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Patty Murray Does Not Hold Back Slamming Trump For Pushing To Freeze ‘Critical Funding’
Forbes Breaking News
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5/13/2025
During a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing last month, Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) questioned officials about President Trump's push to freeze federal funding.
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00:00
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
00:03
Thank you to you and Senator Heinrich for holding this hearing really important for
00:07
our ability to be able to write our appropriations bills, so I appreciate it.
00:12
And I want to thank each of you and all your staff at your agencies for your really excellent
00:16
support that you provide to this committee and to Congress.
00:20
You know, from day one, President Trump has unilaterally frozen or contravened critical
00:26
funding provided in our bipartisan laws.
00:29
Those actions by Trump and Russ Vogt have really wreaked havoc for our families and communities
00:35
across the country.
00:37
That is really not what the Constitution envisioned.
00:40
Congress has the power of the purse, period.
00:42
Our presidents cannot pick and choose which parts of a law that they can follow.
00:47
So Comptroller Dodaro, I wanted to ask you, you have testified that GAO is investigating
00:53
the Trump's administration's efforts to block federal funds as potential violations of the
00:58
Impoundment Control Act.
01:00
What is the status of those investigations?
01:02
We have right now 39 different investigations underway.
01:07
We're trying to get the information from the agencies about what their legal position is
01:11
for not expending the money.
01:14
I'm looking forward to what I understand to be a submission by the administration of a rescission
01:20
package, which will be following the Impoundment Control Act.
01:24
So we'll look at that.
01:25
We're monitoring all the litigation surrounding these areas that we're investigating in.
01:32
Only three agencies so far have given us the information that we need.
01:36
OMB has not been responsive, nor EPA.
01:40
Number of other agencies are due to get us information this week or next week.
01:45
So I would imagine starting next month after we look to see what is in the rescission package,
01:50
obviously.
01:51
Next month is in May.
01:52
Yeah.
01:53
Pardon me?
01:54
Yes.
01:55
Yes.
01:56
Starting of them.
01:57
Some, you know, the ones, it'll, they won't all come at once.
01:58
They'll come as we collect and analyze all the information.
02:02
What options do you have if you don't get timely or responsive information from the federal
02:08
agencies?
02:09
Well, we'll have to make decisions then on our own based upon the available information.
02:14
Some of it will be in the lawsuit filings that we're, that we're following right now.
02:19
And then we'll have to go forward doing this.
02:21
We had to do this in the past in Interior Department, which didn't respond for a long
02:26
period of time.
02:27
Congress put in language then after that experience in the appropriation law requiring Interior
02:34
to give us information within a certain period of time.
02:37
I would suggest respectfully that that be included in this year's appropriation bill to specifically
02:46
as it relates to Empowerment and Control Act decisions, that they're timely and responding
02:51
to us.
02:52
We can give you a reasonable timeframe.
02:54
And more broadly, a provision of general cooperation, giving GAO access to the information we need
03:02
in our audit issues, because this will address the Chairman's problem question about us being
03:08
more efficient.
03:09
We can only be as efficient as we can get the information from the agencies.
03:13
And also, we've had, in some cases, we give agencies 30, up to 30 days to respond to our
03:19
draft reports.
03:21
Sometimes they're, they drag on longer.
03:23
Okay.
03:24
Well, I appreciate that.
03:25
And we, Congress, really rely on GAO's expertise as a nonpartisan expert watchdog.
03:31
So we appreciate your work and I'm going to stay on top of this, look forward to working
03:35
with you on that.
03:37
Mr. Swigel, um, Republicans are, as you know, moving full speed ahead with the reconciliation
03:43
package, uh, promising to deliver more than 5.3 trillion in new tax breaks for billionaires
03:48
and large corporations.
03:51
And at the same time, some Republicans have promised that Medicaid, which is a lifeline
03:55
for our kids and seniors, is, uh, safe.
03:57
But the reality is Republicans can't keep both of those promises.
04:02
I want to examine this with you.
04:04
Um, the Republican Reconciliation Instruction directs $880 billion in cuts within the House
04:12
Energy and Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over Medicaid, Children's Health Insurance Program,
04:16
or CHIP.
04:17
Um, you responded to a question from House Ranking Member Brendan Boyle and Frank Pallone in March
04:23
regarding spending within the House Energy and Commerce Committee's jurisdiction, excluding
04:29
Medicare, which Republicans say is off the table.
04:32
In your response, you said over 10 years, Medicaid outlays will account for 93% of baseline budget
04:40
projections for energy and commerce.
04:42
Is that correct?
04:43
Yes, that's correct.
04:44
And if you add in CHIP, is it fair to say you are now talking north of 95%?
04:50
That's right.
04:51
Once you take out Medicaid and CHIP, there's only $381 billion still in the current baseline.
04:56
Okay.
04:57
So, looking at Table 1 in that March 5th letter, is it fair to say the remainder is nowhere close
05:04
to that $880 billion?
05:06
Um, that's correct.
05:07
That's correct.
05:08
In the letter that we sent to Mr. Boyle and Mr. Pallone, um, the, uh, the dollars after
05:14
Medicare, Medicaid, and CHIP are, um, much smaller than the instruction.
05:19
Yeah.
05:20
Okay.
05:21
So, just for the record, I just want to say that it would appear to me, be, me to be impossible
05:25
for energy and commerce, the committee with jurisdiction to reach the spending cuts required
05:30
under the Republican reconciliation instructions without cutting Medicaid or putting Medicare
05:35
back on the table.
05:36
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
05:38
Um, Mr. Heinrich, I understand you've got a couple more questions.
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