Congressman Cohen Introduces the HAPPY BIRTHDAY Budget Act
Would prohibit spending on a military parade for Donald Trump’s June 14 birthday
WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-9) today introduced the Halting All Parades for Presidents’ Yearly Birthdays; It Risks Taxpayer Harm, Damages, And Your (HAPPY BIRTHDAY) Budget Act. The measure, introduced after press accounts of White House plans to stage a parade from the Pentagon to the White House on Donald Trump’s 79th birthday on June 14, would prohibit enacting such a plan and any future presidential birthday parades going forward.
“Donald Trump may imagine himself an all-powerful ruler, but he is a president, not a potentate, and the American people don’t pay tribute to him as if he were a king. Least of all do we waste taxpayer dollars burnishing his insatiable ego. This bill makes clear that any president, now or in the future, cannot make the public pay for his birthday entertainment or swell his covetous pride.”
Military parades are traditionally reserved for national celebrations, commemorations of military service or significant public occasions, not personal milestones like birthdays. A military parade during President Trump’s first term in office was canceled over cost concerns, including estimated costs to the military of $92 million and public safety costs to the District of Columbia of more than $21 million.
In addition, the measure points out that heavy military equipment risks damages to roads and streets never designed support their weight. Although the U.S. Army’s 250th birthday is June 14 and it is also Flag Day, the army has never held a parade to celebrate its own birthday.
The measure would provide a sense of Congress that public funds should not be “expended on displays of military force for personal glorification.” It also encourages President Trump to consider alternative birthday celebrations that don’t include fighter jet flyovers or armored vehicles, such as cake, golf or a bingo night.
The measure concludes: “Congress extends a sincere ‘Happy Birthday’ to Donald J. Trump, free of charge, and encourages all Americans who wish to send birthday wishes to the President to do so through the United States Postal Service, the only service expressly authorized in the Constitution of the United States for the transmission of personal correspondence, where neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.”
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