WASHINGTON — After initially being slow to respond last week, Congressional Democrats on Monday vowed to use what power they have in the minority to fight back against President Donald Trump’s efforts to shrink the federal government without approval from Congress.
They have some leverage: Trump needs the Senate to approve his nominees, and Democratic votes will be needed to fund the government once it runs out in March.
House Republicans have been unable to agree among themselves for years on legislation to avoid a government shutdown or raise the federal government’s borrowing limit, meaning Democrats will likely have to step in.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) indicated Monday he will demand that government funding legislation “choke off” Trump’s unilateral attacks on federal programs. Jeffries specifically cited last week’s order from the Office of Management and Budget pausing all federal grants.
“I have made clear to House Republican leadership that any effort to steal taxpayer money from the American people, end Medicaid as we know it or defund programs important to everyday Americans, as contemplated by the illegal White House Office of Management and Budget order, must be choked off in the upcoming government funding bill, if not sooner,” Jeffries said in a letter to his Democratic colleagues.
The Trump administration rescinded the order following bipartisan criticism and widespread confusion over its impacts, including early questions about whether it would apply to Medicaid, which the administration insisted it wouldn’t.
It’s not clear what sort of legislative language Democrats would demand — the OMB order last week paused funding that Congress itself had already appropriated. The administration acted with dubious legal authority, and a federal judge blocked the pause after nonprofit groups sued.
Democrats could seek to increase funding to any agencies Trump unilaterally cuts, raising the prospects of a government shutdown fight. But that would not prevent the immediate disruption of aid programs that provide essential help to millions of people around the world.
In the Senate, Democrats hold sway over the federal budget process as well as approval of Trump’s executive nominees. They can’t block his picks outright since Republicans control 53 seats — more than the simple majority required for confirmation — but they can drag the process out and force the GOP to burn valuable floor time. It’s a tactic Republicans used repeatedly under Joe Biden’s administration.
Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), for example, is planning to place a hold on all of Trump’s nominees to the State Department until his administration ceases its efforts to eliminate the U.S. Agency for International Development, including typically uncontroversial diplomatic postings. Over the weekend, billionaire Elon Musk announced that the Trump administration is shuttering the agency despite not having the legal authority to do so. USAID is the world’s largest provider of humanitarian aid. It was established by Congress and would require an act of Congress to undo.
“I will do maximal delays until this is resolved,” Schatz told The Wall Street Journal.
USAID employees were locked out of their computers and their offices on Monday. The agency’s website has also vanished without explanation. Musk, a member of a new Trump advisory board focused on government efficiency, has accused USAID of being a “criminal” enterprise that ought to be eliminated.
Democrats called the effort to gut USAID a gift to adversaries like China and Russia, which cheered Musk for seeking to kill the agency. They warned the move would be subject to court action.
“Elon Musk may get to be dictator of Tesla and he may try to play dictator here in D.C., but he doesn’t get to shut down the Agency for International Development,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said Monday at a press conference with other Democratic lawmakers in front of the USAID headquarters in downtown Washington.
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Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.), who worked at USAID prior to being elected to the Senate, noted critical programs saving lives across the world were put on hold by Trump’s actions during a visit to the agency’s headquarters on Monday.
“I talked to the security guard just in there,” Kim told reporters on Monday. “He said he has been given specific orders to prevent employees of USAID from entering the building today. I just find that to be absolutely ridiculous. This is no way to govern.”