Floor Statements

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, this week, with the contrast between the two parties in bright lights, Republicans are consumed by Donald Trump's priorities: his corrupt slush fund, his gilded ballroom, his rogue police force, his reckless war with Iran, and his refusal to contain the rising costs Americans face every week. Democrats are focused on the American people's priorities: lowering costs, bringing stability, and fighting back against this administration's rampant-- rampant--corruption.

At a time when families are struggling and looking for answers, that contrast matters. Republicans are fighting for Trump. Democrats are fighting for the American people. And we will keep driving that contrast every day, on every issue.

Mr. President, now, on the slush fund, to anyone who takes the constantly lying Todd Blanche at his word, I have a bridge to sell you. Yesterday, Todd Blanche claimed the Trump administration will halt its plans to establish a $2 billion MAGA slush fund for Trump and his cronies, but, when asked, Blanche said:

I'm not committing to doing anything in writing.

Are you kidding me? This, one of the most corrupt things that America has, and he won't even put it down in writing? The American people need the commitment to stop Trump's corruption not only in writing but codified in law, and he won't even write it down because he knows that Trump is lying.

He probably knows that he is lying, that in a week or two, Trump will come back, he will come back, and others will come up with a new corrupt scheme very similar to this slush fund, if not the same.

Blanche also said that Trump and his family will keep their brazenly corrupt tax immunity. That means that Trump and his family get to keep at least $100 million they owe in unpaid taxes--at least $100 million-- no audits, no consequences, no strings attached.

No matter what, from the start, I will personally push to permanently ban both the slush fund and the blank check Trump cut to himself and his family that would allow them to cheat on their taxes when this Republican reconciliation bill comes to the floor.

Again, I tell Republicans: You are going to have to vote on ending the corrupt Trump slush fund once and for all. You are going to have to vote on deciding whether Trump will be able to evade any tax audits and will be allowed to cheat on his taxes. You are going to have to vote on it.

I ask you this--I ask Leader Thune, I ask every Republican Senator: If you believe the slush fund should be banned, if you believe Trump shouldn't get tax immunity, then why wouldn't you just vote yes and make sure we put it into law? Because we all know that the word of Trump and the word of Blanche are, to put it kindly, flexible and, to put it realistically, not to be trusted--particularly on a matter as vital as this.

Does anyone think that Blanche will keep his word to drop this grift? Just weeks ago, Blanche lied under oath to Congress claiming that he met with Epstein survivors. The Epstein survivors themselves said that was a lie.

Does anyone think they can trust Blanche when he is in ongoing legal battles with former clients who have accused him of forgery and malpractice? Todd Blanche's word is as worthless as Trump's.

So when you see these newspaper headlines, Trump is backing off because Blanche gave his word. Again, I have a bridge to sell you. No one really believes it. Trump just wants to slide off the hook, hope this goes away in a week or two, and come back and do all the things we caught him doing in the last few weeks.

Trump's word, of course, the American people know is worthless. No one believes he tells the truth. Trump promised to lower Americans' costs on day one and broke it. Trump promised never to cut Medicaid and broke it. Trump promised never to start any new wars and broke it. Trump promised to release the Epstein files and broke it. Trump has made thousands of other promises, big and small, and broke them all.

It is only a matter of time before Blanche and Trump go back on their word and resume their efforts to put your tax dollars in the pockets of MAGA billionaires, violent criminals, and, of course, the Trump family.

If Senate Republicans truly want to stop this corruption, stop relying on the word of a compulsive liar, Todd Blanche, start doing your jobs, and pass legislation to ban Trump's MAGA handouts and his rampant tax-cheating. Ban it by law. Ban it permanently.

That is what Democrats are going to put on the floor. If you really believe it should be banned, you will vote with us. If you are trying to hide, duck, shimmy, whatever, vote no.

Trump may not keep his promises, but Democrats will keep theirs. I assure the American people that. Republicans are going to have to vote on this slush fund on the Senate floor. If Republicans don't vote to ban it, they will have to answer to the outrage of the American people who are sick of lining Trump's pockets when they can't even afford the most basic necessities.

Mr. President, now on reconciliation, after weeks of Republican infighting, we still haven't seen a draft of the Republican radical reconciliation bill. The American people don't need to see the bill text to know that Republicans are fighting for Donald Trump, not for working families. Even without Trump's billion-dollar, taxpayer- funded ballroom, which Democrats successfully killed despite Republicans' best efforts, the bill is rotten through and through.

At a time when Americans can't afford gasoline, housing, healthcare, food, Republicans won't spend a dime to bring costs down but are more than happy to fork over another $70 billion to Trump's masked agents who have unleashed chaos in our streets and threaten to do it again.

Americans are burning through their savings right now, but ICE and CBP are currently sitting on $100 billion that Trump and the GOP pumped into these rogue Agencies last year. The American people need every penny they can get right now to lower costs. Trump's Agencies have more cash than they know what to do with.

Whenever we go into a vote-arama, Democrats will be ready. Every vote, every amendment we bring to the floor will demonstrate that Democrats are standing up for the American people and Republicans are selling out to Donald Trump.

Republicans will have to vote on costs. Republicans will have to vote on tariffs. Republicans will have to vote on Trump's disastrous war with Iran. Republicans will have to vote on ICE and Border Patrol's abuses of power.

Democrats want to lower your costs; Republicans want to waste your tax dollars. Democrats want to rein in MAGA's chaos; Republicans want to let that chaos run wild--no guardrails. Democrats are fighting Trump's corruption; Republicans are aiding and abetting it.

And Republicans aren't out of the woods yet--Democrats are just getting started.

Mr. President, on the Pulte appointment, Trump's appointment of Bill Pulte to serve as Acting Director of National Intelligence appears to have been a hastily considered, backroom deal based on loyalty to Trump, not the security of our Nation.

From what I can tell, no one in the administration consulted the law, which requires the DNI to have ``extensive'' national security experience--``extensive'' national security experience. In contrast, Pulte has a record of abusing his office to attack Trump's political enemies.

The timing of this announcement could not be worse, with just over a week until FISA 702 authorities expire. This announcement and its timing clearly make passing an extension of FISA much harder.

At a time when our Nation is at war and our troops are in harm's way, we need someone serious to lead the intelligence community, not another unqualified, inexperienced partisan.

The security of our Armed Forces, the security of the American people depends on real intelligence and someone who states the facts clearly and boldly. Pulte would be about the last person I would pick to do that. He is simply a hack who does Trump's bidding no matter how egregious that bidding might be.

Mr. President, now on the election task force, as Trump continues to wage war on free and fair elections in America, Senate Democrats' Election Protection Task Force is gearing up to protect our democracy.

Later today, our task force will convene to strategize on our responses to potential threats to America's elections. The Senators and a first-rate team of election experts on our task force will simulate different scenarios, including interference operations from a foreign adversary, Trump's deployment of Federal agents to polling places, and law enforcement agents seizing ballots from local election officials.

Our task force is keeping Trump up at night because he knows the dire straits he and his party are in as the midterms approach. Instead of changing his disastrous and deeply unpopular policies, Trump has pledged to deploy ``an Election Integrity Army in every single State.'' But in Trump's eyes, he believes that an election only has integrity if he wins it, and he doesn't care if he cheats to do it. In fact, he likes cheating.

Republicans are already ignoring your wages, your healthcare, your rent, your grocery bill, and your freedom. Democrats won't let Republicans ignore your vote too. Democrats will be ready with lawyers, observers, and response teams to respond the moment Trump or his allies try to interfere with our elections. We will be ready, and we will preserve the integrity of American elections--something so sacred for 250 years.

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, first, on the announcement of an attempted appointment of Bill Pulte: Trump's appointment of Bill Pulte to serve as Acting Director of National Intelligence is another Trump low. A guy who can file such baseless, political, and outrageous charges against political officeholders he doesn't like can't be entrusted to protect our national security. Pulte has already proven himself willing to act as a Trump puppet, and now Donald Trump wants to put him in charge of the Nation's intelligence, a place where integrity is demanded? A man who doesn't have an ounce of integrity is being put in that position, which demands total integrity, by Donald Trump.

The Director of National Intelligence is supposed to speak truth to power, but Donald Trump appears to have chosen Pulte because he speaks power's truth instead. Americans need an intelligence chief loyal to the facts, the intelligence, the security of the Nation, not the political interests of one man.

At a time of growing threats around the world, this nomination raises a fundamental question: Is the President looking for independent intelligence or political validation? His fiascos in foreign policy, most recently in Iran, show he doesn't listen to facts or intelligence. He is going to get in even more trouble with Bill Pulte in this very sensitive job.

The intelligence community exists to protect the American people, not to serve as another instrument of Presidential retribution.

Anti-Weaponization Fund

Mr. President, now, on the slush fund, the only way to ensure Trump's $2 billion, taxpayer-funded giveaway to Trump's MAGA allies never sees the light of day is to abolish it by law. The only way to make sure that Trump's slush fund never sees the light of day is to abolish it by law, not to trust the word of a corrupt President who stands to benefit the most from it.

The same goes for the license Trump gave himself and his family to commit tax fraud with impunity. Any promise from Trump is worthless, and when it comes to ending his blatantly corrupt slush fund or his blank check to commit tax fraud, Trump barely promised anything in the first place. That is why the first amendment I will offer on the Republican reconciliation bill will be to ban Trump's slush fund permanently and to revoke his family's free rein to commit tax fraud forever. Trump doesn't get to make off with at least $100 billion his family owes on taxes, and he doesn't get to use your tax dollars to pay off the MAGA right--not on our watch.

Again, the only way to ensure his $2 billion, taxpayer-funded giveaway never sees the light of day is to abolish it by law, not to trust the word of the corrupt President who stands to benefit the most from it.

We need to set the record straight about what exactly the Trump administration did and did not commit to yesterday. Trump's Department of Justice put out a statement saying that it would abide by the recent court order that temporarily blocked Trump from using Americans' tax dollars to pay off his MAGA loyalists and billionaire friends and violent insurrectionists who maimed our Capitol Police on January 6.

Let's be clear. The Trump administration hasn't made any commitment to kill the slush fund permanently, nor has it pledged to revoke the broad immunity from tax audits that Trump granted himself and his family.

Can you believe it, America? Trump and his family still get to cheat their way out of paying their taxes and then use your tax dollars to line their pockets and give handouts to his billionaire cronies, criminals, and cop-killing insurrectionists?

Trump's slush fund is corruption at its absolute worst. America has seen a lot of corruption from this administration, but this corruption--I don't think we have seen anything like it in our entire history. Trump shook hands with himself, suing his own government, and then settling the case so he could steal your tax dollars, America--all at a time when families are struggling to make ends meet amid skyrocketing costs.

What do Republicans have to say? What do they have to say about this? What are our Republican colleagues saying about this god-awful slush fund? Well, after the DOJ's meek statement yesterday, one of my colleagues across the aisle said Trump's slush fund is ``a moot point.'' A moot point? Trump's far-right radical rewards program is anything but moot. Trump and the GOP didn't suddenly find their conscience. They simply hit a temporary roadblock. If Senate Republicans are truly concerned about Trump's corruption, then prove it. Ban the slush fund by law permanently.

If Republicans revisit their reconciliation bill this week, as I said, the very first amendment I will offer will be to ban Trump's slush fund permanently and revoke his family's free rein to commit tax fraud.

The corruption is so grievous that toothless Republican guardrails won't cut it. Democrats won't settle for half measures. We are going to kill this slush fund permanently, and we are going to bury it and bury it deep.

Senate Testimony

Mr. President, on Rubio coming to the Hill, Secretary Rubio has a lot to answer for when he testifies before the Senate today--on China, on giving kickbacks to Russia, on Ukraine, on withholding arms to Taiwan, on this administration's ridiculous rhetoric on NATO, on the disastrous gutting of foreign aid that is leaving Americans vulnerable to one infectious disease after another, on Iran, on foreign corruption. The list goes on and on and on.

And today, with all these questions, all these bungles, all these terrible--terrible--missteps that hurt America--today will be the first time Marco Rubio, the National Security Advisor and Secretary of State, testifies before the American people since the start of Trump's disastrous war with Iran--first time. The war has been going on over 60 days. He is finally coming to the Hill to talk about it.

Yesterday, Trump said he finds the peace negotiations with Iran ``very boring.'' And that he ``couldn't care less'' if they are over.

I want to tell you, Donald Trump, who cares: our troops who are in harm's way; their families; Americans across the country who are sick of paying the immense costs of this disastrous war, including paying $4.50 a gallon at the pump. Secretary Rubio needs to answer whether he cares about ending this war.

I urge my colleagues as well to ask Rubio to address recent reports that the Trump administration left a loophole open for the past year and a half that allowed China to acquire, potentially, hundreds of thousands of cutting-edge American AI chips. These chips are essential to America's national security and to our economic competitiveness, but Chinese companies linked to the Chinese military have funneled them through foreign firms with seeming impunity.

By failing to protect this vital technology, the Trump administration has threatened our lead in the AI race and weakened our national security. Either the Trump administration failed to identify the loophole, suggesting gross incompetence, or kept it open willfully, which is very, very dangerous.

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, the press reports that Trump says he will table his $2 billion MAGA slush fund, but a promise from Trump is worthless. If Trump and Republicans are truly abandoning this corrupt scheme, they should have zero problem banning it in law.

This week, Senate Democrats will push legislation to ban this slush fund and ensure no President can ever do this again. Trump's word is nowhere near enough.

Donald Trump's attempt to establish this trust fund alone is one of the most glaring cases of corruption in American history. Trump's slush fund is the textbook definition of self-dealing. Trump sued himself, settled with himself, and then Trump gives himself and his family immunity to evade their taxes; and Trump makes you, the American taxpayer, pay for it all.

This slush fund could never have passed the smell test. At a time when Americans can barely afford to fill their tanks, to keep the lights on, put food on their table, Trump wants the American people to pay for handouts for MAGA billionaires, cop-beating January 6 insurrectionists, and his own family. He wanted no transparency, no oversight, no accountability. It is disgusting.

Now Trump is claiming that the slush fund is dead for now, but Democrats will not stop until it is well and truly buried and can never see the light of day. Democrats are going to make sure this slush fund is dead and cannot be revived just like we did with the ballroom.

Republicans can try to wriggle their way out of answering for this corruption, but it won't work. If Republicans try to force through their reconciliation bill again, the first amendment I will offer will be to ban the slush fund permanently and forever. If Republicans try to meddle with the appropriations process to do Trump's bidding, we will fight it there too. And if Republicans try to use toothless constraints to make the slush fund more palatable, we will press them to dismantle it entirely.

For something as inherently corrupt as this slush fund, half measures won't cut it. You don't fix a corrupt slush fund by relying on the word of the most untrustworthy President we have ever had; you ban it.

The slush fund is rotten to the core. Democrats will make sure Republicans vote on it no matter what. This is corruption in broad daylight, and Republicans are foolish to think they can hide in the shadows.

Mr. President, now on costs. Last week we got new inflation numbers showing that prices are at their highest level in years. Families are saving less as they struggle to make ends meet. Americans are working harder, paying more, and getting less.

That is Trump's economy at work.

From Trump's mouth to the American people's ears, he said:

I don't think about Americans' financial situation.

All Trump thinks about is building his golden ballroom, putting his name on a massive arch, lining his pocket with taxpayer dollars, and slapping his face onto a $250 bill.

None of that lowers costs; none of that helps working families. All Trump's vanity projects do is waste time and money, and our Republican friends seem to go along with almost all of it--maybe even all of it.

Meanwhile, two-thirds of Americans--two-thirds--say they have had to cut back on groceries the past few months because of skyrocketing costs. This comes as new data shows household electricity prices have spiked by 18 percent since Trump took office. With the hottest months now upon us--summer season--rising energy costs will only further strain families' pocketbooks.

The average home cooling costs could reach nearly $800 this summer, an 8.5-percent increase over last year and 37 percent more than in 2020.

A poll over the weekend found that 53 percent of all Americans say the current cost of living is the worst they have ever seen. What happened to lowering costs on day one, which Trump so proudly proclaimed?

And, of course, where are the Senate Republicans? Instead of listening to the American people, working with Democrats to bring costs down, Republicans are working around the clock to aid and abet Trump's corruption, to build his vanity projects on the taxpayers' dime, and funnel tens of billions of dollars to his masked agents who are already flushed with cash.

Americans are screaming for relief, and all they hear back from Senate Republicans is silence--complete, complicit silence.

Mr. President, on the Iran war, once again the ongoing fighting in Iran has blown holes in Trump's claim that victory is at hand. Over the weekend, Trump said he is ``in no hurry to end the war in Iran.''

No hurry? Tell that to our troops who are in harm's way every second this war continues, including those who were fired upon in Kuwait just this morning. Tell that to their families.

Really, no hurry? I will tell you who is in a hurry for this blunder to end: the American people who are getting crushed by record gas prices at the pump. They are in a hurry.

Trump has proven over and over again that he is incapable of getting our country out of this mess. Congress needs to step up.

Democrats and a handful of Republicans came together before Memorial Day to advance a War Powers Resolution to withdraw our troops from hostility with Iran. We will not stop forcing votes to end this war until this disastrous war is over once and for all.

Trump and his allies in the Senate may not see the urgency of ending this war, but Democrats and the American people do.

I yield the floor.

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

Mr. President, Republicans still haven't released the text of their radical MAGA reconciliation wish list, just hours before we are expected to vote on it.

Where the hell is the bill? Where the hell is the bill? We were supposed to get it yesterday before lunch--no bill. We were supposed to get it yesterday afternoon--no bill. We were supposed to get it before dinnertime--no bill. We were supposed to get it around midnight--still no bill. And now it is Thursday morning--still no bill.

Why don't we have a bill? I will tell you why. The Republican Party is in complete disarray. They are in complete meltdown. They can't come to an agreement with each other. They are angry with each other.

Why? They are pulled between two poles, and they can't decide which way to go to. The first pole is the pole they should go to: Help the American people. Help the American people with higher costs, whether it is groceries or gasoline or housing or healthcare; work with Democrats to help get those costs down. That is where they should be. And they should also be with us when we want to end the chaos--the chaos on the streets of our cities--by having ICE and Border Patrol have reasonable guardrails so they don't kill Americans on the streets. And, of course, end the corruption. They should be angry, as we are, as the American people are, at the corruption that is coming out of the White House.

So on the one pole is to work for the American people, but on the other pole is Donald Trump, who is exactly the opposite of what Americans want, and Republicans know it. Trump doesn't give a damn about costs. He has already said that. Pay more for gasoline? He says: I don't care. The American people can pay more for groceries, can pay more for housing. He doesn't care about that. He is a billionaire. He doesn't go shop for groceries. He doesn't go get gas at the pump.

Chaos--he loves chaos. His Iran war is one of the most chaotic foreign misadventures America has ever gone on, and it gets worse all the time, as gas prices go above $4.50. I heard today it is above $4 in every State.

And he is the originator--the chief cook and bottle washer--of corruption. He comes up with corrupt scheme after corrupt scheme to benefit himself, his family, his cronies, criminals whom he has encouraged to act criminally. He is the originator of the corruption.

The ballroom. They have become ballroom Republicans, the Republican Senators.

The MAGA slush fund to be given out to cronies--probably, a lot of it would end up in Trump's pocket or his kids' pockets. Your dollars, American taxpayers.

So they are stuck. They are sort of like that cartoon, the old Popeye cartoon, where Olive Oyl is pulled in one direction by Popeye and the other by Bluto. She keeps going back and forth. That is who they are. They don't know what to do.

And so there is no bill. That is why there is no bill. They are stuck. They are flummoxed.

The leader, Leader Thune, has two choices: Side with Donald Trump and show the American people you are totally, totally out of touch with what they need, or side with the American people, work with us, and get Donald Trump furious at you. And you see what happens when Donald Trump is furious at Republicans. We could ask a couple of Senators what happens when they don't side with Donald Trump.

So they are stuck. They are just stuck, and it is a spectacle that the American people are witnessing.

And more and more Americans, every day, say the Republican Party-- many former Republicans say: The Republican Party I used to know was so different.

It is so deranged by Donald Trump that they can't be with them anymore. And that is why we Democrats look like we are in good shape in the House and the Senate, as we move forward to November.

Republicans--let's go over what they want in their bill. Republicans want to spend tens of billions of American tax dollars, but we still don't know what exactly we are voting on in mere hours. We do know that this bill won't include a single penny to make life more affordable-- the costs issue, which is No. 1 in the eyes of the American people.

The American people don't need to see the bill text to know where Senate Republicans stand: with Donald Trump, right now, not working families.

I am pleased a small number of Republicans are starting to wake up to how egregious Trump's billion-dollar, taxpayer-funded ballroom is, but this MAGA majority has made it abundantly clear they are willing and eager to fund Trump's vanity project at the taxpayers' expense.

Make no mistake, if ballroom funding doesn't make it into the Republican bill, it is not because of a Republican conscience; it is because Democrats stopped them. They tried to sneak it in. They were caught redhanded.

Oh, it is only for security. It is only for this. It is only for that.

They are stuck. No one wants the ballroom except Donald Trump, and they are quaking in their boots to oppose him. And when they oppose him, they are worried about electoral consequences, as we have seen in the last week.

Were it not for Democrats fighting this ballroom every step of the way, Republicans would have wasted a billion taxpayer dollars for Trump's palace in a heartbeat. Republicans are foolish if they think that they can distance themselves from this boondoggle, because, no matter what is in the bill, Democrats will force Republicans to vote again and again on their outrageous priorities: Trump's ballroom, Trump's insurrectionist slush fund, Trump's costly war.

Americans don't want this bill, even without Trump's vanity project-- not when it provides $70 billion to Trump's masked agents who sow chaos in the streets. It is absurd. It is absurd to ask Americans, who are struggling to make ends meet, to shell out another $70 billion to ICE and Border Patrol when these rogue Agencies are sitting on $100 billion from the Big Beautiful Bill.

But the costs of this war, which the American people are opposed to, and the costs of many other things might have to be funded out of this in the next few months, and so they don't want to take the money for ICE or for Border Patrol when there is $100 billion sitting there. Instead, they hold up the budget. Instead, they tell Democrats there is no reform. They tell that to the American people as well.

As Americans burn through their savings, Republicans want to expand their nest egg for Trump's private militia. Every vote and every amendment we bring to the floor today will show that Democrats are standing up for the American people and Republicans are selling out to Trump. Again, the contrast is glaring: Who is on the side of the American people for lower costs and for less chaos and to end the corruption? And who is on the side of Donald Trump, master of corruption, originator of corruption in certain new, novel, and disgusting ways, as well as somebody who doesn't give a damn about the costs that the American people are suffering through?

On the slush fund, Donald Trump's nearly $2 billion MAGA slush fund is the most blatant act of corruption in American history. People are aghast. Jaws drop all over the Nation when they hear what Trump wants to do: sue the government for $10 billion--that is him personally suing--then settle with himself and use that money for his cronies and Lord knows what else. As I said, I believe a lot of it will end up in the pockets of Trump, his family, his cronies.

Trump sues Trump. Trump settles with Trump. Trump decides which Trump allies get paid. It is absolutely depraved.

It turns out that ``The Art of the Deal'' isn't very hard when you are making a deal with yourself and forcing Americans to foot the bill. Let's see what his next book says about that one.

Trump acted as the plaintiff, defendant, and judge, all at once, to set up this slush fund. And while Trump was at it, he shielded his family from ever having to face a tax audit again.

Can you believe this, America? In this bill, Trump can never be prosecuted, investigated for tax fraud, even though I and so many others wouldn't trust him with his tax returns for a minute.

Trump doesn't have to pay his taxes, but he is more than happy to put your tax dollars in the pockets of his cronies, criminals, and cop- killing January 6 insurrectionists.

Republicans are going to have to vote on that. Are you going to prevent any of this money from going to people who hurt cops, who were prosecuted for hurting cops? Trump's own Attorney General, Pam Bondi, instituted a rule last year explicitly prohibiting these types of corrupt payments, and Democrats will not let Trump get away with this grift--this grift of epic proportion.

That is why the very first amendment I will offer during vote-arama will be to block this slush fund--all of it. Republicans will have to answer on my amendment: Are they for the slush fund or are they against it? Do Republicans want to lower Americans' costs or sell them out to give payments to violent criminals? Do Republicans stand with the American people or with Donald Trump?

Americans want to know. Democrats will force Republicans to answer.

Mr. President, on costs, ahead of the Memorial Day weekend, Americans drive to the grocery store and can't believe the prices they are seeing for beef, for propane, for the gas to get there. It is hard to enjoy a barbecue when rising costs are stretching your budget to the breaking point.

Just look at costs for the menu compared to last year: a pound of beef, up nearly 20 percent; hot dogs, 12 percent; a rack of ribs, 8 percent; buns, up 20 percent; ketchup, up 14 percent; watermelon, 17 percent; lettuce, 19 percent; tomatoes, up 22 percent. And the price of gasoline is up 42 percent compared to this time last year, thanks to Trump's disastrous war with Iran.

At a time when Americans should be gathering together in celebration, they are getting crushed by surging costs. And Republicans don't include a single bent penny in their reconciliation bill to bring down prices--outrageous, clueless, and it will come back to bite Republicans.

While Republicans have been working around the clock to line Trump's pockets, Democrats are fighting every second of the day to lower Americans' costs.

And since millions of Americans won't be able to grill this weekend, Democrats are going to grill Republicans over and over again during the vote-arama with amendments to lower Americans' costs.

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.