During a House Appropriations Committee hearing on Wednesday, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) spoke about the Trump administration's withholding of congressionally appropriated funding.
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00:00education grade again. It's a logic fallacy, but I guess we're not going to teach our kids
00:04about logic fallacies. Thank you. We haven't yet with the Department of Education in place the way
00:09it has been since 1980. I'm on the record of ruling for change. I now recognize the ranking
00:15member for her closing statement. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and thank you, Madam Secretary,
00:22for being here. I appreciate your time and your effort. Let me just repeat.
00:27State and local taxes overwhelmingly pay for education in this country, and what we do know
00:38is that if you block grant the current federal funding and you get it to the states, there is
00:47a cut. There will be programs cut. What we do not know anything about at the moment is what is going
00:54to be cut. We have no knowledge, and we're doing this hearing about appropriating dollars on a budget
01:00that we know nothing of at the moment. So given that, but block grants, we know our cuts. There is
01:09everybody at this dais, people who are here and people who are gone, and more than anything else,
01:14the states know that. You talk to any governor, and they will tell you they're going to cut our
01:20funding. And I dare to say, there are not a lot of states today and a lot of governors
01:26who have the resources that they will need in order to be able to continue these programs.
01:35Let me also say, Madam Secretary, as I said in my remarks, you have no authority to dismantle the
01:41Department of Education. The president has no authority to dismantle the Department of Education.
01:48And yes, the Supreme Court has opined on that with Supreme Court Justice Scalia saying there's no
01:58inherent authority, and there's plenty of other cases and court determinations that it's not there,
02:08so you don't have the authority. You do not have the authority to steal congressionally appropriated
02:15dollars. That is in the United States Constitution. I hear people in the administration talking about
02:22adhering to the Constitution. Article I, it's there. So what you are doing now, get to your budget
02:31for 2026. What's happened right now is unlawful. It is unlawful. And you have really unlawfully
02:44created and recklessly canceled grants for mental health for the professionals in our schools,
02:53psychologists, counselors, social workers, grants to support effective educator development,
03:00education, teacher quality partnership grants to make sure that more qualified educators are
03:07entering classrooms and relieving local teacher shortages, the Institute of Educational Contracts
03:14to researchers so we can learn about what works and what doesn't work to improve student literacy,
03:22which you care about, reduce chronic absenteeism, ensure college students complete their degrees
03:29so that they can get a good job. You have no authority. If children, teachers, principals benefited from
03:39a federally appropriated program in the last school year, they should benefit from that program
03:46this school year and not be subjected to any unlawful chaos that you seek to impose on them.
03:54You said right here and several times this morning that you will abide by the law. And I believe that
04:04the law is 2025 budget is under a continuing resolution based on the 2024 budget, which has pages of directives
04:21as to what it can be of what are the resources for what the programs are for. I understand you and your commitment to abide by the law,
04:33which means that we are going to reverse
04:37these efforts that apply to 2025. And we will hold you accountable to that. I am glad to hear that you will abide by the law.
04:50And we all know what the law is. It was passed in the House. It was passed in the Senate. Civics 101 and the president signed it. It's the law of the land.
05:01You can't. You can't back off it willy-nilly. Let me mention just I have a copy here of the table, Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Related Agencies.
05:16And this is moved to the 26 budget. And people need to know this. Impact aid we have no information about. Comprehensive literacy development grant eliminated. Innovative approaches to literacy eliminated.
05:31Eliminated. We go to school improvement programs. Most of it to be determined. We don't know where it's all going here. Indian education. No info to be determined. Innovation and improvement. Basically, there's money for the charter schools, but everything else is to be determined.
05:52Safe schools and citizenship education. No information. English language acquisition. Eliminated. I go back to my father. Couldn't read or write the language. They laughed at him and he left school.
06:10We do have kids in our school. We do have kids in our schools who need to have English language and to do it quickly. That's what we talk about here. Special education.
06:19Rehabilitation service and disability research. No info. Special institutions for persons with disabilities. No info. Career and technical and adult education. Training. No info.
06:34No info. And we had the Secretary of Labor here just a few days ago. And they have eliminated adult training and youth training in the WIOA programs here. Adult education here. Eliminated.
06:46We don't know what will happen to Pell grants. That is to be determined. The SEOG program, a federal supplemental education opportunity grant, eliminated. Student aid administration to be determined.
07:02This is higher education. This is higher education. Eliminated. Parts of it or there are no specifics. International education and foreign language. No specifics. Post-secondary programs for students and intellectual disabilities. You've got federal, you've got TRIO and GEAR UP. Eliminated. No specifics. Teacher quality partnership. Eliminated. Child care access means parents and school. Eliminated. Fund for the improvement of post-secretary education. Eliminated.
07:31Eliminated. Well, Howard University. No real specifics in that effort. Long and short of it. This is the table that this committee with appropriations is what we're doing is without any information, without any information, we are being asked to provide resources and resources that have been cut by 15%. The $12 billion, we have no idea where it's coming from.
07:58So the 18 programs are getting eliminated, replaced with a block grant that's cutting $4.5 billion, and we have no idea and no detail of what is on the chopping block. That should say something to my colleagues on the appropriations committee, because this is our job.
08:17The role of secretary of education is an enormous responsibility. The American people look to the man or woman who holds this post as someone who performs their responsibilities with deep knowledge of our public schools and colleges.
08:33But when you opine about strategies to improve literacy, how to improve academic achievement, or help people get a college degree, I struggle to see why the public should look to you as such an authority.
08:50What experiences, what experiences, what knowledge that you bring into this role that should give them any confidence that what you say, what the administration is saying is credible in terms of the future of their children.