Floor Statements

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, last night was a great night for America and a five-alarm fire for Donald Trump and Republicans. The Republicans' high-cost house is on fire, and they have only got themselves to blame.

As loudly and clearly as they could have, the American people said last night: Enough is enough--enough with Donald Trump's tariffs, which are overwhelmingly being paid for by working people and small businesses; enough with Republicans' relentless attack on healthcare, where people are seeing their premiums go up by thousands of dollars, even each month, and they may have to be without healthcare altogether.

Last night was a sign that if Republicans continue with their failed policies, their majorities are at risk, including here in this Senate Chamber. The election showed that Democratic control of the Senate is much closer than people and prognosticators realize.

So let me say it again: Republicans' high-cost house is on fire, and they have only got themselves to blame.

By the way, that is not just my opinion; it is Donald Trump's opinion. Last night, he said that the shutdown is a negative factor for the Republicans. When addressing why he had lost, this is what Trump said:

The shutdown was a big factor, negative for Republicans.

And let me read what Trump said last night. This is Donald Trump speaking:

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, open enrollment is now upon us, and 24 million Americans are now making agonizing decisions--agonizing decisions about what healthcare plans to choose, if they even choose one or are able to afford one; about how much they will be able to pay; and if they can afford healthcare at all.

I want to be very clear: This open enrollment is not like open enrollments of previous years. Never have American families faced a situation where their healthcare costs are set to double--double--in the blink of an eye, but that is the reality. If you are an average American on an ACA plan, you live with that. The average American on an ACA plan will pay 114 percent more out of pocket. Four million Americans will lose health insurance entirely. A 60-year-old couple earning $85,000 could pay a staggering $22,600 more a year. How the hell are they going to afford that?

Make no mistake, some States will suffer more than others. Here are the States that have seen the biggest increases in enrollment because of the tax credits: Louisiana, Tennessee, West Virginia, Mississippi; in other words, red States. The biggest beneficiaries of these enhanced premium tax credits are in red States--millions of people in both Florida and Texas. Republicans seem ready to tell their own constituents back home: Screw you. I would rather cut taxes for billionaires.

That is what is going on.

Democrats are going to keep pushing to get these tax credits extended. We have asked Republicans to vote for it three times. They have voted it down three times. We are not asking for anything radical. Lowering people's healthcare costs is the definition of ``common sense'' and of what Americans want all across the spectrum. We want only what a vast majority of Americans need and want. They want to see their tax credits extended. The

Senate deserves to see serious negotiations when it comes to healthcare. Republicans' outrageous delay has cost Americans already too much.

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, last Friday, the courts spoke loudly. They spoke clearly: Donald Trump cannot block SNAP benefits and treat hungry Americans as political pawns.

The stories from the weekend were shameful and sickening: people overwhelming food banks, handing out groceries in lieu of Halloween candy, teachers paying out of pocket to give their students extra food. Across America, appalling scenes were seen of people worried they wouldn't be able to feed their families and even themselves. This is appalling, and the courts did the right thing to step in to follow the law.

But the Trump administration still refuses to fully comply. A few hours ago, the administration announced that it will provide only partial SNAP benefits to 42 million Americans facing food insecurity, even though the courts affirmed that the USDA has the transfer authority to ensure everyone can receive full benefits. Everyone can get full benefits. The only person standing in the way is Donald Trump--Donald Trump.

Even after the courts have spoken, the administration continues to use kids, seniors, disabled Americans, and working parents as political pawns, dangling the threat of hunger over their heads.

Providing partial benefits is not enough, is not compliant with the law, and it is particularly cruel of Trump with the Thanksgiving season around the corner. Let me say this: Providing partial SNAP benefits is a floor and cannot be a ceiling. Let me repeat. Providing SNAP benefits is a floor, not a ceiling.

The administration must do more, and the courts should do everything they can to force this administration--cruel as it may be manipulating hungry people, as it is doing, the courts must make sure that full benefits are restored. Only Trump is standing in the way.

Healthcare

Mr. President, on open enrollment, it was a bitter, stressful weekend for millions of Americans, but you would never guess it listening to Donald Trump. Let's start with open enrollment, which began Saturday.

If you look at the papers this weekend, the phrase that everyone used was ``sticker shock''--``sticker shock.'' While Donald Trump is bragging about remodeling bathrooms at the White House, Americans are panicking about how they will afford healthcare next year.

I read an article from ABC News that interviewed a photographer from Utah who gets her healthcare through the ACA. She will go from paying $495 a month--already outrageous--to $2,100 a month--an increase more of than four times. It is more than her mortgage.

That is Donald Trump's America: Americans pay more for healthcare than they do on their mortgage. It is outrageous, and it just puts an anchor, a financial anchor, around the ankles of every family.

And what is Donald Trump doing in the middle of all of this, this horrible sticker-shock crisis that people are just feeling so awful about? Well, if you watched Donald Trump this weekend on ``60 Minutes,'' you saw a President utterly dismissive of the pain his policies have caused working people. While people are paying more for everyday expenses, Donald Trump went on TV to insist that everything is fine. He claimed, yet again, that we have no inflation in this country. The only problem: That is a lie.

Trump, talk to the average American and tell them they have no inflation as they are paying more for everything; particularly this weekend, they learned how much more they are paying for healthcare.

Inflation

Mr. President, inflation has accelerated--actually accelerated--since the start of Trump's trade war. Donald Trump also celebrated that grocery prices are ``going down.'' Which grocery store does he shop in? Probably none. But when Donald Trump celebrates that grocery prices are going down, it is a surprise to people who actually shop at grocery stores because they are seeing prices go up and up and up.

When Donald Trump was asked what he is doing to end the shutdown, he said his usual nonsense: It is the other side's fault.

It is utterly ridiculous. Donald Trump is the President. People look to him to negotiate, to fix problems.

Finally, I will note this: Donald Trump was also asked several times what his plan is for fixing healthcare. And what was his answer? Pure gibberish because he doesn't have a plan for healthcare.

The only plan Republicans have for healthcare seems to be to eliminate it and then to tell working people to go figure it out on their own. That is not a healthcare plan; that is cruel. But it is what Republicans have tried to do with healthcare for decades. We all remember the moment when John McCain rebuked his party to preserve it.

Democrats have been very clear from the start. We need to lower people's healthcare costs. We need to reopen the government. We need to extend the ACA premium credits. That is what a majority of Americans want.

Remembering Omer Neutra

Mr. President, now on Omer Neutra, my late constituent from New York.

Today is a bittersweet day of heartbreak and relief. Two deeply anguishing years after Hamas brutally murdered Neutra on October 7, finally--finally--Omer Neutra's remains have been returned to Israel.

Omer was a proud New Yorker, a Long Islander, a constituent of mine. I have met with his family many, many times since October 7, and I have been so inspired by their courage, their strength, their resolve. Nothing--nothing--will ever reverse the pain of losing their beloved son. Nothing will erase that pain. But after long last, Omer can now be laid to rest in a proper burial. May his memory be a blessing.

Still today, the remains of eight more hostages murdered by the brutal Hamas remain in captivity, including that of another New Yorker, Itay Chen. We will never stop working until every last hostage is home.

I yield the floor.

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

Mr. President, this weekend, Americans face a healthcare crisis unprecedented in modern times. Open enrollment begins in just 2 days, and Republicans have spent the entire shutdown with their heads in the sand--a shutdown they caused because they would not negotiate with Democrats.

Republicans are pretending that the ACA premium crisis does not exist. They should go ask families who are getting their insurance premium increases today, tomorrow, Saturday.

Republicans have brought Americans to the brink of financial disaster. They have ignored a growing catastrophe. We have demanded they act, and they have refused.

The shutdown is on them. The healthcare crisis is on them. And the American people will see so this weekend as the bills start coming in.

To show the breadth, depth, and severity of the ACA crisis, if the ACA enhanced premium tax credits expire, over 20 million Americans will see their premiums more than double on average. That is a 114-percent increase according to KFF. That is a fact.

Four million people on ACA plans will lose healthcare coverage entirely if these tax credits don't get extended. That is also a fact.

If these enhanced tax credits expire, the people hurt, by far, the most--the people hurt the most--will be working families, people who live paycheck to paycheck, small businesses owners, farmers, ranchers, and older Americans. They are all going to be sitting at their kitchen tables this Friday night or Sunday evening and saying: How the heck are we going to pay these bills? We can't afford $4,000 a year more for health insurance.

Do my kids get no healthcare? Do we have to lose the doctors who have been treating us for a long time? Do we have to travel 50 or 100 miles to go to a clinic or a hospital?

Are my parents going to be kicked out of their nursing home, and I will have no place to put them?

This is a fact. People are hurt badly--probably more than by any other healthcare crisis we have had.

Americans who work more than one job, and Americans who live in red States will all be hurt. That is a fact.

And here is another one: This crisis didn't come out of the blue. It is not that people are just learning about it. It is not that Senators are just learning about it this week.

Democrats have demanded that Republican leaders negotiate with us about this crisis since the summer. Republicans said no. They put together a partisan bill that did nothing to improve the healthcare crisis, that had no input from Democrats, and said: Take it or leave it.

Republicans had more than three chances this year to vote on extending these ACA premium tax credits--as far back as February. What did Republicans say? No, no, and no.

Today, Republicans still insist they will not move a muscle to fix ACA premiums until it is too late. They have spent the entire shutdown avoiding talking about healthcare. When that didn't work, they resorted to lying--just making up total lies--about who gets the healthcare and who doesn't.

As they trigger a healthcare crisis, they are also now triggering a hunger crisis. Trump is doing that by halting SNAP benefits and ordering his own Department of Agriculture to rip its own contingency plan.

The money is there--over $6 billion in emergency funds that could keep SNAP going--and Trump has said: Don't spend a dime. We want to use hungry people as hostages in this crisis.

Trump is a vindictive politician and a heartless man.

Meanwhile, here in the Senate, this is still Leader Thune's position on the ACA: Let's deal with this house fire later.

But the house is on fire. Republicans are living in a fantasy, pretending as if the issue will fix itself.

Starting November 1, so many Americans are going to have to make choices. Do they give up their healthcare? Do they have to take a plan that has many higher deductibles and copays, with different doctors and different hospitals, and watch their families suffer when they are sick?

That is what it reality looks like for people back home. Yet our Republican colleagues do nothing.

In Louisiana, the average 60-year-old couple, making $85,000 a year, in a middle-tier plan, will see their premiums increase by $25,700. That is right. How does that family come up with $25,000?

People in their fifties are looking for their retirement. What are they going to do?

In South Dakota, that same couple on the same plan would see an average increase of $26,000. In Florida, it is an annual increase of $27,000.

Republicans have brought the American people to the brink. Republicans have refused to do anything. They have sat on their hands and have stuck their heads in the sand. Now families--millions of families--from one end of America to the other--mostly, actually, in red States--face the specter of financial disaster because, when healthcare costs go up, more people lose coverage, more people get sick, and more people die. Republicans just don't seem to care.

China

Now, Mr. President, on the China deal, in the middle of the second longest government shutdown in American history, Donald Trump left the country and traveled all the way to Asia to meet President Xi. And what did he do? He bowed down to President Xi. China has called Donald Trump's bluff, and Donald Trump has folded, leaving American families and farmers and small businesses to deal with the wreckage from his blunders, from his erratic on-again, off-again tariff policies.

Americans beware: Trump will spend the next few days trying to spin the so-called agreement as a win for America, but that is total bull. Don't believe Trump. He has folded to China. Donald Trump caved to China in Busan. The so-called deal has left us no better off than we were before Donald Trump's trade war began. If anything, things are worse. Prices have gone up. China has agreed to nothing of substance that will improve trade between our nations.

On soybeans, this has been a total capitulation. Donald Trump's trade war has decimated soybean farmers in the United States, and, this year, he is saying: Isn't it great? They will buy half the soybeans--China will--that they bought last year.

So many farmers are suffering, and then so many other farmers are seeing that their Chinese customers to whom they sold soybeans are now making deals in Argentina and Brazil. And those are not 1-year deals. Those are going to be 3-, 4-, 5-year deals. So the customers that Americans had are not coming back.

China is still buying fewer soybeans this year from the United States than before China's trade war. How is that a win for soybean farmers?

Trump's delusion is unbelievable. He starts a trade war; creates a giant mess for businesses, consumers, and soybean farmers; and then he celebrates for trying to clean up the very mess he created in the first place.

Don't believe Trump. Trump has folded on China. Don't believe his BS. He has created the mess. Now he is trying to clean up the mess, and he says: Don't I deserve 17 pats on the back?

Americans have heard this old song and dance from China and Trump before. I have long pushed Presidents of both parties to take tougher action on China for its rapacious trade policies that have harmed American workers, American businesses. None--absolutely none--of the fundamental abuses by China are addressed in this agreement. Trump didn't even bother talking about China's abuses against American manufacturing.

He secured no clear actions from China to address their funneling of chemicals that fuels America's fentanyl crisis. In other words, he says we are doing something on fentanyl. There is nothing specific--a lot of lip service. And the fentanyl that China makes--those precursor chemicals that go to Mexico and then are made into fentanyl and are flooding across our borders? There is nothing specific, nothing real-- more bunk.

Maybe, most egregiously--and this one I know many of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are furious about--he is the first President in decades to walk back export controls that are vital for our national security, essentially handing China vital chips necessary for technologies like AI.

Where are our China hawks from the Republican side? I hope they are going to speak up and decry this abdication. America is handing out-- Trump is handing out--American-made technology like it is Halloween candy but straight into the hands of our biggest rival.

In the past, China has been desperate to get this technology, but now they don't have to worry--Trump is just giving it away. With these chips that China now doesn't have and can't make themselves, China will dominate AI in a few years, and it will have severe consequences for America and for the world.

When it comes to chips, Donald Trump, it is not ``America First''; for you, it is ``China First'' so you can

have some picture that celebrates a so-called agreement that actually hurts us.

America will regret the move of sending these chips to China for generations. We will come in second on AI if this continues to happen. They will set the rules of the road, and America's greatness will diminish--all because Trump wanted to claim a false victory and brag that he got a deal with Xi.

The list of Trump's capitulations to China goes on and on and on. For months, Americans have been taking it on the chin, paying higher prices for everything from appliances to Halloween candy and Halloween costumes because of Trump's disastrous trade policy. Now, looking at this agreement, it only begs the question: What was it all for?

Trump had no strategy, no planning, no strategic decision making, and his bumbling has only emboldened President Xi, who must be laughing all the way back to Beijing. You flatter Trump with a few words, and he gives away things that America desperately needs.

When it matters most, when Trump comes face to face with autocrats and dictators, the American people know Donald Trump is all talk and no strength.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, we are just 3 days--3 days--away from open enrollment and 3 days away from the biggest healthcare crisis America has seen in a generation.

Right now, at this moment, all day today, millions of Americans are getting sticker shock as the so-called window-shopping period has begun. American families, as they window shop, are seeing that due to Republican obstruction, they will end up having to pay tens of thousands of dollars more each year for healthcare, seeing their premiums triple, quadruple, or more just to afford a basic need like health insurance. And what is Donald Trump doing? He is ignoring one colossal healthcare crisis while manufacturing another: a hunger crisis.

In a matter of days, SNAP benefits will run out for 42 million Americans. And let's be very clear. This does not need to happen. This is on Donald Trump's shoulders. He can immediately provide SNAP benefits, as every President has done in the past. Every single President was not so cruel and heartless to hold those hungry children, hungry elderly, hungry veterans as hostages, but Donald Trump, who is a cold, heartless individual, only advancing himself, is doing it for the first time in American history. Never, never before in American history--not once under a Democratic President or a Republican President--has SNAP funding lapsed during a shutdown--not even in 2019, during Trump's last shutdown. In fact, Trump himself funded SNAP throughout that shutdown.

So this argument that he can't do it, that he doesn't have the money, that it is not legal is just bull--self-serving, nasty, vicious bull-- to try to take the most needy people in our society, who don't have food right now--who could be a middle-class person who lost a job, could be an elderly person who has healthcare costs--and he is saying: The hell with you. I need you to be my hostage for political purposes because I don't want to provide healthcare for the American people.

Just weeks ago, Trump's own U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed in writing that contingency funds--about $6 billion in emergency reserves--were ``available to fund participant benefits.'' That is not Democrats saying it; that is the Republican-appointed U.S. Department of Agriculture saying that $6 billion in emergency reserves were ``available to fund participant benefits.''

But then, suddenly, after USDA said it, Trump ordered the Department of Agriculture to rip up the contingency plan, literally delete it from their website--the big lie that they can't do it--and told them not to use emergency funds--no explanation, no justification; just plain cruelty from the man who only serves himself.

Donald Trump is picking politics over the lives of hungry kids. He is weaponizing hunger, turning millions of children, seniors, and veterans into political pawns to score points in his shutdown fight. Donald Trump is a vindictive politician and a heartless man, and that is why he doesn't care about cutting off food aid to hungry kids.

Of course, what he is doing is totally unprecedented. Let's not forget who it affects. Two-thirds of SNAP recipients are children, seniors, or people with disabilities. That is who Trump is cutting off--kids who rely on school meals, seniors on fixed incomes, and veterans trying to get by. That is why every single President in history continued SNAP benefits during a shutdown. Instead, what does Trump do? He is focused on $40 million to bail out Argentina rather than how to keep SNAP benefits flowing for Americans here at home.

And don't give me the lie that this can't be done legally. Every single President--Republican, Democrat, and Trump himself in 2019--has used these funds during shutdowns to keep SNAP running.

Trump's own administration asserted that these emergency funds could be used to keep SNAP benefits flowing in a shutdown, and the Government Accountability Office, which is nonpartisan, confirmed it. The USDA can also use the same transfer authority they used to keep WIC afloat in October to move money over to SNAP for November. To claim otherwise is a bald-faced lie.

Republicans are on a crusade to kill SNAP. They tried to do it in their Big Beautiful Bill. They don't like funding hungry children. They say to the most needy in society: We don't give a damn about you. In fact, we will use you as political pawns. Trump and Republicans spent their entire summer slashing SNAP by a historic $200 billion. Why? To pay for tax cuts for billionaires. Now they are doubling down, using the shutdown to further devastate families and leave kids hungry.

But Democrats will not stand by while Trump manufacturers a hunger crisis. We are ready to work in whatever way to solve this issue. There is a bill right now from Senator Hawley--a Republican, a conservative Republican--that could ensure SNAP is funded. It has Republican and Democratic support. It is a bill I would happily support and vote for. As soon as Thune lets Hawley put it on the Senate floor, it will pass, plain and simple.

But that is not the only option, of course. This week, Senate Democrats, led by my friend Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico, will introduce legislation to fully fund SNAP and WIC--and WIC, going better than Hawley's bill--to protect hungry kids, pregnant women, veterans, and working parents.

The bill is simple; it is moral; it is urgent. Ask John Thune why he won't put it on the floor. He decries the fact that SNAP benefits are cut off. He knows the money is available. He knows there is broad Republican support for it. And he doesn't put it on the floor. He is afraid of Trump. That is it. He knows better.

We Democrats are ready to act. We will push to pass the Lujan bill. We will vote for the Hawley bill if Thune does the right thing and puts it on the floor before the weekend, before families lose their benefits, before holidays turn into a hunger crisis. We are ready to act.

We are ready to work with anyone, Republicans or Democrats, who is willing to stop this cruelty, but Senate Republicans--especially Leader Thune--have to find the courage to stand up to Trump. Right now, they are frozen, paralyzed by fear, by cynicism, while millions of Americans wonder how they will feed their families.

So I say to my Republican colleagues: Don't block the Hawley bill.

Put it on the floor, Senator Thune.

Don't block the Lujan bill, which is even better. Don't let politics outweigh compassion. Let's stop this hunger shutdown. Let's stop this shutdown. Let's stop the shutdown Republicans caused, using hungry people as pawns. Let's feed our people, and let's end this hunger crisis before it begins.

China and Tariffs

Mr. President, now on Trump's Asian trip and tariffs, as we enter the 29th day of the government shutdown, where is Donald Trump? Gallivanting in Asia. Dancing in Malaysia.

He is preparing now to meet with President Xi of China to strike a trade deal that will sell out the American people, give away vital national security tools in exchange for little more than a photo op.

President Trump is about to congratulate himself--patting himself hard on the back--for cleaning up a mess that he created. Again, President Trump is about to congratulate himself for cleaning up a mess that he created. It is amazing what this guy does.

It is the same story with his so-called deal with South Korea. We are actually worse off because tariffs on Korean imports went from 2 percent now to 15 percent. But Donald Trump created a mess and now wants credit for pretending like he fixed it.

On China, Donald Trump's trade negotiations with China have been a failure. His actions have decimated soybean farmers. He has hurt small businesses. Has he revived any of American manufacturing? No. China is still flooding global markets with subsidized goods, still stealing American technologies to undercut U.S. firms and workers. Meanwhile, we have lost tens of thousands of American manufacturing jobs.

This is Trump's MO in foreign policy: He creates a giant mess, and then he

wants everyone to praise him when he tries to clean it up and ignore the damage he has inflicted. He creates the mess, tries to clean it up, and pats himself on the back when we are no better off--worse off--than when we started.

In anticipation of today's meeting with Trump and President Xi, Senate Democrats are demanding that President Trump not negotiate away America and our allies' national security.

He is using the most advanced semiconductor chips, which China doesn't have, as a bargaining chip. China is desperate to get these chips. If Trump gives it away, China will dominate the world of AI in a few short years, and Americans will pay an awful price.

Where are our China hawks on the Republican side decrying this? Where are they? Because these chips are vital, and it is American technology that has produced them, American companies that make them. China is desperate to get them because it will make them the leader in AI in a few years--AI, the most dominant technology in the world. And Trump is willing to give away those crown jewels so he can say he has ``a deal'' and undo the mess that he created with tariffs.

Donald Trump's chip deal is not ``America First'' but China first, putting China first over the next decade in what is the most crucial technology facing the world. Americans will regret that move for generations. Historians will note it as one of the turning points where America became not the primary power in the world but secondary to China--all because Trump wants an immediate press hit to say, ``Hey, I have a deal,'' even though that deal doesn't move us forward at all, and it cleans up the mess he created.

Now, President Trump's trip to the Asian Continent could have been an opportunity to make progress with America's vital partners. He could have used this trip to end his reckless trade war, to stop alienating our allies, to show strength and unite our allies against the Chinese Communist Party, and, most importantly, to help Americans struggling with high costs here at home. But so far, his trip has been a total dud.

By the end of his trip to Asia, it could be the case that we somehow have higher tariffs on our neighbor Canada than we do on our biggest rival China. How on earth does that make sense?

In fact, the biggest news out of this trip is that Donald Trump seems to finally realize that he can't run for a third term. That just goes to show you how fruitless this trip has been.

American families are facing enough problems right now, with the nightmare of open enrollment, the pain of higher groceries, the prices of everything, from cars, to home appliances, to electricity, skyrocketing. The last thing they want is to turn on the TV and see Trump being gifted with a golden crown and then signing a deal with China that royally screws over Americans.

Trump's trade war has been an utter disaster from the start. It has been a nightmare for our allies, for our economy, and for our families who are paying more because of the Trump tariff tax.

I am proud the Senate came together yesterday in a bipartisan vote, 52 to 48, to end Trump's tariffs on Brazil yesterday--the tariffs he put on Brazil simply because he is angry that the Brazilian Government is prosecuting a friend of his, a guy who is MAGA just like him. Isn't that amazing? That is why he put Trump tariffs on Brazil. That is why Americans are paying more for their cup of coffee in the morning-- because Trump wants to embrace and help a MAGA, rightwing guy who is being prosecuted by the legitimate Brazilian Government. It is amazing.

This week we will have more resolutions to push back on Trump's trade war and help stop the bleeding. Our Republican colleagues will have a choice--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.

I yield the floor.

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.