Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024

Floor Speech

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Mr. JEFFRIES. Madam Speaker, I thank the distinguished gentlewoman from the great State of Connecticut for yielding, the Honorable Rosa DeLauro. I thank her for her extraordinary leadership throughout this process and getting us to this principled result.

I thank all the appropriators for their extraordinary work, on the Democratic side and on the Republican side, as part of the effort to complete the fiscal year 2024 appropriations.

This hasn't been a perfect process, but we should never let the perfect be the enemy of the good when it comes to solving problems on behalf of hardworking American taxpayers.

This is a good result for the American people in terms of standing up for their health, their safety, their education, their national security protection, and, of course, above all else, their economic well-being, a bipartisan process leading to a bipartisan result that will hopefully lay a foundation for us to continue to do the work of the American people together.

We have said from the very beginning of this Congress that, as Democrats, we will find bipartisan common ground with our Republican colleagues on any issue, whenever and wherever possible, as long as it will make life better for the American people. That is exactly what House Democrats continue to do.

At the same time, we have said we will push back against extremism whenever necessary.

We will always defend a woman's freedom to make her own reproductive healthcare decisions.

We will always defend the gorgeous mosaic of the American people and push back against unnecessary attacks against diversity, equity, and inclusion. These are American values.

We will always fight to protect and strengthen Social Security and Medicare.

We will always put people over politics.

We hope that that will continue, not just on the Democratic side but together to solve problems for the American people.

As soon as we complete this work, let us turn to our national security priorities and make sure that we don't abandon the people of Ukraine in their hour of greatest need as they fight for principles like democracy, freedom, and truth, and push back against autocracy, tyranny, and propaganda.

America should always stand on the side of principles like democracy, freedom, and truth, and that means standing with the people of Ukraine.

I thank, once again, the appropriators for their leadership in concluding this process. I urge everybody to support this legislation.

I hope that as we move forward in our promise to you and, more importantly, to the American people, who expect that in this Congress we should have more common sense and less chaos, more decency and less dysfunction, and more exceptionalism and less extremism, our promise to you is that we will do our best to put people over politics. We hope that you will do the same.

Vote ``yes'' on this bill.

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