Appropriations Committee Organizational Meeting - 119th Congress
2025-01-23
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Source: Congress.gov
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The committee will come to order. Kind of like the first day of school. I'm happy to see you all and anxious to hear what you did all summer. But good morning. Welcome to the first meeting of the Committee on Appropriations for the 119th Congress. The business today is to consider committee rules and subcommittee jurisdictions. Before we move to business, I want to welcome all of you here. I really do hope you're ready to roll up your sleeves and get to work. We have a lot of work to do, obviously finishing out 25, which we intend to do. Looking forward to working with my friend, the ranking member on that. And I'm confident we can do that. I'm confident we can get the bills out of this committee as we did last year in time to be considered individually on the floor. Returning members will notice something different about the committee hearing room. Behind me, you'll see the new portraits grace our walls, that of our immediate past Chair Kay Granger, who joins her close friend and predecessor Chairwoman Nita Loewy. That's a pretty dazzling display up there. and a lot of us had the opportunity of serving with both these amazing amazing women and leaders on this committee and i'm really honored to have them looking over my shoulders it's kind of like my mother and my grandmother or something but it's uh they were pretty intimidating women too we begin our agenda for the 119th congress we have both the example of these two women both of whom to find what it means to be an appropriator. It's extraordinary. Unfortunately, we begin this Congress with some tasks from the previous Congress left unfinished. Though the committee reported out all fiscal year 2025 bills on time, and passed five of those bills representing 70 percent of all appropriations across the house floor congress has yet to reach an agreement on final full year spending bills for fiscal year 2025 and before we proceed to fiscal year 2026 we have to finish that business frankly i'm very confident that we can do that uh you know i've got obviously a terrific working partner
and the ranking member and we've got terrific counterparts in the United States Senate and we're working through where we need to go and I would expect in short order we will have something so at the subcommittee levels you guys will have numbers to work with and you'll be going to work on that pretty quickly. So the Appropriations Committee prides itself as current returning members know In our long-standing commitment to orderly and respectful debate, we've got a strong tradition of working together and seeking consensus where we can. I'm committed to fulfilling that tradition as your chair. Looking forward, I'm proud to say it's a new day in America. The American people have mandated strong governance, and we will deliver on that duty. We will continue to be responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars. as we have historically been, and we will continue to ensure that every taxpayer dollar has a job and is used wisely and judiciously where it can do the most good for our great nation. And we will continue our practice of conducting robust bipartisan oversight of the agencies and departments that we fund. Indeed, it's my expectation that our subcommittees will quickly begin holding hearings. We don't want you waiting around on finishing 25 before you start your hearings for 26. And I've certainly had the opportunity to talk to all the subcommittee chairman about that. So expect that work to begin immediately. Of course, none of us can do this job alone, and I'll need the help and cooperation from each of you, and I thank you in advance for that help. In particular, let me recognize my good friend, Mario Diaz-Balart, who will serve as the committee vice chair. Where's Mario at? You should give him applause, you know. You all know Mario. Honestly, who doesn't know Mario in the Congress of the United States? And you all know he'll be one of the true leaders of this committee. Dynamic communicator with his hands as well as his voice. Strong voice on policy and a person who guides us all by example.
Truly an appropriator's appropriator. I could think of no better person to serve in that job. I also want to recognize the majority's representatives to the Budget Committee. It's always extraordinarily important. It's going to be even more important because we'll undoubtedly be dealing with reconciliation this year. And we have a lot of interest on that committee.
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