[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 43 (Thursday, March 6, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1589-S1590]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                         Trump Executive Orders

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, it is my understanding that the new 
Secretary

[[Page S1590]]

of Education Linda McMahon made some money on the professional 
wrestling business--at least, that is what I was told. If that is true, 
she clearly is ready to rumble when it comes to cutting money for 
American schools.
  It appears that the formula for greatness, which the President is 
pushing, includes reducing Federal aid to education and cutting medical 
research. How can you build a greater nation by reducing investment in 
schools for kids and closing down laboratories that are developing 
cures for diseases? For my way of thinking, that is exactly the 
opposite of what we should be doing as a nation.
  Of course, I want to stop waste, fraud, abuse, and inefficiency. We 
are all signed up for that. But eliminating the Department of 
Education? Press reports that people in this administration are 
jubilant with the idea of closing down a whole Federal Agency. What are 
the impacts of that closure? What about the money that is going to 
school districts in Illinois and across the Nation? If there is a 
cutback in Federal funds for our school districts--and that would be 
part of eliminating the Department of Education--that would put more 
pressure on local property taxpayers to pay more for the schools or to 
cut back on the salaries of teachers and increase the number of kids in 
the classroom.
  How can that be good for the future of this country? How could you 
build greatness by closing down schools or increasing the number of 
kids in a classroom? Penny-wise, pound foolish. It is ridiculous.
  It is not the only area. The National Institutes of Health now--I 
have talked to the researchers in Illinois and across this Nation--they 
are at their wits end to figure out what to do. This is the leading 
medical research Agency in the world. And 99 percent of all the new 
drugs--you know all the drugs you see on television, 99 percent of all 
these new drugs started at the National Institutes of Health, a 
Federally supported Agency of researchers who set the standard for the 
world in medical research. And now they are facing closure of many of 
their laboratories because of DOGE and Mr. Musk.
  So they want to cut money to schools. They want to cut money to 
medical research. My way of thinking is that is shortsighted as can be. 
You can't build a great nation that way. That is not the only research.
  I want to tell a story about a young lady whose name is Jeannie 
Klein-Gordon. Jeannie grew up on a dairy farm in Oregon. During her 
undergraduate years at Oregon State, she became interested in plant 
pathology or the study of plant diseases and spent time assisting with 
research at the USDA Agriculture Research Services.
  ``I really appreciated the environment there,'' Klein-Gordon said, of 
working at ARS during her undergrad years. ``Everybody was super nice, 
very passionate about science and agriculture and helping growers.''
  Then it was on to 5 years of doctoral work at the University of 
Florida before moving to Michigan State University for two shorter 
postdoctoral stints. From there, she applied for a position as research 
plant pathologist at the National Center for Agricultural Utilization 
Research in Peoria, IL, commonly known as the Ag Lab.
  Here is what she said:

       I spent 11 and a half years [to get] this position, and I 
     got the position of my dreams. This is my dream job.

  Jeannie Klein-Gordon moved her family from Michigan to Peoria in 
December of 2023 and set out to work on research projects. She recently 
focused on red crown rot, a disease that appeared in Illinois in 2018 
and presents a significant threat to the State's multibillion-dollar 
soybean industry. The team's experiments looked to develop products for 
farmers to fight the disease.
  That all ended on Thursday, February 13. Klein-Gordon's employment 
was terminated by email at 10:05 p.m. She was 15 months into a standard 
3-year probationary period for government scientists, and she wasn't 
alone. Other Ag Labs across the United States lost their researchers as 
well.
  You know what else--this is not unique to this young lady--they put 
on the termination notice that these employees were terminated for poor 
performance when exactly the opposite is true. They were receiving 
awards for achievements that they had witnessed and been part of in a 
short period of time. They were probationary employees, but they were 
on the track to become full-scale senior researchers.
  And now they have been terminated, and it has been announced it was 
done for poor performance. Why would Elon Musk and the DOGE group want 
to put poor performance on this? So it disqualifies the employee from 
receiving unemployment insurance. Poor performance, when it is not 
true, is now going to be part of her resume record.
  The good news is, the courts have stepped in and said, once again, 
that the Trump administration has overstepped in closing these jobs 
down. You know, this Ag Lab may sound--as I describe the projects, they 
sound so farfetched you wonder, Would we really miss that? Can't the 
farmers take care of themselves? Well, the honest answer is they need 
help in research, good research, and the Ag Lab in Peoria is one of the 
best. Most people don't know it, but the Ag Lab in Peoria is 
responsible for one of the dramatic breakthroughs of the 20th century. 
They helped to develop penicillin during World War II.
  Penicillin was known before, but it just wasn't developed to the 
point where it could be administered when a person needed it. It was 
the Ag Lab in Peoria that took up that challenge, and as a result of 
taking it up, penicillin was available for our troops in World War II 
and saved countless lives.
  Is research worth it? I think it is. Whether it is ag research or 
medical research at the NIH, it is fundamental to our future. And these 
researchers, they don't make a fortune. This young lady put 11 years-
plus into her education so that she would have this opportunity to come 
to Peoria and the Ag Lab. And as far as DOGE is concerned, she is 
expendable--just another probationary employee, let her go. And, 
incidentally, on the way out the door, stamp poor performance on her 
resume so she has to answer for that for the rest of her applications. 
Why? To deny her unemployment insurance.
  Well, I think that is cruel and I think it is shortsighted and I 
don't think that it builds greatness.