Chris Van Hollen Reads List Of Failures Of Trump Administration To Comply With Law To Lutnick's Face

7 months ago

At today's Senate Appropriations Committee hearing, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) spoke to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

Transcript

00:00I hope that this hearing will be a restart of what had been a strong and professional

00:07relationship between this committee, this subcommittee, both sides, and the Department

00:14of Commerce.

00:16And I say that because I think that it was the experience of Senator Moran that during

00:20the Biden administration, whether they agreed or disagreed, the Department of Commerce was

00:25forthcoming in providing responses to questions.

00:30And that's also true when you go back to the first Trump administration, right?

00:35But it has been a very different and broken relationship since this administration took

00:42office, at least with respect to trying to get answers from this side of the aisle.

00:47I'm not fully aware of all of the chairman's inquiries.

00:53But as you know, we have witnessed during this period of time since the beginning of the

00:58Trump administration, an unprecedented and, in my view, illegal firing of thousands of

01:04federal employees, including many at the Department of Commerce, NOAA, and other places.

01:10We've also seen the withholding of funds that have been duly appropriated by this Congress

01:15and signed into law.

01:17As you know, Mr. Secretary, Article II of the Constitution requires the president to take

01:23care that the laws be faithfully executed.

01:27Appropriations acts are the supreme law of the land.

01:32Executive orders are not.

01:34Doge diktats are not.

01:36To that end, here's just a partial list of the Department's and the administration's failure

01:43to comply with the law or with reasonable requests from this committee.

01:50The administration is withholding $200 million provided to the Department of Commerce in the

01:54fiscal year 2025 appropriations law that the president signed in March.

02:01The department has attempted to illegally shut down the Minority Business Development Agency,

02:06despite the appropriation and the recent bipartisan 2021 authorization law, putting that into the

02:14permanent statute.

02:16The department has not provided its agency RIF and reorganization plan, despite a letter

02:23that both the chairman and I sent to you and the department requesting the specifics.

02:30The department has illegally fired nearly 1,000 employees, including over 500 from NOAA alone.

02:38The department has failed to provide a real spending plan outlining how you tend to execute

02:43the fiscal year 25 appropriations law.

02:46We have this two-page document.

02:50The chairman referred to the fact that this is still missing, other than this two-pager.

02:56Just to give you a point of reference, this was an equivalent from last year with respect

03:00to the plan to spend the remaining funds for this fiscal year, which, as you know, ends on

03:06September 30th.

03:08The department has failed to respond to virtually all committee inquiries, at least on the Democratic

03:15side.

03:16Letters I've sent.

03:17I sent you two letters, Mr. Secretary, in addition to the joint letter I sent you with the chairman,

03:23and our staff has sent multiple inquiries, and I'll have some questions about the lack

03:28of responsiveness going forward.

03:32This is, in my view, unacceptable, and I think it should be unacceptable to people on both sides

03:38of the aisle.

03:39And it's in this context that we're now taking up the fiscal year 2026 appropriations bill.

03:45And I've discussed with the chairman of the subcommittee, and I know that Senator Murray

03:49has talked with Senator Collins, as an appropriations committee, we've got to figure out how, when

03:55we appropriate resources for certain purposes, that those are complied with.

04:01Let me just say that beyond the issue of the numbers and the budget, this does come down

04:06to people.

04:08One such person is Carrie.

04:09She's a mom and a homeowner who lives in Maryland.

04:13She's a federal employee who worked at the Department of Commerce.

04:17She was proud of her mission.

04:19She worked to implement the CHIPS and Science Act, promoting domestic semiconductor manufacturing,

04:25supporting good-paying jobs.

04:26She received the so-called fork email offering her money to quit her job.

04:31She said, I don't need to take that because I think I'm contributing.

04:35Earlier this year, she was on medical leave to recover following a major spinal surgery.

04:40She then, a few days later, received the message to tell everybody what five things she'd done

04:45during the week.

04:46Her husband said, don't focus on that, focus on your recovery.

04:50Instead, she worked from bed.

04:53Days later, she was fired.

04:55Then a judge ordered her and other employees to be reinstated, only for her to be fired again.

05:01Making matters worse, not only was her health insurance canceled, but it was also

05:04retroactively backdated, meaning she had to pay for the surgery and medication out-of-pocket.

05:11One prescription alone cost her $2,500.

05:15She said, and I quote, right now I'm working off faith.

05:19We have kids, we have a mortgage, car payments, I don't know what we're going to do.

05:24Mr. Secretary, this is no way to treat patriotic federal employees who are doing the work for

05:32our country.

05:33And I look forward to today's hearing and the questions that will be posed from people

05:37on both sides of the aisle.

05:38Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

05:39Thank you, Senator Van Hollen.

05:40Mr. Secretary, as I welcomed you earlier, we now look forward to your testimony and you

05:44may begin.

Chris Van Hollen Reads List Of Failures Of Trump Administration To Comply With Law To Lutnick's Face

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended