MAD QUESTIONS TRUMP OFFICIALS

Earlier this month, the Appropriations Committee held a hearing on the FBI’s budget, where Madeleine and FBI Director Patel got into a heated argument. Mad called out Kash Patel’s revenge tour, perjury, and inadequacy to lead this important agency. Read more about what she had to say here.

“I am concerned that your eagerness and childlike giddiness to carry out the president’s revenge tour, you have shown yourself to be unserious. In your statements before you were sworn in and some after, you have shown yourself unfit to lead this important agency.”

— Madeleine Dean

Next up, the Appropriations Committee held a hearing on the HHS budget. Mad had absolutely no qualms in calling out RFK Jr. for cutting critical programs that have made a DIRECT impact on addiction treatment and lowering opioid deaths. This issue is deeply personal for Mad – it has touched her family and many families in her district. Watch what Mad had to say here.

Lastly, the Appropriations Committee held a hearing with the Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon. Now this one I’m particularly proud of. Madeleine is a big believer in our public education system and in showing up for our younger generations. She brought that passion and fire to this hearing and called out Sec McMahon on this administration's ghastly shuttering of the Department of Education.

Mad called out the GOP’s real goals in shutting down the DOE: to create an uneducated electorate and boost for-profit privatization. She encouraged Sec McMahon to talk to folks who can speak to the disastrous inequality in public education before the Department of Education came to be, and told her she’d be known as the Secretary who enforced an uneducated America. Watch more of Mad’s fiery testimony here.

"This administration and you, following the playbook on page 319 of Project 2025, first sentence, “shutter the Department of Education.” You’re all following the book, that book. Too bad that one wasn’t banned. Why don’t you want to protect kids with disabilities or kids who have been denied equal access because of how much their parents make, their zip code, or the color of their skin? Why are you shuttering a Department that is supposed to uplift those children?... I was a State Legislator, putting this on the State is called “shift and shaft.” I talked to the Governor of Pennsylvania, they can’t pick up the tab. Not to mention, it would be inequitable by state. Why are you in this job at all if you don’t have a dedication to the future of our children?”

— Madeleine Dean

THE GOP’S BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL ACT

Dubbed by Trump as his “big, beautiful bill,” the GOP’s budget bill is a direct attack on the American people and a deeply unpopular (and frankly delusional) piece of legislation. The House GOP passed this bill yesterday 215-214 without a single vote from Democrats. Here’s what it does:

• It decimates Medicaid funding (reports show it could leave nearly 14 million Americans newly uninsured).
• Guts funding for SNAP benefits.
• Cuts all federal funding for Planned Parenthood, including for screening services for cancer and diseases.
• Repeals taxes on certain sales of guns.
• Allows increased leasing of public lands for drilling, mining, and logging.

This bill will now move to the Senate for reconciliation and a vote. Mad and her Democratic colleagues remain vehemently opposed to this abhorrent legislation. We’ll keep you updated as the Senate vote shapes up.

Read more about the legislation here.