Defense
Enacted Full-Year Legislation
H.R. 2617 - Omnibus
Agriculture, Rural Development, and Food and Drug Administration
Defense
Commerce, Justice, and Science
Energy and Water Development
Financial Services and General Government
Homeland Security
Interior and Environment
Labor, Health and Human Services and Education
Legislative Branch
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition to the Senate Amendment to H.R. 6833, a short-term continuing resolution extending government funding through December 16th.
I oppose this CR for several reasons.
First, we should be here addressing the border crisis, the energy crisis, and the inflation crisis. This bill does nothing to fix any of these issues.
In fact, this bill actually bails out the Biden Administration for their failures and provides additional appropriations to put a band-aid on some of these problems for a few more months.
Madam Chair, thank you for yielding.
The revised allocations presented today do not change the spending levels that were adopted on a party-line vote last week. Because there are no substantive changes, I must once again oppose them.
It is unacceptable to Members on my side of the aisle to underfund our national defense while giving significant increases to the same social programs that received trillions of dollars over the last year. I hope we can find common ground as these bills move to the floor.
We will need to restore important language from prior bills, agree to remove controversial policy riders, and set responsible funding levels so that bills can get to the president's desk and be signed into law. I urge a no vote and yield back my time.
Military Base Pay
Thank you, Madam Chair, for yielding.
First, I want to thank Chair Mccollum and Ranking Member Calvert for their work on the fiscal year 2023 Defense Appropriations Bill.
As the former chair of this subcommittee, I know how much hard work went into drafting this bill, and I also want to acknowledge the committee staff.
I appreciate that Chair Mccollum has included many Republican priorities in this bill. I know this was not easy because your allocation is so low.
Thank you, Chair McCollum. I would first like to commend you for your diligent and detailed work in crafting the bill before us today. I would also like to recognize and thank all the members of the subcommittee for their hard work and commitment to our national security.
Since March, we have held 18 hearings with senior leaders to consider the needs of the Department of Defense. This work, along with careful budget analysis done by the staff and Members of the committee, culminates in today's markup the Department of Defense Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2023. Additionally, over the last five months, this committee has done all that it can to support the free and democratic nation of Ukraine, but these actions should not be mistaken for success.
Madam Chair, thank you for yielding.
As we sit here today, inflation is 8.6 percent above last year, the highest it's been in more than 40 years. Economists are saying American households should budget an extra $5,000 this year to cover rising prices – that's over $400 a month. Many families simply cannot afford this.
Prices of everyday goods have skyrocketed over the last year under the Biden Administration. For example:
WASHINGTON – Today, the full committee met to consider the fiscal year 2023 subcommittee spending levels, known as "302(b)" allocations. The appropriations bills for the subcommittees on Defense and Legislative Branch were also considered by the full committee.