We Won’t Vote to Open Government Because Trump’s Firing Government Employees
On CNN’s “The Arena” Tuesday, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) responded to a question about why Senate Democrats wouldn’t vote for a clear continuing resolution, saying it’s “because we’ve seen what’s happened since the first day of the administration,” “They’ve laid off federal employees in the absence of a shutdown.” In fact, they have less legal authority to fire federal employees in a shutdown than without a shutdown. And federal workers “want some sort of assurance that this kind of illegal activity won’t continue. But Trump is unwilling to do that.”
Van Hollen said: “I have voted seven times in the Senate, and I will vote an eighth time tonight, to keep the federal government open, but without giving Donald Trump a blank check to continue his illegal activities, which since day one have harmed federal employees, and to address the health care crisis that is about to erupt because Republicans left a bomb delayed on health care. And we would like to have a discussion with the President of the United States. States. He is working to end the conflict in the Middle East. But he is not willing to address the situation here at home, nor to discuss with Democrats the possibility of ending the Trump shutdown. And you mentioned the previous record shutdown, remember, that happened during the first Trump administration. We are now experiencing the Trump’s second lockdown.”
Host Kasie Hunt then asked, “But let’s be real, the Democrats could decide, Senator Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) could decide to vote again to pass the CR. Why not do that?”
Van Hollen responded: “Well, because we’ve seen what’s happened since the first day of the administration, right? They’ve fired federal employees in the absence of a shutdown. In fact, they have less legal authority to fire federal employees in a shutdown than in the absence of a shutdown. The judge will rule on a pretrial motion in this case tomorrow. But they’ve had Elon Musk and his chainsaw since day one. I just met today, Kasie, with federal employees laid off much earlier in the administration. So what I’m hearing from federal employees is that they want some sort of assurance that this type of illegal activity won’t continue. But Trump is not willing to do that. He’s willing to give the Argentine president $20 billion of taxpayer money, but he’s not willing to work to end this closure.”
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