Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agency Appropriations Act, 2027

Floor Speech

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Ms. DeLAURO. Madam Chair, I thank the ranking member for yielding. I want to begin by commending Ranking Member Bishop for his leadership on the Agriculture Subcommittee and thank him for his efforts on the legislation. I want to acknowledge the hard work of Chairman Harris on the committee and also my friend Chairman Cole.

Let me also say a thank-you at the outset to the staff: Martha Foley, Alex Swann, and Marie Gualtieri on the minority side; and their counterparts on the majority side: Pam Miller, Elizabeth Dent, Judd Gardner, Nick Seelinger, and Sykes Connell, as well, for all of their work.

I rise in opposition to the bill before us today. It will raise costs for farmers, cut aid for families, and reduce crucial support for rural communities.

In 2025, nearly 7 million women, children, and infants received support through the WIC program. These are families who are struggling to put food on the table, who are doing all that they can to stay afloat while costs for everything from groceries to gasoline continues to go up.

WIC is not fully funded. That includes cuts to the fruit and the vegetable voucher program. Specifically, vouchers, again, for fruits and vegetables have been cut. Denying women, infants, and children full access to nutritious fruits and vegetables is hardly a way to Make America Healthy Again.

WIC works. Multiple studies have found that WIC participation reduces the risk of adverse birth outcomes like premature birth or low birth weight, that it lowers infant mortality, and that it leads to a healthier overall diet for young children.

But this bill does not allow participants to recertify or enroll in the program remotely by failing to extend this option beyond the September 30, 2026, deadline. This is just another cut in disguise.

This option has been invaluable in helping more eligible Americans access their benefits. It has allowed working people to be able to certify without having to travel long distances or take time off from their work.

Virtual recertification is a proven process. It eliminates barriers to access for so many people. It allows more efficient use of taxpayer dollars and making sure that people can feed their families while maintaining program integrity. The American people deserve programs that work to support them and do not impose unnecessary burdens.

This bill also cuts the Food for Peace program by $300 million. That is about 25 percent. This will take money out of the pockets of the American farmers who grow the food that sustains the program while taking food out of the mouths of hungry children around the world who rely on it for their next meal. This is a lose-lose proposition. It is both immoral and irresponsible.

More than 2.2 million Americans do not have access to basic plumbing and running water in their homes, and this problem is even worse in rural areas. Yet, this bill cuts funding for waste and water development programs in rural communities by $62 million. Instead of solving the problem, this bill makes it worse, leaving more Americans without access to basic necessities that we should all expect in the United States.

This bill cuts funding for ReConnect Broadband by 20 percent, a program that is designed to expand internet access in rural communities. Broadband access is not a luxury. It is necessary to participate in the 21st century economy.

As I mentioned a moment ago about hurting farmers and rural communities, the cuts to rural water and waste disposal grants are about 4 percent. Rural business development grants have been cut by 28 percent. The Rural Energy for America Program, or the REAP program, has been cut by 50 percent.

And I would just say to my colleagues that we have a document here that gives you a State-by-State impact of Republican cuts. So it is in black and white. We are not making up the numbers.

It drives growth, the programs that we are talking about. The internet program, it drives growth. It connects people to job prospects and career training. It improves access to medical care. It is crucial at a time when more and more rural hospitals are closing down thanks to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. It expands educational opportunities, helping to ensure that every child is equipped to succeed in the economy of the future.

This bill also eliminates protections for small meat and poultry producers. It is a gift to their larger corporate competitors, which the American Farm Bureau, I might add, is opposed to.

It brings back partisan culture war provisions that have been stripped out of previous Agriculture-Rural Development-FDA bills.

In its current form, this bill raises costs for American farmers. It takes food away from hungry families. It cuts off support for rural communities, and it loudly bangs the divisive culture war drums once more.

I want to encourage my colleagues to oppose this legislation and also encourage my Republican colleagues to work with the Democrats to fix the many serious problems that this piece of legislation contains.

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