Rep. DeLauro Issues Remarks on Continuing Resolution

WASHINGTON, Dec. 7 -- Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro, D-Connecticut, issued the following remarks on the House floor to urge her colleagues to vote against the majority's Continuing Resolution:

"I rise to comment on this Continuing Resolution, and on the past year of this Congress. The biggest economic challenge of our time is that people are in jobs that do not pay them enough to live on. Wages are not keeping up with rising costs--for healthcare, childcare, and housing--and too many families struggle to make ends meet, let alone put money in a college fund or go on vacation. That is what we should be focused on--we ought to be creating jobs and raising wages.

"Yet for the first nine months of this year, this Congress attempted again and again to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which would have raised premiums and deductibles, thrown millions off insurance, and made care unaffordable.

"Then, we spent our entire fall on the Republican tax scam. Big corporations, millionaires, and billionaires write the rules to make this government work for them--and Republicans are their comrades in arms in rigging the game against the middle class.

"Just a few days ago Senator Orrin Hatch said, and I quote: "I have a rough time wanting to spend billions and billions and trillions of dollars to help people who won't help themselves, won't lift a finger, and expect the federal government to do everything." Get out the Senate chamber. Understand what people's lives are about today. Walk in their shoes and understand their struggle. This is the ugly truth of the Republican tax bill. This is what the vote was about. These are their values on display.

"This tax scam is going to raise the deficit--and the Republicans will use it as an excuse to cut vital social safety net programs like Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, LIHEAP, TANF, education programs, and SNAP--or Food Stamps. Right now, funding is insufficient to provide child care assistance to all who are eligible--yet if we pass this tax bill, we will be under intense pressure to cut this assistance. That is what they want to do. This is wrong.

"Now, we are punting one of our core obligations as a Congress: funding our government programs. This is unacceptable--it's a disturbing pattern and it's unsustainable. We should be negotiating spending levels for 2018.

"The majority can never again speak about regular order--this year has been one partisan attempt after another to harm working class and middle class Americans so that they can fulfill their campaign promises. We have no budget agreement. We have no resolve on the Children's Health Insurance Program. We have no resolve on a myriad of programs that people rely on to live their lives every day. There's no resolve on the DREAMers. Why would we need another two weeks when they've had all this time to work on these issues.

"The American people deserve better. I say shame on this Congress, and vote no on this Continuing Resolution."