health care industry money. he said i want to help big tech, and boy, they sucked it up like a hoover deluxe. we spent $280 billion subsidizing big tech. and you add it all up, that's $4.3 trillion, almost $4.5 trillion. that's how we got $36 trillion in debt. that's why donald trump said i'm going to look at every line item of spending, and that's why he gave the job to elon musk, and that's why musk is auditing these accounts. but nobody wants to talk about what he's finding. nobody wants to talk about the spending point, except the american people. they get it, mr. president. they get it. and i hope mr. musk continues.

my colleague and friend, we had a little discussion in banking today. senator warner makes a good point. he wants mr. musk to come over and talk to congress about how he's doing this. i'm all for that. i am all for that. i would love to have him come over and walk us through what he's doing and how he's discovering all this spending. we need all the help we can help when reducing our spending because we can't continue at this pace. i just want to spend a few minutes putting all this in perspective, mr. president. the world is not going to spin off its axis, folks. every business that i know of goes through an audit. now we're being audited but we're being audited by -- not by the usual auditors, but we're being audited by a person appointed by the person of the

united states. and i'm betting when he's through, and he's going to go to all these agencies of he's starting on the department of education next. i think he'll end up finding that some of our money is being well spent, but he's also going to find that some of our money is being stolen and it's being wasted. and that's an insult to every taxpayer in this country. i'm going to end like i began. we ought to be giving mr. musk a medal. we ought to be thanking him. maybe nobody else wants to hear about the spending but i can't wait to read the book. i hope he fiepdzs all of it -- finds all of it and compiles it. i hope marco rubio, our new secretary of state takes the usaid and shakes them by the shoulder and lifts up the good people and fires the bad people,

the people that wasted taxpayer money like this, giving money to terrorist organizations, giving money to organizations that support hamas. hope he gets rid of every single one of them. and i think it we listen to mr. musk, we can save a lot of money. and i hope he does come over and explain what he's doing. i want to talk about one other subject real quick. i talked about four and i'm not going to repeat it. this is india. this is china which wants to run the whole world. china is already trying to take over the shipping lanes in the south china sea. this is the chagos islands, right down here. years ago the chagos islands were owned by france. france ceded the chagos islands to our friends in great britain,

the u.k. and a number of years ago the united kingdom and america got together and we built mostly with american dollars, by the way, we built a military base in the chai chagos islands, one particular island called the diego. it's very close to the indian ocean in china so we can watch them. for another thing, it's where -- one of the only port -- bases where our nuclear submarines can dock. hugely important. well, the united nations got mad at the united kingdom. they said, great britain, you're bad people. you used to be colonialists. you acquired other countries.

sometimes freely, sometimes by force. every country i know of in the world of any strength has done that. doesn't mean we ought to be proud of it but it's part of our history. but the united nations said shame on you, u.k., shame on you. bad, bad, bad, bad. you have to give back the chagos islands and the military base there. and the u.n., the u.n. doesn't have any jurisdiction over the united kingdom. but the u.n. said not only do you have to give it back, but you don't give it back to the people of the chagos islands. you give it back to another group of islands way down here called mauritius. mauritius used to own the chagos islands when france ceded them to great britain. they were run by mauritius. but the people of the two island

groups, the pa lagos, the people don't have any affinity. what does mauritius say? of course we'll take it but they want to start charging the united states and u.k. 9 billion pounds for a 99-year lease. so we can lease our own military base all because the prime m minister of the united kingdom feels guilty because somebody, some tofu-eating rokorati at the united nations says they're bad people, bad, bad, bad clone yiss -- colonialists. and the prime minister of the united kingdom, he's going along with it. but he says, i'm negotiating with mauritius and the people -- the leader of mauritius just

issued a press release. yes, he's negotiating. he's increased the price and he's shortened the lease. you know who is loving all of this? china because china has a close relationship with mauritius. and you know what? it's going to get a lot closer. this is insane. this is cell-deep stupid. this is bone-deep down to the marrow stupid. because the united nations wants the united kingdom to feel guilty, they want to give our military base and their military base to mauritius. now, the prime minister of the united kingdom can stop this. and marco rubio, our new secretary of state, is against it. and i haven't talked to him directly, but i think president trump is against it. the united kingdom is our friend.

i went to school there to a while. i love it and i want to see the prime minister do well. but he needs to put down the b bong. he needs to put down the bong. this makes absolutely no sense and it's going to be a big part of his legacy if he gives away this island and our military base to in effect what will eventually be china. so i would say to the prime minister tonight, i don't mean any disrespect. i want to say this respectfully. i shouldn't have said the bon part. take it back. please, mr. prime minister, don't do this. don't do this. we'll stand with you in telling the united nations who is upset with you to go fill out a hurt feelings report because we're not doing it. we'll stand with you. please say no. don't give our military base away. it's going to really hurt the

relationship it the united states of america and the united kingdom. i know donald trump pretty well. i know marco rubio pretty well. they'll forgive but they'll never ever forget. don't do it, mr. prime minister. i've taken too much time. i'm sorry. i yield to my colleague from virginia. mr. warner: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from virginia. mr. warner: mr. president, i know my time has been squeezed a little bit. we have other colleagues. but i just want to mention one thing to my friend from louisiana. i love to listen to him talk. there's a lot of things he says that i tend to agree with and a lot of things i tend to disagree with. but i do want to make sure that folks know would i'm concerned about. if you want to debate any of these programs, that is fair cooking. there's ways to save spending,

count me in. you're a former governor. i'm a former governor. virginia got named best managed state in the country when i was governor. you know how we got that information about line-item programs? because about a decade ago, maybe 12 years ago, rob portman and i did something called the date act which gives you that line-by-line information where we can debate about the validity of these programs. would you don't need to do is put two -- you got the name of one person, maybe not the name of the other -- into the treasury with, to my knowledge, at least one of them we're not sure if they got any security clearances at all, to look at 1.3 billion checks being written out by the united states treasury. you want to debate about what usaid does? have had it. the programs can't be defended.

but why would you give someone a c coder, the potential keys to the kingdom of the united states tre treasury? why does this coder or mr. musk doge rose need to know how much the united states government paid the senator from louisiana on a tax refund? or the senator from virginia or any -- i think it's a simple question to ask. come in and explain yourself. i'd love to go through more but i know i got colleagues waiting too. i want to get back to what we're talking about here, which is how strongly i oppose the president's nomination of russ vought to be director of the management and budget, omb. i got a lot of grief. i supported a number of president trump's earlier nominees. as governor you mostly get your choice. but the remarkable thing about

mr. vought is and why i so strongly oppose him, this man is the author of project 2025. remember that? let's go back. my friend said, to the campaign. i remember donald trump saying i'm going to lower inflation. i'm going to bring down grocery prices. and he also said, as a matter of fact this project 2025, i don't know what you're talking about. he claims he never read it. instead he's putting the lead author in in charge of omb. and this manifesto, this doctrine, this author, mr. vought -- and i quote -- said he wants our federal workforce to be traumatized. he wants them to be seen as villains. i've run a business or to. i'm proud of that. i know the presiding officer is

as well. if you want to get more out of your workforce, you don't go in with a plan and let's traumatize the workforce or let's arbitrarily cut here, cut there, fire the good people, let the folks maybe not so good stay on. but that is what i believe is going on. mr. vought's vision of a traumatized workforce or group of folks that nobody elected may not even have appropriate security clearances going into the treasury, getting access to the files that never had been subject to this kind of -- there are -- you want to decide about a funding program, fight it at the agency that authorizes, not at the folks who write the checks. the only reason you want to find out who the government is paying beyond what you can find on usa spends which is something we created more than a decade ago

would be -- why does -- nobody elected. this file has never been examined under trump one, bush, obama. unless you want to get in and potentially manipulate this file. i don't know if that's the case, but i do know you don't put a coder that's 25 into look at all this information. how many of those $1.3 billion line items are you going to be able to look at? i fear there may be something inappropriate here. and these nonelected officials -- and i hear mile an hour republican friends all the time talk about nonelected bureaucrats. these aren't even bureaucrats. these are special government employees. and i can tell you if a national security standpoint, this information -- i know i'm not surprising anyone, but the united states government does some things through the cia and

other entities, for the most part stays classified. you give up that information, programs will be destroyed, potentially lives will be put in jeopardy. i know as the former chairman of the intelligence committee, the reason i like this job, i'm vice chair of the intelligence committee, what these men and women do often in the shadows, they're never going to get thanked the way our men and women in uniform, but they have to do it that way. and we need to make sure this classified information which unfortunately we're seeing a careless attitude from this administration that is stunning. i would point out earlier today, the cia sent over in a nonclassified form a series of name and letter of the last name which could be discovered of new cia hires. it takes a year and a half sometimes to

get a clearance, another year and a half to train them. you come back to what we're talking about here with mr. vought, this is the agenda. take everybody in the workforce, make them traumatized, his words, not mine. and this idea that mr. vought and now the folks that he's at least indirectly deputized, mr. trump has deputized, elon musk and the doge bros, whose names we don't know, whose backgrounds we don't know, whose security classifications we don't know are now going agents by agents, and i'm particularly concerned about what's going on at treasury. and i have great respect for the new secretary of the treasury. i think he is a good man. but i worry about what has happened right now. if it was just treasury and these sometimes potential access

to classified information, that might be one thing. but, you know, we've had for over 150 years almost the idea that our federal workforce ought to be above politics, called the civil service. i already mentioned the fact that mr. vought wants to treat those workers not with respect, but he really wants to go ahead and just simply say, we want you traumatized. a person shouldn't be -- that person shouldn't be head of omb. more recently we've seen an offer put out to say that the federal workforce, here, you take this offer to quit, we're going to give you eight months of free salary. well, i got a bridge in brooklyn that we'll give you as well if you take that offer. and if you believe either one of those things are true, then

you're operating in a different universe than reality. because, first, have you ever seen our president ever pay any of his contractors on time or fully? met me assure you -- let me assure you, there is no money in the budget to do all these payouts. and, frankly, even the basis of the offer -- dill till the lawyers litigate -- i will a he -- i'll let the lawyers litigate it -- is i believe he'll deceive you. we heard yesterday that the cia put out an offer to all their employees. didn't say, no, we don't want the spies to quit. it didn't say, no, we don't want our best analysts to quit. it said anybody who wants to quit. i hope the folks at the cia know a little bit about deception and will realize this phony kind of offer that if tend of the day

our best people quit, who's going to do those jobs in you can't just slap in a new coder to discover how we identify bad guys around the world. that then got extended today to the other intelligence agencies. it takes years and years and years. we have some of the best people in the world who work at nsa, who are in the cyber domain. they can all make ten x in the private sector. yet we're offering this fantasy eight-month buyout with no guarantee of being paid. i hope they will be smart enough and understand that this is not a real offer. this is a sham. but you god forbid if they do take it, how are we going to protect our national security? the fbi -- i finally got the information on the eight individuals, senior leaders at the fbi, who got riffed.

is it really the time to get rid of a top person at the fbi in cyber or in antiterrorism or in counterespionage? how does that make us safer in any form? then we've got the funding freeze. at first it was on, then it was off. i can tell you, some people might say, the fbi, the cia, even those government workers -- how does that affect my life? i can tell you from virginia, i got firefighters in southwest virginia saying they're not getting the money to replace or fix their tanker truck. i got others saying they don't know whether they have to stop operations entirely. i got law enforcement that actually gets funded from such federal funding that has not been unfrozen. they're saying, maybe they have to lay off cops. already seeing community health centers, who i saw today, that are shutting down. it's not servicing people.

so i appeal to my friends, many of which who we've worked together on so many of these items. do you want this mastermind of 2025 who wants to traumatize our workforce, call them villians, do you want our best people at the fbi, cia, nsa to take an imaginary offer which probably wouldn't be fulfilled and then be actually set up to be fired later, is that going to make us safer? i know i've got on a bit long -- not as long as my colleague from louisiana -- but i will urge my colleagues to oppose russell vought and i believe i will then offer the balance of my time post o., postcloture debate time to oppose mr. vought's nomination, to senator merkley. with that, mr. president, i

yield the floor. i think i'm yielding to the senator from arizona. the presiding officer: the senator has that right u. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from arizona. mr. kelly: mr. president, i bet a lot of folks watching tonight cannot believe that we are here talking about the office of management and budget. the office of management and budget. there is nothing more bureaucratic-sounding in this whole city. and that says something. it's not an office arizonans should really have to think about, let alone see their senators debate for hours. think of this -- think of this office as our government's financial planner. they keep track of spending for everything from veterans' benefits to disaster relief for

communities. when flagstaff gets hit by flooding or north scottsdale gets hit by a major wildfire, this is the office that signs off on federal relief. every single federal agency must go through the office of management and budget to access the dollars that congress writes into law for the work that they do for the american people. when it's working right, this is the office that helps build the federal budget and then makes sure that it gets executed according to the law. but that's the problem. under this administration, it's not working right, and it's not following the law. we saw this a week ago when this office tried to illegally freeze all federal grants. in the most reckless,

incompetent action we've seen yet from this administration, they issued a two-page memo -- two pages -- that said -- and this is a quote -- federal agencies must temporarily pause all activities related to the obligation or disbursement of all federal financial assistance, end of quote. this effort is now temporarily blocked by the courts, but it created a mess all over the country, and it still isn't fixed. we had head start programs in arizona that nearly had to lay off staff and turn families away because they didn't get the payments they were promised. i had arizona community health centers in my office today who just had a frozen payment come through, but it was more than a

week late. are there places where we need to make federal spending more efficient and effective? of course there are. and i'm willing to get together with anyone who wants to make our government work better, who wants to save taxpayer dollars and who wants to improve people's lives, but that's not what the trump administration is trying to do here. because their endgame is not efficiency. it's not being more responsible with taxpayer dollars. the endgame of all of this is giving rich people another massive tax break on the backs of hardworking americans. the endgame of all this -- and, folks, we've heard a lot about

this from elon musk over the last few weeks, about unelected, unaccountable federal bureaucrats. elon musk is himself a billionaire, unelected, unaccountable bureaucrat who is illegally shutting down federal agencies that make americans safer and more prosperous. and today we're debating someone whose very reason for getting picked for this job is that he wants to break the law and be an unaccountable bureaucrat. we know this because russ vought has had this job before. when he was picked for this the last time, he told congress that he would follow the law. he said that he wouldn't delay or refuse to spend money that was appropriated by congress.

he said he would follow a law that was passed by republicans and democrats in 1974 in response to richard nixon trying to a. buse the -- abuse the powers of his office. he said he would follow that law. he lied. he held up critical funds to support ukraine. this was in 2019 before russia invaded ukraine. an independent government watchdog found that this broke the law. and then again, after hurricanes irma and maria ravaged puerto rico and congress passed aid to help communities recover, vought broke the law again by blocking the funds. congress passed them again. you know what he did? russell vought blocked those

funds once again. this is what an unelected, unaccountable bureaucrat looks like -- russell vought. agree with these programs or disagree with them. congress -- republicans and democrats -- voted for them. folks don't like it, they can vote out their member of congress. that's what accountability means. it's not up to this guy to decide. but now that's very clearly what he believes because after he left this job the last time, he went a step further. he has said plainly that the law that he broke -- he said that that law was unconstitutional. the next time he gets in there, he doesn't think he has to follow it.

he wrote about this in his playbook, project 2025. remember that? now, i evaluate each and every nominee based on whether they have the experience and are committed to do the job. nothing disqualifies someone faster in my mind when they say ahead of time that they plan to break the law. he has said that. that means he will try to single-handedly gut the programs that he and president trump disagree with. well, what are they? well, he's spelled it out himself in utahing abouts that he -- in utahing abouts that he has writ -- in budgets that he has written with. he wants to cut housing support for 43%, including completely eliminating the largest source of housing assistance for arizonans, and that's going to

put working families on the streets. he wants to end the expansion of medicaid that has extended coverage to 600,000 arizonans through a program called access. that means more arizonans without health insurance, unable to get the care they need. also on the list, student loans, food assistance, and so much more. russ vought wants to make it harder for folks to afford a place to live, harder to afford health insurance, harder to afford college, and harder to afford to put food on your table. now for nibbling, do any of

those -- now for anybody listening, do any of those things matter to you? if he gets this job there won't be debate on the senate floor about these cuts. we won't be able to have a conversation about how to make housing assistance more effective for worki ing familie. there won't be bipartisan hearings about where we can cut waste and fraud out of programs to save money and focus where it's needed. no, he's just going to try to stop funding these things on his own. he said he would do that. he said he is going to break the law. he has told everybody that. and that's why president trump l picked him for the job in the first place, because remember,ing none of this is about efficiency. none of this about looking out for everyday americans.

this is about billionaires paving the way to get another tax cut for themselves and for their corporations. and to dos on the backs of you, hardworking americans. folks, we've been here before. the first time around, president trump signed a tax giveaway that he said was going to grow the economy and help working people. but that's not what happened. in the years since that tax bill was passed, we've seen a massive transfer of wealth to the richest americans. that's part of the reason why elon musk is now worth more than $400 billion. more big profitable corporations are now paying nothing in

federal income tax. zero. and the plan is to double down on tax breaks for the rich while behind closed doors unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats like russell vought and elon musk, they gut programs that help working families. i couldn't think of a more backwards way for the federal government to operate. we're supposed to be here to make government work for the american people. and i'll sit down with anybody to make that happen. but the plan seems to be to break the federal government in order to help rich people, and i can't get on board with that. thank you, mr. president. i want to yield the balance of

my postcloture debate time vote on the nomination to senator merkley. ms. hirono: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from hawaii. ms. hirono: mr. president, we are less than three weeks into the trump administration, and already americans across the country are reeling from the chaos. trump administration ran on lowering costs for working americans, an admirable goal, but one he clearly had no intention of making good on. instead he's hell-bent on sowing

chaos and making life harder for the american people while he pushes through massive tax cuts for his billionaire buddies. in just over the last two weeks, here's what trump did. he threatened tariffs on canada and mexico that will do nothing but raise costs on everyday essentials like food and gasoline, estimated to increase costs for the average household by nearly $1,200 a year. so much for lowering costs for the american people. he put a freeze on all federal funds, creating such uncertainty that seniors in hawaii were calling my office asking if they needed to prepare for homelessness. he tried to scam two million

federal employees, including 23,000 in hawaii, into taking an unaut unauthorized, unfunded buyout. whoever heard of such a thing? and he's given an unelected, unaccountable billionaire free rein to raid the treasury, to root around in the treasury and any other federal agency he sees fit, enabling him to get his hands on all of our data. if this isn't the data breach, frankly, i don't know what is. right in front of our faces. in case there was any doubt, the last few weeks have shown that trump never gave a rip about working people and has no interest in doing anything to help make our lives better.

the chaos is dizzying. but behind this chaos is a detailed, methodical plan, project 2025. while campaigning, trump swore he had nothing to do with project 2025, a big fat lie, like so much of what comes out of trump's mouth. as soon as he was elected, guess what? trump began appointing many of the people behind project 2025. his hand-picked choice to lead the office of management and budget, or omb, is russell vought, the architect of project 2025. mr. president, mr. vought is dangerous and he has a total disregard for the constitution, congress, and the millions of hardworking americans impacted by decisions he will make at

omb. americans need to know that omb is extremely powerful with oversight over the president's budget and functionally, all federal agency action, including regulatory decisions. with such responsibility, the person leading this office needs to be levelheaded and impartial. they need to put loyalty to the constitution above loyalty to the president. mr. vought, however, is the ultimate yes man. in trump's first term, as acting omb director, vought wrote a budget that, among other things, would have cut nearly $1 trillion from medicaid, slashed nearly $300 billion from social safety net programs like food assistance, eliminated $170

billion from student loans, and zeroed out programs like liheap and community development block grants to help with housing assistance and building community infrastructure. just like for families, where we spend our money reflects our priorities and our values. mr. vought's 2021 budget demonstrated that he sees no value in helping the american people. this time we know it will be even worse because he is going to be in charge at omb. and like trump, mr. vought will do whatever he wants, regardless of the law or the constitution, from forcing out civil servants to appropfunds appropriated by congress.

we know the story of robin hood. on the other hand, mr. vought is a robber baron who wants to steal the tax dollars of hardworking americans to line the pockets of trump's billionaire buddies. the robber baron. at the end of the day trump, vought, and all their cronies have just one goal, giving huge tax cuts to billionaires on the backs of working people. we have been repeating this. why? because how the heck are they going to do this otherwise, except on the backs of working people? their plan to do so is simple. first, they will get programs working families rely on, things like nutrition assistance, education funding, and medicare and medicaid. then they'll borrow trillions of dollars and run our country deeper into debt, just what they did the last time.

finally, they'll give massive tax breaks to billionaires, leaving the american people to foot the bill. their plan is clear. they wrote it all down. this is project 2025. project 2025, the 900-page plan russell vought helped to mastermind, filled with all sorts of terrible ideas for our country and the american people. and that is why i call it the plan to screw the american people. they call it the mandate for leadership. i call it the 900-page plan to screw over the american people. i thank democracy forward for summarizing some of the worst proposals in project 2025 in a report that i am going to read parts of. democracy forward said project

2025 is among the most profound threats to the american people. what is project 2025? the project 2025 presidential transition project is a well-funded effort of the heritage foundation and more than 100, more than 100 organizations to enable a future antidemocratic presidential administration -- that would be this administration -- to take swift, far-right action that would cut wages for working people, dismantle social safety net programs, reverse decades of progress for civil rights, redefine the way our society operates, and undermine our economy. a central pillar of l project 2025 is the mandate for leadership, a 900-page policy

playbook authored by former trump administration officials and other extremists like russell vought. it provides a radical vision for our nation and a road map to implement it. so democracy forward noted we, they, read project 2025's entire 900-page mandate for leadership so that we don't have to. so they said what we discovered was a systemic, ruthless plan to undermine the quality of life of millions of americans, remove critical protections and dismantle programs for communities across the nation. and prioritize special interests and ideological extremism over people. from attacking overtime pay, student loans, and reproductive

rights, to allowing more discrimination, pollution, and price gouging, those behind project 2025 are preparing to go to incredible lengths to create a country only for some. not for all of us. if these plans are enacted, even without congressional approval, 4.3 million people could lose overtime protections, 40 million people could have their food assistance reduced, 220,000 american jobs could be lost, and much, much more. these stakes are higher than ever for democracy and for people. these threats aren't hypothetical. these are their real plans. the heritage foundation and the 100-plus organization that make up the project 2025 advisory board have mapped out exactly

how they will achieve their extreme ends. they aim to carry out many of the most troubling proposals through an antidemocratic president -- trump -- and political loyalist -- vought -- installed in the executive branch without waiting for congressional action. and while many of these plans are unlawful, winning in court is not guaranteed given that the same far-right movement that is behind project 2025 has shaped our current judicial system. proposals from project 2025 discussed in detail throughout this guide, that could be implemented through executive branch action alone, include, and i'm going to repeat, you know, cutting american rescue plan programs that have created

or saved 220,000 jobs, limiting access to food assistance, which can average -- which an average of more than 40 million people rely on monthly, rolling back civil rights protections across multiple fronts , including cutting diversity, equity, and inclusion related, or dei programs, and lgbtq+ rights in health care, education, and workplaces, eliminating the head start early education program, which serves over one million children, stopping efforts to lower prescription drug prices, cutting overtime protections for 4.3 million workers, pushing more people towards medicare advantage and other worse private options, and that is 33 million people, restricting access to medication abortion, denying students in 25 states

and washington, d.c. access to student loans because their schools provide in-state tuition to undocumented immigrants. exposing the 368,000 children in foster care to risk of increased discrimination. again, i thank democracy forward for this summary. mr. president, these are just some of the countless proposals in project 2025 that will make our country and the american people less free, less safe, and less prosperous. behind it all is russell vought. if confirmed, he'll move to implement project 2025 without delay, to line the pockets of billionaires at the expense of working americans. you know, we've got to repeat this time and again because,

guess what, this is exactly what happened during trump's first term. their goal was to give trillions in tax cuts to their billionaire buddies, and they're going to do it again, trust me. that's what they're going to do. project 2025 is dangerous. mr. vought is dangerous. i urge my colleagues to oppose this nomination. i yield the balance of my postcloture debate time to senator merkley, up to the two-hour limit. mr. merkley: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. merkley: i yield ten minutes of my postcloture time on the

vote nomination to senator van hollen, and i yield 60 minutes of my postcloture debate time on the vote nomination to senator schatz. the presiding officer: the senator has that right. mr. merkley: thank you. mr. warnock: mr. president. mr. president, i rise today in strong opposition to the nomination of russell vought to be the head of the office of

management and budget. his leadership will only continue the disruption that is hurting georgians in every corner of my state, even as i speak. over the past two and a half weeks, my state has been plagued by chaos, by confusion that has harmed georgia families and georgia workers and organizations serving their communities. we are witnessing right now a careless and heartless assault on federal investments and a freeze of government funding that has already, already been appropriated by congress. to help georgia seniors, veterans, students, and so many more. let's be clear, these are funds that have already been appro appropriated. we've already gone through the

legislative process. somehow, the president has created this new process in which he says i don't care what congress has done, i don't care what laws have been passed, it has to come back by me, through the omb manager. this cannot stand. and i'm afraid that these un-democratic antics will only continue if the senate confirms russell vought to be head of the office of management and budget. vought is one of the architect of project 2025, which initially president trump ran away from. you know a politician's program is really bad when he won't even admit that it's his program.

but as soon as he's elected, surrounds himself by the very architects of the program that he denied during the election was his. he's now nominated the very people who wrote the playbook for reshaping our entire democratic republic into their dystopian image. this is radical. this is extreme. this is un-democratic. and i dare say that the people of georgia who elected me, and the people of georgia who elected donald trump, did not vote for this. but just as we warned, his dangerous plans are playing out in real time. this is exactly what they said they were going to do.

some didn't believe them. even after they attempted to gaslight the american people into thinking otherwise, here we are in no time flat. now, i believe in democracy. i often say that democracy is the political enactment of a spiritual idea, the notion that each of us has within us a spark of the divine. and if we have a spark of the divine, if we were created in what theologianses called the image of god, we all ought to have a voice in the direction of the day and our destiny within it. so i respect elections. they have consequences. i know as a result of what happened on november 5, things will happen that i don't agree with. i'm not mad about that. i'll push and stand and speak about the direction i think the

country should go in, but elections do have consequences. but people are tired of what happens here in washington, d.c. what all of us ought to be able to agree on is that once we've gone through the legislative process, that process of three c coequal branches of government ought to be respected. i don't care if the president is a republican or a democrat. and so, there's no question that there's a lot of pain out there. the status quo was not, and is not, working for americans. and that's been the case for a long time. folks have seen wealth trickle

up and pain trickle down. and they've seen an increasing disconnect between what they need from their government and what they're able to get from their government. we can't even get movement on the things that americans on the left and the right agree on in this country. a fox news poll reported, and you don't often hear me quote a fox news poll, fox news poll said that americans on both sides of the aisle believe that we ought to have background checks, but after one school shooting after another after another, we can't get any movement on that in this chamber. it suggests that somebody other than the people is trying to own the democracy.

squeezing the voices of the people out of their own democracy, that's why what's happening right now is so deeply concerning, and if you're not concerned, you're not paying attention. billionaires surrounding donald trump are trying to own the democracy. they're trying to move the vision of this country away from citizenship to ownership. and vought as omb director would be a disaster. it would be a disaster for the people who rely on crucial government programs to make life more affordable, i'm thinking right now about the veterans that i serve in a military state. they are the best among us. they deserve the best from us.

they have been imperiled by the actions of the last two weeks. i'm thinking about families who need accessible child care. this stunt that was pulled a few days ago is a disaster for communities who want well-funded law enforcement, thriving businesses, safe roads and bri bridges, and as they attack federal workers, attack the government, they're trying to convince you that the government is some third endity outside of us -- some third entity outside of us. no, this is by the people, for the people, of the people. this is the highest of our aspirations, what we're trying to achieve together. as we witness this assault, it is hitting democrats and republicans. blue states and red states.

as the people's voices are being squeezed out of their democracy, so just last week, without even being confirmed, vought orchestrated the effort to freeze federal spending, as if this money is his money rather than our money, the people's money, throwing programs from infrastructure upgrades to medicaid to free school lunches to support for homeless veterans into chaos. how dare you take funds that are needed by the veterans of georgia and all across this state? those who fight for us should not have to fight with us to get what they deserve. but the power of the omb, he would enact even more harmful policies. if he is behaving with this kind

of reckless disregard for the law right now, what do you think he will do if we confirm him? this is a dangerous disregard for the separation of powers that keeps our government in check. and it gives the people a voice through the people's house, a check on those who would recklessly exercise power. vought has made it clear that he feels the omb, the office of management and budget, can turn on and turn off any spending by the federal government, ignoring the requirements that congress being directly elected by the people decides where your tax dollars can go. in 2024, listen, in 2024, he even published an article stating we are living in a p post-constitutional time. that's dangerous rhetoric from a

dangerous man. i beg to differ. i believe in my constitution. hard fought and hard won. it's not a perfect amendment, thank god for the 13th, 14th, 15th amendment, first amendment. but he should explain what he means when he says we're living in a post constitutional time. the trump administration and its architect, includes the nominee before us today have a very simple playbook to shrink the federal government and enrich themselves and their financial security. you are witnessing the unfolding of the kleptocratic designs they

have on that your republic. god help us if woe just stand by and allow it to happen. so what's their first step in getting that done? the trump administration is telling civil servants like the people who inspect your food or monitor diseases like bird flu or care for veterans at the v.a. to accept a meager buyout or risk being fired. all while be an unelected billionaire posing as co-president accesses your private data at the treasury department. russell vought said in 2023 that he wanted federal workers to, quote, be traumatically affected. that's what he said about your neighbors. that hets