[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 43 (Thursday, March 6, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1592-S1593]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Department of Government Efficiency
Ms. ROSEN. Mr. President, I rise today to speak out against the
harmful actions taken by the Trump administration and Elon Musk.
What they are doing isn't about government efficiency. They are mass
firing the men and women who help provide vital services that countless
Nevadans rely on, from Medicaid to food assistance.
This is being felt in nearly every corner of our country. It is
impacting our veterans who rely on the VA, our seniors who rely on
Social Security and Medicare, our families who rely on Medicaid and
CHIP for their children's healthcare, and so many others.
The actions taken by the Trump administration and Elon Musk, an
unelected billionaire, are tearing at the fabric of American society.
This is no way to run a country, and the people in my State are being
hurt in the process.
So, today, I want to focus on a specific aspect of the Trump firings:
how it is impacting veterans, not just veterans across the country but
particularly those veterans in Nevada.
Just yesterday, it was reported that Elon Musk and his DOGE tech bros
are planning to cut 80,000 employees from the Department of Veterans
Affairs--80,000. This is in addition to the 1,000 VA employees they
have already laid off, which included people who staffed the Veterans
Crisis Hotline.
So maybe Mr. Musk and his team--his team of, as I said, teenybopper
tech bros--they don't understand the magnitude of their actions. So let
me explain to them what the VA does, what the VA means.
The Department of Veterans Affairs provides critical healthcare to
the men and women who were willing to sacrifice their very lives for
our Nation and for their families. It provides them with the benefits
that they have earned and that they, frankly, deserve. It is quite
literally the least that we can, as a nation, do for our veterans.
Firing those employees who work at the VA will hurt our veterans,
plain and simple. It will hurt veterans not only because they rely on
the VA staff but because many of those who work at the VA are
themselves veterans. The VA is the largest employer of veterans in this
Nation.
I have heard from so many Nevadans who are feeling the direct impact
of these layoffs, and, today, I want to share a couple of stories with
you.
Mark Wagstaff, a Marine Corps veteran--a proud Marine Corps veteran--
currently lives in Las Vegas. He served our country honorably for 10
years. Even after his service in our military, Mark wanted to still
help others, and he transitioned into civilian public service. That is
why he recently started working as a lead supply technician at the VA
in Las Vegas.
He was proud of his work. He was dedicated to his mission, ensuring
that all medical supplies were delivered to the veterans clinics
throughout Southern Nevada.
And, Mark, so proud of his job, so happy to be there, did such a
great job that he was promoted. When a position in administrative
services in North Las Vegas opened up recently, he applied, and he got
the job. He was so happy. He was doing meaningful work as a veteran for
the veterans. It meant everything to him.
Sadly, this all changed after Donald Trump and Elon Musk started
messing with the VA. On February 14, the Valentine's Day present that
Mark received from Elon Musk and President Trump was an email informing
him that he no longer had a job. Despite receiving an ``outstanding''
performance review, despite his recent promotion, Mark was being told
he was let go due to ``poor performance.''
By firing him in that way, they also immediately locked him out of
all of his work accounts. That means he can't access his termination
paperwork. It means he might not even receive his last paycheck.
I want everybody to think about that. Here is a veteran who put his
life on the line, proudly served our Nation, was willing to risk
everything for all of us, and was fired in the most despicable of ways.
This is beyond shameful. Donald Trump and Elon Musk, who actually
don't know a damn thing about service to our Nation, should be
ashamed--should be ashamed--on Valentine's Day, no less.
But Mark is not the only one.
Lili Stevenson, a devoted wife of a disabled veteran, who lives in
Las Vegas, was also impacted by these unjust layoffs at the VA. She
worked at the Henderson Vet Center and recently received feedback in a
performance review that indicated she was doing an outstanding job.
For her, this job was more than just a paycheck. She could be working
anywhere else and making more money, but she felt a calling to serve
her veteran community--our veteran community--a calling that, like
Mark, she had answered with passion and commitment.
Despite this, again, on Valentine's Day, she received a termination
notice, just like Mark. This firing also falsely claims ``poor
performance,'' which does not line up with the facts as Lili knows
them.
Lili and her husband--her veteran husband--rely on her income from
her job at the VA as their source of income. But now, without a
paycheck, she worries about her ability to continue to pay her bills
and make ends meet.
Many veterans already face significant challenges in accessing the
care and the services that they need. Long wait times for medical
appointments, overwhelmed but dedicated staff, and a system already
stretched thin have created barriers that delay essential care. But
these layoffs--the Trump layoffs--will only worsen an already difficult
situation.
The loss of dedicated staff like Mark and Lili and so many others
harms the ability of the VA to serve our veterans in a timely,
effective, and, I would say, caring and compassionate manner. With
these positions being eliminated, there will be fewer hands to process
claims, handle scheduling, and make sure that our veterans are getting
the care and attention that they deserve. This is going to lead to even
longer wait times for veterans and further delays in access to care,
resulting in potentially worse health outcomes for our veterans.
It is simply unconscionable that, after years of sacrifice and
service, our veterans will suffer due to cuts being made by people like
Elon Musk who were never elected by the American people.
So I urge this administration to take immediate action to halt and
reverse these unnecessary and, frankly, unjust layoffs.
We must always stand up for our veterans. We must always stand up for
the workers who serve them.
[[Page S1593]]
God bless our veterans. God bless our troops.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Hagerty). The Senator from Missouri.
Mr. SCHMITT. Mr. President, I rise to bring attention to the cost-
cutting efforts of President Trump and DOGE. A lot has been said about
DOGE's work in the media in the last month. The truth is, DOGE is
working tirelessly to cancel grants and funding that taxpayers
absolutely should not be footing the bill for. I want the American
people to know exactly what some of these ridiculous funding items are
so here are a few examples from the last couple of weeks.
At NIH, DOGE identified these grants for cancelation this week and
last: $532,000 to ``use a mouse model to investigate the effects of
cross-sex testosterone treatment''; $33,000 to test feminizing hormone
therapy in the male rat; $120,000 for personalized 3D avatar tool
development focused on gender identities; $160,000 for researching
radicalized sexual discrimination among ``young sexual minority men of
color''; $241,000 for an intervention to promote healthy relationships
among transgender and gender expansive youth''; $1.3 million for
transforming health for gender-diverse young adults.
DOGE also canceled grants at the Inter-American Foundation that
included $903,811 for alpaca farming in Peru; $364,500 to reduce social
discrimination of recyclers in Bolivia; $813,210 for vegetable gardens
in El Salvador; $323,633 to promote cultural understanding of
Venezuelan migrants in Brazil; $731,105 to improve marketability of
mushrooms and peas in Guatemala; $677,342 to expand fruit and jam sales
in Honduras; $483,345 to improve artisanal salt production in Ecuador;
and $39,250 for beekeeping in Brazil.
DOGE and EPA are cutting ridiculous grants funding at EPA, which
includes the Vermont-based Institute for Sustainable Communities, which
has yet to receive $12.4 million of the $16 million it was promised
under two separate Biden-era grants to serve as the National
Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Technical Assistance Center.
Another group losing funding was the San Diego State University
Foundation, which was tapped to help bring ``environmental justice'' to
``underserved Tribal, Indigenous, and Pacific island communities'' and
has yet to receive $4.2 million of its $5.1 million in grants.
DOGE is also looking to cut ridiculous DEI programs in the Department
of Education. One grant was reportedly funding the training for
teachers to ``engage in ongoing learning and self-reflection to
confront their own biases and racism and develop asset-based anti-
racist mindsets.''
Additionally, according to DOGE, 4.6 million government credit cards
resulted in $40 billion in spending last year alone.
President Trump and DOGE are saving your taxpayer dollars. Tune back
next week for more updates.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Massachusetts.