secondly, and this is what mr. thune et al.m his meeting, the voters are just sick of us banging on about brexit. many conservatives are mindful of that. ben: your assessment is that this will get through? >> so far. one alwaysts to be mentally careful with predictions on brexit, but you get a sen of the conservative party coming behind their leader. a different matter is the democratic unionist party, what will they do? it may take a week or two to know. ben: that is what's happening in westminster tonight. let's take you to northern ireland. rishi sunak has been speaking to northern ireland's biggest political parties, the largest unionist party in northern ireland is the dup. it heavily criticized the previous deal, even refused to take part in northern ireland power-sharing government because of it. their support will be key to restoring power-sharing. he is what it's leader is saying. >> progress has been made. we continue to have concerns. we will examine the legal text, we will look at all of this income come to a decisi

thune: mr. president, is the senate in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are not. mr. thune: mr. president, if you ask any republican what kind of energy policy he or she supports, you likely hear the phrase an all-of-the-above energy policy. today, i want to take a minute to talk about, first, what we mean by an all-of-the-above energy policy, and second why we support this kind of policy. so mr. president, what is an all-of-the-above energy policy? well, as the name suggests, an all-of-the-above energy policy is an energy policy that embraces the full spectrum of available energy resources, both renewable and conventional. it's important not to ignore the conventional part, as many of my colleagues across the aisle would like to do. it's not enough to embrace renewable energy, even multiple types of renewables. for reasons i'll discuss, any energy policy that doesn't discuss conventional as well as renewable energy is insufficient. it places both our energy security and energy affordabi

test mr. thune: mr. president. the presiding officer: the republican whip. mr. thune: is the senate in a quorum call. the presiding officer: we are not. mr. thune: mr. president, january of this year a former democrat senator penned an op-ed urging democrats to do away with the senate tradition of blue slips. this was filed within weeks by an editorial in "the new york times" making a similar argument. while the democrat chair of the senate judiciary committee maintains his desire the blue slip option, abandoning it is concerning, especially given the attempt of democrats to do away last year with the -- minority party representation. mr. president, blue slips, the so-called -- they're so-called because they are literally blue slips of paper requesting perspective on judicial nominees from their home state senators are a long-time senate tradition. they serve the important function of ensuring that senators are consulted by judicial appointments from their state. that is particularly relevant when it comes to nominees to serve as federal district court judges. th

mr. thune: i ask unanimous consent the quorum call be lifted.he presiding officer: without objection. mr. thune: mr. president, in the state of the union address, the president expressed bipartisan. i said i hope his words would be matched by his actions. after all, he said he would be a president for all men's in his inaugural address, but his first two years were not exactly distinguished by bipartisan. while i was encouraged by the president's words in his state of the union address, as i said, i'm looking for them to be matched by his actions and renominating a slew of extreme nominees, as the president has done so far this year, is no way to start. so far this year, the president has renominated at least 16 individuals who are unable to get any bipartisan support in the last congress. they included individuals with serious unanswered questions about a possible movement about pushing out officials at the consumer protection financial bureau. lots of them aligned with the radical green new deal, many who have -- multiple abortion extremists,

mr. thune: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from south dakota. mr. thune: madam president, i want to welcome and we get to add another plainspoken nebraskan to the united states senate and people who bring a common sens, clear-eyed realism, a solutions oriented approach to the senate and really grateful to have former governor and now senator pete ricketts join the united states senate along with his colleague senator deb fischer. that is a powerful, powerful dual and will be a great partnership for the great of nebraska and make great contributions to the united states senate and to the betterment of our country. and i know that like a lot of people from their region of the world, they understand, as he pointed out, his remarks, the importance of a strong and secure america, an america that projects strength in the world, not just militarily but economically, diplomatically, and so i -- as we work on these issues, we face lots of challenges, lots of dangers in the world today. i'm just delighted to have another united states senator who comes to us w

mr. thune: mr.president, as the winter season drew to a chest, south dakota's high school and college athletes were busy. from basketball, wrestling, to track and field, they have a lot to be proud of. the university of south dakota coyoties swept the titles for indoor track and field for the first time in program history. black hills state made a final four run in the division 2 men's basketball tournament. south dakota state wrestler tanner sloan came in second at the ncaa 2-a tournament as the jackrabbits wrestling team notched its second highest finish as a division 1 program. as i traveled around south dakota this month, i was able to see many student-athletes compete. i saw laura bruell take on the high school boys state b basketball semifinals in aberdeen. i caught the girls' class b state b basketball tournament in huron, where i saw my tometown cap off -- hometown cap to of their historic season. i saw the south dakota state women begin their run for the tournament title. mr. president, bei

the next two unless senator thune will be senator langford. >> thank you mr. chairman.reat to see you again and i appreciate your willingness to take on one of the more thankless tasks in the government but obviously something that is extraordinarily important. i may differ with my republican friends on this because i think the reinvestment is extraordinarily important. i want to touch on a couple of issues. i know people have already raised concerns about the claim responding to constituents on calling numbers. we picked up a little bit recently. we've gotten the corresponding challenge around tax returns that still have not been finished. how are you going to balance that with the addition of capital into that component of responding to inquiries but at the same time making sure you don't get further backlog as we approach the tax season? >> senator, i appreciate the question. i think often from my experience and my brief tenure, you are struggling a lot of different priorities. the way i think about the question is to understand better the portfolio. certain things t

mr. varney. stuart: jeff, thank you very much, indeed. i want to say thank you to david bahnsen for joining us for the hour. still ahead, senate minority whip john thunery chad wolf -- d the hs secretary -- the governor of alaska, mike dunleavy. this is the star-studded 10:00 hour of "varney," which is next. ♪ and when the daylight comes, i'll have to go -- ♪ but tonight i'm gonna hold you so close. on our own. ♪ but on the the -- you can't buy those. but you can invest in them. at t. rowe price, our strategic investing approach can help you build the future you imagine. (vo) verizon has the epic new phone your business needs .. boost your team's productivy with samsung's fastest processor yet. switch and save up to $1000 on the new galaxy s23 ultra. now that's epic. on the network america relies on. ♪ choosing miracle-ear was a great decision. like when i decided to host family movie nights. miracle-ear made it easy. i just booked an appointment and a certified hearing care professional evaluated my hearing loss and helped me find the right device calibrated to my unique hearing needs. now i enjoy every moment. the quiet ones and the loud ones. make

mr. cornyn: madam president, last thursday and friday, i hosted several of our senate colleagues for a visit to texas' southern border. as you can see, senators thune, wicker, fischer, britt, and ricketts, joined me for for for a series of tours and meetings in the rio grande value i will this followed a bipartisan visit that we made to el paso and yuma just a few weeks ago. so far i've been happy to host, along with senator cruz, about ten separate delegations to the border. each of those senators saw a beautiful and vibrant region, overwhelmed by the burden it's been handed by the federal government. since president biden took office, border communities and our entire state, for that matter, has been forced to carry the massive weight of a humanitarian and security crisis. border communities are left with no choice but to provide food, clothing, and shelter, medical care, and transportation for tens of thousands of migrants each week. and they're forced to use their local tax dollars towards costs that really should be borne by the federal government. and, of course, they're left to wonder how this crisis is impacting the safety of their communit

mr. thune: mr. president. the presiding officer: the republican whip. mr. is the senate in a quorum call? the presiding officer: it is not. mr. thune: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, at the end of last week, i joined several republican colleagues to travel to our southern border. it was my second visit to the border during the biden administration, my third overall. my first during the biden administration was almost exactly two years ago, after border numbers started to soar in the wake of the president taking office. unfortunately, little has changed since my last visit. thanks to the fact that president biden spent the first two years of his presidency refusing to even acknowledge this crisis, much less actually address it, we're still facing a disastrous situation at our southern border. i talked to border patrols agents who spent two years dealing with regard number of illegal immigrants, and are looking for support from the administration that never comes. not only do they not feel supported by the biden administration, they feel like the bid

mr. thune: mr. president. the presiding officer: the republican whip. mr. thune: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. thune: mr. president, providing for the common defense is one of the core responsibilities of the federal government. it is in fact a primary reason why the federal government exists. in fact the constitution states and i quote, the united states shall guarantee to every state in this union a republican form of government and shall protect each of them against invasion. so how do we do that, mr. president? how do we protect our nation and ensure that americans can live in peace and safety? well, the answer can be summed up in one word, mr. president. strength. as ronald reagan said, and i quote, we know only too well that war comes not when the forces of freedom are strong but when they are weak. it is then that tyrants are tempted. end quote. or to put it in the words of another president, our first, spe

mr. thune: mr. president. the presiding officer: the republican whip. mr. thune: is the senate in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are not. mr. thune: mr. president, before i begin, i just want to say that, along with all of my colleagues, that my thoughts and prayers are with leader mcconnell this morning, with his family, with his team, and that along with our colleagues, i look forward to his speedy return to the united states senate. mr. president, later today the president of the united states will release his budget. we haven't seen the details of it yet, so i'm not prepared. i'll have more to say about that next week when we've an opportunity -- when we have an opportunity to drill down. but i can predict this because it's pretty easy to predict, that the president's budget will include a lot more spending, a lot more taxing, and that, after the last two years here where through a budget reconciliation process the president and the democrats here in congress passed almost another $3 trillion in spending, in taxing, and debt outside of the norm

kaine: -- mr. thune: mr.resident, i call up amendment number 4 on behalf of senator rubio and ask that it be reportedly number. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: mr. thune for mr. rubio proposes an amendment numbered 4. the presiding officer: the senator from virginia. mr. kaine: i want to take a minute to just speak against this amendment. this is an underlying bill to repeal two war authorizations. one is 32 years old. one is 20 years old. this amendment would turn 20- and 30-year-old wars into endless wars. the amendment would say that no repeal could become effective until the president certifies that iran is no longer providing any material or technical or financial support to bad activities in either iraq or syria. so even if they're doing nothing in iraq, the iraq war still isn't over as long as they're doing something in syria. let's not turn 20- and 32-year-old wars into forever wars. the american legion opposes this amendment. i would urge my colleagues to oppose it as well. a

mr. thune: mr. president, before i begin my remarks, just a quick observation, i know the majority leader comes down on a fairly regular basis an attacks republicans, particularly house republicans, for not producing a budget, and, you know, obviously house republicans, that's their prerogative over there and it's, you know, there's going to be a budget. it's probably going to be -- it's going to be a budget that's put together by the house majority. but i think it kind of misses the broader point, and that is at least here in the senate, which is our domain, our realm of responsibility, it is up to the majority to put a budget on the floor. they control the floor. it they have the ball here and if they want to put together a budget, they could. one place to start obviously is the president's budget. the president submitted a budget which by any estimation is a massive expansion of -- of the federal government with lots of new spending, 5 interested in new -- $5 trillion in new taxes most on job cre

mr. thune: madam president. the presiding officer: the republican which. mr. thune: madam president, i, too, with aens to acknowledge the great work of the senator from tennessee, senator hagerty on this matter which we'll be voting this afternoon. that has to do with the issue of d.c. crime. i think he has touched a nerve in a way that i think is going to lead to a very big bipartisan outcome on this bus it is a -- because it is a recognition that the issue that he addresses with this resolution is one that the american people, i think, feel deeply about, one that is affecting our cities, both large and small, all across this country, and one independent which i think this united states -- and one in which i think this united states needs to be heard. eight men were fatalitily shot in washington, d.c. eight men on a single weekend. it was a tragic illustration of the current crime situation in our nation's capital. homicides in washington, d.c., which had already reached heights in 2021 and 2022, are up 33% so far this year compared to this point a year ago. n

mr. thune: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call call be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. thune: it comes to the actions of government, it's often legislation that grabs the headlines but it is equally important to be aware of presidential regulatory power. presidents have a tremendous amount of power to affect our economy through regulation. president biden has made aggressive use of regulatory four push his agenda and to burden our economy in the process. president biden's big spending habits are well-known. the $1.9 trillion american rescue plan spending spree that he signed into lurks the trillions of dollars in new government spending that he's proposed and pushed for over the course of his administration, but his carelessness with taxpayer dollars is not limited to legislative initiatives. president biden has also pushed through regulations costing almost $360 billion. and requiring 220 million hours of paperwork. 220 million hours of paperwor

in the o last three decades our firearm homicide mr. thune: mr. president, inflation numbers for february came out yesterday morning, and they confirmed what every american knows. we are still squarely in the middle of democrats' inflation crisis. with no end in sight. overall inflation was up 6% in february compared to a year ago, and a staggering 15% since president biden took office. 15%. grocery prices were up 10.2% in february compared to a year ago. and 20% since president biden took office. electricity prices were up 12.9%. utility gas service was up 14.3%. rent prices were up 8.8%. and the list goes on. overall, energy prices have increased by 37.2% since president biden took office. 37.2%. and, again, there's no end in sight to this crisis. digging out of an inflation crisis like this isn't easy, but there are things that we can and should be doing to help. like restraining government spending, unleashing american energy production to help drive down energy prices, growing the economy. these are the things president biden should be pursui