TRUMP EXECUTIVE ORDERS

TRUMP EXECUTIVE ORDERS

Congressional Record, Volume 171 Issue 19 (Wednesday, January 29, 2025) [Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 19 (Wednesday, January 29, 2025)] [Senate] [Pages S493-S494] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] TRUMP EXECUTIVE ORDERS Ms. BALDWIN. Mr. President, I would like to just step back a minute and reflect on the last 10 days. That is right. It has just been 10 days since Donald Trump was sworn in as our President. Like myself, many Americans feel like it has been much longer, given the onslaught of news and chaos that we have experienced in that time. First, there was the inauguration speech. Instead of talking about uniting our country and mapping out a real plan to address Wisconsinites' needs, he used his first moments as President to suggest we rename the Gulf of Mexico to the ``Gulf of America,'' all while his billionaire friends looked on from front-row seats. Then there was the flood of day one Executive orders, among other things, attempting to end birthright citizenship and removing the United States from the World Health Organization and removing the United States from the Paris climate agreement. And, of course, I would be remiss if I did not highlight that the President also pardoned over 1,500 criminals who had participated in a violent insurrection--people who beat police officers with metal batons and fire extinguishers, people who tased cops, all in the name of undermining the will of the American people and overturning a free and fair election--so much for tough on crime. And this was just day one--chaos, chaos, chaos. I will fast-forward to Monday night of this week, when the Trump administration directed virtually all Federal Agencies to cut grants and loans that millions of Americans rely on. There were barely any details on what programs were impacted. Almost immediately, my office began receiving calls from constituents. In fact, the phones rang off the hooks. Childcare and Head Start programs reached out, concerned that they would have to shutter their doors or lay off staff if Federal funding was paused. One Head Start Program told me that their portal to access the funds that they need to stay open was down, inaccessible. And I heard from another Head Start Program in Western Wisconsin that serves hundreds of children. They told me that they would have to start laying off employees as soon as Thursday if their funding was cut. Let's just think about what that means in practice. Maybe a parent is getting home from work after a long day and gets a phone call that the place that they use for daycare will be closed for an indefinite amount of time. Will they be able to go to work the next day? Who is going to come forth to care for their kid now? A deputy fire chief in a rural Central Wisconsin community reached out to me. Without Federal funding, he would have to lay off as many as nine firefighters. Would this mean longer waits for residents for a firefighter to respond to an emergency if their house was on fire? Another fire chief in Northern Wisconsin called me to ask whether his volunteer department could go ahead with needed upgrades for their equipment. Without their Federal grant, which was more than half of their operating budget, they would not be able to purchase the new chassis needed for their department's purposes. And from Western Wisconsin, a local mayor reached out to me to share that a pause in Federal funding would be catastrophic for their ability to make [[Page S494]] timely payments on a loan they took out to make necessary renovations to their fire department. I heard from an administrator of a women's shelter for survivors of domestic abuse based in Southwestern Wisconsin. Without Federal funding, they would have to turn away women looking for safety from their abusers for themselves and their children. As communities across Wisconsin continue to battle the opioid and fentanyl crisis, a community organization specializing in drug prevention told me that they would not be able to pay their staff or continue their vital work if funding was cut. I also heard from a community dental center in Southeastern Wisconsin that serves thousands of patients every single year, the vast majority of whom are children. They told me that without their Federal funding, they would be at significant risk of closing within a matter of a few short months, and, as a result, thousands of children would have nowhere to go to receive dental care, and 45 individuals would be out of employment. Another family shelter in Milwaukee, which serves hundreds of families a year and dozens of pregnant and postpartum women, shared that a freeze on Federal funding would likely result in them having to cut wages for their 100 employees and consider staffing reductions. Without their services, more than 100 kids would remain in foster care, instead of with their families. While the White House seems to be contradicting itself and putting out mixed signals on these drastic cuts, the level of chaos it has created should be upsetting to every American. We are talking about the most vulnerable people in our society. Republicans who say these cuts are necessary are essentially saying it is fine if Americans don't get lifesaving treatment for opioid addiction. They are saying it is fine if kids miss a meal or can't access the medication they need to stay healthy; it is OK, in their books, if fire departments and law enforcement go without the resources they need to keep our communities safe. Look, I agree that we need to go after fraud and waste in our government where it exists. Where I adamantly disagree with my Republican colleagues is what that waste and fraud actually is. Programs that Wisconsin families rely on every day are not waste in my book. President Trump's egregious overreach of his Presidential power is plainly unconstitutional. It is illegal to withhold this funding from the American people, period. This funding came through bipartisan bills. And I hope that my Republican colleagues are just as angry at President Trump for the confusion his administration has created as I am. But based on what I witnessed so far, I fear they are not. This directive has put real people in real distress--something, it appears, President Trump and his allies don't really care about. We are going to do everything that we can to challenge this and make sure that kids can get a hot lunch at school, that cops get the funding that they need to be on the beat, and that families have what they need. I will close with this. The Trump administration has said this is all to stop the ``woke agenda.'' Well if the ``woke agenda'' is ensuring that seniors can access healthcare, kids can have food on the table, parents can find affordable childcare in their neighborhoods, and police officers and first responders have the resources they need to keep our communities safe, I think this administration is about to learn a real lesson in just how out of step they are with the vast majority of Americans who rely on these services every day. If this is any indication of the next 4 years, I want my constituents to know that I, for one, intend to do right by them and stand up for their best interests. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maryland. ____________________