A resolution requesting information on Honduras's human rights practices pursuant to section 502B(c) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961.

Mr. President, I was necessarily absent for rollcall vote No. 136, Thune motion to proceed to the bill which provides $69.5 billion in funding for Department of Homeland Security immigration and border enforcement agencies for FY 2026, including: $22.6 billion for Customs and Border Protection; $38.5 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement; and $8.5 billion in additional funds to DHS for immigration enforcement. Had I been present for the vote, I would have voted no.

I was necessarily absent for rollcall vote No. 137, Schumer motion to commit the bill to the Senate Judiciary Committee with instructions to report the bill back in three session days with changes that safeguard the Department of Justice from partisan political influence, which may include prohibiting the use of funds for a so-called ``anti- weaponization fund.''. Had I been present for the vote, I would have voted yea.

I was necessarily absent for rollcall vote No. 138, amendment No. 5452, Tillis motion to waive the Budget Act to permit consideration of the Tillis amendment (to the Graham substitute amendment), which prohibits the attorney general from using appropriation funds to pay out claims as part of an ``anti-weaponizing fund'' and would instead provide $1.7 billion for Justice Department anti-fraud enforcement activities. Had I been present for the vote, I would have voted no.

I was necessarily absent for rollcall vote No. 139, amendment No. 5512, Merkley motion to waive the Budget Act to permit consideration of the Merkley amendment (to the Graham substitute amendment), which prohibits federal funds as well as private donations from being used for the construction of the East Wing modernization project without congressional authorization. Had I been present for the vote, I would have voted yea.

I was necessarily absent for rollcall vote No. 140, on amendment No. 5514, the Reed motion to waive the Budget Act to permit consideration of the Reed-Bennet amendment (to the Graham substitute amendment), which redirects $62.1 billion from funds intended for immigration enforcement towards the Housing Department's HOME Investment Partnerships Program. Had I been present for the vote, I would have voted yea.

I was necessarily absent for rollcall vote No. 141, Ossoff motion to commit the bill to the Senate Judiciary Committee with instructions to report it back with changes that would amend the False Claims Act to require the Department of Justice to establish a task force to conduct investigations into health insurance companies that are found to routinely deny and delay patients' access to medically necessary care. Had I been present for the vote, I would have voted yea.

I was necessarily absent for rollcall vote No. 142, on amendment No. 5535, Hassan motion to waive the Budget Act to permit consideration of the Hassan amendment (to the Graham substitute amendment), which provides such sums as necessary for the HOME Investment Partnerships Program through September 30, 2029, to build 7 million homes. Had I been present for the vote, I would have voted yea.

I was necessarily absent for rollcall vote No. 143, amendment No. 5556, Warner motion to waive the Budget Act to permit consideration of Warner-Kelly amendment (to the Graham substitute amendment), which prohibits any Senate-confirmed head of another federal agency or department from being directed to perform the functions and duties of the director of National Intelligence in an acting capacity. Had I been present for the vote, I would have voted yea.

I was necessarily absent for rollcall vote No. 144, amendment No. 5779, Graham motion to waive the Budget Act to permit consideration of the Graham et al., amendment (to the Graham substitute amendment), which adds a provision to bar educational institutions that receive federal funding from allowing transgender women or girls to participate in athletics programs or activities designated for women or girls. Had I been present for the vote, I would have voted no.

I was necessarily absent for rollcall vote No. 145, amendment No. 5501, Hickenlooper motion to waive the Budget Act to permit consideration of the Hickenlooper-Bennet amendment (to the Graham substitute amendment) which prohibits the use of federal funds to make prosecution-related payments to individuals who were convicted for certain crimes, including election interference, identity theft and official misconduct. Had I been present for the vote, I would have voted yea.

I was necessarily absent for rollcall vote No. 146, amendment No. 5545, Kim motion to waive the Budget Act to permit consideration of the Kim-Booker amendment (to Graham substitute amendment) which provides $2 million to the Office of the Inspector General and Office of Detention Oversight to conduct, within one week of the bill's enactment, an unannounced inspection of the Delaney Hall Detention Facility in Newark, New Jersey; requires Congressional reports on facility conditions and recommendations on whether to pursue charges against immigration agents and other facility employees who responded to protests; and requires the Homeland Security Department to suspend contract payments to operate the facility until the department certifies that the facility's deficiencies have been adequately remediated. Had I been present for the vote, I would have voted yea.

I was necessarily absent for rollcall vote No. 147, Warnock motion to commit the budget reconciliation bill to the Judiciary Committee with instructions to report the bill back within 3 days with changes that amend the provisions of law commonly referred to as the ``False Claims Act'' to require the Department of Justice to establish a task force to conduct investigations and make public findings and records relating to the causes of denial of Medicaid coverage to eligible beneficiaries. Had I been present for the vote, I would have voted yea.

I was necessarily absent for rollcall vote No. 148, amendment No. 5451, Sanders motion to waive the Budget Act to permit consideration of the Sanders amendment (to the Graham substitute amendment), which places reasonable limits on contributions to Super PACs which make independent expenditures. Had I been present for the vote, I would have voted yea.

I was necessarily absent for rollcall vote No. 149, amendment No. 5485, Baldwin motion to waive the Budget Act to permit consideration of the Baldwin amendment (to the Graham substitute amendment), which redirects $14.3 billion in funds made available under the bill from Immigration and Customs Enforcement to be used by the Department of Health and Human Services to carry out low-income family child care programs. Had I been present for the vote, I would have voted yea.

I was necessarily absent for rollcall vote No. 150, on amendment No. 5803, Booker motion to waive the Budget Act to permit consideration of the Booker-Kim amendment (to the Graham substitute amendment) which redirects $28.6 million of the funds in the bill to the Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman; and prohibits using the funds to pay contractors or cooperating entities that violated law or detention standards or engaged in substantiated misconduct. Had I been present for the vote, I would have voted yea.

I was necessarily absent for rollcall vote No. 151, amendment No. 5806, Lee motion to waive the Budget Act to permit consideration of the Lee amendment (to the Graham substitute amendment) which requires individuals to provide proof of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote in federal elections and to present photo identification in order to cast a ballot. Had I been present for the vote, I would have voted no.

I was necessarily absent for rollcall vote No. 152, amendment No. 5806, Durbin motion to waive the Budget Act to permit consideration of the Durbin, et al., amendment (to the Graham substitute amendment) which redirects $10 million provided in the bill for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to be used for the processing of renewal applications under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program; and prohibits the use of funds in the bill to

detain or deport individuals reasonably believed to be DACA recipients on the basis of immigration status. Had I been present for the vote, I would have voted yea.

I was necessarily absent for rollcall vote No. 153, Wyden motion to commit the bill to the Senate Judiciary Committee with instructions to establish a task force to conduct investigations related to confidential drug pricing agreements entered into by a Federal agency and pharmaceutical manufacturer. Had I been present for the vote, I would have voted yea.

I was necessarily absent for rollcall vote No. 154, amendment No. 5506, Hirono-Van Hollen amendment (to Graham substitute amendment), which redirects $105 million in funding provided under the bill for each of fiscal years 2026 to 2029 for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to be used for youth mentoring programs in the Justice Department's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Had I been present for the vote, I would have voted yea.

I was necessarily absent for rollcall vote No. 155, amendment No. 5763, Peters amendment (to the Graham substitute amendment) which rescinds any unobligated funds made available under the fiscal 2025 budget reconciliation measure (PL 119-21) and returns the money to the U.S. Treasury to reduce the deficit. Had I been present for the vote, I would have voted yea.

I was necessarily absent for rollcall vote No. 156, amendment No. 5813, Gallego amendment (to the Graham substitute amendment), which decreases funds appropriated to the Homeland Security Department by $11 million and increases funding for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services by $10 million for the processing of renewal applications under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Had I been present for the vote, I would have voted yea.

I was necessarily absent for rollcall vote No. 157, amendment No. 5808, Padilla amendment (to the Graham substitute amendment), which requires that at least $300 million of the bill's funds provided for U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement be used for the implementation and deployment of body cameras for federal immigration agents. Had I been present for the vote, I would have voted yea.

I was necessarily absent for rollcall vote No. 158, amendment No. 5457, Coons motion to waive the Budget Act to permit consideration of the Coons amendment (to the Graham substitute amendment) which prohibits the use of taxpayer funds for settlement payments to individuals convicted of assaulting law enforcement officers at or around the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. Had I been present for the vote, I would have voted yea.

I was necessarily absent for rollcall vote No. 159, amendment No. 5812, Cassidy motion to waive the Budget Act to permit consideration of the Cassidy-Van Hollen amendment (to the Graham substitute amendment) which provides $100 million in the Justice Department's ``anti weaponization fund'' to pay law enforcement officers who suffered bodily or financial harm as a result of the Jan 6, 2021 events in the U.S. Capitol; prohibits payments from the fund to any other person; and offsets the funding by reducing funding to Immigration and Customs Enforcement by $102 million. Had I been present for the vote, I would have voted yea.

I was necessarily absent for rollcall vote No. 160, amendment No. 5463, Cortez Masto amendment (to the Graham substitute amendment), which redirects $31 billion in funding from Immigration and Customs Enforcement to Justice Department local law enforcement hiring grant programs. Had I been present for the vote, I would have voted yea.

I was necessarily absent for rollcall vote No. 161, amendment No. 5632, Van Hollen motion to waive the Budget Act to permit consideration of the Van Hollen amendment (to the Graham substitute amendment), which prohibits payments from the Justice Department's ``anti-weaponization fund'' to pay individuals convicted of certain crimes, including assaulting a police officer, crimes against minors, and sexual assault. Had I been present for the vote, I would have voted yea.

I was necessarily absent for rollcall vote No. 162, amendment No. 5740 Schiff motion to waive the Budget Act to permit consideration of the Schiff-Kelly-Slotkin amendment (to the Graham substitute amendment) which prohibits the authorization of funds to pay out a judgement award, settlement, or claim filed by the U.S. president or vice president for any cause of action arising on or after Jan. 20, 2025. Had I been present for the vote, I would have voted yea.

I was necessarily absent for rollcall vote No. 163, passage of the bill which provides $69.5 billion in funding for Department of Homeland Security immigration and border enforcement agencies for FY 2026, including: $22.6 billion for Customs and Border Protection; $38.5 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement; and $8.5 billion in additional funds to DHS for immigration enforcement. Had I been present for the vote, I would have voted no.

I was necessarily absent for rollcall vote No. 164, Thune motion to proceed to the House message to accompany the bill which extends the surveillance authorities of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) through April 30, 2029. Had I been present for the vote, I would have voted nay.

I was necessarily absent for rollcall vote No. 165, motion to invoke cloture on Executive Calendar No. 744, Anthony W. Mattivi, of Kansas, to be United States District Judge for the District of Kansas. If I were present, I would have voted nay.

I was necessarily absent for rollcall vote No. 166, Confirmation of the nomination of Anthony W. Mattivi, of Kansas, to be U.S. District Judge for the District of Kansas. If I were present, I would have voted nay.

I was necessarily absent for rollcall vote No. 167, motion to invoke cloture on Executive Calendar No. 745, Anthony J. Powell, of Kansas, to be United States District Judge for the District of Kansas. If I were present, I would have voted nay.

I was necessarily absent for rollcall vote No. 168, confirmation of Executive Calendar No. 745, Anthony J. Powell, of Kansas, to be United States District Judge for the District of Kansas. If I were present, I would have voted nay.

I was necessarily absent for rollcall vote No. 169, motion to invoke cloture on Executive Calendar No. 765, Brock Dahl, of Maryland, to be Legal Adviser of the Department of State. Had I been present for the vote, I would have voted nay.

I was necessarily absent for rollcall vote No. 170, confirmation of Executive Calendar No. 765, Brock Dahl, of Maryland, to be Legal Adviser of the Department of State. Had I been present for the vote, I would have voted nay.

I was necessarily absent for rollcall vote No. 171, motion to invoke cloture on Executive Calendar No. 742, Justin D. Smith, of Missouri, to be United States Circuit Judge for the Eighth Circuit. If I were present, I would have voted nay.

I was necessarily absent for rollcall vote No. 172, confirmation of Executive Calendar No. 742, Justin D. Smith, of Missouri, to be United States Circuit Judge for the Eighth Circuit. If I were present, I would have voted nay.

I was necessarily absent for rollcall vote No. 173, Motion to proceed to S.J. Res. 190, disapproving the rule submitted by the Executive Office for Immigration Review relating to ``Appellate Procedures for the Board of Immigration Appeals'' (Kaine), I would have voted yea.

I was necessarily absent for rollcall vote No. 174, motion to discharge S.J. Res. 172, a joint resolution to direct the removal of United States Armed Forces from hostilities within or against the Islamic Republic of Iran that have not been authorized by Congress. Had I been present for the vote, I would have voted yea.

I was necessarily absent for rollcall vote No. 175, motion to proceed to consideration of the House Message to accompany H.R. 6644, 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act. Had I been present for the vote, I would have voted yea.

I was necessarily absent for rollcall vote No. 176, motion to invoke cloture on Executive Calendar No. 760, Michelle Steel, of California, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Republic of Korea. Had I been present for the vote, I would have voted nay.

I was necessarily absent for rollcall vote No. 177, confirmation of Executive Calendar No. 760, Michelle Steel, of

California, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Republic of Korea. Had I been present for the vote, I would have voted nay.

I was necessarily absent for rollcall vote No. 178, motion to invoke cloture on Executive Calendar No. 763, George Holding, of North Carolina, to be United States Director of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Had I been present for the vote, I would have voted nay.

I was necessarily absent for rollcall vote No. 179, motion to discharge S. Res. 616, a resolution requesting information on Honduras's human rights practices pursuant to section 502B(c) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961. Had I been present for the vote, I would have voted yea.

I was necessarily absent for rollcall vote No. 180, motion to invoke cloture on the motion to concur in the House Message to accompany H.R. 6644, 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, with further amendment (No. 5823). Had I been present for the vote, I would have voted yea.

I was necessarily absent for rollcall vote No. 181, confirmation of Executive Calendar No. 763, George Holding, of North Carolina, to be United States Director of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Had I been present for the vote, I would have voted nay.

I was necessarily absent for rollcall vote No. 182, motion to concur in the House Message accompanying H.R. 6644, 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act. Had I been present for the vote, I would have voted yea.

Mr. President, I rise today to bring transparency to the American people.

S. Res. 616 requires the Trump administration to produce a report detailing the human rights violations in Honduras under its former President, Juan Orlando Hernandez.

Let me just stress this--and I am going to be talking about this quite often--Juan Orlando Hernandez--most people don't know--was convicted here in the United States. He is a notorious drug trafficker. And President Trump pardoned him last year.

The American people deserve to know the consequences of pardoning such an infamous criminal and, quite honestly, how that conflicts with President Trump's focus, as he talks about, on law and order and combating drug trafficking.

Mr. Hernandez was serving a 45-year sentence for drug trafficking when President Trump pardoned him. He had been convicted by a U.S. jury in 2024 for conspiring to import hundreds of tons of cocaine to the United States and for related firearms offenses. He also had been accused of taking bribes from the infamous Mexican cartel leader El Chapo and raking in millions of dollars in drug money himself.

This is the man who is responsible for illegal drugs entering our country, for harming families, and for endangering our communities. Yet President Trump pardoned him.

This is the man who prosecutors said had partnered with some of the world's most prolific narcotics traffickers to build a corrupt and brutally violent empire. The prosecutors who were later able to get a conviction against him said that. Yet President Trump deemed him worthy of a pardon.

The President's action here is the opposite of law and order. In fact, it contradicts efforts to combat drug trafficking, and it undermines law enforcement. Why do I know that? Because as a former attorney general, these are areas in which I worked with law enforcement in my State--our law enforcement agents, our investigators, our prosecutors in the State of Nevada--to combat drug trafficking that comes into the State of Nevada.

Let me clarify this because most people don't realize that Nevada is not on the border with Mexico, but what happens on that border bleeds into Nevada. So the drug trafficking that crosses that border comes into Nevada, where we were seeing opioid abuse, where we were seeing methamphetamine abuse, where we were seeing fentanyl abuse--the very drugs the President now is talking about wanting to combat and stop from coming into our country. Yet--yet--he pardons a big drug trafficker who was convicted in this country for doing that very thing.

You know, quite frankly, it is an insult to the professional men and women--nonpartisan, let me just say, men and women--who work year after year to address this issue and who actually worked hard to put Hernandez behind bars.

It also sends the wrong message. Here is why: Since he was pardoned, Mr. Hernandez has been giving interviews to the BBC, and he is saying that President Trump's pardon proves he was innocent.

I will tell you what: The American people deserve better than that, and they deserve transparency.

Quite honestly, our law enforcement, who works so hard to address-- really address--the drug trafficking that is coming into this country, deserves to know why President Trump pardoned this man. They deserve to fully understand the connections between Hernandez' government, drug trafficking organizations, and Honduras' human rights record. That is why I am calling up this resolution today.

This resolution would require the Trump administration to provide information about Honduras' domestic human rights practices. Specifically, the administration would have to assess human rights violations during the time that President Juan Orlando Hernandez was President. That includes analyzing the connections between high-level government officials and drug trafficking organizations, and it means looking at the corruption of Honduras' Government officials as it relates to drug trafficking, money laundering, and bribery.

In this report, they would also have to evaluate the links between the drug cartels in Honduras and torture, rape, illegal detention, witness tampering, and murder.

Finally, it would include understanding efforts in Honduras to undermine police reforms and drug crime investigations.

The resolution also requires an assessment from the Secretary of State of any ongoing ties between Hernandez and--whether he has maintained those with drug cartels.

Now, I have heard some of my colleagues talking out against this in that somehow this is some ``gotcha'' moment or this is some sort of lefty, liberal effort to make the President look bad.

Well, let me just say this: Everybody is responsible for their actions. I don't know, in working in law enforcement, that there is a left or a right to it. We want to stop drug trafficking. We want to hold those drug traffickers accountable, and they shouldn't be pardoned after they have been convicted in the United States. If we are truly going to combat the War on Drugs in this country, everybody needs to be held accountable--everyone.

This resolution is important because if the administration fails to give us this report, the resolution would pause U.S. security assistance to Honduras. There is no good reason for the administration not to author this report.

Again, some colleagues have voiced concerns about the potential pausing of assistance to Honduras. Well, let me be very clear. Trump has already threatened to pause aid to Honduras multiple times. In fact, since the start of his second term, his administration has slashed the amount of funding we are sending to the country. There is no promise that the Trump administration won't threaten support for Honduras again with or without this resolution, right?

So if President Trump is really concerned about preventing drug trafficking and supporting Honduras, he can start by not pardoning drug kingpins.

At the end of the day, this vote is about giving the American people the answers they deserve. We need the truth. We need the facts. We need to understand what is going on here. The President is going to use his pardon power to pardon a drug kingpin who has been convicted in this country. People deserve the right to know why. They deserve the right to know why.

So I hope my colleagues will work with me to pass this resolution. I thank Senators Kaine and Welch for standing with me and joining me in this resolution and talking on the floor today as to how important this is.

Again, I cannot stress this enough: This is not a lefty or a right issue. This is not a Republican or a Democrat issue. This is a nonpartisan issue. This is about drug trafficking, who is responsible, and accountability for them. And if we have a President who decides he is going to use his pardon power to pardon them, we have every right to question that and understand the extent to which an individual is being

pardoned in this country and what he did. That is what this resolution is all about--transparency for the American people. It is about time.

With that, Mr. President, pursuant to section 502B(c) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, I move to discharge the Committee on Foreign Relations from further consideration of S. Res. 616.

I know of no further debate.

I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, I rise to speak upon a matter that will be brought to the floor for a vote within the next hour or so. The matter is what is called a 502B resolution filed by my colleague Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, and a 502B resolution directs

the State Department to issue a human rights report on topics voted upon by the Senate.

This particular 502B resolution concerns a most serious human rights and criminal justice matter and one of the worst abuses of the Presidential pardon power in the history of the United States.

I applaud my colleague Senator Cortez Masto for leading on this bill. I am a cosponsor of the bill. I was a missionary in Honduras and lived there in 1980 and 1981, and I have a number of friends still there who feel this issue is definitely one that warrants some additional attention by our government.

And I thank Senator Cortez Masto. She will be the final speaker on this before it is called up for vote. My colleagues might remember that on March 8, 2024, former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez was convicted of three counts of drug trafficking in a case that was brought in the Southern District of New York, also convicted of weapons conspiracy, and on June 26, 2024, he was sentenced to 45 years in prison.

Now, this conviction in March of 2024 followed a long investigatory process. President Hernandez' brother Tony was earlier convicted of serious drug offenses in the United States. That investigation began when Barack Obama was President. Most of the investigation was done during the Presidency of Donald Trump, term one. It continued during the Biden Presidency, and obviously, the conviction was obtained in the last year of the Biden Presidency.

The point is, this was a very intense effort by the Department of Justice over both Democratic and Republican administrations to go after serious narcotrafficking.

What was he convicted of doing? This former Honduran President was convicted of--while he was President, he was engaged in a conspiracy to import more than 400 tons of cocaine into the United States--400 tons.

U.S. prosecutors described Hernandez as a key figure in one of the largest and most dangerous drug trafficking convictions ever prosecuted in the United States court system.

This disgraced former President even bragged about how he and his cartel friends--and this was evidence that was introduced against him at trial:

We're going to shove the drugs right up the noses of the

gringos, and they're never even going to know it.

A serious narcotrafficker who abused the public trust of his nation to flood the United States with drugs used to kill Americans.

On December 1, 2025, after less than a year, a little bit more than a year service of his 45-year sentence, President Orlando Hernandez, this disgraced drug trafficker was released from Federal prison and given a full and complete pardon by Donald Trump, our President.

We have yet to receive any public plausible explanation for the pardon. President Trump said he thought it was a setup job done by the Biden administration, even though much of the investigation was conducted by President Trump's own officials in the Department of Justice in the Southern District of New York.

I have spoken about this matter before when the pardon was undertaken. The former President Hernandez is represented by some pretty high-priced folks. There is virtually no explanation for this that makes any sense, except a corrupt one. Someone got money for this pardon.

I don't know exactly who, and I am sure it is in an account somewhere that we will never be able to find out who, but there would be no reason to pardon this individual for this serious crime unless there was some corrupt motive behind it.

Now, this particular pardon raises serious doubts and questions given that President Trump is currently claiming to be at war against narcotraffickers. We have had much debate in this Chamber about the President's actions to direct the U.S. military to target and bomb boats and kill occupants on those boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific.

And at a hearing that we recently had with the Secretary of State, I asked him questions based upon my review of 46 files of the strikes, the first 46 strikes--now over 200 people have been killed in these strikes--and I asked the question why the administration did not demand evidence of the presence of narcotics on the boats that they are bombing.

That is not one of the targeting criteria. I am not allowed to describe the targeting criteria because they are classified, but I think I can discuss something that is not one of the targeting criteria. And evidence of narcotics on the boats has never been one of the targeting criteria in the strikes that have now killed more than 200 people.

But why would an administration that is bombing boats, even without evidence of narcotics, and claiming it is an effort to stop narcotrafficking--why would that administration pardon this guy--this guy--certainly, one of the most powerful and dangerous narcotraffickers ever convicted in the history of the United States? How does this make any sense?

Why is the President and this administration prioritizing Juan Orlando Hernandez over the American people?

And this is not the only example of a narcotrafficker or a drug trafficker being pardoned by the President. He pardoned a notorious drug trafficker on the first day of his Presidency. But this is the most egregious one.

Granting clemency to this narcotrafficker, after serving only 1 year out of a 45-year sentence, sends a troubling message about justice and accountability and about the fact that there are basically two systems of justice in this country--one for the well-connected, who can hire fancy folks and pay a lot of money to get out of a 45-year sentence, and everybody else.

So I call on my colleagues to stand up for what is right, to push back on this enabling of cartels, to push back on this impunity in releasing a dangerous narcotrafficker.

And I thank my colleague Senator Cortez Masto for filing this resolution and bringing it to the floor of the Senate so that all Members of the Senate can go on the record about whether they believe the law should apply to everybody or whether there are, in fact, two standards of justice for people like Juan Orlando Hernandez.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I want to urge my colleagues, at 4:30 today, to vote strongly in objection to S. Res. 616.

This resolution, introduced by our Democrat colleagues, is a relic of a failed past approach to Central America, one that imposes a leftist ideology and a purity test and ties our hands, while cartels flood our streets with poison and chaos spills across our borders in the hemisphere. It demands a report dredging up old allegations against a former Honduran President, Juan Orlando Hernandez, focusing on events from his administration.

The irony is striking. Many of these activities and challenges occurred during the Obama administration, when Democrats were asleep at the wheel in the Western Hemisphere. They allowed narcotrafficking to flourish and created the Western Hemisphere's worst migration crisis, without decisive action.

This resolution also fails to mention the radical, leftwing Castro administration, which ravaged Honduras with policies that exacerbated migration and opened the doors to China.

Yet this resolution remains completely silent on the Biden administration's foreign policy failures and the open borders agenda that poured fuel on that fire.

Honduras suffered under the Biden and Castro era, but now it has absolutely turned a page. Under President Tito Asfura, who I had the chance to go visit in person a little less than 2 weeks ago, it is a new day in a bilateral relationship. He is aligned with the ``America First'' priorities. He is a key partner in the Shield of the Americas and the Counter Cartel Coalition.

Honduras is working with us on intelligence sharing, going after the cartels, extraditions, and securing the hemisphere from Chinese and criminal influence.

President Asfura is hyperfocused on fixing what Castro and Biden broke and restoring stability and prosperity for the Honduran people.

This resolution singles out past issues under a previous government, while the current administration in Honduras and our own administration are focused on results: dismantling trafficking networks, ending the migration crisis, and building long-term prosperity.

As a side note, as you just heard from the Senator from Virginia, this actually has nothing to do with human rights. This has to do with clickbait speeches that are all intended to embarrass the President about a pardon.

Of course, it is ironic, given that President Biden pardoned tens of thousands of serious criminals.

But, back to Honduras, this resolution risks undermining the very security assistance and cooperation we need to keep Americans and Hondurans safe.

Section 502B is a tool, but in the hands of those who prioritize bureaucratic processes over results, it becomes a bludgeon against effective policy.

President Trump's approach? Security coordination, economic incentives for partners fighting cartels, and putting the stability and prosperity of the Western Hemisphere first.

It is delivering results: zero illegal border encounters this last 12-month period.

We are seeing deportations of criminals, revived extradition efforts, and a coalition that is actually confronting the cartels instead of studying the cartels.

Colleagues, the American people are tired of hollow and ideological resolutions that achieve nothing but clickbait headlines. They want secure borders, safe communities, and a foreign policy that puts our hemisphere's stability ahead of nonsense reports.

Objecting to this resolution isn't ignoring human rights. It is refusing to let the past paralyze the future.

Let's come together. Let's support our Western Hemisphere allies, like President Tito Asfura.

I urge my colleagues to reject S. Res. 616.

Let's focus on advancing the Shield of the Americas, supporting vetted partners, and delivering real results against the drug cartels that threaten us.

I will say one last thing. The Senator from Virginia has evidently another

resolution on Honduras that is intended to slow the process down of passing actually meaningful legislation here in the U.S. Senate. Let's take that one up, too, now because if not, what you just heard me say you are going to have to hear again for a second time. This is not why people elected us.

I think that when the Presiding Officer travels to Missouri, people ask him: What are you doing? What are you doing to make the country better?

Debating what happened a decade ago isn't making the country better. We should be talking about how to make our economy stronger, how to make our communities safer, and how to make our communities more secure. We should be talking about ensuring--ensuring--that we complete our duty and fund our government, not posturing months ahead of time to defund our government again.

Again, colleagues, let's get this done. Let's deal with this resolution swiftly, quickly, and vote no.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, on June 17, 2026, I missed the following vote, but had I been present, I would have voted yea on rollcall vote No. 179, on the motion to discharge from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee S. Res. 616.

On June 18, 2026, I missed the following vote, but had I been present, I would have voted yea on rollcall vote No. 180, on the cloture motion on the motion to concur in the House Amendment to the Senate Amendment to H.R. 6644 with an amendment.

On June 18, 2026, I missed the following vote, but had I been present, I would have voted no on rollcall vote No. 181, confirmation of Executive Calendar No. 763, George Holding, to be U.S. Director of the European Bank for Construction and Development.