[Pages S808-S809]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                         Trump Executive Orders

  Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I just got back from Albany and 
Syracuse, where I visited two of our community health centers--the 
Syracuse Community Health Center and the Hometown Health Center in 
Schenectady. These community health centers do amazing work--amazing 
work. They provide good, effective, efficient healthcare for so many 
people. In New York State, about 2.4 million people get help from the 
community health centers. In Central New York that I visited in 
Syracuse, about 80,000, and in the Capital Region, where Albany is, 
110,000.
  Let me say that when President Trump instituted his freeze, his 
funding freeze, it sent shock waves through these two centers and 
hundreds of others across the country. All of a sudden, payments 
frozen, funding frozen--no reasoning, no logic, nothing. They wondered: 
Do they have to lay off people? Could they pay the rent?

  They wondered if they could give healthcare, you know, for someone 
who had a 2-week plan. Maybe the doctor shouldn't prescribe it in week 
1 because money wouldn't be around in week 2.
  They depend on Federal funding. They get somewhere between 15 to 20 
percent of their funding. They have been going on since the 1960s and 
delivering great, efficient healthcare. And,

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all of a sudden, this funding freeze drops on them like a ton of 
bricks.
  And it wasn't just community health centers--veterans organizations, 
mental health, organizations that provide mental help for people, Head 
Start.
  In Western New York, two of our Head Starts in rural America, in 
rural Western New York, closed, and 200 families--200 families--had to 
struggle to find what to do, because when you are a single mom or a 
single dad or even a mom and dad, a two-parent family, and there is 
nobody there watching the kids--there is no Head Start--what are you 
going to do? Should I stay home from work--maybe risk salary being 
docked, even losing my job?
  It was horrible. This occurred across the country.
  Now, thank God, people rebelled. Thank God, people made their voices 
heard, and the funding freeze was rescinded. But the damage still is 
there.
  There is a healthcare center, where I visited in Syracuse--this one 
was in the Mohawk Valley--that funding of $71,000 on a thing they were 
building stopped. Five centers in Virginia closed. And funding is still 
intermittent in healthcare centers throughout New York State and 
throughout the country.
  Cruel, unfair, awful. These programs help people. No, they don't help 
the billionaires. I get it. But they help average folks and poorer 
people get the healthcare they need. They help them see a doctor so 
that preventive care can happen, which we all know saves us money. They 
are a shining example of public service that does enormous good for 
millions of families.
  And to anyone who says that these are examples of inefficiency or 
waste, visit one. Visit some of the scores of them that are in New 
York. They are the most efficient, effective deliverers of healthcare 
in the country. They serve people who need it the most, and they are 
effective.
  Let's say you have 3 kids. You are a single mom. And your kid has 104 
fever, with probably strep, and you have to see a doctor before it gets 
worse. You go to a community health center, and you don't sit in a 
waiting room for 6 hours and have to file endless papers, like you do 
in a hospital. They take care of you right away. It makes it a lot 
easier for people to get healthcare, and it makes people want to get 
that healthcare that their kid might need.
  And yet we are still hearing it: these great healthcare centers--
funding delayed, funding not coming, funding late. And they depend on 
this funding. They don't have a 6-month plan. They get funds from the 
Federal Government every 2 weeks. That pays the rent. That pays the 
salaries. That buys these supplies they need. You shut it off for a 
week, and the whole thing could face a real problem.
  And so I went to Syracuse and Albany and demanded that, No. 1, this 
administration say they are no longer fooling around with the money 
that these community health centers need, that they get it right away; 
2, that they give an explanation as to why it was cut off. What did 
they do wrong? Help people get healthcare that they need?
  And, third, we Senate Democrats are demanding that the funding for 
these centers, overall, which runs out on March 14, because, as you 
know, Madam President, there was a bipartisan agreement to fund them 
fully for the year--Democrats and Republicans--and Donald Trump and 
Elon Musk said, even before they were in office--Musk is not in office; 
but before Trump was in office and Musk was working with him--they told 
the Republicans: Don't fund it. Don't fund this healthcare package.
  And so now we are waiting until March 14, but that is a CHC, 
community healthcare center, cliff. If we don't renew that funding, 
many, many will close. Millions of people in America who are getting 
good healthcare--often preventive, often dealing with the immediate 
problems--will not get it at all.
  So those are the three things: Stop fooling around with the funding; 
keep the flow going. No. 2, explain what anyone did. Why did they stop 
this funding? And, third, fund us so we don't go over the healthcare 
cliff.
  This was bipartisan. My guess is you, Madam President, probably 
supported it. But when Donald Trump and Elon Musk said, ``Get that 
funding out; kill the deal,'' that is what Republicans did.
  I made it clear in Syracuse and in Albany that this cannot happen. It 
is infuriating, and it has nothing to do with inefficiency.
  Our hospitals, by the way--our big hospitals--like CHCs because that 
means their emergency rooms are not overflowed with people who could be 
taken care of in a much more effective, efficient way.
  So I want to make a final point here. We hear from Donald Trump, JD 
Vance, Elon Musk, and DOGE that all they want to do is get rid of waste 
and inefficiency. When you look at community health centers, that is 
utter nonsense--utter, utter nonsense. There isn't very much 
inefficiency at them. No one ever said it was, that they were 
inefficient. In fact, most people who look at it say they are the most 
efficient providers at a lower cost, with less to do in healthcare, 
less paperwork, less all of this than other places.
  So anyone who thinks that this DOGE experiment is simply getting rid 
of waste, baloney--baloney. We know what it is about: cut. DOGE is 
using a meat ax and cutting things that are vital to people.
  Why? Why is all this happening? Because a careful look at 
inefficiency in government, even with a new administration that might 
want to look at it a little differently, would not just cut 
everything--not just cut everything.
  And the bottom line is, it is all to cut $2.5 trillion, $2 trillion. 
We know what they are doing. And, unfortunately, too many of our 
Republican colleagues are going along. They are making these cuts so 
they can give the very wealthiest people in America a bigger tax 
break--take a working-class family that is getting healthcare and say: 
You don't get it anymore so Mr. Ultrabillionaire can get more tax 
breaks.
  Come on. That is what is going on here, and it is across the board.
  We saw what they did with AID. Well, one program AID is working on, 
as I understand it, is dealing with Ebola in the middle of Africa. Cut 
out the program? What if Ebola spreads around Africa and even here? 
Most people think that is a very good program.
  Most people thought PEPFAR did a lot of good, but they cut it all. 
They didn't point out and say: This is inefficient, and that is 
inefficient. And cut it, but let's keep the good stuff. Uh-uh, cut it 
all. And we know why, once again. It is because the billionaires want 
even a bigger tax break.
  So my visits to CHCs--the two CHCs I visited, Hometown in Schenectady 
and Syracuse healthcare in Syracuse--were very moving to me. I saw 
dedicated people who want to help people. I saw patients come in and 
get decent healthcare.
  And yet it is on the chopping block. That is not what America voted 
for, Madam President. That is not what America voted for.
  So I hope we will have a bipartisan coalition to fund our health 
centers, and I also hope that this administration, whether it comes to 
community health centers or so many other good programs across the 
board, will not freeze their funding, will not just say, ``We are 
cutting you,'' and will look at things carefully. There is 
inefficiency; use a scalpel. Get rid of it, but don't cut everything.
  And, again, it seems the logic is very simple. They are really not 
interested in making the government more efficient. They just want to 
cut a certain huge amount of money. They don't care where it comes 
from--2.5 trillion, 2 trillion, 1 trillion--regardless of the 
consequences for working families. It is a shame. It is a shame.