Floor Statements

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

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

Mr. President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 123.

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

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

Finally, I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum calls for cloture motions filed today, April 26, be waived.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the Senate proceed to S. Res. 175, submitted earlier today.

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

Mr. President, tomorrow, it will be a great honor of the House and Senate to welcome President Yoon of the Republic of Korea to the U.S. Capitol.

Ahead of President Yoon's visit, Leader McConnell, Chair Menendez, Ranking Member Risch, and I wish to welcome him through a bipartisan resolution reaffirming the strong support that exists for the U.S.- Korean relationship. Seventy years of this partnership have made both our nations safer, more prosperous, and more intertwined than ever. Today, millions of Americans know and love Korean music, Korean cinema, Korean food, and Korean goods and products. K-pop now goes viral in our country, and for many Americans their favorite movies are not in English but in Korean.

The Korean-American community embodies what the American dream has always been about: coming to our country and building something of yourself, building strong families who enrich our communities and make our Nation more prosperous. New York is proud to have one of the largest and most dynamic Korean communities anywhere in the country, and I have been proud to fight for them here in the Senate. They are a wonderful addition to New York, and the more Koreans there are in New York the better we are going to be.

And make no mistake, the United States and the Republic of Korea need each other more than ever. As we continue to compete with China, the Republic of Korea is one of our closest partners. And as we confront a belligerent North Korea, we must work with the Republic of Korea for our mutual safety.

I also want to applaud President Yoon for beginning the process to revitalize his nation's relationship with Japan. When we work together, we can make real strides to ensure security and prosperity in the Indo- Pacific. Again, I thank my colleagues for working with me on this resolution. We thank President Yoon for coming to the Capitol.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, in two criminal cases pending in Federal district court in the District of Columbia and arising out of the events of January 6, 2021, the prosecution has requested testimony from a Senate witness.

In these cases, brought against Leo Christopher Kelly and Rachel Powell, respectively, trials are expected to commence in early May, and the prosecution has requested testimony from Daniel Schwager, formerly counsel to the Secretary of the Senate, concerning his knowledge and observations of the process and constitutional and legal bases for Congress' counting of the Electoral College votes. The prosecution in the Kelly case has additionally requested Mr. Schwager's testimony regarding certain property destruction that occurred on January 6, 2021. Senate Secretary Berry would like to cooperate with these requests by providing relevant testimony in these trials from Mr. Schwager.

In keeping with the rules and practices of the Senate, these resolutions would authorize the production of relevant testimony from Mr. Schwager, with representation by the Senate legal Counsel.

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

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

Mr. President, I move to proceed to Calendar No. 3, S.J. Res. 4.

I send a cloture motion to the desk.

Mr. President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 22.

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

I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum calls for the cloture motions filed today, April 25, be waived.

Now, Mr. President, for months, the American people have demanded House Republicans stop their hostage-taking and show us a plan to avoid default.

Last week, House Republicans failed in their assignment yet again. Speaker McCarthy rolled out a wish list straight out of the Freedom Caucus playbook. It might as well be called the ``Default on America Act'' because that is exactly what it is: DOA.

Instead of doing what both sides have done many times before-- avoiding default without preconditions--Speaker McCarthy and House Republicans want to force working Americans to accept either a punch to the gut or a blow to the head. Either the United States defaults on national debt for the first time in American history or MAGA Republicans get their way and America defaults on everything else--on our future and our security, on our promise to care for veterans and law enforcement and the American middle class. Either way, Republicans are promising real pain for American families when they bring their Default on America Act to the House floor this week. According to one study by Moody's Analytics, the DOA could send us into a damaging recession.

So let me say it one more time. What Republicans released last week was not so much a plan as it was a threat to default on America. Either we default on the national debt or we default on everything else through extreme cuts that will harm millions of people. That is so unpopular with the American people that the Republican House has had to hide it.

For all of the GOP's lipservice about public safety, the House DOA Act defaults on America's law enforcement and first responders. Nearly 30,000 law enforcement jobs across the country would be cut under the Republicans' DOA Act. Over $8 billion in funding for the DOJ would be eliminated. Donald Trump called for Republicans to defund law enforcement, and now it looks like House Republicans are following through.

But that is just the start. The House Default on America Act would also spell disaster for American families and American healthcare. Parents who struggle affording childcare would see over 100,000 childcare slots eliminated under the GOP proposal, preventing moms and dads from getting a job or finishing their education since they can't afford to pick up their kids in daycare. Over 21 million Americans would be at risk of losing their health coverage--21 million Americans losing health coverage--while hospitals would see billions in funding disappear. Hospitals, patient groups, doctors--you name it, they are all coming out in droves to oppose this measure.

We just endured a global pandemic that claimed the lives of over 1 million Americans, and House Republicans want to cut funding for healthcare and hospitals? Utterly revolting.

But the damage isn't just limited to American families. The Republican DOA Act would cripple America's ability to stay ahead of the Chinese Communist Party.

After all the work we did last year on CHIPS and Science, the Republican bill would slash billions--billions--from cutting-edge research and prevent us from fully implementing CHIPS and Science. The damage would be measured in countless jobs lost and billions in squandered private investment. That is the last thing we can afford as President Xi and the CCP work to outcompete America on the world stage--squandering all that great private investment that is now coming to America.

Let's not forget, should this Republican DOA bill go into effect, taxes will go up for small businesses that no longer benefit from the green energy tax credits Democrats passed last year. Many of these green tax credits support job creation in Republican districts--jobs that Republicans are happy to take credit for while working behind the scenes to destroy them. It is the dictionary definition of ``hypocrisy.''

Finally, the House Default on America Act would break America's promise to our veterans, gutting funding for new VA facilities, funding for housing and food security and addiction treatment, and even endangering 81,000 jobs across the Veterans' Administration. How could House Republicans possibly think it is OK to cut funding for our veterans in exchange for lifting the debt ceiling? What kind of message does that send to our military families, our servicemembers?

If MAGA Republicans want to sell their cuts to the American people, they should not do so in the middle of discussions to avoid default. That discussion properly belongs in conversations about the budget, not here. And we will be happy to discuss those cuts with them, oppose them, as we might, in the budget--not as a prelude to default.

In the meantime, I urge Speaker McCarthy to stop wasting any more time on this DOA--dead on arrival--bill. Time is running out for Congress to work together to avoid catastrophe.

Mr. President, on the issue of avoiding default, yesterday, Speaker McCarthy made it clear how unprepared Republicans in the House are to resolve our Nation's default crisis.

With a default approaching, Speaker McCarthy yesterday capitulated to the MAGA right and rolled out a partisan wish list masquerading as legislation. This MAGA wish list has no chance of moving forward in the Senate, and it doesn't move us any closer than we were yesterday to avoiding default.

To quote one hard-right conservative House Republican:

The leadership just picked up the House Freedom Caucus plan

and helped us convert it into the legislative text.

That shows you how hard right this wish list truly is.

Again, let me quote one of the most well-known hard-right conservatives in the House:

The leadership just picked up the House Freedom Caucus plan

and helped us convert it into the legislative text.

Wow. That is what Leader McCarthy is doing--maybe not as a surprise after what happened with the many votes he needed to get elected.

Americans who look at this package will overwhelmingly agree: The biggest losers in Speaker McCarthy's agenda are parents, kids, law enforcement, small businesses, and countless others who work hard every single day to make ends meet.

Do you want to talk about reducing debt? Wall Street billionaires are not asked to pay even a nickel under McCarthy's bill. Hurt the parents. Hurt the kids. Hurt law enforcement. Hurt small businesses, but leave the billionaires alone. That is what McCarthy is doing over there in the House.

Let me say that again. The biggest losers in Speaker McCarthy's blueprint are parents, kids, law enforcement, small businesses, and countless others who work hard every single day to make ends meet. Wall Street billionaires are not being asked to pay a nickel. Americans will not accept this transparently unfair and draconian package.

If these MAGA cuts become law, it will decimate everything ranging from food nutrition programs to funding for mental health, opioid addiction, and childcare. Parents who need help buying groceries and baby formulas will see their out-of-pocket costs go up. It is so cruel and heartless that parents who get $6 a person a day to feed their families would see it disappear. Can you imagine? Can you imagine?

If this MAGA wish list becomes law, untold thousands of clean energy and advanced manufacturing jobs could leave our shores and go to China.

This MAGA wish list will also make Americans less safe by slashing funding for the Department of Justice by billions of dollars and eliminating tens of thousands of law enforcement positions nationwide. We hear a lot of talk from the other side about helping the police.

This helps defund them, this legislation.

Donald Trump called for Republicans to defund law enforcement, and now Republicans seem to be following through. The wish list will further punish middle-class taxpayers and reward tax cheats by slashing funding necessary to go after ultrarich tax cheats while raising taxes on the middle class by depriving them of many of the new tax credits aimed at the middle class that we passed--we Democrats passed--during the last Congress.

You heard me right. This MAGA wish list punishes middle-class taxpayers while rewarding ultrarich tax cheats.

It is clear what is going on here: Speaker McCarthy cobbled together all sorts of extraneous measures in order to try and pass something, anything, no matter how extreme. But these extraneous measures--and they are truly extreme--have no place in a debate about avoiding default.

If Republicans truly wish to sell their extreme agenda to the American people, they should not do so in the middle of discussions to avoid default. There is a time and place to debate that, not during this debate, because what they are doing is dangerous to the country.

In the meantime, the solution to resolving the debt limit crisis has not changed. If Republicans want to avoid causing a first-ever default, they should do what we did three times under Donald Trump and twice under President Biden: work with Democrats to avoid default without brinksmanship, without blackmail, without hostage-taking, and without extraneous demands that nobody in America would want to accept, hardly anybody at all.

Speaker McCarthy's wish list is an extreme step in the wrong direction. It heads us in the direction of default, and time is running out.

Mr. President, next on women's rights and veterans' rights, for weeks, the senior Senator from Alabama has threatened American security by blocking over 180 routine military promotions because he objects to women in the military accessing reproductive care.

Yesterday, the Senator from Alabama's objections came before the Senate for consideration through a resolution that would have eliminated reproductive care for our veterans and their families. Senator Tuberville lost the vote. Senator Tuberville lost, while our women veterans won.

Yesterday's vote made two things very clear: First, MAGA Republicans are so hellbent on eliminating reproductive choice that not even veterans and our generals are safe. Americans have made abundantly clear that they reject the hard right's anti-choice agenda, but MAGA Republicans still double down.

Second, the Senate has now spoken on Senator Tuberville's anti-choice proposal and said no--one of the few instances where a CRA has been voted down in the Senate and, in this case, with bipartisan votes against it.

The Senate has spoken. Senator Tuberville has zero excuse for blocking 180 military promotions. His objection has been presented, considered, and rejected on a bipartisan basis. He should drop his holds against our military personnel and move on.

I urge my Republican colleagues who care about our national defense and about our veterans to talk some sense into our colleague from Alabama so he can drop his dangerous holds.