Maryland senator on potential government shutdown and humanitarian aid to Gaza

WASHINGTON (CBS, KYMA/KECY) - Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) spoke with Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation Sunday about a potential government shutdown.

Brennan brought up her previous interview with White House Budget Director Russ Vought, where he said the Trump Administration doesn't want a government shutdown, but said he didn't seem to say "they want a continuing resolution."

This prompted Brennan to ask Senator Van Hollen if he knew what is coming, to which Van Hollen said:

"Not really. The one thing we know, and you asked Russ Vought about this, was he says that the process is too bipartisan right now, meaning that they want to use this process just to ram through the agenda and the overall agenda we saw when they passed the so-called Big, Beautiful Bill, which was beautiful for billionaires, but not really for anybody else, which is to provide tax cuts for very wealthy people at the expense of everybody else. And I do want to say...I heard him deny that that bill increased the deficit and debt. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office just said it increased our debt by 3.5 trillion before added interest."

Brennan followed by saying the Democrats will be blamed if there is a shutdown, leading her to ask Van Hollen how they will sidestep it, and Van Hollen said:

"We certainly don't want a government shutdown. And I think everybody has heard Russ Vought say that they want a less bipartisan process. What that tells me is they're willing just to use their powers to try to shut down the government if they don't get their way. And what's ironic about this Margaret is you have Russ Vought calling for these deep cuts to education NIH, when he has asked for an increase for his OMB budget. He asked for a 13% increase for his OMB budget. He's asked for more people to join the OMB staff, while he's talking about firing people at other departments, like...getting rid of firing people at the Department of Veterans Affairs and other important priorities. So it's hard to take the OMB Director seriously when he says that they didn't increase the debt and when he says he wants to cut things except for his own budget and staff."

During the interview, Brennan and Van Hollen talked about humanitarian aid in Gaza, with Brennan saying last month, the Trump Administration announced they would give $30 million to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

The GHF, according to Brennan, is an Israel-backed organization where it "delivers aid through armed military contractors who stand behind the Israeli military in four designated zones that Gazans then have to get themselves to in order to receive the aid."

This prompted Brennan to ask Van Hollen if the State Department send the money to the GHF after they said it would, and Van Hollen said:

"To my knowledge, they have, although we've asked for the details, we haven't gotten them. In fact, just today, I'm sending a letter to Secretary Rubio, signed with 20 of my colleagues, calling for more information, but also calling for defunding this. American taxpayers should not be spending one penny to fund this private organization backed by mercenaries and by the IDF that has become a death trap. Over 1,000 people have died from being shot and killed as starving people crowd to try to get food at just these four sites."

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