Budget Reconciliation

Floor Speech

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Ms. SLOTKIN. Mr. President, I rise today in opposition to the budget resolution we have been discussing here tonight.

I am a new Senator from the great State of Michigan. I am a former CIA officer and Pentagon official. I did three tours in Iraq alongside the military, and I have worked very proudly for both Democratic and Republican administrations. So I come to this job thinking about security quite a bit.

I really understand my job as one where I am meant to protect the physical security of my constituents and the economic security of my constituents. What I mean by that, when I think about that, is, first on physical security, you can't do anything if you are not safe--in your home, in your neighborhoods, in your country. Then your economic security, No. 2, is being able to live the American dream that all of us grew up on that you could work 40 hours a week, one job with good benefits, and you could do well, and your kids could do better. But I rise today to defend that security because I think it is under threat.

We know that the majority is crawling all over the Federal Government looking for $6 trillion in cuts, right. They have been open about that. That is not a hidden thing. They are looking for $6 trillion in every couch cushion they can find because they are preparing a major tax bill with all kinds of tax giveaways to the wealthiest Americans. In that process, they have put us on a dangerous path with this budget resolution. It adds billions to our national debt. So let's dispense with the idea that the Republicans are deeply concerned about our national debt. You cannot say that and in the same breath, support this proposal.

Then, in addition, it guts programs that we all rely on--again, for our physical and economic security--with no regard for those two things.

Of course, this does nothing to get at the things that President Trump said he was running on, right. He ran very loudly on lowering costs for the average Americans, making things easier to manage. There is no connection between the search for $6 trillion and lower prices for the average person.

Now, there are a lot of things that are at risk of being cut that are deeply connected to Michiganders' well-being.

Let me start off by saying thanks--very sort of parochial--to the Great Lakes, and that is the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, something called the GLRI.

Michiganders understand that our national heritage, our State heritage, is our Great Lakes, our waters, and our water. The GLRI is the big fund that both Democrats and Republicans have supported year after year, championed by the woman I am replacing, Senator Debbie Stabenow, to keep our water clean, our water safe, and support, again, Michigan's economy, our tourism, our economic security.

Three out of the 4 years that Donald Trump was in the White House previously, he cut the entirety of the GLRI--so all the money for invasive species, all the money to keep out our algae blooms, all the money to keep our drinking water safe, to help deal with transportation in the Soo Locks in Michigan--and every year, we pushed that back.

You better believe that in their search and hunt for that $6 trillion, they are going to again target the very thing that keeps our Great Lakes safe and secure.

The Gordie Howe Bridge. We are about to open up the largest commercial border bridge in the history of our country. It is named after Gordie Howe, who was a Canadian hockey player who played for the Red Wings. The Canadians have paid for this bridge. It is set to open in September because our current bridges and tunnels cannot handle the sheer volume of traffic going across the bridges and tunnels every day.

How are we going to staff that if we are sending Federal workers home? How are we going to support that bridge, which will allow you to drive from Montreal to Miami without stopping for a single streetlight, if we can't support hiring of new Federal workers and we are sending our Federal workers home? Border security is obviously a priority, especially for a border State, but how do we do that without throwing the baby out with the bathwater?

Then we have things that have been affecting Michigan now for the past year-plus. Bird flu, right? Avian flu. We have got geese now showing up dead all over the State of Michigan. We see the bird flu transiting between species. That is never a good sign. That means it is mutating; it is changing; it is getting stronger. Egg prices, as a consequence, are the highest ever in American history. But instead of dealing with that problem head-on, as a responsible administration would, they are cutting people who are working on avian flu, monitoring, who are helping to understand how we prevent the spread of yet another biohazard. The people who are doing that are getting pink slips.

The administration has now terminated people just, again, to rehire them. Can you imagine the morale of our Federal workers who are supposed to be keeping us safe right now?

Then we have our primary industry in Michigan, which is the auto industry. The automotive industry is our heritage as well. It is fundamental to our State economy, and my priority, my job as a Senator in this State, is to make sure that the auto industry, the tier 1 and tier 2 suppliers, that that continues to be the basis for a strong middle class, the foundation for a strong middle class in Michigan.

What deeply worries me right now is we have got unelected billionaires who are monkeying around with our industry, our principal industry in the State of Michigan. Mr. Musk, it has to be said, runs a competitor to the Michigan-based auto industry, and he is right now actively welcoming and championing Chinese interests into our supply chains. Just recently, he has made clear that he is deeply interested in moving all his operations, all the things he has got going on in Shanghai, to Mexico. He wants to create an easier backdoor for those Chinese companies to supply him, to supply other autos, to build those cheap vehicles, and then use NAFTA to bring them into the United States easily.

His interests and the interests of everyone who works for an American auto company do not align. He is interested in enriching himself and strengthening his own supply chain. He does not care about the threat to our national security, and he certainly doesn't care about a threat to economic security in the State of Michigan.

I think this is an important thing to highlight as we think about this budget resolution that has been presented to us. This budget resolution is an attempt to get President Trump what he wants so that he can do, unfettered and hidden away from the American people, whatever he wants with our physical security and our economic security. And it is something that I think many of us feel is being jammed through.

Now, it is hard to understand what is happening. There is chaos among the Republicans. The President says he wants one bill. The House says they want one bill. The Republicans here say they want two bills. It is unclear exactly what is happening. They are trying to figure it out. But in the meantime, all we can do here is defend our economic and physical security. That is our job.

My fear is that past is prologue: The administration's approach is going to be reflected in this budget, and American citizens are going to find out months later about the cuts to programs they care about, to things that Michiganders depend on, and I believe that is the wrong approach.

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