Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies

Mister Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 2471, a bill that will provide funding for the Federal Government through the end of this fiscal year.

While it has taken us far too long to get here, I am glad we were able to produce a bill that includes many funding priorities that I support.

Since last summer, I have made it clear that House Republicans wouldn't oppose appropriations bills unless they:

Thank you, Madam Speaker.

I rise today in strong opposition to H.R. 4502, a package of seven fiscal year 2022 appropriations bills that will be considered by the House this week.

I wish the circumstances were different and I could support this important piece of legislation that funds critical programs.

Unfortunately, after months of committee hearings and markups, this year's bills have too many fatal flaws.

First, there is no agreement between Republicans and Democrats on the topline spending level for appropriations.

Thank you, Chairman McGovern and Ranking Member Cole, for allowing me to testify on H.R. 4502, a package of seven fiscal year 2022 appropriations bills.

I wish the circumstances were different and I were here speaking in favor of this important piece of legislation.

Unfortunately, there is not bipartisan support, so I am here to ask the Rules Committee to allow amendments to H.R. 4502, so that it can be improved.

Madam Chair, thank you for yielding.

The revised spending allocations presented today contain only technical corrections to the initial allocations, which were adopted on a party-line vote two weeks ago.

Because there are no substantive changes from the initial allocations, I must once again oppose them.

They do not change the topline spending levels for any of the subcommittee bills – even though Members on my side of the aisle have consistently asked for bipartisan cooperation on funding levels.

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.

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: