John Thune

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. 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. THUNE

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, we recently completed a 10-week session. The Senate's longest in-session stretch in 15 years. It was a very busy 10 weeks filled with substantial results. We confirmed nearly the President's entire Cabinet--the fastest pace since the administration of George W. Bush. We laid the groundwork for a transformational investment in border security and national defense. We continued to develop legislation to extend the tax relief we put in place for American families in President Trump's first term. We passed legislation to ensure that illegal aliens arrested for various crimes are detained instead of being returned to America's streets. We considered other bills that Democrats blocked--bills to achieve such commonsense goals as protecting Americans and our allies from illegitimate targeting by the International Criminal Court, and ensuring that athletic opportunities for women and girls are not taken away from them by biological males. In our final week of session, we passed the HALT Fentanyl Act-- legislation to give law enforcement a critical tool to go after the people trafficking fentanyl into our country. We also passed legislation to fund the government, by a narrow margin. Ten Democrats voted to allow us to proceed to the bill and fund the government. The rest preferred to filibuster the bill and shut down the government. It was a double dose of Democrat hypocrisy. Democrats who had campaigned to abolish the filibuster enthusiastically embraced it now that it served their purposes. And Democrats who had decried the evils of government shutdowns now embraced shutting down the government. One Senator, for example, who just last March called shutdowns ``as devastating as they are stupid,'' voted for a shutdown 10 days ago. Another Democrat, who last February noted that ``even a partial shutdown could disrupt supply chains, hurt small businesses, risk travel delays, and increase food prices for millions of Americans,'' that Democrat also voted to shut down the government. Democrats are changing their positions so abruptly, it could give you whiplash. The only thing that doesn't look likely to change is Democrats' willingness to change their principles when it suits their political purposes. A new period of session begins today, and I hope the Democrats will manage to move past the fact they weren't able to shut down the government. But whether they accept their defeat or decide to throw a tantrum about it, we are going to continue to do the job that we were elected and sent here to do. In the next three weeks, we will continue to build out the President's administration by voting on more of his nominees. With the Cabinet almost entirely confirmed, we will be turning to undersecretaries and deputy secretaries as well as ambassadors. And like the White House, this work period will be focused on rolling back burdensome government regulations--in our case, through the Congressional Review Act resolutions. This week, we will send the President Senator Cruz's resolution to roll back the Biden administration's digital asset broker rule, which puts at risk the privacy and security of tens of millions of Americans who trade digital assets. We will also look to take up Senator Tim Scott's overdraft fee resolution overturning a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rule that threatens access to credit for individuals and small businesses. And we will take up a number of other CR resolutions this work period. Finally, as I said, we have been hard at work on legislation to extend the tax relief we passed during President Trump's first term and to make a transformational investment in our border and national security. And those efforts will accelerate over the next three weeks. Confirming nominations, lifting burdensome regulations, laying the ground work for tax and border security legislation, I look forward to another busy work period ahead. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 51.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I send a cloture motion to the desk.

Mr. THUNE

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

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I move to proceed to legislative session.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned until 10 a.m. on Tuesday, March 25; that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and the Senate be in a period of morning business with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each; and that notwithstanding rule XXII, the cloture motions filed on Friday, March 14, ripen at 12 noon; further, that at 12 noon, the Senate vote on cloture on the Kratsios nomination, and following the cloture vote, the Senate recess until 2:15 p.m. to allow for the weekly conference meetings; and that at 2:15 p.m., if cloture is invoked, the Senate vote on confirmation of the Kratsios nomination; finally, if any nominations are confirmed during Tuesday's session, the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table and the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask that it stand adjourned under the previous order.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, we have already locked in 10-minute votes for the balance of the number of votes, but if people stay here in their seats, we can execute that a lot more quickly.

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I send a cloture motion to the desk.

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum call be waived.

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, for information of all Senators, there will be up to nine rollcall votes. I will ask unanimous consent that all votes following the first vote be 10 minutes in length, and that if Senators will stay in their seats, we should be able to get them done even more quickly than that. Everybody be here after this first vote. These are going to be 10-minute votes.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I have spoken a lot about it being a new day in America. It is also a new day in the U.S. Senate. When I became leader, I promised we would do things differently around here. I think the last 10 weeks show I was serious about that. Unfortunately, today, our business is cleaning up from the old way of doing things. We are voting on yet another continuing resolution today because last year's Democrat majority pushed off full-year appropriations again and again. Last summer, the Appropriations Committee reported out 11 of its 12 bills with bipartisan support. Six of those bills passed out of the committee unanimously. But month after month, Leader Schumer found something more important to do than fund the government, and not 1--not 1--of those 11 bipartisan bills ever came to the floor. So, today, we are trying to finish up last year's work so that we can begin to do this year's work. To be clear, Republicans aren't thrilled about another CR, but it is our best option to make sure that last year's failure by Democrats doesn't interfere with this year's appropriations process. I am hopeful that enough Democrats will reject their party's threat of shutting down the government and get this bill passed today. As I said yesterday, it is time to move on, and moving forward, appropriation bills are going to be a priority in the Senate. When the Appropriations Committee sends a bill to the floor, my goal is to bring it to the floor for consideration, and I hope that my Democrat colleagues will cooperate in that effort. We are going to have a debate, consider amendments, and vote; and we are going to try to avoid the end-of-year pileup in continuing resolutions that I know we are all tired of. Another continuing resolution--another CR--was nobody's first choice, but I can tell you this: The next time the Senate votes on an appropriations bill, it won't be on the eve of another shutdown. So I appreciate my colleagues' support for this continuing resolution, and I look forward to a much better process for fiscal year 2026. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum calls with respect to the Phelan and Landau nominations be waived.

Mr. THUNE

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

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the cloture motion with respect to the motion to proceed to H.R. 1968 be withdrawn and that the motion to proceed to H.R. 1968 be agreed to; further, if cloture is filed on H.R. 1968, the Senate immediately vote on the motion to invoke cloture, and if cloture is invoked, the only amendments in order to H.R. 1968 be the following: Merkley No. 1273, Duckworth No. 1274, Van Hollen No. 1272, and Paul No. 1266; that the Senate vote on adoption of the amendments in the order listed, with 60- affirmative votes required for adoption with the exception of the Paul amendment; that there be 2 minutes for debate, equally divided, prior to each vote; further, that upon disposition of the Paul amendment, all postcloture time be expired, the bill be considered read a third time, and the Senate vote on passage of the bill as amended, if amended, all without further intervening action or debate; further, that following disposition of H.R. 1968, the Senate proceed to immediate consideration of S. 1077; that there be up to 10 minutes for debate on the bill, equally divided between the two leaders or their designees; that upon the use or yielding back of time, the bill be considered read a third time and the Senate vote on passage, with no amendments or motions in order to the bill, and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate; finally, following disposition of S. 1077, notwithstanding rule XXII, the Senate resume executive session and vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the Phelan nomination; and if cloture is invoked on the Phelan nomination, all postcloture time be expired and the Senate immediately vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the Landau nomination; and if cloture is invoked on the Landau nomination, all postcloture time be expired and the Senate vote on confirmation of the nominations at a time to be determined by the majority leader in consultation with the Democratic leader no earlier than Monday, March 24.

Mr. THUNE

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

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, as the expression goes, it is time for Democrats to fish or cut bait. We have 2 days until government funding expires. Democrats need to decide if they are going to support funding legislation that came over from the House or if they are going to shut down the government. So far, it is looking like they plan to shut it down. The Democratic leader came to the floor, yesterday afternoon, and had the nerve to complain about the House bill. He wants yet another short- term piece of funding legislation to, as he said, ``give Congress time to negotiate bipartisan legislation that can pass.'' Well, I am not sure how long the Democratic leader thinks we should drag out the funding process for fiscal year 2025: Until fiscal year 2026? Beyond? We are already nearly 6 months into the 2025 fiscal year. In other words, we are halfway through--halfway through--this fiscal year, and it is past time to get fiscal year 2025 funding situated. I would like to suggest to the Democratic leader that, if he has problems with the current situation, maybe--just maybe--he should have funded the government when he was in charge. The reason we are stuck here voting on a CR for the rest of 2025 is because the Democratic leader refused to consider appropriations bills last year. Senators Murray and Collins, then chair and vice chair of the Appropriations Committee, did a lot of work to deliver the fiscal year 2025 appropriations bills. In fact, they had moved 11--11--of the 12 bills out of the Appropriations Committee by the end of August, last year--or, I should say, the end of July, last year--and 6 of those bills, 6 of the 11 that the Appropriations Committee passed by the end of July, last year, passed unanimously coming out of the committee. The others were passed with big bipartisan majorities. And then what happened? Well, then, the Democratic leader just sat on it. In his remaining 5 months as majority leader, he didn't bring a single fiscal year 2025 appropriations bill to the floor. So it is absolutely rich for him to be coming down to the floor now to call for a short- term CR--another short-term CR--to negotiate fiscal 2025 legislation. He had his chance for months. I am no fan of continuing resolutions. In fact, I intend to do my very best to ensure that, from here on out, the government is funded through appropriations bills that proceed through regular order. But at this point, our best option is a continuing resolution to fund the remainder of fiscal year 2025 and clear the decks for the fiscal year 2026 appropriations process to begin, because, while the Democrat leader may have forgotten, given his decision to ignore regular-order appropriations last year, it is almost time to start considering fiscal year 2026 appropriations bills. And I fully intend for us to consider them on the floor. My goal is to schedule floor action for every fiscal year 2026 appropriations bill that comes out of the committee, where they can be debated, amended, and passed for further negotiation with the House. And that, of course, will require cooperation from Democrats. But I hope--I really hope--the Democrats will remember this situation, and others that we have been placed in, and work in partnership with Republicans to restore the regular-order appropriations process. Continuing resolutions are never the preferred option, but thanks to the Democrat leader's decision to abandon the fiscal year 2025 appropriations process, the continuing resolution we have before us is the best option we have to fund the government for the balance of this year. So it is time for the Democrat leader to acknowledge that it is his decisions that put us here and urge his colleagues to accept the situation and vote to fund the government rather than let it shutdown at midnight on Friday. If he doesn't, he will have the American people to answer to.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I understand there are bills at the desk due a second reading.

Mr. THUNE. In order to place the bills on the calendar under the provisions of rule XIV, I would object to further proceeding en bloc.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I move to proceed to legislative session.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 41.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I send a cloture motion to the desk.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, Senators have been seeing a lot of each other lately--in fact, too much, some might say. The Senate is hopefully about to wrap up its 10th consecutive week in session--the Senate's longest in-session stretch in over 15 years--10 weeks that includes late nights, weekend work, and even an all-night session. We have a lot of accomplishments to report back to our constituents when we are back in our States next week. The Senate has confirmed 21 members of President Trump's Cabinet, and we have done it at the fastest pace since 2001. That is right. The Senate has gotten through hearings, markups, and floor votes on 21 Cabinet nominees at a record pace. As a result, President Trump has more of his Cabinet in place today than any President since George W. Bush. We have also confirmed a lot of sub-Cabinet officials and a new FBI Director. Senate committees are continuing to hold hearings and send more of the President's nominees to the floor for a vote. The Senate Republican majority has also been working to execute our legislative agenda. At the top of the priority list is securing the border. The first bill we sent to President Trump's desk was the Laken Riley Act, which ensures that criminal illegal immigrants are detained when they are arrested for certain crimes and not returned to America's streets. Senator Britt led the debate on this bill on the floor, and we had an amendment process that made this bill stronger by adding Senator Ernst's bill, Sarah's Law, and elements of Senator Budd's bill, the POLICE Act. Senate Republicans also passed a budget resolution to unlock the process to provide resources to carry out President Trump's border agenda. We have already seen border crossings plummet in response to President Trump's border security measures. Criminal illegal immigrants have been arrested and deported from cities around the country. But to continue these efforts and maintain a secure border will require additional resources, and we are determined to deliver. We are also working to address the fentanyl crisis by passing the HALT Fentanyl Act. The HALT Fentanyl Act would permanently classify fentanyl-related substances as schedule I drugs and provide law enforcement with the critical tools to go after the people who are bringing this poison into our country and killing Americans. I expect that we will pass this bill soon. Senate Republicans are also working to eliminate some of the Biden administration's burdensome regulations. As part of our promise to unleash American energy, we passed Senator Hoeven's resolution to block the Biden natural gas tax, and we also passed Senator Kennedy's resolution overturning a rule that would have stifled energy development in America's waters. To promote financial freedom, we passed resolutions from Senators Ricketts and Cruz to protect America's financial privacy. There will be more regulatory relief to come. It has been a busy couple of months, and we have gotten a lot done. We could have done even more if Democrats hadn't repeatedly chosen to use the filibuster. That is right. A few short months ago, when Democrats were in the majority, they were making plans to destroy the filibuster. Now that they have been in the minority for 10 weeks, they have already used the filibuster three times. What are the bills that they blocked? Well, first, there was the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act--a bill that simply requires doctors to give a baby born alive after a failed abortion the same medical care that any other baby would receive. Then there was the ICC sanctions bill, which would have supported our ally Israel and protected American servicemembers abroad. Just last week, every Democrat joined a filibuster against Senator Tuberville's bill to keep biological men out of women's and girls sports. Now Democrats are threatening yet a fourth filibuster--this time to shut down the Federal Government tomorrow. I have to say, it is funny how Democrats' opposition to filibuster changes with the prevailing winds. I promised last year that 2025 would be a busy year, and these past 10 weeks are just the beginning. Republicans are working to deliver for the American people, and we are just getting started.