Senator Murray Calls on Trump to Rescind Executive Orders Still Blocking Billions for Communities Across America
After rescinding disastrous OMB memo directing a blanket federal funding freeze, Murray demands Trump revoke orders blocking billions of dollars for critical infrastructure projects across America, key national security initiatives, and more
Murray: “Yesterday, because the American people spoke up loud and clear, Donald Trump retreated from his devastating blanket funding freeze. But make no mistake: there is still far too much chaos on the ground and Trump is still blocking billions of dollars for communities across the country through his Executive Orders.”
Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, called on President Trump to swiftly rescind the directives included in a variety of executive orders he signed on his first day in office that are still in effect and still blocking billions of dollars in resources for communities across America—even after Trump rescinded his administration’s disastrous OMB memo in the face of public outcry, which created a blanket federal funding freeze.
Speaking on the Senate floor, Senator Murray said:
“Over the last few days, the American people have felt the painful consequences of Trump’s disastrous funding freeze.
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- Seniors who count on Meals on Wheels have wondered whether they’d have dinner this week.
- Head Start teachers in red states and blue states panicked over whether they’d have the funds needed to keep their doors open and take care of kids.
- Disaster relief for people who have endured the unimaginable and been knocked off their feet was thrown into jeopardy.
- Grant programs to help firefighters do their jobs, combat the fentanyl crisis, get families health care, and so much more were, in an instant, at risk of evaporating into thin air.
- I heard from a Tribe in my state concerned they’d have to lay off hundreds of staff providing essential services for the Tribe—that could mean putting everything from providing health care to housing in jeopardy—because of the President’s freeze.
- A shelter for homeless youth in my state still can’t access its HUD funding and is staring down a $3 million deficit—forcing them to hold an emergency board meeting to figure out what, if anything, they can now do.
- Hospitals in my state are worried that programs which are appropriately focused on someone’s gender or race are in jeopardy—like how pulse oximeters don’t work as well on dark skin, so they need other pathways to be found.
“The chaos and confusion—the needless stress and distraction—are the result of having a president who is more focused on the billionaires who now fill his administration, than the plight of regular people all across the country.
“Yesterday, because the American people spoke up loud and clear, Donald Trump retreated from his devastating blanket funding freeze.
“But make no mistake: there is still far too much chaos on the ground and Trump is still blocking billions of dollars for communities across the country through his Executive Orders.
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- We’re talking about critical funding to rebuild roads and bridges, resources that are already creating thousands of good-paying new clean energy jobs in every state in the country, and critical global investments that help keep America safe.
- That is completely unacceptable.
“So, today, I am calling on President Trump to take four simple, commonsense steps:
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- He needs to ensure every last dollar—down to the last penny—that was caught up by his disastrous blanket funding freeze gets out the door.
- He needs to rescind his executive orders that are still, at this very moment, ripping funding away from American families and communities.
- He needs to withdraw Russ Vought’s nomination to oversee our nation’s budget. It is clear the person who masterminded so much of this chaos doesn’t belong anywhere near the Office of Management and Budget.
- And finally, President Trump needs to abandon, once and for all, his illegal scheme to skirt around our laws and block funding that American workers and families are counting on.
“I am not asking a lot here: ensure every dollar held up by the illegal freeze is restored, stop the ongoing effort to block funding, withdraw the mastermind of this chaos, and simply follow the law.
“The American people deserve better than the catastrophe we have witnessed this week, and they deserve to know that the investments Trump is currently holding up—to rebuild the highway they drive to work on or lower their energy costs, and so much more—will make it out the door.
“If the President is so intent on opposing funding for infrastructure projects and good-paying American jobs, he needs to sit down at the negotiating table and make his case to Congress. I will not let the President rip up the Constitution or rip money away from our communities.”
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LAST WEEK: within his first hours in office, President Trump signed a number of executive orders that illegally block funding that was signed into law to rebuild America’s infrastructure, lower families’ energy costs, create new, good-paying jobs, strengthen our national security, and more.
ON MONDAY NIGHT: Trump expanded his funding freeze dramatically when the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a sweeping, illegal memo directing a near-blanket freeze on virtually all federal funding, with carveouts for Social Security, Medicare, and “assistance provided directly to individuals.” Senator Murray immediately wrote a letter to OMB alongside House Appropriations Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03) raising alarms about the sweeping directive and calling the acting director to restore funding, as the law requires.
ON TUESDAY: Senator Murray joined millions of Americans in decrying the chaos and pain President Trump’s freeze caused—as reports poured in from across the country about how it risked shuttering Head Start programs, cutting off disaster relief, jeopardizing cancer research, and much more. The White House, in trying to clarify the scope of the memo, instead created more chaos, confusion, and headaches for the American people.
ON WEDNESDAY: Senator Murray again slammed Trump’s devastating freeze cutting off funding families count on—noting that even programs the administration said were back online were, in fact, still shuttered, and she called on Trump to stop withholding funding. Then, facing nationwide backlash, President Trump had his OMB revoke its memo. But President Trump vowed to keep his freeze of hundreds of billions of dollars in funding tied up by his executive orders in place—and his aides continued their vows to block more funding signed into law.
RIGHT NOW: President Trump continues to hold up vast swaths of funding implicated by his illegal executive orders—and chaos and confusion pervade over whether funding implicated by his now-rescinded OMB memo has been fully restored.
His executive orders direct agencies to, among other things, halt disbursement of funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act, foreign development assistance, and virtually any funding his administration deems “woke.”
President Trump’s ongoing freeze is holding up funding Congress delivered—often on a bipartisan basis—to:
- Rebuild America’s roads and bridges.
- Connect families to high-speed internet access.
- Upgrade transit and transportation infrastructure.
- Lower Americans’ energy costs.
- Create new, good-paying clean energy jobs.
- Strengthen America’s national security.
- Much more.
President Trump must rescind his executive orders—and stop blocking funding the American people are counting on. His failure to do so will:
- Kill good-paying American jobs.
- Delay—or altogether scrap—infrastructure projects all across the county.
- Raise American families’ energy costs.
- Create more chaos, confusion, and uncertainty that hurt families, businesses, small businesses, and local organizations and governments.
- Gut efforts to tackle the climate crisis and ensure every American has clean air and water.
- Halt work cleaning up Superfund sites contaminated with hazardous waste and substances.
- Undermine our national security and credibility on the world stage.
- Much more.
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