. It is a source of great joy to me because I served on the committee with her, saw her leadership then and now as chair.

Let me just describe--people say: What is a minibus?

A minibus is a minibus. It is not an omnibus. Sometimes we would have a bill that contained all of the appropriations bills. Omni, all. Omnibus. This is a minibus, which contains six of the bills--six very important pieces of legislation--and hopefully we will move soon to pass the others.

With these bills, our Democratic majority advances many of our Nation's cherished principles and priorities, including job creation, expanding opportunity, and protecting health and well-being.

Let us salute the masterful Chairwoman Rosa DeLauro, a maestro of the appropriations process, who is a constant source of inspiration, leadership, and strategic thinking for all of us.

I also thank our cardinals for their hard work in carefully crafting each of these six very important bills contained in this minibus. You are called a cardinal if you rise to be a chair of one of the subcommittees of Appropriations. It is a great honor.

Mr. Chair, I do want to acknowledge the work of Chairman Sanford Bishop. We just heard from him about food, agriculture, rural development, et cetera.

Chairwoman Marcy Kaptur, Energy and Water Development.

Chairman Mike Quigley, Financial Services and General Government.

Chairwoman Chellie Pingree, Interior-Environment.

Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Military Construction and Veterans Affairs.

Chairman David Price, Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development. Mr. Price will be leaving us at the end of this term, but his legacy will be with our country for a long time to come.

Mr. Chair, I thank our colleague on the other side of the aisle for acknowledging Mr. Price's work, and naming a portion of the Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development bill in his name. Mr. Diaz-Balart, I thank you for that beautiful recognition of Chairman Price. He certainly is revered on our side of the aisle, and we appreciate the bipartisan recognition of his leadership.

Mr. Chair, the House's Appropriations minibus will have an immediate impact on people's lives because it puts working families first.

This package defends health and well-being: improving the safety and security of our Nation's food supply. A vote for this bill is a vote for the safety of our Nation's food supply. A vote against it is a vote against the safety of our Nation's food supply.

The bill supports the WIC program--Women, Infants, and Children--food stamps, and other initiatives that keep our families fed.

This package strengthens economic security with strong investments to expand access to safe, affordable housing--thank you, Mr. Price-- support small business growth, and protect the interests of American consumers.

In doing so, these bills advance President Biden's commitment to putting justice and equity front and center, moving to close economic disparities weighing heaviest on communities of color and low-income families.

At the same time, this package will further power Democrats' mission to rebuild our Nation while reinvigorating the middle class.

Our bipartisan infrastructure law that was bipartisan and passed last year was a monumental step forward. Now, this legislation builds on that bipartisan progress: creating good-paying American jobs, rehabilitating our crumbling infrastructure; securing critical funding for roads, bridges, ports and rail, transit and aviation, and more; and improving the strength and resilience of our water systems.

This is a health issue in addition to a commerce issue. These investments lay a crucial economic foundation, better equipping our Nation to compete and win in the 21st century economy.

This package is also about protecting and preserving our planet--a responsibility we owe our children and grandchildren and future generations.

The investments in this legislation, Mr. Chair, are another strong step toward independent, affordable, clean energy jobs for the future: whether spurring innovation in new, sustainable technologies; strengthening community resilience to mitigate climate disaster; or conserving our cherished public lands.

Anyone who watches the news these days sees the impact on the climate crisis on our planet.

Throughout Europe, there are record heat waves. In our own country, we have had scores of our hottest record days, scores of them in our own country. The climate crisis is a real one. There is a short fuse on it. We must act. We cannot ignore the signs or the governance and the protections that go with it.

Preserving clean air and clean water for our children is a public health issue. The air they breathe and the water they drink is an immediate health issue. It is an economic necessity, creating good- paying jobs in the industries of the future while staving off catastrophic costs of inaction.

A matter of national security is preventing violent conflicts over resources and habitat. You have droughts; you have rising sea levels; you have encroachment of deserts; and you have change in the thermal management of the planet, Mr. Chair. All of this contributes to competition for habitats and resources, and our National Security Advisors tell us that that can be a cause of conflict, in addition to the toll it takes on people.

For many of us, it is a moral issue if you believe as I do that this is God's creation and that we have a moral responsibility to be good stewards of it. That is one purpose. But if you don't share that view, you do understand that we have a moral responsibility to our children to pass on the planet in a responsible way for future generations. This is one of the Democratic majority's top priorities, and we will never stop fighting for the climate action that we need.

Finally, and importantly--one of my favorite subjects--this package honors our Nation's sacred duty to our veterans, their families, and their caregivers. A vote for this bill is a vote for our veterans, their families, and their caregivers with robust support for veterans' healthcare, which covers more than 7 million patients, with more resources to build essential VA infrastructure, and with increased funding to address mental health, substance abuse disorder, the scourge of veteran homelessness, and much more.

As we do so, we honor the truth when the military says that, on the battlefield, we leave no soldier behind, and when they come home, we leave no veteran behind.

Mr. Chair, Democrats believe that governance is a powerful force for good when we invest in what we value most as a nation--protection of our people, their health, their safety, the planet, the air they breathe, the water they drink, and security for our country. Today, our Democratic majority advances appropriations legislation that furthers that mission with funding that will meet the needs of American families in every corner of our country, and we take an important step to advance President Biden's inspiring vision of building a better America for all with liberty and equity for all.

Mr. Chair, I urge a strong bipartisan vote for this minibus package. I salute our cardinals for their great leadership, and I again pay homage to the chair of the committee, Madam Chair Rosa DeLauro, for her extraordinary leadership.

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