Mr. President, I rise today because, over the last 2 days, I have been hearing from officials and organizations throughout Rhode Island that have been concerned about losing access to essential Federal funding. In fact, Rhode Island officials told my office that, for several hours yesterday, they could not access the Federal portal that allows them to draw down funding from the Medicaid Program. Other agencies and organizations have reported that they, too, were locked out of funding portals for critical grant programs.

 And why is this?

Well, Monday night, the Office of Management and Budget, or OMB, issued a memorandum instructing Federal Agencies to freeze funding that had been authorized and appropriated by Congress until it can be determined that the program comports with President Trump's ideological views, as judged by the White House. Just a little over an hour ago, OMB rescinded this memo. But then the White House Press Secretary has tweeted that the freeze is still in effect. This illustrates the uncertainty and the lack of calculation that went into this process.

Now, as my colleague Senator Murray, the ranking member of the Appropriations Committee, has noted, the list of programs being put under the microscope was dramatic: grants for law enforcement; veterans care; disaster relief and mitigation; funding for the 9-8-8 suicide prevention lifeline; homeless and housing funding; childcare and public schools, including IDEA, funding; community health centers; food access programs, including Meals on Wheels and school lunch programs; funding for preventing violence against women; and much more. And all of these programs affect families throughout my State of Rhode Island—working  families in particular—because in many respects, we all depend upon some support at some time.

The Trump administration, a little over a week on the job, decided to violate the law, to withhold that funding previously approved by Congress on a bipartisan basis, and has sowed chaos and fear throughout the Nation in the process.

Last night, the Federal district court issued a 1-week stay on the administration's memorandum regarding not-for-profit agencies receiving Federal funds. But we are again in this dilemma because the President apparently has rescinded the order but his Press Secretary is still tweeting something different.

 It demonstrates how, frankly, incompetent the administration is--putting out directives with little to no thought or coordination, without anticipating--or, more importantly, caring about--the negative ramifications that an order like this can have on families throughout this country.

What President Trump was really doing, I believe, is testing how far he can go before he is stopped.

When President Trump tries to ignore the law, ignore the Congress, and there is no response, what is the point of checks and balances? Why are we here in the Senate? If we pass, along with the House, authorizations and appropriations and the President of the United States can ignore our actions, we have to speak up.

 Indeed, my Republican colleagues were excoriating the Biden administration for executive ``overreach'' but now are relatively mute when it comes to a defiance of law and indeed, I believe, a defiance of the Constitution.

This attack should be alarming to all my colleagues who consider the Congress a coequal branch of government, and it will be instructive to the American people to see how all of my colleagues--in the majority and in the minority--choose to respond to President Trump's continued attacks on this institution, as well as the Constitution and, most damaging, families throughout this country.

One of the programs that was shut off yesterday is Medicaid. Now, a lot of people think Medicaid is just something for those poor people who can't afford healthcare, but, indeed, it is a major source of funding for nursing homes throughout this country. And many of the recipients come from working families, come from families that have worked their entire lives and now they have a senior--a mother or a father--who needs the kind of care a nursing home provides, but they could not afford it without Medicaid. That, I think, is one of the most graphic examples of the indifference or the ignorance of the administration when it comes to what they are doing.

But let me return, finally, to the point. We have a role to do in the Constitution. We advise and consent on nominees. We are doing that as we go forward. But, also, we have to act as a check on the President.

We have to act as a force for good that supports the Constitution. And that is a role I believe we have to take much more seriously today than at any other time in my tenure in the U.S. Senate.

With that, I yield the floor.