[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 18 (Tuesday, January 28, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S442-S443]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         TRUMP EXECUTIVE ORDERS

  Mr. HEINRICH. Mr. President, our economy, our hospitals, your 
mother's nursing home, your son's school lunch, your niece's 
afterschool program, our police, fire departments, our newborns, our 
elders, our veterans, pretty much everyone in my home State of New 
Mexico--President Trump threw them all into chaos with an 
unconstitutional and patently illegal power grab.
  In an overnight maneuver that would make a dictator envious, 
President Trump unlawfully and unilaterally froze all Federal grant 
funding. He shut down the housing portal that nonprofits and Tribes in 
my home State use to access mortgage financing.
  He literally shut down the Medicaid reimbursement portals across the 
country. Although after a day of raising hell over it, I think that 
Medicaid--at least the Medicaid portal in my State--may well be up and 
running again, at least for now.
  And for context, almost a quarter of my State's budget actually moves 
through that portal--about $8 billion in Medicaid funding every single 
year in one small State alone.
  He threw every town and county, Tribe, nonprofit, healthcare 
provider, school, and preschool into total disarray. And from our 
State's Roundhouse to the classroom, to the emergency room, today was 
chaos. People want answers. My phone has literally been ringing off the 
hook from people around the State who want answers, who want certainty.
  Did Donald Trump just cut off funding for 7 out of 10 nursing home 
residents, for 55 percent of newborn births and New Mexico's doctors 
and New Mexico's hospitals? Did Donald Trump just deprive 7 out of 10 
New Mexican children their daily lunch? Did Donald Trump just 
effectively close my child's preschool program?
  The reality is that most of President Trump's own staff don't know or 
won't answer those questions just yet, and my Republican colleagues 
sure aren't jumping in to figure it out either.

[[Page S443]]

  One thing that is clear to me is the law. The President cannot 
override, delay, rescind Congress's appropriations laws once they are 
signed into law--full stop. This has been upheld time and again by the 
Supreme Court, by the Department of Justice, by the Government 
Accountability Office, and by the law--specifically, the Impoundment 
Control Act of 1974. Congress had to write and pass this law after 
President Nixon tried to withhold congressionally appropriated funds, 
and Nixon was wrong just like President Trump is wrong now.
  We should all remember--especially my Republican colleagues who 
aren't here tonight, but really all of us--that elections swing both 
ways. We have seen the back and forth for the last few election cycles. 
Sometimes, your party is in charge of the White House; sometimes, it is 
not.
  But think for a moment about what it would mean if the President--any 
President--could unilaterally cut off Federal funds that he or she 
didn't like. Sure, a conservative President could decide to cripple the 
Head Start programs in blue States, but it is every bit as true that a 
progressive President could decide to cripple the defense contracts or 
the military bases in red States.
  That is not democracy; that is chaos. And today was just a small 
taste of that.
  As a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, I know how much 
work goes into writing and passing our bipartisan funding laws. There 
have been times when I have been able to work with my Republican 
colleagues to pass appropriations bills out of committee unanimously, 
and I am not going to cede that to any administration to be abused.
  Here is where I need help from my own constituent, help from New 
Mexicans. I want to hear from you about Donald Trump's blockade and how 
it is affecting you and your family. If your town's COPS grants get 
frozen, I need to know. If your VA mortgage gets held up, I need to 
know. If you are a nonprofit that is giving services in the area of 
violence against women, refuges for people who are battered, and your 
funding gets held up, these are the stories that I think need to be 
held up to understand just what is happening in our country right now.
  And I hope that all of us--not just Democrats, but Republicans as 
well--who have a vested interest in being able to create certainty in 
our own States, certainty for the economy, certainty for the small 
business community, can come together and say that this is not what 
democracy looks like.
  Let's create that certainty. Let's follow the law. Let's make sure 
that whatever we agree to here in this amazing Capitol, that not only 
passes both Chambers but gets signed into law by the President of the 
United States, that we abide by that, because only if we all agree to 
color inside the lines and to act like this is a democracy will this 
remain a democracy.
  And I just want to say to my own constituents how sorry I am that 
they are going through this right now because the amount of anguish and 
uncertainty--and, you know, I had heard from a Tribal housing program 
today that said: You know, we won't be able to make payroll in a few 
days if this is how this is going to be.
  And you can tell story after story like that of just huge clouds 
hanging over people who are just trying to do a good job for their 
communities and provide services and do their jobs. That is not how you 
grow the economy.
  I want to thank all of my colleagues who have come to the floor to 
talk about this. We are all getting story after story from our States. 
We need to lift those up, and we need to say that we need to put this 
chapter behind us for the benefit of the American people.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Wisconsin.

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