The power of the purse belongs to Congress — not the president.
That means Congress has the authority to decide how our tax dollars are appropriately spent. And this has nothing to do with President Trump; it’s in the Constitution clear as day.
The authority to decide how your tax dollars are spent was deliberately placed in the hands of Congress by our founding fathers to ensure no president can behave like a king. It’s how we keep our democracy a democracy.
But right now, extremists within our government are working against the wishes of our founding fathers and against the Constitution. Trump and Elon Musk are ignoring the balance of power that is the bedrock of this nation.
We see it with every program they try to illegally shut down and every court decision they lose.
We’re already seeing the damage in California. Wildfire prevention programs have been halted, putting lives and homes at risk. FEMA staff have been forced out in droves — hurting our families’ ability to access the resources they need to recover.
Our hospitals, community clinics and university medical centers — which train the next generation of doctors and nurses — are all seeing critical investments cut. More than 40% of Los Angeles County relies on Medi-Cal — healthcare that is now on shaky ground due to the Republican budget that will cut healthcare and make life more expensive. So is Social Security and access to affordable, quality education. The list goes on.
After signing a government funding bill written and passed by Congress — one that his party drafted — President Trump is still refusing to implement it. Attempting to end the Department of Education is just the latest example, a decision that will leave kids without school lunches, teachers with less training, and end Pell Grants for our brightest young minds.
He’s making unilateral decisions to cut investments and killing off services that Congress explicitly protected.
All of this is why I introduced a simple but powerful amendment that says, in no uncertain terms, that when the government funding package is signed by a president, he agrees to carry out the law as written. No illegal cuts or funding freezes. No edits. No loopholes. No signing statements or backroom maneuvering.
If you sign the law, you follow the law. Nearly 70 of my colleagues have already joined me in supporting the amendment because this is about the Constitution, not politics. It’s about ensuring the great American experiment, which started nearly 250 years ago, continues for 250 more and 250 more after that.
This amendment is a line in the sand. It says: we either respect the rule of law, or we give up on being a government of laws altogether.
I’m sad to say my Republican colleagues refused to even bring it to the floor for a vote.
Democracy was designed to make absolute power impossible, but we have to want it, and we have to fight for it. The system forces compromise. It means none of us gets everything we want, but we work to find common ground.
And that’s the point. It’s what keeps us safe from dictatorship — from the idea that one person, with the stroke of a pen or a tweet, can control the whole country.
I am a capital D Democrat, and I believe that our party offers the best solutions for our future. But first and foremost, I’m a small d democrat, because our democracy must come first. None of the things we want to achieve are possible if we give up the essential character of our nation.
We’re fortunate in California to have a strong economy, filled with great businesses, incredible public schools and colleges and families that stand by one another in times of need. But we need a nation united in upholding our Constitution, because no president should be above the law.
If we can’t all agree on that, we’ve got bigger problems than a budget.
Newly elected Rep. Laura Friedman, D-Burbank, represents California’s 30th Congressional District, Adam Schiff’s former seat. After serving on the Glendale City Council, including as mayor, Friedman served in the California Assembly.