DeLauro Comments on President’s Proposed Budget

WASHINGTON, DC—Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT)--Senior Democrat on the subcommittee responsible for funding the departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education--issued the following statement today in response to President Obama’s proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2016.

“The President’s budget continues his focus on middle-class economics and rightly ends the harmful sequester cuts. This budget is liberating and makes smart investments in infrastructure, education, biomedical research, food safety and other critical areas. Most importantly, it deals head-on with the single biggest economic issue facing Americans today: that too many people are in jobs that do not pay them enough to live on.

“I am particularly glad to see the President’s budget supports working families by encouraging state paid leave policies, making two years of community college tuition-free for responsible students, bolstering job training and expanding child care assistance. I have been fighting for these initiatives for many years.

“Tax expenditures are spending. Every year we spend close to one and a half trillion dollars on special interest tax breaks—including loopholes and incentives that allow big businesses to game the tax code. This is more than we individually spend on Social Security, Medicare, the defense budget and all of the programs like child care, Head Start, education, or biomedical research. The middle class deserves the tax breaks and that is what the President’s budget does. Their economic success should be our priority.

“As a cancer survivor, I know the lifesaving benefits of biomedical research, and I applaud the President for proposing another $1 billion to find cures for heartbreaking diseases like Alzheimer’s and cancer. Last month I reintroduced the Accelerating Biomedical Research Act¸ which would allow Congress to restore the purchasing power of the National Institutes of Health (NIH)’s funding to what it would have been if it had kept up with inflation since 2003. Congress must stop forcing NIH to do more with less.

“Additionally the Precision Medicine Initiative will help accelerate new medical discoveries and promote discoveries that unlock new frontiers of patient care. Failure to invest in health research and disease prevention results in huge costs to our health, society, economy and knowledge itself.

“American families deserve the security of knowing the food on their table is safe. Our current food safety system is hopelessly fragmented and outdated, consequently putting lives at unnecessary risk. Putting our food safety functions under HHS is a step that I first suggested in 2007; I am glad the Administration has proposed taking this action in their FY16 budget.

“I hope Congress can return to regular order and pass individual funding bills that put America on a strong path forward. That means debating and bringing to the House floor a bill funding the departments of Labor, Education, and Health and Human Services. The American people deserve no less.”


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