Floor Statements

I announce that the Senator from Delaware (Mr. Coons), the Senator from Illinois (Mr. Durbin), the Senator from Arizona (Mr. Gallego), the Senator from New Mexico (Mr. Heinrich), the Senator from Maine (Mr. King), the Senator from California (Mr. Schiff), the Senator from New Hampshire (Mrs. Shaheen), and the Senator from Virginia (Mr. Warner) are necessarily absent.

I announce that the Senator from Delaware (Mr. Coons), the Senator from Illinois (Mr. Durbin), the Senator from Arizona (Mr. Gallego), the Senator from New Mexico (Mr. Heinrich), the Senator from Virginia (Mr. Kaine), the Senator from Maine (Mr. King), the Senator from Nevada (Ms. Rosen), the Senator from California (Mr. Schiff), the Senator from New Hampshire (Mrs. Shaheen), and the Senator from Virginia (Mr. Warner), the Senator from Georgia (Mr. Warnock), and the Senator from Rhode Island (Mr. Whitehouse) are necessarily absent.

I announce that the Senator from Delaware (Mr. Coons), the Senator from Illinois (Mr. Durbin), the Senator from Arizona (Mr. Gallego), the Senator from New Mexico (Mr. Heinrich), the Senator from Virginia (Mr. Kaine), the Senator from Maine (Mr. King), the Senator from Nevada (Ms. Rosen), the Senator from California (Mr. Schiff), the Senator from New Hampshire (Mrs. Shaheen), the Senator from Virginia (Mr. Warner), and the Senator from Rhode Island (Mr. Whitehouse), are necessarily absent.

Mr. President, today, Senate Republicans will press ahead with a terrible bill that guts local news, defunds rural radio stations, and makes America less safe on the world stage. And they are doing it all to continue funding tax breaks for billionaires.

Today, Senate Republicans turn this Chamber into a subservient rubberstamp for the Executive, at the behest of Donald Trump.

And do you want to know the most galling part of this whole bill Republicans are jamming through? They have absolutely no idea how OMB plans to apply the cuts.

Don't take my word for it. My colleague the chairwoman of the Appropriations Committee, the senior Senator and former Republican leader from Kentucky, and my colleague from Mississippi--one who said he is voting for the bill--all say the bill is lacking specific information. And some claim they haven't even been told how the cuts will even be applied.

How can we devastate programs, rip away bipartisan funding, and impact millions of Americans without even knowing how this bill will be implemented?

Republicans embrace the credo of ``Cut, cut, cut now and ask questions later''--cut healthcare for 17 million Americans; cut food assistance to hungry kids; cut good-paying energy jobs and let the CCP, Chinese Communist Party, get ahead of us. Never mind the kid who will go hungry or the families who will lose insurance or the people who will get sick and die. It is all worth it, Republicans seem to think, so long as billionaires and special interests pay less in taxes.

Senate Democrats, however, know that our job in this Chamber is to govern, is to legislate, not simply eat dirt from the Executive and ask for more, which is what, unfortunately, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are doing.

So, today, we are going to have a debate on the floor. Democrats are going to show the American people exactly what Republicans are doing. We will highlight, through amendments, devastating cuts to local television and radio stations across the country, as well as the damage these cuts will do to America's standing as world leader.

We will hold the Republicans accountable through amendments wherever they claim they want to improve this awful bill and make it abundantly clear they have not materially improved this proposal.

We will do everything in our power to mitigate the damage Rs are unilaterally doing to the American people.

Now let's talk about the cuts to the CPB, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Millions and millions of Americans, over 10 million Americans--13--live in regions of the country that will be affected by these cuts, including millions of rural Americans and Native Tribes. And these cuts to local stations couldn't happen at a worse time, with floods and natural disasters front of mind.

When a flood happens, when a tornado touches down, when a hurricane makes landfall, people need immediate, up-to-date alerts to stay safe. And sometimes, all too often, public broadcasting is the only way for people to hear what is going on. It is a matter of life and death.

So why is Donald Trump so hell-bent on taking away funding from local stations that can literally save lives? And it is not just public broadcasting. Cuts to foreign aid will make Americans less safe; it will empower our adversaries. The changes Republicans say they have made to PEPFAR are not enough, and nobody is fooled by the small tweaks to this package.

Let me be very clear: Donald Trump's hatred of foreign aid has nothing to do with making government more efficient, and it has nothing to do with eliminating waste. It is incompetence--simple incompetence-- and cruelty, cruelty based on an extremist ideology.

Here is one glaring example. A very troubling report yesterday from The Atlantic saying that nearly 500 metric tons of emergency food that has already been purchased by the Federal

Government is set to expire today and will quite literally be incinerated instead of going to hungry kids.

Again, this emergency food could save lives. It could prevent kids literally from starving to death in places like Afghanistan and in Pakistan. It has been sitting idly in a warehouse in Dubai for months. And because of the administration's incompetence, because of the reckless canceling of foreign aid at the start of this administration, these 500 tons of food will be turned into ash.

This is just one very glaring, very troubling example of how our Republican colleagues are really full of it when they say they want to eliminate waste. They don't really care about that. They care about just cut, cut, cut, slash, slash, slash. Use the DOGE chain saw just, again, so the billionaires can get their tax breaks.

What has happened with this food is a deep violation not simply of common sense, but of the moral obligation to care for the hungry and care for those in need, which our scriptures teach us. It is discussed, and it crystallizes the core issue: Republicans do not care about eliminating waste. They simply want to cut funding and damn the consequences, even if it means kids starve to death abroad. It is incomprehensibly mean-spirited.

But foreign aid is not just about charity; it is strategic. It is about American security. And when Republicans cut foreign aid, they expose Americans to global health risks. They make it easier for terrorists to recruit people in susceptible parts of the world. They harm our farmers and researchers and our businesses. Cutting foreign aid makes it harder for U.S. companies to access new markets. And when the Republicans cut American aid, they essentially tell China and Russia: The floor is yours. It creates a vacuum, which China and Russia are all too eager to step into.

Now, Republicans know all of this. They know this rescission package is bad, bad news, even though most of them still choose to support it. Listen, for example, to the words of our colleague from Nebraska:

I am very concerned also about the emergency alerts that

come to many places in Nebraska only through that rural

radio.

Or our colleague from South Dakota:

To me, it's a very serious concern, and there were just a

number of these stations that would have lost over 90

[percent] of their funding.

Consider, also, what our colleague from Alabama said with regard to foreign aid:

And I think that's important, not only being the right

thing to do and the American way, but I also think it's

important, as we know, that if we leave a void it will be

filled by . . . our adversaries.

Now, these are nice words, but every one of these Republicans--every single one of the Republicans I just quoted--voted yes yesterday, and actions speak louder than words. It does no good to express concern about legislation only to vote yes in the end.

Again, we were not sent here by the voters to rubberstamp whatever Donald Trump wants. We were here to govern as a coequal branch of government. This bill today represents the very opposite of that. It is enabling Donald Trump's lawlessness. At worst, this is just one piece of an evil puzzle. If Republicans get away with passing this bill now, we will likely be back here in the near future with other rescissions that cut things like healthcare, like housing, like food for kids.

Donald Trump and Russell Vought have made very clear they want to keep pushing additional rescission packages with even more cuts.

So it means that healthcare is at risk, education is at risk, housing is at risk, research dollars are at risk, money for veterans is at risk. Additional aid that keeps Americans safe will be in danger.

Remember, Donald Trump and Republican leaders reportedly struck up a crooked bargain: If hard-right Members of the House Freedom Caucus agreed to support the ``Big Ugly Betrayal,'' Donald Trump would reward them with even deeper cuts to healthcare and other things the hard right despises.

Make no mistake, this is a short circuiting of the appropriations process. What the Republicans are doing through impoundment and rescission compromises the legislature's ability to act as a coequal branch of government to reach bipartisan and reasonable appropriation deals that represent the best interests of this country--not merely the partisan wishes of a small band of extremists.

So today Republicans will push the Senate down a dangerous road. They will not only cede power to Donald Trump, but they will also tell the American people they won't fight to protect their hospitals, seniors, education, nutrition funding, public health, public safety, and so much more.

Democrats will continue to fiercely oppose this package. We firmly believe in protecting public broadcasting. We firmly believe in the role of Congress in checking the reckless Executive. We are going to fight every day to protect people's healthcare, their education, the care our veterans need, food assistance for seniors and other kids, making sure the needs of working, middle-class, Middle-American families come first--not the billionaire class.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, in a few moments, we will begin voting on amendments to the Republican rescissions package. Let's start with the devastating consequences of passing this bill as written.

The bill will starve local news and radio stations so essential, particularly in rural areas, for people hearing about weather events. We learned the tragedy of untimely notification in Texas recently. It was very terrible. It could happen again with these kinds of cuts.

The bill will harm America's farmers and researchers and businesses; make the world an easier place, unfortunately, for terrorist recruitment; and reward communist China and Vladimir Putin--all so Republicans can keep paying for billionaire tax cuts.

And the most galling part: Republicans are rushing forward without a clue how these unhinged cuts will be

implemented. That is not just me expressing an opinion. That is what Republicans themselves admit. That is what the chair of the Appropriations Committee admits. That is what the majority leader admitted today, that Republicans don't even know how OMB and DOGE are going to rearrange these cuts. Yet they are voting for it.

Republicans are putting a blindfold over their own eyes and leading rural Americans off a cliff just to make Donald Trump and his billionaire friends happy.

Well, Democrats are not here to merely rubberstamp whatever Donald Trump does, like the Republicans are doing. Today, my Senate Democratic colleagues and I will make clear the damage this package will have on Americans and on our national security.

For one, we will expose the terrible things Republicans have stuffed in this bill. They want to starve local news stations, defund local radio stations, cripple disaster alerts, abandon Native Tribes, isolate rural Americans, and erode America's leadership on the world stage. These amendments will show how the Republican bill makes America weaker while making our adversaries stronger.

I, for one, will push an amendment on the floor stopping Republicans from cutting funds necessary to resist the Chinese Communist Party, beat them in the race for precious minerals vital to our new technologies, and prevent them from spreading their nefarious cyber attacks around the world.

My amendment will also stop Republicans from cutting vital funds to our partners in the Indo-Pacific, who are the first line of defense against aggression from communist China.

We will also be ready to offer amendments that take Republicans to task when they claim they want to improve this bill but only offer tweaks that look good on paper without solving the issues they claim to care about. For example, Republicans say they want to protect rural communities, so we have amendments that will actually stand up for rural communities instead of making cosmetic tweaks at the margin that Republicans might try to push.

Republicans say they stand with local TV and radio stations and want to protect those communities from cuts, so we have amendments that will actually halt these awful cuts and keep these places whole--not some commitment to one State and one Senator from OMB but actually preventing these cuts from occurring across America.

Republicans say they want to stand up to the Chinese Communist Party, to get tough on Putin, and to protect funding for global disease and preventing the spread of terrorism, so we have amendments that will ensure these vital programs are not cut.

If Republicans oppose these commonsense amendments, they are simply not serious about protecting local communities and the foreign aid they profess to care about.

Democrats will also push amendments to mitigate its harms on local communities and prevent Republicans from unilaterally eviscerating funds that benefit tens of millions of people.

The matter is very simple. Republicans themselves have admitted that this bill as written right now is a black box of cuts, and they have no idea how these cuts will be implemented. So if they are serious--really serious--about standing up for local TV and radio, if they truly care about national security, if they say they want to protect communities from harmful cuts, they should prove it--prove it today--by supporting our amendments. Actions speak a heck of a lot louder than words.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

I have a motion to recommit at the desk.

I ask that further reading be dispensed with.

Mr. President, Donald Trump and Republicans always like to talk a big game when it comes to adversaries like the Chinese Government. But the bill they are pushing, which slashes vital foreign aid, would be a gift to President Xi and to Vladimir Putin.

My amendment is simple. It stops Republicans from cutting funds to outcompete the Chinese Government, it helps us beat the Chinese Government in the race for precious critical minerals, and it fights back against the Chinese Government's cyber attacks and influence campaigns. It will also stop Republicans from defunding our partners in the Indo-Pacific, often the first line of defense against Chinese Government encroachment.

You cannot support this rescissions package and be serious about wanting to outcompete the Chinese Government at every opportunity. Right now, for instance, the United States and the CCP are racing for access to critical minerals that power the most important technologies. U.S. development programs are critical for accessing these materials, but Senate Republicans want to ax these vital funds and, thereby, hand the keys over to Beijing.

I say to my colleagues: Let's not hand over American leadership to the Chinese Communist Party just to pay for more tax breaks for billionaires.

Vote yes on my amendment.

I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, this is a dark day for America, a dark day for rural Americans, a dark day for any American who relies on public broadcasting during floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, and other disasters, and this is also a dark day for this Chamber. Everyone here knows this is not how the Senate should function.

I urge my colleagues to vote no.

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

Now, Mr. President, Americans woke up this morning to a troubling headline: ``U.S. Inflation Accelerated in June as Trump's Tariffs Pushed Up Prices.'' That is what the New York Times said this morning.

We have said from the start that Donald Trump's tariffs are a national sales tax on working- and middle-class families, and now these tariffs are causing inflation to rise, as many of us feared. And there is too large a chance that this tariff increase is just the beginning as increased chaos on tariffs rise.

Tariffs raise the price of groceries, add thousands of dollars in additional cost to the average household, and Trump's chaotic approach does nothing--nothing--to make our economy stronger.

Even worse, real wages are down for June as Americans pay more for groceries, electricity, healthcare costs, and that is before the ``Big Ugly Betrayal,'' which will steal people's Medicaid, kill jobs, and jack up people's electricity bills.

Remember what Donald Trump said on the campaign trail? He said that if elected, he would bring costs down on day one. It is now the middle of July, and inflation is going up. That is the definition of a broken promise.

Mr. President, now on cuts, fresh off of handing billionaires their largest tax break in modern history and fresh off of passing the most devastating cuts to healthcare and good-paying jobs ever, Republicans want to do it again. While Republicans roll out the red carpet for billionaires and special interests, they want to cut funding to local news and cut funding for critical foreign aid that keeps China and Russia at bay.

Americans rely on public broadcasting for weather alerts, and these cuts couldn't come at a worse time. The disaster in Texas reminds us that accurate and speedy forecasts are vital to protecting our country and the lives of Americans, and public broadcast is vital and often the only way to get the word out, particularly in rural America. So why the hell is the administration so obsessed with cutting these lifesaving services when they are critical for keeping people safe, when we saw, when we didn't have those services working full steam ahead, how many people's lives are endangered and lost in Texas and around the country.

Public broadcasting does more. It is crucial for Americans to receive the local news for keeping track of city hall, for understanding what is happening in their local school boards, for updates on public events, festivals, educational programming, when we know that traditional television is having a lot of trouble.

To be clear, it is not just local news and public radio stations at risk; this package endangers national security, our own national security. American aid is vital for preventing pandemics and diseases throughout the world. Foreign aid helps farmers. It helps American researchers. It helps U.S. businesses. More importantly, American aid is vital to holding the line against the Chinese Communist Party and Vladimir Putin. If Republicans eviscerate foreign aid, our adversaries will celebrate America's retreat and move to fill the vacuum.

The worst part is that these rescissions cuts are only the beginning. This package, as bad as it is, is a piece of a larger puzzle for Republicans. Their goal is to use rescissions, impoundment, and pocket rescissions to eradicate any bit of bipartisanship out of appropriations and will pave the way for deeper and even more serious spending cuts on things like healthcare, food assistance, energy, and so many other areas. In fact, many in the Freedom Caucus claim that Donald Trump and Republican leaders promised these deeper cuts by these means in exchange for their vote on the ``Big Ugly Bill.''

We know that Donald Trump and Russell Vought want to send another rescissions package later this summer. Are they going to make more cuts to Medicaid? Are they going to make more cuts to education or nutrition services or aid for veterans?

Republicans didn't bat an eye when adding $4 trillion to the debt to lower billionaires' taxes, but suddenly, when it comes to local news and rural radio stations, they suddenly balk. They say it is waste. That is disgusting.

Mr. President, on FEMA, search and rescue efforts continue in Central Texas 11 days after the devastating July 4 flooding. We continue to pray--to pray--for every life lost. We pray for the families, and we honor the brave first responders who have been on the ground day after day after day.

But honoring those we lost demands accountability. It demands making sure this never happens again. The more we learn about what went wrong, the more one thing becomes painfully clear: Donald Trump, Secretary Noem, and the Department of Homeland Security have failed--failed--in their basic duty to protect Americans from natural disasters.

After spending months demonizing FEMA, after openly calling for it to be dismantled, after shedding thousands of staff and canceling billions in funding, Trump and Noem's disastrous policies have come back to haunt Americans battered by disasters.

This latest tragedy happened in Texas, but the problems go far beyond Texas. This is a nationwide FEMA failure, a systemic issue across the Agency that Donald Trump has made much, much worse. So today, I am calling on the Comptroller General of the GAO, the Government Accountability Office, to immediately investigate, one, how FEMA's funding cuts, staffing cuts, and policy changes contributed to the

failures in Texas, and two, to assess the risks their actions pose for future disaster response nationwide.

The facts are alarming. FEMA contracts stalled while survivors called for help. Vital staff positions sat vacant. Rescue and recovery efforts were bogged down by bureaucratic chokepoints. These aren't just breakdowns; they may constitute a dereliction of duty by those entrusted to protect the public in times of crisis.

The American people have a right to know: Did these reckless decisions cost lives? Are we now more vulnerable when the next storm, fire, or flood strikes, wherever it strikes? A comprehensive and urgent review is not just warranted, it is essential.

Americans do not support the administration making radical DOGE cuts to Agencies like FEMA. These cuts have devastating consequences in life-and-death situations like a natural disaster. Americans do not support chaos from the government when disasters strike. They do not support redtape that leaves families stranded and communities battered.

Mr. President, now on DOD and Grok AI, just days after Elon Musk's AI model Grok glorified Hitler, pushed Nazi propaganda, and spouted anti- Semitism, Elon Musk's company was handed a $200 million DOD contract to deploy Grok--to deploy Grok--in our national defense systems. Soon, the same AI model that called itself ``MechaHitler'' and recommended a second Holocaust will be used in the Pentagon to ``address critical national security challenges.''

This Musk contract is not just wrong, it is not just offensive, it is dangerous. The Trump administration must explain how this happened, the parameters of the deal, and why they think our national security isn't worth meeting a higher standard.

Mr. President, just days after handing billionaires their largest tax break in modern history and fresh off passing the most devastating cuts to healthcare and jobs ever, Republicans want to keep this going. They want to gut funding for local news stations and radio; they want to reward communist China and Putin and eviscerate foreign aid--all to give tax breaks to billionaires. They say these cuts are necessary in the false guise of eliminating waste, but anyone can see that is not true. It is just to pay for tax cuts for billionaires.

Americans are done listening to Republican lectures about wasteful spending after they added $4 trillion to the debt to cut taxes for billionaires.

For Republicans to turn around and slash local news and public radio in the name of fiscal responsibility is a vindictive swipe at rural America, where these stations are needed so badly. It will leave rural communities twisting in the wind.

The Republican credo seems to be, cut and cut and cut now, and ask questions later. Cut healthcare for 16 million Americans. Cut food assistance to hungry kids. Cut good-paying energy jobs. Let the CCP get ahead of us. Never mind the destruction these cuts will have. Never mind the trillions Republicans just added to the debt to finance their billionaire giveaways. Never mind the kids who will go hungry or the families that will lose insurance or the people who will get sick and die. It is all worth it, Republicans seem to think, so long as billionaires and special interests pay less in taxes.

Now, with this rescissions package, Republicans want to keep going. Cut local radio stations. Cut local TV stations. Cut national security funding. Cut funding for some of the most beloved programs in America. These cuts

are just a piece of the larger Republican puzzle, where they will use rescissions, impoundment, and pocket rescissions, and that will pave the way for even deeper and more serious spending cuts on things like healthcare, food assistance, energy, and so many other areas, and other democratic safeguards will no longer be around.

If you eliminate the Democrats from the process, there is no discussion, there is no argument, and there are no safeguards that can help the average American. It is just the billionaires running rampant, getting what they want.

If you want to understand the Republican playbook, take a look at how they attacked foreign aid. At the very beginning of this administration, Donald Trump and Elon Musk illegally shut down billions in foreign aid. When they were criticized for it, they hemmed, they hawed, and they lied about their actions. The courts had to step in.

Now that these programs have fiscal 2025 dollars, Republicans are trying to do it all over again, this time through a cynical rescissions package. They are passing this law to get the outcome they wanted in the first place: gutting U.S. foreign aid.

Let me be clear. This is not just about foreign aid, as important as it is, this is the playbook that Republicans will do across the board. They will do it with healthcare. They will do it with the Department of Education. They will do it with our schools, our veterans, our housing. They will do it to research dollars. They are slashing them.

I have heard of more instances of great research projects that could have saved lives that are now on hold and can never be brought back again because of the greed of billionaires and the obeisance of Republicans to go along. It is amazing--cutting medical research, where America has always led the world. But now we are going to give that lead to China with what the Republicans are doing.

They are already using impoundment. They are using rescissions. They are using pocket rescissions to poison the bipartisan appropriations process, to break the law to steal funds that Congress appropriated. They are doing it on a party-line vote. Worse, they are letting Donald Trump decide for himself which programs to defund. That puts everything at risk--healthcare, education, food assistance, public health. Everything--everything--becomes at risk. That is what will happen if a package like this is allowed to become law.

Returning to this week's bill, what do this week's cuts mean for families back home? Well, tens of millions of Americans rely on public broadcast for weather alerts, local news, keeping track of city hall, educational programs, and so much more. This affects most badly rural America, including Native communities.

These cuts couldn't come at a worse time. The floods in Texas remind us that speedy alerts and up-to-the-minute forecasts can mean the difference between life and death. For millions, public radio and local TV are sometimes the only way to stay up to date.

Why the hell is this administration so obsessed with gutting those funds that save lives? It is probably because of some whim of Donald Trump's. And he often governs by whim. But then it has disastrous consequences because Republicans just bow to those whims even though they are without factual basis. They don't look at the facts. They don't care about the facts. Donald Trump wants it; let's do it.

Donald Trump may not appreciate the vital role of public media, but people back home know how public broadcast is indispensable.

It is not just local TV stations and public radio that are in danger. These ill-conceived Republican cuts can threaten our national security. These cuts indiscriminately slash billions in critical aid that prevents the spread of disease, fosters economic development, and expands America's cultural impact on the world stage.

Believe me, when we fight, with foreign aid and programs, diseases in other countries, in Africa or Asia, it benefits us because those diseases--in this world where people fly from one place to the other all the time, it benefits us because it will prevent those diseases from coming here.

Removing PEPFAR from the list of cuts was good but nowhere near enough. We are not fooled by a small tweak to this package. These cuts will still leave America weaker and our adversaries more emboldened. After all, foreign aid isn't just about good will, it us about our security.

Cutting foreign aid will have terrible consequences for our security. It increases the exposure of Americans to global health risks, as I mentioned. The cuts harm funding that directly benefits U.S. farmers and U.S. researchers. It will damage U.S. companies' market access abroad. It will make communities around the world more susceptible to terrorist recruitment efforts. China and Russia, meanwhile, will look on with glee.

I thought Republicans cared about being strong on national security. I thought they understood the role that the United States' soft power has in keeping the world a safer place for our values. This bill gravely undermines Republican commitments to U.S. leadership around the world--something so many people have prized.

If Republicans slash more American aid, it will leave a dangerous vacuum that the Chinese Communist Party will continue to eagerly fill. It is a fact. It is happening already in Myanmar and Sub-Saharan Africa in the race for access to precious minerals. These are places where the CCP is taking advantage of America's absence. And it will have terrible consequences in the long term for our safety, for our security.

These rescissions are only the beginning. We know that Donald Trump and Russell Vought want to send even more rescissions packages down the line, as soon as next month. Remember, Donald Trump and Republican leaders reportedly struck up a crooked bargain. If the hard-right Members of the House Freedom Caucus agreed to support the ``Big Ugly Betrayal,'' Donald Trump would reward them with even deeper cuts to healthcare and other things the hard right despises.

Republicans will pursue these cuts by any means necessary--through rescissions, impoundment, pocket rescissions--even if that means taking a wrecking ball to the bipartisan appropriations process to pave the way for future cuts. It could pave the way for more cuts to Medicaid, to education, to nutrition, to Agencies like the VA and more.

All this translates to working people having to pay more out of pocket while billionaires pay less in taxes. When people's healthcare is taken away, when people's local services are taken away, it adds to a family's expenses. It makes life more expensive for people who live paycheck to paycheck. It makes it harder to see a doctor. It makes it harder to afford medications. It makes it more difficult to choose between providing for healthcare or providing for groceries.

Making things even worse, Donald Trump's tariffs coming in at the worst possible time is making inflation go up--jacking up grocery prices and eating away at family budgets. The tariffs have gone up more than people expected in June, but because so many of those who buy overseas front-loaded their purchases in the first and second quarters, it is very likely the tariffs will go up much more in the next quarter.

Republicans say they fight for the middle class. They say they fight for working people. Then they turn around and take investments away from middle America and rural America and make them pay--pay--more out of pocket. Billionaires, meanwhile, have never had it so good, thanks to Donald Trump and his Republican loyalists.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

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

Mr. President, we continue to pray for the families of the 132 people now confirmed dead in Central Texas. We continue to pray for everyone still missing. We thank our heroic first responders who risked their lives to save those trapped in the storm.

Now, in the aftermath of the tragedy in Texas, some of us asked very necessary questions about how to prevent something like this from ever happening again: Did Federal funding cuts hinder rescue efforts? Did staffing shortages make it harder to respond?

Of course, Donald Trump didn't like these questions. He threw a fit, a tantrum. He called them lies. He said they were inappropriate. That is how he talks.

We know now why he threw a fit and acted so defensively--because, sadly, we may well have been right. Donald Trump and Kristi Noem have spent months attacking FEMA, calling for its elimination, slashing its budget, and hollowing out its workforce. And, now, their own chaos is catching up with them in the worst, worst way.

Now, they are trying to change their tune, saying they don't want to get rid of FEMA. A few months ago, they were all for getting rid of it. Now, they say they just want to change it. But there aren't enough walk-backs or pivots in the world to erase the truth. Their actions have unnecessarily harmed America's disaster response ecosystem.

Last week, I demanded an investigation into what role, if any, the administration's staff cuts to local and National Weather Service stations played in this tragedy. It is now clear that the administration fired key FEMA personnel during and, sadly, after the tragedy. So, today, it is very clear: This is a systemic problem that exists in Texas, extends beyond Texas, beyond the National Weather Service, and across FEMA.

Here are the facts about FEMA: A day after the Texas flooding, FEMA laid off workers--hundreds of call center workers. On July 7, the Agency received 16,000 calls and only answered 2,000 of them, around 16 percent.

Secretary Noem, meanwhile, issued a directive on July 11 saying that all DHS contracts of over $100,000 had to be personally approved by her, according to the New York Times--including, according to the New York Times, deployment of search and rescue teams. Every one of them had to be signed off.

This is not efficiency. This is adding redtape in the midst of a crisis, authored by Kristi Noem herself. Experts say this ill-advised decision very likely hindered recovery efforts.

As it stands today, FEMA is operating with a quarter fewer staffers compared to 18 months ago--one-quarter fewer--including senior-level officials, meteorologists, institutional experts, people who coordinate with public officials and other levels of government to respond to natural disasters.

In the middle of a natural disaster, Donald Trump and Kristi Noem are sowing chaos at FEMA, and their incompetence is putting lives in danger.

They and the DOGE people and so many around them, they have this fanatical dislike of all government, and so they just cut it. They don't even know what the effect will be. They don't even care. Just cut, cut, cut. Cut meteorologists who warn our people, our citizens, our farmers, our businesses of dangers that might come? Cut them? They are not waste.

Their recklessness is hurting rescue efforts. It has hurt the existing ones, and it is going to hurt more in the future, unless they reverse themselves.

We all support making Agencies like FEMA more efficient. Americans support cutting waste. Americans support improving the Federal response. But Americans sure as hell don't support DOGE-like cuts to vital places that can often be the difference between life and death.

The American people do not support this kind of chaos, this chain-saw approach to FEMA, to the National Weather Service, and to government at large. What Donald Trump and Kristi Noem are doing is chaos, and it is going to lead, unfortunately, to even more people getting hurt when the next disaster arrives.

Now, on Republican cuts, this week, Senate Republicans are set to push through the Senate a bill that betrays rural communities, harms global health, weakens America's standing abroad, and, worst of all, sets the stage for even more harmful cuts down the line.

The so-called rescissions package continues a destructive Republican pattern: Cut now and ask questions later. The same thing that is happening with FEMA and the National Weather Service is happening right here. Again, use that chain saw; cut, cut, cut--whether it is waste or whether it is sinew and bone--and then later, say: Oh, maybe we shouldn't have done that.

And do you know what? Our Republican Senators, most of them, know this is wrong, but they are so afraid of Donald Trump.

Yesterday, he threatened that any of them who voted against the full rescissions package that we have before us would face his wrath. What is going on here? Does anyone stand up to these horrible, horrible cuts that hurt the American people?

Republicans, in realtime, are cutting healthcare. They are cutting education. They are cutting aid for our veterans.

Veterans are not getting--ask them. The veterans know they are not getting the healthcare they used to.

And making things even worse, Donald Trump's tariffs are coming in at the worst possible time, and in a few short months, they are going to raise the cost of groceries. They are going to hurt small businesses and do untold damage to our economy.

And, now, this package suffocates public broadcast. Well, did they even know when they said they wanted to cut it--you know, Donald Trump doesn't seem to like it--how much it helps our rural communities? It is the only place they can rely on for local news, for weather reports. And farmers across rural America depend on public broadcast to get weather reports because there is no other way. Did they know that it guts international aid that ensures America's national security? Did they even think of the consequences, just because Donald Trump says he wants it cut? And everyone knows he doesn't know the details of any of this stuff.

The rescissions package is certainly troubling, but the pattern behind it is even worse. It sets the stage for even more party line devastating cuts in the future to healthcare, to education, anything Republicans decide they don't like, all on a party-line vote, all because of obeisance and fear of Donald Trump, not a conviction that he is doing the right thing. This is a dark omen moving forward.

Our Republican friends say they fight for the middle class. They say they fight for working people. Then they turn around and take investments away from middle class and rural America.

I urge them--urge them--not to proceed with this bill as written.

Mr. President, now on healthcare costs, Republicans' ``Big Ugly Betrayal'' will devastate American healthcare this year. Not many years down the line, not a few years down the line. It is going to hurt now.

There is a growing idea among Republican Members of Congress and then the lobbyists who talk to the press all the time that hospitals don't need to worry about the ``Big Ugly Bill'' because there is time to stave off or change the horrible Medicaid cuts Republicans passed and are now running away from. That is garbage.

Donald Trump and Republican leaders forced their Members to walk the plank and cut Medicaid to the bone. So now they are in damage-control mode. They know how bad it is. They want to make their ``Big Ugly Bill'' seem less destructive and seem more palpable when, in reality, it is, quite literally, a death sentence for rural hospitals and vulnerable Americans. And that death sentence for so many of them is not 2 years away; it is now.

Here are the facts that show Republicans' ``Big Ugly Betrayal'' is having an impact right now, not later: At least 300 rural hospitals are at immediate risk of closing because of this bill already--already. Not 2 years from now. Now, this week, 2 weeks after the bill passed. Hospitals in Iowa, Nebraska, North Carolina, and Maine have announced they are closing or are in serious danger of closing. Not in 2027, not in 2028. Now. Now.

Governors in at least eight States--eight States--have called special sessions this summer. Not in 2028, not in 2027. They have called special sessions this summer or are pushing stopgap subsidies to shield doctors and hospitals from the immediate harm. States don't see the ``Big Ugly Bill'' as a problem for years from now. To them, to the workers, and, most of all, to the people who get healthcare in a lot of these rural hospitals, it is a problem right now.

And this fall, more problems. Not in 2028, folks. This fall, people will get notices that their insurance premiums for the Affordable Care Act will go up 75 percent on average because Republicans chose not to extend tax credits for the ACA.

This will also impact people on private insurance. If you don't have ACA, Medicaid, Medicare, you are still going to get increases in your insurance. Everyone is affected by these cuts--just about everyone-- unless you are one of those billionaires who self-insures. You don't have to have insurance because you have got all the money in the world to pay any medical bill. That is not true of the vast majority of Americans.

And what they are doing is just the start. Republicans have made it clear they want even deeper cuts to Medicaid. Many in the House Freedom Caucus--those rightwingers--have said they weren't satisfied with their ``Big Ugly Bill.'' So who is to say that Donald Trump and Russell Vought won't use rescissions or another reconciliation bill to cut healthcare even deeper? And what are our Republican colleagues going to do when the handful of rightwing Freedom Caucus people in this body and the other body say they demand cuts or they won't vote for any bill? Are they going to cave once again? Say: OK?

Let me say it again: All this talk from Republicans that many of their own cuts won't materialize is utter nonsense. Hospitals are closing now. States are reacting now. Insurance companies are adjusting now. And the harm to the American people will happen now, not later.

Mr. President, on judicial confirmation, the first judge confirmation, later today, Senate Republicans will confirm Donald Trump's first judicial nominee of his second term, Whitney Hermandorfer, to be a circuit judge on the Sixth Circuit.

We all know when it comes to judges Donald Trump cares only about one thing: total unyielding fealty to Donald Trump--not experience, not judicial independence, not knowledge or desire to pursue the law, but brazen, uncomplicated fealty to Donald Trump. That is how he chooses judges. That is how the people under him choose judges.

We have never seen this in America. You could have been a conservative like Ronald Reagan, someone like George Bush or H.W. Bush or Clinton or Obama. They all looked. You know, they wanted someone to have some philosophical kinship with them. But they said: Will they follow the law? Do they know this law?

Not this administration. It is so different than all the others in a very bad way. Donald Trump doesn't care about the law or what the Constitution says. He says that himself. He only wants his foot soldiers in black robes defending him when he tries to do whatever he wants.

Ms. Hermandorfer has failed to show that she can be an independent jurist committed to upholding the law. She has less than 10 years of legal experience. She has never served as the sole or chief counsel on a single case. She has made a career out of going after people's reproductive rights, transgender rights, and antidiscrimination policies.

When nominees like Ms. Hermandorfer are the standard, our courts are weakened; the judiciary runs amok; the American people are worse off.

I strongly--strongly--oppose her nomination.