the president pro tempore: the senate will come to order. the chaplain, dr. black, will open the senate with prayer.

the chaplain: let us pray. eternal god, we pause to thank you for life and health and love. faced with challenges that demand greater-than-human wisdom, we find comfort in the knowledge that you really care. free us from guilt through the power of your limitless forgiveness. today, o lord, keep our lawmakers faithful in the performance of their duties. remind them of their total dependence on you. open their minds to opportunities to do your work on earth.

lord, give them wisdom for the crucial decisions that affect our nation and world. today, as we recall george washington's address to the american people, inspire us all to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with you. we pray in your merciful name. amen. the president pro tempore: please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance to the flag. 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 president pro tempore: pursuant to the order of the

senate of january 24, 1901, as modified by the order of february 11, 2025, the senator from mississippi, mr. wicker, will now read washington's farewell address. mr. wicker: thank you, mr. president. [inaudible] the immediate purpose of this message was to notify his fellow citizens that he would not seek a third term as president. beyond that, george washington chose the occasion to provide profound advice to his countrymen. in what has become known as george washington's acclaimed

farewell address, ours first president gave advice and counsel regarding a wide range of issues -- foreign policy, the accumulation of debt, excessive partisanship, the separation of powers, and the role of religious and -- religion and morality in public life. of course, this was not the first time president washington had let go of power. just down the hall from where i stand right now in the capitol rotunda hangs a painting by john trumbull. it depicts george washington resigning his commission as general of the continental army. this took place on december 23, 1783. in the painting, general washington is dressed in full military garb. he is an image of strength, a commanding presence. he had led a small army to victory against a powerful empire. if he had wanted to, the american people no doubt would have given him power for life.

instead, the painting shows washington with a hand outstretched, giving his resignation letter to the continental congress, relinquishing power. almost 250 years later, trumbull's painting remains in the rotunda. presidents, senators, representatives, justices, and cabinet officials have passed it as they've gone about the business of the country. generations of families and school groups have craned their necks to gaze at this 12x18 foot depiction of humility. today it might strike viewers as odd that we devote an entire painting to that moment, but in the late 1700's, and certainly in the history of the world at that time, this was rare. most leaders did not voluntarily

relinquish power. the senate's annual reading of this letter can keep us from taking washington's decision to step down from the presidency for granted. i'm a huge fan of lynn man we will miranda's -- lin manuel miranda's "hamilton." by his actions and his words, washington did teach america how to relinquish power. he taught us thousand stay i course in this great experiment of self had of government. i am grateful to my colleagues for giving me the opportunity to read these words to you today and so pursuant to their invitation, i do read the words of george washington.

friends and fellow citizens: the period for a new election of a citizen to administer the executive government of the united states being not far distant, and the time actually arrived when your thoughts must be employed in designating the person who is to be clothed with that important trust, it appears to me proper especially as it may conduce to a more distinct expression of the public voice that i should now apprise you of the resolution i have formed to decline being considered among the number of those out of whom a choice is to be made. i beg you, at the same time, to do me the justice to be assured that this resolution has not been taken without a strict regard to all the considerations appertaining to the relation which binds a dutiful citizen to his country; and that in withdrawing the tender of service, which silence in my situation might imply, i am influenced by no diminution of zeal for your future interest,

no deficiency of grateful respect for your past kindness, but am supported by a full conviction that the step is compatible with both. the acceptance of and continuance hitherto in the office to which your suffrages have twice called me have been a uniform sacrifice of inclination to the opinion of duty and to a deference for what appeared to be your desire. i constantly hoped that it would have been much earlier in my power, consistently with motives which i was not at liberty to disregard, to return to that retirement from which i had been reluctantly drawn. the strength of my inclination to do this previous to the last election had even led to the preparation of an address to declare it to you; but mature reflection on the then-perplexed

and critical posture of our affairs with foreign nations, and the unanimous advice of persons entitled to my confidence, impelled me to abandon the idea. i rejoice that the state of your concerns, external as well as internal, no longer renders the pursuit of inclination incompatible with the sentiment of duty or propriety and am persuaded, whatever partiality may be retained for my services, that in the present circumstances of our country. you will not disapprove my determination to retire. the impressions with which i first undertook the arduous trust were explained on the proper occasion. in the discharge of this trust, i will only say that i have, with good intentions, contributed toward the organization and administration of the government the best exertions of which a very fallible judgment was capable.

not unconscious in the outset of the inferiority of my qualifications, experience in my own eyes, perhaps still more in the eyes of others, has strengthened the motives to diffidence of myself; and every day the increasing weight of years admonishes me more and more that the shade of retirement is as necessary to me as it will be welcome. satisfied that if any circumstances have given peculiar value to my services they were temporary, i have the consolation to believe that while choice and prudence invite me to quit the political scene patriotism does not forbid it. in looking forward to the moment which is intended to terminate the career of my political life, my feelings do not permit me to suspend the deep acknowledgment of that debt of gratitude which i owe to my beloved country for

the many honors it has conferred upon me; still more for the steadfast confidence with which it has supported me; and for the opportunities i have thence enjoyed of manifesting my inviolable attachment by services faithful and persevering, though in usefulness unequal to my zeal. if benefits have resulted to our country from these services, let it always be remembered to your praise, and as an instructive example in our annals, that under circumstances in which the passions, agitated in every direction, were liable to mislead -- amidst appearances sometimes dubious, vicissitudes of fortune often discouraging, in situations in which, not infrequently, want of success has countenanced the spirit of criticism -- the constancy of

your support was the essential prop of the efforts and a guaranty of the plans by which they were effected. profoundly penetrated with this idea, i shall carry it with me to my grave as a strong incitement to unceasing vows that heaven may continue to you the choicest tokens of its beneficence; that your union and brotherly affection may be perpetual; that the free constitution, which is the work of your hands, may be sacredly maintained; that its administration in every department may be stamped with wisdom and virtue; that, in fine, the happiness of the people of these states, under the auspices of liberty, may be made complete by so careful a preservation and so prudent a use of this blessing as will

acquire to them the glory of recommending it to the applause, the affection, and adoption of every nation which is yet a stranger to it. here, perhaps, i ought to stop. but a solicitude for your welfare, which cannot end but with my life, and the apprehension of danger natural to that solicitude urge me, on an occasion like the present, to offer to your solemn contemplation and to recommend to your frequent review some sentiments which are the result of much reflection, of no inconsiderable observation, and which appear to me all important to the permanency of your felicity as a people. these will be offered to you with the more freedom, as you can only see in them the disinterested warnings of a parting friend who can possibly

have no personal motive to bias his counsel. nor can i forget, as an encouragement to it, your indulgent reception of my sentiments on a former and not dissimilar occasion. interwoven as is the love of liberty with every ligament of your hearts, no recommendation of mine is necessary to fortify or confirm the attachment. the unity of government, which constitutes you one people, is also now dear to you. it is justly so; for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquility at home, your peace abroad, of your safety, of your prosperity, of that very liberty which you so highly prize. but as it is easy to foresee that from different causes and from different quarters much pains will be taken, many

artifices employed, to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth -- as this is the point in your political fortress against which the batteries of internal and external enemies will be most constantly and actively (though often covertly and insidiously) directed -- it is of infinite moment that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national union to your collective and individual happiness; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to it; accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as of the palladium of your political safety and prosperity; watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can in any event be abandoned; and

indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various parts. for this you have every inducement of sympathy and interest. citizens, by birth or choice, of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections. the name of american, which belongs to you in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism more than any appellation derived from local discriminations. with slight shades of difference, you have the same religion, manners, habits, and

political principles. you have, in a common cause, fought and triumphed together. the independence and liberty you possess are the work of joint councils and joint efforts, of common dangers, sufferings, and successes. but these considerations, however powerfully they address themselves to your sensibility, are greatly outweighed by those which apply more immediately to your interest. here every portion of our country finds the most commanding motives for carefully guarding and preserving the union of the whole. the north, in an unrestrained intercourse with the south protected by the equal laws of a common government, finds in the productions of the latter great additional resources of maritime and commercial enterprise and precious materials of manufacturing industry.

the south, in the same intercourse, benefiting by the same agency of the north, sees its agriculture grow and its commerce expand. turning partly into its own channels the seamen of the north, it finds its particular navigation invigorated; and while it contributes in different ways to nourish and increase the general mass of the national navigation, it looks forward to the protection of a maritime strength, to which itself is unequally adapted. the east, in a like intercourse with the west, already finds and in the progressive improvement of interior communications by land and water will more and more find, a valuable vent for the commodities which it brings from abroad or manufactures at home. the west derives from the east

supplies requisite to its growth and comfort, and what is perhaps of still greater consequence, it must of necessity owe the secure enjoyment of indispensable outlets for its own productions to the weight, influence, and the future maritime strength of the atlantic side of the union directed by an indissoluble community of interest as one nation. any other tenure by which the west can hold this essential advantage, whether derived from its own separate strength or from an apostate and unnatural connection with any foreign power, must be intrinsically precarious. while, then, every part of our country thus feels an immediate and particular interest in union, all the parts combined cannot fail to find in the united mass of means and efforts greater strength, greater resource, proportionably greater

security from external danger, a less frequent interruption of their peace by foreign nations; and, what is of inestimable value, they must derive from union an exemption from those broils and wars between themselves which so frequently afflict neighboring countries not tied together by the same governments, which their own rivalships alone would be sufficient to produce, but which opposite foreign alliances attachments, and intrigues would stimulate and embitter. hence, likewise, they will avoid the necessity of those overgrown military establishments which, under any form of government, are inauspicious to liberty and which are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty. in this sense, it is that your union ought to be considered as

a main prop of your liberty and that the love of the one ought to endear to you the preservation of the other. these considerations speak a persuasive language to every reflecting and virtuous mind and exhibit the continuance of the union as a primary object of patriotic desire. is there a doubt whether a common government can embrace so large a sphere? let experience solve it. to listen to mere speculation in such a case were criminal. we are authorized to hope that a proper organization of the whole, with the auxiliary agency of governments for the respective subdivisions, will afford a happy issue to the experiment. it is well worth a fair and full experiment. with such powerful and obvious motives to union, affecting all parts of our country, while

experience shall not have demonstrated its impracticability, there will always be reason to distrust the patriotism of those who, in any quarter, may endeavor to weaken its bands. in contemplating the causes which may disturb our union, it occurs as matter of serious concern that any ground should have been furnished for characterizing parties by geographical discriminations -- northern and southern, atlantic and western -- whence designing men may endeavor to excite a belief that there is a real difference of local interests and views. one of the expedients of party to acquire influence within particular districts is to misrepresent the opinions and aims of other districts. you cannot shield yourselves too much against the jealousies and heartburnings which spring

from these misrepresentations; they tend to render alien to each other those who ought to be bound together by fraternal affection. the inhabitants of our western country have lately had a useful lesson on this head. they have seen in the negotiation by the executive and in the unanimous ratification by the senate of the treaty with spain, and in the universal satisfaction at that event throughout the united states, a decisive proof how unfounded were the suspicions propagated among them of a policy in the general government and in the atlantic states unfriendly to their interests in regard to the mississippi. they have been witnesses to the formation of two treaties -- that with great britain and that with spain -- which secure to them everything they could desire in respect to our foreign relations toward confirming their prosperity.

will it not be their wisdom to rely for the preservation of these advantages on the union by which they were procured? will they not henceforth be deaf to those advisors, if such there their brethren and connect them with aliens? to the efficacy and permanency of your union, a government for the whole is indispensable. no alliances, however strict, between the parts can be an adequate substitute. they must inevitably experience the infractions and interruptions which all alliances in all times have experienced. sensible of this momentous truth, you have improved upon your first essay, by the adoption of a constitution of government better calculated than your former for an intimate

union, and for the efficacious management of your common concerns. this government, the offspring of our own choice, uninfluenced and unawed, adopted upon full investigation and mature deliberation, completely free in its principles, in the distribution of its powers, uniting security with energy, and containing within itself a provision for its own amendment, has a just claim to your confidence and your support. respect for its authority, compliance with its laws acquiescence in its measures, are duties enjoined by the fundamental maxims of true liberty. the basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government.

but the constitution which at any time exists, till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon all. the very idea of the power and the right of the people to establish government presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established government. all obstructions to the execution of the laws, all combinations and associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principle and of fatal tendency. they serve to organize faction; to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put in the place of the delegated will of the nation the will of a party, often a small but artful

and enterprising minority of the community; and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common counsels and modified by mutual interests. however combinations or associations of the above description may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines by which cunning ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion. towards the preservation of your government, and the permanency

of your present happy state, it is requisite not only that you steadily discountenance irregular oppositions to its acknowledged authority, but also that you resist with care the spirit of innovation upon its principles, however specious the pretexts. one method of assault may be to effect, in the forms of the constitution, alterations which will impair the energy of the system and, thus, to undermine what cannot be directly overthrown. in all the changes to which you may be invited, remember that time and habit are at least as necessary to fix the true character of governments as of other human institutions; that experience is the surest standard by which to test the real tendency of the existing constitution of a country; that facility in changes, upon the credit of mere hypothesis and

opinion, exposes to perpetual change from the endless variety of hypothesis and opinion; and remember especially that, for the efficient management of your common interests in a country so extensive as ours, a government of as much vigor as is consistent with the perfect security of liberty is indispensable. liberty itself will find in such a government, with powers properly distributed and adjusted, its surest guardian. it is, indeed, little else than a name where the government is too feeble to withstand the enterprises of faction, to confine each member of the society within the limits prescribed by the laws, and to maintain all in the secure and tranquil enjoyment of the rights of person and property. i have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the

state with particular reference to the founding of them on geographical discriminations. let me now take a more comprehensive view and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party generally. this spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature having its root in the strongest passions of the human mind. passions of the human mind. it exists under different shapes in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled, or repressed; but in those of the popular form, it is seen in its greatest rankness and is truly their worst enemy. the alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism.

but this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. the disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and, sooner or later, the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purpose of his own elevation on the ruins of public liberty. without looking forward to an extremity of this kind (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight), the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it. it serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. it agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false

alarms; kindles the animosity of one part against another; foments occasionally riot and insurrection. it opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which find a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passion. thus, the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another. there is an opinion that parties in free countries are useful checks upon the administration of the government and serve to keep alive the spirit of liberty. this, within certain limits, is probably true; and in governments of a monarchial cast, patriotism may look with indulgence, if not with favor, upon the spirit of party. but in those of the popular character, in governments purely elective, it is a spirit not to be encouraged.

from their natural tendency, it is certain there will always be enough of that spirit for every salutary purpose. and, there being constant danger of excess, the effort ought to be, by force of public opinion, to mitigate and assuage it. a fire not to be quenched, it demands a uniform vigilance to prevent its bursting into a flame, lest, instead of warming it should consume. it is important, likewise, that the habits of thinking in a free country should inspire caution in those entrusted with its administration to confine themselves within their respective constitutional spheres, avoiding in the exercise of the powers of one department to encroach upon another. the spirit of encroachment tends

to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one and, thus, to create, whatever the form of government, a real despotism. a just estimate of that love of power and proneness to abuse it, which predominates in the human heart, is sufficient to satisfy us of the truth of this position. the necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise of political power, by dividing and distributing it into different depositories, and constituting each the guardian of the public weal against invasions by the others, has been evinced by experiments ancient and modern; some of them in our country and under our own eyes. to preserve them must be as necessary as to institute them. if, in the opinion of the people, the distribution or modification of the constitutional powers be in any particular wrong, let it be

corrected by an amendment in the way which the constitution designates. but let there be no change by usurpation; for though this, in one instance, may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed. the precedent must always greatly overbalance in permanent evil any partial or transient benefit which the use can at any time yield. of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. in vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens.

the mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. a volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. let it simply be asked, where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice? and let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle. it is substantially true that virtue or morality is a

necessary spring of popular government. the rule, indeed, extends with more or less force to every species of free government. who, that is a sincere friend to it, can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric? promote, then, as an object of primary importance institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. in proportion, as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened. as a very important source of strength and security, cherish public credit. one method of preserving it is to use it as sparingly as possible, avoiding occasions of expense by cultivating peace but remembering also that timely

disbursements to prepare for danger frequently prevent much greater disbursements to repel it; avoiding likewise the accumulation of debt, not only by shunning occasions of expense but by vigorous exertions in time of peace to discharge the debts which unavoidable wars have occasioned, not ungenerously throwing upon posterity the burden which we ourselves ought to bear. the execution of these maxims belongs to your representatives; but it is necessary that public opinion should cooperate. to facilitate to them the performance of their duty, it is essential that you should practically bear in mind that toward the payment of debts there must be revenue; that to have revenue there must be taxes; that no taxes can be devised which are not more or

less inconvenient and unpleasant; that the intrinsic embarrassment inseparable from the selection of the proper objects (which is always a choice of difficulties) ought to be a decisive motive for a candid construction of the conduct of the government in making it and for a spirit of acquiescence in the measures for obtaining revenue, which the public exigencies may at any time dictate. observe good faith and justice toward all nations. cultivate peace and harmony with all. religion and morality enjoin this conduct. and can it be that good policy does not equally enjoin it? it will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and, at no distant period, a great nation to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example of a people always guided by an exalted justice

and benevolence. who can doubt that, in the course of time and things, the fruits of such a plan would richly repay any temporary advantages which might be lost by a steady adherence to it? can it be that providence has not connected the permanent felicity of a nation with its virtue? the experiment, at least, is recommended by every sentiment which ennobles human nature. alas! is it rendered impossible by its vices? in the execution of such a plan, nothing is more essential than that permanent, inveterate antipathies against particular nations, and passionate attachments for others, should be excluded; and that, in place of them, just and amicable feelings toward all should be cultivated. the nation which indulges toward

another an habitual hatred or an habitual fondness is, in some degree, a slave. it is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest. antipathy in one nation against another disposes each more readily to offer insult and injury, to lay hold of slight causes of umbrage, and to be haughty and intractable when accidental or trifling occasions of dispute occur. hence, frequent collisions; obstinate, envenomed, and bloody contests. the nation prompted by ill will and resentment sometimes impels to war the government, contrary to the best calculations of policy. the government sometimes participates in the national propensity and adopts through passion what reason would

reject; at other times, it makes the animosity of the nation subservient to projects of hostility, instigated by pride, ambition, and other sinister and pernicious motives. the peace often, sometimes perhaps the liberty, of nations has been the victim. so, likewise, a passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils. sympathy for the favorite nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest in cases where no real common interest exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter without adequate inducement or justification. it leads also to concessions to

the favorite nation of privileges denied to others, which is apt doubly to injure the nation making the concessions by unnecessarily parting with what ought to have been retained and by exciting jealousy, ill will and a disposition to retaliate in the parties from whom equal privileges are withheld. and it gives to ambitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens (who devote themselves to the favorite nation) facility to betray or sacrifice the interests of their own country without odium, sometimes even with popularity; gilding, with the appearances of a virtuous sense of obligation, a commendable deference for public opinion, or a laudable zeal for public good, the base or foolish compliances of ambition, corruption, or infatuation. as avenues to foreign influence in innumerable ways, such

attachments are particularly alarming to the truly enlightened and independent patriot. how many opportunities do they afford to tamper with domestic factions, to practice the arts of seduction, to mislead public opinion, to influence or awe the public councils! such an attachment of a small or weak, towards a great and powerful nation, dooms the former to be the satellite of the latter. against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (i conjure you to believe me, fellow citizens), the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake, since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government. but that jealousy, to be useful, must be impartial, else it becomes the instrument of the very influence to be avoided

instead of a defense against it. excessive partiality for one foreign nation and excessive dislike of another cause those whom they actuate to see danger only on one side and serve to veil and even second the arts of influence on the other. real patriots, who may resist the intrigues of the favorite are liable to become suspected and odious, while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the people to surrender their interests. the great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible. so far as we have already formed engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith. here let us stop. europe has a set of primary interests, which to us have

none or a very remote relation. hence, she must be engaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns. hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves by artificial ties in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics or the ordinary combinations and collisions of her friendships or enmities. our detached and distant situation invites and enables us to pursue a different course. if we remain one people under an efficient government, the period is not far off when we may defy material injury from external annoyance; when we may take such an attitude as will cause the neutrality we may at any time resolve upon to be scrupulously respected; when belligerent nations, under the impossibility of making acquisitions upon us, will not lightly hazard the

giving us provocation; when we may choose peace or war, as our interest, guided by justice, shall counsel. why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation? why quit our own to stand upon foreign ground? why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of european ambition, rivalship, interest, humor, or caprice? it is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world, so far, i mean, as we are now at liberty to do it; for let me not be understood as capable of patronizing infidelity to existing engagements. i hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs that honesty is always the best policy.

i repeat, therefore, let those engagements be observed in their genuine sense. but, in my opinion, it is unnecessary and would be unwise to extend them. taking care always to keep ourselves by suitable establishments on a respectable defensive posture, we may safely trust to temporary alliances for extraordinary emergencies. harmony and a liberal intercourse with all nations are recommended by policy, humanity, and interest. but even our commercial policy should hold an equal and impartial hand, neither seeking nor granting exclusive favors or preferences; consulting the natural course of things; diffusing and diversifying by gentle means the streams of commerce, but forcing nothing; establishing with powers so disposed, in order to give trade a stable course, to define

the rights of our merchants, and to enable the government to support them, conventional rules of intercourse, the best that present circumstances and mutual opinion will permit, but temporary and liable to be, from time to time, abandoned or varied as experience and circumstances shall dictate; constantly keeping in view that it is folly in one nation to look for disinterested favors from another; that it must pay with a portion of its independence for whatever it may accept under that character; that, by such acceptance, it may place itself in the condition of having given equivalents for nominal favors and yet of being reproached with ingratitude for not giving more. there can be no greater error than to expect or calculate upon real favors from nation to nation. it is an illusion which

experience must cure, which a just pride ought to discard. in offering to you, my countrymen, these counsels of an old and affectionate friend, i dare not hope they will make the strong and lasting impression i could wish -- that they will control the usual current of the passions or prevent our nation from running the course which has hitherto marked the destiny of nations. but if i may even flatter myself that they may be productive of some partial benefit, some occasional good; that they may now and then recur to moderate the fury of party spirit, to warn against the mischiefs of foreign intrigue, to guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism; this hope will be a full recompense for

the solicitude for your welfare, by which they have been dictated. how far in the discharge of my official duties i have been guided by the principles which have been delineated, the public records and other evidences of my conduct must witness to you and to the world. to myself, the assurance of my guided by them. in relation to the still-subsisting war in europe my proclamation of the 22nd of april, 1793, is the index to my plan. sanctioned by your approving voice and by that of your representatives in both houses of congress, the spirit of that measure has continually governed me, uninfluenced by any attempts to deter or divert me from it. after deliberate examination, with the aid of the best lights i could obtain, i was well satisfied that our country

under all the circumstances of the case, had a right to take and was bound in duty and interest to take, a neutral position. having taken it, i determined, as far as should depend upon me, to maintain it with moderation, perseverance, and firmness. the considerations, which respect the right to hold this conduct, it is not necessary on this occasion to detail. i will only observe that, according to my understanding of the matter, that right, so far from being denied by any of the belligerent powers, has been virtually admitted by all. the duty of holding a neutral conduct may be inferred, without anything more, from the obligation which justice and humanity impose on every nation, in cases in which it is free to act, to maintain inviolate the relations of peace and amity towards other nations. the inducements of interest for observing that conduct will

best be referred to your own reflections and experience. with me, a predominant motive has been to endeavor to gain time to our country to settle and mature its yet recent institutions and to progress, without interruption, to that degree of strength and consistency which is necessary to give it, humanly speaking the command of its own fortunes. though, in reviewing the incidents of my administration i am unconscious of intentional error, i am nevertheless too sensible of my defects not to think it probable that i may have committed many errors. whatever they may be, i fervently beseech the almighty to avert or mitigate the evils to which they may tend. i shall also carry with me the

hope that my country will never cease to view them with indulgence and that, after 45 years of my life dedicated to its service with an upright zeal, the faults of incompetent abilities will be consigned to oblivion, as myself must soon be to the mansions of rest. relying on its kindness in this, as in other things, and actuated by that fervent love toward it, which is so natural to a man who views in it the native soil of himself and his progenitors for several generations, i anticipate with pleasing expectation that retreat in which i promise myself to realize, without alloy, the sweet enjoyment of partaking, in the midst of my fellow citizens the benign influence of good

laws under a free government, the ever-favorite object of my heart, and the happy reward, as i trust, of our mutual cares, labors, and dangers. george washington the united states, 19th september, 1796. george washington.

the presiding officer: under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. under the previous order, the senate will be in a period of morning business only with senators permitted to speak thin for up to ten minutes each until 5:30 p.m.

.

goal today not have any scheduled. later on towards the end of the week we expect him to speak at cpac the conservative conference that will happen here in washington. right now, the white house is pretty quiet. >> can you elaborate on the purpose of that. there are some limited details about it. a huge blathering of global finance. essentially, hosted by prominent saudi arabia investors and we know that the president will speak into projects in the u.s. saudi arabia is a very wealthy

country. they have a giant trillion dollar wealth fund that the president has spoken directly about. what is interesting is on this very day they are meeting on saudi arabia with their russian counterparts to talk about the russia ukraine or in serving as the host of that. it is just interesting that that is happening one day after the other. >> those meetings taking place in saudi arabia. we saw concerns about having a seat at the table so far as far as discussions are concerned. what are they saying about the part that ukraine will play in all of this. >> we heard from marco rubio after these initial meetings wrapped. he indicated that this was kind of a first step after president trump and russian president spoke by phone last week. rubio has said that ukraine will have a seat at the table, but as you alluded to he was frustrated that neither he nor his representatives were at this

meeting in saudi arabia. and russian officials serving as hosts. the company administration insist that they will have a voice in these negotiations and this is just the beginning. rubio and national security advisor says that this is a very productive first meeting. >> we are expecting more nominations to be put through the senate. the white house as far as their optimism concerning the fbi directors, where are they as of today. >> they are feeling confident especially after other nominees like robert f kennedy junior and tulsi gabbard were able to get confirmed. they are expecting cash patel to be able to sail through a special because those other nominees cleared that benchmark. people like the incoming congress secretary they are expected to sail through as well the gop has succeeded at coming through president trump in allowing all of his nominees to really get through without a lot of issue. >> he was not a nominee but elon

musk in the news what is the white house doing to at least get the message out when it comes to the ability to do his job but not only be independent but in healy actually reports to be the president of the united states. >> this is really fascinating and kind of ever evolving. a court filing released overnight. elon musk is serving as a senior advisor to president trump and he is technically on paper not even affiliated with the so-called department of government efficiency. we know that musk has free access to the oval office he has been one of the president's top advisers throughout the last couple of weeks. they are even appearing tonight on a pretaped interview with sean hannity that was taped last week at the white house. musk is playing a direct role. democrats are voicing frustration over it. ivan asked the press secretary about the apparent conflict of interest of musk owning giant companies that have federal contracts with the government worth billions of dollars that

he has not separated himself for a while now being a special government employee. the white house insists that he is doing everything by the book and he will essentially police and right now he and the president have a great relationship. >> back and forth over the last couple of days about the associated press ability to cover their views on the gulf of america. >> this has been kind of a bubbling issue that especially members of the press have been paying attention to. the associated press has had reporters and photographers barred from everything from oval office events to press conferences to even seeing if they had reserved on air force one to go down to the president. we have seen the association that helps represent all of us expressed concern about this and call for the white house to kind of reverse everything. the white house is arguing that because the ap which serves a global audience is not recognizing kind of the america only guidance that the gulf of mexico should now be called the gulf of america, they feel like

they have the authority to borrow dap from various events. members of the press over here the last few weeks. a bunch of other media that we can bring in to fill their spot that will is hereby the guidelines. press advocates argue that this is concerning because there other times that the administration kind of changes wording on something and insist that everybody falls along in the news outlet does it had it's good for shadow that they could be potentially banned from an event. >> a quick bit about the last thing you mentioned earlier. the president returning to cpac later this week. tell the audience the event and what to expect. >> a year-long's conservative gathering. taking place in similar places over the years. and many years it has transformed into being the gathering of the trump mega movement and kind of the trump wing of the republican party. president trump has spoken there year after year and he gets a hero's welcome. all of them make america great again influencer, members of

congress aligned with trump, they will all speak at the conference the latter part of the week and we expect to hear from the president there where i'm sure he will give a long address talking about his accomplishments of the last few weeks and his goals in the month ahead. >> with spectrum news. he has our national political reporter. you can find them online. what is a news website? spectrum news.com or spectrum news local. >> thank you for your time. wrapping up meetings. are you will walking away for any conversation? >> i would say we have agreed with four principles that i think are important. we will point our teams to work very quickly to reestablish the functionality of our respective missions in washington and then moscow. furthering us to continue to

move down the road. we need to have diplomatic facilities operating and functioning normally. we will appoint a high-level team from our end to help negotiate and work through the end of the conflict in ukraine in a way that is enduring and acceptable to all the parties engage. the third point is to begin to work at a high level as well to begin to discuss and think about and examine both the geopolitical and economic cooperation that could result from an end to the conflict in ukraine. obviously we have to see that come to a successful and enduring and in order for that to be possible. the last thing we agreed to as well our teams will be working on all of this, the four of us here today, the five of us here today will remain engaged in this process to make sure that is moving along in a productive way the mac what does it look like when you prevent this proposal.

>> well, there is some underlying principles. this needs to be a permanent and to the war. and not a temporary and as we have seen in the past. we know just the practical reality is that there will be some discussion of territory and there will be discussion of security guarantees. those are fundamental basics that will undergird and underlie any type of discussion. but i think that the most important part is that the president has stated his desire, his determination to end this war, and the killing that is going on. the death and destruction that is happening as this war goes on

mr. thune: mr. president. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. thune: mr. president, before i begin, i want to note that this week marks the 500th day of captivity for those hostages still in prison -- imprisoned by hamas. 500 days, well more than a year deprived of family, home, loved ones, freedom. it is imperative that the rest of the hostages be returned as

soon as possible and that the remains of those killed be returned with dignity so their families may have closure. and i'm grateful that the trump administration is making this a priority. my prayers today are with all those still suffering in captivity and with their families. mr. president, it only took four years, just four years for the democrat leader to become concerned about inflation. shocking. last week the democratic leader came down on the floor multiple times to complain about january's inflation numbers. inflation numbers that he blamed on -- get this -- president trump. that's right. i guess it didn't occur to the democrat leader that it was actually president biden who was president for most of january, up until january 20, and, by the

way, for the past four years. so i guess, you know, what are you going to do? you got to have something to talk about. but it was fascinating, mr. president, to hear the leader complain about inflation being at 3%. inflation was over 3% more than two straight years during the biden administration, and i might add mostly way over 3%, like 7%, 8%, 9%. and i'm trying and failing to remember the democrat leader expressing even half this outrage. by the end of the biden administration, a typical family had to pay -- get this -- $13,000 more per year to maintain the same standard of living that it had enjoyed when president biden took office.

$13,000 more per year as a result of biden inflation. and i'd be very surprised if the democrat leader came to the floor to highlight that fact even once. i think we all know the answer to that. but i'm forgetting, mr. president, the rules are din for democrats. if you are a democrat, it is perfectly fine and not at all hypocritical to plan to abolish the filibuster should you gain a majority in the senate, but to use it regularly, if you do not. it is fine but not at all hypocritical to convey outrage about a republican president daring to use executive power even if the prior democrat administration used it profusely. and apparently it's perfectly fine and not at all hypocritical to condemn a republican

president for a 3% inflation number even if he wasn't actually president over most of the month in question, the month of january, while ignoring the raging inflation crisis that characterized a large chunk of the prior democrat administration. one rule for me, another for thee. that apparently is the democrat motto. but, mr. president, i guess i should have some sympathy. recent headlines have described democrats as dejected, in disarray, and i guess they have to make some kind of messaging attempt, however weak and ill-founded. but i have to say, mr. president, the hypocrisy is really something to behold.

mr. president, later today the senate will vote on the nomination of howard lutnick, president trump's nominee to be secretary of commerce. the secretary of commerce has an important job. he or she is charged with promoting american industry at home and abroad and keeping our economy competitive both now and into the future. and i'm glad that president trump has chosen an outcome-driven leader like howard rlutnick for sum of an important post. he has spent four decades building up cantor fitzgerald, the firm that hired him after college. he is an inventor, whose name appears on over 800 patents and patent applications can and the world. he is not only passionate about business but cares deeply about people. but, mr. president, howard lutnick's greatest business achievement is not building his own success or building up a company; it's rebuilding cantor fitzgerald over the last 24

years. because cantor fitzgerald occupied the 101st through 105th floors of the world trade center north tower. on september 11, 2001, every single employee who was in the office died. 658 people, including howard's brother. it was unclear whether the firm could go on after losing two-thirds of its new york staff, so howard lutnick offered the surviving employees a choice. they could either go to 20 funerals day for the next month or they could work harder than ever to rebuild the company to take care of the families of those who had died. they agreed to donate a quarter of their salaries to the 658

families of their colleagues with no expectation that they would ever be paid barr back. over the next five years, the firm and its employees gave those families $180 million. in 2008, howard lutnick made sure each employee got back double what they had given, and to this day each september 11 is charity day at cantor fitzgerald, meaning every dollar of revenue the firm makes that day is donated in memory of those that they lost on september 11, 20 so. -- september 11, 2001. howard lutnick's story is inspiring. it is a lesson in resilience, in determination, and the american spirit, and it demonstrates the type of person howard lutnick is and the type of public survent that he will -- suradvance that he'll -- certificate vent that

he'll be. as he said in his hearing, he believes, and i quote, america is in a place to teach the world and to show the world what leadership is like, what a great economy is like, while taking care of americans -- what taking care of americans is like, end quote. mr. president, i think we can all agree that we have the capacity to do these things. we can continue to lead the world in innovation. we can continue to unlock new economic possibilities and new opportunities. and we can make life better for the american people. and i'm pleased that mr. lutnick will be bringing a get-it-done approach to the department of commerce. as a member of the senate commerce committee who has worked on technology issues for many years, i'm particularly pleased that mr. lutnick intends to leverage america's leadership in the technologies that are shaping the future. he's pledged to get his department moving on spectrum again, which is critical for

next-generation technologies and competing with adversaries like china. in his first term, president trump took spectrum seriously and opened up more mega-mertz for commercial -- mega-hertz, for commercial use, but the biden administration did nothing. they called for a number of studies but committed to freeing up zero mega-hertz of spectrum. i'm glad that spectrum will get the attention it deserves. broadband expansion is another priority that will require action. the $42 billion bead program was created moor than three years ago yet it has still not connected a single household to the internet. why? because the biden administration overloaded it with conditions that made it unworkable for a lot of telecoms. things like climate conditions for subcontractors, rate regulation, and union labor

requirements, none of which -- none of which, i might add, were in the law. mr. lutnick has pledged to finally get this program off the ground and spend that money only on action broadband infrastructure. we can compete to be the leader in artificial intelligence, mr. lutnick agrees we should use the tried and true approach. just last week vice president vance spoke in paris about the potential of a.i. i'm glad that the trump administration is committed to american leadership in a.i. and the commerce department will have a critical role to play in balancing accountability with a.i.'s great possibilities. mr. president, the job of the commerce secretary touches just about every industry in this country. and behind all those industries are americans working hard to provide for their families, live

their american dream, and make their contribution to america's future. howard lutnick understands this, and i'm confident that he will work every day to help american commerce thrive so that the american people can thrive. mr. president, america has tremendous potential. i look forward to working with president trump and with howard lutnick to continue to unlock it. 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.

the right to do it just like we had the right to do mount mckinley and no one is even challenging that. essentially, it is primarily the associated rest. i don't know what they are doing but i will just say that we will keep them out until they agreed that is a golf america. we are proud of this country we wanted to be the gulf of america the associated press has been very, very wrong on the election , on trump in the treatment of trump and other things having to do with trump and republicans and conservatives and they are doing us no favors and i guess i'm not doing them any favors. i guess if that is the way life works. thank you for the question. who are you with? >> very good question. thank you. yes. >> we are hearing that russia wants to force ukraine to hold

new elections in order to sign any kind of a peace deal. is that something that the u.s. would ever support? >> we have a situation where we have not had elections in ukraine or we have martial law, essentially, martial law in ukraine where the leader in ukraine, i hate to say it, he is down at 4% approval rating and our country has been blown to smithereens. most of the cities are laying on their sides, the buildings are collapsed. it looks like a massive demolition site. they have not done it in key because i guess that they do not want to shoot too many rockets and there. they have not done it 100%. if they wanted to it would probably happen very quickly. absolutely decimated cities. i would say that, you know, when they want a seat at the table, the people of ukraine have to say, you know, it is been a long

time since we've had an election that is not a russia thing. that is something coming from me and many other countries also. you know, ukraine is being just wiped out. look at what is happening to the cities. not even a building standing. it is a massive, you talk about gaza. literally these cities look like dolls. actually, percentagewise more buildings knockdown then in gaza you know, people are tired of it people want to see something happen. the other thing that is been bothering me for a long time because i have the problem with nato, hundreds of billions of dollars into the fund's when i said you've got a pay because united states was paying for european countries and then they take advantage of us on trade but i've seen it. they have to pay did they have to find out, where is the money going to. i believe that president

zelinski said last week he does not know where half of the money is that we gave him. well, we gave him i believe the hundred $50 billion. let's say that it is something less than that, but it is a lot. we have to equalize with your. europe has given smaller percentage in the. i think europe has given a hundred billion and we have given let's say three health -- 3 million plus and it is more important for them than it is for us. we have an ocean in between and they do not. but where's all the money that has been given? where's it going? i've never seen any accounting of it. we give hundreds of billions of dollars. i want to see peace. look, you know i want to, i don't want all of these people killed anymore. i am looking at people there are being killed and their russian and ukrainian people, but they are people. does not matter where they are from on the whole planet. and i think that i have the power to end this war and i

think that it is going very well today i heard we were not invited. well, you been there for three years and you should have never start of it. you could have made a deal. i made a deal for ukraine that would have given them almost all the land, everything. almost all of the landed know people would've been killed and no city demolished and not one dome would have been not down, but they chose not to do it that way. president biden in all fairness, he does not have a clue. he was so bad for this. so sad. all of that being said, look, it is what it is. when i left there was no chance. we had incompetent leadership at many different levels. what is taking place in ukraine with millions of people killed including the soldiers, millions of people killed, a big percentage of the cities knocked down to the ground. i don't know how anybody even lives there. zelinski is out 4%. it is hard to believe that

people live there. the cities be enough down. this is something that would have never happened. it was never going to happen. go ahead. >> how would you counter the reception. they don't really hold true to the election. that would be a capitulation of some sort. and then finally the new election having an impact on the rare minimal steel. >> look, you have leadership. i do not care about personally. i care about getting the job done. you have leadership that allowed ward to go on without anything even happening. we have had a president who was grossly incompetent. he had no idea what he was doing he said some very stupid things. he made a lot of bad statements.

but he is grossly incompetent and i think that everyone knew that. this is something that never should have happened and i used to discuss it with lieutenant. president putin and i would talk about ukraine and it was the apple of his eye. but it was never a chance of him going in and i told him you better not go in. don't go in and he understood that. and he understood it fully. i want to see if i can save maybe millions of lives. this could even end up in a world where three to be honest with you. europe has set i think we will go in mr. president, this week will mark one month since donald trump was sworn in as president. in this first month, donald trump has waged a scorched earth campaign against the rule of law and against the very system of checks and balances that kept america together for two and a half centuries. why? why are they doing this? donald trump, elon musk, and the

republicans are doing this all for one simple goal -- they're trying to give their billionaire buddies a tax break and have you, the american people, pay the cost. this week senate republicans will take the next major step to achieving donald trump's agenda here on the senate floor. senate democrats will expose republicans' reconciliation budget bill for exactly what it is, a sinister front for clearing the way to cut taxes for donald trump's billionaire friends. this is going to be a long, drawn-out fight. this reconciliation budget bill is only the first step, albeit an important one. democrats are glad to have this debate with the republicans. we will show the hollowness of republicans' arguments on

cutting waste. we'll expose republican attempts to cut health care, to cut medicaid, to cut housing, to cut nih, to empower doge so it insin rates basic services that -- it incinerates basic services, all so republicans can help their billionaire buddies with another tax break. of course, republicans will tee ni all this and -- deny all this and try to change the subject, just like when donald trump tries to change the subject by talking about the gulf of mexico or hotels in gaza or annexing canada. these are all distractions so people don't see the republicans' real goal. what is that goal? it's worth repeating again and again and again, and we will. donald trump and republicans are trying to give their billionaires a tax break and have you pay the cost. they can do it in one bill. they can do it in two bills. they can do it in 50 bills. doesn't matter.

the end game is exactly the same -- tax cuts for billionaires paid for on the backs of working and middle-class americans. in fact, everything we have seen so far in donald trump's presidency has been about rigging the game for the billionaire class, from firing independent government watchdogs to illegally freezing trillions for veterans care and head start and community health centers, to giving elon musk's -- to giving elon musk americans' social security numbers, and even potentially private tax and health records. to defying court orders, to deem onnizing judges. everything donald trump has done so far is meant to dismantle the rule of law so billionaires can run the show in donald trump's america. if you don't believe me, elon musk is already holding court in the oval office and meeting one-on-one with heads of state,

all the while doge is taking a meat axe to health care and education and aviation safety, and so many other services, without thinking about the consequences for american families and for america. doge talks on and on about cutting wasteful spending. looks what's happening. faa workers, who keep our skies safe, are being fired in safe al devices. apparently, again, doge thinks that is government waste. no one else does. they do. donald trump and doge even tried to fire hundreds of staffers who safeguard america's nuclear stockpiles. imagine. firing people who guard our nuclear stockpile. all to help their billionaire

buddies with another tax cut. can you believe how dangerous and foolish this is? donald trump and elon musk were willing to risk the safety of america all in the name of tax cuts. this example shows clear as day doge doesn't care about increasing efficiency. doge is simply taking a meat axe at government in defiance of the law and without thinking of the consequences, all so that donald trump and republicans can give their billionaire buddies a big tax break. i want to close on a particularly profane example of how donald trump and doge are taking a meat axe to public services, the 9/11 survivor health program. i would have thought that some things would have been out of bounds for donald trump and doge, like axing services to 9/11 families. sadly, i was wrong. because, last week donald trump slashed the workforce for the

world trade center health program, which i helped create years ago, to support our michael first responders, survivors, and families. is apparently, serving 9/11 families, those who have been hurt by 9/11, have lost loved ones in 9/11, is just more wasteful spending in the eyes of donald trump and doge. it's utterly disgusting. because of these barbaric cuts, 9/11 families, including six first responders and survivors, will now face longer wait times to receive often desperately needed care. families worry more about whether or not their loved -- families will worry more about whether or not their loved ones will be able to afford lifesaving treatment. donald trump and doge's decision to cut funding for the heroes of 9/11 is outrageous, un-american and insulting to every 9/11 first responder, survivor and family. so today, i sent a letter, with

senator gillibrand, to secretary kennedy urging him to immediately reverse the cuts that impacted the world trade center health program. donald trump, secretary kennedy, and doge have betrayed our sacred promise to never, never forget. what's the point of these cruel cuts? so donald trump and doge can give their billionaire buddies a tax break and have the 9/11 families pay the cost. i yield the floor.

the presiding officer: the democratic whip. mr. durbin: mr. president, in 1938, british prime minister neville scharff enlan -- chamberlain touted the munich agreement as a way to stave off hitler's nazi germany, claiming it would, quote, secure peace in our time. a year later, hitler invaded poland and triggered world war ii, a devastating conflict that left europe in ruins and millions dead and displaced. over time, chamberlain's name became synonymous with the term appeasement, for good reason. you see, while chamberlain's goal of peace may have been honorable, he was dangerously naive about the human nature of

a tyrant in germany bent on territorial ambition, pursuits that can only be thwarted with a show of strength. well, president trump's art of the deal opening negotiation with vladimir putin has the same odor of appeasement. last week, donald trump announced he's read whyy to make -- ready to make a deal with putin over ukraine, while apparently ignoring ukraine's key demands for peace in fact, trump and his fledgling defense secretary publicly gave away huge concessions at the start, signaling they would not insist on a return to ukraine's sovereign 2014 borders or future nato membership. it's also not clear from the administration's bewildering munich security conference remarks if president trump plans to even include ukraine or our our pean allies in the -- our

european allies in the negotiations for the future of ukraine. it is no wonder that in the united kingdom, where they remember chamberlain's folly all too well, donald trump's early pronouncements were lamb baichsed for the -- lambasted. let me share some of the things that have been said by our ally, united kingdom, about trump's opening bid to ends the war in ukraine. one member of parliament lamented that the west, quote, might be facing the worst betrayal of a european ally since poland in 1945. another said, surely in europe we understand that no matter what we give vladimir putin, he's always going to want more. one final member of parliament, in a refrain i think that best summarizes the situation, said, there is less the art of a deal and more a charter for

apiecement. president trump has always had a strange affinity for autocrats and dictators, a troubling character weakness for the leader of the free world to have. he almost seems to want their adoration and admiration, especially compared to the clear-eyed leadership of prefers leaders, even on the republican side, like ronald reagan, who knew how to deal with the soviets. but there are real connection to trump's autocratic liaisons for america and allied security. ones that republicans in the senate ought to take pretty seriously. his crazy rants about greenland, canada as the 51st state, panama, and the so-called gulf of mexico may be amusing to some, including himself, but terre certainly does -- but it certainly does not portend well for a foreign policy of the united states. simply caving in to putin and

walking away from ukraine, as chamberlain did to hitler is an invitation for more confrontations in the future. before i was elected to the house of representatives, in the 1970's, i was a guest of an organization known as the american council of young political leaders, acypl. they take young men and women who are aspiring to public office on trips to various parts of the world where you spend an extra amount of time to come to understand the situation. i was lucky. i had an opportunity to visit the soviet union in the worst cold war atmosphere and environment. more than two and a half weeks in the soviet union, moving from one city to the other, and seeing what soviet communism looked like. during the course of that trip, we visited what was then a soviet republican of lithuania. it had a personal appeal to me

for family reasons. my mother was born in lithuania and was an immigrant to the united states at the age of 2. i had never been there before, and i was shocked by what i saw. this once-great country had become a vassal of the soviet state, and the poor people there were struggling to maintain the most basic of freedoms. lucky for me, a few years later i was elected to congress serving first in the house and now in the senate and i've been able to see a dramatic rebirth of lithuania. at the end of the soviet union they had their chance and fought for democracy. they gave lives and blood for that purpose, but it worked. they won their freedom, their independence. lithuania is not a big country with a big military budget. it is a small with a good military, but certainly no match

for anyone like russia today. they have been concerned ever since that the day would come when russia would reassert its ownership of lithuania, latvia and estonia. that's why they became members of nato and what celebration that brought on, to realize finally that they were allies of the united states and had a nato treaty to back them up to protect them. the same is true of poland, and of course poland means a lot to chicago and illinois, and they worried about the same fate. now having won their independence, will they see it threatened by russia in the future? and so this decision by president trump to reach out directly to putin and negotiate is worrisome to me in many respects. first, what does it say of the

nato alliance, an alliance which used to bring together some of the greatest nations in the world to stand by their side one by one and protect the future of their country? president trump is not even engaging the nato alliance in this conversation about the future of ukraine. in fact, he is hardly engaging ukraine in this conversation. i worry about where this is going to lead. i hope it leads to peace in ukraine, the right kind of peace that we can count on. and i hope that the people of that country which have shown such extraordinary courage, with the support of the united states and nato until now, realize we are still committed to the values that they value as well. that's in our future. but i worry the opposite will occur, that president trump will give in to putin and his demands and putin will then target the baltics, poland, and i don't know where in his next assault on sovereignty.

that's the reality of the moment. mr. president, on a separate topic, later this week senate republicans have scheduled a vote on the confirmation of kash patel, president trump's nominee for fbi director. it is a ten-year appointment, unusual by senate standards, but was designed to be ten years so it would be depoliticized. it is unfortunate that the republicans are moving ahead despite the many problems with mr. patel's record. mr. patel has no experience, none, in administration and management particularly of an organization like the fbi that has 38,000 agents and employees. 38,000. it is the premier criminal investigative agency in our country and perhaps the world. after meeting with mr. patel and review his record and questioning him under oath at his hearing, i am deeply concerned about his fitness to

serve as fbi director. he has neither the experience, the judgment, nor the temperament to lead the fbi. my senate republican colleagues, sadly, are woefully ignoring myriad red flags about mr. patel, especially his recurring instinct to threaten retribution against his political enemies and president trump's perceived enemies. this is an extremely dangerous characteristic for someone who seeks to lead the nation's most powerful domestic investigative agency for the next ten years. mr. patel on day one plans to, quote, i quote him directly. he said this now, on day one as director of the fbi plans to, quote, shut down the fbi hoover building and reopen it the next day as a museum of the deep state, close quote. he even wrote a book on the the subject, and i punished myself by requiring that i read it from cover to cover so i understood

exactly what this man believed. he has peddled outrageous conspiracy theories that benefit president trump, claiming that january 6, the assault on the capitol, the insurrectionist assault was, quote, never an insurrection and that the fbi -- get this, this is kash patel -- the fbi was planning january 6 for a year. unquote. where is this man coming up with these wild theories? and incidentally he compiled an enemies list and published it in the back of his book. 60 names, quote, members of the deep state which includes distinguished public servants from both political parties. patel named former attorneys general bill barr and merrick garland, former fbi directors robert mueller and chris wray, as the so-called members of the deep state, whatever that may be. and he's even produced and sold recordings of a song. understand this for a moment --

1,600 people prosecuted for assaulting law enforcement officials here in this capitol building who were working, as they are at this very moment to keep us safe and our visitors safe, what did patel decide to do? he decided to assemble a choir of the january 6 individuals who were prosecuted. then he was involved in making a recording of a patriotic song that these prisoners were singing. and then he was selling this recording and playing it at the rallies for president trump. i'm not making this up, ladies and gentlemen. this is exactly what this man who wants to head the federal bureau of investigation was doing and which he denied before our hearing under oath. he's even produced these recordings and called the choir the january 6 prisoners,

political prisoners. let me take one example of a so-called political prisoner. guy reffitt was sentenced to # 80 months in prison for his role in the january 6 assault on the capital. his 19-year-old son jackson turned him in to law enforcement after the attack on the capitol despite reffitt's threats to shoot his son and son's sister if they reported him to authorities. father threatening to kill his son and daughter if they turned him in. after being pardoned, guy reffitt decided to come back to the capitol and attend kash patel's confirmation hearing. he posted on social media afterwards, quote, present and in support of kash patel as the leftist commies continue to spew lies, information, disinformation. my man, clean house kash.

this man, who brought a weapon into the capitol, was prosecuted for that, serving time, given a complete pardon by president trump, then comes back to the capitol to attend hearings and cheer on kash patel's nomination forking director of the fbi. before being confirmed as fbi director, mr. patel is already seeking retribution on behalf of president trump despite patel's status as a private citizen. multiple whistleblowers have disclosed highly credible information to my staff indicating that mr. patel has personally directed the ongoing purge of senior law enforcement officials at the fbi. senior leaders with collectively hundreds of years of experience have been forced out at the fbi, creating a leadership vacuum. mr. president, this has never happened in the history of the united states, in the history of the fbi, that a new president

would come into office and decide to clean the ranks of the federal bureau of investigation. this has been an apolitical agency. there is only one political appointee to the fbi, the director. all the others are professionals who have been dedicating their lives to law enforcement for years. senior leaders who have shown their dedication to the united states are now being accused of sus suspect. suspect for what? they were engaged in the investigation of the january 6 assault on the u.s. capitol, an assault which i witnessed at this desk as i watched the secret service agents pull the vice president from that chair and take him out of the chamber as this mob assaulted the capitol. it was real. and the fbi's long history, this has never happened before. never. keep in mind that the director, the only appointee of the fbi and the leaders have been forced

out despite their career commitment to law enforcement. this purge has dramatically weakened the fbi's ability to protect the country from national security threats and make america, and has made america less safe. if these whistleblower allegations are true, that kash patel as a private citizen has been orchestrating the purging of the ranks at the fbi because of political loyalty questions, i will tell you that he came dangerously close to purgering himself and answered under oath, quote, i don't know what's going on right now at the fbi. mr. president, we're told that's not true. he was personally involved in it despite the fact that he said the opposite under oath before our committee. mr. patel has been open about his plans to dismantle the fbi

and seek retribution against his and president trump posts enemies. his directives as a private citizen have already thrown the bureau into absolute chaos. mr. patel's recent actions and testimony before the senate judiciary committee confirm my belief that he is dangerous, inexperienced, and he's been dishonest in portraying his role in what's happening at the fbi. it will be a political and national security disaster if he's confirmed. and let me take it to a personal level. the fbi agent's association came to meet with us and talked about the very real personal and family concerns of dedicated fbi agents. they are fearful that an environment and climate have been created which makes their own safety in question, puts their own safety in question. let me give you an example of another one of theez 1,600 people who were prosecuted for the assault on the capitol. edward kelly convicted of

assaulting law enforcement and other felony and misdemeanors offenses related to his conduct on january 6. the men and women who came in and were beating on the law enforcement officials who protect this capitol. kelly was one of them. as i said, he was convicted, scheduled to be sentenced this april until he was pardoned by president trump last month. while awaiting trial on his january 6 related charges, kelly was separately charged and convicted in his home state of tennessee of conspiracy to murder law enforcement, including fbi agents and employees who participated in the investigation of his insurrectionist conduct. kelly's conspiracy case remains pending sentencing but kelly argues that the case is related to his washington, d.c. charges, and thus covered by president trump's blanket pardon. kelly is a perfect example of

the danger of publicly releasing the names of fbi agents who worked on january 6 cases, and there were some 5,000 employees of the fbi and department of justice who were engaged in that. if we value these men and women who risk their lives every day for the safety of the united states, we cannot allow kash patel to become director of that agency, and we cannot run the risk that he'll use their names publicly as he has in his book, identifying his enemies list to the detriment of these agents and their families. we owe it to them to stand by them as they have stood by us. i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from washington. ms. cantwell: mr. president, i come to the floor today to talk about the nomination of the president's nominee to run the department of commerce, an agency that is charged with the broad mission and a lot of

complex issues that affect many sectors of our economy. the next secretary of commerce will have to deal with a wide-ranging growing list of issues from trade and export controls, expanding broadband, weather forecasting, patent issues, export controls on a.i., and figuring out some of the most thorny issues related to how we move our country forward generally in commerce. so it's fair to say that if the commerce secretary doesn't get it right, the american people and our american economy pay the price. unfortunately i believe that howard lutnick, the president's nominee, isn't the right person for this job at this point in time. mr. lutnick and the president has made it very clear that one of mr. lutnick's key responsibilities will be for trade policy and the tariff policies that the president supports. in my conversations with mr. lutnick and before his commerce committee hearing, he made it

very clear that he intends to be very enthusiastic about the president's plans for tariffs. when he talked about tariffs, i don't know if he knew how much the u.s. economy was going to pay the price. talking to people in my state, it's not lost with us, being a border state with canada, how much this might affect us in oil, gas, lumber, elect and other -- electric. mr. lutnick was for the expanded taxes on imported steel and aluminum and across the board tariffs on china. as a result china announced retaliatory tariffs and other countries promised to retaliate too. when the seattle times ran recently this story about the tariffs, i really understood exactly how washington

businesses were feeling, that they know that, one, this creates uncertainty and they know that it raises costs. now, mr. president, i come from one of the most trade dependent states in the country. that's because we grow a lot of agriculture products that go to overseas markets. we make airplanes that go to a lot of overseas markets. we have a lot of software and software development. so the majority of companies and the majority of employees in our state basically are involved in things related to making and growing u.s. products that are shipped to overseas markets. my constituents want to see inflation come down and they want us to lower costs, not increase them. now that president trump is teasing out even more tariffs in the coming days on autos, pharmaceuticals and semiconductors, it's going to drive up costs for consumers. another paper, the spokesman

review did a big story about the trade and tariffs and what they put in a headline, trump and inflation. i can tell you this, mr. president, we can't afford inflation. we want prices to come down, whether that's on housing or whether that's on pharmaceuticals or whether that's on food prices, we they that tariffs can increase prices. so the commerce secretary, who is going to be involved in driving and responsible for this tariff impact, is not someone i want to see in this job. the secretary of commerce job is to expand exports. i think with 95% of consumers living outside the united states, it is time to reach a process where we can get more products into those markets. i also -- i'm also very concerned about how america maintains our competentediveness -- competitiveness in an

international marketplace if things are very expensive, particularly manufacturing. my state has been in a renaissance of manufacturing for a lot of reasons, but because of the chips and science act, infrastructure bill and the ira bill and all of those gave a chance to bring supply chains back to the united states, start growing middle class jobs in the united states of america again and lowering costs. that is why we worked so hard on the chips and science act, something that was voted on here in a bipartisan fashion, led by then-commerce secretary, second raimondo, in a process that ultimately awarded billions of dollars to advance the semiconductor manufacturing industry here. in total, negotiating 32 deals across 22 states. so i know that the presiding officer, the president knows all about this as a member of the

commerce committee, but there were many states the beneficiaries of these investments and helping us bring even more of the domestic supply chain back to the united states. we learned during the chips crisis that even the cost of a used car went up $2,000, that's because chips were out -- were at a shortage and the consequence even used cars went up $2,000. so we don't want to recreate that again. we want a commerce secretary who is going to fight for the chips and science investment that's already been made in the electronic manufacturing process in the united states and keep the semiconductor industry right here. but unfortunately, mr. lutnick, before the committee, would not commit to standing by the commitments of the term sheets the department of commerce has already signed. in fact, before he was concerned, rioters last week said -- reuters said that he

started telling companies he might revisit this. these are states like new york, texas, ohio, new york, pennsylvania and now the president is saying he's going to revisit those signed contracts. delaying these projects also means we are delaying bringing the supply chain back to the united states, that we're making it harder for the united states to be competitive in an industry that is critical for us to lead, not just on the most advanced chips but continuing in the manufacturing of semiconductors overall. in his commerce committee nomination, mr. lutnick heard from both sides of the aisle about the science part of the chips and science act. this brought coalitions for new economic engines in some cases

the most rural parts of the united states. why? because it is so important to do innovation in silicon valley, boston and even in some parts of my state. so the point was to continue to make investments in test bedding and scaling technology so the united states would not lose out. and these awards have been made but mr. lutnick also refused to commit to honoring those agreements and putting those issues at question. i know my closing on biological will continue to -- both sides of the aisle will continue to push for these investments. but today's nominee will oversee the bure re of security, and will have both commercial and military proliferation applications. that means you couldn't find a person whose day job is going to be more serious on export controls than mr. lutnick. and, yet, mr. lutnick in the conversations that we had before the committee, i don't believe

gave the committee a full understanding of what he was going to do to protect these interests. in fact, the administration's already abandoned something called the a.i. safety institute which is widely supported literally by practically everybody in the a.i. sector and help us to remain a leader, this is what we would expect and the kind of controls we would hope help the united states not have some vital technology sxord out -- exported outside the united states. we already question mr. lutnick on his background with stable coin. mr. lutnick and the stable coin that he's been involved in has been considered a very good tool for the cryptocurrency system, but a target of very illicit funds. some estimates are that as much

as 60% of tether could be illegal activities, such as china, cyber xhinls and all because of -- criminals and all because of stable coin. mr. lutnick has an incredible story, losing his parents at a young age and the tragedy of canter fitzgerald when terrorists struck, so i know he knows about terrorist organizations and has probably been affected for the rest of his life over that tragedies. in the committee when we tried to get him to understand why we in the federal government put on sanctions against countries and we want to hear a commerce secretary say we agree with those sanctions, we will fight for sanctions and we will fight anybody who ll fight to he get

around those sanctions. we asked mr. lutnick if some large amount, $19 million of tenthers fund might be illegal transactions, he thought that in the future a software a.i. solution would help stop that. i was hoping mr. lutnick would be more aggressive than that. i would hope that he would help the united states in moving on something today that would help give more transparency in the cryptocurrency market. i support, as the presiding officer does, moving forward on crypto currencies, but i also believe that there should be -- should be some transparency and a fight against those who use it for illicit activities. i asked mr. lutnick something about the u.s. sovereign debt futures, something he was involved in relayed to the

chicago mercantile exchange. it was a notion on how do we in the united states settle futures, how do we in the united states if mr. lutnick's future company was doing business with a london exchange settle any kind of -- let's say we don't raise the debt ceiling and the debt, we had a crisis here, what would the united states do? not unsimilar to what we did in 2009 after the 2008 basically recession of our economy. i raised -- these similar questions came up in the finance committee and i found that the treasury nominee before the committee answered those questions correctly but mr. lutnick said that he thought his idea of settling with a foreign country, which i think puts the united states second, above england, is not something i would be willing to do but i think he was willing to continue to move forward. so those things, an answer about how we'll catch up with the

money laundering in the future with an a.i. solution and settling on the foreign exchange also left me with some concerns. but when we come to noah -- noaa -- when asked for the record should noaa be dismantled in 2025, mr. lutnick only would say he will figure it out once he confirmed many we needed a bigger commitment to noaa. noaa already smies a -- supplies a big important aspect of what we deal with, weather forecasting, tracking extreme weather, managing our fisheries, mr. lutnick glittle support for noaa. with so much now at stake as the

white house every day says they're going to cut staffing and cut programs, congress wants to be assured that a nominee is going to fight for the agency that he is there to represent, that he's there to fight for their core mission that they provide in important services. so i am urging my colleagues to not support this nominee and hope that we all can work together to continue to say how important noaa's management of our fisheries are, how important it is to protect u.s. fishermen from russian and chinese illegal fishing and deception and trade practices hurting our consumers, and protect accurate weather forecasting for all americans. now is our chance to stand up for these essential services. your constituents depend on it. i thank the president and, oh, madam president, i would just one more thing. you know, the aviation news that continues to roll out, i want to

give my -- my thoughts and prayers to those have been affected by the minneapolis canada flight for delta airlines many we've now had the dca incident, and this department of interiors and obviously -- incident and one in philadelphia. now is not the time to cut faa satisfying. now is the time to ask questions about what we should do to further enhance aviation safety. what can we all do knowing that we have suffered from a door plug accident and from two max plane crashes, and while we pass legislation to address those max crashes, we still have work to do and we ambassador an -- and we passed an faa faooifr-year -

five-year reauthorization. it critically clear that we need tease air -- we need these air traffic controllers. woe need work -- we need to work on aviation and let's work together to come up with the best solutions that we can implement in aviation safety. taking a broad brush and cutting people out of the faa when oftentimes they're the people helping you get that safety is not what we should be doing right now. i thank the president and i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: the clerk: ms. alsobrooks.

quorum call:

the presiding officer: the president pro tempore is recognized. mr. grassley: calling of the quorum off, please. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. grassley: today we're going to take a procedural vote on kash patel's nomination to be director of the fbi. i want to take a few minutes to express my support for his nomination and to urge my democratic colleagues to consider voting for this nomination. mr. patel's resume doesn't look like a normal one for fbi director, but everybody knows in this congress and maybe in the united states that we're for the living in normal times. as i've exposed through my

oversight work, the fbi has been infected by politicalization and this storied agency has been weaponized against political op appropriates -- political opponents. mr. patel is the right man at the right time. his career has been a study in fighting for unpopular but righteous causes, exposing corruption and putting america first. mr. patel's served as a public defender, a counterterrorism prosecutor under president obama, and a house staffer. in the house he worked to expose crossfire hurricane as a political hit job that was based on discredited information paid

for, would you believe it, by the democratic national committee and the clinton campaign. after exposing the russiangate scandal in congress, mr. patel then went on to serve as senior director of counterterrorism at the national security council, deputy director of national intelligence, and chief of staff to the acting secretary of defense. he's fought for transparency and accountability in government. i fought for this in congress for decades. that's the right approach because everybody knows more transparency in government brings accountability by those of us serving in the government. in other words, the public business should be public.

because of his efforts in exposing corruption, mr. patel has been relentlessly attacked, as we've seen over the last two months. these smears began long before his confirmation hearing. i understand why he's been targeted in this way. he exposed a threat to the existing system, a system that has retaliated against whistleblowers, engaged in unprec unprecedented law fair against the president and the american people and obstructed congressional oversight. mr. patel will end these abuses. he will restore the fbi to its essential mission of keeping

americans safe. mr. patel's vision for a new fbi is why he's been endorsed by organizations representing more than 680,000 law enforcement officers and by dozens of former and current fbi agents, state attorneys general, and u.s. attorneys. they trust mr. patel and we should as well. i urge all of my colleagues to support mr. patel's nomination. 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.

would start racing raising we have agreed on four principals that are important.

the first is we are going to point for teams respective work quickly to reestablish the functionality of our respective mission inn washington and moscow and for us to be able to contain to move down this road we need to have diplomatic facilities operating and functioning normally. the second is we are going to appoint a high-level team to help negotiate and work through the end of the conflict in ukraine in a way that is enduring and acceptable to all parties engaged to the third is to begin to work at a high level as well to begin to discuss and think about and examine both the geopolitical and economic cooperation that could result from it into the conflict in ukraine. obviously we up had to see that conflict come to a successful and enduring end in order for that to be possible for the last thing we agreed to his will or teams are on this before. here today, five of us that were here today are going to remain

engaged to make sure it's moving along in a productive way. [inaudible] >> there are some underlying principals that need to be a permanent end to the war and not a temporary and to what we have seen in the past. we know just the practical reality is that there is going to be some discussion of territory and there's going to be a discussion of security guarantees. those are just fundamental basics that will undergird and underlie any type of discussion. but i think the most important part is the president has stated his desire, his determination to end this war to end the killing that is going on the death and destruction that is happening with this war, you know goes on

and on month after month after month in the killing fields of eastern and southern ukraine is unacceptable. it is not in the interest of either country and not in the interest of the world and not in the interest of the united states and europe. so all of those things will drive than the going forward and as you can see the president, president trump is determined to move very quickly. we just had a head of state phonecall the first in years and here we are less than a week later at the highest level of the austin russian government and we expect to continue to drive that pays to not only in the war but then to unlock what could be very productive and stabilizing relationships going forward. [inaudible] >> i think those are things, those are to be discussed and

those are things that we will start and do the tough work ahead but the important thing is that we started that process and what the president did not find acceptable was an endless war in europe that was literally turning, has turned into a meat of people on both sides so if you just think about in a few months president trump is shifted the entire global conversation or not if the war is going to end but how it's going to end and only president trump can do that and in the oval office less than a week ago both president putin and president zelensky both said to him only you president trump can drive this war to a conclusion. >> again we are going to bring negotiate an end to this conflict. these are the kinds of things that happen happen through hard

and difficult diplomacy and close rooms over period of time and what's important to stand its the only leader in the world who can make this happen and bring people together to begin to talk about it in serious ways is president trump if he's the only one the world that can do that right now the second thing i would say in order for the conflict and everyone involved in that conflict is to be okay with it and a half to the accessible but we had but we have gender standards than 3.5 years and there has been any regularize contact between the united states and russia in some cases between any of the participants in the conflict in russia so the goal of today's meeting was to follow up on the phonecalls the president had a week ago i began to establish those lines of communication. the work remains for today is the first step in a long and difficult journey and president trump is wanting to bring this. he wanted to and in a way that's sustainable and enduring and not that leads to another conflict in two or three years.

it's not going to be easy to achieve but he's the only one in the world we can begin that process by donald trump's the only leader in the world that can initiate that process and today was the first step in that process. [inaudible] sanctions are the result of the conflict. there were sanctions imposed as a result of this complex so i would say to you that in order to bring an end to any conflict that has to be concessions made by all sides. we are going to prepare determine what those are and i'm not going to negotiate this today or in the press conference for that matter and there are other parties. the european union will have tv at the table at some point because they have two reach as well a post. but the point here is the goal is and we agreed on the goal, the goal is to bring an end to this conflict in a way that's fair enduring and sustainable

unacceptable to all parties involved. what that looks like, that's what's the ongoing engagement is going to be all about. [inaudible] the comment i would have on that is for 3.5 years no one else has been able to bring people together like what we saw today. donald trump's the only leader in the world that can so no one is being sideline here. president trump is in a position that he campaigned on to initiate a process that could bring an end to this conflict and from that could emerge positive things for the united states, for europe and ukraine in the world but first it begins with the end of this complex of the only thing president trump is trying to do is bring about peace that something he campaigned on something the world they should thank president trump four.

cibrian -- to begin the serious process. a lot of work remains before we have result in president trump is the only one i can do it. >> it's common sense if you're going to bring both sides to get the half talk to both sides. and we will continue to remind everyone literally within minutes of president trump hanging up on president putin -- from president putin he spoke with president gillespie -- zelensky so shuttle diplomacy is happening all over the world and we are absolutely talking to both sides and the secretary of state met with president zelensky days ago along with the vice president seven cabinet members in europe at the same time really showing the importance of engaging our allies. president trump spoke with president macron just yesterday and prime minister starmer is coming to washington next week so i think the facts will continue to push back on this

notion that our allies haven't been consulted. they are being consulted literally on a daily basis and will continue to do so. [inaudible] >> we did not set that date but the two president's talked about meeting. [inaudible] it was positive upbeat and constructive. everybody there want to get to the right outcome solution base. we disgusted afterwards and we could not have imagined a better result after the session. it was very, very solid. [inaudible] >> i'm not sure but we will make that determination in the next couple of weeks.

[inaudible] >> i think that's something we will continue to discuss. we have certainly again as a first principle, a european led security guarantee. the president and many of us as members of, prior members of congress ourselves have called for the europeans to continue to contribute to our common defense, to continue to share the burden of nato defense. we will continue to point out that while things have improved, starting with president trump's first term the fact that a third of our nato iowa -- allies have not contribute a minimum of 2% of their gdp a decade after we collectively made that agreement is not acceptable. we have the nato summit coming up this june and we would expect

with the type of conflict and the type of warfare and destruction we have seen in europe sadly over the last several years we have 100% at a minimum and in fact are exceeding that. so look this is a common effort. it isn't just about what the united states is going to continue to contribute and what we are going to continue to ask of the american taxpayer. we all have to make those decisions and we all had to come to the table. session to consider calendar number 23. the presiding officer: question is on the motion. 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. the clerk: mr. bennet. mrs. blackburn. mr. blumenthal. ms. blunt rochester. mr. booker. mr. boozman. mrs. britt. mr. budd. ms. cantwell. mrs. capito. mr. cassidy.

have a sufficient number to the start and since this is going to take a while i think we should start it today. do we have enough? we have two items on our agenda kash patel's nomination to serve as director of the fbi and s. 331, the fentanyl act. because the whole fentanyl act is listed on the agenda for the first time it will be held over until our next meeting. last week committee democrats exercised their right under the committee rules to hold patel's nomination for seven days. obviously we had to honor that hold from last week so today is the day that we hold on this

nominee. we all know that mr. patel like other nominees undergo rigorous vetting. he's no exception. before his hearing he more than 1000 pages of records, disclosed over 1000 interviews. he underwent an fbi background investigation, a financial disclosure and works with ethics officials to identify and resolve potential conflicts of interest. at his hearing he answered questions for more than five hours and provided 147 pages of responses to written questions so we have examined every detail of his life and he has been

subjected to relentless attacks of his character during this whole period of time. now what we have learned from this committee process is what we knew from his resume. mr. patel has his whole career fighting for righteous causes. he's been a public defender, representing the accused against the power of the state. he has been a congressional staff investigating the partisan weaponization of our legal system and he served in key national security roles protecting americans from foreign enemies. he has received support from former fbi agents, former federal and state prosecutors and organizations representing more than 680,000 law

enforcement officers. mr. patel's resume, his accomplishments and his support art way he is the best person for this job. mr. patel should be considered our next fbi director because the fbi has been affected by political bias and weaponized against the american people. mr. patel knows it. mr. patel exposed it and mr. patel has targeted it and i've got plenty of examples to show what is wrong with the fbi. mr. virto wasn't sure mental and exposing. crossfire hurricane. he showed during that

investigation at the democratic nationalpa committee funded fale allegations against president trump, that the department of justice and the federal bureau of investigations hid information from the fisa court to wiretap a presidential campaign and an fbi lawyer in the process. as a reward for his efforts to uncover this truth he was attacked by the media and the department of justice secretly subpoenaedmr his records. now i and my staff know a thing or two about this kind of retaliation because my staff received similar treatment during our investigations. sadly as i have said that mr. patel's hearing, crossfire hurricane is what one example of

recent fbi this conduct. the fbi targeted traditional catholic families and concerns of parents for political reasons. the fbi coordinated with social media platforms to suppress the hunter biden laptop scandal. the fbi conducted an unprecedented raid on president trump's home in an active partisan law. in just the last few days we have heard unconfirmed reports that someone at the -- fbi faith illegally leaked information about upcoming i.c.e. raids, putting the lives of i.c.e. agents at risk. if true, the material can't be

overstated. the fbi has fallen into really old habits and is long overdue for massive reforms. mr. patel is the man to do it. that's why he is being attacked so viciously right now. before we even had a hearing committee members called mr. patel by these adjectives, dishonest, untrustworthy, lacking in character, a wolf at the door, a conspiracy theorist, a staunch political loyalist and lastly a nightmare. since his nomination was announced committee democrats have at least 11 letters to 11 different agencies and parties,

demanding records in in an investigation into mr. patel. each letter recklessly accuses mr. patel of something new often citing quote unquote highly credible anonymous sources that don't fit the facts. some accuse him of not following hostage rescue protocol. others suggest that he is secretly directing fbi personnel decisions and some accuse him of promoting conspiracy theories. the purpose of this campaign is quite obvious. throw everything at the wall and hope something sticks. i am not falling for it and i don't believe the american people will likewise.

these attacks are unfair. this harassment unwarranted. they show that mr. patel will receive their consideration from the opposition and they are directed at a nominee who served his country during both democratic and republican administrations. i expect we will hear more unfair attacks today. i'd like to point out a few ones that we have already heard. one of my colleagues suggested that mr. patel called the police officers that protected the capitol on january 6 cowards in uniform and the quote for quote unquote. now this is completely false. anyone can listen to this same interview to what he actually

said. he said senior pentagon leaders who failed to mobilize the national guard for quote unquote cowards in uniform. his comments have absolutely nothing to do with the people in blue. mr. patel has also accused, been accused of mismanaging hostage rescue missions, particularly one in africa that numerous national security officials including the general who was directly involved has said it is quote unquote irresponsible to say mr. patel jeopardized information mr. patel quote played a large role in the success of the mission unquote.

mr. patel has also been accused of having an enemies list. mr. patel does not call his quote appendix an enemies list and he says it's not about political revenge. he believes, as i believe, that those who have abused their positions in government should be called out for breaking the public trust. it's very clear that might democratic colleagues made their minds up about mr. patel long before he was given an opportunity to be heard and now, and now my colleagues attacked mr. patel and demanded that he come back before this committee to answer for reforms and personnel changes that the trump administration has begun at the

fbi. of course, it's outrageous as we all know, to suggest that a nominee should come before the senate to answer questions for an agency's actions that occurred before he gets to be the head of that agency. more importantly the fbi reforms and yes even firings, are needed. the trump administration is cleaning house at the fbi because the fbi is and has been for years infected with political bias and whistleblower retaliation and i have got a lot of say about that. is long past overdue for the whistleblowers who have been affected by fbi misconduct to be given a voice. so not going to take some time sharing statements from -- who

were retaliated against some fbi officials that trump was recently fired. now it's like to have the white house and my republican colleagues take note of this because i think some of these people should be reinstated because of how justly they have been treated and like you have heard me so many times say, whistleblowers are treated like a at a picnic and i hope my democratic colleagues who learned a lesson about how the fbi and its previously treated whistleblowers under republican administrations and democratic administrations so that we don't have this happening again. one whistleblower said quote people like these have harmed the noble mission of the bureau. they have created turmoil and a

personal agenda. in service of the country we should insist on removing them from the fbi not tomorrow. right now and the quote. remember he said the last decade, that covers president's of both parties. the second whistleblower said quote michael moorer dawall and oversight and approval authority over arctic frost which required a critical assessment of alleged basis for opening an investigation of this magnitude and political significance the failure to raise an objection much less critically assess his motives alone should be grounds for dismissal and unquote and for mike democratic colleagues you have heard me talk about

thibault for the last two years. one of the few people that i've ever known that was fired for doing things wrong and i had to point that out. now pay attention to this one. and fbi whistleblower said quote in january 62021 i took leave and went to see the present speak on the eclipse -- the ellipse. later my wife and i were among the crowd southwest of the capitol and even though we were involved in no violence and never set foot on the steps leading to the capitol building, and never entered it, i self-reported my presence to the fbi after seeing violence in the news reports. the fbi did nothing at first but

more than a year later suspended my security clearance. under supervision of deana perkins investigators questioned my co-workers about whether i ever vocally support for president trump over objections to the covid 19 vaccine now is forced to take early retirement to pay bills that have essentially been sideline from employment opportunities due to fbi abuse of the clearance system to target aid for my political beliefs end of quote. you are going to hear these names jeff veltri and perkins pop up quite often. i don't know who they are and they obviously aren't very good people that haven't fbi when they take retaliation as they have. the 4th fbi whistleblower or

registered democrat said quote is a security division employee i witnessed abuses committed against multiple employees by fbi senior leaders particularly by jeff l. tree in deana perkins and i saw security division retaliation against employees who were protesting these things. because i spoke out against these abuses perkins and timothy donham suspended my security clearance costing me my job and continuing employment totaling approximately $700,000 in lost wages and retirement benefits and unquote. a fifth whistleblower said quote although some of my fbi leaders

who have abused the clearance process like deana perkins and jeff beltre have already left they were not alone. timothy donham approves perkins wrongdoings and engaged in his own while most security division employees are fantastic, some fbi leaders still remain within the security and integrity investigation who will continue this abuse of the process. from fbi whistleblower marcus allan quote jeff beltre in deana perkins caused the suspension of my security clearance because i questioned whether they fbi director was -- to congress and whether the fbi was obeying the

laws in the january 6 of 2021 investigation. her actions left me without pay for two years while other fbi officials prevented me from having other income although the fbi ultimately reinstated my clearance in several of my lawsuits my career at the fbi was over and the emotional damage to me and my family will never be completely restored. why should you have two higher a lawyer to sue just because you use your constitutional right of free speech. another fbi whistleblower said quote after i was assigned to review markus allen's security clearance case i noticed -- and

i'll start this quote over. after i was assigned to review markus allen's security clearance case i noticed the pile was missing relative communication of jeff beltre who ordered the opening of the case. deanna perkins and fbi attorney gibbs. allan was entitled to those medications which were evidence that his clearance suspension was retaliatory. shortly after i completed the vast majority of work recommending allen's reinstatement the l. in case was reassigned to another adjudicator and i was transferred to a different unit apparently in reprisal for reporting the wrongdoing in

allen's suspension. i soon resigned from the fbi to avert -- to avoid further retaliation. i believe beltre perkins and gibbs were responsible for retaliating against alan and perkins and gibbs were likely responsible for retaliations against me and the quote. fbi whistleblower gerrit -- quote i faced retaliation from jr., mid-and senior-level unquote leaders in the fbi. more than 20 mine -- 29 months later i'm still indefinitely suspended without pay and benefits. other whistleblowers have since confirmed that the fbi

intentionally stranded me in the middle of a move and withheld our possessions to maximize paying my suspension. in new era of accountability into whistleblower protections of the fbi is long overdue. fbi officials like sean clarke, sean fitzgerald, deana perkins, jeff beltre jennifer moore timothy donham and. other leads up to christopher wray are responsible for what happened to me and my family, ensuring they no longer work and fbi and retribution. from steve friend jacqueline mcguire was promoted to offer

faster launch of the fbi after sending federal agents to arrest nonviolent cabinet protest catholic pro-life. as someone who lost my career by the whistle on these kinds of abuses and needlessly with risky tactics for cooperative subjects i was offended by her being rewarded rather than held accountable. her dismissal is a small step -- small step toward ending date fbi weaponization and should come sooner and the quote. from fbi whistleblower mike zoomer quote after witnessing federal prosecutors a sexual predator district attorney who

use the power of his office to sexually abused a formal role in an a reported the wrongdoing tos the residing federal judge and although the allegations were classified, the fbi suspended and later revoked my clearance, security clearance. the u.s. attorney responsible for the misconduct was named by president biden to lead the department of justice criminal investigation and the fbi special agent in charge responsible for the fbi's retaliation against me was promoted to be the third-highest fbi official. he soon retired after he a young female subordinate. meanwhile i went through an eight-year process to be reinstated only to have the and doj affirmed the fbi's revocation of my security clarence in december of 2024

finalizing my removal. you see how removing a security clearance was a tool to retaliate and ring people professionally and lastly and i know you worked heard of listening to so that's why is said and lastly, from another fbi whistleblower quote i watch the fbi become an institution not quote unquote of the people but a select few who know the quote unquote system and process and use it to their advantage. those people need to leave and as a whistleblower i stand ready to help return the fbi to his earlier days of quarry and return america's trust in what was an incredible institution end of quote. how can anybody listen to the

statements from the fbi to know that there's a culture that's not totally in tune with what law enforcement agencies not what to do and conclude that everything is okay. these law enforcement agencies are out of control on power and planted by -- it's time to force them to recognize an answer to congress and we the people and those who retaliated against whistleblowers should be fired full stop by colleagues who think otherwise are protecting these whistleblowers and i hope this message gets to president trump. my democratic -- deb patel would stand up to trump. these brave whistleblowers stood up to the last administration and they suffered retaliation so white art my democratic

colleagues defending them and defending the wrong doers to be held accountable? this administration must hold the bad actors accountable fire them if necessary give whistleblowers their security clearance back and president trump i hope you hear that, put them in the position they were in before they had their retaliation. president trump i hope you hear that. if you can hire people you can reinstate people president trump that's part of what this committee ought to be focused on, solutions to the rampant weaponization and whistleblower retaliation. these are two issues that kash patel is perfectly suited to fix because he has lived those issues. senator durbin. >> thank you intergraph land after reviewing kash patel's record and questioning him at this hearing he has neither the experience, the judgment or the

temperament to lead the fbi. 50 years ago frank church led an effort to investigate federal bureau of investigations. they came up with a sweeping reform and conclusion. congress passed the law limiting the fbi director to a single term of 10 years subjecting the employment to the advice and consent of the senate. these actions were taken specifically to ensure that fbi director remained apolitical and shielded from outside influence. no fbi director amasses the kind of hard to j. edgar hoover the founder of the fbi emphasized when he had wiretaps on martin luther king jr. and branded them as. in the last half-century this law served his purchase.

purpose. if mr. filtering when my republican colleagues suggested consideration of the fbi director is a quote shirts and skins game quote unquote. that is clearly incorrect. i've i have served on the committee for more than 20 years in the consideration for fbi director's nominations. bob mueller twice call me and ray. each of these directors was a republican and i voted for all of them. what it boils down to is this agency should be above politics and we have just heard from the chairman it's an invitation for a political free-for-all that kash patel has chosen for fbi. i will not be surprised when my republican colleagues again claim that the democrats have weaponized the fbi and despite

the fact in the last 50 years every single senate confirmed head of the fbi has been a republican. even former chris wray former director has been a frequent target. my republican colleagues conveniently never mentioned director wray is a lifelong republican nominated to the position by republican president donald trump and confirmed to the position get this with the unanimous support of senate republicans, unanimous. as a reminder president biden director wray in that position. because he did not do his bidding president trump forced wray out and now mr. patel and inexperienced loyalists for the trump administration. it turns out that mr. patel is

seeking retribution on the half of president trump. despite his status as a private citizen. i revealed earlier this month multiple whistleblowers have disclosed to my staff highly credible information indicating that mr. patel a civilian is personally directing the ongoing purge of senior law enforcement positions in the fbi. the ramifications of these terminations are dangerous and go beyond mr. patel's fitness profits. this purge has greatly weakened the fbi's ability to protect the company from national security threats and have made america less safe. the head of the realization of the agents came to my office and talk to me about the morale at the fbi. two women visited with me and both of them had served as fbi agents for long periods of time. one for 22 years and another for

17 years and there've were both pressed to tell me their fathers were fbi agents before them. they said to me they had never seen this kind of thing happen in the transition of one president to another when it comes to the fbi. there's only one person nominally and officially. the director. all the others are professional and career employees. one political person but now there has been a request from this administration for example to produce the names of all of the agents and staff at the fbi who worked on the january 6 insurrection that assaulted the capitol. think about that per second. 38,000 employees of the fbi. how many do you think worked on the case? 5000 names, 5000 names disclosed. it's understandable these fbi

agents are worried. they realized the people who are engaged in a many of them are dangerous people despite the full pardon given to them by donald trump and let me tell you about one to give an example if you question where the faith the age -- fbi agents should be reluctant to having their identities and the identities their families made public. he was the first defendant to stand trial on charges related to january 6. sentenced to 87 months in prison for bringing a firearm to the capitol that day. his 19 old son jackson turned them into law enforcement after the attack. jackson indicated he had threatened to shoot him personally and his sister peyton if they reported them to authorities. after receiving a pardon from president trump he attended kash patel senate judiciary committee meeting in this room.

he posted on social media the following and i quote in support of kash patel as leftists's contentious lies misinformation and disinformation my man clean house cash. we are inviting a political disaster if we put kash patel into this job. can you imagine having worked for the fbi all your life taken an oath to give your life in defense of this country and be involved in all of the assignments that you are assigned and then comes the new president donald trump wants to see the names and if you are one of the people involved in the january 6 investigation. the largest criminal investigation in the history of the united states. i think this is outrageous. if we have respect for these agents, show it.

to invite this political warfare that has been described here this morning has a detriment to the men and women risking their lives for this organization. we have a list of six executive assistant directors who have been purged already from the fbi. i ask the fbi agents has this happened before with the new president? no. never happened before. these are top fbi officials who oversaw the fbi's work in combating terrorism cybercrime drug trafficking and violent crimes. in the fbi's long history this has never happened before but keep in mind one political appointee the director all of his career. the leaders all career fbi officials that work their way up in the ranks and have decades of experience and that's only the beginning.

deputy attorney general apparently acting as mr. patel's direction asked for a list of fbi personnel who worked on any matters related to the january 6 attack on the u.s. capital. he is the transition leader or was the transition leader for the trump administration. meanwhile 1600 including one of the individuals i just described to you january 6 defendants were given a blanket pardon by trump are on the loose. think about that. a man came to the capital and 87 month sentence blanket pardon by donald trump and now they want full disclosure of the names of the fbi agents involved in this case. it's outrageous the sworn fbi agents who were simply doing their jobs assigned to them now fear for their livelihoods and their safety and the safety of their families. it's unacceptable for a nominee with no role in government to

direct potentially illegal firings of dedicated nonpartisan fbi official and if these allegations are true mr. patel comes dangerously close to perjury before the senate judiciary committee. why do we say that? during the hearing when he was asked about a possible terminations from the fbi by senator booker mr. patel said i don't know what's going on right now. mr. patel seems to be unable to wait for senate confirmation to carry out his plan of retribution on the half of president trump. this is a private citizen, patel with no role in government allegedly directing baseless firings of career public servants and misleading this committee about his actions. given the serious nation -- nature of these allegations i ask the inspector general to investigate. i urge my colleagues to take

these allegations seriously. i know you want to be loyal and i know you want to vote for the nomination and none of you want to call from elon musk but but s gets down to the heart of a future vacancy is critical to the security of this nation. this is not the only time mr. patel is misled this committee. in his hearing the implausibly told me he could not recall the name stu peters in anti-semitic denier per patel and oakes said he can't recall his name. this is simply not credible considering mr. patel appeared on mr. peters podcast eight times. stu peters, no i don't think i know that name.

mr. peters said he and mr. patel directly communicated by their personal cellphones quote constantly." stu peters say that name again? don't recognize it. mr. patel claimed he didn't have anything to do with reporting of the so-called january 6 -- those who were convicted of assaulting people and and in trespassing on the united states capital january 6. here's what he told steve bannon and i quote we have got this idea to record the january 6 prisoners who recite the national anthem every night from d.c. prison and we took that to the studio so he mastered and digitized it and he said he had nothing to do with it under oath. mr. patel is demonstrated a lack of sound judgment associated with extremist figures like mr. peters who have well-documented histories of racist anti-semitic and carried conspiratorial statements. now somehow my colleagues on the

other side are silent. mr. patel clearly the temperament to lead the fbi. don't take it from me. read his own words. i wonder if any of my republican colleagues accepted my invitation to read this book and i did read it. government gangsters but in this book mr. patel published in enemies list of 60 people say" members of the deep state whatever that is and accuses them of being quote corrupt actors. this list includes distinguished public servants both democrats and republicans alike in what they share in common is the misfortune of having crossed paths with patel. here's one of them i will highlight and many of the people and pell-mell him, bob mueller. bob mueller is an extraordinary man. guess he's a republican and yes i voted for him as director of the fbi.

he finished his career and enlisted in winkler to serve in vietnam. he received a purple heart and a bronze star for his combat duty. he came back worked as a prosecutor worked his way up to the department of justice and became the director of the fbi. took over days after 9/11. i worked with him for years. i respect him completely. we all should respect him and if for nothing else is service to our country and his combat in vietnam now he's on the enemies list of kash patel. mr. patel gives no -- he's called democrats quote and and then there is the social media post repeatedly attacking republican senators they aren't voting right in not following. during the previous administration my republican colleagues were outraged by judicial nominees social media post.

they gave poetry written by a nominee in college 30 years ago is disqualifying him to serve because it showed quote ideology. 30 years ago a-rod upon come be careful. where's the outrage for mr. patel was launched attacks on everyone from elon musk to lebron james. mr. patel has deployed this displays a startling display. once the quote shut down the fbi on day one are reopened at the next day as the a museum of the deep state quote unquote. it falsely claims the fbi was planning the january 6 for a year before it happened. this conspiratorial theories keep bounding out in his book anything clear about what he wants to do with the fbi mass surveillance and investigative powers. we are going to come after the people in the media.

mr. patel has been open about his plans to dismantle the fbi in recognition and he's -- targeting senior fbi officials. consider for a moment his first meeting as the head of the fbi with the men and women's sworn to uphold the law to serve a distraction think about the morale in light of what's going on. mr. patel's directives from the bureau into chaos. senior executives collectively with hundreds of years of experience have been forced out. thousands of line agents across the country are in fear of losing their jobs simply because they did the job they were assigned to do. how does any of this make america safer? the american people need and fbi director focused on keeping the public safe from terrorism drug trafficking and violent crime

not petty personal grievances. i yield. >> thank you senator byrd -- senator durbin. senator whitehouse. >> thank you very much chairman. let me start by disagreeing with the notion that what took place with respect to the cases against president trump was weaponization. i know that's the republican theory of the case but the other reason why the fbi and the department of justice would investigate trump for crimes is because trump was doing crimes and there was adequate predication to pursue the investigation of those crimes. indeed in every case that i'm aware of in which those cases were allowed to go to judgment the president was convicted.

so we can allow the weaponization narrative to just remove the notion that the guy was investigated and prosecuted for crimes because he did the crimes. if you start with the notion that trump is not a criminal but a victim event how to invent the conspiracy that victimized him and once you have propagated that conspiracy you then have defined with the conspirators are so then you have the go after fbi agents and doj folks in order to prop up that theory. the way that ended in soviet russia was with show trials of the individuals who allegedly in the conspiracy. the way that incident trump's america is with agents and

prosecutors forced out en masse purges and is ranking member durbin has pointed out driven by kash patel to private citizens asserting without point. there are three reasons kash patel is extremely dangerous and one is although wild behavior. this is a guy who isn't beyond questionable. is appallingly bad. whether his enemies list is an enemy of list and smearing the guy by saying his enemies list is an enemies list and here's what he said about it. the clerk: nomination, department of justice, kash patel, of nevada, to be the director of the federal bureau of investigation. the clerk will report.

the clerk: nomicloture accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby bring to a close debate on the nomination of kash patel, of nevada, to be director of the federal bureau of investigation, signed by 17 senators, as follows. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. thune: madam president, i ask that the senate execute the order of february 13 in relation to the lutnick nomination. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: nomination, department of commerce, howard lutnick, of new york, to be secretary. the presiding officer: the question's on the nomination. a senator: i ask for the yeas and nays. the presiding officer: 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.

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

the clerk: mrs. britt. mr. budd. ms. cantwell. the clerk: mrs. capito. mr. cassidy. the clerk: ms. collins. mr. coons. mr. cornyn.

ms. cortez masto. mr. cotton. mr. cramer. mr. crapo. mr. cruz. mr. curtis. mr. daines. ms. duckworth. mr. durbin. ms. ernst. mr. fetterman. mrs. fischer. mr. gallego. mrs. gillibrand. mr. graham. mr. grassley. mr. hagerty. ms. hassan. mr. hawley. mr. heinrich. mr. hickenlooper. ms. hirono. the clerk:

mr. hoeven. mr. husted. mrs. hyde-smith. mr. johnson. mr. justice. mr. kaine. mr. kelly. mr. kennedy. mr. kim. mr. king. ms. klobuchar. mr. lankford. thank you j.d. and the vice president for that kind introduction. deeply appreciate our friendship and that you were able to join you today. i'm profoundly grateful to president trump and the confidence he's placed in me. to honor to stand here before you as your nominee for the secretary of commerce. my family is here with me today and i like to introduce you to my wife allison behind me who for 30 years has been my great partner adviser and a

spectacular mother to our wonderful children my eldest son kyle behind me brandon, casey and ryan. extraordinary sister eydie is also here as well as allison's brother rick and my sister-in-law abby and many of my closest friends who chose to come down to support me. i grew up on long island new york and my mother was an artist and art teacher my father was a professor of american history. my mother gene taught me how to appreciate life. when i was 14 she was diagnosed with terminal cancer but she decided she was going to die before then she was going to live. i'll never forget the day she pulled me out of class and i rushed to the car and she said i'm okay lets go. we drove to new york city and went to art galleries and then we went to the opera went to a late night dinner got home super late and she expected me to get up and get to school on time the

next day. my mother died in every 1978 when i was 16-year-old old. a year and a half later my father was diagnosed with lung cancer. he kept his diagnosis is sacred to me because he wanted to make sure i left to start college in the fall. he dropped me off at school and abe week later he went through s first chemotherapy treatment at a local hospital. the nurse actually gave him the wrong dose and he died then and there. it was september 121979 and i was 18 years old. we all know losing one parent is heartbreaking. losing both the something entirely different. it's like shattering. without any support from her family they put my 15-year-old brother in a boarding school near. my college and he would sleep with me in my dorm room on the weekends. the next week gavin moved with my sister and the next two years living with her was she

earned her law and business degree. the three of us became inseparable but as you can imagine the pain we suffered with 657 of my other friends an, colleagues killed on 9/11. the company was located on the top five floors of the world trade center. i'm emotional, sorry. no one in the office or by. his son kyle was taking this particular garden. the company was destroyed but on september 12 i hosted a call with my employees and they laid out two choices for them. we can either attend our friends funerals and that's 20 funerals for 330 state days or rebuild the company to take care of 615 families that we lost that day. this phonecall led to one of my most extraordinary days in business history. all of our employees both new

and those that survived agreed to donate 25% of their salary, their salaries to the families of 9/11 colleagues so together we raised $108 million in the next five years for those families and my employees stitched my soul back together. my employees never acted it out but i got their ideas on 2008 we took the division or company public and i gave each and every one of those employees double what they have given to those families. i worked 41 years rebuilding the company over the past 24 years and it's my greatest business achievement. .. during president trump's campaign. fueled my desire to serve our

nation small, medium, large to hire our great american workers to drive our economy i will dedicate myself to making our government more responsive, working to ensure americans have the greatest opportunity for success. i am outcome driven leader and upon my confirmation i'll takea thoughtful and rigorous approach to leading this great department in serving our country. thank you, thank you, mr. chairman i look forward to taking your questions. >> thank you very much. thank you for that heartfelt opening statement. your background is very impressive. not only have you lead several companies that are global leaders and financial services, real estate brokerage, you rebuild fitzgerald in the wake of the unspeakable tragedy of 911. i appreciate your willingness now to serve your nation. let me start with just a general question. why do you want to be the

secretary of commerce? >> i think america is in a place to teach the world and to show the world what leadership was like when a great economy is like for taking care of americans alike. to be part of their administration, be part of this historic trump administration is one of the great honors of myt, life. i am just looking forward to being a part of this administration. to playing my part and help drive our economy's growth in driving the support and dedication to our american people. >> so, in your business career you've been very successful. you've made a lot of money. you've told this committee in your questionnaire you plan to divest your business interests in accordance with federal laws and regulations to avoid any conflict of interest. can you explain what your plan is regarding your business

interest? whether you consult the designated ethics commission? >> so, my plan is to only serve the american people. so i will divest. meaning i will sell all of my interest call all my business interest, my assets everything. we work together government ethics and we reach an agreement on how to do that. we will be divesting within 90 days upon my confirmation. we should have no business in flick therefore no conflict of interest. i've made the decision i've made enough money in my life i can take care of myself. i can take care of my family. it's my chance to serve the american people. upon confirmation, my businesses will be for sale and someone else will leave them going forward. but the office of government ethics and i have reached an agreement that we signed a document. i've made it public. going forward i will always consult the commerce department. it has a great ethics

department. bernie met with them and i planned to stay in close contact with them and avoid all conflicts so i can just serve america. correct thank you for that. let's move to one of the important responsibilities you will have a secretary of commerce. the national telecommunication and information administration is the lead agency for managing federal government spectrum including critical mid band at spectrum. over the past several years majority at leonard thune, sarah blackburn and i have our close out a bill that would require in tia to identify federal inspectors that can be more efficiently used to bring up some of the spectrum for commercial users. to dominate next-generation wireless technology 5g and 60. to stay ahead of our adversaries and to advance strong economic growth. the u.s. must create a pipeline to expand commercial access to mid band spectrum.

will you commit to working closely with myself, other members of this committee on solutions that will expand access to this key at spectrum. while at the same time protect u.s. national security interest? what you got asked me a tougher question than that. absolutely yes. [laughter] >> tout this committee in your judgment was try not a tough question. [laughter] will ask the follow-up. why is bringing up more commercial spectrum important? why should the american people care we get this confirmation? >> we start with an tia is the coordinator and advisor to the administrator on spectrum. there is an enormous amount of spectrum held by the department of defense. and for our country to really reach the scale that it can be. to be successful. we need to be the leader in the world of 5g and 60. if got to work closely with the

department of defense but as you said we've got to make sure we protect ourselves. if you're going be secretary of commerce i lean towards commerce. so, i like to help us drive some that spectrum towards our businesses to free us and be the leader in the world. >> thank you, i look forward to working with you on that plus turn to noaa administration. last year an activist judge in maryland, vacated noah's existing biological opinion for the then gulf of mexico. i would note president trump is rename the golf. i have to say i am partial to calling at the gulf of texas. [laughter] everyone can have their own opinion on that matter. no it must file a new biological opinion on offshore work in the gulf by may 21. no it is notoriously slow moving

on these biological opinions. if it fails to get this one done on time it could shut down oil and gas operations in the gulf. can you commit to hold noah's feet to the fire to make sure it meets the may 21 deadline for reissuing the biological opinion? >> i will work hard to make sure they meet that deadline. and we do our job on time rigorously andcl thoughtfully if we have anything i to do that get it in progress he further commit you'll do everything to ensure no it does not actively hamper energy production and the goal such as by implementing on verified and on safe vessel speed restrictions? >> i can commit to that. i do not understand. i will study, of course, the work of noaa. but the speed restrictions seemed illogical to our fishermen and tour businesses. so, they need to be studied. you have to take care of

americans as well. how about we put that at the top of the list? let's take care of america. >> thank you, rink member account will precook thank you, mr. chairman and again mr. let nick thank you for your symbol of resiliency it is quite remarkable. thank you for sharing those most personal moments because i am sure it is hard to do no matter how many times you've done it so thank you. there were the investments they made in the chips and science reserve? excellent down payment. it was the way congress has said it, it's an excellent down payment and our ability to bring semiconductor manufacturing back to america progress is good to see the president said a little different on that point, so good to hear.

do you believe in keeping know it together in its responsibilities together? >> yes. >> we are hearing may be the going to try to separate some of it out he would fight that? >> i want to do it right. right now commerce is doing it right. we understand how to do it i expect to continue to understand how to do it. i have no interest in separating it. that is not on my agenda pic looks good to hear. i believe at 60% of your budget and there is no underlying policy in the law about noaa. so me, think the way the colleagues and i get good management is to put that into the law and states demanded. not the whim of every scientist that comes along with the new administration. but we will talk about that later. let's return to the rulemaking we are talking about for icu is a bigger rule maker in a critical area, a.i. and exports. and the challenges that we face of the nation. i am trying to get to who you are deep down about this.

how are you going to go about this challenging task? when you want to move fast. it's my way or the highway. usually that doesn't work. the best thing is work together collaboratively like we did on ships and science. did you advise the president or anyone in his administration on those points? >> and cme. that treasury at the london exchange. i'm putting your united states treasury at some drastic situation which we did see before. were going to pass the debt sent or not?

why do you believe setting and it exchange should be good for u.s. treasury? >> is speaking about it did not understand it. all u.s. treasuries are held by banks of the federal reserve in united states in america. whether software is written, or ever it is written the treasury themselves they stay in america of course it's in america the partner fitzgerald chose was the london stock exchange which of course has been registered with the cme properly since year 2000. it was just lack of understanding. good for the press, bad for knowledge. we just got it wrong. >> i personally do not think, look somewhat try to make my state the deep pockets on it and rent a fault i didn't appreciate it and i passed a law among manipulation for i know this very well the treasury secretary just got asked last week about what he thought about this and he was like no, it should not be

ever. u.s. treasury in a debt hierarchy of failure should never have london making decisions before we make decisions. i will ask you more for the record about that. we hope we get a better answer from you. we know that heather had a problem basically warrants at a stable point exchange, you came in. they find them and then you came into the picture. and so my question is, are you prepared? do you think the market needs to comply with audits whether one to one ratio on stable point? >> i will of u.s. dollars stable coins should be audited. should be completely backed by u.s. treasury one 100%. >> how do we prove that if necessary is my question. >> u.s. audit and one backed by

u.s. treasury and lastly you cannot change the rules. if someone bought the stable point you cannot change the price. a settlement made a deposit with you, you cannot sell with troy going to change the price. >> you really believe in a robust audit process and more opening than exist today? >> for sure precook thank you for did you ever own tether? >> tether? no. >> >> shooting tether. did you own? >> me? fitzgerald has no equity in it. >> and not trying to be clever here did you or cantor fitzgerald own tether? other than the one to one backing? >> sorry, i'm trying to answer brick works you as an investor ever invest our own tether. or did anyone at cantor fitzgerald other than the one to one backing own tether? >> cantor fitzgerald owns a

convertible bond with tether. it has a bond with tether. >> okay were back again to this big task on export controls and fording china and dealing with the a.i. problem and all the various interests. i do have some concerns. i am a big crypto person in general cftc oversight. but, this issue about tether and the amount of illicit market funding of tether. the analysts who do this work now, i am for a more robust system. the analyst that do it now think as much is $19 billion on tether could be illicit activity by the north koreans, the russians, the chinese. and so what we do about that? what is your solution? >> the number one instrument of the world of criminals is the u.s. dollar. the number two is the year old.

these are just the things people use. tether is the largest stable coin so criminals is that more than circle which is the second largest ratio of the same. it's a blaming apple because of criminal use apple phones. it's just a product we do not pick on the u.s. treasury. this is just a product they are and i've asked them to they are signed up with all u.s. federal law enforcement. they follow all law enforcement instantly. the majority leader. mr. thune: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that with respect to the lutnick nomination, motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table and the president be immediately notified of the senate's action. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. thune: i move to proceed to legislative session. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion to

proceed. all 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: i move to proceed to s. con. res. 7. the presiding officer: the question occurs on the motion to proceed. is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. the clerk: ms. alsobrooks. ms. baldwin. mr. banks.

so, we are here to pass a budget resolution bill that will allow $135 billion to be spent sick to secure our border. $150 billion to be spent to embrace our military capability. about 20 billion i think for the coast guard. we are going to instruct the appropriate committees to do that. and we are going to instruct others to offset mandatory spending that's not social security. and the reason we are doing that there's a bit of debate between the house and senate about what to do and why. the reason i want to start, and i want to start now is because there is a sense of urgency i brought the immigration plan of president trump in this regard.

87% of the people according to the "new york times" support supporting immigrants are here illegally and have criminal records, 87%. 65% support supporting immigrants who are here illegally and arrived over the last four years. 55% support all immigrants who are here illegally. thus whatever the public is. the problem we have now is ice is running out of money. to mycolleagues in the house, ie you can pass one big beautiful bill. meeting the produce of president trump of what we have been promising to do as a party. but, we have got to move on this issue. tom homan said yesterday for czar for lack of a better were 300,000 children missing in this country. and if i get more money we can find them quicker. only god knows what they are going through.

we need to finish the wall, bed space is in short supply. when we apprehend somebody they cannot be deported right than on the spot. as a legal process to go through it we are running out of bed space we desperately need more detention space. we need more ice agents to make thismr happen. so, what has happened here is we are dealing with for years, in my view, of irresponsible immigration policy. for the last four years people have been waived into the country violating the parole statute. lakin riley, the young lady that was murdered in georgia. the man convicted of killing her was in custody and wasn't paroled because a lack of detention space in texas. that is not a legitimate reason to paroled someone under our law but you can parole people for two reasons a special need, that

they offered to our country or unique queue manager need that they have. not lack of bed space. we are going to fix this. we ran campaigns in 2024 on what to do about immigration. our party said were going to deport criminals. we are going to finish the wall. we are going to ice the tools they need to bring law and order back toic america. we need money to do that for it to my republican colleagues in the m house i am pulling for one big beautiful bill but there is a sense of urgency. i hope you will consider what we will do if you cannot produce the one big beautiful bill quickly. to my democratic colleagues, president trump was right to run on the idea of massive deportation in response to mass illegal immigration. the number of people have crossed into this country illegally in the last four years is probably over 10 million and

now the hard work again the criminalsnd of the country begi, securing the border, and hiring the people necessary to make thatsc happen. this bill will allow the money to be spent to make that happen if we get this bill through the senate and the house, ice will have the money they need to finish the job we promised they would do. if we get this bill to the senate and the house on the president suggest the military $150 billion to upgrade their ability to defend this nation and the coast guard will be better off to reach my republican colleagues we are going to pay for every penny of this. we are going to spend it in four years were going to pay 44 years. so i am ready to get started. the campaign is behind us. it's now time to go we made promises, we are going to keep those promises and it starts today. the next thing we will do is deal with taxes and spending

johnson i am committed to make sure we spend consistent with the values that we have as republicans. i am dying circle my democratic colleagues to fix a broken immigration system. that only happens after you regain control of your border and deport the people that should never have been your to begin with. the idea of immigration reform is going to be put on hold until we get control of our border. i've been involved in every effort to produce a comprehensive immigration bill and the probably is for your border has done a lot of damage to that idea. it be very hard to to legalize anybody no matter how worthy the case may be for legalization until you first control your border. and we are never going to do that again. i'm never going to put in that position. we are going to control the border first. we are going to get control over the gangs that roam the streets of america first.

then we will talk about what to do next. so with that i look forward to the market. >> thank you very much mr. chairman to hold this mark p to for public discussion of the values and ideas that are behind this particular budget resolution. we shared the concerns about border security that we are involved in the 2013 bipartisan bill that we pass the senate. and i might remind you it was republican house that torpedoed that bill. there is a bipartisan plan last year it worked out. again it was the republican candidate for president then mrt bill. working together in a cooperative fashion on border security and national security we are all for. we are not for this budget resolution. i'm going to explain why. this budget resolution is 9 trillion in cuts to programs for working families. this budget resolution has a

simple vision, families lose and billionaires win. it mirrors the last budget presented by donald trump and his former omb director. the architect of project 2025. and of course we now have again russell is omb director. if you consult the budget tables you will find that in just 2025 it proposes a trillion dollar cuts to programs. well, we also saw a reflected that's an application what was in trump's last budget for 2021 which had a trillion dollars spread over a decade. that previous budget/programs. /them for healthcare and housing for seniors and veterans. /funding for hospitals and committee health centers. /the school meal program and food pantries. two police and firefighter funding. did all of that and now we are

seeing a replay of that strategy families on the chopping block big massive giveaways to the richest americans. this is a great betrayal president trump campaigned on helping families not destroying the programs that help them stand up do well, thrive, move into the middle class. so that is why we are so opposed to this budget resolution. this resolution sets up a bill that opens or george make student loans more expensive. closing up the opportunity for millions of students to thrive by attending college. this proposal eliminates the methane fee. the biggest polluters of this toxic global warming gas biggest incentive for them to control and reduce their leaks. this budget sets up a strategy for encouraging massive amounts of drilling for fossil fuels.

which port fuel on the fire of climate chaos more disasters, more droughts or floods, afflicting our community all across this nation. in turn it drives up the cost of flood and fire insurance we are already seeing insurers disappear for the markets in florida california and in my home state of oregon. families are terribly upset about this vision. we are getting thousands and thousands of phone calls, voicemails, e-mails and every one of our offices are concerned about the impacts to education, housing and healthcare and childcare. and so mr. chairman, that's not her only concern. this will continue the record of republicans driving us deeper into debt. as you will see by this chart behind me i would look at the first year of deficits for every republican administration compared to the last year every

single republican administration increases the deficit over the term of their service in office. and every democratic administration reduces the deficit during their time in office. so we see republicans campaign on fiscal responsibility and then proceeding massive tax cuts to the wealthiest of driving our country deeper into debt. indeed, this is the vision that now existed for 40 years. we are seeing a replay of the charade one more time. the trickle down never trickles down. our very real with hurt families. we also know many are a mirage should pretty take the chairman's mark for the first or the calls for trillion dollar cut in fy 25, we are halfway through fy 25. our colleague, senator johnson laid out a vision with the trulydelicates will look like. and what they would look like as virtually wiping out all funding

and the balance of fy 25 for energy, natural resources, for agriculture, for community for education, training employment services. about half of the funding for healthcare, transportation, veterans benefits, international trade, commerce and housing. those cuts are designed to offset the giveaway at $3.7 trillion of giveaways the richest americans. but that magic star, unallocated program cuts repeating the model we have seen time after time after time. i tell you shame on you but twice, if i'm full twice shame on me. we are trying but the fourth or fifth time we are being fooled with this presentation fiscal responsibility that in fact is designed to give tax cuts to the richest americans and drive at the national debt while cutting

programs for families. this is not government fits of coming by, for the billionaires. i propose instead we write a budget together that lowers the cost of healthcare. builds more affordable housing. it improves education creates good paying jobs and tackles climate chaos. thank you, mr. chairman. >> those close to six minutes. is part of the regular juice to execute the mandate given their republicans by the american voters in this last election, the percentage budget committee will mark up a budget resolution for fiscal year 2025. this is not the end, this is the beginning. >> is your mic on? should i pull it closer? on his first day in office in january of 2021, president joe biden blew open the southern

border by using executive authority to resend the number r of successful trump administration policies his open border policies brought more than 10 million illegal immigrants into our country. president biden failed to uphold the law with regard to border security. president trump has reinstated many of these important policies through executive order the fiscal year 2025 budget resolution implements lasting security for american citizens. >> keep america sharper national defense and beginner processor returning to physical finance this budget, unlocks our ability to

reverse a specific a costly rule, from the prior administration, the threat is that patients excess long-term care in rural communities, natalie with us provide savingsr shared priorities, and this legislation, but it will also serve as a commitment to reform our broken healthcare system which too often relies upon ineffective structures the fill the patient's, providers and taxpayers and want to make it clear that if we receive this instruction, in this budget, and again from with our budget committee chairman, the finance committee focus will be on this provision, not an opening up the tax bill rather issues or other efforts to try to reform other parts of our healthcare system and i will do my best to keep us focused on this provision with this instruction. and finally my committee to pay for the ambitious agenda, the senate republicans have said enough is enough, the threat in

the fiscal policy and it is past time to get her fiscal house in order. while more will be necessary to bring america back to the big within his means, this resolution is superb first step. mr. chairman and just want to reply in her reply quickly to the comments already been made because is very obvious that the criticisms about we are trying to do once again rely upon the politics of fear, saying that we are going to hurt everything a person america said those rich people and blaming us for raising taxes are trying to get us to raise the taxes on everybody in america, claiming that we want to get the credits to the wealthy on the pca that was referenced on friday, has a $2.6 trillion impact on people making less and 200 or $400,000 year for this 400,000 is reached by 200,000 per couple and

married joint return. the vast majority of the numbers that we are talking about are not the wealthy as claimed. they are in fact those who are in our middle and lower income brackets. i might add her past through so businesses across this country. i think it is time to stop the politics of fear admit that we have the control are spending and let's get on with trying to do that pretty work of restoring our border security, and restoring our national security, and unleashing the energy potential over this country so that we can again regain our freedom and posture is a strongest economy in the strongest nation in this world. >> thank you, that was good. senator murray. >> thank you and i would like to witness my colleagues that we are just months away from the

deadline to fund government as we approach it, entire world is watching us president trump and elon musk effectively shut the government down piece by piece and bit by bit or whatever part elon does not like and i wanted to be that we are already in a partial shut down and trump mission ring entire agencies and watching workers that if there divisive and buildings and abetting the work of the american people come to a screeching halt and they are illegally lucky millions and funny that will security the people that we represent back home company good paying jobs on the chopping block and creating incredible uncertainties for businesses and shall be out defense for infrastructure and energy product and process a lot more and remember, this is the richest man on earth, ties to china and direct going to putin and unilaterally, illegally deciding for constituents will receive taxpayer dollars they

are owed printed with her doing is not just illegal, devastating for working people in every single zip code and right now, we need to be seeking out with a unified voice ensure that when congress passes a bill, the law is followed it printed we need to focus on serious spending bills a bipartisan basis and fast approaching march 14th deadline that is when trying to do right now is really been federally critical, we need to know once those bills become law, trump will actually follow them. just reaching an agreement it has about standby president trump reps our laws and have there is a serious bipartisan — where country but it is one of congress works together to avoid a shut down effective shut down that is already happening and the authorities to predict funny our communities need and enforcement, that is far cry

from the past setting up today with this probe billionaire anti- middle-class resolution. the speak with the chairman center expect double down on trump and musk are doing and another distraction an urgent bipartisan work that needs to happen to find a government and roadmap for absolute pain these programs families count on everyday and republicans are now. background sounds because they know the difference will join them and medicaid nutrition and veterans benefits so they can throw the taxes to billionaires and such a resolution. [inaudible]. and amount of $1 trillion, and in 2025 alone, and $9 trillion and when we think those dramatic cuts will come from.

gives good from going a great public schools community health centers lifesaving medical research and no way to think of your back, you will have to start cutting things self-care and assistance or farmers, medicare and medicaid which the information of 730 million. [inaudible]. and there's no way these numbers work especially when we know this is just one planet sent to us more tax rates for the millionaires and appropriations. first there many musk chainsaw together programs families rely is no accountability then there tax breaks and that concludes the unacceptable we should not be cutting healthcare for working families to deliver message has to the wealthiest billionaires. i heard all of my colleagues, and not just on the busy budget

resolution, went trump at musk are doing right now i let's come together and work on a serious bipartisan bill to fund the government give sorely needed that we represent and demand really accountability for the shut down demanding right now is in the markup that elon musk giving more power and we need to hold them more accountable. this billionaire completely in the dark lives not corruption are not enough to drown 90 calls for the truth when he treated at the names of government and employees that was accountability and when reporters any illegal access to treasure systems, that's a crime against a look at all of our sensitive data but no one gets to look at what he's actually doing that cannot be the standard and we will be having

hearing people are illegally firing the workers, to protect their families. illegally canceling grants to community health centers in illegally raising funds to rebuild your local highway illegally shutting entire agencies to keep our country safe and outcome this plan outsourcing 1 trillion in cuts, it is your love this not rhetorical i hope the chair will answer, when we have hearing with kalyna and elon musk he seems to be central to the budget plan but it would at least of an invoice of the aisle has heard from him, no one. and he's making big decisions about our country spending is not just doing without congress coming is doing it despite that what is already decided we should not be giving up our power of the person we should be getting answers. if elon musk really is nothing to hide, then he should try safe excellent trump rallies in

kemery for this to be accountable to the public. >> thank you mr. chairman it is you are well aware this budget is known of the things virtually none the things the democrats are accusing you doing in the markup and were not giving anything's going to the offer wealthy but what we have the same tax been frederick income of the scare tactics that there are callings on the underside of use for decades now to mortgage their children's future printed what this budget is about his starting to clean up and take the first steps in cleaning of the enormous masses left behinde biden administration and his allies democrat allies here in congress and i want to talk about a few of them. where $36.000000000000 in debt printed and you know families, if they are faced with a serious illness and had to borrow $50000 to pay for medical bills, with a family member got well, to keep borrowing $50000 thieves

spending that level that's insane approach nobody would do that. but that's exactly the federal government has done. the first chart 2019, the government spent $4.4 trillion and during the pandemic we had to do something fast massive so leaving in the massive spending spree the normal $6.665 trillion, and again, henry wound of the oncoming you would think that we would return to some reasonable baseline leg weep we did not do that the next five years we average sees $.5 n last year we spent 6.9 and most report the first four months we spent $2.43 trillion, one point times three, that is $7.3 trillion in 61 percent had about $4.4 trillion in population of 2.6, and this is completely justified in a family

business we do this is with the federal government has done. so the question is how do we return to a reasonable pre- pandemic spending level. and i'm sure no republican sale and even the rest of the talk about zero-based budgeting. unfortunately will return to that but here's the next best thing. over the christmas break i went back to look at other budget it's printed we can use as a baseline, use them as a reasonable baseline is or look back in 1998, we actually had a surplus of $69 billion in the bill clinton braided now if you take a $1.7 trillion of total outlays from 1998, increase it to account for population growth and inflation, used today social security, medicare and interest payment so you accept those programs pretty but inflate bill clinton's total while he had to spend $5.5 trillion this year. what's interesting about that is

president biden is projecting $5.5 trillion revenue. using bill clinton's budget from 1990 is total outlays by the way, that was afforded by senators grassley mcconnell murray biden durbin collins schumer graham poon wicker ran back in 1998, bipartisan budget, we have a balanced budget. now if that is reasonable for you, then i took a look at president obama's funny 14, budget and again, is this your social security medicare and interest, but drew that always by population growth and inflation $6.2 trillion rated that a $700 billion deficit in the days into reasonable not reasonable enough to go to 2019 actual spending of the growth out by population and inflation would be at 6.5 trillion and how you counted for, the worse case

scenario using those very reasonable baseline scope he would have real estate $800 billion by basically spending what we did only five years ago and is called reasonable. now term and determined grandma and grandpa designate a fourth option ideal what president trump budgeted his last year in office, for 2025. that was 5.5 trillion and i also balance a budget but, that would not be counted for social security medicare today's level so he with this figures in there, your at $6,000,061,000,000 nest determine spark and no again, nobody suggesting use every fine item president trump's budget pretty is a topline figure. personally, i would go back to that clinton budget and take a look at that have to have a trillion dollars, most of defensive veterans bills benefits and again has all kind

of reasonable ways to approach this, were just not approaching it recently so again, we have a pathway, very reasonable, four different options here and return pre- pandemic level to clean up that mess, this massive amount of spending and debt it here's what or why were really your final chart of the cleanup this mess. the open borders of president biden used his presidential authority appearing like some of that we needed to build know we did need a bill, president trump is the presidential authority that he had never his border crisis caused by daca, to secure the border before he left office. president biden use that authority to open it white upgrading clear present danger the now we are having to clean up the mess mother way to prove in the presidential authority to close back down to became a

political liability, 2024 he started use the authority when he started to close the board would president trump was doing he was closing up but he needs help hundred $75,000,000,000.000 main purpose of this markup and were not slashing or giving away tons dollars to the wealthy, we're trying to clean up the mess open border and threatens every american this will return to do here mr. chairman appreciate your dedication to also coming up with a reasonable spending level pre- pandemic spending level in her next round thank you much. >> thank you very much. >> and mr. chairman, i was going to start with a couple of comments about the big picture. this committee exist to serve as the foundation for our constitutional authority over the federal budget and according to our founding documents, control of the federal pers begins colleagues in this room

and right now donald trump and elon musk are making a mockery out of the constitutional authority cited with brazen acts of lawlessness on a daily basis printed in tremendous seem to have vetted funding for cancer research and folks and red states, the get cancer as well and they have guided higher education funding we seen students all over the hill those last few days, students and red states, they're going to suffer communities depend upon community colleges and university job centers of an economic engine suffered as well the community health centers in rural hospitals teetering the engine farmers are missing payments eroded by the government and all of this is happening as a result of an unconstitutional power grab by the wealthiest man in the world. eight-man who paid for an election but received nothing in

my view is sinners canoe senate and fight where they can make for charity some are the began to do for those who are ripping our democracy apart and wouldn't plan on the second approach working out for very long. now i want to move to the revolution before us and i wish we were having a about fixing the border and to do that, you need some of the facts and here's the republican record. ms. never been 2007 to get a bipartisan agreement on immigration and there was another opportunity 2013, bipartisan bill to senate floor, and again republicans tanked it and you get in 2024, is more conservative proposal, led by jim langford, republicans tanked that as well in my view is total trump doesn't really plan to fix

the border and yell about it took farley's doing it and apparently this committee's would spend more than $100 billion no money to help them with all that posturing. and now, budget for today this is about setting up a quiet town, to achieve two major republican goals pretty giving another round of tax breaks to the altar wealthy paying for about ripping how that turns away tens of millions of americans particularly medicaid and now congress used to make bipartisan progress on medicaid, a lot of finance members around but some do remember it braided era bipartisan progress on medicaid calling some of the close it 2017 when donald trump first tried to get it and he would succeeded if not for thumbs down from the late john mccain in the days and weeks ahead in senate to be an efforto

keep the medicaid cuts headed behind the curtain but they will come sooner or later and house republicans have been floating documents talking about $2 trillion according to press reports, house speaker mike johnson is expected to release a budget between one and $2 trillion in costs and social safety net, the medicaid program target number one and i would like to just comment briefly on the comments made by my colleague from idaho and what is been describing on this nursing home rule, the republicans would literally take that nurse at a nursing home and eliminate requirements the nursing homes at least one nurse on-site, 24/7 and that proposal been fairly they're talking about the republican side we can order for the senior sinners last fall to get your real-time think is were

the country wants to go, going to fight this every step away and goes back to prepare for days of this is real business if you talking about going senior citizens nursing homes affected the medicaid budget is what keeps older people and evolving will squalor destitution medicaid pays pays for two out of three nursing home beds in american homes and community-based care for millions more which is essential for americans with disabilities and where are our seniors going to turn to one missing out no longer accept medicaid escorted and essential building block for the kids as well. medicaid is essentially important it is sinners know this yes right rural institution of medicaid us lifeline in the survival tool in rural american republicans cut medicaid, the rural america is going to become a healthcare desert and were already seeing problems delivering babies in rural america into the bone will people's lives me dorothy under course is also cut it will be

cold comfort that there are civilized's ability to repel some of the secretaries in donald trump to get a bigger yacht for more private collection with art we should not fall down on the job. we had to be defending the constitution and making it possible for all americans have a chance to get ahead we want people to do all we appreciate it, but we do know what the race just to the people of the top we want all americans to get ahead of those are values this what we will fight for and thank you mr. >> senator cornyn. >> thank you mr. chairman, and the american so the southern border has been chaos in the previous administration and nobody knows it better than my constituents in texas with the 1200 bio comment border with mexico americans are quite aware their living in the most dangerous time since world war ii time that military is

stretched thin and underfunded and under manned prayed and believe the chairman marquis done the necessary groundwork to secure the border and strengthen our military. more important these priorities will be funded by spending more money that we do not have an ending to our national debt by redirecting lower priority programs of many from lower priority federal programs in this what it means to budget is to choose to make choices and that is with the families and small businesses across the country do. i must say, well i will certainly support this budget rent resolution, i'm concerned that it does not go far enough. i 15 years ago, turned admiral my phone, former chairman of the joint chief of staff said the national debt rose, were more beholden to predators around the globe printed have fewer

resources to invest in strength at home. the national debt represents a clear threat to the united states operate an efficient and effective response to the national defense. the national debt at that time was $14 trillion, and today according to senator johnson, is 36.4 trillion and when the. when we hear from our democratic crawling symptoms kind of thing. not a penny. all of the outrageous expenditures that have been revealed as a result of the department of government efficiency led by 11 muscovite pretty colleagues are nothing else let's look at some of this pretty coming to see what makes sense or what does not make sense, they say, don't cut anything and there is not a penny wasteful spending. that mystifies common sense and just this past many think there shall budget office reported that federal spending rose

15 percent in the first four months of the current fiscal year and even taking into account, certain timing shifts, the spinning still rose by 7 percent. that is what it means to be on autopilot. and a doubt the budgets of american families have risen by 7 percent, during the same time. i appreciate affected trump administration is shown a commitment to bringing fiscal sanity to washington by eliminating wasteful washington spending is expected, they have open government the government advocates there in shock and horror that anyone would even consider such a thing. what is less shocking is that these same folks up no problem with the previous administration illegally during supreme court decisions by issuing a blank check to college loan borrowers for paying bills that they agreed to pay in the first

instance of the words taking billions of dollars from taxpayers who didn't go to college to pay for those who did in defiance of the supreme court decision. in congress needs a reliable partner in the elections in november give us a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity i believe, the act and to do serious work. and that requires us to reform mandatory spending and only 20 percent of the spending the congress does, is addressed on an annual basis through the appropriations process, 20 percent rest of it is on those mandatory spending and tax expenditures, on the six and hapless trillion dollars per federal government year. and it is solidified any reason to fail to look at that mandatory and tax expenditures and to try to balance a budget

looking at only 20 percent of the federal spending. it just won't work. and i cannot imagine anyone who is seriously argued the continuing to spend more on paying interest on the debt that military is a positive development for sustainable but that is where we are today. today's markup i think is an inflection point, good progress on two important priorities but it is only a start. and i worry that despite all the rhetoric we hear on both sides of the aisle about dealing with it that, we will never do the hard work that requires us to address it and i applaud the house of representatives efforts as difficult as it is to begin that process. and more work remains in the spotty as well. and i hope that we do not find

ourselves down the road expecting to pass a bill that will alleviate able to trillion dollar tax increase on the american people which i believe is imperative that we do and we ignore our spending addiction. people say we've got about for this tax bill because otherwise whenever they trillion dollar tax increase. in ignore dealing with our fundamental mandatory spending problems. and so, i think of that happens, will look once again filled the american people and future generations and so i will vote for this budget resolution and i think the priorities that determined is laid out are very important but i do believe that it is only a start. i think we should be incredibly cautious when we in the senate

assume that the house of representatives can pass anything. given the slender marches of the speaker is working with. that is what we are betting on with this budget resolution that will come back and give the other parts spending addiction. later on long with attacks will that is where we are and thank you mr. chairman. >> thank you and i just went heck it would you say come you cannot grow your way out of debt. doubling the tax that because will help the economy grow. >> ... agreed to. the clerk will report the concurrent resolution. the clerk: calendar number 13, s. con. res. 7, concurrent resolution setting forth the congressional budget for the united states government for fiscal year 2025, and so forth.

mr. kennedy: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from louisiana. mr. kennedy: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, with me today is my colleague from my office, mr. john lowry. and i appreciate his help. last week, mr. president, i spoke a few minutes about the corporation for public broadcasting. we call it cpb, and the public broadcasting service. most people know of that as pbs and the national public radio, which most people know is npr. now, i'm not going to repeat everything i said last week, but i do want to revise and extent

my remarks. the united states congress created the corporation for public broadcasting back in the 60's, 1967, i think. those were very different time. there was no internet, there was no facebook, there was no twitter, there was no cable tv. there were no podcasts. there were basically a handful, maybe a few more, of radio stations throughout america, and television was still pretty new. there were three main radio stations -- television services. many places did not have access

to radio and television for their news. i remember those days. and so congress decided to start providing money for what it called at that time public broadcasting, to make sure that everybody had access to -- to news through radio and television even if they didn't live near a big city. and congress intended that that news be news, factually based. now those were the days in america of true journalism. i remember them, perhaps you do too, mr. president. those were not the days that we experience today, opinion journalism where young journalists are taught to report

on who, what, when, where, how, and their opinion. those were days when the news was really the news and it was fair and balanced. so the united states congress created the corporation for public broadcasting, cbs. cbs, here 50 years later, 50-plus years later still -- still exists. and -- and here's its relationship, cpb's relationship to npr and pbs, we give cbp about a half a billion dollars a year. a lot of money. and the corporation for public

broadcasting turns around and picks certain local television and radio stations and gives most of that money to them. and then those local television and radio stations, the chosen few that get money from the american taxpayer, for the corporation for public broadcasting buy programming and content from two other organization. if they're a radio station, they buy it from npr, and if they're a television station they buy that content from pbs. so up here you've got corporation for public broadcasting, the american taxpayer through congress gives them a half a billion dollars a year, that money flows down to

local select television and radio stations and those local television and radio stations then by content from npr, if they're a radio station, or pbs, if they're a tv station, which were loosely affiliated with the corporation for public broadcasting. since this scheme was established, the american taxpayer has given all of these entities about, oh, i don't know, $14.5 billion -- $14.5 billion. that would be enough to build 2,700 miles of -- of a paved -- paved roads throughout america.

and i base that on -- on the roads i'm talking about are not gravel roads, they're regular paved roads, 10 feet, each lane -- actually 12 feet each lane, with a shoulder on each side, but instead of building 2,070 miles of roads in our rural areas for our infrastructure, we decide to give it to the public broadcasting which gives it to local stations which gives it to pbs and npr. i mentioned the local stations, only a select few local stations get this taxpayer money. in my state, we have over 500 radio stations, corporation for public broadcasting in its

unfettered discretion only picks seven to give the money to. the other 493 get nothing. we have over 150 tv stations in louisiana. the corporation for public broadcasting only gives the taxpayer money to three of them. so 147 get nothing. now, i probably wouldn't object to this if the corporation for public broadcasting and npr and national public radio is -- is what i'm referring to, of course, and pbs had been consistent with its original mission, which is to report factually the news to the american people.

the government doesn't need to subsidize the media anymore because the world's changed. 97% of the people in america have the internet, but i still probably wouldn't object that much if the reporting by these entities was fair and it was balanced, but it is not. no fair-minded person in america can look at this programming and believe that it's unbiassed. it is decidedly prejudiced in favor of one point of view. that's just not my opinion. i think most americans would agree with that because most americans see the headlines that are produced by these three entities. i talked some last week.

this is what america's taxpayer money is going to do -- to provide. here's just some headlines from npr. i mentioned these last week. i won't belabor them. michael avenatti, a profile of the media-savvy attorney. this is npr, they love michael avenatti, he's in jail, he's a crook, but npr loved him because he was anti-republican and he was anti-president trump. npr published another article, how racism became a marketing tool for country music. now, you don't have to be -- you don't have to be eucullede to

see this, i don't think anybody would call that factual or fair or balanced. here's another headline from npr, donald trump's long embrace of vladimir putin. i also talked last week about a few other headlines from npr. here's one. moments -- monuments, rather, and teams have changed names as america reckons with racism. birds are next. that's what your tax dollars paid for. eating less beef is a climate solution. here's why that's hard for some american men. how the taliban adds to afghanistan's woes when it comes to climate-fueled disasters. no fair-minded person with an i.q. about a single cell

organism would conclude that this is anything but biassed to certain points of view. and there's more. i could do this all night, but i'm not. here's some more headlines from npr. there is no neutral, nice white people can still be complicit in a racist society. that's what your tax dollars paid for. another one -- ibramx kendi says no one is not racist, so what should we do? another one. how artificial intelligence could perp pet wait racism, sexismnd other biases in society. another, scientists debunk lab

accident theory of pandemic emergence. here's another one. as trump pushes theory of virus origins, some see parallels to lead up -- and lead -- in leadup to iraq war. your tax dollars at work. as u.s. confronts russia, trump's admiration of putin is consistent. another headline from npr, the history of policing and race in the united states are deeply intertwined. another -- after biden's debate performance, the presidential race is unchanged. this was the debate performance that president biden gave after which he got out of the race.

if you believe that headline, you believe in the tooth fairy. and the easter bunny and the jimmy -- and that jimmy hoffa died of natural causes, but that's what npr reported with your tax dollars. here's more. democracy on trial, part one -- a blueprint for the case against trump. is that fair and balanced? that's from pbs. racism in the era of trump, an oral history, another headline. january 13, 2020. another, this one is really

special. a serial liar -- how sarah palin ushered in the post-truth political era in which trump has thrived. now, the corporation for public broadcasting and npr and pbs have the right, whether i like it or not, or whether you like it or not or whether americans like it or not, to publish these articles and to broadcast this news. that's the first amendment. but they don't have the right to do it with taxpayer money. at least half of america would look at these headlines and be offended. they would be offended first

because they would really for three reasons. number one, they disagree with opinion journalism. number two, they would disagree with the headline. and number three, they would disagree with the fact that these headlines are not fair, they're not objective, they're obviously slanted to one point of view, and they're using taxpayer money. if someone introduced a bill tomorrow -- i'll just pick a publication -- to prohibit "the new york times," i would vote against that bill and argue against it. if someone introduced a bill to get rid of fox news, i'd have the same position. if someone introduced a bill to get rid of the "washington post" that would be my position as well. whether i agree with those media outlets or not, we have a first

amendment and we cherish it and i'm rather fond of the constitution. but if someone introduced a bill to give money to cnn, taxpayer money to cnn or to the "new york times," or fox news, i would oppose that as well. this is simply wrong. and we're spending half a billion dollars a year, $14.5 billion over time, to give to pe people, the corporation for public broadcasting and npr and pbs to participate in opinion journalism which they're entitled to do. but they can't do it on the taxpayer dime. they're doing it on the taxpayer dime, but they shouldn't be able to.

i would also point out, mr. president, that the folks at pbs and npr and -- npr bought office space just up the road from the capitol, $200 million. it came from the american taxpayer so they could publish this stuff. npr pays its host as much as $532,000 a year taxpayer money. they pay it -- it pays its chief diversity officer about $320,000 a year. you know what? despite all of this money that the american taxpayers are giving to these left of center entities, their viewership has declined.

because peep don't need them anymore. so why are we giving them money? i've introduced legislation to -- not to eliminate the corporation for public broadcasting, not to eliminate the public broadcasting service, and not to eliminate the national public radio. they can coexist on their -- go exist on their own if they want to, but i do want to defund them. we're running $36 trillion in debt. this is disgraceful in 2025. it's disgraceful whether it is left of center opinion journalism or right off center opinion journalism. it is disgraceful to the american people to have to fund this rot. it doesn't mean the rot doesn't have a right to exist but they don't have a right to taxpayer

money. thank you, mr. chair map. it's -- chairman. it's late. i'm not going to go to my second topic. i suggest the -- well, i take that back, mr. president. i think i've got something to read. i ask unanimous consent that notwithstanding rule 22 at a time to be determined by the majority leader in consultation with the democratic leader, but no later than friday, february 28, the committee on energy and natural resources be discharged from further consideration of

s.j. res. 10 and the senate proceed to its consideration. further, that there be six hours for debate only with the time equally divided between the leaders, or their designees, on the joint resolution, and that following the use or yielding back of that time, the joint resolution be read a third time and the senate vote on the joint resolution, with no further intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. kennedy: mr. president, i have one request for a committee to meet during today's session of the senate. it has the approval of the majority and minority leaders. the presiding officer: duly noted. mr. kennedy: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today, or tomorrow, it

stand adjourned until 10:00 a.m. on wednesday, february 19. that following the prayer and pledge, the journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be deemed expired, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, morning business be closed, and the senate resume consideration of calendar number 13, s. con. res. 7. further, that at 12:00 noon, the senate execute the order of february 13 in relation to the loeffler nomination, and that following disposition of the loeffler nomination, the senate recess until 2:15 p.m. to allow

for the weekly conference lunches. finally, that all time during recess and adjournment count equally towards calendar number 13, s. con. res. 7, and that if any nominations are confirmed during wednesday's session the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table and the president be immediately notified of the senate's action. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. kennedy: mr. president, is it wednesday yet? feels like it. i got over here to vote at 5:00. mr. president, if there is no further business to come before the senate, i ask that it stand adjourned under the previous order following the remarks of senator merkley. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. kennedy: to whom i apologize

for him having to wait so long, because of our inefficiencies.. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. merkley: this evening we had a vote on the motion to proceed to the republican budget resolution, and that passed. it's a simple majority vote.

and this budget resolution has a very simple, straightforward theme. families lose and billionaires win. the plan is simple. slash programs for families, give massive tax giveaways to millionaires and billionaires, and run the country deeper into debt. that is not a plan that my constituents back home would vote for or support. they don't want to see the programs that enable families to stand on their feet be slashed or destroyed. they don't think that our mega millionaires and billionaires need more massive giveaways. and they certainly don't want to see the debt run up in the process. but that's where we are. now, my republican colleagues might say, well, not so fast.

this bill is really about securing our border and national defense. but don't let that fool you. senate democrats are happy to entertain an appropriation bill to address these issues. in fact, we had a strong bipartisan defense spending bill in the appropriations committee last year. senate democrats also supported a bipartisan immigration bill, and that was just a year ago may. but the bill was killed. bipartisan negotiated bill was killed when then-candidate trump said, senate republicans, i don't want you to fix the problem. i want to have this as a campaign element, the chaos at the border, so don't fix it. so it was killed. so you have democrats ready to work on national defense as we have in the past and willing to work on security at the border. so this bill is not about that. this bill is about this.

slashing programs for families, giving massive tax giveaways to the richest americans. that's the real soul of the republican budget resolution. now, this resolution proposes over $9 trillion in cuts to programs. just look at the budget table that accompanies the resolution. all a he see it in there. basically it has a line on allocated cuts, $9 trillion. and that includes cutting a trillion dollars out of the programs of the last six months of this year. one of our colleagues on the republican side did an amendment that showed what those cuts of a trillion dollars would do let alone 9 trillion and it would basically wipe out five major programs and cut another five major programs in half at the end of this year. so that vision of massive cuts to programs families depend on is right at the heart of this

budget resolution. and this really is the great betrayal. because candidate trump campaigned on the vision of helping families. but now that he's in office, he's reverting to the same plan he had in the last year of his first administration, which is slashing programs for families and giving massive tax cuts to megamillionaires and billionaires. we've seen this movie before, and the movie's director is a man named russell vought, he was head of omb in the trump administration the first time around and who has trump nominated to put in place of the director of omb now confirmed by the senate, the same man russell vought. do we see the architecture of this plan anywhere else? well, yes, we do. it's called project 2025. that plan that president trump said he didn't know anything about, but it was his director

of omb who was the architect of the plan, and it's that plan that's being implemented right now. and what is that plan? that plan is the great betrayal, slash the programs for families, give tax giveaways to the richest americans. now, in the budget committee, we had a chance to examine this plan and propose amendments to it. we proposed 44 amendments. and all of them were voted down on a party line. so that was quite disappointing because really what we were about was to say hey to our republican colleagues, if you want to protect families, and this program isn't really about slashing perhaps for families, then vote for us to protect those programs. well, so we put up amendment after amendment to protect those programs. one was about the cost of

groceries. democrats said protect -- don't allow provisions into this bill that are going to drive up the cost of groceries. democrats voted for protection. republicans voted it down. democrats said don't put provisions into this bill that are going to cut medicare or medicaid or social security. or in any other way make health care more expensive. democrats voted for that protection. republicans rejected it. democrats put forward an amendment for provisions that would -- against provisions that would raise the cost of rent or raise the cost of buying a home. republicans on the committee rejected it. democrats put forward an amendment to protect, or hopefully lower, the cost of drugs, and republicans rejected it. democrats put forward an amendment that said don't make changes in the law when this

bill comes back, that will increase the cost of going to college, and republicans rejected it. protecting the national school lunch program? republicans rejected it. protecting protecting families against increase in child care? republicans rejected it. protecting the investment in research for cancer, alzheimer's and other lifesaving medical majors, protect the funding for that? republicans rejected it. now, if this bill wasn't about slashing all those programs, why would republicans vote against all those things, if they actually wanted to protect families, the programs that provide the foundation for families to be on their feet, to thrive, to move into the middle class, to prosper? why would they vote to open the door to slashing all those programs? then we see that they're racing

their house counterparts. at 10:00 a.m. last week, when we considered the -- in committee, the republican senate budget resolution, the house proceeded to put forward, and they're just down the hallway through this door, the house at the end of the howlway, they -- hallway, they put forward their own budget resolution, very, very similar, except in magnitude. the house bill provides even more tax cuts for the richest americans than does the senate bill. so, the stakes couldn't be higher. where are we headed? are we headed towards a bill this year that is going to make the rich richer, increase income inequality, proceed to help the wealthy run this country by and for the powerful, and undermine

the vision of government by and for the people? that is exactly where the republican budget resolution is headed. and if you kind of want to make sure that you really understand how true this is, think about the fact that the last budget presented by president trump in his first term, his first four years, which was written by his current omb director, office of management and budget director, russell vought, that that had exactly the same architecture. it proposed slashing a trillion dollars over a decade from programs for families. it slashed health care and housing for seniors and veterans. slashed funding for hospitals and community health centers. slashed school meal programs and food pantries. slashed head start and police and firefighter grants. slashed tax relief for families,

veterans, and retirement. $1 trillion in the last budget. but that was 1 trillion over ten years, and what my republicans are now proposing is 1 trillion over one year, just one year. and it's only actually half a year, because there are only six months left in fiscal year 2025. when president trump ran, when he was candidate trump, he talked about reducing the costs for families, but everything he's doing now is sending costs upwards. it's trumpflation. trumpflation has arrived in the united states of america. instead of slashing the price of groceries, he's proposing programs that will drive up the costs for hardworking families. that's trumpflation. this budget resolution opened the door to making health care more expensive for families, not cheaper, more expensive. that's trumpflation.

this budget opens the door to making college more expensive by changing how college loans are administered. that's trumpflation. this budget opens the door to unleashing carbon dioxide and methane pollution that drives climate chaos that will drive up the cost of flood and fire insurance across america. in the west it's fire insurance. in the gulf and florida, the southern states, it's flood insurance. that's trumpflation. this budget opens the door to increasing the cost of child care, something working families really struggle with. it's trumpflation. it opens the door to increasing the cost of prescription drugs. trumpflation lass arrived -- has arrived. in each of these areas, we said don't do it. we said don't proceed to put into this budget resolution opening these doors to these assaults on american families.

democrats said it in every way we could, and republicans said, no, we want to cut those programs. we're not closing those doors. now, i know american families don't agree with this vision. my office, the office of every senator here, every senator represented by their desks in this room, every office is receiving thousands of phone calls. i had a couple days last week i got over 2,000 phone calls from oregon. 2,000, that's an incredible number. and we had so many members of the team working, trying to answer every call live, but we couldn't keep up, even though my team has a highly coordinated ability to expand the number of people answering the phone. we couldn't keep up. because people are so disturbed about this vision for america, this vision of attacking families and gold-plating

billionaires. that's not an american vision, but it's a vision of president trump. and then we have the second piece, the tax giveaways. the senate budget resolution proposes 3.7 trillion in tax giveaways, to megamillionaires and billionaires get most of that, just like in the first trump tax cut proposal, tax giveaway proposal. it was something like 80% went to the top 10% in america. i know that elon musk doesn't beneath more of our treasury money. i know that the richest americans, the megabillionaires, they don't need more of our treasury and to run up our debt, but that's what this proposal does. the house budget resolution goes further, proposing 4.5 trillion in tax giveaways. over the weekend, there was article after article of

republicans saying that's not enough. we've got all these tax giveaways we want to do the powerful, and we can't fit them all in to 4.5 trillion. we need more space. if you think i'm exaggerating, look at the budget put out by house republicans last week. they included a mechanism to guarantee that they follow through on their tax cut programs to families. they link the tax cuts directly to the program cuts for fa families. they said for every turbt dollar they cut from safely net programs, they can give an additional dollar to billionaires. they put that into their plan, that these are linked, cuts to programs for families, the more you cut it, the more you can do tax giveaways to the wealthy. it doesn't stop there.

all of this is going to result in higher deficits here in the united states. now, my republican colleagues are famous for campaigning on fiscal responsibility, but not deli delivering. this chart shows the difference between the first year of each republican administration and the last year in terms of deficits. so if we're looking at h.w. bush, he had more deficits in his last year than he did in his first. clinton went the other direction. clinton dropped the deficit year after year. in fact, in the end, produced surplus at the end of his eight years. along comes the second bush presidency, he drives up the deficits from his first year to his last year over those eight years. in comes obama. obama decreases them. in comes trump in his first

presidency and he blows the lid off the whole thing, like bomb to the deficit, bomb to the debt. then comes in biden, and the deficits drop down again. this is the pattern. you've seen this movie before. it's often said fool me once, shame on you. fool me twice, shame on me. well, americans, you've been fooled time and time again, and you're being fooled again, and it's all embedded in this budget resolution that is on the floor of the senate right now. i find it just so remarkable that democrats deliver on decreasing deficits, but somehow, through the magic of marketing, selling the sizzle instead of the steak, giving the talk instead of doing the walk, republicans somehow still present themselves as fiscally

conservative. well, i encourage my colleagues to say we're going to keep putting a spotlight on the fact that deficits are going to go up under president trump, just as they have under every previous republican president going back dec decades. i would like to think that we could come together as democrats and republicans, and say, yeah, there's efficiencies to be found in programs, but it's also absurd to be giving away the treasury to the richest americans. but if you want a symbol of where this administration is coming from, just take a look at the picture of president trump doing his inaugural address,

just down this hallway in the rotunda. all you see is him backed up by one billionaire after another, four in a row, right behind him. they love this idea. because, after all, there's never enough money for a billi billionaire. well, i can tell you, where i live billionaires do not struggle. where i live, families struggle. they struggle with health care. they struggle with housing. the vision of home ownership for your children? my father was a union mechanic. my mother, when we had children, stayed at home, worked in the home, did all kinds of activities with her kids. and on a single mechanic's income you could easily buy a home. but not today. not a single income. no, the price of homes is

through the roof. the dream of home ownership is dying. and why? because hedge funds are buying up single-family housing across america, and because we haven't invested enough in creating starter homes, incentivizing the building of starter homes. you know, in the budget committee we had a proposal that said make it easier to put legislation forward that would discourage hedge funds from buying up single-family housing. they've been hard at it since 2009, when all those hundreds of thousands, millions of homes went into foreclosure because of bank deregulation creating a massive national fiasco. every democrat said yes, make it easier to take on the issue of home ownership, and every republican said no. i don't like that this is a partisan outcome. i would love to see us partner

to help out american families, partner across the aisle for families. but we have an administration that is all about the rich and making them richer, and is all about slashing the programs families depend on. we have yet another threat to fam families, and that threat is the concentration of authoritarian power in the white house in a way we haven't seen in our entire history, almost 250 years of our republican. we have a president who has a thirst for authoritarian power, who admires xi in china, admires putin in russia, sends his vice president over to munich just days ago to bad mouth the democracies of europe, to share our values of freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly. wow. but we not only have a president

who admires authoritarian figures, admires dictators, he's acting like a dictator right here. he's breaking the law and he's violating the constitution. he proceeded to say i'm going to cut all these programs that i don't like. well, you know what? he doesn't have that power. we have what's called separation of powers in america. it means congress sets the law and then we have an executive, the president, who implements it. now, president nixon, you remember him, watergate, the impeachment, conviction, and resignation, it never got to impeachment because he resigned first many he said i will not be imperial, i will not provide the funds congress told me would be

provided to various programs. and you know what? the courts said hell no, you can't do that. we have what you call a republic, it's called separation of powers of it says in the constitution that congress writes the law and the president executes it. now the president can request congress to change a program that's already been authorized, already in the law. it's called a rescission. he sends a note over to congress and says, you know, we don't need to spend as much as you all appropriated for this program, or maybe that nuclear warhead we were going to refurbish no longer has the right one for the right missile, so we can cancel that program. he can send those over to us, but he doesn't get a line-item veto, he doesn't get a line item reduction. in 1996, the republican congress provided a line item veto power to the president and the supreme

court said, no, you can't delegate that authority. if you violate that line between congress making the law and the president executing it, you have destroyed the separation of powers which is the heart of every democracy. it's that thin line of congress making the laws that is the difference between a democracy and a dictatorship. and it's under assault. we're in the middle of a constitutional crisis. if you look at the speech that president trump gave at the inauguration in the rotunda, down the hall, he didn't talk about a vision in which he was going to work with congress to get it implemented to pass laws to make it happen, he talked about executive order after executive order, what he was going to do. that's the mind of an autocrat. that's a king, not a president. that is a threat to our constitution, it's a threat to

our republic. he's issued more than 60 executive orders, by passing congress entirely. and he went further. he handed the keys to the data systems across america to elon musk. now, elon musk was not elected, he was not confirmed by the senate, has no independent oversight, elon represents a concentration of power we have rarely seen. first, his power, by being the ceo of large companies, like spacex and tesla and star link, now, though companies have lots of lobbyists here on capitol hill, so that's a lot of power that elon musk has right there. here's something you might not know. he gets about $8 million a day

in federal subsidies for his companies. i'd say that's a conflict of interest. yeah, $8 million a day. that's roughly $2.5 billion over the course of a year. so here's a man, the richest man in the world, so he has that massive personal wealth, he has that power, that power to run media campaigns, or to hire lobbyists or hire lawyers, he has three companies and they have the ability to do media campaigns, and hire lobbyists and hire lawyers. so you have tremendous power there, but now he's been given the keys to agency after agency all across the united states government. what kind of a threat is that? well, it's huge. it's huge. because those databases contain the most private information on every american, the private health care records of people who are on medicaid or medicare, the financial records of every

family that files a tax return. so his mignon -- minions are now the foxes in the hen house. so he corporate wealth, his personal wealth and power and now his team controlling databases all across the government, including the payment systems as to what gets paid and what doesn't get paid. i don't want this man to have my social security information or yours. my tax informs or yours -- my tax information or yours, my address or my bank accounts numbers or yours. and then he put the cfpb on the chopping block, consumer financial protection bureau. he posted a message that said,

c cfpb, rest in peace, rip. why does the richest man in the world want to get rid of an agency that has delivered $21 billion in checks back to consumers who were ripped off by illegal practices. i think that is something to say that cfpb is a hero for working families, a hero for families returning $21 billion to families who were ripped off by illegal practices. and because they shut down those illegal practices, they probably saved consumers across this country, saved families across this country some other enormous sum. maybe it's five times that $21 billion. i know that when i worked on pay day loans in oregon and we got rid of those 500%, 400%, 300% interest rates, millions -- not

millions but tens of thousands of oregonians who were victims of those 300, 400, 500% loans hawking befd. who -- benefited. who -- but the rich hate it because they are the ones who have engaged in illegal practices to rip off consumers and so they hate it that there's a watchdog. so here's trump and musk getting rid of the watchdogs, getting rid of the inspectors general and breaking the law while doing so. the law says you have to give 30 days notice to dismiss an inspector general and you have to do it with cause, because we need executive watchdogs to he fired them, he fired the fbi agents who watched to make sure they followed the law.

he followed -- he fired them. and now the cpbp -- cfpb. what else? well, i can tell you this, musk and his minions, they could create a lot of damage with the access, and it's not just privacy to your records and my records, it could also be by accidentally screwing up the computer code because they don't fully understand the details on what they're playing with. let's be clear, seniors living on fixed incomes cannot afford a single missed payment, they won't be able to buy their groceries, pay their rent or pay their mortgage. this chaos unleashed by trump, unleashed by musk is illegal, unconstitutional and just plain

corrupt. here's another piece of the puzzle that should disturb you all. in budget resolutions, deficits cannot be maintained for more than ten years. bad enough that republicans want to increase the deficit over the ten-year period. but they've come up with a plan where they changed the baseline so that they can actually project those deficits beyond ten years, basically indefinitely into the future. that's not fiscal responsibility. not only are they planning to run up the debt for ten years, but they want to be able to run it up forever more until you get a congress that has the spine to change it. why does a party that has claimed fiscal responsibility want to change the baseline so they can run up debts far into the future?

they've gotten off this game, they've sold this game, this scam time after time. they sold it under bush i, they sold it under bush ii, they sold it under trump, they're going to do it again, so that's our josh, shine a spotlight on it and say no. american people, see what's happening and say no. say you want programs of health care, housing, education, support for child care and for nutrition. you want to help families thrive so they can move into the middle class or move beyond the middle class. american families, speak up because it is very true that in our republican the one thing that can move this chamber is citizens back home telling us what they think about what's

happening. families lose, billionaires win, that's what's at stake in this budget resolution. the plan is simple. slash programs for families, give massive tax giveaways to mega millionaires and billionaires, run of the deficit in the process and let elon musk and the minions dismantle the agencies that help families to get ripped off and exploited. this is not a government of, by, and for the people. this republican budget is of, by, and for the powerful, and democrats will fight day and night against this diabolical plan on this attack against american families. thank you, mr. president. the presiding officer: the the presiding officer: the

ten that lawmakers voted to confirm howard lutnick as commerce secretary. they considered president trump's nominee kash patel to be fbi director worked on the fiscal year 2025 budget resolution. when lawmakers return, watch live coverage here on cspan2. ♪ c-span, democracy unfiltered. we are funded by these television companies and more including media. >> nearly 30 years ago media, was founded on a powerful idea. bring cutting-edge broadband to underserved communities but from coast-to-coast we connect enter 50000 miles of fiber our team broke speed barriers, delivered one gig speed to every customer, led the way in developing a 10g platform and now media, mobile is offering the best most reliable network on the go. media com, decades of

dedication, decades of delivering comic decades ahead for. >> me too come support c-span as a public service. along with these other television providers. giving you a front row seat to democracy. quick secretary of state marco rubio a number of other u.s. officials met with our russian counterparts in saudi arabia or initial talks to end the russia/ukraine war. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible] >> looking to contact you members of congress? c-span is making it easy for you with 2025 congressional directory. get essential contact information for government officials, all in one place for this compact spiral-bound guide contains a bio and contact information for every house and senate member of the 119th congress. federal agencies, and state governors. the congressional directory cost $32.95 plus shipping and handling. every purchase help support helt c-span nonprofit operations. scan the code on the right go to cspanshop.org to preorder your copy today. ♪ saturday watch american

history tv 10 week series first 100 days early months of presidential administrations but with historians, authors, c-span archives will involve accomplishments and setbacks on how events impacted presidential terms and the nation. up to the present day. saturday come the first 100 days of franklin roosevelt's presidency at the height of the great depression, president roosevelt defeated president herbert hoover in a landslide in his inaugural speech he said the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. early in the term the president called for a special session of congress to tackle the economic crisis. dozens of bills were passed for people but back to work and improved living conditions it was franklin roosevelt who laver cornered the phrase first 100 days. watch american history tv series first 100 days. saturday at 7:00 p.m. eastern on american history tv on cspan2. ♪ c-span, democracy unfiltered.

we are funded by these television companies and more including charter communications. cork's charter is proud to be arecognized among the best internet providers. we are just getting started. building 100,000 miles of new infrastructure to reach those who need it most. >> charter communications support c-span as a public service. having a front row seat to democracy. >> georgia republican governor bryant camp addressed inflation, hurricane damage in the state, and the economy during his annual state of the state address in atlanta. governor kemp began his remarks by highlighting his leadership through the cocoa19 pandemic and natural disasters. this runs about 35 minutes. [applause]