Latest news with #HouseAppropriationsCommittee
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Military bill neglects Hawaii's needs, Case says
U.S. Rep. Ed Case is blasting military appropriation legislation that is moving through the House of Representatives as 'shortchanging ' priorities critical to Hawaii, including environmental cleanup and military infrastructure. On Wednesday, members of the House Appropriations Committee voted to advance legislation that calls for over $450 billion to fund military construction, the Department of Veterans Affairs and other programs for fiscal 2026. The bill is the first of the 12 annual funding measures House GOP appropriators are hoping to move out of committee before Congress leaves for its August recess. But the bill advanced along party lines, with Republican lawmakers touting it as a major win and Democrats lambasting what they say are major shortcomings and omissions from the bill. Case, a Hawaii Democrat, said in a statement after the vote that 'while the measure does have positive provisions including funding for essential veterans programs, I regrettably had to vote against it because it kicks critical military infrastructure projects down the road yet again, pursues the Project 2025 goal of privatizing VA medical care, shortchanges dedicated funding for Per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS ) cleanup, eliminates climate resiliency efforts and excludes important VA infrastructure funding.' Last year's version of the bill allocated $1.55 billion, roughly 8 %, of the worldwide military construction budget to Hawaii, but this year, no money was allocated for Hawaii. The islands are home to U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, which oversees all U.S. military operations across the Pacific and much of Asia. Pentagon leaders say the region is their top priority theater of operations amid tensions with China. 'We have an obligation to ensure our veterans get the benefits and care that they have earned, ' said U.S. Rep. John Carter, the Republican chair of the subcommittee on military construction and VA funding. 'This bill does that while also addressing other critical issues affecting veterans including homelessness, mental health services, and taking care of our women veterans. The bill also makes critical investments totaling nearly $18 billion in the infrastructure our service members need to work and live. The Committee will continue to prioritize INDOPACOM and quality of life investments in Fiscal Year 2026.' In response to Carter's remarks, Case told lawmakers, 'with great respect, I have to disagree with that because I do not see the evidence that the Indo-Pacific is in any way, shape or form, prioritized in this particular bill, ' noting that the bill only included funding for a single military construction project in the region—$50 million for a military access road in Guam. Case argued that would leave upgrades to strategic naval yards, airfields and other facilities unfunded across the Pacific as the U.S. and Chinese militaries eye each other's capabilities. When it comes to projects in Hawaii, Case told lawmakers, 'I hope and believe we would all agree that Hawaii has a place to play in all of this at this point, and yet, there's no (military construction funds ) on for Hawaii.' He emphasized that no money was put aside under the Shipyard Infrastructure Optimization Program to make upgrades to the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard, a critical maintenance point for warships and submarines. Lately, the Navy had been pouring money into the construction of a new dry dock there to support new nuclear submarines. The project is considered the most expensive single construction in the service's history. Dry Dock 5 is expected to be complete in 2028 and cost a total of at least $3.4 billion. 'There's no funding to make sure that our shipyards can continue to serve us in this capacity, ' Case told fellow lawmakers. 'There is a (Congressional Budget Office ) report that calls for billions and billions and billions of deferred maintenance and other construction right in Hawaii, including, for example, of Kaneohe Bay Marine Base at $1.1 billion, Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam at $1 billion, and I could go on down the list.' Case also accused the GOP of ignoring the threat of climate change. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has declared that the military is done with 'climate crap, ' which he insists is a political fairy tale that has distracted commanders and troops from training for war and obtaining new weapons, and promised during his confirmation hearing that he would fire senior Pentagon officials if they began talking about climate change. Military planners have been worried about the effects of sea level rise and intensifying storms on its bases, especially in the Pacific. A Pentagon study in 2018, during President Donald Trump's first term, found that nearly half of all U.S. military sites were threatened by weather linked to climate change. But following the resignation of then-Defense Secretary James Mattis, the administration dismantled the Navy's climate change task force, which had started under the Obama administration and which Mattis had kept running. When Joe Biden entered the White House in 2021, the program restarted. But the second Trump administration has taken an even harder line on climate programs. In April, Navy Secretary John Phelan announced on social media platform X, 'I'm focusing on warfighters first and I'm rescinding the Biden administration's climate action program.' Case told fellow lawmakers that 'there is the problem of a continued reluctance, a continued closing of their eyes by the Defense Department, of anything that smacks of any kind of base resilience, because they don't want to talk about the effects of the weather on our basing. Therefore things get zeroed out that the military knows that we need, and this is simply the wrong way to take a look at this. We are shortchanging this critical strategy in our (military construction ), and we've got to correct this before it is literally too late.' However, though ultimately voting against the bill, Case managed to secure $634 million for the Energy Resiliency and Conservation Investment Program, which funds projects that save energy and water use in support of military operations to cut costs and improve efficiency in the long term. The bill also called for several reviews and reports on military infrastructure needs at bases in Hawaii and around the Pacific that Case pushed for, including aging water infrastructure around Pearl Harbor. VA provisions expansive The portions of the bill dedicated to the VA included provisions that maintain contracting preferences for Native Hawaiian-owned businesses that work with the VA ; $1.5 million for a pilot project to use new technology to help identify the remains of unknown service members buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific ; $342 million for rural health initiatives ; $233 million for substance-use disorder treatment plans for veterans and a hefty $3.4 billion to address veteran homelessness. It also includes $1.3 billion to support female veterans and support the VA's Office of Women's Health, including its child care initiative. As more women have served in the military in recent decades, record numbers are now claiming the benefits they've earned and presenting new challenges to the VA. 'Women veterans often require specialized care due to unique health needs stemming from their military service and gender, ' said Case. 'With sustained support from my Committee over multiple years, Congress is working to ensure the VA set the standard for women veterans care, ensuring consistent, high-quality services across all facilities.' In Hawaii veterans are served by the VA's Pacific Island Health Care System, which also serves vets in the U.S. territories of Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and American Samoa—giving it an area of responsibility of approximately 2.6 million square miles. The system has few dedicated facilities of its own, with some of its operations at Tripler Army Medical Center. It largely relies on partnerships and contracts with other hospitals and clinics across the Pacific's far-flung islands to provide for patients. The bill includes language calling on formal plans to expand coverage to veterans living in the 'freely associated ' Pacific island nations of Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia and Marshall Islands—all of which have traditionally high enlistment rates. The measure also includes language calling for continued support and operations for the VA Center for Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander and United States-affiliated Pacific Islander Veterans. The center's doctors and scientists do research across the U.S. and Pacific islands and regularly work with the University of Hawaii. The bill calls on the VA to continue partnering with universities in Hawaii and across the Pacific to support island veterans. The current version of the bill includes funding for the VA on paper, but Case's office in a statement charged that it also 'specifically advances the privatization of veterans health care by proposing vastly larger increases for medical care provided in private sector compared to short-funding the government's VA health care system, a key goal of the Project 2025 plan being followed by the Trump administration.'
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Rep. Lauren Boebert seeking $5m in federal funds to remove ‘toxic black sludge' from drinking water in tiny Colorado community
Colorado Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert visited a small community in Morgan County, in the eastern part of her state, promising to address a long-standing issue that has left locals with 'toxic black sludge' in place of clean drinking water. Boebert this week toured the Prairie View Ranch Water District, which lies 50 miles north of Denver, and told the residents: 'This is something that certainly needs to be addressed. I'm sorry it's been ignored for two decades. 'This is something that should upset and appall every single Coloradan.' To remedy the situation, she has pledged to ask the House Appropriations Committee for a $5 million grant to help overhaul the local water supply. Her request will be put before the committee later this month and, if it is approved, will then likely be folded into a larger appropriations bill that would have to pass through the House of Representatives and Senate before reaching President Donald Trump's desk for signing off. Boebert's office believes that could happen before the end of September, according to CBS News. Boebert has been notable in recent months over her outspoken support for Trump and Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which has slashed federal budgets in a bid to reduce 'waste' expenditure and fraud. The Independent has reached out to Boebert's office for further comment. The water crisis in eastern Colorado has been in the making for almost 20 years, with the area's 150 residents saying they have been repeatedly let down by the people elected to protect them and left with houses that are worthless without reliable water. CBS reports that the Morgan County Board of County Commissioners allowed the district to be run as a for-profit private company for 16 years, a period during which the Colorado Division of Housing allegedly failed to stop unscrupulous developers from using an unregistered installer, using false credentials and faked signatures, to assemble houses and infrastructure on the cheap. The network adds that the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment's Water Quality Control Division failed to act for a decade after learning that the homes had been erected without valid state approval or proper regulatory oversight, resulting in contaminated water and widespread discontent. 'We have systems. We have policies. We have regulations that should never allow this, and it went by blind eyes and deaf ears,' resident Sam Belmonte told CBS. He challenged Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, a gubernatorial candidate, to follow Boebert's example and said he found her visit 'invigorating' after years of feeling ignored. 'It gave us some sense of hope that Congresswoman Boebert actually came,' Belmonte said. The representative left the site with a sample of the water, which she said she hopes to use to present to the House committee to persuade its members to hand over the funding. 'I'm happy to be here doing this but the state of Colorado should have stepped in years and years ago,' she said. 'Every Coloradan, every American, every person deserves clean drinking water. This is unacceptable.'
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
US Congress seeks to boost Navy and Air Force fleets in 2026 bill
By Mike Stone WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The House Appropriations Committee's Defense subcommittee released its draft bill for fiscal-year 2026 late on Tuesday, which aims to buy one additional F-35 jet versus the Pentagon's 2025 budget request and make investments in naval vessels, and missile defenses. The powerful committee's draft of its version of the 2026 purchasing bill was released ahead of any formal input from the Trump administration's Pentagon - which has been delayed. The language in the bill shows the Republican-controlled Congress' continued focus on modernizing the U.S. armed forces but sets up a tug of war with the Pentagon over what could be conflicting priorities. The bill, which still needs input from the full House and Senate, directs the Pentagon to buy 69 Lockheed Martin F-35 fighters for $8.5 billion, 15 Boeing KC-46 aerial refueling tankers for $2.7 billion, and three F-15EX aircraft for $345 million as well as $3.8 billion in funding for Northrop Grumman's B-21 stealth bomber program. The Pentagon's 2026 budget request, which has not been released, requests 47 F-35s, according to media reports. The Navy's non-fighter aviation procurement includes four E-2D Advanced Hawkeye aircraft for $1.2 billion and 19 CH-53K heavy transport helicopters for $2 billion. The bill also emphasizes missile defense, with approximately $13 billion to Missile Defense Agency and the Space Force program's support of the "Golden Dome" initiative. This money would be above the approximately $25 billion that Congress has earmarked for Golden Dome in its reconciliation bill. The committee's draft bill would also give military personnel a 3.8% increase in basic pay, effective January 1, 2026. The bill directs the Pentagon to procure 28 naval vessels, including two Virginia-class submarines made by General Dynamics at $6.2 billion. The Columbia-class submarine program would receive $5.3 billion. Both programs have additional funding for advance procurement underscoring the strategic importance of the United States' underwater fleet. Surface fleet additions would include two DDG-51 destroyers, refueling ships, towing and rescue ships and surveillance vessels.
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
House GOP K-12 budget targets DEI, wraps school meals, other programs into per-pupil funding
The Michigan House Appropriations Committee considers a Republican-introduced K-12 education budget. June 11, 2025 | Photo by Ben Solis Michigan House Republicans on Wednesday proposed one of the largest increases to per-pupil funding for public schools in years, but their Democratic colleagues argued that many key costs for school meal and at-risk programs would come out of classroom funding. It would also come with a 20% foundation allowance penalty if districts were noncomplaint with proposed boilerplate language prohibiting race, gender and DEI instruction or initiatives. That includes any curriculum that includes supposed race or gender 'stereotyping,' allowing transgender girls to participate in girls' sports or providing multistall unisex bathrooms. The school aid budget reported Wednesday by the House Appropriations Committee would allocate $21.9 billion with $69.9 million coming from the state's general fund, a 5.5% increase from last year's approved budget. Per-pupil funding in the House version of the school aid budget would be increased by $558 million gross funding to provide a $417 per-pupil increase, moving it to $10,025 per student. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX State Rep. Tim Kelly (R-Saginaw Township), chair of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on School Aid and Department of Education, said his subcommittee's budget aimed to redirect funds away from the 'expansion and explosion of categoricals' and to provide funding that Lansing Republicans felt was a 'more than adequate amount of money to provide a quality education to every Michigan student.' 'We are hoping to have the performance that our citizens demand,' Kelly said. State Rep. Ann Bollin (R-Brighton), chair of the House Appropriations Committee, said the House school aid budget proposed funding that was higher than the dollars proposed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in her executive recommendations released earlier this year and the Senate's version of the school aid bills passed months ago. The committee's Democratic members, however, said they had several concerns. State Rep. Natalie Price (D-Berkley) noted that the budget completely eliminates line item funding for the state's universal school meal program. Price said that when kids are hungry, they can't learn as well and do worse in school. 'I hear you saying that we want to improve education scores and we know this program has helped,' Price said. Kelly turned and asked Price if she had proof on whether school meals actually helped student performance, noting his belief that student performance was better before the universal school meal program was introduced. Price countered by noting that Kelly wanted to give districts the option on how they fund that program, but said that money will undoubtedly come out of classroom budgets, which she said would lead to lower test scores. Bollin again noted that the decision on how districts move forward with school meals would go back to them as opposed to Lansing bureaucrats. 'Nobody wants to see anybody go hungry,' Bollin said. State Rep. Donavan McKinney (D-Detroit) raised concerns about the cuts to at-risk funding. MKinney said without at-risk funding or afterschool programs, some children in impoverished areas with high crime would not even be attending class because their lives would be cut short outside of school walls. 'These programs saved my life as a child,' McKinney said before noting that the House school aid budget represents a major cut and completely zeros out funding for programs to help at-risk students. 'There's not a day that goes by that I don't hear a gunshot in my community. So what are we doing? And what are the considerations that you are taking to cut these programs?' Kelly was adamant that the school aid budget doesn't wrap up at-risk funding, but said House Republicans wanted to 'eliminate excuses, to try and provide as much as much money up front as we can to the classroom, the student, for the schools, to deliver what with think is a quality education.' 'We think it's adequately funded,' Kelly said. State Rep. Regina Weiss (D-Oak Park), who does not sit on the appropriations committee but appeared to testify in opposition to the budget bill, said she was alarmed to see a $2.5 billion hit in the House proposal to the school aid fund to fund other purposes, which she said is currently unknown because the House's general fund and other government spending budgets weren't yet completed. She mentioned the House Democrats school budget proposal released Tuesday as one that adjusts for inflation and offers stability. The Michigan Alliance for Student Opportunity in a news release said the House budget proposal for K-12 schools ignores student needs. 'The House Republicans' education budget proposal leaves behind the most vulnerable students in our state and underscores the urgent need for Michigan to prioritize true equity in funding for students with the greatest needs,' said Peter Spadafore, executive director of the Alliance. 'While we're encouraged to see the foundation allowance proposal reach $10,025, the highest of the three budgets this cycle, that's unfortunately where the good news ends.' Spadafore also questioned if the plan, which holds at-risk funding flat, is a functional cut when inflationary pressures are factored in. More concerning for the Alliance were the targeted eliminations of certain programs designed to address unique student needs. 'The new categorical introduced by the House – which provides about $1,975 per pupil – might seem like a step forward. But it comes at the expense of targeted funding for student supports,' Spadafore said. 'Without any increase in the [School Finance Research Collaborative]-recommended weights for students in poverty, English learners, or special education, this proposal fails to recognize the higher costs of educating students with the greatest needs.' The House budget would also erase the Michigan Public School Employee's Retirement System, or MPSERS, savings achieved last year, and shift school aid funding for classrooms that comes from lottery proceeds to universities. 'We know that funding alone doesn't close opportunity gaps, but it is the foundation for smaller class sizes, mental health supports, wraparound services, and other resources that help level the playing field,' Spadafore said. 'This proposal misses the mark by ignoring the fundamental reality that it costs more to educate economically disadvantaged students because of what poverty means in real terms. Our students need more than a flat increase; they need a commitment to funding equity.'
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Maryland Rep. Andy Harris and D.C. have a long, personal war over marijuana and he's not budging
WASHINGTON – Eleanor Holmes Norton's language was pointed. Rep. Andy Harris is 'trying to overrule the will of my constituents,' said Norton, Washington D.C.'s delegate to the U.S. House. The Maryland Republican, she added, is 'violating his own principles regarding local control of local affairs.' Norton was referring to Harris tucking language into federal budget legislation that prohibited the District of Columbia from spending money to carry out a marijuana legalization law approved by its voters. That was 2014, but it might well have been yesterday. In every congressional session since — including the current one — the 'Harris Rider' has appeared in appropriations bills, and Norton and marijuana legalization advocates have vehemently railed against it. Their longstanding back-and-forth is as predictable as the humidity that returns to Washington each summer. The rider means people can possess or use limited amounts of marijuana at home in Washington, but no one can sell it for recreational use. 'The congresswoman always advocates to remove it,' said Sharon Eliza Nichols, the communications director for Norton, now 89. 'She speaks against it continuously — she references it specifically on the House floor, at press conferences, and at external speaking engagements whenever she speaks about the D.C. appropriations bill.' Harris, 68, whose district includes the Eastern Shore, Harford County and a portion of Baltimore County, is a Johns Hopkins-trained anesthesiologist who has long crusaded against marijuana use. He has an outsized role in District of Columbia governance as a member of the House Appropriations Committee, which has a powerful say over D.C. finances. Harris says marijuana has been linked to a host of physical and social ills. 'The Drug Enforcement Administration and the Food and Drug Administration have held long-standing opinions that marijuana is a psychoactive drug that is both addictive and harmful,' Harris said in a written statement to the Baltimore Sun. 'Despite a lack of much scientific research showing safety and growing evidence of harm, over three dozen states legalized the recreational use of marijuana,' he said. 'I am glad to see that the Trump administration recognized the importance of the Harris Rider by including it in their FY26 Budget Request and look forward to seeing the Harris Rider enacted into law again in this year's appropriations process.' Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser said she opposes 'all congressional interference in the lives and affairs of Washingtonians,' in a statement from her office on Tuesday. Maryland voters approved a ballot referendum in 2022 to legalize marijuana for adults, and sales were permitted beginning in July of the following year. Marijuana remains classified, along with heroin and LSD, as a Schedule I controlled substance, meaning it is illegal at the federal level. States such as Maryland acted independently in legalizing it, and federal law enforcement has generally concentrated its efforts on 'criminal networks involved in the illicit marijuana trade,' according to the Congressional Research Service. President Joe Biden's administration had proposed reclassifying marijuana, which would have removed some restrictions — on medical research, for example — although it still wouldn't have been declared the drug legal federally. But President Donald Trump's administration has not moved to downgrade the drug from Schedule 1, even though Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had pledged to 'decriminalize cannabis at the federal level' while a presidential candidate in 2023. HHS did not return messages seeking comment about its plans. The battle between Harris and marijuana legalization activists seemed to get personal after the congressman's rider was first introduced. In April 2018, former Washington head shop owner Adam Eidinger rented a brick rowhouse in the congressman's district in Salisbury so he could vote against Harris and organize others to do the same. Eidinger, 51, helped push Initiative 71, the ballot measure approved by voters in 2014 to legalize marijuana in Washington for recreational use. He also often showed up at Harris' public events, asking repeatedly why Harris thought he knew more than District voters about what is good for them. Eidinger and his fellow activists tried to imbue their rallies and events with creativity. They displayed inflatable joints outside the White House and distributed cannabis at Trump's first inauguration in 2017. Harris would not relent. 'Andy Harris is totally out of touch. It's frustrating on so many different levels,' Eidinger said this week. 'I've given up on trying to change these guys' minds. We have to vote in guys we can trust,' he said. _____
