[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 27 (Monday, February 10, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S808-S809]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Trump Executive Orders
Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I just got back from Albany and
Syracuse, where I visited two of our community health centers--the
Syracuse Community Health Center and the Hometown Health Center in
Schenectady. These community health centers do amazing work--amazing
work. They provide good, effective, efficient healthcare for so many
people. In New York State, about 2.4 million people get help from the
community health centers. In Central New York that I visited in
Syracuse, about 80,000, and in the Capital Region, where Albany is,
110,000.
Let me say that when President Trump instituted his freeze, his
funding freeze, it sent shock waves through these two centers and
hundreds of others across the country. All of a sudden, payments
frozen, funding frozen--no reasoning, no logic, nothing. They wondered:
Do they have to lay off people? Could they pay the rent?
They wondered if they could give healthcare, you know, for someone
who had a 2-week plan. Maybe the doctor shouldn't prescribe it in week
1 because money wouldn't be around in week 2.
They depend on Federal funding. They get somewhere between 15 to 20
percent of their funding. They have been going on since the 1960s and
delivering great, efficient healthcare. And,
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all of a sudden, this funding freeze drops on them like a ton of
bricks.
And it wasn't just community health centers--veterans organizations,
mental health, organizations that provide mental help for people, Head
Start.
In Western New York, two of our Head Starts in rural America, in
rural Western New York, closed, and 200 families--200 families--had to
struggle to find what to do, because when you are a single mom or a
single dad or even a mom and dad, a two-parent family, and there is
nobody there watching the kids--there is no Head Start--what are you
going to do? Should I stay home from work--maybe risk salary being
docked, even losing my job?
It was horrible. This occurred across the country.
Now, thank God, people rebelled. Thank God, people made their voices
heard, and the funding freeze was rescinded. But the damage still is
there.
There is a healthcare center, where I visited in Syracuse--this one
was in the Mohawk Valley--that funding of $71,000 on a thing they were
building stopped. Five centers in Virginia closed. And funding is still
intermittent in healthcare centers throughout New York State and
throughout the country.
Cruel, unfair, awful. These programs help people. No, they don't help
the billionaires. I get it. But they help average folks and poorer
people get the healthcare they need. They help them see a doctor so
that preventive care can happen, which we all know saves us money. They
are a shining example of public service that does enormous good for
millions of families.
And to anyone who says that these are examples of inefficiency or
waste, visit one. Visit some of the scores of them that are in New
York. They are the most efficient, effective deliverers of healthcare
in the country. They serve people who need it the most, and they are
effective.
Let's say you have 3 kids. You are a single mom. And your kid has 104
fever, with probably strep, and you have to see a doctor before it gets
worse. You go to a community health center, and you don't sit in a
waiting room for 6 hours and have to file endless papers, like you do
in a hospital. They take care of you right away. It makes it a lot
easier for people to get healthcare, and it makes people want to get
that healthcare that their kid might need.
And yet we are still hearing it: these great healthcare centers--
funding delayed, funding not coming, funding late. And they depend on
this funding. They don't have a 6-month plan. They get funds from the
Federal Government every 2 weeks. That pays the rent. That pays the
salaries. That buys these supplies they need. You shut it off for a
week, and the whole thing could face a real problem.
And so I went to Syracuse and Albany and demanded that, No. 1, this
administration say they are no longer fooling around with the money
that these community health centers need, that they get it right away;
2, that they give an explanation as to why it was cut off. What did
they do wrong? Help people get healthcare that they need?
And, third, we Senate Democrats are demanding that the funding for
these centers, overall, which runs out on March 14, because, as you
know, Madam President, there was a bipartisan agreement to fund them
fully for the year--Democrats and Republicans--and Donald Trump and
Elon Musk said, even before they were in office--Musk is not in office;
but before Trump was in office and Musk was working with him--they told
the Republicans: Don't fund it. Don't fund this healthcare package.
And so now we are waiting until March 14, but that is a CHC,
community healthcare center, cliff. If we don't renew that funding,
many, many will close. Millions of people in America who are getting
good healthcare--often preventive, often dealing with the immediate
problems--will not get it at all.
So those are the three things: Stop fooling around with the funding;
keep the flow going. No. 2, explain what anyone did. Why did they stop
this funding? And, third, fund us so we don't go over the healthcare
cliff.
This was bipartisan. My guess is you, Madam President, probably
supported it. But when Donald Trump and Elon Musk said, ``Get that
funding out; kill the deal,'' that is what Republicans did.
I made it clear in Syracuse and in Albany that this cannot happen. It
is infuriating, and it has nothing to do with inefficiency.
Our hospitals, by the way--our big hospitals--like CHCs because that
means their emergency rooms are not overflowed with people who could be
taken care of in a much more effective, efficient way.
So I want to make a final point here. We hear from Donald Trump, JD
Vance, Elon Musk, and DOGE that all they want to do is get rid of waste
and inefficiency. When you look at community health centers, that is
utter nonsense--utter, utter nonsense. There isn't very much
inefficiency at them. No one ever said it was, that they were
inefficient. In fact, most people who look at it say they are the most
efficient providers at a lower cost, with less to do in healthcare,
less paperwork, less all of this than other places.
So anyone who thinks that this DOGE experiment is simply getting rid
of waste, baloney--baloney. We know what it is about: cut. DOGE is
using a meat ax and cutting things that are vital to people.
Why? Why is all this happening? Because a careful look at
inefficiency in government, even with a new administration that might
want to look at it a little differently, would not just cut
everything--not just cut everything.
And the bottom line is, it is all to cut $2.5 trillion, $2 trillion.
We know what they are doing. And, unfortunately, too many of our
Republican colleagues are going along. They are making these cuts so
they can give the very wealthiest people in America a bigger tax
break--take a working-class family that is getting healthcare and say:
You don't get it anymore so Mr. Ultrabillionaire can get more tax
breaks.
Come on. That is what is going on here, and it is across the board.
We saw what they did with AID. Well, one program AID is working on,
as I understand it, is dealing with Ebola in the middle of Africa. Cut
out the program? What if Ebola spreads around Africa and even here?
Most people think that is a very good program.
Most people thought PEPFAR did a lot of good, but they cut it all.
They didn't point out and say: This is inefficient, and that is
inefficient. And cut it, but let's keep the good stuff. Uh-uh, cut it
all. And we know why, once again. It is because the billionaires want
even a bigger tax break.
So my visits to CHCs--the two CHCs I visited, Hometown in Schenectady
and Syracuse healthcare in Syracuse--were very moving to me. I saw
dedicated people who want to help people. I saw patients come in and
get decent healthcare.
And yet it is on the chopping block. That is not what America voted
for, Madam President. That is not what America voted for.
So I hope we will have a bipartisan coalition to fund our health
centers, and I also hope that this administration, whether it comes to
community health centers or so many other good programs across the
board, will not freeze their funding, will not just say, ``We are
cutting you,'' and will look at things carefully. There is
inefficiency; use a scalpel. Get rid of it, but don't cut everything.
And, again, it seems the logic is very simple. They are really not
interested in making the government more efficient. They just want to
cut a certain huge amount of money. They don't care where it comes
from--2.5 trillion, 2 trillion, 1 trillion--regardless of the
consequences for working families. It is a shame. It is a shame.