Sen. Ron Johnson's office hit by activists furious over proposed Trump hire

About 40 people gathered outside Sen Ron Johnson’s (R-WI) East Side Madison office to protest the ongoing federal funding freeze and to demand that the Republican senator vote against confirming Russ Vought, President Donald Trump’s choice to head the White House Office of Management and Budget.

Vought, who has advocated for the president to have the right to impound federal funds already in the budget, is widely seen as the architect of the funding freeze announced last week. The U.S. Senate confirmed him on a party-line vote Thursday evening.

The visit to Johnson’s office was led by the Sauk Prairie chapter of Indivisible, a political activist group organized during Trump’s first administration to challenge his policies. The freeze is “going to hurt a lot of people, especially with what will happen to the economy here probably soon,” Sue Heintz, an organizer for the group, said in an interview after the group dispersed.

Members took turns telling Tom Petri, Johnson’s state legislative director, about their concerns and submitting written statements as well.

David Dowell, a physician, decried the cutoff of AIDS prevention and treatment funds overseas.

“We have saved so many lives in other countries with treating AIDS,” Dowell told Petri. “People’s AIDS treatment has stopped immediately — they’re going to die. And that’s because of this just random [act to] stop funding that’s already paid for…That’s hateful. That’s evil.”

“I don’t understand Sen. Johnson’s unwillingness to even question anything that Trump has done and is doing,” Brenda Ness of Sauk Prairie told Petri when it was her turn.

Several brought up the funding freeze and registered their opposition to Elon Musk’s access to the U.S. Treasury payment system, suggesting that granting him that access was illegal.

Petri replied to one of Johnson’s constituents that Johnson “is in support of the president’s efforts to put as much light on where our government is spending its money.”

Asked why the court orders halting the freeze didn’t seem to have an effect, Petri responded, “I think what you’re seeing is the administration moving quickly with [Trump’s] directives and decisions.”

“And then you’re seeing the federal court system rule and either block some things or issue injunctions against some things,” he added, “and then, ultimately, Congress will take steps to ensure that the law is being followed.”