[Pages S611-S632]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                      Nomination of Russell Vought

  Mr. MERKLEY. Mr. President, our constituents, our country, and our 
Constitution are under attack by Donald Trump and Russell Vought.
  Democrats are fighting back. Russell Vought--also pronounced 
``vote''--is the mastermind of Project 2025 and of all of the chaos and 
the lawlessness that Trump has unleashed across our country.
  Today, my Republican colleagues are trying to jam through the 
confirmation of this man, Russell Vought, and it is our job to say 
``stop'' because this man is incredibly dangerous to the foundations of 
our Republic, the system of laws and checks and balances of our 
Constitution. When you put into the Office of Management and Budget an 
individual who willfully avoids and rolls over the laws of the country 
and says he will not abide by the separation of powers, that is a 
fundamental danger that all of us, having taken an oath to the 
Constitution, must stop.
  He is Donald Trump's most dangerous nominee. Oh, you may not have 
heard of him as much as you have heard of the nominee for the Secretary 
of Defense, Mr. Hegseth. You may not have heard about him in the same 
way you have heard about Tulsi Gabbard, who went to Syria without the 
permission of the State Department to consult with a dictator. But this 
man, who is the chief engineer--the chief engineer--of the Trump 
train--a train that plans to disregard the law and the Constitution--is 
a bigger danger to our Republic. That is why Democrats are taking the 
floor now and will continue to hold the floor over every minute allowed 
under our rules to say: This is a mistake.
  To colleagues across the aisle, you, too, took an oath to the 
Constitution. You have a responsibility to defend it, and the only way 
to defend it at the end of this 30 hours is to vote no on Russell 
Vought.
  The American people are watching us today, and I know they are 
feeling rage about what Trump and Vought are doing. I know this 
because, this last weekend, I had five townhalls in Oregon, and we had 
three to eight times the number of people turn out who turned out a 
year ago, which was an election year, which has a bigger turnout than a 
normal year.
  They wondered: How is it possible to break the law in firing 
inspectors general? How is it possible to break the law in firing a 
member of the National Labor Relations Board in the middle of an 8-year 
term when the law doesn't allow you to do that? How is it possible

[[Page S612]]

to break the law and proceed to dismantle USAID when the law doesn't 
allow you to dismantle an organization?
  Yes, the President can ask Congress to write a new law, but to do it 
through Executive fiat? No, the Constitution does not allow that.
  The impoundment of funds people asked about. It has been very clear 
since the time of Nixon--when Nixon impounded funds, Congress then 
stood together and said, ``Hell no, you cannot do that,'' and the 
courts said, ``Hell no, you cannot do that,'' and then Nixon followed 
the issue as the courts decided.
  But Mr. Russell Vought--or ``vote''--he doesn't care, he said. He 
says: The President doesn't agree that this should be the 
interpretation of the Constitution, and I don't agree. So we are just 
going to impound funds as we want.
  That is a dangerous man to our Republic. So I encourage citizens 
across this country: It is your opportunity to be heard as you were 
this weekend at my townhalls. Take to the streets. Take to the phones. 
Let your message amplify and ring from the eastern coast to the western 
coast and the southern border to the northern border with Canada. Let 
your message ring that true patriots will stand with the Constitution 
of the United States of America, that true patriots will defend the 
separation of powers, that true patriots will defend the checks and 
balances inherent in our Constitution.
  Well, just know we stand with you, America, and we are fighting back 
from the outside and the inside--patriots, together, patriots united--
in defending our Constitution against this sweeping, authoritarian 
coup. That is what we are doing.
  Now, I know you hear the word ``coup,'' and you think: Isn't it a 
coup when the military comes in and takes over in violation of the 
Constitution?
  There is also a quieter kind of coup. When the President refuses to 
follow the laws of the Constitution, that is a coup as well, and that 
is what we are facing now. That is why every Member of this body should 
be standing up to say no to the architect of this coup--Russell Vought.
  What we have now in President Trump is government by billionaires for 
billionaires. Our fight is to say that that is not the vision of our 
Constitution. Our vision of the Constitution is of a ``we the people'' 
Constitution or, as Abraham Lincoln said, ``a government of the people, 
by the people, and for the people.'' That is a very different vision--
the vision embedded in our Constitution--than the vision being pursued 
by the President at this moment.

  So you will hear from many Members of the Democratic caucus over the 
next 30 hours, and we ask of our colleagues: Listen to what is said. 
Don't mindlessly follow the dictates of an authoritarian President who 
is trying to violate the Constitution, because that is not your 
responsibility, and recognize that what he is doing is trying to take 
away the legislative power of the House and Senate and replace it with 
Executive fiats.
  Wasn't it strange to listen to an inaugural speech in which President 
Trump didn't talk about legislative initiatives? It was just one 
Executive order after the other. The message was clear. He was telling 
America: I am not going to be a President who executes the laws; I am 
going to be a President who overrides the laws with Executive orders.
  Just within hours--mere hours--of taking the oath to the 
Constitution, he put forward an Executive order that violated the 14th 
Amendment on birthright citizenship. Just days after taking the oath to 
the Constitution, he put forward a strategy of impoundment that 
violates the core of the Constitution, where the power of the purse is 
given to Congress, not to the President.
  So here we are, going forward. We are in dangerous times for our 
Nation. We are in the midst of this unfolding authoritarian coup, and 
we have the responsibility to stop it.
  Now, it is hard to focus on any one thing. The expression I have 
heard almost hourly is the President is ``flooding the zone,'' meaning 
he is doing so many things at once and so many Executive orders that it 
just creates, well, confusion and chaos, and it makes it hard to focus 
on any one action that is so diabolical that normally all of us would 
be focused on it and saying: No.
  So this strategy is an effective one, but that is why we are taking 
the next 30 hours to not focus on 100 things but 1 thing: the danger 
Russell Vought presents to our Constitution and our responsibility--our 
responsibility--in advice and consent under the Constitution to vet 
that candidate, realize who he is, and say he is not fit to be the 
Director of OMB, the Office of Management and Budget. In fact, he is 
not fit to serve in any governmental capacity.
  It was quite troubling to experience Donald Trump's dead-of-night 
directive a week ago Monday night to cut off funding for programs that 
families depend on--programs to feed children, programs to pay rent, 
programs to see the doctor--cutoffs that are cruel and indiscriminate 
and illegal because the President has the responsibility to execute the 
laws, not ignore them or violate them.
  We saw so much happen in terms of disrespecting or breaking the law.
  The inspectors general--17 and counting--are the watchdogs who say to 
the executive branch: You must obey the law. So, if you want to see 
what an authoritarian President does who is seeking an imperial 
Presidency where he can write the laws through fiat, one of the first 
things you do is tear down the watchdogs, and that is what he did. The 
watchdog for the Department of Labor, the watchdog for the Interior, 
the watchdog for Housing and Urban Development, the watchdog for the 
Defense Department, the watchdog for the State Department, the watchdog 
for Agriculture, the watchdog for Health and Human Services, the 
watchdog for the Department of Education--all fired in violation of the 
law.
  The law does give the President the ability to dismiss an inspector 
general under two conditions. The first condition--30-days' notice. The 
second condition is that it be for cause. Both were broken.
  Why is no Member of the President's party standing up on the floor of 
the Senate and saying, ``Respect the law, Mr. President''?
  That is an obligation we all share. It isn't the responsibility of 
the minority party to say ``defend the Constitution'' alone; it is the 
responsibility of the majority party as well, of every individual 
Member here in the Senate.
  Then we had the President fire a member of the National Labor 
Relations Board, but the law says you can't do that. They have a term. 
You get to put in and nominate a new person at the end of the term. But 
he was fired anyway. Why? Because it is part of the attack on families 
and the ability to enforce labor protections this President opposes.
  He wants to give free rein to corporations to run over labor 
provisions embedded in the law. If there is no one to appeal to, then 
there is no constraint on the abuses put onto working people. That is 
what we are facing.
  The President fired the head of the Consumer Financial Protection 
Bureau. I can tell you, protection of consumers from terrible financial 
products is incredibly important.
  You know, when I was elected to the Senate, we had two types of loans 
that were predatory mortgage loans that were turning the dream of home 
ownership into a nightmare.
  One was called the triple option loan. What that meant was that you 
could pay a smaller amount, and the amount you owed on your house would 
actually escalate over time. Then when you got to a certain point of 
escalation, then the loan would switch, and you would have to pay a 
different amount that many people couldn't afford. So it resulted in a 
lot of foreclosures.
  Then we had another type of home mortgage with an exploding interest 
rate. You would get a subsidized interest rate for a couple of years, 
and then the interest rate explodes to 9 or 10 percent. People couldn't 
make those payments.
  They had been steered into those loans by mortgage brokers who were 
getting kickbacks undisclosed to the person taking out the loan. They 
were being betrayed by kickbacks called steering payments.
  That is the type of thing that hurt America terribly because the 
foreclosures then were a key factor driving the collapse of the economy 
in 2007, 2008, into 2009. Hundreds of thousands,

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millions of homes were foreclosed on, all because there wasn't a 
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to say those loans were not OK.
  I was very pleased to lead the charge in Dodd-Frank to end those 
predatory loans. But for ongoing protection against scurrilous, 
scandalous scams, you need a watchdog for the consumer. The President, 
favoring billionaires and corporations over the American workers, 
proceeded to fire the watchdog that protects us against scandalous 
scams in financial products.
  Then the President fired members of the FBI, experts who were focused 
on making sure the executive branch stays within the confines of the 
law. Well, if you don't want the FBI checking out the fact that you are 
breaking the law, you fire them so there is no one there to hold you 
accountable or do a report.
  These are the acts of a President determined to rule by fiat and 
break the laws and break the Constitution.
  Then Donald Trump gave Elon Musk unprecedented and unacceptable 
access to the U.S. Treasury's most sensitive payment systems. Those 
payment systems control over $5 trillion a year in payments. Those 
payment systems have everyone's private information.
  Do you like the fact that Elon Musk and his team of muskrats, with 
their laptops, has been in there downloading information on you? Don't 
you kind of worry about the type of Big Brother government that 
downloads your private information and sends in inexperienced people to 
take over the payments and take your private information: where you 
live, how much you earn, your tax returns, whether you get Medicare, 
whether you get Social Security, your Social Security number--
everything within that world. That is a massive assault on the privacy 
of American citizens by a Big Brother government--the type of 
government that wants to be an authoritarian Presidency and control 
everything and have power over everything, and so they invade the 
Treasury and the system of payments.
  Not only is it a huge risk to the privacy of Americans across this 
land, but it also is an invitation to exploitation. It is an invitation 
to extortion because now Big Brother government, in the form of Mr. 
Trump and Elon Musk and his muskrats, has your information that they 
can use against you should they so please.
  Finally, there is the danger that this crew that invaded Treasury 
alters the codes and screws up the payments. Maybe they don't intend 
to, but they do because they don't know what they are doing. They are 
not experts on the code. Then suddenly the Medicare or Social Security 
payments or tax returns don't go out the way they are supposed to.
  A whole lot of Americans aren't like billionaire Trump and his band 
of billionaire bros. They are living paycheck to paycheck. So screwing 
up a single payment can put a family in a world of hurt, including 
missing a rent payment that gets them thrown out of their house.
  That is not the only way that Team Trump is attacking ordinary 
families. There is also the big sales tax he wants to impose across the 
Nation in the form of tariffs.
  Mr. Trump says: Huh, it will be the Ford companies that pay for 
tariffs.
  Well, just factually, that is wrong. The importer pays the tariff 
bill, not the group that exports to the United States. The American 
company that imports pays the tariff. Then, in order to pay the tariff, 
they raise their prices. So it becomes a sales tax on the American 
people. So a 25-percent tariff on Mexico or Canada becomes a 25-percent 
tax more or less on working America.
  You know, President Trump posted on Truth Social that tariffs should 
never have been ended in favor of the income tax system. Just recognize 
this: Tariffs that result in higher prices on Americans are incredibly 
regressive. They have a much bigger impact on those who are less well 
off who have to buy food and groceries. Unlike a sales tax that has an 
exemption for healthcare or food or groceries, there is no exemption 
from the higher prices driven by a tariff. So they are incredibly 
regressive. The tariffs are a strategy to attack working families 
across this land.
  Trump was very clear. He said basically we should go back to the old 
system of funding our government by tariffs, the system we had before 
1913, when America ratified the 16th Amendment and allowed the income 
tax. In other words, he wants to go from a tax system on income that 
can, if implemented carefully--and often it is not, and it has way too 
many loopholes--it can be progressive; that is, the rich who can afford 
to pay more can pay a higher percent.

  But the tariffs converted into a sales tax on Americans--that is, in 
fact, incredibly regressive, hurting the poor. It is why rich folks 
always want to have a sales tax replace an income tax, because they 
know they pay less. The rich pay less, and the working stiffs have to 
pay more because their paycheck has to go directly to consumption 
because that is what they have, paycheck to paycheck. They have got to 
pay the rent, got to pay for food, got to pay the utility bill. But the 
well off are taking their extra funds and they are investing. So they 
don't have to spend every dime on consumption. That is the mechanics of 
how a tariff becomes a regressive sales tax.
  Let's be crystal clear about what is happening. There is a three-part 
plan in Project 2025--again, the architect of which is up for 
confirmation right now--on the question of advice and consent by the 
Senate. So the architect of Project 2025 has a three-step plan.
  Attack working families--that is step 1. That is what happens when 
you cut the programs for healthcare and housing and education and 
children--you attack the families. Step 2, borrow trillions from the 
Treasury and run up the debt, currently estimated to be in the area of 
about $3 trillion. Then take and deliver a massive tax giveaway to the 
billionaires. That is the plan: Attack families, borrow trillions, and 
give away trillions to the billionaires.
  In fact, the current estimate for the amount given to the 
trillionaires is around $4.6 trillion--or to the billionaires or mega 
millionaires, the richest Americans--$4.6 trillion.
  Kind of ironic, isn't it, that a President who campaigned on helping 
families is actually driving a plan, in partnership with Russell 
Vought, to attack families and deliver for the billionaires? Campaign 
on government for families, get elected, and immediately pivot to 
attacking families and delivering for billionaires--that is what we are 
facing.
  This is the great betrayal, a betrayal of all the voters who believed 
Donald Trump when he said ``I am for you,'' who believed him when he 
said he wants to protect and help working families, and yet he attacks 
the ability of workers to organize and get a fair day's pay for an 
honest day's work. That is the great betrayal.
  The architect of this is up for confirmation right now. The architect 
for this is advocating for the President to violate the laws and has 
already demonstrated that these last 2 weeks. The architect of this is 
arguing that we cut programs, run up the debt, and give it all to the 
richest Americans. That is the plan.
  So over the next 30 hours, Democrats are coming to the floor united, 
determined to stand with the families of the United States of America. 
Mr. Trump is standing with the billionaires.
  My colleagues who have indicated they want to confirm Russell Vought, 
confirm the architect of Project 2025, confirm the person who inspired 
the attacks on family programs a week ago Monday night--they are 
standing with the billionaires.
  I invite them, come join us. Do not stand for government by and for 
billionaires. Come join us and fight for families. Come join us and 
honor the responsibility of the executive branch to obey the laws. Come 
join us and protect the constitutional separation of powers.
  After all, the President's effort to move the power of the purse from 
Congress--the power of Congress is to say: Here are the instructions. 
We want you to fund this program and this program and this program. The 
President wants to say: It doesn't matter; those are just suggestions.
  I have news for you: Read the Constitution. The President is not a 
king, and a law is not a suggestion.
  So come join us united in support of the law and the Constitution.
  Russell Vought is a leading proponent of the impoundment theory

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that says a President can decide how much to spend on programs that 
Congress has written into the law; in other words, that the 
appropriations bills are simply suggestions, not the law.
  No. We had this conversation back in the Nixon era. Remember 
President Nixon, along with Watergate? Remember that other 
unconstitutional thing he did? That was to say: I as President can stop 
the funding of programs that the law says I am supposed to fund. Well, 
the Court said otherwise. It said, in fact: No way. That is 
unconstitutional.
  Then in 1974, in the Budget and Impoundment Control Act, Congress 
said: Hey, Mr. President, we will give you a mechanism by which you can 
present the idea of changing current law. You don't think we need to 
spend money on, say, that weapon program because the technology is 
outdated or maybe you don't need to spend money on some feeding program 
because it is duplicative of another feeding program or food program or 
you don't need to spend money on X, Y, or Z. Maybe a nuclear warhead 
was being rebuilt to be on a certain missile, but we are not building 
the missile anymore.
  So the President could proceed to say: Here is a letter that comes to 
Congress saying: I know these are in the law. I know I have to fund 
them. But we shouldn't fund them, so, please, over the next 45 days, 
debate and vote on changing the current law so that we save this money.
  It is called a rescission. It is in the 1974 Budget and Impoundment 
Control Act. We gave the President a tool by which he could follow the 
Constitution and ask for reductions in programs already passed into 
law.
  Now, I am quite sure that not a single Senator here, not a single 
Senator wandering around the Capitol somewhere, has received a 
rescission letter from President Trump or one on behalf of President 
Trump from the Office of Management and Budget.
  If you want to cut programs that are already in the law, there is a 
mechanism to do it lawfully. You ask Congress to do so in a letter for 
a rescission. It is a fancy word. We don't talk about it much. 
Presidents don't very often ask us to undo programs we have just passed 
because we budget on an annual basis; we pass those laws on an annual 
basis. So they are rarely so out of date that a President says: OK, 
undo that program. But they have the power to do so because we gave the 
President the ability to ask in the 1974 Budget and Impoundment Control 
Act.
  And by the way, the lower court rescissions that preceded that 1974 
law, those were then reviewed and made it to the Supreme Court, and the 
Supreme Court said, absolutely, the President cannot impound funds. It 
is a violation of the Constitution.
  So to my colleagues, if you are saying: I don't know if Senator 
Merkley from Oregon is right about this, read the Supreme Court case. 
And you have a responsibility to defend the Constitution, and that is 
why you have a responsibility to vote no on Russell Vought, who wants 
to violate the Constitution.
  Another piece that I am concerned about with Mr. Vought is that he 
didn't wait to be confirmed to start being, essentially, the shadow 
director of the Office of Management and Budget. I can't count how many 
nominees have come through and said: Well, actually, I can't go near 
that office until I am confirmed because that would be a violation of 
the intent of the Constitution that people have to be confirmed before 
they take a role.
  But what did we hear from the White House after all these illegal 
Executive orders were put out? Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said: 
Russell Vought told me to tell all of you the line to his office is 
open.
  So here is Mr. Vought basically saying: I am really the power already 
at OMB. My line is open; call me.
  Well, Mr. Vought, if you would quit breaking the law and advocating 
for breaking the law, you would know you shouldn't be in the Office of 
Management and Budget essentially acting as if you have been confirmed 
when you haven't been confirmed yet.
  Again, it is a confirmation of the inclination of this individual to 
say: The laws don't matter; I will do what I want no matter how much 
damage it does to the law or the Constitution.
  So we did send a letter to Mr. Vought saying: Are you on the payroll 
currently? Do you have a title? Have you been hired as a senior 
assistant? Is that legal given you are up for nomination to run the 
place? Is it legal for you to be hired as an adviser and then act as if 
you are running the place? Is that legal?
  We didn't get any answers.
  Another reason to vote no: The file is not complete. He hasn't 
answered. Why does he not want to answer? Because you wouldn't like the 
answer. The American people wouldn't like the answer that he is over 
there running OMB at a time he hasn't even been confirmed by the 
Senate. So he doesn't answer. That, too, should bother colleagues on 
both sides of the aisle.
  Because we didn't have answers, the Democrats on the Budget Committee 
wrote to the chair of the Budget Committee and said: Delay this vote. 
Delay it for 2 weeks so we can get answers to questions and get a 
complete file.
  Well, that is a reasonable request in this situation because both 
sides of the aisle have often worked together to say nominees have to 
complete their paperwork, they have to answer the questions raised by 
the committee. But we were told: No. This position is so urgent. The 
President so desperately needs the architect of Project 2025 to be the 
engineer on the train that we can't actually wait and get answers and 
have the file completed.
  I certainly disagree with that answer. I think it disrespects the 
entire membership of the Budget Committee.
  And then, the vote in committee was scheduled without the file 
complete, and it was scheduled to be done in a little room off the 
floor over here where the public cannot attend and where members would 
not be allowed to talk to each other and share their observations or 
concerns, which basically violates the whole premise of members on a 
committee sharing their observations to try to get to a better answer.
  Now, I was told that, as the ranking Democrat, I can make a few 
comments, but the rest of my committee--other Democrats or even the 
other members of the Republican side--were told they couldn't make any 
comments or attempt to influence each other. So we said: No, that is 
not right. This is such an important nomination and his background is 
so troubling and his current actions are so troubling, hold that 
conversation about the vote in a public forum.
  Just that morning, we had held just such a public conversation on the 
Ambassador to the United Nations in the Foreign Relations room. Each 
member was asked: Do you want to add anything as we consider whether or 
not to send this nomination to the floor?
  Well, the Ambassador to the United Nations is a pretty important 
role. But, you know, the chief engineer of the Office of Management and 
Budget, the architect of this entire strategy that Trump has laid out, 
that is very important as well. So we asked for a public hearing or 
discussion so that members could talk to each other, share their 
concerns, maybe persuade each other--though not often enough do we 
listen to each other--and the result was, from the chair of the Budget 
Committee: No, we are not holding a public dialogue about whether 
people think he should be confirmed.

  So the vote was held in a tiny room. I think one reporter was allowed 
in. No public was allowed in, no expanded press corps, no dialogue 
between the members. We asked a reasonable request that this be done 
publicly, and that was denied.
  I am sorry to the American public that you were excluded because you 
would have heard then what you are hearing from me now and what you 
will hear from Members of the Democrats over the next 30 hours: how 
fabulously unfit this individual is to serve in any government role.
  So we are here tonight, on through now, through the night, into the 
morning--we are here for the next 30 hours to raise the alarm about how 
dangerously unfit this nominee is to serve in the role of chief 
engineer because he doesn't respect the law, he doesn't respect the 
Constitution. He has already demonstrated that by stepping into the 
role and coordinating the dark-of-night decisions to cut programs to 
working families all across this land.
  Now, I would say: Hmm, but does he really believe in this whole 
impoundment thing? Is he really an advocate of breaking the law? Well, 
we saw it Monday night, but we also saw it during

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the first Trump administration when Russell Vought was the architect of 
impoundment of the funds destined by law to go to Ukraine. So this 
isn't some empty theory. It is already in the historical record. 
Russell Vought coordinated a strategy of refusing to send the funds 
required by law to go to Ukraine.
  Now, there was another element of this, which was President Trump, 
during his first term, was trying to use those funds and the 
impoundment of those funds to get the President of Ukraine to say bad 
things about a member of the Biden family. That combination of 
impoundment, which was illegal, and then essentially using that to 
extort a statement from the President of Ukraine--which the President 
of Ukraine refused to do--led to Trump's first impeachment trial.
  So Russell Vought's illegal, unconstitutional strategy of impoundment 
and using it as a tool of extortion to try to attack a political 
opponent led to Trump's first impeachment and first trial here in the 
Senate. So have no doubt that the man who advocated for impoundment and 
the extortion of a statement from the President of Ukraine back in the 
first Trump administration is certainly very honest when he says he is 
still for impoundment right now.
  That is the one thing I will say. He didn't try to disguise this 
fact. He said: The President doesn't like what the Supreme Court 
decided on the Constitution. I don't like it. So we are going to ignore 
it.
  He ignored it before. He intends to ignore it again.
  I will tell you something else that I think is deeply disturbing, and 
that is Russell Vought's absolute disdain for the nonpartisan 
professionals who work for the American people as civil servants. He 
wants to take folks who are members of the civil service and make them 
at-will employees of the President so the President can sweep out of 
position tens of thousands--fire tens of thousands of servants to the 
American people who use their professional skills to deliver services 
as efficiently and as effectively as possible and replace them with 
loyalist lackeys.
  I don't want a loyalist lackey in the control tower deciding when 
planes land. I want a nonpartisan professional.
  I don't want a loyalist lackey having access to the Treasury payment 
system and trying to use that to extort favors from people around the 
country or disclosing the private information of individuals or 
actually screwing up the computer code and causing payments not to be 
delivered effectively. I want a nonpartisan professional.
  I don't want a loyalist lackey deciding on how to transport vaccines 
across the country, who doesn't know a damn thing about whether they 
have to be refrigerated or not or how long they can sit on the shelf or 
how to get them effectively delivered. I want a nonpartisan 
professional.
  But not Russell Vought. In fact, Russell Vought called for Federal 
workers to be traumatized so that they would consider themselves to be 
villains and would leave public service and could be replaced by 
loyalist lackeys. That should concern everyone.
  And, listen, I understand the pressure my colleagues are under. We 
all become, as part of our party, essentially part of a team, and the 
inclination is to support the member of your team who is now President. 
But there is a higher responsibility here. It is a responsibility to 
the law, and it is a responsibility to the Constitution that you took 
an oath to.
  And, certainly, supporting the firing of tens of thousands of 
nonpartisan professionals and replacing them with loyalist lackeys is a 
huge disservice to the families of America who depend upon all of those 
core programs in healthcare, housing, education, programs for children, 
standing on their feet so they can thrive and move into the middle 
class. It is part of the attack on families embedded in Trump and 
Russell Vought's Project 2025.
  I will tell you what else I don't like about Russell Vought. He wants 
to weaponize the justice system to prosecute officials who investigated 
President Trump's crime. Weaponizing the justice system is absolutely 
wrong. That is what happens in third-world countries with dictators.
  And I realize, as an advocate of the imperial Presidency, Vought 
wants to use every tool available, like a dictator does. But that is 
wrong. We are a republic; we are not a monarchy. We are not an 
authoritarian state--unless we become one by refusing to stand up 
against violations of laws and the Constitution.
  You know, Ben Franklin, when he was leaving the Constitutional 
Convention, was asked by a bystander, because they had met and worked 
on this crafting of the Constitution: Ben Franklin, what do we have? 
What type of government do we have?
  And he responded: A republic, if we can keep it.
  But what are the fundamental elements of a republic?
  The integrity of the voting booth is one--the ballot box, the 
integrity of an election--and that integrity is under assault across 
this country.
  Second, the peaceful transfer of power--and President Trump, at the 
end of his first term, did everything possible, including incentivizing 
a riot that stormed through these doors and took over this Chamber, to 
prevent the peaceful transfer of power. They were calling for the Vice 
President, who was fulfilling his constitutional role, just down the 
hallway through those doors--down the hallway--to count the electoral 
votes. They were calling for him to be hung.
  What else is critical to a republic? Well, it is a foundation of laws 
that will be respected by the Executive branch. That is being violated. 
And it is the separation of powers that Trump is violating right now. 
So every piece of our Republic is under attack by Russell Vought and 
Donald Trump.
  Ben Franklin, right now, is turning over in his grave, fearing, 
perhaps for the first time since he was buried 6 feet under, that we 
might lose our Republic.
  Russell Vought also supports the use of the military to quell 
domestic unrest. That is an absolute violation of the law, but he 
supports doing it.
  Russell Vought has called for an end to any drugs that provide 
medical abortions. He wants them banned. He wants to interfere with the 
right of every family, every woman in America, to exercise her judgment 
in partnership with her spiritual adviser and her family and her 
doctor. He wants Big Brother government to be in the exam room of every 
woman in America, dictating whether or not they can use drugs as part 
of an abortion process. And he also doubles down on this saying there 
should be no exceptions to a law banning abortions, for rape or for 
incest or to save the life of the mother.
  You know, I was absolutely struck by the recent memo from the new 
Secretary of Transportation that said: We are going to prioritize 
giving our grants to communities that have the highest birthrate and 
highest marriage rate.
  What? Big Brother, socially programming, using transportation grants 
to determine who gets to repair their bridges or repair their roads or 
expand their metro system or build bike lanes, or whatever, depending 
on your marriage rate and your childbirth rate? That is in the memo 
from the Department of Transportation.
  Well, here is Russell Vought. His social programming is he wants his 
view of reproductive healthcare to be imposed across America with Big 
Brother, Big Government, in the exam room of every American woman. That 
is who this man is. Those are his dangerous views.
  Presidents are not kings. Laws are not suggestions--unless Russell 
Vought is confirmed and makes it so. If he is confirmed and makes it 
so, we have failed to defend our democracy. We have failed to defend 
our Republic.
  We were elected by our citizens of our respective States to be here 
with the vision of government by and for the people, not the vision of 
government by billionaires, for billionaires; not the vision of Big 
Brother government going into our living rooms and into our exam rooms, 
telling us to have children in order to get a transportation grant. But 
that is the type of social programming we are facing.
  To my colleagues across the aisle, you all have pointed out quite 
accurately that you are threatened with a primary funded by Elon Musk 
if you don't loyally follow step by step, move by move, everything 
Trump wants to do, including confirming Russell Vought.

[[Page S616]]

  I say to you: Stop trembling in your boots. You are being threatened. 
You are being pressed. You are being extorted. Stand up and say: I am a 
Senator of the United States of America. I was not elected by President 
Trump. I was not elected by Russell Vought. I was not elected by Elon 
Musk and the billionaires. I was elected by the people of my State, and 
I am going to fight for them.
  That is your responsibility. That is your path to escape the dilemma 
we have heard you express. I don't believe, at any other time in our 
history, the President of the United States has threatened to sic the 
billionaires against Members of the U.S. Senate, and we need to stand 
together and say: Hell no.
  That is what it means to defend the Constitution. That is what it 
means to be a Senator, this privileged position, elected by the 
citizens of our State in order to pursue what the people are asking us 
to do to build a stronger Union and better opportunity for every, every 
citizen.
  Donald Trump and Russell Vought are trying to use their Executive 
orders to break the spirit of the American people, to break the will of 
Congress, to break the back of the Constitution. Such plans are evil, 
and every one of us, Democrat or Republican, should say: We will not be 
intimidated. We will not cower. And we will not bend to fear of Donald 
Trump and Elon Musk. Trump may inflict his worst, but we must awaken 
our best.
  President Franklin Roosevelt said: We won't let them ``clip the wings 
of the American eagle to feather their own nests.''
  Colleagues, stand with me. Stand together. Stand as Senators united 
to stop the President from clipping the wings of the American eagle to 
feather the nest of the billionaires. To protect our constituents, to 
protect the Constitution, to oppose this sweeping authoritarian coup, 
to stand with American families and against the betrayal of those same 
families, we are coming to the floor united to say: We must not confirm 
the nomination of the most unfit man to be considered as Director of 
the Office of Management and Budget.
  You all have heard me say a few words about impoundments. It is a big 
word, but it is a big word for a simple action. It means that the 
President refuses to spend the money that he is required to spend by 
law on a program.
  Oh, I don't like healthcare programs that we are doing. And the law 
says here is what you must spend for this particular program in the 
coming year, and the President says: No, not doing it.
  Yes, well, that is illegal, and it is unconstitutional. It is not up 
for debate.
  In the 1970s, President Nixon did exactly this action, impoundment, 
to stop funds for the Environmental Protection Agency for individual 
programs that he didn't like. He told his EPA Administrator, Russell 
Train, to withhold the funding. A recipient of those funds was the city 
of New York, and the city sued. And in that case, Train vs. City of New 
York, the Supreme Court ruled that the White House did not have the 
power to impound funds and refuse to do what the law says you are 
supposed to do.
  And, furthermore, the Supreme Court said: This is inherent in the 
Constitution. The Executive is to execute the laws, not to make the 
laws, not to remake the laws, not to ignore the laws, not to treat the 
laws as a suggestion.
  The Executive must faithfully implement the laws of the United States 
of America. That is the responsibility.
  Congress, in the 1974 Budget and Impoundment Control Act, did create 
a way for the President to say: I am not just waiting on the budget 
next year. I am not just weighing in on what programs I want for the 
next year. I want to change the ones this year.
  And we gave him--Congress did--a tool to do so. That is the tool of 
rescission that I mentioned before.
  Well, let's fast forward from 1974 and the battle with Nixon to 1996. 
In 1996, there was a very interesting debate over the balanced budget 
amendment. And you needed 67 Senators to approve, in both bodies, this 
constitutional amendment. The House easily passed it. Here, in the 
Senate, the Republican chair of the Appropriations Committee said: No, 
every year, through our revenue bills and through our spending bills--
appropriations bills--we decide what the deficit will be, and we can 
decide, in a year, it shall be zero.
  But we shouldn't be so constrained to address national emergencies, 
whether it be a famine from drought or whether it be war or whether it 
be COVID--of course, COVID or some disease--that we shouldn't be so 
constrained as to be unable to meet the moment.
  So Senator Hatfield from Oregon said no, he would not be the 67th 
vote. And then he offered to resign. And what the history books rarely 
record is that in Oregon the Governor does not have the power to 
appoint an individual to the Senate seat, which meant there would have 
been 99 Senators, and 66 would have been enough to pass that 
constitutional change, and it would have gone out to the States for 
ratification.
  Well, the majority leader, Robert Dole, turned down Hatfield's offer 
to resign. So the 67 standard was not met.
  Well, then the Republican leadership said: Let's give the President 
line-item veto--essentially, give the President impoundment power, 
impoundment power that the Courts said the President doesn't have.
  And so they passed a law and gave the President impoundment power--
line-item veto--and it went to the Supreme Court. And the Supreme Court 
said: Hey, Congress, the Constitution charges you with the 
responsibility to lay out what will be funded for what programming. You 
can't simply delegate to that President. If you could, you could have a 
majority in the two Chambers that says: We give the power to make up 
any law the President wants and then to enforce it.
  In other words, it would be a pathway toward an authoritarian 
takeover of our country, if Congress abandoned its constitutional role 
to set the parameters for what programs are funded. And so the Supreme 
Court struck it down.
  Well, here we have, again, Russell Vought ignoring the Supreme Court 
in Train vs. City of New York, ignoring the Supreme Court when it 
struck down the line-item veto, and once again threatening to so 
undermine the law and the Constitution.
  Colleagues, my fellow caucus members will be coming through the night 
to share their perspectives and why Russell Vought is untrustworthy, 
unelected, and unfit to serve as the Director of Office of Management 
and Budget.
  I believe that my colleague from Hawaii is going to carry the train 
of this conversation forward, and, therefore, I am wrapping up my 
comments while he figures out some issue at the counter. But I want you 
to all go forward into this long 30 hours knowing just a core fact: 
that we only have a republic if we can keep it, and we can't keep it if 
we put a man at the head of OMB who is determined to break the law and 
violate the Constitution.

  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Hawaii.
  Mr. SCHATZ. Mr. President, thank you to the ranking member of the 
Budget Committee for his leadership.
  We are doing something a little unusual. First of all, every Democrat 
is united on the vote that will occur 26 or 27 hours from now. Second 
of all, almost every U.S. Senator on the Democratic side is going to 
come to the floor to articulate why we are united and why we think this 
moment is so important.
  If confirmed, the Director of OMB, Russ Vought, may well be the most 
important man that no one has ever heard of. Under normal 
circumstances, the OMB Directors are powerful but kind of anonymous 
because they are responsible for technical things, nerdy things--
developing and implementing the entire Federal budget, and they advance 
the priorities of the President, whomever--Democrat or Republican.
  But Russ Vought wants to go way beyond that. He wants to take an 
Agency that people outside of Washington haven't even heard of and turn 
it into the nerve center and power center of the Federal Government. He 
wants to consolidate power at OMB in such a stark and sometimes illegal 
way that he alone will get to decide who deserves the government's help 
and who doesn't.
  You do not have to take my word for it. I am a Democrat. I always 
want to make the case for our side. But I want you to understand these 
are his words,

[[Page S617]]

because he is one of the authors of Project 2025.
  Let me just say what he says about this job:

       The Director must view his job as the best, most 
     comprehensive approximation of the President's mind as it 
     pertains to the policy agenda while always being ready with 
     actual opinions to effect that agenda within . . . legal 
     authorities and resources. This role cannot be performed 
     adequately if the Director acts instead as the ambassador of 
     the institutional interests. . . . Once its reputation as the 
     keeper of the ``commander's intent'' is established--

  This is like--everybody has watched ``Game of Thrones.'' He wants to 
be the king's hand. He wants to be able to say: I represent the 
President in any and all things: foreign policy, domestic policy, tax 
policy, spending policy, all of it. That is actually not what an OMB 
Director is supposed to do.
  He then talks about a practice called apportionment to essentially 
get around the bills that we passed, the appropriations bills.
  He wrote:

       No Director should be chosen who is unwilling to restore 
     apportionment decision-making to the PAD's--

  Program associate directors, who are political appointees, not career 
officials.

       --personal review, who is not aggressive in wielding the 
     tool on behalf of the President's agenda, or who is unable to 
     defend the power against attacks from Congress.

  Look, the door swings both ways in Washington, and this attempt to 
consolidate power and basically make the legislature irrelevant is 
going to bite us all in the butt. There is going to be a progressive 
President, and if this is allowed to stand, they are going to reach in 
and defund stuff you like. That is the creature of a dually enacted 
law.
  I get that this is nerdy. I am not saying anybody should make this 
their primary point of opposition to the President, but we are on the 
floor of the U.S. Senate, so let's be a little serious for a moment and 
say that we swore an oath to uphold the law and Constitution of the 
United States.
  The Constitution is actually--it is ambiguous about a couple of 
things, but it is not ambiguous about this. We hold the purse strings. 
We are the article I branch, and our power, besides confirming or 
rejecting nominees, is substantially that we set the parameters for a 
spending bill.
  I get that there are 53 Members on the other side of the aisle that 
have a different view of spending than I do, and I get that we just 
lost, and so we are in for some outcomes that we don't like. I am not 
complaining about outcomes that I don't like; I am complaining about an 
unlawful view of the separation of powers.
  We saw it last week when they just literally froze all Federal 
funding--not even with a pretext of like ``Hey, we are just going to 
review this and make sure everything--you know, no fraud, waste, or 
abuse.'' They just shut down the Medicaid portal. They shut down Head 
Start. They froze construction projects.
  So I want everybody to understand that what is at stake here is 
literally the American system of government because these guys view 
this branch of government--the one that is plural; not just 1 person 
elected but 535 people elected from their States and their districts to 
represent all of the people in the United States of America. It is 
supposed to be messy, and it is supposed to be contentious. And do you 
know what? It is also sometimes supposed to be slow. It is supposed to 
be slow. It is supposed to be hard.
  We have the best document underlining any country that has ever 
existed in human history, and what it does is it says: We don't want 
any branch of government to be too powerful. So this is not some 
trivial little partisan dispute about particular programs; this is the 
ability for the executive branch to literally seize power, storm into 
the offices of an Agency that they hate and shut it down operationally 
and use a bunch of white-shoe law firm fancy-pants words to develop a 
pretext for eviscerating the U.S. Constitution, which clearly gives us 
the authority to establish spending laws, right?
  And can we spare ourselves the punditocracies? ``Well, Democrats 
should be focusing on something else.'' I understand. I understand that 
some of the stuff that we are going to say to each other on the Senate 
floor is not necessarily compelling to people outside of this building, 
but people outside of this building understand on a very basic level 
that there are three branches of government, and they are supposed to 
be roughly equal, and stealing power from the legislative branch is 
inherently bad even if you agree with the outcome, even if you think: 
Well, I kind of agree with them. I don't like this program.

  If you don't like a program, introduce a bill. If you want to defund 
something, there is an actual process for that.
  There is a lot of stuff I don't like in the Federal budget, and I 
usually propose cuts to those things I don't like. Sometimes I prevail, 
and sometimes I don't. But I have no illusions that I am a monarch.
  It is true that this President of the United States won a free and 
fair election to be at the helm of the executive branch, but he did not 
win a free and fair election to be the monarch of the United States or 
the CEO of the United States.
  I think one of the conceptual problems with bringing in all these 
billionaires is they really are the monarchs of their companies. That 
is like how the private sector works. You are the CEO and you want 
something to happen, you tell them: This is what is going to happen. 
This is not a democracy. I am the boss. Do it.
  That is literally not our constitutional system.
  So Russ Vought has ideas that I disagree with about the size and the 
scope of the Federal Government, and that is part of this, right? He 
really does want to cut Medicaid, cut Medicare, cut the Affordable Care 
Act, eliminate programs that I think are essential for people in Hawaii 
and people across country. But there really is something bigger at 
stake right now. We, all of us--Democrats, Republicans, Independents, 
the media, which is so damn casual about what is happening--we have to 
understand that when you are in the middle of the fight, you are not 
sure if this is a historic moment. When you read about it in the past, 
you can identify that historic moment. When you observe it in a faraway 
place with a hard-to-pronounce name, you can identify what is 
happening--creeping fascism. When it happens and you are in the middle 
of it, you are not so sure if it is your moment to display any sense of 
independence or courage.
  If this is going to be stopped, we only have 47 votes. Three people, 
at some point--I have no illusions that it will be in the next 30 
hours, but three people at some point have to say: I like conservative 
outcomes, I like conservative justices, I like tax cuts, but I don't 
like unlawfulness, and those are my parameters.
  I am an adult. I have been here for 13 years. I have been in the 
majority, and I have been in the minority. I have been in sort of every 
iteration of whatever elections bring. That is OK. That is the way this 
process works.
  What is happening right now is an attempt to reorder the whole damn 
system in a way that is going to make every individual citizen across 
the country less powerful, because when you elect someone--and I will 
yield to the Senator from Minnesota in just a moment--when you elect 
someone and you tell them your spending priorities and they come home 
and say ``Good news; I got this'' or ``Good news; I cut this'' and then 
you realize that is only a recommendation, it is the OMB Director whose 
name you have never heard of--his name is Russ Vought--who gets to 
decide. That is not our system of government, and that is why we are 
going to be fighting all night about this issue.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Minnesota.
  Ms. SMITH. Mr. President, I rise today--I just want to thank my 
colleague Senator Schatz for his clear-eyed description of what is 
happening right now and how that connects to this nomination that is 
before the Senate right now, the nomination for Mr. Vought.
  So I rise today to join my colleagues in calling out the threat that 
Russell Vought poses to our system of government. As Senator Schatz 
says, this is not about liking or not liking what Mr. Vought has 
written, what he stands for, what he has tried to do, what his policy 
positions are, although I clearly

[[Page S618]]

disagree with those; this is about whether or not we are going to abide 
by the systems of law in this country that say that we have a 
separation of powers and that the power of the Senate and Congress, the 
power of the purse that rests in the Senate and the Congress--that we 
keep that power.
  That is an institutional prerogative that I think is on the line 
today with this vote, and that is why my colleagues and I are going to 
be using the full 30 hours of debate in order to really make this point 
clearer to the American people.
  But I will tell you, Mr. President, that Minnesotans are waking up to 
this, and they are not happy. In the last week, thousands of 
Minnesotans have called or written my office about the unprecedented 
chaos that is occurring at Federal Agencies and programs in Minnesota--
and they can see it as well across the country--which has come from 
Elon Musk and from President Trump but is rooted in Russell Vought's 
dangerous Project 2025--Donald Trump and Russell Vought's dangerous 
Project 2025. These ideas are dangerous, they are unconstitutional, and 
they are already hurting real people.
  The funding freeze that was announced last week is straight from 
Russell Vought's 2025 plans, and that is one of the many reasons I am 
going to be opposing him when we vote on this ultimately tomorrow.
  Whether this freeze is frozen, whether it is temporarily blocked in 
court, or whether it is still in effect is in some ways beside the 
point because I think that the point here is to create chaos. The real 
point right now is that people are feeling this pain. They are 
concerned. They are scared. And for what? Why is this happening? It is 
to test out Russell Vought's extreme and dangerous ideas and see how 
far they can take it.
  That is what we will be voting on. We are going to be voting on the 
man who is behind all of this chaos.
  I know my colleague Senator Schumer is going to be speaking in just a 
couple of minutes, but let me just go for a second about what this 
means for Minnesotans.
  For Minnesotans, a Federal funding freeze means life or death, 
seriously. The administration's list of frozen programs covers people's 
most basic needs--food, shelter, medicine, safe drinking water.
  I have heard from thousands of Minnesotans who are terrified of what 
this means for their families. The Senate phone lines--colleagues, I 
think we all know this--have been overwhelmed to a breaking point this 
week because of people who have been so outraged by Elon Musk and 
Trump's actions. This is creating torment and real concern and real 
pain for real families and leaving them wondering what this is all 
going to mean for them tomorrow.
  The scope of Vought's Project 2025 and the funding freeze that it 
inspired is so broad that I don't think there is a single person in 
this country who won't be impacted in some way, direct or indirect. 
This is not going to be good for anyone. Americans, it is true to say, 
are less safe today than they were last Monday before this funding 
freeze.
  The freeze has put our most fundamental and essential services in 
this country in limbo. What does this look like in Minnesota? It means 
that counterterrorism programs, programs to combat human and drug 
trafficking, programs to fight child sex trafficking--all of those were 
covered by this freeze. LIHEAP, which is a program that helps keep heat 
on for low-income families in Minnesota, that is what has been at 
stake. It was minus 12 degrees in International Falls last night, to 
give you an idea what this means in the whole North Country of 
Minnesota.

  I also want to just acknowledge that what it means for food 
assistance and clean water projects is also a real and specific impact 
and pain that people in Minnesota are feeling.
  I have a few letters I am ready to receive, but I am going to yield 
to the Senate minority leader, Senator Schumer from New York, so he can 
tell us what this means for the people of New York and the whole 
country.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Democratic leader.
  Mr. SCHUMER. I want to thank my colleague from Minnesota for her 
passion for representing the people of Minnesota and showing how 
terrible this nominee is.
  We are going to be speaking all night. We want Americans, every 
hour--whether it is 8 p.m. or 3 a.m.--to hear how bad Russell Vought is 
and the danger he poses to them in their daily lives if he were put as 
head of OMB. We want to sound the alarm--sound the alarm--on the 
reckless and lawless things that Russell Vought will do to American 
families; to sound the alarm on the chief architect of Project 2025; to 
sound the alarm on Russell Vought because Russell Vought--sadly, 
alarmingly, outrageously--stands on the brink of confirmation as 
Director of OMB, thanks to Senate Republicans who have fallen in line 
one right after the other behind Donald Trump and have rubberstamped 
his nominees, no matter how unqualified, no matter how harmful to the 
American people.
  And of all of the nominees, of all of the extremists that Donald 
Trump elevated, of all the hard right ideologues who have come before 
the Senate, none of them hold a candle to Russell Vought. He is far and 
away the one most dangerous to the American people.
  Most people have never heard of Russell Vought before. But make no 
mistake about it, my fellow Americans, he is the most important piece 
of the puzzle in Donald Trump's second term. He will be the quarterback 
of White House policy.
  For all intents, he will run the command center of the Trump 
administration. And his decisions will reverberate from one end of 
America to the other, every city and every town and every household and 
every rural area.
  And of all the people--of all the people--Donald Trump could have 
picked to lead the White House policy, he chose the godfather of the 
ultraright. And make no mistake about it, Russell Vought is Project 
2025 incarnate. Russell Vought is the chief architect of 2025, its 
intellectual inspiration. And now he will have the ability, as head of 
OMB, to put these awful ideas into effect. And who will suffer? Not the 
billionaires who seem to be running the Trump administration, but the 
average American--the tens of millions, the hundreds of millions of 
average Americans.
  Let me say this: There can be no worse proposal for the American 
people than Project 2025. There can be no position more able to 
implement this terrible proposal than Director of OMB, and there could 
be no person who would be worse for running 2025 from OMB than Russell 
Vought.
  It is a triple loser--the worst program, the worst place to put it 
because it does the most danger, and the worst person to run it all 
rolled up into one in this vote.
  Remember during the campaign, Russell Vought put together 2025 with a 
bunch of other rightwing ideologues. Their goal: slash the government, 
smash the government, break the government--not just eliminate waste. 
Oh, no, that is not what they wanted to do. They are so, so deeply 
anti-anything government does--whether it is Social Security or helping 
our veterans or defending our country--that they are against it.
  Why? Well, their ideas really started with this small group of hard-
right people who felt they didn't want to pay any taxes and they didn't 
want any regulation: We don't need a government. And they gained 
strength on the hard-right side of the Republican Party that became the 
MAGA part of the Republican Party. And Donald Trump embraced it.
  He hid it during the campaign. When Project 2025 became public, 
Donald Trump said ``I don't know anything about it'' because he knew 
that he would lose the election if he embraced 2025; that an 
overwhelming majority of Americans would be against 2025. He knew that, 
and so he said he knew nothing about it. But the minute he won the 
election, Russell Vought started to take over and the pieces of Project 
2025, already, we have seen, are begun to be implemented.
  It is such hypocrisy for Donald Trump to say he didn't know what 2025 
was during the campaign and now is putting its chief architect in the 
most important position where it can be implemented to the great harm 
of America and the American people.
  Americans don't want to see Social Security or Medicare cut. They 
certainly don't want to see Medicaid cut.

[[Page S619]]

They certainly don't want to see help to veterans and hospitals and to 
help people pay for healthcare and to afford housing--there are so many 
bad things in 2025. Some of them are pretty obvious--just slash 
government programs. Some are a little less obvious.
  One that really bugs me: We have so many people who need housing in 
America. It is one of the greatest needs. And over the years, the 
wisdom of the American people, administrations--Democratic and 
Republican--said: Let's give a little help by having the Federal 
Government back mortgage loans, Fannie and Freddie. And it made 
interest rates be lower than they normally would have been for a young 
family that is looking to buy their first home. They are having their 
second little baby and they are so happy and they can have a home for 
their children.
  And they want to get rid of it--in part, maybe, so some private 
sector people can make some money doing it themselves. But mainly 
because they just are so viciously anti-government that they will just 
slash anything no matter the consequence, no matter who is hurt. That 
is what we are on the brink of happening here.
  We had hoped on this side of the aisle--because we know how our 
colleagues feel. If you asked the 53 Senators on that side of the aisle 
to vote yes or no on Project 2025, my guess is of the 53, probably 50--
at least 45--would vote no. But they are actually voting to implement 
Project 2025 when they vote yes for Russell Vought.
  Remember, he is the architect, and they are putting him in a position 
where he can take that plan and implement it--basically, shove it down 
America's throat.
  So here we are. We have already begun to see the chaos that the 
Russell Vought philosophy, the Project 2025 philosophy, engenders: A 
freeze--freeze--on funding of all programs.
  They didn't look at which programs were good, which programs were 
bad. No, no, no. They froze them all. Chaos erupted. Daycare centers 
were not funded, Medicaid hospitals were not funded, veterans' programs 
were not funded, mental health--so much that they had to back off, at 
least for a period of time.

  But that is Project 2025 at work.
  And now, the Treasury payment system--which in one sense is a 
lifeblood of how government works, of how we help people because we are 
giving money to things that people need--is being infiltrated by DOGE.
  What is DOGE's view? Let's cut $2.5 trillion. They don't say how. 
They don't really care, as long as they can just slash government and 
hurt Americans so that their billionaire friends can pay even less 
taxes than they do now, despite the fact that income inequality in 
America is getting worse and worse. That is one of the main things that 
bothers average working-class Americans.
  His fingerprints are all over this past week's disaster--whether it 
is at Treasury, whether it is with Federal workers, whether it is at 
AID, whether it is hurting Justice Department people, prosecutors--all 
of that is Russell Vought at work. He is working to hurt you, Mr. and 
Mrs. America, even before he gets into office. Imagine how much more 
harm he will do should he become the head of OMB.
  I want to ask Mr. Vought some questions.
  Mr. Vought, how is freezing all these funds supposed to lower 
people's costs?
  Yeah, it may lower the taxes on your wealthy friends, but how is it 
going to help the average American? You never explained it. The 
fanatical hatred of government without rhyme or reason, without looking 
at its effect, without distinguishing between programs just permeates 
everything.
  So, Mr. Vought, explain how freezing all these funds is going to 
lower people's costs? How is privatizing Fannie and Freddie going to 
lower their housing costs? How is getting rid of--I mean an example we 
talked about, it is small but it is indicative, it is knowledge--
cutting the programs that help us eliminate bird flu and lower the 
price of eggs. They raised it. People hate that. The price of eggs are 
so high, I don't blame them--6 bucks, 5 bucks--wow.
  So imagine this, folks. Imagine a world where Russell Vought and the 
DOGE team, team up, and it is a team that can do such, such harm and 
pain for America. They team up to eradicate the funding they allege is 
wasteful.
  What would it mean for kids at school who struggle to get a good 
meal? They will say it is wasteful. Or parents who struggle to pay for 
groceries and the things we do to try to keep food costs down? They 
will say it is wasteful. A couple seeking a loan to build a starter 
home; they will say it is wasteful.
  Getting rid of Head Start. Right now--right now--in my State, even 
though the funding freeze has been rescinded, there are Head Start 
programs that are getting no money. Two hundred kids in rural 
Cattaraugus and Wyoming Counties had to be left out of Head Start; 200 
families struggling during the week because so many of them have either 
one parent who is working or two parents who are working. What are they 
going to do? Who is going to watch the kids? Will they have to quit 
work for a few days? Will they get fired? Will they get demoted?
  All painful, really painful.
  Head Start provides dental and medical care for little kids. What a 
waste, Vought would say. When we know that when kids have bad teeth at 
a young age, it hurts their learning, it hurts their ability to become 
productive citizens. There is nothing more cost-effective than 
something like that.
  Folks, bad news--bad news. What we saw this past week with the 
beginning of Russell Vought's ideas and programs and philosophy and 
ideology to be implemented is just the beginning, just a preview. I 
hate to say this, but, unfortunately, we ain't seen nothing yet should 
Vought get into office in this powerful OMB position.
  Let me just say it again so people hear it: Why does Vought want to 
do this, the average person would ask? Why does he want to hurt so many 
people? Why is he being so mean and cruel and heartless and uncaring?
  Very simple: So Republicans can give tax cuts to Donald Trump's 
billionaire friends and supporters. Of course, it is cloaked in some 
kind of ridiculous ideology that was paid for by the hard right. They 
set up think tanks for 30 years to come up with this libertarian-type 
philosophy. But it has no basis in reality. Where it comes from is not 
what would make America better but, rather, would make a few rich 
people richer. And the harm is amazing. Everything we see happening 
today--the flurry of Executive orders, all of the awful things 
happening at the Treasury Department and at OMB and elsewhere--all 
boils down to one endgame: a broken, paralyzed government that breeds 
corruption and self-dealing and self-interest; that ignores the public 
and caters to the ultra-ultrawealthy. That is the entire ball game of 
Trump 2.0.

  The only solace I can take is we are a democracy, and it will catch 
up with them all--with President Trump, with Russell Vought, with all 
of the Republicans who vote for these things. That happens. The roots 
of democracy are deep. We saw little sprouts of it this week when 
President Trump had to back off tariffs and back off a funding freeze 
because so many people were going to be hurt.
  But it will--it will--be rejected by the American people, and I am 
confident that it will change the political fortunes of both parties as 
it is implemented. For those who support it on the Republican side, the 
American people will like them a lot less. And for those who oppose it 
on our side, the American people will understand we are on their side.
  But the damage--the damage--that will be done in the interim is 
enormous. The number of the millions--of the tens of millions, probably 
of the hundreds of millions--of people who will be hurt and hurt in 
real, severe ways will be horrible. So there is no solace.
  I do believe that the political system, with all its infirmities--
with all the big money, with having so much power with Donald Trump and 
his Republican friends--that even with all of that, I believe, 
ultimately, our democracy's roots are deep. Ultimately, I believe those 
who support Russell Vought--he himself, the President, who put him in, 
the Republicans who voted for him--will be rejected by the American 
people for doing it. But the damage in the interim will be enormous--
worse than almost anything we have seen.

[[Page S620]]

  So I say to my colleagues on the Republican side: Maybe, it is not 
too late. Maybe, somehow, you will realize how damaging Russell Vought 
is. Maybe, you will say to yourselves: Despite the fact that I might 
have Trump angry with me, I am doing the best thing for him by voting 
down Russell Vought, ultimately--ultimately politically. Maybe. 
Unlikely. A forlorn hope. I always try to be an optimist--but maybe.
  This is a very, very important vote. The way it is looking now, it is 
a very awful and sad vote--one of the worst, if it passes, that I will 
have seen in this body in the many years I have been here.
  For those who think Russell Vought won't be so bad, read his book. 
See what he has done. I mean, read his Project 2025. It is a project, 
not a book, I don't think. Maybe, maybe, maybe we will realize--it is 
unlikely, highly unlikely; it is a forlorn wish--when things are so bad 
if Vought gets in, and we will cling to that forlorn, highly unlikely 
hope.
  Twenty years ago, it would be hard to believe that somebody as hard 
right, as narrow-minded, as vicious in his philosophy as Vought would 
get a single vote on the floor of the Senate. But, now, he may get a 
majority.
  We are warning the American people how bad this is. We will see the 
consequences in the weeks and months ahead. There are very few votes I 
have cast with greater fervor than this ``no'' vote for Russell Vought.
  He is, as I said, a danger to working people, a danger to America's 
beliefs and ideals, and a danger to the unity, cohesiveness, and beauty 
of this great America. I proudly, strongly, and with complete 
conviction will vote no on this awful, awful nominee.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Democratic whip.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, it is not unusual in this job of ours in 
the U.S. Senate to run into a reporter in the hallway. It happens all 
the time. They are trying to write a story, and they want to ask a 
question or two to get a quote, possibly, for the story.
  Today, I came out of one of our hearing rooms on the Committee on 
Agriculture, and one of the more prominent reporters for one of the 
cable news networks said to me: Can you give me a reaction to the 
suggestion by President Trump, yesterday, that, somehow or another, the 
United States of America is going to take over control of the Gaza 
Strip and develop it?
  Well, I had read that in the morning papers, that assertion, and all 
I could say to him was, If you follow his suggestion to let Canada 
become the 51st State; that we take over the Panama Canal--if 
necessary, by force--that somehow or another we come into ownership of 
Greenland, then the notion of developing hotels on the ocean on the 
Gaza Strip is just one of the Trump suggestions we are dealing with.
  For those who argue, ``Well, the American people voted for it,'' were 
they voting for those things?
  The point I am trying to make was made earlier by Senator Schumer. 
There are efforts afoot that go way beyond the issues of this last 
Presidential campaign, where the American people, I believe, said: We 
want a change. We are going to vote in the majority for Donald Trump 
because we want to see a better lifestyle for ourselves and our kids. 
Those things make sense to me, and I will tell you, in my life, as I 
reflect on things that have happened to me, there were times when the 
government played a very important role in my life.
  I recall when my father passed away when I was in high school. There 
was a Social Security Disability assistance check that helped me go to 
college. Then, of course, there was something called the National 
Defense Education Act, where I could borrow money from the Federal 
Government. That had to be paid back, but I could borrow the money to 
pay for my school expenses.
  Had the government not been there in those two instances, I am not 
sure if I could have completed college or where I would be today. I 
didn't start off with a litmus test of whether I love the government or 
don't. I needed a helping hand, and there was a program created by this 
government, by this Senate, that came to my rescue.
  What we are discussing now is the nomination of Russell Vought. I 
don't know the man personally, but I have read plenty of what his 
philosophy consists of. I believe he is being offered one of the most 
powerful jobs that most Americans don't even know--the Office of 
Management and Budget. One of the essential powers of the Senate, under 
our Constitution, is advice and consent, which means the Founding 
Fathers said the President can pick his team, but the Senate has to 
approve that team. It has to advise and consent when it comes to that 
person. The constitutional authority gives the Senate the power to 
review and approve Presidential nominations and, with it, the 
responsibility to ask hard questions.
  Well, that has been the case, in the last several weeks, as the 
nominees for the President's Cabinet have all come forward to be 
reviewed by Members of the Senate. Our Nation's Founders viewed this as 
a check on the power of the President, ensuring that the country's most 
important leadership posts are filled by truly trustworthy, qualified, 
law-abiding Americans. I take that responsibility seriously.
  I probably, as I reflected on running for the Senate, did not reflect 
on how many times I would be called to judge a person as part of my 
job. As a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee--the ranking member 
at this point--I have had to review the resumes and interview literally 
hundreds--sometimes thousands--of applicants for lifetime positions 
with the Federal Government. When I reflect on it, it is an awesome 
responsibility, but you have to project as to what that person will do 
once they have the power of office, and that is what we are doing 
today.
  I join with my colleagues in opposing the nomination of Russell 
Vought to be the Director of the Office of Management and Budget. He 
has been nominated by President Trump to run this Agency. It is the 
largest office within the executive branch of the government. Its job 
is to oversee Federal Agencies and administer the Federal budget.
  Now, most of the time when we are called on to evaluate nominations, 
we do our best to take a look and review the nominee's qualifications 
and experience. We meet with the candidates--I have done that today 
several times with several nominees--and ask them questions to 
determine their fitness for the roles. Sometimes, you can tell this is 
the first time they have ever really, seriously, considered serving in 
government in their lives. We try to imagine what they will do with 
that power. But for Mr. Vought, there is no need for imagination. He 
already served as Director of OMB during the last half of President 
Trump's first term in office, and I believe he proved who he was in 
that period of time.

  When he served as the Director of the Office of Management and Budget 
during President Trump's first term, Mr. Vought illegally refused to 
release hundreds of millions of dollars in security assistance to 
Ukraine, and he delayed $20 billion of disaster aid for Puerto Rico. If 
that sounds like a lot of power, it is. There was literally a question 
as to whether Ukraine would survive the invasion of Vladimir Putin. Our 
government had committed to helping, but Mr. Vought decided, in his 
capacity as the head of OMB, to withhold the funds, and there was a 
serious question as to whether Ukraine--in fighting for its life--would 
survive. The $20 billion in disaster aid for Puerto Rico after the 
hurricanes that struck and that did such great damage to that nation 
was a life-and-death proposition, and he decided that he would withhold 
these funds.
  When he left that role, Mr. Vought went on to become a key architect 
of what has been referred to many, many times as Project 2025--a policy 
proposal written by a conservative think tank, outlining a sweeping, 
extreme vision of America's future. Project 2025 included policies to 
consolidate power in the executive branch and to undermine critical 
services the Federal Government provides to American families. If that 
sounds familiar, perhaps you are following the President's ongoing 
attempts to freeze Federal funds legally appropriated by Congress. That 
is no coincidence. Mr. Vought is the MAGA puppet master in this 
administration, and, 2 weeks ago, we saw it at its worst.
  I see Senator Murray of Washington is here on the floor. She is our 
Democratic leader when it comes to Appropriations. I sit on that 
committee and respect her judgment. I am sure she remembers, as I do, 
when the word came

[[Page S621]]

out that there was a pronouncement from OMB that they were going to put 
a freeze on Federal spending. It didn't sound real to think that they 
would stop spending across the board. They made a few exceptions--but 
to stop spending in so many areas?
  Then the phone started ringing from the State of Illinois. They 
started calling Senator Duckworth's office and my own office, and we 
were telling people exactly what was involved.
  This involves programs like Head Start. Head Start is a critical 
program that began in the 1960s. It is for kids who are prekindergarten 
to spend a day under supervision in a learning experience and in a 
socialization experience that can make all the difference in their 
lives. For their parents, it is a great opportunity.
  Last Friday, I visited one of these Head Start facilities in the city 
of Chicago. It is known as El Valor. It is remarkable. Seeing those 
kids and the experiences they are going through is heartwarming. These 
kids are from working families. They are not from families who have a 
lot of wealth. But they have an opportunity in Head Start to have a 
good, clean, positive classroom experience that prepares them for 
school and prepares them for life.
  One of the parents made a point of coming in and telling me his 
story. He talked about what a transformation it was that took place in 
his little boy when he became part of this Head Start Program.
  I have such positive feelings about that because I can't think of a 
better investment of my tax dollars and anybody's tax dollars than in 
making sure those kids--that next generation--have a fighting chance, 
and Head Start gives them that chance.
  Well, when OMB announced the freeze, some of the first agencies that 
felt it were the Head Start Programs. They started realizing they 
couldn't keep their doors open because they don't have a lot money to 
turn to if they didn't get the regular infusion of Federal funds that 
had been guaranteed to them over the years. Some of them actually 
thought ``Maybe we could last a day or two without that Federal 
funding,'' but most of them realized they couldn't last at all without 
it.
  So why in the world would OMB turn to a program like Head Start and 
say: That is where we want to freeze Federal spending. For goodness' 
sake, I will be the first to admit that there is waste in our 
government. There is waste in corporations. There is waste in many 
directions. But to start with kids, struggling kids from working 
families, and to say: We are going to cut off their program--that is 
your first priority for cuts?
  Meals on Wheels. What is Meals on Wheels? Well, it is something most 
people with an elderly parent or grandparent know full well. It is that 
one time each day when someone knocks on the door and brings literally 
a hot meal to someone who is living alone usually and has to depend on 
that--not just for food but for socialization and that friendly smile 
once a day that they just dream of and live for. To cut that program, 
along with Head Start--come on. But that is what I learned. I learned 
that this freeze from OMB that started with the Trump administration 
involved Meals on Wheels.
  It isn't just these programs that touch my heart and I hope touch 
yours; we had calls from medical researchers, from hospitals across the 
city of Chicago. And I am proud of those hospitals. We have some of the 
best in the world. They do key research, critical research--cancer, 
heart disease, and so many other things. They work with the National 
Institutes of Health, the premier medical research Agency in the world.
  Well, it turns out that when the OMB of President Trump wanted to 
start turning out the lights, they decided to do it on medical research 
as well. What were they thinking?
  If you have ever been in a terrible moment in your life where someone 
you love is seriously ill and you are wondering if they can survive, 
one of the first things you are going to ask that doctor: Is there a 
medicine? Is there a process? Is there a surgery? Is there some 
breakthrough that maybe can save the life of somebody I love?
  That is one of the first questions you ask when you face that awful 
moment.
  So what did this OMB decide to do under President Trump? They decided 
to cut off funding for medical research. These are researchers who 
literally said: We were told at 5 o'clock to go home. That means 
walking away from an experiment which I have been working on for a long 
time and losing all the progress I have made.
  Really? That is your priority? I don't think the American people 
thought that was what they were voting for when they voted for Donald 
Trump in this last election.
  Mr. Vought has made his beliefs perfectly clear. He believes the 
President can refuse to spend money that Congress has appropriated for 
the American people despite this being in direct violation of the law. 
The law is known as the Impoundment Control Act.
  Some have naively claimed that Project 2025 is nothing but a thought 
and an expert. It is clear that since the President took office, it has 
been a blueprint for a radical rewrite of the principle of the balance 
of power in our Constitution.
  It is no surprise that as a key author of Project 2025, Mr. Vought 
continues to lead that charge. Knowing this as we do, placing him in 
charge of OMB would be irresponsible--you saw what they did initially 
with the freeze just a few weeks ago--and it would entirely undermine 
the role of the Senate Appropriations Committee and the U.S. Senate 
itself.
  What I find disappointing and discouraging is that so many of my 
Republican friends who worked so hard to be elected to this Chamber are 
willing to give away our constitutional rights and our constitutional 
authority. This idea of impoundment gives away the power of Congress to 
appropriate.
  This latest attempt to put a sweeping freeze on Federal funds is far 
from the first time Mr. Vought has broken the law and undermined 
Congress's power of the purse that is set forth in the Constitution. It 
is clear from Mr. Vought's comments and actions that he has contempt 
for Congress as a coequal branch of government.
  It is appalling that so many of my Republican Senate friends voted to 
advance his nomination as he actively attempts to strip Congress of our 
congressional authority.
  We are not opposing Mr. Vought solely because he poses a threat to 
our ability to do our jobs in Congress. Mr. Vought has made it clear 
that he is targeting working families across the country.
  Both in his previous tenure as OMB Director and in policy proposals, 
Mr. Vought has proposed budget cuts that slash the social safety net 
resources for tax cuts for the wealthy.
  It is being reported today that representatives of Elon Musk's so-
called Department of Government Efficiency are now inside the Centers 
for Medicare and Medicaid Services, where they have gained access to 
key payment and contracting systems.
  I know Elon Musk. I have met him on two or three occasions one on 
one. We had conversations. I respect him in many respects for 
achievements with his car, as well as with SpaceX and solar energy 
projects. He has done some remarkable things, making him the wealthiest 
person in the world.
  Having said that, I don't believe he has any qualification to sit 
here in judgment of our government and its future. He has been given an 
outsized role in the Trump administration although he has no authority 
from the American people. He hasn't been elected to a damn thing, but 
he has currently won over the heart of the President and is making 
decisions which affect people's lives every day.
  Each representative of DOGE--the Department of Government Efficiency, 
which isn't even a Department--is looking at the systems technology in 
Medicare and Medicaid, as well as the spending that flows through them. 
That means every hospital, every senior in a nursing home, and every 
child with a serious health condition is at the mercy of what Elon 
Musk's minions consider to be worthwhile spending.
  The Director of OMB should manage funds that serve everyday 
Americans, not billionaires.
  Moreover, Mr. Vought clearly intends to politicize the Federal 
workforce. While serving as OMB Director during President Trump's first 
term, he was the architect of ``schedule F,'' a plan which would allow 
the President to fire

[[Page S622]]

nonpartisan civil servants and replace them with partisan loyalists.

  On January 20, President Trump signed an Executive order reviving 
schedule F--another move right out of Mr. Vought's Project 2025 
playbook--effectively stripping thousands of career civil servants of 
job protections.
  Mr. Vought has called civil servants ``villains,'' and he has 
advocated for their mass termination. But more than 70 percent of the 
Federal workforce serves in national security roles. His plan--Vought's 
plan--would jeopardize American security.
  To my Republican colleagues, for the sake of the institution in which 
we work for, the constituents we were elected to serve, and the 
constitutional foundations of our Nation, please don't vote for Mr. 
Vought.
  Maya Angelo once said:

       When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first 
     time.

  Well, from his tenure running OMB to his authorship of Project 2025, 
Mr. Vought has shown us exactly who he is and what he believes. He is a 
man with little respect for the Constitution and limited understanding 
of the plight of real working Americans. Giving Mr. Vought the reins of 
OMB is an invitation to a policy battle at the expense of our 
Constitution.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Schmitt). The Senator from Washington.
  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I rise today to join my colleagues in 
urging all of our colleagues to vote against Russ Vought's nomination 
to lead the Office of Management and Budget.
  The Senate should not vote to confirm as the head of OMB or to any 
important role, for that matter, someone who does not respect the 
constitutional authority of the Senate and thus the people we 
represent.
  We should not entrust someone to implement our laws who made clear 
time and again through his past actions in this same role during 
President Trump's first term, through his work as the head architect of 
Project 2025, and through his own words in hearings and meetings that 
he will not follow the laws and that he will not send our communities 
the funding we all work together to pass.
  Why on Earth would any one of us confirm someone whose entire game 
plan is to break the law and then dare the world to stop him? That is 
it. That is how Russ Vought plans to run the OMB. It is not a secret. 
It is a very public fact. He has put this on the record time and again.
  Just look at what happened last time Russ Vought served as Director 
of the OMB. He tried to break the law to give President Trump 
unilateral authority he does not possess to hold up security assistance 
to Ukraine and override the spending decisions of Congress. And he has 
not given up on that idea. He has written about it many, many times in 
the years since.
  As a chief architect of Project 2025, Vought doubled down on 
lawlessness and charted a blatantly unconstitutional plan for the 
President to ignore the will of Congress, which led him to being named 
in the first Articles of Impeachment against President Trump.
  He mapped out a lawless path that, as I will detail shortly, 
President Trump is already barreling down at full speed.
  But if you still aren't convinced that Russ Vought will trample all 
over the separation of powers, will ignore the authority of Congress, 
and will hurt the American people by holding back funds they rely on, 
well, you are in luck because at our hearing with him, I asked Vought 
directly, point blank, ``Will you follow the law?'' That should not be 
a hard question. Even if you disagree with the law, you don't ignore 
it. Maybe you don't like the 25-mile-an-hour speed limit in a school 
zone, but unless it is changed or struck down, you still have to follow 
it. It is true for speed limits, and it is certainly true for the 
Constitution.
  That is something that almost every single American understands--
except, apparently, Russ Vought and Donald Trump, because today, the 
Impoundment Control Act is the law of the land. Despite Vought's own 
wishes and his own feelings, it has not been changed, and it has not 
been struck down in court.
  Despite what Vought pretends is true, the reality is, the 
Constitution gives Congress, not the President, the power of the purse, 
and yet Russ Vought will not say he will follow the law.
  Look, Vought is not just lawless; he is extreme. Let me drive that 
home for a second. Let's take abortion for example. Project 2025 
already calls for ripping away birth control, allowing States to deny 
women lifesaving emergency care, and effectively banning all abortion 
nationwide. That is already a dangerous Republican fever dream--far out 
of line, by the way, with the American people--but Vought wants to go 
further.
  On abortion, he is for ``abolition.'' ``Abolition.'' Do you know what 
that means? It means a national abortion ban without any exceptions 
even in the case of rape or when a woman's life is at risk. That is as 
far right as it gets.
  Of course, abortion is not the only issue where Vought has made 
statements that are deeply alarming. He has stated that he believes the 
2020 election was ``rigged.'' That is just not out of touch with 
America, that is dangerously out of touch with reality.
  He has said he wants to traumatize our Federal workers. That means 
all the people who work really hard to help in our communities, whether 
they are inspecting food or reviewing the safety of drugs or keeping 
our travel safe; maybe they are strengthening our infrastructure, 
fostering innovation and small business or getting care to veterans or 
supporting our Tribes and so much more.
  Vought has said we live in a ``post-constitutional time.'' It doesn't 
get any clearer than that. A post-constitutional time? That is what he 
believes we are in. Do my colleagues agree with that? Do they think it 
is time to shred the Constitution? That is what is at stake with this 
confirmation vote because Vought has made it all too clear that as OMB 
Director, he will put everything on the chopping block, from programs 
that people rely on to the checks and balances our democracy is founded 
on. Again, he has put it down on paper in black and white.
  We know he wants to cut Medicare and, in particular, Medicaid, by 
hundreds of billions of dollars. We know he wants to find significant 
savings from eligibility changes to veterans' healthcare and disability 
benefits. We don't even need Project 2025 to see that. He laid some of 
that out in his budgets from Trump's first term.
  Vought's goals are not secret, nor are they subtle. We do not have to 
decipher anything here. There is no mystery. We know he is planning for 
cuts beyond anything this country has ever seen. And we know, if Russ 
Vought gets his way and gets his hands on the Nation's funding again, 
he will not just draw blood; he will cut programs families rely on--
families rely on--down to the bone: SNAP cuts that leave families 
hungry, policies to cut people off from their healthcare, cuts to 
disability benefits that veterans have earned through their service to 
America, thousands of public servants forced out of roles serving the 
American people--all while he works with Trump to dole out more tax 
breaks to billionaires and the biggest corporations.
  And here is another thing. We don't have to imagine just how painful 
and chaotic Vought's lawless ideas would be in practice because Vought 
is actually already putting his agenda in place, which, frankly, raises 
another question: Why should the Senate vote to confirm someone who is 
already secretly doing the job behind our backs?
  Because--guess what--those Executive orders that Trump still has in 
effect, those orders which are right now illegally blocking money our 
communities need--that is right out of the Project 2025 playbook. Or 
the effort, now, to get rid of thousands of Federal workers through 
illegal firings; and, now, scam buyout offers that have no basis in law 
to carry out; or trying to illegally abolish entire Agencies with the 
stroke of a pen--that has Project 2025 written all over it.
  And it is not just a parallel in ideas here. When OMB issued its 
blatantly illegal guidance and attempted to block trillions in Federal 
dollars Congress--all of us--passed, there were digital fingerprints 
all over that document linking right back to Project 2025.
  And in the chaos that followed, do you know who reportedly met with 
OMB staffers about how to respond? Russ Vought.
  So let's not pretend we have no idea just how lawless this guy is. 
Let's not

[[Page S623]]

pretend we have no idea what sort of damage he will cause if he is put 
back in power. The chaos that Vought and Trump caused last week alone 
was unlike anything I can recall. Never in my time in the Senate have I 
seen a President cause as much chaos, panic, and damage in 48 short 
hours--chaos, panic, and damage which continues even now. President 
Trump inflicted serious harm when he implemented Vought's reckless 
vision to brazenly and illegally freeze Federal grants across the 
government and across the country.
  My phone has been ringing off the hook because, unlike billionaires 
like Trump and Musk, unlike hyperpartisans like Vought, the American 
people actually have a painfully clear sense of how this will hurt our 
communities. After all, they are the ones who would actually suffer the 
consequences of the reckless policies like this.
  And let's remember that the Trump administration's first half-hearted 
attempt to clean up the massive mess they made with this new guidance 
essentially boiled down to: We will let some funding go, but we are 
still going to hold up everything else. And while, later, they finally 
admitted they were disastrously wrong and revoked the entire guidance, 
they are now, still today, illegally holding up other funds, which I 
will say more about later.
  And the chaos alone they caused with their cruelty and incompetence 
is utterly unacceptable. The explanations the Trump administration 
offered throughout that saga last week--freezing seemingly trillions of 
dollars that families rely on--created no clarity or certainty for many 
panicked families and businesses and nonprofits and towns and States. 
And nothing they said changes the basic fact that Trump was and is 
still holding up funding that our communities need, funding that is the 
law.
  But let's talk about the effect. Let's talk about the chaos and alarm 
they caused, the damage done to communities and families that all of us 
represent, and the collision course we were on before Americans spoke 
out and forced Trump to retreat--because, in terms of chaos, the Trump 
administration was trying to say a lot of programs were not affected 
even when we had firsthand accounts making clear that was not what 
organizations across the country were experiencing.
  I will give you one example. Head Start providers were locked out of 
their reimbursement portal, meaning folks taking care of our youngest 
kids were suddenly not sure how they were going to keep their doors 
open or pay their teachers and staff. And, by the way, some providers 
in my State are still locked out, not getting the funding.
  Let's talk about rental assistance. That is the payment system for 
housing providers. It was down for over a day, with rents that were due 
at the end of the week.
  Seniors who count on Meals on Wheels were left wondering whether they 
would have dinner last week.
  Grant programs to combat the fentanyl crisis, to get families 
healthcare, and so much more were, in an instant, put at risk of 
evaporating into thin air.
  The panic and confusion were absolutely widespread because there was 
a long, long list of programs President Trump tried to put on the 
chopping block here--programs that, by the way, help red States and 
blue States alike.
  Funding to address the opioid use epidemic could have been paused. 
This is a longstanding bipartisan priority, and Trump wanted funding 
frozen for an indefinite period that would absolutely upend prevention 
efforts and cut people off from the treatment that is helping them beat 
addiction.
  COPS hiring grants, which help our States and communities hire career 
law enforcement officers--Trump was freezing those too. These 
investments increase community policing capacity, and they prevent 
crime. Without this money, our streets and our neighborhoods would be 
less safe.

  And let's not forget about other crucial DOJ grants: funding for the 
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, for AMBER Alert, 
for safe havens that support victims of human trafficking. Or, in my 
State, there are 25 child advocacy centers that were trying to figure 
out how they would be affected by the freeze. Think about that.
  Funding for firefighters. You know what doesn't stop when Federal 
funding stops? Fires. And speaking of fires, Trump's move also threw 
funding for recovery and relief efforts into uncertainty. In Eastern 
Washington, in my State, $44 million was announced weeks ago to help 
Spokane County rebuild from wildfires. We were left with big questions 
about the future of that badly needed funding last week.
  And while it was just 2 weeks ago that Trump visited communities in 
both North Carolina and California that are still reeling from 
disaster, the very next week, he sent them reeling himself, throwing 
funds that they were counting on into limbo with his initial OMB 
guidance because, for a while there, the system that all of our States 
use to get disaster relief funding was shut down.
  And let's not forget grants from the Violence Against Women Act. I 
heard from organizations in Washington State that support survivors of 
violence that they were trying to figure out what to do because their 
Federal payment site went down. Without that vital funding, survivors 
would be left with no way to access the legal aid and services they 
deserve. Like so many other organizations, they were ringing the alarm 
bells because they were not going to be able to pay their staff or pay 
their bills.
  This illegal freeze left domestic violence centers wondering how long 
they could keep their doors open and pay their staffs.
  And our Tribes were thrown in chaos as well. The Puyallup Tribe was 
told they couldn't move forward with a critical road project, and our 
Tribes in general were all concerned that housing and healthcare and 
education and so much else was getting caught up in this funding 
freeze. One told me they were left trying to determine if they were 
going to have to lay off 400 people because of this. Causing layoffs 
with an illegal funding freeze would be a profound breach of the 
Federal trust responsibility to our Tribes.
  Here is another alarming one: One of Trump's Executive orders was set 
to cut funding used to help detain nearly 10,000 ISIS militants in 
Syria--to detain them in Syria. That funding was about to be cut off 
altogether, potentially leading to prison guards leaving the job and 
risking ISIS militants getting out of jail, until this administration 
was alerted to how reckless that would be and they carved out that 
funding.
  But trust me when I say there are many other funding streams that 
help keep us safe that are still at risk, especially because of the 
illegal Executive orders that are, today, still blocking foreign 
assistance--and the absolutely lawless effort to dismantle USAID, which 
does lifesaving relief work around the world. I will have more to say 
on that in just a bit.
  And, by the way, how does undermining health, which will mean 
diseases run rampant, particularly at a time when bird flu is on the 
uptick and impacting many of our producers and workers and States--how 
does that make any sense? Because when it comes to healthcare, this 
attempted freeze posed a huge threat to our families.
  Set aside the fact that the Medicaid payment portal went down in my 
State and in every State--something we are told was a coincidence. That 
doesn't change the fact that all Federal healthcare grant 
reimbursements stopped. It doesn't change the fact that community 
health centers were blocked from getting the funds they needed to pay 
their staff and continue providing care in our communities, including 
rural areas where they are often the only option for miles. It doesn't 
change the fact that title X providers who support care like family 
planning services and cancer screenings and more couldn't draw down 
their funds.
  I also heard from HopeSparks. It is a healthcare provider in my 
State. They warned that, without Federal support, kids in the South 
Puget Sound would lose access to mental healthcare and crisis services.
  Biomedical researchers were suddenly left dealing with questions not 
about how to save lives but about grant freezes and how these vague, 
broad actions might stop research programs and clinical trials across 
the country.

[[Page S624]]

Chaos alone presents a huge risk of derailing crucial studies. 
Scientists at the University of Washington and Washington State 
University told my office they were deeply alarmed. A freeze like Trump 
ordered would have meant research projects collapsing and staff being 
furloughed or laid off.
  The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center moved to bridge the gap to keep 
research from being derailed, but not getting this fixed would have 
meant putting them in the hole to the tune of over $1 million a day. 
That sort of unexpected burden would have had a huge impact on 
lifesaving cancer research.
  And agricultural research was faced with uncertainty as well. WSU is 
a national leader in this important work: research to help our farmers 
grow more crops, grow more resilient crops, fight challenges like pests 
and plant diseases. WSU was deeply concerned funding for that research 
could be cut off, undermining important work supporting our Nation's 
farmers.
  And the threats didn't stop there for those who are in food and 
agriculture. One organization which works alongside our local growers 
told me losing funding would mean a reduced capacity to grow and 
distribute fresh local food to our communities. Now, that would hurt 
both the farmers and the families who rely on those programs to put 
food on the table.
  Meanwhile, a group in Washington who are addressing youth 
homelessness warned it would have to kick kids out if the funding issue 
wasn't resolved.
  Let me repeat that. A homeless youth group was pushed to the brink of 
having to kick kids onto the street because of President Trump's 
illegal freeze.
  I was also deeply concerned about how the freeze might halt an 
important diaper pilot program, as well as the reports I got from 
multiple housing providers in my State, worried that tens of thousands 
of people would be at risk of homelessness thanks to this illegal 
freeze.
  And don't let me get started on infrastructure. These are projects 
that take years--years--to plan, to build, to complete, and do an awful 
lot of good for our communities.
  In my State alone, there were big questions about what was going to 
happen to electrical grid upgrades that are happening in Okanogan and 
Pierce County, improvements that were planned at the Ports of Seattle 
and Everett and Whitman County, or Sea-Tac Airport's plan to deploy new 
trucks.
  And, by the way, some of those questions remain till today, because, 
as I will detail in a minute, there are still many other ways programs 
are being put at risk by Trump illegally blocking funds with his 
Executive orders.
  I will continue fighting for the Federal funding Congress already 
provided to keep all of those projects on track, but that can only get 
us so far if President Trump illegally blocks it all, and our 
Republican colleagues could let that happen.
  The list goes on and on; the calls keep coming in. Even now that OMB 
has reversed course, the chaos has not died down. The questions, the 
uncertainty, the fear, from families and communities that Trump will 
pull the rug out from under them is still there, because even though 
after the intense outcry from the American public, Trump has now 
admitted this was a colossal mistake because he rescinded the guidance; 
but the threat, the chaos, the panic, cannot just be wiped away--
especially while some funds are still today being blocked.
  No one feels any sense of calm after this. People aren't feeling 
lasting relief. They are wondering: How could something like that ever 
happen, and what in the world is going to happen next?
  The Trump administration, through a combination of sheer 
incompetence, cruel intentions, and a willful disregard of the law, 
caused--and is still causing--real harm and chaos for millions of 
people over the span of just a mere 48 hours.
  But we did learn something extremely important: When the American 
people speak out with one voice, when regular people stand up, it makes 
a difference. That victory belonged to everyone who raised their voice. 
But I want everyone to know--make no mistake--this fight is not over.
  As I said before, we still have a lot of work to do right now to make 
sure all that funding actually does get moving again. This is not like 
turning on a light switch. We just saw through the chaotic rollout this 
is complicated stuff. So I want you to know I will be watching closely 
to make sure funds get where they belong as soon as possible. I already 
know that in many cases, this has not been what is happening at all, so 
this is a very serious concern.
  I actually spoke with a constituent last week--Mike. He runs a 
nonprofit supporting military families and helping servicemembers 
transition back to civilian life. And even days after the OMB guidance 
was reversed, he was still unable to access Federal funding, so he used 
his own line of credit to pay his staff in the meantime. And if this 
didn't get fixed, his organization wouldn't have been able to help 
military families or pay its employees.
  The homeless shelter that I mentioned a few minutes ago, short $5.1 
million--$5.1 million because of Trump. They still have their funds 
frozen. They are still looking at reducing beds and facing layoffs. And 
as I mentioned earlier, some Head Start programs are still not able to 
get their grant funding.
  So the chaos of this OMB saga is far, far from over.
  And let me make one thing perfectly clear, even before this latest 
whirl of chaos, President Trump was already--already--illegally 
blocking billions of dollars. And even after that OMB guidance was 
reversed, he is still holding back all of those funds through his 
illegal Executive orders. You don't have to take it from me, you can 
take it directly from the White House press secretary.

       This is NOT a rescission of the federal funding freeze. . . 
     . The President's [Executive orders] on federal funding 
     remain in full force and effect, and will be rigorously 
     implemented.

  So that was the chaos of last week. I want to talk about how that 
chaos remains, what we are still seeing this week, and what it means 
for folks back home and across the country, because there is still 
significant confusion. And the remaining freezes are still causing 
significant pain.
  For example, I have heard from cities in my State and from the 
Washington State Department of Transportation--now, it is still hard to 
get a clear picture, given the chaotic rollback and more, but they are 
telling me they are concerned about infrastructure projects all over my 
State that are already getting delayed now and could get derailed 
entirely because President Trump is still illegally blocking funding we 
passed with his Executive orders.
  If this illegal freeze continues, people will lose jobs, communities 
will lose out on projects that have been in the works for years. Trump 
is blocking money to repair electric chargers, to install heavy-duty 
chargers for trucks, to make critical repairs to bridges in order to 
protect the safety of millions of drivers, and to install new chargers 
along major roads in my State, like I-90, US-97, US-2, US-195, and US-
395.
  Stopping these projects is just pointlessly--pointlessly--hurting 
commuters and businesses. It is costing construction workers; it is 
killing jobs. Trump is holding up road projects to make streets safer 
for pedestrians, bicyclists, and drivers, like a safer streets project 
in Richland, WA, and critical safety barriers in Spokane, not to 
mention the Liberty Park Land Bridge in Spokane--which would reconnect 
communities and provide more green space for families to enjoy, or 
funds for the City of Lakewood--they are planning to revitalize their 
downtown and bring in more retail space and restaurants and healthcare 
services and financial services and make upgrades to roads and provide 
a new festival area and park areas and more.
  Trump's freezes are also a concern for the Samish Indian Nation as it 
works to improve safety and access to their land at the Campbell Lake 
Road intersection, which has seen growing traffic in recent years, and 
for a project led by the Tulalip Tribe to improve the interchanges 
along I-5 exits; the congestions on these ramps can get so bad it backs 
all the way up to the main highway.
  We want to get those projects done. We want to get them done, and the 
last thing we need is uncertainty about these stalled funds.

[[Page S625]]

  There is also a project underway to upgrade the technology at our 
border with Canada, replacing and improving the outdated wait-time 
system to improve accuracy and help our inspection and our 
transportation Agencies.
  This will help travelers who are headed to Canada avoid long wait 
times at the border and help fans from around the world, by the way, 
who are traveling between Seattle and Vancouver for next year's World 
Cup move quickly--but not if Trump's Executive orders stop all of this 
funding.
  Same for the efforts to update our statewide planning with a new 
electronic system that would make the process for planning and 
specifications and estimates more efficient. And, of course, in 
Washington State, we can never forget about fish, which are crucial to 
our culture and our economy in many ways.
  Trump's ongoing funding freeze is putting projects to improve fish 
habitats on ice: replacing the culvert at Thornton Creek; replacing the 
failing culvert at Wapato Creek, which is right underneath the Pierce 
County terminal at the port of Tacoma; or removing the fish barrier 
culverts at Johnson Creek, which will open up nearly 3,000 meters of 
upstream habitat; not to mention other wildlife preservation work like 
an undercrossing structure and wildlife barriers east of Winthrop and 
work on our waterways. Funding from the bipartisan infrastructure law 
is still not restored, still not restored today for some projects on 
the Lower Columbia River, projects like a stormwater infrastructure 
that will help keep toxins out of our water and restore our wetlands 
and protect our ecosystems.
  Our ports, our ports, so critical for not only Washington State's 
economy but for the entire country, are caught up in this too. There 
are port projects now on hold across my State, including for electrical 
infrastructure and shore power for vessels.

  These impacts are being felt from Anacortes to Port Angeles to 
Vancouver, frozen funding is hurting working families in Washington and 
across the country, and it is making our economy less competitive.
  And we cannot forget our ferries, which are so crucial to many 
commuters in my State. Washington State ferries are looking to improve 
their data with a better system for collecting and analyzing and 
reporting wait times at all of our terminals. That would help give them 
some information so they can improve their efficiency and make life 
better for the people they serve.
  Losing that funding means more people will miss ferries, and it means 
long waits in line for Washington State commuters who cross the water 
for everything from work to school to medical appointments.
  We also have absolutely essential electric transmission and 
distribution projects that are on hold now, and they are in jeopardy. 
These are projects that are necessary, helping reduce our wildfire 
risks, ensuring grid reliability, improving resilience to natural 
disasters, and lowering costs for ratepayers across my State of 
Washington.
  Those are all funded under the bipartisan infrastructure law; that is 
a bipartisan infrastructure law that Members of Republicans and 
Democrats worked on and passed. It is a program that Republicans 
thought was important enough to provide $10.5 billion. After what we 
have seen in recent months and years, I don't know how you could say 
with a straight face that modernizing our grid isn't absolutely vital 
to the future of our country.
  You don't have to listen to me; Secretary Burgum and Secretary Wright 
said as much in their confirmation hearings.
  But this project, all of these projects and many more, have been 
thrown into complete uncertainty because of President Trump's Executive 
orders.
  It is completely unclear when or if those projects are going to get 
the funding they were counting on and that they were owed from bills 
that Congress passed and signed into law.
  And that is not just causing chaos, it is causing delays. It is 
causing harm and alarm, because it could mean construction grinds to a 
halt, workers lose jobs. It means the work will go unstarted or, 
perhaps, in some cases, unfinished. Plus, it would mean increasing 
costs, increasing costs for our cities and counties and States and 
Tribes for those projects that somehow make it through all of this.
  And while there are many more infrastructure projects in my State I 
haven't touched on, not to mention the other projects across the entire 
country, there are so many other projects and organizations and people 
who are being harmed right now by President Trump's reckless funding 
freeze.
  I know there are medical researchers still worried their work will 
somehow be considered woke, when, in reality, it is actually pretty 
darn important that we do understand the risk of health disparities, 
things like why the maternal death rate is so much higher for Black or 
Native American women. Yet now researchers are being told that their 
research is at risk of being defunded if they are examining issues of 
equity or barriers to care, or even if they are specifically studying 
females.
  And there are hospitals in my State and across the country who are 
worried that some of these programs, which are appropriately focused on 
someone's gender or race, are in jeopardy.
  For example--give you a good example--we know that pulse oximeters 
are less accurate for people with darker skin tones. Making sure that 
these clinical measurements are accurate will save life, and it has 
life-and-death consequences for patients.
  We know women have much higher rates of autoimmune disorders than 
men. We need to look at why that is. We need to invest in training the 
next generation of scientists, including from diverse backgrounds. 
Studies actually show us that diversity in the scientific workforce 
leads to greater innovation and productivity, but there is a serious 
concern that lifesaving work is going to get caught up in President 
Trump's sweeping, illegal Executive orders.
  Another impact of Trump's actions: The National Park Service has 
rescinded all of its employment offers for our summer seasonal staff. 
Now, that doesn't just mean people are going to be facing longer wait 
lines or dirtier bathrooms--though they will--it could mean park 
closures throughout this entire summer. It will mean delayed responses 
to emergencies, making people less safe. And outside our national 
parks, Trump is also freezing regional cleanup efforts, things like 
stopping illegal dumping and improving air quality in our communities.
  And let's talk about foreign assistance, because for decades now, 
there has been widespread, bipartisan understanding that promoting 
stability abroad, promoting democracy, improving health, strengthening 
trade, building partnerships, is crucial to U.S. leadership.
  But Trump's Executive orders put all of that at risk by illegally 
freezing funds.
  I have heard from organizations that operate all over the world about 
how they were unable to deliver the lifesaving aid that millions of 
people rely on due to the stop-work orders. That meant millions of 
doses of lifesaving drugs sat unused on shelves; time-sensitive 
prevention methods against diseases like malaria were not carried out, 
putting millions at risk; training for more than 64,000 healthcare 
workers was put on hold; and hundreds of millions of metric tons of 
U.S.-grown commodities are sitting, at the risk of spoiling, in 
transport instead of reaching their final destinations across the world 
to feed people in need.
  Despite a so-called waiver from the U.S. State Department to resume 
work, much of this lifesaving aid is still today on hold. Without a 
start-work order, those organizations fear they are taking on 
significant risk now in continuing operations.
  Put simply, this was already unacceptable, and now over the weekend, 
President Trump and Elon Musk have decided--against all reason, against 
all evidence, and against the law, mind you--to completely dismantle 
USAID, and that is on top of the illegal funding freeze that has 
already been pushing U.S. businesses and nonprofits and international 
aid groups to make tough choices for truly pointless reasons.
  It should be obvious that these cuts will hurt people across the 
world. These cuts are going to mean that people starve. These cuts will 
mean that people don't get clean water. These cuts will mean more 
disease outbreaks with higher death counts. These cuts will mean less 
help for victims of violence and higher death rates for pregnant women.

[[Page S626]]

  Anyone with an ounce of humanity can see this freeze will get 
devastating fast. It is important to note that it will get devastating 
in ways you cannot just make up with more money later once that damage 
is done. That is just not how it works. When people are starving, you 
cannot just feed them money; you need to have already made the 
investments to grow food. When democracies are in crisis, you can't 
just cut them a check; you need to have helped them build strong 
institutions. When a deadly disease outbreak strikes, you are going to 
learn very quickly that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of 
cure.
  These are not lessons we need to learn the hard way by letting people 
die. We know it all painfully well right now. So to freeze that funding 
is asking for disaster, and not just for other countries across the 
world but for us, for the United States and for our families here at 
home.
  Freezing foreign assistance is not putting America first; it is 
guaranteeing America comes in last because every funding gap we leave 
is an opportunity for our adversaries to step in, fill that gap, and 
play the hero while casting us as the villain.
  How are we supposed to lead the world if we are unwilling to invest 
in it? I will tell you right now, China is not holding back. They are 
investing constantly because they know they aren't just building 
infrastructure across the world, they are building stronger 
partnerships. We just counted ourselves out of that competition.
  You want to end U.S. global dominance? You want to tell the world the 
United States is done being a leader? You want to tell other countries 
we cannot be trusted to keep our word? Because that is exactly what we 
are doing if we let Trump get away with illegally cutting off global 
aid with the stroke of a pen and let the richest man in the world cut 
off help from some of the poorest people in the world.
  Let's be clear. It is not just U.S. leadership on the line here; 
there are U.S. jobs at stake. That reality is hitting home hard this 
week. Back in my home State of Washington, there are some world-class 
organizations that I know may have to lay off people this week, 
hundreds of people, all because of President Trump's funding freeze. It 
is a scene that is not isolated to Washington State. I know it is 
playing out across the country as well with thousands of layoffs across 
38 States and Canada. I know that so long as President Trump's lawless 
war on foreign aid continues, so will those layoffs. We will see 
hundreds, if not thousands, more every week.
  International aid organizations may make a difference around the 
world, but they support American jobs too, people who have a paycheck 
and a family, people who work incredibly hard and who are incredibly 
proud of the work they do to make the world a better place and reaffirm 
U.S. global leadership. But they are being sent packing, not because 
they have done anything wrong, not because this work is not important, 
but because President Trump and Elon Musk are listening to wacko 
conspiracists and ultra-isolationists while ignoring the experts, 
ignoring the obvious realities, and, again, ignoring the law. We should 
all stand against this.
  I know we are here tonight to discuss the Vought nomination, but I 
want to talk about someone who has not been nominated to anything. He 
has not been elected to anything. Yet he is serving as de facto co-
President--Elon Musk. Arguably, he is more important and more 
influential than the elected, sitting President, and he has proven 
himself in lockstep with Russ Vought--whom we are voting on tomorrow--
when it comes to slashing programs that matter to American families and 
ignoring the laws of our Nation.
  In recent days, Musk has been busy illegally shuttering USAID, 
cutting off foreign assistant programs, which I said will lose jobs for 
Americans, lose lives in countries around the world, and lose 
leadership as adversaries like China fill that gap. Shockingly, Musk 
has even had people fired--fired--for denying his lackeys classified 
resources that they had no authority to access.
  Last weekend, we all learned that Elon Musk essentially commandeered 
access to the Treasury Department's most sensitive payment system, 
handling $6 trillion every year and managing nearly all of our Federal 
reimbursements. It is a system that contains extremely sensitive 
personal and commercial information.
  I have been hearing from people across my State who are truly alarmed 
about what Musk and his associations having access to this system could 
mean for their data and for funding they count on.
  Let's not mince words here. An unelected, unaccountable billionaire 
with expansive conflicts of interest, deep ties to China, and an 
indiscreet ax to grind against perceived enemies is highjacking our 
Nation's most sensitive financial data system and its checkbook so that 
he can illegally block funds to our constituents based on the slightest 
whim or wildest conspiracy--funds, mind you, that Congress on a 
bipartisan basis passed.
  Some Republicans are trying to suggest that Musk only has viewing 
access to Treasury's highly sensitive payment system--as if that is 
acceptable either--but why on Earth should we believe that, 
particularly when Musk himself is saying the exact opposite loudly and 
repeatedly for everyone to hear?

  What funds will Elon target next? Lifesaving medical research? 
Homelessness assistance? Food banks? We already know he has falsely 
attacked faith-based organizations that help folks and is promising to 
cut off funds based off conspiracy theories. In other words, the 
world's richest man has vowed to cut off funding that helps the least 
among us. Think about that.
  Next, think about how many dollars he himself makes from government 
contracts. I mean, seriously. The richest man in the world, with 
countless government contracts, ties to our adversaries, is taking over 
the Treasury in the name of fighting corruption? The irony is almost as 
rich as Musk himself.
  Let me underscore just how dangerous this is because now that Trump 
has handed over Treasury's checkbook, what if Elon decides he doesn't 
like how Rivian is getting Federal funds to build an EV manufacturing 
facility? So what next? All Elon has to do is say ``Oh, they are 
woke,'' and he can convince Trump to illegally cut off those funds. Is 
that how this works now?
  Maybe Elon will decide he doesn't like Blue Origin and not SpaceX 
getting a contract, so he wants to gum up the works on their payments. 
Is that how this works?
  Maybe Elon decides he wants to get into electronic healthcare 
systems, and maybe he wants to punish hospital systems that don't take 
him up on whatever he is selling.
  Private corporations and competitors need to take note. The potential 
for abuse and corruption by Elon--especially considering his track 
record--is pretty much limitless.
  And it is not just Treasury. Musk and his henchmen are launching a 
full-scale invasion of sensitive data systems across government. We are 
talking about the Small Business Administration. We are talking about 
NOAA. We are talking about Medicare. The reporting is now clear. They 
are not just looking either; they are directly making changes to some 
of those critical systems.
  This is not Silicon Valley, where you can just move fast and break 
things. When you break things here, people don't get their healthcare; 
they don't get their Social Security check; they don't get crucial 
warnings and lifesaving information.
  Anyone who thinks ``Well, that surely won't happen'' has not been 
paying attention because just this week, Elon Musk and Donald Trump put 
Americans in danger. We have citizens in dangerous corners of the world 
who were suddenly locked out of their emails, and they were cut off 
from an app that is meant to help address threats like kidnapping.
  So no one should be shrugging this off and just saying ``Well, what 
is the worst that could happen?'' because this can get really, really 
bad, really, really fast.
  If anyone is thinking ``Well, it is OK. We have guardrails. We have 
laws,'' make no mistake, even though Trump and Musk have absolutely 
zero legal authority to hold up any Federal payments that are law, this 
has not stopped them so far. As we have seen,

[[Page S627]]

they are already halting other funds illegally. They are already firing 
government watchdogs and officials left and right regardless of our 
laws. They are already putting forward blatantly unconstitutional 
Executive orders.
  The fact of the matter is, Trump and Musk have yet to find a law they 
think applies to them. They think because they are rich and powerful, 
they get to call all the shots regardless of the courts and regardless 
of Congress. That is not how things work in this country. Billionaires 
are not above the law, and neither are Presidents. We do not have a 
monarchy where a President is king. We do not have an oligarchy where 
the richest people get the largest say. We in this country have a 
democracy--if we can keep it--where each citizen has a vote. We have 
checks and balances where the President is accountable to the Congress 
and to the people, where he has to follow the laws we pass.
  But some of my colleagues across the aisle seem to be forgetting that 
our democracy doesn't work by magic. We have to do our part--our part--
here to hold Presidents accountable. Our job is not to say yes to 
everything the President does, no matter how lawless or harmful. Our 
job is not to shrug our shoulders or cover our eyes. It is to fight for 
the people who sent us here and to defend the Constitution.
  So Democrats will be pushing back with the tools we have. We will 
speak out. We will press this administration. We will open 
investigations, and we will demand accountability. But one tool we do 
not have is the majority in this Congress. So that means our Republican 
colleagues have to say: Enough. We need them to join us. We need them 
to stand up to the corruption and the lawlessness and stand up for the 
people they represent.
  While I am on the subject, I want to talk about another scheme Elon 
Musk cooked up. We are approaching the deadline that is set in the 
Trump administration's ``Fork in the Road'' message, which claims--and 
I have to emphasize that it merely claims--to give Federal workers the 
option of a deferred resignation that would allegedly allow workers to 
retain all pay and benefits regardless of your daily workload and be 
exempted from all applicable in-person work requirements until 
September 30.
  I want to speak directly to all of our Federal workers about this 
because they deserve better than to be pushed out the door with a 9-day 
pressure tactic that comes with no clarity, no details, and a lot of 
questions left unanswered.
  So here is what is important for everyone to know. First, there is no 
guarantee workers who accept that offer will get paid through September 
30, as they have been promised. Not only is there no funding for that 
timeframe right now, but I personally am deeply skeptical of any offer 
from a President like Donald Trump, who has so consistently shown he 
will try to stiff workers at every opportunity.
  Being given only 9 days to decide something like this should set off 
alarm bells. That is a short amount of time to consider all of the 
financial impacts of potentially accepting this offer--including, if 
you were able to find another job, how would this impact your benefits 
like health insurance, retirement, and a lot more.
  And we all know, scammers often pressure people: Act immediately.
  Additionally, information being provided continues to change and 
includes a lot of caveats. It claims you can rescind your resignation 
if you change your mind. But your job may no longer exist if that 
happens--tough luck.
  It claims you aren't expected to work if you accept this offer, 
except in cases determined by each individual Agency.
  It claims you can stay in your current role. However, there is no 
guarantee your position will be needed.
  The lack of clear information and research about exactly what will be 
allowed is rightfully creating confusion for the more than 56,000 
Federal workers in my State alone. To me, this leaves a lot of 
questions unanswered.
  Finally, I want to express a real gratitude for our Federal workers 
who power so many essential services provided by our government. The 
American Government is not Twitter. People rely on our Federal workers, 
and sometimes their work can be the difference between life and death.
  Federal workers help inspect meat processing facilities. They make 
sure baby formula is safe. They approve lifesaving drugs and 
treatments. They manage air traffic. They help ensure clean drinking 
water. And there is so much more.
  Where this administration continues to show outright hostility toward 
many of our Federal workers, I want you to know I will continue to 
fight for our Federal workers--everyone from Hanford workers, 
scientists at the Pacific Northwest National Lab, to the people making 
sure you get your Social Security check.
  Mr. President, I got a letter this week from a Hanford worker. They 
started last year, hoping it would be a stable job that would let them 
provide for their family while making a difference in their community. 
This employee has already been recognized several times for hard work. 
And then Elon Musk tried to push them out the door with this scammy 
buyout, and now they are on the list of employees who are at the threat 
of being terminated for no good reason.
  That is an utter betrayal. It is a betrayal of a hard-working parent 
who did nothing wrong and a betrayal of my Hanford community, where 
Trump is undermining important environmental cleanup work, because at 
Hanford alone, which is already understaffed, there are nearly 30 
people now on the chopping block. They are nuclear safety engineers. 
They are facility safety representatives. They are procurement and 
contracting personnel. They are attorneys. They are labor relations 
staff. They are accountants.
  How is firing nuclear safety engineers supposed to make anyone safer 
or better off?
  Mr. President, there are so many stories like this already happening 
or just around the corner. I have heard that Musk and Trump plan to cut 
workers at the Department of Energy in half. These are Federal 
employees who put in long hours to support their families and to 
strengthen our country. And for all their years of service, for all 
their sacrifice, Elon Musk is showing them the door and saying: Don't 
let it hit you on the way out.
  This is wrong, and it is ungrateful. And for God's sake, we are 
talking about nuclear security here. Why on Earth would anyone think it 
is a good idea to cut corners?
  Here is my message to our Federal workers: You do so much for our 
communities. You deserve so much better than to have a billionaire with 
no understanding of what you do come in, belittle your work, suggest he 
can do it better, and push you out the door. I hope you will all keep 
up the good work for the American people. I want you to know we will 
keep fighting for you as well.
  Mr. President, before I conclude, I just want to state once more what 
is at stake with Vought's nomination. We are talking about hundreds of 
billions of dollars in Federal spending that Congress--us--passed that 
our communities are counting on and that Mr. Vought has made painfully 
clear he will not think twice about illegally blocking it.
  Giving this man the power to enact his illegal schemes will do real 
harm to folks back home. It will cut people off from getting groceries 
and making rent. It will cut our families off from childcare and 
healthcare. It will cut veterans and their survivors off from 
disability and education benefits they earned through their service to 
our country. It will cut off breakthrough medical research and help for 
people who are struggling with opioid addiction. It will cut off 
communities that are working to build bridges and improve roads and 
strengthen their energy infrastructure. That will have serious 
consequences we cannot overlook.
  We are here to fight for our families, but there is also another 
serious consequence here, one that cuts to the heart of what makes this 
Senate work and what makes our democracy work. Confirming Russ Vought 
to OMB makes it that much harder to negotiate our spending bills. It is 
much harder to reach a bipartisan deal with my colleagues, whom I 
respect and trust and have worked with for years, if that deal is going 
to be implemented by someone in whom I have zero trust; someone who has 
made clear that despite our laws, he is going to block any funding we 
pass. Why should any Senator vote to confirm someone who has

[[Page S628]]

made it perfectly clear he will undermine their authority to help their 
constituents?
  Mr. President, as I have said, our system of checks and balances does 
not work on its own. We have to actually do our part here in Congress 
to be the check of Presidential abuse of power. And we have an 
opportunity--actually, it is an obligation--right now, to do just that. 
Before us right now is a nominee who has made it very clear he will not 
respect the authority of Congress--of all us and the people who voted 
us in--nominated by a President who is not respecting the authority of 
Congress and the people who voted us in.
  We have to say we can't stand for that. We have to say from here that 
the law is the law. And a simple way we can send that message is by 
rejecting Russ Vought's nomination outright.
  Mr. President, I am here today to strongly urge my colleagues to join 
me in doing just that.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Moreno). The Senator from Massachusetts.
  Ms. WARREN. Mr. President, I would like to start by thanking Senator 
Murray for her extraordinary leadership. She has been a stalwart in the 
Senate for many, many years and now is the ranking member of the 
Appropriations Committee and knows firsthand the importance of the 
process by which we make a law in the United States. And that includes 
that we pass those laws in Congress. We fund them in Congress. It is 
signed by the President of the United States. And people across this 
Nation can know, through that process, those are what the laws are. If 
you don't like those laws, then elect different people who will come up 
with different versions of the law.
  But everyone--Democrat or Republican--sticks to the same version, and 
that is: A law is a law.
  The President of the United States or his co-President, Elon Musk, do 
not have the right simply to go back on the laws and say: Oh, we pick 
that one, that one, and that one to enforce--and that one, no; that 
one, no; and, maybe, that one, half time.
  That is not how the process works.
  Senator Murray has been the leading voice in fighting back against 
this, and I want to say how much I appreciate all that she has done.
  I want to talk for just a minute about Project 2025. During the 2024 
election, the American people became familiar with this Republican 
document called Project 2025. The document laid out Republican plans to 
reshape our country if they gained control.
  Now, Americans, a little at a time, got a chance to see the plan. 
People started to read it, and they were shocked. In no time, people 
from across the political spectrum--not just Democrats; Democrats, 
Republicans, Independents--made clear how much they hated Project 2025 
and that they wanted no part of it.
  So what was in Project 2025 that made it so widely hated across the 
political spectrum?
  A few things: firing civil servants, weaponizing the Department of 
Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigations, unleashing force onto 
protesters and targeting political opponents, restricting abortion 
nationwide, ripping retirement and healthcare benefits from seniors, 
dismantling public education, and--biggest and best--funding tax cuts 
for the rich by raising taxes on America's middle class.
  I want to be clear, it is a big document. Those are just the top 
lines.
  So Donald Trump's response was to swear over and over and over again 
that he had nothing to do with those plans; he didn't know about them, 
didn't endorse them, didn't want anything to do with them.
  Here are some of the things that Donald Trump said about Project 2025 
back in 2024:

       I know nothing about Project 2025.
       I have nothing to do with Project 2025.
       I disagree with some of the things they're saying and some 
     of the things they're saying are absolutely ridiculous and 
     abysmal.

  And my personal favorite:

       They've been told officially, legally, in every way, that 
     we have nothing to do with Project 2025.

  So think about that. During the 2024 election, Donald Trump claimed 
he didn't know anything about Project 2025. But he lied. Shortly after 
the election, he nominated one of the chief architects of Project 2025 
in a key role with the government.
  Donald Trump has named the lead architect of Project 2025, Russ 
Vought, to oversee the Federal Government's entire budget office. That 
is right. Listen to this one. He is putting the head writer of the 
plans that you had only read about in nightmares in a key government 
position.
  Russ Vought wrote Project 2025, and now, Donald Trump is rewarding 
him by inviting him into the government in order to carry out the 
Republican blueprint to make our government force people to live in the 
image that Russ Vought and other extremist Republicans approve of. And 
he plans to rework our economy to benefit the wealthiest among us and 
make everybody else pay for it.
  Here are just a few of the things that Russ Vought has called for. 
Russ Vought has called on Congress to outlaw medication abortion 
nationwide, restricting women's reproductive rights, even in States 
that protect abortion. Russ Vought has encouraged discrimination 
against transgender people in the workplace and in healthcare. In his 
first stint as OMB Director, Russ Vought decried the use of Federal 
funding for diversity and equity training in a letter to Federal 
Agencies.
  The Project 2025 playbook calls for eliminating almost every civil 
rights office in the Federal Government. And Russ Vought has said he 
intends to put Federal workers ``in trauma'' and destroy the merit-
based system for civil servants so that he can fill the government with 
rightwing extremists.
  I am going to pause here for a minute to see if Senator Gillibrand 
wants to speak.
  Mrs. GILLIBRAND. Thank you so much, Senator Warren, for your 
unbelievable tenacity and clear-eyed and thoughtful remarks.
  I yield the balance of my postcloture debate time on the Vought 
nomination to Senator Schumer.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Duly noted.
  Ms. WARREN. Let's keep in mind, Russ Vought has called for outlawing 
abortion--medication abortion--nationwide. It doesn't matter whether or 
not you live in a State that says, no, we are going to protect 
abortion. Russ Vought wants to find a way to make sure it is shut down 
everywhere.
  He wants to encourage discrimination against transgender people.
  He thinks that getting rid of civil rights is the way to go for the 
American Government.
  And he says he wants to put Federal workers in trauma and destroy the 
merit-based system for civil servants so he can fill up our government 
with rightwing extremists.
  Now, we are already seeing firsthand the devastating effects of Russ 
Vought's plan for America. Russ Vought was the puppet master behind the 
funding shutdown that threw this country into chaos last week. I saw 
this in Massachusetts. Parents didn't know if their toddlers' daycare 
would be open. Seniors didn't know if the hot meals they were expecting 
from Meals on Wheels would grind to a halt. No one knew if the nursing 
homes funded by Medicaid would be able to pay their workers.
  That was just the tip of the iceberg for Russ Vought. If he is 
confirmed, you can absolutely bet on Russ Vought pulling out the rug 
from working people over and over and over again. Quite frankly, we 
don't know where he will stop. This is where they have started. Three 
weeks in, and this is where they have started.
  Will Russ Vought, Elon Musk, and Donald Trump stop when they have 
ripped abortion rights away from every single woman in America?
  Will they stop when he has abolished the Department of Education and 
fired 180,000 teachers from their jobs?
  Will he stop when he has privatized Medicare and when seniors can't 
afford to go see the doctor?
  Will he stop when he is done stealing from middle-class families in 
order to fund tax breaks for the wealthiest households? By the way, 
that is in his blueprint, too--tax hikes for the middle class and tax 
breaks for the rich.
  Will he stop when he crashes the economy? Take it from me, with these 
kinds of plans, crashing the economy is

[[Page S629]]

no longer a stretch. Russ Vought's Project 2025 proposals will lead to 
higher inflation, higher interest rates, and weaker economic growth. 
Project 2025 would seriously threaten another recession.
  Look, already, families all across this country are feeling the 
pressure from high grocery prices while Donald Trump and his 
administration just turn their backs on working families.
  American families cannot afford for Russ Vought to be in charge. We 
don't know how far Russ Vought's extremism will go, but we can't afford 
to wait and find out.
  Americans voted for each and every one of us right here in the U.S. 
Senate to fight for them, and they do not expect us to roll over and 
play dead. It is our sworn duty to stop dangerous people like Russ 
Vought before he destroys our freedom, our economy, and the stability 
of every working family in this Nation. So I urge every Senator to vote 
no on his nomination.
  I also want to take this chance to share some of the stories I have 
been hearing from my constituents, the people of Massachusetts. The 
impacts of Donald Trump's and Russ Vought's policies are affecting 
people in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and all across this 
country. I am here to fight for the people of Massachusetts, and I am 
here to share their stories.
  I want to start with a message I received from a family childcare 
center that cares for hundreds of children each day so that moms have 
the opportunity to succeed in their careers.
  Here is how the message goes:

       Our community of early educators and families is on edge. 
     We work with a very diverse population, and the rumors and 
     threats related to immigration activities are having an 
     impact. We have begun having families question removing their 
     children from much needed and valuable early education 
     programs because they are scared to separate from one another 
     or even to go outside. Ninety-nine percent of the families we 
     are working with are receiving a subsidy for their care.
       So, with current funding through the Department of Early 
     Education and Care, I believe it breaks down to approximately 
     60 percent federal and 40 percent state funds.
       We have also historically been recipients of CDBG funds to 
     support our training program, which would only be possible 
     with Federal support.

  So think about that.
  When Russ Vought and Donald Trump and Elon Musk just decide to start 
shutting programs down, we have childcare centers that are writing in, 
saying, in effect, they are not going to have the money to keep the 
doors open for the children and the mommas whom they serve.
  This is from a small business owner in Lynnfield. Sadaf owns a small 
business that works to innovate new lab equipment to improve cancer and 
prenatal screenings. She gets money from the National Institutes of 
Health. This is exactly the kind of person we want to see doing work 
right here in the United States.
  Here is what she writes:

       My small business . . . is currently partially funded 
     through an NIH-NHGRI grant. Today, the grant is frozen, and 
     we are unable to access any funds. If this freeze lasts more 
     than a month, we will have to lay off hard-working employees 
     and shut our doors.

  Think about that.
  Here is someone who has built a small business around doing more 
effective cancer screenings and prenatal screenings, and she has been 
recognized by the National Institutes of Health as someone who is doing 
the kind of cutting-edge research and delivering the kind of services 
we need. Because Russ Vought, Donald Trump, and Elon Musk say, ``No. We 
are just going to freeze funding here,'' the consequence is, she says: 
I am at risk of having to lay off employees and close my business.
  I have heard this from many of my constituents.
  Another in Worcester runs a small nonprofit to help communities 
vulnerable to the climate crisis. They have $1.5 million in contracts 
that they now can't access, and soon they are going to have to lay off 
employees.
  The impact of holding this money up is real. It is felt in our 
communities. It is felt household by household by household when people 
can't get to the money they need so that they can issue the paychecks 
and keep people working. Why and how is that making America any better 
off?
  Take this story from the Boston Globe, entitled ``'Am I going to lose 
my husband?': The real price of Trump's budget freeze.''

       The freeze is harming real people. One of them is James, a 
     Virginia resident who told his story to the editorial board 
     but asked that his last name not be used because he fears 
     retaliation.
       Eight years ago, when James was 32, after years of health 
     problems, he was diagnosed with neuroendocrine tumors 
     (formerly called Carcinoid cancer), with accompanying severe 
     Carcinoid syndrome. Tumors were in his intestines and liver, 
     with nodules on his lungs. A doctor gave him 3 to 6 months to 
     live.
       Standard treatment for these tumors is shots with one of 
     two drugs--

  And I am going to do my best to pronounce them--

     octreotide or lanreotide. The first couple of months after 
     his diagnosis, James spent a total of around $10,000 on shots 
     and scans, [and that was in addition to his] insurance 
     coverage.

  So this is someone with health insurance.

       He was working in a toy shop and studying graphic design, 
     and the medical care [completely] drained his savings. Then 
     James entered a National Institutes of Health research trial.
       Because James was unusually young to get Carcinoid 
     syndrome, NIH researchers wanted to study how he reacted to 
     the disease and treatments. For the next 8 years, NIH 
     provided and paid for his shots, scans, surgeries, 
     medications, and procedures. ``All I had to do was be a 
     guinea pig,'' James said.
       As of December, he was getting a shot of lanreotide, which 
     can cost thousands of dollars.

  He was getting the shot every 3 weeks to keep his tumors from 
growing.

       ``If I were to lose the medication, they'd likely ramp up, 
     become more aggressive, and potentially spread to other 
     organs. It could be a death sentence,'' James said.
       The disruptions started when it became clear Donald Trump 
     might win the Presidential election. In October and November, 
     NIH began recommending that if patients could get some 
     medications--anti-nausea medicine or painkillers--from other 
     doctors, they should, because the federal agency feared 
     budget cuts. In December, after Trump's election, James said 
     his doctor told him NIH could no longer provide lanreotide. 
     But he was still part of the research protocol, so he would 
     get yearly scans, and the NIH would conduct and pay for any 
     necessary surgeries.

  In other words, they wanted to continue to be able to study him.

       In December, James started experiencing aphasia and memory 
     loss, and a scan found spots in his brain. He's still 
     undergoing diagnostic tests. NIH had a treatment protocol 
     prepared for if the cancer did spread to his brain. Once 
     Trump took office in January, however, James was told the 
     research was frozen indefinitely, and he won't be getting any 
     NIH care until that changes.
       James is continuing treatment with a Medicare insurance 
     plan provided by Kaiser Permanente, and he qualified for a 
     financial assistance grant through May. But he worries the 
     Trump administration will end that financial assistance. 
     James receives disability payments, and his wife is a 
     teacher, so they can't afford high out-of-pocket payments. 
     ``When I heard about this, I thought, `Am I going to lose my 
     husband? Is he going to die?''' his wife, Becki, said.

  Make no mistake, these are not one-off stories. Families everywhere, 
all across the country, in red States and blue States, are feeling the 
impacts of these policies--everyone.
  Now, maybe you knew about this, maybe you didn't, but Trump is trying 
to keep you in the dark on some of these things while he distracts by 
renaming the Gulf of Mexico or dreaming about Canada as the 51st State. 
In just his first couple of weeks in office, Donald Trump has gone on a 
rampage against working people, signing hundreds of Executive orders--
rolling the clock back on progress and reinstating harmful and 
unpopular policies from his first term. He signed many of these 
Executive orders in the middle of the night because he and his 
administration didn't want people to know about them.
  So I just want to remind everybody, for all of those pictures of 
Donald Trump signing while everybody looked on and everybody smiled or 
with Donald Trump holding up an Executive order that he signed very 
proudly, those are not all of the Executive orders. There were a lot of 
his Executive orders that got signed late at night and then were just 
pushed out.
  Here are some of the Executive orders that the American people may 
not know about, and they are right in lockstep with Project 2025:
  In one Executive order, Donald Trump called for a Federal Government 
hiring freeze. Project 2025 proposed implementing a ``hiring freeze for 
career officials.'' So Trump does the Executive order exactly to what 
Project 2025 was proposing.

[[Page S630]]

  Here is Donald Trump's Executive order:

       I hereby order a freeze on the hiring of Federal civilian 
     employees to be applied throughout the executive branch.

  There it is--Project 2025 and Donald Trump's Executive order.
  Another Executive order: He withdrew from the Paris Climate Accords. 
So let's start with Project 2025. It proposed that the ``next 
conservative administration should withdraw the U.S. from the U.N. 
Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement.''
  Here is Donald Trump's Executive order that was signed late at night:

       The United States Ambassador to the United Nations shall 
     immediately submit formal written notification of the United 
     States' withdrawal from the Paris Agreement under the United 
     Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

  Project 2025 calls for it; Donald Trump delivers.
  He paused the implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act and the 
bipartisan infrastructure law, which is fighting the climate crisis and 
helping cities and towns across America to upgrade their roads and 
bridges.
  Project 2025 called to repeal ``massive spending bills like the 
Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and Inflation Reduction Act, 
which established new programs and are providing hundreds of billions 
of dollars in subsidies to renewable energy developers, their 
investors, and special interests, and support the rescinding of all 
funds not already spent by these programs.'' In other words, Project 
2025 is saying: Shut it down. Shut it down.
  Here is Donald Trump's Executive order:

       All agencies shall immediately pause the disbursement of 
     funds appropriated through the Inflation Reduction Act of 
     2022 . . . or the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

  So there we are. Project 2025 calls for it; Donald Trump delivers 
with an Executive order.
  The fact that he cannot legally do that doesn't seem to have slowed 
him down at all. In fact, Project 2025 talks about repealing those 
laws. That means you come to Congress, and then Congress votes on it--
the House and the Senate. And only if you get majorities in the House 
and Senate do you send it over to the President of the United States to 
sign it into law.
  Donald Trump isn't doing it. Republicans are in charge of the House. 
Republicans are in charge of the Senate. But instead of saying we are 
going to amend the law that has already gone through the process and 
been signed in and the money has all been appropriated for it, nope--
instead--Donald Trump says, with a middle-of-the-night Executive order, 
I am just going to say: Stop spending money.
  That is impoundment, and it is clearly unlawful. He is in violation 
of the law.
  Now, on abortion, Trump reinstated and expanded the global gag rule--
a heartless rule that makes women and girls across the world less safe 
by cutting funding for health centers that may provide abortion.
  Planned Parenthood gave us an idea of just how bad this is. Here is 
their quote on this:

       Also known as the Mexico City policy, the global gag rule 
     prevents foreign organizations that receive certain U.S. 
     assistance from providing, counseling, referring, or 
     advocating for legal abortion in their country--even with 
     their own money and [their own] resources. The global gag 
     rule blocks health care access, disrupts coalitions and 
     stifles local advocacy efforts, and undermines reproductive 
     rights worldwide. [By the way,] it is also deeply unpopular 
     with the American people.

  In fact, here is what Alexis McGill Johnson, who is President and CEO 
of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America said:

       President Trump is kicking off his second term exactly as 
     anticipated: attacking sexual and reproductive health care. 
     The global gag rule not only disrupts the delivery of health 
     services in areas of the world that are most in need; it also 
     rolls back progress in countries that have fought to advance 
     access to health care and human rights. Elected officials 
     should not be interfering in personal medical decisions, in 
     this country or anywhere else in the world. We must reverse 
     and end the global gag rule permanently, full stop.

  But Donald Trump just signed that Executive order in the middle of 
the night, and women--particularly poor women--all around the world 
will pay the price.
  Here is more of what Donald Trump did to try to turn back the clock 
on women's bodies. This one comes from POLITICO:

       President Trump's campaign-trail promise to leave abortion 
     regulation to the states lasted just a few days into his 
     presidency.
       He issued executive orders . . . that revive some anti-
     abortion policies from his first administration--including 
     restrictions on federal funding for family planning and other 
     health programs abroad that discuss abortion as an option or 
     provide referrals for the procedure.

  So the President signed the Executive orders hours after addressing 
the annual anti-abortion March for Life in a prerecorded video.
  A 2022 study by the National Academy of Sciences estimated that 
Trump's anti-abortion restrictions on foreign aid led to 108,000 deaths 
of women and children in poor countries over the 4 years of his first 
administration. How does that happen? Well, it is because that 
Executive order from the first time around slashed funding for groups 
like the nonprofit MSI Reproductive Choices, which operates clinics 
that provide contraception and testing for sexually transmitted 
infections with U.S. funds, and it uses separate revenues to fund and 
provide abortions.
  MSI said, ahead of the policy being reinstated, that it wouldn't 
abide by it. This will lead to the organization losing $14 million in 
U.S. Agency for International Development funding, an MSI spokesperson 
said. The organization estimates the financial loss could result in an 
additional 2.4 million unintended pregnancies because the organization 
would have to stop providing contraception in several countries.
  I am at a complete loss to explain how the United States is better 
off if more unintended pregnancies happen in poor countries and how we 
explain that, the last time around, when Trump did this, it resulted in 
108,000 deaths of women and children in poor countries, and that we are 
headed straight into the same plan again.
  Another study by Stanford University researchers found that the 
narrower version of the Mexico City policy that several GOP Presidents 
enacted prior to Trump caused the number of abortions to increase 
across Sub-Saharan Africa because so many women lost access to 
contraception.
  Let me say that once again. For everyone who thinks that abortion 
should not occur, understand the consequence of the Trump Executive 
order, and that is that it increases the number of abortions across 
Sub-Saharan Africa because women lose their access to contraption.
  Abortion rights advocates have also argued that the policy is 
overbroad because it imposes restrictions in countries where abortion 
is legal. One day earlier, in another move that thrilled abortion 
opponents, Trump issued pardons for roughly two dozen people convicted 
of forcibly entering and blocking access to abortion clinics. In fact, 
this has been an important part of the Trump Executive order stream in 
this area.
  The idea that the Federal laws that protect women who are walking 
from where they have parked their car to an abortion clinic and also a 
place where they may get contraception, where they may get a mammogram, 
where they may get other health screenings, not to be interfered with; 
that they get a chance to walk without having people scream in their 
faces and spit on them, that has been taken away by the President of 
the United States. He has said: Move in a little closer. Bear down 
harder on those women.
  And, still, the anti-abortion groups that helped Trump win reelection 
are looking beyond these actions and are pushing for more from the new 
administration.
  For example, what are they asking for now? Well, they want to look at 
a ban on telehealth prescriptions and mail delivery of abortion pills. 
They want to do rules forcing States to provide more detailed 
information on all abortions within their borders, so they can see more 
about who is getting what treatments, and repeal of the Biden 
administration rules that expanded abortion access for some military 
members and veterans. It is all happening out in plain view.
  Let us be clear: This is and always has been about controlling 
women's bodies. Donald Trump packed the Supreme Court with anti-
abortion extremists to get Roe overturned, and he

[[Page S631]]

bragged about it afterward. This is the latest in Trump's yearslong 
crusade against women's reproductive rights. And understand this: We 
will fight back.
  As you probably have already seen in the news, Elon Musk has taken 
control of the government's critical payment systems, which include 
sensitive personal information for millions of Americans.
  This is the system that makes sure that your grandpa gets his Social 
Security check. This is the system that makes sure that your mom's 
doctor gets the Medicare payment to cover her medical appointment. And 
this is the system that makes sure that you get the tax refund that you 
are owed. Now it has been taken over by Elon Musk.
  Every organization--from your State government that uses Federal 
money on that bridge project to your local Head Start that takes care 
of little kids while their mommies and daddies go to work--is now at 
the mercy of Elon Musk.
  Maybe you get paid, but, then again, maybe you don't. Elon just 
grabbed the controls of that whole payment system, demanding the power 
to turn it on for his friends and turn it off for anyone he declares he 
doesn't like--one guy deciding who gets paid and who doesn't. It is not 
the law, but it is the reality.
  There is a second problem here. It is not just payments from the 
Federal Government that are now in Elon's control. Elon and his handful 
of friends now have access to your personal financial information, 
anything that is in the system. Your payment history, your Social 
Security number, your address, your bank account numbers--Elon now has 
the power to suck out all that information for his own use. And, now, 
whether it is to boost his personal finances or to expand his political 
power, it is all up to Elon.
  Understand, in a world in which data is power, Elon has just 
increased his power.
  There is a third kind of problem here. In order for this handful of 
programmers to gain access to our $6 trillion payment system, we don't 
know what kind of safeguards were pulled down. Are the gates wide open 
now for hackers from China, from North Korea, from Iran, from Russia? 
Heck, who knows what black-hat hackers all around the world are finding 
out right now about each and every one of us, copying that information, 
and storing it for their own future criminal uses.
  How many back doors are being installed right now in the system that 
is truly the financial guts of our economy--the one that makes sure 
that the payments go out? All of that information is now at risk.
  This week, I wrote to the Secretary of the Department of the 
Treasury, Scott Bessent, with extreme concern following this reporting. 
Here is what I said:

       I write regarding a disturbing report that--in one of your 
     first acts after [you were confirmed] as Treasury Secretary--
     you have given Elon Musk and his surrogates ``full access'' 
     to the federal government's critical payment systems, which 
     includes the sensitive personal information of millions of 
     Americans.
       It is extraordinarily dangerous to meddle with the critical 
     systems that process trillions of dollars of transactions 
     each year, are essential to preventing a default on federal 
     debt, and that ensure that tens of millions of Americans 
     receive their Social Security checks, tax refunds, and 
     Medicare benefits. I am also alarmed by reports that you 
     personally sidelined the key official responsible for 
     managing the extraordinary measures the Department of the 
     Treasury is taking to avoid a default on U.S. debt, risking 
     missteps that could result in a global financial meltdown 
     that costs trillions of dollars and millions of jobs. I am 
     writing to seek answers about your role in this security and 
     management failure and about how you intend to protect the 
     integrity of the federal government's financial operations 
     after handing over the systems to Mr. Musk's team.
       According to public reports, even before President Trump's 
     inauguration, Mr. Musk's surrogates began demanding access to 
     the sensitive payment systems that the federal government 
     uses to disburse trillions of dollars every year. The public 
     depends on the integrity of those systems, which control the 
     flow of over $6 trillion in payments to American families, 
     businesses, and other recipients each year--with millions 
     relying on them for Social Security checks and Medicare 
     benefits, federal salaries, government contract payments, 
     grants, and tax refunds this filing season. In just one year, 
     for example, the Department's Bureau of Fiscal Service 
     disbursed nearly 1.3 billion payments totaling $5.4 trillion. 
     It also collected nearly $5.5 trillion in federal revenue. 
     Given the highly sensitive nature of the information in these 
     systems, control over them is typically limited to a small 
     number of career officials.
       The Musk team's unprecedented demand for total access to 
     the system reportedly caused serious concern at the 
     Department, particularly given that ``the system has 
     historically been closely held because it includes sensitive 
     personal information'' on millions of Americans and sends out 
     virtually every federal payment--including payments that are 
     critical for the economy and national security.

  I just want to say off to the side, the Presiding Officer and I were 
both in a Banking hearing this morning, and one of the questions that 
Democrats put to our bankers who were present is, Would you let someone 
come in and see the personal banking records of your customers? And the 
bankers, of course, said no, there is no way they would permit that. 
Yet the Secretary of the Treasury opened the door and said Elon Musk 
and his designees could come in and look at anything they wanted to 
look at.

       Controlling the system could allow the Trump administration 
     to ``unilaterally''--and illegally--cut off payments for 
     millions of Americans, putting at risk the financial security 
     of families and businesses based on political favoritism or 
     the whims of Mr. Musk and those on his team who have [managed 
     to work] their way inside. It could also give them access to 
     millions of Americans' personal and financial information 
     that is protected by law.

  We would shut down a bank that did what the Secretary of the Treasury 
did in letting Elon Musk come in and root around in the personal 
financial information of Americans all across this country.

       The Washington Post reported that the Department's top 
     career official, David Lebryk--who had served in nonpolitical 
     roles in the Department for decades--

  Served Republicans, served Democrats--

     including as Fiscal Assistant Secretary since 2014--resisted 
     political pressure to cave to the Musk surrogates. The 
     demands of those outsiders were especially concerning because 
     Mr. Musk and the Trump Administration have tried to control 
     spending in alarming and potentially unlawful ways--including 
     through the chaotic announcement of a federal funding freeze 
     last week that caused widespread harm and confusion. Mr. Musk 
     was reportedly trying ``to deploy his engineers to find ways 
     to turn off the flow of money from the Treasury Department to 
     things that Mr. Trump wants to defund.'' In other words, a 
     small group of insiders would suddenly be in a position to 
     make decisions about whether to hold up payments to 
     individual families or businesses--with absolutely no 
     transparency or accountability. But rather than protecting 
     the integrity and function of the payment system, [our 
     Secretary of the Treasury] reportedly bent to pressure from 
     the White House, suggested putting Mr. Lebryk on leave, and 
     ultimately forced him out.
       This astonishing mismanagement--turning over the federal 
     government's entire payment system and sidelining the most 
     senior career official responsible for managing it--also puts 
     the country at greater risk of defaulting on our debt, which 
     could trigger a global financial crisis. The Fiscal Assistant 
     Secretary was ``the government staffer perhaps most 
     responsible for figuring out how the United States should 
     handle the alarming prospect of running out of money, making 
     him a pivotal, if lesser-known, player in [a] debt ceiling 
     standoff.'' The Fiscal Assistant Secretary is responsible for 
     assessing when the country will exhaust its funds and 
     ensuring that Congress has that information, for 
     ``coordinating and determining how much money the Treasury 
     needs to borrow to finance the government,'' and for 
     ``manag[ing] the `extraordinary measures' '' that the 
     Department uses to ``delay a default for as long as 
     possible.'' The Fiscal Assistant Secretary--unlike the 
     amateurs [that the Secretary of the Treasury has] empowered 
     [when he forced them] out--was well-prepared to manage these 
     kinds of crises. He had ``moved through positions that gave 
     him deep exposure to the plumbing of federal financing'' and 
     was a ``scrupulously apolitical'' civil servant who was ``not 
     angling for a political promotion.'' That expertise is 
     particularly critical at this moment, when the Department is 
     already taking extraordinary measures to avoid a default that 
     ``would precipitate another financial crisis and threaten 
     jobs and savings of everyday Americans.''

  I sent this letter to Secretary of the Treasury, and I said:

       I am alarmed that as one of your first acts as Secretary, 
     you appear to have handed over a highly sensitive system 
     responsible for millions of Americans' private data--and a 
     key function of government--to an unelected billionaire and 
     an unknown number of his unqualified flunkies. The American 
     people deserve answers about your role in this mismanagement, 
     which threatens the

[[Page S632]]

     privacy and economic security of every American.

  It is no surprise that working families are paying the price for 
Donald Trump and Russ Vought's reckless actions. Just look at who is 
running the government: Donald Trump, billionaire; Elon Musk, 
billionaire; Scott Bessent, billionaire; Linda McMahon, billionaire; 
Howard Lutnick, billionaire; Charles Kushner, billionaire. And the list 
goes on. The total net worth of the billionaires in the Trump 
administration is at least $382.2 billion. That is more than the GDP of 
172 different countries.
  Elon Musk, first buddy and head of the Department of Government 
Efficiency, himself is worth $410 billion. He is $150 billion richer 
than he was on election day. Linda McMahon, Secretary of the Department 
of Education, is worth $3.2 billion. Howard Lutnick, nominated for the 
Secretary of the Department of Commerce, is worth more than $1.5 
billion but likely more. Kelly Loeffler, head of the Small Business 
Administration, is worth $1.1 billion. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., 
nominated for Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, 
is estimated to be worth about $15 million. And he has refused to give 
up a lucrative arrangement with a law firm that will enable his family 
to make millions off vaccine-related lawsuits, even while he is heading 
up HHS. Steven Witkoff, Envoy to the Middle East, is worth a billion. 
Jared Isaacman, NASA Administrator, is worth $2 billion.
  Take this piece from CNN:

       Elon Musk plowed at least $260 million into efforts to send 
     Donald Trump back to the White House, new filings show--a 
     massive infusion that makes him one of the largest single 
     political underwriters of a presidential campaign and 
     underscores the outsized influence of the world's wealthiest 
     person in this year's election.
       Thursday's filings with the Federal Election Commission 
     show that the Tesla and SpaceX executive gave a total of $238 
     million to a super PAC that he founded this year, America 
     PAC, which worked to turn out voters on Trump's behalf in key 
     states.
       But he also was the financial backer of other groups that 
     cropped up in the final days of the election to support 
     Trump, including one that spent millions on advertising to 
     defend [Trump's] record on abortion. It had sought to link 
     Trump's views on abortion to those of the late Supreme Court 
     Justice and liberal icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

  These people have no shame.

       Musk, through a trust that bears his name, donated $20.5 
     million to the group, named RBG PAC, on October 24, according 
     to filings with the Federal Election Commission. He was the 
     sole donor to the group, which was formed in mid-October. The 
     donation's timing meant that Musk's involvement was not 
     disclosed until--

  After the election, after the inauguration, not until last--

     Thursday's post-election filings with the federal regulators.
       Ginsburg's granddaughter, Clara Spera, publicly denounced 
     the ads--which sought to neutralize abortion as a liability 
     for Trump in the campaign--as misleading and an ``affront'' 
     to Ginsburg's legacy as a staunch defender of abortion 
     rights.

  So true.

       According to the new filings, Musk also donated $3 million 
     to the MAHA Alliance, a super PAC that ran stark ads in key 
     swing states urging supporters of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to 
     back Trump in the closing stretch of the campaign. Kennedy 
     himself had ended his independent campaign over the summer 
     and endorsed Trump.
       MAHA stands for ``Make America Healthy Again,'' Kennedy's 
     spin on Trump's MAGA catchphrase. Trump has now tapped 
     Kennedy, one of the nation's most prominent anti-vaccine 
     conspiracy theorists, to oversee the Health and Human 
     Services Department.
       Trump has selected other big donors for roles in his 
     incoming administration.
       Howard Lutnick, the Cantor Fitzgerald investment bank chief 
     whom Trump has tapped to head the Commerce Department, made a 
     nearly $3 million ``in-kind'' donation of stock on October 21 
     to a pro-Trump super PAC, MAGA Inc., according to the 
     organization's filings Thursday night.
       That's on top of the $6 million that Lutnick previously 
     donated to the super PAC over the course of the election 
     cycle.
       Other Trump supporters who have landed spots in his 
     administration also donated to MAGA Inc. They include Linda 
     McMahon, the former wrestling company executive tapped to 
     serve as Education secretary. She donated more than $20 
     million to the Trump-aligned super PAC this cycle.
       McMahon and Lutnick also served as co-chairs of Trump's 
     transition operation.
       Other Trump picks who have made seven-figure donations to 
     MAGA Inc. include former Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler, his 
     choice to lead the Small Business Administration; Scott 
     Bessent, whom Trump has selected as Treasury secretary; and 
     two of his choices for plum diplomatic posts in Europe, 
     Arkansas investor Warren Stephens and Charles Kushner, the 
     father-in-law of Trump's daughter, Ivanka.

  And look, don't get me wrong, if you made a fortune because you had a 
great idea and you built a terrific business, good for you. But I 
guarantee that any great fortune in America was built, at least in 
part, using workers that all of us helped pay to educate; built, at 
least in part, by getting your goods to market on roads and bridges 
that all of us helped to pay to build; built, at least in part, 
protected by police and firefighters that all of us help pay the 
salaries for.
  And now, instead of creating a system that will help the next guy or 
gal that comes along build something, these guys want to pull up the 
ladder. They poured money into the 2024 election, and now, they expect 
a return on their investment at the expense of everyone else.
  The Trump strategy is to flood the zone, partly so we don't see each 
of the horrible orders and pay attention to them, but partly to 
demoralize us. Trump and his Republican friends hope that we will be 
demoralized. They hope that we will give up, curl in a little ball, and 
let them do whatever they want to do. I get it. It is tough right now, 
but it is important that we get back up and fight, and that is exactly 
what I am doing.
  I am challenging Elon Musk on his Department of Government Efficiency 
efforts to take away help for seniors who are living in nursing homes 
and little kids who are hoping for their daycare. I am asking questions 
of every nominee and pointing out to other Senators and to the public 
where they pose a real danger to the American people.
  Look at the fight over Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. He is a 
credibly accused rapist who has been falling down drunk at work events, 
and he has run not one but two nonprofits directly into the ground. 
Nonetheless, Republican Senators stood beside him. He made it through 
his confirmation, but it wasn't a freebie. Some Republicans broke 
ranks, and everyone in the country who was paying attention got to see 
up close and personal just how far the Republicans were willing to go 
to cower in front of Donald Trump.
  Those are the fights we must keep fighting. We will not roll over and 
play dead. This is not business as usual. The No. 1 thing people can do 
right now is speak out. Speak out on social media about every one of 
these things. Talk about the threats these people pose. Speak out about 
what Donald Trump is doing.
  In the middle of the night last Friday, Donald Trump issued a batch 
of Executive orders turning back the clock decades on women's 
reproductive rights. If people talk about that, then that is how we 
will begin to rebuild a movement to push out the Trump vision of 
America, in which billionaires are on top and everyone else is left in 
the dirt--and women don't get to make their own health decisions.
  I have only got 24 hours a day, but I plan to spend as many of them 
as humanly possible fighting back against Trump, Musk, and the 
billionaires who have taken over our country to promote themselves at 
the expense of everyone else.
  It is up to us. I am not lying down and playing dead, and I hope 
nobody else does either.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Justice). The Senator from Georgia.
  Mr. OSSOFF. Mr. President, I yield 30 minutes of my postcloture 
debate time on the Vought nomination to Senator Merkley and 30 minutes 
of my postcloture debate time on the Vought nomination to Senator 
Schumer.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator has that right.
  The Senator from Louisiana.