Floor Statements

Mr. President, in a few minutes, my good colleague from New Mexico Senator Lujan will be offering a unanimous consent request, and I want to thank him for his extraordinary leadership on the issue of SNAP, leading the way on an urgent issue for millions of Americans.

Now, right now, we are facing down two crises at once: a healthcare crisis and a hunger crisis, and both are caused by and intensified by one man and one man only: Donald Trump.

We are now 3 days away from open enrollment, and now, for the first time in history, a President is refusing to fund SNAP during a shutdown; 42 million Americans--young children who need food, veterans who might have PTSD and need help, senior citizens who rely on SNAP to help feed themselves, and so many others--people who are out of work because they lost their jobs through no fault of their own--need SNAP.

Why are we not doing it? Not because the money is gone; it is there. Not because it is not permitted; it is legal. But because Donald Trump ordered it stopped. It falls on his shoulders.

Let's be clear: This does not need to happen. Never before under any President, Republican or Democrat, has SNAP been cut off during a shutdown. We are not talking about--we are talking, with the shutdown, we all know our position. We need a negotiation, but this SNAP doesn't have to happen in any case and only because Donald Trump is doing it, and the Republican leadership goes along with Donald Trump to let SNAP expire.

Trump did this once before. In 2019, he funded SNAP during his last shutdown. Back then, Trump kept SNAP funded. This time, he is deliberately pulling the plug, even though in September he said he would fund it and could fund it, independent of any shutdown.

Trump is weaponizing hunger. He is using kids and parents as pawns. Donald Trump is a vindictive politician and a heartless man.

Just a few weeks ago, Trump's own USDA confirmed it had $6 billion in emergency funds to keep food and aid following. When asked about SNAP, Trump assured everyone it will be fine; he said it.

Then suddenly, last Friday, Trump ordered USDA to delete the plan, take it off their website, and refuse to use the money. No reason. No explanation. Just cruelty. Two-thirds of SNAP recipients are kids, seniors, or people with disabilities. That is whom Trump is cutting off: kids who rely on school meals, seniors on fixed incomes, veterans trying to get by, families trying to get groceries. That is the real- world consequence of Trump's decision.

And while he is manufacturing two crises here at home, where is his focus? Overseas, on a ballroom, on sending $40 billion to Argentina.

There is money for Argentina but not for SNAP? And the Argentina money far exceeds the money needed for SNAP by at least a whole month.

Every President before, Democrat and Republican, has used the same funds to keep families fed. Trump could fix this today with one stroke of his pen. We don't have to wait; we don't have to discuss; we don't have to deliberate.

Let's be clear: Republicans have been on a crusade against SNAP all year. They have slashed it by a historic $200 billion this summer in their so-called Big Beautiful Bill to pay for tax cuts for billionaires. And now they are doubling down, using the shutdown to devastate families and leave kids hungry.

It is heartless; it is cynical; and it is wrong. Well, Senate Democrats are not waiting, and that is why I am so grateful for Senator Lujan.

In a few minutes, we will force a vote to avert this avoidable crisis. I thank Senator Lujan. I thank him for championing the Keep SNAP and WIC Funded Act, which will make sure that 42 million Americans don't lose their benefits. It will make sure 7 million moms

and babies on WIC aren't left behind. It is simple. It is moral. It is urgent.

If the other side wouldn't block it, I bet you it would pass overwhelmingly.

There is another bill by Senator Hawley a Republican, conservative. I believe it has 11 Republican cosponsors already. It is another bill that could pass. It doesn't have WIC, but it does have SNAP.

Democrats are ready to do what every President in American history has done except for Trump; avert this problem. We are willing to work with anyone to get this bill on the floor and stop this cruelty.

But right now, unfortunately, Senate Republicans are frozen, paralyzed by fear or cynicism, while enabling Trump to use millions of hungry Americans as political hostages. Senate Republicans should let this bill pass.

Mr. President, I yield to Senator Lujan for the unanimous consent request.

Mr. President, first, I want to thank our great Senators Klobuchar and Kaine and Wyden for leading the charge here on the Senate floor against Donald Trump's destructive, self-defeating, and often utterly juvenile trade war.

Today, the Senate will vote to end Donald Trump's national emergency declaration against Canada and put a stop to the asinine trade war with our neighbors to the north. This has been the most peaceful relationship over the centuries, and Donald Trump seems to throw a hand grenade to undo that relationship. We need to put a stop to this asinine trade war with our neighbors to the north.

And if Americans want proof that Donald Trump's trade war has been a catastrophe, consider this: While he capitulates to Beijing, he is raising tariffs on Canada.

How nonsensical. How stupid. How thoughtless.

Canada--one of our strongest allies, one of our most important trading partners. I don't know of two large economies that are more entwined than America's and Canada's. And after a year and a half of failed trade war, Americans have not gotten liberation. Instead, Americans have been saddled with a national sales tax. That is what Trump's tariffs are, a national sales tax on Americans.

The average family--America, listen to this--the average family, American family, is paying $2,000 more a year thanks to Trump's tariffs. Our farmers are taking a beating.

In New York, Donald Trump's 35 percent tariffs on Canada have been devastating. We depend on tourism. More than a quarter of the tourists who visit Niagara Falls and the wine country in the Finger Lakes region are from Canada. So many from Canada flood New York City every year. And yet, this year, tourism and border crossings are down 20 percent. Western New York and Buffalo depend on those border crossings all the time.

Trade between our Nations has been hurt. Jobs have been squandered. The economy of every northern border State--as with Minnesota--has suffered.

And now Donald Trump wants to add another 10 percent tariff on Canada because his feelings were hurt over an ad featuring Ronald Reagan. Can you imagine what an infantile leader we have in America? He sees an ad and then hurts the American people with these tariffs.

Yes, that is right. Donald Trump's pride has become so fragile that he is threatening to increase tariffs on Canada by another 10 percent, from 35 percent to 45 percent. Why? Simply because the government of Ontario released an ad that included a radio address from President Reagan, warning about the danger of tariffs, and, apparently, that got Donald Trump's feelings all hurt.

Trump is letting his delicate little ego drive U.S. trade, whether it is with Brazil, Argentina, or with Canada. The consequence is that Americans are paying more.

This isn't a laughing matter, really--no. Struggling families have to pay thousands of dollars more each year because Donald Trump doesn't like the internal goings on in Canada or Argentina or Brazil. That hurts Americans, and we pay more for construction materials, for aluminum, for paper, and so much more.

But do you know what? The truth hurts. What President Reagan said, back in those years, about the danger of tariffs was true back then and remains true today. And I know my colleagues on both sides of the aisle disagree.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the radio address delivered by President Reagan on free trade and on the harms of tariffs on the economy, on April 25, 1987, be printed in the Congressional Record.

Yesterday, the Senate came together in a bipartisan way to pass legislation to end Donald Trump's bogus emergency declaration in Brazil, under the leadership of Senator Kaine. Today, we can take the next step to reverse Trump's trade war on one of America's most important allies, under the leadership of Senator Klobuchar. I urge--I urge--my Republican colleagues to join Democrats once again to think about the families back home that are hurt by Trump's tariffs and put an end to Trump's tariff war on Canada.

Enough is enough.

I ask unanimous consent to yield back the remaining time.

I ask for the yeas and nays.

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

Mr. President, open enrollment is now 4 days away, and Republicans do not even want to talk about fixing healthcare.

Americans are on the brink of a healthcare crisis unlike we have seen in our lifetimes. Never before have we been in a situation where more than 20 million Americans can see their insurance premiums more than double, on average, in the blink of an eye. That is just the average because for many people it is worse.

Yesterday, the State of New Jersey also announced the average New Jersey family would see premium hikes of 175 percent--175 percent. In Upstate New York, the average family with a plan costing $280 a month today is about to pay $1,700 a month for the same plan next year, a 500-percent hike, and that starts this Saturday with open enrollment.

This crisis will be felt in every community and by nearly every single household, red, blue, purple, and everything in between. So tonight, Senate Democrats will come to the floor and warn our Republican colleagues and the Nation of the devastation Republicans are causing by doing nothing--nothing--on healthcare. We will highlight the impacts of surging premiums on families. We will share the stories we are hearing right now from people scared of premium hikes. I thank my colleagues for coming to the floor and speaking on this urgent-- urgent--issue.

We are in a healthcare crisis, and Republicans don't even want to talk about how to fix it. The President isn't even in town as Americans are about to be devastated by the bills they will receive on healthcare. The President is on the other side of the world instead of being here in Washington working with Congress to lower healthcare premiums. When the President is in town, what is he focused on? Instead of being focused on fixing healthcare, Donald Trump is sending $40 billion to Argentina, spending $300 million on his ballroom, and giving Kristi Noem $170 million for two big private luxury jets.

Meanwhile, millions of hungry kids and working families are about to lose SNAP benefits to buy food because Donald Trump has ordered the Department of Agriculture to rip up its own

contingency plan. Isn't that a disgrace, using hungry kids, hungry parents, hungry veterans as hostages? It is cruel.

Let's be clear about the facts. There is somewhere around $5 billion in emergency funds that could be used right now to ensure parents and kids don't go hungry when SNAP runs out this Saturday. The USDA said weeks ago that contingency funds were ``available to fund participant benefits.'' That is the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Trump's own Cabinet position. But now, they reversed course and literally wiped their plan from their own website because Donald Trump has ordered them not to use this funding. Donald Trump should reverse course immediately and allow these emergency funds to go through to spare working families from hunger and needless suffering.

What the administration is doing in ordering the U.S. Department of Agriculture not to use emergency funds to keep SNAP afloat is an act of cruelty--cruelty. The same administration that gifted Argentina a $40 billion bailout and cut taxes for billionaires by $1 trillion is now telling hungry kids: You are on your own.

And what about Republicans in Congress? Today, Leader Thune will force yet another vote on a Republican CR that has zero bipartisan input. It is a partisan bill, and most importantly, it does nothing to solve the ACA crisis.

Just now, here on the floor, the Republican leader seemed perplexed about what precisely it is that Democrats are pushing for. He knows damned well what Democrats want. It is the very same thing that a vast majority of Americans want, including nearly 60 percent of MAGA voters. We want lower healthcare costs now. We want to solve the ACA premium crisis now. Open enrollment is just days away. We want lower costs, better healthcare, and to reopen the government.

Let me repeat again what Democrats want so that the Republican leader can hear it. We want lower healthcare costs, to fix the ACA premium crisis, and to reopen the government.

We Democrats have been calling on Republican leaders to sit down with us and negotiate and address this crisis since the summer, but even now, Leader Thune insists we should fix ACA premiums later, not right away. This is not good enough for the American people because Americans know that when it comes to healthcare, when Republicans say ``later,'' they mean ``never.''

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives has become a ghost town. It has been 39 days since Members of Congress have shown up for work. We all know what is going on here: Speaker Johnson is simply afraid to bring the House back because the minute he does, a good number of House Republicans will start saying exactly what many of us are calling for-- that we need to address the ACA premium crisis as soon as we can. The Speaker is so afraid of exposing divisions within his own conference that he has unilaterally shut down one half of the legislative branch of government.

To sum it all up, we are just days away from a healthcare crisis unlike any we have ever seen, and Republicans from the Senate, to the House, to the White House are dithering about. Republicans are the party in charge. They hold the White House and both Chambers in Congress. Americans know that. They know the onus is on the majority party to govern and to work with the other side to get things done. But today, Americans look at this Republican Party and see a majority refusing to do its job. It is no surprise that Americans primarily hold the Republicans responsible for this disastrous shutdown.

So I will say it once again: Republicans need to get serious about ending this shutdown and ending the ACA crisis that has now become a reality for millions of people. They need to get serious. If Donald Trump continues to ignore the ticking time bomb that is ACA premiums, the American people will hold him responsible when disaster strikes.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I thank my friend the Senator from Virginia Senator Kaine for his great work not only on this proposal but on so many. He has been a watchdog for the American people, for the American consumer. And when these willy-nilly proposals that come out of Donald Trump's office and his head--whatever pops into his head-- does such damage to the American people, Senator Kaine is the watchman at the gate trying to preserve some sanity in our tariff policy and some reduced costs for the American people.

Now, this week, the Democrats are forcing, as you can see, a series of votes here in the Senate to put an end--an end--to Donald Trump's reckless tariffs.

Six months ago, Trump promised liberation. Then he started a disastrous trade war that has brought chaos to the economy, confusion for small businesses, and high costs for American families. A recent analysis showed that Americans are eating 90 percent of the total cost of Trump's tariffs. Ninety percent is going right out of the pockets of the American family.

That is not liberation. It is a national sales tax. That is what these tariffs are. It is a financial nightmare for working and middle- class households. So today, Democrats will present Republicans with a simple vote: Do you want lower costs for families or tie yourself to Donald Trump as he runs our economy into the dirt with his trade war?

First vote happening tonight is to end Trump's tariffs on Brazil. Once again, I thank Senator Kaine for his leadership on this resolution and for speaking so urgently on the floor today.

In July, Trump declared a national emergency to increase tariffs on Brazil to 50 percent, using a totally bogus and ridiculous justification; the tariffs had nothing to do with improving trade relations with Brazil.

We, in fact, have a trade surplus with Brazil. They had nothing to do with trying to lower costs for the American people. This is Trump. This is the kind of bull that comes out of his administration, led by him. These tariffs were simply an attempt to bully Brazil into dropping corruption charges against Trump's MAGA buddy, former President Bolsonaro, and it has hurt Americans. It has hurt Americans.

The price of coffee--and Brazil is our largest importer of coffee. We import more coffee from Brazil than any other place--40 percent higher. Every American that wakes up in the morning to get a cup of java is paying a price for Donald Trump's reckless, ridiculous, and almost childish tariffs.

While Donald Trump uses his trade war to meddle in another country's politics, families at home are paying more and more for goods as commonplace, as I said, for coffee and lots of other produce as well.

Because of Trump's tariffs, everyone is paying more for their morning cup of coffee. But Trump doesn't care that you are paying more for your coffee. He is more interested in helping corrupt foreign leaders get out of jail than he is in helping lower costs for Americans.

And Americans know Donald Trump is stabbing them in the back. He promised lower costs on day one, and instead costs have continued to go up. It is one of the biggest reasons why his trade war is so unpopular.

A recent CNBC poll showed 56 percent of Americans disapprove of Trump's tariffs--56 percent. Today, and through rest of the week, we will give our Republican colleagues a choice: Stand with Trump's idiotic, disastrous, and often juvenilely inspired tariffs or stand with American families and vote to lower costs for people back home because the longer these tariffs are in place, the more damage it will cause for our economy and the more money families back home will pay.

So I urge my colleagues to vote yes on Tim Kaine's fine resolution and end Donald Trump's tariffs on Brazil.

Mr. President, I yield back all time.

Mr. President, open enrollment is 5 days away. Starting this Saturday, tens of millions of Americans face the specter of financial crisis, all while Donald Trump is dancing on the tarmac in Malaysia.

Donald Trump may be having a nice time abroad, but people here at home are dreading--dreading--open enrollment. Insurance plans that cost $300 or $400 a month will suddenly cost $2,000 a month or more because Republicans prefer to shut the government down over working with Democrats to extend the ACA tax credits. Consequently, the average ACA plan is set to more than double--double--starting next year. The average 60-year-old couple making $85,000 a year will soon have to pay an extra $22,000 or more just to have health insurance. Imagine the specter. The devastation will be felt across the country even by Americans with private insurance. They are not exempt. Their insurance is going up quite a bit too. The rate of people without insurance will spike by the millions. More people will get sick. More people will lose coverage. More people will go bankrupt. More people will die from preventable illness.

Americans have never seen healthcare like this, the one that is about to begin on Saturday, and Donald Trump is nowhere to be found. Americans are going to sit at their kitchen tables on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and say: How the heck can we pay these bills? What are we going to do without health insurance? What if our kids get sick? What if we get sick? And there is Donald Trump overseas not even paying attention to this crisis.

Instead of sitting down with Leader Jeffries and me, Trump skipped town for his second foreign trip in less than a month. Open enrollment is just days away, and Trump's message to the American people facing financial disaster is: Greetings from Malaysia.

Here is what the President needs to do: He should negotiate with Democrats to reopen the government and end the ACA crisis right away. The President should stop focusing on foreign escapades, on ballrooms, on bailouts for Argentina, and start focusing on negotiating with Democrats to lower people's healthcare costs, but Donald Trump isn't taking this crisis seriously still as millions of Americans are just frightened--tens of millions--about what will happen.

Trump continues to use the American people as pawns. This weekend, we learned that the Trump administration, for instance, ordered the USDA, the Department of Agriculture, not to tap into emergency funds to keep SNAP benefits--food benefits--flowing to the States. The very same administration that sent $40 million to Argentina at the drop of a hat to help Trump's MAGA ally is now telling hungry families in America they can't have nutrition funding.

What gall. The administration's decision to let SNAP freeze is callous, is cynical, and entirely unnecessary.

Donald Trump says there is no money to pay hungry kids, but he is spending $40 billion to bail out Argentina, $300 billion on his vanity ballroom, $172 million on two luxury jets for Kristi Noem, hundreds of millions for outfitting his foreign jet but nothing, nothing, nothing to help hungry kids.

What warped priorities. What a bubble this President lives in--apart, away, and not caring about the trauma the American people are facing when it comes to healthcare.

Let's be very clear: The administration is making an intentional choice not to fund SNAP this weekend. The emergency funding is there, but the administration is just choosing not to use it. And for those who say the money can't be moved around so easily, that is a load of bunk. If the administration can cough up $40 billion for Argentina, they can find money for SNAP by this Saturday. This administration that all year long has trampled over the rule of law and illegally impounded funds left and right suddenly says the law won't let them fund SNAP to feed hungry kids? Give me a break.

Even Republicans privately know that Donald Trump's SNAP ploy is outrageously cynical. Here is what one House Republican said on the issue:

I find it hard to believe a Department with so many slush

funds can't find the money for a month of SNAP benefits.

That is a quote from a House Republican.

So make no mistake, Donald Trump is manufacturing a SNAP crisis instead of working with Democrats to reopen the government and end the healthcare crisis, which is very, very real for tens of millions of American families because, after all, what Democrats are pushing for is the same thing that the American people want. Americans want to see their healthcare premiums go down. Americans want to see the government reopen. They don't want to have to pay an extra $20,000 a year just to have health insurance. We Democrats want to solve this crisis right away. Lowering healthcare is not a crazy demand. It is not some leftwing pipedream, which it seems the Senate Republican leader wants people to believe. It is, rather, just common sense.

Most Americans, even MAGA voters, agree, as 55 percent of those who voted for Trump want to see the ACA credits extended, but Donald Trump and his Republican colleagues in the Senate and even more so in the House, are nowhere--nowhere--to be found. So the choice to keep the government open or to keep the government closed is entirely in Donald Trump's and Republicans' hands.

Time is short, and Americans are on the brink of a crisis that could send millions and millions of families into financial disaster. Donald Trump and Republicans, meanwhile, are not even here in Washington to deal with the crisis heading straight toward us.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, we are staring into the abyss of the healthcare crisis here in America. And what is Donald Trump doing as we stare into the abyss of the healthcare crisis? He is flying off, yet again, to another corner of the world while people's premiums are set to skyrocket here at home. He shut down the government, Trump has, for 23 days, the second longest shutdown ever by refusing to negotiate with Democrats. He is bulldozing the East Wing of the White House to make way for his own ballroom. His own Justice Department is getting ready to cut him a personal check--a personal check--to Donald Trump for $230 million out of taxpayer money when people are suffering in terms of their healthcare premiums. And then he was caught trying to push a nominee with proud Nazi and racist views.

And, again, we are in the middle of a healthcare crisis that will decimate tens of millions of Americans. But Donald Trump doesn't seem to want to touch this topic, touch the topic with a 10-foot pole, and has decided to fly off to another country, yet again, without negotiating with Democrats.

Leader Jeffries and I asked him to sit down and talk with us. We said we need to talk. He refused. Donald Trump would literally rather fly to another country than meet with Democrats to negotiate on healthcare because he knows the American people are on one side of the issue and his base--his rightwing MAGA base--is on the other. He is afraid to touch the issue so he does his version of Johnson's shutting down the House. He flies away.

It is hard to fathom someone more out of touch and oblivious to our Nation's struggles than the current President.

Let's take the ballroom, for instance. This is the image Donald Trump doesn't want America to see. This is the picture Donald Trump told his people to hide from the American people. Do you know what the picture represents? It is not just the desecration of the White House. It shows that Donald Trump is not focused on fixing healthcare but rather on vanity projects like this one that don't do anything to benefit the American people. They only benefit Trump and his ego.

Donald Trump is telling the American people: No Medicaid for you; the ballroom for me. Americans are appalled at these images. A YouGov poll this week found 50 percent of the Americans oppose this ballroom project, only 33 percent in support.

To Americans, the image of Donald Trump adding a wrecking ball to the White House is a symbol for what he is doing to the whole country. Yes, this is the image Americans are seeing, and they don't like it. They don't like it.

I ask my Republican colleagues: Where are you? Frankly, the East Wing teardown is not the only thing Donald Trump is focused on instead of fixing healthcare. He is also using the Presidency to enrich himself. This week, we learned that Trump is pushing his own DOJ to write him a $230 million check because his feelings got hurt after being investigated for criminal wrongdoing. While Americans are agonizing over their healthcare, Donald Trump is using the Presidency to reach into the taxpayers' till and put money in his own pocket. Imagine the gall of this President who tells the American people: No healthcare for you, but you pay me an additional $230 million.

Again, I ask my Republican colleagues: Where are you? And again, I don't expect Republicans to oppose Donald Trump very often, but they should be outraged--outraged--by the way he is pillaging the DOJ to enrich himself.

And, finally, Americans are getting awfully fed up with the Trump administration's incompetence, corruption, and chaos. The data shows it. A few days ago, a Gallup poll showed movement you rarely see among the electorate in a short amount of time. Democrats' party ID is now 7 points higher since the start of the year--7 points higher. It was even with Republicans--``Are you a Democrat or Republican?''--when Trump took office. It is now plus-up 7, Democrats. You rarely see that kind of movement for that kind of number so quickly. It should be an immediate red-light warning to my Republican colleagues.

To quote the pollster Harry Enten, who works for CNN:

I was shocked to see how [Democrats] have gained on Party

ID per Gallup. [Democrats] lead by 7 pts vs. a tie at the

start of the year. Looks a lot more like the 2018 cycle than

2022.

Indeed, Democrats have gained House seats in all midterms

since 1990 when party id looks like what Gallup has.

That is Harry Enten, not me. You don't need to be a political genius to understand why these numbers are moving. People see that Donald Trump is making their lives worse on costs and healthcare and on their financial security.

We spend so much time here in Washington focused on the day-to-day back-and-forth. But people back home don't care about the back-and- forth here in Washington. They care about how much they are paying for groceries. They care about their rising electricity bills. They care about the dramatic increase so many will pay in their healthcare premiums very soon.

What has Donald Trump done while all this is happening, while people are just sitting down at the dinner table on Friday nights and wondering, How the heck am I going to pay the bills? He has enacted the biggest healthcare cuts in American history. He is closing rural hospitals. Americans can see with their own eyes what Trump is doing.

So I say to my Republican colleagues: Beware, this Gallup poll is a warning that Americans are fed up with the high costs that go up each week and the Trump administration's incompetence, corruption, and chaos. It is only going to get worse the more Donald Trump doubles down on this shutdown and on his failed policies.

Shutdown Fairness Act

Mr. President, on the Johnson bill--that is Ron Johnson, Senator Johnson--right now, on day 23 of the longest total government shutdown in American history, millions of American families are wondering how they will make rent, pay their bills, or put food on the table. What is the Republican response? To hand Donald Trump and his right-hand man Russ Vought, the originator of the evil, awful Project 2025--to hand Russell Vought more power to decide who gets paid and who gets punished.

Let me make one point very clear: The shutdown is on Donald Trump's

back, and the American people know it. They know that Republicans have the Presidency, the House, and the Senate and the shutdown is on them.

So Senator Ron Johnson and Republicans are feeling the heat and have come up with this proposal. Johnson and Republicans know because they are feeling the heat that the American people know exactly who is in charge: Donald Trump and Republicans. When workers are laid off, when they are furloughed, they miss a paycheck, America knows who is to blame. It is on Donald Trump's back.

That is why Donald Trump and his allies are pushing this bill. The bill would not reopen the government, which is the only permanent solution to this crisis. Democrats want to reopen the government as quickly as we can. We want to sit down with Thune, with Johnson, with Trump and negotiate a way to address this horrible healthcare crisis. We also want to make sure that every last Federal worker who has suffered during the Trump shutdown is taken care of.

So that is why Democrats are offering two solutions that actually include all of our Federal employees, not just the ones the President picks and chooses:

Oh, I will lay you off.

I will furlough you.

I won't do you.

I like you.

I don't like you.

That is not the way you govern, but that is how Trump seems to govern.

Our bill is an antidote to that awful way that Trump uses when he picks and chooses winners and losers whom he likes and hates.

The bill--the Republican bill--is a ruse. It is nothing more than another tool for Trump to hurt Federal workers and American families and to keep this shutdown going for as long as he wants.

We will not give Donald Trump a license to play politics with people's livelihoods. That is why we oppose this Johnson bill, because it doesn't end the pain of the shutdown; it extends it.

The only way--the only way--to pay every Federal worker is for Republicans to get serious and sit down with Democrats to avert their healthcare crisis and reopen the government.

I yield the floor.

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

Mr. President, I just heard my friend the Republican leader Senator Thune here on the floor, and I heard him say that Democrats are somehow pushing far-left demands here in the Senate.

What the heck is he talking about? How is it far left to say we want to lower healthcare premiums and spare tens of millions of people from financial ruin? Far left? Tell that to an American family whose premiums will go up from $200 a month to $1,400 a month; that fixing that is far left. Tell that to young couples whose parents are about to get kicked out of nursing homes. Tell that to people who live in rural America and see their hospitals closing. That is far left?

I am afraid the Republican leader doesn't know what the American people want and where they are on healthcare.

There is nothing far left or far right or center about wanting lower premiums. It is common sense. It is what the American people overwhelmingly want. Fifty-eight percent of Trump voters--they are not far left--want the ACA tax credits extended, according to the Washington Post.

And we cannot--we cannot--and must not delay like Republicans want to do.

And beyond that, Leader Thune--I don't know what got into him today-- also claimed Republicans are ready to get to work.

Really? Tell that to Speaker Johnson and the House Republicans, who have been on vacation for nearly a month--nearly a month.

So they want to get to work? Then, get Johnson back here. Get the House Republicans back here, if they want to work.

The American people see right through that one.

It is day 21 of Donald Trump's government shutdown. While millions of Americans are feeling the squeeze, as I said, the House remains on vacation, and Senate Republicans are headed to the White House, today, not for negotiations, not to work on any path out of a shutdown or to avert a healthcare crisis, but for a Rose Garden pep rally with Donald Trump.

That is right. Senate Republicans, today, will join the President to celebrate staying strong and being unified--staying strong against helping Americans who desperately need a fix to the healthcare crisis, staying strong to the young couple whose parents are getting kicked out of a nursing home, staying strong to people in rural America who are seeing their hospitals close.

So as millions of Americans continue to endure the pain of one of the longest shutdowns in American history, Republicans will be celebrating keeping the shutdown going. Republicans may not have time to fix people's healthcare, but, apparently, they have plenty of time for a mini pep rally with Donald Trump.

In the meantime, the pain for Americans is getting more and more real. More and more States are notifying their residents about the disastrous premium hikes coming their way. And the pressure is building on Republicans, the party in the majority, to do something about this shutdown and about the cost of living.

A CNBC poll from Friday found Americans now hold Donald Trump and Republicans responsible for the shutdown by a 53-to-37 margin. Sixty- two percent of Americans in the same poll disapprove of the President's handling of inflation. Fifty-six percent disapprove of his handling of tariffs.

In other words, what do Americans care about most? Cost, inflation, healthcare--the very things Republicans here in the Senate and in the House are refusing to address because they want to shut the government down to avoid discussing the healthcare issue and having a serious negotiation about it.

Our Republican colleagues can dig in all they want, but, at the end of the day, the American people know the Republicans are in power. They know Republicans set the agenda. They know that Republicans have the Presidency, the House, and the Senate. And the burden is on Republicans to work with Democrats in a serious way to reopen the government and fix people's premiums.

That is why, when I was majority leader, we passed 13 CRs, precisely through bipartisan consultation. When Democrats were in the majority, we talked with the leadership on the other side. We negotiated. We worked together. We didn't have a shutdown.

That is not what is happening here. It is a take-it-or-leave-it partisan bill with no input from Democrats whatsoever.

Now, yesterday, on the floor, the Republican leader kept using the word ``galling'' to describe Democrat's push to find a bipartisan fix to ACA premiums. The Republican leader wants to talk about galling? What is galling is doing nothing--nothing--as 20 million Americans face the prospect of paying $1,000 or more a month just to have health insurance. What is galling is saying there is nothing to negotiate on healthcare while, as we speak, people from New York to Georgia and beyond are going online and seeing their premiums are now going from $600 a month to $2,200 a month. What is galling is Republicans being OK with people like Kristi Noem getting a private jet; Donald Trump getting his fancy, expensive new ballroom; Argentina getting a $40 billion bailout; but then saying Americans don't deserve cheaper healthcare. That is what is galling. I will say to my friend the Republican leader: That is what is galling.

If my Republican colleagues take issue with any of that, perhaps, they should not have spent their whole summer passing the biggest healthcare cuts in American history. Perhaps, the Republican majority should have acted when they had not one, not two, but three chances to extend these ACA premium credits.

Democrats were ready to work with the other side to get it done, but Republicans continue to act like these ACA premiums are not their problem. They are the problem of the American people, and they are a problem with every legislative Democrat or Republican who serves here.

The fact that they continue to act like the ACA premiums are not their problem, that, more than anything else, is what is galling to the American people about this debate.

Nomination of Paul Joseph Ingrassia

Mr. President, now, on Mr. Paul Ingrassia, yesterday, for the second week in a row, we got a disturbing report about a young Republican operative celebrating Nazi--Nazi--ideology and racist garbage when they think no one is listening. This is what they really think, and they continue to be appointed in positions of power by Donald Trump.

Last week, it was thousands of pages of texts from prominent members of Young Republicans from New York, Vermont, Arizona, and other States. Well, this week, it is Mr. Paul Ingrassia, a Presidential nominee for a very important office--the Office of Special Counsel--and his nomination is scheduled to come up before the Homeland Security Committee this week.

Mr. Ingrassia's texts are appalling and point to a really disturbed individual. Let me read a few of the disgusting texts from Ingrassia:

I do have a Nazi streak in me from time to time, I will

admit.

MLK . . . was the 1960s George Floyd Floyd and his

``holiday'' should be ended and tossed

into the seventh circle of hell where it belongs.

[A]ll of Africa is a [S]-hole and will always be that way.

Though he didn't say just ``S-hole.'' Imagine, a whole continent.

Mr. President, these are texts from a Presidential nominee. Do they vet them? And if they vet them and know these things, do they shrug their shoulders and say that is OK? These texts are foul and disqualifying, and it is hard to believe there would be any process in any White House that would allow such a man through to be nominated.

This person does not merit confirmation by this body. I am glad a number of our Republican colleagues have said so. That is good and necessary.

To state the most obvious thing in the world, the President should pull the nomination of Mr. Ingrassia, today, before his big celebratory lunch. He is not going to pass. Ingrassia is not going to pass through this Chamber.

And I want to be very clear about something else. These texts that have surfaced over the last couple of weeks are not a laughing matter. Some of these Republicans wink at each other and say: Isn't that funny? Won't that gall people? Isn't that fun?

This is not a laughing matter. These texts are dangerous.

And I hope I am wrong, but we are now seeing what seems to be a pattern of young Republican operatives perfectly at ease spreading or endorsing surprisingly Nazi propaganda and racist views. These people aren't random online trolls who are just college kids. They are party operatives--in the case of Mr. Ingrassia, a nominee to serve in the administration in a very important position and picked by the President of the United States.

These are the people who one day will likely hold senior positions within government or the Republican Party, and here they are calling themselves Nazis and endorsing outright racist views.

Again, is there any vetting? Do they care?

It is incredible--just incredible--that this happens over and over again. It makes you wonder how many Trump nominees or GOP operatives have said similar things but have not been exposed. It is a chilling thought. Now that this has happened on multiple occasions, it can't be outright dismissed.

Again, the President should pull Mr. Ingrassia's nomination immediately. He should be fired from his current job within the administration, and he should never--never--hold a position of leadership within the Republican Party or the government again.

I yield the floor.

Well, first, thank you. And I do have a question for you. I want to commend you for your fortitude and your strength on a subject that is so important to the future of this country--not only for our generation but for our grandchildren. We need a democracy.

And my question is this: In many authoritarian regimes there are many characteristics, and we see a lot of this happening in Hungary, in fact, with Orban. Orban has had his friends take over the media. Orban has used the prosecutorial authorities as a weapon, as Trump has turned our whole Justice Department into an attack dog to go after his enemies and help his friends.

And we see this in so many other countries. Now there are many people in the United States that say it can't happen here, and our roots of democracy are stronger and deeper, certainly, than Hungary's, but the danger is real.

And could my friend--and I respect what he has done all night. Could my friend just elaborate on the question: It is different here, but why can we not be complacent when we have seen what happens in other countries like Hungary, like Turkey, and, of course, in even more severe dictatorships?

When people say it won't happen here, why should we--even though we are different, why should Americans from every political corner-- Democrat, Republican, liberal, conservative--be fighting this authoritarian rise in this country, led by Donald Trump, who, as you said, wants to be King?

Right.

Right.

Right.

I thank my colleague for that really right-on-the-money exposition on this.

I would like to ask one more question related to the first. Supine Congress. Our Republican colleagues seem to just do whatever Trump wants, and we hear lots of mumbling and grumbling: We don't like it. But I hear from some of them saying to me: It wouldn't make a difference if I spoke up.

Does my colleague from Oregon agree with them that it wouldn't make a difference? If Republicans--whether it is the leadership in the House or Senate or a large number or even a decent number of Members--spoke up against the kind of authoritarian direction that Trump is taking, does my colleague think it wouldn't make a difference, as they say, or does he think it would?

I thank my colleague. I do.

I thank my colleague from Minnesota for her excellent back-and-forth with the Senator from Oregon.

Thank you for doing this.

I yield the floor.

I had a few questions earlier this morning of my great colleague, and, once again, his strength, his indomitability, and his caring about this democracy, which we all know is at risk, is just amazing.

And so my question relates to something he touched on before in his discussions with our great Senator from New Hampshire.

There are so many ways this administration is trying to rip apart democracy, and one of them you mentioned a minute ago is the threatening of media to just do what Trump wants.

And the man who is the head of the FCC seems to be an instrumentality of that. Trump has said: Things they say I don't like should not be put on the air. And they have held over the heads the broadcast licenses of some of our great media companies.

In other ways, they are getting some of their friends to take over some of our media companies. And isn't one of the greatest blows to democracy, I would ask my colleague--one of the greatest blows to democracy is when we don't have a fully free press, and has it been a hallmark of so many of the countries that he has mentioned that are autocracies or absolute dictatorships to have no free press, so no information can come out, and doesn't that dramatically hurt the American people when government is shielded and can do whatever it wants and hurt as many people as it wants because you don't have a free press? Shouldn't it really frighten every American that this is a large step on the road away from democracy toward tyranny and toward authoritarian government?

I thank my colleague, once again, a great answer, freedom of the press is at risk, and if freedom of the press is at risk, so is our entire democracy.

I see my colleague from Massachusetts has come, and I know she will have some excellent, thoughtful, and perceptive questions. So I will yield back to my friend.

Would my colleague yield for another question?

I thank my colleague from Delaware. Before I ask my question, I just want to thank the great Senator from Oregon for his strength, his fortitude, his integrity, and just shining a spotlight on this erosion of democracy under Trump in so many different ways.

I have been to the floor earlier, and we talked about it. But now I would like to ask a question about one of the most serious threats that our American people face, which is the healthcare crisis, a dramatic--a horrible--crisis that is going to leave millions without any health insurance at all, that is going to raise premiums to people from $500 to $1,000 a month--not a year--that will close rural hospitals, that will kick people out of nursing homes, where they will have nowhere to go.

And I remind my colleagues that this President, instead of negotiating a way out that addresses the crisis with Leader Jeffries and me, is going away for 6 days. It is outrageous for him to leave on a foreign trip while the American people are suffering and we get closer and closer and closer to the time, starting November 1, when people are going to have to make that awful decision: Do I leave my family with no healthcare at all because I can't afford it?

It is a horrible, horrible decision. And yet, this President--Leader Jeffries and I asked the President to meet with us before he left. He refused. The reporting is that Johnson and Thune and he were on the phone and agreed they wouldn't even talk to us. And, instead, he is going away while people are suffering. He ought not to do that.

And what is he spending his time on instead? Eroding our democracy, doing these faux ads, screwing up, forcing networks and TV stations and media to bow to his whim, using the Justice Department as an attack dog against his enemies, arresting people, as my good friend from Oregon has pointed out repeatedly, on the streets arresting people, whoever the hell they are. They have no identification, and the people are arrested without even being told why they are being arrested and who knows what the heck is going on. He is spending all his time on eroding democracy, taking away our rights.

The people expect him not to go on a foreign trip--this President who fancies himself a King--but, instead, to do the people's business and help us, sit down with us, negotiate a way out of this healthcare crisis.

We all know--I think, and I would ask my colleague, he knows, I believe--that before Donald Trump leaves the country, he should at the very least sit down and negotiate in a serious way and address the healthcare crisis that affects the American people.

Shouldn't we be working to lower people's premiums, to keep rural hospitals open, to prevent people from being kicked out of nursing homes, to ensure that research that saves lives continues? Shouldn't the President listen to the cares of the American people and their desperate need on healthcare rather than taking a foreign trip?

Jeffries and I asked him yesterday--we demanded, really--that he sit down and talk to us and negotiate, not just talk to us but negotiate a serious approach to avoid all the devastating things that will occur. And he said 4 hours later, after conferring with Thune and Johnson, no, he wouldn't.

Well, that is a disgrace. So I would ask my colleague--I would ask him: Shouldn't the President be spending time addressing the healthcare crisis rather than spending all this time eroding our democracy? If he negotiated a fair treatment of people with

their healthcare, he would be doing some good. And when he erodes our democracy, he is doing something evil.

So his priorities are wacky and misplaced and awful and so detrimental to what the American people want.

So my question to my colleague is this--and one more thing, doesn't my colleague--and there are a bunch of questions here--agree that Trump is the focal point of this healthcare crisis, that Johnson is paralyzed because of the divisions in his caucus, that Thune just goes along, that the President--this Trump, this President Trump--is the person who could get the Republicans to pass a decent proposal, a fair proposal, a proposal that helps the American people out of this crisis, and the President is the focal point because he can get Jeffries and Thune to act, and there is probably no one else?

And yet, he is flying away, ignoring this issue facing the American people after he has eroded our democracy as the Senator from Oregon has pointed out? He is flying away and abandoning the American people.

Isn't it correct--does my friend from Oregon agree--that the President's priorities are so detrimental to the American people, are really perverse in that he seems to enjoy eroding democracy and doesn't even give a damn when the American people are suffering?

So I would ask my colleague to answer that series of questions.

Right.

So to renew my question succinctly: Does my friend from Oregon believe, as I believe, that before the President jets away on this foreign trip, shouldn't he sit down with Leader Jeffries and me, as we wanted him very much to do--demanded he do--and negotiate a solution that addresses this horrible crisis, which my colleague from Oregon has addressed in so many ways, whether it is ACA premiums or Medicaid or nursing homes or community health centers or scientific research? All of those need to be addressed, and this President is flying away. Isn't that appalling?

Let me thank my friend from Oregon for his amazing, strong, persistent efforts.

I yield back to the Senator from Oregon.

Mr. President, let me express the profound gratitude of all of us for his amazing tour de force over these many hours.

Jeff Merkley has been the Paul Revere of 21st century America, literally, figuratively, riding from one corner of this country to the other, alerting people to the danger our democracy is in with the would-be King as President.

No one has done it better. No one has done it with more persistence. No one has done it with more passion. No one has done it with more effectiveness than Jeff Merkley, not only the Senate, but much more importantly, all of America owes you a tremendous, tremendous debt.

Thank you.

(Applause.)

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

Mr. President, we enter another week of Donald Trump's government shutdown, and Republicans seem happy not to work, happy not to negotiate, happy to let healthcare premiums spike for over 20 million working and middle-class Americans.

Our country is staring down the barrel of a healthcare catastrophe, and Republicans will spend this week either vacationing or holding pep rallies at the White House. It has been over a month since the House of Representatives even took a single rollcall vote. That is shameful. That is derelict. Government workers must work without getting paid; House Republicans get paid without working.

What about the Democrats? Our position remains the same: We want to end the shutdown as soon as we can and fix the ACA premium crisis that looms over 20 million hard-working Americans and many tens of millions more whose premiums will also go up.

Look, the ACA premium crisis is not a fix-it-later issue like Republicans keep pretending it is. It is a fix-it-now issue because, very soon, Americans are going to have to make some really difficult choices about which healthcare plan they choose for next year. When they see the increase in the number of dollars that these premiums will cost them because the tax credits expired--$500 a month; $600 a month; $1,000 a month; for older couples, over $20,000 a year--they are going to have to make an awful choice: Do I cut out healthcare altogether and be left alone or do I cut back on everything else to afford a healthcare plan? Do I have to look for a new plan with different doctors, different hospitals, higher copays, higher premiums?

Every American, just about every American--so many Americans, tens of millions--are going to have to start making that choice in the next month.

Health insurance prices under the ACA are now available in about a dozen States, and Americans in those States are already seeing with their own eyes the horrifying truth, what we have been warning about for months; that multiple millions of people are going to pay tens of thousands of dollars more for healthcare so vital to Americans.

When you are in a family and you know you can't provide healthcare for them or a much reduced healthcare and you look at your spouse, you look at your kids, and you say: What am I going to do if they get sick, what a frightening experience for people that Republicans are putting America through, all because they want to cut all of this healthcare, cut Medicaid, cut so much else in healthcare to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy.

It is just perverse. It is inside out. It is upside down.

And let's be clear about who will get hurt if these tax credits expire. Republicans have been lying about that too. If the ACA premium tax credits expire, the majority of people who will pay more out of pocket are working and middle-class families. In fact, the majority of people who benefit from the expiring tax credits live in Republican districts.

The State of Louisiana, home of Speaker Johnson, is one of the States about to suffer most.

I read an article last week from CNBC that said:

ACA enhanced subsidy lapse could hit early retirees

hardest.

Middle-class couples in their fifties and early sixties who are too young to qualify for Medicare face the largest dollar increase in premium payments. One Idaho couple interviewed by CNBC will see their premiums spike not by 50 percent, not by 100 percent, but 300 percent-- $15,000 more a year just to have health insurance. That is what financial ruin looks like.

In fact, if these tax credits expire, older Americans could end up spending 30 percent of their income just on healthcare premiums. Can you imagine? What kind of country do we live in? What kind of party is this Republican Party that is unwilling to solve this problem which is staring Americans in the face, frightening Americans from one end of the country to the other? Yet what are Republicans doing about it? Nothing. They are on vacation. It is unacceptable and morally repugnant.

Democrats are demanding nothing more or less than what the overwhelming majority of Americans already want. Even a majority of MAGA voters want it. Fifty-eight percent of those who voted for Trump say renew the tax credits into next year.

Americans want to keep their healthcare costs low and avoid financial ruin. Americans want to see the government reopen as soon as possible. Democrats agree. We are at the ready. We want to get past this crisis. But Republicans need to wake up from whatever dream they are in because fixing the ACA will require them to take action.

Economy

Mr. President, on the economy, Republicans like to talk about eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse. Well, they can start by looking at Secretary Kristi Noem's expense report. This weekend, the New York Times reported that the Department of Homeland Security has purchased not one but two private jets--luxury jets--for Kristi Noem to the tune of $172 million in taxpayer dollars. The administration says these are G700 aircraft. That is one of the biggest private planes there is. And they say they were purchased for safety reasons. Kristi Noem and the administration say these G700 aircraft were purchased for safety reasons. That is like saying they bought a Rolls Royce to get good seatbelts. This just shows you how much contempt this administration has for people struggling to make ends meet.

Let's be very clear. At a time when Americans are paying more for groceries, falling behind on car payments, seeing their electricity rates go up and up and up, Secretary Noem thinks it is a good use of taxpayer dollars to buy two jets known for having ``the most spacious cabin in the industry.'' What ever happened to the Kristi Noem who said that any expense at DHS over $100,000 needed her personal approval? Apparently, she wanted more legroom for flying.

This would all be perhaps a little more amusing if it wasn't so insulting to the American people, because while Donald Trump's Cabinet Secretaries get their private jets, the American people are getting higher healthcare premiums, higher grocery costs, and a worsening job market.

Let me just show this chart with a list of awful headlines about the economy just from the last week or so.

From NBC:

U.S. consumers bearing more than half the cost of tariffs

so far, Goldman Sachs says.

In the Wall Street Journal:

Grocery Prices Keep Rising. Frustrated Consumers are Trying

to Adapt.

MarketWatch:

High inflation and lack of jobs leave Americans frustrated

with the economy.

Those are headlines from last week.

Let me get this straight. Americans pay 90 percent of the cost of Donald Trump's tariffs for more groceries, they see fewer jobs, and now the American people have to pay for two top-tier, private, luxury jets for Kristi Noem.

If you want to know how much contempt Donald Trump has and how much contempt his MAGA administration has for working people, look no further than Noem's luxury jets.

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, another week has passed, and the Trump shutdown drags on because Republicans refuse to work with or even negotiate with Democrats in a serious way to fix the healthcare crisis in America.

Let's be clear. Republicans are demanding something that hasn't happened in previous negotiations. They are saying: Our way or the highway. No negotiation. No Democratic input.

This is a highly partisan bill, and they want us to pass this partisan CR that has zero bipartisan input, zero conversation, and, frankly, zero relief for so many Americans who are afflicted by the healthcare crisis, which grows deeper and deeper, that crisis, each day.

For the last month, the Republican leader's favorite number has been 13. He keeps citing 13 CRs that we passed when I was majority leader. Of course we did. What he fails to mention--I am not sure if he forgets or he is deliberately trying to ignore it--is that those 13 CRs were the product of bipartisan negotiation, of serious conversation. We had to make changes in those bills when our Republican colleagues suggested it. They were in the minority, but they had a right to be heard--a right that has been completely shut out for Democrats under this new Republican majority. It is a new way of doing things, and it has led to the Trump shutdown, aided and abetted by Senate Republicans.

Leader Thune talks about hostages. Yeah. The truth is that the hostages are the American people that the Republican majority and Trump are holding hostage because they won't help them with healthcare.

Americans are demanding that we do something, that we address this healthcare crisis. In terms of extending the ACA tax credits, 90 percent of Americans want them extended, 58 percent of Trump voters want them extended, and that is who is being held hostage by the Republican majority. Those are the unfortunate hostages--the American people and the crisis they face with healthcare.

The ACA crisis is looming over everyone's head. Yet Republicans seem ready to let people's premiums spike by tens of thousands. That is who the hostages are--the American people who need healthcare relief, who are demanding healthcare relief.

I will remind my Republican colleagues that open enrollment is in 2 weeks. That means that in 2 weeks, tens of millions of Americans are going to have to make life-changing decisions. Imagine getting a notice that your insurance is going to go up $15,000 each year, as so many of my constituents and people across America are getting, and having to make the awful, awful decision whether to have healthcare or not and then think: What if my kid gets sick, and I won't have healthcare? Well, what do I do? I can't afford $5- or $10,000 more a year.

That is the position Republicans are putting the American people in. That is the position Donald Trump is putting the American people in. And I don't know if Republicans don't comprehend it. I think they do.

Even when we went to the Oval Office, it seemed, when Leader Jeffries and I told President Trump about it, he was just beginning to understand the depth of the crisis.

But they either don't understand it or they are brutally callous--so interested in tax cuts for the very wealthy that they are willing to just savage healthcare for the American people.

Then a few Republicans, if they want to act on healthcare at all-- many of them don't want to do anything, particularly in the House, where they seem to hold Speaker Johnson in a frightened situation. He is so afraid to do anything about healthcare because his rightwing will attack him. But for those who want to act on healthcare, they think we can wait until the very, very last minute, but the reality is, it will be far too late for the American people, and many of them will be stuck paying outrageous amounts of money.

The vast majority of Americans who have healthcare, who have ACA healthcare and other healthcare, are going to have to make their decisions by November 1, not January 1. Yet, despite this crisis, despite the enormity of the increase in costs that Americans will have to pay for their healthcare, Republicans continue to dig in. They continue to say: We don't want to help on healthcare. We don't want to negotiate with Democrats on healthcare.

They say there is nothing to negotiate.

That has to change soon. It has to for the sake of the American people. Democrats want to reopen the government as soon as possible so people can get back to work, so government services are not interrupted, but we need to fix the ACA premiums right now.

If Republicans fail to act now to lower premiums, the American people will, correctly--wish it didn't have to happen, wish we could solve this--the American people will have to hold the Republicans responsible when they face financial ruin.

No Kings Rallies

Mr. President, now on the No Kings rallies, in a few days, millions of Americans in cities and towns, villages, rural areas across the country will exercise one of the most fundamental rights under the Constitution, one of the greatest things about America: exercising the right to peacefully protest, exercising the right to free speech.

This weekend's No Kings rallies will be an affirmation about what America is all about. We are a democracy in America. We have no Kings despite the fact that Trump has even said he wants to become one and is acting in ways that are a threat to our democracy. In America, we do not have dictators, and we cannot allow Presidents to transform the Presidency into some form of dictatorship.

Now more than ever, for that reason, it is vital Americans from one end of the country to the other stand up for our basic freedoms because Donald Trump is eroding our democracy day by day by day.

So this weekend, I encourage Americans everywhere--Americans who love this country, who care about a democracy--I don't care if you are a Democrat or a Republican or Independent, a liberal or a moderate or a conservative--the vast majority of Americans want to preserve this democracy, and the No Kings rally says that in a very strong way, where millions of Americans--millions--will come together to say just that-- that we don't want Kings in America.

I will join the marchers to celebrate what makes this country so great.

I say to my fellow citizens: Do not let Donald Trump or Republicans intimidate you into silence. That is what they want to do. They are afraid of the truth.

Republicans are going apoplectic because Americans are exercising their right to free speech even though some of them--too many of them-- know that Donald Trump is threatening our democracy, and the American people are seeing just that.

That is the theme--the very appropriate theme--of this weekend's rallies: No Kings. No Kings.

So I urge Americans: Speak out. Use your voice. Exercise your rights to free speech.

And, of course, there should be no violence from either side.

I say to Americans: Show the world how much we love this country, how much we love our values, how much we love our democracy and want to preserve it, and don't be afraid. Trump and the Republicans want you to be afraid. They don't like free speech when it is free speech they don't want to hear. But we are not going to let them intimidate us.

For weeks, Republicans have tried to vilify these rallies. They call them the most ridiculous of terms--``Hate America'' rallies. These are love-America rallies. They call them ``terrorist'' rallies. That is just despicable. They are trying to scare people away from their basic right to free speech, but we will not be intimidated. These are not hate rallies, as some of the right wingers try to say; these are save- America rallies, love-America rallies, care-about-America rallies.

Not only is this a right to protest--which we all treasure or have treasured until recently, with this new administration seeming to not want rights to protest or even free speech when they don't agree with it--this is the right thing to do, a necessity when Donald Trump weaponizes the Justice Department to become his attack dog and go

after his political enemies; when he attacks the courts; when he intimidates the free press and tries to tell networks they are going to lose their licenses if they say things he doesn't agree with; when people are arrested and put in jail--American citizens--with no real cause and not even identification of who is making the arrest.

I am so proud of Americans who will stand up peacefully. There is nothing--nothing--more American than exercising the right to free speech, especially the right to dissent, especially when our democracy is at risk because of what Trump and his Republican cronies are trying to do.

Remember the last No Kings rally. We saw millions of people--all backgrounds, all corners of the country--gathering peacefully. We saw American flags as far as the eye can see, and that is natural. The American flag stands for free speech. The American flag stands for the right to peacefully protest even if Trump and his cronies don't even understand that or don't want to understand that.

At these rallies, we saw people who love this country; we saw people who want to stand up for American values; we saw people who want to preserve our precious democracy. That, sadly, is what many Republicans want to silence. We will not be silenced.

Donald Trump and many Republicans in Congress are using intimidation, lies, and bully tactics to prevent people from standing up, speaking out, exercising our precious constitutional rights. But I say again to every American out there who wants to participate in these weekend rallies: Do not let Donald Trump or Republicans intimidate you into silence. That is what they want.

That is how dictators evolve--when good people of all different beliefs and backgrounds stay silent. No Kings day says: We will not stay silent.

I say to the American people: Do not be afraid to exercise your right to free speech. Be proud that you are doing it. Do not be afraid to peacefully protest against Donald Trump's eroding of our democracy, and do not be afraid to show how much you love this beautiful democracy--as the Founding Fathers called it, ``God's noble experiment.'' We have to keep this precious democracy.

Young Republicans

Mr. President, now on the Young Republicans--another sad chapter in how the Republican Party has devolved over the last few years. It has been 2 days since POLITICO published a horrifying story revealing thousands--thousands--of private messages containing racist, sexist, and violent comments from prominent members of the Young Republicans organization. Yet President Trump and the Republican leadership have remained silent. There is nothing but radio silence from Republican leaders who seem to claim they worry about combating politically violent rhetoric.

The silence from Republican leaders in the face of Hitler jokes and gas chamber jokes is deafening. Where are they? When they don't like somebody who says something on the left, they are the first to criticize. Well, this is one of the nastiest, most vicious things that we have ever seen written--by Young Republicans, no less--and the Republican leadership, including President Trump, is silent.

As I said, Republicans never miss a chance to preach about violent rhetoric when it comes from the other side, and, of course, that should be condemned, but now that it is coming from their own ranks, they are silent.

Some Republicans seem to even excuse this vile behavior. This is amazing. The Vice President of the United States, no less, JD Vance, dismissed the messages as just a college group chat. Can you imagine if it was a group of people on the left saying some things, if he would say the same thing? A college group chat? Does JD Vance really think glorifying Hitler and gas chambers is just a silly joke? Imagine-- imagine--if it came from the other side. We all know that Vance would be losing his mind right now. He would be all over FOX News decrying it. But now, since it is coming from his own ranks, he is just excusing. Despicable. Disgraceful. Shameful.

No matter if you are a Republican or Democrat or in the middle, we all must condemn this nasty behavior and make it clear that this type of vicious rhetoric is unacceptable in America.

Gateway

Mr. President, on Gateway, yesterday, President Trump and his administration ``terminated'' funding for Gateway. Gateway is the most important infrastructure project in America, period. It will keep our economy moving, our region connected, tens of thousands of union workers on the job. Donald Trump is trying to kill it again in pure spite and with sheer stupidity. It is petty revenge politics.

Who gets hurt? It is going to screw over hundreds of thousands of New York and New Jersey commuters, choke off our economy, and kill good- paying jobs.

It affects New Jersey. More people use it to commute from New Jersey than from New York. What Trump has done on Gateway is vindictive, reckless, and foolish. And if Donald Trump thinks he can use New Yorkers, use New Jerseyans, commuters, small businesses, union construction workers, and the first responders as political pawns, it will backfire on him spectacularly.

We will fight the President on this in every way to preserve this crucial, vital infrastructure project--crucial and vital to New York, New Jersey, the northeast economy, and the whole American economy.

I yield the floor.

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

Mr. President, it has now been over 2 weeks since Republicans shut the government down because they refuse to work with Democrats in a serious way to fix the healthcare crisis looming over the American people. Open enrollment starts in just 2 weeks, and Americans will be forced to choose healthcare plans that will send costs skyrocketing.

As we speak, families are receiving letters for their new health insurance rates, and more States--more States--are opening their window-shopping period for what health insurance will look like next year.

With open enrollment around the corner, Republicans cannot continue to kick this can down the road. It is happening now. The healthcare crisis is now. The public agrees. Democrats agree. The White House privately admits it.

Even some Republicans in Congress know it is the truth, and yet Republican leaders, especially Speaker Johnson, continue to dig in.

The Speaker has now kept the House Republicans on vacation for 3 weeks, as if they can make the issue go away by letting House Republicans hide. Well, the American people don't have time for Republican inaction.

This morning, let me show my Republican colleagues precisely what will happen if they continue to insist on ``no negotiation.''

Let's take a look at this chart. These are real numbers. These are the actual numbers for New York's healthcare exchange for the average couple in Plattsburgh, NY.

This is in the heart of New York's rural North Country, and it is Congresswoman Elise Stefanik's district. Right now, with the ACA tax credits, this healthcare plan, a bronze plan, is $282 a month. That is still a lot for a family, a working family. It is a lot of money. It ends up, you know, coming close to $4,000--$3,500 a year. But that is nothing compared to what will happen if these credits expire.

If the tax credits expire, the same healthcare plan will go up to nearly $1,700 a month next year--$1,700. Mr. President, $1,400 extra every single month--a 495-percent increase.

For the average family or small business owner or farmer in upstate rural New York, an extra $1,400 a month on healthcare is financial ruin. That is $15,000 a year. How are people--even people making decent money--going to afford that?

And this is not just true of New York. This is similar to what is happening in all the States around the country. Every day now, people are getting notices, and we are getting close to November 1, where people are going to have to decide: Do they give up health insurance altogether and watch their people, their children, their spouses suffer?

So I say to my Republican colleagues, especially in the House: You can't hide from your constituents forever. The American people expect Congress to fix this healthcare crisis, because otherwise people will go bankrupt; people will get sick; people will lose insurance; people will fail to get the care they need; and more people--more people--will needlessly die.

Republicans know this, and yet neither the Trump administration nor Republicans in Congress are even pretending to try and solve the healthcare crisis.

Democrats are ready and willing to negotiate with Republicans. We want to work in a serious way to reopen the government and spare tens of millions of Americans the threat of financial ruin--financial ruin-- $15,000 more or even more a year.

Trump Administration

Mr. President, last week, the Trump administration vindictively fired thousands of Federal workers in a mistaken attempt to try to hurt the Democrats in this shutdown.

Let's be very clear: Nobody forced the administration to do these firings. They did it because they wanted to, period. They did it on their own.

This decision, which they made--Trump made and his administration made, Vought--was so callous, so unnecessary, so deeply hurtful to hard-working Americans, and yesterday we learned it is even worse than they thought.

Yesterday, we learned that the administration admitted in court that nearly 800 employees in HHS were laid off in error. Not only are they mean and vicious and uncaring, they are incompetent. It is despicable. How careless, how incompetent is this administration? How cruel are they that they will throw away people's livelihoods like this with the flick of a pen without even examining what is happening?

These accidental firings show you how stupid it is for Russell Vought to treat Federal workers as political pawns. It is destructive; it is cruel; it is vicious, and it will backfire in the eyes of the public.

That is why even Republicans in Congress have urged the administration not to take vengeance out on Federal workers. The administration should reverse every single firing from last week and should stop playing politics with people's livelihoods and their lives.

They should instead get serious about negotiation with Congress to end this shutdown at once.

Young Republicans Chat Group

Mr. President, and finally on the Young Republicans, it is a frightening time in America as we witness the rise of political violence and violent rhetoric.

Yesterday, as most people now know, Politico published a story about thousands upon thousands of text exchanges reported from prominent members of the Young Republican organization across the country, showing racist, sexist, outright violent language.

This wasn't a casual mention. This happened thousands and thousands and thousands of times from a group called the Young Republican organization. They made jokes about Hitler, about gas chambers. They talked about torture. They made jokes about sexual assault. They used almost every racist obscenity, including the N-word.

Now no matter who it comes from, right or left, all of us have an obligation to denounce vile rhetoric like this. But a full day after these texts have leaked, most Republican leaders haven't said a peep about these gas chamber and Hitler jokes coming from the Young Republicans.

Too many Republicans seem willing to call out violent rhetoric only when it comes from the other side. But these same Republicans never seem willing to denounce it when it comes from their own ranks, and that is dangerous. Violent political rhetoric is an attack on everyone.

And Vice President Vance yesterday, amazingly, seemed to excuse these vile texts as just a college group chat and ``refuse[d] to join the pearl clutching.''

That is outrageous. Leave it to JD Vance to preach about violent political rhetoric only when it serves his interests and then ignore or excuse it when it comes from his own side.

The hypocrisy is disgusting and shameful coming from supposed national leaders. If you don't like hate speech, you don't like all hate speech, not just hate speech from political groups you don't like. The real test is to denounce it from groups that might be on your side of the aisle, the Young Republican organization.

And let's be clear: These aren't random college kids. These are individuals who work in government, who have held positions of leadership at the State level, and one person in the chat is actually an elected official. Of course, some Republicans at the lower level have spoken out, and good for them; they should do so. But where is everyone else? Where are all our Republican colleagues? Where is President Trump?

Here is what needs to happen: Every single Republican leader from the President on down has to condemn these attacks immediately or all their cries about hate speech seem to be one-sided or bogus.

The people who made these vile comments should be out of a job and never allowed to work in politics again. And both sides must make it clear to the entire country that vile rhetoric like this is unacceptable.

I yield the floor.

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

Mr. President, I would like to begin today by underscoring some really wonderful news. Yesterday, the last living hostages, brutally held by the vicious Hamas organization, were released. Now they are back home finally with their loved ones.

This is an immense, overwhelming sigh of relief for everyone. I commend the enormous advocacy of the tireless hostage families and all who helped make this moment happen.

Over the last 2 years, I have gotten to know many of these hostage families well. I have been inspired by their strength and their courage and their persistence--they never gave up; they were here all the time--in bringing their loved ones home. Now, after so long, so much pain, so many sleepless nights, it warms my heart to see the joyous images of those families and many others reuniting with their loved ones.

But, as we all know, there is still a whole lot of work to be done. I remain fully committed to bringing home the remains of all the hostages who died in captivity--essential in Jewish law and Jewish burial-- including the remains of my two constituents Omer Neutra and Itay Chen.

Hersh Goldberg Polin's mother Rachel reminded us of the beautiful Jewish teaching during Sukkot that sums up this moment so fiercely. She said:

There is a time to sob, and there is a time to dance, and

we have to do both right now.

Of course, they lost their loved one; they lost their child.

This cease-fire represents a real opportunity to finally ensure a lasting end to this painful war, to surge humanitarian assistance and relief to the suffering Palestinians in Gaza, to make progress on negotiations for stability and governance in Gaza to ensure this is more than just a temporary cease-fire, and finally--finally--to build a lasting peace ultimately through a two-state solution.

For the last year on this floor, I have told the Trump administration, the Netanyahu administration, and everybody else that the best and only long-term solution to ultimate, long-term peace in the Middle East is a two-state solution. Well, now there is a potential opening to get that, and everyone involved must move in that direction, even if we have to move mountains. It ensures security, prosperity, and dignity for Israelis and Palestinians alike. Only then will a true peace be realized.

Argentina

On Argentina, if Americans want to know just how little Donald Trump seems to care about their healthcare, look at what he is doing today in the Oval Office. As we speak, the administration is approving $20 billion in taxpayer dollars to bail out Argentina in the middle of a shutdown.

I have just one question: If this administration has $20 billion to spare for a MAGA-friendly foreign government, how can they say we don't have the money to lower healthcare costs here at home?

The overwhelming majority of Americans say ``We need help with our healthcare,'' and they are busy spending $20 billion because Trump seems to really like the leader of Argentina. They are both sort of MAGA types.

The administration is giving this money away to help Argentina's hard-right President in his election, where his party is in serious trouble. It is a bailout. It is nonsensical. And at the same time, the American people are frightened, scared, and worried about losing their healthcare. It makes no sense to give money to Argentina and then say we don't have enough money to help Americans with healthcare. It is so against what Americans want. I

am sure if we had a vote here in this country, it would be 99 to 1 almost that the money belongs here, and that is what we should be focused on.

Meanwhile, farmers across America are looking at this Argentina bailout and wondering whose side the administration is on. It has been a devastating year for our soybean farmers because this administration has bungled trade talks with Beijing, and as a consequence, they have killed our soybean exports to that country. Now China is looking precisely to Argentina to cut new soybean deals while our farmers at home suffer backbreaking losses.

On top of all that, you mean to tell me the administration is fine with sending $20 billion of taxpayer dollars to help foreign farmers compete against American farmers here at home in the middle of a shutdown?

It is insane--utterly insane. This Argentina bailout is a slap in the face to both American farmers and to working families worried about keeping their healthcare.

I will say it again. If this administration has $20 billion to spare for a MAGA-friendly foreign government, they cannot turn around and say we don't have the money to lower healthcare costs here at home. Those costs are going through the roof.

Government Funding

Mr. President, on day 14 of the Trump shutdown, I want to remind everybody why we are here in the first place. Democrats made it very clear day in and day out: We want to open the government and have a serious negotiation to fix the healthcare premium crisis that is set to wallop the American people.

Nearly everyone agrees that looming ACA premium hikes are a devastating problem. The public knows it, we Democrats know it, the White House privately knows it, and even Republicans here in Congress know it. They admit it. Yet Republicans remain dug in and insist that there is nothing to negotiate when it comes to healthcare, that they won't even sit down and talk with Democrats about it. That makes no sense. That is not the way we always get our CRs done.

The Republican leader has now scheduled seven votes on the Republican partisan CR, and it has failed to secure enough votes to pass this Chamber each time. That means, like it or not, the Republican leader needs to work with Democrats in a bipartisan way to reopen the government, just as we did when we passed 13 CRs when I was majority leader.

Last week, we saw what happens when Republicans choose to work with Democrats in a serious way. We passed the NDAA--it was a strong national defense bill--with a strong bipartisan vote. We need the same enthusiasm from Republicans that we saw on the NDAA here on the healthcare issue.

Of course, the biggest roadblock right now to reopening the government is the Speaker of the House. The Speaker has kept Congress on vacation for 3 weeks. It is just incredible. Government workers must work without getting paid; House Republicans get paid without working.

Johnson continues to insist there is nothing to negotiate, but I want to make one point very clear: Republican leaders can say all they want that there is nothing to negotiate, but if Republicans don't change course, then very soon 20 million Americans are going to face financial catastrophe when their healthcare premiums go through the roof. And many more Americans will face it than 20 million, but 20 million are right on the frontlines here because of the ACA. That is a reality Republicans can't make disappear by just digging in.

The ACA premium crisis is not a fix-it-later issue but, rather, a fix-it-now issue because open enrollment starts in less than a month, and window-shopping has already begun in several States, where people have the awful choice: Should I go without healthcare altogether with my family? What if my kid or my spouse or I get sick? Or should I cut back on almost everything else because I need to pay huge increases in my healthcare insurance?

So Republicans may think they can dig in until the next ice age, but a fork in the road is coming their way whether they like it or not: Either work with Democrats to fix ACA premiums or sit by as 20 million Americans pay thousands of dollars more out of pocket.

If Republicans remain dug in, the American people will hold them responsible for rising healthcare costs. If Republicans do nothing, they will be the ones triggering a massive healthcare panic that will be felt from coast to coast. This is a nonnegotiable fact.

Democrats want to avoid reaching that point. We want to work in a serious way with our Republican colleagues and with President Trump to defuse this healthcare crisis before it starts, but we are running out of time.

POLITICO Report

Mr. President, I want to close by speaking briefly on an extremely disturbing report I just read in POLITICO. Earlier today, POLITICO published a story purporting to show thousands of private messages containing racist, sexist, and violent comments by young Republican leaders across the country. The leaked conversations are revolting. They make you want to throw up. They include comments supposedly from young Republican leaders saying things like ``I love Hitler.'' Can you believe it? They include gas chamber jokes--how sick. They include racist obscenities, including the N-word. They include jokes with sexual assault.

Many of these individuals who allegedly made these comments have positions of leadership in the Young Republican organization. It is hard to believe. You can't make this up. It is awful. It is revolting. It is disgusting. It is obnoxious. It is the kind of garbage the worst kinds of people say when they think no one is watching.

If this report is accurate, every single Republican leader from President Trump on down, including every Republican Senator, including the Republic National Committee, ought to condemn these comments swiftly and unequivocally, and the people should no longer have any position of power in any Republican organization--the people who said it.

At this delicate political moment, party leaders of all sides have an obligation to speak out against this kind of violent and vile rhetoric. Republican leaders cannot be silent if these sickening reports are true.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, last night, nearly 2 years to the day of Hamas's vicious attack on October 7, after nearly 2 long years of devastating war in Gaza, it appears that a cease-fire and hostage agreement has been reached. If this agreement is implemented, then, finally, after 2 years of immense suffering, the hostages could soon be free, there could be a cease-fire, and the victims of this painful conflict can start to rebuild their lives. This brings a huge sigh of relief to the hostage families, to all of Israel, and to Palestinians who have suffered for so long in this horrific humanitarian catastrophe.

Now, we await details and final acceptance and implementation from all parties of the first phase, and we must begin the even harder work of closing negotiations to end the war, to start building the day after in Gaza without Hamas, to surge humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in Gaza, and to build a lasting peace--a lasting peace--that ensures security and dignity for Israelis and Palestinians alike.

This morning, I hope and pray that all of the hostages are released, including the deceased hostages. I will never give up until all of the hostages are home, including the remains of my constituents Omer Neutra and Itay Chen. I have gotten to know their families well over the last 2 years, and I share their desperation to bring them home for proper burial and closure.

The work is not over, but any step to end this nightmare is one that should be celebrated and carefully implemented.

Government Funding

Mr. President, now, on the shutdown and the Trump administration, the Federal Government has now been shut down for more than a week, but Donald Trump, Speaker Johnson, and Republicans in Congress are nowhere to be found. Instead of playing with people's lives, Donald Trump and Republican leaders in Congress need to sit down with Democrats and have a serious negotiation to fix healthcare and reopen the government at once.

Workers are starting to miss out on paychecks. Seniors are worried about delays at the Social Security Administration. Small businesses with government contracts are in the dark.

We need to end this shutdown as soon as possible. Every day that Republicans refuse to negotiate to end this shutdown, the worse it gets for Americans, and the clearer it becomes who is fighting for them.

Each day, our case to fix healthcare and end the shutdown gets better and better, stronger and stronger, because families are opening their letters showing how high their premiums will climb if Republicans get their way. They are seeing why this fight matters. It is about protecting their healthcare, their bank accounts, their futures.

But Republicans are absent. The House is literally on vacation. And Donald Trump, meanwhile, continues to play with people's lives and threaten mass layoffs for Federal workers.

Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Republican leaders in Congress have been urging the administration not to follow through with their threats of mass layoffs and no back pay for furloughed Federal workers. The Journal wrote that ``far-reaching government cuts and firings could backfire with the public.'' And aides have been ``warning that such moves could cause voters to blame Republicans for the shutdown.'' That is the Wall Street Journal.

Well, this is spot-on. If Donald Trump thinks that punishing Federal workers and treating the American public as pawns is going to help him politically, he is making a terrible mistake, because the American people are smart. They see what Trump and the Republicans are doing. They know Republicans are the ones in charge. They have the Presidency, the House, and the Senate--not Democrats.

We Democrats want to end this shutdown as quickly as we can, but Donald Trump and Republicans need to negotiate with us in a serious way to fix the healthcare premiums crisis. We can and should do both. It is not either-or, like Republicans think.

President Trump, meanwhile, is simply not taking this shutdown seriously, because, as we speak, the Trump administration continues to negotiate a $20 billion bailout for Argentina to prop up a MAGA ally. Apparently, Donald Trump thinks that $20 billion for a MAGA-friendly government in Argentina is fine, but fixing healthcare premiums here at home is not.

Meanwhile, thanks to Trump's bungled trade war with China, American soybean farmers have been shut out of foreign markets and are facing mass bankruptcies. With American farmers cut out, farmers in countries like Argentina are taking advantage, selling a record number of soybeans to China. But instead of helping American farms now in the middle of a shutdown, Donald Trump wants to send $20 billion to Argentina to help them compete against American farmers, all while hungry Americans face higher grocery prices and the largest cuts ever to nutrition aid, thanks to Donald Trump and the Republicans' ``Big Ugly Bill.''

It is utter lunacy. Whose side is Donald Trump on?

And the situation is no better here in Congress. In the middle of a shutdown crisis, Speaker Johnson has shut the lights off to the Halls of Congress. We Democrats have made clear that Republicans need to engage with us in serious negotiation to end this destructive shutdown and fix healthcare premiums as soon as we can, but Speaker Johnson has sent the House on vacation. He has sent Members home now for 3 weeks, and it sounds like he will keep them away for at least another week more. The House of Representatives has not held a vote--a single vote-- since September 19, 20 days ago.

In fact, would you care to guess how many days the House has been in town since the end of July? Twelve days. That is it. Since the summer, the House of Representatives has held votes for only 12 days.

If you are someone who works two jobs or works weekends or overtime to make ends meet, what on Earth are you supposed to think when House Republicans can't even be bothered to show up to reopen the government?

House Republicans are getting paid and not working, and they are asking Federal workers to work and not get paid. If your electricity prices are skyrocketing, if your premiums are going up by thousands of dollars, if you are getting charged more for a cup of coffee or your groceries, and you see Republicans on vacation for 3 weeks straight, that is basically a middle finger to hard-working Americans.

And let's be clear. The Speaker's dig-in-at-all-costs approach is not sitting well with some Members of his own party.

Yesterday, Marjorie Taylor Greene said the following:

The House has so much work to do, why aren't we coming back

in session? We could be doing appropriations, passing

important bills, and more.

Representative Massie of Kentucky tweeted something similar:

The government is shut down, but the House refuses to go

back in session. Why are we in recess?

Said Republican Massie.

Because the day we go back into session, I have 218 votes

for the discharge petition to force a vote on releasing the

Epstein files.

Representative Kevin Kiley of California, Republican, meanwhile, posted this:

The Speaker shouldn't even think about cancelling session

for a third straight week.

So the cracks are showing on the Republican side because they know

Speaker Johnson's position of not budging on healthcare fixes is untenable.

And in Louisiana, in fact, I would have thought that of all people interested in fixing ACA premiums, it would have been a Representative from the State of Louisiana. Yesterday, I read a sobering report from the Times-Picayune saying that ``Louisiana stands to lose the most'' if the ACA premium tax credits expire.

According to that report, 85,000 Louisiana residents will lose health insurance. Many will see their premiums skyrocket. The average 60-year- old Louisiana couple making $85,000 a year would see insurance costs rise from $600 a month to $2,000 a month.

Hear that, Mr. Speaker? That is your constituents. Good Americans in your own State will suffer the most if the ACA premiums expire.

People will go bankrupt, people will get sick, people will die--all because the Speaker chose to keep the House on vacation, rather than come to work, negotiate with Democrats to fix this healthcare crisis, and end their Trump shutdown. Shameful.

We urge the Republicans to back away from their corner and have serious negotiations that the American people deserve and expect before people get sick and go bankrupt.

Remembering Kevin McDonald

Mr. President, now, finally, on a different, more somber but grateful note, last month, the Senate lost a beloved member of our family: Kevin McDonald.

Kevin served as the scheduler for our former colleague Senator Patrick Leahy for over 30 years, and I know Patrick would be the first to admit that he wouldn't have had the great career he did without Kevin by his side.

I am sure there were many days when I called Patrick 10 or 20 times-- I still remember his phone number--or asked him to rush to my office in the middle of something else, and made Kevin's life hell trying to keep his schedule. But Kevin, the consummate professional he was, always found a way to make it work.

He made the hardest days feel easier. He made the busiest days feel smoother. And everyone who knew him, whether you were a Senator, a staffer, a parking attendant, or a police officer--everyone--just loved to be around him. He was the life of every party. He lit up every room he walked into and had an innate ability to turn friends into family.

We will all miss Kevin. We thank him for his service to the Senate, the State of Vermont, and the country. Our prayers are with his family, his friends, and his loved ones.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I enter a motion to reconsider the failed cloture vote on the motion to proceed to Calendar No. 167, S. 2882.