safeguarding the free world against the malicious spread of communism, against tyranny, against those who have tried to undermine our values. those very same issues of western democracy, of the sovereignty of free nations, of the safety of our troops, our citizens, are on the line yet again in the 21st century. they are the very things that stitch this supplemental together. it is why we are here with this bill before us in the first place. there is only one right answer for the senate today to address the great challenges we face. there is only one path forward to fulfill our obligations to the american people. there is only one way senators, democrats and republicans, both sides of the aisle, should vote today, and that is for us to move forward on the package of national security. i yield the floor. amendments. thank you, mr. president.

mr. cornyn: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mr. cornyn: mr. president, i think it's, after listening to the majority leader's comments, i think it's worth taking five minutes to recall how we got h here. you know, it's ironic to me that people give speeches here on the floor of the senate about their support for israel, and there's no doubt israel is involved in an existential fight with iran proxies like hamas, hezbollah, the houthi rebels, the shi'ia militias in syria and iraq. but the house passed an israel aid package on november 2. israel was attacked october 7. the house acted on november 2, and the majority leader, who's the only one who can schedule a vote on anything here on the

senate floor, has done nothing to help our best ally and friend in the middle east, the state of israel. nothing. and he's insisted that we package together aid to ukraine, aid to the indo-pacific, and there's been endless discussions about a border bill, which i'll come to in a moment. but this problem we're running into is one of his own creation. he could decide to take up these bills individually, knowing that the house has already passed an israel aid bill, and then have the senate take it up and pass that bill, and then we can turn to the other issues that are vitally important to our national security and deserve fulsome debate and an open amendment process.

that's the question my friend from mississippi was trying to ask the majority leader, but he decided to leave the floor without responding to that. giving me some doubt as to the sincerity of his commitment to have an open amendment process and actually restore the senate to its previously held reputation as the world's greatest deliberative body. nobody can call us that now, with a straight face. and i understand that the majority leader is trying the best he can to help the republican party. he gives advice freely as to what republicans should do. but the fact of the matter is we have no confidence, zero confidence, that the biden administration will enforce the law when it comes to the border.

that's been the case for the last three years, resulting in historically high numbers, 300,000 people a month showing up at the border, only to be ushered into the interior by biden open border policies, that either people claim asylum and are released into the interior, perhaps never to be heard from again, or they're released on parole. catch and release is the policy of the biden administration and congressional democrats. that has proven to be a powerful magnet for illegal immigration. people literally coming from all around the world, because they know they can make it into the country, because president biden and senate democrats have laid out the welcome mat. so you'll have to forgive me when i note the fake outrage,

the phony messaging that we hear from democrats about this border negot negotiation. yes, it's true that we hope to come up with something credible, and on our side of the aisle senator lankford from oklahoma has done a heroic and a thankless job of trying to come up with a negotiated package. but the fact of the matter is the package includes catch and release, still, providing additional -- or continuing incentives for people to come to the country illegally, knowing they'll be released into the interior, and it does nothing to stop the biden administration from abusing something called parole, which that means in order to avoid bad press, in order to avoid embarrassing tv pictures of an overwhelmed border, they simply just release

people into the interior of the country for two years and give them a work permit. are you kidding me? they now claim to be the defenders of the border and for border security? what a joke. what a joke. and it's a bad joke. we know as a result of biden border policies, supported day in and day out by our democratic colleagues for the entire time that president biden has been in office, have resulted in roughly seven million migrants being released into the interior of the united states and 1.7 million gotaways, is what the border patrol calls them, people evading law enforcement for good reason, i suspect, either they're transporting illegal drugs into the interior of the united states or maybe, just maybe, out of that

1.7 million there's a few people who are on the terrorist watch list. we know the border patrol has detained 170, at least that he the last count. but they can't tell us how many more people on the terrorist watch list are among those got-aways, endangering the safety and security of the united states. it took 19 people to kill 3,000 americans on 9/11. what about 1.7 million got-aways? we don't know whether these are serial criminals? we don't know whether they're transporting drugs? had we don't know -- we don't know whether they're -- and neither do our senate colleagues who do nothing, nada to deal with this problem. so you'll have to forgive me if

i find their fake outrage unconvincing. and then of the 108,000 americans who died of drug overdoses last year -- that's also part of the biden open border policy. i wear -- have been wearing since april of last year a rubber bracelet given to me by the father of a young woman who lost her life because she took a pill that she thought was relatively innocuous but it was laced with fentanyl. her name was sienna. her father asked me to wear this bracelet. it says, one pill can kill. well, 70,000 people died of fentanyl poisoning last year, who took something they thought was relatively innocuous laced

with fentanyl and not waking up the next morning. and then perhaps the greatest untold story -- we tried to tell the story. "the new york times" has written about this, is the hundreds of thousands of unaccompanied children who have been placed with sponsors in the interior of the united states who've come across the border. they've been attracted like a magnet to our border. and under biden policies they've been released to sponsors, many of whom aren't even immediate relatives. and the biden administration has simply lost track of them. they can't tell you whether the 300,000 children are going to school, whether they're getting the health care they need, whether they're being trafficked for sex, whether they're being forced into involuntary labor. "the new york times" has written at least two times that i recall

about forced labor conditions for these migrant children. forced into illegal, dangerous labor. and "the new york times" tried to call some of these sponsors to see if they could -- they knew about what these children were doing, these children who were turned over to the care of these sponsors by the biden administration under their current policies. and 85,000 -- in 85,000 cases, 85,000 cases there was no answer. so the truth is, under the biden border policies, under the policies supported by all of our democratic colleagues now who are demonstrating fake outrage about the failure of the current

border bill, they simply did a care. they don't care about these children. they don't care about the families grieving lost ones as a result of the illegal drugs that stream across the border, carried by the very criminal organizations that smuggle people from around the world who show up at our border and are released into the interior of the united states. what greater incentive can you think of for attracting illegal immigration? than the open border policies which tragically result in the death of innocent americans, including innocent children, and losing 300,000 children placed with sponsors? the biden administration doesn't care.

so let me just say that when the majority leader takes off his hat, as the majority leader of this great institution, and puts on his hat as a democratic partisan making political attacks against the very people who he's hoping will support the legislation that he's advocating for -- aid to ukraine -- this is not a good day for this institution. and it strikes me as bizarre -- as a bizarre tactic when you know who the hundred people are that are going to be voting ones legislation that he's going to be putting on the floor. and the fact that the majority leader walks away from a

legitimate question from our colleague, the senator from mississippi, that asks whether there will be an opportunity for debate and votes on amendments, he won't even answer the question. this is the same majority leader that put this bill on the floor that we'll be voting on at 1:00 and said, okay, we released the text on sunday night and in 72 hours senators are going to have to vote on it. these are detailed, complex negotiations that have been taking place for months now, and the majority leader won't even give the senate and senators time to digest it and understand it? i think that tells you all you need to know about his motives. this is all about partisan political attacks and posturing leading up to the november 2024 election.

president biden is guilty of some of the same posturing. he said -- this is rich. after secretary mayorkas, the secretary of homeland security, has said time and time again under oath, the border is secure, well, we knew that was a lie because our eyes did not deceive us. we could see what was happening at the border. we could listen to mayor adams in new york city, the mayor of chicago, governors around the country saying, we're being inundated by migrants coming across the border, and it's going to -- in the case of mayor adams, he said, it's going to destroy new york city, even though they are a self-designated sanctuary city. well, all of that has fallen on deaf ears for the last three

years, and the senate majority leader and the president of the united states think that the american people are so dumb that they haven't seen what's been going on the last three years. they have resisted every single effort on our part to secure the border. to halt this tsunami of illegal immigration and illegal drugs. they have resisted all of it. and now the majority leader would have you believe that he's had a conversion. this is saul on the road to damascus. but i don't believe it, and i don't believe the american people will believe it. because they're common sense,

their very eyes and ears tell them something different, and that is that the biden administration, democrats in the senate and the senate majority leader who came out here crying crocodile tears over the failure of the border negotiation, they know it's not true. the american people will not be deceived by this transparent political pitch suggesting that now they are the champions of border security. the president of the united states has every tool he needs, every tool he needs to secure the border. the laws that are in effect now were the same laws that were in effect when president trump was in office, and the numbers were dramatically different. in fact, president biden's numbers of people coming across the border have exceeded the

number that came during the entire eight years of the obama administration and the entire four years of the trump administration. so, mr. president, i know there are others here, including my friend, the republican leader, hot are prepared to speak, so i'll sit down. but i just couldn't help myself, sitting here listening to what the majority leader was trying to sell, which was so patently ahistorical -- false -- and is clearly just partisan political rhetoric trying to improve what the a very, very damaged reputation when it comes to dealing with our national security and the border.

mr. mcconnell: mr. president. the presiding officer: the republican leader. mr. mcconnell: four months ago, senate republicans asked our colleague from oklahoma, senator lankford, to take on a pretty tall order -- negotiate serious border security policy with an administration that had shown no interest in actually securing the border. he put in an enormous amount of work, and i'm very grateful for the persistence he's shown over many nights, weekends, and a few holidays. the product he was able to secure earned the endorsement of the national border patrol council, a sign that you're pointing in the right direction. but as our colleagues recognized, the agreement does not have a a path to become law. the border crisis that president biden invited through his rhetoric and his willful neglect will continue to challenge the brave men and women of cbp and

ice and impact communities across the country. and its effects will follow his legacy forever. i wish i croix say that -- i wish i could say that a record-setting border crisis was the only challenge that the president's failures have laid before us, but our completion know as wellings -- but our colleagues know as well as i do that that isn't the case. there have always been aggressive forces seeking to harm america and to challenge our interests. the very existence of the western order in which sovereign nations choose their own leaders has always been an affront to repressive and aggressive regimes around the world. but even in the face of serious threats for large portions of modern history, the united states has dictated the terms of engagement. for decades, the world's foremost superpower has been the

one doing the deterring. not anymore. it's no longer a settled question that america will meet aggression with overwhelming force or even that we'll back our allies 100%. take this headline about president biden's response to the attack that killed three u.s. soldiers last month. quote, u.s. strikes steer clear of iran's red lines, end quote. here's the subhead of another one -- quote, u.s. officials acknowledge that the targeted militias still retain the majority of their capability to carry out future attacks. end quote. oh, here's one more. pentagon says it's not planning for a long-term campaign against iran's proxies in iraq and syria. so, mr. president, what can the american people and the entire

world gather about the biden administration's approach to the threats that we face? first, we know that iran is deterring america, not the other way around. second, we knee that the commander in chief -- we know that the commander in chief has not yet directed the strongest military in the world even to exercise sufficient force against expendable proxy terrorists, let alone the iranian sponsors. finally, we know that the biden administration lashes r lacks resolve. the pentagon conceded this week

they are not aware a single irgc sponsor had been eliminated by the response. yet this is what the administration says sending a message of deterrence looks like? let's be honest here. do our allies see in this behavior us willing to impose sdee sieve coes -- decisive cost on our adversaries? in the middle east, we already know the answer. since the president telegraphed a response to the deadly tower 22 attack, iran-backed terrorists have already launched more attacks from iraq and syria to the red sea. iran and its proxies are undeterred, but beyond the region is there any reason to expect that the president's conduct of foreign policy is

causing putin or xi to think again? not a chance. no doubt the commander in chief halting response to tehran's aggression emboldens moscow. russian forces, like iran and its proxies, were direct beneficiaries of president biden's hesitation and self-deterrence as they escalated their invasion of ukraine. and beijing after it watched us abandon allies in afghanistan and second-guess israel's response to terrorism has a reason to doubt that the u.s. is well positioned to rally allies and partners to resist aggression in the indo-pacific. america fails to stand with our partners on the front line in europe and the middle east, we will shred our credibility with

friends in the indo-pacific. so today's strategic competition is more perilous, support of our allies is more tenuous. more questionable than it was three years ago. these are the circumstances in which the senate must consider some weighty responsibilities of our own. to invest in the hard power that the president instinctivelily shies away from exercising, to commit to allies that fear being abandoned, and to address the requirements of long-term competition that becomes more difficult the longer america neglects its leading role. to bp during this speech. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. lankford: in about an hour, this body will gather, there will be 100 senators here to make a d