{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://mccollum.house.gov/media/press-releases/mccollum-republicans-advance-extreme-defense-funding-bill", "McCollum: Republicans Advance Extreme Defense Funding Bill", "2023-09-12", "2023", "2023-09", "Democrat", "House", "MN", "Betty McCollum", "M001143", "mccollum.house.gov", "mccollum", "https://mccollum.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "After House Republicans\u2019 Defense funding bill (H.R. 4365) passed the Rules Committee, Congresswoman Betty McCollum (DFL-Minn.), Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, released the following statement:\n\n\u201cAt every turn, House Republicans have had opportunities to come to the table and negotiate in good faith to develop a Defense funding bill that is bipartisan and can pass both chambers and be signed into law by President Biden,\u201d Ranking Member McCollum said. \u201cInstead, with the fiscal year ending September 30, Speaker McCarthy is wasting precious legislative time pushing through a bill containing extreme social policy riders demanded by the far-right wing of his conference. As Ranking Member, I am concerned that these riders will signal to Americans who want to join our volunteer military that many are not welcome. These totally unnecessary provisions divide us, not unite us, and will have harmful consequences for recruitment and retention across the force. I also disagree with some of the reductions the majority has made: cuts proposed to the civilian workforce will impact military readiness, and will burden service members with additional duties and shift work to an expensive private sector. Cuts to climate resiliency programs will leave the Department more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.\n\n\u201cOur task as Appropriators is to write legislation that is laser focused on meeting the needs of the American people\u2014but instead, the majority has decided to use the Appropriations process as an extreme social policy experiment. Rather than cater to the extremist few, the Republican majority should work with us to pass a bipartisan bill that meets the needs of all our service members and their families. There is no time to waste. As this bill now moves to the floor of the House of Representatives, I will strongly oppose its passage and urge my colleagues to do the same.\u201d\n\nBackground:\n\nFor 2024, the bill provides $826.4 billion. The bill harms readiness with divisive provisions that undermine morale and fail to support our service personnel, by:\n\nAttacking the LGBTQ+ community with hateful provisions;\n\nPreventing service personnel from traveling to seek reproductive health care; and\n\nBanning funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.\n\nThe legislation:\n\nAllows disinformation campaigns and extremist views to flourish which undermine our democracy.\n\nCuts vital civilian positions at a time when the Department is struggling to meet readiness goals.\n\nFails to invest in critical climate change programs that are necessary to protect our installations.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T18:35:26Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://mccollum.house.gov/media/press-releases/mccollum-republicans-advance-extreme-defense-funding-bill"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.1077190283685923, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}