Floor Statements

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.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

Mr. President, on stock trading, only Senate Republicans would dare call a bill that permits Members of Congress to continue to own, sell, and in some instances buy stocks a stock trading ban.

They can't be serious.

The Republican bill is a permission slip for corruption, not a stock trading ban. There has been a real bipartisan effort to ban Members of Congress from trading stocks and profiting off their insider information. I have supported those efforts for years.

Last year, the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs advanced a strong bipartisan bill that would actually ban stocks, not pretend to do so.

Senate Republicans didn't want it. The Senate GOP let their counterparts in the House take out all of the ban's teeth and fill it with poison pills so it could never pass. This bill has no reform, no accountability, no substance.

Republicans want to explicitly allow Members to continue trading stocks in privately held companies, including in companies the Members oversee; a formula for disaster and corruption.

That is as clear a conflict of interest as one can imagine. Under the Republican bill, Members would still get to own and sell stocks, and most importantly, this bill doesn't do anything--anything--to stop Donald Trump from trading stocks.

I guess Republicans forgot that Trump has made nearly 30,000 stock trades in the past year and raked in billions--more than all of Congress combined.

Democrats have offered multiple bills that would close all these loopholes. Republicans have done nothing to stop corruption; not in the White House, not in Congress, nowhere.

The Republican toothless stock trading bill is as ineffective as a screen door on a submarine. Let's be clear: They don't even want it to pass. They designed the bill to fail. They loaded their legislation with poison pills that they knew would make this bill dead on arrival. They are even afraid of this wet noodle, weak milquetoast bill.

The voting restrictions in this bill and the voting restrictions that they added as a poison pill are more extreme than any law in any State. It would make voting more difficult in every State than it is now.

They are some of the most twisted, radical schemes Trump has ever dreamed up to rig our election. Republicans know no one wants these provisions, so they included them to kill their own bill. This hollow bill isn't a stock trading ban; it is Republicans' last-ditch effort to save face.

If Republicans' closing pitch is a bill that would let them continue to profit off their office and allow Trump to rig the election, that is their problem. Americans don't buy it.

Mr. President, and finally, on a much happier note. Nearly a decade ago, I made one of the greatest decisions anyone in this line of work can make: I hired a top-notch, first-rate person who was so talented in every way. I hired Cietta Kiandoli.

That was a time with a lot of change. Our party was still finding its footing after a stinging election loss. I had just become Democratic leader. My staff was expanding.

We were determined to rally our coalition and make it bigger and stronger than ever before. Everyone my team and I talked to, we said we needed someone to create that coalition, help glue it together-- mentioned the same person. They said: Hire Cietta.

Cietta joined my leadership staff as director of external affairs, but the title doesn't adequately capture all that Cietta has done and does for this country. I am not sure any title could.

Cietta has always had the same star to connect people, policy, and politics, and to do it in such an exquisite and effective way. That is what she did before joining my team, that is what she did for the past decade on my team, and that is what she will continue to do as she starts her next chapter.

Name any group in our big tent--any labor union, advocacy organization, caucus--the chances are they have not only met Cietta but have known her for years, and they most likely adore her.

Cietta's job isn't easy. She gets a lot of telephone calls from various members of our coalition. Sometimes, they call her about a hard vote. Sometimes they call her about a fire that needs to be put out. Sometimes--actually, many times--they call her begging for her to get me to switch up the jokes that I repeat at the events, year after year after year.

She has had moderate, marginal success in that regard. If they only knew how many times she has heard my jokes. And I see her eyes roll when I laugh at my own joke that I have told for the hundredth time.

I am sure she will miss hearing me talk about the can of peas, the barber bookie, and all of my other greatest hits.

On a more serious note, there are plenty of people who know how to command respect, but there are fewer who can match Cietta's ability to command the trust of any room she walks into.

She is a truth-teller, and she tells the truth all the time. So they know, when she says something, it is the real deal. I have seen that hundreds--hundreds--of times to the benefit of all of us, myself, and the coalitions that we bring together.

It doesn't matter who she is meeting. They can tell from the jump that her heart is in the right place. They can see how much she cares about serving New Yorkers and Americans from one end of the country to the other.

So just as others have come to trust Cietta, so have I. She is among the people I trust most. She is a truth-teller.

My staff knows that I move a mile a minute. When I get riled up, Cietta knows how to get me to slow down, to think about the bigger picture. Just having her in the room during a meeting or on the line during an important call helps put me at ease.

I imagine Cietta won't miss the long days and late-night calls from yours truly, but I hope she knows how much we are going to miss her, her good humor, her calm, her willingness to share her wisdom with whoever happens to need it.

Cietta, I look forward to seeing what you will do next, but I know what it will be. It will keep bringing people together for the good of the country. You will continue making everyone around you better--and she will always fight. You will always fight to connect people, policy, and politics.

Cietta, thank you for your friendship. Thank you for your dedication. Thank you for your loyalty. Thank you for caring so much about this country and the people you have fought so hard for.

You will always be a member of the Schumer family, and we wish you Godspeed.

I yield the floor.

I announce that the Senator from Connecticut (Mr. Blumenthal), the Senator from Illinois (Mr. Durbin), the Senator from New York (Mrs. Gillibrand), the Senator from Minnesota (Ms. Smith), the Senator from Virginia (Mr. Warner), and the Senator from Rhode Island (Mr. Whitehouse) are necessarily absent.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, 20 months ago, Republicans won control of Washington on a promise to bring down costs, make government more efficient, and end senseless wars. But over the past 2 years, Republicans betrayed the trust of the American people. For the past 20 months, Senate Republicans catered to Donald Trump's every wish, but Senate Democrats stood up for the American people.

The Trump administration, empowered by his feckless Republican majorities in Congress, has been a catastrophe for working families everywhere. Rising costs, increasing chaos, and rampant corruption characterize the Trump administration and its Republican acolytes.

Though we lack the majority in both the House and Senate, Democrats came together like never before to hold Trump and Republicans' feet to the fire and do everything we could to stop them. We fought Republicans' radical agenda on front after front and blunted some of their worst attacks on the American people.

On costs, we worked tirelessly and fiercely to call attention to how Republicans' disastrous agenda is making costs for the American people skyrocket. Americans have watched the price of everything--everything-- explode these past 2 years--groceries, gasoline, healthcare, electricity, housing, childcare. Everything is more expensive.

Americans are crying out for relief, and instead of listening to Americans, my Republican colleagues across the aisle back the very same administration policies that have cost families an average of $4,200 in higher prices since Trump took office--$4,200 in higher prices because of Republican and Trump policies.

Senate Republicans back Trump's horrendous tariff tax to the hilt. Democrats fought Trump's tariff tax in court and won. Americans shouldn't have to shell out a fortune at the grocery store so Trump can pound his chest about his senseless trade wars.

As Trump has pursued new tariffs, Republicans in Congress have abetted these tax increases on families and small businesses, while Democrats have pushed to end them.

We fought back when Trump and congressional Republicans gleefully cut $1 trillion--$1 trillion--from our healthcare system so they could cut taxes for billionaires and their biggest corporation friends. The result: 5 million Americans have already lost their healthcare coverage. Can you imagine being a family with no healthcare when your kid gets sick? And another 10 million will lose it in the coming years. Meanwhile, tens of millions of Americans with ACA coverage have to shell out more than $1,000 extra because of soaring premiums and deductibles.

Medicaid, food assistance--every program designed to help Americans keep their heads above water--all cut to the bones by Republicans in the Senate and in the country.

Let's not forget how Americans' electricity bills are up 18 percent under Donald Trump because Republicans gutted the historic investments Democrats made in the cheapest, fastest forms to get energy on the grid. We fought hard to secure these investments, and you had better believe we are going to fight to bring them back.

Republicans are also charging the American people for senseless foreign wars that they promised to end. The Republican majority continues to back Trump's disastrous war with Iran that has made gas prices skyrocket and mortgage rates soar.

Democrats know just how badly Americans are hurting right now. Republicans can turn a blind eye to the affordability crisis all they want, but fixing it means offering a positive vision to lower costs. That is what Democrats will continue to do.

Mr. President, on corruption, Senate Democrats have also been unrelenting in exposing Trump's unprecedented corruption. Senate Republicans have aided and abetted Trump's efforts to rob the American people and enrich himself every step of the way.

The Trump family has profited $4 billion off the Presidency in the past 2 years. Trump couldn't have done it without the Senate GOP stroking his ego and lining his pockets.

The list of Trump's scams and taxpayer-funded vanity projects is truly egregious. Billions of dollars in upgrades to Trump's $400 million foreign luxury jet, Trump's gaudy triumphal arch and his billion-dollar ballroom, his recent propaganda ad, sweetheart deals for his sons' companies from foreign governments, his $2 billion MAGA slush fund to funnel American taxpayers' money to himself, his billionaire friends, and January 6 insurrectionists--the list, unfortunately, goes on and on and on, and Trump charged it all to the American taxpayer.

Senate Democrats have laid Trump's grifting bare for the whole world to see. Now, everyone knows that this is the most corrupt administration in American history.

Americans are already drowning in higher costs; they shouldn't have to pay for Trump's corruption too.

Democrats are ready to actually drain the swamp--to really do it--to root out corruption and ensure government works for the people, not special interests.

Mr. President, on chaos, with a record so terrible, with an agenda so deeply unpopular, Trump has resorted to sowing chaos everywhere he can--chaos in our financial markets; chaos in our streets, where he unleashed his rogue ICE agents to go after Americans; chaos abroad, where his war has put our economy at risk--all because he didn't think to keep the Strait of Hormuz open when he began.

Republicans have embraced Trump's chaos at every turn, but Senate Democrats have done everything we can to restore stability, especially in our elections.

Trump has waged an all-out war on free and fair elections in the United States. He has tried to disenfranchise millions of Americans, kill vote-by-mail, and make it harder for people to make their voices heard in their democracy. Trump has given up on winning over the electorate, so he is trying to silence it.

Republicans tried to jam through Trump's SAVE Act--the most devious anti-voting rights legislation Trump ever dreamed up--to purge millions of voters from the rolls.

We told Republicans that the SAVE Act ain't going to happen. It didn't. We killed the SAVE Act in Congress, we took Trump to court over his attacks with his voter-suppression Executive orders, we protected mail-in voting, and we defeated Trump's attacks on our elections in case after case after case.

Senate Democrats launched our Election Protection Task Force to plan how we will protect our elections on election day from Trump, we held tabletop exercises to prepare for Trump's efforts to interfere with our elections, and we launched a historic Election Observer Program to train and deploy Senate staff volunteers across the country to monitor for any meddling in our electoral system.

In America, Donald Trump should know--he doesn't--that voters pick their leaders; leaders don't pick their voters.

You hear that, Trump? Voters pick their leaders; leaders don't pick their voters.

Senate Democrats have taken every precaution to make sure it stays that way.

In conclusion, make no mistake, the past 2 years have been hard-- extremely hard--on Americans. Costs are through the roof. Millions are losing their healthcare. Trump's masked agents have run down Americans in the streets. At least 19 Americans have been killed, and hundreds more have been wounded. The global economy is in tatters, and Americans are watching costs climb even further because Trump launched a reckless, illegal war with absolutely no plan.

We are fighting Trump tooth and nail on every front, but we are the first to recognize that stopping the worst of the worst isn't enough. We are ready to hit the ground running to lower costs, rein in chaos, and stop the corruption.

Republicans broke faith with the American people. We know we need to build that trust with the Americans back up, and we will.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Mr. President, well, Donald Trump is asleep at the wheel when it comes to reining in unchecked AI. Right after news came out over the weekend about rogue AI agents infiltrating government websites in the United States, Australia, and at the U.N., do you know what Trump told FOX News? ``I don't worry about it.'' Well, he is about the only one.

Trump doesn't worry about rogue AI, but the American people certainly do, so do cyber security experts and even many of the people who are building this technology. Everybody who knows anything about it worries about rogue AI--not Donald Trump. He keeps his head in the sand like an ostrich. He doesn't pay any attention to the facts and just says whatever pops into his head, no matter how harmful it is.

When Trump meets with various AI industry leaders at the White House today, he ought to stop resisting the growing consensus that we need real guardrails to mitigate AI's risk.

Trump's meeting at the White House will be a flop, a failure, an utter failure if they don't propose and start talking about and start to come to an agreement about some real guardrails that need to be done. And, of course, he should consult with those of us in Congress who believe we need stronger guardrails.

Dismissing the potential dangers of AI as a hoax, as Trump has done over and over and over again, won't protect the American people. The Senate GOP's response to AI risk has been almost as meek as Trump's.

Americans are demanding real guardrails on AI and data centers, but all the Republicans offer is a toothless messaging bill. The bill is a fraud.

I can sum up the shortcomings of the Republican data center bill with one word: optional. The bill is optional. America, do you hear that? Here, we need some real action on data centers. And what does the Republican Senator from Ohio come up with? Something that is optional. It is up to the companies to decide.

Well, they are the ones that need the guardrails: optional--optional requirements in his bill on data center development, optional standards for safety against catastrophic risks, optional enforcement to protect the American people. A guardrail that is optional isn't a guardrail at all.

At a time when Americans are calling out for real guardrails on AI, Senate Republicans are trying to secure an ineffectual participation trophy before they skip town. Instead of trying to score cheap political points with hollow proposals, Senate Republicans need to work with us to take meaningful action that will actually contain these existential risks. They are not doing that, and the American people are in real danger because of their failure to act.

Stock Trading

Mr. President, on stock trading and voter ID, Senate Republicans continue to show the country they care more about playing partisan political games than stopping corruption. The Senate GOP has bucked a longstanding bipartisan effort to ban stock trading in Congress, which is what Congress should do.

Last July--July--the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee advanced a strong, commonsense, bipartisan bill to ban congressional stock trading, but Senate Republicans abandoned this effort. Too many of their Members didn't want to do it.

If Senate Republicans truly cared about banning stock trading in Congress, they wouldn't have let the House Republicans water down the ban. The bill Republicans are offering today is Swiss cheese legislating, creating loophole after loophole after loophole, and it is a step backward to solving this critical problem.

The bill even lets Members continue to own and sell stocks. The Republican bill even lets Members continue to own and sell stocks. This is the Republican MO. The public is mad about a problem. The public wants something done. And what they do is put in a bill that does virtually nothing because they want to try to assuage the public but not solve the problem because it affects them.

The Republican bill also explicitly allows Members to trade stocks in privately held companies to profit off their insider knowledge. So the bill makes things worse than present law because it would simply hide insider trading. It would not stop it.

And if Senate Republicans cared about reining in stock trading, they would advance a bill that prohibits the President from trading stocks. We know that Trump has traded more stocks than all of Congress combined, but this bill does no such thing.

The worst part of this bill is that Republicans know it will never pass. They designed it that way. They don't want this bill to become law. So they put a poison pill in that they knew would tank it. It is really trickery. It is skulduggery.

If Republican Senators really cared about stopping stock trading by Members, they wouldn't have loaded it up with a poison pill voter ID bill, which Senate Democrats have defeated already twice.

Republicans know that no one in their right mind would ever go along with the draconian voting restrictions that they attach to their stock trading bill. The voting restriction provisions in this bill are more severe than any law in any State--do you hear that?--more severe than any law in any State. They are designed to kill the bill.

So this bill is just another desperate Republican attempt to pretend they are fighting corruption, when all they really want is to score political points before they head home to campaign.

Trump Administration

Mr. President, on Trump propaganda, Donald Trump continues to cram his taxpayer-funded propaganda down the throats of the American people. In less than a single week, Trump has aired three campaign ads, costing at least $1.5 million, all paid for by--guess who--the American taxpayer.

Trump is getting you, American taxpayer, to use your dollars to pay for his political ads. Have you ever heard anything so egregious in terms of how our system is supposed to work?

I am calling on the White House to explain this great, blatantly corrupt, and egregious abuse of taxpayer dollars immediately. The Trump administration has a lot of questions it needs to answer: Who is responsible for these ads? Which Agency? Where were the funds diverted to pay for Trump's propaganda? Was Trump involved personally?

There has already been some reporting from anonymous sources that Trump was personally involved in pushing these campaign ads on the taxpayers' dime.

Let's be clear, these ads were anything but public service announcements. They were pure propaganda. After fawning over foreign authoritarians like Putin and Kim Jong Un for so long, Trump must have gotten jealous of their control over state TV.

Trump needs to answer for this corruption and for all of his other efforts to rob the American people to fund his extravagant vanity projects. It is time for Republicans to either call the President out for this corruption or to call it quits in November.

Affordable Care Act

Mr. President, finally, on the Affordable Care Act CRA, well, today Senate Democrats will force consideration of a resolution to stop Trump from further sabotaging the ACA.

Trump's recent rule terminates coverage for 2 million Americans. It jacks up healthcare costs for millions more and gives big insurers carte blanche to force the American people to pay more for less.

As if Americans weren't drowning enough in Trump's failed economy, this callous rule comes on the heels of Trump and Republicans ransacking over $1 trillion--$1 trillion--from the healthcare system, all to bankroll tax breaks for billionaires and big corporations.

Now rural hospitals are shuttering, millions are losing lifesaving coverage, and tens of millions of working Americans are watching their premiums double, triple, even quadruple.

For years, Trump has tried to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act with no idea of what replacement will look like whatsoever.

As Trump's economy bleeds the American people dry, Trump isn't trying to lower costs but, rather, kill the Affordable Care Act with a death by a thousand cuts.

So my Republican colleagues ought to join us on this resolution to protect the care their constituents rely on or they will continue to own every lost healthcare policy, every closed hospital, and every skyrocketing premium that follows.

I yield the floor.

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

Madam President, this is on the taxpayer-funded Trump political ads.

Every day--every day--Trump comes up with a new corruption scheme to abuse American taxpayers for his own benefit. That is why corruption is a hallmark of this administration. Yesterday, Trump aired another partisan campaign ad on multiple channels during prime time. And if you can believe it, who paid for it? The U.S. Government. The U.S. taxpayers paid for a political ad by Trump.

These ads are virtually indistinguishable from those made for Trump's 2024 campaign, and yet you the taxpayer is funding them.

It is an absolute violation of what democracy is supposed to look like. Americans sat down to watch football, not to be force-fed Trump's propaganda on their own dime. Only Trump would have the audacity to force Americans not only to watch his propaganda, but to pay for it.

We can add these campaign ads to the list of vanity projects that Trump has egregiously charged to the American taxpayer: his arch, his ballroom, upgrades to his luxury foreign jet, his MAGA slush fund, and so much more. The corruption goes on and on; it is endless in this administration. Every week, Trump thinks of a new corrupt measure so he can rip off the American taxpayer and enrich himself.

I am calling on the administration to reveal which Agency aired this illegal propaganda, on whose orders, and exactly at what cost to the American taxpayer. These ads send a clear message, just not the one Trump intended.

It sends the message that Trump and the Republicans are scared; they are desperate; and they know the American people are done buying what they are selling.

Rescissions

Madam President, on the Trump rescissions, Trump has no problem wasting billions of American taxpayers on his vanity projects but suddenly gets stingy when there is an opportunity to support American families.

Over the weekend, Trump illegally cut nearly a billion dollars from programs designed to help American families and communities to get ahead. Trump's rescissions package eviscerated funding that supports kids, K through 12 students, small businesses, health, and clean air research.

These cuts are just another slap in the face to the American people as they struggle to afford the skyrocketing costs of Trump's never- ending war and spiraling economy.

Here is an idea, Donald: Instead of burning billions of taxpayer dollars on the arch or the reflecting pool or the ballroom or any of your hundred vanity projects, Trump, you ought to invest that money in American families and keep these programs intact.

Trump cut funding that Congress approved--Democrats and Republicans. Every Senate Republican who voted for any of the bills providing this funding ought to be up in arms.

Senate Democrats are going to challenge Trump's illegal cuts every chance we get. Unless Senate Republicans want to remain nothing more than a rubberstamp for Donald Trump and his grim reaper Russell Vought, they need to join us to stop the Trump administration from robbing the American people blind.

Iran

Madam President, finally on the Iran war, it now enters its eighth month, and Trump continues to drag America through the mess he has made in Iran. It was going to end in a week or a month or 2 weeks or 3 weeks or 2 months. We are in the eighth month.

When Trump started his disastrous war, yes, he said it would only take a few weeks, but Trump's campaign is now entering its eighth month--its eighth month. Trump is starting the eighth month of his war the same way he started the first month, with empty promises to the American people that victory is right around the corner.

Yesterday, Trump told FOX News:

We're going to win this war very soon, and as soon as we

win it, the oil will go down.

Well, it has been going up for 8 months, Mr. President. The American people are out billions of dollars out of their pockets already. Nobody wants to wait any longer.

Whatever timeline Trump thinks is ``very soon,'' isn't soon enough for the American people. We are getting crushed by the cost of this war every time we go to the gas station. Trump shows no signs of ending this war, not when he just launched a pledge for new strikes on Iran after the midterms.

How much longer is Trump going to continue his failed war? another month? another 7 months? another year?

Trump's costly war with Iran will end whenever Trump Republicans find the courage to listen to the American people instead of the hysteria from the President.

Republicans could have shown that courage last week by supporting our War Powers Resolution to stop the fighting in Iran and bring costs down. Instead, Senate Republicans chose to leave Americans waiting and voted for Trump's war to continue.

Every American ought to ask these Senators whether appeasing the President is truly worth the cost of this horrible war.

I yield the floor.

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

Mr. President, on the Trump media ban, you can tell Trump's desperate, repressive media ban is flagrantly unconstitutional when it gets blocked by a judge he appointed.

Trump can attack the First Amendment all he wants, but the roots of our democracy run deeper than he could ever fathom. No President should be able to use censorship to escape accountability, to deprive Americans of the truth, and to take our country down the path to authoritarianism.

Is Trump so fragile, so thin-skinned, so desperate that he can't handle reporting that reflects the truth that he doesn't want to hear? If Trump's Presidency and economy are going as well as he claims they are, then he should have nothing to fear from the cameras.

We all know what this media ban was about. Trump himself told the real truth when he said he was trying to protect his reputation with this ban. To protect his reputation--can you believe it? The chutzpah of a President to say, ``I am going to shut down the media because I don't like what they are saying,'' when he knows that 250 grand years of freedom of speech has been the hallmark of this country.

Of course, his statements were so out of line--and even his supporters criticized it--that Trump had to backtrack by trying to label these news outlets a so-called ``national security risk.''

No one bought that excuse for a second. The only thing Trump was trying to defend was himself.

Trump knows he is in rough shape. He knows the American people are furious with him and his party. He knows just how much of a disaster his record is. And since Trump can't clean up his mess, he tries to sweep it under the rug, and he failed miserably.

Trump can't outrun the press, and he can't outrun his record.

You hear that, Donald? You can't outrun the press, and you can't outrun your miserable record.

China

Mr. President, on the Xi Jinping visit, Trump's soft-handed treatment of the Chinese Communist Party is on full display this week during Xi Jinping's visit. No sooner had Xi landed yesterday, than the Trump administration announced it is extending its trade relief to China for another 2 months.

Really? Trump ought to take that trade war truce up north to Canada, instead of giving it to China and Xi and his authoritarian regime.

As usual, Trump acts based solely on who flatters him at the moment, where the nearest photo-op is, and what headline he covers.

If you are foreign or authoritarian, Trump just won't invite you to America; he will greet you planeside. That is what Trump did, sort of as a supplicant for Xi yesterday. That is what Trump did for Putin in Alaska last year.

This man has an atavistic attraction to dictators, to bad people. Something is so wrong up there with him.

And now Trump and Rubio want to roll out the red carpet for Putin again at the G20 in Florida this year.

Trump needs to finally show some backbone. America can't afford for Trump to roll over on blocking China's access to our advanced AI tech, stopping the flow of fentanyl, protecting oil workers, strengthening American innovation, and holding the CCP accountable for aiding our adversaries or any of the other pressing issues we face with the PRC.

Meeting an authoritarian at the bottom of the stairs is easy. Standing up to them at the negotiating table is the hard part. So far, Trump hasn't managed it.

Iran

Mr. President, on the Iran war, as Trump tries to tread water as his disastrous war with Iran gets worse by the day, the American people are drowning in costs. Gas is nearly $4.50 a gallon, and diesel is still breaking highs at $6.51 a gallon because of Trump's war.

It is madness. Americans are getting crushed at the gas pumps. Working families are getting cleaned out at the grocery store counters. And family farms are going under because Trump took this country to war without authorization, without a plan, without a second thought to the consequences.

We have lost at least 19 brave servicemembers. Hundreds are wounded or maimed, and tens of thousands remain in harm's way. That is just what we know, since this administration keeps withholding information from Congress and the American people about the true number of casualties in this war.

All the while, Iran's grip on the Strait of Hormuz and other key chokepoints has grown tighter, and the entire situation in the Middle East has gotten worse. Trump's war has been one of the biggest foreign policy catastrophes in the history of this country. And, of course, as I said, the price of gasoline and the price of diesel keep going up.

From the start, I have said this war is bigger than politics, and Senate Republicans--if they knew what was good for them--would have joined us in pushing for an end to Trump's war 7 months ago.

Well, Senate Democrats will force a vote on another War Powers Resolution to end Trump's disastrous war and bring our troops home, at last, very soon. Americans will remember who votes to end Trump's war today just as they will remember who voted for the war to continue, time and time and time again, for 7 long months.

Big Oil

Mr. President, and on the Trump Big Oil corruption report, Donald Trump's flagrant corruption costs the American people dearly every single day. We all know that.

Just this morning, I joined Senator Whitehouse to unveil our Anti- corruption Working Group's staggering new report on how Trump's corrupt dealings with Big Oil billionaires are costing the American people a fortune. It is a tale as old as time in Trump's America.

In 2024, this then was brazen. I knew we were headed for trouble when I saw it back then in the papers, because in 2024 Trump invited Harold Hamm and all those Big Oil guys down to Mar-a-Lago and asked them for a $1 billion--$1 billion--for his campaign in exchange for political favors to boost their bottom line.

It was appalling then--pay-to-play--and openly done, bragging boldly. I mean, that shows these people have no shame. They have no worries about the strictures of democracy, of morality, of what America has always been all about. No, they brag about it: We will give you $1 billion. Help our oil companies, ho ho ho.

But the American people paid the price. Big Oil paid up and, boy, did Donald Trump deliver.

Trump blocked clean energy projects that would have brought down families' energy costs and powered millions of homes. The administration shut down the cheapest and fastest source of energy to build and get--the cheapest source of energy, the fastest source; it is the one that goes quickest on the grid--just so billionaires, Big Oil billionaires, could get even richer.

Many of the same people making these policies are profiting off them. Trump appointed numerous fossil fuel industry leaders to his administration.

Trump's corruption is not a victimless crime; it never is. Every

time Americans see the skyrocketing costs on their electric bill or at the gas station, they know who to blame: Donald Trump and his Big Oil billionaire cronies.

Trump's greed isn't just costing Americans more for energy; it is costing them their health. A report found that the pollution from Trump's Big Oil blitz is driving up Americans' healthcare costs too.

I want to salute Sheldon Whitehouse, who had a strong hand in putting together this report. He has been steadfast, brilliant, and hard-nosed on fighting this corruption, and I salute him again. Americans--all Americans--should salute him for his efforts.

Trump may think he can hide his corruption in the shadows, but we, Democrats in the Senate, will continue turning over every rock to expose how his greed is costing the American people.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Mr. President, let me say a few words about a great leader who has just retired--AFSCME president Lee Saunders. Today, I will pay tribute to a dear friend and a juggernaut for labor who recently began a well-deserved retirement--AFSCME president Lee Saunders. On Monday, there will be a celebration of Lee and all his work for the labor movement over the years. It will be quite a party.

I am grateful to have known Lee for decades and have always been in awe of his steadfastness in defending working people. For nearly 50 years, you could find Lee on the frontlines for every

labor issue imaginable--equal pay, better benefits, safer working conditions. You name it, Lee fought for it. That includes these past 14 years that Lee has served as president of AFSCME. He also made history as the union's first African-American president.

As Lee steered this mighty union, I have had the privilege of standing shoulder to shoulder with him on issue after issue after issue.

Together, during the COVID-19 pandemic, we fought hard to secure $350 billion for frontline workers and State and local governments, keeping communities afloat with public servants on the payroll. Many, if not most, of these workers would have lost their jobs had it not been for these dollars. We had real opposition from many on the other side of the aisle, but we fought hard and prevailed.

Together, we worked tirelessly to ensure that over 2 million public servants received their hard-earned Social Security benefits.

Together, we continue to fight for the PRO Act so that workers can better organize and bargain for fair wages and benefits, and we have applied that PRO Act in companion legislation for public workers.

I couldn't have asked for a better partner in the trenches, and AFSCME's members couldn't have elected a better president to stand up for their rights in the face of some of the greatest challenges to organized labor for generations.

In my own city of New York, city workers get paid a much better wage than they used to, better benefits, better pensions--all because of the AFSCME and fight Lee Saunders led. It is nice to see that hard-working public servants are actually being paid a decent wage, although obviously many of us think it should be greater.

Lee was always rising to meet the moment, unafraid to take on the hardest fights, and Lee's example will continue to inspire future efforts to support American workers.

Lee, you lit an eternal flame in the heart of the labor movement, and it will long endure no matter how hard corporate interests and union busters try to stamp it out.

I wish this great American the very best in his retirement and congratulate him on such a historic career.

China

Mr. President, now on the Xi Jinping visit, as Donald Trump hunts for a headline and photo-op with Xi Jinping today, he is at risk of losing sight of what is at stake for the American people. Trump risks giving China a leg up on a variety of issues if he bends the knee to Xi.

As I have been warning not only for weeks but actually for years, Trump cannot let the Chinese Communist Party get its hands on our most advanced AI chips and manufacturing equipment. If Trump truly wants to preserve America's lead in the AI race, the answer is to prohibit the sale of this cutting-edge technology to China, not to let AI develop and continue without guardrails.

We all ought to be concerned by Trump handing over this tech to China, which is why Senator Warren and I, along with Senators Slotkin and Kim, will be holding a press conference today on the urgent need to tighten export controls and cut off the flow of AI technology to the

I yield the floor.