Radiation Exposure Compensation Reauthorization Act

Mr. President, as my colleague from West Virginia has noted, and as the Nation knows--the world knows--President Biden will deliver his third, perhaps final, State of the Union address tonight.

Obviously, the border is a major issue confronting the Nation, and I have to say that, coming from Texas with the 1,200 mile common border with Mexico, Washington has just recently acknowledged--the President has just recently acknowledged something that we have known has been a problem for a long, long time without really any help to deal with this flood of humanity and drugs across our southwestern border.

I expect that President Biden will do as he always does--blame somebody else for this problem, even though he has had the same tools that President Trump has had with which to deal with it from the day he stepped into the Oval Office.

The American people are pretty smart and they are pretty perceptive and they understand that the crisis at our border is a man-made crisis, and that man is President Biden. He has opted, rather than secure the border, to issue dozens of Executive orders dismantling piece by piece the border security protections that President Trump had put in place, things like the ``Remain in Mexico'' policy where people who would otherwise be released into the interior of the United States would have to remain in Mexico while their asylum claims have been determined.

Under President Biden, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has encountered nearly 7 million migrants. I have heard numbers as high as 9 million. The truth is we don't really have an accurate number because it is virtually uncontrolled, but we know that it is more than the past two administrations combined. In 3 years, President Biden has allowed more illegal migrant encounters across the border than in 12 years of President Obama's term and President Trump's.

Well, you would think, with President Biden knowing he has a huge political liability, that he would seek advice from the experts. But former U.S. Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz said that President Biden and Vice President Harris never even spoke to him during his time in office. This is the man, the expert, who is in charge of the border for the U.S. Government, and the President and the Vice President didn't even speak to him.

Well, because of the welcome mat that has been laid out by the Biden administration, border officials are preparing for yet another spike in the record levels of migration.

The Biden administration is under fire for reports that it flew 320,000 migrants from foreign countries directly into the United States without vetting them first.

Words fail to describe the unprecedented nature of this crisis. It is so bad, I keep asking myself: What is it going to take before the President wakes up? Mr. President, 7 to 9 million illegal entries into the country; 300,000 children placed with sponsors in the interior of the country and, as the New York Times noted, many of them forced into involuntary labor. And then when wellness checks were made to see where these children are after they are placed with these sponsors, in the case of the New York Times, they said that ``85,000 of those sponsors didn't even answer the phone or the door.'' So we don't know what happened to those children, those 300,000 children.

And then there are the drugs that flow across the border when the Border Patrol is overwhelmed with mass numbers of migrants.

Well, here is another problem. Those who are old enough to remember September 11, 2001, when 19 Saudi nationals flew two planes into the World Trade Center and crashed another one at the Pentagon--19. Four nationals killed 3,000 Americans that day.

So far this year, the Border Patrol has apprehended--apprehended--169 individuals who were on the Terror Watchlist. So far this fiscal year, they have apprehended 49. But here is what should keep all of us awake at night: approximately 1.7 million ``got-aways.''

In other words, a large number of these migrants turn themselves in knowing they are going to be released, and that is the easiest way to make it into the United States and probably end up staying for the rest of your life. But 1.7 million people who came across the border evaded law enforcement. They call those ``got-aways,'' people caught on cameras or some sensor.

How many more people on the Terror Watchlist were among those 1.7 million ``got-aways''? It should alarm all of us to think about those who made it into this country who have not yet been caught.

Then there are the drugs. Last year, 108,000 Americans died of drug overdoses, 71,000 of those from fentanyl poisoning. Last week, the Border Patrol seized 2,800 pounds of meth, fentanyl, and heroin. That is great, but how many more of those drugs have made their way into the United States undetected? That is $12 million worth of narcotics in just 1 week.

Of course, who is reaping the benefits of the current border policies? It is the drug cartels. It is the smuggling networks. They continue to get richer and richer and more powerful.

Over the weekend, Border Patrol arrested six sexual predators who were illegally crossing the border. Again, we don't know how many more were among the ``got-aways'' I mentioned earlier. This follows a nationwide law enforcement effort last month where U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement apprehended 275 known sex offenders who had entered the country illegally.

All this while the country continues to mourn the death of 22-year- old nursing student Laken Riley. As we all know by now, she was killed while jogging in broad daylight on the campus of the University of Georgia. Jose Antonio Ibarra, a 26-year-old Venezuela national who entered the United States illegally and was released by the Biden administration, has been charged with her murder.

This week, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked if President Biden plans to address Laken's death during his State of the Union speech. She said she had nothing to share on that topic.

If the Biden administration had not abused the parole system--that means the catch-and-release by which individuals like Mr. Ibarra were simply released into the interior of the United States--Laken's death might have been prevented. But President Biden has no plans to even acknowledge her death, let alone take responsibility for it.

In the last 3 years, I have spoken on the floor of the Senate about these

issues more times than I can count because Texas is on the frontline but with precious little assistance from the Federal Government. That is why Governor Greg Abbott has used the National Guard and the Department of Public Safety to do what the Federal Government should have already been doing, and that is to provide security for our border.

This is one of the most urgent catastrophes of our time, and it is a huge political liability for the President and his party because they have been watching this catastrophe get worse and worse and worse and done next to nothing about it.

We reached a breaking point a long time ago, and now every State is paying the price for President Biden's failed policies, from Texas all the way to New York.

As long as the President refuses to do his job and enforce the laws already on the books, deadly drugs will continue to flow into our communities, dangerous criminals will threaten our citizenry, and many more lives will be lost.

I hope the President accepts responsibility for what has happened the last 3 years, and I hope his remarks reflect the urgency of this crisis that he created, but the truth is, I won't be holding my breath.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I rise today in the hours before President Biden's State of the Union address to discuss the reality of the past 3 years and the current circumstances of our Nation. Together, my colleagues and I are here to speak on behalf of the American people who have been forgotten and left behind by President Biden, those who know the true consequences of his administration's policies and who are really feeling the pain by the continued failures that have defined President Biden's time in the White House.

Throughout my time in Congress, I have been guided by my eternal optimism. I feel like I can see beyond the gloom and push toward a brighter future. However, it is clear that this is not the perspective that is felt in communities across our country, as Americans realize that the state of our Nation is not as strong as it should and could be. They continue to battle economic challenges that are making the American dream unaffordable.

There is a continued assault on American energy, which started by canceling the Keystone XL pipeline and now, just several weeks ago, the disastrous halting of the construction of the LNG export terminals.

They see the unmitigated flow of illegal crossings at our southern border, and they face the threat of rising crime, and they see the weakened state of Americans standing on the global stage.

President Biden remains the common denominator across each of these issues, and he continues to prove--and this is harsh--that he is just not up to the task of leading our country in a time when it is needed most.

Perhaps the most consistent issue that has defined President Biden's tenure in the White House--and one that I hear constantly about back home--is the state of our economy and the persistence of high interest rates and inflation. Despite President Biden's claims, inflation has not cooled and price hikes have worn down consumers over the past 3 years, making necessities like food and housing nearly unaffordable. The price of food at the grocery store--anybody who is listening to this that has been to the grocery store knows this better than anybody. The price of food at grocery stores and in our restaurants increased 2.6 percent just in the last year, but this is on top of the staggering 10 percent that food prices rose over the last year. So what used to be $100 worth of groceries in 2019 now costs $125. And just last week, it was revealed that food costs, compared to income, have hit a 33-year high with American consumers spending over 11 percent of their disposal income on food. That means that the last time Americans paid this much for food ``Terminator 2'' was in the movies, Michael Jordan had just won his second MVP award, and HP had introduced the first color scanner. That is how long ago this was.

Adding to this, U.S. home prices are at an alltime high. Housing costs have now become unaffordable for a record number of U.S. renters, and that is according to a recent Harvard study.

Make no mistake, this is the economy that President Biden campaigned on, and it is the economy that his policies of reckless spending and high taxes were destined to create.

The President has gone even as far as establishing a strike force--I don't know if we are going to hear about it tonight--a strike force on unfair and illegal pricing, which is nothing more than a cover so he can blame others for the effects of his policies.

Another issue that will forever define President Biden's tenure is the historic crisis we have seen at the southern border--something we have all addressed on the floor repeatedly--and the devastating consequences it has created. The most recent data shows over 176,000 crossings along the southern border this past January. This marks the worst January on record and the sixth consecutive month where a record was being set. That brings us to a total of 9 million--9 million-- illegal border crossings under President Biden's watch. Additionally, there were another 7,000-plus migrant encounters at the southern border on Monday, marking the fourth day in a row of over 7,000 encounters.

While the White House remains committed to their message of no Executive action can alleviate this crisis, they fail to mention the Executive actions that they took literally hours after President Biden was sworn in. These Executive Orders on day one of Biden's administration dismantled the effective immigration policies of President Trump.

The truth is, President Biden can take basic steps and end this chaos, but in some situations--and far too many of them--it may already be too late. The barbaric murder of Laken Riley is a national tragedy and was completely avoidable.

The catch-and-release policies of President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas have allowed the catastrophe at our southern border to impact every community in our country and every State.

Crime is all too familiar to this administration, especially right here in the President's backyard. While the administration is touting a drop in crime across other cities, violent crime right here in Washington, DC, is up a staggering 39 percent. Multiple members of Congress have been recent victims of crime in this city, as have multiple members of my own staff.

We must remember that President Biden owns this issue more than he would like to admit. Last May, he vetoed bipartisan legislation to overturn police reforms right here in Washington, DC.

Speaking of ownership, another issue that President Biden owns is the recent weakness that America has displayed on the international stage. We are living in a time where our Nation faces the most dangerous global threats that we have seen in decades. Yet President Biden has proven to be a President of

weakness, while our adversaries are watching how the United States reacts to the challenges of our time. This display of weakness started with the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, which signaled unreliability to our allies and weakness to those who want to do us harm. Then President Biden did not establish a strong deterrent for Putin, suggesting that NATO and the United States might not take any action if Russia undertook a minor incursion. Next, the Biden administration engaged with Iran on fruitless nuclear talks while the regime built up their nuclear capabilities and their militias attacked our own U.S. troops. Now there have been over 170 attacks on servicemembers with minimal responses taken. This has also culminated most recently in the loss of three of our Army Reserve soldiers.

During the State of the Union tonight, President Biden will draw a proverbial line in the sand and will ask the American people: Which side are you on? I encourage my fellow Americans not to fall for this attempt to separate us or label us as enemies of one another; but rather, we should join together in realizing that it doesn't have to be this way and that the American people truly deserve better.

This leads to, perhaps, the biggest broken promise from the President; that was his pledge to unite our Nation. We are fractured; there is no doubt about it. In this administration, anyone who disagrees with their policies is an extremist and a threat to our freedoms.

I know the people of our country deserve better from the White House, and the state of our union has become weaker over the past 3 years. So I hope the President addresses these issues tonight in a meaningful way that doesn't finger point, doesn't blame, but that takes the issues and unites the country and finds solutions.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I want to say what a great privilege it is to be out here today with my colleagues from Wyoming and my colleague Senator Hickenlooper from Colorado to celebrate Pat O'Toole's life.

Pat O'Toole was a rancher, as you have heard, a conservationist whose family's six-generation operation, the Ladder Ranch, straddles the Colorado and Wyoming border, as my colleague from Wyoming said.

The proud son of Irish immigrants, Pat was born in Pittsburgh, but like many of us, he felt a calling to the West. He attended Colorado State University, where he met his beloved wife Sharon, who is here today.

After graduation, they were both accepted into law school, but instead they pooled their savings to buy some old ewes and take over Sharon's family ranch. For 8 years, they lived in a cabin on Ladder Ranch without electricity or running water. That might sound like a hardship to a lot of people here, but knowing the two of them, I bet it wasn't. And they were in one of the most beautiful places on this planet. In the summer, they camped while herding sheep, and bit by bit, they built their herd.

Pat was a fervent advocate for the West. He cared deeply about all the wildlife in the West, the Colorado River, and protecting American agriculture.

Pat lived a life of service. He served as president, as you have heard, of the Family Farm Alliance for nearly 20 years. He sat on the boards of the Intermountain West Joint Ventures and Solutions from the Land and was, with Senator Lummis, a member of the Wyoming House of Representatives.

When I came to the Senate in 2009, Pat was kind enough to recognize my failings and my lack of background and lack of experience in the things he cared most about, and he was kind enough to bring me up to speed on Colorado and western agriculture. I am still trying to catch up.

This is a photo I wanted to bring today. This is a photo of Pat telling me what I need to know about western agriculture on his ranch. You can tell I am listening more intently than I often do, certainly on this floor, but there was not a word you wanted to miss from Pat. There was nobody better to be the guide of people in this place so far from the ranch where he and Sharon raised their family. And we needed to listen because ranching touches every major western issue: water, immigration, Tribal rights, conservation, and even access to healthcare. Pat cared about all those things.

Those who were lucky enough to know Pat know he had a lot of big ideas and he had the drive to get those big ideas done. He was a doer. And he also had an amazing Rolodex.

Most recently, Pat brought together a broad coalition with the goal of restoring the stressed landscapes of the Routt and Medicine Bow National Forests and the contiguous Yampa and Little Snake watershed. My staff and I were honored to be included in that coalition.

I should say that was one of the amazing things about Pat. He could not have cared less what your title was or whether you were a Senator or not. His interactions with the staff were just as significant, I think, and just as meaningful for getting something done as they were with elected officials.

And I hope and believe that that coalition will work to carry on Pat's legacy of conservation and tireless work to improve watershed health.

In 2018, I had the pleasure to visit Pat's ranch, nestled in the Little Snake River Valley, and saw firsthand the conservation practices that he and Sharon have put in place to restore fish habitat and improve the resilience of the operation. There are a lot of people who could learn from what they have done.

After touring the ranch, Pat brought together people from all over the West, Republicans and Democrats--as Senator Barrasso said, it didn't matter; he never talked about what party anybody was in--to join us on their porch for a big cookout while we talked about the new generation of ranchers in the West and how we can leave our kids and our grandkids a better future.

He actually knew that while the State line between Colorado and Wyoming technically divided the ranch, that a political boundary like that was not the important boundary. What he

would tell you is that the watershed is what actually matters, and that is why it is not surprising that he brought together people--a rare occasion, really, for an elected official from Colorado to meet with people from the Wyoming Legislature who were there that day to hear what Pat had to say.

And we covered topics on that day that ranged from conservation throughout the West to how we could work together to protect our water and leave a viable future for the next generation of farmers and ranchers. There were always young people around Pat; there were that day and when he brought people to Washington as well.

And even though, as I mentioned, Pat and Sharon's house was in Wyoming, they made sure my staff and I had the farmhouse across the street on the Colorado side of the road where we could spend the night under our own stars, in our own State.

The next morning, at the end of our visit, Pat showed me around the barns and shared with me a branding iron from the Ladder Ranch, which I still have in my office in Denver; although, come to think of it, it could be of more use here in Washington, DC.

Anyone who knew Pat knew about his love for his family, and he proudly brought his children and grandchildren into every aspect of the ranch. It is an amazing testament, I think, to the way he approached that world and that business and that enterprise because each of us today is reminding people here today that he cherished the idea that their ranch raised ``cattle, sheep, horses, dogs, and children.'' I am sure not in that order. And he managed the ranch with these kids and these grandkids in mind.

I want to recognize Pat's wife Sharon, daughter Bridget, and granddaughter Siobhan, who are here in the Gallery. They are carrying on Pat's legacy and the legacy of Ladder Ranch.

When I was flying back last weekend from Ukraine, that is when I got a message that said that Pat had had a stroke and was in Grand Junction at the hospital. And I landed at the airport in Ireland--I suppose there is something in that--and was able to have a conversation with Sharon. And the first thing she wanted to tell me--she was by Pat's side in Grand Junction. The first thing she wanted to tell me was that Siobhan was coming back here to carry on Pat's legacy, to advocate as part of the Intermountain Joint Venture fly-in. Pat was on the board of that.

And they are all here today, and I want to thank them for traveling here to be here today. Our thoughts are with you and the entire Pat O'Toole family, but, really, they are for all of us in the West who have lost his presence but not his example.

Pat's life is evidence that division is not the way to make progress in our country and it is not the way to make progress in American agriculture when it comes to water. Pat showed us what it takes to make headway on some of the thorniest issues that we confront. We would do well to remember that example every day.

He demonstrated the importance of finding common ground to build, little by little, toward something greater for the next generation. At least with me, he showed infinite patience. I hope that is something that we can all carry on in his absence. He was larger than life, and we will miss him dearly.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, in March of 1865, President Lincoln said this:

Let us strive on to finish the work . . . to bind up the

nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the

battle, and for his widow, and his orphan.

That is why we are here today. We are here today to continue to work, to finish the work, to honor the lives of those who have borne this Nation's battles, who have rallied to this Nation's flag in every hour of danger, the people who won World War II, who won the Cold War, who helped rebuild Europe and Japan and our allies, the people who have built this country and are now waiting for us to help them. That is what we are about today.

There is a reason that we succeeded over the last half century. It is because of the working people of this country in Missouri and in New Mexico and in Nevada and Colorado and Idaho and Texas and Wyoming and everywhere else from coast to coast. It is because the working people of this country went to the uranium mines for our nuclear program, went to the processing

sites to make our weapons, volunteered for our Army, went overseas to fight, or just raised their families with dignity and honor.

That is why we have a United States of America. That is why we are the United States of America. But we have not done right by those good people. We have turned our back on them because so many of them were poisoned by their own government, by nuclear waste and radiation, by nuclear tests that were done without their knowledge, by the nuclear material and the mines that they weren't told about. The government exposed them over a period of decades to nuclear radiation waste and, in almost every case, did nothing about it. In many cases, they lied to them about it. This isn't right. This isn't just.

That is why we are here today. It is the pride of this Nation that when we won the Second World War, when we won the Cold War, we rebuilt the land of our former enemies. I am as proud of that as I ever have been.

But now it is time to rebuild these communities. It is time to finish the work in the United States of America. It is time to turn to the men and women who have borne the brunt of the battle, the men and women who gave their health and, in many cases, their lives for their Nation.

That is what we are here for today on the floor. This isn't about a handout. This isn't about some kind of welfare program. This is about doing basic justice for the working people of this Nation whom their own government has poisoned.

This is the day when we break the cycle of lies from the government; when we break the cycle of passing the buck and irresponsibility from the government; when we say to the people of America: We will honor you; when we say to the working people of this country: We are here for you; when we acknowledge to these Americans: You built this country. We will honor you. That is why we are here today.

The Senate has a chance today to make right what has been wrong, to right 50 years of wrongs, 50 and 60 years of Americans ignored, exploited, and lied to. Today, we can begin to right those wrongs. That is why we are here.

I want to recognize now my friend, my colleague from the great State of Missouri, a man who grew up in the St. Louis region right by one of these nuclear processing facilities and the landfill where the government dumped the waste and then lied about it, a man I am proud to have in this fight, Senator Eric Schmitt.

When I have come to this floor in weeks and months past to talk about this cause--because it is more than an issue. It is a cause. It is a cause of justice. It is a cause of doing right by other fellow Americans. When I have come in weeks past, I have often shown the pictures and told the stories of people who have given their health or given their lives for their country. Today, I don't have any pictures with me because today, in the Gallery, we have Missourians themselves and New Mexicans themselves and Arizonans themselves and members of the Navajo Nation themselves. They are here right now, sitting right there, traveling great distances, and I just want to call out a few of their names.

Mary Dickson is here from Utah. Sherrie Hanna is here from Arizona. Laura Greenwood is here from Texas. Phil Harrison is here, and Leslie Begay and Rose Harrison and Tina Cordova, all from New Mexico. And Linda Perez has come all the way from Guam--all the way from Guam. Tona Henderson has come from Idaho and Paula Terry also. And from the great State of Missouri, Dawn Chapman, who will be my guest tonight at the State of the Union. And Karen Nickel and Ashley and Christen and Chantelle and Tricia Byrnes are all here. And from the Navajo Nation, Justin and Kyle. And there are more in the Gallery, as well, from all over this country, representing every segment of this country, representing the great heritage of this country, representing the great communities of this country.

I think of the Navajo Nation. Fifty percent of the uranium that was mined in this country for our nuclear program--half of it--came from the Navajo Nation--workers from the Navajo Nation who, if I am not mistaken, also volunteered for this Nation's armed services at a percentage higher than any other community in America.

These folks represent here today the best of our Nation. They are America. They are here. They are here for us to honor them.

You know, as Americans, we make a commitment to each other. It is what it means to be an American. We promise that we will live by the ideals that we hold together and by the things

that we love together, and we promise to stand by one another. This is about standing by one another. This is about seeking that justice that President Lincoln spoke about so many Marches ago. And now, on this March day in the year 2024, the U.S. Senate has the opportunity to do its part--its small part--to continue to make this Nation what it could be, what we promised it will be, and to put right things that have been wrong.

I will end with this, Madam President. As we speak, the government is testing under the homes in St. Louis--under people's basements in St. Louis--for radioactive contamination. After saying for decades there was no contamination to be concerned about, there was nothing we should worry about, now they are testing in our homes. They have already shut down schools. The water in the creeks is contaminated. Landfills are contaminated. The soil has been contaminated. Today, we say: Enough. Today, we turn the page. Today, we begin something new.

For those folks who are watching now from Missouri, whether from their living rooms while their homes are being tested or high schools while hoping for something better, let's see the U.S. Senate at work. Let's see what we can do to keep the promises we have made to each other as Americans.

I yield the floor.

Vote on S. 3853

The bill was ordered to be engrossed for a third reading and was read the third time.

I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, I rise today to join my colleagues to discuss the Biden administration's failed policies and their impact not only on my State of North Dakota but on all Americans.

As we prepare to listen to the President give his State of the Union Address, I want to share my perspective about the past 3 years and where we are today. But it is not just my perspective; it is what my constituents are seeing on a day-to-day basis. They see a country that is less secure, a dollar that doesn't stretch as far as it used to, and policies from this administration that are making things worse.

The reckless tax-and-spend policies of this administration have led to increases in inflation levels that we haven't seen in decades. To this day, inflation remains persistently high, and the deficit spending continues as our debt now totals more than $34 trillion. Last month, the Congressional Budget Office published its 10-year Budget and Economic Outlook, which revealed that, this year, the interest payments on our national debt will exceed the spending on national defense.

In addition to rising interest payments that will crowd out our ability to fund our priorities in the future, this deficit spending has led to inflation that has made everything more expensive for all Americans. The Biden administration's tax, spend, and regulate policies have led to this inflation. In my State of North Dakota, according to the Consumer Price Index data, families have experienced a cumulative price increase of about 18 percent--18 percent--since President Biden took office. That means paying more for everything from groceries to housing to transportation and energy.

North Dakota is actually among the youngest States in the Nation, with the median age of just over 35 years of age. Many of our young North Dakotans are looking to buy homes and start families, but this administration's failed economic policies have caused the inflation that has simply put homeownership out of reach. According to Freddie Mac, a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage continues to hover at about 7 percent. Before Biden took office, it was less than 4 percent.

The bottom line is that the policies of this administration that the President calls Bidenomics gets you less--not more for less but less for more.

Mr. President, at the same time, President Biden is putting his Green New Deal agenda over our economic and national security interests.

The average price for a gallon of gas was about $2.40 on January 20, 2021, when President Biden took office. This week, gasoline prices are 42 percent higher--$1 higher. So, instead, of $2.40, now you pay on average $3.40 for every gallon. It is simple economics--energy prices remain high because demand exceeds supply. Because the cost of energy is built into every good and service that we consume, we need to increase the supply of energy to help bring down inflation. Yet instead of unleashing--unleashing--the full potential of our Nation's vast energy reserves, the Biden administration's regulatory onslaught will only favor foreign adversaries at the expense of our own domestic energy industry.

The Biden administration is imposing new costs and regulatory burdens on Federal energy leases, for example, while reducing what is available for new leasing. Maximizing access to new leasing today is directly tied to growing production and supply for the long term.

Further, the Biden administration unilaterally has now banned U.S. LNG export approvals, forcing our allies in Europe and Asia to increase their reliance on imports from Russia, Iran, and Qatar. According to the U.S. Energy

Information Administration, global energy demand is expected to grow across all sectors of the economy through 2050.

Our Nation is fortunate to have abundant energy reserves and the capacity to ramp up production and counter adversarial foreign producers from countries like Russia, Iran, and Venezuela, but the Biden administration continues to handcuff our producers with burdensome regulation after regulation. That is why President Biden needs to take the handcuffs off our energy producers and work with us to boost American energy independence instead of passing regulation after regulation that shuts our energy industry down.

Producing more energy here at home is the ultimate solution to not only lowering energy costs but to strengthening our national security and our geopolitical standing in the world.

Mr. President, in addition to those issues in regard to Bidenomics, I want to talk about his failure on the border.

The year 2023 was a record year for President Biden's border policy. It was recordbreaking. By the end of the year 2023, the United States saw the most ever annual encounters at the southern border--almost 2.5 million. It is mind-boggling--2.5 million in 2023. President Biden's border policies broke records again as over 300,000 illegal encounters took place in December--just in December, 1 month--300,000 in 1 month in December 2023, which is the most encounters in any single month during his administration.

The cause of this crisis is clear: President Biden's failure to secure the border--simply put, his failure to enforce the law. The duty of a President is to enforce the law. He is not doing it.

The American people suffer the consequences because the Biden administration refuses to enforce policies that protect our southern border, including reinstating the migrant protection protocols or the ``Remain in Mexico'' policy, enforcing Safe Third Country agreements, and resuming the construction of the border wall. The President's failed border policies have led to increased instances of human and drug trafficking at the southern border. It is not just human trafficking; it is the fentanyl. It is all of the problems that go with an open border.

The Biden administration must address the border crisis. The Biden administration must enforce the laws that kept monthly encounters to vastly, vastly lower numbers under the Trump administration, and they need to do it now because border security truly is national security.

In conclusion, we can reverse all of these metrics, but it is going to take the President embracing the realities facing American families. Given his track record these past 3 years, I am not optimistic that we will hear him signal a reversal of these policies tonight, but he needs to for the good of the country.

I yield the floor.