Floor Statements

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

Mr. President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 17.

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. 14.

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

Mr. President, yesterday, our wonderful colleague from California, Senator Dianne Feinstein, announced that she will retire at the end of her term.

I am careful not to throw the word ``legend'' around too often in this Chamber, as it truly befits so few, but Dianne Feinstein is precisely that. She is a legend.

She is a legend in California, where she shattered innumerable glass ceilings as the first woman Senator from the State. And we forget how, even 20, 30 years ago, the barriers which are still in front of women were even stronger, so it took a strong, tough, resolute woman to break them, and she did.

She is a legend here in the Senate. The longest serving woman Senator in U.S. history, she built a reputation as an expert legislator and a leader on so many issues--gun violence, the environment, women's rights, and so much more.

I first got to know Dianne when she led the effort to pass the 1994 ban on assault weapons in the Senate. I led it in the House. I have always been amazed by the sheer depth of her knowledge on the issues and how careful she is about learning all of the facts before she goes forward and then her seemingly innate ability to convince people on both sides of the aisle to work together. That is why her list of accomplishments is so long--the assault weapons ban, protecting oversight authority during the investigation into U.S. torture, championing the Violence Against Women Act. The list goes on and on and on.

But perhaps her greatest legacy is how she blazed a trail for women and girls everywhere. Today, there are 25 women serving in this Chamber. There are 25 women serving in this Chamber, all of whom stand on Dianne's shoulders.

We are all very glad we have another year and a half with her to fight the good fight, and I know she will use that time to fiercely advocate for women's rights in all aspects of life and unwaveringly represent the people of California.

Mr. President, now on implementation, as President Biden pointed out last week during his State of the Union Address, the Democratic agenda is already bearing fruit across this country. There will be tens of thousands of projects funded. Last week, for instance, I joined with President Biden to talk about Gateway in New York, which is something New Yorkers have waited for for decades and is vital to continuing the health of our bistate--New York-New Jersey--economy as well as the economy of the Northeast.

When the President came and we actually started working on the project, you could feel exaltation and excitement in the city. That is going to start happening again and again everywhere--in urban, suburban, and rural areas--as Democrats make it a priority to get the word out about all the good things that are coming the American people's way. It is one thing for Americans to read about things that Congress has passed, but when they can actually feel and see these accomplishments play out in their communities, it makes a world of difference. We have a responsibility to make the connection between what happens in this Chamber and what is going on in people's backyards.

This morning, I sent out a Dear Colleague with Senator Stabenow about how Democrats are going to get the word out on implementing our agenda in the coming weeks. We have a great story to tell the American people and no shortage of examples of how our agenda is making the country stronger and making Americans' lives better.

Let me give a few examples: Seniors on Medicare, for instance, can now, already, take advantage of Democrats' historic $35-a-month cap on insulin. After years of hard work, this is no longer an aspiration; a $35 insulin cap is now the law of the land. Seniors, who were up nights worrying how they were going to pay $400, $500, $600, $700 a month for this vital drug when you have diabetes can now breathe easy. Millions of people--the seniors and their families and friends--can breathe easier because of what we have done.

Now--let's not forget--we should be expanding the cap to all Americans, not just to those over 65. And in this Congress, Democrats are going to work hard, try to work with our Republican colleagues--we hope they will join us--to make that happen.

Here is another one: Very few people know of this, but we are spreading the word. Seniors on Medicaid can take advantage of free shingles vaccines. These two benefits alone--the insulin cap and free shingles vaccines--could mean hundreds in savings every year for seniors on Medicaid. And so many seniors are.

On the infrastructure fund: Communities across the country can now apply for new grant funding to fix their roads, their bridges, their highways. These are perhaps the most obvious examples of our agenda at work. People are going to start seeing more orange vests, more hardhats, and good-paying union jobs in their communities as the communities get the updates they sorely need.

And the Inflation Reduction Act is already doing exactly what its name suggests: saving people money. The tax credits alone can give families as much as $14,000 for making their homes energy efficient. People can put in heat pumps, get help to get those heat pumps, and their heating bills go down. It is a great thing.

The examples go on. Democrats are going to make implementation a top priority in this Congress. After everything we have been through over the past 3 years, Americans deserve to hear some good news about how their leaders are working hard for them. That is precisely what we will focus on in the coming years.

Mr. President, now, chaos over there in the House on the Republican side. Each day that passes in Washington, two things hold true: We keep getting closer to default but no closer to a Republican plan to lift the debt ceiling. I repeat once again: House Republicans, Speaker McCarthy, show us your plan. It has been more than a month since Speaker McCarthy and House Republicans began threatening the entire U.S. economy in order to secure drastic spending cuts that, in all likelihood, will hurt the American people badly. But in all this time, nobody can seem to get an answer to the $64,000 question: What cuts exactly are the Republicans proposing? Show us your plan.

Some of the things we are hearing from the MAGA wing is the stuff of nightmares. Later this afternoon, I will join with a number of Senate colleagues to shine a light on how devastating the radical MAGA cuts would be for American families if the MAGA Republicans got their way.

But where is the House Republican plan? How are they going to lift the debt ceiling? After months of no answers, now Speaker McCarthy has recently claimed Republican leadership is trying to come up with a plan right now. I am glad he is at least saying he wants to answer our question.

Frankly, it is a lot easier said than done, and I don't think Speaker McCarthy will be able to unify his conference. It takes 218 votes, as we know, to pass anything in the House, and with the razor-thin GOP majority paralyzed by internal division and with the stronghold the MAGA Republicans have on the Speaker, Speaker McCarthy will have a very difficult time getting everyone on the same page, if he can do it at all.

To quote from Punchbowl this morning, ``House Republicans . . . face an intractable political math challenge as they seek to reduce the $1.4 trillion deficit.'' For one, Speaker McCarthy has insisted Republicans will only preserve the full faith and credit of the United States if they secure drastic spending cuts first.

MAGA Republican hardliners have demanded Speaker McCarthy release a proposal to balance the budget over the next 10 years, one of the conditions for having supported his leadership. At the same time, Speaker McCarthy has also claimed Republicans won't touch Social Security and Medicare. Now, I will believe that when I see it because so many Republicans, not just a handful--so many--have spent years going on record calling for cuts and changes and privatization of these programs.

All this leads to a terrible conclusion. If Speaker McCarthy is going to meet these goals, Republicans would need to cut 85 percent of all discretionary spending in order to balance the budget in 10 years. Let me say that again. If Speaker McCarthy and House Republicans are serious about balancing the budget in their 10-year plan without touching Medicare and Social Security, they will need to cut 85 percent of all discretionary spending. That would be Republican austerity at an apocalyptic level.

Teachers, nurses, firefighters, student loan borrowers, police officers would all kiss Federal funding goodbye. Funding for scientific research, so vital in our competition with China, would likely disappear. Child hunger would spike without Federal nutrition programs. Housing programs would be starved of resources. We would be thrust into a greater housing crisis than we now have.

So my point is this: Speaker McCarthy is not going to be able to keep his promise to balance the budget in 10 years while, at the same time, leaving Social Security and Medicare untouched. The math doesn't add up. Very soon, the MAGA brigade will see that the Speaker made a bunch of promises that he won't be able to keep, and I worry greatly that the dangers of slipping into default will only increase as the toxic dynamic within the House GOP gets worse day by day.

That is why it is so important that now, early on, the House Republicans show us their plan.

Now, on ESG and China--two more items, Mr. President. First, reports are out that Republicans will reintroduce a measure targeting a new rule from the Department of Labor that allows--repeat, allows but not requires--fiduciaries to consider the impacts of climate change and other ESG issues when making investment decisions.

Across the country, hard-right State legislatures are up in arms and trying to stop State investment funds from working with money managers who dare commit the, oh-so heinous offense

of looking at the big picture, looking at the future when making investments, including how climate change and other issues can present financial risks.

I just want to point out the obvious. Nothing in this DOL rule imposes any requirement on anyone. It is not a requirement. In fact, it goes out of the way to make sure decision making remains solely in the hand of the fiduciary.

Republicans like to talk about small government. They like to talk about letting the private sector do its work. But their obsession with eliminating ESG, their sort of ostrichlike view about climate change and the damage that carbon presents when going into the atmosphere, would do just the opposite.

China

Finally, on the China surveillance balloon and what happened over the weekend, after yesterday's briefing, it is clear our defense and intelligence Agencies remain laser-focused on gathering every piece of information about what happened over U.S. and Canadian airspace.

John Kirby said these most recent objects did not pose any direct threat to people on the ground. That is very important. People should not worry about that. Of course, we have much more to learn. Today, we are going to have another all-Senators briefing on the State of U.S. defense readiness with respect to China. I am sure that will include a discussion of the military but also of our surveillance abilities.

Republicans eager to score political points right at this moment are doing nothing more than engaging in premature attacks. It is precipitous. It is no time for premature partisanship. We need to work together in Congress to get to the bottom of what happened, which Senator Tester is taking the lead on here in the Senate. I thank him and all of my colleagues of good faith for working together.

Mr. President, I understand that there is a bill at the desk that is due for a second reading.

In order to place the bill on the calendar, under the provisions of rule XIV, I would object to further proceedings.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that a joint leadership letter be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, in the 112th Congress, the Senate adopted a new funding allocation for Senate committees. This approach has served the Senate well for the five of the past six Congresses, excluding last Congress when the evenly divided Senate adopted a power- sharing agreement by resolution. I believe this approach will continue to serve the interests of the Senate and the public, regardless of which party is in the majority, by helping to retain core committee staff with institutional knowledge. This funding allocation is based on the party division of the Senate, with 10 percent of the total majority and minority salary baseline going to the majority for administrative expenses. However, regardless of the party division of the Senate, the minority share of the majority and minority salary baseline will never be less than 40 percent, and the majority share will not exceed 60 percent. It is my intent that this approach will continue to serve the Senate for this Congress and future Congresses.

Mr. President, now, on the briefing that we just received, we are learning more and more about these four objects by the hour. U.S. and Canadian forces are working to recover the objects that were shot down. In the briefing, the military and intelligence people outlined their approach to each of the four objects.

What I can say after our briefing is that our defense and intelligence Agencies are focused like a laser on gathering every piece of information about these objects to figure out exactly what is happening.

What we saw over the weekend is that if they see anything that is a threat to America or the American people, they will take appropriate action, and they made clear that Americans are in no physical harm on the ground from any of these objects.

The military and intelligence Agencies are working around the clock to come up with a comprehensive picture of what is happening, and, as they recover more evidence, the picture will be filled in, in a careful, thoughtful but decisive way. The administration is carefully evaluating, as I said, each of the four objects as they happen, and I believe they have taken the right approach on each of the four objects. We still have questions about many issues, but they are making every real effort, and the American people should have a good deal of confidence in our military and intelligence to handle our security.

Mr. President, first, on a very sad note, our hearts are with East Lansing today, the campus, the entire community. We are learning more about this terrible shooting. What happened there, on a college campus, is devastating, and it breaks the hearts of Americans everywhere.

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