[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 133 (Friday, August 1, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Page S5186]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                       Bureau of Labor Statistics

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, what is a very bad leader? What does a 
bad leader do when they get bad news? Shoot the messenger. That is just 
what happened with the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
  Today, we got some of the worst labor numbers that we have gotten in 
a long time. The economy added only a paltry 73,000 jobs last month. 
But that wasn't the worst of it. We learned the economy actually added 
less than 20,000 jobs each in May and June following 2 months of Donald 
Trump's ``Liberation Day.'' That is 250,000 fewer jobs than we thought.
  So, of course, that is very bad news for the economy, but what does 
Donald Trump do? Instead of trying to fix the economy, he shoots the 
messenger. The woman he fired, the head of the Bureau of Labor 
Statistics passed, this Senate 88 to 8. Vice President Vance voted for 
her. And now, fire her.
  Well, Donald Trump, firing her isn't going to relieve the chaos that 
you have created with your ramshackle tariff regime. Shooting the 
messenger isn't going to make the jobs that we are losing in healthcare 
and clean energy because of your so-called Big Beautiful Bill come 
back. None of this will change. The American people will still suffer 
in exactly the same way that they did an hour ago before you fired the 
head of the BLS.
  You know, Donald Trump sometimes admires dictators. He admires them. 
Well, he sometimes acts just like them. It is classic Donald Trump: 
When he gets the news he doesn't like, he shoots the messenger.
  Now, there is a word for this when the Soviet Union does it, when the 
dictators of the Russians did it. They called it ``pripiski.'' It meant 
``Fire the messenger. Don't change your policies.''
  As long as Donald Trump keeps firing messengers who bring him truth--
he hates truth when he doesn't agree with it--as long as he does that, 
this economy will not improve, inflation and costs to the American 
people will not go away, and new jobs will not return to this country. 
He ought to start governing like a leader, not like someone who 
imitates authoritarian leaders.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from South Carolina.