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Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, last night, incredibly and lawlessly, the Trump administration announced the virtual halt to all forms of Federal financial assistance. In an instant--one instant, one blink of the eye--in the dark of night, Donald Trump has shut off billions--perhaps trillions--of dollars that support small businesses, that support families, that support police officers and firefighters, that support hospitals and rural hospitals in particular, that support our localities, our States and cities, our schools, and so much more.

Why? Why did Donald Trump do this? Simple: to fund tax cuts for the ultrawealthy. This decision is lawless, destructive, cruel. The President must rescind this order at once, and Congress must act if he refuses.

Make no mistake, this is Project 2025--Project 2025--by another name, and the danger of having someone like Russell Vought, the chief cook and bottle washer of 2025, in charge of OMB is frightening-- frightening--to just about every American family in terms of what it could do to them.

When Project 2025 came out, it was so ridiculed that Donald Trump had to say: Oh, I don't know much about it. And now he is putting one of the main authors of Project 2025 in the place where he can implement all of these horrible, discredited, unpopular findings.

That is where they are headed, folk. That is where they are going.

Again, why are they doing it? So they can pay for tax cuts for the ultrarich by making these cuts on average American families.

This morning, I think every Senator's phone has been ringing off the hook--certainly, mine has--with nonstop calls from hospitals and police departments, volunteer firefighters, food pantries, drug treatment centers, on and on and on. If someone is going to say they are getting no calls, then they are just out of touch because it affects almost everything.

People are worried. People are scrambling. People are in panic mode, trying to figure out how this order is going to affect them. Hospitals with people on life support, food pantries that feed the hungry, police departments that patrol our streets--every one of them is worried because so many of them get Federal aid. If Federal funding is shut off, so many groups and institutions will be worried. Can they pay the rent? Can they pay their staffs? Can they keep their operations running?

Virtually, any organization--and there are millions--that depends on Federal grant money to run its day-to-day operations is now in danger. Nonprofits that help disabled veterans are now in danger thanks to Donald Trump. Funding that supports our Nation's mass transit, from one end of the country to another, is now in danger thanks to Donald Trump. Hospitals, particularly rural hospitals and community health centers, are now in danger thanks to Donald Trump. Meals on Wheels, in danger thanks to Donald Trump. Even smaller programs--and I am very proud of something I passed called the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, which protects synagogues and religious institutions from anti-Semitic attacks. We just had one in our neighborhood on Sunday. They are now in danger thanks to Donald Trump. Senior centers, law enforcement, firefighters, water districts, food pantries--all in danger because of Donald Trump.

Again, their master plan: to hurt average folks from one end of the country to the another--in red States, in blue States, in suburbs, in cities, in rural areas. To take money out of their hides--all to pay for tax cuts for the ultrawealthy--is now becoming clear. It is now becoming clear.

The blast radius of this terrible decision is virtually limitless. It is American families who are going to suffer most.

American families should make no mistake: The money being stolen from them will be spent--just not on them. It is going to be spent on tax cuts for the ultrawealthy and the biggest corporations.

President Trump must reverse this course immediately. The Budget Committee should slow down its hearings with Mr. Vought until it fully comes out what they all intend to do.

The funding President Trump is halting is not optional. Congress has approved these funds, and they are law. The President does not, no matter what he thinks, have the authority to ignore the law and ignore Congress.

Let me be clear. This is not an isolated act, unfortunately. It comes a week after Trump pardoned violent criminals who sought to overturn our election and days after Trump fired independent watchdogs across the government in a naked attempt to shroud his actions from the American people.

I can assure every American that Democrats will pursue all available options, legal and otherwise, to halt this assault. I have talked to the attorney general of New York State, Tish James. She and her association--I believe she is the head of the State association, the State attorneys general association--are going to use all of their legal power to stop this illegal act.

I implore my Republican colleagues, who know in their hearts and their minds that this is a reckless and unconstitutional action, to speak up, to join us as Americans in defense of the law, but most of all, to protect our communities and to protect the American people from this awful announcement.

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