TRUMP EXECUTIVE ORDERS

TRUMP EXECUTIVE ORDERS

Congressional Record, Volume 171 Issue 18 (Tuesday, January 28, 2025) [Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 18 (Tuesday, January 28, 2025)] [Senate] [Page S443] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] TRUMP EXECUTIVE ORDERS Ms. BALDWIN. Mr. President, I rise today because the people of my State are in pain. They are confused, and they are scared. This is all because of a blatantly unconstitutional power grab from the President of the United States. While we have rightly seen this power grab blocked by the courts, it is only temporary, and the larger issue remains. Our Constitution is extremely clear: Congress--composed of people elected by the citizens of each of our States or districts--it is Congress that makes the law. In the Senate, those laws are almost always passed on a bipartisan basis, and after we work out our differences and pass a law, the President then implements the law. That is it. The Constitution does not say the President can implement just the laws he likes. The Constitution does not say the President can implement the laws just when he likes. The Constitution is crystal clear on this. But the Trump administration is ignoring the Constitution and refusing to implement the laws that Democrats and Republicans passed together, and it is trying to cut funding for absolutely critical programs. Every Senator and Member of the House of Representatives should be deeply concerned by that. I doubt my Republican colleagues would want a future Democratic administration to ignore annual appropriation laws. So a judge's eleventh-hour decision to temporarily block this power grab may have postponed the pain, but that is all it did--by a week. The pain I am worried about will be the impact that people in every part of my State experience. Will community health centers be able to access funding to continue to provide healthcare for the 30 million Americans they serve annually? Will title X be available to continue providing cancer screenings, access to contraception, and other preventive care for women and families? Will individuals with opioid abuse disorders be able to access medication-assisted treatment? Will homeless youth be able to access emergency shelter and transitional housing assistance? Will research into lifesaving cures for deadly diseases, including cancer and diabetes and Alzheimer's, be paused? Will patients be able to continue receiving potentially lifesaving treatments as part of critical clinical trials? The programs our veterans rely on could be cut. Programs children and families rely on could be cut. Support for our farmers could be cut. The list goes on and on. My office saw and heard the people behind this list, like the deputy fire chief who called today wondering if he was going to have to lay off some of his firefighters or the mothers and local school district staff we heard from who called worried that their kids would not be able to get a hot school lunch tomorrow. We heard from a childcare facility in western Wisconsin that would be forced to lay off people by Thursday if these cuts went into effect. My office heard from a mother whose son is disabled, and she didn't know if his Medicaid was going to be cut or not. I heard from a substance use treatment provider and a domestic abuse shelter administrator who didn't know if they could help those fighting addiction or escaping unsafe situations. These people are real. These are very real consequences if the President gets away with this unconstitutional power grab and cuts programs that Americans rely on. I am calling on my Democratic and Republican colleagues to speak out against this overreach. Stand up for your constituents, and for that matter, stand up for the Constitution. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Virginia. ____________________