Nita Lowey: “I thank the gentleman for yielding. I rise in opposition to this amendment. This amendment would truly decimate the…”

“I thank the gentleman for yielding. I rise in opposition to this amendment. This amendment would truly decimate the ability of the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education to meet the needs of Americans by indiscriminately transferring $351 million to the spending reduction account. This does nothing to improve the bill, which is already underfunded. The majority has imposed more than a $5 billion cut to the Labor-HHS bill below the 2017 omnibus level. Further cuts are completely unnecessary, and that is not all. The committee's allocation was approximately $5 billion below the nondefense level allowed under the Budget Control Act. We have the resources available, yet the majority refuses to allocate them to the essential programs funded through this bill. This amendment would not encourage the agencies to do more with less. Simply put, it would force the agencies and our constituents to do less with less. Mr. Chairman, I urge my colleagues to join me in opposing this amendment.”