The Dalilah Law

Mr. President, I came to the floor 2 weeks ago to speak about illegal immigrant truckdrivers causing chaos on our roads. Earlier this month, a father, his two sons, and a family friend were killed on an Indiana highway when an illegal immigrant swerved his semitruck right into them.

Two weeks ago, when I came to the floor to speak about this, I asked how many more people would have to die before we get serious about deporting illegal immigrants, and I am absolutely devastated that we now have one more name since I spoke here 2 weeks ago to add to that count. Tragically, just last week, another Hoosier was killed on an Indiana highway by an illegal immigrant truckdriver in a horrific accident. Terry Schultz was a 64-year-old man who was killed by an illegal immigrant from India when the illegal truckdriver reportedly ran a red light. Although the truckdriver is now in ICE custody, nothing can bring back Terry Schultz.

I am tired of coming to this floor and sharing the news about people being killed on Indiana roads because of illegal immigrants. This is the eighth Hoosier killed by an illegal immigrant on an Indiana road in just the last 6 months, that I know of, and the seventh because of illegal immigrant truckdrivers, specifically.

This is a national crisis, and I am sick of it. We need real accountability and a major overhaul of the system. Too much blood has already been stained on Indiana's roads. Things need to change, and they need to change now.

Last night, President Trump delivered an incredible State of the Union Address. One of the President's guests was a little girl named Delilah Coleman. When Delilah was just 5 years old, she suffered life- changing injuries caused by an illegal immigrant driving a semitruck in California, and it was the Democrat State of California that gave the illegal immigrant his commercial driver's license.

She is one of way too many people who have been hurt or killed by illegal immigrant truckers on our roads. Eight Hoosiers have been seriously injured--again, that is just what I know of--on Indiana roads by illegal immigrant drivers in the past 6 months. And that is just the eight that we know of.

Thank God Delilah, whom we saw last night up in the Gallery, is recovering well. In honor of Delilah, President Trump called on Congress to pass the Delilah Law, which would bar any State in the country from granting an illegal immigrant a commercial driver's license.

Many illegal immigrants cannot speak English or read the basic road signs. They have no business being on our roads, especially not behind the wheel of a semitruck.

Well, today, I am answering President Trump's call, and today, I am introducing the Delilah Law in the U.S. Senate. The Delilah Law not only bars States from giving CDLs to illegal immigrants, but it also revokes all trucking licenses that are currently issued to illegals and mandates that the CDL knowledge and skills tests are only given in English. This is common sense.

This will be a commonsense law, and I hope that we will get a chance to vote on it in the Senate very soon.

Another way that we can make our roads safer is by aggressively going after chameleon carriers that are employing illegal drivers. As I said 2 weeks ago, when I spoke on the floor about this, chameleon carriers are trucking companies that, after being shut down or heavily fined, just disguise themselves by changing their name or address or Department of Transportation number to continue operating.

It turns out that the trucking company that employed the illegal immigrant who killed those four people earlier this month in Jay County--they were four Amish men--was a company called AJ Partners. And they have been put out of service after it was investigated by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and deemed a chameleon carrier. Since then, Secretary Sean Duffy and the Department of Transportation have shut down two other shady carriers connected to AJ Partners, as well as the sham school that helped the illegal immigrant get his CDL in the first place.

Last year, the Department of Transportation closed 7,500 sham commercial driver schools, known as CDL mills. The Department of Transportation has also placed 14,000 drivers out of service for English language proficiency violations. And I want to thank Secretary Duffy right here, right now, for his leadership. The Department of Transportation is cracking down, and what they are doing is making our roads safer because of it.

The carrier reportedly involved in the accident that killed Terry Schultz just last week was incorporated from an address in Greenwood, IN. That is the principal place of business for six other carriers. Six carriers at one address.

Earlier this week, I sent a letter to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and urged them to investigate carriers operating out of Greenwood and elsewhere in my home State. We need to know about chameleon carriers that are operating in Indiana and shut them down, and that is why, last week, my office announced the creation of the Truck Safety Tip Line. The tip line is for those who work in the trucking industry to report concerns about companies that are operating illegally, hiring drivers who can't read or speak English, and hiring drivers who are illegally in the country and without the proper licenses and documents. The tip line gives truckers and people working in the trucking industry a way to speak up when they see carriers that are breaking the law and putting lives at risk on the road.

Any reports that are submitted to the Truck Safety Tip Line will be reviewed and shared with the U.S. Department of Transportation and its Office of Inspector General to help protect roadway safety and ensure a fair and lawful trucking industry. But the job of keeping our roads safe depends on more than just government. We need everyone--but especially truckers--to help us out.

Look, Indiana sits at the crossroads of America. It is a proud slogan for our State. And as I said before, Indiana is the fifth busiest State in the country for commercial freight traffic. Each year, 724 million tons of freight travel through Indiana. The truckers who operate in Indiana and throughout the country keep our economy going and going strong. They help us get the food we eat and the clothes that we wear.

Over 90 percent of truckers in America voted in the 2024 election. They are patriotic and good people who love this country and care about what is going on in America. Law-abiding truckers care about law and order, and they are outraged by what is happening on our roads. They are tired of unsafe drivers and companies who hire illegal immigrants because they can pay them less and take good jobs away from hard- working Americans. Hard-working American truckers are tired of being turned away from jobs because carriers hire cheap foreign labor instead, and it shouldn't be this way.

So if you are a trucker and you have concerns about illegal trucking companies and practices, we want to hear from you. In fact, we need to hear from you. That is why I am encouraging truckers who are on the road or those who are in the business to visit our website, banks.senate.gov, where you can find the Truck Safety Tip Line in the top corner.

We can't wait any longer. We have to do everything that we can to deport illegal immigrants from this country and get them off of our roads. We cannot allow illegal immigrants to terrorize our roads and kill more innocent lives like we have seen happen over and over again. I can't tell you how many people I have heard from who have texted me recently and said that they are afraid to take their families on the road in their vehicle and drive on the highways because this keeps happening over and over again. It is a national crisis.

While Democrats continue to moan on and on about ICE, shutting down the Department of Homeland Security because of it, I will work to keep the people of Indiana safe from illegal immigrants, especially illegal immigrants who are behind the wheel of semitrucks.

The time to act is now. President Trump called on us to do something about this national crisis now. I hope that truckers will use the tip line to help keep our roads safe, and I hope that we will get to vote on the Delilah Law soon. It is long past time to do something about it.

Mr. President, I came to the floor 2 weeks ago to speak about illegal immigrant truckdrivers causing chaos on our roads. Earlier this month, a father, his two sons, and a family friend were killed on an Indiana highway when an illegal immigrant swerved his semitruck right into them.

Two weeks ago, when I came to the floor to speak about this, I asked how many more people would have to die before we get serious about deporting illegal immigrants, and I am absolutely devastated that we now have one more name since I spoke here 2 weeks ago to add to that count. Tragically, just last week, another Hoosier was killed on an Indiana highway by an illegal immigrant truckdriver in a horrific accident. Terry Schultz was a 64-year-old man who was killed by an illegal immigrant from India when the illegal truckdriver reportedly ran a red light. Although the truckdriver is now in ICE custody, nothing can bring back Terry Schultz.

I am tired of coming to this floor and sharing the news about people being killed on Indiana roads because of illegal immigrants. This is the eighth Hoosier killed by an illegal immigrant on an Indiana road in just the last 6 months, that I know of, and the seventh because of illegal immigrant truckdrivers, specifically.

This is a national crisis, and I am sick of it. We need real accountability and a major overhaul of the system. Too much blood has already been stained on Indiana's roads. Things need to change, and they need to change now.

Last night, President Trump delivered an incredible State of the Union Address. One of the President's guests was a little girl named Delilah Coleman. When Delilah was just 5 years old, she suffered life- changing injuries caused by an illegal immigrant driving a semitruck in California, and it was the Democrat State of California that gave the illegal immigrant his commercial driver's license.

She is one of way too many people who have been hurt or killed by illegal immigrant truckers on our roads. Eight Hoosiers have been seriously injured--again, that is just what I know of--on Indiana roads by illegal immigrant drivers in the past 6 months. And that is just the eight that we know of.

Thank God Delilah, whom we saw last night up in the Gallery, is recovering well. In honor of Delilah, President Trump called on Congress to pass the Delilah Law, which would bar any State in the country from granting an illegal immigrant a commercial driver's license.

Many illegal immigrants cannot speak English or read the basic road signs. They have no business being on our roads, especially not behind the wheel of a semitruck.

Well, today, I am answering President Trump's call, and today, I am introducing the Delilah Law in the U.S. Senate. The Delilah Law not only bars States from giving CDLs to illegal immigrants, but it also revokes all trucking licenses that are currently issued to illegals and mandates that the CDL knowledge and skills tests are only given in English. This is common sense.

This will be a commonsense law, and I hope that we will get a chance to vote on it in the Senate very soon.

Another way that we can make our roads safer is by aggressively going after chameleon carriers that are employing illegal drivers. As I said 2 weeks ago, when I spoke on the floor about this, chameleon carriers are trucking companies that, after being shut down or heavily fined, just disguise themselves by changing their name or address or Department of Transportation number to continue operating.

It turns out that the trucking company that employed the illegal immigrant who killed those four people earlier this month in Jay County--they were four Amish men--was a company called AJ Partners. And they have been put out of service after it was investigated by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and deemed a chameleon carrier. Since then, Secretary Sean Duffy and the Department of Transportation have shut down two other shady carriers connected to AJ Partners, as well as the sham school that helped the illegal immigrant get his CDL in the first place.

Last year, the Department of Transportation closed 7,500 sham commercial driver schools, known as CDL mills. The Department of Transportation has also placed 14,000 drivers out of service for English language proficiency violations. And I want to thank Secretary Duffy right here, right now, for his leadership. The Department of Transportation is cracking down, and what they are doing is making our roads safer because of it.

The carrier reportedly involved in the accident that killed Terry Schultz just last week was incorporated from an address in Greenwood, IN. That is the principal place of business for six other carriers. Six carriers at one address.

Earlier this week, I sent a letter to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and urged them to investigate carriers operating out of Greenwood and elsewhere in my home State. We need to know about chameleon carriers that are operating in Indiana and shut them down, and that is why, last week, my office announced the creation of the Truck Safety Tip Line. The tip line is for those who work in the trucking industry to report concerns about companies that are operating illegally, hiring drivers who can't read or speak English, and hiring drivers who are illegally in the country and without the proper licenses and documents. The tip line gives truckers and people working in the trucking industry a way to speak up when they see carriers that are breaking the law and putting lives at risk on the road.

Any reports that are submitted to the Truck Safety Tip Line will be reviewed and shared with the U.S. Department of Transportation and its Office of Inspector General to help protect roadway safety and ensure a fair and lawful trucking industry. But the job of keeping our roads safe depends on more than just government. We need everyone--but especially truckers--to help us out.

Look, Indiana sits at the crossroads of America. It is a proud slogan for our State. And as I said before, Indiana is the fifth busiest State in the country for commercial freight traffic. Each year, 724 million tons of freight travel through Indiana. The truckers who operate in Indiana and throughout the country keep our economy going and going strong. They help us get the food we eat and the clothes that we wear.

Over 90 percent of truckers in America voted in the 2024 election. They are patriotic and good people who love this country and care about what is going on in America. Law-abiding truckers care about law and order, and they are outraged by what is happening on our roads. They are tired of unsafe drivers and companies who hire illegal immigrants because they can pay them less and take good jobs away from hard- working Americans. Hard-working American truckers are tired of being turned away from jobs because carriers hire cheap foreign labor instead, and it shouldn't be this way.

So if you are a trucker and you have concerns about illegal trucking companies and practices, we want to hear from you. In fact, we need to hear from you. That is why I am encouraging truckers who are on the road or those who are in the business to visit our website, banks.senate.gov, where you can find the Truck Safety Tip Line in the top corner.

We can't wait any longer. We have to do everything that we can to deport illegal immigrants from this country and get them off of our roads. We cannot allow illegal immigrants to terrorize our roads and kill more innocent lives like we have seen happen over and over again. I can't tell you how many people I have heard from who have texted me recently and said that they are afraid to take their families on the road in their vehicle and drive on the highways because this keeps happening over and over again. It is a national crisis.

While Democrats continue to moan on and on about ICE, shutting down the Department of Homeland Security because of it, I will work to keep the people of Indiana safe from illegal immigrants, especially illegal immigrants who are behind the wheel of semitrucks.

The time to act is now. President Trump called on us to do something about this national crisis now. I hope that truckers will use the tip line to help keep our roads safe, and I hope that we will get to vote on the Delilah Law soon. It is long past time to do something about it.

Mr. President, last week, I started my 46th executive year of holding meetings in each of Iowa's 99 counties. During the Q&A's in 13 southwest Iowa counties, we discussed the need to lower prescription drug costs by reining in pharmacy benefit managers, PBMs for short. We also spoke about the Working Families Tax Cut Act, which puts more money back into Iowans' pockets. For the average Iowa household, that is $2,063 of your hard-earned money back to you. I look forward to hearing directly from more Iowans throughout the year as I continue with all the meetings in each of our 99 counties.

On February the 3rd, President Trump signed into law the fiscal year 2026 funding package that included a very important priority of mine, legislation called Accelerating Kids' Access to Care Act. This law is meant to simplify the process so that kids with complex medical needs can get the specialized healthcare that they need in a timely manner.

I would like to spend a few minutes explaining the importance of this new law and how we got to this point. Kids with complex medical needs often face redtape, face delays, and face frustrations when getting their specialized medical care.

The Federal Government defines kids with complex medical needs as having a life-limiting illness, a rare pediatric disease, or one or more chronic conditions that impact multiple organ systems and reduce cognitive or physical abilities.

This can be kids with cancer, cystic fibrosis, or congenital heart disease. These kids, on average, see 5 to 6 specialists and up to as many as 20 or 30 allied health professionals. You can see, managing these types of medical needs takes patience and help because parents are often overwhelmed at the scope of that care and overwhelmed how to navigate the system to get that care for their special needs kids.

The specialized medical care for kids with complex medical needs tends to come from only a few providers, and here is the rub: often out of State at a pediatric hospital.

This requires coordination with instate and out-of-State providers and State Medicaid officials to allow this care to happen. The process to get care is difficult and full of redtape, delaying care that these kids desperately need and, in some cases, not receiving care at all.

To solve this problem, in 2018, I introduced the Accelerating Kids' Access to Care bill. Our aim was simplification of this redtape process. This law will give States the ability to use a streamlined screening and enrolling process for out-of-State specialized pediatric care providers that need to enroll in the State's Medicaid Program. We do this while also retaining safeguards to protect program integrity.

When I first started on this law in 2018 during the 115th Congress, we had eight bipartisan sponsors. In this, the 119th Congress, it garnered 46 bipartisan sponsors and became one of the most cosponsored Medicaid bills before the Finance Committee.

Over the past few years, we built support from well over 200 organizations dedicated to pediatric care. I also worked with my colleagues, including those on the Finance Committee, and I want to give a special shout-out to Chairman Crapo of the Finance Committee for his partnership in getting this law passed.

The passage of the Accelerating Kids' Access to Care Act is a win for kids with complex medical needs and also very helpful to the families that care about their children.

It is a win for kids like Charlie, a brain tumor survivor who also spoke before the Finance Committee in 2023 about the importance of this legislation.

It is a win for kids like 3-year-old Edwens from Perry, IA, whose family travels out of State so he can receive pediatric gene therapy at the M Health Fairview Hospital in Minnesota. Only a few medical centers provide this kind of care in the country for Edwens' rare disease. There are many other kids whose lives will improve because of this law.

Another person I can think of when I talk about this law is the late Katie Beckett. Katie was from Cedar Rapids, IA. She was born in 1978, and at 5 months, she contracted a brain infection that required a ventilator to breathe.

After many years in the hospital, Katie was unable to leave because Medicaid rules didn't allow her to receive care outside of the hospital, even though it was possible for her to get care at home being with family and, of course, having this treatment at home be very cost effective to the taxpayer. In the early 1980s, President Reagan heard about Katie Beckett's story, and he removed redtape for Katie through a Medicaid waiver.

I had a colleague from Iowa in the House of Representatives at that time, Congressman Tom Tauke of Iowa, who was the main mover to get the President to grant this waiver, and I will never forget Tom Tauke's hard work in this area.

Since then, Katie Beckett waivers have resulted in more than a half a million disabled kids being able to receive care at homes with their families rather than being forced into hospitals and institutions.

This law also established the Family-to-Family Health Information Centers. Today, these centers in each State are helping families and their kids navigate the complex system of services and support. This is the kind of empowerment Washington ought to promote--public policy that illuminates opportunities instead of keeping people in the dark.

In my time in the Senate, we have seen medical advancements for kids with complex medical needs, and Congress has responded by giving these kids and their families the proper medical resources. One of these resources was the Family Opportunity law that

President Bush signed 20 years ago this very month. That law did several things. This, by the way, was a cooperation between this Senator from Iowa and then-Senator Kennedy of Massachusetts.

First, the legislation, the Family Opportunity Act, enabled middle- income families who have kids with disabilities to buy into Medicaid. It has helped families get the healthcare they need for their kids with disabilities without going into poverty. It was a pro-work, pro-family, and pro-taxpayer piece of legislation.

More recently in 2019, Congress passed my Advancing Care for Exceptional Kids law, or a law that goes by the short term of ACE Kids. ACE Kids better aligns Medicaid rules and payment to incentivize coordination of care. It does this by establishing a pediatric health home for kids with complex medical conditions.

Kids with complex medical conditions often see multiple doctors and dozens of healthcare professionals. You can see, that is a lot of care coordination that often doesn't happen, or it is left to the parents to figure out. ACE Kids fixes this and ensures care coordination happening.

While I am sure more work will need to be done, I want to recognize the hard work that went into the passage of the Accelerating Kids' Access to Care law and the importance of it--its bipartisanship, its backing by a couple hundred organizations that advocate for kids with special needs. Yet it is another step towards supporting the dignity of exceptional kids.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the We Can't Wait Act, a bipartisan bill with my colleague from New Hampshire Senator Hassan. This legislation addresses a pressing and unnecessary hardship in our Social Security Disability Insurance Program. This program, known as SSDI, provides eligible individuals with benefits if they become disabled and are unable to work. Our bill would give eligible individuals with disabilities the option of bypassing the current 5-month waiting period and allow them to access the benefits that they have earned without further delay.

As my colleagues are aware, SSDI benefits are available only to those who have worked long enough and contributed sufficiently through payroll taxes to the Social Security Disability Insurance Trust Fund.

When an individual becomes disabled and meets the program's strict eligibility standards, he or she should be able to rely on the benefits that they paid for, benefits intended to provide critical support during a time of great need.

Imagine that you have worked for many years and you find that you have contracted a disease that is fatal and that you have very little time to live. Surely, you should be able to tap into what essentially is an insurance fund set up for people in exactly that situation. But because of the 5-month waiting period, there are individuals who receive no payments at all.

During those 5 months, no payments are made, even though the disability has been confirmed by the Social Security Administration. This delay prevents individuals from accessing the insurance they have earned, at a critical and difficult time in their lives.

Lack of benefits can make it more difficult to obtain timely medical treatments, cover basic living expenses, and, in some cases where it is not a terminal condition, begin the process of rehabilitation toward an eventual return to work, if possible.

The burden of this delay can be heartbreaking. I have heard from constituents whose loved ones could get no help from SSDI when they were overtaken by a sudden and terminal diagnosis. Faced with a terrible disease that demanded every ounce of their energy and their total focus, they were forced instead to worry over their finances at the very end of their lives.

This just isn't right. The broader disability determination process already imposes significant hardships. A 2020 Government Accountability Office report documented what can be severe consequences of the long wait times for applicants who appealed initial denials for a Social Security disability.

Between fiscal years 2014 and 2019, approximately 48,000 individuals were forced to file for bankruptcy while awaiting a final decision on their appeals. From 2008 through 2019, an estimated nearly 110,000 people died before receiving a final decision.

These heartbreaking outcomes occur even before many applicants reach the point of approval. Yet even once they are approved, the additional 5-month exclusion period compounds the suffering for those who have already proven their eligibility.

Congress has already acted to address this delay in certain circumstances. In 2020, we passed the ALS Disability Insurance Access Act. It eliminated the

5-month waiting period for individuals with ALS, a progressive, terminal disease where every month, every day is critical. That bipartisan reform was the right thing to do, and I was proud to cosponsor it.

The We Can't Wait Act builds directly on that precedent. Under our bill, claimants would have a choice. They could either opt to begin receiving benefits immediately after approval, rather than waiting 5 months, in exchange for a modest actuarially sound reduction in their monthly benefit amount, or they could decide to wait the 5 months and receive the full amount.

As the chief actuary of the Social Security Administration explains in a letter released today, this small reduction in benefits maintains the actuarial balance in the trust fund over the 75-year projection period.

Let me emphasize that this bill makes no other changes in the SSDI Program. It does not alter eligibility criteria, the determination process--although that should be speeded up--benefit levels for those who choose not to bypass the wait, or any other core element in the program.

It is a precise reform that honors the contributions hard-working Americans with disabilities have made while removing an arbitrary barrier to the benefits that they have earned and deserve.

While this reform is carefully targeted, its impact would be profound. It would end the tragic reality in which Americans with disabilities suffer and, in some cases, die during an unnecessary 5- month delay after their disability has been officially certified by the Social Security Administration.

This is a key point made in a letter supporting the bill by a broad coalition of organizations committed to the rights, dignity, and well- being of people with disabilities--groups that advocate every day for those who need this relief most.

The letter, which is signed by more than two dozen organizations, goes on to make the point that the 5-month exclusion period is unnecessary and harms disabled Americans who are often financially hanging on by a thread.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have the letter of endorsement from this coalition printed in the Record immediately following my remarks.

The We Can't Wait Act is straightforward, compassionate, and fiscally responsible. It would provide a crucial option to Americans who simply can't wait even 5 months for the benefits they have worked for and desperately need.

I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this commonsense and much needed legislation.

I yield the floor.