Sen. Merkley Accuses OMB Director Vought of Deception Over Life-Saving Aid Cuts

Allegations of Unconstitutional Power Grabs

• 🎯 Senator Merkley accuses OMB Director Russell Vought of employing a strategy of delays, freezes, and rescissions to unconstitutionally seize the power of the purse from Congress.
• ⚖️ Merkley asserts that Vought's actions, including his stance on the Empowerment Control Act of 1974, represent a significant attack on the U.S. Constitution.
• 🏛️ Merkley reminds Vought of his oath to the Constitution, not to the President, emphasizing that Congress holds the ultimate authority over spending.

Disputed Impact of Aid Freeze

• ⚠️ Merkley challenges Vought's claim that no life-saving treatment was impacted by the January 25th freeze on aid, calling it a "huge deception."
• 📉 Merkley details the freeze's impact: 60% of PEPFAR staff fired, 82% of USAID programs shut down, leading to the collapse of critical malnutrition, tuberculosis, malaria, and HIV/AIDS programs.

Devastating Consequences and Accusations

• 💔 Boston University's tracker is cited, estimating 77,000 children died from pneumonia, 70,000 from malnutrition, 59,000 from diarrhea, 33,000 from malaria, and 7,000 infants from HIV, plus 118,000 adults, due to these program shutdowns.
• 👶 Merkley directly attributes the deaths of hundreds of thousands of children to Vought's actions and the interruption of congressionally authorized programs.
• 😠 Merkley describes Vought's response as both ignorant and callous, highlighting the detailed shutdown plans by Secretary Rubio and Elon Musk's involvement.
• 🚫 Vought rejects the assertion of responsibility and offers to review the tracker, stating that programmatic reviews are standard for new administrations to align with new spending priorities.