Protesters jeer Senate appropriators, White House budget chief for 'death' cuts to spending

Protesters screaming that President Trump’s proposed cuts to foreign aid would kill people were removed from a Senate hearing Wednesday with the top White House budget official.

White House Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought had just started to deliver his opening statement at the Senate Appropriations hearing when roughly half a dozen protesters started chanting, “Vote aye, people die.”

They were urging senators to vote against a $9.4 billion rescissions package the White House has sent to Congress, which, if approved, would cut foreign aid and public broadcasting funding. The measure already passed the House.

The protesters warned that $8.3 billion in foreign aid cuts were deadly, with one mentioning cuts to an AIDS prevention program and another declaring that “babies are dying.”

In addition to their chants, the protesters carried posters that read, “Don’t let cuts = death.”

Capitol Police quickly escorted the protesters from the room. 

“I recognize that people feel passionately, but we must have order in the hearing room so we can proceed,” Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins, Maine Republican, said. 

She warned that anyone else who disrupts the hearing would also be ejected.