Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (CT-03), Chair of the House Appropriations Committee, delivered the following remarks at the Energy and Water Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee's markup of its fiscal year 2023 bill:
Thank you very much, Chairwoman Kaptur, and thank you Ranking Member Simpson, and to all the Members of the subcommittee for your work on this bill. And thank you to the Energy and Water Development subcommittee staff. I want to especially thank, as we all have, the subcommittee Clerk, Jaime Shimek, for her work. After a wonderful career with the Appropriations Committee, elsewhere in Congress, and with the Administration, Jaime will be moving on from our team to tackle new endeavors in her home state of Washington at one of the Department of Energy’s national labs. Jaime, we will miss you dearly, but wish you all the best in the next chapter of your life and thank you for your stewardship of the important programs in this bill since you joined the Committee in 2017.
The bill before us meets so many of our most pressing energy, water infrastructure, and climate challenges. We are building on critical investments in the 2022 spending package to confront the climate crisis, increase energy security, and rebuild our water infrastructure, while creating American jobs and supporting economic development all over America. As we know well, this bill impacts every corner of our nation, and its impact is profound.
But today, Americans are struggling with the high price of gas at the pump. We know that. It is why, as corporate greed drives up prices, Democrats are passing bills to crack down on price gouging and excessive price increases by Big Oil companies to lower energy costs for American families. And to help ensure this never happens again, we are taking action to increase America’s energy independence and diversify our energy sources, including by accelerating the transition to renewable energy. We are escalating changes to our energy supply and consumption to start addressing what we are experiencing now, where crises abroad – Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Putin’s unyielding pursuit of power combined with oil company greed – are impacting energy and gas prices here. These high prices make a difference in people’s lives every day. If affects their ability to make ends meet. And it matters to our national and global security.
With more than $16 billion in transformative investments for programs focusing on clean energy and science, this bill confronts the climate crisis through the development of clean, affordable, and secure American energy. With $4 billion for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and $8 billion for the Office of Science, we are securing our global leadership in energy innovation and in the transition to a global clean energy economy.
We continue to responsibly strengthen our nuclear deterrent and protect our national security. We are meeting our obligations to environmental cleanup efforts and to the health and safety of all Americans.
And as we tackle energy challenges and climate change, we are also rebuilding our nation’s water infrastructure. With $8.9 billion for the Army Corps of Engineers; $1.9 billion for the Bureau of Reclamation; we are investing in programs that protect communities from more frequent and severe storms and that address the worsening drought in the West. We must improve the resiliency of our water infrastructure so that it can withstand devastating natural disasters, keep Americans safe, and strengthen the flow of goods through our ports.
Through these and other critical initiatives, this bill strengthens our economy and supports the workers too often left behind. We will create tens of thousands of good-paying jobs in communities across the country as we deploy clean energy technologies and support economic and community development and job training opportunities.
As the Members of this subcommittee know well, this bill impacts every single one of us. It is a good bill, and I am proud that its investments in cutting edge progress will set us on the course for a clean, affordable, and secure energy future.
With that, I again thank the Chairwoman Kaptur and the Ranking Member Simpson and look forward to working with you as we move to full committee consideration. I urge my colleagues to support this important bill and I yield back.
Subcommittees:
Energy and Water Development, and Related Agencies (117th Congress)
117th Congress
Original source can be found here.
