Appropriations Funding Cuts

Floor Speech

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Mr. ESPAILLAT. Madam Speaker, this week, we have seen the events that have gripped this Nation, the potential for a shutdown, the squabble on the floor for leadership, extreme MAGA opinions trying to impose their points of view on the American people.

This past year, we have also watched distinctly as climate change- related natural disasters have hit every region of this country.

This last week, we saw images from New York City with subways flooding, streets flooding, backyards and front yards of houses flooding. The inability to sustain consistent and persistent rainfall crippled New York City.

As we saw New York City underwater, just 2 months ago, wildfires consumed Maui. Mother Nature is talking to us. Mother Nature is never wrong.

Madam Speaker, this year the Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2024 within the appropriations process slashes the renewable energy and energy-efficient programs by 14 percent--get this--and instead funds the Department's fossil fuel energy at more than $850 million.

In the middle of this climate crisis, we take money away from renewable energy and we empower fossil fuel energy. We put them on steroids. It also underfunds the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers who will be able to address the flood and storm damage protection and claws back $50 million that would have allowed communities like the one that I represent from becoming energy efficient.

So right in the middle of global warming, right in the middle of these disasters that are hurting communities across the Nation, we see how funding is cut for renewable energy and for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineer.

The legislative branch bill, as part of the appropriations process, harms both those that work in the Capitol and those that secure it. It lacks funding to secure the Capitol campus and district offices.

Not so long ago, we saw how some of our staff members in the Commonwealth of Virginia were attacked in their district offices where they worked.

We know that security on the Capitol complex is important not just for Members, but for our staff, for visitors, for everyone who makes their way here, just as security is also important in our district offices. Not enough funding has been given to that area.

Retention of U.S. Capitol police officers continues to be a major problem. After January 6, the Capitol Police is having a difficult time recruiting and retaining officers that will protect all of us.

The legislative branch bill also eliminates diversity, equity, and inclusion training. This program has been important to ensure that the government continues to look more and more like the rest of the country.

Inclusion means me being at this podium, Madam Speaker. Inclusion means you presiding over these proceedings. That is inclusion, to have a representative government of the people that make up our people. Yet, the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion was eliminated.

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