At a House Oversight Committee hearing last week, Rep. Emily Randall (D-WA) decried the Republican reconciliation budget bill.
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00:00Thank you, Ms. Randall.
00:09Thank you, Mr. Chair and our guests.
00:16I'm also grateful for the remarks of my colleague Ms. Simon.
00:24I think we so often seek to depersonalize the work that we do in this chamber, in this
00:35Capitol.
00:37We talk about it in terms of funding levels and dollars saved, but we are talking about
00:48programs that impact real people, real families who are trying to live their lives.
00:57In addition to the budget reconciliation package that we have seen and been discussing in committees
01:06that make steep cuts to Medicaid, SNAP, and other critical programs to pay for tax cuts
01:12for billionaires, the Trump administration's skinny budget proposal that they released
01:17last week would slash many of the federal programs that families around the country
01:23rely on at a time when this president's radical tax and tariff agenda is driving the country
01:31into a recession and making daily life, housing, childcare, baby strollers more expensive for
01:40working families.
01:43This Republican budget reconciliation package that we're discussing would cut federal housing
01:48support by nearly $27 billion and limit rental assistance to only two years for, I'm using
01:59big air quotes here, able-bodied adults.
02:03What this means is that millions are going to get forced out of their homes.
02:08That millions more are going to be couch surfing or on the street.
02:12And I hear from a lot of business interests that more people on the streets is not, they don't tell me it's a humanity challenge, they tell me it's bad for their business.
02:28And we can, these are problems we can solve.
02:34We can solve homelessness by ensuring that people have housing through housing and rental assistance programs.
02:42It's not magic, it's housing.
02:45We can ensure that people aren't forced out of their tenuous living situations by continuing LIHEAP, the program that Ms. Simon was just talking about.
02:57It's a low income energy assistance program.
03:01Now, I don't know if anyone on this panel has ever had to decide whether they pay for medication or medical appointment or your electricity bill, whether you can, like, let it go for three or four days or whether you let it go for another month.
03:17Maybe you live in a state that has protections or they can't cut off your heater in the winter.
03:21Maybe you don't.
03:25Families are making these challenging decisions every day.
03:31And for us to come in here and hear lines of questions and testimony about the expanded welfare state, as if human beings are a drain on our economy when they are just trying to build lives for themselves,
03:48is truly horrifying to me.
03:54Housing programs in my district are saving people's lives.
03:57New Horizons in Mason County is a program targeted at homeless veterans.
04:03It's housing first, tiny homes that allow veterans who have been chronically homeless living on the street,
04:12dealing with challenging medical issues, the chance to have security.
04:18Stability, stability, a roof over their head, and be connected with job support programs.
04:24Peninsula Services is a housing program in downtown Bremerton focused on supporting people with disabilities.
04:31The top floor has a Hoyer lift in the ceiling so that someone wheelchair bound who is also a parent can get from bed to the shower or the bathroom while also taking care of their kids.
04:41In Jefferson County, Habitat for Humanity is building 134 affordable housing units close to a school and public transportation so folks in a rural community can get where they need to go and find stability.
04:56We're seeing housing programs like Wheaton Landing that is ensuring that homeless families with school age kids can find stability and not be forced to live in the shelter or the woods.
05:06Now, I'm reaching the end of my time, but I hear we may have a few extra minutes later for questions, so I will yield at this moment to the chair. Thank you.
05:17Yeah.