OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2019

Floor Speech

Date: May 10, 2019
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Minors and Children Immigration

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Ms. DeLAURO. Madam Speaker, the administration submitted a supplemental request last week for an additional $2.9 billion in emergency appropriations for the unaccompanied children program.

We are carefully reviewing that request. We expect the administration to provide further details about the proposed use of those funds. We have had bicameral, bipartisan meetings to get more details on the request, and we expect that in the next several days, but we need additional details from the administration before we can sign off on this request.

How many children are expected to be referred by Customs and Border Protection over the next few months? What kind of shelter beds are we paying for with the $2.9 billion?

Let's be clear. There are child welfare differences, and major cost differences, among traditional beds that are $250 a night, soft-sided dormitories, and brick and mortar influx shelters, which run from $750 to $1,250 per bed per day.

Does the estimate include appropriate onsite mental health professionals and clinicians for facilities so that the children have access to the services they are legally required to have? We know they have been wanting in those services.

These staffing ratios are critical, as are legal services and child advocates for the most vulnerable children in ORR's care. We need to know if these costs have been included in OMB's estimate.

I assure my colleagues, we are taking this request seriously, but you should not be fooled. This bill is not the right vehicle. It is the wrong bill for the unaccompanied children program.

This motion to recommit does not provide funding for unaccompanied children. It adds $2.9 million to the account for Head Start.

Madam Speaker, my friends should have been with us on the appropriations bill on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and related agencies just 2 days ago. They had a chance to vote for $4.5 billion for childcare, for child welfare. They said no. They said no to this.

So don't be fooled by this, keeping in mind this is the 1-year anniversary of their child abuse policy to separate our kids at the border.

You want to know about unaccompanied kids? You could have cared for them last year and every day since.

Vote ``no'' on the motion to recommit.

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