John Barrasso

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. Mr. President, I ask to amend the request that it be the Wyden No. 1156.

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the following amendments be the next amendments in order; that the amendments be reported by number, with no amendments in order prior to a vote in relation to the amendments. The first is Bennet No. 540, followed by Schiff No. 316, then Sullivan No. 1029, Schumer No. 776, Ossoff No. 407, Wyden No. 308, Baldwin No. 276, and Reed No. 172.

Mr. BARRASSO

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

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

Mr. BARRASSO

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I come to the floor today, having just seen the Democrat leader come to the floor to talk about the Senate budget resolution, and what I heard the minority leader say was that none of it is accurate. Let me tell you: I have the budget resolution with me--the key portions--five pages long. That is it--five pages long. Every American can read it. They can read it for themselves. The resolution focuses on three things and three things only: No. 1, securing the border; No. 2, restoring peace through strength; No. 3, unleashing American energy. It is not complicated. It is common sense. Americans overwhelmingly support these goals. That is why Republicans in the Senate are moving forward. So let's talk about border security. This budget allocates $175 billion to secure our border. Now, that includes funding for President Trump's successful Executive orders to deport criminal illegal immigrants. Border Patrol agents and ICE agents need the resources to do it. There are currently more than 600,000 illegal immigrants with criminal records in the country today. President Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem are moving at lightning speed. They are moving to deport them. They are moving to make our communities safer. Their strong actions have led to double the number of arrests of illegal criminal immigrants compared to the arrests under President Biden. These arrests are making our communities safer, and they are sending a message to would-be illegal immigrants all around the world to ``don't come here.'' Actually, these people are turning around and going back to their own homes. Illegal border crossings between the United States and Mexico are at their lowest rates in the last 5 years. The actions of President Trump are working. They are working so well that the Trump administration says it is running out of money for deportations. Border czar Tom Homan told us just that. Secretary Noem told us that as well. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth told us that. Attorney General Pam Bondi has told us that. Senate Republicans are acting quickly to get the administration the resources that they have requested and that they need. The budget will allow us to finish the wall. It also takes the steps we need for more border agents. It means more detention beds. That alone will keep dangerous criminals off the streets. It means more deportation flights. That way, we can get dangerous criminals out of our country. Now, let's talk about national security because the reconciliation bill that we are talking about allocates $150 billion to restore American peace through strength. We live in a dangerous world. The threats against the United States are higher than we have seen in decades. There is a threat of terrorism. You saw the danger of terrorism in New Orleans earlier this year. There is the threat from the Chinese Communist Party. They are rapidly building up their military. Meanwhile, over the past 4 years, weak leadership from the previous administration undermined our military and our military strength. There is a real threat today from Iran. They are the largest state sponsor of terrorism in the world, and they are also racing toward a nuclear bomb. Weakness invites conflict. Strength deters war. This budget is a big step toward rebuilding our military, to protecting our Nation, and we need to do that after 4 years of weakness. We are already seeing a surge of young people who want to join the military. Recruitments are up. Under President Trump and Secretary Hegseth, recruitment is at its highest levels in 15 years. With this budget, America will be stronger. Our military will be more lethal and more intimidating. Now let's talk about energy and American energy dominance. This bill will take the handcuffs--the handcuffs--off of American energy producers. The previous administration caused painfully high prices with its energy mistakes, its blunders. It locked up affordable, reliable, American-made energy. We can never forget Joe Biden saying he wanted the EPA to prioritize climate over American energy, energy that was affordable, available, and reliable. Terrible mistake. Wrong for the Nation. We are here to correct that. Families suffered from soaring prices. The economy struggled under those regulations of the previous administration. Passing this budget allows us to reject the energy failures of the last 4 years. It puts a premium on energy that is affordable, reliable, and American. The Federal Government will also see its revenues increase as we produce more American energy. And the Presiding Officer knows that Wyoming is America's energy breadbasket. America is a superpower of energy, and we need to act like it. If you listen to the Senate Democrats, it is abundantly clear that they don't support these goals of American energy dominance. They don't. They haven't. They still don't. Democrats also are opposed to securing our border. They are opposed to rebuilding our military. They are opposed to unleashing American energy. They are standing in the way of commonsense priorities that Americans overwhelmingly support. They are a party in a panic mode. Their high prices and their open border agenda are completely out of touch with the American people. Now, Democrats used this very process, reconciliation, a few years ago. And what was their purpose? They wanted to raise taxes and pass trillions of dollars in wasteful Washington spending. They wasted taxpayer money. They subsidized electric vehicles for the rich. They sent stimulus checks to criminals like the Boston Marathon bomber. It is almost unbelievable. The Federal Government is too big. It spends too much. Republicans will end this wasteful Washington spending. We will get America back on track. After 4 years of high prices and open borders, our Nation and Americans deserve a path to safety and prosperity. Starting with this Republican budget, that is what the American people will finally get. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Arkansas (Mr. Boozman).

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

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Kansas (Mr. Moran) and the Senator from Alaska (Mr. Sullivan).

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, the world is seeing that President Trump's Cabinet picks are strong and that Republicans are confirming them and doing it very quickly. By the end of today, we will have confirmed 18 of President Trump's nominees. They are bold, and they are well-qualified. Now, this is more nominees than President Obama had confirmed by this time in 2009, and it is more than President Biden did in 2021--more than twice as many than Joe Biden did. Americans voted for a bold, new direction. They wanted to see that here in Washington and across the country, and Senate Republicans are delivering. Yesterday, the Senate confirmed Howard Lutnick to be the Secretary of Commerce. He is going to kick-start the golden age of American manufacturing. We are also on track to confirm Kelly Loeffler today to be the Administrator of the Small Business Administration. She is a former colleague of ours in the Senate, and she is a voice for Main Street America. The Senate will soon vote, as well, to confirm Kash Patel. He is the nominee to be the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The United States is seeing increasing threats from terrorism. The previous FBI Director told the Senate a year ago ``I see blinking lights everywhere.'' On New Year's Day, 14 Americans were killed in a terrorist attack in New Orleans. That is why the Senate must act quickly to confirm Mr. Patel. We need to continue to act with speed and urgency. Once confirmed, Mr. Patel will begin working to restore trust in one of America's premier law enforcement Agencies. Regrettably, today, only two in five Americans say they hold a favorable view of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. That needs to change. Kash Patel will reform and refocus the FBI to get it focused on its core mission, and that core mission is to fight crime. He is going to reshape the Bureau so it no longer is a tool for political attacks. He will rededicate the Bureau to keeping Americans safe. He is a uniquely qualified nominee. He began his career as a public defender in Florida. He defended the constitutional rights of some of the most dangerous people in the country. He later joined the Obama Department of Justice as a counterterrorism prosecutor. He investigated and prosecuted cases that protected our Nation from very serious threats. He received several awards for excellence for bringing terrorists to justice. He saw the power of the FBI to keep Americans safe, and he also saw how the power of the FBI could be abused. In Congress, Mr. Patel led the investigation that exposed that the FBI was spying unlawfully on President Trump's 2016 campaign. Special Counsel John Durham's investigation later backed up Mr. Patel's side of the story. Durham found ``the FBI failed to uphold their mission of strict fidelity to the law.'' This abuse of power was a breach of Americans' trust in the FBI. Kash Patel is going to restore trust by returning the FBI to its core mission of investigating and fighting crime. At his confirmation hearing, he said he is going to work to cut in half the number of rapes, drug overdoses, and homicides in the country today. This is something that every law-abiding citizen in this country should welcome. For Democrats, however, this seems to be unacceptable. They claim he wants to weaponize government. That is blatantly false. It was the Democrats who turned the FBI into a political attack dog against their political opponents. The FBI pressured social media companies to censure the Hunter Biden laptop story. It partnered with Joe Biden's Department of Justice in the targeting of concerned parents who protested woke school board meetings. It targeted Catholics as domestic terrorists and spied on them at church. It put politics and personal gain over service to the country. Mr. Patel will end the weaponization and restore transparency. He believes crime is bad, that two tiers of justice are unacceptable, and that equal justice under the law is good. To Democrats, that is taboo. To the rest of the country, that is common sense. Americans want the FBI to fight crime. Kash Patel is the man to do it. If you want to defend our constitutional rights, confirm Kash Patel. If you want justice and accountability, confirm Kash Patel. If you want to keep our communities safe, we need to confirm Kash Patel. He is a man of integrity and fidelity to the rule of law. I look forward to voting to confirm him. 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. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from North Dakota (Mr. Cramer), the Senator from North Dakota (Mr. Hoeven), the Senator from Mississippi (Mrs. Hyde-Smith), the Senator from Kansas (Mr. Moran), and the Senator from Alaska (Mr. Sullivan). Further, if present and voting: the Senator from North Dakota (Mr. Hoeven) would have voted ``yea.''

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Kansas (Mr. Moran) and the Senator from Alaska (Mr. Sullivan).

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Kansas (Mr. Moran) and the Senator from Alaska (Mr. Sullivan).

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Arkansas (Mr. Boozman), the Senator from Wisconsin (Mr. Johnson), the Senator from Kansas (Mr. Marshall), and the Senator from Kentucky (Mr. Paul). Further, if present and voting: the Senator from Wisconsin (Mr. Johnson) would have voted ``YEA.''

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Arkansas (Mr. Boozman).

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I just heard the minority leader, the senior Senator from New York, Senator Schumer, on this floor talking about today's Consumer Price Index data. Stunningly, he points to President Trump as the reason for it. Let me just correct the record. The price data that Senator Schumer is complaining about is from the final days of the Joe Biden administration. Those are the numbers that are out today from the final days of the Biden administration. Certainly everyone in Wyoming and everyone in your home State of Oklahoma knows that under the Biden administration, the Democrats, prices of goods and groceries, gasoline--the things that we need in our everyday life--prices rose more than 20 percent under Joe Biden. High prices are Joe Biden's parting gift and his lasting legacy. They are the party of open borders and high prices. That is why they lost the election. So here we have the Senate minority leader--now in the minority. He used to be in the majority. The reason he is in the minority is because of the high prices brought on the people of this country as a result of that administration. The numbers out today are reflective of the final days of that administration. Painfully high prices--they came from Democrats' reckless overspending. And their policies--we are from energy States--were anti- American-energy policies. Those are the things that Senate Democrats voted for repeatedly and stood behind and supported. Republicans are focused on making life more affordable for families all across this country, hard-working families. We have a plan to unleash American energy, and that way, we can keep lowering prices for American families. I can just never forget when Joe Biden said he wanted to prioritize climate over energy that was available, affordable, and reliable. It was a disaster for the country and resulted in the defeat of the Democrats. Nomination of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Today, Mr. President, I come to the floor also to talk about confirmation votes. The Senate will soon vote on the confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., to be the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. America needs to be healthy. I am a doctor. I have worked with patients for over 20 years, was a surgeon in Wyoming. The problem is, our Nation faces a chronic disease epidemic--chronic disease, including diabetes, cancer, obesity, heart disease, and high blood pressure. Chronic diseases are so widespread that managing them accounts for almost 90 percent of the Federal healthcare spending in this country. We spend a lot of our gross national product on healthcare. Nearly three in five American adults and one in four American children are impacted by this. Our healthcare system tries to address the problem. Yet, by incentivizing procedures over prevention and paying for that, well, it often fails to address what we need to do effectively as well as economically. As a result, Americans are actually becoming less healthy. We need to put America on the path to good health. President Trump has selected Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., to do just that, to make America healthy again. Mr. Kennedy will bring a fresh set of ideas and eyes to important debates surrounding our Nation's public health. He is going to be a voice for the vast number of Americans who were failed by the previous administration. The previous administration silenced reasoned debate. I believe Mr. Kennedy is going to deliver accountability and transparency. For Americans, that means more choices and better information. It means healthy foods and healthy competition for patients. It means lower costs and higher quality. It means increased access to care. Access is so critical in my home State of Wyoming, with so many rural and frontier communities, people going long distances for healthcare. It also means honest, unbiased, and trustworthy scientific research that is both innovative as well as accountable to the American people. People want the truth. They want to know what the facts are. They want to make decisions for themselves. This is Mr. Kennedy's bold vision to revitalize America's bill of health. He is very clear about his mission, has been throughout. The mission, as he told the Finance Committee, is ``to end the chronic disease epidemic and make America healthy again.'' Apparently, that is not enough for the Senate Democrats. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada was actually dismissive of him at the Senate Finance Committee. I heard her say to Mr. Kennedy: So that's the only reason why you're are at HHS? To address this one issue. This one issue--chronic disease epidemic that is plaguing our Nation--is the key issue to our healthcare. Respectfully, addressing chronic disease is what we ought to be talking about for healthcare for the people of our country. Mr. Kennedy had to testify and did testify before two separate Senate committees as part of his confirmation. Most people being confirmed come to the Senate and only testify at one committee. He responded to rigorous questions from both Republicans and Democrats, and he answered those questions with candor and with clarity. He told the Senate HELP Committee that his leadership approach was collaborative. He pledged to ``empower the scientists to do their jobs,'' not to impose, as he said, ``preordained opinions on anybody at HHS.'' He was also clear that he supports vaccines. He told the Finance Committee: I support the measles vaccine. I support the polio vaccine. I will do nothing as HHS Secretary that makes it difficult or discourages people from taking . . . those vaccines. The Senate has every reason to take him at his word. Mr. Kennedy is a bold choice. He is pro-health, pro-vaccine, and pro- transparency. He is the right choice to make America healthy again. I look forward to voting to confirm him. I yield the floor.

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. Mr. President, I just heard Senator Schumer, the minority leader, say that Democrats don't want a government shutdown. Well, I would recommend that the minority leader actually read the newspaper. He is going to see that Democrats are threatening and actually calling for a shutdown of the U.S. Government. So here is USA Today, today, with a picture of Senator Schumer right there--a big picture in color, with his fist in the air--``Democrats open to shutting down the government.'' So the Senator who just was on the floor, saying, oh, no; they don't want it, is calling for it across the country in USA Today this morning. That is what we are seeing across this country: Democrats are so much in disarray after the fact that they lost the House, lost the Senate, lost the White House, that the Democrats now want to shut down the government. Here was the headline in The New York Times on Sunday: ``Democrats Hint at Government Shutdown to Stop Trump's Axing at Federal Agencies.'' President Trump is doing what people elected him to do--to get the wasteful Washington spending to end. So that was in USA Today and The New York Times. What about The Washington Post? The Democrats say: They will not help avert a shutdown. The Democrats are calling for a shutdown--in USA Today, The New York Times, The Washington Post. The list goes on. What are Democrats saying on television? Well, on ``Meet the Press'' this Sunday, Senator Andy Kim of New Jersey, said that Democrats in Congress would shut down the government, he says, ``if we have to'' in order to obstruct President Trump--not to help the country, not to provide services for the men and women in uniform, not to provide needs around the country. No--because they want to obstruct President Trump. That is why Chuck Schumer and the Democrats are calling for a government shutdown. It didn't end there. Cory Booker of New Jersey--a member of the leadership of the Democratic Party--was on CNN this weekend. What did he say? ``Democrats will use every tool possible'' to stop President Trump. The Democrats want to stop the President, who was elected with 312 electoral votes and won every one of the battleground States. The Democrats just want to stop him, and the American people want the kind of action and the urgency that we are seeing right now out of President Trump. Jeff Merkley, a Senator from Oregon, is open to shutting down the government. He said: ``There's no [more] business as usual.'' Shut it down. President Trump is doing exactly what America voted for, but here are the headlines, and there are the pictures, and those are the Democrats in the U.S. Senate, saying: We don't care what the American people say. We are going to shut down the government. President Trump is shrinking the size of government. We know the government is too big. We know it spends too much. President Trump is accounting for every single penny, and we are not going to make pennies anymore as a result of the fact that it costs 3 cents to make a penny. That is why Democrats want to shut down the government. They don't like the success that America is having today. They don't like the optimism that is pervasive throughout our country. So, once again, if there is going to be a shutdown, we are talking about a ``Schumer shutdown'' of our country because they lost the election.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from North Carolina (Mr. Tillis).

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, the Senate is soon going to vote on the confirmation of Scott Turner to be the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. He grew up in Texas and dreamed of a career playing in the National Football League. He achieved not just that dream but a great deal more. He used his platform as a player to help others achieve their own dreams. These leadership qualities are fundamental to who Scott is. They are going to serve him well as the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Scott also has extensive experience in State government and the Federal Government. After playing in the NFL, he served his community in the Texas legislature. In 2019, he oversaw investments in opportunity zones under President Trump. In that role, he secured more than $50 billion in private investments for over 8,700 economically distressed communities. These investments helped to revitalize many forgotten communities. Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, who is now the chairman of the Banking Committee, created these opportunity zones in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. Scott Turner was instrumental in their success. He is the right man to help restore opportunity now. He is going to put his experience and his leadership skills to work for the American people, and I strongly support his nomination.

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 Texas (Mr. Cruz).