Floor Statements

Mr. President, I come to the floor today to oppose the resolution we are going to vote on here in just a little bit. I think this is the--I don't know how many times I have been here on this--but this is the same old, same old again.

The resolution isn't very long. It is a few pages long, and really, the operative language is very short.

It says:

Congress hereby directs the President to remove the United

States Armed Forces from hostilities within or against Iran.

That is all it says. It says: President Trump, put your tail between your legs and run. That is what this resolution says.

Now, let me tell you where we are. First of all, I want to talk to Iran. Iran: Nobody is coming to help you, not the Russians, not the Chinese, not the North Koreans, not Venezuela, not Cuba. Nobody is coming to help you, Iran, except for the 47 people over here.

The 47 people on this side of the room are trying to direct the President of the United States who is defending the United States--they are trying to direct him to remove the Armed Forces that we have--our brave, young men and women who are engaged in these hostilities--they are trying to remove them from these hostilities. These 47 people. Nobody else in the world.

So to them I say: The President of the United States has not only the right to do this--I know you claim he doesn't--but he has the right to do this. Not only does he have the right to do this, he has the duty to do this. He took an oath to defend the people of the United States of America.

How did we get here? Forty-seven years ago, Iran started this conflict. We did not. We did not start a war with Iran. We don't want a war with Iran. But we have to defend ourselves. Forty-seven years ago, they took over our embassy in Tehran and held all of our United States, American people who were employed in that embassy for 444 days.

Finally, Ronald Reagan was elected President. We got them out. But since that time, Iran has killed thousands--not hundreds--thousands of Americans wherever they can find them. They do it with all kinds of methods including IEDs, which are deadly.

Fortunately, President Trump in Trump 1 took out General Soleimani

who was the godfather of that operation, and that has ratcheted back. But they are still killing them with IEDs.

The President of the United States is defending the United States of America. You can pass all the resolutions you want. This President is going to defend this country.

Now, I know you say it is illegal. If, indeed, it is illegal as you claim it is, you are in the wrong room. You ought to be in the room across the street in the U.S. Supreme Court, because if it is illegal, you should sue him and you should stop it. You are not doing it because you know you are going to lose that case.

The President of the United States under article II of the Constitution gives the President the authority. He is doing it. This is not going to be a forever war. Indeed, if anything, it is ending what seems like has been a forever conflict with Iran.

Mr. President, you are doing the right thing. You have done a great job thus far. This is going to end fairly quickly. Keep up the good work.

My friends on this side of the aisle, vote to oppose this resolution.

Mr. President, as everyone in this Chamber knows, Israel is one of the closest allies in the Middle East. No one can discount the fact that without Israel and President Trump's maximum pressure campaign, Iran would have nuclear weapons, would still be exporting terror throughout the region, and would still pose a significant military threat to its neighbors and, indeed, to a good share of the rest of the world.

Unlike some of our other allies, Israel has stood side by side with the United States, working hand in glove to advance our shared objectives and to keep American citizens safe. Passing these two resolutions would embolden our adversary Iran and call into question American reliability in the region. Refusing to send help to allies and to sell weapons to allies would be incredibly debilitating to our ability to work together. It would send the message that the United States is prepared to leave our ally Israel vulnerable to further Iranian attacks and put the tens of thousands of Americans who are living there at risk. This is not acceptable.

Again, I come to the floor and tell Iran: No one is coming to help you, not China, not Russia, not North Korea, not Venezuela, not Cuba-- except for the 47 people that sit over here. They are trying to help you, Iran.

We are not going to let that happen. We are not going to abandon our ally Israel. We are not going to abandon the fight that is taking place. We are going to win this fight and have already won it, to a very large extent.

Let us not forget the Iranian regime has been exporting terrorism and chanting ``Death to America'' and ``Death to Israel'' consistently since the founding of this regime 47 years ago. Enough is enough.

It is time to continue this until we get to the end. This is not going to be a forever war. The country of Iran is very badly debilitated right now. I would hope that common sense prevails and they reach an agreement with the administration and get to a permanent cease-fire.

I would urge all of my colleagues: Oppose these resolutions. They will not help the United States of America.

Vote on Motion to Discharge

I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, as a member and former chairman of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, each month I recognize and celebrate the American entrepreneurial spirit by highlighting the success of a small business in my home State of Idaho. Today, I am proud to honor The Gathering Place in Rupert as the Idaho Small Business of the Month for March 2026.

The Gathering Place quilt shop has been in business since 1998, after owners Ron and Joyce Jensen purchased the 100-year-old building in the historic Rupert town square. The couple undertook a significant remodel to meet the needs of their quilting store and transform the space into a vibrant, beloved destination.

Ron and Joyce started the store to boost tourism to their small town and offer resources to local quilters. Since then, The Gathering Place has proven to be a successful tourist spot, gaining national recognition, and Joyce continues to serve new customers almost

daily. With seemingly endless fabric, books, patterns, and samples, the store is a great destination for crafters and a staple within the Rupert community.

Joyce, her three children, and 11 grandchildren, all of whom reside in Rupert, have carried on the store's success since Ron passed away. Together, the Jensen family hopes to keep running the store for years to come and weave The Gathering Place into Rupert history.

Congratulations to Joyce, the Jensen family, and all employees at The Gathering Place on being recognized as the Idaho Small Business of the Month for March 2026. Your dedication to excellence makes Idaho proud, and I look forward to your continued growth and success.

Mr. President, for the Committee on Foreign Relations I report favorably the following nomination lists which were printed in the RECORDS on the dates indicated, and ask unanimous consent, to save the expense of reprinting on the Executive Calendar that these nominations lie at the Secretary's desk for the information of Senators.

Mr. President, section 36(b) of the Arms Export Control Act requires that Congress receive prior notification of certain proposed arms sales as defined by that statute. Upon such notification, the Congress has 30 calendar days during which the sale may be reviewed. The provision stipulates that, in the Senate, the notification of proposed sales shall be sent to the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

In keeping with the committee's intention to see that relevant information is still available to the full Senate, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record the notifications that have been received. If the cover letter references a classified annex, then such an annex is available to all Senators in the office of the Foreign Relations Committee, room SD-423.

Mr. President, section 36(b) of the Arms Export Control Act requires that Congress receive prior notification of certain proposed arms sales as defined by that statute. Upon such notification, the Congress has 30 calendar days during which the sale may be reviewed. The provision stipulates that, in the Senate, the notification of proposed sales shall be sent to the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

In keeping with the committee's intention to see that relevant information is still available to the full Senate, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record the notifications that have been received. If the cover letter references a classified annex, then such an annex is available to all Senators in the office of the Foreign Relations Committee, room SD-423.

Mr. President, section 36(b) of the Arms Export Control Act requires that Congress receive prior notification of certain proposed arms sales as defined by that statute. Upon such notification, the Congress has 30 calendar days during which the sale may be reviewed. The provision stipulates that, in the Senate, the notification of proposed sales shall be sent to the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

In keeping with the committee's intention to see that relevant information is still available to the full Senate, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record the notifications that have been received. If the cover letter references a classified annex, then such an annex is available to all Senators in the office of the Foreign Relations Committee, room SD-423.

Mr. President, section 36(b) of the Arms Export Control Act requires that Congress receive prior notification of certain proposed arms sales as defined by that statute. Upon such notification, the Congress has 30 calendar days during which the sale may be reviewed. The provision stipulates that, in the Senate, the notification of proposed sales shall be sent to the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

In keeping with the committee's intention to see that relevant information is still available to the full Senate, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record the notifications that have been received. If the cover letter references a classified annex, then such an annex is available to all Senators in the office of the Foreign Relations Committee, room SD-423.

Mr. President, section 36(b) of the Arms Export Control Act requires that Congress receive prior notification of certain proposed arms sales as defined by that statute. Upon such notification, the Congress has 30 calendar days during which the sale may be reviewed. The provision stipulates that, in the Senate, the notification of proposed sales shall be sent to the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

In keeping with the committee's intention to see that relevant information is still available to the full Senate, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record the notifications that have been received. If the cover letter references a classified annex, then such an annex is available to all Senators in the office of the Foreign Relations Committee, room SD-423.

Mr. President, section 36(b) of the Arms Export Control Act requires that Congress receive prior notification of certain proposed arms sales as defined by that statute. Upon such notification, the Congress has 30 calendar days during which the sale may be reviewed. The provision stipulates that, in the Senate, the notification of proposed sales shall be sent to the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

In keeping with the committee's intention to see that relevant information is still available to the full Senate, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record the notifications that have been received. If the cover letter references a classified annex, then such an annex is available to all Senators in the office of the Foreign Relations Committee, room SD-423.

I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, I am not going to speak for a long time. I have given this speech over and over again. Some people say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting to get the same results.

The Democrats here have been doing the same things over and over and over again, and they are going to get the same result again tonight.

Look, the conflict that we are in with Iran right now was not started by the United States. It was started by Iran when the Iranian regime took prisoner our staff at the Embassy in Tehran, 47 years ago, and held them for 444 days.

And then, over the next 47 years, they have continued to kill Americans by the thousands--not by the hundreds, but by the thousands-- and they do it in the most insidious ways, with roadside bombs and that sort of thing, simply because they are Americans and they are present in the Middle East.

The President of the United States said we have had enough. He had very good reason to pull the trigger at the time that he did, and, of course, those, as time goes on, will come out more and more.

The fact of the matter is, we are in conflict. We have our brave young men and women on the ground. We have our brave young men and women fighting for the United States of America. So we need to back those people. We need to back the President of the United States.

We all know this isn't going to go on very long, but it needs to be done. And our friends around us say: You need to get this done. Now that you are there, complete the job.

The President is going to complete the job.

I am going to end this with a couple of messages--the same message I have been giving for a long time.

The first one is to the Iranians: This is over. You people have lost. You have no navy. You have no air force. You are running out of missiles and other materiel to fight this. This is going to be over very soon.

And the other message I would have to the Iranians is: No one has come to help you. And--breaking news--no one is coming to help you-- with one exception, and I will talk about that in a minute.

First of all, let me tell you who is not coming to help. The Chinese are not coming to help. The Russians are not coming to help. The North Koreans are not coming to help. The Cubans are not coming to help. The Venezuelans are not coming to help. The worst actors on the planet, who are friends of the Iranians, are not coming to help. This is all on you, Iran.

No one is coming to help you--except there are 47 people over here who want to help you. They cannot help you.

They have tried and tried and tried. They cannot help you.

What is going to happen here on the floor today is, on our side of the aisle, we are going to stand behind the Commander in Chief. Most importantly, we are going to stand behind our fighting men and women on the ground because they are involved in a kinetic battle.

When this happens--whatever happens--we, every American, should be standing behind our fighting men and women. They need to continue on. They need to complete the job. The President of the United States is going to do this.

So to my friends on the other side of the aisle, stop this. Don't try to help the Iranians. You are the only entity on this planet trying to help the Iranians. Stop it. Vote with us.

This is going to fail tonight. It would be nice if you joined us in standing behind our fighting men and women as we try to end the regime of the last bad actor in the region.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, section 36(b) of the Arms Export Control Act requires that Congress receive prior notification of certain proposed arms sales as defined by that statute. Upon such notification, the Congress has 30 calendar days during which the sale may be reviewed. The provision stipulates that, in the Senate, the notification of proposed sales shall be sent to the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

In keeping with the committee's intention to see that relevant information is still available to the full Senate, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record the notifications that have been received. If the cover letter references a classified annex, then such an annex is available to all Senators in the office of the Foreign Relations Committee, room SD-423.

Mr. President, I come to the floor today in strong support of a bill that I have supported from the very beginning, that being the SAVE America Act.

The SAVE America Act is common sense. At its core, this legislation is about something very simple: protecting the integrity of our elections. All this bill does is it ensures that U.S. citizens vote in U.S. elections and that when you show up to vote, you have to prove who you are. That is not too much to ask of someone who is showing up to vote. It is common sense.

Now, while it is simple, it is also essential. The right to vote is the foundation of our Republic. Trusted, secure elections are what have made us the greatest Nation in the world and the beacon of freedom for nearly 250 years. We cannot take this for granted.

Across the country, we have seen radical groups weaken election integrity and chip away at Americans' confidence in elections. In some places, voter rolls have been padded with noncitizens, and basic verification methods have become an afterthought, which undermine the constitutional

rights of the rest of us who are American citizens.

The SAVE America Act puts a stop to this by requiring proof of citizenship when registering to vote--something many States, including my State of Idaho, already enforce. Idaho already has some of the most secure elections in the Nation. The SAVE America Act simply holds the rest of the country to the same standard we follow in the Gem State, thus ensuring that all of us in America are held to the same standard and to an election that is a believable election that has the confidence of Americans.

There has been a great deal of misinformation regarding the SAVE America Act, so let me state clearly what this act does and does not do.

First, the SAVE America Act does not federalize our elections. It keeps them squarely in the hands of the States, as it should be.

Second, some of my Democrat colleagues claim this legislation is voter suppression. That is simply false. The requirements to vote in our elections are clear: You must be a U.S. citizen, at least 18 years old, and a resident of the State where you are registered. That is not too much to ask. It certainly doesn't suppress votes. The SAVE America Act does not change those requirements or add unnecessary redtape. What it does do is to ensure that the most fundamental requirement--U.S. citizenship--is actually verified when someone registers to vote.

Under current law, individuals can register to vote in Federal elections by simply checking a box claiming they are a citizen. The SAVE America Act closes that loophole by requiring proof of U.S. citizenship at the beginning of the voter registration process.

It only needs to be done once. That is not voter suppression. It is basic election integrity.

Third, Democrats are arguing that requiring identification makes voting harder.

But Americans already show identification for countless--countless-- activities in routine, daily life. We need it to drive a car. We need it to board an airplane. We need it to go to work for a job, and so much more. If we expect ID for these basic actions, it is only reasonable to expect the proof of citizenship before someone is allowed to participate in Federal elections.

Poll after poll shows that the vast majority of Americans-- Republicans and Democrats and Independents--support requiring identification and proof of citizenship to vote. So let's do our job and vote for what the American people want.

Every American should have confidence that when they cast a ballot, their vote counts and is not diluted by noncitizens voting in the same election. The SAVE America Act ensures that is what happens.

Safeguarding our elections is not only common sense. It is integral for a country like the United States of America that is a robust democracy to have in order for people to have confidence in the country.

That is why I am committed to doing what it takes to pass the SAVE America Act. I am proud to support this bill and work with my Republican colleagues to get it to the President Trump's desk to be signed into law.

Mr. President and fellow Senators, this is--I have lost count now--the fourth or fifth time I have come to the floor to once again defend America against these dangerous, obstructive resolutions that the Democrats have been putting out here.

What they are asking us to do is to put our tail between our legs and leave the battlefield and surrender the battlefield to the Iranians. We are not going to do that. Democrats are attempting to stop the administration from keeping Americans safe through these defensive actions against Iran.

They say that Donald Trump started this war or that America started this war. Neither of those is true or even close to it. This war started 47 years ago when this regime, the Iranian regime, broke into our Embassy in Tehran and took as hostage a great number of American diplomats and held them for 444 days. That is how long this has been going on.

If that is all they did--and it was bad--one might say that it didn't deserve this action.

The problem you have is, over these 47 years, the Iranians have again and again and again--when I say Iranians, I am talking about the administration that is there, the regime that is there, not the Iranian people--they have again and again killed Americans.

How many have they killed? They have killed in the thousands of Americans through IEDs and all kinds of other devices that they have used over these 47 years.

This is not right. It needs to come to a stop. It needs to come to an end. And the President did what he did because they were very close to having a nuclear weapon.

Can you imagine if we were having this debate out here, and the Iranians actually had a nuclear weapon? It would be a very different place.

The troops that we have in the Middle East are in danger as a result of this resolution. The resolution would put them further in danger if it passed.

According to the Constitution, it is the President's duty to protect and defend the United States, which he is doing, and he did what he did because it was necessary to defend America.

As I said, for 47 years, the Middle East has been progressing more and more toward peace and security. It is a very different Middle East than when I started this. All countries have moved toward the middle. All countries have moved toward a much more peaceful existence in the Middle East, with one exception, and that exception, of course, is Iran.

The Iranian terrorist regime aims to censor, threaten, murder anyone who questions its radical theology but especially Americans.

The Middle East has a bright future. I am more optimistic today than I have ever been about the Middle East because Iran now stands alone. There were days in the past when Iran did not stand alone, but they are standing alone now.

I think people will look back at what has happened in the Middle East and see the Abraham Accords and see a point in which there was considerable inflection and at a time when things changed. Our Commander in Chief is committed to see this through to the objectives that he has set out.

To our brave men and women who are on the battlefield in and near Iran, we support you. You are supporting Operation Epic Fury. We support you. We have your back here. Your sacrifice does not go unnoticed, and we will continue to have your back.

I have said this before, and I am going to say it again. To Iran, no one is coming to help you. There is no one on this planet--not the Chinese, not the Russians, not the North Koreans, not Venezuela, not Cuba, no one on this planet is coming to help you, except the 47 people that sit over here. They are trying to help you tonight.

They are not going to help you. We are not going to allow these people to help Iran. To our troops that are in the battlefield, I say to you: We have your back. We will see that these people do not do what they are trying to do. We are not going to turn tail. We are not going to leave. The President of the United States is going to continue this until the objectives are achieved.

Mr. President, fellow Senators, I urge you tonight to join me in defeating this resolution as we have done over and over again, as we will do again tonight, to stand by our troops in the Middle East.

Mr. President, section 36(b) of the Arms Export Control Act requires that Congress receive prior notification of certain proposed arms sales as defined by that statute. Upon such notification, the Congress has 30 calendar days during which the sale may be reviewed. The provision stipulates that, in the Senate, the notification of proposed sales shall be sent to the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

In keeping with the committee's intention to see that relevant information is still available to the full Senate, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record the notifications that have been received. If the cover letter references a classified annex, then such an annex is available to all Senators in the office of the Foreign Relations Committee, room SD-423.