Hoyer Remarks at Press Conference Regarding President Trump's Attacks on Federal Workforce, Efforts to Dismantle USAID
WASHINGTON, DC – This week, Congressman Steny H. Hoyer (MD-05) joined Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (CT-03), Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Committee, Congresswoman Betty McCollum (MN-04), Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, and Congresswoman Lois Frankel (FL-22), Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on National Security, Department of State, and Related Programs, and Congressmen Mike Quigley (IL-05) and Ed Case (HI-01) for a press conference regarding President Trump's attacks on the federal workforce, efforts to dismantle the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and freeze of foreign aid. Below is a transcript of his remarks:
“I've been here for 44 years. This is unprecedented, illegal, contrary to the Constitution, contrary to the separation of powers. Let me tell you why this is being done. The nominee for OMB is a guy named Russell Vought. I want to give you a quote from Mr. Vought:
“‘We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected. When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work because they are increasingly viewed as villains. We want their funding to be shut down so that’ - and he referred specifically, in this instance, to [the] EPA, but it could have been a agency, or this agency - ‘Can't do all the rules against our energy industry because they have no bandwidth financially to do so. We want to put them in trauma.’
“That is not why I came to Congress. That is not why I think the American people sent me or my colleagues to Congress. To infuse trauma in our federal employees. In this instance, Mr. Musk and Mr. Vought have shot a bullet at federal employees. And what my colleagues have indicated is millions of people, unknown to either Mr. Musk or Mr. Vought, or to Mr. Trump, are being hit.
“Children who can't get food, moms who can't get medical assistance, others who cannot get what they need to survive. And who's watching? China is watching. Who's watching? Putin in Russia is watching. Who's watching? Iran. All the enemies of America are watching America retreat from reaching out to lift people up, to give them a sense of security and an America who cares.
“What is happening? We are going to leave a void that will undermine the security of America and Americans and leave people wondering, ‘What has happened in America? Have they lost their soul? Have they lost their willingness to help?’ Franklin Roosevelt said, and others have said: ‘To those who much is given, much is required.’ Less than 1% of our budget in our case. But it is a way of saying to the world, ‘Yes, we understand that we are our brother’s keeper. Our Bible tells us so.’
“And yet, in the fifteen days of this administration, they have done what no other administration in history has done or should have done. They have undermined faith in America. They sense that America is the moral nation, the ‘beacon on the hill’ that Ronald Reagan talked about. A fear from our country. And I urge President Trump to reconsider these actions, not only because I represent a lot of federal employees, but because those federal employees help millions of Americans every day, here and around the world.
“I hope that we reconsider. I hope that we show the best of us, not the worst of us. And I thank my colleagues for all the work they do every day to ensure that America is the country that we want to be. You do not abandon friends and those in need and be judged a great country again.”