Floor Statements

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration be discharged from further consideration of H.R. 6513 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

I further ask that the McConnell substitute amendment at the desk be considered and agreed to; that the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time and passed; and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Finally, Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned until 10 a.m. on Wednesday, September 25; that following the prayer and the pledge, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be deemed expired, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and morning business be closed; that following the conclusion of morning business, the Senate proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the Conway nomination; further, that notwithstanding rule XXII, at 11:40 a.m., Senator Paul be recognized for up to 20 minutes and that upon the use or yielding back of time, the Senate resume legislative session and Senator Paul be recognized to make a motion to proceed to S. Con. Res. 41; further, if the motion to proceed is not made or agreed to, the Senate resume executive session and vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the Conway nomination; that if cloture is invoked on the nomination, all time be considered expired at 3:45 p.m.; finally, that if any nominations are confirmed during Wednesday's session, the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table and the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action.

Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask that it stand adjourned under the previous order.

Madam President, yesterday afternoon, we announced that congressional leaders reached a bipartisan agreement to avoid a government shutdown on September 30. This agreement will keep the government open at current funding levels until December 20. This agreement, thankfully, is free of any partisan poison pills and was negotiated in good faith.

I thank the Speaker for working with my team to put this package together over the weekend. Our teams were up early and stayed late into the evening to get it done.

I also wish to thank the House Democratic leader, the Senate Republican leader, and all the appropriators, particularly Senators Murray and Collins, for helping us get to this point.

The matter is now straightforward. We now have less than a week to pass a funding bill through the House, through the Senate, and onto the President's desk. Both sides will have to act celeritously and with continued bipartisan good faith to meet the funding deadline. Any delay or last-minute poison pill can still push us into a shutdown. I hope and I trust that this will not happen.

Of course, as we proceed, it is important to remember that negotiations didn't have to wait until the last minute. This agreement could have very easily been reached weeks ago, but Speaker Johnson and House Republicans chose to listen to Donald Trump's partisan demands instead of working with us from the start to reach a bicameral, bipartisan agreement.

Remember, Donald Trump has spent the entire month urging House Republicans to shut the government down if his poison pills weren't passed. That is outlandishly cynical. Donald Trump knows perfectly well that a shutdown would mean chaos, pain, and needless heartache for the American people, but, as usual, he just doesn't seem to care.

It is astounding that anyone seeking the Presidency would think a shutdown is a good thing, but that is who Donald Trump is at his core-- cynical and ill-intentioned. He should have learned his lesson years ago when he told Speaker Pelosi and I to shut down the government and said: ``I'll take the blame.'' Well, that didn't work out too well for him, did it?

I am glad his efforts in this instance are on track to fail. We aren't out of the woods yet, but now that we have reached a bipartisan agreement, I hope we are on track to avoid a shutdown. I believe we will avoid that shutdown. With a few more days of bipartisanship and speed and good faith, we can get the job done--certainly before the deadline of a government shutdown.

Mr. President, I move to proceed to legislative session.

Mr. President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 787.

Mr. President, I send a cloture motion to the desk.

I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum call for the cloture motion filed today, September 23, be waived.

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the en bloc consideration of the following Senate resolutions: S. Res. 838, S. Res. 839, S. Res. 840, S. Res. 841, S. Res. 842, S. Res. 843, S. Res. 844.

I ask unanimous consent that the resolutions be agreed to; that the preambles be agreed to; and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, all en bloc.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned until 10 a.m. on Tuesday, September 24; that following the prayer and pledge, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be deemed expired, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and morning business be closed; that following the conclusion of morning business, the Senate proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the Sfraga nomination; further, that notwithstanding rule XXII, the cloture motion with respect to the Sfraga nomination ripen at 12 noon; that the Senate recess following the cloture vote until 2:15 p.m. to allow for the weekly caucus meetings; that if cloture has been invoked on the Sfraga nomination, all time be considered expired at 2:15 p.m.; further, that the cloture motion with respect to the motion to proceed to Calendar No. 457, H.R. 1555, ripen upon the disposition of the Sfraga nomination; finally, that if any nominations are confirmed during Tuesday's session, the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table and the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action.

Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask that it stand adjourned under the previous order.

Mr. President, yesterday afternoon, to the surprise of virtually no one, Speaker Johnson's deeply flawed and highly partisan CR failed by a vote of 202 to 220. The ``no'' votes included Democrats, Republicans, fiscal hawks, conservative ideologues, and people in between. In other words, there was broad opposition to the Speaker's partisan maneuver. It is time the Speaker moves on.

Sadly, time is not a luxury that Congress has right now. Today is September 19. The government shutdown is September 30. That is 11 days away. And instead of doing the bipartisan work everyone knows is required for avoiding a shutdown, the House Republican leadership has wasted 2 weeks--2 weeks--listening to Donald Trump's ridiculous claims on the campaign trail.

Now that their efforts have failed, House Republicans don't seem to have any plan for actually keeping the government open. So the Senate will step in. Later today, I will file cloture on a legislative vehicle that will enable us to prevent a Trump shutdown in the event that Speaker Johnson does not work with us in a bipartisan, bicameral manner.

Both sides are going to spend the next few days trying to figure out the best path remaining for keeping the government open. By filing today, I am giving the Senate maximum flexibility for preventing a shutdown.

Democrats and Americans don't want a Trump shutdown. I dare say most Republicans, at least in this Chamber, don't want to see a Trump shutdown. And the American people certainly don't want their elected representatives in Washington creating a shutdown for the sake of Donald Trump's ridiculous claims, when it is clear he doesn't even know how the legislative process works.

Senators are ready to work this process the right way: Democrats talking to Republicans, both sides at the negotiating table, finding a way to keep the government open without partisan hoopla.

The Speaker must choose: Either keep paying blind obeisance to Donald

Trump and his ridiculous claims or work with both parties to spare the American people from a Republican shutdown.

And just a parenthetical note: How does anyone expect Donald Trump to be a President when he has such little understanding of the legislative process? He is daring the Congress to shut down. I remember he did that with Leader Pelosi and I in his office a while back. It didn't work out too well for him. Our Republican colleagues should not blindly follow Donald Trump. He doesn't know what he is doing. He doesn't have a plan, and, frankly, he doesn't know what he is talking about.

Mr. President, now on Project 2025, later today, Senate Democrats will hold a press conference to expose Donald Trump's Project 2025 for what it actually is. Project 2025--Trump's Project 2025--is the most harmful, most unhinged, and most extreme conservative agenda in recent American history.

By now, many Americans have heard about Project 2025. And the more people learn about Trump's plan, the more they realize how disastrous it would be for our country.

I could speak about Project 2025 every morning for the remainder of the work period and still not have enough time to cover all of the nasty things hiding inside this agenda.

For middle-class families, Project 2025 will raise taxes by $3,000. And it caters to the ultrawealthy by giving people who earn more than $10 million a $1.5 million tax break.

For workers, Project 2025 will undermine overtime pay, resulting in less pay for longer hours for middle-class Americans who work hard and often have to work more than 40 hours a week. As many as 4.3 million Americans will have their overtime and wage protections erode.

For our national security, Project 2025 will make us less safe by gutting Agencies charged with protecting Americans at home and around the world.

And for our border security, Project 2025 rejects the bipartisan plan we released earlier this year, the strongest bipartisan border security measure in decades. It also adopts a policy of utterly cruel mass deportations with little to no due process and even risks deporting 3 million Dreamers.

How cruel; deport 3 million Dreamers? It is in Project 2025.

And finally, Project 2025 will weaken our democracy by opening the floodgates to foreign interference and big money in politics.

And if all of that isn't enough, just yesterday, Donald Trump's running mate actually proposed going back to the days when having a preexisting condition meant you pay far more for your health insurance.

That is right. Under the Trump-Vance plan, anyone with a chronic condition--or an estimated 129 million Americans--could face outrageously expensive healthcare costs.

This is all beyond sinister stuff. And while Donald Trump tries to run away from Project 2025, here is the simple truth: Donald Trump owns Project 2025 and every single one of its proposals.

Project 2025 has been led by hundreds of former Trump administration officials, chomping at the bit to get back in government and impose their horrible plans. Some of these sections were written by Trump's own Cabinet officials. And Trump himself said in his speech that the Heritage Foundation--which houses Project 2025--would ``lay the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our moment will do.''

Let me say that again. This is Donald Trump talking about the Heritage Foundation, which has created Project 2025. It would ``lay the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our moment will do.''

And the head of the Heritage Foundation said earlier this year that his goal was ``institutionalizing Trumpism,'' including with Project 2025.

Let me say it again: ``Institutionalizing Trumpism.''

Whom are these guys fooling? Now, of course, even Trump himself is backing off, with all the criticism, because it is so far away. These rightwing ideologues want to steer America over the cliff and hurt just about every average American. And then when it becomes public what they want to do--when the public learns more of what they want to do--they try to say: Oh, well, we really didn't mean it. But we know they did.

Watch out, America. Watch out for Project 2025. It will hurt you; it will hurt your family; and it will be implemented by Donald Trump and his rightwing coterie if he gets elected.

Mr. President, Hispanic Heritage Month. Finally, I would like to wish my colleagues and Americans everywhere a happy Hispanic Heritage Month, which began on September 15.

Hispanic Heritage Month crystalizes perfectly why we live in an amazing country. You can't tell America's story without talking about Hispanic Americans who have left their mark in every corner of life: entertainment, the sciences, the arts, food, music, sports, military, and government.

Hispanic Heritage Month is perhaps more important today than it ever has been. Some politicians are trying furiously to demonize America's diversity, but diversity is what makes America strong. It is what makes America wondrous. And that is why I have always fought to defend Dreamers and fight for comprehensive immigration reform. It is why I have worked with the Biden-Harris administration to lower insulin costs, create good-paying jobs, make our communities safer, and help Hispanic-owned businesses pick themselves up from COVID.

I will also fight for housing reform so that Latinos, like all Americans, can become homeowners. And finally, I will fight for the Latino museum to honor the contributions of Hispanics and Latinos to our Nation and so much more. We can get it done. Si, se puede.

In the Senate, we have confirmed a historic 37 Latino judicial nominations, 22 of them women. We appointed the first Latina to serve the Federal Reserve in the Board's 109-year history, the first Hispanic judge on the 7th Circuit, and the first openly LGBTQ+ judge for District of Puerto Rico.

And speaking of Puerto Rico, there are few causes that mean more to me as a Senator than helping Puerto Ricans have greater opportunity and a better life. A few months ago, I championed legislation that would expand SNAP benefits to Puerto Ricans, who have been unjustly excluded from this program for decades. This is one reason why it is crucial we make progress on the farm bill because Puerto Ricans deserve the justice that has long been denied to them.

America's strength has always been rooted in our diversity, on our immigrant heritage, on being a home to Americans for all walks of life.

So today, I want to celebrate the contributions of Hispanic Americans to the country we call home. Without them, America as we know it would not be possible.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate resume legislative session and proceed to the consideration of H.R. 9468, which was received from the House and is at the desk; further, that the only amendment in order to the bill be the Paul amendment No. 3289, which is at the desk; that the time until 11:30 a.m. be for debate only on the amendment and that at 11:30 a.m. the Senate vote on the amendment, with 60 affirmative votes required for adoption; further, that upon disposition of the amendment, the bill, as amended, if amended, be considered read a third time and the Senate vote on passage of the bill, as amended, if amended, all without further intervening action or debate.

I yield the floor.