Cory Booker

Mr. BOOKER

Mr. BOOKER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that ``How Education Department Cuts Could Hurt Low-Income and Rural Schools in Particular,'' an article of March 21, 2025, be printed in the Record.

Mr. BOOKER. Mr. President, one of those other programs that is now in crisis is what I want to switch to. I think my colleague was joking with me because we have--for anybody who is watching--we have a whole list of things we wanted to get to. My staff, now, seemingly very ambitious--Medicaid, Medicare, healthcare, Social Security is coming up now, tariffs and economic policy, education, national security, public safety, immigration, housing--chapter by chapter, each one about an hour or so. This would be enough to make it until tomorrow evening if I can stand that long and who knows? But we are behind schedule. So I am going to jump in to talk about Social Security. I want to start because, as I said earlier, I get to stand here. I get to come to this floor, but so many millions of people don't. I want to elevate their voices tonight. As I go across New Jersey, as I go across my Nation, I see Republicans, Democrats, Independents--there are so many people stopping me in airports, in the community, stopping me in the grocery store, wanting to tell me that they are afraid, that they are angry, that they are worried, that they believe we are in crisis, that our Nation is at a crossroads. Whom are we going to be as a nation? This topic, I don't know, maybe I will just let you all know that this topic--my mom chewed into me about this topic. She lives in a senior citizen retirement community, mostly Republicans. I visited her many times. It is a great community. I hate how we go to this idea of right or left. These are great seniors that live in a great community, and they are talking about Social Security. I want to read--start with this section by just reading--these are people sending to me. This is a small postcard, handwritten from somebody from Hamilton Square, NJ: Dear Senator Booker, I am writing to ask you if my Social Security is now in danger. Please let me know. It is very important to me. Thank you. I am going to try to answer that tonight fairly and candidly. Here is another person who writes. My staff is protecting their identity. I just want to say where they are from. South Plains, NJ: I am one of your constituents and a proud New Jerseyan. I am writing to let you know how upset, distraught, and worried I am about the current state of our country. I hope you will take time and read my letter as this is the first time I felt compelled to write a government official. I want to tell you, I am reading your letter again, and I am now reading it on national TV, if C-SPAN can be--the Presiding Officer may challenge me with a factual error, but C-SPAN is national TV, I think. I want to start by telling you a little about myself. I am 64 years old and I am currently working full time. I am a breast cancer survivor. My plan was to retire in the next 3 years, but with the current state of chaos and turmoil, I honestly don't see how I can retire. I am concerned about Medicare, which I will definitely need when I retire. I will also need a supplemental plan for whatever Medicare does not cover. I do not qualify for retirement benefits through my job. With the cuts being made to Federal programs, Medicare will not be enough. I would need a more expensive supplemental plan to cover these cuts. I am also concerned about Social Security. I have worked since I was 16, except for 9 years when I was home with my three children. I have worked hard and paid into Social Security and believed that the money was for my retirement. Now I hear that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme, and it may be privatized. This is so unfair for people like me that worked hard all their life and counted on this money to retire. I was planning to work past 65 to get my full Social Security benefits, but now I begin to wonder if it is worth it. So, at this point, I am in a holding pattern due to the unstable climate in which we are all living. As I said, I have three children who are all adults now. My son has been diagnosed with being bipolar. He has been hospitalized a few times for this. He is currently on medication that he needs to function and sees a therapist. He is in grad school and is on Medicaid. He works part time since he is a full-time grad student. So he does not qualify for benefits. I worry about what these cuts will do to my son and others like him. No one seems concerned with the people who rely on these programs to live their best life. Someone needs to look out and take an interest in helping people in these circumstances. My daughter is a teacher in a district that receives title I funds. She works very hard as a teacher and is devoted to her students. With the dismantling of the Department of Education, I am concerned about what this means to the education field, teachers, administration, and students. My daughter's school is making a difference in the lives of these students, and they need the funding that is received from both the State and Federal Government. Programs like the title I and other federally funded programs need to stay in place. On another topic-- This constituent is getting a lot into her first letter to a government official, and I appreciate it. On another topic, inflation: Increasing prices and the overpriced housing market is a huge problem. Placing tariffs on our biggest trade partners is beyond unfair. This drives the cost of goods up, and the consumer is the one who ends up paying the increase. A lot of families are food insecure, wondering where their next meal is coming from. A lot of parents go without so their children can eat. Food pantries and banks are scrambling to meet demand. Something needs to be done so families can survive. The housing market is also an issue. Owning your own home is now unreachable for most young people starting out. Interest rates are high, and housing prices in New Jersey are unaffordable. Thank you for reading my letter. I am asking you, as our Senator, please stand up for what is in the best interest of families, seniors, adults, and children in your district. Tariffs, dismantling Departments like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Education, and other services that are important to the everyday person is not the answer. You are our voice in the Senate. Please do the right thing, and speak up, and continue to fight for everyday Americans. This is why I am standing up. This is why I will stand here as long as I am physically able. This is why I continue to tell story after story. But, first, a little important history: 90 years. Our country has made a promise to people that, if you pay into the Social Security Program your whole life, your money will be there for you when you retire. Franklin Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law 84 years ago, and this is his quote. He called it ``a cornerstone in a structure which is being built, but it is by no means complete.'' Social Security is still a cornerstone. It is still the bedrock according to FDR. It is the bedrock of an edifice being built in a nation where we belong to each other. We the people are building this. That is our cornerstone. He called it Social Security. Today, 73 million Americans count on Social Security. Millions more than that are planning on those benefits they earned being there for them. You heard from the first letters I read that people are really worried. The President of the United States stood up in the State of the Union Address and talked about rampant fraud because payments are going out. All from conservative papers to ones on the other side have shown that what he was saying was not true. But they are sowing chaos. They are attacking, delegitimizing it, and calling it a Ponzi scheme-- DOGE leader Musk and the President. There are 73 million Americans who are counting on Social Security benefits, and 1.6 million are in my State. Forty percent of the people who rely on Social Security--40 percent--have no other source of income. They live paycheck to paycheck--Social Security checks, excuse me. Social Security checks. Despite mocking Social Security and calling it a Ponzi scheme, people in communities like my parents'--my mom's--are beginning to worry. They actually took real actions to lay off thousands of Social Security employees, making it harder to process Social Security applications and troubleshoot questions from beneficiaries. They didn't roll out a plan to say: Hey, this is how we are going to show that we can give the best customer service ever. We are going to bring in some of the best private sector people to advise on how we can use technology and innovation to give the best customer service. Hell, roll in AI, and do all of these things. We are going to make a model of responsiveness to our seniors because we are a society that respects our elders, values them, wants them to retire in dignity and security and peace of mind. That is the big ambition. No, that is not what was said. Social Security employees, like many employees, got letters that they didn't expect, saying they were laid off. It didn't matter how well they performed, and it didn't matter what function they performed. It put in jeopardy just trying to contact Social Security, if you are retired or just trying to contact Social Security if you need to apply for benefits. They tried to eliminate service by phone, saying that they wanted to require in-person visits, which is absurd for many seniors who don't have access to transportation or who live in rural areas because--do you know what they are doing also? They are trying to close down many Social Security offices, and I will get to the specifics of that later. These actions are harmful enough, but they are just the beginning of what our President and Elon Musk are saying they want to do to a program that, for millions of Americans, is their only check a week. It is essential for them and for others. It is how they make their retirement secure. You don't protect the future by punishing the people who built this country. You don't fix America by throwing seniors or veterans or Americans with disabilities under the bus. That is not how we do things. That is not how we should do things. There are so many hard-working families who believe in this idea of, if I work hard all my life in America, I can make ends meet; I can raise my kids; and I can retire with dignity. Congress does have a responsibility to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars. We should do more of that. I want to do more of that. I want to help lead in that fight. But none of us were invited to the table when it came to this. This congressionally established program--FDR I read--but it was Congress that established it and is now not being included in the planning or in the procedures to try to improve Social Security or to make it more efficient or more effective. We haven't convened hearings or task forces in a bipartisan way to find out what we can do to better serve our seniors. Instead, lies are being proffered about Social Security making wrongful payments. Lies are being proffered by the highest office in the land and by the most rich person in the land, who does not need Social Security, who is calling it a Ponzi scheme, who is telling people who are relying on it that they are part of a Ponzi scheme. But remember this: Social Security is not the government's money to spend. It is the hard-earned savings of working Americans, and it belongs to Americans. The President and Elon Musk need to keep their hands off of it. It is not theirs to take, and it is not theirs to break. It is their scheme. They are the ones who have a scheme, and it is not about efficiency. It is not visionary. What we need in America now are visionary leaders who have bold, exciting visions for things like what Social Security can be. What they are doing is not only wrong, but it hurts people; it scares people. And it is not just people but our elders--the people who raised us, the people who built roads and highways, the people who served food, made food, who started small businesses, who raised generations. They are who we are disrespecting. So what happens in this context? Why am I standing here? It is because the people of New Jersey are saying: Why aren't you doing more? This is unacceptable, Senator Booker. It is unacceptable. Hear our voices. My phones have exploded with people whom the President and Elon Musk have made terrified about what is happening to the Social Security service and what is happening to their checks. My staff said that we were overwhelmed with phone calls and emails from people who were worried about the direction that the President is taking Social Security. The people who called were angry or terrified, and I want to share some of these calls from my constituents. Here is someone from the great Cherry Hill, NJ: I am very concerned that the President, along with his cruel and inept administration and DOGE, are working to privatize and ruin the Social Security Program. I am a constituent, Senator Booker. I live in Cherry Hill, NJ, and I am a senior who relies on Social Security income for my basic needs, food, and housing. The mere idea of not having those funds has caused me sleepless nights and wondering if I will become homeless. I am going to stop there for a second. I remember President FDR and growing up hearing that what he did was get on the radio not to stir up fear, not to stir up chaos, but to comfort people, to remind them that we are Americans, and you have no need to fear. But this President, just with his rhetoric alone about Social Security, is driving my constituents to write me notes like this. I continue with the letter from my constituent from Cherry Hill: I hope you will convince both Democrat and Republican colleagues to prevent this from happening. Trump lied when he promised during his campaign he would not touch the Social Security Administration, but now we see threats and already some actions toward making severe cuts and making the program less accessible. I urge you to continue to fight for us. (Mr. CRAMER assumed the Chair.) Pennington, NJ: My sister and I are older Americans who are each disabled-- one from a severe accident because of a drunk driver and the other from a life-changing illness. We are alone and take care of each other. For me, SSDI is my one and only income. I have a few years before I am at full retirement age. Even with my check and splitting rent costs between us, it is taking right under 50 percent of my monthly check for rent alone. Fifty percent. This does not leave much to cover even the bare necessities of health, vehicle insurance, utilities, food, medicine--even a tight budget, especially with costs on everything continuing to rise. Senator, as seniors, we are petrified about what is happening to SSA. I must ask you, Senator: What do we do if our monthly SSA benefits are interrupted? How do we keep a roof over our heads as disabled seniors? With very limited savings, it would only take a few months before the roof over our heads would be in jeopardy. We just spent a small fortune for us to move into a smaller, lower cost apartment because we could not afford significant ongoing rent increases. I realize we are far from alone in our fears, but that is of very little comfort as we spend our nights unable to sleep, fearful we do not lose our only income along with a roof over our heads. These are our elders. Here is a constituent from Egg Harbor Township: My husband and I live Social Security check to Social Security check. Without those checks we earned--without those checks we earned--we are dead. Please don't let this outrageous administration take our benefits away. This is a constituent from Runnemede, NJ: I am a 75-year-old New Jersey resident. I received my working papers in 1964, at the age of 14. I worked continuously until I reached the age of 70, in 2020. I enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1967 and retired in 1999. I was on Active Duty from 1970 to 1977. I finished my career in the Naval Reserve. For 56 years, I paid my taxes and contributed to Social Security. I have collected my Social Security for 4 years, and as you are no doubt aware, the amount of money paid me monthly by the Social Security Act was calculated by them based on my contribution. I am currently a full-time, 24/7 caretaker for my invalid wife and do not have the luxury of earning a supplemental income. My sole income is from Social Security and a small Naval Reserve pension. My total healthcare comes from Medicare and TRICARE for Life. The contract I made with the United States Government was that they could use my money during my working life with the understanding that they would take care of me when I could no longer earn for myself. I have kept my part of this bargain for 56 years. Now, after only 4 years, the government is threatening to renege on our agreement. Please, sir, do not let this happen, Senator Booker. That is my money. I earned it. I earned my Social Security by my contributions, and I earned my pension by my service. Another constituent named Sara: I have been a teacher in Atlantic County for 26 years. My husband is a 100-percent disabled veteran who receives VA disability payments as well as SSDI. We depend on the VA and SSDI for approximately half of our income for our family of five. We are currently preparing our oldest for his first year at college and are awaiting financial aid packages from several schools. We are petrified that Trump and Musk's agenda is dangerous and will have life-altering consequences for families like ours. We are counting on you, Senator Booker, to do the hard work to protect the essential benefits. The destruction of the Department of Education is another completely horrifying situation. We need to protect our special needs students and Federal financial aid for college- bound students. We need to protect the idea that education is for all-- Education is for all. Education is for all-- instead of a few elites who could just afford it. Rosie is another constituent. She starts off proudly: I am a senior, 84 years old. God bless you, Rosie. My mom is 85. My only income is Social Security-- She generously gives me confidential information. My only income is Social Security, $1,179 per month, and I am terrified that the current gang of thieves in the White House will tamper with it under the guise of ``saving money.'' If Social Security is cut off, I am on the streets. I can't keep harping enough on the traditions of our country, where Presidents, whether you agree with them or not, whether they are from your party or not--Ronald Reagan didn't whip up fear in bedrock commitments like Social Security or health. Barack Obama didn't shake people so that Republicans and Democrats in my State would write me letters using words like ``fear'' and ``terror,'' would worry about losing sleep when they have enough things to stress over. Here is Debra: I am a retired widow. I depend on Social Security to pay bills each month. I am concerned about the reports that Elon Musk is to revamp and, in my opinion, ruin the Social Security Administration. I am worried that payments will be disrupted. There are many other things going on in the government today that I am also concerned about. I hope that the Senators and Congress people, along with the judicial system, can stand up to him and take back control of government. She says this is going to revamp and ruin Social Security. This is just somebody simply saying--it is like, be plain. Don't make up lies about false payments. Don't call it a Ponzi scheme. Give us a bold vision of how it is going to help more seniors, how you are going to serve more seniors, how you are going to improve the system, how you are going to make it better, how you are going to serve the dignity of our seniors. This is Holly. Holly is a constituent too. I am one of your constituents who is retired and relies 100 percent in order to live on my earned Social Security benefit in which I paid throughout my entire working career. I call on you to maintain the Social Security Program as it stood before the ascension of Trump and Musk. You must ensure that there are no missed earned benefit payments or late payments made to recipients; especially, accessible Social Security offices must remain open and fully staffed with trained, experienced Social Security employees in order to provide the kind of regular, necessary customer service by phone, online, and in person. And the Trump-Musk administration's endless terrorist threats of dismantling the Social Security Administration, insidiously calling it a Ponzi scheme, working in order to privatize it--it must cease and desist immediately. Moreover you, Cory Booker, must reverse and/or stop whatever draconian changes are being made to destroy the Social Security Administration with thousands of cuts to needed employees with almost no notice and no public input. Social Security is being dismantled by an unelected billionaire. At least for now, Musk and his band of DOGE boys--not a real government department--who have illegally and callously rifled through our most private, personal information and done God knows what with it, with their ultimate goal to risk and/or steal the retirement funds of older Americans by placing the Social Security Trust Fund in the hands of private corporate equity firms--seniors do not agree to this. Seniors do not agree to this. Such action is illegal and completely unacceptable! This constituent continues: Furthermore, I am deeply concerned that the ceaseless chaos will invite criminals to exploit confusion around identity verification. Ironically, while the administration claims these changes are meant to combat fraud, they may very well do the opposite. Hastily introducing new, unfamiliar technology and verification steps without any real public education campaign will create the perfect environment for criminals to deceive and defraud. This late and ill-conceived change also comes at a time when the Social Security Administration is already struggling with a customer service crisis, long hold times, low staffing, delayed callback systems, confusing announcements about possible office closures. This chaos has to be stopped now, Senator Booker. I urgently ask you to please use your congressional power to reverse these changes which are creating more confusion for older Americans. Senior Americans earned Social Security through a lifetime of hard, honest work. I know I did. The money is ours, and we deserve a properly run Social Security Administration which continues to be administrated honestly through the Federal Government, as established in 1935. In fact, the narrative of the Social Security Act running out of money could be easily fixed if Congress wrote laws that slightly increased the amount that high-net-worth individuals--the wealthiest of the wealthy--paid into the program. Holly, God bless you. My mother, in her senior community, is seeing this rise in scammers trying to steal people's money, and she is amazed at the technology they are using. The scams involve the voices of their relatives asking them for help during a crisis. All that technology and the wisdom of my mom--she is like, why aren't we using the technology and innovations to make Social Security easier to use and easier to engage with? Commonsense questions. Carli, a constituent from New Jersey: Please include disabled people when you talk about Social Security and Medicare, Senator Booker. You don't mention us every time. I paid into Social Security for 16 years. I worked full time. I was sick almost every day. I finally had to leave my job in 2015. I was granted SSDI, and I am on Medicare. And until I was injured last year, I had a part- time job, where I continued paying into the system. I fear that the first people they will go after are the disabled. We are not as capable of fighting. People see us as lazy or fakers, and we are almost never included in the conversations about marginalized communities. Please don't let me be erased. Carli, you are not. I see you, and I am standing here for as long as I physically can so that I can elevate your voice and others'. Patricia, a constituent from New Jersey: I am 65 years old, a senior. I have worked my whole life and paid into Social Security. Will you please work hard and push back to preserve these benefits? Without Social Security money and Medicare as well, I will not survive. I am outraged-- Patricia writes-- to see what is happening recently. Help. If there is anything you request of me-- My constituent says: If there is anything you need of me, please let me know. That is one of the most beautiful sentiments in America, is that people in crisis who are racked with fear and worry still are standing up to volunteer, retired seniors. I am always moved when a constituent not only tells me what is on their mind, how they are angry, how they are worried, what their concerns are, but they also say: Let me help you. Let me help you. Patricia, it is late at night, and you are probably sleeping, but you helped me tonight at 12:41 a.m. The goodness and the decency of our seniors, the kindness and generosity of our communities, and what does our President do to these people? He spends time in the State of the Union Address not calling us together, not calling us to a common cause, not reminding us that we share common values and common virtues; he spreads lies about Social Security and unleashes the wealthiest man in the world to cut before he even understands the Agencies he is cutting--a guy who, with the same kind of cynical nature--I can't even fathom being as wealthy as he is; it is not what I have sought in my life--he calls it a Ponzi scheme when constituent after constituent tells me that is their only source of income, that they paid into it all of their lives, and now the most powerful person on the planet and the richest person on the planet are striking fear and worry into seniors. Yet, with all of that power, all of that money, a constituent from New Jersey tells me about what she is concerned with and then says: If there is anything you request of me, please let me know. I am here to help. ``I am here to help.'' That is the country I know and love, not the fearmongers and the demagogues and the spreaders of lies but the good decency of Americans who, even in their time of crisis, ask the question: How can I help? How can I help. Helen from New Jersey: Senator Booker, please stand up to Musk and Trump to save, protect Social Security and Medicare. My life and my husband's life depend on it. We are senior citizens who worked and paid our share of taxes for over 50 years. We now need those benefits to survive. Here is Janet, one of the hundreds--I am sorry to my staff--thousands of people who have written, emailed, and called. One more. Janet: I oppose the closing of Social Security field offices. If anything, more field services should be opened if phone support is cut back. In 2022, while living in Wyoming, I started on Social Security. There were issues, and thank God for the local field office in Cheyenne because they were the only people who could physically look at my documentation, realize what was happening to me, submit corrections, and enter notes in the system that the Social Security phone support could see. It took four or five trips to my local field office to resolve it. I had previously gotten nowhere with Social Security phone support. Today, I read the list of field offices that are slated to be closed, and they appear to be in rural areas. The people who live there might have to drive a full day's drive several times to apply for and follow up on their benefits. It is not fair. It is not fair. It is not fair. It is not fair. Across the country--my office hears from--it is not just New Jersey. Across the country, people are frustrated and feel like nobody listens. We get calls from across the country. My staff doesn't say: You are not from New Jersey, so we are not going to talk to you. My staff is just incredible people I have surrounding me in the office who remind me of the values I treasure. So they wanted me to include tonight people not from New Jersey because, again, we hear from thousands of people in my State and so many around the country. Here is Maria Caranci from Springfield, Delaware County, PA: My name is Maria Caranci. Forgive me, Maria, if I am pronouncing your name wrong. I am 78 years old and live in Springfield, Delaware County,

Mr. BOOKER. I am sorry about that. I am sorry about that. The Presiding Officer is such a good man. His State is not on my top five non-New Jersey States, but North Carolina is. And I am going to read a letter from Judith Brown. My name is Judith Brown. I live in Charlotte, North Carolina. I was 17 when I started working and worked for another 20 years as an administrator until I had to be declared disabled. Without disability, I would not have been able to see my specialist, get eye care, or any of the other needs that I had. I was also the mother of two young sons who are on the autism spectrum. Without disability, I wouldn't have been able to take care of them and get the care they needed to be independent young men. God bless them. I hear that they want to close the field offices and change the customer service line. As a person with mobility and vision impairments, this is outrageous. I need to be able to access it the best way I can on the times that I can access it. Please, Senator, fight to protect Social Security for a senior like me and for young people with disabilities like my son. Thank you. No, thank you, Judith Brown. Thank you for writing a letter. Thank you for speaking up. Thank you for not being silent. Thank you for advocating, not just for your family but for the millions and millions of other Americans who lean heavily not just on their Social Security checks but on the incredible public servants that keep that Agency working and who wish to have a President that said: I am going to bring the best of business experience to my customer service. I am going to bring the best of caring and technology and innovation. I am going to call the best computer technologist scientists in the country. We are going to make this the best Social Security in the history of our country. And you know what, my friends, the billionaires I had on stage with me when I was inaugurated, I am just going to ask them to pay a little bit more, .00001 percent more of their net worth to make sure Social Security is safe forever. I am sorry. It is crazy. I am going back to Pennsylvania. I mean, it is almost like you can't make this up, honestly. I just know my country. I know our character. I know how good of a people we are. I know how much we love one another. I know our faith in red States and blue States and right and left. I have sat next to people on planes who introduced themselves to me as Republicans from a red State, and by the end, we are laughing and talking and sharing stories. We are a good nation. Together, we can be so great and show them that. But how can we have a President that in 71 days drives this much fear into our country? It is absurd, everybody. It is absurd. This is why I can't let this be normal anymore. Michelle from Lancaster, PA: My name is Michelle Gruver-- I love your last name, Michelle-- from Lancaster, PA, and I would definitely be impacted if something would happen to my Social Security-- Michelle also has Parkinson's-- and I am on disability, and the money that I have goes pretty much to most of my medications and foods that I need to eat to keep myself going and strong. That is how it would impact my family. I wouldn't be able to afford also my insulin for my diabetes. Parkinson's and diabetes. So it is a challenge every month as it is even with the amount that we have because of the cost of pharmaceuticals and things to keep us going. Yes. So that is why Social Security is really important to us as a family. It helps us get by every day. Thank you. This is Patricia Heaney Porter from Johnstown, PA: My name is Patricia Heaney Porter. I reside in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. My work is varied. I have been employed as a secretary in the private sector, as a statistician for a government agency, as a real estate agent, and most recently as a legal secretary. This is my story of how Social Security has affected my life. My mother passed away in 1956. My sisters and I-- God bless you-- were 8, 10, and 11. My maternal grandparents stepped in, and they raised us with the help of Social Security survivor benefits, resulting in good education and other needs to be met. We had almost normal lives due to these benefits. While raising two children, I worked as a real estate agent. My income was based on commissions rather than salary, so I made entire Social Security payments based on my income. We had a roof over our heads, healthy food on the table. One of my children had serious medical issues. And I paid for her bills out of pocket, never asking for a penny from any government agency. These expenses were paid for from my income, and I paid taxes every year. I waited until I was 70 to collect my Social Security benefits as I realized the later you collect, the better the benefits. I have no pension, and I live almost entirely on Social Security benefits. I am always looking for part-time work, but few people want to hire me as I will be 80 in June. God bless you, God bless you. Based on the benefits I receive, I am able to pay my mortgage and all monthly expenses. I receive Medicare which helps pay the medical bills. Should Social Security and Medicare be taken from me, I will likely lose my home. I could no longer afford medical costs, groceries. I have a medical condition which requires regular visits with a specialist who is 70 miles away. Without Social Security and Medicare, I would no longer be able to see him, and my condition would result in death sooner rather than later. Thank you for all you are doing to see that the benefits received from Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid will continue. Senator Murphy and I were talking. It is all interrelated, right? This is somebody on Social Security, but they have to drive for medical attention. We are in a hospital crisis in America. There are so many rural areas where rural residents of our country have to drive so far just to get to a hospital. And cuts in Medicaid, we heard it from the letters I read in the last section, will endanger those hospitals' survival. Charlotte, NC, again, Kevin Woodson. I get a lot of letters, my staff, from Wisconsin and Charlotte, NC. OK. My name is Kevin Woodson. I am a 69-year-old retiree living in Charlotte, North Carolina. I worked 38 years for two Fortune 50 companies, and I thought that I would have a fully funded pension plan to live off of in my retirement. However, I never got to 25 years in, so only got partial pensions. This is why I need Social Security. It covers the holes the pensions don't cover in terms of medical benefits. It allows me the freedom to enjoy my life, take care of activities that I need in order to keep myself healthy. Social Security is dependable, something I rely on-- Not a Ponzi scheme-- and I hope that we don't touch Social Security and we don't have any issues trying to keep that money flowing. It is money I paid into. Margaret Silva from Surprise, AZ. I love that name. Surprise, AZ. Hello, my name is Margaret Silva. I live in Surprise, Arizona, with my husband. I started working at the age of 15 doing volunteer work as a candy striper at the hospital where my mother worked. I did not get paid. After that, I started working as a waitress earning .50 cents an hour. After graduating from high school, I took various jobs earning a little more, and then I started working at Mountain Bell, and I retired after 30 years from Qwest. So if they do Social Security cuts, I don't know what I am going to do. I will be forced at the age of 74 to look for a job. So those are my hard-earned benefits, I worked for that. More than 30 years I worked for that. Thank you. Wayne Behnke from Chippewa Falls, WI. I need to go to Chippewa Falls, WI. This is the third letter you guys are having me read, including people reaching out to me from Chippewa Falls. God bless you. I need to visit your community. Hello, I am Wayne from Chippewa Falls. Soon to be 69 years old. I have been on Social Security for a couple years, my wife and I. I spent years in the service, Navy, and, again, like I said, my wife and I are going to have been on Social Security. Saying that, we would, if we lost our Social Security tomorrow, we would lose our house, our cars, and pretty much our livelihood because this is what we have worked for, and we don't need to lose it. Why do you work for 55 years and pay into Social Security and then lose it? Recently, I tried to get back online and get on my Social Security account. I wasn't able to. Because of that, I went down to the Social Security office in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and they said they couldn't do anything for me that I had to set up an appointment. So I come home later, called, set up an appointment, and it is still three days out before I can get my appointment. And they don't know if they can help me. So at this point in time, I really need to know what is going on with Social Security, Senator Booker, because if we lose it, everybody else that is on it loses it. We are going to be in a really sorry state. Those folks who answer phones and set appointments, they are sure important. When somebody is in crisis, they have to wait a few days, their check is missed, and it is real consequences for real people. Hello, my name is Manuel. My wife and I live-- Surprise, surprise-- in Surprise, Arizona. We are both on Social Security. That is what we depend on to live our lives in our retirement years. We have to pay our bills, we have to buy food, we basically have to live off of that. So if they take our Social Security, what are we going to live off? Are you going to take care of us? You know, we are American citizens, and we deserve, and we have paid into it, and we have earned it. And it is not just something given to us. So leave our Social Security alone. Let us live our lives. Let us live our lives out the way they should be. And we are supposed to be in our golden years, so it is important to us. It is important to all Americans out there that are seniors. Let us live our lives. Thank you very much, Senator Booker. Patricia Naughton from Pittsburgh, PA, I lift your voice. My name is Patricia Naughton, and I am from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I have been paying into Social Security since I was 16 years old. I am currently 70 and have been collecting Social Security for the last 5 years. Without Social Security, I wouldn't be able to pay my mortgage, utilities, food, medicine, copays, and many other things. I would not be able to survive without Social Security. There is no reason that seniors should be held hostage over Social Security. This is our money, our money that we put into the Social Security system for many years. We deserve not to be threatened by the loss. Thank you. Kathleen Woverding, from Hanover, PA. Hello, my name is Kathleen Woverding, and I currently live in Hanover, Pennsylvania. I am originally from New Jersey and taught in the public school system for 29 years as a school librarian. When I retired, I decided to move to Hanover, Pennsylvania-- Kathleen, you are missed in New Jersey-- and at the age of 62, I started collecting Social Security because of COVID. I needed the extra stability that Social Security provides. I no longer have to work a full-time job because of Social Security, although I do work a part-time job and still pay into the system. Social Security provides me with stability, financial stability. It helps pay the bills, and I really don't have to worry about my finances because it is Social Security. If Social Security is taken away, I will lose everything I have worked for the last 60 years. I feel that Social Security is a godsend. Protect it, Senator Booker. Thank you. Cynthia Marino from Pennsylvania: My name is Cynthia Marino. I am a retired registered nurse from Lancaster, PA. My husband-- I am sorry, Cynthia. My husband died in 1990, and two of my children received survivor benefits for 8 years, during which time I was able to get my bachelor's degree in nursing and work part-time. All three of my children went on to get college degrees. When I was 61 years old, I went on Social Security disability, having a hip replacement. I was switched to regular Social Security when I turned 65. I now depend mostly on Social Security for my husband and myself, with small pensions from both of our jobs supplementing Social Security. I am now able to live independently in a handicap mobile home thanks to the money from Social Security in the past and present. It is much cheaper than Medicaid funds to keep me in a nursing home. Thank you, Senator Booker. Protect it. Thank you, Cynthia, for your story. These are just some. These are just some. I lift their voices. I lift their voices with mine. I want to go to the Detroit Free Press, but before I read this article, I know my Senator from New Jersey is here. I am going to read this article, and if he is interested in our sixth hour, if he has a question, I will yield for a question while retaining the floor. But I am going to read this article, and then we will go. This is from the Detroit Free Press. My mom was born in Detroit. I love the city. My family owes it a lot. It is where my grandfather went to find a job on the assembly lines in Detroit, building bombers during World War II. It says: Kathie Sherrill has been retired for about 10 years now and typically didn't think twice about whether she'd receive her Social Security payments on time. For the first time ever, the 74-year-old Troy retiree went online in March on the very day that $2,800 was to hit her bank account through direct deposit. She suddenly felt compelled to make absolutely certain that her Social Security money was there when it was supposed to be. Sherrill and other retirees are on edge. Big. Time. Call it Social Security insecurity. ``I have never really worried about it as much as I have this year,'' Sherrill said. The money, thankfully, was sitting in her account in March and she knew her checks and payments for her ongoing bills would not start bouncing. ``I think anybody, future or current people on Social Security, are definitely targeted,'' she said. ``It's a worry that I'm sure everybody is having right now.'' I know it because I heard from my mom and her whole senior community. Seniors are uncertain of what is next for Social Security. Since early February, AARP has seen nearly double the calls to its customer care line at 888-687-2277 as more people began being troubled about Social Security, and it has shown no signs of abating, according to an AARP spokesperson. Since Feb. 1, AARP said it has been receiving more than 2,000 calls into its call center per week on concerns relating to Social Security. ``Social Security has never missed a payment and AARP and our tens of millions of members are not going to stand by and let that happen now,'' said John Hishta, AARP senior vice president of campaigns, in a statement last week. While those words sound reassuring, it's frankly not comforting to realize that seniors need to hear that their monthly Social Security payments will arrive as usual. I don't imagine anyone had this one on their bingo cards for March 2025. This kind of worry and stress. On social media, I spotted one comment that said: ``Folks, the federal workers began advising last month that all Americans remove all funds from the account where they normally receive any federal payments (Social Security, federal tax refunds and the like). Keep the account but only use it as a place for feds to transfer money. Immediately move all transferred cash to a separate account.'' The concern, according to the post: ``DOGE can declare you dead and force your bank to send back any funds paid to you.'' Whoa, a lot of retirement angst there and, yes, some wild notions and really bad advice. Moving Social Security money around to hide it in another account, different from where it's directly deposited, actually could put more of your money at risk when it comes to some debt collection. Anyone who has tracked retirement policy, as I have, knows that the potential unraveling of the Social Security system has been discussed for decades. Many retirees just never imagined a convoluted scenario where someone would think Social Security, possibly, could implode in a few days. The health of Social Security, which marks its 90th anniversary this year, isn't all that makes many retirees and those about to retire nervous. Their anxiety can go into overdrive watching the stock market slide on Trump tariff news--and seeing all the political ping-pong with Social Security money that belongs in their pockets. The Trump administration has maintained that it wants to cut costs and fraud when it comes to the Social Security program, not benefits. But people remain skeptical, and some commentary isn't helping. Acting Social Security Commissioner Leland Dudek in interviews last week, including one with Bloomberg News last Thursday, actually threatened to temporarily shut down Social Security after a federal judge temporarily stopped members of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency from digging through personal data at the Social Security Administration. The DOGE operatives, according to the court, will first need to receive proper training on handling sensitive information, which some might say is the least they could do. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, or AFSCME, Alliance for Retired Americans, and the American Federation of Teachers filed a motion for emergency relief on March 7 to halt DOGE's ``unprecedented, unlawful seizure'' of sensitive data regarding millions of Americans. No surprise, Dudek soon found it politically prudent to back off from his threat. ``I am not shutting down the agency,'' Dudek said in a statement, indicating he had received clarifying guidance from the court about the temporary restraining order. President Trump supports keeping Social Security offices open and getting the right check to the right person at the right time,'' [Dudek said]. Financial tech CEO Frank Bisignano, who was nominated by President Donald Trump to lead the Social Security Administration, ended up being grilled by Democrats about the bedlam during confirmation hearings before the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday. The angst isn't about to go away, particularly if people continue to face even longer waits on the phones or see Social Security offices closing in their communities, thanks to some key changes being made now [by Trump's administration]. Customer service is on the chopping block, as the Social Security Administration reduces the number of employees, restricts what services can be handled by phone and shutters some local offices where people could talk to someone face- to-face. On Wednesday, the Social Security Administration announced that it would initiate a two-week delay for implementing a highly criticized move to end phone services and require in- person visits for some services. ``In-person identity proofing for people unable to use their personal `my Social Security' account for certain services will be effective April 14,'' according to the announcement. But individuals applying for Medicare, disability and Supplemental Security Income who cannot use a personal ``my Social Security'' account can complete their claim entirely over the telephone without the need to come into an office, according to the March 26 announcement. That's good news for many. Even so, merely delaying the change doesn't help others and, frankly, customer service could still suffer longer term. And it will get very ugly if current Social Security recipients miss out on even one dime of their benefits. At one point last week, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick suggested that his 94-year-old mother-in-law wouldn't complain about missing a Social Security check for a month or so. Only fraudsters would call, he said during an ``All-In'' podcast. My thought: Have you ever watched an exchange where someone on Social Security is being denied a coupon or a senior discount at a store or restaurant? It is not pretty. Worse yet, has Lutnick ever talked with a friend or relative in his or her 70s or 80s who depends on Social Security to cover basic bills? Social Security provides retirement, survivor and disability payments to 73 million people each month. That number includes about 56 million people who are age 65 or older. Some people--and even Sherrill includes herself in that group--are better off than others. They won't miss paying an electric bill or the rent because they can turn to retirement savings or money from a traditional pension. Even so, Social Security remains an integral source of income each month for all retirees and others who receive benefits. ``I'm concerned about my financial future,'' Sherrill told me. Social Security now represents about half of her monthly income. She never imagined that any Social Security fix would involve cutting benefits for existing retirees. . . . Some GOP proposals have suggested increasing the age for full retirement benefits from 67 to 69 over an eight-year period beginning in 2026. But she now fears that it's possible her benefits could get cut at some point down the road. Overall, Sherrill has had fun in retirement. She has nine grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren and wants to spend more time with them, not less. Sherrill and her friends who are retired are cutting back on eating out and entertainment, just in case something happens to Social Security. Higher prices for many things put pressure on fixed incomes, too. She wants to take less money out of her retirement savings now, so she has more money sitting on the sidelines in case her Social Security benefits are cut in the future. Even so, she's staring at an unexpected $600 new monthly car payment ahead because she needs to replace a car that was in an accident a few weeks ago. If her Social Security payments are cut or stopped . . . ``I may be selling it.'' The wild swings for the stock market--and 401(k) plans-- only created more jitters. The economy seems uncertain. Consumer confidence is in worse of a place. Leaders are threatening Social Security services. Offices are being cut. People are being laid off. So people are worrying. Taking a rough guess, she estimates that she has lost about $30,000 on her retirement investments as the stock market tumbled in early 2025. Over the years, she said, cuts to Social Security were always part of the political realm. But she felt that Congress provided a stopgap to any drastic moves. And she doesn't believe that's true anymore. ``I'm hoping that Congress wakes up, looks in the mirror and decides they don't like what they see,'' she told me. One big problem with fueling an atmosphere of chaos is that many people do start worrying about everything, including the possibility that Social Security isn't a system that they can depend on anymore. Sherrill said she just took a call from her college roommate who mentioned that she was going to look at her bank account online to see whether her monthly Social Security payment was stopped or had arrived as usual. ``I said, `You're OK. I got [mine] this month.' '' So many people are afraid right now.

Mr. BOOKER. Yes, I will yield for a question while retaining the floor.

Mr. BOOKER. I will answer your question. But knowing that my mom is watching right now, before I answer the question, I want to tell the folks who may not know about the relationship with my other Senator from New Jersey--it is probably one of the more interesting relationships in here. I always tell New Jerseyans, I voted for Andy Kim before anybody else did because I was on an interview committee for the Rhodes Scholarship in New Jersey. I was a former Rhodes, and I really wanted the experience of what it was like to be on the other side because my experience was quite interesting. These incredible folks came in, young people from New Jersey who were amazing, applying for this extremely competitive scholarship. Andy Kim was one among that number, and he blew the committee away. So way back--I am going to retain the floor but ask you a question. What year was that?

Mr. BOOKER. How many years?

Mr. BOOKER. Twenty-one years ago. In 2002, I lost a run for mayor and in 2006, I ran again. I was in between trying to do my work in Newark. Andy blew me away. I knew then that he was this extraordinary man of character and brilliance, this great mix of heart and head, this great mix of honor, and a fierce ambition to make a contribution to the world. And if you follow Andy's career, he has been a public servant in some of the highest levels of the administration. But then he ran for Congress, and I remember that race. You electrified, not just the district you represented but really the whole State of New Jersey. And then he came here. But the moment that I remember most was during the January 6 attack. I was here on the Senate floor in this very seat. I will never forget how back here, Mark Kelly, an unbelievable Senator--he and I were two of the last people off the floor, along with one of our Republican colleagues, trying to make sure if anybody broke through we would be there. I can't believe as a Senator I was thinking how to fight my way off the Senate floor. But I remember we got to an undisclosed location. A lot of Senators were in safe spots, a lot of House Members were in safe spots debating about what to do. I am so happy we came back late and continued the business of government, transfer of power. While all these Senators were dealing with big issues, whatever, Andy Kim took a broom, plastic bags, and began cleaning up under the Capitol dome--remarkable humility shown in a humble gesture about his love of country. Now, here we stand on the Senate floor at the earliest hours of the morning, closing in on 2 a.m. You asked me this question I didn't expect which is: Hey, Cory, this now seems to be a time where Democrats are finding themselves about what they are against; shouldn't we be talking about a vision of what we are for? I am very upset watching what is happening to Social Security, watching what is happening to insinuate fear amongst seniors who should be retiring with security and peace, cuts undermining thousands of people being laid off--all of that is worthy of us standing here and the things we are reading. But what I think Senator Kim is really pointing to is the fact that there are bold visions for whom we are going to be as a country. He is one of these big believers that we can be a nation that boasts about we are a country where somebody doesn't retire and lives on such a meager check that they are technically at the poverty line. ``Senator Booker, we have more wealth than nations all around the globe--stratospheric wealth in this country, GDP growth, and can't we design a system that doesn't have seniors stressed out and living--those that live off of their paychecks--living there?'' The other thing I know you know about--and I recently did a talk with a Republican friend of mine, Senator Young--we worked on a bill together because we both recognize we are in a grip with seniors--that generation, baby boomers, a generation ahead of me--I almost said us, but you are technically a millennial.

Mr. BOOKER. I am an Xer. But the generation ahead of me is so big that we are seeing this massive group of Americans, soon to be retiring, and lots of people recognize it, calling it the ``great retirement crisis,'' not because Social Security checks won't be there. You were asking me: Cory, what is the great vision for them to be there? But because just the reality that the Social Security checks themselves are so meager, and many other people don't have jobs where they have 401(k)s and the like. Senator Young--again, this is not a partisan speech. Later, I will be quoting from the Cato Institute, the Wall Street Journal, where there are lots of conservatives who point to this not being a normal time in America; this being a crisis moment in America, not just people on my side of the aisle but Republican Governors, Republican thought leaders--a lot of folks are saying there is a real crisis in our country being caused by the current President, who, in 71 days, most people can't say yes; most people say no to the question, Are you better off than you were 71 days ago? So I want to answer your question by saying this: Everyone should retire with a secure Social Security. I believe there are ways to secure the programs by asking the wealthiest people who pay the smallest percentage of their income into Social Security to pay a little bit more in Social Security taxes on their income, which is minuscule. As you said, there is a gravity of wealth that is being created in this country, which is, again, something I am not against in terms of just being successful. But this idea that we have a system that creates a fair retirement is one thing we can do. I think, also, one of these things we should be talking about right now is how do we make the Social Security system not frustrating for people who complained before Donald Trump laid off tens of thousands of people with Musk, who complained about wait times, and other things. There are ways we can improve Social Security services as well. So I think we can do things to secure Social Security in the long term with a simple fix, not by raising the retirement age for people who are struggling but by doing things by simply saying: Do you know what? Social Security taxes are already regressive because they cap out at a certain amount. Maybe skip some of the people in the middle, under $400,000 or $500,000 a year, and make people who are the wealthiest in the country pay a little bit more. That would be my vision. A very small amount would create a secure system. I think we can also do a lot to improve the Social Security services. Then what I did with Senator Young--this is what is special about this place when it happens. It is for people to reimagine what economic security could be about. I am now very quietly--I think I have told you about this. I have this great idea that I have been talking about for years called baby bonds, or that every child born in America--and this is not a new idea. We actually scraped it from people years and years ago on both sides of the aisle in here, who had this idea that why not in a capitalist society have every child be born with a savings account--excuse me--a growth account. The government seeds it with some money, and through their entire lives, people can contribute into that tax-free, and it can grow, so that by the time--not by retirement--but by the time they are 20, 25, 30, they have thousands, if not tens of thousands, of dollars to invest in things that create wealth, because, right now, lots of people are working paycheck to paycheck and don't have stock accounts or the kinds of things that could actually produce a lot more wealth. I am just throwing that out as one idea, Andy. I am going to pause because I know you have another question, and I am going to yield to a question while retaining the floor. But I just want to say there are so many bipartisan ideas with which to deal with wealth inequality. I mean, the child tax credit was, unfortunately, not made permanent. It cut child poverty in America in half. It worked for an entire year. I remember some of my colleagues, from Marco Rubio to Mitt Romney, talking about: Hey, we should be expanding the child tax credit. We should be having a bolder vision for America--for retirement security, for wealth creation, for economic security. But we are not talking about those bold ideas. We have a President who has come in, and one of the first things he has done in 71 days is insinuate fear and insecurity about Social Security by threatening it, by creating and telling lies about it, and by having somebody like Elon Musk calling it a Ponzi scheme. That is why we get fear. Then they take a hatchet to the actual Agency that undermines its ability to deliver service in a good way.

Mr. BOOKER. I will yield to a question while retaining the floor.

Mr. BOOKER. So, Andy, you have gotten me really excited--

Mr. BOOKER.--because I love that you are a millennial. I am X generation. I love the baby boomers, but they are quickly leaving Congress. This is the last baby boomer President you will ever have. I am confident of that. And new generations are coming forward to lead in America. It is time that we dream America anew. It really is. It is time that we revive and redeem the dream. I just am one of these people who thinks, like: OK, guys, we have some of the brightest minds on the planet Earth. Some of our Founding Fathers said we need a little revolution every once in a while, like we need new thoughts and new ideas and new visions that energize people, that take a lot of the old divisions in our country and erase them and remind people we have common cause and common purpose. I want to get people excited again about the American dream. I want to renew the dream, to redeem the dream. We can do that. I am so excited about it. And on financial security, it is absurd that we don't have the greatest plan to create wealth, not for the favored few simply--again, the top quartile in America has crushed it over the last 25 years. Under Obama alone, the stock market doubled. But most Americans don't own stocks. So people who are sitting on passive wealth were able to grow and grow and grow and grow, while working Americans saw their prices going up, housing becoming unaffordable, and the idea of the American dream under assault. It ticks me off that other countries are trying to out-America us. They are trying to take our secret sauce that we seem to be turning our back on: affordable higher education, apprenticeship programs. I mean, with some of our European competitors, a job just appears before you, and you can go right into an apprenticeship program where you can earn and learn and end up in a career that gives you not just success but that you thrive in. There is no idea that we can't conceive of as a country. This is an idea and a time that I just think that we need to start being bold again in our visions for collective prosperity, for everyone to thrive--not just the favorite few but the many. I am telling you that those ideas are out there, whether it is baby bonds or the child tax credit or investing in science and research. There are so many things. But you are--can I say this to you affectionately? You are a nerd as am I. We are two guys who love to read, who love American history. We are two guys in this body--go back a century. They never imagined that we would be here. OK? One of my favorite speeches of all time was when Daniel Webster got on Bunker Hill, and he delivered a speech--I am going to read the introduction to it--to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Revolutionary War battle at Bunker Hill, in which the outnumbered colonists inflicted such heavy losses on the mighty British forces attempting to invade. I love one of the quotes. I can't remember it exactly, but the general--the person who was leading the British attack--wrote in their diary. He wrote back to the King: We won the battle, but a few more victories like this and we are going to lose the continent. That is how great these people were, and this is what I want you to know: It is a new generation, right?

Mr. BOOKER. Those leaders are no longer around. I read this, and I get excited by the possibility for our generation and for the new leaders who are emerging in America. They have to. It is their obligation to not let the dream die and to redeem the dream. So here it is. I am just dying to read this to you. Here it is, Andy. I don't want to read too much of it to you. OK. Here we go: If in our case the representative system is ultimately to fail, this idea of a democratic government, popular governments must be pronounced impossible. He is saying: We have an obligation to make a more perfect Union. No combination of circumstances more favorable to this experiment can ever be expected. The last hopes of mankind, therefore, rest with us. Can we make this democratic experiment work? And it should be proclaimed that our example had become an argument for the experiment. The principle of free government adheres to this American soil. It is bedded in the soil. It is as movable as this Nation's mountains. And let the sacred obligations-- This is the part, Senator Kim. And let the sacred obligations which have devolved on this generation, and on us, sink deep into our hearts [the sacred obligations]. Those are daily dropping from among us who established our liberty and our government. The generation that established this Nation are now dying. The great trust now descends to our hands. Let us apply ourselves to which is presented to us as an appropriate object. We can win no laurels in our generation in a war for independence. Earlier and worthier hands gathered [all of those laurels]. Nor are there places for us by the sight of Solon and Alfred and other founders of our state. Our fathers have filled them. But there remains to us a great duty of defense and preservation, and there is open to us also that noble pursuit to which the spirit of the times strongly invites us. Our proper business is improvement. Let ours be the age of improvement. In a day of peace, let us advance the arts of peace and the works of peace. Let us develop the resources of our lands, call forth its powers, build up its institutions, promote all its greatness, and see whether we also, in our day and generation, may not perform something worthy to be remembered. Let us cultivate a true spirit of union and harmony. In pursuing the great objects which our condition points out to us, let us act under a settled conviction, and an habitual feeling, that these twenty-four states are one country. Let our conceptions be enlarged to the circle of our duties. Let us extend our ideas over the whole of the vast field in which we are called to act. Let our object be our country, our whole country. . . . And, by the blessings of God, may that country itself become a vast and splendid monument, not of oppression and terror but of wisdom, peace, and liberty upon which the world may gaze with admiration for ever! That is a bold vision--this bold vision that doesn't give up on America, that doesn't surrender to cynicism about America. That is who you are, Andy Kim, and that is what gets me excited. Right now, we are fighting against what I think are tyrannical forces. I am sorry. When a leader stands up not with humility like in George Washington's Farewell Address or like some of the great Founders in their inaugural addresses, but who stands up and says, ``Only I can solve these problems,'' but who doesn't use his speeches to heal and to comfort but to talk about the enemies he is going to pursue--and those enemies are not the adversaries who seek to destroy us but are the enemies who are other Americans--and to create an environment where our seniors, who should be retiring in security, are fearful that their Social Security or their Medicaid or their Medicare is going to be under threat, that is insidious to me. This is an un-normal time. This is why I am standing here. But you, my friend, my partner in the Senate--God, this partnership. I am so excited about the future. I am so excited about the promise. Let us fend off all attempts to cut Social Security and Social Security services. Let us fend off all attempts to cut Medicaid and Medicaid care and CHIP and all the other things that we rely on. But let us also not forget that our obligation is not to defend what it is but to have a vision for what can become. We now, when so many people are giving up on the American dream, on the idea of America, on which you said so wonderfully that my children will do better than me-- that basic bedrock that our children, generation after generation, will do better and better and better--it is time to redeem the dream and dream America anew with bold visions. It is not how we will just help people survive in retirement, but they are visions of how we can all thrive in this great Nation that has enough resource and enough abundance--abundance--to provide for everyone's hopes and dreams. (Mr. McCORMICK assumed the Chair.)

Mr. BOOKER

Mr. BOOKER. Collins, Murkowski, and McCain, I think, took a lot of courage. They were getting a lot of pressure from the White House. John McCain was viciously attacked afterwards. But his private conversations with Members and you, Senator Schumer--I know at the last lap around his track of life, he didn't want to be remembered as someone doing something--to use John McCain kind of language--boneheaded; to hurt a lot of innocent, fragile people and leave them without a plan. When his own Republican Governor--I read Republican Governors earlier who were saying, don't do this. I want to say something else to the Senator in response to his question. I watched you that night, and I just loved something you did. I never said this to you. People over here tried to start applauding and you stood up angry and told them not to because what John showed was something bigger than partisanship. He talked about it, one side trying to win; it is more ego sometimes than it is ideals. And you stood up and said, no, this is not that moment. We are watching a man take a position that was not easy. It didn't serve his politics but served his spirit. I don't know if my staff has the envelope of the article I want, specifically because there is a story in there--I don't have it now, I will read it later--about John McCain in the prison camps. I wasn't here when we had this moment. But when I got here weeks after this moment, Mr. Leader, all my colleagues on both sides of the aisle talked about a special conference in the Old Senate Chamber. I was not there, but the Democrats and Republicans--it actually changed our behavior in here. It didn't last. But I came here and people said, because of that, we were all going to partner up, and for State of the Union Addresses, you have a Republican partner and Democrat--we would go as couples, basically.

Mr. BOOKER. It was something about this man where the dignity that he had that we all treasured, in a moment like that, he began to elevate. I had my partner Senator here say to me when I got here: You are not a full Senator until you get ripped by John McCain's anger.

Mr. BOOKER. And I never got ripped by him. After my meeting, I mentioned earlier in his office, he started inviting me with him. My first codel was with him. He told me all the time: Booker, there are two types of Senators here. I don't mean to cast any aspersions on others, but there are people who represent their States, and there are statesmen. He kept challenging me to be a statesman, not a great Democratic Senator but to be a great American Senator. He would challenge me over and over and over again. I would go to his national security conferences out at his ranch. One of my favorite moments as a Senator--if I have my top 10 favorite moments as a Senator, this is one of them. The leader knows that I am a vegan, and when you go to one of his open barbecues, there is nothing vegan. I mean, they even saturated every vegetable in butter, and mayonnaise was everywhere. But I am not going to complain. I am just going to sit and enjoy conference conversations. So now I am in a golf cart, going home at the end of the night, and the young man who was shuttling me home goes to me: How was the food? Did you enjoy the dinner? I go: Well, actually, if I am going to be honest, I didn't eat. They go: You haven't had dinner? I go: No. I am a vegan. They go: Well, we are about to pass John McCain's home, where he lives, and I am sure it is late, and I am sure he is asleep, but maybe we can break in and see what is in his fridge. And I am like: Dude, I am from New Jersey. I love this. Breaking into John McCain's house, and I won't have to worry about getting arrested? I am all in. And so we went in, and as soon as we looked around in the kitchen, I looked through the kitchen, and John McCain was sitting there with another elderly, tough-looking man on the couch, engaging in some conversation. So I didn't get my joy of breaking into John McCain's house, but I walk in, and he is sitting there with a former Secretary, if I remember correctly, of the Navy. And they were like: Booker, skedaddle. We are going to have a meeting. So I am sitting there, eating peanut butter and, like, celery or whatever, and these two men are talking about government inefficiency. They say the place that we could be saving the most money--the former Secretary, if I remember correctly, of the Navy and one of the great men on national security. They started detailing the waste in the military. They both claimed that we could have much more capacity and greater military effectiveness for billions and billions and billions of dollars less. I will never forget. Again, this is me new to the Senate. I don't know foreign policy like I do 12 years later or the military like I do 12 years later, but I was listening to these two experienced men complaining about the gross waste that was undermining our overall effectiveness and efficiency. That is why, to this day, I am infuriated that, when people come in and say they want to cut budgets, the first thing they want to go for is not to have a real conversation--because the military hasn't passed an audit in years--about a lot of the baked- in corruption and misspending in the military, but they are going after programs that hospital after hospital, that healthcare provider after healthcare provider, that leader after leader, and that Governor after Governor says: Are you crazy? So this is one of the more preposterous moments. You and I both know, if John McCain were here right now, he would reject this whole thing because we were literally repeating the same thing we did in 2017, 8 years ago.

Mr. BOOKER. I will yield for a question while retaining the floor.

Mr. BOOKER. Resoundingly, yes. I am just laughing that every time DOGE puts up their supposed savings, they then try to take them down because, as soon as they are fact-checked, so many of them are not done. And I don't want to say all of them. I don't want to paint that broad a brush. I know about having Microsoft licenses, too many. Yes, there is waste. I wish we were doing this in a bipartisan way. Those cuts would be bigger and probably have a lot more staying power than what they are doing, which is ready, fire, aim, and then having to beg people to come back to work because they fired FAA people or nuclear regulators or what have you. But this is the bigger point that you are making that really is getting me: So you know this. I used to be an executive. There is nobody in this body--here is a bold, bold, braggadocious thing to say, but fact-check me, anybody. There is nobody in this body who was a Governor, a county executive, like Coons or a mayor who cut government as much as I did. I had to cut my government by 25 percent. Imagine that here at the Federal level. I had to do it because I couldn't print money. It was a national recession. I was left with a mess. I had to do it, but we found ways to do it cooperatively with the legislature and bringing in experts. But this is the point I want to make to you: One thing I couldn't cut were my healthcare costs. So I started asking people: What can I do? Do you know whom I found? I found a big business owner, with tens of thousands of employees, who said: I had the same problem, and do you know what I did? I went into my cafeteria where thousands of people eat--a big, big place--and I saw deep fryers and, like, Cinnabon-like products and all this unhealthy stuff, and I ripped it all out and had the union ready to go crazy on me, but then I brought in the best chef. I paid extra money to get the best kind of all healthy, nutritious whole foods. Then they loved it, and then they started asking me: Can we get food to take home for our kids? Because we stop at McDonald's and Burger King on the way home. Long story short, he said it began to bend their cost curve. What are we doing in the United States of America? What has Donald Trump--I just read all he is doing. He is cutting access to healthy lunch programs. He is cutting--they are threatening to cut the SNAP program. They are cutting the things that give our residents in America not the cheap, hyperprocessed, empty nutrition foods but the stuff that is healthy for our kids. There is so much hypocrisy based in this that even the private sector folks are saying: You are going to drive up costs for your country when you make people get their healthcare in emergency rooms. You are going to drive up costs for your country when you are going to force people to have to quit their jobs so they can come home and take care of their loved ones with dementia. This will drive up costs, ultimately, for our country and put more hardship on people, all while giving the most wealthy people who don't need it bigger tax cuts. It makes no sense, and that is the spirit of why John McCain voted against this effort in 2017. (Mr. CURTIS assumed the Chair.)

Mr. BOOKER. I appreciate your allowing me to yield to you to answer a question while retaining the floor. I am going to continue with a little bit more here before we change topics for the night. I want to point out how grateful I am for my friend Chris Murphy. The last time I stood on this floor for many hours was just in support, doing like my colleague is doing for me right now, after the Pulse shooting. We wanted a vote on commonsense gun safety--bipartisan- supported, commonsense gun safety. We didn't get it. Chris Murphy, who is right down there, held the floor for 15 hours. I paced around, walked the floor, helped to support things, stayed up with him all night. So it is profound to me, when I told my brother that I wanted to cause some good trouble and that I was going to rise, that he said: I am in. I am in. So there he is, helping me out, especially as we approach 11 o'clock at night and the fourth hour. I am just grateful for him. I am grateful for him. I want to go now to cuts that are being made to local and State health department funding. Again, from Republican and Democratic Governors, we have letters from people on both sides of the aisle who are saying that this is just wrong, and it makes no sense, but here we go. It is actually, really, what I would call a dangerous reversal. Trump's HHS recently announced the cancelation of almost $12 billion in Federal grants that State and local health departments have been using to track infectious diseases, health disparities, vaccinations, mental health, substance use and services. Because of that reversal, my State, for example, is going to lose $350 million in Federal funding for health programs due to these cuts. My Governor, Phil Murphy, said that these cuts would create an unfillable void in funding that will have disastrous ramifications for our most vulnerable neighbors. Last week, we learned that HHS planned to cut an additional 10,000 jobs. In total, since January, HHS has cut 20,000 of its employees. That is over a quarter of its workforce. These are people who inspect nursing homes to ensure that they are safe. They approve diagnostic and treatment services for children. They regulate health insurance to make sure that they are not discriminating against you based on your health conditions and health status. They protect you from infectious diseases. They conduct inspections to make sure that infant formula is safe. I want to tell you that Secretary Kennedy has committed to bringing radical transparency to the HHS. I would love radical transparency, but at the end of February, Secretary Kennedy announced that HHS is no longer required to undergo the public comment period--a practice that has taken place at the Agency since 1971. Another critical resource of health information for the American public is the CDC's ``Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.'' It has been published since 1952 and is often called the voice of the CDC. Unfortunately, on January 23, for the first time since its inception, the report was not published in a direct response to the Trump administration's freeze on public communications. In addition to pausing the critical publication, it also reported that the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System had halted operation. This PRAMS, which was developed in 1987, is designed to identify groups of women and infants at higher risk of health problems to monitor changes in health status, to measure the progress toward goals, and improve the health of mothers and infants. Over the last 38 years, the program has collected essential data on maternal behaviors and experiences before, during, and shortly after pregnancy. Maternal care providers rely on that data collected by PRAMS--the sole source of this type of information--to enhance prenatal and postnatal care. The United States is in the midst of a mortality crisis, which we mentioned before. We have the highest rate of maternal deaths of any high-income nation. As I learned when I was a mayor, data is power. You can't manage a problem unless you have measures on the problem. If you pull back things like that, again, you are reducing transparency, and you are cutting back on vital reports that people who are trying to meet this crisis rely on to inform their strategies. Again, the frustration is that we are the worst in maternal health outcomes for developed nations, but even in our country, African- American women are three times more likely to die from pregnancy- related causes than the majority. This is one of the countries where it is profoundly dangerous to have kids. Again, this is yet another thing that HHS is doing. It is leaving us more vulnerable, less informed, and less empowered to deal with the health challenges that we still deal with. Since the Trump administration made the disastrous decision for Agencies to pause external communications, we have been seeing significant delays in critical information from other key Agencies. There have been avoidable delays in critical data from the CDC so that States are starting to speak out, saying that they need to protect the health of their communities. As of March 20, when it comes to vaccines, what we are seeing in America--talk about getting less safe-- there were 378 confirmed cases of measles throughout the United States. As one of my doctor friends said, there are more children with measles right now than there are trans athletes in the NCAA. This is a real crisis. For the first time in a decade, a child who was not vaccinated for measles tragically died in that outbreak. And while measles is spreading across our Nation and we are having one of the worst flu seasons in the last decade, HHS has delayed the convening of critical advisory councils of the CDC and FDA. These advisory councils are responsible for determining the vaccine schedule--what vaccines must be covered by insurance--and the safety, effectiveness, and appropriate use of vaccines. They do essential and timely work to keep people safe, and disruptions to their work can be harmful to the health of American people. Let me go to the National Institutes of Health. It is the largest public funder of biomedical research in the world. It is facing devastating cuts. The NIH is one of the greatest successes in publicly funded scientific research in all of human history. The United States is one of the best places to do scientific research because it has had more capacity than any other country to fund and conduct research at the highest levels. Pauses, lapses, and elimination of NIH funding will drive researchers to do their research in other countries and undermine the efforts to cure diseases, to find solutions to conditions from obesity, to Alzheimer's, to cancers. One of the best taxpayer dollars we can invest is in NIH because it returns more than 5 taxpayer dollars back in the breakthroughs that they make. We have put the future of scientific research in the United States at grave threat with what the Trump administration is now doing. They have imposed cuts and a number of harmful orders on the NIH that have both stalled its research and confused its partners. Now, 99.4 percent of the FDA-approved drugs come from the NIH-funded research. Let me just say that again. NIH-funded research has led to 99.4 percent of all the FDA drugs that are out there. The NIH funding cuts will directly affect your access to future novel treatments that can improve the quality of life for your children or-- if you love your neighbor like so many religions call us to do--your neighbor's children as well. Here is an example of that. Hepatitis C is a liver disease caused by the virus HCV, and it is one of the most common types of viral hepatitis in the United States. It is estimated that 3 to 4 million Americans have hepatitis. In 2014, the first complete treatment for hepatitis C was approved by the FDA. The development of this revolutionary new treatment that has since been used to cure millions of people around the world was funded by--you know--NIH research. This is the type of lifesaving innovation we will lose out on if we defund the NIH as the Trump administration is currently doing. American enterprise and knowledge will be drained. We will fall behind. We already know there is fierce competition for the researchers by countries like China. They are aiming--in fact, they are upping their investments in scientific research, doing everything they can to keep scientific researchers in their country. I was just talking to an innovator out on the west coast who was telling me that they are starting to take passports away from their researchers. There is a fierce competition going on to keep the best minds here in this country or be drawn away to other places, from Europe to China. And we are stopping our funding? I have heard from academic institutions that are telling me that they are not even offering as many Ph.D. programs in some of these key areas of science because of the attacks that are happening on our universities, all while China is upping their investments in universities. I can't believe that they are trying to out-America us and we are trying to turn our backs on our most successful traditions. In one of his first actions, President Trump imposed a communications freeze on all U.S. health Agencies, effectively silencing some of our Nation's top researchers, scientists, and public health experts. This action stalled 16,000 grant applications for around $1.5 billion in NIH funding. The NIH has since begun to incrementally send notices to the Office of the Federal Register to resume reviews. The combination of these actions has irresponsibly stalled our Nation's primary source of lifesaving biomedical research. It is our understanding that full communications have not been resumed and that it continues to impede critical research at the NIH. As I have been told time and time again by experts in this area, just to pause funding could set research back years because, when you are conducting research, whether it is in a test tube, a biomedical researcher can't pause; or whether it is a human body, in biomedical research, you can't pause. Across the Nation, brilliant researchers have been finding out daily the Trump administration has canceled their research--research on critical issues like maternal health, long COVID, diabetes, new pharmaceutical drugs, cancer, and so much more. The NIH has decided to cancel its 2025 summer internship program. On average, 1,100 interns participate in this program each year, helping develop the next generation of scientists and researchers. A small number of summer interns had already accepted their offer to join the NIH in 2025. The decision follows the Trump administration's Federal hiring freeze. Again, in my faith, as I said, you train a child in the way he shall go, and he will not depart from it. These are our young people. These are the future scientists who now aren't getting the experience of a lifetime. I have met people in this institution who first came here as college summer interns. The NIH has decided not only to cancel those internships but to shut the door to many kids who had already made their summer plans. Many people here know what it is like to have a summer plan, have a summer internship, and not apply for other ones. It is another act of just meanness and cruelty. Let this class come in and then say: OK. I am going to cut the program next year. But the way they are doing things is mean and cruel and is having an impact on people's lives. Congressionally directed medical research programs--I have worked across the aisle with my colleagues. I have friends in here that have worked with me on specific diseases in a bipartisan way. I am so proud of some of that work. Well, we have long appropriated about $1.5 billion a year in Federal funds for medical research, nearly half of which typically goes to cancer. It is something that we have found common ground on in my 12 years here in significant stretches. The medical research program was created and sustained by Congress and competitively awards funds to hundreds of projects each year at both the Defense Department labs and outside research institutions, including at many American universities, to study everything, again, from cancer, to battlefield wounds, to suicide prevention. In 2024, $130 million was specifically appropriated in a bipartisan way in this body--incredibly good Senators of good conscience coming together and saying: We should do more in these areas. They approved $130 million for research in breast, kidney, lung, melanoma, ovarian, pancreatic, prostate, and a handful of very rare cancers. Why? Because there are people of good conscience here. We meet folks who come to this--not lobbyists. They come and they tell us about their stories of rare cancers. There are people on both sides of the aisle who have marched for prostate awareness, for breast cancer awareness. There is goodness and decency here. But in 2024, this funding--it is a bill that passed in March. It was now slashed--slashed--by 57 percent. And I told you earlier, that data--one of the best taxpayer dollars we can spend is in medical research. We have all heard this in this body when the NIH has come through and has shown that $1 invested and you get more than $5 back. Any Wall Street executive that would get five times their money back from an investment--who is this helping? And do we think about the people? I thank God I don't have any family members that are going about their day, go to the doctor, and come back with cancer. I know lots of people, though. I know their stories, when they are diagnosed with a cancer and they are told there is no cure. I have seen people go through what you go through with that. So how could a country that has led humanity for more than a generation or two suddenly have a President come along and say: I am going to slash all of these things. Oh, by the way, I am going to give billionaires a big tax cut. So what do we say when these folks come to our offices? Some of the people with rare diseases came to my office a couple weeks ago. And the amount of their funding is so small. And maybe--maybe--if it was to solve our budget deficit. If we are going to do this as a country, we have to come together in a bipartisan way. The debt is--I am one of those Senators who believe it is a real crisis. But we are not solving the deficit in what they are proposing here. They are cutting and cutting and cutting things that make no sense to cut, and they are doing it for tax breaks which disproportionately go to the wealthiest and to rack up even more debt. I want to read this article. My staff told me that we have lots of sections to go through, and it has been 4 hours, 11 minutes. But this is one that hurts me because I have met so many people who fall into this category. I want to read an article that deals with an issue called medical debt and the ongoing impact it has on people as part of their lives. The Affordable Care Act--when we did that, we lowered the costs and implemented protections for Americans, requiring insurers to cover preexisting conditions; expanding Medicaid, which we have talked a lot about tonight; implementing caps on out-of-pocket costs for Americans. All of these helped in alleviating medical bankruptcy for some. Medical bankruptcies in America have gone down but not all. We still live in a country where one of the top reasons for bankruptcy is medical debt. One of my staffers kind of shook me with the reality she was dealing with, which is she has stratospheric medical debt. So here is an article from Healthcare Insights. It is not a partisan rag; it is a scientific journal. ``How Medical Debt Is Crushing 100 Million Americans.'' It is from October of last year. This author--I just want to give a little more understanding of what kind of article this is--is John August. He is the Scheinman Institute's director of healthcare. George Curlee is one of 52 million people or 1/3 of Americans in the workforce who earn $15/hour or less. I had the opportunity to interview George recently about his experience with medical debt and how it has impacted his life. Having suffered an industrial accident, and even though his employer was responsible for his injuries and he carried health insurance, he still accumulated $20,000 in medical debt. George grew up near Dallas, and spent his life working hard as a full-time warehouse and retail worker. At one point in his life, he found a job he enjoyed as a fork lift driver in a factory that produced ceramic tile. In time he switched jobs, working on the production line. One fateful day a piece of metal struck him in the foot. He had to have surgery and underwent the amputation of one of his toes. He had to take a month off of work, and when he returned he went back to driving the forklift truck. He found that due to his accident and surgery, he could not operate the forklift to his satisfaction. He became frustrated with not being able to operate the forklift, grew depressed, and left the job. ``It took me three months to get back on my feet after the toe amputation. There was nursing care for two months to help me walk again. This life saving medical procedure left me with over $20,000 in debt, even with insurance! I avoided doing [necessary] follow up with doctors due to not being able to afford additional needed care. There were hard times on top of this. I suffered a great deal of depression due to losing my job during my leave of absence. This medical debt is currently following me. There was a point of time that I was rebuilding my credit. Before the surgery, I built it up by over 120 points. With this medical debt on my credit report, my credit score dropped 60 points. The big drop in score has not allowed me to get my own place. I'm not able to continue to pursue my dream of being a voice actor due to not having proper financial footing to get back to school. I can't travel and do things I would like to do. I am working, but things are very financially tight. The medicine I need is being paid out of pocket. After paying my bills, I am in the negative. There is no money left over to pay my medical debt. I can't save money right now, not even towards retirement. To have this medical debt on my credit score means not being able to pursue a better life.'' He went on short-term disability for a while, but then found a part time job he holds now at Walgreen's. He had to return to work to pay for the house he and his brothers had purchased. Through this period, George had to take payday loans. Between those loans and his weekly wages, he attempted to pay back the money he owed the hospitals. He learned that because of his medical debt, his credit rating was destroyed by credit agencies who learned that he had fallen behind on his payments to the hospitals. According to the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau-- Which I guess barely exists now-- 100 million Americans owe $220 billion in medical debt. So ``100 million Americans owe $220 billion medical debt.'' George told me that the medical debt has had several devastating impacts on his life: Inability to borrow money for a mortgage or a car. Employees ask for credit reports, and reports that show an applicant for a position are often rejected due to a poor credit report. This has impacted his ability to find a better job than his part-time job at $15/hour with no benefits working at Walgreen's where he lives in Garland, TX. Incredible stress that further impacts his health conditions including diabetes. (An additional note: Garland, TX, where George lives, is near Dallas. Tarrant County, which includes Garland and Dallas, is a locality with high medical debt and high profit for healthcare systems in the region.) Though George makes very low wages, medical debt is a broadly shared experience by Americans across income groups. Clearly, low-wage workers suffer a worse burden, but the problem is pervasive and a broad feature of American life. Some background. In the oft-sited study, as many as 66.5% of people who file for bankruptcy blame medical bills as a primary cause. I am going to repeat that in the article: 66.5 percent of Americans ``who file for bankruptcy blame medical bills as their primary cause.'' Two-thirds of Americans who are filing bankruptcy point to medical bills as the cause. As many as 550,000 people file for bankruptcy every year for this reason. More than half a million Americans, year after year after year after year after year after year, for no fault of their own--because of a metal bar shoved up through his toe, because of a diagnosis of cancer, because of diabetes, because of things outside of their control--they rack up medical debt that, as this man, can erode their well-being. This data has been known [about how many Americans are affected] and has continued with the passage of the Affordable Care Act. Lesser known is the amount of medical debt that Americans carry. What are the causes of the burden on so many? While more Americans have health insurance today than ever before, coverage has many gaps. High deductibles and narrow networks which prevent patients from seeking health providers of their choice are common causes of accumulation of high cost bills. When patients understandably seek care from a preferred provider, too often that care is not covered. Most healthcare plans only provide 80% of payment for covered cost. 20%-- Twenty percent-- patient responsibility of high medical bills can leave people unable to pay their bills. Approximately 14 million people in America (6% of adults) in the U.S. owe over a $1,000 in medical debt and about 3 million people (1% of adults) owe medical debt of more than $10,000. Additionally, this government report identifies many of the components of medical debt which are completely out of control of the patient. In most cases these practices are unlawful, but hospitals use these tactics frequently to press patients to pay, including: Double billing: Companies cannot attempt to collect on medical bills that have already been paid by the consumer, insurance, or a government program such as Medicare or Medicaid. This practice can coerce consumers into paying twice for the same service. Exceeding legal limits: Companies must attempt to collect amounts that surpass federal or state caps, such as those set by the federal No Surprises Act or state laws on ``reasonable'' rates. These violations can saddle consumers with unjustly high medical debts, burdening their finances. Falsified or fake charges: Debt collectors must not collect on bills that include ``up coded'' or exaggerated services, or charges for service the consumer did not receive. Collecting unsubstantiated medical [debts]: Debt collectors must not attempt to collect medical debts. These are all awful practices that go on. Here is Paul Sugar's story, compelling and tragic. Paul spent much of his life, starting as a child, learning about jewelry, living in a small town near Albuquerque, NM. At an early age, he earned enough money selling silver and turquoise necklaces to be able to buy a motorcycle. As he became an adult, he developed a successful business in the mining and selling of silver and turquoise used in making jewelry. He also worked at a GE engine plant, but was laid off during the time of industrial downsizing. He also [went] to work for Quest, installing communications infrastructure, but was laid off from that job when Quest was acquired by US West. So, he returned to his business. On January 9, 2019, he was terribly injured in a fire in his home. He is still recovering physically and economically. After losing 66 percent of his skin and getting care at a specialty trauma unit in another part of the country, he ended up owing over $82,000 in medical bills. The medical debt on his credit report means he has not been able to get loans to expand his business and earn more. After the fire, his medical bills [totaled] $550,000. Insurance covered most of it, but it was still more than he could pay. He made payment plans with all of his various bills, but when his credit card number changed, some of the automatic payments he had arranged for did not go through, and the bills ended up in collection before he even knew he was behind. Prior to the fire, he had always had a stellar credit rating, but since this medical debt, it has gone down. In his business, it is important to be able to take out short-term loans to resupply the company, but now he can't do that at reasonable terms and rates. He spent his retirement savings account trying to pay back all his medical bills-- His retirement savings-- but it wasn't enough. Now, he worries about his future. How will he retire? Will he have enough for his daughter's college education? Can he move homes if he needs to? At one point, he needed to replace his car because he and his wife had to travel in 18 hours round trips every couple of weeks to receive prescriptions for pain medication. He was denied the credit to do so. Our Health Care Professionals are on the Frontlines of Impact of Medical Debt. Doctors and other healthcare professionals experience firsthand when patients are denied care due to medical debt. This article describes how healthcare systems deny patients with medical debt. Dr. Matt Hoffman, who is a leader in the successful effort to form a union with Doctors Council in 2023 [talked about this problem.] [They] instructed staff to stop providing care to patients more than $4,500 in overdue bills, going beyond the more common practice of turning such debts over to collection agencies. He and his follow doctors protested their health system's decision to deny the patients access to care due to medical debt. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison banned the denial of care for patients . . . [with] medical debt. I mean these practices sound like they are Byzantine. They sound like--they don't sound like America or at least who we should be. There are a lot of New Jerseyans who are dealing with medical debt. There are a lot of New Jerseyans who are being impacted by these programs that the President has already rolled back. I am standing today because of this crisis in our country, and one of the strategies that Donald Trump and ]his team talked about is to flood the zone--flood the zone, flood the zone. So sometimes the press doesn't even cover the cutting of some of these programs, some of these benefits that help people who are struggling with medical debt or struggling to make ends meet, to help them access healthcare. It is a level of distraction and cruelty. Again, why? Why are they cutting this? They are saying they are trying to make government more efficient or more effective. Well, it is not effective for these folks. What are the savings going to go to? Is it going to go to expanding medical research, expanding those things that, when the taxpayers invest money, they get a return? No. They are cutting medical research. They are cutting the things that empower children to grow up and have healthy, productive lives. And again, what they are aiming to do with it--what they are aiming to do with it--is to provide massive, massive tax cuts. I am coming to the end of this section, but there are more voices that I want to include. I want to read a few, and then I think I am going to get a question from my colleague. So a few more pages, if I may, before we begin to dialogue--or at least I will receive a question, I imagine. I want to elevate some of these voices. This is a person writing to me in February 28: Dear Senator Booker, I am writing to you as a concerned citizen, most importantly as a proud aunt of a Ph.D. in neuroscience, dedicating her life to research that could lead to lifesaving treatments. As a minority in science, she has worked incredibly hard to break barriers in a field that has not always welcomed people like her. Watching the current political attacks on research funding is not just heartbreaking; it is dangerous for our country's future. Science is not political. It serves all people, regardless of race, background, or party affiliation. Yes, funding cuts to Agencies like NIH and the National Science Foundation threaten to halt critical research, slowing the development of treatment for diseases that impact millions. These cuts will push out brilliant young scientists, many of whom have already had to fight to get where they are to do the research they are doing. This is not just about my niece or scientists in general. It is about every American. Disease does not choose a political party. Cancer, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and countless others affect Republicans and Democrats alike. Without strong investment in research, we are all at risk of losing the chance for better treatments, new cures, and improved healthcare. Beyond health, defunding science will hurt our economy. Scientific research drives innovation, creates jobs, and ensures that the U.S. remains a global leader. A country that does not invest in science is a country that falls behind. I urge you to continue standing with the scientific community, supporting young researchers from all backgrounds, and fighting to protect and expand research funding. This is one of the most critical investments we can make for health, for economic growth, and for the future of every American. Thank you for your time, leadership, and dedication for building a stronger, smarter, and healthier Nation. A couple of New Jersey sources--this is a letter from someone in Somerset, NJ: At my university, I am extremely concerned that we are not as large an institution as some of the others and do not get as much State aid. We rely on these funds for more than running facilities. If this goes into effect, it will ultimately lead to the loss of jobs, research, opportunities for students, and will stunt our growth as we embark on a journey to become an R1 institution. I am not sure we can recover from this anytime soon. Another person on these cuts to the NIH: I am a postdoctoral researcher performing basic science research on bacterial communication. In short, I am seeking to understand bacterial chemical communication to find new pathways for therapeutic development. Antibiotic resistance is already killing thousands of Americans each year. We need new treatments provided by indirect costs to find these cures. Indirect costs, actually, directly funded my day-to-day work, providing funds for building maintenance staff, university shared resources, such as electron microscopes, and common laboratory supplies, such as liquid nitrogen. Without any of these resources, my job and those of other researchers seeking new cures would be impossible. Thus, eliminating or reducing these funds will have negative repercussions on the health and well-being of the American people for generations to come. That is my constituent from Plainsboro, NJ. Relating to Federal grant fund freezes, another New Jerseyan writes: I am a researcher at the University of New Jersey where I study ways to combat cancer and promote infant health, critical research that ensures generations grow into healthy adults. My aspirations align with yours, fostering a strong, healthy, and educated population. For this reason, I urge you, Cory Booker, to take immediate action to restore normal federal grant operations so that my colleagues and I can continue making paradigm-shifting, state-of-the-art discoveries with the potential to save millions of lives. This university is dependent upon federal grants, a testament to the world-class quality of our research and its leadership in the biomedical field. These grants enable groundbreaking advancements that position the United States at the forefront of scientific information. I had planned to apply for a federal grant in 2025 to further my research, but with the current uncertainty, I am deeply concerned about my application's future. Here is another scientist: My 5-year NIH grant is in its second year; and although my first-year budget ended and I submitted all the required documents, my second-year funding was cut. We need the funding to be able to continue our critical research. Here is another patient story: At age 17, a large black spot blocking his vision suddenly appeared in my patient's right eye. Over the next couple of months, multiple trips to increasingly specialized doctors led to a clinical diagnosis of Von Hippel-Lindau disease, the diagnosis received by phone on his 18th birthday. This is a genetic disease in which the damaged VHL tumor-suppressor gene fails to stop tumors from growing. Patients experience randomly occurring tumors in up to 10 organs, and the only available treatment was surgery to try to remove the tumors. The patient is one of about 10 percent of patients who are de novo, the result of random genetic mutation. In this patient's case, scans had revealed not only a large tumor on the optic nerve of his right eye but also a huge tumor encompassing one of his adrenal glands that, in retrospect, had been causing him headaches, inability to concentrate, and anxiety due to consistently elevated adrenal levels. While MRI scans also relayed tumors in his spine, kidney, and pancreas, this tumor and entire adrenal gland needed to be removed. After months of injections in his eye interspersed with laser treatment, he lost the vision in his right eye. The time needed for medical care required him to give up his team sport, losing both his support group and his chance to compete in the Division I level, but he continued with his final exams, graduation, and plans to study engineering at the university. With continued regular monitoring, he was able to attend university, but the trauma of his diagnosis and the processing of the impact of what it might mean for his life, coupled with the stress of engineering studies, brought on significant mental health challenges. He did go on to graduate, traveling to the NIH for his regular surveillance, supported by various specialists. In 2022, a kidney tumor had grown large enough that he needed surgery again. The kidney is a sensitive organ and will normally have full nephrectomy of the affected kidney. Doctors were treating him, and now at age 24, his tumor was removed in a successful kidney-sparing robotic operation, yet tumors on his spine continue to grow. This experience with my patient and many others encapsulates that the miracle of medical research funding has such a powerful impact on people's lives. We were able to get seriously miraculous things done; but without funding for these diseases, we may never have had a chance to test the ideas and develop them in a way that led to a drug that ultimately helped this patient with these tumors. This is a success story, but will we have more? Will we have others? The drug we've developed is expensive. Current recommendations are to take it daily. Nothing is known about its long-term side effects. More research isn't done. It's not known whether patients can take breaks from the drug. Stopping at some point might mean tumors would resume. One of the congressionally directed medical research program grants recommended for FY25 funding is going to look precisely at many of these questions. Two others will examine other aspects of critical treatment. These are life-or-death issues for the patients, and yet this funding now is threatened, yet this research now is threatened. Please continue to fully fund the congressionally directed medical program. I am going to read a few more and then pause, just in case my colleague wants to ask a question. But this is Kerry Muller from Texas: My family has benefited from congressionally directed medical research programs because my 13-year-old daughters have neurofibromatosis, a rare genetic disease which causes uncontrolled tumor growth. My daughter Kaitlyn was diagnosed with a brain tumor 2 years ago, and thanks to the drug whose research was seeded with a congressionally directed medical research program, her brain tumor has decreased to the point that it is now undetectable on an MRI. Without this drug, she would have had to have tried other chemotherapy treatments that would have been more invasive, in addition to brain surgery to bypass the blockage the tumor would have caused. This is Samantha Pearson from Las Vegas: For just over 4 years, I have been at a clinical trial at UCLA. The meds were just recently FDA-approved. While the side effects have made me question agreeing to the trial, being told my tumors have drastically shrunk made it all worthwhile. My pain has decreased. My plexiform neurofibroma is 90 percent smaller, and I am so happy that I get to be a part of this clinical trial made possible by NFRP because of my participation in the drug trial. There is story after story here of people: Camille Oldenburg; Jane Dmochowski; Lola Neudecker; Professor Alexander Rabchevsky; Kyle Reitz; Karissa Haberkamp from Illinois; Samuel Kirton; Dr. Stephanie Buxhoeveden; Katharina Hopp; Jerrod Kerr; Dr. Terry Watnick; Scott Howe, Marine Corps retired; Van Stewart, United States Navy; Reid Novotny, colonel, Air National Guard; Alex and Lesley; Chip and Kristin; Gregg and Molly from Denver. William Tuttle, United States Navy: After my son's birth and diagnosis, I was diagnosed with tuberculosis sclerosis complex at the age of 43, just 3 months after I retired from a 23-year naval career. The complexity of this disease means that it remains to be seen whether my young son will be able to live the typical life that I have been fortunate to live. Because of research conducted through the TSCRP, my son has effective treatment options available to him that were not available even just a decade ago. But there is still so much to learn. Again, another person benefiting from our research, benefiting from the funding that is now being threatened and cut. Beth Tinlin from Nevada; Shelly Meitzler; Ron Heffron; David and Brooke Carpenter, military family; Major David Long, U.S. Air Force; Debora Moritz; Fran Hillier. I just want to say that the Declaration of Independence clearly states: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. How can you have life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness without health? Health is at the core of life. Health is at the core of true liberty. Health is at the core of the pursuit of happiness. The right to health is fundamental for overall well-being and for the realization of other human rights. In his annual State of the Union Address to Congress on January 6, 1941, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt underscored the importance and shared commitment to four freedoms. Many of you know them. The first freedom is freedom of speech and expression; the second is the freedom of every person to worship their own way; third is the freedom from want, which means every person deserves peace and health, among other things, he said. The fourth freedom is a freedom from fear, which in our country of great wealth, no one should fear their healthcare going away. We have known from our country's beginnings and throughout that we must do all we can to provide for our people, and we have tried to do that over the years from the Social Security Act of 1965, which created Medicaid and Medicare, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, HIPAA, the Patient Protection Affordable Care Act of 2010--the ACA. We should be adding to these protections and benefits trying to get more people health coverage. We should be caring for each other. We should be loving each other. We should be fighting for the justice of each other. We should be hearing the cries of parents worried for their children. We should be hearing the agony of a partner whose spouse has Alzheimer's. We should be standing up for these folks. This is why we fight. This is why I stand.

Mr. BOOKER. Yes, I will yield for a question while retaining the floor.

Mr. BOOKER. First of all, thank you for the question. But I just want to reiterate the friendship I have with Chris Murphy and his willingness to spend the night with me here on the floor as we go hour after hour after hour. I just want to say this again, and I am going to say it a few times in this long speech that will go on for as long as I am physically able. Chris, the last time we spent 15 hours on this floor together was a health issue. It was yet another stunning mass shooting, this time at the Pulse nightclub. You and I talked a lot before we got on this floor, and I think the agony that you and I were feeling was, how can this be the strongest Nation in the world, organized government? If you read our founding documents, if you read our Founding Fathers, one of the first things they organized this government for--you know, it is good to carry around the Constitution. It is so important to understand what the preamble to the Constitution says we are about. We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. Which each one of us, each one of us in this body, went down there and swore an oath to uphold. Those are the first words of this, Chris. And, God, I remember your agony. Folks, I want you to know, when I came to this body, my staff was talking about the maiden speech, the maiden speech. Please don't go back and look at my maiden speech--not great. But the maiden speech my staff wanted me to watch was yours, and it was gut-wrenching about Newtown, gut-wrenching that the strongest Nation on planet Earth should now be this Nation where we tell our children in this implicit lesson--not explicit but implicit lesson-- that we are going to teach you how to hide, we are going to run active shooter drills because we can't protect you. My mom lives in Vegas--that Vegas shooting. The shooting at a synagogue in Pittsburgh. So here we were in yet another of these maddening realities in our country that the leading cause of death for our children is shooting. In our conversations leading up to it, I still remember you and I saying: We need to come to this floor. You said: I am going to stand and do something different. And we--again, just like tonight--we had no end to that. We were 9 years younger, my friend, and we said we were going to stand down here and try to get this body to do something different, try to get this body to recognize the gravity of what was going on in the strongest Nation on Earth that was having child after child after child, American after American dying of gun violence. And the response we were getting from this body--the world's most deliberative body--was nothing is going to change. We can't do anything. I mean, I am giving you respect years later. You were part of the first gun legislation to pass out of this body in 30-something years. And now I just found out that the Community Violence Intervention money that you allowed me to fight so hard to get in that bill is being clawed back by Donald Trump--our bipartisan bill, our bipartisan- approved finances, money, and I think the taking away of our power in this body--from the bill that you were one of the main architects of with Republican colleagues, God bless them, people like Cornyn and others. I want to take people back to what the insider conversations--and you were generous. I want to remind you, teasingly, on the floor, you never asked me if you could publish my text messages, but you put them in your book.

Mr. BOOKER. It is a great book. I actually learned--I read my colleague's book, and I learned a lot of data about gun violence from your book. We were talking about this belief that these words--this belief in our country that these words, why this government was formed is so important. America, this is who we are, these imperfect geniuses. We formed this: We the people, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty. You stood right down there for 15 hours. I paced this room pledging to you I wouldn't go to the bathroom. I wouldn't sit down. And I was hurting after 15 hours, but you were steadfast until we finally got Mitch McConnell to give us something. It was one or two votes. It was two votes. Both of them failed; we didn't get 60. At least what we forced this institution to do was to confront the horrendous horrors of that nightclub shooting. So you ask me now--as you and I and my dear brother whom I have known since he was coming out of college, three of us on this floor at a new day, it is past midnight, a new month, it is past midnight as we sit here--why? Because of your question. I can't stand anymore to live in a country where it seems that these convulsions come that threaten our most vulnerable over and over again. I can't stand it. I have to stand up and speak up. We have to do something different yet again. You and I talked about this last week. America, we are not doing a good job right now. We read the section about medical debt. Tens of millions of Americans are saddled with medical debt. Sixty-six percent of the people that declare bankruptcy is because they can't afford their medical bills because something that happened to them could happen to us and our families. My mother, my brother, and I had a lot of challenges, a lot of problems, but we weren't saddled with a rare disease. We didn't have tumors springing up all over our bodies. I don't know what that would have done to my family.

Mr. BOOKER. Yes.

Mr. BOOKER. Yes.

Mr. BOOKER. Yes.

Mr. BOOKER. In answering this question--again, I continue to yield the question to you while retaining the floor. I want to just compound this for people. I know these numbers--$880 billion, 100 million Americans affected that would be affected directly by Medicaid cuts or the people that work in the hospitals will be affected by Medicaid cuts or nursing homes affected by Medicaid cuts--these are big, big numbers. But people, these are human beings. I was in a community that had a horrible lead poisoning problem for their kids, that had horrible toxic sites. And children born around toxic Superfund sites, as you know they are called, have higher rates of autism, higher rates of birth defects. Even coming up as a city council person, I saw that the environmental injustices surrounding my community were causing parents to have to deal with medical complications amongst their children at alarming rates and needed help, and Medicaid was the program--no fault of their own, environmental injustice. Here is the double insult of the Trump administration. One is they gutted the Environmental Justice section at the DOJ. They are not investigating corporate polluters. They are not investigating the injustices environmentally that big, powerful, wealthy people do that often cause people--we all saw ``Erin Brockovich''--that cause people to get seriously hurt. And then the second part of that insult is, we are not only not going to hold people accountable and let them get away with that, the polluters, the folks causing the source of the disease, we are now not going to get healthcare to the families who often live in fragile communities that have these resources. These are the people, when you sit with them in your offices, as you and I have and the other Senator from New Jersey on the floor tonight has--as you sit with them and they tell you their stories and you see that this is a lifeline, this Medicaid Program--and you are so good by telling people--I saw this during the Affordable Care Act. Just the name alone, people were like, I don't have ObamaCare. Yes, you have the ACA, and let me explain it to you. It is under many, many different names, including in my State that people don't know this is a Medicaid- funded program. So they don't know this is a sort of Damocles of their family's well-being. But this is the larger issue, Senator Murphy, is these are real people in every county, in every State. It is why their representatives--it is why I read statements demanding there not to be cuts by the organizations that are bipartisan. I read the League of Cities--the largest mayoral association--Republican Governors, and others are all saying do not cut this program. They are not even saying, ``Don't do $880 million, just do $400 million.'' They are saying, ``Do not cut this program.'' Many are saying we need to find ways to expand the program because there are still gaps that people are falling into. And it doesn't make economic sense because if you get regular care, if your chronic disease is treated, it ultimately could be cheaper to the taxpayer as opposed to people ending up in hospitals. But those hospitals now, because of what is being threatened in this bill, rural hospitals and tier I trauma hospitals, are all being threatened in their care. So tonight, it is not normal. I ask everybody to understand this is not a normal moment in America. This is a crossroads moment in America. It is one of those times where the values that we talk about in the Constitution are at stake. What is going to define us, our commitments to ideals of justice, fairness, of being there for each other.