MCGOVERN DELIVERS REMARKS ON APPROPRIATIONS MINIBUS, JEROME POWELL INVESTIGATION

WASHINGTON—Today, Ranking Member Jim McGovern (D-MA) delivered the following opening remarks at a meeting of the House Rules Committee:

Thank you, Madam Chair. Here we are again—two more spending bills before us that were supposed to be finished last year. I guess Republicans want a pat on the back for finishing up work that could have been done last year. I get that some years it’s hard to make the deadline. But in this case, you could have used the months the Speaker shut down the House at the end of the year to get this done. Floor time availability was not an excuse last year.

Before us today are the Financial Services and General Government bill, and the National Security, State Department, and Related Programs bill for Fiscal Year 2026—combined into a two-bill minibus.

Let’s start with the good. There’s some good things in this minibus. $30 million more for election security grants. $5.5 billion for international humanitarian assistance. In fact, this package largely rejects President Trump’s proposed $163 billion in cuts to domestic programs. And Democratic negotiators successfully blocked more than 80 new extreme MAGA riders that tried to inject culture war garbage into the appropriations process.

There were poison pills that would have attacked reproductive care. Undermined clean energy. Restricted humanitarian aid. Interfered with D.C. local government. And more. Those riders are not in this bill. And that did not happen by accident. That’s a good thing.

And compared to the status quo—this package constrains the administration’s ability to flout the law when it comes to spending money the way Congress intended. Trump and the White House continue to ignore Congress—and I would think it shouldn’t be controversial that Congress ought to continue to strongly assert our Article One power of the purse.

So, is this package perfect? No. No appropriations bill ever is. But it does avoid another lapse in funding, and it rejects some very bad ideas. And I want to thank our appropriators for being here today to answer our questions and for their work to put this minibus together.

Madam Chair, I also want to talk about something that happened over the weekend.

On Sunday, we learned that the President of the United States is dramatically expanding his weaponization of the Department of Justice—this time by opening an unprecedented investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. Someone the President has been bullying, berating, and trying to undermine for months. This is about revenge. It’s about silencing people who won’t do what Donald Trump tells them to do.

And it isn’t just an isolated incident. This is part of a crooked and corrupt pattern. This President believes the Department of Justice is his own personal law firm—here to settle grudges, protect his friends, and stroke his ego.

He publicly demanded an indictment of James Comey. James Comey was indicted.

He publicly demanded the indictment of New York Attorney General Letitia James. She was indicted.

He’s prosecuting our colleague LaMonica McIver for conducting constitutionally sanctioned congressional oversight.

He demanded Pam Bondi find a reason to investigate Adam Schiff, and poof—like magic, the DOJ launches an investigation into Adam Schiff. 

None of this is about crimes. Or evidence. Or the rule of law. Let’s not forget this is all happening while he’s trying to shake down the DOJ and get them to give him—not the White House, him personally—$230 million.

And I think a lot of Republicans don’t like what’s happening—but they think it will pass. They think he will stop, or his worst impulses will stay in check. Or maybe they think they can save themselves from a primary—and try to control the craziness from the inside. And I would just say to those Republicans: Do not be fooled. He will come for you. Look what is happening to Jerome Powell, his own appointee! Look at what he did to our colleague, Majorie Taylor Greene—one of his most loyal followers. Trump will turn on you, and investigate you, and indict you with bogus charges the second he thinks you are a threat.

And when the President starts using federal prosecutors as political hitmen… When law enforcement becomes a tool of retaliation and revenge… 

…then the rule of law itself is on the chopping block. And the little “R” next to your name won’t mean a damn thing if the President doesn’t like you.

That, my friends, is not democracy. It’s tyranny. And it is at our doorstep knocking to come in. Your silence won’t make it go away. Your silence will make it worse.

With that, I yield back.

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