Patty Murray Does Not Hold Back Slamming Trump For Pushing To Freeze ‘Critical Funding’

Forbes Breaking News

During a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing last month, Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) questioned officials about President Trump's push to freeze federal funding.

Transcript

00:00Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

00:03Thank you to you and Senator Heinrich for holding this hearing really important for

00:07our ability to be able to write our appropriations bills, so I appreciate it.

00:12And I want to thank each of you and all your staff at your agencies for your really excellent

00:16support that you provide to this committee and to Congress.

00:20You know, from day one, President Trump has unilaterally frozen or contravened critical

00:26funding provided in our bipartisan laws.

00:29Those actions by Trump and Russ Vogt have really wreaked havoc for our families and communities

00:35across the country.

00:37That is really not what the Constitution envisioned.

00:40Congress has the power of the purse, period.

00:42Our presidents cannot pick and choose which parts of a law that they can follow.

00:47So Comptroller Dodaro, I wanted to ask you, you have testified that GAO is investigating

00:53the Trump's administration's efforts to block federal funds as potential violations of the

00:58Impoundment Control Act.

01:00What is the status of those investigations?

01:02We have right now 39 different investigations underway.

01:07We're trying to get the information from the agencies about what their legal position is

01:11for not expending the money.

01:14I'm looking forward to what I understand to be a submission by the administration of a rescission

01:20package, which will be following the Impoundment Control Act.

01:24So we'll look at that.

01:25We're monitoring all the litigation surrounding these areas that we're investigating in.

01:32Only three agencies so far have given us the information that we need.

01:36OMB has not been responsive, nor EPA.

01:40Number of other agencies are due to get us information this week or next week.

01:45So I would imagine starting next month after we look to see what is in the rescission package,

01:50obviously.

01:51Next month is in May.

01:52Yeah.

01:53Pardon me?

01:54Yes.

01:55Yes.

01:56Starting of them.

01:57Some, you know, the ones, it'll, they won't all come at once.

01:58They'll come as we collect and analyze all the information.

02:02What options do you have if you don't get timely or responsive information from the federal

02:08agencies?

02:09Well, we'll have to make decisions then on our own based upon the available information.

02:14Some of it will be in the lawsuit filings that we're, that we're following right now.

02:19And then we'll have to go forward doing this.

02:21We had to do this in the past in Interior Department, which didn't respond for a long

02:26period of time.

02:27Congress put in language then after that experience in the appropriation law requiring Interior

02:34to give us information within a certain period of time.

02:37I would suggest respectfully that that be included in this year's appropriation bill to specifically

02:46as it relates to Empowerment and Control Act decisions, that they're timely and responding

02:51to us.

02:52We can give you a reasonable timeframe.

02:54And more broadly, a provision of general cooperation, giving GAO access to the information we need

03:02in our audit issues, because this will address the Chairman's problem question about us being

03:08more efficient.

03:09We can only be as efficient as we can get the information from the agencies.

03:13And also, we've had, in some cases, we give agencies 30, up to 30 days to respond to our

03:19draft reports.

03:21Sometimes they're, they drag on longer.

03:23Okay.

03:24Well, I appreciate that.

03:25And we, Congress, really rely on GAO's expertise as a nonpartisan expert watchdog.

03:31So we appreciate your work and I'm going to stay on top of this, look forward to working

03:35with you on that.

03:37Mr. Swigel, um, Republicans are, as you know, moving full speed ahead with the reconciliation

03:43package, uh, promising to deliver more than 5.3 trillion in new tax breaks for billionaires

03:48and large corporations.

03:51And at the same time, some Republicans have promised that Medicaid, which is a lifeline

03:55for our kids and seniors, is, uh, safe.

03:57But the reality is Republicans can't keep both of those promises.

04:02I want to examine this with you.

04:04Um, the Republican Reconciliation Instruction directs $880 billion in cuts within the House

04:12Energy and Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over Medicaid, Children's Health Insurance Program,

04:16or CHIP.

04:17Um, you responded to a question from House Ranking Member Brendan Boyle and Frank Pallone in March

04:23regarding spending within the House Energy and Commerce Committee's jurisdiction, excluding

04:29Medicare, which Republicans say is off the table.

04:32In your response, you said over 10 years, Medicaid outlays will account for 93% of baseline budget

04:40projections for energy and commerce.

04:42Is that correct?

04:43Yes, that's correct.

04:44And if you add in CHIP, is it fair to say you are now talking north of 95%?

04:50That's right.

04:51Once you take out Medicaid and CHIP, there's only $381 billion still in the current baseline.

04:56Okay.

04:57So, looking at Table 1 in that March 5th letter, is it fair to say the remainder is nowhere close

05:04to that $880 billion?

05:06Um, that's correct.

05:07That's correct.

05:08In the letter that we sent to Mr. Boyle and Mr. Pallone, um, the, uh, the dollars after

05:14Medicare, Medicaid, and CHIP are, um, much smaller than the instruction.

05:19Yeah.

05:20Okay.

05:21So, just for the record, I just want to say that it would appear to me, be, me to be impossible

05:25for energy and commerce, the committee with jurisdiction to reach the spending cuts required

05:30under the Republican reconciliation instructions without cutting Medicaid or putting Medicare

05:35back on the table.

05:36Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

05:38Um, Mr. Heinrich, I understand you've got a couple more questions.

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