Commerce, Justice, Science; Energy and Water Development; and Interior and Environment Appropriations Act, 2026

Floor Speech

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Ms. PINGREE. Mr. Speaker, I rise to support the consolidated appropriations act.

First, I thank Ranking Member DeLauro for yielding me the time, but also for her leadership and perseverance in this challenging time.

I thank Mr. Simpson for his collaboration and partnership in this committee, and I also thank Chairman Cole for the work he has done on this committee.

Mr. Speaker, I will give the most applause and great thanks to our committee staff, Rita Culp, Jocelyn Hunn, and Michael Schmeltz, who put in many long hours, as we know, and worked over the holidays. We wouldn't be standing here today if they and so many others on both sides of the aisle hadn't put in this work.

I am pleased we were able to reach a bipartisan agreement to produce a bill that protects Tribal lands and the environment, invests in our Tribal communities, supports the arts, and rejects billions in extreme cuts proposed by the administration.

Rather than handing the Trump administration a blank check through another stopgap measure, this bill imposes precise, legally binding spending requirements that constrain executive overreach.

This will provide much-needed funding and certainty to public land management agencies, like the National Park Service, that have suffered tremendous disruption over the past year.

The bill also protects funding for programs important to combating and adapting to climate change. It rejects House Republicans' effort to gut funding for renewable energy and funds USGS climate science.

Funding for the Environmental Protection Agency's environmental justice, a top target for this administration, is included at $30 million. The continuation of these grants is a sharp rebuke of this administration's attack on communities of color and low-income communities facing high pollution burdens.

The bill also protects the arts and humanities, maintaining the enacted funding level for the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, which the administration tried to eliminate entirely. This funding will support the arts in communities across the country.

Finally, this bill supports Native American families by investing in a strong and resilient Indian Country, including through education, public safety and justice, and healthcare programs.

Importantly, this bill strips out every single partisan poison pill rider that the Republicans tried to jam into the process, including the pesticide liability shield that would have let chemical giants evade accountability.

This bill is significantly better than a continuing resolution. It is not all that we would want or all that we should be delivering, but its investments will improve the lives of Americans.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the bill.

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