1. United States
2. Mo.
3. Letter

I am writing because I am furious about what this administration, under the direction of Russell Vought and the Office of Management and Budget, continues to do to the federal government, federal employees, and the constitutional balance of power. This has gone far beyond ordinary policy disagreements. We are watching an administration attempt to fundamentally reshape and weaken the federal government by politicizing agencies, disrupting congressionally authorized spending, eliminating or hollowing out programs, and treating career federal employees as disposable obstacles rather than the people responsible for carrying out the laws of the United States. Russell Vought should not be allowed to continue operating as though the authority of Congress is merely an inconvenience. Congress holds the constitutional power of the purse. The executive branch is responsible for faithfully executing the laws Congress passes. Yet we continue to see efforts by OMB to assert greater control over federal spending and to condition funding on whether programs and recipients conform to the administration’s political priorities. The proposed OMB grantmaking rule would give political appointees extraordinary influence over federal grants and allow grants to be terminated based on shifting political priorities. That is not responsible government. It is the politicization of government spending. Even more disturbing, there have already been serious allegations and litigation surrounding the withholding and cancellation of congressionally appropriated funds. Recent court proceedings have involved the cancellation of billions of dollars in federal grants, raising serious questions about whether the executive branch is respecting Congress’s constitutional authority over federal spending. That should alarm every member of Congress, regardless of political party. Today it may be a program someone in the other party supports. Tomorrow it could be a program your constituents depend upon. If Congress allows the executive branch to decide which duly enacted appropriations it will honor based on political preference, Congress is surrendering one of its most fundamental constitutional powers. And while all of this is happening, federal employees are paying the price. Career civil servants have been subjected to layoffs, reorganizations, uncertainty, threats to their livelihoods, attacks on their professions, and constant instability. These are people who went to work for the federal government believing they were serving their country. They have families, mortgages, medical bills, retirement plans, and lives that cannot simply be placed on hold while political appointees experiment with dismantling agencies. The human cost of this is enormous. You cannot repeatedly threaten people’s jobs, destroy institutions they spent decades building, eliminate experienced personnel, disrupt entire agencies, and then pretend there is no trauma associated with it. Federal employees are human beings. They deserve stability, dignity, due process, and a government that respects the work they perform. And the damage does not end with federal employees. When experienced workers are driven out and agencies are weakened, ordinary Americans suffer. Benefits are delayed. Services deteriorate. Expertise disappears. Backlogs grow. Critical programs become harder to administer. Taxpayer dollars are wasted rebuilding capacity that was deliberately destroyed. This is not efficiency. It is destruction. Congress cannot sit on the sidelines and watch this happen. If you care even a minute amount about the people you represent, I am asking you to stand up and use every constitutional authority available to you to stop this abuse of executive power. Demand that Russell Vought and OMB comply with congressional appropriations. Conduct aggressive oversight of OMB’s decisions to withhold, delay, redirect, or cancel congressionally authorized funds. Protect the independence and professionalism of career civil servants. Oppose efforts to politicize federal grantmaking and agency decision making. Demand transparency regarding the administration’s plans to restructure, eliminate, or dismantle federal agencies. And most importantly, defend Congress’s constitutional authority rather than allowing the executive branch to accumulate powers that the Constitution does not give it. This is not about whether I agree with every federal program. It is not about whether I support every agency. It is about whether we are going to have a government of laws or a government in which one administration decides which laws it will follow. I am deeply disturbed by the direction this country is being taken. Federal employees should not have to wake up every morning wondering whether their agency will still exist, whether their job will disappear, or whether the work they have devoted years of their lives to will suddenly be declared politically unacceptable. Americans should not have to wonder whether money appropriated by their elected representatives will actually be spent as Congress directed. And Congress should not allow the executive branch to turn the federal government into an instrument of one person’s political agenda. The Constitution was designed specifically to prevent this kind of concentration of power. Please do not issue another statement expressing concern and then move on. Do something. Use your position. Conduct oversight. Demand answers. Defend congressional appropriations. Defend career federal employees. Challenge unlawful executive actions. And stand up to Russell Vought and this administration when they exceed their authority. Your constituents are watching. History will judge whether members of Congress stood up when the constitutional separation of powers was being tested or whether they simply allowed it to happen. I am asking you to stand up.