Brian Lerer on WNYC.

Now our monthly call your senator's segment.

My question's and yours for Senator Kirsten Gillibrand.

And with so much going on that I know many of you will want to ask about, we'll open the phones

right away at 212-433, W-NYC, 212, 433-9-6-9-2, call or text.

Senator Gillibrand with your questions.

We'll mostly favor actual constituents of hers in New York, as we always do,

but other people may call her text with your questions too. 212-433. WNYC. 433-9-6-9-2. Senator,

always good of you to be accessible like this. Welcome back to WNYC. Thank you. How are you? I'm okay. Thank you.

I see you just became a member of the very important Senate Appropriations Committee. In that

context, then congratulations, do you have an opinion about ways that the Trump administration has

been unilaterally canceling funding streams like foreign aid and

others that were passed by Congress and signed into law?

Well, I think what he's doing is actually illegal. Congress has the power of the purse,

and we on behalf of our constituents, make decisions about how to invest in our states

to make sure that people

who are hungry get food, to make sure people who need affordable housing can get housing to make

sure our law enforcement and our firefighters have the equipment they need. And so far, this attack on

all these investment programs is going to hurt people directly, whether it's through

the SNAP program, which gives hungry kids and seniors food like Meals on Wheels, or whether

he's attacking early childhood education like the Head Start program, parents and kids are going

to be struggling because of it. So these are very harmful efforts he's been making and to

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