Floor Statements

Mr. President, in the years since September 11, that obligation has taken many forms. The Congressional Fire Services Caucus has worked to ensure that the needs of America's first responders remain a priority in Washington, DC--advocating for the resources, protections, benefits, and support they need to serve their communities and return home safely. The work of the Fire Services Caucus reflects a responsibility that extends far beyond any single anniversary: to understand the needs and challenges of our local fire

and EMS personnel, to stand with those who stand ready to protect us, and to ensure that our Nation does not forget the sacrifices made every day in service to others.

Across our cities, towns, and rural communities, first responders answer emergency calls regardless of what awaits them at the scene. They respond to fires, medical emergencies, hazardous material incidents, natural disasters, and much more with the same dedication and sense of duty that defined those who responded on September 11. The work of the fire and emergency services is indispensable to the safety and well-being of every American.

Mr. President, I rise this evening on behalf of myself and Senator Sheehy and several others, Democrats and Republicans. I represent farmers, small businesses, brewers, and consumers in my State, and I urge my colleagues to table Senator Budd's amendment and give this body 4 more weeks to work toward legislation that supports a thriving hemp industry, ensures proper regulation, and protects kids from dangerous products.

As is, the bipartisan continuing resolution that is before us delays a ban on naturally produced hemp products for 4 weeks while taking synthetic hemp derivatives off the market. That is important to note. That is included in this continuing resolution.

The original ban, the broad ban, the entire ban--and I know that in my State, we have safety rules in place that have worked very well. The product is taxed. We have not had issues with it since we put those rules in place.

The original ban was tucked into a bill to reopen the government last November. Many Members didn't have the chance to learn about it. There had been no hearings. Now they have learned more. Bills have been introduced in the Senate and the House--bipartisan bills--to regulate this market.

Back then, that ban moved forward without input from the people who would be impacted. In my State alone, hemp products brought in $16 million of State tax revenue in 2025.

Senator Budd has raised concerns about certain hemp products, and I agree with him. That is why bad actors that sell synthetic products will not be allowed to sell them, in this continuing resolution.

I urge my colleagues to join me in voting to table this amendment and maintaining the bipartisan agreement included in the continuing resolution.

Motion to Table

Mr. President, I move to table amendment No. 6747, and I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, on Wednesday, August 5, 2026, I participated in the Minnesota Farmfest Governor Forum in Redwood County, MN. Had I been present, I would have voted nay on the vote before the Senate to confirm Erica Schwartz, of Florida, to be Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, rollcall vote No. 220, Executive Calendar No. 910.

Mr. President, I thank Senator Durbin for his leadership in fighting for Dreamers.

We will also be joined by the Senator from Nevada, Senator Cortez Masto, who has done the same.

Senator Durbin, when your DREAM Act finally becomes law--and it will--it will be because of your enduring commitment for all of these years.

Fourteen years ago, the Obama administration acted to protect Dreamers. Since 2012, the DACA action of the Obama administration has helped roughly 835,000 people have legal protection.

For most Dreamers, the United States is the only home they have ever known, that they ever remember, and they live as part of their communities in all ways, just like everyone else, except for the certainty of permanent citizenship.

In Minnesota, we are proud to be home to nearly 4,000 DACA recipients who have already passed background checks, paid fees, and met educational

requirements so they can stay in the United States and continue to pay taxes and contribute to our communities.

Dreamers serve in our military. They keep us safe as police officers in our State. They are teachers and nurses. They run small businesses that power our economy.

In my State, one DACA recipient is a medical assembler helping build lifesaving devices that reduce the risk of stroke.

Another Dreamer came to this country when she was just 3 years old. A few years ago, she got her phlebotomy certification from the Mayo Clinic. Now she is providing critical care to patients as a medical technician, all while serving as her family's primary breadwinner.

Another Dreamer is a driver for special needs kids and a mom of five kids, including two with urgent medical needs.

Another Dreamer was just 10 years old when she came to Minnesota from Mexico. She applied for DACA in 2012--just days after USCIS began accepting applications. She earned her degree and has worked with residents in nursing schools and elementary school children. As she said, she ``finds purpose in helping others.''

Minnesota is better because of our Dreamers, and thousands like them across our State continue to believe in the promise of this Nation and work every day to contribute to it.

Since its establishment, DACA recipients have contributed an estimated $150 billion to the U.S. economy in spending power and $40 billion in combined Federal, payroll, State, and local taxes.

In the past, President Trump has talked about working with Senators of both parties to protect Dreamers who were brought here as children. In December 2024, he said:

We have to do something about the Dreamers.

The last time Donald Trump was President, we actually had a bipartisan bill led by Senator Rounds--I was part of it--that would have invested in border security while providing a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers. In the end, President Trump opposed the bill.

More recently, the Trump administration has dramatically delayed DACA processing. My office has heard from Minnesotans who are filing renewals up to 150 days--months--in advance, as recommended by the Federal Government, by USCIS, and they are still losing their protections solely due to delayed processing and the chaos. It is not due to the fact that they have jobs, that they work as nurses, that they are in the military, that they work in public safety--no, nothing about them. Nothing about their backgrounds. Nothing about their jobs that we need them to perform badly in our economy. It is solely because the Trump administration can't get its act together or is messing around with them.

Well, when they mess around with them--with those over 800,000 people who are contributing to the United States, with all those people who are part of our economy--they mess around with us; they mess around with our country.

The Trump Justice Department, in an immigration court decision, further undermined protections by holding that DACA status does not protect people from removal procedures.

During Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota, we saw not only multiple, multiple hundreds of constitutional violations but also DHS tearing people who have followed the rules from their loved ones.

In January in Minnesota, ICE arrested Jorge Cordoba Hernandez at 4:30 a.m. without a warrant when he was on his way to work for a manufacturer in Eden Prairie, MN. By 10 p.m., he was on a plane to a detention facility in New Mexico, and he was held without bond.

Jorge was brought to the United States when he was 8 years old and has been in DACA for 13 years--passed the test; did everything right. When arrested, he had applied to extend his DACA, like so many of my other constituents who have been on DACA for years and are working. Well, he had applied to extend his DACA, and he was scheduled for a biometrics appointment.

He is married to an American citizen and has four children--two of whom have disabilities. He has no criminal record.

While he awaits his DACA renewal--and by the way, here is a guy, as I said, that was on his way to work, where he is working in a good job, paying taxes. He is married to an American citizen and has four kids-- two with disabilities. Just simply waiting for the Trump administration to do the paperwork. He gets arrested and sent to New Mexico.

While he awaits his renewal--now released--which is delayed because of the backlog at DHS, he is only out of detention because a Trump- appointed Federal judge did his job and granted his habeas petition. He is not out of detention because the Trump administration realized that it had made a mistake. He is not out of detention because he never should have been put there in the first place by them. He is out of detention because someone applied the law, and that happened to be a Trump-appointed judge who knew better than the President that appointed him that you follow the rules in America, that you follow the law.

It is not just Dreamers and their families and neighbors who will suffer from terminating DACA; it is also our economy. If DACA was ended, it is estimated we would lose roughly 440,000 workers, including 37,000 healthcare professionals. Are you kidding me? When we have such a shortage of people working in healthcare and working in our nursing homes--such a shortage. So you are going to take away people who are legally working because simply you just want to make some political point or you don't want to get the paperwork done? We will lose 17,000 STEM professionals, 17,000 educators. The loss of this talent would cost the U.S. economy an estimated $648 billion.

We cannot afford to shut out the world's talent or drive away those who call our country home, because immigrants are truly a major economic driver across our country. Almost half of America's Fortune 500 companies were started by people born in other countries or their kids, and 30 percent of our country's--the United States of America-- Nobel laureates were born abroad.

It is time, as Senator Durbin has made clear, for the USCIS to expeditiously process all applications for deferred action for childhood arrivals and provide protections for Dreamers.

We are just weeks away from celebrating America's 250th birthday, when a nation was born out of the dream for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness--a nation born of immigrants, people like my grandpa, who came in through Ellis Island, and they had a limit on Swiss immigrants, and then he somehow found his way through Canada but then stayed there for about a week and then made his way through Michigan and into Wisconsin.

When, during World War II, finally they made everyone register--even though he was married to an American citizen, my grandma, who was also an immigrant--that is when they discovered he had kind of come in twice. They had his hearing, and they looked at him--hard-working guy with two kids, married to a U.S. citizen--and they said: That is fine. And they gave him his citizenship.

That is not what this administration is doing. This administration is looking at hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people that they are just holding up--not just holding up their dream; holding up our dreams for anyone who wants to send their mom to a nursing home, to find out if they have enough staff, or to go into an emergency room in the middle of the night and figure out if there is staff there. No.

Passing the DREAM Act is the right thing to do, but making sure that in this very moment, we treat these people with the respect they deserve and get these forms processed and make sure they can continue working as functioning members of our economy is most important for now.

Immigrant families, including Dreamers, don't diminish America. They define America. They strengthen America. They are America.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I rise today with my colleague from Minnesota Senator Smith on a somber anniversary week for our State and for our country.

One year ago, a horrific act of political violence took two Minnesotans from us who represented the best of our State, the best of us, Minnesota State Representative and our former Speaker of the House Melissa Hortman and her dear husband Mark Hortman.

This is them with their kids, with Colin and Sophie who have been true to their memories since that date, grieving through the entire time, but always holding up their parents' memories.

That same night, State Senator John Hoffman and his wife Yvette were also shot. Despite taking nine bullets, as his wife Yvette took eight, John has courageously returned to the State senate with a tireless dedication to improving the lives of Minnesotans.

Melissa and Mark left behind a State in mourning, but their two incredible children Colin and Sophie rose through their grief and best captured their parents' legacy as they said:

The best way to honor our parents' memory is to do

something, whether big or small, to make our community just a

little better for someone else.

And that is exactly what Minnesotans have done. Thousands lined up to pay their respects to the Hortmans at the State capitol where Melissa was the first woman in Minnesota to lie in state. People planted trees to honor Melissa's efforts to strengthen urban and rural forests.

Donations poured in to Helping Paws the service dog nonprofit where the Hortmans volunteered and where their beloved Gilbert, who was also shot that night, was trained.

The organization established the Hortman Heroes Fund to train service dogs to help first responders and veterans with PTSD. Their dog Gilbert was actually going to be part of that program. And they trained their dog, but in the end, it was decided their dog was just too friendly to be part of the program in the end, and Melissa and Mark were happy to have him back. And he died with them that weekend.

Minnesota stood up in their names, for Gilbert, for their family, and mostly for Melissa and Mark, and we remember them.

Our State has lost a lot this year. Just weeks after we lost Melissa and Mark, we were once again shaken to our core by a deadly mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church and then the winter with 3,000 Federal Agents and the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

Our State has been at the center of America's heartbreak, but we have also been at the center of its courage and its hope. No one exemplified our State's courage and hope more than Melissa. I wish everyone in this Chamber knew Melissa. We treasured her in Minnesota. She is the epitome of what you want in a public servant, the epitome of someone who stood up for her neighbors.

I first got to know her when we were both running for office around the same time, both with little kids, me for the county attorney's office, her for State legislature.

We went door to door together, and even back then it seemed like she knew every story and every family in her district. She left a lasting impact on each of us, and over her 20 years in the Minnesota State House, she left a lasting impact on our State. As minority leader and then speaker, Melissa always guided her caucus with conviction and a sense of humor. She was always there to support her colleagues, but she also wasn't afraid to call out the all-male card game taking place when they should have been on the floor debating.

And after being chosen by her colleagues to be their speaker, the first thing she did for the State house was to get rid of the speaker's mute button because Melissa always listened to her colleagues, and she said at the time:

I have a gavel . . . and a gavel is good enough for me.

And with that gavel, Melissa became one of the most consequential and arguably the best speakers in the history of our State. Because of Melissa, all Minnesota students get a school lunch so hunger doesn't stop them from learning and reaching their potential.

Because of Melissa, Minnesota voters can cast a ballot that works best for them, whether that is early voting, mail-in voting, or same- day registration.

Because of Melissa, women in Minnesota can access reproductive care and continue to make their own decisions about their futures.

And because of Melissa, who created the Minnesota Community Solar Program, which now bears her name, our State is a leader in clean energy and protecting the environment.

She was a generational leader. She led with integrity and courage. She consistently reached across the aisle to make life better for Minnesotans.

And her husband Mark, he was compassionate, smart, kind. I met so many people who worked with him in his workplace over the years and loved him just as much as the legislators loved Melissa.

As we remember Melissa and Mark, we must also continue to address the significant increase in threats and acts of political violence we have seen across the country against people of both parties. I want to extend my gratitude to the local, State, and Federal law enforcement officers who responded that night and who have continued to be there for our State.

It was Melissa, who once said that ``in politics, often the easiest thing for anyone to do is run to a microphone, sharpen their dagger, and see who has the best press conference. But what's excruciatingly difficult in all this high emotion is to get people to the table,'' she said, ``and to slog through the work that has to happen.''

She was right then, and her words hold true today. Each of us has a responsibility to bring more people to the table and to take on the hard work.

Melissa and Mark met as volunteers, working to help kids in their community, and their dedication to serving others never wavered.

In her wallet, in her purse, after she died, they found a prayer that she always carried, by St. Francis of Assisi. It said this. It said:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.

May we all be instruments of peace just like Melissa.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I rise today to honor my friend Cindy McCain for her incredible work as executive director of the World Food Programme.

Cindy assumed leadership of the World Food Programme in 2023 and has since been a clear voice for hungry families around the world. She has done this work during a critical period of time, as hunger and food insecurity reached alarming levels. She has been an advocate for people around the world facing hunger, malnutrition, displacement, and trauma, and she has been a leader in delivering vital assistance.

In recent years, we have seen global food insecurity rise around the world, primarily as a result of conflict and the ensuing displacement, continuing climate shocks and droughts that disrupt food supplies, and a world economy characterized by uneven growth and high food prices. As leader of the World Food Programme, Cindy strengthened the ability of the WFP to respond to all of these factors and worked to modernize the agency so that it could sustain and improve its work delivering food assistance.

Cindy has been a clear voice for food aid in Ukraine and Gaza. She has been steadfast in her support of Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression and worked tirelessly to help Ukraine maintain and build its agricultural sector. She also visited Gaza in August of 2025, pointing out the deepening crisis and calling for a surge of aid to help suffering families.

And as this administration worked to dramatically cut out global food assistance programs, Cindy defended them strenuously, meeting with Democrats and Republicans in Congress and urging them to hold strong in supporting global food aid. At a time when too many are walking back from decades of consensus about the value of foreign aid and hunger relief, Cindy has been a true leader, not just in delivering aid abroad, but in reminding us here of our obligations around the world.

Cindy's public service, just like that of her husband before her, is a true reminder that targeted and smart foreign assistance is vital not just for hungry people, but for our national interests and American security as well.

A month before he passed away, my husband John and I visited John and Cindy at their ranch in Arizona. Even while battling brain cancer, he continued to be engaged in the issues of our time, and he continued to have that signature McCain humor and that grit.

My last memory of John was something that happened on that visit. He pointed to a sentence in his book and said, ``That's all that matters.'' The sentence was this: ``Nothing in life is more liberating than to fight for a cause larger than yourself.''

Cindy has been dedicated to changing and saving lives--fighting to end world hunger, with horrific conflicts and a changing climate. We are so grateful to her for her strength, inspiration, and dedication.

Mr. President, today we mark 40 years since C-SPAN began its coverage of the U.S. Senate, bringing the work of this body directly into people's living rooms. It doesn't seem very radical right now. We are all used to it. But back then, it was revolutionary.

C-SPAN's commitment to providing a crucial connection between the U.S. Senate and the people we serve has remained strong ever since that day 40 years ago. That commitment can be seen in the incredible volume of coverage since June 2, 1986, when C-SPAN2 was born. And the presiding officer on that late spring day? Senator Chuck Grassley.

Altogether, C-SPAN2 has recorded more than 43,000 hours of Senate sessions, capturing more than 169,000 Senate floor speeches--169,000. These recordings have preserved the voices of 359 different Senators, including 185 Republicans and 167 Democrats and 7 Independents.

These hours include memorable moments like that of Senator Bob Dole on that first day of televised coverage, saying, ``No longer will the great debates in this Chamber be lost forever''; of then-Senator Tom Harkin, author of the Americans with Disabilities Act, closing his farewell speech in American sign language; or of the Dalai Lama serving as the Senate guest Chaplain in 2014. All of those moments would have been lost to history, but they were captured by C-SPAN.

As we celebrate these last four decades of coverage in the Senate, think back to 1986. Prince, whom we sadly lost 10 years ago, had recently released his eighth album, ``Parade''; the film ``Top Gun'' was released; and, yes, the Bemidji State Beavers of Bemidji, MN, won the Division III men's ice hockey national championship. But back then, Senators were hesitant to embrace C-SPAN2--the lighting wasn't great in those first few years--but they eventually came around to see this great asset to our democracy for what it is: a way to shine the light on the work in the Senate and a way for Americans, whether they agree with us or not, to stay up to date on what is happening.

When there are big votes or big debates going on, people tune in or they see the clips and the coverage later. It is not just the people who are able to come to Washington--as exciting as that is--to sit in the Chamber, as some people are doing today, but what this does is extend it to everyone.

Last year, on its 39th birthday, Senator Grassley and I passed a resolution celebrating all that C-SPAN2 had accomplished. In our resolution, we urged all television providers, including streamers, to carry C-SPAN because we need to make sure that access to C-SPAN keeps up with changing technologies so that every household in America can see their elected Representatives--the work they do, the positions they take, the votes they make. Since our resolution passed, YouTube TV and Hulu have begun carrying C-SPAN on their platforms. Now we need to extend that beyond.

C-SPAN's live coverage across multiple platforms continues to keep the American people informed and keep them engaged with their democracy.

Thank you again to Senator Grassley for working with me to highlight C-SPAN's critical role, and thanks to him for presiding over the Senate on that first day of coverage 40 years ago. I am sure he doesn't look one bit different today. And thanks to everyone who has had a hand in C-SPAN's continuing, important role in our democracy over the last 40 years.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I rise today to recognize the life and legacy of the late artist and musician Prince Rogers Nelson. A global legend, a Minnesota icon, Minnesota's Purple North Star, Prince was a once in a generation talent from the moment he stepped on stage for the very first time.

Born and raised in Minneapolis, Prince rooted his life and work in Minnesota, building his home and studio Paisley Park just 20 minutes southwest of Minneapolis. Prince filmed various scenes from his iconic film ``Purple Rain'' in the city and pioneered the ``Minneapolis Sound'' in the late 1970s and 1980s that influenced music for decades to come.

It was that sound, and Prince's remarkable voice and vision, that propelled him to historic heights. He sold 39 studio albums and 150 million records worldwide. Prince won seven Grammys, an Oscar, and a Golden Globe, and he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004, the first year he was eligible.

Throughout his extraordinary life, Prince always called Minnesota home. He wrote a song about the Minnesota Vikings, appropriately titled ``Purple and Gold.'' In 2015, when the Minnesota Lynx won their third WNBA championship, he held a concert at Paisley Park. And just a few days before his passing, Prince hosted a dance party there and made a brief appearance.

Prince envisioned that Paisley Park would be open to the public one day and now, as a museum, recording studio, live music venue, event space, and education organization, Paisley Park is dedicated to fulfilling that dream and keeping Prince's memory alive and connected to his hometown. As we continue to mourn his loss, we also continue to celebrate his life, his legacy, and his music. This year's 10th anniversary celebration in the Twin Cities brings together people from around the world and from all walks of life to celebrate the contributions and impact that Prince had on the community.

Like most Minnesotans and Americans, I remember listening to Prince for the very first time. His talent and creativity changed music forever, and he will forever be missed.

So today, I rise to honor Prince and his legacy as we mark Minnesota's 10-year celebration.

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

Mr. President, I rise to join my colleagues in standing up for democracy where every eligible American has a voice and the right to vote.

I want to thank Ranking Member Padilla for organizing this floor block today and for his leadership in the fight for our democracy. The freedom to vote is the bedrock of our government, and it is fundamental to all of our freedoms. It is how Americans make their voices heard and hold their elected officials accountable.

It has stood the test of wars, economic strife, and a global pandemic. And now, despite continued attacks on access to the ballot box, we must continue the difficult but critical work of protecting and advancing this right. It is on every generation to do that.

That work hasn't always been easy. Throughout our country's 250-year history, there have been moments when we have needed to course correct and take action to ensure that our country lives up to its ideals. This is one of those moments.

On April 29, in a decision joined by six Supreme Court Justices, the Court in the words of Justice Kagan: Completed the demolition of the Voting Rights Act.

In doing so, it undermined fair representation across the country and made it harder for all Americans to have an effective voice in our political process; and it created chaos, including in Louisiana where ballots were already being cast.

Congressman John Lewis once said that voting is the most powerful tool we have to create a more perfect Union. It was John Lewis' faith in our country and our democratic ideals that led him to Selma, AL, where he helped lead 600 marchers across the Edmond Pettus Bridge on that dark day that became known as Bloody Sunday. The horrific events of the day shocked the Nation. Soon after, President Lyndon Johnson came to the Capitol and, as he said, with the outrage of Selma still fresh urged Congress to guarantee the freedom to vote.

Months later, with the help of former Minnesota Senator and Vice President Hubert Humphrey, whose desk I stand behind right now, whose name is carved into this desk, the Voting Rights Act was signed into law.

And historically, protecting meaningful access to the ballot box has brought both sides of the aisle together. The Senate reauthorized the Voting Rights Act in 1982 by a vote of 85-8, including 43 Republicans; in 1992, by a vote of 75-20, including 25 Republicans; and in 2006, with a unanimous 98-0 vote, 51 Republicans.

But now so much of the progress that Americans have fought and even died for is at stake. In case after case, these Justices have gutted critical statutes that protect Americans' constitutional rights and diminish our voice in democracy. In cases like Citizens United, the Court unleashed a wave of special interest spending in our elections. In the Shelby County and Brnovich decisions they led to a flood of laws that made it harder for eligible Americans to vote.

The Court has barred Federal courts from policing partisan gerrymandering as well. And now in Callais, it has allowed States to dilute minority votes. In parts of our country, these actions are already effectively shutting minority voters out of the political process. Six Justices overturned Congress' express purpose and effectively eroded section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. The Court has green-lit racial gerrymanders that undermine fair and equal representation, and in the words of Justice Kagan in dissent ``threatens a half-century's worth of gains in voting equality.''

In her dissent in Brnovich, Justice Kagan noted that the Voting Rights Act reminds us of the best of America because it, in her words ``marries two great ideals: democracy and racial equality''--and the worst of America because it was and remains necessary. That couldn't be clearer today. After the Callais decision came down, Republican legislatures immediately started the process to carve up majority- minority districts. In some cases, like in Louisiana, they did so even though the votes had already been cast.

The fact that all these States have rushed to change their maps to dilute the votes of certain communities shows that the Voting Rights Act is needed now more than ever.

It shows, as Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg noted in her dissent in Shelby County, the shortsightedness of undermining a law that is serving its purpose, likening the Court striking down at that time section 5 of the Voting Rights Act to ``throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet.''

And yet it also demonstrates the power of the vote, the power that the American people hold when they exercise their constitutional rights and hold their leaders to account. In election after election, it is clear the American people are demanding change. This is no surprise. This administration has been hurting people across the country with their costs, chaos, and corruption.

The President went into a unilateral war without coming to Congress, and in a significant vote today, Congress said no. Congress should have a say. The Senate should have a say.

Americans, why are they so angry? Well, they are seeing rising costs, not just for gas prices from this unauthorized war, but also for food and housing and healthcare costs from these tariffs and refusal to extend the ACA, the Affordable Care Act tax credit, and a refusal to step back and say: Perhaps we should just have targeted tariffs instead of pushing the economy into a tailspin with these across-the-board tariffs. And then trying to do it again and again and again even when the Court says that the IEEPA tariffs were illegal.

The President himself has said:

I don't think about Americans' financial situation.

Americans heard that loud and clear.

The fact is our colleagues know that this agenda is not right. They know that they shouldn't be rubberstamping everything the President has done, as a number of our colleagues just showed with this vote on the war powers.

Well, now we ask them to join us, to listen to the American families and change these policies. This administration is doing all it can to make it harder for the American people to have a meaningful say in our democracy.

You know, Democrats win sometimes; Republicans win sometimes. And when you lose an election, as we have been seeing in these races across the country, then you should listen. You should say: We should maybe change our policies or maybe we should change our candidates or maybe we shouldn't just listen to everything about what the President wants or who the President wants us to vote for. That is how a democracy works.

But instead with both the SAVE America Act and with this court ruling, they are trying to change the rules of the election and trying to change the people who can vote instead of changing their policies and candidates, which has historically been how Americans have been able to find agreement and a party is able to win because they actually find policies and ideas that people want to hear about and that they think will change and improve their lives.

So the SAVE America Act, legislation that Donald Trump, by his own admission, has said ``will guarantee the midterms,'' that bill would create burdensome hurdles for people to register to vote and result in voters' sensitized data being turned over to the Federal Government, something the Justice Department has already tried to illegally pressure States to do, and that is far from the only attack on elections by this administration.

The President has repeatedly threatened to nationalize election administration, replacing the judgment and experience of State and local officials--Democrats and Republicans--going so far as to say:

Republicans should say we want to take over. We should take

over the voting . . .

Now, Minnesota and 18 other States have sued and have won a preliminary injunction because, as the judge wrote, the Constitution does not grant the President any specific powers over elections. Undeterred, the President continues to float illegally ending mail-in voting nationwide and directing the Postal Service to simply refuse to deliver some voters' mail-in ballots.

There are also concerns that Federal agents could be deployed to polling locations to intimidate voters--something that is of special concern in my State given what we saw with the overrun of ICE agents doubling the number of Minneapolis-St. Paul police for months.

Make no mistake, six Supreme Court Justices have damaged our democracy, but they do not have the last word because, as Justice Ginsburg, whom we miss very much, noted in her Shelby County dissent:

Under our constitutional structure, Congress holds the lead

rein in making the right to vote equally real for all U.S.

citizens.

It is long past time for Congress to pass the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, and it is long past time for us to pass other commonsense bills, like the effort I worked on alongside the ranking member of the Rules Committee, Senator Padilla, and Senator Schumer, to advance the Freedom to Vote Act--legislation that, instead of creating barriers to the ballot box, expands access to the polls to ensure all eligible Americans can vote regardless of their ZIP Code.

Ultimately, the final check on a Supreme Court weakening our democracy and an administration that is doing all it can to rig the rules--that check is the people. Americans are seeing what has happened, and it really makes them mad. They have turned out to vote in municipal elections, in the Mar-a-Lago legislative election, in cities from Omaha to Miami, in places like Texas--all over this country.

In Selma, the police brutally attacked the peaceful marchers. John Lewis' skull was fractured, and he bore the scar for the rest of his life. The images were broadcast nationwide and shocked the American people.

Every year since, there is a ceremony to commemorate Bloody Sunday. I was there a number of years ago with Congressman Lewis. That weekend, after 48 years, the White police chief of Montgomery handed his police badge to Congressman Lewis and publicly apologized for the police not protecting him and the freedom marchers. Nearly half a century later, that apology came.

Mr. President, 48 years is a long time to wait for an apology, and it only happened because people like Congressman Lewis never quit fighting for progress, for civil rights, for economic justice, and to defend the voting rights of every American. So today, less than 1 month after the Callais decision, when the challenges we face are clear, we cannot quit either.

Just this past weekend, thousands again protested in Selma and Montgomery for the fundamental freedom to make their voice heard in our democracy because the people of this country will not be silenced. They marched because, in Congressman Lewis' words, ``The right to vote is precious and almost sacred, and one of the most important blessings of our democracy.''

When those marchers did what they did and proved then what we must remember now and what those marching in Selma and across the country remind us today is that although progress may not be without setbacks-- and we are in a major one right now--no obstacle will block the American people from having their voice heard.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, we have a vote before us today, and this vote is involving an unprecedented use of a procedural mechanism that would have far-reaching consequences, not just for the beautiful Boundary Waters Canoe Area in Minnesota, but for public lands across our country.

And I want to thank my colleagues, including, of course, Senator Smith who you are about to hear from, Senators Heinrich and Baldwin for speaking out against this resolution on the floor last night.

I have especially been careful when you look at a project like the one proposed here that is so close to the cherished Boundary Waters Canoe Area, and I continue to have concerns about this administration's intention and their disregard of science across the board in every Agency in the government, but especially when you are looking at something like this.

So, as many of my colleagues know, I am the granddaughter of an iron ore miner. My grandpa loved that life, but he mostly also loved the time he had in the outdoors. He would go down in a cage 1,500 feet every single day with the lunch bucket that my grandma would pack for him, that black lunch bucket.

I always thought, what did he think when he was going down every day, when he was saving money in a coffee can to send his two sons to college when he never even got to graduate from high school? Well, he would think of the outdoors because he loved to hunt, he loved to fish, and he loved to pick blueberries.

In his later years, he became a foreman of the mine. I would meet people when I was first running for the U.S. Senate up in Northern Minnesota, where my relatives live, and they would say to me: You know, my dad worked with your grandpa.

They said: A lot of times, the foremen would never go down when they found a new part of the mine. They would always stay up at the top and radio down. But your grandpa always went with the guys, and he always went first.

That was my grandpa.

So the joy he had was the outdoors.

That mining life is so important in Northern Minnesota. And I have stood with our miners. I have stood with them when steel was dumped from China. I have brought the former President's Chief of Staff up to Northern Minnesota, where we met with steelworkers, where we met with mine owners, and we have made the case for changes. We have made the case for their benefit. We have made the case for them. And that is why we are getting a new mine, Mesabi Metallics, which is a taconite mine that I just visited last week. It is incredible. Hundreds and hundreds of new jobs are about to open, construction jobs. That permitting process has been fair, and it has been fast. But what we have today is something else.

It has always been a balance of the working life and mining and the outdoors. My family values the outdoors. My mom and dad met in the Twin Cities Hiking Club, and generations of Minnesotans have found the same joy up north.

So let's talk about H.J. Res. 140. It would threaten public lands across the country. So many of our colleagues know this. Senator Smith has made this case ardently and repeatedly.

Secretaries of the Interior have long had the ability to issue public land orders to reserve Federal land for specific uses, setting it aside for things like infrastructure, certain military purposes, training, border security protection, and, yes, conservation. But now, for the first time, the Congressional Review Act is being used to rescind the public land order that bans mining in the Boundary Waters for 20 years.

Senator Heinrich, the ranking member on the Interior Committee, will soon tell you that this is unprecedented. Public land orders have never been considered rules under the CRA and have never been submitted to Congress' rules.

The Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service conducted a public input process.

Today, the CRA before the Senate is being used simply as a way of revoking the land withdrawal without having to conduct the level of public engagement that is expected.

The unprecedented use of the CRA will have broader disruptive impacts on the ability of land management agencies to oversee public lands all across the country. Yes, this is focused on Northern Minnesota today, but where will it be next time? What part of your State will it be focused on? What will happen to your public lands?

If this CRA resolution were approved, public access to some of the Nation's most treasured landscapes could be lost and the careful management of their lands and waters eliminated.

There are hundreds of public land orders that have been issued to protect our public lands that would be put at risk. Twenty-five military withdrawals would no longer be considered final. The CRA could even threaten the protected status of the Grand Canyon.

So I will close with this, as I did last night. Sigurd Olson, the great Ely, MN, author and conservationist who went from that small, hardscrabble mining town to great national prominence, someone who loved the land and was a beautiful author--he wrote:

Joys come from simple and natural things: mists over

meadows, sunlight on leaves, the path of the moon over water.

That is the Boundary Waters to me. That is the Boundary Waters to so many people in Minnesota and across our country.

In 1978, President Jimmy Carter signed into law Hubert Humphrey's bill to protect this area by creating the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

This was a special, special place to my dad and to our family. My dad actually went to Ely Junior College when Sigurd Olson was the dean, and that launched a lifelong friendship. I found books of Sigurd Olson's in my dad's belongings after we lost him, with notes of my dad of their meetings together and their time together.

As my dad said, the Boundary Waters is a million acres of waterways and forests unlike any in the United States. So we should be preserving and treating these public lands as treasures, not messing around like is happening today.

Mr. President, it is time to lead with diplomacy and negotiate an end to the war in Iran. This war has cost the lives of U.S. servicemembers, worsened the economic strains facing Americans, and spread instability across the Middle East.

At the same time, we need to focus on diplomacy to end the conflict in Lebanon and to preserve the possibility for Israel and the Palestinians to negotiate a two-state solution, which I have long supported.

At this time, I do not believe that providing bulldozer equipment and additional offensive weapons will help to

achieve these objectives, not when destruction in the West Bank is undermining prospects for an eventual Palestinian state, civilian casualties are mounting in Lebanon, and the humanitarian situation in Gaza remains dire. My support for these joint resolutions is consistent with my votes last July.

I have consistently supported Israel's right and capacity to protect its people, including through air defense systems to intercept missiles and drones. I strongly believe Iran must not obtain a nuclear weapon. Today, the United States should prioritize diplomacy to secure this goal.

Mr. President, this bill is an unprecedented use of a procedural mechanism that would have far-reaching consequences, not just for the Boundary Waters, as Senator Smith has explained, but for public lands across our country.

I have always supported science-based review, especially a project so close to this cherished Boundary Waters canoe area, and I continue to have concerns about this administration's disregard for science.

So as many of my colleagues know, I am the granddaughter of an iron ore miner. My great-grandparents came from Slovenia, and that was the job that my great-grandpa came to do. He died very young from his work, and then my grandpa took it up. He started very, very young in underground mines with a number of brothers and sisters that he took care of when his parents died, married my grandma, and this was his life. And he loved that life.

But he mostly also loved the time he had in the outdoors. He loved to hunt. He loved to fish. Every day he would go down 1,500 feet in that cage in that mine and always thought about what he thought about with that black lunch bucket that my grandma packed for him every single day in that little house that they had taken when a mine closed down in Babbitt. They put it on the back of a flatbed truck and they blew a hole with dynamite in the ground and put that house on top of it. That was their life.

My grandpa worked most of his life in the mines as did so many friends. He became, in his later years, the foreman of the mine, and I would meet people when I was first running for U.S. Senate up in Northern Minnesota that would say to me: You know, my dad worked with your grandpa. And whenever they explored a dangerous part of the mine, the other foreman wouldn't go. They radioed down from above. But your grandpa, he went first. He went with the guys, and he went down in the mine.

Such a big part of my life. That is why I have stood with our miners. I have stood with them when we had steel dumping from China and brought President Obama's chief of staff up to Northern Minnesota, met with our steel workers and our unions.

I have stood with our workers through good times and bad and will continue to do that. We have, as Senator Smith explained, some exciting new projects up there like Mesabi Metallics which is going to be a big taconite mine, a modern mine with some of the biggest equipment in the country. And we will have more.

But what this is about today is something else because my grandpa always got that balance. It was a balance of the working life that we must continue up in Northern Minnesota and a balance of the world around him, that world where he loved to hunt and he loved to fish.

I was 18 years old before I took a vacation that didn't involve a tent or a camper in one way or the other. I grew up in a family that valued the outdoors. My mom and dad met in the Twin Cities Hiking Club and generations of Minnesotans have found this same joy: hiking, paddling, camping in the Boundary Waters, and our beautiful parks. But I don't think they would have ever expected this.

H.J. Res. 140, as I noted, is an unprecedented use of a procedural mechanism that would have far-reaching consequences, not just for the BWCA but for other public lands. Secretaries of the Interior have long had the ability to issue public land orders to reserve Federal land for specific uses, setting it aside for things like infrastructure, certain military purposes, training and border security, or protection and conservation.

And public land orders are carefully made. The U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management gather public input. They hold townhalls. They analyze inputs.

But now for the first time, the Congressional Review Act is being used to rescind a public land order. Public land orders have never been considered rules under the CRA and have never been submitted to Congress as rules.

Today, the CRA before the Senate is being used simply as a way of revoking the land withdrawal without having to conduct that public engagement. And this unprecedented use of the CRA will have broader disruptive impacts on land management agencies' ability to oversee public lands all across the country.

This process is focused on Northern Minnesota today, but this new precedent could lead to Congress overturning public land orders elsewhere.

The Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service have long been trusted with working with landowners, nearby towns, and counties, and others to develop plans for managing public lands. This is often a give-and-take process built on trust. But this Congress, for the first time, has disrupted decades of work by the Bureau of Land Management and has stepped in the way of locally led land management.

These CRA resolutions disregard extensive public input. If this CRA resolution were approved, public access to some of the Nation's most treasured landscapes could be lost and the careful management of their lands and waters eliminated.

There are hundreds of public land orders that have been issued to protect our public land that could be put at risk: The Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge in Montana, considered a sportsman's paradise for its elk and bighorn sheep hunting; the 355,000 acres of Federal land near the Chaco Canyon National Historical Park in New Mexico. The precedent potentially being established today could pave over the comprehensive process undermining these landowners.

The CRA even threatens the protected status of the Grand Canyon, which happens to sit on significant mineral deposits. This precedent could lead to CRA resolutions beyond the BLM's work. Forest Service plans might be the next Land Management Agencies Congress attempts to disrupt using this process.

This ultimately could lead to Washington micromanaging public lands rather than letting the people and experts that live near the forest, grasslands, and waterways have a say.

So look at who is concerned about what is happening in the Senate today, the groups that are supportive of what I have been talking about here and are against this effort: American Fisheries Society, American Fly Fishing Trade Association, American Hunters & Anglers, Angler Action Foundation, Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, Bass Anglers Sportsman Society, Fly Fishers International, the Izaak Walton League of America, Minnesota Trout Unlimited, Minnesota Wildlife Federation, National Deer Association, National Wildlife Federation, North American Falconers Association, North American Grouse Partnership, Pheasants Forever, Quail Forever, Sportsmen for the Boundary Waters, Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, Trout Unlimited, Whitetails Unlimited, Wildlife Management Institute, the American Canoe Association, the Outdoor Alliance, Outdoor Life, Outdoor Realm.

So maybe some time should be taken to listen to what some of these national groups are saying that care about what my grandpa and my dad cared about, and that is public lands that can be used for recreation, for canoeing, for hunting, and for fishing.

So I will end with this: Sigurd Olson, the great Ely, MN, author and conservationist, wrote that ``joys come from simple and natural things, mists over meadows, sunlight on leaves, the path of the moon over water.''

This is the Boundary Waters. So Sigurd Olson just happened to be the dean of Ely Junior College and yet he rose to this national fame and that is when my dad met him because my dad went to a 2-year college, Ely Junior College, because my grandma believed that somehow that would launch his career in journalism. She happened to be right, but no one would have believed it then.

But Sigurd Olson was then the college dean. My dad and Sigurd Olson maintained a friendship for many years, powered by their shared love for the written word, for the Boundary Waters, and for their efforts to preserve Minnesota's forests and parks.

In 1977, President Jimmy Carter signed into law Hubert Humphrey's bill, and this is the desk that I stand at today--Hubert Humphrey's desk--to protect this area by creating the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

And the Boundary Waters are now the most visited wilderness area in the country, welcoming 150,000 people each year. Over the course of my dad's career, he wrote 8,400 columns, more than a few of which were dispatches from the Boundary Waters. Speaking to the complexity of this national wonder, my dad wrote about the Boundary Waters: This is a place of woods and lakes and repose most of the time where a person can roam or drift or watch and listen. And that is not so much different in winter than in summer.

He called it a million acres of waterway and forest unlike any in the United States.

And my grandpa who loved that area, loved the forest, understood that you can make both things work but not when you are messing around with rules, not when you are not even taking the time to look at what is happening here to our public lands, and instead are just making this decision at night and going home for the day.

I thank Senator Smith for her work, and I ask my colleagues to vote with us and listen to us about what is going on here.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, on Friday, March 20, 2026, I attended the funeral service of MSG Nicole Amor, of White Bear Lake, MN, who was killed in action while serving in Kuwait. I would have voted against the DHS appropriations bill that was before the Senate, (rollcall vote No. 59), as I had on rollcall vote Nos. 38, 39, 47, and 54.

As I have stated in the past, I support proposals that will immediately fund the Department of Homeland Security's critical national security functions such as cyber defense, airport safety, and the Coast Guard. But, following DHS's actions in Minnesota which resulted in the deaths of two American citizens, as well as repeated violations of the Constitution and defiance of court orders, I will not vote to support continued funding for ICE, which already has $75 billion in guaranteed funding from the bill that was passed last summer, until critical reforms to rein in unlawful behavior and restore accountability are secured.

Mr. President, last December, Congress passed into law the Honoring Our Fallen Heroes Act as part of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026. This important law was passed to expand access to Federal support for the families of firefighters and other first responders who pass away from service related cancers, through the Public Safety Officers' Benefits--PSOB--Program. Firefighters put their lives on the line everyday to keep us safe, and the law we passed honors the commitment we make to first responders who make the ultimate sacrifice.

Included in the law is a confidentiality of information provision, ensuring that when families of these heroes apply for the benefits they deserve, the sensitive medical information required as part of their PSOB application remains confidential. Because some parts of the PSOB program, such as benefits arising from the September 11 terrorist attacks, were covered under different statutory frameworks, we drafted the confidentiality of information provision to ensure that a uniform set of rules apply to all PSOB claims.

I understand that the Justice Department has argued that the law passed to help firefighters and first responders somehow prohibits the disclosure of Deaths in Custody Reporting Act data made pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act request. That was not our intent.

Just finish.