Richard Durbin

Mr. DURBIN

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, yesterday, the Senate voted to begin consideration of the modestly named GENIUS Act, a bill that would regulate stablecoins, a form of cryptocurrency. Crypto is known as a volatile investment and more unpredictable than traditional financial assets like stocks and bonds. Last month, the value of Bitcoin, a type of crypto, dropped to $76,000, but it shot up to more than $100,000 last week. Supporters of the GENIUS Act say that is where stablecoins come in. They argue that stablecoins are tied to the value of the dollar, for example, so they never lose their value. The name ``stablecoin'' makes it sound secure, doesn't it? But the name is misleading. In 2023 alone, stablecoins deviated from their underlying asset more than 600 times. That does not sound like stability to me. While I agree with supporters of the GENIUS Act that crypto and stablecoins need to be regulated, I have genuine concerns about the bill. One is the amount of illicit finance that stablecoins could support. A recent report found that crypto facilitated $51 billion in illicit transactions, and stablecoins accounted for 63 percent of all illicit crypto transactions. Many illegal crypto transactions involve crypto ATMs. You might have seen one at your grocery store or gas station, although you may not realize it. They allow you to trade in cash for cryptocurrency. But they also are a frequent tool of scammers and fraudsters who prey on Americans, especially senior citizens. We receive phone calls in our offices back in Illinois on a regular basis from senior citizens who have been scammed out of thousands of dollars. Here is how it works: A scammer will call an unassuming victim, pretending to be from the government or the victim's bank. Let me stop right there and say what I tell people over and over again. The government is not going to call you on the phone. If anyone calls you on the phone and represents that they are part of Social Security or some other Federal Agency, it is most likely a scam. That is the starting point. A scammer calls this unassuming victim and creates a scenario--an emergency scenario--in their mind. The scammer tells the victim that they owe money for skipping jury duty or unpaid taxes or that their bank account is frozen. The scammer warns the victim they have to pay urgently or else the fines will escalate or the victim may face jail time if they don't move quickly. The scammer tells the victim not to worry; they can simply drive to the nearest crypto ATM, make their payment, and everything will be just fine. The scammer walks them through the steps of inserting cash in the machine, purchasing cryptocurrency, and sending it to the scammer's digital wallet. Once that happens, the money is gone, with no way to get it back and little hope of tracing the transaction to the scammer. All throughout the scam, the fraudster will stay in constant contact with the victim to keep them from ever getting a moment to take a breath, calm down, consult a trusted friend, or maybe realize what is really going on. In 2023, scammers used crypto ATMs to cheat victims out of $114 million, mainly senior citizens. I first found out about these scams after reading an article in the Illinois Times, a newspaper publication in Springfield, IL. The article told the story of a vape shop owner in Springfield who was being paid $300 a month to have a crypto ATM machine on his premises. One day, the owner noticed a panicked elderly woman enter the shop and hurriedly feed thousands of dollars into the crypto ATM while talking on the phone the whole time. The vape shop owner learned that the woman was scammed out of $5,000 before he stepped in to stop her from putting more money into the machine. Later, the owner removed the crypto ATM from the store, but there was no way for the woman to get her money back. That owner said: I just couldn't in good conscience allow more and more senior citizens to come in and use that machine after being scammed. This same story has repeated itself countless times across the country. An 80-year-old man in Texas lost thousands of dollars to a scammer who claimed he needed to pay bail to get his son out of jail. The man claimed: I was scared, I hit the panic button and I let my panic take control of my good judgment. In South Carolina, a retired couple lost $320,000 over several months to a scam involving crypto ATMs. Last month, a retired woman in Wisconsin lost $24,000--her entire life savings--when scammers convinced her to use a crypto ATM, claiming it was the only way to protect her bank account from fraudulent activity. Since the scam, the woman has said: Sometimes I wake up and I shiver because I can still hear [the scammer's] voice. It is probably something I will never get over. Just this month, the sheriff's office in Walton County, FL, reported that a resident was cheated out of $129,000 by a scammer claiming to be from their bank. Crypto ATM operators will claim that their kiosks give banking and crypto access to the ``unbanked''--often those in minority and low- income communities who have historically been locked out of the banking system--but in reality, the elderly and the unbanked are the most vulnerable to scams involving crypto ATM fraud. The crypto ATMs charge high fees, ranging from 7 percent to 20 percent, and have fewer consumer protections, if any, for the users. States such as Nebraska, Arizona, and Connecticut have passed legislation to crack down on these scams. It is time for Congress to do the same. It has been predicted that the result of the so-called GENIUS Act will be a dramatic increase in crypto activity. That means a dramatic exposure to fraud. Let's make sure this amendment which I am going to offer to the GENIUS Act is adopted to protect innocent victims. I can tell you for sure, you are going to hear from senior citizens and others who have lost their life savings. That is why I am pushing for a vote on my amendment to the GENIUS Act. It creates commonsense guardrails to prevent crypto ATM fraud and empower law enforcement to combat these scams. My amendment, based on the Crypto ATM Fraud Prevention Act, would require crypto ATM operators to warn consumers about scams, provide live customer support, and develop comprehensive anti-fraud policies. With my amendment, fewer Americans will be cheated out of their entire retirement savings in just a few days, and ATM operators will no longer be able to simply turn a blind eye to the fraud at their kiosks. These scams have already harmed thousands of Americans and cheated them out of their life savings. Enough is enough. I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle: Listen to the people you represent, particularly the senior citizens, who are losing their life savings to these scams, and realize that with 30,000 crypto ATMs across the country, more and more of this will occur. We need to support this amendment that provides commonsense guardrails to stop scammers in their tracks and protect hard-working Americans. I yield the floor.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, since the start of his second term, President Trump has upended the international world order and America's leadership on the global stage. He and his allies are working decisively to erode the values that are central to our Nation. Notably, retired diplomats, military leaders, national security experts, and even former Trump administration officials have denounced these actions as undermining our democratic norms and traditions, and I would like to highlight one such open letter from former U.S. leaders. I ask unanimous consent that this letter be printed in the Record.

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, let me tell you a story. It is one of the oldest in our country. It is the story of the American dream. It is one of perseverance, where anyone, regardless of their background or circumstances, can achieve success and upward mobility through hard work and determination. It means a job that pays a fair wage, a school that prepares our kids for a better life, a doctor who sees you when you are sick, and a roof over your head at night. We are now in the midst of debating soon a ``reconciliation'' bill. For those not familiar with the term, it is basically a special budget bill. If you consider this a legislative organization or body--and I do--if we were accused of legislating this year, I am afraid there is not enough evidence to convict us. We have been in session now for 5 months. We passed five bills--one a month. If we were being paid for piecework, we would have been left behind for the last 5 months. But now comes this reconciliation bill that tries to do everything at once. It is starting over in the House of Representatives. Assuming it passes there, it will come over here. What does it do, this reconciliation bill, this spending bill, budget-cutting bill? It dismantles the American dream, and it strips our institutions of essential services that help the most vulnerable people of our country--all so that the ultimate goal can be served. And what is that goal? To give larger tax breaks to wealthy people. If you don't have time to read more than a thousand pages of these cuts in this reconciliation bill, let me give you a shortened version. It isn't pretty. Billionaires will win; American families will lose. President Trump asked Republicans in Congress to provide a massive giveaway to the richest Americans. They want to use programs like Medicaid, food and nutrition programs, and medical research funding as a piggy bank for these tax cuts for wealthy people. Let's take Medicaid for example. Medicaid insures one in four people in my home State of Illinois. One out of four--3.4 million--people are on Medicaid, including 1.5 million children. How important is it? Medicaid is a program, an insurance program, that covers nearly half of all births in our State. Two-thirds of nursing home residents receive Medicaid assistance. That is your mom, your dad, your grandparents. The majority of patients with mental health counseling count on Medicaid. A majority of the money for mental health counseling comes from that program. It is a lifeline for children's hospitals. It is a lifeline for rural hospitals. Knowing how unpopular it is to deprive Americans of healthcare, for months, the Republicans have said: Democrats have it all wrong. We are not cutting Medicaid benefits. We are simply focusing on waste, fraud, and abuse. If there is a program that is wasteful and fraudulent, put me in line to do something about it. I don't want to see any taxpayers' money wasted. But that is not what would happen here, and I am afraid my colleagues on the other side of the aisle know it. With their plans, Republicans are taking a chain saw to our healthcare system and ripping health insurance away. At the end of the day, their reconciliation proposal will remove Medicaid insurance from 14 million Americans. Mr. President, if you have ever lived in a circumstance where you had no health insurance, it is a sobering, unforgettable experience. I have been there--a sick child and no health insurance. It is something you will never forget. The reconciliation plan of the Republicans buries elderly patients in complex paperwork requirements that will wrap them up in so much redtape, they will never get the care they need. Just think, if you have illness in the family, a serious illness, you have to go through a high-stakes government-redtape gauntlet--another government form, another telephone recording when you need a helping hand. It decimates the funding system for Medicaid, which will force rural hospitals to cut services or close altogether. Three weeks ago, 20 hospital administrators from my State came. Most of them were from downstate, where I live, where I grew up. They told the story of what the reconciliation bill means to them--cutting services in communities, closing down critical hospitals. Instead of 20 minutes for that pregnant woman, with her first baby, to get to the doctor, to get to the hospital--instead of 20 minutes, it will be an hour and 20 minutes. Does it make a difference? How would you like to be driving in the car under those circumstances? You will never forget it. Republicans are also targeting food and nutrition programs like SNAP. Forty million Americans rely on these programs to put food on the table, including nearly 2 million in Illinois. They are looking to cut food and nutrition benefits by as much as $290 billion--the largest cut to anti-hunger funding in our Nation's history. I was home in Springfield over the weekend. My wife came back from the grocery store, and she said, ``I can't believe these prices.'' Prices are too high, and they keep going higher. What do the Republicans want to do? Cut the benefits to pay for this food that the people need to put on the table. It will take food assistance away from 6 million Americans. How much money do people receive? Well, it turns out the average SNAP recipient--the food nutrition program at the Federal level--the average recipient would be paid $5 a day. Try to live on $5 a day. Imagine what their life must be like. That is right--the Republican reconciliation bill will take food off the tables of seniors and children so they can pay for these billionaire tax cuts. If that sounds like an exaggeration, it is not. As Republicans strip Americans of their healthcare and SNAP benefits, millionaires and billionaires will continue to see tax breaks coming their way. In their bill, Republicans give huge tax breaks to multibillion-dollar corporations. They exempt up to $28 million in taxes from estates that the wealthiest Americans pass on to their children. In the same breath, they fail to expand the child tax credit, which is one of the most effective tools to reduce poverty and put money back in the pockets of working families. Remember, it was Democrats who expanded the child tax credit in the American Rescue Plan, which led to a historic reduction in poverty in the United States. Research showed that child poverty fell immediately and substantially to the lowest on record--5.2 percent. So who needs a tax break--working families or the wealthiest people in our country? For me, the answer is obvious. Republicans are also planning to eliminate the clean energy tax credit enacted in the Democrats' Inflation Reduction Act, which would derail efforts to strengthen U.S. energy security and lower costs. This would hurt American families and small businesses by hitting them with higher energy bills and the loss of nearly 800,000 jobs over the next 5 years. Some States could see double-digit percentage increases in electricity bills, which means hundreds of dollars out of Americans' pockets each year. Just a few hours ago, the White House claimed their reckless plan ``does not add to the deficit.'' Someone said that with a straight face. But in reality, it explodes the deficit under the guise of fiscal responsibility. The White House and Republican reconciliation plan would add $3.3 trillion to the Nation's deficit over the next 10 years for tax breaks for wealthy people. President Trump's recordbreaking deficit in his first term will reach new depths of debt to pay for billionaire tax cuts. Donald Trump is claiming that his sprawling trade war will somehow pay for this bill, but no one buys that, and no one can even explain it the way he does. America's small businesses, workers, farmers, and families are hurting because of this administration's tariffs, while the President continues to weaken America's credibility and alienate us from our biggest trading partners. If all of this wasn't bad enough, Republican Speaker Johnson cut a deal for Members of the House Freedom Caucus over the weekend in order to move this bill. It is reported that they discussed accelerating the plan to condition Medicaid health coverage on redtape requirements-- these were originally set for 2029; they now want to end people's insurance as soon as possible, maybe by the end of next year--as well as a quicker phaseout of clean energy tax credits that were put into law as part of the Inflation Reduction Act. That is right--the package isn't bad enough for conservative Republicans to support, so they are considering making it even worse for American families. Americans of all political affiliations rely on the critical services that Republicans plan to cut, not just Democrats. Slashing lifesaving healthcare and cutting food and nutrition benefits for mothers trying to feed their families will hurt Americans in blue and red States. I heard my colleagues give speeches about tough choices. Let me tell you, choosing to line the pockets of people like Elon Musk while cutting lifesaving medical research isn't tough, it is shameful. American families aren't asking for special treatment. They are asking for a fair shot at the American dream. They are asking us to remember that this country works best when we invest in its people. We need four Republicans with good sense to join Democrats and say no to this disaster. Two have already stepped forward. We need two more. The sooner the better. I yield the floor.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Arizona (Mr. Kelly) is necessarily absent.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Arizona (Mr. Kelly) and the Senator from Hawaii (Mr. Schatz) are necessarily absent.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Arizona (Mr. Kelly) is necessarily absent.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Arizona (Mr. Kelly) is necessarily absent.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Arizona (Mr. Kelly) and the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders) are necessarily absent.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, as has been noted by my friend and colleague from Wyoming, this is National Police Week, and I just want to join in his chorus in saluting the law enforcement officials from his State who are here in Washington this week, as well as those in law enforcement from across the Nation. Many have traveled to Washington in their annual trip to honor those lost in the line of duty and to share their priorities with Members of Congress. If we want safe communities, we need to support our law enforcement and we need to work with our Nation's children, and that includes addressing our Nation's gun violence epidemic. We know that gun violence is the No. 1 cause of police officer line-of-duty death. Currently, the No. 1 cause of death for American kids and teenagers in America is gun violence--not automobile accidents, not cancer. We need to treat this crisis like the national emergency that it is. Commonsense gun safety measures are overwhelmingly popular with the American people, even with gun owners, including banning high-capacity assault weapons meant for the battlefield, as well as universal background checks and requiring safe storage of guns. But we know that making communities safer also requires addressing the root causes of violence. The police that I work with in Illinois and in the city of Chicago have made it clear to me: They can do their job, but we cannot arrest our way out of this situation. We need to do more. Next week marks 3 years since the tragic school shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, TX. On what should have been an ordinary schoolday, 19 innocent children and 2 teachers were gunned down in their classrooms by a man armed with an AR-15. After that horrific day, Congress came together on a bipartisan basis--a rare bipartisan basis--to pass the most significant gun safety reform in generations. We recognized that too many parents were losing children and too many communities had been irreparably scarred. So when Congress passed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, we agreed we must do more to prevent gun violence from happening in the first place. One of the most prominent provisions of that legislation was Congress's decision to invest in using trained neighborhood and community leaders to break the cycle of violence. With $250 million in funding, we supported community violence interrupters from the South Side of Chicago to Greensboro, NC; to Baton Rouge, LA; to Houston, TX, and many other communities. Unfortunately, the DOGE committee had a different idea when it came to preventing violence. Last month, the Department of Justice canceled more than $800 million in violence prevention, public safety, and victim services grants. That includes millions of dollars in community violence intervention funding that was senselessly cut. What does this mean? Organizations I am aware of, like Metropolitan Family Services in Chicago, lost $3.7 million overnight. These funds had been providing mental health training and job skills to hundreds of individuals who are most likely to perpetrate or be victims of violence. We went right to the source. Because of these initiatives, homicides in the city of Chicago have decreased by 50 percent since 2021. But now, just a few days before the start of summer months when gun violence will be at its peak, neighborhood organizations across the country, including Chicago, have had the rug pulled out from under them. Does Attorney General Bondi really think that eliminating these grants will stop the violence? Ignoring reality won't stop the bloodshed that will occur without these funds. Does President Trump really think that cutting this funding makes America safer? The next time the President or any of his friends goes to FOX News or some other news source and starts scapegoating Democrats for gun violence in Chicago, they should remember that the President and his billionaire cronies eliminated the successful bipartisan grants. To make matters worse, the Trump administration doubled down on its decision to rescind another billion dollars in school mental health grants, which were also passed into law in the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. There is a detention facility in the city of Chicago for teenagers awaiting trial charged with serious crimes, violent crimes. Some of them are being charged with murder. They wait months, sometimes years, for their trial. I visited that facility. And, of course, it is a detention facility, a correctional institution, but it is also a high school. These teenagers from all across the city of Chicago, waiting for trial, go to school in classrooms, eat in cafeterias, and, of course, stay on the premises. I asked the teachers and counselors at this facility for teenagers who have been involved in violent crime: Who are these kids? You must get to know them in this facility. What is their background? Well, one counselor I remember said: Senator, virtually every mental health challenge you can think of, we see in these kids. They came to the Earth in the usual way, but something happened in their lives that changed them. But there is one thing that they virtually all have in common: They are all victims of trauma, witnessing murders, having someone they love lost to gunfire. It is the kind of thing that can change a life for the better or for the worse, and, in this case, many of them are being changed for the worse. And so counseling them and working with them to conquer these haunting experiences in their lives is central to putting them on the right track. Now, we have a decision by this administration to cut back on school mental health grants. That was part of a bipartisan solution to deal with gun violence. After any mass shooting, many are quick to explain away the tragedy as just a mental health issue, not a result of the fact that America has too many deadly weapons. Yet barely 100 days into this administration, they have dropped any pretense about mental health in dealing with gun violence. Apparently, preventing gun violence by providing treatment to children is just too much for them to take. At one time, this was part of the bipartisan solution. In Illinois, tens of millions of dollars in school mental health services have now been canceled, forcing students to face the future without this counsel. One program had brought graduate psychology students to low-income elementary, middle, and high schools to provide treatment services to students and bolster the mental health workforce. Another initiative in Lake County, IL, received nearly $6 million in Federal funds to recruit and train mental health providers to work in the schools. In an outrageous and unsubstantiated justification, the Department of Education claimed that these funds ``violated the letter or purpose of Federal civil rights law'' or ``undermined the well-being of students these programs are intended to help.'' There is no evidence of that. Where is the outrage from those who joined in this bipartisan response several years ago and took great pride in it? Democrats and Republicans finally agreed on something. Mental health counseling of children that are most vulnerable is a way to reduce gun violence. I still believe that to this day, and yet the Trump administration says: No, we are not going to invest in that. Do you know what is going to happen? There will be more gun violence and terrible, outrageous events like we have seen so often. Innocent kids will die. Innocent people will die. And people will say: We just need more mental health counseling. Keep in mind that this administration just eliminated the funds for it. What are they thinking? Where is the outrage from my colleagues on the other side of the aisle? I saw the press releases from our Republican colleagues celebrating the funding that was originally created. Now, silence. That silence is shameful. I yield the floor.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Delaware (Ms. Blunt Rochester) and the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders) are necessarily absent.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders) is necessarily absent.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Maryland (Ms. Alsobrooks) and the Senator from Delaware (Mr. Coons) are necessarily absent.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from New York (Mrs. Gillibrand) is necessarily absent.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Maryland (Ms. Alsobrooks) and the Senator from Arizona (Mr. Gallego) 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. I announce that the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Booker) is necessarily absent.

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from New Mexico (Mr. Heinrich) and the Senator from Rhode Island (Mr. Whitehouse) are necessarily absent.

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

Mr. DURBIN

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, last week, hospital leaders from every corner of my State of Illinois came to Washington. What was the reason for the trip? The debate in Washington about the future of Medicaid. Each and every one of them, from the city of Chicago through the most rural areas in the State, was concerned about the plans by the Republicans in Congress to change the funding for Medicaid. From the South Side of Chicago to Macomb in West Central Illinois, as well as Rockford, 20 miles from the Wisconsin border, and Carbondale, all the way downstate, they came to see me. These are small, critical access hospitals in rural areas, the safety net hospitals treating the poorest patients and the large teaching hospitals in downtown Chicago. They are all focused on Medicaid. All of them told me the Medicaid cuts that Republicans have put on the table would be devastating to their hospitals in every corner of my State--devastating to the doctors and nurses that they employ and especially hurtful to the patients and their families. One told me that it is the only hospital in a 60-mile radius delivering babies. If Republican plans to cut Medicaid go through, this life-or-death care could be out of reach for pregnant mothers. Another safety net hospital told me they might have to close their doors altogether if the Medicaid cuts happen. Why? Why would Republicans in Congress even want to jeopardize healthcare and ring alarm bells in hospitals across America? They are trying to ``save $880 billion.'' Well, what is the critical need to save that? To perpetuate the tax breaks of the Trump administration for the wealthiest people in America. Yep, that is the game plan. That is right. President Trump and his billionaire buddy Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, have asked Republicans in Congress to provide a massive giveaway to the wealthiest Americans, and they want to use Medicaid cuts as the piggy bank. Let's be clear: This is not a healthcare reform plan to improve our healthcare system or lower costs for families and patients. Nope. Republicans are looking to dismantle the basic Medicaid Program to help the tax cuts for billionaires. Don't take my word for it. It is not just another political speech. Last week, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office issued a bombshell report. I am sure the Republicans in charge of the House and Senate didn't anticipate this. The Congressional Budget Office reviewed the Republican plans to cut Medicaid and determined the only way Republicans can ``save money'' is by removing millions of Americans from this health insurance, slashing benefits, or cutting access to doctors, nurses, and dentists. For weeks, Republicans have been adamant that they are only focused on addressing waste, fraud, and abuse in Medicaid. Then comes the CBO report. I want to agree with the basic premise that, if there is inappropriate spending, fix it. But that is not what is happening here, and I think the Republican majority knows it. The Congressional Budget Office called their bluff and confirmed that these Medicaid cuts proposed by the Republicans are not about waste or efficiency. They are about restricting access to coverage to patients all across the United States, including in my State of Illinois. Under Republicans' watch, CBO stated that 13.7 million Americans will have their health insurance coverage terminated. Almost 14 million Americans will lose healthcare coverage if the Republicans go forward with their plan. What is the acceptable number of constituents losing health coverage for Republicans? Nationwide, half of all rural hospitals are already in the red, and more than 300 rural hospitals are facing immediate closure, including 26 in Kansas, 22 in Alabama, 21 in Texas, and 9 in Missouri. How many rural hospitals closing in their States are Republicans willing to accept to help perpetuate tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans? Let me tell you, as a person from downstate Illinois, rural hospitals are the backbone of the community. Not only are they critical places for emergency medical care, but they are the anchors of the local economy. Speaking of the economy, one of the ways Republicans plan to cut Medicaid is by imposing burdensome, redtape requirements. Put paperwork in the path of an individual looking for medical care. Pile it up. Make it hard. Pitched by the Republicans as just simply ``work requirements,'' this policy withholds healthcare for eligible patients until they meet overly complex paperwork requirements. It is a failing strategy. In the States that have tried the so-called work requirements, there has been no increase in employment. The only impact is with patients who are ruled ineligible and kicked off Medicaid because they were drowning in paperwork. What a way to run a country. Here is an example: A waitress with diabetes misses a paperwork deadline because the forms were sent to her old address. She loses her Medicaid coverage and can't access her medications and is forced to miss work to deal with it. One analysis determined that approximately 3 million manufacturing, agricultural, and service sector workers could become uninsured under the simply ``Make sure they are going to work'' plan. Who thinks that is a good idea? Yesterday, House Republicans spent Mother's Day scheming on how to advance these Medicaid cuts, finally releasing a copy of their legislation so we could see the detail. It is as catastrophic as we feared. It is the largest cut in Medicaid in the Nation's health history, ripping health insurance away from millions of Americans in every single State. But it is not too late for a few Republicans--and it only takes a few: four in the House, four in the Senate--to step up and say they don't want to be part of this, if they will stand up and say: No, we will not risk the healthcare for millions of Americans as bargaining chips for billionaire tax breaks. Medicaid provides health insurance for 1 out of every 4 people in my State of Illinois--3.4 million people, including 1.5 million children. Medicaid pays to deliver half of all the babies in my State--half of them. Two-thirds of the seniors in nursing homes depend on Medicaid. If Medicaid is not helping to pay for that nursing home or care for seniors, what is going to happen to grandma, grandfathers, those that are affected by it? It is the largest funder of opioid addiction treatment. Remember the image of Elon Musk--the richest man in the world-- laughing gleefully as he danced around a stage with a chain saw in his hand? The richest man in the world was laughing out loud about his chain saw cuts to Medicaid. Well, these cuts are no laughing matter for that rural hospital worried about having to close its mental health services. They are no laughing matter for the pregnant woman forced to drive more than an hour to deliver a baby because the local hospital shuttered its obstetrics unit. Wipe that smile off your face, Mr. Musk. We are talking about life- and-death healthcare for America's working families. I yield the floor.