Ranking Member DeLauro Protects 224,000 Teachers’ Jobs and Secures $1 Billion Increase for Child Care and Head Start

Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Committee and its subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education and Related Agencies (LHHS) Rosa DeLauro (CT-03) secured key investments in domestic programs that support hardworking Americans despite House Republican attempts to slash vital programs.

“This bipartisan bill ensures our workforce is strong, that families are healthy and safe, and that the future of our children is secure,” said Ranking Member DeLauro. “I am particularly proud to have protected hundreds of thousands of teachers' jobs from proposed House Republican cuts to funding for schools and secured an increase of $1 billion for child care and Head Start to help hard working families access quality child care. This bill lowers the cost of health care, creates jobs, and protects workers. House Republicans’ original extreme proposal—that was a total of $40 billion less than this final 2024 funding bill—would have hurt Americans, made them less economically secure, and cut off workers from supports that help them thrive. When Democrats and Republicans work together, we can move America forward and invest in the programs that keep us safe and healthy.”

Ranking Member DeLauro fought to include key investments in programs that support workers and families. The legislation:
 

• Provides an increase of $1 billion above 2023 funding levels for Child Care and Head Start to increase access to quality child care for hard working families and invest in the early childhood education workforce.
• Strengthens lifesaving biomedical research through targeted funding increases for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and continued funding for the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H).
• Maintains critical investments in public health infrastructure at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as well as investments to address our nation’s most urgent health crises, including maternal health, mental health, gun violence, and substance misuse, while continuing to support interventions to reduce persistent and unacceptable health disparities.
• Increases funding for high-poverty schools and students with disabilities, while maintaining investments in K-12 and Higher Education.

Ranking Member DeLauro also fought to protect key programs from drastic cuts and in some cases, outright elimination. This legislation:

• Rejects the House Republican proposal to cut funding for Title I Grants to Local Educational Agencies by $15 billion, which would have forced a nationwide reduction of 224,000 teachers from classrooms serving low-income students.
• Rejects the House Republican proposal to cut funding for Head Start by $750 million, which would have resulted in 80,000 children losing access to early learning and development, health, and family well-being services.
• Rejects the House Republican proposal to cut biomedical research funding at the NIH by $2.8 billion and ARPA-H by $1 billion.
• Rejects the House Republican proposal to eliminate funding for Title X Family Planning.
• Rejects the House Republican proposal to eliminate funding for dozens of critical programs, including:
  • Job Corps
  • Healthy Start
  • Ending the HIV Epidemic
  • Teen Pregnancy Prevention Grants
  • Preschool Development Grants
  • More than 20 programs supporting K-12 or Higher Education

Ranking Member DeLauro also successfully rejected a number of poison pill riders that House Republicans proposed, including:

• Seven new riders to block access to abortion services or reproductive healthcare services.
• Multiple riders to block firearm injury and mortality prevention research.
• Multiple riders to block the Department of Labor from implementing regulatory changes to improve working conditions for workers.
• Multiple riders to block the National Labor Relations Board from implementing rules to protect the right to organize for collective bargaining purposes.
• Multiple riders to block the Biden Administration’s executive orders related to climate change.

A summary of the LHHS funding bill can be found here. Additional information on this six-bill funding package can be found here.