John Cornyn

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, on another matter, we have just arrived back in the Nation's Capital following a couple weeks back home, and I am glad to report that I was able to put that time to good use. It is no secret that Texas is one of the best places in the country to do business, and that was certainly confirmed by my visit back home these last couple of weeks. I had the opportunity to visit with some of our most impressive businesses, from major manufacturing facilities to local, family-owned small businesses. One such visit was to Daikin Texas Technology Park in Waller County, a suburb of Houston. There, I had the opportunity to tour their facility and attend a townhall with many of their employees. It is a truly impressive facility, employing more than 10,000 workers in our State and leading the world in the engineering and manufacturing of heating and air-conditioning products. I also visited Alliance, TX, which is actually in Tarrant County or Fort Worth, which is now a massive, master-planned, mixed-use development in North Texas. Alliance is home to a number of important businesses, residential neighborhoods, and a thriving island inland port that boosts our country's supply chains. Located along an interstate with rail and air access, at 27,000 acres, Alliance is nearly double the size of Manhattan. From its inception in 1990 until today, Alliance has had an incredible $130 billion economic impact on our State. Now, as you might imagine, one of the major themes of my discussion back home was the importance of our major task at hand here in the Senate, which is extending the expiring provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. While we made an important first step by passing the budget resolution in the House and the Senate, now the various committees of jurisdiction have their work cut out for them to pencil in the details of the precise policies that will then require the President's signature. I spent a great deal of time back home hearing about the importance of these tax cuts and how they have benefited not just Texas families but small businesses throughout the State. I know most of the time when we think about job creators, we think about Fortune 500 companies, but the fact is, in Texas and across the Nation, it is our small businesses that are the primary engine of job creation. In the Dallas area, I met with Andy Ellard, the owner and general manager of Manda Machine Company, a third-generation, family-owned company in Dallas. Andy's grandparents founded the company in 1950, operating the business out of a back room in their house. Eventually, when the time came for them to retire, they sold the business to their daughter and her husband, who in turn sold it to their children. Now more than seven decades later, Andy and his siblings are the third- generation owners of Manda Machine Company. Now, if that is not the American dream, I don't know what is. Andy told me how beneficial the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was for his family business. He said that over the last 3 years, he has been able to invest $80,000 in improving his business as a result of that legislation. So if the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is not extended at the end of this year, Andy and his employees in this small business will lose out on these benefits that have helped his business grow and thrive and provide employment for other families. I visited another place in the Rio Grande Valley, this one called 5x5 Brewing Company. This is a veteran-owned, as it sounds, brewery which is dedicated to brotherhood, tradition, and, yes, you guessed it, great beer. This tradition is reflected on their menu as many of their signature beverages have names of military significance. There at 5x5, we had a panel discussion of small business owners, including Luis Espindola, who is one of the coowners of 5x5 and a Marine Corps veteran. I met with other business owners at that panel, like Sarah Hammond, who owns Atlas Electrical Air Conditioning, Refrigeration & Plumbing Services. Sarah is known as a pillar of her community, serving as chair of the Rio Grande Valley Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and helping to oversee the management of Hummingbird Trailer Park. On top of this, she is involved with an organization dedicated to helping develop and empower other women business owners. Then there was Jessica Delgado, who, having worked in the restaurant industry since age 16, now owns multiple restaurants, and she serves on the board of the Texas Restaurant Association and is a former chairwoman of the Texas Restaurant Foundation. Another impressive woman small business owner was Hortencia Camargo, the owner of C4 Transport and Hacienda La Hortencia and a licensed Realtor in McAllen, TX, and she is also the founder of GRASP, which advocates for safe gun storage practices around children. I also had the chance on this same panel to visit with representatives of the agricultural sector, including Dante Galeazzi--I am going to butcher Dante's name--Galeazzi, who is president and CEO of Texas International Produce Association, who emphasized to me how beneficial the Trump tax cuts were for Texas farmers and ranchers. The message I heard from all of these impressive Texas entrepreneurs, job creators, and pillars of the community was simple: The Trump tax cuts helped their businesses grow and flourish, providing benefits not only to themselves and their families but to their employees and their broader communities. Stories I heard from my fellow Texans like Andy, Luis, Sarah, Hortencia, Jessica, and others show how patently false the accusation is of our Democratic colleagues who somehow claim that this is just to benefit rich people. The fact of the matter is, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is not about helping the wealthy few at the expense of ordinary Americans, contrary to the Democratic talking points. You know, I have been here working in Washington--or what I like to call the forward operating base in hostile territory--for some time now, and the truth is, you get these prevailing narratives that get repeated over and over and over again and written about by the press that simply have no basis in fact or reality. The truth is, if we fail to extend the expiring provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, 62 percent of American taxpayers will see their taxes go up. Obviously--on top of a 40-year high inflation, which has raised input costs across the board by about 20 percent or more as a result of the policies of the previous administration, that obviously would have a tremendously negative impact on our economy and the standard of living, like the folks I mentioned back home. This is really about lifting up hard-working men and women across the country. The tax cuts are about helping every hard-working American achieve their dreams. If President Trump's tax cuts are not extended, as I say, virtually everybody or at least a significant supermajority of American working families will see a tax increase. Texans specifically will see taxes increase about $3,000 on average. I am sure every single one of my constituents can think about somewhere better to spend that $3,000 than to write a check to the IRS. Small business owners like many of the folks that I met with these last 2 weeks would see tax hikes of nearly 50 percent, and working families could see their child tax credit cut in half, along with the standard deduction, which was dramatically increased in 2017. Despite these hard facts, our Democratic colleagues continue to peddle the myth that President Trump's tax cuts are just for rich folks. It couldn't be more clear that these claims are nothing more than just that--myths. So I urge my fellow Republican colleagues to never mind the naysayers across the aisle. The American people, on November 5, gave us a job to do. We took the important first step by passing the budget resolution just before the Senate adjourned, and now that we are back in Washington, it is time that we finish the job. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that notwithstanding rule XXII, at a time to be determined by the majority leader following consultation with the Democratic leader, no later than Wednesday, April 30, S.J. Res. 49 be discharged from the Committee on Finance, and the Senate proceed to its consideration; further, that there be six hours of debate only, with the time equally divided between the leaders or their designees on the joint resolution and that following the use or yielding back of that time, the joint resolution be read a third time and the Senate vote on passage of the joint resolution.

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, there has been a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth in the mainstream media about President Trump's commonsense immigration enforcement agenda. That is one of the reasons he got elected on November 5. It is because the American people were fed up with open borders and with the 70,000 Americans who died of fentanyl poisoning, not to mention all of the criminals who came across the border along with everybody else. But to listen to some of my Democratic colleagues talk, one would think that Kristi Noem is deporting grandmothers. Well, this couldn't be further from the truth. So I want to take just a minute to correct the record to talk about exactly what is happening. The Trump administration is rightly carrying on one of the most basic functions of the government, and that is to keep our people safe. This isn't rocket science. This isn't partisan warfare. In order to keep the American people safe, we need to keep criminals and gangs off our streets, and that is exactly what the Trump administration is doing. The Department of Homeland Security recently announced they made more than 32,000 enforcement arrests in just 50 days--32,000. This is nearly as many arrests as Immigration and Customs Enforcement, otherwise known as ICE, made in the entirety of fiscal year 2024 when border crossings and ``got-aways'' were at an alltime high. Obviously, this was not a priority for the Biden administration, and we are all living with the consequences. Of these arrests that have been made under Secretary Noem, nearly half of them have been convicted criminals and others with final orders of deportation. These are people who were either criminals and did not want to appear in front of law enforcement, who were apprehended, or people who claimed asylum or some other legal benefit and lost their cases and are under final orders of deportation but were allowed to remain in the country under the Biden administration. Of these arrests that have been made under Secretary Noem, as I said, nearly half are convicted criminals. One-third of them have pending criminal charges. Nearly 1,200 of them are criminal gang members, and 39 are known as suspected terrorists. The Department of Homeland Security isn't carrying out this critical mission alone. This is a whole-of-government approach, as it should be. The Department of Justice is partnering with the Department of Homeland Security on a new interagency initiative to crack down on international organized crime, known as Operation Take Back America. International gangs, like MS-13 and Tren de Aragua, have been wreaking havoc, death, and destruction in communities across America. MS-13, for those who are not familiar with that particular gang, is reputed to be the most dangerous gang on the planet. It is composed primarily of Salvadoran criminal aliens and has 30,000 members around the world, including 10,000 here in the United States. Their motto is ``kill, rape, control.'' As I said, they are one of the largest and most dangerous street gangs in the United States. Many of their leaders are currently in prison in El Salvador for crimes like murder, kidnapping, and extortion. However, some on that side of the aisle or in the mainstream media have actually gone so far as to describe MS-13 as Boy Scouts in comparison with the destruction and devastation that has happened at the hands of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang known for human trafficking, kidnapping, and drug trafficking. This particular Venezuelan gang has been particularly aggressive in my home State of Texas, where the Department of Public Safety arrested more than 40 of the gang's suspected members just last week. In New York, Tren de Aragua has been recruiting gang members from New York migrant shelters, increasing cell phone robbery activities, and trafficking stolen phones back to their headquarters in South America. But the reason this gang became the topic at dinner tables across America was that they were responsible for the murders of both Laken Riley and a fellow Texan, Jocelyn Nungaray. I can't imagine anyone would be anything except relieved that the Trump administration has prioritized the removal of these gang members from our country. The Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice have shown an ability and a commitment to lock up these dangerous international terrorists at breakneck speed. As part of this initiative, a recently created task force in Virginia--just across the river--arrested 247 individuals in 2 weeks. So this is not just a phenomenon in border States like mine. These people are embedded around the country--literally, in every State. Among these arrests in Virginia was Henrry Josue Villatoro Santos, one of MS-13's top gang leaders, who was charged, in this instance, with illegal gun possession. Another MS-13 leader, Joel Vargas-Escobar, was arrested in New York just last week. This particularly dangerous criminal was most recently arrested for his alleged involvement with 11--11--murders, but this was not his first run-in with the law. He was previously arrested and deported back in 2018, but due to the Biden administration's open border policies, he was able to illegally enter the country again. The Department of Homeland Security recently announced that, in less than a week, ICE has arrested 68 gang members of the Venezuelan gang that I mentioned a moment ago. With Secretary Noem and Attorney General Bondi at the helm, I think we can all sleep more easily knowing that law enforcement is finally able to do their job, which is to enforce the law--something the Biden administration seemed positively allergic to. As a result, our homeland will be safer and more secure. The Trump administration is committed to dismantling these international criminal organizations that have created so much havoc and heartache throughout our country. It should be obvious and universal that keeping our citizens safe is not a partisan exercise. It is nothing more than common sense, and it is actually the responsibility of government to enforce the laws that Congress passes. Refusing to arrest and lock up criminals who never should have been in the country in the first place will go down in history as one of the biggest mistakes the Biden administration and Democrats have ever made. The Trump administration is rightly correcting the terrible mistakes of the Biden administration. The American people deserve to live in a country where they don't have to be fearful for their safety, and that is what they voted for last November 5. Parents should not have to worry about their children never being seen or heard from again simply because they go for a jog like Laken Riley did. Far too many innocent people have lost their lives because of the Biden administration's open border policies and failure to keep criminals and gangs out. It is incomprehensible to me that the President of the United States refused to enforce the laws, and it has resulted in so much pain and misery and heartache among so many people in this country. The Trump administration's, by contrast, arrests and deportations of criminal migrants here is part of the solution, not part of the problem. I am confident the American people know nonsense when they hear it, even when it is broadcast over mainstream media, and the fearmongering that we hear on the left about the Trump administration's efforts to keep all Americans safe are nothing more than that.

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I have six requests for committees to meet during today's session of the Senate. They have the approval of the Majority and Minority Leaders. Pursuant to rule XXVI, paragraph 5(a), of the Standing Rules of the Senate, the following committees are authorized to meet during today's session of the Senate: committee on armed services The Committee on Armed Services is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, April 10, 2025, at 8 a.m., to receive testimony in open and closed session. committee on banking, housing, and urban affairs The Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, April 10, 2025, at 10:10 a.m., to conduct an open session hearing on nominations. committee on commerce, science, and transportation The Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transporation is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, April 10, 2025, at 10 a.m., to conduct a hearing. committee on energy and natural resources The Committee on Energy and Natural Resources is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, April 10, 2025, at 10 a.m., to conduct a business meeting. committee on finance The Committee on Finance is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, April 10, 2025, at 10 a.m., to consider pending nominations. committee on the judiciary The Committee on Judiciary is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, April 10, 2025, at 10:15 a.m., to conduct an executive business meeting.

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, as the Presiding Officer will recall, it was 2:30 in the morning on Saturday--just a few short hours ago, it seems like--that the Senate voted to pass a budget resolution amending the House budget resolution, the next important step to passing President Trump's ``America First'' agenda. The budget will go back--and has gone back--to the House, and then it will be time for the committees to do really the hard work. This was the easy part, passing the framework, but now we have to write the bills to implement not only the continuation of the current tax provisions but also the spending cuts that are so important and to help the President keep his other promises that he made on the campaign trail. And we are on our way to what President Trump likes to call ``one, big, beautiful bill.'' Well, a lot of important conversations have been taking place, on both sides of the Capitol, about what the result will be. But while these questions and some differences are natural, the critical matter at hand in this budget resolution is to make sure that we don't impose a multitrillion-dollar tax increase on the American people. Now, there have been a lot of crazy allegations made about what the budget actually did or did not do, while some of our colleagues have said that the American people don't want to see their tax cuts extended, which is false, and I don't know who they are talking to. And then they claim that the extension would benefit the wealthy few at the expense of the middle class. That is also another false statement. As I said, if the President's tax cuts are not extended, we will see a multitrillion-dollar tax hike, the largest in history, and 62 percent of American taxpayers will see a tax increase in 2026. Working parents will see the child tax credit cut in half, and the average family of four that earns $80,000 a year will face a $1,700 tax increase. Back home in Texas, my constituents would see their taxes increase by $3,000 on average next year. Now, imagine this. If we failed to follow through on President Trump's campaign promises and on our campaign promises, if we agreed with the Democrats who were demagoguing this issue, can you imagine what that would do to the standard of living of hard-working American families? And that would be on top of 4-year high inflation--actually the highest in 40 years. So that would be, to me, insult added to injury, to add a huge tax increase on top of all of the inflation that Americans experienced during the last 4 years--roughly, on average, about a 21-percent increase in the cost of living. But not just families would be affected. Small businesses would see their Federal tax rates increase by almost 50 percent. One recent survey found that 61 percent of small business owners said they would have to increase prices as a result of the tax increase on them. Can you imagine what that would do to already high prices as a result of inflation? Nearly half of these small businesses reported that they would have to postpone or cancel capital investments; in other words, they couldn't grow their business, hire more employees, or improve their equipment. Now, these are not massive corporations, as we hear from folks on that side of the aisle. They talk about businesses as if they were all Fortune 500 companies. Most businesses in America are small businesses, the owners of which pay business income on an individual tax return-- so-called passthrough entities. And these are the folks--these local entrepreneurs are the ones--that create jobs and help employ hard- working Americans who are pursuing their American dream. Republicans, it is good to announce or report or reassure that we are united against these defenseless claims coming from the other side. That doesn't mean they will stop. They are depending on low-information voters, people who just read the headlines or read certain propaganda to carry the day on their false allegations about this just helping the rich people. Or one of my favorite is they were arguing during the budget vote-arama, as it was called, that this was going to affect Social Security. They know and we know that the law prevents Social Security from being even included in these discussions. So how could it possibly be true? It can't be true. So we have to get this bill over the finish line by sometime this summer. In addition to preventing the biggest tax increase in history, this bill will provide an opportunity for us to take important steps in controlling spending and addressing our national debt. Now, I noticed the chairman of the Armed Services Committee just came into the Chamber, and he knows, like I know, as the Presiding Officer knows, that we are now paying more for interest on the national debt than we are on defense, in a very dangerous world--perhaps the most dangerous since World War II. So we have to begin the process of controlling our spending, and the only way we do that is by looking at everything that the Federal Government spends. The Federal Government spends about, I think, roughly $6.7 trillion a year, but it is crazy to acknowledge that we only typically look at about 28 percent of what the Federal Government spends--so-called discretionary spending. So we have to find a way to reduce our spending, not only on the discretionary side but on the mandatory side, so we can fund our Nation's priorities. And our top priority as the Federal Government has to be to defend and protect the American people and our way of life. But we can do this without tampering with essential programs like Social Security, as I said, and programs like Medicare that our seniors rely on. Now, one of the ways we can do this, which I hope we will embrace wholeheartedly, is to look at means-tested Federal programs. So what does it mean to have a means test? Well, it depends on your income. Wealthy people don't qualify. People of modest and lower income brackets can qualify for these means-tested programs. But they need to have work requirements for able-bodied adults because there are a lot of able-bodied adults that are simply living off of the American taxpayer, costing billions and billions of dollars for the taxpayer, running up our national debt, when they should be contributing to our economy and contributing to their families and their communities by doing meaningful work. For a long time, there was a bipartisan consensus around work requirements. In 1996, for example, President Clinton and Newt Gingrich, when he was Speaker of the House, came together to pass monumental reforms on the way our welfare system works in America, and one of the key components of that was that welfare assistance depended on work for able-bodied adults. We are not talking about children. We are not talking about the elderly. We are not talking about the disabled. We are talking about able-bodied adults. The Welfare Reform Act of 1996 replaced AFDC, as it was called, with TANF, or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, which imposes a 5- year limit on cash assistance and required recipients to either work or participate in some type of job training. The bipartisan goal of this policy was to promote self-sufficiency rather than dependency, something the Federal Government ought to encourage and incentivize as much as we possibly can. And here is the good news: It actually worked. It worked. It is not just a theory. Within 5 years of passing the law, welfare's caseloads declined close to 50 percent--the first significant decline since World War II. Employment and earnings increased among low-income individuals, with employment among single mothers increasing from 50 to 100 percent 7 years after President Clinton signed it into law. During the same time period, child poverty declined by 2.9 million people. But despite the success of this bipartisan policy, the Obama administration began to roll back these requirements by issuing TANF work requirement waivers. In other words, they said to the various States: You don't need to impose this work requirement on able-bodied adults in order to collect temporary assistance for needy families. The Trump administration built on previous successful work requirement policies by issuing a rule that would condition SNAP, or food stamps as they are sometimes called, on similar work requirements. After all, why should somebody be able to qualify for food stamps if they are able to work and simply refuse to do so--and, in fact, when it is good for them to actually go back to work and provide the dignity that goes along with that, to self-sufficiency supporting themselves and their families and their communities. The U.S. Government spends about a trillion dollars on means-tested assistance programs, and work requirements are a commonsense step forward for reform. But setting aside the budgetary impact of work, there is a moral reason for these work requirements. Gainful employment has dignity. People feel better about themselves. They are more productive. They are happier. They are able to contribute not just to their own well-being but to that of their community and their family. So it is more than just a paycheck. It can help address the loneliness epidemic that we saw, particularly post-COVID, and it is proven to improve mental health outcomes across the board. So I would encourage my Republican colleagues to join me in strengthening work requirements across means-tested programs when the time comes to identify these savings within our committees. The American people voted overwhelmingly for President Trump, and now it is our turn to deliver the ``America First'' agenda that our constituents voted for and take this opportunity to address our national debt and encourage more Americans to pursue gainful employment instead of solely relying on government benefits. The Senate has completed our next step by passing President Trump's budget, and it is time for the House to do the same. I yield the floor.

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate resume legislative session and be in a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I have seven requests for committees to meet during today's session of the Senate. They have the approval of the Majority and Minority Leaders. Pursuant to rule XXVI, paragraph 5(a), of the Standing Rules of the Senate, the following committees are authorized to meet during today's session of the Senate: committee on armed services The Committee on Armed Services is authorized to meet in open session during the session of the Senate on Thursday, March 27, 2025, at 9:30 a.m., to conduct a hearing on nominations. committee on banking, housing, and urban affairs The Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs is authorized to meet in open session during the session of the Senate on Thursday, March 27, 2025, at 10 a.m., to conduct a hearing on nominations. committee on commerce, science, and transportation The Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, March 27, 2025, at 10 a.m., to conduct a hearing. committee on commerce, science, and transportation The Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, March 27, 2025, at 2:15 p.m., to conduct a hearing on a nomination. committee on foreign relations The Committee on Foreign Relations is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, March 27, 2025, at 11 a.m., to conduct a business meeting. committee on health, education, labor, and pensions The Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, March 27, 2025, at 10 a.m., to conduct a hearing. committee on small business and entrepreneurship The Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, March 27, 2025, at 9:30 a.m., to conduct a business meeting.

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I further ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 148, submitted earlier today.

Mr. CORNYN. I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. Finally, Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned until 3 p.m. on Monday, March 31, that following the prayer and the pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, morning business be closed, and the Senate proceed to executive session and resume consideration of Calendar No. 40, Matthew Whitaker; further, that at 5:30 p.m., the Senate vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the Whitaker nomination; and, finally, if cloture is invoked on the Whitaker nomination, all time be considered expired and the Senate vote on confirmation of the nomination at a time to be determined by the majority leader, in consultation with the Democratic leader.

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask that it stand adjourned under the provisions of S. Res. 148.

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I have spoken before about my constituent, my fellow Texan, Elon Musk here on the floor and recounted the fact that it was really, maybe, probably--at least 15 years ago, maybe a little longer, when he came to my office here in Washington, DC, and said he had a new company called SpaceX, and he wanted to compete for the business of NASA and commercial space. And as it turned out, Mr. Musk had to sue the U.S. Government just for the privilege of competing with the United Space Alliance, I believe it is called, the existing entity that had an exclusive contract on space flight with the U.S. Government. I read recently that now SpaceX carries about 90 percent of the payloads in the world into space. It is a remarkable testament to not only his incredible innovation but resilience and persistence to build such a successful company. And that is not the only one he has built. Tesla is headquartered in Texas. I have been out to the Gigafactory right outside of Austin, TX, and he is building cars that are very popular and employing an awful lot of Texans--which I am all in favor of--and they continue to grow and hire more of my constituents. Mr. Musk has done something here in Washington, DC, in the last couple of months which is heresy; it is heresy. He has actually said the Federal Government spends too much, and he said a lot of what the Federal Government spends is waste and fraud and abuse. And much of it, as we have seen, are things that most of us had no real awareness of. But as he has targeted some of the most egregious examples of waste and abuse of the taxpayer dollar, I think there are many people across the country--certainly where I come from--who have applauded that effort. They feel like this has been long coming and long overdue. One of the major challenges we face here in Washington, DC, is that spending money is very popular, and, of course, people who spend money--even though it is not theirs, it is the taxpayers' dollars--can go home and say: Guess what I did for you. And most of it involves spending. But we are now having to come to grips with the fact that we are $36.4 trillion in debt, and we have kicked the can down the road so long that we have run out of road. And, indeed, many of us have talked over the years about the fact that this is immoral. We basically are writing checks that our children and grandchildren will have to cash. Somebody is going to have to pay that money back. And now we are spending more money on interest on the national debt than we are to defend the Nation, which is a very dangerous set of circumstances, given the situation we find ourselves in, which is the most dangerous time since World War II. Now, it is no secret that Elon Musk is perhaps the richest man in the world. I don't begrudge him that. It looks like he has done some amazing things and continues to do so. I know that with that sort of money, he doesn't have to be up here volunteering to do some of the work that needs to be done in terms of identifying the waste and abuse. He could go relax on an island somewhere. He could buy an island. He could do whatever he wants and he wouldn't have to lift a finger to help anybody else and he could just live a life of luxury and leisure for the rest of his existence, but I don't believe he is wired that way. I am grateful for that because, instead, he is volunteering his time to serve not only the President of the United States but the American people. You don't have to agree with everything that Mr. Musk recommends to recognize that this is an incredible public service, and this is long overdue, identifying all of the waste and abuse and egregious expenditures of taxpayer dollars. In fact, I am a little shocked that our Democratic colleagues don't join us in this effort. I happen to be a member of what we call the DOGE Caucus, the Department of Government Efficiency. We are making recommendations to DOGE to look at different departments of the government and say: Can you find savings here? Can you find expenditures that don't make any sense? I am kind of shocked our Democratic colleagues refuse to join us in that. It seems like, in a normal world, they would be concerned about this too. Instead, they just say: The status quo is just fine. We don't need to change a thing--$36.4 trillion and counting. And, in fact, they seem to be in denial of the fact that President Trump and Republican majorities in both Houses were elected on November 5. Hopefully, that won't continue indefinitely. But what I want to mention is some of the violence and the acts of vandalism that have occurred around the country that have been focused primarily on Tesla owners. Now, by the way, most of these Teslas aren't owned by Elon Musk anymore. They have been sold to private citizens, and yet they have been the target of a lot of the vandalism and violence that we have seen around the country. Just 2 days ago, police officers found what they called multiple incendiary devices at a local Tesla dealership in North Austin, where I live. Now, this prompted a full bomb squad to respond, and an investigation is still underway. Thankfully, there were no injuries, but it is ridiculous that the state of our public discourse has reached this point. The North Austin Tesla dealership bomb threat, unfortunately, is not the first of its kind. It comes on the heels of another attack in Las Vegas where several Teslas were set on fire outside of a service center. I have no idea what that was supposed to accomplish. The protesters vandalized the building by spray-painting the word ``resist'' on the front doors, while at least one protester reportedly threw a Molotov cocktail. Over on the west coast in Seattle, four Cybertrucks were set on fire earlier this month. The Associated Press has reported that there have been at least 50 demonstrations around the country focused on Tesla, while more are planned, not just here in the United States but around the world in countries like England, Spain, and Portugal. Some Tesla owners have reported incidents of vandalism of their personal vehicles. Some have been even spray-painted with swastikas. Now, why anyone would think that would be a good idea is beyond me. It should go without saying, but I will say it anyway, that that kind of violence and vandalism of private property is unacceptable. But I know not everybody is speaking up to condemn these attacks. Now, I support the First Amendment. Obviously, I take an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States--all of us do here in the Congress--and I will defend the right of all Americans to express their views about government, even when they and I may disagree. But the First Amendment, we know, does not protect activities like placing explosive devices or damaging private property. Those are simply crimes, and I would hope that much is obvious. It is certainly understandable, and perhaps inevitable, that some people will disagree about reducing government spending. Our Democratic friends are the party of government. They got us 40-year high inflation because, during the last 4 years, we have seen an unprecedented expenditure of taxpayer dollars, which is inherently inflationary. And every single American has seen an increase in their cost of living and a decrease in their quality of life because they are paying about 21 percent more today than they did 4 years ago. But there are people who think that spending money without any sort of second thought is a good idea--maybe people who benefit from that government spending--but they also have a right to express their concerns. I am not suggesting that they don't. But what is far from understandable and, in fact, is inexcusable is what we are seeing in the examples that I mentioned: this expression of political disagreement in the form of vandalism, destroying private property, and especially using potentially fatal means like the incendiary devices that were found in Austin. We should not hesitate to call this what it is: domestic terrorism. Now, I wish I could say that this kind of behavior is an anomaly and has never happened before and is unlikely to happen again, but, unfortunately, this has happened before, and it is reminiscent of the violent unrest that plagued our Nation with the BLM riots that happened during the summer of 2020. We live in a democratic republic, not a banana republic. We are blessed to live in a country where we value and protect the rights of citizens to speak freely. We live in a country with universal suffrage, where citizens can bring their disagreements with their government officials to the ballot box. But placing bombs and lighting cars on fire is not an appropriate means of expressing dissenting views in a country like the one we are blessed to live in. We are so much better than that. For this reason, I was disappointed to see one of my fellow Texans in our congressional delegation go so far as to condone these kinds of activities. Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett recently made comments encouraging violent protests at a virtual rally. She said, and I quote--these are her words, not mine. She said: All I want to see happen on my birthday is for Elon to be taken down. Well, that could be interpreted any one of a number of ways, but I believe it is wrong to wish on any American, much less a fellow Texan, and I would expect better than this sort of incendiary rhetoric from a Member of Congress who was elected to her position because of the very democracy we are fortunate to enjoy. But this isn't the only thing she said recently that has raised eyebrows and resulted in condemnation. Congresswoman Crockett recently commented that our Governor, Gov. Greg Abbott--who happens to be a paraplegic as a result of a terrible accident years ago--she referred to him as ``Governor Hot Wheels,'' presumably because he is in a wheelchair due to an accident decades ago. And then Senator Cruz, my colleague, the junior Senator from Texas, she said should ``be knocked over the head, like hard.'' This is disgraceful, and we should call it for what it is. We have a duty as elected officials to bring out the best in our country, not to take the low road. And, particularly, we should not encourage harm against people we don't particularly agree with. This is a disturbing trend in political rhetoric, one that has turned to violence--again, not for the first time, but we should condemn it, and we should shut it down now. These events should serve as a wake-up call that it is past time to turn down the temperature. I believe that all Americans and all Texans deserve better. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I have seven requests for committees to meet during today's session of the Senate. They have the approval of the Majority and Minority Leaders. Pursuant to rule XXVI, paragraph 5(a), of the Standing Rules of the Senate, the following committees are authorized to meet during today's session of the Senate: committee on environment and public works The Committee on Environment and Public Works is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, March 26, 2025, at 10 a.m., to conduct a hearing on nominations. committee on foreign relations The Committee on Foreign Relations is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, March 26, 2025, at 10 a.m., to conduct a hearing. committee on foreign relations The Committee on Foreign Relations is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, March 26, 2025, at 2:30 p.m., to conduct a hearing. committee on the judiciary The Committee on the Judiciary is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, March 26, 2025, at 10:15 a.m., to conduct a hearing on nominations. select committee on intelligence The Select Committee on Intelligence is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, March 26, 2025, at 2:30 p.m., to conduct a closed briefing. subcommittee on personnel The Subcommittee on Personnel of the Committee on Armed Services is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, March 26, 2025, at 2:30 p.m., to conduct a hearing. subcommittee on strategic forces The Subcommittee on Strategic Forces of the Committee on Armed Services is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, March 26, 2025, at 9:30 a.m., to conduct a hearing.

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, for some reason, the Presiding Officer has drawn the short straw to be the Presiding Officer during my daily or frequent speeches here on the floor, though I appreciate your patience and indulgence. This morning I come to the floor to talk about the Intelligence Committee's ``Worldwide Threats'' hearing that is ongoing now in the Hart Office Building. We have all the leaders of the intelligence community, including the Director of National Intelligence, there. We hold this hearing once a year. It serves as an important reminder of where the United States stands in terms of the rest of the world and what you should be concerned about and what we should protect against. Key among the threats that have been testified to already in open session--and we will be going to a closed, classified session here shortly--but key among the threats discussed this morning was the threat of Russia. Russia is engaged, of course, in an ongoing hot war with Ukraine, a conflict that President Trump is rightly seeking to end. While this is perhaps toward the forefront of many people's minds when they think about Russia, it is not the only threat Russia poses to the West, and I use the term ``West'' advisedly. That is not just the United States. That includes the United States, but it is far broader than that. Some have described--and I think even the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, this morning confirmed--that Russia is engaged in a shadow war against the West. One of the ways that they have engaged in this shadow war is through sabotage. That, again, was also confirmed by the Director of National Intelligence this morning. She said these have included attacks against transportation targets like trains, airplanes, and other vehicles, attacks against government and military targets. And some of these attacks have been directed toward critical infrastructure like pipelines, undersea fiberoptic cables, and the electric grid. Russia has also targeted industries like defense companies and the leaders of such companies that support their adversaries. These attacks have accelerated in recent years. Between 2022 and 2023, Russia has quadrupled its orchestrated sabotage attacks in Europe. And then they nearly tripled again in 2024. And while this behavior has escalated in recent years, it should come as no surprise to anyone who is familiar with Russian history or the history of Russian actions when it comes to their adversaries. Given Russia's geography, it has always been part of their strategy to extend their westernmost border to provide a larger buffer and a smaller border for Moscow to have to defend. But above and beyond their history of aggressive expansionism, trying to restore, really, the now- collapsed Soviet Union, Russia also has a history of using tactics outside of conventional warfare. These are tactics that advance Russia's strategic interests and weaken those of its adversaries but may not rise to the level that would merit countermeasures by the target of these efforts. The Soviet Union, the predecessor to the Russian Federation, has historically heavily relied upon such tactics during the Cold War; for example, the KGB, which was the name of the premier Russian intelligence agency back during the Cold War. The KGB led a campaign to influence public opinion among certain populations to advance Soviet interests. And, of course, that has continued today under Vladimir Putin and the Russian Federation. One of the reasons the KGB and now the modern intelligence agencies of the Russian Federation use these methods is they do not necessarily trigger article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization agreement. Article 5 is the agreement that an attack against one member of NATO will be considered an attack against all, which is why it is called a collective defense agreement. And the United States, of course, is one of the signatories to that North Atlantic Treaty Alliance. And one of the risks of Russia triggering article 5 is that it would necessarily risk a broader war, regional or even worse. And, of course, I know we are all acutely aware of the dangers posed by any country triggering article 5 of NATO. This is, in part, why President Trump has rightly insisted that our NATO allies increase their defense spending in line with their NATO commitments. It is just not fair or appropriate or, actually, in NATO's self-interest for those countries to depend entirely on the United States, which is why President Trump has said the 2 percent of GDP defense spending requirement is really out of date and that really NATO countries should be spending somewhere closer to 5 percent of their gross domestic product on their defense. Again, that is also to relieve the burden on the American taxpayer who has been picking up the tab for far too long. And we see the success that President Trump has had by urging our NATO allies to provide more for their self-defense, with France and Germany leading the charge to reinvigorate their defense budgets. That is encouraging, but it takes time. But it needs to start, and it has already started. But in any case, it is clear that Russia is concerned about anything that might trigger article 5 treaty obligations. Russia, in fact, knows that in a conventional war, it is no match for the West or NATO. And so they resort to behind-the-scenes activities to indirectly advance their own interests and harm those interests of their adversaries without triggering a reaction from the West. Now, some of these are the reasons why--because Russia knows that it cannot win a conventional war in Europe, were one to break out, is why it continues to rattle the nuclear saber and why Putin, over and over and over again, threatens the possibility of the use of tactical nuclear weapons, which, of course, would be catastrophic for everybody involved. Some of my colleagues may be familiar--I am sure the public is--with the analogy of a frog in boiling water. If you drop a frog in a pot of boiling water, it will immediately jump out, but if you put a frog in a pot of lukewarm water, you can slowly acclimate the frog to that temperature and it will not jump out. But, of course, once the water comes to a boil again, it will kill the frog and, obviously, be too late. That analogy, I believe, applies to the threat that Russia continues to pose to the United States and our friends and allies around the world. This could, in fact, be the West, if we are not vigilant, because we know that the approach and the tactics and the intentions of the Russian Federation have really not changed over time. They are slowly, however, turning up the temperature to weaken us and perhaps to lull us into complacency. But this is not the only tactic that Russia has employed in its war against the West. They also have a history of more blatant war crimes. In 2014, Russia violated its commitments in the 1994 Budapest Memorandum by annexing Crimea, which is part of Ukraine. The Budapest Memorandum, which, again, was dated in 1994, was a treaty signed by Russia, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Under this agreement, Ukraine, which had become newly independent after the fall of the Soviet Union, Ukraine would dispose of its nuclear arsenal in exchange for an agreement to protect its territorial integrity and independence. And at the time, Ukraine had the third largest nuclear weapons stockpile in the world. So it was certainly in the interest of the United States and world peace to see Ukraine dispose of that nuclear stockpile. But then, again, in 2022, Russia violated its commitments under the Budapest Memorandum by launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. These actions are a clear signal to the West that Russia has a history of reneging on its agreements and simply cannot be trusted. And so the task at hand for the West, including the United States, is to reestablish deterrence of Russia and to make sure that we do everything we can to disincentivize them from continuing this long train of abuses. And, of course, one of the consequences of rising feelings of insecurity in Europe is that now you have countries like Poland talking about acquiring nuclear weapons. You have the incoming chancellor of Germany saying that perhaps the UK and Germany should share its nuclear weapons with Ukraine. Now, I had the chance to question the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, and I asked whether this threat of proliferation of nuclear weapons made the world a more dangerous place. It seems like an obvious question. But, of course, he confirmed that that would be the case. So proliferation of nuclear weapons in Europe is a bad thing and something we ought to seek to avoid at all costs. So I know President Trump has a big task in front of him, and I personally will do everything I can to support his efforts. But we need to reestablish deterrence without seeing nuclear weapons proliferate, which will, in fact, make the world more dangerous and not safer. As I have said before, and I think is obvious to all of us, we are living in the most dangerous time since World War II. And, certainly, this morning's hearing on the world threat assessment before the leaders of the intelligence community have driven home this reality and confirmed what we already knew.

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. I yield the floor.

Mr. CORNYN

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

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I was happy to be back home last week, as were, I am sure, all the Members of the Senate. And as typically happens--as I was explaining to my constituents--typically, we are in session here about 3 weeks out of the month, and then we have a week back home where we can travel our States. Whether you are in North Carolina or you are in Texas, usually, you have a lot of ground to cover in a relatively short period of time, but it is always good to be back home. I want to report a little bit on some of my travels because it was a very, very productive week. From Corpus Christi, which is on the gulf coast of Texas, and Houston, also along the gulf coast--now, the Gulf of America--to Midland, to Dallas, to San Antonio, to Austin, I had great conversations with folks that are praising the work we are doing here in Congress. It is nice to get some good reviews now and again, but particularly our support for President Trump's agenda and for his team. The last time the President got elected, Democrats dragged out the confirmation process, and it took, literally, months before the President had his Cabinet in place. But as a result of keeping the Senate in session for an extended period of time without breaks, we finally broke the opposition and got, basically, most of the President's Cabinet confirmed to this point, and people are excited. Of course, energy security is national security, and President Trump, unlike his predecessor, said he wants to usher in an era of American energy dominance, which is also important not only for our national security but also for our economy, bringing down gasoline prices at the pump so working families can feel that. It is already beginning to work. During the week, I traveled out to Midland, TX, which is where the Permian Basin is located. This is a region that is famous for its energy production. It actually extends from Texas west into New Mexico. I went on a tour of a field where the oil is literally being produced from the ground and then processed and then injected into a pipeline where it heads to refineries and other parts of the State and the country. This impressive facility is making a lot of headway thanks to the most advanced technology, delivering affordable and reliable energy while using state-of-the-art technology. One of the issues that had been raised in the past because of environmental concerns is a release of various methane emissions into the atmosphere. This is as a result of loose connections in pipe and other designs that needed to be improved upon, and, indeed, they have been. New emissions monitoring systems use everything that include the use of helicopter-mounted sensors and other improved technology to help improve efficiency and reduce those emissions, which means cleaner air and lower costs. I went down to Corpus Christi, which is on the gulf coast of the Coastal Bend region of Texas, and met with energy businesses located there. Primarily, they are in the export business. They are exporting American LNG and oil to our friends and allies around the world. Corpus Christi is home to a number of impressive and innovative projects. One of the things they are working on that I intend to do more to help them with is to put in place a desalinization plant. (Mrs. BRITT assumed the Chair.) One of the challenges we have in Texas because of the huge development of our State--31 million people and growing, 1,600 people a day moving into the State--is that our development is outstripping our ability to provide water to communities all across the State, and because of permitting problems, it takes forever to build a new reservoir. So one of the things that Corpus Christi is doing is using state-of-the-art desalination plants, modeled after what they have observed in Israel, for example, and it has six of these impressive facilities. Desalinization uses nanofiltration to remove salt and other minerals from seawater. One thing we have an abundance of on the gulf coast of Texas--in Alabama as well--is we have a lot of seawater, which allows, in using this technology, our State and that region to meet future water needs. This is something I want to engage in here in Washington with my friends and colleagues who may have similar issues in their home States. As I tell my constituents back home, usually when they identify a problem, I go on a hunt to try to find Senators from States that have similar issues and concerns and then build a consensus and support for solutions that we might be able to offer in cooperation with our State and local authorities. The technology is impressive, and it has the potential to address significant needs in a growing region. As I said, it is not even just in the Corpus Christi area; it is throughout the State and, perhaps, even throughout other parts of the Nation. In addition to desalination, we had a great discussion about the importance of the Port of Corpus Christi and the product that passes through that port that helps America's energy independence and helps our friends and allies around the world. I heard firsthand of the benefits that have come to the Coastal Bend from the Corpus Christi Ship Channel Improvement Project. Because of these ultralarge oil tankers, they are able to carry up to 30 percent more oil in these tankers to our friends and allies around the world than our existing ships, but the problem is, they need to deepen and widen the port, which is why the Corpus Christi Ship Channel Improvement Project is so important. This will dramatically increase the capacity for crude oil to our friends and allies and will save the port up to $150 million every year. In 2015, Congress approved the lifting of the ban on crude oil exports, which has allowed the Port of Corpus Christi to become the third largest port for oil exports in the world. America is one of the most significant energy producers, and in large part, it is because of what happens in the Lone Star State. The ship channel project will make the Port of Corpus Christi one of the deepest and widest in the Gulf of America. When America has the capacity, I believe, under the current administration, to drill and export more oil and gas, it means the rest of the world becomes more reliant on America and less reliant on our adversaries, like Russia. I have been a longtime advocate for the Corpus Christi Ship Channel Improvement Project, and after decades of hard work by so many, it is exciting to see this project move forward and come to completion here in the next few weeks. But increasing energy production wasn't the only one of President Trump's agenda items we discussed when I was back home. Another important opportunity I had during the State work period was to meet with my constituents to talk about the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and how it has helped their small businesses and their employees thrive. I remember 2017, during President Trump's first term, when we passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Democrat colleagues at the time said: Well, this is only going to help the rich. Well, it didn't just help the rich. It literally helped everybody in every tax bracket. So I thought it was important to go back and talk to my constituents and say: OK. What was your experience, and how important is it to you that we continue by renewing the expiring provisions of that legislation--some of which expire in 2025. Well, not surprisingly, the folks back home disagreed with those who are reading from the talking points from the Democratic National Committee. For example, I met with the good folks at Southland Hardware in Houston, TX. Now, this is one of the original hardware stores that you don't find very much anymore, where you can literally buy almost everything that you can imagine. We also had representatives from Empire Tools and Sylvia's Enchilada Kitchen and Tejas Office Products-- all thriving small business owners who shared their support for the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and explained why it needed to be extended. I heard the same thing from business owners all across the State, including Austin, where I live. We went to Wally's Burger--even in Austin--right at the start. I went there in 2018, and I went back. Robert Mayfield, who employs a single franchise there in Austin, 7 years later, reported that the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act had been very, very helpful, allowing him to provide better benefits and bonuses to his employees whom he considers to be part of his family. So I would encourage the naysayers of our Democratic colleagues to actually talk to real people about what their experiences have been. I would bet what I learned was not isolated. I am sure it is common throughout the country. I am sure they would find that the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act did not, contrary to our Democratic colleagues, just help a bunch of rich people. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act has, in fact, allowed people in communities from Austin to Houston and everywhere across the country to provide more of what they have earned to their families; to provide employment opportunities for their neighbors, and contribute to their communities, which is just another way of saying: Help them to help contribute to the American dream. So that is why we have no option but to extend the expiring provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Many are already benefiting-- ordinary working families and small business owners--as I said, but if Congress fails to extend these expiring provisions, these same people who have sacrificed so much will no longer be able to offer the same benefits to their workers, making it harder for them to attract the talent they need and making it harder for them to literally keep their doors open. If we fail to extend the tax cuts, 62 percent of American taxpayers will see a tax increase in 2026, including people like the ones I mentioned back home in Texas--small business owners, in particular, because they pay a business income, typically, on an individual tax return--their so-called passthrough organizations, not corporations. They will be particularly hard-hit. They would see their Federal tax rates increase nearly 50 percent. Working parents would see the child tax credit cut in half, and Texans, whom I represent, would see their taxes increase on an average of $3,000 next year. I would be happy to introduce our Democratic colleagues to these folks, and they can learn what I learned if they are willing to listen. Hope springs eternal. I am sure these same folks would be happy to give them an earful about why their view of the tax cuts only benefiting millionaires and billionaires is dead wrong. So I look forward to continuing to work with my colleagues here in the Senate and our House colleagues to pass a budget resolution, then to get the necessary reconciliation instructions in order to make this happen. There is so much more we have to do. We have to get our country back on a sane fiscal path. We are now at, roughly, $36.4 trillion in debt. In other words, the current generations and previous generations have racked up debt that our kids and grandkids and great-grandkids are going to be responsible for paying, which strikes me as profoundly immoral. We know how to fix this. We should, and we can now thanks to President Trump's election and his commitment not only to reducing waste and inefficiency in the government, as identified by the Department of Government Efficiency, but also to looking at programs that we haven't revisited in decades: to look at whether they still make sense, whether there need to be some reasonable work requirements for able-bodied adults for means-tested programs. All of these things are on the table, and we need to roll up our sleeves and get to work here in the coming weeks so we can get this done without delay. So I was delighted to be home, but now we are back at work. We need to roll up our sleeves and get the job done because failure is not an option. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, a lot has changed in Washington, DC, in the last 6 weeks. That is an understatement, perhaps. But one of the things that President Trump has done is shifted the Overton window when it comes to the People's Republic of China. Years ago, when the Clinton administration invited China to join the World Trade Organization, the idea behind that was that somehow communist China would change with being part of the rules-based international order. Well, of course, we know China doesn't follow the rules and has taken advantage of the United States for decades. But under President Trump, that will no longer be the case. For example, last month, the White House announced its America-first investment policy, which will be critical for holding China to account. One of the avenues that China has exploited to gain the upper economic hand is through both inbound and outbound flows of capital. By investing in U.S. companies, the People's Republic of China and the Chinese Communist Party can obtain access to intellectual property and know-how. And, of course, they have no shame. Again, they don't play by our rules. They are not afraid to cheat or steal our technology if it is possible. On the other side of the coin, U.S. investments from the United States are flowing into China and have for a long time. A 2021 estimate was that the market value of U.S. investments in China was valued at more than $1 trillion. Now, the reason why that is important is that China has used that investment to build their economy and their military. It has allowed them to advance technologies that one day might be used against the United States. So I am very glad that President Trump, by his Executive order, has brought this issue from the back burner to the front. It is no secret to any of my colleagues that I have been working on this issue for a while now. I was proud to partner with President Trump during his first administration to update CFIUS, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. This interagency committee reviews foreign investments and real estate transactions to determine whether they pose any security risks for the United States. Through the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act, or what was known as FIRRMA, we strengthened and modernized CFIUS to rise to the occasion of new threats coming from the People's Republic of China. The President's America-first investment policy builds on this by directing CFIUS to restrict PRC investments in U.S. tech, agriculture, energy, raw materials, and more. But as Chinese companies get richer and richer from American investment, it is clear that restricting inbound investment is not enough. We need to prevent the People's Republic of China from using capital investments by the United States to gain access to and copy our technological advances--most importantly, in certain critical sectors. As of 2023, U.S. investors were investing close to $2 billion in Chinese critical technology sectors, including semiconductors, quantum computing, and artificial intelligence. A report from the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission noted: ``The United States is the most important foreign source of investment to semiconductors, quantum computing, and AI in China.'' Let me say that again. ``The United States is the most important foreign source of investment to semiconductors, quantum computing, and AI in China.'' So it is these investments, which are largely opaque to us, as policymakers, that are helping China basically compete with us. We know, of course, it is not just about economic competition. We know that China has a strategy of military-civil fusion, which means that these investments are not simply benefiting China's economy and consumer tech sector; they are directly helping build China's military strength. It is not too dramatic to say that as I stand here, U.S. dollars are funding the development of technologies that could one day be used against Americans, potentially even to kill Americans or American troops. Inbound and outbound investments are simply two sides of the same coin. We can't be giving away all of our intellectual property and our incredible innovation for Chinese companies to copy at will, and we can't be giving them the capital to recreate our ideas or reverse- engineer and then use them against us. How can we expect to outcompete our most significant competitor on the world stage if we are sending billions of dollars directly into their arsenal? President Trump has been a great partner with Congress on ending this exploitative relationship with China. Again, this is not dealing with another country on the basis of good faith and a knowledge that everybody is operating from the same set of rules and norms. China does not, and we have recognized that more recently, but it is important to reemphasize because some people, I think, still naively assume China operates by the same rules the United States does. So I am glad the President is as excited as I am to finish the job we started with CFIUS reform. Today, I am proud to announce that I am introducing legislation to finally tackle this issue called the Foreign Investment Guardrails to Help Thwart China Act. The acronym is FIGHT China. Two years ago, I sponsored an amendment to the NDAA requiring transparency for these outbound investments. It passed the Senate overwhelmingly with a final bipartisan vote of 91 to 6. We don't see many votes here in the Senate these days where there is such strong bipartisan support, so I am grateful for that. Regrettably, even in the face of such overwhelming consensus, this amendment did not make its way into the final version of the bill for reasons I won't dwell on now. But, as my colleagues can attest, I am not one to give up easily, and this issue is simply too important to American national security to take no for an answer, so I have continued to work with great partners in the House, in the Senate, and in the Trump administration to continue to make progress on this and bring us to where we are today. The legislation we are introducing today has been the culmination of years of work, and I believe it is stronger as a result of the input and the collaboration that have occurred. The FIGHT China Act will establish a program at the Department of Treasury to prohibit U.S. investments in certain sensitive technologies in the PRC. Now, some people may say: Well, if you stop all U.S.-based investment in China, that is a big problem. But we are not talking about that. I could care less how many Starbucks or Burger Kings are built in China. It only addresses certain of the most sensitive technologies. These include advanced semiconductors, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and hypersonics. Of course, all of these have a military application. So this is not just an economic question; this is a national security issue. We know that all of these critical industries directly support the Chinese military, and this is the military that has been instructed by President Xi to be ready to invade Taiwan or to absorb Taiwan one way or another, either by force or by coercion, by 2027. It is simply foolish to continue to send money to fuel these technologies that could be used perhaps in the next few years against the United States and our allies. This legislation would create a notification regime to create more transparency around investments that are not prohibited. You know, as long as we are blind to how much money is being invested in China and in what technology and in what sectors it is being invested in, we as policymakers can't do our job and the administration can't do its job, which is primarily to keep our country safe and the American people safe. This legislation will authorize the President to impose sanctions against any PRC entity that engages in PRC military or intelligence sectors. I want to express my gratitude to our colleagues, people like Senators Cortez Masto, Warren, Banks, Slotkin, Ricketts, Bennet, Hagerty, Kim, McCormick, Schumer, Sullivan, Fetterman, and others for their partnership on this legislation. I especially want to recognize the chairman of the Banking Committee, which has principal jurisdiction over this subject matter, Senator Tim Scott, and thank him for working with me and cosponsoring this legislation. Last but not least, President Trump has been a great partner to see this project to the finish line. Everything we are doing here is working hand in glove with the administration to ensure that the People's Republic of China is not allowed to meddle with the United States under the guise of simply doing business. But time is running short. We know that China, as I said, has an interest in reincorporating Taiwan as early as 2027, not 2 years from now. Now is not the time to continue to allow them access to copy all of our work, in particularly the most sensitive areas. Nor is it the time to allow them to continue to benefit from U.S. investment dollars now that they are no longer a developing country, but they are one of the most advanced economies in the world and certainly a rising military power. We know that China, Iran, and Russia have conducted joint naval drills in the Middle East, called the Maritime Security Belt 2025. These exercises took place in the Gulf of Oman near the strategic Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which nearly a fifth of all crude oil traded in the world passes. This is an ominous sign. We know they are strengthening their cooperation together in a way to undermine and challenge the West, including the United States. The last thing the United States should do is to join this cooperation by investing in the Chinese military, and that includes not just the Government of the United States but all Americans and American businesses and investors. So the President has been right to highlight this growing threat, and I look forward to continuing to work with President Trump and Secretary Bessent to ensure that U.S. dollars no longer are able to help build the Chinese military and line the pockets of the country that is working to undermine the international rules-based order and the United States first and foremost.

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, a lot has changed in Washington, DC, in the last 6 weeks. That is an understatement, perhaps. But one of the things that President Trump has done is shifted the Overton window when it comes to the People's Republic of China. Years ago, when the Clinton administration invited China to join the World Trade Organization, the idea behind that was that somehow communist China would change with being part of the rules-based international order. Well, of course, we know China doesn't follow the rules and has taken advantage of the United States for decades. But under President Trump, that will no longer be the case. For example, last month, the White House announced its America-first investment policy, which will be critical for holding China to account. One of the avenues that China has exploited to gain the upper economic hand is through both inbound and outbound flows of capital. By investing in U.S. companies, the People's Republic of China and the Chinese Communist Party can obtain access to intellectual property and know-how. And, of course, they have no shame. Again, they don't play by our rules. They are not afraid to cheat or steal our technology if it is possible. On the other side of the coin, U.S. investments from the United States are flowing into China and have for a long time. A 2021 estimate was that the market value of U.S. investments in China was valued at more than $1 trillion. Now, the reason why that is important is that China has used that investment to build their economy and their military. It has allowed them to advance technologies that one day might be used against the United States. So I am very glad that President Trump, by his Executive order, has brought this issue from the back burner to the front. It is no secret to any of my colleagues that I have been working on this issue for a while now. I was proud to partner with President Trump during his first administration to update CFIUS, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. This interagency committee reviews foreign investments and real estate transactions to determine whether they pose any security risks for the United States. Through the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act, or what was known as FIRRMA, we strengthened and modernized CFIUS to rise to the occasion of new threats coming from the People's Republic of China. The President's America-first investment policy builds on this by directing CFIUS to restrict PRC investments in U.S. tech, agriculture, energy, raw materials, and more. But as Chinese companies get richer and richer from American investment, it is clear that restricting inbound investment is not enough. We need to prevent the People's Republic of China from using capital investments by the United States to gain access to and copy our technological advances--most importantly, in certain critical sectors. As of 2023, U.S. investors were investing close to $2 billion in Chinese critical technology sectors, including semiconductors, quantum computing, and artificial intelligence. A report from the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission noted: ``The United States is the most important foreign source of investment to semiconductors, quantum computing, and AI in China.'' Let me say that again. ``The United States is the most important foreign source of investment to semiconductors, quantum computing, and AI in China.'' So it is these investments, which are largely opaque to us, as policymakers, that are helping China basically compete with us. We know, of course, it is not just about economic competition. We know that China has a strategy of military-civil fusion, which means that these investments are not simply benefiting China's economy and consumer tech sector; they are directly helping build China's military strength. It is not too dramatic to say that as I stand here, U.S. dollars are funding the development of technologies that could one day be used against Americans, potentially even to kill Americans or American troops. Inbound and outbound investments are simply two sides of the same coin. We can't be giving away all of our intellectual property and our incredible innovation for Chinese companies to copy at will, and we can't be giving them the capital to recreate our ideas or reverse- engineer and then use them against us. How can we expect to outcompete our most significant competitor on the world stage if we are sending billions of dollars directly into their arsenal? President Trump has been a great partner with Congress on ending this exploitative relationship with China. Again, this is not dealing with another country on the basis of good faith and a knowledge that everybody is operating from the same set of rules and norms. China does not, and we have recognized that more recently, but it is important to reemphasize because some people, I think, still naively assume China operates by the same rules the United States does. So I am glad the President is as excited as I am to finish the job we started with CFIUS reform. Today, I am proud to announce that I am introducing legislation to finally tackle this issue called the Foreign Investment Guardrails to Help Thwart China Act. The acronym is FIGHT China. Two years ago, I sponsored an amendment to the NDAA requiring transparency for these outbound investments. It passed the Senate overwhelmingly with a final bipartisan vote of 91 to 6. We don't see many votes here in the Senate these days where there is such strong bipartisan support, so I am grateful for that. Regrettably, even in the face of such overwhelming consensus, this amendment did not make its way into the final version of the bill for reasons I won't dwell on now. But, as my colleagues can attest, I am not one to give up easily, and this issue is simply too important to American national security to take no for an answer, so I have continued to work with great partners in the House, in the Senate, and in the Trump administration to continue to make progress on this and bring us to where we are today. The legislation we are introducing today has been the culmination of years of work, and I believe it is stronger as a result of the input and the collaboration that have occurred. The FIGHT China Act will establish a program at the Department of Treasury to prohibit U.S. investments in certain sensitive technologies in the PRC. Now, some people may say: Well, if you stop all U.S.-based investment in China, that is a big problem. But we are not talking about that. I could care less how many Starbucks or Burger Kings are built in China. It only addresses certain of the most sensitive technologies. These include advanced semiconductors, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and hypersonics. Of course, all of these have a military application. So this is not just an economic question; this is a national security issue. We know that all of these critical industries directly support the Chinese military, and this is the military that has been instructed by President Xi to be ready to invade Taiwan or to absorb Taiwan one way or another, either by force or by coercion, by 2027. It is simply foolish to continue to send money to fuel these technologies that could be used perhaps in the next few years against the United States and our allies. This legislation would create a notification regime to create more transparency around investments that are not prohibited. You know, as long as we are blind to how much money is being invested in China and in what technology and in what sectors it is being invested in, we as policymakers can't do our job and the administration can't do its job, which is primarily to keep our country safe and the American people safe. This legislation will authorize the President to impose sanctions against any PRC entity that engages in PRC military or intelligence sectors. I want to express my gratitude to our colleagues, people like Senators Cortez Masto, Warren, Banks, Slotkin, Ricketts, Bennet, Hagerty, Kim, McCormick, Schumer, Sullivan, Fetterman, and others for their partnership on this legislation. I especially want to recognize the chairman of the Banking Committee, which has principal jurisdiction over this subject matter, Senator Tim Scott, and thank him for working with me and cosponsoring this legislation. Last but not least, President Trump has been a great partner to see this project to the finish line. Everything we are doing here is working hand in glove with the administration to ensure that the People's Republic of China is not allowed to meddle with the United States under the guise of simply doing business. But time is running short. We know that China, as I said, has an interest in reincorporating Taiwan as early as 2027, not 2 years from now. Now is not the time to continue to allow them access to copy all of our work, in particularly the most sensitive areas. Nor is it the time to allow them to continue to benefit from U.S. investment dollars now that they are no longer a developing country, but they are one of the most advanced economies in the world and certainly a rising military power. We know that China, Iran, and Russia have conducted joint naval drills in the Middle East, called the Maritime Security Belt 2025. These exercises took place in the Gulf of Oman near the strategic Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which nearly a fifth of all crude oil traded in the world passes. This is an ominous sign. We know they are strengthening their cooperation together in a way to undermine and challenge the West, including the United States. The last thing the United States should do is to join this cooperation by investing in the Chinese military, and that includes not just the Government of the United States but all Americans and American businesses and investors. So the President has been right to highlight this growing threat, and I look forward to continuing to work with President Trump and Secretary Bessent to ensure that U.S. dollars no longer are able to help build the Chinese military and line the pockets of the country that is working to undermine the international rules-based order and the United States first and foremost.

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, last night, the House of Representatives passed a short-term government funding bill that would extend funding through the end of this fiscal year. That is the end of September. I was surprised to see only one Democrat in the House, Jared Golden from Maine, saw the light that a shutdown is a bad choice. Nevertheless, 212 Democrats voted against the continuing resolution, effectively voting to shut down the government. It remains to be seen whether our colleagues here in the Senate, our Senate Democrats, will vote for a Schumer shutdown or not. The cognitive dissonance, though, is striking and I think worth commenting on. If I listen to our colleagues across the aisle, they claim to have a lot of concern for the Federal workers that depend on government funding. They talk a pretty good game. So I find it interesting that so many of them in the House cast a vote that would put thousands, even hundreds of thousands, of Federal workers out of work, which is what results when the government shuts down. Of course, I don't like continuing resolutions any more than the next person. They are certainly not the ideal way to govern, and I will talk about that in a minute. But it remains the second worst choice, a shutdown being the worst of all. So let's take a look at how we got here in the first place. Last year, the Senate Appropriations Committee, on a bipartisan basis, passed all but 1 of their 12 appropriations bills. What did the majority leader--Senator Schumer at the time--what did he do? He simply refused to schedule any of those appropriations bills for a vote. So it is because of Democratic dysfunction that we find ourselves now in a continuing resolution situation rather than having already attended to what in effect was last year's business and passing appropriations bills for the entire fiscal year. Well, if our Democratic colleagues don't like voting for another CR, I would encourage them to take that up with their now-minority leader, as this falls squarely on his shoulders. But the truth is, most of all, our Democratic colleagues are just mad about the outcome of the November 5 election. Here in the Senate, I am glad that Senate Republicans are working to pass this necessary CR that will ensure that we prevent a government shutdown.

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to complete my remarks prior to the scheduled rollcall vote.

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, it is another week in Washington and I think maybe the 52nd day since President Trump was inaugurated, and we are seeing the compliant mainstream media continue to spread falsehoods about the work of the Department of Government Efficiency and Elon Musk. As I have said before, the Federal Government has a spending problem, and, like with any addiction, getting clean and solving that problem is not necessarily easy or comfortable, but it is long overdue and absolutely necessary. With the national debt at $36.2 trillion and counting, we have to start somewhere, and little things add up. What better place to start than the waste, fraud, and abuse that DOGE is identifying? This has long been a bipartisan issue--I can think of everything dating back to the Grace Commission, where waste, fraud, and abuse was a bipartisan target--but apparently not with President Trump in the office and not with Elon Musk in charge of the effort to identify the spending. If you take a look at most things that the Federal Government is cutting at the recommendation of DOGE, it becomes harder and harder to become a DOGE skeptic unless you are just blind to what they are doing. Last week, I mentioned the waste that DOGE had identified with subscriptions and software licenses. People may think, well, that is no big deal, but there is no reason taxpayers should be footing the bill for expensive subscriptions that go unused. DOGE uncovered the potential for massive fraud with an audit they conducted of government credit cards. At the beginning of the audit, there were 4.6 million active government credit cards--4.6 million. After 2 weeks, DOGE identified nearly 150,000 credit cards that were thankfully unused or unneeded and closed both down. I am sure there is more to be done with 4.6 million active credit cards. There is no reason for so many government employees to have direct access to spending taxpayer money at the click of a button or the swipe of a credit card. This is basic and would never happen in the private sector or in our individual lives, but in the Federal Government, before this administration and before DOGE, this was commonplace and has been overlooked for way too long. There are some instances of fraud that we have known about for some time, but it has taken the Trump administration and DOGE to identify and fix them. For example, the Government Accountability Office submitted a report to Congress last April estimating that the Federal Government loses between $223 billion and $521 billion every year as a result of improper payments. The Federal Government is making improper payments and spending potentially up to half a trillion dollars. Naturally, this was an opportunity for DOGE to identify this waste of taxpayer dollars. DOGE found payments to illegal immigrants using multiple Social Security numbers to submit Medicare claims, something for which they are not legally entitled. They found $57,000 in Medicare payments in 2020 for a patient who actually was recorded to have died 14 years earlier. It is amazing you can continue to charge for Medicare payments 14 years after your death. In one particularly egregious instance, an illegal immigrant with a warrant out for her arrest was receiving more than $100,000 in loans from the Small Business Administration, but the waste and abuse of tax dollars goes beyond mere inefficiencies. Some of the other line items on the DOGE cutting floor are so patently absurd it would make your blood boil. For example, last week, the National Institutes of Health canceled more than a half billion dollars in grants for transgender experiments on mice. You can't make this stuff up. It is stranger than fiction. In a similar vein, NIH also canceled millions in woke grants ranging from promoting healthy relationships among transgender youth to delivering transgender services via telehealth. I think if you ask most taxpayers how they would like their money to be spent, these programs would not make the cut, but that is not all. NIH is also canceling research grants that were going to universities in China. They canceled a grant for $1.7 million going to the Peking University in Beijing for the ``China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study.'' Once again, I think American taxpayers would prefer to focus on the things here at home, including their own retirement savings rather than sending millions of dollars to China to study health and retirement security in a country which is our chief geopolitical rival, but that is not all. The list goes on. A group called the Inter-American Foundation has been significantly reduced after DOGE found egregious misuse of tax dollars, including over $900,000 going toward alpaca farming in Peru. That is on top of $800,000 for vegetable gardens in El Salvador and more than $700,000 to improve the marketability of mushrooms and peas in Guatemala. I know that children frequently squirm at the dinner table when they are told they have to eat their vegetables, but I don't think this is an area where most people think our tax dollars should be spent. Unfortunately, this waste doesn't stop at the vegetable aisle. This foundation also spent more than $600,000 to expand the sales of fruit and jam in Honduras as well as nearly half a million dollars on improving the production of artisanal salt in Ecuador--artisanal salt in Ecuador. Well, thank goodness the Department of Government Efficiency and Mr. Musk were key to identifying these egregious abuses of the taxpayer, but they have been going on for a long time until the Trump administration came along. So I am grateful that now some of these outrageous expenditures of tax dollars are being exposed and dealt with. As I said earlier, Washington, DC, has a spending problem. And like any addiction, it is hard to kick the habit, especially after you become adjusted to it, but it is time for a little cold turkey when it comes to this addiction. Many people who benefit from this gravy train don't want it to end. So, naturally, many of our colleagues on the other side are concerned about DOGE, and they want to suggest that everything the Federal Government does is absolutely perfect. They wouldn't change a thing. But they don't really have any real substantive response to these outrageous examples that I am mentioning here. They wouldn't change a thing. They see these stats, and they tell you don't believe your lying eyes. But those of us who have looked into it, who have taken the time to study what has been exposed, know otherwise: The government is not infallible. We have an unsustainable level of Federal debt that threatens our economy and our national security, and the truth is, the Trump administration and Republicans are hard at work trying to address it to make the government more efficient and more affordable for American families. So, once again, I would like to do something that you don't hear very often here in DC these days and thank Elon Musk for his service to our country in performing this essential and long overdue role.

Mr. CORNYN

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

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, last week, I came to the floor to debunk some of our Democratic colleagues' myths, disinformation, mistaken information about the work of Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency. Ronald Reagan liked to say that facts are stubborn things. It is important to talk about the facts because, hopefully, even in Washington, DC, we can agree on the basic facts. We may have some different interpretations, different policy preferences; but facts are facts are facts. Today, I want to do the same thing about the Republican efforts to extend the upcoming expiration of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, or what is sometimes called the Trump tax cuts, through the budget reconciliation process. Now, I don't blame the American people or anybody else, when listening to all the process we talk about, and just their eyes glazing over and just tuning us out. But the truth is, if we don't extend the expiring provisions of this tax bill that we passed back in 2017, during President Trump's first term, a vast majority of the American people will experience a tax increase. And that, of course, is on top of a 40-year high inflation during the Biden administration. I guess nobody likes to talk about taxes because, on one hand, people say: Well, you know, people need to keep more of their hard-earned money. On the left, what they like to say is, you are giving billionaires a tax cut and leaving average wage earners and working families high and dry. The truth is, on the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act bill that we passed in 2017, the individual rates that will expire at the end of this year, if we don't continue the current policy using the budget reconciliation process, 62 percent of American taxpayers will experience a tax increase. That is not just millionaires and billionaires. That is everybody across the income spectrum. On the left, our Democratic colleagues, some of them have been claiming that extending these tax cut provisions, as I said, will benefit the very rich at the expense of the rest of us. Our colleague from Massachusetts, Senator Markey, said: Instead of fighting for working people, Trump is selling them out to give billionaires tax breaks. There they go again. And to no one's surprise, our colleague from Vermont, Senator Sanders, accused President Trump and Elon Musk of being ``oligarchs''-- ``oligarchs.'' He went on to say: ``The oligarchs''--that is the very rich people who have accumulated massive wealth, primarily in Russia and in Europe. He said: The oligarchs, with their tremendous resources, are waging a war on the working class of this country . . . the needs, the concerns, the ideas, the dreams of ordinary people are simply an impediment to what they, the oligarchs, are entitled to. This accusation, if true, would be serious. But it is not true. Representative Neal from Massachusetts, on the other side of the Capitol, went so far as to describe the Trump tax cuts as a ``reverse Robin Hood scam.'' And the list goes on and on and on. It is almost as if there is a concerted or orchestrated effort to use disinformation and propaganda to try to prejudice the American people against what it is we need to do in order to avoid this huge tax increase on the vast majority of Americans. But let's set aside for a moment the fact that President Trump won this last election--promising to do what? Well, to extend the tax cuts that passed in 2017. We know, before COVID hit, our economy was hitting on all cylinders. All cohorts of the population--African Americans, Hispanics, everyday working Americans--were experiencing record-high levels of employment, and the economy was the best it has been in my lifetime. We know what happened these last 4 years. We know that Biden economics, or Bidenomics, as they like to call it--I don't know why in the world President Biden embraced the name ``Bidenomics,'' because it was associated with just so much misery and pain and a reduced standard of living by average working-class families across the country. But we know that inflation--again, the 40-year high inflation that we have experienced in the last few years--has a disproportionate effect on low-income families. Now, that is no surprise because for your purchasing power, if you are on a fixed income or if you are just getting by paycheck to paycheck, the more inflation goes up, the more everything you buy costs. And households across the spectrum are affected. We have seen that with our own eyes. And, in fact, I believe that was one of the reasons President Trump was elected in 2024. When you spend a higher percentage of your paycheck on necessities, you have less of a cushion as prices increase. It is just common sense. To add insult to injury, what did our Democratic colleagues do, when they were in the majority, in response to this massive inflation, which was the direct result of their policies? Well, they poured gasoline on the fire of inflation by using reconciliation to pass something called the Inflation Reduction Act. Hold that thought for a minute because the Inflation Reduction Act, even at the time it passed, was evaluated and calculated not to reduce inflation. Again, this is deception, really, at the outset, claiming that this Inflation Reduction Act maybe would have a negative impact on inflation. But President Biden himself later admitted it ``has less to do with reducing inflation''--that is what President Biden said--and was full of even more spending. Milton Friedman, the Nobel Prize-winning economist, would say the main cause of inflation is too much spending. You flood the economy with more dollars, and then, naturally, the price of everything tends to go up. You don't need a Ph.D. economist like Dr. Larry Summers, who was probably the most prominent Democratic economist in our country, to tell anyone, especially not the President of the United States, that the answer to runaway inflation is not more government spending. But that is exactly what the Inflation Reduction Act did. But that is not all. Not only did the Inflation Reduction Act do nothing for inflation, it actually did what Democrats have wrongly accused Republicans of doing. It benefited high earners at the expense of ordinary Americans. You don't have to take my word for it. Just look at the data. Look at the facts. By some estimates, the Inflation Reduction Act's electric vehicle and charging infrastructure provisions are projected to cost $180 billion over the next decade. The average cost of an electric vehicle was nearly $7,000 more than an internal combustion engine in 2023. So most working-class families, rather than pay $7,000 more for an electric vehicle--assuming they wanted an electric vehicle--have opted for the lower price internal combustion engine. So the ones who were taking advantage of the subsidy of $7,500, if you bought an EV, were wealthy people, by definition. So our Democratic colleagues, contrary to their propaganda and misinformation, have been the ones who have been providing your hard-earned dollars to subsidize wealthy people to buy luxury items like an electric vehicle. Households that earn more than $200,000 reportedly represent 42.6 percent of electric vehicle sales. So people who make more than $200,000 a year represent 42.6 percent of electric vehicle sales, while those earning between $100,000 and $200,000 represented 32.9 percent. So if anything deserves to be called ``reverse Robin Hood,'' it would be the Democrats' Inflation Reduction Act. Given the inflationary and regressive policies that the Democrats promoted during the last 4 years, it is ironic--and maybe you would say even laughable--to hear them accuse Republicans of being disconnected from everyday Americans. The reason why Republicans won the majority in both Houses and President Trump was reelected is because he connected with the concerns of everyday Americans, and particularly their concerns about overspending and inflation, not to mention the border. So our Democratic colleagues really don't have a leg to stand on when it comes to the facts. Failing to extend the Trump tax cuts would mean--this is according to the Wall Street Journal--that 62 percent of Americans would see a tax increase in 2026. On the other hand, extending the tax cuts would result in a 3.4 percent increase in after-tax incomes in 2026, by some estimates. In the 2 years after President Trump signed his tax cuts into law, the median household income grew by $5,000. That is more money to spend on the necessities of life. And in the same period, real wages grew by nearly 5 percent. Again, those are the facts. You would think that the facts would be something we could agree on, and then we can talk about policies. But, unfortunately, our Democratic colleagues seem to gloss right over those facts, while making wild accusations, which, frankly, are way off the mark. Contrast this with President Biden's policies, slapping working families with an effective pay cut. With higher prices for food, gasoline, and other necessities, inflation-adjusted disposable income per capita during the Biden Presidency went down 7.7 percent. No wonder people felt squeezed, particularly if you earn a relatively modest income or you were a senior on a fixed income. Your purchasing power went down 7.7 percent. The stark reality and the fact is, if Congress fails to extend the Trump tax cuts that expire at the end of this year, the average family of four making $75,000 a year will face a $1,500 tax increase next year. Working families will see the child tax credit cut in half. So the facts are pretty obvious, as plain as the nose on your face: Extending the Trump tax cuts will actually benefit working families, and doing nothing, which is what our Democratic colleagues seem to want, will make them worse off. At the end of the day, we work for the people we represent in our respective States. And, certainly, the voters in Alabama and Texas and in the majority of the country have made their preference clear. President Trump campaigned on extending these tax cuts. Republicans in the House and the Senate did the same. And we were rewarded with majorities in both Houses and with President Trump being reelected to the White House. Working families in Texas and across the country voted for the President and the political party they thought would benefit them the most, especially their pocketbooks and their standard of living, and they voted resoundingly for President Trump and congressional Republicans. So it is simply not true to say that Republicans are somehow out of touch with the voters that gave us the majority in both Houses and President Trump reelected to the White House. I know our Democratic colleagues are angry. They don't like being in the minority. It is not a lot of fun. But there is a reason. And they still haven't learned that the policies they promoted and that they sold to the American people were rejected on November 5. So sometimes, as Ronald Reagan liked to say--again--facts are stubborn things. So I would invite our colleagues across the aisle to look at the facts and maybe look in the mirror and say: What we were doing didn't work out so well, so maybe we ought to work with Republicans to change our policies. The American people simply cannot afford a tax increase on top of 40- year-high inflation. I look forward to working with my Republican colleagues in the House and the Senate to deliver by extending the Trump tax cuts and to make life better for working families in Texas and across the country. And I would invite our Democratic colleagues to join us, if they will. I am not sure they are there yet. They are still pretty angry. They are still pretty upset. They are still--what do they call it? They call it the resistance. They are the party of the resistance. Well, right now, they are resisting what is best for the American people, and that is a bad place to be. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.