During a House Appropriations Committee hearing on Wednesday, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) spoke about the Trump administration withholding congressionally appropriated funding.
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00:00Hey, Ms. Womack.
00:01The chair now recognizes the ranking member of the full committee, Ms. DeLauro.
00:04Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
00:05Very quickly, don't pass the $4.5 trillion tax cuts for the wealthiest people in the country and the biggest corporations.
00:15To my friends, the comment who was gone now about the Constitution, read the Constitution.
00:22And there are many Republicans who have said that they haven't read the bill,
00:25and they're troubled by what's in this big, ugly bill that you're discussing.
00:30Let me just talk about empowerment.
00:32You speak about a tradition in this country, which is, in fact, fiction.
00:38You say over 200 years, presidential empowerment has carrying the day for all of you.
00:45You think you're so captured by the lie that you founded a multimillion-dollar think tank to republish the lie.
00:52I'm familiar with this work.
00:55The quality of the work is so bad.
00:58And let me just say, to characterize it, this is page after page, going back to 1789,
01:07of what people looked at in terms of impounding or stealing funds.
01:12And let me just tell you this, that even in your fake history, almost all the examples that you document demonstrate that presidents have historically only delayed or refused to spend money when it was the Congress who gave them the power to do it.
01:30It's Article I, Section 9, Clause 7.
01:35That is operative.
01:36There should be no debate.
01:39You have impounded and stolen funds that you have no business doing.
01:45You don't have that authority.
01:47The president doesn't have that inherent authority.
01:50And it has been documented by the court, which is why over 250 lawsuits that have been filed, 185-plus rulings have paused Trump initiatives.
02:02You are in violation of the law.
02:05That is what we should be dealing with in this effort.
02:10Would you recommit yourself to the truth, engaging with this committee, the American people, and the American people based on the respect for history as it actually has occurred?
02:22We haven't impounded any money.
02:23We're under programmatic review of federal dollars across the region.
02:26You have impounded money.
02:28Please.
02:29$425 billion.
02:31We don't know where that number came from other than you, Congresswoman.
02:33I'll tell you, look at the tracker.
02:35You know, we're following it very closely.
02:36And I would just say this.
02:38If people don't really want to appropriate and hold on to the power of the purse, then my suggestion is find another committee to sit on.
02:45Our responsibility, our responsibility is to make sure that we maintain that power of the purse and that what we say has got to be congressionally spent needs to be.
02:58And you do have a premise that in that bill, in the Empowerment Control Act, that gives you, allows you to come up with a rescission package.
03:07But what is at stake is the illegality of what you have done with impounding and stealing funds from the American public and the unbelievable consequences it will have on their lives and their families' lives.
03:22Congresswoman, there's nothing in favor.
03:23The chair now recognizes Ms. Henson.