Shelley Capito

Mrs. CAPITO

Mrs. CAPITO. Madam President, I rise as chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee. I rise today in support of the nomination of David Fotouhi to be the Deputy Administrator of Environmental Protection Agency. Behind Administrator Lee Zeldin--who I believe is doing an excellent job--Mr. Fotouhi's position is of the utmost importance to the Agency, and his perspective is essential in returning the Agency to its core mission in support of President Trump's administration's agenda. Mr. Fotouhi has spent the previous years of his career representing clients on matters relating to all types of environmental law. And before that, he previously served as the acting general counsel and principal deputy general counsel at EPA, so he has tons of experience. Mr. Fotouhi has been recognized by multiple national law publications for his work in environmental and energy law and as a leader on those issues. Mr. Fotouhi's previous experience at the EPA provides him with a wealth of perspective on the Agency's critical role of protecting our environment, our land, and our water and our air. While doing so within the bounds of the legal authority that Congress has established, EPA Deputy Administrator is generally tasked with overseeing the day-to-day operations of the Agency. In this role, Mr. Fotouhi will coordinate the work of EPA's important air, water, and chemical offices, in addition to the EPA's regional offices--which touches all of us--the research enforcement and general counsel office teams. Effectively integrating the Agency's work will be at the top of Mr. Fotouhi's list of responsibility. Facilitating economic growth while protecting public health and the environment requires the Agency to establish consistent and legally defensible regulations, fairly and clearly enforces those rules, and communicate with the States, communities, and entities that are impacted by those regulations. Throughout the confirmation process, both in meetings with me and in front of our committee in his testimony before the EPW Committee, Mr. Fotouhi displayed incredible knowledge and understanding of the tasks before him and pledged to uphold the principles of cooperative federalism. His vast experience has positioned him well for service at the EPA, and his presence will move forward the initiatives that are important to the success of our country. The fact of the matter is that Mr. Fotouhi is well-qualified and equipped to fulfill this role. I have confidence he will refocus the Agency back to fulfilling its core mission and away from pushing extreme regulations that threaten the reliability of our electric grid and our American competitiveness. Too often, we have nominees that have a lot of experience regulating but no experience advising entities on complying with regulations. This is an important perspective for the Agency to have and one that Mr. Fotouhi brings to the table. I encourage my colleagues to join me and my fellow EPW Committee members in supporting this nomination so we can get to work together on efforts that improve the lives of Americans across the country and to protect--I will say that again--to protect our environment. I yield the floor.

Mrs. CAPITO

Mrs. CAPITO. Madam President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mrs. CAPITO

Mrs. CAPITO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the following interns on the Committee on Agriculture be granted floor privileges through June 27, 2025: Riley Swifford, Jaiden Stansberry, Caroline Brickey, Flossie Glinski, Caleb Parker.

Mrs. CAPITO

Mrs. CAPITO. Mr. President, I rise to discuss my support for H.J. Res. 61, a joint resolution of disapproval under the Congressional Review Act to repeal the Environmental Protection Agency's misguided National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants, NESHAP, for Rubber Tire Manufacturing. On May 6, 2025, I voted in favor of this resolution of disapproval. I did so because this rule is fundamentally flawed and does not reflect the intent of section 112 of the Clean Air Act. For example, the EPA's own risk review for the previous rubber tire NESHAP found that this new rule was unnecessary to protect public health and the environment, and the EPA was unable to quantify any public health benefits from this rule. In fact, the EPA was only able to quantify public health disbenefits from the rule. This rule, like many other NESHAPs promulgated under the previous administration, was done to address the DC Circuit's decision in Louisiana Environmental Action Network v. EPA. Many of these other NESHAPs were also found to be unnecessary during the EPA's risk review. In analyzing the impacts of these other rules, the EPA was unable to quantify any associated public health benefits and concluded they could shut down facilities or impose public health disbenefits on Americans. These rules, while regulating different source categories, were promulgated under the same legal authority. This application of section 112 of the Clean Air Act runs contrary to congressional intent. Section 112 of the Clean Air Act was enacted to protect public health and the environment. It was not enacted to promulgate costly, unnecessary regulations that do not protect public health and the environment or to write rules that have no public health benefits. The EPA has announced it will reconsider the integrated iron and steel NESHAP, the coke ovens NESHAP, the lime manufacturing NESHAP, and many other NESHAPs promulgated under the same legal authority. I applaud EPA Administrator Zeldin for his efforts to fix these flawed rules that are inconsistent with the law, just like the NESHAP for rubber tire manufacturing. I am proud to have supported H.J. Res. 61.

Mrs. CAPITO

Mrs. CAPITO. Mr. President, as chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, I rise in support of my resolution to block the Biden EPA's rule approving California's Clean Air Act waiver for its Advanced Clean Cars II regulation. I want to explain to my colleagues why they should join me in disapproving of this job-killing electric vehicle mandate and why the use of the Congressional Review Act is appropriate and correct in this instance. First, I would like to offer a little bit of background about how we got here. Typically, the Clean Air Act stops State laws that regulate emissions for motor vehicles in favor of a national standard by the Environmental Protection Agency. This allows automakers to build the same vehicles for use by drivers all across the country. Since 1966, the Clean Air Act has given California, and only California, the ability to seek a waiver of Federal mobile source emissions standards. Other States can choose to adopt California's standard or follow the Federal standard, but they cannot seek their own waiver. Congress provided California this special ability because of its need to address unique locally high levels of pollution--like smog--in Los Angeles and in the San Joaquin Valley. But over the past two decades, California has used its waiver authority to push its extreme climate policies on the rest of the country, which was never the intent of the Clean Air Act's decision to grant the waiver. As EPA recognized in 2008, the rationale for California's ability to seek waivers does not extend to greenhouse gases, as these levels are not unique to California but are global in nature. But now, in addition to establishing an EV mandate, California is also seeking to use its waiver authority to eliminate diesel trucks. The Advanced Clean Trucks and Low NOX truck rules set unattainable standards that will harm our ability to ship goods across this country. While my remarks today will focus on the resolution of disapproval that I have offered on the Advanced Clean Cars II EV mandate, I strongly support the resolutions that will follow that are offered by Senator Fischer and Senator Mullin to block these rules. California's Advanced Clean Cars II program requires all--and I did say ``all''--vehicles sold in that State, Washington, DC, and 11 other States that have adopted California's standard--all cars--to be zero- emissions vehicles by the year 2035; meaning, in one decade, these States, totaling 30 percent of the new car market, will have a full ban on the sale of gasoline-powered vehicles--and not just those but also on traditional hybrids as well. The regulation begins in 2026--next year--by requiring affected States to sell 35 percent electric vehicles. These cars will hit showroom floors within the next few months. So to avoid the devastating impacts of these waivers, we need to act now. These unattainable standards, backed by a fine of $26,000 per vehicle--I said $26,000 per vehicle--for noncompliance attempt to reshape auto manufacturing and take away consumer choice all across the country. I want to be clear, I have no problem with electric vehicles. Consumers should be able to purchase the vehicle of their choice. But I do have a big problem with electric vehicle mandates that replace the will of the consumer and the will of the government. Only 2.3 percent of new vehicle registrations in West Virginia last year were electric vehicles. Nationwide, EVs accounted for only 10.2 percent of new vehicle registrations. The plain truth is, electric vehicles are not popular. Even in New York, one of the States that has adopted the California standard, only 10.1 percent of 2024 new vehicle registrations were EVs. Perhaps that is why six New York House Democrats voted against this rule. As States and manufacturers ramp up to meet this EV mandate, the impacts and costs will be massive. As the National Automobile Dealers Association wrote, the economic impact of California's regulation will affect all States. Soon, automakers will be forced to either sell more EVs or limit the number of gas cars for sale in the other affected States. Affordable new gas and hybrid vehicles, which cost between $30,000 and $40,000, are expected to be among the first vehicles that would be rationed out. This will leave consumers with far fewer choices and force everyone to pay more for new and used cars to reflect consumer demand and offset automaker losses. To make matters worse, hundreds of thousands of jobs will be eliminated. The Specialty Equipment Market Association wrote that a ban on internal combustion engines ``would represent over $100 billion annual economic impact to the U.S. economy and impact roughly 330,000 jobs.'' And those job losses will not be confined to California, but they will be spread all across the Nation. Workers in auto manufacturing, oil and gas production, and the agriculture sectors across this country would lose jobs because of California's EV mandate. And the elected officials who represent Michigan autoworkers, Nebraska corn farmers, or West Virginia gas workers had no say in California and EPA's decision to impose this mandate nationwide. The responsibility of approving or disapproving California's waiver application rests solely with the EPA. California applied to EPA for a waiver to implement ACC2 in May of 2023, and the Biden administration sat on that application until December of 2024. Well, there is no practical reason that the Biden EPA couldn't have acted on California's waiver in 2023 or even during the first 11 months of 2024, but we know why the previous administration decided to wait: President Biden and his team knew that electric vehicle mandates were unpopular with most American voters, especially swing State voters that would decide the Presidential and congressional elections. Mr. President, 2024 polling from WPA intelligence showed that 70 percent of likely voters opposed a ban on gas-powered cars, with only 18 percent in support. Both the text of the Clean Air Act and public sentiment should have led the Biden EPA to reject California's application. Instead, the Biden administration approved California's waiver in December 2024, after Democrats lost the election. EPA's approval was published in the Federal Register on January 6, 2025, the same day Congress certified President Trump's victory. The decision to limit consumer choice, increase car prices, and cost hundreds of thousands of jobs was made by California and approved by a Federal administration that had already been rejected by the American voters. I strongly oppose these California EV mandates and strongly oppose a process that allows such a major national policy decision to be made against the will of the American people, without input from their Members of Congress. In 1996, the Congressional Review Act was enacted through regular order to create an expedited process for Congress to consider resolutions that overturn rules finalized by Federal Agencies, like the Biden EPA's decision to approve California's EV mandate. The CRA's rationale--as explained by sponsors Don Nickles, Harry Reid, and Ted Stevens--was to allow Congress to efficiently stop rules it finds ``too burdensome, excessive, inappropriate, or duplicative.'' Every one of these terms applies to the situation we find ourselves in today. The CRA works by requiring Federal Agencies to submit their final rules to the Senate and to the House of Representatives. When a rule is submitted to Congress and published in the Federal Register, a 60-day period is opened for any Member to introduce a resolution of disapproval that, if passed by both Chambers and signed by the President, prevents the rule from taking effect. These resolutions, by law, are subject to limited debate, allowing them to be enacted by the Senate by a simple majority vote. Senators can bring resolutions of disapproval to the Senate floor either by reporting them through committee or by submitting a petition that has been signed by at least 30 Senators. Either way, the process allows the Senators to vote on whether the rule should go into effect, providing a method for elected Representatives to have oversight over unelected bureaucracies. I decided to use the CRA process and introduce this resolution against EPA's approval of the California electric vehicle mandate for two reasons. First, enactment of the resolution would vacate EPA's rule approving of the California waiver, stopping the EV mandate and protecting consumers and workers across the country. Second, because a vote here in the Senate and in the House would allow the elected representatives of Americans of all 50 States, not just California, to decide whether a nationally significant policy should be implemented. As I discussed earlier, the Biden administration delayed its action on approving the California waiver for 18 months to get past the 2024 election. But that wasn't the end of the previous administration's effort to shield this unpopular EV mandate from the will of the people. The Biden EPA did not submit its approval of the California EV mandate for review under the CRA and claimed its action was not a rule. That was a clear effort to avoid accountability from Congress. Fortunately, President Trump and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin decided to give the American people a say by submitting the approved California waiver to Congress as a rule. Under the CRA, that submission by the Trump EPA triggered my right as a Senator to introduce this resolution to block California's EV mandate. But that submission kicked off another effort by Democrats to stop the Senate from voting on this issue. On March of this year, at the request of three Senate Democrats, the Government Accountability Office wrote an unprecedented letter stating its ``observation'' that the Biden EPA action approving California's EV waiver is not a rule subject to the CRA. Similar to the Biden administration's efforts, this GAO letter was obtained in an attempt to stop the Senate from exercising its authority provided by the CRA, keeping the California EV mandate in place without a vote in this Chamber. Nothing in the Congressional Review Act, Senate rules, or Senate precedents gives unelected staff at the GAO the authority to prevent elected Senators from considering a resolution of disapproval against a rule. In fact, Comptroller General Gene Dodaro, who is head of the GAO, recently testified in a Senate hearing and said: Our decisions are not dispositive on the Congress--they're advisory. But Democrats now want to give the GAO staff a veto over the Senate's use of the CRA to disapprove rules submitted by Federal Agencies. The Senate has given GAO the authority in the CRA process in the past to protect the legislative branch's ability to conduct oversight over administrative rules. My predecessor West Virginia Senator Jay Rockefeller was a leader in 2008 efforts to give GAO the ability to trigger the Congressional Review Act procedures for Agency actions not submitted to Congress as required by the statute. The issue in 2008 was an action by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services directing States on how they were to administer the Children's Health Insurance Program. CMS did not submit its action to Congress, calling it guidance rather than a rule. Senator Rockefeller asked GAO to determine that the CMS guidance was a rule. When GAO agreed with him, he introduced a resolution to block the rule--the first time such a resolution was introduced pursuant to a GAO decision rather than an Agency submission. Ten years later, Congress passed and President Trump signed a resolution introduced by my colleague Senator Moran from Kansas against guidance from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that was similarly not submitted. Senator Toomey went to GAO for a legal opinion that the CFPB guidance was a rule for the purposes of the CRA, and GAO determined that Congress could consider it as such. I have personally gone to the GAO myself on several occasions when I believed that an Agency action not submitted to Congress under the CRA should, in fact, be considered a rule, like I did in 2022, when GAO agreed with me that guidance from the Federal Highway Administration instructing State departments of transportation to prioritize bike and pedestrian projects over new highway capacity projects should be a rule. And I did so a year later, when GAO disagreed with my argument that a separate California waiver should have been submitted as a rule. In all of these cases, Federal Agencies had not submitted their actions to Congress, but in this case, EPA did submit its rule approving the California EV mandate to Congress. A GAO opinion has never been used to cut off the Senate's ability to consider a CRA resolution of disapproval when the Federal Agency actually submitted the rule to Congress. In fact, GAO has repeatedly recognized that its legal opinions are unnecessary when Agencies submit a rule to Congress. In 2018, GAO wrote: [The] Congressional Review Act gives agencies the primary responsibility for determining which agency actions meet the statute's definition of a rule.'' And: Submission . . . to Congress pursuant to the Congressional Review Act obviates the need for a GAO opinion.'' Two years later, GAO concluded: When an agency submits a document to our office under CRA, we consider that to be the agency's determination that the document is a rule under CRA. When a rule is submitted to Congress, Congress has an opportunity to review the rule and pass a joint resolution of disapproval to void the rule. Protecting our legislative branch oversight is the basis upon which this Senate has involved GAO in the CRA process since 2008, but it does not follow that GAO should be able to halt congressional privileges when the executive branch does submit a rule. Once an Agency has submitted a rule to Congress, as EPA has done here, elected representatives should be able to decide whether to approve or disapprove of the rule. That is how the Congressional Review Act has functioned since its beginning in 1996. I want to quickly talk about the filibuster and the Parliamentarian because this has been raised. My Democrat colleagues argue that there will be ``profound institutional consequences'' by the Senate not allowing GAO a veto over the use of the CRA against Agency-submitted rules. I, on the other hand, disagree. Such a GAO veto has never existed before, and we must remember that the CRA is all about protecting the authority of elected representatives over unelected Agencies. Delegating to the unelected GAO staff the authority to determine if Members of Congress can use the CRA against Agency-submitted rules turns the statute completely on its head. My Democrat colleagues say that our action today undermines the legislative filibuster, and that is simply not true. I support the legislative filibuster. I have supported the legislative filibuster as a Senator in the majority and as a Senator in the minority. The Congressional Review Act, which was passed with the legislative filibuster in place, has stood since 1996, providing a narrow exception to the Senate's normal practice of extended debate. It applies only to allow for disapproval of Federal Agency rules and only during a prescribed time defined by the statute. In deciding to retain the 30-year-old practice of allowing the use of CRA procedures against Agency-submitted rules, we are not expanding any authority to enact laws by a simple majority. We are not expanding the scope of the CRA itself but, rather, simply refusing to narrow the CRA by subjecting its use to GAO approval. Like my colleagues in the Senate, I hold our Parliamentarians in very high regard. They perform and she performs a vital role in this institution, and her wise counsel is critical to making this Senate function. I want to make two things crystal clear: The procedural action we have taken today is not about the filibuster and not about the Parliamentarian. Instead, the procedural issue before the Senate was simply whether GAO staff should be able to block resolutions of disapproval against Agency-submitted rules. I have explained why my answer to that is no. I have spent significant time talking about the CRA itself and about procedure. I think that is important because I respect the Senate as an institution, and I care about how we do things. We shouldn't lose sight of the substance of what we are doing today. We are deciding whether California, DC, and 11 other States can impose an electric vehicle mandate that will take away consumer choice, drive up prices, and eliminate jobs across the country. West Virginians don't want California's climate policy. West Virginians don't want California's EV mandate. And I am confident that most Americans don't want these things either. That is why the House of Representatives passed this resolution of disapproval with a strong bipartisan vote that included every Republican and 35 Democrats, some from the State of California. Today, despite the best efforts of the Biden administration and congressional Democrats to shield this EV mandate from the will of the American people, the Senate will have its say. I urge my colleagues to vote tomorrow for the resolution of disapproval. I yield the floor.

Mrs. CAPITO

Mrs. CAPITO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for up to 5 minutes, followed by Senators Wyden and Schumer for up to 1 minute each.

Mrs. CAPITO. Mr. President, I rise today in support of my friend from Utah, Senator Curtis, and his Congressional Review Act resolution to overturn the final rule of the Biden Environmental Protection Agency's review of final rule reclassification of major sources as area sources. This misguided rule would remove a major incentive for dozens of industries to reduce emissions. It would further saddle American energy producers and manufacturers with regulatory costs and burdens and, simply put, operates under a premise that is purely unfair. Under this rule, once you classify as a major source, you are always considered a major source even though--you would even be prohibited from ever achieving an ``area source'' status again even if your emissions output decreased below the applicable threshold. This tells American manufacturing and energy leaders that no matter what you do, you will always operate under the strictest regulatory standard available. We should instead provide incentives for industries to lower their emissions and keep alive the option of returning to an area source once emissions are reduced. Over the last 20 years, no other country has reduced its emissions like the United States, and we do not need overly restrictive regulations to continue this. Giving our private sector the ability to innovate on a sensible timeline is a different approach than the inflexible, top-down mandate that became accustom over the past 4 years. The good news is, every Member of this Chamber now has the opportunity to right this wrong and reinstate the rule in place before that, which allowed for reclassification of these sources. The former rule, which was put into place by President Trump's first administration, encourages industries to take proactive steps to reduce emissions without increasing regulatory burdens. The results during President Trump's first term were overwhelmingly clear: Source reclassification reduces hazardous air pollution in our communities. We need to take every opportunity available to rightsize regulatory requirements prohibiting our ability to revitalize American manufacturing and achieve energy dominance, while taking steps that reduce emissions through innovative technologies that I have advocated for alongside my colleagues across both aisles of this Chamber. We need to remember that our manufacturing, energy, and environmental policies do not need to be at odds with one another. A robust manufacturing sector, energy reliability, and a clean environment are not mutually exclusive. I am proud to join in this effort alongside Senator Curtis, my colleague on the Environment and Public Works Committee. This is an opportunity to return to commonsense environmental policy, and I encourage my colleagues to join us in supporting this resolution. I yield the floor.

Mrs. CAPITO

Mrs. CAPITO. Mr. President, I rise today in support of my friend from North Dakota, Senator Hoeven's Congressional Review Act resolution to block the implementation of the Biden administration's waste emissions charge, otherwise known as the natural gas tax. Since the day this regulation was finalized last November, I pledged that I would work with President Trump and my colleagues in the Congress to repeal this misguided, anti-energy tax. Today in the Senate, that is exactly what we are working to do. We must recognize that we are in a critical moment for American energy. The North American Electric Reliability Corporation has found that over the next 10 years, due to a rise in energy consumption and the early retirement of our existing fossil fuel generation, our country could face major electric generation and reliability concerns. We must take action now to ensure that our future demand is met, that the lights remain on, our homes remain warm, and our economy keeps moving for Americans all across this country. We can do this by continuing to invest in natural gas. Over 60 percent of Americans every day heat their homes, their water, or their food with natural gas. Natural gas is responsible for over 40 percent of the electricity generation and fuels more than half of our industrial sector's process heat. While the natural gas tax fails to recognize this reality, let's look at what is true. Fracking and shale gas have both revolutionized and transformed American energy, leading to lower prices, job growth, and increased American energy security. According to the Energy Information Administration, the rapid expansion of natural gas-fired powerplants in this country has decreased the power sector's carbon dioxide emissions by 35 percent over the last 25 years. Natural gas has the potential to further reduce American greenhouse gas emissions if we continue to increase production. Natural gas is an affordable, reliable, and clean source of energy vital to our country and our economy. We should be expanding natural gas production, not restricting it. Instead, the natural gas tax will constrain American natural gas production, leading to increased energy prices and providing a boost to the production of natural gas in Russia. Simply put, repealing the natural gas tax is a win for our economy, a win for our national security, and a win for our environment. As part of establishing this tax, the Democrats' so-called Inflation Reduction Act ordered the EPA to revise its subpart W requirements in order to facilitate the reporting and calculation of the tax. The EPA's subpart W revisions blatantly disregard and overstep even the partisan mandates of the IRA and would excessively increase the tax burden on American energy under this natural gas tax. The revised emission factors within subpart W reporting requirements make broad assumptions about oil and gas operations and technologies that will lead to inaccurate reporting for many owners and operators. The rule would not only radically expand the scope of emissions required to be reported by each facility under the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program, but it also excessively expands the number of facilities that are covered by subpart W and consequently responsible to pay the natural gas tax. Due to this uninformed and artificial overestimate of U.S. methane emissions, some smaller operators who were once below the waste emissions threshold are now at risk of seeing their reported methane emissions inflated and owing large sums under the natural gas tax. If not repealed, this rule will arbitrarily increase the costs and burden of reporting under subpart W, motivated by the Democrats' interest in growing the revenues generated by their natural gas tax. This will make it even more difficult and expensive to produce, transport, and consume American natural gas and in turn will hurt both American families who rely on the energy and the environment of the communities we live in. It is important that we note that our effort today works in tandem with this Chamber's recently passed budget resolution. As chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, I have long intended to stop the natural gas tax, and we will continue to pursue this through the reconciliation process. Today's vote on the CRA provides all Senators the opportunity to put our vote on record after witnessing the Biden's EPA bait and switch on the implementation of this misguided policy. I encourage my colleagues to support the CRA that is central to our mission of American energy dominance and reject this tax that will bolster our adversaries, increase energy costs on American families, and put our energy future at risk. I would like to yield, but before I do that, I would like to thank my colleague from Iowa for letting me step in front of her to make my speech. I appreciate that. I know she will be supporting this.

Mrs. CAPITO

Mrs. CAPITO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Environment and Public Works Committee Rules of Procedure, approved in the Committee Business Meeting on Wednesday, February 5, 2025, be printed in the Congressional Record.

Mrs. CAPITO

Mrs. CAPITO. Mr. President, I rise today in support of the nomination of Lee M. Zeldin to serve as the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. I have confidence that Congressman Zeldin's experience as a veteran of the War on Terror, as an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve, and as an elected official on both the State and Federal level has prepared him to aptly serve as the EPA's leader. As a Member of the House of Representatives, Congressman Zeldin championed environmental policies that helped his Long Island district. During his testimony in front of the Environment and Public Works Committee, Congressman Zeldin proficiently demonstrated his understanding of what it will take to lead the Agency and the scope and importance of the authorities he will be required to faithfully implement. Congressman Zeldin is committed to adhering to the laws Congress passed that direct the EPA to protect our air, land, and water. He recognizes that the EPA's work must take into consideration the Agency's impacts on our constituents' pocketbooks and Main Street's success in addition to their health and welfare. Congressman Zeldin understands that the Agency must act on issues that the American people support, providing reliable, affordable, and clean American energy while also assisting communities that suffer from legacy pollution. This will provide a welcome change from the last 4 years of the Biden EPA. As a result of the previous administration's ideologically driven regulatory overreach, families paid more to fill up their car to drop their kids off at school and get to work, paid more to heat their homes, and paid more at the grocery store due to increased energy costs. American energy producers were hit with regulation after regulation, intended to shut down reliable and affordable electric generation, strangling the very innovation and economic growth that led to decreasing emissions and pollutants, and America's energy dominance during President Trump's first term in office. I saw these impacts directly in communities across my home State of West Virginia. The Biden EPA set unscientific and unachievable regulatory requirements that would bankrupt rural communities. The process of approving new, safer chemicals was ground to a halt, and environmental cleanup programs were layered with bureaucracy and redtape. Thankfully in November, the American people spoke and rejected the previous administration's activist environmental agenda that promoted scarcity, inflation, and stagnation. With the confirmation of Congressman Zeldin, we have the opportunity to get the EPA back to meeting its core mission, protecting human health and the environment, and get Washington, DC, out of the way. In turn, this will empower States and communities to permit and fund the projects we need to protect our environment and grow our economy. The United States is facing a critical moment where the decisions made today will set the direction of our country for years to come. Our Nation's electric reliability experts are telling policymakers that the lights are blinking red, as major parts of the country are at risk of electricity shortages. Energy demand is sharply increasing as we strive to bolster America's energy security, bring manufacturing back to our shores, and compete with China to win the artificial intelligence race. This all requires more energy, of all types, rather than less. With Congressman Zeldin's leadership, the actions that EPA will take can set America up to thrive in an era with a cleaner environment, energy abundance, lower costs, and economic prosperity. This path will be a win-win for the American people. It is time to get to work, and that starts with confirming Congressman Zeldin. I urge my colleagues to support Lee Zeldin to serve as the EPA Administrator.

Mrs. CAPITO

Mrs. CAPITO. Mr. President, this week, the Senate is proud to take another step forward toward securing our southern border as we consider the Laken Riley Act. I want to extend my deep gratitude to Senator Katie Britt and Senator Ted Budd for their leadership in bringing this bill forward. First and foremost, I want to say that I strongly support this measure. With this bill, the Senate will be taking a bold step for the safety and prosperity of American citizens after 4 years of mismanagement and decline and, ultimately, chaos at the border. The Laken Riley Act is the answer to a loud and clear call made at the ballot box by the American people to unite us as a country, to put America first, and to address the tragic lawlessness that we see on our southern border. So in the Senate's first order of legislative business, we are answering that call. The radical open border policies of the left have caused untold suffering to families across the Nation--families like the Riley family, who is still grieving the unimaginable loss of their beautiful daughter Laken. Laken was just 22 years old--a young nursing student with a promising future ahead of her. Tragically, she was stolen from this Earth by an individual who should have never been allowed to roam free in this country. Laken should be alive today, and she would have been if her killer had been brought to justice before it was too late. In Laken, we lost a bright and beautiful soul, as those who knew her will attest. The law should serve our citizens, yet it has somehow been Laken's killer who has benefited from our system. It is time we honor Laken's legacy by putting American citizens first. The Laken Riley Act, while too late to prevent Laken's tragedy, is a targeted bill that will save countless other lives. It will ensure that other illegal immigrants who are not dissimilar to her killer are detained for their crimes before they get a chance to commit another and maybe a more serious offense. Anyone who has entered the United States illegally and then committed a crime should and will face detention and deportation. It sounds like common sense to me. Laken's killer was arrested three times and released three times--once at the border, again in New York City, and a third time in Athens, GA, mere weeks before he took Laken's life. That will not happen and cannot happen under the Laken Riley Act. This is a problem that cannot be ignored or explained away or made trivial. The American people demand change. The American people want us to fix this system that failed to uphold the law and failed to keep Laken safe. Her cause is their cause. It is the cause of every mother, every father, every brother, every sister--of a young girl who simply wants to go to school and then go out for a run in her neighborhood and feel safe. I know, at its core, this is truly a bipartisan issue. We all want to keep our communities safe--all Republicans and Democrats. Our Republican conference is completely unified behind the Laken Riley Act, and we have managed to win over a majority of Senate Democrats for the bill's initial consideration, including two who have signed on as cosponsors. As my Democrat colleague from Pennsylvania has noted, the failure to pass this bill would represent everything that is wrong with Congress. The truth is, the American citizens have had enough talk, especially after these last 4 years. Now is the time for action. That is what the election was about--action, not empty words. This week, we will have before us a tranche of critical votes that America will be intently watching. To the families watching who have lost loved ones, like the Riley family, we stand with you. We feel your grief and your pain, and we will guard against this heartbreak ever happening again. Now more than ever, it is incumbent upon my colleagues and me to support America's families and pass the strongest possible bill for our communities. With that, I look forward to advancing the Laken Riley Act this week. I yield the floor.

Mrs. CAPITO

Mrs. CAPITO. I want to thank the Senator from Oklahoma for his leadership on this. We are just getting started here. So I am very excited, as I know all of us are, to embark on a serious mission of not just government waste but pulling in our government spending to make it make sense and more toward a balanced budget. California Wildfires Mr. President, before I begin, I would like to say a few words about the tragedy unfolding on the west coast. I know many of us have been looking at the television and watching the structure fires and heard from friends who have children there or are themselves there, and I think it is just unimaginable. So I just want to let them know in California that we are praying for them and their families, for their safety, and that hopefully this will all come under control sooner than later. But I have seen this on the TV, and I would say it from this podium, that I urge all residents, if you are told to evacuate, don't waste any time. It sounds like quick and fast evacuations are smart and are being advised. So please be super careful as we move through this tragedy. You know, Americans are resilient people, but the Californians and the Los Angelenos are being asked for a lot right now, so it is really tough. Department of Government Efficiency Mr. President, so today I am going to speak about an issue that weighs heavily on the American worker and taxpayer, and this is the waste, fraud, and abuse rampant in our Federal Government. When I say ``heavy,'' I mean really heavy, really heavy, because billions of hard- earned taxpayer dollars are at stake here. Under President Biden, wasteful government spending has just spiraled out of control, harming our hard-working Americans and their livelihood. Each misspent dollar represents a missed opportunity for our neighbors, our communities, our families. But that is going to end with this incoming administration and, I think, the control of the House and the Senate. In the 119th Congress, Federal spending comes with a promissory note of accountability to the American people. No more spendthrift bureaucrats getting out of line. No more blank checks or wild excesses. The American people have had enough and rightfully so. They are ready for the government to work for them. Republicans are proud to have the Department of Government Efficiency, better known as DOGE. I remember I probably heard DOGE, what, about a month ago? I am wondering, What is this? I know that Elon and Vivek are both very busy men. So I want to thank them especially for conceiving this idea and dedicating their time and energy and gathering other folks' help to eliminating government waste. Like a one-two punch, Congress and the DOGE Commission will identify and address the most flagrant abuses of the Federal bureaucracy. DOGE will provide the ideas from these two men, and Congress will bring the constitutional oversight and legislative authority. We plan to hit the ground running, really, on day one of the Trump administration, to take aim at the worst excesses left over. When it comes to wasteful government spending in the jurisdiction of my committee, which is the Environment and Public Works Committee--I am very thrilled, as of yesterday's meeting, to become the new chairman there--look no further than the groundwork we laid last year through the investigations of my committee. We worked on looking at the spending in the massive, bloated, ill-conceived Inflation Reduction Act. The so-called IRA, which was a bill passed with only Democrat votes, authorized billions of dollars in new handouts from EPA to the Democrat-aligned groups. Recently, an EPA employee actually admitted that its current grant- making process--that means between now and January 20, when President Trump takes over--he equated it to being akin to ``throwing gold bars off the Titanic.'' That should send chills to every American taxpayer-- ``throwing gold bars off the Titanic.'' We have reached unprecedented levels of waste, fraud, and abuse. The American people rejected this kind of reckless governance in November through their voice at the ballot box. Bureaucrats are desperately--right now, as we speak--writing checks because come January 20, they know President Trump will take the checkbook away and ask for accountability. My committee already issued a clear warning to the EPA in a letter in December. We demanded to know who is getting these gold bars that are being thrown off the Titanic and in what amounts. Most importantly, we want a clear paper trail so the bureaucrats at the EPA can't bury wasteful spending on the way out the door. The committee has already uncovered handouts to groups that are anti- American, anti-Semitic, anti-Israel, anti-police, and anti-border security. That is it--not a dollar more. For example, of the $3 billion of the IRA dedicated to the new environmental and climate justice block grant program through the IRA, the EPA announced over the last several months that it would give $50 million to Climate Justice Alliance, $50 million to the New York Immigration Coalition, and $100 million to the NDN Collective. The Climate Justice Alliance promotes wildly anti- Semitic rhetoric. The New York Immigration Coalition advocates for radical open border policies. Most egregiously--remember, this is the one getting $100 million--the NDN Collective goes as far as to call America an evil country. Let me be clear. These groups should not and will not receive one dime of taxpayer dollars. The American people should be outraged, as I am--I think you can tell my voice is getting a little bit louder here-- at the abuse of their tax dollars. These funds were meant to benefit them, not to prop up radical political groups or line the pockets of bureaucrats with questionable priorities. Taxpayer dollars should never go to organizations that hate America or our values. It is pretty simple when you put it like that. To those who say that there is no alternative, that government is and always will be wasteful, I say look to the State of West Virginia. My home State consistently generates large budget surpluses, demonstrating that we can protect our values and our interests without recklessly spending the taxpayers' hard-earned dollars. I think it is time to bring some good old West Virginia thrift to the bureaucracy in Washington, DC. Many of our States are operating under the same parameters. With the President, the House, the Senate, and the DOGE Commission all on the same page, working together, we are poised to do just that. If we are to spend taxpayers' dollars, I do not believe there is an article I role for unlimited government spending; it must be in the furtherance of the benefit of our Nation. The American taxpayers deserve a government that respects their hard-earned dollars. The relationship between the government and its citizens has been frayed by years of neglect, waste, and distrust. Mending this relationship will not happen overnight. It is a long process. It is a process Republicans are prepared to take, to embrace, and undertake. We will end the reckless spending spree, we will put an end to bureaucratic waste, and we will aim to ensure that every dollar that leaves the Federal Treasury is used in service to the American people. This is our commitment to rebuild trust, to prioritize the needs of the people, and to ensure that the government serves them, not the other way around. Thank you, my fellow Senator. I appreciate it, and I look forward to working with all of us here on this very important issue.

Mrs. CAPITO

Mrs. CAPITO. Mr. President, I rise today in strong support of the House amendment to S. 4367. What my compadre over on EPW did not mention is the name of the bill. The name of the bill is the Thomas R. Carper Water Resources Development Act of 2024. And I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of this important legislation. Just last week, the House approved this bill by an overwhelming margin of 399 to 18. This bipartisan legislation is supported by a diverse group of more than 200 stakeholders, which illustrates the positive impact that the legislation will have on communities across this country. I just want to spend a few minutes kind of discussing the great work of my colleagues in Congress and the benefits that the American people will have by the provisions in this bill. At the heart of the legislation is the Water Resources Development Act of 2024. The enactment of biennial water resources legislation over the last 10 years has been critical to addressing the Nation's water resources needs. In August, the Senate passed its version of this legislation by unanimous consent. That bill was developed based on more than 1,000 requests submitted by our colleagues on both sides of the aisle. Following Senate passage, Chairman Carper and I worked with Chairman Sam Graves and Ranking Member Rick Larsen of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to resolve the differences between the House and Senate-passed WRDA bill. I am proud of the agreement that we were able to reach, and I want to thank my House colleagues for being such great partners. I would like to highlight some of the benefits of the WRDA 2024 bill. It authorizes critical water resource studies and projects across the country. These studies and projects will support navigation along our waterways and at our ports. It will protect communities from flooding and improve our environment. This bill avoids one-size-fits-all solutions and maintains important flexibilities so that the Corps of Engineers and non-Federal partners can continue to address the unique water resources challenges across our Nation. It also contains directives to the Corps to develop comprehensive implementation plans for this bill and for our prior WRDAs. This will enable the Corps to focus its energy and resources on fully implementing WRDA and prior WRDA provisions in order to better reflect the intent of this body and this Congress and previous Congresses. I also want to highlight some of the ways this bill will help directly benefit my State of West Virginia. Just over 8 years ago, in June 2016, West Virginia experienced flooding in historic rates, which led to tragic deaths and devastation. This bill provides support for future projects identified by the Corps' feasibility study for flood risk management in the Kanawha River basin. The legislation also increases the ability of the Corps to carry out smaller projects for emergency streambank and shoreline protection, ecosystem restoration, and debris and obstruction removal, which are critical to many areas of my State. The bill also directs the Corps to expedite feasibility studies for the Upper Guyandotte and Kanawha River basins as well as to expedite projects in Milton as well as the Bluestone Dam in Hinton. This bill supports many drinking water and wastewater projects throughout our State. WRDA contains similar wins for States all across this Nation. I am also glad to see, as part of this package, the Economic Development Reauthorization Act of 2024. The Economic Development Administration is tasked with facilitating economic development and creating jobs in distressed communities across the country. While EDA programs receive annual appropriations from Congress, the authorization for these projects expired in 2008. The legislation reauthorizes EDA programs at fiscally responsible levels for fiscal years 2025 through 2029. This legislation reasserts congressional direction over EDA's funding decision; it enhances our oversight at the Agency; it preserves locally driven economic development decisions; and it ensures that funding from EDA is accessible to distressed communities. It also codifies and authorizes dedicated funding for EDA's Assistance to Coal Communities Program, which was one of my top priorities for this legislation. This program ensures that communities in my home State of West Virginia which were decimated by the downturn of the coal industry have the resources that we need to recover and grow. The bill also includes consideration of coal communities when EDA assigns EDA representatives. The legislation also reauthorizes the regional Commissions that were expiring or have expired, and it expands the types of activities that those Commissions can carry out in their communities and modernizes their administrative procedures. The bill also includes a provision to increase transparency and reduce waste across our Federal real estate portfolio. And finally, the bill contains a provision that unlocks a significant backlog of funding in the TIFIA Program and provides the funding States need to use for transportation projects. It also includes provisions to prevent the backlog from occurring in the future. In closing, I would really like to take a minute to thank the staff and my chairman, Chairman Carper. But I also want to thank the staff at the various Federal Agencies that have helped with this legislation-- helped us formulate it--and also the House and Senate legislative counsel. And I would like to thank as well the staff at the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee as well. I want to extend my appreciation to the EPW Subcommittee on Transportation and Infrastructure led by Chairman Mark Kelly and Ranking Member Kevin Cramer for their and their staff's dedication to this. I also want to thank, again, my friend Chairman Carper. We have worked together--this is our, I think, second WRDA bill that we did together, and it is a fitting tribute to your decades of public service to have this piece of legislation named after you. From Chairman Carper's staff, I would like to thank Courtney Taylor, John Kane, Linnea Saby, Nicole Comisky, Ryan Smith, Claire Shanklin, Jordan Smallwood, and Tara Kroft. I would like to thank my staff seated behind me, many of them: Adam Tomlinson, Murphie Barrett, Libby Callaway, Dan Linkowski, Katherine Scarlett, Rebecca Hattar, Dom Rupp, and Jack Cline. I strongly encourage my colleagues to support the House amendment to S. 4367, the Thomas R. Carper Water Resources Development Act. Tribute to Mitch McConnell Mr. President, with the permission of the chairman--I told him that I wanted to mention one last thing before his remarks--I want to talk on a separate topic. I would like to pay tribute to my friend, the senior Senator from Kentucky, and our stalwart Republican leader, Mitch McConnell. Leader McConnell leaves the leadership table at the end of this Congress as the longest serving Senate party leader in U.S. history. Resilience, patience, and determination--these are the qualities we will remember the McConnell era by, an era that continues due to his foresight in ensuring conservative principles rule the day in the highest Court of the land. If I had to distill the senior Senator from Kentucky's leadership style down to twin pillars, I would say they were focus and more focus. He says it is the most important word in the dictionary for a reason. As a member of his broader leadership team from my early days in the Senate and now as a member of the core leadership team as the Senate Republican conference vice chairman, Leader McConnell has taught me many valuable lessons and values in his leadership. One of the first lessons was that Kentuckians and West Virginians share more than a border; we also share a distinct sense of humor. Leader McConnell leads with a sharp wit. His regular jokes at the leadership table will be missed. For example, he used to call former Senator Richard Shelby ``Too Big to Fail.'' Leader McConnell leads with humility. He will be the first to remind you of his initial flop on the national stage when his idol, Ronald Reagan, called him Mitch O'Donnell. Leader McConnell leads with consistency. He has never missed a blue shirt Thursday. And he leads with a tough eye, for sure. He has taken countless slings and arrows for his party and this institution, and all the while, I think he thoroughly enjoyed it. He reminds me of my dad in a way. They both have framed cartoons of some of their biggest critics in their office. He leads with moral and philosophical clarity. During more than a few of his 18 years, I am sure he will agree being majority leader was perhaps the hardest job in the country. He often referred to his job as that of a gravekeeper: Everyone may be under him, but nobody is listening. I thank him for the unity he maintained and the clarity of his leadership. So after 18 years atop Senate Republican politics, he leaves an indelible mark. I believe that the senior Senator calls that the long game. And as we know, he is not leaving the Senate; he will just be leading in different ways. He will return to the Henry Clay desk, a fitting place for him to finish his life's work here in the Senate. There, he will be continuing to face our national challenges with the same steely, conservative resolve that we have so grown accustomed to. Between the demanding roles of the Rules Committee and the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, I am confident he will stay busy, and he has assured us that he will continue to thoroughly disappoint his critics. So thank you, Leader McConnell, for your leadership and your service as the Nation's longest serving Senate party leader. I thank the chairman of our committee, Chairman Carper, for letting me give this tribute to our departing Republican leader.

Mrs. CAPITO

Mrs. CAPITO. Madam President, I want to thank the Senator from Maine for her great words of serving so long with our friend and colleague Tom Carper. First of all, I want to say to Tom, I appreciate the very kind words that he mentioned about me and us in our work together on the committee. As we have said, he has dedicated nearly his entire adult life to the service of our country in many different ways and to the home State of Delaware. But don't let the ``Delaware'' next to his name fool you. All those good family values, all those good sturdy qualities of honesty and service, steadfastness were rooted in his birth in the great State of West Virginia. Anytime I tried to get anything over on him and say, ``Yeah, but I'm from West Virginia,'' he would always say, ``I am too.'' So he is always very proud of his West Virginia roots. He had a couple of family reunions there during our time of service together. Then, in 2021, we had the opportunity to have an EPW field hearing in his birthplace of Beckley, WV, and I will tell you, at that particular--not one relative of mine was there, but Tom had his relatives there to cheer him on. So I know it was a very special occasion for him, and it certainly was for me as well. As the ranking member of the EPW Committee, serving alongside my chairman, Senator Carper, over the last 4 years, I have had the distinct pleasure to work in tandem with him on things he has mentioned, most especially infrastructure and energy and the environmental challenges our country faces. We don't always see eye to eye, but we have developed a relationship that is centered on trust and respect. We do talk every Thursday afternoon, and I want to tell you that I told your successor that I think this is something we need to continue because we kept that valuable relationship going through times when we might not have agreed and couldn't get to the same place. But I think it is essential that the relationship we created really did give us these bipartisan achievements: the surface transportation reauthorization legislation, the drinking water and wastewater infrastructure legislation. Those bills became the foundation of the bipartisan infrastructure law. Had they not been there, I am not sure we would have ended up as well as we did as a body. It is paying dividends in my State, in his State, in Senator Collins' State--all across the country. Additionally, we led the charge by offering the ADVANCE Act, which is the Advanced Nuclear Act. That bill, which is now law, I think will maintain America's nuclear energy leadership by encouraging more innovation and investment right here in our States. It sets the stage for the proliferation of reliable and safe nuclear power. We also just recently crafted our--I think it might be our second or third Water Resources Development Act. It is pending. Hopefully, we will get it across the floor here in the next day or two, and it is my hope that we will soon pass this. But I did name this bill, so everybody is going to listen to this. Get down here and vote for the Thomas R. Carper Water Resources Development Act. Hopefully, we will do it tomorrow. But outside of Chairman Carper the legislator and the native West Virginian I have known, I have gotten to know the person as well. He is just a very kind man. He is always advising people. We call them in our office--I don't know that I have ever told you this, but we call his sayings Carperisms. We have many Carperisms. I am skipping a few, but I am telling you the one that always, I think, embodies you, and that is to follow the Golden Rule and treat others as you would like to be treated. He has always shown respect to my staff, to our committee's witnesses, and to all of those who have worked together through the years. He is also a very pragmatic leader, obviously being elected numerous times in Delaware in all different kinds of posts, guided by his mantra of--here is another Carperism--figuring out what works and doing more of it. It is a pretty simple thing. And he is a self-proclaimed recovering Governor, but he is well-versed in the art of getting things done. Above all, Chairman Carper is a true American. He served his country bravely overseas in wartime, and he has given the last 23 years of his life to the service of this Chamber. Chairman Carper has consistently dedicated himself to making our country as strong as it can be and delivering for the people he represents. His character, compassion, and, yes, dogged determination will certainly be missed in the U.S. Senate, but the impacts of his work will continue to make a difference for generations to come. Chairman Carper--my friend Tom--it has been an honor to work with you, alongside you, and deliver for our country and for the people we both love so very, very much. So I wish you the best--you and Martha the best. I will tell you what. That man loves his wife Martha. The way he talks about you in such a venerated way is the way we should all be talking about our loved ones. I have a deep appreciation for that. So I wish you all the best. Thanks for your years of service, your friendship, and thanks for giving me a little part of your heart over these last several years because it has really helped me, and it has helped us work together so well. Thank you.

Mrs. CAPITO

Mrs. CAPITO. Madam President, today, I rise to really talk about a source of great concern for me and, I think, the American people, and that is the dangerous world that President Biden and his administration are leaving behind. We see a world engulfed in the flames of war in Europe and the Middle East and teetering on the brink in the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait. Our adversaries are testing us as Americans--our resolve--in ways that we haven't seen in decades. That instability puts us, I believe--the American people--at risk. We see that, I believe, President Biden has been a weak Commander in Chief who has sort of slept through this whole global order and led us into some chaos. Joe Biden may be temporarily tasked with steering the ship of state through these crises, but Joe Biden did not inherit this world; he has created it. Joe Biden's foreign policy? Well, he really doesn't have one that is consistent that I can see, aside from some flip-flops, some half- measures, and weak conciliations in place of strong deterrence--strong deterrence; whereas, as we look at the incoming President, President- elect Donald Trump, we see someone who has led and will lead with strength, someone who defeated the ISIS caliphate, who paved the way to peace in the Middle East with the Abraham Accords, exerted a maximum- pressure campaign on Iran, and got tough on China. And he is still talking in the same voice that he had, 4 years now later. President Biden's weakness has fueled violence and aggression the globe hasn't experienced in decades. On January 20, President-elect Trump is set to take the oath of office and once again assume the mantle of Commander in Chief. The task ahead of him and for all of us is monumental. Joe Biden is leaving us a messy world here, and it is up to the incoming administration and this Congress to be able to clean it up. Let's look at China. Over the last 4 years, China has aggressively expanded its military capabilities, including a massive increase in conventional and nuclear weapons. In 2020, the Defense Intelligence Agency assessed that China had about 200 nuclear weapons, which would reach about 400 by the year 2030. Those were the projections. Now, 4 years later, what do we see? The same Agency counts about 500 nuclear weapons in China and predicts that it will be more than 1,000 by 2030. Chinese military spending has surged, with 2024 being the third year in a row where its military saw a growth of more than 7 percent. At the same time, President Biden's Department of Defense requested four consecutive military budgets that actually cut defense if you look at it in light of inflation. While China continues to build the biggest navy in the world, Biden's defense budget called for us to shrink our Navy from 296 ships in 2024 to 294 ships in 2030. China knows these investments have consequences. President Xi knows that our failure to invest weakens America's ability to protect and to project power abroad. During its unprecedented buildup, China increased its assertiveness in the South China Sea and escalated its incursions into Taiwan's airspace. China's cyber capabilities are also emboldened. We see this regularly. Attacks like Volt Typhoon or Salt Typhoon reveal a brazen attempt, an intention to burrow deep into our critical infrastructure and threaten the American people. Yet the Biden administration has appeared more focused on seeking meetings and chasing down diplomacy with China. China recognizes hard power, and rebuilding ours will be a day-one project for the Trump administration. Let's pivot to the Middle East and our adversary Iran, which has also seized on the openings from President Biden's leadership. Under Joe Biden, Iran has been able to supercharge its support for terrorist proxy groups by increasing its lucrative oil exports without consequence. Under Biden's watch, Iran has used these billions of dollars to arm Hezbollah, to ship advanced weapons like ballistic missiles to the Houthis, who are attacking our American ships. And we see these attacks orchestrated across the region. Let me repeat: Iran- sponsored attacks on our own American forces. Our troops have faced hundreds of assaults on the ground and on the sea. Iran-backed aggression has killed U.S. servicemembers in Jordan and in the Red Sea. And let's not forget that there are still American hostages remaining held in Gaza, thanks to Iran's support of Hamas. All this should be completely unacceptable. What is more, Iran is closer to a nuclear weapon today than it was under President Trump. In 2020, Iran's so-called breakout time to produce enough fuel for a nuclear weapon was 3 months. Now it is under a week. When Israel was thrust into war for its survival--not of its own choosing--Joe Biden publicly questioned Israel's actions. He delayed critical arms shipments and damaged one of our most vital alliances. President Biden should know that U.S. support for Israel is a valuable deterrent. This undermining of the U.S.-Israel relationship would never take place under President Trump. He understood that peace through strength and our alliance with Israel is unshakeable; it is not a conditional agreement. Finally, as we stand here today, there is still a large-scale ground war in Europe perpetrated by Russia and Vladimir Putin. When Donald Trump assumes office, the war will be entering its third year, with an appalling toll in lives and suffering. More than 1 million Ukrainians and Russians have been either killed or wounded. Most recently, Putin has ramped up arms production, used a new ballistic missile capability, and deployed--incredibly, in my view-- North Korean troops for his offensive maneuvers. Donald Trump represents the off-ramp that the world needs, because looking to current American leadership, it is no wonder this conflict has escalated. This bloody war--especially with Iran and North Korea as Russian partners--is a stark reminder of what happens when America is perceived as weak. President Biden's foreign policy missteps, such as lifting sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 Pipeline, emboldened Vladimir Putin. And his suggestion that a ``minor incursion'' into Ukraine would receive a muted response--well, that certainly did not deter this catastrophic invasion. Then the Biden administration failed to push the whole of Europe to invest adequately in its own military and industrial capacity. For those of us who support military assistance for Ukraine, this administration has made it unnecessarily difficult for them to actually win this war. By slow-walking payments and stalling authorities--many of which they eventually agreed to, sometimes years later--the Biden administration failed to give full support to a sovereign nation who was unlawfully invaded. Donald Trump understands that Nord Stream 2 was a threat, and he sanctioned it. Donald Trump understood and understands that sticks work as well as carrots to boost Europe's defense spending and munitions production. He used that leverage, and we saw their investments go up. President Trump and his Cabinet will get to work on day one to push our NATO allies to meet their commitments and bring peace to the European continent where they live. The bottom line is this: There is a mess, and there is a mess to be cleaned up by the incoming President. America may not be at war, but this instability certainly threatens our national peace and prosperity. I would go even further and say that it really weighs heavily on the American public. To put it simply, failing to deter conflict makes it more likely that some of our young Americans, young West Virginians, will one day have to fight, and that again underscores the philosophy and the underpinnings that weakness can be very dangerous. My State of West Virginia is very proud that our West Virginians disproportionately, throughout our history, have answered the call to serve, but their service is not something that we take for granted. I believe that President Trump and his team are ready to get back to the peace-through-strength philosophy. They will restore our deterrence--the deterrence that ensures we don't have to send our men and women into harm's way. Deterrence is much cheaper in many, many ways--many different ways--than war. The good news is, we don't have to wait long because January is coming, and that will be the time when we get to work. Congress must take up the NDAA immediately--it has been floundering; the leader has refused to bring it up for at least 6 months--so that we can then put our critical national defense policies in place as this next administration takes office--something that we should have done, as I said, many months earlier. As for the Executive, I am confident President-elect Trump has the record and resolve to clean up the mess, and I look forward to working with my colleagues and the President to secure our country's rightful, respected, and preeminent role on the world stage. I yield the floor.

Mrs. CAPITO

Mrs. CAPITO. Mr. President, a few of us have some remarks to make about the honored Senator from West Virginia. When he is finished with his hugs, we will continue. Mr. President, I want to say to my friend Joe Manchin, wonderful speech. It really had a lot of meaning for me as someone who knows you very well but also to all of us. You have touched everybody's life in this room and many people beyond. So I just want to say a few words about my colleague and my friend and my fellow Senator from West Virginia, Senator Joe Manchin. In just a few short weeks, Senator Manchin--but we all call him ``Joe''--will be retiring from the Senate. But it is safe to say, and he has already guaranteed us, that it will not be the last time that we hear from him. Before he leaves us, I would just like to take a moment to highlight, from my perspective, his impressive and successful career for the country but particularly for our State of West Virginia. I would also like to acknowledge Joe's better half Gayle, up there, and his wonderful family. Gayle has endured all the hard work that comes with public service in her own right, and I would like to personally thank her and both of them as a great couple but also a wonderful and beautiful family that you have. I am so happy that they are here today. It seems just like yesterday that Joe was knocking on my door at 1010 Wilkie Drive in Charleston, WV. He was there to measure the carpet in the house that my husband and I had just purchased as newlyweds. This was over 40 years ago. And he measured that carpet, and he told me after I recounted the story to him later, he could lay that carpet today if he needed to. So fast forward. Today, Joe is serving in his 14th year as a U.S Senator, after serving our State in the House of Delegates, in the State senate, secretary of state, and as Governor. We went through a couple tragedies, really tough tragedies, when Joe was our Governor. And I can say, with maybe one exception--maybe my dad or they might be equal--I have never seen such a compassionate, empathetic, and effective Governor during really, really tough times. So I am going to miss working side by side with him, but I know that the relationship we have built over these years will continue for years to come. Joe has been the senior Senator from West Virginia for all of my 10 years of my tenure, and the reality is, I have got big shoes to fill here. And in case I forget that, Joe reminds me of that every single day. Sometimes we disagree. But when we disagree, we do it respectfully and on the merits. We might disagree; we don't become disagreeable. The next day, we get up and fight for the things we both believe in, and that is to focus our energy on improving the lives of our neighbors. That is how Joe sees his constituents: Everybody is Joe's neighbor. And that is what makes him a relentless advocate for our State. We have the same goals--all of us do--in mind of helping our States and our constituents. And in some ways, Joe and I have served like a tag team for our State. Sometimes he shows up when I can't get there, and he fills in for me. I show up when he can't get there, and I will fill in for him. And then we can come from both--we can do the double press. We can come from the Republican side, the Democrat side, and now we got the Independent side on our side. So we can really press, I think, and what that does is really has West Virginia punching above our weight here in the U.S. Senate. It could be backing West Virginia jobs and economic development, fighting for our coal miners, standing up for our veterans, or addressing the challenges that face our rural communities. Joe has always led with conviction and a very steady hand. I don't have time to list all of the efforts and successes that we have been able to work on together, and he has done many of these before I got here and way before I even became a Senator: UMWA pension bill, you mentioned that; New River Gorge Park and Preserve, huge victory for us; economic development issues that Joe mentioned; bipartisan infrastructure law; Mountain Valley Pipeline; Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub. It is interesting we have the same sort of recall of the things that we have been able to work on--Jessie's Law that Joe really pushed through in memory of a friend, a fellow State Senator whose daughter lost her life in an overdose, and so many, many more. He has enlisted me to help steer him sometimes to get the West Virginia victories, and I am so proud of the accomplishments that we have had together. So thank you for that partnership, Joe. It has really been important to me. Aside from his love of our home State, Joe possesses many other qualities worthy of a leader and a statesman. There is much to say about Joe Manchin. He is a dealmaker for sure--probably started as a salesman, yes--voice of reason, a defender, as he said, of Senate traditions, and as Politico said, ``The most powerful man in Washington.'' What do we think about that, Joe? I assume Joe would just as well want to be remembered as a good and steady friend. There are people in West Virginia who say: If you want a friend, get a dog. I wasn't sure if I was actually going to say that in light of your successor, but I said it anyway. I assure you those folks have never met Joe Manchin. Twenty years ago, I joined an all-male, all-Democrat West Virginia delegation here in Washington. I joked with Joe that I forced them to get out of the male restroom so we could have a delegation meeting, but Joe was always a warm and welcoming presence. He always picks up the phone if you need to chat; he is always ready for a joke, that is for sure; and he has been a shoulder to lean on during personal times. When he was Governor, Joe and Gayle Manchin invited my whole family back to the Governor's mansion, where my parents had lived for 12 years, to show us around. It was a really special evening. It was a simple and kind gesture that meant a lot to our whole family, especially my mom and dad. Years later, at my father's funeral, Joe delivered the eulogy and talked about his good friend, my dad, whom Joe always called ``Chief.'' Joe has always been there for every West Virginia family. I will note that sometimes Joe can be just a bit too present. When I am home in West Virginia, he is sometimes like a shadow. I won't even tell about the last time I saw you. He is sometimes like a shadow I can't shake. One night many Christmases ago, I was running out of the house with my husband Charlie, and we were late for somewhere we needed to go, but the doorbell rings. I open the door. It is a group of Christmas carolers. And lo and behold, there is Joe Manchin singing Christmas carols. I don't know. They must have needed a baritone. I don't know what happened. But he is always there, even when you don't know when you really need him. And my colleagues can testify, he has more energy than anybody I have ever met. He is everywhere. He is always traveling. He has always got that leg going too. I have noticed that. And he is always going fast. He has a prodigious lead foot--one I have personally experienced myself riding on motorcycles and in cars with him while traversing the country roads of West Virginia. There was the one time we were traveling home late at night together. We were just going into Beckley, and I turned to Joe, and I said: Have you ever been stopped for speeding? He said: More times than you would want to know. The reason I asked, because I saw the light in the rearview mirror. Here he comes. The guy leans in, takes one look. The trooper leans in, takes one look at Joe and says: Hey, Governor. And then Joe leans over to me and says: Well, look who I have got over here. And the trooper says: Just be careful going on up the turnpike. But before I leave, can I take a selfie with the two of you? We haven't seen that. I happened to believe every man or woman lucky enough to be elected to the Senate embodies the unique qualities of his or her State, and that is Joe in a nutshell, an honest, caring, hard-working individual, with a bit of West Virginia appetite for exciting and dangerous. That is because Joe's roots run deep in West Virginia. He is West Virginian through and through. Never does his gaze wander from what he sees as his moral obligation to improve the lives of West Virginians. Joe's love of the Mountain State is the engine that powered his pursuit of public office, and I am sure it will continue to power his efforts once he leaves. Joe may be leaving us, but I suspect his presence will continue to be felt in the many lasting relationships he has created over the years of his public service. I am even more certain that Joe will always be available for that phone call. So congratulations, again, Joe. It has been a privilege to serve with you, and thank you for everything you have done for our State and our Nation. We are very appreciative. I yield the floor. (Applause, Senators rising.)

Mrs. CAPITO

Mrs. CAPITO. Madam President, a few weeks ago, the American people spoke loud and clear. They rejected the policies that we have been seeing through this current administration. But, today, I rise to talk about the vision my Republican colleagues and I have for this future and the many solutions that we are eager to get back to work on that I believe will help get this country back on track. First things first, this newly formed Republican Senate majority is ready to close the previous chapter. It is a chapter I think that none of us really want to go through again. Soon, the Resolute Desk will change hands, and the Senate, under the guidance of my friend and colleague and soon-to-be majority leader John Thune, will get to work. And we have the full support of the incoming President, President-elect Trump. The American public wants to see real action. Back home in my State of West Virginia, people have conveyed to me that they are ready for real representation--a government of, by, and for the people. Senate Republicans will deliver responsive and responsible solutions for the American people. The task ahead is this: unshackling the American economy, securing the border, unleashing our American energy, reducing crime and lawlessness, and restoring American strength and deterrence on the world stage. These are the issues on which the voters placed their faith in us. I also believe that central to this mandate for this new American leadership is the idea that people really did feel better and preferred their lives under the Presidency of President Trump. I know for sure I did. So as the Senate fulfills its responsibility to pass legislation to get this country back on track, let's look no further than the previous Trump administration for the roadmap. President Trump unleashed American energy production, rolling back burdensome permitting rules and redtape. Republicans slashed regulations that canceled pipelines. We erased barriers to our new ones. America sits on the greatest treasure trove of natural resources in the world, and a Republican-led energy policy will not squander that. West Virginia knows the difference between good and bad energy policy all too well. We are an energy State. We have been blessed with a lot of natural resources, and we know that our economy and people's jobs and people's lives and people's families depend on us unleashing that energy. The jobs that President Trump saved--a lot of those jobs--were West Virginia energy jobs. So we can get back to a cheaper, more secure, and more reliable world by unleashing American energy once again. The Republican solution is ``America First'' energy policies that can result in energy dominance and our own self-reliance--no more depending on fuels from dictators who hate America or no more reliance on green energy from Chinese Communist Party-backed supply chains. It is going to take an ``all of the above'' approach, including opening up projects like our recently just opened Mountain Valley Pipeline so that we can deliver energy in markets, promoting carbon capture and sequestration to use our vast coal resources, nuclear energy, and renewables, as the market sees fit--and they are growing. In a few months, I will be chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. I am really excited about this opportunity, and I cannot stress enough how important these items are to the agenda. My Senate Republican colleagues and I are prepared to bring forward legislative solutions to help fuel American growth, and I hope our Democratic colleagues will join us in moving these solutions forward in the next Congress. On the economy, residents from my State--and the entire country--are still reeling from the elevated costs on all things, from housing, energy, food, and almost every other everyday essential. Personal finances are stretched so thin right now. For instance, in my State of West Virginia, West Virginians are spending, on average, an additional $930 a month, or more than $25,000 a year, due to inflation, since 2021. Actually, that is a total of $25,000 since 2021. The plan to get the American economy back on track is a tried-and- true formula of energy dominance--repealing burdensome regulations--and lowering taxes. It is pretty simple. You should keep more of your own paycheck, and the government should stay out of the way. I am looking forward to taking up legislation proposed by me and my other Senate colleagues toward these ends, including an extension and reauthorization of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that we passed in 2017-- including some of the most pro-growth tax reform policies that we have seen--as well as other potential budget solutions. Crime and the border go hand in hand. Under President Trump's first administration, both were managed. But now they are not. Look no further than the example of the addiction crisis, a direct product of lawlessness and the free rein of Mexican cartels. Just a few days ago, last Friday, I convened State and community leaders in West Virginia for a summit focused on combating the addiction crisis. The correlation between wide-open borders and the raging drug crisis was mentioned repeatedly at this summit, especially during the presentation and discussion with our law enforcement panel. Here is the fentanyl crisis by the numbers: CBP seized 27,000 pounds of fentanyl in the fiscal year 2023. That is only a fraction of the real amount that crosses our border. Keep in mind that a minuscule amount of fentanyl can have a deadly effect. Of the over 107,000 drug overdoses that occurred in the United States in 2023--I will repeat that number: 107,000; that is almost double the size of the capital city of Charleston in West Virginia, where I live-- almost 75,000 of those involved fentanyl. This out-of-control drug trafficking must end. It is a lawless scourge that takes more West Virginians per capita than in any other State in the Union. In sheer numbers, the death toll and calamity eclipse any other modern drug epidemic. We know what works because the rise in fentanyl overdose deaths stalled under President Trump. The bottom line, we have got to close the border and end the lawlessness. Yet again, Republicans have the roadmap. We did it once, and we can do it again. A heightened sense and appreciation for law and order from the border to the inner cities, to everywhere back home will feature prominently in this next Republican administration. President Trump presided over a relatively peaceful period of history unmatched in our national history. After crushing ISIS, the Trump-led world order went largely untested by the world's dictators and demagogues. The same cannot be said about the world today. China manipulates the Biden administration every day, while burrowing deep into our critical infrastructure and growing its military. Iran and its terrorist proxies wage war against our ally Israel. And, of course, there is the ongoing war in Ukraine. This is the world under the Biden-Harris administration's watch. In what seems like the most trying confluence of geopolitical struggles in a generation, America must lead through strength. Indecision and weakness have emboldened our adversaries. Republicans can start the next Congress by restoring deterrence against Iran and reinstating Trump's maximum-pressure campaign. We should cut off Iran's funding sources so that they can't continue to support these attacks against our U.S. servicemembers. Just last week, the Houthis fired at least eight drones, five ballistic missiles, and three anti-ship cruise missiles against our U.S. Navy ships. It was barely even news because this is now just a regular occurrence under this current administration. This administration apparently has no clue that our troops are under constant attack on land and sea, since our current Vice President, in her campaign, said that she didn't think any U.S. forces were in combat. America must protect our servicemembers and put Iran on notice that their weapons-dealing business is over. More broadly, a unified Republican government will be prepared to restore our military strength, refocus our DOD on lethality, and restock our critical munitions. I have detailed but a few of the ideas and solutions to this dangerous, costly, and disordered world that we are inheriting. It is a challenge fit for a strong government and even stronger leadership, and it is good that we have a change for who is in charge. Until then, I suggest the best course of action this body can take is to work diligently on the outstanding priorities that we have in front of us. I am talking about the NDAA--the National Defense Authorization bill--the government funding bills, and the farm bill. That way, the next Congress can stand at full attention, ready to advance policies to make our country safer, stronger, and a more resilient place. With that, I yield the floor.

Mrs. CAPITO

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

Mrs. CAPITO. I would ask that we proceed with the rollcall vote.

Mrs. CAPITO

Mrs. CAPITO. Madam President, as the Presiding Officer knows, today marks 23 years since the 9/11 terrorist attacks on our Nation. Although we are now over two decades removed from one of the greatest tragedies in our Nation's history, the memories remain in our minds as if it had just happened yesterday. Those horrific events in New York City, Washington, DC, and Shanksville, PA, forever changed national security in the United States of America. It also changed many of our families, our fellow Americans' families. Our Nation banded together-- we supported one another, and we rebuilt and recovered--but we will never forget. Many of us were here on that day. I was here in Washington, DC, in my office building on the House side. I certainly will never forget that awful and tragic day.

Mrs. CAPITO

Mrs. CAPITO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 401, S. 4367, the Thomas R. Carper Water Resources Development Act of 2024.

Mrs. CAPITO. I ask unanimous consent that the committee-reported substitute amendment be withdrawn; that the Carper-Capito substitute amendment at the desk be considered and agreed to; that the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time and passed; and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Mrs. CAPITO. Mr. President, I would like to talk about the bill here for a few minutes with my friend and the chair of our committee for which this bill is named, Thomas R. Carper. The enactment of biennial water resources legislation over the last 10 years has been critical to meeting the Nation's water and infrastructure needs. I am so pleased that the Senate just took the next step to continue that strong tradition by passing the bipartisan Thomas R. Carper Water Resources Development Act of 2024. This bill was developed based on more than 1,000 requests submitted by our colleagues on both sides of the aisle. Following the unanimous approval of the bill by the Environment and Public Works Committee, Chairman Carper and I endeavored to resolve a number of priorities from our colleagues. The resolution of these priorities is reflected in the latest amendment in the nature of a substitute that was just approved by unanimous consent. I want to thank my colleagues who worked with us on this bill and supported our efforts to move the legislative process forward. During the Environment and Public Works Committee's markup, I and a couple of my colleagues offered an amendment to name this bill after my friend Tom Carper. The chairman and I worked together over the years to advance bills that improve all types of infrastructure. It is a fitting tribute to the decades of public service that this bill is named after him, and I would like to take a few moments to highlight some of the benefits of the legislation. It authorizes critical water resources studies and projects across the country. These studies and projects will support navigation along our waterways and at our ports, protect communities from flooding, and improve our environment. The bill avoids a one-size-fits-all solution and maintains important flexibilities, so that the corps and non-Federal partners can continue to address the unique water resources needs of all communities. It also contains directives for the corps to develop comprehensive implementation plans for this bill and prior WRDAs. This will enable the corps to focus its energy and resources on fully implementing this WRDA and prior WRDA provisions in order to better reflect the intent of Congress. I also want to highlight some of the ways this bill will directly benefit my State of West Virginia. Almost 8 years ago, in June 2016, West Virginia experienced flooding at the highest levels, leading to tragic deaths and devastation. This bill provides support for future projects identified by the corps' feasibility study for flood risk management along the Kanawha River basin. The legislation also increases the ability of the corps to carry out certain smaller projects for emergency streambank and shoreline protection, ecosystem restoration, and debris and obstruction removal, which are critical to many areas in my State. The bill directs the corps to expedite feasibility studies for the Upper Guyandotte and Kanawha River basins, as well as to expedite projects in Milton and at the Bluestone Dam in Hinton. This bill supports drinking and wastewater projects all across our State. These are just some of the benefits from my home State, but the bill contains several similar wins for States all across the country. I want to take a moment to thank both my staff and Chairman Carper's staff, as well as the staff at the corps and the Senate legislative counsel, for their work on this bill and their continued efforts as we move to conference. I also want to recognize the leadership of the EPW Subcommittee on Transportation and Infrastructure, Chairman Mark Kelly and Ranking Member Kevin Cramer, for their and their staffs' dedication to this legislation. Again, I would like to thank my colleagues for supporting this substitute amendment to the Thomas R. Carper--should I say that again?--Thomas R. Carper Water Resources Development Act of 2024. I yield the floor.

Mrs. CAPITO

Mrs. CAPITO. Madam President, I rise today to address something that is not getting done on time, as it deserves to be done on this Senate floor; and that is the fiscal year 2025 National Defense Authorization Act. I am very pleased to see my fellow Senator from the Great State of Mississippi, who is the ranking member on this committee, who has spent numerous hours--and days and weeks--working this bill but also educating Members and Senators as to how important this is. The National Defense Authorization Act--or the NDAA, as we call it-- is an annual display of support for the national security of our country here in the U.S. Congress. In fact, we have passed the NDAA for 63 consecutive years. This bipartisan legislation supports our troops, supports our national security, and strengthens the capabilities of the U.S. military. In a time when we face some of the most dangerous security environments since World War II, the NDAA should be one of our top legislative priorities. But, unfortunately, Leader Schumer just doesn't seem to agree. And with the support of my Democratic colleagues, Leader Schumer has spent much of the summer on messaging votes that are crafted with no true intention of making a law, nominations for Federal entities, which we are going to be doing all day today, and the confirmation of judges that have--some of them--no business serving on the bench. This is not what the American people sent us to do for our country. The urgent need to pass the NDAA becomes obvious when you take into account what is currently happening in the world around us. First, our ally and friend Israel is under attack by Iran and its terrorist clients. Last week, we welcomed President Binyamin Netanyahu for a joint address to Congress, and he detailed the stark reality that his country is facing. Just a few days ago--just a few days ago--we learned the devastating news that 12 children and teenagers were killed by a Hezbollah strike while innocently playing on a soccer field. We know that Iran is the aggressor behind these attacks, and we know that they are doing all they can to grow their nuclear capabilities as well. Imagine the dangers of a nuclear-armed Iran and what that means for the stability in the Middle East. The last 24 hours alone have shown the rapid pace at which the Middle East security environment is changing. Israel is showing that it has the will and the capability to fight back against their aggressors--and I stand strongly in support with this ally. Second, there is a large-scale ground war going on in Europe for the first time since World War II. And we know Putin's territorial ambitions and aggressions extend far beyond Ukraine. Third, we are witnessing an unprecedented military buildup by China, accompanied by aggressions against Taiwan, the Philippines, Japan, and other partners in the region. This summer alone, China aggression in the South China Sea has threatened to spark a dangerous conflict with the Philippines--a country that has a mutual defense treaty with the United States. And just 5 days ago--I feel like everything is week to week--5 days ago, two Chinese and two Russian nuclear-capable bombers were detected near the coast of Alaska, prompting U.S. fighter jets to intercept these aircraft. This is the first time we have seen this type of joint strategic bombing training between China and Russia in their ``no limits'' partnership. Throughout all of this, we are watching China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea reinforce one another in their aggression. They are supporting one another and sharing resources to achieve objectives directly opposed to the United States, our way of life, and our values. If that doesn't raise alarm bells, I just don't know what will. On top of this, the National Defense Commission--charged with assessing our Nation's preparedness for future conflict--gave us a pretty stark warning this week, which was: The U.S. is facing the most challenging threats we've seen since 1945--and we aren't ready for it. According to this report, the Biden National Defense Strategy simply doesn't prepare us to deter or prevail in a future conflict. According to one headline, the Pentagon has insufficient forces inadequate to face China--and Russia. Here again, we cannot wait; we have to get serious about our national security. As I mentioned, Senator Wicker understands this. That is why he has released a proposal to help us repair our anemic military so that we are not at our lowest number of aircraft, ships, and munitions when China is building to their highest. It is clear that now is the time to invest in our military, our personnel, and our capabilities. We can do that and send a clear message to both our allies and our adversaries by passing a strong and robust NDAA. American leadership on the world stage has long been defined by ``peace through strength,'' but in order to do that, we must invest in strength first. The NDAA authorizes programs that the Department of Defense needs to replenish and grow our military stockpiles and to invest in the innovation and modernization programs we might need for a future fight. The NDAA will make critical upgrades to our nuclear, hypersonic, missile defense, and our space programs, and restore the arsenal of democracy by ensuring our country's ammo plants have the tools they need to modernize amid increasing demands for munitions. These are the facilities like the Allegany Ballistics Laboratory, which proudly operates in my home State of West Virginia. It also invests directly in the men and women of our military by providing a 4.5-percent pay raise for servicemembers and increasing the monthly pay for our junior enlisted troops as well. I have also worked to ensure provisions for my own State of West Virginia and how we can contribute to building our military and strengthening our national defense. It supports upgrades and operations at the Air National Guard facilities like the 130th Airlift Wing in Charleston, WV. It directs the U.S. Army to move forward on testing and fielding active protection systems on Army ground combat vehicles--to implement lessons learned from watching the failure of Russian tanks in Ukraine--and some of that testing is being done in West Virginia. The bill supports the resilience of undersea cables used by the Department of Defense--to make certain that critical missions are not disrupted--and provisions that move our country away from the reliance on foreign sources for critical precursor chemicals used for the manufacture of U.S. weapons. These are just a handful of the provisions included in the NDAA, but they speak to the importance of the legislation and the steps we need to take now to make sure that our military remains ready for any conflict that we may face in the future. The crux of the issue is this: The House of Representatives passed their version of the NDAA on June 14. The Senate Armed Services Committee approved our version of the NDAA the day before that--that would be June 13--and we have heard absolutely nothing from the Democrat leader about when he will bring this vital leadership to the floor for debate and consideration. So we are wasting the time of the American people on show votes and inconsequential nominees. Republicans are demanding action. We want to continue to point out the danger of sidelining our national security priorities. There is a desperate need for American leadership on the world stage, and a strong bipartisan National Defense Authorization Act helps us to get there. So I encourage my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to please recognize that. With that, I yield the floor.

Mrs. CAPITO

Mrs. CAPITO. Madam President, earlier today, Members of Congress had the distinct honor of hearing from Binyamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of the State of Israel. He is a leader of one of our most steadfast allies in an unprecedented time of strife for his country. Prime Minister Netanyahu's message to Congress today was a snapshot into the reality that his nation is facing and what they have experienced since the morning of October 7. He spoke to the urgency of bringing our hostages home and received a standing ovation for that; the courage and bravery of his Israeli forces and citizens and received a standing ovation for that; and his vision to bring peace, prosperity, and security to the Middle East--again, standing room only. Israel is a country at war, and, as the only democracy in the Middle East and a friend of freedom, Israel deserves the unwavering support of these United States. That is why it is incredibly disheartening to see that many of our Democratic colleagues were absolutely absent from the address--especially the Vice President. Her absence unleashed a completely unnecessary discussion about who would join the Speaker to preside over the joint address. For a time, her seat behind the podium was just simply up for grabs. I extend my thanks to my colleague from Maryland, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, for welcoming Prime Minister Netanyahu on behalf of the Senate, and that was Senator Ben Cardin. But unfortunately public debate over the Vice President's absence is not the message that we should be sending to the world. It seems some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have forgotten that 291 days ago, on October 7, 2023, Israel was the victim of an unprovoked terrorist attack. The attacking force, Hamas, killed 1,200 innocent Israelis, committed unspeakable acts of sexual violence, and took men and women and children as hostages. They also took Holocaust survivors. They even took an infant under 1 year old. Prime Minister Netanyahu mentioned that infant earlier today. That poor child, that poor baby, has now spent more of his life in Hamas captivity than in freedom. To this day, nearly 10 months later, hostages still remain in captivity, including American citizens, and they are being used as human shields at the same time. I was incredibly moved to see some of the hostages and their families represented in the House Chamber today. Hamas has proven itself to be a violent terrorist organization that continues to hide underneath schools and hospitals, intentionally putting civilians in harm's way. They have publicly called for the attacks of October 7 to be repeated again and again and again. The bottom line is this: Hamas has made it clear it has no interest in seriously negotiating a cease-fire, and they would rather engage in barbaric and, honestly, cowardly acts of terror, joining forces with terrorist organizations like Hezbollah and the Houthis, which continue their bombardment in bombarding Israel in every single direction. Just last week, Hezbollah fired 65 rockets into Israel. The Houthis conducted a deadly drone attack on Israel's soil as well as a ballistic missile that was thankfully intercepted by Israel's air defense. It is clear that Israel needs our support now more than ever. It is important that we take this moment to reflect on the longstanding ties that bind our country to Israel. The United States was the very first country to recognize the State of Israel. They have been our most stable and longest partner and ally in the Middle East. They have stood beside us in our Nation when we faced unprovoked acts of terror on our own soil. They have joined with us to develop ties with their neighbors through the Abraham Accords. They have been an essential ally in our efforts to dismantle Iran's nuclear program. This is a level of historic partnership that cannot be forgotten. Yet far too many in our country are willing to abandon our relationship with Israel, starting with this administration. Israel is in a fight for their survival against a terrorist organization that is not bound by laws. We know what it is like to be attacked in our country, but we don't know what it is like to be geographically surrounded by our worst enemies. Standing with Israel should not be an issue that divides us but, rather, one that unites us in defense of our longtime ally and friend. It is vital that the American public and my Democratic colleagues who missed the Prime Minister's speech today acknowledge the differences between Israel and Hamas. Israel is a bastion of freedom and democracy in the Middle East who is engaged in a war they did not start, by an organization whose only goal--only goal--is to destroy Israel. In keeping with their stated goal, Hamas has unleashed horrific, illegal, and unthinkable acts of violence on people simply because they are Jewish or Israeli. Hamas and their allies have made commanding use of the information space to sway public opinion here in our country, in the United States, in an attempt to make it appear that Israel is the aggressor in this conflict. My Republican colleagues, including those joining me here in these speeches today, know that claim is far from the truth. As the Prime Minister mentioned today, misinformation has long been used to target Israel and the Jewish people, and we have seen it lead to chaos on our college campuses and acts of aggression of anti- Semitism I never thought I would see. We have protesters waving Hamas, Houthis, and Hezbollah flags on streets right here in the United States, including today, surrounding the Capitol. At Union Station, they are burning the American flag. After those protesters were publicly applauded and will be--the ones today will be publicly applauded by the Supreme Leader of Iran, we now know that Iran is working behind the scenes to fan the flames of these protests. We need to be honest with ourselves about what each side of this conflict wants. The actions of Hamas are indefensible, and protesters conveniently forget that there was a cease-fire in place on the morning of October 7. I would say to these protesters: If the Iranian Supreme Leader thinks that you are on the right side of history, that is a pretty clear sign that you are not. The reality is this: Both Israelis and Americans want the fighting to end. For that to happen, both sides of the conflict need to agree to stop. That means Israel, but it also means Hamas. And right now, we are missing that signal from Hamas. As the Prime Minister mentioned in his speech today, Hamas could end this right now. Hamas must surrender, and Hamas must return the hostages. Now more than ever, our Nation must reject terrorism and stand with our ally Israel. While the White House has left our relationship in limbo, Republicans will not let it falter. We will continue to push for true American leadership on the world stage that keeps our promises to our friends in their time of need, that strikes fear in our adversaries and those who wish to do our allies harm, and that returns the moral clarity that is deeply needed in moments like this. I yield the floor.