Why Delaware Should Care?
Delaware’s all-Democratic federal delegation has little power in Washington at the moment, but they are strategizing about how to get their constituents’ concerns heard in Congress. What they focus on and how they vote could make a real difference in the lives of Delawareans, especially ahead of a budget deadline next week.
Facing calls by some constituents to step up their opposition to President Donald Trump’s aggressive start to his second term, Delaware’s Congressional delegation is prepared to shut down the government and raise the alarm on cuts underway.
U.S. Sens. Chris Coon and Lisa Blunt Rochester, and Rep. Sarah McBride hosted a Feb. 24 virtual town hall with more than 1,200 constituents to highlight federal government staffing and budget cuts and how they intend to respond.
The elected officials particularly emphasized the plans by Trump and Congressional Republicans to cut upward of $800 million from Medicaid, the subsidized health insurance for low-income Americans. That move comes as Republicans attempt to cut federal spending while renewing Trump’s $4.2 trillion tax cuts first passed in 2017.
President Trump and Congressional Republicans have argued that there is too much waste in the federal government, and that by peeling back unnecessary spending and implementing new tax cuts more relief could be given to Americans.
Democrats remain unconvinced.
“Medicaid funds one in four Delaware families in some form,” Blunt Rochester told Spotlight Delaware. “We need a multi-pronged approach to stop the power grab. We are pulling every lever we have. Through legislation, litigation and oversight, we must mobilize.”
Out of power in Washington, Delaware’s all-Democratic delegation has less obvious tools to try to influence decision-making in Congress. That primarily means using messaging to constituents, including finding a cohesive message to voters that has been difficult for Democrats to agree upon, as well as leaning on states’ attorneys general to challenge controversial measures in court.
Their silent protests at Tuesday’s presidential address to Congress, including not standing or applauding throughout Trump’s speech, drew the ire of Republicans at home.
“Delaware’s federal delegation often speaks of bipartisanship, yet the actions of U.S. Senators Chris Coons, Lisa Blunt Rochester, and Representative Sarah McBride did not reflect the respect and decorum expected in public service,” said the State Senate Republican Caucus in a statement. “While differences in policy are a natural and necessary part of our democracy, there are moments that transcend politics — moments that call for unity, humanity, and recognition of individuals who inspire us all. It was disheartening to see certain members of Congress choose not to acknowledge a courageous 13-year-old battling cancer, Laken Riley’s grieving mother, a young man accepted into West Point, and other remarkable guests whose stories deserved recognition.”
Prepared to shutdown
Delaware’s delegation, like many across the country, have reportedly faced a flood of phone calls and emails from constituents daily.
That led to a Feb. 24 videoconference for constituents who had reached out to their offices to hear the delegation’s strategy and concerns in Washington.
Coons, who serves on the Senate Appropriations Committee that first considers federal spending, said that Congress needs to “reclaim the power of the purse” to ensure the Trump Administration is executing spending priorities forwarded by the legislature. He also said that he would not help save Republicans from a federal government shutdown.
“Look, the Trump administration is already shutting the government down,” he said, referring to efforts to shutter the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the dismantling of other grant programs by the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency headed by Elon Musk.
Notably, Democrats do not have the power to unilaterally shut down the government. Republicans hold a four-seat margin in the House following the sudden death of Democratic Texas Rep. Sylvester Turner and a six-seat margin in the Senate. Should a handful of Republicans defect from their caucus, however, Democrats have begun coalescing around the idea of not coming to the rescue and shutting down the government, which faces a March 14 deadline to extend the federal budget.
Highlighting cuts
Even if a budget deal is reached next week, Democrats plan to highlight the expected cuts necessary to get the deal done.
Congressional Republicans have agreed to an outline that would see $2 trillion in budget cuts to make way for $4.5 trillion in tax cuts and new spending over the next decade. The federal deficit would also add nearly $3 trillion, rising from the current $1.8 trillion deficit.
The Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan score-keeper for Congress, confirmed this week that those levels of cuts could not be obtained without impacting Medicaid, despite President Trump’s assertions that he didn’t want to touch Medicaid, Medicare or Social Security.
“I met yesterday with Delaware families who depend on Medicaid for the care of their disabled and medically complex children, children who suffer with very difficult circumstances. Medicaid does so much for the American people, for Delawareans,” Coons told CNN in an interview this week. “Medicaid makes such a difference all across our nation, and it cannot afford a cut of that magnitude, especially not to pay for another big tax cut for billionaires.”
McBride, who is serving her first weeks in Congress, agreed with the senior senator.
“It’s a wholesale attempt to gut the program,” she told constituents on the town hall call. “They want to feign government waste to use this information for themselves and gain access to Delawareans private data. The administration is not telling the truth. They are already implementing Project 2025.”
Outside Medicaid, funding cuts are also feared among frozen federal grant programs that were targeted in January. The delegation is afraid of cuts to funding for bridge and infrastructure improvements under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed by former President Joe Biden.
Other programs, like school lunch programs or Meals on Wheels, could be impacted by proposed funding cuts.
“There has been literal chaos caused by this funding freeze,” Coons said, who participated in a social media video with about a dozen Democratic colleagues that categorized the Trump administration cuts as aiding billionaires.
Blunt Rochester, who serves on the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee, joined a demand with colleagues regarding the firing of 388 employees in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency who were working on environmental justice or diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs
Most of those cuts came from the closure of the EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights, whose mission was to assist disadvantaged communities in rural, urban and tribal areas by improving access to clean drinking water, addressing legacy pollution that has led to higher cancer, asthma and death rates and more.
“The closure of this office which assisted underserved communities across the country leaves us seriously questioning your commitment to adhere to the Congressional appropriations process of the EPA agency and address the impacts of pollution on communities in urban, suburban, and rural America,” wrote the lawmakers.
Highlighting individuals
There are about 6,700 federal workers in Delaware, with a large number employed by the Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs.
According to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), veterans make up 30% of the federal workforce compared to only 6% of the civilian workforce
Delaware’s lawmakers have been highlighting federal employees impacted by Trump administration cuts, including inviting two Delawareans who have lost their federal jobs in recent weeks to be their guests to Trump’s address before Congress on Tuesday.
Rory Badger, of Seaford, was fired from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, while Dr. Laura Wallace, of Middletown, was fired from her job at the Office of Early Childhood Development.
Badger, a two-tour Marine combat veteran who served partially in Afghanistan, had been working as a biologist on the Eastern Shore since September 2024. Prior, he’d spent six years with the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control’s Division of Fish and Wildlife.
“Rory is a Delawarean who served in combat overseas in the defense of the country he loves and then came home to continue serving his country in civilian life,” Coons said in a statement. “His thanks? An unceremonious and illegal firing by President Trump and an unelected billionaire. Now, Rory is scrambling to pay medical bills and keep a roof over the head of his wife and daughter.”
Wallace’s husband, a disabled veteran, also works for the VA as a probationary employee. They are fearful that he may too lose his job among cuts.
“My colleagues and I were doing good work and made a positive impact on the lives of children and families across the country,” she said in a statement. “I loved that job, but because this administration does not value our work, I will not have the opportunity to continue in that role and children and families in our country will be negatively impacted.”
