he wants to eliminate the separation of powers, the checks and balances enshrined in our constitution and to strip congress. yes, one of the three coequal branches of government, of its power. that's not an exaggeration. congress, particularly those involved with the appropriations process, know and respect the power of the purse. congress, of course, has the power to create laws, and congress has an important power to conduct meaningful oversight to serve as a check on a presidency and an

administration, just as the founding fathers intended. after all, the united states was created fleeing a dictatorship. we chose better. a democracy, where the power lies in the people, and the congress representatives of the people, and between the legislative, the executive, and the judiciary, checks and balances. let's not let power become overly concentrated. well, despite president trump's attempts and russell vought's enabling of further concentration of power, no matter what president trump wants to believe, congress, the

president, and the courts are coequal branches of government. yet at the start of the president's second term, once again, we have also received calls from officials in our nation's health agencies. they've had to abruptly cancel meetings. now, with every new administration we might expect a temporary pause on some external communication, right? there's often some pledgity mat transition -- legitimate transition activity. so if there's a pause or a momentary stop to social media communications, facebook and twitter maybe, that's one thing, but to deny congress and the american people important

information on public health? that is truly dangerous. but sadly, again, it seems that our republican colleagues are simply unwilling to exercise their constitutional authority. mr. president, i'm 51. now, that may not be considered old by senate standards, but i am old enough to remember when republicans used to be concerned about presidential overreach, and it wasn't that long ago, like in 2017, when then-attorney general jeff sessions called former president obama a, quote,

emperor, for his use of executive actions. jeff sessions, former member of this body, as attorney general, using the word emperor in describing president obama's use of executive actions. or when former speaker paul ryan referred to president obama's executive orders on gun safety as, quote, a dangerous level of executive overreach, end quote. republican leader of the house, speaker at the time, saying it was executive overreach. it wasn't that long ago. so i can't help but ask, what's changed? what's changed? just eight years later, in 2025, the republican party is clearly the party of donald trump, and

with more power in the hands of the president to gut the federal government, are republicans willing to serve as accomplices in selling out hardworking americans in order to pay for the big tax breaks or billionaires and large corpo corporations? that's the question. now, let's take a minute to look at who's running points for donald trump these days. now, before he was sworn in for a second term as president, trump happily handed over the keys to the government's -- keys to the government to the richest man in the world. elon musk paid nearly $300 million to help elect donald trump.

and now that wager is paying off in spades. the richest president in history is now allowing the richest man in the world to find ways to cut funding from the american people. and they will lie to your face when they claim they're returning power to the people, because if you were to ask which people, they certainly mean average, everyday, hardworking americans. they're putting power and wealth further and further into the billionaire class. that's right. trump has now handed shadow president elon musk control of your social security payments, your medicare benefits and medicaid benefits, the

government programs that you paid into to help you in retirement, the retirement that you earned. that's all at risk now. and now elon musk has access to the sensitive data for hundreds of millions of americans. he has your bank accounts information. he has your tack data. he has your social security number. he has your home address. to be clear, no law has passed to create this so-called department of government effi efficiency, doge, and no law was passed certainly to give it any authority to make spending decisions, to shut down programs, or ignore federal law.

so we should all be concerned as musk gets recent -- gives recent college graduates who now work for him full rein over treasury servers and payment programs. if treasury payments were ever intentionally, or even unintentionally, stopped, it could paralyze our economy and it would stop people's social security benefits. now, most people that i know truly rely on their social security to get by. so let's be clear -- for donald trump and elon musk, this has never really been about government efficiency. it's about a government takeover to steal from the american people and further enrich themselves and their friends. it's the very same reason, by

the way, that they're attacking usaid, illegally dismantling an agency that congress created, working to end humanitarian assi assistance. dictators around the world are celebrating. china, opening its arms as trump forces our allies to look somewhere else for partnership and support. usaid was created by congress, has been annually invested in by congress, including your votes. president trump, russell vought's philosophies, who cares what they did? we're going to do what we want. keep telling us over and over

again, just standing by, letting him do it. now we hear that the department of education might be in elon musk's crosshairs next, with donald trump promising to abolish the department as a whole. think about that. threatening support for millions of our students and further holding back a generation of children who have already suffered interruptions through a pandemic, and who can't afford more instability? it all begs the question -- who's really in control here? who's calling the shots? is it donald trump? or is it elon musk? today i say to you that to working families, it doesn't

matter. neither one of them is looking out for them. and again, this is exactly what russell vought has envisioned, billionaires cutting support for american families to make room for even more benefits for the rich, and his fingerprints are already all over donald trump's earliest steps to cut funding. now, as i mentioned, even before he was confirmed, he's still not confirmed, vought had a hand in a constitutional crisis just last week, when president trump issued a government-wide funding freeze. he hoped to withhold hundreds of billions of dollars from social safety net programs that americans had paid into, all to lay the groundwork for his

billionaire tax cuts. these federal programs might not mean much to the wealthiest people in the country, but they mean a lot, a lot to hardworking families across the country. in california alone, state agencies and local governments were blocked from accessing medicaid and housing assistance grant portals. the director of a grant-funded program, the los angeles district attorney's office, supporting victims of violent crime -- isn't that who we're trying to look out for? the local prosecutors trying to protect victims of violent crime were concerned about the future of their work, because federal funding had been frozen, and who knew for how long. funding for research on cures

for childhood cancer was threatened. colleagues, childhood cancer. we're trying to find a cure, not freeze them out of hope. local commuter rails officials in sonoma raised concerns about their ability to continue to service the community if outstanding federal funding was frozen. this is the kind of service people rely on to get to work, keep our economy going. the funding freeze is making it difficult to do that. the city of akaville was worried about potential impact to their housing authority and vouchers. head start grantees were frozen out of the federal payment management systems. health centers in san francisco

met to assess their ability to provide services if grant funding and medicare reimbursements were frozen. the oakland fire department raised alarm bells about having to cut staff if an outstanding fema grant to support pay for 35 firefighters was paused. northern california, central california, they've seen what fires have done to southern california. they don't want the same. yeah, we're going to jeopardize firefighter staffing? really? not to mention president trump is still holding up hundreds of billions of dollars that were promised for key infrastructure projects in california, and communities are losing confidence that they'll ever see

that money. i'll cite just two examples. the city of tracy was awarded $41 million for a key infrastructure grant that would create good-paying jobs, but now they may never see that money. the losant rail corps that connects los angeles to san luis ilbispo, was promised $27 million to help improve service along that route. now, that's in jeopardy. i know well, this corridor, great plans in the work, not just for efficiency, improved service but improved safety. imagine that, improving safety of rail lines in america.

but, no, you're all okay with stopping that work. now, although president trump has threatened to block hundreds of billions of dollars to support families recovering from catastrophic fires, law enforcement agencies that we rely on to keep safe and the children and families who depend on federal child care and nutrition programs, that's what they're doing. now, i know some of you have said, well, that order has been frozen so we shouldn't worry. technically the omb funding freeze order has been halted by the courts, not by choice. by the courts for now. we know that the fight is far from over. this is just their first attempt in this administration, not their final attempt, and we know it because this is exactly what

president trump and russell vought wants, a constitutional crisis to give the president more power and to make way for those will their tax breaks -- billionaire tax breaks that they are so hell-bent on. that's their plan for our families, for our constitution, for our country. there's another tool that they have. they will use immigration and other cultural wars to divide us because if we are fighting amongst ourselves, trump and his ultrawealthy friends will just be helping themselves to tax breaks. they'll try to overwhelm the system to enrich themselves, whether it's legal or not. because they're banking on us

being distracted by cultural wars. in fact, look at just how much has been struck down by federal judges appointed by both democrats and republicans. this isn't a partisan deal. how much has been struck down already just weeks into this administration. one judge has already enjoined president trump's blatantly unconstitutional executive order on birth right citizenship. not one but two judges have enjoined the omb spending freeze. two federal judges also enjoined his executive order on transgender prison inmates. and that's just in the last week. multiple suits have also been brought challenging his illegal purge of the federal workforce and his attempts to interfere

with usaid. so we know that president trump and his billionaire friends are only in it for themselves. that's been well established. they've shown us exactly who they are for years now. but colleagues, i have to admit that what surprises me most, what surprises me most is that when i hear from my republican colleagues one on one that well, we agree on more than you think, let's just keep talking. let's work to try to find this common ground. let's do what's right for our country. call me an optimist, but i'll believe my republican colleagues when they say that they came to washington to help their

constituents. while i disagree with it, i understand that some of our colleagues are choosing to make political decisions with some of president trump's nominees. you may be thinking about a potential reelection in 2026. maybe you think it's just easier to stand up to trump on an issue somewhere further down the road than right now. but here's what surprises me. what's different with russell vought is that this is a nominee who embodies a larger vision about the presidency and about the country that would fundamentally hurt your constituents, too, not just my constituents, all of our constituents. and it already has. this short lived omb funding freeze alone gave us a look at

just some of the backlash from cutting a widely popular social safety net. so to my republican colleagues, respectfully, i know you're getting the same calls as i am. i know you're hearing about the constituents whose lives were made harder because of this. i know you're not blind to the real world effects of donald trump and russell vought. this week i've had californians come out in droves to my office encouraging me to oppose this nomination. they are demanding the services that they rely on to be pro protected and they're refusing to let russell vought pillage programs like head start, like meals on wheels, like so many others just so that the

wellestiest americans can -- wealthiest americans can get a bigger tax break. so today i will end with this. a question to my colleagues across the aisle. who are you more loyal to? your own constituents or a reckless president? what are we doing in washington if we're afraid to stand up for our states and for our constituents? did any of you run for senate to cut veterans housing assistance? did any of you run for senate to slash school lunch programs and force kids to go hungry? did any of you run for senate to make it harder for communities to get support after a natural disaster and rebuild their home, to rebuild communities?

i may sound crazy when i suggest this but i don't believe it is any political risk at all to stand up for your constituents. and even if you hesitate to speak out publicly against trump's unprecedented power grab, at least join me in voting against russell vought and his dangerous world view. don't let trump's allegiance to billionaires crush your hardworking constituents because i won't stand for it as he attempts to crush mine. i invite you, i encourage you, i implore you to do the right thing. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. mr. wyden: before he leaves the floor, let me just thank my colleague from california, my southern neighbor, for his

comment -- comment -- you and i want everybody in america to have a chance to get ahead, everybody. that's not been the case with what we've seen mr. vought and the trump administration. the breaks are going to go to the people at the top and we're going to offer a very different approach. i'm going to spend a few minutes following up your good remarks and then yield to my colleague who has been a wonderful additional to the senate finance committee, senator smith. mr. president, russell vought is the lead architect of the trump economic bait and switch. and it's a pretty clear approach to follow. donald trump spent months and months on the campaign trail promising workers and working families were going to be his

focus. you might recall that he promised that he was going to lower grocery prices. he went into grocery stores. he said prices are going to go down under my presidency. he took just a few weeks before that one was dropped. anybody who wonders about grocery prices today, you can just go to the market and try to figure out how to get through buying some eggs because it's the same kind of problem. all these kind of efforts to tell working class people that they would come first have really given way to something that i call the bait and switch. instead of the relief being targeted to workers, people for whom the big issues have the second word as bill. it might be medical bill. it might be rent bill. it might be gas bill. but that's what's going on in their lives. they're hurting. and the reality is trump doesn't

care about that. so he's going to cut programs that they depend on, like housing and health care and affordable energy in order to take that money and move it over to super charge the 2017 tax cut and give even more benefits to the people at the top. now, we're going to on the finance committee -- and i have my colleague here, senator smith who i know shares this view -- we're going to push back against that kind of economic bait and switch. because we know how unfair it is. you know, right now in america, if you're a firefighter or a nurse, you pay taxes with every single paycheck, no question about it. it's a responsibility of citizenship. you pay taxes with every paycheck. if you're one of the high flyers, though, mr. president, it doesn't work that way.

you can to a great extent pay what you want, when you want to and sometimes go for years on end paying virtually nothing. in fact, on the front pains of the wall street -- pages of the "wall street journal" it was described some time ago as buy, borrow, and die. buy lots of assets, maybe houses you don't use at all, borrow against them for a very opulent lifestyle and then you pass. buy, borrow, and die, the glide path that ensures if you're at the very top, you pay little or nothing for years on end while working people get clobbered. you can be sure this is going to be something that mr. vought and president trump are going to pursue very vigorously because this is what they had in mind when they were making plans to do the bait and switch and take

from people of the working class and transfer those benefits to the people at the top. now, mr. vought was a coauthor of the infamous project 2025. now, this has been particularly curious because when donald trump heard about this, he acted like he had nothing to do with it. project 2025, what's that? who knows anything about that? well, it's pretty clear that he knew everything about it and he was working with mr. vought and what started off as a right-wing wish list quickly became the guiding policy agenda for donald trump and his administration. it's the blueprint for republicans to unravel the federal government as we know it. now, there's some highlights of project 2025 that certainly deserves some discussion here this morning. nationwide abortion ban is on

the agenda. slashing food assistance programs. eliminating head start early education, yet more goodies for big pharma, a green-light for various types of discrimination and then to top it all off, the real essence of the agenda, take a sledgehammer to checks and balances, give the president the power to throw the constitution in the trash can and defy congressional authority. pretty graphic parade of horrors. but over the last few days, the american people have witnessed the reality of one of the mainstays of project 2025 play out right before their eyes. mr. president, last friday, just six days ago, whistleblowers told me about something that has turned out to be more alarming than i thought. we were told that the treasury

secretary was going to give the keys to the treasury payments program to mr. musk, and that has played out now before our eyes. i say to my colleague from the finance committee, we got this letter a day or so ago saying what's everybody worried about, nothing to see here, no big deal. and you slap your forehead or something and you say, are you kidding me? look at what musk is announcing every single day that he's doing. i've said before and i say it again, elon musk, take your hands off the people's money. he's seizing control of the treasury department's payment system containing home addresses, social security and tax information of hundreds of millions of americans. my colleague from minnesota and i spend a lot of time advocating for privacy rights. when musk is done with that

agenda that i just described looking at people's home addresses, bank accounts, social security numbers, there's going to be very little elements of approve left. musk has shown that he's willing to use control of these payment systems to target nonprofits that he disagrees with. he starts with religious none profits -- nonprofits. so the whole point of this -- senator smith and i have watched this -- was supposed to have been going after some kind of instances of fraud and abuse. what did he do? he went after religious profits providing crucial community services. this doge takeover is the type of thing mr. vought and his far-right buddies were dreaming about, probably goes all the way back to their dorm rooms. just last week the office of amongst and budget, the office mr. vought would be tasked with overseeing, put in place the funding freeze that would cut off federal funding for any

organization or group across the country that relies on it -- law enforcement, schools, small businesses, firefighters. these are services that are lifelines to small communities. all of them, all of them being punished. within hours of that freeze going into effect, our staff received word that the medicaid payment system had gone completely dark in all 50 states. now, mr. president, i remember what this was all about from my days as director of the gray panthers. this kind of program was a lifeline in terms of giving people information about their medicine and nursing home benefits and services ofson i h put something up online. all 50 states, all of them, medicaid portals backed up, maybe not working at all, and for several hours the states were locked out, leaving the fate of medicaid and health care coverage for tens of millions of vulnerable americans unknown and leaving patients, states, and

providers scrambling. because of the tremendous outcry from senior citizens' advocates, disabilities rights folks, community leaders of all political philosophy, that portal got up and running, but it is a sobering reminder that republicans have their sights set -- particularly mr. vought -- on doing everything they can. while omb tried to walk back parts a of the funding freeze just a day later, confusion and chaos has had lasting impacts and likely will for weeks and months to come. continuing in that vein, my office is still hearing from head start providers that are locked out of their payment system. unless those funds are turned back on soon, these schools that serve the rural parts of oregon will have to start closing their doors because they can't afford to keep operating. now, all of this makes sense if

you understand that one of the main goals of project 2025 and its key author, mr. vought, is taking away congress's power of the purse and giving it directly to the president. that means giving the president the authority to redirect or cut off federal funds to programs they don't like or that didn't align with their personal agenda. because the painful truth is donald trump doesn't care if the economy crashes and these communities i'm talking about suffer. he and mr. vought want hungry kids and seniors to just try to get boy on their own. they want domestic violence survivors to have nowhere to turn for shelter. they want to deny law enforcement the resources they need to keep our communities safe. i just had groups of law enforcement people come to see me, pleading for help with resources. they didn't come as democrats and republicans. they came as folks from oregon, specifically the northwest, to

say that we want to make sure that our communities have that added measure of safety. unfortunately, the trump people want to end lifesaving research that's going to be so important to dealing with cancer and other diseases, and they don't seem to be at all concerned about patients being turned away from basic health care. it's clear to me, mr. president, this array of challenges that the i've described with the trump people, particularly the president, have walked back the pledge that was made in the campaign to put working families first, give everybody a chance to get ahead. those campaign promises from the fall have vanished. poof! they're gone. what's taken place now is a very different agenda, the bait-and-switch agenda. instead of following through on those promises to working families, they're going to make sure that the people get the

fruits of the economic reforms that are coming are going to be the people at the top. america can do better. we always do better when we give everybody in our country a chance to get ahead and we come together to pursue that in a united way. i'm voting no against russell vought because that kind of economics is not on his agenda, and i yield to my colleague from minnesota. ms. smith: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from minnesota. ms. smith: thank you, mr. president. and i'd like to thank my colleague from oregon for his remarks, as he serves as ranking member of the finance committee. i know that he is always thinking about how our tax system is working for regular people in this country. and how we make sure that it is fair, that it is funding the critical services that we have, and that we are not putting the burden on regular people and letting billionaires and big corporations off the hook.

and so i just want to thank you for your words. i was lynn -- i was listening closely to what you were saying. colleagues, we have been up all night long. it's 8:45 i think in washington, d.c. it is 7:30 or 7:45 in minnesota where my family is. my grandchildren are just about getting up and getting ready for school. we're going to get some snow? minnesota this morning. in new mexico where my 95-year-old father lives, it is only about 6:45 in the morning, and he's probably thinking about getting upped and senator wyden and your home state of oregon, it is only about 5:45. every place around this country, people are getting up and they m may be noticing that we have kept the senate in session all night lopping. they may be wondering what this is all about and why we are

doing this and what impact this has on their lives because after all we're talking about the nomination of a man, russell vought, to lead something called the omb. and i would guess that a lot of people in this country don't even know what the omb is. office of management and budget. it oversees federal takingses and administers the budget. pretty innocuous. not anything you should be too worried about. it seems like the role of this agency would be to make sure that the laws that are passed by congress are implemented, that the federal budget, which is the purview of congress, is implemented this a way that reflects what the representatives of people of this country asked and expected. but -- so we're here today, colleagues and those that are listening, we're here today because what is happening with this nomination of russell vought, this confirmation that we're going to be taking up at some point later today, kind of

masked in this innocuous omb is actually one of the biggest power grabs that i think we have ever seen in the history of our country. a massive power grab by the executive to seize power that rightly, as described in the constitution, belongs to congress. because what mr. vought and donald trump and elon musk have proposed is that with russell vought leading the office of management and budget, they can just pretty much ignore what congress has said we should do with the federal budget. and so i want to just spend a little bit of time talking about what that means and talking about what it means for you, if you're here on the east coast or if you're in the midwest where my family is or in the southwest where my father is or anyplace in this country. what does that mean to you as you're getting up this morning? because we've seen -- we don't have to hypothesize what this means with russell vought leading the omb, with elon musk

at -- you know, running rampant throughout the federal government, what this nomination means and why we need to oppose it. because we can see t it's right there in front of our eyes because they have already started to implement the -- their plans, the plans that are laid out in project 2025. and i just want to read -- i was just looking -- i say this to my colleague from oregon, i was just looking at the latest news just to give us an idea of what this really means. here's a quote from a lawyer in "the washington post." this is part of "the washington post" story that posted this morning. this is not some radical, progressive lawyer that said this. this is ty cobb who served in the first tricholiths he says, what's going on here today with this vote nomination, with -- and especially with elon musk, this is a quote, it is a naked power grab consistent with

trump's -- with what trump's advisors have persuaded him to do, which is to flood the zone with as much unconstitutional activity as possible, with the hope that they will get away with some or all of it. now, this is ty cobb who served as white house lawyer during trump's first term. so i offer that up as a sort of preamble to my remarks because i think it shows that even republican lawyers can identify that what is happening here with the trump administration then with this nomination of russell vought is a naked power grab to seize power from the representatives elected by the people of this country and congress and concentrate it in the white house, in the hand of elon musk and russell vought in order for them to just run rampant over our constitutional system. so, as i said, you don't have to just believe me when you hear what i'm telling you because we could see them already start

this process. and last week the trump administration, we could see they hurt real people in my state, in the state of oregon, the state of florida, by creating this unprecedented convey 0s in federal agencies -- chaos in federal agencies and programs all based on the blueprint of project 2025. and russell vought, whose nomination the senate is considering today, is the architect of that blueprint. and i think you can see that his ideas, they're dangerous, they're unconstitutional, and they are already causing real harm to people. in just the two weeks since president trump has been in office, i guess it's two and a half weeks at this point, what he's done ssess ssess attempted to freeze -- what he's done is he's attempted to freeze federal funding authorized and appropriated by congress. that's our job. whether this freeze right now, whether it is still frozen or temporarily enjoined by the courts, whether the administration has turned on the

spigots in some places, not in others, as my colleague from oregon has said, it's created massive confusion and i know in minnesota some people say the money is coming again, as it should be, constitutionally. others say it isn't. none of that matters because i do believe, as ty cobb said, that the chaos is the point. creating the chaos is the point. hurting people right now, that is the impact of that. and so what we're doing is we're seeing what russell vought's extreme and dangerous ideas mean and how far they are willing to take this. so think about this for a minute in minnesota, my home state, where a federal funding freeze is truly life or death. the administration's list of programs that they have frozen or want to freeze covers most basic needs for a lot of people -- food, shelter, medicine, safe drinking water. i've harder from thousands of minnesotans who are terrified

about what this means. the senate phone lines -- the phone lines into my office over this last week, and you you is expect this has been the -- and i suspect this has been the case for my colleagues. they have been overwhelmed by people calling this saying what is happening here? how could this be happening? i'm worried that i'm not going to get my social security check. i'm worried that the organization that i run to provide domestic shelter for women who are victims of domestic violence is going to have to shut down o i'm worried that the services that we provide to people who are resettling in minnesota, often this is done by faith organizations in my home state, i'm worried that we're not going to be able to do those things. our phone lines have been overwhelmed with stories like that. and i would have to say, colleagues, just a level of outrage and just furiousness that i haven't seen for a long

time because people can see that this is having an impact. and, you know, this is not, you know, people call my office who voted for vice president harris, people call my office who voted for donald trump. but what i'm not seeing here a distinction -- what i'm seeing is even people who voted for president trump are saying, this is not what i voted for. this minnesotans. is not the vision that i had for my country. this is not the campaign that i voted for to lower the cost of groceries or, you know, even many of the things that i completely disagree with the president. this is actually having an impact on real families and people and hurting them and where will this lead from here? i think the scope of the trump and vought project 2025 and the funding freeze it has inspired

is so broad, i don't think there is a single person in this country impacted in some way, directly or indirectly and i don't think it would be good for anyone. i detect colleagues from the calls i'm getting in, it's easy to see, easy to see all the calls coming into my office, measures are feeling a lot less safe and a lot less secure than they did last monday, before this all unfolded, before this funding freeze that was described and is now being implemented was described by project 2025 and russell vought and now is being implemented is happening. people do not feel as safe today. and they know the reason why is that this freeze has put our most fundamental and essential funds in limbo. federal law enforcement salaries are subject to the freeze. giving you an idea of what impact this has.

counterterrorism coordination programs, programs to combat human and sex and drug trafficking, programs to fight child sex trafficking have all been covered by this -- you know, by this fund. it's really a funding cut to be honest. it's like suddenly you have -- had the money and now you don't have the money anymore, that is a cut. what does that mean if you're the victim of a violent crime, a federal program that helps you to recover from that, to get restitution, those services have been frozen. if you are the survivor of sexual violence on domestic violence, you don't have the same access to a safe mace to be, you are less safe because of russell vought, donald trump and elon musk. this should be worrying to every single american whether you are in that situation or whether you just, you know, have some

compassion and care for folks that are in that terrible situation. vought and trump's funding freeze has also enendangered, as i said, victims of domestic violence, survivors will have no place to go. domestic violence shelters truly save lives and any delay or freeze in federal grant funding means those services provided, for example,ly alexandria house or the southern valley alliance in minnesota will have huge impacts and the survivors who coupe on those places to go, sometimes if they're children to be -- with their children to be safe will be much, much, much less safe. i heard from one domestic violence organization in minnesota which gets 70% of their funding from federal

grants. so think about that organization, even a short delay in reimbursements will mean they will have to lay off their counsellors and other folks that work there and stop services. these are not organizations that have millions of dollars in their bank account. they live hand to mouth. they are providing services as they're able to get the funds to do it. and if we allow russell vought and donald trump and elon musk to continue this, it's not just these organization that suffer, it is the individuals that count on them, and i think i know that many folks would find themselves in life-threatening injuries situations as a result. mr. president, i can see from what's happening in minnesota that the freeze is also causing serious strain on our health care system. even if you don't use a community health center yourself, the freeze of their funding could make it harder for you to get access to timely

care. throughout the country there is this incredible network of community health centers that provides primary care to moms and children. . these facilities are providing not only physical health care but mental health care, which we all know is lifesaving and people depend on this network of community health care centers. it might you or somebody who lives in your community. here's why this affects you if you wake up in minnesota or new mexico where my dad is or oregon where senator wyden is from or new jersey where senator booker is from. if people don't have those community health centers will they go? a funding freeze will not freeze injure oi sickness, it only

freezes people who experience those things will go to get help. what can they do instead? right now in minnesota emergency rooms are packed full of people who have the flu, who have rsv. commune health centerings create a place for people to go who need urgent care and if they're not there, what will happen is those individuals will do the only thing they can do which is to flood emergency rooms. so if you -- if you get your primary health insurance through medicaid, for example, remember, colleagues, that is about 45% of all moms who are delivering babies, it is about maybe roughly 40% of all children in this country who get their health insurance through medicaid, if you can't go do one of those community health centers, then you're going to end up in the e.r. and that means in minnesota that's

170,000 people who are losing, who could lose with these funding freezes who could lose their access to health care. and that means 170,000 people who are going to end up in emergency rooms and that is going to affect all of us. that's going to affect the health and safety of all of us, it will put huge stress on hospitals and be, again, another example of how russell vought and donald trump, and elon musk are actually in their actions today making all of us lef safe, less -- less safe, less security. i heard from community health centers preparing to furlough workers by the end of the day as the funding freezes were sifting through the news and getting to them directly. i think it's important to understand, yes, the courts did issue a sort of short-term reprieve or rescission to stop that, but those organization are still trying to decide in real

time, like what they can do and what -- how they can move forward. this morning i was listening on the radio to organization who said they had to furlough people when the freezes came into place even when they were temporarily lifted now they're in the process of trying to figure out how to bring those people back, every minute that time goes by, that is wasted time and energy. i think of my republican colleagues who say they want efficiency and this kind of outrageous, unpredictable, chaotic funding freezes and unfrozen and back and forth is the epitome of inefficiency. who bears the price of this russell vought strategy to do this big power grab away from congress and taking away the -- not falling the laws that congress passed. the organization that are

serving minnesotans and americans are paying the price and ultimately americans are paying the price for that every single day and every minute that goes by in which the threat of resended or health funding is out there, there's real consequences for people. across the country we are facing a real real public health threat when it comes to the avian flu. this is another exam. -- example of how russell vought and donald trump are in real time hurting the health and safety of minnesotans and americans. in minnesota farmers and producers understand the impacts of avian flu better than anyone else. minnesota is the largest turkey producer in our state, we have dairy herds, big processing centers, very important to our economy and billions of dollars of economic activity in

minnesota. right now minnesota farmers and produce remembers are grappling with the avian flu. last year the bird flu jifrpd from -- jumped from poultry to livestock and then livestock to humans. this is something that we have to pay a lot of attention to. this is something that the federal government has to take seriously to prevent a real crisis, an economic crisis and a public health crisis. by the way, colleagues, if you're wondering why the price of eggs have gone up in the last several months or so, this is why. over 100 million birds have been culled from flocks all across the country of avian influenza, and yet what has russell vought, what would russell vought do, what has donald trump done, what is elon musk doing to address this problem?

well, the programs that support my states and your states public health infrastructure, those programs were included in this freeze. on top of that, the communications blackout that also happened in the very early days of the trump administration as part of this russell vought project 2025 agenda, there is a communications blackout from all federal health agencies, which also applies by the way to their communications with congress, so that means none of us -- all of the work that was happening, nonpartisan work, nonpolitical work, all of that work that was happening, the communications about this really concerning public health threat of avian flu, that was all stopped. now what i'm hearing reports rf from my friends and colleagues back home in minnesota is that they're seeing this public health data which is important to feeting the avian flu -- fighting the avian flu, some of

data has been removed from government websites. who knows why, maybe there was a mention of the world inclusion in that -- what was in those public health reports and so they got scrubbed. who knows -- who knows why that is. but that is another example, colleagues of how this sort of strategy of russell vought and project 2025 and donald trump, how it's hurting our health. i can tell you we would all be better off if we had access to that public health data so we could understand what is going on and we're supposed to be doing surveillance on the avian flu so we know where it's going, what other flocks it might be infecting, whether we're seeing additional jumps to humans, what humans are infected, yet ruffle vought's plans are putting all of us at risk. he is making all of us less safe

in this circumstance. i know my colleague from new jersey is going to be ready to speak in just a few minutes and so i want to touch on maybe one or two other examples of what is happening in minnesota as a result of the project 2025 plan, donald trump's plans and why opposing russell vought's nomination is so important. minnesota's in the far north part of the country as many of you know, it can get cold in minnesota. and yesterday it got down to minus 12 degrees in international falls, we are in the dead of winter in minnesota. there is a great effort that we have long had, often had bipartisan support, which helps keep the heat on for low-income families when it gets really cold outside. the idea which is so obvious to me is that if it's in the winter time and you're having trouble

paying your heating bill, you ought to be able to get a bridge working with your utility so the heat doesn't get turned off so that you can stay in your home rather than moving to a shelter so are you -- you are able to stay in your home. the program? ayalde -- stay home. the program is called liheap, it allows people to stay at home when it is cold outside. this program, liheap, was subject to the funding freeze that was put into place like a couple of weeks ago by donald trump, part of russell vought's project 2025 plan. this funding freeze also -- and i'll close with this. this funding freeze also has put minnesotans at risk of going hungry. food is already expensive. i was talking about the price of eggs and the avian food and the

public safety putting out public health information, but what about bringing down the price of groceries, which i think if you voted for donald trump that might have been in your mind as you decided you were going to vote for him. well, in this country today, mr than 47 -- in this country today more than 47 million people experience hunger, they don't always know where their next dinner is going to come from. one in five children live in families where that is their circumstance. the people that we care about the most, seniors, children, folks that are working hard and working in low-income -- have low-wage jobs. they depend on federal nutrition assistance to meet their basic needs. of course, these programs don't just provide food. they're a real lifeline for families as they're working to get ahead, work their way up to

get to where they want to be. a great example of this is meals on wheels which is about making sure that seniors have a warm meal, but it also is about more than that. it is about social connection and dealing with issues of loneliness and isolation which so sadly afflicts so many of our elders in this -- in our country. this is something that works really well. it's been in place for a long time. it's not a red issue or a blu issue, not a rural issue or urban issue. it is something that makes a huge, huge difference. and so what's happening, colleagues, is that in every community in this country has members who need help, have people who need help feeding their families. and russell vought is working to take that help away. so i started out by talking about how people in this country are waking up in the morning and wondering why they should care about who runs the office of

management and budget, this somewhat innocuous sounding agency which oversees federal agency purchase machines and administers the federal budget. and i hope that in these comments, i've laid out just a few of the ways that this nomination of russell vought could have a clear impact on your life, on your safety, on your security because his extreme agenda is an anathema to how we should be running this country, and it is anathema to the basic belief that this country is founded on, the basic structure that we have which is that congress, the elected representatives of the people of this country, make decisions about how we're going to spend your precious tax dollars. and then it is the job of the office of omb to make sure that those intentions are followed through in the federal government. and what russell vought wants to

do is to turn it on its head. he says i don't care what congress said. i don't care what your representatives voted for in congress. i'm going to do it my way. and that is the most blatant power grab counter to your interests that i have ever seen. and this is why, colleagues, it is so important that we oppose the nomination of russell vought. mr. president, i yield the floor. mr. booker: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from new jersey. mr. booker: i am grateful not only that you recognize me but with the respect with which you said the state of jeers -- new jeersy. i know you love my state. many of my residents are moving to florida. thank you very much for recognizing me. i want to say to my incredible colleague tina smith, the incredible stance that she just made, the facts she laid plain, the reality she has exposed. it is so important.

the exercise that's gone on this floor for the last 24 hours has been extraordinary and unusual. and one of the reasons why leader after leader came to the senate floor was to show that this is not usual times. these are not usual times. it is extraordinary to me that all through the night at the 2:00 hour, the 3:00 a.m. hour, the 4:00 a.m. hour, the 5:00 a.m. hour, senator after senator came down here to speak up, to talk about the unusual things that are going on in america and in truth, the things that we believe unequivocally are vie laive of not just of our democratic norms but violative of the separation of powers. now, many of this is taken up in the courts already. you have state attorney generals

suing right now because powers that were given to congress are being taken by the executive. we know in the united states of america that we do not have a king. we are not an authoritarian government. and the debates of our founding fathers were central to this point that we should have three branchs of government, coequal branchs with clearly laid out in article 1, article 2, article 3, clearly laid out rules and responsibilities, obligations under the constitution. now, this whole process, one could say, we're doing one of our article 1 obligations, to advise and consent on the president over his nominations to key pgs, like om -- key positions, like omb but this is so much more than that. this is not just us advising and

giving consent. it is standing up for what was the bipartisan norms of our nation. in fact, it was the democratic norms of our nation from the very beginning, that congress has certain roles and i often say, we're the article 1 branch of government. the article 2 branch of government has their roles. but our role perhaps very importantly is the power of the purse. spending decisions, spending priorities, spending allocations are made in this body. and the people have a say in that through our elections. every two years a third of this body is up. every two years all of the house of representatives are up. and the people elect people to carry out the constitution. we swear an oath.

i've done it a number of times now to protect and defend the constitution. and so why are we doing this unusual thing of talking all through the night about a nominee for something that many americans don't know much about, the office for the management and budget. that is because what has been going on in the first three weeks of the trump administration is a reckless violation of our separation of powers. this body has differences, but there's one thing i know my colleagues and i agree on is that the powers assigned to congress by the constitution are sacrosanct. and we cannot allow a president to step over their powers and

begin to do things that are more akin to dictatorships or authoritarian governments. we have seen that erosion of democracy from europe to africa where executives elected begin to try to take powers away from the other branchs of government. -- branchs of government. agencies within the federal government are set up by congress, funded by congress, given directives and a mission by congress and then congress provides oversight for those agencies and how the executive is conducting those congressional mandates. what we saw over the last week or so was a direct assault on a bipartisan congressional

attempt -- intent. usaid. the united states agency for international development. the president of the united states decided that he didn't want that agency to exist. without any thought, without any strategy, without any understanding of the agency's vital functions, the president of the united states took an agency funded in a bipartisan manner where colleagues of mine -- i serve on the foreign relations committee -- know so much of the work done on both sides of the aisle to support critical -- the critical mission of usaid, they attacked it and tried to dismantle and stop it. sudd suddenly the workers we have around the globe saw everything

freeze. they were told to stop what they were doing. they were denied access to their e. mails, to critical files. many of them were put into vulnerable situations because a lot of our great usaid government officials work in unstable environments. and suddenly their cell phones are not working and they can't access their e-mail. resources that we allocated in a bipartisan way that were being spent for critical missions of the united states were so abruptly frozen that food aid, perishables were left sitting on do docks. medicines were stopped in their tracks, many of them that are perishable as well. you want to talk about government waste? food that can keep people alive, medicines that can keep people

alive were left basically to spoil. and this all ripples. most people don't know this. there are 50,000 private sector jobs here in the united states, people that contract with the government that are connected to this agency usaid, created by congress in a bipartisan fashion year after year, funded in a bipartisan agreement, bicameral. the president of the united states by fiat -- the president of the united states decides we're going to kill this agency, stop it in its tracks. that is a violation of the separation of powers. plain and simple. congress created the agency. if the president wants to get rid of it, he should come to

congress. this president -- presidential action didn't show donald trump's strength. it showed his weakness. because a strong president makes his case to the american people, makes his case to congress, lays out a vehicle, lays out a strategy, comes before congress and proposes the legislation to do what they're saying. but no, not this president. instead of following our constitutional dictates, instead of doing what a strong leader would have done, instead of doing what fdr did when he did sweeping things in the government, he came to congress to fight to pass the laws to support his agenda. lbj, ronald reagan, strong presidents who have a vision for

this country that might be a little revolutionary, that might create great changes, they respect our constitution. and they come to congress with their vision to pass the laws necessary to support that vision. i've watched it over my lifetime. i haven't always agreed with what the hims did -- with what the presidents did. from bush to reagan, didn't agree with all their decisions, but they showed strength. they came to congress and got congress to pass laws, to execute their bold vision. i think a lot of bad decisions were made that way, but it went through congress. congress had a vote on the iraq war. congress had a vote on the authorization to use military force. congress had a vote on welfare

reform. congress voted on bill clinton's vision for public safety to put a hundred thousand police officers on the street. congress voted for the war on drugs. these are things i might not -- have always agreed with but strong presidents come before congress in alignment with the constitution with a respect for the separation of powers, with abiding by the law strong presidents stand in the well of the house of representatives and give a vision for this country. as it says in my faith without vision, the people will perish. god bless the visionary presidents we've had. john f. kennedy pointing to the skies and saying we will go to the moon. and then what did he do? he came to congress with a vision to increase funding for science, math, for stem education. what did he do?

came to congress with a vision for making nasa something that would be the envy of the word. would did he do? -- of the world. what did he do? he inspired a nation with a vision that was so compelling, democrats and republicans joined together and followed it. what does donald trump, who is no reagan, who is no jfk, what does he do? in the dark of night, he sends in unelected individuals to access computer systems in a way that is so violate ative of the violative of the privacy of americans and without congressional approval, without a league basis -- without a legal basis. they go in and upend agency after agency and for usaid they shut it down.

that's not a visionary presidency. that is reckless, undercover vand vandalism, illegal action and the hurting of americans. so why has senator after senator come down here to speak up? why? because to treat this as normal would be to normalize these constitutional violations. and to allow someone like vought, who has been saying over and over again, i don't respect the constitution, i don't respect the courts, i don't respect the rule of law, we are going to take over. if you don't believe me, listen

to what vought says. his own words. he believes that congress should do what it wants to do. we knew that vought published this memo, and basically said i have no regard for the federal law or for congress' power of the purse. in 2018, vought was instrumental in the trump administration's attempt, they weren't successful, attempt to use the impoundment control act to withhold appropriate funds beyond their period of availability. this was a backdoor way to try to go around the law, this idea of impoundment is this theory that a president, despite congress in a bipartisan, bicameral way passing a funding bill, this is the idea that the president of the united states,

despite all of that, can just say, nah, forget congress, forget the will of the people, forget the people's representatives, forget the united states senate. i decide what we spend as a country. so he tried this attempt, but the attempt was determined which by our processes to be illegal. the gao, general accountability office -- government accounting offices, says you can't do that, but vought kept pushing to employ the same strategy the following year, to try to freeze foreign aid, this is 2018, the past is prologue, folks, and in doing so he wanted to do it again, ignoring the 2018 gao legal decision. in a response to a 2020

prehearing question, this is how flagrantly defiant vought is, in a response to a 2020 prehearing question, vought wrote this, i will not abide by the 2018 decision, claiming it was wrongly decided. think about this. he's in the administrative branch, and deciding that a legal decision was wrongly dec decided. so perhaps vought not only wants to do the job of congress, but now he wants to do the job of the article 3 branch of government, the courts as well. what does that sound like? does that sound like a patriot to our democratic traditions? no. does that sound like somebody who's willing to follow the rule of law? no. does that sound like somebody who is, in the spirit of 1776,

the spirit of compromise, the spirit of patriotism, the spirit of adherence to the democratic ideals of the united states of america? no. it sounds like someone that believes that they have the power to act in an authoritarian manner and declare themselves the executive, the legislature, and the courts. it is a deliberate misreading, and the gao, the earlier decision previously signaled that the consequence of an unenacted rescission proposal should be the full, prudent obligation of budget authority. in other words, i am king. in his response to following his nomination hearing, gao's legal

decision, writing in a response to a homeland security committee, he says i do not agree with the gao's report. omb did not violate the ica as i set forth in my january 19, 2020 letter to the chairman of the house committee on budget. in other words, he's still standing strong during his confirmation hearing that he's doing the right thing. he stands by this defiance. he stands by this violation of separation of powers. here's what a former employee who worked at usda wrote about how dangerous this position is, for 30 years across both republican and democratic adminis administrations, decades of constitutional norms, decades of bipartisan commitment, this is what this employee said --

i argue russ vought is the most dangerous person in the trump admini administration, even over trump, given his ideological bent and be belief. he believes that the president does not spend congressional approp appropriations. this, this usda official said, defines a dictator. we can't normalize this. and this is what i know, being here for over a decade now, is if this was being done by the barack obama administration, there would be hair on fire on the other side of the aisle. every member, every republican would look like me as a bald man. they'd have no more hair. if barack obama decided to

ignore the dictates of congress, to say your funding decisions have no hold on my actions, that i'm going to ignore congressional mandate, i'm going to ignore congressional rules, my republican colleagues would be apoplectic. if he decided with foreign policy that, hey, there's this thing called the hyde amendment, i'm going to ignore it. if barack obama did that, not one of them would normalize it or excuse it or look the other way.

it's that complicit that bothers me -- it's that complicity that bothers me. we are at a constitutional crossroads here. we do have someone in power now who is showing weakness, a weakness that other authoritarians and democratic nations have tried to do. i'm not going to work through the system as designed by that nation's founders. i'm not going to work in adherence to the spirit of the constitution. i'm going to do as much as i possibly can to take power for myself, to violate norms, to violate the constitution, to indeed violate the law, then challenge you to stop me. and the question is, who will speak up? silence is complicity. there might be some people sitting, saying this is politics

as usual, oh, this is right-left fighting. oh, this is not really that important. what does this have to do with me? well, let me lay it plain, giving you one example of what's hap happened. stopping usaid's work, without any plan or strategy, has now endangered every american, because there's things we get to go to bed at night and not have to think about because we have a government full of officials, scientists, hardworking people who every day make it their life mission to focus on things so that we, the people, do not have to think about it. think about that for a second. we know it in our own towns and

communities. we have firefighters, we have police officers that stand on the front line, they stand in the breach to protect us, to get dangerous things and conditions and people off the streets so that we're safe, and we don't have to think about it every night. well, that goes for usaid too. they are a national security organization. how do i know that? i'm a spiritualist. i really am. i believe in universal spiritual principles. one of them was spoken by this great american, one of the few people that's not a president of the united states whose statue sits under the dome. he was a spiritualist. he was, in fact, a person of faith, he was a minister, and he

spoke to us about a scientific truth using spiritual language. it was in this great body of work called "the letters from the birmingham jail" and if he only knew his words would resound in history, these spiritual words would speak to a scientific truth. he said this, he said, we are all caught in an inescapable network of muuality -- mut mutuality, that we are tied in a common garment of destiny, that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. powerful words, right? but what do they have to with science, cory? what do they have to do with our present political crisis, our present constitutional crisis?

what do they have to do with that? well, here's what they have to do with that -- you see, the wisdom of this body, as i've worked in a bipartisan way on the foreign relations committee, we fund the usaid to do things to protect us, but we're not doing them at home. usaid officials are around the globe. and one of the reasons why we, in the wisdom of congress that this president is trying to violate, one of the things that we know, because we've got engineers in this place, we've got doctors in this place, we've got dedicated public servants in this place, we've got a few big, bald nerds like me in this place. what we know is that the usaid does work that is vital to keep americans who are sleeping at night safe.

let me be specific -- right now in uganda, there is an ebola outbreak in the capital. ebola is a vicious disease that is highly infectious. i remember this because back under the presidency of barack obama, it was dominating the headlines. i saw one of the most courageous things done that chris coons here flew to africa to support the efforts that the united states of america, through usaid, was doing to stop ebola in its tracks in africa so it didn't visit us here. but because of the global interconnected transportation systems, it was getting closer and closer to threatening american lives. this was a crisis that dominated

the headlines during the obama administration. and who was then there to fight the spread of ebola, to arrest it in that african nation? who was it? us usaid, american people. who is in uganda right now, up until the trump administration stopped their work? who was there? americans working for usaid. in the midst of a nasty, horrific infection, they were like our first responders, they were like our soldiers because they understand that spiritual truth that king spoke in justice anywhere is a threat to everywhere. an infectious disease anywhere is a threat to public health everywhere.

what was the administration's plans to deal with global infectious outbreaks? did they come to congress and put forth a vision in no. what was the administration's strategy to stop the growing threat of global pandemics and global threats? did they share that plan with congress? no. what was this administration going to do? well, they didn't seem to care. there wasn't one hearing about this. there wasn't one conversation. there wasn't a consultation with congress where leaders from the help committee or leaders from the foreign relations committee were invited to the white house to discuss their strategy in making sure that the vital functions of this agency are preserved. they were pursuing a radical

ideological agenda ignoring the truth of science and the power of the spiritual truth that america's interests and national security demand americans, be they soldiers or scientists, sometimes standing away from our country in africa, in asia, in europe protecting us from infectious diseases that are so nightmarish that most americans would be happy to continue to send taxpayer dollars to stop ebola in africa so that someone doesn't get on a plane not knowing they are infected and come to visit our country and begin an outbreak of disastrous proportions. but here's something that usa aid that be working on that's -- that usaid has been working on

that's terrifying to me. it truly is. i've been talking about it for a long time in congress. that we're beginning to see bugs around this planet that are resistant to antibiotics. i talked about this in my work because i think we are these overusers of antibiotics. 50% of our antibiotics are being treated pro-fphylactically, but because of the way we use animals this america now, we have to inject them over and over and over again to try to stop them from getting sick and end up with these horrible things, when farmers have to cull their whole herd of pigs or chickens because of some kind of outbreak. this threat, well, thousands of americans died of them all the time. so here's a particularly nasty disease. it is called tuberculosis. and right now -- i shouldn't say

that because trump has stopped it. but there were some of the best scientists in the world, that happened to be ours, americans, working for usaid on the front lines of treatment-resistant tuberculosis. not just ebola in uganda. usaid workers were trying to figure out what kind of treatments and regimes could be put into place to stop the spread of resistant tuberculosis because of the veer -- virulently violent nature of that awful disease. how irresponsible for a president whose number-one responsibility is to protect americans to take down the

agency, stop the agency workers, cut off their cell phones, cut off their e-mails, cut off their access to files, leave them not even knowing how they would get home on the front lines of an infectious disease that they're trying to stop so it does not show up in america. this is not just a violation of our constitution. this is not just a violation of separation of powers. this is not just a violation of the law. this is a violation of common sense. this is a violation of pragmatism. this is a violation of a sacred oath to protect the american people. and i've heard it, folks -- you did as well -- the promises that were being made to america in the campaign of this president. i will keep you safe. i will drive down your costs.

well, in three weeks in office, we are less safe to infectious diseases than we were under the past two presidents. biden, trump one didn't tear down infectious disease work. obama -- republicans and democrats, i've worked with many of my colleagues across the aisle on making sure we are funding the important global work to fight infectious diseases. heck, i've passed bipartisan legislation to stop wet markets, which is one of the places that these zoonotic diseases can lead to human beings. i saw momentum after covid that we should be working together to stop infectious disease that might start in china, in africa, in europe from coming to america. there seemed to be a bipartisan commitment to that idea in

congress, and it's one of the reasons why in the past presidents we have funded usaid to do this vital work with some of the best scientists on the globe who are willing to put their lives at risk to step into an ebola outbreak, a tuberculosis outbreak, an avian flu outbreak and say i will do what i can to protect my country, like firefighters do and soldiers do, police officers do. they're great americans. but what happened to them? what happened to these great americans risking their life to stop infectious diseases? the president of the united states in an act of cowardice did not come to congress to put a vision for how we would protect our nation from infectious diseases, how we would do the vital work of usaid. no, in the cover of night, violating the constitution and an affront to the wisdom on both sides of the aisle, he just went ahead and did it.

he just went ahead and did it. the world is a complex and dangerous place. as much as government workers are being maligned and attacked and vilified and beat up upon, most americans take for granted what these patriotic americans do every day. you shop at your supermarket and don't think about, does this food have some disease or worm in it because these government workers at usaid are inspecting

that food and are making it safe. a lot of government workers got flashed on the tv with our first major aviation accident in 16 years. well, i get on planes a lot. i've gone and talked to air traffic controllers, i've fought for them and their the -- their contracts because i know that during those 16 years that no accident what happened, you had incredible government workers working very hard, pouring their heart out in one of the most stressful jobs to keep us safe so that when i jump on the plane, i don't think about the air traffic around me. i know that i'm on an aviation system that's safer than me getting in my car because of government workers.

we in a bipartisan way -- and this is what i'm saying; there's so much goodness on both sides of the aisle. we have government workers that are doing suicide prevention work for our veterans. when we are seeing veteran after veteran die day after day after day, there are government workers, some of themmive he'll met, that make it their -- some of them i've met, that make it their vision to be there for veterans who come home with invisible wounds. now, i'm going to make a statement that may sound brag dough schuss or hyperbolic, but it is lyle true. -- but it is actually true. in this body there are former governors, there are former county executives, and there are former mayors. none of them when they were an executive cut government more than i did. i cut the size of newark, new jersey's government by 75%. think about that. cutting a governmental body by a

quarter. did i it. it was painful. it was hard. it was difficult. it was during the great recession and i had no choice. but i had add city council. there were rules and the way i did it. there were civil service protections which which abided by. oh, but not this president. we actually used what people call buyouts. we offered packages to people. but all of this we did in accordance to the laws of our state and my city, in conjunction with our legislative body. we presented a vision for newark, put a plan forward that, hey, these departments may be losing personnel, but we're going to make them more efficient. we had half the inspectors but did twice the i am inspections. because we had a plan that we

coordinated with our legislative branch. i am the first person to tell you that as the number-one government cutter in this place, that there are a lot of ways to cut waste. just the procurement process alone in the department of defense still being done ways that are antiquated, that are being corrupted by people that leave the pentagon, go work for the big contracting agents, a circle that is corrupting, there's ways to bring new technology on that, there's so many ways to improve that system. how do i know this? because the first person to tell me out on his ranch ins a -- ranch in arizona was the former secretary of navy in a late-night session where i just sat there and learn at the foot of some wise men, was john mccain. he went on and on and on the one hand about the corruption -- he went on and on and on about the

corruption in our united states military that is undermining our fighting forces. he said, we could be spending less and have higher capabilities if we only started to root out the wasteful spending and the corruption in that institution. we should be doing this in a bipartisan way. there are so many things that many of us see that don't make sense. and there is a process we could follow to do it. a president that is a strong president would come to washington, would come to congress, would give a bold address like kennedy did when he said we were going to go to the moon, like lbj did when he said we were going to be a great society, like ronald reagan did when he said it was going to be morning in america again, this is my vision, this is my plan,

i'm bringing it to congress and we're going to get it done. but no. this preyed didn't come here to push our government -- this president didn't come here to push our government a higher level, to inspire and engage, be thoughtful about how we were going to be safer, stronger and more prosperous. no. he brought in an unelected billionaire that everybody in this body knows is so conflicted, a guy who has so many government contracts, a guy whose net worth has been deeply affected by this government. he brought him in and him and his agents have gone into systems that to me violate privacy, that have no transparency of what they're doing until we wake up in the middle of the night or wake up

the next day and found out that the people on the front lines fighting against infectious diseases that threaten the united states, they're gone. cut off. we just saw this last week, when donald trump froze funding to ever everything, from veterans to first responders, funding for day care that had everybody in this nation -- i had calls from mayors, republicans, democrats, independents, that couldn't access certain key portals, that had acted in contracting, relying upon a government stream of money that had made plans and hiring decisions that suddenly were cut off in a lurch. now, the powerful thing about that is the outrage across

america took this president, who was violating the law, violating bipartisan spending decisions, violating the separation of powers, the fact that americans from all over this country spoke up and spoke out, it stopped him in his tracks. because that is how you deal with injustice. you don't normalize it. you call it out. and god bless america, this man who thought he was going to bully, steamroll, and cut critical streams of funding all across this country was stopped in his tracks. now, he said, oh, i'm just pulling back temporarily, because i'm going to come back at this, but the sigh of relief. i've met with prosecutors this week. i've met with police officers

this week. i've met with people who voted for him, voted against him, and didn't vote in my state, and all of them said that was an outrageous move, thank god we stopped him. well, how did we stop him? by speaking up. by not normalizing this, not thinking this is just politics as usual. so, that's what this all-night speakout has been about, it's about raising voices. it's about not being silent. it's about the gifts of this demo democracy, the right to protest, the right to petition your government, the freedom of speech. you see, we believe in this democracy that the power of the people is greater than the people in power. we believe in this democracy

that every voice matters. donald trump is creating chaos, confusion. people like vought have said on the record they don't care about constitutional norms, they don't care about legal proceedings and the outcomes, because that's wrongly decided, i've decided that that's not binding on me. they don't believe, like vought doesn't believe, that we make spending decisions, that the president of the united states, despite the bubbling et that was negotiated and passed by two chambers in a bipartisan way, that the president can then decide i don't like this. congress decided a spending priority. i don't care, i'm not spending that money. that's vought. and so, some people say, well,

they have the votes. cory, can't you count? well, i know i am here because i stand on the shoulders of my ancestors, like all of us do. we are all the beneficiaries of the struggles and the sacrifices that came before us. we're all the beneficiaries of moments in american history where democracy was in the balance and the majority of our people chose the right way. we're all here because, in the depression when a general of the united states was calling for a military takeover, people stood up and spoke out. we're all here because during world war ii, when before america joined and there was a nazi rally at madison square garden full to the rafters, that more americans here said we are

going to resist fascist impulses. we're all here because on the left there was a senator named huey long that said, oh, the people should take over the capitol, they're going to storm the capitol, i'm going to be with the people. well, the people weren't listening to that extremist at the time. we're all here because moment after moment in american history, where democracy was at a crossroads, where our constitution was at a crossroads, people of good faith stood up. i remember one of the earliest women senators who stood up against mccarthyism, right here on the floor, criticizing somebody of her own party, she spoke up, profile in courage. i was taught a lot about that cou

courage. in a chapter many people may not remember, there's a little panel to it right there, if you are in the gallery, you walk out, there's a panel to this wonderful moment in american history when we were at a crossroads. it was the election of 1876, between rutherford b. hays a an samuel tilden. it was hotly contested. in that, one person, tilden, won the popular vote. but hayes seemed to have won the electoral college. now, the democrat, tilden, there was a lot of controversy because this was postreconstruction -- excuse me, post the civil war, and the south had lots of african americans participating. this left a bit of a constitutional crisis.

what became the compromise of 1877, hayes was declared the winner, but the compromise that was made is that the republican, hayes, would win and be the president, as he was, in exchange for what the democrats wanted, which was to pull federal troops out of the south that were protecting african amer americans. an outcome of an election, not just upended reconstruction, upended the progress being made, upended something that was incredible, which was i'm the fourth black person ever elected to the united states senate, but during the reconstruction era the first one appointed, there were two. black folks from the end of the civil war until about 1901, when the last african american, congressman white, left this

place, because of the fall of reconstruction. because as soon as federal troops were pulled out, reigns of terror began in the south, all kind of laws were being passed to stop blacks from voting, because in america voting is power. black elected officials were being beaten. black judges were being pulled out into the streets, whipped. the klan rose. lynching in america hundreds and hundreds of african americans were being lynched with regularity, who were standing up for their power. there were massacres going on. to cut down black political power. here we had an election, and the results in terms of our constitutional norms -- the power to vote, the idea that

we secure the rule of law, protect citizens -- all of that was being upended in flames and terror and violence and lynching in the south, that took an early wave of black participation in congress, and the last one, congressman white, 1901, gave a phoenix speech. he knew it would be the last time, and he predicted that blacks would disappear from congress. but one day they would rise like a phoenix. now, interesting in his state, a black person didn't come from north carolina's congressional delegation, not until 1992 was another african american elected from north carolina. his prediction was right, blacks would disappear because of the terror in the south, but because of the power of the civil rights movement blacks and whites and asians and latinos, it was a

rainbow coalition of people who would not be silent amongst tyranny, amongst violence and oppression, american citizens from all backgrounds, all religions, all races bounded together and were not silence -- and were not silent, they spoke up. one of my great heroes in this time, who i have seen her spirit to today, i am seeing her spirit yesterday at a rally, i am seeing her spirit across this country of people who know they can't necessarily stop right now what's going on but are saying i'm going to speak up anyway. this person was named ida b. wells. now, ida b. wells was a journalist in the south, and she was documenting the lynching of african americans, documenting the injustices being done,

documenting how the abuses of political power and electoral power were being used in a fascist way to stop the people from being heard. and the lynchings, the gruesome lynchings which she was documenting and putting out there, her pamphlets were becoming nationally known, so upset people that her offices were attacked, ram shackled, she had to flee for her life, because ida b. wells was not being silent. she was telling the truth. she was letting folks know what was happening. i think about her courage, to know what you are doing and saying against an authoritarian style leadership can endanger your life, and yet you still tell the truth. how you're getting threats that you too will be lynched if you don't stop, but you keep telling the truth, the ugly truth.

you put the stories out there, again and again and again. ida b. wells could not be stopped. there are all these common lies that were being said about the lynchings -- oh, these were african americans who did horrible things, these were african americans guilty of crimes, these were african americans that railed, they have you had have been raped, they should have been killed. ida b. wells would write details stories about the injustices even being upheld in courts of law, but she told the truth that so shocked the consciousness of our country, that she in many ways may have been a journalist, but she was a farmer. every day, relentlessly sowing seeds of truth that would one day reap a harvest of consciousness in our country, where good folks, black folk and

white folks, people from all backgrounds would finally say enough is enough. congress here tried to pass anti-lynching bills, way back around the time ida b. wells was trying to show this horrific crime, and this body failed over 100 times over the course of a century, failed to make lynching a violation of federal law. i'm really proud that i got to lead the legislation in a bipartisan manner to finally correct this injustice, to finally bring full circle some of the work that ida b. wells, this truth teller, was doing. i bring up ida b. wells today because it's my concluding mes message. this defiant refusal in the face of injustice, this strength of

character in the face of powerful people, governors of states, president of the united states and others making decisions on the federal level that reaped utter havoc for millions of americans when you didn't have the numbers, you didn't have the votes, but what you had was the truth, to not let things happen, not just to be a bystander, but to be an upstander. this was what i'da b. wells did -- this was what i'da b. wells did. we study american history with an obligation to let it be not just our past, but we study american history to let it be our calling in the present, so that we can try, as humble as we

are, to live up to those who came before us, that but for them our entire way of being would have collapsed. ida b. wells said this, the way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them. let me repeat, ida b. wells, this documenter of savage injustices, this truth teller about lynchings in america, this sower of seeds of truth that generations later, even in this body we honored her by passing anti-l anti-lynching legislation after a certainry of trying, said the -- a century of trying, said the first thing we must do to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.

for all those people in america right now, whether you're a worker in uganda who can't even access your e-mails but you're an american that wants to stop ebola, whether you're a worker here in the united states, has spent your entire professional life working to protect americans from threats to our food or our air quality, whether you're someone who is just seeing what's going on in america right now and you're af afraid, whether you're someone who is worried that vought will come in and upend educational funding that your disabled child relies upon every day, whether you're an american who is struggling right now and had hope for promises that cost of living might get better but is

seeing indeed whether it's tax on steams of revenue for middle-class families, police in my community or whether it's threats of terrorists with our neighbors that directly affect your small business, it's barely staying afloat, whatever the challenge is, whatever the fear is, what i want to tell you right now is don't normalize a president who is violating the separation of powers. don't normalize a president who is violating civil service laws. don't normalize a president who is ignoring the dictates of congress and establishing agencies the this is the time to summon the spirit of ida b wells and to turn the light of truth upon what is going on because you may be witnessing defeats, but the democracy is not defeated. you may say what's going on is wrong, but that does not stop the power of right. as the great poet said, you may write me down in history with

your bitter, twisted lies. you may trod me in the very dirt but still like dust i rise. this mighty nation stands on the shoulders of truth tellers, of defiant, dedicated patriots of grit and gumption. we the people, no matter if you're a billionaire or a president, if you're a teacher, if you're a cop, if you're a plumber, this nation says that our voices matter. and in the words of that negro spiritual, as we have tried to do here all through the night, i hope everyone in america understands that this is the time for us to lift every voice.

mr. president, i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from colorado is recognized. a senator: mr. president, i would like first to recognize the great senator from new jersey, senator cory booker. it's never easy or fair to speak after him. mr. hickenlooper: but i take the floor today to urge my

colleagues to vote no on president trump's nominee to the office of budget and management, russell vought. some remember mr. vought from when he served as the head of the same agency during trump's -- president trump's first term. he is one of very few repeat appointments, clearly a reflection of his loyalty. you may also know him for his leadership, his authoring of project 2025, that far-right agenda, that the president during the campaign swore up and down that he had no idea about. and i would leave it at that although i think he understood many discussions, perhaps, outlieped the -- outlined the framework. project 2025 would get our long-standing and globally admired framework of checks and

balances, it would gut them. it would ensure civil servants will be hired and fired on the basis of political loyalty, something that this country has struggled for many decades to get rid of. it would truly weaponize our system of justice, again something that almost everyone works towards keeping nonpartisan. it lays out in detail a plan to dramatically change our american system of government perhaps for a very long time. it's really not a question of if anymore. the plan and the people putting in place are disregarding laws and norms dating back to the constitution. they're throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks.

this means firing or pushing out vast swakts of the federal -- swaths of the federal workforce of civil servants. these are career civil servants, many of whom have devoted their li lives to keeping our government running, from processing social security checks and keeping our weather systems afloat or helping to stop waste, fraud, and abuse. some would say our federal workers don't do anything, but they are honest, hardworking americans. project 2025 is just getting started. if confirmed, mr. vought and project 2025 could have devastating consequences for colorado. deep in project 2025 are plans

to heavily restrict access to contraceptives and abortion medication, denying women and families the freedom to make their own reproductive decisions. plans to make health care more expensive by repealing policies that empower medicare, to negotiate prescription drugs and drive down the cost of health care for seniors. plans to make colorado less resilient to these increasingly frequent disastrous -- disasters caused by extreme weather. and they're already reinstating cruel immigration policies and threatening to come after the lgbtq community. at a time when grocery prices are rising on everything from eggs to meet, project 2025 is going to make life harder for colorado farmers and ranchers and more risky.

project 2025 would cut safety nets for our ag producers when they have a bad season. it includes plans to gut essential crop insurance. project 2025 even wants government to get involved in the specific techniques our ranchers use to farm. our colorado farmers know their land better than anyone else. hanging small farmers out to dry does nothing to lower grocery prices for america. we've been hearing in our offices from producers across the state who are very concerned about what this project 2025 means to them. we have over 38,000 farm operations in colorado, some harvest wheat, some raise meat or poultry. some specialize in dairy. all of them support our rural

communities and play an essential role in feeding families really all across the country. we don't have to speculate about what mr. vought would do to the office of management and budget. he's really laid it all out in project 2025. he wrote project 2025 to a large extent himself. one of his finest contributions, a section championing the executive branch's ability to overreach and, quote/unquote, impound funds. let's not mince words. this is by all historic measures blatantly unconstitutional. congress alone has the authority to decide how government spends its money. this isn't an opinion. it says explicitly in article 1, section 9, clause 7 no money

shall be drawn from the treasury but in consequence of appropriations made by law. made by law. designated by congress. again in article 1, section 8, clause 1, the congress shall have the power to lay and collect taxes, duties, excises to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the united states. like everyone, i've got the flu. we got a taste of how mr. vought would attempt to execute something like this last week. in a truly chaotic late night two-pain memo, the trump administration halted all federal grants and loans. we're talking about hundreds of millions of dollars. federal spending for a staggering number of programs,

programs that provide americans health care, food, nutrition, housing, child care, so much else. the memo stem from an executive order calling on federal agencies to review and eliminate spending on woke ideologies or -- quote/unquote -- the new green deal. both things that aren't clearly defined and don't in any specific way exist. in this rush to create chaos and jumble policy, the implementers didn't bother to specify which programs would continue, which programs would end. our office and our staff were immediately flooded with calls. hundreds and then thousands of calls. we heard from folks in every corner of colorado, big cities, small towns, asking what does this mean for them and their

families. there was real fear, real worry and for good reason. the trump administration tried to walk back the original memo to clarify that the freeze wouldn't affect individual payments like social security or food stamp benefits, but that didn't clear up too much. it certainly didn't help that the white house press secretary couldn't answer specific questions like pertaining to specific government practicals like medicaid -- programs like medicaid, whether they were going to be affected. frustrating as it is, and i get how frustrating it is, there are reasons why government moves slowly. all of this if implemented as requested would have had a devastating impact on colorado, a devastating impact.

federal programs and funds make up roughly 25% of our state's effort to build transportation and infrastructure, provide needed services for the most needy in our state. head start, a truly vital service for over 9,000 low-income kids in colorado would be forced to shutter its opera operations. they provide for these low-income kids of all communities with the early childhood education, health, and nutrition that they need. even as we speak, there are reports that head start providers around the nation are not able to access funds. if implemented it would cut off 83,000 low-income colorado families from the low-income home energy assistance program

which helps heat their homes in a cold winter. these are folks that in many cases are unable to pay their heating bills and wouldn't be able to heat their homes without this assistance. our pibl safety -- public safety and law enforcement would be weakened. the pause would strip funding that helps our local agencies prevent terrorism, helps them crack down on drug trafficking and prevent kroims and provide -- crimes and provide services for those who have been victimized by crime. colorado has one of the largest veteran populations in the country, something we're very proud of. but this funding would cut resorrieses for those vets is. it would cut resources for suicide prevention efforts, organizations that provide care for veterans experiencing homelessness, and services for veterans living with disabilities, many of them taken

in the defense of it our nation. hard to be cruel to those who have given their country so much. before entering public service, i was in the restaurant business. at our brewpub, we'd feed seniors throughout the denver metropolitan area. i've seen firsthand the difference this makes, the relief it provides to seniors who need it, many of them don't leave the house, are so grateful to have someone come and they can talk to as they get their meal. but the federal funding freeze left meals on wheels in colorado but all across the country unsure of how and whether they'll be able to continue serving meals. over 25,000 coloradan seniors every day rely on meals on wheels to access food.

why would we leave our seniors hungry and unsure when their next hot lunch is going to come? our office also heard directly from colorado rural health organization about how this federal funding freeze would have life-or-death effects on coloradans in 47 rural counties. when we're in towns like cortez or hugo or julesberg, when we hear all the time about how our rural hospitals, clinics, and community health centers are already strained by workforce shortages, by rising costs, these medical providers are on the front lines of dealing with our nation's mental health and opioid crisis, and we're cutting

their ability to provide these services? these folks in rural colorado and in the suburbs around every city in colorado are watching their friends, family, and neighbors struggle with mental health issues that rose up after the pandemic. this funding freeze wouldn't just strip funding from these programs, it would force our critical rural hospitals to lay off staff or turn away patients at a time when they need it most. we should be fighting to increase access to quality, affordable health care, no matter where people live, not take it away. the federal funding freeze has already been blocked by the court oz several times because it is blatantly illegal. it makes no sense, but make no

mistake, mr. vought and the trump administration will keep poking and prodding our courts and our constitution until they get their way. all of these actions serve a sinister purpose -- to completely transform our government into one that gives enormous, enormous tax cuts, largely directed at those who don't need them appeared in many cases -- and in many cases in colorado don't want them, and puts working-class americans, puts working-class americans out to pass tour. the -- pasture. the federal funding freeze is just one of many chaotic actions that mr. vought and president trump pushing. illegal attempts to dismantle agencies without congressional

approval. there are attempts to access americans' sensitive data. i'm all for cutting government waste. if you want to seriously look at how we spend money and where we can cut actual fraud, waste, and abuse, i'm game. a more efficient government will help us all. but that's not what's happening. i find -- i've worked as hard as i could to find ways to work across the aisle. and that's not going to change. when i was mayor of denver, when i was governor of colorado, we balanced the budget every year, and we worked hard to try and streamline government processes, just like every mayor and every governor in this country. you can't just shove working families under bus. or violate the law to do it. we'll fight these attempts in the courts, on the floor of the senate like now, and everywhere else we can to defend colorado and the constitution.

it's time to use every tool at our disposal to disrupt what mr. vought and his project 2025 are trying to do. we supported these lawsuits. we've imposed executive actions. and we've voted against nominees. but if we need to hold the senate floor like we're doing now, vote all night, disrupt business as usual, we'll do that, too. i will oppose every nominee that poses a genuine threat to coloradans. that's why i'm here on the floor and will vote no on mr. vought today. icle colians sent us -- coloradans sent us to washington to solve problems, not to create war. project 2025, it's a brutal plan to wreak havoc on our nation and really change the way our government operations, the way our -- government operates, the

way our democracy functions. i hope people all over the state emulate that old movie "network" that they can shut out on every corner, i'm not going to stand for it t let's hope they get so loud that they can't be drowned out of mr. president, i yield back the floor. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from nevada.

ms. rosen: mr. president, nevadans sent me to the senate to stand up and fight for hardworking families throughout our state. and that's whacked why i'm here today, to sound the alarm about russell vought's nomination to lead the trump administration's office of management and budget. they oversee virtually every agency in the entire federal budget. mr. vought would be a disaster if he's put in this role again. russell vought is an extremist, will betray working families, will betray your family and there's simply no other way to put it. after all, he was the main architect behind the project project agenda. you might have heard of it. but for those who don't know, project 2025 is russell vought's far-right playbook for seizing full control of the federal

government. i want to repeat that. he wrote the playbook to seize full control over the federal government, our government, your government. it's filled with extreme ideas that would hurt families like yours, ideas like putting essential government programs like medicare, medicaid, social security on the chopping block. and it's going to give handouts to billionaires and big corporations on the backs of america's middle class. and your backs. seeing how much power this administration has already given to unelected, unelected billionaire ceo's, it's not hard to imagine what's coming next. but just don't look at mr. vought's ideas. take a moment to look at his actions. when he oversaw trump's budgets during the first administration, russell vought spearheaded

efforts to, well, he wanted to try do this -- cut medicare by more than $500 billion. cut medicaid by just over $750 billion. cut social security by close to $80 billion. that's your medicare, your medicaid, your social security on the chopping block. think about that. these programs are a lifeline to so many americans, and they can mean the difference to a person's financial well-being or to their financial ruin. and these aren't abstract numbers. these folks, they're our neighbors, they are our family, our friends. that's who we're talking about here. this is not some numbers in the budget. they're people. people we love.

so you have to ask yourself this -- how is this helping you? how is this helping the ones you love? how is this helping any of us? i.t. not. -- it's not. it's not. instead of reforming and bolstering these programs to help real people to help you, mr. vought wants to give more tax breaks to billionaires, the ultra we will -- ultra wealthy while telling hard had working families to figure things out for themselves, families who get up every day and work hard, community members. they want you to figure it out for yourself. under his plans, the richest people in this country would get hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in tax breaks while regular working americans would get next to nothing by

comparison. next to nothing. and that's who russell vought is, and that's what he stands for. disturbingly, mr. vought has maded it abundantly clear he does not care about vialing our federal law or the constitute to see his terrible mission through. russell vought does not care about our constitution or the law. just look at the waves of threats to till legally fire -- to illegally fire career civil servants, manying of whom are ernsts have, by the way. people just want to make a difference in other people's lives. it's all outlined in mr. vought's project 2025, which aims to put as much power as possible in the hands of president trump and his unelected billionaire buddies. russell vought, well, he thinks the rules don't apply to him. in fact, he seems eager to abuse

whatever power he gets. that's dangerous. it's undemocratic. it's un-american. it's not how we govern. this isn't plan for responsible leadership, mr. president. it's a recipe for disaster. one that we're seeing play out in real time. just look at the recent federal funding freeze that trump's administration put in place. it's caused chaos. it's cause confusion all across the country. it's reckless. it's cruel. it's illegal. these actions virtually froze all federal grants and loans and it's jeopardized key programs that many nevadans depend on every single day. key programs for our families, our children, our seniors, our first responders, our veterans, the list goes on and on. all of them have been impacted by donald trump's federal

funding freeze and hundreds of nevadans have called my office to share how it could negatively impact their lives. -- and the lives of those they care about most. the decisions that omb makes can determine whether a child in las vegas can get a hot breakfast at school or if a senior citizen in reno will get meals delivered to their home because they're homebound. this agency can decide on whether our first responders, those who run in when tragedy is happening, our heroic firefighters and police, well that they can get the equipment they need to save lives and keep themselves safe while doing that. omb can decide whether our communities can have access to clean, safe water. and now we're being asked to

vote on handing over the keys to our nation's budget to russell vought, the driving force behind the freeze, a man who has focused almost his entire career on slashing programs that real people, real people, you and everyone that you know, rely on, you and everyone you know and love rely on every single day. i urge my colleagues who are considering a vote for this nomination to think about what working people in this country are going through at this moment. i urge my colleagues to think about the moms and dads who come home from a hard day at work, they have dinner with their family, they put their kids to bed, then instead of relaxing in front of the tv, they sit at the kitchen table and they worry, and they're worried sick about how they're going to pay the bills, how they're going to keep a roof over their head and keep

putting food on the table. they're going back and forth trying to figure out what essentials they can live wi without, just to make ends meet. at the same time, the billionaires that russell vought is looking out, well, they don't understand the struggle, i can bet you that. let's ask those billionaires last time they went grocery shopping and worried about the price of eggs or milk. i bet they don't have an answer for that. that's who mr. vought fights for. these struggles that real families are going through, they're tough choices that far, far too many working families face every single day. these are the people who will be hurt most by russell vought's extreme, extreme agenda. and we know that right now, these same families are feeling the squeeze of rising costs.

it's everywhere -- the grocery store, to the gas pump. and with the added price spikes from president trump's reckless terror threats, it's going to get even harder to afford food, pay off an energy bill, or make rent, let alone, let alone buy a home. so it's no wonder people are so frustrated with the way things are. it shouldn't have to be this way. we should be looking for opportunities to help make their lives better, to make things, well, a little easier. at a time when americans are already paying an arm and a leg for essentials, when they desperately need the support of critical government programs that make such a meaningful difference, why on earth would we confirm someone who will just make their lives harder? why on earth would we do this? so make no mistake, if russell

vought is allowed to head up the omb, he, vought, will work to make sure the ultra wealthy get more while struggling families get even less than they have now. this is who russell vought is, and this is what he will do, what he'll do to you. mr. president, nevadans are hurting, and they are looking to congress for help. if vought is given the power to shape our federal budget, we risk seeing critical programs slashed, leaving our seniors, working people, families facing higher costs, fewer services, and with less financial security. this isn't just an ideological difference. it's a real threat to millions of people's well-being, to the very core of what's most important to them, their families. and the stakes couldn't be

higher. so i urge my colleagues in the senate to reject this reckless nomination for the sake of all of our families. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. ms. hassan: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from new hampshire. ms. hassan: thank you, mr. president. i rise today to join my colleagues in expressing my opposition to the president's nominee for the director of the office of management and budget, mr. russell vought. and to join the millions of americans who have been gravely alarmed by the president's order to cut off already appropriated federal funds for communities all across the country, a move which has been a long-standing priority for mr. vought. i can think of few people more

dangerous and deeply unsuited for the role of director of the office of management and budget, or omb, than mr. vought. it's not simply that mr. vought's proposals will devastate communities across our country, though if enacted they certainly will. it's not simply that mr. vought's values are deeply out of step with the majority of americans, though they are. and it is not simply that mr. vought has demonstrated a complete lack of regard for the notion of government by consent of the governed, though time and again he has done just that. it's because in the president's order to cut off funding for all federal grants, a passion project straight from the pages of mr. vought, the president's reckless and illegal actions have already thrown communities into chaos and they have hurt the american people.

any nomination for a senior post in an administration is, to a degree, an act of faith. we never fully know the manner in which someone will perform their duties until they are in the post. but with mr. vought, the situation's different. not only do we have a clear picture of how mr. vought would approach the job from his last time that he held this post, not only do we have a blueprint from the proposed budget developed by mr. vought at his think tank, we need only to look at the events of the last week to see how mr. vought would handle his office. mr. vought was the architect of president trump's order to cut off federal grants to communities in every corner of the country, including in new hampshire. this order rightly and deeply alarmed constituents across our land, who have appropriately

inun-davided their senators -- inundated their senators with falls, expressing opposition to the president's reckless, thoughtless, and uninformed action. the president, through his order, interrupted cash flow to critical services and left police departments, i'm sure -- police departments unsure if they were being defunded. he left fire departments wondering if they'd get the grants to modernize equipment and hire firefighters. he left rural hospitals in turmoil as they tried to plan for the months ahead. he left the staffs of homeless shelters, who provide care for veterans uncertain if they would have the resources they need to being a port in the storm for america's heroes. and he left addiction treatment centers without any indication of when the next grant might come. grants that are used to keep our kids ant communities -- kids and communities safe from the deadly

dangers of fentanyl. it was chaos, and it remains chaos. while court orders brought a temporary pause to the president's funding cutoff, there is no certainty about what will happen next. in some cases, cash flow is still irregular, leaving everyone from day care providers to landlords wondering whether or not they will be able to continue to operate. and so, the american people wait in the dock, prisoners to the president and mr. vought's political games. mr. vought has had experience managing the office of management and budget. one would think that he would appreciate that any organization with a budget, a police department, a small business, a hospital, needs a reliable idea what funds are available if they're going to make plans for the future. they cannot depend on the whims of a president's tweet or on the last-minute salvation of a court

order. if a small business is going to add a second location or hire staff, it can't do it if it has to worry about critical grant money being impounded. if a fire department wants to modernize its operation, it needs to know if the grant that it is planning to apply for and is supposed to be available in a few months, a grant that's already been approved and signed into law, will exist. if it isn't, the department's new engine is no longer a reality. but perhaps mr. vought does not understand how to maintain a budget because, of course, during his time as directors of the omb he helped blow up the budget deficit and never turned in a surplus, an extravagance most americans cannot afford. and make no mistake, this is not an academic discussion. behind every one of these budget lines are people, people who

will be hurt if the president and mr. vought get their way and cut off federal grants, grants that are indispensable to americans for a wide range of critical activities, and indispensable to our way of life. they are critical to the firefighter who relies on these grants to have the best equipment, while keeping our homes safe from spoke smoke and flame. to the police officer walking the beat who deserves to be supported and not defunded. to the teenager struggling with addiction, who is finally on the road to recovery but may fall back into despair if the addiction treatment center closes because the president and mr. vought decided that political games are more important than serving the people and saving lives. in short, this chaos, this flurry of orders and memos and counterorders and washington double speak, this playing with

the lives of the american people, this is not leadership, and it is no way to govern a country, much less the greatest country on earth. we've seen mr. vought in action. it's already been a chaotic two weeks since the president ordered this self-inflicted catastrophe. we conditions afford our police departments, our fire departments, our veterans, our children, we can't afford a chaotic and lawless four years under mr. vought. now, what is particularly astonishing about the president and mr. vought's reckless order to cut off federal funding is that it betrays how deeply out of touch they are with the american people, how woefully they have misread our country in this moment. our country has partisan divisions, but i have found that often, on a more fundamental level, the majority of americans, not the loud but the

many, want most of the same things. they want covess to come down -- costs to come down. they want their rent and groceries to be more affordable. they want to get the care they need from their doctors without worrying about going into debt. if they have children, they want what all parents want for their kids. they want their kids to be given the chance to follow their dreams. they want to know they will get to and from school safely, each and every day. they want their streets free from the dangers of fentanyl and other drugs. and from their leaders? the american people want leadership and results, and they know a good idea can be red or blue. lower costs, safer streets, and a more hopeful future, that's what most people want. if the president and mr. vought thought it was worthwhile to

listen to the american people, then they'd know this, because in our great country there is no greater -- there is no great clamor from people asking for a president to seize authority, authority that belongs to congress, to cut off funds to fire departments, police departments, hospitals, and addiction centers. the american people want more money in their pockets. they aren't asking the president to seize power to choke off funds to their communities. the american people didn't ask for this. the american people don't want this. the american people do not deserve this. the president's reckless and extreme order makes one wonder who the president and mr. vought believe they're working for. perhaps mr. vought can show me, tell us all where this great majority of americans who want a president to have unilateral power to take away fire department grants, defund police

departments or end special education programs, where that majority is. how is america better off with a fire department under able to -- unable to buy a new engine? how are we better off with more americans struggling with addiction unable to get on the road to recovery? who does it serve when a veteran is forced to sleep on a snowy street because the shelter he used to stay in closed after a funding freeze? and why should the architect of such a plan ever be in a position of authority? let's say for a moment that the president and mr. vought don't get their way, and this funding cutoff is permanently blocked. the fact that one of the administration's first acts was to draft this order shows just how deeply out of step they are with most americans. this order should never have been given and tells us

everything about the president and mr. vought's priorities. how does the president's order to do anything to lower -- how does the president's order do anything to actually lower prices, to make rent cheaper? what family is better off because of the president's attempted power grab? who has been made more prosperous, more safe, or more healthy by this action? the president and mr. vought's order serves no cause but the advance of the president's personal political power. now i continue to stand ready to get to work with anyone, including the president, to work on a bipartisan basis to deliver on the priorities of the american people and bring down costs. but the president and mr. vought's actions to put aside efforts to bring relief to american families and instead seize power to cut off funds to every community in the country demonstrates that they are at

the present time unconcerned with what the american people actually want. mr. vought's lack of regard or respect for what the american people want is unfortunately not a surprise. throughout his time in public service and even in these confirmation proceedings, mr. vought has demonstrated a thinly veiled disdain for the principles of self-government, that served well since we declared our independence. to my republican colleagues who are hopeful the president will restore the funds that were cut off by this order, i would remind you that the grant money was never the president's to cut, freeze, or restore. it doesn't belong to him. or to mr. vought. it belongs to the american people. congress makes laws and appropriates funds, not the president. at stake is not a legal

technicality. at stake is our very notion of self-government, a notion that mr. vought appears to disdain. the right of congress, the first of the three branchs of government provided for in the constitution, to make laws and appropriate funds was made clear first in our constitution and then in the impoundment control act of 1974. administrations from both parties understood and respected this law. but mr. vought does not. mr. vought has said that he disagrees with this law. in his hearings he refused to commit to follow the law and has since become the architect of a brazen attack on this very law. the attack launched by the president's order to cut off all federal grants. the laws of the united states are not meant to be enjoyed a la carte. it's not mr. vought or the president's prerogative to

choose which laws to follow any more it's their prerogative to choose which federal grants to cut off after the grants had already been appropriated by law. but this is simply who mr. vought is. not a trusted guardian of taxpayers' funds but a man who believes that both he and the president do not answer to the people. in the past mr. vought has refused to allow for proper oversight. he's refused to cooperate with inspectors general, the people's watchdogs against corruption. he repeated the lie that the 2020 presidential election was rigged and supported the president's attempt to overturn the will of the people, a will that was reflected in our free and fair elections. at the start of the confirmation process, mr. vought suggested that the president does not even need the advice and consent of this body, and that instead he

could just abuse the power of recess appointments to fill out his cabinet. so mr. vought has placed us in a remarkable position. he's asking us to vote for him in a confirmation process that he does not even believe needs to exist. he's asking for the support of the people's representatives while maintaining that he shouldn't even have to answer to the people in the first place. it's also ironic that we are considering mr. vought's nomination because it was five years ago this week that this body debated president trump's attempt to illegally impound funds that were intended for ukraine. an impoundment attempt that was supported and directed by mr. vought. five years ago mr. vought helped the president cut off legally appropriated funds to america's

allies. five years later, five years later mr. vought has helped the president cut off legally appropriated funds to the american people. five years later it's clear the failure to hold the president and mr. vought to account didn't mark the last time that some people in this body surrendered their principles to appease donald trump. it was not the end of the indignities that this body would be asked to tolerate. it was barely the beginning. it only encouraged more. that is of course the danger of lawlessness. that is the danger of the winding road towards authoritarianism. once one act of lawlessness is tolerated, it becomes easier to tolerate another.

until we arrive to where we are today, we're pointing out illegality from our public officials sometimes seems like little more than an afterthought. it should not be too much to ask. it should not be too much to expect that those who have the privilege to help lead the world's greatest democracy follow the laws of our land and respect the consent of the government. we know what mr. vought has done during the president's term. we know that he was the architect of the president's order to seize the power to cut off federal funds. and we know that if given the chance, the budget that he would help author would be the most extreme put forward by any administration in our lifetimes and would be devastating for our country. through his think tank, mr. vought laid out his priorities in what was a

proposed budget in 2023 for a potential trump administration. now the president has nominated him to manage the office of management and budget. in his budget mr. vought would gut medicaid by over $2 tr trillion. he would undo much of the progress states like new hampshire have made since we expanded medicaid. he would kick families off of medicaid, families who are already feeling the pain of high costs and struggling to make ends meet. more people would become sick because they couldn't afford preventive care and be forced to make impossible choices once they fall ill. these cuts would be especially devastating for families who have children with disabilities, families who rely on medicaid dollars to get the best support for their children so that the children can thrive and have all the opportunities that any parent wants for their kids.

and so the parents can go to work and build a family and a future. it's not clear precisely when for mr. vought a child with a disability getting the support that they need became less important than paying for a tax break for a billionaire. but it's not just medicaid. mr. vought's budget would end tax credits through the affordable care act that have helped millions of americans afford lifesaving care. his bucket would cut back -- budget would cut back pell grants and make it hard forefamilies to afford higher education. -- for families to afford higher education. it would defund much of the fbi, include their invaluable counterterrorism efforts. mr. vought's budget would also eviscerate the department of homeland security's cybersecurity defenses. he's perhaps one of the first

people from either party who in today's age thinks we should be spending less on cybersecurity and not more. make no mistake, american families would be hurt by mr. voukt's budget -- vought's budget. america would be less safe with mr. vought's budget. but few provisions in his budget, his proposed budget, are as outrageous as his cuts to veterans benefits. mr. vought has proposed slashing benefits for veterans by tens of billions of dollars. he's proposed narrowing the number of veterans who are even eligible for certain health benefits. he even proposed banning funding for women's reproductive care for women veterans. these heroes have defended our freedoms abroad but mr. vought would endeavor to deny their freedoms here at home. we will never fully repay the debt that we owe to those who

served. indeed we cannot. but we need to try each and every day. we should be working day in and day out to do more for those who serve, but instead mr. vought is looking for ways to slash care and benefits for veterans and their families. not clear to me what more veterans would need to do, what further sacrifices they would need to make for mr. vought to agree to not take away the benefits and care that they have earned through their courage and valor. let me be clear. there are few things in my mind more deeply un-american than to try to fund the extreme political agenda of a budget by taking money out of the pockets of america's best and bravest. there's been a quality of make believe surrounding the debate

over mr. vought's confirmation. some of mr. vought's defenders have dismissed concerns regarding his proposed budget as alarmists. they assure us that this budget will never be passed. they dismiss our concerns regarding his past statements supporting an expansion of authoritarian power as hype bol lick -- hyperbolic. they insist his words do not indicate how he will actually act in his role. they dismiss our arguments regarding his record while at the helm of omb as rehashing ancient history. and some of my colleagues even dismiss our concerns about the president and mr. vought's order to cut off federal funds as sensationalists and dramatic. they assure us the court stopped the order and that the president will hopefully restore these funds soon enough. and maybe on that last point

they're right. maybe the courts will fully stop the president's order to cut off these funds. maybe the president and mr. vought will be thwarted by the laws that they seek to circumvent. but i submit that the president and his nominees should be judged by what they want to do, not simply by what they are able to get away with. so what kind of america does mr. vought want? what would he do if everything that he has proposed in his first term, in his writings, in his hearings, in his budget and in the president's order to cut off all funds were able to come to pass? russell vought's america is an america where medicaid has ended as we know it, where more people get sick and fewer people get care. we are -- where police departments and fire departments are defunded in the service of political games, where our

efforts to fight addiction and get fentanyl off our streets are gutted, and where more people slip from the road of recovery into spirals of dispair. it's an america where the fbi's counterterrorism program is scrapped and our country is less safe. where cyber criminals from china and russia are given free rein. it's a america where children with autism are left to fend for themselves. where we break faith with veterans and take aware -- away care they earned through an unmanal sacrifice. it's an america where presidents decide which laws to obey and disobey, which funds appropriated by congress to

permit and which to take away. where the people's watchdogs can be fired and the people's representatives ignored. we'd be an america governed not of, by, and for the people but of, by, and for a president. i don't know with certainty what the future holds, what the courts will permit, and what they will block, but i know that in this moment, the question before us is whether or not we should confirm to high office a man who has clear disdain for self-government. self-government, government of, by, and for the people. it's not simply a patriotic turn of phrase. it's what makes america different. being a part of this self-government experiment is why all of us are even here

serving in this body in the first place. my dad, a world war ii veteran, would always remind me that freedom and democracy are history's exception. they're not the rule. in iran or in putin's russia, there's no debate over impoundment. in autocracies, what the autocrat decrees is law. but in america we set out to do something different. we created a system of checks and balances. we declared that power was derived from the consent of the governed. unlike virtually every nation before us, we did not put our trust in kings or oligarchs. no. instead in the words of lincoln, we dared to ask why should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate justice of the

people? is there any better hope in the world? we believed these words once, and most americans believe these words still. and we believe that a even our greatest leaders neated to be checked by the people appeared their elected representatives. to my republican colleagues who support the president and who are considering supporting mr. vought and who dismiss his words and actions about the need to seize greater executive power, i'd remind you that history has shown us that when a leader gains a power, they're inclined to use it and they certainly are not inclined to give it back. the power of the purse is a power that belongs to congress and the people. my colleagues need to decide if they're willing to surrender that power on their watch.

to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, even if you imagine that you may agree with the ways in which the president would use his power to ignore congress and impound federal funds today, you certainly may disagree with the ways this illegal power is abused tomorrow. you may open the door for further abuses down the road. you may find that a future president of a different party or persuasion is inclined to use this power in twas leave you deeply alarmed but unable to stop. that is the danger of surrendering the rule of law to expand executive power. history has shown that the end result is never more freedom, because to borrow a phrase, those who would seek power by riding the bag of a tiger surely end up consumed by it.

i suspect that my republican colleagues will vote to confirm mr. vought, though they shouldn't. i voted for many of the president's nominees, and i believe that the president and our country would be better served by people who encourage his better impulses rather than enable his worst ones and who understand that no leader is above the law. who respect our system of government of, by irgcs and for the -- of, by, and for the people. in the end, to confirm mr. vought is to confirm him in spite of his record, his words, and his promises. so, no, i'm not alarmed by mr. vought because he is not a member of my party. i'm alarmed by mr. vought because, unlike some of my republican colleagues, i respect mr. vought's intelligence enough to take his words seriously. so when mr. vought shows his disdain for self-government, i'll take him at his word, and

so should this body. in the end, mr. vought, while seeking office in our government, is wrong about a fairly fundamental thing, he is wrong about democracy in america. the people's representatives are not a nuisance to be circumvented. the people's laws are not an obstacle to be surmounted. and the people's funds are not at political weapon to be seized, nor are the people's wills, wants, and, yes, votes, to be discarded or ignored. no, in this country, in this great democracy of ours, the will of the people represents nothing less than a hope without better or equal in this world. mr. president, i can keep speaking about the damage that

russell vought would do as leader of the office of the management and budget. i will also appeal to my colleagues here to let me know if any more of them intend to speak. mr. vought's nomination is lead the office of management and budget is one we should all reject, not because we disagree with his policies but because he fundamentally disagrees with our form of government. he fundamentally disrespects this body, the body created along with the house of representatives by article 1 of the united states constitution. he fundamentally believes that his judgment is better than the people's.

and i would also add that mr. vought's beliefs are some of the most extreme that i have heard expressed or watched implemented in my lifetime. and with that, mr. president, i yield the floor. mr. president, i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll.

quorum call: the clerk: ms. alsobrooks.

consumer market in the world for growth producers to get access to that market we must engage equal footing. how will you ensure china owners commitment in 2019 to complete the phase one? on the playing field. president. the presiding officer: the senator from delaware. mr. coons: are we in a quorum

call? the presiding officer: we are. mr. coons: i ask that the proceedings under the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. coons: i rise to speak against russell vought who's been nominateded to run the most powerful federal organizations you've never heard of, the office of management and budget, or omb. russell vought has as much business running omb as i do being a hair model for pantene. russell vought has as much business being near the federal government again and running the central plays that make the federal government work as i have standing behind center for the eagles this sunday running plays in the super bowl. vought had this position before, and it was a disaster. president trump is supposed to be hiring on merit. have the very best people, the world's best people working for him. why is he bringing back this complete failure for such a critical position? last time he was omb director,

he rolled back critical regulations that keep americans safe. he illegally withheld funds already appropriated by congress. sound familiar? as bad as he was in the first term, he's already off to a much worse start in the second term, as the shadow director before he's even confirmed. his fingerprints have been all over the last two weeks of chaos and dysfunction. he was the principal architect of project 2025, deep, thorough, detailed proposal for what it was that heritage foundation and heritage action wanted to do if trump were elected. a policy blueprint so extreme that on the campaign trail president trump pretended he'd never heard of it. who's that, new phone? who dis? who wrote it or what it would do. russell vought has demonized the

folks who help run our federal government, the people who keep the v.a. running, the folks who deliver social security checks, the men and women, many of whom live in delaware, who help keep us safe through air traffic control systems, who predict our weather through noaa, who help federal funds flow to school districts and day care and senior centers. i know many think of us as federal bureaucrats who don't do much for them, but if you get into the details of their actual public service, the reach, scope, and impact of what they do is remarkable. as we've learned in delaware, just last week, when they tried to shut it all down. but more on that in a moment. russell vought has demonized these civil servants, called them villains who need to be in trauma, and he wants to radically augment presidential authority. we are in the middle of a huge

power grab by president trump and his administration. he doesn't know or care whether or not the constitutional appropriations powers of congress ought to be upheld. not to get all schoolhouse rock on you for a moment, but the core power of this body of congress is the power of the purse, to decide how to spend the money that we collect from the american people, to invest in your safety and security. if you vote for russell vought to run omb and you happen to be an appropriator, as i am, or one of the members of this body who vote for appropriations every year, you are consigning yourself to irrelevance. you're voting to no longer be relevant, to the future of our country, our place in the world and how the money we sign off on gets spent. he's got a lot of bad ideas. i could spend a lot of time on the bad ideas of russell vought.

russell vought's been nominated to run omb, but i wouldn't trust him to run a wawa. his ideas include redirecting all disaster assistance to the states. well, the point of having fema, which is the federal emergency management agency, is when a state gets overwhelmed by a hurricane, a wildfire, tornado, when a natural disaster is so massive that it overcomes a state's ability to manage the disaster response, we elevate to a federal disaster response. that's the point. but he thinks we ought to push all that back down to the states. guess what states aren't going to get taken care of. one of his core ideas in project 2025 was to take a chainsaw to the deep state by freezing federal assistance, by impounding federal spending and destroying congress' power of the purse. he is the architect of the

executive orders issued by president trump in his frenetic first days that produced a federal spending freeze and the results folks have been catastrophic. widespread chaos, uncertainty for the nonprofits that provide so much support, whether it's counteracting fentanyl misuse, supporting head start, day cares, child cares, monitoring the weather to make sure folks know when a tornado is coming or when there's a wildfire or hurricane, supporting state and local law enforcement and our volunteer fire companies. these are all grantees. to be clear, when president trump signed an executive order freezing all federal grants for the domestic united states, these are all examples of the dozens and dozens of organizations that called me, called my office, called my governor, and said, what does this mean for us?

organizations were locked out of the federal funding portals where they go to get their federal funding. the medicaid system went down. a fifth of all people in my state are on medicaid. and it provides critical public health support for the opioid pandemic. if president trump's promise was to bring prices down and keep americans safe, he's failed on both counts, and what he did with this nationwide federal freezing ban, dreamed up by russell vought, failed to keep us safe. when fema grants went down, when they froze the grants to state and local law enforcement, russell vought and president trump were literally defunding the police. let's take a second and look at that again. lots of my colleagues -- i was here on the floor -- lots of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle gave speech after speech about how terrible it

would be to ever put at risk law enforcement, federal, state, local, by defunding the police. president trump did two things in his first week that made clear they don't mean this at all. one was pardoning hundreds of individuals who stormed into this chamber and assaulted capitol police officers. pardoning people who assaulted police officers. the second was freezing all domestic federal grants, with no exception for state and local law enforcement. i'm the cochair of the law enforcement caucus. i was responsible for the second la largest police department in delaware. i know what it means to have federal grants come through what's called the burn jag grant program. i know what it means to have federal grants for bullet-proof vests. i know what it means to have federal grants come through the cops hiring program. for state and local law enforcement, this was a moment of hang on a minute, what?

when those grants were frozen. there's other ways that federal grants help our country be safe. promotes research that keeps us healthier. we just survived a pandemic made worse by president trump's mishandling it, but let's not relitigate that now. research hospitals in my state got notification from nih and cdc that their research projects were frozen and are now under review. the national institute of health, the centers for disease control, they distribute billions of dollars in grants, there are teams of folks doing research on the ground, in hospitals, in academia, in medical practices. all of them got notices these were being frozen. domestic violence shelters, part of my role in my decade in county government was helping

advocate for law enforcement and our paramedics and community-based nonprofits that respond to incidents of domestic violence, to be as supportive as possible, to make sure victims were not retraumatized by a second, third, fourth interview, to protect the security and sanctity of the shelters they went to, and to protect in particular children who'd been abused. the idea that in order to slash government spending by wasteful federal bureaucrats notice would go out to all the nonprofit shelters and organizations in my state and around the country that keep people safe from domestic violence? how is this a good idea? this was russell vought's idea. i wouldn't trust russell vought to run a 5-k, let alone to run the federal government, let alone to run the process by which we distribute funds to the

things that keep us safe and healthy and prosperous, whether it's hospitals, domestic violence shelters, day cares, senior centers. the things that were impacted by the abrupt taking of a chainsaw to our federal system defies description. but russell vought didn't stop with freezing federal funds. bluntly, the disorder, the chaos, the alarm is part of the goal. empowering doge, the department of government efficiency, which is neither a department nor advancing government efficiency, that's affiliated with elon musk, has been advanced aggressively in these first two weeks by giving them access to reams of data at the center for medicare and medicaid, at usaid, the foreign aid agency, at the national institutes for health,

at the department of education. bluntly, mr. president, the most alarming thing that's happened is access to the entire treasury payment system. this is part of russell vought's project 2025, to make sure that this unelected, unauthorized doge team got into the most important critical repository of people's personal information -- their tax records -- and to be able to control which disbursements of federal funds will happen and which will not. before he's even been voted on in this chamber, russell vought as omb director, as shadow director, as author of project 2025, has been facilitating some of the most alarming violations of americans' privacy in our lifetimes, and this must be stopped. for all my colleagues on the

right who scream bloody murder about censorship in recent years but are silent when unelected doge bureaucrats can turn off your social security and medicare payments if they think you're not supportive enough, can peer into and malignly share details about payments you received or didn't receive, now have the access and control to go back and change the master record of your tax filings? this should be alarming to anyone who cares about privacy, security, individual liberties. they are now threatening to destroy the u.s. department of education and the department of labor, disfavored federal service agencies, after taking a sledgehammer to our foreign aid system by shutting down usaid. the stuff they're doing, before russell vought is even confirmed, is breathtaking, and

the consequences are real. yes, to the government workforce, but to people in my home state. so mr. president, let me take a moment and just share a few examples from delaware of how this chaos, how this tearing through our system with a chainsaw has impacted the people i represent. one delawarean alarmed called into my office and said i am a department of defense employee that received the office of personnel management notice that resign is an option i should take as part of the ongoing purge of career civil servants by president trump. we are left, he said, with the worst possible decision to make, with emotion as the only driver, since the list of exempt positions, those exempt from this drive to force folks out of service, isn't being shared. so i have to come to work in the u.s. department of defense every

day, wondering if it's my last day, if i'll be asked to resign, and later told we can't, or to resign proactively and find out later whether the position is cut and i won't receive my severance benefits. as a retired veteran, someone who served our nation for 21 years in the military, and now five years in the civil service, i can honestly say, he wrote, i am ashamed of my government. this mistreatment of a veteran, of a civilian employee of the department of defense, trying to force them out with a scare tactic identical to what was done at twitter is beneath us. i've been on this floor in my 14 years as a senator where i've heard passionate statements about the urgency of supporting our veterans and those who support our veterans, in the department of defense, the v.a.,

and yet i hear nothing from my colleagues on the other side. no alarm or concern. from my constituents, yes. from my colleagues, no. here's another message i got this week from a delawarean in my office, and i quote, i'm a federal employee and i'm very disturbed by the continuous string of e-mails we're receiving about this cryptic deferred resignation program. i feel the information we're receiving is a flat out lie, and i don't understand how the government can pay employees for nine months and receive the full pay and benefits if they agree to resign. i feel this e-mail is a lie, and i don't understand how congress is continuing to allow these e-m e-mails, pushing us out, to be sent to us, end quote. these are just two of hundreds

of examples. the phones in my office, in wilmington, dover, and here in office, have been ringing off the hook. the number of calls to my colleagues have nearly broken the voicemail system here in congress. folks are alarmed and upset, either because they've gotten these e-mails that they have to choose today, literally this is the day, whether or not to resign. they're unclear whether it's actually funded -- it's not. they're unclear whether this was approved by congress -- it wasn't. they're unclear if they fail to accept this resign now offer they will instead be fired and lose some part of their pensions. these are folks who served us, as the individual whose story i just read, for decades, and yet where is the concern for my -- from my colleagues, for our veterans and those who maintain our department of defense, our veterans administration, our intelligence agencies, and the rest of the important federal

service that's provided to our constituents and our states? let me talk for a few minutes about the brutal impact on our global foreign aid system of mr. russell vought's project 2025. i'm here on the floor as part of an effort by my colleagues to stand up and speak out against what his plan is doing, at home and abroad, and i want to take a moment and talk about usaid. an agency founded by president kennedy that does good work around the world on our behalf, work that keeps us safe, keeps us strong, and protects the american people. the cuts to amendment of id. agency like the department of education, into that predicts the western, the food and drug administration, the department

of agriculture, the veterans administration, the foreign aid administration, usaid is just the rehearsal. the main act is coming very soon. in fact, likely this week or next. president trump promised to keep america safe, and foreign aid is a key part of keeping us safe. it's less than 1% of the total federal budget. and in my role on the foreign relations committee, i've traveled with members of both parties to places around the world where i have seen how our trusted partners like catholic relief services, partners like save the children, partners like world vision implement programs that fight disease, that counter human trafficking, that push back on extremism, that stabilize countries devastated by war, and all build relationships with other countries and communities to

frankly push back on chinese and russian influence, to push back on extremism and jihadism, and to make the world safer for america and americans. this is not just soft power, it's smart power. and for years it has enjoyed bipartisan support. usaid, programs authored by republican presidents like pepfar and the president's malaria initiative that i visited with my colleagues on both saids of the aisle -- both sides of the aisle show real results for the american people. right now there is an outbreak of ebola in uganda. right now there is an outbreak of marburg in tanzania. these are diseases that shred your internal systems and cause you to bleed out of every orifice. marburg has a 90% fatality rate. there's no approved vaccine. so much smarter for us to invest

in local staff in these countries in east africa, tracking, tracing, preventing the spread of these diseases than shutting it all down and hoping and waiting that it doesn't spread. when the ebola pandemic occurred in west africa in 2017, 2016, i traveled there and saw what usaid partners, partners like samaritans purse, partners like catholic relief services, partners like doctors without borders, what they were doing on the ground, bravely, to push back on this incredible, horrible pandemic. when we cut foreign aid, we cut off our nose despite our face. we impose costs and loss with the suddenness, the sharpness of these freezes and we will not have anything left. some of my republican colleagues have said, we're just trying to

trim out the woke programs. we're just trying to shrink it a little bit, reform it a little bit and most of it will survive. that i expected. that i could work it. but here's how this is supposed to work, folks. next budget year, which is beginning now, we have hearings. we do oversight. we look at these programs and we figure out how to trim them and make them more efficient so they match the policy abives of the -- objectives of the current president. but that's not what's happening. what's happening is that russell vought, the nominee to be omb director, carrying out project 2025 which trump claimed he knew nothing about on the campaign trail, shut it down cold, issued an executive order completely cutting off funding. now, there have been some attempts at humanitarian waivers. secretary rubio has promised his

colleagues there will be waivers for things like pepfar. but they're not yet working. and so when hundreds of programs around the world get what are called stop work orders, which means put the tools down, abandon the food supplies on the dock, walk away from the hospital, stop pulling up mines out of the ground in angola, a place riven by conflict, where we fund through the halo trust demining. stop training children how to avoid the predation of gangs and human traffickers in mexico, stop trying to reduce civil conflict in the philippines by engaging with civil society, just walk away from all of this it a stop work order has caused our usaid workforce and their nonprofit partners around the world to put the tools down, and

just yesterday an order went out to bring back to the united states the entire workforce around the world of usaid. don't they have homes? don't they have families? don't they have spouses? they do t -- they do. so what this will effectively mean is it will force some of the most capable and skilled people, who understand how to deliver humanitarian relief at skashlgs to choose to -- in scale, to choose to resign, to give up a career an life they've enj enjoyed making a real dinks or to resign, quit their job and move back to the united states. guess what that is? chaos. that's taking a chainsaw to federal aid, not a scalpel. that's not reforming. that's not getting rid of the woke. that's not aligning with american values and priorities. that's harming one of the most

effe effective, valued, long bipartisan agencies we've had. the damage is being done today. and while we talk and debate and deliberate, thousands of people's lives are being changed and millions are being cut off from lifesaving assistance, from critical development support, from interventions that help make us safe. who wins? who's cheering? i'm here on the floor today joining my colleagues in speaking out against the nomination of russell vought to run the omb because his project 2025 and his plans for what to do with the federal government have one clear winner -- our adversaries and our opponents. the complete shutdown of u.s. foreign aid has china and russia cheering. russian state media is already celebrating that we are ceding

the field, that we're putting down our tools, that we're abandoning our partners. china has already come to nepal, a country in the himalayas where the united states had long been working with communities to stabilize them after their civil war. china is saying, oh, the americans abandoned you, how sad. we'll come in and help you. china has invested massively in expanding their diplomats and their development, their soft power, and they've one friends and influence around the world. they're getting access to ports, to critical minerals to resources that we need. and secretary rubio, hwho serve as a senator here with me for 15 years, no one has been more focused to standing up to the threat of china than senator rubio. i don't comprehend how he can

look at what is happening around the world and say this isn't creating a huge opening for china. so when my friends across the aisle say that this is all about efficiency, about trimming, about reorganization, don't be fooled. don't believe them e don't think that this is about a nip here and a tuck there. this is a chainsaw, and they are starting with foreign aid, and they are advancing to the department of education, and then they're moving to the veterans administration, and then they're taking on programs that millions and millions of americans rely on day in and day out. last week was a rehearsal. the executive order that froze all domestic grants, caused a huge pushback in the united states, and brought a federal court action -- an injunction.

that's a the reason, folks, if you're watching, that you haven't seen day care shut down, that you haven't seen police and fire departments complaining, that you haven't seen veterans homes shuttered, that you haven't seen an immediate impact here in the united states. only because a federal court in rhode island, at the insistence of my attorney general and the attorneys general from new york and two dozen other states, they filed in a federal court and said, this is illegal. and judge mcconnell looked at it and said, you're right and issued an injunction. that's the only reason this hasn't moved forward. but it has moved forward overseas. our foreign aid to be slashed to the bone, shut down cold, folks shut out. and the the security systems infill tax rated. what they've -- and the security systems infiltrated. what they've done is o movement b is a dress rehearsal and it was all designed by russell

vought. omb is the most powerful federal agency you've never heard of and russell vought, seemingly pleasant man, more interested in academia made sure in project 2025 that that was his goal, has made clear through his actions through president trump and his executive orders what he intends to do. it is nothing short of a stunning restructuring of the united states, of the role of the federal government and the lives of americans. and when folks wake up, when folks wake up to the scope and the reach of it, they will be enraged. the number of calls i got in my offices in dover and in women minuteton, delaware, and here in -- in wilmington, delaware, and here in washington -- that

elon musk and his band of merry men had gotten into the files, the amount of alarm about that was appropriate. wait until they start using it to cut those payments off. when elon musk says he intends to cut $2 trillion out of federal spending, he wasn't kidding. but, folks, there is a he no way to do that without impacting veterans benefits, medicare and medicaid, social security, education, environmental work, health care. the federal government only has $1.7 trillion a year in discretionary spending. so you can't cut $2 trillion without cuttings deep into our department of defense, cutting deep into our treasured and valued programs like medicare, medicaid, and social security. you should be asked, what are they coming after? and why are they doing it in such a forceful, determined rush? there's rules here.

there's processes here. there's ways we're supposed to do things. and this is not following those rules. or those procedures. that's why a federal court stepped in and offered an injunction to try and slow some of this headlong rush towards restructuring the entire federal government. but, folks, the hour is late and the moment is pressing. we democrats have held this floor all night to speak out about why this is important, to help engage and educate and inform the american public, those who are not yet alarmed, about what's been happening and what's going to happen. one of my colleagues said, wow, it's almost like they had a plan. they did. project 2025, massive, clear, was developed and written over several years as president trump planned his return, and its

goals are remarkable, transformational, aggressive, frankly shocking, not to reasonably reform things in the federal government that are misspent, not to look under the hood and continuinger in a few days with the engine of the federal government and say that's a little off. this needs a little tuning. but to rip off whole sections that been designed to keep us safe, to keep us strong,er to keep us healthy. this isn't a scalpel approach to trimming the federal government. this is a chainsaw approach. and one of the heroes of the new trump administration is the president of argentina. i bet you've never heard of the president of argentina. he's got an interesting approach to governing.

his symbol is a chainsaw and he campaigned saying if you elect me president, i will take this chainsaw to the argentine federal government, and he hachlts -- and he has. he was here in the rotunda cheering on president trump during his inauguration. why did this foreign head of state from south america come here and why was he welcomed and celebrated? because his approach to not trimming, not reforming, not improving, but slashing the government of argentina is exactly the approach that russell vought, if confirmed in this body to lead omb, will take. you're going to wake up and discover that by handing the keys to doge of the system that controls all of our personally identifying information and all of our federal payments that we've handed the keys to the architect of a program to take a chainsaw, organizations, institutions, to a workforce and

to programs, that the american people need, that keep us safe, that keep us healthy, and that keep us strong, and, fo test. ing putting russell vought in charge of omb is like giving a toddler a crayon and whitewall and say let's see what you make of it. you know what's going to happen. it's going to be a crazy mess, and he's already started. before this place has even confirmed him, russell vought running omb is a terrible idea, and he will run this country into the ground. we should vote to oppose russell vought, to oppose project 2025, to push back on this chaotic and crazy attempt to take a chain saw to the american people and to the american government. thank you.

mr. coons: mr. president, i have just been updated on the latest plans for the future of the usaid, and i have to say i am heartbroken. founded by president kennedy decades ago, this dedicated

cadre of u.s. citizens live and serve around the world. thousands and thousands of them have spent their lives working with american nonprofits and with local partners, combatting disease, pushing back on jihadism and extremism, protecting creation and vulnerable spaces around the world, combatting human trafficking, removing mines from fields where they were placed in wars decades before, making us safe. next week there will be no more than 600 staff left. of a once proud and global agency that employed more than 10,000 and that partnered with household names american-led nonprofits that have done amazing work. i have seen that work around the world. i have visited places where

american volunteers or nonprofits or career staff design and implement incredible programs in partnership with local communities. i'll mention just a few. kiberra in nairobi is an incredible place, an informal settlement, a slum of thousands and thousands of people living in shacks in a valley. the phrase god forsaken is one i've never liked because there is no place that is god forsaken. in fact, in keberra at st. mary's clinic, in my first visit as a senate, i got to see the care, the support, the nurturing of sick children for those with no access to health care, the delivery of vaccines and medicines, of safe water, much a response to urgent need done in a clinic motivated by faith,

informed by our concern for others and that make our nation more safe. i'll never forget being in kampala, the capital of uganda, run by evangelicals who moved there and devoted their lives to providing skills training, counseling, thousands and thousands of refugees were pouring into uganda from the civil war in south sudan to the north. on an easter weekend trip with my friend and republican colleague bob corker, we got to see firsthand the services that were being delivered in the very north of uganda to recent refugees profoundly traumatized, most of whom had family members murdered in front of them and who had walked hundreds or even thousands of miles, a quarter million people had flowed over the northern border of uganda and were resettling in the b

beattie beattie refugee camp. to see the hands of volunteers was to be touched by the remarkable humanitarian work of americans. and our partners, ugandans, ken kenans. i mentioned there is an outbreak of ebola in uganda and in tanzania there is another outbreak, horrific virus infections that can tear through a village or community. but the danger of having an out break in a capital city of millions of people to the entire world cannot be overstated. in this moment that we have had, our nation put down the tools

and say go home. give up your work. stop protecting our public health. stop protecting refugees. stop pushing back on human trafficking. stop pushing back on gender-based violence is shameful, is immoral, is embarrassing, is unsafe. our nation is safe today from so many threats overseas. yes, because of our department of defense. yes, because of our intelligence professionals, yes, because of our diplomats. but to take away completely, to shut down cold our global network of development professionals, to abandon the field to china, to russia, to the extremists and the human traffickers who are delighted that we are receded, that we have worked away from this vital work, it hurts my heart.

it is hard to believe that here in this senate there are so few voices raised in opposition to this sudden cataclysmic chain saw approach to slashing the investments we've made together over decades. president bush came up with the idea for pepfar. you may not know what pepfar is. it's a program that the united states initiated to fight the dread pandemic of hiv-aids which across the continent of africa would have killed more than 20 million people. since it was launched under president bush's administration. but medical clinics, treatment for nurses, outreach to communities, antiretroviral drugs, pharmaceuticals delivered by the american people in partnership with a dozen other countries and in partnership with the public health services of the countries that pepfar works in, all of this in combination has saved more lives

than any intervention by any country in human history. it is a proud part of president bush's legacy. it's a proud part of the legacy of republican and democratic senators. it's a proud part of what i would have hoped the trump administration would continue. fighting malaria, fighting polio. we eradicated small pox from the planet through the great work of usaid. i still remember visiting a place, an island off tanzania called zanzibar where we eradicated malaria. we have done great work. and one of our nations most successful business people and one of the world's leading

philanthropists bill gates fighting these same pursuits in fighting tropical diseases, pushing back on polio, malaria and tuberculosis, he said this week the work of aid is critical, is valuable, the things he invested in he knew were good and appropriate for him to invest in because he consulted so closely with the experts at usaid. i have known each of the last four usaid administrators who work across the aisle, good people. when we gather in this building at a weekly prayer breakfast that is bipartisan and that only includes senators and our chaplain, we pray for the blessings of the american people and our opportunity to do good and make a difference in the world.

for us to abandon so abruptly and completely our opportunity to make our nation and our people safer and stronger, to push back on the maligned forced of extremism of china, of russia, of others who will take opportunity of this moment and to abandon our work that for so long has made such a difference to millions is a shameful chapter in this institution's history and our nation's history. we should not walk away from all the good we've done, from all the knowledge we've built, from all the ways we have advanced and defended the american people's interest through this work, and we should not put down these tools. p so, mr. president, i've come to the floor today to join my colleagues in speaking against l

russell vought to be the next director of omb. and as i've laid out in calls and letters and e-mails from delawareans, i've heard about the terrible impact on veterans, on career civil servants, nonprofits across my state and country. the instability, the chaos of these first two weeks of the trump administration. and i'm speaking against russell vought because i know his plan. it's called project 2025. he wrote it out in detail, and it makes clear that the chaos is the point. that he intends to take a chain saw to the american civil service and federal government, and the losers will be our communities and our families, police and fire departments, day cares, senior centers, nursing homes, universities and colleges, research institutions. our strength and our security. sure, folks, when they hear cut

the federal workforce or cut federal spending, they cheer. they say, yes, cut the spending, until you get to the specifics of what's going to be cut. my phones have been ringing off the hook with alarm and concern as delawareans realize that this nationwide federal spending freeze that president trump signed in an executive order was going to impact things that affect them. the v.a., the local volunteer fire company, a senior center, a day care. the federal government funds through grants an unbelievable array of powerful, meaningful, purposeful work in our home states. in the county where i served for a decade, in the town where i grew up, in the city where my family and i live today, we would not be as strong, as safe, as united, as productive and as prosperous a nation without the good work of these organizations that are so callously now being

cut not with a scalpel, not trimmed, not reformed, but slashed, cut to the bone, virtually destroyed. as i've laid out our entire foreign aid system, the network of usaid and other organizations, the millennium challenge corporation, development finance corporation that have been built up in a bipartisan way over years to be our tools in the world, to push back on our adversaries, to build up our alliances, to strengthen the families and communities around the world that look to us for partnership. abandoning that, shutting that down, attacking that, that was the first step. next they're coming for the department of education. after that, the department of labor. folks, whether in these first two or three or little bit further, they're coming for something that impacts you, your family, your community, your country. the messages i read from home

from a veteran who served 21 years, a civil servant in the department of defense who served 5, who is alarmed, who is is embarrassed, who is offended by the communications he's getting trying to push him out of federal service. the messages i've gotten from leaders of our universities, of our hospitals, of our day cares, of our community nonprofits have elevated my sense of concern to alarm that russell vought,the n director of office of management and budget, has a plan, that that will face no meaningful opposition from the other party, that he will be confirmed and he will do lasting damage. the presiding officer: the senator will suspend. pursuant to rule 4, paragraph 2, the hour of 12 noon having arrived, the senate having been in continuous session since yesterday, the senate will suspend for a prayer from the senate chaplain. thank you, senator coons.