Richard Durbin

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Virginia (Mr. Warner) is necessarily absent.

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Virginia (Mr. Warner) is necessarily absent.

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Virginia (Mr. Warner) is necessarily absent.

Mr. DURBIN

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, remember the rallies? President Trump would stand up at the rallies and say: We are going to get rid of the ``worst of the worst'' criminals who managed to sneak into the United States in violation of our immigration laws--the rapists, the murderers, the terrorists, the criminally insane, those who are exploiting our children. That was his goal, stated over and over again. But let's look at the record. Earlier this month, in the midst of President Donald Trump's mass deportation campaign, members of my staff traveled to Southwest Texas to conduct oversight of ICE's Dilley family detention facility. ICE allowed my staff 2 hours--just 2 hours--for the entire visit and notified them of the limitation when they were en route to the facility. What is ICE and this administration trying to conceal? My staff's visit uncovered serious issues. Let me tell you some of their findings. If the Dilley detention facility sounds familiar, that is because that is where ICE held 5-year-old Liam Ramos, the boy in the blue bunny hat and the Spiderman backpack, whose image symbolizes this administration's inhumane detention agenda as part of their gross deportation effort. After public outcry and a Federal court order, 5-year-old Liam was released after 10 days, but that is not the outcome for many children being held at the Dilley ICE facility. Hayam El Gamal and her five children--ranging in age from 5 to 18-- have been held for nearly a year. That is believed to be the longest anyone has been detained during Trump's second term. Hayam's husband faces serious State charges for a violent attack in Boulder, CO, last June. There is no question that he should face the full weight of the law. But the FBI and an immigration judge found Hayam and her children engaged in no wrongdoing and had no prior knowledge of their father's horrific actions. Should they be punished for his crime too? Just yesterday, a magistrate judge recommended the family's habeas petition be granted. The judge found the family had been detained in violation of their due process rights and recommended they be released after being held for nearly 1 year. The judge ruled: [T]he government has engaged in procedural maneuvers aimed at thwarting the possibility of [El Gamal family's] discretionary release from the moment they were taken into custody. If, despite the judge's recommendations, the Department of Homeland Security still objects to the release of an innocent woman and her five children, we know exactly why that is the case. It is not because they present any danger to the community or a flight risk. It is because they are immigrants--Arab Muslim immigrants at that. Earlier this year, through their attorney, the El Gamal family submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee letters and drawings describing their life inside the Dilley detention facility in Texas. In one letter, their 9-year-old child wrote: We have been here for 9 months. I really miss playing with my toys and my watch. Please get us out of here. In another, the 16-year-old wrote: I have seen, with my own eyes, food that has mold in it. I even saw food with actual worms. These are children in a facility run under Federal contract, paid for by you and me, the American taxpayers. The mother has experienced despair and a recent medical emergency. Only 1 hour after my staff left the facilities, this mother was rushed to the emergency room in pain. The doctor recommended she receive an ultrasound. ICE denied it. Hayam has a history of cancer. She was denied a recommended diagnostic procedure. ICE is allowing this medical neglect, even when so many people are dying in immigration detention. The El Gamal family's case is an extreme one, but, unfortunately, their experiences in detention are not uncommon, as there are widespread reports of inhumane conditions at ICE facilities across the country. Earlier this month, the peer-reviewed Journal of the American Medical Association published a 22-year study of deaths in ICE custody. Its finding: The death rate in fiscal year 2026 is the highest in the entire study period--higher than any year on record, higher even than during the COVID outbreak. And this year alone, 17 people have already died in immigration detention. They are people who died in American custody, many of them from treatable conditions, such as cardiovascular disease and infections. This is happening inside a detention system that congressional Republicans injected with $45 billion in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, and now the Republicans want to use the partisan budget reconciliation process to pour even more money into this system. It is a system where about 90 percent of detention beds are run by private corporations for profit--not care standards but profits--and they hit record highs last year. In February, I sent a letter to Secretary Kristi Noem, sounding the alarm on the dramatic increase in deaths in ICE detention. While she was shown the door--and thank goodness for that--problems at these facilities and at ICE persist. The El Gamal family has been at Dilley for nearly a year. Hayam is a mother. Her youngest children are 5-year-old twins. They have done nothing wrong. It is time for the Federal Government to heed the recommendations of the magistrate judge and release them. As the partial government shutdown of DHS continues, House Republicans refuse to even consider the bipartisan Senate-passed bill to fund all of DHS except ICE and CBP. Democrats will not fund cruelty without accountability. We will continue to demand the reforms ICE and CBP require, including the end of roving patrols, requiring a judicial warrant to enter someone's home and conduct searches, a uniform code of conduct to restore trust--one similar to those followed by police departments in every corner of this country--and clear identification and the removal of masks to improve accountability. As they prepare to turn to the partisan budget reconciliation process to fund ICE, Republicans in Congress have a choice: Demand accountability for every dollar we give this Agency or keep signing checks to a slush fund while people are detained by ICE. Remember what the President said? We are going after the ``worst of the worst''--the terrorists, rapists, murderers, the criminally insane, those who are exploiting our children. Does it sound like this family, which has been waiting in detention for 1 year with no charges, fits into that category? Of course not. I yield the floor.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Virginia (Mr. Warner) is necessarily absent.

Mr. DURBIN

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

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, when Kash Patel was confirmed as head of the FBI, I said that he had neither the experience, the judgment, nor the temperament for the job. Fourteen months later, Director Patel has confirmed my worst fears about his integrity and competency. Director Patel has spent his tenure at the FBI weaponizing the world's preeminent investigative Agency to serve the political interests of one person--Donald Trump. Patel has fired dozens of career law enforcement agents simply because they were assigned to work on investigations related to President Trump's and his allies' misconduct. These firings have deprived the FBI of decades of experience at a time when our Nation is facing growing threats not only at home but overseas. Director Patel has timed these politicized purges to shield himself from allegations of misconduct. After his embarrassing actions at the Olympics and whistleblower disclosures to my office describing how his misuse of FBI aircraft has negatively impacted high-profile criminal investigations, Director Patel tried to save face by firing even more people at the FBI who worked on President Trump's mishandling of classified documents. Several of the fired agents at the FBI were part of a global counterintelligence squad whose responsibilities included investigating espionage and cyber threats from Iran. Just days before the war began, Director Patel deliberately undermined the FBI's ability to counter Iranian threats--all to distract from his own failings and mismanagement as Director. An article recently published in The Atlantic revealed that Director Patel's behavior has been even more erratic and irresponsible than previously reported. Current and former FBI officials are worried that Director Patel has become a national security risk due to his chronic absenteeism and his personal lifestyle. Those at FBI headquarters and field offices often find the Director absent at critical moments, delaying time-sensitive decisions on important investigations that require his approval. These accusations would be concerning for any government official, but for one of the people principally responsible for keeping America safe, they are downright disqualifying. Director Patel should be replaced immediately. Our country's safety is too important to be left in the hands of an unqualified and undependable individual who is loyal only to the President and not to the people of this Nation.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, known as FISA, is a valuable, important national security tool for collecting foreign intelligence. The problem is that the government is also using section 702 as a backdoor for warrantless spying on Americans here at home. FISA section 702 allows the intelligence community to collect the communications of foreigners who are overseas without a warrant. The justification for bypassing the Constitution's warrant requirement is that foreigners overseas are not protected by the Fourth Amendment. American citizens certainly are. But the government isn't just collecting the communications of foreigners; they are also collecting millions, if not billions, of communications of innocent Americans in touch with those foreigners as well. Our government then searches those private emails, phone calls, and text messages of Americans without a warrant. Congress has repeatedly failed to fix this end run around the Constitution's protection. Unsurprisingly, without court approval for such searches, the independent Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board and the FISA Court have documented shocking abuses of section 702 by our government. The intelligence community has used this authority to spy on American businesses, American religious leaders, political parties, campaign donors, journalists, and protesters across the political spectrum. And this was all before we had an administration which was expressly intent on targeting its political enemies. In April 2024, Congress enacted the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act, which reauthorized section 702 for 2 years with reforms that were meant to rein in past abuses. However, these reforms failed to prohibit warrantless searches of Americans' communications collected under section 702. In fact, warrantless searches of Americans increased in 2025, with the FBI alone conducting more than 7,000 warrantless searches on Americans last year. Just as troubling is the increase in so-called sensitive queries by the FBI under Kash Patel's leadership. These are warrantless searches of section 702 data that target religious leaders or organizations, politicians or political organizations, or journalists. In 2025, the FBI conducted over three times as many sensitive queries as in 2024. These statistics are troubling enough, but with the Trump administration closing oversight offices, firing compliance staff, dismantling the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, and failing to testify, the full scope of their abuses remains unknown. The administration is also keeping the latest FISA Court ruling on section 702 secret from the American people. The administration acknowledged that the court found ``deficiencies'' with how the government is conducting 702 searches. Yet it hasn't released the court's opinion or the details of these ``deficiencies'' to the American people. Meanwhile, POLITICO reports that Stephen Miller--the architect of President Trump's immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, Chicago, and beyond--is the White House's chief advocate for extending section 702. Miller reportedly views section 702 as ``critical to a variety of homeland security missions.'' Why does Stephen Miller view section 702--a statute designed to collect foreign surveillance and intelligence--as critical to homeland security inside the United States? Well, in 2024, Congress quietly expanded section 702 to allow it to be used for immigration vetting. How is the President exploiting this expansion of section 702 to carry out his mass deportation campaign? We don't know because the administration refuses to testify about the use of this authority. Congress should not give Donald Trump, Stephen Miller, and Kash Patel unchecked power to spy on Americans. Last week, the House rightly rejected on a bipartisan basis attempts to renew section 702 without safeguards. Congress instead enacted a 10- day extension so it could reach an agreement on reform needed to protect our constitutional rights. As in the past, some may argue that that is not enough time to enact reform before section 702 expires, but section 702 surveillance operates under yearlong certifications approved by the FISA Court. Even if 702 were to expire today, the law makes it clear that surveillance may continue under the current certification until March of 2027. There is no emergency excusing Congress from getting this right. Congress should reform section 702 to protect Americans' constitutional rights and prevent further abuses. Senator Mike Lee of Utah--a conservative Republican--and I have proposed the bipartisan SAFE Act to do just that. Our bill includes a warrant requirement for conducting searches of U.S. persons' communications collected under section 702. This safeguard ensures that a judge, not the executive branch of government, approves the search. There are exceptions for emergencies and other legitimate security needs to ensure that we can protect security and liberty at the same time. If the government has a legitimate basis for the search, they can make that case to the judge. If they do not, then they should not be rifling through private communications of Americans. For too long, Congress has renewed section 702 without this basic protection from arbitrary government searches. Enough is enough. Congress should reauthorize 702 with sensible reforms to protect Americans from threats to their security and to their basic constitutional rights. I yield the floor.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, today, the Senate will vote on the nomination of Andrew Bray Davis to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas. I am deeply concerned Mr. Davis will not be able to put aside his partisan advocacy if he is confirmed to the bench. Mr. Davis has repeatedly argued that the qui tam provision of the False Claims Act, FCA--a law that Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley has championed for many years--violates the Constitution. Whistleblowers who bring qui tam actions play an important role in holding accountable those who defraud the Federal Government. Of $6.8 billion in FCA settlements and judgments last year, qui tam actions comprised $5.3 billion in recoveries. I am also troubled by Mr. Davis' refusal to disavow his controversial college writings. As just one example, he defended racist commentary from conservative pundit and former Republican official Bill Bennett, who said, ``I do know that it's true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could, if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down.'' Mr. Davis defended this statement as ``essentially accurate.'' I recognize that nominees often write things in college that no longer reflect their views today. However, when I asked Mr. Davis whether he still believed that Mr. Bennett's statement was ``essentially accurate,'' Mr. Davis refused to answer. Mr. Davis' failure to disavow his article is unacceptable. How can people of color have faith that Mr. Davis will treat them fairly in his courtroom if he is confirmed? I urge my colleagues to oppose this nomination.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. Fetterman) and the Senator from Virginia (Mr. Warner) are necessarily absent.

Mr. DURBIN

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

Mr. DURBIN

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

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, the Hebrew phrase ``l'dor v'dor'' means ``from generation to generation,'' and it is an important principle in the Jewish faith. This phrase describes the passage of beliefs, values, and traditions from parent to child, mentor to student. ``L'dor v'dor'' is a message of Jewish resilience, a testament to their continued spirit in the face of centuries of oppression. My friend Samuel R. Harris was the living embodiment of this maxim. As one of the youngest survivors of the Holocaust, Sam dedicated his life to telling his story of growing up in Nazi-occupied Poland. Sam played an indispensable part in expanding Holocaust education in Illinois, where he helped create the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center. In doing so, Sam inspired thousands of people to stand up against hate, injustice, and oppression. Sam was a powerful force for good, and it is with deep sadness that I share the news of his passing. Sam was born in Deblin, Poland, in 1935, as the youngest of seven children to an Orthodox Jewish family. His childhood before the war was filled with happiness and joy, but it would last only 4 short years before the Nazis invaded Poland in September 1939. Deblin was one of the locations where the Polish Air Force trained, which meant that it was a target for the Luftwaffe, who blanketed the city with bombs at the start of their invasion. Soon after, the Nazis arrived in Sam's town, where they terrorized and beat Jewish families. They evicted Sam's family from their home and forced them to live in one of the Nazi-created ghettos, designed to starve the Jewish population who inhabited them. Sam lived in the ghetto until 1942, when the Nazis escalated their genocide campaign and began to round up families to be taken to extermination camps. As Sam walked with his parents toward the cattle car, his father pushed him out of the line so that Sam could escape execution. Sam ran and hid with his two sisters Rosa and Sara. Rosa, the oldest of the three, was forced to work in a labor camp outside of Deblin, and she smuggled Sam and Sara with her, as they were too young to survive on their own. Sam never saw his parents or his other siblings again; they were deported to the Treblinka extermination camp and murdered. Sam and his two surviving siblings remained in Nazi concentration camps for nearly 3 years, where they were subject to daily abuse and torment. In January 1945, they were liberated by Russian soldiers, and soon after, Sam fled to Austria, then to America, arriving in Northbrook, IL, in 1947. When Sam arrived at his new home, he handed his adopted mother his suitcases and told her that he ``never wanted to see his luggage again.'' Sam had hoped to leave his experience and trauma under Nazi occupation behind. As he went through high school and college, he never spoke about his childhood in Poland. Sam would go on to graduate from Grinnell College and build a successful career in the insurance industry. He met the love of his life Janice--``Dede''--and had two children Julie and David. Sam had built a life for himself in America, but he could not leave his past behind. In the 1970s, the United States witnessed a resurgence in anti-semitism, with the neo-Nazi marches in Skokie, IL, and Sam was increasingly encouraged by his family, friends, and other survivors to speak out about what he witnessed in Poland. Upon the insistence of Ernest Michel, Auschwitz survivor and Nuremberg Trials reporter, Sam became involved with the Illinois Holocaust Foundation. As Sam began to share his story, he took on a greater role in Holocaust education advocacy in Illinois. Sam pushed Illinois to become the first State in the Nation to make Holocaust education mandatory in public schools, which it did in 1990. He authored a memoir about his experience and went on to teach thousands of students about what he went through as a Jewish person suffering under Nazi occupation. Sam's most enduring accomplishment lies in the creation of the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Skokie, which opened its doors in 2009. Sam fought tirelessly for its construction, organizing donation drives, public interest, and governmental support. Before the creation of the new museum, the largest Holocaust education center in Illinois was barely equipped to handle 30,000 visitors in 1 year. Thanks to Sam, more than 100,000 students now visit Skokie every year to learn about the Holocaust and the importance of tolerance. The museum itself, while currently closed for renovations, is designed to contain a dark side, depicting Hitler's rise and the Nazi plans for the final solution, and a bright side, describing the joint resistance to Nazi fascism by Jewish and non-Jewish people alike. In a way, the museum's format mirrors Sam's life. His childhood was filled with unimaginable pain and heartache, yet he never lost his faith in humanity. In his book, Sam wrote that ``everyone has both good and bad [in them]. I choose to look at the good.'' Sam embodied this sentiment every day. He was filled with love for the people around him, and he spent his time on Earth committed to the idea that through education and learning we might bring out more of the good in people. In 2014, Sam won the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, one of America's most eminent awards, in honor of his resilience and his advocacy. Despite Sam's numerous awards and accomplishments, he maintained that the best thing to ever happen to him was his wife Dede. Loretta and I send our deepest condolences to Dede, Julie, and Sam's grandchildren Jessica and Jeremy. Sam wrote at the end of his memoir that ``good will prevail in the long run.'' Through sharing his story, his faith, and his unyielding optimism, Sam brought us closer to that reality. From generation to generation, Sam taught us the lessons of his past so that we may create a better future. May his memory be a blessing.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I would like to speak to two or three topics. One of them is the current procedural situation in the Senate and, for that matter, the House. It has been more than 60 days since the White House and congressional Republicans allowed funding to lapse for the Department of Homeland Security and for the government to partially shut down. This has turned out to be the longest government shutdown in American history. Day after day and week after week, Senate Democrats came to the floor and proposed funding all of the Department of Homeland Security except two specific Agencies--ICE and the CBP agents. Do you remember that, Mr. President? In one instance, my colleague from Oregon Senator Merkley sought unanimous consent to pass legislation to pay all TSA employees. Unfortunately, the Republican majority objected. In another instance, my colleague from Connecticut Mr. Murphy sought to pass legislation to pay members of our Coast Guard. Republicans objected to that too. In all, Republicans blocked bills to fund TSA, FEMA, and the Coast Guard a total of 14 times. Why would they block the funding of these critical Agencies? Because the White House and my Republican colleagues refuse to sit down and talk about the future of ICE and whether the rules that apply to law enforcement all across the United States will apply to ICE. It is an Agency that we have seen in realtime terrorizing communities like Chicago and Minneapolis across this country with increasingly violent and militarized enforcement operations. You can't miss the ICE agents. They wear masks. The only law enforcement Agency in the United States that I know of--Federal, State, or local--where their officers wear masks. Many of them, historically, didn't even have a name tag to identify who they are. They are a paramilitary force created by President Trump and Stephen Miller to harass people who may be here illegally when it comes to immigration. All of this occurred when the chaos at our airports grew and essential workers went unpaid. Instead of agreeing to reforms, the White House took Executive action to skirt accountability. What has happened to ICE? After the killings in Minneapolis and the violence in Chicago and other cities, ICE virtually disappeared. When the director of the Department of Homeland Security was forced to resign, we had a new director come on board--the Senator from Oklahoma. What has happened to him? They have gone radio silent. The only evidence that the ICE agents are still around and working was when they were dispatched to airports. And for some reason--it may be part of the current charm offensive for ICE--they were told they don't have to wear a mask if they are in an airport. This makes no sense at all if you buy their explanation that the ICE agents are so vulnerable. What happened when they were in the airport? It is reported that they arrested and detained over 800 people. Remember what ICE was supposed to do? It was supposed to make us safe--safe in our homes and neighborhoods, safe across the United States. The President said over and over again: ICE is going to go after the worst of the worst. Rapists, murderers, terrorists, the criminally insane--we are going to go find them. So what has happened in the months that ICE has been on this crusade? One out of seven people that they have detained or removed from the United States actually had a serious criminal record. It made no difference; the Stephen Miller plan is to put fear in the hearts of all the immigrants to the United States, and that is what they set out to do. It is not a question of safety in the neighborhoods; it is a question of whether or not we are going to tolerate immigration in America. I think there ought to be some basics in a bipartisan agreement when it comes to immigration. Let me tell you what I think those basics are. We should never knowingly allow a dangerous person to come into this country. Second, if there is a person in this country that is seeking legal status and they do something serious, like commission of a crime or they are dangerous, they are gone--gone. Third, we cannot absorb at any one time all the people in the world who want to come to the United States. We need to have an orderly system. I think those three elements are the starting point of a bipartisan conversation. When it comes to the future of immigration, I was involved several years ago with the Gang of 8--four Democratic Senators, four Republican Senators--among them, John McCain and Chuck Schumer. We sat down for months and wrote up a bill: comprehensive immigration reform. It was supported by business and labor and the agriculture groups, and by and large, it was bipartisan from start to finish. More money was put into border security than ever in the history of the United States. That bill passed the U.S. Senate with a bipartisan vote. That should have been the beginning of a conversation that leads us away from where we are today, but what happened? It was sent to the Republican- controlled House of Representatives and, for a variety of political reasons, went nowhere. It is time for us to return and visit that issue again for a comprehensive immigration reform plan. We have to tell Stephen Miller to cool it. As far as I am concerned, to turn ICE loose on more and more communities is just to make people fearful and not solve the problem we face. We have to work together to solve it with a comprehensive plan, and we should be started on that immediately.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I will also tell you that when it comes to the future involvement of the United States, we have a serious question in the Middle East. I cannot tell you what the objective of the President is when it comes to the war in Iran. If you take a look at what happened today--we had a rollcall vote on my colleague Senator Duckworth's motion that would have given Congress the authority to declare war, as the Constitution states in article I, section 8. It was defeated on a partisan vote once again. We have tried this two or three other times. This is an effort to make sure that we have a conversation about the war in Iran. Do you know how many public hearings we have had in Congress about the invasion of Iran? None. Not one. We are virtually in a war that has gone on now for 70 days or so, and we have not debated it. What is the purpose of our invasion of Iran? The President has given six, seven, eight different explanations, depending on the time of day. One day, it is to close the Strait of Hormuz; the next day, it is to open the Strait of Hormuz. One day, it is to get regime change in Iran; the next day, it is to reject the regime that is governing in Iran. The next day, we are going to eliminate missiles. And it goes on and on. You can't keep up with it. The problem, of course, is that there is an impact on families all across the world but especially in the United States when it comes to the cost of living. When you ask American families ``How are you doing?'' they say ``Not so well, thank you.'' When we take a look at the cost of raising a family these days, we see the cost of groceries hitting an alltime high; we see our utility bills going up--in Illinois, they have gone up 15 percent this year over last year; we see the cost of gasoline going through the roof. It is over $4 a gallon in Illinois and in some parts of Chicago, over $5 a gallon. That is a real hardship on working families. Why are we in this mess with gasoline? Because of the invasion of Iran and the disruption of the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz into Europe and beyond. That is the reality of the President's invasion. Did anyone in the White House or the Department of Defense sit down and measure the impact of what it would mean if we invaded Iran on the global economy? This morning, I heard on the radio someone predicting the possibility of a global recession. Was that part of your calculation, Mr. President? We don't know because we can't understand what the President's motives are on a day-to-day basis when it comes to the future of Iran. Do we want Iran to have a nuclear weapon? Of course not. What have we done about it? Under the Obama administration, we negotiated international inspectors to go into Iran to see whether or not they were developing a nuclear bomb. I met with some of those inspectors on a regular basis. They were getting doors opened and questions asked and answered, photos being taken, and a reporting at the time. What happened with President Trump in his first term? He eliminated the agreement that created the inspectors. Then what did he replace it with? Nothing. Nothing until he invaded Iran 2 months ago. We need international inspectors in place to make sure that Iran does not develop a nuclear weapon, and we certainly are not moving in that direction with the President Trump invasion. So we have the situation in which the President's chaos and cost-of- living increases and confusion have really created problems for families across the United States. It is time for us to remember that our goal is to make it better for those who are raising children and trying to feed a family. This war in Iran is not the answer to that. I yield the floor.

Mr. DURBIN

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

Mr. DURBIN

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

Mr. DURBIN

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

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Colorado (Mr. Bennet) is necessarily absent.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, today, the Senate will vote on the nomination of Judge John Shepherd to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas. I am concerned by Judge Shepherd's overall lack of experience. He has served on the Arkansas State bench for just over a year. Prior to that, he practiced law for just 12 years. By his own admission, only half of his legal practice actually involved litigation. In addition, Judge Shepherd has stated that less than 5 percent of his experience as a litigator took place in Federal court. Litigants in Federal trial courts should have confidence that the judges overseeing their cases are experts in Federal practice and procedure. Judge Shepherd simply does not have adequate experience for litigants in the Western District of Arkansas to feel they have received a fair hearing before him. For these reasons, I oppose Judge Shepherd's nomination and urge my colleagues to do the same.

Mr. DURBIN. I ask unanimous consent that the scheduled rollcall begin immediately.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, last month, America lost a man who devoted his life to serving America. Robert Mueller passed away on March 20. He left behind an amazing legacy of patriotism, honesty, integrity, and courage. In 1968, at the height of the Vietnam war, Robert Mueller chose to enlist in the Marine Corps. He was a rifle platoon leader. Years later, he said that of all his accomplishments in life, he was ``most proud the Marine Corps deemed me worthy of leading other Marines.'' He earned a Bronze Star for valor when his platoon was ambushed, suffering multiple casualties. He rescued--personally rescued--a wounded marine. He earned a Purple Heart after being wounded by enemy fire while leading his platoon to rescue soldiers who were pinned down by the enemy. While Mr. Mueller's time in the Marines ended in 1970, that is far from the end of his service to this country. After his military service, Robert Mueller became a lawyer and spent most of his life in public service. A lifelong Republican--a lifelong Republican--he served for many years as a prosecutor and senior Justice Department official under both Republican and Democratic Presidents alike. Throughout the 1990s, Mr. Mueller would serve in various positions at the Department of Justice, working as a senior litigator in the Homicide Section of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia and as U.S. attorney for the Northern District of California. Mueller's work won him the admiration of both President George W. Bush and the U.S. Senate. One week before September 11, 2001, Bob Mueller was sworn in as Director of the FBI. In the aftermath of the horrific 9/11 terrorist attack, Bob Mueller worked tirelessly to make our Nation safe. Director Mueller led the FBI in a tumultuous time. After the worst terror attack in American history, Bob Mueller more than any single individual was responsible for modernizing the FBI to combat the threats that we face in the 21st century. It was my honor to support him in that effort. It is no surprise that when his term with the FBI was set to expire in 2011, President Obama asked the Senate to extend Mueller's term by 2 years. The vote in the Senate was unanimous--100 to nothing--in favor of Bob Mueller, as it should have been. Mr. Mueller left the FBI in 2013, and even that was not the end of his service to the American people. In 2017, Director Mueller was asked to serve his Nation one last time. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, a Trump appointee, asked Mueller to serve as special counsel to investigate Russia's efforts to interfere in the 2016 election. While my colleagues and I have spent many years debating the merits of the Mueller report, his work on Russia's interference in the 2016 election and throughout his time at DOJ and FBI demonstrates true character, hard work, courage, honesty, professionalism, and a dedication to our Constitution. In honor of his legacy, I introduced a resolution with my colleagues from Virginia, his home State, that recognizes the contributions Bob Mueller made to our Nation. I will now make a unanimous consent request to pass the resolution. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that notwithstanding rule XXII and as if in legislative session, the Senate proceed to the consideration of my resolution, which is at the desk; further, 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. DURBIN. Mr. President, I am disappointed that the junior Senator from Indiana has blocked the Senate from honoring an American hero, Bob Mueller, who protected our national security with his life and for decades served the call to public service. This is so unusual, to come to the floor and to honor someone who has served the county the way Bob Mueller did and to have an objection. And to say that it was a ``political potshot'' against Donald Trump--it was not at all. The effort that I made on the floor was to extol the virtues of a man who served this country and risked his life for this country over and over again. My colleague is objecting for one reason only: President Donald Trump despises Robert Mueller and his memory because Trump's own administration appointed Mueller as special counsel to investigate Russia's efforts to interfere in the 2016 election. Mr. Mueller's comprehensive investigation resulted in 37 indictments, 7 guilty pleas or convictions, and 14 criminal referrals to other U.S. Department of Justice counterparts. This, to Donald Trump, was an unforgivable sin. Do you remember what President Trump said when he heard that this man died, exactly what he said? The President of the United States said of Bob Mueller: Good. I'm glad he's dead. ``Good. I'm glad he's dead''--words from the mouth of the President of the United States, a man who poses as the messiah or some doctor; I don't understand which. ``Good. I'm glad he's dead''--the President of the United States, the Commander in Chief, responding to the passing of a marine, Bob Mueller, who received a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star. This is not the first time the President has attacked an American war hero. I am sorry that the Senator from Indiana joined in that attack. We cannot pretend this cruel and un-American behavior is normal. I am sorry the Senator from Indiana sees it differently. I want to say to Bob Mueller's family, who I believe is watching: He is still an American hero in my eyes, and though this political move was made on the floor--and it seldom is made; I am sorry--it doesn't change one bit the fact that Bob Mueller served this country honorably, with dignity and character, his whole life. I yield the floor.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to complete this unanimous consent request before we recess.