Senator Blumenthal: Week in Review 2/6/2026-2/13/2026
Slamming Violent & Invasive ICE Tactics
[WASHINGTON, DC] – U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Ranking Member of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI), yesterday pressed Todd Lyons, Acting Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), on a policy memo he wrote authorizing federal immigration agents to enter American homes without a judicial warrant in order to effectuate civil immigration arrests.
During an oversight hearing in the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Blumenthal questioned Lyons about the memo, which was made public via a whistleblower disclosure received by Blumenthal. The policy outlined in Lyons’s memo is directly contrary to longstanding legal interpretation of the Fourth Amendment.
“To bang down a door, barge into someone’s home, if you are the FBI, or a local officer, you need a judicial warrant from a judicial officer, a judge, who is going to find or not, probable cause, which has a specific meaning under the law. These ICE agents are banging down doors doing the same thing without that kind of judicial warrant,” Blumenthal said.
Blumenthal pushed back on Lyons’s assessment of case law allowing for the use of administrative warrants under certain circumstances, “It does not abrogate the Fourth Amendment. It does not say that ICE agents or CBP agents can simply bash down doors and barge into people’s homes, terrorize their children, detain and arrest people without a judicial warrant and there is nothing different about what ICE does as to compared to the FBI or the local police that would justify. The policy that they are acting under in fact is the result of a memo that you issued in May, you are familiar with it.”
During the hearing, Blumenthal secured a commitment from Lyons that he would provide Blumenthal with a copy of an email transmitting the memo to ICE personnel. Following the hearing, Blumenthal sent a letter to Lyons requesting a copy of the email by Tuesday, February 17, 2026. A copy of Blumenthal’s letter to Lyons is available here.
The video of Blumenthal’s exchange with Lyons is available here.
On Twitter/X, Blumenthal further slammed Lyons for the violent tactics used by ICE agents and his lack of awareness for the harm such tactics are having on U.S. citizens.
“Either all the US citizens being detained by ICE are lying (unlikely) or Todd Lyons has no idea what he’s saying when he claims NO US Citizen is subject to immigration enforcement,” wrote Blumenthal with an accompanying video on Twitter/X.
Blumenthal joined MS NOW’s Morning Joe to discuss the inhumanity of ICE agents and the dangerous tactics being promoted by top DHS officials.
“Americans need to know what is happening. But they know enough right now to demand reforms. And that's what we're fighting to do. We have ten simple, straightforward reforms that American people are demanding,” said Blumenthal on Morning Joe. “I won't vote for any funding for DHS, the Department of Homeland Security, or ICE or the Customs and Border Patrol, unless these demands are met. Not that they're my demands—the American people are demanding, and Republicans need to listen to the American people who've been watching the hearing that I led just this last week: a woman on her way to church to donate clothing, shot seven times because she was stopped at a an ICE checkpoint; a woman in Minneapolis, disabled woman, dragged from her car, denied medical care; a young man in California, his car shot numerous times, he narrowly escaped injury and death. These kinds of incidents are all over the country. Americans are beginning to understand that any of us, anytime, anywhere, can be subject to this kind of brutal violence and inhumanity.”
The full interview can be found here.
Protecting Americans from Skyrocketing Electricity Costs
Blumenthal and U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) introduced the Guaranteeing Rate Insulation from Data Centers (GRID) Act to stop data centers from driving up energy costs.
Over the last several years, data center construction has taken off, creating enormous strains on our energy infrastructure. This AI-fueled boom shows no signs of slowing down—in fact, data centers’ demand for power is expected to double over the next four years. Blumenthal and Hawley’s new bill would require data centers to have their own power sources, ensuring that the costs of their business are not passed on to American consumers.
“Our GRID Act stops Big Tech’s AI-driven drain on family’s pocketbooks,” said Blumenthal. “The rapid buildout of power-hungry data centers is straining our electrical grid—driving up demand and causing Americans’ energy bills to skyrocket. Our bipartisan bill ensures consumers have priority on the grid and do not have to pay a penny more because of burdensome data centers. Families should not be forced to bankroll Big Tech’s electricity and infrastructure costs.”
The GRID Act would:
- Guarantee no increase in consumer utility prices due to data centers.
- Guarantee consumers first priority on the grid.
- Ensure new data centers use energy from power generation sources that are separate from the grid, with a 10-year off-ramp for existing data centers to find an alternative power source.
- Establish new transparency measures so that data center operators publicly disclose their current and future utility usage and other related information.
The full bill text can be found here.
Investigating Anthony D’Esposito for Potential Hatch Act Violation
Blumenthal called for an investigation into Anthony D’Esposito, Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), for potentially violating the Hatch Act. Following recent reporting that D’Esposito intends to seek the Republican nomination for his previously held Congressional seat, Blumenthal wrote today to Acting Special Counsel Jamieson Greer, raising concerns that D’Esposito is running for political office despite continuing to serve as DOL Inspector General.
“As you know, Mr. D’Esposito was confirmed to be Inspector General on December 18, 2025. As Inspector General, Mr. D’Esposito is covered by the Hatch Act, which limits certain political activity by federal employees. The Hatch Act expressly prohibits an employee like Mr. D’Esposito from being a candidate for nomination or election to public office in a partisan election, such as a candidate in an electoral race for the House of Representatives,” Blumenthal wrote in a letter to Greer.
“The American people deserve inspectors general who are dedicated to rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse at the agency, not who are there simply to move on to the next opportunity. As the acting leader of the Office of Special Counsel, if you find Mr. D’Esposito to have violated the Hatch Act, you must demand the President remove him from his position and hold him accountable to the fullest extent of the law,” Blumenthal concluded.
Blumenthal previously questioned D’Esposito about his intentions to run for Congress during his nomination hearing, at which point D’Esposito still had an active campaign website and was soliciting donations. The video and transcript of Blumenthal’s exchange with D’Esposito is available here.
The full text of Blumenthal’s letter to Greer is available here.
On the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee
Ranking Member Blumenthal stressed his concerns with the skyrocketing cost of community care, which is provided when the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is unable to deliver health care to veterans in an accessible or timely manner.
Blumenthal pressed VA Chief Financial Officer Richard Topping on the disproportionate funding increase for community care, relative to VA direct care: “Since 2019, the funding for the VA community care program has increased from $9 billion to more than $48 billion in the VA fiscal year 2026 request. That’s an increase of 530%. That’s a staggering increase, wouldn’t you agree?” When Topping agreed it was a significant increase, Blumenthal continued: “Over that same period, funding for VA direct care has increased by far less, about 200%...Why the disparity?”
Blumenthal asked Topping to explain why the rate of increase in spending on community care has far outpaced the rate of increase in the number of veterans served by community care. When Topping was unable to answer this question, Blumenthal replied: “…[W]e need to answer those types of questions. You don’t have answers right now. You say that the program isn’t designed to provide those kinds of answers, but anyone running a health care program would say we really ought to be answering those questions, wouldn’t you agree?”
In December, Blumenthal and his Democratic colleagues introduced the Honor Act—sweeping legislation to reform and improve VA health care that includes provisions requiring community care providers to meet the same training and quality standards required of VA providers.
A video of Blumenthal’s opening remarks is available here.
Blumenthal further called for improved care for veterans on Twitter/X.
“Supporting VA community care is no substitute for VA direct care. Both deserve more resources to assure full access & gold standard quality,” wrote Blumenthal with an accompanying video on Twitter/X.
Blumenthal Bulletin
Blumenthal traveled to the Munich Security Conference.
Blumenthal released a statement on Trump eliminating environmental protections for Northeast Canyong and Seamounts Marine National Monument.
Blumenthal released a statement after RTX was awarded a $230.6 million contract to support the production of F135 engines.
Blumenthal introduced a bill to stop deceptive and dangerous gun marketing.
Blumenthal demanded Trump stop making teaching and social work degrees unaffordable.
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