Senator Blumenthal: Week in Review 6/27/25-7/3/25
Fighting Against Republican Budget Bill Threatening Health Care for Americans
[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) released the following statement after the Senate approved a budget bill that that would gut critical social safety net programs, rip away health care from millions of Americans, and explode the debt:
“I’m angry—in fact, furious. This Big Blatant Betrayal will cause deep, enduring pain and hardship to millions of Americans. It is both cruel and stupid. Senate Republicans are giving away billions in tax breaks for the rich by kicking millions of Americans off their health insurance and slashing programs that seek to assure that no kid goes to bed with a growling empty stomach. Senate Democrats forced our colleagues to vote on amendments to protect veterans, keep rural hospitals open, and prevent health care premiums from skyrocketing – all voted down by Republicans. This bill is an absolute disgrace and the American people should hold accountable every member who voted for it.”
Blumenthal spoke on the Senate Floor to condemn Republican efforts to pass the budget bill ahead of the final vote to approve the bill. Blumenthal highlighted the impact that the Republican budget bill could have not only on his home state of Connecticut, but also on “red states” like Louisiana and Utah.
“And for Louisiana, where this measure, if it's passed, will mean that my colleagues from Louisiana are voting to kick roughly 250,000 people in their state off health insurance. They will be voting for a bill that could close 33 rural hospitals in their state alone and cost their state's health care providers $588 million for services that newly [uninsured] patients simply will not be able to pay back,” said Blumenthal. “Their state program would lose $4 billion. That's Louisiana alone, in funding. These numbers are staggering. They are the reason that every major health system in Louisiana is opposing this bill.”
“And in Utah, same tragic scenario unfolding in a state where 337,000 children and adults depend on Medicaid. Nearly half of all children in Utah are covered by Medicaid. Fifty-nine percent of nursing home residents, 60,000 people living in rural Utah communities covered by Medicaid,” Blumenthal said. “If this bill passes, at least 180,000 Utahans will lose health care coverage, and Utah's uninsured rate will increase by a staggering 67 percent. If this bill passes, 31,000 of the people in Utah could see their benefits slashed and 13,000 would risk losing their benefits entirely.”
The full video of Blumenthal’s remarks is available here.
On Twitter/X, Blumenthal further slammed Republican efforts to pass the budget bill, threatening health care for millions of Americans and ballooning the national debt—all for tax cuts for the wealthy.
“Republicans want to betray their constituents by passing a “Big, Beautiful Bill” that will strip health care from 17 million people, leave children going hungry, & raise costs for Americans. All to give tax cuts to the wealthiest people in our country. Unacceptable,” wrote Blumenthal with an accompanying video on Twitter/X.
Blumenthal joined MSNBC to discuss the detrimental impacts of the Republican budget bill on the American people.
“I am angry—I am furious—because this big, blatant betrayal is going to impact, causing enduring pain and hardship. I know the child who breaks his arm on a playground or the mom who feels a lump in her breast or the senior who is in the nursing home—they’re going to go without the care they need, and it’s cruel and stupid,” said Blumenthal. “Cruel because, obviously, they are going to suffer pain, and they are going to be potentially without care. But it’s also stupid because postponing care makes it more costly when the illness becomes more serious or the illness becomes incurable. And so, behind all of these numbers, are real people going through real crises—the cutting the SNAP program, food assistance, veterans’ benefits, Planned Parenthood, the kinds of cuts that we’ve seen across the board, all of it just to pay for tax cuts, trillions of dollars in tax cuts, for people who don’t need them, and balloon the deficit by trillions of dollars.”
A video of the full interview can be found here.
Condemning the Trump Administration’s Chaos and Corruption
Blumenthal spoke on the Senate Floor ahead of a vote on his amendment to the Republican budget that would prohibit the use of taxpayer funding intended for national security to instead be used to accept, retrofit, or transfer a plane given by a foreign government for use as Air Force One during the Trump Administration. Every Republican senator voted against the amendment.
Earlier this year, President Trump solicited and received a $200 million Boeing 747-8 jet as a gift from the government of Qatar to be retrofitted for use as Air Force One while in office, then transferred to his Presidential Library at the end of his term. The plane will require massive modifications to serve as Air Force One—that work will take years to complete and the estimated cost to American taxpayers is as high as $1.5 billion.
“Make no mistake, this transfer is illegal. It’s a blatant violation of the Constitution’s Emoluments Clause, which prohibits exactly this kind of foreign gift risking undue foreign influence,” said Blumenthal on the Senate Floor. “Illegal, exorbitantly costly, dangerous to national defense; we should stand up to this corrupt self-dealing.”
A video of Blumenthal’s full remarks can be found here.
On Twitter/X, Blumenthal further called out the corruption of Trump Administration in its use of public service for personal gain through foreign gifts.
“Trump wants to use your tax dollars ($1.5 billion) to retrofit the 747 plane illegally gifted to him by Qatar—taking money from our national defense, specifically the intercontinental missile program. Corrupt & dangerous. Make no mistake, this transfer is illegal. It’s a violation of the Constitution’s Emoluments Clause, which prohibits exactly this kind of foreign gift risking undue foreign influence. It is also abhorrently wasteful—costing taxpayers as much as $1.5 billion to strip it down & install all the necessary security systems. Plus it probably won’t be ready before the end of Trump’s term. And now we learn from the Air Force Secretary just last week that the money will be transferred from modernization of our nuclear arsenal. It’s a sacrifice of our national security. The American people deserve to know where each Senator stands on President Trump’s self-enrichment schemes—& to know who in the Senate is willing to stand up to stop his corrupt self-dealing,” wrote Blumenthal with an accompanying video on Twitter/X.
Slamming Republican Budget Cuts Threatening Opioid Overdose Progress
Blumenthal joined advocates and providers in Hartford to denounce cuts included in the Republican budget bill that threaten progress made in opioid overdose prevention. The budget includes drastic cuts to Medicaid which will strip thousands of adults with opioid use disorder of critically needed recovery and prevention services. Earlier this week, Blumenthal joined an amendment that would have struck any provision cutting Medicaid funding for substance use disorder treatment in the budget bill, but the amendment was blocked by Senate Republicans.
“Progress we’ve made against opioid abuse disorder, with overdose deaths down the past three years, will be decimated by draconian Medicaid cuts in the Big, Blatant Betrayal Bill. Literally, Medicaid has been a lifeline to treatment success,” wrote Blumenthal with an accompanying video on Twitter/X.
Pushing Back Against Harmful AI Provisions in the Republican Budget Bill
Blumenthal fought against a provision in the Republican budget bill that would prevent states from regulating AI and enforcing many proposed and existing laws related to AI, including regulations around sexually explicit and political deepfakes.
“AI provisions in the Big, Ugly Betrayal bill will stop states from protecting against deepfakes, election interference & other harms while holding broadband expansion hostage. I’ll fight these restrictions so states can safeguard residents from AI threats & close the digital divide,” wrote Blumenthal with an accompanying video on Twitter/X.
Blumenthal cosponsored an amendment, led by U.S. Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA), to strike the AI provision from the budget bill, which was approved in final passage of the budget bill—defeating the proposed moratorium on AI regulation.
Blumenthal Bulletin
Blumenthal joined CNN to discuss what is at stake with the Republican budget bill.
Blumenthal called for increases in funding to protect against the rising threats of attacks on religious spaces.
Blumenthal slammed the Department of Defense stopping shipments of critical arms to Ukraine.
Blumenthal urged the House of Representatives to vote against President Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill.
Blumenthal led a bicameral letter calling on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to reverse the Defense Department’s decision to freeze shipments of munitions and arms to Ukraine.