Richard Blumenthal
Senator for Connecticut · Democratic · United States
“This resolution is necessary now to give the Senate the ability to hold President Trump accountable on behalf of the American people to go to court and have our day before a judge who will assess the facts of this case and second guess me or any of us and rule and uphold the rule of law.”
“This resolution is necessary now to give the Senate the ability to hold President Trump accountable on behalf of the American people to go to court and have our day before a judge who will assess the facts of this case and second guess me or any of us and rule and uphold the rule of law.”
“Now, the obvious answer is that these accusations by my colleague do not support the constitutional threshold of an emolument, and my Democrat colleagues are just playing politics. This resolution seeks to authorize litigation rather than legislation. This issue has already been litigated, and, as my colleague said, they lost.”
“Congressional Record, Volume 172 Issue 119 (Tuesday, July 21, 2026) [Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 119 (Tuesday, July 21, 2026)] [Senate] [Pages S4170-S4172] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] Unanimous Consent Request--S. Res. 807 Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr.”
“This bill proves that the Democrats' goal right now is to attack President Trump instead of fixing problems Americans expect us to deal with. They don't want to reduce the cost of living, lower inflation, balance the budget.”
“I am asking for a resolution to direct the Senate legal counsel to bring a civil action in the name of the U.S. Senate to enforce the foreign emoluments clause contained in article I of [[Page S4171]] the Constitution.”
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“Congressional Record, Volume 171 Issue 71 (Tuesday, April 29, 2025) [Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 71 (Tuesday, April 29, 2025)] [Senate] [Page S2657] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] VOTE EXPLANATION Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, earlier today, I was unable to vote on Executive Calendar No. 80, David Perdue to be Ambassador to the People's Republic of China, due to my attendance as ranking member at a Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee hearing on mental health care for veterans. I would have opposed Mr. Perdue's confirmation had I been present for the vote, rollcall vote No. 215. ____________________”
“Let me just say about labor rights and union activities at the VA, labor organizing and collective bargaining actually expedite conflict resolution. It reduces legal costs. It actually saves money through collective bargaining, not to mention the waste, fraud, and abuse that it helps the Department uncover and address. Those negotiations have allowed the Department to bar criminally bad actors from receiving settlement funds and being reinstated. There is a lot more to say on this topic, but let me just finish by saying that I hope we can work together. I hope the chairman and I can work together in a bipartisan way to put together our two resolutions and devise one that will pass muster on both sides. Because of the shortcomings of this resolution, I object. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard. The Senator from Vermont.”
“The VA also made it easier for veterans to seek mental health care while reducing wait times for that care in new appointments. Claims that the VA has been placing more barriers for veterans to receive care in the VA and through community care are simply untrue. Since 2019, the VA has made enormous improvements in customer service and has become more welcoming to veterans through historic outreach. If we listen to veterans, as I do every weekend because I go home every weekend, what I hear is customer satisfaction rising and happiness with VA healthcare. Sure, there are criticisms, and we need to meet those criticisms. There are shortcomings, and we need to improve VA healthcare to address those shortcomings. But VA trust has increased to the point of 80.4 percent this year--an alltime record and an increase of 25 percent since 2016.”
“It fails to call for restoring the VA's skilled professional workforce that is necessary to provide sufficient healthcare, particularly mental health care. I should also note that prior to Secretary Collins and DOGE, wait times for care--before they took over and seized control, wait times actually decreased in 2024 while the number of new patient appointments increased by 11 percent. So this idea that somehow the VA was wholly failing before this administration is exactly the opposite of reality. The time to process each claim actually decreased. The VA processed 116,192 veterans' appeals, representing a 12.5-increase over last year's record. Those are claims for disability and compensation. Additionally, under the previous administration, veteran homelessness reached record lows--a 55.6-percent reduction since 2010.”
“Reserving the right to object, let me first say I appreciate the work of my colleague, the chairman of the VA Committee, where I am the ranking Democrat. Chairman Moran and I work together in a very bipartisan way on a lot of legislation. I would like to support his resolution, but we received it only about an hour ago, and so I have been unable to check with my colleagues on this side as to whether there is any objection among them. Second, although I would like to support it, I have to say no, not because of something it has but what it lacks, and that is, it fails to mention anything about the Trump-Musk assault on the VA and its workforce and particularly the negative impacts of those actions on veterans' mental health and suicide prevention.”
“We can be bipartisan in our praise and in our criticism, but we need to stand up to the Musk-Trump slash-and-trash regime that has been so harmful to our veterans. And we can't go about it with business as usual. These draconian, indiscriminate cuts are doing harm to our veterans as we speak, and to avoid action is not only inappropriate, it is injustice to our Nation's heroes. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Kansas.”
“Madam President, I want to respond very quickly by saying, first of all, I think we share a lot of goals, but we need action. The VA is in crisis impending right now, in real time, affecting real lives in real time, people who need mental health care now, who need the Veterans Crisis Line now, who need those counselors and psychiatrists now. What I am asking is unanimous consent for a resolution that calls for restoring the VA workforce to meet that crisis and to doing right by our veterans. It shouldn't be partisan. It isn't partisan. I have been critical of the VA under Democratic administrations, under General Shinseki when he was there and the delays were unacceptable, and nobody was more direct or critical than I was.”
“As if in legislative session and notwithstanding rule XXII, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of my resolution, which is at the desk. Further, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon table with no intervening action or debate. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection? The Senator from Kansas.”
“There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows: Whereas, on February 13, 2025, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Doug Collins, announced the termination of 1,000 employees of the Department of Veterans Affairs (in this preamble referred to as the ``Department''); Whereas, on February 24, 2025, Secretary Collins terminated an additional 1,400 employees of the Department; Whereas, on March 4, 2025, a memorandum from the Department announced the objective of the Department to return to 2019 end-strength staffing numbers; Whereas reduction in force will result in approximately 83,000 additional employees terminated from employment with the Department; Whereas returning to 2019 staffing levels could mean firing approximately 18,000 nurses, 10 percent of the police force of the Department, 10,000 schedulers, and 30 percent of the staff of the Veterans Benefits Administration; Whereas the Department projects a 59 percent increase in inpatient and outpatient mental health care demand from fiscal year 2022 to fiscal year 2032; Whereas, even prior to such attacks on the workforce of the Department, the Department already suffered from critical mental health staffing shortages; Whereas actions attacking and decimating the workforce of the Department will exacerbate such existing mental health staffing challenges and further jeopardize the mental health services veterans desperately need; Whereas such actions are harming the trust of veterans in the Department and harming the ability of the Department to recruit and retain a mental health care workforce; [[Page S2490]] Whereas the mass terminations of employees of the Federal Government are damaging the mental health and economic security of veterans and their families; and Whereas veterans and employees of the Department have expressed concerns regarding the effect of terminations and attacks on the mental health workforce already carried out by the Department, including-- (1) terminating employees of the Veterans Crisis Line established under section 1720F(h) of title 38, United States Code; (2) requiring employees of the Veterans Crisis Line to take calls in open cubicles intended for claims processors of the Veterans Benefits Administration; (3) forcing mental health staff to conduct counseling sessions while in open cubicles; (4) cutting or postponing suicide prevention training courses; (5) terminating employees performing critical research at the Department on mental health and substance use disorders among veterans; (6) cancelling employee assistance program and mental health support contracts for employees of the Department; (7) terminating staff of Vet Centers (as defined in section 1712A(h) of title 38, United States Code); and (8) an increase in call volume on the Veterans Crisis Line from veterans who were terminated from the Federal workforce, or who are concerned about losing their health care and benefits: Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that-- (1) actions taken by President Trump and Elon Musk are negatively impacting mental health care and suicide prevention for veterans and should be condemned; and (2) all mental health and suicide prevention efforts at the Department of Veterans Affairs should be fully staffed and resourced.”
“We need to, as he said, ``apply pressure and stop the bleeding.'' I am joined on the Senate floor today by two of my colleagues who have been integral to this fight, Senator Sanders and Senator Duckworth, who will be calling for passage of their own resolutions aimed at reversing damage from the Trump/Musk attacks on veterans. I hope that our votes on these resolutions send a message. I hope we will have unanimous support for my resolution and for theirs, that we will keep faith with our veterans, and we will leave none of them behind. Madam President, first, I ask unanimous consent that the text of my resolution be printed in the Record.”
“What we are seeing right now is the DOGE tech bros under Elon Musk operating with that famous chain saw that he has displayed, and they are doing it to the detriment of our veterans and to those who are being fired. As Mr. Lipphardt said, these veterans are now being told their skills are no longer useful to the government. We are losing people who are genuinely committed to the mission and find a continued sense of purpose in what they do. These dedicated, patriotic veterans--the ones who work at the VA, the ones who are served by the VA--are deeply disserved and damaged by these actions. As Mr. Lipphardt said, finally: We need to stop the bleeding.”
“And it is not a matter of eliminating waste because we know the way to eliminate waste is to go line by line, item by item carefully and thoughtfully--or as Al Lipphardt, the national commander of the VFW, told us--and he was describing a wound that he sustained while in combat during the Vietnam war: I am thankful that the medics who treated me chose not to take my whole arm for the sake of efficiency. It took a trained eye, a skillful hand, and human intuition to fix me up and get me back in the fight. In my experience, those operating with a scalpel have a better chance at saving limbs than those who operate with a chainsaw.”
“World-class researchers performing research on mental health and substance abuse disorders among veterans have been terminated. Most devastating of all, Veterans Crisis Line has seen a recent increase in call volume largely from veterans who were either terminated from the Federal workforce or who were concerned about losing their benefits or both, because at least a quarter up to a third or more of the Federal workforce are veterans, and they need that mental health care. Amidst that flood of cruel actions taken by the administration, I am proud that my Democratic colleagues have been united in our resistance to these relentless attacks on veterans. It is not only on mental health care, it is all healthcare. It is not only on healthcare, it is on the PACT Act for veterans who need that screening, benefits, care.”
“And the VA's newest staffing goal--that 83,000 number that I mentioned before--is going to be cutting employees at a time of ever-increasing demand, even in the short term. All these cuts will do is to harm veterans. There is no elimination of waste or fraud or abuse. In every Agency and in every program, there is some waste, but the way to eliminate it is not to slash indiscriminately and draconian cuts as a way to do it. While we wait for these 83,000 employees to be axed by Trump and Musk, we already see the impact. Employee assistance programs and mental health support contracts for the VA workforce have been canceled. Staff at vet centers--VA community-based counseling centers-- have been fired. VA mental health staff are being forced to conduct counseling sessions in open cubicles, putting veterans' privacy at risk.”
“This kind of cruel, heartless, heartbreaking approach to the VA comes at a time when they already have 40,000 openings of exactly the kind of skilled professionals that they are firing--40,000 openings, including 3,000 physician positions, 6,000 nurses, thousands of counselors, janitors, schedulers. And they are firing the very kind of people they are trying to recruit. You would think that the Trump administration's top priority at the VA would be to bolster its mental health workforce at a time when 59- percent increase is projected, but they are doing just the opposite. Since the beginning of this administration, there have been 2,400 employees unjustly and illegally terminated already, including Veterans Crisis Line employees.”
“Now, they have taken a wrecking ball to the VA in order to save money that then can be used for tax cuts going to people who need them least--the ultrawealthy, the billionaires and millionaires--at a time when veterans who need healthcare most will be deprived of it. The reason is quite simply the staffing shortages that they have purposefully created--2,400 already; on the chopping block, another 83,000--without a plan or a strategy, admitted to us by the VA itself. They are making it up as they go along, but they know they want to slash and trash the VA workforce.”
“Madam President, I am here today in the hope that our colleagues will join me in condemning actions taken by President Trump and Elon Musk that are devastating to the healthcare of our veterans, as well as their disability benefits under the PACT Act, and most especially, deeply harmful to mental health care and suicide prevention for veterans, and to engage in this call for action restoring the doctors, counselors, psychiatrists, all who are essential to veterans' healthcare and have lost their jobs--thousands of them. The plain, staggering fact is that Musk and Trump are kneecapping the VA healthcare system at a time when the VA projects a 59-percent increase. That is right. In this fiscal year going to 2032, a 59- percent increase in inpatient and outpatient mental health care is projected.”
“The Chairman of the Committee on the Budget of the Senate may revise the allocations of a committee or committees, aggregates, and other appropriate levels in this resolution, and make adjustments to the pay-as-you-go ledger, for one or more bills, joint resolutions, amendments, amendments between the Houses, motions, or conference reports relating to preventing veterans suicide and strengthening mental health services, including legislation that would ensure that staff and programs related to or administered by the Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention of the Department of Veterans Affairs are not reduced below the fiscal year 2024 levels due to hiring freezes, deferred resignation, buyout offers, reductions in force, mass terminations, layoffs, funding freezes, or reductions in services or outreach due to cancellations of contracts, by the amounts provided in such legislation for those purposes, provided that such legislation would not increase the deficit over the period of the total of fiscal years 2025 through 2034.”
“Congressional Record, Volume 171 Issue 60 (Thursday, April 3, 2025) [Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 60 (Thursday, April 3, 2025)] [Senate] [Page S2194] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] SA 1316. Mr. BLUMENTHAL submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by him to the concurrent resolution H. Con. Res. 14, establishing the congressional budget for the United States Government for fiscal year 2025 and setting forth the appropriate budgetary levels for fiscal years 2026 through 2034; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows: At the end of title III, add the following: SEC. 3___. DEFICIT-NEUTRAL RESERVE FUND RELATING TO PREVENTING VETERANS SUICIDE AND STRENGTHENING MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES.”
“The Chairman of the Committee on the Budget of the Senate may revise the allocations of a committee or committees, aggregates, and other appropriate levels in this resolution, and make adjustments to the pay-as-you-go ledger, for one or more bills, joint resolutions, amendments, amendments between the Houses, motions, or conference reports relating to strengthening veterans' access to care and preventing unnecessary delays in care provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs, which may include legislation that would ensure that staff and programs related to or administered by the Veterans Health Administration are not reduced below the fiscal year 2024 levels due to hiring freezes, deferred resignations, buyout offers, reductions in force, mass terminations, layoffs, funding freezes, or reductions in services or outreach due to cancellations of contracts, by the amounts provided in such legislation for those purposes, provided that such legislation would not increase the deficit over the period of the total of fiscal years 2025 through 2034.”
“DEFICIT-NEUTRAL RESERVE FUND RELATING TO PREVENTING VETERANS FROM LOSING ACCESS TO OR EXPERIENCING DELAYS IN HEALTH CARE AT THE DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS DUE TO RECKLESS POLICIES AND ADMINISTRATIVE FAILURES UNDER THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION.”
“Congressional Record, Volume 171 Issue 60 (Thursday, April 3, 2025) [Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 60 (Thursday, April 3, 2025)] [Senate] [Page S2194] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] SA 1315. Mr. BLUMENTHAL submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by him to the concurrent resolution H. Con. Res. 14, establishing the congressional budget for the United States Government for fiscal year 2025 and setting forth the appropriate budgetary levels for fiscal years 2026 through 2034; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows: At the end of title III, add the following: SEC. 3___.”
“They are cruel, reckless, and careless. They play fast and loose with America's credibility around the world. I urge my colleagues to vote yes on S.J. Res. 37 and join us in trying to save the American economy and our credibility around the world. I yield the floor. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Democratic leader.”
“We already have one of the highest costs of living in the country. Taxing these goods will put an undue financial strain on individuals and families across Connecticut but, most important, on people who can least afford a higher tax--our middle-income and lower income members of the workforce, working people in Connecticut who have to buy stuff depending on their paychecks--for groceries, for gasoline. A tax on those products will hit them in the pocketbook. It will hit their families. It will hit them at the kitchen table, when they go to the drugstore to buy pharmaceuticals, when they have downpayments on homes, on furnishings--across the board. So I am not here to make a speech; I am really here to make a plea: Mr. President, please reconsider. These tariffs are fundamentally misguided. They are dumb.”
“Some of the largest State industries--including aerospace, defense, advanced manufacturing, medical devices--all rely on trade with Canada to remain profitable. These industries source key production imports from Canada, including aerospace parts, critical minerals and metals, basic chemicals, and petroleum and coal products. In return, we export billions of dollars of goods to Canada. We are talking about hundreds of thousands of people across Connecticut--jobs, employment--who all stand to see their livelihoods threatened if this tax is allowed. It will ripple across Connecticut. It will reverberate through the country to the Presiding Officer's State, to Virginia, New York, Maryland, colleagues on both sides of the aisle. The cost of living in Connecticut will rise drastically.”
“Consumers in Connecticut already face some of the highest electricity prices in the Nation, with an average cost of 28.16 cents per kilowatt- hour, compared to the national average of 16.26 cents per kilowatt- hour. Connecticut and New England as a whole get a significant share of our electricity from cheaper Eastern Canadian hydropower. The 10- percent tariffs proposed on energy resources from Canada will directly impact and drastically increase those electricity costs. ISO New England has estimated that this tax would add $66 million in annual consumer costs. I hope President Trump will listen to the people of Connecticut and New England when it comes to electricity costs. Do not impose these tariffs. The harm to Connecticut is far from limited to just energy prices.”
“In 2024, Canada was the United States' second largest trading partner, with $761.2 billion in total trade--the largest single U.S. export market for goods. Every day, nearly half a million people and billions of dollars in goods and services cross that border. But I want to focus on Connecticut for the moment because Connecticut demonstrates what will happen to America as a whole, and I represent the people of Connecticut. This regimen of tariffs will be catastrophic for Connecticut. Friends in Connecticut, listen to what these haphazard tariffs will do. Canada is Connecticut's single largest trading partner, accounting for 20 percent of our total trade in 2024, including 13 percent of our exports and 25 percent of our imports.”
“Our countries have countless trade and investment agreements, and cross-border projects such as communications, highways, bridges, and pipelines [[Page S2133]] have resulted in integrated energy networks and transportation systems. We have a longstanding defense and security partnership providing us with greater security than we could have alone. And we share a border. But the border is a symbol of a bond that our people have in common, a friendship that goes deep, a heritage and a culture that we respect. These bonds will be betrayed by a reckless trade policy the administration is pursuing that threatens to derail that valuable--in fact, precious--partnership. These tariffs are going to hurt all Americans. We have with Canada one of the most comprehensive and important trading relationships. I can go into the numbers.”
“What began as a recession, what started as a Wall Street problem, became a global depression because the world failed to realize that, even then, our economies were connected and that tariffs could hurt all countries when all countries adopted them, when a trade war ensued. And a trade war now is what we face. Canada has long been one of our Nation's closest allies and trading partners. We have a bond with Canada that goes beyond simple economics, although, frankly, our relationship with Canada supports millions of jobs, protects the competitiveness of American businesses, and ensures our long-term economic prosperity.”
“Careless, cruel, reckless--that is what these tariffs are, particularly as directed to Canada. Let's be clear. The tariffs proposed by President Trump are a tax. They are a tax. There has been no tariff ever imposed in the history of the United States of America that has ever lowered prices. These tariffs will raise prices. They threaten not only higher costs for everything from gas, to groceries, to rental housing, but they also deeply threaten a recession. I have been reading a book called ``Freedom from Fear,'' written by a great historian, a professor at Yale named David Kennedy. ``Freedom from Fear'' is about the events and the misdirection and mistakes that led our Nation to the Great Depression.”
“Mr. President, I am honored to follow my colleague from Maryland, who has described so well the reasons we should oppose these tariffs. I thank my colleague from Virginia, Senator Kaine, who has demonstrated once again his leadership that makes him such a great Member of this body. I want to begin--and I hope the Presiding Officer will forgive me-- with a four-letter word. It is a word that I say to my children that they should never use: ``dumb,'' D-U-M-B. These tariffs are dumb. They are also cruel, and they are stupid. They are imposed in the name of, perhaps, building manufacturing in this country, which they won't do, or in the name of raising revenue to cut taxes for the wealthy, which is adding insult to injury, or simply for vengeance. So much of what this administration does is for the purpose of vengeance and vanity.”