Floor Statements

Mr. President, in recognition of Short Line Rail Advocacy Day, which was on May 17, I want to speak about the important services short line railroads provide to their customers and the entire economy. I also want to highlight the importance of the railroad track maintenance credit, otherwise known as the short line credit, for maintaining a robust network of short line rail.

The short line credit is available to what are known as class II and class III railroads, which are categorized based on revenue thresholds set by the Surface Transportation Board. This tax credit is not available to the large national and international railroads most people are probably familiar with. While the short line railroads generally operate in a relatively small area, they have a massive impact.

Short line railroads serve a key role in transporting manufactured goods and agricultural products from factories and farms to markets in the U.S and beyond. They often serve as the ``first and last mile'' in our Nation's freight transportation network. These links to the rest of the world are crucial to Iowa's economic competitiveness and communities across the country. Nearly half of Iowa's railroad miles are operated by 13 small railroads that transport more than 300,000 carloads of material a year.

Support of short line railroads has been a long-standing bipartisan priority. Next year will mark the 20th anniversary of the short line credit. Though the credit has spent most of its existence as a tax extender, as then chairman of the Finance Committee, I helped to create the credit and later led a successful effort to make the credit permanent in 2020. I had a lot of support, which is reflected in the fact that legislation that was sponsored by Senator Crapo, current ranking member of the Finance Committee, to make the credit permanent had 62 cosponsors.

The short line credit provides smaller regional and local railroads a tax credit for a percentage of amounts spent to upgrade and maintain miles of railroad track. However, these small railroads operate on tight margins, and many have insufficient tax liability to claim the credit against.

To address this issue, the law allows short line railroads to assign the credit to another short line, or to a customer. The assigning railroad typically recognizes income for cash received and the assignee deducts payments made. This arrangement ensures that all short line railroads are able to fully utilize the credit.

This year on Short Line Rail Advocacy Day, many of the Nation's 600 short line railroads visited offices on Capitol Hill to remind us of the critical role they play in the industry. According to the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association, nearly 30 percent of our national rail network, or roughly 50,000 miles of track, is operated by short lines who at some point handle a quarter of all rail cars moving through the national rail system.

It is important we understand and appreciate what these local and regional railroads do for our communities, and our whole economy.

Madam President, for 2 years, Democrats had control of the House, the Senate, and the Presidency. They took the reins of power as the Nation began to emerge from a pandemic that had upended our economy and the lives of all Americans.

Up to that point, Republicans and Democrats had worked together to pass multiple rounds of COVID relief with strong bipartisan support. That spirit of cooperation and bipartisanship came to a screeching halt when Democrats took total control in January of 2021.

Rather than viewing the pandemic as a challenge that required temporary measures to overcome, Democrats saw it as an opportunity to permanently expand the size and scope of government. That was the exact opposite of what we needed as a nation.

Our public debt as a share of the economy had soared to heights many would have viewed as unthinkable a few years earlier. What was sorely needed was a bipartisan focus on putting our fiscal house in order.

Instead, Democrats rammed through a nearly $2 trillion partisan spending bill that prominent Democrat economists warned risked sparking inflation. Then, as inflation soared to 40-year highs, Democrats doubled down on their reckless spending with additional legislation and executive actions adding trillions more to our national debt.

Thankfully, the American people had enough. They made their voices heard through the ballot box. Republicans were handed control of the House of Representatives based on a promise of a return to fiscal sanity.

Speaker McCarthy repeatedly called on the President to negotiate a fiscally responsible and timely debt limit increase. Unfortunately, President Biden proved not to be a willing dance partner. He sat idly by for nearly 100 days watching the clock tick down to default despite the urgent need to raise the debt ceiling and begin to put our fiscal house in order.

Speaker McCarthy thankfully never took no for an answer. He kept pushing and rallied House Republicans to pass a debt limit package to pair back spending excesses of the prior Congress and impose meaningful spending controls moving forward.

House passage of the Limit, Save, Grow Act put a reasonable and fiscally responsible offer on the table that President Biden couldn't ignore.

The bipartisan negotiations that ensued brought us to where we are today, a bipartisan agreement to address the debt ceiling while imposing meaningful brakes on government spending largess.

As is the case with any bipartisan agreement, neither side got everything they wanted. I would have preferred an agreement closer to the House-passed bill. But in a closely divided government, you can't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

The Fiscal Responsibility Act is a step in the right direction after years of unchecked Democrat spending. It will impose meaningful caps on discretionary spending that, over the next 2 years, will produce hundreds of billions of dollars in savings.

The agreement also strengthens work requirements in social welfare programs and claws back tens of billions in unspent COVID funds.

On the whole, over the next 10 years, this agreement will produce $1.5 trillion in savings. However, for all these savings to be realized, Republicans in the House and in the Senate will need to stick to their guns and vigorously enforce the spending caps.

As the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, I am prepared to do my part to hold the line and expect the House chairman is prepared to do the same.

As I said earlier, this agreement is a step in the right direction. However, we have a long road ahead to put our debt and deficits on a sustainable path.

Even assuming all the savings in this agreement is realized, public debt as a share of our economy will exceed World War II era record levels in a matter of years, and annual interest costs will balloon to over a $1 trillion.

We have a moral obligation to the Nation's youth to leave them a country that is on solid financial ground. Passage of the Fiscal Responsibility Act is a start, but much remains to be done.

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

Mr. President, I hope everybody in this body knows that congressional oversight is a very important responsibility of all of us, and it is even a constitutional demand. We must ensure that our government truly does work for, of, and by the people. When fraud, waste, and abuse is discovered, Congress has the responsibility to the American people to make it public because transparency brings accountability.

Today, we have an example of wrongdoing to discuss. It involves the former Architect of the Capitol's blatant misuse of government property. According to the Architect of the Capitol inspector general, during Brett Blanton's time as Architect, he engaged in unnecessary, very expensive, and impermissible conduct. For example, the report found unauthorized vehicle use; misrepresentation as a law enforcement officer; ethics violations; and, lastly, appropriations violations. Specifically, the inspector general found that Blanton should have driven approximately 10,438 miles using government vehicles. Instead, the inspector general said that Blanton racked up 29,291 miles. That is almost 20,000 extra

miles of unauthorized benefit on the taxpayers' dime.

The inspector general's October 6, 2022, report expressly noted that Blanton's actions ``have violated every pillar the [Office of the Inspector General] operates under including theft, fraud, waste and abuse against not only the [Architect of the Capitol] but also the taxpayer.''

In total, the inspector general identified $13,926 of inappropriate costs associated with Blanton's use of government vehicles. On February 22 of this year, I sent a letter to Mr. Blanton asking him when he would repay the money he impermissibly cost the taxpayers. As of today--now several months later--he has failed to respond to my inquiry and my staff's attempts to contact him. He has also made no effort to repay the money that he owes the American people. His actions show no respect for the taxpayer.

But that isn't the last word on this sad story. On the same day that I sent a letter to Mr. Blanton, I also sent a letter to Acting Architect of the Capitol Chere Rexroat. I asked her whether she intended to seek repayment from Mr. Blanton. She and her team have worked to recover these payments, and as of April 21, the money Mr. Blanton owed the taxpayers was repaid in full: $12,517 has been withheld from Mr. Blanton's final annual leave payment and has been returned to the Treasury. The remaining $1,409 was contributed by an insurance company.

When dealing with trillions of dollars in government spending, a dozen or so thousand can seem like a very insignificant amount. However, this amount would be important to a family struggling to make ends meet in a time of record inflation and price hikes. And the amount is important to me because it is about time that we see civil servants holding someone accountable for wrongdoing.

So, obviously, before giving up the floor today, I want to emphasize that congressional oversight doesn't deal out victories every day. When wrongdoing is exposed and corrected, it should be noted.

So let's give all due credit to the Acting Architect of the Capitol and also to her team for the recoupment of this taxpayer money. It may be a small amount of money, but it is the right action to take. And we ought to compliment it. And I compliment the Acting Architect today.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, in 1988, President Ronald Reagan first recognized May as National Foster Care Month. Every year since then, the month of May has been recognized as a time to bring awareness to the needs of America's young people who are placed in foster care. It is also important to recognize organizations in Iowa and around the country tirelessly serving kids and families in our foster care system.

I salute these organizations and individuals for their year-round efforts to support the kids, kids who are most in need.

In 2021, there were nearly 400,000 kids in foster care. More than 4,000 of those 400,000 are in my home State of Iowa.

Older youth in foster care and adults who experienced foster care as a child can speak to what worked for them and what didn't work. They should have a seat at the table and a voice in making policy about foster care.

When I founded the Senate Caucus on Foster Youth in 2009, the very special focus of the caucus was to hear directly from young people in foster care. We also wanted to hear from those who had been aged out of the system without having a permanent place to call home.

Over and over again, I have heard an urgent point of view from these young people and also the teenagers who are in foster care. What I heard was that they would like some permanence. They would say it like they would like to have a mom and dad. They would like to have a family. They would want a place to call home, instead of being shuffled around--maybe two or three different schools in 1 year, which means two or three different foster homes in that year.

All children, no matter of their circumstances then, deserve a permanent, loving home. They need consistent, caring adults in their lives. This year during foster care month, I want to give special recognition to families who answer the call to help vulnerable children and the teens in their communities.

My resolution recognizing National Foster Care Month also marks May 31 as a very particular day to celebrate and show appreciation to foster parents.

Throughout my years in the U.S. Senate, I have worked to keep families together. For example, I have expanded access to prevention services to help parents safely keep custody of their children during substance abuse treatment. The family, as we all know, is the bedrock of our society, so we must work to strengthen the family in the hopes of keeping vulnerable children out of foster care in the first place.

At the same time, it is important that we support the very people who are taking care of these kids--the ones we call foster parents. They answer the call to take into their homes children and teens who have experienced trauma in their very young lives. Foster parents--all of them--deserve recognition and support.

In Iowa, almost every county has a shortage of foster parents who are able to provide temporary homes for these young people. Without volunteer foster parents, kids who cannot remain safely at home often end up sleeping in hotels or in offices of social workers.

I have introduced a bipartisan bill called the Recruiting Families Using Data Act. This legislation would improve how States recruit foster parents and help ensure that they are supported and actually heard. It would help States conduct targeted recruitment for specific areas of need and help kids get matched with the best families for their individual circumstances.

We know that having at least one loving adult in the lives of these young people can meaningfully improve the academic, the social, and the emotional well-being of these kids. That positive experience lasts long into adulthood.

When family reunification is not an option--and that ought to be the first

option--we know that adoption can provide a permanent, loving home for a child in need. Recent data show that adoptions from foster care is declining, with 12,000 fewer children having been adopted in 2021 than in 2019. Currently, more than 100,000 young people in foster care are waiting for adoption across our country, including more than 1,000 in my State of Iowa. By improving support for foster families, we can help increase adoptions for kids who are placed in foster care.

Moving forward, Congress must continue to work to find more solutions and secure better outcomes for youth in foster care. Whether the best choice is family reunification or adoption or living with relatives, the goal is always and must be the same: to protect kids from neglect and from abuse and to provide them with love and with support.

I urge my colleagues to pass my resolution to recognize May as National Foster Care Month.

Once again, I will continue to lead efforts with members of our bipartisan Senate Caucus on Foster Youth to help these young Americans achieve their full potential and have a place to call home for the rest of their lives.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, today, May 9, is National Fentanyl Awareness Day. In the last 12 months, over 108,000 Americans have died from drug overdoses, mainly from fentanyl and its analogues. Fentanyl overdoses are the number one cause of death for Americans between the ages of 18 and 45, so I come to the floor to do two things.

First, I am here to introduce a bipartisan resolution supporting the goals of National Fentanyl Awareness Day. The resolution aims to increase awareness of the impact of fake or counterfeit fentanyl pills on families and young people. And it applauds the work of Federal, State, and local law enforcement agencies that combat the proliferation of counterfeit pills.

And second, I am here to reintroduce my bipartisan legislation, the Stop Pills That Kill Act. This bill creates new penalties for counterfeit pill production. There is a surge throughout the United States of counterfeit pills laced with fentanyl and fentanyl analogues. People unknowingly take these counterfeit pills. Many of them die. Drug traffickers have been marketing and selling these fake pills using social media. The Stop Pills That Kill Act will ramp up criminal penalties to deter this illegal activity and save lives.

Later this week, the Senate Judiciary Committee will mark up another bill I cosponsor, the Cooper Davis Act. This bipartisan bill requires social media companies, the same places where these fake pills are being sold, to report information to Federal Agencies relating to illicit online fentanyl on their platforms. The reporting requirements will help law enforcement root out and dismantle international crime networks and save lives. I look forward to reporting the bill out of committee and quickly getting it to the President's desk.

Whether it is at my roundtables in Iowa or during my 99-county meetings, parents continue to come up to me and tell me about the children they have lost to fentanyl poisoning. It is heartbreaking to see the pain on their face and hear it in their voice, as they share what the fentanyl crisis has done to their family.

I hope we see action to move these bills and permanently schedule fentanyl related substances. I am as committed as ever to cracking down on fentanyl and its analogues, and I hope my colleagues will join me soon.

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

Mr. President, I don't think I really need to do this with the length of my speech, but just in case it runs up against the vote, I ask unanimous consent to be able to finish my speech.

Mr. President, in the past several years, I have come to this Senate Chamber to discuss my constitutional oversight of the Justice Department and the FBI. In many of those floor speeches, I have discussed legally protected and unclassified whistleblower disclosures that were made to my office relating to the Hunter Biden criminal investigation.

These disclosures were made public in the interest of transparency and accountability because the public's business should be public, and we should know, as Senators or Congressmen and Congresswomen, whether the executive branch of government is faithfully executing the laws as the Constitution requires.

Those disclosures that I have made have a very common theme: The Justice Department and FBI have allowed political infection to take root within each Agency's decision-making process. Such an infection is an existential threat to any government Agency, but to a law enforcement Agency that can interfere with our constitutional rights, such an infection is catastrophic.

After Crossfire Hurricane, which was the definition of a political investigation, the whistleblower disclosures demanded congressional attention more than ever. So I wrote public letters asking questions. I directly asked the same to the Attorney General and the FBI Director at committee hearings. I have asked them about allegations that politics infected the Hunter Biden

investigation. This sort of political bias erodes trust in government and prevents the equal application of the law as required by the Constitution.

I have also asked them about allegations that the FBI used false claims of Russian disinformation to bury potential criminal investigations about Hunter and James Biden. Also, I asked them about allegations regarding specific records within the Department's possession relating to potential criminal conduct by the Bidens. I have asked about allegations regarding specific records that show Joe Biden may have been involved in Hunter Biden's business arrangements.

The allegations my office has received are very precise, very direct, and very consistent. Accordingly, they are highly credible. These credible allegations raise important and fundamental questions, like these questions:

Did the FBI follow normal investigative procedures to vet these claims?

Did the FBI follow the facts wherever they led, or did they improperly shut down credible leads in advance of the 2020 election?

Remember, I have been raising these questions for a long period of time. I have done it through many venues: letters, in hearings, in private calls with Agency leadership, and, like today, right here on the floor of the U.S. Senate.

The Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation had plenty of opportunities to respond to all of these questions I have raised. Not once--let me emphasize: not once has the Justice Department or FBI ever substantively disputed the whistleblower allegations that I have made public. I have given Attorney General Garland and Director Wray every opportunity to put our worst fears to rest and assure the American people, as they should, that everything has been done by the book. Both Agencies have failed to do so.

Just think how simple it is to say that everything was done the right way--if they could say that. And that ought to tell you something. Even with their credibility on the line, the FBI and Justice Department have refused to cooperate when asked for basic information. So, as you know if you have been following all this stuff--and I don't expect people to have time to do that--yesterday, House Chairman Comer issued a letter accompanied by a subpoena from the House committee demanding one FBI document. Based on protected and highly credible whistleblower disclosures, the unclassified document exists, and it is allegedly referencing a criminal scheme involving then-Vice President Biden.

Notably, it is a crime to provide false information to Congress during a congressional investigation.

Most importantly, this very document was generated by the FBI themselves. It is time for the Justice Department and FBI to come clean to the American people. What did the Justice Department and FBI do to investigate the information in the document at issue? The answer goes to the heart of whether taxpayer-funded government Agencies proceed normally or whether that Agency cuts corners.

Simply put, did the Justice Department and the FBI treat this information like they would if ``We the People'' were implicated, or did they sweep it under the rug to protect then-candidate Biden and now-President Biden?

If the Justice Department and FBI have any hope of redeeming their once trusted position--and that is what the American people have long held, to trust the FBI--Attorney General Garland and Director Wray must answer. Their credibility is on the line.

I yield the floor.

I ask for the yeas and nays.

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

Mr. President, I come to the floor today referring to a speech that Senator Biden gave on this Senate floor 39 years ago today. The scene was this: It developed over several months of that year before May 2, 1984.

I had this idea which would be considered crazy today, that we need to get control of the budget by just freezing everything across the board. And I recruited Nancy Kassebaum, a Senator from Kansas, and Senator Biden to help in that effort.

Senator Biden gave the longest speech that day on justifying it, and most of his comments at that time were trying to justify that you could actually freeze the defense budget, and also it included the freeze on the COLAs for Social Security.

But Senator Biden spent most of his speech fighting off giants of the military industrial complex at that time, by the names of Senator Goldwater, Senator Towers, and Senator Stevens of Alaska. So that is the background of what I am talking about today.

So on this day, 39 years ago, then-Senator Biden spoke on the Senate floor saying that he was ``outraged''--that is his words--that our national debt would soon be near $2 trillion. He urged fellow Senators to ``do something . . . before the debt limit increase comes up.'' The ``something'' that he advocated for was a Federal spending freeze.

Today, our national debt stands at $31.5 trillion compared to that $2 trillion in 1984. But in a few years, public debt as a share of our economy is expected to exceed record levels set in the wake of World War II. However, instead of urging immediate action this year, President Biden wants to kick the can down the road. I think, today, we would all consider that to be irresponsible and unacceptable.

In contrast, House Republicans are tackling our debt crisis head-on. Legislation the House passed last week would rein in excessive government spending, lift the debt ceiling, and impose meaningful fiscal controls moving forward. President Biden and Senate Democrats must get off the sidelines and negotiate. We can't continue to live high on the hog at the expense of future generations.

To put our current national debt in perspective, a gross Federal debt of $31.5 trillion equates to $95,000 for each man, woman, and child living in the United States today. By comparison, the average cost of a 4-year public college degree in 2023 is about $90,000. Both are more than we should be asking young people to bear. Looked at in terms of the American taxpayers, our government debt comes to a staggering $247,000 per tax filer, and I think the number of tax filers would be close to 160 million or just a few more. That is $52,000 more than the average home value in my State of Iowa.

Our growing national debt is unsustainable. In its most recent budget outlook, the Congressional Budget Office estimates interest on the debt will be near $1 trillion in 2028--an amount exceeding what our Nation is expected to spend that year on national defense. Absent action, interest costs will continue to mount at an alarming rate. Looking well into the future, by 2044, interest will exceed $2.9 trillion, surpassing what we are projected to spend on Medicare. By 2050, interest will become our Nation's single largest expense, even surpassing Social Security.

Interest costs of this size would have been unfathomable to my then- Senate colleague Joe Biden. Remember how he said he was outraged that the national debt would reach $2 trillion? While Senator Biden was expressing outrage over a $2 trillion national debt, he was also lamenting the prospects of $219 billion in annual interest costs. Yet, today, President Biden barely bats an eyelash at interest projected to blow past $1 trillion, on a path to $3 trillion.

At the same time our interest costs are set to soar, several major Federal programs are barreling toward insolvency. According to the trustees of Social Security and Medicare, in the report they introduced this spring, Social Security's primary trust fund will become insolvent in 2033, while Medicare's trust fund will go broke in 2031.

Contrary to what some Democrats claim, doing nothing to address these programs is not an option. The Social Security and Medicare Board of Trustees, which consists solely of President Biden's administration officials, has made it clear that congressional inaction means automatic benefit cuts within the next 10 years. Yet President Biden has accused any Republican who mentions the words ``Social Security'' of wanting to gut the program, although nothing could be further from the truth.

In 1984, Senator Joe Biden sang a much different tune. He understood that a dire fiscal situation required bold action from this Congress. The Federal spending freeze he advocated

for applied across the board. It would have frozen spending on Social Security, Medicare, defense, and much more.

Nothing any Republican has proposed today comes close to the broad- based spending cuts advocated by then-Senator Biden. What Republicans have put forward likely wouldn't go far enough for the 1984 Joe Biden. Today, our debt, our deficits, and our interest costs are all on a far bleaker path than they were in 1984. Yet President Biden refuses to entertain even modest spending cuts. That should be unacceptable and is unacceptable to most Americans.

We can't continue to ignore our current fiscal trajectory. We must get our fiscal house in order. Failure to act puts children born today in a position that they will never be able to recover from financially. This Congress must come together to fix our broken budget system and return to regular order. As the ranking member of the Senate's Budget Committee, I stand ready to work with my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to put us on a more sustainable path.

Unfortunately, the White House doesn't seem to want to address the issues we are facing. The President's budget request continues our Nation on a path to fiscal ruin. Under the administration's budget proposals, public debt as a share of our economy will set a new record in 2027.

We owe it to the Nation's young people to leave them a country that is on solid financial ground. We cannot ask the generation of tomorrow to pay for the gluttony of today.

Here are the words of then-Senator Biden in 1984: ``I, myself, am outraged . . . I hope that all those other Senators who share my outrage will also share my determination to do something'' about our unsustainable debt.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Madam President, I am here to discuss the Defense Department's financial audits--or, more accurately, the lack of credible audits. My colleagues know that I am as stubborn as a mule when it comes to my oversight work of the Pentagon's accounting system--or lack of system.

I wish I could stop sounding like a broken record when talking about the Pentagon's financial track record.

The fact is that the Pentagon is pigheaded when it comes to accounting for taxpayer dollars. It keeps pouring billions of dollars into an antiquated accounting system that doesn't work.

Late last year, I read an article that appeared in a national security blog. The blog is called War on the Rocks. This blog article is called ``The Pentagon Can't Count: It's Time to Reinvent the Audit.'' It was written by Steve Blank, a business professor at Stanford University.

As a former member of the Defense Business Board, the professor calls for a whole new approach to defense auditing. The Pentagon is spending $1 billion a year--and these are his quotes--``to get incrementally better'' and still, according to him, clean opinions are nowhere in sight.

He raises a legitimate question: Why is the Pentagon spending so much money for so little results--meaning money on audits?

Thinking outside the box was not in the Defense Business Board's charter,

but Professor Blank allowed himself the luxury of thinking outside the box. He dreamed about doing the impossible, and he wrote this fairly long quote:

What if we could invent the future? It dawned on me.

Continuing to quote:

If we tried to look over the horizon, we would discover

that the department could audit faster, cheaper, and more

effectively by inventing future tools and techniques rather

than repeating the past.

The professor envisioned a ``5th generation of audit practices'' to break the cycle of audit failures at the Department of Defense.

I give the professor very high grades for creativity and his search for new solutions but disagree with some of his thinking.

However, when it comes to pinpointing the root cause of unending audit failures, the professor hits the nail on the head.

So I quote from him:

[The] Department of Defense needs to lead the audit

industry to create a 21st century integrated finance and

accounting system, including a U.S. Standard General Ledger

that provides reliable and complete data.

``Integrated systems'' and ``reliable data'' are the magic words.

The experts, like the auditors, the financial managers, the inspector general, have known this truth for 30 years or more. They dutifully report it, wringing their hands in frustration, and then rinse and repeat the cycle from 1 year to the next year.

Now, see here. We have the mighty Pentagon that develops the most advanced weapons systems the world has ever known. Yet, when it comes to deploying basic technology like an accounting system, it is buffaloed--or is it? Maybe they want the system to work that way so nobody knows what is going on and how the money is spent.

After hundreds of billions have been poured into patching up old audit systems, the Department of Defense still can't perform the most elementary accounting tasks in the book. They don't capture transactions as they occur and post them to the correct accounts. So just go figure what is wrong.

Well, there once was a true sage consigned to an attic cubbyhole at the Pentagon who claimed to know the answer. That person was A. Ernest Fitzgerald. We called him Ernie. Ernie was the Management Systems Deputy of the Air Force in the Comptroller's office. He blew the whistle on the C-5A cost overruns and, of course, got fired when President Nixon didn't like what he testified to before the Congress of the United States.

Some years after being restored to his post--and he was restored only by court order--he was detailed to my staff for several years to lead a joint review of the internal controls over vendor payments. Ernie believed the Pentagon barons lorded over their financial fiefdoms for one reason and one reason only: They did not want to see the status quo go away. It is pretty simple. Keeping the books in disarray gives the Department of Defense the so-called flexibility to hide overspending and other financial shenanigans.

Once upon a time, a promising fix lent credence to Ernie Fitzgerald's theory. It was called the Defense Corporate Database/Warehouse System. It was at the threshold of success when it got torpedoed--and torpedoed by whom? By the bureaucrats in the Defense Department. That system could have been a building block for a modern accounting system that might have delivered a victory to the American taxpayer.

If the brass were truly committed to cleaning up the books, it would have happened long ago. The technology is there for the taking. To break out of the cycle of failures, we need to step back, hit the audit reset button, and chart a new course.

As a first step, Secretary of Defense Austin should hold the Chief Financial Officer accountable for failing to have an accounting system that meets statutory requirements. That is as simple as accounting 101 and accountability 101 in my book. If Secretary Austin holds the CFO's feet to the fire, just maybe we will finally see a course correction.

As a lifelong family farmer, I can tell you that hope springs eternal at the start of every planting season. After four decades of working to weed out the fiscal mess at the Pentagon, it is a tall order to be optimistic. I am not going to give up. I am not going to give up this fight. With the help of a team of auditors under the leadership of the Government Accountability Office's general counsel, Emmanuelli Perez, and support from our allies, maybe together we can nudge the Department in a new direction. Otherwise, expect more of the same--a colossal waste on failed audits.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, Leader Schumer said since last week that he intends to introduce a resolution purporting to support law enforcement.

In 2020, ``defund the police'' became the rallying cry of the radical left. Every day for the next 2 years, officers reported to duty despite a campaign saying that they didn't deserve money for even bulletproof vests; and 1,146 of those officers died protecting Americans. I don't remember Democrats taking to this floor to defend law enforcement back then. Instead, they blocked resolutions that condemned attacks against officers.

By April of 2021, antipolice protests and Democrat silence were all but routine. And we know what happened: Police morale plummeted.

Still, officers rushed toward danger that those of us in Congress should thank God that we never have to face. Iowa Sergeant Jim Smith was one of those officers. On a Friday night in April 2021, he got a call for backup. It took him to the house of Michael Lange. Lange had just assaulted another police officer and barricaded himself inside with a shotgun.

Sergeant Smith led the entry team. They had just cleared the basement and were about to reach the main floor when Lange ambushed them. Lange fired two shots into Sergeant Smith's chest. Then he gloated to the other officers, and this is what he said:

I'll kill you like I killed your buddy.

All Sergeant Smith ever wanted was to be a police officer. When the antipolice rioters came, he and his tactical team guarded the Iowa State Capitol. They were spat on and insulted. They had frozen water bottles and rocks thrown at them. But they held the line. And when the time came, Sergeant Smith laid down his life holding a thin blue thin.

He never got to see this pro-FBI resolution. He didn't witness the uptick in police popularity as blue cities descended into violent crime. But I would imagine that the folks who loved Officer Smith must be wondering where this all was back then and why the FBI seems to matter more than State and local officers.

Of course, this isn't to say that there aren't good FBI employees. There are plenty of them. I and my Republican colleagues have made our support for law enforcement clear time and again. I would, however, like to know where our Democratic colleagues have been with respect to the blatant political bias in the leadership of the FBI and the Department of Justice.

On March 1 of 2023, Senator Graham and I wrote to Attorney General Garland and Director Wray regarding the more than 130 attacks on Catholic churches since the Supreme Court decision in Dobbs and the fact that the FBI has largely failed to investigate those violent attacks by leftist extremist groups. Instead, as we wrote to Director Wray, elements of the FBI have labeled Catholics as extremists and lumped them together with violent White supremacists with no justification.

There is nothing extreme or suspicious about worshipping God according to the dictates of your conscience.

Our letter also pointed out that the Biden Department of Justice has aggressively targeted pro-life advocates for selective prosecution. This includes the Department's political prosecution of Mark Houck for allegedly violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act. He had an altercation with an abortion clinic volunteer who allegedly verbally harassed his 12-year-old son.

Even though local authorities declined to press charges, Mr. Houck was arrested--arrested at gunpoint--by the FBI in front of his terrified family. He was eventually found not guilty by a jury after a very short deliberation.

Let's also not forget that, for many years, our Democratic colleagues politically weaponized the FBI against my and Senator Johnson's Biden family investigation. On July 13, 2020, then-Minority Leader Schumer, Senator Warner, then-Speaker Pelosi, and then-Chairman Schiff sent a letter with classified attachments to the FBI. The letter targeted the Grassley-Johnson Biden family investigation to try and falsely tie it to Russian disinformation.

On July 16, 2020, mere days after the July 13 letter, then-Ranking Members Wyden and Peters wrote a letter to me and Senator Johnson asking for a briefing from the FBI's Foreign Influence Task Force. The FBI did the bidding of our Democratic colleagues and briefed us, accordingly, on August 6, 2020.

The contents of the FBI briefing were later leaked to the Washington Post, even though the FBI promised us confidentiality. The leak was just another act in a long line of efforts to falsely label the Grassley-Johnson good government oversight work as--you guessed it-- Russian disinformation.

The Wall Street Journal editorial board hit the mark with their piece that they entitled ``The FBI's Dubious Briefing: Did the bureau set up two GOP Senators at the behest of Democrats?''

As I noted in the last Congress, protected whistleblower disclosures to my office make clear that the FBI has within its possession very significant, very impactful, and very voluminous evidence with respect to potential criminal conduct by members of the Biden family. Based on protected whistleblower allegations, I know the FBI falsely labeled that evidence as Russian disinformation to bury it.

To date, the Biden Justice Department and the FBI haven't challenged the accuracy of these allegations. They can't because my staff has independently reviewed records to support the allegations.

And you can't forget the now-debunked Steele dossier, a document funded and created by Democrats and the Clinton campaign, a document that was actually subject to Russian disinformation. The FBI's willing and disastrous use of it to investigate candidate and then-President Trump sent our country into a tailspin for years.

So let's not kid ourselves right here, right now, as we are talking about a resolution to back law enforcement. The facts bear out that it is our Democratic colleagues who have consistently used Federal law enforcement to their political benefit, and, in the process, they have degraded the trust the American people once placed in Federal law enforcement.

Accordingly, this resolution offered by my Democratic colleagues reeks of political gamesmanship. It is not a serious effort. Let's truly honor the heroes in law enforcement and the daily sacrifices they make for the American people by offering more than a tone-deaf political resolution that further divides the country.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I will vote no on the nomination of Joshua Jacobs to be Under Secretary for Benefits at VA. I will do so for reasons I have already stated publicly in the Record when I paused consideration of his nomination last month. I placed that hold to bring attention to serious ethical lapses and the VA's complete stonewalling of my inquiry into those issues.

Veterans Affairs, for 2 years, has chosen the path of inattention and disrespect, not just to this Senator from Iowa, but more importantly to the Senate, the people I represent, and all Americans who believe in honest government.

I began my inquiry 2 years ago into serious conflicts of interest at the VA, concerns that it had failed to protect sensitive and confidential information about publicly traded companies, and the shocking and potentially illegal--and fully documented--termination of a person the VA suspected of being a whistleblower. The VA failed to cooperate on all counts.

These are matters that are in the VA's own best interest to resolve. It doesn't do the VA or anyone else any good, and it certainly does no good for our veterans, for these serious matters to be swept under the rug.

At my request, VA's inspector general investigated the serious allegations I raised of potentially criminal conflicts of interest and confirmed them to the extent possible. However, he wasn't able to finish his investigation and determine whether criminal activity occurred because the subjects refused to cooperate. The conflicts of interest were known to senior VA officials, who did nothing to stop them and instead assured the conflicted official they would make the issue go away, and they did, until I raised my inquiry. Documents show a VA official berated the whistleblower, removed their key duties, and then fired them.

VA did not cooperate with my investigation, and that has left serious questions unanswered. It waited nearly 9 months and after four letters to respond at all, and even then, it was only to refuse to provide answers. After 2 years, we are still waiting for those answers.

And if you think this is all old news, just last month, I raised new allegations obtained by my office about potential contract irregularities at VA. It appears from public records that the VA has awarded lucrative contracts to former VA officials who resigned under ethical clouds. We need answers to that and all the other questions I have raised, and I will not stop pushing for those answers. My staff counts over 30 questions that VA to date has not fully responded to, after six oversight inquiries from my office and multiple attempts to gain their cooperation.

Mr. Jacobs, the nominee before us today, served as a senior adviser to various VA Secretaries and was there as the VA obstructed my inquiry. He had a front row seat at VA through a string of failures and crises, from the Phoenix wait list scandal, to VA's failures in processing claims for victims of sexual trauma, veterans' claims backlogs, delays in the GI Bill modernization initiative, and a host of challenges and scandals.

Mr. Jacobs has never adequately explained his role in these matters or what potential role he may have played in VA's lack of responsiveness to congressional inquiries. In addition, for reasons I explained in my public hold statement on his nomination March 14, I found his responses to my questions for the record to be woefully inadequate and evasive. Where is the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee in making sure the VA and this nominee are held accountable? After 2 years of that same pattern from the VA, the Senate should not confirm this nominee. VA can and must do better in responding to congressional inquiries and fulfilling its role of serving veterans and the American people. I will vote no.

Madam President, on behalf of the Hawkeye State, I am proud to congratulate the Iowa women's basketball team for a historic run in the NCAA Division I basketball tournament. All season long, the Hawkeyes played before sellout crowds at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City. Fans from across the State got swept up in the adrenaline rush of remarkable athleticism and a fast-paced offense that delivered high- scoring games and thrilling victories throughout the regular season, from the home court buzzer beater against second- ranked Indiana on February 26, to bringing home the hardware on March 5 from the Big 10 Championship game at ``Carver North'' at the Target Center in Minneapolis.

Leading the team to its fifth Big 10 Conference Tournament title, Iowa's homegrown guard Caitlin Clark wowed the world all season long, setting the bar higher and higher and delivering one of many historic firsts yet to come in postseason play, namely the first 40-point triple-double in NCAA tournament history. Only after, the West Des Moines native and stellar student-athlete from Dowling Catholic High School registered the third triple-double in Big 10 tournament history, the first time ever in the championship game. Clark's phenomenal ability to connect with teammates in transition, net 3 pointers from half court, and score lay-ups and jumpers while being double-teamed captured the attention of the entire country. From one game to the next, Clark's trademark ability to swish a basket from the logo mesmerizes spectators, bewilders the defense, and opens up opportunities for her teammates to shine. A sensational athlete, Clark earned player of the year from multiple outlets this season.

Throughout the thrilling contests during Iowa's deep run in the NCAA tournament, Hawkeye fans from around the world and across the State of Iowa were thrilled with pride to be along for the ride. The journey began at home on St. Patrick's Day with a resounding win over Southeastern Louisiana 95-48. In the second round, the Hawkeyes beat Georgia 74-66 before a sellout crowd in Iowa City before advancing to the Sweet 16 against Colorado and on to face Louisville in the Elite Eight at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, WA. The spellbinding teamwork the Iowa Hawkeyes brought to the court broke attendance records for Women's NCAA tournament regional play as they locked in 87-77 and 97-83 victories, respectively, to punch their ticket to the Final Four at the American Airlines Center in Dallas. Next up, a contest against the defending champion South Carolina, who was on a 42-game winning streak. In a spectacular upset on Friday, March 31, the Iowa Hawkeyes secured a spot in the national championship game with a 77-73 victory over the Gamecocks.

The electrifying victories and hard-fought contests during the 2022/ 23 season made household names of Hawkeye starters Caitlin Clark, Monica Czinano, Gabbie Marshall, McKenna Warnock, and Kate Martin, led by an outstanding coaching team captained by head coach Lisa Bluder and associate head coach Jan Jensen, both homegrown products of Iowa women's basketball. I am proud to share an alma mater with Coach Bluder, where she earned her way into the Panther record books at the University of Northern Iowa. Widely respected as workhorses through their high school and collegiate careers, this dynamic coaching team has built a program for the ages that will inspire and attract future basketball players for years to come.

With nearly 10 million viewers for the championship game against the LSU Tigers, this historic match-up offered both teams their first opportunity in program history to bring home the national title. It was the most-watched women's basketball game in history. If what is past is prologue, the sellout crowds and record-breaking TV ratings will continue.

This magical season started at home on November 7, continuing with an exhilarating run through March Madness all the way to April 2, taking the Iowa Hawkeyes to the second Final Four in program history and its first appearance in the NCAA title game. The electrifying ride unified our State, even coalescing fans with die-hard rivalries in their bloodstreams. To be sure, I watched every minute and couldn't take my eyes off the game when the Hawkeyes were playing. Iowans cloaked themselves in Black and Gold to cheer for the Hawkeyes and women's basketball on the national stage.

Although the final score in the championship game didn't deliver the victory the coaches and players worked their tails off to bring home, the State of Iowa, the University of Iowa, and future generations of players received a priceless victory from this extraordinary season. The Iowa Hawkeyes women's basketball team made Iowa proud. This team has earned a place in our hearts, and we can't wait to watch and cheer for you next season and for generations to come. On behalf of the Hawkeye State, I congratulate you for an outstanding season that made history, put all eyes on Iowa, and catapulted women's basketball to soaring new heights on the horizon and beyond. Go Hawks.