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Floor Speech

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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 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.

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