Floor Statements

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

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

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of H.R. 8289, which was received from the House and is at the desk.

I further ask that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Madam President, just for the information of Senators and everyone else, that was the extension that came over from the House. So it makes sure that the FAA will be in continuous service and there will no gap.

Earlier tonight, we passed the full authorization FAA bill, and that, of course, will make things permanent. But because of the gap because the House is not here, we have to pass this.

Before I get into the rest, I just want to say, Madam President, you as the chair have done just such an amazing job on these bills. They are not easy bills. They have many just cross-cutting issues involving almost every Member of the Senate. And these days it is harder than ever with so much polarization and procedural objection. So it is an amazing task that you have accomplished, and I think America and your State of Washington owe you a debt of gratitude.

Madam President, now, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs be discharged from further consideration of S. 2825 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

I ask unanimous consent that the Cornyn 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.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of H. Con. Res. 83, which was received from the House and is at the desk.

I ask unanimous consent that the concurrent resolution be agreed to, and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 683, submitted earlier today.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

I understand that there is a bill at the desk, and I ask for its first reading.

I now ask for a second reading, and in order to place the bill on the calendar, under the provisions of rule XIV, I object to my own request.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the senior Senator from Hawaii be authorized to sign duly enrolled bills or joint resolutions from May 9, 2024, through May 13, 2024.

And, finally, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned to convene for a pro forma session only, with no business being conducted, on Friday, May 10, at 6:30 p.m.; further, that when the Senate adjourns on Friday, it stand adjourned until 3 p.m. on Tuesday, May 14; that on Tuesday, following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and morning business be closed; that upon the conclusion of morning business, the Senate proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the O'Donnell nomination; further, that the cloture motions filed during today's session ripen at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

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

Mr. President, let me read a few quotes from the last 6 months, about securing our southern border, from some of my Republican Senate colleagues:

This crisis requires swift, serious, and substantive

action.

It makes no sense to me for us to do nothing when we might

be able to make things better.

This moment will pass. Do not let it pass.

Yes, indeed, these are words of our Republican Senate colleagues, uttered at press conferences and floor speeches and interviews from just the last few months. There are many, many, many more quotes like these, going back years, from Republican Senators, from Republican Congress Members, from the Republican Speaker, and from the former Republican President.

We kept hearing the same thing again and again and again: ``We need to do something about the border now,'' they shouted. ``The border is an emergency,'' they screamed. ``We cannot put this off until tomorrow''--and on and on and on.

So 3 months ago, here on the floor, Republicans got a chance to back up their angry words with real action by voting on the strongest bipartisan border bill Congress has seen in decades. And practically every Republican voted no, including my Republican colleague who said: ``It makes no sense to do nothing.'' Then he voted no. Including my Republican colleague who said: ``This crisis requires swift . . . action''--he voted no. And the Republican Speaker, Johnson, who said: ``The time to act'' on the border ``is yesterday,'' and then told the whole world that our bipartisan border bill would die in the House if we sent it over to them.

Donald Trump has spent years bellyaching and bemoaning the problems at

the border. But when Congress finally reached a breakthrough on a strong and bipartisan border bill, he told his MAGA acolytes to kill it so that he could exploit the chaos at the border for political gain. He was bold and open about that. He wanted to exploit the chaos at the border for his own political gain.

That is cynical even for Republicans--even, maybe, for Donald Trump, whose cynicism knows no bounds. For Democrats, the situation at the border is utterly unacceptable. That is why we worked with our Republican colleagues for months to write the strongest border security bill Congress has seen in generations--a bill that had the support of the Border Patrol union and the Chamber of Commerce and the extremely conservative Wall Street Journal editorial board.

But Donald Trump, desperate to exploit the border for the campaign trail, torpedoed this bill right in its tracks. He knew it would take real action to secure our border. That is why he didn't want it to happen.

Republicans will go on and on about the border this year, but their rhetoric, their political ads, everything else, will ring hollow because the border bill they killed in Congress will linger over them like stink on garbage.

Artificial Intelligence

Mr. President, now, on AI, I just returned from the Special Competitive Studies Project's first ever expo on artificial intelligence, where I spoke about the Senate's ongoing efforts to tackle AI. As I have said before, tackling AI must be an all-hands-on- deck approach. AI is so complex, so rapidly evolving, so broad in its impact that it will take all of us working together to maximize its potential and minimize its harms.

That is why I was pleased to see President Biden will announce a $3.3 billion investment from Microsoft, later today, for a new AI center in Wisconsin. This investment from Microsoft will create thousands of new, good-paying jobs and help America keep a competitive edge on AI.

AI will remain a top priority for this U.S. Senate. We just finished our bipartisan AI Insight Forums, where we learned so much about AI's promises and challenges. Very soon, our bipartisan AI working group will release our policy roadmap highlighting the findings and the areas of consensus from our forums, which will help our committees fine-tune their work on AI legislation. We look forward to moving forward on AI.

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

Madam President, I have seven requests for committees to meet during today's session of the Senate. They have the approval of the Majority and Minority Leaders.

Pursuant to rule XXVI, paragraph 5(a), of the Standing Rules of the Senate, the following committees are authorized to meet during today's session of the Senate:

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. Con. Res. 36.

I ask unanimous consent that the concurrent resolution be agreed to and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the

table with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the en bloc consideration of the following Senate resolutions: S. Res. 677, S. Res. 678, S. Res. 679.

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