Floor Statements

Mr. President, let me be perfectly clear for my colleagues: Democrats want to immediately pass a clean 4-week CR. No one wants a shutdown. We should get this done immediately.

Right now, we should be hard at work negotiating bipartisan funding bills that help folks back home in all of our States and make sure that our constituents--not Trump and Musk--have the biggest say in how their taxpayer dollars are spent.

That is what I have been focused on for months now. In fact, I actually wanted to get our funding bills done all the way back in December, but Republican leadership in the House wanted to kick the can down the road to March. Well, we spent these past few months working hard, getting close to a deal. And we should see that work through, especially when the alternative bill is a bill that will seriously undermine the ability for all of us--all of us--to use our power to fight for our communities. I hope my Senate colleagues would agree that power is worth protecting.

Unfortunately, Speaker Johnson has made clear he is content to sit on the sidelines and actually even cheer while two billionaires fire veterans; choke off resources to rebuild roads and bridges; cancel research on cancer, Alzheimer's disease, and vaccine hesitancy; dismantle the Social Security Administration; and spark a trade war that is raising prices and driving us toward a recession.

But there is still time for us here to choose a different path, a bipartisan path, that gives our constituents--our constituents, each and every one of us--a voice in this process.

Right now, instead of working with Democrats to fund the government, invest in the middle class, protect Congress's power of the purse, and put out some of these fires, House Republicans are rolling over for the billionaire arsonists by rolling out a slush fund-filled, yearlong continuing resolution that empowers Trump and Musk to pick winners and losers with your taxpayer dollars.

House Republicans didn't just walk away from Democrats at the negotiating table. They are trying to give up Congress's seat at the table, all together, with a partisan bill that writes Trump and Musk a blank check, shortchanges families and America's future, devastates our Nation's Capital, and painfully slashes critical domestic priorities like lifesaving medical research, construction of VA hospitals, and so much more.

House Republicans didn't merely refuse to address the lawlessness we have seen from Trump and Musk. They would actually empower it with this bill because the House Republicans' bill fails to include the typical, detailed spending directives--the basic guardrails--that Congress provides each year in our funding bills. In other words, instead of writing a bill that gives our communities what they need, they wrote a bill that turns many of our accounts into slush funds and gives the final say over what gets funding to two billionaires who don't know the first thing about the needs of our working families. So that is problem No. 1 with this CR--and it was a completely avoidable one.

House Republicans could have worked with us to include the standard bipartisan spending directives that are included every single year. But House Republican leadership decided to throw in the towel on the hard work of negotiating and on the hard work of governing and making sure their constituents' voices are reflected in our funding bills. Tearing down those guardrails was a choice they made, and it is a dangerous one.

We have already seen how far President Trump and Elon Musk and Russ Vought are willing to twist and outright break our laws to suit their will. But House Republicans are setting them up to make everything so far look like child's play, because this slush fund CR surrenders more power over Federal funding to the very people who are already abusing the power they have to steal from our constituents.

This bill is a green light for Donald Trump and Elon Musk to redirect funding to their own pet projects; to force States and communities to abide by their directives; and slash, burn, and zero out programs that our families count on.

They could use the flexibilities being granted to them to override our constituents' priorities. Clean energy investments could become a payday for fossil fuels. Money meant to stop fentanyl and opioids could fuel private prison operators and Trump's mass deportations.

This bill will let them pick which Army Corps, which transit, which military construction projects move ahead and which grind to a halt.

And when it comes to programs that rural communities rely on, which do you think will get funded? Housing? Utilities? Small business support? Well, do you know what? It would all depend on who Trump wants to punish or extort.

When it comes to medical research, are we going to spend precious research dollars curing Alzheimer's disease? Are we going to help the Fred Hutch Center in Washington State fight cancer? Are we going to work to develop a universal flu vaccine? Are we going to support maternal and women's health research? Congress would usually have a say. But this CR tells RFK, Jr., exactly what Trump promised: ``Go wild on healthcare.'' You have got a free pass from House Republicans to commandeer hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars and set them on fire, relitigating disproven theories about autism and sowing distrust about vaccines amid a measles outbreak that is killing children.

Or if Trump wants to rip away resources from our public K through 12 schools and leverage Federal dollars to make them rewrite history, this CR could help them do that--to say nothing of the broad power he would have to cut off funding to schools like our HBCUs or eliminate funding that thousands of colleges and universities rely on to provide financial aid to students.

When it comes to the FAA, House Republicans gave up on writing detailed instructions for how the budget must be spent in favor of just letting Trump shovel tax dollars at Elon Musk's Starlink.

When it comes to our Tribes, they would let Trump manipulate the formulas that dictate how much money our Tribes get for everything from housing to road maintenance to law enforcement.

Our public lands, those are now President Trump's personal prerogative, as he will have under this CR near absolute discretion over which Land and Water Conservation Fund acquisitions and which public lands deferred maintenance projects get funding.

That is a tremendous amount of power to give to a President who has shown he is completely willing to abuse his existing authority.

For the record, the Federal funding for many of the programs I have just

mentioned makes up massive percentages of many of our State's budgets.

It takes no imagination--none--to consider how Trump would use this new authority to threaten and bully States across the country. You do what he says, or he blows up your entire State budget.

We all know full well how the President is looking to pick fights with our States and with our Governors, and this bill allows for him to use the full force of the government to try and win those fights.

But that is far from the only problem with this bill because this bill also seriously shortchanges our families, our small businesses, our country's competitiveness, and our security. In fact, it makes major cuts to domestic spending.

Nearly 2 years ago, after bruising negotiations between House Republicans and the President, a law was passed that set spending levels for fiscal year 2024 and fiscal year 2025. I didn't care for those levels, not by a long shot. But, nonetheless, there was an agreement and a starting point for us. But this bill now from the House Republicans reneges entirely on that agreement. It cuts nondefense funding by $15 billion relative to that agreement, and it even cuts defense spending by nearly $3 billion relative to the FRA level for 2025.

Those aren't just numbers on a page. Those are real investments that our constituents are being robbed of in this bill.

Despite what House Republicans would like you to believe, as a longtime appropriator, I can tell you, this is not a clean CR. A clean CR would not slash funding for Army Corps construction by 44 percent. That means halting progress on major hydropower projects, dredging for ports in red and blue States, and more.

This CR is not clean. It would cut by nearly 50 percent funding for medical research, funding for medical research into treatments and cures for dozens of diseases and conditions specifically affecting our servicemembers and their families. It would create an utterly massive hole in the NIH budget, reducing funding for lifesaving cancer research and the discovery of cures for diseases by more than a quarter of a billion dollars. That is what this CR does.

Or a clean CR wouldn't do what this bill does to cut VA construction or nuclear arms controls or election security.

Let's not forget, this bill forces rural development programs to absorb a $34 million effective cut and decides who suffers. And it effectively endorses the Trump administration's plans for significant staffing reductions and, worse, customer service at Social Security.

The only increase for Social Security in this bill is to go after fraud and further Elon Musk's lies--his lies--about Social Security. It doesn't provide one additional dime to improve customer service-- something our constituents asked for. It doesn't reduce how long it takes to process benefit applications or to address the average, by the way, 1\1/2\ hour wait now to talk to someone on the phone. And that, by the way, is if you are the lucky 40 percent of the people who get through at all.

The House CR will mean that Musk and Trump are going to continue to fire workers and shutter offices. And it will be seniors and people with disabilities and their family members looking to Social Security in a moment of need who will pay the price.

Let's not ignore the massive shortfall in funding for new NOAA satellites or the serious risk of setting back weather predictions that every part of our economy hinges on.

Then, of course, there is the $700 million shortfall in this CR at HUD--at Housing and Urban Development--which means 32,000 fewer families getting help to keep a roof over their head.

Then there is this inexplicable fact that this CR actually blocks the District of Columbia from spending its own money for the fiscal year we are already 6 months into. That change, by the way, won't save the Federal Government a penny, but it will force DC to lay off police officers and teachers halfway through the year.

I could spend hours right here on the floor talking about what we lose out on, what our constituents lose out on with this CR and what is at risk with this flat funding and the major cuts.

When House Republicans refuse to write serious funding bills that strengthen our investments, they are putting people in danger--in danger--by undermining food safety, rail safety, workplace safety, and public health. They are doing nothing to help our families afford groceries or heating and cooling or get high-quality healthcare. There is nothing to fight fentanyl and opioids, build roads and bridges, and clean up our waters. There is nothing to improve access to healthcare for our rural areas, or uphold our responsibility to our Tribes, or advance cutting-edge tech, and so much more.

I would just note, we have never funded the Department of Defense through a yearlong CR. Never. What we are talking about here is irresponsible on multiple levels. It is irresponsible in the cuts that it makes to things like medical research, VA hospital construction, and so many other investments in our communities.

It is irresponsible in the glaring problems it ignores, like the recent natural disaster, or China's aggression abroad.

And it is irresponsible in the additional power that it gives the President at the expense of Congress and at the expense of the people we all represent.

I don't come here with rose-colored glasses. It is not that I thought this process would ever be easy--certainly not while the President lets the richest man in the world break our government--but I do continue to believe that it is our responsibility, as lawmakers, to ensure that our constituents' voices are heard and that Congress asserts its power.

It shocks me that any one of us here would even consider trading our power to help people in exchange for an empty promise. It shocks me that any one of us would be so eager to help an administration that is so dangerously willing to extort people, even lawmakers, to its own end.

Trump and Musk have made it painfully clear they want the exact power that this type of CR would give them. They want every Member of Congress, every Governor and mayor, every CEO, every Head Start program director to come groveling before them to get their funding turned back on.

That is not how this should work. That is not how this should work in America. They want you to come hat in hand and maybe--maybe--they won't fire as many veterans in their State. If you ask Elon really nicely and you also don't ask too many questions about his billions of dollars in conflicts of interest, maybe he won't kill the lifesaving research happening in your State; maybe he won't choke off the funding to the hospital your constituents need; maybe he won't pull the plug on those critical dam repairs the Army Corps was working on in your State. What sort of a deal is that, and what do they think is going to happen next?

Perhaps it is because I am one of the few preschool teachers here in the Congress, but I don't think enough of my colleagues have read ``If You Give a Mouse a Cookie'' because I have to think the lesson would be pretty darn relevant to what happens if you give a billionaire a slush fund--they just keep taking more.

And that is exactly what this bill does. It takes Federal funding and the money and the programs meant to help our constituents and gift wraps it for Trump and Musk to pick winners and losers, whether that means doling out stacks of cash to their billionaire buddies in their own company or whether that means punishing political enemies by cutting off money to blue States or blue cities.

And, look, just because you are a Republican and maybe you think you have an in with Elon's DOGE squad, don't think that means your constituents are safe because when your constituents are on the line, don't be surprised when Trump's rage at some mayor or Governor who puts your State's interests ahead of the President's ego wins out over any sense of obligation to thank you for giving him all this power in the first place, or when Elon Musk--the richest man in the world--stops making lame social media posts for long enough to hear you out. Don't be surprised when Musk values another billion dollars for one of his companies over the workers in your State he is firing left and right or the programs he is eliminating.

Look, my colleagues, this is not how it should be. Our constituents-- our constituents--elected us to be their voice in Congress, not their voice on the phone with Elon Musk, but that is what House Republicans want to reduce us to.

My message here today to all my colleagues is that it doesn't have to be this way. Despite what Trump and Musk would have you believe, the choice is not simply between writing them a blank check or shutting down the government. Anyone who tells you that is flat wrong. We--we-- have agency here. We have the power of the purse. We just need the common sense to use it. The path forward is not complicated. It is not unconventional. It is simple. We pass the short-term CR that I introduced the other day; we finish negotiating our bipartisan funding bills. By the way, that is not some impossible dream. We have done it before. In fact, we do it every year, even when it is incredibly hard. We were actually incredibly close before Republican leaders in the House left the negotiating room.

But we still have time to defuse this and to get back to the serious work writing bills that actually fund the programs our families rely on and actually make sure those funds get to where we--we as elected Members of Congress representing our constituents, our taxpaying constituents at home--where we intend them to go. We all agree Congress has the power of the purse, don't we? I am pretty sure that is a bipartisan principle. So we here in Congress should be able to find a bipartisan way to say that.

The true focus for me is transparency and accountability. No one has really explained to me why transparency is now a redline. How has that suddenly been too much to ask? I thought DOGE was all about transparency. I thought the whole idea was to hold government accountable. I thought we wanted to stop waste and fraud and abuse, not empower it and dismantle bipartisan guardrails.

Well, I just want to work that basic principle--accountability--into our bill, and I am open to different ideas on how we do that. I always have been.

By the way, while we are at it, it would seem like a pretty basic step in transparency and accountability for Elon Musk to come before a congressional hearing. So when are we going to work that out because I think at the barest minimum, it should be before we pass the CR that gives more power to him, not after.

So I strongly oppose the CR the House sent over. I hope my colleagues do the same. Defend your constituents. Defend your constituents, your taxpaying constituents, by protecting veterans, by defending cancer research, by the other investments and making sure that the infrastructure projects actually are built in your State. Defend your power as a Senator. Vote down this partisan bill that turns the government into a piggy bank for billionaires.

Let's immediately pass a short-term CR to prevent a government shutdown and finish writing those bills that keep our government working for the American people and to make sure our constituents have a voice in this process. I introduced a short-term CR to do just that. Democrats stand ready to work with Republicans to immediately get them done.

We are at a real turning point for how things will go. Isn't it worth taking a bit more time, working together a bit longer, and doing everything we can to keep us on a bipartisan path and to make sure we-- we, each one of us--protect our power of the purse, our power to be a voice for the people back home? Especially when we are so close. Especially when I think we all know that it is going to lead to a much better outcome for our constituents that we represent, for the people who sent us here to fight for them, who trust us to work together, as we have in the past, to make their lives better--even when the work is hard.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, if House Republicans don't think they need us when writing a bill, why should they expect us to support that bill, especially when it comes to taking funding away from our families who depend on it and hurting our communities and giving away Congress's power over key funding decisions?

Instead of working with Democrats to invest in working people all across our country and make sure our constituents have their voices heard in

government funding, Speaker Johnson abandoned talks and rolled out a bill that includes major cuts. It cuts nondefense discretionary funding by $15 billion in total in 2025 and hands a blank check to Trump and Elon Musk to pick winners and losers and steal from our constituents.

Make no mistake, the entire bill the House is voting on today is House Republicans' own doing, and it is a dumpster fire, so I am here to sound the alarm about that fire before it spreads. But, first, I need everyone to understand: The choice is absolutely not dumpster fire or shutdown. I should know. I introduced another option yesterday. It is a short-term CR that would give us the time to finish doing our job and negotiate bipartisan, full-year bills. There is no reason we cannot do that, and there is every reason that every single one of us should prefer actual bills that we write to help people over the bill that just empowers two billionaires who are running our government into the ground and our economy into a recession.

I really want to make sure all of my colleagues understand how bad this bill is. So if anyone thinks this bill from House Republicans is going to avoid chaos or avoid pain for our country, listen up because it is only going to add to the chaos.

This is not a ``clean CR,'' as some Republicans claim. It cuts programs our communities rely on, and that includes a major 44-percent cut to Army Corps projects that help mitigate against floods and hurricanes and much else.

It cuts medical research into diseases and conditions affecting servicemembers and their families by more than $1 billion. That is over 40 percent.

It leaves a massive $280 million shortfall in NIH's budget, and that is a big cut to research that saves lives.

It leaves a shortfall for housing programs. We are talking about 32,000 fewer vouchers. And that is just scratching the surface.

It also completely lacks the basic guardrails we include in all of our funding bills, on a bipartisan basis, each and every year, to make sure that our States and our communities are taken care of and not just subject to the whims of the Trump administration or any administration to pick winners and losers.

House Republicans are not trying to responsibly fund the government; they are trying to turn it into a slush fund for Trump and Musk to wield as they see fit so that they can shift their focus entirely to tax cuts for billionaires.

Right now, we--Congress--have the power of the purse. We have that power to fight for our States, to fight for our families, to bring Federal dollars back home and build bridges and feed families and care for veterans and fight fentanyl--whatever our communities tell us they need.

We should not cede that power with this bill. That is really worth sitting with for a minute.

We all chose to be here, to be here in Congress. We chose to take on this role so we can advocate for causes and communities that we care about and work in a bipartisan manner to reach compromise, to make sure that our causes and our communities get the support they need.

House Republicans' full-year CR would instead pass the buck to Elon Musk and unelected political appointees to decide who gets funded and who doesn't. Is that not why each and every one of us was actually elected, to fight for our States and to fight for our communities as the people who know them best?

I certainly know that is true for me. I have worked for years with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to make sure that people back home who trusted us when we said we would fight for them always know Congress has their back.

So really think about that before you vote to make your voice mean less for the rest of this fiscal year because it is terrifying to think of what unelected political appointees would do.

We have already gotten an alarming preview of how Trump will threaten to cut off States and cities that might disagree with him, and Elon will totally work the government to benefit his companies and hurt his competitors.

I have to say, our bipartisan appropriations process is not always easy, but it is a heck of a lot better than handing over our decision making to this or to any administration. Voting against this bill is about standing for communities and families who actually rely on the funding and for our ability--every one of us--to be a voice for our constituents in Congress because what is going to happen when, perhaps, medical research funding gets sucked away from cancer and Alzheimer's all because a scientist worked somewhere previously and said that vaccines are safe and all of a sudden the funding is gone?

What happens when you can't get a bridge replaced because the political appointees at DOT don't like the policies your mayors advocated for?

What happens when they reduce staffing at national parks in your backyard because your Governor won't deny climate change?

The bipartisan directives we provide--we, Congress, provides--each year with our funding bills help guard against that kind of thing for any administration. And all of that is missing from this disastrous slush fund CR.

Through bipartisan compromise, we make sure our communities have a voice at the table, and our taxpayer dollars have a return on their taxes. We should reject this bill. We should pass a short-term CR to avoid a shutdown, and then we should do our job and work on full-year spending bills like we were sent here to do.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, today, with my colleague Senator Cantwell, we commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, or PNNL. As one of the Department of Energy's premier national laboratories over the past 60 years, PNNL has tackled some of our Nation's most complex and urgent challenges using its strengths in chemistry, Earth sciences, biology, and data science. As longtime supporters who are well versed in PNNL's valuable contributions to our Nation's scientific discovery, energy, and national security, we are proud to take the opportunity to recognize its 60th anniversary.

In January 1965, the Atomic Energy Commission, the predecessor Agency of the Department of Energy, selected Battelle, a nonprofit research and development organization, to take over the Hanford Laboratories at the Hanford Site in southeastern Washington State. Then known as Pacific Northwest Laboratory, the laboratory provided critical support to plutonium production and nuclear waste cleanup at Hanford and over the years evolved into one of DOE's most diverse multidisciplinary laboratories with significant portfolios in science, energy, and national security.

Over the past 60 years, PNNL has leveraged its scientific capabilities to make significant contributions in important areas such as supporting the cleanup of legacy nuclear waste, understanding Earth systems, modernizing the grid, advancing energy storage, enabling energy resilience, supporting nuclear nonproliferation, and protecting against cyberattacks, as well as building and applying artificial intelligence tools to accelerate scientific discovery in key areas related to national security and energy. PNNL has grown from just over 2,200 employees in 1965 to more than 6,400 today. It is the single largest employer in central Washington, with staff at its main campus in Richland, at PNNL-Sequim, DOE's only marine research facility, as well as in satellite offices in Seattle, Portland, Oregon, and College Park, MD.

We also want to highlight PNNL's collaborations with both academia and industry. PNNL has over 200 joint appointments with over 60 academic institutions and is home to seven joint institutes, combining the expertise and capabilities of universities and a national laboratory to accelerate science impact. In Washington, the Washington State University-PNNL Advanced Grid Institute is working to modernize the electric grid and provide secure energy infrastructure for the Nation. The WSU-PNNL Bioproducts Institute explores ways to transform engineered plants and industrial, agricultural, and municipal wastes into valuable materials and chemicals, including sustainable aviation fuel. The University of Washington-PNNL Northwest Institute for Materials Physics, Chemistry, and Technology, also known as NW Impact, focuses on advancements in materials that have the potential to transform multiple fields including energy, telecommunications, medicine, and information technology. Beyond Washington, PNNL has joint institutes with universities in Oregon, Maryland, and Georgia covering biomedical innovation, Earth systems, and cybersecurity and resilient infrastructure.

PNNL also collaborates with businesses large and small throughout the United States. One of the primary missions at PNNL is to move innovations developed at the lab into the marketplace where they can be used to solve national problems, improve lives, and enhance security. Airport security checkpoints use PNNL-developed millimeter wave technology scanning to detect concealed objects and increase security. Technology identifying molecular differences in samples as small as

a single cell and 1,000 times faster than current methods is helping advance medicine and environmental management. And PNNL's superconducting Qubit testbed is contributing to advances in quantum computing, which can help solve problems of energy production and sustainability. PNNL researchers were named on 59 patents granted in fiscal year 2024 and on nearly 1,700 U.S. patents since 1965.

During its long history, PNNL has committed to developing the future workforce in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Last year alone, the lab reached more than 51,000 students and 900 educators and hosted 1,717 students as interns, a 35 percent increase since 2020. In addition, PNNL created a STEM Ambassador Program, training its scientists on how best to communicate and convey the impact and relevance of their work to various audiences. STEM Ambassadors volunteer at outreach events throughout the Richland, Seattle, and Sequim areas using interactive, hands-on displays to spark interest in STEM learning and careers. STEM Ambassadors have been invited to present at DOE's National Science Bowl, a nationwide academic competition. PNNL's STEM Ambassador Program is now a model for similar efforts at other national laboratories.

As longtime champions of PNNL, we know that we are lucky in Washington State to have such a phenomenal resource in our backyard. We want to congratulate all past and present employees of PNNL on an incredible 60 years. Thank you for everything you do for our State, our country, and our entire world. We look forward to many more years of innovation and discovery that will make our world a better, cleaner, and safer place to live.

Mr. President, no one wants a shutdown--well, actually, no one except Elon Musk, who recently said that sounds great, or Donald Trump or Russ Vought.

That is why I have been at the table this entire time ready to pass a bill that protects key investments and makes sure that Congress-- Congress, not Donald Trump or Elon Musk--decides whether or not our public schools or our lifesaving cancer research gets funded.

Unfortunately, Republican leadership told their Members last week to walk away from the negotiating table--which raises the risk of a shutdown--in an attempt to pass a clean yearlong continuing resolution that would actually give Trump and Musk exactly what they want, fewer restraints and more power over Federal spending so they can pick winners and losers as they see fit, which would hurt all of our constituents.

Nonetheless, I am urging Republican leadership to come back to the table, if they are willing to do that, and work with us on full-year funding bills, the type of work we do together every year and prevent a shutdown while we do that.

We cannot stand by and accept a yearlong power grab CR that would help Elon take a chain saw to programs that families rely on like yours or keeps our Agencies together, that keep our communities safe.

We actually have a job to do here, Republicans and Democrats, to be a voice for our constituents, to advocate for the funding they need, and to get support back to our communities.

I heard my House Republican colleagues say they will not restrict a Republican President's powers. I want to be clear. What I am asking for is to work together to make sure, as we write and negotiate these full- year spending bills, that our laws get followed. I welcome and I want everyone to know I am open to any and all ideas about how we can work together to do that.

I am confident we can get this done. I am ready to pass a short-term CR immediately to take down the risk of a shutdown so that we can finish our negotiations and write our full-year spending bills, which is our job to do. Today, on a topic I believe appropriators actually on both sides of the aisle would agree with, we need far more information and transparency and accountability from the Trump administration in order to write these bills because here is one big problem: How are we supposed to fund the government when many of our Agencies today are not responding to our questions and we have no picture--clear picture--of what is actually or who is actually in charge of many of our Agencies?

It is clear as day there have been a lot of dramatic changes made across the government. Agencies are being illegally shuttered; workers are being fired by the thousands--again, often in direct violation of laws we have passed--and hundreds of billions of dollars in Federal programs and grants have been frozen, unfrozen, and frozen again. We have had contracts that have been recklessly canceled, some accidentally and then restarted, not to mention the workers who were fired and rehired.

It is incredibly chaotic, and it makes it much harder to write our legislation that actually responds to these latest developments when programs are switching on and off again like a 2-year-old who is playing with a light switch and when the number of people and programs illegally terminated remains unclear. It is much more difficult to write funding bills for Department programs when we have no idea what the Department is actually doing or what the actual plan is for next year or if it is actually they or, perhaps, DOGE making the plans in the first place. We are seeing decisions made and reversed and made and ignored--made by people who have no authority to make them, and yet they are seemingly being implemented.

It is not just the whirlwind of decisions that is causing this chaos; it is the complete lack of transparency and accountability surrounding these decisions from Trump and Musk that makes it all but impossible to get a straight answer.

When we have questions that urgently need answers, like: Why has this energy program been frozen or when will the NIH grants start up again or which VA contracts have actually been scrapped or how many workers have been pushed out? then it helps if we know who is actually in charge.

When our constituents have problems that require solutions quickly or they will have to close a business or lay people off or lose their family farms, then it matters that we can get the right person on the phone to get things resolved.

Yet, when there is information we urgently need so we can write our funding bills and avoid a shutdown, like Agencies' priorities or unexpected challenges or just the basic nuts and bolts of stuff--to say nothing of the information we need to address the very extraordinary circumstances and decisions of the past few weeks--it is totally unclear who we should actually be talking to if we want answers that actually reflect the reality of what is happening. It is totally unclear who is actually making these decisions and who is actually in charge. Appropriators have now sent over 30 letters to Agencies since January 20, asking just to understand Agency actions, and that is to say nothing of the efforts from me and my staff to get answers to our emails and our calls, but the answers have been few and very far between.

What is more, just because we hear something from someone who should know and just because we hear from someone who should be in charge, we have found that it does not mean it is actually true. There has been more than one time in the past few weeks when we have been told one thing only to see the reality is entirely different. Like, for example, when the OMB funding freeze was implemented and we were told it wouldn't affect Head Start, except that it did affect Head Start. Providers in my State were locked out of that payment system for days even after the funding freeze itself was rescinded.

It seems like the only thing that has been consistent about the last few weeks is that every time there has been chaos, every time I see actions that fly in the face of laws we have passed--not to mention common sense--or contradict what I have heard from Agency leaders, DOGE has been at the center of it. We have seen DOGE absolutely trample the authority of Congress and other Federal Agencies, including officials Congress confirmed.

For example, while Secretary Rubio instituted a recklessly broad and illegal freeze of all foreign assistance funding, he publicly announced exceptions for a limited set of programs, including lifesaving aid, the basic idea being that we probably shouldn't let HIV spread rampant, and we probably shouldn't let food grown right here in America rot in ports while children starve. Causing mass death through pointless negligence is not really a good strategy for bolstering our global reputation. It is cruel, and it is self-defeating.

So, as Secretary of State, he made the exception, but DOGE had other plans, because on the rare occasion that what was left of USAID staff who had not been sidelined was able to clear these payments through the Agency's interim leadership--surprise--DOGE staffers would veto those payments anyway. Keep in mind, we know about this not because DOGE disclosed it or State disclosed it. We know only because of reporting.

That is not how this works. Congress and the American people we represent should not be out of the loop, especially given the serious stakes here and the serious questions that remain, like: On what authority did they veto those

payments? Whose orders did they use to overrule the Secretary?

I, for one, would very much like to know, because while the Secretary is guilty of plenty of attacks on his workforce and programs, it certainly seems like the Secretary of State got steamrolled on numerous occasions without even knowing it. If that is the case, who are we supposed to talk to with questions about States' funding needs--the Secretary or the two DOGE minions who actually have their hands directly on the levers of power here?

And let's not forget about what happened at Treasury. DOGE wanted access to our most secure systems. Agency officials told them no, and then the Agency officials were told they are fired. That sent a chilling message to our Federal workers: You stand up to DOGE at your own peril.

It is not just Treasury. DOGE has been worming its way into Department after Department, making a beeline for the most sensitive systems, including ones storing my constituents' sensitive financial data, and bulldozing over anyone who stands in their way for any reason. We don't even know who all of these people are or whether they even have security clearances. They have even had people fired for denying them access to classified material beyond their security levels. That is how completely unchecked their power has become. We have incredibly little insight into what they are actually doing with those sensitive systems. We have seen DOGE claim they can only view some data. That is already deeply concerning, but there are also plenty of indications they have been given more power at times. They are interested in tinkering around with some of these systems, too, or are unaccountably blocking payments like we saw at USAID.

Let's talk about the Defense Department because, first, Secretary Hegseth was saying he wanted to revive the ``warrior spirit'' at the Department, but now he is telling employees to reply to DOGE's weekly emails. He is firing thousands of defense personnel, and he is asking every corner of DOD to propose major cuts.

So, as an appropriator trying to write full-year bills that fund our military, which is it--major increases or major cuts? And who do I ask about Department needs? Is it up to the Secretary or up to DOGE? Who at DOGE is even steering this ship? We need to know this kind of thing, and we really needed to, like, know yesterday because we have a deadline coming up for funding the military.

We have some serious questions for whoever is in charge about how the administration is approaching things. When I say ``whoever is in charge,'' I don't mean who is in charge on paper, because it seems like there is a big disconnect. I mean, Who is actually making decisions and driving actions at our Agencies and at DOGE for that matter?

Look. First, Elon was running DOGE with Vivek. Then it was just Elon. Then it supposedly wasn't Elon at all, but then Elon kept right on posting about hiring decisions like someone in charge and rehiring an individual who resigned after their blatant racism came to light. He kept right on doing press availabilities with the President in the Oval Office to discuss his work at DOGE like someone in charge. So it sure looks like Elon is still the head of DOGE. Even after we were all finally told, with great supposed certainty, that DOGE was actually being run by another person no one had ever mentioned, we then promptly learned, oh, she is on vacation, and the very next day, we saw Elon briefing the Cabinet on what he is doing at DOGE.

If that all seems confusing or contradictory, I don't think it is an accident as much as a smokescreen--one that seems designed to hide the obvious fact that Elon Musk is the one who is calling the shots at DOGE. All of us here in Congress really need to know that because he is the richest man in the world, with billions, actually, in government contracts on the line. He is, apparently, in charge of his own conflicts of interest. And we are just supposed to trust him? Has he recused himself from a single decision? We haven't heard anything about that.

As a steward of taxpayer dollars who wants to make sure the bills we write are implemented to help my constituents, not Elon Musk's bottom line, I would like to know: Did the owner of SpaceX recuse himself from decisions gutting NASA? Did the owner of Tesla interfere at all in the funding freezes that hurt his competition in the electric vehicle market? Does the guy who posted criticizing of Verizon's work for FAA and pitching his own company's Starlink as an alternative have anything to do with the reports the government may reverse course now on the Verizon contract? Did the guy selling satellite internet have any role in halting funds that were helping my constituents have access to broadband?

What about all of the watchdogs who have been fired--people reviewing Neuralink devices at the FDA? people at the Agency that reviews the safety of Tesla's self-driving cars? or the inspector general looking into Elon's connections to foreign governments?

Despite what Musk likes to pretend, it is not in the slightest bit transparent for him alone to be deciding what he hides and what he shares about his role in government, nor is it transparent when DOGE is posting updates that are often completely inaccurate--from getting basic math wrong to getting wrong basic timelines of what Trump did versus Biden to not understanding how our contracts work and counting the same cuts over and over and over again. They aren't being transparent. They are muddying up the waters with falsehoods and disinformation and making it that much harder for us to write meaningful funding bills in the next few days.

I mean, if DOGE doesn't even know what programs they have cut and how much they have cut, how are we supposed to understand how these decisions hurt our constituents? How are we supposed to write legislation that rejects the cuts we find harmful or even aligns if there are areas of agreement?

We need real answers from DOGE, and we need them as soon as possible. So, once again, I am requesting that Elon Musk come before Congress for a hearing in order to be held accountable to the American people. Tell us: What exactly are you doing? Why are you firing Federal employees whose salaries are covered by fees, not by taxpayer dollars? Why are you firing our veterans by the thousands who are doing work to support our communities? Why are you planning to fire the people who make sure seniors get their Social Security checks? Who are the people who work for you? How were they vetted? What are your long-term plans for this Agency? Based on what authority are you overruling our Secretaries, directing Federal workers, and ignoring the laws we have passed here in Congress?

America is waiting. We are losing valuable time. Congress and the American people deserve answers, and we need them to do their jobs.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, I got my start in politics as a mom in tennis shoes fighting to protect a preschool program, and I still wear that label proudly. I am a former preschool teacher. I am also a former community college educator, and I am also a former school board member. So I don't mess around when it comes to making sure every single one of our students, in every corner of our country, has access to quality public education, one that leaves them prepared for the future and opens the doors of opportunity wide. It is not a responsibility I take lightly; it never will be.

Our kids are the future of this country, and the Department of Education is really at the heart of how we make sure they are set up for success. But Donald Trump and Elon Musk want to rip the heart out of public education in America and abolish the Department of Education--well, not if I can help it.

That is why I believe we need a leader at the Department of Education who actually believes in the mission of the Department of Education. We need a Secretary of Education with a really deep understanding of how to use this crucial position to strengthen educational opportunities and outcomes for every student in this country. We need a Secretary of Education who will put students first, not billionaires; who will stand up for our kids--every single one of them--even if it means standing up to Donald Trump and Elon Musk.

On each of these counts, Linda McMahon fails to make the grade. I have had concerns from the outset about whether Mrs. McMahon has the experience we should expect from an Education Secretary, and I am sorry to say my concerns have not been alleviated--far from it.

I asked her in our confirmation hearing about the Every Student Succeeds Act. That is the law I negotiated with Republicans to finally fix No Child Left Behind and to provide more flexibility to our States and schools, while ensuring accountability for our tax dollars. She couldn't name a single requirement of that law--not one. How is she supposed to enforce our education laws when she didn't even bother to study up before her Senate confirmation hearing?

On fighting for public schools, it is painfully clear that McMahon's plan for our students and schools is in lockstep with Trump's pro- billionaire agenda. They are going to let public schools get robbed blind as the richest people in the world suck money out of our schools and communities that need it the most. They are going to cut off funding that directly supports our students and teachers and send it straight to the pockets of unaccountable private and for-profit K through 12 schools.

And on standing up for our students, standing up to President Trump, Linda McMahon got it backward. When I asked her, at the hearing, about making sure schools get the money that we--Congress--pass, even if Trump and Musk try to block it, and making sure

that our students' data is protected, as DOGE tries to muck around with no oversight or accountability, she made it very clear she would not stand in their way.

But it gets worse, because when it comes to Trump's mission of destroying the Department of Education, she is all too ready to grab a hatchet and get to work.

The irony is that while Trump and Musk talk about eliminating the Department of Education, they are trying to involve the Federal Government even deeper into the schools than ever before. They talk about how schools and parents know best, and then they threaten schools if they don't do what they say. Apparently, Mrs. McMahon thinks: Why should we have a Department of Education if Trump and Elon Musk can actually just tell schools what they can do and what they can teach?

Let's be clear on what it will mean if Trump, Musk, and McMahon have their way and try to turn the Department of Education into something that kids read about in our history books. There are 26 million K through 12 students from low-income neighborhoods who could see their schools lose Federal funding, lay off teachers, or even close. There are 9.8 million students at our rural schools that count on Federal support, which could face similar challenges. There are 7.4 million students with disabilities who could see the IDEA Program upended, cutting off support that State and local taxpayers will need to provide.

There are 6.6 million students who get Pell grants to help them afford college or enter the workforce or further their careers who would be impacted by the chaos of abolishing the Department. And there are 8.1 million high school students and 3.3 million college students who are served by our career and technical education programs that are administered by the Department of Education.

Trying to abolish the Department, or even just taking a wrecking ball to the critical work that it does, will hurt our students who face homelessness. It will cut off Federal aid to students who want to pursue a higher education. It will undermine the enforcement of the rights of students with disabilities. It will reduce assistance intended to lift up students not getting the support they need. It will weaken protections for students and scrap evidence-based research that helps us know what is working, for whom, and how. And it will leave for-profit colleges free to rip off students and families, which we have seen happen in the past, and we can't let that happen again.

So the fact that Mrs. McMahon has not opposed Trump's grand plan to abolish the Department of Education is not just a redflag to me. It is a blinking, blaring fire alarm. It means either she doesn't fully understand just what the Department does and how devastating it would be to abolish it, or she doesn't care. Either way, I find that disqualifying.

So here is my message to everyone. Like any good preschool teacher, I will make it short and simple: We cannot have a Secretary of Education who doesn't believe in having a Secretary of Education.

It is kind of common sense. Why would we have someone in charge of the Education Department who thinks it should not exist, who doesn't care if we have a Department focused on getting our students and schools the support they need.

Madam President, let me finish with this. I still have in my office a quilt that my kids in my preschool made for me on the very last day I taught preschool. It is hung prominently on the wall of my biggest meeting room. It is a beautiful patchwork of squiggles and smiles drawn in bright, messy crayon. When I look at it, I remember the little hands that made each one of those squares. I think about those little heads with big, curious minds and a world of possibility before them. I remember the responsibility that we all felt to make sure they were leaving our preschool ready to succeed. I wonder how many of those children that made those little, small squares now have kids of their own, and I reflect on how the decisions we make in education today--the policies that we fight for, the people that we confirm or reject here-- will set a course for our children and our country for years to come.

There are two clear courses ahead of us with this vote: one where we have a Department of Education that continues to work to support every student and give them the brightest possible future or one where we don't--one where every kid is on their own, one where lights are turned off and doors are shut and opportunities are closed, unless you happen to have the right ZIP Code or the right money.

I know which future I am going to vote for today: the one where we live up to our responsibility and all of our kids can live up to their fullest potential and pursue big dreams. I urge my colleagues to join me today in voting for that future and against Linda McMahon for Secretary of Education.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I come to the floor today to make a simple point: The law cannot be in the eye of the beholder. The law is the law. But yet again, we are seeing the Trump administration break the law.

Many of us have been closely following the Trump administration's illegal freeze of congressionally appropriated funding, including of foreign aid not just from the State Department but also from USAID, the African Development Foundation, the Inter-American Foundation, and other independent Agencies. Each of those Agencies' existence as an independent entity has long been enshrined in statute and reaffirmed by bipartisan majorities in both Chambers year after year in annual appropriations.

Our appropriations law also explicitly requires the administration to notify and consult with Congress before undertaking any efforts to reorganize, realign, or downsize foreign affairs Agencies, as the sweeping reductions in force issued last week and many other brazen actions we have seen clearly seek to do.

The administration's actions, including firing the USAID inspector general and the State IG, will make waste and fraud more likely, will prevent even foreign assistance programs allegedly supported by the administration from being effectively implemented, and will also effectively block hundreds of millions of dollars for other programs enacted into law by bipartisan majorities. Needless to say, the Trump administration has not consulted or notified Congress about these changes. That is in violation of the law.

This week, they took a further step. The Trump administration has chosen to spit in the face of the law and Congress, expressing total disdain for a court order mandating they release the foreign aid funding they had illegally withheld. When finally told they must comply, Secretary Rubio personally approved the termination of 90 percent of the USAID programs and 60 percent of State Department programs virtually overnight. They terminated more than $58 billion in multiyear programs and have told us they have no intention of utilizing those funds.

The termination of those awards is absolutely not what Congress intended. Congress appropriated the funding on a bipartisan basis with the express intent to see those dollars spent. This is not trivial stuff. We are talking about resources that often mean the difference between life and death, resources that are imperative not just because they are lifesaving but because they are an investment in our own national security and in U.S. businesses.

Let's take Ebola, for example. USAID helps other countries around the world respond to and contain Ebola outbreaks. That is pretty darn important because there is no known cure for Ebola.

Thanks to the good work of USAID, along with our international partners--often supported by USAID awards--we have never had an Ebola outbreak here at home.

Yesterday, at President Trump's Cabinet meeting, Elon Musk even admitted that, yes, we want to fight Ebola. Of course, then he said they ``accidentally'' cut USAID's Ebola prevention efforts but that it had been ``restored'' with no ``interruption.''

Yet we know for a fact that is a lie. U.S.-based companies implementing these programs received termination notices yesterday. Any basic accounting of USAID's capacity to stop outbreaks abroad shows quite plainly any disease prevention efforts supported by the United States at this point are merely symbolic. You cannot break the foundation of public health systems overseas and expect that it won't have a damaging impact here at home.

This makes America less safe. If Ebola, Marburg, or any other infectious disease makes it to our shores, it will be thanks to Elon and Trump--two billionaires without a clue who are positively smug about their own ignorance.

But it is not just our infectious disease response that has now been gutted--everything from resources to help prevent kids from getting malaria to aid for refugees in war-torn places like Syria, where it is directly in our national security interests to foster stability.

It is not just resources from faraway places. This will hit home in blue and red States. U.S. universities in my home State, in Indiana, in Florida, in Texas, and other States have had their partnerships terminated.

American students from across our country who are now participating in exchange programs overseas are impacted by this. To put it into perspective for my colleagues, 5,800 of 6,300 USAID grants and contracts are being terminated. That is 9 out of 10. That is not to mention 4,100 of 6,800 State Department grants and contracts.

The only detail we have is from the NGO's faith-based organizations and U.S. contractors sending these termination notices to our committee. We do not have one shred of detail from the State Department, not one shred.

The scale is staggering, and it shows you that this administration's scheme

is to bulldoze right through restraining orders and court orders so that by the time the law does catch up with them, the damage will have been done. Compliance is easy at that point. What is left to fix once you have burned everything to the ground?

This administration knows full well they are breaking the law. They are showing us all in plain view their goal is to do irreparable damage, as much as possible, as fast as possible.

Well, I am here today to sound the alarm because this illegal power grab is in direct violation of congressional intent and appropriations laws.

The Supreme Court should act with haste to bring this administration to account and ensure that money Congress appropriated gets to where it was intended. Whether it is President Trump or Elon Musk or the Secretary of State calling the shots, Congress has no visibility into DOGE's actions, frustrating our ability to write funding bills when government funding runs out in weeks.

By ignoring the law and congressional intent, the administration has created chaos; they have eroded trust in the United States; and they made way for Russia and China to take advantage of this leadership vacuum.

No one should fall for this thin veneer about efficiency while this administration racks up legal fees, overdue payments to contractors, pays people not to work, and forces a global recall of staff.

We have a process to avoid this kind of chaos: The President submits his or her budget request to Congress. Congress holds hearings publicly, writes and passes bills that become law. We have explicit notification and consultation requirements for foreign assistance funding for a reason.

Do I need to march down to the National Archives? Do I need to make sure we still have a Constitution? Do I need to check whether the laws we passed are even still there or did they start running them through a shedder? Because as blatant and persistent as it has been, no one--no one--should expect this kind of lawlessness to fade away.

I cast my votes, and I speak on this floor as a voice for the people of the State I represent, Washington State. I was not elected to let the President of any party or some unaccounted billionaire decide how their tax dollars get spent.

Every Senator here should speak loudly with one unified voice: Congress holds the power of the purse. No President can unilaterally abolish an entire Agency or ignore our appropriations laws.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, we need to be focused on solving problems. I think most of us here get that. No matter who the President is, our constituents expect us to work for them. They expect us to fight for them, and they expect us to do the hard work of passing laws to make their lives better.

People don't send us here to make their lives worse, but that is exactly what Trump and Musk are doing. They are looking at our most pressing problems and making them worse. This budget proposal will only add fuel to that fire.

Right now, even as egg prices hit an alltime high, Trump and Musk have done nothing to lower prices. They have done nothing to address the housing crisis or help families get quality, affordable childcare or address other issues I hear about from folks all the time. Instead, they are slashing programs that help our families make ends meet. They are gutting an Agency that saves working people money and protects them from scams and starting trade wars that will impose what is effectively a Trump sales tax entirely on the backs of American workers.

As China works to strengthen its global leadership, Trump and Musk have ceded the ground almost entirely, illegally cutting off investments we make to continue our country's leadership and help our allies.

At the most precarious moment for the Middle East in decades, Trump is casually proposing to ethnically cleanse Gaza so that Trump and his family can build waterfront property there.

When it comes to helping our allies in Ukraine secure a just peace, Trump is giving away countless concessions to Putin--out of the gate-- calling our ally a ``dictator'' and meeting with Russia without inviting Ukraine.

When it comes to the bird flu, Trump and Musk are firing the very workers who are responsible for tracking the disease and keeping it from spreading further; and now, suddenly, they are desperately trying to hire them back.

As Texas deals with a serious measles outbreak, Trump's Secretary can't even confirm the obvious and tell parents the vaccine doesn't cause autism, which, to be clear, it does not.

And almost unbelievably--just weeks after the deadliest commercial plane crash in the United States in over two decades--Trump and Musk are firing FAA workers who make sure flying is safe. Who does that help?

Now Trump is letting Musk run wild by inappropriately accessing and rifling through sensitive SSA and Treasury files, with the IRS being next--your data. How does that make sense?

But while President Trump is busy making problems worse and trampling our laws and quoting dictators, what are we doing here in the Senate? Are we holding President Trump accountable? Are we holding his ``co- President,'' Elon Musk--the richest man in the world who has billions of dollars in conflicts of interest--accountable? Are we putting a stop to the catastrophic cuts and reckless firings that are hurting people and our communities and setting our country back decades?

It seems to me that would be a good use of time. After all, I have even heard some Republicans admit that cutting things like medical research and firing people like our VA workers are bad ideas. So you would think, maybe, we could work together from that common ground, but, instead, Republicans are throwing all their effort behind a partisan plan to slash and burn programs that help our families and raise costs for everyday Americans and shovel billions of dollars to help people who already have billions of dollars.

Meanwhile, I would like to recommend to my colleagues that we are less than a month away from a deadline to pass bills to fund our government, and as we approach that deadline, the entire world is watching as President Trump and Elon Musk shut the government down bit by bit--whatever parts Elon doesn't like. Trump and Musk are already showing thousands of our essential workers the door despite the fact they have no clue what those workers do or why their jobs matter. They are just turning off the lights and hoping for the best.

I am hearing so much alarm on this from back home--from fired workers and from the people who depend on them. Trump and his ``co-President'' are shuttering entire Agencies. They are locking workers out of their devices and out of their buildings and demanding the work of the American people come to a screeching halt--again, for no good reason.

Let me really drive home just how damaging and extreme these firings are because we are not talking about some routine changing of the guard or some thoughtful or strategic plan to make government more efficient. Trump and Musk are just taking a wrecking ball to the U.S. Government. They don't care what they smash up. They don't care whom they hurt, and they don't seem to have any idea just how painful this is for American families. We are talking about tens of thousands of people--and counting--being pushed out the door without any plan and without any justification beyond Trump and Elon just wanting to slash and cut with reckless abandon.

This has nothing to do with making government more efficient; it is about breaking it beyond repair. Fundamentally, this is not about cutting waste or curbing fraud. Instead, this is about putting the Federal workforce into trauma. That is how OMB Director Russell Vought callously put it. So they are mass firing hard-working women and men-- many of them veterans--whose only mistake was serving our country, serving our communities, and believing they wouldn't get stabbed in the back by a wannabe dictator and the richest man in the world.

In setting aside the fact that many were illegally fired and without real cause, it is not just the workers who are suffering because of this. These cuts undermine essential services for the American people right down to some of the most basic functions of government.

Trump and Musk are firing people who help Americans find quality, affordable health insurance; people who help small businesses get a loan; people who help communities and families get back on their feet after a disaster; and people who help Americans get their tax refunds.

They are firing people who help our economy stay competitive--from firings that undermine energy projects and thousands of good new jobs to firings that undermine innovation and technology, to firings that are hurting our farmers and undermining agricultural research.

They are laying off national park rangers, which will mean longer wait times, dirtier bathrooms, delayed emergency responses, and closed parks. They fired Forest Service workers who are crucial to preventing wildfires.

Again, I have to emphasize they are firing FAA workers, for crying out loud, including personnel who work on radar and landing and other critical infrastructure that help our aircraft navigate safely. They are firing these people and pretending it is no big deal, all just weeks after, by the way, the deadliest crash our Nation has seen in decades. Trump and Elon might not fly commercial, but the rest of us do.

In the Pacific Northwest, the Bonneville Power Administration is losing hundreds of highly skilled workers, and that includes everyone from electricians, engineers, dispatchers, line workers, cybersecurity experts, and many more. These are literally the people who keep the lights on, and now they are being fired on a whim because Trump and Elon Musk do not have a clue about what they do and why it is important. And do you know what? They don't care. They don't even seem to understand, actually, that these positions are funded by ratepayers--by all of us who live in the Northwest. They are not from Federal funding.

Trump and Musk have even fired over 1,000 VA workers, including people who are doing lifesaving research for our veterans: research to prevent veteran suicide; to build life-changing prosthetics; and to address opioid addiction and more. These layoffs will mean longer wait times for veterans to see their healthcare providers. It could mean ongoing clinical trials coming to a sudden stop. It means delays in getting your disability claim approved because Trump and Musk went ahead and fired clinicians and claims raters even while, today, the current backlog of disability claims is over 250,000. That is not just a betrayal of these public workers; it is a betrayal of our women and men who have served us in uniform. It is also worth noting that many of the workers being fired are veterans themselves. Trump is firing veterans.

And let's not forget the thousands of NIH researchers who are having their research thrown into jeopardy and the patients who are watching President Trump carelessly toss their best hope for a cure into the shredder--or CMS experts. They are working on improving maternal health outcomes so fewer pregnant women die in this country.

Medical research layoffs aren't the only ones putting American lives at risk because Trump and Musk are firing public health workers who respond to disease outbreaks: cybersecurity experts who protect our critical infrastructure, sensitive systems, and our data; scientists who make sure our water and our air are clean and that we are ready for extreme weather; workers who help our communities prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters, not to mention members of law enforcement who help stop violent criminals, and, of course, our nuclear engineers.

Seriously, people who manage our nuclear weapons stockpile are being fired by the hundreds with no real strategy, and we know there is no strategy because then Trump and Musk frantically turned around and rehired many of them. We also know they haven't learned their lesson because they just did the exact same thing to our workers who are responding to bird flu--reckless layoffs followed by: Wait. No. Come back.

That is not a plan. That is not a plan. To callously fire people who help us stay ahead of deadly diseases and to maintain a safe, secure, and reliable nuclear weapons stockpile--that is the height of dangerous incompetence.

Nuclear cleanup work has been hit as well. I have been fighting to get more resources for the Hanford cleanup in Washington State for years. It is already understaffed, and now Trump is actively making things worse. I have heard directly--directly--from workers at Hanford who have been laid off even after some were recognized just this past year for their outstanding work.

And, by the way, that underscores another reality of these firings: They have absolutely nothing to do with merit. In fact, they are targeting new employees, including people who were recently promoted. So now these workers are getting fired from their newly earned jobs-- literally pushing out some of our best performers and our most committed workers.

One more thing. They are even illegally firing the government watchdogs who provide accountability and prevent fraud. If Trump and Musk were really committed to tackling waste, fraud, and abuse, would they fire the very people serving in nonpartisan roles and whose very jobs are to uncover and reduce waste, fraud, and abuse? If they were really interested in transparency, would they have torn down websites where the public can find information about Agencies' spending and policy?

The list of pointless, actively dangerous firings goes on and on. It grows by the day as does the followup alarm being caused by it. My phones have been ringing off the hook, and I know I am not the only one. Again, these sweeping layoffs do not address fraud or waste. They are totally arbitrary, pushing out high performers and the promising next generation of our Federal workforce, which won't be easily replaced, not to mention the hiring freeze prevents them from even trying.

And here is the thing that is so important to remember: These are people who have families. They work hard. They love their country. They are not being sent packing because they have done anything wrong or because their work is not important. They are being pushed out simply because Trump and Musk are trying to break the government, trying to make it not work for the people who need it. It is wrong, and if this doesn't stop now, it will be catastrophic.

The scale and scope of Trump and Elon's purge will set our country back decades. It is not like you can fire anyone and say: Oh, wait--my bad--and hire them back with the snap of a finger. If you are a VA medical researcher, working for less than you could make in the private sector, and you are fired by a billionaire who decides your research on cancer and burn pit exposure isn't worth the investment, would you want to come back, especially with the chaos and sheer incompetence of this administration?

The Federal Government is not Twitter. You can't just fire everyone and break things and hope for the best. People's lives are at stake. Elon Musk has no clue what nuclear safety engineers do at Hanford. He doesn't care that the Social Security Administration is already understaffed, and pushing more of those Federal workers out the door will make life harder for our seniors.

This effort to push out and arbitrarily fire Federal workers is going to break something worse than it already has, and it is going to break it irreparably. When that happens, the blame will fall squarely on Trump and Musk and the Republicans.

And it is not just people being fired that is a serious problem. There are also still--still today--funds frozen without rhyme or reason or legal authority for Trump to do that. So I am not only worried about the fast-approaching funding deadline in March, I am worried about the de facto government shutdown that is happening right now. As we speak, Trump and Musk are still illegally blocking hundreds of billions of dollars in funding we all secured for the people we represent back home, putting good-paying jobs on the chopping block, creating incredible uncertainty for businesses, stalling funds for our infrastructure and energy projects, and a lot more.

As another week of Trump's illegally funding blockade has come and gone, still, reports are coming in from across my State and across the country of the chaos and cuts this is causing, and yet little to nothing has been done by this administration to restore investments in people in red and blue States that they are counting on.

Republicans here in Congress continue to sit by idly while our communities are robbed of hundreds of billions of dollars in bipartisan spending. Meanwhile, it is our workers, it is our families, it is our businesses that are feeling this consequence. With each day that passes, the uncertain fate of these investments takes a toll of its own: ever-growing anxiety for workers whose jobs are in jeopardy, for farmers who are eyeing the calendar and waiting on resources that they are owed, for business owners worried a ripped-up contract might put them under.

I have heard USDA grants have been cut off to rural businesses and farmers in my home State of Washington, and it is putting those hard- working Americans in dire straits.

A small laundromat ordered new machines, but now Trump is stiffing them on funds they need to make that payment.

A wheat farmer installed solar panels under a Federal program, but Trump is going to leave them holding the bag.

A greenhouse has completed its end of the bargain to install upgrades. Trump has stopped the Federal Government from doing the part it promised.

And there are so many other Federal investments on hold as well: Forest Service funding to reduce wildfire risks and restore ecosystems, EPA funding for clean water infrastructure and cleanup work on our Superfund sites, HUD and Department of Energy investments to bring down folks' energy costs and create new, good-paying jobs, funding for our roads and bridges and transit and flood mapping and fisheries--so many other things.

Medical research has also been completely upended at research institutions across our country, throwing lifesaving research, clinical trials, and patients into uncertainty.

Meanwhile, they have not only illegally blocked our foreign assistance and shuttered USAID programs that

bolster our global leadership and make the world safer for Americans, they are now illegally dismantling the Department of Education. They have already bulldozed the independent research arm of the Department of Education. They are taking a wrecking ball to ongoing evidence-based research and basic collection data we need for accountability to improve student outcomes at our K through 12 schools and colleges.

And among the many contracts Trump canceled with his Executive orders was funding for a program that helps students with disabilities transition from high school to work and work to improve adoption of evidence-based literacy practices in Washington State.

These billionaires have no idea what programs they are cutting. Given the chaos of all these efforts--from Trump's sweeping, radical, and illegal Executive orders to Elon Musk jumping from Agency to Agency and doing seemingly whatever he pleases and whatever is good for his business--it is getting hard to even keep track of all the funding that is being illegally blocked. Even stuff they say is not blocked or say has been unblocked is still frozen.

But one thing that is clear: This is hurting our families, hurting our communities, and it needs to stop.

Remember, Musk is the richest man on Earth, with deep business ties to China and a direct line to Putin. Republicans have chosen to stand by and twiddle their thumbs as he unilaterally, clandestinely, and illegally cuts our constituents off from the Federal investments they are owed and badly in need of. We have zero insight or oversight of what conflicts of interest Musk has, as he chokes off government funding left and right and as he hands over our sensitive financial data and systems to patently unqualified individuals with no accountability.

This multibillionaire is operating completely in the dark, hoping his lies are loud enough to drown out any calls for truth or transparency.

You can agree or disagree about Federal spending. Goodness knows, we have a lot of debates on it here. But it is a complete lie to try and say this is all fraud, waste, or conspiracy.

As a longtime appropriator, I can tell you, we debate these bills publicly. We post the details out in the open. We pass them in a bipartisan way. Republicans overwhelmingly supported the individual bills we put together in committee last year--many unanimously.

Spending is not a ``conspiracy'' just because Elon Musk doesn't know how to read USAspending.gov. A program is not waste just because it doesn't help the richest man in the world. It is not fraud just because he doesn't like it. A law is not illegal just because he disagrees with it.

This guy just does not know what he is talking about, and it is, frankly, embarrassing. He doesn't know how to count.

The DOGE website says it is slashing $55 billion, but it only lists $16.6 billion, and half of that is a typo. They took $8 million, with an M, as in ``Musk can't count'' and counted it as $8 billion, with a B, as in ``BS.'' That is not saving money; it is poor reading comprehension.

Speaking of reading comprehension, I don't think Elon fully grasps what the concepts of transparency and accountability mean.

When he tweeted out the names of government employees months ago--and again this month, even--that was accountability. But when reporters name people gaining illegal access to Treasury's payment system, that is a crime?

Elon Musk gets to look at all of our most sensitive data, but no one gets to look at what he is actually doing? That cannot be the standard. It is not ``maximally transparent'' for Elon Musk to decide for himself what he shares publicly about his actions. It is maximally concerning, especially given that there are many obvious conflicts of interest but Elon has not recused himself from a single decision.

How is it not a conflict when the owner of SpaceX is gutting NASA while taxpayer funds to his company keep flowing?

How is it not blatant corruption when the owner of Tesla is freezing grants and loans that benefit his competitors?

How are we supposed to just trust him when he is probing Agencies that have done--or are doing right now--investigations into his businesses?

Trump fired the Ag inspector general who was investigating Elon's company Neuralink and then fired the FDA officials who were reviewing it. He fired the EPA inspector general and Transportation inspector general as they were looking at Tesla. He fired the Labor inspector general, as the Department has several investigations into Musk's companies. And Trump fired the Defense inspector general who was looking at SpaceX and, notably, Musk's connection to Putin.

And it is not just Musk who is concerning. He has brought on an army of walking redflags to pry into our government's most sensitive data.

How are Americans supposed to feel knowing someone who was previously fired for leaking sensitive information from their employer is digging through their most private financial data?

How are Americans supposed to feel knowing someone who engaged with prominent White supremacists and misogynists online is helping to shut down USAID?

How are they supposed to feel knowing someone who tweeted explicitly racist statements, someone who said they were ``racist before it was cool'' was given control over incredibly important Treasury payments?

What sort of vetting, if any, is going on here? Are they trying to pick the least qualified, most concerning people?

Hey, Elon, you were supposed to filter out redflags, not select for them.

The American people deserve transparency. If Elon Musk really has nothing to hide, then he should leave his safe place on X and at Trump rallies and come before us at a congressional hearing to be held accountable to the public.

What they are doing here is not just illegal; it is devastating for working people in every ZIP code in America, red and blue States alike.

Right now, we need to be speaking out with a unified voice to ensure that when Congress passes a bill, the law is followed. And we need to focus on negotiating serious funding bills on a bipartisan basis ahead of the fast-approaching March 14 deadline. That is exactly what I am trying to do right now, and a long-term CR should not be acceptable for anyone here.

As I have reminded my colleagues many times now, there is a world of difference between a short-term CR that gives us additional time for good-faith negotiations on full-year funding bills and a long-term CR that would not only create major shortfalls for critical programs but would also hand vast power over spending decisions to an administration that absolutely cannot and should not be trusted.

Passing a clean, full-year CR would, first of all, create major shortfalls and fail to adjust for new realities on the ground; it could mean that instead of babies getting fed through WIC, moms are getting put on a waitlist for the first time in that program's history, and instead of families getting rental assistance, they get cut off.

A clean, full-year CR means veterans are not able to get the care they need and the benefits they have earned in a timely way, and it means our military falling behind, from forcing cuts across DOD to pausing promotions, station changes, and other really essential functions.

It also means losing opportunities to provide resources for new challenges and to provide a check on Trump policies, including ones it is clear Members on both sides of this aisle have issues with.

And on that note, I want to emphasize--because this is really critical--unlike a short-term CR, a clean, full-year CR means hundreds of specific funding directives from Congress fall away, effectively creating slush funds for this administration to adjust spending priorities and potentially eliminate longstanding programs as they see fit. That is a nonstarter.

With a full-year CR, Congress would be turning over our power of the purse to a President who has already shown he couldn't care less about the separation of powers.

A year-long CR would be a green light for President Trump, Elon Musk, and Russell Vought to redirect funding to their own pet projects and slash and

burn and zero out the programs we have supported from Congress that our families count on. Maybe they siphon money away from public schools. Maybe they slash Federal work study grants and financial aid. Maybe they zero out money for national parks or monuments they think are too woke. What would that even mean?

Maybe they scrap all our oversight of immigration courts or end family reunification or dismantle the guardrails for detaining immigrants--something we are already seeing, by the way, with the use of Guantanamo Bay.

They could cut funding to eliminate HIV, address maternal mortality, or increase vaccination rates. They could turn our constituents' priorities into slush funds. Clean energy investments could become a payday for fossil fuels. Money meant to stop fentanyl and opioids could fuel private prison operations and mass deportations.

Congress must detail its spending priorities and direct President Trump to implement these programs faithfully by passing appropriations bills, just as it does every year. There is truly no telling just how far they would go in bending our Federal budget from what our constituents need to whatever Trump and Musk want.

If you don't think things could get worse, you are wrong. A clean, yearlong CR is, frankly, an unacceptable outcome. We cannot tell our constituents that instead of using our authority to check a President, we give him the keys to the kingdom. We cannot say: Instead of fighting to get you the resources you need, we will let a billionaire have more say in where your tax dollar goes instead.

So we need Republicans to get serious about these bipartisan funding bills. And we have got to know that once those bills become law, Trump will actually follow them. We cannot just reach an agreement, pass a bill, and then stand by while President Trump rips our laws in half.

There is a serious bipartisan path forward for our country, but it is one where Congress works together to avoid a shutdown, stops the de facto shutdown that is already happening, and reasserts its authority to protect the funding our communities need. But, unfortunately, that is a far cry from the path Republicans are going down with this pro- billionaire, anti-middle class budget resolution that is on the floor.

Let's be very clear: Republicans' budget resolution doesn't just accept; it actually doubles down on what Trump and Musk are doing.

And it is not about balancing the budget--we all know that--because they don't plan to reverse one of the biggest drivers of the debt: Republican tax cuts. Despite all of the bogeymen Republicans like to point to as driving the national debt, the reality is that the single biggest driver of our national debt since 2001 has been Republican tax cuts. The Trump and Bush tax cuts have cost our Nation over $10 trillion and counting.

And you will never guess what our colleagues on the other side of the aisle are focused on right now. Nothing to lower the cost of eggs. It is actually more Republican tax cuts.

And, no, they will not be paid for, and, yes, they will blow up the national debt. While Elon Musk hacks and chops his way through the government in the name of meager ``savings'' and Republicans are cheering him on, they are all hoping that we will ignore the elephant they brought into the room, even as this budget is a roadmap for painful cuts to programs families count on each and every day--all so they can give billionaires more tax cuts.

Republicans are going down this partisan path because they know Democrats are not going to join them in throwing Medicaid, nutrition assistance, and veterans benefits into the woodchuck so they can throw more tax cuts at billionaires and the biggest corporations.

Make no mistake, this budget resolution is the DOGE resolution, as it assumes a staggering amount of $1 trillion in unspecified cuts in 2025 alone and $9 trillion over 10 years. Where do we think those kinds of dramatic cuts are going to come from? It is going to come out of SNAP benefits that keep our kids from going hungry. It is going to come out of our public schools and community health centers. It is going to come out of lifesaving medical research.

It will mean costs going up--up--for everyday Americans. It means childcare costs going up when families lose access to Head Start and other quality, affordable options. It means heating and cooling costs going up when families get cut off from LIHEAP. It means rent going up as assistance programs get slashed. It means your healthcare costs go up as community health centers and family planning providers are forced to close their doors. It means grocery costs going up as programs like SNAP and WIC are gutted, not to mention what happens when you cut support for farmers and for ag research.

And make no mistake, if you are cutting that deeply, that painfully, you are going to start cutting things like veterans' disability and education benefits. You are going to start cutting Medicare and Medicaid, which, for the information of all Senators, 30 million children rely on.

There is just no other way to make those numbers work, especially when we know that this is just step one in their plan. And step two is tax breaks for billionaires and massive corporations.

So, first, they are handing Elon Musk a chain saw to cut programs that families rely on, with no accountability. Then they are rewarding him with enormous tax breaks, and that is completely unacceptable. We should not be taking kids out of childcare to give billionaires a tax break. We should not be taking food off the family table to put more fuel in private jets.

I grew up in a family that knew what it was like to fall on hard times. My dad, who was a veteran, got too sick to work. He had multiple sclerosis. My mom kept us afloat with my dad's VA benefits and food stamps and a new job that she got thanks to a Federal workforce program.

It wasn't easy. Mom always said they crawled--crawled--to Social Security and Medicare, but she worked hard, and our government was there for them when those hard times came. I know there are families struggling right now just like my family struggled then. I hear from them every day in the letters we get here in Washington, DC, and in the conversations I have back home in Washington State.

They work hard. They play by the rules. They deserve, at the very least, the same opportunity my parents had when I was growing up. And I am not going to stand by silently while Republicans try to sell that opportunity away to pay for even more tax breaks for billionaires.

I get why that sounds like a good idea to billionaires like Donald Trump. I get why it is a sweet deal for Elon Musk, the richest man in the world. It is great for them because they are not the ones footing the bill. The bill for these tax breaks--the cost of these cuts--is going to be paid by folks like my mom and dad.

Everyday Americans will pay for billionaire tax breaks with their healthcare. They will pay for billionaire tax breaks with abandoned medical research. They will pay for billionaire tax breaks with shuttered family farms and small businesses.

And Republicans can try and spin a fairytale about how this will pay for itself, how this will work out for everyone, and how nothing anyone cares about will be affected. But the reality is going to show through pretty darn quick and pretty darn painfully because spin is not going to put food on the table. It will not pay the rent. It won't fix the roads. It won't lower prices. It won't lower interest rates, and it won't put money in families' dwindling bank accounts.

When it comes to the job we are all sent here to do, helping people and solving problems, families need real solutions, not tax breaks for billionaires and talking points for everyone who loses out.

Mr. President, I urge all of my colleagues: Hit the brakes--and not just on this devastating partisan budget resolution. Hit the brakes on what President Trump and Elon Musk are doing right now. Let's, instead, come together and work on serious bipartisan bills to fund the government. Let's get investments that are sorely needed out to the folks we represent. Let's pass legislation that gives folks a hand instead of this Republican plan that gives billionaires a handout.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, I call up my amendment No. 878 and ask that it be reported by number.

Madam President, my amendment does two things.

First of all, it strikes the reconciliation instructions. Secondly, it creates a reserve fund to implement a bipartisan, multiyear agreement to provide $171 billion in discretionary funding for both defense and nondefense.

Democrats do agree we need more resources to invest in our national security and address the challenges at the border and counter China, but we cannot leave the rest of the budget in the dust while we do that. So let's deliver investments to do both and make sure we also support our veterans, agriculture, disaster response, biomedical research, FAA, childcare, and more.

These are all big challenges. Democrats stand ready to work with our colleagues, as we have in the past, including through our bipartisan efforts on the Appropriations Committee. But that can only happen if the Republicans are willing to work with us, and working with us means actually working with us, not telling us to accept Elon Musk's cutting $1 trillion in fiscal year 2025 to our priorities, which is assumed in this Republican plan, and, at the same time, spending $342 billion on their own priorities. It also means not sitting on your hands--

--while Elon and Trump rip up our bipartisan laws. I urge my colleagues--

I urge my colleagues to support this amendment.

Madam President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, I call up my amendment No. 880 and ask that it be reported by number.

Mr. President, the Trump administration is working to destroy medical research as we know it with an illegal, unrealistic cap on the NIH reimbursement rate for indirect costs. It means cancer researchers laid off, lifesaving clinical trials canceled, and more, and it violates the bipartisan appropriations law. I should know--I helped author that provision. Republicans should know--they worked with me to pass it.

I yield to the senior Senator from Illinois.

Mr. President, thank you to my colleague from Oregon, who has very clearly stated why this nominee is not someone who should be holding the title of Secretary of Health and Human Services, and I appreciate all of his work on this, and his wife's work. I hope everyone heeds them.

The American people are watching now with alarm because the vast majority of people know vaccines are safe, they are effective, and they are lifesaving. But we are now on the verge of confirming as our Nation's highest health official a man who has spent considerable time, money, and effort undermining that basic fact; a man who has abused his platform by refusing to acknowledge the well-established science that shows that vaccines are not linked to autism.

Fear about that point--fueled by RFK, Jr., and others peddling misinformation--is a leading reason that parents do not get their kids vaccinated against preventable, dangerous diseases. That is why elevating a man like RFK, Jr., to lead HHS would be so dangerous. Just giving him any platform to spread vaccine doubt is dangerous. But to give him one of the biggest megaphones in the world?

It is truly shameful that we even are debating this. My colleagues should know better. They actually do know better. They are looking the other way. They are choosing to pretend like it is in any way believable that RFK, Jr., won't use his new power to do exactly the thing he has been trying to do for decades: undermine vaccines.

Never mind the fact that CDC has already modified web pages with information about vaccines and other vital public health information, which a Federal judge has now ordered the Trump administration to restore. Never mind that the Trump administration is also reportedly planning widespread and significant layoffs--layoffs--at CDC and across HHS. This is how RFK, Jr., substitutes his own beliefs for science.

So when the vaccine conspiracies start swirling, and RFK, Jr., turns HHS into ground zero for misinformation, ``I had no idea'' is not going to be an excuse for confirming him, because at the HELP Committee hearing, the chair pressed him repeatedly about the debunked claims that vaccines cause autism. And when RFK, Jr., said he needed to ``see the evidence,'' he was shown the evidence, but to no one's surprise, he did not keep his word, admit he had been wrong, and spread the good news that vaccines do not cause autism.

He has had 2 weeks since that hearing to look at the same settled science as everyone else--crickets. But he won't hesitate to quote the latest anti-vax conspiracy. He is totally up to speed on that front.

Are my colleagues really buying that this guy will take an impartial look at the science?

If you think RFK, Jr., will change who he is, you are lying to yourself. He has given no evidence to suggest that and all the evidence in the world to the contrary.

Given his long and growing track record, we cannot just pretend, if RFK, Jr., finally gets power to undermine vaccines--a cause he has dedicated a considerable amount of time and effort to--that he will just give up. That is not believable.

And I know I have been talking a lot about vaccines because it is so obviously alarming, but the responsibility he would have goes far beyond that.

So let's break some of this down, both the ways he could undermine vaccines as HHS Secretary and the other responsibilities that would be at stake.

To start with, the CDC is under HHS. That means that the Secretary directly appoints people to CDC's vaccine advisory board. That board is responsible for making recommendations about

vaccines, and it is those recommendations that determine whether or not certain vaccines have to be covered by insurance.

So simply put, changing those recommendations will change what vaccines millions of Americans--including kids--will be able to get from their healthcare provider. If he is confirmed, there would be nothing stopping RFK, Jr., from firing the entire board and replacing them all with vaccine skeptics. After all, he has said many times and in many ways that he thinks CDC is corrupt and bought by Pharma--as usual, by the way, without any evidence.

RFK, Jr., would also oversee the Food and Drug Administration--that is another Agency he has repeatedly tried to discredit and attack-- where he says he plans to fire--fire--hundreds of scientists on day one, at an Agency that plays the crucial role of making sure our drugs and our treatments, including vaccines, are safe and effective when we purchase them.

Not only would Mr. Kennedy have a key perch from which he would undermine vaccines, on a scale like never seen before, he could also use that platform to peddle quack treatments with no basis in science.

RFK, Jr., would also have jurisdiction over NIH. That alone means influence over billions of dollars in medical research--research that is responsible for a significant portion of our economy and, more importantly, research that patients are desperately hoping will help them find cures. But RFK, Jr., could redirect those funds to promote his favorite pet conspiracies instead of promising cures, or he could make good on his plans to fire hundreds of researchers and pause infectious disease research for 8 years.

It should go without saying that viruses aren't going to take a break.

And here is the thing: The attacks on medical research are now already happening under Trump. From his day one Executive orders, President Trump has already been threatening medical research. Suddenly, all of our grants are at risk because they are looking at addressing barriers to care or understanding why Black and Native American women have higher maternal death rates.

And now President Trump is also trying to illegally, arbitrarily, and suddenly change NIH guidelines to set an unrealistic low cap on indirect cost rates. That will mean researchers laid off, studies canceled--including lifesaving clinical trials--and kids not able to get the treatment they need, all because President Trump and Elon Musk don't seem to understand how we actually fund important research and couldn't even be bothered to find out before taking an ax to our medical research labs.

At a time when lifesaving research like this is already under attack by the President and the richest man in the world, no one who truly values medical research should vote to install one of the biggest attackers of medical science as the Secretary of HHS.

Insurance is another huge portfolio for HHS. Last time Trump was in office, we saw millions of people lose their healthcare coverage. The uninsured rate went up after years of hard-won progress. And we all know he still wants to rip up the Affordable Care Act, which will drive up costs and kick people off their coverage.

There is no reason to think Mr. Kennedy will stand up to that effort. Indeed, there is no reason to think he has the experience and understanding of the system to actually do so.

During his committee hearings, RFK, Jr., confused Medicare and Medicaid. This is basic stuff. He failed to describe the components of Medicare.

And, yes, Mr. President, I do absolutely have to talk about abortion care. This is of grave importance right now.

In his hearings, not only did RFK, Jr., confess to having no real understanding of EMTALA--that is a law which requires patients have access to lifesaving, emergency care, including, in some cases, abortion care--he also showed that he will be totally open to Republicans' fact-free efforts to rip away access to medication abortion.

Like so many other issues that RFK, Jr., is simply wrong about, the science on that has been settled for many years now. Mr. Kennedy made clear, though, he is very open to revisiting access to the abortion pill, based on a Republican argument against the science that basically boils down to ``nuh uh''--``nuh uh.''

Putting up barriers to accessing the abortion pill or ripping it off the market completely, as Republicans have made very clear they want to do, would be absolutely devastating.

And let's not forget about pandemic threats. The lies that RFK, Jr., spread during the last pandemic already made clear he is not the man to do this job. But if that weren't enough, when there was a pandemic threat response planning session for this new administration, he skipped it. He didn't go. It would be almost comical if this wasn't so serious.

Everywhere you look, everything about this nominee is so concerning. We cannot take this man at his word--something he has changed and gone back and forth on time and time again. But we can take him on his record, which is that he has consistently undermined vaccine confidence, and, by the way--note--he profited from that. And we can take the threat of what he might do seriously, especially given the alarming things that are already happening.

If RFK, Jr., gives you his word of honor that he won't freeze research, guess what. We are already seeing the Trump administration totally upend medical research. Thanks to the Trump funding freeze, NIH hasn't issued any grant awards in weeks.

If RFK, Jr., swears he is not going to take down information about vaccines, he is not going to silence experts, well, don't look now, but the Trump administration has already taken down or changed CDC pages about vaccines. They have already silenced public health experts.

If RFK, Jr., pinky-promises you that he won't undermine medical science or studies and he won't ignore global health threats, well, you might want to sit down for this, but President Trump has completely demolished our global health aid work. He has already completely demolished it.

The fallout is utterly heart-wrenching. Already we know of a woman who died because the USAID-supported hospital she went to for oxygen was forced to discharge her because they got a ``stop work'' order from the Trump administration.

It is not clear if she was the first death caused by Trump's complete freeze, but there is no question she will not be the last.

Let me make a really important point here: It is not just people across the world who will be affected by this. There was a study being done on a new HIV treatment with thousands of volunteers--a study being done, already having thousands of volunteers doing the treatment--but now, without their regular injections, which are cut off by Trump's move, there is going to be too little of the drug in their system to protect those people from HIV, but enough of the drug that, if they contract HIV, it could mutate to become drug resistant.

So for all of the absolutely unhinged conspiracies we have heard about medical research from RFK, Jr., and the like, where is the concern of this actual risk in this actual study happening right now, all because President Trump cut off foreign assistance?

RFK, Jr., has been silent about that risk, silent about how wrong that is. And so even as he is making these empty promises on one hand to some of our colleagues, he is already standing by as President Trump breaks them on the other hand.

Oh, and here is one more: If RFK, Jr., says he is going to consult you on healthcare personnel, please do not be fooled.

Look, I don't know why my colleagues need me to tell them this. I like to think we have some pretty smart people around here. But this vote--RFK, Jr.'s own nomination--this is your consultation on healthcare personnel, not some made-up promise for later. This is the point when you have the most power.

Whatever he might say, you don't get to choose who RFK, Jr., will appoint to this or that. Heck, he doesn't get to choose who President Trump appoints. The decision you get to make--that all of us on this floor get to make--is the decision before us right now.

You get to choose whom you vote to confirm, and you will have to live with

that decision. And if you ignore the warning signs and confirm RFK, Jr., then, when the wheels fall off the wagon, you may try to tell yourself you were lied to. But you knew who you were dealing with. You knew who you were dealing with. You knew what he said before and what he has refused to say. You had all the knowledge you needed to do the right thing.

I cannot tell my colleagues enough: This is not a game. This is not a political role without consequence. The Health Secretary has real power over whether Americans can get basic information and care that impacts whether they live or die. As I have tried to drive home throughout this process: Vaccines save lives. That is not a question. It is not a slogan. It is a fact.

If, when parents look to you worried about their newborn, wanting to do what is best for their baby and trusting your advice as a public health leader, if you cannot tell them the same truth that centuries of science and experience tells us, which is that vaccines are safe and effective and lifesaving, then you have absolutely no business leading the Department of Health and Human Services--none.

And so just as I did at the hearing, I want to warn all of my colleagues. By merely voting to confirm Mr. Kennedy, we would be telling our constituents: He is worth listening to on vaccines. That alone will get people killed before he even lifts a finger, because he does not even need the levers of power to get people killed, all he needs is that megaphone to affirm his views by voting to confirm him as our highest health official.

Let's not mince words about what that will mean. When babies die from whooping cough because parents weren't sure if the vaccine was safe, will you be able to look them in the eye? when the flu sweeps our nursing homes? when measles sweep through our communities? Will it be worth it?

I will end on this: I am sure there are plenty of Members who know perfectly well just how dangerous it would be to confirm RFK, Jr. They don't need to hear it from me. In fact, some of them even know the danger better than I do.

Here is what I do know: Conscience is a muscle. Courage is a muscle. The less you use them, the more they fade away. So if my colleagues are feeling the pressure from President Trump or if they are feeling the weight of the richest man in the world on their backs on this vote, I would warn them: This will certainly not be the last test we face here in the Senate. Giving in to this pressure now won't make it go away. It won't soften the pressure you face later, and it will not strengthen your resolve when the stakes are higher. It will just show pressure works.

If you do not draw a line somewhere, you will cross every line you could ever imagine. You will be pushed further and further into accepting things you thought you never would, things you thought you never could.

I think most of my colleagues know what is really at stake here. I think most of my colleagues know what sort of man RFK, Jr., is and what sort of damage he could do if he is confirmed.

There are political realities. We all get that. But there is also right and wrong. There is fact and fiction. There is people staying healthy, and people dying pointlessly, kids dying pointlessly from diseases that we can prevent because they thought Congress took its job of vetting our healthcare Secretary seriously.

So I urge my colleagues to show some courage. I urge them to show some conscience. I urge them to vote no on RFK, Jr.'s, nomination.

Mr. President, I yield 3 minutes of postcloture debate time to the Democratic leader, and I yield the floor.

I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, I rise today to join my colleagues in urging all of our colleagues to vote against Russ Vought's nomination to lead the Office of Management and Budget.

The Senate should not vote to confirm as the head of OMB or to any important role, for that matter, someone who does not respect the constitutional authority of the Senate and thus the people we represent.

We should not entrust someone to implement our laws who made clear time and again through his past actions in this same role during President Trump's first term, through his work as the head architect of Project 2025, and through his own words in hearings and meetings that he will not follow the laws and that he will not send our communities the funding we all work together to pass.

Why on Earth would any one of us confirm someone whose entire game plan is to break the law and then dare the world to stop him? That is it. That is how Russ Vought plans to run the OMB. It is not a secret. It is a very public fact. He has put this on the record time and again.

Just look at what happened last time Russ Vought served as Director of the OMB. He tried to break the law to give President Trump unilateral authority he does not possess to hold up security assistance to Ukraine and override the spending decisions of Congress. And he has not given up on that idea. He has written about it many, many times in the years since.

As a chief architect of Project 2025, Vought doubled down on lawlessness and charted a blatantly unconstitutional plan for the President to ignore the will of Congress, which led him to being named in the first Articles of Impeachment against President Trump.

He mapped out a lawless path that, as I will detail shortly, President Trump is already barreling down at full speed.

But if you still aren't convinced that Russ Vought will trample all over the separation of powers, will ignore the authority of Congress, and will hurt the American people by holding back funds they rely on, well, you are in luck because at our hearing with him, I asked Vought directly, point blank, ``Will you follow the law?'' That should not be a hard question. Even if you disagree with the law, you don't ignore it. Maybe you don't like the 25-mile-an-hour speed limit in a school zone, but unless it is changed or struck down, you still have to follow it. It is true for speed limits, and it is certainly true for the Constitution.

That is something that almost every single American understands-- except, apparently, Russ Vought and Donald Trump, because today, the Impoundment Control Act is the law of the land. Despite Vought's own wishes and his own feelings, it has not been changed, and it has not been struck down in court.

Despite what Vought pretends is true, the reality is, the Constitution gives Congress, not the President, the power of the purse, and yet Russ Vought will not say he will follow the law.

Look, Vought is not just lawless; he is extreme. Let me drive that home for a second. Let's take abortion for example. Project 2025 already calls for ripping away birth control, allowing States to deny women lifesaving emergency care, and effectively banning all abortion nationwide. That is already a dangerous Republican fever dream--far out of line, by the way, with the American people--but Vought wants to go further.

On abortion, he is for ``abolition.'' ``Abolition.'' Do you know what that means? It means a national abortion ban without any exceptions even in the case of rape or when a woman's life is at risk. That is as far right as it gets.

Of course, abortion is not the only issue where Vought has made statements that are deeply alarming. He has stated that he believes the 2020 election was ``rigged.'' That is just not out of touch with America, that is dangerously out of touch with reality.

He has said he wants to traumatize our Federal workers. That means all the people who work really hard to help in our communities, whether they are inspecting food or reviewing the safety of drugs or keeping our travel safe; maybe they are strengthening our infrastructure, fostering innovation and small business or getting care to veterans or supporting our Tribes and so much more.

Vought has said we live in a ``post-constitutional time.'' It doesn't get any clearer than that. A post-constitutional time? That is what he believes we are in. Do my colleagues agree with that? Do they think it is time to shred the Constitution? That is what is at stake with this confirmation vote because Vought has made it all too clear that as OMB Director, he will put everything on the chopping block, from programs that people rely on to the checks and balances our democracy is founded on. Again, he has put it down on paper in black and white.

We know he wants to cut Medicare and, in particular, Medicaid, by hundreds of billions of dollars. We know he wants to find significant savings from eligibility changes to veterans' healthcare and disability benefits. We don't even need Project 2025 to see that. He laid some of that out in his budgets from Trump's first term.

Vought's goals are not secret, nor are they subtle. We do not have to decipher anything here. There is no mystery. We know he is planning for cuts beyond anything this country has ever seen. And we know, if Russ Vought gets his way and gets his hands on the Nation's funding again, he will not just draw blood; he will cut programs families rely on-- families rely on--down to the bone: SNAP cuts that leave families hungry, policies to cut people off from their healthcare, cuts to disability benefits that veterans have earned through their service to America, thousands of public servants forced out of roles serving the American people--all while he works with Trump to dole out more tax breaks to billionaires and the biggest corporations.

And here is another thing. We don't have to imagine just how painful and chaotic Vought's lawless ideas would be in practice because Vought is actually already putting his agenda in place, which, frankly, raises another question: Why should the Senate vote to confirm someone who is already secretly doing the job behind our backs?

Because--guess what--those Executive orders that Trump still has in effect, those orders which are right now illegally blocking money our communities need--that is right out of the Project 2025 playbook. Or the effort, now, to get rid of thousands of Federal workers through illegal firings; and, now, scam buyout offers that have no basis in law to carry out; or trying to illegally abolish entire Agencies with the stroke of a pen--that has Project 2025 written all over it.

And it is not just a parallel in ideas here. When OMB issued its blatantly illegal guidance and attempted to block trillions in Federal dollars Congress--all of us--passed, there were digital fingerprints all over that document linking right back to Project 2025.

And in the chaos that followed, do you know who reportedly met with OMB staffers about how to respond? Russ Vought.

So let's not pretend we have no idea just how lawless this guy is. Let's not

pretend we have no idea what sort of damage he will cause if he is put back in power. The chaos that Vought and Trump caused last week alone was unlike anything I can recall. Never in my time in the Senate have I seen a President cause as much chaos, panic, and damage in 48 short hours--chaos, panic, and damage which continues even now. President Trump inflicted serious harm when he implemented Vought's reckless vision to brazenly and illegally freeze Federal grants across the government and across the country.

My phone has been ringing off the hook because, unlike billionaires like Trump and Musk, unlike hyperpartisans like Vought, the American people actually have a painfully clear sense of how this will hurt our communities. After all, they are the ones who would actually suffer the consequences of the reckless policies like this.

And let's remember that the Trump administration's first half-hearted attempt to clean up the massive mess they made with this new guidance essentially boiled down to: We will let some funding go, but we are still going to hold up everything else. And while, later, they finally admitted they were disastrously wrong and revoked the entire guidance, they are now, still today, illegally holding up other funds, which I will say more about later.

And the chaos alone they caused with their cruelty and incompetence is utterly unacceptable. The explanations the Trump administration offered throughout that saga last week--freezing seemingly trillions of dollars that families rely on--created no clarity or certainty for many panicked families and businesses and nonprofits and towns and States. And nothing they said changes the basic fact that Trump was and is still holding up funding that our communities need, funding that is the law.

But let's talk about the effect. Let's talk about the chaos and alarm they caused, the damage done to communities and families that all of us represent, and the collision course we were on before Americans spoke out and forced Trump to retreat--because, in terms of chaos, the Trump administration was trying to say a lot of programs were not affected even when we had firsthand accounts making clear that was not what organizations across the country were experiencing.

I will give you one example. Head Start providers were locked out of their reimbursement portal, meaning folks taking care of our youngest kids were suddenly not sure how they were going to keep their doors open or pay their teachers and staff. And, by the way, some providers in my State are still locked out, not getting the funding.

Let's talk about rental assistance. That is the payment system for housing providers. It was down for over a day, with rents that were due at the end of the week.

Seniors who count on Meals on Wheels were left wondering whether they would have dinner last week.

Grant programs to combat the fentanyl crisis, to get families healthcare, and so much more were, in an instant, put at risk of evaporating into thin air.

The panic and confusion were absolutely widespread because there was a long, long list of programs President Trump tried to put on the chopping block here--programs that, by the way, help red States and blue States alike.

Funding to address the opioid use epidemic could have been paused. This is a longstanding bipartisan priority, and Trump wanted funding frozen for an indefinite period that would absolutely upend prevention efforts and cut people off from the treatment that is helping them beat addiction.

COPS hiring grants, which help our States and communities hire career law enforcement officers--Trump was freezing those too. These investments increase community policing capacity, and they prevent crime. Without this money, our streets and our neighborhoods would be less safe.

And let's not forget about other crucial DOJ grants: funding for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, for AMBER Alert, for safe havens that support victims of human trafficking. Or, in my State, there are 25 child advocacy centers that were trying to figure out how they would be affected by the freeze. Think about that.

Funding for firefighters. You know what doesn't stop when Federal funding stops? Fires. And speaking of fires, Trump's move also threw funding for recovery and relief efforts into uncertainty. In Eastern Washington, in my State, $44 million was announced weeks ago to help Spokane County rebuild from wildfires. We were left with big questions about the future of that badly needed funding last week.

And while it was just 2 weeks ago that Trump visited communities in both North Carolina and California that are still reeling from disaster, the very next week, he sent them reeling himself, throwing funds that they were counting on into limbo with his initial OMB guidance because, for a while there, the system that all of our States use to get disaster relief funding was shut down.

And let's not forget grants from the Violence Against Women Act. I heard from organizations in Washington State that support survivors of violence that they were trying to figure out what to do because their Federal payment site went down. Without that vital funding, survivors would be left with no way to access the legal aid and services they deserve. Like so many other organizations, they were ringing the alarm bells because they were not going to be able to pay their staff or pay their bills.

This illegal freeze left domestic violence centers wondering how long they could keep their doors open and pay their staffs.

And our Tribes were thrown in chaos as well. The Puyallup Tribe was told they couldn't move forward with a critical road project, and our Tribes in general were all concerned that housing and healthcare and education and so much else was getting caught up in this funding freeze. One told me they were left trying to determine if they were going to have to lay off 400 people because of this. Causing layoffs with an illegal funding freeze would be a profound breach of the Federal trust responsibility to our Tribes.

Here is another alarming one: One of Trump's Executive orders was set to cut funding used to help detain nearly 10,000 ISIS militants in Syria--to detain them in Syria. That funding was about to be cut off altogether, potentially leading to prison guards leaving the job and risking ISIS militants getting out of jail, until this administration was alerted to how reckless that would be and they carved out that funding.

But trust me when I say there are many other funding streams that help keep us safe that are still at risk, especially because of the illegal Executive orders that are, today, still blocking foreign assistance--and the absolutely lawless effort to dismantle USAID, which does lifesaving relief work around the world. I will have more to say on that in just a bit.

And, by the way, how does undermining health, which will mean diseases run rampant, particularly at a time when bird flu is on the uptick and impacting many of our producers and workers and States--how does that make any sense? Because when it comes to healthcare, this attempted freeze posed a huge threat to our families.

Set aside the fact that the Medicaid payment portal went down in my State and in every State--something we are told was a coincidence. That doesn't change the fact that all Federal healthcare grant reimbursements stopped. It doesn't change the fact that community health centers were blocked from getting the funds they needed to pay their staff and continue providing care in our communities, including rural areas where they are often the only option for miles. It doesn't change the fact that title X providers who support care like family planning services and cancer screenings and more couldn't draw down their funds.

I also heard from HopeSparks. It is a healthcare provider in my State. They warned that, without Federal support, kids in the South Puget Sound would lose access to mental healthcare and crisis services.

Biomedical researchers were suddenly left dealing with questions not about how to save lives but about grant freezes and how these vague, broad actions might stop research programs and clinical trials across the country.

Chaos alone presents a huge risk of derailing crucial studies. Scientists at the University of Washington and Washington State University told my office they were deeply alarmed. A freeze like Trump ordered would have meant research projects collapsing and staff being furloughed or laid off.

The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center moved to bridge the gap to keep research from being derailed, but not getting this fixed would have meant putting them in the hole to the tune of over $1 million a day. That sort of unexpected burden would have had a huge impact on lifesaving cancer research.

And agricultural research was faced with uncertainty as well. WSU is a national leader in this important work: research to help our farmers grow more crops, grow more resilient crops, fight challenges like pests and plant diseases. WSU was deeply concerned funding for that research could be cut off, undermining important work supporting our Nation's farmers.

And the threats didn't stop there for those who are in food and agriculture. One organization which works alongside our local growers told me losing funding would mean a reduced capacity to grow and distribute fresh local food to our communities. Now, that would hurt both the farmers and the families who rely on those programs to put food on the table.

Meanwhile, a group in Washington who are addressing youth homelessness warned it would have to kick kids out if the funding issue wasn't resolved.

Let me repeat that. A homeless youth group was pushed to the brink of having to kick kids onto the street because of President Trump's illegal freeze.

I was also deeply concerned about how the freeze might halt an important diaper pilot program, as well as the reports I got from multiple housing providers in my State, worried that tens of thousands of people would be at risk of homelessness thanks to this illegal freeze.

And don't let me get started on infrastructure. These are projects that take years--years--to plan, to build, to complete, and do an awful lot of good for our communities.

In my State alone, there were big questions about what was going to happen to electrical grid upgrades that are happening in Okanogan and Pierce County, improvements that were planned at the Ports of Seattle and Everett and Whitman County, or Sea-Tac Airport's plan to deploy new trucks.

And, by the way, some of those questions remain till today, because, as I will detail in a minute, there are still many other ways programs are being put at risk by Trump illegally blocking funds with his Executive orders.

I will continue fighting for the Federal funding Congress already provided to keep all of those projects on track, but that can only get us so far if President Trump illegally blocks it all, and our Republican colleagues could let that happen.

The list goes on and on; the calls keep coming in. Even now that OMB has reversed course, the chaos has not died down. The questions, the uncertainty, the fear, from families and communities that Trump will pull the rug out from under them is still there, because even though after the intense outcry from the American public, Trump has now admitted this was a colossal mistake because he rescinded the guidance; but the threat, the chaos, the panic, cannot just be wiped away-- especially while some funds are still today being blocked.

No one feels any sense of calm after this. People aren't feeling lasting relief. They are wondering: How could something like that ever happen, and what in the world is going to happen next?

The Trump administration, through a combination of sheer incompetence, cruel intentions, and a willful disregard of the law, caused--and is still causing--real harm and chaos for millions of people over the span of just a mere 48 hours.

But we did learn something extremely important: When the American people speak out with one voice, when regular people stand up, it makes a difference. That victory belonged to everyone who raised their voice. But I want everyone to know--make no mistake--this fight is not over.

As I said before, we still have a lot of work to do right now to make sure all that funding actually does get moving again. This is not like turning on a light switch. We just saw through the chaotic rollout this is complicated stuff. So I want you to know I will be watching closely to make sure funds get where they belong as soon as possible. I already know that in many cases, this has not been what is happening at all, so this is a very serious concern.

I actually spoke with a constituent last week--Mike. He runs a nonprofit supporting military families and helping servicemembers transition back to civilian life. And even days after the OMB guidance was reversed, he was still unable to access Federal funding, so he used his own line of credit to pay his staff in the meantime. And if this didn't get fixed, his organization wouldn't have been able to help military families or pay its employees.

The homeless shelter that I mentioned a few minutes ago, short $5.1 million--$5.1 million because of Trump. They still have their funds frozen. They are still looking at reducing beds and facing layoffs. And as I mentioned earlier, some Head Start programs are still not able to get their grant funding.

So the chaos of this OMB saga is far, far from over.

And let me make one thing perfectly clear, even before this latest whirl of chaos, President Trump was already--already--illegally blocking billions of dollars. And even after that OMB guidance was reversed, he is still holding back all of those funds through his illegal Executive orders. You don't have to take it from me, you can take it directly from the White House press secretary.

This is NOT a rescission of the federal funding freeze. . .

. The President's [Executive orders] on federal funding

remain in full force and effect, and will be rigorously

implemented.

So that was the chaos of last week. I want to talk about how that chaos remains, what we are still seeing this week, and what it means for folks back home and across the country, because there is still significant confusion. And the remaining freezes are still causing significant pain.

For example, I have heard from cities in my State and from the Washington State Department of Transportation--now, it is still hard to get a clear picture, given the chaotic rollback and more, but they are telling me they are concerned about infrastructure projects all over my State that are already getting delayed now and could get derailed entirely because President Trump is still illegally blocking funding we passed with his Executive orders.

If this illegal freeze continues, people will lose jobs, communities will lose out on projects that have been in the works for years. Trump is blocking money to repair electric chargers, to install heavy-duty chargers for trucks, to make critical repairs to bridges in order to protect the safety of millions of drivers, and to install new chargers along major roads in my State, like I-90, US-97, US-2, US-195, and US- 395.

Stopping these projects is just pointlessly--pointlessly--hurting commuters and businesses. It is costing construction workers; it is killing jobs. Trump is holding up road projects to make streets safer for pedestrians, bicyclists, and drivers, like a safer streets project in Richland, WA, and critical safety barriers in Spokane, not to mention the Liberty Park Land Bridge in Spokane--which would reconnect communities and provide more green space for families to enjoy, or funds for the City of Lakewood--they are planning to revitalize their downtown and bring in more retail space and restaurants and healthcare services and financial services and make upgrades to roads and provide a new festival area and park areas and more.

Trump's freezes are also a concern for the Samish Indian Nation as it works to improve safety and access to their land at the Campbell Lake Road intersection, which has seen growing traffic in recent years, and for a project led by the Tulalip Tribe to improve the interchanges along I-5 exits; the congestions on these ramps can get so bad it backs all the way up to the main highway.

We want to get those projects done. We want to get them done, and the last thing we need is uncertainty about these stalled funds.

There is also a project underway to upgrade the technology at our border with Canada, replacing and improving the outdated wait-time system to improve accuracy and help our inspection and our transportation Agencies.

This will help travelers who are headed to Canada avoid long wait times at the border and help fans from around the world, by the way, who are traveling between Seattle and Vancouver for next year's World Cup move quickly--but not if Trump's Executive orders stop all of this funding.

Same for the efforts to update our statewide planning with a new electronic system that would make the process for planning and specifications and estimates more efficient. And, of course, in Washington State, we can never forget about fish, which are crucial to our culture and our economy in many ways.

Trump's ongoing funding freeze is putting projects to improve fish habitats on ice: replacing the culvert at Thornton Creek; replacing the failing culvert at Wapato Creek, which is right underneath the Pierce County terminal at the port of Tacoma; or removing the fish barrier culverts at Johnson Creek, which will open up nearly 3,000 meters of upstream habitat; not to mention other wildlife preservation work like an undercrossing structure and wildlife barriers east of Winthrop and work on our waterways. Funding from the bipartisan infrastructure law is still not restored, still not restored today for some projects on the Lower Columbia River, projects like a stormwater infrastructure that will help keep toxins out of our water and restore our wetlands and protect our ecosystems.

Our ports, our ports, so critical for not only Washington State's economy but for the entire country, are caught up in this too. There are port projects now on hold across my State, including for electrical infrastructure and shore power for vessels.

These impacts are being felt from Anacortes to Port Angeles to Vancouver, frozen funding is hurting working families in Washington and across the country, and it is making our economy less competitive.

And we cannot forget our ferries, which are so crucial to many commuters in my State. Washington State ferries are looking to improve their data with a better system for collecting and analyzing and reporting wait times at all of our terminals. That would help give them some information so they can improve their efficiency and make life better for the people they serve.

Losing that funding means more people will miss ferries, and it means long waits in line for Washington State commuters who cross the water for everything from work to school to medical appointments.

We also have absolutely essential electric transmission and distribution projects that are on hold now, and they are in jeopardy. These are projects that are necessary, helping reduce our wildfire risks, ensuring grid reliability, improving resilience to natural disasters, and lowering costs for ratepayers across my State of Washington.

Those are all funded under the bipartisan infrastructure law; that is a bipartisan infrastructure law that Members of Republicans and Democrats worked on and passed. It is a program that Republicans thought was important enough to provide $10.5 billion. After what we have seen in recent months and years, I don't know how you could say with a straight face that modernizing our grid isn't absolutely vital to the future of our country.

You don't have to listen to me; Secretary Burgum and Secretary Wright said as much in their confirmation hearings.

But this project, all of these projects and many more, have been thrown into complete uncertainty because of President Trump's Executive orders.

It is completely unclear when or if those projects are going to get the funding they were counting on and that they were owed from bills that Congress passed and signed into law.

And that is not just causing chaos, it is causing delays. It is causing harm and alarm, because it could mean construction grinds to a halt, workers lose jobs. It means the work will go unstarted or, perhaps, in some cases, unfinished. Plus, it would mean increasing costs, increasing costs for our cities and counties and States and Tribes for those projects that somehow make it through all of this.

And while there are many more infrastructure projects in my State I haven't touched on, not to mention the other projects across the entire country, there are so many other projects and organizations and people who are being harmed right now by President Trump's reckless funding freeze.

I know there are medical researchers still worried their work will somehow be considered woke, when, in reality, it is actually pretty darn important that we do understand the risk of health disparities, things like why the maternal death rate is so much higher for Black or Native American women. Yet now researchers are being told that their research is at risk of being defunded if they are examining issues of equity or barriers to care, or even if they are specifically studying females.

And there are hospitals in my State and across the country who are worried that some of these programs, which are appropriately focused on someone's gender or race, are in jeopardy.

For example--give you a good example--we know that pulse oximeters are less accurate for people with darker skin tones. Making sure that these clinical measurements are accurate will save life, and it has life-and-death consequences for patients.

We know women have much higher rates of autoimmune disorders than men. We need to look at why that is. We need to invest in training the next generation of scientists, including from diverse backgrounds. Studies actually show us that diversity in the scientific workforce leads to greater innovation and productivity, but there is a serious concern that lifesaving work is going to get caught up in President Trump's sweeping, illegal Executive orders.

Another impact of Trump's actions: The National Park Service has rescinded all of its employment offers for our summer seasonal staff. Now, that doesn't just mean people are going to be facing longer wait lines or dirtier bathrooms--though they will--it could mean park closures throughout this entire summer. It will mean delayed responses to emergencies, making people less safe. And outside our national parks, Trump is also freezing regional cleanup efforts, things like stopping illegal dumping and improving air quality in our communities.

And let's talk about foreign assistance, because for decades now, there has been widespread, bipartisan understanding that promoting stability abroad, promoting democracy, improving health, strengthening trade, building partnerships, is crucial to U.S. leadership.

But Trump's Executive orders put all of that at risk by illegally freezing funds.

I have heard from organizations that operate all over the world about how they were unable to deliver the lifesaving aid that millions of people rely on due to the stop-work orders. That meant millions of doses of lifesaving drugs sat unused on shelves; time-sensitive prevention methods against diseases like malaria were not carried out, putting millions at risk; training for more than 64,000 healthcare workers was put on hold; and hundreds of millions of metric tons of U.S.-grown commodities are sitting, at the risk of spoiling, in transport instead of reaching their final destinations across the world to feed people in need.

Despite a so-called waiver from the U.S. State Department to resume work, much of this lifesaving aid is still today on hold. Without a start-work order, those organizations fear they are taking on significant risk now in continuing operations.

Put simply, this was already unacceptable, and now over the weekend, President Trump and Elon Musk have decided--against all reason, against all evidence, and against the law, mind you--to completely dismantle USAID, and that is on top of the illegal funding freeze that has already been pushing U.S. businesses and nonprofits and international aid groups to make tough choices for truly pointless reasons.

It should be obvious that these cuts will hurt people across the world. These cuts are going to mean that people starve. These cuts will mean that people don't get clean water. These cuts will mean more disease outbreaks with higher death counts. These cuts will mean less help for victims of violence and higher death rates for pregnant women.

Anyone with an ounce of humanity can see this freeze will get devastating fast. It is important to note that it will get devastating in ways you cannot just make up with more money later once that damage is done. That is just not how it works. When people are starving, you cannot just feed them money; you need to have already made the investments to grow food. When democracies are in crisis, you can't just cut them a check; you need to have helped them build strong institutions. When a deadly disease outbreak strikes, you are going to learn very quickly that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

These are not lessons we need to learn the hard way by letting people die. We know it all painfully well right now. So to freeze that funding is asking for disaster, and not just for other countries across the world but for us, for the United States and for our families here at home.

Freezing foreign assistance is not putting America first; it is guaranteeing America comes in last because every funding gap we leave is an opportunity for our adversaries to step in, fill that gap, and play the hero while casting us as the villain.

How are we supposed to lead the world if we are unwilling to invest in it? I will tell you right now, China is not holding back. They are investing constantly because they know they aren't just building infrastructure across the world, they are building stronger partnerships. We just counted ourselves out of that competition.

You want to end U.S. global dominance? You want to tell the world the United States is done being a leader? You want to tell other countries we cannot be trusted to keep our word? Because that is exactly what we are doing if we let Trump get away with illegally cutting off global aid with the stroke of a pen and let the richest man in the world cut off help from some of the poorest people in the world.

Let's be clear. It is not just U.S. leadership on the line here; there are U.S. jobs at stake. That reality is hitting home hard this week. Back in my home State of Washington, there are some world-class organizations that I know may have to lay off people this week, hundreds of people, all because of President Trump's funding freeze. It is a scene that is not isolated to Washington State. I know it is playing out across the country as well with thousands of layoffs across 38 States and Canada. I know that so long as President Trump's lawless war on foreign aid continues, so will those layoffs. We will see hundreds, if not thousands, more every week.

International aid organizations may make a difference around the world, but they support American jobs too, people who have a paycheck and a family, people who work incredibly hard and who are incredibly proud of the work they do to make the world a better place and reaffirm U.S. global leadership. But they are being sent packing, not because they have done anything wrong, not because this work is not important, but because President Trump and Elon Musk are listening to wacko conspiracists and ultra-isolationists while ignoring the experts, ignoring the obvious realities, and, again, ignoring the law. We should all stand against this.

I know we are here tonight to discuss the Vought nomination, but I want to talk about someone who has not been nominated to anything. He has not been elected to anything. Yet he is serving as de facto co- President--Elon Musk. Arguably, he is more important and more influential than the elected, sitting President, and he has proven himself in lockstep with Russ Vought--whom we are voting on tomorrow-- when it comes to slashing programs that matter to American families and ignoring the laws of our Nation.

In recent days, Musk has been busy illegally shuttering USAID, cutting off foreign assistant programs, which I said will lose jobs for Americans, lose lives in countries around the world, and lose leadership as adversaries like China fill that gap. Shockingly, Musk has even had people fired--fired--for denying his lackeys classified resources that they had no authority to access.

Last weekend, we all learned that Elon Musk essentially commandeered access to the Treasury Department's most sensitive payment system, handling $6 trillion every year and managing nearly all of our Federal reimbursements. It is a system that contains extremely sensitive personal and commercial information.

I have been hearing from people across my State who are truly alarmed about what Musk and his associations having access to this system could mean for their data and for funding they count on.

Let's not mince words here. An unelected, unaccountable billionaire with expansive conflicts of interest, deep ties to China, and an indiscreet ax to grind against perceived enemies is highjacking our Nation's most sensitive financial data system and its checkbook so that he can illegally block funds to our constituents based on the slightest whim or wildest conspiracy--funds, mind you, that Congress on a bipartisan basis passed.

Some Republicans are trying to suggest that Musk only has viewing access to Treasury's highly sensitive payment system--as if that is acceptable either--but why on Earth should we believe that, particularly when Musk himself is saying the exact opposite loudly and repeatedly for everyone to hear?

What funds will Elon target next? Lifesaving medical research? Homelessness assistance? Food banks? We already know he has falsely attacked faith-based organizations that help folks and is promising to cut off funds based off conspiracy theories. In other words, the world's richest man has vowed to cut off funding that helps the least among us. Think about that.

Next, think about how many dollars he himself makes from government contracts. I mean, seriously. The richest man in the world, with countless government contracts, ties to our adversaries, is taking over the Treasury in the name of fighting corruption? The irony is almost as rich as Musk himself.

Let me underscore just how dangerous this is because now that Trump has handed over Treasury's checkbook, what if Elon decides he doesn't like how Rivian is getting Federal funds to build an EV manufacturing facility? So what next? All Elon has to do is say ``Oh, they are woke,'' and he can convince Trump to illegally cut off those funds. Is that how this works now?

Maybe Elon will decide he doesn't like Blue Origin and not SpaceX getting a contract, so he wants to gum up the works on their payments. Is that how this works?

Maybe Elon decides he wants to get into electronic healthcare systems, and maybe he wants to punish hospital systems that don't take him up on whatever he is selling.

Private corporations and competitors need to take note. The potential for abuse and corruption by Elon--especially considering his track record--is pretty much limitless.

And it is not just Treasury. Musk and his henchmen are launching a full-scale invasion of sensitive data systems across government. We are talking about the Small Business Administration. We are talking about NOAA. We are talking about Medicare. The reporting is now clear. They are not just looking either; they are directly making changes to some of those critical systems.

This is not Silicon Valley, where you can just move fast and break things. When you break things here, people don't get their healthcare; they don't get their Social Security check; they don't get crucial warnings and lifesaving information.

Anyone who thinks ``Well, that surely won't happen'' has not been paying attention because just this week, Elon Musk and Donald Trump put Americans in danger. We have citizens in dangerous corners of the world who were suddenly locked out of their emails, and they were cut off from an app that is meant to help address threats like kidnapping.

So no one should be shrugging this off and just saying ``Well, what is the worst that could happen?'' because this can get really, really bad, really, really fast.

If anyone is thinking ``Well, it is OK. We have guardrails. We have laws,'' make no mistake, even though Trump and Musk have absolutely zero legal authority to hold up any Federal payments that are law, this has not stopped them so far. As we have seen,

they are already halting other funds illegally. They are already firing government watchdogs and officials left and right regardless of our laws. They are already putting forward blatantly unconstitutional Executive orders.

The fact of the matter is, Trump and Musk have yet to find a law they think applies to them. They think because they are rich and powerful, they get to call all the shots regardless of the courts and regardless of Congress. That is not how things work in this country. Billionaires are not above the law, and neither are Presidents. We do not have a monarchy where a President is king. We do not have an oligarchy where the richest people get the largest say. We in this country have a democracy--if we can keep it--where each citizen has a vote. We have checks and balances where the President is accountable to the Congress and to the people, where he has to follow the laws we pass.

But some of my colleagues across the aisle seem to be forgetting that our democracy doesn't work by magic. We have to do our part--our part-- here to hold Presidents accountable. Our job is not to say yes to everything the President does, no matter how lawless or harmful. Our job is not to shrug our shoulders or cover our eyes. It is to fight for the people who sent us here and to defend the Constitution.

So Democrats will be pushing back with the tools we have. We will speak out. We will press this administration. We will open investigations, and we will demand accountability. But one tool we do not have is the majority in this Congress. So that means our Republican colleagues have to say: Enough. We need them to join us. We need them to stand up to the corruption and the lawlessness and stand up for the people they represent.

While I am on the subject, I want to talk about another scheme Elon Musk cooked up. We are approaching the deadline that is set in the Trump administration's ``Fork in the Road'' message, which claims--and I have to emphasize that it merely claims--to give Federal workers the option of a deferred resignation that would allegedly allow workers to retain all pay and benefits regardless of your daily workload and be exempted from all applicable in-person work requirements until September 30.

I want to speak directly to all of our Federal workers about this because they deserve better than to be pushed out the door with a 9-day pressure tactic that comes with no clarity, no details, and a lot of questions left unanswered.

So here is what is important for everyone to know. First, there is no guarantee workers who accept that offer will get paid through September 30, as they have been promised. Not only is there no funding for that timeframe right now, but I personally am deeply skeptical of any offer from a President like Donald Trump, who has so consistently shown he will try to stiff workers at every opportunity.

Being given only 9 days to decide something like this should set off alarm bells. That is a short amount of time to consider all of the financial impacts of potentially accepting this offer--including, if you were able to find another job, how would this impact your benefits like health insurance, retirement, and a lot more.

And we all know, scammers often pressure people: Act immediately.

Additionally, information being provided continues to change and includes a lot of caveats. It claims you can rescind your resignation if you change your mind. But your job may no longer exist if that happens--tough luck.

It claims you aren't expected to work if you accept this offer, except in cases determined by each individual Agency.

It claims you can stay in your current role. However, there is no guarantee your position will be needed.

The lack of clear information and research about exactly what will be allowed is rightfully creating confusion for the more than 56,000 Federal workers in my State alone. To me, this leaves a lot of questions unanswered.

Finally, I want to express a real gratitude for our Federal workers who power so many essential services provided by our government. The American Government is not Twitter. People rely on our Federal workers, and sometimes their work can be the difference between life and death.

Federal workers help inspect meat processing facilities. They make sure baby formula is safe. They approve lifesaving drugs and treatments. They manage air traffic. They help ensure clean drinking water. And there is so much more.

Where this administration continues to show outright hostility toward many of our Federal workers, I want you to know I will continue to fight for our Federal workers--everyone from Hanford workers, scientists at the Pacific Northwest National Lab, to the people making sure you get your Social Security check.

Mr. President, I got a letter this week from a Hanford worker. They started last year, hoping it would be a stable job that would let them provide for their family while making a difference in their community. This employee has already been recognized several times for hard work. And then Elon Musk tried to push them out the door with this scammy buyout, and now they are on the list of employees who are at the threat of being terminated for no good reason.

That is an utter betrayal. It is a betrayal of a hard-working parent who did nothing wrong and a betrayal of my Hanford community, where Trump is undermining important environmental cleanup work, because at Hanford alone, which is already understaffed, there are nearly 30 people now on the chopping block. They are nuclear safety engineers. They are facility safety representatives. They are procurement and contracting personnel. They are attorneys. They are labor relations staff. They are accountants.

How is firing nuclear safety engineers supposed to make anyone safer or better off?

Mr. President, there are so many stories like this already happening or just around the corner. I have heard that Musk and Trump plan to cut workers at the Department of Energy in half. These are Federal employees who put in long hours to support their families and to strengthen our country. And for all their years of service, for all their sacrifice, Elon Musk is showing them the door and saying: Don't let it hit you on the way out.

This is wrong, and it is ungrateful. And for God's sake, we are talking about nuclear security here. Why on Earth would anyone think it is a good idea to cut corners?

Here is my message to our Federal workers: You do so much for our communities. You deserve so much better than to have a billionaire with no understanding of what you do come in, belittle your work, suggest he can do it better, and push you out the door. I hope you will all keep up the good work for the American people. I want you to know we will keep fighting for you as well.

Mr. President, before I conclude, I just want to state once more what is at stake with Vought's nomination. We are talking about hundreds of billions of dollars in Federal spending that Congress--us--passed that our communities are counting on and that Mr. Vought has made painfully clear he will not think twice about illegally blocking it.

Giving this man the power to enact his illegal schemes will do real harm to folks back home. It will cut people off from getting groceries and making rent. It will cut our families off from childcare and healthcare. It will cut veterans and their survivors off from disability and education benefits they earned through their service to our country. It will cut off breakthrough medical research and help for people who are struggling with opioid addiction. It will cut off communities that are working to build bridges and improve roads and strengthen their energy infrastructure. That will have serious consequences we cannot overlook.

We are here to fight for our families, but there is also another serious consequence here, one that cuts to the heart of what makes this Senate work and what makes our democracy work. Confirming Russ Vought to OMB makes it that much harder to negotiate our spending bills. It is much harder to reach a bipartisan deal with my colleagues, whom I respect and trust and have worked with for years, if that deal is going to be implemented by someone in whom I have zero trust; someone who has made clear that despite our laws, he is going to block any funding we pass. Why should any Senator vote to confirm someone who has

made it perfectly clear he will undermine their authority to help their constituents?

Mr. President, as I have said, our system of checks and balances does not work on its own. We have to actually do our part here in Congress to be the check of Presidential abuse of power. And we have an opportunity--actually, it is an obligation--right now, to do just that. Before us right now is a nominee who has made it very clear he will not respect the authority of Congress--of all us and the people who voted us in--nominated by a President who is not respecting the authority of Congress and the people who voted us in.

We have to say we can't stand for that. We have to say from here that the law is the law. And a simple way we can send that message is by rejecting Russ Vought's nomination outright.

Mr. President, I am here today to strongly urge my colleagues to join me in doing just that.

I yield the floor.

For medical researchers and their families who are counting on cures, I vote no.

I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, over the last few days, the American people have felt the painful consequences of Trump's disastrous funding freeze.

Seniors who count on Meals on Wheels have wondered whether they would have dinner this week. Head Start teachers in red States and blue States have panicked over whether they would have the funds needed to keep their doors open and take care of kids. Disaster relief for people who have endured the unimaginable and have been knocked off their feet was thrown into jeopardy. Grant programs to help firefighters do their jobs, to combat the fentanyl crisis, to get families healthcare--and so much more--have been, in an instant, at risk of evaporating into thin air.

I heard from a Tribe in my State concerned they would have to lay off hundreds of staff providing essential services for the Tribe. That could mean putting everything from providing healthcare to housing in jeopardy because of the President's freeze.

A shelter for homeless youth in my State still--still--can't access its HUD funding and is staring down a $3 million deficit, forcing them to hold an emergency board meeting to figure out what, if anything, they can now do.

Hospitals in my State are worried that programs which are appropriately focused on someone's gender or race are in jeopardy, like how pulse oximeters don't work as well as on dark skin, so they need other pathways to be found.

The chaos and the confusion, the needless stress and distraction are the result of having a President who is more focused on the billionaires who now fill his administration than on the plight of regular people all over this country. But yesterday, because the American people spoke up loud and clear, Donald Trump retreated from his devastating blanket funding freeze.

However, make no mistake, there is still far too much chaos on the ground, and Trump is still blocking billions of dollars for communities across the country--in every one of our States--through these Executive orders. We are talking about critical funding to rebuild our roads and bridges, resources that are already creating thousands of good-paying, new clean energy jobs in every State of this country, and critical global investments that help keep America safe.

This is so completely unacceptable. So, today, I am calling on President Trump to take four simple, commonsense steps.

First of all, he needs to ensure that every last dollar--down to the last penny--that was caught up in this disastrous blanket funding freeze gets out the door.

Secondly, he needs to rescind his Executive orders that are still, at this very moment, ripping funding away from American families and communities.

Third, he needs to withdraw Russell Vought's nomination to oversee our Nation's budget. It is clear that the person who masterminded so much of this chaos doesn't belong anywhere near the Office of Management and Budget.

Finally, President Trump needs to abandon, once and for all, his illegal scheme to skirt around our laws and block funding that American workers and families are counting on.

I am not asking for a lot here: Ensure every dollar held up by this illegal freeze is restored; stop the ongoing effort to block funding; withdraw the mastermind of this chaos; and simply follow the law.

The American people deserve better than the catastrophe we have witnessed this week. They deserve to know that the investments Trump is currently holding up--to rebuild the highway they drive to work on or to lower their energy costs or so much more--will make it out the door.

If the President is so intent on opposing funding for infrastructure projects and good-paying American jobs, he needs to sit down at the negotiating table and make his case to Congress. I will not let the President rip up the Constitution or rip money away from our communities.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, we are a week into the Trump administration, and it can be summed up in one word: lawlessness.

Trump is showing every day, with nearly every action, that he has zero regard for the laws of this country--from pardoning en masse violent insurrectionists to illegally firing government watchdogs charged with holding him accountable, to issuing blatantly unconstitutional Executive orders, to asking OMB to halt funding Congress passed, which is something that is now causing serious chaos and harm to red States and blue States.

We are not going to let his strategy of overwhelming chaos win the day. We are fighting each of the actions, and we will not stop asserting our power as an equal branch of the government. But right now, today, we are going to focus on one issue in particular, one that is not just alarming but actually personal to all of us here in the Senate because it concerns the Capitol Police each of us walked by every single day.

I have made it clear I will not sit back and allow President Trump to rewrite the history of the January 6 insurrection. Already, his Justice Department has taken down the public database that laid out the thousands of investigations. He is literally trying to erase the evidence from public memory. But no President can rewrite history, not unless we stand by and let him, and that is absolutely not going to happen.

We will not forget what really happened here on January 6, 2021. As we all remember, as the American people witnessed in real time, armed insurrectionists, egged on by the sitting President, broke into the U.S. Capitol and violently assaulted Capitol Police officers in their attempt to overturn a free and fair election. You do not have to take my word for it, although, like many of my colleagues, I have a first- person account of that day.

The reality is well documented in videos, in photos, in case documents from thousands of people charged with felonies after that day, including assault. We know as a matter of fact that some insurrectionists brought knives, tasers, axes, hatches, pepper spray, zip ties, and more. We know as a matter of fact that some assaulted officers with flagpoles, stun guns, fire extinguishers, and bear spray. We know as a matter of fact that Capitol Police officers suffered severe injuries as a result, including cracked ribs, smashed spinal discs, brain injuries, and even the loss of an eye.

Officers here sacrificed tremendously to keep Senators safe, Republicans and Democrats alike, and we have the footage, the photos, and the police reports that clearly show the crimes and the violence that were committed.

President Trump's decision to pardon en masse 1,500 people charged in the insurrection is truly an unthinkable attempt to erase the facts of that day and undermine our democracy, but it is especially heinous that he chose to pardon individuals who violently attacked our Capitol Police officers, not to mention commuting the sentences of 14 others, people found guilty of seditious conspiracy, people like Enrique Tarrio, leader of the Proud Boys, and Stewart Rhodes, leader of the Oath Keepers. It is a betrayal of the law enforcement that protected all of us that day and a dangerous endorsement of political violence, telling criminals that you can beat cops within an inch of their lives as long as it is in service to Donald Trump.

Every one of us here owes a tremendous debt of gratitude to our Capitol Police. They protected our lives, and they protected our democracy. That is why we are here today to pass a resolution that makes clear the U.S. Senate stands with our Capitol Police officers by disapproving the pardon of those who violently attacked the officers who keep us safe.

It is a very simple, modest resolution. It reads in its entirety:

Resolved, That the Senate disapproves of any pardons for

individuals who were found guilty of assaulting Capitol

Police officers.

It is that simple. We aren't relitigating every case; this is only about people guilty of assaulting Capitol Police.

I made sure this was short and clear, something we can pass unanimously because a message like this really should be unanimous. In fact, just to underscore how straightforward this is, I want to read it in its entirety once again:

Resolved, That the Senate disapproves of any pardons for

individuals who were found guilty of assaulting Capitol

Police officers.

That is it, the entire thing. I don't think there is anything here for anyone to disagree with.

I yield to the Democratic leader.

Mr. President, as if in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 42, my resolution condemning the pardons for individuals who were found guilty of assaulting Capitol Police officers, which was submitted earlier today; further, that the resolution be agreed to and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. President, I am deeply frustrated that is the response we got today. We cannot agree on something as simple as standing by the officers who keep this building safe, officers every one of us walks by every day? There are officers standing outside the floor right now keeping watch as we are forced to debate whether it was not OK to pardon the people who violently attacked them. I don't know how my colleagues who oppose this simple resolution can look them in the eye.

It is insulting enough that Speaker Johnson--someone who has a dedicated 24/7 detail--has refused to put up the plaque honoring the brave officers who kept us safe 4 years ago, but the fact that we can't pass a resolution as simple as the one I presented today, the fact that we can't all agree that we should side with the people who keep us safe over the people who are attacking us, is disgraceful. It is unworthy of this body and unworthy of the sacrifice our Capitol Police have demonstrated time and again. We owe them better. I will not stop pushing to make sure we show them we understand that.

The President may be able to grant pardons, commute sentences, release criminals, delete databases, but I will tell you here, he can take no action that will erase the past unless we let him. As long as I can stand, as long as I can speak, as long as I am here, I will not let him or anyone rewrite the history of the January 6 insurrection or erase the important lessons that we must learn from it.

Mr. President, we have several other colleagues who are going to come later to speak about this as well.

I wanted to thank everyone who is here today. We want to make it very clear that we will not forget what happened on January 6. I don't care what records they raise or what kind of new stories they want to tell. We know what happened. This country cannot forget.

And, today, we are here simply to say that the Senate disapproves of the pardons for individuals who were found guilty of assaulting Capitol police officers. I am disappointed that our Republican colleagues, today, refuse to join us.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, I realize that some Republicans were hoping we would cut this process short, but I have no problem coming to the floor and having a lengthy discussion about Mr. Hegseth's nomination to be Defense Secretary. I am eager to talk about it.

The only person who doesn't seem to want to talk about the Hegseth nomination is actually Mr. Hegseth himself, because I have been trying for weeks to schedule a meeting with Mr. Hegseth prior to his confirmation vote. I genuinely want a chance to ask him directly about my concerns with his character and fitness, yes, but also about the serious challenges facing our Nation, whether it is competition with China or aggression from Russia.

As vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, I help write the bill that funds the Defense Department every year. And that bill only passes with bipartisan support. I don't think it is asking a lot to be able to meet with the person nominated to lead that Department.

I have had the opportunity to meet with 10 of President Trump's Cabinet nominees, and I look forward to meeting with more before they are confirmed by the Senate. Conducting these meetings is the absolute bare minimum, given the role of each Senator and the constituents they represent. But Mr. Hegseth refused to meet with me and has refused to meet with many of my Democratic colleagues.

I think most Americans would agree you shouldn't get the job if you decide you can skip the job interview. Every nominee--every nominee-- should be willing to meet with Senators, regardless of their party, to answer basic questions about how they would approach their role if confirmed. It is honestly beneath the dignity of the role he aspires to for Mr. Hegseth to refuse to meet one-on-one with most Democrats.

What is he afraid of? Are the questions we have to ask really that hard? I mean, if Mr. Hegseth is afraid of me, how is he going to stand up to China?

Meeting with Members on both sides isn't just some formality. If you are confirmed, it is part of the job. So this is a serious concern and one of the many concerns I have now with Mr. Hegseth's qualifications, his positions, and his character.

Let's be perfectly clear about the stakes here. We are talking about who we will put in command of the most powerful military in the world. There is nothing on Mr. Hegseth's resume that remotely suggests he has the experience for that role. I have deep appreciation for his service to our country; I do. But let's not kid ourselves here. I don't see how being a FOX TV host prepares you to lead 3 million servicemembers and civilians. I don't see how bankrupting a veterans' nonprofit through wasteful spending qualifies you to manage a budget of nearly $900 billion.

Moreover, we really, truly have no sense of what his understanding of military policy is or what his strategic priorities would be. Thanks to Senator Duckworth, we know he is someone who can't name a single country in ASEAN. That ignorance is alarming. Senators only had 7 minutes during his confirmation hearing to ask questions. Many asked the questions we knew our Republican colleagues would not regarding Hegseth's questionable character and fitness--important questions, absolutely. But because we had to spend so much time understanding if he even could do this job at the most basic level, we had precious little time to ask him about how he would do his job.

How would Pete Hegseth ensure that our servicemembers and their families have the resources they need at home and abroad? How does he plan to reduce costs and development times for key military capabilities that are critical to our national security? How would he invest in our defense industrial base and public shipyards, like the one in my home State of Washington? How does he view the pacing threat in the Indo-Pacific? And how would he work with our partners and our allies to prepare for a potential conflict? Does he have any thoughts on that at all?

This is just not a serious candidate who has thoughtful positions on the challenges we face.

You know what position he is serious about, what he has stated over and over again?

I'm straight up just saying we should not have women in

combat roles.

He said that last November.

Or:

We need moms. But not in the military, especially in combat

units.

That is infuriating and disqualifying. I don't have to try very hard to imagine how that kind of condescending attitude will go over with our women in uniform.

And after decades of comments like this--denigrating the role of women in the military in ways that simply do not square with reality-- Mr. Hegseth's recent about-face on this topic is just not convincing. He has also made clear he has little regard for the Geneva Conventions.

Maybe this is a bit old-fashioned of me, but I think we should have a Secretary of Defense who is firmly against war crimes; not one who has spoken in favor of torture like waterboarding, in favor of people convicted of war crimes, and questioned whether we should follow the Geneva Conventions.

And let's not forget, in addition to having no real qualifications and many alarming positions, Mr. Hegseth has many red flags that raise serious concerns about his character and his conduct. There is the report that he and his management team pursued women on his staff. There is the report that he took his employees to a strip club and got drunk. There is the report that he got drunk in uniform and had to be carried out of a strip club. There is the report that he chanted ``Kill all Muslims'' while he was drunk.

And beyond reporting, there are the police records backing up the account of a woman who told the nurse she may have been drugged and then raped by Pete Hegseth. We couldn't hear from that woman because Mr. Hegseth reached a financial settlement, and he has now threatened to sue her for speaking out. And we almost didn't hear about that incident at all since he didn't even disclose it when he was vetted.

But there are other people we have now heard from. We know his mother once wrote to her son directly criticizing him as an abuser of women. We know his former sister-in-law, in a signed affidavit, has shared she saw Mr. Hegseth drink to excess and understood his ex-wife feared for her safety with him. And we know that same ex-wife told the FBI that ``he drinks more than he doesn't.''

That is an awful lot of smoke for us to be ignoring the fire.

There is absolutely no world where someone who has a history of running up debts at nonprofits should be responsible for overseeing half of our discretionary spending. There is no world where someone with a history of failing

to address his irresponsible alcohol use should be given one of the most stressful jobs imaginable and should be making life-and-death decisions on a daily and an hourly basis. There is no world where we should have a predator running the Department of Defense that is responsible for the well-being of millions of women and men in uniform.

I don't get how that is complicated.

Mr. President, let me just end on this. There is no world where the person in charge of our military should see his fellow Americans as the enemy. But Mr. Hegseth has made clear that is his view. Regarding Democrats and Republicans, he has written--and this is him:

The other side--the Left--is not our friend. We are not

esteemed colleagues, nor mere political opponents. We are

foes. Either we win, or they win. We agree on nothing else.

That is an especially dark view of our country. Our military uniforms do not say ``Democrat,'' they do not say ``Republican.'' They just don't.

You cannot be an effective commander if your people don't trust you. But how are troops supposed to trust you to keep them safe in combat if you think half the Nation is an enemy? How are Muslim servicemembers supposed to trust you if you think their religion is a threat to our country? How are women servicemembers supposed to trust you if you think they should be at home?

I don't have an answer to that. Maybe Mr. Hegseth doesn't either. Maybe that is why he won't meet with me. Then again, maybe it is because he thinks I am his foe because I am a Democrat, or maybe he doesn't think I should have a say in the military issues because I am a woman.

Mr. President, I do have a say, and I say someone like Mr. Hegseth is grossly unqualified to take on one of the most important jobs in the world. And I will be voting against him. I urge my Republican colleagues to seriously consider the message it will send to confirm someone for Secretary of Defense who has failed time and again to meet the most basic standards of conduct our women and men in uniform are required to live up to.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.