Congresswoman Nita M. Lowey (D-NY), Chair of the House Appropriations Committee, delivered the following remarks at the Committee's markup of its 302(b) subcommittee allocations:
I call the meeting of the Appropriations Committee to order.
I would like to welcome all members to the first full committee markup of Fiscal Year 2020. It is an honor to serve as chairwoman of the committee, and I couldn’t ask for a better partner than Kay Granger. We have a great deal to accomplish in a short time frame, but that is nothing new to appropriators. I look forward to working with all of you, on both sides of the aisle, to shepherd 12 bills into law in the coming months.
One other note before we begin. Today is John Moolenaar’s birthday. I wish you a happy birthday, and hope we finish today’s business in time for you to celebrate somewhere other than this hearing room.
Our first order of business is to return to regular order by considering the Suballocation of Budget Allocations for Fiscal Year 2020, also known as the “302(b)’s."
The suballocations before us are consistent with the reasonable topline totals presented in H.R. 2021, the Investing for the People Act, and the deeming resolution the House adopted last month. It is my hope that the Senate and the White House will work quickly and in good faith to reach a bipartisan budget agreement so that we can avoid the remaining two years of senseless austerity that hurts working families and hampers economic growth under the Budget Control Act.
Today is our first full committee markup, and we will leave today having adopted allocations for all 12 subcommittees. Just last year, the previous majority forced this committee to consider half of the annual appropriations bills before revealing the full slate of subcommittee allocations.
The year before we didn’t consider a full slate of allocations until the very last markup of the year, after we had debated non-defense bills written to preposterously low levels we knew would be nowhere near the amount provided in a caps agreement.
Given the disregard for regular order in recent years, it disheartens me to hear my Republican colleagues expressing indignation at the lack of a caps deal and it disappoints me to hear them pledging to oppose the important priorities contained in our full committee bills until a caps deal is enacted. There is too much important work to be done - this Committee cannot wait to do its job.
Most importantly, these suballocations represent this Committee’s intent to invest in the things most important to America’s working families. Under these suballocations, each subcommittee would receive an increase from the fiscal year 2019 levels. These allocations allow for:
* An increase of more than 8 percent for the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs subcommittee, which will improve our military readiness and provide the benefits and medical care that our Veterans have earned through their committed service to our Nation;
* An almost 7 percent increase for the Labor, Health and Human Service, and Education subcommittee to help every American have a better chance at a better life - with a good education, a good job, and affordable health care;
* An almost 7 percent increase for the Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development subcommittee to help begin rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure;
* Other increases across the remaining subcommittees to help agencies deliver for middle class families and people struggling to make it into the middle class.
These allocations are fair, will allow this Committee to uphold our commitments to America’s working families, and signify the beginning of an orderly appropriations process. I urge my colleagues to support them.
I will now turn to Ranking Member Granger for her remarks.
Source: U.S. Department of HCA
