Floor Statements

Mr. President, the bill that Senate Republicans have brought to the floor today and which we will vote on sometime soon is the latest example of the ``great betrayal'' in action.

On the campaign trail, Candidate Donald Trump promised that he was going to help Americans deal with their pocketbook issues, kitchen table issues, and he said that on day one--day one--he was going to bring prices down; that he was going to bring down costs for American families. Well, costs are going up, and President Trump and Republicans are taking actions that will raise those costs on the American people even further, and today's bill is exhibit A.

I want to take a step back and put this bill that we are considering today in context. You know, one of the infuriating experiences that so many American consumers have is the mountain of junk fees they face. These are hidden fees that are sometimes in very fine print in contracts. They are all these fees that get added to their bills, where they really have no idea what additional value they are getting for those fees because often there is no additional value for that fee or that the additional value is minuscule in comparison to the fee they are being charged. So people pay these fees and grind their teeth and essentially get ripped off. We also see many predatory lending practices, where financial interests prey on those who are living paycheck to paycheck.

So, years ago, after the financial crisis of 2008, Congress created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau--also known by its shorthand CFPB--to help protect American consumers from a whole range of predatory practices. Senator Warren was one of the people who thought of establishing that important consumer protection Agency. Now she is the ranking Democrat on the Banking and Housing Committee, on which I am privileged to serve.

Since its creation, the CFPB has gone after all sorts of fraudsters, all sorts of con artists, all sorts of people who try to find different ways to cheat American consumers out of their hard-earned money. They have been successful, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. They have returned over $21 billion to American consumers who have been cheated out of their hard-earned money. In other words, they brought lawsuits to go after these fraudsters or changed practices in order to make sure that people could keep more of their hard-earned money. That includes $71 million that was returned to my constituents in the State of Maryland who were ripped off.

Along the way, the CFPB made some powerful enemies, and many Republicans have been trying to dismantle the CFPB for years. Now they have Elon Musk to help do their dirty work.

In one of the most corrupt bargains in American history, Elon Musk spent $280 million to help elect Donald Trump, and Donald Trump has turned around and given Elon Musk the keys to many Federal Agencies. Make no mistake, this has nothing to do with making the Federal Government more efficient and has everything to do with rigging the government to serve people like Elon Musk at the expense of everybody else in America. In fact, one of the great examples of that is that they went right after the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

I find it just gross that the richest man in the world would go after a Bureau whose purpose it is to help return money to American consumers who have been cheated out of their hard-earned dollars, but that was one of the very early targets of Elon Musk and his DOGE cronies.

Now, apparently, that wasn't enough. It was not enough just to go after and try to dismantle that Agency. That step and the one we are dealing with here in the Senate today is an effort to go back and undo some of the important consumer protections that the CFPB put in place under the Biden administration.

One of those protections was a rule that is in place now to prevent banks from charging consumers exorbitant fees when a consumer overdraws their account balances using a debit card.

So how does this work? Well, let's say you have got your debit card. You go into the grocery store. You are going to buy some groceries for the family. You use your debit card to pay, and you overdraw your account. Now, some of the biggest banks in the country will typically charge you $35 for each of those overdrafts no matter how big your overdraft amount is. So you overdraw your account by one buck, $35; by 5 bucks, $35.

The average overdraft amount is $26. So you can see on each one of those transactions those banks are making a hefty return. In fact, it is like a loan with an APR of 16,000 percent. And it happens time after time. In other words, you leave the grocery store. You go pick up your kids at school. You go to a local convenience shop. You get a cup of coffee. You pay with your debit card, and--boom--you get hit with another $35 overdraft fee. And on and on and on.

In fact, every year, some of the biggest banks--Wells Fargo and Chase--make over $1 billion from consumer overdraft fees. And some of these banks have built an entire system to try to maximize the amount they get from their consumers through these overdraft fees. If you look collectively at the banking system, this is a $5 billion-a-year rip- off.

So if you look at the people who are being primarily hit by this, not surprisingly, it is people who are living paycheck to paycheck--in fact, many of the people who Candidate Trump said he wanted to look out for when he was campaigning in the last election.

If you look closely, you will find that 79 percent of overdraft fees are charged on about 9 percent of accounts. These are accounts where people have an average balance of around $350. So these big banks are preying on the people who literally are going paycheck to paycheck. And for those households, the average hit every year is about $225 in exorbitant fees. So you make a tiny miscalculation, and you get hit hard by these predatory practices.

Last year--this last year--the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau-- the one that Elon Musk and DOGE are trying to shut down as we speak-- last year, they developed a rule to help protect consumers. It was something many of us had pushed for years, and we were glad to see them do it.

The rule was pretty straightforward. It would cap the overdraft fees at $5 a time instead of $35 a time. And it would also require banks to be transparent in their pricing and their overdraft penalty structure so that consumers would know and have eyes wide open as to what penalties they were going to incur. So you wouldn't have people inadvertently hit with 35 bucks for a cup of coffee, 35 bucks when you go pick up some more groceries.

This has become a way for some of the biggest banks to rip off consumers, especially those who are going paycheck to paycheck, as I said, to the tune of $5 billion.

So that is the rule. That is what the CFPB did, pretty simple measure: Make sure that consumers don't get ripped off and not even know they are being ripped off sometimes until they know about the overdraft fee.

What Republicans have brought to the floor today is a proposal to override that consumer protection bill to allow those banks to continue to collect $5 billion from American consumers, so many of them who are living paycheck to paycheck.

Everybody should know that that is what is going on here. We have got the richest man in the world trying to shut down an Agency that was created to help protect consumers, and here in the Senate, we have Senate Republicans trying to overturn a consumer protection rule that saves working people a little bit of money and makes sure that they don't get slammed for making a small overdraft on their accounts.

I urge my colleagues to vote to uphold the consumer protection law that was adopted. If you want to vote yes to protect the rule, you vote no on this effort to overturn it. I urge my colleagues to vote no.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I rise to join my Senate colleague Senator Alsobrooks to talk about the 1-year anniversary of the collapse of the Key Bridge in Baltimore. We speak today on the floor on the eve of that solemn anniversary, and we remember those who died that day.

We probably all remember--at least all of us in Maryland--where we were when we learned that the Key Bridge had collapsed. It was a local, national, and, in fact, international tragedy. It echoed around the world, and its impact was felt far from Maryland's shores.

First and foremost, it was a human tragedy for the six Baltimore construction workers who were working the overnight shift that day. As my Senate colleague Senator Alsobrooks has said, each of them had loved ones who depended on them, and four of them were fathers. I, too, would like to read their names into the Record on this solemn anniversary eve of their passing away: Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes was 35 years old. Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera was 26 years old. Maynor Yassir Suazo Sandoval was 38 years old. Carlos Daniel Hernandez Estrella was 24 years old. Miguel Angel Luna Gonzalez was 49 years old, and Jose Mynor Lopez was 37 years old.

These six men came to Maryland in search of better lives, and they made our State and, indeed, our country a better place. Their tragic deaths came as they quietly worked on the overnight shift to maintain the bridge that millions of people depended on. We know that 1 year does not take away any of the pain or the grief of their families or their loved ones. We know that this anniversary can be an especially difficult time, bringing up the most painful memories, and, today, we grieve with them.

The Key Bridge collapse also disrupted the lives and the livelihoods of countless Marylanders. For 47 years, the Key Bridge was an indelible part of the Baltimore City skyline and a vital part of our lives. More than 34,000 travelers crossed that bridge each day. It was the gateway to the Port of Baltimore, which welcomes 1,800 ships every year and supports 20,000 direct jobs, including 2,400 union longshoremen, as well as 24,000 jobs spurred by local purchases, and then an additional 7,200 indirect jobs. So you can see its huge economic impact. In fact, it generates $70 billion annually of economic revenue for the city.

The Port of Baltimore is the busiest in the Nation for farm and construction machinery and imported forest products and is the second busiest for automobiles and light trucks. When the bridge collapsed that morning, the debris blocked the channel to the Port of Baltimore, putting 8,000 individuals temporarily out of work and halting the flow of trade for millions of Americans. But, as the bridge came apart, we came together, and out of this tragedy came unity of purpose and unity of action.

We will remember the first responders, including the three Maryland Transportation Authority officers who were on site and quickly acted to stop additional traffic from going onto the bridge, preventing further tragic loss of life: Sergeant Paul Pastorek, Corporal Jeremy Herbert, and Officer Garry Kirts. Those officers and all of the first responders on scene that morning deserve our thanks and enduring gratitude for preventing more loss of life and rescuing the two workers who did survive the crash that day.

After the bridge fell, I woke up, sometime in the middle of the night to early morning hours, to a call from my team. Immediately, everybody sprang into action. First of all, President Biden and Secretary Buttigieg quickly reached out to the Maryland congressional delegation at that time, Senator Cardin and Congressman Mfume; and at the State level, to Governor Moore and Mayor Scott and our State and local partners, all of whom quickly rallied to the site of the bridge collapse to both get briefed on what happened and to plot the early stages of the way forward.

Federal, State, and local agencies established what was called the unified command, led by the U.S. Coast Guard, to manage the scene and begin the recovery effort. The Maryland State Police worked to recover the bodies of the six workers from the depths below the river. We were grateful for their quick and their careful work.

Today is Maryland Day, and I want to commend our first responders for embodying the very best of our State.

Following the recovery efforts, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers led the charge at the unified command to clear the debris from that channel. They deployed precision explosives to remove a large section of the bridge from the top of the Dali--the Dali was the ship that crashed into the bridge--and they coordinated the response across agencies. On May 20 of last year, the ship was finally floated away from the site, and on June 12--just 78 days after the bridge collapsed--the Port of Baltimore was fully reopened, which is a testament to the unified efforts of Federal, State, and local partners.

I would like to thank COL Estee Pinchasin, who was the Army Corps of Engineers person in command of the effort to clear the debris from under the bridge, for her leadership as commander of the Baltimore District at the time.

As the colonel noted when we all spoke about reopening the Port of Baltimore, ``it is not a hope--it is a plan.''

As the Army Corps and others cleared the channel, Federal Team Maryland worked to secure the resources that Baltimore City and our State would need to rebuild the bridge. Senator Cardin, Congressman Mfume, and I worked to coordinate the Federal response, and we quickly secured the Biden administration's approval of Baltimore's eligibility to receive emergency highway funding to aid in the recovery effort. That was a critical first step.

We then introduced the bipartisan Baltimore BRIDGE Relief Act, legislation to ensure 100 percent Federal funding for the bridge replacement, with bipartisan support and the entire Maryland delegation. We also ensured that, with any government litigation regarding the bridge, the proceeds from that, as well as insurance proceeds stemming from the collapse, would go directly to the costs of replacing the bridge.

This bridge merited the 100 percent Federal match because of the scale of the disaster and the precedent that we have applied to similar disasters of that scale. It was not simply a Baltimore City tragedy. It did have economic consequences across our region and, indeed, rippled across the Nation.

But securing those funds required a monthslong effort and an all- hands-on-deck mission. We worked with colleagues on both sides of the aisle, and that bill finally passed in December of last year. Included in that legislation was an increase in funding for the national emergency relief fund.

I want to thank a number of our colleagues who worked with us hand in hand to secure those funds at this moment of tragedy for Baltimore and the country. I want to thank Senator Capito and former Senator Carper of the Environment and Public Works Committee. I want to thank Senators Collins and Murray of the Appropriations Committee, as well as their staffs and our other colleagues.

I appreciate all of those who came to visit the site of the bridge collapse and to learn of our needs and what would be required to rebuild.

At the end of the day, passing this bill was not just about the funding. It was about keeping the promise that our government made to Baltimore and upholding a deeper national tradition that lies at the foundation of our Union: that when one huge disaster strikes any one State, the rest of us assist and come to their help. No one has to go it alone.

I also want to thank my former partner in the U.S. Senate, Ben Cardin, for all his work in this endeavor and our Governor, who worked so hard here on Capitol Hill to help make the case. I also want to thank my new partner in the Senate, Senator Alsobrooks, as she takes up the baton and makes sure that we move full speed ahead.

Because of the Federal funds, we have gotten the necessary permits to proceed. We must continue to work to rebuild not just the bridge itself but to rebuild all that was lost that day. And the way we do it is by being united.

That is the message that I just want to close on, which is that out of this terrible tragedy that happened in Baltimore City, first of all, people came together to comfort the families who lost loved ones. People came to support our first responders. People worked together to clear the channel of debris so the Port of Baltimore could reopen. And colleagues here in the U.S. Senate and those in the House of Representatives rallied to help Maryland in its time of need.

So I thank my colleagues for their efforts, and I thank everybody across America who helped Baltimore City and the State of Maryland at that moment of tragedy. As I say, out of that horrible moment came a ray of hope and unity that has helped us get to this point.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I rise today in pay tribute to the memory of the late Kendolyn Louisa Hodges-Simons, a dedicated public servant and Marylander.

Originally from Brooklyn, Mrs. Hodges-Simons was raised in a loving

household by her parents and grandmothers. After the loss of her father, her mother and grandmother taught her the values of resilience, faith, and commitment to excellence. She carried these values throughout her life and career as a public servant.

Before her career with the government, Mrs. Hodges-Simons excelled academically. She earned a full academic scholarship to Vassar College and graduated with honors. Her passion for justice led her to earn her juris doctor at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. Mrs. Hodges-Simons followed her pursuit for justice and practiced law as a clerk and as an attorney specializing in telecommunications law.

She continued to use her law degree as a public servant, serving our Nation through her positions at the Federal Communications Commission, the Washington Metropolitan Transit Authority, the Federal Aviation Administration, the District of Columbia's Office of the People's Counsel, and the DC Department of the Environment. Mrs. Hodges-Simons was a champion for strengthening our environmental policies. As chief of the Office of Enforcement and Environmental Justice for the DC Department of the Environment, she advocated for better environmental policies to protect underserved communities.

Mrs. Hodges-Simons was committed to serving her local community as well. She dedicated herself to community service, made a lasting impact as the first PTA president of Ernest Everett Just Middle School, and was an active member of her church, the First Baptist Church of Glenarden.

Mrs. Hodges-Simons' memory is cherished by the many people whose lives she touched, but especially by her family. She is survived by her husband Don; her children Donielle and Kenneth, who is a treasured former member of my Senate staff; her mother Mary; and her sister Karin. I ask my colleagues to join me in expressing our appreciation to the late Mrs. Hodges-Simons and her family for all she has done for our community and country.

Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to a dedicated public servant and Marylander Mark Sweeney, Principal Deputy Librarian of Congress. With almost 40 years of unwavering service to the Library of Congress, Mr. Sweeney has faithfully served our Nation by preserving our knowledge, history, and culture.

Throughout his distinguished career, Mr. Sweeney served the Library of Congress in multiple positions. He began his career at the Library in 1985 as a Library technician. His hard work, expertise, and dedication led to multiple promotions, including to Chief of the Preservation Reformatting Division, Chief of the Humanities and Social Sciences Division, and the Library's Director of Preservation.

Throughout his career, Mr. Sweeney's dedication to preserving and enhancing knowledge strengthened the experiences of visitors to the Library of Congress. As Principal Deputy Librarian of Congress, he envisioned the Library's first user-centered strategic plan and contributed to the implementation of the Visitor Experience Master Plan.

In addition, through Mr. Sweeney's leadership and support, access to our Nation's historical newspapers increased, conserving our history and culture. As the Library's technical adviser to the U.S. Newspaper Program, Mr. Sweeney contributed to the locating, preservation, cataloging, and dissemination of newspapers from the 18th century to the present that were published in the United States. In addition, Mr. Sweeney guided and supported the Library's team for the National Digital Newspaper Program to strengthen access to newspapers through technology. Mr. Sweeney's leadership also extends past the Library of Congress; his efforts to increase the accessibility of America's history and culture have been used as a model throughout our Nation to better the conservation of newspapers.

I commend Mr. Sweeney for his remarkable commitment to preserving our Nation's history and strengthening accessibility to sources of knowledge. His legacy is one of drive, passion, and encouragement of his colleagues and many others. I congratulate and thank Mr. Sweeney for his dedication to our Nation. I ask my colleagues to join me in thanking him and wishing him a well-earned, enjoyable, and fulfilling retirement.

Mr. President, together with my Maryland and Virginia Senate colleagues, I call up my amendment No. 1272 and ask that it be reported by number.

Mr. President, this amendment shuts down the illegal Musk DOGE operation, which has nothing to do with government efficiency and everything--could I have order, please, Mr. President

Mr. President, this amendment shuts down the illegal Elon Musk operation, which has nothing to do with government efficiency and everything to do with rigging the government for people like Elon Musk and powerful special interests.

That is why they started by firing all the independent inspectors general in the U.S. Government, which just opens the door to more corruption. And they have lied and lied to the American people.

They illegally fired over 200,000 patriotic Federal employees, including 6,000 veterans, and added insult to injury by lying that they were fired for poor performance. That was untrue, and this is why judges are ordering the Trump administration to return them to their jobs.

They gained access illegally to highly sensitive personal information on Americans, and just today we learned--

I ask unanimous consent for 10 seconds.

Thank you, Mr. President.

Finally, they also have essentially tried to clear the way--clear the way--for tax cuts for very wealthy Americans.

And I will end with this. They have also lied about their savings.

I say it is time to delete DOGE. Please adopt the amendment.

Thank you, my colleagues.

Would the Senator yield for a question?

I ask for the yeas and nays.

Madam President, I want to thank Senator Collins for working on an emergency basis to fix this problem in the House bill. She said it well, so I only want to emphasize two points.

One, what the House did does not save the Federal taxpayer one penny--not one penny. What it does is cap what the District of Columbia can spend in using its own money and based on its own decisions. So taxpayers are not saved a dime by what they did nor will they gain by our fix. The people of the District of Columbia should be able to make these decisions, and if they are having to make a budget with $1 billion less, it will mean fewer resources, fewer firefighters, and less money for schools.

So I want to thank the Senator from Maine for working with us on this. I am pleased to be joined by my colleagues from Virginia and Maryland--Senator Warner, Senator Alsobrooks, and Senator Kaine. We urge its adoption unanimously.

Mr. President, I voted today against final passage of the HALT Fentanyl Act because of the unintended consequences that could have been corrected by amendments that were blocked by the majority. Our Nation and my State of Maryland are experiencing a crisis with synthetic opioids like fentanyl and related drugs, and I strongly support action to combat drug trafficking and prevent overdoses. We need public health solutions that will help American families and our communities, but instead, the bill before us could lead to harmful unintended consequences, including limiting the potential for less addictive pain therapies and treatments like Naloxone that could prevent and reverse overdose. It also expands mandatory minimums, which increase incarceration but do not reduce crime, and applies them to a broad class of drugs regardless of their actual physiological effects, so that someone could be incarcerated for a decade or more for drugs that are effectively harmless.

My colleagues Senators Booker and Warnock put forward amendments to correct flaws in the bill, and Senator Hassan filed an amendment to address substance use disorders and prevent overdose. However, because those amendments were blocked, I could not support passage of this legislation. I hope we can take future action to address the public health opioid and fentanyl crisis and that my colleagues who claim to care about this issue do not slash dollars for Medicaid and substance use disorder treatment programs that are a lifeline to so many American families.

Madam President, I voted today to oppose cloture to end debate on the HALT Fentanyl Act. Our Nation and my State of Maryland are experiencing a crisis with synthetic opioids like fentanyl and related drugs, and I strongly support action to combat drug trafficking and prevent overdoses. We need public health solutions that will help American families and our communities, but instead, the bill before us could lead to harmful unintended consequences, including limiting the potential for less addictive

pain therapies and treatments like Naloxone that could prevent and reverse overdose. It also expands mandatory minimums, which increase incarceration but do not reduce crime, and applies them to a broad class of drugs regardless of their actual physiological effects, so that someone could be incarcerated for a decade or more for drugs that are effectively harmless.

I continue to hope that we will have the opportunity to amend this legislation, including with amendments put forward by my colleague Senator Booker. However, as we still do not have an agreement to hold amendment votes, I voted against cloture to end debate on the bill today. I urge my colleagues to work to improve the bill in order to address the possible unintended consequences of this legislation so instead the bill focuses on tackling dangerous drugs and allows for lifesaving research and development of potential treatments.

Mr. President, I voted today to oppose cloture on the motion to proceed to the HALT Fentanyl Act. Our Nation and my State of Maryland are experiencing a crisis with synthetic opioids like fentanyl and related drugs, and I strongly support action to combat drug trafficking and prevent overdoses. We need public health solutions that will help American families and our communities, but instead, the bill before us could lead to harmful unintended consequences, including limiting the potential for less addictive pain therapies and treatments like Naloxone that could prevent and reverse overdose. It also expands mandatory minimums, which increase incarceration but do not reduce crime, and applies them to a broad class of drugs regardless of their actual physiological effects, so that someone could be incarcerated for a decade or more for drugs that are effectively harmless.

It is my hope that we will have the opportunity to amend this legislation, including with amendments put forward by my colleague Senator Booker. However, as we have no guarantee that amendments will be permitted by the majority despite the urgency of the issue before us, I voted against cloture today. I urge my colleagues to work to improve the bill in the coming days in order to address the possible unintended consequences of this legislation so, instead, the bill focuses on tackling dangerous drugs and allows for lifesaving research and development of potential treatments.

Mr. President, I want to join this conversation and broaden it a little bit. In my view, we are witnessing the great betrayal during these last 44 days. We have the great betrayal here at home of the American people because the President promised certain things that he was going to deliver on, and we haven't seen those. We see the great betrayal of our Ukrainian friends and our allies around the world and freedom-loving people around the world.

Here at home, Candidate Trump, of course, promised that on day one, he was going to cut prices, that he was going to help working families. Last night, we witnessed the longest speech in American history to a joint session of Congress, and no plan was presented for lowering prices.

Grocery prices are going up, rent prices are going up, and home prices are going up.

We did see Elon Musk in the Gallery--the guy who said he wanted to take a chain saw to important services that benefit every American family. This is all part of a plan to cut taxes for very wealthy people like Elon Musk at the expense of everyone else.

So in these 44 days, we have seen that great betrayal, but we have also seen the other betrayal. We have seen President Trump throw the Ukrainian people under the bus. I don't think any of us could have imagined a day when the United States sided with Russia and North Korea on a U.N. General Assembly resolution that condemned Russian aggression, where we voted with them and against our allies--against Ukraine, against all of our European allies, against all of our friends in Asia. Heck, even North Korea abstained. Even China abstained.

So here we are throwing our allies under the bus. The folks that are openly cheering are the Russian leadership. I mean, this isn't just rhetoric; we have actually seen them expressing glee over the U.S. position. And of course they were very happy with the terrible spectacle in the Oval Office of the President and Vice President of the United States bullying President Zelenskyy.

We have all met with President Zelenskyy. Nobody wants peace more than President Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian people. They have lost thousands of people. They have sacrificed a lot. But they want a durable peace, and they want a peace that will recognize their sovereignty and their freedom and their independence. That is what they want.

We have all heard President Zelenskyy repeatedly thank the American people for our support. In fact, on one occasion, he brought an American flag signed by Ukrainian soldiers expressing gratitude for all our help. And what he has gotten in exchange for that great sacrifice-- a sacrifice that helps support freedom-loving people everywhere--is the back of a hand he received in the Oval Office.

So I think this is a moment where we need to speak with moral clarity, and we should do it together as a Senate. We are not directing the negotiations; we are expressing simple truths here on the Senate floor.

The simple truth that I want to express here through the resolution that I will ask to be considered is that the Russian armed forces committed crimes against humanity and war crimes in Ukraine. It is pretty simple, and I would just draw my colleague's attention to a resolution that was considered by this Senate back in 2022. I have it right here in my hand, S. Res. 546, authored by Senator Graham, cosponsored by then-Senator Rubio, now-Secretary of State Rubio.

What this resolution that the Senate considered just 3 years ago says--and I am going to read it--is:

[The Senate] strongly condemns the ongoing violence,

including war crimes, crimes against humanity, and systematic

human rights abuses carried out by the Russian Armed Forces

and their proxies and President Putin's military commanders,

at the direction of President Vladimir Putin.

That was the resolution we considered just 3 years ago. This resolution passed unanimously. Not a single Senator objected. Now, of course, we have new Members of the Senate, but every single Senator who was here at that time supported this simple statement of moral clarity.

Two things have happened since then. In February of 2023, the Department of State determined that members of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and officials of the Government of the Russian Federation have committed crimes against humanity and war crimes in Ukraine. And in September of 2022, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine concluded that war crimes have been committed in Ukraine by the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.

So the Senate adopted a resolution with the simple truths a number of years ago. Those truths were reaffirmed by the Department of State in 2023 and by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry in September 2022.

Regardless of the state of negotiations, I would think that we would be able to reaffirm today the same truth that we expressed unanimously just a few years ago.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 111, which was submitted earlier today; further, that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. President, I want to thank the Senator from Mississippi, the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, for his commitment to this issue to working to end the war in Ukraine but to do it in a way that preserves the freedom and sovereignty of the people of Ukraine and as a durable peace.

It escapes me how reaffirming truthful statements that the Senate has made in the past can possibly get in the way of a resolution of this crisis. I would argue that it is the President of the United States who has gotten in the way of a resolution of this crisis in the sense that, No. 1, he has clearly embraced Vladimir Putin in so many of his comments. And he went into this discussion by unilaterally giving away important leverage that is needed to result in a resolution that is a just resolution.

You don't go into a negotiation by giving up the issue of American participation and security guarantees, however that might look. You don't go into a negotiation by unilaterally giving up on territorial concessions.

This is why it is important, in my view, for the Senate simply to reconfirm the truths that we have already stated in the past. This seems to be a simple one--that war crimes have been committed by the Russian Army and that they have committed crimes against humanity. That is all this resolution says.

I hope that we can, at some point, come back and revisit this because it is going to be very important to achieve not just a peace but a just peace.

Mr. President, I want to start by thanking my colleague from across the Potomac River, Senator Kaine of Virginia, and also Senator Heinrich of New Mexico for bringing this resolution before the U.S. Senate.

We are now witnessing in realtime two of the most corrupt bargains in American history. One of those corrupt bargains is the one that President Trump made with Elon Musk.

Elon Musk spent $280 million to help elect Donald Trump President of the United States--$280 million--and President Trump has handed the keys of Federal Agencies over to Elon Musk. He even appeared at the Cabinet meeting today with other members of the Cabinet that went through the advice-and-consent process of the U.S. Senate. Elon Musk didn't do that, but he did spend $280 million to help elect President Trump.

And now the actions that Elon Musk is taking are designed to rig government Agencies to do the bidding of people like Elon Musk and other billionaires. In fact, we have been reading more and more about the billions of dollars of Federal contracts that Elon Musk has gotten and more to come. Just within the last 48 hours, we are talking about an FAA contract for Starlink.

This has nothing to do with government efficiency. If it did, you would not start by firing all the inspectors general across the U.S. Government whose job it is to look out for waste, fraud, and abuse. In fact, what you would do when you get rid of the inspectors general is open the door to waste, fraud, and abuse.

So we should be on full alert here in the U.S. Senate as to what is happening.

As others have said, we are also watching them claim to make savings, which actually they have had to change their, sort of, tally board every day because of misrepresentations. But they do want to clear the way to provide tax cuts to very, very wealthy people like Elon Musk at the expense of everybody else in America. And, of course, the House just passed a budget resolution to set up that process last night.

So that is one corrupt bargain that is playing out right now, and thousands of patriotic Federal employees around the country who do the people's work are being fired based on lies. I say ``lies'' because they are claiming they are firing them based on performance, only to find out that these Federal employees are coming forward with glowing performance reports as part of their most recent assessments. So that was a lie because that was the standard that had to be met, even if they had to make it up.

All these cases are now finding their way through the courts. We have over 60 court proceedings. Many Federal judges have issued temporary restraining orders to put a halt to this rampage of illegal activity.

The other corrupt bargain is the one that brings us to the Senate floor today because it was in May of last year, during the campaign, that Candidate Trump promised the Big Oil executives that he would deliver their wish list if they spent a billion dollars to return him to the White House.

So much has happened since then, I think some people forget, but here is the Washington Post headline from May 9, 2024:

What Trump promised oil CEOs as he asked them to steer $1

billion to his campaign.

The story describes how the CEOs there were stunned--stunned--when he went on to say:

You are all wealthy enough . . . that you should raise $1

billion to return me to the White House. [And] he vowed to

immediately reverse dozens of President Biden's rules and

policies.

And as the article indicates, among the things he promised to scrap were the efforts to develop more clean vehicles, more electric vehicles, and to develop more wind energy. So he promised to provide more opportunities for the big oil companies while harming their competitors in the clean energy industry.

He promised he would do all of this on day one. He also made another promise as to what he would do on day one. He promised the American people he was going to lower prices on day one. We all know that that is just not happening. Prices are going up. Grocery prices are going up. Rents are going up. Home prices are going up. The price of eggs is through the roof. So President Trump is not delivering on that day-one promise.

He is delivering on his promise to the Big Oil executives to issue that order that has made it even easier for them to produce, when they are already producing close to maximum current levels.

In fact, as my colleagues have said, for the past 6 years in a row, the United States has been producing more crude oil than any other nation at any other time ever, ever. In fact, the last administration actually approved more oil and gas leases during those 4 years than Donald Trump did during his first term in the White House.

And there is plenty of room to grow. Under existing leases, about half of U.S. oil and gas leases are currently not being used.

So here he issues an Executive order to allow even more to move forward, even when a lot of potential is still not being tapped, but doing it in a way that will negatively impact the public health, sacrifice clean air and clean water.

That is only half the problem. That is half the problem because what President Trump is doing is not only giving a blank check to the big oil companies, he is also sabotaging clean energy in the United States of America. They, of course, provide competition to the big oil companies.

So by throttling and sabotaging efforts when it comes to solar power or wind power or electric vehicles, you are actually producing less overall energy. You are actually giving the big oil companies a competitive advantage. That means prices go up, not down.

I can tell you that in my State of Maryland, people are feeling the impacts of higher electricity prices. We need to generate more electricity. We have got data centers coming onboard. AI consumes a lot of energy. So why in the world would President Trump be trying to cripple the clean energy industry?

Well, that is what he told the Big Oil executives he would do: He is going to crack down on wind power.

I will tell you that solar and wind energy are among the cheapest forms of energy in the country. And at a time when American pocketbooks are tight, renewable energy will help keep energy bills down.

In fact, renewable energy is expected to save Americans $38 billion on electricity bills by the year 2030 and produce more than 350,000 jobs in America. So why is President Trump trying to sabotage bringing that additional energy onto the grid and to Americans?

In Maryland, we are planning investments in offshore wind that will create 2,600 local jobs and power over 718,000 homes. That is wind power energy. That is what Donald Trump is trying to sabotage.

So if you really want to create more energy and you want to reduce energy prices, you wouldn't be doing what Donald Trump is doing when it comes to putting the screws to clean energy production.

I do want to mention one other way in which this is really going to harm America's interests, and that is, it is going to open the door even wider to our adversaries who are competing in the space-- principally China. We spent a lot of time trying to improve our supply chains, develop supply chains for minerals that we need to develop electric vehicles, and by sabotaging this sector, we are opening the door to China just to run into this market and leave us behind.

That is not ``America First''; that is America in retreat, just as it is America in retreat for us to vote with Russia and North Korea at the U.N. General Assembly the other day, against the people of Ukraine and freedom-loving people around the world.

So, Mr. President, I hope we will support this resolution. I hope we will ensure that we can develop our clean energy sources that will produce more energy supply for the American people and help lower prices.

I know, back in May of last year, Candidate Trump told the big CEOs that not only was he going to help them develop more but he was going to help them by hurting their competitors in the renewable energy industry. That is no way to conduct an energy policy for the United States of America.

I urge my colleagues to support the resolution.

Mr. President, this morning I attended the funeral of former Maryland Congresswoman Beverly Byron, an extraordinary public servant who represented the people of western Maryland and expanded the rights of women in the military as the first woman to chair a subcommittee on the Armed Services Committee and author of the Byron amendment that allowed women to fly combat missions. She was a mentor and friend, and I was grateful to pay my respects to her this morning among her many friends and family.

Due to this conflict, I missed rollcall vote No. 90, confirmation of the nomination of Daniel Driscoll to be Secretary of the Army. Had I been present, I would have voted no.

Due to this conflict, I also missed rollcall vote No. 91, the motion to proceed to S.J. Res. 11, a joint resolution providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management relating to ``Protection of Marine Archaeological Resources.'' Had I been present, I would have voted no.

Mr. President, I rise today to honor the life and service of the late Congresswoman Beverly Byron. For over a decade, Congresswoman Byron served western Maryland. She fought to advance the interests of her constituents and was a strong advocate for our national security. Congresswoman Byron has left a lasting legacy for the people of Maryland and our Nation.

When Congresswoman Byron was elected in 1978, she was one of only 16 women elected to the House of Representatives that year. She became a trailblazer, especially for women in the national security arena. A strong supporter of a robust national defense, she became the first woman to chair a subcommittee of the Armed Services Committee.

Congresswoman Byron also advanced opportunities for women serving in our armed forces. She sponsored legislation to reorganize the military child care system, open combat roles, and fight against gender-based restrictions. Through the 1991 Byron amendment to the Defense Authorization Act, women gained the right to fly combat missions in the Marines, Navy, Air Force, and the Army.

After serving in Congress, Congresswoman Byron continued to work to protect our Nation. She served on the Defense Base Realignment and Closure Commission and continued to offer her guidance on women in the armed forces.

Throughout her distinguished career, Congresswoman Byron has been a role model for many. When I sought public office and served in the House and Senate, I always valued her unvarnished advice. I ask my colleagues to join me in expressing our appreciation and gratitude to the late Congresswoman Beverly Byron and her family for all she has done for the people of Maryland and our Nation.

Madam President, I call up my amendment No. 233 and ask that it be reported by number.

Madam President, I offer this amendment with my colleague Senator Hirono. It is very straightforward. It creates a point of order against any legislation that would cut funding from the National School Lunch Program or the School Breakfast Program.

I think our colleagues know that nearly 14 million American children were hungry last year. One in five kids doesn't know where their next meal will come from or what it will be. So let's ensure that those kids get healthy meals and can focus on their education and their studies instead of their stomachs.

Madam President, 91 percent of public schools participate in the USDA meals programs. Over half of our kids are eligible for free and reduced lunch programs. They provide breakfast programs for over 2 billion of them a year.

So colleagues, let's not abandon those kids in order to provide tax cuts for Elon Musk and very rich people. I urge the adoption of our amendment.

Madam President, pursuant to section 904 of the Congressional Budget Act, I move to waive, and I ask for the yeas and nays and urge its adoption.

Mr. President, you know, it was just 30 days ago that President Trump took the oath of office just down the hall here in the Rotunda. Thirty days later, he continues to betray the promises that he made to the American people when he was on the campaign trail.

He promised he would focus on reducing prices and costs that the American people have to bear. In fact, costs are going up. He promised to fight for working Americans, the forgotten Americans, but with the help of the richest man in the world Elon Musk, he is actually going about cutting very important public services to the American people in order to make way for and pay for tax cuts for the wealthiest in this country--people like Elon Musk.

I come to the Senate floor today because we are in the process of setting up the framework in which that is going to happen. Republicans are bringing to the floor--probably tomorrow--a budget resolution that will set in motion that process of providing tax cuts for the very wealthy at the expense of other Americans.

That is a great betrayal by the Trump administration. But before I talk about that great betrayal by Donald Trump, I want to talk about another betrayal that is going on as we speak, and that is his betrayal of the Ukrainian people and everybody who yearns for and fights for freedom and democracy around the world.

What we are witnessing is not ``America first''; we are witnessing ``America in retreat.''

The Ukrainian people, for over 3 years now, have been fighting against the brutal onslaught by Vladimir Putin. They are fighting to protect their sovereignty, their way of life. President Trump is throwing the Ukrainian people under the bus and at the same time betraying people who fight for freedom around the world.

You know, Donald Trump likes to pick on people he perceives as weaker. We all know that he made fun of people with disabilities. He likes to pick on people who have differences. But when it comes to other bullies, he is a weak, weak person. He backs down. And that is what we are witnessing with respect to Vladimir Putin--Donald Trump is backing down.

In fact, he just today blamed the Ukrainians and President Zelenskyy for Putin's attack on the Ukrainian people. In fact, he called Zelenskyy, President Zelenskyy, a dictator, when it is Vladimir Putin that is the dictator and launched the assault on the Ukrainian people.

We should all be ashamed--ashamed, Mr. President. I met with President Zelenskyy at the Munich Conference over the weekend, along with many of my Senate colleagues, a bipartisan delegation. All of us, Republicans and Democrats, said to President Zelenskyy: You have our continued support. The Ukrainian people have our continued support.

But at that same conference, we saw Vice President Vance not even talk about the threat from Putin and our support for the Ukrainian people. In fact, we heard him lecture the people from Europe and others around the world gathered at that conference about their ``weak democracy'' and say that really what they needed to do was kowtow to the farthest right parties in Germany, neo-fascist parties in Germany, and then, after saying that, he went out and met with them. That is now the U.S. foreign policy in action, and all of us on a bipartisan basis should be standing up and saying that is wrong.

Yet the Secretary of Treasury arrived to extort Zelenskyy, saying: Unless you give us half of your rare mineral reserves to pay for past support, you don't get any additional support from the American people.

Imagine if during World War II, FDR had said to Churchill and our other allies: Hey, we are no longer going to support you in the fight against fascism, Nazis, and Hitler unless you sign over now half of your natural resources.

This is a shameful moment for the United States. We have stood up for freedom, we have stood up for democracy, we have stood up for the rule of law, and now, President Trump is throwing Ukraine and freedom-loving people around the world under the bus.

So I say to our NATO allies and other allies around the world and partners who believe in the rule of law and believe in democracy: You are going to have to carry this mantle for now.

A lot of people say: Oh, that is just President Trump saying these things. Watch what he does, not what he says.

What an American President says matters, and when President Trump talks about abandoning Ukraine and how President Zelenskyy is the dictator and how Ukraine started the war, not Putin, that is throwing Ukraine and our NATO allies under the bus.

So our European allies, our European NATO friends--they are going to have to step up and clearly carry that mantle, and I really urge my Senate Republican colleagues to do so at this moment.

You know, it was Donald Trump who, in speaking about Americans who lost their lives in combat, said, ``They are losers and suckers.'' That is what the now President of the United States said about Americans who sacrificed their lives for our country. Folks may also recall that is what he said about our former colleague Senator McCain because he was taken prisoner.

So I really hope that those in this Senate, in both parties, will stand up and stand up for the principles the United States has stood up for--not perfectly, far from perfectly, but what we have stood up for since World War II and in that postwar period where we helped construct many of the institutions that helped set the rules of the road in the globe today.

Now, here at home, we are also experiencing a betrayal. You know, I just was earlier today at a rally in front of the Department of Health and Human Services. It was a rally to protect the public health and specifically to help protect medical research that is conducted at the National Institutes of Health and at institutions around our country, colleges and universities and other places where they do the research that leads to treatments and cures that save lives in America.

It is pretty simple: When you start slashing funds for the NIH and its programs and when you start slashing the research team at NIH, it means more Americans will die prematurely of disease; it means more Americans will suffer for lack of treatments. Yet, that is what we saw the Trump administration do recently.

Fortunately, a Federal court has put a stay on those illegal actions, these actions to just unilaterally try to cut important public investments in medical research.

So let's not sugarcoat it. The consequence of doing that is very serious. They do important research in cancer, in Alzheimer's, heart disease, diabetes, and other diseases, diseases that plague probably every American family, and rare diseases. Firing NIH employees and canceling important grants and reducing support for medical research will mean more Americans will die early.

So what is going on? Well, it is the great betrayal because the reason we are seeing these efforts to slash important public investments across the board and to cut important positions in Federal Agencies is because they want to make room for a big tax cut for wealthy people.

You can see that the person that Donald Trump, President Trump, has chosen to do his dirty work is Elon Musk, the richest person in the world, who is in the process of conducting illegal raids on various government Agencies. And I say ``illegal raids''--I have never seen the courts so busy. I mean, courts are issuing temporary restraining orders because there is a lot of lawbreaking going on. We have to fight this in the courts, and we have to fight it here, and the American people are fighting it around the country.

This is the most corrupt bargain in American history. Elon Musk paid $280 million--$280 million--to help elect Donald Trump, and Donald Trump has now turned the keys to the Federal Government over to Elon Musk. And make no mistake, this has nothing--nothing--to do with government efficiency. We all welcome any effort to make the Federal Government more efficient. But this has nothing to do with that, and this has everything to do with helping the Federal Government serve the already powerful at the expense of working Americans and to clear that way--make cuts to pay for tax cuts for the very, very wealthy.

You know, during the Presidential campaign, Candidate Trump talked about reducing prices, lowering costs for American families. When he was asked about Project 2025, he said: I don't know what that is. I don't know who those people are.

But as soon as he was sworn in down the hall here, he went about implementing Project 2025. Now, why, on the campaign trail, would he say he knows nothing about it? He knew it was very unpopular. That, however, is exactly what he is implementing right now. In fact, the person he installed in the White House as the head of Office of Management and Budget was Russ Vought. He is the author of Project 2025.

And just a reminder to our colleagues, OMB is like the command and control center for the entire U.S. Federal budget. So President Trump put the author of Project 2025 in the cockpit for the Federal budget and has Elon Musk running and doing the dirty work at Federal Agencies around the country.

If this were about government efficiency, you wouldn't start out by firing all the inspectors general. The inspectors general job is to be independent watchdogs. Their job is to look out for waste, fraud, and abuse. So if you want to get rid of waste, fraud, and abuse, you don't start by firing the inspectors general. In fact, that is what you would do if you wanted to have people look the other way or not see when people were committing waste, fraud, and abuse.

In fact, that is exactly what is happening now because if you look at what Elon Musk and his cronies are doing, they are going into Federal Agencies and taking and reviewing and have access to the most sensitive personal information of the American people. They did it at the Department of Treasury--Social Security numbers, bank accounts.

The acting head of the Social Security Administration, a career official, just quit because she said it was inappropriate to turn over sensitive Social Security Administration information to Elon Musk and the DOGE boys.

We have seen that in other Agencies, too, where career Federal civil servants whose loyalty is to the country are resigning rather than follow illegal orders. I commend them for not following illegal orders.

If this were about efficiency, why would the Trump administration tell the employees at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to stay home and not work? They continue to get paid, but they don't do their jobs. That is what they have been ordered. Why?

The CFPB is a Bureau that helps protect American consumers against people who are engaged in fraud and con artists and cheats. They have gone after a lot of powerful people, a lot of powerful organizations. And they have returned over $1 billion to the American people--dollars that hard-working Americans were cheated out of. They went and got them back for them.

Yet here comes Trump in the name of ``efficiency,'' telling people to no longer do their work, even though they are being paid for it. And their work is to go after fraudsters and cheats.

I think we know what is going on here. What is going on here is we have Elon Musk trying to create a government that helps the already powerful and cuts services that benefit every American--like what happened to the Veterans' Administration, the Social Security Administration, and, yes, NIH when it comes to medical research, to help clear the way for tax cuts for very wealthy people. That is what is going on here.