[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 47 (Wednesday, March 12, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1695-S1697]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                           Government Funding

  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, let me be perfectly clear for my 
colleagues: Democrats want to immediately pass a clean 4-week CR. No 
one wants a shutdown. We should get this done immediately.
  Right now, we should be hard at work negotiating bipartisan funding 
bills that help folks back home in all of our States and make sure that 
our constituents--not Trump and Musk--have the biggest say in how their 
taxpayer dollars are spent.
  That is what I have been focused on for months now. In fact, I 
actually wanted to get our funding bills done all the way back in 
December, but Republican leadership in the House wanted to kick the can 
down the road to March. Well, we spent these past few months working 
hard, getting close to a deal. And we should see that work through, 
especially when the alternative bill is a bill that will seriously 
undermine the ability for all of us--all of us--to use our power to 
fight for our communities. I hope my Senate colleagues would agree that 
power is worth protecting.
  Unfortunately, Speaker Johnson has made clear he is content to sit on 
the sidelines and actually even cheer while two billionaires fire 
veterans; choke off resources to rebuild roads and bridges; cancel 
research on cancer, Alzheimer's disease, and vaccine hesitancy; 
dismantle the Social Security Administration; and spark a trade war 
that is raising prices and driving us toward a recession.
  But there is still time for us here to choose a different path, a 
bipartisan path, that gives our constituents--our constituents, each 
and every one of us--a voice in this process.
  Right now, instead of working with Democrats to fund the government, 
invest in the middle class, protect Congress's power of the purse, and 
put out some of these fires, House Republicans are rolling over for the 
billionaire arsonists by rolling out a slush fund-filled, yearlong 
continuing resolution that empowers Trump and Musk to pick winners and 
losers with your taxpayer dollars.
  House Republicans didn't just walk away from Democrats at the 
negotiating table. They are trying to give up Congress's seat at the 
table, all together, with a partisan bill that writes Trump and Musk a 
blank check, shortchanges families and America's future, devastates our 
Nation's Capital, and painfully slashes critical domestic priorities 
like lifesaving medical research, construction of VA hospitals, and so 
much more.
  House Republicans didn't merely refuse to address the lawlessness we 
have seen from Trump and Musk. They would actually empower it with this 
bill because the House Republicans' bill fails to include the typical, 
detailed spending directives--the basic guardrails--that Congress 
provides each year in our funding bills. In other words, instead of 
writing a bill that gives our communities what they need, they wrote a 
bill that turns many of our accounts into slush funds and gives the 
final say over what gets funding to two billionaires who don't know the 
first thing about the needs of our working families. So that is problem 
No. 1 with this CR--and it was a completely avoidable one.

  House Republicans could have worked with us to include the standard 
bipartisan spending directives that are included every single year. But 
House Republican leadership decided to throw in the towel on the hard 
work of negotiating and on the hard work of governing and making sure 
their constituents' voices are reflected in our funding bills. Tearing 
down those guardrails was a choice they made, and it is a dangerous 
one.
  We have already seen how far President Trump and Elon Musk and Russ 
Vought are willing to twist and outright break our laws to suit their 
will. But House Republicans are setting them up to make everything so 
far look like child's play, because this slush fund CR surrenders more 
power over Federal funding to the very people who are already abusing 
the power they have to steal from our constituents.
  This bill is a green light for Donald Trump and Elon Musk to redirect 
funding to their own pet projects; to force States and communities to 
abide by their directives; and slash, burn, and zero out programs that 
our families count on.
  They could use the flexibilities being granted to them to override 
our constituents' priorities. Clean energy investments could become a 
payday for fossil fuels. Money meant to stop fentanyl and opioids could 
fuel private prison operators and Trump's mass deportations.
  This bill will let them pick which Army Corps, which transit, which 
military construction projects move ahead and which grind to a halt.
  And when it comes to programs that rural communities rely on, which 
do you think will get funded? Housing? Utilities? Small business 
support? Well, do you know what? It would all depend on who Trump wants 
to punish or extort.
  When it comes to medical research, are we going to spend precious 
research dollars curing Alzheimer's disease? Are we going to help the 
Fred Hutch Center in Washington State fight cancer? Are we going to 
work to develop a universal flu vaccine? Are we going to support 
maternal and women's health research? Congress would usually have a 
say. But this CR tells RFK, Jr., exactly what Trump promised: ``Go wild 
on healthcare.'' You have got a free pass from House Republicans to 
commandeer hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars and set them on 
fire, relitigating disproven theories about autism and sowing distrust 
about vaccines amid a measles outbreak that is killing children.
  Or if Trump wants to rip away resources from our public K through 12 
schools and leverage Federal dollars to make them rewrite history, this 
CR could help them do that--to say nothing of the broad power he would 
have to cut off funding to schools like our HBCUs or eliminate funding 
that thousands of colleges and universities rely on to provide 
financial aid to students.
  When it comes to the FAA, House Republicans gave up on writing 
detailed instructions for how the budget must be spent in favor of just 
letting Trump shovel tax dollars at Elon Musk's Starlink.
  When it comes to our Tribes, they would let Trump manipulate the 
formulas that dictate how much money our Tribes get for everything from 
housing to road maintenance to law enforcement.
  Our public lands, those are now President Trump's personal 
prerogative, as he will have under this CR near absolute discretion 
over which Land and Water Conservation Fund acquisitions and which 
public lands deferred maintenance projects get funding.
  That is a tremendous amount of power to give to a President who has 
shown he is completely willing to abuse his existing authority.
  For the record, the Federal funding for many of the programs I have 
just

[[Page S1696]]

mentioned makes up massive percentages of many of our State's budgets.
  It takes no imagination--none--to consider how Trump would use this 
new authority to threaten and bully States across the country. You do 
what he says, or he blows up your entire State budget.
  We all know full well how the President is looking to pick fights 
with our States and with our Governors, and this bill allows for him to 
use the full force of the government to try and win those fights.
  But that is far from the only problem with this bill because this 
bill also seriously shortchanges our families, our small businesses, 
our country's competitiveness, and our security. In fact, it makes 
major cuts to domestic spending.
  Nearly 2 years ago, after bruising negotiations between House 
Republicans and the President, a law was passed that set spending 
levels for fiscal year 2024 and fiscal year 2025. I didn't care for 
those levels, not by a long shot. But, nonetheless, there was an 
agreement and a starting point for us. But this bill now from the House 
Republicans reneges entirely on that agreement. It cuts nondefense 
funding by $15 billion relative to that agreement, and it even cuts 
defense spending by nearly $3 billion relative to the FRA level for 
2025.
  Those aren't just numbers on a page. Those are real investments that 
our constituents are being robbed of in this bill.
  Despite what House Republicans would like you to believe, as a 
longtime appropriator, I can tell you, this is not a clean CR. A clean 
CR would not slash funding for Army Corps construction by 44 percent. 
That means halting progress on major hydropower projects, dredging for 
ports in red and blue States, and more.
  This CR is not clean. It would cut by nearly 50 percent funding for 
medical research, funding for medical research into treatments and 
cures for dozens of diseases and conditions specifically affecting our 
servicemembers and their families. It would create an utterly massive 
hole in the NIH budget, reducing funding for lifesaving cancer research 
and the discovery of cures for diseases by more than a quarter of a 
billion dollars. That is what this CR does.

  Or a clean CR wouldn't do what this bill does to cut VA construction 
or nuclear arms controls or election security.
  Let's not forget, this bill forces rural development programs to 
absorb a $34 million effective cut and decides who suffers. And it 
effectively endorses the Trump administration's plans for significant 
staffing reductions and, worse, customer service at Social Security.
  The only increase for Social Security in this bill is to go after 
fraud and further Elon Musk's lies--his lies--about Social Security. It 
doesn't provide one additional dime to improve customer service--
something our constituents asked for. It doesn't reduce how long it 
takes to process benefit applications or to address the average, by the 
way, 1\1/2\ hour wait now to talk to someone on the phone. And that, by 
the way, is if you are the lucky 40 percent of the people who get 
through at all.
  The House CR will mean that Musk and Trump are going to continue to 
fire workers and shutter offices. And it will be seniors and people 
with disabilities and their family members looking to Social Security 
in a moment of need who will pay the price.
  Let's not ignore the massive shortfall in funding for new NOAA 
satellites or the serious risk of setting back weather predictions that 
every part of our economy hinges on.
  Then, of course, there is the $700 million shortfall in this CR at 
HUD--at Housing and Urban Development--which means 32,000 fewer 
families getting help to keep a roof over their head.
  Then there is this inexplicable fact that this CR actually blocks the 
District of Columbia from spending its own money for the fiscal year we 
are already 6 months into. That change, by the way, won't save the 
Federal Government a penny, but it will force DC to lay off police 
officers and teachers halfway through the year.
  I could spend hours right here on the floor talking about what we 
lose out on, what our constituents lose out on with this CR and what is 
at risk with this flat funding and the major cuts.
  When House Republicans refuse to write serious funding bills that 
strengthen our investments, they are putting people in danger--in 
danger--by undermining food safety, rail safety, workplace safety, and 
public health. They are doing nothing to help our families afford 
groceries or heating and cooling or get high-quality healthcare. There 
is nothing to fight fentanyl and opioids, build roads and bridges, and 
clean up our waters. There is nothing to improve access to healthcare 
for our rural areas, or uphold our responsibility to our Tribes, or 
advance cutting-edge tech, and so much more.
  I would just note, we have never funded the Department of Defense 
through a yearlong CR. Never. What we are talking about here is 
irresponsible on multiple levels. It is irresponsible in the cuts that 
it makes to things like medical research, VA hospital construction, and 
so many other investments in our communities.
  It is irresponsible in the glaring problems it ignores, like the 
recent natural disaster, or China's aggression abroad.
  And it is irresponsible in the additional power that it gives the 
President at the expense of Congress and at the expense of the people 
we all represent.
  I don't come here with rose-colored glasses. It is not that I thought 
this process would ever be easy--certainly not while the President lets 
the richest man in the world break our government--but I do continue to 
believe that it is our responsibility, as lawmakers, to ensure that our 
constituents' voices are heard and that Congress asserts its power.
  It shocks me that any one of us here would even consider trading our 
power to help people in exchange for an empty promise. It shocks me 
that any one of us would be so eager to help an administration that is 
so dangerously willing to extort people, even lawmakers, to its own 
end.
  Trump and Musk have made it painfully clear they want the exact power 
that this type of CR would give them. They want every Member of 
Congress, every Governor and mayor, every CEO, every Head Start program 
director to come groveling before them to get their funding turned back 
on.
  That is not how this should work. That is not how this should work in 
America. They want you to come hat in hand and maybe--maybe--they won't 
fire as many veterans in their State. If you ask Elon really nicely and 
you also don't ask too many questions about his billions of dollars in 
conflicts of interest, maybe he won't kill the lifesaving research 
happening in your State; maybe he won't choke off the funding to the 
hospital your constituents need; maybe he won't pull the plug on those 
critical dam repairs the Army Corps was working on in your State. What 
sort of a deal is that, and what do they think is going to happen next?
  Perhaps it is because I am one of the few preschool teachers here in 
the Congress, but I don't think enough of my colleagues have read ``If 
You Give a Mouse a Cookie'' because I have to think the lesson would be 
pretty darn relevant to what happens if you give a billionaire a slush 
fund--they just keep taking more.
  And that is exactly what this bill does. It takes Federal funding and 
the money and the programs meant to help our constituents and gift 
wraps it for Trump and Musk to pick winners and losers, whether that 
means doling out stacks of cash to their billionaire buddies in their 
own company or whether that means punishing political enemies by 
cutting off money to blue States or blue cities.
  And, look, just because you are a Republican and maybe you think you 
have an in with Elon's DOGE squad, don't think that means your 
constituents are safe because when your constituents are on the line, 
don't be surprised when Trump's rage at some mayor or Governor who puts 
your State's interests ahead of the President's ego wins out over any 
sense of obligation to thank you for giving him all this power in the 
first place, or when Elon Musk--the richest man in the world--stops 
making lame social media posts for long enough to hear you out. Don't 
be surprised when Musk values another billion dollars for one of his 
companies over the workers in your State he is firing left and right or 
the programs he is eliminating.

[[Page S1697]]

  Look, my colleagues, this is not how it should be. Our constituents--
our constituents--elected us to be their voice in Congress, not their 
voice on the phone with Elon Musk, but that is what House Republicans 
want to reduce us to.
  My message here today to all my colleagues is that it doesn't have to 
be this way. Despite what Trump and Musk would have you believe, the 
choice is not simply between writing them a blank check or shutting 
down the government. Anyone who tells you that is flat wrong. We--we--
have agency here. We have the power of the purse. We just need the 
common sense to use it. The path forward is not complicated. It is not 
unconventional. It is simple. We pass the short-term CR that I 
introduced the other day; we finish negotiating our bipartisan funding 
bills. By the way, that is not some impossible dream. We have done it 
before. In fact, we do it every year, even when it is incredibly hard. 
We were actually incredibly close before Republican leaders in the 
House left the negotiating room.
  But we still have time to defuse this and to get back to the serious 
work writing bills that actually fund the programs our families rely on 
and actually make sure those funds get to where we--we as elected 
Members of Congress representing our constituents, our taxpaying 
constituents at home--where we intend them to go. We all agree Congress 
has the power of the purse, don't we? I am pretty sure that is a 
bipartisan principle. So we here in Congress should be able to find a 
bipartisan way to say that.
  The true focus for me is transparency and accountability. No one has 
really explained to me why transparency is now a redline. How has that 
suddenly been too much to ask? I thought DOGE was all about 
transparency. I thought the whole idea was to hold government 
accountable. I thought we wanted to stop waste and fraud and abuse, not 
empower it and dismantle bipartisan guardrails.
  Well, I just want to work that basic principle--accountability--into 
our bill, and I am open to different ideas on how we do that. I always 
have been.
  By the way, while we are at it, it would seem like a pretty basic 
step in transparency and accountability for Elon Musk to come before a 
congressional hearing. So when are we going to work that out because I 
think at the barest minimum, it should be before we pass the CR that 
gives more power to him, not after.
  So I strongly oppose the CR the House sent over. I hope my colleagues 
do the same. Defend your constituents. Defend your constituents, your 
taxpaying constituents, by protecting veterans, by defending cancer 
research, by the other investments and making sure that the 
infrastructure projects actually are built in your State. Defend your 
power as a Senator. Vote down this partisan bill that turns the 
government into a piggy bank for billionaires.
  Let's immediately pass a short-term CR to prevent a government 
shutdown and finish writing those bills that keep our government 
working for the American people and to make sure our constituents have 
a voice in this process. I introduced a short-term CR to do just that. 
Democrats stand ready to work with Republicans to immediately get them 
done.
  We are at a real turning point for how things will go. Isn't it worth 
taking a bit more time, working together a bit longer, and doing 
everything we can to keep us on a bipartisan path and to make sure we--
we, each one of us--protect our power of the purse, our power to be a 
voice for the people back home? Especially when we are so close. 
Especially when I think we all know that it is going to lead to a much 
better outcome for our constituents that we represent, for the people 
who sent us here to fight for them, who trust us to work together, as 
we have in the past, to make their lives better--even when the work is 
hard.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Moreno). The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Kansas
  Mr. MORAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.