Today, the Transportation and Housing and Urban Development Subcommittee and the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Subcommittee considered their appropriations bills for fiscal year 2023. The measures were reported out to the full committee with concerns raised by Republicans.
Ranking Member Kay Granger (R-TX), the lead Republican for the Appropriations Committee, said of the measures, “It is irresponsible to increase funding for the same social programs that received trillions of dollars over the last year.
“While these bills fund priorities of Members on both sides of the aisle, our economy cannot sustain such significant increases in government funding. As I’ve said before, record-high spending equals record-high prices for the American people.”
Problematic Funding Levels and Provisions:
Transportation and Housing and Urban Development
- Provides a 12.2% increase ($9.8 billion).
- Includes $1.1 billion for new housing voucher subsidies.
- Drops a long-standing funding prohibition that exempts agriculture haulers from Electronic Logging Device requirements.
- Prohibits immigration checks on residents of HUD-assisted housing.
Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education
- Provides a nearly 14% increase ($27.4 billion).
- Drops long-standing pro-life language:
- Drops the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits federal funds in the bill or in the Medicaid program from being used to pay for abortions on demand.
- Drops the Weldon Amendment, which provides conscience protection for health care professionals who do not wish to participate in abortions.
- Allows taxpayer funds to be used for needle exchange programs.
- Allows the Department of Education to offer financial aid to individuals participating in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
- Creates several new programs that should be addressed by the authorizing committees in a bipartisan way before being funded.
Ranking Member Granger’s remarks in each subcommittee are linked below:
Transportation and Housing and Urban Development Subcommittee Markup
Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Subcommittee Markup
Subcommittees:
Labor, Health and Human Services, Education (117th Congress)
Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related (117th Congress)
117th Congress
Original source can be found here.
