Floor Statements

I announce that the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Booker), the Senator from Illinois (Mr. Durbin), the Senator from Minnesota (Ms. Smith), and the Senator from Massachusetts (Ms. Warren) are necessarily absent.

I announce that the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Booker), the Senator from Illinois (Mr. Durbin), the Senator from Minnesota (Ms. Smith), the Senator from Georgia (Mr. Warnock), and the Senator from Massachusetts (Ms. Warren) are necessarily absent.

I announce that the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Booker), the Senator from Illinois (Mr. Durbin), the Senator from Minnesota (Ms. Smith), the Senator from Georgia (Mr. Warnock), and the Senator from Massachusetts (Ms. Warren) are necessarily absent.

Mr. President, tonight, President Trump will address the Nation on what he claims is a speech on his supposed victories this year.

President Trump can say whatever he wants on camera, but the reality is for Americans across the country that costs are up, unemployment is rising, the holidays are more expensive and stressful than ever, and tariffs are taxing people to no end.

If Donald Trump had any shred of honesty and self-respect and self- insight, he would look into the camera tonight and say to the American people: I have failed you.

I mean, just last week, Donald Trump seriously suggested the one way families can lower costs is for parents to buy their kids fewer toys. What kind of Christmas is that? Donald Trump is like the Grinch--just with a lot more bronzer.

Now, today, Senate Democrats will hold a special caucus lunch to roll out a new initiative to lower costs for the American people and show precisely how Donald Trump and Republicans have made life far more expensive for Americans.

This morning, a report came out that Americans will pay 13 percent more on energy costs than they did last year. In part, why? Because Donald Trump and his obeisant Republicans cut out the cheapest way to get new power and new electrons on the grid--solar energy. They cut it out in obeisance to the oil industry. It was disgraceful.

That is what is wrong with this government--the corruption. The oil industry promises Donald Trump that Harold Hamm will raise him a ton of money, so Trump cuts out clean energy, and these guys went right along with it. The cost of groceries is up. Rent is up. Housing foreclosures are up. Healthcare is about to soar through the roof while Republicans refuse to do anything about it. John Thune said he doesn't want to extend the ACA tax credits at all. And Americans will pay the price.

Donald Trump and his billionaire buddies and the Republican Senators just don't get it. They don't understand what it is like to struggle to pay for groceries or struggle to keep a roof over your head. They don't know what it is like if your car breaks down and you don't have enough money to fix it and you wonder, how am I going to get to work?

Donald Trump, after all, calls affordability a hoax.

Well, if anything is a hoax, Donald Trump, it has been your promise to lower costs on day one.

The biggest hoax on affordability was Donald Trump's promise to lower costs on day one.

So, today, Democrats are going to come together to do precisely what Republicans refuse to do, fight on behalf

of the American people to lower their costs. We are going to focus on five major issues: healthcare, energy, housing, groceries, and Donald Trump's tariffs. When Americans think about lowering costs, these are five things they think about most, and these are the issues that will be our focus.

Senate Democrats will focus on these five issues like a laser. We will come back to them again and again and again, in the coming weeks, just like we came back to healthcare, over and over and over again, this fall. And the American people know who is on their side when it comes to healthcare costs.

Americans are tired of feeling like the cost of living is a constant crisis. Americans are tired of hearing Donald Trump call their struggles a hoax. Americans didn't sign up for higher grocery costs and more expensive healthcare, but that is what the Republicans and Donald Trump have given them in just 1 year in office.

So Democrats will show the American people another way forward, a way focused on lower costs, more prosperity, and an agenda focused on the working- and middle-class families of America--not the billionaires, not the special interests, not the huge lobbyists who seem to dictate what the Republicans do.

U.S. Coast Guard

Mr. President, on the Coast Guard swastika, earlier this week, the U.S. Coast Guard enacted a policy downgrading the swastika from its list of recognized hate symbols.

Can you believe it? Can you believe it? The swastika is no longer a recognized hate symbol?

They did this just after the horrible shootings in Sydney and so many other shootings--anti-Semitic shootings--and activities that have been plaguing America.

The new policy of the Coast Guard is shameful. It is dangerous and another troubling instance of the Trump administration normalizing the threat of Nazism and White supremacy.

This policy has all the markings of a dog whistle. It is a ``stand back and stand by'' in the form of an office memo. Not 4 days ago, 15 Jews were slaughtered in cold blood--a beautiful picture of a little 10-year-old girl celebrating the first night of Hanukkah--and a day later, the Trump administration chose to soften its stance against Nazis and swastikas.

Can you believe it? Can it get any lower? Can it get any more insensitive? Can they be any more in a bubble than they are in?

And for the millions of American men and women who served in the Coast Guard, this is an insult to them. How about the Coast Guard members who served during World War II and fought that swastika? Why was this policy change even necessary at all? Why did the administration go out of its way to soften its policies against swastikas of all things?

Today, Republicans will attempt to confirm the Commandant of the Coast Guard by unanimous consent, before the end of the year. If he is to be the head of the Coast Guard, this new nominee must reverse this egregious policy, and I am asking him right now: Change that policy now.

Let's be very clear. If you are a Jew, if your family gave their lives to fight the Nazis in World War II, if you are a minority in any way, there is nothing, nothing potentially divisive about a swastika. It is just about the most unmistakable hate symbol in existence.

Now, this is part of an emerging pattern on the right. Young Republicans were texting about gas chambers. Trump officials were talking about having a Nazi streak. Tucker Carlson interviews Nick Fuentes, and Donald Trump refuses to condemn Fuentes. Yesterday, JD Vance took to social media to suggest that anti-Semitism only exists because of immigrants.

Where has he been? Does he know the history of anti-Semitism? What an ignorant statement from Vance. Sometimes you think he must know better, but he doesn't. He just plays along with the rightwing, sucks up to them.

And now, according to the Trump administration, swastikas no longer count as hate symbols within the Coast Guard. This is exactly why I introduced my resolution condemning Nick Fuentes, Tucker Carlson, and neo-Nazism. Neo-Nazism is no longer a fringe or theoretical threat. It is real. It is growing. It threatens our democracy, and every elected official must condemn it forcefully.

Healthcare

Mr. President, now, on healthcare, there is breaking news this morning--good news--that the discharge petition in the House got the necessary 218 signatures to move forward.

It shows that the demand by the American people for Congress--the House and the Senate--to extend the ACA premium tax credits is undeniable. Yet Republican leaders inside the House and the Senate are making it clear that they are opposed and will be responsible for healthcare costs rising through the roof.

Yesterday, Leader Thune admitted:

We're not going to pass anything by the end of this week.

That is a clear admission of failure--a failure to govern, a failure to lower costs for the American people.

The damage has been done, no matter what happens, because, at this point, Republicans have made it impossible to prevent many Americans from paying more on their monthly premiums on January 1. And Republicans can't even say they tried to stop it.

House Republicans, meanwhile, are on the warpath to vote on a rightwing healthcare sham bill, one that doesn't extend the ACA credits a day, doesn't lower premiums, and does absolutely nothing to help people afford coverage.

So let's be very clear. There is only one reason--one reason-- Americans' premiums are going through the roof starting in just 14 days: It is because Republicans--Trump, the Republican Senate, the Republican House--chose for it to happen.

Venezuela

Mr. President, on Venezuela, yesterday, President Trump announced ``a total and complete'' blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela--another dangerous escalation with no clear plan whatsoever. Donald Trump has offered precisely zero explanations-- zero--to the American people for what he is trying to accomplish in the Caribbean.

Most Senate Republicans, meanwhile, appear to have no interest in doing any congressional oversight in a serious way of the administration's military buildup. We have had no serious public congressional hearings on the threat of military conflict off the coast of Venezuela, no public testimony from Defense officials on this issue.

Where are Senate Republicans? Where is the oversight?

The purpose of hearings is to challenge an administration when it may well be going off course, and they certainly seem to be going off course in Venezuela.

Donald Trump talks one way, then another. I have asked some of our leaders: Where is the limit to how far they will go? No answer. Could this be getting us into an endless war?

The American people fear that above most other things, maybe all things. That is why we need oversight, and the Senate Republicans are nowhere.

Meanwhile, the briefing we had, yesterday, with Secretary Rubio and Hegseth was utterly disappointing. The administration walked into the room totally empty-handed. They gave us no real answers about what the objective is in the Caribbean. Hegseth also refused to give Senators full access to the video of the September 2 strikes.

The same, same lack of transparency that is affecting the September 2 video is affecting our whole policy in the Caribbean and with Venezuela--no oversight, no plan, no discussion with either the Senate, the House, or the American people. That is what leads to trouble--big trouble.

Let's be very clear. Donald Trump does not have the authority to use military force to carry out his current plans in the Caribbean, without authorization from Congress. If Trump acts without congressional authorization, the Senate stands ready with a bipartisan resolution-- led by Senator Kaine, myself, Senators Paul and Schiff--preventing the unauthorized use of force.

Tribute to German Vazquez

Mr. President, finally, let's say good-bye to German Vazquez--a very special good-bye to one of the Senate's unsung heroes, German Vazquez, who will retire soon, after 28 incredible years of service.

The public may not know German, but every single Senator knows him. You see his face, and you smile. You

can always find him near the Chamber, working as a doorkeeper, at the elevators, or up in the Gallery. No matter the role, he is professional, warm, and a positive presence that makes the Senate come to life.

He has been wonderful to our staffs, as well--kind, steady, and generous in the way that matters every day in a place like this.

So, German, on behalf of all of us in the Senate, thank you, thank you, thank you. Godspeed on your next adventure, and we wish you and your family all the best.

I yield the floor.

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

Mr. President, this morning, the American people got more proof that Donald Trump's policies are a disaster to them. This morning's jobs report shows the unemployment rate rose to 4.6 percent in November. That is the highest level since 2021, the highest level in 4 years under Donald Trump's leadership--or lack thereof, more appropriately.

This is what Donald Trump's so-called golden age looks like in all its ugly glory: higher costs, more tariffs, and the highest unemployment rate since COVID. And make no mistake, this unemployment number didn't just come out of the blue. It didn't just come because of external forces. This high, awful unemployment number--the highest since COVID--is a consequence of Donald Trump's failures, his reckless tariff agenda, his draconian cuts to basic services like healthcare, and his refusal to listen to Americans who are already struggling to pay for what they need.

Donald Trump can try and spin these job numbers all he wants. That is his nature. That is what he does. He doesn't care about the truth. He just cares about his own ego. But Americans aren't buying his fantasy. They are fed up with his agenda, and the damage is beginning to set in.

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

Mr. President, we convene after a weekend of both horror and grief. Saturday afternoon, as students were studying for finals, a masked gunman opened fire inside a classroom at Brown University. Nine students were injured, and two were killed. The victims were not even 20 years old. This is every father's and every mother's worst nightmare. For now, the shooter remains at large, and we urge residents in the area to listen

to guidance from local law enforcement.

Then, just a few hours later, on the first night of Hanukkah, on a popular beach in Sydney, Australia, two terrorists opened fire on Jewish Australians who gathered in celebration. At least 15 were killed, another 29 injured. Among the murdered was a 10-year-old girl and an 87-year-old Holocaust survivor. Also among the murdered was Rabbi Eli Schlanger--a pillar of Brooklyn's Crown Heights community-- who welcomed a son into the world just 2 months ago.

May the memories of all those killed and injured this weekend be a blessing.

I have warned repeatedly that anti-Semitism is a scourge around the world that must be condemned loudly and fought vigorously at every turn. The Jewish people have been collectively demonized, increasingly so in the last few years. This tragedy in Sydney shows the danger--the abject danger--of letting anti-Semitic rhetoric and action go unchecked.

So those of us in elected office have a responsibility to speak out against anti-Semitic rhetoric and conduct wherever it arises and whenever it arises.

Separately, Congress must also take action against another poison of our age, that of rampant gun violence.

Australia is no stranger to gun safety legislation. They famously took strong action in the 1990s, so gun violence plummeted. Yesterday, Australia's Prime Minister said the country will take another look at their gun safety laws and see where they can make improvements. If Australia can find the courage to act after a tragedy like the one at Bondi Beach, Congress should certainly find the will to act after a tragedy like the one at Brown University.

For the sake of those who were killed this weekend and for the sake of so many lives we can save moving forward, Congress must again act against gun violence and act against all forms of violent hate.

Mr. President, now on the all-Senators briefing tomorrow morning: Senators, tomorrow morning, will attend a briefing by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the latest developments in the Caribbean, including getting to the bottom of what happened during the September 2 boat strikes.

I have been calling on Secretary Rubio to provide an all-Senators briefing on these important topics since October, and I am pleased he has finally--finally--heeded our call. I expect him and Secretary Hegseth to come tomorrow prepared to answer tough questions from Senators about what exactly is going on with our forces in the territory surrounding Venezuela. The Senate also demands to see the full and unedited tapes showing exactly what happened during strikes on the alleged drug boat on September 2.

Last week, I asked the Secretary of Defense point blank if he would provide the video of the boat strikes to every Senator. A simple yes from Secretary Hegseth would have been sufficient because, frankly, asking for the tapes is not a crazy request; it is basic oversight-- something Senators are certainly entitled to see. It is part of our responsibility as Senators. But the Secretary hedged and said he needed more time to study this issue. More time? More time to study exactly what? It has been 3 months. What the hell is there to study? What is there to study? I made this request to the Secretary a week ago, and, to date, he has still not provided access to all Senators.

So, ahead of tomorrow's briefing, we need to be clear about one thing: Every single Member is entitled to see the full, unedited video of what happened during the series of strikes on September 2. Anything less than full access for every Senator would be unacceptable.

If Secretary Hegseth continues to conceal the truth, then what exactly is he trying to hide? Maybe he needs more time to study what he should hide and what he shouldn't hide. That would be totally wrong, inappropriate, and dishonest.

We also need immediate answers about what on Earth Donald Trump is planning to do in Venezuela. You get different answers all the time and no clear understanding by the American people of what he is up to and what his goal is. How far will he go? Will he get us into an endless war? We have thousands of troops on our largest aircraft carrier in the Caribbean but zero--zero--explanation for what Donald Trump is trying to accomplish.

Americans do not want to get our troops ensnared in another endless war, and the risk for war will only get worse the more a belligerent Donald Trump acts off the coast of South America.

Just this weekend, a U.S. Air Force tanker jet had a near-midair collision with a JetBlue Airbus flying to the United States. The Air Force tanker reportedly did not have its transponder on, of all things, and flew right through the Airbus's flightpath, forcing it to climb to avoid a crash--a near miss.

A near miss with this commercial flight should serve as a warning. All it takes is one accident, one moment of miscommunication with Venezuela, and things can spin out of control in an instant. That is exactly what the American people do not want to see. We have seen that happen in the past; that one incident can lead to an endless war.

So, tomorrow, Secretaries Rubio and Hegseth owe Senators some pretty big answers to some very important questions about what is happening in the Caribbean. What are their goals? What are their plans? What are their limits? Anything less than full transparency and candor from the two Secretaries will be unacceptable to the Senate and to the American people.

Mr. President, now on my 62-county tour and the cost of healthcare: Well, today is a special day for me as I completed my annual 62-county tour. Every year, I visit every one of New York's 62 counties, and today's 62nd county was Columbia County, with a visit to the Ooms Dairy Farm in Columbia County.

When I first ran for the Senate, I promised New Yorkers I would visit every single county at least once a year, and I have kept that promise up for 27 years. This is the 27th year I have had that tour. I love it today just as much as I loved it then. You learn so much. You see people face to face. Sitting behind a desk, just answering the phone, doesn't suffice if you want to be a good Senator. You have to get out there, meet people, shake hands, hear about their concerns, hear about their anguish, hear about their happiness and joys, and that is what I do in every county.

New York is a tremendously diverse State. We have one of the largest rural populations in America. Our upstate cities are like Midwestern cities, and, of course, we have New York City and its suburbs--the largest metropolis in the country--so I get to see and learn everything. I consider what I do in visiting each county a work requirement. I can't do my job if I don't talk to New Yorkers face to face and see firsthand what is going on with them every single day.

Now, I have to say this: This year's 62-county was somewhat different than the ones in the past. This year, I heard from New Yorkers in every corner of the State, of every profession and every age, of every race, creed, color, gender, and preference about the rising cost of living. It was a universal chorus of complaints that our country is not doing enough about the cost of living.

Every county I visited--all 62--had the same story. People are struggling to pay for the things they need. Some of their worst moments are while simply sitting around the dinner table after a Friday evening dinner and saying: How are we going to pay this bill? Maybe we should pay this one and not that one or do without this or do without that. For families with children, it is particularly hard when their kids need things that will be good for them, and they can't afford them.

Here are some instances, and I met so many: a man named Thomas, who is the owner of a beautiful brewery, the 1812 brewery in Watertown, NY, on the shores of Lake Ontario, where the War of 1812 was fought. His beer was taken off the shelves in Canada because of Donald Trump's stupidity and name-calling of the Canadians.

In northern New York, we have had a great border--a peaceful, wonderful, prosperous border--between Canada and New York. Trump just about destroyed it in a minute with some jerky comment that he always typically makes.

Well, Thomas's costs have gone up in his brewery, in addition to the anger for the Canadians not buying his beer. Tariffs have made it more expensive for him to can his beer and buy the grain he needs to brew his beautiful product.

I have met scores of businesspeople like Thomas, some of whom have gone out of business. A chocolatier who just loved making her chocolates but who can no longer afford it had to fire the people who had worked so hard in her company.

I met with another New Yorker, a man named Jeremy. He lives in the Hudson Valley, in Kingston, NY, who relies on the ACA tax credits to pay for health insurance. As his tax credits expire, Jeremy is going to pay more than double. Nearly $1,000 every single month is what he is going to have to pay, and that is not an expense he can deal with or that people like him can deal with. He makes a good salary, and he is a hard-working guy, but he can't afford such a dramatic jump in the price of his healthcare insurance. That is the kind of financial shock that Jeremy will have about which I heard over and over and over and over again.

What do you do--sign up for healthcare you can't afford or go uninsured? Go broke or go uninsured?

What a terrible choice our Republican colleagues are forcing people like Jeremy and thousands and thousands of other New Yorkers to make.

And, finally, I met a woman named Roberta who lives in Wyoming County, one of our big dairy counties, by the way. She told me she relies on SNAP benefits to put food on the table. I took a picture with her. She had six of her seven beautiful children there, many of them redheads, like their mom.

She told me that, now, with rising grocery prices and budget cuts to SNAP, she can't put food on the table for all of her seven kids. She is living on the edge--what a horrible story to hear.

Can you imagine those beautiful redheaded kids? And they have to decide who is going to get the eggs, who is going to get the vegetables, because she doesn't have enough money, and SNAP doesn't give her the food she needs to feed her family.

So here is what I say to you, Donald Trump: If you are serious about focusing on affordability, come take a road trip with me through Upstate New York so you can see what a disaster your policies have been.

The stories were the same everywhere I went.

Under Donald Trump, costs are up, and financial security is down. People are having such a tough time affording the things they very much need--not luxuries, not frivolities--things they need: food, medicine; got to fix the car that just broke down and which you need to get to work, and you don't have the money to do it--over and over and over again.

And, of course, the tip of the spear in these higher costs is what is becoming of healthcare. Nowhere do costs matter more. In no place have they accelerated more greatly than with healthcare.

Last week, the Senate had one last chance to halt the imminent spike of people's healthcare costs by supporting our legislation to extend the ACA premiums by 3 years--the ACA tax credits by 3 years. But Republicans blew it by voting our bill down, and now they have all but guaranteed that millions of people, including countless New Yorkers, will see their premiums go up.

In fact, sadly, today is the last day for Americans to sign up for January Marketplace coverage. And over the next 2 weeks, this holiday season--this Christmas season, this Hanukkah season--millions of people will see their skyrocketing premium amounts deducted from their bank accounts, wondering how they are going to make the numbers work, how they are going to balance their own books. That is shameful--shameful.

The No. 1 thing I heard this year during my 62-county tour is that people are worried about paying for the things they need--healthcare, above all.

Donald Trump and Republicans, meanwhile, have intentionally sent people's costs up and up and up. The idea of reducing costs on day one, which Donald Trump promised in the campaign and many people voted for because of that promise, is out the window. No one is even paying any attention to it. Donald Trump really is not paying attention to it.

People don't believe it anymore. They don't believe any of the promises that Donald Trump has made. Donald Trump has broken faith with the very same people he promised to fight for, and I have felt that frustration through my 62-county tour this year.

If Donald Trump and Republicans stay the course, the frustration people feel right now is probably only the beginning.

I yield the floor.

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

Mr. President, today is D-day--decision day for Republican Senators. Will Republicans side today with the American people and avert the impending healthcare crisis or will they abandon American families as premiums shoot through the roof on January 1? That is the decision Senate Republicans must make today.

I say to my Republican colleagues: Our bill is the last train to leave the station.

After wasting precious time fighting among themselves, Republicans have one last shot at a clean, realistic plan to lower healthcare premiums. The Democratic bill is the only bill that will do that today. Ours is the only bill on either side in the House and Senate that has the full support of every Member on our side of the aisle.

Democrats are fighting to lower healthcare costs for the American people, while Republicans are fighting among themselves. By my last count, Republicans are now at nine different healthcare proposals and counting, and

none of them give the American people the one thing they most want: a clean, simple extension of these healthcare tax credits. But our bill does extend these credits cleanly and simply, and it is time for Republicans to join us.

So I repeat, our bill is the last train to leave the station. After this, we will not have time to try again before premiums shoot through the roof next year. This is not a political fight. This is not a symbolic vote. This is a life-and-death vote because people who will lose their healthcare could face that horrible, horrible end.

This is about ensuring that working- and middle-class people can afford to see a doctor without going broke, to afford treatment for illnesses like cancer and enjoy the dignity of good health without wiping out their life savings.

For many Americans, affording health insurance is the difference between life and death, as I have said, so we must act. People are counting on us. The American people are counting on us--counting on you, Republican Senators--to act.

Now, of course, this morning, the Senate will first vote on the Republican healthcare proposal, but the Republican plan is nothing more than a reflection of the deep divisions inside the Republican caucus and the Republican Party.

Republicans have had so many differences amongst themselves that for a while, it looked like they weren't going to put up a bill at all. But after that became too embarrassing an option for Republicans, they used Scotch tape and glue to come up with this ridiculous proposal that can't be taken seriously and does nothing--nothing--to avoid the impending healthcare crisis. It doesn't extend the ACA tax credits for a day, month, a year--none of that. Not even a day.

Even calling this Republican bill a proposal is generous because the Republican bill is little more than junk insurance. It is no real plan at all. It has been repudiated time and time again in the past and will be repudiated by the American people again.

Under the Republican plan, the big idea is essentially to hand people about $80 a month and wish them good luck. And even to qualify for that check--listen to how bad this is--Americans would be forced onto bare- bones bronze plans with sky-high deductibles--$7,000 or $10,000 for an individual, tens of thousands for a couple. So to get that $80 a month, you are going to pay $7,000 off the top before you even get any health insurance. How ridiculous, how stingy, and how mean and cruel to the American people. What Republicans offer is not a healthcare plan. The Republican plan is a ``When you get sick, you go broke'' plan.

You know, it is sad that the Senate even got to this place to begin with. Republicans in the Senate should have solved this problem months ago. Democrats warned this crisis was coming. We gave Republicans more than three chances to extend the tax credits this year--in the spring, the summer, and the fall--and every time, Republicans said no.

Instead of lowering premiums, Republicans chose instead to ax healthcare funding, kick millions off insurance, close rural hospitals, all the while ripping away nutrition funding for working people. Why? So they could give their billionaire buddies a tax break. And now, after so much delay, Republicans are about to let the clock hit midnight.

So there is only one option left to avoid falling over this healthcare cliff that Republicans have brought us to--a clean, simple, direct extension of the current ACA credits. Every single Democrat is unified behind this proposal. I urge Republicans to drop their divisions and join us.

Republicans, join us, and let's avert a disaster. Join us, and let's lower costs for the American people. We have one shot to get this right. Republicans, join us.

The American people are watching how Republicans vote today.

Nominations

Mr. President, on the nomination package, today, Senate Republicans will move forward with a package of 97 nominees that includes some of the most horribly unqualified, shockingly radical nominees Donald Trump has appointed to date.

Historically, when a President nominates such terrible people to positions of power, the Senate has stood as a check on the Executive no matter which President, Democrat or Republican, was in charge, but not this Senate majority, not this Republican Party. Senate Republicans continue to bend the knee to Donald Trump and give him practically any nominee he wants no matter how awful they are. They support these nominees no matter how unqualified they are, no matter how partisan they are, no matter how unethical they are--no questions asked.

That is why people like Paul Hollis--to be the Director of the Mint at the Department of the Treasury--are in the package. If confirmed, Mr. Hollis's first act would be to rubberstamp the Trump one-dollar coin. That is why they pick somebody--because Trump wants a one-dollar coin with his face on it, I think. And he refused to share details on how he would increase efficiency at the Mint because he doesn't have a plan. He probably doesn't even know much about it.

It is why people like Charles Arrington to be a member of the Federal Labor Relations Authority are in this package. Unlike nearly all former FLRA members, Arrington is not a lawyer. And he has a history of engaging in bad-faith bargaining while at the VA.

The Senate should be considering each of these nominees one by one, with time to debate each nominee on the floor in front of the American people and with a rollcall vote on each nominee so every single Senator is on record.

Unanimous Consent Request

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the following Senators be permitted to speak for 5 minutes each prior to the cloture vote on the motion to proceed to S. 3386: Senator Shaheen, Senator Ossoff, Senator Wyden, Senator Durbin, Senator Hassan, Senator Baldwin, and Senator Schumer.

Mr. President, today is D-day--decision day--for Republican Senators. Will Republicans side with the American people and avert the disastrous impending healthcare crisis or will they abandon American families as premiums shoot through the roof come January 1?

In a few moments, the Senate will vote on two bills: the Republican bill and Democrat's clean, simple extension of the ACA tax credits.

I say to my Republican colleagues: Our bill is the last train to leave the station. It is the only realistic option before the Senate today that solves the healthcare crisis. If Republicans don't climb aboard, there won't be another chance to act before premiums skyrocket next year.

Now, Republicans have dithered long enough. Democrats are fighting to lower costs for the American people, while Republicans are fighting among themselves.

And let me say this about the Republican bill. The Republican bill is not true healthcare reform. It is not a healthcare plan whatsoever. It is junk insurance. The Republican bill is simply junk insurance.

For a while, it actually looked like the Republicans wouldn't put up a bill at all. But after that became too embarrassing an option for them, they used Scotch tape and glue to come up with this ridiculous proposal that can't be taken seriously.

The Republican plan does nothing--nothing--to extend the tax credits for even a day. Our bill, of course, extends them for 3 years.

Under the Republican plan, the big idea is essentially to hand people about $80 a month and wish them good luck; say that you are on your own no matter what happens. And to even qualify for that check, Americans would be forced onto bare bones bronze plans with sky-high deductibles: 7,000 or 10,000 for an individual and tens of thousands for a couple. So the deductibles are so high, even that is not paid for by the $80 a month. And then Americans are stuck and have nothing, nothing, nothing.

The Republican plan is a ``When you get sick, you go broke'' plan, plain and simple.

The only answer--the only right answer--to solve this crisis is what Democrats propose today, a clean, simple extension of current tax credits. Our bill is the only plan that halts premiums from shooting through the roof.

And as Americans know, this is not a symbolic vote. This is a life- and-death vote for millions of people wondering if they will be able to afford health insurance next year.

Millions will lose health insurance. Tens of millions will have to change plans and doctors and get high deductibles and high copayments that they can hardly afford healthcare if we don't do this. So America is counting on us--counting on us--the Senate.

Republicans, America is counting on you to do the right thing and vote yes on our bill.

A ``yes'' vote on our bill means premiums will not double or triple or more starting January 1. A ``yes'' vote means lower costs for the American people and greater help for them to pay for the things they need. A ``yes'' vote means dignity, security, and peace of mind for tens of millions of American families. It means our healthcare system averts a disaster.

There is only one right thing to do, and that is for Republicans to vote yes on our bill. The American people will not forget which way Senators vote today.

I yield the floor.

Cloture Motion

Mr. President, the first stop on Donald Trump's so- called affordability tour was a train wreck.

Last night's speech in Pennsylvania was supposed to kick off a new messaging campaign on affordability, but all it did was expose how Donald Trump simply doesn't get it. Anyone listening to Trump's speech could see he simply doesn't get what people are struggling through. He is trapped in his billionaire bubble.

In his speech that was supposed to be about affordability, Donald Trump kept making fun of the word ``affordability.'' Does he have to go shop for groceries and not be able to buy the things his family needs? When your car is damaged in an accident and you don't have money for the deductible and you don't have a car, does he understand that?

Donald Trump is in his bubble, and he kept making fun of the word ``affordability.'' People are struggling. They can't afford basic needs. And Donald Trump keeps making fun of it by calling it all a giant hoax. But Americans know affordability is not a hoax. They see it as very real every time they go to the grocery store, pay their bills, pay their rent. And Donald Trump just doesn't get it.

What was Donald Trump's solution to affordability? Well, last night, Trump said parents should buy their kids fewer dolls for Christmas. We are not talking about fewer dolls for Christmas; we are talking about necessities like food, like medicine, like fixing your car when it gets damaged, like maybe going to see the grandkids whom you haven't seen in 2 years because you can't afford the trip. He said

kids at school should have fewer pencils.

Then he repeated that his favorite word was ``tariffs.'' What kind of world does he live in? Does he understand that these tariffs are raising prices through the roof? When he said his favorite word was ``tariffs,'' the crowd sure didn't like that. His own crowd didn't like that, his own crowd of MAGA people.

So Donald Trump simply doesn't get it. It takes a special kind of delusion to tell parents to buy their kids fewer toys and pencils while bragging about new ballrooms and gold in the Oval Office. You cut back on your Christmas presents for your kids, who might really want something and have looked you in the eye 10 times and said: Mom and Dad, can I have that? Instead, he is spending money on new ballrooms and gold and brags about it. That is Donald Trump in a nutshell, but that is not all.

During an interview released a few hours before this so-called affordability tour, Donald Trump was asked how he graded himself on the economy. He said A+++++, but the American people are giving him an F. What crackpot economics did Donald Trump study? An A with five pluses?

Well, in that case, let's look at the test scores. Over the last year, the price of beef has gone up at the grocery store by 20 percent. That is an F. Today, Americans pay 40 percent more for a single cup of coffee on their way to work than they did last year. That is an F. People are paying more in electricity bills while Donald Trump has cut domestic energy jobs. That is a massive F. People are paying more for clothing, more for produce. And this week, our farmers had to be bailed out with taxpayer dollars because of Donald Trump's disastrous tariffs.

The final grade: a big fat F. In no universe does Donald Trump deserve anywhere close to an A, a B, or even a C for his job on the economy.

The reality is that Donald Trump is a failure of a President and a failure on the American economy.

And I am not the one giving Donald Trump a grade; it is the people themselves. Last night, while Donald Trump was mocking affordability in Pennsylvania, voters in Georgia and Florida gave him a big fat F. In Georgia, just 1 year ago, Democrats lost that State house district by 22 points. Last night, they won it. We have had the first Democratic mayor in Miami in 30 years--what used to be a Republican redoubt. Those elections are another warning shot from the ballot box: Americans are tired of paying more for the things they need. They are tired of Donald Trump mocking them because they can't afford the things they need.

I warn my Republican colleagues: As the Florida and Georgia elections last night showed, you follow Donald Trump to your own doom and our country's doom.

Donald Trump might claim he deserves an A+++++, but at the ballot box, he is clearly getting an F.

Now, Mr. President, on healthcare, tomorrow is a moment of truth for Senate Republicans: Are they going to help bring healthcare costs down or are they going to sabotage our healthcare system and send premiums through the roof? That is what is at stake when the Senate votes tomorrow.

We have 21 days until January 1. After that, people's healthcare bills will start going through the roof--double, triple, even more. People will not be able to afford their healthcare. Millions will lose it altogether. Tens of millions will pay much more than they can afford as deductibles and copays go up, as different doctors leave plans.

You know, you could have had a doctor who had been treating your child for a chronic condition for years, and you had trusted the doctor. She or he is gone, and you have to start all over with someone who is less accessible, less friendly, and more expensive.

There is only one way to avoid all of this. The only realistic path left is what Democrats are proposing: a clean, direct extension of the current tax credits.

But even now, it looks like Republicans still don't get it. Yesterday, Leader Thune announced he would bring another proposal--a Republican proposal, if you can even call it that--to the floor: the Cassidy-Crapo hodgepodge of half-baked ideas, whose fundamental core idea has failed over and over again. I want to be very clear about what this Republican bill represents: junk insurance. Let me tell my Republican colleagues that it is dead on arrival. The proposal does nothing to bring down sky-high premiums. It doesn't extend the ACA premiums by a single day. Instead, Republicans want to send people $80 a month and pretend that it is going to fix everything. It is a ``you are on your own'' bill. If you have a sick kid, if you have cancer, if you need a complete top-to-bottom checkup because something is ailing you, Republicans are telling you: Americans, you are on your own; we are not helping you. That is what they say.

Republicans want to send people $80 a month and pretend that it is going to fix everything? To even qualify for a check, you have to sign up for a bronze plan that comes with outrageously high deductibles-- $7,500, even $10,000 for individuals. Under the Cassidy-Crapo plan, a 60-year-old Florida couple making $85,000 would see premiums go up by $21,000, and their deductible would go from zero to $7,000. That is $28,000 net taken out of their pockets. How are they going to pay for it?

Republicans, have you got an answer for them? This junk insurance won't help them one bit.

Cassidy-Crapo is not a healthcare plan. It is not a plan at all. It is an excuse. It is a figleaf. Because Republicans are so divided and can't come up with a plan that unites them, they have proposed this figleaf. My guess is that most Republicans themselves are grimacing that they even have to vote for this thing. How is a one-time check going to help you if you are paying $1,000 or $2,000 a month more for health insurance? The Cassidy-Crapo plan, even if you can call it that, is downright insulting.

What we need to do is prevent our premiums from skyrocketing, and only our bill does it. It is the last train out of the station to avoid these sky-high premiums from going up and up and up.

What we need to do is prevent premiums from skyrocketing, and only our bill does it. It is the last train out of the station, I repeat.

But Republicans? They seem to care more about banning abortion than lowering premiums. This bill is loaded with a poison pill, so everyone knows it can't come close to passing. By putting that poison abortion pill in it, they basically are saying to Democrats: Forget about it.

You can't even come close to realizing that this might be the basis of any compromise aside from how bad their plan is altogether.

So the bottom line: The Republicans do not have a serious plan to fix our healthcare problems, but we Democrats do--a clean, simple extension to prevent premiums from rising and rising and rising. Republicans still have a day to do the right thing.

Republicans, we are fighting for the American people; you are fighting with each other. Stop fighting with each other, try to help the American people, and vote for our plan.

I implore my Republican colleagues: We need just 13 of you to push this bill over the finish line.

If Republicans vote this bill down, they will unleash healthcare chaos throughout the country.

Finally, Mr. President, on the Hegseth briefing of yesterday, during yesterday's Gang of 8 briefing, I asked Secretary Hegseth directly will he let every Member of Congress see the full, unedited tapes of the September 2 boat strike. Secretary Hegseth's answer? He said: We have to study it.

What the hell has he been doing for the last 3 months? Hegseth and the DOD have had more than enough time to study this. It is time for all Members of Congress to see the tapes for themselves.

I told Secretary Hegseth that every Member of Congress, Democrat and Republican of the House and Senate, wants to see the tapes. Both parties are united in demanding that the tapes be released. Our Republican chairman of Armed Services and our Democratic

ranking member of Armed Services made a request together. This is not a partisan issue. Both parties are united in demanding the tapes be released not only to Congress but to the American people. The American people want to have the transparency they deserve.

Hegseth is resisting that transparency. What is he hiding, what is the DOD hiding, and what is President Trump hiding? Those are the questions the American people are asking when it comes to Hegseth's coverup of these tapes, these videos.

At the meeting, I also pressed Secretaries Rubio and Hegseth on the administration's recent military action in the Caribbean. I wanted to know: What are their plans? How far are they going? Is Donald Trump about to drag America into another endless war?

And again, I didn't get any satisfying answers.

When it comes to matters of war and peace, Congress needs the truth; the American people need transparency. Anything less is a total disservice to our men and women in uniform and to every citizen of this country.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Mr. President, today, Donald Trump will travel to Pennsylvania and try to convince the American people that he is lowering their costs, but the American people, seeing their costs go up left and right, aren't going to buy it. Tonight, Donald Trump will throw a barrel of hay into the audience and tell them it is spun gold, but the American people know he is lying because everywhere they look, prices are going up and up and up.

We have all read how the White House very soon will start getting ``serious'' about messaging more on affordability. They don't get it. The problem is that affordability is not a messaging issue; it is real. It is real when people go to the supermarket or buy a car or try to buy a house or see their electric bill, their healthcare bills.

The American people know it is real, and Donald Trump tries to wish it away. He believes that people will believe his words when he says it is a hoax. They won't. They won't. There aren't enough speeches in the world to paper over the fact that Donald Trump has sent costs up and up, not down. His tariffs raised the price of groceries, raised the price of clothing, raised the price of energy. And it is not just his tariffs. It is his policies that cut out the cheapest form of energy we have: clean energy. It is his policies that allow food producers to get away with monopoly pricing. It is his strategy to impose tariffs on the American people and say: It is good for you.

The fact is that Donald Trump can do nothing to erase this, that life is more expensive under Donald Trump than it was before he took office. He will hate to admit it, but life is more expensive under Donald Trump than it was under Joe Biden.

Just 36 percent of Americans approve of his job and the job he is doing on the economy. Thirty-six percent of Americans--that is it-- approve of the job Trump is doing on the economy, according to a poll by Marquette University, which is widely respected. Even a significant portion of Trump voters--37 percent--say the cost of living is the worst they can ever remember, according to POLITICO. So when Trump voters say it was better under Biden than it is now, whoa, something is wrong.

So, no, Donald Trump, affordability is not a hoax; it is not a Democratic scam. You try to make everything, even the most commonsense things, partisan.

The affordability crisis is very real. It is being felt by everyone, and the American people know it is Donald Trump's fault. No speech in Pennsylvania or anywhere else can undo that.