[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 120 (Monday, July 14, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4324-S4325]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              RESCISSIONS

  Mr. SCHUMER. Now, on Republican cuts, this week, Senate Republicans 
are set to push through the Senate a bill that betrays rural 
communities, harms global health, weakens America's standing abroad, 
and, worst of all, sets the stage for even more harmful cuts down the 
line.
  The so-called rescissions package continues a destructive Republican 
pattern: Cut now and ask questions later. The same thing that is 
happening with FEMA and the National Weather Service is happening right 
here. Again, use that chain saw; cut, cut, cut--whether it is waste or 
whether it is sinew and bone--and then later, say: Oh, maybe we 
shouldn't have done that.
  And do you know what? Our Republican Senators, most of them, know 
this is wrong, but they are so afraid of Donald Trump.

[[Page S4325]]

  Yesterday, he threatened that any of them who voted against the full 
rescissions package that we have before us would face his wrath. What 
is going on here? Does anyone stand up to these horrible, horrible cuts 
that hurt the American people?
  Republicans, in realtime, are cutting healthcare. They are cutting 
education. They are cutting aid for our veterans.
  Veterans are not getting--ask them. The veterans know they are not 
getting the healthcare they used to.
  And making things even worse, Donald Trump's tariffs are coming in at 
the worst possible time, and in a few short months, they are going to 
raise the cost of groceries. They are going to hurt small businesses 
and do untold damage to our economy.
  And, now, this package suffocates public broadcast. Well, did they 
even know when they said they wanted to cut it--you know, Donald Trump 
doesn't seem to like it--how much it helps our rural communities? It is 
the only place they can rely on for local news, for weather reports. 
And farmers across rural America depend on public broadcast to get 
weather reports because there is no other way. Did they know that it 
guts international aid that ensures America's national security? Did 
they even think of the consequences, just because Donald Trump says he 
wants it cut? And everyone knows he doesn't know the details of any of 
this stuff.

  The rescissions package is certainly troubling, but the pattern 
behind it is even worse. It sets the stage for even more party line 
devastating cuts in the future to healthcare, to education, anything 
Republicans decide they don't like, all on a party-line vote, all 
because of obeisance and fear of Donald Trump, not a conviction that he 
is doing the right thing. This is a dark omen moving forward.
  Our Republican friends say they fight for the middle class. They say 
they fight for working people. Then they turn around and take 
investments away from middle class and rural America.
  I urge them--urge them--not to proceed with this bill as written.

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