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3/10/2025
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Ujifusa, Cortvriend sponsor resolution demanding reversal of Trump’s damaging executive orders
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STATE HOUSE – Sen. Linda L. Ujifusa and Rep. Terri Cortvriend have introduced resolutions in their respective chambers calling on Rhode Island’s federal delegation to demand immediate reversal of President Donald Trump’s actions harming critical health and safety programs in the United States and worldwide.
“National and world health programs are enormously impactful. These are the programs that stand between us and the next pandemic and that prevent suffering worldwide. These cuts target lifesaving activities, like the distribution of North Kingstown-based Edesia Nutrition’s products that treat children suffering from malnutrition around the world. How can a country as fortunate and powerful as the United States turn its back on starving children? Congress must stand up, take back the control it is constitutionally obligated to wield and restore these vital programs,” said Representative Cortvriend (D-Dist. 72, Portsmouth, Middletown).
The legislators said they introduced the resolutions on behalf of many constituents who have expressed their concerns and fears about the scale of the president’s attacks on important institutions.
“Every day we are asked, ‘What can we do to oppose what’s happening?’ Every day, there is another arbitrary sledgehammer move that causes real damage, justified by theoretical, unproven benefits. Silence or pretending this is normal is an insult to the many people facing these harms, from cancer patients to primary care providers to seniors on fixed incomes to young people fired from watchdog agencies like CDC and NOAA,” said Senator Ujifusa (D-Dist. 11, Portsmouth, Bristol).
The resolutions (2025-S 0348, 2025-H 5867) enumerate a vast array of damages to public health and safety that will result from the president’s orders, including the withdrawal from the World Health Organization and the Paris Climate Agreement, halting foreign aid through USAID, freezing over $3 trillion worth of federal grants and loans that jeopardize the functioning of Medicaid; and imposing communications blackouts and restrictions on scientific research and publication.
“President Trump’s actions are not a measured reappraisal of U.S. priorities but rather a dangerous and damaging assault on public health, scientific inquiry, and human rights that must be reversed for the health of Americans and the broader global community,” the resolutions state.
Even since the resolutions were introduced in late February, more agencies and programs have been threatened by Trump’s actions, such as funding cuts and massive layoffs planned at the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, which would jeopardize the care of the 9 million veterans who rely on VA health care.
The resolutions call on the U.S. Congress to reverse these orders, protect the health and safety of Americans and those dependent on U.S. assistance, and to work across political lines to ensure that health, science and human rights are defended in both the domestic and international arenas.
Rhode Island institutions will be impacted by the president’s actions. Brown University anticipates an annual loss exceeding $25 million, potentially leading to the abrupt cessation of numerous research projects and clinical trials and the scrapping of its planned $400 million research facility. Such cuts could result in the loss of over 200 jobs, affecting both research staff and support personnel. University of Rhode Island projects a monthly loss of $240,000 and an annual shortfall of $4.8 million and may be forced to shut down research projects and lay off staff.
The resolutions have been sent to both chambers’ Committees on Health and Human Services. The sponsors urged Rhode Islanders who want to support the resolutions to email a letter of support to those committees at HouseHealthandHumanServices@rilegislature.gov and Slegislation@rilegislature.gov, with the subject line “In support of S 0348 and H 5867.”
For more information, contact:
Meredyth R. Whitty, Publicist
State House Room 20
Providence, RI 02903
(401) 222-1923
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