    [Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 33 (Wednesday, February 19, 2025)]
    [Senate]
    [Pages S1029-S1031]
    From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

                             Budget Reconciliation

      Mr. LUJAN. Mr. President, over the past week, Elon Musk and Donald
    Trump have fired thousands of Federal workers, many of them in New
    Mexico, without warning. The calls that I get to my office from
    constituents all across New Mexico are expressing concern, surprise,
    alarm, not knowing what is going to happen next, worried about a
    project. A professional whom I spoke to who works for the Bureau of
    Indian Education, who has a responsibility to help diagnose and support
    students with disabilities, asked: Do I stay and help these kids? What
    is going to happen with this stuff?
      Whether it is our neighbors who work to support the National Labs to
    keep us safe or our friends who work at the U.S. Department of
    Agriculture helping our farmers and ranchers feed our Nation--these
    illegal mass firings are impacting communities across every corner of
    New Mexico.
      To sum this up, what I keep hearing from New Mexicans every day is:
    Please help me. Speak up. Say something. Do something. Bring attention
    to what is happening to the harm that is being caused in our
    communities, for all of our constituents.
      This isn't about Democrats or Republicans; it is about right or
    wrong. It is about real people.
      Now, instead of protecting these jobs and helping our fellow
    Americans, Senate Republicans are pursuing a partisan budget resolution
    that will make it even harder for families to afford their healthcare,
    put food on the table, or get an education for their students, for
    their kids.
      This is, quite frankly, chaos. And it is chaos that the American
    people cannot afford. New Mexicans and Americans from all walks of life
    rely on the programs that Republicans are now attacking. These are
    programs that feed seniors, veterans, children, the disabled. These are
    programs that house our veterans, that keep folks warm during these
    winter months.
      And why are Republicans ripping these services away from people who
    need them? To fund this Trump tax scam. Now, it is 2.0. The American
    people and constituents across New Mexico are the ones who told me back
    in 2017: This really feels like a scam.
      What Republicans are saying is middle-class families are going to get
    everything in here when it comes to a tax cut. But what we saw play out
    is: If you are making millions of dollars, you did OK, you got the
    brunt of everything that was in this tax scam.
      Lying to the face of the American people is what happened in 2017,
    and it certainly feels the same now.
      Let's talk about one possible outcome of this budget resolution. In
    New Mexico, Medicaid covers 75 percent of births, supports around
    92,000 children in my home State. Across the country, nearly 40 percent
    of babies are born with the help of Medicaid. For these babies and
    pregnant women, this program is vital, offering a chance to grow up
    healthier and have the best opportunity to succeed. We should all want
    that for our constituents. That is not partisan.
      Unfortunately, Republicans have made it clear that they are
    determined to slash Medicaid. They tried it in 2017. What I hear from
    my Republican colleagues when they are being interviewed and being
    asked the question ``are you going to cut Medicaid,'' they certainly
    attempt to try in every form and fashion to say: No, no, no. We are not
    going to touch it. We are just going to leave it up to the States.
      Let me translate what that means. What Republicans in Congress are
    going to do is work to eliminate every Federal dollar with Medicaid.
    There is this acronym FMAP. It is a Federal matching program to make
    Medicaid work across America. That is what they are going after. And if
    you visit with anyone across America who knows anything about how this
    program works, they will all tell you,

    [[Page S1030]]

    without these Federal dollars, this program goes away.
      This Republican budget resolution sets the stage for dismantling
    Medicaid, which could result in pregnant moms and babies losing
    healthcare. That is just one possible outcome.
      As I said earlier, the American people deserve honesty and
    transparency. Look, I understand if my Republican colleagues want to do
    this. Just own up to it. Tell the American people what you want to do.
    Let them know. Just be honest with them. That is the least that the
    American people deserve.
      Last week in the Budget Committee, I offered a number of commonsense
    amendments to help lower costs for families, to strengthen border
    security, safeguard healthcare, promote American manufacturing and
    businesses, and invest in public safety. And top of mind for many
    Americans, I offered an amendment to ensure that Elon Musk and his
    companies are not profiting off the same government that he is
    dismantling. Elon Musk, who was not elected by the American people, is
    pursuing an extreme agenda to serve his own interests and greed. All
    while the American people are paying the price for it.
      If Republicans are serious about tackling the issues and lowering
    costs, let's work together. You have partners here ready to do this for
    the American people.
      But my Republican colleagues know better than I that what is
    happening under this President and Elon Musk is the cost of goods
    continues to go up. I don't know how many of you were at the grocery
    store this weekend in this Chamber, but if you haven't been, go by it.
    Go by and try to buy some eggs. You are going to see a sign that limits
    you to maybe a dozen, maybe 2. And you are going to see the costs going
    up and up and up--milk, butter. You look at it, you see it, you name
    it--it is all increasing in price.
      What happened to President Trump saying on day one he was going to
    lower the cost of these goods for the American people? It is not
    happening.
      Look, to sum this up, Americans will not be able to make ends meet if
    Senate Republicans dismantle the programs that make our country strong
    and secure to advance yet another tax scam.
      I yield the floor.
      The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Colorado.
      Mr. BENNET. Mr. President, we may not be in a quorum call, but I can
    tell you this, we are in the midst of a 1,200-year drought in the
    American West that challenges us in extraordinary ways--from vast new
    insect and disease outbreaks to catastrophic wildfires. Instead of
    having fire seasons, there are many people now who observe that it has
    become trite, I would say, to observe, as the fire season lasts all
    year.
      Our national forests in Colorado and throughout the Rocky Mountain
    West are the headwaters of America. In those forests is the origin of
    the streams and rivers that flow to the rest of the Western United
    States. In the case of just the Colorado River Basin alone, 40 million
    people rely on it. It is the lifeblood of the American West, the
    lifeblood of the Western United States, and of every town and every
    community no matter how big and no matter how small. In Colorado and on
    every farm and ranch across the American West, they depend on this
    water, and they depend on the forests where this water stops. The
    critical aspect of this, I think, is that everybody who is downstream
    from us needs to care about the health of our forests and also our
    public lands.
      As many people know, since COVID ripped through the United States of
    America, our public lands have become a place for the American people
    to find refuge, for the American people to be able to get away from
    each other, for families to have the time to also be together on
    America's public lands. And as many people now say, our public lands
    are being loved to death. We have had Americans from all over the world
    come and discover the public lands in Colorado and throughout the West,
    but it has created new pressures on our communities, new pressures on
    the lands themselves and also on the communities that are surrounding
    them.
      Now, when we find ourselves in a place where we are facing these
    challenges and where we have done a little bit of work just over the
    last few years because of the money we were able to get into the
    bipartisan infrastructure bill, it is not the forests that we are
    thinning; it is the Forest Service staff that has been clearcut by what
    the Trump administration is doing and has proposed to do.
      Even before the Trump administration began their across-the-board
    cuts on the Forest Service, the Forest Service had 30 percent less of a
    workforce than it had 30 years ago. Think about that. While the
    stresses and strains have grown, while the effect of that 1,200-year
    drought and climate change has grown, now we find ourselves in a place
    where the Forest Service is getting whacked by the administration.
      Last year, even before the Trump administration came back to town, I
    met with Forest Service employees in Colorado--actually, not just the
    Forest Service but the other western public land Agencies from the
    Western Slope of Colorado to the Eastern Plains of our State--who told
    me that they can't hire anybody to work for these Agencies because
    Federal pay has not kept up with the cost of housing.
      They were the best jobs in our communities years ago. You could live
    on one person's salary. You could have a household. You could raise
    kids in a community. You never had to leave the community you grew up
    in if you had one of these jobs. Today, nobody can afford housing in
    Colorado. That is a huge problem for America, not just for my State,
    but it is certainly true of the public employees in the Forest Service.
    To add insult to injury, it takes months and months and months of
    bureaucratic nightmares to hire people.
      Now, Donald Trump has come here without any understanding of the
    needs on the ground of the American people and of our States and of our
    watersheds, and he has decided to impose across-the-board cuts that, I
    suppose, he is going to use in the end to try to justify the $4.6
    trillion in tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. You heard that
    right. At a time when we have had the worst income inequality than we
    have had since the 1920s, Donald Trump wants to extend his tax cuts for
    the wealthiest while he is doing things like cutting the Forest Service
    across the board. Forty-five percent of the benefit of that bill goes
    to the top 5 percent of Americans. I never understood the priority the
    last time he cut taxes for the wealthiest people and claimed it was a
    middle-class tax cut, but I especially don't understand it when he is
    slashing the Forest Service.
      This isn't about the Forest Service employees, although I think they
    should be treated better; it is about the people whom they serve. They
    are public servants who are doing the work we need them to do in our
    forests. It is already challenging enough to do it without these cuts.
    To level an across-the-board cut--terminating 3,400 employees,
    including at least 90 in Colorado--is the wrong thing to do.
      These unfounded layoffs are just the latest offense to an Agency that
    is already working, struggling to keep up with the demands of the
    American people and the reality on the ground.
      In the last few days, my office has heard from a number of Forest
    Service employees who were fired last week. We heard from a Forest
    Service program manager whose first Forest Service job was as a
    wildland firefighter at just 19 years old. That is a very, very common
    way for people to come into the Forest Service. And she recently
    returned to the Forest Service to manage high-priority recreation and
    restoration projects for one of the busiest national forests in the
    United States and help the management plan process for the Camp Hale
    National Monument, which honors our World War II veterans.
      I have also heard from a 40-year career civil servant who has worked
    for multiple Agencies in rural Colorado, including over 25 years in the
    Forest Service. As a result of her vast experience and years of
    service, she was recently promoted which put her in probationary
    status, not because she was a new employee but because she was--with
    all of her vast experience, she had been elevated, she had been
    promoted. But she was, nevertheless, a probationary employee because of
    the way the bureaucracy works. Over the weekend, she was let go; and
    she worries that she will never have her well-earned position. These
    people have done absolutely nothing wrong.

    [[Page S1031]]

      We heard from a lifelong Coloradan who is a national leader for
    forest conservation and deeply respected in our community. This person
    moved across the State for a position with the Forest Service. Their
    work informed local efforts to reduce wildfire risks and restore forest
    health, creating a safer landscape for wildland firefighters to work in
    when a fire does break out, which, by the way, is almost all the time
    these days.
      Ironically, the administration fired a member of a Colorado National
    Forest leadership team--get this, Mr. President--who was actually
    involved in planning for staff reduction. But it wasn't the across-the-
    board reduction that came from Washington, DC; it was the thoughtful
    reduction that you can only do if you are close to the local level.
      Our forests look nothing like Central Park, and I am not sure
    President Trump understands that.
      This person was responsible for teams of people working on energy
    production, wildfire prevention, and the responsible use of our public
    forests. And there are countless other stories already of people who
    recently signed up for seasonal work to help manage recreation,
    rangeland, and wildlife habitat who are now unemployed.
      Trump and Musk's actions aren't about increasing efficiency or
    repaying American taxpayers. These cuts don't root out fraud or
    government waste, but these actions do place an immense burden on the
    citizens of Colorado, on the citizens on the West. We are hanging out
    communities to dry all over--all over--the American West.
      I am glad my colleague from Oregon is here, the former chairman of
    the Finance Committee, who also has had to watch these crazy tax cuts--
    which by the way, Mr. President, I will say to my colleague: That is
    not even a speech I was supposed to give. It is about the across-the-
    board layoffs of people in our forests who already are totally
    undermanned and aren't able to keep up with the demands of the public.
    But, really, for what? So you can pass a tax bill--not you but these
    guys on the other side--where 45 percent of the benefit goes to the
    richest people in America, or more?
      Cutting staff that put out unattended campfires, that manage timber
    sales and support wildland firefighting efforts means that our
    communities will face much more wildfire risk come spring.
      These cuts undermine businesses that require permits to operate on
    our public lands--from outfitters and guides to oil and gas companies--
    and mean fewer boots-on-the-ground staff to manage visitation--from
    clearing trails to cleaning bathrooms. That means we the American
    people risk losing our access to our most cherished public lands. Our
    Federal workers have devoted their careers to making our communities
    and our country better. They put the American people first, and I am
    grateful for their service.
      Does that mean they couldn't do their job better? No. Does that mean
    they couldn't do it in a more efficient manner? No. In fact, that is
    one of the reasons why we have fought to put more money in the budget
    for fighting fires themselves, because waiting until the fire happens
    is the most expensive way you could possibly deal with it; but the
    second most expensive way would be to lay off the very people who help
    prevent the conditions from arising that are going to lead to those
    fires, which, by the way, cost $50,000 an acre to fight.
      The Forest Service employees throughout the West are fundamental to
    our economy and to our communities in Colorado. In fact, the fact that
    it has been hard to hire them has compromised our communities in really
    fundamental ways, and we ought to double down on the Forest Service's
    mission, investing in wildfire resilience, watershed health, recreation
    management, rooting out waste, and cutting redtape to make the Agency a
    better partner for rural communities across the country. That is what
    we would be doing.
      Instead, President Trump and Musk's actions to eviscerate the Federal
    workforce take a torch to that approach and tear at the fabric of our
    communities. It is an insult to Colorado and all Americans. There is no
    reason they should do it, and they should rescind these cuts.
      With that, Mr. President I thank my colleagues for their indulgence.
      I yield the floor.
      The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Connecticut.