Tommy Tuberville

Mr. TUBERVILLE

Mr. TUBERVILLE. I object.

Mr. TUBERVILLE. I object.

Mr. TUBERVILLE. I object.

Mr. TUBERVILLE. I object.

Mr. TUBERVILLE. I object.

Mr. TUBERVILLE. I object.

Mr. TUBERVILLE. I object.

Mr. TUBERVILLE. Madam President, I object.

Mr. TUBERVILLE. I object.

Mr. TUBERVILLE

Mr. TUBERVILLE. I object.

Mr. TUBERVILLE. I object.

Mr. TUBERVILLE. I object.

Mr. TUBERVILLE. I object.

Mr. TUBERVILLE. I object.

Mr. TUBERVILLE. Mr. President, I object.

Mr. TUBERVILLE. Mr. President, I object.

Mr. TUBERVILLE. I object.

Mr. TUBERVILLE. Mr. President, I object.

Mr. TUBERVILLE. I object.

Mr. TUBERVILLE. I object.

Mr. TUBERVILLE

Mr. TUBERVILLE. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to express my strong--very strong--support for Israel. On October 7, Israel was suddenly and deliberately attacked by a group of terrorists. Now, they didn't attack military institutions; they attacked citizens--citizens in Israel. It has been described by some as Israel's 9/11 or Israel's Pearl Harbor. They killed women and children. They filmed themselves, and they broadcast it on the internet. They were proud. They were very proud of what they were doing. They killed more than 1,400 innocent people. This includes more than 30 Americans. Sometimes that is forgotten by our mainstream media. This is the largest terrorist killing of Americans since 9/11. More than 100 people--100 people--are still held hostage by Hamas, and this also includes Americans. So we need to do two things: First, we need to get the hostages out. That is very, very important. It has been too long. Then, we need to ensure that this never happens again. You know, Israel can do both of these things. Israel has a highly--a very highly--advanced military and a highly advanced economy. The only way to ensure that Hamas cannot ever attack again, as Israel says, is to wipe them from the face of the Earth. This is Israel's mission, and we hear this from their leaders every day. The role of the United States in this conflict should be to support and supply. So let's first talk about support. Over the last 2 weeks, we have seen the leftwing protest against Israel and support of Hamas. It is hard to believe, but it is very, very, very true. We have seen them overseas in London and in Sydney, but we have also seen them here in the United States on college campuses. To me, that is absolutely disgusting. I will just mention a few examples. Students at Harvard--at Harvard, mind you--defended Hamas for what they did. Next, they will be complaining about not being able to get jobs. I wonder why they won't be able to get jobs, especially in places like Wall Street. Students at the University of California, Long Beach, handed out fliers with pictures of Hamas. The list goes on and on. But this tells us a lot about the state of our education in this country. I was involved in education for 40 years. I can understand it. These kids don't know the first thing about the Middle East or about foreign policy. A lot are not taught this. But they have been marinated in woke ideology since grade school at a lot of our public schools. Leftwing groups are siding with terrorists because of this. Today, there are protests happening here at the Capitol, right here on Capitol Hill. The appropriations hearings with Secretary Austin and Secretary Blinken have been repeatedly--repeatedly--every few minutes, interrupted by leftwing, pro-Hamas protesters. Pro-Hamas leftists shut down a building in the House just a couple of weeks ago--shut it down. Now they want to shut down the Appropriations Committee. Many of these groups are funded by Democrat dark money groups. These leftwing groups are calling for a cease-fire over in Gaza. This is like calling for a cease-fire after Pearl Harbor, as some of the leaders in Israel have said. To me, a cease-fire is a surrender. A cease-fire means Hamas gets to kill civilians without any consequences after what they did on October 7. Every single Democrat in the Senate needs to condemn these leftwing groups--everybody. We all need to condemn these groups. The left is making excuses for these terrorists. It is immoral, and it is un-American what is going on across our country and with these protests. We need to ensure that terrorists never ever attack anybody like this again. This requires, again, wiping off Hamas from the map. And as you listen to the Israeli leaders, that is exactly what they plan to do. Israel is going to be able to do this. They are going to be able to do it themselves. They are not going to need our help, but they will need supplies. We need to ensure that they have what they need to wipe Hamas off from existence. I support sending Israel more weapons if they need them. But, unfortunately, there is already an effort to tie Israel funding to Ukraine funding right here in this building. President Biden sent over a request for a supplemental funding bill just this past week, and it includes $14 billion for Israel. But it also includes $60 billion for Ukraine. That is $230 million a day. That is four times as much for Ukraine than it is for Israel. The war in Ukraine has nothing do with the war in Israel. Israel is our No. 1 ally. Sometimes people forget that. Ukraine is not our No. 1 ally. They are not even in NATO. The war in Israel is about killing terrorists who want to kill not only people in countries like Israel but also Americans. There is no reason Ukraine and Israel aid need to be in the same bill. I am against that. I am for funding Israel, first and foremost. So we need to vote on them separately. We ought to support Israel, and we need to supply Israel. We need to stand with them as they take on the terrorists. It is going to be a very, very tough and grueling job, but we support them.

Mr. TUBERVILLE

Mr. TUBERVILLE. Mr. President, although she is just 25 years old, Specialist Rachel Roney-Rivera's life has been all about breaking barriers. A native of Beauregard, Rachel enlisted in the U.S. Army on her 18th birthday, using her interests to become a paralegal for the National Guard. After finishing her military service as an E-4 specialist, Rachel decided to use her experience to pursue a career in law enforcement. She graduated top of her class at the police academy before joining the Chambers County Sheriff's Office. Rachel has proven to be a vital part of the force, including becoming the first woman to be selected for the SWAT team. She now serves as a sex crimes investigator, helping families during some of the most difficult times in their lives. Chambers County Sheriff Jeff Nelson says that Rachel, ``puts 110% into every case to bring resolution and justice.'' Rachel's presence in the community extends far past her investigative work. She also serves as a self-defense instructor, where she helps empower women in East Alabama with confidence and defense training techniques. But that is not all--Rachel is also preparing to graduate with her bachelor's degree in psychology from Columbia Southern next spring. She is studying for the LSAT, hoping to become an attorney one day. In addition to being a full-time deputy and student, Rachel is also a proud full-time mom to a 4-year-old daughter. Her story inspires Alabamians young and old about what can be accomplished with hard work and determination. I am honored to recognize Rachel as the October Veteran of the Month.

Mr. TUBERVILLE

Mr. TUBERVILLE. Mr. President, 2 hours ago, Senator Schumer announced that we will be voting on the Commandant of the Marine Corps, the Army Chief of Staff, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It is about time. I have called for individual votes on these nominees for almost 6 months. Instead of voting, Democrats have spent months complaining about having to vote. They want to use floor time for things like liberal judges, like the one we confirmed a couple of hours ago. Senator Schumer could have confirmed these nominees a long, long time ago. We have had more than 80 days off this year in the Senate, not including weekends. Yet Senator Schumer is outraged that we are voting on these nominations. As I have noted before, the current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was given a floor vote in 2018. The current nominee for that position, General Brown, was given a floor vote for his current position not long ago. Despite what Senator Reed and others have said, there is nothing wrong with a floor vote on these nominations. I ran for Senate so I could vote on behalf of the people of the State of Alabama. I didn't come up here just to outsource my job to the Pentagon or the White House. Yet that is exactly what Democrats want to do. That is the current position of Senate Democrats. The Constitution says we make the laws here in Congress, not in the Pentagon and not in the White House. So this is not about me. It is about the Senate and the Constitution. This is a win today for the legislative branch of government. Voting gives all Senators a voice for their constituents. The Constitution says that the Senate is to ``advise and consent'' to the President's nominations. Over the last 6 months, Democrats in this Chamber have actually complained that the Senate has too much power. Senator Schumer made reference this afternoon to proposals by Democrats to make the Senate weaker. Senate Democrats have been more than happy to go along with executive overreach when a Democrat is in the Oval Office. Democrats have spent the last 6 months attacking me for standing up to an illegal and immoral new policy. Many of these attacks have been wrong on the facts. First, they said I was leaving important jobs open. That is false. Then they complained that we have acting officials in many important roles. They claim that generals and admirals just can't do the job as an acting official. Senator Reed came to the floor 2 weeks ago and said we ``have no effective military leadership'' in several branches of the military right now. One member of the House said the military is ``paralyzed.'' I don't even think the Pentagon would defend these accusations. Democrats still have never shown me one fact to show that we were behind on readiness. It is just not true. Just last week, GEN Charles Flynn, our top Army general in the Pacific, said he hasn't noticed any challenges because of the hold--not any. Over the weekend, the outgoing Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Milley, said our readiness is better than it has been in years. This hold is not affecting readiness. If Democrats want to complain, then they should look in the mirror. I don't control the Senate floor; the Democrats do. In a typical week, we work 3 days. Those aren't the kinds of hours people are working back in my home State of Alabama. This is one of the least productive Senates in our lifetime. Democrats can't have it both ways. Either they can confirm these nominees through regular order or they can stop complaining about acting officials. Democrats say there is a large backlog of nominees. They say it would take a long time. Well, I agree. It has been a big backlog. But, again, Chuck Schumer allowed the backlog to build up over 6 months. It is his fault. We could have been confirming one or two a week over the last 200 days. It would have taken us just 4 hours of voting each week. But we didn't do it. We took another angle of just sitting back and watching. Chuck Schumer refused again and again and again. We don't have a lack of leadership in our military. We have a lack of leadership right here in the U.S. Senate. Despite the lack of leadership, Senators are perfectly capable of voting. Voting is our job. That is why we were sent here. So to be clear, my hold is still in place. The hold will remain in place as long as the Pentagon's illegal abortion policy remains in place. If the Pentagon lifts the policy, then I will lift my hold--easy as that. That has been my position from the very beginning. I am not afraid to vote on these nominees or on all of these nominees. I came here to this Chamber to vote, and I reserve the right to seek another cloture petition on the nominees in the future. So that is where we stand today. I yield the floor.

Mr. TUBERVILLE

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

Mr. TUBERVILLE

Mr. TUBERVILLE. Mr. President, this is my third year serving on the Senate Ag Committee. This is my first time getting to work on a farm bill. The farm bill comes around every 5 years. It sets national policy on agriculture, nutrition, conservation, and forestry. In less than 2 weeks, at the end of this fiscal year, the current farm bill will expire. In 2018, this bill had a pricetag of $867 billion, right--$867 billion 5 years ago, in 2018. Now, we used to think that was a lot of money, but the upcoming farm bill is almost double that amount at roughly $1.5 trillion. This is the first trillion-dollar farm bill in our Nation's history. The enormous pricetag of the bill is driven by an 84-percent increase in SNAP, or Federal nutrition assistance, and a 58-percent increase in conservation programs--in other words, a huge increase in welfare and climate spending. Most of this new spending does not offer support for farmers. The $559 billion increase in SNAP funding was done directly by the Department of Agriculture through updates to the Thrifty Food Plan. In other words, nobody in Congress voted for this. The $35 billion in conservation funding was done through the Inflation Reduction Act of last year. Democrats are pushing through priorities that cater to climate activists and lead Americans to become dependent on welfare benefits. Approximately 82 percent of the upcoming farm bill goes to SNAP, commonly known as food stamps. Four percent goes to conservation. Just yesterday, we hit $33 trillion in debt for this country--yes, I said that--$33 trillion. That will be picked up--this tab--by our grandkids and their kids. This graph here, developed by the Farm Bureau Federation, showcases the enormous increase in nutrition spending and the steady decline of farm spending over the last 50 years. As you can see, SNAP spending has almost doubled what it was 5 years ago. How is this even possible? Has poverty doubled in our country in the last 5 years? Of course, it hasn't. The poverty rate has been between 10 and 20 percent during my lifetime--10 to 20 percent. We spent $20 trillion in the war on poverty, and we have not even moved the needle. What does that mean? That means we are not doing our job. All we are doing is we are paying for somebody else to do it. So it doesn't work. Yet I never hear my Democratic colleagues consider how we fight poverty. We just give out money. If my colleagues on the left cared about poverty, then they would want better results. But nobody wants better results here. They want votes. Welfare spending--if we would ever get it in our heads--welfare spending does not lift people out of poverty. Are we ever going to realize that? It simply makes people more comfortable remaining in poverty, and that makes it wrong. It makes it wrong for this body that we continue down this path of poverty and not helping poverty. Food stamps are supposed to help people stay afloat while they work to become self-sufficient, help them get through tough times--not a free walk in society. It should not be an incentive to stay home other than to train and want to get a job, but that is exactly what it has done. Making someone dependent on government is not helping them; it is hurting them. The whole purpose of the farm bill is supposed to be to help farmers. What an idea. Yet $7 out of $8--$7 out of $8 in the farm bill is for something else. Our farmers depend on crop insurance; commodity programs such as the Agricultural Risk program--ARC, as we call it--and price-loss coverage, which is the PLC program; and disaster programs to help them deal with difficult crop yields, markets, and rising input costs. Farmers can't control the weather or the price, and that is the reason they need help. We have to remember farmers put food on the table. But there is a lot of people who don't understand that. These are some of the hardest working people in America, and they have too little to show for it. Back home in my State of Alabama, I have heard the struggles facing our row croppers and our specialty crop producers. They need help to deal with inflation and rising input costs. Farm production costs have increased--have increased 28 percent since Joe Biden took office less than 3 years ago. That is embarrassing. How in the world can we increase prices 28 percent in this country in 2\1/2\ years and expect the people in this country to survive, the hard-working people? Farmers included. Fuel and fertilizer are 60 percent to 130 percent higher than they were in 2021. Folks, we can't survive with that; but my colleagues on the left are not even concerned about it--not one bit. We are just going to cut back on digging oil and gas and buy it from other countries and charge the heck out of taxpayers in the United States of America for oil and gas that we can produce here. Other farm expenses like land, cash rents, labor, and equipment are all adding up. As a result, net farm income is projected to decrease by roughly 23 percent this year. Costs are up, incomes are down, and farmers are struggling to survive. We are on a direct collision in this country of closing our farmers out and having to completely depend on other countries for our food and other things that we eat. Think about that--completely depend on other countries. We just found out going through this COVID crisis that we were completely dependent on other countries for our drugs. We said: We have got to overcome that. We have got to redo that. Now, we are doing the same thing to our farmers. We do away with our food, it is over, because if you think prices are high now, they will be completely a lot higher than they are now. The only thing that is keeping our farmers afloat is called the Farm Safety Net, but the current support levels for title I commodity programs, like cotton, peanuts, and soybeans, are not high enough to sustain our farmers over the next 5 years. In other words, this safety net is a level of pricing. If the price goes under a certain amount, we help our farmers overcome that cutback where they can survive. The problem is, that safety net price has not risen since 2012. And we don't think the prices haven't gone up? We have lost our minds. If we don't raise those reference prices--and right now, my colleagues on the left don't want to raise our reference prices for farmers--we are going to be buying all of our food and everything we eat from other countries. It is coming. We have got to raise our reference prices. We have got to help out our farmers. These programs and these reference prices allow farmers to continue clothing, feeding, and fueling every citizen in this country and a lot of other countries. Now, we don't need to idly sit by while our hard-working producers work tirelessly and barely survive under this Joe Biden economy. I ask my colleagues--I beg my colleagues--on the left to wake up, open your eyes, and support our farmers and fight for this farm bill. Raise the reference prices. Help them out. Because if we don't, there won't be a need for another farm bill. Our Nation's food security is going to depend on it, and the lives of all American citizens are going to depend on it. I yield the floor.