Kentucky senator on Venezuelan deportations, rescission package and Department of Education

(CBS, KYMA/KECY) - Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) spoke with Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation Sunday about reports of Venezuelan migrants being deported from U.S. to El Salvador with no criminal record.

As she mentioned in her earlier interview with National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, Brennan brought up two people who were rejected by the Salvadoran government; "one for gender" and "one because they weren't Venezuelan at all."

Brennan also said, "There are legal questions around using these authorities to send out detainees without giving them a day in court," prompting her to ask Senator Paul if this concerns him "along with claims from their family members that many of these people weren't gang members," to which Paul said:

"There are some big legal questions here. On the one hand, the Bill of Rights applies to everyone, to persons. The Bill of Rights doesn't specifically designate citizens. It's really anyone in the United States the Bill of Rights applies to. On the other hand, the Alien and Enemies Act simply says, you really don't get much process. The president can simply declare that you are somehow a problem for foreign policy and opposed to our foreign policy, and you can be deported. So really, ultimately, this goes to the court, and then the court is going to have to decide are they going to declare unconstitutional a law that's been around for a couple hundred years, or are they going to defer to Congress? If you look at the TikTok decision recently, which I don't agree with, but in the TikTok decision, the court basically said we're going to defer to Congress. Congress says this is about national security, and who are we to question Congress."

During the interview, Brennan and Paul talked about the Trump administration's attempt to pass a rescission package.

According to Brennan, Paul was reported to have pitched a plan to Elon Musk "to claw back $500 billion in federal funding that Congress has already approved," with Brennan adding there was an effort back in 2018, but it failed, prompting her to ask Paul if he thinks he can actually get this done in the package, and how much money does he think Congress will get back, and Paul answered saying:

"This goes to another huge legal question. Can the president impound money, or does he have to send it back and we approve the cuts through rescission, and this is going all the way to the Supreme Court also, because I think the Trump administration believes they can just not spend it. There's another question within the question, can the president and his people...can Secretary Rubio pause the spending. On that issue, I think they will win. You will be able to pause spending as long as you don't go through the end of an appropriations year. If you get through that, I believe it's impoundment, and I think the court so far has said it has to come back, and less as the Trump administration argues that the Empowerment Act is unconstitutional. So this was headed to the Supreme Court also. It is my personal belief we should adhere to the law as it is now, and that is, send it back and have Congress confirm it. It's a simple majority vote. It's called rescission. I did mention this to Elon Musk. He seemed enthusiastic. It can be done...you have to realize, no Democrats will cut one penny from any spending anywhere. But can we get all the Republicans, is the real question."

Brennan followed up by asking Paul if he can get 51 Republicans on board with the package, and Paul said:

"I think the president is going to have to use effectively his bully pulpit and his popularity to convince all Republicans to do it. It's not a given that Republicans will stand, will will vote for this. We tried it once in the first administration it was only 15 billion, and we we lost. We lost two Republicans. But my suggestion to the Trump administration is come to the Republicans who you suspect might have misgivings and convince them, in advance, don't put it in their lap. Bring them 500 billion. If they say this, '10 billion, I can't deal with. I can deal with the 490,' you're gonna have to pre-negotiate the rescissions package. But I think you could get there."

Brennan and Paul then talked about cuts being made to the Department of Education, with Brennan reporting Kentucky getting "the fourth most federal education funding per student of any state in this country," and has "over 900 schools that have these Title One programs, which are low income schools who need that federal subsidy to continue to operate."

This prompted Brennan to ask Paul how are schools going to get the money they need if President Donald Trump closes the Education Department, with Paul responding in part:

"I think the bigger question, if we're sending all this money to Kentucky and all the other states, why are our scores abysmal? Why do two thirds of the kids not read at proficiency? Why do two thirds of the kids or more not have math proficiency? So it's an utter failure...I'd leave it back to the States. It has always been a position, a very mainstream Republican position, to have control of the schools by the states, send the money back to the states, or better yet never take it from the States. About half of our budget in Kentucky goes to education, and that's the same in a lot of states. I think we can handle it much better. When I talk to teachers, they chafe at the national mandates on testing they think are not appropriate for their kids. They think they waste too much time teaching to national testing. The teachers would like more autonomy, and I think the teachers deserve more autonomy."

To watch more of Brennan's interview with Paul, click here.