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Floor Speech

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Ms. BALDWIN. Mr. President, like my colleague Senator Kaine, I will be uplifting the words of some of my constituents who have been contacting me in a panic, really, over the last several days. But I want to remind folks why we come here at this hour to speak on the floor of the U.S. Senate.

We are here today to consider President Trump's nominee for the Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought. Many Americans may not be familiar with Mr. Vought; however, you may be familiar with his most infamous work: Project 2025. That is right. President Trump's nominee for the Office of Management and Budget was one of the lead authors of Project 2025. It is a document which President Trump repeatedly denied having anything to do with during his campaign.

First, I think it is important to break down the responsibilities of the Office of Management and Budget, or OMB. What does it really do? OMB oversees the preparation of the President's budget request. This is a budget proposal that they send to Congress. OMB evaluates the effectiveness of Agency programs, policies, and procedures. OMB oversees and implements the appropriations bills and mandatory spending programs enacted by laws we pass in Congress.

The Office does not have a magic wand that allows it to create new laws, fund only programs they want and slash others that they don't, except through specific authorities that Congress provides. The Director of OMB is not, in fact, the 101st Senator, nor the 436th Member of the House of Representatives or even a second President. The operative word here is ``implement.''

A second stated mission of OMB is called the open government directive, which emphasizes the importance of disclosing information that the public can readily find and use.

Folks, the good news about Mr. Vought is that he has been clear from the start on his goals. Case in point: Project 2025. For those who didn't read that 922-page document, I can share some of the lowlights.

For economic policy, Project 2025 further shifts the tax burden from the wealthy onto the middle class, while giving American households with $10 million in annual income an average tax cut of $1.5 million per year.

It seeks to raise the retirement age, when Americans can receive Social Security benefits, from 67 to 69.

It also proposes limits or lifetime caps on Medicaid benefits. In Wisconsin, 595,300 Medicaid enrollees would be at risk of losing coverage because they are low-income and lack access to alternative affordable coverage.

Project 2025 aims to further impede on a woman's right to make her own decisions about her body, calling to eliminate emergency contraception and safe, effective abortion medications like mifepristone. Mr. Vought himself called on Congress to outlaw that medication.

The document also calls for the Department of Education to be abolished, which can only, by the way, be done by the Congress of the United States. But the Department of Education is already clearly a target of this administration.

Important for our discussion here today with regard to education is that Project 2025 outlined a plan to take a hacksaw to the services and programs that families rely on the Federal Government to provide, slashing essential programs like title I grants that go to more than 80 percent of public school districts around the Nation. That includes sending about $227 million to Wisconsin in the current school year.

These chapters in Project 2025 were primarily authored by none other than OMB nominee Russell Vought.

Now, I would be the last to say that our Federal Government is perfect. It is not. But the career civil servants who have served under Republicans and Democrats are essential to ensuring that services Americans rely on run smoothly--from Medicare and Social Security, to Head Start and childcare, to making sure that folks get their tax refunds from the IRS. These are essential services that hundreds of millions of Americans rely on every year.

Getting rid of the people who are working for working families will not fix our Federal Government. The doctors of the VA and staff sending out Social Security checks--they are not the enemy.

By confirming Russell Vought as Director of OMB, we would be putting one of the chief architects of Project 2025 in charge of an Agency that is tasked with getting critical funding out the door that our communities depend upon. And I hate to use this idiom, but we are, in fact, asking the fox to guard the henhouse.

We don't need to guess whether Russell Vought will turn to his Project 2025 playbook if confirmed as OMB Director. We are already seeing the destruction of his extreme views and how they are causing problems with allocation of Federal funding.

Before last week, I am sure that most Americans had never heard of the Office of Management and Budget, OMB, let alone what role it played in their lives, but all that changed last Monday night when OMB sent a 2-page memo on the President's plan to cut virtually all Federal grants and loans. This is tantamount to stopping Wisconsin taxpayer money from going back into the very services they rely on. The Trump administration is trying to steal from Wisconsinites to implement its own agenda. More on that later.

This messy, haphazard, and frankly illegal action immediately started causing chaos and confusion in my home State. Our phones were ringing off the hook from constituents and organizations worried about what this would mean for them. Was the funding for childcare centers impacted? Was the Medicaid coverage they relied on in jeopardy? What about nutrition programs that keep food on the table? What about rental assistance or funding to help pay for heat in the winter?

Sadly, my office didn't have answers for these folks due to the chaos that President Trump has created. All these essential programs that they rely on for healthcare, safety, and food on the table--they were all on the chopping block.

I even had a constituent write in asking these exact questions. She wrote to my office:

Do what you can to stop this freeze because both short- and long-run impacts are dire. Will rural hospitals get Medicaid reimbursements for the services they provide? Will nursing homes receive payments for care they're providing to elders? Will schools bounce checks and be charged late fees because Title I grants that finance ongoing operations are disrupted? The long-term consequences would be catastrophic--causing a steep recession--the Federal government gives $1 trillion in grants to State and local governments alone, and removing any significant portion out of local economies will create a huge economic shock, fatally harming the valuable resources these governments provide to citizens, many of whom voted for Trump.

With a 2-page memo, the Trump White House unleashed a wave of chaos as folks in my State and across the country worried whether this freeze would impact the programs that they rely on. I would like to share some of the stories I have heard from folks in my State about how these cuts impact real people in a very real way.

I heard from a single mom who lives paycheck to paycheck. She was laid off because Federal funding was paused for the National Science Foundation, a grant that pays her salary. She wrote to me to say:

I have enough money to pay February rent, but I'm going to stop paying credit card bills and other loans. I'm not sure I'll even be able to afford to pay my WiFi and phone bills-- things crucial in finding a new job. But I can do without as long as I have rent, heat and electric paid, and groceries in the fridge.

I also heard from a deputy fire chief in Central Wisconsin. Without Federal grant funding, he would have to lay off as many as nine officers--nine firefighters. Would this mean a longer wait for a resident if their house was on fire?

Another fire chief in Northern Wisconsin called me to ask whether his volunteer department could go ahead with needed upgrades for their equipment. Without their Federal grant, which was more than half of their operating budget, they would not be able to purchase new equipment that the department desperately needed.

From Western Wisconsin, a local mayor reached out to share that a pause in Federal funding would be catastrophic for their ability to make timely payments on a loan they took out to make necessary renovations to their fire department.

I heard from an administrator at a women's shelter for survivors of domestic abuse based in Southwest Wisconsin. Without Federal funding, they would have to turn away women looking for a safe place away from their abusers for themselves and sometimes their children too.

As communities across Wisconsin continue to battle the opioid and fentanyl crisis, a community organization specializing in drug prevention told me that they would not be able to pay their staff and continue their vital work if funding was cut.

Another organization that provides supervised visitation and safe exchange services between kids and parents who are separated due to court orders reached out, worried about whether they would be able to continue to serve their community. They employ a staff of therapists who supervise the visitations and ensure that kids are able to safely see their parents again.

I heard from a community dental center in Southeastern Wisconsin that serves thousands of patients every year, the vast majority of whom are children. They told me that without their Federal funding, they would be at ``significant risk of closing within a matter of a few short months, and as a result, thousands of children would have nowhere to go to receive dental care, and 45 individuals would be out of employment.''

They wrote to me:

We understand with each administration comes change and different priorities, however, these orders to freeze federal funds have very real implications for communities we live, work, and play in.

I have heard from so many Wisconsinites confused by this chaos, wondering whether their childcare center is about to close, their Head Start--many did close.

So, Mr. Vought, will you be willing to fill in as a mentor for all the kids who lose their mentors from Big Brothers Big Sisters or will you help pitch in as a firefighter at some stations in Wisconsin that might have to lay people off? Will you be a substitute Head Start teacher in a classroom to ensure that parents have the childcare and early education they are counting on?

If there is one word we can use to describe the first 2 weeks of this administration, it would certainly be ``chaos.'' While the White House seems to be contradicting itself and putting out mixed signals on these drastic cuts, the level of panic and chaos it has created should be upsetting to every American.

There are so many other programs where Americans are unsure if they should anticipate cuts.

Community health centers, which I am a proud champion of, were awarded $48 million grants across Wisconsin in the year 2023, largely in the form of Federal grants designed to help these health centers provide medical care and other services to communities traditionally located in healthcare deserts.

Wisconsin has 17 federally qualified healthcare centers located around the State, whose funding could be in jeopardy. There is also funding for law enforcement that could face cuts, including community- oriented police grants that go towards Tribal law enforcement assistance, hiring mental health training, school violence prevention training and technology and commitment upgrades.

Wisconsin receives $17.5 million in funding for counties, Tribes, and cities across the State to fund community-oriented policing practices.

You know, small businesses could also be harmed if loans for entrepreneurs are impacted. In fiscal year 2024, small businesses received nearly $237 million in small business loans for projects in Wisconsin. These are businesses that just need a little support to get their idea off the ground, or maybe they are loans for those impacted by a national disaster. Cutting off this funding would mean fewer businesses and fewer jobs.

President Trump's egregious overreach of his Presidential power is plainly unconstitutional and a power grab. It is illegal to withhold this funding from the American people. This is their money, and these are the programs they rely on. Period.

This funding was provided in bipartisan laws, and I remind my colleagues of that. On a bipartisan basis, we passed the laws and budgets and appropriation bills. And I hope my Republican colleagues are just as angry at President Trump for this confusion his administration has created as I am. But I fear they are not.

This directive has put real people in real distress, and it begs the question of why. I will tell you why: They want to claw back taxpayer money supporting programs that serve taxpayers to ensure that they can give their tax breaks to the biggest corporations and billionaire friends.

This is not the first time the Trump administration has done this. And this is their plan: cut programs Wisconsinites rely on and give tax breaks to billionaires and multinational corporations. It certainly doesn't help that while my constituents were wondering if they would be able to put food on the table, keep a roof over their heads, and drop their kids off at childcare, the richest man in the world--worth nearly $500 billion--was handed access to our Nation's checkbook and to Americans' most sensitive information.

First, it was shutting the doors, literally, to the United States Agency for International Development, USAID, an Agency that keeps Americans safe, protects people worldwide from disease and famine, and stands up to our adversaries like China and Russia.

But their next target is reported to be a shutdown of the Department of Education, the very Agency that ensures all kids across America get a good public education and young people are set up with the skills to land a good-paying job. It ensures that schools serving low-income students receive the high-quality education they deserve and students with disabilities get the services that they are required to receive and have the opportunity to thrive.

And we are watching, before our very eyes, Russell Vought and Elon Musk illegally trying to shut it down. And if that wasn't enough, reporting today shows that the DOGE is coming after the Department of Labor, the Agency that supports apprenticeship programs so people can earn while they learn and land good- paying jobs. It is the Agency that makes sure that big corporations are held accountable for stealing wages from workers. It is the Agency that ensures workers on factory floors are safe on the job.

Again, this is what we are watching Russell Vought and his billionaire pals put in jeopardy.

Donald Trump has, apparently, given an unelected billionaire, Elon Musk, who is, again, literally the richest man in the world, free reign to run roughshod through Americans' most sensitive information. He has the ability to put programs people need on the chopping block with absolutely no transparency or accountability for what he is doing, much less any legal authority.

The President claimed he would lower prices for families on day one, if elected. But how does taking childcare away lower prices for families? Does taking away people's treatment for opioid use disorder help their lives? How about cutting firefighters, will that lower costs for families and keep them safe?

Raising costs on families all while Republicans work to jam through big tax breaks for billionaires is not what Wisconsinites want. Billions in tax cuts for the ultrawealthy in exchange for programs that my constituents need to feed their families, pay their rent, and stay healthy is not a good deal.

I have always said that I will work with anyone to deliver for Wisconsin and invest in the programs that my constituents rely on. But bipartisanship is a two-way street. We have to be able to trust one another that what gets signed into law is actually going to get implemented.

And right now, we are watching Elon Musk, Trump's billionaire Cabinet, and Donald Trump himself flout the law and cut funding from bipartisan programs that my constituents rely on.

And all this brings us back to President Trump's nominee to run OMB who has openly called for the President to defy Congress and take control of Federal funding decisions that are constitutionally vested in the legislative branch.

He said he supports the illegal practice of impoundment, a strategy to circumvent the checks and balances that are baked into the fabric of our Constitution. Mr. Vought even said during his confirmation hearing last week that President Trump believes the Impoundment Control Act is unconstitutional. And he agrees with that assessment.

What that means is he thinks the President is free to withhold appropriated funding without limitation. And let me be clear, everything that we have seen in the last two weeks, including examples that I provided about the chaos and confusion across Wisconsin--this is just the first step. It is the tip of the iceberg. But in the future, Russell Vought will just withhold funding at the beginning for anything that he doesn't like or that Elon Musk posts about on X.

What this means is Congress could pass an annual funding bill that, maybe, increases funding for Head Start, which we actually pretty routinely do. Russell Vought thinks he can say to Congress: Thanks, but no thanks. I am going to eliminate Head Start and not allow any future grants to Head Start programs. Maybe Russell Vought will ignore Congress and the laws we pass and eliminate or significantly reduce funding for opioid treatment programs or the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or whatever he feels like opposing that day.

Even setting aside the very real impact I think cutting funding for programs like these would have on families and communities across the country, I hope my Republican colleagues will stand up against this blatant disregard for this body. How are we supposed to negotiate annual appropriations bills when an administration is saying it can just ignore what we do?

If confirmed, Russell Vought would be the tip of the spear in his fight to take away funding for programs families rely on and give it to billionaires as a tax cut.

We know that this administration intends to make every effort to override Congress's power of the purse. We have already seen Mr. Vought do it. During Mr. Vought's time as OMB director during President Trump's first term, the Agency withheld roughly $214 million in security assistance to Ukraine, which the Government Accountability Office later found violated the Impoundment Control Act.

I know it can be difficult to flout the party line, but we are not just talking about party politics anymore; we are talking about our Constitution. So many of my Republican colleagues declare themselves to be originalists when it comes to our Constitution, sworn supporters of interpreting this document as our Founders intended when it was written.

Well, I can tell you, if there is one thing that was crystal clear when our Founders conceived this Nation, it is that no one person should have absolute power. The repeated brazen power grabs that we have seen by this administration could not be more out of step with the foundational checks and balances laid out in our Constitution.

And while my words might not matter to you, I hope the voices of your constituents, who I know are being adversely impacted by this administration's actions, will.

I, for one, will not sit idly by as President Trump forfeits control of our government to billionaires. I will stand up for Wisconsin workers and families, and push back on policies that are hurting the people I represent. And I am calling on my colleagues to do the same and oppose Russell Vought's nomination.

Otherwise, we could be running headlong towards a constitutional crisis. And it is up to all of us to make sure that the people come out on top in that fight. In times of conflict and hardship, the Senate has served as the conscience of this Nation. Now is our chance to stand up to this administration and show that we are here to represent the American people and not billionaires.

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