A joint resolution providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the Department of Veterans Affairs relating to "Reproductive Health Services".

Mr. President, as we stand here in the comfort of the U.S. Capitol on this beautiful spring day, men and women are in harm's way, serving this country, sacrificing for our defense in the Middle East.

And I emphasize women, as well as men, are bravely and steadfastly sacrificing away from their families, away from their homes, away from the comfort that we take for granted.

Women are the fastest growing demographic in our military. They are performing combat tasks, as well as support. They are serving in every aspect of our U.S. military, and we are the better for it.

We have encouraged more women to join the ranks of our military because of the tremendous talent, energy, patriotism, insight, compassion, and loyalty that they bring to service. And now, we are betraying them. Now, we are constricting the healthcare available to them, purposefully, simply out of ideological bias.

On New Year's Eve, the Trump administration greeted 2026 by quietly, indeed secretively, implementing a near-total abortion ban at the VA. It is a new policy that targets women veterans, many of them survivors of sexual assault or with service-connected disabilities or conditions. Shamefully, they rob those veterans of access to essential healthcare, hundreds of thousands of them, even when their healthcare is at risk or they have been raped.

In the post-Dobbs world, this new policy is dangerous, and it is cruel. It severely jeopardizes women veterans' health and safety. It prioritizes culture wars and political games over our Nation's heroes. It disrespects and endangers more than 462,000 women of reproductive age, and that number is growing because more women are serving. They are enrolled in the VA healthcare system, and they live in States where there are abortion bans or restrictions. So the VA is their only source of healthcare when it comes to abortion.

On behalf of these women, I urge passage today of my Congressional Review Act resolution to overturn this abhorrent new policy, which imposes not only a ban on reproductive rights care but also counseling. It is a gag order imposed on healthcare providers who should be free to advise and guide women in making these life-changing decisions about what to do with their own bodies, and this counseling is necessary for them to make those decisions about what to do with their futures.

And sometimes, they may be advised to have children when they may be doubtful about it. The point is that politicians shouldn't be dictating to our Nation's heroes--our veterans--what kind of futures and decisions about their families they should be making. It should be those women veterans consulting doctors.

A ban with the primary purpose of preventing women veterans to receive abortion care or counseling, even if they are victims of rape or incest, even if their health is at risk, is absolutely disgusting and dangerous. And keep in mind healthcare should include abortion. Abortion is healthcare. Healthcare is a human right, and it is not just care but also counseling. It is simply no way to treat veterans who have raised their right hand and been willing to die for their country and who right now are, in fact, in harm's way, serving their country.

Last month, I joined women veterans to discuss the practical impact of this rule. I want to talk about some of their stories and read some of what they had to say because they bravely shared the practical impacts, and they highlight the human impact of this administration's archaic and perilous policy.

Alex, for example, is an Air Force veteran and a sexual assault survivor. During her second miscarriage, she was not provided with the care she needed, and it nearly cost her her life.

Alex and her husband are terrified to get pregnant again in light of her experience when she nearly bled to death when suffering a miscarriage and care was denied to her. An OB-GYN finally intervened. She was horrified when she learned the severity of her situation, but it potentially compromised her fertility.

In her own words:

Due to complex service-connected health conditions,

pregnancy is very high risk for me. In order to get pregnant

again, I need to know I can trust my doctors. I need the

ability to have difficult, in-depth conversations with them,

that they are with my health and I every step of the way, and

will without hesitation step in to save my life and fertility

if something goes wrong. However, with this new ban, I no

longer have that faith in the VA . . . As a result, my

husband and I may never get to realize our dream anymore.

For all of us, both sides of the aisle, both views--or many different views on abortion--this story ought to be heartbreaking. A couple who wants to have children and needs advice and counseling is denied it because of this policy.

Another veteran I met, Lauren, was denied the lifesaving care she needed when experiencing a miscarriage under the VA's previous abortion ban before the administration stepped in to expand veterans' access to healthcare. She was denied care from a community care provider when having a miscarriage. She was eventually able to get that care elsewhere. She stressed the danger of being denied the lifesaving care at the moment she needed it from the VA.

And in her own words:

Unfortunately, this has been a reality for so many across

the country, but what's happened to me isn't isolated. As a

former combat medic, I hear from so many women veterans with

similar reproductive issues triggered during service, ranging

from a wide array of environmental and occupational factors

to include toxic exposure.

And she said:

I served our country and was promised comprehensive health

care for disabilities I

incurred in service, which includes abortion care. Instead,

radical ideologies have infiltrated our clinics.

Denying victims of rape or incest the essential care they need is an insult, but it is more than an insult. It is an injury to veterans who put their lives on the line to serve our great Nation, which has made a promise to them. It is a promise it makes to men, as well as women, that they will receive the healthcare they need from the VA. It is a promise that a great Nation cannot break.

Today, we have the opportunity to right this heartbreaking wrong. We can overturn this cruel, misguided policy by passing our Congressional Review Act resolution.

And to my Republican colleagues, let me just say: If you believe women veterans ought to be denied healthcare, if you believe we should break our promise to them, if you believe that this cruel, dangerous policy should be sustained, I understand you will vote against this.

But I am hoping that you believe in protecting women veterans who have been raped or whose health is at risk, and the only way you can prove it is by supporting this resolution. Prove it today because these veterans deserve action, not just words or rhetoric or empty promises.

Open your eyes to the horror of this policy as it affects individual women veterans who need this healthcare. Please join us in overturning this absolutely abhorrent policy.

I am grateful to colleagues who have joined me on the floor today.

I yield the floor.

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

Mr. President, in just minutes, we will vote on Calendar No. 338, S.J. Res. 103, which will reverse the indecent, unjust policy that this administration implemented secretively on New Year's Eve.

I ask my colleagues to keep in their minds and thoughts and hearts the women veterans who have devoted so much to this country and who continue to serve and sacrifice as we speak.

I ask them to keep in mind the female service officer who was raped before transitioning out of the military service and who learned she was pregnant after enrolling in the VA's healthcare system. She is no longer covered by the VA to have an abortion. If she were still on Active Duty, the Department of Defense would pay for or perform the abortion. If she worked for the VA, her Federal employee healthcare insurance would pay for the abortion. If she were someone serving in a Federal prison, her abortion would be covered. But because she is an enrollee in the VA's healthcare system after bravely serving this country, she is not even covered for an abortion resulting from rape or if her health is at risk.

That is not right. That is not just. That is not worthy of a great country. It is not matching her service with our staying faithful to her.

So for all these reasons, advocates of women's healthcare, advocates of veterans, and people who simply support healthcare as a human right support this resolution to do the right thing.

Madam President, I so appreciate our colleague from West Virginia and his commitment to our Nation's veterans and today, on Medal of Honor Day, that he was taking the time to recognize them. We are grateful for that and grateful for their service and their sacrifice, and know that we are able to continue the work we do for our great Nation because of the service that they have rendered to our Nation.

Department of Homeland Security

Madam President, on Monday, I had the honor of joining President Trump in Memphis. This was his first visit to our great State after launching the Memphis Safe Task Force, last year.

And we were so thrilled with this. The task force has been working in Memphis for the last 6 months. And as we put that task force into place, what we saw is a city that has really transformed for the better.

Now, the reason the task force came to be is because Memphis, TN, in 2024 had the highest per capita crime rate of any city in this country. There were over 100 gangs that were there, vehicle thefts, carjackings, cargo theft. The list went on and on--aggravated assault, violent crime, murder.

What we saw was a rising crime rate, and regardless of how much energy local law enforcement put into this, apprehending criminals, there was a Soros-backed DA. It was a revolving door, and nothing seemed to get better.

Well, as Kash Patel and AG Bondi came before me before their Judiciary Committee hearings, I presented each of them with a crime stat sheet. These were the crime stats of Memphis.

I asked for their help. They committed for their help. At their hearings, they publicly committed for that help. And last summer, we started Operation Viper, and then, what we saw was a success. And because of that Operation Viper success with the FBI working with local police, then, last September, we started the Memphis Safe Task Force.

It is local, State, and Federal elected officials working with local, State, and Federal agencies, all working together: the mayor of Memphis; Chief Davis, the chief of police; our National Guard; Tennessee Highway Patrol; Tennessee Bureau of Investigations; 30 Federal

Agencies; our U.S. marshal; our U.S. attorney. And, yes, a difference is being made.

Residents had talked a lot about Memphis in 2024. They honestly could not walk outside their houses. Kids could not play outside. They were concerned about being robbed, assaulted, murdered, and seeing criminal gangs turn their community into a war zone.

Now, the fact that we have had such success in Memphis in dropping that crime rate by nearly 50 percent--50 percent--we are the example, the model, of how you can get in behind this and change what is happening with crime.

Some of the stats are that we have seen a 40-percent drop in sexual assault in Memphis, a 56-percent drop in robbery, a 68-percent drop in motor vehicle theft, a 36-percent drop in murder.

That is what happens when your mayor, your police chief, and your agencies are working in partnership getting criminals off the streets.

Now, since September, these combined agencies have made over 9,000 arrests, and more than 3,300 of those were for violent criminals, violent offenders.

Among them are hundreds of warrant arrests for domestic violence, aggravated assault, weapons crimes, as well as dozens more for sexual assault and homicide. These criminals are among the worst of the worst.

In late February, in 1 day, the authorities arrested a 26-year-old woman wanted for killing a 2-year-old baby. You know, that is pretty hard to hear. The Presiding Officer and I are grandmamas. We love these little ones. Hard to fathom somebody would kill a 2-year-old. This is the type criminal they have taken off the streets. They also arrested a 23-year-old man facing charges of first-degree murder, aggravated robbery, aggravated assault, and reckless endangerment with a deadly weapon and a 24-year-old man wanted for drug distribution and possession of prohibited firearms.

Members of the task force are working every single day to apprehend these individuals, and while they are apprehending them, they have recovered more than 2,200 illegal firearms, 1,200 stolen vehicles, and--get this--they have rescued more than 150 missing children.

You know, in the Biden administration, they lost track of about 500 children. Everyone said: Well, where are these children? What could have happened?

Because of the good work of these Federal, State, and local agencies and law enforcement, yes, indeed, 150 missing children.

This operation has been so successful in Memphis. It really ought not to surprise anyone in this Chamber. Sixty-two percent of Memphis citizens say the initiative has been effective at reducing crime, and 86 percent support hiring more police officers.

Imagine that. Everybody working together regardless of your political party, regardless of whether you are State, local, Federal. You have 86 percent of the population of the city saying: Let's do more of this.

Seventy-seven percent say: Let's build a new jail so we can keep these criminals off the street.

I am incredibly optimistic about the future of Memphis.

I am so grateful to President Trump, Director Patel, AG Bondi, and Secretary Hegseth, along with all the other Federal Agencies, for their commitment.

Department of Homeland Security

Madam President, you know, as we have heard on the floor today, it is the 40th day of the Democrats' shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security.

This is already one of the longest shutdowns in our Nation's history, and what we know is that our DHS employees have gone 46 percent of this fiscal year without a paycheck. This is something that is immoral.

Our colleagues across the aisle have voted not once or twice but seven times not to fund our DHS employees. So I think that it is incredible that they are doing this because they have two goals, and we know these are their goals because they have been on TV talking about this. They have talked to their base about these goals.

Goal No. 1, abolish ICE. They are all about it. They want to abolish

Go ahead.

Mr. President, I thank my colleague from Hawaii both for her eloquent statements and for her willingness to let me go ahead of her. I appreciate that, but she was here first.

I come to the floor today to join my colleagues Senator Blumenthal, Senator Hirono, and so many others in this caucus because after years of relentless attacks on reproductive freedoms nationwide, what we are seeing from our colleagues here in Congress and the Trump administration is that they have now set their sights on our Nation's veterans, those who have dedicated their lives in service to our country.

The Trump administration's new policy that we are voting to overturn today isn't just extreme; it is flat-out dangerous. Republicans and Democrats alike have committed to doing everything we can to uphold the basic promises we have made to our Nation's veterans. So we have to ask: Why is this administration bending over backward to further erode the freedoms our veterans risk their lives to protect by ripping away the basic, essential healthcare that women need?

After the Dobbs decision, the VA took a basic but critical step to protect the health of veterans and their families by providing them access to healthcare in a very specific set of circumstances--tragic instances like when our veterans have been victims of rape, when they have experienced incest, or when their lives or their health has been directly in danger--because when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and diminished the reproductive freedoms that women have enjoyed for half a century, it was clear that the Federal Government needed to take action to make it easier, not harder, for the hundreds of thousands of young women who have served our country to be able to access basic healthcare when they need it the most--veterans who have often waited until after their military service to start a family and now must question whether it is going to be safe for them to do so, veterans who are now facing the most restrictive abortion ban across the Federal Government.

This policy doesn't just prevent those brave Americans from receiving care under dire and heartbreaking circumstances; it actually prevents them from receiving basic counseling about their health as well. As my colleagues have already pointed out, this ban on abortion counseling means that VA providers can't discuss pregnancy options with their patients.

While the VA claims they will always save a veteran's life, their own internal guidance is so vague that providers will be forced to make impossible decisions. In this case, the lack of planning and specificity will leave it up to the VA to make split-second decisions about an urgent medical need based on very murky guidelines.

At every turn, this administration has pushed forward dangerous policies intended to threaten access to full reproductive care. That is why I am calling on our colleagues across the aisle to show some common sense and to realize that we can't repay those veterans who have already sacrificed so much for their country with a policy that puts their lives in danger, particularly at a time when one in three of our Nation's female veterans has reported experiencing military sexual trauma over the course of their service.

Let me repeat that because I think that is a staggering statistic. One in three of our Nation's female veterans has reported experiencing military sexual trauma during their service.

These brave women deserve better than the carelessness of this administration refusing to give them full access to reproductive health care. We can't sit back and abandon them when they need it the most. We can't sit back and watch as reproductive freedoms slip away because access to necessary, lifesaving reproductive care should not be left to chance or the

split-second decision of a provider. It should be a fundamental right, especially in the United States of America, where we have a Constitution that says that all people are created equal. Now, I know it says ``all men are created equal,'' but I think, since the founding of this country, that has been expanded to the understanding that we are talking about all of the citizens of this country.

With that, I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Madam President, only U.S. citizens should be voting in U.S. elections. That is not a controversial statement; that is common sense. And Republicans believe in that statement. We believe we need to protect voting in our elections. But I think our colleagues on the other side of the aisle want to make those elections less secure. This is against the will of most Americans and against the will of their own voters.

The SAVE America Act is simple: It requires proof of citizenship to register to vote and requires a photo ID when you go to cast a ballot. Common sense. It has overwhelming public support, but Democrats stand in opposition.

The polling numbers are clear. A recent CBS News poll shows that 80 percent of Americans support requiring a photo ID to vote, and that includes 65 percent of Democrats. A Pew Research Center poll finds that 83 percent of voters support photo ID at the polls, and that includes 71 percent of Democrats. Sixty-six percent of Americans support requiring documents showing proof of citizenship in order to register to vote.

Proof of citizenship is required when you apply for government benefits. It is required when you join the military. Every single job in this country requires new hires to fill out a form I-9 proving they are eligible to work here. Americans show photo ID to drive a car, to pick up their kids early from school, to check into a hotel, to purchase cold medicine at the pharmacy, to board a plane, and to get a library card. If we expect this of Americans in these instances, why on Earth shouldn't we expect it when they vote?

We have applied this program in my home State of Nebraska. In 2023, Nebraska adopted a law through the voter-driven initiative process requiring voters to provide an ID with their name and photo when they vote. There are a lot of acceptable forms of ID in Nebraska: a driver's license, a State ID card, a U.S. passport, a military ID, a Tribal ID. My State of Nebraska found a sensible way to verify voters' identity without restricting access for eligible voters. In fact, Nebraskans can get an ID and a certified copy of their birth certificate at no cost if they don't have one.

Here in Washington, Democrats have spent the past few weeks waffling on this issue. In fact, Senator Schumer recently announced that Democrats do support voter ID. You know, that is great. Vote for it.

My colleague Senator Husted, a former chief election official in his home State of Ohio, decided to take Senator Schumer at his word.

He offered a clean, basic photo ID bill, just a simple requirement to show voter ID at the polls: a driver's license, a military ID, a Tribal ID, or a passport.

Well, guess what happened? The Democrats blocked it. They are completely unserious on this issue. They are out of step with the majority of Americans. The stakes couldn't be higher. America's election integrity is on the line. The SAVE America Act is a commonsense solution, proof of citizenship to register and photo ID to vote.

Every Democrat will be put on the record, and the American people will be watching. I urge my colleagues to support the SAVE America Act.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I would be happy to yield to my colleague from New Hampshire Mrs. Shaheen if she would like to go before me.

Mr. President, for 125 years, women have bravely served in our Armed Forces, risking their lives to defend our country and to protect our national security.

Today, more than 2 million--2 million--women veterans live in the United States--women Trump has ignored. Basically, he has turned his back on them by denying them access to abortion care and counseling.

Abortion care is critical care, often lifesaving healthcare, as noted by my colleague just now. That is why, after the Supreme Court's disastrous Dobbs decision, the VA responded by enabling women veterans to access abortion counseling and care.

But last December, the VA, under different leadership and thinking they could get away with it, quietly implemented a near-total abortion ban at the VA even in cases of rape, incest, or when a pregnancy endangers the veteran's life. It is not an exaggeration to call this change in VA policy yet another front in Trump's war on women.

Over 450,000 of the women veterans of reproductive age who receive VA care live in States with abortion bans or restrictions. Because of Trump's extreme policy, these women are now out of options and with nowhere to turn, in reality, for abortion care. These are veterans, as I mentioned, who bravely risk their lives for our country, who have the expectation that their country will take care of them when they return to civilian life--not so under this regime. Instead, the Agency tasked with ensuring the health of our veterans is willfully risking their health and lives all because of its ideological agenda.

We owe it to our women veterans and all veterans to provide them with the healthcare they need and earn, not to mention deserve. That is why Senate Democrats have introduced legislation to overturn this life- threatening policy at the VA and restore access to the care our veterans deserve.

Tonight, every Senator will go on the record to make clear whether they care more about the well-being of our veterans or the political cruelty of Donald Trump. As the regime attempts to score cheap political points and place the lives of thousands of women at risk, I urge my colleagues to join in restoring access to essential healthcare for these veterans.

I want to add to the examples provided by my colleague Senator Blumenthal. Our women veterans, in their service to our country, are exposed to toxic fumes and other environmental and surface conditions that require comprehensive healthcare. As I mentioned, they are exposed to conditions that maybe in the normal course, other women who are not in our services are exposed to. So our women veterans require comprehensive healthcare, and that is what we are asking for. Of course, that care includes abortion care.

I yield the floor.