Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) blasted President Donald Trump’s latest attack on Congress’ power of the purse after voting against legislation that would gut funding for public radio and broadcasting stations in rural areas and cede U.S. global leadership to China around the world.
“The Trump Administration is cutting a broad range of services that Americans rely upon for health care during emergencies, to help veterans, in education, and across the spectrum. And he is doing it by making another end run around Congress and the appropriations process. Congress’ power of the purse has been under attack since the first day of the Trump Administration, from illegal freezes on federal funding and the indiscriminate firing of federal workers, to the unlawful seizure of Congressional-approved funds for critical services.
“Now, Donald Trump wants to add to the terrible cuts in his big ugly bill, with a smaller ugly bill that will gut funding for public broadcasting in rural communities across America, take valuable educational resources away from millions of children, sabotage our efforts to protect global health, attack HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, Ebola, malaria and other diseases, and cede our nation’s leadership in the world to China and other adversaries.
“For the sake of the millions who will be harmed by this bill, and to preserve our Constitutionally-mandated separation of powers, I voted against this measure. And with its passage, Senate Republicans should be prepared to accept that Donald Trump will see no reason to honor any future appropriations bill that we pass, no matter how bipartisan, and they are sacrificing one of the few remaining checks on a run-away and lawless executive.”
Prior to the final vote, a majority of Senate Republicans voted to block Schiff’s attempt to protect U.S. global health programs within the State Department from millions of dollars of funding cuts by rejecting his amendment to the rescissions package.
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