Sen. Hirono: “Mr. Vought is dangerous and he has a total disregard for the Constitution, Congress, and the millions of hardworking Americans impacted by decisions he will make at OMB.”
~ Video of Sen. Hirono’s floor speech is available here ~
WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Mazie K. Hirono (D-HI) took to the Senate floor to warn against the confirmation of Russell Vought, President Trump’s nominee to become the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Senator Hirono joined several of her Senate Democratic colleagues in holding the Senate floor overnight to oppose Mr. Vought’s nomination. During her remarks, Senator Hirono called out Mr. Vought’s role as a key architect of Project 2025 and his inability to put loyalty to the Constitution above loyalty to President Trump. If confirmed, Mr. Vought would have oversight over the President’s budget and, functionally, all federal agency actions and regulatory decisions.
“Mr. Vought is dangerous and he has a total disregard for the Constitution, Congress, and the millions of hardworking Americans impacted by decisions he will make at OMB,” said Senator Hirono during her remarks. “At the end of the day, Trump, Vought, and all their cronies have just one goal—giving huge tax cuts to billionaires on the backs of working people.”
Senator Hirono also called out Trump for his hypocrisy during his campaign when he claimed that he had nothing to do with Project 2025, but has since appointed several people—including Mr. Vought—involved in authoring the 900-page policy playbook into positions of power within his administration.
In addition to Mr. Vought’s key role in the development of Project 2025, Senator Hirono also raised concerns about his history as Acting OMB Director during Trump’s first term. During that time, Mr. Vought proposed a budget that would have, among other things, cut nearly $1 trillion from Medicaid and slashed nearly $300 billion from social safety net programs like food assistance.
“Where we spend our money reflects our priorities and our values,” continued Senator Hirono. “Mr. Vought’s 2021 budget demonstrated that he sees no value in helping the American people. This time, we know it will be even worse because he is going to be in charge at OMB.”
During her remarks, Senator Hirono also highlighted the chaos that President Trump has caused since being sworn into office less than three weeks ago, including putting a unilateral freeze on all federal funds; attempting to scam 2 million federal employees into taking an unauthorized, unfunded buyout; and giving Elon Musk free reign to raid the U.S. Treasury and any other federal agency to seize data on millions of Americans.
“Donald Trump ran on lowering costs for working Americans,” said Senator Hirono. “In case there was any doubt, the last few weeks have shown that Trump never gave a rip about working people, and has no interest in doing anything to help make our lives better.”
The full transcript of Senator Hirono’s floor speech is below. Video of her floor speech is available here.
M. President, we are less than three weeks into the Trump Administration, and already Americans across the country are reeling from the chaos.
Donald Trump ran on lowering costs for working Americans. An admirable goal, but one he clearly has no intention of making good on. Instead, he’s hellbent on sowing chaos and making life harder for the American people, while he pushes through massive tax cuts for his billionaire buddies.
In just the last two weeks, here’s what Trump did:
He threatened tariffs on Canada and Mexico that will do nothing but raise costs on everyday essentials like food and gasoline, estimated to increase costs for the average household by nearly $1,200 a year—so much for lowering costs for the American people.
He put a freeze on all federal funds, creating such uncertainty that seniors in Hawaii were calling my office asking if they needed to prepare for homelessness.
He tried to scam 2 million federal employees, including more than 23,000 in Hawaii, into taking an unauthorized, unfunded buyout; whoever heard of such a thing?
And he’s given an unelected, unaccountable billionaire free reign to raid the Treasury—to root around in the Treasury and any other federal agency he sees fit—enabling him to get his hands on all of our data. If this isn’t a data breach, then frankly, I don’t know what is—right in front of our faces.
In case there was any doubt, the last few weeks have shown that Trump never gave a rip about working people, and has no interest in doing anything to help make our lives better. The chaos is dizzying. But behind this chaos is a detailed, methodical plan—Project 2025.
While campaigning, Trump swore he had nothing to do with Project 2025—a big fat lie, like so much that comes out of Trump’s mouth. As soon as he was elected, guess what? Trump began appointing many of the people behind Project 2025. His handpicked choice to lead the Office of Management and Budget, or OMB, is Russell Vought, the architect of Project 2025.
M. President, Mr. Vought is dangerous and he has a total disregard for the Constitution, Congress, and the millions of hardworking Americans impacted by decisions he will make at OMB. Americans need to know that OMB is extremely powerful, with oversight over the President’s budget and functionally all federal agency actions, including regulatory decisions.
With such responsibility, the person leading this office needs to be level-headed and impartial. They need to put loyalty to the Constitution above loyalty to the President. Mr. Vought, however, is the ultimate yes-man.
In Trump’s first term, as Acting OMB Director, Vought wrote a budget that among other things, would have cut nearly $1 trillion from Medicaid; slashed nearly $300 billion from social safety net programs like food assistance; eliminated $170 billion from student loans; and zeroed out programs like LIHEAP and Community Development Block Grants to help with housing assistance and building community infrastructure.
Just like for families, where we spend our money reflects our priorities and our values. Mr. Vought’s 2021 budget demonstrated that he sees no value in helping the American people. This time, we know it will be even worse because he is going to be in charge at OMB. And like Trump, Mr. Vought will do whatever he wants, regardless of the law or the Constitution—from forcing out civil servants to withholding funds appropriated by Congress.
M. President, we all know the story of Robin Hood, who stole from the rich to help the poor. With Mr. Vought, on the other hand, he is a Robber Barron who wants to steal the tax dollars of hard-working Americans to line the pockets of Trump’s billionaire buddies; a Robber Barron.
At the end of the day, Trump, Vought, and all their cronies have just one goal—giving huge tax cuts to billionaires on the backs of working people. We have been repeating this, why? Because how the heck are they going to do this otherwise except on the backs of working people?
Their plan to do so is simple. First, they will gut programs working families rely on—things like nutrition assistance, education funding, and Medicare and Medicaid. Then, they’ll borrow trillions of dollars and run our country deeper into debt, just what they did the last time. Finally, they’ll give massive tax breaks to billionaires, leaving the American people to foot the bill.
Their plan is clear. They wrote it all down. This is Project 2025.
This is Project 2025, the 900-page plan Russell Vought helped to mastermind, filled with all sorts of terrible ideas for our country and the American people, and that is why I call it “the plan to screw the American people.” They call it the mandate for leadership? Ha. I call it the 900-page plan to screw over the American people.
I thank Democracy Forward for summarizing some of the worst proposals in Project 2025 in a report that I am going to read parts of. Democracy Forward said:
Project 2025 is among the most profound threats to the American people. What is Project 2025?
The Project 2025 Presidential Transition Project is a well-funded effort of the Heritage Foundation and more than 100, more than 100, organizations to enable a future anti-democratic presidential administration—that would be this administration—to take swift, far-right action that would cut wages for working people; dismantle social safety net programs; reverse decades of progress for civil rights; redefine the way our society operates; and undermine our economy.
A central pillar of Project 2025 is the “Mandate for Leadership,” a 900-page policy playbook authored by former Trump administration officials and other extremists, like Russell Vought, that provides a radical vision for our nation and a roadmap to implement it. So, Democracy Forward noted: We [they] read Project 2025’s entire 900-page “Mandate for Leadership” so that we don’t have to.
So, they said: What we discovered was a systemic, ruthless plan to undermine the quality of life of millions of Americans, remove critical protections and dismantle programs for communities across the nation, and prioritize special interests and ideological extremism over people. From attacking overtime pay, student loans, and reproductive rights, to allowing more discrimination, pollution, and price gouging, those behind Project 2025 are preparing to go to incredible lengths to create a country only for some, not for all of us.
If these plans are enacted, even without congressional approval, 4.3 million people could lose overtime protections; 40 million people could have their food assistance reduced; 220,000 American jobs could be lost, and much, much, more. The stakes are higher than ever for democracy and for people. These threats aren’t hypothetical. These are their real plans.
The Heritage Foundation and the 100+ organizations that make up the Project 2025 Advisory Board have mapped out exactly how they will achieve their extreme ends. They aim to carry out many of the most troubling proposals through an anti-democratic president—Trump—and political loyalists—Vought—installed in the executive branch, without waiting for congressional action. And, while many of these plans are unlawful, winning in court is not guaranteed given that the same far-right movement that is behind Project 2025 has shaped our current judicial system.
Proposals from Project 2025, discussed in detail throughout this guide, that could be implemented through executive branch action alone include cutting American Rescue Plan programs that have created or saved 220,000 jobs; limiting access to food assistance, which an average of more than 40 million people rely on monthly; rolling back civil rights protections across multiple fronts, including cutting diversity, equity, and inclusion-related—or DEI—programs, including LGBTQ+ rights in health care, education, and workplaces; eliminating the Head Start early education program, which serves over 1 million children; stopping efforts to lower prescription drug prices; cutting overtime protections for 4.3 million workers; pushing more people towards Medicare Advantage and other worse, private options, and that’s 33 million people; restricting access to medication abortion; denying students in 25 states and Washington, D.C. access to student loans because their school provides in-state tuition to undocumented immigrants; exposing the 368,000 children in foster care to risk of increased discrimination.
Again, I thank Democracy Forward for this summary.
M. President, these are just some of the countless proposals in Project 2025 that will make our country, and the American people, less free, less safe, and less prosperous. Behind it all is Russell Vought. If confirmed, he’ll move to implement Project 2025 without delay to line the pockets of billionaires at the expense of working Americans.
You know, we gotta repeat this time and again because guess what? This is exactly what happened during Trump’s first term. Their goal was to give trillions in tax cuts to their billionaire buddies and they’re gonna do it again, trust me—that’s what they’re gonna do.
Project 2025 is dangerous. Mr. Vought is dangerous. I urge my colleagues to oppose his nomination.
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