[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 19 (Wednesday, January 29, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S458-S459]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                         Trump Executive Orders

  Mr. REED. Mr. President, I rise today because, over the last 2 days, 
I

[[Page S459]]

have been hearing from officials and organizations throughout Rhode 
Island that have been concerned about losing access to essential 
Federal funding. In fact, Rhode Island officials told my office that, 
for several hours yesterday, they could not access the Federal portal 
that allows them to draw down funding from the Medicaid Program. Other 
agencies and organizations have reported that they, too, were locked 
out of funding portals for critical grant programs.
  And why is this?
  Well, Monday night, the Office of Management and Budget, or OMB, 
issued a memorandum instructing Federal Agencies to freeze funding that 
had been authorized and appropriated by Congress until it can be 
determined that the program comports with President Trump's ideological 
views, as judged by the White House. Just a little over an hour ago, 
OMB rescinded this memo. But then the White House Press Secretary has 
tweeted that the freeze is still in effect. This illustrates the 
uncertainty and the lack of calculation that went into this process.
  Now, as my colleague Senator Murray, the ranking member of the 
Appropriations Committee, has noted, the list of programs being put 
under the microscope was dramatic: grants for law enforcement; veterans 
care; disaster relief and mitigation; funding for the 9-8-8 suicide 
prevention lifeline; homeless and housing funding; childcare and public 
schools, including IDEA, funding; community health centers; food access 
programs, including Meals on Wheels and school lunch programs; funding 
for preventing violence against women; and much more. And all of these 
programs affect families throughout my State of Rhode Island--working 
families in particular--because in many respects, we all depend upon 
some support at some time.
  The Trump administration, a little over a week on the job, decided to 
violate the law, to withhold that funding previously approved by 
Congress on a bipartisan basis, and has sowed chaos and fear throughout 
the Nation in the process.
  Last night, the Federal district court issued a 1-week stay on the 
administration's memorandum regarding not-for-profit agencies receiving 
Federal funds. But we are again in this dilemma because the President 
apparently has rescinded the order but his Press Secretary is still 
tweeting something different.
  It demonstrates how, frankly, incompetent the administration is--
putting out directives with little to no thought or coordination, 
without anticipating--or, more importantly, caring about--the negative 
ramifications that an order like this can have on families throughout 
this country.
  What President Trump was really doing, I believe, is testing how far 
he can go before he is stopped.
  When President Trump tries to ignore the law, ignore the Congress, 
and there is no response, what is the point of checks and balances? Why 
are we here in the Senate? If we pass, along with the House, 
authorizations and appropriations and the President of the United 
States can ignore our actions, we have to speak up.
  Indeed, my Republican colleagues were excoriating the Biden 
administration for executive ``overreach'' but now are relatively mute 
when it comes to a defiance of law and indeed, I believe, a defiance of 
the Constitution.
  This attack should be alarming to all my colleagues who consider the 
Congress a coequal branch of government, and it will be instructive to 
the American people to see how all of my colleagues--in the majority 
and in the minority--choose to respond to President Trump's continued 
attacks on this institution, as well as the Constitution and, most 
damaging, families throughout this country.
  One of the programs that was shut off yesterday is Medicaid. Now, a 
lot of people think Medicaid is just something for those poor people 
who can't afford healthcare, but, indeed, it is a major source of 
funding for nursing homes throughout this country. And many of the 
recipients come from working families, come from families that have 
worked their entire lives and now they have a senior--a mother or a 
father--who needs the kind of care a nursing home provides, but they 
could not afford it without Medicaid. That, I think, is one of the most 
graphic examples of the indifference or the ignorance of the 
administration when it comes to what they are doing.
  But let me return, finally, to the point. We have a role to do in the 
Constitution. We advise and consent on nominees. We are doing that as 
we go forward. But, also, we have to act as a check on the President. 
We have to act as a force for good that supports the Constitution. And 
that is a role I believe we have to take much more seriously today than 
at any other time in my tenure in the U.S. Senate.
  With that, I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. LEE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the quorum call 
be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.