Continuing Appropriations Act, 2024 and Other Extensions Act

Floor Speech

Just so I can reiterate what I had said earlier, we now have really the language in both the Senate bill and in the House bill, and it is really not so clean a continuing resolution as it has been portrayed.

This strikes the Member pay prohibition, in effect, giving Members a pay raise.

Let me just explain. If you have a copy of the bill, on page 7--in the Senate bill, there is language that the Legislative Branch appropriations bill, what division it is, et cetera. Section 6, really what it does is the Senate bill prohibits the movement toward a Member pay raise.

Now, what the House Republicans have done is, page 7, line 13, what they do, they just drop that part of the language that comes from the Senate bill. In essence, what they have done is to provide themselves with a pay raise.

I think that you haven't given us time to read the 71 pages. I am hopeful that all of you have had the opportunity to read the 71 pages.
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Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I am prepared to close, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, House Republicans have shown they are unwilling and unable to govern. Some have shown they are willing and able to abandon our allies.

Russian tyranny and aggression threaten more than just Ukraine's borders. We learned in Georgia, and we learned in Crimea, if you stand by while Russia takes an inch, they will take a mile. Vladimir Putin must be held to account for upending Europe's security in peacetime for a pointless and bloody war, which has disrupted energy markets and triggered food insecurity around the world.

We must be clear about what this means, plain and simple. This is appeasement like the world experienced in 1938, which led to a cascading, murderous result.

Ukraine's fight for democracy and sovereignty requires decisive action and absolute support from the free world. We must act like the leaders of the free world. We must not abandon our position as the world's beacon of democratic values. We must not surrender our global influence to Russia, China, or any group that threatens democracies.

Members of this body have come together again and again to reaffirm our commitment to helping Ukraine defend itself against vicious invasion.

Let us keep the government open, and let us proceed to make sure that we do not abandon our allies.

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Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I think it is important to note here that, first of all, I am very interested that there was a rereading of the bill as it came from the House and from the Senate and that there is a view that it needs to be reviewed in some way because, in fact, as the bill stands, there is a pay raise that is being done, in addition to which there are student loan efforts that are thwarted, as well, making it more difficult for about 45 million borrowers to be able to get the kind of services that they need.

I really want to make the point that I have had the opportunity to chair the Appropriations Committee for 2 years--and for those 2 years, with a 3- or 4-person majority--with the assistance of colleagues in the House and in the Senate. Last December, it was honestly just in the Senate because House Republicans refused to participate in the negotiations. I think there were very few, in the continuing resolution that we put forward, Republicans who voted for a continuing resolution. I think, if I recall the number precisely, it was nine, but it allowed us to be able to hammer out the bills over the next several weeks until December.

At that juncture, what we did was we came together. We hammered out the bills. No one got everything that they wanted, but we could pass the bill.

Now, I move forward to what happened last May and last June when there was a budget agreement that was hammered out by the President and the Speaker of the House. To be very honest with you, I did not vote for that budget agreement. I would have never let this Nation default, but I was very concerned about the harm that was going to be done to the people of this country through the appropriations process that was established by the majority, and that was to significantly cut $142 billion from the services that we provide. That is education, mental health services, medical research services. All of that, I viewed, was going to be curtailed.

It is the law of the land. It is civics. When the House passes something, the Senate passes something, the President signs the bill, it is the law of the land. The Speaker of the House and the Republicans in this House walked away from that agreement, and that is why we stand where we are today in this effort.

Mr. Speaker, I once again would reiterate what I have been saying all along and what I have said in the last several days: this House has overwhelmingly, in the last 2 days, the majority has demonstrated that we want to provide support for Ukraine's self-defense.

We had several amendments: a Biggs amendment, a Gaetz amendment, a Greene amendment, all of which resulted in overwhelming support for Ukraine.

I continue to believe that this is an appeasement strategy of the far right and, in fact, does not have a majority support in this body, but I believe that standing with our allies does have support.

I would reiterate that our own Department of Defense--something that I believe my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have great regard for, listen to, support their efforts, increase funding for defense--care deeply about this issue of our national security and our ability to be able to defend our allies overseas. They all have a great affinity for this effort, and I applaud that, but that seems now to be abandoned.

In the words of the Under Secretary of the Department of Defense, they cannot do without this funding. I would remind Members that in a very specific and poignant letter it lays out that: ``The bottom line is we cannot sustain adequate levels of Ukraine assistance with transfer authority alone.

``Delays to additional funding would also be perceived by Ukraine as a sign of wavering U.S. support and likely as a betrayal of our previous commitments.''

Mr. Speaker, the United States betraying our commitment to Ukraine is essentially the bottom line on this continuing resolution.

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Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

The yeas and nays were ordered.

Pursuant to clause 9 of rule XX, this 15-minute vote on the motion to suspend the rules will be followed by a 5-minute vote on:

Agreeing to the Speaker's approval of the Journal, if ordered.

The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 335, nays 91, not voting 7, as follows: [Roll No. 513] YEAS--335 Adams Aguilar Alford Allen Allred Amodei Armstrong Arrington Auchincloss Bacon Baird Balderson Balint Barr Barragan Beatty Bentz Bera Bergman Beyer Bice Bilirakis Bishop (GA) Blumenauer Blunt Rochester Bonamici Bowman Boyle (PA) Brown Brownley Buchanan Bucshon Budzinski Burgess Bush Calvert Caraveo Carbajal Cardenas Carey Carl Carson Carter (LA) Cartwright Casar Case Casten Castor (FL) Castro (TX) Chavez-DeRemer Cherfilus-McCormick Chu Ciscomani Clark (MA) Clarke (NY) Cleaver Clyburn Cohen Cole Comer Connolly Correa Costa Courtney Craig Crawford Crenshaw Crockett Crow Cuellar Curtis D'Esposito Davids (KS) Davis (IL) Davis (NC) De La Cruz Dean (PA) DeGette DeLauro DelBene Deluzio DeSaulnier Diaz-Balart Dingell Doggett Duarte Dunn (FL) Edwards Ellzey Emmer Escobar Eshoo Espaillat Evans Feenstra Ferguson Finstad Fischbach Fitzpatrick Fleischmann Fletcher Flood Foster Foushee Foxx Frankel, Lois Frost Gallagher Gallego Garamendi Garbarino Garcia (IL) Garcia (TX) Garcia, Mike Garcia, Robert Gimenez Golden (ME) Goldman (NY) Gomez Gonzalez, Vicente Gottheimer Granger Graves (LA) Graves (MO) Green, Al (TX) Grijalva Grothman Guthrie Harder (CA) Hayes Higgins (NY) Hill Himes Hinson Horsford Houchin Houlahan Hoyer Hoyle (OR) Hudson Huffman Huizenga Issa Ivey Jackson (IL) Jackson (NC) Jackson Lee Jacobs James Jayapal Jeffries Johnson (GA) Johnson (OH) Johnson (SD) Joyce (OH) Kamlager-Dove Kaptur Kean (NJ) Keating Kelly (IL) Kelly (PA) Khanna Kiggans (VA) Kildee Kiley Kilmer Kim (CA) Kim (NJ) Krishnamoorthi Kuster Kustoff LaLota LaMalfa Lamborn Landsman Langworthy Larsen (WA) Larson (CT) Latta LaTurner Lawler Lee (CA) Lee (FL) Lee (NV) Lee (PA) Leger Fernandez Letlow Levin Lieu Lofgren Lucas Luetkemeyer Lynch Magaziner Malliotakis Manning Matsui McBath McCarthy McCaul McClellan McClintock McCollum McGarvey McGovern McHenry Meeks Menendez Meng Meuser Mfume Miller (OH) Miller (WV) Miller-Meeks Molinaro Moore (UT) Moore (WI) Morelle Moskowitz Moulton Mrvan Mullin Nadler Napolitano Neal Neguse Newhouse Nickel Norcross Nunn (IA) Ocasio-Cortez Omar Owens Pallone Panetta Pappas Pascrell Payne Pelosi Perez Peters Pettersen Phillips Pingree Pocan Pressley Ramirez Raskin Reschenthaler Rodgers (WA) Rogers (AL) Rogers (KY) Ross Rouzer Ruiz Ruppersberger Rutherford Ryan Salazar Salinas Sanchez Santos Sarbanes Scalise Scanlon Schakowsky Schiff Schneider Scholten Schrier Scott (VA) Scott, Austin Scott, David Sessions Sewell Sherman Sherrill Simpson Slotkin Smith (MO) Smith (NE) Smith (NJ) Smith (WA) Smucker Sorensen Soto Spanberger Stansbury Stanton Stauber Steel Stefanik Steil Stevens Strickland Strong Swalwell Sykes Takano Tenney Thanedar Thompson (CA) Thompson (MS) Thompson (PA) Titus Tlaib Tokuda Tonko Torres (CA) Torres (NY) Trahan Trone Turner Underwood Valadao Van Orden Vargas Vasquez Veasey Velazquez Wagner Walberg Wasserman Schultz Waters Watson Coleman Wenstrup Westerman Wexton Wild Williams (GA) Williams (NY) Wilson (FL) Wilson (SC) Wittman Womack NAYS--91 Aderholt Babin Banks Bean (FL) Biggs Bishop (NC) Boebert Bost Brecheen Buck Burchett Burlison Cammack Cline Cloud Clyde Collins Crane Davidson DesJarlais Duncan Estes Ezell Fallon Fitzgerald Franklin, C. Scott Fry Fulcher Gaetz Gonzales, Tony Good (VA) Gooden (TX) Gosar Green (TN) Greene (GA) Griffith Guest Hageman Harris Harshbarger Hern Higgins (LA) Hunt Jackson (TX) Johnson (LA) Jordan Kelly (MS) LaHood Lesko Loudermilk Luttrell Mace Mann Massie Mast McClain McCormick Miller (IL) Mills Moolenaar Mooney Moore (AL) Moran Murphy Nehls Norman Obernolte Ogles Palmer Pence Perry Pfluger Posey Quigley Rose Rosendale Roy Schweikert Self Spartz Steube Tiffany Timmons Van Drew Van Duyne Waltz Weber (TX) Webster (FL) Williams (TX) Yakym Zinke NOT VOTING--7 Carter (GA) Carter (TX) Donalds Joyce (PA) Luna Peltola Porter

Messrs. GREEN of Tennessee and MOOLENAAR changed their vote from ``yea'' to ``nay.''

Mr. VICENTE GONZALEZ of Texas, Ms. KUSTER, and Mr. BARR changed their vote from ``nay'' to ``yea.''

Mr. VAN DREW changed his vote from ``present'' to ``nay.''

So (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the rules were suspended and the bill, as modified, was passed.

The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.

A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

Stated for:

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