Washington, D.C. – Oregon’s U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley—a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee—issued the following statement after a hearing with Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russell Vought on President Trump’s request to Congress to implement disastrous federal funding cuts:
“Director Vought’s testimony clearly outlined his unconstitutional plan to steal the power of the purse from Congress and give it to the President. At Vought’s direction, the Trump Administration has for months illegally delayed, frozen, and impounded federal funds approved by Congress.
“This multi-faceted attack on the Constitution has resulted in an irresponsible shutdown of essential programs.
“One of the agencies dramatically devastated by a sudden shutdown is the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Elon Musk, Secretary of State Rubio, and OMB Director Vought conspired to shut down essential programs over the course of a weekend that delivered health and nutrition programs to millions of children and adults around the world.
“The result has been a massive increase in deaths from a variety of diseases and food shortages. Top experts have projected the impact of the sudden foreign assistance cuts, and here is their current estimate of how many children have died as a result of the illegal shutdown of these programs: 77,000 children have died from pneumonia, 70,000 from malnutrition, 59,000 from diarrhea, 33,000 from malaria, and 7,000 infants have died from HIV.
“Rarely, if ever, have three employees of the executive branch done so much damage to so many. Let this sink in—the estimate is nearly a quarter million children have died as a direct consequence of the Trump Administration shutting down these programs in January. In addition, an estimated 118,000 adults have died.
“The Constitution gives to Congress the ability to design the function of agencies by law, and to fund them. But Mr. Vought and his allies chose to ignore the Constitution and shut down these programs overnight with horrifically devastating consequences. Director Vought needs to immediately remember he took an oath to the Constitution—not to President Trump—and end his highly coordinated attack on Congress’ power of the purse.”
You can watch Merkley’s questions at the hearing with OMB Director Vought by clicking here.
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