Political Quotes

“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.…”