Brian Schatz Passionately Assails 'Legislative Violence' Of Rescissions Cuts To USAID

Forbes Breaking News

On the Senate floor, Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) decried the Republicans' rescissions package.

Transcript

00:00Mr. President, Republicans don't actually have to do this.

00:08I understand as well as anybody wanting to go along with your party's president,

00:15especially in the early months.

00:18But being part of an independent and co-equal branch has to mean something.

00:24Being part of the Article I branch means something very specific,

00:28and it means that we're the legislature and we control the purse strings.

00:34Nowhere in the Constitution does it say that if the president wants something, you must do it.

00:43And what worries me the most about this rescissions package, if it passes,

00:48it is one thing for the president's signature accomplishment, signature policy priority,

00:56to be supported by Republicans in the legislature.

01:03I understand that.

01:04I understand the inevitable political momentum behind that.

01:09But this isn't that.

01:12And we have now gone six months

01:14without a single instance of Republicans and Democrats coming together

01:24and establishing that there are some limitations on this president's power.

01:29And if you remember the first Trump term,

01:36there were a couple of moments when the legislature actually stood up to the president,

01:41overwrote a veto of his, rejected a rescissions package.

01:48They stood up for their prerogatives.

01:51And you know what happened next?

01:53Nothing.

01:55Why?

01:56Because that's actually how the system is supposed to work.

02:00We are not a parliamentary system.

02:02We are not a monarchy.

02:04Where the president says, by tweet,

02:07by tweet,

02:09if you don't adopt this exactly how it's written,

02:13you will not receive my political support.

02:15Thank you for your attention to this matter.

02:17And that set us on a course towards passing this legislation,

02:23which I know a dozen, at least a dozen, Republicans hate.

02:29Hate.

02:31It reduces funding for Jordan.

02:33It reduces funding for Ukraine.

02:36It reduces funding for global health.

02:39It did reduce funding for PEPFAR.

02:41It continues to reduce funding for public television and public radio.

02:45By the way, public radio is not just national public radio.

02:49If you are on a reservation,

02:52if you are in a very rural part of your state,

02:56it's often not just the only radio station,

03:00the only communications infrastructure that exists in a rural area.

03:05So it's the only platform for news.

03:07That's true.

03:08It's also the only emergency communications infrastructure

03:12because still many places across the United States lack Internet.

03:18And so Mike Rounds got his deal

03:20so that his tribes will be taken care of,

03:23and I'm glad for him.

03:24But there are 49 other states

03:28where your emergency communications infrastructure

03:33is about to be defunded.

03:35Nobody likes that.

03:38Some people are pissed off about NPR's coverage

03:41or PBS's coverage.

03:42Come on.

03:44You defund an agency

03:45because you disagree with their editorial choices?

03:49Which country is this?

03:50Which country is this?

03:57I want to tell you something a little technical,

03:59but I think it gives away the whole game.

04:02So I'm the top Democrat on the Foreign Ops Subcommittee.

04:06What does that mean?

04:07We do funding for USAID and the State Department

04:09and a few other things.

04:11When we do the appropriations process,

04:13we get letters from every other member.

04:17They're private letters,

04:18and a lot of people sign them,

04:19and they say,

04:20could you please give more money

04:22to whatever it is,

04:24maternal and child health

04:25or malaria prevention

04:26or the PEPFAR program,

04:29the initiative to prevent HIV-AIDS transmission.

04:32So we get a bunch of letters saying,

04:34please plus up this,

04:35please plus up that.

04:36Bipartisan letters.

04:38And we are trying to write a bill

04:40that accommodates all these needs.

04:42A lot of people who are about to vote

04:44to cut all the stuff

04:46are on the side writing me a letter

04:49saying, please increase these accounts.

04:53And why does this matter?

04:56This matters because nobody's voting.

04:58I shouldn't say nobody.

04:59Many, many people are not voting their conscience tonight.

05:02And that's just a fact.

05:09There's a characterization in poker

05:14when you know you're beat

05:16and someone puts money in on the river

05:20and you call anyway.

05:22It's called a crying call.

05:23You give away your money

05:25sort of crying.

05:27This is a crying call.

05:29This is a, I know I'm beat.

05:31I vote aye.

05:33And here's the thing.

05:35We don't actually have to do this.

05:39President Trump's attention

05:40is famously divided.

05:44And if something pops next week,

05:46he will be on that thing next week.

05:48He did not wake up every morning

05:50thinking I want to defund UNICEF.

05:52I want to defund PEPFAR.

05:57His attention will be divided.

05:59And the moment the legislature

06:00stands up for himself,

06:02usually what he does

06:03is he understands power.

06:05And he says,

06:06okay, those guys are asserting themselves.

06:08They're a co-equal branch of government.

06:10And I'm going to have to move on from this.

06:13Because, why do I know this?

06:15We literally did the same thing.

06:16There was a rescissions package

06:18which nobody remembers.

06:20Why?

06:21Because we quietly,

06:23with Dick Shelby and others,

06:26appropriators all,

06:27said, nah.

06:30We hold the purse strings here.

06:33We write the laws

06:34that determine appropriations.

06:37We're not going to do this thing

06:38on a bipartisan basis,

06:40enact a spending plan,

06:41and then come in on a partisan basis

06:44and say, you know,

06:45that wasn't actually the spending plan.

06:46That was just the spending cap.

06:49And the administration

06:49is going to come in

06:50and do whatever it wants

06:52on a partisan basis.

06:53And so what happened

06:54is they rejected

06:55the rescissions package

06:57on the motion to discharge,

06:59which is happening

07:00in about an hour and five minutes.

07:01And then you know what happened?

07:02Nothing.

07:04Nothing politically,

07:06nothing substantively,

07:06except that

07:07we kept the appropriations process alive.

07:11We kept the filibuster alive.

07:14We kept bipartisanship alive.

07:18And in this instance,

07:19it's not just about this institution.

07:21It is literally about people

07:23being kept alive.

07:24For the last five months,

07:29because of the United States' actions,

07:33tens of thousands at least,

07:37maybe hundreds of thousands

07:38of babies

07:40have gotten HIV-AIDS

07:41from their moms

07:42because we pulled funding.

07:48Because Elon Musk

07:49had some bug in his ear

07:51about USAID

07:53and one weekend he said,

07:55we're going to feed this thing

07:56to the wood chipper.

07:58And because Democrats too

07:59and pundits decided,

08:01you know what?

08:03Foreign aid isn't so important

08:04to voters.

08:08I don't care

08:09if it's important to voters

08:11if it ranks on the number one,

08:13number two,

08:13or number three.

08:14We're the United States of America.

08:17And one of the reasons

08:18that we have such a strong reputation

08:20is that we do things

08:23that are right

08:23because they're right.

08:25Not because our voters

08:26are going to reward us immediately.

08:28Not because we get

08:29some geopolitical advantage,

08:30but because we're

08:31the damn good guys.

08:36And right now,

08:37we are ratifying

08:38a bunch of decisions

08:39against our will.

08:43We don't have to do this.

08:50Donald Trump will move on

08:51to the next thing tomorrow.

08:56And if it's not on this thing,

08:57which has low salience

08:59for the voters,

09:00is 18 months

09:02from the next election,

09:04if it's not on this,

09:05at what point

09:06are my Republican colleagues

09:08going to stand up

09:10for this branch of government?

09:11I remain ready

09:15to work with anybody

09:16on anything.

09:18I have talked

09:18to Chairman Graham

09:19about the possibility

09:20of literally enacting

09:22these rescissions,

09:23or at least a portion of them,

09:24in the state

09:25and foreign ops mark.

09:29And yet,

09:30they choose

09:31this legislative violence.

09:33We don't have to do this.

09:36We don't have to operate

09:37under the assumption

09:38that this is some,

09:40that this man

09:40is uniquely

09:41so powerful.

09:43He's the most

09:44powerful president.

09:45He owns the legislature

09:46in a way

09:47that no president

09:48has ever owned

09:49the legislature.

09:52And we all act like

09:54we're just sort of

09:54observers,

09:55like clicking on the TV

09:57and seeing how

09:58our fantasy football team

09:59is doing this Sunday.

10:01We have agency

10:02tonight

10:03to reestablish

10:05that we are

10:06the Article I branch

10:08of government

10:08and that means something.

10:12I yield the floor.

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