WASHINGTON, DC-Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) made the below opening remarks at today’s House of Representatives Appropriations Committee markup of the Labor-Health and Human Services-Education bill. This marks the first time the full committee has considered the legislation in six years. The below remarks are as prepared for delivery:
“It is a pleasure to be here, finally, for our first full committee markup in six years. Some of us may have begun to think this day would never come, but here we are. We have had 12 productive and informative hearings, and I am pleased to have had the opportunity to work with Chairman Cole. I thought our subcommittee markup last week was cordial and I applaud the Chairman for his efforts to ensure a transparent debate. However, the Chairman knows while there are a number of issues on which we concur, I cannot support the bill put forward by the Majority.
“The Labor-Health and Human Services-Education bill is called the People’s Bill for a reason. It is about providing the people we represent with a chance to get ahead in life. The programs we fund level the playing field for low-income children. They help Americans learn job skills in a tough economy. They protect families from public health threats.
“By providing high-quality education and job training, and helping people stay healthy, these programs increase Americans’ earning capacity. And by investing in our human capital, they support our economic competitiveness. Yet the Majority chooses this bill to bear the brunt of their cuts.
“True, some programs are not cut. Lifesaving research at the NIH [National Institutes of Health] gets a boost, as do IDEA [Individuals with Disabilities Education Act] programs for children with special needs. Head Start is increased over last year - but is still left $1.3 billion below the President’s request. The number of modest increases in this bill comes at a serious cost to children, seniors, women, workers, students, and families.
“As we have known since the allocation was announced, this bill contains almost $4 billion of cuts. It is $3.7 billion lower than last year’s allocation, and in dollar amounts it took the biggest cut of any appropriations legislation this year. And those come after a five-year period in which the Labor-HHS-Education bill has already lost almost $20 billion in real terms. Mr. Chairman, budgeting is fundamentally about values. And this bill grossly shortchanges American students, workers, and families.
“The Department of Education alone takes $2.5 billion in net cuts - and that is after accounting for a $500 million increase for Special Education State Grants. This is a larger cut than in the FY [Fiscal Year] 2013 across-the-board sequester. The bill eliminates Preschool Development Grants, Math and Science Partnerships, Carol White Physical Education, Magnet Schools, and 23 other programs. Pell Grants, which have allowed generations of low-income young people access to college, lose $370 million. This bill even eliminates Striving Readers - the largest reading program for low-income children from birth through grade 12. Universal literacy is the mark of a civilized society. This is the opposite.
“The Department of Health and Human Services does not fare much better. Aside from the NIH, it takes a cut of $1.3 billion. Family Planning under Title X is zeroed out, and Teen Pregnancy Prevention is all but eliminated, facing a cut of 91 percent. These cuts will have a devastating impact on women’s health and reproductive choice. The bill also fails to protect victims of human trafficking, despite the President’s request for funds. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality is eliminated. Contrary to the Majority’s talking points, AHRQ is not duplicative. While NIH carries out basic research and CDC tracks diseases, AHRQ focuses on health systems. That is valuable work. Moreover, this bill only shifts AHRQ’s workload to other agencies, without providing the necessary funding.
“The Department of Labor is cut by $205 million. With two-thirds of all jobs set to require some postsecondary education and training by 2020, this bill fails to make the necessary investments in technical training programs. Job training and worker protection programs also face substantial reductions. Too many hard-working Americans are stuck in jobs that do not pay them enough to make ends meet. That is the economic challenge we face today. How can we even be talking about cutting programs that help people who have lost their jobs or are looking to train in order to make a better living?
“Among related agencies, the Corporation for National and Community Service, which runs AmeriCorps and other national service organizations, is cut by more than one third, eliminating funding for the Social Innovation Fund and the National Civilian Community Corps, and making drastic cuts to the National Service Trust. Mr. Chairman, where are our priorities?
“The bill is also weighed down by ideological riders. We see yet another attempt to block funding for the Affordable Care Act, putting health care for working families at risk. This bill is rife with attacks on the ACA. Let me be clear: a vote for this bill is a vote to deny health insurance to more than 16 million people. The bill also prohibits funds for research into patient-centered outcomes and for family planning - as if zeroing out Title X were not enough! This bill intentionally leaves students, workers, and women more vulnerable to exploitation. It blocks the Department of Education from protecting students at risk from low-quality, high-debt career education programs. It prohibits the Department of Labor from enforcing rules to ensure that financial advisers act in the best interests of their clients. It continues the Majority’s assault on the American worker by stopping the National Labor Relations Board from enforcing its own rules facilitating union elections. And it targets women by allowing their employers to block access to preventive health services if they have so-called “religious or moral" objections. This is just a small sampling of the riders.
“But the bottom line is that this bill is woefully underfunded. It will mean a continued deterioration in services that provide lifelines to millions of people. The funding in this bill fails to meet our country’s needs, and represents an abdication of this committee’s responsibility to the American people.
“Nobody should be surprised at this outcome. It is the tragic end result of yet another inadequate allocation. The only durable solution is to end, once and for all, the culture of austerity, the sequester cuts, and the spending caps. Unless and until we do so, the American people will continue to suffer."
DeLauro is also planning to offer the following amendments:
1. Increases many programs in the bill to the funding levels requested in the President’s FY16 budget. It also fully restores funding for Title X Family Planning and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), which are eliminated in the Majority’s bill. This amendment increases funding for critical labor, education, and health programs by nearly $12 billion. Text can be viewed.
2. Increases funding by nearly $2.5 billion for the Child Care and Development Block Grant ($370 million), Head Start and Early Head Start ($1.3 billion), and Preschool Development Grants ($750 million). Text can be viewed.
3. Increases funding for the NIH by $3 billion above the Chairman’s mark by adding H.R. 531, the Accelerating Biomedical Research Act to the bill. The Accelerating Biomedical Research Act would establish an annual cap adjustment for NIH. Text can be viewed.
4. Strikes section 232, which would block HHS and the Department of Agriculture from releasing or implementing the eighth edition of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Congress requires the guidelines to be reviewed, updated, and published every 5 years in a joint effort between HHS and the Department of Agriculture. Text can be viewed.
5. Strikes section 309, which would block the Department of Education from implementing the gainful employment regulation, scheduled to go into effect July 1. This common sense regulation safeguards students and taxpayer dollars from overpriced, ineffective career education programs that do not prepare students for employment and leaves them with high-debt. Text can be viewed.
6. Increases funding by nearly $600 million for the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), BioShield, and Pandemic Influenza preparedness to the President’s requested level. Text can be viewed.
Source: U.S. Department of HCA
