Floor Statements

Mr. President, tomorrow, President Trump will address a joint meeting of Congress for the first time since taking the oath of office. It is my honor--my true honor--to welcome seven incredible New Yorkers tomorrow who will tell the story of what is under threat by Donald Trump's agenda, from Medicaid beneficiaries to disabled veterans fired from their jobs at the VA, to fired USDA workers, to home healthcare workers.

It will also be my profound honor to welcome Orna Neutra, mother of Omer Neutra, and Ruby Chen, father of Itay Chen, both who were tragically killed by vicious Hamas thugs on October 7.

Orna's son Omer was taken hostage by Hamas during the attacks on October 7. It wasn't until over a year later that Omer's family learned he was murdered by Hamas on October 7. Ruby's son Itay was also taken hostage and tragically murdered by Hamas on the border of Gaza on October 7.

After months of fighting for his return, Itay's family learned that he was also killed by Hamas on October 7. I spoke to Itay's dad and I spoke to Orna as well many times between October 7 and when they were notified that their children had been murdered.

It was vicious cruelty of Hamas for whom viciousness seems to be part of their way not to let the families know what had happened. Over and over again, especially Ruby Chen, whom I got to know well, and we had Brooklyn roots together, would wonder, Is he dead? Is he alive? Is he alive? Is he dead? And Hamas kept him dangling, as I said, viciously and cruelly.

What Omer and Itay's family have endured is beyond comprehension, but I am inspired by their perseverance, by their resolve to keep calling for the safe return of remaining hostages and for the return of the bodies of their loved ones. We must bring all the hostages home now. But it is an honor--a true honor--to welcome all of my guests, the Neutras, the Chens, and, of course, the others to the Capitol.

Mr. President, now, tomorrow, Americans can expect Donald Trump to say many things that are false, including, perhaps, Russian misinformation. What we will not hear from Donald Trump, however, is the truth.

So today let us speak the truth about Donald Trump's agenda. In a little over a month, Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and Republicans have set in motion the greatest transfer of wealth in favor of billionaires we have seen in modern times.

On the one hand, you have Elon Musk calling Social Security the greatest Ponzi scheme of all time; you have DOGE firing 7,000 staffers from the Social Security Administration; you have Donald Trump threatening trade wars with our own allies; and you have Republicans cutting $880 billion from Medicaid to pay for their billionaire tax cuts. Money that funds things like community health centers, money that funds people who desperately need healthcare, money that funds elderly parents of middle-aged couples whose parents are in nursing homes, all of that is at great risk.

Together, these actions will mean diminished wealth for working and middle-class Americans and more money in the pockets of the billionaires because, after all, when the wealthiest man on Earth calls Social Security a scam and DOGE fires 7,000 Social Security staffers, that is a clear sign Social Security benefits are in danger.

Donald Trump just said a few minutes ago that he was going to keep the tariffs against Canada and Mexico. When Donald Trump starts a trade war with Canada and Mexico, it means rising costs for produce, for groceries, for cars, even for ordering takeout and happy hour.

It is unbelievable what they are doing with these tariffs. It could mean that restaurant owners in States like mine could be forced to close down as food prices go up. It means that building new homes will be more expensive, and those costs will be passed down to would-be home buyers.

The bottom line is very simple: One of the greatest things Americans complained about in the past election was the high costs of so many different kinds of goods and products, and now Donald Trump is making it worse because he just said that he would not continue the pause on Canada and Mexico's tariffs but will let them go into effect.

Please, Mr. Trump, rethink your plans to start a trade war or the average family will get slapped with an average $2,000 extra in costs. Families will suffer. Businesses will suffer. You said you would bring down costs on day one, Donald Trump, yet here, 1 month in, you are doing something that would raise costs significantly for the American people.

And when Republicans cut Medicaid, it means healthcare costs will go soaring for tens of millions of kids, seniors, people with disabilities, rural communities. So why are the Republicans doing all this? Why are they creating all this havoc, this chaos, this cruelty, and this harm to the American people? Simple. To cut taxes for billionaires and have the American people pick up the tab.

Make no mistake about it, this is what a transfer of wealth looks like, away from working Americans and into the bank accounts of the billionaires club.

Meanwhile, it is not much better in terms of foreign policy and our own security. Our allies across the world will look at America and see a country in decline under Donald Trump. They will watch in horror as an American President continues to curry favors with war criminals like Vladimir Putin while publicly berating friends--brave, valiant people who risked their lives and have seen so many of their countrymen die in a valiant fight for freedom like President Zelenskyy. He gets berated. Putin gets praised. What is going on?

Rest assured that nobody on Earth was happier with what happened last Friday in the Oval Office than Vladimir Putin. Our allies will also watch in horror as Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth make America less safe, the world less safe. There is no other way you can look at it when they give Putin a free pass to launch cyber attacks against the United States while we disarm our own cyber operations against Russia. Can you believe that? Letting Putin attack us, and we are saying we won't attack him in terms of cyber warfare. What is going on? The world has turned inside out and upside down, all to the detriment of the safety and security of America and its people.

Tomorrow, as Donald Trump addresses our Nation, our Western allies will wonder about the future of NATO. So these are difficult and dangerous times, and Donald Trump is taking America, our democracy, and the world down a dark and deeply troubling path.

But, finally and most importantly, the American people will not take Donald Trump's agenda lying down. You can see frustration boil over in townhalls in Georgia and Kansas and Oregon and everywhere in-between. Republican leaders are telling their Members to cancel townhall meetings. They are running away from the people because they know how badly the people have been hurt by what they are doing.

Maybe they don't want to do it, but they are forced to because President Trump wants tax breaks for billionaires. You can see the frustration in the polls too. A majority of Americans believe that Donald Trump has ignored the No. 1 issue they care about: inflation, rising costs. You can see the frustration online. Last week, I joined a Zoom, over 3,000 New Yorkers got on the Zoom ready to mobilize against Republican attacks on Medicaid. And many of my colleagues had similar meetings with similar strong responses. People are ready. They are energized.

You can also see it in the courts. The American people can rest assured that whenever the administration breaks the law, we will take them to court. It will be one of our best tools for protecting our country and putting a stop to the worst abuses of Donald Trump's agenda. And for the most part, the courts are rejecting much of what Donald Trump has tried to do.

The more Donald Trump pushes our democracy to the limit, the more Americans will push back. Organizing is never easy, but it works. It works. That is what we will continue to do. We shall organize here in the Congress, organize in the public square, organize in court to protect the country we all know and love. Nothing that Donald Trump says tomorrow will change that fact.

Mr. President, now on Social Security, something terrible is happening that Democrats have long warned about. American Social Security benefits, one of the most sacred things people have, one of the most popular Federal programs that has ever been created, Social Security benefits are coming under attack.

Last Friday, Elon Musk claimed that Social Security is the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time, and now the Trump administration has announced massive cuts, more than 7,000 workers, to the Social Security Administration. These cuts could affect workers who process checks, answer customer service calls, work in field offices across the country. The cuts could very well delay Social Security benefits.

It means longer times on the phone to resolve issues. Everyone knows how frustrating it is, especially seniors who need their checks. When they haven't gotten it, they want to get on the phone and find out what happens and now have to wait for hours. It could mean local offices, like in my home State, close down.

It could mean more Americans get sicker, go hungry, get their checks far too late. You don't need to scratch your head and wonder what Donald Trump and DOGE are doing when they fire Social Security staffers and call Social Security a scam, they are getting ready to go after people's benefits, plain and simple.

Let's be clear. If Americans can't get their checks in time because staffers have been fired, that is a cut in benefits. If Americans can't get an issue resolved over the phone because there is nobody to take calls, that is a cut in benefits. If field offices are closed, if troubleshooting is halted, if checks come late in the mail, that, too, is a cut in benefits.

The only scam going on here is the one where the President of the United States would try to fleece Social Security from the American people to help pay for tax cuts for their billionaires club. Democrats will not let it happen.

Mr. President, before my colleagues vote on the next vote, Linda McMahon's nomination for Secretary of Education, they should remember that a vote for Mrs. McMahon is a vote for draconian cuts to education and rising property taxes for middle-class and suburban American families. That is why I am so proud that every Democrat will vote no to stand up for our schools, for our kids, for our teachers, for public education, and to prevent property taxes from going up further.

Donald Trump is clear. He wants to eliminate the Department and push never-before-seen cuts to public schools. Mrs. McMahon will make that happen. Her whole background is anti-public schools.

When you slash Federal funding for education, it leads to higher taxes back home. So many of our school districts--they could be urban, suburban, or rural--depend on Federal funding, and when you cut that, it leads to higher property taxes to make up for the loss of money. Communities will also be forced to slash other programs, including helping disabled kids, for funding for the schools. This is not what the American people want. This is not what they bargained for.

The Senate should reject Mrs. McMahon because funding cuts for schools, students, parents, and teachers all for the sake of billionaire tax breaks--whose kids probably don't go to public schools--is an awful idea. I am proud every Democrat will vote no.

Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, when Donald Trump and DOGE began their work, they kept saying the same thing. Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and DOGE said: This is about cutting waste; it is about efficiency; it is about meritocracy. Unfortunately, the truth has not been as advertised. It has been utter chaos.

Yesterday, the Department of Veterans Affairs said they were reversing course on canceling billions of dollars in contract work because, as it turns out, slashing billions in funding that helps veterans is extremely harmful for veterans. These VA cuts were lauded by DOGE as an example of eliminating waste. The VA Secretary claimed these contracts were for consultants ``to make PowerPoint slides and write meeting minutes.'' That is not even close to the truth.

Let me read some examples of what DOGE was actually prepared to cut: Funding for chemotherapy and imaging services, those were going to be cut--hardly make-work, hardly writing meeting minutes. Funding for veterans with disabilities--cut--even funding to help veterans suffering from toxic exposure in burn pits. One contract would help over 20,000 veterans track down their military service records from DOD in order to prove their toxic exposure, as is required. Without these records, getting affordable treatment would not likely be possible, and DOGE said: Let's cut that, too.

Even if the VA reverses course, canceling these contracts and firing VA staff is still immediately damaging--very damaging. There is the risk that you can't rehire workers back in time because they have moved on to other jobs or contracts aren't available because they took their business elsewhere, and, by then, the damage is

done. Vital services and operations that serve veterans can't continue as before. It could take months--maybe even years--to build this back, which had been built up carefully to help veterans over the years, and many of us in Congress worked for those things; so to cut these services and then say ``never mind'' still ends up being very destructive. Sadly, this is only one example.

Yesterday, Elon Musk led his first Cabinet meeting of this administration. He admitted that DOGE's approach has led to many erroneous cuts to staff and programs that are not wasteful but, on the contrary, vital.

For example, he said:

With USAID, one of the things we accidentally cancelled

very briefly was Ebola prevention.

Those are his words.

Are you kidding me? Cutting funds to stop one of the deadliest diseases in the world is reckless, especially when there is an Ebola outbreak in Uganda as we speak, and flights leave Kampala every day and go all over the world. When epidemics hit America, they oftentimes begin abroad, and U.S. funding is essential to prevent those diseases from reaching us here at all.

I should also note that the claims that Ebola funding is back online are false. Reports are out from last night that 95 percent of all USAID funding is now being cut. So we are not sure where it all is.

What DOGE is doing is not what efficiency looks like. If DOGE actually cares about efficiency and meritocracy, then it is failing, in many ways, its own test. It would be better to look at these programs, see which might be wasteful, see which are needed, and then make the cuts to the wasteful programs, not take a meat-ax or a blowtorch--call it what you will--cut everything, and then say we will restore some of the things that we shouldn't have cut, because once you make those cuts, it is very hard to put the pieces back together.

Taxes

Mr. President, on Republican taxes, last month, consumer confidence took its biggest nosedive in 4 years--the biggest nosedive in 4 years. This is how confident consumers, average Americans, feel about the economy. Inflation is trending back up. The price of eggs is sky high. The threat of a trade war looms over our country, and Americans are fearful that things are not going to get any better anytime soon. And what are Republicans doing about all of this? They are trying to cut taxes for billionaires--trying to cut taxes for billionaires--and make the American people pay for it.

The Republican agenda is quickly taking shape. Under Donald Trump's Republican Party, billionaires win; American families lose.

It doesn't matter if Republicans go with 1 bill or 2 bills or 50 bills. That is what they are debating right now. Their endgame--House and Senate Republicans--has always been cutting taxes for billionaires and forcing American families to pick up the tab.

Of course, Senate Republicans know that cutting Medicaid by over $800 billion to lower taxes for billionaires is wildly unpopular. They know that increasing the deficit by up to $5 trillion to help the ultrarich contradicts everything the so-called party of fiscal responsibility stands for. They say they have to cut all this stuff to reduce the deficit, and then, with their tax breaks for billionaires, they increase the deficit, no matter what sleight-of-hand accounting method they use.

What are Republicans doing about fiscal responsibility? Are they admitting that their plans would be a disaster for the deficit? No. Instead, Senate Republicans are engaged in budgetary hocus-pocus to hide the true cost of their tax cuts for the ultrarich, and there may be signs that House Republicans are going along.

Instead of admitting the truth about the consequences of their plans, they are pursuing a gimmick called ``current policy baseline''--a gimmick, if there ever was one--which is essentially an attempt to magically turn $5 trillion of deficit spending into zero dollars of deficit spending. Well, that can't happen and doesn't happen, and the economy will realize it doesn't happen. Any junior high school math student could tell you this is a bunch of bunk. You can't pass $5 trillion to cut taxes for the rich and pretend like it doesn't affect the deficit.

The issue isn't complicated. Republicans are trying to hide the true cost of their billionaire tax cuts from the American people. Meanwhile, they are getting ready to eviscerate funding for healthcare that serves over 80 million Americans--kids, seniors, rural communities. These cuts to Medicaid will dramatically hurt rural America, people with disabilities, and more.

The only people who seem to be opposing this is the hard-right Freedom Caucus, because they seem to really care about the deficit. Let's hope they stay strong for the sake of the economy and this country.

Of course, the American people are not going to take these Medicaid cuts lying down.

Last night, I got on a Zoom. Over 3,000 New Yorkers, worried about the attacks from Republicans on healthcare, got on the Zoom, many more than we expected. These were rank-and-file folks, healthcare advocates, union members, and concerned citizens from all walks of life. They were all upset about the cuts to Medicaid and putting those cuts in place in order to give tax breaks for billionaires.

It was a great call. It was an energizing call. I urge my colleagues to do the same, as many of them are. It is a stark reminder of what is at stake but also a reminder that the American people don't like these cuts.

We heard from New Yorkers who are in danger of having their Medicaid coverage taken away if Republicans proceed with their actions, on this Zoom of over 3,000 people. But we also talked about taking action.

I urged participants to call their Members of Congress. I urged them to mobilize online and to organize in their communities. We urged everyone to make their voices heard, like we are seeing in the townhall meetings.

I reminded folks that organizing is not easy, but it works. It changes things, and it is going to make a difference in making sure Medicaid is protected.

Nomination of Linda McMahon

Mr. President, on our Education Secretary nominee, today, the Senate will vote on whether to advance the nomination of Linda McMahon as Secretary of Education.

Mrs. McMahon's nomination comes as President Trump has been clear about cutting funding for education and abolishing the Department of Education entirely.

Is Mrs. McMahon going to go along? I hope not.

Cutting education is not what the American people want. The American people don't want a radical, out-of-touch billionaire slashing funding for public schools. When you slash Federal funding for education, guess what happens. Since so many of our school districts--urban, suburban, rural--depend on this Federal money, it leads to higher property taxes for people back home.

If you eliminate the Department of Education as a whole, that means local communities are forced to pick up the tab to fund the schools. It means that families in these communities will pay in the form of higher property taxes to make up the loss of Federal funding. But communities will also be forced to slash other programs to make room for funding for schools.

Again, this is not what the American people want. This is not what they voted for.

Mrs. McMahon, in my judgment, is not qualified to lead America's public education. She seems not to care very much about it. But that is precisely why President Trump nominated her. She is the perfect choice to bring our public education system burning to the ground.

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 ask unanimous consent to speak for a little more than a minute.

Mr. President, every American should be paying close attention to what is about to happen on the floor. In just a few moments, the Senate will vote on a Republican resolution that is straight from the wish list of Big Oil and Big Gas.

Instead of spending floor time pushing legislation that will lower costs for American families, Republicans are bowing to Big Oil and Gas billionaires by trying to reverse the methane waste emissions charge which Democrats passed in the Inflation Reduction Act. Donald Trump and DOGE claim to care about efficiency, but Republicans are undoing a measure to reduce oil and gas waste and are making prices for the consumer go up--prices going up--when they are saying they want prices to go down. The rule we passed has been one of our most important tools to lower energy prices, to hold Big Oil and Big Gas accountable, to keep excessive and harmful levels of methane

out of our atmosphere, which my friend Mr. Whitehouse, who has done such a good job on this issue, tells me is 80 times as poisonous as CO2. Without this safeguard, Big Oil and Gas can waste as much natural gas as they like and then pass the cost on to consumers.

Why are Republicans doing this? Well, it is simple. They are putting the needs of Big Oil and Gas companies over the needs of the American people, over the health of the American people and the health of our environment, our climate, our globe. And the consequences for the American people, for their health and their energy bills, are going to be very harmful.

I urge my colleagues to think carefully, one last time, before voting to overturn it.

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

Mr. President, last night, almost every single House Republican signed their names to what would be the largest Medicaid cuts in American history. The havoc, the damage that that would do to tens of millions of American families would be almost unprecedented when it comes to Medicaid.

Why did Republicans do it? So they could cut taxes for the billionaires club. The Republican agenda is quickly taking shape. Under Donald Trump's Republican Party, billionaires win; American families lose.

Last night proved that Senate Democrats are right. It doesn't matter if Republicans go with 1 bill or 2 bills or 50 bills. The endgame for Republicans has always been the same: cutting taxes for billionaires and forcing American families to pick up the tab.

Now the attention returns to the Republican Senate. Republican Senators know these billionaire tax breaks are unpopular, particularly because it will push deep, nasty cuts to Medicaid.

When I hear the Republican leadership talk about the bills they propose, they never mention the tax cuts to billionaires, which is the crown jewel, in their minds, of what they are doing. But they are afraid to mention it because they know how unpopular it is with the American people.

They know it is going to increase the deficit by up to $5 trillion. These deficit hawks over on the other side of the aisle and the House are willing to increase the deficit by that much.

So what are they doing about it, knowing how high it would increase the deficit, rising interest rates, rising costs, risk of economic downturn? What do they do? Instead of facing the problem head-on, they are resorting to budget gimmicks to hide the true cost of their billionaire tax cuts.

They want to use something--some of them--called a current policy baseline. In essence, current policy baseline is an attempt to magically turn $5 trillion of deficit spending into zero dollars on their balance sheets. The deficit would still be there. It would still go up by $5 trillion in actual terms, but this sleight of hand, this hocus-pocus, says it is not going to appear on a balance sheet because we are calling it current policy baseline.

Congress--Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative--has never used a ``current policy'' baseline for reconciliation and for good reason. Any junior high school math student could tell you their current policy baseline gimmickry is utter nonsense. It is an attempt for Senate Republicans to hide the true cost of their billionaire tax cuts from the American people.

At least House Republicans are being honest about the outrageous cost of their tax cuts in terms of the deficit. In fact, the House Freedom Caucus is being far more honest about the deficit than our Senate Republican colleagues. Maybe the Freedom Caucus should send the debt clocks that Representative Thomas Massie wears on his lapel to the Senate Republicans.

What happened in the House last night and what happened last week in the Senate is only the beginning. Democrats are going to fight these billionaire tax cuts tooth and nail. Democrats are glad to have this debate because the American people will be aghast when they learn what is really in the Republican tax bill, and that is tax breaks--huge tax breaks--for their billionaire buddies who are all doing well, God bless them. The last thing America needs is another tax break for them--who are so rich already.

Americans are worried that with these tax breaks, inflation is going to get worse. Americans are worried that Donald Trump will start a trade war with our allies and make trips to the grocery store an utter nightmare.

We learned yesterday, for instance, that consumer confidence saw its biggest drop last month in 4 years--in 4 years. So this idea that the Republicans can hide what they are doing to the American people is not working, and we Democrats are going to make sure that Americans know exactly what they are doing in terms of their tax breaks for billionaires hurting the average American.

The issues that Americans are actually worried about are costs, are inflation, are getting decent healthcare. But what are the Republicans spending their time on here in Congress? Cutting taxes for billionaires and then hiding the true cost on the deficit with a sleight of hand.

They are also slashing away at Medicaid and SNAP and so many other services that bring down the cost of living. This is absolutely not what the American people signed up for, and Republicans know it because they don't talk about it.

Talk about how close to $2 trillion in your plan goes to the very wealthiest in America. You can't talk about it. Do you know why you can't talk about it? Because you know how unpopular it is.

Yes, it is true that the small number of very wealthy, greedy people who want their taxes even lower has a disproportionate hold on the Republican Party in the House and Senate. So they are doing it, but they are afraid to talk about it.

And for sure, when it comes to these tax cuts, when it comes to the cuts in Medicaid, and so many other bad things their budget does, Democrats will fight tooth and nail to prevent them.

Mr. President, DOGE--day by day, Americans are getting more alarmed by the slash-and-burn approach DOGE is taking to basic government programs. Americans certainly want a more efficient government, but what DOGE and Donald Trump are doing is not efficiency. Instead, it is chaos. Americans did not sign up for chaos, that is for sure.

Americans did not sign up for DOGE to take its chain saw, for instance, to aviation safety. There was another near miss, this time in Chicago, in the air. Thank God no one was hurt, but this shows you the immense importance of having a fully staffed FAA.

How on Earth is it efficiency to fire aviation safety assistance or maintenance mechanics or people who help with safety inspections and repairs? But that is just what DOGE did. I can't imagine any American thinks that is efficiency.

The only thing that is going to accomplish, of course, is making flying less safe. It is going to lead to delays and mixups at airports.

And not even the 9/11 families who lost loved ones or were hurt as they rushed to the towers right after 9/11, not even these folks were safe from the DOGE buzz saw.

DOGE tried to ax the workforce for the World Trade Center Health Program. I am glad we pushed Donald Trump and DOGE to reverse.

Later today, I will join Senator Gillibrand, Representatives Goldman and Garbarino to reintroduce the bipartisan 9/11 World Trade Center Health Program reintroduction, 2 months after Elon Musk killed this program when he tanked the bipartisan funding bill in December.

Mr. President, 9/11 families deserve to be treated with dignity, with respect, not with the contempt we see from DOGE. And no good business operator would take this slash-and-burn approach DOGE is taking.

People's Social Security benefits are also at risk. Their ability to see a doctor is at stake. Their ability to put kids in daycare is at stake. The longer DOGE is allowed to rain chaos on the American people, the stronger the backlash will become.

And let's not forget, even by their most optimistic projections--and they have had to reduce them--the amount of money that DOGE will cut is far less than the amount of the deficit created by the huge Republican tax cut. So all this talk that they need to do this for deficit reduction is belied by their clinging to a whopping deficit creation by the tax cut.

Mr. President, on the methane CRA, today, Senate Republicans will advance a measure undoing one of the most important tools we have to lower energy prices and hold Big Oil and Gas accountable.

The Republicans, once again, in obeisance to the oil and gas industry, are pushing a resolution to reverse the methane emissions charge, which Democrats passed in the Inflation Reduction Act.

It makes big oil companies pay when they leak excessive and harmful levels of methane. Typically, the more methane a company leaks during drilling, the more these companies will have to charge for the methane they do deliver and the more gas prices will go up for families and businesses.

The oil companies, they don't believe in what our economists call externalities. They think they can just throw methane into the air and let everyone else pay the price in terms of climate change, in terms of bad health for people, et cetera.

What they want to do, our Republicans colleagues, will make gas prices go up for families and businesses.

Our law was a reasonable, commonsense, and a carefully tailored safeguard to prevent consumers from footing the bill of Big Oil's methane waste, paired with Federal funding to help big oil companies reduce their waste.

Reducing methane waste in the atmosphere saves consumers money. It protects local communities from pollution; and methane, as you know, is a superpotent greenhouse gas.

Scientists agree that reducing methane is one of the best things we can do

to combat climate change. Its deleterious effects on the atmosphere are many, many times greater even than CO2 is.

So why do Republicans want to overturn it so badly? Because, as typical, Republicans are putting the needs of big oil and gas companies over the needs of the American people, over the health of the American people, and over the health of our globe.

Americans don't want Big Oil and Big Gas running the show. Americans don't want more pollution in their communities. Americans don't want higher gas prices. But that is what the Republicans are doing with today's CRA vote. Today's vote will show the American people, once again, who is on your side and who is on the side of Big Oil and Gas. I hope everyone watches closely.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I want to thank Senators Kaine and Heinrich for introducing this resolution and for taking the floor to highlight Donald Trump's energy emergency gimmick.

We Democrats are using every tool available to expose Republican hypocrisy, revealing the so-called energy emergency for what it is. It is a shameless power grab by Republicans to pay obeisance to Big Oil, plain and simple--nothing more, but nothing less.

Republicans are raising prices by excluding clean energy from their emergency, meaning families could see electricity bills go up by $500 a year. Republicans are killing jobs by gutting domestic energy investments that we made, that have created so many new good-paying jobs. Republicans are rewarding China by weakening our economic competitiveness and ceding American energy leadership to our adversaries.

The hypocrisy is simple. On the one hand, they say we need more energy for AI and for everything else, but then, on the other hand, they greatly curtail the cheapest form of electricity we could make, which is solar and then wind, because, really, what they are doing is just hugging Big Oil because Big Oil hates clean energy because they know clean energy eventually means the great reduction of polluting oil and gas and what they put into our atmosphere.

Senators Kaine, Heinrich, and all Democrats will continue to shine a spotlight on Republican attacks on domestic energy in the weeks and months ahead.

I yield the floor.

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

Mr. President, over the last month, it has become clear how Donald Trump and Republicans govern. Donald Trump and Republicans have focused on things most Americans don't care about or don't like while refusing to focus on things Americans actually do care about.

Donald Trump and Republicans have focused on things most Americans don't care about or don't even like while refusing to focus on things Americans actually do care about.

Exhibit A of these things that Americans don't like is what is happening today in the House of Representatives. As soon as today, House Republicans will advance a budget resolution clearing the way for perhaps the most draconian cuts to Medicaid in American history, all so Republicans can cut taxes for their billionaires club and have the American people pick up the tab and pay the price. This is in the

category of things Americans really don't like.

There is only one proper way to describe the Republican plan that is moving through the House this week: radical. Radical. The Republican plan radically hurts American families while radically helping the billionaires club. Republicans are so eager to cut taxes for billionaires that they would increase the deficit by a trillion dollars or more to make room for their sweetheart-deal tax cuts for billionaires like Elon Musk.

Republicans are also pushing for trillions in cuts for working- and middle-class Americans, endangering everything from Medicaid to nutrition programs, to housing assistance, and so much more. The Republican bill could cut as much as $880 billion from Medicaid alone. That means 80 million Americans--kids, veterans, people with disabilities, rural Americans, the elderly--are all at risk.

And why? Why are Republicans putting these people at such risk and hurting things that benefit them--not waste; things that actually go to people and help them? They are doing it to make life easier for the billionaires club. They are doing it to cut taxes for the ultrawealthy.

Last week, here in the Senate, during vote-arama, I pushed an amendment that said we should have no tax breaks for billionaires. I pushed an amendment calling for no billionaire tax breaks if even one dollar of Medicaid spending was cut. What is more important: helping people get healthcare, helping the elderly stay in nursing homes, helping our veterans--especially those who may be out of work--get the healthcare they need? What is more important--that or a tax break for someone who is very wealthy already?

Well, on both amendments--the one that said no tax breaks for billionaires and the one that said no tax breaks for billionaires if even one dollar of Medicaid spending was cut--both times, Republicans overwhelmingly said no.

Let us hope--let us hope--it may be a distant hope, but let us hope that House Republicans show more courage, more compassion, and more common sense to reject these horrible, harmful, radical cuts.

This is not what the American people signed up for in this election. Billionaire tax cuts is a clear example of things Americans don't like. Just look at all the backlash Republicans are seeing in their townhalls. And Republicans know this. Republicans know that cutting taxes for wealthy billionaires is something most Americans don't like at all. They didn't campaign on it. Oh, no. I didn't hear any of our Republican colleagues who were running go home and say ``I want to cut taxes for the billionaires,'' although that is the first thing they are doing when they get here. Yet Republicans seem to be full steam ahead all the same.

This, of course, is part of the pattern I am talking about. Over the last month, Donald Trump and Republicans have spent their energy focused on things Americans don't like while refusing to focus on things Americans actually do care about--like inflation, rising prices.

We already see that Americans are upset with the Trump administration because prices continue to rise, as they have over the last many years. Donald Trump promised to bring down costs on day one. He said that the first day he is elected, he is going to start bringing costs down, but instead, inflation has gone up, grocery prices are up. Chicken, pork, steak--all more expensive. Eggs are up 15 percent from last month. All the while, Republicans are focused on things that Americans either don't like or don't care about.

Americans don't like, for instance, pardoning violent insurrectionists. It was one of the least popular things we have seen; a recent poll in the Washington Post is clear. But that was the first major decision Donald Trump made as President, the first major decision.

Most Americans don't care whether you call it the Gulf of Mexico or the Gulf of America or something else. Most Americans don't care about building hotels in Gaza or annexing Canada. Yet these are the things that Donald Trump is focused on to distract people from the fact that he doesn't actually have real solutions to the things Americans really worry about.

Of course, there are things that Republicans are focused on that make things actively worse. Most Americans don't think it is a great idea to get into a trade war with our closest allies. That is going to make trips to the grocery store even more expensive than they are now.

Of course, most Americans do care about making government more efficient. While everyone certainly supports cutting waste, Americans don't like the harmful chaos that Elon Musk and DOGE have unleashed. They don't want to see a rich billionaire treat Federal workers with immense disrespect. And make no mistake, Americans did not sign up for DOGE to endanger their Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid benefits. That is not government efficiency; that hurts the American people.

What DOGE is doing is chaos, and Americans know that the chaos being unleashed by DOGE is causing a lot of harm to the country. Americans don't want to see their air traffic safety personnel fired in droves, no questions asked. That is not government efficiency; that is chaos and danger at the airports and in airplanes, at security checkpoints.

Our veterans don't want to see the VA starved of resources. Someone came over to me the other day and said: My brother is in a VA hospital. He has a rare disease. Seven of the people were let go. Who is going to take care of him?

They don't want to hear about cuts to the Veterans Crisis Line, where veterans who may have come back from Iraq or Afghanistan with PTSD or other problems have a place to go and a place to call. That is not government efficiency, cutting the Veterans Crisis Line; that is just more chaos, more harm, more hurt. Can you imagine the callousness of firing personnel who operate the veterans suicide crisis line, as was reported by the staff at the VA? It is a cruel and vindictive way to treat America's heroes.

Of course, our 9/11 families did not sign up for DOGE trying to cut the 9/11 survivor health program--the people who rushed to the Towers, the brave heroes, police, fire, first responders, and others who rushed to the Towers in the days after that horrible day of 9/11 and got illnesses in their lungs and gastrointestinal tracts and now are getting some help. The 9/11 families didn't sign up to cut that, but that is precisely what DOGE tried to do. We pushed back, and I am glad that President Trump and DOGE reversed themselves on that issue. They should be reversing themselves on many other issues also that hurt people so badly.

But the takeaway is they are very clear: What DOGE is doing is not making government more efficient; it is creating more chaos. And if there is one thing Americans don't want in these turbulent times, it is more chaos.

Rather than actually cut waste in government in a smart way, a careful way, an efficient way; rather than putting the needs of working people first, Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and the Republican Party have plunged basic government services into chaos and taken a meat ax at programs that help workers, middle-class families, and low-income Americans, all for the sake of cutting taxes for billionaires and mega corporations.

Republicans are focused on the wrong things. They are helping the wrong people, and they are ignoring the vast majority of Americans they promised to serve.

Under Donald Trump's Republican Party, billionaires win, American families lose.

So let me say it once again. Over the last month, it has become clear how Donald Trump and Republicans govern. Donald Trump and Republicans have focused on things Americans don't care about or don't like while refusing to focus on things Americans actually do care about.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

I ask for the yeas and nays.

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

Mr. President, 3 years ago, Vladimir Putin brought war and destruction to the free people of Ukraine. Three years ago, a powerful, hungry autocrat broke the peace in Europe, violated the sovereignty of an independent democracy, and rolled tanks and weapons and troops across the Ukrainian borders without provocation or justification.

Vladimir Putin has sealed his place in history as an enemy to democracy, to freedom, and to peace. He has killed tens of thousands of innocent civilians. His rockets have destroyed homes and churches and schools and hospitals--deliberately, in many cases.

A year ago, I was there. I saw the destruction. I saw parking lots being turned into mass graves. I spoke with soldiers near the border trying to defend their homes. And I felt the deep resolve of the Ukrainian people. I felt the value of America's leadership and the international struggle to push back against Putin's evil aggression.

Today, we remember Bucha, we remember the atrocities in Mariupol, and we remember everywhere where Putin's horrors have touched. We honor the lives lost at the hands of Russia's war of aggression, and we will not let Vladimir Putin and his thugs off the hook.

For 3 years, the United States has been clear on where we stand. We have stood on the side of democracy, the inviability of borders, and the freedom of nations--and against Vladimir Putin.

We passed in this Chamber robust, bipartisan security assistance. The United States united the leaders of the West, and for years we succeeded in turning Putin into a pariah.

But today, on this third anniversary of Putin's war, Donald Trump is turning his back on the values that America stands for of democracy, of security, and of liberty. Instead of standing up to Putin, Donald Trump is siding with him and against our own allies. Instead of condemning Putin's lies, Donald Trump is parroting Russian misinformation and propaganda, in defiance of all evidence, without regard to any facts, and with utter contempt for the truth.

Today, President Trump met with President Macron. President Macron is advising Donald Trump not to show weakness--not to show weakness--to Putin at this pivotal moment. Donald Trump should heed President Macron's warning, or else Putin is going to eat his lunch, and America is going to suffer in the long term.

American support of a pro-Western democracy under attack is not charity. It is about our own long-term security. For Donald Trump to show weakness to Putin is to endanger America's security tomorrow.

If history tells us one thing about autocrats, it is that their hunger is never satiated. It is never enough. They will keep going one way or another until they are halted.

What are Poland and Latvia and Lithuania and Estonia supposed to think about Putin's belligerence next door to them? What is NATO supposed to make of Donald Trump's eagerness to deal with autocrats instead of our own allies?

If Donald Trump sells out democracy in Europe today, what will Donald Trump sell out tomorrow? Democracy in America? Our national security, which he is already starting to do?

The way Donald Trump is engaging with Vladimir Putin right now is not going to make America any safer in the long run. This all goes back to a pattern we have seen from Donald Trump from the very beginning. He has always admired autocrats, strongmen, and bullies; always shown contempt for the rule of law, for truth, for accountability, for facts--because his ultimate goal is to skew things in favor of the wealthy and corrupt few at the expense of everybody else.

Just like his push for taxes, just like his empowering DOGE, Donald Trump's modus operandi is to trample on safeguards and basic accountability--values central to any free democracy--in order to allow corrupt billionaires, the wealthy few, and cronies to fill in the void.

This is exactly the world Vladimir Putin wants, and little by little, Donald Trump is helping him make it happen.