Floor Statements

Mr. President, on AUMF first, two decades after the start of the Iraq war, the Senate this week debates legislation to repeal the authority that commenced the war to begin with. By a large vote--67 to 28--the Senate yesterday sent a clear message that the time has come to repeal the AUMFs of 2002 and 1991. At this point, repealing the Iraq AUMFs in the Senate is not a matter of if but, rather, of when.

I hope, given such a strong bipartisan vote yesterday, we can move quickly. There should be no needless delay or dilatory tactics on something the majority of Senators support. We are in the process of negotiating amendments. We want to be reasonable, but this process is going to proceed as quickly as it can.

Allowing these AUMFs to remain on the books is just asking for a future administration to abuse them and, God forbid, bumble us into a new conflict in the Middle East.

War powers belong in the hands of Congress, and we should use and exert that authority by bringing these AUMFs to a close.

It is my hope that both sides can reach an agreement to accelerate this process very soon. In the meantime, once again, thanks, kudos to Senators Kaine and Young, Chairman Menendez and Ranking Member Risch, and all of the cosponsors. There are many in this legislation.

Mr. President, now, on House Republican comments at their retreat on debt ceiling, undermining the full faith and credit of the United States is never a good idea, but, in the aftermath of a bank collapse, it is supremely reckless. But that is precisely what some House Republicans, including the very chairman of the House Budget Committee, are doing right now.

During House Republicans' annual retreat, House Budget Committee chair and other hard-right-wingers said that now is ``the best time'' to double down on debt ceiling brinkmanship, as news of SVB's collapse remains front of mind. That is reckless and truly clueless. It is both--reckless and clueless.

Instead of calling for calm, House Republicans are sowing chaos by threatening default at a time when banks need stability. Again, instead of calling for calm, House Republicans are sowing chaos by threatening default at a time when banks need stability. It goes to show you how fringe and unserious the House GOP conference has become.

Our Republican colleagues should remember that it was poor supervision and a rush under Trump to deregulate that caused the banking crisis.

Banks that are well managed are not in crisis, even though they are dealing with the same macroeconomic conditions as everyone else.

So what Republicans are saying is not only ridiculous and false but dangerous.

If you are a small business owner worrying about keeping the lights on and paying your employees, what are you supposed to think when Republicans threaten default at a time like this, with markets already on edge?

If you are near retirement and have spent your whole life setting aside a little in order to retire with dignity, how would you feel if Republicans threatened your life savings by risking default?

The right answer is for Republicans in the House to stop saber- rattling, drop the hostage taking and brinkmanship, and work together, work in a bipartisan way, to extend the debt ceiling without strings attached, without brinkmanship, without hostage-taking. But that will only happen once Republicans stop ducking from the American people and show us their plan.

Republicans, show us your plan. Today is March 22. The debt ceiling date is getting closer and closer.

Speaker McCarthy, it has been long enough. Where is your plan? Your conference says it wants cuts. They threaten default unless they get their cuts. Where is the plan?

Instead of making radical comments that threaten even more financial turmoil, Republicans should focus more on solving the debt crisis by working with Democrats to ensure default never occurs.

Finally, Mr. President, yesterday we learned the sad news of the passing of one of the greatest New York Knicks legends of all time, team captain Willis Reed.

You cannot write the story of the New York Knicks or the NBA without mentioning Willis Reed. He was a giant on and off the court, a ferocious competitor, a class act, and, above all, a leader of leaders.

In game 7 of the 1970 NBA finals--I so well remember it--Willis Reed authored one of the most memorable moments in sports history by hobbling out of the tunnel and walking onto the court minutes before the tip-off. That night, he gave a legendary performance against the Lakers, while leading his team to one of two Knicks titles. We hope maybe it will happen again soon.

Willis Reed embodied what it meant to be a Knick, a New Yorker, a champion, and a legend. Our thoughts are with his family, friends, and teammates. May he rest in peace.

I announce that the Senator from Illinois (Mr. Durbin), the Senator from California (Mrs. Feinstein), and the Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. Fetterman) are necessarily absent.

Madam President, first let me salute our chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and our Member of the committee, the Senator from Virginia, for the great work they have done.

We are trying to be very fair in the amendment process. We are trying to allow amendments to occur, but we want to try to move the bill along as well and not just do things for dilatory or extraneous purposes. So I am very glad we have agreed on these three amendments and hope we can agree on a few more and get things done.

Order of Business

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that it be in order to consider the following amendments: Paul No. 2, Graham No. 14, Lee No. 22; that if offered, the Senate vote in relation to the Paul and Graham amendments at 5:50 p.m. today, with 2 minutes for debate equally divided between votes; further, that the Senate vote in relation to the Lee amendment at a time to be determined by the majority leader, following consultation with the Republican leader, with 60 affirmative votes required for the adoption of the Paul and Lee amendments, all without intervening action or debate.

I announce that the Senator from Illinois (Mr. Durbin), the Senator from California (Mrs. Feinstein), the Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. Fetterman), and the Senator from New Mexico (Mr. Heinrich) are necessarily absent.

I announce that the Senator from Illinois (Mr. Durbin), the Senator from California (Mrs. Feinstein), and the Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. Fetterman) are necessarily absent.

Mr. President, first, a little housekeeping.

I understand that there are three bills at the desk due for a second reading en bloc.

In order to place the bills on the calendar under the provisions of rule XIV, I would object to further proceeding en bloc.

Mr. President, today is World Down Syndrome Awareness Day.

To honor this day, I am wearing a pair of socks given to me yesterday, in Schenectady, by my friend Sheila Seery. Sheila's daughter, Anna, is 14 and lives with Down syndrome. These socks come from a company on Long Island called John's Crazy Socks, run by a man with Down syndrome, who makes socks to help raise awareness for the condition. So, not only are they a wonderful pair of socks, they are also for a great cause.

Today, I am thinking of my friend Sheila and her daughter, Anna, as well as every family in our country who has a loved one living with Down syndrome.

Mr. President, on the AUMFs, today, the Senate begins debate on a resolution formally repealing the Iraq AUMFs of 2002 and 1991, bringing us another step closer to ending these war authorities and putting these conflicts behind us for good.

I want to note last week's vote on cloture--68 to 27. That is a clear sign of bipartisan support in this Chamber. I hope Republicans will work with us to keep this bill moving forward, because AUMF repeal in the Senate is now a matter of when, not of if. It is my hope that we can finish our work on repealing these AUMFs as soon as possible.

We will have a reasonable amendment process. That said, given last week's strong vote, there is no reason to drag this out. I am encouraged that, in the House, Members from both sides of the aisle seem to be open to taking action once the Senate passes this resolution, and there are Members of the Senate Republican leadership who seem very strongly for the bill. That is a very good sign.

As always, I thank my colleagues here in the Senate, on both sides of the aisle, for supporting this legislation, particularly Senators Kaine and Young, who did an amazing job in rounding up support. This has been a dream of Senator Kaine's for a long time, and now it is coming closer to reality. And I want to thank Chairman Menendez and Ranking Member Risch and all of the cosponsors of the legislation.

There is no justification anymore for allowing these Iraq authorizations to remain on the books. Every year they remain in place is another year a future administration can abuse them to ensnare us in another conflict in the Middle East. The American people don't want that. They are tired of endless wars in the Middle East. We owe it to our servicemembers and our veterans, as well as their families and communities impacted by the war, to repeal these AUMFs as soon as we can.

Mr. President, on H.R. 1, over the weekend, the U.N. International Panel on Climate Change released their most dire warning to date: Unless the world swiftly transitions to clean energy and curbs emissions, our planet risks crossing a point of no return sometime in the next decade. What awaits us on the other side could be severe and irreversible: droughts, storms, and crop failures at a level we can scarcely imagine today.

I think of my young grandchildren, and I worry about the world they are going to grow up in. This is something that should make every one of us want to do something real about climate change. Unfortunately, House Republicans seem to think the best solution for our energy needs is not to help America transition to clean energy. They think doubling down on more giveaways to Big Oil is the way to go.

I have been very clear about two things: Democrats want to see a bipartisan, commonsense energy proposal come together in Congress, but Republicans' H.R. 1 proposal is dead on arrival in the Senate.

Let me just repeat that so they hear it from the other side of the aisle. H.R. 1 is dead on arrival in the Senate.

So you can do all of the hoopla you want in the House. It ain't passing. It is not going to change a thing.

No serious proposal would omit, as the House bill does, long overdue reforms for accelerating the construction of transmission to bring clean energy to projects online. You can't have a good bill without some transmission. Transmission is vital to getting clean energy from where it is produced to where people live, but the Republican H.R. 1 proposal leaves this problem untouched. It is one of the major things we must do this year.

No real energy proposal would stuff itself with poison pills in the way Republicans' H.R. 1 does as well. House Republicans want to repeal everything from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund to the methane fee-- imagine repealing the methane fee when methane is 10 times as dangerous as CO2--and the royalty reforms for oil and gas leases. Democrats just passed these into law--to wide acclaim throughout the country and throughout the world--through the Inflation Reduction Act. So to undo them a few months later is ludicrous. It is laughable. It is not happening.

Until Republicans recognize that permitting reform is an essential step toward laying the foundation for clean energy and that transmission is essential, no proposal or package they put forward will be taken seriously.

Fortunately, there are some on both sides of the aisle in both Houses who are attempting to put together bipartisan legislation, and it has my blessing for them to try and come up with something that would be reasonable, productive, and could pass.

Mr. President, on CHIPS, today, the administration released a number of proposed guardrails that will ensure the Chinese Communist Party does not benefit from our efforts to increase chip production here at home.

We first put these guardrails into the CHIPS and Science bill, which we enacted into law last summer--something we are very proud of and that I am very proud of. We put them in because we didn't want to see companies getting help to expand operations in America and then using other dollars to expand operations in countries like China. I am glad the administration is implementing this law with good, strong guidelines--with good, strong regulations.

Specifically, the Department of Commerce and the Treasury have proposed new restrictions, which the Senate approved through the CHIPS and Science Act, on the amount companies receiving CHIPS money can invest in projects located within countries of concern. That includes Russia and China. Abusing CHIPS funding to expand projects in China- based markets would be self-defeating, and it would endanger our national security. This is what we passed into law in the CHIPS bill, and this proposed rule will implement it in a strong way. If we are serious about investing in domestic chip production, the last thing we should be doing is allowing companies to take CHIPS dollars and use them to build facilities in China that benefit the CCP.

I applaud the administration. I applaud our great Secretary of Commerce for this proposed rule, which I called on them to fast-track weeks ago, and I am glad they are doing it.

I am also glad this week that the administration is rolling out proposed guidance for implementing the CHIPS investment tax credit--the ITC. I fought relentlessly to get this tax credit into CHIPS and Science. We knew, without it, our new factories here in America that are going to make advanced computer chips would not grow as quickly and as well.

I want to thank Senators Wyden, Brown, Casey, Tester, Kelly, Warner, Cantwell, and many others for joining me in this effort.

As I have said many times, President Xi and the Chinese Communist Party are on an all-out campaign to replace the United States as the global force in the 21st century. Look no further than the headlines today. President Xi is being wined and dined by Vladimir Putin, leaving no doubt that the CCP is rooting for Putin to prevail in Ukraine.

But it is not just on military matters that China wants to dominate. For decades, the CCP has rapaciously stolen American, European, and Japanese technologies and intellectual property. The CHIPS and Science Act was designed to halt this bleeding and bring semiconductor jobs back to our shores. But, if that is going to happen, we can't allow taxpayer dollars to expand projects in China to begin with. So I applaud the administration for introducing this proposed rule today.

Mr. President, on the Norfolk Southern hearing, the many consequences of Norfolk Southern's derailment in East Palestine continue to reverberate today. That accident and the many that have occurred since have forced Congress to confront an ugly realization: Years of lobbying from rail companies and deregulation under Republican administrations have empowered the rail industry to put profits over people and endanger communities' safety.

Tomorrow, the CEO of Norfolk Southern will return to the Senate and testify before the Commerce Committee. He will be joined by Jennifer Homendy from the National Transportation Safety Board, as well as by two colleagues, Senators Brown and Vance, who have pushed the bipartisan Railway Safety Act.

We have heard Norfolk Southern's CEO say he is sorry for what happened in East Palestine, but we have also heard him say he is open to legislative efforts to enhance safety. I hope Norfolk Southern's CEO follows up his apology with candid answers to some important questions:

One, why did Norfolk Southern, after seeing a record $3.3 billion in profits last year, pursue billions--billions--in stock buybacks instead of putting that money toward safety and toward their workers?

Two, why did the freight rail industry spend so much time and money lobbying for deregulation while also cutting the industry's workforce by, roughly, 20 percent?

And, three, will the chair of the NTSB, who will testify tomorrow, as

well, also commit to expanding their investigation into Norfolk Southern to include all class I freight rail companies so we can get to the heart of the problems that lie within the rail industry?

The Senate needs answers. Communities like East Palestine need answers. So many others deserve answers as well. I hope we will hear some tomorrow.

I yield the floor.

I announce that the Senator from Illinois (Mr. Durbin), the Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. Fetterman) and the Senator from California (Mrs. Feinstein) are necessarily absent.

Mr. President, I call up amendment No. 15.

I ask that further reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

Mr. President, I ask that the Senate be in 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 Biennial

Report on Americans with Disabilities Act Public Services and Accommodations Inspections--116th Congress, from the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights, be printed in the Record.