Anne Arundel Today

WASHINGTON, DC – On June 15, 2023, Congressman Steny H. Hoyer (MD-05), Ranking Member on the Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee, spoke during the Appropriations Full Committee Markup of Fiscal Year 2024 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Bill and Interim Suballocation of Budget Allocations. Below is a video and transcript of his full remarks: 

Click here to watch the full video of his remarks.

“Thank you very much Madam Chair. [When] the previous gentleman spoke, Mr. Cloud, he referenced that the President didn't come to the table for some odd days, Mr. McCarthy mentioned that on a regular basis. Presumably, the reason Mr. McCarthy wanted the President to come to the table is so they could make a deal. 

“I have a great deal of respect for this institution and great deal of respect for the members of this institution, and I think on your side of the aisle, I speak to my Republican friends, when through the last 42 years I've given one of your members my word I keep it. I think that's my reputation on your side of the aisle. 

“There is no sense in me coming to a deal with you when we have a $50 difference between 50 and 100 and we make a deal at 75. If you come back to me after the deal is done and say, ‘Oh we meant that 75 was the ceiling.’ 

“That's not a deal. That's not one of the deals any of you would make. And if you have any respect for yourselves, you will not pretend that you're following a deal, that over a majority of the majority voted for. Do you think any of us would have made a deal if we thought your ‘22 number was the deal? What kind of deal is that? What kind of respect for yourselves is that? If we cannot respect one another's word, then we might as well just call it 34-27 and not meet. 

“I am very disappointed. I think today's vote was disappointing. I will not vote to remove Mr. Santos from this body until he has a hearing. That didn't happen today. I don't know where we're going in this institution if we can't have faith and trust at least in one another's integrity even if we don't, if we severely disagree with one another. 

“Madam Chair, with all due respect saying that we're keeping a deal – there was no deal apparently. And what we have is some 20 people in this house holding 415 of us hostage. And you on the Republican side know that to be the case, and that's not what America expects of this institution. Over 300 of us voted to not default, which the Speaker said was not an option. I disagreed with Miss DeLauro, she voted no, but I know she would have voted if it meant the difference between America defaulting, she would have voted yes. 

“Now Madam Chair, I've served on this committee now this is my 24th year of the 42 years I've been in Congress, and I hope that we can do better than we've been doing where we line up and do 34, 27, 34, 27, 34, 27 – as if there is no intellectual merit in any of the debate that we proceed in. And if in fact I make a deal with all of you, and then you tell me ‘Well the deal was, we didn't go above what I said but we can certainly go below it, so your part of the deal is defunct, is irrelevant.’

“So Mr. Cloud, I tell you, the President didn't come to the table, and boy this isn't got going to give him any encouragement to come to the table again – when he makes a deal, the Speaker makes a deal, and you guys walk away from it. 

“Guys, I will, because of my respect for you Madam Chair, I will yield back but I'm not finished. I yield. 

“I was extraordinarily proud of serving on this committee, it was a very bipartisan committee, Bob Livingston and I are good friends. Bill Young and I, good friends. Mr. Whitten, I sometimes understood I was his good friend. Jerry Lewis and I, good friends. David Obey, one of the best Members, Chairs of this [Committee]. Hal Rogers and I are friends, and he and I have done some things when there was trouble, we acted together.

“Madam Chair, nobody on our side believed that was a ceiling – we believed it was a deal. I'm appalled. I’ve been appalled for a long time. 

“And deals matter, that's how you get together, that's how families get together— they don't call it a deal, they call it an agreement or ‘yes I'll do that hun’ if you do this. We are not treating one another correctly, we are captured by 20 some odd people in this institution, which is why you're going back on your deal –don't sugarcoat it.

“A new deal was made because they wouldn't vote for a Rule on your side. We never had that problem, we also had four vote majority. So, ladies and gentlemen if this institution is going to serve the American people, the way they hope to be served, and if we are to respect one another we ought not to delude one another that when we make an agreement it is just sometimes an agreement if I happen to like it. I yield back the balance of my time.”

Original source can be found here.