Charles E. Schumer

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, well, for 2 years, Democrats fought fiercely to protect the interests of the American people while Senate Republicans fought tooth and nail to shield Donald Trump. We all knew how disastrous this President would be. We set out to expose how Trump and his party were hurting the American people, and we would do everything we could to stop them.

We fought to lower the skyrocketing costs of Trump's economy: the cost of food, the cost of housing, the cost of energy, the cost of groceries, the cost of gasoline. Republicans pushed policies to drive those costs up.

We exposed Trump for his unprecedented corruption; Republicans aided and abetted his grifts every step of the way.

We worked relentlessly to control Trump's chaos that we see every day; Republicans encouraged him as he spiraled out of control.

Later today, I will talk more about how Senate Democrats have worked together to block the worst Trump's GOP had to throw at the American people.

Now, of course, there is still a lot of work remaining to see America through the storm this administration has unleashed. But Senate Democrats are well positioned to stand up for the American people with the same devotion, cooperation, and discipline we showed these past 2 years.

Mr. President, now on the weak data center bill, the only thing that came out of Trump's big AI summit yesterday was a photo op; no Federal guardrails to protect against catastrophic risk, no signal from Trump that he plans to act.

All Trump had to say was ``there should be tremendous self- regulation.''

Relying on self-regulation is how we got into this mess. Americans are calling for real solutions, real guardrails, real solutions on AI.

Republicans' toothless data center bill completely misses the mark. Senate Republicans would do nothing to require data center companies to pay for their rising costs in the surrounding communities; Senate Democrats want to make it mandatory for data centers to cover their own costs by law, not by suggestion or hope or whim.

This bill doesn't do anything to mandate safety standards for AI. Democrats would require safety standards to protect the American people. A guardrail without teeth isn't a guardrail.

The Republicans' legislation doesn't even apply to all data centers. This shoddy bill couldn't get any flimsier. That is because the Republicans really don't want to do it; they don't want to oppose some of the big interests that don't want any regulation.

To put it simply: Republicans' data center bill follows Trump's lead in ignoring Americans' pressing concerns about AI while our legislation would actually address them with guardrails that have real teeth.

Americans don't want another hollow messaging bill. They don't want to watch Senate Republicans give themselves a pat on their back when they have accomplished nothing.

Americans want to see this Republican majority put the country first once and for all. Senate Republicans think even listening to the American people ought to be optional too.

I urge my colleagues to join us in taking real action on AI. I urge Republicans to put aside their feeble bill and put Americans over party.