    [Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 37 (Tuesday, February 25, 2025)]
    [Senate]
    [Pages S1333-S1335]
    From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

                                 National Debt

      Mr. President, as you know, when Vice President Harris and President
    Trump ran against each other for the Presidency, one of the planks in
    President Trump's platform was that he was going to review every penny
    of Federal Government spending.
      Why did he say that? Why did he promise to do that? Well, first,
    there is a moral principle involved. People work hard for their money,
    and when they give it to government, they are entitled to expect
    government to spend it efficiently.
      Number 2, President Trump ran on that plank because of our debt. The
    Federal debt is $36.5 trillion. You know, we throw these numbers
    around--like a trillion, you know--and we start to take them for
    granted.
      To give you a little perspective, this $36.5 trillion grows bigger by
    the second. It is going to increase--if we just keep doing what we have
    been doing, it is going to increase $1 trillion every 100 days. If we
    just keep doing what we have been doing, it is going to increase $10
    billion a day. Today, nothing changed. We added $10 billion in debt.
    That is also $417 million an hour. That is $6.9 million a minute. I
    think I have been talking about a minute; we just added $7 million to
    our debt. That is why the President wants to get rid of spending porn.
      The reaction here in Washington has been breathtaking. I understand
    Washington is not exactly a slice of America. I get that. I understand
    that Washington is not normal. Normal in Washington, DC, is a setting
    on the dryer. So I get all that. We are different in Washington. But
    the pushback to President Trump's effort through Mr. Musk and his team
    to reduce spending has just been extraordinary. I mean, people are
    barking and yelping and shrieking about it. They sound like the game
    room in a mental hospital.
      I get that a lot of people don't like President Trump, and I get that
    many people don't like Mr. Musk. I get that Mr. Musk is different. I
    kind of like that. I mean, I like different. You know, he is the sort
    of guy that would wear--I don't know--he would wear Crocs to a wedding.
    I get that. I find it kind of refreshing. But nobody has ever called
    him a dummy. And he has found an incredible amount of waste and abuse
    of taxpayer money, what I call spending porn.
      I am not going to repeat everything I have repeated or said the first
    time we talked about this, but it just seems to me to be, once again,
    extraordinary that people are mad at President Trump or Mr. Musk for
    the process they are using, but they are not mad about the money being
    wasted.
      I mean, Mr. Musk, whether you like him or not, has found, for
    example, $7.9 million that we spent to teach Sri Lanka journalists to
    avoid binary gendered language. He found money that was given to an NGO
    to empower the LGBT community in Armenia. He found $1.5 million that we
    spent to rebuild the Cuban media ecosystem, $2.1 million to the BBC to
    strengthen the media ecosystem in Libya, and $8.3 million spent for
    equity and inclusion education in Nepal. Does no one care about how the
    money was actually abused and wasted?
      It is not unusual for me to be disappointed for some things I see in
    Washington, and under the last administration, I have to admit, I was
    disappointed just about every single day. I had almost gotten used to
    it.
      But last week--and this is what I want to talk about--I read a story.
    It

    [[Page S1334]]

    was a story about the abuse of taxpayer money in the last
    administration, and it was so nauseating that it triggered my gag
    reflex.
      In April of 2024--not that long ago--the EPA, under President Biden,
    gave $2 billion in taxpayer money to an organization that had
    absolutely no experience, that was backed by a very prominent
    Democratic politician by the name of Ms. Stacey Abrams.
      Here is what happened: In 2022, as you know, President Biden and my
    Democratic colleagues passed the Inflation Reduction Act. Not a single
    Republican voted for it--not one--either in the House or in the Senate.

      We knew, at the time, that spending $1.2 trillion--that is what the
    Inflation Reduction Act cost--would only make inflation worse, not
    better. And even President Biden eventually admitted that the Inflation
    Reduction Act did absolutely nothing to lower prices. Even President
    Biden, at the end of his term, admitted that.
      So where did all the Inflation Reduction Act money go? A fair
    question for taxpayers to ask. I mean, there is nothing wrong with
    wanting to know what they do with our money.
      Let me say that again. There is nothing wrong with wanting to know
    what they do with our money.
      So where did all the Inflation Reduction Act--this $1.2 trillion--go?
    Well, President Trump and DOGE, the group appointed by President Trump,
    and the EPA under new leadership, under Mr. Lee Zeldin, have begun to
    follow some of that money.
      Now, this is where Ms. Stacey Abrams comes in. I think it is fair to
    say that Ms. Abrams is--I don't know. I would call her controversial.
    She has the right to believe what she believes. This is America, and
    she has the right to free speech. I am not criticizing that, even
    though I disagree with some of what she says. But I think it would be
    fair to describe her as controversial. She is probably best known for
    the fact that she ran for Governor of Georgia twice, and she lost.
      In her career, Ms. Abrams has said the following. I don't want to
    just articulate hyperbole here. I want you to read her words, not mine.
    On April 20, 2024, Ms. Abrams appeared on MSNBC with Rev. Al Sharpton,
    and this is what Ms. Abrams said:

           What we know is that the attack on diversity, equity, and
         inclusion, DEI, is an attack on democracy.

      On September 20, 2022, during a panel discussion in Atlanta, Ms.
    Abrams said this about a baby's heartbeat--a fetal heartbeat--the
    heartbeat of a baby in a mother's womb. This is what Ms. Abrams said
    about a fetal heartbeat. She said:

           It is a manufactured sound designed to convince people that
         men have the right to take control of a woman's body.

      Her words, not mine.
      In May of 2022, during a Georgia gubernatorial debate--she is running
    for Governor of Georgia now--Ms. Abrams called Georgia ``the worst
    State in the country to live'' in.
      In October of 2022, during another Georgia gubernatorial debate, Ms.
    Abrams accused the sheriffs--all the sheriffs in Georgia who endorsed
    her opponent, Governor Brian Kemp--of wanting ``to be able to take
    Black people off the streets.''
      In October of 2022, Ms. Abrams appeared on MSNBC. She suggested that
    abortion is the solution to inflation. Here is what she said. She said:

           Let's be clear. Having children is why you're worried about
         your price for gas. It's why you're concerned about how much
         food costs.

      Her words, not mine. Let me say again, Ms. Abrams has the right to
    her opinion. This is America. You are not free if you can't express
    yourself. But I do think any fairminded person would have to conclude
    that Ms. Abrams is controversial.
      So in March of 2023, not that long ago, Ms. Abrams went to work for
    an organization, a nonprofit, called Rewiring America. You have
    probably seen that name in the news: Rewiring America.
      Ms. Abrams' title--she went to work for Rewiring America. Her title
    was senior counsel. She was paid for her work for Rewiring America. We
    don't know how much, though there will probably be an investigation to
    find out.
      Now, nonprofits like Rewiring America, Ms. Abrams' group, they have
    to file documents with the IRS, and one of the documents they have to
    file is called Form 990. This form by the IRS asks a number of
    questions about nonprofits. One of the questions the IRS asks is for
    the organization--the nonprofit--to list its accomplishments.
      Rewiring America, Ms. Abrams' group, told the IRS in 2023 on this
    Form 990 that this was Rewiring America's ``startup year for the
    organization,'' and the form goes on to say that the only
    accomplishment Rewiring America listed was that it had ``joined a
    coalition of other national organizations to apply for a grant from the
    Inflation Reduction Act's Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund.''
      In other words, Ms. Abrams' organization told the IRS that this
    filing was their first-ever tax filing, in 2023; that the organization
    was a startup; and its purpose was exclusively to seek a grant from
    President Biden's Inflation Reduction Act--fair enough.
      So what do we know about this coalition Ms. Abrams' group wanted to
    form? Rewiring America, Ms. Abrams' group, announced on October 12,
    2023, that it was joining Habitat for Humanity, it was joining United
    Way Worldwide, and two other organizations, and these four
    organizations were going to form another nonprofit--a coalition of
    nonprofits--called Power Forward Communities.
      So you have got Power Forward Communities up here. You have got
    Rewiring America and some other organizations down here. And all
    together, they make up Power Forward Communities. And they also
    announced that a gentleman by the name of Tim Mayopoulos, a former
    Obama administration appointee, would lead the coalition.
      Now, as a nonprofit, I told you that Rewiring America had to file
    forms with the IRS. Well, so did this new group Power Forward. It had
    to file Form 990, as well, with the IRS.
      According to its filings, Power Forward had just $100 in total
    revenues in 2023. According to the IRS filing, it didn't list a single
    accomplishment. I have seen Girl Scout troops with more business
    credentials. Yet Power Forward Communities, of which Ms. Abrams'
    Rewiring America was a part, had the audacity to ask the Federal
    Government for a $2 billion grant. For what, you ask? It was supposed
    to be ``to expand access to clean energy by prioritizing housing,
    equity, and resilience.''
      Power Forward Communities said it wanted to take this taxpayer money
    and help people install energy-efficient upgrades to their homes.
      What are we talking about? Heat pumps, getting rid of gas stoves.
      Now, it is good to dream big in America. I am all for that. But under
    any reasonable standard--under any reasonable standard--one is entitled
    to ask how these organizations--Ms. Abrams' Rewiring America and Power
    Forward Communities--brandnew organizations, no business experience,
    $100 in the bank, are qualified to receive $2 billion of taxpayer money
    from the Biden administration.
      Now, that didn't stop the Biden administration from cutting a check,
    though. They took our money and gave Power Forward Communities and
    Rewiring America $2 billion.
      Do you want to know how we ran up $36 billion in debt? That is how.
      Now, the EPA announced in 2024, under President Biden, just 6 months
    after Power Forward was formed--Power Forward was formed, and 6 months
    later President Biden and his team announced they were giving them $2
    billion. And as I said, that is billion with a ``b.''
      Now, look, I try to see the world from other people's bell towers as
    much as I can, but I cannot come up, not for the life of me, with a
    single rational justification as to why the EPA under the Biden
    administration thought it was appropriate to give Power Forward and
    Rewiring America--two brandnew nonprofits with no business experience,
    no accomplishments according to the IRS forms, and only 100 bucks in
    the bank--$2 billion of taxpayer money, especially to the exclusion of
    every other qualified applicant for that money, if there were any other
    qualified applicants. We don't know. I don't know. I don't know if
    there was a competitive bid.
      Now, I do know that the EPA, under President Biden, gave Ms. Abrams'
    group--her two groups--$2 billion cash.

    [[Page S1335]]

    In the grant approval, President Biden's EPA said that Power Forward
    had to allocate this money to get rid of stoves and to put in heat
    pumps. They had to allocate the money--they had to spend it--in 21
    days.
      Now, that meant that Ms. Abrams' group, Rewiring America, which was
    part of the larger group, likely received or was supposed to receive a
    check for $490 million, about a quarter of the total of $2 billion, by
    the end of May 2024. And the other organizations, within 21 days,
    President Biden directed, were also supposed to receive their share of
    the money.
      But get this: President Biden and his team directed these NGOs to
    distribute $2 billion in 21 days, but the Biden administration also
    told Power Forward, within 90 days, to go take a course. You know what
    the course was? The name of the course was ``How to Develop a
    Budget''--``How to Develop a Budget.''
      So President Biden gave Power Forward 21 days to spend the money but
    said: You have got 90 days to go take a course about how to put
    together a budget.
      And why would anybody in the Milky Way give $2 billion of taxpayer
    money to two organizations that had just been formed that, according to
    the IRS filings, had no accomplishments and one of them only had 100
    bucks in the bank?
      I think I know why. I certainly know what it looks like. I mean, this
    would be comical if it wasn't so odious--$2 billion.
      You know, the last 4 years under the last administration have been
    very difficult for America. The cost of everything has gone up. The
    cost of many things have gone up by 20 percent, and our wages didn't
    keep up. The average electricity bill in America went up 19 percent.
    The average Louisianian, because of President Biden's inflation, had to
    spend an extra $890 a month--extra--for food and clothing and car
    notes, and they didn't get an $890-a-month raise.
      President Biden and my Democratic colleagues told us that the
    Inflation Reduction Act--I remember when it was passed. They said: If
    you spend $1.2 trillion on the Inflation Reduction Act, it will be a
    lifeline to every family in America.
      That is not what it looks like to me. It is starting to look like to
    me that it was really a slush fund--a slush fund for Washington
    insiders.
      Now, I don't want to make accusations that are unfair. I think EPA
    Administrator Zeldin needs to get to the bottom of this. I believe in
    fairness. I believe in due process. Mr. Zeldin has announced that he is
    going to try to claw back as much of this $2 billion and other moneys
    as he can. Again, I think he ought to do it fairly and accord everybody
    due process.
      But you know what, if the shoe fits, wear it, Cinderella. Here is
    what I see. I see two organizations formed in the last year or so of
    President Biden's administration--on their IRS filings, they say: We
    have no experience. We have no accomplishments.
      One of them only has a hundred bucks in the bank. One of them--their
    senior counsel is Ms. Stacey Abrams, a well-known Democratic
    politician.
      I see them asking the President of the United States and his EPA for
    $2 billion cash to fight gas stoves and getting it--and getting it--to
    the exclusion of every other applicant who might have been able to use
    that money.
      Now, this is just the beginning of the type of spending porn that
    President Trump and Mr. Musk are uncovering that people are screaming
    about.
      I am going to repeat what I started with. There is nothing wrong with
    wanting to know what they do and did with our money. That is all
    President Trump and Mr. Musk are doing.