Floor Statements

Mr. President, I rise today to speak on a matter that should not require clarification.

In the United States of America, no President, Republican or Democrat, serves more than two terms. That is not a suggestion; that is not a tradition; that is the law of the United States, enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. Yet, once again, President Donald Trump is openly suggesting that he should have a third term.

In an interview with NBC News, he was asked directly about his repeated comments on seeking a third term. This time, he left no room for doubt. He said he was ``not joking'' about a third term--``not joking.''

So let's be clear. This is not the first time Donald Trump has toyed with the idea of clinging to power beyond what the Constitution allows. He has mused

about serving 10 or 12 or even 16 years. He has floated the notion of repealing the 22nd Amendment. His supporters have worn T-shirts reading ``Trump 2028.'' His allies have spread the baseless notion that he was ``owed'' extra years because of supposed injustices against him.

Each time, when confronted, his defenders--Members of this very body--have dismissed it as a big joke. But the man himself has now made it clear: He was not joking. So why are congressional Republicans still pretending that he was joking?

Let's review what the Constitution actually says. The 22nd Amendment, ratified in 1951, states unequivocally:

No person shall be elected to the office of the President

more than twice.

No exceptions. No loopholes.

The 12th Amendment makes clear that no one who is constitutionally ineligible to serve as President may be elected as Vice President, closing the door on any scheme where a President resigns to elevate an unelected successor. The law is settled. The case is closed.

The reason we have these protections is simple: America is a republic, not a monarchy. The people's power is enshrined in the peaceful transition of leadership.

George Washington set the precedent of serving only two terms, and after Franklin Roosevelt's unprecedented four terms, both parties, Democrat and Republican, came together to enshrine term limits into law--the George Washington tradition into law. Every President since, Democrats and Republicans alike, has respected this safeguard until right now.

What we are witnessing is the continued erosion of constitutional order, met not with outrage from Republicans but with shrugs and chuckles and excuses. And those who claimed he was joking before now claim he is joking still after he says he is not. That is in violation of his own explicit statement that he is telling the truth. They are not just enabling a man's delusions of infinite power; they are setting the stage for something far more dangerous: The normalization of sedition.

Let me say this plainly: There is nothing funny about sedition. There is nothing amusing about a former President who incited an attack on this Capitol now openly fantasizing about defying the Constitution to remain in office. There is nothing humorous about Members of Congress excusing, enabling, and covering for a man who has already demonstrated his willingness to subvert democracy for his own personal gain.

So, at this moment, I will ask the Senate to take up and pass by unanimous consent my resolution making clear what should already be obvious: That under the 22nd and 12th Amendments to the Constitution, Donald Trump is ineligible in any future election to be elected as Vice President or President of the United States or to serve as President beyond the conclusion of his current term.

This resolution is incredibly simple. It says that ``the Twelfth amendment to the Constitution States that `No person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States'. . . . [T]he Twenty-second amendment . . . states that `No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of President more than once.' ''

So, therefore, President ``Trump is ineligible in any future elections to be elected Vice-President or President, or to serve as President beyond the conclusion of his current term.''

That is it. That is the totality of what it says.

This is not a partisan statement; it is a constitutional one. Every Member of this Chamber, regardless of party, should be able to agree: No President is above the law. No President is entitled to more than two terms.

If my colleagues truly believe that it is all in jest, then let's put this to the test. Let's pass the resolution now because if they won't, the cost will be nothing less than the future of our Republic. And that is not a joke.

With that, as if in legislative session and notwithstanding rule XXII, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 154, which is at the desk; further I ask that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. President, I thank Senator Kaine for his leadership on this issue.

President Trump's new tariffs are not ``Liberation Day''; they are ``Obliteration Day.'' They are going to be remembered as something that raised taxes on every American consumer, had foreign countries then attack businesses all across our Nation, all without a plan from President Trump to have an end game.

President Trump is just making this up, and we are going to have to wait to see how he responds when Europe attacks us, when Canada attacks us, when Asian countries now attack us. He is inviting an attack upon the American economy even as American consumers have to pay higher taxes.

So we are just at the dawn of the equivalent of an all-out war--trade war--with every other country in the world. And who is going to pay the price? American workers and American taxpayers. They are the ones who are going to pay the price.

Federal Judges

Mr. President, I rise tonight to speak about the outrageous calls we have been hearing to impeach Federal judges who have ruled against Donald Trump. That is right. Donald Trump and his extremist MAGA supporters think that if a Federal judge dares to rule against the President, that judge should be impeached.

Recently, Trump tweeted that Judge James Boasberg, the chief judge of the Federal district court here in Washington, DC, should be impeached because he ruled against Trump's use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport alleged Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador without any due process.

Elon Musk, whose Department of Government Efficiency has been on the losing side of several recent judicial decisions, has referred to Federal judges as ``evil'' and called for ``a wave of judicial impeachments.''

In the other body, MAGA extremists have taken up the cudgel and filed Articles of Impeachment against Federal judges who have ruled against the President, and then they receive political contributions from Elon Musk for doing so.

Just last week, Speaker Johnson even suggested eliminating entire Federal courts because their judges have dared to rule against Donald Trump. These calls for the impeachment of judges and elimination of courts are just the latest in salvos in a broad attack on the courts, on lawyers, on the rule of law by the President and by his allies.

I come to the Senate floor today to condemn this dangerous and un- American onslaught against the judiciary and legal profession and urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to speak out against it. Federal judges confirmed by the Senate and given life terms under the Constitution during good behavior are not like contestants on ``The Apprentice.'' You don't get to fire them because you don't like the way they are doing their job.

The President and his acolytes don't seem to understand this. With each call to impeach judges, they disregard and disrespect the Constitution; its separation of powers; its checks and balances; and its establishment of three coequal branches of government--one of which is a judiciary whose principal job, as the Supreme Court explained more than 200 years ago in Marbury v. Madison is to ``say what the law is''--to say what is constitutional--and that is precisely what the courts have been doing.

Since retaking office, Donald Trump has issued a series of Executive orders that are blatantly, patently, and obviously unconstitutional and illegal. Trump's arrogant belief that he can supersede the Constitution and the laws passed by Congress with an Executive order has spawned more than 100 lawsuits against his administration.

Federal judges across the country, judges appointed by Democrat and Republican Presidents alike, including Donald Trump himself, are doing the same job that judges have done in our country for centuries. They are interpreting statutes, making legal determinations, and upholding the Constitution of the United States.

They are moving swiftly to hear cases and, for now, preventing some of the most egregiously unlawful Trump policies from taking effect: revoking birthright citizenship, blocked; freezing all Federal funding, blocked; pulling down public health websites, blocked; capping funding for critical health research at the National Institutes of Health, blocked; denying gender-affirming healthcare to transgender youth, blocked; allowing Musk unbridled access to Social Security data, blocked; clawing back funds appropriated by Congress and obligated to my National Climate Bank, blocked by a Federal district court judge. And the list goes on and on and on--blocked, blocked, blocked, blocked.

In these cases, like any others, if the losing party disagrees with the judge's decision on what the law is, they can appeal it. What they shouldn't do is to call for the extraordinary step of impeaching the presiding judge. That is a remedy the Constitution reserves for only grave ethical or criminal misconduct.

That is why John Roberts, the Chief Justice of the United States, was compelled to issue a rare public statement after President Trump called for the impeachment of Judge Boasberg.

Without referring to the President directly, the Chief Justice nonetheless rebuked him, explaining that ``for more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement'' and ``the normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.''

Unfortunately, the MAGA extremists calling for impeachment of judges or the elimination of the courts don't care about this, the Constitution, centuries of judicial norms, the rule of law. They only care about one thing: fealty to Donald Trump.

The baseless calls for Chief Judge Boasberg's impeachment confirm that. This is a judge who was a Yale Law School graduate, who cut his teeth as a successful homicide prosecutor, who was first appointed to the bench by a Republican President more than 20 years ago, who was confirmed to the Federal bench in a 96-to-0 vote, and who was named by Chief Justice Roberts to a seat on the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court where he served a 7-year term, including as the court's presiding judge.

Yet this is the judge, widely respected throughout the judiciary and legal profession, who President Trump calls a ``radical left lunatic, a troublemaker, and an agitator.'' That is Trump talking about Judge Boasberg just because he ruled against the administration in a preliminary decision, which by the way, a three-judge panel of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals last week upheld on review.

So while Trump's ad hominem attack on Judge Boasberg was typically baseless, it and other attacks like it leveled against other judges are no less dangerous. They have given rise to increased threats against judges--a ``significant uptick'' as Chief Justice Roberts put in his report on the Federal judiciary at the end of last year.

Indeed, according to the Chief Justice, U.S. Marshals Service data showed a tripling of hostile threats and communications directed at judges over the previous decade.

Recently, judges have also experienced the swatting of their homes, the delivery of pizzas to their homes--actions intended to send a message: We know where you and your family live, where your children are. So reach the result which we want. Be afraid, be very afraid.

This is wrong. Very wrong. It is dangerous. It is intended to pressure judges in their decision-making that puts lives at risk. It deserves the strongest possible across-the-board condemnation by all Senators and all Americans.

Instead, my Republican colleagues have been awfully quiet, fearful of upsetting President Trump, who has followed the ``Godfather,'' part 1, playbook and made them an offer they can't refuse--a primary opponent if they just don't go along.

Finally, I have a few words about Donald Trump's unprecedented Executive orders targeting law firms and individual lawyers who have litigated against him. These orders have suspended security clearances, canceled

government contracts, barred employees from Federal buildings, and erected other obstacles that prevent lawyers from representing their clients.

Trump has even directed the Department of Justice to seek sanctions against attorneys who file frivolous lawsuits or engage in vexatious litigation against him.

So with Donald Trump coming after lawyers and law firms, it is gut- check time for law firms in our country, especially the big law firms that the President has targeted for revenge and retribution because of their lawyers daring to do their jobs and representing clients in cases against him.

I commend those firms like WilmerHale, like Jenner & Block, who are standing up, who are fighting back. And we need all law firms to stand up to this administration and to continue to stand up for the rule of law. And those that don't, especially those that seek to appease and accommodate the President out of fear their bottom line will suffer-- grave risk, grave harm to our liberties will, in fact, depend upon the lawyers who take difficult and unpopular cases, often against the government, and zealously represent their clients in those matters.

I will conclude with this: The attacks on our judiciary, the calls for the impeachment of judges, and the attempts to intimidate and retaliate against lawyers who dare to stand in defense of the Constitution are not just an assault on individuals, they are an assault on the very foundations of our democracy.

The courts are not pawns in a political game. The rule of law is not up for negotiation. If we allow this dangerous precedent to take root, if we tolerate threats against judges and lawyers fulfilling their constitutional duties, we set the stage for the erosion of the checks and balances that have safeguarded our Nation for over two centuries.

This is not about protecting one man. This is about protecting the principles that ensure justice and fairness for all Americans. It is time all of us as a nation to rise above partisan interests and defend what makes us strong; our commitment to the Constitution, to the independence of the judiciary, and to the rule of law. I urge my colleagues--all of my colleagues--and every American to stand with me in defending these sacred institutions, not for our political health but for the health of our democracy itself.

Will the Senator yield for a question?

First of all, thank you so much for what you are doing, Senator Booker. You are drawing our Nation's attention to what Donald Trump and Elon Musk and DOGE are seeking to do to our country, especially the most vulnerable in our society.

You, Senator Booker, you have been a champion for the poor, for the sick, for the disabled, for those most in need throughout your entire life. That is who you are. You are absolutely a champion for those who need help the most.

So as we look at what Donald Trump is proposing, to destroy the Department of Education, just to level it, knowing that title I money goes to the poorest children in Newark, in Boston, so that they can have as close to an equal footing as is possible so they, too, can compete to ensure they enjoy the American dream.

To dock Medicaid, knowing that there are 338,000 people just in Massachusetts alone who are on disabilities, who need Medicaid in order to deal with those afflictions, which their families need a little bit of help to deal with, to begin a process of saying that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme and knowing that, ultimately, they need the billions of dollars for their tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires, and they have to get it out of education. They have to get it out of Medicaid. They have to get it out of veterans' benefits. They have to get it out of Social Security.

We know what the plot is. The plot is to get $2 trillion out of programs that affect ordinary people in order to have tax breaks for the wealthiest people in our Nation. And most of it will come out of healthcare. It will come out of Medicaid, ultimately, out of Medicare, out of the Affordable Care Act, out of veterans' benefits--healthcare, healthcare, healthcare, healthcare for every family, for the wealthiest in our society who don't need a tax break.

The one thing they don't need right now is a tax break, especially when Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg now control more wealth than the bottom 50 percent of our Nation combined. Do they really need a tax break? I mean, I know the President put them right behind him at his inauguration, but oh my God, the Cabinet sits behind billionaires? The Founding Fathers are spinning in their graves thinking about how they have perverted what is supposed to be the way in which our government, our country works.

So I thank you for your incredible leadership. You are putting the spotlight on what is going wrong in this country right now, this oligarchy seeking to take over our Nation.

So I thank the Senator for what he is doing, and he is just so consistent with his whole life, what he stands for. What he stands for on this on the floor of the Senate today is a conscience--a conscience for the Nation.

Can the Senator tell the Senate today--the Nation--what does it mean if we continue down this path of Donald Trump and Elon Musk and DOGE for those families who need help the most in our society?

Mr. President, before I begin my remarks, I want to take a few

minutes to thank Bob Nelson, the Small Business Administration's District Director for Massachusetts upon his retirement on Monday after 30 years of Federal service.

Bob is a paragon of public service--commuting each day more than 100 miles from Connecticut to Boston to serve Massachusetts' small businesses.

For 26 years, Bob has helped small businesses recover from everything from the economic downturn after 9/11 to the great recession of 2008 to the COVID-19 pandemic. Bob is known for giving small business owners his direct cell phone number so that they never have to go through a moment of uncertainty.

His career is a testament to the impact that steady and passionate public service can have on everyday people and local economies.

Everyone who has worked with Bob respects him; and that goes for me, my staff, and all of the SBA employees that he has worked with over all of the years and the thousands of small businesses that he has helped during those years.

Bob Nelson is a small business champion, and because of him, countless business entrepreneurs and communities are strengthening our Nation, creating jobs, and making our economy the envy of the world.

Thank you, Bob--thank you, Bob--for everything that you have done, for bringing a public servant's heart to your work, and for your many years of service making the Massachusetts Small Business Administration district office the best in the Nation.

Climate Change

Mr. President, over the last 2 months, the Trump administration has made one thing painfully clear: They do not have an ``all of the above'' energy strategy. They have an ``oil above all'' energy strategy--oil above the law, above the economy, above the health and wallets of working families in our Nation.

Gas prices are up. Electricity bills are up. Home heating costs are up. Yet instead of investing in working families, Donald Trump is launching a full-scale assault on the very programs designed to bring costs down and create jobs, all while spewing baseless lies that begin in the White House and then spread across his entire administration, but especially focused on his energy policy.

At the Department of Energy, staff have been ordered to draw up a hit list of clean energy programs--programs Congress already funded, programs workers are counting on.

These are not hypothetical investments. These are real dollars that could unleash real jobs and real benefits for communities across the country. And now they are being sacrificed to serve a political agenda that rewards polluters and punishes the public.

Nowhere was this agenda more proudly displayed than at this week's CERAWeek--or as I like to call it, the Olympics of oil--where Energy Secretary Chris Wright gave a speech that would make Big Oil blush. Although, it is more likely that they just turned with a flush because of the incredible way in which they were treated.

Big Oil had a big treat coming from the speech by Energy Secretary Chris Wright. Let's take a moment to fact-check Secretary of Energy Chris Wright's Big Oil-sponsored big lies at CERAWeek in Houston.

Chris Wright said:

The previous administration's policy was focused myopically

on climate change with people as simply collateral damage.

False. Chris Wright is wrong. When Democrats controlled the White House and Congress, we invested in solutions that centered smart communities and a livable future. Since the Inflation Reduction Act was passed in 2022, the clean energy boom has created more than 400,000 new jobs and spurred $420 billion in investments, most of it in red districts; 70 to 80 percent of the funding is in red districts. That is a people-powered economy.

That is an ``all of the above'' strategy. Everyone is included. So if we are talking myopic, look no further than Trump. It is the pot calling the kettle black.

Trump has been exclusively focused on tax breaks for the rich with extensive collateral damage. New reporting shows that more than 50,000 energy jobs have been lost or stalled since Trump was elected and that over $56 billion in U.S. clean energy investments were canceled or stalled in that same time.

If he continues down this road and guts the IRA, he will be driving an estimated 790,000 jobs off a cliff while wiping $160 billion from our economy by 2030 and raising household energy costs by $32 billion over the next decade.

In other words, President Trump and his energy policy are engaging in economic sabotage. So let's continue fact-checking Secretary Wright.

Secretary Wright also said in that speech:

Wind and solar . . . supply roughly 3% of global primary

energy.

The truth: Renewables powered 30 percent of the world's electricity in 2023. Got it? Not 3 percent; 30 percent of the world's electricity in 2023. And in the first 9 months of 2024, 96 percent of all new electrical generation capacity installed in the United States was renewable--wind, solar, battery--96 percent of all new electrical generation capacity installed, with the majority actually coming from solar. It is the fastest growing, cheapest energy out there.

Big Oil isn't just losing its monopoly; it simply cannot compete. The natural gas industry, they are petrified. Can you imagine if you are saying: Well, we are the only way in the future in which you can have predictable electricity which is generated; natural gas is the answer-- when in 2024, 96 percent of all new electrical-generating capacity was wind and solar and battery storage technology?

If you knew that, for 10 years in a row, the natural gas industry is facing an existential moment, that is what they are afraid of. They are afraid of competition. They are afraid of alternative energy sources. Oil, gas, and coal, they got a tax break for 100 years from the Federal Government, and they were able to squash all of the competition over all of those years.

But when finally we leveled the playing field and the alternatives show out that are nonpolluting, that don't have any greenhouse gases to go up into the planet, that don't warm the planet, all of a sudden, we are hearing: The Secretary of Energy in the Trump administration is lying about that? Because they have to lie. Otherwise, they would have to explain why they are planning on killing hundreds of thousands of new jobs in these industries, which are absolutely bursting at the seams.

But, wait, there is more. Here is what else Secretary Wright said at the SARA conference down in Texas:

The last administration recklessly pursued policies that

were certain to drive up electricity prices.

Once again, false. False. The fact, however, is that onshore wind is the cheapest source of new electricity in America. It has been for nearly a decade. It beats fossil fuels even without subsidies and costs half as much as new natural gas on average.

Again, existential threat to the natural gas industry--onshore wind beat it in the marketplace every day for 10 years in a row.

So what is Secretary Wright saying? He is saying he is going to lead the effort to kill it and to kill solar--to kill all of it. And building new solar? Well, it is cheaper than running existing coal or building new gas projects in the United States. Solar is winning in the marketplace, and it is frightening to the natural gas industry--just absolutely frightening. It is fossil fuel volatility that has hammered families at the pump and on their power bills, with fossil fuel exports going to the highest bidder abroad. Now, in my home State of Massachusetts, many gas bills are double what they were last year. That is unacceptable.

Let's keep going with the fact checks.

In a pathetic attempt to justify the benefits of deadly pollution, Secretary of Energy Wright said:

We've raised atmospheric CO2 by 50 percent in

the process of doubling human life expectancy.

Then he said:

Everything in life involves trade-offs.

Well, let me be clear. In the United States, climate-fueled disasters already kill more than 1,300 people every year. More CO2 doesn't mean more life; it means more floods, more fires, suffering, deaths. There was $300 billion worth of damage between Hurricane

Helene and Hurricane Milton last fall and $150 billion worth of damage in Los Angeles from climate-driven storms. By the way, only $50 billion of it was covered by insurance--catastrophic for all those communities.

So let's talk about the real tradeoffs. Clean air traded for asthma. Safe homes traded for billion-dollar climate disasters. Lower bills traded for Big Oil windfall profits. This administration has made its tradeoff clear: your future for their profit. That is Trump's art of the deal, and what a great deal for the oil, gas, and coal industry. All they have to do is just raise money for Donald Trump, and in return, they kill the competitors which are killing the oil, gas, and coal industry in the market.

Adam Smith is spinning in his grave so fast that he would actually qualify for a tax break under an IRA. That is how much they are lying about the marketplace and how it is responding to finally the incentives that are there to compete against oil, gas, and coal, which brings us to the Environmental Protection Agency because what is a fossil-fueled agenda without a full-on assault on the very Agency tasked with protecting our air and our water and our climate?

Two weeks ago, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced that he is taking more than 30 actions to unravel our bedrock environmental safeguards in a nauseating attempt to shock and awe us into submission. These are the regulations that keep our air breathable and our water drinkable. These are the standards that keep us healthy instead of sick. And all so that their Big Oil BFFs can make a few more big bucks while the rest of us will foot the bill with our health conditions that will be created by these fossil fuels, these pollutants going up into the atmosphere.

These rollbacks are not a revolution for American progress and energy; they are a return to the same, tired fossil-fueled program of the past. For starters, they are attempting to eliminate EPA's authority to regulate dangerous greenhouse gases based on the threat they pose to public health or welfare--known as the endangerment finding.

This finding came from a Supreme Court ruling in my very own home State, which brought the case to the Supreme Court--Massachusetts v. EPA--in 2007, which said something we all know: Greenhouse gases pose an ``actual'' and ``imminent'' threat to people everywhere.

And it doesn't stop there. They are hoping to roll back air quality standards for particulate matter pollution that are projected to avoid 4,500 premature deaths and 800,000 cases of asthma over just 6 years. That is all going to get wiped out if they have their way.

We are going to fight them, by the way. We are going to fight them every single step of the way on this dangerous, health-endangering strategy which they are seeking to put on the books.

They are aiming to gut wastewater regulations so coal plants can contaminate the water we drink from and swim in. They are trying to pump the brakes on clean car and truck regulations that reduce harmful air pollutants and save families money at the pump. The list goes on and on.

They are dismantling the Federal Government before our very eyes. This isn't about efficiency; this is about sacrificing the health of our communities for the health of their pocketbooks.

And just like Energy Secretary Chris Wright's speech, we know it is a lie. They aren't making America great again; they are selling America to the highest bidder--to the oil and gas and coal industry. That is what they are doing. They are just selling us out. We must continue to speak up for the truth and continue to fight.

The natural gas industry--they are threatened by a wind and solar and battery revolution that will generate the electricity we need in our country. Natural gas doesn't like it. They want to kill it.

The oil industry--we put 70 percent of all the oil we consume into gasoline tanks. They don't want to see the all-electric vehicle revolution continue to grow exponentially. They are going to try to kill that, too, so that we do not have that reduction in the amount of oil we put into the cars we drive around our country that spew that pollution up into the sky.

So the oil and gas industry--they go to the White House, they go to Donald Trump, they go to Mar-a-Lago in order to get the protection they need against competition, the protection they need against clean energy, the protection they need against the creation of a million new clean energy jobs in our country that should be our future. And it is what young people want more than anything else. They want that revolution. They are the Green New Deal revolution. That is what they want. They want to see it happen.

Because it is happening, oil and gas are having, unfortunately, this White House, Secretary of Energy Christopher Wright, his entire Cabinet, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin--all of them just dismantle all of the protections which have been put on the books over a generation.

This is a historic moment, and all we can say to you, oil, gas, and coal; all we can say to you, Trump White House, is that we are going to fight. We are not going away.

There is a young generation out there that is rising up, and they are not happy with what is happening in this White House. They do not want to see their future sold for campaign contributions from polluters in our country.

So we are ready to fight, and we are going to align ourselves with the young people in our country that want a different future, a better future, a clean future, and that is what we are going to get because we will not lose.

I can't thank Senator Whitehouse enough for being our leader on the Environment and Public Works Committee and for bringing us out here this evening to have this incredibly important, historic discussion about the direction of our Nation.

Thank you.

I would love to have a conversation with the Senator from Rhode Island.

I think it is the most well-financed lobbying effort in Washington, DC. I think they have had an ownership of this building for a hundred years, and they are afraid it is about to slip away. Would the gentleman from Rhode Island agree with me?

You know, the Senator from Rhode Island is wise and precise in his analysis of the agenda of these companies.

The Senator from Rhode Island and I have for 12 years led the effort, along with the Senator from Connecticut, to have offshore wind all along the Atlantic coast, and the Biden administration put in place a plan to deploy 30,000 megawatts of offshore wind.

What Donald Trump, what Chris Wright, the Secretary of Energy, and the Secretary of Interior are now planning is to kill that entire revolution capturing the winds that blew the Pilgrims to our shores, capturing the wind that had the whaling crews go out in order to fuel the energy of the 19th century. But when it wants to be used for the energy of the 21st century, the oil and gas and coal industry say: Absolutely not. We can't allow that to happen.

Why can't they allow it to happen? Because it would replace natural gas-

generated electricity that pollutes, it would just transform the way in which electricity powers our businesses and powers our homes all across the east coast of the United States, and we could wave goodbye to that natural gas-fossil fuel polluting future for the 21st century.

So what is Donald Trump doing? After receiving tens and tens of millions of dollars in contributions from the natural gas industry, led by Harold Hamm, who promised Trump--the No. 1 natural gas guy in America--that he would raise the money for him in the campaign, well, the payoff, the payback is, kill offshore wind.

So they say ``all of the above''--nah, they don't mean ``all of the above.''

Chris Wright, the Secretary of Energy, says: People really don't like wind, so we have to make an exception because people don't like wind.

Do you know who doesn't like wind? The natural gas industry. They hate wind. They hate it because it is the competition, because it is working, because it is cheaper, and because it is also cleaner, in the same way the oil industry hates the all-electric vehicle revolution because it kills oil as a business as we move to a renewable way of generating electricity that then powers the vehicles we have in America.

So the chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee as usual has just put his finger right on the problem, and it is the money that is sloshing through Mar-a-Lago and Washington, DC, the White House. It is an absolute disgrace, and I can't thank him enough for bringing this up on the floor for a full exposition.

What does that mean by ``downwind,'' just so people can understand it? What do you mean by that?

And it blows into the lungs of the people in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island.

I yield to the Senator from Connecticut.

Would the Senator from Connecticut yield?

Thank you. What I would like to talk about a little bit, if I could, with you and Senator Whitehouse, is this pollution agenda that they have for us in New England, that they have writ large for the whole country as well.

Let's just take solar energy. In 2009, the total amount of solar ever deployed in the United States was 2,000 megawatts. That was it. In 2024, 40,000 megawatts was deployed. It is scaring the natural gas industry. Combined with battery storage, it is just saying that New England doesn't have to import any more natural gas, any more pollution. Slowly but surely, in other parts of the country, they, too, will deploy wind and solar with batteries and reduce the amount of pollution that is sent up into the atmosphere that blows our way on the east coast from the Midwest.

It actually is more economical for us. It is actually a job creator for us because the jobs are actually in New England, not in other States. We are doing it for ourselves offshore, on the roofs of people's homes, out along the highways as we deploy these renewable energy resources. It is absolutely frightening to them.

In the same way--I will add this number, too--in 2009, there were a grand total of 2,000 total all-electric vehicles in the United States. That was all we had from Henry Ford to 2009, 2,000 all-electric vehicles. Why? Because the auto industry said we can't figure it out. It is just too hard.

Then we put the incentives in place. The battery technologies were given incentives. There were incentives to buy all-electric vehicles. Last year, there were about one and a half million all-electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids sold in America, not just 2,000 total sold a year ago.

So the direction is absolutely vertical. It is just taking off exponentially. And, again, with it goes a reduction in greenhouse gases, especially as each year goes by and more and more of those technologies are employed.

I think that what Senator Whitehouse has done on the floor over and over again, just bringing out the fundamental corruption of how policies are made in the energy and environment sector, it just becomes more and more true as we are only 8 weeks into the Trump administration. But we can see that, almost like an Old Testament prophet, Sheldon Whitehouse has been shining a light on this corruption, and now it has all come to pass.

I can't thank the Senator from Connecticut enough for his great leadership on these issues. We kind of consider ourselves to be innovation States. We are going to figure this out. And as we figure it out, it is absolutely frightening to those States that have been producing energy for generations--good for them and good for their citizens--but if we figure it out as well, we should not be stopped any more than we stopped them in the 20th century. We should be allowed to innovate in the 21st century what they are trying to put in place.

The policies purchased from the Trump administration that block us from those issues, which were not just for ourselves, but like many other things invented in New England over the years, we can export them around the world. We can be the world leader in the development of and then export of all these technologies.

I can't thank you enough, Senator Whitehouse, for your great leadership on the floor.

Mr. President, Social Security is under attack. It is under attack from Donald Trump. Social Security is under attack from Republicans. Social Security is under attack from Elon Musk. Social Security is under attack from greedy billionaires who want to loot Americans' hard-earned money to line their own pockets.

Trump, Musk, and DOGE know they can't come right out and cut Social Security. That would be wildly unpopular. Instead, they are revving up their chain saw--cutting staff, reducing services, closing offices, and lying about the program, finding so-called fraud where no fraud exists.

Here is their reckless roadmap: first, lie about the program to undermine it with the public; second, use those lies as an excuse to gut Social Security and cut benefits; and third, raise the retirement age and privatize Social Security, handing your benefits over to Wall Street--making the billionaires richer and our seniors poorer. It is a very shameful plan.

Now cue Elon Musk and his DOGE lackeys who descended on the Social Security Administration, claiming there are millions of dead people over the age of 150, over the age of 200, over the age of 360 years. They are claiming that people born in 1665 are claiming Social Security benefits, that they are fraudulently applying for benefits. The only problem with what they are saying is that none of it is true. They are just lying.

Former inspectors general and Social Security Administration leaders have never found any of this phantom fraud--none of it.

But following the Trump playbook, Musk, DOGE, and Republicans have repeated this lie over and over again. Again, the key to their messaging on Social Security is lying about Social Security. That is their campaign plan.

So Trump, in his State of the Union, repeated the lie, telling the country that there were millions of people fraudulently receiving Social Security benefits. That is the Trump way: If at first you don't succeed, lie, lie again.

While Trump and Musk see 200-year-old ghosts--360-year-old ghosts-- collecting Social Security benefits, they are gutting the Social Security Administration to the bare bones. That lie of massive fraud in Social Security is now their excuse to make changes that could force Grandma and Grandpa and people with disabilities to travel more than 100 miles to sign up for Social Security benefits. They want to make it as tough as possible for Grandma and Grandpa and for people with disabilities to collect Social Security--just make it something difficult.

The Social Security website crashed 4 times in 10 days this month. They are bringing all the DOGE boys who are supposed to be geniuses-- AI, bringing efficiency to the government. The Social Security website crashed 4 times in 10 days just in the past month.

But Trump and Musk, they won't stop there. They are also cutting the phone lines. By the end of this month, telephone services could be eliminated at the Social Security Administration, with assistance only offered online or in person or at a field office. So good luck, Grandma and Grandpa. Sorry you didn't take that computer course 40 years ago. Sorry that you are 85 now. Can't call in any longer; you are going to have to figure out how to do everything online. It is just another way of making it harder and harder for people who are older to be able to collect.

The person running the Agency right now has already pushed out more than 12 percent of the staff, and he has admitted that the Agency's phone service ``sucks.'' That is what he said, talking about his own work at the Agency. Yeah, you did such a great job on it that now you yourself say that the phone service sucks. Excellent work. You are deliberately trying to make the system fail.

And he said the quiet part out loud, that Musk and DOGE are the ones really in charge at the Social Security Administration. And they have one primary goal right now: find fraud, despite the truth that they have not reported any yet because there is so little to find at the Social Security Administration.

But by hollowing out the Agency--cutting staff, closing offices, and making it harder to access benefits--the Trump administration is effectively cutting Social Security benefits. But if you complain too loudly, the Trump administration might just accuse you of being a fraudster as well. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, another billionaire, said last week that his 94-year-old mother-in-law wouldn't complain about missing her Social Security check and that the only person who would complain would be a fraudster themself, because they would be so upset, the fraudster.

But his 94-year-old mother-in-law wouldn't complain. Maybe if everyone had a billionaire as a son-in-law, maybe you wouldn't complain. But that is not 99.999 percent of all people receiving Social Security benefits. They would be very concerned if that check did not, in fact, arrive. Maybe if your son-in-law is a billionaire, you can afford to miss a check.

But how out of touch can Lutnick be because, without Social Security, more than 22 million people would be thrown into poverty. Get that number? Without the check they get each month, 22 million Americans would go into poverty. That includes over 16 million seniors, including 268,000 in Massachusetts and nearly 1 million children. Nearly one in four people drawing Social Security rely on it for 100 percent of their income.

Let me say that again because it is very important to internalize the reality of our country in 2025: One in four people receiving a Social Security check rely upon it for 100 percent of all of their income. If that gets stopped, people don't have access to it, those people immediately go to poverty because they are living check to check.

And more than two-thirds of seniors rely on it for the majority of their income. That would have been my mother and father--my father who drove a truck for the Hood milk company. They were dependent upon Social Security. There was not a big pension in the old days, so you needed Social Security just to make it by week by week, month by month.

And 55 percent of all Social Security beneficiaries are women. This increases to 66 percent for beneficiaries aged 85. Two-thirds of all people receiving a Social Security check over 85 are women. That is who they are playing with here. They are truly playing with Grandma, her life, her security, what she earned, what she deserves. Social Security would do to women--who only still earn 82 cents to a man's dollar and live longer after retiring--they would perform an enormous disservice for all of those women. A greater proportion of women's retirement income comes from Social Security.

For the millions of seniors that rely almost entirely on Social Security for their income, a missed check means missed meals, missed medications, missed rent payments. That is who they are in our country right now.

Social Security is not rife with fraud. It is not a Ponzi scheme, as Elon Musk has said. It isn't something that can just be ``turned off,'' as Trump's acting director threatened to do in response to a court order blocking DOGE access to your private Social Security information. He threatened to turn it off unless all this information about every one of us in the Social Security system was turned over to DOGE. Well, where we all worked, the income that we earned, every single job--that is all there in order for Social Security to make the right decisions about how big

the check is that we get. And Trump's acting director at Social Security threatened, in response to a court order blocking DOGE access to your private Social Security, to just, basically, turn it all off.

This is, bottom line, a huge threat to Americans, to seniors, to people with disabilities in our Nation. It is a direct assault.

The nominee to be the next Social Security administrator, Frank Bisignano, today before the Senate, refused to undo any of the harmful actions taken by DOGE. He refused to even acknowledge DOGE was behind the cuts and closures. He refused to call benefits delayed benefits denied. He refused to commit to adequate staffing levels for the Agency.

For these reasons, I am refusing to give him my vote to be our next administrator. I am voting no on the administrator. I am saying absolutely unqualified for this job because he doesn't understand the core of this intergenerational responsibility and obligation that we have to seniors in our country.

The Trump administration can tell lie after lie, but Americans know the truth. Social Security is a promise we make to current and future generations. For our parents, for our grandparents, and for all of us, the assurance of Social Security means that we need never worry about living out our final years in poverty in the United States of America. That is why Social Security was put on the books in the 1930s, because of the wave of poverty among seniors in our Nation. People have contributed to Social Security throughout their entire lives. Social Security is not an entitlement; it is an earned benefit.

But this isn't a new formula that Trump and Musk and Republicans have come up with. In 2005, President George W. Bush and Republicans tried to privatize Social Security. Can you imagine what would have befallen our Nation's seniors if George W. Bush and Republicans had succeeded and then millions of Americans' nest eggs had been wrapped up in the 2008 stock market crash? Our ``greatest generation'' would have become a destitute generation.

Today, Donald Trump and his billionaire advisers, like Secretary Lutnick, have said that a recession wouldn't be so bad, that it would be ``worth it.'' A recession would be worth it. Ask people who lived through the Great Depression, like my parents. How did that go for them and their families? I will tell you what: In my family, it didn't go well. It set my family on both sides--my father's and mother's side-- back an entire generation. That is how devastating the Great Depression was.

So tell the retired workers; tell their survivors; tell the vulnerable, the poor, the disabled Americans for whom Social Security isn't just a budget line, it is a lifeline. But Trump only cares about his billionaire donors' bottom lines.

Social Security has paid out benefits on schedule for nearly 70 years. But to keep our promise in the future, changes to the program will have to be made. To shore up Social Security, we must require millionaires and billionaires, like Donald Trump, Howard Lutnick, and Elon Musk, to pay as much into Social Security as everyone else. It is time they pay their fair share and stop trying to pay for their tax cuts with the earnings of those who built this country.

It is essential that Social Security be preserved for today's retirees and for future generations. It has served as a never-fail insurance program for every single American worker's retirement since the program's inception. It is the crown jewel of the New Deal. And Republicans have been going after it from day one. Republicans haven't been able to destroy Social Security yet, and we are not going to let Trump and Musk or billionaires succeed in looting all of that Social Security money so they get a tax break.

The health of all of those seniors is more important than the wealth of the billionaires who will benefit from the slashes to the Social Security system, which they are planning.

Elon Musk said the truth about how they view Social Security. He called it a Ponzi scheme. That is all you have to know about the Republican Party. They opposed Social Security when it was put on the books in the 1930s, and they always harbored an ancient animosity towards Social Security; waiting for the moment, waiting for the opportunity where they could slash Social Security to send us back to before the 1930s when families were gutted, when there was no income for Grandma and Grandpa. That is what we are talking about.

But I am going to tell you this: They are going to have a fight on their hands. We are going to stand up and fight for them. We are going to make sure that Social Security is preserved. We are going to make sure that Donald Trump and Elon Musk, that the Republican Party does not destroy Social Security as we know it today. They have a fight on their hands.

I am ready for this fight. I am ready to defend the seniors in our Nation. I am ready to protect the disabled who depend upon Social Security. This is the time to have this showdown, and they are going to regret ever putting Social Security into play. I am ready for this fight.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, President Trump and Elon Musk and Secretary of Education Linda McMahon have declared war on public education in the United States, plain and simple. They outlined their anti-student, anti-family, anti-educator agenda in Project 2025. Trump vowed to dismantle the Department of Education last month from the Oval Office.

So instead of nominating a Secretary of Education, he picked and Senate Republicans confirmed an executioner of public education. This administration is attempting to dismantle public education in the United States piece by piece.

Well, Trump and Musk and McMahon are about to learn just how important Federal educational funding is to every community in our country. The Department of Education guards the promise of opportunity for future generations. The Department provides $18 billion a year in funding so that the poorest children in our country can receive the high-quality education to which they are entitled. The Department provides $15 billion a year in funds and oversight to ensure that students with disabilities across our Nation have meaningful access to quality education. It ensures that teachers are trained, that first- generation students have a chance to go to college, that English learners and rural students receive additional support.

Trump and Musk and McMahon might talk about ``efficiency'' and ``dismantling'' the Department of Education, but we know that that is just code for cuts to educational funding for poor children, for disabled children all across our Nation. They don't want to educate; they want to eliminate. They want to loot our country's future which our students depend upon. Children are only 25 percent of our country, but they are 100 percent of our future, and we have to invest in that future, invest in those children.

Ultimately, they want to loot the Department of Education for tens of billions of dollars in order to pay for tax breaks for billionaires and millionaires like Elon Musk. That is what it is all about.

Just last year, the Department of Education provided more than $720 million to support K through 12 education in Massachusetts alone. And every community across our country receives that funding from the Department of Education.

So who do Trump and Musk and McMahon think will pick up the bill for their cruel and callous cuts? Who do they think is going to pick up the tab? We know who is going to pick up the tab. It is going to be poor communities. It is going to be families with disabled children. That is who is going to pick up the tab.

And why are they doing it? To get the money from those poor families and to get the money from those families with kids with disabilities to fund tax breaks for billionaires and millionaires. That is what it is all about. It is cruel. It is callous. But it is all about those cuts to education.

And I am hearing from communities who have no idea how they will keep the lights on if this Federal funding disappears. I am hearing from teachers and educators and families who are terrified that if the teachers are laid off, their students will not receive the services they need. I am hearing from parents of those who need this educational funding. They need to ensure that those programs are there.

But at the end of the day, we know what it is all about. It is to get that funding so that they can then voucherize the public school system, take the money from the public schools and put it over in vouchers. And private companies will begin to benefit from all of that funding, and the remainder will just go to the billionaires for the tax breaks.

And Trump and Musk and McMahon's evil plan to lock the promise of education behind an ivory tower, accessible only to those born into the right circumstances, it is just wrong. It is just plain wrong.

Massachusetts is the birthplace of public education. We are the top performer in the country in math and reading because we invest in students, educators, schools, and communities. We do not believe in draconian cuts or in fueling discrimination in schools. Over the Boston Public Library, the inscription reads:

The Commonwealth requires the education of the people as

the safeguard of order and liberty.

While Trump tries to destroy order and liberty in this country, we will fight to protect the education of the people.

You want a fight, President Trump? You want a fight, Secretary McMahon? You have got a fight. You are not going to be allowed to dismantle the Department of Education because, with that, you would be dismantling the hope that every family has that their child may fully realize the American dream.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I thank my great friend from the State of Virginia. I thank him for his leadership on this. I thank him for bringing out this very important subject because the American people are being robbed by the fossil fuel industry in broad daylight, and the Trump administration is driving the getaway car.

As the Senator from Virginia just said, in the United States, in 2024, 94 percent of all new electrical generating capacity installed is wind and solar and battery technologies--94 percent. What I am hearing on FOX News and what I hear from the--not ``all of the above'' but-- ``oil above all'' crowd is: Oh, my God, it is terrible what is happening in our country. Look at the war that is being declared upon oil and gas and coal.

Saying that wind and solar and batteries are a war against oil and gas and coal is like saying that the cell phone was a war against the black rotary dial phone. It is not a war. It is the entrepreneurial, innovative spirit in our country that is coming up with new technologies and new ways to solve the problem.

Just like, by the way, the black rotary dial industry, they didn't like it. They didn't like it at all. They had a monopoly, but there is a way to get around it. There was a way to have, out in the marketplace, new ways of generating communications technologies, and now there are new ways of generating electricity--new ways. They hate it. The incumbents hate it. They hate it because they had a bottleneck. It could only be they. It could only be oil, gas, coal. Then, all of a sudden, a new generation of young people arrived, and they say: No. Climate change is threatening this planet, and there are new, innovative ways that we can move.

So what is at the bottom of all of this? The oil, gas, and coal industries are scared--they are petrified--in the same way as the black rotary dial phone industry, in the same way that the horse-and-buggy manufacturer was scared.

There is an automobile now. Oh, no, what am I going to do?

How about getting in the transportation business rather than the horse-and-buggy industry? How about becoming, maybe, an auto dealer in Ohio? How about moving on, rather than being a horse-and-buggy company?

No. No. We are stopping that. We are stopping that. There are not going to be any roads. We are not going to build any roads for automobiles. That would be terrible.

So that is what we have. Right now, we have a war against innovation, a war against nonpolluting sources of electricity; a war against a generation of young Americans who are saying the planet is dangerously warming, and there are no emergency rooms for planets--$300 billion worth of damage in two storms, Hurricane Milton and Hurricane Helene; $250 billion worth of damage in the fires of LA. That is $550 billion worth of damage in just three incidents, and that is just the tip of the iceberg of what is coming.

So what the young generation is saying is, Can we please install wind and solar and batteries and all-electric vehicles? Can we be smart? Can we think ahead? Can we have a generational response?

And what is happening is the oil, gas, and coal industries are just calling in their chips. They are just saying that they want to kill everything--kill innovation.

By the way, I was the chairman of the Telecommunications Committee in

the 1990s, when we were still in that old era. Believe me. Those old companies love their monopolies. There are three wires that go into people's homes: the cable wire, the telephone wire, and the electricity wire. So now we are on the third wire, the electricity wire. Are we going to make that competitive, too, or not? And they are petrified.

Just today--this is unbelievable--the Trump administration announced that he wants to lay off 65 percent of the Environmental Protection Agency's staff. Those are our frontline fighters who ensure our water is safe, that our air is clean, and that our land is not polluted with toxins and chemicals. They want to turn the EPA into every polluter's ally. That is their goal. That is what they want to have. That is not what the younger generation wants in our country.

The EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin also told the White House that he wants to get rid of the EPA's authority to regulate dangerous greenhouse gases based on the threat they pose to public health or welfare. It is known as the endangerment finding. Do greenhouse gas emissions cause warming that endangers the coastlines? that endanger cities like LA? that lead to $300 billion storms just ravaging through States?

Do you know that the Supreme Court decided 5 to 4? In April of 2007, the Supreme Court said: You must determine whether or not there is an endangerment, EPA; and, EPA, if you make that determination that it is an endangerment, you then have to do something about it.

That is what is ticking them off. No one will tell you.

In a footnote, in his dissent, Justice Scalia said: I am voting no.

Justice Scalia said: What is next--the regulation of flatulence from cows? Where are they going with all this craziness?

Do you know where we are going? Do you know where we went? We went to 94 percent of all new electrical generation capacity in the United States, in 2024. It is wind, solar, and battery technologies. That is where we went because there was an endangerment because you knew what was happening.

By the way, even the IRA that was passed just in 2022 has already unleashed $400 billion of public and private investment. It has created 400,000 new jobs--400,000 new jobs--in the clean energy sector. Oil and gas and coal are petrified. They are the black rotary dial phone of 2025. They can see what is happening. It is change. It is a brandnew era. It is almost as though, somehow or other, they have found enough allies here to lock us into the past--to lock us into the 19th century, to lock us into the 20th century.

Kids don't want to go backward. They don't want to look at the world in the rearview mirror. They want to look ahead to a brighter, better, safer, cleaner future, and that is what is going on. It is threatening the business model of all of these people.

So I directly questioned Lee Zeldin on this exact issue in his hearing before the Environment and Public Works Committee because I knew he wouldn't have the courage or the ability to stand up to the demands of Trump's Big Oil and Big Gas and Big Coal donors because, if these donors tell Zeldin to wipe any policy meant to protect public health and the planet off the books, it seems he is ready to take out an eraser and to hop to it, regardless of the science, regardless of the law, regardless of the well-being of the American people in the long run, especially young people. The Green New Deal generation, they want change. They want action. They want to move the same way we moved from a black rotary dial phone to this. It only took 20 years. It would have seemed impossible to a black rotary dial phone manufacturer, but it happened because you trusted young people to do the work.

What else is Trump doing for his fossil fuel friends? He is taking their money while he costs you your money.

Trump's billionaire oil and gas donors promised him $1 billion last April in a meeting if Trump would take all of the clean energy incentives off of the books--$1 billion. This is all pay-to-play. They raised the money for him, and he delivered a sham energy emergency Executive order that is already forcing working families to pay more in order to line the pockets of those big oil, big gas, big coal donors.

This emergency is a lie. The United States is already the world's largest oil and gas producer. It is the largest exporter of LNG in the world. It is a lie. It is a lie. It is a lie.

Everything Donald Trump says about an energy emergency is a lie to the American people because he has to lie to cover up the fact that oil and gas production is up. But they are so greedy, they want this body and the EPA to kill wind and solar, battery storage technologies, all- electric vehicles. That is how greedy they are. It is not enough that they have their largest production capacity in history, because this is really an excuse for Trump and Musk to rig the rules for Big Oil so they can produce the dirty energy while they easily seize Americans' lands and pollute the air and water.

They want to go on public land now to drill for oil and gas, even though we don't need it. We don't need it.

There is a revolution that if we just let it unfold, it would be 94 percent next year, 94 percent the next year. What they are afraid of is 10 years from now, when everyone says, oh, I love this new world we are living in, the nonpolluting, nongreenhouse gas world of renewable energy.

The real emergency, the real crisis is the climate crisis itself, which continues to turbocharge extreme weather. It is costing lives, billions in damages, sky-high energy bills, insurance rates out of control in all these States that are having these superstorms and fires. Yet Trump is dismantling programs that reduce energy prices, lower heating bills, keep our air and water clean, and create jobs while trying to ram through the dirty energy projects that will do just the opposite.

And what does he want to do? He wants to take out a chain saw. That is what he wants to do. He is taking out his chain saw.

He wants to call this waste, fraud, and corruption, a revolution that creates this incredible economic--

--to chop all of those programs down at the knees. We are going to fight it every single step of the way.

I thank Senator Kaine, and I thank Senator Heinrich for giving us this time on the floor to be able to explain to the American people what is going on.

Mr. President, the American people are being robbed in broad daylight. Big Oil is cashing in on their billion-dollar deal with Donald Trump from his campaign; the $1 billion to help Trump win. And in return, he will rig the rules of the game in line with the pockets of the oil, gas, and coal industry 10 times over.

So let's call Trump's energy agenda what it really is: Oil above all, not all of the above. Trump's billionaire friends promised to raise tens of millions of dollars; and, in return, he promised he would deliver policies that

will force working families to pay more, inhale more toxic air, and reduce their kids' chances for a healthier future.

Especially as the climate crisis continues to turbocharge extreme weather--costing billions in damages, sky-high energy bills--we know that working families don't have any more to give to the oil, gas, and coal industries.

Gas prices are up. Electricity bills are up. Home heating costs are up. And yet Donald Trump is going after the programs, the Agencies, and the workers that help keep our air and water clean and create jobs.

Meanwhile, Big Oil is raking in record profits, more than $172 billion in profits in 2023 alone. This administration isn't governing, it is groveling to Big Oil and Big Gas and Big Coal and the entire fossil fuel industry. Every dollar that goes into a billionaire's pocket is a dollar taken out of a working family's budget--money that should go toward food, rent, and education.

It is robbery in broad daylight from working families to create tax breaks for billionaires, and the Trump administration is trying to carry out their single biggest heist right now: attempting to illegally seize $20 billion from the congressionally authorized climate bank. As we speak, they are trying to loot the climate bank.

This bank, formally called the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, is based on my national climate bank legislation with Chris Van Hollen, and it is already at work for you, leveraging private dollars to cut energy bills for families and small businesses, improve resiliency against climate change-fueled disasters, and create local economic opportunity.

Trump and Musk are trying to get their hands on this money--your money--through whatever means necessary, even if that meant forcing Denise Cheung, head of the criminal division of the DC U.S. Attorney's Office, to say that there had been a crime committed in the climate bank, which then would allow Trump to reclaim all the money in the climate bank.

What did Denise Cheung say? She said she could not find a crime. They said: You are going to find a crime. She said she could not find a crime in the climate bank, and so she had to resign. She had to resign from being the head of the Criminal Division in the U.S. Attorney's Office right here in Washington, DC, because she refused to follow the orders of her supervisor who is getting instructions from the White House because that was the only way they could fulfill the promise to oil, gas, and coal to kill the climate bank.

They wanted to freeze that money in the absence of any crimes, any wrongdoing, which--surprise--just happened this week. Just happened. Their goal is to take money away from families, take money from clean energy, take money from disadvantaged communities and give it to the fossil fuel companies and special interests.

So, yes, they want to raid Medicaid; they want to raid education programs; they want to raid veterans' benefits. But also, for the oil, gas, and coal industry, they have got to kill the tax breaks for wind and solar; they have got to gut the climate bank, which is revolutionizing the way in which we generate energy electricity in this country.

That is not powerful leadership; it is political plunder. And working families are paying the price. Trump's farce of an energy emergency declaration creates a financial emergency for the American people. Instead of taking steps to lower energy costs for families, the Trump administration is actively driving up your energy costs by pushing for our energy, American energy, to get shipped overseas for higher profits and tying our energy market to the volatility of the global energy marketplace.

From late 2021 through 2022, surging exports of our energy from the United States, liquified natural gas cost Americans $111 billion in higher energy prices for natural gas customers here in the United States--consumers, homeowners, businesses. Why? Because Big Oil and Big Gas want to export our energy out of our country, send it overseas because they get a bigger price on the open seas. That is what it is all about.

In a recent study, the Department of Energy found that it is extremely likely LNG exports will lead to more sticker shock for Americans, an average increase of over $120 per year still coming-- again while oil executives, natural gas executives cash in on even bigger paydays. What is the Trump plan? Turn consumers in America upside down and shake money out of their pockets for profits for the oil and gas industry.

What happens? Prices go higher for consumers here. That is how they make their money. They are doing it hand in glove with the Trump administration. This is not an energy emergency. This is a Trump energy tax on the American people, an energy tax, which, to be clear, is only growing in severity as Trump cuts off funding for clean energy projects, fires hardworking government employees, imposes tariffs--all of which will make electricity even more expensive for American businesses, for American consumers.

It is a deliberate strategy to make sure working families stay dependent on a damaging fuel source that makes a handful of billionaires richer and richer and richer by the day. But make no mistake, they are not attacking us, because they are winning.

The fossil fuel industry is backing Donald Trump because they know they are losing. They are losing, despite Trump's attempts to kill the green revolution. The clean energy boom is happening all across our country.

The fossil fuel industry is terrified because they know that wind and solar are the future.

Last year, get this number, are you ready? This is why they are petrified. This is why they are scared, 90 percent of all new electricity generation capacity brought online in the United States was renewable--10 percent natural gas, 90 percent renewable last year.

Why do they have to kill the tax breaks? Why do they have to kill the climate bank? You do 90 percent renewables every year for the next 10 years, then it drives right at the heart of the business model of the natural gas and coal and oil industries in our country.

That is why they need to loot the climate bank. That is why they need to kill the tax breaks for wind and solar, all-electric vehicles in our country. Onshore wind. Onshore wind and solar power were the cheapest megawatts on the grid last year, 2024, from construction to operation.

And the Big Oil bosses know that if given the choice, Americans will pick the cheapest, cleanest energy source every single time. So they are killing your choice. They are not letting you pick which energy source you want.

Nearly 80 percent of clean energy investments from the Inflation Reduction Act, also known as the biggest climate bill in world history, but 80 percent of the energy investments have gone to Republican districts, creating hundreds of thousands of new jobs just in 2\1/2\ years.

Think about that. Trump is actively working to destroy economic growth and jobs in the very places that got him elected. Eighty percent of the jobs are in red States. Think about that. But that is the payback to the oil, gas, and coal industry for raising the money for him last year. We are talking about electricians installing solar panels, construction workers building wind turbines, engineers designing the next generation of battery storage. All of these are good-paying, family-sustaining jobs that are helping to build America's future. And yet--and yet--Trump and his enablers want to tear it all down just to keep their fossil fuel cronies happy, just to keep the greenhouse gas emitters happy, just to make sure there is no competition.

They don't believe in competition. This should be Darwinian paranoia- inducing competition. What oil, gas, and coal has extracted from this administration is killing the competition. It is killing them in the marketplace.

Adam Smith was spinning in his grave thinking about this cut. He had a big smile on his face last year, Adam Smith. The market is finally working. We finally have incentives for the competition. But that had to be killed. That had to be killed.

And if that wasn't enough, Trump is attacking the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Agency that warns and helps protect us against hurricanes and floods and wildfires.

Why? Because it gets in the way of his fossil fuel allies' ability to pollute and to profit without consequence. Just last year, get this number, disasters supercharged by climate change

cost the United States more than $500 billion. Hurricanes Milton and Helene, they cost $300 billion--billion--in damage. The fires in L.A., $200 billion. Three incidents, $500 billion worth of damage. Three. That is all. Half of the defense budget of the United States.

What are they doing? They are taking down the defense in the future against superstorms. They are going to take it down. They are going to ravage homeowners, businesses across our country. Insurance rates are going to skyrocket. It is going to have a devastating impact upon our country. We are not even through the month of February, and already in Los Angeles and other places, we can see the storms; we can see the floods; we can see the damage.

So this is absolutely unbelievable what is happening. Families forced from their homes. Businesses wiped out. Entire communities devastated. And instead of preparing for the future, Trump is making sure it gets worse. Imagine, standing in the wreckage of a hurricane-ravaged neighborhood, with nothing but rubble left of your home, and knowing that your President, right now, is actively choosing to make future disasters worse and firing the workers that would help you rebuild. That is the cruelty of his administration.

It has become a wholly owned subsidiary of the oil, gas, and coal industry, giving them a permission slip to wreak havoc on every other American. At every turn, this administration is picking fossil fuel billionaires over working people, and they aren't even hiding it.

Since April of last year after Trump sat down with the Big Oil executives and asked for a billion-dollar campaign check, these executives' wealth has ballooned by more than $40 billion in 1 year, $40 billion more in the wealth of those individuals, while families across the country wonder how they will pay their heating bills.

Trump's fossil fuel donors are making a fortune. And let's not forget the bigger picture. Our global standing is on the line. While we stall and we let the fossil fuel industry dictate our energy policy, China is surging ahead. China is saying: Thank you, Trump administration. Thank you for letting us take over the renewable energy industry.

They are investing in clean energy, in electric vehicles, in battery storage--in all the industries that will define the 21st century economy. And what is Trump doing? Kneecapping our ability to compete. He is locking us into outdated, expensive, and polluting energy systems, while the rest of the world moves forward without us. You can't be an isolationist when it comes to climate change; it is global warming.

This isn't just about energy policy. This is about what kind of country we want to be. Will we be the leader or the laggard? Do we want to be a country that builds, innovates, and transforms, or do we want to be a country that clings to the past and knowingly raises costs on American families that pollute the air we breathe in order to line the pockets of the ultrawealthy? The choice is ours.

Trump and his fossil fuel friends want you to believe that you don't have a choice; that you have to accept higher prices, dirtier air, polluted water, and an onslaught of hurricanes and fires brought on by a worsening climate crisis that the President of the United States, Donald Trump, denies even exists, calling it a Chinese hoax. It is no hoax. Three events, $500 billion worth of damage, and I am not even mentioning all the other damage last year and early this year, but there were.

People want lower bills, not higher profits for Exxon. Our communities deserve good-paying jobs, not another handout to Chevron. It is not drill, baby, drill. It is plug in, baby, plug in. That is what this generation of young people want: plug into the electric revolution, plug into the nonpolluting future.

We have a choice. We can fight for lower costs, good jobs, and a livable future. We can invest in the industries of tomorrow instead of getting locked into the polluting past. We can stop exporting American fossil fuels abroad and driving up our own prices for our own consumers here in America. We can ban fossil fuel executives and lobbyists from being able to use our energy-related Agencies for their own personal pocketbooks or, as I call for in my ``BIG OIL from the Cabinet Act,'' they can't work; they can't work for the Energy Department. They can't be inside taking over the agenda. We can strengthen the low-income heating and cooling relief program so that the poorest Americans don't have to put so much of their paycheck toward heating and cooling.

We can safeguard energy efficiency standards for appliances so that people pay less on their bills. We can do that. We can remove the tax loopholes that prevent the oil and gas companies from paying their fair share.

We are talking about tax breaks for oil companies that have been on the books for 100 years. They call creating a climate bank socialism. What do you call 100 years of tax breaks for the oil, gas, and coal industry? That is socialism. That is allowing for a noncompetitive marketplace.

So the new technologies, the clean technologies, solar and wind, electric battery technologies, they can't be deployed. We can remove those tax breaks. That is what we should be debating here.

But at a minimum, we can't take away the competition. They are monopolists. They are all oligopolists. That is all it is. They want to stifle new technology. They don't have any new ideas, except making themselves rich.

If Republicans are here tonight looking for revenue to pay for the things that they want to pay for, let's start with ending those tax breaks now and having oil companies finally pay their fair share.

Ultimately, we can stand up to the corporate greed that is bleeding working families dry and demand a future where energy policy serves the people, not just the powerful. And that is exactly what we are going to do because the clean energy revolution isn't just coming; it is already here. And it is scaring the living daylights out of the oil, gas, and coal industry. They are petrified.

It is happening in red States, 80 percent, and blue States. It is lowering costs, creating jobs, making communities stronger. No amount of corruption, no amount of grift, no amount of fossil fuel money is going to stop it, and we are not going to back down. And we will not allow the Trump administration to sell out the American people, especially young people. We are not going to allow their future to get sold out. We are not going to surrender the way the oil, gas, and coal industry wants us to surrender because this is not about the highest bidder who can loot the programs like the National Climate Bank to pay for their billionaire tax breaks.

We will fight for the workers building America's clean energy future. We will fight for all families, ensuring they have lower energy bills, cleaner air. And we will fight for a livable future, not just for ourselves but for all coming children and grandchildren right now.

This is not just a political fight; it is a moral fight. This is about justice. This is about fairness. This is about the very future of our country. We cannot back down now. This is the time. This is the place. We must wage this battle on behalf of the coming generations or else the devastation will become catastrophically unimaginable.

So let's have this fight this year about our future. I think that is the least we owe to the young people in our country.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I call up my amendment No. 911 and ask that it be reported by number.

Mr. President, funding for Alzheimer's research at the NIH is essential. Nearly 7 million Americans are living with Alzheimer's right now, and if nothing changes, 15 million Americans--15 million baby boomers--will have Alzheimer's by 2050 with a cost of $1 trillion a year to our healthcare system.

We need to tackle this challenge head-on by increasing funding for NIH research for Alzheimer's. Trump and DOGE have already cut and slowed down NIH research, interfering with our ability to cure this disease. This is a ``Make America Sick'' agenda. A ``no'' on this amendment means taking away hope from millions of Americans with Alzheimer's and their families. After the Bush billionaire tax cut in 2001, the NIH budget was cut in spending power by 20 percent over the next 5 years.

We must guarantee that Alzheimer's research is protected. I urge an aye vote.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Shriya Pai, a fellow in my office, be granted floor privileges for the remainder of the year.

Mr. President, I am here to speak in opposition to the confirmation of Senator Kelly Loeffler to serve as Administrator of the Small Business Administration.

I am concerned for the more than 722,000 small businesses that call Massachusetts home and that last year relied on $708 million in loans from the Small Business Administration.

I am concerned because of Donald Trump and Elon Musk, who have sent a clear message: They are here to illegally cut off funding for critical government Agencies and services. They are here to make government work for billionaires but at the expense of working-class people, and they are filling their Cabinet with people who are going to carry out that illegal bidding.

As I stand here today, DOGE operatives continue to work under the cover of darkness, including at the Small Business Administration. The American people want answers. Is the private information of families and businesses and individuals safe at the SBA? Will an entrepreneur looking to open their beauty salon be looking to close on an SBA loan and get their money on schedule? Can government contractors, many of whom are veterans, continue providing critical services while getting paid on time?

Lawmakers and American families alike are scrambling to figure out whether the government is open for business. Small business owners are wondering what will come from the illegal access to their private data by Musk's minions. These are just small business people across the country who have handed over the financial secrets of their families, and there is no guarantee that all of those secrets of their families are being protected right now. They are small business people. We have 7 million people in Massachusetts and 722,000 small businesses.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump continues to attack DEI--diversity, equity, and inclusion--when, in reality, the administration is carrying out a different kind of DEI--``defending Elon's interests.''

So today, I stand in opposition to the confirmation of Kelly Loeffler because of this effort which is going to be throwing us into a constitutional crisis through their illegal actions. I fear that, as Administrator, Senator Loeffler will put the interests--at the command of Donald Trump and Elon Musk--of the more than 34 million small businesses second and of Elon and billionaire interests first.

In a moment when our democracy is under threat, I expect a clearer commitment to the rule of law. So far, Senator Loeffler has offered an unapologetic defense of Trump's Executive orders, which attempt to supersede the law of the land, and has supported pardons for the January 6 insurrectionists.

Taxpayers need to ensure they have an environment which is fair and impartial at the SBA. Instead, Senator Loeffler has, in the past, basically bragged that she is more conservative even than Attila the Hun.

I need to make sure that this environment that is being created is one which is going to be hospitable to small businesses, because they need to ensure that there is an Administrator who will act ethically and for the benefit of America's entrepreneurs. Small businesses need an Administrator who will help them compete and innovate. They do not need an Administrator who is only listening to the White House's, Trump's, and Elon Musk's orders.

To conclude, under the Biden administration, we saw a record number of new small businesses, but just because they were recovering, it doesn't mean they weren't hurting.

So to all of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, we have to work together to uplift our entrepreneurs and promote a ruthless Darwinian marketplace that would bring a smile to Adam Smith. That is my goal. The vibrancy of our communities depends on us ensuring small business can compete, expand, and create jobs.

By crippling government from within, Trump is trying to damage the critical services that help working families put food on the table. So I urge a ``no'' vote on the confirmation of Senator Loeffler to serve as Administrator of the Small Business Administration.

Unfortunately, by now, we are able to look back and see the totality across the EPA, across the NIH, across the President's call for the dismantlement of the Department of Education as to what the real story line is here as the Trump administration and the DOGE apparatchiks move into Agency after Agency and are in the Small Business Administration right now.

So my goal is to try to protect that SBA that we have all known on a bipartisan basis for generations--to just protect it from this storm of partisanship that is taking over our country, and on that basis, I recommend a ``no'' vote.

Mr. President, I stand here in strong opposition to the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., to serve as the Secretary of Health and Human Services for the United States of America.

The American people know that our healthcare system is broken. Families have to work through too much health insurance redtape, only to be denied care or forced to pay out of pocket.

Medical debt is the leading cause of bankruptcy in the United States. Families are saddled with medical debt from prices that are too high and burdened by quality of care that is too low. When they need to get an appointment, they have to wait months, drive hours, or simply go without the care which they need.

Pharmacies, hospitals, and community health centers struggle to keep their doors open, and communities are watching health providers and workers burn out under the strain of a healthcare system that is increasingly being sold out to greedy investors and the billionaire class.

The American people deserve a real healthcare system, not the current sick care system. And they deserve leadership who will recognize all of these problems and commit to solving them.

Instead, Donald Trump and Elon Musk are only making things worse.

To Elon Musk, ``move fast and break things'' is not in the U.S. Constitution. That is why these Federal district court judges are stopping your actions.

In Trump's first 3 weeks in office, he has taken illegal and unconstitutional action that disrupted lifesaving health research, sent Musk and his DOGE acolytes to make cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, cut off Federal funding for community health centers, and used discriminatory fearmongering to threaten Federal funding for hospitals and health providers just trying to provide care for their patients.

Every chaotic decision, every cut, every illegal action are all to make it easier for this administration to work alongside congressional Republicans to slash and burn our core healthcare programs. They are not doing this to make things better for everyday Americans. It is Robin Hood in reverse. They are working to take from those who need it the most just to give billions more in handouts for defense contractors and their billionaire donors.

They want hundreds of billions of dollars in tax breaks for billionaires. They want to increase defense spending by $150 billion-- more nuclear weapons, more. But then, in turn, they say: Where are we going to get the money? They say: Ah, we are going to Medicaid. We are going to the Affordable Care Act. We are going to community health centers. We are going to go to the programs that actually do protect people.

More nuclear weapons aren't going to protect people; it is having access to the healthcare system that can help protect their families.

Trump and Musk and Republicans, they are going to call it ``efficiency'' or they will call it ``transparency'' or they will say it is just adding basic requirements to Medicaid. This is all code--the code for ``cuts.''

Efficiency, transparency are--just be honest about it, Elon; just be honest about it, President Trump--cuts to programs.

They keep saying there are all kinds of waste in the system. Well, point it out to us; we will cut it out for you. Give us the list of the programs you want to have cut because there is waste, and we will do it. But do you want to know what they don't want to say? They don't want to say that they want to cut Medicaid. They don't want to say they want to cut clean air, clean water--the programs that protect ordinary people. They want to call it waste. We are going to call it out for what it is.

Where are they going? They are going to the programs that help provide the healthcare for ordinary Americans--cuts to healthcare that ordinary Americans rely upon. And when Americans have to wait longer for care, when they have to pay more, or watch the only hospital in their community shut down, the blame for what will happen will lay at the feet of the politicians who put self-interest above the interest of the American people.

Rather than consider a nominee who would seriously protect and preserve the health of the American people, Donald Trump nominated yet another enabler to his Cabinet, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who, instead of standing up to the Trump-Musk chaos, will only add fuel to Donald Trump's ``Make America Sick Again'' campaign because that is what it is, ``Make America Sick Again.''

Ralph Waldo Emerson from Massachusetts, he said: Health is the first wealth. Well, that first wealth is going to get looted so billionaires get even richer.

Serving as Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services is an immense responsibility. The Agency oversees the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; the Food and Drug Administration; the National Institutes of Health, which is made up of 27 institutes and centers. Each decision that a HHS Secretary makes would have a huge impact on our healthcare system.

Run well, HHS ensures medications are safe and effective; keeps workers and students and seniors safe; protects the public from global pandemics or disease outbreaks; guarantees hospitals, doctors, and community health centers provide safe quality care; and funds research that will build the foundation to accurately diagnose patients, better treat cancer, cure Alzheimer's, heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. That is what it is supposed to be all about, not freezing that funding, not cutting that funding, but ensuring that the researchers have the funding they need because researchers' medicines fields of dreams from which we harvest the findings gives hope to families that we will find a cure for those diseases that have run through their family's medical history.

We know that HHS as Health and Human Services, but it also stands for ``human health security.'' The stakes of leadership are life and death. But instead of nominating a serious and qualified candidate, Trump selected a candidate who questioned the well-proven conclusion that HIV causes AIDS, made millions by spreading lies about vaccines, compared vaccine mandates to Nazi Germany, said Wi-Fi in cell phones caused ``leaky brains,'' threatened to remove fluoride from drinking water, and made baseless claims about medication for depression, that it would lead to mass shootings.

Mr. Kennedy's track record shows that he is a danger to the health of America. He would make America sick again.

In June of 2019, he went to Samoa on a trip arranged by anti-vaccine activists. He used that trip to spread lies about the measles vaccine to the Samoan Prime Minister and Director General of Health. He and the organization he led amplified activists who spread false information about the measles vaccine. And after a measles outbreak broke out in Samoa and 16 people died, rather than intervene and help, Mr. Kennedy sent a letter to the Prime Minister to blame these deaths on the vaccine rather than the absence of vaccines.

The death toll in Samoa grew to 83. Volunteers in New Zealand sent tiny coffins to help bury the dozens of children who died. A New Zealand vaccinologist later said the impact of Mr. Kennedy's role in the outbreak was ``devastating.'' In a moment, when Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., could have used his influence for good, he fueled disinformation that cost lives.

When Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., was asked about Medicare and Medicaid, he could not answer questions in his confirmation hearing, the most basic questions, demonstrating that he would be at HHS only to make whatever cuts that Trump and Musk and DOGE dictate at the expense of the healthcare of the American people. Now he is in line to be the No. 1 healthcare official in the United States. That would be a disaster.

Mr. Kennedy has reportedly given reassurances on his position on vaccines or on his position on food and chronic disease.

To my colleagues, I would say this: We cannot address chronic disease if we are slashing Medicare and Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act or recklessly cutting off funding from hospitals and community health centers.

If we are battling vaccine misinformation, it will make it much more difficult to take on chronic disease, like heart disease or diabetes. The long-term impact of food on children's health doesn't matter if children are dying from preventable infectious diseases because their families believed misinformation spread by the nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Even with the promises he has made on the vaccine misinformation, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., has not demonstrated that he will fulfill his promises. He has used his position to lead people down the dangerous path of vaccine misinformation. And when asked about his role in the Samoa measles outbreak, he lied. The stakes are too high to take a risk on this nominee.

I hear from people in Massachusetts who rely on our healthcare system: single mothers of disabled children relying on Medicaid--also called MassHealth in Massachusetts--to make sure their child gets care. I hear from people living with cystic fibrosis or parents of children on the autism spectrum or with Down syndrome who could only afford their medication or coverage with MassHealth Medicaid coverage. For them, Medicaid is the lifeline. And when that lifeline is cut, their lives get harder. That is what this administration is aiming to do with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., in the lead.

The American people deserve more than what they have now. They should be able to get healthcare when they need it, and they should not have to worry that it is available. They should be able to go to their doctor or to their pharmacy without running up their debt or being forced to choose between paying their rent or a medical bill.

They should have health providers who aren't too overworked and burned out to provide them quality care. They should have primary care, mental health care, addiction care, dental care, and cancer treatment more available to them without waiting months or traveling for hours or being left to hope for an available clinical trial.

Americans should have unquestioned healthcare access and quality, and I want to deliver on that for every single American. But Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., will only make this harder by embracing Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and the spread of vaccine disinformation.

I am not alone in my concern. I have received over a thousand calls and emails to my office opposing his nomination. I have also received letters from over 20,000 physicians, including thousands of pediatricians, internal medicine and emergency medicine doctors, representing all fifty States and Puerto Rico, over 800 public health officials; 75 Nobel Laureates oppose his confirmation. Chairs of pediatric departments across the country; statements from the Massachusetts Teachers Association, representing over 11,000 educators; and the national nurses union, representing 225,000 nurses, all oppose Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Every single one of them expressed concern and dismay about having a Secretary of Health and Human Services who doesn't believe in vaccines that save lives.

We need to listen to the people on the frontlines: the health providers who have dedicated their lives to serving their patients; the researchers, who have committed to finding lifesaving treatments and cures; and the educators who care for our Nation's children each and every day. They are all saying no to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. He is unqualified, and his confirmation would be dangerous to the health of our Nation.

With that, I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I rise tonight in opposition to the nomination of Russell Vought to be Director of the Office of Management and Budget, also known as OMB. My colleagues and I have been holding the Senate floor since yesterday to sound the alarm on this dangerous nomination.

Russell Vought is the architect of Project 2025, the hateful, racist, sexist policy roadmap at the center of Trump's campaign.

Mr. Vought has been working behind the scenes for years on policies to consolidate power, undermine the critical services that the Federal Government provides to the American people, and undermine Congress's power of the purse.

When Vought was at the Office of Management and Budget during the last Trump administration, he demonstrated a complete lack of regard for our branch of government--the Congress. He was responsible for illegally withholding and delaying billions of dollars in congressionally appropriated funding and now is planning to ratchet up this whole destructive power to a new level in 2025.

While Vought was withholding the funding that he and Trump don't like, he revealed a 2021 budget plan that showed us all the terrible things that he did like. That plan, authored by Russell Vought, proposed--listen to this--$500 billion in cuts to Medicare, $900 billion in cuts to Medicaid, $71 billion cuts to Social Security. In those budgets, Vought was able to find $1.4 trillion to continue the tax that Trump gave--that big tax break to the millionaires and billionaires in our country, all paid for out of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.

Right now, Russell Vought is working behind the scenes and not even waiting to propose a budget. He is directing the Agency to illegally cut billions of dollars in spending from programs that American families rely upon.

Someone else's name may have been on the January 27 memo that came from OMB that froze all government spending, but--make no mistake--it was authored by Russell Vought. Everything we are seeing right now--the

illegal and unconstitutional actions being taken to dismantle Federal Agencies, freeze funding, steal the data of American citizens--is a push to further the Project 2025 playbook.

Vought may be the one to have written the blueprint, but now he and everyone else, including the President himself, are taking orders from one man--Elon Musk. All of this chaos is because the richest man in the world spent more than $280 million on buying this election, and he wants to reap the benefits from his investment.

For Donald Trump, DEI seems to only stand for ``defending Elon's interests.'' Now, he and Vought are planning to make OMB stand for ``only Musk's business.''

Elon Musk and his unqualified, unelected government arsonists wants to be able to carry out their attacks on your privacy, your rights, and your friends and neighbors under the cover of darkness. Because with every new day, we are seeing Donald Trump's deep-pocketed puppeteer, Elon Musk, attempt to dismantle the government services that keep our communities clean, healthy, and safe. And they are acting with impunity.

I just came from the Environmental Protection Agency--an Agency created by Congress, authorized by Congress, signed into law by Richard Nixon, and one which the Environmental and Public Works Committee, on which I sit, oversees. I was denied access to the EPA to talk to Musk's DOGE henchmen.

No, you can't come in Senator. You can't talk to these young people rumbling around, interviewing people who majored in physics and biology and chemistry who are protecting the clean air and clean water and clean lands in our country. No, you can't come in.

Musk doesn't just believe he is above the law; he doesn't believe in the law at all. He believes that the U.S. Constitution does not apply to him. Elon Musk is not bound by the Constitution.

Everyone knows that we have three branches of government created in the Constitution as separate articles defining the powers of each. Article I of the Constitution is the Congress, article II of the Constitution is the Presidency, and article III of the Constitution is the judiciary. But Elon Musk doesn't need to answer to any of those branches--not to Congress, not to the courts, and certainly not to his newly bought Presidency.

It makes sense for Trump to make Elon Musk a buddy. The guy who declared bankruptcy six times really needs a rich guy around to bail him out. But it is almost as if Musk believes that he has his own special place in the Constitution separate from the first three articles.

In Musk world, our Constitution contains an article III.V right after article III of the judiciary, and that new article that he believes exists and applies to him is a never-before-used provision in the Constitution with unlimited authority to remake our constitutional order with Musk as the unelected and unaccountable leader.

Now, in Musk world, articles I, II, and III of the Constitution are toothless compared to the power reserved for him and him alone in article III.V, right before article IV. He just slipped it in now. Article III.V.

In Musk world, article III.V goes something like this: Article III.V, the Muskocracy--his own separate provision in the Constitution.

Section 1 of the Muskocracy, establishment of the Elon Musk branch:

The executive, legislative, and judicial branches shall hereby recognize a new and supreme branch of government known as Elon Musk. This branch shall operate independently of the other three branches, unburdened by traditional constraints such as laws, ethics, or the need for congressional approval.

That is section 1.

Section 2, powers and responsibilities for the Muskocracy:

The Elon Musk branch shall wield absolute authority over but not limited to, No. 1, Federal Agency reorganization. ``Abolish the at will clause'' is in that section--whatever he decides.

The Musk branch may at any time eliminate, restructure, or replace any Federal Agency by way of a single tweet.

A lot of power that section 1 is.

Section 2, workforce optimization:

All Federal employees shall be subject to an immediate performance review determined by way of an AI-powered metric called the HyperProductivity Index, trademarked. Any Agency deemed ``inefficient'' shall be replaced by a new office staffed entirely by a mix of X Premium subscribers, Tesla interns, and SpaceX engineers working 120- hour weeks.

This is the Muskocracy, and it just continues.

Data access, part 3:

The Musk branch shall have unrestricted access to all government personnel records, including security clearances, tax filings, and even embarrassing Slack messages.

All goes to Elon Musk under article III.V of the new U.S. Constitution enacted on Inauguration Day in 2024.

Then we have legislative override:

All bills must be reviewed and meme'd upon by the Musk branch before passing. A simple ``haha no'' tweet from the Musk branch shall serve as an automatic veto.

He didn't like it, just tweet it out. Everyone will jump. Make sure that doesn't happen. This is the new Muskocracy in which we are now living--article III.V of the new Constitution of the United States of America.

Judicial review:

The Supreme Court shall be replaced with a single X post where Elon asks ``Should this be legal?''

The most liked reply becomes binding precedent.

This is the only way to govern. You can just see how it is all playing on X. It is the new Constitution of the United States, binding on the U.S. Senate for sure. We can see that in the votes that are being cast out there by the majority.

Then we move on to section 3, Administration and Oversight.

The Musk branch shall be staffed exclusively by engineers, AI-powered bots, and a small staff of interns selected through an online gladiator-style coding competition.

How else would you run America in 2025 but have those superior beings making all decisions for all of us?

Then, section 4, checks and balances--all of them. Checks and balances has always been the key going back to Madison and Jefferson. They thought through the checks and balances, and so did Elon Musk in his article III.V, the Muskocracy, the provision that is now operative in our country in the Donald Trump Presidency.

So checks and balances says: Although the existing three branches may express opinions, all official government actions require verification from the Musk branch, except those initiated by Musk himself, which are self-verifying because he is infallible. No one can question him.

And any opposition to the Musk branch shall be met with immediate ridicule. Come on. You can't question Elon Musk. It is the new Constitution. That is how it is. Everyone should just understand.

And then section 5, succession and perpetuity. How does our country then operate into the future? Well, in the event that the physical Elon Musk ceases to exist, the Musk branch shall be transferred to an AI- trained on/off system for all of his tweets that are gathered together and then Neura-link data and past Rogan podcast appearances and that AI shall rule indefinitely unless overthrown by a more innovative billionaire.

Isn't that really how we want our country to be running under this Muskocracy, article III.V? That is where we are right now. That is the country that we are living in.

And does he have power? Oh, he has power. Because let's not kid ourselves; right now Elon wants us to live in the Muskocracy.

The Trump administration is operating as if article III.V is real, as if Elon Musk has supreme authority to override the will of Congress, seize government property, hire and fire at will, and otherwise bend government to his benefit regardless of the consequences.

So let's not fool ourselves. We can see article III.V in action right now. Musk is obsessed with shutting down USAID, slandering its public service, spreading baseless conspiracy theories about the Agency's work and mission.

If we don't stop him now through legislation and lawsuits, he will not only destroy our ability to address global crises that will eventually impact us at home; he will go after the Agencies that keep our food and water safe, our

infrastructure repaired, and our communities secured.

Gutting USAID will cause immediate harm to our national security, place our citizens at risk, and disrupt lifesaving work. USAID helps protect children from starvation. It prevents the spread of infectious diseases. It is critical in our global fight against AIDS and HIV.

If we don't hold the line on Elon Musk's abolition of USAID and the Trump administration's illegal actions, nothing will prevent him or Trump from doing the same thing to the CDC, to the Environmental Protection Agency, to the Small Business Administration.

He is bragging that he put USAID in the wood chipper. We wants to do the same thing for every other Agency.

And that is why I am voting no on every Trump nominee while this illegal and unconstitutional power grab continues, while this chaos continues, and this corruption continues.

The fights before us will not be easy, and there will be many. The American people are relying on us to protect their rights, their pocketbooks, and their families. And that starts with protecting them from nominees whose only goal is to dismantle the programs that help feed them, employ them, and keep them warm in the winter, educate them, and help them meet the ends that their families seek to achieve.

We need to say no to the nomination of Russell Vought tonight; no to the illegal, unconstitutional Muskocracy; and no to the costly, sick, or unhealthy future that Donald Trump is creating.

I urge all Members to vote no on Russell Vought as the Director of the Office of Management and Budget.

For clean air and clean water, I vote no.

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

Mr. President, I rise today to speak out on behalf of the American people about the Trump administration's unjust and unconstitutional cutoff of Federal grants and assistance programs.

Donald Trump's administration isn't governing. It is not delivering for the American people. It is stealing from our public services, from Meals on Wheels to community health centers, to housing for our veterans.

From day one, Donald Trump's administration has careened from chaos to self-induced crises. American families and workers are left guessing whether lifesaving services, school lunches, help paying for home heating, basic healthcare, and public safety are going to be funded day by day.

The collective outrage of literally everyone in this country, along with lawsuits filed over its illegal behavior, got Donald Trump's administration to rescind its latest memo to cut off Federal money. But the chaos continues. The confusion continues. The Federal funding witch hunt continues.

The Trump administration has made clear they intend to proceed with their cruel plan of stalling or stopping essential Federal funding. They will lie, disregard Congress, and now they are bypassing the courts.

We will need all of our collective engagement to make sure that Donald

Trump, Elon Musk, and their unelected, unqualified henchmen keep our services going and stop breaking the law because the American people are paying the price on a daily basis.

The consequences--the consequences--of Trump's Federal funding cutoff are already far-reaching, and they are devastating. Doctors were told to turn away patients when the Medicaid payment portals were down. The organizations that are the backbone of our country--food pantries, vocational services--are looking at laying people off. Veterans might be getting evicted as their rent payments don't come through. There might not be someone on the other end of the phone at the national suicide hotline. Think about what that might mean to someone in crisis.

I say again, this funding was sent by Congress to provide necessary services to our constituents in all States, red and blue alike. It is essential, and it has already been signed into law--passed by the U.S. House, passed on the floor of the U.S. Senate, and signed by a President.

This is what the American Revolution was all about. When the redcoats were coming down Massachusetts Avenue, heading toward Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts in 1775, the Minutemen and -women were coming out, and they were all saying the same thing: no taxation without representation.

The King would not give the American Colonies any members of Parliament. They kept begging for the ability to have representation.

So after the American Revolution, and they wrote the Constitution, the first article is to create a House and Senate and to give that first article the power of the purse, the power to spend money. They made it very clear. That is what the Revolution was about.

So I say again, this funding was sent by Congress--article I--to provide necessary services to our constituents in all States. If the Trump administration claims this funding ``does not improve the day-to- day lives of those we serve,'' then there is just one question every American should be asking the President: Who do you serve? Because it certainly isn't the everyday Americans who will wake up tomorrow without heat in their house, their medicine, or a roof over their head.

The Trump administration said it is targeting ``Green New Deal social engineering.'' When Trump says he wants to end the Green New Deal, he wants to end union battery manufacturing jobs in Ohio; he wants to end rebates that help American families afford new air-conditioners and heaters; he wants to keep school districts from getting clean buses to take kids to school; he wants to end programs that help our communities rebuild after a disaster, such as the fires in Los Angeles or the hurricanes that devastated Georgia and North Carolina.

What Trump is doing with this so-called freeze, with his Executive orders, with his firing of inspectors general and government regulators, is an unconstitutional, illegal power grab.

But here is the truth: Trump can't get rid of the Green New Deal because there is no stopping a mobilization and a movement once it is galvanized. The Green New Deal doesn't stop until the climate crisis stops. The Green New Deal doesn't stop until fossil fuel billionaires stop lining their pockets while our cities burn to the ground.

I introduced the Green New Deal resolution nearly 6 years ago with Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Its values and jobs and justice and climate action are now core parts of our economy and our society. Clearly Trump's unelected bureaucrats are terrified of the power of union jobs, clean air and clean water, and climate action. They are trying to break our country's laws in order to break our movement. We cannot let them do that.

We know we face an uphill battle with a climate denier-in-chief. He doesn't have a Cabinet that he has appointed; he has a cartel that he is putting in place.

You know the saying ``money talks''? Well, we heard the money talk loud and clear with Donald Trump's day-one Executive actions, which were a parade of price-gouging fossil fuel giveaways. His energy agenda isn't American dominance; it is the dominance of his donors over our energy policy. It is not ``all of the above''; it is ``oil above all.'' Yes, drill, baby, drill, but kill solar. Kill wind. Kill all-electric vehicles. Kill the Green Revolution. Kill it. It is not ``all of the above''; it is taking care of all of his fossil fuel donor buddies.

He made a promise that if he won, he would kill the competition; he would kill the Darwinian paranoia-inducing competition that is happening with wind and solar and all-electric vehicles and battery storage technologies and any technologies that reduce greenhouse gases, which are dangerously warming our planet. And why are they doing that? Because Big Oil and Big Gas are running scared. Fossil fuels have been getting outcompeted by wind and solar and all-electric vehicles. The Big Oil and Big Gas barons see people rejecting their products and having an alternative, and they want to choke out the competition.

That is what the fossil fuel fat cats demanded when they got Donald Trump elected, and that is what Trump is delivering on with his orders to attack climate action, attack offshore wind, attack international climate agreements, and attack our movement, the Green New Deal movement of young people across our country demanding that this government do something about the threat of climate change that was ignored for generations. That is what young people are saying all across our country: Protect us. Protect us from the threat of climate change.

Instead, what Donald Trump is trying to do is to kill all of the protections. All of them. All of them.

So just think of what has been happening. As the rest of the country is sitting around the kitchen table debating necessities to sacrifice this month, they are wondering if they can rebuild after a wildfire or if they can keep the lights on when prices spike as energy gets exported overseas.

I want everyone to understand this: He wants to export oil and export natural gas out of our country. That is his promise to the oil and gas barons. Do you know what that does domestically? It increases the price for everyone here. Consumers and businesses have to pay more because there is less oil and gas here--inflation. Yes, that is the plan-- increase the profit for the big fossil fuel plants.

So we can't allow Trump and Republicans to throw families into financial instability just to pay for tax breaks for the ultrawealthy.

Just like climate change won't be solved by any one President, climate action won't be stopped by any one President.

Look at what has happened in the past week. This isn't business as usual, and we have to stop acting like it. That is why I won't be supporting any Trump nominee who will only do his illegal bidding.

I urge all of my colleagues to join me in rejecting those who will reject the will of Congress and reject the needs of the American people.

From day one, Donald Trump has been singularly committed to abandoning working people, their future, our very democracy--all for the power of wealth. That is absolutely unacceptable.

Donald Trump isn't just ignoring the promise to lower costs for families and make our Nation safer; he is inflicting harm on millions of Americans, taking away funding for critical, lifesaving health research, from cancer to Alzheimer's. The potential ramifications of Trump's Federal funding freeze are endless.

Trump is trying to bully the American people and public servants into submission by ignoring the law and cutting off funding to take away the services the public needs to get by. This is what dictators do. He wants us to forget what he stands for, for us to either give up either slowly or all at once. We cannot do that. We must stand up.

So whether it is racial justice, the rule of law, reproductive freedom, economic equality, immigrant and refugee rights, our LGBTQ community, universal healthcare, consumer protections, protecting clean air and water, creating union jobs and supporting our union workers, fighting the climate crisis, holding the fat cats accountable for their greed and corruption, more than ever, we must be the fearless voice for a livable future. That is my pledge to you.

It is time to be brave. It is time to stand up for the protection of the most vulnerable in our country and our vulnerable planet.

He is trying to frighten people. He is trying to scare people. That is what his agenda has been right from the beginning. And even when his henchmen put out that first statement in terms of the freeze, the cutoff of funding on Monday night, what does he attribute it to? They want to root out Marxism in our country, they want to protect against transgender people, and they want to kill the Green New Deal. That is what he puts out on the first night.

Well, just so everyone understands, when Republicans are talking about Marxism, they are talking about Social Security; they are talking about Medicare; they are talking about Medicaid; they are talking about public education. That is what they call Marxism, just so everyone understands.

They are going to need hundreds of billions of dollars and more in order to have tax rates for the billionaire boys' club that was sitting right behind the President at the swearing-in. He promised them tax breaks. Where is the money going to come from? I will tell you where it is going to come from--from the programs that they call the Marxist programs. Those are all the healthcare programs. Those are all the education programs.

He has nominated a Secretary of Education who has had to promise to try to end the Department of Education in our country--end it. They need money for billionaires.

In the Department of Education, title I--that is for the poor children in America to get an education, money in there for the kids with disabilities. End the Department of Education? Yes. Marxist. Get that money into the hands of billionaires and millionaires.

Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act, Medicare--those three programs provide healthcare for 170 million Americans to get the healthcare, which they need--170 million Americans. That is where the money is-- healthcare. You have to call it Marxist. You have to try to demonize it. That is because they have to pay back all of those people who gave them money in order to win in November.

And he then moves on to transgender kids, trying to demonize them. And we know why he does that. He is just trying to scare people. It is part of who he is.

And then the third part of what he mentioned on Monday night was the Green New Deal. The Green New Deal is the ultimate payback because the President met with the oil and gas executives in April of 2024, and he said to them: If you give me $1 billion, I will kill all of the renewable energy projects in America. I will take all the money away.

They gave him the money, and now they are going to get paid back. So when they say Green New Deal and they want to kill it, just understand they want to kill all the competition to the oil and gas industry.

The natural gas industry wants all of offshore wind all along the east coast to just be destroyed because those 30,000 new megawatts would make obsolete the need for more natural gas pipelines to be built along the east coast, and he wants to take care of the natural gas boys. That is what it is all about.

When he says he is going to roll back electric vehicles, roll back fuel economy standards for the vehicles we drive, he is doing that for the oil industry. We put 70 percent of the oil which we consume in our country into gasoline tanks. The more people who drive electric vehicles, the higher the fuel economy standards, the less oil people have to consume, the less money in the pockets of the oil barons--but more money in the pockets of consumers.

So that is what this fight is all about. It is pretty simple. And I am glad they put it up there on Monday night, what this battle is about, because I know it is going to create a movement across this country in the same way that the Green New Deal created a movement that created the momentum that made it possible for us to pass the IRA in 2022.

But another way of saying IRA is ``the largest climate bill in the history of the world.'' That is what is scaring--totally scaring--the oil and gas industry, because they can see they are losing in the marketplace. They can see that that is where Americans are moving.

So I will just conclude with this one brief history lesson. Back in 2009, when Joe Biden was sworn in as Vice President, we had 2,000, total, electric vehicles in the United States. That is all. We had 2,000 total megawatts of solar in the United States.

Do you know what is frightening to the oil and gas industry? Last year, 40,000 new megawatts of solar in 1 year--frightening to them. All-electric vehicle revolution? Millions have been purchased just in the last 2 years. The oil industry is petrified because we have gone from 2,000 megawatts of solar, total, in the whole history of our country, and 2,000 all-electric vehicles to a revolution, and they want to stop this revolution.

That is what Trump is all about: the payback to big industries that want to thwart Americans who are playing a role in being the leader in the world on all of these green energy and climate issues and then saying to the rest of the world: We will partner with you to solve this problem.

But you cannot preach temperance from a barstool. You cannot tell the rest of the world to stop if you are not doing it yourself. You lose all credibility, which is why Trump just pulled totally out of the Paris climate agreement at the same time. He doesn't want to be part of the world. But that is not how greenhouse gases travel. They travel with the clouds. They travel all over the world. And unless we lead, we are going to pay a tremendous price in subsequent generations for what Donald Trump is trying to perpetrate on our country.

I yield the floor, and I thank the Presiding Officer for his indulgence, and I thank the Senator from Delaware for his indulgence as well.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Bianca Routt, a fellow in my office, be granted floor privileges for the remainder of the day.