border by using executive authorityto receive a number of successful trumpet ministration policies. is open more policies brought more than 10 million illegal immigrants into our country . pres. biden failed to uphold the law with regard to border security . while president trump has reinstated many of these policies through executive order the fiscal year 2025 budget resolution implements lasting security for american citizens. additionally this resolution restores america's military power to counteract russia china and other adversaries around the world. this work combined with president trump's america first foreign-policy would keep america the preeminent global power and shore up our national defense. to begin the process of returning to fiscal sensitivity the finance committee instruction in this budget unlocks our ability to reverse a specific

costly rule from the prior administration that brings patients access to long-term care in rural communities . not only will this ever provide savings for our shared priority. >>

were burning in l.a. county president trump is blocking the forest service from on boarding the seasonal firefighters we were required to prevent future fires. president trump has an unelected billionaire to go through the ranks of servants with a hatchet. as a result firefighters who finished weeks of around the clock shifts fighting dangerous fires were given a thank you note from their commander in chief that said please quit. please quit. this was the award our firefighters gotted. our amendment would make it very clear we are committed to

reversing these cuts to the rafrpgz of wildland firefighters. the presiding officer: the senator's time has expired. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from montana. mr. daines: i urge my colleagues to oppose this amendment. reserve funds that accomplish nothing beyond political messaging are unnecessary and frankly distract or delay from the budgeting process. this amendment will in no way impact the brave firefighters who fight our nation's fires out west. these firefighters deserve recognition. they deserve fair pay. in fact, we have the bill that does that, the wildland firefighters paycheck protection act. it's bipartisan. it permanently addresses securing increases in their wages. if we want to support our wildland firefighters let's pass this bill and get it on president trump's desk. republicans are committed to protecting our environment and our public lands without suffocating the u.s. economy. i urge my colleagues to do the same and oppose this amendment. the presiding officer: the question is on the amendment.

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.

what they are doing is not just illegal it's devastating for me but every single zip code. speaking of the unified voice to make sure when congress passes a bill, that law is followed. we need to focus on negotiating serious spending bills fast approaching march 14 deadline. that's the deadline of what i'm trying to do now. but, this is really critical we've got to know that once those bills become law, trump will actually follow them. we cannot just reach an agreement, and stand by while president trump rips are laws in half serious bipartisan path forward for our country's one work congress works together to avoid a shutdown, stops the defect is happening, reasserts s authority to protect the funding that our communities need. a portion that is a far cry from the task republicans are setting out today with this pro-

billionaire and tight middle-class budget resolution. let's be clear the chairman's does not just accept but doubles down to what trump and musk are doing. adding both another distraction from the urgent bipartisan work to defend our government. a roadmap for partisan policies and cuts to programs and families count on each and every day. republicans are going down this partisaner path because they knw democrats are not going to join them. medicaid, nutrition assistance and veterans benefits into the wood chopper so they can rope more tax cuts to billionaires. make no mistake this budget resolution is the doge resolution. assumes a staggering amount $1 trillion in unspecified cuts in 2025 alone and $9 trillion over 10 years. where do we think those dramatic cuts are going to come from? snap benefits that keep kids and

going hungry, public schools, committee health centers, life-saving medical research. make no mistake if you are cutting that deeply and that painfully you will have to start cuttingge things like veterans health care, assistance to our farmers, medicare and medicaid. which with the information of all senators 30 million children rely on. there's just no other way to make these numbers work. especially when we know this is just stuff one in the plan step two is more tax breaks for billionaires and massive corporations. so first they are handing elon musk a chainsaw to cut programs brought down with reliability and then they are rewarding him with enormous tax breaks that is completely unacceptable to me. we should not be cutting health healthcare for working families to deliver massive tax breaks to the wealthiest billionaires. i urge all of my colleagues hit the brakes and not just on the devastating partisan budget resolution. hit the brakes on what trump and

musk are doing right now. let's come together and work on a serious bipartisan bill to fund the government and get investments that are sorely needed out to the people we represent. let's come together to demand real accountability instead of a markup to hang elon musk more power, we need a hearing to hold him more accountable this and ofbillionaires operating completely in the dark hoping it's lies about corruption are loud enough to drown out any calls for truth. when he tweeted out the names of government employees months ago, that was accountability. but reporter's name and people getting illegal access to treasury payment system, that's a crime? he gets to look at all of our most sensitive data but no one gets a look at what he is actually doing. that cannot be the standard. so when are going to have a hearing with the people who are illegally firing workers to protect families from scams?

illegally canceling grants a committee health centers, illegally freezing funds to rebuild your local highway. illegally shedding entire agencies that keep our country safe. and now this plant outsourcing when training cuts this year alone is not rhetorical i hope the chair will answer when will we have a hearing with elon musk? he seems to be central to this budget plan but no one, at least on our side ofun the l is heard from him, no one. he is making big decisions about her country spending and he is not just doing it without congress but he's doing inme spe of what congress has already decided. we should not be giving up our power of the purse we should be getting answers. elon musk really has nothing to hide and he should leave a safe place on x and trump rallies and come before this committee mr. chairman to be accountable to the public, thank you ale the

floor. >> thank you, mr. chairman. as you are well aware this budget doesn't none of the things virtually none of the things democrats are accusing you of doing in the markup. we are not slashing they're not draconian cuts were not giving things away to the ultra- wealthy. we are hearing is the same all tax and spend rhetoric the scare tactics or colleagues on the other side of use for decades now to mortgage our children's future. with this budget is all about starting to clean up take the first steps in cleaning up the enormous masses left behind by the biden administration and his democrat allies here in congress. i want to talk about twomu of them. $36.4 trillion inn, debt. no family, no family they're faced with a serious illness and had to borrow $50000 to pay for medical bills, if that family member got well, it would keep borrowing $50000 and keep spending at that level. that is in a sane approach no one would do that.

but, that's exactly the federal government has done what he is doing. in 2019 the fiscal year before, the pandemic the federal government spent 4.4 trillion dollars. during the pandemic we had to think fast and massive so we went massive spending spree spent almost $6.6 trillion, 6.5. now again, at the pandemic wound down you would think we were turned to some reasonable baseline spending paid we did not do that for for the next five years we averaged $6.5 trillion but last year we spent 6.9. wall street journal just reported the first four months we spent $2.43 trillion, multiply times three that $7.3 trillion, 61% ahead, above $4.4 trillion. a population grew 2.6. this is completely unjustified. no family no business would do this that's with the federal

government has done. so, the question is how do we return to a reasonable pre-pandemic spending level? now i am sure, no republicans you may be democrats talk about zero-based budgeting. now unfortunately i don't that we went to return to that but here's the next best thing. over the christmas break i went back to look at other budgets. that we could use as a baseline don't accept them all but use them as a reasonable baseline. i look back at 1998 we actually had a surplus of $69 billion under bill clinton. now if you take $1.7 trillion of total outlays from 1998, increase it to account for population growth and inflation, use today's social security, medicare and interest payment to accept those programs. but in place of bill clinton's total outlays you would add spending 5.5 chili dollars this year. what's interesting about that is present biden is projecting 5.5 chile dollars of revenue.

using a bill clinton's budget from 1990 nay his total outlays by the way that was supported by senators grassley, mcconnell, murray, whiting, herman, schumer, graham, thune, moran back in 1998 very bipartisan budget. we would have a balanced budget. now if that's too reasonable for you look at president obama's 2014 budget. again, is this your social security medicare and interest. but grew those total outlays by population growth of inflation. six-point to trillion dollars. what about seven or billy no deficit? not reasonable enough? grow that by population inflation unit 6.5 trillion. no matter how you cut it, worst case scenario is reasonable

baseline use $8 billion by baseless spending. what we did only five years ago. there's nothing draconian about that, that is called reasonable. what chairman graham has done is undertaken a fourth option. ms. last year in office in 2025. that also balance the budget. but that would account for social security, medicare at today's levels. so put those figures in their six trillion, $61 billion, that the germans market. now again, no one is suggesting use every line item in president trump's budget. it's a top line figure. i would go back to the clinton budget for take a look at that party in about half a trillion dollars two plus of things like that the veterans benefits. again all kinds of reasonable ways to approach this. we are just not approach it

reasonably. we've got a pathway. we have different options how to return to pre-pandemic level. to clean up that mess. this massive amount of deficit spending and debt. but here's why we are really here today. the final chart. to clean up this mess. the open borders of president biden used his authority we kept hearing lies that we need to bill. no we did not need a bill but forpresident trump's presidentil authority he had after's border crisis caused by daca. to secure the border before he left office. president biden's exact same presidential authority and opened it wide up. creating clear and present danger that now we are having to clean up that mess. by the way just to prove the presidential authority to close to back down, became a political liability in 2024.

his art music authority includes the border. what president trump is doing is he's closing it but he needs help he needs one has had $5 billion that is the main purpose of this market. we are not slashing, or not giving away tons of dollars to the wealthy. try to clean the mess of an open border that threatens every american. that's what we're trying to do here mr. chairman. i appreciate your dedication to also coming up with a reasonable spending level at pre-pandemic spending level so thank you very much. >> mr. chairman, i am just going to start with a couple of quick comments about the big picture. this committee exists to serve the foundation for our constitutional authority over the federal budget. according to our founding documents, control over the federal purse begins, colleagues, in this room but

right now donald trump and elon musk are making a mockery out of the constitutional authority with brazen acts of lawlessness on a daily basis. trump and musk seem to have gutted funding for cancer research. folks in red states it cancer two. they have gutted higher education funding and have seen students all over the hill the last couple of days. students in red states are going to suffer. that committee colleges and universities and job centers farmers are missing payments, they are owed by the government. all of this is happening as a result of an unconstitutional power grab by the wealthiest man in the world. a man who paid for in the election but received no vote.

my view is senators can either stand up and fight or beg for charity some have already begun to do from those who are ripping our democracy apart. i would not plant on the second approach working out for very long. now i want to move to the resolution before us. i wish we were having a real discussion about fixing the border. to do that you've got to start the faxing here's the republican record. there is an effort in 2007 to get a bipartisan agreement on immigration, or public and tanked it for their set opportunity in 2013 bipartisan belt reach the senate floor. i get in 2024 with an even more conservative proposal the republicans tanked that as well. my view is donald trump does not really have a plan to fix the border. he's going to yell about the board is going to look tough for

he is doing it and apparently this committee is going to spend more than $100 billion in real money to help with all the posturing. now for the budget for today. this is setting up a glide path to achieve two major republican goals. giving another round of tax breaks to the ultra- wealthy playing port by ripping health insurance away from tens of millions of americans. particularly in medicaid. now, congress used to make bipartisan progress on medicaid. not a lot of finance members around and some remember that. that era of bipartisan progress on medicaid colleagues close in 2017 with donald trump first tried to got it. he would have succeeded if not for eight films down from the late john mccain. in the days and weeks ahead in the senate, there is going to be an effort to keep the medicaid cuts hidden behind the curtain.

but they are going to come sooner or later but 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 with cuts to the social safety net the medicaid program target number one. i would like to comment briefly on the comments made by my colleagues from idaho but he's describing on this nursing home rule the republicans would literally take the nurse out of a nursing home. nursing homes have at least one nurse on site 24/7. that proposal that their talk about the republican side is going to make it harder for seniors in a nursing home to get a shower, go to the toilet, or get their meals on time. i do not think this is where the country wants to go. i'm going to fight this every step of the way. he goes back to gray panthers

days this is real business or talk about cutting senior citizens on nursing homes. the fact is that medicaid budget is what keeps older people on the vulnerable out of destitution. medicaid pays for two out of three nursing home beds in america. home and community-based care for millions mart which is essential for americans with disabilities. where are our seniors going to turn to nursing homes no longer accept medicaid? it's an essential building block for kids as well. medicaid is especially important that life light it is the survival tool in rural america. medicaid rule america is going to become a healthcare desert. we are already seeing they're having problems delivering babies in rural america. vulnerable peoples lives are made worse as a result of these cuts is going to be cold comfort

their hardship allows some billionaire pal and some the secretaries and donald trump to get a bigger yacht more art in the private collection. we should not fall down on the job we should be defending the constitution and making it possible for all americans had a chance to get ahead. we want people to do well. we appreciate what we do not want the brakes to go to the people at the top it will all americans to get ahead because are our values and that is what we are going to fight for. to go to the people at the top it will all americans to get ahead because are our values and that is what we are going to fight for. americans know the southern border has been in chaos under the previous administration. no one knows that better than my constituents in texas with the 1200-mile common border with mexico. americans are quite aware they are living in the most dangerous time since world war ii. at a time our military is stretched thin. not

agreed to. mr. sullivan: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from alaska. mr. sullivan: i call up my amendment number 1029 and ask that it be reported by number. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from alaska, mr. sullivan, proposes amendment 1029. mr. sullivan: i want to take this opportunity to demonstrate our strong republican support for medicaid and medicare right now. my amendment is very simple. it's going -- it says we're going to strengthen and improve medicaid for the most vulnerable populations and strengthen medicare so that it's available for years to come. now, mr. president, i know my democratic colleagues are going to try tonight to use scare tactics to message that republicans don't support these vital programs, but we do. these are critical programs that republicans support. heck, president trump has repeatedly said that these

programs are not going to be touched. people rely on medicare and medicaid. alaskans rely on medicare and medicaid. we're here to strongly support them. so, we should all agree that we want to weed out waste, fraud, abuse in our health care system, including in medicare and medicaid, and we must main tape our safety net programs. we can do both, mr. president, and make them stronger. so, i hope every single member of the senate tonight votes to support my simple amendment, which would strengthen both medicaid and medicare for the most vulnerable americans. i ask for a yes vote. the presiding officer: the senator from oregon mr. wyden: i rise in opposition. this says it protects medicare and medicaid, but does neither. the medicare language talks about the group called the most vulnerable. obviously, we care about them, but the language of the sullivan

amendment would leave millions behind, and we don't want to go there. the language in this amendment is code for kicking americans with medicaid coverage off their health insurance. if they're not sick enough, not poor enough, or not disabled enough. this amendment does nothing to stop republicans from cutting these essential health care programs, kicking millions of americans off their coverage, all to pay for the tax cuts of billionaires. i urge opposition. the presiding officer: the question is on the amendment. mr. sullivan: read the amendment. medicare and medicaid, it's that simple. the presiding officer: the question is on the amendment. mr. sullivan: i call for the yeas and nays. the presiding officer: is there sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote: the clerk: ms. alsobrooks. ms. baldwin.

>> it just won't work. i cannot imagine anyone who would seriously argue that continuing to spread more on paying interest on the debt than our military is a positive development. or sustainable. with that is where we are today. today's markup, i think is an inflection point. it's good progress on two important priorities. but, it is only a start. i worried that despite all the rhetoric we are in both sides of the aisle about dealing with the debts, we will never do the hard work that requires us to address it. i applaud the house of representatives efforts as difficult as it is to begin that process. but, more work remains in this body as well. i hope we do not find ourselves down the road expecting to pass

a bill that will alleviate a multitrillion dollar tax increase on the american people which i believe it's imperative that we do and we ignore our spending addiction. andwe people so that you have gt to vote for this tax bill because otherwise i am a, multin dollar tax increase. and ignore dealing with our fundamental mandatory spending problems. so, i think of that happens bill have once again failed the american people and future generations. so, i will vote for this budget resolution. i take the priorities has laid out are important i do believe it's only a start. i think we should be incredibly cautious when we come in the senate assume the house of

representatives can pass anything. given the slender morgan margins the speakers working with. they come back until the other parts of our spending and dish addiction. later on along with the tax bill. but that is where we are. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you i want to echo what you said you cannot grow your way out of debt i believe the tax cuts will help the economy grow if. you do not guilt that mandatory problem you just cannot get there. i am dedicated to the idea we will do that because we don't, we will all fail together. senator kaine >> thank you. i view this exercise and resolution as a trojan horse. if the republican majorities really cared about the budget we

have an appropriations deal. we would have had an appropriations deal before the end of the last calendar year or we have an appropriation bill by march 14. especially since both houses are that republican majority. i well i hope this is not true, all signs suggested to republican houses do not want to reach an appropriations bill. if you cared about the budget you would if my colleague cared about the budget they would complain elon musk and donald trump unilaterally violating past appropriation bills that we all voted for. if you cared about the budget, that would matter to you. a deal should be a deal. instead, my colleagues are quietly acquiesced getting to head start programs or states been closed down and health clinics and the states been

closed out to veterans, hospitals and clinics. being on reduced staff. why would you quietly acquiesced to those kinds of violations of appropriations bills you voted for if you care about the budget? this is a trojan horse. the advertised purposes of this resolution are twofold. let me take the offensive for some of the armed. you need to use reconciliation to do defense spending. we not only spend hundreds of billions of dollars on defense in a bipartisan agreement, just last year we twice added to that in april supplemental bill we added money to defense. and at the end of the year on an emergency bill we added more money to defense and we did with bipartisan both. you don't need to use

reconciliation to find spending on defense. we do it all the time in a bipartisan way. how about border security? i've been your since 2013. we did a border security bill those bipartisan that we had a bipartisan deal in this body in 2018, president trump said vote against it. wait a bipartisan deal in 2024, president trump said vote against it. all of those bills has significant resources to invest in border security. donald trump and house republicans oppose them. we just passed an laken riley asked the got bipartisan votes. you do not need reconciliation to do defense you do not need reconciliation border security. there is a demonstrated track record in this body that both can be done in a bipartisan way. so what is this bill about if

you don't need reconciliation for events you don't need reconciliation for border security what is it about? that is what my colleagues have discussed. the effort that has been done today is an effort to dramatically cut spending on programs that affect every date everydayvirginians and everyday americans. those dollars combined with the tariffs that donald trump is laying on american families that will make everything more expensive, then go into a big pot that gets used to fund tax cuts for the wealthy. tax cuts for the wealthy is not part of this little bill but it's part of the big beautiful bill the house is rolling out today. they are suggesting their needs before and actually in dollars of tax cuts. we know they will go to the wealthiest. that is the end result of this. so i would just say, let's be candid about what is going on here. we really cannot trick people. they are the ones out in the

communities that are complaining about head start programs been closed. or help clinics being shuttered. our workers being laid off or agency being shut not unilaterally. 30% of workers are veterans for god sake. one -- 3% of the civilian workforce. 30% of the federal workforce is veterans. theyel are the people being laid off. unilaterally by this president. so i do view this. we will fight today will offer amendments to try to clarify what is going on. toro try to protect medicaid and other safety net programs. but, let us be clear what this is about. this is an effort to amass savings off the backs of every day people whose programs are cut. plus tariff revenue and direct all that towards tax cuts for the wealthiest. that is where this is going. we need to fight against it. i yield back, thank you.

>> thank you, mr. chairman. .1, i don't care whether we do one bill or two bills. i can teach it round or flat. i just want to see us pass something. i do not view this as a competition. i know mike johnson. i have complete confidence in mike johnson. and we should too. point n to, i do not know how my foreign nationals came into our country illegally under president biden. 8 million, 10 million, 12 million? i do know that it was a lot. and using the most conservative efforts we probably added about four nebraskans to the united

states. we do not have the slightest idea who they are. we know some of them are children. we do not have the slightest idea where they are. i believe it was intentional. i do not know why president biden and his team decided to do it. but, only one of two circumstances are possible. either it was intentional, or the people in charge you would not hired to manage a costco foodcourt. and, i don't think it was the latter. i think it intentional decision was made. i don't hate president biden. i don't. i don't hate anybody. i hope he finds peace in retirement. but the fact is we have an extra 12 million people in our country

illegally. most americans do not support illegal immigration. they think illegal immigration is illegal. it's not because they are racist. they look at the southern border mike they look at the front door of their homes. most americans lock the front door at night. they do not do that because they hate everybody on the outside. they lock the front door at night because they love the people on the inside. they want to know who is going in and out of their home. we have got to fix the problem of illegal immigration and we have to have money to do it. .3, defense. i am convinced based on the classified and unclassified information that i have seen, president xi and china is

working with president putin in russia and is working with the ayatollah and ironic. against the united states of america and western values including but not limited to freedom. i believe their ultimate goal was to have russia dominant central and eastern europe. i believe the ultimate goal was to have iran dominate the middle east. and president she's ultimate goal, he is the quarterback of this ballclub, his student dominate the end of pacific, be free to roam at will in sub-saharan africa and south america. now, i do not want america to be the world's policeman. but i don't president xi or president putin or the ayatollah and iran to be the world's

policeman either. and the world i just described if i am correct to the objectives if i am correct, is not a world that will be safer america. weakness invites the wolves. we have to spend more money on defense. final points, having said all of that is been proposed we spend $500 billion for a good cause in my judgment $300 billion. there's been a lot of rhetoric i do not mean that in a majority way that we are going to pay for this. we need to pay for this. that is just as important as the immigration money and they

defense money. we need to have and we cannot sustain our spending. i understand a lot of it is for a good cause but if we are honest with ourselves no one around this place ever stands up and says i've got a bad idea and i need money for. it's always a good cause. but, this kind of spending is going to destroy america. it will not be a fiscal cliff it will not be one day won't be fine and the next day falling off. that is not how this works. this kind of spending destroys you like termites. if you get termites, your house-on a tuesday or houses of all part of a wednesday. but there are termites eat away, and they eat away, and they eat away and you know what i am saying. i hope we do this right.

i like to see us do it together. i do not live in la la land i know that's unlikely but when you try to be here as much as i can and listen to my colleagues ideas. i think they are smart people and i would invite them to make their suggestions. i for one will take them seriously. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you, centered about holland? >> thank you, mr. chairman and colleagues. it was just a few weeks ago that i think in the regular senate room we had a hearing nomination to be the head of omb. at that time senator murray and i both asked a direct question whether he would commit to complying with the law including the empowerment control act. he refused to say yes. and now he's over omb a whole lot of illegal actions going fine which is why our courts are

now filled with various actions and complaints. judges are issuing tro. to behelpful for college would p defend article one because they are shredding article one. it's also important to remember exactly who he is. is the architect of project 2025. what is project 2025? that's the plan, the blueprint when candidate trump was asked about he said i don't know anything about it i do not know who those people are. and he went about installing russell vote in the command-and-control center for the budget of the united states. what we are doing is implementing project 2025. the recent candidate trump did not want to talk about because you know how unpopular it was that's why he ran away from it on the campaign trail.

and yet they now have elon musk doing a lot of their dirty work. he is not trying to save money's not about government efficiency pretty care about government efficiency do not start by firing all the inspectors general whose job it is to root out waste, fraud, abuse. in fact by doing that you clear the way for more potential corruption that's with her talk about in terms of the so-called schedule f they want to be rid of 50 -- 60000 merit-based federal employees and replace it with political stooges. that just invites more waste and corruption. but, i think we should take a good look at "project 2025". because i know this subject of this resolution purports to be focused only on immigration and defense. but, if you read the fine print it opens the door for many other unpopular proposals and "project

2025". like going after medicaid which helps working families. which helps seniors which helps kids with disabilities really going after the children's health program. like going after food and nutrition programs for our kids. that's all part of "project 2025" that candidate trump said he knew nothing about. the mentor got omb. if you look at this resolution to begin to pave the way for those cuts. big tax cuts disproportionally go to the very wealthy the biggest corporation. over 10 years. i've been support the tax breaks that go to people under 400,000. i supported for the middle class.

the great bulk or going to marry a wealthy people and big corporations. has a spending decrease of $11.5 trillion over 10 years. for a trillion cuts this year. it does not say were 11.5 trillion are coming from. this mental big part of the federal government to make a way for those big tax cuts very wealthy people. we've seen actions in a number federal agencies. me tell you this. if you fired every single civilian federal employee include the 60% who work at dod, the va and the department of homeland security you saved $207 billion per that's not a lot of money without shutdown social security. it would shut down medicare. and you are talking about a

trillion. so i am going to be really interested to see where our colleagues are going to come up with that. mr. schumer: mr. president. the presiding officer: the democratic leader. mr. schumer: i call up my amendment 776 and ask that it be reported by number. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from new york, mr. schumer, proposes an amendment numbered 776. mr. schumer: mr. president, this amendment is very simple. it allows no billionaires to have any tax cuts if a single dollar of medicaid funding is cut. the american people need to know where senate republicans stand on cuts to medicaid. on tuesday donald trump claimed he was opposed to medicaid cuts. then wednesday he supported it and today he doubles down and even opened the door to cutting medicare. he's flip-flopping left and right. so the american people deserve to know what about senate

republicans? where do they stand? cutting medicaid to pay for billionaire tax cuts would be a gut punch to working people. medicaid serves nearly 80 million people across the country in states red and blue from our sickest kids to our infirmed in nursing homes and vulnerable seniors. these are the people we should focus on, kids, seniors, rural americans, not billionaires. they're doing well enough already. my amendment will ask republicans do they really want to cut taxes for billionaires so badly they're willing to take health care away from kids? the presiding officer: the senator's time has expired. mr. schumer: and get grandparents out of nursing homes. i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from idaho mr. crapo: mr. president, the democrats know very well that this targeted budget blueprint does not cut medicaid or medicare. the blueprint before us focuses on securing the border, strengthening the military,

facilitating energy independence and taking the initial steps to get our fiscal house in order. to meet this instruction, the finance committee will do one thing and one thing only. and that is reverse a biden administration nursing home rule that would increase taxpayer costs by billions and jeopardize patient access to long-term care, especially in already underserved rural communities. mr. president, i've been advised that this amendment would be corrosive to the privilege of this budget resolution if adopted. because the amendment contains matter that is inappropriate for a budget resolution, it's -- its adoption could jeopardize the resolution's privilege. additionally, this amendment violates the congressional budget act because it is not germane to the budget resolution. since the amendment does not meet that standard required by law, i raise a point of order against the amendment under section 305-b-2 of the congressional budget act of

1974. mr. schumer: mr. president. the presiding officer: democratic leader. mr. schumer: pursuant to section 904, the congressional budget act, i move to waive and ask for the yeas and nays. the presiding officer: is there sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote: the clerk: ms. alsobrooks.

>> law enforcement took 46 pills off of our streets just 46, 2019. and then joe biden came into office as president in the first six months of his administration of 2021 nebraska law enforcement took a 151,000 pills. one or 51000, 46-in just six months of joe biden's ministration. we see this annually across the country where the leading cause of death in young americans age 18 -- 45 is functional. 100,000 people year, 70000 from fentanyl are dying. if any country would attack us

until 100,000 of our citizens will be up in arms. we would be declaring war. they continue to smuggle precursors of fentanyl across our borders. after biden became president law enforcement start confiscating twice as much a methamphetamine three times as much fentanyl and 10 times as much cocaine because of her open border policies in the southern border being wide open. the cartels took advantage of it. you see the point i'm trying to illustrate, the board is not a crisis. it is a catastrophe. president trump ran on securing the border. the american people voted for trump to secure our borders. president trump promised basic security. he knows better than anyone how toed get these down during this first of ministration you brought those down to a 40 year low. that's what we are here today were here to support the border patrol agents from the border

wall, complete that wall improved cbp port facilities. supported immigration and customs enforcement officers in the process to they are dealing with unprecedented circumstances. as you mention in your open remarks there are 300,000 missing children who've crossed the southern border under the by administration invited ministration has no idea where they are. additionally 1.4 million illegal came to this country asking for asylum have been refused and are set to be deported. all the more concerning of 10 have been cross inserted by administration those who've whocommitted crimes were convicd in our pending charges three to 50000 of those. over 35000 for homicide sexual assaults. we must secure the border for americans like lakin riley who was murdered by illegal immigrants who came here again, claiming asylum.

we also must do it for nebraskans people like sharon who was killed in nebraska but illegal alien drunk driver who is never held accountable. we can secure it before adding to the national of that which has been rising rapidly spending the biden ministration this reconciliation packet to be fully paid forth of part of passing the budget resolution packages quickly. this is a very important first step in moving forward on the requisite reconciliation fails to deliver results for the american people the president's agenda. thank you very much german graham for this market and with that i yield back. park senator warner? this budget resolution and reconciliation bill that will spring feminism bill from legislation that will secure the border, promote energy independence and bolster

militarylo readiness. these are three defensible's, i've got to type i cannot imagine any undecided aisle would not be proud to support i just hope we will get a chance to participate in that process. for example, i want to secure the board it's why i supported the bipartisan agreement to invest $20 billion to strengthen the security of the u.s./mexico border is why i pushed the lastt administration to prioritize additional resources to stop the flow of illicit drugs like conventional coming to ports of entry. as a vice chairman of the senate intel committee i noticed a number of threat actors who are seeking to exploit weakness in our security measures. i believe we should do more to protect the homeland and bolster military readiness. we should invest more ships and submarines. we should do more to support service members and their families both during retirement

times in service and after words. and of course the strength national defense is not only about who has the most tanks and guns, is making strategic investments in harnessing emerging technologies like a.i. if this is about energy independence we should use every tool at our disposal to lower the cost for working families but working to ensure the new energy sources are affordable, sustainable and efficient. for example westerly start of the set of events nuclear carcass we are focused on finding practical solutions to scale up the volume and use of clean nuclear energy i think it started as the smart investments made under the laughs and frustration we are think more in my home state taking a leading role offshore wind production producing clean energy vehicles built right in the heart of southwest virginia.

my republican colleagues are i workin a bipartisan way to shp our border, our defense, energy policy, sign me up what i won't do and i cannot support one sided partisan effort to/the program for working families. frankly, often timeah to pay for tax cuts for those at the top i object to the idea seniors and seniors top medicated current 80 million americans are covered by medicaid and nearly half her kids. i cannot support a budget that takes a sledgehammer to health care for sick kids. downright irresponsible to slap our nation's most important antihunger program at a time when households are seeing increased prices for groceries. under the trump administration is now over $7 per i heard the same eggs talked about a lot of times last year under the biden

prices. now that we are up to seven bucks for dozen eggs under the trump administration i would point out the same eggs about $4 in october beef is more expensive orange juice is more expensive and that is before we bring on the tariff costs. as a matter fact the face of rising costs were talking cutting benefits of about $6.20 per person per day. this is a shortsighted move that will food insecurity, poverty, lower health education outcomes for working people. i also cannot believe that during these challenging times my colleagues would consider cutting vital education programs as well. we all think about school he for a.i. purposes. i am hearing the majority wants to/student loan programs, raising costs for our young people republican are often from

our constituents of the period by going after student eight and cannibalizing the workforce in the future. if you are a young person today watching this hearing, i'm not sure what would drive you to be doing that. and you're struggling to pay back a student loan, get on the phone. if your plotted out that last student loan program, let me flush senator graham's number on the screen right now could call now before noon to go along with decreased student loan. if you are a teacher, firefighter, cop, we will come to you all. we are here to support it might collect on the other side or not. there are responsible ways are paying like this.

the effort current debt and deficit wheat laid out variable cuts. i hope we can go back and look at some of those ideas as well. in the meantime make sure that we do not going into long term investments that were created by the bipartisan infrastructure bill. we have to have a lot more conversation about the defense industrial base, securing the border but frankly doing better than what is been presented. >> thank you yelled back a the cooks of the chair knows is been involved in bipartisan efforts to make our decisions for long time. it's much appreciated. just keep plugging. we have a vote on let's just

keep going with opening statements that will break for lunch and do amendments. senator scott. >> mr. chairman, last of everything american people make their voices heard. president trump was elected with a very clear mandate. to secure border, keep americans safe. under four years the buy demonstration a border completely collapsed. because of his radical policies and open border agenda. america's more dangerous place because president biden allowed criminals, drugs, terrorist, and other dangerous people into our communities. there are real consequences to biden's failure to secure the border in each victim has a name. real americans have been killed, real americans have been torn apart by vicious crimes and deadly drugs because the biden's open border. over 10 million people illegally cross into our country. millions were allowed to stay and have the red carpet rolled out for them courtesy of the american taxpayer thanks to joe biden. the sexual assaults and murders

committed by illegal aliens all over the country. even in my home state of florida were a young man was killed, charge for his death is an illegal alien. in 2023 on former secretary at mayorkas the transit of three to 20000 inadmissible illegal aliens to 43 u.s. airports preapproved by dhs that cbp one app. made them go through florida on commercial flights.

democrats have also voted for open borders against keeping our country and law enforcement officer safe. millions of illegal aliens continued to move into our country unlawfully. also 70,000 deaths in the u.s. each year. crime up 5% because it had no regard for public safety. americans killed by illegal criminal aliens. age 12 killed by two illegal aliens from venezuela charged with capital murder. found in a creek in houston. age 53 illegal aliens in a minivan a pickup truck about 30 miles south of portland, maine had age 25 killed during carjacking in michigan on a legal -- entering the u.s. again without permission.

found dead on the road with a gunshot wound to the head. washington state trooper was killed when illegal alien crashes into his cruiser weather 100 miles per hour. a husband and father. illegal aliens crash into a car carrying travis and his parents. alex wise age and was walking home from school when he was hit and killed by an illegal alien who had been deported five times age 16 reported stock by an illegal alien who eventually killed her. zip tied found in her mother's bathtub. jeremy was just two years old when he and his mother were caught in the crossfire in an illegal alien in maryland he had lake and riley a nursing student killed on the campus of the university of georgia illegal alien while jogging. age 47.

killed by illegal aliens from el salvador. driving under the influence going back 100 miles per hour deported four times. aiden clark age 11 killed when illegal alien from haiti struck a school bus full of children in ohio. rachel marine age 37 the mother of five was attacked raped and killed by an illegal alien while she was exercising on a trail in maryland. all of these innocent americans should be alive. but their lives were cut short because of joe biden's failures and refusal to enforce our laws. last july released showing nearly 650,000 criminal illegal aliens currently on isis non- detained docket in roaming free in our country. within the interior of the united states. including roughly 15,000 illegal aliens convicted or charged with murder. more than 20,000 illegal aliens charged with sexual assault and

more than 105,000 illegal aliens convicted our chart with assault last year nbc reported nearly 1.5 alien immigrants into the united states having final orders of deportation. according to i.c.e. by contrast deportation to criminal illegal aliens plummeted. i.c.e. recorded less than 150,000 illegal aliens. not to mention since 2021, 2 million known got a ways evading border patrol agents. president trumps agenda depicts a problem biden clearly created. to save lives like the ones i had mentioned that were lost we have to deliver on that agenda. >> thank you, mr. chair. before i begin, i just wanted to

talk with my colleagues on this tied -- side of the aisle, this committee that are troubled et al. the second trumpet administration has begun. clearly, laying the groundwork to cut crucial programs that american families in order to find yet another round of tax breaks for the ultra- wealthy. that was here in the budget committee where we say is a reflection of our values and priorities. want to talk about priorities. the presidents priorities, i want to talk about the american people's priorities. i've heard over and over again that the outcome of last fall's election was a mandate and that the important take away from the election was americans frustrations with the high cost of living. until this morning, that was the main message. that was the main take away. too many families, republicans and democrats struggled to pay

for groceries, for gas, pay the rent or the mortgage every month but for a nation that came out of last november the presiding officer: the yeas are 49, the nays are 51. three-fifths of the senators duly chosen and sworn, not having voted in the affirmative, the motion is not agreed to, the point of order is sustained, and the amendment fails. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from georgia. mr. ossoff: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, the momentum that is growing in washington to gut the medicaid program is alarming my constituents in georgia, and i call up my amendment number 407 and ask that it be reported by number. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the amendment by number. the clerk: the senator from georgia, mr. ossoff, proposes an amendment numbered 407. mr. ossoff: the sheer number of people affected, mr. president,

in georgia five out of seven seniors in nursing homes are covered by medicaid. nearly 50% of all births are covered by medicaid. two out of five children in georgia are covered by medicaid. i was disappointed to see just moments ago the majority adopt an amendment to lay the foundation for deep cuts to medicaid. i hope we can build bipartisan support for my amendment to ensure that maternal and children's health care through medicaid is protected. thank you, mr. president. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from idaho. mr. crapo: mr. president, once again the targeted budget blueprint before us today is not about cutting medicare or medicaid. it doesn't deal with medicare or medicaid. it deals with securing the border, strengthening the military, facilitating the energy independence of our country, and taking the initial steps to put our fiscal house in order. while the finance committee does

have a $1 billion deficit decreasing instruction, this is not a tax bill nor a health care reform bill. and the claims that we've heard continuously tonight to me seem just to be the politics of fear in the face of trying to deal with our nation's critical issues. to meet this instruction, the finance committee will reverse a biden administration nursing home rule that would increase taxpayer costs by billions, jeopardize patient access to long-term care, especially in our already underserved rural communities. i urge my colleagues to vote against this amendment today as it is not relevant to the finance committee's instruction. mr. ossoff: mr. president. the presiding officer: the question is on the amendment. mr. ossoff: mr. president, the vote is whether to protect maternal and pediatric health care through medicaid. 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. the clerk: mr. barrasso. mr. bennet.

the clerk: mrs. blackburn. mr. blumenthal. ms. blunt rochester. mr. booker. mr. booker. hydrogen, biofuels and carbon capture.

the house republicans have finally shared their plan. in a race with senate republicans, apparently, does not even include instructions for the senate. that is the best work product. they would have to raise the debt limit. we will get through this. >> just another minute, mr. chairman. >> democrats are prepared to negotiate good faith with our republican colleagues. it is for republicans to finish negotiating with republicans. as they get their act together.

nothing but a painful start for the american people because this is just the beginning. elon musk is already digging into social security and medicare as part of their effort to target working-class americans. things like funding for roads and bridges may be next. in closing, i know that over the next several weeks, several months there is no doubt. we hear a lot of talk and misinformation by republicans trying to distract the american people from what is really happening. it will start with benefits that you have paid into. and it will end with billionaires getting another tax break. yes, mr. chairman i am ready for this conversation and for every cut that is proposed, the american people demand an answer for why a billionaire deserves

more of a tax break over the interest of working families. thank you. >> i note at the outset on no planet, literally, no planet is doge, vivek ramaswamy, elon musk or anyone else working as part of their effort looking into messing with people social security or medicare benefits. it is not a thing. it is fantasy. it does not exist. we are here to talk today about budgetary matters and budgetary matters that were brought about as part of the unique crisis we have faced over the last four years. a crisis that relates to our border security. border security is something i have given a fair amount of thought to. i spent two years of my life living along the u.s. border in

the lower rio grande valley in the state of texas. beautiful state, beautiful people. i loved working among them. one of the things that i discovered when i lived there for two years was that people prosper. when the border is protected. those who are most adversely affected by lapses and border security, especially by uncontrolled waves of illegal immigration very often themselves recent immigrants and as i observed them in that context and recent immigrants living right on or near the u.s. border their neighborhoods, their children school id their jobs, livelihoods, safety and security and that of their loved ones. most directly put at risk when uncontrolled ways of illegal immigration.

the biden created border crisis is as real as it was preventable its consequences are as widespread as they are tragic americans across every quarter -- corner of our country, every inch or worse off because a combination of criminals, contraband, drugs, float across the border freely into the united states. accounts across the country being overwhelmed by troves of noncitizens. being relocated with their own hard-earned federal taxpayer dollars. fatal fentanyl on the rise. during one month alone of last year, u.s. authorities seized enough sentinel to kill more than 510 million people.

to put that into perspective, that is roughly every person. man, woman and child in the united states,rp canada and mexo the number of people that can be killed by the amount of fentanyl seized by u.s. authorities during one month of last year. this was made much, much worse by virtue. of the order. criminal noncitizens lead into our country not vetted by the previous administration continue to murder innocent americans. we are here today to take the next step in the process that will give president trump and republicans in congress the resources necessary to help and the biden border crisis. make no mistake this is a monumental task and it will take nothing less than a herculean effort. that is why we are here and that is why we are doing things. the funding will be used to did work violent felons to secure

border stop illegal immigration and improve the flow of sentinel into our country. this is build on fiscal irresponsible foundation. one with new spending fully offset within the first four years. this is important, mr. chairman. what sometimes happens in the past is when funds are appropriated through the reconciliation process. sometimes there is a temptation. to take the candy upfront and agree to eat the vegetables later to get the spending now with an agreement to offset it over a ten-year period of time. if you spend the first four years and plan to pay for it, throughout the duration of the 10 year very awesome that the savings do not materialize. that is not what we're doing here. we're doing it right this time. there is no priority that is more urgent than putting an end to the biden border crisis. i strongly support this budget

the fund agencies and programs enforcing the immigration laws, secure border, stop this deadly stopping the flow into the united states and help make america great again. thank you, mr. chairman. >> senator grassley. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i appreciate your calling today's markup. it is a process to jumpstart the process for moving forward with a trump agenda. president biden used the pandemic as an excuse to ram through his budget far left agenda while wasting billions on leftist causes. core government responsibilities were neglected. as we all know the number one responsibility is national security.

but biden allowed our military to deteriorate and as a result of not enforcing the immigration laws, we had opened our borders. this budget resolution represents a very first step towards correcting the biden harris administration spending excesses and its disregard of security threats at our border and around the world id the previous administrations open border policies resulted in an unprecedented surge of illegal immigrationrr, approximately the times the population of iowa entered into the u.s. and just those four years and everybody saw it nightly on our television this left our nation vulnerable to gang members, criminals,

terrorists, national security threats and drug smugglers crossing ourth border with impunity. president trump was elected with a mandate to remove these folks and secure our borders once again. this resolution green lights the resources necessary to make that important step taken. the resolutionms also provides r funding to bolster our national military. over the past several years, the world has become increasingly in place right here revealing expensive in europe. what result in the re- creation of the soviet union. china has shown increased aggression over the south china

sea and threats to taiwan. and iran's network of terrorist proxies. threaten israel. our military is ill-equipped. try staring down the soviet union. contained through strength. the resolution also lays the groundwork for unleashing america'sno energy production. a coherent energy policy is vital to both national security and the economy. the biden administration's policy favored all of the above,

but none from below the ground. it is time that we had a all of the above approach to achieve american energy independence fossil fuels, alternative energy , conservation and nuclear importantly, this budget represents a return to fiscal sanity. any spending increases will be accompanied by corresponding spending decreases while the pandemic is years behind us, spending as a share of the economy remains atow levels preserved for nationally emergencies and for war in other words depending -- defending america. during the height of the agree that it was common sense for the government to step in to help

individuals and families and small businesses whether the storm that was created by a government shut down of the economy. but once the crisis subsides, so should the programs and the spending. an active in response to the pandemic. it is very much a commonsense approach to spending. our national debt is on a path eclipse forward. relative to the size of our economy and that is in just a few years. we must begin to write our fiscal ship. so, in this process, bringing about this budget resolution, do not forget the voter mandate as part of the november mandate.

president trump is looking for ways to reduce wasteful government spending. congress should not simply see initiative to the president. congress hold the powers of the purse. so, in this action today and tomorrow, we must show leadership to spare the american people from inflation and the crippling debt burden that comes from overspending. i yield the floor. >> senator sanders. >> thank you, mr. chairman. federal budget is about our national priorities. it is about who we are as a nation, what we believe in and what the committee is discussing today is very, very serious business. in my view, no family, no business no local state

government can responsibly write a budget without first understanding the problems and challenges that it faces. a business, a country, city, whatever. as i examined the budget in the senate and the house my republicans, this is how i see how they analyze where we are as a country. at a time of massive and unprecedented income and wealth any quality, republicans look around them and say we have three people owning more wealth than the bottom half of american society. the richest people becoming phenomenally richer. obviously, the solution is massive tax breaks to the rich and make a very bad situation even worse. it is apparently not good enough that the top 1% today own more wealth than the bottom 90%.

that is rather phenomenal. but, in my republican colleagues eyes, the wealthy and the powerful need even more help. the bottom 90%, just not good enough. we can do better than that. not only should the very wealthy be asked to pay their fair share of taxes, the republicans believe that we should give huge tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires. it is apparently from my republican colleagues in corporate america now in many cases enjoying record-breaking profits enjoying the ceos of large corporations now earning 300 times more than what their average employees make. a hundred times more. it is apparently not good enough that since 1975 there has been a 50 trillion, that is with a t,

trillion dollar transfer from the bottom 90% above our population to the top 9%. that apparently is not good enough. so, what we are looking at right now is a situation where republicans want to give massive tax breaks to the rich and come up with programs to hurt our kids, our elderly and working families. mr. chairman, as i'm sure you are well aware, the united states of america is the only country on earth not to guarantee health care to all people. i think most americans would agree with me rich poor young old healthcare is a human right. all of us are going to need the are 51 and this amendment is not agreed to. mr. wyden: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from the state of oregon. mr. wyden: i call up my amendment 1156 and ask it be

reported by number. the presiding officer: the clerk will report by number. the clerk: the senator from oregon mr. wyden proposes an amendment numbered 1156. mr. wyden: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senate will be in order. p mr. wyden: this amendment is simple. it's direct, and i believe the only legislation tonight that is comprehensive on health care that protects medicaid and medicare and the affordable care act. it does that by taking cuts to these vital programs off the table in the senate. so what that means is if you pass this amendment and the house sends us a budget resolution with severe cuts to health care, the senate will have gone on record as being against the cuts. let's not jeopardize the health of millions of americans. support the amendment. a senator: mr. president, once again, i think i've said this ten times tonight. i'll sail it again.

mr. crapo: the budget blueprint we're working on does not deal with medicare and medicaid. it is to secure the border, strengthen the military and our energy independence. the instruction given to the finance committee deals solely with reversing a biden administration nursing home rule that would increase taxpayer costs by billions and jeopardize patients access to long-term care especially in our rural communities. this amendment to be corrosive to the budget resolution if adopted, the amendment contains matter that is inappropriate for a budget resolution, it could jeopardize the resolution's privilege. it violates the budget act because it is not germane to the budget resolution. since the amendment does not meet that standard required by law, i raise a point of order under section 305b2 of the congressional budget act of

1974. mr. wyden: how much time do i have remaining the house is looking at a budget in the commerce and energy committee with cuts in health care, that's why i want to go on record, if they cut health care, we'll be on record for protecting health care. pursuant to section of the budget act, i move to waive. i ask for the yeas and nays. the presiding officer: is there is second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote clo vote: the clerk: ms. alsobrooks.

a long night here in the senate where lawmakers have been voting on a series of amendments funding legislation for this fiscal year. senator mitch mcconnell announced that he will not seek reelection next year. the kentucky republican was elected to the senate seven times. on friday more live coverage of the conservative political action conference. we will also live coverage of the national governance association winter meeting being held here in the nation's capital. you are watching live coverage here ons. c-span2 mr. blumenthal.

the clerk: ms. blunt rochester. what happens if your home ownership goes up, quadruples, for instance. your home's value declines. or if you cannot even get insurance, then your home cannot get a mortgage. so, when you try to sell, no one could get a mortgage to buy your home, and, again, your home's

value crashes. that is what free freddie mac chief economist when this committee about two years ago. coastal flood risk makes homes uninsurable which makes them unmarketable which causes a coastal property value trash which then cascades through the economy like the 2008 mortgage meltdown. except for now, the coastal homeowners insurance crisis he discussed has a new evil sibling , wildfire risk or homeowners nowhere near the coast. same problem. insurance to mortgage the property values to broad economic collapse. here are counties where climate -related risks are expected to quadruple or more present insurance rates by 2055. already high insurance. rates expected as much as quadruple further by 2055.

with obviously predictable effects on property values. here are counties where property values are predicted to decline by as. much as 100%. a decline of 100% is a total wipeout again by 2055 where you may say while that is not until 2055 so that will not affect me, that does not matter except for who looks forward 30 years. mortgage companies do. they want to make sure that their collateral is sound and the homeowner is able to pay the mortgage which is why in high-risk areas, they are dumping more and more mortgages into federal fannie and freddie, grabbing the fees and passing the risk to taxpayers. i commend on that they report mortgage securitization in the aftermath of natural disasters. insurance companies have to be rated for that mortgage to get

into freddie and fannie. there is a rating agency that has left from being a negligible presence in florida's homeowners insurance market when they started in the 1990s to now over 50% by 2018. for that, i commend the report when they exit climate losses, fragile insurers and mortgage markets. the text ratings are so slippery that almost 20% of florida insurance companies rated have already gone bust. remember 2008 and rating agencies, all of this is happening because of fossil fuel industry has been allowed to maintain a free to pollute business model. contrary to basic principles not to mention morality and decency. the negative not baked into the price for the project called a subsidy. this is a big one.

$700 billion every year in the u.s. alone. when trump was soliciting a billion dollars in political money from the fossil fuel industry and by the way he got 100 million that we know of, this was a pretty sweet deal. $700 billion to lock in that subsidy every single year. who pays, we do. one of the ways that we pay is in this looming homeowners insurance crisis and has cascaded to that being trash an economic recession like 2008. it is not just national. here is the economist magazine morning of the $25 trillion hit to the global real estate market in the global economy joined by the financial stability board which warns of systemic risk to banks as property values fall from insurance unavailability joined by the commodities future trading commission which under the first trump administration one that climate change, i'm quoting here, poses a major risk to the financial system and to

its ability to sustain the american economy. that is the backdrop for the amendment striking the edw instruction. that instruction is a giveaway to big polluters that will not even maintain their pipes and wells and will only make the climate crisis and the economic effects of it worse. i will have more to say is i discuss each amendment and i think the chair for allowing me the extra minute. >> thank you very much. does anyone else want to make an opening statement? >> a quick comment. >> okay. thank you. the $9 trillion in cuts have not been explained through any of the presentations by my republican colleagues. those 9 trillion are going to attack the programs for working families across the board. the great betrayal. second of all, the trump tax

cuts which refer to as helping working families, let's get the actual story. the bottom 10% of americans struggling to stand on their feet, $6, not just $6 a day a week or month but $6 a year. that is one cup of coffee. do not drink it all at once because you have to spread it over an entire year. meanwhile, the riches .1% get tax. out about hundred $14,000. they represent 11,000 of the population, but they get one seventh of the benefits. this is just increasing the wealth disparity that is haunting us and corrupting our we the people democracy. while we were talking here, the house put out their budget resolution and it contains the following. 4.5 trillion in tax giveaways for the richest americans are for americans overall but mostly the riches americans. 1.5 trillion in spending cuts leaving a whole of 3 trillion to

be barred from the treasury on top of what was already going to be borrowed. so, to cover this additional massive increase in the national deficit, this fiscal responsibility, they propose putting an elimination of the debt ceiling. so we see the same issues being raised that democrats here been talking about that this is a vision ofba cutting programs for families, increasing the wealth of the wealthiest americans and funding that through a massive borrowing fromh, the treasury running up the debt. i do have a final final and the source of for the record, my colleague, senator lou hand he was ill today -- >> is it on? >> you could not hear me. >> i could. [laughter] >> i will read the book. [laughter] >> he is ill today, but he did

have a statement for the record representing his views which echo many of the comments. >> unanimous consent, this submitted. >> without objection. >> thank you. >> thankoz you, chairman. >> the second boat is on. >> i have voted. >> we are good to go. we have another cap next confirmation from president trump which is very exciting. we will get a team in place. thank you for starting this process, thank you for getting this going. i think we need to go back in time for just a bit. just go back to 2020. an election in 2020. the democrats gained control of the senate and the white house. been the result.e white house. during the four years of president trump his first term, it was never better for working-class americans. real wage growth grew. the middle class was doing better. our economy was doing fantastic.

the republicans had asked which gave tax relief to all americans and we received, this is very important. we received, the federal government received a record amount of revenue. even though there were tax cuts for the wealthy was the headline , by the way, the outline is as old as dirt and it is totally false while the tax race, tax revenue was a record level. it would be fascinating if it was just one democrat that acknowledged that we received a record amount of revenue. wait a second, i am a business guy, if my revenue was at an all-time high and i was losing money, i would say that we have a huge expense problem. how can i get record revenue and yet have record deficits.

why? because when you give democrats control of our budget, what happens? when my colleagues talk about how they defend the working class, i think the working class spoke pretty clearly and said thank you, but no thank you, so what can happen, in my own world of voting car dealerships, you can walk into one of my dealerships, be a multimillionaire, pick out a beautiful custom-made rolls-royce where the audio system upgraded $21,000. the logoed headrest in the backseat are $1500. a logo 10 grand. you can lease that car and thanks to the amazing and remarkable policies for the democratic party, the federal government will give you a check for $7500.

think about that for just a second. that is a bill that became law called the inflation reduction act giving rolls-royce lease customers $7500 lower than inflation and every one of them voted for that bill. how did that bill become law, u.s. did they get 60 votes, rigorous debate, no, they did it through reconciliation and pamela harris wrote the tie-breaking vote so that multimillionaires could have their fifth vehicle parked in palm beach with a check for $7500 paid by the u.s. taxpayer. we have seen program after program that the democrats are crying about saying americans did not vote for this. oh absolutely, they did. americans are sick and tired of

political people here in washington, d.c. spending our money and burning it. they are not even using it wisely. they are putting it into a pit and burning it. the reason i am here not on the beach in florida today is because i was sick and tired of elected leaders here who spend their money in such a callous way. we are here to help you. you are not helping us. generationally high inflation. more interested in giving hundreds of billions of dollars to foreign countries then helping the real people in my state and around the country who need help from our leaders. look, i was in new york city for my daughter live driving down fifth avenue. there is a hotel that i remember going to as a kid. incredible luxury hotel. we never stayed there, we had seven kids in our family. my parents were not going to be able to afford it.

the roosevelt hotel. i remember my mom and dad looking at me in going that is where the rich people stay. who houses, who stays in that hotel today? 1050 plus rooms. all full every single day with illegal aliens at a cost of over $6000 per room per night. who owns the hotel you ask yourself, the government of pakistan. the same government that housed osama bin laden getting upwards of $100 million a year from the u.s. taxpayer. my democrat colleagues, god bless you if you are good enough to sell that crap to the american people. on behalf of the people of ohio and writ large the people of the united states of america, it is time for the united states

government to do what every household has to do and balance their damn budget. we are sick and tired of wasteful spending. we will not put up with it anymore and chairman, let's get started. >> thank you. we will get started after lunch. [laughter] 1:45 p.m. we are coming back. thank you very much. >> meeting is adjourned until 145.

the clerk: mr. young, no.

the clerk: mr. mcconnell, no. the presiding officer: on this vote the yeas are 47. the nays are 53.

three-fifths of the senators duly chosen and sworn not having voted in the affirmative, the motion is not agreed to. the point of order is sustained and the amendment fails. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from wisconsin. ms. baldwin: mr. president, i call up my amendment -- the presiding officer: order, please. ms. baldwin: thank you, mr. president, i call up my amendment number 276 to protect seniors relying on medicaid and ask that it be reported by number. the presiding officer: the clerk will report by number. the clerk: the senator from wisconsin, ms. baldwin, proposes an amendment numbered 276. the presiding officer: could we have order, please. go ahead. ms. baldwin: medicaid is the lifeline for the eight million seniors who rely on the program to access health care. medicaid helps almost two-thirds of all nursing home residents have a safe roof over their

heads. republicans would like us to believe that their proposed cuts are tackling waste, fraud, and abuse. but make no mistake, stripping away health kcare and nursing home funding for our parents and grandparents, it's not reform, nor is it eliminating waste. rather it is a deliberate choice to give tax breaks for their billionaire friends instead of ensuring that seniors across the country have access to the long-term care and support they need. it is a deliberate choice to prioritize tax cuts for billionaires over ensuring that nursing homes can keep their doors open. it is a deliberate choice to take away health care from millions of seniors. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from idaho mr. crapo: mr. president, i'll just say what i said before. this amendment violates the congressional budget act because

it is not germane to the budget resolution. since the amendment does not meet that standard, i raise a point of order against the amendment under section 305-b-2 of the congressional budget act of 1974. ms. baldwin: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from wisconsin. ms. baldwin: mr. president, pursuant to section 904 of the congressional budget act, i move to waive and ask for the yeas and the nays. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote: the clerk: ms. alsobrooks.

a long night here in the senate where lawmakers have been voting on a series of amendments voting on legislation for this fiscal year. senator mitch mcconnell says that he will not seek reelection next year. kentucky republican elected through the senate seven times. on friday, more live coverage of the conservative political action conference along with live coverage of the association winter meeting in california. you are watching live senate coverage here on c-span2. ms. blunt rochester.

mr. booker. thank you all for coming back. the business quorum being present. resuming this meeting today for the purpose of sharing the budget resolution for fiscal year 2025 and ordering it reported consistent with the requirements of the budget act timely filed amendments in order members will be recognized for three minutes to explain their amendment. two minutes in opposition. until we have our stacked votes there will be an additional minute prior to each of those votes. unanimous consent at the reading of the amendments be waived.

hearing no objection, it is ordered with respect to voting our committee rules do not allow for proxies. you coveredh. that with the senator, he will be allowed to do that. members must be present when votes take lace in order for them to be tallied except for him. as has been done in prior budget markups. debating amendments in certain blocks. on these amendments. is that fair to say? >> we are all good. let the games begin. >> senator. >> thank you very much, chair, graham. i am willing to start with amendment number one. this amendment takes us back to the original purpose of

reconciliation. 1974 all 100 senators of the u.s. senate agreed to create a filibuster free pathway for one purpose reducing the deficit. during the debate that we had earlier today, i heard a lot of colleagues across the aisle say they are all for reducing the deficit. i put up a chart that showed under every single republican administration that deficits increase year after year and under every democratic administration they decreased every year. so, let's match the rhetoric with the act. let's put the walk into the talk and restore the principal that reconciliation is to either create a deficit neutral that is not increasing the deficit or, better yet, decrease the deficits rather than increase them. this amendment simply restores that vision consistent with what chairman graham has said he wants to do with this reconciliation bill.

mac senator kennedy. >> i have a question. >> okay. >> and i asked this gently and with great respect. if this is such a swell idea, why did you not propose it under the biden administration when my democratic colleagues used reconciliation. >> the history of this is it was changed in 1996. the principle of all 100 senators voted reconciliation to only decrease the deficit was in 1974 and it held for 22 years. 1996 the bush administration wanted to do a significant set of tax reductions and decided they could not get them fast with democratic support so they would do. it by themselves. the majority leader at that time robert dole put into the

parliamentary position robert delta who had worked for dole and the parliament terry delivered a ruling completely out of sync with the history of reconciliation and said, you know what, even though it is not in the law, even though it's about deficit reduction we will allow -- allow increases if they are for taxes in the majority proceeded to affirm that. this is called a "nuclear option". kent conrad when he was chair this committee repeatedly every single time he was able, he put the conrad rule back in place. since then, we have had multiple republican tax bills that have gone through this committee increasing the deficit. we've had one that was the american rescue plan. the one and only time democrats increase the deficit and that was because of response to the challenge we face with covid and the collapse of the economy. >> why did you not want to make this change when you guys were

majority under president biden. >> to my colleague, i was not in charge of this committee, so i cannot speak to the details. i do know that the only time that democrats used reconciliation that increase deficit was the american rescue plan and that was because the economy was in dire condition due to the collapse caused by covid. >> thank you. along with what the senator said , the last asked to reconciliation bills that blew up the deficit. the american rescue plan. you indicated the deficit by 2 trillion. the joint committee on taxation badly underestimated the cost of inflation reduction act. green energy tax credit expected to cost over 1 trillion by some estimates. republicans order reconciliation bill going to be fully paid for. so that this amendment is unnecessary. thank you very much.

>> totally consistent with the chairman's vision. [laughter] be met there you go. next. [laughter] >> i thought that we were going to stack them. >> in -- expired on the base of the amendment had take a vote will be agreed to find time. senator murray. senator murray. >> thank you. a very straightforward amendment title ii contains the reconciliation instruction as well as the company reserve fund and it creates a new reserve fund to implement a bipartisan multiyear agreement to provide 175 million in discretionary funding a defense. letting us address defense, border, veterans, farmers, food,

nutrition, biomedical research childcare and a lot of other needs on the bipartisan basis. mr. chairman, i agree with you. we face serious challenges and i think that you will find agreement up and down, democrats share concerns of national security. providing more research to address the challenges at the border and making sure that we counter china. we also want to make sure that we address critical areas biomedical research childcare and aot lot more. approaching my amendment is simple. just to say on a bipartisan basis and this should be part of the topline conversation we are having now as we hurtled towards that deadline i want to make something very right. democrats are at the table. it is getting lonely for us when

we see republicans assume a trillion dollars for this year alone and unilateral bench cuts remain quiet as they continue to unlawfully impound those funds and now proposed to jam through 382 billion in funding for your priorities on a partisan basis while we are in the room trying to negotiate for fiscal year 25. i urge my republican colleagues let get serious. regarding the funding labs coming up on march 14 not to mention cuts that will go into effect in april. big challenges that stand ready to work with you. we need to know at some point you want to work with us. at some point working with us means actually working with us and not telling us to accept a trillion dollars and cut at the same time you are spending

342 billion on your own. >> this amendment explains why we are here better than any amendment that we've got. we want to increase defense spending because we believe that we have threats that are really unprecedented. we want to rebuild our military as quickly as we can. the budgeted agreement that you alluded to have defense under inflation. you and senator collins to your great credit added new money for defense. i appreciate that very much. all of us believe we need to decrease seriously now and we do not need $171 billion for non- defense spending. why are we doing reconciliation, so that we do not have to do that. we can help the defense department that is underfunded and we do not have to come up with $171 billion for non-defense spending. that is why we are doing

reconciliation. to break that cycle. >> all right. time is expired. we will vote at the appropriate time. he was next. senator whiteman. >> thank you very much. just instruction to in effect prevent medicaid from being cut. we what's strike the instruction because it allows the opportunity to cut medicaid. our choice here is will we be there for working people, because most of the folks on medicaid are working. they are also taking care of families and their walking and economic type month every month. balancing the food bill against healthcare costs. we added some discussion earlier about nursing homes. nursing homes patient take much

of the medicaid budget. so if you are for the patient, if you are for vulnerable people , i will just close with this. a rural institution. you get these deep medicaid cuts house republicans release their budget today. there plan spelled out, not some abstract deal. there are cuts of nearly $1 trillion or more aimed at medicaid. and for rural america, for the vulnerable across the land, this is the safety net that they rely on. iredell my colleagues to support striking this because otherwise we would open up the door and here in the senate cut medicaid. >> senator. >> thank you, mr. chairman. this is not the house republican budget that is being proposed to be considered in the house.

this is a very specific budget reconciliation bill that focuses specifically on border, on national defense and on energy enhancement. there is a very narrow as i explained in my introductory statement a very narrow instruction to the finance committee that focuses solely on nursing homes, not on medicaid. it focuses on a nursing home regulation, not on a spending authorization. this regulation, by the way it's implemented with increased taxpayer costs and jeopardizing patient access in rural area to long-term care. this will help patients and save spending. >> mr. chairman, very briefly. >> absolutely. >> as i said earlier, what this rule means is we will have a lot of nursing homes in america without nurses. there is been a great effort to try to work out something in this area that would be bipartisan.

as i mentioned rural areas being both important in the senate, we give them five years, essentially, to work this out. i would just say that i think that it will be a grievous area -- air to cut the most vulnerable in our society. you can prevent that by supporting this amendment. i yield back. >> we will vote at the appropriate time. senator sanders. >> thank you, mr. chairman. >> this amendment that i'm offering is quite simple and very straightforward. mr. chairman, at a time when we spend more on the military for the next nine nations combined, at a time when the pentagon failed its financial audit and cannot account for trillions of -- even in washington, a trillion dollars is a lot of money. at a time of massive waste and

cost overruns at the department of defense, this amendment says that no, we should not be giving the pentagon an additional $150 billion. mr. chairman, as you well know, we already spent close to $1 trillion a year on the military and, if some people think that it is important to build more ships to develop more air and missile defense systems, there is more than enough money to do that within the existing pentagon budget. they do not need another $150 billion. but, mr. chairman, do not take my word for it. i will give you the feelings of some people that you may pay

more attention to then be paired the president of the united states, donald trump vowed to cut the bloated pentagon budget. he said, quote, let check the military. we will find billions, hundreds of billion dollars in fraud and abuse. ". well, that is not bernie sanders , that is donald trump. i know that on the other side of the aisle we take what mr. trump says very, very seriously. mike walks, president trumps national security advisor recently told nbc the american people have said enough. enough with the bloat and the waste in the debt. we do need to go in there and absolutely reform the pentagon's acquisition process. last, but not least my good friend elon musk who is currently running united states government and what mr. musk

says is that the pentagon has little idea how its annual budget of more than 800 billion is spent. mr. musk, let's talk about the ways. i was a mayor and we went after waste and there was a lot of it and there is waste from the federal government. i don't think anyone denies that what goes on in programs that impact working people, take a hard look at what they are chosg doing rm is not agreed to. the point of order is sustained and the amendment fails. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. thune: i ask unanimous consent that the following amendments be the next in order, that the amendments being reported by number with no amendments in order prior to a vote on the amendments. paul number 999, slotkin number

664, van hollen 233, and shaheen 236. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. the senator from rhode island. mr. reed: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent to call up amendment number 172, which was cosponsored by my colleague, senators lujan and alsobrooks and ask that it be reported by number. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from rhode island, mr. reed, proposes an amendment numbered 172. mr. reed: mr. president, the other day president trump said medicare, medicaid, none of that stuff is going to be touched. if that's statement had any truth behind it, then my colleagues on the other side of the aisle should be voting for this amendment. which calls for a point of order against any legislation that cuts medicaid or medicare. medicare serves 67 million

seniors and people with disabilities, and nearly 80 million americans rely on medicaid. failing to pass this amendment will be a signal that these programs are on the chopping block. this vote will be a test for all of us, particularly my republican colleagues. are we going to protect medicare and medicaid or are they, my republican colleagues, going to use this as a piggy bank for tax cuts for the wealthy. i urge my colleagues to support this amendment. mr. crapo: mr. president, i repeat what i said before and because this amendment violates the congressional budget arctic it is not germane to the budget resolution. since the amendment does not meet that standard required by law, i raise a point of order against the amendment under section 305-b-2 of the congressional budget act of 1974. mr. reed: pursuant to section 904 of the congressional bucket act, i move to waive and 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. a long night here in the senate where lawmakers have been voting on a series of amendments funding legislation for this fiscal year. senator mitch mcconnell announced that he will not seek reelection next year. the kentucky republican was elected to the senate seven times. on friday more live coverage of the political action conference.

live coverage of the national governors association winter meeting being held here in the nation's capital. you are watching live senate coverage here on c-span2. the mac i actually would like to do that. >> you cannot believe how old and dystopian it looks. i will call out my first amendment as modified which establish the fund to protect sensitive and classified information. this ought to be i think an easy one. i can tell you is chairman and vice chairman of the intel committee and the federal government has to do all they can to safeguard security

information obviously at the same time protect privacy. president trump and his cabinet have given access to the most sensitive information including the information to lead and perhaps manipulate data on the payments the treasurer makes each year. this includes one operative that formally worked for russia hacker group and was fired for leaking sensitive secrets to its competitor. another declared himself a racist and said that he was not yet gaza and israel wiped off the face of the earth. now, i do not think somebody would give up information to a competitor, someone that israel and gaza ought to be wiped off the face of the earth, is that the kind of one person thinking information or social security

information. looking at the check book let alone the payment systems of the united states of america. it will not stop. the truth is, mr. chairman, as you know, checking out the pentagon it aside for the interest given that mr. musk spacex plays a major role in that defense environment. presenting a serious risk of classified programs that keep our nation safe. my amendment provides a commonsense solution that all members of the committee supported and allow for legislation that will protect classified and sensitive information on american programs from being accessed by doge who

do not have the necessary training, experience or in the case of some of the mentioned you would have somebody with the secret clarity that are beyond fbi, many of the colleagues on this committee now have important ways to keep our information secret and secured. i would urge you to back this amendment. thank you, chair. >> thank you, mr. chairman i would like to tell my colleague that i would welcome to comment to her the ammunition factory. that would be very interesting. >> i can only come if i vote yes ? [laughter] >> let me just say the trump administration has been clear that it is focused on rooting out waste my fraud and abuse across government agencies and i applaud his efforts. as a part of these efforts and

expanding, frankly upon efforts by the prior administration, conducting a review of the systems and processes using its own employees. the treasury employees responsible for this process are following standard practices as has very clearly been explained by the new secretary of treasury to protect the integrity of the systems and processes. there is nothing unusual about auditing the federal reserve or auditing the treasury or any other agency and that is what is going on. those involved are adhering to treasury customary security safety and privacy standards and are subject to the customary security obligations and ethical requirements and by defending status quo bureaucratic inefficiencies, democrats are opposing efforts to root out waste, fraud and abuse. i encourage a no vote mac i love

my friend, we work together on a lot of things. i just asked you respectfully, the fellow who quit, who got fired, the racist chance, had nothing but a secret clearance i was a temporary clearance. you have allowed him to be exposed, or someone has allowed him to be asked most to a level of payment markers that even people with an fbi clearance haven't. maybe it was a mistake the first time, but i completely fear that these folks are not coming in with appropriate security clearance. i would ask the community, you know, if. i am wrong, prove me wrong. in the meantime what the actual reporting says about the individuals. so far at least the criteria are not being adhered to. >> mr. chairman, very briefly.

the secretary of treasury has indicated that he is taken your challenge and request seriously. he has reviewed this and he is complying with the privacy and other requirements. if that is not being done let's go talk with the treasury secretary again, but let's not try to stop the effort to audit our agencies and weed out waste, fraud and abuse. >> thank you. the time has expired. we will vote on that amendment soon. senator kaine. kane amendment one. fairly straightforward and may know before you cut the amendment is how i would summarize it. it was created in order against any legislation that affects health insurance coverage without an estimate that lays out what the effect on health insurance coverage would be paired we have heard rumors and seamless floating around earlier today about potential cuts that republican colleagues are planning to use to pay for this

additional border in defense spending as well as tax cuts. they are very heavy on cuts to programs that help americans access healthcare, medicare, medicaid, the affordable care act and others. if that is the will of the majority, then that will be the will of the majority, but we should not be trying to reduce in this country, we should be trying to increase it. if the package, the legislation reaches the floor in their provisions that affect these health programs, the cbo must come up with an estimate telling us how many millions of americans will be affected and their health coverage before the vote. if that estimate is on the table and the majority pushing forward with the proposal, so be it, but we should know what the effect on america's healthcare is before we vote on major legislation that affects these programs. that is what my amendment would do. >> this creates a new order that

prohibits passage of legislation that infects healthcare until a score is available for 72 hours. this amendment would slow down consideration for legislation. working as fast as they can to put together scores. this amendment is not appropriate for budget resolution and would therefore jeopardize our ability to use reconciliation if adopted. i respectfully oppose the amendment. all the time has expired. >> wedi are done. >> senator vanallen. >> thank you, chair and colleagues. my amendment is labeled and holland number four. pretty straight forward. it shall not be in order for the senate to consider any legislation that cuts funding to medicare or medicaid benefits.

so, i am all in with anybody that wants to have more efficiency in the pogrom for anybody that wants to go after medicare fraud, we should do that. candidate trump did not campaign on medicare. he did not campaign on cutting medicaid. as i said this morning, when he was asked about project 2025 he said i do not know anything about that. project 2025 does call for changes to medicaid. they want to cap medicaid benefits which would have a hugely disproportionate impact on people with disabilities. if you look at the house republican proposals, talking about advertising, medicare and they are also talking about block grantingrn medicaid. none of this, none of these are things that now president trump ran on. this creates some guardrails against cutting these very

important benefits whether medicare medicaid and i urge my colleagues to some ordinate. >> thank you. this amendment is out of order because it is not in the budget committee's jurisdiction. if adopted it would jeopardize the budget resolution. democrats are the ones that took money from medicare do to tax credits and their inflation reduction act. this amendment is out of order. rule to be out of order. >> senator. >> thank you, chairman. i will call out white house one repeal the effort to undo the opposed methane. can i start with the proposition that this is lee's. this is oil and gas companies not maintaining their pipelines, not maintaining their valves, not maintaining their wells and

causing methane which is explosive and poisonous to believe. all they have to do is fix their damn equipment. we also know that they have been under reporting methane leaks for years. for years. now it turns out that we can actually measure methane with satellites and we know that they are reportingki about a quarterf their leakage. this is not an industry that comes to this with clean and spirit this is basic cleanup your own mess principles. all they have to do is fix their equipment to stop it. by the way, the way that this developed through the er array is because of senator mansion's role in the foster fuel industry they got frontloaded, i think $1.8 million to clean all of this up and in return, they got

this fee on leakage which they could avoid by fixing their leaks with the $1.8 million. to keep the money in their pockets and now come back and try to undo this so that they can keep building and leaking methane. now we can catch them at it. we see it. the satellites show methane. there is a lot that i disagree with about climate stuff in the direction we are going. i spoke in my opening statement about the dangers hitting our home insurance markets in which will translate into mortgage problems and property value problems and the whole economic cascade. setting all of that aside, this is just really dirty pool by this industryhm to ask all of yu to allow them to maintain free leaks of poisonous explosive methane wherever they go. find something else.

there are better ways to do whatever you want to do in this reconciliation then letting it be free for these companies to leak. a lot of this is in your states. your folks at after breed this. your folks set up to get in explosions when they go off. for god sake, please, let's at least say no with respect to this one thing. >> senator lee would also like to make a comment. senator lee first. >> this amendment would strike the instructions going to ep w. and by striking those instructions, we would close the opportunity there to recover wasteful spending to the tune of $1 billion. it is brought about by a partyline vote in the inflation reduction act a few years ago.

now if this was too hi, it brought about awful inflation along with so many other things in that and other pieces of legislation passed during that time. making it more expensive to buy everything from gas to groceries and housing to healthcare. one of the reasons that we need to do it as we have talked about in this bill is our border has been overrun, public safety threats are imminent, ongoing and have been for a long time as the previous administration open doors policy rich international drug cartels to the tune of tens of billions of dollars as they have accelerated their human and drug trafficking operations in this country. so, yeah, we have to figure out ways to pay for that. it is just one of many ways. the measuring question includes grants for environmental and climate justice. so, when we think about, you know, speaking of things that

involve cleaning up your own mess, we are cleaning up the mess left to us by democrats. an open border that we have to deal with now and a messy set of spending measures that have proven very costly to the american people. i oppose this. >> senator kennedy, would you like to say something very quick >> i would. i don't know how quickly. [laughter] >> as i read your amendment, it is more than just about methane. for what it is worth, i happen to agree with you about methane leaks and i think we are doing a lot better. but what if we found the methane leak program about the administration funded that is bone deep stupid and the money is being wasted. just because it is about methane does notr. mean it is super effective or efficient. this would prevent us from making commonsensical changes.

that is why i've got to oppose it. >> that was quick. >> very clearly targeting one specific thing which is the methane fee which is putting a price on leaking methane so that they do not. >> how do you know that? how are you reading our minds? >> it is pretty clear. >> no, it is not. >> it is pretty clear when you look at the instruction. if i'm wrong i will apologize to you. this is where it will go. if you want right now to say, okay, we will lay off the methane fee, we will make these liquor -- leakers fix their damned equipment so that 14 million homes of natural gas is not just being vented into the air that we breathe every single year because they are leaking and not maintaining their equipment, if you want to concede me that, if we will take that off the table for ep w

consideration, the chairman sits on ep w, he can help with that, i am happy to pull this back. i don't think that is the case. .... .... mr. mcconnell, no. mrs. blackburn, no. the clerk: mr. schatz, aye.

>> senate committee on aye. agriculture nutrition and forestry the program supports one in eight americans, 14 million people across the country including what in five children.

folks, one dollar in snap benefits generates 1.50 in economic activity reducing food insecurity and lowering healthcare costs for children, parents and older adults, disabled individuals and more. despite this, the administration vote, the yeas are 49, the nays are 51, three-fifths of the senators not having voted in the affirmative, the motion is not agreed to, the point of order is sustained and the amendment fails.

mr. reed: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. reed: mr. president, before i call up my amendment, i ask that senator coons be added as a cosponsor of the reed-shaheen amendment numbered 299. i call up my amendment 299. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from rhode island, reed, proposes amendment numbered 2 the 9.

mr. reed: this is for -- for three yeukraine -- three years ukraine has fought tooth and and withstanding barbaric attacks, and they have refused to bend to putin's demands, but this require and need the united states support. in the same three years in this body we have heard extensive criticism of the biden administration's ukraine policy. they were not going fast enough, they're not allowing ukraine to be aggressive enough, it is not enabling ukraine to win on the battlefield. when the trump administration is cutting deals with putin and walking away from ukraine, we do not hear much at all.

what's happened? well, regardless of what happened, we cannot abandon ukraine and rush into a negotiation with a brutal dictator who will not stop at ukraine and will turn on our allies. we must support this amendment. the presiding officer: the senator from mississippi. mr. wicker: i rise in opposition to this amendment and urge my colleagues to oppose it. there's no greater supporter of ukraine in this senate than i am. but this is not the right vehicle. this is a budget to add for national security investment, missile defense, shipbuilding, munition, cybersecurity, taking care of our troops and protecting our borders. there's a place to talk about ukraine. it's not this budget. but passage of this amendment, though members might wish to,

will make it harder to pass this very valuable budget and that's what this is about. that's why even i, a huge supporter of what we're doing in ukraine, have to vote no on this so we can pass a good budget. i urge a no vote. the presiding officer: the question is on the amendment. is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. the clerk: ms. alsobrooks. vote: the clerk: ms. baldwin.

the clerk: mr. banks.

>> this is an amendment that would offer additional funding for the very projects that receive billions upon billions of dollars in handouts under the biden administration through the bipartisan infrastructure law and also inflation reduction act. projects sponsored by those bills are by the impacted communities, wind projects linked to the deaths of locally significant wildlife in solar projects that prevent multiple use like recreational use or grazing on federal land and i oppose it and i encourage my colleagues to do the same. >> time has expired. now we will start voting. all getting here. you have been very prompt. we will vote on the amendments in the order in which they were offered. i will recommend each side for 30 seconds before each vote and all of the debate time has expired, so first is senator

merkley warren. >> thank you, mr. chairman, very simply the purpose of reconciliation was to do deficit neutral or deficit decreasing legislation and my understanding that is the goal of the budget resolution before us and so let's restore that principle so a bunch of proposals come back that violate that and increase the deficit. >> thank you. what i said before, senator murray. >> no, we are going to -- >> i will call the roll now. okay.. okay, call the roll, i'm sorry. >> senator grassley. >> no. >> mr. johnson. >> mr. marshal? >> no.

>> mr. cornyn? >> mr. lee? >> no. >> mr. kennedy? >> no. mr. moreno? >> no. >> mr. scott? >> no. >> mr. merkley? >> aye. >> mr. widen? >> aye. >> mr. sanders? mr. white house? >> aye. >> mr. warner? >> aye. >> mr. cane? >> aye. >> mr. van holland? mr. luhan. >> luhan votes aye.

>> mr. padilla? >> aye. >> mr. chairman? >> no. [inaudible conversations] >> mr. chairman, the ayes are 8 and the nays are ten. >> senator sanders, go ahead and vote. >> mr. sanders? >> whose amendment? >> my amendment. >> senator cornyn, he's on the day. >> we will get there.

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> he's on the way. >> let's just go ahead and call the vote.

>> the yeas are nine and nays are ten. >> next, senator murray, one. >> contains the written reconciliation instruction -- >> sorry, my amendment has two things. title 2 which contains the reconciliation instructions and the reserve funds, it creates a new reserve fund to implement bipartisan multiyear agreement to provide 171 billion in funding for defense and 171 billion for nondefense. so it allows us to address national security needs and challenges the border but makes sure that we are tackling wild fires, disaster response and supporting our veterans and a lot more. i urge my colleagues to support the amendment. >> again, what i said before, i mean, we are --nd we need a lot more ships than we've got and

military spending is in historic low and every dollar to the military would be a blessing to the war fighter so i oppose the amendment. the clerk will call the roll. >> mr. grassley? >> no. >> mr. crepo? mr. johnson? >> no. >> mr. marshal? >> no. >> mr. coryny? >> no. >> mr. lee? >> no. >> mr. kennedy? >> no. >> no. >> mr. moreno? >> no. >> mr. scott? mr. merkley? mrs. murray? >> aye.ri >> mr. widen?

>> aye. >> mr. sanders? >> aye. >> mr. whitehouse? >> aye. >> mr. warner? >> aye. >> mr. kane? >> aye. >> mr. van holland? mr. luhan? >> is that okay? yeah. thank you. [laughter] momentum here. mr. padilla? >> aye. >> mr. chairman? >> no. >> mr. chairman, the yeas are ten the and the nays are 11. >> senator widen one. >> thank you, mr. chairman. this takes medicaid off the chopping block in the united states senate.

and we know that medicaid is a lifeline for nursing home patients and families. we know it's so important in rural communities. we know it's so important for employees who work somewhere where the employer can't afford healthcare coverage. i urge my colleagues to support this amendment. i guessth it's called widen one. >> what senator said before sounds good to me. i will oppose it. the clerk will call the roll. >> mr. grassley? >> no. >> mr. crepo? >> no. >> mr. johnson? >> no. >> mr. marshal? >> no. >> mr. cornyn? >> no. >> mr. lee? >> no. >> mr. kennedy? >> no.

>> mr. ricketts? >> no. >> mr. moreno? >> no. >> mr. scott? >> no. >> mr. merkley? >> aye. >> mrs. murray? >> aye. >> mr. widen? >> aye. >> mr. sanders? >> aye. >> mr. whitehouse? >> aye. >> mr. warner? >> aye. >> mr. kane? >> aye. >> mr. van holland? >> aye. >> mr. lujan? mr. padilla? >> aye. >> mr. chairman -- >> senator lujan votes aye by proxy? i vote no.

>> mr. chairman the yeas are ten, the nays are 11. >> okay. next senator sanders-warren. >> thank you, mr. chairman, i think everybody at this table knows there's massive waste, fraud and abuse at the pentagon. donald trump knows that. he just said recently the other day, quote, let's check the military, we are going to find billions, hundreds of billions of dollars in fraud and abuse, end quote. everybody knows this. if the pentagon needs more money to do ab and c mrs. plenty of money available if you deal with the waste, fraud and abuse. so what this amendment simply does cuts out the extra $150 billion that is in the resolution. i ask for the yeas. >> again, our military is at

historically gdp to defense low. if you want a bigger -- president trump said two weeks we are going to go to 5 percentage, above 4 billion that we are spending so i would disrespectfully disagree and oppose the amendment. the clerk will call the roll. >> mr. grassley? >> no. >> mr. crepo? mr. johnson? mr. marshal? mr. lee? >> no. >> mr. kennedy? >> no. >> mr. ricketts? >> no. >> mr. moreno? >> no. >> mr. scott? >> no. >> mr. merkley?

aye. >> mrs. murray? vote aye. >> mr. widen? >> aye. [laughter] >> mr. sanders?uc >> aye. >> mr. whitehouse? >> aye. >> mr. warner? >> no. >> mr. kane? >> no. >> mr. van holland? >> aye. >> mr. lujan? >> are you sure about that? >> yes. >> i'm checking out, i'm trying to get my -- he votes no. >> mr. padilla? >> no. >> mr. chairman? >> no. >> mr. chairman, the yeas are six and the nays are 15.

>> thank you. senator whitehouse one. >> thank you, chairman, this would protect the methane leak specifically targeted by lifting the instruction related to metric tons of methane leaked out for which the industry received $1.6 billion up front for repairs as a part of the deal for this fee and now they're walking away from it, better way from walking from paying the fee is to stop the leaking so i ask everybody to vote aye. >> senator lee, i will reiterate what he said. >> encouraging my colleagues to vote no. >> okay, the clerk will call the roll.

>> mr. grassley? >> no. >> mr. crepo? >> no. >> mr. johnson? >> no. >> mr. marshal? >> no. >> mr. cornyn. not agreed to. the senator from kentucky. mr. paul: -- be reported by number. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from kentucky, mr. paul, proposes an amendment numbered 999. mr. paul: mr. president, the budget bill before us instructs the senate to find $342 billion in new spending. the budget bill as written is a spending bill. my amendment would add language to cut spending. the cuts would total $1.5 trillion. these cuts mirror the cuts from

the house budget resolution that has been passed. this year the deficit will exceed $2 trillion. it is a fiscal imperative that congress begin to cut spending. mr. merkley: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. merkley: mr. president, all evening we've been pointing out that with this bill, families lose and billionaires win. that is certainly put on to steroids with this amendment because this amendment would add a quarter trillion dollars directed at the snap program. it would add a third of a trillion dollars directed at reducing the viability of student loans and almost three-quarters of a trillion dollars to devastate medicaid. programs that families depend on to be able to thrive, move into the middle class, pursue opportunity. i encourage everyone if you don't want to have a bill in which families lose, vote no.

the presiding officer: if there's no further debate, the question is on the amendment. is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote: >> a long night in the senate where lawmakers have been voting on a series of amendments funding legislation for this fiscal year. some senate news, senator mitch mcconnell will not seek reelection next year. the republican senator was you're watching live senate coverage here on c-span2

>> mr. sanders? >> aye. >> mr. whitehouse? >> aye. >> mr. warner? >> aye. >> mr. kane? >> aye. >> mr. van holland? mr. lujan? >> aye. mr. chairman? >> no. >> mr. chairman, the yeas are ten the, the nays are 11. >> next is senator kane one. >> this is the one that i call the no before you cut amendment point of order against any legislation affecting health coverage until the cbo gives us the number of americans affected by that legislation. obviously a point of order can be waived with the 60 votes on the floor but for it would

ensure that we know the consequences of our actions on american self-care before we vote on legislation. >> thank you very much, senator kane. i think i've ruled this out of order. you want to the appeal? >> i will appeal. >> all of us are going to vote aye. anybody else want to say -- i'm voting -- >> mr. chair, can i inquire because you make other ruleition like this. this is the first one you ruled out of order, why is this out of order? >> outside of the jurisdiction of the committee. all right. move to table the appeal, the motion is nondebatable, the question is on the motion, ruling of the chair. all those in favor tabling the rule say aye? all oppose, no?

you want to roll call because i will say it's the aye. okay, let's have a roll call. >> mr. grassley? >> aye. >> mr. cr everything po? >> aye. >> mr. johnson? >> aye. >> mr. marshal? >> aye. >> mr. cornyn? >> aye. >> mr. lee? >> aye. >> mr. kennedy? >> aye. >> mr. ricketts? >> aye. >> mr. moreno? >> aye. >> mr. scott? >> aye. >> mr. merkley? >> no. >> mrs. murray? >> no. >> mr. widen? >> no. >> mr. sanders? >> no. >> mr. whitehouse? >> no. >> okay, got you. >> mr. warner? >> no. >> mr. kane? >> no. >> mr. van holland? >> no.

>> mr. lujan? >> vote no. >> mr. padilla? >> no. >> mr. chairman? >> no. >> aye. never mind. [laughter] >> mr. chairman -- >> yeah. >> mr. chairman, the ayes are 11, the nays are ten. >> thank you. senator van holland number 4. >> thank you, mr. chairman, as we discuss canned earlier this creates point of order against legislation that would cut medicare or medicaid benefits, we should all go after fraud, waste and abuse in medicare or medicaid but no one campaigned on cutting medicare or cutting medicaid so this creates a guardrail against and i urge its adoption. >> thank you, i have determined amendment threatens privilege of the budget resolution therefore rule it out of order. i move to table the motion to table the appeal, the motion is nondebatable. the question --

>> you're ahead of me. i hadn't yet appealed the motion. i do appeal the motion of the chair and i do call for a vote on your motion to table. >> knowing that he would do that, the question is on the motion to appeal the ruling of the chair. all those in favor of tabling the appeal say aye. and they want to roll call vote, call the roll? >> mr. grassley? >> aye. >> mr. crepo? >> aye. >> mr. johnson? >> aye. >> mr. marshal? >> aye. >> mr. cornyn? >> aye. >> mr. lee? >> aye. >> mr. kennedy? >> aye. >> mr. ricketts? >> aye. >> mr. moreno? >> aye. >> mr. scott? >> aye. >> mr. merkley? >> no. >> mrs. murray? >> no. >> mr. widen? >> no. >> mr. sanders?

>> no. >> mr. whitehouse? >> no. >> mr. warner? >> no. >> mr. kane? >> no. >> mr. son holland? >> no. >> mr. lujan? >> lujan votes no. >> mr. padilla? >> no. >> mr. chairman? >> aye. >> mr. chairman, the yeas are 11, the nays are 10. >> lujan number 37. >> thank you, mr. chair. just a reminder this is -- reconciliation per senate committee. seeking to prevent instruction being used to make steep cuts in critical nutrition because they are clearly on the chopping block. i urge you not to turn back of

our -- >> senator will call the roll. >> no. no. >> yes. >> no. come on, baby. [laughter] >> yeah, baby. >> harder than it looks. >> mr. crepo? >> no. >> mr. johnson? >> no. >> mr. marshal? >> no. >> mr. cornyn? mr. lee? >> no. >> mr. kennedy? >> no. >> mr. ricketts? >> no. >> mr. moreno? >> no. >> mr. scott? >> no. >> mr. merkley? >> aye. >> mrs. murray? >> aye. >> mr. widen? >> aye. >> mr. sanders? >> aye.

>> mr. whitehouse? >> aye. >> mr. warner? >> aye. >> mr. kane? >> aye. >> mr. van holland? >> aye. >> mr. lujan? >> lujan votes aye. >> mr. padilla? >> aye. >> mr. chairman? >> no. we have one more on this tranche and get back to the offering amendments. >> oh, i'm sorry. >> mr. chairman, the yeas are ten and the nays are 11. >> sorry about that. senator padilla? >> thank you, mr. chair, colleagues this amendment would strike reconciliation instructions for the senatemr committee on emergency and natural resources clearly as a signal to undo the progress made under the inflation reduction act in the interest of protecting the hundreds of thousands of good-paying jobs that have been created in the interest of moving us towards true energy independence where

we need all of the above approach to include renewable energy. i urge that you support this amendment. >> thank you, senator lee, would you want the say anything? i think you responded well last time. the clerk will call the roll? >> mr. grassley? >> no. >> mr. crepo? >> no. >> mr. johnson? >> no. >> mr. marshal? >> no. >> mr. cornyn? mr. lee? mr. kennedy? >> no. >> mr. ricketts? >> no. >> mr. moreno? >> no. >> mr. scott? >> no. >> mr. merkley? >> aye. >> mrs. murray? >> aye. >> mr. widen? >> aye. >> mr. sanders? >> aye.

>> mr. whitehouse? >> aye. >> mr. warner? >> aye. >> mr. kane? >> aye. >> mr. van holland? >> aye. >> mr. lujan? >> aye. >> mr. padilla? >> aye. >> mr. chairman? >> no. >> mr. chairman, the yeas are ten, the nays are 11. >> thank you all for being here and it took 30 minutes but i don't know how to do it much faster. >> yes. >> absolutely. so ordered. the next round will start now. we will give you some notice when it comes time to vote and we will start with merkley number 5. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. >> in about an hour we will vote again. >> perhaps the top issue that many people are worried about the price of housing, cost of

homes, first-home buyers are in big troubley, and certainly the cost of rents and so i'm passing out 3 articles about what is driving up the cost of rents in funds whichnd is hem-fund investors larging swaths of homes across moment. first who is outbidding you by tens of thousands of dollars for the home of your dreams. it lays out how those bids are driving up the cost of homes because they're all cash, fast closing, no inspection offers that are often tens of thousands above the asking price and then the second article wall street has purchased hundreds of thousands of single-family homes since great recession. it lays out how it's driving up rents across the country and third one is titled wall street is buying up entire neighborhoods. this is true in virtually every state. florida has gotten the most attention along with arizona. it's true in every state

including my state offer o. including chair's state of south carolina. i just read an article, well, let's see, all cash in offers and it speaks to the a realtors saying offers are always cash. in south carolina, they do very short due diligence. close in about two weeks and then there is a site call we buy homes in south carolina as is and hedgefund offers.com. that slice of the american pie is beingma shifted onto the plae of the wealthiest americans through these hedge funds controlled by mega millionaires and billionaires. this is really if you believe in the american dream for families, this is something we have to address. so my amendment creates the deficit neutral reserve fund

relating to bills that try to take this on. i think it's an issue that we should all be concerned about, it's affecting not only the -- the rents and the home prices but this is also right in line with president trump's desire to lower the cost to real americans on real issues and there's nothing more real than having a roof over your head. i hope you'll all support it. >> senator rick can etts? >> deficit neutral, the biden administration and democrats reckless spending drove up inflation and interest rates made home ownership less affordable. the average 30-year fixed rate mortgage is 6.9% when joe biden took office. that number was 2.8%. i would note that also 25% of the cost of single-family homes is regulatory, reduce regulations, that would bring down the price of homes.

the budget resolution is about unlocking reconciliation to secure the border and keep americans safe, reserve funds that accomplish nothing beyond political messaging are unnecessary and delay process and i urge my colleagues to vote no. >> mr. chairman, absolutely? >> all this does gives an opportunity to address an issue that's very significant to folks in every one of our states. i acknowledge high interest rates are an issue affecting home ownership but there's no question that hedge funds competing with all cash, no inspection, tens of thousands above asking price are a huge driver as well. so let's all team up together and help take on, be prepared that takes on one of the biggest issues affecting working families across this country. >> thank you, time has expired. we will vote in second tranche of votes. senator, murray number 6. >> yes. thank you, mr. chairman, my amendment is really straightforward.

it establish it is deficit neutral reserve fund to make sure that no president, no president can unilaterally impound, delay or withhold congressional appropriated funds in violation of the u.s. constitution or the impairment control act of 1974. this is not a partisan issue. this is about upholding the laws and congress' constitutional authority over federal spending. the constitution grant congress not the president, the power of the purse. and yet today, trump, elon musk have been holding up huge chunks of funding that congress passed often on a bipartisan basis. when presidents ignore our spending laws and the power of the purse, our constitution gives congress not the president, it doesn't just block funding for the american people, it erodes the trust necessary

for bipartisan negotiations here in congress. members of congress on both sides must know a deal is a deal. this amendment is about protecting the integrity of our democratic process, our most fundamental checks and balances. ensenator republican or democrat should support amendment to maintain trust necessary for effective governance so i urge my colleagues to support this amendment and reaffirm that congress controls federal spending and not the president. >> thank you, senator moreno. >> i appreciate my colleague's point of view. you said this is about preventing any president from doing that. it would be more interesting to make that retroactively to the last four years to which joe biden unilaterally forgave student loans. that did not pass congress. in fact, a bill was attempted to pass congress that was rejected

and then joe biden relieved student debt, it went to the supreme court. the supreme court ruled he could not do that and yet he still did that. so i think it would be more sincere if this was a bill that -- an amendment that looked back retrospectively for four years but, of course, we cannot do that. i will also point out that joe biden put in place many policies, not just student debt, for example, using fema money to resettle migrants, using va money to provide health care for illegals. so let's call a spade a spade. this is about political messaging, not about actually cutting the the deficit in any way possible and i hope my colleagues get to the point in time, let's work together because one thing i know about this administration versus the last one. we have a commander in chief who is actually calling the shots. elon musk is doing things at his direction. his cabinet are doing things at his direction. joe biden didn't know what day it was and we have no idea who

was actually calling the shots. >> mr. chairman. >> absolutely. >> not a political speech, a statement of fact. we can't go backward, but i think we should establish -- reestablish congress' authority and everybody knows as chair appropriations committee, vice chair of appropriations committee, i have worked with my partners on both sides of the aisle to get bipartisan spending agreements. there's no way we can have that trust to vote on either side any time in the future for any president if we don't know that our agreement is an agreement and will be abided by the constitution and the law to go into effect so i urge my colleagues who want to talk about what happened with president biden to support this the amendment to assure that that is there in the future. yield back. >> thank you, time has expired. we will vote on that here in a bit. senator widen, number 2. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. mr. chairman and colleagues i listened very attentively this

morning to my colleagues on the republican side, senior members of the finance committee who all brought up tax breaks with respect to the wealthy and they all said we have no interest, no interest in giving tax breaks to the wealthy. i said to myself, my goodness, that sounds pretty interesting. maybe i'm going to be able to get my prohibition on one of the biggest scams in the tax code featured on the wall street journal's front page and if you're a billionaire and you're really clever, you can pay little or no taxes for pretty much forever. so given my colleague's comments and my interest in really getting rid of some of these glaring loopholes, i said to myself, i'm going the try to put this out as an amendment and

that's why i have widen two as reconciliation and tax increases on the middle class and it would seem to me if everybody is so interested in making sure there's no tax breaks for the wealthy, this basically puts down as part of the budget committee principles that we are not going to do it and i urge my colleagues to support it mendmen. ms. slotkin: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from michigan. ms. slotkin: madam president, i mrnts enjoying my first -- i am not enjoying my first vote-a-rama, but i do call up my amendment and ask that it be reported by number. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from michigan, ms. slotkin, proposes

amendment 664. ms. slotkin: my amendment is simple. it prohibits cuts to the funding and staffing necessary to respond to and control avian flu. this should be an easy no-brainer. afshian flu is -- avian flu is jumping between species. we're culling thousands of birds, and egg prices are the highest they've been in u.s. history. i want to believe this body should be able to agree that a biohazard that impacts every one of our states should be something that we maintain funding for. it's our job to protect our constituents. that's basic. avian flu is a threat. you know it, i know it, the world knows it. i urge you to put partisanship aside. vote for this very simple amendment, maintain funding and staffing on avian flu. mr. boozman: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from arkansas. mr. boozman: madam president, i rise in opposition to amendment number 664.

agriculture secretary rollins and the white house have made clear that addressing avian influenza is a top priority. while i share my colleague from michigan's concerns about avian flu, this is not the appropriate venue for policy discussions on animal disease. this budget resolution is focused on securing the border, strengthening the military, and bolstering american energy independence. i look forward to working with the senator from michigan, a fellow member who we're glad to have on the agriculture committee, a new member, to address animal disease threats in the farm bill. i urge my colleagues to vote against the amendment. the presiding officer: the question is on the amendment. is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote:

>> well, a long night in the senate where lawmakers are voting on series of amendments. senate news senator mitch mcconnell announced he will not seek reelection. we will have live coverage of the national governor's association winter meeting being held on the nation's capitol. you're watching live senate coverage here on c-span2 mr. barrasso.

mr. bennet. mrs. blackburn. mrs. blackburn. it encourages oil and gas companies to take better care of what they leak out of pipes and valves. it's pretty straightforward stuff. it's coming to a neighborhood near you. let's get together to stop it now. i urge an aye vote. >> senator lee. >> mr. chairman, this -- this amendment would strike ep instruction rather repealing a costly and harmful nursing home rule, so if we were to adon't it would impair our ability to the

offset bill and i opposite it and urge my colleagues to do the same. >> we will vote on this in a bit. >> my amendment creates point of order. provides new budget authority for the office of the president during any period when there's litigation pending against the president alleging violation of take care clause. carrying out all of congress' statutory directions. the law that congress passes are not optional in the constitution and do not give the president any legislative power. he can't choose to follow the laws he likes and disregard the ones he dislikes. the president must take care to carry out congress' exact directions. if congress requires the united

states agencies or international development to exist, then the president must take care to ensure that usaid exist. if congress requires to spend certain amount of money providing community care in virginia, the president must spend that much money and not a penny less. president trump has shown condemn by take care clause to follow directions that congress has set out and passed law. he's shut down usaid, he put rust belt, contempt for congress and congress in charge omb and opb, stop order for spb granting another agency to the a halt. congress should fund office to the president. my amendment does just that. republicans and democrats can't

standby while the president walks all over constitutional powers that rightfully belong before the congress. i? >> to provide funding to the. executive office while there's active litigation a president and the administration inhibiting the vitals functions of the executive branch which the president is charged under the constitution with carrying out. we have seen how delegation can be and has been abused. we have no reason to assure that it wouldn't be abused here. and all they have to do is make sure there's litigation brought

and halt any measure through this point of order to provide funding to the office of the president. in any event, creation of this point of order is outside the jurisdiction of the budget committee and is, therefore, not appropriate for inclusion in this budget resolution and specificity of the language also threatens the privilege of the resolution and is not in order. therefore, i oppose the amendment! >> thank you, all debates have expired. we will deal with in in a minute. senator kane 3. >> kane 3 is protecting health care of american families who have access to the affordable care act and deals with the family glitch issue which i think we are all familiar with when the affordable care act was written, someone who does not have access to the an affordable can access premiums, tax

credits to bring down the premiums of policies they would buy, but the measure of affordability measured the affordability to an individual, not the affordability of a family policy. so someone married with kids and wants to get policy that doesn't have access to affordable policy can't get tax credits. the biden administration by regulation fixed this and 5 million american families have benefited as a result. my proposal would create reserve fund allowing that to be made permanent should congress choose to do so. this has been the repeal of the biden regulation has been discussed by especially folks in republican side as way to rack up save negotiation the reconciliation process. so the purpose of kane 3 is just to propose our ability to protect american families who have been able to the access tax credits under the affordable

care act. >> thank you, mr. president. i'm going once again make the point for this. >> mr. chairman. [laughter] >> excuse me. >> you like that, wouldn't you? >> yeah. >> i'm going to once again make the point that this the amendment is not germane as i said at the outset, the instruction to the finance committee in this the particular budget reconciliation procedure is a very limited one-topic issue which relates to nursing homes and that's a rule, not a program and even medicare or medicaid.e and so for that purpose, this amendment is not necessary. now, we will at some point hopefully be doing another reconciliation process in this committee and at that time, i expect that we will have a broader instruction for the finance committee. and so when that day comes, i welcome the opportunity to talk to my colleagues about some of

the reforms that are necessary in our entitlement programs. unfortunately, our colleagues on the other side of the aisle enacted aee costly and uncapped premium tax credit that used taxpayer dollars to mask issues in the market such as declining value, and fraudulent enrollment. let's get into these issues but this is not the procedure to do that. >> debate, time has expired. senator van holland, number 6. >> thank you, mr. chairman, colleagues, this would establish a point of order against any legislation to repeal the prescription drug negotiated provisions of the inflation reduction act and, mr. chairman, earlier i offered amendment to prohibit any cuts to medicare benefits. you responded that as part of the inflation reduction act we would cut medicare but you didn't point out that we

wouldn't cut a penny of medicare benefits. what we did was require negotiations for prescription drugs under medicare. you know, like a big insurance company gets to negotiate on behalf of their members, we wanted the medicare program to be able to negotiate on behalf of the american people and the results of that was to dramatically lower, yes, cost for medicare but also reduce prescription drug costs for everybody in medicare. so as a result, prices for blockbuster very expensive drugs, we have capped to $2,000 a perp. that was because of what we did in the inflation reduction act, not cutting a penny of benefits but getting a good deal for the american people on medicare, so what this says is let's keep that if you want to keep it, if you want to keep those lower drug prices vote yes for my amendment. if you want to risk getting rid

of it, you would oppose it. >> senator crapo. >> i will make two points for amendment, first it is out of order process such as this. second, like the other and i expect some more amendments to come, it is not germane to the -- the instruction in this process to the finance committee which is limited as i have said to specifically the nursing home rule that we have addressing in this particular instruction. we will hopefully have further instructions in a separate process before this committee at which time we will have much broader instruction to the finance committee and then we can get into these issues. i've got a lot of argument as you know with the approach to prescription drug pricing that democratic caucus has taken in the past and so we can have a lively debate about how we should go but we should have a

debate about how to lower the price of all healthcare services including prescription drugs. we will have that time not in this particular reconciliation bill. >> mr. chairman, senator lujan filed amendment. unanimous consent to be primary sponsor, senator lujan as cosponsor and i be recognized to offer that amendment. thank you. similar to an earlier amendment offered by senator van holland this amendment will create point of order against legislation that reduces medicaid or medicare benefits for working-class, middle class americans. seems like every time president trump is in the white house, legislative priority is tax cuts for the ultra wealthy. trump tax cut from first administration raised federal deficits and debts by more than

$2 trillion over its first ten years. to top it off, the boom in investment that americans were promised never materialized. and now a second round of tax cuts is projected to be even more expensive and i see that a republican colleagues are looking for 5.3 to $5.7 trillion in cuts and potentially even more to not only -- in many instances necessary programs. medicaid seems to be at the top of the list. specifically republicans are proposing $2.3 trillion in cuts to medicaid and $479 billion in cuts to medicare. a $2.3 trillion cut to medicaid in ten years would be nearly a third reduction in projected federal medicaid spending and

39% of all medicaid revenues to states. the policy being proposed per capita cap reducing the ac expansion match rate, repeal incentive for states to match rate expansion and more and would fundamentally change how medicaid works and would put states at financial risk reducing spending by eliminating coverage, reducing covered services and cutting rates paid to physicians, hospitals and nursing homes. millions of americans will no doubt lose health coverage as a result and by the way, this would also exacerbate shortage in the healthcare industry. so voting, i urge you colleagues to publicly commit to preserving medicaid and medicare benefits by supporting this the amendment. >> senator crapo. >> mr. chair, i will probably be repetitive on the amendments. this amendment is also out of

order, not appropriate to budget resolution. it is also not germane for the reasons i'd say several times in regard to previous amendments. we will get into a much broader debate and i can assure you that we do not seek to reduce benefits to medicare or medicaid. and i look forward to a robust discussion about how to deal with that. >> all debate has expired on that amendment. senator padilla number 6. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. i call it padilla number 6. this amendment would create deficit neutral fund relating to achieving energy dominance and d independence as part of all of the above energy approach which would include solar, wind and hydrogen. i've already spoken on the importance of preventing plan cuts to the inflation reduction act and republican efforts to

unwiden hundreds of billions of dollars to private sector investment that is we have unlocked across the country. these investments are critical to achieving our shared goal of energy independence to achieve energy independence the senator from maryland. mr. van hollen: madam president, i call up my amendment 233 and ask that it be reported by number. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from maryland, mr. van hollen, for himself and ms. hirono proposes amendment number 233. mr. van hollen: madam president, i offer this amendment with my colleague senator hirono. it's very straightforward. it creates a point of order against any legislation that would cut funding from the national school lunch program.

thank you, madam president. it creates a point of order against any provision that would cut funding from the national school lunch program or the school breakfast program. i think our colleagues know that nearly 14 million american children were hungry last year. one in five kids don't know where their next meal will come from or what it will be. to ensure those kids get healthy meals and can focus on their education and their studies instead of their stomachs, 91% of public schools participate in the usda meals program. over half of our kids are eligible for free and reduced lunch programs. it provides breakfast programs for over two billion of those a year. so, colleagues, let's not abandon those kids in order to provide tax cuts for elon musk and very rich people. and i urge adoption of our

amendment. a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from arkansas booze. a senator: i rise in opposition of amendment 233. i appreciate the concerns of my colleague from maryland and share support for the school meal programs. mr. boozman: i'm eager for the agriculture committee to turn to child nutrition reauthorization this congress. however, this amendment threatens the privilege of the resolution. senators on the ag committee are open minded and welcoming of our colleagues' involvement on important child nutrition programs. however, the budget process is not the proper venue to make policy changes to our school meals programs. and for this reason, i urge my colleagues to vote no on this amendment. madam president, since the amendment does not meet the standard required by law, i raise a point of order against the amendment under section 305-b-2 of the congressional

budget act of 1974. i yield back. mr. van hollen: madam president. pursuant to section 904 of the congressional budget act, i move to waive and i ask for the yeas and nays and urge its adoption. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote: we are expecting votes all night and possibly into the early morning. earlier the chamber also confirmed president trump's pick to be fbi director kash patel in vote 59 to 49. you're watching live on c-span2

mr. banks. mr. barrasso. mr. bennet. mrs. blackburn.

mr. blumenthal. ms. blunt rochester. mr. booker. mr. boozman.

mrs. britt. mr. budd. ms. cantwell. mrs. capito. mr. cassidy. ms. collins. ms. collins. attacks that are not targeting just ukraine's military but are targeting civilians throughout the country. they are damaging power stations that ukrainian depend for daily

life. as you can see, was a very cold day. you can't see the power station background, but it was very a unique design that had been done by the ukrainians in a very short period of time with help from the united states to protect that site from russian attacks and, in fact, they had just had in late december a missile that hit the side of the transfer station in ways that if they had not had reinforcements they would have taken down the station. but what's interesting is that not only have they figured out the design on the station, that they had what they call a mobile firing team that is two machine guns, you can see just bare think through one of them on the truck and a radar which is down here sort of out of sight, again, u.s. dollars and they are

able to protect, they were able to protect that transfer station and have those mobile siren teams at a number of sites around the country to protect their electricity grid because what we know and what we heard is that the russians are trying to shut down their power grid because they want to freeze out theah ukrainians in this war. we also visited the children's hospital that was bombed on july -- in july. we visited with two teenagers, one young woman who was 16 who not only lost her mother in a russian attack but she lost her ability to. walk. i think she had -- they were pleased that they thought she was going to actually be able to walk again thanks to the great

care she got at the amady children's hospital that the russians bombed deliberately targeted in july. but like so many ukrainians, the young woman we met hasn't given up. her father sat by her side, surgery after surgery and despite the odds she is learning to walk again. she reflects, i think, the resilience, the perseverance that we witnessed every place we went in every meeting that we had despite russia's advantages in size and manpower, ukrainians have not and will not give up and we should not give up on them either. ukrainians have developed robotic mobile firing teams as i

said. they have been able to make incredible innovations to fix damaged battlefield equipment. we had a chance on our way into ukraine to go through poland where they're moving equipment into ukraine and where we saw the center where they have a group chat with people on the front lines to help them with instructions on how to fix the equipment in realtime as it gets damaged. this not only saves time and money for the ukrainians but for us, it's an incredible learning opportunity for us as we think about what we need to do to support our own military. so the ukrainians are sharing their battlefield innovations and. insights. it makes the united states stronger and it shows how much

of the. assistance we've given o ukraine is actually going to benefit us here in america. when the assistance was frozen in january it had a maid juror -- mayorimpacts on the ground. as one of them was preparing to give us a presentation he stopped, he turned to us and he said, i can't give this presentation and act like everything is normal. i thought he was one of the most impactful people we heard from. i don't know if you thought that way too, sen tillis. he said i had to fire ingle ukrainian mothers who had no job and no way to feed their

children. one girl they had been treating for self-harm is gone and he doesn't know if she's alive or not. he was worried she might take her own life. along with the stop work orders, the ngo's were told to remove all american flags. think of that. american flags are coming down in poland one of the most pro-american countries that we can have, the people that we spoke to, said that their trust has been broken. decades of investments and these alliances that we have made were gone with just one phone call. now, i understand that people are tired of this the war but if we think giving russia or china free rein won't affect us here in the united states, we are

wrong. the russians are thrilled. vladimir putin has to be loving this. he's always wanted to undermine nato. peace for our time is what chamberland said when he signed the pact with hitler. appeasement doesn't work with dictators. when vladimir putin gets what he wants, it puts americans in danger. we understand this, putin can't be trusted. that's a realistic assessment of the battlefield. one ukrainian woman who lost husband and son in the fighting told us she would support ceasefire negotiations but with security guaranties for ukraine. simply freezing the front line won't do anything she warned because in a few years russia will invade again and she's right, putin invaded crimea in

2014, he invaded ukraine in 2022. there must be a guaranty that russia won't attack again in a couple of years. i believe nato membership for ukraine needs to be on the table. this is not only going to protect ukraine from future attacks, it will put ukraine in the best potential negotiating position. putin wantsba ukrainians to be afraid. we saw that when we visited bucha, some people may remember this was a suburb of kyiv. it was under siege for 33 days held by the russians. we talked to the mayor, to the priest of the church, we saw the mass graves where we were were buried, the 500 plus people who civilians who were killed in bucha, they were killed just going about their daily lives. this is the picture of the body

of one of those civilians killed. and you know how they identified her? it was her manicurist. she identified her by the manicure. we met with the investigators who showed us the picture of the russian commander who gave the order to kill the civilians. he did it because he wanted to frighten, the population. vladimir putin is responsible for this. he's responsible for the bodies in bucha and for thousands across ukraine and he's got to be held accountable. we cannot let him get away with this. so, i want to end by underlying an important point, there is bipartisan support for ukraine in congress. i believe we will continue to

support funding and that if we had another supplemental bill that came to the floor it would pass with republican votes because americans like senator tillis and i and senator bennett that went with us, we have been impressed by the ukrainians couraged by resilience and willingness to defend their freedoms and our freedoms. they've kept can their economy and their people going throughout this horrible ore, but by june ukraine is going to start running out of what they need. that's why we need to use the nearly $300 billion of russian seized assets to help ukraine rebuild. that's why i've called on secretary rubio to prioritize waivers unfreezing aid to ukraine. thousands of ukrainians have given their lives in the fought for a sovereign ukraine. they've been on the front lines

for all of us defending democracy. to abandon them now would not only be a gift to putin, it would endanger our allies and the security of the united states. i yield the floor to my colleagues, senator tillis. >> i want to thank senator shaheen, long-term vision when she came to me and want today reconstitute thell senate-nato observer group. it could not have been a better time for us to pay more attention to this very important alliance, but it's also right now today four days away from the 3-year anniversary of the invasion of ukraine. very important to talk about the nature of vladimir putin and the tactics that they used to terrorize populations. president putin in october prior

to the invasion in february said that he was sending troops to an area to do a training exercise while we were getting intelligence that it looked like more than that, he was already lying to the world by saying, we are just going the train up our soldiers a little bit more. and then after the first part of the year going into january he said, well, we are doing the training exercise that just coincidently happens to be along the ukrainian border but it's just a training exercise and then he creates any number of pretext to then talk about how provocative ukraine is creating democracy within the borders and creates military operation, invading ukraine. trying to finish what he started when he invaded crimea back in 2014. vladimir putin is a lier,

murderer and responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of ukrainians. and that's bad by itself but you know what's worse, it's when you employ tactics that intentionally terrorize a population, now, senator shaheen talked about the power grid. i was in that meeting. she was talking about -- let's talk about systemically how this mind works, the mind of vladimir putin, the leadership of russia. it's very cold in ukraine, very, very cold in the wintertime and they have tried to systemically deny them heat over the winter to freeze them out. they've had to spend millions of dollars hardening substations just to prevent families, hospitals, critical businesses, first responders from having power. that's how this man thinks, but that's not bad enough.

shortly after they invaded ukraine and they got the surprise of their life that the ukrainian people were willing to fight and die for their country and they've done in a way that putin could not have possibly imagined, putin should be embarrassed. a so-called world power got is largest army in europe, standing army, it wasn't when the invasion occurred and just with our help with materials they've held off russia for 3 years. putin probably understood at some point that he wasn't going to be able to win it through conventional tactics so what does he do terrorist tactic thes. the same sort of tactics in africa killing people. that is what vladimir putin putin does every single day, 24/7, 365 around the globe but now let's get back to ukraine. he decides to allow under orders

russian military to go into a community of 200,000 people, that's roughly the size of the community i live in north carolina just short -- just north of charlotte. imagine what they are doing. they are going through the city and indiscriminately when somebody walks past them shooting them. sometimes with 50 caliber weapons and tank armor, murdering them, stacking them up in mass graves. i went to this site, i saw it firsthand. this is how he's trying to win the war because he can't win hearts and minds of the ukrainian people. he has destroyed hearts and minds of anybody that lived in the soviet era and he wants that to remerge but thank god the ukrainian people are the brave people that they are because this hardened them.

this made them go on a battlefield live in trenches 24 hours a day. there's no moral person in this planet that can consider putin to have a legitimate reason to affect this sort of carnage and i saw it firsthand. and i will never be able to forget it. and what the american people and the world population will never be able to forget either is the aftermath of the peace of vladimir putin. ladies and gentlemen, china is already helping russia. north carolina has sent thousands of troops. north korea don't really care about life. they are throwing body after body after trying to kill and break the will of the ukrainian people. and it's just unacceptable. so, look, i'm a republican, i

support president trump and i believe that most of his policies on national security are right. i believe the his instincts are pretty good but what i'm telling you, whoever believes that there is any f the senators duly chosen and sworn not having duly chosen and sworn not having space motion is not agreed to. the point of order is sustained and the amendment falls. the majority leader. mr. thune: madam president, i ask unanimous consent that the following amendments be the next amendments in order, that the amendments be reported by number with two amendments in order prior to the vote in relation to the amendment, lujan 699, duckworth-bookerer 971, heinrich 101 and blumenthal number 659. the presiding officer: without objection. the senator from new hampshire. mrs. shaheen: madam president, i call up my amendment number 436 and ask that it be reported by number. the presiding officer: the clerk

will report. the clerk: the senator from new hampshire, mrs. shaheen, for herself and ms. baldwin proposes an amendment numbered 436. mrs. shaheen: this amendment would extend vital affordable care act tax credits for millions of americans. we all know that health care is still too expensive. unfortunately, this reconciliation bill that we're ultimately going to vote on is going to make that worse. in new hampshire we hear every day about people rationing medicines, skipping appointments, and delaying care all because of costs. but we can act now to lower those costs. we can extend those premium tax credits because if we don't act, they will skyrocket and four million americans will lose their health insurance. i urge a yes vote on my amendment to reinforce our support for working families and their access to health care.

a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from idaho mr. crapo: mr. president, once again this targeted budget blueprint before us would focus on the border, the military, and our energy independence. while the finance committee does have a $1 billion instruction, this is neither a tax bill nor a health care reform bill. that instruction makes that clear. i urge my colleagues to vote against this amendment today as it is not relevant to the finance committee instruction. the presiding officer: the question is on the amendment. is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote: the clerk: ms. alsobrooks. the clerk: ms. alsobrooks.

>> senators are here voting on a series of amendments for funding legislation for this fiscal year. we are expecting votes all night and possibly into the early morning. earlier the chamber also confirmed president trump's pick to be fbi director kash patel on vote of 51 to 49 with two republicans joining with all democrats in voting no. you're watching live senate coverage here on c-span2 banks.

mr. barrasso. mr. bennet. mrs. blackburn. mr. blumenthal. ms. blunt rochester. mr. booker.