A joint resolution providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the National Marine Fisheries Service relating to "Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Regulations for Listing Endangered and Threatened Species and Designating Critical Habitat".

Mr. President, I rise today in recognition of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

Each May, we celebrate and remember the many contributions that Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders have made to our history and continue to make today.

As a nation, we have made significant progress with respect to the inclusion and representation of the AAPI community across the many facets of our society, from actress Michelle Yeoh's barrier-breaking accomplishment this year as the first Asian-American winner of the Oscars' Best Actress award to Maryland's very own Lieutenant Governor Aruna Miller, who was sworn in just a few months ago as Maryland's first immigrant and first Asian American to be elected to statewide office.

AAPI children are finally getting to grow up seeing faces that look like theirs in film, music, sports, politics, and every other arena of public life.

This progress didn't just happen overnight; it is the fruit of labor of generations of AAPI activists and leaders, along with their allies. A labor that, in some cases, cost them their lives.

I think of the Chinese laborers, for instance, who played a critical role in building America's first transcontinental railroad, yet they were met with discrimination and exclusion at every turn.

They faced hardship, hard working conditions, and were paid only half as much as their White counterparts.

In June of 1867, 3,000 Chinese railworkers began a highly organized strike, demanding equal wages and shorter hours. Though they were initially unsuccessful in their demands,

the strike demonstrated that the Chinese workforce could not be taken for granted. Over the next few months, the rail company began raising railworker wages.

This is just one example of a historic legacy of the AAPI activism against discrimination, whether perpetrated by the U.S. Government, as with the internment of 120,000 Japanese Americans during World War II, or by individuals like the racially motivated murder of Vincent Chin in 1982, which ignited the modern Asian-American civil rights movement. But there is still much progress we need to make.

Stereotypes like the ``model minority'' myth continue to perpetrate the idea that the AAPI community is a monolithic, hard-working, and successful racial bloc, which served as a model for how other minority groups should ``pull themselves up by their bootstraps--if they just try hard enough.'' Stereotypes erase the diversity within the group we refer to as the AAPI, which has the highest income inequality across ethnic groups of any race in America.

Today, AAPI women are still earning, on average, 85 cents for every dollar earned by a White male. If you break that down into just Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, the number drops even further to just 60 cents for every dollar.

The ``model minority'' myth attempts to pit AAPI people against Black and Latino Americans by blaming these groups for their own struggles, rather than acknowledging the role of discrimination in America's socioeconomics and racial inequality.

In spite of all of this, there is a great historical legacy, rarely taught in our classrooms, of Asian-Black and Asian-Latino solidarity. Frederick Douglass, renowned abolitionist, writer, and Marylander, gave a speech in 1867--the same year as the Chinese rail strike--opposing restrictions on Chinese immigration in a time when xenophobia and racism toward Chinese workers was rampant.

He said--and, remember, this was in 1867:

There is such a thing in the world as human rights. They

rest upon no conventional foundation, but are external,

universal, and indestructible. Among these is the right of

locomotion; the right of migration; the right which belongs

to no particular race, but belongs alike to all and to all

alike. It is the right you assert by staying here, and

your fathers asserted by coming here. It is this great

right that I assert for the Chinese and Japanese, and for

all other varieties of men equally with yourselves, now

and forever.

I know of no rights of race superior to the rights of

humanity, and when there is a supposed conflict between human

and national rights, it is safe to go to the side of

humanity.

Human rights has been a key focus of mine during my entire congressional career. Imagine, Frederick Douglass, over 150 years ago, proclaimed the very same rights that we are still fighting for today. He was truly a man ahead of his time.

In the 1960s, 100 years after Douglass's speech, Filipino-American Larry Itliong led the Delano Grape Strike alongside Mexican-American labor icon Cesar Chavez. Their efforts led to raises, healthcare benefits, and pesticide protections for the striking grape workers, who were primarily of Filipino and Mexican descent. These examples show that there is power in solidarity towards a common goal.

Even as we celebrate the historic accomplishments of these and many more members of the AAPI community, we must also maintain a sense of urgency about how we as members of Congress and as Americans are meeting the needs of this community today.

Just a few months ago, many East and Southeast Asian communities who were celebrating the Lunar New Year with their families suddenly had to fear for their safety following the back-to-back mass shootings targeting Asian elders in Monterey Park and Half Moon Bay.

What should have been a time of celebration became a time of fear, anguish, and grief, instead. And these shootings were just the most recent in a string of violent crimes motivated by anti-Asian racism and xenophobia, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a study led in part by Janelle Wong, a University of Maryland professor of Asian-American studies, 16 percent of Asian-American adults and 14 percent of Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander adults reported experiencing a hate crime in 2021. These statistics are appalling and unacceptable.

Over 500,000 Asian Americans and 11,000 Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders join me in calling Maryland their home. They are a vital part of our State's economy and our communities, and Maryland is better off because of them. I particularly want to highlight the AAPI community in Frederick County, MD. In the fiscal year 2023 Omnibus Appropriations bill, I was proud to work with my colleague, Senator Van Hollen, to secure a $375,000 earmark for the Asian American Center of Frederick. The AACF provides vital services to lower-income, minority, and immigrant groups in their community--services including health insurance enrollment, interpreter and translation services, English as a Second Language, citizenship classes, business development services, and so much more.

Because of the funding, Senator Van Hollen and I were able to obtain, the center will be able to increase programming for language- appropriate and culturally relevant early childhood education.

This is crucial in a county like Frederick, where 13.5 percent of the residents speak a language other than English at home. Research shows that high-quality early childhood education increases the children's readiness for school and narrows the achievement gap by half. And I am inspired every day by the AAPI-run organizations like the AACF who are fighting for the futures of their children.

There is still work to be done. I am committed to the ongoing movement for the AAPI equality and justice, in Congress and beyond. I hope the Senate will use this Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month as an opportunity to recognize this community's many accomplishments and to continue to work hand in hand towards equality and justice for all Americans.

American Wetlands Month, World Migratory Bird Day, and Endangered

Species Day

Mr. President, I rise to celebrate wetlands and the many species they sustain. This past Saturday, May 13, was World Migratory Bird Day. This year's theme is ``Water: Sustaining Bird Life.'' World Migratory Bird Day is officially celebrated on the second Saturday of May in Canada and the U.S. and the second Saturday of October in Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean as part of a global campaign to raise awareness of migratory birds and the need to protect and conserve them.

Migratory birds rely on water and its associated habitats--lakes, rivers, streams, ponds, swamps, marshes, and coastal wetlands--for breeding, resting, and refueling during migration; and for wintering. Yet increasing human demand for water, along with climate change, pollution, and other factors are threatening these precious aquatic ecosystems.

Global headlines are sounding alarms: 35 percent of the world's wetlands, critical to migratory birds, have been lost in the last 50 years. May is American Wetlands Month. Observing it helps draw attention to our wetlands. We cannot afford to lose them. Wetlands provide some of nature's most valuable ecosystem ``services.'' They serve as nurseries and habitat for wildlife, mitigate hurricane damage, and sequester carbon.

Wetlands also remove excess nutrients, toxic substances, and sediment from the water that flows through them, helping to improve downstream water quality and the overall health of waters in our communities. They are so effective at improving water quality, scientists refer to them as the ``kidneys'' of a watershed. Wetlands can absorb excess rain or river water, so they protect against flooding. We haven't idly stood by as wetlands--and the services they provide--disappear. Instead we are investing in programs to protect and restore them. It is imperative that we strengthen the resilience of our natural infrastructure, particularly in my State of Maryland, which has over 3,000 miles of coastline. Last month, Vice President Harris announced that the Department of Commerce has recommended $15.2 million for projects across Maryland to make communities and the economy more resilient to climate change.

Across Maryland, four projects will create jobs and boost economic and environmental outcomes for coastal communities. The awards were made under the Biden administration's Climate-Ready Coasts initiative funded through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law--BIL--with additional funds leveraged from the Inflation Reduction Act, IRA. These projects are part of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's nearly $6 billion total investment under BIL and IRA. These investments will have a ripple effect. The Middle Branch: Patapsco Delta Sustainable Fishery and Ecosystem Resilience Project--``MBRI''--in Baltimore City, for instance, will restore marsh habitat in an urban ecosystem. The MBRI is part of a larger project called ``Reimagine Middle Branch,'' which is a community-led initiative to reconnect South Baltimore residents to the nearby Middle Branch River.

The NOAA investments will help, but wetland loss is challenges that requires an interagency response. I am proud to have reintroduced the Coastal Habitat Conservation Act with Senator Graham. Our bipartisan, bicameral legislation would authorize the U.S. Fish and Wildlife--FWS-- Coastal Program. The Coastal Program was first established in the Chesapeake Bay in 1985 to address wetlands degradation and the resulting impacts to fish and wildlife. Since its inception, the program has expanded to 2 dozen priority coastal areas in all coastal States.

Today, the Coastal Program is a voluntary, partnership-based, habitat conservation program focused in 24 priority coastal areas along the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, the Gulf of Mexico, the Great Lakes, and in the Caribbean, including the Chesapeake Bay.

Within these areas, a national strategic plan guides FWS conservation efforts, integrating Service priorities with the shared goals of conservation partners and stakeholders. These goals often include preserving biodiversity and preventing species loss.

On the third Friday in May--this Friday--we celebrate National Endangered Species Day, which highlights the importance of protecting species such as the threatened eastern black rail. This secretive marsh bird is the smallest of its kind in North America and is part of Maryland's unique identity that we risk losing to climate change. Over the past 10-20 years, 75 percent of the eastern black rail population has declined. Primary causes of declination include rising sea levels, tidal flooding, and habitat loss and destruction.

This year is the 50th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act, ESA. We should be strengthening implementation of the law, including on critical habitat. For each threatened or endangered species, the Services may designate ``critical habitat.'' Scientists have identified these areas as crucial to the species' recovery and are the focus of conservation efforts. This concept is particularly important as species are forced to adapt.

Even our marshes themselves are on the move. The Global Change Research Wetland located at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater, MD, is dedicated to unraveling the complex ecological processes that confer stability on coastal marshes as they respond to global environmental change. This 2,650-acre brackish marsh, which contains 15 miles of protected shoreline along the Rhode and West Rivers--two embayments of Chesapeake Bay--is home to several long-term experiments designed to predict what the future holds for coastal wetland ecosystems as they cope with accelerated sea level rise.

Trying to anticipate and prepare for a future shaped by climate change is the reason I recently opposed S.J. Res. 23, a Congressional Review Act--CRA--joint resolution disapproving the National Marine Fisheries Service--NMFS--rule relating to ``Regulations for Listing Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants and Designating Critical Habitat.''

On June 24, 2022, the NMFS and the FWS issued a joint final rule to rescind a Trump administration rule on designating critical habitat under the ESA. The Trump rule included a restrictive definition of ``habitat'' that limited where the Services could designate critical habitat. Specifically, it barred designating critical habitat in areas that are not currently suitable habitat, even if those areas could become suitable in the future. Such a restriction would limit the Services' ability to designate critical habitat based on the best available science. For example, the Services would not be able to designate critical habitat in areas where species are expected to shift to as a result of natural disasters, in response to climate change, or after environmental restoration.

I regret that the Senate passed S.J. Res. 23 by a vote of 51-49. I am relieved that President Biden intends to veto the resolution, and I am confident Democrats in the Senate will sustain the veto. I was particularly disappointed in this attack on the Services' mission, given the popularity and economic activity of wildlife refuges in my State and across the Nation.

I am pleased the FWS proposes to create a new National Wildlife Refuge to conserve currently unprotected, high-priority fish and wildlife habitats across southern Maryland. In collaboration with landowners, outdoor enthusiasts, conservation partners, and local communities, the Service proposes to identify lands for protection as part of the National Wildlife Refuge System in southern Maryland. These lands would be incorporated into a new National Wildlife Refuge that encompasses portions of Calvert, Charles, St. Mary's, Prince George's, and Anne Arundel Counties.

A wide-ranging, collaborative effort over the past 15 years demonstrated that currently unprotected habitats in these counties support significant populations of fish and wildlife appropriate for protection under the National Wildlife Refuge System, primarily threatened and endangered species like the black rail, waterfowl, and migratory birds of conservation concern. These species face habitat loss from land use changes, climate change, competition from invasive species, and other stressors. Collaborative land management is a primary reason why Maryland has an excellent track record of recovering species. We have demonstrated we can solve wildlife challenges on a bipartisan basis. Knocking out the critical habitat rule--and any future rule like--is not the answer.

The Delmarva fox squirrel was federally listed as an endangered species in 1967, but thanks to conservation efforts, it was removed in December 2015. Loss of habitat is believed to be the major reason for the Delmarva fox squirrel's demise. By the early 1900s, it was extirpated from all States except Maryland. In 1967, its range was narrowed to only four Eastern Shore counties: Kent, Queen Anne's, Talbot, and Dorchester--less than 10 percent of its former reach.

Efforts to restore the population began in 1945 when the Maryland Department of Natural Resources purchased LeCompte Wildlife Management Area in Dorchester County as a refuge for the Delmarva fox squirrel. Through an active reintroduction program in the 1970s through the early 1990s, several additional populations of Delmarva fox squirrels were established in Caroline, Kent, Somerset, Wicomico, and Worcester Counties in Maryland and at a few locations in Delaware and Virginia. Natural expansion of the population has also occurred on the Delmarva peninsula. Today, the Delmarva fox squirrel exists in numerous small pockets of suitable habitat.

Bald eagles have staged such a remarkable population rebound and recovered to the point that they no longer need protection under the ESA. The Chesapeake Bay region today is home to more than 3,000 mating pairs, which represents the largest concentration of eagles in the lower 48 States. They may actually be doing a little too well. According to Chesapeake Bay Magazine, they seem to be running out of room in the bay region. The typical number of chicks per nest has declined since 1999 from two to one, as the male eagles in a breeding pair are forced to stay home and protect their nest from ``floaters'' without a nest of their own; as a result, they bring less food back. Not to worry, however; scientists don't see a problem with fewer young eagles being produced in the bay's tidewater region, nor do they see a need for human intervention as the eagles reach equilibrium.

The population is going to remain large because the bay can support it. The bay is one of the most productive aquatic ecosystems in the Nation, thanks in large part to its wetlands.

That is something I take pride in and call on my Senate colleagues and all Americans to celebrate this month, American Wetlands Month.

Mr. President, with June 1 only 21 days away, the most important thing congressional leaders can do to protect the well-being of Americans is to say, loud and clear, default is off the table.

That is the assurance the President gave 2 days ago when he met with congressional leaders. It is the assurance Leader Jeffries and myself gave that day at the meeting, as well. Even Leader McConnell said the United States will not default on the national debt.

Speaker McCarthy, however, continues on a path to drive the country toward disaster. Instead of taking default off the table, Speaker McCarthy is taking default hostage.

Let me say that again because that sums up what is happening right now.

Instead of taking default off the table, Speaker McCarthy is taking default hostage.

The strategy of the hard right remains ``our way or the highway.'' Either Americans accept devastating

cuts to veterans, law enforcement, and even cancer research, or the hard right will allow default--what a terrible choice.

And that is what makes this default fight uniquely dangerous: The hard right is dominant in the House, and they seem to be ready--seem to be perfectly willing--to let the United States default.

Speaker McCarthy realizes his hard-right agenda--as embodied in their ``Default on America Act''--cannot win support from the American people on the merits. So he and the hard right are holding the country hostage to default.

And if anyone doubts that the hard right is in control, all they have to do is watch last night's CNN town hall, where former President Donald Trump openly called on Republicans to ``do a default'' if they cannot enact their hard-right agenda.

Never mind that, under Donald Trump's watch, Republicans agreed to avoid default three times without ever getting hung up about unrelated partisan priorities. And never mind that 25 percent--a quarter--of the national debt was actually accumulated while President Trump was in office.

He is openly calling on his party to destroy the economy if they can't pass their radical agenda.

By now, of course, it is old news that Donald Trump is about as qualified to run the country as a broken brick, but the danger here is he holds enormous sway over Speaker McCarthy and the hard right.

If Donald Trump says that it is better for the United States to default than it is for Republicans to compromise, that, unfortunately, only makes default more likely.

Donald Trump's demand for default would cause tens of millions of Americans to suffer.

This isn't difficult: Can we all clearly and unmistakably take default off the table? Will Speaker McCarthy take default off the table? He is the only one of the five of us who met at the White House who has not answered that.

Speaker McCarthy, will you allow the hard right to keep pulling the strings and push our country off a cliff, or will you make it clear that, no matter what, we will preserve the full faith and credit of the United States?

Look, we recognize that Republicans have objections about certain policies, certain spending, certain investments. We do not agree with them, but these discussions are a normal part of the budget process that both sides have engaged in for a long time. This is too important for brinksmanship and reckless ultimatums.

White House staff, along with my office, the Speaker's office, Leader McConnell, and Leader Jeffries, will continue to meet in an attempt to find a constructive way forward on the budget, appropriations priorities.

If Speaker McCarthy is willing to state that, despite what Trump says, default is off the table, there can be real progress on the budget. Obviously, as the Speaker of the House, McCarthy will have some real influence in that. But that progress should not and cannot be tied to default.

I hope Americans take a moment to listen to the dangerous things President Trump has said last night about default, because he exposed just how unfit MAGA Republicans are for governing and how serious they are about their threats.

(Ms. ROSEN assumed the Chair.)

Military Nominations

Madam President, now, on military holds, I want to talk about the profane and dangerous things a colleague of ours recently said on the radio. For the past couple of months, hundreds of senior military officers and their families have had their lives unnecessarily put on hold because of a Senator from Alabama.

Senator Tuberville's actions are endangering our military readiness, provoking reaction not just from the current Secretary of Defense but from seven--seven--former Defense Secretaries from both parties.

And, earlier this week, new comments of his came to light where he not only doubled down on his obstruction but also, apparently, bemoaned the military's efforts to root out White nationalism from our Armed Forces.

Let me read the exchange with Senator Tuberville because it is shocking. During the interview, the Senator was asked:

Do you believe [the Defense Department] should allow White

nationalists in the military?

The Senator's response:

Well, they call them that. I call them Americans.

Can you believe that? Revolting--utterly revolting. Does Senator Tuberville honestly believe that our military is stronger with White nationalists in its ranks? I cannot believe this needs to be said, but White nationalism has no place in our Armed Forces and no place in any corner of American society. Period. Full stop. End of story.

I urge Senator Tuberville to think about the destructive spectacle he is creating in the Senate. His actions are dangerous. His words are gravely damaging, and his refusal to think about the consequences of his actions on our military personnel and families is a stain upon this Chamber.

Senators are called to a higher standard of conduct, but our colleague from Alabama is dragging all of us down. And for what? To push the hard right's party line on banning freedom of choice.

Senator Tuberville needs to do two things. He needs to come out and state clearly and unequivocally that White nationalism is un-American, and he needs to drop his destructive holds on hundreds of our senior military leaders. This farce is endangering our national security and putting the lives of men and women who have served our country for decades in real trouble, and it needs to end.

Business Before the Senate

Madam President, now on Senate business, it has been a very, very busy week on and off the Senate floor. There is so much going on in the country that it may have overshadowed the fact that it has been an extremely busy week and much is being accomplished this week.

On the floor, we confirmed more of President Biden's appointees to important positions across the government. And today, we will vote to advance Bradley Garcia to serve as a circuit court judge for the DC Circuit, one of the most important Federal courts in the country, teeing up his nomination for Monday when the Senate returns.

Off the floor, our committees are hard at work holding hearings and advancing important nominees and legislation. The Commerce Committee yesterday moved the Railway Safety Act, sponsored by Senators Brown and Vance of Ohio, out of committee and with bipartisan support. I thank the Senators from Ohio and Senators Casey around Fetterman from Pennsylvania and other cosponsors for their work on this bill after the derailment in East Palestine.

I look forward to working with them to bring it to the floor for a vote. Today, the HELP Committee is holding a hearing on our bipartisan cannabis legislation, the SAFE Banking Act. We made a lot of good bipartisan progress on SAFE Banking last Congress, and the work is continuing. And there is also a markup today in the HELP Committee on legislation for PBM reform, which could lead to lower costs of insulin for non-Medicare Americans.

It has been a very busy week in the Senate on very important issues that affect us all: rail safety, SAFE Banking, making growing and selling marijuana safe, and PBM reform, which can lead to reduction of insulin costs for non-Medicare people. We will keep moving ahead with our work to support the American people and reward the trust they placed in us.

Anniversary of Buffalo, New York, Shooting

Madam President, finally, on the shooting in Buffalo a year ago, this weekend, the hearts of every single American will be with the ``City of Good Neighbors,'' Buffalo, NY. At 2:30 in the afternoon on Saturday, May 14, of last year, in a predominantly Black neighborhood on Buffalo's east side, 10 lives were cut short from the worst shooting in Buffalo history--10 beautiful Americans. We will never get them back. They were parents, they were sons and daughters, friends, security guards, a policeman--all taken away from us in just minutes.

I am going to read their names: Ruth Whitfield, Roberta Drury, Aaron Salter, Jr., Heyward Patterson, Pearl Young, Geraldine Talley, Celestine Chaney, ``Kat'' Massey, Margus Morrison, Andre Mackneil.

God bless their memories.

I don't know what could possess someone to bring violence to a place like that. But I do know that the Buffalo shooting was a manifestation of the original sin of this Nation, the legacy of slavery and the centuries of racial hatred that continue to poison our society.

It is also one of the worst examples in recent memory of another terrible epidemic in this Nation, the epidemic of gun violence. We have made important progress in the area of gun violence. Last year, in the wake of what happened in Buffalo and Uvalde, the Senate came together in a way that it hadn't for decades, beating back the dark forces of the NRA and passing the first gun safety bill in more than a quarter century. Some of the friends and relatives of those who passed away in Buffalo were instrumental in importuning us to pass this legislation, and I thank them for it, for lighting that candle.

But we have a long way to go and a lot of work to do before our job is done. Gun violence is a shameful blemish on this Nation. We cannot allow ourselves to tolerate it. Indifference on this subject has been a death sentence for too many Americans.

Finally, Madam President, today the Senate will meet for a special caucus to talk about the next steps on gun violence. While nobody pretends progress will come easily, we have a moral obligation to keep pushing, keep fighting, keep working to rid this Nation of gun violence.

May God bless Buffalo and bless all the families impacted by the tragedy 1 year ago.

I yield the floor.

Recognition of the Minority Leader

Mr. President, at a press conference on Tuesday, President Biden was asked if the United States was ready for the surge of people expected to come across the border after title 42 COVID-19 restrictions are lifted. His answer?

It is going to be chaotic for a while.

It is going to be chaotic for a while.

Well, that, unfortunately, could describe the situation at the border during his entire Presidency. The Biden administration has been defined by chaos at the border for 2 long years and counting--2 years of recordbreaking numbers of individuals attempting to cross our southern border illegally; more than 5 million attempted illegal crossings in total, an average of 6,300-some individuals per day--6,300 individuals per day. To put that number in perspective, during the last administration, the average number of illegal crossings per day was approximately 1,800.

All of these numbers just refer to individuals who were actually apprehended. There have been well over 1 million known ``got-aways'' during the Biden administration--individuals the Border Patrol saw but was unable to apprehend. In fact, one in five border crossers is a ``got-away,'' meaning that huge numbers of people are entering our country illegally, without our knowing who they are or what their purpose is in coming here.

The fact that we have seen 80 individuals on the terrorist watch list attempt to enter our country illegally via the southern border since just October is a powerful reminder that not everyone trying to enter our country illegally is simply looking for a better life. And it is profoundly troubling that so many unknown individuals are evading the Border Patrol and making their way into our country. It is a problem that has been compounded as scores of Border Patrol agents have been pulled off the frontlines to provide humanitarian assistance.

So we have had 2 years--2 years--of chaos at our southern border, 2 years of chaos that has exacted a tremendous cost. Our border communities are overwhelmed. Our Border Patrol agents are overwhelmed. And the chaos at our border is unquestioningly facilitating illegal cross-border activity, including the smuggling of deadly drugs like fentanyl into our country.

We didn't get here by accident. President Biden hasn't just happened to have presided over a recordbreaking influx of illegal immigration at the southern border. No, sir. The chaos we have been experiencing is a direct result of the President's policies.

From his campaign on, President Biden was focused on distancing himself from the immigration policies of his predecessor and satisfying the open borders caucus that makes up a huge part of today's Democratic Party.

On his very first day in office, President Biden rescinded the declaration of a national emergency at our southern border. He halted construction of the border wall. He revoked a Trump administration order that called for the government to faithfully execute our immigration laws. His Department of Homeland Security issued guidelines pausing deportations except under certain conditions. And that was all on his first day.

Needless to say, the effect of all of this was to declare to the world that U.S. borders were effectively open, and the President's policies since that day have done little to correct that impression, which brings us to today.

Today, the Biden administration is ending the use of pandemic-era title 42 authorities, which have enabled U.S. Customs and Border Protection to quickly turn back at least some illegal immigrants at the border. Title 42 has played an essential role in preventing the crisis at our border from becoming a full-blown catastrophe, and with its end, the flood of illegal immigrants coming across our border is expected to become a torrent.

I mentioned that during the Biden administration, we have seen an average of 6,300 migrants a day attempting to illegally cross our southern border. Well, get this: The administration is expecting that number to possibly double once title 42 is lifted, to as many as 13,000 illegal crossings per day--13,000 per day. If border communities and the Border Patrol were overwhelmed before, it is difficult to even conceive how things will be for them now.

The Biden administration is busy putting eleventh hour policy changes in place in an attempt to stem the expected surge, but how much of it will be too little, too late remains to be seen.

The President's prediction that things at the border will be chaotic for a while does not exactly inspire confidence that the administration is on top of this situation nor did the NBC article yesterday morning noting that the Biden administration is preparing to release the migrants into the United States with ``no way to track them''--``no way to track them''--as a way to deal with the overcrowding at the border.

We're already breaking and we haven't hit the starting

line.

That is a quote from a Department of Homeland Security official in that story.

We're already breaking and we haven't hit the starting

line.

So, as I said, the Biden administration is not exactly inspiring confidence, especially since the President continues to reject commonsense measures that could actually help keep numbers down, like reinstating the Migrant Protection Protocols, often referred to as ``Remain in Mexico,'' which will require illegal immigrants to stay in Mexico while their asylum cases are adjudicated.

We have already seen an early surge in anticipation of title 42 ending, with the Border Patrol's apprehending more than 11,000 individuals at our southern border on Tuesday. And I am deeply concerned about the border communities and the Border Patrol agents who will have to deal with what the lifting of title 42 brings--and not just about border communities because, while border communities have to deal with the greatest immediate challenges, the consequences of unchecked illegal immigration at our southern border are felt all over the country.

New York City has seen a flood of illegal immigrants as a result of President Biden's border crisis, and New York City Mayor Eric Adams recently stated that his city is ``being destroyed by the migrant crisis.'' It seems that the Biden border crisis is even too much for the sanctuary cities that helped stoke it.

Our current fentanyl crisis is also a good reminder that illegal activity at our southern border affects every State in the Nation. I have talked to sheriffs in South Dakota--about as far from our southern border as you can get--who are dealing with fentanyl that has been trafficked across the border from Mexico; and as I said earlier, that trafficking is undoubtedly being facilitated by the chaos at our southern border.

Mr. President, this has been a grim speech, but it is a grim situation. It has been 2 years of crisis at the southern border under the Biden administration, and we are well on our way to catastrophe. President Biden has the power to do something about this, but after 2 years of ineffective or, simply, absent leadership from the President, my hopes that he will take the steps necessary to secure our border aren't high. We will see what the coming days will bring.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, the Biden administration's reckless policies have created chaos on our southern border, and further mistakes from the Democrats are taking things from very bad to even worse.

For more than 2 years now, President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas have proven they are either incapable, unwilling, or uninterested in defending and maintaining our borders. Illegal crossings at our southern border have exploded under this administration--2.38 million in fiscal year 2022 alone. And that is just the subset of people whom the authorities actually found and stopped. It doesn't count the ones who got away.

The vast majority of these crossers are single adults--not families, not children but unaccompanied grownups.

Customs and Border Protection stopped 67 known terrorist suspects at the southern border ports of entry last year alone, but they found 98 attempting to cross the border elsewhere--more than six times as many as the previous year. As of March, authorities had already seized nearly three times as much fentanyl this fiscal year as they had by this time last year.

All of these terrible numbers have come with a stopgap pandemic policy called title 42 actually in place. Every month of the Biden Presidency, anywhere from 20 to 75 percent of the illegal crossers have been turned right around and expelled, rather than apprehended and processed in the typical way. But the Biden administration has failed so badly that even with this stopgap in place, our border facilities have still been overwhelmed and overrun.

Now, as the Democrats finally give up the COVID state of emergency, title 42 is going away. That wouldn't pose a crisis for an administration that was willing to get tough on its own and enforce existing immigration law, but Democrats don't seem to be willing to do that--just the opposite.

President Biden's team has designed a bizarre Rube Goldberg system that amounts to a special concierge service to help even more illegal immigrants come here more easily. It is a whole parallel system with processing centers in foreign countries--not to make people come in our front door but to help even more people surge in through the back door. Now I understand there is even an official U.S. Government smartphone app to help illegal immigrants along the journey--your taxpayer dollars hard at work. Our colleague, the senior Senator from Missouri, has correctly summarized the Democrats' plan as ``Ticketmaster for illegal immigrants''--``Ticketmaster for illegal immigrants.'' Remember, things are already at an unacceptable level before this new craziness.

According to one public report, the authorities are already considering--listen to this--``street releases of migrants [into] communities across [the] border if NGO shelters and CBP facilities do not have the capacity to hold them . . . releases of migrants at bus stops, gas stations, supermarkets, etc., in communities across the border.''

Now, this week, some of our Democratic colleagues are feigning great angst and indignation over title 42's demise. They claim to be outraged that President Biden doesn't have a better plan. But every Senator had a chance just last year to vote to keep funding title 42 measures. Senate Republicans gave our Democratic colleagues that opportunity, and every single Democrat voted in lockstep against it. Every Senate Democrat voted in unison to let title 42 lapse with no better solution in place. So the country reaps what Democrats sowed.

National Defense Authorization Act

Mr. President, on another matter, the National Defense Authorization Act is a must-pass piece of legislation, but Senate Democrats have developed a bad habit of letting our national security actually languish.

Last year, the 2023 NDAA spent 5 months in limbo. Even at the eleventh hour, the Democratic leader refused to bring the Senate's own bill to the floor. It took an informal conference between our colleagues on the Armed Services Committee and their House counterparts just to get this must-pass bill over the finish line.

Our Democratic friends like to invoke America's competition with China whenever they are seeking to justify huge outlays of domestic spending, but they push the nuts and bolts of actually defending America to the back burner. Case in point: Chairman Reed just announced the Armed Services Committee will wait an entire extra month before beginning consideration of this year's NDAA. You can bet China isn't waiting around and twiddling its thumbs, but apparently Leader Schumer's Senate will do just that.

What would the Democratic majority have us do instead? Our colleagues are making a push for a grab bag of left-of-center domestic priorities they call another China bill.

Let's remember the last so-called China bill that we just passed last year. The Commerce Secretary and other Biden administration officials told us with great alarm that reshoring microchip production was a hugely urgent national security priority. This was last year. Now, that is a genuine bipartisan concern, and many of us Republicans actually agreed. But since then, the administration's stated urgency has all but disappeared.

President Biden's approach to implementing the law has been atrocious--atrocious. They are violating congressional intent and trying to attach extra strings to the microchip money to end run liberal social policy through the private sector.

The Biden Commerce Department has tried to say that the semiconductor companies can't get grants unless they tilt their hiring to benefit Big Labor, unless they provide all kinds of free employment benefits to the satisfaction of Washington bureaucrats--you get the picture. It reminds me of a couple of months ago when Transportation Secretary Buttigieg asserted that one important problem with building American infrastructure is the racial and demographic composition of the construction crews. For goodness' sake.

So Washington Democrats have spent trillions of dollars--trillions-- on a never-ending wish list of leftwing domestic priorities, heaping historic inflation on the American economy, but not a penny of their partisan bills built up our hard power.

If my colleagues were truly serious about competing with China, first of all, they would prioritize the NDAA, not let it languish, and second, Democrats would join Republicans in pushing for the strong, commonsense policies that will actually help us build and make things.

So let's prioritize real, robust permitting reform--the Capito- Barrasso bills. Let's green-light domestic mining for our own critical minerals and

reduce our dependence on Chinese supply chains. Let's unleash America's abundant domestic energy reserves. Let's combat China's rampant espionage and theft of high-tech research and intellectual property.

If our Democratic colleagues really want us to outcompete China, then let's put first things first and stop using this issue as a Trojan horse for unrelated liberal demands.

Mr. President, later today, we will be voting on legislation I introduced with 20 of our colleagues, S.J. Res. 23. This resolution rescinds the Biden administration's 2022 rule that rolled back a commonsense and necessary definition of ``habitat'' under the Endangered Species Act from the previous administration.

When Congress passed the Endangered Species Act, it granted the Secretaries of the Interior and Commerce, through the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service, respectively, the authority to

designate areas as ``critical habitat.'' Section 7 of the Act prohibits the ``destruction or adverse modification'' of these critical habitat designations.

There is no doubt that habitat loss is a contributing factor to species' declines, so protecting habitat that is necessary to the survival of species is appropriate. The problem that has arisen, however, is that these designations have, on occasion, been weaponized to the detriment of landowners, the American public, and the very species we are trying to protect.

Two-thirds of all endangered species are located on private lands. For these species to be recovered, private landowners must be part of the solution and not treated as the enemy. Unfortunately, through aggressive critical habitat designations, as well-intentioned as they might be, private landowners are penalized and harmed instead of incentivized to help with species recovery.

A recent study that examined more than 13,000 real estate transactions for land within or near critical habitat for two listed species in California found that a designation ``resulted in a large and statistically significant decrease in land value,'' specifically 48 percent for the red-legged frog and at least 78 percent for the Bay checkerspot butterfly.

This is true across the country. Let me tell you a story from Louisiana.

In 2001, the Fish and Wildlife Service listed the dusky gopher frog as an endangered species. After litigation by the Center for Biological Diversity, in 2010, the Service proposed to designate critical habitat for the species and included 1,544 acres on a Louisiana site owned by Weyerhaeuser Company and a group of family landowners. The Service included the site even though the frog was last seen there in 1965.

Additionally, the site would require substantial modification to support a sustainable population. According to the Service's own report, designation of the site could cost the landowners nearly $34 million in lost development value. Weyerhaeuser sued the Fish and Wildlife Service over the designation, arguing, among other things, that the site could not be critical habitat because the frog, which did not exist at the site, could not survive there without the site's being transformed from a closed canopy timber plantation to an open canopy, longleaf pine forest. In other words, their land could not be critical habitat for the frog because it was not habitat at all.

In a unanimous 8 to 0 decision in 2018, the Supreme Court agreed. It said the ESA ``does not authorize the Secretary to designate an area as critical habitat unless it is also habitat for the species.''

Now, the problem is that the term ``habitat'' itself is not defined within the Endangered Species Act. Prompted by that unanimous Weyerhaeuser Supreme Court case, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service finalized a rule in 2020 that defined the word ``habitat'' for the purposes of designating ``critical habitat'' under the ESA.

The definition is simple: Habitat is an area that ``currently or periodically contains the resources and conditions necessary to support one or more life process of a species.''

It seems pretty reasonable.

In 2022, the Biden administration caved to radical groups that wanted to return to free-for-all designations and finalized a rule to rescind this very reasonable, commonsense definition.

So we are now operating under an ad hoc system that creates decreased property values and predatory legal challenges for American families and businesses. In fact, it incentivizes landowners to make sure that their land could never be habitat for threatened or endangered species.

With the Trump-era rule rescinded, there is no regulation to bind Federal Agencies in determining the habitat of an endangered species from which critical habitat can be designated. Without the certainty of what ``habitat'' actually means, the development of any type can be blocked, including necessary infrastructure projects that the majority of this body recently spent hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars to support.

It is for this reason that a huge group of outside groups endorsed this resolution, including the American Road & Transportation Builders Association, the American Farm Bureau, the National Water Resources Association, the National Association of Counties, the Public Lands Council, the National Association of Home Builders, and many others.

In closing, the only way to recover endangered species is to enlist the help of private landowners in our efforts. Overly broad critical habitat designations do just the opposite. My friends across the aisle have argued these designations are necessary for species recovery. The facts simply don't back this up. Among the 60 species still listed from the ESA because of recovery as of July 2020, 51 of them never even had critical habitat designations.

By lowering private landowner opposition to conservation efforts, which will happen if we pass this rule, our Nation can help recover threatened and endangered species while simultaneously supporting our private landowners and public land users in their worthy goals of providing food, energy, jobs, and homes necessary for the survival of our own species.

I urge my colleagues to vote yes in support of this resolution.

I yield the floor.

Vote on S.J. Res. 23