Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024
Floor Speech
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Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I claim the time in opposition to the amendment.
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Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, it is regrettable that I must rise in opposition to the measure before us. I am anguished over it for one simple reason: Veterans' lives are on the line.
I have the greatest respect for my colleague, the ranking member of the Appropriations Committee, and I know it was a difficult road to get to this point. I also appreciate the work of our Democratic leader to try and find consensus. There are many good things in this bill, things that will benefit everyday Americans, but as ranking member of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, this bill comes at the expense of our most vulnerable veterans and, therefore, I cannot support it.
However, I will be clear that I am not asking my colleagues to oppose the bill.
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Mr. TAKANO. DeLauro), the distinguished ranking member of the Appropriations Committee.
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Mr. TAKANO. Kaptur), the distinguished ranking member of the Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Subcommittee.
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Mr. TAKANO. Wasserman Schultz), the distinguished ranking member of the Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies.
Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
As the MILCON-VA subcommittee ranking member, I support this minibus not only because we blocked nearly all poison pill policy riders but also because it includes major Democratic priorities.
We restored military construction funding to $2 billion above the budget request, dedicated resiliency and PFAS remediation funding, and boosted DOD housing oversight.
We held strong on our commitment to veterans by providing $121 billion for VA medical care, increased and protected funding for gender-specific care for women, and blocked Republican attempts to further restrict women's abortion access and counseling.
I am so pleased my friend, Chairman Carter, and I joined forces to end harmful VA research on dogs, cats, and nonhuman primates within 2 years.
President Biden and Congress built a minibus that lowers costs, creates jobs, funds food and housing lifelines, and fortifies America's energy independence with cutting-edge climate research.
In other parts of this bill, I am proud we fully fund Everglades restoration at the President's budget request of $415 million. President Biden has delivered time and time again for Florida's environment and Everglades restoration specifically. This funding allows restoration projects like the EAA Reservoir to continue to move forward so that we can save America's Everglades.
Finally, these bills provide millions of dollars for community project funding back home. I secured more than $15 million in local projects headed toward Broward County, and communities across America will see similar assistance.
In my community, that means funding to house veterans and help raise local streets in Hollywood to mitigate climate change. It means vital help for law enforcement to conduct more detailed investigations of human trafficking cases. I was able to secure support for local reef preservation; genetic disease research; water, sewer, and drainage upgrades; as well as help to fix nagging local infrastructure repairs that my constituents navigate every day.
Mr. Speaker, for all of these reasons, I urge my colleagues to support this minibus.
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Mr. TAKANO. Pingree), the distinguished ranking member of the Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies.
Mr. Speaker, I need to shine a light on an ugly truth buried deep in section 413 of this bill. What is this section all about?
When a veteran applies for benefits they have earned, they are screened to make sure that they are competent to use those benefits to not take advantage of. If a veteran is determined to be mentally incompetent, they are appointed a fiduciary, and by law, they are reported to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, otherwise known as the NICS list.
A determination of mental competency is typically based on very serious mental health conditions like schizophrenia and dementia, and there are various serious reasons why a person with those conditions should not be able to purchase a firearm.
It is also the case that firearms are used in 68 percent of veterans' death by suicide. Suicide is a serious problem among veterans, and since I have had the honor to be on the Veterans' Affairs Committee, I have fought to prevent the scourge of veteran suicide.
So why on Earth would this Congress cede one more important safeguard against a veteran's death? I personally cannot, and that is why I cannot support this bill.
Republicans have pushed this type of provision for over a decade. I know because I have fought every year against this provision. They have done so with misinformation and fearmongering. Democrats have successfully fought this legislation in committee, which is why Republicans did not have the courage to bring this to the floor in the light of day and to have this body consider it through the normal process through regular order.
Instead, they crammed it into this must-pass bill, enacting policy through the back door of a spending bill. They have abandoned all of their other so-called priorities because they wanted this so badly. They wanted so badly to make sure that vulnerable veterans could access more firearms.
This is wrong. Lives are on the line. Veterans' lives are on the line, and I will not agree to legislation that will cause more people's lives to be lost to gun violence.
House Democrats have been working to put people over politics, but it is clear that the Republican majority is content to put politics over veterans, including prioritizing politics over veterans' lives.
Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record the Statement of Administration Policy on H.R. 4366 and a statement from the Giffords organization, which both speak to the harm of this provision. Statement of Administration Policy H.R. 4366--Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024--Rep. Granger, R-TX)
The Administration strongly urges swift passage of H.R. 4366, making appropriations for fiscal year 2024, and for other purposes. This bipartisan legislation represents a compromise and neither side got everything it wanted, but it would prevent a damaging shutdown of several key agencies, protect key priorities and make progress for the American people.
H.R. 4366 includes important investments that advance a range of key national priorities, building on the progress that has been made over the past three years both in annual appropriations and through legislation like the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The bill fully funds the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, protecting essential benefits for millions of women and children across the Nation. The bill also maintains rental assistance for millions of families. and expands assistance to an additional 3,000 households. The bill also sustains critical infrastructure programs, maintains pay raises for Federal wildland fire fighters, and fully funds veterans' medical care. In addition, the bill also increases funding for rural housing assistance, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Violence Against Women Act, and science investments at the Department of Energy.
The Administration applauds the inclusion of other key priorities, including the Compacts of Free Association, which represents the bedrock of America's broader strategic interests and engagements in the Indo-Pacific. The Administration also appreciates the extension of several vital health care programs, including the Special Diabetes Program, as well as a seven-year extension of the Undetectable Firearms Act.
While the Administration is pleased that hundreds of poison pill provisions and extreme funding cuts were rejected, the Administration opposes the language included in the bill that would potentially undermine the ability of the Veterans' Affairs Department to report a beneficiary to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System to keep guns out of the hands of those prohibited under Federal law from purchasing or possessing firearms. The Administration remains committed to exploring every possible pathway to keep guns out of the hands of those who shouldn't have them and ensure the safety of these individuals and their communities.
The Administration urges the Congress to send this critical legislation to the President's desk for signature without delay and to quickly act on the remaining funding bills as well as the bipartisan national security supplemental. ____ [From GIFFORDS, Mar. 5, 2024] Contact: Mary Yatrousis. Spending Bills Make Americans Less Safe
Washington, DC.--Today, GIFFORDS, the national gun violence prevention organization founded by former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, condemned the FY 2024 Consolidated Appropriations Act. The funding bill makes cuts to law enforcement agencies essential to curbing gun violence and weakens the country's gun safety laws.
The legislation includes a harmful provision that will enable veterans who have been deemed ``incompetent'' by the Department Veterans Affairs (VA) to purchase a firearm by withholding information from the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). Currently, veterans with this designation, who are often at elevated risk of suicide, are prohibited from having guns and data is submitted to NICS in order to prevent these veterans from purchasing firearms. According to the latest National Veteran Suicide Prevention Annual Report from the Veterans Administration, more than 17 veterans died by suicide each day in 2021.
Vanessa N. Gonzalez, GIFFORDS Vice President of Government and Political Affairs:
``These flawed funding bills gut critical law enforcement agencies and public safety programs, undermining the historic gun safety progress made in the last few years. After increased investment in gun violence prevention and the landmark passage of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which included support from key Republican leaders, this country saw a drop in homicides in 2023 for the first time in years. But with these dangerous policies enabling easier access to firearms for those most at risk and significant funding cuts, our families and communities will be endangered.
``Republicans and Democrats alike failed to prioritize public safety in this bill by including a dangerous gun lobby provision to block the VA from protecting veterans who may be at risk of suicide. Republicans duck the issue of gun violence and instead blame mental illness, then fight to allow individuals with diminished mental capacity unfettered access to guns. We need leaders in Congress who will stand up for the families and the communities they represent and fight to save lives--even when it's hard.''
The FY 2024 Consolidated Appropriations Act contains six funding bills including Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (CJS) Appropriations Act and the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act. The legislation includes major cuts to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the FBI, as well as to major public safety programs like grants to states to upgrade criminal and mental health records in NICS, and the Matthew Shephard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crime Prevention Act grants.
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Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I will not rest until this rider is gone from any future appropriations bill, and I urge my colleagues to join me in that effort.
For now I must oppose this bill. There are a lot of good things in this bill, and I don't ask my colleagues to join me in opposing this bill. I have a great deal of respect for my good friend, the ranking member of the Appropriations Committee, Ms. DeLauro, and the significant amount of work that went into this, but I must follow my conscience because of my responsibilities to veterans.
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Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers, and I yield myself the balance of my time for the purpose of closing.
I sadly must oppose the bill, but I do not urge my colleagues to do the same.
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