Continuing Appropriations Resolution, 2014

Floor Speech

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Ms. DeLAURO. Madam Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to this cynical and misconceived funding bill, designed to push us into a government shutdown.

Yesterday, we saw this majority on a party-line vote rob food from the mouths of over 4 million low-income Americans, including children, seniors, and veterans. This resolution before us would only further punish American families and accelerate the majority's race to the bottom.

In fact, the majority's leadership has been quite explicit about their intentions. They want to lock in the cuts that we have seen to education programs and health programs. They want to make those cuts permanent. That's their opening position.

They have also been quite up front that the only way they would mitigate against these cuts is in exchange for cuts to Social Security, to Medicare, and to Medicaid. Even though these deep cuts are producing harmful results all over the country, the majority wants to use them as leverage for further negotiations. It is about ideology, and it is just a game to them. People's lives don't seem to matter.

Let me remind this body what's happening all over America because of the across-the-board cuts. More than 57,000 children are losing access to early learning through Head Start. Over 1 million of our most disadvantaged children at thousands of schools across America would lose access to the support they need to provide the instruction that they need.

Already overburdened State and local education agencies are being forced to pick up a higher share of the cost for educating more than 6 million students with special needs. Over 30,000 kids are losing access to childcare, putting their parents' jobs and their families' economic security even more at risk.

Hundreds of thousands of unemployed adults, veterans, seniors, and dislocated workers are losing access to job-training programs.

The biomedical research that saves lives in cancer, diabetes, autism, that research is being curtailed. I'm a cancer survivor. Biomedical research and the grace of God have allowed me to stand here today, but they would cut off biomedical research. It is either going to be delayed or lost. And the list goes on--food safety, law enforcement, public health. We compromise our economy, the health and the well-being of American families, and our very future as a Nation.

Instead of working to pass a compromised bill that addresses the budget in a serious and in a responsible manner, they have used this process to try, yet again, to derail the Affordable Care Act and deny Americans affordable care for the 42nd time. These Members have health insurance. Most Americans do not that they can afford.

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentlewoman has expired.

Mrs. LOWEY. Madam Speaker, I yield an additional 1 minute to the gentlewoman.

Ms. DeLAURO. Members of Congress have health insurance. People in this Nation can't afford health insurance, but they would cut it off. They would make it impossible for people to get preventive care to keep their kids up to age 26 on their own health insurance coverage and say to the insurance companies, Go for it again. You can't deny people health care coverage and talk about preexisting conditions.

Families all over America are struggling. This budget resolution is designed to make it worse for them. This is not a game. We are talking about people's lives. We have a moral responsibility. We are here to represent the American people, not our own personal agenda, not our own political agenda and our own ideology. We have to do better. We must vote against this bill.

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