or just the finished product? that's a big difference. the administration is going to have to look an is it the finished product or the tariffs product. those things will find a way to be helpful to four clients on. >> jeff. >> i think it's expectations with clients, being straight forward about the process and how long it's going to take and share their point of view. >> what do you tell people about the tariff climate broadly? i think this is a tough-- if not the toughest issue for companies and-- >> i think you look at broadly, evan ooh knows that the president's end goal is to make our economy the strongest in the next four years and what you can see now, see it through tariffs, taxings, cuts on regulations, getting companies to on-shore, giving them the ability to come back to the u.s., manufacturers and et cetera, making america not just independent on energy, but independent on everything and most of our clients, which is

mostly all u.s.-based they get that. it's a long-term process. not going to see short-term gains, but long-term gains. >> i agree with this, this is a fluid process, what are we day 50 or so? >> tomorrow is day 50. >> let's see where we are at 100, if patience is a virtue, it's a must. >> we are going to leave this here for live coverage of the u.s. senate. today lawmakers are expected to consider more of president trump's executive nominations. live senate coverage here on c-span2. ...

the president pro tempore: the senate will come to order. the chaplain, dr. black, will open the senate with prayer. the chaplain: let us pray. o god, our father, speak to us, today, that here in your presence we may find knowledge of what you want us to do. guide our senators so that they clearly understand your desires, and give them the wisdom to strive to do your will. lord, provide them with daily strength to live honorably for your glory. give them the ambition to please you with faithfulness and humility.

come with your great power, o god, and rescue our nation and world. deliver us from the fear and trembling that seek to overwhelm our efforts to please you. we pray in your merciful name. amen. the president pro tempore: would you please join me in the recitation of the pledge. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

the presiding officer: under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. under the previous order, the senate will proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the following nomination which the clerk will report. the clerk: nomination, department of transportation, steven bradbury of virginia to be deputy secretary. mr. grassley: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mr. grassley: 35 years ago today, the freely-elected parliament of lithuania declared that country was restoring its independence after about 50 years of soviet occupation. this started the breakup of the soviet union. the end of that evil empire made the world safer and millions of people freer. so i say thank you, lithuania,

or i should say in their language, achu. lithuania didn't become a country just in the 1990's, however. it's a very old country. in fact, it was a significant regional power in the middle ages. the modern republican came of lithuania was born february 16, 1918. the united states has maintained continuous diplomatic relations with lithuania for now 103 years going back to 1922. as an american, i'm proud that our country never recognized the soviet annexation of lithuania, latfiya, and estonia, just like we don't recognize russia's annexation of any part of ukraine this very day.

today lithuania is free and lithuania is prosperous. lithuania is a close u.s. ally and a beacon of western values on the front lines of freedom. i think lithuania for its friendship, for its important contribution to the nato alliance, and for its vocal defense of our shared values. i yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: the clerk: ms. alsobrooks.

another one said, and i quote, people are super mad that we didn't get more direction from . be careful what you wish for. according to reports democratic leadership held a closed-door meeting to break them for their behavior. we'll see if the prorating of members is useful strategy. because the range democrats have the vision, no plan, and they still are no leader. they need something. since the leadership has given them no guidance, as a member of

house republican leadership, i encourage democrats to stay the course, keep hating, keep doing what you're doing. democrats hate so much of what president trump stands for and what the american people stand for that they're willing to shut our government down. they want servicemembers and border patrol agents to work without pay. small businesses not to be able to obtain sba loans. the democrats want relief projects to be delayed. national parks to be closed. they want rick to run out of funding. this is what the democrats want. what democrats actually want is nothing more than disruption. democrats have become chaos agents -- w.i.c. democrats are deranged. their disarray is on display for

all of the american people to witness, and americans will witness them attempt to shut the government down. and if the shutdown happens the democrats will own it. just listen to what some of their members have said. one said, and i quote, i'm not voting for a cr of any length. they might want to read the text before they say that because the text wasn't even out when they said that. another said we would rather close down the government. and look at the house democratic leadership letter from friday. just filled with lies. nothing but lies. it says that this clean cr is filled with cuts. the american people are smarter than that. i clean cr, listen to it, continues to fund the government. they might need to go back and taking high school civics course, or perhaps they are just

intentionally flying or fear mongering. i'll presume that it's the latter here but despite this, house republicans will remain focused. we will continue to focus on fighting for common sense. we will not be distracted from delivering on the mandate for the american people. we will pass this clean cr which freezes spending to keep the government open. it protect social security, medicare and medicaid, and allows ice to continue deporting illegals. it will give the trump administration time to secure our border, and it will give congress time to focus on delivering on the mandate in our one big beautiful bill. president trump supports it and we just heard the same from vice

president j. d. vance this morning. i look forward to seeing democrats explain to their constituents why they collectively want to shut the government down. it will be an interesting week. so now i'd like to turn over to wrap celeste malloy, a member of the house committee on appropriations. celeste. >> i had to tell you why i am supporting the cr. as a brand-new member of the appropriations committee and a fairly new member of congress i rant on rightsizing our government, cutting back government overreach, and eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse. usually we don't think of a cr as way to do that but we have an administration i think that is demonstrated a commitment to fighting waste, fraud, and abuse and they can sure we are not pay for than we need. in that context i feel good about continue to fund the

government so that congress and the administration has time to go find the places when you to cut back to where we need to increase spending like the biggest race for junior and illicit offices in ministry that we've can them in generation. this allows us to focus on tackling the waste, fraud, and abuse with that any poison pills. and i think that's what's best for the american people. i think that's what's best my constituents. i'm going to support the cr. i think it's that i'm making sure we're doing our constitutional duty of controlling the purse string and appropriate for next year. >> thank you very much a buddy for being here. the first question get asses for so what's the chairman of the house freedom caucus doing at a press conference about continuing resolutions? i'll tell you, the bottom line

is that i continuing resolution is usually the first step to an omnibus bill. that's what traditionally the house freedom caucus as opposed continue resolutions. this is not. this is continuing resolution that goes to the end of the fiscal year and, therefore, negates the need for any omnibus bill. second of all this is the first continuing resolution in my 14 years here and actually reduces in on spending from the previous year whileth funding the milita, funding veterans come funding the women and women children sus the presiding officer: without objection. mr. thune: mr. president, zach dider was a good student, athlete, and musician. he was an eagle scout, starred in the school play and he was hoping to attend stanford university. two days after christmas in 2020, zach's dead found him dead in his bed of fentanyl poisoning. he was 17. zach and his friends had gone to the mall to meet a drug dealer they found through social media. he bought what he thought was

percocet but it wasn't. the counterfeit pills he bought contained fentanyl. and what was a bad decision became deadly. mr. president, zach was one of the more than 90,000 americans would died of an overdose in 2020. happy of those deaths from fentanyl poisoning. he was one of countless victims of fake pills being peddled on our streets. pills that too often find their way into the hands of young people and steal their futures. courage mittens is another tragic story, adopted from ghana, he was pursuing his dream of becoming an airline pilot. he attended flight school and interviewed for a job just days before he died at age 23. his parents found him on their couch after a night out with friends seemingly asleep until he stopped breathing. as he later -- as they later found out, he had taken a pill with two times the lethal fentanyl in it. a 32-year-old mother took half

of what she thought was a painkiller but that half a pill contained a deadly dose of fentanyl. and the dealer who had supplied ashley's boyfriend with the pill that took her life is believed to have sold pills that killed several other people. one of those individuals was jonathan ellington. jonathan had become addicted to oxycontin when it was prescribed to him for a high school soccer injury. he got cleaned and stayed clean for about a decade until another injury and prescription got him back on it. when his prescription ran out, he bought pills from an acquaintance. it only took one pill with a lethal dose of fentanyl to take jonathan's life. mr. president, these are just a few of the stories families have shared with the judiciary committee in support of the halt fentanyl act. unfortunately, there are many more like them. lives lost, futures destroyed, families changed forever. one in three americans knows someone who has died of a drug

o overdose. we're losing young people, teen teenagers, young parents, people with bright lives ahead of them. mr. president, when the trump administration temporarily classified all fentanyl analogues as schedule 1 substances, law enforcement gained a critical tool to combat fentanyl and go after the people bringing this poison into the united states. congress has extended this temporary classification several times because it works. now we need to make it permanent by passing the halt fentanyl act. i was very pleased at the strong bipartisan vote this bill received last thursday, and i hope the vote on final passage will be equally robust. classifying all fentanyl analogues as schedule 1 substances gives law enforcement a critical tool to go after the criminals bringing this poison into our country and selling it on our streets. it joins other efforts to end the fentanyl crisis in our

country. president trump is taking significant steps to halt the supply of drugs flowing across our borders. senator blackburn has done great work bringing attention to the role of social media, often the link between teenagers and drug dealers. the senate will continue working to stop fentanyl from taking more american lives. mr. president, fentanyl has caused too many tragedies. i'm grateful to families who have lost loved ones to this deadly drug for sharing share stories. the halt fentanyl act is moving forward due in no small part to their support. mr. president, i yield the floor, and i i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: the clerk: ms. alsobrooks.

we have a responsibility to deliver for the american people and were going to get with or without the democrat party. a lot of democrats, we get to bring up guest to the state of union. a lot of us brought federal workers as our guest to the state of the union. they seem to act like they care about federal workers. you saw a lot of democrats over the last few weeks show up at federal buildings with some federal employees who have been able to find the federal headquarters to go to work for the last three years using covid as an excuse but they showed up to protest, to rally against routing at waste, fraud, and abuse in government.

but ironically those same democrats who claim to care about federal workers today almost all of them will vote to furlough those federal workers that they clean to care about. how's that for showing appreciation to the people who work for this federal government? all of the men said quote and the speakers laid out a great figure that lays out a lot of the quotes that democrats have made over the years about shut it down government, yet today many of them will vote to shut down the government. and for what reason? as has been pointed out hakeem jeffries came out against the bill before the text was even filed. and still to this date if you watched in rules committee last night you were lie after lie by democrats are saying things that are not even in the bill. maybe 99 pages is to long for some of them to read. we gave them the whole weekend read the bill. they can still read it through the day. the vote will be the ceftin but they don't want to read the bill. better want to to know what

really in the bill. they are just fueled by anger, anger that donald trump won the election. anger that 77 million people went to the polls and the maid a change in the way washington works. i've got a message for my democrat friends out there. whether you like it or not the american people mad to change and we're going to deliver that change with or without this wild reckless are left progressive democrat party of today. they don't represent the american people. they're fighting against the will of the american people but we as a republican majority are going to deliver for those families who are struggling, who want relief, who want help, the want to get washington off the back and want lower-cost. we are going to do that. we passed a bill over to the senate. we will urge our senate once we finished this bill. the thin as to start moving on house budget we sent to the weeks ago. everybody has got a job to do already. we're going to do ours today and the leader who's heading that effort of is our speaker, mike

johnson. >> thanks a much mr. leader. thanks for these extraordinary members who are behind us participating this morning. i think the leader stated as well and others that set well this morning. this is a moment of great change in washington. it's also a moment of clarity and real contrast. the contrast is on display last week on house floor. it was a shameful display by the democrats. they are flailing as is noted they have no leader, no vision, no plan, no platform they can run a because that was repudiated in the election. they are in a panic mode and so you see them lashing out there to see increasing profanity. there are many stories many have been written about this new track it taken the new strategy with just screen and shout and personable. i don't think that's can be very productive either. you also see the contest going on, they either have an issue with reading, religion or attempting to run was machine for misinformation campaigns we've ever seen in our lives.

we filed the cr the continuing resolution on saturday and as was noted they had already come out panning the bill that literally have not yet been seen. they said quote, this is the house democrat leadership teams statement on friday women with the bill was was was filed on saturday afternoon. on friday they said quote republicans have decided to introduce a a partisan contine resolution to threatens to cut funding for health care, nutritional systems and veterans benefits to the end of year. every single word of that is a lie. everything, they just made it up. they didn't read the bill. it's nonsense. table are not buying this. you see the contrast between one party which is leading about moving the ball forward for the american people, and the other that is just screaming. then the democrats started this interview. they said it so harmful to the american people. cutting medicaid, cutting medicare, threatening social security, cutting veterans

benefits. it's all a lie. you can all read the bill, it's 99 pages. this clean cr contains no poison pill writers, no policy writers there at all. no cuts to medicare, medicaid or social security, zero. no cuts to veterans benefits, zero. in fact, as is noted we plus-up the council veterans. and respectfully and disco to say this to ever reported in the room that if you're allowing democrats to make these intentionally false scurrilous claims without pushback then you're aiding and abetting the spreading of misinformation. i would ask you to call the other. the american people deserve that. they deserve the clarity from our press corps. make them point out to you. they can't of course. after weeks of trotting federal workers at the capital and onto cable news shows to protest president trump's efforts to make the government more efficient, now their plan to vote down the simple bill. they will try to shut the government done. every house democrats will participate it looks like, that would be a shame if it's true.

i hope some of them will have a moment of clarity themselves and do the right thing and it looks like they're going to try to shut down the government. it's a striking new posture for democrats who have always said they have been apoplectic about the prospect of government shutdown. i put of you out about an hour ago on social media. i encourage you to go see that. in her own words you don't need to trust us on this. but katherine clark is one little zing of silver, gold, not only is it irresponsible and purposely misleading but is also a dangerous precedent to be threatening to shut down. remember this is last year, years past. the tragedy is all the civilian employees, it's the employees who are going to suffer, unquote. aoc, oh, it is not normal to hold 100,000 workers paychecks hostage. it is not normal to shut down the government when we don't get what we want, unquote. i don't think i've ever agreed with her before. jerry nadler said quote shutdown is really an extremist policy designed to appeal to an

extremist taste and hold the whole country hostage. we agree. so they and all the colleagues need to do the right thing. democrats have been insisting they're fighting for federal workers. you're about to see again on display very clear the contrast. you see one team that is working to fund the government to make sure we do the responsible thing and you will see another opposing this here because they now exposed the truth. they're not for federal workers or anyone for all the people they said in past will be harmed would be by their votes. the using federal employees as props, using medicaid benefits and social skinny checks. the threat of government shutdown the using as an attempt to wrestle power away from the president of the united states. who overwhelmingly won the popular vote and electoral college and every single swing state. here's the bottom line. if congressional democrats refused to support this clean cr they will be responsible for every trooper who misses a chicken for every flight day

from reduced staffing at tsa, for every negative consequence that comes from shutting down the government. understand have an important retreat this week. i would love to be a fly on the wall that party. comes at a critical time since he don't have a leader, messenger platform. if our democratic always want to increase their 21% approval rating with the american public they ought to start by doing the right thing and keeping the government open. i think that would be a great first step. i'll take questions. >> continually criticize the democrats doesn't that imply that you don't have the votes on your side because you would need democratic assistance to keep the government open? >> no. we will have the vote. we will pass this year. we can do it honorable one thing is democrats ought to do the responsible thing, follow their own advice in every previous scenario and keep the government open. it's their choice. i wish it could be a unanimous vote in the house chamber today. that would be a great thing for america but they're not going to do it because they're on this

lost, the wandering in the wilderness and cursing the sky at the same time and you'll see that today. they're going to vote no in, and try to pan and lie about and were calling on you guys to call them to account come they can tell you the truth about the bill. they didn't read before the said all this nonsense so as to the net. >> when asked by one of your call yesterday who does plan to vote against this, he said he should be primaried. you agree with the president should thomas massie be primaried if you post against this? >> look, i meant income protection program here. that's what i do. speaker of the house and you know me and my style and the way i do this job. i bless those who persecute me, right? thomas and i have disagreements but i consider thomas massie a friend. he's a thoughtful guy. i guess i could tell he is doing what he thinks is right on this. i vehement disagreement with his position as a leave it at that.

>> you in the past did not vote for crs when you were a member. you said and fast you were done with short-term crs. by my count my pillow off this would be the fifth continue resolution you are presiding over as speaker of the house. what do you say to your conservative colleagues who have heard you in the past promise you'll go through a regular appropriation process but you can't find it so some position would have take dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: mr. president, yesterday afternoon elon musk confirmed what many of us had been warning about for a long time, republicans are getting ready to gut social security and medicare. let me repeat that. elon musk confirmed what many of us have warned about, republicans are getting ready to cut -- gut social security and gut medicare. here's what he said, during an interview with fox business, the

richest man on earth repeated again a barfy of lies -- a bevy of lies that entitlement pro programs, tens of millions of people rely on, are riddled with fraud and abuse. that's a pretext to slashing them. but it's false. he added, most of the federal spending is entitlements. that's true. so that the big ones -- the big one -- so that's the big one to eliminate, meaning social security. let me quote elon musk again, that's the big one, social security, to eliminate. it's rare to hear republicans tell the truth about their plans so directly. what elon musk is saying is that, sooner or later, republicans are going to target people's social security and medicare benefits. the outrage that the richest man in the world would tell millions

of seniors who depend on those checks each month that it's fraud, that it's waste, is outrageous. he doesn't have any idea the harm it would do, and it isn't fraud. donald trump, elon musk, and republicans know that the mask on their billionaire tax cuts will not work without going after these benefits. and all they care about is cutting their taxes further. outrageous. it's another awful reminder that under donald trump and elon musk and republicans, billionaires win, american families lose. there's something truly rotten about the republican agenda when a multibillionaire, the richest man in the world, is allowed to

lie so casually about one of america's most sacred promises in order to justify taking benefits away from hardworking americans. few programs have done more good, have helped more people, have been more popular than social security has for nearly a century. few programs are as beloved by americans as social security. americans, of course, support eliminating waste, but they do not want to see their social security benefits get taken away. how is elon musk trying to do this? he's using the oldest trick in the book -- shamelessly lying about social security. just as donald trump did in his state of the union address where he listed hundreds of people who were born 120 years ago and couldn't show a single one was getting social security. musk is shamelessly lying about social security, claiming it's

riddled with fraud in order to justify taking benefits away from seniors and retirees. he ignores the very bold, plain fact that the federal government has already conducted an audit of social security every year. it's a legit audit, not a partisan audit. it's been done during trump's presidency and biden's presidency. what did it find? less than 1%, 1% -- less than 1% of all payments from 2015 to 2022 were made in error. that, mr. musk, is not what fraud looks like. he cherry-picks data to suggest that tens of millions of dead people are getting checks. this is a lie. and, to be sure, this isn't just about elon musk's rhetoric.

the assault on social security is taking place -- taking shape in practice. doge has already taken over the social security administration agency and has free access to the private data and benefits of tens of millions of americans. the trump administration has already begun to fire 7,000 staffers, which means local offices will shut down, customer service wait times will explode, the risk of delayed benefits will skyrocket. so i ask my republican colleagues, you all fine with this? are they fine with musk calling social security one giant scam? let's find a single person here on the republican side who starts rebutting musk once and for all when they know he's doing what the american people hate and is not telling the truth.

do our colleagues believe -- agree with musk's lie, that hundreds of billions of dollars in outright fraud has compromised social security? mark my words, if elon musk and doge continue their attacks against social security, if the president continues his attacks, which he made in his state of the union, sooner or later benefits are going to be delayed, mistakenly halted and the political uproar from americans, from one end of the country to the other -- red, purple, and blue -- will be immense. and more trouble for the trump administration -- the trump economy. donald trump promised americans a golden age on day one. well, today is day 50, and americans are wondering, scratching their heads, where's this golden age? can't find this golden age in the inflation numbers. because inflation has gone up under donald trump from groceries to retail to cars. the idea that he said -- he

campaigned prices will be going down on day one. that's by the wayside. that's for sure. you can't find this golden age in the stock market either. we know the stock market is donald trump's favorite measuring stick. but right now, because of him, his actions, his erraticness, his own actions have plunged markets and, therefore, people's retirement accounts into chaos. yesterday the dow fell by almost 900 points, 2%. the s&p plunged 2.7% and the nasdaq tech composite fell by 4%. why is this happening? one reason -- the president's tariffs on canada and mexico. but the other is pure chaos. no stability, no certainty for businesses. total confusion in the commitment of -- in the economy. one thing businesses tell us, they want certainty and they

want stability. one thing they're getting from donald trump -- uncertainty and chaos. and because starting this foolish and chaotic trade war -- on again one day, off again the next day -- donald trump has single handily poured a bucket of ice water on the economy. businesses can't plan that way. if they think there is a chance he'll come back and do it, they do plan, they don't buy, they don't go forward. businesses right now are in a state of total confusion. they have no idea what trump is going to do next. is he going to impose tariffs today, tomorrow, next month? how big will they be? what what countries? what products? every day you here a different answer on something that's so important to the american economy and the world economy. american consumers are also anxious. if you don't know what tomorrow

will bring, you're going to spend less today. donald trump himself knows that tariffs will hurt working families. when asked on fox business will the possibility that his tariffs could trigger a recession, he refused to even downplay the possibility it can happen. this was a rare moment of truth from donald trump. he said, yeah, my tariffs may cause a recession. and then he seemed to say -- his body language -- who cares? amazing. the guy who said he'd lift the economy not only is beginning to cause the beginnings of an economic downturn, but he seems to be proud of it. wow. is that what america bargained for? i don't think so. when donald trump says there's an utter period of transition, it is just gibberish. what donald trump means what he says period of transition is that i will hurt you slowly, not

all at once. it means yes, my tariffs will raise prices on the american people. donald trump knows his tariffs could wreck the economy, but he's doing it anyway -- all so he can use the income from tariffs to pay for tax cuts for billionaires, his north star. i yield the floor.

mr. barrasso: mr. president. the presiding officer: i recognize the senator from wyoming. mr. barrasso: thank you, mr. president. i come to the floor having just listened to the minority leader of the senate qom to the -- come to the floor and listened to what he has to said. it's been ten weeks now, mr. president, that republicans have been in the majority and the democrats have been in the minority, after the historic victory in november. the contrast is pretty significant -- senate republicans made promises to the american people, promised to get the country back on track. we're keeping that promise. we are hitting the ground run, and we're not turning back. most importantly for our successes, it has been because republicans have remained united. as a result, we have a list of accomplishments as topped what

we just heard -- as opposed to what we just heard the minority leader talk about. the senate has now confirmed all 21 members of president trump's cabinet and we did it at a record pace. faster pace than the democrats were able to do for president obama in 2009, faster than they were able to do it for president biden in 2021. the pace with which republicans have confirmed president trump's nominees to the cabinet and as "politico" pointed out today, all completed before the senate has taken a break. that's where we are today. historic speed. with this team in place early, president trump is able to execute effectively and and efficiently the popular agenda for which he was elected. the senate has prioritized confirming the president's national security team. we saw horrific attacks in new orleans new year's, continue to

see chaos around the world. we need a national security team in place, and we prioritize that and have done it. the senate also passed the laken riley act. it is signed by the president. it is the first significant piece of immigration enforcement law signed in decades. and just in the first number of weeks. it's actually the first bill that president trump signed into law as the 47th president of the united states. it's going to save lives. it's going to prevent human tragedy, like we saw happen in georgia to that young nursing student. i'm very grateful tho senator katie britt for her leadership in finding a bipartisan way to get this bill passed. we've also focused on our shared agenda with the house and with the president. we moved quickly to pass a budget focused on border security, energy security for our nation, as well as american

peace through strength. the budget committee, lindsey graham, who is chairman of the committee, and his members did groundbreaking work, all focused on making america stronger and better, more secure. senate republicans are working with the house on a path forward now, and working closelloy with senator -- and working closely with senator mike crapo, who is leading the charge to make sure we're not facing a $4 trillion tax increase. which is what the democrats want. they want americans to -- i heard a lot from the minority leader about five minutes ago. he was talking about the future of medicaid and of medicare. i'm a doctor, i work closely with patients on all of those programs. what i heard senator schumer do is he stood right there, it

sounded to me like he was threatening to shout down the government. he sounds like somebody who is going to tell his members, vote against keeping the government open. we are so distraught at the fact that president trump has been elected, so mad at the voters because they elected a republican house and a republican senate as well as sent president trump back to the white house, that we just want to say, the heck with you, we're going to shut down the government. it costs money to shut down the government. it costs money to reopen the government. it impacts services for the american people. democrats are so mad, you saw it the last week when the president made his joint speech to the congress, to the joint session, his address to the nation. the way they acted during that statement by the commander in chief, those are people that are just mad at the voters. the american public like what had the president had to say that night. over he whelmingly, those who saw the -- overwhelmingly, those who saw it, are happy with the

president. he's forceful, effective, energetic, getting the job done. that's not what i heard from the senate minority leader just a few minutes ago. sounds like somebody who is going to command the troops. shut down the government. we're going to take it out on the american people. let me set the record straight because republicans support medicaid, republicans support medicare. just the other night we passed senator dan sullivan's amendment to protect and preserve medicaid and medicare, not a single democrat joined us. these programs are in trouble today. why? because of the previous administration. joe biden weakened them by making them available for scammers. and that's what has happened. people are sucking money out of these programs who don't deserve to be doing it and are taking the care needed from hardworking american families. republicans want to protect and preserve and strengthen medicare and medicaid.

we want to do it for the people these vital programs were originally intended for. not for the scammers. stopping scamming is a big part of this. additionally you when i take a look at some of the things we've done over the last several weeks, it is that we have reaffirmed our friendship with israel. tom cot to the -- tom cotton and jim risch introduced bipartisan legislation to impose severe sanctions on the international criminal court. an illegitimate kangaroo court that targets israel and does the bidding of iran. sanctionings the icc would have sent a strong message to the world. america stands with israel. senate democrats filibustered it. they chose to abandon our closest ally. senate republicans also

successfully blocked destructive democrat legislation attacking american energy production. democrats actually tried to reverse president trump's national energy emergency. america clearly faces an energy emergency. energy prices went up 31% during the last four years under the democrats' administration, punishing american energy. well, led by chairman mike lee from utah, republicans are taking the handcuffs off of american energy. we know that unleashing american energy will help kick-start our economy. senate republicans also voted to protect girls and women in sports. senator coach tommy tuberville of alabama has been a champion of women sports in the senate. his legislation was common sense to over 80% of americans. it said biological men should not be allowed to compete in women's sports against our daughters, our sisters.

simple as that. democrats filibustered it. they're completely out of touch with the american people, the democrats are, and they are putting our female athletes in harm's way. senate republicans also have erased some burdensome biden regulations by cutting through the red tape, cutting red tape most significantly on american energy production. at the same time we're also protecting america's financial freedom. senator john kennedy of louisiana led efforts to end a biden regulation on energy production in the gulf of america. senator john hoeven of north dakota led efforts to cut $7 billion in natural gas taxes on our energy producers. senator pete ricketts of nebraska led the efforts to rein in unaccountable bureaucrats from snooping in your digital wallet. democrats want to spy on everything you do, on apple pay, on venmo, zelle, other apps.

senator cruz led efforts to push back against irs attacks on cryptocurrency. each of these resolutions passed the senate in spite of democrat opposition. miry versing these heavy -- by reversing these heavy-handed rules, republicans are making life affordable for american families. and this week the senate is moving to pass lifesaving legislation. it's called the halt fentanyl act. 70,000 americans are poisoned or killed by illicit fentanyl each year in the united states. it's the number one killer of americans between the ages of 18 and 45. the halt fentanyl act will aid efforts to crack down on drug dealersage criminal cartels that smuggle the poison into our country and into our xhun advertise. -- communities. i'm grateful leader thune is putting this bipartisan legislation up for a vote. you can sum up the early weeks

of the republican-led senate in three words. fast, forceful, and effective. we aren't wasting time. we're just getting started. working to together -- working together, republicans are going to deliver for the american people. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. the presiding officer: i recognize the senator from illinois. mr. durbin: mr. president, today stands out as a critical moment for the country, the supreme court, and the constitution. in recent weeks, trump administration officials and allies have made statements and engaged in troubling conduct that threatened judicial independence and our very system of government. elon musk, a senior advisor to president trump, has repeatedly called for the impeachment of federal judges whose decisions he disagrees with. and he's questioned the lifetime appointment of federal judges

that is enshrined in article 3 of our constitution. in a social media post, vice president jd vance falsely asserted that, quote, judges aren't allowed to control the executive's legitimate power, end of quote. this is merely the latest in a long line of claims by the vice president that a president of the united states can defy the orders of the court. in 2021, mr. vance went so far as to say he would suggest to president trump that, quote, when the court stops you, stand before the country like andrew jackson did and say, the chief justices made his ruling. now let him enforce it. this is an obvious reference to the apocryphal story about president andrew jackson subjecting he would defy the supreme court ruling. and president donald trump himself recently posted, and i quote, he who saves his country does not violate any law.

let me repeat that post, personal post by the president. he who saves his country does not violate any law. mr. president, those ten words are a rationale for tyranny and are an assault on our constitution. this disregard for judicial review has not been limited to words alone. in multiple cases, administration officials have dragged their feet or failed to comply with federal court orders. the administration has also nominated individuals to senior positions at the department of justice who seem to have little regard for separation of powers. one trump nominee recently testified before the senate judiciary committee and said, and i quote, there is no hard and fast rule about whether in every instance a public official is bound by a court decision, end of quote. fortunately my colleague, republican senator john kennedy

of louisiana, admonished this nominee and he said, and i quote, don't ever take the position that you're not going to follow the order of the court, ever. now you can disagree with it within the bounds of legal ethics. you can criticize it, you can appeal it, or you can resign, end of quote. and it's only the executive -- it isn't only the executive branch that has threatened the independence of the judiciary. in the past month, three members of the house of representatives have introduced articles of impeachment against federal judges for no reason other than they ruled against this administration. these actions and comments constitute a clear and present danger to the separation of powers and our constitution. instead of favorably quoting the apocryphal words of andrew jackson, our political leaders and their allies should reference the words of chief justice marshall in marbury v. madison, an 1803 decision.

as we all learned in law school, judge marshall said, and i quote, it is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is. end of quote. there has been a broad bipartisan consensus on that point for more than two centuries when it comes to interpreting and applying the law. the judiciary has the final word. last week on this floor, i tried to pass a senate resolution simply affirming the rule of law and finality of judicial review. i thought and hoped every senator would support it. regrettably, a republican senator objected. and the senate missed an opportunity to say with one voice that we support the constitution and judicial branch. thankfully the judicial branch has demonstrated its independence even without the support of the other branchs of government. judges carefully consider the

cases before them and in some cases provided a check on the administration when it overstepped. for that i commend the judiciary. alexander ham tan called the article 3 judiciary, the courts, quote, the least dangerous branch, close quote, because it has neither soldiers nor money to enforce its decrees. that's why the court's legitimacy in the eyes of the american people is so critical to its continued vitality. and that's why i continue to support an enforceable code of conduct for the supreme court. recent efforts by the trump administration and its allies to intimidate and impeach federal judges have been based on those judges' decisions and the president who appointed them. in contrast, an enforceable code of conduct would apply to all justices equally, no matter who appointed them and no matter how they rule on a particular matter. i first proposed that the court adopt an enforceable code of conduct 13 years ago in 2012. prior to the existence of the

court's current conservative supermajority and prior to many of its controversial decisions. the fact that many sitting justices have publicly endorsed an enforceable code of conduct underscores it does not pose a threat to the independence of the judicial branch. an enforceable code of conduct would bolster public confidence in the judicial branch and ensuring the judiciary is held in high regard, we can ensure that so-called least dangerous branch of government maintains a position of strength now and in the future. mr. president, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: the clerk: ms. alsobrooks.

>> mr. president, that video -- was a good student, nestlé and musician. he was an eagle scout, star of school plan hoping to attend stanford university. two days after christmas in 2020, his stats added that in his bedroom of fentanyl poisoning. he was 17. zack and his friends had gone to the mall to meet a drug dealer they found through social media. he bought what he thought was percocet but it wasn't.

they counterfeit bills he bought contained fentanyl. and what was a bad decision became deadly. zach was one of the more than 90,000 americans died of an overdose in 2020. many of those deaths from fentanyl poisoning. he was one of countless victims of fake bills being peddled on our streets your pills that too often find a way into the hands of young people and steal their futures. another tragic story, adopted from ghana, courage was pursuing his dream of becoming an airline pilot. he attended flight school, it is your job just days before he died at 23. his parents found him on the couch after night out with friends seemingly asleep until he stopped breathing. as they later found out courage and taken a pill with two times the lethal dose the fentanyl edit. it. ashley romero, a 32-year-old

mother took what she thought was a pain pill but that half pill contained a daily dose of fentanyl. the dealer was applied her boyfriend with a pill that took her life is believed to sold the pill that killed several other people. one of those individuals was jonathan ellington. jonathan had become addicted to oxycontin when a prescribed for high school soccer injury. he got clean and stay clean for about a decade until note entry and in the prescription got it back on it. when his prescription ran out he bought some pills and only took one filled with the lethal dose of fentanyl to take jonathan slice. threat to these are just a few of the stories the family said shared with the judiciary committee in support of the halt fentanyl act. unfortunately there are many more like them. liza lost, futures destroyed, families changed forever. one in three americans knows

someone who's died of a drug overdose. we are losing young people. teenagers, young parents, people with bright lives ahead of them. mr. president, when the trump administration temporarily, temporally classified all fit no analogues as scheduled substances, law enforcement gained a critical tool to combat fentanyl and go after the people who were bringing this poison into the united states. congress has extended this temporary classifications overtimes because it works. now we need to make it permanent bypassing the halt fentanyl act. i was very pleased of the strong bipartisan vote this bill received last thursday and i hope the vote on final passage will be equally robust. as i said, classifying all fit no analogues as scheduled substances gives law enforcement the critical tool to go after the criminal ringing this poison into our country and some get on our streets.

.. sharing their stories. notes are for their support . i yield the floor and suggest the absence of quorum. mr. grassley: soon we'll vote on the nomination of gail slater to serve as assistant attorney general for the antitrust division. i support her nomination, and i

urge my colleagues to do the same. antitrust is important to me, as it is to most senators. i've long been concerned about market concentration, and anti-competitive practices in industries that impact iowans, whether it's agriculture or health care or technology. these issues don't get the most attention around the united states senate, but they still impact millions of americans. family farmers and independent pro producers deserve fair prices for their products. seniors deserve affordable prescribble drugs -- prescription drugs. children deserve to be safe from predatory behavior on dominant tech platforms. all of these are antitrust

issues. attorney general bondi told me during her confirmation process that she shares my interest in these issues and that she'd work with me in the antitrust division to address these issues. there's no better person to help her in this project than gail slater. miss slater has the right qualifications for this job. she spent several years practicing antitrust law in private practice, before spending a decade at the federal trade commission handling antitrust investigations and litigation. in these roles, she learned the nuts and bolts of antitrust enforcement. miss slater also understands

antitrust and economics from a policy perspective. you know, she served in president trump's first administration, on the national economic council, and she served now-vice president vance as his economic policy advisor and a member of his senate staff. so, miss slater has numerous accomplishments in the antitrust space. i'm not the only one who thinks miss slater is the right person for the job. she has received letters of support from nine previous heads of the justice department antitrust division. these men and women were appointed by presidents of both political parties, and they wrote, quote, miss slater has the experience, intelligence,

judgment, and leadership skills necessary to serve as an excellent assistant attorney general for the antitrust division. end of quote. another bipartisan coalition letter comments her, quote, unique ability to collaborate on a bipartisan basis, with stakeholders across the political spectrum, building coalitions towards common goals, end of quote. and it might surprise you that the international brotherhood of teamsters announced that they support her nomination. in a rare sign of unity in the judiciary committee i chair, where we don't get a lot of unity, miss slater was advanced out of committee by a 20 yes

vote to two negative votes. i hope for a similarly strong bipartisan vote here on the floor. the antitrust division will flourish under miss slater's strong leadership, and i'm proud to support her. she's ready to serve our country, and we need to get her confirmed quickly. i yield the floor, i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: the clerk: ms. alsobrooks.

getting ready feedback elon musk confirm republicans are getting

ready? security medicaid. cultic rely on fraud and. that's a pretext but it's false. out of the federal spending the big one. we quote elon musk again. rare to hear republicans about their plans so directly.

republicans want to talk social security benefits. the richest man in the world and those who depend on the checks month, outrageous. any idea the harm it can do. donald trump, imam of snow billionaire tax cuts will not work. they care is cutting taxes further finish and realize how badly was. another reminder under donald trump and republicans the

republicans agenda and the richest man in the world programs to testify taking benefits away and people more popular. i'm is the benefit. this is hundreds of people.

shame is the line of retiring the federal government every year. his presidency biden is less than 1% 2015 that is not what.

and delusional what the administration and axis the trump administration will load e. ms. warren: i ask that the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. warren: thank you, mr. president. donald trump and co-president elon musk are shutting down the federal government, one piece at a time. shutting down the agency that

stops banks and payday lenders from cheating working people. shutting down children's cancer research. shutting down key parts of the department of transportation, the agency responsible for keeping people safe when flying airplanes. even shutting down parts of the social security administration. and now republicans in congress are laying out their blueprint to shut down the entire federal government. a budget is a reflection of our values, and this proposal makes clear where the republicans' values lie. after months of bipartisan talks, they're walking away from the negotiating table and offering a nonstarter house bill that forces us to the brink of a full government shutdown. who would be hurt the most? working people. billionaires win, families lose. republican values are clear.

their shutdown bill does two terrible things -- first, it wipes out the guardrails that congress wrote for how to spend taxpayer money. that mean that co-presidents trump and musk can hold everyone under their magic spell. they can spend taxpayer money, or they can shut off taxpayer money exactly how they want. perhaps trump and musk want to shovel $75 million of als treatment funding to anti-vaccine research instead. that would be okay under the republican deal. or maybe they want to shift $300 million or more from the faa's telecommunications funding bucket towards contracts to an elon musk starlink. the budget republicans have spent over would permit that as well. and if trump and musk decide to

fire another 25,000 veterans, or kick a million old people out of nursing homes, this package from house republicans would say, sure. in addition to giving c co-presidents trump and morphing the power to spend -- and musk, the power to spend taxpayer money however they want the house republicans also propose general cuts, cuts from programs that help families put food on the table, afford child care and keep our communities safe. cuts from local communities for projects like improving hospitals, teaching facilities, and child care centers. dollars that the house and the senate had already agreed to. but the house republican package isn't just about cutting out veterans and old people. no, it's also about spending more money. republican house members want to pour an extra $6 billion over

the next six months -- yup, that's a billion dollars a month directly to the pentagon. no explanation, no justification of why this money is needed. nope. cuts everywhere else in government but -- but a funding increase for the one government agency that has never, never passed an audit. that agency, the department of defense, gets a billion dollars a month. house republicans want to give $6 billion more to make sure that defense contractors continue to get their fat paychecks. but republicans in congress don't care whether the government shuts down. because they don't care about hurting working families. all they care about is getting back to jamming through their true agenda -- $4.6 trillion

worth of tax handouts for millionaires, billionaires, and giant corporations. paid for by gutting health care for millions of people. donald trump looked americans in the eye and said he'd, quote, lower costs on day one. those were his words, and now we are seven weeks in and he has done the exact opposite. he is raising costs for families. more people are losing their jobs. sky-high child care, housing, and food costs. and it's open season right now for banks and credit card companies and shady student loan outfits to scam the american people. the republican shutdown playbook is dangerous, and it will hurt working families. democrats are right to oppose the house bill, and people all

across this country are right to expect us to stand up and fight back. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor, and i suggest the absence of a quorum. oh -- i just yield the floor. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from washington. ms. cantwell: thank you, mr. president. i come to the floor this morning to speak in opposition to the nomination of steven bradbury. he is nominated to be the deputy secretary of transportation. when it comes to transportation safety, we don't measure success in dollars saved. we measure success in lives protected and tragedies prevented. last week i met with the parents

of sam lily, the first officer of the american airlines plane that fatally collided with a u.s. army black hawk helicopter at dca airport. sam's father happens to be a commercial pilot now, and before that he flew black hawk helicopters in the military. he expressed his concern about reports that the black hawks are regularly being operated in this busy airspace without the automatic dependent surveillance broadcast commonly known as ads-b turned on. we know that the black hawk and the january 29 collision wasn't transmitting this kind of technology. this kind of technology would have allowed the crj and sam lily the ability to see that

traffic. we hope that we will find out later today in the ntsb report that is listed what we need to do to fix this problem. we know that during m mr. bradbury's first tenure at dot, he led the faa to create exemptions to prevent military aircraft from operating without this key technologies transmitting. and guess what? the military knew and knew that they had been granted a loophole, but they said it would not be used all the time, only to find out later that the military said they were going to use the exemption 100% of the time. my heart goes out to the lilley family and all the families of the victims of this trag dick accident. it didn't need to happen. that is why last week i wrote

secretary hegseth to ask about the army's letter from 2023 stating that 100% of its helicopters fly in the d.c. area with this ads-b technology not activated. we can't afford another light-touch approach at the department of transportation when it comes to safety. we cannot. it simply does not matter if you're saving dollars if you're not saving lives. unfortunately, i believe the president's nominee to be deputy secretary of the department of transportation has shown more interest in a light-touch approach that benefits industry than being a champion for safety. during his nomination hearing, i questioned mr. bradbury about

his record as previous general counsel for the department of transportation during the first trump administration. in this capacity, mr. bradbury played a key role in orchestrating the rollback of multiple, multiple safety securities under the guise of advancing a reform agenda. for example, under his watch, he prevented requirements for truck drivers -- he -- there was a fatigue prevention requirement for truck drivers which he loosened. the vehicle investigation reached an all-time low and meanwhile road fatalities increased. under his watch, there were a number of rail safety requirements that were also waived. the department of transportation withdrew its 2% crew rule. this was a rule that people had recommended after a derailment in the united states and in canada including a runaway oil

train in quebec in 2013 at that derailed and killed 47 people. and during this same time period, the main line derailment increased all during mr. bradbury's tenure. most troubling of all is mr. bradbury's watch during the rule making on what is called a safety management system. for aviation manufacturers like boeing. just nine days after the first 737 max crash in 2018 which resulted in 346 deaths, there was a rule that said -- being proposed that the safety management system should be a mandatory requirement. not voluntary, don't tell an industry that has to manufacturer planes, it's okay. you can voluntarily comply with some of these rules. no, no, we need requirements

that manufacturers must meet. as my colleagues on the commerce committee know and safety management system rule for aviation manufacturers would have instituted a comprehensive process for analyzing, predicting and ultimately mitigating risk. the safety management system is considered the gold standard now around the world. if you want to have safety, you have a safety management system. it's a more robust process, and i question how mr. bradbury at dot, after the first indonesian 737 max crash, didn't see or understand the need for critical information and analysis that a safety management system would have put in place, particularly because the faa continued to let the max plane fly and part of the process in question is whether they considered the

critical analysis that boeing had done to allow the plane to fly and what the faa's role was. so following the tragedies of both 737 max crashes, the commerce committee, led by then chairman wicker, launched an investigation into the crashes to find solutions and prevent the disaster from happening again. but what did mr. bradbury do? did he work with the committee to improve safety for the flying public? no. no. he did not. he basically thwarted senator wicker and the committee's efforts to get the information about what the faa had done. make -- make this clear here today -- our colleagues need to hold the faa accountable. if you don't hold the faa accountable, as the oversight body, fat chance the faa is going to continue to do its job as aggressively as it needs to.

so senator wicker's office said, quote, mr. bradbury intentionally withheld relevant information requested by the committee, end quote. he made our investigation very hard. in fact, senator wicker later said, quote, he deliberately attempted to keep us in the dark and by that i mean our investigations, our staff, our committee, and me. end quote. now, i have great respect for my colleague, senator wicker, but the bradbury findings and stymieing us as a committee to do our oversight job gives me serious questions about his level of transparency. the families of the 737 max crashes wrote to chairman cruz last month and expressed their concerns about mr. bradbury's

role in obstructing the committee's investigation into the crashes that took their loved ones' lives. they also voiced concern about mr. bradbury's role that led to the delays in holding boeing accountable to implementing a true mandatory safety management system. now during his hearing, mr. bradbury suggested that the rule that was proposed by the previous obama administration that made it mandatory for manufacturers to have a safety management system was held up because some small businesses didn't want to meet that requirement. do we not believe that businesses are going to object to some rules? they do. they do all the time. but that doesn't mean scrapping the rule altogether, which is exactly what happened as far as the mandatory requirement.

well, lucky for the consumer, our committee in the aftermath of these two crashes got legislation passed that said, yes, you have to have a mandatory safety management system. and you have to, faa, put that rule out. now, mr. bradbury was still sesqui as general counsel -- serving as general counsel and acting deputy secretary of the department. you would have thought now that he's gotten a directive by congress to put out this rule, he would have said, hey, we have one. we've been debating it for a while. now we've had two crashes. it is really clear that the safety culture needs to be upgraded. this is the grade system. let implement it. but he didn't. he didn't move forward, even after congress mandated it.

and after mr. bradbury's confirmation hearing, the families of the 737 max crashes released a statement saying his testimony purporting to prioritize aviation safety, quote, shows a complete disregard for the 84 people who died in plane crashes in the united states in the last month, end quote. mr. brad bur -- mr. bradbury's troubling record doesn't stop there. during the bush administration, mr. bradbury issued the wildly known torture memos, justifying the use of waterboarding and other torture techniques. the department of justice and the office of professional responsibility reviewed these memos and raised doubts about

them, quote, saying the objective -- the objectivity and reasonableness, end quote, of these legal analyses. doj also found oefed evidence that his legal analysis were written with the goal of -- were written with the goal of allowing the ongoing cia program to continue. so mr. bradbury then, at the department of justice, was writing rules that fit the outcome that he wanted instead of looking objectively at what the american people needed. these legal opinions were contrary to what this nation stands for. later the senate refused to confirm mr. bradbury as assistant attorney general during the bush administration, and congress passed the

mccain-feinstein amendment to the 2016 ndaa codifying the illegality of those torture methods, the thourt methods that mr. bradbury said were okay. we passed a law to change what this guy's legal opinion was because p it was so bad. and so now when the senate is asked to provide advice and consent on mr. bradbury's nomination to be general counsel of the transportation department, i think you should look back at what happened then. two of our republican colleagues voted against his nomination because of the torture memos. they rightly concluded that he was not right to fit in the department of justice role. i'm saying today what do you need to know?

he didn't fight for strong safety rules at the department of transportation before. he's not going to fight for them now. it's really clear that our aviation safety system needs strong leadership at the faa. not someone who's going to write the rule to fit business, but write the rule to fit safety. as if these issues weren't concerning enough, there is another issue. during his confirmation hearing, i asked mr. bradbury what about the conflicts of interest that appear to be mounting between elon musk and the faa. i thought a smart lawyer, because your job is to be general counsel, could really give guidance to the secretary of transportation, give guidance to the faa administrator, the acting one, and could say these

are the ways in elon musk shoul not pass go, would be a conflict at the faa, given that there are already issues that are really clearly in front of us. so i said, tell us, where do you think those conflicts of interest exist. of course at the hearing he kind of demured and i said you can give me for the record where exactly do you think there is a conflict of interest. he didn't just evade my answers. he basically said that he thought that it was an excellent idea to have elon musk and spacex making changes to the faa control system. in fact, he said that he didn't, quote, see the potential for a conflict, end quote, with the

spacex employees having access to the faa. of course we know now that three spacex engineers were recently hired as special government employees at the faa and were immediately granted conflict of interest waivers by the trump administration so they could work on matters at the faa. why? because they had, quote, direct and predictable effects upon the financial interest of spacex, end quote. so, in other words, the trump administration conceded the conflicts of interest do exist, and they're going to let them happen anyway, and they went to get a waiver. the conflicts of interest for mr. musk and spacex at the faa is obvious.

let me just say, though, first, you can have all sorts of broadband solutions, including satellite solutions. but when you're talking about the air traffic control system, that kind of system is inferior to fiber. why? because of speed, capacity, costs, weather, all sorts of is issues. and when there's chaos, we need certainty and predictability. so we are seeing a conflict play out right before our eyes. according to a bloomberg report, one of spacex's engineers who was granted a conflict of interest waiver recently told the faa that spacex planned to send 4,000 starlink terminals to the agency. for what?

we're still trying to find out. the faa already entered into a $2 billion contract with verizon in 2023 to upgrade its telecommunications network, but mr. musk's own tweet suggests he wants to cancel the faa's contract with verizon. he's saying that they are failing. he wants them to use his product instead. and yet, mr. bradbury apparently doesn't even see the potential. he doesn't even see the potential for the conflict of interest. he doesn't stop with starlink as a broadband supplier. just last week spacex heavy lift broke in orbit. they halted flights in the area to ensure safety and thankfully

no one was injured. the faa initiated an immediate investigation into spacex to determine what happened. the investigation presents another clear conflict of interest. as we know, mr. musk doesn't think faa safety rules should apply to him. last september the faa fined mr. musk and spacex for failing to comply with specific compliances in its launch license. after getting fined, mr. musk made a spectacle, calling for the firing of the faa administrator. that's right, the faa fined him, and then he called for the faa administrator. oh, wait, wait one second. the faa administrator that passed this body 98-0 because

everybody here thought he was going to do a great job, but mr. bradbury doesn't think elon musk has a conflict of interest, but elon musk can l basically say to the president of the united states fire the faa administrator that we all said we thought would do a good job. now we all know mr. whitaker wasn't going to stick around and put up without being backed up for the safety work that he was doing. and now we don't have a sen senate-confirmed head of the faa. why? p because mr. whitaker been the want to stay around if everybody was going to let donald trump do whatever the heck he wanted when it came to the faa. all this because he got fined for violating safety rules. so i really don't understand what mr. bradbury doesn't understand that he can't write down on a piece of paper where a

real conflict of interest exists. we need new leadership in the department of transportation so that we can continue to stand up to safety issues. i do not believe mr. bradbury is that person. mr. bradbury sees bureaucrat hurdles when other people see safety safeguards. he sees red tape where we see lifesaving protections. he sees the objective of having a light touch faa, and we see the objective of having safety be the primary purpose, because you can't win at aviation if you p don't win at aviation safety first. ask the people of the pacific northwest. the catastrophes of the max crashes not p only lost lives,

they cost billions of dollars. so not adhering to safety is hardly a winning economic solution. so, mr. bradbury hasn't shown us the leadership on safety. he has not shown the fidelity of upholding the law, of even respecting congress. he has not shown us the courage that it takes to stand up and make sure that safety is implemented. and the consequences of putting the wrong person in place are measured in human lives, not dollars. human lives. the boeing 737 max families know this. yesterday was the sixth anniversary. ethiopian airlines crash that claimed 157 lives. family members like javier delewis and nadia milleron who have now oriented their lives

around making aviation safer. i so appreciate their advocacy, but the people at the faa should be doing the same. i urge my colleagues to vote against the nomination of steven bradbury, and i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mr. cornyn: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent to complete my remarks prior to the scheduled roll call vote. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cornyn: mr. president, it's another week in washington. and i think maybe the 52nd day since president trump was inaug inaugurated. and we're seeing the compliant mainstream media continue to spread falsehoods about the work

of the department of government efficiency and elon musk. as i said before, the federal government has a spending problem. and like with any addiction, getting clean and solving that problem is not necessarily easy or comfortable, but it is long overdue and absolutely necessary. with the national debt at $36.2 trillion and counting, we have to start somewhere, and little things add up. and what better place to start than the waste, fraud, and abuse that doge is identifying. this has long been a bipartisan issue. i can think of everything dating back to the grace commission where waste, fraud, and abuse was a bipartisan target, but apparently not with president trump in the office and not with

elon musk in charge of the effort to identify this spending. if you take a look at most things that the federal government is cutting at the recommendation of doge, it becomes harder and harder to become a doge skeptic, unless you're just blind to what they are doing. last week i mentioned the waste that it doge had identified with subscription of software licenses. people may think that's not big deal, but there's no reason taxpayers should be footing the bill for expensive subscriptions that go unused. doge uncovered the potential for massive fraud with an audit they conducted of government credit cards. at the beginning of the audit, there were 4.6 million active government credit cards. 4.6 million.

after two weeks, doge identified nearly 150,000 credit cards that were thankfully unused or unneeded and closed both down. and i'm sure there's more to be done with 4.6 million active credit cards. there's no reason for so many government employees to have direct access to spending taxpayer money at the click of a button or swipe of a credit card. this is basic and would never happen in the private sector or in our individual lives. but the federal government, in the federal government before this administration and before doge, these were commonplace and have been overlooked for way too long. there are some instances of fraud that we've known about for some time, but it's taken the trump administration and doge to identify it and fix it.

for example, the government accountability office submitted a report to congress last april, estimating that the federal government loses between $223 billion and $521 billion every year as a result of improper payments. the federal government's making improper payments and spending potentially up to half a trillion dollars. naturally this was an opportunity for doge to identify this waste of taxpayer dollars. doge found payments to illegal immigrants using multiple social security numbers to submit medicare claims, something for which they are not legally entitled. they found $57,000 in medicare payments in 2024 for a patient who was actually reported to

have died 14 years earlier. you can continue to charge for medicare payments 14 years after your death. in one particularly egregious instance, an illegal immigrant with a warrant out for arrest was receiving $400,000 in loans from the small business administration. but the waste and abuse of tax dollars goes beyond mere inefficiencies. some of the other line items on the doge cutting floor are so patently absurd, it would make your blood boil. for example, last week the national institutes of health canceled more than a half a billion dollars for grants for transgender experiments on mice. you can't make this stuff up. it's stranger than fiction.

in a similar vain, nih also canceled millions in woke grants ranging from promoting healthy relationships among transgender utsz to -- youth to delivering transgender services via telehealth, i think if you asked taxpayers how they would want their money spent, this would not make the cut. but that's not all. nih is also canceling research grants that were going to universities in china. they canceled a grant for $1.7 million going to the peking university for the, quote, retirement health and lodngitudl study. i think taxpayers would prefer

to focus on things at home rather than sending millions of dollars to china to study health and security that is a chief political rival. that's not all. a group called the inner american foundation has been significantly reduced after doge found egregious misuse of tax dollars, including over $900,000 going toward alpacha farming in peru, and there is more than $700,000 to improve the market ability of mushrooms and peas in guatemala. i know that children frequently squirm at the dinner table when they're told they have to eat their vegetables, but i don't

think this is an area where most people think our tax dollars should be spent. unfortunately, this waste doesn't stop at the vegetable aisle. this foundation also spent more than $600,000 to expand the sales of fruit and jam in honduras as well as nearly half a million dollars on improving the production of our artisanal salt in ecudar -- artisanal salt in ecudar. well, thank goodness, the department of government efficiency and mr. musk were the key to identifying these key abuses to the taxpayer, but they had been going on for a long time until the trump

administration came along. i'm grateful that some of these outrageous expenditures of tax dollars are being exposed and dealt. with as i said earlier, washington, d.c., has a spending problem and like any addiction, it's hard to kick the habit, especially after you become adjusted to it. but it's time for a little cold turkey when it comes to this addiction, and many people who benefit from this gravy train don't want it to end. so naturally many of our colleagues on the other side are concerned about doge and they want to suggest that everything the federal government does is absolutely perfect. they wouldn't take a change. but they don't really have any substantive response to these

outrageous examples that i'm mentioning here. they wouldn't change a thing. they see these stats and they tell you, don't believe your lying eyes. but those of us who have looked into it, who have a ten the -- taken the time to study what has been exposed know otherwise. the government is not infallible. we have an unsustainable level of federal debt that threatens our economy and our national security. and the truth is, the trump administration and republicans are hard at work trying to address it to make the government more efficient and more affordable for american families. so once again, i'd like to do something that you don't hear very often in washington, d.c., these days and thank elon musk

for his service to our country in performing this essential and long overdue role. mr. president, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: i ask to waive the mandatory quorum call with respect to the bradbury nomination. the presiding officer: without objection. the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture. the clerk: cloture the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby bring to a close debate on the nomination of steven bradbury, of virginia, to be deputy secretary of transportation, signed by 17 senators. the presiding officer: by unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum call has been waived. the question is, is it the sense of the senate that debate on the nomination of steven bradbury, of virginia, to be deputy

secretary of transportation shall be brought to a close? the yeas and nays have been ordered, the clerk will call the roll. vote: the clerk: ms. alsobrooks. ms. baldwin. mr. banks. mr. barrasso. mr. bennet. mrs. blackburn. mr. blumenthal. ms. blunt rochester. mr. booker. mr. boozman. mrs. britt. mr. budd. ms. cantwell. mrs. capito. mr. cassidy. ms. collins. mr. coons. mr. cornyn. ms. cortez masto. mr. cotton. mr. cramer. mr. crapo. mr. cruz. mr. curtis. mr. daines. ms. duckworth. mr. durbin.

ms. ernst. mr. fetterman. mrs. fischer. mr. gallego. mrs. gillibrand. mr. graham. mr. grassley. mr. hagerty. ms. hassan. mr. hawley. mr. heinrich. mr. hickenlooper. ms. hirono. mr. hoeven.

mr. husted. mrs. hyde-smith. mr. johnson. mr. justice. mr. kaine. mr. kelly. mr. kennedy. mr. kim. mr. king. ms. klobuchar. mr. lankford. mr. lee. mr. lujan. ms. lummis. mr. markey. mr. marshall. mr. mcconnell.

right now in the court. granted the eligibility. we are institutionalizing it. that is the risk. >> are witnesses before appearing before the committee today. >> thanks, mr. chairman. in this one and the health benefits. thank you for the witnesses to

submit for the record the hearing is adjourned. [inaudible conversations] . mr. sheehy. ms. slotkin. ms. smith. mr. sullivan. mr. thune. mr. tillis. mr. tuberville. mr. van hollen.

mr. warner. mr. warnock. ms. warren. mr. welch. mr. whitehouse. mr. wicker. mr. wyden. mr. young. senators voting in the affirmative -- cornyn, crapo, daines, gallego, grassley, lee, lummis, moody, ricketts, sheehy,

and sullivan. fromin here to tell you risk of shows like fighting they sent president trump individual defense to the white house republicans listen senate. the american people shows plus and if secure borders.

for teachers on top of spreading lies. democrats have repeated the best themselves. no further than last week. their derangement was controlled for all americans to see it was removed. they felt ... ...

they are the party of hate and they hate little kids? they hate america? may be democrats should just join us in building a more prosperous nation. and then on thursday nearly 200 democrats endorsed al greens behavior and his disruption. then they disrupted proceedings by singing songs on the house floor. that's be honest. things just are not going real well for the democrats right now. and what do they stand or fight for? no one really knows.

and don't take my word for it. one progressive democrat said, and i quote, there was definitely frustration about the lack of guidance or plan. another one said, and i quote, people are super mad that we didn't get more direction from leadership. well, be careful what you wish for. according to reports democratic leadership held a closed-door meeting to break them for their behavior. we'll see if the rating the members is useful strategy. because the range of democrats they have no vision they have no plan and they still have no leader. they need something and since the leadership has giving them, given them no guidance, as a member of house republican leadership i encouraged democrats to stay the course, keep painting, keep doing what you're doing.

democrats hate to much of what president trump stands for and what the american people stand for that they are willing to shut our government down. they want servicemembers and border patrol agents to work without pay. small businesses not to be able to obtain sba loans. the democrats want relief projects to be delayed. national parks to be closed if they want w.i.c. to run out of sunday. this is what the democrats want. what democrats ask you want is nothing more than disruption. democrats have become chaos agents. democrats are deranged. their disarray is on display for all of the american people to witness, and americans will witness them attempt to shut the government down. and if a shutdown happens the democrats will own it. just listen to what some of

their members say. one said, and i quote, i'm not voting for crv kneelength. they may want to read the text before they say that because the text wasn't even out when they said that. another said we would rather close down the government and look at the house democrats come democratic leadership letter from friday. just filled with lies. nothing but lies. it says that this clean cr instilled with cuts. the american people are smarter than that. i clean cr, listen to it, continues to fund the government. they might need to go back and take high school civics course. or perhaps they're just intentionally lying or fear mongering. i'll presume that it's the latter but despite this, house republicans will remain focused we will continue to focus on

fighting for common sense. we will not be distracted from delivering on the mandate for the american people. we will pass this clean cr which freezes spending to keep the government open. it protect social security, medicare and medicaid, and allows ice to continue deporting illegals. it will give the trump administration time to secure our border and it will give congress time to focus on delivering on the mandate in our one big beautiful bill. president trump supports it and we just heard the same from vice president vance this morning. i look forward to seeing democrats explain to their constituents why they collectively want to shut the government down. it'll be an interesting week.

senate i'd like to turn over to wrap celeste maloy, a member of the house committee on appropriations. celeste. >> i'm here to tell you why i plan on supporting the cr. as a brand-new member of the appropriations committee and a friend a member of congress iran on rightsizing our government, cutting back government overreach and eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse. usually we don't think of the cr as a way to do that we have an administration i think that is demonstrated the commitment to finding waste, fraud, and abuse and making sure we don't have we are not paying for more government then we need. and in that context i feel good about continuing to fund the government so that congress and the administration has time to go find the places that we need to cut back and where we need to increase spending like the biggest race for the race for

junior illicit officers and military we've given in generations. this allows us to focus on tackling the waste, fraud, and abuse without any poison pills, and i think that's what's best for the american people. i think that's what's best for my constituents some going to support the cr and get to work on making sure we're doing our constitutional duty of control in the purse strings and appropriating for next year. >> thank you very much everybody for being here. look, the first question i always get asked this first on which the chairman of the house freedom caucus doing at a press conference about continuing resolutions? i'll tell you the bottom line is that i continuing resolution is usually the first step to an omnibus bill. that's what traditionally the house freedom caucus as opposed to continuing resolution. this grid is not. this is a trend by the goes to the end of the fiscal year and, therefore, negates the need for

any consideration of any under this bill second of all this is the first continuing resolution in my 14 years here that actually reduces the meta-spending from the previous year while funding the military, funding veterans confronting the women infants and children program is with her and important funding the deportation of criminal illegal aliens that are threatening our communities. i'm 100% behind this continuing resolution. this is not your grandfathers continuing resolution. this is a different type of spending bill that i think is a way we need to do in order to keep the trump administration elon musk and -- to continue its promising american people to fight fraud, waste, abuse and the federal government and increase its efficiency. i can 100% support the freedom caucus issued its support of yesterday issued it support of acute continuing resolution. thank you. >> last week we celebrated president trump's countless victories for the american people during his joint address

to congress. this weak congress must passz a continuing resolution so the american people can continue to enjoy when after when after win. this is the way forward but, unfortunately, democrats in congress would rather throw temper tantrums fueled by their hatred for president trump then keep the government open and working for all americans. minority leader hakeem jeffries came out against our cr as our conference chair mentioned before the text was even released. and now the only way to defend his nonsensical position is to fearmonger and spread outright lies about the bills contents. jeffries says our cr cuts nutritional assistance and veterans benefits. in fact, our cr increases spending in those areas. he also said that does nothing to protect social security, medicare and medicaid.

in fact, our cr does protect social security medicare and medicaid. and it does all of this while keeping overall spending below current levels. his lies are shameful. congressional democrats have made it clear where they stand and it is not with the american people. remember about against our cr is about to shut down the government and strip resources from servicemembers, veterans, vulnerable children, the elderly and many, many more americans. but don't just take my word for it. it's the same message democrats have preached for years. today house republicans would pass a responsible cr to keep the government open and to ensure american communities are taken care of. any democrats join us or will they continue to put their hypocrisy on full display? we are going to see. with that i turned to our leader steve scalise. >> thank you, whip.

last week all americans watched the state of the union saw a very triumphant president trump whose return to the white house with even more energy, more vigor and more focus to work for the american people than ever before. laying out in just six short weeks how much is a redone to fulfill the promises of the campaign to deliver on the mandate that 77 million americans came to the polls and said we want to change the way washington works. and they sent president trump and j. d. vance to go and accomplish those things. and in six short weeks so many of those things have artie been accomplished for the work and the foundation has been laid to get that worked on. what do we see from the democrats? as lisa mcclain talk about, sitting down, not even celebrating a 13-year-old boy who just beat his battle with

cancer and was made on remember of the secret service. one of the most touching moment i seen a lot of the state of unions and they couldn't stand up for that. my friends, the democrat party of today is a leaderless rudderless ship. i have no direction. they have no ideas. they have no concern about the successes of the american people. they can't applaud victories for the american people. they couldn't even applaud paying tribute to the widow of a woman whose husband as a police officer was slain in a line of duty. that's of the democrat party in washington is. so many americans who consider themselves democrats have left that party because the democrat party has left them behind. a lot of the democrats voted for donald trump and voted to put us in the majority. both in the house and senate. because they are tired of the hatred and the anger that fuels today's democratic party. they want towh see people that e going to work fighting for them

and that's what we're doing. today is another example of the house doing its job. we have a responsibility deliver for the american people and we are going to do it with a without the democrat party. a lot of democrats, we all get to bring a guest to this to a union. a lot of them brought federal workers as the guest to the state of the union. they seen, act like they care about federal workers that you saw a lot of democrats over the last few weeksmr show up at federal buildings with some federal employees who haven't been able to find their federal headquarters to go to work for the last three years using covert as an excuse but they showed up to protest, to rally against routing at waste, fraud, and abuse in government. but ironically the same democrats who claim to care about federal workers today almost all of them will vote to follow those federal workers of the claim to care about. how's that for showing

appreciation to the people work for this federal government? all of the met said quote and the speakers laid out a great video that lays out a lot of the quotes the democrats have made over the years about shutting down government, yet today many of them will vote to shut down the government. and for what reason? asset been pointed out hakeem jeffries came out against the bill before the text was even filed. and still to this day if you watched in rules me last night you heard my afterlife by democrats who were saying things that are not even in the bill. maybe 99 pages is too long for some of them to read. we gave them the whole weekend to read the bill. they can still read it through today. the boat is going to be this afternoon but they don't want to read the bill. it they don't want to know what truly in the bill. they are just fueled by anger, anger that donald trump won the election, anger that 77 million people went to the polls and demanded a change in a way washington works. i've got a message from a

democrat friends out there. whether you like it or not the american people demand a change and we're going to deliver that change with or without this wild reckless far left progressive democrat party of today. they don't represent the american people. they're fighting against the will of the american people but we as republican majority are going to deliver for the families who are struggling. you want relief, who want help, want to get washington off the back and want lower cost. we're going to do that. we passed a bill over the senator will urge her senate once we finish this bill the senate has got to start moving on house budget we sent to them weeks ago. anybody's got a job to do around you. we're going to do ours today and the leader who's heading that effort up is our speaker mike johnson. >> thank you so much meat or leader. for these extraordinary members were behind us and participate in this morning. i think the leader student will and others stated it will display.

this is a moment of great change in washington. it's a moment of clarity and real contrast. the contrast is on display last week on house floor, a shameful display by the democrats. they are flailing as is noted. they have no leader no vision no plan no platform they can but not because that was repudiated in the election. they are in a panic mode and say see them lashing out. you see increasing profanity. many stories many of you've written about this new track it taken new strategy with just scream and shout and curse at her going. i don't think that's going to be very productive either. you see the contest going on this morning that you have an issue with reading comp reagent or they are tending to run one of the most shameful misinformation campaigns that we've ever seen in our lives. we filed that this year that continuing resolution on saturday and as was noted they had already come out panning the bill that literally have not yet been seen.

they said quote, this thise house democrat leadership team statement on friday remember the bill was was was filed on saturday afternoon. friday be said quote republicans had decided to introduce a partisan continuing resolution that threatens to cut funding for health care, nutritional assistance and veterans benefits through the end of the year. every single word of that is later they just made it up. they didn't read the bill. it's nonsense. people are not buying this. you see the contrast between one party which is leading, moving the ball forward for the american people, and the other that is just scream. then the democrats. this talking point. the harmful for the american people. cutting medicaid, cutting medicare confronting social security, cutting veteran benefits. it's all a lie. you can all read the bill. it's 99 pages. this clean cr contains no poison pill writers come no policy riders there at all. no cuts to medicare, medicaid or social security, zero come no

cuts the veterans benefits, zero. in fact, as was noted we plus-up the accounts for veterans. and respectfully am going to say this to every reporter in the room that if you're a loving democrats to make these intentionally false scurrilous claims without pushback then you are aiding and abetting the spreading of misinformation. i would ask you to call them onto. the american people deserve that. they deserve that clarity from our press corps. making point out to you. they can't of course. now after weeks of trotting federal workers up to capitol hill and onto cable news shows to protest president trump's efforts to make the government more efficient, now they plan to vote count the simple bill. they're going to try to shut the government done. every house democrat will do just that in his looks like. that would be a shame if it's true. i hope some of them on a moment of clarity themselves into the right thing but it looks like a going to try to shut down the government. it's a striking a posture for democrats who have always said, they have just been apoplectic about the prospect of government

shutdown. i put of you out about an hour ago on social media. encourage you to go see that. this is then in her own words. you don't need to trust us on this but katherine clark is one little zinger from her comical, not only is irresponsible and purposely misleading but it's also a dangerous precedent to be threatening shutdown and corporate remember this is last year years past. the tragedy is all the civilian employees, it's the employees who are going to suffer, unquote. aoc quote, it is not normal to hold 100,000 workers paychecks hostage. it is not normal to shut down the government. when we don't get what we want, unquote. i don't think i've ever agreed with her before. jerry nadler said quote shutdown is really an extremist policy designed to appeal to an extremist base and hold the whole country hostage. we agree. so they and other colleagues need to do the right thing. democrats of insisting they are fighting for federal workers. you're about to see again on vivid display very clear the

contrast use one team that is working to fund the government to make sure we do the responsible thing, and you will see another closing this year because they nap expose the truth. they're not for federal workers or anyone. all the people they sit in the past will be harmed with the miser votes. they are using federal employees as props confusing medicaid benefits and social security checks as codgers on this thing. the threat of a government shutdown, the using it as some sort of attempt to wrestle power away from the president of the united states. google him and we won the popular vote the electoral college and every single swing state. here's the bottom line. if congressional democrats refused to support this clean cr, they will be responsible for every true premises up a chicken for every flight delay from reduced staffing atsc, for every negative consequence that comes from shutting down the government. understand have an important retreated this week. i would love to be a fly on the wall at that party. comes at a critical time since the dawn of the leader, a

messenger or platform. i'm just going to say this. if our democratic colleagues want to increase their 21% approval rating, they ought to start but doing the right thing and keeping the government open. i think that would be a great first step. so i'll take questions. >> to continue to criticize democrats, doesn't that imply that you don't have the votes on your side because you would need democrat assistance to keep the government open? >> we will have the poster we will pass this year. we can do in honor of the i'm saying is democrats ought to do the responsible thing, follow their own advice in every previous scenario and keep the government open. it's their choice. i wish it could be a unanimous vote in the house chairman today. that we hear great thing for america but they're not going to do it because they are on this loss, wandering in the wilderness and cursing the sky at the same time and you'll see that today. they're going to vote no eye, anti-japan and lie about it and recalling on you guys to call

them to account. make him tell you the truth bill. they didn't read it before this and all that nonsense asked them how they -- >> the present when after one of your own colleagues yesterday thomas massie does plan to vote against this. he said he should be primaried. do you agree with the president should you be primaried? >> look, i meant the income protection program here. that's what i do. speaker of the house. you know me and my style and the way i do this job. i bless those who persecute me. thomas and i for disagreements but i consider thomas massie a friend. he's a thoughtful guy. i guess he'll tell you he's doing what he thinks is right on this. i just the many disagree with his position but i believe it at that. >> you in the past did not vote for crs when you are rank-and-file member. you have sent and fast you were done with short-term crs. by mike at mmf maya angelou off this would be the fifth continuing resolution you are presiding over a speaker of the

house. what do you say to your conservative colleagues who have heard you in the past promise that you're going to start to go through a regular appropriations process but yet he can find them sits in a position when you have to take a difficult was the distant that a difficult vote. >> with that's a great question. andy harris said so well. this is a different cr than anything we've seen in our careers in congress. i've been eight years. he's been a bit longer. it normally is something that the patchwork to give us more time to try to get to the appropriations process. this is totally different. a year-long cr which is a first i think we've had, i don't know there is a a precedent for an actual year-long cr. it solves the problem because it freezes federal spending. it takes care of these immediate priorities that of an articulated and it allows us to move forward with changing the size and scope of the federal government. there is a seismic shift going on in washington right now. this is a different moment than we've ever been in. doge work is finding the massive

amounts of fraud, waste, abuse. we have white house that is dedicated to getting us back onto his fiscally responsible track. regardless deal than the size of the bureaucracy and agencies which is has become the fourh branch of government. none of that was present or true before. when i begin speaker ryan inherited a real mess. with joe biden and why does. we're divided government and is a very difficult thing for us can i get to. i didn't get you anything i wanted or thought was really important to the country. i did will be had to do what is necessary what we can get to a 18 vote for. this is a totally different scenario. by doing a cr this time it actually is the responsible point and to conserve the play because we are conserving the resources for the american people and this is something all of us who wanted to do our whole careers and we now have speakery will this be your last cr? >> this is what i expect that this white house is going to actually do its job. this white house will send us a budget that, this has been done

and whether send us a budget that will request funding for a smaller leaner more efficient and effective accountable federal government. that is a new paradigm for us and were excited about that. that's overdue return as soon '26 off the table, fy '25. return fy '26 and thus we have all the cuts and the savings that will be actualized there's a process as i've explained, qualified to say the ship to quantify them and then you codify them. the codification prices comes for fy '26. you will see the administration and congress working in tandem to provide and present a better government for the people. that is something many of us ran for congress to do. that day is now upon us and we're excited about it. >> the stock market plunged yesterday, going down again today. part of the reason is because of president trump's policies on tariffs including the ones just introduced this morning. can you comment? this truck need to rethink what

he's doing given the chaos we are seeing in the stock market? >> this is a i feel about a committee of a field about it. the president has proven what he can do on the economy. this is not theoretical. look at the first term of the trump administration. prior to covid we talked about this many times in here, the first use of the trump administration with the greatest economy and history of the world. go check it. we had every demographic was doing better. all boats were rising. we had thriving u.s. economy. we were booming and that's because of the policies and strategies president trump lead and delivered. we cut taxes, regulations. we let people keep more money in the pocket and made america the first priority. that is what he's doing again. he's got to reshape and shape things because it's in the real mess. the last four years was a disaster and economic policy and of the other measurement of public policy. what president trump is doing i feel like it's when you're paying rule. you go on the table and balzer

racked and you hit as hard as you can. this is many peoples strategy. hit it as hard as you can to break up the balls on the table and send them spread. then you play the strategy of sinking them in the holes. that's over doing now. it is a shape shakeup and he said the will be shakeup now but this is what required in my mind to start the process of repairing and restoring the american economy. i believe the strategy is going to work. i believe sometimes when you shakeup that commits a violent thing on the table, right, in the game metaphor but always work so well in the end that i think you've got to give him time been in office just over 50 days. give the president a chance to have his policies play out. that's where we are on it. >> what crime did -- commit to what his arrest and detention? >> let me tell you something, i went to face down thinking bob,

pro-palestinian pro-hamas protested. this is my own observation something i read in newspaper. it was dangerous. i met with jewish to us befoe went to campus who are hauled with off-campus because they were started by the administration not to come to class which they pay for for fear of the physical safety. the administrators refused to take control of the campus come refused to allow the pd to come in and take control. it turned into chaos. the president has since been removed and now that get the same problem again. colombian of the universities have to get control of caps. the first responsibility of an administration is ensuring the safety of the stints are paying tuition to be there. for crying out loud. this madness has to stop. we had to get control of it. this guy apparently was a mastermind of those very things when the gnashing of teeth and ripping up close and the people screaming at me wanted to rip me limb from the because i did talk about moral clarity and had right and wrong. they were doing that. they disrupted the campus. they were threatening physical

violence to fellow students. if your on a student visa, uncle to see this clearly if you're on a student visa and you're an american and you're an aspiring young terrorist who wants to break on your jewish classmates you're going home. we are going to arrest your tail and oconus in your home where you belong. this is just getting started. so look, i appreciate free speech. i use to defend an course but this is far beyond the pale of that. when you're threatening her classmates and spewing anti-semitism and all this hatred, it's enough and i think the american people understand that. the supporting it and i'm glad we had a present a strong enough to lay down the law. thanks a lot. tuberville, aye. >> ok, good morning going. thank you all for joining disparate my name is sarah got the privilege of representing district three congressional district three in maryland and i

want to start by extending a special thank you to the brave and hard-working civil servants whom i am so proud to be standing with this morning and pride represent every single day. i'm grateful for their stories, grateful for the fights and grateful for the advocacy that the going to share today. i want you to hear from them directly to hear their stories ongoing to endeavor to be as brief as possible. i have the privilege of representing 44,000 federal employees by colleagues stimulator, johnny qualls represents tens of thousands of federal employees. these civil-service wake up every single day and work every day to keep our food inspector can keep her water clean, keep our social security checks come on time. since day one unfortunate this administration has sought to recklessly remove civil-service on-the-job amfest putting life-saving services enhance a political appointments or even worse though service in the

hands of no one at all. the firing particularly a. probationary employees especially impacts workers of my generation. people who are early or mid career the folks i'm standing with today like daniel, ashley and maddie they were on a path to be the next generation of leaders in our civil service. they were hard-working public servants with excellent performance reviews who were fired because of no fault of their own but only because as probationary employees one with only one day left in probationary status they had fewer protections and other autoworkers. let me be clear they were not given two weeks notice. they were not given a severance. they were cut off from emails and from the careers and from the livelihoods when they have children in school and mortgages to pay and parents to take it up. so we need to take steps as a congress to protect them and the thousands of employees like them from the reckless chaos of this moment because the future of the civil service is truly in

jeopardy. i ask you who want to serve the country if they are demonized everyday? who want to serve the country if they can be arbitrarily fired without cause? who want to serve the country if their job is in question every four years? at a time when government already faces challenges recruiting young talent, recording the best and brightest in cybersecurity, science and public health in the public service so consistently fall behind the private sector, arbitrarily firing thousands of federal workers nothing short of disastrous. our generations could be living with the consequences of these actions for decades to come at me be clear you going to hear today how demoralizing illegal and unimaginable these firings have been for hard-working civil servants and we must die with every tool we have to reinstate these workers and we're fighting and we are winning. just last week the department of labor rehired workers, usda rehired workers get fda rehired

workers. -- and elon musk have already admitted that in moving so quickly, mistakes were made and workers are being reinstated the reason we're here today and the very simple idea behind this bipartisan bill is that these workers should not have to restart the class under probationary period smack for the work and jobs they've already held because of this carelessness. that's why today we're introducing the protect our probationary employees back to do shoes that. with order one bipartisan cosponsors. the bill was introduced by senator chris van hollen who will join us in the second from the city. this is been a bipartisan, since peaceful legislation because protecting our federal employees who serve our communities should not be part of them. this is not about to make clear not just a challenge for the members of the house and senate who represent that dmv region. often told that serve bulimic declared 85% of civil servants in this country serve our country in committees outside of

the dmv. they live in red states, blue states and above all they deliver critical government services to all americans regardless of the party in power or who they voted for. i'm committed to fighting for them and the future of a civil-service and physical day. i want every civil servant you know see you, we hear you and we are with you every step of the way forward. thank you and with that i'm going to bring up one of those people impacted today, daniel. daniel. >> first, what you think the congresswoman for her work on the support villa for having me today. it's an honor. my name is dan and until recently i was preservation specialist. over the last year in this role i've got to be a steward of monumental historic building just a stone throws away from the national mall. the responsibility has been humbly and rewarding.

every day i circe felt like i've been called up to the big leagues. for many years i've been fasted by the stewardship role of our historic public buildings after learning about the agency in graduate school. ten years and many java applications later i was finally hired on last february and was ecstatic to begin what i considered the capstone of my early career that . i thought i would spend many years here. my wife and i sacrificed much to make this dream a reality including an amazing community where we live in california, and stable and expanding careers in state and local government. once when we were truly valued. we also moved our whole lives 2700 miles while she was pregnant spending several thousand dollars out of her own pocket. up until recently it was all well worth it. i did meaningful work with incredible colleagues i was learning a lot. we settled into our lives here

in quickly took to loving everything that d.c. has to offer. our first child was born in september. we also became first-time homeowners in the region in december. today i'm scared, scared for the next too much look like. i'm scared for those that depend on me and my salary. i'm scared to lose the home we haven't even finished unpacking yet. i'm also sad for us all the because my work matters and the peoples work matters. without folks like me it would be know what to ensure nation poster board is toward buildings and sites are protected from ill-conceived government actions that carelessly degrade and inevitably erase them. i'm scared and time detected but a promise you this, i'm also strong and defiant. today i know we are somewhat stronger together. thank you so much. [applause] >> next is ashley and maddie. >> hey everybody.

how are you guys today? are you guys doing good? normally i am as you can tell i'm an interpreter as i like to talk to people and so it feels weird for me just to sort of statically standing. i want to talk evil. my name is ashley and this is my calling, maddie. we were among the 1000 national parks of probationary employees fired unjustly on february 14. 14. formally i was a schoolteacher, park ranger. i was a schoolteacher for 15 years, a park ranger two tws for five of those years. i am a daughter, sister and i'm also a cancer survivor. and now i don't have health insurance. maddie and i were not lazy bureaucrats who loafed around all day. we loved love our jobs ank pride in our work. we love being park rangers.

maddie is especially as she and i were both national park entrance in 2020. we both bought for five years, five years to chase our dream and lan permanent jobs. only two of our careers taken simply for being on probation. we are able to speak to today solely because of the support of our friends and family. my partner brian is sitting back there. our partners have done so much to support our efforts in advocacy. our friends, our fired colleagues, helen, avery and her families have carried us on their backs financially and emotionally. we desperately search for someone to help us. with that support former families we were able to continue to fight and fight how is like senator warner and finally congresswoman already.

on that note my colleague and friend and dedicated former public servant, maddie hollis. the. >> thank you so much for having us. i am one of many of the federal employees who were terminated simply because we're still within her first year of our permanent position. as ashley stated we were not new to the national park service. i work as a paid national park service employee for three years, not counting my volunteer work, my internship to qualify from a permanent position. i was terminated on valentine's day. so i'm here today mostly to talk about and now what. we were fired very suddenly. there was talk of potentially reinstating probationary employees who were fired outside of normal production and force procedures but now what? that's the thing to talk about today is what kind of safeguards are needed going forward for probationary employees and what can we do to eliminate the barriers to our careers?

because truly this was not just a short-term consequences. the obvious being loss of income, loss of health insurance but also long-term consequences on our career. for example, we are not reinstated and we cannot find government jobs for the next two years in many instances that would count as a break in service and would have to start from scratch in terms of the time we both put into qualify for our positions. there is many things to discuss today to talk about what can be done going forward and so we are not just here to share our stories and talk about what happened to us but also to talk about solutions and talk about the safeguards that we need to protect people like ashley and myself. as as a former park ranger ande history buff i feel it would not be fair to close with that sharing at least one quote on historical figure, it's what i love come to my nature. this comes from george

washington writing to the marquis de lafayette in 1785. a decent democrat states must always feel before they can see. it is this that makes their government slow but the people will be right at last. so what did george washington telling us? he's telling us that democracy while frustrating at times is supposed to be slow because that allows decisions to be fully discussed and thought out before they happen. and if you're the way we were terminated so suddenly meant that not all of the consequences could be sought out and the plan made for people like us going forward. that's why we're here today. we hope this conversation we have with representatives later about this solution can protect people going forward. if not for a woman standing by me for day, maybe someone the future. thank you so much and thank you congressman elfreth. >> next up is senator chris van hollen. >> running late.

ashley and maddie, thank you very, very much. they are two perfect examples of extraordinary employees of the american people. noma lingers there. i want to put this in context. if i i wanted to make the fedl government the least efficient i could possibly make it, i would do exactly what must has done, exactly. i would make sure that every employee focus on the fact that they might lose her job as opposed to focusing on their job. fearful of the next day. now, i don't just suppose that. i know that. let me quote russell vought who

really designed much of what is going on, and being implemented by elon musk and his cohorts. here's what russell vought said. we want bureaucrats to be traumatically affected. when you wake up in the morning we want them not to want to go to work because they are increasingly viewed as the villains. we want to put them in trauma. is there an american who even thinks that's what they want to do with their employees with the people of certain everyday with them in trauma, have them believe their being looked at as villains? not one of these people is a villain. every one of these people here,, including the members of congress are serving the

american people. so i want to congratulate my colleague, sarah, for introducing this bill, this bipartisan bill. i want to think every one of the folks who were here, ashley, daniel, anthony, madeleine for being a bit epaulet summit outcome and apologize. past few weeks we've watched donald trump, elon musk, russell vought and doge -- doggie, , i know some people call it doge, that's too fancy is going on, try to make the federal government the least efficient it could be so that they can claim all, the government doesn't work. because that's what they are causing. their actions are unprecedented,

illegal, and cruel. our federal workers especially our probationary employees have borne the brunt of this assault. ladies and gentlemen, other than like me, midcareer people, members of congress, i am a lot older than many of them, you are seeing the seed corn. what is a seed corn? seed corn, is what you plan that will make sure you have more growth, more sustenance, more support. i want to talk about julie, a probationary employee at the treasury department. she supports the office of comptroller of the currency, work to protect consumers from discriminatory lending, fraud, money laundering, and other predatory financial practices. now, there's somebody who is senior to her who's doing that

right now and they were trained and had an opportunity to work. and one of these folks may be well succeed her, or someone else. but if we fire them, , if we put them out the training, particularly when, as you saw,, they are outstanding performers, then we will have nobody to replace them. julie left her longtime hope and a lad as voter family and friends to take the job at treasury. why? because she believes in the work, because she knows she is the most qualified person for the job and that's why they hired her. her story performance evaluations outstanding outstanding outstanding affirm that. her probationer period was set to end march 24. she was terminated on march 8.

cruel, inhuman, immoral, but mostly illegal the saddest part of julie's story is it's not unique. trump, musk and vought to not care who or what they do. they did this so quickly that they knew everything about how they would do it with her e-mails and social media. what they didn't have any idea was the consequences of their actions. which we have seen happen people's lives at risk, put basic biomedical research at risk, but nursing skills at risk, put veterans at risk, put families at risk, but jurisdictions at risk. but we know that the real villains are not those who are being fired, not those who serve others, but those who serve only themselves. that's why i am so proud to

support and fight for the bill that sarah elfreth has put on as a bipartisan bill, and i would reiterate 15% of federal employees live in the district of columbia, maryland and virginia area. 85% live everyplace else. i want to not introduce nicole who was laid off or fired from the consumer financial protection board, a board that is designed to make sure that americans are not built -- built and defrauded by those who would use their lack of knowledge as a full ability and take advantage of them. nicole. hello, everybody. my name is nicole.

i was five and february 11, 2025 from my dream job as an honors attorney enforcement division at the cfpb. in much of investigative financial institutions for violating consumer financial laws. with the sole goal of pursuing consumer redress, getting peoples money back when they've been taken advantage of them went deep into fodder and when they been misled by a marketplace. both of my parents are republicans. i am from miami, florida, and i believe in the market economy and i learned in law school that sometimes the way that a market economy works doesn't give consumers the power to vote with their money. i believe that was a big part of why some areas of our marketplace to get fans of other people because they were not responsible or accountable to the american public. i pursued my job with the goal of trying to make a difference, trying to rectify those incentives. i was fired from my probationary period which shall admit i was

new to my job. doctor started october 7, 2024. i started a started a month before the election green and eager to do my job. i worked through the christmas holiday. it was in honor of a lifetime to do the job in fact, some time i was in law school i knew that i wanted this job. i was green but i wasn't naïve. i knew i was joining a month before the election and the new that big part of being a civil servant was to serve regardless of who was in charge and to show what was in charge that i was willing to work in good faith to try to find common ground and to try to reach outcomes that work for everybody. i wanted the market economy to work and that was my motivation. when i sign realize the trump presidency was going to, the drug menstruation was becoming i knew that that would mean i probably would have to work even harder. i would have to show them that my cases were worth bringing, i would have to show than i did my

homework and that's willing to work hard and wanting to work long hours for the american public. i was never given the chance though. i was fired at 9 p.m. on a tuesday over e-mail with no notice or warning or severance for any opportunity to show that i was willing to work with whoever was in charge to make a difference. the american public deserve a whole lot better. they deserve to have green eco-efficient smart people working in their government. and i deserved a a whole lot better, too. thank you. [applause] >> now will have the senate sponsor of the bill senator chris van hollen from maryland. [applause] >> i want to start as my colleagues have, by thinking these patriotic hard-working federal employees for all the good work you were doing on behalf of our country until you were illegally fired.

and all of us are here to say we are going to help you get your jobs back. and when you tands in recess unt 2:15 p.m. >> the senate is in recess for the weekly party caucus lunches. today lawmakers are considering more of president trump's including steven bradbury to be deputy transportation secretary and abigail slater to serve as assistant attorney general for antitrust. the senate is considering legislation to properly classify fentanyl as a high schedule and penalties. it's temporary classification set to expire at the end of this month. also congruous facing a government funding deadline which is this friday at midday. the house is considering legislation to extend funding through the end of september to avert a gun shipped in.

if approved that measure comes here to the upper chamber for debate. watch live coverage of the senate when lawmakers return at 2:15 2:15 p.m. eastern today here on c-span2. >> yet the essential contact information for government officials all in one place. this compact spiral-bound guide contains bio and contact information for every house and senate members of the 119th congress. information on congressional committees, the president cabinet, federal agencies and state governors. the congressional directory cost $32.95 us shipping and handling and every purchase helps support c-span's nonprofit operations. scan the code or go to c-spanshop.org to preorder your copy today.

>> white house press secretary karoline lebel speak to reporters and will likely face questions on republican efforts to avert a government shutdown by the end of this week as well as the president's terrorist policy and the recent volatility in the stock market or we will bring you that live on c-span2. you can also watch on on a fe c-span radio app or online at c-span.org. >> welcome back to "washington journal" there were joined by rebecca, director at the wilson center. welcome to the program. >> thank you. >> president trump has repeated his intention to make greenland a u.s. territory in his address to congress last week. let's take a look at that moment and then we would get your reaction. >> i also have a message to an eye of greenland. we strongly support your right to determine your own future and if you choose we welcome you into the united states of america. we need y greenland for national

security and even international security and were workingcu with everybody involved to try and get it that we need it really for international world security, and i think we're going to get it one way or the other were going to get it. [laughing] [booing] we will keep you safe. we will make you rich, and together we will take greenland to heights like you've never thought possible before. it's a very small population but very, very large piece of land and very, very important for military security. >> he mentioned it was important to u.s. national security. why is that? >> greenland has been strategic vital for the united states for 75, 80 years,, ever since world war ii. world war ii the weather war was fought over greenland because weather stations could give allies or axis powers

information fighting conditions in the north atlantic which is a strategic waterway between the united states and europe. the united states occupied greenland during the war and then as technology advanced throughout the cold ware we buit a u.s.ar military base in the northwest park and in the air than a continental ballistic missiles replaced increasingly sophisticated radar systems out there to give us advanced warning ofpo missile threats and over the polar region to threaten the united states homeland. so throughout successive generations greenland has stayed vital because it's as far north location appoints at eurasia and getting missile threat coming towards the united states from curation will be passing over those polar trajectories in we need to see as early as possible. so from a homeland defense come missile-defense perspective greenland initially vital and

the second piece of forces it sits at the western end of the seedlings of medication across the north atlantic.ss the so-called greenland ice and uk gap, that's a c lane where we can try to find and track russian submarines, exiting from the home bases down to the north atlantic and getting out into the ocean. it's incredibly vital that we track at the narrowest point back before they can escape from it at the suffering for perspective as well as missile-defense perspective, green is really important and it has been for a very long time, why do we just expand the military base? why do we have to own all of greenland? >> guest: that's a conversation to be had about our security interest in the best way to meet them in the current era. we're in a new generation military technology where were dealing with hypersonic missiles and delivery systems, new space based threats.

there's an important satellite station in greenland. and so i think it's part of a broader conversation when you think about the new era of missile defense. there's a number of different approaches to securing u.s. security interests there. >> host: there's also green lens mineral wealth. what you have and why that would be important to us trickett greenland has a tremendous mineral endowment of virtually anything you can think of them a lot of critical minerals which are not very important to modern technology, a lot of interesting critical minerals today, rare earth elements, uranium, precious metals, there's an active will be mine in greenland and a goal point. it's really rich mineral endowment. it's a huge area. the island of greenland this three times the size of texas sort talking about really, really big island, and yet there's been very little mining activity. it is very untouched.

that's tremendously important today as there's so much interest in critical minerals and everything else. the reason it's largely been untouched is that mining is very challenging there. it's very expensive. you were dealing with an arctic environment. there's a giant ice sheet and so there are some real hurdles to mining and it think it's important to bring into the conversation but too often we focus on the minerals and not necessarily the process of getting them out of the ground. >> host: speaking of the environment, talk about the impact climate change has had on greenland. >> guest: sure. we are seeing ice melts come off the ice sheet and that impacts sealevel rise, and potentially ocean circulation throughout the north atlantic, the gulfstream and that atlantic overturning the current rents of the north coast of, east coast of the united states, sorry, and over to europe. they keep your warm. there's concerns about the future of green lines ice sheet and the future of that current.

these are very, very macro and long-term trends. but greenland is vital to the global climate actually. >> host: if you'd like to join our conversation if you've got a question for our guest about greenland, about the geopolitics of the arctic you can give us a call. the numbers are democrats 202-748-8000. it's 202-748-8001 for republicans and 202-748-8002 for independence. greenland is self-governing territory. it's controlled by denmark. explain what that means and what the role of denmark is an greenland's economy and security. >> guest: i'm happy asked because it's important. greenland is a former danish colony. ..