2023, and 2024. some of some of you may be doing the math and wondering if they've invented a time machine to go back and add to the research. their answer is no. instead of deadly what the republicans have planned is one of those big checks, a single check that under this bill would be written to meta for $15 billion, simply for existing. and the third one, this bill wants to zero out the consumer financial protection bureau. and that may be the biggest giveaway of all. now we all remember that little agency. that's the one that in about a dozen years managed to uncover more than $20 billion in fraud and cheating, and got that money returned directly to consumers. where did that money come from? it came from giant corporations want the opportunity to cheat --

>> you can continue watching this hearing if you go to our website c-span.org. we will leave it and take you live to the u.s. capitol where the senate is about to gavel in. today lawmakers are considering the nomination of rodney scott to head the u.s. customs and border protection also vote on whether to confirm olevia trustee to be a member of the fcc for a five-year term. you are watching live coverage of the senate here on c-span2. lead the senate in prayer. the chaplain: let us pray. god of second chances, who fills us with hope and peace, sustain our senators and those who work with them, with the power of your holy spirit.

lord, work in them to do infinitely more than they can request or imagine. give them a peace which the world cannot give or take away. when they are weary, give them rest. and when they are discouraged, empower them to persevere. prepare their heart and minds to serve you and country with humility and integrity, as they work together with mutual forbearance and respect. teach them to seek first your honor and glory. but above all, fill them with your inestimable love.we pray in your great name. amen.

the president pro tempore: please join me in the pledge of allegiance. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. morning business is closed. under the previous order, the senate will proceed to executive session and resume consideration of the following nomination which the clerk will report. the clerk: nomination, department of homeland security, rodney scott of oklahoma to be commissioner of u.s. customs and border protection. mr. grassley: mr. president. the presiding officer: the

president pro tempore. mr. grassley: today i come to the floor to speak about a favorite topic that my friends know i'm proud of -- protecting whistleblowers and the roles that they play in government. i've long held that government oversight can't be done with the patriotic work of whist whistleblowers. even department agency heads need whistleblowers to know what's really going on in their respective departments and agencies. i tell people that come to my office before their senate confirmation that whether you're in a very small number of employees, agency or, you know, hundreds of thousands of employees in your agencies, you're at the top. you can't know what's going on at the bottom.

and that you need to listen to whistl whistleblowers, and they usually come forward with very important information. when they don't get that respect from the department heads, they usually end up coming to the congress, and many of them come to the office of this senator. just this year, to show you the importance of whistleblowers, i made records public exposing the political origin of arctic frost. arctic frost is the case that ultimately became one of jack smith's cases against president trump. anti-trump fbi agents and department of justice prosecutors started arctic frost based on even more records that

i made public. those very same anti-trump fbi agents were involved in the investigation and prosecution of peter navarro, now serving with president trump in the white house, like he did in the first trump administration. those agents that took on peter navarro were assistant special agent in charge, tebow and special agent walter giardiana. whistleblowers also exposed to me that j.p. coony wanted to potentially open another case on trump. j.p. cooney was jack smith's deputy. allegedly cooney wanted to use compulsory process to obtain

more information. he improperly based that desire to do so in the large part on partisan news outlets. and guess who was included in the communication about the new case against trump. that same person's name shows up, special agent walter g giagardina. i'll have more to speak on that matter later. whistleblowers have told me that special agent. giorgadina indicated his desire to prosecutor trump even if it meant public allegation. i've been able to make this available because of brave patriotic whistleblowers. they are patriots to the highest order, and a lot of this

information that i receive from whistleblowers wouldn't have been made available or even known it existed without the help of these whistleblowers. and because of those whistleblowers, it's now an absolute fact that is cases -- that these cases against president trump and his associates were politically motivated. my investigative work won't rest. there will be much more coming from this senator. now on another matter, mr. president, if i can continue for another minute or two, the u.s. regulatory process for approving farmers tools like pesticides is the benchmark for all global regulatory standards.

in other words, the united states agencies that deal with approving the safety of pesticides stands as a measure of how other global regulatory age agencies will approve or disapprove of pesticides. i'm going to speak about the maha commission, and i don't know whether that acronym means much to people but it stands for make america healthy again. last month the maha commission released a report taking aim at that regulatory process of deciding the safety or n not-so-safe safety of pesticides. if you undermine our already strict and effective regulatory process, you undermine our

global competitiveness. the result would be losing out to our competitors on business in the form of exports and direct investment in the united states. it would also pull other countries away from our standard in favor of others, creating nontariff barriers to trade. the u.s. regulatory system for food and agriculture rose up alongside these important industries created by pioneers that changed the world through technology. this progress led humanity to the most prosperous time in history. as conservatives, it's important to remember that often it is not the lack of regulation, but the

overregulation of our industry that hinders our prosperity. i yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: the clerk: ms. alsobrooks.

i really appreciate the comments you have made at the sunday roundtable. you have an observation about energy in alaska but i thought was really telling. you noted that there are the big things where we are able to take our energy access for export to help our friends and allies, the second-tier which is the energy that is going to allow us as alaskans to have more accessible energy for our own use and then recognition that in certain parts of the states things just look

different. there is a recognition that when it comes to some of the smaller scale things, we have to allow ourselves to have flexibility so i captured that and i think you for that. first question, are we going to build an lng pipeline? yes innovation i could really delve into the gas line going to move on to some of you had an opportunity on that sunday to visit with seven or so of the national lab directors it was a great conversation i really appreciated it. we talked about some of the contributions that we are seeing out of our national labs and israel have been working with cold climate housing

center. great innovative technologies. just a direct question to you on the assets the resources to sustain national labs ability to coordinate directly with communities. the ability to offer technical assistance are you good with the budget and where you are and recognition that there is so much value to be had from the work of our national labs? >> i love the national labs they deliver tremendous value to us throughout their history and will in the future as well. i'm actually very open to expanding the lab budget back a little bit from where the current proposal is. i've been voicing that. ai is moving very fast right now, quantum computing is about to arrive. and fusion energy, thing i

worked on in my youth, is going to come to pass. this is a time i think to lead in as much as we can on these large scientific efforts. i'm keen to grow the budget for our national labs and those key areas. >> i will look forward to working with you on the contributions we get are so important.things are just moving at great speeds how we keep up with all of this one of the concerns i heard in addition the budget was also the impact they've seen with some of the reduction in forces and people that are doing extraordinary things that may move on maybe not easiest to replace. know that i am very cognizant of that. i want to ask a question about the tribal energy loan guarantee program i'm chairman of the senate committee on indian affairs.

the budget is proposing a significant reduction in the tribal energy program. i know it's not just for me, my colleague from there's so much on tribal land still remaining undeveloped. i guess i would ask for your thoughts on how we could be doing better. how can we be more helpful working in partnership to address some of the exorbitantly high energy prices we see in our tribal lands.>> thank you for your passion on this issue i share that as well. in the history of the tribal i think it's one long. that's it. it's like we have a whole office of scott one alone.

that's like a reorg but not a pulling back. i would love to do more projects in tribal areas and areas read in office that's not doing anything to eat something else as a change in limit or change in interest. some of the best meetings i had in alaska were from some of your colleagues up there that are working on energy in the remote alaskan villages. it's so different. i critique wind and solar and their impact on the larger scale. they are competing against natural gas that on an oil barrel equivalent price is $20 a barrel energy cost from pipeline natural gas. in alaska beer competing with 10+ dollar diesel which is $400 20 times more expensive base energy if you could put solar

or wind or micro hydro on a grid you could shrink your diesel costs and extend time between reviewing and shipping. there are different energy settings. i'm people and in math and one of the problems i think we made the least progress is an affordable energy and remote communities. >> great work to do together and i look forward to. thank you. >>, secretary, it's good to have a chance to talk to you this morning when you came up to the office we discussed the clean energy tax incentive law that i wrote in the finance committee. as you know it's technology neutral no mandate voluntary

incentive. i understand there was some discussion earlier. had to be somewhere else. there was some discussion earlier about renewables and renewables in florida and matters like. i wanted to run by you something that the ceo for utility in florida's utility that covers mar-a-lago said the other day and get your reaction. you can help us make some progress. the ceo said, i ceo has gas plant holdings. i believe deeply and natural gas. i also believe, because we have such a need for energy no, and have to deal with ai and many of the concerns we are talking about, he said, i need electrons from any place on the planet where i can get them. i just need electrons.

that's certainly what everybody had. people said, what about renewable? he said, i have got to have electrons from the renewable sector, it's urgent, i won't be able to meet the growth in the ai needs. so why can't we just say we've got this academic emergency and we are going to get the electrons from everywhere? i know about the comments you and others have made about intermittent uses and the like. that's why we've got batteries to help with that the more important issue is when a gas executive who says he believes in gas somebody who is walking away, says he believes in gas but the problem is so serious today in terms of getting

energy he wants to get his electrons from anywhere he can get them. why can't we get renewables to him? >> i've had the same dialogue with the same ceo he's the biggest renewable developer in the world and it was a big business but to me it's about people and it's about math. we can nobody's proposing to stop solar power. the idea is, it's been subsidize for a fourth of a century and it should compete on its own edit well. solar will know and that's happening right now respectfully, mr. secretary, it's getting short shrift in the central climate change law of our time until i wrote this law we never in 50 years had done anything on cap and trade or pricing or anything that anybody whether they were left or right had agreed on.

i wanted to make sure everybody could play. maybe you could do something as we try to wrap up what we are trying to cework on the reconciliation bill but i really urge you ent the quorum suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. thune: mr. president, on monday afternoon, the senate finance committee released the text of the centerpiece of our reconciliation bill, making the tax relief we passed in 2017 permanent. the 2017 tax cuts and jobs act reduced tax rates for every income bracket, doubled the child tax credit, and nearly doubled the standard deduction. that, of course, meant more money in americans' pockets. but those lower tax rates and the larger standard deduction and the child tax credit are set to expire at the end of this

year, and if we don't take action american families will be facing a massive tax hike started in 2026. americans making less than 400$400,000 a year would face a $2.6 trillion tax hike. a typical family of four making $80,000 a year would need to send an additional $1,700 to uncle sam. $1,700, mr. president. republicans promised the american people we wouldn't let that happen, and with the release of the finance committee's text we are one step closer to delivering on that promise. our bill will extend the tax cuts and jobs act's lower tax rates. will extend the doubled child tax credit. it will extend the nearly doubled standard deduction. but not just extend them, mr. president. make them permanent. tending the lower -- extending the lower tax rate or standard deduction was never going to be enough for republicans. we're making the lower tax rates

and doubled child tax credit and increased standard deduction permanent so that american families do not have to worry about another looming tax hike a few years down the read. we're going further by increasing the child tax credit by another $200. again, on a permanent basis. mr. president, that's not all we're doing. we're also going to make life better for the american people by growing our economy. in addition to cutting tax rates for hardworking americans, the tax cuts and jobs act also implemented a historic reform of the business side of the tax code. we lowered tax rates for owners of small and medium-sipsed businesses -- medium-sized farms and ranches and made it easier to recover the cost of waffling in businesses, investing in businesses and freed up cash for them. we lowered the massive corporated tax rate -- corporate tax rate, which was the highest in the developed world to make

american businesses more competitive in the global economy and empower them to invest in wages and benefits for their workers. we brought our international tax system into the 21st century so american businesses would no longer operate at a disadvantage next to foreign counterparts. mr. president, it worked. in the wake of the tax cuts and jobs act, our economy grew at a substantially better rate than proj projected. real wages increased, unemployment fell to a 50-year low, the poverty rate fell to the lowest level ever recorded, business investment increased, everywhere you looked there was positive economic news. now, mr. president, when we passed the tax cuts and jobs act, we were able to make some of that business tax relief permanent. like the individual tax relief, other provincials have already expired, are expiring at the end of this year or in the process

of phasing out. that includes lower tax rates for small and medium sized businesses. the section 199a deduction and fell expending for new capital investment and domestic research and development. our legislation will permanently extend these key provisions. between these and other new pro-growth policies, like a provision to boost domestic manufacturing by implementing full expensing for factories and improvements, we can expect to see further economic growth and more jobs and opportunities for american workers. the council of economic advisors, which accurately predicted the economic and wage growth we achieved in the wake of the tax cuts and jobs act, is forecasting 2.9% to 3.5% long-run gdp as a result of our legis legislation. mr. president, that means more j jobs, better wages, as much as a

13,327 dollar increase for a typical family, and more opportunities for american workers. it also means more revenue for the federal government. but revenue created the right way, through economic growth, not through higher taxes. i should mention that yesterday, the congressional budget office released a new hr1 analysis which cristically underestimates the economic growth and hence the hef knew that this -- the revenue this bill will provide. the congressional budget office did the same thing with the tax cuts and jobs act. when it estimated revenues would be $1.5 trillion lower than what they've actually been. the council of economic advisors, by contrast, which was most accurate in its modeling of the tax cuts and jobs act effects, included its effect on revenue, including i should say

its effect on revenue, tells us that passage of our legislation will increase federal revenues by $4.1 trillion more than enough to offset the cbo's deficit estimate. mr. president, in addition to promising to make the 2017 tax relief permanent, president trump outlined multiple other tax proposals on the campaign trail, proposals which were endorsed by the american people with his strong win in november. and with this bill, we are delivering on those promises. we're suspending taxes on tips for millions of tip workers. we're suspending taxes on overtime for millions of hourly workers. we're suspending taxes on auto loan interest when you buy a new car manufactured in the united states. and we're increasing the standard deduction for millions of low and middle income seniors making their retirement a little easier and more prosperous. we're also implementing a program to create savings

accounts for newborns with an initial deposit of $1,000 to help marnts save and -- parents save and invest for children's future needs. mr. president, everything we're doing in this pill is for the -- in in bill is for the sake of making america stronger and more prosperous. nowhere is that more true than the tax portion, the centerpiece of our bill. the tax provisions, from the permanent extension of the lower tax rates to the increased child tax credit to permanent tax relief for small and medium sized businesses will help bring security to american families, and prosperity to our country. working americans, working americans, mr. president, are going to have a better life because of this legislation. and i'm proud to be a part of permanently extending and upgrading the tax cuts and jobs act. with that, i want to thank chairman crapo and his members on the senate finance committee

for their incredible work on the tax position of our -- tax portion of our upcoming bill. i look forward, mr. president, to delivering permanent tax relief for hardworking americans and american businesses in the very near future. mr. president, i yield the floor, and i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: the clerk: ms. alsobrooks.

we are waiting for a senator to come to the floor to speak. today lawmakers are considering the nomination of rodney's doctor had the same accustomed and border protection. they will also vote on whether to confirm olivia trustee to be a member of the fcc for a five-year term. your watching live coverage of the senate here on c-span2. the same office. looking at the demands on the grid, the problem is the budget proposes a 75% cut in the grid deployment office i don't understand this as a place to cut where this is obviously an increase in demand and pressure on the system >> it is but i would look at it as more of a reorganization of the department. the central thing is the office of electricity and the

cybersecurity thing. they are the two core offices around that. there was a lot of other smaller offices set around but i would look at the whole complex. the office of electricity is all about the grid. grid deployment office with grid in the name but. >> as long as the resources are going to strengthening the grid are not diminished. if you're talking about diminishing some other program that's one thing but one of the things i've noticed in my career in energy is used to be that the principal part of your electric bill was the cost of energy. now in many places transmission distribution is 50% or more and that's only going to increase unless we start to think about new technologies, " gets" so we are not simply rebuilding massive facilities that could

be obviated by new technologies. >> i agree so much. 10 years ago i like we just have to build more transmission lines it turns out it's so hard, you get approval to build anything. >> but the re-conductor. >> exactly. we can re-conductor we can do dynamic land rating, even with our existing things. there is so much upside in the grid and i think we've got to find some practical initiatives. the flo

isa under the interpreter program. so all i'm saying is that things are moving quickly. it just -- it just disturbs me that we've got somebody in detention who served by all accounts admirably belongside american service -- long -- along side servicemembers, and i think we owe it to this person to get him ourt of detention and into some status to determine what country he should go to. i'm not necessarily saying he should stay in the united states but i am arguing he should not be in detention in california after service directly and indirectly in our country. mr. president, that's all i have to say on that matter.

we are going to track that closely and i thought that was important to say on the floor. mr. president, the last thing i will leave you with is i sat on the floor yesterday while senator padilla was speaking, and i have to tell you that the events that occurred at -- and i'm saying this because now i hear about -- about a dustup in new york. folks, -- alex padilla i consider a friend. and i believe his emotions were at a ten because some of the things he's seen occurring because of ice detention and ice raids. i agree and disagree with him on some of the policies. we have to get to a point where elected officials have to take some responsibility for their actions. we have press conferences here all the time. we have weekly press conference out here with leadership, we

have a pressroom on the third floor. i'm wondering if we're actually saying it's okay for me to interrupt senator schumer while he is giving statements to a press or to ask questions. i think it is inappropriate, i think it would be inappropriate to do it to my democratic colleagues. i think it would be inappropriate for me to do that out in the field. so i guess what i'm trying to say here why don't both sides own up to the fact that they both own some responsibility for what happened here. senator padilla should have found a better way to elevate his concerns to the secretary of homeland security. having said that there were people in that building who knew he was a u.s. senator. the minute he was removed from that situation in that briefing room, then they should have treated him with respect and allowed him to disburse. it was disgusting to see somebody -- anybody, but

particularly a u.s. senator in a federal building. i would say to those now who feel like they are off the hinge and should interrupt a press conference or to police officials to think twice. step up and be leaders. if you have a point, don't trend on social media by getting in somebody's face. if you want to make a point, that's what you dpo. if you want to make a difference, come to the senate floor and try to figure out how to get policies through. that's how this should work. thank you, mr. president.

mr. schumer: mr. president. the presiding officer: the minority leader. mr. schumer: mr. president, the maga supreme court majority seems to have forgotten one of its jobs is to protect americans from discrimination. the republican cruel crusade against trans-americans infringes on the rights of partners, the rights of kids. once again republicans used these issues to with divide america and distract them from their plans to rip health care away from millions of people. we will keep fighting to protect the rights of all americans. now, on a classified briefing. as the conflict in the middle

east continues, all of us are concerned for the safety of u.s. troops and citizens and america's interests around the world. for the information of my colleagues, i've requested a classified briefing on the situation in the middle east, and i believe we will get one soon. i will keep my colleagues informed as more updates arise. on the cbo report of late yesterday. the more and more people -- the more and more -- more and more as people look at the republican so-called big beautiful bill, the uglier and uglier it actually gets. yesterday the cbo updated their projections on the impact of the house bill on our national debt and on our economy. the results are dismal. as "the new york times" put in a headline, house policy bill would add $3.4 trillion to debt, swamping economic gains.

this analysis is new and different because unlike their last protection, the cbo studied how the republican bill would interact with the economy. how many times have we heard from republicans that we shouldn't listen to groups like the cbo because what they're doing so much stares in the face of truth. they don't want to hear the truth. because when people hear the truth, they don't like what the republicans are doing so they shoot the messenger. cbo doesn't have an ax to grind and their scores have always been accepted by both parties until now. so the bottom line is our republicans tried to discredit cbo because they don't like hearing the truth, but the truth must be told and we are telling that truth to the american public day in, day out, and we are telling them that these analyses ignore the economic benefit that supposedly come

from the outrageous billionaire tax cuts. well, now we know that even after you take into account any im impact, any economic impact, the so-called dynamic scoring created by the republican bill, it is still a loser for working and middle-class families, only the wealthy gain. the republican bill will send interest rates higher, particularly ten-year bonds. and you know what that means? it means americans will pay more and more for virtually everything. when interest rates go up, which the republican bill will do because it makes the deficit even bigger, it will be more expensive for the working family to buy a home, a car, send kids to college, run a business, everything. the latest cbo report is a warning to senate republicans. doubling down on the house's reckless spending will doom our kids and grandkids to a life of higher costs.

they should scrap the big beautiful bill entirely and start over. but amazingly, senate republicans didn't moderate the house bill at all. no. if anything they made it worse. it's hard to believe it could get worse than the house bill for working families, but the house -- but somehow the senate republicans, are not supposed to be as extreme as the house republicans, but in this case more so. after weeks of hearing from one republican senator after another saying they'd fix the house bill, what senate republicans came up with is just as bad or even worse. the senate republican bill is, simply put, bigger cuts, bigger betrayal. so today let's look at five ways -- there are many, but let's look apartment five ways the -- look at five ways the

senate republican bill is just as bad. it already proposes the biggest medicaid cuts in u.s. history. their bill would rip away from 16 million americans. the senate bill p would add even more roadblocks for working americans, even parents, preventing them from getting health care. this bill is just repeal and replace by another name. and the senate bill squeezes hospitals even harder, particularly rural hospitals. it crushes health centers and decimates rural hospitals. are my republican colleagues going to vote for a bill that's going to close a good chunk of their hospitals in rural areas? we have a lot of rural places in new york, and let me tell you, in many of those rural counties the hospital is the biggest employer and the only provider of health care. so why take them away, especially to give tax cuts to

billionaires? it makes no sense, and the american people know it makes no sense. it's vicious. it means fewer resources for hospitals to stay open and pay their staffs. and one other thing, even if you don't have medicaid or even aca, your premiums are likely to go up because of all these changes in health care. second -- second of five of the worst things in the senate bill are clean energy jobs. senate republicans spent weeks promising they'd ease the clean energy cuts passed by the house, but the senate republican energy package is a total head fake. it's not real. the senate clean energy bill cuts, bill -- cuts in the senate clean energy bill are every bit as destructive as the house proposal. it phases out tax credits for wind and solar projects within

six months. an estimated 850,000 people in the clean energy industry will lose their jobs. add that to the million or more who will lose their jobs in health care and the hundreds of thousands who will lose jobs in other areas, guess what? when you lose two million jobs-plus, you're heading towards a recession. is that what our republican colleagues want to do all to help their billionaires? billionaires won't mind if there's a recession. they've got a big cushion. but what about working families? harder to get a job, harder to keep a job, harder to pay for increased costs. it's amazing what they're doing. and to boot, these energy cuts are going to surrender u.s. energy independence to china. solar is the quickest, cheapest way to put new electrons on the

grid. you cut it out, china will dominate and they will then dominate the world in terms of solar and they will have the american consumer at their behest. if you think they're going to charge the chinese people the same they're going to charge american people, forget it. even worse, while the republicans are getting clean energy, they're giving special tax breaks to the oil and gas companies. oil and gas will be the one industry that doesn't have to pay the alternative minimum tax. is that incredible? so they don't like tax breaks for solar, but tax breaks for the oil companies are great? that's not an all-of-the-above strategy, which so many of my colleagues talk about. and let's not forget a.i. has huge energy demands. it is going to push up the cost

for americans. so why cut off the fastest-growing, cheapest and quickest to construct source of energy, which is solar? it's all ideological. it's beyond rational economics, even by the republicans' love of fossil fuels. it is simply that is right-wing billionaires from texas and dwroek who made a for -- and oklahoma who made a fortune in the permian basin, et cetera hate clean energy because they know it's the future. and republicans, at the cost to hundreds of millions of americans, are bowing down in obeisance to them. third, and this one is very important because it has not gotten the attention it deserves, the senate bill somehow manages to cater even more to the radical gun lobby than the house. for those who may have missed it, and many did, in the house bill republicans snuck a deef

kwus provision that reverses a century of safety rules on silencers. we know that silencers are used by people who don't want people to know they have a gun, not by police, not by average citizens, but by criminals. people who go shoot up mat shootings, they don't -- mass shootings, they don't want people to hear their shots. and in one case it's known they used a silencer and killed more people. but senate republicans go even beyond that. refusing to be outdone by their house colleagues, they made it even worse in a dramatic way. they decided to drop regulation and background checks on not only silencers, but shotguns and rifles. for 100 years we've had these on the books, these laws on the books for gun safety. this is stunning, terrifying, and just totally idiotic.

to the extreme republicans who slipped these gun provisions into their bill, shame on you. shame on you for putting the gun lobby over the lives of kids. shame on you for engendering our -- endangering our families and law enforcement. shame on you for adding fuel to america's gun epidemic. as many of you have know, i'm the author. brady law. i got it passed in the house in 1994, as well as the assault weapons ban. and there was always a tradition. not shotguns, not rifles. and that's broken by this extreme and dangerous provision that the senate has added to the bill. we're going to fight this provision and the provisions on silencers with everything we've got, including in the byrd bath process, where we believe this provision has no right to be in

a reconciliation bill. it's not a revenue raiser. it's policy. it should be knocked out. fourth, the senate bill took house republican attacks on our courts and dialed them up even more. right now the trump administration is losing in court about 95% of the time when its actions are challenged as unlawful. and there are so many actions that the trump administration is doing that is unlawful, and they're losing. it's not just liberal or democratic-chosen judges who are knocking these things out. a lot of them are republican judges, and a good number are trump-appointed judges. but they're doing their job. they're obeying the law. they're telling the trump administration you cannot break the law. right now, because trump is losing, 95% of the cases, even from his own appointed judges,

he's defying the courts with more and more frequency, and republicans in congress want to codify the trump administration's attacks on the courts. the house bill, for those who remember, would have prevented courts from enforcing their injunctions if plaintiffs didn't put up massive security bonds. the senate bill goes even further. remarkably and disgustingly enough. senate republican bill wants to prevent courts from even issuing injunctions against the federal government in the first place if plaintiffs don't put up massive security bonds. in other words, senate republicans want to turn our justice system into pay to play. if you can't put up the money up front, then no injunctive relief against the abuses of the federal government, even though those abuses are at a record high. it's a naked attack on checks and balances, a disturbing

escalation against judicial independence. finally, debt and taxes, a subject we are focussing on this week. senate republicans, through their proposal, want to pass some of the largest cuts for the ultrarich in american history and then ruin our children's financial future by making these tax cuts permanent. if republicans make trump's tax cuts permanent, our children and grandchildren will be condemned to a lifetime of higher interest rates, higher costs, and di diminished potential. why are republicans doing this? tax cuts for billionaires. they tie themselves in knots. they do terrible damage to their constituents in so many ways all so they can give tax breaks to the wealthy. this is the big difference between republicans and democrats. democrats believe in lowering

taxes for working families and the middle class, parents raising their kids, small business owners trying to grow. republicans meanwhile believe in helping those at the very, very top, even at the cost of dooming our children and grandchildren to a lifetime of debt that republicans only selectively care about. they believe that helping billionaires and big corporations is somehow going to make everyone better off. that's never worked. when you put it all together, the senate version of donald trump's big, ugly bill is even worse than the house. it makes even deeper cuts to health care. it destroys american clean energy. it raises costs on working and middle-class families and it rewards those at the very top at the expense of all the rest of us. finally, on the cpb nomination, today senate republicans will confirm rodney scott as commissioner of the u.s. customs and border protection or cbp. it's hard to imagine a worse,

more unqualified, more dangerous choice to lead the cpb in this moment than mr. scott. his lack of experience alone is enough to disqualify him from the position, but there's even more. during his time at the border patrol, mr. scott was directly implicated in the alleged cover up of the death of someone in border patrol custody. these are the people donald trump seems to like, people who break the law. somehow he likes that. and there's another one. when pressed by the committee about these allegations, mr. scott described his actions as routine. cover up the death of someone who is in custody, that's routine? this is sick. this is a person who may have covered up the death of someone in the border patrol custody and now republicans want to put him in charge of border security? no one who allegedly covered up a wrongful death at the lands of

law enforcement should ever be named to a position of leadership. the senate should reject his nomination. and while the -- at a time when the trump administration is snatching people off the streets, conducting military-style raids across america and demonizing immigrants, mr. scott would be nothing more than a rubber stamp for some of donald trump's nastiest, cruellest immigration policies. i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: the clerk: ms. alsobrooks.

the presiding officer: the majority whip. mr. barrasso: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. barrasso: i ask unanimous consent to waive the mandatory quorum call with respect to the scott nomination. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. barrasso: thank you, mr. president. i ask unanimous consent that we move ahead with the vote that's scheduled for noon. it's just about that time now. the presiding officer: without objection. the clerk will report the nomination to invoke cloture. the clerk: cloture motion, we, the 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 rodney scott of oklahoma to be commissioner of u.s. customs and border protection department of homeland security 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 the debate on the nomination of rodney scott of oklahoma to be commissioner of the u.s. customs and border derp protection department of homeland security shall be brought to a close. the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. the clerk will call the roll. vote: 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. mr. cassidy. ms. collins. ms. collins.

>> chairman crapo, ranking member wyden, members of the committee. good morning. a great privilege to be ex-president trump's nominee for commission of u.s. customs and border protection. i am honored to have the trust secretary noem but i'm here today to earn your trust as well. if confirmed i'm ready to serve without compromise. let me start were all straight begins with some wisdom. proverbs 15:22 instructs us plants fail for lack of counsel but with many advisers they succeed. i am fortunate to have the council of many the first of foremost i want to recognize my wife my woman a profound faith clarity and strength she is my most honest advisor. a constant voice reminded me of what truly matters. our daughters have gone into confident and calm again leads with wisdom beyond her years. i think i could think the three

them for being the biggest cheerleaders and for challenging me to lead with character even when itga came at a personal co. i want to thank my parents. their christlike example taught me treat echoed with respect that served as more rewarding than being served and if i would just ask and then listen god would tell me the next right thing to do. thank you for raising the right. no matter, now to the matter at hand. if confirmed as measurable take a lead role in providing america with real border security. as 9/11 report highlighted securing a mission is a team sport. i've been on this team for over three decades and i've learned a lot. our borders must be secured not just to protect a line on a map but to defend the american people, our values and a way of life. i joined this team in 1992 as gs five border patrol of patrol agent trainee and i competitively progressed through

the ranks to earn the position of chief u.s. border patrol. i'm proud of that green uniform i wore that cbp's nation is bigger than just the border patrol and so is my experience. during my career i was immersed in the living border security laboratory. i worked alongside colleagues as we transform chaotic crime-ridden border region in some of the safest communities in america. i watched cbp officers by two operations to maximize the flow of legal trade and travel that fuels economic security while interdicting weapons, people, and contraband like fentanyl that violate our laws and put our families friends and neighbors at risk. unfortunately i watched divinities fly backwards into total chaos when policy changes resulted in crimes being ignored. i learned what works and to learn what does not. i learned what motivates our personnel and what demoralizes them. if confirmed i will leverage my experience to empower the

minimum and those cbp to do what they were hired to do, safeguard every american by providing secure borders and keeping trade and travel moving. border security is national security. 9/11 made that very clear when foreign terrorists exploited vulnerabilities that are security and murdered thousands of fellow. americans. we've updated never forget and i assure you that i have not. congress responded by creating the department of homeland security and customs and border protection. i responded by june this multi-within cbp that develop and institutionalize the editors and capabilities that exist today. as i read countless intelligence reports my understanding of the interdependencies between border security and national security constantly grew. in the years since 9/11 do technology infrastructure and procedures have improve border security dramatically at airports and in between.

the most important factor will always be the people, the professional dedicated patriots that make up u.s. customs and border protection. i connect to you that if confirmed i will drive actions to ensure cbp workforce has a united a training, resources and policies to excel in every aspect of the mission and to do so safely. i will encourage innovation,, modernize processes and enhance efficiencies and i were to ensure cbp strategies are driven by intelligence and data and policies aligned with national security including our economic objectives. i commit to you that if confirmed i will beat cbp personnel and securing america's borders with purpose, integrity and honor. i'm asking for your support, your voted and look, look forward to your questions. thank you. >> thank you mr. scott perry up again as you're aware from the discussions that have taken place similar colleagues have raised concerns about your administrative involvement in the year 2010 with regard to the

death in custody incident relating to mr. hernandez rojas. he died two days after being held in custody by cbp agents of immigration and assault charges. a death like this is always tragic and i always like to have the public better understand some of the facts include any role in which you may have played in that incident. first of all were you involved in the decision to detain mr. rojas at the border and his actual detention? >> know, is not. >> were even there in that the sydney? >> no, sir. >> did you serve as investigator on the critical in 15? >> no, sir. >> did you sign an administrative subpoena in the investigation upon advice of counsel? >> yes, sir. >> what was the purpose of that? >> the subpoena was an information gathering of medical records specifically because of individual in our custody when

injury of the death occurred. >> it was standard procedure? >> yes, sir. >> did you do anything investigation to that case to interfere with investigation of the case? >> absolutely not. >> thank you. >> i'd like to move on to discussions of the job you don't undertake and again we are very glad you're willing to do so. the department of homeland security inspector general highlighted in 2023 that cbp and particularly for virtual face significant morale challenges. please tell us about your management philosophy andwa experience and how you might use it to raise agency morale? >> thank you for the question. agency morale is critically important. a lot of people don't understand what that means. it's literally the motivation and a more force than it issues. so the morale isn't just about how happy they are.

it does affect border security. my leadership model has been the same. i engaged, i have conversations that took people very clearly what i expect -- motto. expected to follow rules, follow the laws and to do their job and extent they do that come i will support them and we will hold anybody accountable that gets outside of that that violates any of the rules or laws. >> when you give clear guidance and the pipe to actions that your words, morale increases. most of poorly we have an administration that once the borderer patrol agents to do the job. they want cbp officers to enforce the laws on the books. that in an of itself has turned morale around pretty good already. i'm going to if confirmed i will build on that. >> thank you. under president trump's leadership as you just reference, in february and march of this year cbp reported fewer than 30,000 nationwide encounters with removable alien.

by comparison, the cbp record more than 200,000 encounters in figure in march of 2023 and 2024. my understanding is the number is even lower than what i just said for february and march. what are the implications for cbp now that encounters with removable aliens are only a tiny fraction of the encounters that cbp was experiencing in the last couple of years? >> again thank you for the question. the results are tremendous. the cartels need illegal aliens to distract and overwhelmed law enforcement so they can bring in other threats wetherbee fentanyl, narcotics or anybody is willing to pay more money to not interact with a law enforcement officer. they try to do that at the ports in the between the ports. the fact we have diminished mythically reduced the volume border patrol has to do with that the cbp officer has to deal

with, that puts agents and officers back on enforcement duties. it allows us to know more about what's going on at the border, ages out in the field between the ports can cover more area that the ports of entry immediately result of slowing down the flow of illegal things put 600 600 officers back oe line so they can expedite the flow of legitimate trade and travel, find fentanyl the chicken vehicles. they are out doing the job a asked them to do, securing the borders and keeping americans safe. >> thank you very much. >> thank you, mr. chairman. to continue on the question of the secretaries letter, she continues to not respond to our requests for the document which is central to our doing or oversight work here. what is even more significant to me is that she hasn't responded to the key question, which is

whether subpoenas the nominee signed was legal and appropriate. i have serious questions about that and until we get that information i continue have reservations about this nominee. move on to this matter of rape threats. mr. scott, you tweeted what a judge virtue is a classic great threat to a former border patrol agent was critical of your leadership. you tweeted at her on this matter, quote, leaned back and close your eyes and just enjoy the show. to a former officer who took issue with you in cbp leadership the culture you sponsored, culture that included the alleged cover-up, the killing of mr. rojas, it strikes me as exceptionally troubling. she has said that she'd been raped washers at the academy and you chose respond with a rape threat. a san diego dog dash deshad the judge called rape that may

be the only person ever heard of a -- referring to rate. as far as i can tell there hasn't been a real apology, no apology. do you think it's acceptable in your view to respond to a former officer in this way? >> so i would like to come thank you for bring this up. i'd like to clued in. there was an apology. after the court i went and met with her specifically in front of witnesses with her attorney and said the same thing i did in court with a little more. that was not my intent. i was challenging after about four years of the being and soul to come left and right i had a weak moment. i apologize for that but i was not making any type of a a th. i was challenging her creative imagination that i asked her speedy part of me. you were challenging her critical imagination about rape? >> that is not what i said. i was challenging her

imagination but multiple threat, multiple allegations against me and the agency that she would never provide information or data to support any evidence. but regardless i apologist worker i told her i believe it was out of line. i did not mean for it to come across that way and i want her to know i told her that to her face. >> you are apology now because i knew you didn't apologize in court. >> i apologize to in the hallway right outside the courtroom doors in front of her friends, her attorney at edelman who else was there. >> let me ask about this facebook group as well. you were one of only two senior cbp officials that were members of this cbp facebook group that contain racist and sexual explicit content or if you're confirmed as commissioner, one 60,000 professionals would be looking to you for your leadership for guidance. you will be expected to lead by example. your membership in this group where file, racist sexual

explicit posts were shared, again is just i think unacceptable from a leader. difference and wisecracks to death of the 16-year-old who died in border patrol custody, sexual explicit content involving a member of congress, photo that appeared to show a deceased father and child face down in a river with, suggesting that it had been faked. this was the group that you were a senior member of, as i understand it. maybe you can tell me what your response is. >> the actions of a few tarnished the reputation of many, to include myself. this is nothing to do with me right now from what to make sure people fully understand the were about 9000 people that were members of that group. there was a very small group of people that posted inappropriate offensive material. it was called out by other border patrol agents on the site

and it was investigated and they were held accountable. at no time that it ever see any of those posts until it's actually interviewed by the office of professional responsibility and during the investigation. the vast majority just because of the algorithms the facebook and how that works in the some attacks you, the vast majority of those 9000 people did not see it either. i think the most important thing to point out here is the culture didn't stand for it. border patrol agents identified it, like that with the felt was inappropriate. it was investigated. many of those individuals responsible for -- >> my time is about to expire. were you a senior member of this group? >> abu ahmed of this group. i never delete my account. i wanted total transparency. people could see what i saw. >> so you were, in fact, one of only two border patrol chiefs who are members of the group, whose activity resulting to mecca in employee removals, 43

suspensions and 12 letters of reprimand. so i'm looking for an assessment of your judgment. should you have been a member of the facebook group with all of this ugliness being sort of business as usual? >> there were 9000 people on that group. to say that a few that actually posted something inappropriate or held accountable and were disciplined are a reflection everyone else on that group. i think it's a mr. tradition. >> i said should you have been part of this group as a senior member, given what we have on the record? and you probably think there's really no problem with it that it is just another big group. that's my concern. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you. senator johnson. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. scott, thank you for your past service. there is obviously a serious attempt to smear you. i do not think it's going very well for them. i read the secretaries a letter

back to the ranking member. before i get my main question of what, do you want -- why do you think they're trying to smear you? >> i do want to speculate. i mean politics are politics but what everybody to know, if you look at my track record one thing you say consistently is transparency. everyone of these cases what you see is what you get. everybody makes mistakes. i believe the ones i made were very minor. we learn from them and move forward. >> i don't know how to speculate on why they would try to -- >> what a didn't do is bring the chart. i've been using now for years showing how president trump pretty well secure the border and then to the want and desire they totally opened up, let millions afflicted of the country completely un-vetted. i'm thinking maybe they don't want to talk about that and

discuss how now president trump has successfully secured the border, they would rather try to spare you and totally distract the american public. that would be my what i would surmise. but again i appreciate your past service and i know you will do an excellent job as commissioner. one question i have is being a fiscal conservative, i was fully supportive of providing the administration the resources they need to not only secure the border but deport however many millions of people that should be deported. that's going to take resources. the swiftness with which this administration secure the border i get out of what to throw money at the problem. i want to make sure we account for every dollar we do stand. that's my main questions. the matter, whenever we talk about some kind of border security or some immigration bill, regrettably throwing a lot of money at it and the question

i was asked once we achieve it, we're not going to beat all those detention beds, will not need all that additional border patrol because we solved the problem. the problem is what you start spinning you continue to maintain those spending levels. can you address how you're going to look at those budgets? what kind of information you can provide to us? and hoping you will be confirmed before we actually pass what is a big, beautiful bill or two insect that's the way my preference would be. will we have the detail in terms of exactly what cbp's needs to do its job? somewhat separate but we will need for i.c.e. intimidation efforts as well. >> so if conference i will do everything in my power to make sure you get the information one of the things i highlighted as chief and no do again if confirmed as commissioner is ask a lot of questions and mandate any proposal or even any data work that's going on can be directly tied back to the board security mission.

not with some dot line. a pretty good solid line. when examples within border patrol that we got out of that by looking at it was the border wall system when we tested and printed out in san diego sector. we were able to show it freed up 150 agent every 24 hours. it could be shifted to other areas of more remote. those a $20 million return on investment for the lifecycle of the border wall. if examples like that i will push and drive as requirements for ask for cbp. at the port of entry monitors equipment can show how we save man hours but the most important thing he mentioned is reducing the flow of illegal activities so we can focus on those bigger threats with the resources we have. >> do you agree, , and again i'm actually amazed at how quickly the border has basically become a secure. a secure border will reduce the amount of money we need to spend, correct? a secure border will save us money your cassette could require additional funds.

>> i believe -- >> twenty-point. >> i believe a secure border will save this, , save all of america a ton of money and a ton of lives. >> i can for to what you do with you and apologist for the smear campaign. >> all right. thank you, senator johnson. we do not have any of the senators here to ask questions and so senator wyden and i will make some wrapup statements and then we both concluded the hearing. i just want to thank you again, mr. scott, for appearing to force today. whenever someone steps forward to accept a position of responsibility and serve in the public, these days it's intense and there are battles. appreciate you being willing to step up. i also want to say thank you to all of the incredible people at

the border patrol. for the service that they do and you for the service that you have given, that is made you so qualified for this job. i look forward to us moving as quickly as we can to move your nomination forward and seeing you continue to help build a stronger america. thank you for that for. >> thank you, sir. >> storewide. >> thank you, mr. chairman. my colleague apologize for using the word smear. that doesn't dismiss the fact that on the key facts we still are basically in the dark. let me go through the figures. we didn't get the documents that we need from secretary noem. we didn't hear in response to the internal affairs high-ranking official who at the time said the investigation was a cover-up. we still don't have any information with respect to --

was handled in a legal and appropriate way. i want it understood that we'll have to see how the chevy wants to move forward. my door remains open to seeing the facts. theye document on the key kind f question. >> because on those at least three major areas that i've described, we are basically in the dark and we can't do our responsibilities, we can't carry out our responsibilities to do oversight when that's the case. we go forward hoping that we'll get the relevant documents we requested, speak to the issues i've raised this morning, and we can assess than the that w. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you, senator wyden. and again, mr. scott, thank you for your service and your willingness to step back in and engage in service to the country. i remind my colleagues that the deadline for samiti any questions for the record is 5 p.m. on monday a may 5.

we have a senator who has some questions. senator lujan, as soon as you get to your seat. >> mr. chairman, thank you very much. i apologize for my late arrival. we were in the market and another hearing. but thank you for the indulgence this morning. mr. scott, good morning and welcome to the hearing. appreciate you taking time to visit with me in the office. mr. scott, when we met we had a lengthy discussion on inspection technology and other technology improvements that could benefit cbp's ability to interdict drugs. yes or no, are the vast majority of drug seizures including fentanyl made public ports of entry. >> is currently hard narcotics are primarily seized at ports of entry. >> 90% or so? >> the actual, , not the total flow but the known seizures. >> is a true and overwhelming

number of those are made in passenger vehicles being driven by american citizens? >> i believe that's correct. >> yes or no, is cbp's in the two screen incoming, and i would contend outgoing cargo, put cbp officers and american community is at risk? >> screening the point of traffic across the border to include the seaports, the rail, it is challenging. that is why were to make the investments in the end that i come nonintrusive inspection equipment as well as the ai behind it at bays of using technology to make those officers more and more effective. because of invictus import highlight a lot of that technology just detects and i was very takes an actual officer or an agent to determine if the something illegal there or not. making sure that we use human beings have uses officers, agents of the most effective manner possible is critical. investments in the technology aspect of it is going to make it

more effective to make america safer. >> appreciate that. yes or no deeply inspection technology can help cbp officers do the jobs more safely and effectively? >> yes, sir. >> yes or no to believe that limiting a strategy achieve 100% screening even if it requires rebuilding core infrastructure or leads increase wait wais would pick a country more secure? >> i can't answer that yes or no. in the theory yes, it would but there's always trade-offs about the amount of money invested and the metal time and the risk. so when a short-term cbp have a strategy that significantly enhance the number of vehicles that are being screened. and a perfect world we would love to get to 100%. there will have to be a lot of conversations on how to find that because it will call we talked about it will require revamping the actual footprint of ports of entry where they're right on the board and would just don't have the ability to inspect before they get to the primary inspection locations for

mr. chairman, this is one of the areas where i hope we don't just talk about this. this is something we could probably do. it changes the way we need to approach this. if we truly want to know what's entering the turn this the reason we could method has 100% screening and things of that nature. i've tried with several of my college the past and my constituents better understand why we are not deploying more technology to work with the agents to be able to figure this one out. so i appreciate the response. do you believe cbp should partner with our national laboratories to develop and deploy the next generation of these tools that can identify the molecular or chemical makeup of fentanyl and other narcotic? >> thank you for the questioned as a making imminent opening, border security is a team sport so yes, the labs, private industry, the department of defense, anybody that's looking at these i think and be a partner to help us get more and

more effective and utilize our personal more effectively. >> mr. chairman, this of one areas i've suggested for years, that the science and tech director in the dhs space the department of energy is working with many agencies, with what did all around the world. those a reason more of that could be commercialized or using the space with its of domestic, almost at more advanced technology that could be deployed. mr. scott, 2021 the border tech region with with the manuff with the fifth highest implement in north america accounted for 17% of all trade with mexico. the port of entry in new mexico ranked number six in the ports and number seven in exports among land ports or merchandise trade along the united states mexico border in 22. for livestock trade represent the largest port along the u.s.-mexico border. given these clear indicators, rice and seizure and economic reports, i question is why has cbp not prioritize this port of

entry for infrastructure improvements? >> so currently as a policy advisor i don't have that level of detail. but if confirmed as we discussed before, commit to reevaluating the entire priority for infrastructure improvements and look at it. because especially the southwest border and old environments, the trade and travel has shifted and expanded dramatically in certain areas that i know we have not kept up so i commit to look into that more if confirmed. >> i appreciate that. mr. chairman, if governor apple continued to call for the victory going into texas, they go to new mexico. maybe we could find a nicely to go to get this done and pushed mexico up to the five-year plan. >> thank you, senator lujan. you're right you can try tit this for years. you are very focused and dedicated on it, to it and i think you're onto something. senator blackburn. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you for being here before us today. we appreciate it.

my colleague from the mexico is right in talking about the molecular resonance and being able to utilize technologies for detection. he and i have done a lot of work on the labs and the research work that they do. i want to go to some of the detection and testing at the southern border also. it was baffling to me that the biden administration stopped doing dna testing on children that were traveling with an adult that was not related to them. now, when that testing was done what we realized about 30% of all those children were being trafficked. we were able to extract them

from those situations. the dna testing has really proven to be a successful tool, and it is not a time-consuming tool. the entire test can process in about 45 minutes. my question to you is, will you push to make certain that at our ports of entry when children are traveling with adults not related to them that they are being dna tested? and likewise, along that same vein, we had situations where children were being recycled. they were coming in with cartel members and were being brought across the border and then sit back over the border time and

again. and some of our border patrol tell us they had seen children as many as eight or ten times. this is a horrific, horrific practice. so we have the prince act that would give cbp the authority to fingerprint emigrants under the age of 14 to combat and ultimately prevent this human trafficking. so we have those two items, the fingerprints and the dna testing that could and should be used. when you commit to using these to help protect children that are being trafficked? >> thank you for the question. the short answer is yes. when his chief of the border patrol we're pushing out that brad dna testing. i was coding have the right word for it.

i was really shocked when the biden administration shut that off because of such a good tool and it was was no justifiable reason to turn off the yes out of the again to get those tools back in place because there's no more vulnerable population than the children being brought across the border and being trafficked. >> right. memphis is the logistics hub of our country. of course with all the classrooms at a different with the port of memphis, we have fedex. so as we work on this we know that we are addressing threats. the fbi recently put out a memo pertaining to chinese communist party and influence along the mississippi river and about the dangers of counterfeit goods that are coming into the country. and we know that cbp has an important role to play as we

look at the supply chain. cargo theft is an issue. securing the shipments is an issue. so can you speak for a moment about the importance of these inland hubs and the shipping logistics and what is taking place in our logistic hubs like the city of memphis? and how that affects our supply chain. >> desk. thank you for the question. the trade and travel piece of cbp is critical. the security starts well before it gets to the united states. programs like whether work with trade partners, we built security mechanisms in place. at the end of the day it doesn't stop there. they goes into the u.s. to the hub centers as you talked about as well. anyway that's going on. it's also very important for revenue generation to make sure we know what commodities are being imported and if it matches what this had on the bill of

lading. what nation it came from so that wasn't shipped to another nation to get out of the revenue as well, the taxes as well. it's all critical. i commit to you i will focus on it just as much as i will focus on the land border itself. >> thank you. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you, senator blackburn. >> on behalf of senator cortez masto i would like to agree to the record a letter she sent to the heads of the major federal departments about president trump's impact on trade and tourism. >> without objection. and store lankford, you are up. >> chairman, thank you. mr. scott, thanks. sadly for being here to go into this process, thanks for tickets of serving our country in which you've done federal law enforcement. to be able to work to make our country more secure. i want you to know from people of oaklawn we're proud of you and we're grateful for the work that you continue to do on that. i want to run through a bunch of questions to try to get through a few things out there. one is i have great frustration

the end of the biden administration, they pulled from the polygraph examination for future folks that are serving at the border the drug use question. that's been there for a long time. ultimately ministrations. it is an issue to see if your current drug user use or pg use on that. elise to go to get the out of the polygraph. they did want to know and so they pulled it off entirely. my question is are you aware of all that and if so what can you do about it or have done about that? what can be done to make sure we do those polygraph screenings were vote -- the clerk: mr. welch, no. the presiding officer: on this motion, the yeas are 50. the nays are 46. the motion is agreed to.

the clerk will report the next nominee. the clerk: nomination, federal communications commission, olivia trusty of maryland to be a member of the federal communications commission. the presiding officer: the question is 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.

the clerk: mr. bennet. mrs. blackburn. mr. blumenthal. ms. blunt rochester. mr. booker. mr. boozman. mrs. britt. mr. budd. ms. cantwell.

the clerk: mrs. capito. mr. cassidy. ms. collins. mr. coons. mr. cornyn. ms. cortez masto. mr. cotton. mr. cramer. >> okay. thank you for coming and i'm so glad that my colleagues, senator wyden and senator warren, ranking member in senior member of the finance committee, middle, seen you here in the middle of the seats here.

but the finance committee i try to get on in the house for years with no luck. >> then you had to sit next to me. >> that's right. you got on ahead of me. but we're all happy. all right. so as you know in the last three weeks the first week we focus on medicare, medicaid rather. second week on rising costs for families and lost jobs in america. in this third week we're tied back taxes but they're all related. we all know what that they're doing. they're giving tax cuts to the billionaires and hurting whether it's on medicaid, on snap come on some other issues including taxes themselves hurting the average person the american, as you can see. and take it to be rich. and for weeks senate republicans promised they would take the dangerous unpopular house bill and six its worst provisions.

senators window and told the constituents don't worry, this will change. that will change. they said they were listening to the constituents. they lied. they lied. many of them claimed they would dry red lights on cuts to medicaid for clean energy food assistance. but now we know the truth. stennett, now that we seen the senate republicans take beautiful betrayal, we know what's in it. they didn't fix the house will improve the house bill. they made it far, far worse. the senate republican bill is, simply put, bigger cuts, bigger betrayal. there are five ways can the remaining but i thought i would point out five, and please indulge me a a medicament thae senate bill is even worse more extreme more distracted more cruel than the house version. one, the medicaid cuts are

deeper with more pain, more people losing their health care. now it's over $1 trillion. the house built originally was 880 billion at its peak. 16 million americans, maybe more, maybe more, will lose healthcare. tens of millions more will have the insurance premiums health insurance premiums go way up. so it's going to hurt a large chunk of america come to stop all working-class america including middle-class america. the republicans in the senate have love to talk about protecting medicaid, a whole bunch of them called it a red line. with this bill is not a red line. it is there. their plan gets health care is more than the house bill. democrats are happy work with republicans to bid medicaid of any waste, fraud or abuse. but this isn't that. this is repealed and replaced by another name. the senate bill squeezes hospitals even hotter than the

house bill. it crashes health and decimates rural hospitals. the healthcare sector alone would lose close to a million jobs. when you add that to the clean energy job loss. you are pointing at a recession. second, the clean energy bill kills jobs and raises costs. senate republicans spent weeks promising everybody including their governors, including the companies and unions and others who are working in all this new clean energy manufacturing that they would change the house bill. instead, the senate clean energy proposal is a head fake. they try to make it seem like they're making it better but they don't. particularly in the core areas of wind and solar. the senate clean energy bill

cuts are every bit as destructive as the house proposal. it phases out credits for wind and solar within six months. these phase outs are a death sentence for clean energy. they're going to sing electric bills soaring, kill good-paying jobs, an estimated 850,000 people 50,000 people in the clean energy industry will lose their jobs. and despite all the rhetoric from trump and republicans, we're going to surrender u.s. energy independence to china. china in the fastest way to bring new electrons onto the grid which is solar. china is going to dominate and of american consumers by the neck. the cuts will choke america's energy output right as we need to expand our capacity. ai is going to them demande amounts of electricity. it's going to cost the consumer more as prices go. why the hell would you cut off

the quickest cheapest way to bring in new power? some of those who say on republican, where for all of the above come we don't like the democrats being against fossil fuels. fossil fuels gets get lotsx breaks. they always have. now they're eliminating them just to clean energy. three, gun violence. now can you believe this? that horrible house provision on gun silencers saying you no longer had to go through a background check to use a gun silencer, and only the only people who use silencers are bad people. cops don't like silencers. average citizens don't like solitude. only somebody is going to shoot and doesn't want it to be known that they are going to shoot. they made it worse. i am the author of the brady law. an and author of the assault weapons ban. i know the history and one of the bottom lines for everybody in the past even republicans is that shotguns and rifles could

have background checks. guess what. they took them away in the senate bill. years of history and compromise, years of saying everyone knew that these guns were too dangerous, they took it off. now if they get their way silencers as in the house bill and shotguns and rifles added in the senate will not need a background check for anyone come in criminal can get one. now we are contesting this and other provisions in the byrd bath here we are hopeful we win. we will see what happens that we are contesting it in every way we can because senate republicans are choosing a gun lobby over the lights of our kids. i don't know what happened. i can surmise. a bunch of the right-wingers said we didn't get all the cuts we wanted. so they said we will give you this. who knows? fourth, tacking our courts. speaking of fighting against a

radical plan by the senate republicans, but with the doing to the courts. you might be confused picky say this is a tax bill. why are republicans tried to push something on the courts? do the math. trump is losing in court over 95% of the time. some of us have in plaintiffs in suits. many come of the times we work with other groups and we were amici. or just help them. where winning in the courts and you know, all too frequently guess who siding with us? drug judges trump appointed in his first term. the house bill would have prevented courts from enforcing injunctions if plaintiff didn't put up massive security bonds. the senate not to be outdone makes it worse, preventing courts from even issuing injunctions against the federal government in the first place. if plaintiff still put up a

massive, unaffordable to so many security bond. so they're trying to make the justice system pay to play. hey to play for our sacred, respected, until now, relatively following the law, not always unfortunately, , particularly wh this new supreme court. but they're changing it.cl if you don't have money, you don't get justice. that's never been the american way. they are doing some republicans are doing trump's bidding and they're trying to protect him by stopping courts from issuing injunctions. this is our democracy. we're going after it. not going down without a fight. this and many other provisions,, the gun provision and many others are challenging with the parliamentarian because we don't think it meets the actual criteria for that. and finally on taxes where my two colleagues, members of the finance committee, will evaporate. but given all these devastating cuts, you have to assume

republicans would say okay, will lower the national debt. no, quite the opposite. cbo yesterday said the house-passed bill would increase the debt by 3.4 trillion, surging interest rates and every american. that means in buy home, by a car, use a credit card, you're going to pay more. because of the tax cuts to billionaires. now it's not even considering the senate bill. that was 3.4. it's even more generous than house and locks these tax rates come here they are. only top 10% -- [inaudible] $2500, that's a lot of money for anybody. but if you are poor it is devastating. under the so-called middle-class

provisions, the wealthiest .1% get an average tax cut of $400,000. what does it mean to your family? fewer benefits, higher costs. we are going to do everything we can with the court of public opinion and in the vote-a-rama process to show the hypocrisy of what republicans are doing and to elaborate on that hypocrisy, we have ron wyden. >> thank you leader schumer. and good to be with you and senator warren and let me start it this way. it is hard to grasp how anybody could look at the horrible health bill, the one they passed a few weeks ago, and think to themselves that's not enough class warfare. that is apparently what senate republicans think. it is hard to believe that

anybody could spend almost $3 trillion on a bill full of tax cuts, and somehow increase the poverty rate in america. senate republicans found a way to do that, too. it is hard to imagine how 53 senators could ignore all the warning about their agenda kicking off a catastrophic death spiral and higher interest rate which will devastate the middle class. they tuned those warnings out, too. the more the american people learn about this bill, the worse they are going to feel about it. that's because there's nothing but bad news in it for them, unless there are a corporate executive or somebody who is

already fabulously well off. and they get the sense that people spend their time walking around the senate corridors have maybe lost sight of the big picture. this is not a normal debate we're having where the two sides have different approaches, and you talk about the challenges of dealing with a big topic here this goes way beyond 2017 when you had merely handouts to the people at the top overshadowing the chromes that were designed to be there for working people. this'll be the most regressive law in modern times by far. this is trillions in handouts for corporations and the rich paid for by taking 16 million

americans off their health care, taking food out of the mouths of millions of hungry kids, and sabotaging clean energy in america. the legislation that came from the finance committee that we all worked on sabotaged. republicans don't have any answer to the single working mom who is terrified of losing her medicaid coverage or being unable to feed their kids. they have no answers for the solar manufacturers who are about to be put out of business in america, or the thousands of workers whose jobs they are about to eliminate. last week the treasury y mr. bessent came before the finance case for hearing. asked him out the carnage that i have just described, the damage that this going to afflict on the american people. we asked them about the new analysis that says that this

legislation will cause 51,000 excess deaths per year. what did he do? he just laughed off the senate democratic member who asked about this. he refused to engage in a serious way with these questions. the fact is the senate bill will drive the vulnerable in the misery and drag down the middle class call all for the benefit of those at the very top and the most powerful. by definition, this is class warfare, caviar over kids, mar-a-lago over the middle class, and we are going to be in this fight, the fight to block this until the last. i think, senator warren. >> thank you. thank you leader schumer. thank you, ranking member wyden. >> soon to be chair against your

mouth to gods ears. the republican bill is a twofer. it cut access to health care for millions of americans, for babies, for people with disabilities, for seniors living in nursing homes and is a giant giveaway to billionaires. republicans get it both. they are able to be cruel to the people who need just a little help to get their health care, to be able to buy groceries for the end of the month, and they manage to make rich people even richer. this bill is another effort for the republicans to just hand over our nation to billionaires. i want to carve up three particularly filthy provisions that are just talked down in this bill that illustrate how give it away to the rich guys

and take it away from everyone else. the first one is there's a giant giveaway to the oil industry talked right into the middle of this bill. there's no corporate alternative tax that says once profits reach $1 billion you have to fail this 50% on 50% of the amount over that. that's true now if this bill goes through for every corporation in america, except the oil industry. they are going to get a special get out of paying your taxes free under the senate version of the bill. why? because they don't want to pay taxes and the event after making contributions to the republican party. second one, meta-, we all know how bad it has been struggling other, right? there's a a provision tucked n here that says that meta alone that one company can get

$15 billion, that's with a b, $15 billion in order to incentivize them to do research in 2022, 2023, and 2024. some of you may be doing the math and wondering if they've invented a time machine to go back and add to the research. the answer is no work instead, evidently what republicans a plant is one of those big checks, a single check that under this bill would be written to meta for $15 billion simply for existing. and the third one, this bill wants to zero out the consumer financial protection bureau. and that may be the biggest giveaway of all. we all remember that little agency. that's the one that and about a dozen years managed to uncover more than $20 billion in fraud

and cheating, and got that money return directly to consumers. where did that money come from? it came from giant corporations who want the opportunity to cheat american families again. you take a copy cop off thd say now it will be open season on american families, squeeze them, cheat them, check them, track them, however you can pick and republican say have added. that will be one more boost under this bill. so look, we are here because democrats believe that no baby should lose access to health care so that jeff bezos can buy a third job. we are here because we believe that no one with disabilities who needs a a wheelchair, who needs a home health aide should lose that aid, should lose that the mark zuckerberg can buy a third island. and we are here because

democrats believe that no senior should be pushed out of a nursing home so that elon musk can take a rocket ship ride to mars. budgets are about our values. republicans have made clear they are willing to throw millions of americans under the bus so they can help out a handful of their billionaire friends and those billionaire corporations. democrats are here to fight back. >> we will take some questions on the subject first. ..

the clerk: mr. kaine, no.

siri dial mr. sheehy, aye. reduce the deficit. yes. we have a task force that's doing just that. reaching out to republican senators. we are meeting again this afternoon. yes and we are reaching outb& i have seven republican

congressmen in my state, i've been at every one of their districts talking about this issue, getting a huge response many of these hospital administrators and employee, all republican, and many of the rural hospitals there the largest employer in the county and in most are the only supplier of healthcare. >> i wanted to add a point. we lost the big medicaid vote. they said the public as much angrier about medicaid today than when we had the recorded development that we almost won a month or so p to the fight every step of the way.

this process is going to take a while. i can't see it finishing up by the end of this week. this supreme court seems to have forgotten that one of their jobs is to protect individual rights and protect individuals from being the credited against. is an awful decision.

on the floor we had a bill that the republicans wanted to take away the rights and i believe we got every democrat voted against it so it failed. we will score every solution. last one. >> what if any authority does the president have 㦠[inaudible] >> senate democrats if necessary will not hesitate to assert our prerogatives and ability on this bill. >> will you get behind that? >> we will not hesitate. thank you everybody. have we got any briefings? yes we got breathing and i requested that we get in all senators classified briefing.

>> do you think you will be successful in getting back. >> i believe we will. thank you. >> on monday afternoon the senate finance committee released the centerpiece of the reconciliation bill. making tax relief permanent visa 2017 tax cuts and jobs act reduce tax rates for income bracket, double the child tax credit and nearly doubled the standard deduction. that of course means more money in the market but those lower tax rates and larger standard deduction in the child tax credit are set to expire at the end of this year. if we don't take action american families will be facing a massive tax hike in 2026. americans making less than $400,000 face a 2.6 trillion tax hike. typical family of four making $80,000 in your send an

additional $1700 to uncle sam. $1700, mr. president. republicans promised the american people wouldn't let that happen. with the release of the finance committee tax we are one step closer to delivering on that promise present our bill will extend the tax cuts and jobs act lower tax rates, it will extend the double child tax credit will extend the nearly doubled deduction. but not just extended, make them permanent. extending the lower tax rates on the standard election was never going to be enough for republicans. we are making the lower tax rates and the double child tax credit and the increase standard deduction permanent so american families don't have to worry about another aylooming t hike a few years down the road and we are going even further by increasing the child tax credit by another $200. on a permanent basis.

that's not all we are doing. we are also going to make life better for the market people by going on tax cuts and jobs act also implemented historic reform of the business side of the tax bill lowering tax rates for owners of small and medium size businesses. and made it easier for them to recover the cost of investing in the businesses. which in turn freed up cash for them to invest in their operations and their workers. we lower the nation's massive corporate tax rate, which was the highest corporate tax rate in the developed world. to make american businesses more competitive in the global economy and empower them to invest in wages and benefits for their workers. we brought our international taxes to the 21st century so american business would no longer be operating at a disadvantage next to the bank's foreign counterparts.

it works. in the wake of the tax cuts and jobs at our company grew at a substantially better rate than projected. real wages increase, unemployment fell to a 50 year low, poverty rate fell to the lowest level ever recorded. business investment increased. everywhere you looked there was positive economic news. mr. president, when we passed the tax cuts and jobs act we were able to make some of that tax permanent. but like the individual tax relief other provisions of either already expired or expiring at the end of this year or in the process of phasing out. that includes lower tax rates for small medium size businesses. the section 199 a small business tax deduction and full especially for new capital investment in domestic research and development. are legislation will

permanently extend these key provisions. between these and other new policies like the provision to boost domestic manufacturing by implementing full expensing from factories and factories improvements. we can expect to see further economic growth and more jobs and opportunities american workers. the council of economic advisers which accurately act of the economic wage growth we achieved in the wake of the tax cuts and jobs act forecasting 2.9% 3.5% long-running gdp. as a result of our legislation. that means more jobs, better wages, as much as a $13,327 increase for a typical family and more opportunities for american workers. it also means more revenue for the federal government. the revenue created the right way. through economic growth. not higher taxes.

i should mention that yesterday the congressional budget office release date new hr one analysis which characterized underestimates the economic growth and enhance the revenue the bill will provide. the congressional budget office did the same thing with the tax cuts and jobs act, when estimated revenues would be $1.5 trillion lower than what they've actually been. the council of economic advisers by contrast, which was most accurate in its modeling of the tax cuts and jobs act effects included its effect on revenue including its effect on revenue tells us that passage of our legislation will increase federal revenues by $4.1 trillion more than enough for offset the cbo's deficit estimate. in addition to promising to make the 2017 tax relief

permanent present trumpet outlined multiple other tax proposals on the campaign trail. endorsed by the american people with his strong win in november and with this bill we are delivering on those promises. we are suspending taxes on tips from took workers. suspending taxes on overtime millions of hourly workers. we are suspending taxes on auto loan interest when you buy a new car manufacturer in the united states and we are increasing the standard deduction for millions of low and middle income seniors making their retirement a little and more prosperous. everything we are doing him as though it is for the sake of american longer and more prosperous.

nowhere is that were true that when it comes to the tax portion the centerpiece of our bill. the tax provisions in our bill from the permanent mention of the lower tax rate to the increased child tax credit the permanent tax relief for small medium size businesses will help bring security to american families and prosperity to our country. working americans working americans are going to have a better life because of this legislation. i'm proud to be a part of permanently extending and upgrading the tax cuts and jobs act. that i want to think gentleman plato and his numbers on the senate finance committee for their incredible work on the text portion of our upcoming bill. i look forward to delivering permanent tax relief for hard-working americans and american business in the very near future. ideal before and suggest the

absence of a quorum. >> mr. president, the maga supreme court majority has seem to have forgotten one of the jobs is to protect americans from discrimination. republican-controlled crusade against transamerica and infringes on the rights of parents, kids, once again republicans use these issues to divide america and distract them from their plans to rip healthcare away from millions of people. we will keep fighting to protect the rights of all-americans. as the conflict in the middle east continues, all of us are concerned for the safety of st. patrick's and citizens and america's interests around the world. the information of my colleagues i requested a classified briefing on the

situation in the middle east and i believe we will get one soon i will keep my colleagues informed as more updates arise. on the cbo report i went yesterday the more and more people look at the republican so-called big beautiful bill, the uglier and uglier actually get. yesterday the cbo updated their projections on the impact of the house bill on our national debt and our economy. results are dismal. as the new york times put in the headline, house policy bill 3.4 trillion to debt swamping economic gains. this analysis is new and different because unlike their last projection, the cbo studies have the republican bill would interact with the economy. how many times have we heard from republicans that we

shouldn't listen to groups like the cdl? because what they are doing so much stairs in the face of truth. they don't want to hear the truth. when people hear the truth they don't like what republic and that doing. so they shoot the messenger, cbo doesn't have an ax to grind. they've always been there scores have always been accepted by both parties until now. so the bottom line is, hours republicans try to discredit cbo because they don't like hearing the truth stop the truth must be told and we are telling that truth to the american public day in, day out. we are telling them that these analyses ignore the economic benefit that supposedly comes from the outrageous billionaire tax cuts. now we know that even after you take into account any impact any economic impact of the so-called dynamic scoring, created by the republican bill,

it is still a loser for working and middle-class families become only the wealthy gain. the republican bill will send interest rates higher, particularly 10 year bonds. that means americans will play more and more for virtually everything when interest rates go up, which the epublican bill will do because it makes the deficit even bigger, and will be more expressive for the working family to buy a home, a car, send kids to college, run a business , everything. the latest cbo report is a warning to senate republicans. doubling down on the house is reckless spending will doom our kids and grandkids to a life of higher cost. they should scrap the big beautiful bill entirely and start over. but amazingly, senate republicans didn't moderate the house bill at all. if anything, they made it worse. it's hard to believe it could

get worse than the house bill. for working families. but somehow the senate republicans, they are supposed to be not as extreme as the house republicans but in this case more so. after weeks of hearing from one republican senator or another, saying that they had fixed the house bill, that they moderate the most extreme elements, what senate republicans came up with is just as bad or even worse. the senate republican bill is simply put, bigger cuts, bigger betrayal, today let's look at five ways, let's look at five ways the senate republican bill is just as bad or even worse than the house version. first, healthcare. the house bill already proposes the biggest medicaid cuts in u.s. history. there bill would rip healthcare from 16 million americans. make over $1 trillion in healthcare cuts. the senate bill would add even

more roadblocks for working americans, parents, preventing them from getting healthcare. this bill is repeal and replace b& re 45. the nomination is confirmed. under the previous order, the motion to reconsider is considered madeland upon the table, and the president will be immediately notified of the senate's actions.

ms. murkowski: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from alaska. ms. murkowski: i ask unanimous consent that privileges of the floor be granted to my first session summer interns, ama did

a, grace, jeffrey, lesbianly, brett markoff, carle, brax ton, and my committee on indian affairs interns for the month of june 2025 in the 119th congress. officer without objection. the presiding officer: without objection. the senator from nevada. ms. cortez masto: i ask unanimous consent that the committee on energy and natural resources be discharged from further consideration of the following bills en bloc -- s. 154, s. 282, s. 356, s. 1112, and h.r. 2215. further, that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of the following bills en bloc -- s. 154, s. 228, s. 356, s. 1112,

h.r. 42 which was received from the house and is at the desk, h.r. 43 received from the house and at the desk. h.r. 6168 seize from the house and is at the desk and h h.r. 2215. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measures en bloc? without objection, the senate will proceed en bloc. ms. cortez masto: i ask unanimous consent that the bills be considered read a third time en bloc. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. cortez masto: i know of no further debate of the bills en bloc. the presiding officer: is there further debate? if not, the question is on passage of the bills en bloc. all those in favor, say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes appear to have it, the ayes do have it. the bills are passed en bloc. ms. cortez masto: final i will i

ask unanimous consent that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, all en bloc. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. cortez masto: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from nevada. ms. cortez masto: mr. president, we just passed a bipartisan package of bills, some of them passed by the senate in the last congress and recently some of them passed by the house. the package includes one of my pieces of legislation which was needed in nevada, which was h.r. 618, the apex technical areas act. this will cut through red tape in the industrial park in north las vegas vague and speed up the permitting process for businesses looking to build or expand there. here's how. all nevada developers know that the federal government morons than 80 -- the federal government owns more than 80% of the land in the state.

every time they want to build, they need a permit from the bureau of land management. that process, as we all know, can take years n that time we're losing out on economic growth and on new job creation. that's what's currently happening at the apex industrial park in north las vegas. apex has over 7,000 acres of developable land where various companies are building new sites. that includes air lockheed largest site in the world, a distribution center for the grocery center smith's and for the footwear company crocs. the crocs center could create up to 1200 jobs. too many businesses that want to set up shop at apex are bound down by burdensome obstacles.

congress passed legislation to transfer federal land to private ownership. but the bureau of land management maintained control over large utility corridors that crisscrossed throughout the development. that means every business that wants to start constructing or even expand at apex has to go through the complicated federal permitting process if they want to access necessities like gas, power, sewage, access roads and broadband lines across those blm-controlled corridors. in the initial law passed in 1989, congress gave clarke county the authorization to speed up the authorization process but since then apex's primary management has changed to the city of north las vegas and the apex industrial park owners association as well. unfortunately, these two entities don't have the authority to permit new type lines or power connections or roads for businesses and the facilities. that has caused delays that could last years.

that's why i'm fighting to pass the apex area technical corrections act. this bill be for the las vegas -- get new and cannabising businesses, the utilities they need to operate. this legislation cuts through unnecessary government obstacles and allows our businesses to grow at a sustainable pace. it is essential to ensure businesses can efficiently continue to build and expand in nevada, including at the apex industrial park. it will bring new jobs to north las vegas and continue to strengthen our economy. this bill has already passed through the house of representatives and i look forward to the president signing it into law soon. with that, mr. president, i yield the floor. ms. murkowski: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from nebraska. pardon me. the senator from alaska. ms. murkowski: i'm really glad we were abe to reach agreement

today to pass these bills by unanimous consent, sending them to the president to be signed into law. i want to acknowledge and thank my colleague and friend from nevada, senator cortez masto. i also with a with to acknowledge senator markey from massachusetts. they worked with us to try to get us to the place where we are today where we're able to move these bills across the floor. i also want to thank the chairman of the nrc committee and the -- the energy committee and the ranking member, chairman leakers and ranking member heinrich. their teams worked with us at the energy and natural resources committee as well as the cloakroom teams to make sure we were able to be successful today. the senate passed all four of these measures last december, so we've seen them once. now we've seen them twice. but the house ran out of time at the end of last congress to take them up. so we are where we are, but now these bills are going to be going to the president for his signature. two of the bills are important for alaska natives, and i'm proud to have been able to work

on these important measures. it's been a multiyear effort to get them to the president's desk, but again i don't care really if we send an h.r. or an s. bill to the president, we just want to get it accomplished. we want to get some things done for alaska. the first measure, h.r. 42, amends the alaska claims settle act. when alaska native elders, the blind and the disabled, that they receive dividends -- when they receive dividends from their settlement trust, that they do not inadvertently become then ineligible to participate in federal needs-based assistance programs. this is pretty common sense. so you've got a situation where alaska natives who are aged, blind, or disabled, they should not have to choose between accepting the settlement trust

income that they are entitled to or qualifying for federal benefits, such as supplemental security income, ssi, or snap, the supplemental nutrition assistance program, as well as housing assistance. now with that bill they're not going to have to make that choice. the second measure h.r. 42, the municipal lands restoration act. what this does is eliminate a requirement under ancsa section 14-c-3 that alaska native village corporations convey land to the state of alaska to be held in trust for future municipalities, which are not likely ever to be established. so what we're doing with this measure is sunsetting this requirement and allowing village corporations to regain title to conveyed lands. this will allow village corporations to fully utilize

their lands for the benefit of their communities. this is what we want to see happen, and again it's been a long time coming. so i'm pleased that we're here. i am hopeful that the senate can pass more of these similar, very noncontroversial bills through the unanimous consent most. -- unanimous consent process. we shouldn't get into the practice where we wait until the end of a congress or perhaps even multiple congresses for a package to be knit together. people in these communities are waiting on under the circumstances. as senator cortez masto noted, in her state of nevada or in my state of alaska, they're waiting on us to deliver these small legislative priorities that will allow them to move forward with whether it's economic development or just making sure that there's a level of equity and fairness. so i thank my colleagues, i thank the energy committee as well as the floor team and my staff that helped us move these

measures forward. and with that, mr. president, i yield the floor. thank you for coming i'm so glad my colleagues from linking member senior member of the finance committee. i tried to get on the finance committee for years. but we are all happy.

as you know, in the last three weeks the first week focused on medicare, medicaid second week on rising costs for families and lost jobs in america this third week we are about taxes but they are all related. they are giving tax cuts to the billionaires and hurting including taxes themselves hurting the average person and working family. you can see for weeks senate republicans promised they would take their dangerous unpopular house bill and fix its worst provisions. senators went home and told constituents, don't worry, this will change, that will change, they said they were listening to their constituents. they live. many of them claim would be little red lines on cuts to

medicaid or clean energy or food assistance, but now we know the truth. six now that we've seen the senate republican big beautiful betrayal, we know what's in it. they didn't fix the house bill he made it far far worse. the senate republican bill is simply put "bigger cuts, bigger betrayal". these are five ways, there are many but i thought i would .5 percent please indulge me. the senate bill is even worse more extreme or destructive more cruel than the house version. the medicaid cuts are deeper with more people losing their healthcare. now it's over $1 trillion. the house bill originally was $880 billion at its peak.

16 million americans, maybe more, will lose healthcare project tens of millions more will have their insurance premiums go way up. it's going to hurt a large chunk of all working-class america including middle-class america. the republicans in the senate love to talk about protecting medicaid, a whole bunch of them called in a redline. there's no it's not a redline. their vanguard healthcare even more than the house. democrats are happy to work with republicans to read medicated anyways thought were amused but this isn't that this is repeal and replace by another name, the senate bill squeezes hospitals even harder than the house bill. encroaches health centers and decimates rural hospitals. the healthcare sector alone lose close to 1 million jobs. when you add that to the clean energy job loss you're pointing at reception.

the clean energy bill kills jobs and raises costs. senate republicans spent weeks promising everybody, including their governors, including the company. lead the u.s. customs and border protection agency. in my view, this is yet another appalling nomination from the trump administration. as a senior federal official, agents in mr. scott's direct chain of command tried to cover up their culpability in the beating death of a man in their custody with his help. his record, in my view, is disqualifying for someone seeking one of the most important law enforcement posts in the nation. u.s. customs and border protection has extraordinary discretion to conduct searches

of americans' belongings and phones and to interrogate american citizens at border crossings and to seize illicit goods. the agency has more than 60,000 employees. leading this agency requires someone whose judgment and character are unquestioned. mr. scott does not meet the bar. in 2010, mr. scott led the san diego sector of the border patrol, a position that included oversight of a unit that tampered with evidence after agents beat and tasted mr. rojas while in their custody. he died of those injuries soon after. this unit taped over recordings of the incident and served an illegal subpoena on the hospital for the man's medical records, then refused to share them with local law enforcement. this is according to allegations filed with the inter-american human rights commission of the organization of american states and by police investigators.

the actions were so egregious, the human rights commission concluded a few weeks ago that the u.s. government violated mr. r rojas's rights to justice. i would ask unanimous consent to enter the dhs inspector report of the incident into the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. wyden: mr. president, mr. scott admitted before the finance committee that he signed the illegal subpoena and expressed no remorse for his actions. he appears so unfazed by these allegations of brazen lawlessness that it seems inevitable he will sanction similar abuses of power if he is confirmed to lead customs and border patrol. since donald trump took office, on far too many occasions cbp has shown contempt for the constitutional rights of americans. for example, in texas a ten-year-old u.s. citizen was

left in mexico with her family after being stopped by cbp on her way to a doctor's appointment for brain cancer treatment. in washington, cbp detained a family of six, including a pregnant mother who was still breast feeding her baby, a u.s. citizen. cbp held them in a windowless cell for 24 days. they had no access to due process or ability to contest their detention. in arizona, a 19-year-old u.s. citizen with intellectual disabilities who has difficulty speaking, writing and reading was arrested by cbp and charged with illegal entry, despite being an american. cbp kept him detained for ten days. mr. president, there are countless gut-wrenching stories like this. courts have already raised concerns about cbp's inability to uphold the constitution. mr. president, i'm of the view that america needs strong

enforcement at the border to protect our people against criminals and drug traffickers. but that does not have to come at the expense of violating americans' constitutional rights. our country does not need a brother agency that -- a border agency that violates the rights of americans or one that feels like it's above due process and above the law. that doesn't make our country safer. it only leads to corruption, more wrongful arrests, and more wrongful deaths. americans do not need to choose between security and our rights. we can have both, just as ben franklin said many years ago. i fear that confirming mr. scott will make our country less secure and less free. for that reason, i strongly oppose this nomination. i yield back. e presiding officek

will call the roll. from issuing injunctions, this is our democracy, we are going after it. not going down without a fight. this and many other provisions. we are challenging with the parliamentarian because we don't think it meets the actual criteria for that. on taxes, where my two colleagues members of the finance committee will elaborate, given all these devastating cuts, you have to assume republicans would say okay, we will lower the national debt, no, quite the opposite, cbl yesterday said the house passed bill would increase the debt by $3.4

trillion. surgeon interest rates on every american. [inaudible] that's a lot of money for everybody but if you are poor it is under the so-called middle-class provisions the wealthiest one percent set got an average tax cut of $400,000. what does that mean to your family? you are benefits to a higher cost. we are going to do everything we can with the court of public

opinion in the boat around the process to show the hypocrisy of what the republicans are doing and elaborate on that are perceived thank you. to be with you and senator were. when we start this way, it is hard to grasp how anybody could look at the horrible health bill, the one they passed a few weeks ago and think to themselves, that's not enough class warfare. that's apparently what senate republicans think. it is hard to believe that anybody could spend almost $3 trillion on a bill full of tax cuts and somehow increase the poverty rate in america.

senate republicans found a way to do that too. it is hard to imagine how 53 senators could ignore all the warnings about their agenda kicking off a catastrophic death spiral on higher interest rates, which will devastate the middle-class. they tune those warnings out too. the more the american people learn about this bill, the worse they are going to feel about it. that's because there's nothing but bad news in it for them unless they are a corporate executive or somebody who is already fabulously well off stop i get the sense that people who spend their time walking around these senate corridors have maybe lost sight of the big picture.

this is not a normal debate we are having more than two sides have different approaches. a senator: i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. hoeven: i ask unanimous consent that the next vote be called. the presiding officer: without objection. the question occurs on the scott nomination. mr. hoeven: i ask for the yeas and nays. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. kaup kau. -- the clerk will call the roll. vote: ms. baldwin. 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. 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. [inaudible background speaking]

what's i want to thank people for being here with enthusiasm. but this hearing now convenes. to hear the testimony concerning the presidents fy2021 six hundred request. fy2021 six budget request. as we review the past five months, the president and department of defense have much to be proud of. the administration has largely succeeded in refocusing the were fighting this is a very important achievement and one we will continue to brate. the u.s. military has played a significant supporting role in the presidents wholesale success at the southern

border. houston achieves operational control over the situation a position the vast majority of americans support. interoperation rope writer the president proposed cost of the hoodies the operation was well executed by servicemembers and appears to have achieved asked stated objectives as of now is up similarly, the president has religiously struck al qaeda and is terrace. that has helped open up to poetic breakthroughs in syria and they have prevented significant external attacks that could have emanated from somalia. unfortunately, the acts of aggressors as resilient as hell bent on challenging american global leadership. is clearer than ever that vladimir putin is uninterested in president trumps and president zielinski's offers for real peace negotiations.

the europeans are heeding the president's call to rearm but we are in a tenuous period. precipitants withdrawal of. [singing] forces from europe could undo all that process. the chinese communist party continues the campaign of aggression against its neighbors and still displays open ambitions to retake taiwan. secretary had stopped recently made this crucial point of important in shangri-la. he said china seeks to become a hegemonic power in sia. is ia. is right he is still refusing to negotiate. in short, this is the most dangerous national security moment since world war ii.

unconstrained aggressive dictators on the move and importantly, the character of warfare is rapidly changing. that is a dangerous combination is that we cannot have an american-led golden age of prosperity we fail to navigate start security challenges. truck xi jinping, and his chinese, this party, vladimir putin, kim jong-un and the israel of tears for our commander-in-chief deserve a military capable of maintaining deterrence and applying force when necessary to protect. [singing] interests. as he is done in him and i regret to say that this fiscal year 2026 budget request will

not deliver that military. when companies hearing he made the correct point that spending less than 3% of gdp on defense would be "very dangerous". what we have in front of us is an inadequate budget request one precious detail no follow-up on data about fiscal years 2027, 2028, 2029. we must assume that we have heard that lmb intends to maintain the spending $800 across the four years of this ministration. even with a one-time one dollar infusion, this would leave us at 2.65% of gdp

by 2029. below 3% of gdp and well below the 5% of that we really need. clearly such a budget plan would allow the military balance to continue as it has been to tilt away from the united states and toward communist china has increased its budget by over 7% each year for the past decade. i noticed secretary brought a stronger fy2021 six request. but we need to acknowledge that fiscal year 2026 budget on the delivered acts will spend today reviewing the numerous significant holes in a surprise. perhaps that will make it much equipped servicemembers and put credible military budget holes

shipbuilding, tactical fighters, basic maintenance money and more, all insufficient as if there are many items in reconciliation package that simply is confusing because the text of the reconciliation bill for quite some time is of the house and i worked closely with the executive branch done together on billing leads me to question whether some officials on the administration plan to ignore the we all work and we share identical goals when it comes to determining xi jinping,.

work much more e.closely togeth strategies and actions necessary to rebuild the president and congress want action on real industrialization we want to rebuild the earth democracy. we need action on industrial base integration streamline weapon sales and operation with allies and partners we agree on ways budget now we need to put the resources they to do their job that we have no time to waste we must commit to continued collaboration now with that i turned to my friend and colleague for his remarks. >> thank you very much.

as the chairman said, this is a dangerous moment. as we speak, missiles are striking cities across israel and iran threatening to ignite a regional war there should be no doubt that for the safety of the united states and the rest of the world iran cannot acquire a nuclear weapon. however, prime minister netanyahu decision to preemptively launch a war with iran against the urging of the present. threatens the stability of the entire region and safety of americans stationed their trump administration must take urgent steps to prevent a wider war. i would ask you to be crystal clear this morning about the administration's posture toward iran. russia continues bloody assaults on ukraine and moved by president trumps negotiating tactics and china is threatening our allies in the other pacific as america once again redirects its attention to the police.

this is a bullet that requires leadership expertise and confidence from the defense. i'm concerned that these qualities have been eroded under your leadership. in your opening statement you write " at the department of defense we are sweeping away distractions to focus on our core mission of war fighting ". i'm a bit skeptical. since he was sworn in much of the pentagon has been in disarray. you purged thousands of defense experts and surround yourself with handpicked loyalists. you fired a number of our most accomplished generals and admirals with no replacement. your chief of staff, several top policy advisors, and chief spokesman have either resigned or been fired. this is a legitimate problem for national defense. much of the pentagon seems to be paralyzed by imparted instructive expert staff at a time when we need stability and

professionalism. you must address this so the rest of the department can be laser focused on their mission. also concerned about your for raising diplomacy is that the secretary must be capable statesmen especially in this dangerous global environment. during your first trip to europe he made unfortunate mistakes including by accidentally conceiving america's negotiating leverage to russia when you announced "we must start by recognizing that returning to the borders is an unrealistic objective and the united states does not believe nato membership for ukraine is a realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement. the state department walked back your comments. but i worry that they cost lasting credibility during peace negotiations and with our european allies.

i hope you have learned from these episodes. the key to our war on success against china russia and iran depend on the ability to equip forces aircraft weapons needed to effectively deter them. you recently got the office of director of operational tests and evaluations which is responsible for testing new weapons these decisions do not seem to align with readiness.

similarly, over the past two weeks you awarded 4700 national guard troops and marines into los angeles against the will of the government and higher. these forces are in addition to the 13,000 troops deployed the southern border and separate from a 20,000 national guard troops to help i.c.e. with "anterior immigration efforts", as a consequence, to cancel the national training center locations and waste valuable hours and resources performing dhs activities unrelated to the war fighting missions. i cannot imagine a faster way to military readiness than distract our ability to russia, china, and around is that you claim merit is the only measure performance under your leadership. that's where the principal. however, he refused to explain how allow you fired many senior

military officers. these officers were fired without any justification, indeed without considering merit. which creates the worst possible outcome for military force. fear throughout the ranks, one should not speak up, should not refuse and illegal order and should not call out abuse no question decisions. i fear that last week's disturbing display of partisanship at president trumps event at fort bragg is an example of this. i hope you understand the brave grave risk of politicizing military and that you will commit to preventing it. you have pledged to be transparent. yet today it you have not held a single press conference at the pentagon.

even threatening general offices with polygraph tests. this is not transparency, and it is a disservice to the american people who deserve to know what the military is doing. this is a dangerous moment. you must better demonstrate leadership expertise and competence on top of the pentagon. your the ninth secretary of defense i overseen as a member of this committee, and this is the 26th time i have questioned the secretary of defense during their annual hearing. i disagree with each and every one of the policy and strategy, some more quickly than others, but i've always been able to work with them openly and earnestly because we shared a common agreement that our national defense supersedes partisanship. it's disappointing so far that we have not been able to establish such a relationship with this committee and with your department.

your candid and honest testimony today can go a long way to making that possible and we hope we can make it. thank you. >> thank you senator reed, at this point we will ask our witnesses to summarize their testimony in five minutes or shorter. we will begin with secretary wagstaff. >> we appreciate the opportunity to testify in full support of president trumps proposed fiscal year 2026 defense department budget request. we also very proud to represent our warriors and their families. today as they do every day they are keeping our country safe, defending our homeland, standing up to communist china,

working hand in glove with allies and partners. they are achieving peace through strength. would like to start by thinking this committee and congress for your bipartisan leadership to give our troops a big pay raise in 2025. and would improve the quality of care provided our defense helped her sister. the best part of my job is meeting and interacting with troops and their families. we hear their concerns, we know what it's like to face these challenges. i've been there recently. each of these initiatives are spawns to feedback we got from the force. where listening and always

looking for ways to improve quality of life for those who serve. under president trump leadership this budget puts america first and gives our warriors what they need. the 961. $6 billion budget request more than 1 trillion for national security will end four years of chronic underinvestment in our military. with first year budget releases additional time was necessary to implement presidential initiative. in the last four months we've moved quickly to reverse course after four years of weakness and mismanagement. we found nearly $30 billion in savings across the department and this savings if you add the savings to our overall budget we're increasing the dod budget in 2026 by $143 billion. we do that by killing wasteful

programs come tardy bureaucratic excess in redirecting funding from by arab priorities to trump, president trump's priorities. what with department of homeland security to increase border security to reduce china's malign influence in the western hemisphere to defend freedom of navigation in the red sea. however as with all accounts there's more work to do. i've got three priorities in the department. restore the war your ethos, report military and reestablished deterrence. we were restoring the warrior ethos. president trump is charge me to focus relentlessly on war fighting lithology meritocracy standards and readiness that is exactly what we're doing. we're setting standards that are high, equal and unwavering. the dei is dead. we replaced it with a colorblind gender-neutral merit-based approach and the force is responding incredibly. because of president trump and is america first priorities recruitment and retention are

higher than they've been in decades. historic surge against americans who want to join our military. second where rebuilding a mr. kirk 25 physical and military was an challenge that we squandered that advantage as china carried out an unprecedented military buildup. president trump is cracking that. we're revising our defense industry base reforming our acquisitions process, rapidly field emerging technologies and new weapons to meet the challenges of the future. this budget invest $25 billion in golden dome golden dome for america a down payment of president trump's diary to defend our homeland. it commits more than $62 billion to modernize and sustain our nuclear forces as we face rising nuclear dangers. the budget allocates 3.5 billion for the f-47 the world's first six generation air superiority fighter. the budget will revitalize our shipbuilding industrial base six plan dollars in funding in ay '26 and that's on top of

47 billion overall for shipbuilding. the budget cynically increases funds to buy next-generation technology including autonomous systems long range grows long and hypersonics. we will put these capabilities enhanced of our war fighters ensuring we remain the most lethal force in the world for generations to come. third where reestablishing deterrence. when an opponent sees are well equipped and tough as nails warriors they will decide that today is not the day to test u.s. resolve. credible deterrence it starts at home and distress with securing our borders as was mentioned by the chairman we've achieved where working to achieve 100% operational control of the border, illegal crossings have decreased 99.9% and it was reported today that cbp released zero, illegals into the u.s. last month. down from 62,000 release into the interior last may.

the indo-pacific is our priority theater and china is our pacing threat. that's why travel twice to the region to visit our forces and beat with allies and partners. as we shift toward the indo-pacific we are looking mortara allies and partners to be force multipliers alongside the trend united states ae making progress in that. we applaud those allies for stepping up but others need to do more and quickly. at the new heads of state beady next week we expect narrow allies to commit to spending 5% of gdp on defense and offense riddled investment. an almost inconceivable accomplishment when president trump started the project in his first term. with native stepping up we have a new standard for allied defense spending that all of our allies around the world including in asia should move to. as the the president has riy pointed out it's only fair that our allies and partners do their part. wemu cannot want their security more than they do. the department of defense is executing a comment since the

achieve peace through strength. we note we know the threae serious and so our investment or as well. that's what this budget does it matches capabilities to threats. we long for peace so we prepare for war. we must overcome decades of neglect and decline. we must fortify our position as worlds most lethal fighting force and have access because our opponents are. this committee is a critical partner. we appreciate your leadership and oversight which is essential. i look forward to a compass in these goals to achieve peace through strength, support our warriors, protect our citizens and our taxpayers. together with you. by god grant us the wisdom to see what is right and the courage to do it. thank you. >> thanks mr. secretary. general caine, he was to summarize your testimony? >> yes, sir. >> five minutes. >> thank you, sir. i'll try to hit that target. chairman wicker, ranking member

reed, members of the committee, thank you for being here. i'm honored to join secretary hegseth and ms. bryn macdonnell to appear before you today to testify in the president fiscal year '26 budget. today syria reflects our shared commitment to maximize efficiency, accountability of our taxpayers dollars and ensuring every expenditure increases the locality and survivability of your joint force. providing our war fighters with advanced capabilities and cutting-edge technology requires to dominate our adversaries. i have deep gratitude for everyone in this room and a shared commitment to up deliver the capability and capacity that the joint force needs. that goes to our civilians and their families as we work to deliver he's through overwhelming strength. i want to echo the secretaries, regarding our brave men and women serving abroad today. it's my responsibility as chairman to understand, advice and integrate our joint force to

confront and manage the risks worldwide. this demands a a comprehensive understanding of every domain across every service and across every region across all time horizons. it also requires making and advocating for difficult decisions that prioritize the finite taxpayer resources we have in order to ensure the greatest impact and capability for our war fighters. the president's budget enables the joint force to defend our great nation from adversaries seeking to do us harm and we are relentless in the pursuit of innovation and technologies that allows us to hopefully deter what if need be when on battlefields of the future. this budget empowers a joint force to get after the secretaries three pillars, restoring the warrior ethos come rebuilding the military, and reestablishing deterrence. and ensures the joint force is properly armed globally integrated and ready to go.

the president's budget invest in our war fighting capabilities to win as a set on the battlefields of the future. we must be properly armed with the right capabilities, lethal modern reliable survivable and at scale in order to win. victory requires people and platforms that overmatch the enemies systems and work under the harshest conditions to ensure our decisive edge. this budget gives the necessary tools to reinvigorate our national and defense industrial base. our nation is full of incredible talent and we need to unlock every bit of it. this budget also helps us become more globally integrated which is one of my main jobs. we are in the joint force relationship entrepreneurs working together with the military also with allies and partners, the interagency and industry to make sure we are

connected before a crisis or conflict. this budget helps us integrate that combat capability as our commanders and leaders consider actions and activities not at the point where in a crisis somewhere. finally the president's budget reflects our mandate to stay ready always on the account anticipating the next fight and making sure everyone is ready to go. the most important component is our people. the budget makes meaningful investment in our service members and their families in improving quality of life for housing medical care and every important moving process. as our most precious asset we have to deliver for our people there i want to highlight one of them today fixing behind is colonel matt. it's probably his last hearing in uniform which after 31 years he graduates from service later this year. he's been like a pterodactyl for the joint force, always

delivering and advocating for speed pterodactyl a very old. >> yes, sir, i know. >> rager hand, colonel. thank you. thank you for your service. >> is our ever did to serve alongside some of the extraordinary warriors and civilian teammates that our nation is to offer. i assure this committee the joint force remains committed and capable and were grateful for your continued support. i want to also highlight the leaders that will come before this committee in the coming days which will be carefully considered by each of you for the general and flag officer assignments. they are all extraordinary. i am mindful and mindful and grateful for those that are currently deployed right now. they are on my mind into my heart and into the secretary as well. i continue to hold a special remembrance for our fallen and the families of our fallen who she was what right looks like. thank you for your time and

without a look forward to your question. >> very skillful use of time, general. and ms. mccollum we will not require an opening statement from you. thank you for being available for questions today and now we move to rounds of five-minute questions. let me say we expect full attendance today and i expect all members want to ask questions. i've tried to be very skillful sometimes in my membership on this committee to ask that e question with about 20 seconds to go in my five minutes. we will not use that practice today. or we will be here in the wee hours of the early evening. at this point let me begin by asking secretary hegseth. about congressional intent. we worry about the explicit

choices that the congress has made an edit been enacted into law by the president. in fiscal year 2026 budget. decision came to us surprisingly to zero out destroyers even though congress intended for reconciliation the industrial base ability with a third ddg in fiscal years 2027 and 102029. i asked this of every nominee from the department who has come before us about honoring congressional intent. we will put funds in the reconciliation bill, working with the house, and working with the administration to get the signature on the bill.

and we will make clear alongside that the specific congressional intent. i've asked this of every official and i will ask you as well, mr. secretary, d commit to following congressional intent unequivocally on reconciliation? >> thank you for the question, mr. chairman. yes, our team look for to working with this committee both to the budget process and reconciliation and would acknowledge this a this g point of the conversation. that we are looking at two bills in one budget at the defense department. as we discussions that allocation we may sometimes be talked about different numbers because of that but from our perspective -- >> well, are you qualifying your explicit yes? because we have not had that from any of the other witnesses have come before us. it are congressional intent alongside the numbers in reconciliation is explicitly

expressed, you commit to following the congressional intent unequivocally in reconciliation? >> yes. i just wanted to clarify the entirety of the budget from our perspective. >> thank you very much. you said once before that, and i told him at a company statem, mr. secretary, that going below 3% of gdp would be very dangerous. that was your testimony in january. of course you know well we're asking our allies europe and nato to go to 5%. it is been intention of most of us on the committee that the united states lead by example. in fact, follow the peace through strength example of president reagan and his administration getting to 5%.

i understand if you put reconciliation and the budget request together, for this year, it exceeds 3%. but if we go back to that same baseline for the next three years after that we will be under 3%. we need to fix that. would you agree, do you still agree going below 3% would be a quote very dangerous unquote choice? >> yes, sir and so does the president which is why this budget increases from fy '25, 13%. puts us at 3.5% of gdp on under the previous order, the motion to reconsider is considered made and laid upon the table and the president will be immediately be notified of the senate's actions.

the majority leader. mr. thune: i move to proceed to legislative session. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. all those in favor say aye. all opposed no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. mr. thune: mr. president, i move to proceed to executive session to consider calendar number 138. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. all those in favor say aye. all those opposed say nay. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. the clerk will report the nomination. the clerk: nomination, department of defense, daniel zimmerman of north carolina to be an assistant secretary. mr. thune: mr. president, i send a cloture motion to the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: cloture motion, we, the 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 daniel zimmerman of north carolina to be an assistant secretary of defense signed by 17 senators as

follows. mr. thune: mr. president, i ask consent the reading of the names be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. thune: i move to proceed to legislative session. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. all those in favor say aye. all opposed no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. mr. thune: mr. president, i move to proceed to executive session to consider calendar number 140. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. all those in favor say aye. all opposed no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. the clerk will report the nomination. the clerk: nomination, department of commerce, paul dabbar of new york to be deputy secretary. mr. thune: mr. president, i send a cloture motion to the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: cloture motion, we, the 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 paul dabbar of new york to be deputy secretary of commerce signed by 17 senators as follows. mr. thune: i ask consent the reading of the names be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. thune: i move to proceed to

legislative session. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. all those in favor say aye. all opposed no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. mr. thune: mr. president, i move to proceed to executive session to consider calendar number 93. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. all those in favor say aye. all opposed no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the clerk will report the nomination. the clerk: nomination, department of the treasury, kenneth kies of secretary to be stability secretary. mr. thune: i send a cloture motion to the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: cloture motion, we, the 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 kenneth kies of virginia to be an assistant secretary of the treasury signed by 17 senators as follows. mr. thune: mr. president, i ask consent the reading of the names be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. thune: mr. president, i have one -- i have seven requests for committees to meet during today's session of the senate.

they have the approval of the majority and north lead -- minority leaders. the presiding officer: duly noted. mr. thune: mr. president, i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: the clerk: ms. alsobrooks.

>> we have multiple members statements today so without objection i will introduce my longer statement into the hearing record. today's hearing is about competency, corruption and cover up within the biden administration. simply put, the last administration was rudderless from one crisis to another the biden administration failed -- partisan media is a a best to cover up those failures. having discussed these issues with my colleague, senator cornyn and course mr. requested to lead this room, all of us agreed that this giving must discuss this important matter. an important part of this

discussion involves the last administrations weaponization of law enforcement against trump and his associates which was done to try and win an election. that, too, they tried to cover up. since i became chairman of this committee by investigative work has exposed out weaponization was done look at the fbi's arctic frost investigation which ultimately became one of jack smith's cases against president trump based upon records that i've made public. the cases origin was at the trump fbi agent tivo and his merry band of partisans and partisans. the records indicate that the opening of arctic force, frost was an intentionally designed vehicle by which the biden

administration was old and prosecute their primary political opponent president trump. then i made public relating to the biden administration's political investigation into peter navarro, tivo and other anti-trump agents, walter to gardenia also involved in that . whistleblowers have told me that special agent to gardenia openly stated his desire to investigate trump even if it meant false predication. whistleblowers have also told me that jack smith's deputy wanted to open more cases on trump. he allegedly justified using compulsory process to obtain more information merely based upon partisan news outlets.

and guess who was also allegedly involved in those communications. that's the same person, special agent walter. all of this is more evidence of law enforcement weaponization that would've never been the light of day but for whistleblowers. i will have more to say about this matter later date in another form. then we have the by fbi's anti-catholic richmond memo. that memo used that shoddy research of the radical southern poverty law center who accused traditional catholics of being violent extremist. based on the records that i released the other week, there wasn't just one fbi document. they used buys anti-catholic sources but over a dozen.

and what fbi field offices were involved than we've been led to believe. it wasn't just a biden and ray at the other feel the people. recently i released records showing a biden health and human services also failed to address the backlog of over 65,000 reports expressing concern unaccompanied children. this included 7346 reports related to trafficking, three dozen cases have been accepted by u.s. attorneys for prosecution with 11 arrests and three convictions so far. the biden administration had a responsibility to do right by the american people by any metric they failed to the question is why did the president actually, what did the president actually know or even

understand who was actually running the government? regardless a box, the buck stops with the president and president biden will have to answer to history for what's happened the last four years. now i'm going to turn over the podium, i mean opportune to speak to ranking member durbin first opening remarks here and after that senator cornyn is going to take the chair and senator cornyn can, chairman smith are going to lead the rest of the hearing. >> thank you, chairman grassley. this committee has oversight responsibility over the department department of justice, the federal period of investigation, and the department of homeland security. we have a constitutional duty to hold these agencies accountable with public hearings.

by this date in my first year as chairman of the senate judiciary committee we had already held two major oversight hearings with biden administration agency heads, including one with the fbi director wray on domestic terrorism threats. so far this year the republican majority in this committee has not held a single oversight hearing. despite numerous critical challenges facing the nation that under our jurisdiction. in the last week alone, several events have demanded this committees immediate attention. the horrific assassination in minnesota. the treatment of our colleague senator padilla by federal agents in los angeles got an president trump's unprecedented deployment of the u.s. military in los angeles. we should hear without delay from attorney general bondi and fbi director patel about what

they're doing to address the unacceptable political violence in our country, including threats to article iii judges and justices as well as members of congress. and when you do from the homeland security secretary noma about the treatment of our colleague senator padilla and this administration's mass deportation campaign against immigrants. right instead of exercising this constitutional oversight duty, my republican colleagues are holding this hearing. i apparently armed chair diagnosing former president biden is more important than issues of great concern which i've mentioned. to take a few examples of the issues this committee should be addressing, the trump administration has removed dozens of senior career prosecutors and fbi officials with decades of national security expertise leading our nation more vulnerable to

terrorism and other national security threats. this should be explained to this committee. the justice department has diverted hundreds of law enforcement agents away from combating cartels, drug trafficking and gun violence to participate in president trump's has deportation campaign. this should be addressed in an open hearing of this committee. the justice department is turning a blind eye to corruption. the administration has gutted the department of justice public integrity session which oversees political corruption just as the president's shameful crypto scheme unfolds. the administration has removed department of justice career ethics officials and shut down the office charged with investigating this conduct by doj attorneys. with these internal czechs going and this committee asleep at the wheel, it's no surprise that attorney general bondi signed off on president trump to accept

qataris gift of a luxury airliner despite the fact the attorney general was previously a registered foreign agent for the qatari government. we are still waiting for official find it on this transfer. it's no surprise the department of justice official tried to strike a corrupt oregon with your mayor eric adams, dropping public corruption charges in exchange for the mayors cooperation with trump agenda mass deportations. when it comes to these historic compelling issues that you can majority tells america for long, nothing to see here. let's revisit this administration of a previous president in this hearing. let's revisit a 20-year-old precedent use of an auto pen. i know my republican colleagues are eager to discuss president biden's that one of the growing

the actual crisis taking place right now? president trump's pay to play scheme. last month president trump pardon paul walczak who pleaded guilty in 2242 withholding over $79 of taxes from his employees paychecks and failing to pay them to the internal revenue service. what wanted his swift pardon my president trump? his pardon application explicitly cited billions of dollars his mother raised president trump's campaigns and other efforts to support the president. that was not enough. it was three weeks after his mother attended $1 million a person trump fundraiser in april of this year that he was miraculously receiving his pardon. now he no longer must pay 4.4 million to the taxpayers of this country. that's one example of the many

pardons granted president trump's wealthy donors and political supporters. of course his pay to play pardons are in addition to more than 1500 january 6th rioters who received blanket pardons from president trump, including 169 who violently assaulted law enforcement officials. and we're going to make a question of cognitive ability? i think we should consider what happens happened in alberta canada just this week. when president trump was at a press conference with british prime minister keir starmer and said the following. you all know the great p.m. of the uk and we just signed a document. president trump continued. we decided so we have our trade agreement with the eu. britain is not been a party to the eu for five years. the president trump made a statement which clearly was wrong now i would like to see a

short visit include some other examples of cognitive ability. >> don't you need to uphold the constitution of the united states to provide -- >> i don't know the windows are driving the whales crazy obviously. i have concept of a plan. they are eating the dogs. the people that came in they are eating the cuts. they are eating, they are eating -- give me a glass of water. let me drop on the magnet. the kidney is a very special place in the heart. and then i see the disinfectant that knocks it out in a minute, one minute. is a way to do something like that? by injection inside or, or almost a cleaning. this is a tough hurricane. one of the wettest we've ever seen from the standpoint of

water. when you ran out the healthy arms, you ran out of really healthy, fit great arms but they ran out. it's, it's called sports. it's called baseball in particular. >> can understand a word he says. >> if you see maduro, that is -- it's unbelievable. i don't know about it. odyssey i'm not involved. >> he wants to buy the proclamation was signed. >> what i do when it was signed because i didn't cited other people handled it. >> do if the statements raise a question of cognitive ability? you be the judge. if my colleagues are truly interested in issues of residential succession and disability, under the 20 fifth amendment, i would suggest they embark on this constitutional journey with a proposed amendment. ideal. >> good morning. i want to thank chairman grassley for convening this hearing and my colleague senator

schmitt from missouri for cochairing this with me, as we examine the constitutional crisis posed by the cover-up of president biden's cognitive decline. the u.s. constitution provides as although for three coequal branches. today we're concerned about the chief executive the president of the united states. as we know the chief executive, ahead of the executive branch enforces the laws and appoints high-ranking officials, services chief of our, kenisha pardons and can veto and advocate for legislation. what are we to do when the president is incapable of performing these duties? last you the american public saul with her own eyes what many knew to be true but would not dare to admit publicly. our sitting commander-in-chief

was suffering from severe cognitive decline as evident by this video which i will now show. >> when i've been able to do it, with the covid, dealing with everything we had to do with, look, if we finally beat medicare. yet we ran the ability of medicare for the ability for us to be able to negotiate. >> as we now know it was a conspiracy to hide the president's true condition. by his family, by his staff, by the media and many elected officials.

jake tapper who co-authored a book entitled original sin, the book amounted to a mea culpa by the mainstream media. but they summed up the problem when they wrote this. quote, what the world saw at joe biden won and only 2024 debate was not an anomaly. it was not a cold. it was not someone who was under or over prepared. it was not someone who was just a little tired. it was a natural result of an 81-year-old man whose capabilities have been diminishing for years. biden, sm it is seen that their self self-interest and their fear of another trump term justify an attempt to put an at times an old man in the oldest, the oval

office for four more years. so make a mistake about it. this was a constitutional crisis bigger than president biden, bigger than any single election and one that cannot absolved by the collective apology of the press and an election with the president's party lost. current events such as where expensing today in the middle east are a prime example of why we need a president with his full cognitive abilities, making important decisions involving war and peace. we should now but we don't yet know precisely what should happen when a president is unable to perform his or her constitutional duties. and that's the purpose of today's hearing. there are many unanswered questions on this scandal, questions that the office of

original sin failed to address indie book, questions that are foundational to the proper functioning of our government. we will address those here and shine a light on exactly what went on in the white house during the biden presidency. we simply cannot ignore what transpired because president biden is no longer in office. with a compromised president our government very legitimacy and capacity to function was undermined. the american people paid a price from president biden's handling of the border crisis to the disastrous events we saw unfold in afghanistan. it's absolutely imperative that congress grapple with these a difficult westerns, no matter how much are democratic colleagues would like to simply sweep it under the rug.

we need to know who was in charge during the last months of the biden administration. was it his wife? his chief of staff? nameless others? none of these people were elected by the american people, nor with authorized by the constitution and laws of the united states to carry out the duties of the president of the united states. the 25th amendment provides a roadmap for succession in instances of presidential incapacity. section four gives a vice president and majority of the president cabinet the authority to challenge the president's ability to carry out the functions of his office subject to a vote in congress. but in this instance the vice president and the cabinet, the very ones authorized the 25th mac to question the president's capacity, they did nothing.

are there penalties when the congress, excuse me when the cabinet and vice president refused to carry out their duties under section four of the 25th amendment? should there be more accountability? the famers acknowledged the execution of that amendment would depend on the good faith of the cabinet and the vice president. but biden's cabinet and the vice president did not act in good faith. they acted in their political and personal self interest. this is the great paradox of self-government. many of the rules, traditions and institutions that sustain our government are self enforcing. the health and legitimacy of our democratic republic rests on the character of the men and women who serve in government. as a government it is imperative we have clear contingency plans

when emergency strikes. and yes, it is an emergency when we have a sitting president who is unable to discharge the duties of that office. the concerns raised by this incident shreds barbie on the bounds of partisan politics. i will note a few of my democratic colleagues are here today. they cheated senator welch from vermont for being. leaving us with no other option than to take the boycotting of this hearing as an admission of guilt for their role in this crisis. we must not turn away from the search for answers. it is not an overstatement to say that the future of our country could one day hinge on how we choose to act or not act on this very issue will. i look for to hearing from our witnesses this morning as we examine the difficult but

necessary questions that must be answered from this monumental scandal. i yield to my colleague from missouri, senator schmitt, who will now cochair the hearing. >> thank you. i do want to begin by expressing my sincere gratitude to chairman grassley for granting me the privilege of coaching this committee with my esteemed colleague senator cornyn. the title appearing hearing unfit to serve, , captures a sobering and undeniable truth. president biden was mentally unfit to carry out the responsibilities of the most powerful office in the world. given his mental incapacity the american people deserve to know who was running the country the last four years. today as we seek to answer this question is deeply disappointing but not surprising that most democrats on this committee have chosen to boycott the hearing and the fail to call a single witness. their chosen to ignore this

issue like they ignored president biden's decline. their absence speaks volumes, an and implicit admission that the truth is too inconvenient to face. i refusing to engage in this critical examination that abdicate their responsibility to the american people. this de facto boycott is not a refusal to participate, it's a refusal to serve the american people who deserve answers about who is truly leading their government. president biden's decline did that suddenly begin in june june 2024. it was a persistent and obvious truth that was evident for years to anyone who is willing to see it. this reality did not require special insider knowledge or investigative reporting to uncover. we didn't need jake tapper and alex thompson to tell us what millions of americans could freely observe with their own

eyes. the truth was glaringly obvious. anyone who is paying attention could tell that the emperor had no close. nearly a year ago i took the us to step as the first yes, senator to formally call for the invocation of the 20 fifth amendment against president biden. i sent letters to every cabinet and secretary and the vice president laying out the urgent case our nation was effectively without a leader. the absence of a functioning president wasn't an abstract issue. it inflicted severe consequences on our nation. consequences that touched every aspect of american life. on border policy our nation's borders were handed over to the radical left wing element of the administration fully open our borders to 15 million illegal aliens and then president immigration crisis that pulled our nation into chaos. on foreign policy, haphazard and reckless discussions, decisions place our war fighters in jeopardy, escalating catholics

around the globe and back to a catastrophic cumulation on the world stage the cutting flights of 13 american soldiers including one missourian during the disastrous withdrawal. on the economy rapid inflation triple the cost of life essentials making them unaffordable to countless hard-working families. in the realm of culture the regime censored free speech, close down churches can target a traditional catholics and parents in school board meetings and let an unelected class of left-wing radicals the grade, atacms like about our history and her heritage. a poisonous anti-western western anti-american ideology that had once been confined to elite university classrooms suddenly became the official white house policy. all of this was done not in isolation. it was sustained, defended, and covered, covered for by analytes of elite institutions from the media to the so-called expert class big tech, to the federal

bureaucracy itself. when we speak of collusion among the least, the deep state, accused of being conspiracy theorist but this was no theory. it was plain and overt, out in the open for everyone to see. for four years we had a president who could barely string together coherent sentences after 6 p.m. yet this glaring fact went unreported, undiscussed and an address. why? the democratic party, corporate media, federal bureaucracy and big tech companies collaborated to conceal the truth from the american people, not out of ignorance but because advance their own interests. any absence of a functioning president chaos to cold and empty vessel occupying the oval office becomes a a puppet for those surrounding him. many officials including some in this chamber have used auto pans, a mechanical device that

replicates this vintage. there's nothing inherently wrong with that. so long as we are the ones making the decisions. but under president biden the outlook and became a troubling symbol, a symbol of an absentee president in an executive branch directed by nameless faceless aids that no one outside of washington, d.c. had ever heard of and no one ever voted for. it was the out of an presidency, a government run by committee rather than a leader chosen by the american people. by contrast love him or hate them we all know president trump is in command of his presidency and he is of the one calling the shots. it is plain as day that president trump is actively making decisions whether announced through truth social or signature. under president biden that transparency and certainty evaporated. we cannot confidently say decisions bearing his signature where the will of the president or his politburo.

that goes doubly for social media posts including his decision to drop out of the 2024 presidential election. we did not know if it was his decision are posted on his behalf after a palace coup because president biden was mentally unfit to serve. the corporate media played an indispensable role in this cover-up, systematically suppressing discussion of president biden's condition. as we will demonstrate in the video evidence presented today dissenting voices were silenced and the truth was buried. it was not a passive oversight. it was delivered, delivery campaign to shield a narrative that protected the interest of the most powerful. even members of his very committee some of whom served alongside then store biden when he chaired the three committee defended him for years. now jake tapper and alex thompson offer a convenient narrative to absolve everyone involved.

immediate back taxes. the family was overly protected. the cabinet was incompetent and robert hur said the the pret was merely a well-meaning man in aviators who liked ice cream. it's the tired evasive refrain of the politician caught in a lie. mistakes are made. yes mistakes were made and that a participant in the cover-up from the media to the cabin is joint and severally liable for what may very well be the greatest deception in our nation's history. ethan and articles they are framed in a way that absolve them from responsibility for this crime against the american people. they apologize for having missed the story. they didn't miss anything. they actively chose to ignore or run cover to the people in power. the biden cabinet rarely met. some members like former senator transportation pete buttigieg delivery distance themselves from the president to maintain plausible deniability.

even members of this committee were part of the great deception. the monday after biden announced he would not seek reelection wendover called the idea of invoking the 25th amendment outrageous. insisting that debate performance does not reflect who he is or his capacity to govern as president. another member repeatedly vouched for biden declaring joe biden is fit, capable and ready to serve another term. and later this is a man who is sharp, was on top of his game, who knows what's going on. and yet another during the 2020 democrat presidential primary allude to biden's decline but quickly retracted his remarks when he became politically expedient. after the debate yet another member praised biden's strong delivery of remarks to nato as evidence of his capacity to lead. the purpose of this it is not to interrogate biden officials or partisan reporters, though they should be held accountable. instead our focus to identify

and rectify the systemic weaknesses that allowed the situation to fester unchecked. our distinguished witnesses experts and white house transparency, operational procedures and executive power will assist us in diagnosing these flaws. while the house and senate pursue fact-finding missions to hold these responsible to account, our mission is to chart a path forward. we cannot allow under the weekend at biden's presidency with its clarity national security vulnerabilities papered over by an auto pin. the d.c. establishment might argue the governance of a shadowy unelected figures is a legitimate substitution for a functioning president. it is not. the american people cast their vote for a president, not the faceless apparatus. article ii says in its authority and president of the united states, a single individual. with that extra power comes equally found responsibility.

at the constitutional convention our founding fathers debated giving the president the title of the descent of the the american people. the security and well-being of the american people and their rights must take precedence over personal information to his office had power corrupts. i believe that power reveals. over the past four years this cover-up laid bare a disturbing reality. the left, the corporate media placed the pursuit of power above the welfare of of your families and your country. they dismissed your observations urging you to not trust your own eyes. we have a solemn duty to call this what it is, an abdication of constitutional duty. the presiding officer: we are. mrs. blackburn: i ask that we suspend the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. blackburn: thank you, mr. president. recentently the american people

have witnessed something that is truly disturbing to them. while president trump is making america safe by getting criminal illegal aliens off the streets, what they have seen is some on the left are trying to stop the removal of criminal illegal aliens. now, mr. president, this is an issue where about 90% of the american people agree they do not want gangs, tren de aragua, ms-13, violent gangs, criminals that have committed rape, murder, child sexual abuse, drug traffickers, sex traffickers, they don't want them in their communities. but when you look at l.a., what you're seeing is that i.c.e. apprehended illegal aliens with

these appalling criminal histories. and these are not just charges that have been filed. they're actual convictions that these people have had. i will say this, l.a. and all these other communities where you have removed these criminal illegal aliens, the streets are going to be safer, communities are going to be safer. yet you have some pro-illegal leftists in california who have lined up to actually condemn the arrests. now, governor gavin newsom has called them reckless and cruel, and the l.a. mayor, mayor bass, claimed that arresting criminals actually sows terror.

her words. representative maxine waters said president trump is targeting -- her words -- the most vulnerable people. these statements are truly at odds with reality, and they make absolutely no sense. how does sow terror when you are actually apprehending the criminals and taking them off the streets? but when you look at reality and then look at these statements, you see that, whether it's governor newsom or mayor bass, they did nothing as these violent rioters took over l.a. county streets to protest lawful arrests. following the operations, thousands of far-left activists set vehicles on fire. they looted businesses, many

owned by those that had emigrated to our country. they shot fireworks at police officers. they blocked off freeways. they burned american flags, and they unleashed chaos across the city. according to democrats, these riots were, in their word, peaceful. anyone else could see that the violence that was transpiring was out of control. even l.a.'s police chief said that his troops were overwhelmed. that's why president trump deployed 4,000 national guardsmen and 700 marines to l.a. to help restore law and order. now instead of saying thank you to the president for this much-needed support as the officers were overwhelmed,

democrats started attacking him. in fact, governor newsom is suing the trump administration to remove national guardsmen from l.a. once again the democrats are siding with criminals over law-abiding citizens. the images you see of barricaded streets, burning vehicles, looted storefronts, that's what the leftists want. we saw this in 2020, and we saw then that you had elected officials standing on the side of criminals. they are on the side of violent rioters, lawlessness, and chaos. the american people are tired of crime. they have had enough. as i said earlier, they do not want violent gangs, ms-13 or tren de aragua in their neighborhoods. they want them apprehended, and they want them deported. and it's a big reason why voters

returned president trump to the oval office. and he is going to do everything he can to bring this violence in these cities to an end. in the senate, republicans are working hard to make certain that not only the president but also the administration have the tools that they need to get the job done. my clear act would ensure that state and local law enforcement officials have the explicit authority to assist the federal government in our immigration enforcement efforts by codifying the 287-g program that is so critical. this would enable law enforcement entities just to move forward with that. they wouldn't have to apply for the program. this month i also introduced

legislation that is backed by the white house that would establish a deportation shot clock. this would require the federal government to deport an illegal alien within 15 days of removal proceedings being commenced. this would empower the trump administration to expedite depor deportations, and ensure we are getting criminals off our streets faster than ever before. while democrats and the leftists out in l.a. are siding with criminals, president trump and the republicans here are doing everything we can to help make america safe again. mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the next portion of my remarks be placed separately in the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. blackburn: in recently weeks, new reports confirmed what the american people

witnessed for four years, that president biden was in serious decline while in office and struggled to fulfill his duties as president of the united states. now, to cover all this up a small group of close aides and family members, including hunter biden and first lady jill biden, reportedly made decisions on behalf of the former president while shielding him from the public identify. even president biden's cabinet secretaries struggled to reach him. and i'm quoting one secretary here, there was clearly a deliberate strategy by the white house to have him meet with as few people as possible of. that's according to a cabinet secretary. another one said that the president could only, and i quote, give you four to six good hours a day, end quote. everybody knows that you cannot work four hours a day and be out

of washington, d.c. 40% of the time and be the leader of the free world. mr. president, that is impossible. while members of the biden administration are finally speaking out, for years many of my fellow tennesseans and i have watched as we saw then-president biden appear to be unfit to serve in the most demanding and powerful position in the world, and yes, we have been concerned. yet, when we raised the alarm democrats in the media called us conspiracy they'rists and dis -- they'rists and dismissed video evidence of president biden's decline as cheap fakes. the latest reports confirm that democrats in the media covered up the former president's decline. but they also point to a much bigger issue --

who was making decisions in the white house while president biden was tucked in and asleep? over four years, the biden administration enacted thousands of new regulations that are costing the american people $1.8 trillion a year. who made those decisions? he appointed 235 far-left judges to the federal bench, many had never been a judge. they had no judicial experience. they had never clerked for a judge. they were activists. and abused the president's pardon power to pre text biden -- protect biden families and free violent criminals. those last day pardons, it appears he signed one, the one for hunter biden. because most of these actions were signed with the auto pen, biden may not have been aware of these actions.

that would mean that for four years a small group of insiders were making decisions in the president's name. it was a direct attack on our nation's constitutional order. every single american deserves to know who was running this country while he was in office. that's why earlier today the senate judiciary committee held a hearing on a biden cover-up and heard from constitutional scholars who outlined the legal implications of having a president who was absent from his job. this is just the first step in uncovering the truth, and we are going to continue the push for transparency and get to the bottom of the issue to ensure something like this never happens again.

mrs. blackburn: i ask unanimous consent that the senate now proceed to the en bloc consideration of the following resolutions -- i ask unanimous consent that the senate resume legislative session and be in a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. blackburn: i ask unanimous consent that the senate now proceed to the en bloc consideration of the following resolutions which are at the

desk -- s. res. 293, s. res. 294. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measures en bloc? without objection, the senate will proceed en bloc. mrs. blackburn: i ask unanimous consent that the resolutions be agreed to, the preambles be agreed to, and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table en bloc. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. blackburn: i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the consideration of s. con. res. 15 which is at the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: senate concurrent resolution 15 expressing support for america's law enforcement professionals. the presiding officer: is there an objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection, the senate will proceed. mrs. blackburn: i ask unanimous consent the concurrent resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and that

the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. blackburn: i ask unanimous consent that the committee on the judiciary be discharged from further consideration and the senate now proceed to s. res. 259. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: senate resolution 259, recognizing june 2, 2025, as the 39th anniversary of c-span chronicling democracy in the senate. the presiding officer: is there an objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection, the committee is discharged and the senate will proceed. mrs. blackburn: i ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without obje objection.

mrs. blackburn: i ask unanimous consent that the committee on the judiciary be discharged from further consideration and the senate now proceed to s. res. 275. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: senate resolution 275, honoring the memory of the victims of the heinous attack at the pulse nightclub on june 12, 2016. the presiding officer: is there an objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection, the committee is discharged and the senate will proceed. mrs. blackburn: i ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and that the motions to reconsider be made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. blackburn: i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today it adjourn to then convene for pro forma session only with no business being conducted on the following dates and times --

friday, june 20 at 3:15 p.m. further, that when the senate adjourns on friday, june 20, it stand adjourned until 4:30 on monday, june 23. that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and the senate be in a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each. finally, notwithstanding rule 22, the cloture motions filed on june 18 ripen at 5:30 p.m. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mrs. blackburn: if there is no further business to come before the senate, ski that it -- i ask that it stand adjourned under the previous order following the remarks of the very patient

senator cantwell. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. cantwell: thank you, mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from washington. ms. cantwell: thank you, mr. president. i rise to express my concerns about reports that president trump is going to again extend the deadline for getting tiktok out of the control of bytedance and the chinese government. concern because that means that, again, we are going to allow this national security issue to fester and to continue on. maybe for several more months. what we know now, though, in the middle of a global conflict, during which we know our enemies can weaponize tiktok to spread their propaganda and turn the world against the united states, we need to take action. while i know there are legitimate uses of tiktok, it is also used by governments, in particular the chinese, to spread lies and indoctrinate

people about what china, iran, russia, want americans to believe about our own country, about our own government. this is alarming when an app is the top news source of americans under the age 30. let me give some examples of these practices. in december 2023, rutgers university found tiktok's algorithm disproportionately amplified anti-israel, and by extension anti-semitic content compared with other social media platforms. this amplification observed in the context of a major geopolitical event, such as the portrayal of the israel-hamas conflict, and such hashtags, quote, i stand with israel or pray for israel were unrepresented, that means they weren't represented, at a ratio of six to one. according to the jewish federation of new york america, individuals on tiktok for over

30 minutes a day were 17% more likely to be anti-semitic. last year, snashth comments on -- anti-semitic comments on tiktok rows 912%. my fear is that a similar study would show that in between the issues we think are legitimate businesses on tiktok, that there's a bias and anti-american content being pushed about even the current hostilities now in iran. that's why, mr. president, i'd like to submit for the record a record by rutgers universities entitled "a tiktok ticking time box, how tiktok's global platform anomalies aligned with the chinese communist party's g geostrategic objectives." the presiding officer: without objection. ms. cantwell: on the flip side, another example is the current topics that china doesn't like to talk about, they're sensitive to. you're never going to see information on tiktok about tee

andenman square and -- tianeman square and what happened. we're in a trade war. rutgers found that following president trump's decision to put new tariffs on china, tiktok drove content pushing americans to buy directly from chinese manufacturers. rutgers. as well as content denigrating u.s. companies. the research pointed it out and it resulted in tens of millions of views on chinese products sourcing and suggesting the platform influence the user and drove the behavior that changed at a massive scale. now tiktok is being used against us in a trade war. i'm also concerned that despite this clear and present danger, these extensions just continue to give china an ability to influence unduly american citizens. the president needs to implement the law that congress gave him that the supreme court has

upheld and protect our military and our citizens against this foreign misinformation that is taking place. last week i asked secretary bessent whether he talked to tiktok officials in london. he said he had not. i'm concerned this is illegal. note that congress passed this law and the president extending the deadline to allow them to continue to operate in the united states under the control of bytedance and the chinese government is not what congress intended. congress said in the law that any deal on the sale of tiktok must include a transfer of the ownership of tiktok source code, training data and recommendation algorithms. this may be for some people not really clear. but we would not let the chinese

government own nbc or abc and they thud not be -- should not be allowed to broadcast in the u.s. the supreme court narnsly upheld this law that congress passed. i'm concerned that each extension of not getting a deal puts america and some of our leading tech companies at great financial risk. under the law app stars -- stores are subject to severe penalties, up to $5,000 per user and that could amount to billions of dollars in damages. while the current administration has signaled that they won't enforce the law, the statute of limitations for that liability five years, meaning future administrations could apply those penalties retroactively. we cannot law foreign

adversaries to control technology that could have civil unrest. we need to bring tiktok under u.s. ownership. i thank the president and i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senate stands adjourned until earlier today u.s. the firm's

secretary ptech staff and general dan came testifying, presidents 2026 budget requests they also answer questions about the ongoing conflict between israel and iran.you can watch this senate services committee hearing tonight starting at 9:00 p.m. on c-span2, c-span now, our free mobile video app, or online at c-span.org american history tv saturdays on c-span2's exploring the people and events but tell the american story this weekend at 3:15 pm eastern professors douglas irwin sharon murphy and eric browse the federal government has impacted domestic and global economies be 4:15 pm eastern edward stallman author of dinosaurs at the dinner party talk about the

early 19th century paleontologists who discovered fossils and huge bones coined the term donna summer. and focusing on african american history with a discussion of the history of juneteenth with linda sally executive director of the african-american museum of bucks county pennsylvania also the new york public library schomburg center for research in black culture celebrates its founding 100 years ago in 1925 is martha blanding told the story of how she broke a color barrier at california's disneyland becoming the park's first black tour guide in 1971. exploring the american story watch american history tv saturdays on c-span2 and thoughtful seduling your program guide or watch online anytime at c-span.org /history. >> c-span, democracy unfiltered.