2027 Presidential Budget Request Will Make Life Harder

Floor Speech

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Mr. NEGUSE. First, Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague, the distinguished gentleman from Chicago, Illinois, for his friendship, for his partnership, and for articulating so well today the stakes.

Since returning to office, as my colleague from Illinois referenced, President Trump has made life harder for everyday Americans. He has made life less affordable for everyday Americans, certainly for the working families that I represent in northern and western Colorado.

Let me give you a sense, my colleague from Illinois, about what the last 16 months have been like for my constituents, the folks that I have the privilege of serving in Colorado.

President Trump has denied not just one, but two major disaster relief requests for massive fires that took place last year in Western Colorado, the Lee and Elk fires, and devastating flooding in Southwest Colorado. These are communities that are conservative, rural communities that President Trump denied disaster relief to them all the same.

He has gutted childcare support for Colorado families. Childcare centers across Colorado--Larimer County, Adams County, Western Slope, Southern Colorado--are closing because of this President's policies.

He slashed Medicaid, the largest cut to SNAP in the history of that program, families going hungry across our State and across our country, chaos for our farmers and our ranchers, record-high bankruptcies for America's farmers, including in Colorado.

He fired thousands of workers at our Federal laboratories, in our national parks, and in our national forests.

He has--again, the gentleman said it so well--increased costs on everything. Everything is more expensive. Groceries, medicine, car insurance, health insurance, you name it, it has all gone up.

Now, given all that I just described, the President has the audacity, the gall to propose a $2.2 trillion--trillion with a t--wish list in the form of his budget request that would implement historic cuts to education, to housing, to health programs, all while creating a $1.5 trillion slush fund for the war that he has unconstitutionally declared.

In my view, it is reprehensible, and it is not consistent with the needs of the American people.

We need this administration to get serious about helping everyday Coloradans and Americans afford healthcare and afford the basic needs that they have. We need them to get serious about an economic agenda that actually makes life better for working people.

Unfortunately, this budget proposal is anything but that--quite the opposite.

Now, the good news is that Republicans here in Congress don't have to follow the President's budget. It is not a requirement. I know that may come as a surprise to some folks who are observing the proceedings here in Washington, D.C., because, for the last 16 months, House Republicans have capitulated to virtually every whim, every request, and every demand that this President has made. But they don't have to do that. In fact, they are expected by our Framers and our Founders not to, to instead jealously guard the powers of our branch of government under Article I.

Democrats and Republicans can work together through the appropriations process to advance a proposal that would actually lower costs for everyday Americans. That to me ought to be our North Star.

I hope our colleagues are listening today.

I thank the gentleman from Chicago and so many of my House Democratic colleagues who I know will be speaking this evening for making the case in such an impassioned way. Let's hope it doesn't take my colleagues too long to ultimately do what is right.

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