Christopher Coons

Mr. COONS

Mr. COONS. Madam President, I ask my colleagues to vote in favor of this amendment, which would focus and streamline this bill and make more likely its passage. Many of us who have served here for many Congresses regret the falling away of the frequency of amendments intended to improve the bill. My amendment would remove the section that will encourage endless litigation by State attorneys general. I will remind you, our States' attorneys general are roughly equally divided between the parties, and attorneys general can now and today sue against what they believe is manifest injustice in the Federal immigration system. This provision would encourage them to sue down to individual detention and release decisions. I think it improves the bill to remove that section and focus on its critical public safety provisions. I urge a ``yes'' vote on this amendment and the consideration of additional amendments in the future that will improve this bill. Vote on Amendment No. 23

Mr. COONS. I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. COONS

Mr. COONS. Madam President, it was I believe then-President Reagan who famously asked, ``Are you better off than you were four years ago?'' I rise to take a moment here at the end of the 118th Congress, at the end of the Presidency of Joe Biden, to say: You bet you are better off today than you were 4 years ago. I wanted to take just a few moments and reflect on the service, the career, the values, and the consequence of Joe Biden's service on behalf of Delaware in this Chamber for 36 years, as our Vice President for 8, and as our President for the last 4. I have the honor of having Joe Biden's desk here on the floor of the Senate, and in my office in Russell, I have what was his desk as a Senator for 36 years and as a Vice President for 8. As the son of both Scranton, PA, and Claymont, DE, in many ways, he was a role model to me and many others in Delaware and a source of inspiration to get involved in public service in the first place. If you think for a moment about where we were this time 4 years ago, there were three different, profound challenges the United States was facing, all really because of the pandemic--a pandemic that had been badly mishandled and spiraled out of control and was still killing 3,000 Americans a day in December of 2020. Violent crime had skyrocketed. Healthcare coverage was declining. Jobs had been lost in the rates of millions. The United States was divided from some of its closest, oldest, and most trusted allies. Across those different indicators, just briefly, the numbers tell a striking story. We have one of the lowest violent crime rates in 50 years today. The COVID-19 pandemic is mostly a thing of the past, a public health concern that still needs monitoring but that is not at any risk of killing another million Americans. Healthcare coverage has improved dramatically. The number of uninsured Americans is today at an alltime low. While the former President left office with the worst jobs record since Herbert Hoover, the private sector under Joe Biden's leadership helped create 15 million jobs--an alltime record. Joe Biden is someone who was a committed public servant who put country above self; someone who has been one of the most consequential Presidents in our history and the most consequential of my lifetime; who came to this body from a blue-collar background, focused on the middle class, on unions, on what we could do to strengthen our country from the middle out and the bottom up and took that vision to the Presidency. He worked tirelessly to restore our leadership around the world and to reweave together the bonds between the United States and a then- fractured coalition of alliances and partnerships around the world and to strengthen our economy as it recovered from the devastation of the pandemic. He never gave up on the promise of our democracy, our Nation, and this institution in particular. The record of the bipartisan legislation that got passed under his leadership I think is striking and will stand the test of time, whether it was bringing back advanced manufacturing through the Chips and Science Act--a generational investment in rebuilding infrastructure all over our country of all different kinds and levels; investing in protecting our veterans from the harm of burn pits and doing right by our veterans, making right on that sacred obligation; combating gun violence; investing in community mental health. All of these were landmark, bipartisan pieces of legislation. He also struck out in a direction that made a lifetime of difference in reducing prescription drug prices and in investing in a cleaner economy through the Inflation Reduction Act, which was a moment when he abandoned bipartisanship in the interest of making a lasting difference for all Americans. If you look briefly at what he did beyond our shores, the crisis of Russia's brutal, broad spectrum invasion of Ukraine catalyzed not just the revitalization but the expansion of NATO, moved us from a point where only four of our NATO allies had met their spending targets to today--two dozen. He led a global coalition in defense of Ukraine. He stood strong for our ally Israel after the heinous attacks of October 7 and ongoing attacks from Iran. In the Indo-Pacific, he has done more to create a new security situation than even I could have imagined: the Quad in the Indo-Pacific, the reconciliation of Korea and Japan, and the innovative AUKUS partnership that will deliver nuclear propulsion technology to the Australian submarine fleet and deliver new deterrence. One of my favorite things he has done was celebrated in his most recent trip to Angola: the investment in infrastructure in the Global South in a way that has higher transparency, better labor standards, better environmental standards. It is more sustainable than our competitors, the Chinese, and their investment throughout the world. I have had the chance to visit both the Philippines and Angola to see our President's lasting work in investing in infrastructure. Across all of these, strengthening our alliances, investing in our values and our partnerships, finding ways to stand up to aggression--it is my hope that we will find in this Chamber bipartisan support to continue. What I will miss most about Joe Biden's leadership is that he is someone who lived a quintessentially American story. He never forgot the middle-class roots that gave him the strength to live what was a hard life, knocked down by grief, devastating grief, twice in his life. He got back up. Someone who believed deeply in the dignity of work. The son of a hard-working car salesman. Someone who understood the importance of not just a paycheck but having a purpose and the importance of respecting work and its role in creating and strengthening the middle class. Last, President Biden has been someone who knew and believed in this institution. I worked with then-Leaders McConnell and Reid, Senator Leahy, and Senator Grassley when Joe Biden was leaving his last moments as the President of the Senate, as Vice President, to pull together a ``Recollections of our Vice President Day,'' and dozens of Senators came to this floor and told their favorite Joe Biden stories. There were stories full of compassion, full of humor, full of dedication, and full of service. That is the man I hope we will remember and recognize as he comes to the conclusion of his service as President close to a month from today. That is the man who I will continue to honor and to respect as I continue in my service on behalf of our shared State of Delaware going forward. I yield the floor.

Mr. COONS

Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the remarks delivered by President Biden on December 3, 2024, during his historic trip to Angola honoring the past and future of the Angolan-U.S. relationship, be printed in the Record.

Mr. COONS

Mr. COONS. Madam President, I rise in defense of my colleague from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Bob Casey is sexy. (Laughter.) Being fully bald is not the sole indicator of one's celebrity or sexiness. Although an inspiring quote was just delivered by my dear colleague from our neighboring State of New Jersey, that was not Swahili, and I ask leave to conduct the rest of my remarks today in Kiswahili. (Laughter.) I am kidding. I will just briefly say of my dear friend and colleague, of my neighbor, traveling companion, partner, and source of inspiration, that long before I imagined I could ever be a Senator, I served in local government in Delaware and knew that there was to our north a son of Scranton who was someone who was deeply grounded in his family, in his faith, and in his sense of justice. Some mistake Senator Casey for not only not being sexy but for not being a fighter. One of the things I have held most closely to, as I have tried to conduct myself in this Chamber and in this work of being a Senator with humility and dignity and kindness, is that it is possible--in fact, daily demonstrated--for someone like Senator Casey, who is humble and unassuming, who is generous and kind, who sees every one, who treats all of us with respect, to still be fierce and to still be determined and to still be a fighter and to still be someone who sees righteousness and refuses to yield. There was attributed to St. Francis an important saying, I think: Preach the Gospel at all times; when necessary, use words. Senator Casey's walk through this life, alongside his incredible blessing Terese, alongside the amazing blessing of Elyse, Julia, Caroline, Marena, and those two great grandsons, has been a walk of dignity and fierceness. To fight for the five freedoms for children, to coauthor the Global Food Security Act, to be someone who crafts legislation that touches people all over our country and the world, is to deliver on the promise and the call of the Gospel. From your time as a Jesuit volunteer, from your days at a dance at Holy Cross, from the days that you have spent here and crisscrossing the Commonwealth, you have shown, with a heart like a lion, that you are every bit the fighter as those who are more known on Twitter and TV and that you are every bit as fierce. We had the blessing of traveling with you--my wife Annie, who is from Pennsylvania, and I with Terese and Bob--and what you just said about the importance of fighting for Ukraine and Ukrainians and of seeing everyone and of caring for them we got to see in the joy that you brought to delivering relief to Ukrainian children refugees. This place will not be the same without my colleague from Pennsylvania. I have never campaigned harder for a colleague. I have never been more disappointed at an outcome. It has never seemed more unjust to me than the days we must face ahead without this son of Scranton, who has not just counted his blessings before us today but who has been a blessing to us every single day. With that, I yield the floor. (Applause.)

Mr. COONS

Mr. COONS. Madam President, I rise to speak in thanks and in recognition of my dear friend and colleague, the senior Senator from the great State of Delaware, Tom Carper. All of us have had a chance to hear his farewell speech, but I get a chance to add just a little bit here on the end. You know, when folks have said to Senator Carper: What do you plan on doing in retirement at home? He has repeatedly said: I don't plan on retiring. And this has a history to it. As you know, in the arc of his decades of service in our Senate and in our State, he was our Governor. And he has described himself many times as a ``recovering Governor'' who never really recovered. He never stopped being intimately interested in and engaged in every detail of our community. And I cannot thank you enough, TC, for your more than five decades of service to our Nation, to our State, to our party, to the world. I have a lot of remarks, and I will try not to use all of them, but I think you are the alltime champion, having been elected 14 times statewide: State treasurer, Congressman, Governor, Senator. You are frugal. I have had the experience of your having made a modest contribution to a very early campaign of mine, and I failed to timely deposit the check, and not long thereafter, you accosted me and said: You never cleared this check. It is in my checkbook. Everybody knows that you drove a fabulous minivan more than 400,000 miles. And you took that passion for frugality and for reasonableness and for attention to details to being the State treasurer, as you shared with all of us, to restoring our triple A bond rating. When I first became county executive, nothing was more important than that lesson: Protect your bond rating. And you did a great job as State treasurer. You also are someone who as Governor had a saying you were very fond of: Figure out what works; do more of that. Figure out what works; do more of that. Everybody here knows he makes you say important things twice. And so as an active member of the National Governors Association, as a mentor to other Governors, as a mentor to young county elected officials, TC did a great job with figuring out what worked well in other States around the country and then applying it both at home and making sure that other Governors had a chance to learn from that around our country. I can't neglect Senator Carper's remarkable commitment to our Nation's military. As you saw, of all the people he could have chosen to honor in his farewell speech, his Uncle Bob, his family, service and sacrifice anchors him. Having gone on a naval ROTC scholarship to Ohio State and having served three tours in Vietnam and then for decades in the Navy Reserve, Senator Carper is the last Vietnam veteran to serve in this body. That is a long and proud legacy that stretches from Senators McCain and Kerry to Kerry to Hagel to Harkin. But Senator Carper, in our State, has done more to fight for the VA, to fight for veterans, to fight for a veterans cemetery, to fight for a veterans home, and to personally engage on Memorial Day with the families of every Delawarean who has fallen in combat in living memory. The decency, the commitment, the passion for those who put their life on the line for our Nation is unmatched in our State's history. And we and our Nation are grateful to you for that. As the chair of two different committees, HSGAC and EPW, you worked tirelessly to build relationships, even with some of the most famously difficult of our colleagues. I make no reference to a former Senator from Oklahoma. I am just saying, that when you tackled postal issues, many of us wished you all the best. And you put your optimism and your positive spirit to the wheel and made real progress. Along with Senator Capito, of your native State of West Virginia, you have made amazing things happen, from WRDA to the Inflation Reduction Act to the bipartisan infrastructure law. Your passion for air quality and for clean air and for making sure that we preserve the blessings of our natural environment will be remembered fittingly by having the Bombay Hook Visitor Center named for you. We talk in Delaware about something called the Delaware Way, which I really principally learned from how you led as Governor. You cleaned up our party. You worked across the aisle. You balanced the budget. You managed a State of great complexity and importance. But you found it by building personal connections by being kind and respectful to others and by building a remarkable community that served alongside you. I don't know either where the term ``Carper Town'' came from, but it is an amazing network of alumni that includes people of all different ages and backgrounds, skills, and traditions who have been brought together to join your passion for public service. When asked at your retirement announcement what you would most miss about being a Senator, TC answered: ``My staff,'' which is a reminder that you have built an incredible community dedicated passionately to service. When I first got here to the Senate, my senior Senator was the one who literally showed me the ropes. He gave me the combination to the gym. He urged me to go to weekly Prayer Breakfast or Bible study and to learn from codels overseas and from time spent over meals together here in the Senate. We have been guided by our shared faith, our shared commitment to family, a commitment to bipartisanship, and a deep and abiding love of Amtrak. I will never forget a night where we were stuck for 7 hours in the bracing cold as two power lines shut down the Amtrak line north. Senator Carper remained cheerful, upbeat, and optimistic about the possibility that we would someday get off that train and be warm again. And the Newark Amtrak station is named in his honor, appropriately. Tom, you are a grounded man. Your childhood dreams for playing for the Detroit Tigers may not have been realized, but you as a native son of West Virginia have made an incredible mark on your adopted, beloved home State of Delaware. You have made a lasting mark: as State treasurer and Governor, as Congressman, and Senator. I will never forget when as a very, very young man I had just returned from South Africa and a member of my church arranged an opportunity for me to have lunch with you in the House dining room. I was 25. You gave me your undivided attention, your enthusiasm, your passion. You made me feel like the center of the world, and it had an enormous impact on my commitment to service. And when I ran for county council president--a long-shot bid that I should not have won in a four-way primary--and you were running for the U.S. Senate, an important and difficult race, you didn't just call me once and wish me well; you didn't just send me a $50 check. You agreed to stand beside me at football games, at Wawas, at community picnics, and to introduce me to thousands of Delawareans. You have given Annie and me a gift we can never repay. I am so grateful for your service, your leadership, and your compassion. You are anchored in your family. And, Martha, thank you so much for being an incredible partner, not just to Tom but also to our State, for having been the first lady and for having been someone with an incredible career of accomplishment at DuPont and around the world. To the two of you for raising Christopher and Ben and Greg and for sharing them with us as well, thank you. You are rooted in your faith: II James teaches us, ``Faith without works is dead.'' And St. Francis once said: ``Preach the Gospel always; when necessary, use words.'' By your acts, we have known your faith. And it has made all the difference. And you have changed me, our delegation, our State, and our world. Captain Carper, Bravo Zulu. Well done, sir. Thank you. (Applause, Senators rising.)

Mr. COONS

Mr. COONS. Madam President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. COONS

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

Mr. COONS. I ask unanimous consent that the scheduled vote occur immediately.

Mr. COONS

Mr. COONS. I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. COONS

Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I rise to say a few words about the tradition of spiritual leadership of the Chaplains of the Senate, a decades-old--a centuries-old, actually--tradition of this body, rooted in the fact that those who were the Framers of our Constitution and the Founders of our Nation understood that, although we are a nation committed to the separation of church and State, we are also a nation that is guided--that is guided by spiritual force, by deep beliefs, by diversity of religions, but also by a profound humility on the part of those of us who serve. Our Chaplain, RADM Barry Black, has served for many, many years, and I have had the great blessing of hearing from him at Bible study and at the weekly Prayer Breakfast in a way that has helped bring Senators together and that has made a difference in the functioning and the foundation of this important body in our constitutional order. Today, we have a guest Chaplain from my home church, First & Central Presbyterian in Wilmington, DE. She is my home pastor. Pastor Laura has served our congregation since July, 2 years ago. A native of Arkansas, raised in Texas in the Disciples of Christ, Pastor Laura felt a calling to the ministry at the very earliest age but told God to just hold that thought for a moment. Two decades later, he called Pastor Laura again, more forcefully this time, and through my denomination, the Presbyterian Church, United States of America--or PCUSA. After completing seminary in Iowa and serving three other ministry calls, Pastor Laura is now at our faith community in downtown Wilmington, doing God's work at a church without walls that welcomes without limits. Her humor, her hermeneutics, her exegesis, her homiletics--all the good stuff that a pastor does--help hold us together and inspire us to mission at a time that is almost uniquely challenging in my life. I am so grateful for her wisdom and guidance at home in Delaware, and I thank Pastor Laura for her ministry today to this body, to our congregation at home, and throughout the arc of her life. With that, Mr. President, I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. COONS

Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I am the Senator from Delaware, and I am joined by my colleague from Delaware. And one of the things that has long distinguished Delaware--it was one of the first States in the whole country where, because of her personal experience with IVF, a former Republican, Delaware insurance commissioner, helped drive through mandatory insurance coverage for IVF in the State of Delaware years ago. The idea that today we would be on the floor of the Senate advocating on behalf of Senator Duckworth's bill to put in law protections, the right to access IVF, would have been unthinkable. I still remember, as someone hoping to become a parent, struggling with the challenge of working through difficulties that we as a couple faced in becoming pregnant and talking all the time to friends and neighbors and others who were going through similar challenges. There is nothing more important in life than being a parent. And sometimes all of these activities and debates here on the floor don't connect. People have a hard time understanding why this matters. One of the reasons I am so thrilled that Senator Duckworth is leading this effort here on the floor today is it is easy to understand. Because of her service to our Nation, because of her grievous wounds in combat is why, perhaps, this is so important to her and her family. But I wanted to share the story of a Delawarean, and I am so grateful she has allowed me to share her story today. Lindsay Griffin was diagnosed with Stage IV endometriosis, which prevented her from ever conceiving naturally. Lindsay and her husband were determined to become parents. And like so many of us, knew that it would be expensive and difficult and take a long time. They even took out a $25,000 loan to pay for IVF. Lindsay endured procedure after procedure, surgeries, embryo transfers, even the loss of a pregnancy. Now, today, years later, they are parents to two healthy boys, 7 and 2. Why would we in this country put this blessing of parenthood for so many in Delaware and Illinois and throughout our Nation at risk? It is already hard enough. Today, Lindsay and her husband are blessed with two children. But in States like Alabama, far-right lawmakers and judges have already tried to deny families this precious gift. The vast majority of Americans want us to pass this bill today, want us to protect the right to IVF. Eighty-six percent of Americans in a recent poll want us to do this. So why is this even controversial? In the best of circumstances, the journey to the blessing of parenthood is difficult. The journey to the blessing of parenthood through IVF is incredibly hard: emotionally, financially, physically. Let's stand up for families for the common and shared principle that the blessing of parenting should not in any way be barred by threats to the procedure of in vitro fertilization. I stand before you today as someone committed to protecting IVF in Delaware, in this Congress, in this Nation.

Mr. COONS

Mr. COONS. Madam President, I ask that the mandatory quorum call with respect to the cloture motion be waived.

Mr. COONS

Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I rise to urge this body to reconsider the objection that was just made by my colleagues. The rule of law, the system of ordered liberty for which so many Americans have served and sacrificed at home and abroad, is a fragile thing. It is, at times, a mere tissue, and it is held together by the confidence of our people in the ethics and integrity of those whom they elect or who are appointed, nominated, and confirmed to serve them. We have seen a number of challenging chapters around ethics and integrity in public service recently, but, tonight, we are on this floor to speak about our Supreme Court and a simply shocking series of revelations about ways in which Justices have accepted, over years, huge amounts of gifts. The suggestion has been made by a number of my colleagues that this is just Democrats, that this is just a partisan attack on a few Justices to try and roll back or undermine decisions they have made that we dislike or their legitimacy. Well, I can give you a compelling counterpoint. My friend and colleague Senator Cornyn and I have seen a whole series of stories in the Wall Street Journal in 2021 that revealed that there were dozens of Federal judges who had stock holdings in companies where issues before them implicated the value of that company. It moved us to introduce the bipartisan Courthouse Ethics and Transparency Act. Your typical bill takes 6, 7, 8 years to become law here in the Senate. This one moved faster than almost any other. On the Senate Judiciary Committee and here on the floor of the Senate, nobody argued that the Supreme Court needed to be above it all. Nobody argued that the Justices of the Supreme Court shouldn't be required to disclose their stock holdings and be accountable for their failures to recuse or disclose. In fact, that bill passed unanimously. Why, then, is this one not similarly situated? Every Federal judge is subject to a binding code of ethics. Every Senator and virtually every Federal employee in a senior decision- making role is bound by a code of ethics. That is how the American people know that, if there is some sleight or false, some self-dealing or some action that creates the appearance of impropriety, action will be taken. After months and months and months of reports of misconduct, failure to disclose, questionable conduct by a Justice or two of the Supreme Court, a recent poll by Marquette shows that a majority of the American people have lost faith in this institution and no longer have confidence in the political independence and the ethics of our Supreme Court. Mr. Chief Justice, I hope you listen or watch. We believe you to be concerned about the legitimacy of this important institution. The Supreme Court is the only Federal Court not bound by a code of conduct that is enforceable and where these disclosures and their consequences cannot be acted upon. The highest Court in our land should not have the lowest ethical standards, and we should take a vote on this bill, the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency Act. It should not be controversial or partisan. This isn't about attacking one Justice or another. As someone who clerked for a Federal judge, as someone whose chief counsel clerked for a Federal judge--many of us are lawyers in this body and clerked for Federal judges. We know the importance of having an independent judiciary, of having a nonpartisan judiciary. The most powerful court in the land is the Supreme Court. When it issued landmark decisions unanimously, it moved the arc of history. Today, it issues decisions after decisions that are 5-4 and that are producing challenging secondary waves in our body politic. If the Supreme Court is to hold the role that our Framers intended, it must do so above reproach. That is not where we are today. Our Supreme Court must make itself accountable to the American people. We shouldn't read disclosure after disclosure in the press to learn about the conduct of the Justices. Just a few moments ago, earlier this evening, along with the rest of the Delaware delegation, I had the honor of meeting with the newest nominees to our Nation's service academies--young men and women who are raising their right hand and volunteering to serve our Nation, who will be granted the opportunity of a free education, in exchange for which they sign on the dotted line and agree to go serve our Nation at home and abroad and to defend our Nation and our Constitution from all enemies foreign and domestic. I have just completed a trip to the South Pacific, where I visited Manila. There, there is a World War II cemetery. It includes crosses marking the graves of 17,000 Americans who served and sacrificed in the convulsion that was the Second World War. Those crosses do not have marked on them ``Democrat'' or ``Republican.'' The freedom for which they fought, the system of justice, the rule of law, the Constitution for which they took up arms against Imperial Japan, and worked so tirelessly alongside our allies to free a world under assault from fascism and imperialism--they did not do so based on a sense of partisan principles but out of a commitment to our Nation. We should honor those who served and sacrificed in a generation or two ago and those who are willing to serve and sacrifice today going forward by restoring ethics and transparency to the U.S. Supreme Court. They have cast a shameful shadow, not just the appearance of impropriety but a genuine conflict. It can be resolved. We must help them take the action they should take and resolve it. We should pass this bill. With that, I yield the floor.

Mr. COONS

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

Mr. COONS. Madam President, I come to the floor today to speak for a few moments about the urgent--the pressing--matter of Americans held hostage or wrongfully detained abroad and about a specific positive recent development to make sure that when they are released and freed, they are welcomed home in a positive and meaningful way. Today, there is somewhere between 30 and 40 Americans wrongfully detained abroad, and they range all over from their backgrounds to the countries in which they are held. I have met repeatedly with Rachel and Jon, who are the parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, an American Israeli who was attending a music festival in Israel when he was attacked, badly injured, kidnapped by Hamas terrorists, and dragged to Gaza where he is still today hostage beneath Gaza in tunnels. Ryan Corbett has been held in Afghanistan for years, an NGO worker who was abducted by the Taliban. Mark Swidan has been held in China on narcotics trafficking charges, a sentence upheld recently but not yet imposed. And, of course, Evan Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter currently imprisoned in Russia whose mother I met with recently and who I join with his family in continuing to pray and work for his release. There has recently been a positive step forward in how we welcome home these hostages. First, I have to tell you something disturbing about how we have long welcomed home hostages. Jason Rezaian is a Washington Post reporter who was taken prisoner in Iran and, ultimately, served a year and a half-- 544 days--in prison in Tehran before he was released. And I want you to guess what was the first thing Jason got from the U.S. Government when he returned home? It was a tax bill with fines and penalties for his failure to file and pay his taxes on time. Jason came to meet with me and recounted to me that when he pointed out to the IRS that it was front-page news in the Washington Post that he was unjustly imprisoned--of course, he couldn't pay his taxes on time--they said: We would like to help you, Mr. Rezaian, but Congress needs to act in order for us to stop imposing tax penalties on American hostages. So today I am here to celebrate that my dear friend Mike Rounds, Republican Senator, and I have introduced and the Senate has now passed a bill with a catchy title, Stop Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act. It cleared unanimously--thank you. We now await House action. This is the latest in a number of actions several of us have taken together. There is now a National Hostage and Wrongful Detainee Day. It was recognized by a bill that was passed in the Defense authorization bill last year and signed into law by President Biden. That was March 9. We are also working on legislation to repair the credit score of those who are wrongfully imprisoned, held hostage, or detained. As you can imagine, if you spend years in prison in Russia or in Iran or being held captive in Afghanistan or in Gaza and you aren't making payments on your bills, your credit score suffers. Senator Tillis and I are next hoping to move the Fair Credit for American Hostages Act. Let me conclude by saying this: We have to do more together to deter hostage-taking, to restore to the United States those who have been wrongfully detained, to cooperate across our government. I am grateful that the Biden administration has increased its focus on this urgent moral issue and that 47 wrongfully detained Americans have been brought home so far under the present administration. But, frankly, all of us should be working together to hold in our prayers and thoughts those who are hostages, those who are wrongful detainees and their loved ones, and to work together, as Senator Rounds and I have in recent weeks and as the Congress as a whole will in coming days.

Mr. COONS. The Senator will so yield.

Mr. COONS. Madam President, I appreciate the opportunity to speak to what is a pressing concern for so many of us. I will simply reflect on my last in-person meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Gallant in Israel, now many weeks ago. It was part of a visit I made to a number of countries in the region. I spoke directly to this, and I believe what I am saying also reflects the views of the administration. Of course, the United States stands strongly behind Israel and its defense and its security. Secretary of Defense Austin, when asked this same question about what it might mean if there were pauses or reviews of weapons deliveries--what that might mean. Just yesterday, he said that the administration, the United States, retains an ironclad commitment to Israel's security and defense, as just demonstrated a few weeks ago when we worked together with Israel, with the UK, with France, with Saudi Kingdom, and with Jordan to provide their defense against 300 missiles and drones launched at Israel by Iran. So what is it that we are saying with regard to Rafah? What I said to the Prime Minister was: You don't just have the right to defend the Israeli people against Hamas; you have the obligation. After October 7, you have to restore a sense of security and deterrence against this terrorist organization that massacred more Jews, more civilians--1,200 people of a wide range of backgrounds, in fact. It is the worst day for Jews since the Holocaust. But many who are still held captive in Gaza by Hamas are from a dozen different nations, languages, and religions. You have to go after them and finish the job. You have to go into Rafah, go after these four remaining battalions, and you have to secure Gaza and make certain Hamas does not reemerge as a fighting force that can ever threaten Israel again. And given that there are a million civilian refugees who have flown down to the very bottom of Gaza and are now up against the hard border with Egypt, and given that Egypt will not allow any of them into Egypt, you have to provide a pathway for civilians to leave Rafah before you go in at scale with a bombing campaign--a ground campaign--to minimize civilian injuries and deaths. If there are 10,000 or so Hamas fighters remaining in Rafah, and if the multiplier--to use a crass term--has been 2-to-1 civilian deaths for every Hamas fighter killed, to contemplate 20 or 30,000 more civilian deaths in Rafah is to contemplate a horrifying outcome. But it is not acceptable to leave Hamas in control of a segment of Gaza and capable of returning. So what is it I am hoping and expecting Israel will do? To relocate all of the civilians in Rafah, north in Gaza, screen them so that none of the leaders of Hamas or the fighters of Hamas escape; to provide for humanitarian aid and for shelter in another part of Gaza; and then to go in in scale, get into the tunnels, secure the release of the hostages, if possible, and finish the job. That is difficult but, in my view, doable. For us to ignore the consequences of using American weapons at scale in a very heavily concentrated place where there are a million refugees there because they were told to move south, as the IDF carried out its justified campaign against Hamas over the last 6 months, would be to undertake a tragic loss of life that is needless. Madam President, at this point, I am inclined to yield unless the Senator has a follow-up question for me.

Mr. COONS. Madam President, if I might extend my remarks briefly, then conclude. There is another path a bipartisan group of us worked hard to support, and I hope is still possible. This path forward, which I also discussed directly with Prime Minister Netanyahu, was given real life just 2 weeks ago--3 weeks ago--when Iran attacked Israel. Israel's defense against these Iranian missiles and drones was, yes, primarily provided by missile systems and by Israeli jets but also by the cooperation and assistance of the Saudis, the Jordanians, the Americans, and the British. There is another path forward where ending Hamas in Gaza and the region is the joint project of the Saudis, the Egyptians, the Jordanians, and that there is an end to the Arab-Israeli conflict. It was exactly that prospect that helped precipitate the Hamas attack of October 7. Yes, Hamas is a hateful terrorist organization dedicated to eradicating Israel and killing Jews. But the timing, the timing of the October 7 attack was very closely aligned to when a final next step in the Saudi-Israel reconciliation was about to move forward. They have been determined to prevent peace. There is a way forward whereby Hamas may be eliminated from having any role in Gaza and the West Bank and, in the future, of the region by a regional cooperation which could be facilitated by achieving peace. That is also much to be hoped for and worked for. I yield the floor and thank my colleague.

Mr. COONS

Mr. COONS. Mr. President, volunteerism and service have long defined the very heart of the American spirit. It was Alexis de Tocqueville, in the middle of the 19th century, at really the dawn of the modern American Republic, who observed that it was the willingness to take initiative, to get engaged, to roll up your sleeves and get to work helping to build your community that distinguished the people of this new continent from the Old World. And I will say I have seen it myself. I am here to celebrate the 30th anniversary of America's national service program, something called AmeriCorps. It was created in a bipartisan effort at the end of the George W. Bush administration and at the beginning of the Bill Clinton administration. There was a concerted bipartisan effort to recognize that models around the country that showed the impact on young Americans of spending a year of their lives in service to others were worth expanding and replicating. This week, actually, happens to be AmeriCorps Week--March 10 to March 16--and we are celebrating 30 years of service. I have just introduced a bipartisan and bicameral resolution with Senator Cassidy, Congresswoman Matsui, and Congressman Graves. And, as I mentioned, AmeriCorps has been bipartisan from the start, and I look forward to continuing its future in a bipartisan way. I have long had a connection to AmeriCorps, going back to one of the first national direct AmeriCorps programs that I ran with the ``I Have a Dream'' Foundation in the mid-1990s. When I was working for ``I Have a Dream,'' we had 150 AmeriCorps members serving in 10 cities, doing afterschool programming and summer programming for children from disadvantaged backgrounds. It is one of many ways in which young Americans participating in AmeriCorps have contributed to their community, have developed their skills, and have earned money for college. Years later, when I was a county executive, I launched the New Castle County Emergency Services Corps to help strengthen the volunteer fire service in my home community. There are dozens of volunteer fire companies in Delaware, and they have often served as the backbone not just of the first responder community but of every community. I grew up in a very small town named Hockessin, and that siren going off in the middle of the night from our volunteer fire company was a reminder to me of the call that is at the very foundation of our Nation, to get up in the middle of the night, to jump in your truck, and to drive down to the fire hall and to take on the risk of serving and saving your neighbor. Recruiting, training, and supporting AmeriCorps members through the ``I Have a Dream'' Program was one of the most rewarding opportunities in my life. I, actually, for many years, served on the commission that directs and oversees AmeriCorps in Delaware, and it was through that service that I met my wife. Over 1 million Americans have served in AmeriCorps since 1994. Delaware, today, alone has more than 361 traditional AmeriCorps members and more than 900 AmeriCorps seniors, and they do a wide range of things: from tutoring children to responding to disasters, improving and rebuilding housing, helping veterans, and much more. Let me briefly mention two currently serving members of AmeriCorps in Delaware: Sharron, an adult literacy instructor who works with Literacy Delaware, teaches English to our newest Americans. She spoke of the joy an immigrant mother felt when the school administrator called to tell her about her son--and to communicate something positive about his progress in school--and she could understand everything for the first time, as she was coming to master English without an interpreter. Shristi, an academic coach at TeenSHARP, a college access program for underrepresented high school students, spoke of how fulfilling it was to help young men and women in Delaware, just as she herself had benefited from similar mentoring and tutoring. These two examples are a reminder of what more than 1 million AmeriCorps members over 30 years have experienced--that service brings America together. It helps us bridge our divides. AmeriCorps has organized, for decades now, an annual 9/11 Day of Service that brings people of all backgrounds together to be reminded of what citizenship means in our Nation: service to others. As we reflect on 30 years, I think it needs to be a call for all of us to engage in the work of service; to take up the challenge of reauthorizing, strengthening, and expanding AmeriCorps as a program; and to recognize that the best thing we can do for our Nation is to get committed to each other through national service. Congratulations to all who have served in AmeriCorps over the last 30 years and to the millions more Americans whose future will be enlivened, brightened, and strengthened through the opportunity to serve.

Mr. COONS

Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I rise today to speak in support of the national security supplemental appropriations bill that is the business before this body. After a disappointing failure to move ahead with a bill that included critical border security provisions, we now have before us a chance to pass and send to the House a bill that would invest tens of billions of dollars in the men and women of Ukraine who continue to fight tirelessly in the depths of winter on the frontlines of freedom; to spend billions more on coming to the aid of Israel as it continues to battle Hamas; and $10 billion invested in humanitarian aid that will provide critical support to those facing starvation and deprivation in Gaza, in Ukraine, in Sudan, in Somalia, and in a dozen other countries around the world; and to invest in our partners in the Indo-Pacific. It is absolutely critical that we continue to fund Ukraine's response to the brutal Russian invasion. In 2014, Russia invaded and seized Crimea. But it was in 2022 that Putin sent in hundreds of thousands of soldiers to attack Ukraine from the north, from the east, and to occupy 20 percent of Ukraine's land. Many predicted Ukraine would fall within a matter of days. Yet they still fight on bravely today, showing what is possible with faith and persistence, determination, and perseverance--and the support of 50 countries from around the world. Our President has assembled a remarkable coalition, and together they have contributed more than we have to Ukraine's security and defense. I was in Europe at a conference just a few weeks ago. I traveled with my friend and colleague Republican Senator Rounds of South Dakota. We went to Poland, to Slovakia, and to this conference in Switzerland, where we met with leaders from all over Europe. I had the chance to meet with President Zelenskyy and his Foreign Defense Minister to hear about how their economy is reviving; how they are exporting more grain now than they did before the war; how, with American investments through USAID, they have brought critical parts of their economy back. But I also heard that without these funds, without the munitions, without the budget support, without the humanitarian aid, President Zelenskyy predicted that Putin will ultimately win. I cannot imagine--I do not want to imagine--the tragedy that will befall Europe and our place in the world should we allow this to happen. Putin will only stop when we together stop it. When we were in Poland, Senator Rounds and I had heard loud and clear from their leadership the confidence that if Putin were to succeed in ultimately subjugating the Ukrainian people, he will be knocking on the door of Poland, our NATO ally, next. Just last week, here in the Capitol, I met with the Speakers of the Parliaments of Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, three Baltic States long occupied by the Russians--by the Soviets--today free and members of NATO. Their leaders are convinced that should Putin be allowed to succeed in Ukraine, they will be next. His forces will be knocking on their door. And, folks, to be clear, either we come to their defense at scale and in force and with American troops or NATO is dead, and our role as leader of the free world is over. I have listened here on the floor and in person, on television, at caucus lunches, and at meetings as my Republican colleagues have said over and over that they support Ukraine strongly. Now we have a chance to prove it and to show it. I had the honor of taking the Liberty Medal from the National Constitution Center to Kyiv with our former colleague, Senator Rob Portman, of Ohio, now retired. It was a harrowing but uplifting journey, a chance to meet with President Zelenskyy and his whole core national security leadership team. To get into his office is quite a journey, through a maze of tunnels and sandbags of larger and larger men with more and more severe weapons, in darker and darker corridors. But to see the spirit, the determination, the persistence with which Zelenskyy, his team, their troops, and the people of Ukraine continue this fight is to be challenged to your very soul, to know what it looks like when people who have tasted freedom are willing to risk their very lives, to defend their country from the aggressions and the predations of the Russians. I don't need to tell you, but it is probably worth repeating that the horrific human rights violations committed by Russian troops against Ukrainian civilians must also be answered. I had the chance to meet with Ukrainian refugees, both in Kyiv on that former trip and in Poland just a few weeks ago. And to hear from Ukrainian women what was done to them, what happened to their husbands, to their children, to their hometowns is a reminder of the savagery of this war and the necessity of our standing firm with Ukraine. Ukraine is running out of ammunition and running out of time. And the hope that they have in the United States, as the Nation that is the indispensable country leading the free world, will run out if we fail to come to their defense at this moment. I will close with something that I heard from my parents when I was a child. There was a song popularized on the radio not long after Pearl Harbor. And in this song, a chaplain is reflecting on what he saw and what must be done next. The lyrics of the song go: Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition And we'll all stay free And this song by Frank Loesser, penned by an American not long after we were attacked at Pearl Harbor, he concludes: I can't afford to be a politician. We are all between perdition and the deep blue sea. So praise the Lord and pass the ammunition, and we will all stay free. To the men and women of this Senate, I can only hope and pray that you will pass the ammunition forward. To those who stand on the frontlines of freedom, who are facing relentless Russian attacks, and who even today, in the depths of winter, watch the debates on this floor to see whether this Nation will stand, whether we can be counted on--when our President says we will be with you to the end, that commitment must mean something. We must pass this supplemental.

Mr. COONS. Absolutely. I yield.

Mr. COONS. I am.

Mr. COONS. Yes.

Mr. COONS. We will.