Source: United States Senator for New Hampshire Jeanne Shaheen
(Washington, DC) – U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) delivered remarks on the Senate floor opposing the nomination of Russell Vought, the chief architect of Project 2025, a radical, right-wing agenda, to serve as Director of the Office of Management and Budget. You can watch her full remarks here.
Key Quotes from Senator Shaheen:
- “Either the OMB, under Russell Vought’s direction, deliberately stopped funding for 2,600 programs, for water and sewer projects, for housing, for meals for seniors, or they were so incompetent that without meaning to they sent a memo to the whole federal government that had that effect.”
- “There’s no question that Russ Vought and President Trump intend to take away some of the funding that Congress has provided on a bipartisan basis to help families in New Hampshire and around the country save money.”
- “It’s beyond ridiculous that anyone could propose these cuts with a straight face, while also supporting trillions of dollars in tax breaks for the wealthiest individuals and corporations in this country.”
- “It’s important to all Americans to make sure that our government runs effectively and efficiently, but indiscriminately freezing hiring across the board, pushing out thousands of civil servants, makes that problem worse not better.”
- “We’re not talking about political appointees here. We’re talking about the people who write the checks at the Social Security Administration, about the caseworkers at the Department of Housing and Urban Development who make sure that people have roofs over their heads and food to eat. We’re talking about doctors and therapists at VA hospitals who work around the clock to provide lifesaving care and benefits to the veterans who have sacrificed so much for our country and program operators at the Small Business Administration.”
Remarks as delivered can be found below:
I’d like to go back to my concerns about the nomination of Russ Vought to be the head of the Office of Management and Budget, because that’s an office that determines the services that millions of families and small businesses rely on.
And yet, he supported unilaterally taking away those services and help for more than 2,600 federal programs that were ordered to cease activities with less than 24 hours notice.
And in every state in the country, we heard confusion and panic and chaos.
Since then, I’ve heard from thousands of Granite Staters who are worried about what those cuts mean for them and their families.
I’ve heard from health care providers, from our community health centers, from our nonprofits, from our police departments, from so many people who provide services to the state of New Hampshire.
And it’s now been more than a week, and despite not one but two federal judges ordering the Trump Administration to stop holding up funds, we are still hearing reports of frozen payment systems and missed reimbursements.
Now, I know my Republican colleagues are hearing those concerns too.
But despite this outpouring, we’re still here today contemplating confirming Russell Vought, the architect of this reckless, unprecedented and misguided policy.
He was directly involved in drafting the memo that OMB sent out that started all of this last Monday.
That memo was so extreme that it provoked concern and outrage from both sides of the aisle about the breadth of payments that were being halted.
Russ Vought then had to walk back parts of the memo that he’d worked on just the day before.
And all of this happened, and he wasn’t even a confirmed nominee.
So, I’m very worried about what he’s going to do if he actually gets confirmed for this job.
We know that what we saw last week was just a short preview of what he plans to do.
And the justification that we’ve heard since that memo is that that memo wasn’t meant to cut off funding to all of the programs that saw their funding halted.
It wasn’t meant to stop Medicaid in every state or to shut down HUD’s system of rental assistance or homelessness funding.
But I’ll tell you, if that’s your defense, that just means that OMB sent a memo that was so poorly drafted that agencies across the federal government thought it required them to cut off all these programs that people and towns depend on.
So, either the OMB under Russell Vought’s direction, deliberately stopped funding for 2,600 programs for water and sewer projects, for housing, for meals for seniors, or they were so incompetent, that without meaning to, they sent a memo to the whole federal government that had that effect.
Well, regardless of which answer it is, I think the person who’s behind that, Russ Vought, the man leading that effort, should not be running the Office of Management and Budget that determines how funding goes out in the federal government.
And I think this is especially true because there’s no question that Russ Vought and President Trump intend to take away some of the funding that Congress has provided on a bipartisan basis to help families in New Hampshire and around the country save money on things like their energy bills, to help address pollution like PFAS.
And I would just remind folks that we passed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law on a strong bipartisan vote—19 Republican senators voted with the Democrats to invest in our communities.
We worked shoulder to shoulder, Republicans and Democrats, to prioritize things like energy efficiency, water infrastructure, funding that this administration says it’s looking at cutting off, even though communities are depending on it.
Well, I plan to continue to stand up and defend funding that Congress provides to make necessary investments in all of our communities, and I hope my Republican colleagues will do the same.
And then this past weekend, we learned that Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, who’s never been elected, along with unelected, unconfirmed DOGE employees, the DOGE boys we call them, now have access to the payment system at the Treasury Department.
That is a system that processes more than $5 trillion worth of payments every year.
That’s everything from tax refunds and Social Security checks to reimbursing towns for work that they’re doing on sewers or roads.
They have access to Social Security numbers, to health information, and to so much more.
This is a system that the vast majority of people working at Treasury can’t access, and they shouldn’t be able to, because this is private information.
You may have heard that Treasury only gave “read only”, I say that in quotes, “read only” access.
But if that’s the case, why is Elon Musk talking about using this access to stop payments to a charity that helps seniors with housing?
What’s he doing in the Treasury records anyway?
Why does he need that information?
This week, we’re hearing confirmation that Musk’s team didn’t just have “read access”.
In fact, they had administrator level access, giving them the ability to make changes to this payment system.
One specific Treasury employee refuted Treasury leadership’s denial that they gave a DOGE staffer “write access”, that’s the ability to change the code and to change the checks that get sent out by Treasury.
The employee said, and I quote, “I am looking at his access right now, and it has the Deputy Assistant Commissioner instructing the team to disregard all previous instructions and assign him,” the DOGE person, “read/write privileges for the database,” so he can change what’s in that database.
That doesn’t sound like “read only” access to me.
I think it’s unacceptable for an unelected billionaire to be taking over the payments system that our government relies on, that millions of Americans rely on, and trying to stop those payments.
Now, fortunately, the original OMB memo was rescinded.
But this fight is not over.
Instead, this access to the Treasury’s payment system could be the next front in stopping funds going out to the American people.
We can, and we do, intend to continue to push back on these illegal actions to stop funding that’s required by law.
And despite knowing better, Russell Vought has never shied away from his belief that the executive branch can disregard the law and override spending decisions that are made by Congress.
He clearly believes that this administration should be above the law and should be able to take away funding that helps millions of Americans.
Russ Vought is the architect of Project 2025.
That proposed a budget that would cut Medicaid, just Medicaid, by $2.1 trillion over ten years.
It would slash SNAP, the food program, by $400 billion.
We have people in New Hampshire who count on the SNAP program in order to be able to feed their kids.
His proposal would cut funding that helps low-income Americans go to college by more than $250 billion.
It would eliminate the Affordable Care Act tax credits that help millions of Americans afford health care.
These are not cuts that lower costs.
These are not cuts that create jobs.
These are not cuts that enhance public safety and make it easier for people to afford their rent and their groceries.
It’s beyond ridiculous that anyone could propose these cuts with a straight face while also supporting trillions of dollars in tax breaks for the wealthiest individuals and corporations in this country.
You know, I’m not one to claim that the federal government can’t be run more efficiently.
I think we can always do everything better.
And it’s important to all Americans to make sure that our government runs effectively and efficiently, but indiscriminately freezing hiring across the board, pushing out thousands of civil servants, makes that problem worse, not better.
And last week, more than 2 million federal employees received emails offering to pay their salaries for the rest of the fiscal year in exchange for resigning now.
I mean, that in and of itself is questionable because this Congress hasn’t appropriated dollars to pay those employees.
And why would somebody who wants to improve effectiveness and efficiency in government, pay people to go home and not work? And that’s what this email said.
At the time, it included hundreds of thousands of individuals working in critical national security roles and included, for example, every single air traffic controller in the country, just days before we tragically saw the worst aviation incident in nearly 30 years.
Now, they’ve since walked that offer back, stating that it should not apply to employees who are critical to national security.
But, like the claim of the funding freeze, they say that that was always their intent, they must have made a mistake, but I’m not sure which option is worse.
That while we’re short more than 3,500 air traffic controllers, Russell Vought really wanted to pay the ones we do have not to work, or that he blasted out an irresponsible, reckless, non-targeted effort that could have had devastating consequences for critical positions without taking the time to think it through.
What’s more, they tried to convince us this offer will save money, making it clear that even if we lose thousands of key employees with no plans to replace them, we’ll be better off.
Well, tell that to the people in New Hampshire who are trying to get answers on their Social Security or their income tax checks.
Tell that to the students who need help with their FAFSA form so that they can apply and get help to go to college.
Vought has relentlessly attacked the millions of career civil servants who show up every day, no matter who’s in power, to keep the lights on and the wheels turning.
Some of these people have served our country for 30, 40, even 50 years through countless presidents and Congresses.
We’re not talking about political appointees here, we’re talking about the people who write the checks at the Social Security Administration, about the caseworkers at the Department of Housing and Urban Development who make sure that people have roofs over their heads and food to eat.
We’re talking about doctors and therapists at VA hospitals who work around the clock to provide lifesaving care and benefits to the veterans who have sacrificed so much for our country, program operators at the Small Business Administration who helps entrepreneurs get loans.
They’re the forest rangers who show up in all weather conditions in the White Mountain Forest in New Hampshire to ensure there is safe and enjoyable recreation opportunities for hundreds of millions of visitors to our national parks and forests.
And speaking of the weather, they’re the meteorologists at the National Weather Service, the people we rely on to prepare for hazardous storms.
These employees contribute to the maintenance of nuclear submarines, which is an essential tenet of our national security, a crucial part of our capability to deter major conflicts.
And any impact to our shipyards, we have the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard between New Hampshire and Maine that does maintenance on our nuclear submarines, any impact to that workforce will strain our shipbuilding industrial base that’s already saturated with demand to meet the requirements of our Navy.
So, why did they get an email giving those employees the option to resign?
This administration has said repeatedly that it wants to “restore the warrior ethos” at the Pentagon.
But if Russell Vought gets his way, there isn’t going to be anybody left at the Pentagon.
And now we’re hearing that Elon Musk’s team is plugging in to our air traffic control system.
The National Air Traffic Controllers Association has repeatedly asked for what they need: more funding, targeted investments and workforce development, shorter hours and upgraded technology.
We need to get to work in this Senate, in this Congress, on legislation that addresses these issues.
But handing the keys to the nation’s air traffic control system over to an unelected, inexperienced billionaire who cuts first and asks questions later, isn’t the solution.
Now, Russell Vought will tell you over and over again that government doesn’t work.
But he says this at the same time that he’s doing everything in his power to break it with zero regard for how that’s going to hurt you and your family.
And this week, we’ve seen and we’ve heard more horrifying parts of Russell Vought’s agenda.
He’s teaming up with Elon Musk.
And last year, for the first time, thanks to PEPFAR, more than half of new HIV infections were outside of Sub-Saharan Africa.
One of the most successful health programs ever in U.S. history, put in by George W. Bush.
And one of the only things that has stood between Americans and so many of the diseases that come from overseas is USAID.
Now, I was listening to the prayer breakfast this morning, and I heard President Trump talking about his admiration for Billy Graham, for Franklin Graham, for the good work that they do.
Then a few minutes later, I heard the morning news, and I heard them talking about what’s happening in Sudan, where we have a famine and millions of people desperate because of the conflict there and what’s happening.
And the news report said, if we don’t get our foreign assistance turned back on to help the Sudanese, eight million people are going to starve to death in the coming months.
I can’t imagine that Billy Graham or Franklin Graham support the idea of eight million Sudanese dying, because we’ve turned off the foreign assistance that we provided because Elon Musk doesn’t like the United States Agency for International Development.
I think Billy Graham and Franklin Graham, Billy Graham, when he was alive, and his son Franklin would say, these are also God’s children and it’s important for us to support people around the world who are dying.
And you know, it’s not just those kinds of situations like we have in Sudan.
We have significant diseases that are breaking out in parts of the world, and we don’t have people on the ground to make sure that the people who—the outbreak of Ebola that’s happening in Africa, some of us remember in 2014 when about what came to the United States—we don’t have any aid workers anymore because under Elon Musk’s order, they’ve shut down those programs.
They’re bringing those people home, so there’s nobody there to make sure that that Ebola outbreak doesn’t go across borders and doesn’t wind up in the United States.
There’s a Marburg outbreak, another hemorrhagic disease that’s happening in Africa.
It has a 90% mortality rate, and right now, we have no real treatment and no vaccination for the Marburg virus.
And yet again, we’ve taken our teams of people who help in-country to treat the Marburg virus and we’ve taken them home.
We’ve said, “go ahead cross whatever country lines you want. Come to the United States, because we’re not going to prevent that.”
And, you know, we’ve got a bird flu epidemic now.
You may have heard there’s a new strain that’s just been discovered in cows in Nevada.
We’ve had, about 70 people who have been infected with bird flu.
We’ve had somebody die from that.
We used to monitor bird flu outbreaks around the world, but under this shutdown of USAID and its programs, we’re not monitoring bird flu anymore.
So, that bird flu can come to the United States?
We don’t know.
Nobody seems to care in the Trump Administration if that happens.
These things don’t just happen overseas.
They affect us here in America.
It’s in our interest to ensure that these efforts that help with diseases, that help prevent Vladimir Putin and Russia from its nefarious activities in Europe, in Moldova, in Romania, in Ukraine—that’s also happened the aid to help Ukraine in this war against Russia.
That’s all been cut off.
That doesn’t make America safer.
That doesn’t make us stronger.
That doesn’t make us more prosperous.
I hope my colleagues will stand against Russell Vought, who has been the architect of so much of this carnage.
Sadly, I don’t think my colleagues on the other side of the aisle will do that.
And I hope that we can reverse some of this, harm that’s been done to so many people around the world that is going to come home to roost in America if we don’t address it.
So, Mr. President, I have taken all of my time.
I yield the floor.