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

Floor Speech

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Mr. HOYER. Mr. Chair, this is a bill that has to pass if we are going to keep the government operating. The chair of this committee has worked very hard to get that done, and she has been successful, as chair, of moving most of our bills through this House.

The Senate has not yet moved any of its bills, as it did not last year. This is an important, critical part of our process to fund government and keep it operating and invest in the priorities of the American people. That is what we are doing today in these appropriation bills.

Mr. Chair, I thank Chairwoman Rosa DeLauro and members of the staff of the Appropriations Committee for their hard work on this package.

Once again, our majority is passing appropriation bills in a timely manner. Sadly, as I said, the Senate has yet to bring any appropriation bills to the Senate floor.

Today's package funds about a quarter of the total expected discretionary funding for next year. It reflects the budget request from the Biden administration, and in some cases funds programs at levels we have determined should be increased.

It also includes Community Project Funding for investments in our communities that will help improve public safety, encourage economic growth, and fight poverty.

Bringing back Community Project Funding was an essential tool in helping to restore Congress' power of the purse. I add that it was done in a bipartisan way, and it was done--thanks to the chair--in a very transparent way. We wanted to make sure that more funding decisions are being made by the Members who know their districts best.

There is much to celebrate in this package, which is why I rise in support of this package. Many important and worthwhile investments in the American people, in our communities, in economic opportunity, and in so many areas--I am not going to go into all of them, they will be discussed.

I do want to highlight just a few of the important victories in this bill, particularly for the constituents and communities I represent in Maryland's Fifth District.

First, Mr. Chairman, this bill moves us a major step closer to realizing a new, badly needed, consolidated FBI Headquarters, a critical national security project that many of us have worked on for more than a decade.

In fact, I started working on this in 2009 when the director of the FBI said: This building is very out of date, does not accommodate the work that we need to do, and we must have a new building--and requested that there be a campus-like setting where all of the FBI could be consolidated from the almost 20 different locations that they were located in in the city.

This legislation will ensure that we can build a fully consolidated FBI Headquarters that meets the needs of the Bureau with a substantial payment of $500 million toward that project. It limits the GSA to committing any of those funds only to one of the two sites in Maryland and one in Virginia. The GSA just recently adjudged all three of those sites to be eligible sites.

This project, first requested, as I said, by the FBI in 2009, is now ready for final site selection. This building, which had been delayed at a cost of giving the Bureau the tools and facilities necessary to fulfill its missions, can now be advanced in the timeframe I have understood from the administration, which is before the end of the fiscal year.

In May of last year, the four Senators from Maryland and Virginia wrote to President Biden and urged his administration to move forward expeditiously. That was some 15 months ago. It is long past expeditiously, and I look forward to seeing this project realized.

Mr. Chair, I thank the chair and the chair of the subcommittee, Mr. Quigley, for his help on this effort. It is an important one for our country.

Furthermore, this package would provide civilian Federal employees with a 4.6% cost-of-living adjustment--at parity with the raise being provided to military personnel--and makes DREAMERS eligible to serve as Federal employees.

It increases the V.A. Health Care System's budget by nearly $22 billion over last year, which will help provide high-quality care to 7.3 million veterans in our country.

And it provides the Army Corps of Engineers with $3.5 million to further oyster recovery in the Chesapeake Bay.

In addition to these priorities for Maryland's Fifth District, there are other critical investments for which I have advocated for a long time.

These include $400 million in Election Security Grants through the Election Assistance Commission, which was created under my Help America Vote Act Legislation in 2002.

It also funds a program I've championed to encourage college students to become nonpartisan poll workers in their communities.

I was also glad to see the inclusion of $100 million for the Technology Modernization Fund, which was launched under bipartisan legislation I led with Leader McCarthy.

This will help agencies upgrade technology systems so that they can serve americans more efficiently and securely.

Additionally, this package makes a strong investment in combatting hunger by providing W.I.C. funds to serve more than 6 million people and $28.6 billion toward child-nutrition programs.

It will also ensure that S.N.A.P. does not run out of money in 2023 and can continue helping those with the lowest incomes put food on the table.

Mr. Chair, this is a very solid and robust funding package, and it is--as I said--a first step in our effort to continue funding government and delivering the priorities of the american people on time.

I urge the Senate to match our pace in the appropriations process so that we can continue governing responsibly `for the people.'

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