Remarks

It is an honor to serve as Chairman of the Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee. I want to thank my friend—Chairwoman Kay Granger—for giving me this opportunity. Thank you, also, to Ranking Member DeLauro for her commitment to the work of this committee. And to my Ranking Member, Steny Hoyer, thank you for your leadership and friendship through the years. It's a real privilege to work with you.

First, I want to thank Chairman Womack for his work on the Fiscal Year 2024 Financial Services bill.

As I have said before, to fully fund our national defense, veterans, and border security, other unnecessary spending must be reduced.

This bill rejects significant increases in the President's Budget Request, and instead saves billions of dollars by reclaiming unspent funds from the Inflation Reduction Act and preventing the I.R.S. from hiring tens of thousands of new agents.

The Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies will come to order.

We are here today to markup the Fiscal Year 2024 Interior bill. I would like to welcome Full Committee Ranking Member DeLauro, Subcommittee Ranking Member Pingree, and the other Members of the Subcommittee.

The Subcommittee will come to order.

I want to welcome everyone to the Subcommittee Markup of the Fiscal Year 2024 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill.

I am pleased to be joined by Ranking Member DeLauro, Ranking Member Quigley, and the Members of the Subcommittee.

I believe the bill before the subcommittee responsibly funds our most critical transportation and housing needs, which will have a positive impact in every congressional district.

Thank you very much, Madam Chairwoman.

I am pleased to present the fiscal year 2024 Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs appropriations bill to the full committee for consideration and for approval.

I want to thank Chairwoman Granger for her leadership to get us to this point in the process. I also want to recognize her previous chairmanship and leadership of this subcommittee, as well as the Chairman Emeritus and my friend, Hal Rogers.

As we continue our work on the Fiscal Year 2024 bills, I want to remind everyone of the situation we find ourselves in.

During the last Congress, trillions of dollars were spent outside of the appropriations process.

We have no choice but to take a hard look at the spending this Committee oversees.

The State and Foreign Operations appropriations bill before us strikes the right balance.

It funds important national security priorities while reducing spending on unnecessary programs.

I want to thank Chairman Cole for presenting the Fiscal Year 2024 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies bill. I appreciate the work he has done on this Subcommittee.

This bill is another example of the real progress we are making to reduce overall spending while funding our highest priorities.

The bill refocuses spending on programs that support affordable housing and safe, effective transportation systems.

Instead of giving the Administration more grant funding to spend, this bill gets us back to funding core missions.

The Subcommittee will come to order.

I'd like to welcome everyone to today's subcommittee markup of the fiscal year 2024 appropriations bill for the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs.

At the outset, I would like to ask my colleagues for their indulgence, as my opening statement is longer than normal to explain the changes in this year's bill.