John Barrasso

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. I move to proceed to Calendar No. 11, S.J. Res. 3.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, tonight President Trump will take the podium, and he will have a joint address to Congress, and, clearly, to the Nation. I just heard the minority leader of the Senate come to the floor and talk about President Trump's promises. Well, let me talk about those promises--promises made, promises kept by President Trump. He has only been in the office now for 7 weeks, and he has a very strong record of accomplishment in those 7 weeks. What did he promise he would do? He said he would cut wasteful Washington spending. Well, that is a promise that he has kept. What we are seeing is the most comprehensive audit of Federal spending of money in history. This administration already, in just these short weeks, has identified $55 billion of savings. President Trump promised to secure the border. Well, he has kept that promise as well. He immediately began deporting criminal illegal immigrants. They are here in the country illegally, and they were criminals--heinous crimes. We are talking about murderers, rapists, drug dealers. The word got out around the world. Illegal border crossings in February dropped to an alltime low. President Trump said he would unleash American energy. He has kept that promise as well. On day one, President Trump declared a national energy emergency. Now, this is going to unlock America's full energy potential. He withdrew from the Paris climate accord. Did it once before, but Joe Biden put us back in. What we saw in the Biden administration is they applied handcuffs to American energy producers and American energy production. President Trump said: No, we are not doing that. He has opened Alaska's vast amounts of energy for the American people. He pulled the plug on Biden's electric vehicle mandates. He reopened 625 million acres of offshore drilling. Remember, Joe Biden, in the final days of his administration, with his midnight regulation to ban that exploration for American energy. President Trump promised to protect women who participate in sports. He kept that promise. The Trump administration marks the return to common sense. We have seen that return to common sense, also, Mr. President, in here in the U.S. Senate because we are determined to get America back on track. There is no time to waste. One measure of our rapid start is the historic pace with which we have been able to confirm members of President Trump's Cabinet. Senate Republicans have now confirmed 20--20--members of President Trump's Cabinet. We confirmed President Trump's Education Secretary just last evening. So compared to previous Presidents, this is a remarkable pace. More confirmations than President Obama had at this point in 2009; more confirmations than President Biden had in 2021. It surpasses the timeline of any President in recent history. President Trump's nominees are strong. They are smart. They have a history of success, and that history is going to continue now that they are members of the Cabinet. Our success has had a direct impact on President Trump's agenda. With his team in place, President Trump has been able to execute effectively and efficiently. The Senate has also acted decisively to secure the border. Within days of taking office, Senate Republicans passed the Laken Riley Act. The Laken Riley Act is named after a young nursing student in Georgia. She was murdered by an illegal immigrant. She was just out for a jog. We named the bill in her honor. The Laken Riley Act saves American lives. It requires illegal immigrant criminals to be deported. It was bipartisan legislation. And 12 Democrats voted with us to pass this legislation, and it is now law of the land. The Laken Riley Act sends a clear message that tragedies like this never be allowed to happen again in the United States of America, that the era of open borders is over. Senate Republicans mean business. After years of crises, we are now securing the border. The numbers tell the story. We are deporting illegal immigrant criminals on a daily basis, and we are also working with the House of Representatives on our shared agenda. We are delivering on the promises that we made to the American people. We are going to secure the border, we will restore peace through strength, we are unleashing American energy, and we are going to stop the Democrats' oncoming freight train of a $4 trillion tax increase. Democrats oppose all of these things. They want to raise American public taxes by $4 trillion. Mr. President, we are going to stop that. President Trump is only 43 days in this office in his historic Presidency, an incredible comeback victory--the comeback king, as I call him from his ability to win this election. He won 312 electoral votes, every one of the battleground States, and this President has not wasted a second, a minute, an hour, or a day in office because he knows how important it is to act quickly. He is doing that. He is solving the urgent problems facing our Nation, what American people elected him to do, what the American people expect, and it is what the American people are seeing. So the President is working with the House and the Senate, all of us working together to get America back on track, and we are going to deliver what the Americans have asked for: safety and prosperity for the people of this great country. I yield the floor. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I would like to take the opportunity to express my appreciation to Riya for her hard work as an intern in my Washington, DC, office. I recognize her efforts and contributions to my office, as well as to the State of Wyoming. Riya is a native of Virginia. She is currently a junior at Madeira School in McLean, VA. She has demonstrated a strong work ethic, which has made her an invaluable asset to our office. The quality of her work is reflected in her great efforts over the last several months. I want to thank Riya for the dedication she has shown while working for me and my staff. It is a pleasure to have her as part of our team. I know she will have continued success with all of her future endeavors. I wish her all my best on her journey.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from West Virginia (Mrs. Capito), and the Senator from Wyoming, (Ms. Lummis). Further, if present and voting: the Senator from Wyoming (Ms. Lummis) would have voted ``yea.''

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to waive the mandatory quorum call with respect to the motion to proceed to Calendar No. 2, S. 9.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from West Virginia (Mrs. Capito) and the Senator from Wyoming (Ms. Lummis). Further, if present and voting: the Senator from Wyoming (Ms. Lummis) would have voted ``yea.''

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, before coming to the floor each day, I try to make sure I go through the morning newspapers, and today I found in the Washington Post an interesting column: ``Multi-car pileup as electric vehicles collide with reality.'' ``Multi-car pileup as electric vehicles collide with reality.'' And the reality is the Democrat electric vehicle mandate is a failure. It failed the American people, failed the taxpayers, and just plain failed. For years, President Biden and Democrats tried to force Americans to buy electric vehicles. They tried to do it by banning gas-powered cars. They tried to do it by bribing people with taxpayer subsidies. President Trump has, rightly, promised to pull the plug on Joe Biden's unpopular electric vehicle mandate. People are delighted. President Trump fulfilled that promise on day one in office. He ended the Biden ban on gas-powered vehicles. In my home State of Wyoming and the Presiding Officer's home State of Montana, that is welcome relief. The next step is for Congress, for this body, to end the subsidies on electric vehicles, and I have introduced legislation to do just that. My bill ends the $7,500 subsidy for EVs. It also closes the Biden loophole that funnels taxpayer moneys, believe it or not, to communist China. Finally, it ends the subsidies for the EV charging stations. The EV subsidies were, in essence, a Biden giveaway. He wanted to give money away to the coastal elites who drive electric vehicles, and it was connected to Biden's unpopular climate dreams. The aggressive push for EVs began with Democrats' reckless tax-and- spending bill. It included a $7,500 handout for anyone who bought an electric vehicle, while not a single Republican in the House or Senate voted for that reckless tax-and-spending bill. The Joint Committee on Taxation looked at the cost of these EV subsidies because there was going to be a mandate attached; you were going to have to buy an electric vehicle at some point or other. So originally they said it might cost $14 billion. That is a lot of money. When they redid the math a year later, they said the cost estimated would be $100 billion. Outside analysts estimated the cost even higher. Goldman Sachs said that the EV subsidies could cost taxpayers as much as $394 billion, which is 28 times as much as the original thought that it would be when the Joint Committee on Taxation looked at it. These subsidies--this is for a vehicle that most Americans can't afford, don't want, and doesn't work for them. It doesn't work in my home State of Wyoming. It doesn't work in the Presiding Officer's home State of Montana. Most Americans know that EVs are luxury items with severe limitations. They certainly can't be the primary source of transportation for most Americans. The average cost of an EV: $62,000. Well, that is $16,000 more than the cost of most gas-powered vehicles. The dealers I have talked to in my home State of Wyoming tell me that it takes significantly longer to sell an EV than a gas-powered vehicle. And the EVs that they are able to sell, they end up selling for a loss. The nationwide sales of EVs is also stalling. They actually lost market share in 2024. Despite endless subsidies, EVs account for less than 10 percent of all car sales in America. Most of these are sold to wealthier Americans, people who don't need a subsidy from the government to begin with. This is social engineering to benefit the liberal elite. It is a transfer of money from hard-working American families to the wealthy. Every time a wealthy liberal in San Francisco gets a government subsidy when they go and buy an electric car, a working-class family in Sheridan, WY, ends up paying in their taxes. My legislation ends all of that. EVs are a bad investment for American people and for American automakers. This month, Ford projected that, in 2025, it would lose over $5.5 billion on its electric vehicles. In 2024, Ford sold only 21,000 EVs. It lost $5 billion. That is a loss of $60,000 for each and every electric vehicle that they were able to sell. Now, Ford isn't alone. Major car companies--General Motors and others--are also losing money on EVs. The transition to EVs is also estimated to kill hundreds of thousands of jobs, including in the Midwest, manufacturing jobs of gas-powered vehicles. It is already sending thousands of American workers from the assembly line to the unemployment line. Ending subsidies for EVs is about saving taxpayer money, protecting American jobs, but it is also about protecting our national security. Initially, only EVs made in America were supposed to be eligible for this $7,500 subsidy. But before leaving office, Joe Biden made it easier for those tax credits on EVs to go for those made with parts from China. It wasn't supposed to happen that way, but Biden and the Democrats, so desperate to force EVs onto the American public, they created a leasing loophole specifically designed to help China. This is how it works. It allows customers who lease EVs instead of buying them--but who lease EVs--made with Chinese parts, they could still fully receive the subsidy. Well, since 80 percent of the EV batteries come from China, they had noted a major problem because they weren't going to be able to get the subsidies. That is why they came up with this leasing loophole. Because in 2022, before they had the loophole, only 7 percent of new EVs were leased. Because of this Biden gimmick, that number jumped to 45 percent--almost half of all the EVs in America then being leased rather than bought. The American taxpayers are subsidizing technologies controlled by communist China. It is wrong. My bill ends that. Republicans are focused on what matters: lowering prices, unleashing American energy, creating American jobs, and putting Americans back in the driver's seat. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from North Dakota (Mr. Cramer).

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from North Dakota (Mr. Cramer) and the Senator from Indiana (Mr. Young). Further, if present and voting: the Senator from Indiana (Mr. Young) would have voted ``yea.''

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. I ask unanimous consent to waive the mandatory quorum call with respect to the McMahon nomination.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, when it comes to American energy, the emergency siren is blaring. After 4 years of reckless regulations and restrictions by the Democrat administration, energy prices have jumped 31 percent. Families are feeling it all across the country. To most Americans, this is the definition of an energy emergency. To Senate Democrats, it is an inconvenient truth. Today, Democrats are trying to reverse President Trump's national energy emergency. They are bringing it right here to the floor of the U.S. Senate. They are trying to block commonsense measures that are going to address painfully high energy prices under which American families have been suffering. This national energy emergency is part of President Trump's swift actions--actions to unleash American energy. It is part of this broader vision of affordable, reliable, available American energy. Democrats oppose all of that. They have opposed it for the last 4 years. They still oppose it. They have learned nothing from 4 years of failure. Democrats remain the party of high energy prices. That is what they want. They think it is going to help the climate. Democrats remain the party of painful and punishing regulations. They remain the party of never-ending dependence on foreign dictators for energy that we have right here. Democrats want to continue the war on American energy, and that is why they are going to line up today and oppose what President Trump is trying to do to bring energy prices down. Republicans know that the best way to lower prices for the American people is to support more American energy production. We have it here; we ought to use it. We have the energy. But not just do we have the energy, we have the workers--excellent, qualified, hard-working Americans--and they know how to produce American energy responsibly. Last week, Senate Republicans, here in this body, passed a budget to secure the border, to unleash American energy, to rebuild our military, and we are taking further action to address high energy prices and cut redtape. We are working today on two important resolutions, doing it this entire week, using something called the Congressional Review Act. The first is from Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana. His resolution rolls back a burdensome Biden midnight regulation on energy production in the Gulf of America. The Senate passed it yesterday. The second is from Senator John Hoeven of North Dakota. His resolution cuts about $7 billion in new natural gas taxes on energy producers--$7 billion of new taxes. Where did it come from? It came from the Democrats. This tax on American energy hits American families who use the energy to heat their homes. It was mandated by the Democrats' reckless tax- and-spending bill. The Democrat tax penalizes oil and gas production in America, and in doing so, it punishes American families. The golden age of American energy is the foundation of our golden age for America. It is linked directly to the prices that we pay, to the technology we use, and to the world we live in. Republicans are not going to allow the sticky thorns of redtape to entangle American energy. Republicans are reversing these punishing political regulations. That is what we are doing today. We are taking the handcuffs off of American energy production. We are paving the way for affordable, reliable American energy production. Unleashing American energy means lower prices. It means more innovation. It means more safety and stability in our communities and in our economy. America is an energy superpower. We need to act like it. I yield the floor.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from North Dakota (Mr. Cramer).

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from North Dakota (Mr. Cramer).

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from North Dakota (Mr. Cramer).

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, reserving the right to object. The American people voted to get spending under control. Two in three Americans say that a major problem that we face today in this country is government inefficiency. And I agree. Three in four Americans support eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse in government spending; and there is plenty of it. We need to review how much money we spend. We need to see where it is going. We need to see what is effective and what is not. This is common sense. Families have to do it. States do it. Washington ought to do the same thing. Every family audits their own budgets, their own spending. Every CEO audits their business operations. President Trump and Republicans are doing exactly the same thing, and it is something that the Federal Government has not done for a long time. Let me be clear. I am a doctor; I support so much of the good work being done by the National Institutes of Health and through the universities around the country. It is essential that America continues to lead the world in medical innovation. I am a strong supporter of continuing smart investment in our National Institutes of Health. Americans deserve better care. Americans deserve better prevention and, of course, better transparency. So the total budget for the NIH is almost $48 billion. Hard-working taxpayers deserve smart scrutiny and serious transparency over that kind of money. There is indisputable evidence that there is wasteful overspending of administrative costs associated with medical research, and this is why I am here saying this must stop. In 2024, Harvard University spent $135 million of government grant money on overhead costs. Clearly, we can do better. They used hard-working taxpayer dollars to pay for heating bills, electricity bills, for maintaining buildings. They used it to cover payroll for people not involved in research. This is money that should have been spent on advancing researching for cures. Harvard's overhead costs related to the National Institutes of Health research--69 percent of the money goes for overhead. That is taxpayer money, Mr. President. That is one university, one year. Clearly, we can do better--if you look at that all across the country. Imagine all the new cures we could find if we just spent the money efficiently. That is what is at stake today, and that is why I am here on the floor of the Senate. Democrats don't want to have a serious debate about wasteful Washington spending. Instead they are wasting the Senate's time on predictable distractions like this one. And, therefore, Mr. President, I object.

Mr. BARRASSO. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from North Dakota (Mr. Cramer) and the Senator from Alabama (Mr. Tuberville).

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I have just come to the floor, having listened to the minority leader, the Democratic Senator from New York, say something to the effect that he thought that President Trump's policies were not popular with the American people. As he was saying this, I recalled a poll, a Harvard-Harris poll, conducted just this past week. Trump's policies--the key thing why he won election as President of the United States--huge popularity of what the President is doing today: promises that he made prior to the election, promises kept now that he is in the White House. Let's take a look at No. 1--deportation of illegal immigrants who have committed crimes. Mr. President, 81 percent of the American people--and that includes a lot of Democrats--say that is a very popular position taken by President Trump and now being enforced by President Trump. Eliminating fraud and waste in government expenditures--76 percent of Americans agree. What have we seen happen with DOGE? What we have seen is actually pointing out fraud and waste in government. The American people are supportive. Then, of course, closing the border. Again, 76 percent of Americans-- Republicans, Democrats, Independents--all across the board support what President Trump is doing. President Trump ran for office against a party that was a party of high prices and open borders, and it is because of those things that President Trump won and Republicans won the House and the Senate. So now the minority leader comes to the floor and says that what President Trump is doing is not popular. Well, they sure are in terms of wasteful Washington spending and closing the border, which were the two reasons that President Trump and Republicans won the elections in November. Let's talk about the things the American people care about. Republicans, President Trump--all of us promised to get America back on track. That is what we said we would do. That is what we are doing right now. We committed to cutting Washington's wasteful spending. We committed to reducing the size of a bloated government. This is going to make life more affordable for all Americans. President Trump and Republicans are now doing exactly what we promised we would do. We are rooting out waste, we are rooting out fraud, and we are rooting out abuse by a bureaucracy, all across a bureaucracy. We are ripping it out root and stem. The Department of Government Efficiency has already uncovered more than $55 billion in savings. Who benefits from the savings? The American taxpayers. U.S. taxpayers were spending $2 million--take a look at this list--$2 million to develop ``sustainable recycling models'' in the Balkans. Well, we have canceled that. U.S. taxpayers were spending $19 million on ``biodiversity conversation'' in Nepal. Well, that has been canceled. U.S. taxpayers were spending $47 million to improve ``learning outcomes in Asia.'' We canceled that. U.S. taxpayers were spending $1.5 million on ``voter confidence'' in Liberia, Africa. Well, we have canceled that. U.S. taxpayers were spending $21 million for voter turnout in India. Canceled. More savings are on the way. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin, who we recently confirmed to that post, uncovered $20 billion--with a ``b''-- $20 billion in taxpayer money that the Biden EPA shoveled out the door on their last days before leaving office. This was a slush fund, and it was funneled to eight leftwing climate groups. Now, all of this was in the service of the left's extreme, radical climate agenda--an agenda that makes energy more expensive and life less affordable for American families. Who received these taxpayer-funded, undeserved gifts? Does anybody remember Georgia Democrat Governor candidate Stacey Abrams? Well, she was one of them. Her leftwing organization got a $2 billion kickback from the Biden administration. I am so glad that Ambassador Zeldin caught this scam and is working to claw back the money for the taxpayers of this Nation. I heard the minority leader admit just this morning--he said: Of course there is some wasteful spending. He didn't mention any of those things. He didn't actually point out what it is. But I don't hear him say what wasteful spending he wants to cut. In fact, I haven't heard any Democrats say what wasteful spending, if any, should be cut. What about that $2 billion that was sent to Stacey Abrams? Democrats added almost $5 trillion to our debt in 4 years. Joe Biden and Democrats' reckless spending caused painfully high prices. Cutting wasteful Washington spending is long overdue. President Trump and Republicans are uncovering massive evidence of wasteful Washington spending, and we are stopping it. Democrats seem more upset that the waste they support is now being exposed than about the massive waste itself. Instead of defending the indefensible and the obscene level of spending, what are they doing? What do the Democrats do? They are demanding that the courts intervene. Hey, let's get the courts involved. This is the next chapter of destructive Democrat behavior. Democrats have now filed over 80 lawsuits in 1 month against the Trump administration. Now, often, they go judge shopping. What are they looking for? They are looking for partisan, activist judges. So how does that work? Well, last month--and it is unbelievable--last month, the State of New Jersey wanted to sue the administration, so they filed suit not in New Jersey but in Massachusetts. They sued in a district where 11 of the 13 district judges were appointed by Democrat Presidents. They didn't think they could accomplish what they wanted to accomplish in their own home State, so they go to Massachusetts, one of the most liberal States in the country. That is not a coincidence. It is intentional. It is premeditated. What is the aim of it? It is to obstruct President Trump's popular cost-cutting efforts. Let me tell you how far the Democrats are taking this. Earlier this month, a Federal judge in New York issued a knee-jerk order that forbids political appointees from accessing records within the Treasury Department. The judge actually went so far as to block the Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessent, from accessing important data within the Agency that he runs, that he has been confirmed to serve as the Secretary of the Treasury by this very body, by the U.S. Senate, and you got a judge saying he doesn't have access to the Treasury records. So a Federal judge blocks a Senate-confirmed Secretary of Treasury from getting the information he needs to run the U.S. Department of the Treasury. That is where the Democrats are headed. District courts should not get to micromanage the executive branch. Yet that is what Democrats want to do with the courts, and that is why they have filed 80 lawsuits so far. It is not based on the law. It is not based on policy disagreements. This is based solely on political disagreements. This is the real crisis we are facing in America. It is what I hear about in Wyoming. I heard about it this past weekend. It is unelected, unaccountable, heavyhanded Federal bureaucrats who have taken America off track. We are getting America back on track. The American people are being strangled by Washington's wasteful spending, by burdensome redtape. According to a poll last month from the Associate Press, almost two in three Americans say government inefficiency is a major problem. The bureaucracy must be accountable to the American people, and they are there to serve the American people. Americans voted in November for more accountability. They voted to drain the swamp. This is the swamp I am talking about, and that is exactly what President Trump is doing. Working with President Trump, Senate Republicans are going to deliver on our mandate, and it is going to involve massive change in Washington because it is time, Mr. President, to get America back on track. I yield the floor.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from North Dakota (Mr. Cramer), the Senator from Texas (Mr. Cruz), and the Senator from Alabama (Mr. Tuberville). Further, if present and voting: the Senator from Texas (Mr. Cruz) would have voted ``yea.''

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from North Dakota (Mr. Cramer) and the Senator from Alabama (Mr. Tuberville).

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from North Dakota (Mr. Cramer) and the Senator from Alabama (Mr. Tuberville).

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from North Dakota (Mr. Cramer) and the Senator from Indiana (Mr. Young). Further, if present and voting: the Senator from Indiana (Mr. Young) would have voted ``yea.''