Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), the leading Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, is not impressed with the GOP’s new stopgap funding bill, which she views as a “blank check” for tech billionaire, prolific father, and DOGE head honcho Elon Musk.
In a damning statement, DeLauro tore into the GOP’s six-month funding plan, which she sees as an act of theft. “I strongly oppose this full-year continuing resolution, which is a power grab for the White House and further allows unchecked billionaire Elon Musk and President Trump to steal from the American people,” DeLauro said.
The continuing resolution (CR) in question is a temporary stopgap to avoid a government shutdown, which proposes an increase in defense spending of $6 billion, as Republicans look to boost military funding while drastically slashing non-defense programs by $13 billion. And that’s where DeLauro takes umbrage.
DeLauro singles out plans to gut the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a watchdog agency that cracks down on financial fraud, with a reported 72,000 jobs on the chopping block. It’s the latest in a long list of cuts made or proposed by Musk’s DOGE.
“They’ve made it harder for Americans to get their Social Security benefits, shut down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which has saved American families $21 billion, fired 6,000 veterans, and reportedly plan to make it harder for veterans to access benefits by firing an additional 80,000 VA employees,” DeLauro said.
Another talking point was the termination of hundreds of workers overseeing nuclear weapons, with the administration scrambling to rehire them after the inevitable backlash (and a better understanding of what the department did).
According to DeLauro, the stopgap bill isn’t just about the budget—it’s about putting the lives and livelihoods of middle-class Americans and veterans in the hands of a billionaire intent on making cuts to government spending, seemingly at will.
