Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2027

Floor Speech

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Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Chair, I thank the ranking member for yielding and for all of her hard work on this bill. Again, I congratulate Congresswoman Wasserman Schultz and Judge Carter for the work they have done on this piece of legislation.

I thank the committee staff, Farouk Ophaso and Tyler Coe for the minority side, Justin Masucci, Jason Wheelock, and Arianna Delgado for the majority, for all the good work that they put in here.

We began with a bill that fell short. It did not provide adequate support for our veterans, but after some tough negotiating by Democrats on the Appropriations Committee, especially Ranking Member Wasserman Schultz, our colleagues across the aisle agreed to make some much- needed improvements.

Through these negotiations, Democrats were able to secure more than $50 billion in advance funding for the Toxic Exposures Fund, enabling us to keep our commitments to our veterans when we passed the PACT Act.

We were also able to reach an agreement on the provision to withhold 25 percent of the budget for the Office of the Secretary of Veterans Affairs until he comes to testify before both the House and Senate Appropriations Committees, reasserting Congress' power of the purse.

With these improvements, we were able to arrive at an agreement that passed out of the Appropriations Committee by a vote of 58-0. That is a testament to the exceptional work of the members of the subcommittee and the committee, and it demonstrates that when Republicans are willing to work with us to address our concerns, we are more than happy to support reasonable proposals that meet the needs of the American people.

This bill in its current form increases funding for suicide prevention and treatment programs, rural health and substance use disorder programs, and women's healthcare, helping to ensure the women who have served our country can get the care that they need.

It boosts funding for the VA by more than $4 billion and increases our investments in veterans' medical care by $6.5 billion. These are important resources that will go a long way to supporting the men and women who have served our country in uniform.

It is not a perfect bill as it stands, but it is a good bill. It is the product of good-faith, bipartisan negotiations. It is evidence that even in an era of division, Congress can still find common ground to deliver for the American people.

However, several amendments have been offered by Republicans who do not sit on the Appropriations Committee. They are attempting to inject hyperpartisan culture-war provisions into the bill and upend the bipartisan agreement that we made.

Despite hours of painstaking but good-faith negotiations by members of the committee to find common ground on a bill to deliver for our veterans, these amendments, which are an exercise in political bomb- throwing, not serious legislating, would undermine the real work of the committee, the committee which has done so much to support our Nation's veterans, our servicemembers.

These are partisan theatrics the American people are tired of. People want to see the Congress work together to solve their problems, and on the Appropriations Committee, we did just that.

Last-minute intervention from Members who do not sit on the committee is counterproductive and only serves to sour the process for the future.

Why would we agree to anything in committee moving forward if we know that as soon as it comes to the floor, it will be loaded up with poison pills designed to punch up a press release rather than serious provisions meant to solve the problems facing the American people.

I encourage my colleagues to stick to the strong agreement that was forged on a bipartisan basis by the members of this subcommittee and the members of the committee and reject a shallow, toxic partisanship that has infected so much of our politics today.

I thank the chair and ranking member and all of my colleagues on the committee for their hard work.

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