Thank you, Chairman Diaz-Balart, Ranking Member Price, and Chairman Frelinghuysen, for your work on this bill.
While numerous programs are well funded, there are a number of problems that make this a bill Democrats cannot support.
It is outrageous that the Republican raw deal slashes HOME by $162 million, while we will soon consider subcommittee allocations that could pave the way to fund President Trump’s border wall. Instead of making sufficient investments in public housing, the amounts provided to tenant and project based rental assistance could lead to families losing vital support. This Committee should do more to help Americans struggling to make ends meet and put a roof over their heads, not waste taxpayer dollars on Trump’s boondoggle of a wall or let the Secretary of Transportation hire more political cronies.
Instead of building upon the success of the omnibus, the majority has included harmful, divisive policy riders that have repeatedly been stripped from previous bills. Provisions to increase truck weights and preempt state and local meal and rest break laws make our roads less safe. Efforts to cripple high speed rail in California would result in job losses, forego investments our committee has already made, and block critical infrastructure that is so desperately needed. These riders have no place in a bipartisan spending bill.
Just like every year, Democratic votes will be needed to enact appropriations law, so I hope we will soon start to work together to improve this bill.
Source: U.S. Department of HCA
