House Appropriations Committee Chair and Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Subcommittee Chair Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03) delivered the following remarks at the Subcommittee's fiscal year 2023 public witness day hearing:
With that, I want to acknowledge and thank our Ranking Member, Tom Cole, for being here this morning and other Members of the committee.
Welcome to the Labor-HHS-Education subcommittee’s Public Witness Day hearing. I think we all want to express our deep gratitude to the 24 witnesses testifying today and to all those who sent written testimonies for the record. It’s about your experiences and your testimonies – they are so invaluable to us. The work that we do together to fund the programs in this subcommittee’s bill impact the lives of Americans across our country.
At last year’s Public Witness Day hearing, I said that today’s hearing is one of the most important things this committee does. And that has certainly rang true. With the help of public witnesses, we developed a fiscal year 2022 bill that has made transformative investments to tackle America’s toughest challenges.
Our bill grows educational opportunities with more funding for high-poverty schools, for students with disabilities, and for programs that expand access to post-secondary education. It strengthens lifesaving biomedical research with increased funding for the NIH. We bolster our public health infrastructure with an increased investment in the CDC and in state and local governments. We tackle urgent health crises, including maternal health, mental health, gun violence, and substance misuse, while reducing unacceptable health disparities. We are supporting middle class and working families with more funding for child care, for Head Start, and for preschool development grants. The bill creates and sustains good-paying jobs with investments in job training, apprenticeship programs, and worker protection. All of these were made because of the input from public witnesses.
As we draft the fiscal year 2023 bill – using the President’s budget request as a starting point and direct input from stakeholders including all of you – we will continue to transform the lives of Americans all across the country.
I am looking forward to your testimonies this morning. And I thank you all again for being here today.
With that, please let me turn it over to our Ranking Member, Congressman Cole, for any opening remarks.
Subcommittees:
The Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (117th Congress)
117th Congress
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