[Pages S509-S512]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                         Trump Executive Orders

  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, over the last few days, the American 
people have felt the painful consequences of Trump's disastrous funding 
freeze.
  Seniors who count on Meals on Wheels have wondered whether they would 
have dinner this week. Head Start teachers in red States and blue 
States have panicked over whether they would have the funds needed to 
keep their doors open and take care of kids. Disaster relief for people 
who have endured the unimaginable and have been knocked off their feet 
was thrown into jeopardy. Grant programs to help firefighters do their 
jobs, to combat the fentanyl crisis, to get families healthcare--and so 
much more--have been, in an instant, at risk of evaporating into thin 
air.
  I heard from a Tribe in my State concerned they would have to lay off 
hundreds of staff providing essential services for the Tribe. That 
could mean putting everything from providing healthcare to housing in 
jeopardy because of the President's freeze.
  A shelter for homeless youth in my State still--still--can't access 
its HUD funding and is staring down a $3 million deficit, forcing them 
to hold an emergency board meeting to figure out what, if anything, 
they can now do.
  Hospitals in my State are worried that programs which are 
appropriately focused on someone's gender or race are in jeopardy, like 
how pulse oximeters don't work as well as on dark skin, so they need 
other pathways to be found.
  The chaos and the confusion, the needless stress and distraction are 
the result of having a President who is more focused on the 
billionaires who now fill his administration than on the plight of 
regular people all over this country. But yesterday, because the 
American people spoke up loud and clear, Donald Trump retreated from 
his devastating blanket funding freeze.
  However, make no mistake, there is still far too much chaos on the 
ground, and Trump is still blocking billions of dollars for communities 
across the country--in every one of our States--through these Executive 
orders. We are talking about critical funding to rebuild our roads and 
bridges, resources that are already creating thousands of good-paying, 
new clean energy jobs in every State of this country, and critical 
global investments that help keep America safe.
  This is so completely unacceptable. So, today, I am calling on 
President Trump to take four simple, commonsense steps.
  First of all, he needs to ensure that every last dollar--down to the 
last penny--that was caught up in this disastrous blanket funding 
freeze gets out the door.
  Secondly, he needs to rescind his Executive orders that are still, at 
this very moment, ripping funding away from American families and 
communities.
  Third, he needs to withdraw Russell Vought's nomination to oversee 
our Nation's budget. It is clear that the person who masterminded so 
much of this chaos doesn't belong anywhere near the Office of 
Management and Budget.
  Finally, President Trump needs to abandon, once and for all, his 
illegal scheme to skirt around our laws and block funding that American 
workers and families are counting on.
  I am not asking for a lot here: Ensure every dollar held up by this 
illegal freeze is restored; stop the ongoing effort to block funding; 
withdraw the mastermind of this chaos; and simply follow the law.
  The American people deserve better than the catastrophe we have 
witnessed this week. They deserve to know that the investments Trump is 
currently holding up--to rebuild the highway they drive to work on or 
to lower their energy costs or so much more--will make it out the door.
  If the President is so intent on opposing funding for infrastructure 
projects and good-paying American jobs, he needs to sit down at the 
negotiating table and make his case to Congress. I will not let the 
President rip up the Constitution or rip money away from our 
communities.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant executive clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. MARKEY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. MARKEY. Mr. President, I rise today to speak out on behalf of the 
American people about the Trump administration's unjust and 
unconstitutional cutoff of Federal grants and assistance programs.
  Donald Trump's administration isn't governing. It is not delivering 
for the American people. It is stealing from our public services, from 
Meals on Wheels to community health centers, to housing for our 
veterans.
  From day one, Donald Trump's administration has careened from chaos 
to self-induced crises. American families and workers are left guessing 
whether lifesaving services, school lunches, help paying for home 
heating, basic healthcare, and public safety are going to be funded day 
by day.
  The collective outrage of literally everyone in this country, along 
with lawsuits filed over its illegal behavior, got Donald Trump's 
administration to rescind its latest memo to cut off Federal money. But 
the chaos continues. The confusion continues. The Federal funding witch 
hunt continues.
  The Trump administration has made clear they intend to proceed with 
their cruel plan of stalling or stopping essential Federal funding. 
They will lie, disregard Congress, and now they are bypassing the 
courts.
  We will need all of our collective engagement to make sure that 
Donald

[[Page S510]]

Trump, Elon Musk, and their unelected, unqualified henchmen keep our 
services going and stop breaking the law because the American people 
are paying the price on a daily basis.
  The consequences--the consequences--of Trump's Federal funding cutoff 
are already far-reaching, and they are devastating. Doctors were told 
to turn away patients when the Medicaid payment portals were down. The 
organizations that are the backbone of our country--food pantries, 
vocational services--are looking at laying people off. Veterans might 
be getting evicted as their rent payments don't come through. There 
might not be someone on the other end of the phone at the national 
suicide hotline. Think about what that might mean to someone in crisis.
  I say again, this funding was sent by Congress to provide necessary 
services to our constituents in all States, red and blue alike. It is 
essential, and it has already been signed into law--passed by the U.S. 
House, passed on the floor of the U.S. Senate, and signed by a 
President.
  This is what the American Revolution was all about. When the redcoats 
were coming down Massachusetts Avenue, heading toward Lexington and 
Concord in Massachusetts in 1775, the Minutemen and -women were coming 
out, and they were all saying the same thing: no taxation without 
representation.
  The King would not give the American Colonies any members of 
Parliament. They kept begging for the ability to have representation.
  So after the American Revolution, and they wrote the Constitution, 
the first article is to create a House and Senate and to give that 
first article the power of the purse, the power to spend money. They 
made it very clear. That is what the Revolution was about.
  So I say again, this funding was sent by Congress--article I--to 
provide necessary services to our constituents in all States. If the 
Trump administration claims this funding ``does not improve the day-to-
day lives of those we serve,'' then there is just one question every 
American should be asking the President: Who do you serve? Because it 
certainly isn't the everyday Americans who will wake up tomorrow 
without heat in their house, their medicine, or a roof over their head.
  The Trump administration said it is targeting ``Green New Deal social 
engineering.'' When Trump says he wants to end the Green New Deal, he 
wants to end union battery manufacturing jobs in Ohio; he wants to end 
rebates that help American families afford new air-conditioners and 
heaters; he wants to keep school districts from getting clean buses to 
take kids to school; he wants to end programs that help our communities 
rebuild after a disaster, such as the fires in Los Angeles or the 
hurricanes that devastated Georgia and North Carolina.
  What Trump is doing with this so-called freeze, with his Executive 
orders, with his firing of inspectors general and government 
regulators, is an unconstitutional, illegal power grab.
  But here is the truth: Trump can't get rid of the Green New Deal 
because there is no stopping a mobilization and a movement once it is 
galvanized. The Green New Deal doesn't stop until the climate crisis 
stops. The Green New Deal doesn't stop until fossil fuel billionaires 
stop lining their pockets while our cities burn to the ground.
  I introduced the Green New Deal resolution nearly 6 years ago with 
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Its values and jobs and justice 
and climate action are now core parts of our economy and our society. 
Clearly Trump's unelected bureaucrats are terrified of the power of 
union jobs, clean air and clean water, and climate action. They are 
trying to break our country's laws in order to break our movement. We 
cannot let them do that.
  We know we face an uphill battle with a climate denier-in-chief. He 
doesn't have a Cabinet that he has appointed; he has a cartel that he 
is putting in place.
  You know the saying ``money talks''? Well, we heard the money talk 
loud and clear with Donald Trump's day-one Executive actions, which 
were a parade of price-gouging fossil fuel giveaways. His energy agenda 
isn't American dominance; it is the dominance of his donors over our 
energy policy. It is not ``all of the above''; it is ``oil above all.'' 
Yes, drill, baby, drill, but kill solar. Kill wind. Kill all-electric 
vehicles. Kill the Green Revolution. Kill it. It is not ``all of the 
above''; it is taking care of all of his fossil fuel donor buddies.
  He made a promise that if he won, he would kill the competition; he 
would kill the Darwinian paranoia-inducing competition that is 
happening with wind and solar and all-electric vehicles and battery 
storage technologies and any technologies that reduce greenhouse gases, 
which are dangerously warming our planet. And why are they doing that? 
Because Big Oil and Big Gas are running scared. Fossil fuels have been 
getting outcompeted by wind and solar and all-electric vehicles. The 
Big Oil and Big Gas barons see people rejecting their products and 
having an alternative, and they want to choke out the competition.

  That is what the fossil fuel fat cats demanded when they got Donald 
Trump elected, and that is what Trump is delivering on with his orders 
to attack climate action, attack offshore wind, attack international 
climate agreements, and attack our movement, the Green New Deal 
movement of young people across our country demanding that this 
government do something about the threat of climate change that was 
ignored for generations. That is what young people are saying all 
across our country: Protect us. Protect us from the threat of climate 
change.
  Instead, what Donald Trump is trying to do is to kill all of the 
protections. All of them. All of them.
  So just think of what has been happening. As the rest of the country 
is sitting around the kitchen table debating necessities to sacrifice 
this month, they are wondering if they can rebuild after a wildfire or 
if they can keep the lights on when prices spike as energy gets 
exported overseas.
  I want everyone to understand this: He wants to export oil and export 
natural gas out of our country. That is his promise to the oil and gas 
barons. Do you know what that does domestically? It increases the price 
for everyone here. Consumers and businesses have to pay more because 
there is less oil and gas here--inflation. Yes, that is the plan--
increase the profit for the big fossil fuel plants.
  So we can't allow Trump and Republicans to throw families into 
financial instability just to pay for tax breaks for the ultrawealthy.
  Just like climate change won't be solved by any one President, 
climate action won't be stopped by any one President.
  Look at what has happened in the past week. This isn't business as 
usual, and we have to stop acting like it. That is why I won't be 
supporting any Trump nominee who will only do his illegal bidding.
  I urge all of my colleagues to join me in rejecting those who will 
reject the will of Congress and reject the needs of the American 
people.
  From day one, Donald Trump has been singularly committed to 
abandoning working people, their future, our very democracy--all for 
the power of wealth. That is absolutely unacceptable.
  Donald Trump isn't just ignoring the promise to lower costs for 
families and make our Nation safer; he is inflicting harm on millions 
of Americans, taking away funding for critical, lifesaving health 
research, from cancer to Alzheimer's. The potential ramifications of 
Trump's Federal funding freeze are endless.
  Trump is trying to bully the American people and public servants into 
submission by ignoring the law and cutting off funding to take away the 
services the public needs to get by. This is what dictators do. He 
wants us to forget what he stands for, for us to either give up either 
slowly or all at once. We cannot do that. We must stand up.
  So whether it is racial justice, the rule of law, reproductive 
freedom, economic equality, immigrant and refugee rights, our LGBTQ 
community, universal healthcare, consumer protections, protecting clean 
air and water, creating union jobs and supporting our union workers, 
fighting the climate crisis, holding the fat cats accountable for their 
greed and corruption, more than ever, we must be the fearless voice for 
a livable future. That is my pledge to you.

[[Page S511]]

  It is time to be brave. It is time to stand up for the protection of 
the most vulnerable in our country and our vulnerable planet.
  He is trying to frighten people. He is trying to scare people. That 
is what his agenda has been right from the beginning. And even when his 
henchmen put out that first statement in terms of the freeze, the 
cutoff of funding on Monday night, what does he attribute it to? They 
want to root out Marxism in our country, they want to protect against 
transgender people, and they want to kill the Green New Deal. That is 
what he puts out on the first night.
  Well, just so everyone understands, when Republicans are talking 
about Marxism, they are talking about Social Security; they are talking 
about Medicare; they are talking about Medicaid; they are talking about 
public education. That is what they call Marxism, just so everyone 
understands.
  They are going to need hundreds of billions of dollars and more in 
order to have tax rates for the billionaire boys' club that was sitting 
right behind the President at the swearing-in. He promised them tax 
breaks. Where is the money going to come from? I will tell you where it 
is going to come from--from the programs that they call the Marxist 
programs. Those are all the healthcare programs. Those are all the 
education programs.
  He has nominated a Secretary of Education who has had to promise to 
try to end the Department of Education in our country--end it. They 
need money for billionaires.
  In the Department of Education, title I--that is for the poor 
children in America to get an education, money in there for the kids 
with disabilities. End the Department of Education? Yes. Marxist. Get 
that money into the hands of billionaires and millionaires.
  Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act, Medicare--those three programs 
provide healthcare for 170 million Americans to get the healthcare, 
which they need--170 million Americans. That is where the money is--
healthcare. You have to call it Marxist. You have to try to demonize 
it. That is because they have to pay back all of those people who gave 
them money in order to win in November.

  And he then moves on to transgender kids, trying to demonize them. 
And we know why he does that. He is just trying to scare people. It is 
part of who he is.
  And then the third part of what he mentioned on Monday night was the 
Green New Deal. The Green New Deal is the ultimate payback because the 
President met with the oil and gas executives in April of 2024, and he 
said to them: If you give me $1 billion, I will kill all of the 
renewable energy projects in America. I will take all the money away.
  They gave him the money, and now they are going to get paid back. So 
when they say Green New Deal and they want to kill it, just understand 
they want to kill all the competition to the oil and gas industry.
  The natural gas industry wants all of offshore wind all along the 
east coast to just be destroyed because those 30,000 new megawatts 
would make obsolete the need for more natural gas pipelines to be built 
along the east coast, and he wants to take care of the natural gas 
boys. That is what it is all about.
  When he says he is going to roll back electric vehicles, roll back 
fuel economy standards for the vehicles we drive, he is doing that for 
the oil industry. We put 70 percent of the oil which we consume in our 
country into gasoline tanks. The more people who drive electric 
vehicles, the higher the fuel economy standards, the less oil people 
have to consume, the less money in the pockets of the oil barons--but 
more money in the pockets of consumers.
  So that is what this fight is all about. It is pretty simple. And I 
am glad they put it up there on Monday night, what this battle is 
about, because I know it is going to create a movement across this 
country in the same way that the Green New Deal created a movement that 
created the momentum that made it possible for us to pass the IRA in 
2022.
  But another way of saying IRA is ``the largest climate bill in the 
history of the world.'' That is what is scaring--totally scaring--the 
oil and gas industry, because they can see they are losing in the 
marketplace. They can see that that is where Americans are moving.
  So I will just conclude with this one brief history lesson. Back in 
2009, when Joe Biden was sworn in as Vice President, we had 2,000, 
total, electric vehicles in the United States. That is all. We had 
2,000 total megawatts of solar in the United States.
  Do you know what is frightening to the oil and gas industry? Last 
year, 40,000 new megawatts of solar in 1 year--frightening to them. 
All-electric vehicle revolution? Millions have been purchased just in 
the last 2 years. The oil industry is petrified because we have gone 
from 2,000 megawatts of solar, total, in the whole history of our 
country, and 2,000 all-electric vehicles to a revolution, and they want 
to stop this revolution.
  That is what Trump is all about: the payback to big industries that 
want to thwart Americans who are playing a role in being the leader in 
the world on all of these green energy and climate issues and then 
saying to the rest of the world: We will partner with you to solve this 
problem.
  But you cannot preach temperance from a barstool. You cannot tell the 
rest of the world to stop if you are not doing it yourself. You lose 
all credibility, which is why Trump just pulled totally out of the 
Paris climate agreement at the same time. He doesn't want to be part of 
the world. But that is not how greenhouse gases travel. They travel 
with the clouds. They travel all over the world. And unless we lead, we 
are going to pay a tremendous price in subsequent generations for what 
Donald Trump is trying to perpetrate on our country.
  I yield the floor, and I thank the Presiding Officer for his 
indulgence, and I thank the Senator from Delaware for his indulgence as 
well.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Delaware.
  Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I rise today to address the chaos that has 
been caused by this week's disastrous, unprecedented, and 
unconstitutional funding freeze directive.
  Then-Candidate Trump said on the first night of the Republican 
National Convention: Starting on day one, we will drive down prices and 
make America affordable again.
  I don't think the actions of this week have contributed to making 
America affordable again or driving down prices at all. Instead, when 
the White House abruptly announced a complete halt to all domestic 
grants--grants that covered trillions of dollars of spending to 
thousands of organizations, from medical research to police and fire, 
from construction projects to daycares and senior centers--it caused 
great chaos and concern. I got calls, texts, and emails from hundreds 
of Delawareans--from the State and local governments, from nonprofits, 
from business leaders--saying: What does this mean?
  Meals on Wheels, school lunches for Delawareans in schools, opioid 
prevention programs and community healthcare centers, critical programs 
for military families stationed at Dover Air Force Base, and police and 
fire departments up and down the State raised their hands, digitally, 
to say: What does this mean, and where are we going?
  The Delaware delegation convened a conference call that day with 250 
different participants to try and give them clarity on the path 
forward. I hope that this disastrous directive has been rescinded, but 
I only can say ``I hope'' because I don't truly know.
  The White House Press Office tried to rescind the rescission. So it 
is unclear exactly what its status is now. There have been filings in 
court, both in the District Court for DC and for Rhode Island. There is 
an injunction against the OMB order here in DC. There is an injunction 
or a TRO under consideration up in Rhode Island. But it created a mess. 
It created a mess at a time when Americans need clarity.
  What I have heard from business and business leaders for decades is 
that predictability is the most important part for businesses to grow, 
and what I have heard from families and friends at home was that this 
was not the sort of start they had expected to the Trump 
administration.
  I want to caution folks: We may not know when or if the 
administration will try this order a second time or a third time. I 
will remind you that at the beginning of the last Trump administration, 
he tried to pass a Muslim

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travel ban--a ban on people coming to this country from a series of 
Muslim-majority countries. That ban was enjoined in Federal court. It 
was blocked. They tried again. It was blocked. They tried a third time. 
It was ultimately found to clear judicial muster.
  So, frankly, an administration that has said over and over again they 
believe that impoundment is within the scope of power of the President 
is likely to try again and again. Impoundment sounds like a fancy way 
of putting your dog on a leash in the backyard. What it means is 
violating our constitutional order.
  Article I of the Constitution sets the powers of Congress, and the 
power of the purse--the ability to say what will and won't be spent--is 
central to the relevance and the authority of the U.S. Congress.
  And I will say there is a reason this is dangerous; this is bad. I am 
an appropriator. Those of us who serve on the Appropriations Committee, 
every year, participate in a difficult and complex process where we 
pull together all the different requirements and requests and issues 
and concerns from across our States and departments, and we pass a bill 
here on the floor. We pass it through the House. We send it to the 
President. The President signs it, and then the directives go out for 
what grants and what funding will be available.
  I understand; President Trump won the election. There is a new 
majority in Congress. I fully expected that this year's appropriations 
process would reflect those different priorities. That is the normal 
order of things. But this order is reaching back to last year's 
appropriations and the previous President and trying to freeze it and 
reallocate.
  That has real consequences for our ability to come to bipartisan 
agreements and pass legislation on appropriations if, in the going-
forward years, Presidents can say, ``I am not actually going to do 
disaster relief for this State because I don't like them,'' or, ``I am 
going to freeze and cut funding for this program because it doesn't fit 
with my priorities,'' when he has already got signed legal orders.
  There are still impacts on the ground. I am still hearing from 
Delawareans that funding for construction of roads or bridges under the 
bipartisan infrastructure law and new energy sources and tax credits 
under the Inflation Reduction Act are frozen or facing freezes.
  And I want to turn to another concern of mine that is critical, 
important, and ongoing, but let's just focus on this first point. Until 
Trump backs down on these illegal orders and respects Congress's power 
of the purse and puts his focus back on helping Americans and reducing 
costs, this place and our country will not function and will not get 
better. Nothing about this order makes us safer, more prosperous, or 
more secure.
  Mr. President, I am speaking today in strong opposition to President 
Trump's illegal Executive order of last Friday night that pauses all of 
our foreign assistance and development assistance. Let's be clear. Our 
development assistance, our foreign aid, isn't about charity; it is 
about security, and it is about values. We have alliances and 
partnerships around the world that are undergirded by our soft power, 
by our partnerships and investments in helping make the world safer, 
more stable, and more secure.
  And what happened last Friday night at the end of the workday, when 
there was no one there to answer urgent questions, was a freeze on all 
foreign assistance, with a very narrow exception for food aid, and it 
has caused chaos in the global community that delivers aid and 
assistance around the world. For days, there were questions 
unanswered--what did this mean?--in Ukraine, in Lebanon, where there 
are wars and ceasefires, where critical grant funding and work by 
contractors help put the lights back on after Russian attacks on the 
electrical infrastructure in Ukraine, where a cease-fire implementation 
in Lebanon was ongoing; in parts of the world where we were continuing 
to bring home to the United States those who had served alongside us in 
Afghanistan, Afghan SIVs and their families, waiting for processing, 
abandoned from Qatar and here in the United States; a halt on drug 
supplies that help keep 20 million people living with HIV through the 
program PEPFAR, long supported by Presidents and Congresses of both 
parties; a freeze on activity to counter fentanyl and narcotics 
trafficking, to push back on Chinese and Russian disinformation, and to 
promote democracy. With urgent upcoming elections, the International 
Republican Institute and the National Democratic Institute are frozen 
in their activities and forced to lay off or furlough their workforce.
  Let me thank Secretary Rubio for responding to urgent calls to 
broaden the aperture for humanitarian waivers for this freeze, but let 
me also say that with dozens and dozens of the most senior people at 
USAID put on furlough--so implementing this got harder--and with 
thousands of contractors who work for USAID in countries around the 
world dismissed or laid off, the consequences will be severe.
  I will just give you one example. I suspect everyone listening has 
heard of the disease Ebola. I suspect not everyone has heard of the 
disease Marburg. They are related. They are highly transmissive and 
deadly viruses. There is a new outbreak of Ebola in the capital of 
Uganda. There is an ongoing outbreak of Marburg in the neighboring 
country of Tanzania. This freeze pauses the pandemic surveillance work, 
the urgent public health work, the assistance we provide that makes 
sure that we are safe from a rapidly emerging and lethal global 
pandemic that we put in place after the last pandemic.
  When we halt foreign assistance, it has consequences. It is just 1 
percent of our total budget. Most Americans think it is a big percent 
of our spending, but it is 1 percent--actually, less than 1 percent--of 
the total Federal budget. And there is a winner here. It is not the 
American taxpayer. Freezing programs like this causes chaos and often 
causes more to restart them after a review.
  The winner is China. Our biggest global competitor and adversary is 
delighted that we have handed them an opportunity to say to communities 
and countries around the world that we are not a reliable partner; that 
despite contracts and promises, commitments and programs, they now have 
months to crow about how we have abandoned our partnerships with 
country after country around the world. China is delighted when we lay 
off or furlough or cut the resources that help fuel the work of our 
diplomats and our development professionals.
  And China has seen its opportunity to expand its influence through 
programs like the Belt and Road Initiative. They have spent a trillion 
dollars in projects across the global south in the last decade, and our 
ability to counter Chinese influence, to make strategic investments, 
has been put gravely at risk by putting on hold the workforce and the 
contracts that help deliver.
  The administration may be claiming that this pause is temporary, but 
its effects will not be. The lasting impacts on small businesses, on 
contractors, on NGOs, and loss of expertise, loss of their workforce, 
and loss of their credibility I think will be lasting, dangerous, and 
harmful.