mr. thune: mr. president. the presiding officer: the republican whip is recognized. mr. thune: is the senate in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are not. mr. thune: in a moment i want to talk about the situation in afghanistan, but before i do that, i just want to speak to something that the majority leader said earlier regarding some of the justice coming business that we have to deal with this fall. we have a whole series of deadlines in front of us. the fiscal year ends on september 30, meaning we have to at some point fund the government which would likely be in the form of a continuing resolution, we were told that the house of representatives when they send it over here will include a debt limit increase. the debt limit does run out. we will hit that at some point. varying estimates of when that would be. some say as early as october or mid-november, but that will be upon us. and there is a discussion here about how that ought to be lifted and who ought to deliver the votes to get

mr. thune: mr. president, federal takeovers are being discussed in both the house and the senate this week. the democrat leaders announced that the senate will once again be taking up legislation to put the federal government, instead of the states, in charge of elections in this country. meanwhile, over in the house of representatives, they are expected to vote on legislation to eliminate essentially all state restrictions on abortion, no matter how modest or how widely supported. so what's up with all these federal takeovers? well, democrats have been pushing election legislation, what they call h.r. 1 or the for the people act, for multiple years now. this radical legislation would provide for a massive federal takeover of our electric electoral stm, chill free -- system, chill free speech and turn the election commission into a partisan body, among other dangerous measures. and the reason, the reason for this radical legislation? well, even as some democrats have implicitly admitted, this legisl

quorum call: mr. thune: mr. president. the presiding officer: the republican whip. mr. thune: mr. president, is the senate in a quorum call? the presiding officer: yes, we are. mr. thune: i would ask unanimous consent the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. thune: mr. president, last night's vote was an exercise in futility as democrats knew would be the case. for months now, republicans have made it clear that we will not help democrats raise our nation's debt limit to finance democrats' partisan tax and spending spree. if democrats want to pass a massive partisan tax and spending bill without any republican input, they can raise the debt limit without any republican input. democrats of course have complained that they can't raise the debt limit by themselves. the truth is that they don't want to do it by themselves. democrats want the credit for their social policies and the government handouts they are planning, but they don't want to own the price tag. mr. president, democrats are talking about engaging in a wild, reckless spending spree that w

mr. thune: mr. president. the presiding officer: the republican chip. mr. thune: is the senate in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are. mr. thune: i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. thune: the senate armed services committee gave us disturbing new information on the president's afghanistan debacle. thanks to yesterday's hearing, we now know that president biden pulled troops from afghanistan against the advice of his military commanders and was less than truthful after the fact whf asked about -- fact when asked about their recommend nations. general milley and general mckenzie's testimony had been clear that the united states leave a small u.s. contingent of troops in the country, advice the president ignored. mr. president, thanks to president biden's ilconsiderred withdrawal from afghanistan, here's the situation we find ourselves in. the taliban is once again in control of afghanistan. and just in case anyone thinks

mr. president, i ask consent that senators thune, heinrich, and lujan be able to complete their remarks prior to the scheduled vote. the presiding officer: any objection? seeingnone, without objection. mr. durbin: i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: the presiding officer: the republican whip. mr. thune: i understand the senate is in a quorum call. i would ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. thune: mr. president, there have been a good discussion already on the floor this morning. i was listening to my colleague, the democrat whip, discussing the upcoming challenges that we face in this fall. we have to fund the government. we're facing the debt limit issue and, of course, the democrats' reckless tax and spending spree proposal that we'll have to deal with at some point, too. the issue that's been raised is why wouldn't republicans want to help raise the debt limit. and i think the answer is very simple. the democrats control the entire government here. they control the

mr. thune: madam president, i would ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. thune: madam president, yesterday i came down to the floor to talk about president biden's mishandling of afghanistan. today i want to talk about another situation the situation has mishandled or perhaps more accurately failed to handle, and that is the crisis at the southern border. i say failed to handle because by and large the primtion has refused to take any meaningful action in response to this crisis. sure they make halfhearted stabs at the problem, usually when the media starts noticing things like thousands of migrants and their children residing in a squalid refugee camp under a bridge in del rio, texas, but mostly they seem content to ignore it. more than six months into this crisis, there is still no sign that the president plans to travel to the border to get a look at the problem firsthand. in fact, it's not clear whether president biden has ev