Andy Kim

Mr. KIM

Mr. KIM. Madam President, I want to thank my colleagues Senator Warner and Senator Schatz for working with me and working on this project going forward. I actually find this experience here being on the Senate floor right now really important because we are here because this is what the American people want. The American people want their elected leaders to be focused on the concerns and the threats that they worry about, that keep them up at night. As mentioned by my colleague from Hawaii, I come to this Chamber as somebody who served in national security, someone who served under both Republican and Democratic Presidents, in war zones in Afghanistan to the Situation Room at the White House. This path of mine started just a little over 25 years ago when I saw from my own home State of New Jersey the threats that we faced on national security because of September 11. I was not someone who thought I was going into national security until that day, but by 6 p.m. on September 11, I said that I am going to do and dedicate the rest of my life to doing everything I can to try to keep this country safe. Yes, that led to a lot of work in war zones and on counterterrorism, but it was always about this broader goal of, how do we ensure that safety? I come at this now not just as someone who is concerned about national security but as a father of two little boys, one of whom just celebrated his 11th birthday yesterday. And as excited as I am about seeing these two little boys grow up, I will be honest with you, I worry about what kind of world they are growing up in, the level of anxiety that I have as I see the type of technology that will define their generation. It will define not just their jobs and their education but so much about their security. So I think about them because it is not just us here in this Chamber; we are here because we are trying to answer the call of the American people. I just did a townhall the other week. Overwhelmingly, people are calling upon us, saying that they want urgency; they want this Chamber to move with the speed of urgency that they feel. So what I appreciate here is that we are engaged in this effort right now to do one simple thing, which is meet the moment. That has a lot of implications, but one is just the fact that no Senator in this Chamber is going to have all the answers. There is not a single one of us that knows all the answers. Neither do all the tech leaders. They don't know all the answers either. But that cannot be an excuse for inaction; that, instead, we should channel that humility and that urgency to be able to move forward and recognize we do not have time to be able to design something that will handle the entirety of all the concerns we face when it comes to AI and this technology we are concerned about but just say: Look, we need to be able to move forward, to show some progress, to show some responsiveness to the concerns raised by the American people. I think this legislation is that effort to try to come up with tangible things that will move the needle. It is not going to solve all the problems, but that is the point. It is about trying to build up that muscle memory in this Chamber that we need to find. It is a muscle memory that this Chamber has found in the past when it has confronted different national security challenges in the past. We need to find that yet again at a time of great division in this country but setting it aside for us to be able to, again, meet this moment. So I am just grateful, again, for the leadership of Senator Warner, Senator Schatz, and other Senators that we are engaged with. This is an invitation to others to join this effort to stand up and say: Let's get something done. Let's not get totally bogged down in just the divisions that we see stalling progress on so many other fronts. The American people are demanding of us to act. Now is our time.

Mr. KIM. Mr. President, I rise today as Donald Trump continues to wage a war in Iran in our name, on our dime, but without our say--a war that is nearly 7 months old, a war that has cost Americans billions, a war that seemingly has no end in sight but that Congress has the authority to end. The Senate has just returned to the Capitol after over a month back home, and in that time, Americans have continued to be loud and clear at townhalls, at protests, and in letters and phone calls to our offices. They are sick and tired of this reckless and expensive war. They are sick and tired of this war, and they expect us to do something about it. This is a moment for us to step up and show the American people that we are listening and we are ready to take action. Democrats have taken action. We have come to this Chamber 11 times, in the past 208 days, to try to bring this war to an end. I have been encouraged to see some of my colleagues join from across the aisle to do the right thing and join us. It is not just the right thing to do; it is the right thing to do right now. It is about standing up for our Constitution--that this war, which Donald Trump said would end in about a month, has lasted over six times as long; this war, which Donald Trump wouldn't even admit to being a war, has resulted in damage done to our national security and the spread of chaos across the Middle East and the world; and this war, which Donald Trump said was worth the cost, keeps costing the American people more and more. So what has it cost us? It has cost us American lives. We have lost at least 19 servicemembers, brave men and women; over 750 injured. It has cost us economic security. Inflation is up--gas prices, just filling up the grocery carts as well. These are costs that Donald Trump is bearing upon the American people. It is costing each and every one of our American families hard- earned taxpayer dollars. A report last week by the Congressional Budget Office showed that the war has cost nearly $40 billion in the first 4 months alone. It has cost us our readiness and our ability to keep Americans safe from global threats. These are the things that we are seeing that are making us weaker and why it is that we need to end this now. So with this vote today, we can alleviate the cost of the war. I want to talk a little bit more about why alleviating this cost is so important to the people we represent, to our national security, and to our future. When we hear from so many of our constituents, when I hear from a woman back home in New Jersey, she is talking about just the challenges that she is facing raising her family, about the challenges that she is seeing as gas prices continue to skyrocket, as mortgage rates are hitting higher and higher. She paused and she looked at me, she said-- all of this that is happening, the Iran war, all these different actions--she said: But what about us? What are we supposed to do? And her question is one that all of us should be considering here in the Chamber. What about the American people? What are they getting out of this? Well, they are getting footed the bill. They are getting footed the sacrifice. They are the ones that are bearing this brunt. When we have a third of Americans already unable to handle a $400 emergency, that is not theoretical, that is their life right now. We see it as we see estimates already of gas prices going up so much that it is--what?--over $115 billion more than American families have had to bear, nearly $900 per household more since the start of this war. And over and over again, is this making us safer and more secure? Very clearly, no. And we see that just with the continued attacks, the continued violence, the spread of this now with Saudi Arabia, the Houthis. We are seeing this all over the place through the Middle East. I have worked in war zones; I have worked in the Middle East as a State Department officer, as a diplomat; and I have seen where this heads. Chaos is not a negotiating tactic. Trump is simply in over his head here. The entire administration is in over their head, and, again, the American people are the ones bearing this cost. As we talk about that cost to our future, the war has cost a lot of money. I have shared with you the costs at the gas pump. We see how much we have had to pay in the past for the previous wars of Iraq and Afghanistan. We do not want that going forward. I literally just yesterday celebrated the birthday of one of my sons. I do not want him and his generation to bear the burdens of these reckless decisions made by Trump. This is something we need to make sure we are pushing forward on. I think a lot about that woman in New Jersey that I mentioned. I wonder how she is holding up since I last talked to her, how she is bearing the cost of this war. And when we recess here shortly, I want to be able to go back to her and tell her what I heard, tell her what I tried to do, tell her what we tried to do here in the Senate. I wanted to tell her that I did everything that I could so she could breathe a little easier, be able to support her family in the way that she wants, that we--Democrats and Republicans--were able to come together and recognize that the cost to the American people is too great and that we need to work together to stop this war. So please, I ask my colleagues here at the Senate: Join me. Let's pass this resolution and do the right thing for the American people; do the right thing for our Constitution; do the right thing for our servicemembers in harm's way; do the right thing by ending this war. I yield the floor.

Mr. KIM. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the following Senators be permitted to speak: Kim for up to 8 minutes, Schiff for up to 8 minutes, Moreno for up to 20 minutes, Slotkin for up to 5 minutes, Merkley for up to 10 minutes, Murphy for up to 8 minutes, Baldwin for up to 5 minutes, Welch for up to 2 minutes, Kaine for up to 5 minutes, and Klobuchar for up to 5 minutes.

Mr. KIM. Mr. President, on behalf of the two leaders, I ask the Chair to execute the order of August 8, 2026, with respect to H. Con. Res 89.

Mr. KIM

Mr. KIM. I object.

Mr. KIM

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

Mr. KIM. Madam President, pursuant to section 904 of the Congressional Budget Act and all budget resolution disciplines that apply, I move to waive all points of order for the purpose of the pending measure. I ask for the yeas and nays. Vote on Motion

Mr. KIM. Madam President, I met a man at Delaney Hall ICE detention facility. I found him in the medical isolation room. He was in a wheelchair due to a serious medical condition that causes real pain from skeletomuscular breakdown. He should have been in a hospital, but, instead, he was isolated in that cramped room for 5 months. Only after he and other detainees protested and got the Nation's attention was he able to get released this week from Delaney. I wish I could tell you that his case was isolated. I wish I could tell you that there were no other problems, but there are many of these types of stories at Delaney Hall. This amendment would have an audit of conditions at Delaney and require the for-profit company GEO Group, which is getting nearly a billion-dollar contract for that facility, to fix the problems or risk not getting any taxpayer dollars. I urge my colleagues to support this amendment.

Mr. KIM. Madam President, I call up my amendment No. 5545 and ask that it be reported by number.

Mr. KIM

Mr. KIM. Madam President, I rise today to share stories that I have heard from detainees and families at Delaney Hall and to tell you why these stories should be a call to action to ground our immigration policies in humanity. There are, currently, approximately 800 detainees at Delaney Hall, which is located in Newark, NJ. Over the past week, it has become an example of our broken immigration system. We have seen the images, but what you have not heard are the stories. It is the stories of people I have met and their families that have stayed with me over the past weeks and months. They have stayed with me because these are stories of people who are afraid, people who are asking to be treated with dignity, people who just want the humanity that any of us would ask for. I have heard repeatedly--and seen with my own eyes--the substandard conditions at Delaney Hall. Food that is inedible. I had a man show me a container of milk that was curdled solid because it was clearly not stored properly. I have heard about the issues of mold and issues of safety and security. What I have heard has been unacceptable. The totality of the stories that I have heard have been disturbing. But when I think about individual people, the failures really come into focus. I spoke, over this week, for instance, with a man at Delaney Hall who has stage III lung cancer and has not been given the medical care that he needs. And he told me he knows his time is short. He actually just wants to go back home--to his home country of origin--to spend the rest of whatever remains in his life with his family, but he is not able to do so. I spoke with an 18-year-old high school senior, and all she wanted to do was be able to graduate and go to prom. Instead, she is stuck there by herself. I actually met with her mother outside of the facility. You can imagine how worried she was about her 18-year-old high school senior in this detention facility by herself. This isn't someone who is a hardened criminal or someone we desperately need to get off of our streets. It is a kid. It is a high school student who is at least spending her time in there trying to translate for some of the other detainees that don't speak English. She is trying to figure out how to help other people. And, instead, we have her stuck in there for an indefinite amount of time. She has no idea how long it is going to take to resolve her circumstances. This is someone who--as a father, when I think about my own two boys--I worry about what is being robbed of her childhood as she is going through this situation. There is a commonality with a lot of these stories: parents just trying to take care of their kids; parents who have been in the United States for many decades and many of them married to American citizens, many of them parents of American citizens. These are people that deserve better, but they aren't getting better because we have a fundamentally broken system; a system that is built on corruption and profit, fueled by cruelty; a system that strips people of their humanity. Let's start with the motivating factor of profit that drives some of this. Delaney Hall is operated by a company called GEO Group. You may not know that name, but it is the largest private prison corporation in America, which runs about 20 facilities for ICE, coast to coast--from New Jersey to California, from Florida to Pennsylvania, to Texas and beyond. They are making a lot of money. They got awarded nearly a billion-dollar contract to operate Delaney Hall. This is something that is driving so much of the decision making, because when they are telling me that they have only one full-time doctor for nearly 800 detainees there--many of them have really significant healthcare needs--you can understand that they could hire more than one doctor. They could hire more doctors, but then that is going to be less profit for GEO Group. When we are talking about the substandard food, they could get better food, at least some quality measure better, without the spoiled and disgusting milk that I was talking about. But, again, that would be less profit. And here is just something that is just driving so much of this for so many of the problems that are out there. When it comes to our immigration policy, that is no choice to me. From what we are seeing in terms of the profits and the conditions that are there, we should always be putting people before corporate profits. It is not just GEO Group or CoreCivic or these other companies that are pushing this forward. We know that we can find ways to be able to address this, and it starts with not upholding their standards when it comes to these detention facilities. At Delaney Hall, we have seen the detainees and the challenges to getting access to doctors. I talked to a pregnant woman who is not getting the care that she needs when it comes to doctors and medical checkups. And she has no idea how long she is going to be there for. She literally asked me--she looked in my eyes and said: Do I have to be prepared to have a baby in Delaney Hall, in this detention facility? And instead of upholding a standard of basic humanity, what we are hearing from detainees now is about retaliation for them simply speaking out--detainees being transferred now away from their families to other detention sites because they were protesting, because of this retaliation that is happening before our eyes. And, finally, we see a judicial system that has fundamentally failed detainees, their families, and our entire immigration system. Simply put, there are not nearly enough judges to hear the number of immigration cases we face at this moment. We already had a backlog of millions of cases before, and it is getting worse and worse. And, yes, we see the Republicans here in Congress pushing forward on the enforcement, but what is it that we can do to be able to address the needs on the judiciary? When I was there at Delaney Hall, one of the detainees ran out into the hallway to grab a piece of paper off of the bulletin board and showed me a piece of paper that said: When the courts come back into session, after the holiday weekend, one judge--one immigration judge-- had before them 74 cases in 1 day. How is that a fair process? It is a farce--74 cases in 1 day. That is about 5 minutes a case. That is if everything goes perfectly back to back, not to mention the translation needs of so many. We can do better, and I hope that all of us can agree that in this country, the rule of law is sacrosanct, and that is something where everybody has the opportunity for making their case in court. What I have heard at Delaney is disturbing, and what I have seen in the brokenness of our immigration system is disheartening. But what we need to do is move forward with clarity, and here are three things we can immediately focus on: First, let's surge the medical support. Again, 1 doctor for 800 people is not enough, especially when they have such things. ICE has something called ICE Health Service Corps. There are other means by which we can surge medical support to Delaney and elsewhere to make sure that people are not being looked over and their needs passed aside. That is something, again, that I hope all of us can agree on. No. 2, we need to give people access to the courts. This is not just something that I said is important for us to have adherence to the rule of law, but it is costing the American people billions of dollars to just have this process continue to hold up because when someone is there at Delaney Hall 8 months, 10 months, 12 months, or beyond, with no sense of when it is going to end, that is on us. We are paying for it. The American people are paying for this. It is coming out of our pocket at a time when we have this affordability crisis and so many people in the country struggling to pay the bills. People deserve their day in court, and the American people deserve to not have their money wasted by a process that is so clearly broken. And, third, we need investigations into the conditions immediately. The nearly billion dollars going to GEO Group for Delaney Hall--those are your taxpayer dollars. You should know where it is going and how they are spending it. We should have independent investigations into this and make sure that Members of Congress can effectively conduct oversight business because I tried to go this past week. I was denied. The guards at the gate by Geo Group said: Nope. You can't go inside. I had to literally call our old colleague Secretary Mullin to get access to this facility that--by the way, I actually called ahead and got approval to go inside, but they still stopped me. And when I went inside the facility and talked to the head of GEO Group in Delaney Hall and explained that his guards prevented me from going inside for an authorized visit, he looked me in the eye and called me a liar. That is not something that seems like it has any semblance of accountability, transparency, or obedience and accordance to the rule of law. We can and should do better. This is at a time when this Chamber is getting ready this week to potentially send upward of another $70 billion for ICE and CBP without the reforms, without the accountability and the transparency. GEO Group is taking your money, and you should know what they are doing with it. These are hard days for my State. Nobody should want the images that we have seen over the past week, but even more so, nobody should want the conditions to be able to continue, whether it is in Delaney Hall or elsewhere around this country because it doesn't just stop at Delaney Hall. These problems exist and persist all over the country. Delaney Hall isn't one bad apple. It is part of a systemic failure that we are witnessing across the Nation. How we move forward is a choice, a choice between a status quo of corporate profit and cruel policies or moving forward to enforce our laws with humanity. It doesn't have to be the way that we have seen, and I would urge my colleagues to work with me. Let's make the changes we know we need--not just at Delaney Hall but at every detention facility across this country--and let's fix this broken system once and for all. I yield the floor.

Mr. KIM

Mr. KIM. Mr. President, I rise today because the American dream of owning a home is getting further and further out of reach, and as working families get crushed by Trump's economy, Congress needs to take steps to make life more affordable. I filed this joint resolution of disapproval today to do just that and reinstate commonsense guidance at the CFPB that protects hard- working families from being forced or threatened into paying debts that they don't legally owe. These time-barred or nonenforceable debts are appropriately named ``zombie'' debts. Nearly all States have laws that make it illegal to start a lawsuit after a fixed number of years since a legal claim arose. However, that isn't enough to stop debt collectors from trying to extort money from homeowners by threatening legal action that they have no right to take. These ``zombie'' debts are another example of how American homeowners continue to be plagued from fallout from the 2008 mortgage meltdown. It doesn't have to be this way. In 2022, CFPB issued guidance to set out clear rules for how to rein in foreclosures on stale mortgage debts. The Trump administration, though, withdrew this commonsense rule, leaving homeowners at risk. With this vote, we can restore this guidance; we can protect homeowners from zombie debt; we can restore accountability and make sure debt collectors compensate consumers for the harm inflicted by their unfair, deceptive collections; and we can stand up for millions of Americans that need us to have their backs. I yield back. Vote on Motion to Proceed

Mr. KIM. Mr. President, I move to proceed to Calendar No. 382, S.J. Res. 126.

Mr. KIM

Mr. KIM. I yield back. Vote on Motion to Proceed

Mr. KIM. Mr. President, I rise today to defend something rather simple: Americans' right to access their own credit and background reports. We have a law already on the books--the Federal Credit Reporting Act--to protect this right, but we are seeing companies and others finding creative ways to skirt this responsibility, and working Americans are the ones left paying the price. That is why we must pass this joint resolution of disapproval I filed today and reassert this law's authority. The Fair Credit Reporting Act gives every consumer the right to obtain a copy of the information in their file, entitling them to one free credit report per year from annualcreditreport.com or from ``specialty'' reporting companies like tenant screeners or background check companies. When these companies choose to cheat the system, they are able to make a profit, while American consumers are left in the dark about their own credit. That is why, in January 2024, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, our Nation's consumer watchdog, stepped in to stand up for consumers and hold credit reporting companies, tenant screeners, and others accountable to the law. Last year, though, the Trump administration threw this work out the window. And while the law is still clear, scrapping CFPB's work was a glaring signal to credit bureaus and background screeners about what they can get away with. In New Jersey alone, over the past year, there have been over 157,000 complaints with the CFPB about credit reports or other consumer reports--hundreds of them about not being able to get to their credit report or score. Everyone knows these moments when a credit score matters: applying to rent an apartment, at the car dealership, opening a new credit card. Credit is foundational to people's financial mobility and staying out of financial hardship. Without the transparency consumers deserve, people can go unaware of mistakes in their reports and have no way to get them fixed. Without the accuracy consumers deserve, people's financial stability and mobility are put at risk.

Mr. KIM. Mr. President, I move to proceed to Calendar No. 383, S.J. Res. 127.

Mr. KIM

Mr. KIM. Mr. President, I rise today because the cost of this war is unbearable, and it is time we finally bring this to an end. I know we have talked a lot about that cost. It is something that the American people are feeling every single day. But I wanted to take a few minutes to really zoom in on what this war is costing us and why this War Powers Resolution by my colleague Senator Schiff is so important. I want you to remember three numbers when we think about what this war has cost us in the first 60 days: $25 billion, 47 months, and $450. I want to go through these three numbers. Let's start with $25 billion. That is how much this war has cost the American people so far, according to the Acting Comptroller of the Department of Defense, and that very well may be an understatement. Now, $11.3 billion of that was spent in the first 6 days of this war. For $25 billion, we could pay for a yearlong extension of the Affordable Care Act subsidies that the Republicans cut last year. In New Jersey, that would mean that the nearly 70,000 people so far who have dropped their health insurance plans could afford them yet again. It could easily restore full funding to the National Institutes of Health, which was cut by nearly 20 percent in this recent Trump budget. That is billions of dollars on medical research for cures for cancer, Alzheimer's, and other diseases that are hitting our families and our communities hard. If we let this war go on for another 60 days, we are telling the American people that this choice of war without purpose or end matters more than their health and their families. Now let's go to the second number: 47 months. That is the time it takes for a Tomahawk cruise missile to be contracted, manufactured, and deployed. Over the course of this war, we have used more than 1,000 Tomahawks. We have used more than 1,000 Patriot missiles, one of the most critical systems that we use to protect our forces as well as civilian populations. We have used hundreds of other precision munitions that are critical in our larger global defense, including in deterring Chinese aggression across the Indo-Pacific. The cost of this war isn't just the incredible cost it would take to replenish these munitions--now more than $2.5 million per Tomahawk; more than $15 million for THAAD batteries, which are critical against ballistic missiles. What we are also seeing is that it is a cost of time in losing momentum, in making sure that we maintain deterrence and project security and stability around the world. Finally, this last number: $450. Last week, that is how much more the Center for American Progress projected the average American family will have to pay to fill their tank over the next year because of the rise of gas prices. One of the more shocking and eye-opening statements and statistics that are out there is that right now, nearly 40 percent of Americans say they can't afford a $400 emergency. That is the world we live in right now. This is an emergency. And if you think $450 is a lot, this figure was calculated last week when the average gas price in the United States was $4.02. Today, it is $4.30. Prices are going up, and we have seen negotiations go absolutely nowhere. This administration has failed to take them seriously, and it is the American people--our families and our small businesses--who are paying the price. We can't continue to put the cost of this war on the American people. We can do something about it right here, right now, here in the Senate. We can pass this War Powers Resolution. We can bring this illegal war to an end, and we can give the American people the relief they desperately deserve. That is what I call on this Chamber and my colleagues to do. I yield the floor.

Mr. KIM

Mr. KIM. Mr. President, I rise today because I had conversations with a woman in New Jersey recently that I just can't get out of my head. I was in Atlantic City talking with a woman there about how she felt things were going in our country and for her and her family. What she said really stuck with me, seared into my mind. She said that with everything going on right now--this war and rising costs--she felt like she was ``drowning.'' That was the word she used--``drowning.'' That is the impact this war is having on the American people. And when someone is drowning, you don't just stand by and wait; you don't hesitate; you don't wait for somebody else to act; you act with urgency, swiftly and decisively. That is what we are trying to do here right now. We are acting by bringing up another War Powers Resolution to bring an end to this war and give the American people the relief they need. I know the Trump administration and Republicans here in Congress think that this war is going just fine. Depending on what day it is, Trump either is saying the war is over or threatening to escalate it. That is the problem. We are engaged in a war without a clear mission, without taking negotiations to end the war seriously, and without the consultation or buy-in of the American people. It is a war this administration seems to think can go on almost indefinitely. They don't care about the consequences; they are simply posting their way through it on social media. What we have seen from Republicans here in Congress isn't any better. A month and a half into this war, and we have not had a single hearing--a month and a half in. By the way, we haven't had a hearing at all about what happened in Venezuela either. Every one of our offices gets a flood of calls every day from people tired of this war, people who can't afford this war, who can't afford to pay for the decisions that this President made, and the Republicans in Congress have stood by and watched like bystanders. Donald Trump, this administration, this Republican Congress--they have all just stood by and watched as the American people feel like they are drowning. If anything, they are making that feeling of extreme anxiety worse. That anxiety is driving our urgency to act. There were a number of reasons why the woman I talked to was feeling that stress and anxiety, and one of them was gas prices. Gas prices were below $3 a gallon in February. In New Jersey, the average price is a little more than $4 a gallon right now, but it is so much higher in some of the biggest population centers. You go around the country, and you can find gas for $5, even $6 a gallon right now. If you are a working parent and you have to put gas in the tank every single week to get the kids to school and yourself to work, you are paying significantly more at the pump. Ending this war is an urgent matter. It is not just gas for our cars that is driving this urgency. Look at the price of diesel. The average price of diesel--what a lot of trucks that transport goods run on--was $3.72 in February. It is more than $5.80 in New Jersey right now according to AAA. That means everything you buy, from meat and eggs to coffee and clothes, is getting more expensive because the cost of shipping it costs more than $2 more per gallon than before. If you are a working family looking at your bills and wondering how you are going to make ends meet, ending this war is an urgent matter. Another concern I have heard from so many is the unhinged way that this President has been acting during this war. Threatening to destroy a civilization--that is not American; that is not what we do; that is not who we are. I am proud to represent tens of thousands of servicemembers in New Jersey, hundreds of thousands of veterans, people who are obeying the law, people who are abiding by the principles of our country. But this Commander in Chief is threatening to change that. When the American people see a President threatening what would be war crimes in America's name, it sends a shock through our consciousness; it sends a clear signal that ending this war is an urgent matter. That is why we are doing what we are doing right now-- because the American people can't wait for this President to act like a responsible Commander in Chief. They can't wait for this Republican Congress to wake up. They need relief, they need it now, and they deserve it now. I can't go back to that woman in Atlantic City and tell her that she should wait, that we can address her concerns later. I urge my colleagues to think about the people back home who need help now and the power we have with this vote to deliver it for them. I urge my colleagues to support this resolution by Senator Duckworth-- someone who knows better than any of us the toll that war takes and the urgency needed to stand up for our neighbors. I yield the floor.

Mr. KIM

Mr. KIM. Mr. President, reserving the right to object. That is right; the American people have been watching. What they have seen is that the Democrats have been steadfast in our insistence that we not support providing more funding for ICE without also including commonsense reforms to rein in the abuses we have seen in Minnesota and elsewhere, particularly after two Americans were shot and killed. All we have been demanding here is what the American people are demanding: body-worn cameras; no masks; keeping ICE agents out of our hospitals, schools, and churches; and ensuring ICE follows the same practices and procedures as local law enforcement. We have just spent 6 weeks having this very fundamental argument with Republicans over providing new funding to ICE in 2026. Now, this UC would provide 10 years of funding to ICE with zero reforms--10 years, $100 billion, and that is on top of the $75 billion Republicans already gave ICE last year. So for those same reasons Democrats have made on the floor the past several weeks, I object.

Mr. KIM

Mr. KIM. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate stand in recess subject to the call of the Chair.

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

Mr. KIM

Mr. KIM. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. KIM

Mr. KIM. Mr. President, the average price of a gallon of gas in New Jersey right now is $3.68. A month ago, it was $2.94. In that month, we have started a war with Iran--a war that this administration doesn't have a plan to end; a war that has cost 13 American lives and has injured hundreds of others. That is putting America's reliability as a partner further in doubt and driving up costs across the board at a time when costs are already too high for most Americans. Now, what are we doing about this crisis and trying to address it? What are we doing to drive down the costs that the American people are demanding that we take on? What are we doing to make it easier for Americans to pay their bills and to be able to provide for their families? We are here on the Senate floor today debating a bill that Donald Trump wants because he is afraid. He knows that he is at the weakest point of his Presidency. His approval numbers are way down. And in a little more than 230 days, voters will go to the ballot box for the midterm elections. So instead of working to lower costs, instead of ending this war and getting gas prices down, instead of focusing on working families, Donald Trump has Senate Republicans here to peddle a bill because, in his words, ``It will guarantee the midterms''--a bill, by the way, that, again to quote Donald Trump, ``supersedes everything else''; a bill that Trump says he would ``close government'' to ensure it passes. So clearly we see something that is not what the American people want to see get done, not of benefit to the American people at a time when they are demanding that we take on the high cost of living, but instead something that is good for Donald Trump. So while you are cutting back on driving because gas prices are skyrocketing and you are seeing prices at the grocery store go up because it is a lot more to transport food and you are rethinking that vacation because the CEO of Delta just said airline tickets are about to go up too, Donald Trump and congressional Republicans are focused on passing a bill that drives up your costs. The SAVE America Act is an awful bill, and I will talk a little bit about this bill in a moment. But what this bill represents at its core is Donald Trump's extreme agenda when it comes to elections. It is an election that is built to, in Trump's own words yet again, ``guarantee the midterms.'' He said that Democrats won't be able to win for 50 years if this goes through. He is saying the quiet part out loud about why he is doing this, and that is because his agenda has three core tenets: No. 1, let the billionaires buy the elections; No. 2, let politicians pick their voters; and No. 3, price people out of voting. Let's start with the insane amount of big money in our politics today. According to a report last year by the Brennan Center, the amount of dark money spent in Federal races in 2024 was nearly $2 billion. That is hard to imagine, just unfathomable amounts of money being poured into our elections right now. It is nearly double what it was just 4 years prior in 2020. That dark money represents a real threat to the integrity of our elections. A report published last month by the Campaign Legal Center highlights the way that the superrich can use our weakened campaign finance laws to basically bribe public officials. The report exposed the story of a man named Velutini, a Venezuela billionaire who was charged with criminal bribery and was later pardoned by Donald Trump after his daughter gave $3.5 million to a Trump-supporting super PAC. These kinds of straw donor actions can take place when we have a campaign finance system that has been built for corruption. That is exactly what we are seeing--a system working exactly how it is supposed to, which is marginalizing the American people and average working families and lifting up the power of billionaires and corporations. It is a system that has been built so billionaires can buy the candidates they want, and if they get into trouble, they can buy themselves a get- out-of-jail-free card literally. If my colleagues are concerned about election integrity, getting $2 billion of dark, corrupt money out of our system would be a good place to start, and I think you would find bipartisan support to be able to take that on. The next place is getting rid of a system that Donald Trump has supercharged where politicians get to pick their voters, not the other way around like the Constitution says it should be. Gerrymandering has never been weaponized like what we are seeing right now under the direction of Donald Trump. He is so afraid of losing the House of Representatives that he has threatened Members of his own party who didn't want to go along with his plans. Just a few months ago, he targeted Republicans in Indiana, saying that ``anyone that votes against redistricting . . . will be met with a MAGA primary.'' So we have a system, championed by Donald Trump, that lets billionaires buy the elections and politicians pick their voters. So where does that leave you? Where does that leave the American people? Well, if this bill passes, it will make it harder for people to be able to vote. It will make it such that they have to pay for a constitutional right of voting, which is so sacred to our democracy. Voting shouldn't cost people extra money; it shouldn't require you to be able to have a poll tax. For millions of Americans, they will need to potentially scramble to get a new form of ID. Maybe my colleagues will say: Oh, just go get a passport. Well, look, a new passport costs $165, and to expedite it in order to vote costs much more than that. And we need to be able to deliver that quickly, so that is an added $22 on top of that. That is nearly $250 for your right to vote. That is nearly $250 when this administration has hurt our ability to get healthcare, be able to fill our tanks with gas, be able to get groceries. They made it more expensive across the board, and they have given massive giveaways to those at the very top. This bill will make it harder for married women to vote if their current legal name doesn't match the name on their birth certificate. How does that make sense? It will make it harder for seniors and young people to vote by throwing up new restrictions on mail-in voting, requiring seniors and others to have to go and register in person when they haven't had to do that before. Why is it that we are trying to make it so hard for Americans to be able to vote? But then you realize that is the point. That is actually the point of this all. Trump wants to make it harder for you to vote and make it easier for him to have his bidding. Why else did we see this happening right on the tail of so much of what he was doing in pushing gerrymandering so blatantly against our Constitution and our laws? Trump wants to make it more expensive for Americans to vote because that makes it easier for him and his supporters and his donors to be able to buy their way to power. He wants congressional Republicans to cease doing anything else and pass this bill so he can ``guarantee the midterms.'' Well, that is not what the American people want. They want a choice. It is their choice. They are supposed to be in the driver's seat of their democracy. The American people want our elections to be secure. I want our elections to be secure. I want to make sure that voters can have full faith in our electoral process. I have been fighting for years to get dark money out of our politics, to reverse Citizens United, which I believe is going to go in the history books as one of the most dangerous moments of our democracy. That has unleashed a torrent of dark money and problems and this nightmare we are seeing ourselves in. I have been fighting to end the practice of letting politicians pick their voters since my first day here on the House side. I even stood up to my own party in New Jersey by suing to fix a broken ballot that let power players pick candidates, not voters. This is not about partisanship; this is about delivering for the American people and preserving their ability to be able to drive our democracy. We have real work that we can do to make our elections safer, get rid of this dark money, and make sure the voters get to pick their politicians. But that is not the bill that we have before us, and that is not the bill that Donald Trump is pressuring my colleagues here to push through. Instead, this bill is a distraction from Donald Trump's failures and is a desperate attempt to compensate for the power he sees slipping away right between his fingers. We can't let him do this. We can't let him distract us from the real problems our constituents are facing today of $3.68 a gallon in New Jersey for our gas. Let's put an end to this distraction. Let's stop doing Donald Trump's bidding to hold onto power and do what we are supposed to do--to focus on what the American people want--which is, right now, so clearly about lowering the prices that they see skyrocketing every single day. That is what we are here for, and that is what they want us to do. I yield the floor.

Mr. KIM

Mr. KIM. Mr. President, I will say we are ready to negotiate. We are the ones that want to be at the table here. But look at what has happened since negotiations have begun. Since we started this several weeks ago, we are again now at war. We are at war because the President refused to engage with this body, refused to engage with Congress about that, finding ourselves with these types of threats. Since negotiations began, we now have a Department of Homeland Security Secretary fired. The Department is in chaos right now. How are we to understand what roles are going to be coming next, what this administration is going to be doing next, when they cannot even get their own Department in order? So, yes, we are going to continue to push. And as I said, we have still large disagreements. And I am as concerned with what is happening in Iran--I am as concerned about that here because we have about 30 percent of the casualties that we face in Iran, with this attack and war with Iran--we saw that number, about 30 percent of that number in Minnesota. Two American citizens killed in Minnesota, still no formal, independent investigation at the level that is needed. Still no answers. Still no assurances about what comes next. So that is why we have got to move forward, fund CISA, fund these other elements of the Department of Homeland Security that can keep our country safe. I yield the floor.

Mr. KIM. Mr. President, I share these concerns about the safety and security of the American people. I spent my career working in national security and counterterrorism, and these are exactly the reasons we need to make sure that we are taking the steps that we can agree upon. There is no doubt. As we have had debate after debate this week, we know we are far apart still when it comes to immigration, when it comes to that aspect of the Department of Homeland Security, but what the American people know and what every family has to deal with is that you can also think through what it is that you do agree on and try to move forward with that and try to then further focus in on the issues where there are disagreements. I think that is a very pragmatic idea, a pragmatic approach, that the American people can understand. So, in just a few moments, I will ask my colleagues to pass commonsense legislation to fund the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, known as CISA. I know maybe the American people are not as familiar with this aspect of the Department of Homeland Security, but I think that they understand that we are in a different moment now than we were just a couple of weeks ago when these negotiations began. We are now a nation at war. We are a nation at war because of Donald Trump's moving forward without the approval of this body, which the Constitution outlines, in terms of the approval of a declaration of war. So we find ourselves in a time when our servicemembers are in harm's way. Several have already lost their lives. With our diplomatic posts, as a former State Department officer, I am worried about our Embassies. Then, here at home, there is concern about our own homeland security. When the President was asked about this, should we be concerned about threats to our homeland, he said: ``I guess [so].'' That is what he said. He said: ``I guess [so].'' He said that people may die; that that is what happens in war. I am finding that absolutely unacceptable for a Commander in Chief to talk about homeland threats with that level of blase attitude. We all know that Iran has the capability of launching cyber security attacks on the United States. We have seen it before, and we had seen this administration, even before this war, take the steps to gut this Agency that is in charge of so much of the critical infrastructure and cyber security protections. They have forced out and reassigned personnel to other missions. They have attempted to slash the budget. The Agency, CISA, has lost one-third of its workforce under this administration and the abysmal leadership of Secretary Noem. As I said on the floor yesterday, we are at war, and we need to understand that we should take all of the steps available to be able to push forward on the tools that we need. When it comes to immigration, we know that the Republicans pushed forward on the funding for that through the reconciliation bill last year. So let us make sure that the rest of the Department of Homeland Security, including this incredibly important aspect of CISA, is able to step up at this dangerous time. I hope the Republicans will join us and make good on that obligation today by funding CISA. That is why I am asking my colleagues to pass this bill to fund our cyber security workers and ensure that we have the resources in place to counter these threats. That should be something that, I hope, all of us can agree on. Now is the time to put the politics aside and focus on them. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. 4074, submitted earlier today, and that would fund CISA; that the bill be considered read a third time and passed; and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. KIM. Mr. President, I object.