A resolution providing for the authority to initiate litigation for actions by the President and Department of Justice officials inconsistent with their duties under the laws of the United States.

Mr. President, 2 months ago, nearly every single Member of the House and Senate voted to pass a very simple bill with a very simple message: release the Epstein files. The legal deadline to release the files was December 19--nearly 50 days ago--and the American people are still waiting for the truth to come out. The December 19 deadline was not a recommendation; it wasn't a suggestion. Releasing the Epstein files is the law, a law that every single Member of this Chamber--Democrat, Republican, Independent--supported as well as every Member of the House, save one.

So where are we today, 50 days past the deadline?

At best, according to the Department of Justice's own admissions, maybe half of all of the available Epstein files have been released. That means millions of documents which contain the names of coconspirators: financial records, travel logs, letters, emails. The public deserves to see those documents, but the heinous crimes of Jeffrey Epstein and his coconspirators remain shrouded in darkness. These are things the public deserves to see, but they are shrouded in darkness, and whatever materials have been released have often been redacted to an absurd degree. Hundreds of pages have been blotted out to the point that it is just a wall of black ink. That is it--a wall of black ink. Look at this: There are hundreds of pages that look just like this. This is not transparency. This is not what the law requires. This is a mockery of the truth and an insult to the survivors.

What makes this all the more sickening is that, in over 1,000 instances, the Justice Department failed to follow the law and leaked the identities of over 100 victims. But do you know whom the Justice Department did seem to protect? Epstein's coconspirators. Do you know whom else the Justice Department seemed to protect? Donald Trump. What is Pam Bondi trying to hide?

Enough is enough. Today, I come to the floor to seek unanimous agreement of a resolution directing the Senate to sue the Trump administration for violating the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Fifteen of my Democratic colleagues have joined in cosponsoring this resolution, and I thank every single one of them for standing firm.

I urge my Republican colleagues not to stand in the way today. It is the height of absurdity for Republicans to have supported the Epstein Files Transparency Act but to then go ahead and object to enforcing it--what hypocrisy. Objecting today would completely cancel out the whole point of Republicans' supporting the law in the first place.

Finally, the people who have lost the most and who have suffered the most are Jeffrey Epstein's victims. With me, I have a letter from about 20 of the victims, explaining how reckless and dangerous it was for the DOJ to carelessly

release the victims' information while going to great lengths to redact the names of the coconspirators.

So I ask unanimous consent that this letter from Jeffrey Epstein's survivors, detailing the grave harms of the DOJ's careless release of victims' identities, be printed in the Congressional Record.

Enough is enough. Congress spoke with one voice when it passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act. The deadline has long passed, and the Trump Justice Department is still breaking the law. Senate Democrats are exhausting every possible avenue to force the administration to do what it is already legally required to do: release the complete files and deliver transparency and justice, finally, to Epstein's victims. If the administration will not follow the law, which it isn't, the Senate must act. No one, not even the President, is above the law.

The question before Senate Republicans, today, is simple: Will they enforce the law that they helped to pass or object and help keep the Epstein files hidden?

So, as if in legislative session and notwithstanding rule XXII, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. Res. 597; that the resolution be agreed to; that the preamble be agreed to; and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. President, I compliment the minority leader for coming forth and saying what the Senate has agreed to do, which is to force the Epstein files to be released, which must be backed up by the force of law because we know that the administration failed to release half of the paperwork--some 3 million pages. We know that they blocked out whole pages in order to disguise, apparently, the protection of powerful men they don't want drawn into this discussion.

Then they proceeded to not redact the names of victims, as the law required. Let us not forget what this entire Epstein scandal is about. It is about powerful, wealthy men grooming, abusing, and raping young women and men. That is what it is about.

I cannot understand for the life of me why the Republican leadership just objected for us to seek enforcement of the law that we passed unanimously here. Why is the Republican leadership protecting powerful men? Why are they protecting the administration allowing 3 million pages to be held on to? Why are they allowing page, after page, after page to be blacked out to protect those powerful men? Why will they not respond to the fact that when these files were released, they did exactly the opposite of the law and failed to redact information about the victims, revictimizing so many?

This is 1,000 percent unacceptable, and it is unacceptable to our values as a nation, our values which talk about equal justice under law. That is why, by unanimous consent, we said those files must be released. But it is meaningless if the administration simply chooses not to comply and then my Republican leadership colleagues proceed to block the ability to enforce what the Senate agreed to pursue: accountability, justice for the victims, transparency over this horrific scandal.

Mr. President, I hope my Republican colleagues will reconsider their objection because what they have just done is wrong, morally wrong and wrong under the values of equal justice under law, wrong under the values of justice for those who have been victimized, wrong under the value of accountability for the perpetrators.

Mr. President, in reserving the right to object, this is another reckless political stunt designed to distract Americans from Democrats' dangerous plan to shut down the Department of Homeland Security. Now, that is a move that is, No. 1, going to delay the Federal Emergency Management Agency preparedness the country needs right now. No. 2, it is going to disrupt air travel. No. 3, it is going to degrade the Coast Guard's ability to interdict deadly drugs. No. 4, it is going to make us more vulnerable to cyber attacks.

Therefore, Mr. President, I object.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for up to 15 minutes prior to the scheduled rollcall vote.