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




                         TRUMP EXECUTIVE ORDERS

  Ms. BALDWIN. Mr. President, I rise today because the people of my 
State are in pain. They are confused, and they are scared. This is all 
because of a blatantly unconstitutional power grab from the President 
of the United States.
  While we have rightly seen this power grab blocked by the courts, it 
is only temporary, and the larger issue remains.
  Our Constitution is extremely clear: Congress--composed of people 
elected by the citizens of each of our States or districts--it is 
Congress that makes the law.
  In the Senate, those laws are almost always passed on a bipartisan 
basis, and after we work out our differences and pass a law, the 
President then implements the law. That is it. The Constitution does 
not say the President can implement just the laws he likes. The 
Constitution does not say the President can implement the laws just 
when he likes. The Constitution is crystal clear on this. But the Trump 
administration is ignoring the Constitution and refusing to implement 
the laws that Democrats and Republicans passed together, and it is 
trying to cut funding for absolutely critical programs.
  Every Senator and Member of the House of Representatives should be 
deeply concerned by that. I doubt my Republican colleagues would want a 
future Democratic administration to ignore annual appropriation laws.
  So a judge's eleventh-hour decision to temporarily block this power 
grab may have postponed the pain, but that is all it did--by a week. 
The pain I am worried about will be the impact that people in every 
part of my State experience.
  Will community health centers be able to access funding to continue 
to provide healthcare for the 30 million Americans they serve annually? 
Will title X be available to continue providing cancer screenings, 
access to contraception, and other preventive care for women and 
families? Will individuals with opioid abuse disorders be able to 
access medication-assisted treatment? Will homeless youth be able to 
access emergency shelter and transitional housing assistance? Will 
research into lifesaving cures for deadly diseases, including cancer 
and diabetes and Alzheimer's, be paused? Will patients be able to 
continue receiving potentially lifesaving treatments as part of 
critical clinical trials? The programs our veterans rely on could be 
cut. Programs children and families rely on could be cut. Support for 
our farmers could be cut. The list goes on and on.
  My office saw and heard the people behind this list, like the deputy 
fire chief who called today wondering if he was going to have to lay 
off some of his firefighters or the mothers and local school district 
staff we heard from who called worried that their kids would not be 
able to get a hot school lunch tomorrow. We heard from a childcare 
facility in western Wisconsin that would be forced to lay off people by 
Thursday if these cuts went into effect. My office heard from a mother 
whose son is disabled, and she didn't know if his Medicaid was going to 
be cut or not. I heard from a substance use treatment provider and a 
domestic abuse shelter administrator who didn't know if they could help 
those fighting addiction or escaping unsafe situations.
  These people are real. These are very real consequences if the 
President gets away with this unconstitutional power grab and cuts 
programs that Americans rely on.
  I am calling on my Democratic and Republican colleagues to speak out 
against this overreach. Stand up for your constituents, and for that 
matter, stand up for the Constitution.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Virginia.

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