Floor Statements

Mr. President, I rise today to join many of my colleagues in standing up to protect American citizens' constitutional right to vote and fighting back against this administration's most recent attack on access to the ballot box.

What are Americans really talking about right now? What do they really wish we were focused on in this great Chamber? Not the SAVE America Act. They would like us to focus on the ``Save America Money Act,'' because Americans see rising costs because of these across-the- board tariffs that I oppose, the gas prices that are surging, the healthcare costs doubling and tripling, because the White House and congressional Republicans decided not to extend the tax credits for their health plans--doubling and tripling of people's premiums, particularly in rural areas where they tend to rely on these plans more.

So instead of simply making their case to the voters of this country, the American citizens, or maybe taking a look at their policies in case there is a way to work with us on the Affordable Care Act tax credits and compromise, or trying to add more energy to the grid instead of taking wind projects off the grid, they are trying to pass legislation to pick the voters with this bill.

And it is by President Trump's own admission. This is not me saying it. He is the one--an exact quote that says of this bill:

It will guarantee the midterms.

As my friend and colleague Senator Raphael Warnock has said: Some people don't want some people to vote.

That is why so many of us have come to the floor this week. We don't think eligible American citizens should be kicked off voter rolls or there should be burdensome hurdles for people to register to vote.

Nothing is more fundamental to our democracy than our fair and free elections and rights of Americans to make their voices heard at the ballot box, whether they are Democrats, Republicans, Independents, whatever political beliefs they have.

Throughout even the most difficult times, Americans have stood in ballot lines because a right to vote is what secures our freedoms. But right now, we are seeing unprecedented attacks on the foundation of democracy from this administration, and we all know it is not for the first time.

There was the insurrection on January 6, right here, right in this Chamber. Someone came up, sat there on the Presiding Officer's desk, a violent mob, for the purpose of trying to stop us from certifying the results of the 2020 election.

I know Senator Blunt and I were the only two Senators left at 4 in the morning with Vice President Pence, who made that walk with the last of those ballots, by officers whose faces were scratched, over broken glass, over to the House. That happened, but democracy in the end prevailed.

And now, the President has threatened to nationalize election administration, replacing the judgment and experience of State and local officials, going so far as to say:

Republicans should say, `We want to take over.' We should

take over the voting . . .

Exact quote.

He also issued an unlawful Executive order to overhaul our Nation's elections and assert Federal control over State-run elections.

Minnesota and 18 other States sued and have won a preliminary injunction because as the judge wrote: The Constitution does not grant a President any specific powers over elections.

Undeterred, the President continues to float illegally ending mail-in voting nationwide, which is incredibly popular in red States and blue, incredibly popular in Utah and Colorado, in Minnesota; and he continues to double down on his repeatedly disproven conspiracy theories about the 2020 election. The FBI seized election ballots from 2020 in Georgia, as well as election records in Arizona.

There are also concerns that Federal agents could be deployed to polling locations. When asked at her oversight hearing about ICE being sent to polling locations, Secretary Noem did not rule out the Agency deploying officers in the future.

And the Justice Department, under this administration, has turned away from its mission of enforcing the Voting Rights Act and has experienced a mass exodus of attorneys.

It has also illegally pressured States to provide voters' sensitive and personally identifiable information to the administration which, by the way, is highly relevant to the bill before us now.

In fact, Attorney General Bondi on the same day that Alex Pretti was killed by Federal agents--shot in the back--that same day, that same few hours, she sent a letter to Minnesota saying the administration would remove ICE from our streets if Minnesota violated the privacy of its citizens by turning over their personal voter data.

So she said: OK, we will get ICE out of there if you guys will give us your data on your voters.

That happened.

In a court hearing, a Federal judge in Minnesota asked the Justice Department:

Is the Executive trying to achieve through force what it

cannot achieve through the courts?

That is a pretty good question when you read that letter, but it is not just Minnesota that is standing up against the Justice Department's pressure. State election officials in 24 States, including Republican officials in Georgia, Republican secretary of state of New Hampshire, Republican officials in Kentucky, and Republican officials in West Virginia have refused to comply with the voter file demands.

And four Federal judges, including judges appointed by President Trump, have ruled that the Justice Department's effort to obtain this data is illegal.

Now, President Trump and congressional Republicans are trying to force through this bill. That would result mandatory in voters' data being turned over to the Federal Government and would empower the Department of Homeland Security to kick American citizens off State voter rolls.

Under this bill, the Department of Homeland Security would run voters' personal data through a tool, a DOGE tool, and tell States who they have to purge from their voter rolls.

So, remember, 24 States, including several Republican officials, including in conservative States like West Virginia, have said no to this. They don't want to give over those data rolls, of the voter data rolls.

But now, this would mandate it that it go to the Department of Homeland Security, the same Agency that gave us ICE in Minnesota.

This will result in these American citizens--when you go back and you are supposed to run this through this tool, this system, these algorithms, and we are supposed to believe that that will all work great, given what we have seen from Homeland Security in the last few months. No way.

At least 24 States, as I noted, already have agreements to share voter data with DHS, and already the Department's tool has misidentified hundreds of American citizens as ineligible to vote. So I already have a proof point. The SAVE America Act isn't about what they are saying it is. In the 64 election lawsuits brought by President Trump and his allies contesting the 2020 election, no judge, including judges appointed by President Trump himself, found evidence of widespread fraud.

His own Attorney General said there wasn't evidence of widespread fraud.

And according to a bipartisan policy center analysis of the Heritage Foundation's database of noncitizen voting across 25 years, there were only 77 cases out of nearly 2 billion votes cast of noncitizens voting. In each of these cases, they faced an investigation.

I know when I was the county attorney in my State, way before any of this technology existed, we would get cases referred to us from the Minnesota secretary of state, and I actually put an investigator on this and looked at every single case to make sure there wasn't a problem. And the vast majority of them, with the exception of one where the school board line went through someone's house and they voted twice, which was illegal, and another one where a guy decided he was going to vote twice. This is in our biggest county. They were all fathers and sons with the same names.

We looked diligently at every single case. We had a Republican secretary of state. She sent them over. We looked at them. We explained it back. That is what I did as county attorney. So I had some experience with this.

Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said:

[We need to make sure that] we have the right people

voting, electing the right leaders to lead this country . . .

And President Trump himself said that, with this bill, Republicans will ``never lose a race'' in 50 years.

So you wonder why we are concerned about this. I believe in free and fair elections. I like the fact that my State has the highest voter turnout. I like the fact, like a number of States, including some red States, we have same day registration. I like the fact that we make it easier for people to vote by mail.

Our State actually was not nearly on the bandwagon with vote-by-mail like Utah was, the Presiding Officer's State, or Colorado. Some States recently changed the rules to be consistent with some of these other States to make it easier for people to vote-by-mail.

But this idea that we are suddenly going to turn over all of our voter data to what is now Kristi Noem's Department, despite her soon departure, is just--I don't think most people in America would think this is a good idea.

The Department of Homeland Security has already violated Federal law by repurposing its SAVE program to verify voters and only issuing their prior notice after being sued by the League of Women Voters. And the Department of Justice even admitted in court--and this was bad--that Elon Musk's DOGE employees shared Americans' personal Social Security data with partisan organizations that worked to purge voter rolls.

Let me say that again. They have already admitted, so you wonder why whenever these secretaries of state, including Republican secretaries of state, don't want to give up this voter data, well, the Department of Justice admitted in court that Elon Musk's DOGE employees shared Americans' personal Social Security data with partisan organizations that worked to purge voter rolls.

So what else happens? There are costly and burdensome hurdles that are designed to make it harder for eligible U.S. citizens to register and cast their ballot. Many common sources of identification that people have come to rely on--driver's license, military ID--would not be enough under this bill.

So people would either have to present a birth certificate or a passport or, as my colleague from Utah pointed out, some kind of affidavit through a State process that may or may not be set up as an alternative.

And if someone's current name doesn't match the name on their birth certificate, the barriers are even higher. So 69 million married women who changed their name, they have to provide some kind of additional documentation that they may not have in order to register. Maybe their State won't set up some process, and maybe they won't want to drive in rural areas hours to go in and submit some affidavit, or maybe they won't have someone that can help them do this affidavit.

In most cases, these women will need to dig up their birth certificates, and I think many of us for one thing or another have had that experience. It is not always easy to get that birth certificate. You try to hide it somewhere, and then you don't remember, and then you have to go and you have to get another copy of the birth certificate.

That is what is going to happen here. Marriage licenses, maybe mine is in my wedding book, don't know. That is what people are going to be thinking right now.

So what happens if people don't have these documents on hand? In fact, more than 21 million Americans lack ready access to the documents necessary to register under this bill, and more than half of Americans--146 million--don't have a passport.

So as Americans are already facing rising costs for necessities like healthcare and housing and energy, now they have to figure out this paperwork--when they are trying to call Social Security and no one answers, when they are trying to call the VA and no one answers, when they are trying to get a loan and USDA is down 20 percent of employees and they can't get anyone to answer or help them, now they have this.

Marriage license, $10; birth certificate, I don't know, in my State it is $24; passport, $165. Maybe your State gets you an affidavit, but where are you supposed to go? How are you supposed to get that done? But it is not just about the documentation.

The SAVE America Act also makes it harder to vote by effectively ending some of the most popular methods of voter registration.

Right now, voters in 45 States, including my State, can register to vote online. And in 2024, more than 14.4 million voters did that. Americans in 46 States and the District of Columbia can register by mail using the Federal form, while two other States use a State absentee voter mail-in registration form.

And in 2024, more than half of all voters registered through automatic voter registration--what a smart way to do it. When they get their driver's license renewed at the DMV or when they interact with another State agency, like their State department of health. But under the SAVE America Act, Americans wouldn't have these options; instead they would have to provide necessary documentation in person. As a result, mail registration, no; online voter registration, no; motor voter is severely limited; and nonpartisan voter registration drives are gone too.

Altogether, the SAVE America Act's in-person voter registration requirements would clearly be a significant barrier, especially for new voters and people who get registered when they get their driver's licenses.

For rural Americans driving 4\1/2\ hours roundtrip or people in Alaska and Hawaii actually having to get on a plane just to register to vote or Tribal voters in remote areas or people who lack reliable transportation and then those in Minnesota and in 22 other States who exercise their rights, under State law, to register in person on election day, as more than 2.6 million Americans, particularly young voters, did--uh-uh. It undermines it. It is by design. It makes it harder. It is kind of hard to see through all of those pages, but it makes it harder and undermines mail-in voting by requiring Americans to provide copies of ``this'' and ``this'' when they submit their mail-in ballots.

President Trump's message on mail-in voting has been inconsistent. He actually voted by mail multiple times, and in 2024, he urged his supporters to do the same. It was good enough for him and his supporters. It should be good enough for all Americans now.

You know, voting by mail is nothing new. It dates back to the Civil War. Now 36 States allow voters to cast their votes by mail, and nearly one-third of voters do. That is a good thing, and it is why I lead legislation that would make sure Americans in every State can request a mail-in ballot. In Minnesota, as I said, we have made it easier for people to vote. There is no excuse vote-by-mail--a lot of States have that--and 46 days of early voting and same-day registration.

By the way, with some of the best voting laws and the highest voter turnout, we have elected Republican Governors like Tim Pawlenty. We have elected Independent Governors like Jesse Ventura, and we have elected Democratic Governors. We had in the legislature, with this voting system, one House Republican and one House

Democratic last year. We have had statewide officials from both parties with an election system that makes it easier for people to vote.

But as Steve Simon--Minnesota's respected secretary of state--has testified, the bill would cost States, counties, and cities untold millions of dollars to implement, and it would require implementation within 60 days of becoming law. As Steve put it, it is a recipe for chaos in our election system.

I think we should be making it easier for people to vote. That is why I worked with my colleagues on the Freedom to Vote Act. That is why I support the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.

Instead of talking about this right now, we should be doing something about Americans' expenses, and why don't we also talk about how AI is being used to deceive voters? Whether you are a Democrat or a Republican, no one wants to see fake ads or robocalls where you cannot even tell if it is a candidate you don't like or the candidate you love.

While a number of States--red and blue--have enacted laws to address these threats to our elections, we cannot rely on a patchwork of State laws. Congress must act. That is why I lead legislation to ban content that falsely depicts Federal candidates in political ads to influence Federal elections. I have worked with Senator Josh Hawley--not exactly a flaming liberal. There is another bill to require disclaimers on political ads with images--audio or video--that are substantially generated by AI. That is for the ones, of course, that are constitutional and that allow for parity in certain uses. You could at least put a disclaimer on those to show that it is created by AI so you know if it is real or not. Then, on the ones that falsely depict people, you could actually ban those. That is what they have done in other countries.

While we are talking about protecting our elections, we also need to talk about the need to support our State and local election offices as they work to maintain their election infrastructure to keep pace with new technology and combat cyber security.

But instead of strengthening our election security and making sure that, in our campaigns, AI is not being used in a way that is going to mislead people and that voters are given knowledge of what they are seeing, which is something that is coming right at us in this next election--instead of talking about how to get rid of these across-the- board tariffs that cost households $1,700 last year or the small farm bankruptcies that are at a 5-year high, which has nearly doubled over the last year--as one farmer put it, a perfect, perfect storm of ugly-- or instead of working together to extend the healthcare tax credits or doing something about electricity prices that went up an average of $110 or doing something with this war that they unilaterally started and did not allow Congress to have a say in--and now we have seen an increase of $30 to $40 a barrel. Every $10 increase in a barrel of oil is a $450-a-year increase in gas prices for the average American family. But instead of doing all that when we have seen jobs down in January alone 108,000, and then in February, we lost 92,000 more jobs-- instead of dealing with this and not rubberstamping this President's policies, we are here, talking about a bill that makes it harder for people to vote.

So I urge our Republican colleagues to change course and to work with us on where people really are, which is doing something about how much it costs for them to go on with their daily lives; to work with us on everything from permitting reform to doing something about getting more energy on the grid, to doing something about bringing grocery prices down. We are messing around here.

Protecting the freedom to vote has never been easy, and we have had to course-correct many times to ensure that our democracy is there for people. Americans have fought and died to protect our freedom to vote. They have done so on the battlefield, and they have done it in marches and the civil rights movement; and 61 years after the Voting Rights Act was passed by this Chamber and signed into law, that fight continues today. This bill is not the right bill for this country.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I rise today to join my colleagues in standing up to protect Americans' constitutional right to vote and to fight back against this administration's most recent attack on access to the ballot box.

Instead of making the case to Americans about policies and what you want to do and why you think it is important to have say--the tariffs that in my State are wreaking havoc for our farmers with more yet to come--this legislation would actually be an end-around of the voting process.

This legislation would make it hard for a whole bunch of American citizens to vote, which appears to be the endgame, given what the President has said about it. By his own admission, he said that passing this bill ``will guarantee the midterms.''

That is not my quote. It is an exact quote by the President of the United States.

The SAVE America Act will kick American citizens off State voter rolls. And how is this happening?

Well, this is a complete invasion of the privacy of voters. It makes secretaries of state give the voter rolls--the voter information, the voter data--to the Department of Homeland Security, as in the same Agency that brought us ICE, and then run that information through some kind of DOGE-like system that is somehow going to spit back out to the States which voters they should kick off the voter rolls.

Then the bill also creates the bureaucratic hurdles that make it complicated and costly for American citizens to register to vote or change their registration, particularly for the 69 million women who have chosen to change their name when they got married. Why should they be penalized?

And millions of American citizens don't have the specific document required by this bill to prove citizenship because this bill won't allow for driver's licenses anymore. You have got to produce other documents like a passport or a birth certificate.

More than half of Americans don't have passports, and they cost at least $165 to get. Birth certificates can cost $30. In my State they are $24. And they can take tons of in-person time to obtain.

For anyone that has ever had that experience, maybe for some other purpose that you have to get your birth certificate, it is not always as easy as people think.

And this bill also requires people to register to vote in person at their election offices, effectively ending proven and popular methods of registration used by millions of Americans in Democratic- and Republican-led States all across the country, like online and mail-in registration.

This would be a significant barrier for registration for millions of voters, especially for people in rural areas who have to drive hours to get that registration completed now. Rural Americans in many places would be forced to travel an average of about 4 hours round trip, and some voters in Alaska and Hawaii would be forced to take a flight just to register in person.

This bill creates chaos. Maybe that is not the motivation of some of my colleagues, but I do believe it is the motivation of the President, who basically said:

It will guarantee the midterms.

It is designed to make it harder for American citizens--certain American citizens--to vote. It is designed to undermine mail-in voting and lay the groundwork for this obsession that the President seems to have with banning mail-in voting, while in some States, it is actually the prevailing way that people vote, including a number of red States, as the Presiding Officer is aware.

Because the administration can read the polls, they see that there is major concern in America with high costs. So instead of maybe passing a different bill, which we could call the Save Americans Money Act, which would be doing something about these gas prices when we know it has happened--now gas prices are up $30 or $40 a barrel, $30 to $40 a barrel, and every $10 in increase for a barrel of oil is a $450-a-year increase for the average American family. For the second time ever, the average price of diesel has reached $5 per gallon. Look at what is happening with groceries. Electricity prices were up an average of $110 last year on Americans' bills. Healthcare costs continue to skyrocket.

There are things we can do. We have a bipartisan housing bill we just passed in the Senate that needs to get passed in the House. We have some permitting bills. I was long a supporter of Senator Manchin's proposal on permitting. We

could get that done. We should be adding energy to the grid. This idea that somehow we are going to think that North Dakota wind is bad in a pretty red State and then ban grants that would have brought that wind, which was good for North Dakota and Minnesota, to Minnesota with a power company in northern Minnesota--that is one of the grants that had gotten singled out and I think has just recently gotten released.

All that stuff are things that we could do to help Americans with their costs. So we should be working on the Save Americans Money Act instead of this.

So I urge my Republican colleagues to change course and stand with us and stand up for the fundamental right to vote. That always used to be bipartisan.

The idea that you are going to make all these people reregister or register with an expensive passport or birth certificate, that they can no longer use their driver's license, that their private voter data is sent to Homeland Security to go through some Elon Musk-designed computer system, is not what people want in this country right now.

I yield the floor.

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

Mr. President, I rise today as our country is in the middle of a war to urge my Republican colleagues to support Senator Murray's proposal that would immediately fund the Department of Homeland Security's critical national security functions--cyber defense, airport safety, the Coast Guard--while negotiations continue on critical reforms on ICE and Border Patrol.

We must restore accountability. No one knows that better than the people of Minnesota with these Agencies, but there is absolutely no reason that we can't do two things at once, and that is fund the bulk of this Department while we are working on the reforms to these two Agencies, both of which have ample funding.

We all saw what happened in Minnesota where the surge of ICE agents-- as local law enforcement in our State made it repeatedly clear--it sadly made our State less safe.

Two of my constituents were killed, Renee Good and Alex Pretti. In fact, in the month of January, two out of three of shooting fatalities--two out of three--in the city of Minneapolis were committed by Federal agents in the entire month.

ICE wrongly arrested a Hmong elder, dragged him out in his underwear as he is trying to show his ID and they didn't see it, drove him around in a car for an hour only to discover they had the wrong guy. The guy they were looking for had been in prison for years.

They targeted kids. We saw 5-year-old Liam in his blue rabbit hat with floppy ears and his Spider-Man backpack.

They stopped a number of off-duty police officers. One of our suburban police chiefs told the story of a police officer where the ICE agents literally took out their guns--every one of those police officers were people of color--and they repeatedly violated the Constitution and defied court orders.

So many people trying to show their IDs shoved into cars, dropped off four blocks later, maybe for the bounties, or taken to the Whipple center and released.

Beyond the human cost, Operation Metro Surge cost taxpayers in Minnesota $18 million a week and Minnesota's economy $80 million a week, and we are still recovering.

But our State stood up together, bringing food, protesting, making sure that people got their kids to school, people bringing strangers' kids to school, and we got an announcement finally of a drawdown to the original footprint.

I just talked to Director Homan about this last week, and he promised to me that they would keep to that plan of the original footprint. They announced some reforms for how those remaining ICE agents and Border Patrol would do their jobs.

But, of course, we want to make that permanent.

And then last week at the oversight hearing, I pressed Secretary Noem, and what we got through not just my questioning but my colleagues', including my Republican colleagues, was a refusal to admit her mistakes or take responsibility for her actions.

So her overdue removal from the Department of Homeland Security is also a good step toward accountability.

This is a start. And the reason that we want to get these reforms put into law is obvious. We are talking about basic police conduct that you see in red and blue States across our country. That is what we are asking for, those standards of conduct.

But as those negotiations continue, what makes the most sense, especially right now, is to make sure that we fund those other Agencies. It is not written in law that you can't negotiate on part of an Agency--and in this case, ICE, and the activities of these Border Patrol agents--that you can't negotiate on that while you are funding the rest of the Agency.

I would hope that our Republican colleagues would actually welcome that because that is a way to make sure that we are getting funding and paychecks are getting delivered, while at the same time, we are doing these negotiations.

And while I did not agree in any way with that major funding increase to ICE--that money could have been used to local police or to pay down the debt, $75 million--but that is what that money went toward, and so they have that money now.

So why don't we focus on getting the rest of the Agency funded?

That is why we put this forward, and that way, we could fund disaster relief, cyber security defense, airport security, and the Coast Guard.

So when people vote against that to fund those important functions, they are blocking pay for TSA agents who keep us safe, and that is, unfortunately, by not taking this agreement, what we are seeing; funds for FEMA; Coast Guard protects our ports and our shorelines; funding for Cybersecurity, which among many things secures our elections, protects our information technology.

So I ask our colleagues: Why--instead of just doing this compromise-- I think they could have proposed the same thing, and we would have definitely supported it.

Why would they want so badly to keep ICE with no reforms that they won't fund the rest of this Agency? It doesn't make any sense, especially since we are proposing commonsense reforms, especially when we are acknowledging, OK, you are not going to agree to it today, but we think it is important to fund the rest of this Agency today so we can keep negotiating with you to fund ICE in the future, but only with these reforms.

I ask my Senate Republican colleagues to join us in this pragmatic proposal. I urge them to listen to the American people who do want to see reforms to ICE and Border Patrol. I think they know that, but the American people also want to fund the important work of FEMA and the Coast Guard and TSA and Cybersecurity.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I join many of my colleagues today in mourning the loss of our servicemembers who have been killed in action in the Mideast, and I am thinking of those who have been wounded. Their sacrifice is a tragic reminder of the gravity of war and why the consequential decision of declaring war requires debate and authorization from Congress.

We must pass Senator Kaine's resolution, which we will be considering tomorrow, to rein in the President because, under the U.S. Constitution, it is Congress, not the President, who has the power to declare war. The President unilaterally, with no authorization from Congress and without a clear justification of any imminent need for war, has gone to war with Iran, and he has done so without laying out a strategic plan or a path forward.

This military campaign has put American troops at serious risk. We have publicly learned--in addition to the classified briefing that I attended today with the Secretary of State and the Secretary of War and the Director of the CIA, we have learned publicly that this is escalating, and we have seen the results even so far. American servicemembers and innocent civilians have been killed. U.S. military bases have been hit. Our Embassies and allies have been attacked.

To be clear, Iran is a terrorist state, and it should never have a nuclear weapon, and the regime's aggression in the region and its oppression of Iranian citizens must end. That is why I have long supported serious sanctions against Iran, why I voted for funding for the Defense Department, and why I supported the Iran nuclear agreement. It wasn't perfect--far from perfect--but I supported that agreement because of our goal--our major foreign policy goal--to assure that Iran did not have a nuclear weapon.

I opposed President Trump's decision a few years back to take us out of that agreement. Even some of my colleagues who had not voted for the agreement to begin with, which I had, did not support the decision of taking us out of the agreement. Our ultimate goal must be peace in the region--and we know all too well that wars for regime change can lead to unintended consequences for years and decades to come. As we see what is happening, we believe--many of us--that Congress should have this ultimate authorization. Not having a plan is not only dangerous for the United States, it is dangerous for our partners and our allies abroad.

This military campaign has introduced increased chaos and danger throughout the region. Military action of this size and scope must be paired with a plan that takes into account the long-term impacts of war and sets achievable goals that do not unnecessarily endanger our troops and innocents. That is not what has happened here. The President has acknowledged that they do not have a clear plan of who will be taking over this nation of tens of millions of people.

That is why I am on the Senate floor today. The American people don't want another war--an endless war--that puts our troops at great risk. I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support this resolution and stand up for the institution in which we serve and stand up for the people we represent.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, last month, I came to the floor after the tragic killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti and talked about what had happened in my State.

Renee Good left behind three kids, including a 6-year-old. When she was shot and killed by an ICE agent, her final words to the officer who shot her were, ``I am not mad at you.''

Alex Pretti was a VA intensive care nurse and guardian angel who did one of the most selfless jobs one could think of, caring for our veterans, often in their final hours.

Last Saturday, I met with the workers who were on the shift that, only 2 weeks before, was that same shift of workers that were on when they found out that their coworker Alex had been killed.

His last words were to a woman who had been pushed down by Border Patrol, and his last words were, ``Are you OK?''

His fellow workers at the VA recounted to me what a kindhearted person he was, how every patient felt like they were the only patient. Other family members of patients had remarked about that too.

The coworkers told me how he was the kind of guy who would fill in on the shifts when someone had a family emergency or just needed time off, and he would fill in for them on their shift, including that Saturday morning shift.

Both Renee and Alex should be alive today, and as we honor their memories, I am on the floor again today following the administration's announcement of its plan to finally end Operation Metro Surge and drawn down the thousands of federalized agents that aren't just in Minneapolis or St. Paul--that, actually, I don't think people quite understand. They are all over our State. They are in the suburbs. They are in small towns.

The number of calls that we get--my office is handling hundreds and hundreds of cases right now, but the cases of just someone who is in the store and gets stopped because they are someone of color or the videos of two White friends with one Latino friend, and it is the Latino they would go up to and say, ``Are you legal?'' And the Latino says, ``Yes, I am,'' and they still throw them in the car, maybe because they could get a bounty. The number of people that were stopped multiple times, the Somali police officers who are off duty that were taken out of their car.

The stories go on and on. You can't have 3,000 ICE agents in a metro area. And, again, they also went rural in a big, big way, but in a metro area, where they outnumber the number of sworn police officers in our 10 biggest police departments, which includes Minneapolis and St. Paul, they were triple the number of sworn police officers in Minneapolis and St. Paul.

But for more than 2 months, Minnesotans stood together. They stared down ICE, and they never blinked. They marched--and I was there, 50,000 strong in 10 below zero weather--peacefully. And what I will never forget is 50,000 people marching peacefully, filling up the entire streets of Minneapolis peacefully, and then less than 12 hours, 24 hours later, 6 Border Patrol guys shot a guy with a cell phone in his hand in the back. They couldn't handle that.

So ICE is withdrawing from Minnesota. It is good. We are glad they are leaving our State, let me be clear. And when I talked to Director Homan about 10 days ago, he said this was the timetable, and they must follow through. He said they would first push out the Border Patrol agents and send them home. And they did that in the number of a couple hundred. And now they are bringing home the remaining Metro Surge ICE agents to get to the original footprint.

But ICE withdrawing from Minnesota is just the beginning. We need accountability for the lives lost and the extraordinary abuse of power in the hands of these agents.

And we, of course, must see a complete overhaul of the Agency. And I do not know how anyone can justify $75 billion extra dollars for this Agency, making them bigger than the FBI,

when that money could still--the remaining money--go to local law enforcement. It could go to help people pay for their healthcare premiums.

For months, ICE has made my State less safe. It is not just a horrific shooting; we have also seen repeated violations of the constitutional rights of the people of Minnesota. I do say to our colleagues, if you believe in the First Amendment, in the right to assemble, then show it. If you believe in the Second Amendment and that Alex Pretti had a right to be a lawful gun owner--and it was the Border Patrol agents that took his gun out of his holster, all he was holding was a cell phone--then show it.

If you believe in the Fourth Amendment and the right against search and seizure and that you can't have armed agents ramming through an elder Hmong man's door, pulling him out in his underwear and throwing him in a car, only to find out, after they drove him around for an hour, that they had the wrong guy and that, in fact, the guy they were going after had been in prison for years and that this Hmong man had done nothing wrong and was the son of a beloved nurse that treated American soldiers in Vietnam.

Those are the stories that people are never going to forget in my State: a fourth grader from Columbia Heights and her mom detained by ICE on the way to school; the little 5-year-old, little Liam, standing there scared in his blue hat with floppy ears and his Spider-Man backpack.

Those two kids, the fourth grader and Liam sent to Texas, and the judge--they sent him to Texas without even waiting to see what the court said. And then the court said: No, can't do that. And then they had to bring him back from Texas in his little blue hat with the little floppy ears.

This administration also sent a 2-year-old to Texas. My staff and many other local lawmakers worked through the night on that case--came back from Texas.

It should never have come to this. A court case was pending, and they put a 2-year-old on a plane when her mom was waiting for her in Minnesota.

These are just a few of the stories. As our local police have repeatedly made clear in the cities and in the suburbs and in the rural areas, ICE's actions have not made us safer. They have made us so much less safe. They have taken taxpayer money--at some estimates, $18 million a week--and spent it on hotel rooms that should have been used for families visiting from Wisconsin and Iowa and Canada that like to go to the Mall of America in the middle of the winter.

Those hotel rooms should have been used by people in Greater Minnesota that want to come in and go ice fishing or enjoy skiing in our State. But instead we had 3,000 ICE agents in Bloomington, MN, alone, our biggest suburb--1,000 ICE agents in their hotel rooms. Think of how much money that is and all the overtime for the police officers that could have been following up on child cases and could have been helping on burglary cases and could have been helping citizens with the trust that they have built over the years.

And that trust, so much on the line now, but kept intact because of how those local police officers throughout our State and local sheriff deputies have handled this travesty. This goes way beyond welcoming help for violent offenders, which we would, or a fraud investigation-- way beyond all of that.

In fact, the opposite has happened because some highly experienced prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney's Office in Minnesota, who have been there through Republican-appointed U.S. attorneys and Democratic- appointed U.S. attorneys, who lead and have led the cases on fraud, the important cases to go after the stealing of taxpayer money, and brought 80-some cases already and won major convictions in court, those prosecutors who are so well-respected in our State were asked to investigate Renee Good's wife after she was gunned down. And they said: No, we will not do that, and they stepped down.

It reminded me of the decorated war veteran in New York in their U.S. Attorney's Office when asked to dismiss a case that had been rightfully brought against then-Mayor Eric Adams. That prosecutor, who had clerked for conservative Justices, a member of the Federalist Society, he said in a letter to the Justice Department:

You may find a fool or a coward to file your motion, but it

will never be me.

That is what those assistant U.S. attorneys, including the former acting head of the U.S. Attorney's Office that had been installed by the Trump administration on my recommendation who did an incredible job through the horrific assassination of former Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband and also was there at the side for the families when those little children were gunned down through stained glass windows at Annunciation Church--those are the people that they messed with and asked them to do something they felt were unethical, and as a result, all of the prosecutors that were heading up the righteous fraud investigations and prosecutions are no longer in that office.

So you tell me how these actions have made our State more safe. It is the opposite: School attendance down; families living in fear; people staying home; restaurants and businesses feeling the impact; Operation Metro Surge costing our Minnesota economy an estimated $80 million per week, all for the shock and awe, where such a small percentage of the people that they apprehended were involved in violent crime.

At its peak, one study showed that the surge cost Federal, State, and local governments at least $18 million every single week. The fact is, Operation Metro Surge put our State at the center of America's heartbreak, but it also put us at the center of America's courage and America's hope.

Every day across our State, people did extraordinary things. Ordinary people did extraordinary things. They drove other kids to school. They brought food to their neighbors. They showed up for small businesses. Teachers and other school leaders stood up and protected their students, organized food drives and computer drives.

Attorneys across our State at private law firms took ICE to court to enforce people's constitutional rights. And judges appointed by Presidents of both parties, including our conservative chief judge of the Federal District Court of Minnesota issued opinions, and strongly worded opinions, demanding that people come into court unless their orders were followed.

Today, the administration's top border official Tom Homan announced the end of Operation Surge and the drawdown of the 3,000 ICE agents-- again, triple the amount of sworn police officers in the combined cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul--leaving only what he has called ``a small footprint.''

He has been straightforward with me since he arrived on the ground in Minnesota, straightforward with our chiefs, and we appreciate that. But we must be vigilant in making sure there is a real and thorough drawdown. We need transparent, objective investigations and justice for Renee Good and Alex Pretti and the many others who had their rights violated by this administration.

There must--must--be new leadership at the Department of Homeland Security, and Kristi Noem must resign. That is what you do with $75 billion? You put bounties on legal citizens? You break out windows of people with disabilities who are born in this country and drag them to a detention center? That is what you do with $75 billion of taxpayer money?

You take Hmong elders and throw them out of their house in their underwear with their Crocs on their feet in below-zero weather and throw them into a car? You stop off-duty police officers just because they are not White? That is what you do with $75 billion? So that is why she must step down.

And there must be major reforms to immigration enforcement, including a complete overhaul of this Agency. Americans want Federal agents to abide by the same code of conduct as local law enforcement and be held accountable when they don't. Americans want transparency. Federal agents shouldn't be masked. They should be required to use body cameras. But that is just the tip of the iceberg.

We must end roving patrols. Federal agents should not enter private property without a judicial warrant. We must end the bounty system that incentivizes arrest without cause and has taken down numerous people, multiple people, hundreds of people in our

State that were legal, born in our State, have passports. They wouldn't even listen to them when they told them as they threw them into a car. We must protect sensitive locations, and the racial profiling must end.

Today, a number of our colleagues, including myself, voted against continuing to fund ICE. Budget shows our values. That extra $75 billion, as I explained, triples the Agency's funding, giving it more money than the FBI. That was wrong.

That money could have gone to local enforcement, Affordable Care Act tax credits for 3 years, and $75 billion would have paid for everyone in the country to get their tax credit extended to help them pay for their premiums under the Affordable Care Act.

An occupying force was in our State. They tried to sow chaos and fear, but Minnesota didn't take the bait. As Bruce Springsteen sings in his new song ``The Streets of Minneapolis'':

Against smoke and rubber bullets

In the dawn's early light

Citizens stood for justice

Their voices ringin' through the night.

We have shown the world how to protect democracy and take care of our neighbors, and we are going to continue to stand up for accountability, for justice, for change.

And when people ask me: What can we do? Well, you do that. You continue to stand up.

When people outside our State say: What can we do to help Minnesota? Well, now, with ICE agents leaving--maybe you want to wait until the weather warms up just a little--you can come and visit our great State. You can fill up those hotel rooms that were taken over by ICE agents and go visit incredible places in our State, where Prince got his start.

You can go to First Avenue. You can go to the Mall of America. You can go up north or down south in Minnesota and see the incredible bike trails and beautiful places and Lake Superior, the most superior lake of them all.

So that is what we want you to do. We want you to come to our State and visit. We want you to invest in our State. We want you to start businesses in our State. We want you to send your kids to school in our State. We want people to come and work in our State because we have shown the country and the world what we are all about.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I was unable to cast a vote on rollcall vote No. 623, passage of H.J. Res. 130, disapproving the Bureau of Land Management resource management plan that made certain land managed by the Buffalo Field Office unavailable for new coal leases.

Had I been present, I would have voted against the measure as I had voted against the identical Senate companion, S. 89, the day before, rollcall vote No. 621. The Congressional Review Act is not the appropriate tool for reversing Bureau of Land Management decisions that are developed with years of analysis and public engagement.

I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, I rise today to honor Colin MacDonald or, as his listeners in the Brainerd Lakes Area have known him for over 30 years, ``Mac,'' as he begins his retirement.

Mac first moved to Brainerd in 1992. He fell in love not just with the beauty of the Brainerd Lakes Area, but with the community that made it such a special place for him and his family to build the next chapter of their lives. Mac quickly began hosting overnights as ``Mac in the Middle of the Night'' on the Power Loon local radio station.

Mac eventually went on to host mornings with his friend and coworker Danny Wild. For 25 years, Mac and Danny were an iconic duo who brought news, laughs, and warmth to the mornings of thousands of Minnesotans. Danny lost his battle with cancer last year, a loss felt by people across the region, but especially by his close and loyal friend Mac.

The kindness and dedication that listeners could hear in Mac and Danny's friendship was a staple of Mac's broadcasting career. In 1994, Mac started calling play-by-play for Brainerd Warriors high school sports, covering football, basketball, baseball, and hockey. For over 30 years, Mac was the voice of Brainerd Warriors sports, calling over 2,000 games, an honor for which Brainerd High School inducted him into the Hall of Fame.

In 2026, as the saying goes, ``Everyone watches women's sports.'' But thanks to Mac, the Brainerd Lakes Area was ahead of the times as he brought coverage of girls' high school sports into the cars and homes of fans, parents, and perhaps most importantly, their daughters.

Mac's commitment to his listeners is matched only by his commitment to giving back to the community directly. He has volunteered as an emcee and spokesperson for both the Minnesota Special Olympics Polar Plunge and the Brainerd/Baxter Walk for Diabetes. He has cochaired multiple United Way campaigns. And he coached girls softball and boys baseball for 15 years, carrying the same dedication to these kids and their teams onto the field that he displayed on the radio for so many years.

Mac is a household name throughout the Brainerd Lakes Area. While his voice is now off the air, the joy that Mac brought to listeners and loved ones alike will be a lasting legacy.

Mac, the Brainerd Lakes region and our entire State are better off because of you. I wish you a restful and well-earned retirement surrounded by those who are lucky enough to call you friend or family.

Mr. President, I want to thank Senator Smith and my colleagues for being here today to stand up for the State of Minnesota, for our Nation, and for our Constitution.

In the last year, we have too often come to the floor to discuss tragedies in our State. This summer, an assassin killed our friend Melissa Hortman, the former speaker of the Minnesota House, and her husband Mark. We were, once again, shaken to our core when a mass shooter attacked Annunciation Catholic Church right in the middle of mass--children in their first week of school--when 2 children were murdered, with 21 more people injured, including 18 kids.

In recent weeks, Minnesota has, once again, been at the center of America's

heartbreak, but we are also at the center of America's courage and hope. We honor Renee Good today--Renee Good, who left behind three children, including a 6-year-old, when she was shot and killed by an ICE agent.

Her wife said this: ``Kindness radiated out of her. . . . She literally sparkled'' and asked everyone to ``honor her memory by living her values: rejecting hate and choosing compassion.''

We also honor the memory of Alex Pretti, a VA intensive care nurse who did one of the most selfless jobs people can think of: caring for our veterans, often in their final hours. He was a man described by his friends and family as a kind-hearted soul.

Both Renee and Alex should be alive today.

It is not just these horrific killings. The administration, through its surge of thousands of ICE and Border Patrol agents to Minnesota-- outnumbering the 10 largest metropolitan police departments combined in the Twin Cities and outnumbering the sworn officers in the Minneapolis- Saint Paul departments by 3 to 1--has repeatedly violated the constitutional rights of the people of Minnesota. The fact is that anyone who cares about federalism, about freedoms, about liberties should be horrified by what is happening.

If you care about the Constitution, I say to our colleagues on the other side of the aisle: You should be horrified because what is happening in our State has been a violation of the First Amendment--the right to assemble--and the Second Amendment. Alex was a lawful gun owner, but he was immediately criticized for that when, in fact, the video showed very clearly--very clearly--because eyes don't lie--that his gun was firmly in its holster and that it was taken out by Border Patrol agents.

They have been violating the Fourth Amendment, ramming into people's homes without having a judicial warrant. Agents have been demanding, without even reasonable suspicion, that Minnesotans show proof of citizenship just based on how they look.

This administration is also going after the Fifth Amendment--the right to due process--as it has denied detainees' access to counsel. As the chief judge in the district of Minnesota--a former clerk to Justice Scalia and a George Bush appointee--has made clear, they have been defying court orders.

So I say to our Republican colleagues: If you are a defender of liberty, you must defend it when it counts, not just when it is convenient.

Federal immigration agents bashed upon a door and detained a Hmong elder, who is a U.S. citizen and whose mom was one of the most loved nurses who took care of our troops during the Vietnam war. They held him at gunpoint without a warrant. They took him out of his home in his underwear. He had nothing but Crocs on his feet. They put him in a car and drove him around for an hour. Then they later discovered they had the wrong guy. In fact, the guy they were looking for had been in jail all along.

We have all seen the photos of 5-year-old little Liam, who was standing there, scared in his blue rabbit hat with floppy ears and Spider-Man backpack, as agents apprehended him.

This administration sent a 2-year-old to Texas despite there being a pending court case. The order was issued, but they didn't want to wait for that. They sent the 2-year-old to Texas when her mom was waiting back in Minnesota. Thanks to the late-night work of my staff and several local lawmakers, she has been reunited with her mom. But it should never have come to this. A court case was pending, but it was disregarded.

In another instance, a U.S. citizen was forced to the ground, placed in a choke hold, and held in a detention center for hours. He offered multiple times to show his U.S. passport but was ignored.

This has gone so beyond any original reason for Federal agents. It has gone well beyond the fraud investigation. That was a good reason to bring people to help, but that is not what this was--not the 2-year- old, not the 5-year-old, not the Hmong elder. It has gone way beyond apprehending violent offenders--not the 2-year-old, not the 5-year-old, not the Hmong elder.

This has turned into a Kristi Noem- and Greg Bovino-driven shock and awe public spectacle that is meant to intimidate our State. In fact, Pam Bondi, on the same day Alex was killed, sent a letter to the Governor of Minnesota, saying the administration would remove these 3,000 ICE agents if Minnesota would violate the privacy of its citizens by turning over their personal voter data--something Republican secretaries of state in States like Georgia have refused to do. The Justice Department has actually sued 24 States for refusing to turn over the data, including, as I mentioned, Georgia and also New Hampshire. Three district court judges have dismissed these cases. It is clear that our State is being targeted, but they have tried to get this data in 24 States. They say: We will bring out the ICE agents if only you will just give us that data.

There are 3,000 Federal officers in Minnesota, and I cannot state it more unequivocally: ICE must leave Minnesota. Law enforcement has made this clear. They can't do their jobs--they can't do their jobs. They can't investigate burglaries. They can't help on some complex cases because they are being called to people's homes all the time because of the ICE agents hanging around homes of just regular citizens, in parking lots chasing people down.

Local businesses, business leaders have come out and said: Enough. Police chiefs in our State have joined together. Police chiefs across the Nation have joined together and said: We believe in proper police procedures and the rule of law. But the biggest story out of this is the everyday people, the ordinary people doing extraordinary things.

They have rallied together, brought food to their neighbors, drove other kids to school, showed up for small businesses and marching 50,000 strong. I was there. I saw it. Fifty thousand peaceful marchers in 10-below weather.

You know, 250 years ago, our Nation declared independence from a King. Our Nation was born from the deep revulsion to the idea of an illegal occupation, a standing army of British troops literally taking over our streets, demanding to see papers, acting with cruelty, resorting to violence.

In those times, newspapers shared what was happening. Well, today, Americans are seeing it firsthand on video. Americans heard Renee Good's final words to the officer who shot her: ``I'm not mad at you.''

They saw Alex spend his final moments trying to help a woman who had been shoved to the ground. His last words: ``Are you OK?''

And just as Americans fought for liberty 250 years ago, they are standing up for liberty now. People across the country are speaking out against this cruelty. And, of course, it is good that Bovino was removed. Other people have to be removed too. Kristi Noem shouldn't be in her job anymore. But mostly we need these ICE agents out of Minnesota, and we hope that happens soon. Border Patrol, they began that removal, but the ICE agents have to get out of Minnesota. It is a very dangerous situation.

I spoke with Alex's parents the next day after we lost him. Through the tears, they talked about what he was like, and they wanted the world to know the truth and how much it hurt them to have senior administrative officials call him a domestic terrorist, call him a would-be assassin.

Alex's sister said:

Alex always wanted to make a difference in this world, and

it's devastating he won't be here to witness the impact that

he was making.

We must stand up. And so we are asking our colleagues--they know the White House. We have all done our best here--but to tell them it is time for those ICE agents to come home. There must be new leadership in the Department of Homeland Security now, and there must be major reforms to these Agencies before this Congress should approve another cent.

First, we need to stop these roving bands. This means coordination with State and local law enforcement and no more bounties that encourage immigration officials to detain individuals even without cause.

We need proper training and a code of conduct that includes transparent investigations and meaningful accountability for when agents break the law or violate the Constitution. This also means use- of-force policies that are the same for local police.

Immigration agents, like all law enforcement, should comply with the Fourth Amendment.

This bounty system--we have had stories. We have hundreds of cases in our offices right now where people were stopped: a White guy, Latino. They said to the Latino: Where are you from? The Latino says: I was born in America. They put him in the car, drive him a few blocks, let him out or take him to the detention center and then let him go.

Bonuses? Bounties? The masks should come off, and the body cameras should go on.

There must be thorough, objective, and independent investigations into these killings. The Justice Department refused to cooperate with local investigators in Minnesota after Renee's death, and over a dozen career prosecutors in Minnesota and Washington resigned rather than take part in a miscarriage of justice.

After Alex's killing, the Federal Government blocked State law enforcement from accessing the crime scene. I know because I got panicked calls--because I used to be a prosecutor in the county--about what was going on.

A Federal judge, appointed by Donald Trump, had to issue an order preventing the Federal Government from destroying evidence.

I am opposed to this ICE funding bill, and I am very appreciative that people are starting to talk about reforms to this Agency. But the money that was passed this summer, $75 billion, making this Agency bigger than the FBI--that was wrong. I opposed it, and so did my Democratic colleagues.

The costs continue to mount. Right now, our Federal, State, and local governments are spending an estimated $18 million a week on the surge in Minnesota alone, and what do you get out of it? Two out of three of the shootings resulting in death in Minneapolis--two out of three--were caused by Federal agents.

I appreciate Senator Schumer. I appreciate my colleague Senator Smith and so many others for saying no to this, and I truly appreciate that a number of our Republican colleagues have started to say that what ICE is doing is wrong. A few have said Kristi Noem should no longer be in her job.

ICE needs to leave Minnesota.

It was in 1776 when future First Lady Abigail Adams wrote to her husband John Adams describing the retreat of British ships from Boston, saying their numbers were so large ``they looked like a forest.'' But despite their force, it was the determination of those demanding liberty that won that day.

For Minnesotans right now, every corner, everywhere that you drive-- really, it is not just the city; suburbs, shopping malls, rural areas-- they see an ICE agent. The people are scared every single day, and it feels like that forest, but out of that forest comes these people of our State that are willing to stand up, citizens that are willing to stand up to help people they may not even know because they understand what is at stake for the liberties of this country.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I am here today to mark 16 years since the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United, which opened the floodgates to unlimited special interest money in our elections.

We had a campaign finance system. It wasn't perfect. There was a bipartisan effort to put some limits on things. The problem with the way it is now is that it opens it up, and it is impossible to even trace what money is coming in and from where.

I want to thank Senator Kelly for bringing us to the floor today to discuss such an important issue for our democracy and thank my colleagues who are here today.

In the 2024 Federal election, secret money groups spent $1.9 billion, nearly double the amount spent just one cycle before. This undermines our democracy and shakes the public's trust because unlimited, anonymous Federal spending in our elections doesn't encourage free speech. It drowns out the voices of the American people who are seeking to participate.

I have long supported a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United and restore the authority of Congress and the States to establish reasonable limits on campaign spending, and I will keep making the case to build support for that effort. In the meantime, there are things that we can do to make our campaign finance system stronger and more transparent.

That is why I have led the effort, alongside Ranking Member Padilla, to advance commonsense bills, including the Freedom to Vote Act, to shine light on secret money and make sure Americans know who is trying to influence their votes. We came very close to passing my bill in the last Congress. The Freedom to Vote Act would provide important new tools to rid our politics of Big Money and root out foreign interference.

It includes the DISCLOSE Act, which I have cosponsored--Senator Whitehouse's bill--in every Congress since 2012, to end secret money in our politics. The DISCLOSE Act also makes it harder for billionaires and others to hide their contributions by ending the use of transfers between organizations in order to cloak the identity of donors. It requires organizations that spend money on political activities to disclose the true owner.

The Freedom to Vote Act also includes my Honest Ads Act, bipartisan legislation that I first introduced with Senator John McCain, whom we miss very much and his leadership when it comes to campaign finance. This bill would require online platforms to take steps to prevent foreign nationals from buying ads. It would ensure that all online platforms disclose their buyers of digital political ads if the platforms reach 50 million or more unique U.S. visitors per month, meaning online platforms would finally have to follow the same rules that TV and radio stations already follow for political ads.

It is simply insane that, in one medium, there are some rules and, in another, there are not. These changes will increase transparency while including commonsense exemptions to protect the First Amendment rights of websites that are simply part of traditional media.

Third, the Freedom to Vote Act would strengthen rules banning the coordination between candidates and super PACs to make sure candidates cannot evade contribution limits by working with their super PACs.

Finally, the Freedom to Vote Act includes important reforms to the Federal Election Commission to improve the enforcement of our campaign finance laws. Since the Citizens United decision came down, 16 years ago, new technologies have emerged that only make the need for reform more pressing. AI videos are making their way into political ads, giving dark money groups a new and cheaper tool with which to influence politicians and mislead the public.

That is why I lead bipartisan bills to ban the use of AI to create deceptive campaign ads--that is a bill that Senator Hawley and I lead-- and to require disclaimers on political ads that have content substantially generated by AI.

Think about it. If they are blatantly deceptive and are not satire or parody, which is allowed by our Constitution, then they are banned. Otherwise, at least there is a label that says ``Created by AI.'' That will let the voters know something is up. Maybe this isn't really the politician I love or the politician I don't love.

Whether it is a question of who is funding an ad or whether or not the content of the ad is real, voters deserve transparency. We need to end secret money in our politics to make sure the American people know their elected officials work for them, not the wealthy and the powerful few, and to make sure we have a government that works for everyone.

I yield the floor.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It's difficult and frustrating to see life crumble before

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

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

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

feels. I hope we can get something changed.

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

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

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

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

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

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I rise today with so many of my colleagues to recognize the anniversary of one of the hardest days our democracy has faced, and I also want to focus on some of the work that we have done to respond and the work we still must do.

Five years ago, insurrectionists--they tried to overturn an election. They assaulted our heroic Capital Police officers and attacked not only this building but American democracy itself.

The President wants to rewrite the story of what happened that day, but he wasn't at that Capitol when the violent mob attacked. I was there.

As the incoming chair of the Rules Committee, it was my job and Roy Blunt's job to make sure all of the electoral ballots were counted. That morning began with pomp and circumstance. Senator Blunt and I and the Vice President led a train of elected officials from the Senate to the House to start the ceremony.

Three pairs of young women held the mahogany boxes with the electoral ballots for the entire country and then came the insurrection. We got back here. I remember speaking--my desk was up there. I remember the police telling me that this was happening, and I had to, in my role, tell the Senators to get away from the windows, and we were brought to an undisclosed location.

Capitol Police officers were attacked, pepper-sprayed, clubbed, and trampled. We were in that room together. I remember praying. I remember incoming President Biden on the TV. I remember the Senators trying to call the National Guard to see if anyone could help.

I remember in there coordinating, talking to Senator Schumer while Senator Blunt talked to Senator McConnell about what we were going to do. And we vowed that morning, whatever happened, we were going to come back, and we were going to finish our job, no matter what time it was.

So Senator Blunt negotiated the negotiations about the number of objections. I worked on keeping everyone in that room and other things, and then, together, we got it done.

And at 3:30 in the morning, the only Senators left were Senator Blunt and myself and Vice President Pence, along with those same six women carrying those mahogany boxes from this Chamber to the other. But this time, it wasn't pageantry. It wasn't a parade. It was just the Vice President, Senator Blunt and myself and those boxes. But this time we were walking over broken glass. We were walking past marble pillars spray-painted with racist vulgarities.

But we made the walk. We got to the House. The House Members were there. Speaker Pelosi, at the time, was there waiting for us, and we did our jobs. That was January 6.

Tragically, five brave officers who reported for duty that day ultimately passed away, and the courage of these officers will be remembered forever.

And rewriting of history cannot stand. As we know today, the White House released a web page that described the day as ``patriots march to the Capitol'' and blamed the Capitol Police, and it doesn't even mention the injuries and the over 100 officers injured.

I remember them in the room protecting the Senators with scratches on their faces.

It was clear that this can never happen again.

Then, as I chaired the Rules Committee, Ranking Member Blunt and I, along with Chair Gary Peters and Ranking Member Portman from the Homeland Security Committee, immediately launched a bipartisan investigation of what the failures were with security, planning, and response. We had a number of bipartisan hearings that stretched on for just a few months, and then we came out with major recommendations with then-Police Chief Manger, who implemented nearly every single one of them. Hundreds of changes were made.

Never again will police officers who are meant to guard us have worse equipment than people who are trying to invade the Capitol. Never again will they go to a bus and have their gear, their riot gear, locked in the bus. Never again will you hear the haunting words of an officer on the police radio say: ``Does anyone have a plan?''

We also had to help protect our democracy against future assaults. I worked on a bipartisan basis to update the antiquated Electoral Count Act in the Senate and helped usher that through, along, again, with Senator Blunt. We worked with the House Members to improve what the insurrectionists thought was some kind of a loophole that they could use to stop the will of the people. That law has now been changed. We worked to get better benefits for our officers, and we worked to change the number of officers to make sure that this wouldn't happen again.

Despite our bipartisan efforts after January 6 to protect this Capitol and our democracy, 5 years later, President Trump and his allies continue, sadly, to spread a false narrative. He has called January 6 a ``day of love.'' He has described the prosecutions of people for crimes related to the January 6 attack on the Capitol and on law enforcement as a ``grave national injustice.'' He has pardoned more than 1,500 criminals.

For this administration, it is the very heroes who defended our Capitol--our democracy--on January 6 whom they now consider a threat. I don't think career Federal prosecutors are terrorists or despicable people, as they have called them. I think they are public servants, and I think they are patriots.

We have seen repeated attacks on access to the ballot box from this administration. We must pass the Freedom to Vote Act, which would guarantee access to the ballot. As we mark the somber fifth anniversary of January 6, we know that democracy only held then because of those who defended the peaceful transfer of power. Those are the people whom we honor today: the Republican Senators who were willing to uphold that vote even though the candidate they supported did not win; the Republican Senators who actually, in this Chamber, spoke out and condemned the coup; the officers who protected us that day from something much worse than the fright that people experienced; and those who ended up dying and those who were injured. Those are the ones whom we honor today, not the insurrectionists.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I rise today to honor Saint Paul Fire Chief Barton ``Butch'' Inks of Saint Paul, MN, who is retiring after 31 years of service to the City of Saint Paul Fire Department.

Every single day, firefighters are called to put their lives on the line to save others. It takes an uncommon selflessness, courage, and patriotism to do what they do, and Chief Butch Inks was always willing to make that sacrifice.

Born and raised in the North End neighborhood of Saint Paul, MN, Chief Inks started his career in the city's parks and recreation department in 1985. In 1994, Chief Inks graduated from

the Saint Paul Fire Department Recruit Training Academy, and after rising through the ranks to assistant chief, he was appointed chief in 2019.

Under his leadership, fire and EMS staffing increased to the highest levels in department history, and the implementation of new emergency medical response models improved response times and created more local jobs. Chief Inks was instrumental in securing funding and approval for a new fire station in Saint Paul's highest call-volume area, promising that help is never far away. Chief Inks coordinated 200 emergency responders during the pandemic, and he has dedicated resources to his firefighters' well-being, introducing comprehensive cardiovascular screenings and enhanced physical exams to support their health and safety.

Firefighters and other emergency responders across the country wake up, put on their gear, and go into harm's way every day to keep the rest of us safe. Our obligation is to ensure that we recognize that daily sacrifice and honor their heroism not just with our words, but with our actions.

So today, I rise to honor Chief Butch Inks and his lifelong service to Saint Paul, MN.

Mr. President, I join my colleague from Rhode Island and so many others to ask our Republican colleagues that they vote with us to stem this crisis. Tens of millions of Americans are facing this healthcare crisis. They are seeing their premiums double or even triple as they enroll in a health insurance plan for next year.

This isn't a January thing, a February thing; it is a now thing, a right now thing.

If Congress doesn't act and if our Republican colleagues don't join us in simply extending tax credits that have been in place for years, they will start paying the new premiums on Monday, 5 days from now. They are looking at their budgets--my constituents are, people all over the country are--making decisions about how to afford care or whether they will have to go uninsured because they can't afford it or buy some junk plan that they are not sure how that will cover them and certainly won't cover most of their routine healthcare.

I urge my Republican colleagues to join us to stop these costs on premiums from skyrocketing, to protect healthcare. We have put forward a very reasonable proposal to extend the healthcare tax credits that have been helping tens of millions of people. We asked them to extend it for 3 years. We actually asked them to extend it for 2 years. We asked them to extend it to 1 year. I will note--this was during the shutdown--that a 1-year extension, if they would agree to that, it is about the same cost as the amount of money that the President of the United States gave to Argentina. So that is more important than helping people with their healthcare?

We are simply saying, let's make sure the same tax credits that are helping people afford their healthcare, that are in place today--not some new radical plan, that are in place today that made more accessible healthcare yesterday and last year and the year before--that they continue to be there for families next year.

If we extend the tax credit, we can bring relief during the holidays as people are facing the effects of these tariffs, which have increased everything from Christmas presents to housing costs, trying to get timber, electricity--you name it.

Millions of Americans are now going to have to decide, Do I extend my health coverage or can I pay my rent or my electricity bill? Can I put food on the table?

I heard all over my State about this, particularly in the rural areas. Do you know why? Because 27 percent of farmers and ranchers are on these Affordable Care Act plans. In my State, it is called MNsure.

Like DeNae and Mike in St. Cloud--not in the metropolitan area of the Twin Cities--but they are business owners of a small business. They say they are already ``struggling with rising costs'' and will now see their premiums double.

Or Jody in Windom, MN, who will have to pay more than triple her coverage for her and her husband next year as her premiums go from $500 to $1,800 per month.

Susan from St. Paul told me these massive increases are ``truly crippling'' her family budget.

In Mankato, Desirea--where my in-laws live in Mankato--has already sacrificed her own educational and career goals to pay for healthcare for her kids. Now she says she is ``trying to figure out how to pay for healthcare'' for her family and worried families like hers will be ``financially ruined,'' in her words.

Dan from Red Wing said families like his ``don't know what they will do.'' Some will take on second jobs, if they can find them. Some will take on debt to keep their coverage. Some may be forced to drop coverage altogether.

Karen from Moorehead, on the border of North Dakota, told me:

I am very fearful that I will lose my insurance because of

not being able to afford it.

It is not just in Minnesota. In fact, more than three-fourths of the people who get healthcare through this Marketplace live in States that President Trump won.

So that is why--talk about a reasonable idea to our Republican colleagues--when three-fourths of the policyholders are in States that Donald Trump won. That has been our focus.

I would do other things. I would do more on prescription drug negotiation. I would do something about a public option. I would do many other things to make this better. But for right now, we are dealing with now.

Earlier this year, we marked the 60th anniversary of Medicaid and Medicare. More than 110 million Americans depend on these programs. And we know that we should be strengthening care and not undermining it. But right now, I urge my colleagues to join us in simply extending these healthcare tax credits. As one of my farmers put it, he is facing a ``perfect storm of ugly.'' The tariffs have dried up his markets overseas. His input costs for parts for his equipment are too expensive. And now there is this healthcare plan that he didn't see coming.

He didn't believe that when President Trump had promised that he would reduce costs, that he would be seeing a doubling of his healthcare premiums.

It is time to work together to do with what we all know will keep costs down for families. Instead of sending $20 billion to Argentina, maybe we could spend it here to help our constituents afford their healthcare. That would be at least about 1 year--$24 billion for 1 year. That was $20 billion.

Budgets are decisions about values and what you value.

It is time for our colleagues to not just say what they are saying behind closed doors, but they should vote their constituents and vote with us to help with their healthcare premiums.

Mr. President, I rise today to discuss my concerns regarding the hemp provisions in this bill. I voted against the motion to table Paul amendment No. 3941. I strongly support protecting kids and ensuring they do not have access to harmful products. The provisions in the funding bill, however, did not strike the right balance and would have put small businesses and jobs in my State at risk. I believe efforts by Congress to regulate hemp products should account for States like Minnesota that already have strong regulations in place rather than a one-size-fits-all approach. Moving forward, we should protect our kids and support our small businesses.