During a House Appropriations Committee hearing on Wednesday, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) spoke about President Trump's handling of the cost-of-living.
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00:01Thank you, Mr. Bishop.
00:02I'd like to recognize now the distinguished ranking member of the Appropriation Committee, Ms. DeLauro, for her opening statement.
00:08Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to the ranking member for holding what is an important budget committee.
00:14And I want to welcome our witness, Secretary Rollins, for appearing here this morning and look forward to your testimony and the opportunity to have an exchange.
00:26We are in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis today.
00:29It's directly hurting farmers.
00:32And the Trump administration has unlawfully frozen and impounded congressionally appropriated funds for agencies, programs, and services that assist American farmers.
00:44Understand that the power of the purse resides in the U.S. Congress.
00:48It's in the Constitution.
00:50And while we want to play fast and loose with the Constitution, we have to abide by what it says.
00:56That is who we are as a nation.
00:58Let me just tick off for you for a second here.
01:03The programs that have been frozen are canceled or cut in some way.
01:09National Institute of Food and Agriculture, frozen.
01:11Local Food Purchase Assistant Cooperative Agreement, canceled, terminated.
01:15Local Food Schools Cooperative Agreement, a program, canceled, terminated.
01:20Equip Environmental Quality Incentives, program, frozen.
01:25Conservation Stewardess Program, frozen.
01:28Agricultural Conservation Easement Program, frozen.
01:30Regional Conservation Partnership, frozen.
01:33Conservation Technical Assistance, frozen.
01:35Technical Assistance for Underserved Farmers, Ranchers, Foresters, frozen.
01:40Watershed Programs, frozen.
01:42Reconnect Broadband Loan and Grant Program, frozen.
01:45The Emergency Food Assistance Program, TFAP, canceled or terminated.
01:51And I might add, the administration has indiscriminately fired thousands of civil servants who help administer these programs and ensure funding goes where it is intended.
02:02The president is not laser-focused on the cost-of-living crisis.
02:07He is actually making it worse.
02:09He promised to fight for the working class and for farmers, but instead put Elon Musk and billionaires in charge of the government.
02:17This administration is attacking farmers to pay for tax cuts for billionaires.
02:22The White House has halted over $600 million in funding promised to rural businesses and farmers through the Rural Energy for America program and other vital programs.
02:33They stole from the farmers and rural businesses who took the deal that the government offered them to invest in renewable energy, raising their energy costs, increasing economic stress.
02:44And in turn, they raised the costs on the American people in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis.
02:50Likewise, when the administration froze the Environmental Quality's Incentives Program, they left farmers and producers who invested in conservation projects.
02:58They left them out to dry.
03:01They canceled over $1 billion in funding for programs that helped schools, food banks, purchase food directly from local farms, threatening the livelihood of farmers and the nourishment of children and families reliant on this assistance.
03:13By cutting these funds, the administration prioritized corporate interests over the hardworking farmers who need these supports to continue operating.
03:25I've always been focused on the needs of small and medium-sized farmers because they are the backbone of our country and, quite frankly, the backbone of my state of Connecticut.
03:36And I would like to recognize one in the room today who traveled from Connecticut, 79 hours, Willie Delicamera.
03:48Willie, a small specialty crop farmer from my district, experienced a severe storm last December.
03:54He did everything right, everything right, and had insurance coverage, but was still left with over $200,000 in losses.
04:01In response, with his help, we created and passed the Farm Recovery and Support Block Grant, a program that's tailored to the needs of small and medium-sized farmers,
04:10which removed the barrier of crop insurance requirements, allowed flexibility for states in response to extreme weather events.
04:18New England farmers depend on this grant, and I will work with you to make sure that this support gets out as the Congress intended.
04:26To date, Willie Delicamera has not received one dime.
04:32And also here is another Connecticut farmer in attendance, Robert Chong, who was talking about the need for this $220 million.
04:42There's Robert right back there.
04:43And the gentleman sitting next to Willie was here in the 70s when the farmers came down with tractors and made their case.
04:52And we say thank you for that, and if we have to have the tractors back here again, we'll do it.
04:58And we'll be with you on that.
05:00Even though we received Trump's concepts of a budget plan on Friday, we are now into May without a real budget from the White House.
05:09Though I am eager to learn about why, you have chosen to eliminate funding for the Food for Peace program,
05:15the McGovern-Dole programs, and gut funding for the Commodity Supplemental Food Program.
05:20Not only will this take food from the mouths of millions at home and abroad, including seniors who face hunger and starvation,
05:28it will harm American farmers who will no longer see proceeds from producing this urgently needed food.
05:34Thanks to the administration's lawless funding freeze and the dismantling of agencies without congressional involvement,
05:43hundreds of thousands of pounds of food grown by American farmers has sat in warehouses or gone to waste.
05:51Local food for schools and local food purchase assistance were ended by USDA earlier this year,
05:57meaning not only did the administration determine that feeding our children was not a priority,
06:02they decided the farmers who produced the food for these children were not a priority either.
06:09Connecticut is expected to lose nearly $4 million in funding from these two programs alone,
06:14$4 million in support that goes directly to purchasing locally grown fresh fruits and vegetables.
06:21I understand the administration is eager to pass tax breaks for billionaires,
06:25but doing so by stealing from hungry people and farmers is indefensible.
06:30Next, Republicans in Congress and the White House will target our safety net programs for hungry people,
06:37including children, WIC and SNAP, or food stamps, to pay for their billionaire tax break.
06:43Madam Secretary, this administration's abandonment of farmers is not creating efficiency, and you know that.
06:50It is not helping farmers nor consumers save money.
06:53In fact, the president's trade war, which he has admitted puts farmers on the front lines,
07:01will cost taxpayers billions of dollars in bailouts to shield farmers from the consequences of this president's agenda.
07:09Farmers and the American people need immediate answers as to how you plan to fix the mess that this administration is creating for them.
07:18Thank you for being here. I look forward to your testimony. I yield back.