we can be even stronger than before. >> president rake in 1981. >> government is not the solution to our problem. government is the problem. >> and president george h.w. bush in 1989. >> to make kinder the face of the nation and gentler the face of the world. >> watch the story inaugural speeches saturdays at 7 p.m. eastern on american history tv on c-span2. >> c-span is unfiltered view of government. we are funded by these television companies and more including charter communication communications. >> charter is proud to be recognized as one of the best internet providers, and we're just getting started. building 100,000 miles of new infrastructure to reach those who need it most. >> charter communications supports c-span as a public

service, along with these other television providers, giving you a front-row seat to democracy. >> it's tuesday morning and two in washington, d.c. the u.s. senate would be gaveling and shorty to offer speeches from the floor of the chamber. later we expect senate lawmakers to recess and head over to the capitol rotunda for an arrival ceremony for former president jimmy carter's body which will lie in state for the next two days. you are watching live coverage of the senate here on c-span2.

the president pro tempore: the senate will come to order, the chaplain, dr. barry black, will lead the senate in prayer. the chaplain: let us pray. eternal father, who extends daily to our lawmakers compassionate love, we praise your holy name. lord, in a challenging world, where we often find ourselves waiting to is exhale -- waiting to exhale, you remain our shelter for every storm. relieve the shadows of pessimism and cynicism as we face a world

often filled with despair. lord, bring our senators from the fatigue of doubts to the buoyancy of hope. make their lives unflickering lights that transform dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows. give them an unflinching certainty that you are sovereign. we pray in your great name. amen. the president pro tempore: please recite with me the pledge of apledge -- 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. mr. grassley: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mr. grassley: i ask permission to speak for three minutes in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. grassley: as the 119th congress kicks off, i look forward to continuing my work for iowans. as president pro tem of the senate, iowa is number one with my leadership. i look forward to working with my colleague senator joany

ernst -- joni ernst to represent the people of iowa and bring their views to the policy making tables, we will work with our colleagues congresswoman henderson and congressman finstra across the capitol to represent the good people of iowa. i emphasize the iowa delegation putting iowa first. i do that at the same time we remember the voter mandate of the last election, to put america first. we will work with president trump to bring that goal to fruition. on another point, yesterday january 6, was christmas day for many christians of the orthodox

faith. but during the soviet union, if you remember the history of the soviet union, christmas had to be celebrated in secret less the communist authorities would find out and you would be punished. the godless soviet regime encouraged celebration the new year with a visit from grandfather frost, a secular russian folk character in place of jolly st. nick. in a repeat of history, kgb dictator putin, now president putin, supposedly, bans santa claus in occupied ukraine. christmas caroling, nativity scenes and any mention of st. nicholas was reportedly banned in russian-occupied ukraine for

fear of spreading western influence. a video recently came out showing the russian military shooting down santa's sled over russia to the praise of grandfather frost. this is a war on christmas communist style. in russia today, religious expression outside of the state-controlled church is discouraged. and in russia, occupied ukraine all protestant churches have been closed. the head of the russian church is a kgb guy who answers directly to kgb putin. it is no wonder then that only 16% of the russians say religion is very important to them and

only 7% attend church weekly. it is also no wonder that most ukrainians choose to celebrate christmas with the west on the 25th, even while under rocket fire from russia. i yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll.

mr. thune: madam president. the presiding officer: the majority leader. than you thune thank you, madam president. i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. thune: madam president, later today, president jimmy carter will arrive at the capitol and will lay in state at the capitol rotunda so america can pay their final respect to our nation's 39th president. madam president, it's the great american story, how a man or

woman can rise from humble origins to the highest levels of government or business or academia. born in 1924 in plains, georgia, he grew up in a house that had no running water or electricity. president was probably not the first thing people would have thought of when considering his future career. most would have thought he would run the family farm as he did for a while. but he also decided to dip his toe into politics. he had gone from taking up office in the georgia state senate to taking up office as president of the united states. his presidency was notable for his successful brokering of a peace agreement between egypt and israel, an agreement that stands to this day. it's perhaps his post presidency that came to define his legacy the most.

he left office in 1981, he dedicated himself to the causes of peace and human rights and improving the well-being of his fellow man. together, with his wife roslyn, he -- roslin, he founded for a -- among the center's successes is the almost total eradication of getting worm disease, a painful and devastating tropical disease whose numbers numbered in the hundreds. now there are just seven reported cases. just part of president carter's. president carter is known for his work for habitat for humanity, providing housing for

those in need. he did not just lend his name or image to habitat. he built houses, he nailed it, drilled it, he installed toilets well into his 90's, you could find him in the hard hat on work sites participating like any other volunteer. in one early habitat project, he and rosalynn, worked in new york city, had they splept in the basement of a church with other volunteers. a characteristic example of unpretentiousness from a couple who lived in a modest house in plains, georgia, that they built long before the presidency. all told, carter worked project at habitat humanity, worked on 4,447 homes in 14 countries, including homes in eagle butte, in my state of south dakota,

which the carters worked on in a 1984 trip to our state. it is unknown how many more homes have been built by volunteers that have been built by habitat for humanity. jimmy carter saw his service as the natural outgrowth of his faith in jesus christ. one of the best ways to practice my faith as christian, he would say, is to are participate in habitat projects every year. his life was about putting religious principles into practice, whether through habitat for humanity or his other work. anyone attracted by his example who wanted to learn more about the christian faith could head to plains, georgia, to his sunday school class which he taught into his 90's.

he had a 77-yearlong marriage to his beloved wife roslynn, who preceded him in death a year ago. while i join americans in mourning the death of president carter, i rejoice at the thought that he and roslynn are together again. my thoughts and prayers are with their children, jack, chip, amy and jeff. i look forward to paying my respects to this former public servant later today. madam president, i yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:. mr. thune: i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection.

mr. thune: madam president, i understand that there is a bill at the desk that is due for a second reading. the presiding officer: the clerk will read the title of the bill for the second time. the clerk: s. 5, a bill to require the secretary of homeland security to take into custody aliens who have been charged in the united states with theft and for other purposes. mr. thune: madam president in order to place the bill on the calendar under the provision of rule 14, i would object to further proceeding. the presiding officer: objection having been heard, the bill will be placed on the calendar. mr. thune: madam president, i ask unanimous consent that the sent recess today from 12:30 to 2:15 to allow for the weekly conference luncheons. the presiding officer: without objection. under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. under the previous order, the senate will be in a period of

morning business with senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each. test. .

mr. schumer: madam president. the presiding officer: the democratic leader. mr. schumer: madam president, last week 14 people were killed in a terrorist attack in new orleans and an explosion in las vegas injured several others. the fbi has warned that other attacks that copycat what happened in new orleans could be a threat. cities like new york, population centers like long island, need to be prepared. there is one federal program that stands as the cornerstone for anti-terror preparedness for places like new york city and long island, the urban area security initiative, known as uasi. today, i am announcing that i will request $615 million for

uasi in the upcoming funding negotiations this spring. uasi is one of our best firewalls for staying vigilant against terrorist threats. my request of 615 will help communities like new york city, long island and the entire metropolitan area stay ready against acts of terror. last year, i was proud to deliver $2.3 million in uasi funding for both nassau and suffolk county. that's over 4.5 m$4.5 million i anti-terror funds, just for long island this last year. i know these funding are critical for these communities and for people's safety on the island. i'm also proud last year that we delivered another $150 million to new york city in this funding. we must keep this robust funding going this year too. uasi funds help pay for

everything needed to keep people safe, from training and joint anti-terror operations across the city and long island to emergency medical equipment, to better tools for homeland security offices, for intelligence sharing and so much more. we need uasi funds to keep people safe here in the nation's capitol too. over the next few weeks, millions will come for inaug inauguration, for page homage to former president carter, and many people will be moving in and out of the city as the government enters a period of transition. strong uasi funding is vital to en ensuring security during all these events. i want to be clear -- any effort to cut this anti-terror program, especially right now, cannot stand. we in new york and on long island use these funds on a rolling basis. we need these funds. and to repeat, uasi funds are a

firewall at a time potential copycat attacks like the fbi are happening. on jimmy carter, this morning special air mission 39 took off from georgia, carrying the 39th president of the united states, jimmy carter. so he may be honored here in the capitol, one last time. for the next two days, president carter will lie in state in the rotunda of the u.s. capitol building, joining the small and distinguished list of eminent americans who have earned this honor. later today, i will join leader thune and other congressional leaders in the rotunda of the u.s. capitol to place a wreath on president carter's casket on behalf of the united states senate. today and tomorrow, americans will brave the snow and cold temperatures to pay their respects to one of the most decent men ever to hold office

of president. he was a gentleman in every sense of the word -- kind, honorable, intelligence, humble, deeply patriotic. these are virtues that -- these are virtues he brought to the oval office, in an era when trust in government was arguably at a low in the 20th century. but just as admirable as the legacy president carter built after holding the -- but just as admirable is the legacy president carter built after holding the most powerful job? the world. after leaving office, he established the carter center to continue his work on human rights, spreading democracy, fighting disease. we all know about his work with habitat for humanity, where he could often be found outside, building houses for families in need, well into his 90's. that was president carter at his core. he never stopped serving others until his final day. america was lurky to have him,

as a sit -- was lucky to have him, as a citizen, president and moral compass of our time. now, on the 119th congress, as the 119th congress begins, our nation faces an uncertain future. americans still see high prices every time they go to the store, when they go to the pharmacy or refill their tank and pay their cable and internet bills. we've done a lot of work over the last few years to slow inflation down, but the new majority must continue the work we've begun. donald trump and republicans made a slew of very bold promises on the campaign trails to fix our country's big problems. in some of these promises, they say they will fight for working people, despite decades of doing the opposite, and proposing things that would hurt them. democrats will hold republicans' feet to the fire, to ensure they are accountable to the american pe people. promises to help working people

sound nice, but they mean nothing without real results. and too many of republican promises, like tax cuts for the very wealthy, will actually make things worse for working people. in the coming weeks there will be one early sign that shows whether or not republicans intend to keep their promises to fight for working people, and that is who they support through the nominations process. these nominees are going to be the faces of the new administration. they will be responsible for applying its policies. they will, in effect, be the ones responsible for following through day to day on the promises made on the campaign trail. so, the american people want to know, will the president-elect's nominees follow through on cutting costs for the american people, or will they return to cutting sweet deals for

megacorporations and the wealthiest people in this country? will the president-elect's nominees actually make communities safer, or will they protect the bottom line of special interests? will they help their corporate contractors cozy up to foreign entities and oligarchs all while undermining our national security? will they spend time settling scores for president-elect trump, or will they actually help keep america safer? will the president-elect's nominees keep their promises to serve america, or are they just going to serve the swamp? we remember what happened during the first trump administration. the swamp wasn't drained so much as doubled, tripled and more. even during the last campaign, donald trump promised oil executives huge tax breaks if he won. that would be the opposite of

the promises he made to the people. these are the kinds of things we need to know from the president-elect's nominees. we need to be fair but thorough, and give every nominee a chance to make their case while also subjecting them to some tough scrutiny. that is, after all, what any reasonable job application process demands, whether you're an average person applying for a job or somebody being nominated for a very important cabinet position. so that's what we democrats intend to do. that's what we will do. it's no different than what we intend to do on the legislative side. i will repeat what i said last week. democrats are ready to work with anyone regardless of party to make life better for working people. let me mention one example from last week. on january 1, because of what

the democratic senate, the president did, the $2,000 out-of-pocket cap that democrats passed in the inflation reduction act went into effect. thanks to that policy, millions of americans with medicare part d will save thousands of dollars each year on prescription drugs. if republicans want to strengthen policies like these and help americans save millions more on health care spending, democrats are open to working together. but our promise to republicans also comes with a warning. democrats will not hesitate to fight back if republicans use their new majorities to hurt working families of america. if donald trump and republicans use their new majorities to push the same old gop policies of tax cuts for billionaires, cuts to health care, cuts to medicare and social security, trickle down economic, democrats will

fight back. if republicans use their new majority to push policies that make life even more expensive for families, we will stand opposed. if republicans go after social security or medicare or medicaid's people's paychecks, they'll have to go through us. the choice is now in the hands of our republican colleagues. they're now in the majority. they now have the responsibility. we and the american people will be watching. i yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: the clerk: ms. alsobrooks.

that thing with the court for votes. by a lot. had a great election but even to this day there playing with the courts trying to make everybody happy on the democrat side. it's called weaponization of

justice at a level nobody's before. a deranged individual, i guess he's on his way back today. the press made a big deal but we need nothing wrong. when the republican wins the vote by millions, people said he could win four, we won by a lot-watching this injustice department. cans

were killed in a heartbreaking deadly act of terrorism. dozens of our fellow americans were seriously injured as well in the carnage. these are people that were just celebrating the new year. their attacker was a terrorist. he flew an isis flag. it was off the back of his truck. as a result of the terrorist attack, he destroyed families, destabilized a community, and broke the hearts of so many, many americans. the shock of this attack is matched only by the urgency of the message that it sends to our country. and the message is this. it is time to restore america's security and america's strength. lives depend upon it. to keep america safe, we need to refocus our government on the priorities that matter to the people of this nation.

and we've seen this in real time in terms of the danger of the distorted priorities of the last administration. their priorities were a wide open border, awoke pentagon leader, a weaponized and distracted fbi, a feckless foreign policy, and, of course, a weak president. the current president's absence of leadership has made america and the world less safe. in four short years, our enemies have been emboldened. they've grown stronger. they're more aggressive, and they're more dangerous. america once worked to deny terrorists a safe haven. now the terrorist strongholds are back. today terrorists control afghanistan. they control parts of syria. they attack american troops from bases in yemen. and this is only part of it. today we face a serious security

situation right here inside the united states. the new orleans terrorists appear to have been radicalized while here in america. over the past four years, over 300 individuals on the terror watch list, our own nation's terror watch list, they've crossed into our country boldly and illegally. it's -- those 300, they're just the ones we know about. we also know that iran, the world's number one state sponsor of terrorism, is actively funding anti-jewish protests on our college campuses. president biden did nothing. instead of showing strength, he kept our borders open and continued to ignore iran's aggression. weakness in the white house put us here. returning to strength will help lead us out. in 13 days our weak and waivering president will be replaced by a president who is

respected for strength and for boldness. we have seen failure up close. americans will now get a very good look at what strong leadership looks like once again. president trump and senate republicans will act for americans' safety. the senate is going to work to confirm president trump's strong nominees through a fair and speedy process. it's important for the president to have his national security team in place as quickly as possible. especially right now, personnel is policy. and president trump's team is ready to act. the president's nominees are not a return to business as usual. no, not at all. they are motivated. they are skilled. they were committed to the safety and security of every american. our national security depends on confirming them. the new orleans attack proves

it. to my colleagues, i would remind each and every one of them that the senate's power of advice is no place to deny or destroy. last month a sleeping woman in new york city was set on fire in the subway. she died. her killer was an illegal immigrant. he was deported under president trump, snuck back into this country under president biden. since 2023, he has lived, this illegal immigrant criminal, murderer, lived in taxpayer-funded shelters here in this country. that's would we've seen the last four years. the current president's actions invited and allowed ten million people to cross into our country illegally. our cities are overrun and

overwhelmed. it was weak border policies that got us here, put us in this position, and it is strong border policies that are going to get us back to safety. that means funding the border wall, deporting illegal immigrant criminals, restoring successful policies, such as remain in mexico. our goal is to empower president trump to enforce the law. republicans are also going to work to restore deterrence through strength and then what we've seen is the politicization of our military. without a military focused on lethality, we can't be strong. if these actions are taken, peace and safety, security and strength are not just possible, they will be coming very soon. thank you, madam president. i yield the floor. i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

the clerk: ms. alsobrooks. remember that's worth probably 40 trillion dollars. essentially he's thrown it away. he's taken -- if we owe

3550000000000000 of value and throw it right out the window, nobody can do that. one other thing which in many ways is worse, he wants all gas heaters out of your homes. he wants them replaced by electric heaters. we are going to and the electric car mandate by the way we have a i will need more and he wants everybody to have electric heater, casita. gas heater is much less expensive than the heat is much better, a much better. as the expression goes, you don't itch. does anybody have a heater where you scratch? they don't want you to have gas with the problems of electric.

they are much cheaper to operate, much better and look much better. 60% of homes and departments have gas heaters and wants them removed quickly. there's something wrong with them. they want to go back and they started evening areas, it comes down from heaven no water comes out of the shower. drip, drip so no water comes out of the faucet, you want to wash her hands and they go back even stronger than what they have right now. i ended that policy.

we have some water we don't know what to do with it. they keep pressing and pressing, keep it going. likewise washing machines, very little water coming out so washing your clothing you have to wash four times instead of one. we are a party of common sense. january 20, we will turn the economy around quickly. we have inflation at a level would never had before. it's already doing it if you take a look they announced $200

billion. i said make it 200. he'll do a great job because of the way he builds. the s&p 500 is about 6000 points for the% ever. small business optimism sort 41 points is the largest in 39 history in the group that does it. the american confidence and american economy has surged to

the highest in history. it's good to know where the smart business people in the world are investing. that panama canal expensive structure.

they died from malaria unable stopped and paid will five times more and many of them died. they charge more for navy than navies of other country. they laugh us because they think we are stupid but not anymore so the panama canal is under discussion right now. they morally violated it. it's leaking and got in good repair china is basically taking

it over and running the panama now and they come to see this biden, the stack should never have been not allowed to run for president. million dollars a ship and they took it away from us and they come to the united states.

those days are over with the republican majorities in congress will have taxes, raise wages and income in a way the world has not seen before. the beautiful words made in the usa. those other things.

it is very unfair. i have so many great friends and one of them is a great one. he said going to run for prime minister or government he's an admiral, make it governor. something will have to be done we help to go a lot when they are run by the cartels. can't let that happen. and doing most of the.

the opposite of biden and he's closing everything up getting rid of 50 to $60 trillion worth. we are going to be changing the name of the gulf of mexico to the gulf of america which has a beautiful ring. it covers a lot of territory. the gulf of america what a beautiful name. it's appropriate. we are approaching the dawn of

america's old mage and we have things nobody else does. number one, nobody knew until i came along. we are number three and it's number one in this period of time drilling and talk about windmills, they littered all of our country like dropping paper will garbage in the field and that's what happens to them. she leaned and natural gas.

there very expensive, you don't want energy for subsidies. they have one 70 dollars total it may take three ships to ship them. they have offshore in a 17 year period and now 14 this season. windmills are driving the wills crazy obviously. the disaster. it's amazing way a true environmentalists would say. after ten years you have to redo them.

they say you can and what do you do with them? i don't know if you gone to palm springs california, we have long-term windmill, they are falling down. they put new ones next to them why should they take them down? they are expensive and you can't do anything because of the environmental protection. we are at the beginning of a beautiful golden age, a business. i think we are also at a golden age, everything i'm saying that doesn't allow water to come out

appropriately to the elements of what we do and what we are going to do, to take 50 to 60 trillion all our country sounds as some and has no idea what he is doing know it, i know it and democrats not in what they did is a crime allowing that. with a.i. coming, a lot of people don't know a.i. is going to be a big thing but you will need double electricity at least so right now we years. a.i. is very different in terms of the future. china is building elect

facilities there being fired up coal and we're going to build bigger and better ones and doing the same thing. the problem is i can't get there. pico grades, the grades are old. build your electric facility alongside your plan and then you can add extra output if you want because once you build it, you could have extra output people love that idea we will have a lot of fun making america great again it will happen so spend

openly reported. this never read anything like this since we won the election, the whole perception of the whole world is different. people from other countries called me and said thank you. the perception of the whole world is different. we will have to settle big problems. the biden fiasco should have never happened. the cities are blown up and soldiers are killing at level since we haven't seen since the

second world war. it's a tough one, tougher than it would have been before it started. thank you all for coming. we will take a couple of questions. [inaudible] should. [inaudible] [inaudible question] >> no. >> can you tell us a little bit about what your plan is x.

>> we need them for economic security. it was built for our military. it might be you have to do something. the panama canal is vital are country operated by china. we gave the panama canal to panama they've abused it, i should never have been made by the way. more than the hostages, a big deal. nobody wants to talk about animal canal, inappropriate i guess the bad part of the order legacy but he was a good man. i know him a little bit he was a fine person but getting the panama canal to panama was take. we lost 38000 people in the cosmos the equivalent of $1

trillion, maybe more, the most expensive structure ever built in getting that away was horrible and that's why mccarter lost the election. [inaudible] >> the cities are largely knocked down.

but the were a lot of mistakes made in that negotiation and when i heard the way biden was negotiating i said you're going into in a war and turned up out to be a very bad war. they could escalate. that war could escalate to be much worse than it is now. >> my view is it was always understood. in fact, i believe they had a deal and then biden broke it. they had a deal which would've been a satisfactory deal to ukraine and everybody else but that biden said no, you have to be able to join nato.

that's always been and nobody knows more about nader then, jessica when it first started this i did know too much about nato but i got a right anyway. i said they're taking vantage. i'm the one who got to the sector gen zers you know two weeks ago saying if the word for me nato wouldn't even exist because i raise from countries that were not paying their bills at the time 28 countries, 20 of them were not paying their bills. 21 to be exact. they weren't paying. or if they're paying a very small portion. i raise over $680 billion. that was. that was a number he gave. by saying if you don't pay were not going to protect you. as soon as i said that the money came pouring in. obama could've said it. of the people could've said. bush could've said. nobody said it but me. i took a lot of heat. they said that's a threatening statement. they were not paying their bills.

whether you like the situation or not, europe is much more effective than the united states. we have a thing called the ocean in between us. right? why are we in for billions and billions of dollars more money than europe? there are some resize little small but a similar sized economy when you add them up. and yet europe is in for a small fraction of the number the united states is in. biden could've called them up. that's what i did. you have to pay your bills. one stood up, i won't say who, you will probably have it because media page report on it but a prime minister from a country, our famous meeting of 20 nations with no press, nobody in a real prick he stood up and said does that mean if we don't

pay our bills and at that point it was to present, it should be 5%, it should be 5% not 2% that at that point it was stupid. many people didn't pay. some people didn't do anything but many people including germany germany was at less than 1%. [inaudible question] i think nader should have 5%. you can't do it at 2%. every country if you have a country in regular military unit 4%.si dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cornyn: mr. president, as you know, last friday, the senate swore in new leaders for the 119th congress. in two weeks the new commander in chief will be sworn in for a second time. we are six days into a new year, and people around the country are making resolutions for the new year, everything from health to fitness, books to read, financial goals to meet.

as republicans, now is a good time for us to do the exact same th thing. we have our work cut out for us, to help clean up the mess that president biden and senate democrats have left us from the last four years. i believe our first and most urgent task is to confirm president trump's nominees for his cabinet. the president won the election, and he's entitled to his team, absent extraordinary circumstances. it's simply impossible for the new administration to tackle the mountain of work waiting for them without their team of advisors who will lead critical government agencies, without the president's cabinet in place he cannot get the job done that he was elected to do on november 5. with his cabinet in place, we can get to work to implement the

agenda that texans and americans across the country elected a trifecta of republican leaders to accomplish. the top of our list of priorities is, of course, to secure the southern border. i represent a state with 1200 miles of common border with mexico, and sadly and tragically under the previous str administration's open-border policies it has been an unmitigated disaster. the crisis at the southern border is one of -- is one that president biden quite literally invited with his campaign rhetoric and with his administration's policies. he invited this crisis. this was perhaps the one campaign promise that he delivered on. the biden administration set out to reverse many, if not all, of president trump's policies, from his first term, including the

remain in mexico policy and title 42. under president biden's watch the border patrol are overwhelmed with record numbers of illegal migrants crossing the border. border patrol encountered more than 370,000 -- excuse me, 370 people on the terror watch list crossing between ports of entry during the biden administration. we know there were roughly a dozen people who were part of the conspiracy that resulted in the death of 3,000 americans on september 11, 2001. and now here we have 370 people on the terror watch list that crossed between ports of entry during the biden administration. well, that compares with well under ten years under the trump administration, but i think the

point is pretty obvious. this is dangerous. and those are only the aliens who the border patrol encountered or apprehended. remember that president biden also set records for got-aways. that's what the border patrol calls the people who've simply evaded law enforcement. aliens who fled because, frankly, they were up to no good. as of may, more than 1.7 million got-aways had made their ways into the united states under their watch. and these are just people who triggered various cameras and sensors and were able to evade law enforcement. surely, there were more that made their way into the interior of the united states. again, under president biden's border policies all you have to do is turn yourself in and you would be released into the interior. but these are people that could not even risk that, because of

their -- because of either their criminal records or their intentions to do harm, including carry drugs into the united states. since the biden administration established the word asylum as a magic word that resulted in your release into the interior, we can be pretty sure that many of those evading border patrol have something else to hide. human trafficking and drug trafficking by the cartels have caused enormous and often untold suffering for the people of my home state of texas and americans as a whole. fentanyl, which is now the leading cause of death of young people in america 18 to 45, is manufactured, or the precursors are manufactured, in china and trafficked through the u.s.-mexico border. countless migrants released into the interior of our country have

failed to show up for their day in court, showing others looking to make the dangerous journey to the united states that they might also be able to make it and suffer zero consequences. all of these actions, or lack of actions, from the biden administration have sent a clear signal that the law of the united states, the laws of the united states will not be enforced. you know, law enforcement depends on our great men and women in blue to investigate crimes and to deter other people from committing crimes. but deterrence is a very important element that has simply been lost by the biden administration's open-border policies. given the fact that most people who come to the united states know, understand the biden administration, you'll simply be released, there's no reason for them to believe that they will not be released as well. so there is zero deterrence.

that is getting ready to change under president trump. now, speaking of breaking the law without consequence, violent crime is another problem plaguing texans and american cities across the country. left wing mayors and city governments have advanced soft-on-crime policies in major cities from chicago to los angeles to new york to san francisco. what has been the result? well, criminals have noticed there are no consequences to them committing crimes in these ci cities. a lack of consequences is an incentive, an encouragement for them to continue stealing, braving, and murdering -- stealing, breaking, and murdering. that's all beginning to change under a new administration. republicans are prepared to take steps necessary to prevent and ensure that ramifications for these crimes exist, and we've

done so before, and we're going to do so again. during the president trump's first administration i was proud to partner with him on legislation to lock up violent criminals and ensure justice for victims. one of my top priorities for the new year is to do everything i can to build on the great work we accomplished under president trump's first term, to make sure our communities, our cities, and our streets are once again safe. another way that we'll keep our citizens safe is by ensuring that second amendment rights are safeguarded. the trump administration will end president biden's assault on the second amendment, the right to keep and bear arms, as well as the biden administration's bad-faith interpretations of second amendment related legislation. i look forward to leading my senate colleagues in

reintroducing my concealed carry reciprocity act and working with the trump administration and our cosponsors here in the senate to get this legislation across the finish line. now, i know some folks from places like new york or maybe san francisco might say, you're actually going to make it easier for people to carry a firearm legally? well, the answer is, already the vast majority of states have licensing regimes where responsible, law-abiding citizens can exercise their second amendment rights by getting a license to carry a firearm, including texas, and including the district of columbia. i happen to have a license in both jurisdictions. many states have gone simply to a nonlicense status, so that people can exercise their second amendment rights. i would reiterate, america and

americans have nothing to fear from law-abiding citizens exercising their second amendment rights. those are not the people that we should be concerned about. we should be most concerned about people who are criminals who cannot legally carry a firearm or people with mental health incapacities which are currently prohibited under existing law from getting, from carrying or owning or possessing a firearm. those are existing laws that are enforced, given the national instant background check system. now, while our safety and security starts at home and our communities and borders, it also extends around the world. as i've said before from this floor, we now have the most dangerous geopolitical environment that we've had since world war ii. texans voted resoundingly for president trump in this last

election in part of because of his pledge to hold china accountable. china threatens the peace in the indo-pacific by threatening to invade its neighbor, taiwan, and interrupt freedom of commerce and freedom of navigation engineer the indo-pacific. one of the ways that we can hold china accountable is to pass my legislation to address outbound investment in china. i just had a chance to visit with the new treasury second nominee, and i told him it was really strange to me when you look at historically how we've dealt with the soviet union and how we've dealt with china, both of which are ruled by communist governments. many years ago at the beginning of the cold war, george keenan, a famous diplomat wrote something called the long

memorandum where he said you are not going to change communist russia. it's an ideological obsession they have. you're not going to change their minds. so what you need to do, would the free world needs to do is to contain them. and that's what the cold war was all about leading ultimately to the fall of the soviet union. strangely enough, the united states' position toward china was just the opposite. under president clinton, he invited them into the world trade organization believing that somehow by engaging in more trade with the rest of the world, that somehow china and the communist party would change. well as one of the former leaders of communist china said, hide your motives and bide your time. and that's exactly what china has done. china has now become the manufacturing center for the world. now, when you're buying inexpensive consumer products,

that's one thing. but when you consider the vulnerability of our supply chains and things that china makes and does, like processes critical minerals which it does 90% of the critical minerals in the world that we need for a variety of products, including military weapons, that represents a huge vulnerability. well, we need to know who is investing in what industries in china, because right now the rough estimate of the market value of american-based investment in china in 2020 was $2.3 trillion. well, china has built its economy, which by itself should not be a big concern but they've now become a rival to the united states. if they played by the rules, that would be one thing, but china is famous for not honoring

intellectual property laws and stealing all the technology they can. and they are using their economic power which is synonymous with their military power because they have something called civilian military fusion laws which said if the private sector creates a new innovative product, they have to share it with the peoples liberation army and the communist party in china. so my point is my outbound investment piece of legislation says we need to know who is investing money in china and what that is being used for. now, i can care less if people want to build more burger kings or starbucks in china. i'm not worried about that. but when you start talking about advanced semiconductors, when you start talking about serial

intellectual property theft, when you look at some of the weapons systems and airframes that china has been creating, they bear remarkable resemblance to those that we built here in the united states because they engaged in massive theft through cyberattacks and through intellectual property theft. but it's simply foolish for the united states to continue mindly, to continue to invest billions of dollars in the very defense systems and technologies that the chinese communist party could use to our detriment in the indo-pacific. our colleague senator sullivan from alaska just retired as a colonel from the marines. and he puts it very poignantly. he said american investors are going to fund the very military buildup that would result in the death of my marines if china were to invade taiwan.

to me -- and i'm sure to all of us -- that's simply unacceptable. but right now we are flying blind, and that needs to change. while some might be concerned about lost investment potential in china, there's plenty of opportunities here at home and in other parts around the world as we see more fringe shoring and near shoring to result -- to create dependable supply chains to asia, india, and elsewhere. well, there's another area where i expect president trump to make a big difference, and that is in the energy sector. and primarily to do this through regulatory reform. for the past four years the biden administration has put the wishful dreams of climate activists ahead of the interests of ordinary americans, particularly those in my home state of texas. and he's certainly not letting the door hit him on the way out.

today -- i think that was actually yesterday -- the president tried -- president biden announced one last nail in the coffin by issuing a permanent ban on oil and gas leasing in certain federal waters preventing new drilling. but nevertheless, republicans will not be dissuaded from our task to reverse the damage of the biden administration and unleash this huge asset which is american energy. by removing burdensome regulations from our energy sector, by improving the permitting process so we can actually build things like the capacity to produce electricity that will drive data centers and artificial intelligence, and by increasing our exports of things like natural gas so our friends and allies don't have to depend on russia to keep the lights on or to heat their homes, we can

create both growth for our economy here at home and we can improve our national security posturing, including shoring up our vulnerable supply chains. rather than forcing europe to rely on russia for its energy sources we can increase their reliance on american energy, particularly liquefied natural gas. this would be a big win for america and a big win for my state as well and a big loss for the axis of evil, russia, china, iran and north korea that are working together to undermine the united states and the west. so, mr. president, we have a lot to do and very little time to do it. we have an opportunity to pass huge wins for president trump and more specifically for the american people. and that comes first through the

budget reconciliation process. this is a once-in-a-generation opportunity, and it's not an opportunity we can afford to squander. we can't let this go to waste by not taking the occasion to finally address our skyrocketing debt. and the only way we do that is not only to be responsible in the way we handle things like discretionary spending, but to dig deeper into the areas that the federal government spends, like mandatory spending. now, i know medicare and social security are particularly fraught and without bipartisan support, it's really hard to save social security and medicare, particularly if the democrats aren't going to be willing to help. but there's about $700 billion a year that the federal government spends that is mandatory spending. that means it's on autopilot. and we never go back and revisit it to see if it's still a

priority, which continues to grow at 5%, 6%, 8% a year and until and unless we deal with this mandatory spending, we are never going to deal with this mountain of debt. now approaching $36 trillion. and we have now finally gotten to the point where we're paying more money for interest on the national debt than we are on our own defense, which is 2.7% of our gdp. so we finally kicked the can down the road to the point we've run out of road. that's true both in terms of our fiscal condition and in terms of our national skecurity. we can't let this opportunity go to waste. and as i've said, we need to take a hard look at both our mandatory and discretionary spending, and we also need to take a look at how the tax code has been transformed into welfare and to a welfare system. about $200 billion a year go to

pay for the child tax credit and the earned income tax credit. and democrats have been successful in decoupling any sort of work requirement for able bodied adults that needs to be reinstated. because when it comes to assessing the people who deserve help and need our help, able bodied individuals should not be able to ride the backs of the american taxpayers. they need to do like everybody else does who is able bodied and that is to be a producer, not somebody who lives off of the beneficence of the american taxpayer. so we have a lot of work to do, but this is an incredible opportunity that i trust we will not squander. the time to address these problems is now. we've put it off long enough. i know it's easy to say well, let's do the easy things now and then we'll do the hard stuff

later, but later never seems to come. and so we have to deal with these now. mr. president, i yield the floor. i'd ask unanimous consent that the senate stand in recess pursuant to the previous order. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate stands in >> we saw lawmakers giving floor speeches. this afternoon senators will be making their way to the capitol for a ceremony to honor former president jimmy carter whose body will be lying in state for the next two days. you can see live coverage of the ceremony across the c-span platforms and live coverage of the senate when members return here on c-span2.

>> president jimmy carter the 39th president of the united states and the nation's longest lived leader passed away last month at the age of 100. joint c-span for live coverage of the state funeral. today his journey continues to washington, d.c. where he will lie in state of the u.s. capitol rotunda with the service attended by members of congress. the public will again have a chance to honor him wednesday as his body remains in state at the u.s. capitol. on thursday the national funeral service will take place at washington took i sure hopr followed by final resting ceremony at the carter family home in plaints georgia. watch c-span's live coverage of the funeral services for former president jimmy carter on the c-span network. c-span now app free mobile but app or online at c-span.org. >> democracy unfiltered with c-span. experience history as it unfolds with c-span's live coverage of this month as republicans take

control of both chambers of congress and a new chapter begins with the swearing in of the 47th president. on monday, january 20, tune in for our live all-day coverage of the presidential inauguration as trump takes the oath of office becoming president of the united states. stay with c-span this month for comprehensive live unfiltered coverage of the 119th congress and the presidential inauguration. c-span, democracy unfiltered. >> c-span is your unfiltered view of government. we are funded by these television companies and more including mediacom. >> nearly 30 years ago mediacom was founded on a powerful idea, bring cutting edge broadband to underserved communities. from coast-to-coast we connected 850,000 miles of fiber. our team broke speed barriers come to limit one gig speech to every customer, has led the way in developing 10gla