Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) says Congress is failing its constitutional role of being a check on the executive branch as Donald Trump’s administration continues to unilaterally kill government programs, freeze spending and lay off thousands of federal workers.
The changes are producing “head-spinning” anxiety in and out of government, she said, particularly in a place like Alaska that is so reliant on federal funding.
“We are all afraid,” Murkowski told Alaska nonprofit leaders on Wednesday, according to The Anchorage Daily News. “It’s quite a statement. But we are in a time and a place where I certainly have not been here before. And I’ll tell ya, I’m oftentimes very anxious myself about using my voice, because retaliation is real. And that’s not right.”
“It’s called the checks and balances. And right now we are not balancing as the Congress,” she added.
The independent-minded Alaska senator is one of the last remaining Republicans willing to publicly criticize Trump. Last month, she said her fellow GOP colleagues are “afraid” to speak out against the president and risk drawing a primary.
Murkowski said Wednesday she was unnerved by how quickly the U.S. Agency for International Development, which was established by Congress, had “just been obliterated” by the Trump administration. And she expressed alarm at the politicization of the judiciary under Trump, saying it was putting America in “a very dangerous place, because you stop believing in the rule of law.”
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After the event, Murkowski told the Daily News she had been approached by federal workers “in tears” about being laid off by the Trump administration with no just cause.
“They thought they were in a profession they’ve given so much to, thought they were doing well, and literally no notice whatsoever, are terminated and told their work performance are not satisfactory, which was not true, and didn’t know what was going to happen next,” she said.
“The fear I have heard from people that have said I’m afraid to talk to my co-workers of my status of where we are because will I be viewed as questioning my supervisors or my commitment to the agency here,” she continued. “These are real emotions, these are real people, these are real fears, and they need to be heard.”