Ranking Member McCollum Statement on House Passage of FY 24 Defense Appropriations Bill

Congresswoman Betty McCollum (DFL-Minn.), Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, released the following statement today on the passage of the Fiscal Year 2024 Defense Appropriations Act, part of the second six-bill funding package to complete federal funding for Fiscal Year 2024:

“As the Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, I am pleased that Republican leadership has finally decided to join Democrats in putting the country ahead of politics by passing a bipartisan Fiscal Year 2024 Defense Appropriations Act that funds our national security priorities,” McCollum said. “This compromise legislation will provide our U.S. service members with the training and equipment necessary to complete their missions as safely as possible. This bill prioritizes our military families by including a 5.2 percent pay increase and an increase for the Basic Allowance for Housing by 5.4 percent.   

“When the House took up the Republican version of this legislation last summer, I strongly objected to extreme social policy riders advanced by Republicans that had nothing to do with national defense. I successfully fought to remove all of these provisions, including one in particular that would have restricted women service members and their families from accessing the reproductive health care that all Americans deserve.

“This bill includes minimal Ukraine funding, which Congress has provided annually since Russia’s illegal seizure of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014. But Speaker Johnson still must bring the Bipartisan National Security Agreement that passed the Senate 70-29 to the House Floor for a vote. We must provide Ukraine with the assistance they desperately need to defend their democracy from Russian aggression.”

Background:

The Fiscal Year 2024 Defense Appropriations Act: Summary | Explanatory Statement

The text of the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024, is available here. A full summary of the appropriations provisions in the bill is available here. Community Project Funding included in all FY 2024 bills is available here.

Some of the strongest investments and victories for the American people included in this package can be found here. They include:

• $1 billion increase in climate change and resilience activities at the Department of Defense.
• Blocking 10 Republican riders to limit women’s reproductive health.
• $120 million increase in funding for cancer research at the National Institutes of Health.
• $100 million increase for Alzheimer’s and Alzheimer’s disease-related dementias research.
• Rejecting Republican cuts, including saving 224,000 teachers’ jobs House Republicans tried to eliminate and protecting Job Corps and more than 20 K-12 and higher education programs.
• 12,000 more Special Immigrant Visas for Afghans that assisted the United States.
• $1 billion increase for child care and Head Start.

​​​The Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024, funds the six bills at levels consistent with the bipartisan budget agreement.

These 2024 funding bills invest in America’s future and deliver for the American people by:

• Reinforcing America’s global leadership by strengthening defense capabilities, ensuring America can respond anywhere in the world where freedom and democracy are under attack, amplifying American diplomacy, and reaffirming our global commitments to fight climate change and reinforce global health.
• Protecting women’s rights by blocking attempts to limit women’s access to reproductive health care including the elimination of Title X Family Planning and Teen Pregnancy Prevention Grants and supporting the reproductive health of women overseas.
• Helping with the impossibly high cost of living, reducing drug costs, helping with child care and Head Start.
• Siding with the hardworking majority of Americans by supporting education and job training and placement programs that help Americans find high paying jobs, safeguarding robust worker protection agencies that ensure Americans are safe and properly compensated at work, and ensuring billionaires and wealthy corporations pay the taxes they owe.
• Helping our communities be safe and secure by funding border security, preventing the trafficking of fentanyl and other dangerous drugs, bolstering cyber security, protecting consumers from scammers, fraudsters, and dangerous products, and enabling robust and immediate responses to natural disasters.

Bill summaries for the five additional bills are below:

• Financial Services and General Government: Summary | Explanatory Statement
• Homeland Security: Summary | Explanatory Statement
• Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies: Summary | Explanatory Statement
• Legislative Branch: Summary | Explanatory Statement
• State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs: Summary | Explanatory Statement

This second and final package follows the first six appropriations bills signed into law on March 9.

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