Rosa L. DeLauro

Mr. Speaker, Procedure · 9 wordsI yield myself such time as I may consume.Procedure Mr. Speaker, Procedure · 38 wordsfor those of you who may not know and have not been following this process closely, I would like to bring you up to speed on how we came to consider this piece of legislation before us today.Procedure Claims · 303 wordsOn Friday afternoon, after everyone had gone home for the weekend, Republicans released a bill to extend government funding from September 30 through December 4.¹ Republicans introduced the measure with no bipartisan negotiation, little advanced notice, and without any information from the government agencies as to what funding they will actually require to continue their operations for the duration of the bill. The final Homeland Security bill that passed unopposed in April was bipartisan, ²and it was by a voice vote.³ And it was in that direction because it included a provision to remove all of the funding for the Border Patrol.⁴ Chair Cole’s bill does not continue that agreement. That prohibition is removed by this continuing resolution, which would allow Homeland Security Secretary Mullin to transfer billions of dollars to the Border Patrol.⁵ We assumed that the removal of this language was a mistake--no harm, no foul--so before the bill was introduced, we reached out to our colleagues across the aisle, informed them of the error, and shared language to fix it. Yet, they refused to do so. Instead, they chose to introduce a bill that would allow Secretary Mullin to transfer billions more taxpayer dollars to the Border Patrol without implementing any of the protections that Democrats have sought since the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good earlier this year, a clear line in the sand that Democrats have drawn for months.⁶ The American people support these protections, protections like mandating the use of body-worn cameras, not just taking the money for them and then refusing to turn them on; Unearned certaintyprohibiting operations at sensitive locations like schools, hospitals, and houses of worship; requiring agents to get a warrant from a judge before kicking in someone’s door; allowing independent investigations into misconduct; ending racial profiling; and taking off the masks. Reasoning · 10 wordsThe need for these protections is as urgent as ever. Claims · 23 wordsIn recent weeks, immigration agents have shot and killed residents in Maine and in Texas, neither of whom were targets of enforcement operations.⁷ Reasoning · 25 wordsWe cannot in good conscience allow billions of dollars to flow to these agencies without major reforms to keep our constituents safe from further violence. Claims · 15 wordsI want to say clearly and plainly that Democrats do not want a government shutdown. Reasoning · 7 wordsThere would be no need for one. Claims · 9 wordsThere are still 2 months before the funding deadline.⁸ Reasoning · 29 wordsThere is no need to rush through an incomplete extension. We ought to take the time to gather the information we need to get it right the first time. Claims · 37 wordsI might add that yesterday afternoon we received a list of the programs that have been compiled by the Federal agencies detailing the additional provisions the agencies believe are necessary to sustain their operations through December 4.⁹ Mr. Speaker, Claims · 44 wordswe received this late yesterday afternoon. There are over 50 programs listed by the agencies to take some action so they can be protected during a continuing resolution, ¹⁰and many of these provisions are not included in the bill that we are considering today. The ask · 16 wordsI asked my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to look through the list. Reasoning · 32 wordsThere may be something in your community, in your district, that is very important to you, and it is not in this bill which you are going to potentially vote for today. Claims · 71 wordsAmong these efforts, there are changes to support wildfire suppression operations. They provide public housing agencies with funding to maintain housing assistance for tens of thousands of households, and they continue programs that provide utility assistance for rural communities. If you ask people today what are the highest costs they are paying for today in an affordability crisis, it is the cost of utilities.Unearned certainty That assistance is not in this bill. Reasoning · 29 wordsIt is no surprise that the measure that we are considering failed to include these provisions. After all, the bill was introduced 3 days before we had this information, ¹¹Procedure · 5 wordsbut that is the problem.Procedure Reasoning · 22 wordsRushing this bill to the floor haphazardly without carefully considering the various needs that must be met is no way to govern, Positioning · 4 wordsand it is irresponsible.Positioning Claims · 79 wordsThis resolution was dropped on us on Friday afternoon without any bipartisan negotiation. Had we been consulted, there are several provisions we would have pushed for to strengthen the measure and to protect congressional prerogatives, including the reversal of a proposed Federal rule from the Office of Management and Budget that allows political appointees--political appointees in the Trump administration to unilaterally block or terminate grant funding if they deemed it not sufficiently in line with the President’s policy priorities.¹² Reasoning · 37 wordsIf we had taken the time to negotiate this measure, we could be here touting a bipartisan agreement with a plan to fully fund the government for the next fiscal year before the end of this Congress. Claims · 20 wordsInstead, we are scrambling--scrambling to jam through a one-sided, stopgap measure 2 days before everyone leaves for the August recess.¹³ The ask · 24 wordsAt minimum, I cannot support this bill without the inclusion of the technical language regarding the Border Patrol that was agreed upon in April. Positioning · 18 wordsBeyond that, the decision to pursue this path without any bipartisan negotiations gives me serious reservations moving forward.Positioning Mr. Speaker, Procedure · 7 wordsI reserve the balance of my time.Procedure