Floor Statements

I object.

Madam President, I call up my amendment No. 5545 and ask that it be reported by number.

Madam President, I met a man at Delaney Hall ICE detention facility. I found him in the medical isolation room. He was in a wheelchair due to a serious medical condition that causes real pain from skeletomuscular breakdown.

He should have been in a hospital, but, instead, he was isolated in that cramped room for 5 months. Only after he and other detainees protested and got the Nation's attention was he able to get released this week from Delaney.

I wish I could tell you that his case was isolated. I wish I could tell you that there were no other problems, but there are many of these types of stories at Delaney Hall.

This amendment would have an audit of conditions at Delaney and require the for-profit company GEO Group, which is getting nearly a billion-dollar contract for that facility, to fix the problems or risk not getting any taxpayer dollars.

I urge my colleagues to support this amendment.

Madam President, pursuant to section 904 of the Congressional Budget Act and all budget resolution disciplines that apply, I move to waive all points of order for the purpose of the pending measure. I ask for the yeas and nays.

Vote on Motion

I ask for the yeas and nays.

Madam President, I rise today to share stories that I have heard from detainees and families at Delaney Hall and to tell you why these stories should be a call to action to ground our immigration policies in humanity.

There are, currently, approximately 800 detainees at Delaney Hall, which is located in Newark, NJ. Over the past week, it has become an example of our broken immigration system.

We have seen the images, but what you have not heard are the stories. It is the stories of people I have met and their families that have stayed with me over the past weeks and months. They have stayed with me because these are stories of people who are afraid, people who are asking to be treated with dignity, people who just want the humanity that any of us would ask for.

I have heard repeatedly--and seen with my own eyes--the substandard conditions at Delaney Hall. Food that is inedible. I had a man show me a container of milk that was curdled solid because it was clearly not stored properly. I have heard about the issues of mold and issues of safety and security.

What I have heard has been unacceptable. The totality of the stories that I have heard have been disturbing. But when I think about individual people, the failures really come into focus.

I spoke, over this week, for instance, with a man at Delaney Hall who has stage III lung cancer and has not been given the medical care that he needs. And he told me he knows his time is short. He actually just wants to go back home--to his home country of origin--to spend the rest of whatever remains in his life with his family, but he is not able to do so.

I spoke with an 18-year-old high school senior, and all she wanted to do was be able to graduate and go to prom. Instead, she is stuck there by herself.

I actually met with her mother outside of the facility. You can imagine how worried she was about her 18-year-old high school senior in this detention facility by herself.

This isn't someone who is a hardened criminal or someone we desperately need to get off of our streets. It is a kid. It is a high school student who is at least spending her time in there trying to translate for some of the other detainees that don't speak English. She is trying to figure out how to help other people. And, instead, we have her stuck in there for an indefinite amount of time. She has no idea how long it is going to take to resolve her circumstances. This is someone who--as a father, when I think about my own two boys--I worry about what is being robbed of her childhood as she is going through this situation.

There is a commonality with a lot of these stories: parents just trying to take care of their kids; parents who have been in the United States for many decades and many of them married to American citizens, many of them parents of American citizens.

These are people that deserve better, but they aren't getting better because we have a fundamentally broken system; a system that is built on corruption and profit, fueled by cruelty; a system that strips people of their humanity.

Let's start with the motivating factor of profit that drives some of this. Delaney Hall is operated by a company called GEO Group. You may not know that name, but it is the largest private prison corporation in America, which runs about 20 facilities for ICE, coast to coast--from New Jersey to California, from Florida to Pennsylvania, to Texas and beyond. They are making a lot of money. They got awarded nearly a billion-dollar contract to operate Delaney Hall.

This is something that is driving so much of the decision making, because when they are telling me that they have only one full-time doctor for nearly 800 detainees there--many of them have really significant healthcare needs--you can understand that they could hire more than one doctor. They could hire more doctors, but then that is going to be less profit for GEO Group.

When we are talking about the substandard food, they could get better food, at least some quality measure better, without the spoiled and disgusting milk that I was talking about. But, again, that would be less profit.

And here is just something that is just driving so much of this for so many of the problems that are out there.

When it comes to our immigration policy, that is no choice to me. From what we are seeing in terms of the profits and the conditions that are there, we should always be putting people before corporate profits.

It is not just GEO Group or CoreCivic or these other companies that are pushing this forward. We know that we can find ways to be able to address this, and it starts with not upholding their standards when it comes to these detention facilities.

At Delaney Hall, we have seen the detainees and the challenges to getting access to doctors. I talked to a pregnant woman who is not getting the care that she needs when it comes to doctors and medical checkups. And she has no idea how long she is going to be there for.

She literally asked me--she looked in my eyes and said: Do I have to be prepared to have a baby in Delaney Hall, in this detention facility?

And instead of upholding a standard of basic humanity, what we are hearing from detainees now is about retaliation for them simply speaking out--detainees being transferred now away from their families to other detention sites because they were protesting, because of this retaliation that is happening before our eyes.

And, finally, we see a judicial system that has fundamentally failed detainees, their families, and our entire immigration system. Simply put, there are not nearly enough judges to hear the number of immigration cases we face at this moment. We already had a backlog of millions of cases before, and it is getting worse and worse.

And, yes, we see the Republicans here in Congress pushing forward on the enforcement, but what is it that we can do to be able to address the needs on the judiciary?

When I was there at Delaney Hall, one of the detainees ran out into the hallway to grab a piece of paper off of the bulletin board and showed me a piece of paper that said: When the courts come back into session, after the holiday weekend, one judge--one immigration judge-- had before them 74 cases in 1 day. How is that a fair process? It is a farce--74 cases in 1 day. That is about 5 minutes a case. That is if everything goes perfectly back to back, not to mention the translation needs of so many. We can do better, and I hope that all of us can agree that in this country, the rule of law is sacrosanct, and that is something where everybody has the opportunity for making their case in court.

What I have heard at Delaney is disturbing, and what I have seen in the brokenness of our immigration system is disheartening. But what we need to do is move forward with clarity, and here are three things we can immediately focus on:

First, let's surge the medical support. Again, 1 doctor for 800 people is not enough, especially when they have such things. ICE has something called ICE Health Service Corps. There are other means by which we can surge medical support to Delaney and elsewhere to make sure that people are not being looked over and their needs passed aside. That is something, again, that I hope all of us can agree on.

No. 2, we need to give people access to the courts. This is not just something that I said is important for us to have adherence to the rule of law, but it is costing the American people billions of dollars to just have this process continue to hold up because when someone is there at Delaney Hall 8 months, 10 months, 12 months, or beyond, with no sense of when it is going to end, that is on us. We are paying for it. The American people are paying for this. It is coming out of our pocket at a time when we have this affordability

crisis and so many people in the country struggling to pay the bills. People deserve their day in court, and the American people deserve to not have their money wasted by a process that is so clearly broken.

And, third, we need investigations into the conditions immediately. The nearly billion dollars going to GEO Group for Delaney Hall--those are your taxpayer dollars. You should know where it is going and how they are spending it.

We should have independent investigations into this and make sure that Members of Congress can effectively conduct oversight business because I tried to go this past week. I was denied. The guards at the gate by Geo Group said: Nope. You can't go inside.

I had to literally call our old colleague Secretary Mullin to get access to this facility that--by the way, I actually called ahead and got approval to go inside, but they still stopped me.

And when I went inside the facility and talked to the head of GEO Group in Delaney Hall and explained that his guards prevented me from going inside for an authorized visit, he looked me in the eye and called me a liar. That is not something that seems like it has any semblance of accountability, transparency, or obedience and accordance to the rule of law. We can and should do better.

This is at a time when this Chamber is getting ready this week to potentially send upward of another $70 billion for ICE and CBP without the reforms, without the accountability and the transparency. GEO Group is taking your money, and you should know what they are doing with it.

These are hard days for my State. Nobody should want the images that we have seen over the past week, but even more so, nobody should want the conditions to be able to continue, whether it is in Delaney Hall or elsewhere around this country because it doesn't just stop at Delaney Hall. These problems exist and persist all over the country.

Delaney Hall isn't one bad apple. It is part of a systemic failure that we are witnessing across the Nation. How we move forward is a choice, a choice between a status quo of corporate profit and cruel policies or moving forward to enforce our laws with humanity.

It doesn't have to be the way that we have seen, and I would urge my colleagues to work with me. Let's make the changes we know we need--not just at Delaney Hall but at every detention facility across this country--and let's fix this broken system once and for all.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I move to proceed to Calendar No. 383, S.J. Res. 127.

Mr. President, I rise today to defend something rather simple: Americans' right to access their own credit and background reports.

We have a law already on the books--the Federal Credit Reporting Act--to protect this right, but we are seeing companies and others finding creative ways to skirt this responsibility, and working Americans are the ones left paying the price. That is why we must pass this joint resolution of disapproval I filed today and reassert this law's authority.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act gives every consumer the right to obtain a copy of the information in their file, entitling them to one free credit report per year from annualcreditreport.com or from ``specialty'' reporting companies like tenant screeners or background check companies. When these companies choose to cheat the system, they are able to make a profit, while American consumers are left in the dark about their own credit.

That is why, in January 2024, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, our Nation's consumer watchdog, stepped in to stand up for consumers and hold credit reporting companies, tenant screeners, and others accountable to the law.

Last year, though, the Trump administration threw this work out the window. And while the law is still clear, scrapping CFPB's work was a glaring signal to credit bureaus and background screeners about what they can get away with.

In New Jersey alone, over the past year, there have been over 157,000 complaints with the CFPB about credit reports or other consumer reports--hundreds of them about not being able to get to their credit report or score.

Everyone knows these moments when a credit score matters: applying to rent an apartment, at the car dealership, opening a new credit card. Credit is foundational to people's financial mobility and staying out of financial hardship. Without the transparency consumers deserve, people can go unaware of mistakes in their reports and have no way to get them fixed. Without the accuracy consumers deserve, people's financial stability and mobility are put at risk.

I yield back.

Vote on Motion to Proceed

Mr. President, I move to proceed to Calendar No. 382, S.J. Res. 126.

Mr. President, I rise today because the American dream of owning a home is getting further and further out of reach, and as working families get crushed by Trump's economy, Congress needs to take steps to make life more affordable.

I filed this joint resolution of disapproval today to do just that and reinstate commonsense guidance at the CFPB that protects hard- working families from being forced or threatened into paying debts that they don't legally owe.

These time-barred or nonenforceable debts are appropriately named ``zombie'' debts. Nearly all States have laws that make it illegal to start a lawsuit after a fixed number of years since a legal claim arose. However, that isn't enough to stop debt collectors from trying to extort money from homeowners by threatening legal action that they have no right to take. These ``zombie'' debts are another example of how American homeowners continue to be plagued from fallout from the 2008 mortgage meltdown.

It doesn't have to be this way. In 2022, CFPB issued guidance to set out clear rules for how to rein in foreclosures on stale mortgage debts. The Trump administration, though, withdrew this commonsense rule, leaving homeowners at risk.

With this vote, we can restore this guidance; we can protect homeowners from zombie debt; we can restore accountability and make sure debt collectors compensate consumers for the harm inflicted by their unfair, deceptive collections; and we can stand up for millions of Americans that need us to have their backs.

I yield back.

Vote on Motion to Proceed

Mr. President, I rise today because the cost of this war is unbearable, and it is time we finally bring this to an end. I know we have talked a lot about that cost. It is something that the American people are feeling every single day. But I wanted to take a few minutes to really zoom in on what this war is costing us and why this War Powers Resolution by my colleague Senator Schiff is so important.

I want you to remember three numbers when we think about what this war has cost us in the first 60 days: $25 billion, 47 months, and $450. I want to go through these three numbers.

Let's start with $25 billion. That is how much this war has cost the American people so far, according to the Acting Comptroller of the Department of Defense, and that very well may be an understatement. Now, $11.3 billion of that was spent in the first 6 days of this war.

For $25 billion, we could pay for a yearlong extension of the Affordable Care Act subsidies that the Republicans cut last year. In New Jersey, that would mean that the nearly 70,000 people so far who have dropped their health insurance plans could afford them yet again. It could easily restore full funding to the National Institutes of Health, which was cut by nearly 20 percent in this recent Trump budget. That is billions of dollars on medical research for cures for cancer, Alzheimer's, and other diseases that are hitting our families and our communities hard.

If we let this war go on for another 60 days, we are telling the American people that this choice of war without purpose or end matters more than their health and their families.

Now let's go to the second number: 47 months. That is the time it takes for a Tomahawk cruise missile to be contracted, manufactured, and deployed. Over the course of this war, we have used more than 1,000 Tomahawks. We have used more than 1,000 Patriot missiles, one of the most critical systems that we use to protect our forces as well as civilian populations. We have used hundreds of other precision munitions that are critical in our larger global defense, including in deterring Chinese aggression across the Indo-Pacific. The cost of this war isn't just the incredible cost it would take to replenish these munitions--now more than $2.5 million per Tomahawk; more than $15 million for THAAD batteries, which are critical against ballistic missiles. What we are also seeing is that it is a cost of time in losing momentum, in making sure that we maintain deterrence and project security and stability around the world.

Finally, this last number: $450. Last week, that is how much more the Center for American Progress projected the average American family will have to pay to fill their tank over the next year because of the rise of gas prices.

One of the more shocking and eye-opening statements and statistics that are out there is that right now, nearly 40 percent of Americans say they can't afford a $400 emergency. That is the world we live in right now.

This is an emergency. And if you think $450 is a lot, this figure was calculated last week when the average gas price in the United States was $4.02. Today, it is $4.30. Prices are going up, and we have seen negotiations go absolutely nowhere. This administration has failed to take them seriously, and it is the American people--our families and our small businesses--who are paying the price.

We can't continue to put the cost of this war on the American people. We can do something about it right here, right now, here in the Senate. We can pass this War Powers Resolution. We can bring this illegal war to an end, and we can give the American people the relief they desperately deserve. That is what I call on this Chamber and my colleagues to do.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I rise today because I had conversations with a woman in New Jersey recently that I just can't get out of my head. I was in Atlantic City talking with a woman there about how she felt things were going in our country and for her and her family. What she said really stuck with me, seared into my mind. She said that with everything going on right now--this war and rising costs--she felt like she was ``drowning.'' That was the word she used--``drowning.''

That is the impact this war is having on the American people. And when someone is drowning, you don't just stand by and wait; you don't hesitate; you don't wait for somebody else to act; you act with urgency, swiftly and decisively.

That is what we are trying to do here right now. We are acting by bringing up another War Powers Resolution to bring an end to this war and give the American people the relief they need.

I know the Trump administration and Republicans here in Congress think that this war is going just fine. Depending on what day it is, Trump either is saying the war is over or threatening to escalate it. That is the problem. We are engaged in a war without a clear mission, without taking negotiations to end the war seriously, and without the consultation or buy-in of the American people.

It is a war this administration seems to think can go on almost indefinitely. They don't care about the consequences; they are simply posting their way through it on social media.

What we have seen from Republicans here in Congress isn't any better. A month and a half into this war, and we have not had a single hearing--a month and a half in.

By the way, we haven't had a hearing at all about what happened in Venezuela either.

Every one of our offices gets a flood of calls every day from people tired of this war, people who can't afford this war, who can't afford to pay for the decisions that this President made, and the Republicans in Congress have stood by and watched like bystanders.

Donald Trump, this administration, this Republican Congress--they have all just stood by and watched as the American people feel like they are drowning. If anything, they are making that feeling of extreme anxiety worse. That anxiety is driving our urgency to act.

There were a number of reasons why the woman I talked to was feeling that stress and anxiety, and one of them was gas prices. Gas prices were below $3 a gallon in February. In New Jersey, the average price is a little more than $4 a gallon right now, but it is so much higher in some of the biggest population centers. You go around the country, and you can find gas for $5, even $6 a gallon right now. If you are a working parent and you have to put gas in the tank every single week to get the kids to school and yourself to work, you are paying significantly more at the pump.

Ending this war is an urgent matter. It is not just gas for our cars that is driving this urgency. Look at the price of diesel. The average price of diesel--what a lot of trucks that transport goods run on--was $3.72 in February. It is more than $5.80 in New Jersey right now according to AAA. That means everything you buy, from meat and eggs to coffee and clothes, is getting more expensive because the cost of shipping it costs more than $2 more per gallon than before.

If you are a working family looking at your bills and wondering how you are going to make ends meet, ending this war is an urgent matter.

Another concern I have heard from so many is the unhinged way that this President has been acting during this war. Threatening to destroy a civilization--that is not American; that is not what we do; that is not who we are.

I am proud to represent tens of thousands of servicemembers in New Jersey, hundreds of thousands of veterans, people who are obeying the law, people who are abiding by the principles of our country. But this Commander in Chief is threatening to change that.

When the American people see a President threatening what would be war crimes in America's name, it sends a shock through our consciousness; it sends a clear signal that ending this war is an urgent matter. That is why we are doing what we are doing right now-- because the American people can't wait for this President to act like a responsible Commander in Chief. They can't wait for this Republican Congress to wake up. They need relief, they need it now, and they deserve it now.

I can't go back to that woman in Atlantic City and tell her that she should wait, that we can address her concerns later.

I urge my colleagues to think about the people back home who need help now and the power we have with this vote to deliver it for them. I urge my colleagues to support this resolution by Senator Duckworth-- someone who knows better than any of us the toll that war takes and the urgency needed to stand up for our neighbors.

I yield the floor.

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate stand in recess subject to the call of the Chair.

Mr. President, reserving the right to object. That is right; the American people have been watching. What they have seen is that the Democrats have been steadfast in our insistence that we not support providing more funding for ICE without also including commonsense reforms to rein in the abuses we have seen in Minnesota and elsewhere, particularly after two Americans were shot and killed.

All we have been demanding here is what the American people are demanding: body-worn cameras; no masks; keeping ICE agents out of our hospitals, schools, and churches; and ensuring ICE follows the same practices and procedures as local law enforcement.

We have just spent 6 weeks having this very fundamental argument with Republicans over providing new funding to ICE in 2026. Now, this UC would provide 10 years of funding to ICE with zero reforms--10 years, $100 billion, and that is on top of the $75 billion Republicans already gave ICE last year.

So for those same reasons Democrats have made on the floor the past several weeks, I object.

Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, the average price of a gallon of gas in New Jersey right now is $3.68. A month ago, it was $2.94. In that month, we have started a war with Iran--a war that this administration doesn't have a plan to end; a war that has cost 13 American lives and has injured hundreds of others. That is putting America's reliability as a partner further in doubt and driving up costs across the board at a time when costs are already too high for most Americans.

Now, what are we doing about this crisis and trying to address it? What are we doing to drive down the costs that the American people are demanding that we take on? What are we doing to make it easier for Americans to pay their bills and to be able to provide for their families?

We are here on the Senate floor today debating a bill that Donald Trump wants because he is afraid. He knows that he is at the weakest point of his Presidency. His approval numbers are way down. And in a little more than 230 days, voters will go to the ballot box for the midterm elections.

So instead of working to lower costs, instead of ending this war and getting gas prices down, instead of focusing on working families, Donald Trump has Senate Republicans here to peddle a bill because, in his words, ``It will guarantee the midterms''--a bill, by the way, that, again to quote Donald Trump, ``supersedes everything else''; a bill that Trump says he would ``close government'' to ensure it passes.

So clearly we see something that is not what the American people want to see get done, not of benefit to the American people at a time when they are demanding that we take on the high cost of living, but instead something that is good for Donald Trump.

So while you are cutting back on driving because gas prices are skyrocketing and you are seeing prices at the grocery store go up because it is a lot more to transport food and you are rethinking that vacation because the CEO of Delta just said airline tickets are about to go up too, Donald Trump and congressional Republicans are focused on passing a bill that drives up your costs.

The SAVE America Act is an awful bill, and I will talk a little bit about this bill in a moment. But what this bill represents at its core is Donald Trump's extreme agenda when it comes to elections. It is an election that is built to, in Trump's own words yet again, ``guarantee the midterms.'' He said that Democrats won't be able to win for 50 years if this goes through.

He is saying the quiet part out loud about why he is doing this, and that is because his agenda has three core tenets: No. 1, let the billionaires buy the elections; No. 2, let politicians pick their voters; and No. 3, price people out of voting.

Let's start with the insane amount of big money in our politics today. According to a report last year by the Brennan Center, the amount of dark money spent in Federal races in 2024 was nearly $2 billion. That is hard to imagine, just unfathomable amounts of money being poured into our elections right now. It is nearly double what it was just 4 years prior in 2020.

That dark money represents a real threat to the integrity of our elections. A report published last month by the Campaign Legal Center highlights the way that the superrich can use our weakened campaign finance laws to basically bribe public officials. The report exposed the story of a man named Velutini, a Venezuela billionaire who was charged with criminal bribery and was later pardoned by Donald Trump after his daughter gave $3.5 million to a Trump-supporting super PAC.

These kinds of straw donor actions can take place when we have a campaign finance system that has been built for corruption. That is exactly what we are seeing--a system working exactly how it is supposed to, which is marginalizing the American people and average working families and lifting up the power of billionaires and corporations. It is a system that has been built so billionaires can buy the candidates they want, and if they get into trouble, they can buy themselves a get- out-of-jail-free card literally.

If my colleagues are concerned about election integrity, getting $2 billion of dark, corrupt money out of our system would be a good place to start, and I think you would find bipartisan support to be able to take that on.

The next place is getting rid of a system that Donald Trump has supercharged where politicians get to pick their voters, not the other way around like the Constitution says it should be.

Gerrymandering has never been weaponized like what we are seeing right now under the direction of Donald Trump. He is so afraid of losing the House of Representatives that he has threatened Members of his own party who didn't want to go along with his plans. Just a few months ago, he targeted Republicans in Indiana, saying that ``anyone that votes against redistricting . . . will be met with a MAGA primary.''

So we have a system, championed by Donald Trump, that lets billionaires buy the elections and politicians pick their voters. So where does that leave you? Where does that leave the American people? Well, if this bill passes, it will make it harder for people to be able to vote. It will make it such that they have to pay for a constitutional right of voting, which is so sacred to our democracy.

Voting shouldn't cost people extra money; it shouldn't require you to be able to have a poll tax. For millions of Americans, they will need to potentially scramble to get a new form of ID.

Maybe my colleagues will say: Oh, just go get a passport.

Well, look, a new passport costs $165, and to expedite it in order to vote costs much more than that. And we need to be able to deliver that quickly, so that is an added $22 on top of that. That is nearly $250 for your right to vote. That is nearly $250 when this administration has hurt our ability to get healthcare, be able to fill our tanks with gas, be able to get groceries. They made it more expensive across the board, and they have given massive giveaways to those at the very top.

This bill will make it harder for married women to vote if their current legal name doesn't match the name on their birth certificate. How does that make sense? It will make it harder for seniors and young people to vote by throwing up new restrictions on mail-in voting, requiring seniors and others to have to go and register in person when they haven't had to do that before.

Why is it that we are trying to make it so hard for Americans to be able to vote? But then you realize that is the point. That is actually the point of this all. Trump wants to make it harder for you to vote and make it easier for him to have his bidding. Why else did we see this happening right on the tail of so much of what he was doing in pushing gerrymandering so blatantly against our Constitution and our laws? Trump wants to make it more expensive for Americans to vote because that makes it easier for him and his supporters and his donors to be able to buy their way to power. He wants congressional Republicans to cease doing anything else and pass this bill so he can ``guarantee the midterms.''

Well, that is not what the American people want. They want a choice. It is their choice. They are supposed to be in the driver's seat of their democracy. The American people want our elections to be secure.

I want our elections to be secure. I want to make sure that voters can have full faith in our electoral process.

I have been fighting for years to get dark money out of our politics, to reverse Citizens United, which I believe is going to go in the history books as one of the most dangerous moments of our democracy. That has unleashed a torrent of dark money and problems and this nightmare we are seeing ourselves in.

I have been fighting to end the practice of letting politicians pick their voters since my first day here on the House side. I even stood up to my own party in New Jersey by suing to fix a broken ballot that let power players pick candidates, not voters.

This is not about partisanship; this is about delivering for the American people and preserving their ability to be able to drive our democracy.

We have real work that we can do to make our elections safer, get rid of this dark money, and make sure the voters get to pick their politicians. But that is not the bill that we have before us, and that is not the bill that Donald Trump is pressuring my colleagues here to push through. Instead, this bill is a distraction from Donald Trump's failures and is a desperate attempt to compensate for the power he sees slipping away right between his fingers.

We can't let him do this. We can't let him distract us from the real problems our constituents are facing today of $3.68 a gallon in New Jersey for our gas. Let's put an end to this distraction. Let's stop doing Donald Trump's bidding to hold onto power and do what we are supposed to do--to focus on what the American people want--which is, right now, so clearly about lowering the prices that they see skyrocketing every single day. That is what we are here for, and that is what they want us to do.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I object.

Mr. President, I share these concerns about the safety and security of the American people. I spent my career working in national security and counterterrorism, and these are exactly the reasons we need to make sure that we are taking the steps that we can agree upon.

There is no doubt. As we have had debate after debate this week, we know we are far apart still when it comes to immigration, when it comes to that aspect of the Department of Homeland Security, but what the American people know and what every family has to deal with is that you can also think through what it is that you do agree on and try to move forward with that and try to then further focus in on the issues where there are disagreements. I think that is a very pragmatic idea, a pragmatic approach, that the American people can understand.

So, in just a few moments, I will ask my colleagues to pass commonsense legislation to fund the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, known as CISA. I know maybe the American people are not as familiar with this aspect of the Department of Homeland Security, but I think that they understand that we are in a different moment now than we were just

a couple of weeks ago when these negotiations began. We are now a nation at war. We are a nation at war because of Donald Trump's moving forward without the approval of this body, which the Constitution outlines, in terms of the approval of a declaration of war. So we find ourselves in a time when our servicemembers are in harm's way. Several have already lost their lives. With our diplomatic posts, as a former State Department officer, I am worried about our Embassies.

Then, here at home, there is concern about our own homeland security. When the President was asked about this, should we be concerned about threats to our homeland, he said: ``I guess [so].''

That is what he said.

He said: ``I guess [so].'' He said that people may die; that that is what happens in war.

I am finding that absolutely unacceptable for a Commander in Chief to talk about homeland threats with that level of blase attitude.

We all know that Iran has the capability of launching cyber security attacks on the United States. We have seen it before, and we had seen this administration, even before this war, take the steps to gut this Agency that is in charge of so much of the critical infrastructure and cyber security protections. They have forced out and reassigned personnel to other missions. They have attempted to slash the budget. The Agency, CISA, has lost one-third of its workforce under this administration and the abysmal leadership of Secretary Noem.

As I said on the floor yesterday, we are at war, and we need to understand that we should take all of the steps available to be able to push forward on the tools that we need. When it comes to immigration, we know that the Republicans pushed forward on the funding for that through the reconciliation bill last year. So let us make sure that the rest of the Department of Homeland Security, including this incredibly important aspect of CISA, is able to step up at this dangerous time.

I hope the Republicans will join us and make good on that obligation today by funding CISA. That is why I am asking my colleagues to pass this bill to fund our cyber security workers and ensure that we have the resources in place to counter these threats. That should be something that, I hope, all of us can agree on. Now is the time to put the politics aside and focus on them.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. 4074, submitted earlier today, and that would fund CISA; that the bill be considered read a third time and passed; and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. President, I will say we are ready to negotiate. We are the ones that want to be at the table here. But look at what has happened since negotiations have begun. Since we started this several weeks ago, we are again now at war. We are at war because the President refused to engage with this body, refused to engage with Congress about that, finding ourselves with these types of threats.

Since negotiations began, we now have a Department of Homeland Security Secretary fired. The Department is in chaos right now. How are we to understand what roles are going to be coming next, what this administration is going to be doing next, when they cannot even get their own Department in order?

So, yes, we are going to continue to push. And as I said, we have still large disagreements. And I am as concerned with what is happening in Iran--I am as concerned about that here because we have about 30 percent of the casualties that we face in Iran, with this attack and war with Iran--we saw that number, about 30 percent of that number in Minnesota. Two American citizens killed in Minnesota, still no formal, independent investigation at the level that is needed. Still no answers.

Still no assurances about what comes next.

So that is why we have got to move forward, fund CISA, fund these other elements of the Department of Homeland Security that can keep our country safe.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I rise today on behalf of the millions of Americans who are looking to achieve the dream of owning a home. For the first time in almost 20 years, the Senate is advancing a major housing package, and it is long overdue.

Housing is one of the greatest ways to grow wealth in this country. Yet it is out of reach for so many Americans. Last year, the average age of a first-time home buyer hit an alltime high of

40 years of age--40 years old to buy a home. That is not fair or sustainable, which is why, today, I am proud to support the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act. This bipartisan bill will take meaningful steps to lower the first-time home buyer age significantly by allowing for the construction of substantially more homes at more affordable prices.

To be very clear, this bill is focused on expanding our housing supply and lowering costs, and Congress owes it to all of the Americans we serve to tackle this problem that is plaguing so many Americans around our country.

My home State of New Jersey knows all too well of the problems posed by a lack of housing supply. Jersey is the most densely populated State in the country. Yet, despite this, Jersey has been one of the slowest States in the country to approve new housing construction. In fact, New Jersey is one of the slowest States in the Nation to approve new housing construction. In some cases, it takes 5 to 7 years just to approve new housing and start construction. This is unacceptable in New Jersey or anywhere in this country. We must do better.

To spur the construction of more housing, I championed permitting reform with Senator Rounds. These reforms provide a balance between strong environmental protections and getting rid of inefficient redtape, which will help build more houses for New Jersey families and families around this country. This is a commonsense solution that will get more houses built and more New Jersey families in the door.

At the same time, we have to be focused on increasing financing opportunities for new housing construction. As I travel around my State, I hear constantly from mayors who are looking to find ways to finance new housing. So I led a bill, included in this package, to allow municipalities, for the first time, to use community development block grant--CDBG--funding for the construction of new housing. This provision will give mayors the flexibility they need to build more and help more people lay roots in their communities and grow their cities.

So much of this work also depends on strong private-public partnerships. New Jersey is in the center of the country's financial system, and for too long, banks have faced a statutory cap on how much they can invest into communities. I am proud to have led legislation that will increase this cap, which will unlock billions in capital for new housing.

In addition to these policies that I truly believe will spur housing construction and help more Americans achieve home ownership, the package also reauthorizes critical programs that help my State, including the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery Program and the HOME Investment Partnership Program. In the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, New Jersey received over $4 billion from the CDBG- DR Program to build that.

Even more, as we continue dealing with climate events, we must take steps to ensure the most vulnerable communities are protected, including South Jersey, where I am from. Reauthorizing the CDBG-DR in this package protects my constituents and shows that the government is a force for good.

This is a robust set of bills. This package takes the first meaningful steps to address the housing crisis in our country.

The package is also the product of strong bipartisan work in a tough partisan political climate. In all of the policies I listed above, I worked with my colleagues across the aisle. So I want to especially thank Senators Rounds, McCormick, Scott, Moreno, and Blunt Rochester for working with me to take smart, sensible steps to lower costs and build more housing. I also want to express my gratitude to Chair Scott and Ranking Member Warren for leading this effort.

At a time when more Americans are losing faith in the American dream, at a time when more Americans are losing faith in the political system and their politicians, this package sends the message that we can still work together to solve hard problems facing Americans. This is a moment for us to come together and get something done for Americans. There is still more work to be done. There are still things that we need to fix. There are still efforts we need to do to be able to build the kind of effort across this country that the American people deserve.

This is not the end. I want to work with all of my colleagues to figure out how we can make this stronger, how we can continue to keep pushing forward and address the needs, until we can finally look our constituents in the eyes and tell them that we have taken the steps and that we have worked with a sense of urgency that every single one of them deserves to be able to improve their lives and help them be able to build the families that they want to. So let's build more. Let's lower costs. Let's pass the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, we did put forward a proposal to fund TSA, to fund FEMA, to fund CISA, to move forward on so much of what the American people know needs to move forward.

We are not negotiating in a vacuum here. We are in a different world than we were when these negotiations began a few weeks ago because we are now finding our country in a war with Iran. We are seeing American servicemembers in harm's way.

We see this President recklessly pushing on and not caring at all how many billions of dollars he is spending each and every day in prosecuting this war, without the kind of thinking of what is needed to be able to protect our servicemembers, Americans in harm's way, and our diplomatic folks.

So we are trying to come up with solutions here, understanding the challenges that we are facing. These are not normal times. This is not the same world. What we tried to do is come forward here, focused on a pragmatic, realistic approach on what it is that we can agree upon. It is what every family has to deal with in terms of understanding how to be able to come up with solutions that move forward, especially in these dangerous times. We know that Americans have these concerns.

When I think about CISA, when I think about the cyber security world--I used to work in national security in Afghanistan, in Iraq, with so many other challenges in counterterrorism. We need that now more than ever.

I will be honest with you. The fact that this President moved forward with this war without us being able to have a fully functioning CISA, not just because of the budget but because they cut so much of the staff over this last year--these are reckless actions.

That is why we need to be able to have this type of debate, but we are doing this in a context of war. So we move forward. We try to have the funding to be able to move forward in that way on what we can agree on, while we are still continuing, because, as there has been recognition on both sides today, we are still far off when it comes to ICE, when it comes to the lawlessness that we see. We seek the accountability on behalf of the American people.

I hear this each and every day. Just yesterday, I was in a meeting with ICE officials because they are trying to impose upon the town of Roxbury this warehouse detention facility.

This, by the way, is a town that voted for Trump. It is Republican leadership, but they stand unified with me and many others saying that ICE never even talked to them, never even consulted them, whether or not this was even logistically possible, let alone something that the community wants.

When I asked the ICE officials, yesterday, are they aware that there are residential buildings right around this, that maybe people don't want their backyard to be a huge, massive detention site, ICE didn't care. They didn't even bother to ask the local community. That is what we are seeing not just in Roxbury but all over this country--the lack of accountability. They just could not care less what the people in Roxbury believed.

That is what we are trying to stand up for. And I promised that community--again, a community that voted for Trump, with Republican leadership--that I will do everything that I can to be able to restore that sense of accountability and restore that sense of movement forward.

They do not want a single dollar to go to this warehouse, and I don't want a single dollar to go to ICE as we continue to see the lack of reforms push forward.

And I understand the concerns and the challenges that are out there. I worked as a career public servant, an officer at the State Department. I worked under multiple shutdowns. I worked under multiple Presidents of both parties. I don't want to see this go on 1 day longer than it needs to, but I also know that our servicemen and women, they are dedicated public servants; and we need to show them that we are being pragmatic and realistic, that we are moving the needle forward trying to address it.

And that is what the proposal put forward by Senator Murray today was about, an effort to be able to move forward, try to focus in on where we have disagreement while not holding back on where we have agreement to be able to protect the American people.

I yield the floor.

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

Madam President, I rise today to give voice to the American people. It is the American people who have had their sons and daughters sent to war. It is the American people who will worry and sacrifice and suffer because of the decision made with little regard for them. It is the American people who deserve to have a say when we send our servicemembers into harm's way. It is the American people whose voice has not been listened to as we woke up yet again this weekend to a new war in the Middle East.

I am proud to stand with my colleagues and cosponsor this resolution. This isn't just a resolution that pits one branch of government against another. Yes, Congress has a constitutional responsibility to declare war, which is what the President called this--in his own words, he said that this was a war--but Congress has a deeper responsibility to speak on behalf of the American people. We are here to speak on behalf of the American people because the Trump administration hasn't been listening to them.

I was a college student a generation ago when our country invaded Iraq. In the weeks before the invasion, George W. Bush delivered a State of the Union Address where he said--falsely--that Iraq was hiding efforts to produce weapons of mass destruction, and he spoke about proving America's ``resolve.''

Less than a week ago, President Trump came here to the Capitol to deliver his State of the Union Address. He made little effort to make a case to the American people of the need for a military operation in Iran--just a few words in the longest ever State of the Union Address-- but he did speak about proving America's ``resolve.''

We have seen this before. A President manufactures an imminent threat, chooses to start a war with unclear objectives, and uses America's resolve as an excuse for war without end because they have no plan to end it.

But unlike 2003, President Trump refused to make the case to the American people. Right in his State of the Union Address, he refused to make the case. And he refuses to seek approval from Congress for the use of military force, as President Bush did in 2003.

I believe that this is unacceptable. More importantly, the American people believe it too.

A week and a half ago, with rumors of war circulating, I held a townhall in Asbury Park, NJ, and I asked the people there: Raise your hand if you want Donald Trump to order an attack on Iran.

Nobody did.

I asked them--a couple hundred people were in attendance--to raise their hand if they believed the American people should have a say in any decision that sends American sons and daughters into harm's way in Iran.

Everyone's hand went up.

Before being elected to Congress, I spent much of my career in national security--at the Pentagon, in Afghanistan, Iraq, in the White House National Security Council--working on countering Iranian terrorism. I know that the threat from Iran demands a serious approach, and I know that the approach this administration is taking is not a serious one and is risking long-term damage to the United States and its interests, not to mention the short-term harm and tragedy that we have seen as now the death toll of American servicemembers is up to six.

President Trump and his administration made no serious attempt to find a diplomatic solution to the threat Iran posed to the world. He sent negotiators who are already tasked with negotiating with Russia and Ukraine, with Israel and Palestine. Avoiding war through diplomacy cannot be a part-time job. He took no real steps to bring our allies and partners into the effort that could create a safer world without the use of military force.

President Trump had no meaningful strategy for pressuring Iran through sanctions that actually targeted the regime, not the Iranian people.

Donald Trump's administration and the Republicans in this Congress have actively cut programs, like internet freedom efforts, that undermined Iranians who were speaking out in their own attempts to bring freedom and stability to the country.

While failing to pursue a more sustainable solution, President Trump planned to put Americans in harm's way with this military operation. That is where the planning clearly stopped.

Asked yesterday how long this war will go on for, Donald Trump said 4 weeks, then 4 to 5 weeks, while also saying ``As long as we want it to.''

This morning, the President refused to rule out the use of American ground troops in Iran. He said:

I don't have the yips with respect to boots on the ground.

This came after he said multiple times that he expects servicemembers to be killed in this operation.

An open-ended war isn't just antithetical to what the American people want, it is dangerous and unpredictable. We have seen this path before. Pursuing regime change can have significant unintended consequences, and there is no guarantee that what comes next will be better.

Trump's shifting of objectives raises questions about whether it will be enough and whether our military will be back at this again in just a few months, as they are today following the strikes last summer that Trump claimed obliterated the nuclear program he now calls a threat yet again.

Beyond the near term, this military operation will have lasting consequences even after the bombs stop falling. Donald Trump may think that ``might makes right,'' but history proves him wrong. We have the benefit of a generation of time from the last time we were in this situation. Might may have led to regime change in Iraq, but it made our country less secure by doing lasting damage to America's reputation and spawning new threats while weakening our ability to engage globally. It led to more than 4,400 Americans killed. It cost our country trillions of dollars--not just in military spending but in the cost of caring for the tens of thousands of servicemembers wounded and injured during that war. It is why, in a Pew survey of recent years, 62 percent of all Americans said that the Iraq war was not worth fighting.

That number, by the way, was higher with those who fought in it. Sixty-four percent of veterans of the war said it was not worth it.

That is why it is so important that we take actions right now. Let's be clear. Donald Trump chose this war, but it was not his choice to make. It is the American people who deserve to have a say.

With this vote that we are pushing forward on, we not only have an opportunity to ensure that the voices of the American people are heard, we have an obligation to ensure that the mistakes of the past are not repeated.

I urge my colleagues to join in this bipartisan effort and vote yes.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I rise today as we debate funding for the Department of Homeland Security. It is a debate that 100 Americans allowed into this Chamber will have a chance to do, but that really is being had by millions of Americans across the country in their living rooms and their group chats, in the comments on social media. There are a lot of things that we debate here that fly under the radar that, maybe, impact a lot of people but are not on their minds. This is on everyone's mind. Whether we write another check to fund the Department of Homeland Security isn't just front page news--it is the thing that people who haven't picked up a newspaper in years are talking about.

Why is that?

It is because people can feel that something is wrong in this country, and they know it has to be stopped.

People can watch the videos of the murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti at the hands of Federal agents and see that something is wrong and that it isn't over. They can watch these videos of masked men who are roaming through neighborhoods or are physically assaulting people who are peacefully protesting and see that something is wrong. They are absolutely right in that feeling. How can you watch any of that and not see that it is wrong?

I hear from people whom I know--some friends of mine--who are telling me that they are now carrying their passports around with them because they are afraid of getting stopped and being targeted by Federal agents. I have heard from constituents who are anxious, who don't feel safe leaving their houses, who are afraid of door knocks at their houses, and are just afraid that this moment of fear will never end.

The tragic irony of this is that we are nearly 25 years in from the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security--25 years from another moment when people felt an incredible level of anxiety and unease. I was in college when 9/11 happened. It was a moment that led me toward public service. It was a crisis that brought me into a career in national security, working to keep our country safe. One of the things I have learned is that safety isn't our ability to project force or the tools we have at our disposal. Those things can make us safe, but if they are used improperly, they can make us less safe and less secure. And that is exactly what we are seeing from this administration. It is what Donald Trump, Stephen Miller, Tom Homan, and Kristi Noem are doing every day. They are using the tools that were meant to keep us safe and are distorting them to grow their own power, to fuel their own corruption.

What we are debating here today is whether we should continue to fund their efforts to use these tools against the American people and for their own twisted agenda. And, to that, there is a simple answer: We must say and vote no. We need to vote no on funding the DHS as this bill currently stands because it is not going to make us more safe and secure.

Everyone in America who has been carrying this feeling around with them for the past few days and weeks knows that. They know that they have been lied to by this administration. They know that the masked men who are flooding into our communities are not accountable to them. They know people like Stephen Miller, whom I have often called and said that he is the most dangerous person in our country, are not accountable to them. The American people are tired of it, and they are tired of the lies. They see right through them. They are tired of feeling like they have no say in this horrible feeling of insecurity and uncertainty.

How is it that, in the richest, most powerful country in the world, we have this much unpredictability and this much anxiety that hangs over us? But that can end today; that can end right here because, even though the millions and millions of people who are struggling to make sense of this moment aren't able to get into this Chamber and have a vote, there are 100 of us who do and who represent all of the other Americans in this Nation.

There are things that this administration can do today to restore that sense of safety and security. For instance, they can pull ICE and CBP agents out of their operations in Minnesota and in Maine and deescalate the fear that American communities are facing. The provocations are dangerous right now and the concern of powder kegs of what is going to happen next. It is not that we see this in the rearview mirror with the murder and the killing of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. People are wondering: Is this just the beginning? Is this going to continue and for how long? Is it going to get worse? That is the fear that people are feeling, which is something that this administration can immediately bring down if they pull these agents out.

This administration can also allow and clearly articulate the need for independent investigations into the murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti--actually, in terms of all 12 of the shootings that DHS agents since September of last year have conducted. That deserves the same level of transparency and accountability. The reason we need this is that there is no trust right now. There is no trust right now from the American people in having DHS or this administration as a whole investigate themselves. It is antithetical to our understanding of transparency and accountability if that is the case. So we demand true independent investigations.

This administration can also fire their leaders who have clearly zero credibility--zero credibility--with the American people right now-- Stephen Miller, Tom Homan, Secretary Noem, and others--who have purposely weaponized our government for their own political agendas. The American people demand accountability. Forward movement as a nation in these troubled times cannot happen while having these administrative officials still in power, still in their jobs.

There are many other things we need to think through, but these are three things that can happen right now by this administration to show that we can try to turn a corner on this incredibly chaotic and dangerous moment for our country.

But even if that all happens, we owe it to the American people to take a stand, we owe it to them to give them the security they deserve, and we owe it to them to vote no on this appropriations bill.

I yield the floor.