Media

[Video]

Worries about the funding losses bounced off the walls at separate roundtables attended last week by U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, D-Oregon, and Merkley, both of whom promised to work to protect federal dollars now in jeopardy.“I’m going to do all I can to maintain programs, to restore programs that invest in getting our small businesses off the ground supporting entrepreneurs,” Bonamici said.

Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR) is a longtime champion of public education, arts funding, and student equity. She's been fighting for Title IV-A - that vital program that helps schools fund things like music, art, technology, and school safety - for years. She literally ran for Congress to replace No Child Left Behind.

“You’ve made a starkly abrupt shift from a champion to a destroyer of this important program,” said Democratic Rep. Suzanne Bonamici of Oregon, adding that students in her district were distraught.

Democrats also pressed McMahon to explain why her department has frozen or canceled millions in federal grants and contracts.

Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, an Oregon Democrat, for example, reminded McMahon that during her Senate confirmation hearing in February, she promised to disseminate any funds appropriated by Congress regardless of any directives from the president to do otherwise.