Trump Administration's Dismantling of the Federal Government

Floor Speech

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Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Speaker, I am a stand-in. This is actually Marcy Kaptur's Special Order hour. She is tied up in a hearing, so I will try to do my best to lay it out.

She was going to speak for 7 minutes on the issues of the Trump administration's dismantling of the Federal Government and the hiring of, or I guess the acquiescence of, Elon Musk as the principle agent of destruction.

What has happened over the last 17 days is an extraordinary display of contempt for the American Government. If you think about this, Mr. Speaker, in its totality, right off the start, all funding stopped.

What does that mean to the programs that Americans depends upon?

Healthcare, education, research, infrastructure programs, for what purpose was that done?

Perhaps it was in order to set up the next step which is the dismantling of extraordinary important programs for me and for my wife. More than almost 58 years ago, we participated in a USAID program which at that time was just 4 years old set up by Kennedy.

It was a vaccination program, an effort of the United Nations, funded by the American Government through USAID, to eradicate smallpox. We spent 1 month in rural Ethiopia doing vaccinations.

As our life worked on, we continued working to provide the necessary services so that people could survive, the Food for Peace program. Patti actually ran that when she was at the USDA as an assistant administrator.

The famine camps, we were there. We saw the children who were dying of starvation. We saw the American grain arrive. I remember clearly one evening at the famine camp in Ethiopia in the mid-eighties, a woman literally in rags, was picking up individual grains of wheat that had spilled from the bags trying to fill a cup so that there would be enough food that she could take back to her children.

They died that night of starvation.

The richest man in the world invested over $250 million in a Presidential campaign, and he was given the keys to the American Government and the opportunity to destroy things that he didn't like.

USAID not only providing the necessary food to allow people to continue to live, but also to thrive through agricultural programs and economic development programs around the world. People who didn't have the opportunity were given the opportunity through the generosity of the American people.

Mr. Speaker, when someone has the greatest wealth of any individual and seems to think they have the right to destroy lives, before our President gives someone the power to do that, I would ask the individual to get on their private jet or to get on Air Force One and go to one of the famine camps in southern Sudan and hold a starving child in their arms. The individual should look at the extended belly, the vacant stare, the fact that they are not even able to hold up their head and know that the American people have developed an emergency supplemental food program that can revive that child. After that, come back and decide whether to put USAID into the wood chipper. If anyone has just a modicum of humanity and a sense of compassion, they would never, never ever take USAID and destroy it.

There are other programs out there, and we will be talking about these other programs as my colleagues join us here on the floor. There is the Department of Education and the Labor Department.

Giving the richest man in the world the keys to the U.S. Treasury? What is going on here?

What information has been gathered?

Where did that information go?

What will it be used for?

Who owns that information now: the U.S. Government, or Elon Musk?

These are serious questions. My colleagues and I will raise these questions.

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Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Casten for his comments.

Wasserman Schultz).

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding and I thank my fellow appropriator and friend, Marcy Kaptur, for initiating and hosting this Special Order hour.

I thank my friend, the gentleman from California (Mr. Garamendi), for standing in for the gentlewoman because it is incredibly disturbing that we must come together to condemn what should be inherently obvious.

Elon Musk was elected by no one, confirmed by no one, and is accountable to no one. Yet, President Trump allows this conflict- riddled billionaire to rifle through Americans' highly sensitive records and attack the public servants who look out for all of us. I have never witnessed such utter contempt for the Constitution and the rule of law.

It is clear who is running this White House. It is Elon Musk, whose nonstop lies would leave human rights groups in Cuba and Venezuela out to dry and victims of famine and natural disasters left to starve or die.

Donald Trump is allowing Musk to illegally slash our efforts to counter dictators and protect democracy, the man with billions on the line in China.

Trump and Musk are gutting agencies that are investigating Musk's companies. Is that coincidence?

All the while, Donald Trump ignores what he committed to prioritizing throughout his campaign: making everyday life more affordable for everyone.

Mr. Speaker, this chaos crew in the White House is rocking the faith of Americans. It is alienating allies and destabilizing our businesses. It is trashing our ability to honor our commitments and fulfill the basic functions of government.

My constituents are angry and afraid, and they should be. It is understandable. Musk and his minions will gut any program that doesn't line their own pockets.

These cruel, reckless cuts built on lies and illegal funding freezes will devastate the children, veterans, and seniors that we Democrats fight for every day, and worse. All that this chaotic Republican rip- off will do is raise grocery prices and healthcare costs for our families. While Musk steals children's Social Security numbers, Trump is busy enacting policies that will raise prices on everything from prescription drugs to affordable housing.

As Musk digs through mom and dad's tax returns, he and Trump are gutting consumer protections that keep scammers from ripping Americans off. All of this is designed for one thing: to pay for more millionaire and billionaire tax breaks and open the door to gut Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security.

In fact, the Budget Committee is meeting right now, as we speak, to do just that. They all get wealthier, and the lives of working families become even more unaffordable.

Mr. Speaker, we are not going to roll over and let this madness continue. Every dollar illegally stolen from our Federal agencies must be restored. We must continue to hold Trump and his billionaire friends accountable. We are going to continue to protect victims of scams and natural disasters, regardless of what Trump or his billionaire puppeteer proposes.

The Musk-Trump unchecked raid of taxpayer dollars must end. We must commit together to reduce people's everyday kitchen-table costs, and Democrats will stand up every single day to fight to put lowering people's costs at the top of the agenda.

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Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Wasserman Schultz) for her comments.

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Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Speaker, critical important issues have been raised in the last 20 minutes or so about the issues of conflicts of interest, of corruption, and of policy mistakes that the current administration has put in motion over the last 15, 16 days.

I will draw the attention of the House to this diagram, and this is just a display of some of the contracts that Elon Musk has with the government. In total, it is more than $15 billion, but in each of these there are some very subtle and ominous opportunities for corruption.

I will point out just one. In the Inflation Reduction Act and in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, there is money for electric vehicle charging stations. In fact, there is a substantial amount of money. It turns out that Tesla has some 20,000 charging stations around the United States and has become the principal charging station connection to all electric vehicles.

If Elon Musk were to shut down the money for other companies to build charging stations, he would then have a monopoly. It is subtle but obvious to those of us who watch.

My colleague spoke to the issue of the State Department putting out on its website a very specific $400 million purchase order of just one vehicle, a Tesla cybertruck.

Corruption, yes. Waste, probably. Yet, here we are with an unelected individual who has extraordinary power, in fact, the power of the Presidency, and the Presidency is misusing the power to shut down organizations around this country.

I will suggest that the Democrats have a different view of government and a different view of purpose.

Franklin Roosevelt once said: ``The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.'' That test is now before the Congress of the United States.

Hardworking families are struggling, dealing with inflation. Yet, it appears as though the Trump administration is going to focus on making the wealthier even more wealthy. We need to think about this.

In the days ahead, I am certain that our Democratic colleagues will put forth a rigorous defense of the programs that Americans and indeed people around the world depend upon. We will do that together with the men and women around this Nation who have seen the effect, in many cases, the tragic effect of the shutdown of government and the shutdown of agencies upon which we all rely.

Simultaneously, we will put forth a positive agenda about what we stand for and how we see America growing in the future.

Mr. Speaker, I notice the arrival of the esteemed gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) who had actually put together this 1 hour. It has been a privilege for me to stand as a substitute. She has now arrived, and I turn my attention back to Marcy Kaptur and her 1 hour. I thank her for the opportunity to sub for a bit while she was tied up in committee. I know she had good work to do there.

Ms. Kaptur, the floor is yours.

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