Further Continuing Appropriations and Disaster Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2025

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to this continuing resolution. We had a strong bipartisan, bicameral agreement among the leadership of both parties at both ends of the Capitol to avert a disastrous and pointless government shutdown, to provide desperately needed disaster aid and emergency assistance, and to provide Congress with the time required to enact a final funding bill for fiscal year 2025.

That bill was a result of a compromise. There were things in it that Democrats liked and Republicans did not. There were things in it that Republicans liked and Democrats would have preferred to leave out. That is the nature of government funding bills. They require compromise and the support of Democrats and Republicans that we in the House and Senate need to have in order to become law.

That was true throughout the 118th Congress, despite Republicans' repeated and failed efforts to write extreme and partisan funding bills. That will be true in the 119th Congress, as well.

Yes, we were on the cusp of an agreement to move this country forward. Yesterday, a multibillionaire with apparently no working knowledge of government or of appropriations, a self-appointed president of the United States, Elon Musk, issued a marching order for House Republicans to go against their own elected leadership and shut down the government.

Soon after, Congress was on a fast track to a government shutdown. House Republicans are responsible for any harm and uncertainty brought upon the American people. Should some get their wish for a monthlong government shutdown, they will be responsible for cleaning up their mess come Inauguration Day.

We are in completely unprecedented times. The world's richest man, an unelected contractor reaping billions in government contracts, is calling the shots in the Republican Party. Who is in charge?

At the behest of the world's richest man, who no one voted for, the United States Congress has been thrown into pandemonium. We had a bill on Tuesday that was the result of 1\1/2\ years of work, which had the input of Republicans and Democrats, their interests, their concerns, and the needs of their constituents.

This bill has no such bipartisan input, and we are considering it in mere minutes after it was released.

It removed key provisions to limit the power of pharmaceutical companies. It abandons our bipartisan efforts to ensure American dollars and intellectual property are reinvested in American businesses and workers, instead of fueling the Chinese Communist Party's technology and capabilities.

It includes a 2-year raising of the debt limit.

What does that do?

That serves to allow Republicans to cut taxes on the ultra wealthy like Elon Musk and raise deficits on the backs of the American people.

We must immediately return to considering the bipartisan, bicameral compromise legislation that Speaker Johnson, Leader Schumer, Leader Jeffries, Leader McConnell, and the four corners of the Appropriations Committee reached earlier this week.

We must unequivocally reject the illegitimate oligarchy that seeks to usurp the authority of the United States Congress and of the American people.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I remind the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Alford), my colleague and friend, that the compromise bill had overwhelming support for farmers and for American families, as well.

(Mr. NEAL asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, a deal is a deal.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I am prepared to close, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, the American public has been clamoring for this body to work together, Democrats and Republicans, across the aisle to do what is in the best interest of the American people.

To that end and to give credence to what the American people are clamoring for so they can begin to have trust in us again and what we do in this body, is that we have been working since August 2023 on a supplemental disaster relief bill.

We worked assiduously over the next several months, day in and day out. I will just say to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, I recognize I am part of what is called the four corners of the Appropriations Committee, Mr. Cole and myself and Senator Murray and Senator Collins, who wanted to get these appropriations bills done by December 20 because we believed that we could have done it and get these bills done.

We were told no. We were told no. We were told that we had to have a continuing resolution that would carry us into next year. No government should be run by continuing resolutions. That is not good governance, but there are those in this body who don't know how to govern and don't care about governing.

We worked hard over the last several weeks, back and forth, forth and back, to say we can accept this; we can't accept that. We will do this. We worked hard.

To talk about what some of my colleagues have said, the Democrats are in the minority in this body. When you have the pen, which is what the Republicans have, they write the bill. They write the bill. They post the bill. They agreed on a bill.

You know what? They got scared because president Musk said don't do it. Don't do it. Shut the government down. What does he know about what people go through when the government shuts down? Are his employees furloughed? Hell, no. Is he furloughed? No.

When you shut the government down, people don't get paid. Maybe if none of us got paid if the government shut down, some people on the other side of the aisle would feel differently about where we are going in this effort.

We had an agreement. Mr. Speaker, this is no different from what we have experienced over the last year and a half or so. Think about it. The Biden-McCarthy deal comes together and the next day, walk away. The Johnson-Schumer deal comes together and the next day, walk away. Now this deal comes together, and they walk away from it.

Who do we trust in this body? Above all, can the American people trust us? Can they trust us with their lives when we had a moment, when we came to agreement as Democrats and Republicans and were able to say: Let's move forward.

One of my colleagues, I think it was Congressman Neal, said this: The only currency we have in this body is our word. That is our credibility. That is our bond with each other. When you break that bond, you break the ability to try to come together and be able to govern on behalf of the people of this country.

I understand what is in this bill, but what was left out is unconscionable, particularly in the areas of maternal mortality.

Mr. Speaker, I implore my colleagues to vote ``no'' on this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

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

The yeas and nays were ordered.

The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 174, nays 235, answered ``present'' 1, not voting 20, as follows: [Roll No. 516] YEAS--174 Aderholt Alford Allen Amodei Arrington Bacon Baird Balderson Banks Barr Bentz Bergman Bice Bilirakis Bishop (NC) Boebert Bost Buchanan Bucshon Burgess Calvert Carey Carl Carter (GA) Carter (TX) Castor (FL) Chavez-DeRemer Ciscomani Cline Cole Collins Comer Crawford Crenshaw D'Esposito Davidson De La Cruz DesJarlais Diaz-Balart Donalds Duarte Dunn (FL) Edwards Ellzey Emmer Estes Ezell Fallon Feenstra Ferguson Finstad Fischbach Fitzgerald Fitzpatrick Fleischmann Flood Fong Foxx Franklin, Scott Fry Garbarino Gimenez Gonzales, Tony Gooden (TX) Graves (LA) Graves (MO) Green (TN) Greene (GA) Griffith Grothman Guest Guthrie Hageman Harshbarger Hern Higgins (LA) Hill Hinson Houchin Hudson Huizenga Issa Jackson (TX) James Johnson (LA) Johnson (SD) Jordan Joyce (OH) Joyce (PA) Kean (NJ) Kelly (MS) Kiggans (VA) Kiley Kim (CA) Kustoff LaHood LaLota LaMalfa Langworthy Latta LaTurner Lawler Lee (FL) Letlow Loudermilk Lucas Luna Malliotakis Maloy Mann Mast McCaul McClain McClintock McHenry Meuser Miller (IL) Miller (OH) Miller (WV) Miller-Meeks Molinaro Moolenaar Moore (AL) Murphy Nehls Nunn (IA) Obernolte Owens Palmer Pence Perez Pfluger Reschenthaler Rogers (AL) Rogers (KY) Rose Rouzer Rulli Rutherford Salazar Scalise Scott, Austin Sessions Simpson Smith (MO) Smith (NE) Smith (NJ) Smucker Stauber Steel Stefanik Steil Strong Tenney Thompson (PA) Timmons Turner Valadao Van Drew Van Orden Wagner Walberg Waltz Weber (TX) Webster (FL) Wenstrup Westerman Wied Williams (NY) Wilson (SC) Wittman Womack Yakym Zinke NAYS--235 Adams Aguilar Allred Amo Auchincloss Balint Barragan Bean (FL) Beatty Bera Beyer Biggs Bishop (GA) Blunt Rochester Bonamici Bowman Boyle (PA) Brecheen Brown Brownley Budzinski Burchett Burlison Bush Cammack Caraveo Carbajal Cardenas Carson Carter (LA) Cartwright Casar Case Casten Castro (TX) Cherfilus-McCormick Chu Clark (MA) Clarke (NY) Cleaver Cloud Clyburn Clyde Cohen Connolly Correa Costa Courtney Craig Crane Crockett Crow Cuellar Curtis Davids (KS) Davis (IL) Davis (NC) Dean (PA) DeGette DeLauro DelBene Deluzio DeSaulnier Dingell Doggett Duncan Escobar Eshoo Espaillat Foster Foushee Frankel, Lois Frost Fulcher Gallego Garamendi Garcia (IL) Garcia (TX) Garcia, Robert Golden (ME) Goldman (NY) Gomez Gonzalez, V. Good (VA) Gosar Green, Al (TX) Harder (CA) Harris Hayes Himes Horsford Houlahan Hoyer Hoyle (OR) Huffman Hunt Ivey Jackson (IL) Jackson (NC) Jacobs Jayapal Jeffries Johnson (GA) Kamlager-Dove Keating Kelly (IL) Kennedy Khanna Kildee Kilmer Krishnamoorthi Kuster Lamborn Landsman Larsen (WA) Larson (CT) Lee (CA) Lee (NV) Lee (PA) Lee Carter Leger Fernandez Lesko Levin Lofgren Lopez Luttrell Lynch Mace Magaziner Manning Massie Matsui McBath McClellan McCollum McCormick McGarvey McGovern McIver Meeks Menendez Meng Mfume Mills Mooney Moore (UT) Moore (WI) Moran Morelle Moskowitz Moulton Mrvan Mullin Nadler Neal Neguse Nickel Norcross Norman Ocasio-Cortez Ogles Omar Pallone Panetta Pappas Peltola Perry Peters Pettersen Pingree Pocan Porter Posey Pressley Quigley Ramirez Raskin Rosendale Ross Roy Ruiz Ruppersberger Ryan Salinas Sanchez Sarbanes Scanlon Schakowsky Schneider Scholten Schrier Schweikert Scott (VA) Scott, David Self Sewell Sherman Slotkin Smith (WA) Sorensen Soto Spanberger Spartz Stansbury Stanton Stevens Strickland Swalwell Sykes Takano Thanedar Thompson (CA) Thompson (MS) Tiffany Titus Tlaib Tokuda Tonko Torres (CA) Torres (NY) Trahan Trone Underwood Van Duyne Vargas Vasquez Veasey Velazquez Wasserman Schultz Waters Watson Coleman Wexton Wild Williams (GA) Wilson (FL) ANSWERED ``PRESENT''--1 Kaptur NOT VOTING--20 Babin Blumenauer Evans Fletcher Garcia, Mike Gottheimer Granger Grijalva Kelly (PA) Lieu Luetkemeyer Napolitano Newhouse Pelosi Phillips Rodgers (WA) Sherrill Steube Suozzi Williams (TX)

Mr. PANETTA, Mrs. SPARTZ, and Mr. HUNT changed their vote from ``yea'' to ``nay.''

Mr. GROTHMAN changed his vote from ``nay'' to ``yea.''

So (two-thirds not being in the affirmative) the motion was rejected.

The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source