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Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I want to thank my Democratic colleagues: Senators Shaheen and Blumenthal, Senators Kim and Padilla, and so many others; Senator Schatz, Senator Durbin, so many others who came on the floor tonight. And why did we all come on the floor? To sound the alarm of the reckless, lawless things Donald Trump is already doing to American families.

Americans need to know what is happening. They need to know what kind of damage people like Russell Vought will do to them. Tonight, we are holding the floor to sound the alarm. And, to augment that, I just got off the phone with a whole bunch of Democratic Governors from across the country, and we talked about Trump's administration's Executive orders, his erratic policies, and, most important, the impact on their States.

In State after State, people are on edge, people are so worried, because of what these executive orders would do: Head Start, rural hospitals, police, firefighters, you name it; schools, local governments. In every one of these States, people are angry and scared because of the damage that President Trump's Executive order would do.

Our group, the Governors and I, discussed paths forward to best respond and fight back. We are going to have a coordinated approach. We talked about how these policies would hurt their States. The amount of Federal money that is needed to support these States--and not just State government, so to speak, but feeding people, building roads, employing people, teaching kids, dealing with mental illness, helping keep us safe in fire and police--these are real things. And every one of these States could not provide the help that people need, provide the decent life that people seek, if this Executive order was fully implemented.

And so we talked about how we could inform them as to what is going on. We talked about how we can coordinate. And I told them that thanks to the Democrats' work here in the Senate, Donald Trump and Russell Vought hit a speed bump today. But I told them, as you will hear from my later remarks, we must keep fighting and working together to make sure they don't succeed, because if they succeed, they are going to hurt millions and millions of average working families. So we are working together to do that.

Now, today, we saw what happens when Americans fight back against disastrous policies. We saw what happens when Americans make their voices heard. A few days ago, President Trump launched his most reckless broadside yet against the American people here in his second term. In the blink of an eye, OMB announced a universal freeze on all Federal funding. The blast radius--the blast radius--of OMB's announcement was seemingly limitless--States, cities, towns, schools, small businesses, law enforcement, nutrition services, elderly care; hospitals, rural and urban and suburban; communities, people helping feed people, people helping people with mental illness, people helping house homeless veterans were all just so, so put on edge by the potential of these cuts.

Donald Trump's freeze can be boiled down to three Cs. You can talk about it in many ways, but the three Cs are apt: chaotic, creating chaos back home because there is chaos here in Trump's government; careless, not even knowing and realizing how badly these cuts would affect people; and cruel--cruel--outright economic sabotage against working families.

Make no mistake, OMB's funding freeze was intended. It is precisely what Project 2025 looks like in action--Project 2025 by another name. When Project 2025 first was announced, it was during campaign season, and it was amazing the reaction by the American people--Democrats, Republicans, conservatives, liberals, Independents--against it. It was strong, much stronger than I ever imagined. And as a result, it got a very bad name. I think one poll showed 68 percent of Americans opposed it.

So what did Donald Trump do? Typical in his fashion, he said: I never heard of Project 2025. I don't even know what it is.

They were so afraid of it. You think they would have learned a lesson during the campaign, but they didn't.

And, now, within a few weeks of his being inaugurated as President, President Trump seeks to implement Project 2025. Well, Americans were furious. Americans let Donald Trump know about it. They let their Republican Congressmen and Senators know about it. They pushed back, and today, after 24 hours of outrage from one corner of the country to the other, Donald Trump backed off.

He rescinded the OMB memo--for now. Of course, the danger is not over. Rescinding one OMB memo will not nullify all of the Executive orders Donald Trump has issued, which will continue to pose a threat to these funds. And we know damn well that if they can't do it this way because they were caught redhanded, they will try to do it another way. But I can assure the American people, we will be vigilant.

But I want to say to my colleagues and to my constituents in New York and to my fellow citizens--American citizens--the roots of democracy are real. So many of us are worried that Trump will try to upend them-- he and his cohorts--but they are real.

And this week was a good example. People heard how bad this was. They raised their voices. And now Trump has backed off.

This won't be his last assay, his last attempt to do this. We know that. But we also know that, when we raise their voices, and we will again, he knows that he will lose ground with the American people in a very severe and bad way, and if we keep fighting, he will back off and back off and back off until he stops. And once and for all, this evil scheme--this scheme that hurt so many American families--will be gone.

It is clear Donald Trump, with this freeze, seeks to violate the law, seeks to help his billionaire buddies, and hurt the American people. Violate the law, help his billionaire buddies, and hurt the American people--that is what he is trying to do. But we won't let him, America. We won't.

Now, let's talk about Mr. Vought, the chief cook and bottle washer of 2025. This episode, what happened today, should be a lesson to President Trump that following Russell Vought and Project 2025 is a loser--a loser, of course, for America, but a loser for him.

Now that Donald Trump has rescinded the OMB order, he should rescind the nomination of Russell Vought as well. If not, Mr. Vought will be the architect of more losses for President Trump because the next time this happens, Russell Vought will be the one calling the shots at OMB, a nightmarish scenario for working people.

I sat down a few days ago with Mr. Vought in my office. Because he is seeking nomination, he came to visit me. He told me, plain as day-- plain as day--if he is confirmed, these are the kinds of things he wants to do at OMB.

The Senate must not confirm Mr. Vought to lead OMB. His views are way too fringe for the majority of this country, and I am sure, if you asked in a secret ballot, for a majority of the Republican Senators who sit across the aisle from us.

But, tomorrow, the Senate Budget Committee is scheduled to hold a markup of Mr. Vought's nomination. I join Ranking Member Merkley in calling on the chair to delay this markup by at least 2 weeks. Why? First, because of the devastation that these Executive orders will do and that the funding freeze was prepared to do. But, second, because it is clear that Mr. Vought was not honest during his hearings, and we need more answers from him. When something this consequential is launched by an administration, the person behind it all deserves--or America deserves--to hear exactly his thoughts and exactly what he is going to do.

During his testimony, Vought refused to answer direct questions related to the impoundment, for instance, of congressional funds, of which this is a related issue. And we now know why. He didn't want to alert Congress about the incoming decision from OMB to freeze all grant funding. Mr. Vought clearly withheld information that Senators were entitled to know, that the American people were entitled to know, and he needs to give us answers.

In the meantime, the American people also are learning just how fringe Mr. Vought truly is. His North Star is very simple: He wants to eradicate trillions in basic services that help American families so Republicans can give tax cuts to their billionaire buddies.

The last time Vought led OMB, he pushed multiple budget proposals that slashed Social Security and Medicare and public health. During the last default crisis, Mr. Vought was a key adviser to hard-right Republicans who pushed America to the brink of disaster by using a debt ceiling as blackmail to cut trillions in funding for healthcare, for seniors, for hungry kids, and for so many others.

Mr. Vought wants to eliminate the Department of Education, eliminate education funding in many ways.

He has proposed to cut disability payments for retired veterans. He wants to cut SNAP, feeding hungry children. He wants to raise drug prices.

And he is also one of the chief proponents of a truly sinister theory about the powers of the executive branch that calls for the impoundment of congressional funds. That means, basically, that Russell Vought thinks the President gets to pick and choose which laws he wants to follow and which he doesn't.

Why have a Congress? If the President can say, ``Well, I will follow this law but not that, and this one and not that,'' that is so fundamentally against what the Founding Fathers believed, what Americans have believed through centuries, and yet he wants to just toss it away, again, so he can pay for the tax cuts his billionaire buddies desperately want.

If Congress wants to pass legislation investing in infrastructure or tech innovation or national defense, even, Mr. Vought thinks the President can just say nope, an explicit assault on our checks and our balances, which has served this Republic so well for centuries.

And, again, let me repeat so people understand clearly what is the end goal: to cut the daylights out of funding for middle-class families in order to line the pockets of the ultra-ultrawealthy--tax cuts for Donald Trump's billionaire buddies, funding cuts for parents and kids and seniors in healthcare.

I believe the Budget Committee tomorrow, because the chairman of the Budget Committee has not granted the delay that is so desperately needed, will not go to vote on Mr. Vought, because a vote without him coming clean to the American people, what is it worth? It is not a process that should be. And then they will explain to the American people why this man doesn't deserve a vote in such an unfair hearing practice and setting.

And now let's talk about President Trump's increasing lawlessness. It may be tempting to think everything Donald Trump has been doing, including halting Federal funding, is part of his chaotic, unthinking approach to government, but we should not be so sure that it is just that and nothing else, because beneath the surface, a very clear pattern is emerging from Donald Trump's second term in office, a pattern of sheer lawlessness--a pattern of sheer lawlessness. First, he pardoned over 1,500 insurrectionists on his first day in office, including people convicted of assaulting Capitol Police officers. These were hooligans. I was within 30 feet of them. They were not peaceful. I couldn't believe one Congressman said they were tourists. Give me a break. They had hatred in their eyes, and they sought to stop our government from functioning in its lawful way. Some of them were violent, and Trump pardoned them--over 1,500 insurrectionists--on his first day in office.

Can you image anyone, let alone a President, being proud that he pardoned insurrectionists, some violent, all trying to overthrow this government, on his first day in office? What does that say about this President?

Then, in the dead of night, he got rid of over 17 independent government watchdogs--people who report abuse and fraud and waste in government--without any notice or justification.

Yesterday, he eliminated Commissioners sitting on the NLRB and the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission. The NLRB, folks--you may not have heard those initials, but it has been in place I believe since Roosevelt's time to make sure workers are treated fairly, to make sure that employers who don't want a union don't go beyond fairness in preventing a union from occurring.

When Donald Trump gets rid of the Democratic Commissioner on the NLRB who has always represented working people, he is saying to working people: I don't care about you. I care about the people who employee you but not you. And if they want to take advantage of you, Donald Trump says when he gets rid of the NLRB member, I don't give a hoot.

Another example. By the way, again, almost certainly against the law. The rule is, there should be a certain number of Democratic Commissioners and a certain number of Republican Commissioners. Whoever is President gets the Chairman, and then there are two Democrats and two Republicans. But Donald Trump didn't fire a Republican member of the Board. Maybe that would be less unfair. He fired the Democrat who stands up for working people.

Then, after all this, he issues his sweeping OMB memo virtually halting Federal grant funding.

These are actions of a lawless President, of a President who wants to erode, eat away at the rule of law and our system of checks and balances. And why? Why is Donald Trump storming right out of the gate so lawlessly? Why is he breaking one law after another? Might be because the Supreme Court said he can't be held accountable. Might be.

But it is simple. What is he trying to do? Before our very eyes, Donald Trump is rigging the system and breaking the law to help his billionaire friends at the expense--at the expense--of working families. That is the goal.

Finally, let's talk about how awful yesterday was for so many people. I heard from people in every corner of my State--frightened, worried, concerned--that they, average New Yorkers, no different than average Americans, were going to really suffer because of this funding freeze.

When I talked to the Governors, as I mentioned a little earlier, on the phone, it was happening in every State. It could be a rural State, it could be an urban State, a State that is large, a State that is small, from one end of America to the other, people are just fearful about what would be done.

The American people did not deserve to endure this 24 hours of panic and confusion, and they won't deserve to have to sit through that again when Donald Trump seeks another way to do the same thing even though we gave a speed bump, even though we thwarted him--not ``we.'' The Democratic Senators didn't thwart Donald Trump. The Democratic Senators, by our advocacy and our strength, alerted the American people, and they thwarted Donald Trump.

So, America, congratulations. Congratulations. Let's keep doing it when he is trying to hurt us.

Did Donald Trump consider for a moment the damage he was unleashing? Did he know he was kneecapping cops and firefighters from purchasing literally lifesaving equipment--bulletproof vests, breathing gear? Did he know he was essentially shuttering community health centers that so many people depend on for their health, that so many people bring kids to when they have a fever and might get something more damaging, like strep throat or influenza? Did he know that he was hurting rural hospitals that had to turn people away because they didn't know if they would get the funding? Did he know that he was telling food pantries: You are not going to get food next week to feed the hungry.

Yesterday was absolute hell for so many Americans trying to understand how Trump's order was going to hurt them; 24 hours of panic, confusion, deep, visceral frustration--all unnecessary.

All 50 States reported that the Medicaid portal was frozen, and 7\1/ 2\ million New Yorkers were shut out of Medicaid all together. That is just in New York. Nobody knew what would happen next.

My office was smothered by an avalanche of calls from New Yorkers, local leaders from every corner of the State in panic and fury.

I was getting calls from New Yorkers of both parties who were furious that the administration would have the gall to launch this sneak attack on them out of the blue.

I got calls from Republican town supervisors and mayors asking about flood prevention and sewer construction.

I got calls from food banks like Feed More in Western New York, fearful they wouldn't be able to make deliveries to hungry people.

I got calls from Rochester Head Start and other Head Start Programs worried sick--worried sick--that they weren't going to be able to pay the rent or pay their staff.

I got calls from the Roswell Cancer Center, which does some groundbreaking research--they developed the PSA test up there in Buffalo; Northwell Health on Long Island, one of the biggest hospital providers; Churches United for Fair Housing; local leaders in places like Syracuse; community health centers like Cornerstone Family healthcare in the Hudson Valley--from one end of the State to the other.

So we won't know what the administration will try to do next. An hour from now, we could get a new memo outlining a new round of freezes. They did the last one at night, in the evening. That is how this administration under Donald Trump works--governing by chaos, governing by confusion. And who pays the price? The American people--parents, kids, doctors, teachers, healthcare workers, police, firefighters, and so much more.

So, my friends, in conclusion, I see my colleagues waiting. I will cut short my remarks. I could go on for a while because I am so aggravated and angry about what he has done and will attempt to do.

Even though the Trump administration failed today, it is no secret they will try to find another way to cut these funds. When they do, I want to assure the American people that Senate Democrats will be there not only to call it out but to fight back, to defend American families and beat another evil proposal back--with you, the American people, as our real sword and shield--making sure he doesn't do bad things to you.

So thank you to my colleagues for being here. I see we have four colleagues waiting. Thank you for sounding the alarm on the terrible things this administration is preparing to do, and thank you for being true patriots who believe in our democracy.

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