[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 19 (Wednesday, January 29, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S465-S478]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                         Trump Executive Orders

  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, it is good to see you sitting up there.
  As a recent former Governor--I say that as a former Governor myself--
I won't ask you what you are hearing in West Virginia, but I have to 
tell you, I rise to the floor today amongst a huge amount of confusion.
  Two days ago, the Trump administration, without warning to any 
States, to any Governors, without warning to Congress, late at night, 
put out an order freezing all Federal spending for 90 days.
  Earlier today, less than 48 hours later, that order was formally 
rescinded. But hold it. The good news--entirely good news--lasted about 
30 minutes, 45 minutes, because 45 minutes later, the Press Secretary 
in the White House says: No, the freeze will actually stay in place and 
be rigorously enforced.
  So--I don't know--as a Governor, which one do you follow? Because, as 
the Presiding Officer knows, an awful lot of our State programs are 
actually Federal dollars passing through our capitals into these 
programs. So I ask, which one is it?
  Unfortunately, I am not the only one asking the question, and I have 
an awful lot of stressed Virginians to prove it.
  In Virginia, as in West Virginia or any other State, Federal funding 
supports countless programs that serve kids, seniors, community 
infrastructure, and a whole lot more. Yesterday alone, my office was 
literally flooded with outreach from organizations and local 
governments.
  I heard from firefighters from Southwest Virginia. They are worried 
they won't be able to replace their tanker truck with Federal funding 
that was supposed to be coming pretty soon.
  I heard from an affordable housing organization in Northern Virginia 
that if they go 90 days without Federal dollars, they might have to 
shut down their organization. People would have to find different jobs. 
That organization--you can't turn on or off the flow of these 
resources.
  I heard from law enforcement in the Shenandoah Valley and from the 
greater Richmond area that a lot of these localities depend on Federal 
dollars to pay police officers. If they don't have those funds for the 
next 90 days, this will take cops off the street.
  I heard from a number--not just one but a number--of domestic 
violence shelters across the Commonwealth that without this funding, 
because they don't have huge reserves, they will have to leave women 
and children without housing support.
  Listen to this one. We have a little town called West Point, VA. It 
was an old mill town. They have a very good Head Start Program. Head 
Start gets funded by the Federal Government. Their Head Start funding 
runs out on Friday, January 31. They had been told--they can't get any 
answer--that their next round of funding was in process and there would 
be no break in the action. What do the Head Start moms and dads who 
have kids in that program in West Point, VA, do starting next Monday?
  Senator Kaine and I probably had 8 to 10 Head Start Programs here. As 
a matter of fact, there is a gag order put in place right now so that 
people can't talk about these things inside the administration, and the 
Head Start directors were trying to call their contact, kind of their 
resource person, and they got no response.
  So whether you care about meals for low-income seniors, whether you 
care about Head Start for vulnerable kids, whether you care about teens 
who need that mental health support oftentimes coming from Federal 
dollars, that all is up in the air at this point. What do we tell these 
folks?
  Many of these folks voted for President Trump because they thought he 
was going to bring grocery prices down.
  Like the Presiding Officer, I have not only been a Governor, but I 
was a business guy. I can claim still that I was in business longer 
than in politics. This is not the way you run an operation. The truth 
is, this is unbelievable. I was so proud when I was Governor of 
Virginia. We got named the best managed State. This is management 
malpractice 101.
  The most important enterprise in the world is the American 
Government, not only in terms of safety and security but in terms of 
how we treat our people.
  The truth is, rescinded or not, these chaotic antics have real 
consequences. I know of an organization in Virginia that had to call an 
emergency board meeting yesterday to see if they should go out of 
business. I have heard from folks who are worried that they will have 
to lay off their employees. Without this Federal funding, they are just 
not going to be able to make payroll. One Virginian wrote to me and 
said that ``the mental and physical damage is already immense.'' It is 
not right to play with people's lives in such a grossly irresponsible 
way.
  I have been doing this for a while. I have never heard of some kind 
of arbitrary freeze on all Federal spending. It was bad enough what 
happened when they put a freeze on Federal assistance to folks around 
the world.
  I commend Secretary Rubio. One of the reasons why I was proud to 
support him was that he has actually tried to back off from that order, 
making sure that humanitarian aid is not going to disappear.
  The story has been out. I have been very interested in the conflict 
in Sudan. There is a ship in Port Sudan right now with American 
medicine on it. The aid group was going to take that out--the 
medicine--to save people's lives. That medicine will go to rot if those 
funds are not flowing.
  It is bad enough, this issue of how we are treating Americans who 
depend on these Federal funds--these are real programs with real 
people--you take that and layer on the other whammy. In Virginia, we 
have a disproportionate number of Federal workers. You have quite a few 
in West Virginia I know as well due to great former West Virginia 
Senators. Suddenly, in an, again, unprecedented and I believe 
potentially illegal move, every Federal employee is offered this chance 
to quit and get paid for 6 months, until September 30, if you quit.

  Now, nothing like this has ever been done before. Maybe this is the 
way you do business in the tech world, and I used to be in the tech 
world, but if you manage a good company, you don't go out and basically 
say to all your workers: Quit.
  Of course, the problem is--and I urge my Federal workers to think 
about this--unfortunately, this President has a record of not only 
sticking it to Federal workers, but he has a record of sticking it to 
all the business contractors he did business with by not paying the 
bills.
  So I worry because not only is there very much a legal question of 
whether the President can offer this buyout offer to all these Federal 
workers, but I can assure you, there is nothing in the budget--there is 
nothing in the budget--that we still haven't negotiated for the balance 
of this fiscal year that has got this X-billion-dollar number next to 
it that is going to pay for all of these buyouts.
  We know where this comes from. It comes from the fellow that is being 
put up to be head of the OMB, Russell Vought, who wrote Project 2025, 
the very project that President Trump as a candidate said: Don't worry. 
I didn't read it. I don't know anything about it.
  In that document, it goes on at length about how the goal of Project 
2025 and Mr. Vought, who wants to be head of OMB, which kind of 
controls the management and budget of the Federal Government, was that 
he wanted to traumatize Federal workers. He wanted them not to go to 
work. He wanted to classify them as villains--his words, not mine.
  I can tell you this: For a whole lot of Federal workers, they have 
already hit that goal. They are traumatized. And I worry like heck.
  You say: Gosh, I don't know what I should do. Maybe I will take the 
offer.
  But before you sign that and send it back--what may be an illegal 
offer that is not funded, that chances are you are not going to get 
paid--think a little bit about it. If this becomes another kind of 
passing fad where there is not any enforcement and not a payment, if 
you sign that and send it back, chances are you have made an indication 
that you

[[Page S466]]

are going to be the first person that gets RIFed, maybe without that 6-
month severance.
  I also have to wonder. You know, we are a couple thousand air traffic 
controllers short right now. If air traffic controllers--who, by the 
way, take about a year to get trained--if 5,000 of them say ``You know 
what, I am going to take that offer,'' what happens to air traffic 
safety? We don't have a fallback. We don't have a reserve of air 
traffic controllers to make sure that when you climb on an airplane, it 
is safe. Yet we have made that offer, to my understanding, to all the 
air traffic controllers in America: Sign here. We are going to pay you. 
You don't have to work for the next 6 months.
  Again, how many Americans are going to be happy with the fact that we 
are paying folks without them working for 6 months?
  What happens as well--are we going to really say to all the folks who 
do bird flu research and are trying to seek it out--we have a lot of 
poultry and turkeys and chickens both in the Shenandoah Valley and on 
the Eastern Shore of Virginia. One of the things people are 
experiencing most now is the rising cost of eggs. If suddenly all the 
folks who are working on bird flu quit, maybe people won't buy eggs, 
but I actually think it will drive up the already high cost of eggs 
two, three times. I thought President Trump was hired to try to bring 
down grocery prices.
  What happens as well with the folks who are the food inspectors--
salmonella? Are you going to really feel all right about going to the 
grocery store and buying something if a whole lot of folks have taken 
this buyout offer? This is not the way to run an operation.
  I think about earlier today. I asked a question of Mr. Kennedy, who 
wants to be head of HHS. He had told me in his earlier comments in my 
office that he wanted to get rid of 2,200 people in HHS. I asked him: 
What is your plan? Who are those 2,200?
  No answer.
  I know he has got strong feelings about NIH, where, candidly, we have 
the best researchers in the world that have taken years for us to 
recruit. If suddenly, based on President Trump's offer, all these NIH 
researchers quit because they can make two, three, four, five times as 
much in the private sector, but all that basic research is done at NIH, 
who are we going to fill those back in with? Not with as qualified 
people.
  The list goes on and on and on.
  Again, I would say this is management malpractice 101. You want to 
change your workforce. You want to make them more effective, more 
efficient. You don't try to traumatize them. But that is what has 
happened so far.
  To Americans across the country and to my fellow Virginians, if there 
are ways to find more efficiency, if there are ways to logically--
business-minded--think through the efficiency of our Federal 
Departments and maybe save some money and maybe cut back staff in a 
rational way, sign me up. But don't sign me up for something that looks 
like it is a flimflam con job where people are being potentially 
suckered into sending an email back when there is no assurance that 
that email or that whole offer is legal in the first place. There is no 
money in the till. And if you go back to the case of the current 
President, look at his record from when he was in the private sector. 
Did anybody get paid 100 cents on the dollar?
  So I know other Senators are going to be coming up. But I just think 
that, in many ways, President Trump got hired because they thought we 
could bring down consumer prices; they thought we could bring down 
grocery prices. None of this is bringing down grocery prices. None of 
this is bringing down consumer prices.
  None of this, I think, is going to make our Federal Government more 
efficient or effective or, in the long term, save money. If our most 
talented people quit, it is going to cost more to rehire them. Anybody 
knows that who has been in the private sector. And we are not going to 
get people with the same experience.
  What it feels like, and I know what I have been thinking, is one of 
the things that was the most troubling about the first Trump 
administration was this sense of chaos that people kind of got 
exhausted with. My goodness gracious, this is day 10--day 10--of the 
Trump administration. We have chaos on steroids.
  What I would hope is that my Republican colleagues in Virginia, in 
the legislature, in statewide elected office, and I would hope my 
Republican colleagues in the Senate and in the House would say: Hey, 
better efficiency, count me in. Across-the-board freezes of programs 
without regard to the people's lives that are going to be changed or 
affected, that doesn't make sense.
  State budgets--all the State legislatures are in right now doing 
their budgets. How do you plan with those Federal dollars that are 
maybe going to be suspended for 90 days or then maybe arbitrarily 
suspended forever? How do you plan that?
  And to the Federal workforce: I tell you, the idea of what 
potentially is illegal--a nonfunded buyout offer with no guarantee and, 
if anything, the opposite being true--I would urge people to think long 
and hard and not take this offer, not set you up for being fired, 
riffed, or eliminated.
  And I would appeal again: There is a better way to do all of this. 
And I say this as somebody who has now voted for five of President 
Trump's nominees for Cabinet positions. I have gotten a lot of grief 
from that already. From somebody who was a chief executive, I feel like 
a Governor or the President ought to get most of their choices but for 
people that I think fall outside the norm and don't have the 
credibility or judgment, and I will make those decisions.
  I have a very important hearing tomorrow, as the former chairman of 
the Intelligence Committee and now the vice chairman, on Tulsi Gabbard.
  But I want to reach out and work with this administration. Let's get 
back to lowering costs. Let's get back to driving grocery prices down. 
Let's not put people in fear not just for their jobs but for their 
lives, if you are that victim of domestic abuse, if you are that kid 
who needs Head Start, if you are that senior that is dependent upon 
Meals on Wheels.
  Those programs don't last for 90 days. And if they suddenly shut down 
and we decide after 90 days, ``Oh, we want to start them again,'' the 
cost is going to be double or triple.
  There is a better way to do this. So I appeal to my Republican 
friends. Maybe we need a gang on this to try to think about this in a 
more bipartisan way. But in the meantime, I implore the administration: 
Get your act together. Don't put out two separate statements totally 
contradicting each other on the same day about your intentions--two 
totally opposite. It just makes chaos and the stress go up, and, 
ultimately, later in this week, the services disappear.
  With that, Mr. President, 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. DURBIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, on Monday night, President Trump threw 
America into chaos when he abruptly announced a freeze on trillions of 
dollars in Federal grants and loans that so many communities, States, 
and Americans depend on.
  The reaction across the Nation has been uniform. We have a phone 
ringing off the hook, computers busy and buzzing. Everybody wants to 
know: What does this mean? What has happened?
  Even members of the press were confused. Members of Congress were 
confused. Members of the American public were confused. And even 
members of the President's own administration were confused about the 
intent and scope of the freeze.
  Rightly so, Americans from across the country took to calling our 
offices and the offices of their Congressmen and asked what was going 
on. They needed clarity, and they wanted to know what the freeze on 
funds would mean to them--in agency after agency across the State of 
Illinois and the Nation.
  Toni is a woman from Woodstock, IL. She shared with my office that 
her

[[Page S467]]

brother has Down syndrome, and the care he receives is funded by a 
Federal grant. His health and safety would be at risk if this freeze is 
allowed to be implemented.
  Or take Dr. Kay, a professor and scientist at the University of 
Chicago. Her work depends on funding from the National Institutes of 
Health and other Federal grants. She shared that the freeze would 
``interrupt crucial biomedical research, stopping progress, destroying 
sometimes years' worth of research that cannot be undone.'' And it 
could hurt the retention of our Nation's future scientists.
  Or Sarah, a supporter of community-based organizations that serve 
youth experiencing homelessness in the city of Chicago. If this freeze, 
in fact, takes place, the organization will not be able to access the 
Federal funding it needs to provide services for youth, help them 
escape violence, or help to reunify their families.
  Yesterday, Americans across the country faced disruptions in 
accessing critical funds and services in popular programs like Head 
Start, Medicaid, and so many more. These are just a few of the many 
messages my office and others have received from Americans confused, 
outraged, and impacted by this freeze.
  Then, last night, a Federal judge in DC ordered the freeze to be 
paused from going into effect until Monday, February 3. In response to 
the backlash from the American public, the organized efforts of many 
Democratic lawmakers, and the court ruling, President Trump's Office of 
Management and Budget today rescinded the memo outlining the funding 
freeze.
  But that isn't the end of the story. The President's Press Secretary 
now claims that while the memo ordering the freeze has been rescinded, 
the freeze itself still stands.
  Who is on first? How does this make sense, you ask? Well, the honest 
answer is it doesn't. The policy is as poorly thought out and 
communicated as can be.
  In true Trump fashion, his administration has made clear that it 
doesn't intend to abide by the will of the American people, the letter 
of the law, or the Constitution. It will do whatever it takes to push 
through this policy, even if it means hurting Americans across the 
country.
  Let me be clear. We are going to continue to fight this 
unconstitutional, devastating, and grossly unpopular freeze in Federal 
spending. I want every American to know that your voice and 
participation in our democracy means more now than ever. The President 
is betting that you won't notice when he abuses power or breaks the 
law; that amidst the chaos that surrounds him, you will be too 
confused, jaded, or just too tired to fight back.
  But I urge America to continue monitoring the actions of this new 
administration, particularly when they touch you and your family 
personally, and to report to our offices--both political parties--any 
Federal funding that your communities and organizations are unable to 
access.
  This will not be the last time, I am afraid, that this administration 
defies our Nation's laws to show a position of power, and we will be 
watching closely, ready to stop him if he tries again.
  Some think this freeze was a mistake, a blunder by the new 
President's team. Others think this was exactly what they wanted: 
chaos, confusion, a show of force. Today, we even don't know exactly 
what the motive is or what the status is. The courts have to sort it 
out because the administration can't even explain it. The best thing 
now, at this point, is to watch closely because programs that mean a 
lot are at stake.
  I have a particular affection for the National Institutes of Health, 
the premier medical research Agency in the world. For their researchers 
to call in a panic over this decision is to me a litmus test of why it 
is the wrong thing to do for America.
  Want to make America great again? Hook your star to one of the 
greatest Agencies in our government, the National Institutes of Health. 
Don't suspend their funding, don't stop their research. I watched 
closely as the story unfolded this afternoon, and with a lot of my 
friends, I thought, well, the Trump administration has realized they 
just made a mistake and they put everything back on track.
  And then Karoline Leavitt, who is the new Press Secretary, issued a 
statement, and she said:

       This is not a rescission of the Federal funding freeze. It 
     is simply a rescission of the OMB memo. Why? To end any 
     confusion created by the court's injunction. The President's 
     [executive orders] on federal funding remain in full force 
     and effect, and will be rigorously implemented.

  That was her quote to try to clarify the situation; she couldn't have 
made it worse. At this point, America doesn't know what the future will 
hold. The judge in the case that is pending is the one who may have the 
last word, the important word on where this is headed.
  I want to commend those who are in the courtroom trying to sort out 
the mess that has been created here in Washington for the good of this 
country to make it great again. We certainly need to have some 
understanding of what the policy of our government is.
  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.
  Ms. ROSEN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Ms. ROSEN. Mr. President, my State of Nevada is unique. We are big in 
physical size, but relatively small in population. We are independent 
people, but have a strong allegiance to our Nation. After all, we are 
the Battle Born State, born during the Civil War. And while we don't 
like Washington telling us what to do, Nevadans depend on Federal 
resources to help our communities.
  Now, it is simple. By coming together to form our Union and paying 
taxes, Nevadans deserve to receive our fair share of funding from the 
Federal Government. It is hard not to be affected by what goes on in 
Washington when more than 80 percent of your State--of our land--is 
owned by the Federal Government, more than any other State. Think about 
that. Eighty percent of Nevada is owned by the Federal Government. That 
is why I take my responsibility as representative of the people of 
Nevada incredibly seriously. It is why I rise today to speak on behalf 
of the reckless, cruel, and illegal action that President Trump took to 
freeze virtually all Federal grants and loans.

  While this administration has now rescinded the memo from the Office 
of Management and Budget that announced the freeze, they have been 
clear that the funding freeze continues, adding to the chaos and 
confusion. Lack of clarity as to which programs will be affected and 
which ones would not be has been having devastating effects in States 
like my own and so many others. In fact, more than 30 percent of the 
Governor's budget for the next 2 years relies on Federal funding, which 
is why this issue is critical for our State.
  Since President Trump's administration issued the guidance on Monday 
night, my office has received hundreds of calls and emails from 
Nevadans who are rightfully concerned just about what this would mean 
for them, for their families, for their jobs. We also received 
additional emails and calls from nonprofits, from service providers, 
from community stakeholders who depend on this funding and support 
Nevadans.
  One of the messages my office received was from the Nevada 
Partnership for Homeless Youth. This partnership helps get young 
people, kids--kids--off the streets. And while many in this Chamber 
disagree about a lot of things, I think all of us agree that helping 
homeless kids is important work.
  So I want to read part of their letter because I think it 
encapsulates what a lot of organizations that provide critical 
services--well, just what they have been feeling. They said this:

       This decision will have an immediate and severe impact on 
     organizations like ours, as well as countless others in 
     Nevada and across the country.
       Much of this funding has already been allocated and 
     committed through contracts, and the sudden halt creates 
     chaos and uncertainty for agencies that provide critical 
     services.
       Many organizations in our community simply do not have the 
     financial reserves to

[[Page S468]]

     operate for more than a few months without these funds.

  It is not just the Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth that we 
heard from. My office also heard from Northern Nevada HOPES, a 
community health center based in Reno, NV. Northern Nevada HOPES 
provides affordable, high-quality healthcare services to people in our 
community, those who need it the most. In fact, 56 percent of their 
patients live at or below the Federal poverty level, and 10 percent 
experience homelessness.
  This is what Northern Nevada HOPES told my office. I am going to 
quote again:

       At Northern Nevada HOPES, this pause has significant 
     implications for the services we provide to over 17,000 
     patients . . . many of whom are children and families.
       As we assess the situation, we have been forced to take 
     immediate actions, including implementing a hiring freeze and 
     preparing to limit care for patients who rely on our sliding 
     fee scale, including those who are uninsured or underinsured.

  Think about that. Think about these children. Think about these 
families. President Trump's chaos and reckless actions have put the 
health of Nevada's families in jeopardy. That that means kids who need 
to go see a doctor, women who need to get a cancer screening--take a 
point off the script here. My mom passed away from cancer. No one 
should miss their cancer screenings.
  It is impacting older people who need lifesaving medication, and all 
of them could be affected by this terrible, terrible action.
  Many seniors also rely on other vital programs like Meals on Wheels 
to access the nutrition they need to live independently and with 
dignity. I have seen this critical work up close.
  A few years ago, I joined an organization to deliver meals to seniors 
in Boulder City, NV. Seeing the joy on the faces of the seniors we 
visited is something I won't forget. They know the folks who come on 
their route to deliver to them. It is not just a meal for them, Meals 
on Wheels. It is a lifeline. They don't just provide nutritious foods 
for seniors who might be housebound, isolated, or living on a fixed 
income. These people become their friends, their lifeline.
  For thousands of seniors in Nevada, this program is also their 
primary source of nutrition. In 1 year alone, Federal funding allowed 
Meals on Wheels to serve more than 2.5 million meals to seniors across 
Nevada.
  In Nevada--I am sure in your State, too, Mr. President--we take care 
of our seniors. President Trump's proposed freeze on Federal funding 
threatens them all--threatens them all. Pausing the funding to this 
critical program means denying our seniors, our elderly, their access 
to something so essential, so comforting, a meal--a meal.
  And the possibility of an interruption to this service, even 
temporarily, means seniors in Nevada and across the country lose the 
certainty of knowing where their next meal will come from and the 
comfort of the visit of the person who brings it to them and oftentimes 
sits with them, listens to them, and gives them that comfort care that 
is so important to all of us.
  I just want everyone to think about that. Is this who we are, taking 
meals away from seniors--Meals on Wheels? I hope not.
  Another essential service under threat of this Trump funding freeze 
is public safety, something everybody worries about. And this action 
will make our communities less safe and stop critically needed Federal 
funding from reaching law enforcement officers, firefighters, and other 
first responders who look out for our communities each and every day. 
These heroic men and women depend on the funding from Federal programs 
to do their jobs safely and to protect our communities effectively.

  And here are just a few examples of how this freeze will impact them.
  Nevada, unfortunately, is no stranger to the horrific impact of 
wildfires and fires in general. Whether it is raging wildfires or the 
standard fire emergencies that happen in communities, well, they happen 
every day across our State. And the men and the women who make up our 
fire departments, they rely in part on Federal grants to purchase that 
equipment needed to do their job safely and effectively--equipment like 
emergency vehicles they travel in, the protective suits they put on, 
the helmets they wear, the oxygen tanks they carry so they can breathe 
fresh air while they save someone's life, and the tools that they wield 
to stop those fires from destroying people's lives, homes, and 
livelihoods. Each and every part of this gear is critical for our 
firefighters and for their safety.
  Our firefighters also rely on Federal funding in order to make sure 
they have the staffing levels they need. Firefighting, like much of the 
work of our first responders, goes 24/7, 365 days a year. You never 
know when the next emergency will happen; it just will. You must always 
be ready. You must always be prepared. You don't know when it is going 
to happen. But our firefighters, our first responders stand ready, at a 
moment's notice, to run in to save the rest of us.
  Let me tell you, when there is a fire in our State, our firefighters 
aren't clocking in at 9 o'clock and clocking out at 5 o'clock. They 
keep working around the clock until the fire is out and the job is 
done, until everyone is safe and the emergency is passed. And when we 
don't have the proper staffing levels, when our communities don't have 
the numbers of firefighters they need, well, our State suffers, our 
community suffers, families suffer. The damage is real, like I said, 
not just lives--lives, livelihood, and communities. It is devastating.
  Thankfully, there is Federal funding through the SAFER Program to 
address this issue, to increase and maintain a number of trained 
firefighters who are serving on the frontlines and are available to 
respond in our communities when an emergency happens.
  The bad news--not just bad; the sad news, the cruel news--is that 
this kind of funding is the kind that President Trump's order could 
freeze. This doesn't make us safer. It doesn't save us money. It just 
puts us and our families and those we love and our communities in 
greater danger.
  Like I said, it is not just firefighters who feel the effects of this 
freeze. Our law enforcement officers in Nevada could also be affected, 
and that is going to have a direct impact on public safety.
  So make no mistake, like all 50 States, my State relies on funding 
from the Department of Justice's Office of Community Oriented Policing 
Services, also known as the COPS program. At a time when we are facing 
a national police shortage, this program allows Nevada to hire more 
officers who serve in our communities and take part in community 
policing efforts, building trust, engaging with Nevadans, combating 
crime.
  Who would oppose that?
  Well, due to the President's Federal freeze, this money could now be 
in jeopardy.
  As Nevada and the rest of the Nation continue to deal with the deadly 
impact of the fentanyl crisis, this freeze could rob us of critical 
tools to combat this dangerous and deadly drug. Over the last few 
years, fentanyl has fueled a crisis in Nevada. Families across our 
State have seen loved ones face addiction and overdose. Hundreds of 
Nevadans are losing their lives each and every year from fentanyl.
  This isn't a red State problem or a blue State problem. It is a 
national problem, and it is a crisis in Nevada. The State's opioid 
response programs, which do depend on Federal grant funding, are 
critical to reducing harm and preventing overdoses in our communities.
  I have spoken with law enforcement officers in Nevada. I have spoken 
with parents and family members and friends who lost loved ones to 
fentanyl. It is clear that we need to be doing more to tackle this 
issue. And this freeze--this cruel freeze--does nothing to help; it is 
quite the contrary. If this funding were impacted, again, it would hurt 
our communities. It would hurt our families, our friends, our 
neighbors, those we love.
  As long as we are talking about programs that are vital to community 
safety and well-being, we can't forget about the potential impact on 
our veterans. In Nevada, our veterans have always been top priority. I 
can tell you, I am so worried about how this funding freeze would 
jeopardize programs that support veterans' transition back to civilian 
life, provide them critical services, preserving the legacy of those 
who served, and so much more.

[[Page S469]]

  Take for example, if you will, a program called the Homeless 
Veterans' Reintegration Program, which provided $17 million to Nevada 
to help homeless women veterans and veterans with children find secure 
and stable housing and employment. The Homeless Veterans' Reintegration 
Program is helping women veterans. For many of these veterans, this 
program provides them with the resources that they need to rebuild 
their lives.
  These men and women signed on the dotted line, and they fought to 
protect our freedom. And the very least we can do is make sure they 
have the resources and support when they return home.
  There is also the Veterans Legacy Grant Program, which provided more 
than $2 million to Nevada to help preserve the history of our men and 
women in uniform so that we can honor their service and show them how 
grateful and thankful we are to them and to their families.
  A pause in funding for something as critical as the Veterans Legacy 
Grants Program would threaten a key resource for educating future 
generations about the legacy and sacrifice of our veterans. The history 
of our veterans matters, and a pause in this money would be a slap in 
the face to those who literally, like I said, put their lives on the 
line to protect all of us--you, me, all of us--every single day.
  The Trump administration has said that their pause won't impact 
programs for the VA, that all of the Agencies' programs pass their so-
called review. But the administration also said it was rescinding the 
memo that started the pause. Then, not an hour later, they sowed 
confusion and uncertainty by saying the funding freeze is back on. So 
what is it? How can we believe them? It is one thing until it is not. 
It is another thing until it is not. It is chaos. Why would we trust 
them now with critical funding for our veterans? Why would we risk 
that?
  I can keep going on and on about all of the ways that President 
Trump's freeze would hurt my State of Nevada. I could talk about how 
this freeze led to a disruption on the Medicaid website, which was down 
for hours, affecting Nevadans who rely on this critical program to 
literally stay alive in many cases, and this is precisely--precisely--
the problem. The chaos and the disruption that this reckless action has 
caused is just unnecessary, and it is harmful. It is helping no one.
  So I want to ask everyone at home--I want to ask you at home--to 
think about this: How is any of this actually helping you? Is it 
helping you at the grocery store? Is it helping you at the gas pump? Is 
it helping you get an affordable home?
  It is not.
  That is why I call on President Trump to fully and permanently 
rescind this harmful Executive order to freeze Federal funds now. 
Nevada families are watching. Nevada families are waiting to see if 
President Trump thinks that they really matter.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mrs. SHAHEEN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mrs. SHAHEEN. Mr. President, I come to the floor this evening to join 
my colleagues to express my deep concerns about the Trump 
administration's extreme decision to take away services that millions 
of families and small businesses rely on. This is a decision that does 
not lower costs, that does not create jobs, that does not enhance 
public safety, or keep our communities safe. It is a decision that 
actually will hurt people in my State of New Hampshire and too many 
across the country who rely on services that are now in jeopardy.
  On Monday night, more than 2,600 Federal programs were ordered to 
cease activities with less than 24 hours' notice. They were given 
little guidance on how this should be carried out, and in every State 
across the country, confusion and panic among too many people followed.
  Since that order, I have heard from countless Granite Staters who are 
worried about what this means for them and their families--from 
healthcare providers to nonprofit organizations to so many who are 
doing essential, lifesaving work. Many of these organizations are 
waiting on promised funding for projects that they have already 
completed, funding for which they went through the process. They were 
guaranteed they were going to get these awards, and now they are in 
jeopardy.
  The Trump administration claims it wants to lower costs for folks. 
Well, let me be clear: This unprecedented decision does nothing to 
bring down the price of food, the price of housing, the price of 
childcare, the price of medications, or other lifesaving needs that 
families have. So what we saw this afternoon is that the administration 
tried to walk back their order; they rescinded the memo. Sadly, 
uncertainty and confusion remains because the White House says that 
they rescinded the memo but that the freeze wasn't rescinded.

  So like a lot of people in New Hampshire, I am concerned, and I am 
frustrated. In my State and across much of the country, there is an 
affordable housing crisis. Because of the administration's action, 
housing organizations across New Hampshire are not able to use Federal 
funds. I heard from the executive director of the housing authority in 
the city of Rochester. They said they have 170 families who are at risk 
of being homeless if they can't get their operating funding--and that 
is just one housing authority.
  Despite what the administration said about rental assistance not 
being affected, at no point yesterday did the Department of Housing and 
Urban Development say that this money would continue to be available. 
Housing funding that keeps all of these families and hundreds more 
across New Hampshire in their homes is at risk of being cut off.
  Yesterday, we also heard from the Mortgage Bankers Association. They 
were asking for clarity because they couldn't be sure if they could 
help families complete the purchases of their homes.
  The person we talked to said:

       Americans are going to the closing table tomorrow and 
     deserve to know that their loan will close on their home 
     purchase. Without this clear assurance that the Federal 
     Government will ensure new loans or pay claims under these 
     programs, there will be severe harm to borrowers and 
     disruption to the mortgage market.

  Well, HUD gave that clarity for single-family mortgage insurance but 
not for multifamily properties, such as apartment buildings. That 
affects 20 percent of the multifamily housing construction across the 
country. Let me just say that again. It affects 20 percent of the 
multifamily housing construction that is happening right now. We are 
talking about 130,000 apartments nationally that are jeopardized by 
this administration's actions.
  Now, we know we need to build more housing. We are already millions 
of units short of what we need. In New Hampshire last year, for the 
first time, the average price of a house was over $500,000. And our 
rental vacancy rate? In a healthy rental market, the vacancy rate is 
about 5 percent. In New Hampshire, it is 0.6 percent. There is no 
rental housing. This careless action means higher rents and home prices 
in the future.
  Our housing shortage is much of why the most recent point-in-time 
count for homelessness found it up 18 percent across the country. We 
have far too many people in this country who don't have a roof over 
their heads, and that is especially dangerous during these winter 
months. Meanwhile, even though 2 weeks ago New Hampshire's nonprofits 
and State and local governments were awarded more than $14 million to 
help shelter people and support them, today, they couldn't access that 
money. That means they won't have the funding they need for rent or to 
get reimbursed for supportive services.
  I want to be clear: Even after a judge stayed the order, my 
constituents still cannot access their funding. The Presiding Officer 
is a former Governor. He knows what that means. People in our States 
can't get the housing that they are counting on. If they can't get 
their funding, that means more people are forced to live in their cars, 
on the streets. It means more people can't get the help they need with 
substance use disorders or in finding work. It means

[[Page S470]]

more people are stuck without permanent housing. These are veterans; 
they are families; they are victims of domestic violence. They are all 
placed at risk because of this order.
  I heard from one constituent who has a mortgage from the U.S. 
Department of Agriculture. She has owned her home for 20 years now. She 
is almost at the point where she has paid off that mortgage, but 
without the mortgage assistance that she gets from the USDA, she is 
worried that she might lose her home entirely.
  Another of my constituents, Kathleen, lives in housing for seniors. 
She has debilitating medical issues that make it hard for her to leave 
her home. She gets all of her food from a local food bank. She called 
my office because she is worried, if this funding stops, she will be on 
the street, and she doesn't know where her meals are going to come 
from.
  That is what this order and these cuts are threatening--leaving 
seniors without a roof over their heads, not knowing where their next 
meal is going to come from.
  It is not just in housing that people are concerned. The effects on 
communities are significant. The chaos of this order is hurting 
communities that have been promised funding for improvements they have 
made to their water infrastructure, to their energy use, and even to 
city parks.
  We heard from the town of Conway, which is in the heart of the Mt. 
Washington Valley in the White Mountains. With help from the 
Environmental Protection Agency, Conway has fixed an aging sewer pipe, 
their sewer main, to keep sewage from leaking into the groundwater.
  New Hampshire is really good at working at the local, State, and 
Federal level to address critical infrastructure. This week, Conway 
received word that, at least for now, they can't get paid, thanks to 
this order from the Trump administration. Conway has already done the 
work, they have already paid the contractors, and as of today, they are 
waiting for reimbursement of about $400,000 from the Federal 
Government. That is a big deal for a town in a rural area that has 
fewer than 10,000 people. It affects their tax base. If the Federal 
Government doesn't come through with the money that has been promised, 
then taxpayers in Conway are going to have to make up that difference.
  It is unacceptable for the administration to suggest that it won't 
pay this bill, leaving families on the hook for unaffordable rate 
hikes.
  I have also heard from one town administrator who is not yet sure how 
broad the scope of the administration's order is and how it is going to 
affect their ongoing wastewater infrastructure project that is using a 
mix of Federal and non-Federal funds.
  Their pump station relies on tarps to keep out the elements. The 
structure and equipment that keep the sewer system functioning face 
imminent failure. Without the Federal funding--which, just to be clear 
again, has already been committed--there is no way this town can 
complete this project. That the whims of an unconfirmed budget director 
can create this degree of uncertainty is maddening.
  I have heard from Kristen Murphy, who is with the town of Exeter. She 
is very concerned about the pause and the impact it will have on energy 
efficiency funding.
  The Energy Efficiency Community Block Grant Program was poised to 
host a presentation in February for resident-owned manufactured housing 
on funding opportunities for energy efficiency. That is particularly 
important for those people who live in manufactured housing. And I did 
when my husband and I were in graduate school. We lived in what we 
called a mobile home; now it is manufactured housing. I know how 
challenging it is to keep them heated and warm and comfortable for the 
people who live there.
  As Kristen pointed out, support for these manufactured housing 
communities is essential because a greater percentage of their annual 
income goes to home heating costs than it does for most people.
  The administration's actions also threaten other projects in Exeter, 
like a landfill solar array that is currently under construction, 
improvements to critical stormwater infrastructure, and funding for a 
multigenerational community center.
  There are a dozen other small towns in my State--from Gorham in the 
northern part of New Hampshire to Keene in the west over the 
Connecticut River Valley along Vermont--that have made improvements to 
their parks and community spaces through the Land and Water 
Conservation Fund. These towns have matched Federal funding dollar for 
dollar to improve quality of life in their communities, and as of 
today, because of the uncertainty and the way this order is being 
interpreted, taxpayers are left holding the bag.
  In the area of childcare and nutrition, the chaos and confusion from 
the White House over the past 2 days have created significant 
uncertainty for early education programs, and it risks further fueling 
the childcare crisis.
  Again, like housing, we have a childcare crisis in New Hampshire. The 
cost of childcare for the average family, if they have a toddler and an 
infant, is over $30,000 a year.
  While the administration claimed yesterday afternoon that Head Start 
Programs wouldn't be affected, Head Start Programs have been frozen out 
of their payment system. While, hopefully, that should have been made 
available again, my office is still hearing reports of system delays 
and reduced availability that is harming programs.
  Fortunately, the timing of this uncertainty has not disrupted 
services in New Hampshire so far, but I am hearing stories of programs 
in other States that had to temporarily stop serving families because 
they were not able to access the funds they needed.
  It is unclear what the impacts of these shifting policies will be on 
child care and development block grants, which working families rely on 
to be able to afford care for their children while parents are at work.
  My office has heard from the Childcare Network Collaborative in New 
Hampshire with significant concerns that childcare providers may be 
prevented from accessing community development block grant funding that 
they have already been awarded. These funds are intended for the 
purchase of a building that will prevent huge rent increases for 
childcare providers and help fuel an expansion of childcare in the 
rural parts of northern New Hampshire.
  Childcare programs are also concerned about the potential impacts on 
other Federal programs that the families they serve rely on. For 
example, while the administration eventually said yesterday that SNAP 
payments wouldn't be affected, programs are finding it hard to reassure 
families about whether they will actually get their monthly payments on 
time given the disruptions that we have already seen to programs that 
were not supposed to be affected according to the administration's own 
words. So more chaos and uncertainty.
  That is why so many of my constituents are telling me they simply do 
not trust what they are hearing from the White House.
  Families relying on programs like SNAP for food and WIC for women, 
infants, and children to keep from going hungry already struggle to 
make their benefits last until the beginning of the next month. Any 
payment delays, even if it is just a few days, will cause needless 
suffering for hungry children. It is cruel to be putting struggling 
families through this unnecessary anxiety.

  When it comes to law and order, the President often speaks about his 
commitment to law and order. In 2020, he criticized Democrats who 
supposedly wanted ``to defund'' and ``abolish'' the police. Yet here we 
are with the President stopping Federal funds from going to police and 
law enforcement agencies. Make no mistake, this stoppage could place 
lives and livelihoods in jeopardy.
  I heard from Strafford County Sheriff Kathyrn Mone about how the 
cutoff of funds will affect them. I live in Strafford County, so I know 
the sheriff there very well. Strafford County was awarded a $715,000 
COPS technology grant to buy much needed modern and interoperable 
portable and mobile radios for first responders. The U.S. Department of 
Justice notified the county on Monday that they are going to withhold 
these funds, forcing the county to place a hold on the order of new, 
updated radios.

[[Page S471]]

  Now, this may not sound like a big deal to some, but this equipment 
helps Strafford County first responders protect Granite Staters. If 
first responders can't communicate effectively, by definition, they 
can't respond to emergencies and crimes.
  When I was Governor, we had a horrible shooting in northern New 
Hampshire. Two State troopers, a judge, and a newspaper editor were 
killed. As they were trying to get the perpetrator, our State police 
couldn't talk to local police, they couldn't talk to the Vermont law 
enforcement, they couldn't talk to the Canadians, and they couldn't 
talk to Maine--all of whom were involved in trying to catch the 
perpetrator--because they didn't have the communication, the radios 
they needed to keep people safe.
  In the same vein, the town of Newington on the seacoast was awarded 
$80,000 to replace 20-year-old radios and technology that can't 
communicate with modern equipment. The town was on the verge of 
submitting its invoices to be reimbursed for buying this crucial public 
safety equipment when the Trump administration stopped the flow of 
Federal funds.
  If they are in an emergency, like a natural disaster or a mass 
shooter, Newington's police and fire departments would not be able to 
communicate on their current radio equipment to coordinate an effective 
response with Federal, State, and local partners. This lack of 
coordination among first responders could result in Newington's police 
or fire departments not arriving in time to fight a fire or to rescue 
people in need of help. The lack of modern radio communications could 
result in people not getting medical care quickly enough.
  Again, this is much needed equipment that allows officers to 
communicate quickly and effectively to not only protect the people they 
serve but to protect each other.
  Thanks to President Trump, Newington is being forced to pause its 
upgrade of 20-year-old equipment.
  It should also be noted that the White House payment freeze means 
that the businesses who sold Newington the radios and associated 
equipment are not going to get paid in a timely fashion.
  So let's call it what it is: Stopping funds to law enforcement and 
first responders puts lives and businesses in jeopardy.
  It also affects defense contractors. New Hampshire has a strong 
defense industrial base. We have a lot of companies that do great work 
to protect our men and women who are serving. The Federal funding 
freeze is hitting those small businesses and manufacturers that rely on 
defense contracts to pay their workforce, which is critical to 
maintaining our national security.
  For example, the New Hampshire APEX Accelerator program relies on 
grants from the Department of Defense to help small businesses navigate 
Federal contracting. In New Hampshire, government contracts and 
subcontracts totaled $4 billion last year. Now, that is not just some 
number that helps fuel our economy. For people from big States, maybe 
that doesn't sound like a lot of money in your economy, but in New 
Hampshire's economy, that is a lot of money, and it is an investment in 
our national defense. It is a manufacturing worker's ability to support 
their family. So let's not lose sight of what and who we are talking 
about here.
  The freeze blocks funding under the Defense Production Act, which 
expands the defense industrial base under national security 
emergencies. Right now, we have a lot of businesses in New Hampshire 
that are receiving funding under the Defense Production Act to support 
their operations. These grants strengthen military readiness and 
capacity.
  In the area of health, this pause will also cause real harm to 
healthcare providers and patients across our State. Everyone from our 
largest hospitals down to individual patients is reaching out to my 
office. They are confused, and they are scared.
  The most immediate consequences will be felt by safety net providers 
like community health centers. They are vital to caring for our most 
vulnerable populations. Their patients are often uninsured for 
healthcare. Sometimes they are homeless. Some of them suffer from 
substance use disorders or mental illness. They rely on their community 
health centers just to get through the day.
  As much as 50 percent of community health center funding comes from 
Federal grants, and their operating margins are slim.
  Lamprey Health Care in Newmarket, in the southern part of New 
Hampshire, tried and failed to draw down Federal funds yesterday. They 
have another scheduled drawdown for early next week. This means that 
Lamprey has a limited number of days before the Trump administration's 
order limits the services they can provide to the community.
  Amoskeag Health--another one of our community health centers--
provides services in Manchester, our largest city. It would also suffer 
from a funding pause. Thirty-five percent of their funding comes from 
Federal grants, and they only have 19 days of cash on hand, which would 
cover just 1 week of payroll. They are scheduled to get funding on 
Monday, and that is now in the lurch.
  Federal funding to train the healthcare workforce is also being 
threatened. New Hampshire struggles to retain and recruit healthcare 
providers, and Federal funding is critical to ensuring we have enough 
providers in rural and underserved areas.
  Last week, Elliot Hospital--one of the largest hospitals in the 
largest city in Manchester--received notice that $3 million in funding 
for its nursing expansion grant program was put on hold. There are 
currently 80 potential students enrolled in this program. The program 
is designed to address the acute nursing workforce shortage by 
attracting local applicants in the greater Manchester community. The 
funding freeze now puts that effort in jeopardy.

  And Coos County Family Health, the northernmost county in New 
Hampshire, up along the Canadian border, is another community health 
center where access to healthcare can be extremely limited. Patients 
frequently have to drive hours to get access to some of the most basic 
services.
  Coos County Family Health received a planning grant through the 
Health Resources and Services Administration, HRSA, to establish a 
rural medical residency program. Just this week, they received their 
accreditation, which is so exciting. They were so excited. And now the 
process begins to recruit and retain future doctors. The sole purpose 
of this program is to train health providers in Coos County, an area 
that struggles to attract talent. When we train these doctors in rural 
areas, they are more likely to stay after residency and become core 
members of the community. Any other week, this would be great news: 
more doctors to treat patients in need. But, today, their future 
funding through HRSA is at risk, thanks to the uncertainty created by 
these Executive orders.
  Training doctors to treat sick or injured patients shouldn't be a 
controversial issue, but according to this administration, it is.
  Coos County Family Health also uses Federal funding to support the 
victims of domestic violence that come into their practice. Specialized 
staff offer the victims counseling and support services--things like 
access to shelter. The staff connects victims with law enforcement and 
even offers prevention programs in local schools. Without Federal 
funding, they will be forced to lay off these staff members.
  I don't know. Does the administration think that domestic violence 
survivors are unworthy of our support? Does this administration believe 
that causing chaos is more important than protecting our most 
vulnerable? Maybe this is what President Trump meant when he said he 
wanted disrupters. I don't believe this is what the public wanted.
  Mental health programs are also at risk. New Hampshire's suicide rate 
is higher than the national average, and we need every available 
resource to help address this issue.
  Northern Human Services and the National Alliance on Mental Illness 
use funding from the Garrett Lee Smith Suicide Prevention grant to 
provide afterschool support to youth experiencing suicidal ideation or 
those who have recently attempted suicide. We are literally talking 
about taking away services from children who are thinking about 
committing suicide. I heard

[[Page S472]]

from the folks at NAMI, the New Hampshire Alliance on Mental Illness. 
They were almost in tears when they talked about what was going to 
happen if they couldn't serve these kids who need help.
  And there is also Navigating Recovery, offering around-the-clock 
substance use disorder services in the city of Laconia. They are a 
small nonprofit, and they make use of every dollar they get by offering 
24/7 support for individuals that have just overdosed, and that 
includes literally going into the hospital to be with the patient as 
they recover. They offer wraparound services like connecting 
individuals to housing, job opportunities, and childcare so they can 
find stability as they go through recovery.
  And 53 percent of Navigating Recovery's funding comes from Federal 
sources, including the State Opioid Response grant program. I have 
worked for years to get dollars to the State under that SOR program, 
including last year when New Hampshire was awarded nearly $30 million.
  And I have to say, in the first term of the Trump administration, 
President Trump was very supportive of these dollars. We worked with 
his administration to get additional funding to address the fact that 
New Hampshire was one of the hardest hit States. So I don't know why, 
suddenly, they are willing to put that funding at risk by this freeze, 
because it has done more to prevent fatal overdoses and support 
recovery services than any other Federal program. Navigating Recovery 
uses those dollars on the ground. Without it, they would only have 
weeks before they start laying off staff and stop offering services.
  Despite what this administration claims, it is the individuals who 
will pay the price of this uncertainty and chaos. This spending freeze 
is yet another example of the administration ignoring how their 
policies affect individuals' peace of mind, the livelihoods and the 
health of Americans at risk.
  And then we are seeing broader attacks by the Office of Management 
and Budget on Federal employees. The Trump administration didn't stop 
at ripping funding away from vulnerable Americans this week. While much 
of the public's focus has been held by that order, they have continued 
their relentless attack on Federal employees.
  Over 2 million civil servants working in thousands of essential 
fields--from healthcare to law enforcement to national security--who 
keep our country running, are under attack. And listen, I think we need 
to be more efficient and more effective, and we may have people who are 
not doing their jobs the way we want them to, but what this order has 
done is created confusion over the spending freeze--the hiring freeze 
instituted by the President's Executive order.
  The administration claims this is temporary, but thousands of 
Americans who had job offers on the table saw those offers revoked--
even those who were ready to fill some of our most urgent vacancies, 
like at the VA. Even though the Department of Veterans Affairs said it 
would not apply this hiring freeze to many VA positions dedicated to 
providing veterans' healthcare and benefits, many crucial programs that 
veterans depend on will not be able to hire staff to serve our 
veterans.
  For example, the VA will not be hiring caseworkers who help veterans 
get into permanent housing and related support. They won't be able to 
hire the personnel that literally keep the lights on and buildings 
running, such as fire protection, housekeeping, plumbing, boiler plant 
operation, laundry services, and other essential roles.
  And we should remember that, year after year, the VA has had 
challenges in addressing these critical gaps. Last year, the VA 
reported almost 3,000 severe occupational staffing shortages. But that 
didn't stop this administration from pulling every pending job offer 
the day they took office. And while some have been reinstated, others 
are still in limbo. In just one example, VA employees at a facility 
focused on research and care for veterans with late-stage cancer were 
told their jobs were under review and they may be terminated 
altogether.

  Now, I know everybody in this Chamber believes that we have made a 
commitment to those who have served this country in uniform, and we 
don't want to fail our veterans when they return home and enter 
civilian life. So how does this firing of people who take care of them 
help us fulfill that commitment?
  And then, if we want to talk about jobs that keep Americans safe, 
let's talk about keeping planes from falling out of the sky or 
colliding on runways. I worked closely with the National Air Traffic 
Control Union and the FAA's Collaborative Resource Working Group to 
adopt a new staffing model in last year's FAA reauthorization bill.
  We have a significant number of air traffic controllers in New 
Hampshire. They do a great job of keeping people in the flying public 
safe as they enter North America, all the way down to New York, in some 
of the most congested airspaces in the country. Now, the FAA made good 
progress in hiring last year as a result. They are still more than 
3,500 controllers, however, short of their staffing target, and the 
controllers we do have work 6-day weeks, 10-hour days on a good week. 
They are exhausted; they are overworked; and they face severe mental 
health challenges as a result.
  The FAA estimated that 10 percent of the Federal air traffic 
controller workforce would depart last year as a result of these 
conditions. And despite this, these air traffic controllers still 
haven't been told conclusively whether or not air traffic controllers 
are exempt from the hiring freeze.
  Now, if preventing us from filling shortages and taking care of some 
of our most vulnerable wasn't enough, OMB is actively trying to get rid 
of the civil servants we do have. This week, millions of Federal 
employees received emails offering to pay their salaries for the rest 
of the fiscal year in exchange for resigning now--and that included 
every single air traffic controller in the country.
  Now, you might be asking yourselves why, when we are short more than 
3,500 air traffic controllers, did we offer to pay the ones we have not 
to work? Well, like the hiring freeze, this order is an irresponsible, 
reckless, nontargeted effort that could have devastating consequences 
for critical positions.
  What is more, they are trying to convince us that this will save 
money, making it clear that even if we lose thousands of employees with 
no plans to replace them, we will be better off.
  Well, that is bad news for tourism in New Hampshire, for those who 
work closely with U.S. Forest Service personnel and depend on sound 
management of the White Mountain National Forest, and it is bad news 
for people who value clean air and clean water.
  This message was also sent to more than 780,000 civilian employees 
who work for the Department of Defense. In New Hampshire, we have 
almost 8,000 civilians who work at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard that 
we share with the State of Maine. There are four public shipyards in 
the United States. Our employees in Portsmouth have the best on-time, 
on-budget record of any of the public shipyards. These employees 
contribute to the maintenance of our nuclear submarines, an essential 
tenet of our national security and a crucial capability to deter major 
conflict. Any impact to their workforce will strain a shipbuilding 
industrial base that is already saturated with demand to meet the 
requirements of our Navy.
  The bottom line: If the shipyard can't get boats to the fleet on 
time, our Nation is less safe.
  The freeze on Federal assistance also affects critical programs that 
support men and women in uniform, including DOD's financial assistance 
and grant programs that support servicemembers and their families.
  This administration has said repeatedly that it wants to ``restore 
the warrior ethos'' at the Pentagon. I don't know about you, but 
slashing our defense workforce doesn't help me sleep any better at 
night. I don't think that restores the warrior ethos.
  So in conclusion--I see my other colleagues here, and I know they are 
waiting to speak--the actions this week have only created confusion, 
chaos, and stress. That is the best-case scenario, if it ends right 
now. But if not, if the Trump administration and Elon Musk get their 
way and cut these programs, working Americans will be the ones to 
suffer the most.
  The need for housing, sewers, and childcare doesn't go away when this 
administration says they don't want to

[[Page S473]]

pay the bills. These costs just get pushed down to towns and end up 
coming out of people's paychecks. It ends up being paid on the backs of 
our local taxpayers.
  Now, again, the administration tried to walk this back by rescinding 
Monday's memo, but then they added confusion by claiming that the 
underlying funding freeze was still in place. And they are unable to 
answer basic questions about who and what will be affected.
  Maybe it is just me and the hundreds of Granite Staters whom I have 
heard from, but if you are going to stop all the critical funding that 
helps seniors, children, and families across this country, you need a 
better answer than we are hearing from this White House.
  Instead, what we heard during the White House briefing--when asked 
one of these basic questions, Americans were told: We'll check on that 
and get back to you.
  So to Granite Staters who have called my office in distress, 
wondering what this far-reaching, unprecedented move means for their 
lives and their livelihoods: Don't worry. The White House is going to 
get back to you.
  That is outrageous--and this, despite not one but two Federal judges 
who have ordered the White House to stop holding these funds. The 
administration has made it clear that they intend to move forward with 
vague, irresponsible Executive orders that jeopardize billions in 
infrastructure, energy, healthcare, workforce, and educational 
investments.
  Hard-working families, businesses, and nonprofits have been calling 
my office asking for clarity, and this administration hasn't been 
willing to provide any.
  Common sense calls for all of us to work on a bipartisan basis to 
help our constituents to put an end to the chaos and uncertainty that 
has been created by this administration in only its second week.
  I hope we can do that.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Democratic leader.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I want to thank my Democratic colleagues: 
Senators Shaheen and Blumenthal, Senators Kim and Padilla, and so many 
others; Senator Schatz, Senator Durbin, so many others who came on the 
floor tonight. And why did we all come on the floor? To sound the alarm 
of the reckless, lawless things Donald Trump is already doing to 
American families.
  Americans need to know what is happening. They need to know what kind 
of damage people like Russell Vought will do to them. Tonight, we are 
holding the floor to sound the alarm. And, to augment that, I just got 
off the phone with a whole bunch of Democratic Governors from across 
the country, and we talked about Trump's administration's Executive 
orders, his erratic policies, and, most important, the impact on their 
States.
  In State after State, people are on edge, people are so worried, 
because of what these executive orders would do: Head Start, rural 
hospitals, police, firefighters, you name it; schools, local 
governments. In every one of these States, people are angry and scared 
because of the damage that President Trump's Executive order would do.
  Our group, the Governors and I, discussed paths forward to best 
respond and fight back. We are going to have a coordinated approach. We 
talked about how these policies would hurt their States. The amount of 
Federal money that is needed to support these States--and not just 
State government, so to speak, but feeding people, building roads, 
employing people, teaching kids, dealing with mental illness, helping 
keep us safe in fire and police--these are real things. And every one 
of these States could not provide the help that people need, provide 
the decent life that people seek, if this Executive order was fully 
implemented.
  And so we talked about how we could inform them as to what is going 
on. We talked about how we can coordinate. And I told them that thanks 
to the Democrats' work here in the Senate, Donald Trump and Russell 
Vought hit a speed bump today. But I told them, as you will hear from 
my later remarks, we must keep fighting and working together to make 
sure they don't succeed, because if they succeed, they are going to 
hurt millions and millions of average working families. So we are 
working together to do that.
  Now, today, we saw what happens when Americans fight back against 
disastrous policies. We saw what happens when Americans make their 
voices heard. A few days ago, President Trump launched his most 
reckless broadside yet against the American people here in his second 
term. In the blink of an eye, OMB announced a universal freeze on all 
Federal funding. The blast radius--the blast radius--of OMB's 
announcement was seemingly limitless--States, cities, towns, schools, 
small businesses, law enforcement, nutrition services, elderly care; 
hospitals, rural and urban and suburban; communities, people helping 
feed people, people helping people with mental illness, people helping 
house homeless veterans were all just so, so put on edge by the 
potential of these cuts.
  Donald Trump's freeze can be boiled down to three Cs. You can talk 
about it in many ways, but the three Cs are apt: chaotic, creating 
chaos back home because there is chaos here in Trump's government; 
careless, not even knowing and realizing how badly these cuts would 
affect people; and cruel--cruel--outright economic sabotage against 
working families.
  Make no mistake, OMB's funding freeze was intended. It is precisely 
what Project 2025 looks like in action--Project 2025 by another name. 
When Project 2025 first was announced, it was during campaign season, 
and it was amazing the reaction by the American people--Democrats, 
Republicans, conservatives, liberals, Independents--against it. It was 
strong, much stronger than I ever imagined. And as a result, it got a 
very bad name. I think one poll showed 68 percent of Americans opposed 
it.
  So what did Donald Trump do? Typical in his fashion, he said: I never 
heard of Project 2025. I don't even know what it is.
  They were so afraid of it. You think they would have learned a lesson 
during the campaign, but they didn't.
  And, now, within a few weeks of his being inaugurated as President, 
President Trump seeks to implement Project 2025. Well, Americans were 
furious. Americans let Donald Trump know about it. They let their 
Republican Congressmen and Senators know about it. They pushed back, 
and today, after 24 hours of outrage from one corner of the country to 
the other, Donald Trump backed off.
  He rescinded the OMB memo--for now. Of course, the danger is not 
over. Rescinding one OMB memo will not nullify all of the Executive 
orders Donald Trump has issued, which will continue to pose a threat to 
these funds. And we know damn well that if they can't do it this way 
because they were caught redhanded, they will try to do it another way. 
But I can assure the American people, we will be vigilant.
  But I want to say to my colleagues and to my constituents in New York 
and to my fellow citizens--American citizens--the roots of democracy 
are real. So many of us are worried that Trump will try to upend them--
he and his cohorts--but they are real.
  And this week was a good example. People heard how bad this was. They 
raised their voices. And now Trump has backed off.
  This won't be his last assay, his last attempt to do this. We know 
that. But we also know that, when we raise their voices, and we will 
again, he knows that he will lose ground with the American people in a 
very severe and bad way, and if we keep fighting, he will back off and 
back off and back off until he stops. And once and for all, this evil 
scheme--this scheme that hurt so many American families--will be gone.
  It is clear Donald Trump, with this freeze, seeks to violate the law, 
seeks to help his billionaire buddies, and hurt the American people. 
Violate the law, help his billionaire buddies, and hurt the American 
people--that is what he is trying to do. But we won't let him, America. 
We won't.
  Now, let's talk about Mr. Vought, the chief cook and bottle washer of 
2025. This episode, what happened today, should be a lesson to 
President Trump that following Russell Vought and Project 2025 is a 
loser--a loser, of course, for America, but a loser for him.

[[Page S474]]

  Now that Donald Trump has rescinded the OMB order, he should rescind 
the nomination of Russell Vought as well. If not, Mr. Vought will be 
the architect of more losses for President Trump because the next time 
this happens, Russell Vought will be the one calling the shots at OMB, 
a nightmarish scenario for working people.
  I sat down a few days ago with Mr. Vought in my office. Because he is 
seeking nomination, he came to visit me. He told me, plain as day--
plain as day--if he is confirmed, these are the kinds of things he 
wants to do at OMB.
  The Senate must not confirm Mr. Vought to lead OMB. His views are way 
too fringe for the majority of this country, and I am sure, if you 
asked in a secret ballot, for a majority of the Republican Senators who 
sit across the aisle from us.
  But, tomorrow, the Senate Budget Committee is scheduled to hold a 
markup of Mr. Vought's nomination. I join Ranking Member Merkley in 
calling on the chair to delay this markup by at least 2 weeks. Why? 
First, because of the devastation that these Executive orders will do 
and that the funding freeze was prepared to do. But, second, because it 
is clear that Mr. Vought was not honest during his hearings, and we 
need more answers from him. When something this consequential is 
launched by an administration, the person behind it all deserves--or 
America deserves--to hear exactly his thoughts and exactly what he is 
going to do.
  During his testimony, Vought refused to answer direct questions 
related to the impoundment, for instance, of congressional funds, of 
which this is a related issue. And we now know why. He didn't want to 
alert Congress about the incoming decision from OMB to freeze all grant 
funding. Mr. Vought clearly withheld information that Senators were 
entitled to know, that the American people were entitled to know, and 
he needs to give us answers.
  In the meantime, the American people also are learning just how 
fringe Mr. Vought truly is. His North Star is very simple: He wants to 
eradicate trillions in basic services that help American families so 
Republicans can give tax cuts to their billionaire buddies.
  The last time Vought led OMB, he pushed multiple budget proposals 
that slashed Social Security and Medicare and public health. During the 
last default crisis, Mr. Vought was a key adviser to hard-right 
Republicans who pushed America to the brink of disaster by using a debt 
ceiling as blackmail to cut trillions in funding for healthcare, for 
seniors, for hungry kids, and for so many others.
  Mr. Vought wants to eliminate the Department of Education, eliminate 
education funding in many ways.
  He has proposed to cut disability payments for retired veterans. He 
wants to cut SNAP, feeding hungry children. He wants to raise drug 
prices.
  And he is also one of the chief proponents of a truly sinister theory 
about the powers of the executive branch that calls for the impoundment 
of congressional funds. That means, basically, that Russell Vought 
thinks the President gets to pick and choose which laws he wants to 
follow and which he doesn't.
  Why have a Congress? If the President can say, ``Well, I will follow 
this law but not that, and this one and not that,'' that is so 
fundamentally against what the Founding Fathers believed, what 
Americans have believed through centuries, and yet he wants to just 
toss it away, again, so he can pay for the tax cuts his billionaire 
buddies desperately want.
  If Congress wants to pass legislation investing in infrastructure or 
tech innovation or national defense, even, Mr. Vought thinks the 
President can just say nope, an explicit assault on our checks and our 
balances, which has served this Republic so well for centuries.
  And, again, let me repeat so people understand clearly what is the 
end goal: to cut the daylights out of funding for middle-class families 
in order to line the pockets of the ultra-ultrawealthy--tax cuts for 
Donald Trump's billionaire buddies, funding cuts for parents and kids 
and seniors in healthcare.
  I believe the Budget Committee tomorrow, because the chairman of the 
Budget Committee has not granted the delay that is so desperately 
needed, will not go to vote on Mr. Vought, because a vote without him 
coming clean to the American people, what is it worth? It is not a 
process that should be. And then they will explain to the American 
people why this man doesn't deserve a vote in such an unfair hearing 
practice and setting.
  And now let's talk about President Trump's increasing lawlessness. It 
may be tempting to think everything Donald Trump has been doing, 
including halting Federal funding, is part of his chaotic, unthinking 
approach to government, but we should not be so sure that it is just 
that and nothing else, because beneath the surface, a very clear 
pattern is emerging from Donald Trump's second term in office, a 
pattern of sheer lawlessness--a pattern of sheer lawlessness. First, he 
pardoned over 1,500 insurrectionists on his first day in office, 
including people convicted of assaulting Capitol Police officers. These 
were hooligans. I was within 30 feet of them. They were not peaceful. I 
couldn't believe one Congressman said they were tourists. Give me a 
break. They had hatred in their eyes, and they sought to stop our 
government from functioning in its lawful way. Some of them were 
violent, and Trump pardoned them--over 1,500 insurrectionists--on his 
first day in office.

  Can you image anyone, let alone a President, being proud that he 
pardoned insurrectionists, some violent, all trying to overthrow this 
government, on his first day in office? What does that say about this 
President?
  Then, in the dead of night, he got rid of over 17 independent 
government watchdogs--people who report abuse and fraud and waste in 
government--without any notice or justification.
  Yesterday, he eliminated Commissioners sitting on the NLRB and the 
Equal Opportunity Employment Commission. The NLRB, folks--you may not 
have heard those initials, but it has been in place I believe since 
Roosevelt's time to make sure workers are treated fairly, to make sure 
that employers who don't want a union don't go beyond fairness in 
preventing a union from occurring.
  When Donald Trump gets rid of the Democratic Commissioner on the NLRB 
who has always represented working people, he is saying to working 
people: I don't care about you. I care about the people who employee 
you but not you. And if they want to take advantage of you, Donald 
Trump says when he gets rid of the NLRB member, I don't give a hoot.
  Another example. By the way, again, almost certainly against the law. 
The rule is, there should be a certain number of Democratic 
Commissioners and a certain number of Republican Commissioners. Whoever 
is President gets the Chairman, and then there are two Democrats and 
two Republicans. But Donald Trump didn't fire a Republican member of 
the Board. Maybe that would be less unfair. He fired the Democrat who 
stands up for working people.
  Then, after all this, he issues his sweeping OMB memo virtually 
halting Federal grant funding.
  These are actions of a lawless President, of a President who wants to 
erode, eat away at the rule of law and our system of checks and 
balances. And why? Why is Donald Trump storming right out of the gate 
so lawlessly? Why is he breaking one law after another? Might be 
because the Supreme Court said he can't be held accountable. Might be.
  But it is simple. What is he trying to do? Before our very eyes, 
Donald Trump is rigging the system and breaking the law to help his 
billionaire friends at the expense--at the expense--of working 
families. That is the goal.
  Finally, let's talk about how awful yesterday was for so many people. 
I heard from people in every corner of my State--frightened, worried, 
concerned--that they, average New Yorkers, no different than average 
Americans, were going to really suffer because of this funding freeze.
  When I talked to the Governors, as I mentioned a little earlier, on 
the phone, it was happening in every State. It could be a rural State, 
it could be an urban State, a State that is large, a State that is 
small, from one end of America to the other, people are just fearful 
about what would be done.

[[Page S475]]

  The American people did not deserve to endure this 24 hours of panic 
and confusion, and they won't deserve to have to sit through that again 
when Donald Trump seeks another way to do the same thing even though we 
gave a speed bump, even though we thwarted him--not ``we.'' The 
Democratic Senators didn't thwart Donald Trump. The Democratic 
Senators, by our advocacy and our strength, alerted the American 
people, and they thwarted Donald Trump.
  So, America, congratulations. Congratulations. Let's keep doing it 
when he is trying to hurt us.
  Did Donald Trump consider for a moment the damage he was unleashing? 
Did he know he was kneecapping cops and firefighters from purchasing 
literally lifesaving equipment--bulletproof vests, breathing gear? Did 
he know he was essentially shuttering community health centers that so 
many people depend on for their health, that so many people bring kids 
to when they have a fever and might get something more damaging, like 
strep throat or influenza? Did he know that he was hurting rural 
hospitals that had to turn people away because they didn't know if they 
would get the funding? Did he know that he was telling food pantries: 
You are not going to get food next week to feed the hungry.
  Yesterday was absolute hell for so many Americans trying to 
understand how Trump's order was going to hurt them; 24 hours of panic, 
confusion, deep, visceral frustration--all unnecessary.
  All 50 States reported that the Medicaid portal was frozen, and 7\1/
2\ million New Yorkers were shut out of Medicaid all together. That is 
just in New York. Nobody knew what would happen next.
  My office was smothered by an avalanche of calls from New Yorkers, 
local leaders from every corner of the State in panic and fury.
  I was getting calls from New Yorkers of both parties who were furious 
that the administration would have the gall to launch this sneak attack 
on them out of the blue.
  I got calls from Republican town supervisors and mayors asking about 
flood prevention and sewer construction.
  I got calls from food banks like Feed More in Western New York, 
fearful they wouldn't be able to make deliveries to hungry people.
  I got calls from Rochester Head Start and other Head Start Programs 
worried sick--worried sick--that they weren't going to be able to pay 
the rent or pay their staff.
  I got calls from the Roswell Cancer Center, which does some 
groundbreaking research--they developed the PSA test up there in 
Buffalo; Northwell Health on Long Island, one of the biggest hospital 
providers; Churches United for Fair Housing; local leaders in places 
like Syracuse; community health centers like Cornerstone Family 
healthcare in the Hudson Valley--from one end of the State to the 
other.
  So we won't know what the administration will try to do next. An hour 
from now, we could get a new memo outlining a new round of freezes. 
They did the last one at night, in the evening. That is how this 
administration under Donald Trump works--governing by chaos, governing 
by confusion. And who pays the price? The American people--parents, 
kids, doctors, teachers, healthcare workers, police, firefighters, and 
so much more.
  So, my friends, in conclusion, I see my colleagues waiting. I will 
cut short my remarks. I could go on for a while because I am so 
aggravated and angry about what he has done and will attempt to do.
  Even though the Trump administration failed today, it is no secret 
they will try to find another way to cut these funds. When they do, I 
want to assure the American people that Senate Democrats will be there 
not only to call it out but to fight back, to defend American families 
and beat another evil proposal back--with you, the American people, as 
our real sword and shield--making sure he doesn't do bad things to you.
  So thank you to my colleagues for being here. I see we have four 
colleagues waiting. Thank you for sounding the alarm on the terrible 
things this administration is preparing to do, and thank you for being 
true patriots who believe in our democracy.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Husted). The Senator from New Jersey.
  Mr. KIM. Mr. President, I rise today to try to make some sense of it 
all. Why are we seeing nothing but chaos coming from the White House? 
Why are people feeling a sense of fear and confusion? Why should 
Americans be paying attention to any of this?
  I want to start by saying to the American people: You are not alone 
in feeling overwhelmed by what is going on right now.
  Just yesterday, my office received more than 700 calls asking 
questions about the Trump administration's unconstitutional and brazen 
decision to take money away from them, to freeze programs that help 
people in every corner of our State and country. That translates to a 
call every 2 minutes.
  I am going to share some of the stories of concern that I received 
yesterday, but before I do, I want to try to explain what exactly is 
going on.
  On Monday, the Acting Director of the Office of Management and Budget 
sent a memo ordering Federal Agencies to ``temporarily pause all 
activities related to obligations or disbursements of all federal 
financial assistance.''
  I know that sounds complicated, so let me put it another way. The 
Trump administration said that taxpayer money going to help people 
across the country was stopped. That is money that you have paid 
through your taxes that goes to do important things. It helps provide 
meals to seniors. It keeps roofs over people's heads. It helps combat 
the fentanyl crisis. It helps get veterans healthcare. It keeps 
childcare programs open and schools funded. It helps small businesses 
get back onto their feet after disasters.
  That is just a small example of what the Trump administration 
attempted to take away from you. And let's be clear: This is your 
money, and they tried to take it away.
  What happened next was they got caught, and the backlash was fast. 
The outrage was real. Their actions were stopped last night when a 
judge issued an injunction and questioned the constitutionality of the 
administration's actions.
  Then today, in the span of an hour, the Trump administration 
rescinded their directive, only to contradict that with a tweet from 
the White House Press Secretary:

       This is NOT a rescission of the federal funding freeze.
       It is simply a rescission of the OMB memo.
       Why? To end any confusion created by the court's 
     injunction.

  It goes on to say:

       The President's EO's--

  Executive order--

       on federal funding remain in full force and effect, and 
     will be rigorously implemented.''

  In short, the first time we tried to take away your money, it was 
probably unconstitutional, but we are going to keep trying in different 
ways until we get it right.
  If this feels like your head is spinning, I get it. We have seen 
nothing but mass confusion and chaos for the past week and a half since 
Donald Trump reentered the White House. It is not governance; it is 
whiplash.
  If you are watching me on C-SPAN or catching a clip on social media, 
there is one thing I want you to take away: The chaos is just a smoke 
screen for corruption. It is quite clear. They want to take away your 
money and give it right to the billionaire donors and corporate 
interests.
  The Trump administration isn't taking this money away from you 
because they are serious about making government more effective or 
efficient. They are not doing this because they want to help more 
people and target our resources where they can do the most good. They 
are doing this because they are getting ready to gut programs you rely 
on every day and use that money for another round of tax cuts for those 
at the very top. They are doing this because the big corporate 
interests want to dismantle the public servants who work every day to 
make sure that your water is clean, that your kids get a good 
education, and that your parents are able to safely get to their 
doctor's appointments.
  We should not lose sight of what is at stake here. We shouldn't get 
wrapped into the noise and confusion and chaos that the White House 
throws at us because behind that chaos, there are real

[[Page S476]]

victims of this corruption. There are real lives on the line when 
people are left behind. Let me share just a few stories.
  I heard from a lot of seniors and people who support seniors about 
their fears about what this means.
  Yesterday morning, I got an email from someone who helps operate 
senior living facilities in Edison, NJ. They said the freeze was 
``obviously alarming'' for those ``who rely on federal funding to help 
people with disabilities become more independent.''
  One of my staff received an email from a leader of senior services 
organizations in Hackensack and Jersey City who said:

       Those in most need of services in New Jersey will lose all 
     support.

  Another staff received a message from Frank in Toms River. Frank 
said:

       I am paralyzed and use Ocean Ride to get to all my doctors 
     appointments. . . . I am unable to travel in a regular 
     vehicle and without the significant discount of Ocean Ride, I 
     could not afford to get to the doctor. Ocean Ride is 
     essential to my daily life.

  Now, you may never have heard of Ocean Ride, but for people like 
Frank, it is their lifeline. These actions by the Trump administration 
to take away money could force Ocean Ride to close their doors.
  It is not just our seniors who lose out in this corruption and chaos; 
it is our kids.
  I got a call from Kelly, a nurse from Parsippany.
       I work with children who need food from free school 
     programs, babies who need WIC, children who are bullied in 
     school, children with disabilities.

  She told me that the Trump administration should ``quit playing games 
with politics.''
  I heard the same thing from Manny from Bergen County, a public school 
teacher who said that he had ``students that benefit directly from 
programs'' that are on the chopping block. Manny said that this moment 
makes it hard to look at his 3\1/2\-year-old and think about the 
future. It is a feeling that so many of us have right now.
  I heard from Susan from Hudson County who works in a nonprofit that 
helps the homeless. She said in a call to our office yesterday:

       Our funds have been frozen. We are not going to be able to 
     serve our clients or our staff. This is going to have a 
     significant impact, not only with my agency, but the entire 
     community of those we serve.

  I am sharing these stories with you because it is important to 
remember that the impact of the decisions made at the White House go 
beyond the feeling of hopelessness and helplessness. If the White House 
continues down this path, those at the very top--the well-off and the 
well-connected--will get their tax cuts and whatever else they want. 
They will get it at the expense of a senior who will have to miss a 
doctor's appointment because their ride support program has been cut. 
They will get it at the expense of a young kid whose aftercare was cut 
or free school lunch was eliminated. And they will get it at the 
expense of the person who just needs a helping hand to put a roof over 
their head.
  Mr. President, this isn't just about ending this chaos; it is about 
protecting our neighbors, our communities, and our families. We know 
this fight is not over. The White House was very clear about that 
today. This was just the beginning.
  We have seen these freezes for infrastructure spending that could 
impact big projects like the Gateway Tunnel and small projects like 
paving the road you drive on to take your kids to school.
  These freezes could make America less competitive on a global stage 
by cutting research for AI and other next-generation technologies. In a 
week where we are seeing China make gains, we can't take our own foot 
off the gas.
  And these freezes could stop critical research into diseases that 
impact Americans across the country. We should be supercharging our 
efforts to cure Alzheimer's and cancer, not cutting them.
  Meanwhile, we have seen nearly 20 inspectors general fired from 
government Agencies, trying to hide what is happening. The American 
people want more accountability, not less. And making it harder for 
watchdogs to call out bad behavior could result in a golden age of 
corruption.
  But when it comes to standing up against attempts to take away your 
healthcare, your childcare, your eldercare, the basic protections that 
your government provides because you pay into it, we will be with you 
every step of the way to fight back.
  This is just the beginning. We hear your concerns, your frustrations, 
your anger. Your voice still matters. Your story stills matters. And 
Democrats in this Chamber will lead the way. But together, we will push 
back and make sure that it is the people's priorities that win the day.
  Mr. President, I ask the American people to see the chaos for what it 
is: a smoke screen to benefit the ultrawealthy. And although I know 
this chaos is unnerving and it is frightening, the American people can 
rest assured that we will fight this chaos and focus on what matters 
most here: protecting you from the blatant corruption that is the 
administration's attempt to take money from our working families and 
give handouts to those at the very top. Let's get to work.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from California.
  Mr. PADILLA. Mr. President, colleagues, a little over a year ago 
during a FOX News townhall, Sean Hannity gave Donald Trump, then-
candidate for President of the United States--the chance to assure the 
American people that he would not abuse power or become a dictator if 
he won a second term.
  But instead of committing to the rule of law during that townhall, he 
answered defiantly saying ``Except for day 1.''
  Well, it has been 9 days since he was sworn into office, and as then-
candidate Trump promised, we are already seeing how hell-bent he is on 
pushing the limits of his power. We see a President unburdened by the 
rule of law after the Supreme Court handed him blanket immunity and a 
President with a blatant disregard to the guardrails put in place by 
the authors of our Constitution.
  Over the last week and a half, here is what we have seen him do: He 
has declared an end to birthright citizenship in clear violation of the 
14th Amendment to the Constitution; he has illegally fired 18 
inspectors general--individuals, professionals we count on to hold 
departments and Agencies accountable; he has issued 1,500 pardons for 
the January 6 insurrectionists, including many who attacked law 
enforcement officers in an attempt to overthrow an election; and late 
Monday night, almost 48 hours ago, he set off an actual constitutional 
crisis.
  The President ordered a sweeping freeze on ``all Federal financial 
assistance,'' pending a review by his political appointees who have 
passed his loyalty tests. Yes, those are documented.
  Donald Trump has attempted to implement nothing less than a one-man 
Presidential government shutdown. But, thankfully, the American people 
would not stand for it. Communities in every corner of California and 
every corner of the country have raised alarm bells and filed lawsuits. 
They have not backed down.
  President Trump's administration has backed down--at least for now--
because we are not naive enough to think that he is not going to try to 
do it again. The vague document released by Donald Trump's budget 
office threatened to withhold billions of dollars from social safety 
net programs, for example, all to lay the groundwork to pay for his big 
tax cuts for large corporations and billionaires--yes, like the 
billionaires he surrounded himself with during his inauguration.
  Working families--again, not just across California, but across the 
country--knew immediately what the consequences and the impacts mean in 
real life. Preschools closed, lifesaving cancer treatments halted, meal 
programs for seniors threatened--I can go on and on with specific real-
world examples. But here is another dynamic I ask you to take to heart. 
The billionaires who sat next to him and the billionaires who set to 
benefit from the tax breaks he is hoping to achieve, of course, they 
wouldn't have felt the impact of this at all.
  As we stand here right now, we are told that he has rescinded the 
order in order to avoid a court battle because, of course, this was 
already challenged and tied up in court. But we know that the fight is 
far from over. In fact, the

[[Page S477]]

White House Press Secretary threatened that his Executive order 
blocking Federal funding that he issued day one in office is still in 
effect: ``Remains in full force'' and ``will be rigorously 
implemented.''
  Let's be clear about what President Trump has tried. He has tried to 
block hundreds of billions of dollars in aid to support families 
recovering from catastrophic fires in California. He has attempted to 
block aid to law enforcement agencies that we rely on to keep our 
communities safe. He is trying to block aid to children and families 
who depend on Federal childcare and nutrition programs. That is the 
reality of what is going on here.
  And, sadly, for the most part, my Republican colleagues have 
obediently fallen in line. I have to believe you are getting the same 
phone calls that I am--countless calls from constituents and community 
groups and individuals searching for answers, searching for guidance, 
asking for our help because the way these orders and memos are written, 
nobody knew which specific programs were affected or for how long. The 
executive Agencies that were supposed to implement the order didn't 
even know how they were affected. And most glaringly, the White House 
itself changed its story every few hours on what was supposed to be 
affected by the Executive order that they themselves wrote.
  So the Trump administration, through either their intent or their 
incompetence--or maybe both--and a disregard for the law sowed chaos, 
confusion, and fear amongst hard-working American families.
  State Agencies and local governments, not just throughout California 
but, again, throughout the country, were blocked from accessing 
Medicaid and housing assistance grant portals. In case you thought 
folks were exaggerating, yes, that really happened. Colleagues on both 
sides of the aisle, I know you know about this.
  The director of a grant-funded program with the district attorney's 
office in Los Angeles supporting victims of violent crime was concerned 
about the future of their work because of the uncertainty of Federal 
assistance. Funding for research on cures for childhood cancer was 
threatened. Local commuter rail officials in Sonoma raised concerns 
about their ability to continue service if outstanding Federal funding 
is frozen--service that workers need to get to work, to do their jobs, 
keep our economy going. The city of Vacaville was worrying about the 
potential impact to their housing authority and vouchers.
  There is a housing affordability concern and homeless crisis in many 
parts of the country. This is not helping. Head Start grantees were 
frozen out of their Federal payment management system. And if those 
kids can't go to Head Start, their parents have a tougher time getting 
to work.
  What are you doing?
  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 were paused.
  The impacts are real, colleagues.
  Mr. President, as you know, my home State of California has been 
devastated by historic fires these last few weeks. Fueled by wind gusts 
of up to 100 miles an hour, the Southern California fires burned more 
than 12,000 homes and businesses and more than 40,000 acres--nearly or 
approximately three times the size of Manhattan. And over two dozen 
Californians lost their lives.
  Thanks to a swift major disaster declaration that President Biden 
issued in his final days, Federal Agencies like FEMA and the EPA have 
been instrumental in not just the response to the fires but in the 
early stages of recovery and rebuilding efforts.
  But in his typical, vindictive, and reckless fashion, President Trump 
didn't stop to think about the actual impacts of a decision like this. 
His OMB order shamefully put our disaster relief at risk. The freeze 
would have delayed FEMA's public assistance programs supporting debris 
removal, meaning--look, if you delay the debris removal, you are 
delaying the rebuilding efforts. It threatens funding for emergency 
shelters as well as the grant money that supports hiring firefighters 
and firefighting equipment purchases.
  Do you think these fires were devastating? We have all seen the 
images on television. Some of you may have an appreciation for the 
scale of the communities impacted. Let me remind us, folks, we are in 
the middle of winter. Summer is just a few months away. The risk and 
the threat will continue to grow, and we are going to delay the hiring 
of firefighters and the purchasing of firefighting equipment?
  After threatening to withhold Federal aid for disaster victims in 
California as leverage to pass other elements of an unpopular agenda, 
this was just another slap in the face to the thousands of Americans 
who lost everything and are now counting on our collective support.
  Just yesterday, after Federal firefighters returned home from working 
24-hour shifts to battle unprecedented fires in dangerous, life-
threatening conditions and after risking their own lives to protect our 
communities, Federal firefighters received a message from President 
Trump. You would think that maybe--just maybe--it was a message, saying 
``Thank you for your service. Thank you for your sacrifice. Thank you 
for your time away from your family to help fellow Americans in need,'' 
but it was not. The message Federal firefighters received after being 
gone for weeks--24-hour shifts, protecting lives--the message they 
received was a request for their resignation. That is right. President 
Trump offered them a buyout.
  It was not just to them; he offered this to all career Federal 
employees who are not beholden to his loyalty tests without having the 
clear authority or funding to do so. We have seen this before from 
President Trump and his co-President, Elon Musk.
  I think it is important to share with everybody tonight, especially 
to Federal employees who are watching: Anybody who received this offer 
and thinks that maybe this is an offer that is too good to be true, 
that maybe I should jump at it, let me assure you this offer is too 
good to be true because there is no Federal funding to pay people who 
do not show up to work.
  Our Federal firefighters saw this attempted buy-off for what it was, 
and I want to read for you, colleagues, some of the messages--just a 
few of them--that I have received.
  From one brave firefighter:

       It's hard to put into words just how disrespectful this 
     feels to any civil servant but especially to someone who's 
     given so much--sacrificing precious time away from family, 
     risking everything for the greater good.

  Another message reads as follows:

       Today I returned home after a two-week fire assignment in 
     California. . . . A slew of executive orders over this last 
     week have put myself and a lot of others on edge. I am 
     worried for my livelihood and my future. A purge of federal 
     Wildland firefighters will have catastrophic outcomes. Our 
     fire seasons are only getting longer, neighborhoods continue 
     to expand well into wild landscapes. We cannot control when a 
     fire will choose to wreak havoc on a community, but we will 
     show up. We want to show up.

  Colleagues, tomorrow, as some of the members of the Budget Committee 
have recognized, we have an opportunity to show these brave Federal 
workers that we hear them and that we are fighting for them and that we 
will continue to fight for them.
  The Senate Budget Committee will meet to vote on the nomination of 
Russell Vought to lead the Office of Management and Budget.
  By the way, this is the very office that is the source of much of the 
chaos over the past 48 hours. During his previous tenure with OMB, 
Vought tried on numerous occasions to withhold and slow the 
distribution of congressionally appropriated disaster relief and 
foreign aid based on political motives. During his confirmation hearing 
last week in the Budget Committee, he continued to hedge on answers 
that he would not politicize government assistance. He refused at every 
opportunity to fully commit to following the law when it comes to the 
distribution of Federal funding.
  To any of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle who have worked 
hard to secure funding for their constituents back home and who don't 
want to see the money that families in their States are counting on 
recklessly withheld, we must vote no on this nominee.
  Here is where we stand at the moment: President Trump may have

[[Page S478]]

backed down for now thanks in part to so many of my Democratic 
colleagues who have spoken out against these outrageous abuses of power 
that will hurt our constituents, but the chaos over the last 48 hours 
is only a sign of things to come throughout this administration that 
has just begun.
  I would like to speak to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle 
for just a moment.
  Yes, you all won the majority in this November's election. I respect 
that. I am not an election denier. But for those of you who just won 
your campaign, who were just elected, and who just joined the Senate--
actually, I think, to everybody, whether you were elected now, 2 years 
ago, or 4 years ago, I will ask you this: When you ran for the Senate, 
for the privilege to serve in this body, did you run on a platform of 
cutting veterans' housing assistance? Did you reach out to voters who 
are now your constituents and say ``Vote for me, and I will cut school 
lunch programs''? Did you suggest during the courses of your campaigns 
that, if elected, you would cut disaster relief?
  As a colleague, I ask you this: Are you more loyal to your oath of 
office, to your constituents, and the Constitution or are you more 
loyal to a wannabe dictator--Trump? Are you just going to stand down 
silently while he tramples all over your independent constitutional 
authority and then race to either Mar-a-Lago or to the White House for 
a picture and for him to thank you? Your silence over the last 48 hours 
is deafening.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Nebraska.

                          ____________________