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Floor Speech
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Mr. PADILLA. Mr. President, colleagues, a little over a year ago during a FOX News townhall, Sean Hannity gave Donald Trump, then- candidate for President of the United States--the chance to assure the American people that he would not abuse power or become a dictator if he won a second term.
But instead of committing to the rule of law during that townhall, he answered defiantly saying ``Except for day 1.''
Well, it has been 9 days since he was sworn into office, and as then- candidate Trump promised, we are already seeing how hell-bent he is on pushing the limits of his power. We see a President unburdened by the rule of law after the Supreme Court handed him blanket immunity and a President with a blatant disregard to the guardrails put in place by the authors of our Constitution.
Over the last week and a half, here is what we have seen him do: He has declared an end to birthright citizenship in clear violation of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution; he has illegally fired 18 inspectors general--individuals, professionals we count on to hold departments and Agencies accountable; he has issued 1,500 pardons for the January 6 insurrectionists, including many who attacked law enforcement officers in an attempt to overthrow an election; and late Monday night, almost 48 hours ago, he set off an actual constitutional crisis.
The President ordered a sweeping freeze on ``all Federal financial assistance,'' pending a review by his political appointees who have passed his loyalty tests. Yes, those are documented.
Donald Trump has attempted to implement nothing less than a one-man Presidential government shutdown. But, thankfully, the American people would not stand for it. Communities in every corner of California and every corner of the country have raised alarm bells and filed lawsuits. They have not backed down.
President Trump's administration has backed down--at least for now-- because we are not naive enough to think that he is not going to try to do it again. The vague document released by Donald Trump's budget office threatened to withhold billions of dollars from social safety net programs, for example, all to lay the groundwork to pay for his big tax cuts for large corporations and billionaires--yes, like the billionaires he surrounded himself with during his inauguration.
Working families--again, not just across California, but across the country--knew immediately what the consequences and the impacts mean in real life. Preschools closed, lifesaving cancer treatments halted, meal programs for seniors threatened--I can go on and on with specific real- world examples. But here is another dynamic I ask you to take to heart. The billionaires who sat next to him and the billionaires who set to benefit from the tax breaks he is hoping to achieve, of course, they wouldn't have felt the impact of this at all.
As we stand here right now, we are told that he has rescinded the order in order to avoid a court battle because, of course, this was already challenged and tied up in court. But we know that the fight is far from over. In fact, the White House Press Secretary threatened that his Executive order blocking Federal funding that he issued day one in office is still in effect: ``Remains in full force'' and ``will be rigorously implemented.''
Let's be clear about what President Trump has tried. He has tried to block hundreds of billions of dollars in aid to support families recovering from catastrophic fires in California. He has attempted to block aid to law enforcement agencies that we rely on to keep our communities safe. He is trying to block aid to children and families who depend on Federal childcare and nutrition programs. That is the reality of what is going on here.
And, sadly, for the most part, my Republican colleagues have obediently fallen in line. I have to believe you are getting the same phone calls that I am--countless calls from constituents and community groups and individuals searching for answers, searching for guidance, asking for our help because the way these orders and memos are written, nobody knew which specific programs were affected or for how long. The executive Agencies that were supposed to implement the order didn't even know how they were affected. And most glaringly, the White House itself changed its story every few hours on what was supposed to be affected by the Executive order that they themselves wrote.
So the Trump administration, through either their intent or their incompetence--or maybe both--and a disregard for the law sowed chaos, confusion, and fear amongst hard-working American families.
State Agencies and local governments, not just throughout California but, again, throughout the country, were blocked from accessing Medicaid and housing assistance grant portals. In case you thought folks were exaggerating, yes, that really happened. Colleagues on both sides of the aisle, I know you know about this.
The director of a grant-funded program with the district attorney's office in Los Angeles supporting victims of violent crime was concerned about the future of their work because of the uncertainty of Federal assistance. Funding for research on cures for childhood cancer was threatened. Local commuter rail officials in Sonoma raised concerns about their ability to continue service if outstanding Federal funding is frozen--service that workers need to get to work, to do their jobs, keep our economy going. The city of Vacaville was worrying about the potential impact to their housing authority and vouchers.
There is a housing affordability concern and homeless crisis in many parts of the country. This is not helping. Head Start grantees were frozen out of their Federal payment management system. And if those kids can't go to Head Start, their parents have a tougher time getting to work.
What are you doing?
Health centers in San Francisco met to assess their ability to provide services if grant funding and Medicare reimbursements were frozen. The Oakland Fire Department raised alarm bells about having to cut staff if an outstanding FEMA grant to support pay for 35 firefighters were paused.
The impacts are real, colleagues.
Mr. President, as you know, my home State of California has been devastated by historic fires these last few weeks. Fueled by wind gusts of up to 100 miles an hour, the Southern California fires burned more than 12,000 homes and businesses and more than 40,000 acres--nearly or approximately three times the size of Manhattan. And over two dozen Californians lost their lives.
Thanks to a swift major disaster declaration that President Biden issued in his final days, Federal Agencies like FEMA and the EPA have been instrumental in not just the response to the fires but in the early stages of recovery and rebuilding efforts.
But in his typical, vindictive, and reckless fashion, President Trump didn't stop to think about the actual impacts of a decision like this. His OMB order shamefully put our disaster relief at risk. The freeze would have delayed FEMA's public assistance programs supporting debris removal, meaning--look, if you delay the debris removal, you are delaying the rebuilding efforts. It threatens funding for emergency shelters as well as the grant money that supports hiring firefighters and firefighting equipment purchases.
Do you think these fires were devastating? We have all seen the images on television. Some of you may have an appreciation for the scale of the communities impacted. Let me remind us, folks, we are in the middle of winter. Summer is just a few months away. The risk and the threat will continue to grow, and we are going to delay the hiring of firefighters and the purchasing of firefighting equipment?
After threatening to withhold Federal aid for disaster victims in California as leverage to pass other elements of an unpopular agenda, this was just another slap in the face to the thousands of Americans who lost everything and are now counting on our collective support.
Just yesterday, after Federal firefighters returned home from working 24-hour shifts to battle unprecedented fires in dangerous, life- threatening conditions and after risking their own lives to protect our communities, Federal firefighters received a message from President Trump. You would think that maybe--just maybe--it was a message, saying ``Thank you for your service. Thank you for your sacrifice. Thank you for your time away from your family to help fellow Americans in need,'' but it was not. The message Federal firefighters received after being gone for weeks--24-hour shifts, protecting lives--the message they received was a request for their resignation. That is right. President Trump offered them a buyout.
It was not just to them; he offered this to all career Federal employees who are not beholden to his loyalty tests without having the clear authority or funding to do so. We have seen this before from President Trump and his co-President, Elon Musk.
I think it is important to share with everybody tonight, especially to Federal employees who are watching: Anybody who received this offer and thinks that maybe this is an offer that is too good to be true, that maybe I should jump at it, let me assure you this offer is too good to be true because there is no Federal funding to pay people who do not show up to work.
Our Federal firefighters saw this attempted buy-off for what it was, and I want to read for you, colleagues, some of the messages--just a few of them--that I have received.
From one brave firefighter:
It's hard to put into words just how disrespectful this feels to any civil servant but especially to someone who's given so much--sacrificing precious time away from family, risking everything for the greater good.
Another message reads as follows:
Today I returned home after a two-week fire assignment in California. . . . A slew of executive orders over this last week have put myself and a lot of others on edge. I am worried for my livelihood and my future. A purge of federal Wildland firefighters will have catastrophic outcomes. Our fire seasons are only getting longer, neighborhoods continue to expand well into wild landscapes. We cannot control when a fire will choose to wreak havoc on a community, but we will show up. We want to show up.
Colleagues, tomorrow, as some of the members of the Budget Committee have recognized, we have an opportunity to show these brave Federal workers that we hear them and that we are fighting for them and that we will continue to fight for them.
The Senate Budget Committee will meet to vote on the nomination of Russell Vought to lead the Office of Management and Budget.
By the way, this is the very office that is the source of much of the chaos over the past 48 hours. During his previous tenure with OMB, Vought tried on numerous occasions to withhold and slow the distribution of congressionally appropriated disaster relief and foreign aid based on political motives. During his confirmation hearing last week in the Budget Committee, he continued to hedge on answers that he would not politicize government assistance. He refused at every opportunity to fully commit to following the law when it comes to the distribution of Federal funding.
To any of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle who have worked hard to secure funding for their constituents back home and who don't want to see the money that families in their States are counting on recklessly withheld, we must vote no on this nominee.
Here is where we stand at the moment: President Trump may have backed down for now thanks in part to so many of my Democratic colleagues who have spoken out against these outrageous abuses of power that will hurt our constituents, but the chaos over the last 48 hours is only a sign of things to come throughout this administration that has just begun.
I would like to speak to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle for just a moment.
Yes, you all won the majority in this November's election. I respect that. I am not an election denier. But for those of you who just won your campaign, who were just elected, and who just joined the Senate-- actually, I think, to everybody, whether you were elected now, 2 years ago, or 4 years ago, I will ask you this: When you ran for the Senate, for the privilege to serve in this body, did you run on a platform of cutting veterans' housing assistance? Did you reach out to voters who are now your constituents and say ``Vote for me, and I will cut school lunch programs''? Did you suggest during the courses of your campaigns that, if elected, you would cut disaster relief?
As a colleague, I ask you this: Are you more loyal to your oath of office, to your constituents, and the Constitution or are you more loyal to a wannabe dictator--Trump? Are you just going to stand down silently while he tramples all over your independent constitutional authority and then race to either Mar-a-Lago or to the White House for a picture and for him to thank you? Your silence over the last 48 hours is deafening.
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