Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026
Floor Speech
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Ms. DEAN of Pennsylvania. Mr. Chair, I thank Ranking Member DeLauro and Chairman Cole, and my sincere sympathies to Chair Womack and his family on the passing of his beautiful wife.
Mr. Chair, I rise today in support of the negotiated fiscal year 2026 appropriations package for Labor-Health and Human Services-Education, for Defense, and for Transportation-Housing and Urban Development.
As a new member of the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies, I am pleased to have contributed to the development of this legislation. I thank my colleagues on the Committee on Appropriations and the dedicated staff for their tireless work.
Despite serving in the minority, Democrats on the Committee on Appropriations have spent months fighting back against the Trump administration's proposed cuts to critical programs that support our healthcare systems and save lives. These efforts have made a difference.
We secured $7.4 billion for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, SAMHSA, despite the administration's callous attempt just 1 week ago to eliminate almost all discretionary grant funding for the agency. I am pleased to say that Congress exercised its constitutional power of the purse and rejected cuts to an agency that serves as the backbone of our Nation's response to the mental health and addiction crises, which continue to take too many lives in America.
We restored funding for homeless prevention programs, peer support services, and mental health workforce training, and we secured funding increases for State opioid response grants and the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.
In addition, we successfully removed more than 20 partisan policy riders from the L-HHS bill, riders that would have defunded Planned Parenthood, blocked gun violence prevention research, and threatened the safety and dignity of immigrant and LGBTQ communities.
These bills are far from perfect, but they send a strong message to this administration: Make America Healthy Again cannot coexist with attempts to cut public health programs, and Congress will continue to assert our power of the purse and impose necessary checks on the administration.
The Defense and T-HUD portions of this bill also make important investments toward our public health.
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Ms. DEAN of Pennsylvania. The Defense bill restores funding for Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs of $1.3 billion following massive cuts in fiscal year 2025. Further, it includes over $100 million for PFAS remediation efforts at military installations.
The T-HUD bill includes $295 million for Lead Hazard Reduction and Healthy Homes grants.
More generally, we know housing is healthcare. This bill provides $74 billion in discretionary spending for housing programs.
Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this package, and I thank the chairman and the ranking member.
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