Floor Statements

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that notwithstanding rule XXII, at a time to be determined by the majority leader, following consultation with the Democratic leader, no later than Friday, October 10, S.J. Res. 71 be discharged from the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources and that the Senate proceed to its consideration; further, that there be 6 hours for debate only, with the time equally divided between the leaders or their designees on the joint resolution and that following the use or yielding back of that time, the joint resolution be read a third time and the Senate vote on the resolution.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to legislative session and be in a period of morning business with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. President, I have 12 requests for committees to meet during today's session of the Senate. They have the approval of the Majority and Minority Leaders.

Pursuant to Rule XXVI, paragraph 5(a), of the Standing Rules of the Senate, the following committees are authorized to meet during today's session of the Senate:

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 400, which was submitted earlier today.

I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand in recess until 10 a.m. on Thursday, September 18; that following the prayer and pledge, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, and the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day; further, following leader remarks, the Senate proceed to executive session and resume consideration of the nominations en bloc pursuant to S. Res. 377; finally, that all time during recess and leader remarks count postcloture on the nominations en bloc.

Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask that it stand in recess under the previous order, following the remarks of my Democratic colleagues.

Mr. President, reserving the right to object, let me say to my colleague from Nevada that neither one of us represent Florida.

The 10th Amendment to the Constitution is clear that the Federal Government has a limited set of powers, and most powers are delegated to the States. I think we should let decisions for the people of Florida be made by the elected representatives of the people of Florida.

Let me just also address real quickly some of the statements that were just made about children going to school.

It is decently ironic, given that during COVID, kids were prevented from going to school because schools were closed. Schools were closed, in some cases, up to a year and a half.

If we look at the epidemic of childhood violence, youth violence in this country, we can directly trace that to the enormous mistakes made during COVID by locking kids up, by forcing children to get a COVID vaccine that we now know, objectively, absolutely should not have been given to children.

Let me make also another point. You can't, on one side, bemoan the termination of a CDC Director and, on the other side, having not voted to confirm said CDC Director--so when you voted no, you can't also say: Well, why was that person fired, because you wouldn't have hired him in the first place. That doesn't make any sense.

Let me just make one final point. This is very important. Any vaccine that any parent wants to get is available. What R.F.K. is saying--our Secretary of Health is saying is: We are not going to mandate that people have to put things into their body that they choose not to put in their body.

In fact, I believe over my lifetime, what I have seen the Democrats say is: My body, my choice. I guess that only applies when you are murdering babies.

It is very simple. If we don't have sovereignty over what goes in our body, we are not free people.

I believe that people should make a choice, an educated choice. I have faith in the American people that they can make the decisions that they feel are right for them. For that reason, I object.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of my bill, the HIRE Act, which is at the desk; further, 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.

I withhold my request with some remarks.

I think one of the things that I can agree on with my colleague from Nevada--and there are a lot of things I think we can work together on. I think she is a good person--the one thing we can agree on is we want stronger families. We want strong family structures. That means that a mom or a dad can have one job that allows them to provide a family-sustaining wage to be able to raise kids so that parents could stay home with their kids--again, a mom or a dad-- and provide those kinds of resources that are necessary.

But, right now, corporations are taking a lot of good jobs and shipping those jobs overseas. For example, where I started my career, believe it or not, right out of college, was in a call center. I helped start the Saturn Corporation's customer assistance center. I can tell you firsthand, those are good jobs. I can also say that the people who do the best job at call centers are people with some form of disability. Whether it is blindness, they are in a wheelchair, they don't have a lot of other opportunities for good, high-paying jobs. That used to be the case. They have much higher levels of empathy. They speak our language. They know our culture.

But corporations, unfortunately, chase slave wages in other parts of the world where they can pay people $5 a day. And our calls--our American consumers that need help and assistance are calling these foreign countries. They have a language barrier, a culture barrier, and more importantly, that money is leaving our country to go into those communities versus having that money stay here in America. So that call center operator can go pay rent, go to the grocery store, buy a car, et cetera. We could create that ecosystem.

I know having been in your State just recently, that there are a lot of needs for jobs there--a lot of needs for jobs. Let's agree that we want these jobs to stay here in America. My bill is very simple. We are not going to control what corporations do, but we can create guardrails.

So what my bill does is very simple. If you outsource American jobs to a foreign country, you will pay a 25-percent fee for the value of that contract. And here is the best part, we take that 25-percent fee that we collect, and we use it to fund trade schools to upskill workers to be able to step up into a better, higher paying job.

The bill is called the HIRE Act.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of my bill, the HIRE Act, which is at the desk; further, 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 appreciate the Senator from Nevada's willingness to work with me to get this bill across the finish line. You have my commitment that my team will reach out to yours. Let's get this bill going.

I think this is something that we can all agree on that we want to do. Let's put the thoughtfulness into it. I look forward to working with you to make this happen.

Thank you.

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

Madam President, as you know, like I do, we had a terrible tragedy that occurred last week. I don't think that it is quite understood by people who Charlie's life didn't affect and what that meant to all of us.

Not only is it that a 31-year-old died--which, of course, would be tragic to anybody--but to see him publicly assassinated, gunned down, where his death is captured on video after video after video--you look at that and you think: Where is the humanity?

I think one of the things that is most important to understand is that there was a private person named Charlie Kirk. He wasn't just the leader of an incredible movement that we now are familiar with, Turning Point USA. He was a son. He was a father. He was a husband. I got to know Charlie about 13 years ago. I was in my office in Cleveland, OH, and my receptionist said to me: There is a young man to see you. He wants to talk about an idea he has.

In my business, typically, I am seeing people who are interested in purchasing automobiles from one of my dealerships.

I said: Who is this guy? My office went right to the showroom so I said: Come into my office.

Charlie Kirk shared with me a vision that he had. He had built out the entire concept of what we know as Turning Point USA in his head. He visualized hundreds of chapters in every major college and university throughout America where students could actually debate ideas. It wasn't about everybody had to have one point of view or a different point of view, but they could actually discuss an idea in a collaborative way, not with hatred, not with animosity but rather the idea that people would listen to each other.

This is a time over a decade ago where we didn't understand the extent of the indoctrination that was going on in our colleges and universities. But I was so impressed by that young man's vision, by his conviction, by his energy, by his charm that I happily wrote him what he thought was a big check. By today's dollars, it was definitely not. I referred a few friends to him. He was very excited. We stayed in touch during the years.

Lo and behold, he builds this incredible organization, and I ended up running for Senate. He activated that

group and helped me tremendously in Ohio. If you look at what he did--I am certain for you, Madam President, the same way for me--the way young people really took to his message. They want to have a voice in the future of our country. That is what Charlie wanted for them.

I will tell you, it is extremely sad and quite disappointing to see some of the reactions online--people actively cheering that a 31-year- old husband, father, and son would die; that the pejoratives used against him comparing Nazism or fascism--a stain on human history that shouldn't be compared quite frankly with anything. I think it is fair to say that Hitler and Nazis should have a special dark place in history and not be compared to anyone or anything because you see when you do that, you are inviting people, crazy people, to take actions into their own hands like what we saw tragically in Utah.

I hope that what comes out of what we just went through is that colleges and universities all over America heed to Charlie's call. Let's have our American colleges and universities be the one place--the one place--where freedom of speech is respected, where people can debate ideas, and even if we don't agree--for example, you and I may not agree that Ohio State University is the best college football team in America. You may have a different point of view. It is wrong. I know it is wrong, but, sadly, you may have a different idea. But we can be friends. We can have a dinner together. We don't have to be mad at each other because we have different points of views.

Of course, I am being flippant because there are more difficult conversations for us to have. It should never go to hatred. Look, I don't want to make this remark about partisan politics. But let me say to my Democratic colleagues: When you say we are at war; you must do anything you can to make certain that we protect our democracy, that is a bat signal. It is crazy. When a Democratic leader says that President Trump is Hitler or a Nazi--bat signal to crazy people. When the media, for example, in my State, the Cincinnati Enquirer said after President Trump was almost assassinated, much like Charlie was, that he ``brought it on himself,'' this sends a message to crazy people. When the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the largest newspaper in Ohio, analogizes JD Vance, our great Vice President--your friend, my friend, whom we know personally--and says he is a Nazi sympathizer, that he reminds the editor of what it must have been like to be with Nazis in the thirties, it is a bat signal to crazy people. It puts us all in danger.

That is unacceptable. We can have vigorous debates. In fact, I would say we should have more vigorous debates on the floor. In fact, when we are doing confirmations to nominees, I welcome Democrats to come out here and defend their position as to why they are not going to confirm somebody. For 81 to 100-plus nominees, they don't bother to debate. For the ones they do, it is 2 minutes of debate.

Let's have more debate. Let's do it respectfully, from the point of view that this is what I believe; tell me what your beliefs are, not just yelling at the Presiding Officer when nobody else is on the floor. That is not a debate. That is trying to get a 30-second clip on social media.

That is not what this institution should represent. This should be, like those college campuses, a free exchange of ideas. Maybe sometimes--but I find it hard to believe--my colleagues make a point that would maybe change the minds on this side. It would be great to see that. I hope that when we make points, that they listen. That is what Charlie wanted.

What I would like to do now is ask unanimous consent that the Senate observe a moment of silence in remembrance of Charlie Kirk, Erika Kirk, and her two young children who had to ask their mom when their dad was going to come home and understand we had a great tragedy.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, reserving the right to object, this is a conversation that we had only about a month ago about tariffs. I find it interesting that we are having this conversation again because since the last time we spoke--and I want to remind my colleague from Massachusetts that I praised him heavily the last time for his position on voting against the United States-China normalization act when he was in Congress 25 years ago because I believe that that bill is what set America on a very dark path toward deindustrialization. Had his colleagues listened to him, we would be in a different place.

But I thought what I would do today is read some comments from some of my constituents in Ohio because there are a lot of opinions here. So let's see. What do real business owners who deal with this situation think about every day?

Let me start with Dr. Nick Jarmoszuk. He is the CEO of a company in Lorain, OH, called Skylift.

I asked him: Hey, Doc, what do you think about tariffs? How is it affecting your business in Lorain, OH?

To remind my colleagues, Lorain, OH, is a lot like, maybe, some of the areas of South Boston. These were once great, thriving, working- class communities that have been gutted.

He was happy to respond, and he said: America's trade imbalance with the rest of the world is something that has been festering for a long time. It is a good thing to address. The longer you leave it, the tougher it is to fix.

He said he would not be hurt by the severe 145-percent tariff on China. It was then at that level. Now, as everybody knows, it is at 30 percent because the company uses components that are manufactured in the United States. If most people did that, we would be in a better place, he said. The complaints you get are from Wall Street, which wants instant gratification. We don't.

I thought that was a good comment.

Here is Belinda Durham, also from Lorain, OH. She is a used car dealer.

She says: The companies that produce in foreign countries should have to pay for taking jobs away from the United States. I think this stuff should be made here.

Kent Savage, the CEO of Velocity Concept Development Group, an engineering and manufacturing company in Cambridge, OH: What will come out of the trade war is something more equitable than the system we had before Liberation Day. There wasn't just a level playing field before.

Jack Schron is an amazing entrepreneur in Cleveland, OH. He is the president of a company called Jergens, Inc., not to be confused with the lotion. It is a tool manufacturer: Trump's tariffs have disrupted global trade and the American economy. Yet those same new rules are making these manufacturing goods more price-competitive with imports for the first time in many years. We are swamped. We are running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, in both Chicago and Cleveland, said Jack Schron, which makes manufacturing tools, including industrial screwdrivers, clamps, and hoists.

Schron says that his factories in Ohio and in Illinois are going gangbusters, partly owing to the new orders from customers who are looking to avoid paying import tariffs and partly because of increased demand over the last 18 months from the defense industry.

Let me just tell the Presiding Officer a little bit about Jergens because he may not know about this company.

It is right in the city core of Cleveland. I was there about 2 weeks ago at a facility right near it called MAGNET. It is a tech incubator in Cleveland, OH. These people who go to MAGNET, to the core site, whom I saw who end up going to work at Jergens, were formerly incarcerated citizens or were people who, if not for the opportunity to go work at Jergens, would have no other ability to get a good, family-sustaining wage job.

Let me just repeat what Jack Schron said: Business is going gangbusters.

I am perplexed why my colleague, who 25 years ago was on the right side of this issue, is saying we have to block deindustrialization and that we have to make things here in America. That actually is a comment that would have been made in this Chamber in the late 1950s, early 1960s by one of your great Democratic colleagues. I think that person, today, would be a member of the Republican Party of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, who believed in the power of advocating for the working class.

Let me just say one other quote here. Donny Chaplin, president of Grand River Rubber & Plastics in Ashtabula, OH--snow country. This is a place where, if it doesn't snow 24 inches on a Monday, it is considered a bad day. Donny said that he has seen a rush--a rush--of new inquiries and orders. Two previous customers who had switched to Chinese suppliers a few years ago came back in recent days wanting to buy rubber gaskets from Grand River again or for the plastic pail gaskets they manufacture.

Three manufacturers of oil filters also got in touch, as they are wanting to shift their businesses from China, with two already placing orders.

Altogether, the new business will be worth about $5 million a year. Now, look, at $5 million a year, that isn't the kind of company that gets a lot of attention here in Washington, DC, but I will tell you, in Ashtabula, OH, it makes a big difference. These are good jobs.

I thank President Trump, Secretary Lutnick, Secretary Bessent, and Ambassador Greer for their incredible work in putting together the most unbelievable trade deals that we have ever seen.

I could go on--I have pages of quotes--but I will save my colleague from having to listen to all of them.

Here is the summary: We have a 30-percent tariff on China. That is a great move. It is something that my colleague supported 25 years ago when they started to block that. We have a tariff at 15 percent from the EU. Our products can now go into the EU with no tariffs, a phenomenal deal.

With Japan, we have a historic investment in America of $550 billion and in South Korea a historic investment in America.

My former career was in the retail automobile business. I have talked to every CEO of every car company on Earth, and they all tell me the same thing: We are bringing more production to America. Instead of celebrating that, we are here trying to reverse course.

On top of that, a couple of other things are happening.

No. 1, we are getting record levels of tariff revenue--almost $150 billion into the U.S. Treasury from tariffs. Yet inflation has not ticked up at all. In fact, it is at the lowest point in 4 years.

I want to just throw one more statistic up--two more statistics up-- that haven't been talked about.

So this is data right from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The red line is employment from foreign-born citizens. The blue line is employment from native-born Americans. Since the beginning of the year, employment for foreign-born citizens has actually dropped while employment for American--native-born Americans--has gone up. That is a great result.

One other thing: Government employment has dropped, and private sector employment has gone up, which is another really important result.

And how does it all boil down? What is the conclusion?

Real wages--real wages--are up almost 4 percent, eclipsing inflation for the first time since the beginning of the first Trump administration.

What does that mean?

It means that people feel like they are getting ahead. They don't feel like fast food is a luxury. They feel like they have a little room here. This is because of the incredible work of this administration.

I know that my colleagues like to do a lot of shirts-and-skins exercise, like we are doing here on a beautiful Saturday morning in Washington, DC, where it seems like the temperature is always the same because we are always in this Chamber, confirming nominees through the most difficult process in Senate history.

But here is what we do know: We should be celebrating and thanking President Trump for having the steel backbone to have negotiated these incredible trade deals that are a massive--massive--victory to the American people.

I sat where the Presiding Officer sat while I listened to speech after speech after speech in early April. What did every speech have in common? The world was going to end. It was the apocalypse because of Liberation Day. What has been the result? A record stock market, low inflation, real wage growth, and the growth of native-born American employment. Small businesses love these policies.

For that reason, I object.

Mr. President, I just want to clear the irony here that the person who is speaking right now has been a small business owner my entire life, and my colleague has never owned a business. So I know exactly what drives small businesses.

I have read many statements from small business owners that are thankful to President Trump for his tariff policies because what it is doing is it is bringing manufacturing back to America.

Now, I will acknowledge that there is a ``Pain Street,'' but it is not on Main Street; it is on Martha's Vineyard, where the globalists and the climate change cultists are waiting for their Senators to arrive after we leave here in Washington, DC, to make the annual pilgrimage in which they talk about the plight of the little people while they fly there on their private jets and enjoy caviar in their mansions.

Let me tell you what is happening in Chillicothe, OH. They are happy that there are more Kenworth trucks being made than Freightliners in Mexico. They are happy that the products that are made by working-class Ohioans are now on a level playing field by jobs that were shipped overseas, chasing slave labor that was enriching and building those mansions in Martha's Vineyard.

Now, it is ironic, too, and quite a shift, because there was a day when Democrats loved to advocate for the working man. I mentioned JFK. Shawn Fain, the president of the United Auto Workers, has been a staunch supporter of President Trump's tariff policies despite campaigning aggressively against President Trump because he didn't know if he could trust him. But he

knows now he can, and he knows that President Trump is actually putting the interests of the American worker above everything else.

Another Sean--apparently you have to be named ``Shawn'' to run a union--another Sean, Sean O'Brien, head of the Teamsters--I am young enough but still remember that maybe the unions were the ones that supported Democrats, but here we are.

Sean O'Brien says:

There's no secret what our position is as a union on

tariffs.

He supports them because he knows those tariffs will produce more economic activity here in America.

So this is a very clear situation. My Democratic colleagues kept us in this Chamber for 27 hours in a row to block a bill that prevented the largest tax increase in American history. Had that bill not passed, I will tell you what would have happened to small businesses. They would have been destroyed. And there wasn't a single Democrat that voted to prevent that tax increase--27 hours, in fact, to block that tax increase. They blocked no income tax on tips, no income tax on overtime.

Now, on Martha's Vineyard, they don't worry about income tax on tips or overtime because they probably don't even pay it when they go out, and maybe they don't even like to pay it to their employees.

They blocked a $2,200 child tax credit that would have gone to zero. And maybe on Martha's Vineyard, they don't care about child tax credits, but in Chillicothe, OH, in Coshocton, OH, and in Lorain, OH, they absolutely do.

They blocked $1,000 Trump accounts--money that will go into an index fund that can grow so that when that baby becomes an adult, they have a nest egg, finally, so they don't have to live in their parents' basement and they can afford a home or a car.

By the way, let me just clear this misconception up--two things--and I will end so that we can get moving today to confirm the nominees that President Trump deserves.

No. 1--and my colleague in Massachusetts may not know this because he may not be somebody who is in the automobile market quite often--car prices are down. Let me repeat that again. Car prices are down this year. That means people are paying less money for cars right now than they were at the beginning of the year.

And guess what. Fifty-one percent of the cars sold in this country at the beginning of the year were made in this country. Now it is 56, and we are heading right to the sixties, and we are not going to stop. When I was a kid, that number used to be in the eighties.

So these tariff policies have been an incredible success.

Let me just speak to the chamber of commerce as a former small business owner. To say that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is an advocate for small business is like saying Hamas is an advocate for Israel's best interests.

I rise to draw some sunlight and daylight with what is actually going on at the Fed. There is a lot of commentary that you hear in the news and social media, sometimes in a world here of hyperpartisanship, the facts get lost. So I just want to support and emphasize how important the legislation is that Senator Scott is proposing.

Back about 8 years ago, the Federal Reserve Board of Governors decided to renovate four buildings--four buildings that they have in Washington, DC.

They came up with what I think is a very, very high budget, $2.1 billion to renovate--not to build new--but $2.1 billion to renovate four buildings. Huge number; big, big number. Now back 7 or 8 years ago, the Federal Reserve was bringing in hundreds of billions of dollars in profits, as they have for decades. So you think, well, maybe this is a needed expenditure. I don't probably think that if we had some hindsight we wouldn't have embarked on that path, but they did.

One of the four buildings is on New York Avenue. They call it the NYA building. They decided to take that out of consideration. So now you have three buildings; the budget would have been somewhere around $1.6 billion.

They completed the Martin building about 3 or 4 years ago for about 25 percent over budget for the original estimate back in 2017, and here is where we are landing: The Eccles and 1951 building, the ones you see when you drive down Pennsylvania Avenue, the iconic picture of the Fed building, that total renovation should have cost about $1.6 billion. It is now together--all three buildings--it is now approaching $3.1 to $3.2 billion. The cost overrun is more than the entire cost to build CityCenter. Think about that for a second, on a renovation. The Chairman of the Federal Reserve--clearly one of two things is happening--either he is absolutely not paying attention to this project, or he is completely inept in managing it. Either way, what we need desperately is exactly what my colleague from Florida is suggesting--an independent body that would go in and say: What the heck is going on here?

Because I don't know about the Presiding Officer, but you go around Florida or I go around Ohio or when my colleague goes around Michigan, it is a little hard to explain why an organization like the Federal Reserve, which is losing hundreds of billions of dollars, is spending billions to renovate a building when their actions are costing them personally thousands and thousands of dollars on their car loans, their home loans, their credit card, their business loans.

There needs to be transparency. We need an independent Fed, we do; it is a proud history here in America. That is what has made our financial system strong.

But sometimes, even in the best institutions, you end up with incompetent leaders. And that is the case with Jerome Powell. And that is why we need an independent investigator to go in there and take a look at what is actually going on.

I yield the floor.

Will my colleague from Michigan yield to a couple of questions?

Got to go? OK. Well, here are the questions I was going to ask. He mentioned in his comments what is obvious, the President nominated somebody to be an inspector general. And then the Senate, 100 Members of the Senate confirm that person, thus ensuring the independence.

So if you don't like that particular nominee, you are able to come right here, go to the floor, and vote no.

But this idea that this inspector general would somehow be a partisan person by definition is wrong because what you are doing is you are giving the President the ability to make a nomination and then the Senate the unique constitutional power to confirm that nominee.

That is the way we have done it forever. We did it for President Trump. The prior Congresses did it for Biden and every other President before. So this idea that all of a sudden, this is now something new is totally nonsense.

And here, look, part of the problem that we have today is that the Democrats are making historical efforts to absolutely stop President Trump from basic operational duties.

We have never had a Congress--as you know, Madam President--that has not allowed nominees to go forward with unanimous consent. So here we are, on August 1, having to go through vote after vote.

I was going to ask my colleague if he knew whom he even voted no for, and the answer is they don't even know whom they are voting no for. They just come and vote no because that is what they do. And that type of just total blocking for the total partisanship is not what the American people want.

If you have a legitimate concern with the nominee, there is a process to do that. But just to universally filibuster every single nominee is not the way for us to move forward. The voters expect more.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, I would like to congratulate William Kimmitt on his confirmation as the next Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade. This is an outstanding appointment not just for the Department of Commerce, but also for the American people.

Mr. Kimmitt's life has been defined by service, both of his own and that of his family. His grandfather Stan Kimmitt, a decorated war veteran who served in World War II and in Korea, devoted his career to Senator Mike Mansfield and ultimately served as Secretary of the Senate from 1977-1981. His uncle Jay Kimmitt spent decades on the Appropriations Committee as a professional staff member. His aunt and godmother Judy dedicated nearly her entire professional life to serving six different Senators. This is a patriotic family who clearly values the dignity of public service. I trust that William will continue the family tradition as the Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade.

However impressive Mr. Kimmitt's family might be, his personal career speaks volumes to the type of man he is. He served as counselor to then-United States Trade Representative Bob Lighthizer and helped implement the historic USMCA. William defended our steel and aluminum industries and worked tirelessly to ensure that America's trade policy put our workers, farmers, and manufacturers first--and not the other way around. While working for the USTR, he navigated the complex intersection of law, diplomacy, security, and commerce, while always advancing President Trump's America First agenda.

Mr. Kimmitt also brings over a decade of private sector experience as a partner at Kirkland & Ellis, where he represented U.S. companies in cases before the International Trade Commission and advised on supply chain issues. He understands, from the boardroom to the factory floor, how trade policy impacts ``Forgotten Americans,'' real businesses, and our long-term competitiveness against geoeconomic rivals like China.

As Under Secretary, Mr. Kimmitt will lead the International Trade Administration and will be responsible for: No. 1, promoting market access for American goods and services; and No. 2, enforcing our trade laws to combat unfair practices. Both functions are critical to our safety and prosperity.

On market access, when American farmers and manufacturers have a fair chance to compete against international firms, they always win. Whether it is automobiles from Ohio, refined chemicals from Pennsylvania, or soybeans from Iowa, our products are second to none. ITA ensures that foreign markets are open to those goods by cutting through redtape and breaking down trade barriers. That means more exports, more jobs, and stronger communities here at home.

On enforcement, ITA plays a vital role in confronting dumping practices, countering illegal subsidies, and ensuring that foreign competitors play by the rules. For too long, American workers were undercut by countries exploiting loopholes, manipulating markets, and ignoring labor standards. Under Mr. Kimmitt's leadership, we will have an Under Secretary committed to using every tool available to level the playing field and bring justice to American workers.

Mr. Kimmitt has pledged to use America's trade tools strategically, enforce our laws vigorously, and give our exporters the support they need to succeed globally. I know he will deliver on these promises. His deep understanding of how trade policy intersects with our national interest will serve this Nation well.

So today, I congratulate William Kimmitt on his confirmation as our next Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade. I thank him, his wife Heather, and their four children--Kaitlyn, Kevin, Will, and Abby--for once again answering the call to serve. I am certain that he will make the ITA a tireless champion for the American worker.

Mr. President, we are about to enter a historic moment in this Chamber. We are going to take up a bill called the One Big Beautiful Bill.

If you have been watching the media over the last maybe 6 months, you heard all kinds of absolute misinformation about this bill. I had a chance to read it. I know, Mr. President, you have also. It is an absolutely historic and transformative piece of legislation that reverses 4 years of an assault on American workers.

Let me just give you some of the facts. These are indisputable facts, and I want everybody watching this to remember this as you listen to probably what is going to be 30-plus hours of complete nonsense from the other side.

Let's start with No. 1. Nobody who works for a living in this country knows better what has happened to them over the last 4 years than they do. They have seen inflation crush them. The price of a home became unaffordable. The price of an automobile became unaffordable. The price of groceries became a luxury. You go to the grocery store, and you bring your normal order to the cashier, and you think, there is no way that can be my grocery bill. Those were all policies that were driven by the other side's ridiculous assault on American workers.

What are we going to do about it?

American workers have very seldom actually been represented in this Chamber. This Chamber has done a very good job representing special interest groups and lobbyists. But here is what American workers get out of the One Big Beautiful Bill:

No. 1, to address the price of automobiles--which, by the way, have been coming down under President Trump's term despite the misinformation that car prices would soar. Let me say that again. The price of automobiles has come down in the first 6 months of this

year versus going up $8,000 during the Biden years.

What are we doing to make it even more affordable to own an automobile? We are going to allow full deductibility of any interest paid on car loans if the car is made in America. That is a significant relief for American workers.

Secondly, no income tax on tips, overtime, or Social Security--a huge relief. That is probably about $1,500 to $2,500 extra in your pocket from not having to pay income tax on tips, overtime, or Social Security.

On top of that, the One Big Beautiful Bill prevents about a $5,000 per American worker per year income tax increase. I imagine the Democrats are going to come on this floor and fight this bill and say it helps billionaires when they know--they know--that if we don't pass this bill, every American worker will pay $5,000 more in income taxes next year and for all years to come.

Under Joe Biden, we had over 10 million illegals invade our country. I wasn't born in this country; I was born in South America. I had the honor and the privilege of being welcomed to this Nation. Who did Joe Biden welcome? Not legal immigrants like myself but, rather, people who broke our laws to come here. What was the result? They drove up our housing prices. They drove up our insurance premiums. They lowered wages for American workers. They crippled our cities, and crime surged.

So what does the One Big Beautiful Bill do? It funds Immigration and Customs Enforcement so that we can get these people out of our country. They should never have been allowed to come here. We have 5,000 border agents trying to get rid of 600,000 criminal aliens. These aren't just people who came here illegally--that was a crime in and of itself--this is 600,000 people who committed another crime, and we don't have the resources to deport them. This bill gives us the money to do that.

You have kids. I have kids. Raising kids has become really, really expensive. I was one of seven. My dad was one of 11. My grandfather was one of 23. I only have four--underperformer. Raising kids is really, really hard, really expensive. What does this bill do? It gives every working American $2,200 per child per year--$2,200 per child per year-- to help alleviate the cost of raising kids.

In addition--this is something new and exciting--you have a birth of an American baby in this country, and the Federal Government will put $1,000 into a bank account. Companies, your employers, nonprofits-- whatever group wants to--they can put money in that account. That account will grow with an index. When that child who is born here an America, an American citizen--by the time they get to be 25 or 30 years old, they could have a decent little sum of money, a couple hundred thousand dollars. They can use it for education, for upscaling, whatever they want. Nobody has ever done that to help American workers in that way, and we can do that.

Now, look, healthcare is a massive expense. The Acting President pro tempore is a doctor. He knows what is going on in our healthcare system. It is crushing working families. What does the One Big Beautiful Bill do? It provides funding for health savings accounts so you can use pretax dollars to fund it, so if there is that emergency, you can have that to tap into--a huge improvement.

Of course, let me just be crystal, crystal clear: This bill does not touch Social Security in any way whatsoever, even though I have had to listen to my colleagues over and over and over again, for the last 6 months, say that we are eliminating, crushing, destroying Social Security. We do not touch Social Security. We don't touch Medicare at all. Let me repeat that. We don't touch Social Security or Medicare. Despite how many online videos they do or how many press interviews they do or how much time the media repeats that misinformation, we don't touch Social Security or Medicare.

Now, on Medicaid, here is what we do: We strengthen it. In fact, in my State of Ohio, the hospitals will get more money to provide Medicaid to the people who need it: the disabled, pregnant women, children, older Americans who are in need. We are giving them more money. We will spend more money on Medicaid with the One Big Beautiful Bill than if we don't do it. Is that something that you have heard from the other side? Completely the opposite. What we are doing is we are eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse which has been rampant in that system, and we are starting the process of reforming the way the States and the Federal Government's relationship works in Medicaid. The States have abdicated that responsibility. We are working to reset that in a very, very methodical way.

For working Americans who are able-bodied, we are asking to do what Bill Clinton wanted, which is to put a work requirement on able-bodied adults. Let's define that. What does ``able-bodied'' mean? It means one between 18 and 60, with no disabilities and no dependent children. You can work. And what is the work requirement? It is 80 hours a month of either work, volunteering, community service, or upscaling, which is going to a place like, for example, Cuyahoga Community College or Kent State University or Columbus State University, where they can go in and get a skill that allows them to come into the workforce.

It is very, very commonsense and not controversial at all, but you will hear the other side saying that we are kicking 60 million off health insurance.

I can't even count how many meetings I have had with my Republican colleagues. As the Acting President pro tempore knows, we meet quite often. We have hundreds and hundreds of meetings. Our North Star--the center of gravity for our party--is, how do we help Americans? See, putting America first means that we are going to put our resources to helping American citizens. The other side? They want to give hundreds of billions of dollars to illegals. They want to have States be able to take that Medicaid money that is for American citizens and give it to people who shouldn't even be in this country. That doesn't even pass the commonsense, basic test.

So what the One Big Beautiful Bill does is it strengthens Medicaid for generations to come. I am very proud of that part of the bill. As the infomercial would say, ``But wait. There is more.''

Biden and the radical Democrats made the world more dangerous. If you had turned on the TV any day of the week for the last 4 years, every part of the globe was more dangerous because of the weakness of Joe Biden. The One Big Beautiful Bill makes a historic investment in our military. Our military was demoralized, depleted, stretched too thin, out of basic equipment. We invest in that.

What has happened already? Record recruitment. In fact, the gentleman who worked with me on the campaign, Robby Brooks--he can't listen to this because he is in basic training with the Marines. He met Secretary Hegseth in my office. In fact, my entire office gave him a standing ovation when he came in to talk to me during his nomination process. Robby was so inspired by Secretary Hegseth that he came to me the next day, much to my dismay because Robby was a great member of the team, and said: Do you know what? I never thought about it in my life. I am 24 years old. I am going to go be a marine because I love this country.

That is what we are doing--a historic investment in our military and in our Coast Guard. The drug cartels are bringing in all kinds of illicit drugs, not just by land but now by sea, and we are making certain that we have the resources to protect our mainland.

For anyone who has flown lately--especially those of us who come to Washington, DC, every week--you fly; you know the delays; and you know what is going on with our air traffic control system. This air traffic control system should have been addressed years ago, well before the Acting President pro tempore and I got here. Decades, honestly, before the Acting President pro tempore and I got here, this should have been dealt with. They talked about it. Every Secretary of Transportation and every President talked about and acknowledged that our air traffic control system was a mess and that it needed to be modernized. What does the One Big Beautiful Bill do? It makes a historic investment in our Nation's air traffic control system--something that will help every American. That is what this bill does.

Now, here is the last piece: My Democrat colleagues will talk about how

this adds to the deficit, which is factually inaccurate. Actually, for the first time in my lifetime, we have a bill before Congress that will reduce spending. We have never seen that. They passed something called the Inflation Reduction Act that blew a hole in our deficit; that did the exact opposite of reducing inflation. In fact, inflation went up. Let me give you an example of what that bill did, because I don't know this has been well-reported.

If you are a multimillionaire--in fact, they like to talk about billionaires now because most of them, by the way, are millionaires. I am not sure how that happened. That is a different conversation for a different day, but they like to talk about billionaires. You could have a billionaire walk into a Rolls-Royce dealership--a billionaire walk into a Rolls-Royce dealership--buy a $500,000 Rolls-Royce and decide to lease it, and the Democrats will give that billionaire a check for $7,500 to offset the cost of that Rolls-Royce.

What does this $7,500 credit do for you on a Rolls-Royce? Well, the umbrella that comes in the door is $12,000. It doesn't quite cover the cost of that. The monograms on the headrest are about $5,000, so you can cover that with the $7,500. You won't cover anywhere near the cost of the audio system, which is $22,000. Think about how sick that is. They come on the floor and say that we are helping billionaires when they are giving $7,500 checks to people who lease these kinds of cars. Sick.

What are we doing? We are getting rid of all of these green new scams. We are cutting the budget deficit. We are finally implementing fiscal responsibility. It is the reason in the last 6 months this is what we have seen: Inflation has never been lower; gas prices are way down; egg prices are way down; and the stock market is at a record high. Remember the stock market that the Democrats were saying was going to be 1932 all over again just 60 days ago? A record. Not a record this year but an alltime record. They said tariffs were going to destroy the economy. Not true. This One Big Beautiful Bill does all of these things and reduces our deficit.

What is holding us back? Why can't we pass this piece of legislation that helps working Americans?

I am old enough to remember when the Democrat Party was the party of the working class. This is the kind of bill that most Democrats would have advocated for 20, 30 years ago. The center, the North Star, the guidepost for this bill is, does it help our middle class? Does it help working Americans? This bill does that in the ways that I just outlined. You would think that the Democrats would rush to the floor to vote for this thing. Instead, they will mischaracterize it every step of the way. I just laid out the facts. The bill is 940 pages long. If you want to read it, read it for yourself. Don't believe what you hear in the media. Don't believe what the Democrats are going to tell you. Believe what I just told you because these are facts that are indisputable.

In fact, I will close with this:

I will guarantee that there is not one thing I outlined here today-- any of these aspects of the bill--that my colleagues will dispute, because they can't, because it is in the plain text of the bill. Instead, what they will do is they will use cliche lines like we are taking away health insurance from people who need it to give it to their billionaire buddies. Do you mean like George Soros? Do you mean like the founder of LinkedIn, who funded all kinds of nonsense? Those billionaires, right? Look, do you want to find the center of gravity today for the Democrat Party? Go to Martha's Vineyard where the average home is $30 million. That is their North Star.

What is our North Star? Communities in the Acting President pro tempore's State and communities in my State, like Chillicothe, OH. That is the center of gravity for our party. It is a new party. I will acknowledge that. The Republican Party of today is not the party that I knew 20 or 30 years ago. It was a mistake that we weren't thinking about the working class in the way we are today, but here we are, on the verge of passing One Big Beautiful Bill.

Now, look, if you are an American watching, I see why you are confused. If I were somebody who was reading that all day, for example, in my hometown newspaper, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, I would probably think something different because it is all propaganda from the other side. I just laid it out. I challenge anybody in the media, anybody listening to this, any of my Democrat colleagues to come out here on the floor and go line by line in what I just said and tell me what I just said is not true.

This is what this bill is all about. I am so proud that I had the honor--the honor--of even being a tiny part of putting together a bill that is so historic and so transformative. I urge all of my Republican colleagues--all of my Republican colleagues, every single one of them-- to come out here on the floor. Let's get the motion to proceed going. Let's get the bill passed. Let's get it back to the House.

To my House colleagues, come back, and get this bill done, and let's celebrate July 4 with the greatest bill ever passed by the U.S. Congress.

I yield the floor.

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