🔰On Senate Floor, Warren Underscores Danger of Budget Director Nominee Russ Vought

Thank you, Mr. President. I'd like to start by thanking Senator Murray for her extraordinary leadership. She has been a stalwart in the Senate for many, many years and now is the ranking member of the Appropriations Committee and knows firsthand the importance of the process by which we make a law in the United States, and that includes that we pass those laws in Congress, we fund them in Congress, it's signed by the President of the United States, and people across this nation can know. Through that process, those are what the laws are, and if you don't like those laws, then elect different people who will come up with different versions of the law. But everyone, Democrat or Republican, sticks to the same version, and that is a law is a law. The President of the United States or his co-president, Elon Musk, do not have the right simply to go back on the laws and say, oh, we picked that one, that one, and that one to enforce, and that one no, that one no, and maybe that one half-time. That is not how the process works, and Senator Murray has been the leading voice in fighting back against this, and I just want to say how much I appreciate all that she has done. So I want to talk for just a minute about Project 2025. During the 2024 election, the American people became familiar with this Republican document called Project 2025. The document laid out Republican plans to reshape our country if they gained control. Now Americans, little at a time, got a chance to see the plan, people started to read it, and they were shocked. In no time, people from across the political spectrum, not just Democrats, Democrats, Republicans, Independents, made clear how much they hated Project 2025 and that they wanted no part of it. So what was in Project 2025 that made it so widely hated across the political spectrum? A few things. Firing civil servants, weaponizing the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigations, unleashing force onto protesters and targeting political opponents, restricting abortion nationwide, ripping retirement and health care benefits from seniors, dismantling public education, and, biggest and best, funding tax cuts for the rich by raising taxes on America's middle class. And I want to be clear, the big document, those are just the top lines. So Donald Trump's response was to swear over and over and over again that he had nothing to do with those plans. Didn't know about them, didn't endorse them, didn't want anything to do with them. Here are some of the things that Donald Trump said about Project 2025 back in 2024. Quote, I know nothing about Project 2025. I have nothing to do with Project 2025. I disagree with some of the things they're saying and some of the things they're saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal. And my personal favorite, they've been told officially, legally, in every way that we have nothing to do with Project 2025. So think about that. During the 2024 election, Donald Trump claimed he didn't know anything about Project 2025. But he lied. Shortly after the election, he nominated one of the chief architects of Project 2025 in a key role with the government. Now Donald Trump has named the lead architect of Project 2025, Russ Vogt, to oversee the federal government's entire budget office. That's right. Listen to this one. He is putting the head writer of the plans that you had only read about in nightmares in a key government position. Russ Vogt wrote Project 2025. And now Donald Trump is rewarding him by inviting him into the government in order to carry out the Republican blueprint to make our government force people to live in the image that Russ Vogt and other extremist Republicans approve of. And he plans to rework our economy to benefit the wealthiest among us and make everybody else pay for it. Here are just a few of the things that Russ Vogt has called for. Russ Vogt has called on Congress to outlaw medication abortion nationwide, restricting women's reproductive rights even in states that protect abortion. Russ Vogt has encouraged discrimination against transgender people in the workplace and in health care. In his first stint as OMB director, Russ Vogt decried the use of federal funding for diversity and equity training in a letter to federal agencies. The Project 2025 playbook calls for eliminating almost every civil rights office in the federal government. And Russ Vogt has said he intends to put federal workers, quote, in trauma and destroy the merit-based system for civil servants so that he can fill the government with right-wing extremists. I'm going to pause here for a minute to see if Senator Gillibrand wants to speak. Thank you, Senator Warren, for your unbelievable tenacity and clear-eyed and thoughtful remarks. I yield the balance of my post-closure debate time on the vote nomination to Senator Schumer. Duly noted. Thank you again, Senator Warren. Let's keep in mind, so Russ Vogt has called for outlawing abortion, medication abortion, nationwide. Doesn't matter whether or not you live in a state that says, no, we are going to protect abortion. Russ Vogt wants to find a way to make sure it's shut down everywhere. He wants to encourage discrimination against transgender people. He thinks that getting rid of civil rights is the way to go for the American government, and he says he wants to put federal workers in trauma and destroy the merit-based system for civil servants so he can fill up our government with right-wing extremists. Now we are already seeing firsthand the devastating effects of Russ Vogt's plan for America. Russ Vogt was the puppet master behind the funding shutdown that threw this country into chaos last week. I saw this in Massachusetts. Parents didn't know if their toddler's daycare would be open. Seniors didn't know if the hot meal that they were expecting from Meals on Wheels would grind to a halt. No one knew if the nursing homes funded by Medicaid would be able to pay their workers. And that was just the tip of the iceberg for Russ Vogt. If he is confirmed, you can absolutely bet on Russ Vogt pulling out the rug from working people over and over and over again. And quite frankly, we don't know where he will stop. This is where they've started three weeks in, and this is where they've started. So will Russ Vogt, Elon Musk, and Donald Trump stop when they've ripped abortion rights away from every single woman in America? Will he stop when he's abolished the Department of Education and fired 180,000 teachers from their jobs? Will he stop when he has privatized Medicare and when seniors can't afford to go see the doctor? Will he stop when he's done stealing from middle-class families in order to fund tax breaks for the wealthiest households? Yep, by the way, that is in his blueprint too. Tax hikes for the middle class, tax breaks for the rich. Or will he stop when he crashes the economy? And take it from me, with these kind of plans, crashing the economy is no longer a stretch. Russ Vogt's Project 2025 proposals will lead to higher inflation, higher interest rates, and weaker economic growth. Project 2025 would seriously threaten another recession. Look, already families all across this country are feeling the pressure from high grocery prices, while Donald Trump and his administration just turn their backs on working families. American families cannot afford for Russ Vogt to be in charge. We don't know how far Russ Vogt's extremism will go, but we can't afford to wait and find out. Americans voted for each and every one of us right here in the United States Senate to fight for them, and they do not expect us to roll over and play dead. It is our sworn duty to stop dangerous people like Russ Vogt before he destroys our freedom, our economy, and the stability of every working family in this nation. And so I urge every senator to vote no on his nomination. I also want to take this chance to share some of the stories I've been hearing from my constituents, the people of Massachusetts. The impacts of Donald Trump's and Russ Vogt's policies are affecting people in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and all across this country. I am here to fight for the people of Massachusetts, and I'm here to share their stories. So I want to start with a message I received from a family child care center that cares for hundreds of children each day so that moms have the opportunity to succeed in their careers. Here's how the message goes. Our community of early educators and families is on edge. We work with a very diverse population, and the rumors and threats related to immigration activities are having an impact. We have begun having families question removing their children from much-needed and valuable early education programs because they are scared to separate from one another or even to go outside. Ninety-nine percent of the families we are working with are receiving a subsidy for their care. So with current funding through the Department of Early Education and Care, I believe it breaks down to approximately 60 percent federal and 40 percent state funds. We have also historically been recipients of CDBG funds to support our training program, which would only be possible with federal support. So think about that. When Russ Vogt and Donald Trump and Elon Musk just decide to start shutting programs down, we have child care centers who are writing in saying, in effect, they're not going to have the money to keep the doors open for the children and the mamas that they serve. Or take this from a small business owner in Linfield. Sadaf owns a small business that works to innovate new lab equipment to improve cancer and prenatal screenings. She gets money from the National Health Institute. This is exactly the kind of person we want to see doing work right here in the United States. And here's what she writes. My small business is currently partially funded through an NIH-NHGRI grant. Today, the grant is frozen, and we are unable to access any funds. If this freeze lasts more than a month, we will have to lay off hardworking employees and shut our doors. Think about that. Here's someone who has built a small business around doing more effective cancer screenings and prenatal screenings. And she has been recognized by the National Health Institute as someone who's doing the kind of cutting-edge research and delivering the kind of services that we need. And because Russo, Donald Trump, and Elon Musk say, nope, we're just going to freeze funding here, the consequence is, she says, I'm at risk of having to lay off my employees and close my business. I've heard this from many of my constituents. Another in Worcester runs a small non-profit to help communities vulnerable to the climate crisis. They have $1.5 million in contracts that they now can't access, and soon they're going to have to lay off employees. The impact of holding this money up is real. It is felt in our communities. It is felt household by household by household when people can't get to the money they need so that they can issue the paychecks and keep people working. Why and how is that making America any better off? Or take this story from the Boston Globe entitled, Am I Going to Lose My Husband? The Real Price of Trump's Budget Freeze. The freeze is harming real people. One of them is James, a Virginia resident who told his story to the editorial board but asked that his last name not be used because he fears retaliation. Eight years ago, when James was 32, after years of health problems, he was diagnosed with neuroendocrine tumors, formerly called carcinoid cancer, with accompanying severe carcinoid syndrome. Tumors were in his intestines and his liver with nodules on his lungs. Doctors gave him three to six months to live. Now, standard treatment for these tumors is shots with one or two drugs. And I'm going to do my best to pronounce them, ocetatride or lanrectatide. The first couple of months after his diagnosis, James spent a total of about $10,000 on shots and scans. And that was in addition to his insurance coverage. This is someone with health insurance. He was working in a toy shop. He was studying graphic design. And the medical care completely drained his savings. Then James entered a National Institute of Health research trial. Because James was unusually young to get carcinoid syndrome, NIH researchers wanted to study how he reacted to the disease and treatments. So for the next eight years, NIH provided and paid for his shots, scans, surgeries, medications, and procedures. All I had to do was be a guinea pig, James said. As of December, he was getting a shot of lanrectatide, which can cost thousands of dollars. And he was getting this shot every three weeks to keep his tumors from growing. Quote, if I were to lose the medication, they'd likely ramp up, become more aggressive, and potentially spread to other organs. It could be a death sentence, James said. The disruption started when it became clear Donald Trump might win the presidential election. In October and November, NIH began recommending that if patients could get some medications, anti-nausea medication, or painkillers from other doctors, they should, because the federal agency feared budget cuts. In December, after Trump's election, James said his doctor told him NIH could no longer provide lanrectatide. But he was still part of the research protocol, so he would get yearly scans, and the NIH would conduct and pay for any necessary surgeries. In other words, they wanted to continue to be able to study him. In December, James started experiencing aphasia and memory loss, and a scan found spots on his brain. He's still undergoing diagnostic tests. NIH had a treatment protocol prepared for if the cancer did spread to his brain. Once Trump took office in January, however, James was told the research was frozen indefinitely, and he won't be getting any NIH care until that changes. James is continuing treatment with a Medicare insurance plan provided by Kaiser Permanente, and he qualified for a financial assistance grant through May. But he worries that the Trump administration will end that financial assistance. James receives disability payments, and his wife is a teacher, so they can't afford high out-of-pocket payments. When I heard about this, I thought, am I going to lose my husband? Is he going to die? His wife, Becky, said. Make no mistake. These are not one-off stories. Families everywhere, all across the country, in red states and blue states, are feeling the impacts of these policies. Everyone. Now, maybe you knew about this. Maybe you didn't. But Trump is trying to keep you in the dark on some of these things while he distracts by renaming the Gulf of Mexico or dreaming about Canada as the 51st state. In just his first couple of weeks in office, Donald Trump has gone on a rampage against working people, signing hundreds of executive orders, rolling the clock back on progress and reinstating harmful and unpopular policies from his first term. He signed many of these executive orders in the middle of the night because he and his administration didn't want people to know about them. So I just want to remind everybody, for all those pictures of Donald Trump signing while everybody looked on and everybody smiles or Donald Trump holding up an executive order that he signed very proudly, that's not all the executive orders. There were a lot of executive orders that got signed late at night and they just pushed out. Here are some of the executive orders that the American people may not know about and they're right in lockstep with Project 2025. Executive order, Donald Trump call for a federal government hiring freeze. Project 2025 proposed implementing a quote, hiring freeze for career officials, end quote. So Trump does the executive order exactly what Project 2025 was proposing. Or here's Donald Trump's executive order, quote, I hereby order a freeze on the hiring of federal civilian employees to be applied throughout the executive branch. There it is. Project 2025, Donald Trump's executive order. Another executive order, he withdrew from the Paris Climate Accords. So let's start with Project 2025. It proposed that the quote, next conservative administration should withdraw the U.S. from the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement, close quote. And here is Donald Trump's executive order signed late at night. The United States ambassador to the United States shall immediately submit formal written notification of the United States withdrawal from the Paris Agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Project 2025 calls for it. Donald Trump delivers. He paused the implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act and the bipartisan infrastructure law, which is fighting the climate crisis and helping cities and towns across America to upgrade their roads and bridges. Project 2025 called to repeal quote, massive spending bills like the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and Inflation Reduction Act, which establish new programs and are providing hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies to renewable energy developers, their investors and special interests and support the rescinding of all funds not already spent by these programs. In other words, Project 2025 is saying, shut it down. Shut it down. Here's Donald Trump's executive order. Quote, all agencies shall immediately pause the disbursement of funds appropriated through the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 or the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. So there we are. Project 2025 calls for it. Donald Trump delivers with an executive order. The fact that he cannot legally do that doesn't seem to have slowed him down at all. In fact, Project 2025 talks about repealing those laws. That means you come to Congress and then Congress votes on it. The House, the Senate, and only if you get majorities in the House and the Senate do you send it over to the President of the United States to sign it into law. Donald Trump isn't doing that. Republicans are in charge of the House. Republicans are in charge of the Senate. But instead of saying we're going to amend the law that has already gone through the process and been signed in, the money has all been appropriated for it. Nope. Instead, Donald Trump says, middle-of-the-night executive order. And I'm just going to say, stop spending money. That is impoundment and it is clearly unlawful. He is in violation of the law. On abortion, Trump reinstated and expanded the global gag rule, a heartless rule that makes women and girls across the world less safe by cutting funding for health centers that may provide abortion. Planned Parenthood gave us an idea of just how bad this is. Here's their quote on this. This is also known as the Mexico City policy. The global gag rule prevents foreign organizations that receive certain U.S. assistance from providing counseling, from providing, counseling, referring, or advocating for legal abortion in their country, even with their own money and their own resources. The global gag rule blocks health care access, disrupts coalitions, and stifles local advocacy efforts and undermines reproductive rights worldwide. By the way, it is also deeply unpopular with the American people. In fact, here's what Alexis McGill-Johnson, who is president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said. President Trump is kicking off his second term exactly as anticipated, attacking sexual and reproductive health care. The global gag rule not only disrupts the delivery of health services in areas of the world that are most in need, it also rolls back progress in countries that have fought to advance health care and human rights. Elected officials should not be interfering in personal medical decisions in this country or anywhere else in the world. We must reverse and end the global gag rule permanently, full stop. But Donald Trump just signed that executive order in the middle of the night, and women, particularly poor women, all around the world will pay the price. And here's more of what Donald Trump did to try to turn back the clock on women's bodies. This one comes from Politico. President Donald Trump's campaign trail promise to leave abortion regulation to the states lasted just a few days into his presidency. He issued executive orders that revived some anti-abortion policies from his first administration, including restrictions on federal funding for family planning and other health programs abroad that discuss abortion as an option or provide referrals for the procedure. So the president signed the executive orders hours after addressing the annual anti-abortion March for Life in a pre-recorded video. A 2022 study by the National Academy of Sciences estimated that Trump's anti-abortion restrictions on foreign aid led to 108,000 deaths of women and children in poor countries over the four years of his first administration. How does that happen? Well, it's because that executive order from the first time around slashed funding for groups like the non-profit MSI Reproductive Choices, which operates clinics that provide contraception and testing for sexually transmitted infections with U.S. funds, and it uses separate revenues to fund and provide abortions. MSI said ahead of the policy being reinstated that it wouldn't abide by it. This will lead to the organization losing $14 million in U.S. Agency for International Development funding, an MSI spokesperson said. The organization estimates the financial loss could result in an additional 2.4 million unintended pregnancies because the organization would have to stop providing contraception in several countries. I am at a complete loss to explain how the United States is better off if more unintended pregnancies happen in poor countries and how we explain that last time around when Trump did this, it resulted in 108,000 deaths of women and children in poor countries and that we're headed straight into the same plan again. Another study by Stanford University researchers found that the narrower version of the Mexico City policy that several GOP presidents enacted prior to Trump caused the number of abortions to increase across sub-Saharan Africa because so many women lost access to contraception. Let me say that one again. For everyone who thinks that abortions should not occur, understand the consequence of the Trump executive order, and that is that it increases the number of abortions across sub-Saharan Africa because women lose their access to contraception. Abortion rights advocates have also argued that the policy is overbroad because it imposes restrictions in countries where abortion is legal. One day earlier, in another move that thrilled abortion opponents, Trump issued pardons for two dozen people convicted of forcibly entering and blocking access to abortion clinics. In fact, this has been an important part of the Trump executive order stream in this area. The idea that the federal laws that protect women who are walking from where they've parked their car to an abortion clinic, and also a place where they may get contraception, where they may get a mammogram, where they may get other health screenings, not to be interfered with, that they get a chance to walk without having people scream in their faces and spit on them, that has been taken away by the President of the United States. He has said, move in a little closer, bear down harder on those women. And still, the anti-abortion groups that helped Trump win re-election are looking beyond these actions and are pushing for more from the new administration. So, for example, what are they asking for now? Well, they want to look at a ban on telehealth prescriptions and mail delivery of abortion pills. They want to do rules forcing states to provide more detailed information on all abortions within their borders so they can see more about who's getting what treatments. And the repeal of the Biden administration rules that expanded abortion access for some military members and veterans. It's all happening out in plain view. Let us be clear. This is and always has been about controlling women's bodies. Donald Trump packed the Supreme Court with anti-abortion extremists to get Roe overturned, and he bragged about it afterwards. This is the latest in Trump's years-long crusade against women's reproductive rights. And understand this, we will fight back. Now, as you probably have already seen in the news, Elon Musk has taken control of the government's critical payment systems, which include sensitive personal information for millions of Americans. This is the system that makes sure that your grandpa gets his Social Security check. This is the system that makes sure that your mom's doctor gets the Medicare payment to cover her medical appointment. And this is the system that makes sure that you get the tax refund that you are owed. And now, it has been taken over by Elon Musk. Every organization, from your state government that uses federal money on that bridge project, to your local Head Start that takes care of little kids while their mommies and daddies go to work, is now at the mercy of Elon Musk. Maybe you get paid, but then again, maybe you don't. Elon just grabbed the controls of that whole payment system, demanding the power to turn it on for his friends and turn it off for anyone he declares he doesn't like. One guy deciding who gets paid and who doesn't. It is not the law, but it is the reality. Now, there's a second problem here. It is not just payments from the federal government that are now in Elon's control. Elon and his handful of friends now have access to your personal financial information, anything that is in the system. Your payment history, your social security number, your address, your bank account numbers. Elon now has the power to suck out all of that information for his own use. And now, whether it's to boost his personal finances or to expand his political power, it is all up to Elon. Understand, in a world in which data is power, Elon has just increased his power. And there's a third kind of problem here. In order for this handful of programmers to gain access to over $6 trillion, our $6 trillion payment system, we don't know what kind of safeguards were pulled down. Are the gates wide open now for hackers from China, from North Korea, from Iran, from Russia? Heck, who knows what black hat hackers all around the world are finding out right now about each and every one of us copying that information and storing it for their own future criminal uses. How many back doors are being installed right now in the system that is truly the financial guts of our economy? The one that makes sure that the payments go out. All of that information is now at risk. This week, I wrote to Secretary of the Department of the Treasury, Scott Besson, with extreme concern following his reporting. So here's what I said. I write regarding a disturbing report that in one of your first acts after you were confirmed as Treasury Secretary, you have given Elon Musk and his surrogates full access to the federal government's critical payment systems, which includes the sensitive personal information of millions of Americans. It is extraordinarily dangerous to meddle with the critical systems that process trillions of dollars of transactions each year, that are essential to preventing a default on our federal debt, and that ensure that tens of millions of Americans receive their Social Security checks, their tax refunds, and their Medicare benefits. I am also alarmed by reports that you personally sidelined the key official responsible for managing the extraordinary measures the Department of Treasury is taking to avoid a default on U.S. debt, risking missteps that could result in a global financial meltdown that costs trillions of dollars and millions of jobs. I am writing to seek answers about your role in this security and management failure, and about how you intend to protect the integrity of the federal government's financial operations after handing over the systems to Mr. Musk's team. According to public reports, even before President Trump's inauguration, Mr. Musk's surrogates began demanding access to sensitive payment systems that the federal government uses to disperse trillions of dollars every year. The public depends on the integrity of those systems, which control the flow of over $6 trillion in payment to American families, businesses, and other recipients each year, with millions relying on them for Social Security checks and Medicare benefits, federal salaries, government contract payments, grants, and tax refunds this filing season. In just one year, for example, the Department's Bureau of Fiscal Service dispersed nearly 1.3 billion payments, totaling $5.4 trillion. It also collected nearly $5.5 trillion in federal revenue. Given the highly sensitive nature of the information in these systems, control over them is typically limited to a small number of career officials. The Musk team's unprecedented demand for total access to the system reportedly caused serious concern at the department, particularly given that the system has historically been closely held because it included sensitive personal information on millions of Americans and sends out virtually every federal payment, including payments that are critical for the economy and national security. You know, I just want to say off to the side, you and I were both in a banking hearing this morning, and one of the questions that Democrats put to our bankers who were present is, would you let someone come in and see the personal banking records of your customers? And the bankers, of course, said no. There's no way that they would permit that. And yet, the Secretary of the Treasury opened the door and said Elon Musk and his designees could come in and look at anything they wanted to look at. Controlling the system could allow the Trump administration to unilaterally and illegally cut off payments for millions of Americans, putting at risk the financial security of families and businesses based on political favoritism or the whims of Mr. Musk and those on his team who have managed to work their way inside. It could also give them access to millions of Americans' personal and financial information that is protected by law. We would shut down a bank that did what the Secretary of Treasury did in letting Elon Musk come in and root around in the personal financial information of Americans all across this country. The Washington Post reported that the department's top career official, David Lebrick, who served in non-political roles in the department for decades – served Republicans, served Democrats, including as fiscal assistant secretary since 2014 – that he resisted political pressure to cave to the Musk surrogates. The demands of those outsiders were especially concerning because Mr. Musk and the Trump administration have tried to control spending in alarming and potentially unlawful ways, including through the chaotic announcement of a federal funding freeze last week that caused widespread harm and confusion. Mr. Musk was reportedly trying to deploy his engineers to find ways to turn off the flow of money from the Treasury Department to things that Mr. Trump wants to defund. In other words, a small group of insiders would suddenly be in a position to make decisions about whether to hold up payments to individual families or businesses with absolutely no transparency and no accountability. But rather than protecting the integrity and function of the payment system, our Secretary of the Treasury reportedly bent to pressure from the White House, suggested putting Mr. Lebrick on leave, and ultimately forced him out. This astonishing mismanagement – turning over the federal government's entire payment system and sidelining the most senior career official responsible for managing it – also puts the country at greater risk of defaulting on our debt, which could trigger a global financial crisis. The fiscal assistant secretary was, quote, the government staffer perhaps most responsible for figuring out how the United States should handle the alarming prospect of running out of money, making him a pivotal, if lesser known, player in a debt ceiling standoff. The fiscal assistant secretary is responsible for assessing when the country will exhaust its funds and ensuring that Congress has that information for, quote, coordinating and determining how much money the Treasury needs to borrow to finance the government, and for managing the extraordinary measures that the department uses to delay a default as long as possible. The fiscal assistant secretary, unlike the amateurs that the Secretary of the Treasury has empowered when he forced them out, was well prepared to manage these kinds of crises. He had, quote, moved through the positions that gave him deep exposure to the plumbing of federal financing and was a, quote, scrupulously apolitical civil servant who was not angling for a political promotion. That expertise is particularly critical at this moment, when the department is already taking extraordinary measures to avoid a default that, quote, would precipitate another financial crisis and threaten jobs and savings of everyday Americans. I sent this letter to the Secretary of the Treasury, and I said, I am alarmed that as one of your first acts as secretary, you appear to have handed over a highly sensitive system responsible for millions of Americans' private data and a key function of government to an unelected billionaire and an unknown number of unqualified flunkies. The American people deserve answers about your role in this mismanagement, which threatens the privacy and economic security of every American. It is no surprise that working families are paying the price for Donald Trump and Russ Vote's reckless actions. Just look at who is running the government. Donald Trump, billionaire. Elon Musk, billionaire. Scott Besant, billionaire. Linda McMahon, billionaire. Howard Lutnick, billionaire. Charles Kushner, billionaire. And the list goes on. The total net worth of the billionaires in the Trump administration is at least $382.2 billion. That is more than the GDP of 172 different countries. Elon Musk, first buddy and head of the Department of Government Efficiency, himself is worth $410 billion. He is $115 billion richer than he was on Election Day. Linda McMahon, Secretary of the Department of Education, worth $3.2 billion. Howard Lutnick, nominated for the Secretary of the Department of Commerce, is worth more than $1.5 billion, but likely more. Kelly Loeffler, head of the Small Business Administration, is worth $1.1 billion. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., nominated for Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, estimated to be worth about $15 million. And he has refused to give up a lucrative arrangement with a law firm that will enable his family to make millions off vaccine-related lawsuits, even while he is heading up HHS. Stephen Whitkoff, envoy to the Middle East, is worth a billion. Jared Isaacman, NASA administrator, is worth $2 billion. Take this piece from CNN. Elon Musk plowed at least $260 million into efforts to send Donald Trump back to the White House. New filings show a massive infusion that makes him one of the largest single political underwriters of a presidential campaign and underscores the outsized influence of the world's wealthiest person in this year's election. Thursday's filings with the Federal Election Commission show that the Tesla and SpaceX executive gave a total of $238 million to a super PAC that he founded this year, American PAC, which worked turnout voters on Trump's behalf in key states. But he was also the financial backer of other groups that cropped up in the final days of the election to support Trump, including one that spent millions on advertising to defend Trump's record on abortion. It had sought to link Trump's views on abortion to those of the late Supreme Court Justice and liberal icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg. These people have no shame. Musk, through a trust that bears his name, donated $20.5 million to the group named RBG PAC on November 24, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission. He was the sole donor to the group, which was formed in mid-October. The donation's timing meant that Musk's involvement was not disclosed until after the election, after the inauguration, not until last Thursday's post-election filings with the federal regulators. Ginsburg's granddaughter, Clara Spira, publicly denounced the ads, which sought to neutralize abortion as a liability for Trump in the campaign, as misleading and an affront to Ginsburg's legacy as a staunch defender of abortion rights. So true. According to the new filings, Musk also donated $3 million to the Maha Alliance, a super PAC that ran stark ads in key swing states, urging supporters of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to back Trump in the closing stretch of the campaign. Kennedy himself had ended his independent campaign over the summer and endorsed Trump. Now, Maha stands for Make America Healthy Again, Kennedy's spin on Trump's MAGA catchphrase. Trump has now tapped Kennedy, one of the nation's most prominent anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists, to oversee the Health and Human Services Department. Trump has selected other big donors for roles in his incoming administration. Howard Ludnick, the Cantor Fitzgerald Investment Bank chief whom Trump has tapped to head the Commerce Department, made a nearly $3 million in-kind donation of stock on October 21st to a pro-Trump super PAC, MAGA, Inc., according to the organization's filings Thursday night. And that is on top of the $6 million that Ludnick previously donated to the super PAC over the course of the election cycle. Other Trump supporters who have landed spots in his administration also donated to MAGA, Inc. They include Linda McMahon, the former wrestling company executive tapped to serve as education secretary. She donated more than $20 million to the Trump-aligned super PAC this cycle. McMahon and Ludnick also serve as co-chairs of Trump's transition operation. Other Trump picks who have made seven-figure donations to MAGA, Inc. include former Georgia Senator Kelly Loeffler, his choice to lead the Small Business Administration. Scott Besant, whom Trump has selected as Treasury Secretary and two of his choices for plum diplomatic posts in Europe. Arkansas investor Warren Stevens and Charles Kushner, the father-in-law of Trump's daughter Ivanka. And look, don't get me wrong, if you made a fortune because you had a great idea and you built a terrific business, good for you. But I guarantee that any great fortune in America was built at least in part using workers that all of us helped pay to educate. Built at least in part on getting your goods to market on roads and bridges that all of us helped to pay to build. Built at least in part protected by police and firefighters that all of us helped pay the salaries for. And now, instead of creating a system that will let the next guy or gal that comes along build something, these guys want to pull up the ladder. They poured money into the 2024 election and now they expect a return on their investment at the expense of everyone else. The Trump strategy is to flood the zone. Partly so we don't see each of the horrible orders and pay attention to them. But partly to demoralize us. Trump and his Republican friends hope that we will be demoralized. They hope that we will give up, curl in a little ball, and let them do whatever they want to do. I get it. It is tough right now. But it is important that we get back up and fight. And that is exactly what I am doing. I am challenging Elon Musk on his Department of Government efficiency efforts to take away help for seniors who are living in nursing homes and little kids who are hoping for their daycare. I am asking questions of every nominee and pointing out to other senators and to the public where they pose a real danger to the American people. Look at the fight of the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth. He is an incredibly accused rapist who has been falling down drunk at work events. And he has run not one, but two non-profits directly into the ground. Nonetheless, Republican senators stood beside him. He made it through his confirmation, but it wasn't a freebie. Some Republicans broke ranks and everyone in the country who was paying attention got to see up close and personal just how far the Republicans were willing to go to cower in front of Donald Trump. Those are the fights we must keep fighting. We will not roll over and play dead. This is not business as usual. The number one thing people can do right now is speak out. Speak out on social media about every one of these things. Talk about the threats these people pose. Speak out about what Donald Trump is doing. In the middle of the night last Friday, Donald Trump issued a batch of executive orders turning back the clock decades on women's reproductive rights. If people talk about that, then that is how we will begin to rebuild a movement to push out the Trump vision of America in which billionaires are on top and everyone else is left in the dirt and women don't get to make their own health decisions. I've only got 24 hours a day, but I plan to spend as many of them as humanly possible fighting back against Trump, Musk, and the billionaires who have taken over our country to promote themselves at the expense of everyone else. It is up to us. I'm not lying down and playing dead, and I hope nobody else does either. Mr. President, I yield the floor.