Floor Statements

Madam President, earlier today, we received reports that Iran has targeted U.S. military bases and U.S. servicemembers in the Middle East, putting the lives of thousands of Americans at immediate risk. I join Americans in praying for their safety.

This afternoon, I asked the Trump administration to immediately provide a classified briefing, laying out the full threat picture, the intelligence behind Iran's retaliation, and the detailed scope and timeline of any U.S. response. More importantly, I demanded they lay out exactly what measures they are taking right now to keep our servicemembers safe.

As I said Saturday night, Congress and the American people are owed answers. No President should be allowed

to unilaterally march this Nation into war with erratic threats, no strategy, and no explanation. That is why I have called on Leader Thune to hold a vote immediately to enforce the War Powers Resolution. The law requires the Trump administration to consult with Congress; the Constitution demands it; and the American people, especially the families of those in harm's way, deserve nothing less. Confronting the Iranian regime's nuclear ambitions--and stopping their campaign of terror--demands strength, resolve, and strategic clarity.

Madam President, on reconciliation, we have arrived at a pivotal week in the U.S. Senate, a week where Senate Republicans have to make a choice: either stand up for your constituents, stand up to defend Medicaid, stand up to protect millions of good-paying jobs or stand with Donald Trump and his billionaire friends. That is the fundamental choice Republicans face with their so-called Big Beautiful Bill.

Before the week is out, we expect Republicans will bring their bill to the floor for debate. That means, very soon, the Senate is going to have a long night of vote-arama. When vote-arama begins, Democrats will be ready. We will pick the Republicans' bill apart. We will put Republicans on record. We will force Republicans to explain in multiple ways, again and again and again, why they want to cut taxes for the rich at the expense of working people.

Even now, many Senate Republicans know their own bill is poison. One reason is that their bill will decimate rural hospitals even more than the House bill would, as bad as that was. It will do that by curtailing the provider tax that many States use to fund Medicaid. Now, they know it is terrible so it sounds like Senate Republicans are trying to sweeten this bitter deal by adding a rural hospital fund in the hopes of easing the worries of some Members among their rank.

But make no mistake about it--and the rural hospitals and the American Hospital Association know it--this won't work. Whatever funding Republicans would offer in a rural hospital fund would easily be overwhelmed by cuts the States would still face and by the difficulty rural hospitals would still be in. A rural hospital fund would be like putting a bandaid over an amputation. Again, it is not going to work.

Even before we get to vote-arama, Democrats have already successfully pushed back against some of the nastiest provisions in the Republicans' bill. This work is certainly not done--it will continue to be an ongoing process--but Democrats will continue to use every tool available in the Senate to fight back against the Republicans' bill. Today, I want to mention one important example.

Yesterday, I announced that Senate Democrats successfully challenged a provision Republicans tried to sneak into their bill that would have stripped Federal judges of their ability to enforce their own rulings. Now, we all know Federal judges have ruled against the Trump administration in the vast majority of cases that are currently in court. Many of the administration's most harmful Executive orders have been temporarily halted through preliminary injunctions, restraining orders, and other emergency rulings by the courts.

So what did Senate Republicans try to do?

They tried to write a workaround into their reconciliation bill by preventing judges from being able to even issue preliminary injunctions or restraining orders unless plaintiffs pay for the bond upfront. It goes even further than what the House Republicans tried to do. That meant, if someone wanted courts to put a stop to Donald Trump's freezing of Federal funds or to stop DOGE from rummaging through people's private data or any number of abuses--there are so many--they first had to pay up before the courts could even issue a court order. That is not justice, my Republican friends. That is pay-to-play. It is antithetical to our system of checks and balances. Once again, the wealthy are favored. They will be able to afford these bonds, but middle-class people, poor people, many groups will not.

I am pleased--very pleased--that we Democrats have successfully pushed back against this lawless provision. Now, to be sure, not every decision has gone our way. But we will keep fighting until the last possible moment to strip the worst parts of the ``Big Ugly Bill'' that have flown under the radar.

None of this has been easy to do. I want to thank all the ranking members and their staffs involved in this long, technical process. My staff has done a great job--I salute them--so has Senator Merkley's staff. He is our ranking member on the Budget Committee. The hours have been long. The issues they have worked through have been immensely complicated so I thank them for their continued good work.

Let me close by looking forward for a moment. The debate that will take place here on the floor in the coming days will be one of the most consequential the Senate has seen in years.

At stake is the healthcare of tens of millions of Americans. At stake is over 2 million jobs in red States and blue States alike, which could throw our country into a recession--there are so many job cuts--all for tax cuts for the wealthy.

But today, I want to leave my Republican colleagues with this: If they proceed with their ``Big Ugly Bill,'' they will push our Nation's debt to a point of no return. If Senate Republicans try to make Donald Trump's tax cuts permanent, as they are trying to do, they will add tens of trillions to the national debt in the coming decade--not a few trillion, tens of trillions in the coming decades.

Senate Republicans know this. So what do they do? They try to use a budgetary gimmick called current policy baseline to pretend as if these Trump taxes won't cost anything. This has never been done before in this way, but they are sort of desperate.

Look, Republicans can use whatever budgetary gimmicks they want to try to make the math work on paper, but you can't paper over the real- life economic consequences of adding tens of trillions to the debt. They are adding the money to the debt, that is for sure. They just try to do a paper trick so that it doesn't look like it, but it does, and interest rates will go sky-high, no matter what parliamentary gimmick they try to use.

There will be higher borrowing costs for all Americans for cars, for homes, and for credit cards. Americans are going to feel these higher costs because interest rates will go up because they are making the debt so deep. Americans are going to feel this everywhere they look. American household wealth will permanently be hobbled. Our economy will fail to reach its full potential. That is what will happen if Republicans proceed. Again, there aren't enough budgetary gimmicks in the world to change that fact.

And for what? For what? Why are Republicans doing all of this? So billionaires can pay less in taxes while tens of millions lose their healthcare benefits and pay more for everyday expenses.

I urge the Republicans not to move forward. It is abundantly clear the bill is deeply flawed. If they do, Senate Democrats will continue to expose the Republicans' bill for the debt-busting mess that it truly is.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, the MAGA Supreme Court majority seems

to have forgotten one of its jobs is to protect Americans from discrimination.

The Republicans' cruel crusade against trans Americans infringes on the rights of parents and the rights of kids. Once again, Republicans use these issues to divide America and distract them from their plans to rip healthcare away from millions of people. We will keep fighting to protect the rights of all Americans.

Now, Mr. President, on a classified briefing, as the conflict in the Middle East continues, all of us are concerned for the safety of U.S. troops and citizens and America's interests around the world.

For the information of my colleagues, I have requested a classified briefing on the situation in the Middle East, and I believe we will get one soon. I will keep my colleagues informed as more updates arise.

Mr. President, on the CBO report of late yesterday, more and more, as people look at the Republicans' so-called Big Beautiful Bill, the uglier and uglier it actually gets. Yesterday, the CBO updated their projections on the impact of the House bill on our national debt and on our economy. The results are dismal. As the New York Times put in a headline, ``House Policy Bill Would Add $3.4 Trillion to Debt, Swamping Economic Gains.''

This analysis is new and different because, unlike their last projection, the CBO studied how the Republicans' bill would interact with the economy.

How many times have we heard from Republicans that we shouldn't listen to groups like the CBO? It is because what they are doing so much stares in the face of truth. They don't want to hear the truth because, when people hear the truth, they don't like what Republicans are doing. So they shoot the messenger. The CBO doesn't have an ax to grind, no, and their scores have always been accepted by both parties until now.

So the bottom line is, our Republicans try to discredit the CBO because they don't like hearing the truth, but the truth must be told, and we are telling that truth to the American public day in and day out.

We are telling them that these analyses ignore the economic benefits that supposedly come from the outrageous billionaire tax cuts. Well, now we know that, even after you take into account any impact--any economic impact--of the so-called dynamic scoring created by the Republicans' bill, it is still a loser for working and middle-class families. Only the wealthy gain.

The Republican bill will send interest rates higher, particularly 10- year bonds. And do you know what that means? It means Americans will pay more and more for virtually everything. When interest rates go up, which the Republican bill will do because it makes the deficit even bigger, it will be more expensive for a working family to buy a home, a car, to send kids to college, to run a business--everything.

The latest CBO report is a warning to Senate Republicans: Doubling down on the House's reckless spending will doom our kids and grandkids to a life of higher costs. They should scrap the Big Beautiful Bill entirely and start over.

Amazingly, Senate Republicans didn't moderate the House bill at all. No. If anything, they made it worse. It is hard to believe it could get worse than the House bill for working families, but, somehow, it is. Senate Republicans are supposed to not be as extreme as the House Republicans, but in this case, they are more so.

After weeks of hearing from one Republican Senator or another saying that they would fix the House bill, that they would moderate the most extreme elements, what Senate Republicans came up with is just as bad or even worse. The Senate Republican bill is, simply put, bigger cuts, bigger betrayal.

So, today, let's look at five ways--there are many, but let's look at five ways the Senate Republican bill is just as bad or even worse than the House version.

First, healthcare.

The House bill already proposes the biggest Medicaid cuts in U.S. history. Their bill would rip healthcare away now from 60 million Americans and make over $1 trillion in healthcare cuts.

The Senate bill would add even more roadblocks for working Americans, even parents, preventing them from getting healthcare. This bill is just repeal and replace by another name.

The Senate bill squeezes hospitals even harder, particularly rural hospitals. It crushes health centers and decimates rural hospitals.

Are my Republican colleagues going to vote for a bill that is going to close a good chunk of their hospitals in rural areas? We have a lot of rural places in New York, and let me tell you, in many of those rural counties, the hospital is the biggest employer and the only provider of healthcare. So why take them away, especially to give tax cuts to billionaires? It makes no sense, and the American people know it makes no sense. It is vicious.

It means fewer resources for hospitals to stay open and pay their staffs.

And one other thing: Even if you don't have Medicaid or even ACA, your premiums are likely to go up because of all these changes in healthcare.

The second of five of the worst things in the Senate bill is clean energy jobs.

Senate Republicans spent weeks promising they would ease the clean energy cuts passed by the House, but the Senate Republican energy package is a total head fake. It is not real. The cuts in the Senate clean energy bill are every bit as destructive as the House proposal. It phases out tax credits for wind and solar projects within 6 months.

An estimated 850,000 people in the clean energy industry would lose their jobs. Add that to the million or more who will lose their jobs in healthcare and the hundreds of thousands who will lose jobs in other areas. Guess what. When you lose 2 million-plus jobs, you are heading towards a recession. Is that what our Republican colleagues want to do--all to help their billionaires? Billionaires won't mind if there is a recession. They have a big cushion. But what about working families? It will be harder to get a job, harder to keep a job, harder to pay for increased costs. It is amazing what they are doing.

And, to boot, these energy cuts are going to surrender U.S. energy independence to China. Solar is the quickest, cheapest way to put new electrons on the grid. You cut it out, China will dominate, and they will then dominate the world in terms of solar, and they will have the American consumer at their behest. And if you think they are going to charge the Chinese people the same they are going to charge American people, forget it.

Even worse, while the Republicans are gutting clean energy, they are giving special tax breaks to the oil and gas companies. Oil and gas will be the one industry that doesn't have to pay the alternative minimum tax. Is that incredible? So they don't like tax breaks for solar, but tax breaks for the oil companies are great? That is not an all-of-the-above strategy, which so many of my colleagues talk about.

Let's not forget that AI has huge energy demands. It is going to push up the costs for Americans. So why cut off the fastest growing, cheapest, and quickest to construct source of energy, which is solar? It is all ideological. It is beyond rational economics even by the Republicans who love fossil fuels.

It is simply that these rightwing billionaires from Texas and Oklahoma who made a fortune in the Permian Basin, the Anadarko Basin, et cetera, hate clean energy because they know it is the future, and Republicans, at the cost to hundreds of millions of Americans, are bowing down in obeisance to them.

Third--and this one is very important because it has not gotten the attention it deserves--the Senate bill somehow manages to cater even more to the radical gun lobby than the House.

For those who may have missed it, and many did, in the House bill, Republicans snuck a devious provision that reverses a century of safety rules on silencers. We know that silencers are used by people who don't want people to know they have a gun--not by police, not by average citizens, but by criminals. People who go shoot up, mass shootings-- they don't want people to hear their shots. And in one case, it is known that they used a silencer to kill more people.

But Senate Republicans go even beyond that. Refusing to be outdone by

their House colleagues, they made it even worse in a dramatic way. They decided to drop regulation and background checks on not only silencers but shotguns and rifles. For 100 years, we have had these laws on the books for gun safety. This is stunning, terrifying, and just totally idiotic.

To the extreme Republicans who slipped these gun provisions into their bill, shame on you. Shame on you for putting the gun lobby over the lives of kids. Shame on you for endangering our families and law enforcement. Shame on you for adding fuel to America's gun epidemic.

As many of you know, I am the author of the Brady Law. I got it passed in the House in 1994, as well as the assault weapons ban. It was always a tradition--not shotguns, not rifles. That is broken by this extreme and dangerous provision that the Senate has added to the bill.

We are going to fight this provision and the provisions on silencers with everything we have got, including in the Byrd bath process, where we believe this provision has no right to be in a reconciliation bill. It is not a revenue raiser. It is policy. It should be knocked out.

Fourth, the Senate bill took House Republican attacks on our courts and dialed them up even more.

Right now, the Trump administration is losing in court about 95 percent of the time when its actions are challenged as unlawful. There are so many actions that the Trump administration is doing that are unlawful, and they are losing. And it is not just liberal or Democratic-chosen judges who are knocking these things out, a lot of them are Republican judges, and a good number are Trump-appointed judges. But they are doing their job. They are obeying the law. They are telling the Trump administration: You cannot break the law.

Right now, because Trump is losing 95 percent of the cases, even from his own appointed judges, he is defying the courts with more and more frequency. And Republicans in Congress want to codify the Trump administration's attacks on the courts.

The House bill, for those who remember, would have prevented courts from enforcing their injunctions if plaintiffs didn't put up massive security bonds. The Senate bill goes even further, remarkably and disgustingly enough. The Senate Republican bill wants to prevent courts from even issuing injunctions against the Federal Government in the first place if plaintiffs don't put up massive security bonds. In other words, Senate Republicans want to turn our justice system into pay to play. If you can't put up the money upfront, then no injunctive relief against the abuses of the Federal Government even though those abuses are at a record high. It is a naked attack on checks and balances, a disturbing escalation against judicial independence.

Finally, debt and taxes--a subject we are focusing on this week.

Senate Republicans, through their proposal, want to pass some of the largest cuts for the ultrarich in American history and then ruin our children's financial future by making these tax cuts permanent.

If Republicans make Trump's tax cuts permanent, our children and grandchildren will be condemned to a lifetime of higher interest rates, higher costs, and diminished potential.

Why are Republicans doing all of this? Well, we know what their North Star is--tax cuts for billionaires. They tie themselves in knots, they do terrible damage to their constituents in so many ways, all so they can give tax breaks to the wealthy.

This is the big difference between Republicans and Democrats: Democrats believe in lowering taxes for working families and the middle class--parents raising their kids, small business owners trying to grow. Republicans, meanwhile, believe in helping those at the very, very top, even at the cost of dooming our children and grandchildren to a lifetime of debt that Republicans only selectively care about. They believe that helping billionaires and big corporations is somehow going to make everyone better off. That has never worked.

When you put it all together, the Senate version of Donald Trump's ``Big Ugly Bill'' is even worse than the House's. It makes even deeper cuts to healthcare. It destroys American clean energy. It raises costs on working and middle-class families. And it rewards those at the very top at the expense of all the rest of us.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, first, about safety and the Capitol and our meeting today that Senator Thune and I called.

First, I would like to say that the Capitol Police have always been the silent heroes behind the scenes, keeping Members safe. That is no secret. The country saw that for themselves on January 6 and in the footage after, and they are doing a good job. We had a very good meeting where Members

brought up their concerns, and efforts--strong efforts--are going to be made to answer those concerns with expanded--expanded--activity by the Capitol Police. But after the awful situation this weekend, there is real concern, not just here in the Capitol but with folks across the country, about the safety of elected officials.

These violent acts are an attack not just on the individuals who were targeted but on our democracy itself. Public servants should never have to fear for their lives simply for doing their jobs. There should not be an attempt to intimidate public servants not do their jobs or not to take their jobs. So we need to take immediate steps to ensure the safety of Members. That includes sending additional funding and resources to the Capitol Police. There was agreement today in the Senate, among Democrats and Republicans, that we ought to be spending some more dollars here to protect the Capitol, the Senators, and their staffs.

But it is amazing. Instead, the Trump administration is doing the exact opposite. USA Today reported that, as lone actor attacks are on the rise, Donald Trump had cut the program called AIMED at spotting them. This program is aimed to spot lone-actor, violent, domestic extremists--exactly what happened in Minnesota.

The day before a violent political attack in Minnesota

[occurred], the last top officials at a program that aims to

spot so-called ``lone actor'' violent domestic extremists

were reassigned to other roles.

And that is USA Today's reporting.

In the 4 months since Trump took office, his administration has shrunk the Department of Homeland Security's Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships, known as CP3, from dozens of analysts and supervisors. Now it has fewer than 10 people, and it is led by a 22- year-old recent graduate with no law enforcement experience. Here we have more violent attacks, and at the same time, the Trump administration is cutting the very unit in law enforcement that is supposed to go after these lone-wolf, violent attacks and prevent them. Right now, we need to give law enforcement more resources to prevent these horrific attacks, not less. A program in charge of doing these things shouldn't have fewer than 10 people and be led by a 22-year-old with no experience.

What I am saying here, that this program has been cut dramatically-- the AIMED Program--will reverberate among everybody who wants a safer America and should reverberate among all elected officials, Democrat and Republican, about the need to keep this program.

So we need to give more resources to law enforcement, but let me be clear: This dangerous environment isn't spontaneous. It is being stoked, often deliberately, by the reckless rhetoric coming from some of the most powerful voices in the country.

When political opponents are treated like enemies, danger follows. And that is what Trump has done. He has weaponized the Justice Department and law enforcement. It is going after his political enemies instead of going after criminals.

It is the responsibility of all leaders, especially the President of the United States, to not just unequivocally condemn hatred but to stop violent and aggressive language against political opponents.

Trump has to see that his words have real impact and consequences, and here is one way he could start right now: He could demand of Senator Lee that he take down his inflammatory, despicable posts about the deaths of the two people in Minnesota. They are gross. They are disgusting. They are the kind of thing that just riles people up.

Let Trump call Lee up and say: Take them down. Take those posts down.

That will be a start. But in general, he has to stop treating his political opponents as enemies because danger will always follow.

Mr. President, on reconciliation, last night, on the Senate Finance Committee, the Republicans released their portion of Donald Trump's ``Big Ugly Bill,'' his big ugly betrayal, and--it is hard to believe-- it is even worse than expected.

After Senate Republicans spent weeks promising they were going to moderate the House bill, they did just the opposite. They turned an ugly House bill into an outright travesty.

Senate Republicans should reject the proposals of the Finance Committee and start over, because if they proceed, they will harm tens of millions of Americans, kill millions of good-paying jobs, raise prices up on the average American, and help China.

Let's go over these lowlights, starting with healthcare.

The House bill already had the biggest cuts to Medicaid in American history. They are regarded as devastating. But the Senate version is even worse than the House version. It is the House bill on steroids. The Medicaid cuts are deeper, reach further, and the redtape is even longer than what House Republicans came up with.

Under the Senate bill, tens of millions of Americans will lose health insurance, including working moms and dads. More hospitals will close, especially rural hospitals.

And I tell my colleagues: That is mainly in red States.

These rural hospitals are often the only way people get healthcare in the rural communities, and they are often the largest employer in the States as well.

Under their bill, doctors will lose their jobs. Nurses will lose their jobs. States will carry more and more of the burden, with fewer and fewer resources, which means cutbacks.

Premiums will go up. What the average American pays for healthcare will inevitably go up, even if you don't have Medicare or Medicaid.

I know there are a number of Senate Republicans who were worried about the Medicaid cuts passed by the House, but because the Senate package is even worse, I urge these Republicans to forcefully reject this proposal quickly. We know that if only three or four Republicans went to Leader Thune and said, ``We can't vote for this bill with these Medicaid cuts,'' some of the cuts, at least, would be eliminated.

If they go along with this package--anyone who goes along with this package--they will be responsible for stealing healthcare from millions of their own constituents. That is true of Democrats and Republicans.

Now, what about clean energy jobs? Remember how the Senate Republicans spent weeks promising they would ease clean energy cuts passed by the House?

Well, the Senate Republican clean energy package is a total head fake. That is all it is. They are trying to act like they got better, but they didn't. No matter what the Senate Republicans try to say about improving the House bill, the underlying substance did not change.

The Senate clean energy bill cuts are every bit as destructive as the House Republicans'. It phases out tax credits for wind and solar projects within 6 months.

These phaseouts are a death sentence for clean energy. Wind and solar represent more than 90 percent of the new electric power in the United States. It is the quickest, cheapest way to bring power.

What do Republicans think will happen when they raise taxes on 90 percent of our new electricity?

They are going to send electric bills soaring. They are going to kill good-paying clean energy jobs, and an estimated 850,000 people in the clean energy industry will lose their jobs. And they are going to surrender U.S. energy independence to China, which will leap ahead of us in wind and solar and dominate the world markets. American consumers will be at the behest of the Chinese Communist Party leaders, in terms of what they pay for electricity.

And these cuts will choke America's energy output, right as we need to expand our capacity. We all know AI is going to demand huge amounts of electricity, and yet we cut off the quickest, cheapest way to add energy.

Many on the other side say: all of the above.

This is not all of the above. This is just taking the most polluting, most expensive, most time-consuming way of producing energy. That is what it allows. It takes away the rest.

Eighty percent of the clean energy investments, we know, have been in Republican districts. But Senate Republicans are going to shift those jobs overseas. For anyone who votes for this bill and has clean energy facilities in their States, they are going to close those factories, limit those factories, and send the jobs to China--just the opposite of what Trump says he wants to do.

The bad news keeps coming. The Senate proposal does nothing to moderate the House SNAP benefits. It is still the biggest cut to SNAP in history, depriving millions of kids and parents of vital food assistance.

Senate Republicans have even found a way to bow down to the radical gun lobby. Remember the House bill already had an insane provision that deregulated commonsense rules on silencers that go back almost a century? But Senate Republicans, refusing to be outdone by their extreme House colleagues, removed registration requirements not just for silencers but for short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, and other devices.

This is unhinged. Shame on Senate Republicans for choosing the gun lobby over the lives of our kids. Their proposal will mean gun violence will rise, police officers will be put at risk, and innocent people will die.

Finally, why are Republicans doing all of this? What is their North Star? Tax cuts for billionaires, paid for by working families.

Here is the big difference, folks, between Democrats and Republicans: Democrats believe in lowering taxes, but we need to prioritize Americans who aren't ultrarich: working families, the middle class, parents raising their kids, and small business owners trying to grow.

But Republicans, meanwhile, believe in giving most of the help to the people at the very top. They believe that helping billionaires and big corporations is somehow going to make everyone better off. It has never worked. Trickle down is discredited. They cling to it because they are in the obeisance of a handful of very greedy billionaires who seem to run the Republican Party on economic issues.

Under their proposal, the top 0.1 percent of our earners will get an average tax cut of $400,000. But families earning less than $75,000 will be worse off. They will actually lose household wealth. Under $75,000, you lose wealth. The top 0.1 percent, you gain an average cut of $400,000.

Do the American people like that? The more they know, the less they like.

When you put it all together, the Senate Republican's version of Donald Trump's ``Big Ugly Bill'' is even worse than the House's. It makes even deeper cuts to healthcare. It destroys American clean energy. It raises costs on working and middle-class families, and rewards the billionaires at the very top of the economic ladder.

Mr. President, I have a few more things to say.

On abortion, next week marks a very grim anniversary in America: 3 years since the disastrous Dobbs decision. Three years later, 21 States have restricted the right to choose, and 14 States have practically total abortion bans.

And what is the Republicans' response? They want to keep going and attack reproductive care even more.

Deep inside the Republicans' ``Big, Ugly Betrayal Bill,'' they have snuck in a backdoor abortion ban. First, they have a provision that would defund Planned Parenthood. Second, they have a provision to eliminate coverage for comprehensive reproductive care from the marketplace.

Senate Democrats will fight these devastating and deadly measures with everything we have got, including through the Byrd bath--both provisions have to go through the Byrd bath--because here are the consequences of the Republican provisions: 200 Planned Parenthood health centers in 24 States would close, and 90 percent of these closures would be in States where abortion is currently legal. So much for State's rights--not when it comes to abortion or guns with this Republican Party.

Why are they doing this? Well, part of it is ideological, and part of it is to fund tax cuts for billionaires. It is an assault not just on Planned Parenthood, not just on reproductive care but on every woman in America.

Democrats will fight these backdoor abortion bans with every fiber of our being.

Mr. President, finally, on Senator Padilla's speech--I see he has just come into the Chamber.

Today, at 12:30, our colleague Senator Padilla will speak on the Senate floor for the first time since he was forcibly removed from a public briefing just for doing his job.

I will be here on the floor to listen to Senator Padilla's speech. I encourage all of my colleagues--Democrat and Republican--to come and listen as well.

What Senator Padilla experienced last week sickened all of us to our core--sickened every decent American to their core. No Senator should be treated the way he was--manhandled, taken to the ground, and handcuffed.

It is not a moment for partisanship. Oh, no, it is about all Senators supporting a colleague who was treated inexcusably for doing his job.

I look forward to hearing Senator Padilla's speech later, and I encourage all of my colleagues to do the same.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, last night, law enforcement apprehended the man suspected in the assassination of Minnesota State Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband and the shootings of State Senator John Hoffman and his wife.

We in the Senate thank our law enforcement for their remarkable work in bringing the attacker into custody. As we have all seen, the attacker planned to continue his killing spree had he not been thwarted and had a list of over 70 public officials potentially targeted for violence, including Members of the Senate. Naturally, a number of Members in the Senate remain profoundly shaken. The victims were friends of our colleagues from Minnesota. Some of them were together at a dinner the night before the shooting. To think that one moment, you can celebrate each other's company--laugh and joke, share a meal, a drink--only for violence to strike the next moment makes us all sick to our stomachs. It is haunting.

My prayers are with the families of the victims. I am heartbroken for the loss of Representative Hortman and her husband. I can't get their faces--those nice pictures of such nice people--out of my mind.

On the other hand, I am glad to hear Senator Hoffman and his wife are making progress toward recovery. May God bless them all and their loved ones.

Now, Mr. President, as we convene, I want to start with this: My highest priority right now is working with the Senate leadership on both sides, the Senate Sergeant at Arms, and Capitol Police to ensure everyone's safety. This weekend, I asked Capitol Police and the Sergeant at Arms to increase the security for Members, including Senator Padilla and the Minnesota Senators. Knowing that the Sergeant at Arms, her entire operation, and the Capitol Police are there to help us right now is comforting.

Tomorrow, the Senate will hold an all-Members' briefing, organized at my request and that of Senator Thune, with the Sergeant at Arms, to talk about security for Members. The Sergeant at Arms and Capitol Police are doing an outstanding job and have bent over backwards, under very difficult circumstances, to keep everyone safe. Tomorrow's briefing will be a chance for them to convey what they are doing for Members to keep them safe.

Mr. President, second, I would like to take a moment and step back and share a quick word on the events of this weekend--the good and the bad alike.

On one hand, this weekend we witnessed one of the largest peaceful demonstrations in American history. Nearly 5 million Americans took to the streets and made their voices heard against the rise of authoritarianism on our shores. I was proud to be one of them. We gathered in the streets. We gathered in front of State capitols. We gathered on beaches and at national parks and in cities and towns, big and small alike. For the most part, the demonstrations were peaceful. In some cities, there were acts of unlawful disruption, and those who broke the law should be held accountable. I have always been clear that the right to free speech is fundamental but must be exercised peacefully.

But, again, for the most part, the millions who marched this weekend did so peacefully. In many cities, there wasn't a single incidence of lawbreaking. In fact, the demonstrations were much more than just simply peaceful; they were inspiring. After all the attacks we have seen this year against our institutions and our values, it is so comforting to know that the roots of democracy run deep in this country; and even though we may disagree fiercely, the marches remind us we can stand up for our country and our democracy while still keeping the peace.

What happened in Minnesota, however, should be a warning. Political violence is not just on the rise in America; it is becoming all too normal, and it falls on all of us to stop it. When lawmakers are shot in their own homes, when a Governor's mansion is set ablaze, when the spouse of a Speaker of the House is nearly beaten to death, when a violent mob storms the U.S. Capitol, and when a gunman tries to assassinate the President of the United States, it is not enough to just condemn these acts and move on. We need to recognize something needs to change. Condemning violence is only the first step-- necessary--but a first step. We must all work together to address violence's root causes. We must take a serious look at the toxic forces that are radicalizing too many Americans into embracing violence.

Most of all, when violence strikes, the answer is for us to come together regardless of party. That is especially important for U.S. Senators. Sadly, we didn't see that this weekend. I wish I didn't have to say this, but I was deeply disappointed and sickened to see a Member of this Chamber use the tragedy in Minnesota to take cheap, political shots at the other side on social media and risk escalating a perilous moment. What the senior Senator from Utah posted after the shootings was reckless and beneath the dignity of his office. For a Senator to fan the flames of division with falsities while the killer was still on the loose is deeply irresponsible. He should take down his post immediately and apologize to the families of the victims.

And this isn't even about politics. This is about simple human decency. Our divisions run deep, but we are still all Americans. We may disagree sometimes, many times, maybe most of the time, but we are still human beings. The victims this weekend--no matter what party they belonged to--still leave behind kids who now will never speak to their parents ever again.

So I say to my colleagues: Now is the time to speak with moral clarity. Every single one of us must condemn political violence no matter where it comes from and work together to eradicate its root causes.

We cannot be silent because silence only serves to enable more violence. And in the meantime, I will continue to work with Leader Thune, with the Capitol Police, the Sergeant at Arms, and all of my colleagues to ensure the safety of every Senator and our staffs.

This is a dark moment for America, but I believe firmly in my bones we will endure.

Mr. President, now, on Senator Padilla, what happened last week to Senator Padilla was beyond the pale. I don't care who you are or what your views are, there is never justification for Federal agents to put their hands on a Member of the U.S. Senate, throw him onto the ground, and cuff him for no reason other than he was doing his job. The way agents treated Senator Padilla is what you see in totalitarian regimes.

It is outrageous that Secretary Noem let this happen and then lied about the incident after the fact. Neither the Senate, nor any member of government, can tolerate a Member of this Chamber being treated in this way. Secretary Noem has proven herself to be derelict in her responsibilities.

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, I don't often agree with the conservative Wall Street Journal editorial board, but they had it right this morning in their op-ed. They said:

Trump Has No China Trade Strategy.

That is what The Wall Street Journal said.

Trump Has No China Trade Strategy.

I agree, Trump has no China trade strategy.

Yesterday, President Trump shouted from the mountaintops that a trade deal with China has been ``done,'' but in reality, nothing of the sort happened.

It is typical Trump. He just makes things up that he thinks please himself and please his rightwing for the moment. In truth, Donald Trump struck a feeble truce and calls it a victory.

In fact, calling this a ``truce,'' calling it ``feeble'' would be putting it kindly. Donald Trump's actions with China and the handshake yesterday accomplished virtually nothing. China has outfoxed him, and we are just back where we started.

After months of Donald Trump trying to talk tough on China, China today has more leverage over the United States than when Trump started on this venture. Donald Trump's trade war has been a colossal failure and a chaotic mess, with virtually nothing to show for it.

Donald Trump should go back to the drawing board and start over and come up with a plan that actually goes after China, by joining with our allies instead of going to war with them, by having them be allies with us to put pressure on China. And that will make action against China much tougher and more successful, instead of what Trump did, alienating our allies and having them ally with China instead of us.

And Donald Trump should tell Mr. Navarro to get another job. This man has had terrible advice, in Donald Trump's first term and now in Donald Trump's second term.

Two months since America's supposed ``Liberation Day,'' it is clear that Donald Trump's trade strategy is not working, and his main problem is that he doesn't have a coherent strategy at all. Donald Trump's only move seems to be creating chaos. It is as if he wakes up in the morning and picks a country out of a hat. It just pops into his head, and he runs with it--no strategy, no coherence, no understanding or appreciation of what occurred the day before or might occur the day after. He has turned markets manic, and he has paralyzed business.

Business leaders you talk to, from one end of America to the other-- big business, medium-size business, small business--say they are paralyzed. They can't move because they don't know what he is going to do next on tariffs. And given how erratic and inconsistent he has been, who can blame them.

One Kentucky small business owner, a Trump supporter who runs a baseball goods company, described this trade war as ``a vacation from hell.'' To millions of American businesses, that is exactly what has happened. This is a vacation from hell, self-imposed by Donald Trump.

As the summer break begins, and families start traveling around the country, that is exactly what Americans are feeling as well: a vacation from hell, thanks to Donald Trump's tariff policies.