A bill to require the head of each agency to submit to Congress and make publicly available information relating to the implementation of Executive Order 14019.

Mr. President, yesterday, I announced the Rural Prosperity and Food Security Act, put together by distinguished colleagues on the Agriculture Committee, including the Presiding Officer. We thank you so much for all of your leadership on so many provisions here in Georgia and our entire country. So thank you for that.

This is a serious bill that reflects bipartisan priorities to keep farmers farming, to keep families fed, and to keep rural communities strong. I hope those are values and priorities that we all share together.

The foundation of every successful farm bill is built on a broad, bipartisan coalition. That is how we get it done, as, Mr. President, you know. We get it done because we bring everybody together. We don't put forward things that lose votes; we put forward things that gain votes so that we can do what we did in the last 5-year farm bill, 2018, where we had 87 Members of the U.S. Senate come together, which was extraordinary at that time, because we built the coalition. We respected each other, and we did not look for policies that would divide.

So it is important that farmers and ranchers, rural communities, foresters, nutrition and hunger advocates, conservationists, bioenergy advocates, local governments, and climate advocates come together. That is a broad coalition, and there are so many more I could list on and on that come together to be able to address a 5-year bill that addresses rural America, our economy, feeding Americans, being there when they need some help, protecting our land and water and air resources that are so important, and investing in a rural quality of life, like where I grew up in Northern Michigan, in Clare.

The Rural Prosperity and Food Security Act is a bill that holds the coalition together. It is a bill that I put together with my Democratic colleagues on the committee, but it includes 100 bipartisan bills-- actually, over 100 bipartisan bills--introduced this Congress through the hard work of Republicans and Democrats on the committee as well as off the committee and with the input of a broad farm bill coalition.

(Mr. FETTERMAN assumed the Chair.)

I would hope, at this point, we would be in a situation where we would be bringing forward a bipartisan bill. We are not there yet, but it is my responsibility as the leader of the committee to put forward what I believe is the vision and the policies that can get us there, and that is what this is talking about.

There are many things in here. I will not go through all of them, as there are too many, but I will say this: We are strengthening the important farm safety net by making meaningful investments that focus our tax dollars, our American resources, on American farmers with dirt under their fingernails, not billionaire Wall Street or foreign investors, who, by the way, we ban from receiving commodity payments in this bill.

This bill makes support for beginning farmers a priority. We need more people who want to go into farming, either starting from scratch or going home to their family farms. We need them. We need the people being willing to do the critical work. They need to be a priority, and they are a priority in this farm bill.

Our bill will provide farmers and ranchers with more choices that provide timely and flexible assistance that meets their needs--lower cost crop insurance, more effective commodity title, more opportunities for affordable credit to operate their farms as input costs go up, and the list goes on and on.

We, importantly, permanently authorize the agriculture disaster assistance program, which, unfortunately, is having to be used more and more and more. I want that to be clear, that that is a permanent part of agricultural policy. This bill makes it a priority to help our farmers and ranchers address the emerging risks that we know they all face.

We also ensure that farmers are planting to meet market demand, not to receive a government payment. We made major reforms in the 2014 bill to emphasize that and then again in 2018, and it is important to keep it going.

Farming has always been one of the riskiest ways to make a living. I have said it is the riskiest business around. Nobody else has to monitor the weather all day and night to figure out what is going on as to whether or not their businesses are going to be OK, and the climate crisis is making it even tougher. Think about the Michigan cherry farmer who loses an entire crop due to an early warming and then a cold

snap--and this has happened in Michigan--or think of the wheat farmers whose hard work is leveled as a violent summer storm pummels their fields with hail.

Conservation programs are a vital part of our risk management for farmers today. I am proud that they are voluntary, that they are popular, that they are used, that farmers think they make a difference. It is important that we continue to invest and protect those dollars. This bill builds on our historic investment in those popular, voluntary conservation programs by making the title--the conservation title--a permanent investment, a permanent part of the farm bill, a permanent authorization.

We invest to make sure we are confronting the climate crisis today and in the future by taking the dollars that we have allocated for climate-smart agriculture and putting it into the farm bill and supporting these important, voluntary, climate-smart efforts. This will put resources into farmers' pockets to continue the practices that they are already doing and that they want to do more of on the farm and at ranches around the country.

While the farm bill is the backbone of the farm safety net, it is also the backbone of the family safety net through our nutrition title.

I want to thank our subcommittee chair who is presiding now, who chairs our Subcommittee on Nutrition, for his leadership. I thank him very much.

The Rural Prosperity and Food Security Act reflects our shared belief, Republicans' and Democrats', that no American parent should have to worry about whether or not they will be able to feed their children. No American senior should have to choose between buying food and paying for their medications. No American servicemembers should experience hunger while serving their country.

This bill will help millions of hard-working Americans make ends meet at a time when they really need it--in a time of crisis--by continuing the 5-year update to the SNAP and the Thrifty Food Plan included in the bipartisan 2018 farm bill to ensure that SNAP reflects the realities of how Americans buy food and prepare food. It improves security measures and cracks down on bad actors to strengthen the integrity of nutrition assistance.

The bill invests in SNAP employment and training to help people improve their job skills, and it excludes subsidized income earned through employment and training from counting as income for SNAP so that people will participate in these services and can finish their training.

In rural development, this is such an important part of the farm bill. This is about jobs; it is about quality of life. We have such an exciting bioeconomy today. In the farm bill a number of years ago, I put in a whole program called Grow It Here, Make It Here, where we focused on biomanufacturing as well as our biofuels and what we could do to add opportunities for farmers and income and jobs. We build on that in this bill, whether it is biofuels, sustainable aviation fuel, biomanufacturing, lifting up biopreferred labels so people know and can feel confident in looking for those labels, American labels. We lift this up.

We also strengthen our efforts with farmers and ranchers with clean energy--clean energy efforts to lower costs for citizens in rural America, to bring down their utility costs, but also to help our farmers through the Rural Energy Assistance Program, which we strengthen.

For the first time, we put not just authorizations but actually mandatory farm bill resources--money--into the rural development title to lift up really important quality-of-life issues that determine whether or not people can actually stay and live in rural communities-- for instance, childcare; access to mental health and addiction treatment facilities; rural housing, which is such a challenge. There are so many things we need to be doing to create opportunities.

I am proud that we have already made rural communities a priority through high-speed internet in rural communities and what we did in the infrastructure bill. We also have made wastewater treatment and other infrastructure issues in rural communities a part of what we have done in other areas. But we need to do more as it relates to the quality of life for families in rural communities, and the farm bill puts forward a vision to do that.

The Rural Prosperity and Food Security Act is the product of a lot of work. You know, Senator Boozman and I--my ranking member--started this process 2 years ago at my alma mater, Michigan State University, with our first field hearing to hear from all those impacted. We have both, as well as other colleagues, traveled the country to hear ideas and to hear what is important to do. But we are beyond that now. It is time to get it done. It is time to get it done.

You know, I have been around here long enough to have participated in six farm bills. It is the third one I have had the honor to lead. I know what it takes. I am so honored and proud to have--I may be biased, but I believe I have the smartest farm bill team there is. There are talented people who have put this together, but we know how to do it. We know how to do it.

I know that the only path forward is to hold together a broad, bipartisan farm bill coalition. When you break the coalition up, it never works. It never works. It fails time after time.

In some ways, the discussions and the attacks right now on nutrition make me feel like it is ``Groundhog Day.'' We saw this in 2012 when the House could not pass a bill because of the fight on nutrition. We saw it again in 2018 when they couldn't pass a bill. It was voted down again because of the fight on nutrition.

Breaking up the coalition and pitting the farmer safety net against the family safety net will not get us a farm bill. It just won't.

I am so grateful that in doing our past farm bills, we have been able to come together and understand that it is about recognizing broadly the needs of farmers and food and jobs and all the other issues that are so important to our rural communities and, frankly, urban communities as well. That is why I am committed to doing that, because that is the way we get a bill.

Our farmers, our families, our rural communities deserve the certainty of a 5-year farm bill. There is no reason we can't do this. There is no reason we can't do this if we take the lessons of the past, if we creatively work together to meet the needs that we know need to be addressed as more and more volatility affects our farmers and ranchers across the country. We can do that. We can do that. I am committed to doing everything in my power as chair of the Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee to make that happen.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, after spending decades pushing for a national abortion ban, packing our courts with rightwing, extreme judges, and annihilating Roe v. Wade, hard-right Republicans have created a race to the bottom when it comes to reproductive rights.

This week, Florida outlawed abortion after just 6 weeks, before many women even know they are pregnant. The Arizona Supreme Court recently upheld a Civil War-era law from 1864 banning abortion almost entirely, without exception for rape or incest. And 19 other States across America now have near-total bans or severe restrictions on abortions, beyond the standards set by Roe.

Let's not forget how we got here, because the extreme abortion bans in Florida and Arizona didn't happen in a vacuum. They are the result of MAGA Republicans' decades-long campaign to annihilate Roe and plunge our country into chaos. Remember, Donald Trump boasted he was ``proudly the person responsible''--those are his words--for the disastrous decision to end Roe.

The extreme abortion bans are also a direct consequence of the Senate Republican agenda to install rightwing, anti-abortion judges at every level of the Federal court system, including the hard-right Supreme Court Justices who voted to end Roe. Remember, most of the same Republicans are on record supporting a national abortion ban.

The bottom line is that the extreme abortion bans are a direct consequence of Republicans getting into power. That is precisely what Republicans will do, given the chance to govern. They will try to take us back to 1864, with draconian abortion bans and attacks on Americans' personal freedoms.

And, make no mistake, Republicans in Arizona will have to answer for their anti-abortion record in November. Republicans in Florida will have to answer for their anti-abortion record in November. Republicans across America will still have to answer for their anti-abortion record in November.

Federal Aviation Administration Authorization

Mr. President, on the FAA, today, the Senate will continue to move forward on FAA reauthorization. We just have 8 days to go before the current FAA authorization expires. So it will take bipartisan cooperation to get this done before the deadline.

Both parties have every reason in the world to get FAA done as quickly as possible and as smoothly as possible to keep our skies safe, our airports safe, and our Federal employees taken care of. I hope the Senate can come together to get this important legislation finished.

Federal Judiciary

Mr. President, on judge shopping, the central principle of America's justice system can be boiled down to four words we all know so well: ``equal justice under law.'' When you go to court, a judge's personal preferences should make no difference in the outcome.

But, recently, the hard right has turned ``equal justice under law'' on its head with the gross practice of judge shopping. Ideologues from across the country bring their cases to courts of their choosing, to pick and choose judges they know are friendly to their cause. Judge shopping is how the hard right successfully revoked the FDA approval of mifepristone nationwide a year ago.

Yesterday, MAGA Republicans took aim at President Biden's new background check rules by flocking yet again to their favorite MAGA judge in the country, Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in the Northern District of Texas. Judge Kacsmaryk has not even been a judge for 5 years--not for 5 years--and already he has heard cases with nationwide implications on things like reproductive care and Federal LGBTQ protections and the ACA. There is a very clear reason why this single Texas judge hears so many controversial cases. He is a living, breathing rubberstamp for the hard-right agenda, and MAGA extremists know he is friendly to their cause.

As I said before, and I will say it again, judge shopping jaundices our legal system like few other abuses do. Picking and choosing a judge to get a predetermined outcome is the definition of unfairness, and Congress should fix this abuse with appropriate legislation. Even the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, hardly a liberal, has acknowledged that judge shopping is a problem that ought to be addressed.

A few weeks ago, I led a group of 40 Senators introducing a bill that would curtail judge shopping and restore fairness to the judicial system. I would hope both sides can work together on this bill to make sure nobody gets an unfair advantage in a court of law, simply based on a judge's personal preferences.

Some of my colleagues on the other side have suggested that Congress shouldn't do anything to improve how our courts work. That is plainly ridiculous. When the Federal judiciary is being exploited by practices like judge shopping, it is both proper and appropriate for Congress to exercise its oversight authority.

Congress has clear authority under the Constitution to exercise oversight of the courts. So we will continue weighing legislative options to ensure that the Federal judiciary is committed to equal justice under law.

Farm Bill

Mr. President, on the farm bill, again, I would like to applaud my good friend and colleague Chairwoman Stabenow of the Agriculture Committee, who yesterday released the substance of her farm bill.

Chair Stabenow's farm bill supports our farmers, feeds our families, and bolsters our rural communities. By focusing on bipartisanship, rather than playing partisan games with our farmers and families like House Republicans, the bill she put together, the Rural Prosperity and Food Security Act, holds the broad coalition needed to pass the farm bill. I am proud of the chairwoman's dogged work on this legislation.

The bill includes more than 100 bipartisan priority pieces of legislation, from improving rural healthcare and education to foreign ownership of farm land. It ensures that SNAP reflects the reality of how Americans buy and prepare food and keeps kids fed by making significant investments to end childhood hunger. And it defends the historic climate-smart agricultural investments that I fought so hard to secure on the Inflation Reduction Act last summer.

We all know that about 10 percent of the carbon that is emitted into the atmosphere comes from agriculture, and the bill does a good job by reducing that amount, but still making sure farmers, particularly small farmers, don't pay the price.

Tribute to Mike Kuiken

Finally, Mr. President, I want to close my remarks with one of my least favorite words, but one which I say with immense gratitude: Farewell.

I am sad, grateful, verklempt, happy, moved--all of the above--to pay tribute this morning to one of the best staffers I have ever had, Mike Kuiken, my national security adviser for over 5 years.

He has been an invaluable adviser, an extremely gifted thinker, and a straight shooter for all the years he has been part of my team. I want to say thank you.

Members from around the Senate, Democrats and Republicans alike, have come to rely on his knowledge and his judgment. And, in many ways, he has made the world a better and safer place--made America a better and safer place--by his dedication to this field, to intelligence, and to the military. He has done a great job.

I will so badly miss him. But like when many of my staffers leave when they are going on to bigger and better things, I rejoice, as well. So it is with mixed emotions that I say goodbye to Mike, and an enormous thank you from me, the people of New York, and the people of America for being so strong and firm in protecting America's interests with balance, with care, with intelligence.

Mike leaves the Senate with a legacy he can truly be proud of. If he did nothing else in his life, he can rest assured--he will do plenty more, I know--but he can rest assured that he has been a great, great contributor to this society. He has been on the forefront of every major national security event America has experienced in two decades.

He joined Carl Levin's staff a few months before 9/11 and played a hand in legislation protecting our troops during deployment in the Middle East, expanding sanctions against Iran, responding to the Arab Spring, strengthening counterterrorism efforts, resisting Russian interference in the 2016 elections, outcompeting the Chinese Government, and so much more. Whether in a war zone or inside the SCIF, where he spends a lot of time learning all about classified information, he has been invaluable.

Without Mike, I can say we would never have gotten the Chips and Science Act done. He--with several other of my staffers--was there shepherding this bill, all the way back to the days when I first called it the Endless Frontier Act.

Without Mike, we wouldn't have gotten the NDAA done for so many years. Without Mike, we would be nowhere in preparing for the future of AI in the sphere of national security.

So, for sure, as I said, he can be really proud of what he has done.

Anyone who knows him well knows all these incredible things are secondary to what matters most to him: his two kids. The number of times I called him and he was at a swim meet or track meet or some event for one of his kids, just reveling in their successes, I can't count. He is always there. His wife Emily and his children, I am sure, are excited they will be able to see a little more of him around the House, at least for now.

Mike, thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you so much, and my best wishes on the road ahead. You will always have a place here in the Senate and in what we call the ``Schumer family.'' You are part of our family and always will be.

He is not here. He is probably in the SCIF or in a swim meet for one of his kids.

I yield the floor.

Recognition of the Minority Leader

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

Mr. President, in 2021, President Biden signed Executive Order 14019. This Executive order directs Federal Government Agencies to engage in voter mobilization using taxpayer resources, and it requires that they submit a plan for doing so to the White House. This includes helping with completing vote-by-mail materials and finding third-party organizations to conduct voting-related activity on Federal property.

This Executive order prompted questions and concerns. First, there is no clear authority in Federal law allowing executive branch Agencies to work with certain voters to complete mail-in ballot forms and bring in outside organizations to help. And there is no authority for spending congressionally appropriated funds on this activity, raising the question of whether it violates the Antideficiency Act.

The same act prohibits Federal Agencies from accepting voluntary services, which this Executive order blatantly violates by directing Agencies to solicit third-party organizations to provide voting-related services on Agency premises.

There is also the question of whether the Biden administration is implementing this Executive order in a manner that violates the Hatch Act. The Hatch Act limits political activity by

Federal employees. The Hatch Act is a Federal law that was enacted in the 1930s for the very purpose of preventing this sort of government activity.

It was an act enacted after the Roosevelt administration was accused of using Federal employees and the WPA to boost Democrat candidates.

Does this sound familiar?

Think about VP Harris' recent announcement that Federal funds would be used to hire college students as ``nonpartisan'' poll workers this summer. As it turns out, her example that she used was a committed partisan.

Back to Executive Order 14019 and the Biden administration's pledge to be ``the most transparent presidential administration ever,'' surely, the Biden administration is going to go above and beyond to be transparent and explain exactly how this order is being implemented, right? Wrong.

In fact, in the 3 years since this order was issued, the Biden administration has done the exact opposite. The White House has stonewalled congressional requests to see the Agency plans that are required under the order, despite the fact that congressionally appropriated resources are being spent on these plans. They have gone to court to fight open records requests to see the plans.

Last May, along with several colleagues, I wrote to the White House asking for basic information on these plans. I never received a response. We wrote again in November, and, again, were ignored by the White House.

Now, I have introduced legislation that would simply require that the Agencies disclose their plans and provide an update on their implementation. That is it. They just have to explain what they are doing. Will they? I will note that I am not alone in seeking transparency regarding this Executive order. Several of my Democrat colleagues recently wrote The General Services Administration requesting its plan under the same Executive order. My legislation simply broadens this request by seeking transparency from all Agencies.

The White House's continued and deliberate secrecy begs the question: What are they hiding? What do they fear revealing? I think that we can surmise that these plans take our Nation right back to the 1930s, weaponizing government yet again, this time to recruit and to harvest Democratic voters.

The facts that have slipped out seem to confirm just as much. The Biden White House tasked a far-left organization called Demos, which describes its mission as ``pioneer[ing] bold, progressive ideas.'' This organization has been used by the White House to help implement this Executive order. Demos recommended this voter mobilization strategy to the incoming Biden administration in December of 2020.

Interestingly, Demos's former president was brought in to work in the White House, which dutifully issued this order implementing the Demos plan during President Biden's first year in office.

The Department of Health and Human Services has acknowledged that it is working with groups like the ACLU and Demos to implement this Executive order. A FOIA request also revealed that Demos is working with the Department of Agriculture.

It seems that the idea is to use Federal Agencies to provide point- of-sale voter mobilization, provide a Federal benefit, and then use that exchange of Federal benefits to mobilize the voter.

There is a reason why the Hatch Act and other laws prevent Federal employees from engaging in political activities--because Federal employees are paid to serve all American taxpayers, not use government benefits to activate voters. This sort of activity is fraught with potential partisan impact, even if it is ostensibly framed as nonpartisan.

Setting aside the clear policy and ethical concerns, all my legislation requires is transparency. The Biden administration has taken extraordinary steps to hide this information from the American people. Not only does President Biden owe taxpayers this information regarding how their hard-earned dollars are being spent on voter mobilization, but it is a basic duty of this body to oversee how congressionally appropriated funds are being spent, especially on activities for which they were never appropriated.

In just a few months, tens of millions of Americans will cast their vote for President. The American people deserve to know whether the incumbent President is attempting to tip the scales in favor of his own reelection using taxpayer dollars.

We all agree that free and fair elections are a foundational pillar of the United States. The Founders of the United States rightfully left that responsibility of carrying out Federal elections to the States, not to the incumbent Federal President. This was to help ensure the integrity of and ensure the confidence in our election system.

This Executive order is an extreme departure from the American model. The President using the vast Federal bureaucracy to carry out his secret voter mobilization operation months before the election is a dangerous precedent, and it should alarm every one of us here in Congress, and, frankly, it should alarm every American.

That is why I am requesting that the Senate pass legislation requiring that the Biden administration disclose these plans and provide the transparency that is necessary to address rightful concerns about using taxpayer dollars in an unlawful and in a deeply disturbing manner.

So, Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that, notwithstanding rule XXII, the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. 4239, which is at the desk. I further ask 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. President, I appreciate my colleague Senator Padilla's outreach toward each other, and I look forward to working with him on a number of issues in this regard. He has great expertise in this arena. But I have a very basic question to ask, and that is: What is this administration afraid of? Because all I am asking for is transparency. I am just asking to see the plans that are commanded by this Executive order, yet the administration stonewalls us on this. We talk about having conversations, but why not just show the plans?

I fear that this is a return back to the 1930s, a return back to the weaponization of government, delivering a point-of-sale benefit, and, at the same time, bringing along a voter registration package and an encouragement of voting for the incumbent administration.

Let's see the plans. Let's allay the concerns that I raise. This administration is not doing that. This administration is stonewalling us. In fact, my colleague Senator Padilla has also requested transparency of the GSA to find out what they are doing with respect to implementing this Executive order. Let's expand this to all Agencies. Let's let the American public see what the Biden administration is up to with this Executive order.

But the real motivation of this Executive order was the fact that the Biden administration was disappointed that they weren't able to federalize our election system. After the failure of H.R. 1 and S. 1 here in the Senate, this is the result, Executive order 14019. This is the command to weaponize the Federal system for election year activities. I think Americans deserve to see what these plans are, and I would look forward to the transparency that I am asking for.

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

Mr. President, I have come to the Senate floor today to talk about the Corporate Transparency Act or, as we call it in DC-- in swamp speak--the CTA act.

The CTA, to me, is one of the worst examples of Big Government overreach that I have seen since I got to Washington over 3\1/2\ years ago. That is saying a whole lot, since our country is $34 trillion in debt. The CTA was signed into law in 2021 as part of the fiscal year 2021 NDAA.

Simply put, the Corporate Transparency Act is an outright attack on the 32 million small businesses in this country. This includes farmers, restaurants, gyms, lawn service companies. The CTA specifically targets working Americans with an LLC, and failure to comply could put you in jail for up to 2 years per violation plus slap on $10,000 per violation. That is quite a penalty.

You know, I don't know about you, but I have plenty of friends and family members who have an LLC. It is just part of the way the U.S. economy works--capitalism. Small business and LLC owners play a huge, huge role in supporting this country and our way of life. I can tell you most business owners have no idea that this law exists--none, not one bit.

The Corporate Transparency Act requires individuals with substantial control over a company or an equity position of 25 percent to disclose personal data with the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. Now, that is a long name. It is better known as FinCEN in swamp talk--a government bureau most Americans have no idea as to what it is, and they have never heard of it before. The CTA will impact small businesses across the Nation, in addition to millions of citizens who use LLCs to invest in real estate or protect their assets, which millions of Americans do.

My State of Alabama is home to over 400,000 small businesses. Now, small businesses are the backbone of Alabama's economy, making up more than 99 percent of the business community and providing jobs to nearly half of Alabama's working population.

But it isn't just Alabamans who will be impacted. Over 32 million businesses across America are estimated to be affected by this overreaching, Big Government, swamp law. Hardly anybody knows about it. It is a well-kept secret, but it affects farmers, lawyers, accountants, and business owners. They are directly and seriously impacted.

Under this law, millions of small business owners are required--they are required--to report personal details to the Federal Government. Business owners or anyone who qualifies for this massive government overreach must disclose their names, their dates of birth, their addresses, and scan their government-issued photo IDs to the Treasury Department by the end of this year. Any time this information changes, updated information must be submitted to FinCEN's database within 30 days. So, if you move, you have to let the Federal Government know within 30 days that you have changed your address. The failure to file with FinCEN can, again, lead up to 2 years of jail time and a $10,000 fine per violation.

By the way, I find it ironic that we are currently voting on legislation cracking down on social media companies like TikTok and Facebook for storing people's personal data. Meanwhile, the Federal Government is doing the very exact thing that we have been discussing here on this floor for months and months.

Why does the Federal Government need this information in the first place?

Well, the goal of the CTA was to crack down on shell companies used to commit crimes. That is what this was meant for, but the reality is that criminals are not going to file with FinCEN. That is not going to happen. Criminals don't go by the law. Instead, the law will be used to go after hard-working Americans.

In recent years, we have lost over 150,000 farmers in this country. You heard that right. Just in the last few years, 150,000 farmers have gone out of business. They can't keep up with Joe Biden's high-priced economy. It is not happening. They are not making any money. They are selling out. Now the CTA is going to squeeze them for every last cent. We need farmers in this country. We need small businesses. Where does Joe Biden think our food comes from, by the way?

It is sad--it really is--but few in Washington and most outside the beltway have no idea that this law actually exists. I continue to say we have a law that has not been advertised. People haven't pushed it. It is out there, and it is just hanging. They have no idea that this law exists. Plus, they don't have an idea that the criminal penalty is there, and it is a very high price.

To no one's surprise, large businesses--listen to this point--with powerful lobbyists got a carve-out in the law, and they do not have to comply with the CTA. That is right. If they had a very good lobbyist and they are a big business, they don't have to comply with this law. Companies like BlackRock, Facebook, Amazon--they don't have to comply with this because the Federal Government is too busy going after your local neighborhood restaurant or your daughter's favorite nail salon or your family's dentist or your local farmer.

While the little guy has to struggle with all this redtape, LLCs with more than 20 employees and greater than $5 million in revenue do not file with FinCEN. That is right. It is only the small guy. It is only the small person who is trying to make a living. Yet another win for the swampy special interest groups while hard-working Americans who pay their taxes--they will suffer.

The few small business owners who are aware of the CTA's existence want to make sure they are compliant, but they have few places to turn. Accounting and law firms do not want to take

on the responsibility of filing for these clients, and many industry professionals are unaware of the penalties if you fail to file.

So Joe Biden has weaponized the IRS against Americans. He already announced he is using American tax dollars to hire 84,000 new IRS agents to go after everyday taxpayers--84,000. Now, if you remember, President Biden promised: We are not going to go after anybody who makes less than $400,000. Yet another lie from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Now, some of these agents will target small business owners who fail to disclose their personal information to FinCEN, not to mention politically motivated prosecutors who will use the CTA to target conservative business owners.

Sadly, the IRS has a history of singling out certain taxpayers based on their religious and their political beliefs. Have we forgotten Lois Lerner, who is living off her taxpayer-funded pension but should have been prosecuted?

In an America where justice is becoming less equal by the day and prosecutions have been used to target political opponents, the CTA is just another way that this administration can use the Federal Government to go after conservatives and Christians.

To add insult to injury, FinCEN has done little to nothing to educate Americans on the CTA and the harsh consequences if you don't comply. It is almost like they want Americans to be ignorant about the new law so they can punish them for not complying. This is completely unfair. This is not the American way. You would expect this from communist China.

But this is not going to happen on our watch. Next week, I am introducing the Repealing Big Brother Overreach Act to overturn the CTA in its entirety.

America used to be the land of freedom and opportunity. Under Joe Biden, the American dream has become a nightmare for many small business owners and farmers. My bill would provide millions of small businesses and entrepreneurial Americans with regulatory and compliance relief. They need a break. They don't need more regulations; they need less. My bill would also remove a weapon used by rogue prosecutors who would love to punish Republicans and Joe Biden's IRS that openly targets conservatives every day.

It is past time we start standing up for our farmers, our store owners, LLC holders, and small businesses who are the heartbeat of this America.

I am proud to be joined in this effort by Congressman Warren Davidson of Ohio, who is filing a companion bill in the U.S. House of Representatives.

If Congress fails to act on this legislation, millions of American small business owners could be in for a rude awakening next year.

I look forward to Leader Schumer bringing this bill to the floor and helping millions of small business owners and helping those who are counting on us to take on this huge government overreach.

I yield the floor.

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

Mr. President, as you well know, the Senate has confirmed 194 of President Biden's judicial nominees to lifetime appointments. Each of these nominees has been questioned about their qualifications and credentials. And as the Senate provided advice and consent on their nominations, they move forward.

But Adeel Mangi, nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has faced unprecedented and fundamentally unfair personal attacks. Senate Republicans and dark money groups have made bigoted and false claims about Mr. Mangi, the first Muslim American nominated to the Federal Appellate Court.

Rather than focusing on Mr. Mangi's qualifications or credentials during the hearing that he was subjected to in December, Republicans subjected him to irrelevant, combative lines of questioning about the Israel-Hamas war. They even asked--they even asked--whether he celebrated the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Can you imagine? With no basis in his life experience, the fact that he was Muslim gave them license to ask whether or not, in his home, they celebrated September 11.

Throughout his confirmation process, Mr. Mangi has unequivocally condemned anti-Semitism and acts of terrorism. Republican Senators have tried to scapegoat Mr. Mangi for statements made by other people and for events he didn't even attend and wasn't even aware of. That is simply guilt by association, and it is wrong.

Any claim that Mr. Mangi is anti-Semitic is simply false. Yet just this week, the Republican leader falsely claimed that Mr. Mangi's confirmation would lead to ``radicalism on the Federal bench.'' The fact that this man will be the first Muslim American allows these wild accusations to take place, and it is unfair.

To claim that Mr. Mangi is ``radical'' ignores his record. For more than two

decades, he has focused on commercial litigation at a top-tier law firm. He has served as counsel of record in more than 30 matters before Federal appellate courts, as well as eight amicus briefs submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court. In addition, Mr. Mangi has devoted more than 4,000 hours to his pro bono practice, representing clients in religious discrimination and employment discrimination cases.

Mr. Mangi deserves to be evaluated based on his record, not on bad- faith falsehoods and innuendo. I urge my colleagues to dismiss the smear campaign against him and support his nomination.

Dream Act

Mr. President, on another matter, I would like to discuss an issue that has been personal to me and a priority for more than 20 years, the young immigrants known as the Dreamers. It was a little over 20 years ago that I introduced the first DREAM Act. Before that, people discussed the Dreamers in terms of a rock-and-roll group from Great Britain. Now the Dreamers are known as young people who were brought to the United States as children, with no decision on their own part, grew up in this country, pledged allegiance to this American flag in their classrooms, and simply want to be part of the future of America. That is what this is all about. Many have gone on to serve our Nation as first responders, nurses, and members of the Armed Forces. They are American in every way, except under our law. And without congressional action, they still spend each day in fear of deportation.

I first introduced the DREAM Act 23 years ago. I have reintroduced it for the last several Congresses with my friend, the senior Senator from South Carolina Lindsey Graham. The DREAM Act would provide a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers. On several occasions, a bipartisan majority of Senators have voted for the DREAM Act on the floor of the Senate, but it has been blocked by filibuster each time.

Twelve years ago, in response to a bipartisan request from myself and the late Senator Richard Lugar, Republican of Indiana, President Obama established DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program. Since 2012, DACA has protected from deportation more than 830,000 young people, all of whom arrived in our country as children, some as young as a few months old.

Today, I want to share the story of one of those impressive individuals who has received DACA protection. This is the 142nd story of a Dreamer that I have shared on the Senate floor.

Brian Garcia Valdez came to the United States from Mexico when he was 10 years old. He grew up in South Texas. He graduated from high school with honors in the top 10 percent of his class.

Because of Brian's immigration status, he wasn't eligible for financial aid to go to college, so he worked jobs, multiple jobs-- waiter, washing cars, construction--all to support his tuition cost at Texas A&M. After 4 years of hard work, he graduated with a bachelor's degree in biology in 2017. Brian is now a medical student at Loyola Stritch School of Medicine in my home State of Illinois.

I want to give a shout-out to the school. Loyola School of Medicine was the first in the Nation to open up the competition for the limited number of slots they have to DACA students. They have had over 30 so far. There is no quota. There is no allotment of a certain number. These students just have to compete with everyone else and show that they are ready to excel in medicine.

In addition to a busy academic schedule, Brian has worked as a clinic coordinator in a health clinic assisting medically underserved communities. He also received the 2023 Dream M.D. Physicians of Tomorrow Scholarship for academic excellence. Brian will graduate next week. He plans to attend the University of Rochester Medical Center for his medical residency.

After completing his training, he hopes to return to South Texas to serve medically underserved areas.

DACA allowed Brian to pursue his dream of being a doctor, but his life is still in limbo because of the inaction of Congress. Since President Obama established the DACA program, Republicans--many Republicans--have waged a relentless campaign to overturn DACA and deport the Dreamers back to the countries that many of them don't even remember being part of.

Last September, one Federal judge in Texas declared DACA illegal as a program. The decision left in place protections for current DACA recipients while the appeal is pending, but has left them in constant fear that any day another court decision will upend their lives. The lower court decision also has prevented any more Dreamers from registering for the program. This means that without congressional action, thousands of Dreamers who already serve our country as doctors, teachers, or first responders may never have that opportunity.

Next week, I will hold a hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee on the urgent need to protect these aspiring young people. It is time for Congress to grant them the stability and certainty in their lives that they so richly deserve.

When you look at this individual, Brian Garcia Valdez, ask yourself the question: Now as he is on his path, on his way, becoming a medical doctor in the United States and he wants to serve underserved people in South Texas who don't have access to a good doctor, is our message from Congress to him to go back to where you came from? That basically is the issue before us. Is America a better country with Dr. Brian Garcia Valdez in its ranks? You bet it is. Let's not lose this opportunity to bring these quality individuals into full citizenship.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

I announce that the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Booker), the Senator from Arizona (Mr. Kelly), the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Menendez), and the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), are necessarily absent.