Media

Madam Chair, thank you for yielding.

First, I want to thank Chairwoman Lee and Ranking Member Rogers for their work on this State and Foreign Operations bill.

I want to also thank the chair for including the full amount for Israel - $3.3 billion. Full funding makes it clear that the members of this committee are steadfast supporters of our great ally and partner.

Funding was also maintained at the current level for other key partners in the Middle East, such as Egypt and Jordan.

I hope the chair will work with us to ensure that the conditions on aid to Egypt do not prevent funding from reaching one of our most reliable partners in the region.

Unfortunately, there are many troubling issues with this bill.

This bill is based on a topline funding level that only the Majority Party has agreed to.

First, I want to recognize Chairwoman Pingree and Ranking Member Joyce for their work on putting this Interior and Environment bill together.

As a result of their efforts, this bill addresses priorities of Members on both sides of the aisle and does many good things for the conservation of our natural resources.

Even though the bill funds many shared priorities, I have concerns about our path forward.

The bill eliminates several long-standing, common-sense provisions that have had bipartisan support for many years.

Instead, the bill includes controversial provisions that would limit domestic energy, timber, and mineral production.

I am also concerned about the level of spending proposed. Numerous agencies in this bill would receive double-digit percentage increases.

The Environmental Protection Agency is one example, and it is funded at an unprecedented level.

Thank you, Chair DeLauro.

I appreciate the work that Chair Wasserman Schultz and Ranking Member Carter have done this year on the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs bill. Thank you for reaching across the aisle to fund many projects important to our Members.

Unfortunately, this bill is based on a funding framework that the Majority Party developed without Republican support.

This difference of opinion on both funding priorities and policy positions could slow down our appropriations process this year.

There is nothing more important than funding our nation's military and veterans, and we must try to resolve these disagreements so that important bills like this one can be signed into law.

One area that is particularly concerning in this bill is that it fails to include long-standing language prohibiting the transfer of detainees currently at Guantanamo Bay to the United States.

I would like to Chair Roybal-Allard and Ranking Member Fleischmann for your work on this Homeland Security appropriations bill for fiscal year 2022.

I know that you both try to work together when it is possible, but unfortunately, there are just too many differences of opinion in this year's bill, and I oppose it in its current form.

To put it simply, the bill proposes funding levels and policies that fail to address the illegal immigration crisis we are currently experiencing in this country.

If we are going to get serious about stopping migrants from making the journey to the United States, then we should not be doing some of the things we see in this bill, such as:

Madam Chair, thank you for yielding.

These spending allocations will increase discretionary spending by hundreds of billions of dollars to an all-time high of $1.5 trillion.

This nearly 9% increase above fiscal year 2021 comes at a time of record-high deficits and debt:

• This month, the national debt reached an astonishing $28.3 trillion.
• In the first 8 months of this fiscal year, we have already borrowed $2.1 trillion.

We must exercise fiscal responsibility and return to reasonable levels of federal spending, now that the pandemic hopefully is nearing an end.

Although these allocations do not show the exact split between defense and non-defense programs, we know the topline is based on the president's budget. Those numbers included an enormous, 17% increase to non-defense programs. At the same time, the president's budget cut defense spending to below inflation.