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

Floor Speech

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Mr. QUIGLEY. Mr. Chair, as the chairman of the Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee, I rise today in strong support of the FY23 Financial Services and General Government Appropriations bill.

First, I thank the staff on both sides for their efforts in drafting this bill and preparing it to come to the House floor.

I also want to thank my colleague, the ranking member, Mr. Womack, for his hard work and collaboration on this bill. He has been thoughtful in his input and, frankly, a pleasure to work with.

The FSGG bill includes $29.8 billion in funding, an increase of $4.3 billion over last year.

For Treasury, the bill includes $15.6 billion, $1.3 billion above last year. Within that level, there is $336 million for CDFIs, an increase of $41 million. The IRS gets $13.6 billion, an increase of $1 billion over the 2022 level.

For ONDCP, $462 million, including $300 million for the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas program and $110 million for the Drug- Free Communities Program.

For the Judiciary, $8.6 billion, within this amount, $128 million is targeted for judiciary security, cybersecurity, and information technology modernization. For the Supreme Court, $143 million, $30 million above last year, included in this increase is funding to provide for enhanced security services.

For the Consumer Product Safety Commission, $166.3 million, $27.3 million above last year, including $2.5 million for Pool Safety Grants.

For Election Security Grants, $400 million, an increase of $325 million above last year. These grants will help State and local governments protect our democracy through fair and secure elections.

For the GSA, $1.1 billion over last year, including $500 million for a new FBI headquarters. Also included, $100 million for both the Electric Vehicle Fund and the Technology Modernization Fund.

For SBA, $1.1 billion, $77 million above last year. This fund includes $326 million for the Entrepreneurial Development Programs.

We have solid increases for the Federal Communications Commission, Securities and Exchange Commission, OPM, the Archives, and the Federal Trade Commission.

The bill is silent on the civilian pay increase, allowing the proposed 4.6 percent increase to take effect.

We removed harmful riders to the bill, including the Hyde restrictions, three ``dark money'' riders, and the D.C. cannabis rider.

We include language making Dreamers eligible for Federal employment.

And finally, I am proud this bill was able to include 98 percent of Members' Community Project Funding requests, including from Democrats and Republicans. This funding will go directly to important projects in Members' districts connected with the SBA, GSA, and the National Archives.

I urge all Members to support the bill.

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Mr. QUIGLEY. Mr. Chair, I rise in opposition to the legislation included in this amendment. These amendments would impose 5 and 22 percent cuts across the board.

These cuts are, frankly, a clumsy way to randomly hack away at funding with no thought or consideration to their impact.

The amendment would slash funding for the Small Business Administration by more than $200 million, severely undercutting much- needed support for small businesses and entrepreneurs.

The reduction to the IRS amendment would reduce staffing across the entire agency, resulting in lower customer service, reduced enforcement efforts, increasing the tax gap, and placing U.S. taxpayers at increased risk of identification theft.

A 22 percent cut to the District of Columbia public safety funding would result in layoffs and reduced service for the D.C. courts, the D.C. Public Defender's Office, and the Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency. The ability to monitor defendants pending trial and returning citizens would be severely hampered.

A cut of this magnitude would also cripple many small but important agencies. It would prevent the Federal Trade Commission from investigating privacy and cybersecurity issues or pursuing cases to block anticompetitive mergers.

It would harm the Consumer Product Safety Commission's ability to monitor and block dangerous products.

Additionally, this amendment would cripple the Office of Personnel Management's distribution of monthly annuity payments, as well as undermine other critical agencies that support millions of Federal workers across the country.

I, therefore, urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on this ill-conceived and irresponsible amendment.

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Mr. QUIGLEY. Mr. Chair, last month, as the Appropriations Committee considered the FSGG funding bill, the Supreme Court took the unprecedented step of stripping American women of a constitutional right to decide their own reproductive destiny. Extremist Justices, inventing flimsy arguments against a right that Americans have enjoyed for nearly 50 years, opened the door for radical legislators to ban abortion.

This is a crisis, and a crisis means all hands are on deck. With my friends, Representatives Lee, DeGette, and Frankel, I am offering an amendment to ensure that the FSGG bill is in the fight. This amendment prohibits any Federal funds from my bill from being used in contravention to President Biden's executive order on protecting access to reproductive healthcare.

This is not just about the executive order itself. It is about the policies and recommendations that will result from it. The interagency policymaking effort to address barriers to abortion access must include FSGG jurisdiction, and Federal agencies must all work to swiftly and fully implement solutions to these barriers.

In addition, FSGG has jurisdiction over the District of Columbia. Anti-abortion extremists go so far as to try to tell D.C. taxpayers that they cannot make their own decisions about whether to support access to reproductive care. I am here to say that D.C. citizens shouldn't be bullied by extremists pushing an ideological agenda. The Federal Government's place must only be to improve access to care in D.C., never to tell the citizens of our Nation's Capital that members of a body to which they are not even permitted to send a voting representative say that they can't look after their own reproductive destinies.

President Biden called for a whole-of-government effort to safeguard abortion access. As the branch of government charged with the purse strings of the United States, it is our duty to join that effort.

Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to support this amendment.

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