John Thune

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to executive session to consider the following nominations en bloc: all nominations on the Secretary's desk in the Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Marine Corps, and Navy, with the exception of PN89, Matthew Ryan; that the nominations be confirmed en bloc; that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate; that no further motions be in order to any of the nominations; that the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action and the Senate resume legislative session.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now proceed to the en bloc consideration of the following resolutions, which are at the desk: S. Res. 228, S. Res. 229, S. Res. 230.

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, the Committee on Foreign Relations has received a request from the U.S. Department of Justice for access to records relating to a briefing attended by Senate staff that may be relevant to a pending criminal case in Federal court in Arizona. In keeping with the Senate's practice under its rules, this resolution would authorize the chairman and ranking minority member of the Foreign Relations Committee, acting jointly, to provide records to the Department of Justice for use in connection with this case.

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolutions be agreed to, the preambles be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, all en bloc. The resolutions were agreed to. The preambles were agreed to. (The resolutions, with their preambles, are printed in today's Record under ``Submitted Resolutions.'')

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned until 10 a.m. on Thursday, May 15; 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 morning business be closed; that the Senate proceed to executive session and resume consideration of Executive Calendar No. 88, Sean Donahue, postcloture, and that the Senate vote on confirmation of the nomination at 11:30 a.m.; further, that following disposition of the Donahue nomination, the Senate resume legislative session and Senator Kaine or his designee be recognized to make a motion to discharge S. Res. 195 and that following the motion to discharge, all time until 1:45 p.m. be equally divided and that the Senate then vote on the motion to discharge S. Res. 195; finally, that if any nominations are confirmed during Thursday'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. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Madam President, the month of May is a special time to celebrate the Americans who serve our country in uniform. May is Military Appreciation Month. On Saturday, we celebrate those currently serving on Armed Forces Day, and toward the end of the month, on Memorial Day, we honor those who gave their lives in defense of our country. South Dakota has a rich heritage of military service, and I am proud to represent the men and women carrying on that heritage in the South Dakota National Guard at Ellsworth Air Force Base and serving in our military around the globe. South Dakota is proud to support our troops. Our State is home to two major military installations that are fixtures of their communities. But 20 years ago, South Dakota was at risk of losing one of these bases. On May 13, 2005--20 years ago--the Defense Department announced that it was recommending South Dakota's Ellsworth Air Force Base for closure. I am not the only one for whom this was a gut punch. Ellsworth is a point of pride in the Black Hills. It has been a national security asset since World War II, and it is home to the 28th Bomb Wing's squadrons of B-1B Lancers, which were performing a critical role in the Global War on Terror. But, at the time, Ellsworth was a single-mission base, and the Air Force saw savings in moving that mission elsewhere and closing the base. In May 2005, I was a freshman Senator, 5 months on the job, but now my State faced a major test. Losing the base would have been devastating to western South Dakota and a significant loss, I might add, to our national security. So failure was not an option. But Ellsworth faced long odds. Past rounds of the Base Realignment and Closure Commission suggested we had a 12-percent chance of keeping the base open. Some, at the time, were ready to write Ellsworth's obituary, knowing it would take a miracle to save the base. Some thought it would take a political deal, and they doubted that South Dakota had the clout to pull that off. We knew we weren't going to save Ellsworth through politics, and we weren't going to wait around for a miracle. Instead, we did it the South Dakota way. We worked hard--harder than we ever had. There were just over 100 days from the announcement in May to the financial decision in August, and saving Ellsworth consumed that entire summer. My staff and I called everyone we could think of. I am sure the BRAC Commission was tired of seeing me that summer, but I was determined to drive home the case for keeping Ellsworth open. We poured through reams of data to make that case. It was a team effort. Bob Taylor, in my Washington office, and Qusi Al-Haj, in my Rapid City office, didn't see much of their families that summer. The rest of the South Dakota delegation was involved. Then- Governor Mike Rounds was involved as well. Retired Air Force officers like Gen. John Michael Loh and Col. Pat McElgunn lent their voices and expertise to the cause. And countless local officials, community members, and, of course, the 11,000--11,000--South Dakotans who came to the BRAC hearing in Rapid City that June were all part of that team. In the end, Ellsworth was not saved by miracles or politics. It was saved because we proved that Ellsworth was too valuable to close. Moving all the B-1s to another base was supposed to save money, but we proved that wouldn't actually be the case. Plus, we demonstrated the Pentagon's analysis failed to account for a number of other factors. Consolidating the entire fleet of bombers in one place was a major vulnerability. An attack, extreme weather, or any issue at that base could ground the entire fleet of B-1s. And consolidation risked overwhelming maintenance and training capacity at that base. It turned out that Ellsworth was just what the Air Force needed. That is the argument that we made. As Colonel McElgunn put it to the BRAC Commissioners, ``Ellsworth has operational advantages to make it the ideal base for the 21st century.'' And as General Loh testified, ``closing Ellsworth will deny the Pentagon a valuable base for future missions.'' Ultimately, in August, the BRAC Commission agreed, and it voted 8 to 1 to keep Ellsworth open. And since then, those predictions have proven right. Ellsworth's B-1s have been a consistent asset to our national security. In 2011, B-1s left Ellsworth to strike targets in Libya, marking the first time a B-1 fleet launched from the United States to strike overseas targets. Last year, Ellsworth B-1s conducted a CONUS-to-CONUS mission, taking a continuous 31-hour flight to the Indo-Pacific and back without landing. And we have continued working to demonstrate Ellsworth's value and to ensure its future will never again be in jeopardy. In 2007, the Air Force Financial Services Center arrived on base. In 2012, the 89th Attack Squadron came to Ellsworth to control MQ-9 Reaper drones from ground control stations in South Dakota. In 2015, after a decade of work, we expanded the Powder River Training Complex, nearly quadrupling its size and making it the largest training airspace in the lower 48. And in 2021, the Air Force announced that Ellsworth would officially be named the first operating base for the new B-21 Raider, a sixth- generation long-range strategic bomber. From BRAC to B-21, and the story continues. Madam President, 20 years ago, Ellsworth was said to be a liability. Today, it is very clear that it is a national security asset, and I am working to make sure the base and the surrounding community have what they need to continue to play a key role in our national defense for generations to come.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the mandatory quorum call with respect to the Danly nomination be waived.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum call with respect to the MacGregor nomination be waived.

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, I move to proceed to Calendar No. 66, S. 1582.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, before I begin, I want to mention longtime Supreme Court Justice David Souter, who died on Thursday. My thoughts and prayers are with his family and loved ones.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I also want to mention Cardinal Robert Prevost, who on Thursday became Pope Leo XIV, and I want to extend my congratulations on his election and my prayers for his service. I know that his election is particularly moving for American Catholics, who for the first time in history will be led by an American-born Pope. I am very happy for them, and I look forward to seeing what this son of the Midwest brings to the Catholic Church and to the world.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, on Thursday afternoon, Democrats abruptly ended extensive bipartisan work on the GENIUS Act and filibustered the Senate's attempt to move this bill. Democrats, I should say, who had voted for the bill in committee, inexplicably chose to vote against it here on the Senate floor. That is pretty difficult to understand. Providing a regulatory framework for stablecoins is a bipartisan issue. The bill is the product of a bipartisan negotiation, and the vote in the Banking Committee was definitely bipartisan--which leads you to wonder, of course, if this was really about the bill at all or if this was about wanting to deny President Trump or Republicans, more generally, a legislative victory, which might be nice for Democrats but leaves stablecoin issuers and Americans who use stablecoins in the same difficult spot that they are currently in. But unfortunately, it is pretty clear that obstructing, not legislating, is the Democrats' priority right now. Until Democrats come to their senses and allow us to proceed to the GENIUS Act, we are going to turn to nominations, another area where, unfortunately, Democrats have made obstruction the name of the game. I certainly understand that Democrats are not going to support all the President's nominees; that is their prerogative as Senators. But the way that they are drawing out this process on even noncontroversial nominations is serving no one. Mr. President, 57 out of 58 of the President's civilian nominees have required cloture votes, an unprecedented number for recent administrations; and of those 57 nominees, 17 received 60 or more votes in support on their final confirmation vote--in other words, support from a number of Democrats as well as Republicans. And yet Democrats dragged out those nominations in the same way they dragged out the nominations of individuals that they universally opposed. Not a single one of President Trump's civilian nominees has been confirmed by unanimous consent or voice vote--again, something entirely unprecedented in recent years. No other President since at least 1977 has failed to have civilian nominees confirmed by unanimous consent or a voice vote at this point of his administration, except for President Trump in his first term in office. And as I said, this is serving no one, nor is this going to prevent the President's nominees from getting confirmed. Democrats can drag out nominations all they want, but we are going to fill out the President's administration and ensure that his nominees get into place so that they can do their job and that he can do the job that he was elected to do. I would like to do this the easy way and confirm noncontroversial nominees expeditiously--in batches, for example, and maybe even by unanimous consent. That would give us more time to legislate and give Members more time to spend in their States. But if we have to do this the hard way, we will. We are going to get the President's team in place. So I guess Democrats have some decisions to make. I hope--I really hope--that they will come back to the table on the GENIUS Act, and I hope that they will cease their pointless obstruction of bipartisan nominees, but I guess we will have to see. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I understand there is a bill at the desk due a second reading.

Mr. THUNE. In order to place the bill on the calendar under the provisions of rule XIV, I would object to further proceedings.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Madam President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 72.

Mr. THUNE

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

Mr. THUNE

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

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Madam President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 82.

Mr. THUNE

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

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Madam President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 88.

Mr. THUNE

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

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to waive the mandatory quorum call with respect to the Crowley nomination.