stop it and we will. this precision package is a critical step and it's one of many. there will be several of these the company white house, working together with administration to cut up all the fraud, waste, use. when fighting a multi-front w wr againsthe deficit. don't get lost in this. this is a multistep process. i tried to explain all the interviews the last couple of weeks. the one big,iful bils going to reduce spending by over $1.6 trillion as has been noted this morning. the resurgence package will resend 9.4 billion in wasteful spending one may. the annual appropriations process will allow republicans to for the codified -- tax-and-spend much less money. the revenues found from the presence of terror pigeon reduce the deficit by $2.8 trillion over ten years. this is real money and were going to turn that -- >> we believe this of the program seeking continue watching it on the c-span.org. live now to the senate for where

lawmakers continue to work on more ofresident trump's nomination. . mrs. blackburn. mr. blumenthal. ms. blunt rochester. mr. booker. mr. boozman. mrs. britt. mr. budd. ms. cantwell. mrs. capito. mr. cassidy. ms. collins. mr. coons. mr. cornyn. ms. cortez masto. mr. cotton. mr. cramer. mr. crapo. mr. cruz. mr. curtis. mr. daines.

ms. duckworth. mr. durbin. ms. ernst. mr. fetterman. mrs. fischer. mr. gallego. mrs. gillibrand. mr. graham. mr. grassley. mr. hagerty.

the clerk: ms. hassan. mr. hawley. mr. heinrich. mr. hickenlooper. ms. hirono. mr. hoeven. mr. husted. mrs. hyde-smith. mr. johnson. mr. justice. mr. kaine. mr. kelly. mr. kennedy. mr. kim. mr. king. ms. klobuchar. mr. lankford. mr. lee. ska mr. lujan. ms. lummis. mr. markey. mr. marshall. mrmr. mcconnell. mr. mccormick. mr. merkley. mrs. moody. mr. moran. mr. moreno. mr. mullin. ms. murkowski. mr. murphy.

mrs. murray. mr. ossoff. mr. padilla. mr. paul. mr. peters. mr. peters. >> good morning and thank you all for joining us. i' congresswoman yvette declare, , check the congressiol ack caucus and proud representative of new york's ninth congressional district that central and southwest brooklyn. i want to thank my try caucus colleagues, our chair, and capac chair grace meng for their leadership and presence here today. we are gathered here today becauseike so many americans we are outraged by what we're witnessing in the streets of los angeles and in committees across our nation. president trump's unlawful decision to deploy the national guard onto the streets of los angeles is a reckless and inflammatory escalation.

one designed not to restore calm but to provoke chaos. let's be clear about how this began. with peaceful protests, peaceful protests sparked by the unlawful and inhumane targeting detention and deportation of her immigrant neighbors. and david walk as a california union president arrested and injured during an immigration and customs enforcement raid last week pertrated iva trump administration. los angeles police department the situation but instead of the escalating, president trump seize control of national, guard forces in defiance of constitutional norms and poured gasolinene on it already volatie moment. now under the false guise of a crisis of his own making the president has

deployed hundreds of active-duty marines to engage in domestic law enforcement, something they do not have the legal authority to do. don't fall for the lie. this is not about protecting public safy. it's about stoki fear and silencing peaceful dissent. it's about turning us one against one another. this is a direct attack on civil rights, due process, and our democratic norms targeng black and communities of color. perhaps the most sobering truth is this. for donald trump, los angeles is only the beginning. if this presint is willing to send military troops i into an american city over peaceful dissent, we must ask what happens next? what american community will be next? days, ather contrived crisis

could bring the armed forces to more of our communities. this will not be to defend our freedoms but to instill fear. that has always been his goal, to make every black, lacuna, asian immigrant community or any american who would dare to speak out against him afraid. from threatening to arrest a sitting governor to hinting at martial force against cilians, trump is that acting like a leader. he is posturing as a strong man. desperate, dangerous, and utterly detached from the principles of democracy. this president has crossed the line and we must all understand what that means. we still don't know the full consequences of this unprecedented authoritarian overreach, but let me be clear.

congressional democrats stand in full solidarity with the residents of los angeles, with her immigrant sisters and brothers, and with the peaceful protesters who dared to speak out and you will support every effort to oppose ts president abuse of power. i do want to thank governor newsom and mayor bass for their resolve and leadership. to those who choose to peacefully protest, peacefully protest, stay strong and remain peaceful. rise above his chaosos. the right to protest camp to speak out against injustice, its fundamental to our democracy. it is protected by o constitution.. it is part of the american story. trump wants violence, not to stop it but to justify his own. do not givive him what he wants.

having said that, it's my honor know to turn the podium over to the chair of the congressional hispanic caucus, congressman espaillat. >> thank you, chair clark, jermaine. together we make up the try caucus, a strong voice in the house of representatives, one that represents many districts that are being impacted by this aggressive action from the white house. so let's turn back and forgot how we got here. president trump says that he's going torrest violent crinals and deport them. the fact is he's going after working people. he's going after moms. he's going after folks that are trying to make ends meet.

he's going into a home depot to arrest day laborers. he's stopping families on the way to a houston hospital where four children, us-born children, were deported to mexico with their parents, , including 18-year-old little girllith a cancerous brain tumor. and now has no access to health care that she needed to save her fe. that's who he's going after. and he's doing this in an aggressive way. and so that's what got us to this moment, where hundreds of people showed up to an i.c.e. facility to protest because they heard, they got accounts at over 200 peopl just like the ones that i described werere being hd there. four of our members went there

and were not allowed in. in fact, chemicals were spilled on the floor. were asking for a full investigation of the action. some of those suffering from asthma were impacted by that. i myself was a 26 federal plaza on sunday as people were calling for court dates on a sunday. were dismissed, the cases were dismissed, only to find out i.c.e. was waiting for them outside in the hallway where they were cuffe kept in the building, processed for hours upon hours to be sent to a detention center where t they would ait deportation. people t that are trying t compy with the law, with the parameters that have been set for them, the regulations have been told for them to follow. are being trapped in the courtrooms in i.c.e. offices as

they try to comply with the rules and regulations. that is the state of america today, and that's why people took to the street to prote. and that's why members of congress went to the i i.c.e. facilities, to comply with our duties of oversight, granted to us by the u.s. constitution. and we were summarily denied. we will be going back and will continue to go back into we have access to those facilities and we will determine exactly what's going on there. because people are coming in anf they are not coming out. so that is what's happening right now in america. he has militarized los angeles. he has deputized local law enforcement, deputize local law

powers. dividing people as opposed to bringing the coury togetheher. the tryaucus will stand united. we will stand united. we will comply with our constitutional duties of oversight and will continue to visit these i.c.e. facilities into we get to the bottom of this. thank you, and i yield to congresswoman grace meng. >> hi, everyone. i check of the congressional asian pacific american caucus. i'm proud to join my try caucus colleagues today to sta up for immigrants and stand against the trump administration attacks on our neighbors, our loved ones and our friends. like millions of americans across the count i am deeply concerned by the administration's use of aggressive tactics against our immigrant communities. armed agents have rated schls,

workplaces in homes, terrorizing our neighbors and literally ripping families apart. these stories are heartbreaking. you heard some of them. a four-year-old citen, u.s. u.s. citizen who was receiving treatment for stage four cancer was deported after showing up for a routine check in. and a child's birthday party in texas was raided by federal auauthorities, with flashang grenades. as a mom i can't even imagine how traumatizing that must've been for these kids. these are not the criminals administration claims are. they are our neighbors, our friends and loved ones who work hard, pay their taxes and contribute to our country. the department of homeland security should use its limited resources to address serious national security threats and fix our broken immigrationon

system. instead, president trump continues to escalate tensions and even deployed 2000 plus national guard troops and 700 marines to los angeles, despite the sitting california governors objections. this is not about public safety. this is not exerting control and striking more fear in our immigrant communities. threatening to send troops into neighborhoods, especially against the sta governors wishes is an abuse of powower tt will undermine a nional guard technician, erode trust, put more people in harm's way. this military action is coming from the same president who refused to deploy the national guard on january 6th, when there was more violelent protess already happening right here. my colleagues and i were trapped in the capital while brave law enforcement officers here with

her lights on the line to protect us from violent insurrectionists. i remember getting the message very soon that no, the president will not be sending the national guard. let me be clear. americans have a constitutional right to protest peacefully and to demand justice and due process for tir neighbors. especially when the federal government fails to uphold these principles. as members of congress we have been exercising our legal authority to conct oversight of the tension centers and demand accountability from the administration. -- detention -- we stand in solidarity with immigrants who make america great, and our country is made stronger because of them. and we will continue to fight for immigration policies that reflect our nation's values of fairneness and dignity for all, not cruelty disguised as law and order.

thank you and i yield back to the chair. >> let me thank all my colleagues assembled here. this is a representation of our democratic caucus to a large extent. becacause indeed we are a reflection of the constituencies that sentenc sinister . having said that, we are open now for any questions you may have. yes. could you state your name and your publication or outlet. >> yes. i'm with the "daily caller" newest addition to we've heard democrats say they condemn in the violence broke out in l.a. over the weekend. however, maxine waters has said there's been n violent. she didn't see any fines, nothing happening in l.a. there's a bit of a difference in messaging from what we a lot of other democrats that -- anything that he should berks i thihink

everne is entitled to their opinion. she is their undergrad and she has her own observation. any other questions? >> lucy with foxox news. president trump at the dod have said number of marines in l.a. but they're eating additional training for domestic situations. what do you think this is about the decision to send marines o f there? >> i think it's a waste of taxpayer dollars. the governor of the state of california has not requested this and it is being imposed on his state. this. >> nick with "politico." i want to ask opposed by senator fetterman. he says your party loses the moral high ground -- [inaudible] was when if i could get a response. is this helul for him to be criticizing oths in the party? >> he has a first amendment right to say whatever h he would like to say. next.

>> the washington times. it's been reported 14 law enforcement officers so far have been injnjured in the alley variety and millions of dollars in property damage. do you believe given these statistics that protest are peaceful and maybe not constituting -- [inaudible] >> i don't believe it there's an insurrection taking place. i would like to see the statistics around those who are ill and sickly for currently being detained. >> one of the question. leader jeffries said everything i.c.e. agent is engaged in this -- trying to hide their identity from the american people. [inaudible] what it takes about how long it takes will of course break. do you think i.c.e. agent should be identified to the public and why are democrats position thaht

criminals remain masked and law enforcement should be unmasked? >> anyone that is enforcing the law or is an agent >> start to make sure that our country is safe and secure from threats and equipped to deal with the requirements of modern warfare. and so those are two fundamental issues that are addressed in our budget reconciliation bill and i think when you come to the issue of safety and security all you have to do is look at what's happening and has been happening in los angeles to realize tt our law enforcement needs all the support that we can possibly give them. i'm going to head it off to store record the chairman of the

senate armed services committee to talk about the things we're doing in the armed services committees jurisdiction and when it relates to making our country stronger and safer. senator wicker. >> thankou, leader. thank thank you very much, . i do appreciate the opportunity that the leade has afforded me to get back at this particular spot and speak at this press conferen. and also i want to thank my colleagues on the armed service committee come my colleagues in the conference for allowing me to have the honor and responsibility being chairman of the armed service committee. i would sayne of the most important parts of reconciliation is our defense and national security portion, and it happens that it is the least controversial between the house and senate and the administration. this is something that chairman

rogers and i and our teams and our committees have worked on for quite some time. i really appreciate the product the house sent us. i appreciate the input the administration has given, and we really o of one mind. we have a package that bumps right up against $150 billion. its 149 billion in change. we continue to make minor tweaks, but within the conference of republicans and, and within the congress as a whole and the administration. we are on the same page. this reconciliation package contains 13 new btle force ships, the largest ever investment in unmanned ships, and clearly the uanned ships are out there to supplement the battle force ships.

we couldn't do it without either one.s. dozens of new united states manufacturing sites. thee ability to expand our military-industrial base. drones, counter drones, and the lead discussed what we've seen in the past few days concerning homeland security also in the last few days we have seen really historic events pointing to the necessity of usi drones ourselves and how they can be used by our allies to neutralize much more expensive weaponry,, but also the need for counter drones. because that threat goes both ways. there's money in here for border. border. there's money for critical minerals. i'll be going to the white house

this afternoon to meet with the secrary of state and other members of congress about the issue on the critical minerals. we may do a little tweaking their but he will be minor. and so just to say this is a very important part, quite obviouy we're going to vote for this regardless of what minor details because we must prevent this h huge taxncrease from going into effect in just a feww short months and weeks. but i'm very pleased at the progress that we have made and i appreciate the cooperation of everyby in the administration. >> you are wearing a ukraine lapel pin. >> yes, i am. >> for every day the russian sanction bill languishes here, is it not the worst night to the people ukraine. it not going to end -- [inaudible] but argue prepared to wait out

the threat - [inaudible] >> you are making that characterization, , not by. but let me jusust say that thihs a matter tt senator graham has worked hard on. i know he's working with the chairman of the foreign relations committee. and my hope is that this bill can come to the floor within the next few days. >> what -- >> i do n s ldersput it's my hope that this sanctions bill of the past. i think the house of representatives will pass by the enormous bipartisan numbers also. [inaudible question] >> well, i haven't, i haven't

spoken a about concerns about that. let me just say - -- >> do you have concerns? >> let me just say, and i'll answer your question. i was heartened to hear a of los angeles said yesteterday that hr interaction with the american military particularly the national guard has been one of collaboration. ectomy that's how we ought to be. iteems to most americans that this is a very dangerous situation, and, and i really think together may be making mistakes or politically. when a situation is fraught with the possibility of extreme violence, would seem that the governor and the mayor would want all the help they can, they can receive. of the national guard is now present. the marines are standing off as i understand it. >> are you comfortable with the presence and national guard to

your stated your governor if you say don't even? >> in similar situations i would think the governor of mississippi would be happy to help, to have all the help he could get. but the main thing i want to stress is that we have a very important reconciliion bill that puts $150 billion extra where dollars extra where it need to be to make america safe here and that's the purpose of the leadership calling on me to make this presentation at this point. so i'll be happy to answer questions about about reconciliation, about the battleships and drones and instrial plus ups that this will mean for the american people, not to mention our stand international. >> do you still have issues with e department of defense budget? >> i think this package of reconciliation is where there is almost unanimous agreement.

and y, , yes, i, by positiot changed. when a skinny budget came out with basically a flat line amount for the next fiscal year, i express my disappointment a my position hasn't changed on that. >> are we prepared for conflict and indo-pacific? the fact many more tha half of -- [inaudible] not ready. for conflict iic the indo-pacific. >> that was the testimony of, of the acting chi of naval operations. that was the testimony of the top marine 4-star in the unitedd states. and so there's no question that we are not what we need to be. i think my message to americans now is that while we are, we're

basically all right when it comes to deterrence, vicar is headed headed the wrong way. our adversaries are increasing their capability while ours is decidedly going in the wrong direction and there's just no denyg it. yes, sir. [inaudible] >> yes, i'm happy to surrender -- [laughing] > on los angeles, would you consider -- [inaudible question] >> well, i mean, i think the issue in front of us right now is a chaos in l.a. clearly the local officials a for whatever reason didn't seem up to the task of getting the job done there. and i think that as senator wicker pointed out it's kind of

a political imperative honestly because one of the most fundamental queions most people most vers ask is is my family safe? is my neighborhood safe? is my commute be safe? is my country safe? when you can't answer that in the affirmative then you've got a problem at a think us with the ran int an alley which is why they needed some outside help. but at the end of the day is about preventing chaos and preserving law and order. >> no tax on tips, but the r&d tax credit for something else? >> i think that the president as you know campaign dart on no tax on tips, no tax in overtime, social security come into san carlos, those are all things that are priorities for the administration. they were addressed in the house version of the bill and expect they will be in the senate as well. >> any concerns about secretary kennedy removing allna the advisory committee from the faxing board? >> most of usappier want to

have confidence in the faxing process -- the vaccine process. as he makes decisions about the panel i suspect my coat and i will be paying a lot of attention to that. [inaudible question] there is nolan b. ant a period we have to get it done. failure is not an option. one more. naudible question] >> well, i think there are always provisions and when the house since it over they do have the restrictions that we have to comply with here. some expectation is perhaps it will be something set won't survive birdbath or in the senate. but we also going to fight very hard on all those issues that make our arguments in front of the power of attorney and the process is underway. we parted been doing it. >> there are some acceptable getting to specifics but as you

know the bird test requireres ae principally about revenue and spending and policy. those arguments what we saw the scent for the democrats do when they had house-senate white house unified both government that dramatically expanded the scope of whatt eligible for consideratation under reconciliation. we're using the template and we'reoing to push as hard ass we can for the priorities of house included in hopes we can have a bill at the end that preserves as much as the work that the house did as p possibl. ank you all. [inaudible question]

>> we are getting very close to the final bill. since i spoke on the floor on this topic this week to working as a release their s section of the bill text. the banking committee under the leadership of chairman scott and the comes with a dilution o of chrman ted cruz. the commerce committee text released thursday addresses multiple bill priorities including border security, savings, and the economy. of the economy from the commerce section focus on boosting growth and investment by renewing spectrum auction for differing spectrum currently held i

federal agencies. the united states has been a leader of the next-generation lecommunications services like 5g and events wi-fi and we're on track to be leader in 6g as well. that's could require both an increase in the amount of spectrum availablele to the private sector and using that spectrum as efficiently as possible through ain other technologies. our bill will help meet that need for spectrum and help her lose thousands of new jobs and billions investment as result to say nothing of faster and more affordable internet for americans. upon the table and the president will be immediately notified of the senate's action. the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture. the clerk: we, e undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nomination of andrew hughes of texas to be deputy secretary of housing and urban development,

signed by 17 senators. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the mandatory quorum call under rule 22 has been waived. the question is, is it the sense of the senate that debate on the nomination of andrew hughes off tes to be deputy secretary of housing and urban development shall be brought to a close. the yeas and nays are mandary under the rule. the clerk will call the roll. vote: the clerk: ms. alsobrooks. ms. baldwin. mr. banks. the clerk: mr. barrasso.

mr. bennet. mrs. blackburn. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

>> the subcommittee will come to order. today i welcome the secretary of the department of housising and urban development, the honorable scott turner. a big ten champion. in a previous life. mr. secretary, i want to thank you for being here to discuss fiscal year 2026 budget request. isles wantt to thank you for yor visit recently to my district in april. it was great to have you on the ground to the impact of hud broke into my district me add we can't a razorback beball game while we were there, and in a shameless plug out give my razorbacks some credit for making to omaha where they will play saturday evening against those bengal tigers at lsu. it is this commits responsibility to complete our

work on time. i believe we can achieve this begun marking up 12s cdershie appropriation bills for fy 26. at the same time it's a expectation that t department's under our jurisdiction ask spend the funds consistent with the way we appropriate them. we appreciate your partnership as you continue to fully open the funds congress made available to hud for fiscal 25. hud's request for new authority in fiscal 26 is $33.2 billion. that is a $35.5 billion decrease. let me say that again. that's not a typo. 35 $.6 m million $y 25 enacted. hud also usesortgage guarantee fees from the federal housing administration and government national mortgage association to offset its spending. the congressional budget office estimates $6.9 billion in offsetting receipts for fy '26.

that's the clerk: budd. -- mr. budd. ms. cantwell. mrs. capito. mr. cassidy. but now that americans are finally learning what's in it, they have to go back again to fix it. senate democrats are committed to fighting this bill every way we can. that's when the last two weeks we have doggedly made the argunt that the house republicans don't doesn't meet the requirements for privilege in the senate. this is the first argument in reconciliation, , privilege. it has to fit the committee. and if it doesn't they have to go change it. well, we made the argument that the hououse republican bill doesn't meet the requirements foren privilege, and said republicans were forced to

concede it's true. so now the house is going to have to vote again on a rule to change the bill. which gives some of those republicans who say they hate of the bill, some of the republicans who say they did know what was in the bill, some of those republicans who s senta letter to the senate saying change the bill, a chance to do it. it's a do ovever, chance t stand up and vote for their constituents. as you know some house republicans expressed regret for the vote as i said they didn't understand what they were voting for, especially the clean energy changes were done in the dark of night. and now they can show that there regrets are real, or just hollow words. it's clear after actually reading the text and hearing from the public some house republicans are howling buyer's remorse. sigh say to the house republicans take with those who signgn the letter but many othes o have expressed discomfort and concern at the provisions

now is your next chance, now you had a chance once, you failed. here's a second chance. no more ducking. they have their vote. they should use it to protect their constituents from this horrible bill. and if senate republicans actually passed the legislation, it's not going to grow the economy,y, it's not going to hep the middle class, it's not going to deliver for working families. it's all going to deliver tax breaks to the billionaires. senator schatz. >> this bill is going to create shortages of food, create shortages for healthcare,nd in pa to emphasize the shortages in electricity that this is going to calls. this is a basic question of supply and demand. energy demand in the u.s. is a soaring for the first time in many, many decades.

gas turbines aremr stuck in yeas long backlogs. there's more investment in clean energy than fossil fuel projects, and yet republicans are racing to kilill those clean energy projects to come online. set aside for the very moment we are in. the question of fighting climate change. whatever your vieiew about enery policy, both parties ought t agree that we shouldn't intentionally creat shortages there will not be enough energy online in the next three to five years if they passed this bill. and the leader is exactly right. there's an unexpected opportunity for those house members who voted for something, i guess not knowing what was in it, and then writing a letter to us saying that you please fix it? and my view is sure, we'll fix it. but the thing is you guys get to vote this w week to establish in

three dimension that you actually disagree with eviscerating the clean energy tax credit. you just p put that in writing. you have some conniving at you cast your vote to say look, it was a big bill, a fast process and we're just at the beginning of this. would you please fix it? you guys get to fix this. you guys get to vote in rules and that on the house floor to put your vote where your mouth is. >> thank you. senator craramer. >>hank you, leader. as a senator schatz said, the conundrum we're in with electricity r right now is thate haven't have been in this supply demand space since air-conditioners became a wididely available technology. that was the last time we saw the kind of growth in demand that we are experiencing right now. on the supply side, the place we

find ourselves in right now, is one where if you want to order combined cycle natural gas turbine, if you order yesterday you going to get it in 2030 or 2031. 2031. if you want to build a new api 1000 nuclear generating station as the president has said he does, it's going t to take you five to ten years to build that. if you want to do the geothermal stuff is taken off in utah, to some extent in new mexico, that the scaling slaughter is going to be five to ten years before the stuff is at scale. so if you look at this incredibly increased demand from artificial intelligence, from electrification from the search we've seen in manufacturiring ad u look at the supply this coming on to the grid in 2024 and was come on in 2025, well over 90% of that is actually renewables plus storage.

if that's the case because it's the cheapest, fastest to permit and fastest to build. so if you start throttling back 90% of your supply at a time when demand is going through the roof, what's the impact of that? ipg telly the impact is electricity bills are going up. they're going up all across the country, and republicans are going to own that. because there is no world in which we throttle supply like they are doing right now, especially with the reconciliation bill but in five or ten other different ways as well. and you don't see those electric bills go through the roof. ira tax credits are the biggest piece of that. but is not the only one. they basically eviscerated the agencies that finance or permit many of these things. they said they wanted to build nuclear. the only nuclear that is been

built in the last 30 years was that which is happened in georgia, that happened because the loan program office where they lost half the stuff and decided it in the present budget. ... a, aye. even more expensive. this is a perfect storm of thehe is a negation bill they are going to go phone every business. >> thank you, everybody. president trump promised americans if you lower the cost of housing, but today renting a

home and buying a home is more expensive than ever and the big beautiful bill is going to make that worse and not better. they will be getting big tax breaks. people who work hard and save up the money they need to buy a home or fin a mortgages higher in her to afford. 1800 because of the provisions and the republican tax bill. the huge deficit going to drive up the national tax and mortgage costs for everyone. trump's budget would cut by almost 40%.

they are going to be hurt. there's something seriously wron when the republican bill subsidizes the very same private equity firm i the investments buying at home around the country making it impossible for regular folks to buy that starter home. this big beautiful bill makes it worse, not just on housing but energy utility vehicles and food and regular americans be paying more in the get all the tax rates. wrong and americans do not like it.

>> first, we have one in this area and would not allow the court decision nationwide outrageous and made arguments to be sure to knock it down in support of this. the change in contempt in the parliamentarian strong argument and does not meet and will make it pale. >> violence and the rights and it should never happen. that is the bottom line and

anyone who breaks the law should be prosecuted. having said that donald trump winning american troops and american marines against american citizens is not only provocative and dangerous but threatens the bedrock of our democracy. not debating hypotheticals right i'o mak en [inaudible] >> you are going to see a whole bunch of amendments dealing with all of these issues.

ms. duckworth, no. mr. schumer, no. ms. smith, no. mrheinrich, no. mr. schatz, no. mr. cassidy, aye. mr. markey, no. the subcommittee will come to order.

i want to thank you for your visit recently to my district, great to have you on the ground in my district. the baseball game while we were there. credit for making it to omaha tigers. it is this committee's responsibility plea our work on time. we've already begun acting up fy 26. it is our expectation

insistently with the way we appropriate them. we appreciate your partnership as we continue make it available had. had request fiscal 26 is 33.2 billing dollars, that's 35.5 billing dollars decrease. that is not a typo. 35.5 billing dollars decrease in the fy 25. hud uses guarantee these from the housing administration government national mortgage and spending. the congressional budget office $6.9 billion in offsetting receipts for fy 26, that's a billing of the half dollars left regardless of what the administration and the budget request cbo scores in a deeper

hole in the president's budget. to state the obvious, this is a significant reduction in the discretionary budget authority. you heard in april and my district many are struggling to afford housing. it is not spiros american survey found 31% of american households rising housing costs including 27% the mortgage, 50% of households and this is why impact is felt in every district and rental assistance programs the elderly and with disabilities they can live with dignity and taken on elements and home-based hazards and those recovering from investors.

i am dply concerned about cuts the administration budgets make in the operations. because of rental assistance program will helelp the most honorable. your puzzle on your proposed program would ultimately work and i'm curious how it would support low and moderate income communities in these popular prrams and the haveeen roed out. these changes need to go through, and particularly proposals and states and dramamatic changes on how it wod affect homelessness in america and these proposals require and all an effort to welcome ongoing dialogues.

hugs program to work for american people. you and i discussed if we cut too deep fast the programs will not serve you and i pledge to help. i look forward to learning about your goals in the sub committee standseady to work with you to serve americans as we wririte ts bill. i can recogze the ranking member's opening statement. >> i think we can all agree the foundation to finance every panel in america it is difficult for families to approvend

maintain and get help and build wealth. across the country, people are experiencing homelessness and 75% and more than half of their income on rent. according to the census bureau,, the annual cost 3.8% in value. 1.8%. for the first time this is out of time when more than 56% of african-americans households 3% hispanic for more than 30% of their income went compared to 47% because of existing budget constraints, one in five

families receive rental assistce. the 2026 budget request by more than half. it's unrealistic cost for amerericans. here budget proposal to eliminate section eight public housing and housing for the elderly and the capabilities and hiv in this from you and said, you're proposing state rental assistance program to plot grants you have yet to decide. here budget proposes nearly all of housing supply preservation

programs. time does not permit me to enumerate. these would shift the program onto his ridence and received from your budget in these time limits and it becomes law. families who are already working and they become so proficient. it creates chaos. financial uncertainty is at this families and it starts with feeding your family and medications are paying rent. last, i would be remiss if i did not higighlight the fair housing enforcement and your sense to

deregulate. let's remember the long district that led to the housing law. administration and insurance companies through redlines, arouound the neighborhood, but they refused to provide home loans and otherwise qualified buyers. termination retningrom world war ii. these men and women served the country were excluded housing

benefit. they were denied the loan. for the first 3,003,150 million homes loans in mississippi, only to went to black. not 2%. twtwo out of 3,003,150. a fair shot at the american at home tonight the primary generational wealt and to this day. i know this well. i served words to what is now bank of america.

and served on the committee. fair housing fall of 1958 in the simple prompt every american would have equal opportunity for save and decentt housing and for this administratnee an attack on laws that were enacted stop excluding blacks and the cost of living in america : us to question our national prioties. buet proposal ignores reality it is not reflective of what

should be the values of our country. it is our mos vul i implore my colleagues on this panel to work together to find real solutions to the housing crisis and drive down the cost of living, not increase the economic burden. >> i think the ranking member. before i introduce our witness this morning, the chair recognizes a familr face. some are staffer for this subcommittee. you got a really good one there. >> indeed, sir. >> let's. [laughter] >> he is a good man, a valuable

asset and i know enjoy his service organization. i'm goingng to recognize you for your opening statement the entire prepared statement included in the record you five minutes to summaririze your comments and then we wil open our question and answer period. the floor is yours. >> good morning to you, chairman and other distinguished members of this subcommittee, thank you for this opportunity to testify today in support president trump 2026 budget of the united states department of housing and urban element can, thank you for having me in your district april. we have a small window of opportunity to help every american achieve home ownership

the nationall median home prices for $14000 321,000 2021 and this isis a dramatic increase of more than 21% to became very hardor americans to afford homes and policies of the biden administration marked by negligence and american taxpayer dollars. we cannot keep running the same place, time to run new place and get a new playbook in this budget is, indeed, that new playbook. the department of housing and urban development and provide greater fiscal responsibility and restraint to carry out president trump day one supply and make it affordable again. this budget supports hud

commission and we will nationalize the funds $10, we te inventory of every program is full of waste, fraud and abuse broken from its original purpose temporarily helping amecans. hud assistance is not supposed to be permanent. it should be a trampoline, resting based. it's supposed to be a trend, military grade to get over obstacles and eliminate wasteful spending, identify $250 million from taxpayers and canl billion dollars in contracts that have nothing to do with hud and recovered 1.9 billion from in a contract should have been closed out. we seen more money into programs

feels the existing status which is not good. here we are requesting course will heal fact efficient and effective, floated in the product. the obama b biden era in the housing cutting red tape and that is important also increasing housing opportunity housing and mortgages on 7 million homes in short mortgages for 140,000 f first-time homebuyers in january when presiden trump returnedo the white house in addition to taxpayer-funded subsidy for hud programs for illegal aliens

entering in our programs but it's more than just housing. remind disaster recovery programs to get commumunity quickly and efficiently for tribal communities not to.of the tribal program to address veterans, homeles and rural communities, states throughout the country returning hud to its intended purpose serving americans and the president's budget limits the size for federal programs and proposes a grant to encourarage states to have skin in the game for their own rental assistance and be more thoughtful and precise. hud has 30,000 programs recipientsts the administrative

burden in the budget for economic independence and passionate common sense and the bipartisan conversation like time limits and encourage able-bodied president and get out and addresses our almost prices returning solutions to the local authorities. restore fiscal responsibility. we must care about the work that we serve in but hud is what we have returned to do so. this will allow u us we have not

in previous years returned in the golden age and i look forward to talking > thank you. there iss at least one of the ae members for ranking member in the city may or may not, in time here. if they do, i want to recognize them to maximize their appearance. agreed to. the clerk will report the nomination. the clerk: nomination, department of housingnd urban development, andrew hughes to be deputy seetary.

[backgkground noises] >> good morning and thank you all for joining us. and chair of the congressional back office representntative spt congressional district central and southwest brooklyn i want to

say thank you to my colleagues thc chair adriana. leleadership and presence here today. we are gathered here today because likeo many americans we are outraged by what we are witnessing in the streets of los angeles and communiti across our nation. president trump's unlawful decision to deploy the national guard onto the streets of los angeles is a reckless inflammatory. r compote provoked chaoaos. let's be there alice began. with peaceful protests of protest srt by unlawful and humane targetingntention and deportation of our immigrant neighbors. david where do, california union

president arresteted andntered during immigration enforcement rate last week perpetrated by the t trump administration. los angeles police department has largely stabilized the situation but instead of de-escalating president trump seize control of the national guard forces i defiance of constitutional norms afford gasoline on already volatile movement. now under the fse guise of restraint, or to a crisis of his own making, the president of what hundreds of active-duty marines to engage inomestic law enforcement. they do not have the authority to do that. this is not about protectining public safety, it's about provoking fear and silencing dissent. it's about turning as one

against another it may be days and other prices could bng armed forces. it will be to defend our freedoms to make every shaky and any american who would dare gap againstim would be afraid from

threatening to arrest a city government to marshal force against civilians trump is not acting like a leader, he i fostering as a strongman, desperate and dangerous detached from the principles of democracy. this president crossed the line and we must understand what that means. we still don't know the full consequences of this unprecedented authoritarian overreach. congressional democrats stated full solidarity with the residents of los angeles in our immigrant sisters and brothers in peaceful protesters who dared speak out in full support every effort toppose t this of por. i want to say governor newsom and mayor karen bass there

resolve and leadership. for those who protest, stay strong and remain peaceful. rise above is chaos. the right to protest speak out against injustice is fundamental our democracy, protected by our constitution, p part of the american story. trump wants violenc to justify his own. do not give him what he wants. it is my honor to turn the podium over to the chair of the congressional hispanic caucus, congressman. >> thank you. together w make up the ccus a rong voice and the house of representatives that represents

many districts impacted at this aggressive action from the white e. let's turn back and figure out how we got here. president trump says he's going to arrest violent criminals. the fact is, he's going after mobs. he's going after both were going into a home depot. they were deported to mexico, including a 10-year-old little girl and now has no access t

the healthcareo save her life. we, and he's doing this aggressively so that is what got us to this moment where hundreds of people showed up to protest because they heard with got over 200 peopleike the ones i've described allf our members were there not allowing an investigation of that action. somebody suffering from asthma were impacted by the. on sunday is peo who called in for court dates on sunday

were dismissed in their cases are dismissed like to find out ice was waiting for them in the hallway where they were kept i n e building and process to be sent to a detention center where they await deportation. people try to file witith the lw what parameters, the regulations they been told to follow him trapped in the courtrooms as they comply with the rules of regulation. that is the state of america today and why people took to the street to protest and why members of numbers went to these ice facilities comply with our duties of oversight granted by the u.s. constitution and we

were denied entry. going back will continue to go back until -- mr. durbin: are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are not. mr. durbin: thank you, mr. president. it was over 20 years ago that our -- in chicago. there was a young woman named theresa lee. she had been born in korea, and as an infant was taken to brazil and then her father, who feels a protestant minister, brought her and her mother chicago. she contacted our office because she had a problem when it came to her citizenship. it seems that the decision to move her around as an infant, madey her parents, left her undocumented. her family didn't have a lot of money. she grew up with her father who was a protestant minister trying

to find the proper church, and she went from church to church as her father preached sermons and made a few dollars to keep the family together. while her father was practicing her sermons at the church she was in the back room banging away at the piano. as a student in public schools in chicago, she got her first opportunity for real lessons through something called the rit music program. she was great, extraordary. by the time she finished high school, people recognized in her an extraordinary musical genius. they encouraged her to apply to the best -- julliard, manhattan conservatory of music. as she filled out the applicatioion to go to these grt schools, she would run across that question -- what is your nationality? what is your citizenship? she never thought to ask. it turns out she was undocumented. she didn't know what that meant in terms of her future, and a

friend of hers contacted our office to see what we could do. the law was very clear for theresa lee. although it was her parentsnd others who made decisions in her life that resulted in her undocumented status, the law of the united states said that she had to leave the united states for ten years and apply to come back in. it didn't sound right to me. she didn't make any of those decisions. her parents did. she had done everything she was supposed to do -- go to school, get good grades, develop her talent, and yet ■we were rejected -- rejecting her and sending her out of the country. it w at that point i introduced a bill called the dream act. if you talkedd about dreamers before that bill was introduced, most people would talk to you about freddy and the dreamers. but since then the word dreamers has come to characterize these young people who by decisions of their parents are in the united states undocumented. today we mark the 13th

anniversary of a program called deferred action for childhood arrivals program, known as daca. it's a program which affects these dreamers and their fure. i first introduced the dream act with republican senator orrin hatch in 2001, 24 years ago. i've included in many forms of legislation that come to the senate floor, repeatedly introduced it as an amendment over the years. i've never quite been able to reach the vote where i could reach the 60-vote requirement where i couldld waive a filuster or pass it in the house the same year. after cession n 2010, i wrote a letter to a man who is my former colleague from illinois who had been elected president of the united states, barack obama. i asked him and senator richard lugar, republican of indiana joined me, in asking president obama if he could do something to stop the deportation of these

young dreamers. two years later president obama announced the daca program. the daca program has protected nearly 835,000 dreamers, many of whom have gone on to pursue higher education, purchase homes, start busine, and make america a better country to live in. ththese young pple who grew up in this country alongside our own kids went to school with them, stood up in the morning before class and pledged allegiance to that flag, believed that they were real americans from the start, but not in the eyes of the law. daca recients have started families. 37% have u.s. citizen and 935,000 u.s. citizens live with daca holders. it's a large chunk of our population, and they haveve don dramatichings to make t this a better country. daca recipieients greatly p contribute to our labor force. they're teachers, nurses,

workers, doctors, and more. they boost our economy, providing nearly $16 billion to the u.s. economy each year. i've been comrselling ofreamers and daca recipients. p i don't thinkthere's any better way to describe who they are and what they go through to try to become american citizens and be part of the future of this country. i'd like to highlight one of them today. this is the 149th story of a dreamer that i've shared on the floor of the senate. alajendra oe was born in mexico and moved to the st. louis metropolitan area when she was five years old. she was a great student, became a member of the national honor society. she was certified as a nurse assistant, a patient care technician, and a fle bot mist

all by the time she graduated from high school. her dream was to become a full-time registered nurs. do we need more nurses? absolutely. despite the n nursing shortage d her excellent qualifications, she waunable to get a nursing license in her home state of missouri because state law there prohibits daca recipients from becoming nurses. but she didn't give up. missouri's laws became my home state of illinois' gain, and today alandro serves as a registered nurse in alton, linois. sadly she still lives in fear every day that all of her hard work will mean nothing in daca is eliminated. she's lived in this country since she was five years old and should not be forbesed to leave the -- forced to leave the only home she h known because congress has failed to do its job and fix its broken immigration system.

she should be able to work in this critical field where we desperately need nurses wherever her services are most needed and do so without fear of deportation. you've heard a lot said in political campaigns about murders, rapists, terrorists, andd mentally deranged people wo are seeking to make a future in the united states. what about the alandra? she fit any of those categories? of c course not. she is against the odds developed a great reputation and a great resume with her education, training, and work experience. she's doing work in her field in a part of our state where we desperately need nurses. she is no threat to anyone. she is not a danger. she is in fact a beacon of hope for people who are sick a and nd a good nur. there has been a campaign to eliminate daca and deport dreamers. so the future for her and other

recipients remains legally uncertain. basic question. is america better off to have alejandro, a nurse in illinois here or to deport her from the united states to a country she hasn't seen since she was 5 years old? more tn 100,000 dreamers have initial daca applications that aretill pending. they're in limbo because for years we haven't allowed those who qualify to apply to join the ranks of daca. daca was always intended to be a temporary program to give congress time to pass a permanent solution. we're not very good at passing anhing in congress. now in the 13th year of waiting, it's time for us to honor the dreamers' patience, act on our promises and provide them with a path to citizenship. my mother is an immigrant to this country. i'm proud of immigrants. our family came here with nothing, not even speaking the language. worked hard and established themselves. my mother, eighth grade

education, no experience in high school or college, raised three boys to serve this country. my two brothers were in the united states navy and i've served here in the u united stas senate. is up grags important for this country -- immigration important for this country? the durbin family believes it is. i will continue to fight for dreamers and daca. i urge my republican colleagues, be thoughtful on the issue of immigration. don't penalize alejandro, this wonderful woman who has worked so hard to become a registered nurse in my state of illinois. give her a chance to make amererica and my ste a better place. we remember this anniversary of the daca program and thank president obama for his vision to realize these young people could make this a better country and realize that we ought to be thoughtful when it comes to immigration. if you're a danger to this country, we don't want you here. we don't want youoming here. but if you're going to make this a better place, we not only want you, we desperately need you. the daca program represents hundreds of tusands of young

people who prove that every single day of their lives. mr. president, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from nevada ms. cortez masto: thank you, mr. president. first of all, let me thank the democratic whip from illinois. he has been steadfast and persistent in his fight for dreamers in this country and has not -- has not given up and has been a critical and crucial voice not only for dreamers but immigration, comprehensive immigration reform that puts dreamers on a pathway to citizenship and their families. and i thank him for that.

mr. president, five days we will celebrate 13 years since president obama created the deferred action for childhood arrivals or the daca program which so many have been referring to. daca proven to be an overwhelming success allowing dreamers who have only ever known the united states as their home to continue contributing to our economy and our communities. daca protects immigrants who came to the united states as children from deportation. and it authorizes them to legally work. nevada and every state in the country has benefited from daca. we're a better, stronger country because of this program. in my state in nevada, nearly 136,000 u.s. citizens live with

at least one family member who is undocumented. and in nevada, 10,730 people are daca recipients. and we know no matter what president trump and others say, ththat our immigrant communitie are a critical part of what makes our country great. i know that. my grandfather is from across the border, served in our military, became a united states citizen. the dreamers i know in my community have gone to college. they've become a part of our workforce. and they paid billions of dollars in taxes and they are woven into the fabric of every community in nevada, and i will say across this country. dreamers contribute $810 million each year to ourur ecomy i nevada alone.

they love this country and it is their home. at we celebrate the 13th anniversary of daca, we must remember that the young people who became the first daca recipients are now in their 30's and 40's. they have the responsibilities that all american adults have, maintaining their careers, caring for elderly relatives, paying bills and mortgages, and, yes, putting food on the table for their families. but their ability to remain in the only home they've ever known is in jeopardy thanks to this administration's threats to end daca. president trump triedo terminate daca entirely in his first term, but he was stopped by the courts. now immmmigrant families across the country are once again bracing for their lives to be turned upside down on any given

day because ofhe threats of mass deportations and further attacks on the program. i can't even imagine how exhausting it must be to spend so my years in fear and limbo, especicially for dreams who have done everything right, who know who want to be the future home, leaders, who want to be part of our communities, who want to be our doctors and our teacherers,o know that they're always concerned about that opportunity for their future. and they have for the last 13 years been metet with endless delays and politics and people playing with their lives for some sort of political gain. not only that, but immigrant communities, as youou've heard t majority whip say, arere being

demonized and they're facing threat because of politicians stoking hate and division in our communities. people who have lived here their whol lives and contribute to our country are now being told by those politicians they do not belong. here's the other thing. i know in mytate they are being demonized and called out by these politicians as criminals and drug t trafficker an rapists. well, i invite any of those politicians to come into my state and meet with my dreamers. and i challenge anyone inn this country who knows these families and knows these dreamers to stand byhem because right now they are under attack. and something that is not happening out of sight or behind

closed doors. it is happening in our neighborhoods every single day. these dreamers have families who are a crucial part of our commu communities. you know them. we know them. they have families. many of them have spouses and children who are u.s. citizens. and they just want to be able to live normal lives and contribute and continue to pay taxeses ande a part of our jobs and our economy and expanding this economy and this country. i will tell you over the years my office has received stacks of letters from nevadans who have been impacted by daca about the importance of the program for them and their families. andd i want to share just a couple of those stories and those letters with you. i received a letter from a 10-year-old girl who was born in

north las vegas. her father is a dreamer who has lived in the united states since he was 7 years old. her father always dreamed of becoming a doctor, but for much of his career hee was denied opportunity after opportunity. but that cnged when he became a recipient of daca. he was able to get a good jo buy a home for his family, and give his kids a better life. but every day his daughter lives in fear that her father who has worked hard in america all his life could get deported back to mexico and that s and would h la country whose language that they don't even speak. and she said i quote, i would love for the government to see that my daddy and all dreamers like him only want to be good citizens and have better future. she hopes to be a pediatrician

one day and serve her community just like her dad always dreamed. the second letter i want to share with you i received from a young woman whose parents brought her to nevada when she was just 2 years old. when she turned 18, she was excited to start working so that she could eastern a living for -- earn a living for hersf. but as an undocumented dreamer without a number, she couldn't apply for the jobs her peers were getting. she says, and i quote, i am as much a citizen as them. i can do all that they are able to do. i have witnessed several individuals around my age waste their potential. they have everything they could possibly receive and choose not to take advantage of it. i will tell you, dreamers jump at every opportunity to create a better life for themselves than their parents had.

i will tell you these dreamers do not run afoul of t law. ly tell you these dreamers do everything they possibly can to prove why they want to live here and be a crucial part of our communities but all the while they live in fear that their familieses could be torn apart our broken immigration system that we have an obligation to fix. daca has been an essential way to provide stability for the dreamers and their families. but right now in my state and across the country, dreamers haven't been able to a apply fo new daca protections. nearly h half of nevada's dreams are eligible for daca, but unfortunately thousands of dreamers in my sta are currently vulnerable because this admistration is refusing to accept their daca applications. and now if in direct defiance of

a court order, as of march of this year, the fifth circuit cour of appeals ruled that the trump administration must start accepting new daca applications because that is the law. but months have gone by and we have not seen any progress. yesterday, yesterday my staff learned the first time that one single new application had been processed and accepted. just one. well, while one is better than zero, i will say this administration has a lot of work to do to follow the law and accept more applicants into the daca program. i am so pleased my colleagues and i are here today to keep the pressure on, to make sure that this administration follows the law but also to appeal to our republican colleagues. it is time w we come together a work together to put dreamers

and their families on a pathway to citizenship. these dreers are as american in their hearts as you and i. our country is better whhem and ase celebrate the 13th anniversary of daca, i remain committed to working with anyone, anyone who is willing to protect them and do the same. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from m massachusetts -- oregon. a senator: i appreciate the comments of my colleague from nevada. mr. merkley: many of us are frustrated. certainly immigration has been a part of the american spirit for a very long time. in 1752, three miracle brothers, a name that was later converted to memerkley, arrived from germy

to the first three of four settlers of the town of new durlock. more nan a century later, we had those pour words -- powerful words written by emma lazarus carved into the base of the statue of liberty. give me your tired, your poor, huddled masasses yearning to breathe free, send these, the homeless, tempest ones toed to me. i lift my lamp beside thehe goln do. generations of immigrant families that were brought in through the s statue of liberty island immigration center, read those words when they arrived and we inspired as they begegan their arican dream. but those who didn't come through that immigration center were also inspired by that vision, of people coming from around the world to build this land, this land in which we have government of, by, and for the people.

and among those who have been inspired are those who have arrived in more recent time, and our dreamers, those who were less than 16 arriving before 2007, they were being given the chance through the decision of president obama to grant them status in 2012, to have their american dream, and their success, as a group, shows it was the right policy and that it's long past time for congress to pass the dream act to give them a a path to citizship. our good colleague from illinois, senator durbin, has been fighting for these young people for passage of the dream act time and time again, and it is the senate's 40-vote veto that has stopped us from ever having a vote on that policy, a final vote on that policy. and you know that dream act?

it didn't simply come from one side of the aisle. it was senator orrin hahatch, a republican, who first introduced it in 2001. about the bill for the dreamers has languished in congress year after year after year. in 2012 president obama therefore took action and announced that deferred action for childhood arrivals, the daca policy to protect those children who were brought here as youth, knew often no other country, often spoke no otherer language. this is their home, and he noted at the time this was to be a temporary stopgap measure for congress to be able to debate and vote on a permanent legislation, the dream act. but congress hasn't voted. that is the senate has never voted o on final passage. despite decades, despite

bipartisan suppor and even now in december president trump saying on "meet the press" -- so we're talking just months ago afte he won reelection -- we have to do something about the dreamers. so let's do something here, as we note the 13th anniversary of daca. more than 825,000 young men and women, approximately 8,000 in my home state of oregon, c cght in legal limbo, yet yearning to breathe free. and wldn't they be ail to breathe a -- be able to breathe a lot freer if we were able to resolve their legal status. in 2022 the department of homeland security codified daca, but due to litigation, more than 100,000 applicationons are sti protections. people seeking daca the trump administration has been quite aggressive about deporting undocumented

immigrants. and it could in fact rescind daca's prprotections. so let's act. let's resolve this situation. here's what we understand -- in 2012, president obama described recipients as young people who study in our schools, who play in our neighborhoods, who are friends with our children, whoho pledge allegian to the flag. but while congress waited to act all these years those young people, they've grown up. daca's protections are allowed -- allowed them to graduate from school, to apply for jobs, become pillars in their communities. over the last 13 years they've contributed more than 120 billion in the economy, more than $40 billion in federal, state, andocal payroll taxes. they enrich our country in so o many ways, serving as teachers, as nurses, as police officers in

addition to being our colleagues, our neighbors and our friends. we are a nation of immigrants. unless you are part of the tribal communities that have beenen on this land from time i memorial, unless you just arrived as a new immigrant, you are descendant from i am grants, immigrant whose arrived here often with welcoming arms. we could not be slamming -- we could now be slamming that door shut on the dreamers brought here as children, who have already contributed so much to our country. so let's not just give speeches about the 13th anniversary. let's get those 100,000 pending daca applications processed. let's get the dream act to the floor to give daca recipients a legal path to citizenship, and let's finish the work that senator durbin and so many

othersrs have been carrying forward for so many years to ensure that the american dreama is open all. thank you, mr. president. mr. padilla: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from california. mr. padilla: thank you, mr. president. my colleagues, time and time again we've seen one of the most frequently called plays out of the trump playbook. when everything else is going wrong, shift the narrative, scapegoat immimigrants, blame immigrants for whatever your failure is at the moment. well, today between his failing trade wars that are raising the cost of living on brooklyn families across the country to his losses in federal court and delays in congress on the

efforts to give billionaires even bigger tax breaks, and even the embarrassing breakup recently with his former bbf-- billionaire best friend forever, elon musk, it's safe to say that donald trump is grasping for anything he can do to change the narrative, to distract us from the damage that his political agenda is going on. the smart thing would be to actually change course, rectify things, do things in the interest of our nation and our economy. but what has he chosen to do instead? to double down. and in order to distract the country from his failures and his efforts to, quote, flood the zone, donald trump is expanding his deportation agenda far

beyond the focused targeting of violent and dangerous criminals that he claimed wou be the strategy. he's so desperate to show quick results that he's even throwing due process rights outo ma. the due process rights, by the way, that i know most of you, if not all of you, a should agree are paramount, foundation to our democracy -- foundational to our democracy. and as we continue to see this week, trumpmp is launching indiscriminate ice raids in the los angeles region, followed by a chaotic escalation, federalizing california's nationonal guard and even mobilizing the marines. it's personal for me, not just because los angeles is home -- i was born and raised in los angeles -- you go as a proud son of immigrants, i know the true

storory of the vast majity of immigrants and immigrant families in los angeles, throughout california and throughout the country. but instead of honoring those contributions and accepting -- there's no disagreement with the prioritization and targeting of violent criminals, but the vast majority of folks, their contribution desers to be honored, instead donald trump is manufacturing a crisis to once again not just distrtract u but divide us. and just as he's always done, he's using immigrants to do it. so i can't help but speak up and remind us, immigrants are notot political pawns for his agenda. just as servicemembers -- women and men -- are not political pawns for his agenda. so, yes, as we should be celebrating the 13th anniversary

of daca this week, hundreds of thousasands of daca recipient ad drears are actually now worried that they are at risk, at further risk, that they could be next as president trump struruggles to find enough violt criminals to detain and deport to meet a campaign promise, since he can't get his numbers there, he'll look elsewhere. so i want to take this moment to make very clear, dreamers are our neighbors. dreamers are our loved ones. these are young people who are americans in every sense of the word except for one important piece of paperwork, including over 160,00 daca recipients in the state of california alone.

yet because of congressional republicans' rusal to act, dreamers live at a minimum in a constant state of uncncertainty but oen manyimes in a con -- but oftentimes in a constant state of fear. they deserve better. mr. president, they deserve permanent protections. and this isn't just a moral issue, as righteous and compelling as those moral arguments should be. colleagues, if that doesn't get you, you should be moved by the econic issues that this represents. cause if through the president or through republicans's' actio in congress you were to take away work authorization for hundreds of thousands of daca recipients, that't's reducing o

workforce at a time when we're trying to grow the workforce and grow the economy. if daca were to come to an end, it could strip our workforce of over 400,0 workers. and cost our country nearly $650 billion. yes, they, too, are productctiv. i'm talking about dreamers who work as teachers, as caregivers, as nurses and doctors, as construction workers, as food service workers and so ma otheher key industries for our economy. and they're hardworking community members who pay taxes just like the rest of us and just want a chance to work hard and raise a family in the country that they love. they deserve peace of mind, the peas of mind to know that they are safe here at home.

and that's why i'm proud to support the dream act, a bill to provide permanent protections for dreamers who contribute so much to our country. it's the least that we can d for dreamers who have spent decades conontributing to the nation. and for my republican colleagues who are maybe caught up in the heat of the moment and trapped in this anti-immigrant rhetoric inur current political climate on the right, i'll say this -- better. dreamers make our economy stronger. and dreamers make our nation stronger. the dream act is a commonsense ll that has enjoyed bipartisan support. so i urge you to join me in

supporting the dream act now and giving these young people the certainty and the protections that they deserve. and strengthen our nation in the ess. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor.

.

ms. rosen: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from nevada. ms. rosen: are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are not. ms. rosen: mr. president, as we approach the 13th anniversary of daca, i rise today in strong support of this program and the thousands of nevadans who rely on it. my state of nevada is home to more than 12,000 daca beneficiaries who know of no other country as their own. they grew up in our communities and contribute to our nation, to our economy. they're our neighbors, our frfriends, our family members. many of them are now even raising their own families here, sending their kids to school, taking them to soccer practice,

and going to the park on weekends. but washington has failed them. what startedut as a temporary program meant to protect dreamers while congress worked to pass a more permanent solution has turned into a decades-long lifeline for so manyny. washington's gdlock and its inability to pass comprehensive immigration refor with a pathway to citizenship for dreamers has lt them to defend on daca. it's also opened doors to attack from the trump administration and right wing extremists. during his first term, donald trump rescinded daca, and through this threw this -- threw this critical program into a tailsp, leaving the future of dreamers andnd their families t depend on court case after court case. ca anyone in this chamber imagine the stress, the fear,

the uncertainty they've had to endure all of these years, n no knowing if they'd b be sepated from their families or not? in his second term, trump has been relentless, relentless in attacking and separating hardworking, law-abiding immigrant families, increasing fear and worry in our immigrant recipients.including daca if daca were to end, millions of dreamers across our nation would be at risk of having to lve the only country they've ever known. the only place they've ever called home. parents would face separation from their children, leaving families forever traumatized. and our economy and communities would greatly suer. just imagine, just imagine the message we would be sending.

nevadans who have done everything right since they arrived in our state, nevadans who were brought here as kids, and who followed the rules when government asked them to, followed the rules. nevadans who graduated college, nevadansns who served in the military, nevadans who started businesses in our communities, nevadans currently protected could now lose the only life they've everknown. so mr. president, it's past time that mripgss in washington -- that politicians in washington stop using dreamers as a political football and finally pass a law that permanently protects them. these h hardworking americans deserve to have peay -- peace of mind and they deserve a life without fear. i want dreamers to know they

have allies in their corner. as nevada's senator, i will do everything in my power to protect all of our communities and keep families -- keep families togher. since day one in the senate, i've been pushing my colleagues to come together in a bipartisan way to pass a permanent solution, one that gives dreamers permanenent protection and a pathway to sit zebship, a -- citizenship, a pathway now, now, while we continue to work onomprehensive immigration reform that this country so surely needs. it surely needs. this shouldn't be a partisan is issue, and as long as i'm in the senate i won't stop fighting for it it everyone to tnentime i will do everything in my power to protect daca and the thousands of nevadans who rely on it. thank you.

thank you.

good morning.

thank you all for joining us. i am chair of the congressional black caucus and proud representative of new york ninth congressional district. central and southwest brooklyn. i wanted to thank my tri- caucus colleagues, chc chair. and québec chair for their leadership and presence here today. we are gathered here today because like so many americans, we are outraged by what we are witnessing in the streets of los angeles and in communities across our nation. president trump's unlawful decision to deploy the national guard onto the streets of los angeles is a reckless and inflammatory escalation. one designed not to restore calm but to provoke c chaos. let's be clear about how this began. with peaceful protest, peaceful protest sparked by the unlawful

and inhumane targeting detention and deportation of our immigrant neighbors. and david, a california union president arrested and injured during an immigration enforcement raid last week. president trump seize control the constitutional norms and poured goline on an already volatile moment. now, under the false idea of restoring order to a crisis of his o own making, the president has deployed hundreds of active-duty marines to engage in domestic law enforcement. something they do not have the legal authority to do. do the live

this is not about protecting public safety it is about stoking fear and silencing peaceful dissent. it is about turning us one against one another. this is a direct attack on civil rights, due process and our democratic norms targeting black and communities of color. perhaps the most sobering truth is this. for donald trump, los angeles is only the beginning. this president is willing to send military troops into an american city over peaceful dissent, we must ask, what happens next. what american community will be next? in a matter of weeks, maybe days , and another crisis could bring the armed forces to more of our communities. this presence will not be to defendnd our freedom but to instill fear. that has always been his goal to

make every black, latino, asian and immigrant community or any american who would dare speak out against him afraid. from threatening to arrest a sitting governor to hinting at marshall force against civilians , trump is not acting like a leader. he has posturing as a song man desperate, dangerous and utterly detached from the principles of democracy. this president has crossed a line. we must all understand what that means. we still do not know the full consequences of this unprecedend authoritarian overreach. but let me be clear. congressional democratstand in full solidarity with the residents of los angeles, with our immigrant sisters and brothers and with the peaceful protesters who dared to speak out and who will support every

effort to oppose this president 's abuse of power. i want to thank governor newsom and mayor karen bass for their resolve in leadership. to those who choos to peacefully ptest, peacefully protest, stays wrong and remain peaceful. rise above his chaos. the right to protest, to speak out against injustice is fundamental to our democracy. it is protected by our constitution. it is part of the american story trump wants violence. not to stop it. but too justify hiswn. do not give him what he wants. having said that, it is my honor now to turn the podium over to the chair of the congressional hispanic caucus congressman. >> thank you, chair clark.

together we make up. representing many districts being impacted by this aggressive action from the white house. so, let's turn back and figure out how we got here. president trump says that he is going to arrest violent criminals. he's going after the mom's. he is going after folks. he is going into a home depoto arrest day laborers. houston hospital us-born

children who were depeported to mexico with their parents. including a 10-year-old little girl with the cancerous brain tumor that now has no access to the healthcare that she needs to save her life. that is who he is going after. anand he isoing this in an aggressive way. where hundreds of people protest because they heard how long they were being held there. we are not allowed in. chemicals will spill on the floor. asking for a full investigation of that action. some of them suffering from

asthma impacted by that. a federal plaza. on sunday. the cases were dismissed only to find out if i.c.e. was waiting for them outside of the hallways sending away deportation. people trying to comply with the law. with the parameters that have been set for them. the regulations that have been taught for them to follow. they are being trapped in the courtrms in.e. offices as they try to comply with the rules and regulation. that is the state of america today. that is why people took to the street to protest. and that is why members of

ngress went to these facilities to comply with our ties of oversight. granted to us by the u.s., the duchenne and w we were denied entry. we will be going back and we will be continuing to go back until we have access to those facilities and we have determined exactly wha is going on there. that is happening in america. he has militarized los angeles. he has deputized local law enforcent with federal powers. dividing people as opposed to bringing the country to gather. the tri- caucus will stand united. we will stand united. we will comply with our

constitutional duties of oversight and we will continue to visit these i.c.e. facilities until we get to the bottom of this. thank you and i guilt to congresswoman. >> hi, everyone. i am.i am p tooin my colleagues here today. our neighbors loved ones and friends. like millions of americans across the country, i am deeply concerned by the administration use of aggressive tax pics against our immigrant communities. ararmed a -- agent separated schools, workplaces and homes terrorizing our neighbors a and literay ripping families apart these stories are heartbreaking. a 4-year-old citizen, u.s.

citizen who was receiving treatment for stage iv cancer was deported after showing up for routine check in. a child's birthday party in texas was rated by federal employees flash bang grenades. i cannot even imagine how traumatizing that must have been forhese kids. these are c not the criminals te administration claims to the ch executive, and that is a violation of the checks and balaes necessary for our democracy. first, talking about the rescissions. the white house, as it says with everything we do appropriate money for, the white house claims it's waste, fraud, and abuse. and also claims that i contributes to the ballooning deficit. there's a contradiction here because according to the

nonpartisan congressional budget office, the could called big beautiful bill that is president is determined to pass, that will add $2.4 trillion to the deficit -- 2.4 trillion, and that is before we add the increased debt service that will be required to pay it. in this country, taxpayers are now on the verge of paying a trillion dollars annually in interest payments, and that is dead money. it doesn't support our military, it doesn't support our schools, did doesn't support scientific research. it's paid to bondholders, many of whom are in china. most of the be funds that are the president is proposing to cancel were approved two and a half months ago for fiscal year 2025, and there's been absolutely no showing, that any

of these found, not a single dollar, cannot or should not be used for the purposes for which they were appropriated by a bipartisan majority in congress. there has been absolutely no showing, none, of any waste, fraud, and abuse. these funds were deemed worthy of funding two months ago and the president himself agreed. he signed it. this is an end around article 1 authority of congress. we pass a budget and then the executive rescinds what it is we appropriated our funds for. enormous erosion of the responsibility of congress under article 1. specific examples of the funds that are on the chopping block. corporation for public broadcasting, that's in the case of vermont, it's called vermont public, and it's our public radio station and it's our

public broadcasting. and every state has the public broadcasng system. vermont, and i know we're not unique, it is essential programming that knits together our community providing information that is crucial constantly during floods in july of 2023 and 2024. it is about 40% of a state's budget, the administration is looking to get rid of the public broadcasting all together. i oppose that, it is the equivalent of $1.60 per family, and it is a source of news, and the pressurure on our local newspapers, on our local broadcasters is enormous. we need public broadcasting. i saw it in vermont, as i mentioned when we had the

enormous benefitit of the information we -- we needed desperately to deal with floods. my republican colleagagues in north carolina had a similar experience. it was local public media markets and outlets that provided lifesaving emergency alert inforormation to ensure tt victims knew which roads they could travel, which food distribuon centers were open, and the elimination of the corporation for public broadcasting puts all of this at risk. another program set to be eliminated, pepfar. pepfar is a flagship hiv-aids prevention program. it was started by president george w. bush. it has saved millions of lives. it has created enormous goodwill for the united states around the entire wod. the chairwoman of the

appropriations committee has strongly opposed any rescission of pepfar funds, and i agree with senator collins and cannot for the life of me how anyone would support resescinding thos funds that provide so much to so much for -- so many for so little. global health, $500 million would be cut. this protects child and maternal health. they combat hiv-aids, a and infectious diseases, we would be rescinding funds that fight malaria, ebola, hiv-v-aids, and other diseases that have been kept under control and out of the united states, in many cases, thanks these programs. they could easily explode into fulllown epidemics. $800 million is being cut for refugees, like those fleeing

genocide in darfur and burma. should we turn our backs on those afghan refugees who served during the coue of the afghan war? another cut is $83 million for programs that supported democracy through organizations like the international republican institute, the democratic institute and freedom house. these have a all historically received bipartisan support, and strong support. this rescission would put them out of business even though we kept them in business on a bipartisan vote just two and a half months ago. a cut of $1.65 billion for the economic support fund. it may not necessarily be apparent on its face, but that fund account funds ecomic assistance for jordan which has been an ally, egypt, indonesia,

lebanon and for other programs that combat corruption and money laundering and terrorist financing, human trafficking and of wild life trafficking. they also expand and build market for u.s. exports, creating good,high-paying jobs in the united d states of ameri. a cut of $460 million in assistance for georgia, armenia, k kadzik stan. we are in a contestst with russ. walk away from these -- walking away from these on the edge countries would send the message putin wants even while he is seeking to overtake ukraine.

a cut of $496 million for international disaster assistance. and that, by the way, provides lifesaving aid for victims of natural and manmade disasters from earthquakes and hurricanes to armed conflicts. this is the united states doing its share as a major power in the world to help those who have been who have been impacted about by -- by these extreme events through no cause of their own. also it could cut $202 million for some specialized agencies including unicef, traditionally led by an american and the christ love this. because where we leave, they've made it no secret they want to replace us. these are just a few of the examples of the irreparable harm this would cause to programs and

organizations that have had long-standing bipartisan support. they serve our interest and they promote u.s. global leadership. mr. president, i understand the white house is looking everywhere it can, except the defense budget, to find revenue and they need that revenue to offset the tax breaks that will go by and large to the richest americans. but these recisions are thoughtless and they're reckless. the leadership of the united states is not solely a function of military power, soft power really makes a difference, and it's a function a a power that we have to use our resources to act as a full-force multiplier for democratic principles, for free markets and building alliances. if these rescissions are approved, we have to -- we will be asked to explain why congress

did an about face and ceded global influence to china. none of us want that. the president likes to talk about his historic mandate. he did win, it was two million votes out of 152 million cast. it was a small margin of victory, the smallest by a candidate since the 1900's. my point here is not so much the si of the mandate. whatever the mandate, a present should embrace the responsibility that he or she has to the entire country, and that includes folks who didn't vote for him. i do not believe even those who did were voting to risk the lives and their children's lives by cutting funds to stop the spread of ebola, measles or west

nile virus. this wasn't a mandate to shut down programs under democracy. in is not a vote to with d draw unicef, this is not a vote to turn our back on the world's refugees and including in particular afghan refugees who saved lives of our men and women in uniform. you know, they talk about wasteful spending, wre with everybody. i he yet to meet a member of the united states senate whoho in favor of waste fraud and abuse. but we've got to identify it and attack it not assert that that is the justification for ending a program like pepfar that has proven to be ee -- efficient and effective at saving at lis mr. president, the final point i think all of us he to consider

is about the article 1 responsibility off congress alexander hamilton warned about the excessive power that could reside in any one branch of government and that for the well-being of our democracy, we had to maintain that competition between the branches which required them to exercise and assert the authority that was given to each branch in the constitution. and of course article 1 gives to the congress the power to tax and the power to spend. and it is absolutely essential we do that carefully and wisely because our constituents are the ones who are goioing to pay the bill through taxes we assess, and they are the ones who are going to receive the benefits through appropriations we make. but to abdicat that power, which is essentially what

rescission would accommodate for the executive, is to turn over that power to the president. and it's not just a matter of it being this president. it's any president. in order for us to meet our adhere tour constitutional o responsibility under article 1. we are the ones who are subject to the will of the people, in the house every two years, in the senate every six years, to account for how we tax and how we spend. let's not dododge by delegating that pow to the executive. mr. president, i yield back.

produce thousands of new jobs and investment as a result to say nothing. faster andore affordable internet for americans. this is been a long te coming, mr. presiden i am grateful to colleagues of the armed services for their continued work to find a a way o get this done that preserves key national security interest and delivers a win for the american people. the commerce text addresses a key aspt of our domestic security. a strong coast guard. the coast guard secures the ports and waterways provide support for american vesls and need and plays a crucial role in enforcing a maritimemmigration law a conduct in drug interdiction speared it will

make it substantial and sorely needed investment in the coast guard including fund and for new ships and aircraft and maintenance of coast guard facilities. promoting safety on the seas, they focus on safety in the skies. with a significant investment in fixing and updating our air traffic control system. it also eliminates wasteful and unnecessary spending which is a key focus of our bill. so that was thursday. on friday the banking committee released its portion of the bill text and eliminating unnecessary spending took center stage. chairman scott and banking committee republicans poured over federal programs to identify was, duplition and inefficiency and identified billions in savings. the duplicative office of financial research transferring oversight boards and duties for the exchange commission to reduce duplication and lower cost in postponing the

implementation of small business lending data reporting requirements. the banking committee text also has taxpayer dollars by returning unused and unobligated funds to the treasury. on the national security front it authorizes $1 billion for the defense production act to boost domestic production of key national security needs. i am grateful for the hard work of chairman scott, chairma cruz and for the hard work of those on-and-off the committee who contributed to the commerce and thinking text. several more committees delivering text this week including border securit language and energy language from the energy and natural resources committee. our final bill is rapidly taking shape. i am looking forward to considering neighbors. they are students, nues. they have all kinds of jobs that are important to our community and our state in connecticut.

they are key members of communities, having lived in the united states for a average of 26 years. that's right, 26 years on average. and they make up 91% of the connecticut labor force. 92% of daca recipients have a high school diplomama and 81% he some college education. and in connecticut, 30% of daca recipients are married. 17% are children. and there are 6,000 united states citizens living with daca recipients. i will probably have to correct t that, 91% of the connecticut labor force. i will g get for the record the accurate statistic. let me tell you t the stories o

two daca recipients in connecticut. agnes was brought to connecticut when she was 9 years old. she worked hard in school and qualified for a rotary club scholarship to attend western connecticut state university. because of daca, she was able to obtain work authorization and get a job upon graduating college. she says daca eliminated the uncertainty she felt as a child and allowed her to pursue opportunities she otherwise would not have. and she's now a united states citizen, married with two beautiful boys. she owns a home, she manes a global team at a commodity trading company in connecticut. another daca recipipient who al came to the united states when she was 9 years old says daca was, quote, unquote, monumental. it gave her a sensef

independence. it allowed herer to build a fute for herself that she wanted and aspired to have. shean't imagine what her life would have been like without it. and in 2009 she graduated from college. she learned about the dream act and was inspired to pursue advocacy work. she's now part of an organization in c connecticut called concticut students for a dream, working to help other dreamers like her. and through her advocacy, she pushed for the passage of institutional financial aid, and a college access program for undocumented students. and finally, after receiving ca, she obtained her work authorization. she got a a job overseeing a leadership program for connecticut high school students. these two remarkable stories are

just two examples of the extraordinary impact t that dac recipients have on our commity. last december president trump said we have to something about the dreamers, he said. we have to do something about the dreamers. republicans are very open to dreamers, end quote. i call on the administration to resume processing initial daca applications outside of texas in line with the ruling from the fifth circuit. i call on this administration to do the right thing, to do what is legally open, what history encourages us to do. the history of this program shows the human potential of

daca recipients, and i encourage my cololleagues fromoth sides of the aisle to come together with more permanent legislation for dre dreamers. they give back, they contribute to our communities, they work tirelessly to do better. we owe them better. these dreamers deserve to build the security and safety of permanent status and a path to citizenship. mr. president, i yield the floor.

you all heard the name watch from baltimore harbor. as the army kept old lori flying high. many people died. the star-spangled banner or our national anthemm.

kyle key of army national guard fame, please. major, wheree are you. [applause] thank you. thank you. looking good, too. what is going on here. they all come from a very fine strain of blood. that is great genetics. thank you o both very much. majo key thank you for helping to keep this incredible land of ours free and the home of the brave. s .... tribute to a man who literally embodied this idea. his name was ralph e. hill. ralph grew up along the pecos river at the foot of the crest of the mountains in northern new mexico. with family roots extending hundreds of years, ralph often called himself a 12th generation

espinao in the state. he took pride in his hispanic and indigenous heritage. every aspect of ralph's life was really a testament to his commitment and connection to our ralph often brought people in to she traditions. and this included mark allison, the executive director of the new mexico wilderness alliance. one year ralph and his family invited mark for an annual spring cleaning. so all day they shovelled and raked and cleared the way for the water to be able to nourish the fields. once they were done, they went up and opened the head gate. ralph's dad moved a few rocks and mark and ralph stood and watched the water come down to water the fields. as -- ralph detetermined the

allocation of wateror each family like he does everything else. with the resounding belief that in the asicia in life, everybody is bound together by water, by land and by tradition. so ralph carriedhese principles of equality and justice and interconnectivity to literally everything he did. as chairman of the new mexico commission for 19 yeyears, rph fought to protect the water and the needs of local communities. in t worlds of juan sanchez who worked alongside ralph at the commission, ralph helped communities whoho really didt have a voice keep a voice. and whenxtensive mining proposals threatened the traditional way of life along the pecos river, ralph stepped into action helping to form the

mine coalition. which is where i really got to know ralph. as we worked together to craft and introduce legislation, the pecos watershed protection act, legislation to defend our watersheds and designate over 11,000 acres of national forest land a the thompson peek wilderness area. at the federal and state level, ralph was a comommunity lder in every sense of the phrase, committed to protecting and nurturing the people and places of new mexico. he was also a farmer, a father, a skateboarder and a friend, one who let others know how much they meant to him. as described at one ofis close friends and a colleague he worked with, ralph was an old soul and a sage who radiated

goodness and grace. his friend robert put it similarly. ralph loved with his whole heart and soul and his legacy livivesn in every life he touched, every cause he stood for. julie and i extend our heartfelt condolences to ralph's family, friends, colleagues, and community. and i know that we will all thinkk of ralph every time we se the pecos river. andd maye all honor ralph's memory by carrying on our own cadencia for the places and waters that have sustained our way of life, traditions, and forged our communities. thank you, mr. president.

retired and is here with his two sons both army rangers. what a great family legacy. please, stand up. [applause] how is your job feeling, i right the job? it looks pretty good. i wish mine looked that good. thank you very much a great family appreciate it. real heroes. in the modern era shoulder's have church in the dark escape invention of the most godforsaken places to vanquish the fororces of radical islam terror from the face of the earth. in 2007 chief warrant officer was stationed at a remote outpost in the afghan mouountais

when a massive force attacked from all sides. for three hours he led a fallacious cnter assault and successfully repulsed the other closed combat in the same the planet a vastly larger enemy saved countless lives. r his spectacular gallantry chief phillips received the distinguished cross in this overstayer becoming one of the most highly decorated warriors of any branch in the war on terror. actually he is the most decorated and it's not even that close. many battles, many battles, chief phillips you did us all proud. please stand up. thank you very much. [applause] you are army strong.

thank you very much. from the american revolution until today the story of the army is a tale of an unbroken chain of american men who gave all they had to this country. it is the saga of epic washingt jackson pershing and eisenhower patton and macarthur. whwhile phil donovan the great general william yarborough, the father of the green berets. did you know that? it's a story of naval units like the old guard, diane aide the big reone the buffalo soldiers the harlem hellfighters this tuskegee airmen the screaming eagles and george patton on wheels. it was not dead good. the weapons of war have changed with eve generation but the unflinching loyalty of the

american soldier has always remained the same. the army has always stayed true to its motto this week old defend. army warriors who have laid down their lives for america by the thousands on the sacred soil of arlington and gettysburg and manila and to far off places known only to. we'll everything to them but today we renuart devotion to the cause of liberty for which they so selflessly live and fought and so bravely died. there could be no greater tribute to their memory than to prepare the armies that dominate america's enemies for the next 250 ars and more than that. that's landed the trump administration we are focused on restoring the spirit of the u.s. armed forces.

no soldier ever volunteered for the army to be lectured about transgenender diversity or inclusion. you don't wt to hear that. transgender for everybody. don't do that. americans patriots join the army to takee down doors stormed beaches kill terrists and when america's wars enough that we want and that's what you want. [cheers and applause] and to that end we are making that record investment but not only in the army but the other forces also british work together as a team and we are including in doubt and across-the-board and you don't have to take this if you don't want. you can be great patriots and say i i don't want to raise andt will not accept it. let it go back into our country. angewe don't w do that but if

we can get a raise for every single member in the u.s. armed forces across-the-board and you deserve it. [cheers and applause] we have so much money on things we shouldn't be spending it on but i think those days are stopping the senators and congressman that are with us. it's part of our one big beautiful bill we are investing over $1 billion to update y your on-base housing and we we are building a state-of-the-art missile defense did protect our homeland and it's called the golden dome. it's going to be all made in america. we have done it for others, it's about time right? we are doing it for us now. after years of recruiting this is to me the most exciting thing. we are setting the strongest peacetime recruiting records ever. just think of this, six months ago we couldn't recruit anybody.

nobody wanted tooin in six mohs ago whad the eleion of november 5 and now we have the strongest recruiting numbers in the history of our country. can you imagine that? can you imagine that? [applause] we have artists are past recruiting targets for 2025 and we aren't done yet. i will tell you doesn't makee yu feel good when you were here six or seven months ago nobody wanted to join the army and frankly they didn't want to believe -- to join the police or firemen. they lost faith in our country and just a short number of months later we are setting all-time records. in fact your job might be in jeopardy a and someone may comen and take it. we will get you out if you're. we are getting the best people that you have ever seen. we are getting people, and i don't think we have ever seen

anything like it. great people are coming in. doesn't make you feel good you are at doing something in other people want to join you?u? isn't that a great feeling? wasn't a feeling just a sho time ago whe they announced you were soldier and you are proud of your country and proud of the army in your case and you're rereading stories about nobody wants to come in and join the military. isn't that and even the ladies from north carolina were not happy with that. then we had a great election. it was amazing. too big to rig. we had a great election and a of a sudden the people are pouring in and we had to cut more people like pete and the others that are here. very much all of you it really made a big difference. the armory will soon be stronger and bigger and better than ever before. every new soldier will have the same a abiding exemplified by te

likes of sergeant major jim schmidt who is no longer with us. at 15 years old after lying about his age because he wanted to get in so badly, jim trained at fort brag to fight in world war ii. whenen jim's middle schoolsked if he would attend his eighth-grade graduation he wrote back that would be impossible as i'm rather busy now. i'm in the hinterlands h hunting down and i have to say error couple of and italians here but as a paratrooper he made the famous drops in sicily and salerno and while still young boy too young to be in the army kicked them out. they found out about him and they kicked him out. they discovered he was way under age may said jim you have to get out of here. you're a of a soldier but you have to get out. he'll listed in the navy but the

moment he turned 18 he came right back and he joined the 82nd airborne. how about that? [applause] he went on to fight at the chosen washingto in korea and saw combat in vietnam and ended his career right back at fort brag hing earned two superstars three bronze stars and two purple hearts. with us today is jim's wife peggy and their beloved grandson army specialist christian forbes who is currently deployed at our southern border defending our country from an invasion whether we like it or not. it's an invasion but i don't know if you've heard the invasion with 99.9% topped. it couldld be 99.999% that of stock. the invasion has stopped so i think he's in good shape. special is forbes that want to thank you for defending america

and you've obviously done a good job because that invasion has been stopped and we apprececiate you beg here. thank you very much. thank you. very much, great. we stopped that, didn't we? we stopped it. thank you very much. ch and everyone every one of you here today carries a new love strength and courage of millions upon millions of army patriots who came before you. your uniforms bear the same stars and stripes that our ancestors did the presiding officer: the question occurs on the nomination. is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote:

the clerk: ms. alsobrooks. ms. baldwin. mr. banks. mr. barrasso. mr. bennet. mrs. blackburn. mr. blumenthal. ms. blunt rochester. mr. booker. mr. boozman. mrs. britt. mr. budd. ms. cantwell. mrs. capito. and to add your own deeds into this chronicle of ledges announcer duty to shield the flame of freedom that was lit 250 years ago by the heroes of concord bridge in bunker hill. standing before you today i am more confident than ever that in the days ahead and eve generation to come the u.s. army will keep glory uponlory upon glorupon us all. you will protect every inch of u.s. soil and you will defend america to the ends of the earth, wherever the danger is, they are the u.s. army will be. that's a beautiful phrase. whatever peril comes our way,

whatever menenace threatens our people you will stand strong and you will be proud. you will charge hard and you'll keep that flame, that beautiful, beautiful flame, we are going to keep it lit. you will hold the flag high and you will do something that has become quite a famous phrase also. you are a of a lot graver than me. he will fight, fight, fight and you'll win, win, win. thank you and god bless you and god bless our soldiers and god bless the u.s. army. thanyou very much. thank you everybody. [chanting] usa, u, usa. ♪♪ ♪♪

♪♪ ♪♪ [cheers and applause] ♪♪ ♪♪ [cheers and applause] [chanting] usa, usa, usa. ♪♪ ♪♪ [cheers and applause] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪

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the clerk: mr. kaine. mr. kaine. mr. kelly. mr. kennedy. mr. kim. mr. king. ms. klobuchar. mr. lankford. mr. lee. mr. lujan. ms. lummis. mr. markey. mr. marshall. mr. mcconnell. mr. mccormick. mr. merkley.

mrs. moody. mr. moran. mr. moreno. mr. mullin. ms. murkowski. mr. murphy. mrs. murray. mr. ossoff. mr. padilla. mr. paul. mr. peters. mr. reed. mr. ricketts. mr. risch.

the subcommittee will come to order. today a welcome the secretary of the department of housing and urban development scott turner. mr. secretary who wan to thank you for being here to discuss hud's fiscal year 2026 budget request. i also want to thank you for your visit recently to my district april. it was greo have you on the ground to see the impact of programs to my dtrict and let me add the cost of razorback tasteful game while we were there in a plug of give my razorback some credit for making it to omahaha for they will play saturday evening against those bengal tigers of lsu. it is his committee's responsibility to complete our work on time and i believe we can achieve this goal and i'm

pleased under chairman kohl's leadership we have begun marking up to 12 prereparation bills for fy26. at the same time it's our expectation departments under our jurisdiction the funds consistently wh the way we appropriate them. we appreciate your partnership as you continuto implement the funds commerce made available to hud for fiscal 25. hud's request for new buffet -- budget of three and $22,633.2 billion. that is a $35.5 billion decrease. let me say that again. it's not a typo. $35.5 billion decrease from the fy25. hud uses mortgage guaranty fees from the federal housing administration and government national mortgage association to offset its spending. the congressional budgetffice estimate $6.9 billion in offsetting receipts for fy26.

that's $1.5 billion less than in 2025. regardless of what the frustration sent over in its budget request the cbo scores what we have to live with andd that means a deeper hole than the president's budget would suggest. but safety office this is a significant reduction in the scretionary budget authority for the department. mr. secretary u. heard in april and my district many arkansans are struggling to afford th rising cost of housing in the course it's not unique in northwest arkansas. an american committee survey found 31% of american households cost burdens due to rising housing costs in 202325% of household for the mortgage and 50% with rent. this is why hud's impact is felt in every district to the rich rental system program hud insures that the poor, the veterans in the elderly and

those with disabilities can live with dignity that provides economic development dollars for governments and hel find -- help with home based disasters. divisive or departments important mission secretary turner and deeply concerned about the deep cuts administration budget makes to hud. these cuts missions and operations i'm interesting in hearing about a $27.6 billion -- will server most liberal. your proposal is on the tail for your proposed eight rental assistance program will ultimately work and i'm curious how hud will support community development in low and moderate income communities and some of its most important popular programs like community developmentt block grants that have been zeroed out. these programmatic changes need to go through the communities rticularly the block grant

assistance for the states and the dramatic changes in how we mbat h homelessness in america. these proposals require an all an effort to welcome ongoing dialog with our operating colleagues. budget program should work better for the american peoplple you and i have discussed if the cut too deep and if we cut to fast hud's programs will not communities you and ill not have pledged to help. as for doing about your goals for hud for the fiscal year and beyond the subcommittee stands ready to work with you to better serve all americans as we write this year's bill. now i'd like to recognize the ranking membeber and my partnern e this effort the gentleman from south carolina for his opening statement. >> thank you very much mr. and welcome. housing is a basic human need and serves as foundation for health and financial background

for every family in america. without a stable place to live it's difficult for families to maintain good health or increase their earnings to build wealth. more than 771,000 people are experiencing homelessness and 75% of low income renters for than half of their income onn rent. cording to the census bureau last year the annual cost of renting grew faster at 3.8% in home values at 1.8%. for the first time since 2011 this comes at a time when more than 56% of african-american households and 52% of households

pay more than 30% of their income on rent compared to less than 27% of other americans. meanwhile the existing budget constraints only one in five families receive federal assistance. despite these realities the department 2026 budget cuts it by more than half. this is not only unacceptable but unrealistic given t dire needs of americans. mr. secretary of which it proposes to eliminate section a public housing housing for the elderly housing for persons with disabilities housing for aids hiv and continuous programs. you're proposing to establish a so-called state rental assistance program to block

grant payments you have yet to define. your budget proposes to eliminate nearly all of hud's construction and preservation programs. time does not permit me to enumerate all of this. these so-called reforms would shift costs to low income residents and i have yet to see from yourudgett evidence that fits these time limits and if they become law. this doesn't give families forward in multiple jobs to become self-sufficient. instead it creates chaos financial uncertainty and pushes families into more severe trade-offs.

heat paying for medication or payi for rent. lastly i would be remiss if i did not highlight the hud and your plan to deregulate law. mr. secretary remember the long and painful history that led to the creation of the fair housing w. the federal housing of administration backs an insurance cpany literally threw red lines on maps around the neighborhoods where they refused to provide home loans an insurance that would otherwise qualified homebuyers. i k know because i was bn in one of them and i currently live in one of them. this discriminationeturned to the world war ii, korea and

vietnam. these men and women that serve their country guests were excluded from the g.i. bill's housing benefits that were transformational. they we denied va loans. for the first 3350 va home loans in mississippi only to went to them, not 2%, to 3306 andot even fightining for our countryr abroad. they left a fair shot at the american dream here at home. li timers were denied a primary pass to build generational wealth and close the wealth gap that ists to this day.

i know this as well. i've served on the boards to what is now bank of america. the investment committee and served on the hud committee could have leded investigations into my own bank. fair housing law of 1968 representse. a simple promise tt every amerin would have an equal opportunity to procure safe and decent housing. unfortunately with this administration we've seen an attack on long-standing ls that were enacted excluding from this country. the current state of housing and the cost of living in america

causes us to question our national priorities and then forcing mr. secretary this budget proposal ignores far too many realitities and it is not a reflection of what should be the value of our country. it's an exploitation of our most vulnerable. mr. chairman i implore my colleagues on this panel to work together to find some real solutions to the h housing criss d drive down the cost and not increase thehe economic burden n every american. and i think the ranking member to the four introduced her witness this morning the chair recognizes a very familiar face on the hud staff byden delbert form staffer for the

subcommittee. mr. secretary u. have got a really good when they are. he wants to stop the poaching. he's a good man and a valuable asset. i know you will enjoy his service to your organization but at this time i i'm going to recognize yofor your opening statement. the entire prepared statement will be included in the record and we'll give you five minutes to summarize your comments then we will open her our question-and-answer period and without mr. secretary the floor is yours. >> thank you mr. terminated morning to you chairman vice chair vice and ranking member clyburn andistinguished members of the subcommittee. thank you for this opportunity to testify today in support of president trump's 2026 bget for the united states department of housing and urban develment and again think you've chairman for havinge in arkansas and

showing me innovative housing in t. members we have a window of opportunity to help every american achieve the dream of homeownership and the clock is indeed taking. as of this past april by the national median home price is $414 u for more th threeo $41,000 in april of 2021 this is a dramatic increase of more than 21%. it b became hard for americans o afford homes due to the by demonstrations marked in negligence and a lack of stewardship of american taxpayer dollars. we cannot keep running the same place that are causing america to lose but it's time to get a new playbook and this budget the president's fiscal year 2026 is indeed that new playbook. it requests $43.5 billion for the department of housing and urban development to fund

critical programs that provide greater fiscal responsibility and carries out president trump's directives to increase howell the supply and make it affordable again but but this bt supports hud's mission that we will maximize and fund congress that you and your colleagues provide to us by $10 billion at $10. we are taking inventory of every program found hud assistance to deal full of waste, fraud and abuse. it's broken and has deviated from its real purpose which is temporarily to help americans in need. that assistance is not supposed to be permanent. it's a trampolinend not a hammock or a rescue. it's a treadway which is a military edge to get the obstacles removed. you will elimite a radical political agenda in wasteful spending at hud.

we identified as an example $250 billion in savings for taxpayers and $4 billion in dei contract with hud and recover an additional $1.9 billion from an active contrtracts that should have been c closed out during te biden admistration. putting more money to programs just fuels its existing status which is not good. so here we are reversing course and being efficient and effective and not and bureaucratic. we want to be efficient and effective not bureaucratic. we also went -- underwent harmful regulations under the obama-biden era. we are cutting red tape and we are increasing the housing stock for first-time homebuyers. the federal housing of administrationkb fha which insus

mortgages on 7 million homes has insured mortgages for mor than 140,000 first-time homebuyers in chanda brigance president trump returned to the white house. in addition we are ending taxpayer funded subsidies for hud programs for illegal aliens entering into our country but how does more than just housing. we have streamlined the disaster recovery prorocess to help fundo get to communities more quickly and efficiently. for archival communities where $2.2 million under the expansion of the tribal hud program to addresess veterans homelessness. in a rowe muncy's we have discussed solutions for workforce housing and returning hud to its intended purpose serving americans who localized solutions for the president's budget continues this approach by limiting the spending of federal programs for it proposes is state-based grant to encourage states to have skin in

the game for the funding and the design of their own assistance the block grant would empower states to be more thoughtful for their stardship. that has currently 30,000 programs by recipients and no wonder it's plagued by abuse. this system would maintain necessary assistance for the utterland abused in the budget continues on its commitment to broad economic independence and adopt compassionat common sense and the bipartisan conversation around t time limits and encoure able-bodied residents to move up and get a assistant housing housing. this is our nation's homelessness crisis for returning solutions to local authorities for the present budget saves billions in taxpayer dollars and helps restore fiscal responsibility.

mr. chchairman in order to proper serve the american people we must care about our mission and care about the ones that we serve and care about this country and that's what hud is and that's what we have returned to do. the 2026 hud budget request will allow us to operate in a way that we haven't in previous years and return to the golden age. i support this and look forward to mr. chairman talking to you. thank you for your time. >> thank you mr. secretary. there is at least one other committee mending this morning that will carry someme of her members away the ranking memembr d the chair of the full committee who may or may not come in time if they do i want to recognize them when they get here so we can maximize their appearance. the defense subcommittee is meeting with secretary of defense and the chairman of the joint chiefs in order t to get e posture hearing for that budget

framework. so now let's go to the q&a portion of our meeting this morning. mr. secretary i appreciate your commitnt to reforming our federal rental assistance programs. the current system as you are ready articulated is rife with an efficiency. the administration's request proposes placing that major hud rental assistance programs sebased project-based public housing into a single state rental assistance block grant program. you reference it in your openening. this is substantial change to business as usual. as we consider this proposal i want to make sure we are good stewards of taxpayer dollars while still meeting our obligation to help those most in need. i would also note an overhaul of these programs would need the work of the operating committee and that of financial services but i support reforms that promote work, that reduce

dependency and give state and local governments morore control ani want to ensure we are not creating gaps that could lead to increased homelessness or hardship for bold appropriate the concept on how a proposed block grant program like this would maintain assistance to the approximately 10 million americans currently served by these programs? seem a guest circle mr. chairman thank you for your question. as you stated my stadium status quo is not good enough in the way that we have been going about serving the american people from a hud perspective is no longer good enough. so with this new paradigm did it's a culture shift the goal is not to serve less americans but the goal is to serve americans better so to give state an opportunity to have skin in the game to identify and be

deliberative about how they put the resources out as it pertains to taking care of the most vulnerable in our state. there is a focus in the budget to take care of the elderly and those that are disabled. when you look at hud, hud has had record funds over the past few years and the last eight years has budget grew from 42 billion to 77 billion we are only a book currently deserved one of the four elible families. so this is a paradigm shift. playing in nfl playing in sports when you have a playbook and you're running plays that are not working the best changes to go in and make adjustments saying we can no longer make this play because it's costing us a let's reimagine what we are doing. i don't like to lose

mr. chairman. i don't like the american people to lose so we have to do something different in this country. it's not about just throwing money at the situation it's about what they do with the money that we have to best served effectively and efficiently the people of our country. that's my mindset. it's not about the money for me it's about the people and we are turning hud to that focus missioninded. we understand what our call is and we understand who we have been called to certainly understand what we arere focused on. to use a football vernacular when we bring in this block grant program what conditions will be in place and what will you do to ensure we have adequate service levels and you mentioned the eldlderly or the disabled and people that are

very vulnerable in their lives. what assurances do we have and wh can we do to ensure that there is a service-level that is fitting for these individuals. >> thank you or come as a great question. and the state assistance program there's money in the budget from arcadia mark program to make sure we work with states to implement an appropriate strategy and to work with you in her colleagues on this committee to make sure the strategy is serving the most vulnerable in our country. how does the great facilitator and we are focused on assisting the budget there's money set aside so we don't just say this is the program but but this is w we will join in with states and stakeholrs to implement and execute this program so those conversations have begun we will continue and we welcome your input from your and your colleagues to make sure this the strategy works effectively. >> thank you sir to mr. clyburn.

i'm not going to do football. i played the game. i'm a pretty good golfer could i know if i have 150 yards on the green it doesn't matter what club i used, what matters is what sll i've got. that's what matters. i always hear people say what club do you use? what does it mean to you? you aren't the same as i so at 85 years old it will cost me a little more than a 6 iron. so get the right equipment. if you tell me that hud has bn ineffective to you here in effectiveness by refocusing or

cure by eliminating it cooks you eliminate the funds how does that make it effective? can make you sir. and i've heard it through great golfer and i look forward to play with you. your 8 iron might be different thanine. i'm reminded during the previous administration during covid with a 70 billion-dollar budget cuts hired 2000 people. most of which stayed contis was, fraud and abuse. so when you have that many people and still are not carrying out the job and have that much funding and still not carrying out the job for the american people than we have to refocus and part of that refocus is taking inventory of staff and taking inventory of the budget

taking inventory where the budget is going and currently in the program we have don't have a lot of transparency ifr. you wil where the money is going. part of this refocus is to bring that back to the state and say now let's have more transparency let's have more accountability. when i look at the skill set i'll add that to me is in the same bucket. if you look at your people and are you doing the job even called to do and are you doing it a at the level you been call to do it in as their transparency in the process that we have and that hud that's what we are doing. i took an inventory of every program. we are going to maximize the budget that we have so the amount of people the amount of money is not the deal here. with the treremendous amount o

money under tremendous amount of people prior to us getting here we carried out the job we've been called to carry out. >> i think the deal with covid is a pause in narrative. i chair the select subcommittee. i know where the fraud was billions and billions by people on your which one is in the administrations now. just look at what the neeeeds ae and we need to equip ourselves for is need. you mentioned the obama invite administration. why would you advocate for andrew johnson and woodrow

wilslson fruststrations? i use those two administrations because i dislike them immensely and they were democrats. so i don't want you to think this is politics could woodrow wilson was a democrat and he was the worst president we ever had so this is not parsan here but l have a program to meet the needs of the american people or whether we will deal with the backlog? that so we seem to be doing here. half of the budget you tell me want to refocus and guess what are you using the five iron o oe leave itn the bag? >> it's the right equipment forr the right situation prior to his being here we haven't been using the right equipment for the right situation. what is the right equipment? >> the right equipment is transparency and scald inventory and let's refocus and let's have a new paradigm. you talk about the biden obama

administration and all make note. thatat's where the rule ca from and not policy. my heart and focuses on serving the american people and we are refocusing in order to do that. thank you sir. >> i yield back mr. chairman. >> we will do a second round. >> thanking mr. chairman and ranking member. mr. secretary you know we are facing historic shortages affordable housing and i thought one of the best programs that hud had was the shop program where non-profits would assist people in homeownership.. i can tell you as a former sheriff everywhere in my community we did this on purpose

in jackson hole florida. we went into the m most challend neighborhoods working with these nonprofit groups who would then bring homeownership into these areas, these most challenged public safety areas and everywhere the homeownership went up violent crime wen down. so that's why i love this, beuse it puts people in the homeownership. i like s. rep but i want people to own homes because i know it changes the whole community. can you tell me a little bit about how are we going to address this issue if we are doing away withcl that? and i think you sheriff, sorry congressman.n. thank you for your service and law enforcement. again i reiterate this is a new way of looking at how we

distribute funds. by bringing in localities and giving them the flexibility to identify programs such as the state that have been successful then thewill have the ability to continue to fund and work with those programs. i too am for workforce and i too am for skills training in homeownership moving from renting to homeownership moving from subsidized to living a life of self-sufficiency. if i could interrupt you have s. rep which is basically a block ant forward to this since programs and you are saying they will be another block grant process for programs like shop can be funded out if if the state or city decides they will use those funds? >> not an additional block grant but included with it.

>> included in the s grant? >> the ability to identntify programs thaare doing well and to be able to not just fund those that support t those opportunities than the states that you are talking about particular like shop that you mentioned. >> and all of those others are rentals. >> ty are,, you sir. >> you are saying those dollars will be used for homeownership and affordable homeownership? >> no sir per line saying if you have programs that promote homeownership have programs that will promote individuals being able to buy homes states will now be able to identify those better than the federal government for the federal government is not the ones who identify it so the whole paradigm is to return that back to the states as it pertains to rental assistance that we talked about. this is the refocusing of taking

the federal government other than putting the states in chcharge and control of how they want to distribute the funds. >> let me ask one more question in this round. in jacksonville we had a project-based rental assistance program eureka gardens in out know if you're familiar with thatut but this is dealing with public housing units and equality standards and how those are handled. what sort of oversight do you see hud having are those rental facilities? this one got so bad that we had an explosion. how do we improve the inspector

training in the come of the way to make sure those inspections are consistent and reliable? you sir in hud will be involved obviously when it comes to inspections such as this. i've traveled around the country and visited public housing authorities and have seen some the conditions of people are living in across the country. some of them are. obviously hu will continue to be involved in the public housing authorities are safe and secure for the residents that are living there. >> mr. chairman my time is up and i yield back. >> mr. secretary i don't know if you really believe all this stuff or you'ree just parroting what folks say because let me begin by wrote reports on those that were detailed about how to streamline and consolidate government to make it more

effective not because i that because it's so important resources are scarce but there are no details to when you save refocus and reform it falls on deaf ears but it doesn't mean anything. you can talk about compassion but no reform measures are going to be able to allow us to cut cut by 50% and not have our most vulnerable people, seniors, kids, people with hiv/aids on the streets. mr. secretary you u hahave to understand housing is everything. housing for people is confirmed. the motion to reconsider be med. considered made and laid upon the table and the president will be immediately notified of the senate's action.

a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. merkley: mr. president, i have witnessed starvation up close. many years ago, i i was visitin mother teresa's home for the dying in calcutta, and the room had a series of cots filled with men. there was a men's side, a woman's side. i wasas on the men's side. and many of the men, the priest told me, had come after they had reached a point of malnutrition on the s streets to which they d been -- to which they had

collapsed, a and ias asked to tend to one young man, and his eyes were very bright. and i asked the priest it appears like he's really focused. he said, no, no, no. he said this young man has been starving to death, his body has started to damage his own organs, there is no recovery,, all w can do is minister to his comfort. that meant taking sections of grapefruit and wiping them across his lips. i also visited a refugee center until south sudan, where the level of malnutrition was measured by an arm band. it was a quick way to understand how little food they had. it's color coded. green to yellow too red to aid

rkers can see the sefrt of the malnutrition, the extent of the impact of starvation. mr. merkley: what we're seeing is a different form of disaster, a failure of political will to buy food. their starvation -- the netanyahu governmt controls what's coming in and has chosen to use food as a weapon of war. i've come to the floor tonight to say that this is immoral.

that this use of food as a weapon of war is wrong under any structure of religion or moral code. i've come to the floor to say it violates human rights and to say that it violates international law, and that all of us should join together and call for our government, the u.s. government, to use every leverage of influence we have with our close ally israel to have the netanyahu government end this strategy. own the last few months public attention has turned away from the ongoing war in gaza because there's so much going on hereren thenited states and so much going on around the world. our newspapers and news feeds are full o of stori about the trump administration, about new

tariffs, new executive orders, new events across the country, and also, quite frankly, about hetbreaking events of anti-semitic violence against our american jewish community. before i turn to deliberate further on the horrific use of food as a weapon of war, i want to reaeally note the importancef never allowing criticism of the practices of another government or certainly criticism of the government of israel, the netanyahu government, to blur into discrimination or persecutn of anyone based on their faith identity. i abhor discrimination, abhor

persecution. i abhor anti-semitism, anti-semitic acts, including assault and harassment and vandalism, have increased dramatic clip p here in the unid states. across the country in 2024 and into 2025, the highest level recorded since the anti-defamation league started tracking the data in 1979. on the first night of passover an arsonist set fire to the pennsylvania governor's mansion while the governor, josh shapiro and his family were asleep inside. sarah mill grim and her friend were murdered here in washington, d.c. outside the jewish museum. and 12 peoplearching in support of the release of the hostages being held in gaza were attacked and injured in boulder, colorado, just a week ago sunday. i condemn these acts of

anti-semitism and violence. we must root out prejudice and discrimination. let's root it out o our hearts. we must root it out of the public acts. we will stand arm in arm with our jewish community members whenever they are threatened. with that emphasis, let me be clear. as we stand arm in arm with our fellow jewish citizens who are threatened by assault and harassment and vandalism and discrimination, we should also be standing arm in arm togetheh against the use of the denial of including by the netanyahu government using that strategy in gaza. we need immediate cease-fire in gaza and i hopend pray every day we will have such a cease-fire and with that

cease-fire will come the swift ansafe return of all the remaining hostages. we also need an i immediate massive influx of humanitarian aid, incding water and medicine and certainly food. but under the relevant rules of international humanitarian law, the provision of food can never be tied to some other act like a cease-fire, like every nation has the responsibility in conflict to make sure they are not denying food in kind of a mass punishment othe other side. and, therefore, food should not be contingent upon the cease-fire. it needs to be provided under moral code, under religious code, under humanitarian law, under international law, ceasase-fire or noes -- no

cease-fire. i've spoken about my concerns about the indiscriminate bombing that k killedd tens of thousandf innocent palestinian civilians in gaza, including, women, children, and the elderly. those individuals are victims as well of netanyahu's government use of food as a weapon of war. i oppose and condemn the strategy and i oppose and condemn the failure of the united states to use our resources and our influence to strive in every way possible to persuade the netanyahu government to abandon the strategy of starvation. following the horrific attacks of october 7, 2023, israel had every right to go after hamas. but how you do so does matter. and starving the civilian

population of gaza is morally reprehensible. yet that is the strategy the netanyahu government has employed with only a periodic exemption since the start of the war. two days after the october 7, 2023, attack by hamas, then-israeli defense minister gallant laid out the strategy saying, and i quote, i've ordered a complete siege on the gaza strip. there will be no electricity, no food, no fuel. everything is closed. from the start of the war through the first 15 months, until the cease-fire of january 2025, the united nations, and international humanitarian organizations have warned of the growing crisis over food in gaza. before the war began, an average of 500 trucks entered gaza each

day to provide the basic food needed to feed 2.1 million people. thatat food was supplemented by food that people in gaza were growing. when senator van hollen and i visited rafah gate crossing in january of 2024, an average of only 150 trucks per day were getttting into gaza to provide medicine, equipment, and food. while we were at that gate, a doctor came out. he had just left through the rafah gate crossing after treating patients for out, i believe he told me three weeks, at the european hospital. and this was so essentially three mths into the gaza war. he said, we are already seeing major changes in patients' ability to recover because, he

said, they're not getting enough nutrition. if you don't have enough food, your body doesn't have the energy to recover from a wound. this was just mononths into tha war. for the following year, the number of trucks entering gaza fell even wer, to an average of 100 trucks a day. just a fraction of the amount of food n needed to provide civilis with sufficient nutrition, and the ability to grow food in gaza essentially evaporated under the bombardment and conditions of war. then there was a moment of hope that this atrocity was ending. the discussion of a lengthy, possibility of a lengthy

cease-fire. but even as those discussions progressed, the information was flowing about alrlready the devastating effects of malnutrition. netanyahu's government strategy of food deprivation had inflicted massive malnutrition and health problems on the 2 million palestinians in gaza. malnutrition is devastating on the body. malnutrition prevents the body from recovering from bombing-induced injuries. malnutrition increases the risk of miscarriage. malnutrition prevents mothers from being able to b breast fee their babies because their milk dries up. malnutrition creates the possibility that babies will die because mothers who do not have breast milk may not be able to get clean water or formula, both being necessary for a baby to

survive. adults as well as babieies and children suffer from the collateral effects of bods weakened from malnutrition. and for those who do survive, the long-term health injuries are vast. children who endure long-term hunger and malnutrition will have lifelong health damage, including stunted growth and impaired cognitive development. but then we had that break. finally after 15 months, january 2025,, the parties agreed to a cease-fire, including the return of 33 hostages and a surge in humanitarian aid, including food. and during that cease-fire, 600 trucks a day on average entered gaza with food and supplies. and this delivery showed that it's entirely possible to efficiently get trucks into

gaza. when senator van hollen and i were at rafah gate in january, the previous year, 2024, we witnessedmiles-long backup of trucks parked along the road to rafah gate, and we kept hearing from the israeli government, we just can't process these trucks and get them into gaza. and they blamed the inrnational organizations for the challenge. but it's clear, once netanyahu government made a decision to get trucks in, they could get them in. we saw it during the cease-fire. we know it was possible all along. we know it wasca m t keep tho trucks out, to inflict this hunger, to inflict this starvation on the population of palestinia. but that food that came in, those 600 trucks for that

limited time period, a time period of 58 days, wasn't sufficient to make up for the malnutrition of the previous 15 months. it didn't erase the ravages that had been inflicted on the population. it certainly meant that enough food was getting in for kind of a daily consumption at that point, but it certainly wasn't long enough and didn't reverse the impacts of those first 15 months. and then the interlude ended. on march 2 the cease-fire ended and the netanyahu government resumed using food as theeapon of war, blockading all humanitarian aid, including food and water and medicine, from reaching civilians in gaza. the netanyahu govement's claims that not enough aid was delivered was that enough aid was delivered during the

cease-fire to compensate for the blockade to come simy was false. repeated public reports from the united nations, from credible news sources, from international humanitarian aid organizations all raised the alarm month after month that widespread hunger, malnutrition, a starvation have been growing as aid supplies ran out. one way to determine if there is a shortage is to look at food prices. when there's no shortage in food, prices are stable. there is a tool that governments use and nongovernmental organization the use called the integrated food aid system, fancy word to describe how they reflect shortages. that tool provides reports from

that and it reported a 55-poun sack of flour which sold for $17 in gaza in february 2025, in may 2025, after the blockade was reimposed, sold for $520. not $17, but $520. here at home in the united states, here at home in the united states, all purpose flour can be found on the internet for $18.59, a 50-pound sack with frfree home delivery. in other words, the shortage of food resulted in flour being about 27 times more expensive than it had been previously in gaza a few months before and about 27 times more expensive than what a pound of flour costs here in the united states of america. those staggering prices tell you several things. first, that the humanitarian

feeding operations after the blockade was reimposed were absolutely unable to meet the need for food. people who have their food needs met don't pay that type of price, $520 for a sack of flour. second, it means that food was a luxury that only the affluent in gaza could afford, the few that d the ability to get funds from outside of gaza. and finally, that folks who did not have that money weren't going to be able to buy flour to cook anything. then on march 25, just three weeks into the blockade, the word food program reported that due to the netanyahu government's blockade, all 25 of their bakeries had run out of flour and fuel. so realize march 2, the reimposition of the blockade.

and within a couple weeks, by march 25, the bakeries under the word food program had run out of flour and fuel. accordrding to "the new york times," those bakeries had produced, and i quote, enough bred to supply about 70% of gaza's population. but those bakeries werehut down weeks after the blockade up posed. -- reimposed. the ipc also reports that gaza's 177th hot meal kitchens run by various aid organizations exhausted their supplies at the beginning of april, one month into reimposition of the blockade. one of these eight organizations was world central kitchen. world central kitchen is known araroundhe word for stepping into situations and helping out where there are disasters. humanitarian disasters of all kinds and in this case the disaster of the restriction of

foodod by the netanyahu government. world central kitchen's emergency meal services provided an estimated 400,000 to 500,000 meals per day. but on may 7, world central kitchen announced, ote, after serving more than 130 million total meals and 26 million loaves of bread after the past several responsibility, central kitchen no longer has the supplies to cook meals or bake bread in gaza. so within week, of the blockade being reestablished, the markets were empty. the bakeries were shut down. and hot meal kitchens were closed. and the effect on the people in gaza, the palestinians of gaza, the 2.1 million palestinians living there, devastating. palestinian civilians had been suffering from malnutrition, from early on as the doctor told me, three months after the war

had begun. and it just got worse and worse over time with the deprivation of food. unicef reports that a number of children suffering from acute malnutrition increased 80% just from february of this year to march of this year, 80% increase. that's because the children have no food. parents have watched helplessly as they see clothes that once fit their toddlers hang off their brittle bodies. that irkids -- their kids bony rib cages and shockingly thin limbs. increased malnutrition means it's even harder to recover from bombing induced injuries, lyer -- higher risk of miscarriages, higher risk of mothers not being able to breast feed their babies. it means babies are weaker.

it means adults are weaker, children are weaker. often it is not malnutrition, that is, starvation that kills someone. it is the weakened body dying from other diseases. and as noted before, the impacts on the development of the brain and the development of the body for chiren can last a lifetime. world health organization representative rick peeperkorn warned, quote, without enough nutritious food and clelean wat and access to health care, an entire generation will be perma permanently affected. i might add the effects of not those of malnutrition but also the trauma of being under constant bombardment over the course of this war, often without a home, often without

electricity, often without clean water, often without access to medicine, often watching your family members die. so these children at a minimum we should make sure they have food. at a minimum, at a very minimum. we probably can't reverse many of the traumatic effects that will a affect their lives just like we know trauma affects those who go to war. these are children and civilians living through t effects of war. the world health organization reports as of may 13 that almost five dozen children had starved to dth in gaza. and if dozens of children have died from starvation, how many thousands of children more are on the verge of devastating level of malnutrition and

potential death from starvati? the headlines tell the escalating and devastating story to the world. on march 2, the day the blocke began, "the washington post" headline read, israel halts all aid to gaza as cease-fire falters. on april 1, one month into the blockade, the canadian broadcasting cooperation said fear of famine looms after all gaza bakeries run out of flour amid month-long israeli blockade. may 4, two months into the blockade, nbc news, starvation looms as israel's total blockade on gaza enters its third month. you start seeing the word

starvation appear in story after story, headline after headline. if you or i could travel to gaza right now, we would be absolutely shocked to see the bodies of the adults and the bodies of the children. but we can't travel there because it's closed to all of us. but reports from credible news organizations have been alerting us to this horrific disaster coming from using food as a weapon. tar vision -- starvation looms as the blockade enterss its thid month. so iaeli officer adm tt gazas on the brink of starvation, "the new york times." so we have heard time and again

from the netanyahu government don't believe international organization, even though they are experts. don't believe because we are telling you there's no problem. but even thehe israelis are telling the world there is a pro problem, that gaza is on the brink of starvation. and thenn on may 16, president trump, our president, acknowledges starvation in gaza as israeli air strikes kill more than 100. the president says the u.s. will take care of the situation of gaza on the final day of gulf tour in a dhabi. why don't we join together, democrats and republicans, support president trump in having the u.s. take care of t situation, address the

starvation in gaza? that is the moral thing to do. that i is the rht thingo do under any religious code. we have this incredibly close relationship with the israeli government. we are the primary source of economic suppor have close tech support. we have a closeseecurity relationship. we share intelligence. we have many connections between members of our government and our military and our intelligence community and theirs. why not support president trump and using these connections to end the tar vision in -- to end the starvation in gaza. you know, starvation happens many places in the world where we don't have a close relationship with the government. it may seem very distant. but here we are complicit because w are so closely tied and so supportive of the israeli

government. so we have a special responsibility to address this and use every leverage at our power to end it. facing wee after week of these horrifying headlines, world leaders pressed prime minister netanyahu to end the strategy and implement a new plan. only after it was reported israel's closest friends, meaning u.s. leaders, warned the israeli government that it would lose international support because allies could notandle pictures of mass starvation did prime minister netanyahu consider changing course. on may 19 -- so n we're talking about just three weeks ago -- after more than 11eeks of an all-ouout blockade, prime

minister netyahu announced that -- and he used the word minimal -- a minimal amoununt o od would be allowed into gaza. well, that plan is hardly satisfactory. the new u.s. and israeli-backed organization, the gaza humanitarian foundation,, has taken over aid distribution working in partnership with israeli military and private u.s. security contractors. they're distributing aid from just four sites, one in central gaza near the corridor, three in sohern gaza, and the rafah area. civilians have to get one o those four sites to obtain a box of food. now, if you visited israel, you know that gaza is about 40 miles long from north to south. it's a thin wafer along the mediterranean coast. how do four seswith three of them at the very southern end of

that 40 miles possibly get food to 2.1 million people? they needed hundreds of kitchens before to get food distributed ththroughout the country. so what you have is a formula that says millions of people are going to descend on these four sites to acquire a box of food. the logisistics of that are up possible and they're meant to be impossible. it's deliberately designed not to work. because there's no way that four sites can handle handing out food to 2.1 million people. so it's produced chaotic scenes with desperate crowds, crowds of men, women, and children rushing toward boxes of aid to try to get one of those boxes and then warning shots being fired. and not justarning shots.

shots that killed palestinians. warning shots don't kill people. on sunday, june 1, abc news reported that 31 people were killed and 200 injured when israeli troops opened fire. on tuesday, june 3, the bbc reported 27 civilians were killed by military gunfire for, quote, deviating from the designating access routes while desperately trying to collect food. on wednesday, june 4, less than a week ago, the bbc called gaza worth than hell on earth, as the israeli military closed its aid distribution sites for the day, warning that roads leading to

the sites are combat zones. how do 2.1 million people get to the aid sites if the roads leading to theites are combat zones, and if each time the food distributions are opened people end up dying because they're shot? on sunday, june 8, "the new york times" reports that about a half mile from a distribution site schatz were fired -- shots were fired and five people were killed and 123 were wounded. yesterday -- well, here we are on tuesday. monday, yesterday, june 9, the associated press reports 14 people were kililled on their w to a food distribution center. this is not a plan designed to ko address the hunger, to end the malnutrition, to end the

starvation. this is a plan to make it virtually impossible for the palestinians to get food, while telling the world, don't worry, we have a distribution plan. everyone understands this is not a plan designed to provide food, it's a plan designed to make sure that veryy little food get just to a small number of people, so that the starvation continues and gets worse, the malnutrition continues and gets worse, the impact on the ravaged bodies of children, babies, and women and seniors and all kinds of folks who had nothing ever to do with hamas continue to dec decline. "the new york times" interviewed many gazans who said they go to theistribution sites when they are closed, despite the warnings of the israeli military, because they, quote, are desperate for

food and seeking to get ahead of the large crowd. if there's only a few boxes, and the site's only open for a few minus, you're willing to wait all night because your family is starving, your wants your kids to survive, you want your spouse to survive, you want to survive yourself. of course you're going to try to beat the crowd there, w when yo know it's impossible that the food will be sufficient for everyone to walk away with a box of food. yesterday, june 9, the gaza humanitarian foundation announced the opening of an aid distribution center in a poston itits -- in a post on its facebk page, only to post again the centerompleted distributions ss than 20 minutes later and closed. it's open 20 minutes, of course you're going to try to beat the crowds. it's only going to be open for a few minutes, it's only a mest number of boxes, nothing that could posossibly servehousands of people, let alone hundreds of

thousands,lets let alone 2.1 million people. of course you're going to try to go early. the foundationlosed a second center because of the chaos of the surrounding crowd. whenever you have starvation, you're going to have chaos around food distribution centers. you know, early in this conflict, when i went to rafah gate in january of 2024, the inrnational aid organization said, we are pushing to make the point that if there isn't sufficient food, eventually the trucks carrying food will be raided, because people will be despate. that always happens when people are desperate. not a particular condition of the situation in gaza, but wherever people are starving they are going to raid the trucks to get food. they won't wait for a warehouse that has very little food in it

to open up in an orderly fashion, because there isn't enough food for everyone, so they're going to make an effort to get that food for their fafamilies. so this chaos, this was understood that this would be this way. it's not something that is, if you will, incidental to the plan. it is the plan. not enough food, not enough distribution centers, not open long enough, dlilib effort -- deliberate effort to make hundreds of thousands of people compete with each other for a few boxes. that's chaos. aid groups say the netanyahu government system will be ineffective in reversing the widespread hunger because not nearly enough food is being allowed in. the united nations called the food being let in a drop in the

ocean. food is being distributed far from where it's needed most, especially for the elderly and people with disabilities. how are they going to travel? it's a 40-mile-long strip of land. how are they going to travel if you're disabled, if you're elderly, to compete with hundreds of thousands of people trying to get to just four distribution sites? it's impossible. dangerous and deadly chaos at food distribution sites is being fueled not through some clever plan by hamas, but by the deprivation of starving civilians who hope to keep their families and their children alive. and that desperation is the direct and inevitable result of netanyahu government's strategy of deliberately iosed

starvation. even if civilians could make that dangerous journey safely, the amount of aid in this new system is wholly insufficient. during the ceasefire over the winter, 600 trucks a day entered gaza. only a few hundred trucks have been allowed into gaza over the last week, and the world food program reports that only one-third of their trucks reach their destination. a handful of world food program bakeries actually did resume bread production on may 22, but the supplies were so limited that world food programme county director antoine renard warned, i quote, this is just a drop in the bucket of what is needed to reverse the catastrophic levels of hunger. we're in a race against time to prevent widespread starvation. the world food programme reports

that, quote, over 140,000 metric tons of food, enough to feed the entire population for three months, is prepositions at the aid corridors and ready to be brought into gaza at scale, just as i saw in january 2024, trucks piled up for miles waiting to try to get in. here we have the world food programme reporting that now, again, food ready to move in, but the netanyahu government is blocking it. on june 8, , two days ago, yanti siripto, ceo of save the children, told "face the nation," quote, when we had the pause in fighting from january till march, as you will recall, we got trucks and trucks of supplies in at scale. we were a able to deliver, and w ut did vaccinations, and we did medical

care, and hospitals were operating. so this currents new -- this current new mechanism doesn't seem to work. the failings seem to play out exactly the way that we warned against. it is also the militarization of aid, i'm continuing this long quote, it's the militarization of aid. if you put men with guns near distribution point, and you ask a desperate, starving population to walk for miles to get boxes of food, you're going to create crowd control issues. and increased risk of harm to an already incredibly desperate population. that's the end of the quote. and that is exactly what we're seeing happen. as cnn reported yesterday, june 9, aid to gaza hangs by a thread amid looting and starvation.

let's be clear. that trickle of aid is not about food deprivation as a weapon of war. it's about continuing food deprivation as a weapon of war, while deflecting just enough international pressure to keep himself in power. jonathan whittall, lead of the u.n.'s office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs in the p palestinian territories said on may 28, the newly developed distribution scheme is more than just the control of aid. it is engineered scarcity. the new distribution model cannot possibly meet gaza's need. the same day, riyad monsour, the palestinian representative to the united nations told the security council, quote, children are dying of sauvation.

the images -- of starvation. the images of mothers embracing their motionless bodies, caressing their hr, talking to them, apologizing to them, is unbearable. on may 30, "the new york times" reporting led with the headline in emaciated children, gaza's hunger is laid bare. every moral and religious code says this is wrong. wrong to withhold food, wrong to induce starvation, and under international law it's a crime. rule 53 of customary humanitarian law states, the use population as a method of ian

warfare is prohibited. isn't prohited because it was some bureaucratic decisi it's prohibited because it's completely wrong under every religious and moral code. people who had no role, no role bein punished collectively, being punished in a way that kills children,ills babies, kills adults. other countries are speaking out in opposition to netanyahu's government's use of food as a weapon. on may 19, the governments of united kingdom and france and canada issued a joint statement saying that the amount of food the netanyahu government is allowingng into gaza is wholly inadequate, even israel's leaders from across the political spectrum you are speaking out that this is wrong.

ahmet halevi from the likud party said this war is a deception, this is not succeeding in destroying hamas. the leader of israel's democrats partyaid in a radio interview, quote, israel is on the way to becoming a pariah state like south africa was if we don't return to acting like a sane country, a saint country that es not -- a sane country that does not fight against civilians. even former prime minister wrote on may 27, what we are doing in gaza now somewhere indisc indiscriminate, limitless, cruel andriminal killing of civi civilians. he continued, yes, israel is committing war crimes. mr. president and colleagues,

this use of food as a weapon or re should never have happened, and it has to end. we know that the united states has such a close relationship with israel, that we c can appl multiple levers to push the netanyahu government to end it. we have a moral responsibility that's heightened by our close relationship between our two nat nations. we should have acted long ago to end this strategy. this strategyf malnutrition andd starvation. but that provides no excuse for not acting now. administration to act, and i will press the trump administration to act.

there was a moment of hope in december when trump said we will address this situation. colleagues, i have witnessed the horror of starvation in multiple countrs around the world, and i believe that if the netanyahu government would let us as senators go and witness firsthand, a bipartisan delegation goingng to gaza, we would come back and speak from the depths of our hearts. ferocity of our understanding of right and wrong, that we have to press for this strategy of starvation to end. but we're not allowed in. so we have to depend on the press reports that have come from international organizations who have people on the ground in gaza, from news reporting, from competent international sources.

we have a profound responsibility to pressure the netanyahu governmentt end to it strategy of starvion through food deprivation and deliver a massive influx of aid immediaty. it is tempting to look away. there is a lot more going on in the world. but it is wrong to look awa we must carry that responsibility on our consciouses. we must speak and act forcefull to end the netanyahu government's strategy of deliberately starving two million men, women, and children in gaza. thank you, mr. president.

mr. daines: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from montana. mr. daines: i ask that the senate -- i have five requests for committees tmeet during today's session of the senate. they have the at appval of the majority and minority leaders. the presiding officer: duly noted. deign deign i ask unanimous consent that the senatee now proceedo the en bloc consideration of the 2308ing resolutions at the desk. s. res. 269, s.s. res. 270. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measures en bloc? without objection. the senate will proceed to the resolutions en bloc. mr. thune:

mr. daines: i ask unanimous consent that the resolutions be agreed to, the preamblebe agreed to, and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, all en bloc. the presiding officer: is there objection without objectio mr. daines: i ask unanimous consent that the committee on the judiciary be discharged from further consideration of s. 1136 and the senate proceed to its immediate considerion. the presiding ofcer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. 1136, a bill to authorize sentencing enhancements for certain criminal offenses directed by or coordinated with foreign governments. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. the committee is discharged and the senate will proceed to the measure. mr. daines: i ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. daines: i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned until 11:00 a.m. on wednesday, june 11. that following the prayer and pledge, the journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be deemed expired, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their

use later in the day, morning business be closed, and the senate proceed to executive session and resume consideration of ecutive calenr number 173. further, notwithstanding rule 22, the cloture motion w with respect to calendar number 173 ripen at 12:00 noon, and if cloture is invoked on executive calendar number 173, the postcloture time expire at 2:00 p.m. and the senate vote on confirmation of the long nomination a at a time to be dermined by the majority leader in consultation with the democratic leader. finally, notwithstanding rule 22, the cloture motions filed on monday, june 9, with respect to calendar number 66, s. 1582 and amendment number 230ripen at 2:00 p.m. tomorrow, and also notwithstanding rule 22, it be in order for senator murphy or his designee to make motions to discharge s.j. res. 53 and 54 at 3:30 p.m. tomorrow, and if made, there be up to two hours of debate equally divided between the two leaders or their designees concurrently on the motions, and upon the use or

yielding back of that time, the senate vote on the motions to discharge in the order listed. the presiding g officer: without objection. mr. daines: if there is no furthther busine to come before the senate, i ask that it stand adjourned under the previous order. the presiding officer: the senate stands watch our live simulcast coverage of the primary results courtesy of on new jersey, live

at epf eastern c-span2, c-span now, or free mobile video app, or c-span.org. tune in wednesday to c-span coverage of the congressional baseball game. uniting democrats and republicans on the field for a spirited evening of camaraderie and mpetition. .net is a historic matchup, live coverage starts wednesday at 7:00 p.m. n on the network. c-span now, our free mobile video app, or online at c-span.org