Floor Statements

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

Mr. President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 57.

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

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

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum calls for the cloture motions filed today, March 30, be waived.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to executive session to consider the following nominations: All nominations placed on the Secretary's desk for the Army, Air Force, Marine Corps, Navy, Space Force; that the nominations be confirmed en bloc, the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate; further, that no motions be in order to any of the nominations; that the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action and the Senate resume legislative session.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on the Judiciary be discharged from further consideration of S. Res 120 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mr. 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.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. Res. 148, submitted earlier today.

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.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 149, submitted earlier today.

I ask unanimous consent that 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, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 150, which is at the desk.

I ask unanimous consent that 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, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on the Judiciary be discharged from further consideration of S. 659 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

I ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Finally, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned, to convene for pro forma sessions with no business being conducted on the following dates and times: Monday, April 3, at 12 noon, Thursday, April 6, at 10 a.m., Monday, April 10, at 11:30 a.m., and Thursday, April 13, at 8:45 a.m.; further, that when the Senate adjourns on Thursday, April 13, it next convene at 3 p.m. on Monday, April 17; that 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 Plumb nomination; and that cloture motions filed during today's session ripen at 5:30 p.m.; further, that the filing deadline for the first-degree amendments to S. 870 be at 3:30 p.m. on Monday, April 17.

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, 4,487--4,487. That is the number of American servicemembers who perished in Iraq by the time the last combat troops departed in 2011, over a decade ago. Joining them are over 32,000 American servicemembers and civilians wounded in action and tens of thousands more who struggled--many to this very day--with everything from toxic burn pit exposure to PTSD.

It is with these brave servicemembers and civilians in mind and their families and all who have been impacted by the war in Iraq that the Senate, today, votes to repeal the Iraq authorizations for use of military force from 2002 and 1991. The United States and Iraq--the entire world--have changed dramatically since 2002, and it is time the laws on the books caught up with those changes.

These AUMFs have outlived their use. These repeals will not harm our servicemembers abroad nor will they hinder our ability to keep Americans safe. Every year we keep these AUMFs on the books is another chance for a future administration to abuse them. War powers belong in the hands of Congress so we have an obligation to prevent future Presidents from exploiting these AUMFs to bumble us into a new Middle East conflict.

I am glad that repealing these AUMFs has been a bipartisan effort, and I hope this process can be--it should be--a blueprint for how the Senate works over the next few years. We will have amendments without being dilatory. We will have debate without stall tactics. We will continue to look assiduously, diligently for other opportunities to advance bipartisan bills.

There are many Members and staff I wish to thank for making today's vote possible because this effort has been years--years--in the making.

First, thank you to Chairman Menendez, of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as well as Senator Kaine. To watch him work on this bill, not only day in and day out, not only month in and month out, but year in and year out because he had a such firm belief that it was the right thing to do, was a joy. Thank you also to Senator Young, who worked very hard to make this happen and who brought so many of his colleagues along.

I want to thank staff who did the great work here too: Megan Bartley, Andrew Keller, Elisa Catalano Ewers, JC Jain, Nick Barbash, Lauren O'Brien, Brandt Anderson. And, of course, there is my staff. I have been blessed with the greatest staff in the world as you will hear about soon enough, about one of them: Lane Bodian, Meghan Taira, and Mike Kuiken.

The American people are tired of endless wars in the Middle East. We owe it to our servicemembers and our veterans, as well as to their families and all communities impacted by the war, to repeal these AUMFs today. I urge a strong ``yes'' vote later this morning.

Fire Grants and Safety Act

Mr. President, on fire grants, as I said a minute ago, we are trying to move on bipartisan legislation that really matters to the average American person. One of these is going to be the Fire Grants and Safety Act. Later today, the Senate will vote to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to the Fire Grants and Safety Act.

This bipartisan legislation would make sure that both SAFER and AFG-- two Federal grant programs that are paid and that volunteer firefighters rely on--remain available. If we don't extend these grants, they will expire in a few months and leave our firefighters without access to the resources they need to keep our communities safe.

Our firefighters, paid and volunteer, are brave. They risk their lives for us. They run to danger, not away from it. We need to ensure they have the equipment and personnel necessary to do their jobs for their own safety and the safety of those they protect. We need this especially in smaller, more rural, more suburban areas where there often isn't enough revenue to afford more resources.

I urge my colleagues to vote yes so we can move forward quickly on this legislation.

Debt Ceiling

Now, Mr. President, on the debt ceiling, we are almost a quarter of the way through 2023, and House Republicans have still failed to answer the most important question of their majority.

What is your plan?

What is the plan of House Republicans' to raise the debt ceiling? We hear a new explanation, seemingly every day, from some new corner of the Republican Conference, but none of it adds up to what Republicans need most--a clear, detailed, and serious plan.

Even this week, Speaker McCarthy has, in desperation, tried another new and obviously failing approach. He laid out a new round of vague conditions, each one more amorphous than the last, and none of them with any specifics. Then he pulled a huge number out of the sky--$4 trillion--without telling us where, when, or how we would get to it. That is not a plan. Everyone knows that.

Republicans have been utterly flailing. One day, they say they will release a budget. Then they say they can't release a budget. One corner of the party says certain programs are off the table. Then another group of Republicans suggest the opposite. House Republican leadership is doing everything except the one thing they must do: Show the American people your plan, House Republicans. Show us your plan.

So when Speaker McCarthy points fingers at Democrats, all he is doing--it is so obvious--is trying to deflect from problems he has in his own conference. That is what is going on every time we hear a new idea, read a new letter, or hear a new set of talking points from the Republicans. They are far too divided to unite around a single proposal. The MAGA wing is pulling in one direction, and those in the middle are pulling another way. There is no consensus in the Republican House caucus.

The solution to the debt ceiling, however, is staring the Republicans in the face. Do what we have done before, Democrats and Republicans, under President Trump and under President Biden. Stop the brinksmanship. Stop threatening default. Work with Democrats on a clean extension of the debt ceiling. No more kicking the can down the road.

Speaker McCarthy, where is your plan?

Democrats and Republicans worked together, as I said, under President Trump. Even when the Republicans had the majority and the Democrats could have blocked it, we didn't. We knew our responsibilities to the people of America, who would be so devastated by a lapse in the debt ceiling and that their interest rates, their car costs, their home costs, and so much else would go up.

Well, we did this before by working together in a bipartisan way, without brinksmanship, without hostage-taking, and we should do it again this year.

Women's Healthcare

Mr. President, nominations on hold.

For years, for years--decades--both parties have cooperated in the Senate to confirm military promotions, nonpolitical. It is simply the military doing its job and promoting people who deserve it. We have worked and cooperated to confirm those promotions to ensure our military's work continues unimpeded and our national security remains strong.

But, today, one Member--only one Member, the Senator from Alabama Senator Tuberville--is now blocking more than 180 military promotions because he objects to women in the military accessing reproductive care. In doing so, the senior Senator from Alabama is putting the security of America in jeopardy, and he risks permanently politicizing the confirmations of routine military promotions.

As Secretary Austin warned yesterday--this is our Secretary of Defense, who is a former four-star general--``not approving the recommendations for promotions actually creates a ripple effect throughout the force that makes us far less ready than we need to be.''

`` . . . far less ready than we need to be,'' Senator Tuberville. This is our national security. That is what Austin said.

Now, the senior Senator from Alabama claims that his hold has nothing to do with the Supreme Court's decision on Dobbs. Of course, it does. It has everything to do with it. He is telling women in the military they are not allowed to make their own decisions about their health.

That is wrong. I assure the Senator that our women in the military are more than capable of making those decisions for themselves, and I assure the Senator that the vast majority of Americans do not agree with him that he should make the choices for women in the military, who risk their lives for us, about their health.

It is disappointing. It is disappointing to see that more of my colleagues on the other side have yet to call out the Senator from Alabama's reckless stunt. I thank those who, indeed, have raised their voices, but we need more. Republicans, who claim to be such great supporters of our military, must announce the harm the Senator from Alabama is causing.

All of us on both sides feel deeply passionate about issues from time to time. I respect that Senator Tuberville, whose views dramatically differ from mine, has deep feelings about this.

Well, Senator Tuberville, I have deep feelings on certain issues--so do the other 99 Senators--but we don't hold up military promotions and risk our national security because of those deep feelings.

If every one of us did what the Senator from Alabama is doing, the military would collapse. So we ought to move forward. I implore my Republican colleagues to speak out and prevail on the Senator from Alabama so we can get these promotions confirmed, get our military operating to its full capacity, and continue working to protect the Nation.

Tribute to Gerry Petrella

Mr. President, in tribute to one of the greatest staffers, certainly, whom I have ever had and I think that the Hill has had in a very long time, I would quote Tina Turner: ``Simply the best.''

I will spare him and his parents, who are in the Gallery, my singing it, although we did talk about doing karaoke together at some point.

Well, that is what they will say--what they already say about the person whom I wish to honor here today at the end of my remarks.

It is never, never easy to say goodbye to a member of your team. We in ``Schumer Land,'' as we call our group, have such a close-knit staff. We are friends. We are pals. We have each other's backs. We protect each other. It is a beautiful thing. Even when people leave, they are still part of our family,

and we see them all the time. We saw many of them last night as we said goodbye to Gerry at a local pub--an appropriate place, I might say, to do that.

So it is never easy to say goodbye to a member of your team, but it is even harder when that person has worked with you--or put up with you depending on whom you ask--for 15 years. It is still harder when that person happens to be Gerry Petrella. His real name is Gerard Anthony Petrella, reflecting his Irish and Italian roots. I have nicknames for some of my staffers. They just pop up. He has always been Gerald even though his name is Gerard. I think it is 15 years he has been Gerald. It hasn't stuck with anyone but me, but it is there.

Well, it is with immense gratitude--sorrow as well--that I close today by saying thank you, thank you, and bidding farewell to one of the very best to ever do it here in the Senate--our policy director, Gerry.

I met Gerry when he was a staffer for a local town official.

I said: Boy, this guy is good.

And we are always on the lookout, myself and my two great chiefs, whom I am so grateful for, Mike Lynch and Martin Brennan--two tough Irish guys who have kept this Jewish kid going forward for a long time. Anyway, we always are looking out for good staff, and when we saw this guy, we said: We have got to get him.

Brennan sat down with him and said: Oh, he is good.

I sat down with him. He reminded me, last night, that I had him drive to come talk to me before the Super Bowl of the Giants and Patriots-- the first one. They won two, I remind my friends from Massachusetts and New England. I met him, and I said oh boy. So Gerry began running our Long Island office.

He did an amazing job, an amazing job. So good, that after he had done 4 years there--whatever Gerry does, he works his heart out. He never burns himself out because he has got incredible energy. But he works his heart out. It was time for a change. So we asked him to come be our director--a new position--of economic development here in Washington. The number of jobs, the number of projects, the number of things he created was just amazing.

Then, of course, he became our policy director. When I became the leader, he became the policy director of the whole Senate. He did amazing things there, as I have said before.

Rarely, rarely can you say when someone leaves, no matter what else they do in their lives, they have so benefited millions of Americans, many of whom have seen the benefits already--$35 insulin for Medicare-- and many more who will see those benefits for years to come. They may not know it was Gerry Petrella who did it, but we do. We do. He changed the world.

His work was so important. We had the greatest 2 years that this Senate has seen. We led the country, we led the party, we led everybody in doing this with the BIF, and the IRA, and the CHIPS and Science bill, and the PACT Act, and the gun bill, and so much else--marriage equality. They wouldn't have happened without Gerry Petrella. That is about the greatest compliment you can pay to someone.

So, Gerry, thank you. Thank you for never giving up on me after all these years. Thank you for coming to the office every single day and pushing, pushing, pushing.

He is not only brilliant, he not only comes with good ideas, but he is a jackhammer--rat-a-tat-tat. He keeps pushing and pushing and pushing until he gets it done.

So thank you for doing that, for setting the tone of our team, for defining our vision, for laying out a strategy and executing in good times and bad. Thank you for working to the bone to find a path forward to pass our agendas, especially when it seemed out of reach. Thank you.

And I don't want to neglect the fact that he has deep feelings on so many different issues, and he had the luxury and the ability to get those done. So I also thank Gerry for staying true to himself and his values as he worked in the maelstrom that is Senate legislating on such important bills.

Gerry is a man on fire with love for his country, love for the issues, love for the work.

Thank you, Gerry.

Thank you to Gerry's parents, who, as I mentioned, are here in the Gallery.

Thank you to George, who had both of his parents often in the office for many long hours--cute little George--and our great legislative director, Meghan Taira.

Gerry, thank you for all these great years. You will always be in our family. You will always have a place here in the Senate. My very best on the next wonderful chapter in your life. God bless you.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, first, let me thank my colleagues, our chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Menendez; Senator Kaine, who has worked on this bill not for days and not for months but for years and never gave up hope; Senator Young; Senator Risch; and so many others--thank you, Senator Young--who worked so hard to make this day happen.

Twenty years after the start of the Iraq war, the Senate finally, finally, finally declares today the time has come

to repeal the legal authorities that began that war in the first place.

This is bipartisan, and that is one of the beauties of this. Democrats and Republicans joined to say that it has been long enough, that the Iraq war has long been over. These authorizations for the use of force against Iraq are no longer necessary for our security.

Make no mistake, this vote repealing the Iraq war powers is one for the history books.

The American people, as we know, are tired of endless wars in the Middle East. Every year we keep these AUMFs on the books is another chance for future administrations to abuse them.

We owe it to the over 4,000 who died in Iraq, to their families, to our servicemembers who served there, to our veterans, and all of the communities impacted by the war--we owe it to all of them to act.

There is a very good chance that both Chambers can pass these AUMF repeals before the end of this year so this bill can be signed into law. This is not just going to be a one-House action. We have good support in the House of Representatives, the President is for it, and the odds are high that this much needed legislation will become law.

Again, I hope this process can be a blueprint for how the Senate works over the next few years. We sat down with our Republican colleagues--and, of course, it is the right of the minority to offer amendments--and came to an agreement. The amendments were not dilatory. The amendments were not gotcha. They were sincere attempts to change the bill. But by allowing amendments, we allowed this bill to go forward, and we would like that to be a metaphor for the future.

We will look diligently, assiduously for opportunities to continue the Senate working successfully on bipartisan legislation in the future.

I yield the floor.

Vote on S. 316

Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to executive session to consider the following nomination: Calendar No. 73, Matthew P. Brookman to be United States District Judge for the Southern District of Indiana; that the Senate vote on the nomination without intervening action or debate; that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table; that the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action, and the Senate resume legislative session.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of H. Con. Res. 15, 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.