National Security, Department of State, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2027

Floor Speech

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Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Chairman, I thank Ranking Member Frankel for her leadership and work on this bill. I also extend my appreciation to Chairman Diaz-Balart and Chairman Cole for their partnership.

I also thank the subcommittee staff: Erin Kolodjeski, Ed Etzkorn, and Laurie Mignone on the minority side, and their counterparts on the majority: Susan Adams, Craig Higgins, Jamie McCormick, Trey Hicks, John Muscolini, Gabriella Zach, Erin McMenamin, and Clelia Alvarado. I thank them all for their work.

Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to this bill. It undercuts humanitarian assistance, undermines global health programs, threatens women's health, and breaks promises to our partners and our allies, while surrendering influence to our adversaries.

After failing to bring this bill to the floor for several weeks, Republican leadership has decided to attach an entirely unrelated measure that would restrict voting access for American citizens.

President Trump has insisted on this measure, despite opposition from members of his own party. He is afraid the American people will voice their vehement disapproval of Republican-led government and the failed policies of this administration at the ballot box in November.

The President's war with Iran has been a catastrophic failure. It has cost Americans more than $130 billion in higher prices so far. President Trump began this war with no plan, no strategy, no objective, no goal, and no understanding of the consequences.

Nearly 6 months into the war, and the Iranian regime is still in place. The Iranian people are not free. Their ballistic missile program is intact. Their nuclear ambitions are unchanged. Their proxies are emboldened, and gas prices are rising. Their leverage is greater than it has been before, and President Trump has not articulated any course of action to bring this conflict to a close that is even remotely intelligible.

The Trump Doctrine is failure followed by failure, chaos abroad, and high costs at home. The bill that we are considering today will only set us up for more failures in the future.

This bill cuts funding for global health programs, particularly in the areas of reproductive health and global health security, making us more vulnerable to infectious disease outbreaks that originate abroad.

We are seeing the consequences of this administration's decisions to dismantle the USAID, withdraw from the World Health Organization, and decimate our global health systems in real time, as the current Ebola outbreak in Africa threatens to become the deadliest in history. Because it took so long to detect and due to the challenging conditions, we will likely be working to contain this outbreak for more than a year.

Aid workers are working in active combat zones, putting their own lives at risk from both infection and violence to stop this disease from reaching our shores. Here we are debating a bill that would further choke off resources they desperately need to keep all of us safe.

Let us not forget the Trump administration's choice to dismantle USAID is a moral tragedy. More than 500,000 children have died as a result of these cuts. It is unconscionable.

This bill does not provide any funding for the U.N. regular budget, abandoning one of the longest standing institutions devoted to global peace. Undermining the U.N. only erodes our influence. It also shortchanges American businesses who receive upwards of $2 billion in U.N. contracts both here in the United States and overseas, which is more than our dues.

The bill threatens women's health around the globe, blocking any funds from going to the U.N. Population Fund, which is dedicated to reducing maternal mortality and violence against women and extending family planning to women and girls everywhere.

This includes work to eliminate obstetric fistula, a traumatic childbirth injury that leads to incontinence, infections, kidney disease, and infertility. By failing to provide any funding for UNFPA, the conditions under which millions of women around the world live will only become worse. Approximately 260,000 women around the world died during or shortly following pregnancy in 2023. That is 700 maternal deaths every day, one maternal death every 2 minutes. Eliminating this funding is a moral failure.

This bill also eliminates funding for the U.S. Institute of Peace, the Inter-American Foundation, and the U.S. African Development Foundation. Each of these programs strengthen our influence abroad, helping to cultivate relationships with the next generation of global leaders, and prevents crises before they arise.

This bill surrenders American influence to our adversaries. For every step backward we take, they take a step forward. Continually defunding the institutions that support America's international presence will have serious, lasting consequences.

In less than 2 years, the Trump administration has squandered decades of American influence, undermining our ability to persuade other countries to support our values and interests without resorting to the use of force. This bill reduces our ability to reclaim any of that influence for years to come.

Mr. Chairman, I encourage my colleagues to oppose this bill.

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