Bill Lee: “I thank Ranking Member Lowey for yielding and for her tireless work. Mr. Chair, as a member of the Appropriations…”

“I thank Ranking Member Lowey for yielding and for her tireless work. Mr. Chair, as a member of the Appropriations Committee, I rise in strong opposition to this bill--H.R. 5895--the Fiscal Year 2019 Energy and Water, Leg Branch, and MilconVA spending bills. This Republican minibus fails to protect the health, security, and safety of the American people. And really, this bill is an attempt to block critical funding for education, health, and the economic security. Once again, Republicans are funding defense at the expense of priorities here at home. This is shameful and short-sighted. Mr. Chair, the Pentagon does not need more funding. A Washington Post report in 2016 exposed $125 billion in waste, fraud and abuse at the Pentagon. But rather than come clean, leaders at the Pentagon chose to bury the report and continue wasting taxpayer dollars. Yet, Republicans want to increase Defense spending by $17 billion. Mr. Chair--instead of making defense contractors even richer, how about we start helping struggling families home at home? At a time when we should invest robustly in the American people, Republicans are doing just the opposite. The partisan bill before us cuts vital clean energy initiatives, attacks job-creating investments, and slashes funds for nuclear non- proliferation efforts. All this bill does is make it harder to grow the economy and for hardworking Americans to succeed.…”