Press Releases
Blunt Rochester, Senators Demand VA Secretary Collins Put Veterans First, Reverse Mass Terminations of VA Employees
“The list of real-life negative impacts of this Administration’s directives is expansive and growing every day.” Washington, D.C. – Yesterday, Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.) joined a group of 35 Democratic Senators calling on Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Doug Collins to immediately reinstate the more than 1,000 VA employees terminated last week who serve veterans and their families nationwide, including critical employees combatting veteran suicide working at the Veterans Crisis Line. The Trump Administration’s mass terminations of VA employees, which included a substantive number of veterans and military spouses, comes at a time when VA faces critical staffing shortages and increased demand for
Senator Blunt Rochester Questions Chavez-DeRemer on Commitments to America’s Workforce
To watch the full exchange, click here. Washington, D.C. – Today, Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, questioned Secretary of Labor nominee Lori Chavez-DeRemer on her commitments to supporting America’s workforce – including federal workers and the future of work. As Delaware’s former Secretary of Labor, Blunt Rochester pressed Chavez-DeRemer on the Trump Administration’s reckless, recent mass layoffs of public servants in critical roles across the federal government. Senator Blunt Rochester: “I know you are following the reports, the over 10,000 federal employees, civil servants, who have been fired in recent weeks, including staff at the FAA,
Senator Blunt Rochester Statement on Illegal Cuts to NIH, Threatening Lifesaving Research at Universities
Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.) released the following statement in response to President Trump announcing that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) would immediately cap its indirect cost rate at 15%, cutting off lifesaving research at universities. The action contradicts already established law that prohibits modifications to NIH’s indirect costs. Senator Blunt Rochester recently joined the entire Senate Democratic Caucus in sending a letter to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. expressing serious alarm over the announcement. “I am deeply concerned that the President and his unelected billionaire friend are illegally cutting funding for lifesaving medical research