A joint resolution providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services relating to "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; Marketplace Integrity and Affordability".

Mr. President, it has been my good fortune and honor to serve in this Chamber for many years and to represent my home State of Illinois. I can reflect for a moment about the changes in the Senate Chamber in the time that I have been here. I am afraid it would take me too long to express my thoughts on that at the expense of the regular business of this Chamber. But we have reached a point where there are few and far between moments where we come together and agree on something the American people think is important.

A year ago, I was chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee--for 4 years. We considered many judicial nominees and many pieces of legislation in that committee. We were evenly divided or closely divided during the entire period of time. I think we achieved quite a few things despite those divisions.

We approved more judicial nominees for Federal judgeships in that 4- year period of time than any 4-year period in the history of the U.S. Senate. It took 80 percent of the votes to be bipartisan for that to happen. So I tried as chairman to always find something we just might agree on, Democrats and Republicans would agree. The issue which I am going to address very briefly this morning is one of those issues.

There was a time when the Senate Judiciary Committee was so equally and evenly divided that people thought we would accomplish nothing, but

there came an issue where there was a consensus among Democrats and Republicans, and it is one that every parent and grandparent--I think every individual--will understand.

Have you seen your kids or grandkids lately? Have you noticed what they are doing? They are looking at this virtually all day long if you let them.

It is a concern for many conscientious parents that what is being broadcast on those cell phones could be life-altering and -changing for young people, and that is one of the issues I will address this morning.

You see, during the period of time when I chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee, we considered the negative impact that these cell phones and laptops have on children. It is frightening.

Parents came and testified before us that their kids--normal, happy, productive, good students--in a short period of time were captivated by laptops and cell phones into changes in attitude, changes in conduct. Sadly, some of the children took their own lives because of their exposure to what happened on these devices. It is heartbreaking.

I recall one in particular: a young, African-American, high school student--a track star at his school--who got swept into some sort of broadcast on social media and in the span of 19 hours became so despondent and excited and emotional, he harmed himself and took his own life. The parents couldn't understand it. They didn't see it coming. And when they reflected on what was being done, it was an outrage.

There is another thing going on which everyone should be aware of, and if you look closely on television, you might just spot warnings. It is this whole issue of deepfakes, AI, taking what looks to be real and broadcasting it as reality when, in fact, it is not.

Last Congress, we considered a measure which I introduced and would like to ask for passage today. There will be a unanimous consent request made at the end of my statement. If that unanimous consent request passes, and I hope it does with bipartisan support, it will go to the House of Representatives for their consideration. It will be miraculous. We just might pass a bill. We just might create a law. Stay tuned.

Let me tell you what it is all about. I rise today to ask the Senate to pass the DEFIANCE Act--bipartisan legislation that gives victims of nonconsensual, sexually explicit deepfakes the tools to fight back against those who would exploit them.

I want to thank the Senate sponsors of this legislation, including my Republican colleague Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina. I told you it was bipartisan; it is.

I have been proud to partner with a person I don't know well on a personal basis, but I certainly have seen her work. Her name is Representative Ocasio-Cortez. She represents the city of New York. She introduced legislation in the House with seven Republicans and six Democratic cosponsors. So her measure was bipartisan as it passed the House of Representatives.

Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez herself is a publicly confessed and admitted victim of explicit deepfakes. I commend her for working to create tools for victims in the fight against this despicable crime. She has been an innocent victim, and she has spoken out to spare others what she has been through.

In 2025, the TAKE IT DOWN Act was signed into law. This bipartisan legislation makes it a Federal crime to knowingly publish or threaten to publish nonconsensual intimate images on social media. The DEFIANCE Act, which provides victims with a civil remedy--a remedy in court-- builds on the progress of the TAKE IT DOWN Act.

The vast majority of American people support prohibiting nonconsensual, sexually explicit, deepfake images, with one survey finding that 85 percent of Republicans and Democrats support this measure. That is why I am hopeful it will pass today and be considered favorably by the House, and that is why, last Congress, the Senate unanimously passed this measure. We didn't get it done then, and we are returning to it now.

The Senate should pass this bill again, and the House should take it up quickly as the problem of nonconsensual, sexually explicit, deepfake images continues to spread. With the push of a button, generative AI can swap someone's face onto another person's body, remove that person's clothing so they appear nude, or undress someone to show them in lingerie or other exposed positions.

Recent reporting details how users of X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, can ask its AI chatbot Grok to undress women and underage girls in photos. Grok will comply with requests to show subjects in various states of undress with images which I won't repeat for the record, but they are horrible.

Even after these reports, X still has not prevented Grok from creating these exploitative images. Let me make sure you understand what I just said. Even after these terrible, deepfake, harming images are pointed out to Grok and to X, formerly Twitter, they do not respond. They don't take the images off the internet. They don't come to the rescue of people who are victims. That is why this legislation is critical, because this legislation says that if they are guilty of such reckless misconduct, they can be sued for it and held civilly liable for the damages.

Imagine losing control of your own likeness and identity. Imagine that happening to you when you are in high school. Imagine how powerless victims feel when they cannot remove illicit conduct, cannot prevent it from being reproduced repeatedly, and cannot prevent new images from being created. The consequences can be profound.

Victims may endure threats to their employment, education, or reputation or suffer additional criminal activity, such as extortion and stalking. Many experience depression, anxiety, and fear of being in public, and in the worst cases, victims have been driven to suicide.

Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez described her own reaction being depicted this way without her consent. She said:

There's a shock to seeing images of yourself that someone

could think are real.

While prominent women are often the target for nonconsensual, sexual deepfakes, sadly, the victims can be virtually anyone.

There are distressing reports of high school students struggling to respond to this crisis. In March 2024, at least 22 students at a high school in McHenry County, in my home State of Illinois, learned they were depicted in deepfakes circulating online. One was a doctored version of two female students taken at the school prom. I will not describe in detail what that deepfake did, but it had to be crushing for these young women and their families.

Sadly, we are seeing an explosion of these images. One researcher found that the number of nonconsensual pornographic deepfake videos available online has increased 900 percent--900 percent--since 2019. Such videos have been viewed almost 4 billion times--4 billion. According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the number of AI-generated child sexual abuse images increased from 5,000 in 2023 to over 485,000 in the first 6 months of 2025.

Tragically, currently, victims have no civil legal remedy to pursue justice. The DEFIANCE Act changes that and gives victims their day in court. The bill would permit victims to bring civil cases against those who produce, disclose, solicit, or possess with intent to disclose sexually explicit deepfakes, while knowingly or recklessly disregarding that the person depicted did not consent to the content.

I am proud to have collaborated with survivor advocates on this bill. Their lived experience and leadership have shaped this legislation. Congress needs to act. It is past time to give victims of nonconsensual, sexually explicit deepfakes the tools they need to fight back.

I am going to make a unanimous consent request on this bipartisan legislation. Senator Graham could not join me on the floor today, but he is a cosponsor and supporter of this bipartisan bill.

I make the following unanimous consent: Notwithstanding rule XXII, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on the Judiciary be discharged from further consideration of S. 1837 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. President, it feels good. It feels good to see the Senate actually passing legislation. It is rare. It doesn't happen a lot. With a measure of this importance, it is critically important that we come together, both political parties.

I want to thank Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez for her leadership on this issue and her bravery on this issue throughout this debate.

Now, let's pass this in the House and make it the law of the land. Give to the victims their day in court to hold those responsible and continue to publish these images at their expense.

The Senate voted to unanimously pass this important legislation. The victims of this horrible crime deserve their day in court and, today, we are one step closer to making that a reality.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to complete my remarks prior to the scheduled recess.

Mr. President, for months, I have been raising the alarm over radical Islam infiltrating the greatest country on the face of the Earth, the United States of America.

Some Americans see what is happening in Europe, and they think, would that ever happen in our country? The reality is, yes. It is happening right now, right before our very eyes. The enemy is now inside the gates.

There are plenty of Muslims that come here, love this country, assimilate into American culture, and they have a duty to join in the fight and speak out against the mainstream media and elected officials who are empowering radical Islam to take a foothold in the United States of America.

Governor Kathy Hochul of New York welcomed in the new year by declaring January as Muslim American Heritage Month. To red-blooded American patriots' dismay, Hochul directed State landmarks, including the iconic skyline of New York City, to be lit in the color Islamic green.

What makes the situation even worse is that One World Trade Center was also lit up in Islamic green, as you see here--the exact location where Islamic terrorists flew planes into the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001, killing thousands of innocent Americans. You know, this was a slap in the face of the families of the nearly 3,000 victims who were murdered and the thousands injured on that very, very tragic day.

I never thought I would see something like this in my lifetime. But for years, the radical left, the globalists, and the deep state have colluded to destroy this country and have found a way to flood our communities with third-world Muslims whose only goal is not to assimilate but to destroy the West and create a worldwide caliphate. If you don't understand what that looks like, just take a look at Europe.

Under Barack Obama and Joe Biden, our Federal Government imported millions of foreigners who hate America, enabling them to live on welfare and forcing American taxpayers to pay the bills.

New York City's recent mayoral election reveals how easily a Muslim communist can come to power in our Nation's most iconic city. You know, foreign-born, communist mayor Zohran Mamdani polled 62 percent of support from foreign-born voters in New York. They weren't born in the State of New York. They weren't born in our country. Sixty-two percent of them supported him. Only 30 percent of American-born voters voted for him.

Under Joe Biden, millions of illegal aliens, including terrorists, murders, and rapists, were planted there to completely destroy the freedom-loving voter base, all on purpose. As a result, a foreign-born, Muslim communist who hates the greatest Nation on Earth and wants to change it is now in power.

During his inaugural ceremony, commie Mamdani used two Qurans for his swearing-in ceremony, not the Bible. He used a book that advocates for the killing of all who don't believe in Islam or refuse to follow Islamic teachings. He was also sworn in at an abandoned subway--a subway station symbolizing what New York City will soon look like when freedom-loving Americans flee for their lives and Sharia law becomes the rule of law in the five boroughs in New York City.

New York City, the symbol of liberty and freedom in the new world, is now turning into the same oppressive hellhole freedom-loving immigrants have fled from for centuries. They have been running from it. But now we are changing into that same situation.

The deep state hasn't wasted any time in 2026 to accelerate its globalist agenda to destroy this country. And if we don't do something to stop this Islamic takeover of our country, we will soon be called the United Caliphate of America. That means Christians, Jews, and anyone else who doesn't convert to Islam will be prosecuted and persecuted. It will be acceptable for young girls and women to be raped, and Islamic terrorism and violence will become the norm.

Thankfully, President Trump and his administration are working day and night to save this country through mass deportation, revoking immigrant visas, and implementing travel bans on majority-Muslim countries that support the radical Islam crowds who chant ``Death to America.''

We continue to see more evidence come out of Muslim third world foreigners defrauding American people of their hard-earned tax dollars. Thanks to independent journalist Nick Shirley, more and more fraud from Somali immigrants in Minnesota who are pretending to use the money to feed children or help people with autism is being exposed every day now.

In a recent hearing in the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, testimony from a Minnesota State representative claimed that U.S. attorney Joe Thompson estimates that the total amount of criminal fraud to this point, after 5 years, has reached $9 billion. That is billion with a ``b.''

Minnesota's attorney general said this weekend on CNN in an interview that, you know, the fraud estimation is not a serious thing and that is just political theater.

That is expensive political theater.

A statement like that is not only an insult to many, many Minnesotans, but it is also a slap in the face to the hard-working taxpayers of this country. What is taking place in Minnesota is pure evil, and it is straight from the pit of Hell.

It is impressive to me that a 23-year-old independent journalist did more to serve the American people with investigative reporting than the so-called experts in the legacy media. Where are they?

The fake news is complicit with the radical Islamic takeover of the United States, and they are in on the scam on the American taxpayers.

Thanks to Nick Shirley's efforts, more fraud is being exposed in other States.

FOX News recently reported that Somalia's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, now serving as President of the U.N. Security Council, is linked to an Ohio home healthcare agency that has previously been punished for its ties to massive fraud.

There are other reports surfacing about Somalia's Minister of Foreign Affairs running a healthcare company in Toledo, OH, who has a business partner that works for a Somali money transfer service which has been accused of financing Islamic terrorism.

You can't make this up. It goes on and on. So here is more. For months, a new publication in the State of Maine known as the Maine Wire reported on a similar event taking place in Lewiston, ME, also known today as Little Mogadishu. Gateway Community Services, founded by a Somalian refugee, received $28.8 million in MaineCare payments between 2019 and 2024--$28 million. Last year, a whistleblower came forward alleging that the organization systematically defrauded the

MaineCare Program for the last 5 years. Thanks to the hard work of the Trump administration, funding has stopped, and the organization is under severe investigation.

As more of this comes to light, a couple facts are becoming more and more apparent. No. 1, third world foreigners from predominantly Muslim countries are coming here and stealing American tax dollars while they spew anti-American rhetoric. No. 2, Democratic elected officials seem to be complicit in helping foreigners who hate this country steal from their own constituents, their own people who vote for them.

The enemies of our country are robbing American citizens in broad daylight, while the cost-of-living standards in our country skyrocket higher than they should be, and healthcare premiums go up year after year. That should make every single American's blood boil.

But Democrats have invited terrorists from countries that hate us. They steal our benefits. They enjoy our schools, overrun our hospitals, vote in our elections, and then steal our tax dollars and send them back to the country they came from, where they can fund terrorism.

Thankfully, we have a President who loves this country and is going to change it. President Trump and his administration are working around the clock to halt immigration and to stop fraudulent schemes that were allowed to take place under Joe Biden.

Patriotic Americans are thankful for the work of DHS and ICE and what they are doing to clean up our streets--at a cost. DHS and ICE agents have been targeted by radicals because they are enforcing the law--what a thought. And I will continue to support law enforcement until every single illegal is out of this country and comes here the right way.

If you are going to interfere in law enforcement's ability to do their jobs, folks, in any way, don't be surprised if you are arrested and thrown into jail--and you should be.

Thanks to investigative reporters like Nick Shirley and folks at the Maine Wire, we are slowly turning the tide on fraud and corruption. Deep state and the fake news media and third-world Islamists are eroding our country from within.

We need to wake up. American citizens need to recognize what is going on and say: Enough is enough.

As long as I am alive, I will fight to ensure that my granddaughter Rosie Grace can grow up in the same country that I and a lot of people had the chance to grow up in--the greatest country on the face of the Earth. And what I am telling people across this country and what should have happened in Europe years ago: Folks, wake up. They are here. The enemy is inside the gate. We are in bad trouble. And if we don't stop it, we will lose this country that has been built for 250 years.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I move to proceed to Calendar No. 293, S.J. Res 84.

Mr. President, I rise today because I think it is painfully clear that we need to do something to address the growing healthcare crisis in this country.

Let me be clear at the outset that when we talk about the CRA that the clerk just reported, it is not directly related--it is not the tax credit issue that has been the subject of an enormous amount of other debate and, frankly, action in the House but a CRA that will be voted on later today that will overturn a rule that the Trump administration has put forward that will result in 1.8 million Americans being thrown off their health insurance.

It is beyond the tax credit issue. It is beyond the Medicaid changes. This is a rule that the administration set forward last year that adds enormous amounts of regulatory burden for any American who chooses to access the so-called ObamaCare Marketplace.

The truth is, this administration's attack on the Marketplace, ObamaCare, the Affordable Care Act didn't start with this rule. As we all know in this Chamber, this is just another step in a now close to 15-year crusade by many of my Republican colleagues to undermine the ACA, which, at the end of the day, is just going to--as we have seen already--is going to increase healthcare costs for everybody.

We know that at the end of last year, as the expiration of the ACA enhanced premium tax credits approached, Democrats in Congress worked hard to try to extend them. We put forward a strong, compromised proposal to extend the credits and keep health insurance affordable for the close to 24 million Americans who access their healthcare through the Marketplace.

Unfortunately, time and again, Republicans voted against it, ensuring that when the clock struck midnight on January 1, millions of Americans were priced out of that coverage. Families across the country have now been hit with premium increases of $800, $900, and even over $1,000 per month.

Somebody in my State of Virginia--Kathleen, a mother of two and a small business owner living in Newport News, saw her premium for her family of four increase from 544 bucks a month to over $1,500 a month. That is a yearly increase of about $11,500 a year--a pricetag that her family just can't afford. She told me she came up to the Hill before New Year's hit and that she hoped and prayed for a solution.

Frankly, I wish all of my Republican colleagues who helped block that solution could have explained to her why blocking that solution, which we offered as a straightforward extension of the ACA premium tax credits--why they blocked that, because Kathleen and so many other families desperately needed it.

I will have to say I have to give some rare congratulations to at least 17 Members of the House, Republican Members of the House, which had actually taken action recently to address this crisis. Seventeen House Republicans finally said enough is enough and voted with Democrats in the House to extend the credits, which will again lower the costs for millions.

I hope that we can get a similar type of compromise through in the Senate. I know there are colleagues on both sides of the aisle working hard on that issue right now.

While the credits have taken up most of the space around the debate, what I rise today on--the CRA that will be voted on this afternoon-- will provide an even more immediate solution to at least take away another barrier to healthcare accessibility and affordability.

I am asking my colleagues--and I will be joined by other colleagues to talk about this over the next hour or so--I am asking my colleagues to join me in disapproving a harmful rule that the Trump administration finalized last year that was set to kick in at the end of 2025. As I mentioned, that would take about 1.8 to 2 million people off their healthcare because of the enormous administrative burdens that are put in place by this administrative rule to try to get access to the Marketplace.

This is at least a chance today--not at some future date--to come together to do the bare minimum and address at least a small part of the emergency straining our healthcare system.

Now, I will acknowledge that because this administrative burden is so burdensome, the courts have paused its enactment, but at any moment, that pause could be taken away.

So let's just use the CRA, which has been used by both sides of the aisle repeatedly, to get rid of this additional burden because, simply put, this harmful Trump rule makes it harder to enroll in a Marketplace plan, harder to stay on a Marketplace plan, and harder and more expensive for States to run a Marketplace.

The rule requires increased paperwork for families, reduces open and special enrollment periods, and allows insurers to push more healthcare costs on Americans by allowing plans to cover less care. That also adds a ton more paperwork and burdens on the marketplaces all across the country.

Again, according to the Trump administration's own document, these added barriers and higher premiums will lead to that estimate of at least 1.8 million people losing coverage if this rule--which is, again, scheduled to go into effect but has only not gone into effect in 2026 because of a current pause by the courts.

But I think we ought to avoid this cliff and just act today as a Senate and say: Let's not have this rule take effect.

I think most of us would agree that 2025 was not a great year for healthcare in this country. Medicaid cuts, which are going to be enormous, which, frankly, were not scheduled to kick in until after the 2026 elections, interestingly enough--although I can tell you we have already seen rural healthcare clinics close in Virginia because of that expectation--and my colleagues' refusal to extend the enhanced premium tax credits are all weighing down on our healthcare system, and we are seeing rural hospitals and rural healthcare centers really bear the brunt of this.

The truth is, the Trump administration and congressional Republicans have jammed through healthcare policies that, combined with the rule and the tax premiums--minimum, looks like about 15 million Americans will get kicked off their health insurance.

So let's go back. My Republican colleagues and the President won in 2024 because they said they are going to lower costs. We can actually take action on lowering costs today. So let's join together, use the CRA tool, and end this policy. All you have to do is vote for the Congressional Review Act resolution making sure the number--not my number; the Trump administration's number--the 1.8 million Americans will actually get to keep their healthcare. All you have to do is vote for this CRA resolution so that folks don't have to deal with enormously burdensome paperwork and the higher costs that result.

Now, I think we can get this done. We have seen my Republican colleagues stand up to the President on the Epstein files, on war powers, and just in the last day or so, the attack on

the independence of the Federal Reserve. Let's have that pushback extend now to healthcare costs. Let's help millions keep their healthcare today and then work together toward a long-term, sustainable plan to keep healthcare costs stable for the next decade.

Before I yield the floor, I want to also acknowledge--this is something a lot of us have been working on. Senator Klobuchar does such a great job on so many issues. Senator Wyden, the leader on the Finance Committee--they and others will come today to speak on this issue as well.

I hope my colleagues are listening, and I hope they will actually acknowledge that we have to bring healthcare costs down today. This isn't a full solution, but at least it is an action that we can take today.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I want to thank Senator Warner for his tremendous leadership on this important issue that is just really tormenting so many Americans right now--as well as Senator Wyden.

This involves tens of millions of Americans who are facing a healthcare crisis. Their premiums are doubling or tripling, and it is completely in our hands to do something about it.

Open enrollment is ending in 2 days. Americans across the country are looking at their budgets and facing this difficult choice of whether to pay double or triple for coverage or go uninsured.

Why are tens of millions of Americans facing this reality? Well, because congressional Republicans failed to act, to come to the table to negotiate an extension of the enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits before the end of last year.

Last Thursday, the House passed legislation to extend these healthcare tax credits for 3 years. Seventeen Republicans joined Democrats. You think about it, they could have done that months ago-- months ago. We were willing to negotiate with them 3 years, 2 years, 1 year at the time. They wouldn't do anything. And now they have realized--I guess they didn't understand what was happening to their constituents when 20-some percent of farmers and ranchers are on these kinds of policies and 75 percent of them are in red States.

The legislation that Senator Warner and Senator Wyden proposed is simple and reasonable. We are simply saying: Let's make sure the same tax credits that made care more accessible for tens of millions of Americans yesterday and last year and the year before that continue to be there for families this year. Americans are looking for us to act, and the time to act is now.

I have heard from people across my State in what is a very, very difficult time right now in the State of Minnesota. With the arrival of ICE on our streets, with people terrified, with the chaos that has ensued, we are still hearing from people about healthcare all the time.

Nicci from Waseca wrote to me that the healthcare premium for her and her husband almost tripled from $862 a month to $2,344, which, over the course of the year, is more than her annual salary. She called the increase ``insufferable.''

Nadine from Sartell, a 53-year-old single mom, shared that she has a master's degree in social work but lives nearly paycheck to paycheck now because her housing and utility costs eat up over half of her monthly income, and unless Congress renews the healthcare tax credits, she is not going to be able to purchase healthcare because there are only 2 days left. And here is the kicker: Just 4 months ago, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She has already used up nearly all she has in savings for the copays and coinsurance to get a diagnosis and receive treatment.

Another constituent, a schoolbus driver named David, saw his premiums double. He is now spending 12 percent of his total pretax income on health insurance. David wrote:

It's difficult and frustrating to see life crumble before

your eyes. Just trying to get ahead and just to find setbacks

waiting for you. I would like Congress to actually sit in

real life people's shoes for just a while to see how it

feels. I hope we can get something changed.

That is a busdriver in Minnesota begging our colleagues on the other side of the aisle to stand and sit in his shoes, because if Congress can't fix this, David shared with me that even though he works full time, he will have to give up his health insurance entirely.

The rules that Senator Warner and Senator Wyden and others of us have suggested do away with the caps that limit how much of their income people like David must spend on health insurance, and so as we work to extend the healthcare tax credits, it is critical that we stop the administration from further undermining the Affordable Care Act and raising costs.

And this just isn't happening in my State. As I know, three-quarters of the people who get their health coverage on this ACA Marketplace live in States that President Trump won. We know the stakes, and we must come together to solve this affordability crisis. And I will note that the amount of money given to Argentina was approximately the same amount it would take to fix this for 1 year.

There is a lot more work to be done to lower healthcare costs: Medicare drug price negotiations that I have led for years and making sure that is really happening under this administration, reforming prior authorization, making improvements, public option. We can go on and on and on.

But, right now, we have one crisis that is hitting so many Americans, and we have a way to fix it. So I urge my Republican colleagues to join us to stop Americans' healthcare premiums from skyrocketing, and simply bring to the Senate floor and pass the bipartisan House-passed bill to extend the healthcare tax credits that Americans rely on, and, of course, to vote for S.J. Res. 84, which is in front of us today. And we thank Senator Warner and Senator Wyden for leading the effort.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, before she leaves the floor, I just want to say that the Senator from Minnesota has been relentless in terms of standing up for folks who are just trying to get a fair shake on their premiums. I have been doing this since my days with the Gray Panthers, and I know what it means to be persistent. That defines Senator Klobuchar, and I thank her.

I am pleased to be working with Senator Warner and Senator Ossoff-- and I see Senator Kaine here--because all of us want to make sure we lower healthcare costs for American families.

Today, the Senate is going to vote to repeal a host of damaging policies that Donald Trump, Robert Kennedy, and Dr. Oz have unleashed on Americans who are unsuspecting. People are just trying to get by in tough times and are going to get hammered, and from the day Donald Trump was sworn in, this administration made attacking Americans' healthcare their top priority.

Last summer, Republicans in Congress rammed through a massive bill to give tax breaks to billionaires and giant corporations, while making the largest healthcare cuts in American history.

At the same time, the Trump administration used the Byzantine Federal rulemaking process to double down on these efforts by finalizing the rule that all of us on this side of the aisle are working to repeal today. The harmful changes made by the Trump administration come down to one proposition: It is OK to have more redtape, and it is just fine to increase healthcare costs.

That is the exact opposite of our agenda, which is to focus on affordability and making the American healthcare system simpler.

I am going to just tick through a couple of the worst examples to illustrate why these rules need to be junked.

First, the Trump rules will increase what American families have to pay out of pocket each year by nearly $1,000. So the question becomes: What is the purpose behind that change, other than to take money from Americans who are already struggling?

The rule adds new fees, such as a new reenrollment fee that applies to low-income workers. To be clear, that means, if you want to keep your health insurance, you have got to pay a fee to the government just for the right to keep what you have got. Even by Washington, DC, standards--I say to my friend from Montana--that just defies common sense.

They also create mandatory minimum premiums that are going to cause millions to lose their coverage.

Now, Republicans say that these fees are aimed at reducing fraud. There is just no evidence to back it up. My view has been, ever since my days with the Gray Panthers, and my friend from Virginia knows about this--I say any fraud--any fraud--is too much. But the numbers are clear. The vast majority of fraud in healthcare is conducted by shady insurance brokers who are looking to make a fast buck through commissions from phony enrollments, not working Americans looking to buy healthcare.

So I have introduced legislation to create tough, criminal penalties for these insurance brokers. So make no mistake about it, Senator Kaine, there is something we ought to be doing to root out fraud. Let's go after these insurance brokers with tough criminal penalties.

I have been talking to Republicans to ask them to join as cosponsors, and they haven't been willing, really, to give us the time of day. Instead of going after fraud where it exists, Donald Trump and Republicans create barriers that are going to trip up Americans trying to navigate a healthcare system that is just too complicated.

Beyond fees and higher premiums, the Trump rule also adds new verification checks and enrollment rules that amount to an enormous heap of redtape. These redtape measures, according to authorities who have analyzed them, are going to create 15 million hours of paperwork, and 1.8 million people are going to lose their coverage as they try to navigate this never-never land of a maze of healthcare rules.

These types of changes are right out of the playbook of Big Insurance because they create barriers and bureaucratic hurdles so they can keep more of your money while denying working families basic healthcare.

It is no secret that Americans are fed up with a healthcare system that gets in their way at every turn. It is time for Republicans to do the right thing and join with Democrats to lower Americans' healthcare costs, instead of creating new cost barriers and redtape restrictions. They can help those families by voting with us today.

I urge my colleagues to support Senator Warner, Senator Ossoff, Senator Klobuchar, and Senator Kaine. We are all here for one purpose: less bureaucracy, less redtape, lowering premiums for families.

I yield the floor.