Floor Statements

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.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

Mr. President, on SNAP cuts, after Senate Republicans spent weeks promising they would moderate the extreme policies in Donald Trump's Big Beautiful Bill, last night, they doubled down. The Senate Agriculture Committee released the text of their portion of the bill, and the cuts to food assistance are as cruel, harmful, and as extreme as what came out of the House. They gave it a fresh coat of paint and pretended it is somehow more moderate, when, in reality, it is not.

What happened to all of those Republicans--the Senate Republicans-- who said they wanted to moderate the House's SNAP cuts?

The plan they came up with is the House bill's evil twin with a slightly nicer suit. It would still be the most aggressive cuts to food assistance in American history--hundreds of billions in cuts, just as punitive as when it came out of the House.

Eight million Americans--3 million children and seniors--would be in danger of losing benefits. States would still carry the burden in a way they never had to before. And Republican State Governors are going to start complaining; let me assure our Republican colleagues.

Under the Senate plan, a State like North Carolina could be penalized $438 million in 2028. States have to balance their budgets. A blow like this would be crippling, forcing States to make impossible decisions about who gets to keep their food benefits and who will be forced to go hungry.

I urge Senate Republicans to throw this latest plan away. It is not moderate at all. Again, the Senate's SNAP

proposal is basically the House version proposal's evil twin, dressed in a slightly nicer suit.

And one other thing, to take food out of the mouths of hungry kids, all they want is to fill their little tummies and give it in tax cuts to billionaires--how perverse, how cruel, even vicious--even vicious. And then they come up with these shibboleths: Oh, people aren't working. Oh, people are cheating.

They have no proof. They just cut.

It is mean. It is against what our Scriptures teach us. And this-- feeding the hungry; giving drink to the poor, to the thirsty--should not be a political issue. It should not be a partisan issue. It should be a moral issue.

Mr. President, on guns, as we speak, Republicans are once again trying to jam through a reckless, extreme giveaway to the gun lobby, a provision that will endanger our kids, betray law enforcement, and lead to more gun deaths. Despite their so-called Big Beautiful Bill, Republicans snuck in a radical measure to reverse nearly a century--100 years--of commonsense gun rules on silencers.

Senate Democrats will fight this dangerous provision with every tool at our disposal, including trying to strike it in the Byrd bath.

Parents don't want silencers on their streets. Police don't want silencers on their streets. The only ones who do? The gun lobby. And that is exactly who this provision is written for.

Silencers have been used in mass killings, murders. Lawbreakers, they are the ones who want silencers. And they have been used in targeted assassinations, in crimes where bystanders didn't even know gunshots had been fired, until it was too late.

There is nothing common sense about making these deadly devices easier to buy, easier to make, easier to use in crimes.

To the extreme Republicans--they are extremists these days--who slipped this silencer sneak attack into their bill: Shame on you. Shame on you for putting the gun lobby over the lives of our kids. Shame on you for endangering families and law enforcement.

All the law enforcement people I speak to don't want this Republican proposal because they know that the people who want silencers are the criminals who our brave police and others are fighting.

Shame on you, Republican rightwing and all the Republicans, even when they know they are wrong, who go along with that rightwing for adding fuel to America's gun epidemic.

As I said, police departments across America have been clear: Silencers make their jobs harder, delaying response times, making it harder to catch criminals, harder to solve gun crimes, and, yes, easier for criminals to get away with murder. You cannot call yourself pro-law enforcement while voting to put more silencers in criminals' hands.

If Republicans get their way, it will be open season for criminals with silencers. Senate Democrats will fight this provision at the parliamentary level and at every other level with everything we have got.

Mr. President, on the IRS nomination today, this one is another doozy. Senate Republicans want to put a tax fraudster in charge of the

I ask consent to address the Chamber for 20 seconds.

Mr. President, I just saw something that sickened my stomach--the manhandling of a U.S. Senator. We need immediate answers to what the hell went on.

I yield the floor.

I mentioned a few minutes ago, I had seen a video that sickened my stomach of a U.S. Senator being manhandled, we now know, by Federal agents and dragged out of a hearing room.

Now there is a second video that is even worse. He has been thrown to the ground--again, manhandled, brutally taken down, handcuffed. It was disgusting.

Anyone who looks at this--it will turn their stomach to look at this video and see what happened. It reeks--reeks--of totalitarianism. This is not what democracies do.

Senator Padilla was there legitimately in that building to ask questions of what is going on in California, which everybody wants to know answers to. We don't get answers when we ask the administration questions in one way or another. So Senator Padilla was exercising his duty as a Senator for his constituents to try and find out what happened and, instead, he gets manhandled, thrown out of the room, thrown on the ground, and handcuffed.

We need a full investigation immediately as to what happened and who did what and what is going to be done to see that this doesn't happen again to Senator Padilla or other American citizens who are seeking their right to redress. It is despicable; it is disgusting; it is so un-American--so un-American--and we need answers. We need answers immediately.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, Donald Trump's order mobilizing U.S. troops to an American city sets a dangerous precedent for our civil liberties. As I have said, violence is not the way to achieve justice. Freedom of speech is fundamental, but it must be exercised peacefully and lawfully. And the vast majority--the overwhelming majority of protests have been peaceful, and they are exercising their American right, their privilege, to peacefully protest. That has been with our country since its founding.

But sending troops to an American city against the wishes of local officials is outrageous, unnecessary, and reeks of authoritarianism. That is what authoritarian countries do.

Using troops on U.S. soil should only ever be used as an absolute last resort. The last time it happened without State consent was 60 years ago to protect civil rights heroes.

What Donald Trump is doing, rather, is spoiling for a fight. He wants chaos.

He would love any excuse to divert attention. And doing it this way is--he does it all the time. This is one of the most shameful, awful ways you can do it.

Our troops don't deserve to be exploited in this way, to be used as pawns in a nakedly political fight. It is a deep disservice to them and to all servicemembers and law enforcement who serve our country and protect our community.

And why is Donald Trump doing this? To divert attention. He knows that his ``Big Ugly Bill'' is highly unpopular with the American people. The more they learn about it, the more they hate it. He knows he has got big trouble with his fight with his erstwhile friend Musk. He knows that the tariffs are hurting the American people. So he seeks to divert attention. That is his MO. But what it does is create chaos. And the American people don't like chaos.

And so I urge the President to immediately reverse course at once, remove all of the troops and the marines, and let local law enforcement do their jobs to keep the peace, as the Governor of California and the mayor of Los Angeles said they are perfectly capable of doing.

Mr. President, when Republican Congressmen went home after voting for their Big Beautiful Bill, they got a lot of flak from people back home because the more Americans look at this, quote, ``Big Beautiful Bill,'' the more they realize it is an ugly mess.

By now, we have heard from so many Republicans in the House saying they didn't like this provision, they didn't like that portion of the bill. Some say it cuts Medicaid too deep. Some say it adds too much to the debt. Some say they didn't even get to read the bill, and particularly the energy provisions, clean energy provisions--very popular, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs, reducing our dependence on China--was done in the dark of night at the last minute so it virtually kills clean energy tax credits that have been so popular in this country.

The bottom line is this, though, a Congressman's core power is the power to vote. That is what the Constitution gave them. And House Republicans who say they don't like the bill should exercise that power today.

They have a unique opportunity to make the very changes they have been talking about for weeks. Because of technical mistakes that we Democrats pointed out, the Republicans have to take their bill back and not send it over here until they make those technical corrections.

But if even a handful of Republican Congressmen who say they don't like this provision or that provision vote no until those other provisions, those much more serious provisions are changed, they could get it done. They could stop the vicious cuts to Medicaid. They could stop the closures of rural hospitals. They could restore the clean energy tax credits and save jobs in their own districts. Remember, at least 70 percent of those clean energy projects are in red States.

Whatever policy they told the people back home they didn't like, they can now change it. It is a golden opportunity. If House Republicans mean what they say--those who say they don't like the bill, this part of it or that part of it--if they truly want to change the bill, now this is their chance. This is the golden key, Republicans in the House. You have a chance--a real chance--to change the bill. It is in your hands. But don't go home and tell your constituents you are really against this provision if you don't act on it.

This vote will show whether House Republicans are actually worried about the cuts to SNAP, to Medicaid, to Medicare, to clean energy jobs like they claimed or if it was just empty talk.

House Republicans vote no, and you can change the bill for the better, but if you go along and vote yes after all that complaining, you will show people back home that when push comes to shove, you will cave to Donald Trump.

Mr. President, on climate, this week Republicans continue their tortured efforts to ram Donald Trump's Big Beautiful Bill through the Senate. Now some Senate Republicans are starting to balk at the fact that their bill is a clean job killer. It virtually ends all of the tax credits that we gave to wind, solar, and other clean energy.

If Senate Republicans have any desire to lower energy costs and avoid shipping energy jobs overseas, they should hit the eject button on this Big Beautiful Bill and start over. Experts from across the political spectrum are starting to agree that Donald Trump's bill is far too radical and deeply flawed and, to boot, it was passed in the dark of night, where many Republicans didn't know what is in it, and a few even admitted that publicly.

On jobs, their bill would kill over 800,000 good-paying clean energy jobs by 2030 alone. That would be a disaster for the economy, just as clean energy is taking off. These jobs will last for generations. Clean energy tax credits made them possible, and 85 percent of the investment generated by these credits have gone to red States.

Did you hear that, Republican colleagues? If Republicans proceed with the bill, they will put Americans out of work in their own States, and the American people, and these workers in particular, are starting to see it.

Just last week, a battery plant in South Carolina paused a billion- dollar project because of ``policy uncertainty''--in other words, because of Republican sabotage.

And the closure in South Carolina is a canary in the coal mine if there ever was one. If Donald Trump's bill passes, more jobs disappear.

And talk about costs, it is going to add $32 billion on household energy costs.

And, today, we got the news that Donald Trump's bill is worse than we thought. Americans will now pay up to $170 billion--not $32 billion-- more on energy.

Let me say that again: $170 billion more for the American consumer to pay on electric bills, for small business to pay on electric bills.

Republicans, because they just want to so embrace the radical, anti- clean energy, fossil fuel group, they will raise American's costs by a dramatic amount.

They also make us dependent on China. China is gaining in solar energy. If we cut it off, China will dominate the world, and our children and grandchildren will be at China's behest.

It will push about $80 billion in solar and battery manufacturing jobs overseas--more jobs in Chengdu, fewer in Cleveland and Charleston.

We all know that AI and crypto are going to cause American energy demand to spike in the coming years. Why the heck would you cut off one of the sources? There are many who say: all of the above. OK. But why cut off one part of that ``all of the above'' because the radicals--not the mainstream, but the radicals--in the fossil fuel industry are almost religious in their hatred of clean energy because they know it is the future and will eventually displace them.

And that is why, this week, I have been working 24/7 with so many different people--whether it is workers or companies or Governors--to spread the word on how bad this is and ask all of America: If you don't like these provisions, if you think you will lose your job, if you think it will raise your costs, call your Republican Senator and tell him to change it.

Most of the Republicans didn't like it to begin with, but it was rushed through in the dark of night.

Mr. President, finally, on the IRS nomination, Mr. Long at the IRS would be a gut punch to the American taxpayer. It is clear to anyone with a pulse that Long was only suggested to run the IRS because of his long-time fealty to Trump. We all know that Donald Trump prioritizes loyalty over experience, but even by the President's standards, Long is a shockingly bad nominee.

Ideally, at the very least, you want the person in charge of collecting Federal taxes to be independent, qualified, and free of scandal. When it comes to independent, qualified, and free of scandal, Long is 0 for 3. He is neither independent nor qualified nor free from scandal. His only quality for the job is his fealty to Donald Trump.

During his time in Congress, Long didn't amass any credible tax experience. He didn't serve on the Ways and Means Committee, never authored a single original piece of legislation, and

instead advocated for the IRS to investigate his political opponents.

And after leaving Congress, Long lined his pocket in the tax scam industry, where he peddled fake tax credits and took advantage of small businesses.

The American people don't want the IRS to be run by a tax cheat. They don't want the IRS to be motivated by politics. They don't want an IRS that looks out only for the ultrawealthy. So the Senate should reject Mr. Long's nominations.

I thank leader Thune for his courtesy in letting me go ahead.

I yield the floor.

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

Mr. President, from the moment Donald Trump entered the public sphere, he has thrived on division and diversion. He fans the flames of chaos, then pretends to be the firefighter--always looking for someone else to blame for the infernos he helps ignite--all in an attempt to divert Americans away from his many failures.

Now Donald Trump, cornered by his own failures from pushing a heartless bill that would rip healthcare away from 16 million Americans and raise costs from his reckless tariffs war, to waging war with Elon Musk--Trump is desperately seeking a distraction. His order to deploy the National Guard and Marines--our own troops on Americans--is not just outrageous and provocative; it is a dangerous authoritarian overreach that threatens the very fabric of our democracy. This isn't leadership; it is provocation.

To be very clear, violent protest is not the answer for achieving the work of justice--full stop. Protests must remain peaceful, and law and order must be maintained, but let me emphasize: Deploying federalized troops without a State's consent hasn't happened in over 60 years, and when it did, it was to protect civil rights heroes who were marching for justice in Selma, AL. That moment was about progress. This one is about power and intimidation.

We must all stand up and say loud and clear: America will not be bullied into submission by a President who confuses strength with force and democracy with domination.

Americans don't deserve more fear, more division, more chaos. The President is using the military not to protect the people but to silence them. He is playing politics with the lives of our troops and the safety of our citizens. It is shameful. It is unlawful. It is deeply un-American. Once again, President Trump is choosing chaos over competence and division over democracy.

We must all stand up and say loud and clear: America will not be bullied into submission by a President who confuses strength with force and democracy with domination.

The only consequence of Donald Trump's order of sending troops to Los Angeles is chaos, and Americans don't like it. Instead of deescalating, Donald Trump is pouring fuel into a fire, hoping for an explosion to distract from what he is really doing. President Trump should call back the National Guard and the Marines immediately and leave the work of law enforcement to the Governor and the mayor who are more than capable of keeping order without escalation.

Finally, Mr. President, let me repeat: As Donald Trump orders troops to Los Angeles, he is working here in Washington to steal healthcare from tens of millions of Americans. He is pushing a billionaire tax cut that will explode the debt and sink America's economic future. He is letting DOGE run Social Security to the ground. He is spiking costs for everyday Americans through his reckless tariffs war, and Donald Trump hopes that nobody is paying attention.

Mr. President, on reconciliation, Republicans continue their tortured effort to ram Donald Trump's ``Big Ugly Betrayal'' through Congress. In the

last few days, Senate Democrats have made the argument that the House Republican bill does not meet the requirements for privilege, and now Republicans have conceded that that is true. So the bill will have to be changed by House Republicans so it can meet privilege requirements.

This presents those Republicans who say they don't like parts of the bill with an unexpected opportunity. Now they have a chance to stand up and vote for their constituents. Speaker Johnson will try to rush a package of technical changes through the House to fix their mistakes. Every House Republican, though, now has a chance to reassert their leverage and force the bill back to the drawing board until they secure the changes they want. They say they don't like parts of the bill. Now is their opportunity to change it--no more ducking. They have their vote, and House Republicans, who claim loudly that they don't like parts of the bill, should use it to protect their constituents from the awful results of this horrible betrayal bill.

Now, Mr. President, let's talk about the costs of the so-called Big Beautiful Bill and why every American is going to pay a lot more. Trump ran by saying he was going to fight inflation. He is passing a bill that is going to increase American costs.

Last week, Senate Democrats zeroed in on the way Donald Trump's ``Big Ugly Bill'' will rip away healthcare from tens of millions of Americans, at least 16 million Americans in total--no healthcare.

This week, Senate Democrats will focus on how Donald Trump's bill will kill millions of jobs and send costs spiking for tens of millions of families. If Donald Trump's Big Beautiful Bill passes, Americans will pay thousands more out-of-pocket for everything from healthcare to energy to even their mortgages.

It is not just cutting Medicaid; Republicans are taking a meat cleaver at the ACA too. Under this bill, the average healthcare costs for people on the ACA will go up $700 a year for over 20 million Americans. For New York families, it is much worse. New York couples covered through the ACA will pay $2,700 more a year--that is about $230 a month--$2,700 extra for New Yorkers just to make life better for the billionaire class. And it is not just Americans who have ACA who will see costs go up. If you have private insurance--if you don't even have Federal insurance or ACA--you could be paying hundreds more a year too.

Just about everyone's healthcare costs are going to go up. People don't like paying that high cost to health insurance, but they are going to pay more because of Donald Trump and what he wants to do to help his billionaire buddies. All the while, while that is happening, hundreds of thousands of healthcare jobs will be lost, with some projections estimating 850,000 jobs will be lost in the healthcare economy while billionaires get more tax breaks.

Here is another fact: We are talking a lot about energy and clean energy and the cheapest way to produce new energy. Well, if the Big Beautiful Bill--so-called--becomes law, the average family's energy costs will go up $400 in the upcoming years. Starting next year, average electricity prices will go up by 10 percent.

Hear that, America? You don't like it when your utility bill goes up? Well, Donald Trump and his rightwing ideologues are making it go up further because Donald Trump and the oil magnates he hangs around harbor a deranged hatred of clean energy, and they want to raise taxes on clean energy. Clean energy is the cheapest way to produce new energy. Solar is cheaper than any other way, and they are cutting it off, and that is going to raise your price on the cost of your energy bill, ladies and gentlemen, all Americans.

What is more, in addition to raising your energy prices, what they are doing is projected to cost our economy an additional 800,000 jobs. Between healthcare jobs and energy jobs--millions of good-paying jobs to be killed by the bill--some economists I have spoken to say the job losses could push us into a recession.

Even many Republicans know this would be destructive, but they need to speak up and use their leverage. Republicans who claim to fight for jobs and families back home should oppose any proposal that makes energy costs go up.

It is amazing. Here, even Trump and his people say we need a lot more new energy for AI, et cetera, and then they cut off the quickest, cheapest, easiest way to produce new energy. Why? Because the rightwing fossil fuel magnates in Trump's ear hate clean energy because they know it is the future. They know. They know that oil, gas, and coal are not the future, and, yet, they try to kill it.

Also, if the Republican bill becomes law, homeowners could see an extra $600 to $1,200 a year through higher interest rates on their home loans.

Last week, the CBO estimated that the Republican billionaire tax cuts would add $2.4 trillion to the debt over the next decade. When you consider the cost of increased debt service, this rotten bill will add $3 trillion to the debt over the next decade, and that is going to make it harder for Americans to buy a home, to buy a car, to start a business--dooming the middle class to a lifetime of higher rates.

And let's not forget the insurance prices as well. Insurance rates are going up for many people in many areas, particularly coastal areas, and now this Trump bill will make that worse because we are cutting off clean energy. It doesn't make much sense. Many people can't sell their houses or buy a house because flood and tornado insurance have raised the cost of insurance. And here we go again: cut off clean energy, make it worse, make people's insurance costs go up further.

So Elon Musk, as wrong as he is on so many things, says this bill is dangerous. Do you hear that, Republicans? Elon Musk, whom you guys are supposed to love, says the bill is dangerous.

So, when you step back and look at the big picture, there is nothing beautiful about the Republican bill. If Senate Republicans pass this heaping pile of legislative junk, it is not going to grow the economy; it is not going to help the middle class; it is not going to help working families climb the ladder. All it is going to do is make families pay more while billionaires pay less.