Floor Statements

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the motion to reconsider with respect to the Meriweather nomination be considered made and laid upon the table and the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate resume legislative session.

Mr. President, I understand there are two bills at the desk, and I ask for their first reading en bloc.

I now ask for a second reading, and I object to my own request, all en bloc.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn under the provisions of S. Res. 765, to then convene for pro forma sessions only, with no business being conducted, on the following dates and times: Monday, July 15, at 11:15 a.m.; Thursday, July 18, at 10 a.m.; Monday, July 22, at 11:30 a.m.; further, that when the Senate adjourns on Monday, July 22, it stand adjourned until 3 p.m. on Tuesday, July 23; that on Tuesday, 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; following the conclusion of morning business, the Senate proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the Way nomination; further, that the confirmation vote on the Kiko nomination be at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday and that if the nomination is confirmed, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table and the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action; further, that the cloture motions filed during today's session ripen on Wednesday, July 24.

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, this week, the city of Washington becomes the command post of liberal democracy. It was my great honor to join, earlier this morning, with Leader McConnell and with my Democratic and Republican colleagues welcoming to the Senate the Secretary General of NATO, as well as the leaders of the U.K., Germany, Sweden, and Finland. For the first time ever, we were proud to welcome the leaders of NATO's two newest members, Sweden and Finland. Standing in the same room with NATO's newest members, Sweden and Finland, was a proud moment for us Senators. It was a culmination of the work that began 2 years ago when the Senate, in a bipartisan way, overwhelmingly approved their accession to the alliance.

I told the leaders of NATO that America will never turn its back on the alliance. I told them the Senate will always hold up its end of the bargain to support NATO and ensure we have the tools to keep the free world safe; and I urged everyone in the room to continue standing firmly with Ukraine.

I applaud the members of NATO for their major announcement of a new round of aid that will help soldiers on the battlefield, brave Ukrainian soldiers.

Ukraine

Mr. President, later today, I will also meet with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy at a bipartisan meeting of Senators, and we will affirm yet again that the United States stands with them until the job is done.

A few months ago, the Senate showed what leadership looks like by passing a sweeping supplemental package that delivered weapons and ammo and air defenses and missiles for Ukrainian soldiers.

Unfortunately, sadly, many extremists on the hard right led by Donald Trump didn't want to send so much as a nickel to help Ukraine. They would have preferred to let Putin have his way in Europe.

The hard right's softness towards Putin is a prime example of why they cannot be trusted to protect America on the world stage. I am glad their opposition to Ukraine aid was ultimately unsuccessful. But a majority of Republicans in this Chamber voted against that aid.

And what really bothered me was so many of the Republican--the Republican party has been a strong, anticommunist, hawkish party since the days of Ronald Reagan, maybe earlier. And all of a sudden, when Donald Trump, whose knowledge of foreign policy is negligible--to put it kindly; it is often wrong--they turn around and do 180 degrees and oppose giving aid to Ukraine and, instead, start to smile upon Putin.

That, my fellow Americans, is a warning of what a Republican- controlled Senate would do if, God forbid, Trump becomes President. They would turn around on all their principles. Donald Trump could, on a whim, say something, and all of a sudden: Yes, sir. They will march in line with him. This Ukrainian example was a sad one.

So this week, we saw why the supplemental was so important and why America must stand with the Ukrainian people after Putin's forces obliterated an entire wing of the largest children's hospital in Kyiv. I mentioned this to our NATO leaders and the heads of Sweden and Finland and Germany and Britain who were at our meeting.

What a vicious man Putin is. A children's hospital? You see the pictures of these children who were trying to survive cancer--you know, when you see pictures of children like that, many with their shaved heads--and Putin bombs the hospital? What a despicable man. What a brute. That is who we are dealing with, world. That is who we are dealing with, America, when it comes to Vladimir Putin. His savagery is an example of why Donald Trump's vision is so dangerous at this moment, because a Trump administration would make a Putin victory far more likely.

Thankfully, that is not the case. Instead of breaking NATO, Putin's war has made NATO even stronger and must continue to be that way until the Ukrainian people see victory and peace is restored to Eastern Europe.

Reproductive Freedom For Women Act

Mr. President, now on choice, today the Senate will vote on the Reproductive Freedom For Women Act. Senate Republicans must answer a very simple question: Do they believe that women should be trusted to make their own healthcare choices? Yes or no? Will Republicans stand with the majority of Americans, stand with the mainstream, and stand against Donald Trump by affirming a woman's fundamental right to choose? Will Republicans show courage and declare, as most people in this country prefer, that the basic protections of Roe v. Wade should be the law of the land?

I want to thank Senator Murray from the great State of Washington for leading this bill and every single female Senator on our side of the aisle for cosponsoring it.

Today's vote will not be the end of the struggle to secure reproductive freedoms, but it is an important step forward. Americans want to see where their Senators stand. By voting on these bills on women's health, we are moving the issue forward, because it is very important and very reasonable for members to be called on to take a position on a vital issue.

Of course, many Republicans would rather sweep reproductive health under the rug, saying it is political. But this is not political. This is the essence of what elected government is like. We all know these issues are deeply personal to so many people, and Americans ought to be able to see how their Senators vote.

All year long, Senate Republicans have shown everyone just how out of touch they are with the mainstream. When Senators blocked Federal protections for contraceptions, when they blocked protections for IVF, they chose MAGA extremism over the American people.

When Donald Trump pushed not one, not two, but three radical Justices to the Supreme Court with the explicit goal of overturning Roe, Senate Republicans confirmed them without question.

It was Trump who said:

If we put another two or . . . three justices on [the

Court] . . . that will happen.

Every time Senate Republicans have gotten a chance to do the right thing this year, they have consistently doubled down on their anti- woman agenda. Just yesterday, Senate Republicans again and again came to the floor to block commonsense legislation to protect women's reproductive freedoms.

Of course, if my Republican colleagues take issue for being called out for their bad record on women's issues, they have another option. They should vote yes today. Maybe it will happen. Unlikely, but you always hope.

If Republicans don't think women, on the other hand, are second-class citizens, they should vote yes. If Republicans don't think women are second-class citizens, they should vote yes. If Republicans do, in fact, trust women to make their own reproductive choices, they should vote yes.

I urge them: Do the right thing. And I remind them: America is watching.

Steel and Aluminum Tariffs

Mr. President, now on the U.S.-Mexico steel announcement, this morning the Biden administration announced new joint actions with Mexico to prevent China and other countries from evading tariffs on steel and aluminum imported through Mexico.

For years, America's steel and aluminum industry has been harmed by the Chinese Communist Party's schemes to flood markets with products that are artificially cheapened thanks to subsidies from the Chinese Communist Party. One of the most common ways the CCP avoids tariffs and launders its steel into the U.S. market is through Mexico.

Earlier this year, I visited a steel producer in central New York, Nucor Steel in Auburn, NY--many good paying jobs in that beautiful plant. I visited the plant to bring attention to a dangerous pattern in our steel industry.

I called then on the administration to take action to stop the steel surge from China by preventing the CCP from using Mexico as a backdoor entrance into the United States.

I am glad to see this morning that the Biden administration responded to my concern by taking action to strengthen U.S. steel and aluminum. We have some very fine aluminum plants in Upstate New York as well.

This announcement is a major step towards protecting U.S. markets from being flooded with cheap, Chinese-made steel and aluminum imported through Mexico. The Chinese Communist Party's unfair trade practices have devastated companies and union steel workers across the United States, and especially in industrial places, places like Auburn in central New York, Massena in the north country, who simply aren't competing on a level playing field.

The CCP's behavior also endangers our national security because it weakens our domestic supply chains used by our military and transportation systems.

So the administration's action is great news for America's safety and for communities and States like New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and others who know the grief of watching manufacturing jobs leaving for China.

I applaud the administration for taking action to stop the Chinese Communist Party's unfair trade practices, and we will keep working to make sure American workers, manufacturers, and industrial regions are not left on the world stage.

And just one other note, upstate New York has a major role in convincing America and their Senator about China's unfair practices. When I visited Crucible steel up in Syracuse in 2003, the owner said to me: China is manipulating its currency. It makes it much harder for me to sell steel abroad, and it makes it easier for China to compete with me here in America.

Lindsey Graham and I, actually--Senator Graham and I back then teamed up and worked and worked and worked to see that this manipulation of currency, which affected steel, was put an end to, and we have made some significant progress. There is still more to make even now.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Madam President, first, let me thank the Senator from Washington State, the Senate's President pro tempore, for her amazing leadership on this issue. She is the lead sponsor of the legislation and is on so many other issues across the spectrum but particularly on women's rights and women's healthcare. There is no stronger clarion voice than the Senator from Washington, so I thank her for that.

Now, today, Senate Republicans must answer a simple question: Do they believe that women should have the right to make their own healthcare choices--yes or no?

The Reproductive Freedom for Women Act is exceedingly simple. All it does is express support for a woman's right to choose. That is it--no more, no less. It should be an easy ``yes'' vote.

My Republican colleagues have a choice: Vote yes, and stand with women who want their rights protected or stand with Donald Trump and the MAGA radicals who want to see those rights taken away.

We know where the American people stand on freedom of choice: Over 80 percent of Americans, including two-thirds of Republicans, agree that healthcare decisions, including abortion, should be between a woman and her doctor. But Americans are rightfully worried that reproductive rights are becoming extinct in this country. They see what is happening at the Supreme Court. They see the attacks against women's rights in States like Texas and Florida and Alabama and Idaho and beyond.

The American people want to know where their Senators stand on freedom of choice. By voting on reproductive freedoms, we are moving the issue forward because it is very important and very reasonable for Members to be asked to take a position on such a vital issue. If Senate Republicans genuinely trust women to make their own reproductive choices, then they should not block this bill today.

I want to tell our Republican colleagues: The American people are

watching how we vote. You can run, but you can't hide. All of America is going to know whether you are for women's reproductive rights or not by this vote--no excuses. This is it. They--the American people--want to see who will defend their fundamental freedoms and who will not.

Again, let me thank Senator Murray for leading on this bill. Let me thank every female Senator on our side of the aisle for cosponsoring it along with me.

We need a ``yes'' vote.

I ask for the yeas and nays.

Cloture Motion

Madam President, I enter a motion to reconsider.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, American democracy faces a test of survival in 2024.

Almost 8 years ago, Donald Trump was elected President and commenced one of the most chaotic periods our country has seen in our lifetimes. Under a Trump Presidency, Republicans tried to rip away affordable healthcare for tens of millions of American families, and they nearly succeeded. Under a Trump Presidency, Republicans packed our courts with radical judges who took America back half a century by repealing Roe v. Wade.

This week, the Senate will take up a simple resolution cosponsored by every female Senator in our caucus and myself that asks a very simple question: Where do Senators stand on freedom of choice? Do we believe that a woman should have the basic right to reproductive care? Do we agree that the rights protected under Roe should be Federal law?

Freedom of choice is perhaps the defining issue for Americans this year, and, this week, every Senator must show where he or she stands.

Of course, there is more. Under a Trump Presidency, megacorporations and the richest of the rich--the very, very wealthy--saw their taxes go down and profits go up, while middle-class families kept paying more for prescription drugs, childcare, and basic necessities.

Under the Trump Presidency, America was plunged into utter chaos. The pandemic was far worse than it needed to be because Donald Trump refused to confront it head-on and refused to be honest to the American people. We lived in constant anxiety about the next tweet from the White House.

Our allies saw Trump and questioned if they could trust him, while autocrats saw Trump and wanted to be like him. It is no wonder that Trump went out of his way to pay fealty to dictators like Putin and buddy up to Kim Jong Un. It was downright un-American.

Four years later, Trump wants to do it all again. But there is a big difference between then and now. For all the chaos and disaster of the first Trump Presidency, it pales in comparison to the threat of a second Trump Presidency and the threat it would pose to our democracy.

Over the last few weeks, there has been a whole lot of attention about a policy platform drafted by the Heritage Foundation, arguably the most influential conservative think tank in America. The platform, in effect, is the Trump manifesto. The project is staffed by over 200 former officials of the Trump Presidency and is connected to Trump Cabinet members, former campaign advisers, political appointees, and more.

If you read through this Trump manifesto, it is very clear what the hard right is telling America: Put us in power, and we will gut America from the inside out.

Trump's manifesto calls for the most conservative agenda America has ever seen, one that makes 1964 Barry Goldwater look like a moderate.

The Trump manifesto lays the groundwork for a nationwide abortion ban and calls for removing mifepristone from the market. It calls for defunding the Department of Education.

The Trump manifesto calls for reversing Democrats' clean energy agenda, while empowering the Nation's biggest oil and gas polluters.

The Trump manifesto calls for silencing and attacking all of Donald Trump's political enemies. The hard right is done speaking in euphemisms. They are saying it straight to our faces: If you disagree with Donald Trump, watch your back.

To see this happen in America is bone-chilling.

MAGA's political threats are reminiscent of the autocratic fervor we saw in Europe in the early 20th century, and for the first time, we are wondering: Could it ever happen here in America?

I hope not, but it all keeps going.

The Trump manifesto also calls for defunding Federal law enforcement and replacing thousands of Federal personnel with individuals loyal, above all, to Donald Trump.

And, finally, of course, the Trump manifesto calls for more tax cuts for the very wealthy, more tax cuts for corporate elites, more tax cuts for megacorporations, and oil and gas polluters. This is really the end goal of MAGA extremism: tax cuts for the top 1 percent, dystopia for everybody else.

Donald Trump promised that he would be a dictator on day one, and this manifesto is the playbook for how he will follow through on that threat. It is dangerous. The damage may be irreversible. The destruction could be unthinkable. And it would be a betrayal of everything that our Framers fought for, that the Union fought for, that the ``greatest generation'' fought for.

Donald Trump cannot--must not--be allowed within 10 miles of the Oval Office ever again.

Mr. President, on NATO, this week, the United States will welcome NATO leaders to Washington for the 2024 NATO summit. Western democracy faces perhaps its gravest threat since the Cold War. So this year's NATO summit comes at an inflection point.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine rages on. Putin's cruelty--cruelty-- shows no sign of softening. We read yesterday a heartbreaking and infuriating report. Russian missile strikes obliterated a wing of the largest children's hospital in Kyiv, killing at least 31 Ukrainians, injuring another 150.

Shooting a missile at a children's hospital that had no military significance is vicious; it is nasty. It shows what a scoundrel Putin is.

My heart breaks for those children in hospital whose lives were taken away in the attack, the mothers and fathers and brothers and sisters drowning in grief. Again, this was the largest children's hospital in the Ukrainian capital, where kids who had cancer were going--a place that should be off limits to anyone who is a decent, honorable human being; who has at all a heart.

Putin has none of that--no decency, no honor, no heart--and it shows you how utterly morally bankrupt Putin's invasion of Ukraine truly is.

A lot of hard-right extremists led by Donald Trump tried to kill Ukraine aid earlier this year, but Putin's attack against the children's hospital shows why it is essential for America to stand with Ukraine. They are fighting an evil brute in Russia, and the worst thing America can do is show weakness against Putin or tell Ukraine we will abandon them. I am glad we stepped up earlier.

So as the NATO leaders gather in DC this week, nothing less than the future of Western democracy is at stake. President Biden will bring an unmistakable message to our NATO allies, as well as to our adversaries watching across the world: America will never turn its back on NATO.

My Senate colleagues and I will be honored to welcome the leaders of NATO here to the Capitol this week, as well as President Zelenskyy of Ukraine. We in the Senate will send President Zelenskyy and our NATO allies the same message we have shared from day one: America will never turn its back on you.

The same cannot be said for Donald Trump. Remember, it was Donald Trump who called NATO ``obsolete'' and said that he would encourage Russia to do ``whatever the hell they want'' to our NATO allies. Amazing. This is the wrong message to send to NATO, with so much at stake around the world. It is another example of why the MAGA hard right can't be trusted to lead on the global stage.

Madam President, American democracy stands today at a perilous crossroads. One week ago, the six conservative Justices on the Supreme Court undermined the most basic premise in our constitutional order, that no one--no one--is above the law.

They incorrectly declared that former President Donald Trump enjoys broad immunity from criminal prosecution for actions he took while in office. They incorrectly declared that all future Presidents are entitled to a breathtaking level of immunity so long as their conduct is ostensibly carried out in their official capacity as President.

They incorrectly declared, in effect, the same thing Richard Nixon told David Frost in 1977. Nixon said:

When the President does it, that means that it is not

illegal.

That is what the Court, in effect, was saying.

We were all taught in grade school that there are no kings here in America, but what the conservative Justices have done is effectively placed a crown on Donald Trump's head. In their judgment, the President is now free to behave however he likes, even to behave criminally, and as long as he argues that he was acting as President, he is, in many ways, untouchable.

The conservative majority's decision on immunity is the most un- American proposition, the very antithesis of what the Framers envisioned. Presidential immunity is nowhere to be found in the constitution, and this lawless ruling underscores just how hollow the conservative Justices' commitment to originalism truly is.

We Democrats will not let the Supreme Court's decision stand unaddressed. The Constitution makes plain that Congress has the authority to check the judiciary through appropriate legislation. I will work with my colleagues on legislation classifying Trump's election subversion acts as ``unofficial acts'' not subject to immunity. We are doing this because we believe that in America, no President should be free to overturn an election

against the will of the people, no matter what the conservative Justices may believe.

As we work on this important matter, we will also keep working on other proposals to reassert Congress's article I authority to rein in the abuse of our Federal judiciary. The American people are tired--just tired--of Justices who think they are beyond accountability.

The Supreme Court's ruling in Trump v. United States is just the finishing touch on one of the most destructive Supreme Court terms in modern history. A few days before the ruling on Presidential immunity, the MAGA Court also upended 40 years of precedent by overturning the Chevron doctrine. In doing so, they have potentially turned the Federal Government upside down in a very dangerous way, declaring that judges now know better than Agency experts on matters ranging from student loans to Medicare, to AI, to climate change, to net neutrality, and so much more.

From now on, anytime there is a shred of legislative ambiguity, anytime Congress didn't explicitly anticipate every conceivable scenario for how Agencies should apply complex policy, judges are now free to impose their own views even if they don't know a lick about the policy in question, even though they are the unelected branch of government. It is impossible for the Congress to think of every possible scenario, so either you have subject-matter experts in the administration making a judgment call or unelected judges making a judgment call. That was the whole point of the Chevron doctrine--to give administrative subject-matter experts some deference.

The MAGA Court's annihilation of the Chevron doctrine is their latest and most dangerous attempt to side with powerful special interests against the wishes of the middle class, to come up with new legal theory to suit their ideological needs and overturn decades of well- accepted precedent.

These cases are just the start. In the last few months, the conservative majority on the Supreme Court also has upheld racial gerrymandering in South Carolina--can you imagine?--allowed the criminalization of homelessness, struck down the commonsense ban on bumps stocks, defanged the EPA's ability to regulate against air pollution, and so much more.

It all points to a clear, growing, disturbing trend emerging out of the Supreme Court. It is plain as day--plain as day--that this MAGA majority is hell-bent on siphoning power away from the electorate and from the other branches in order to reshape America in their ultraconservative and extreme vision.

So I will repeat what I said at the top of my remarks. American democracy now stands at a crossroads. The MAGA Court's disastrous rulings are the clearest illustration of why elections have consequences. And this year, the American people will choose between two vastly different visions for our country.

If Donald Trump returns to the Oval Office, if Republicans retake control of Congress, the disastrous rulings coming out of the Supreme Court will just be the start. The chaos we saw on January 6 will just be the start. If they get the chance, Donald Trump and the MAGA right will plunge our country into an abyss of extremism that the vast majority of Americans oppose and America has really never seen.

Nowhere else is this contrast between Democrats and Republicans as clear as on the issue of reproductive freedom. This week, Senate Democrats intend to pick up where we left off in June by bringing every single Member of this Chamber to task on a woman's fundamental right to choose. It is our goal to take up a very simple resolution, cosponsored by every female Senator in our caucus and myself, that asks a very, very simple question: Where do Senators stand on freedom of choice? Do we believe that a woman should have a basic right to reproductive care? Do we agree that the rights protected under Roe should be Federal law? Freedom of choice is perhaps the defining issue for Americans this year, and this week, every Senator must show where they stand. Of course, Democrats have already made it abundantly clear where we stand: Yes, we emphatically believe women should be free to make their own healthcare choices.

Democrats also believe in building on the incredible progress of the last 3\1/2\ years. Under Democratic leadership, we made great strides in America to lower the cost of living. We made prescription drugs, like insulin, more affordable. We have brought manufacturing jobs back to our shores. We have invested in clean energy economy. On the world stage, we have stood up to defend democracy against autocrats and restored America's good name among the free nations of the world.

Donald Trump and the MAGA right cannot say any of this. Instead, what Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans have made clear is that if they get into power, they will dismantle American democracy as we know it. MAGA radicals are long done with talking and euphemisms. The leader of one of America's most powerful conservative think tanks recently made the hard right's goals very clear:

We are in the process of the second American Revolution,

which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.

That, Madam President, is the kind of talk that leads to political violence.

To go down the road that MAGA radicals want to take is to take America into the twilight zone--something more akin to the autocratic fervor we saw in Europe in the early 20th century than the America we all know and love.

So the stakes for our country this year are immense. Here in the Senate, Democrats will continue bringing to the floor the issues that matter to Americans most and will work ferociously to defend them.

While it is tempting to reduce elections nowadays to a form of reality TV, the truth is, the stakes are much higher. It is a battle for two radically different visions of our country.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Madam President, on another matter, the Senate this week will continue its work confirming more of President Biden's outstanding nominees to the Federal judiciary.

The nominees that have passed through this Chamber have in many cases been historic, and today is no exception. The Senate will vote on the nomination of Nancy Maldonado, who will be the very first Hispanic judge on the Seventh Circuit if confirmed.

Under President Biden and Democratic leadership, the Senate has confirmed 35 Hispanic judges to date, and nearly two-thirds of all our nominees have been people of color. When our courts more faithfully reflect our country, it is a good thing for faith in our judiciary, which we greatly need right now.

I am confident that Judge Maldonado will make an excellent judge. I am proud to vote in favor of her confirmation and thank my colleagues who will do the same.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Mr. President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 623.

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