Floor Statements

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, in just a few moments, this body will vote for the next Secretary of Homeland Security. It happens to be a friend of mine. His name is Markwayne Mullin.

Markwayne Mullin is the pride of Westville, OK, which--ironically enough--is the easternmost town in our State. On a normal day, there are more people inside the U.S. Capitol than there are in all of Westville, OK. But it is a bunch of really nice folks that work really hard, and Markwayne Mullin has risen from being a country boy in a cow- calf operation with his dad, running a very small plumbing company, to now being nominated, and tonight being confirmed as our next Secretary of Homeland Security.

He graduated from Stilwell High School, but the most important thing wasn't his graduation from Stilwell High School. It is the girl that he met in the third grade.

In the third grade, he fell in love with Christie, and they waited all the way until she was 18 and he was 19 before they got married. And now, decades later and six children later, that proud family will now be the lead family to be able to serve to keep every family safe in the country.

Responsibility at Homeland Security is dramatic. There are a quarter million Federal employees that work for the Department of Homeland Security. It is a massive operation, and it is incredibly important to our country.

And I think he will be a terrific leader for it. He not only loves our country, but he is passionate about security.

He served in the House of Representatives for a decade and has now served in this body for 3 years. He has spent a lot of time on the issues of national security. He has done a lot of research in that area.

He has worked to be able to pass the bills that actually fund Homeland Security, and now he will be the one to actually implement those same bills.

So he is keenly aware of the law and the issues that he will actually be carrying out.

Interestingly enough, Markwayne Mullin is a member of the Cherokee Nation. He is actually the second Senator ever to serve in this body that is a member of the Cherokee Nation, but there has not been a Cherokee that has actually been in the Senate for more than two decades.

The Cherokee Nation leadership sent in a letter with their overwhelming support for him and for what he has done and his awareness of the Tribal issues, as well as just national issues and family issues.

He has been my friend, and we have worked side by side on a lot of issues.

I will never forget, multiple years ago, with my wife and Markwayne and his wife Christie--the four of us--sitting down for a dinner in a quiet place in a booth in the middle of a restaurant, just to talk, because Markwayne was thinking about saying, ``I am done with all of this chaos that is in Congress,'' and he was actually praying through what to do next.

And it was over that dinner that the four of us just talked and visited, prayed together, and he determined: I am going to stay at it because there is more work to be done.

And I am glad he did.

In the days ahead, the Nation will be glad that he did because I think he will make a fantastic Secretary of Homeland Security.

As we approach this moment, I can't help but also note a challenge that he is going to walk into on day one, because when he walks in tomorrow morning into a new office, into a new role, and being sworn in, there will not be funding for the people around him. The staff that will be there, working alongside him, won't have been paid for more than a month.

And this is not an anomaly for them. As of this week, half of the fiscal year, Homeland Security employees have not been paid--half of the fiscal year. They faced 43 days without any paycheck, and they are at 37 days now. Half of the year, they have not been paid. As of this week, it will be six paychecks that they have either lost entirely or partially.

This body has the responsibility to solve this problem. And as Markwayne steps in to be able to lead so capably in Homeland Security, it is the responsibility of this body to be able to make sure that Homeland Security actually has the funding that it needs to be able to protect the Nation.

So my expectation is twofold tonight: One is that we will confirm my friend Markwayne Mullin, and he will be the next Secretary. And the other one is that soon we will finish this argument, and we will resolve our differences. And so the fine folks that work at Homeland Security, in all areas, whether it be Coast Guard, Secret Service, whether it be FEMA, whether it be TSA--yes, even ICE and Customs and Border Protection--wherever they may be, that their families can also reap the benefit of their service by actually getting a paycheck--what a novel idea.

Let's finish the task tonight.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the confirmation vote for Senator Markwayne Mullin to be the Secretary of Homeland Security right now.

I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate resume legislative session and be in a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. President, I understand the Chair has an announcement to make.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that, notwithstanding rule XXII, all postcloture time be expired and the Senate vote on confirmation of the McDonald nomination at 2:15 p.m. tomorrow, and if any nominations are confirmed during Tuesday's session of the Senate, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table and the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 307, S. 921.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the committee-reported substitute amendment be considered and agreed to; that the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time and passed; and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. 4164, which is at the desk.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read a third time and passed, and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 660, which is at the desk.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. President I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. Con. Res. 29.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the concurrent resolution be agreed to and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned until 12 noon on Tuesday, March 24, that following the prayer and pledge, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be deemed expired, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, morning business be closed, and the Senate resume the House message with respect to S. 1383; further, that the Senate recess from 1 to 2 p.m. to allow for the weekly conference meetings; finally, at 2:15 p.m., the Senate proceed to executive session and execute the order in relation to the McDonald nomination.

Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask that it stand adjourned under the previous order.

Mr. President, reserving the right to object, my friend from Hawaii makes a great case in a lot of areas, and he is correct-- this has been incredibly frustrating for TSA, for the Coast Guard, and for so many other folks that are national security professionals.

DHS has a quarter-million Federal employees--a quarter-million. ICE has 20,000 of that quarter-million. And the argument has been about those 20,000 somewhat, but the problem is those 20,000 also do a pretty vital job for the country.

Let me give you an example. Homeland Security investigators are part of ICE. Those Homeland Security investigators are the Federal agents that actually investigate human trafficking. They are the Federal agents that do drug smuggling across the border. Homeland Security investigators are the investigators that actually prohibit American arms sales going out of the country to foreign nationals. These individuals are very important to us.

Now, a fraction of ICE is what they call ERO, which is actually doing the arrests here, but a large portion of ICE, of those 20,000 folks, are actually doing a lot of our drug smuggling, human trafficking, arms trafficking--all those functions.

So to be able to say ``I am defunding ICE'' is one thing, but you are also defunding all those Federal entities that are homeland security entities on it as well. That is our challenge in this.

As I have said to my colleagues before, when they defund ICE, at what point does it ever turn back on? At what point do they ever come back to my Democratic colleagues and say: It is time to actually fund ICE.

The pressure from the hard left outside has been so focused on defunding ICE, defunding ICE, defunding ICE that it is going to make it very, very difficult for any of my colleagues to ever vote and say they are going to do this.

Now, as far as the negotiation process, my colleague from Hawaii is correct. There have been some letters that have been exchanged. Part of my frustration, and I have shared it with him before, is that the offer he was dictating was actually made, and there was no response that came back for 18 days.

So the offer was made to say: Let's talk about this. Here is a proposal.

Eighteen days later, there was a response. We lost 2\1/2\ weeks of time in negotiation to be able to do it.

Now, thankfully, it has moved past just that letter. There is actually legislative language. That language is being debated behind closed doors now, finally, to be able to talk about it. There have been Democratic Members that are meeting with the White House and with Republican Members here in the Senate to be able to go more in depth to be able to figure out what to do.

It is deescalation training. Yes, it is definitely body-worn cameras and including how they are going to be used, to try to be able to mandate those. It is identification for officers. It is when they step out of their vehicle, to identify who they are, to be able to track that. It is a lot of the aspects that have been discussed, including the warrant issue. My Democratic colleagues have said it is really important. We want to be able to deal with the warrant issue as well.

All those things are in current negotiation around legislative language.

Last week, I stood here and said: Why aren't we staying through the weekend to be able to work to solve this? Why are we leaving and going home? We should stay at the wheel and keep working until it is actually resolved--not just for the quarter-million folks that are in DHS but also those 20,000 folks that also work with ICE. They have families as well. They have mortgages as well. They also want to be able to get paid, the same as everybody else.

So the challenge now becomes--we are not going to just defund ICE and then never turn it back on, so ICE agents quit because they know they are not getting paid, and it just drags on for a long time. We need to actually resolve the differences.

My colleague and I agree on body-worn cameras. We agree on deescalation. Now, we disagree somewhat on the mask issue because the problem has become unique. There are now activists who have apps. They are snapping pictures and saying: There is an ICE agent here. They are snapping a picture of their vehicle. They are putting it together. And other people are snapping where they are, tracking, using facial recognition to be able to identify where their family is. ICE agents, for the first time that I know of ever, now literally put their families at risk from Americans. In the past, ICE agents knew there were cartels that were pursuing them. Now it is not just cartels; it is leftwing activists that are now trying to snap a picture of them.

So while they are in one city, you can actually have an activist show up in their hometown, at their home address, and to be able to torment their family there.

For the sake of the ICE agent and for their kids, why would we not allow them to be able to protect themselves and to be able to protect their family? They are doing a job that the Federal Government has asked them to do, to go pick up criminals and to go pick up criminal aliens. Let's protect our family in the process of actually doing that.

So I do object to this, but I would love to be able to offer a second alternative to this in the days ahead.

So I object.

Mr. President, my friend from Hawaii is actually correct on the color of money issue. There shouldn't be a difference. Those are taxpayer dollars, all of them, so the taxpayers should have accountability in that, and there shouldn't be a limitation on that. That is one of the areas that I have also expressed frustration with DHS on because I am also one of those folks that have made a call, that I want to make a quick drop-in on one of the DHS detention facilities to be able see it, and I was also told no. That should not be so.

So I agree with my colleague from Hawaii on that, that whatever rules that apply should apply no matter what account that it comes from because the account is actually the American taxpayer, so that should apply in every single spot on that.

I do agree as well that we have got to be able to finish this out. We have tried to offer several opportunities to be able to do it, want to continue to be able to do that as well. At the very beginning of this, we couldn't reach an agreement, so we did what was called a continuing resolution, saying let's pay everybody short term until we can actually get through this. That is how we started this. That actually ended, and now, we don't have anything on it as well.

So I would like to offer a 4-week version of that to say for the next month, let's try to work through this. I think we are closer. That is my opinion on this. I think we are closer to the debate and being able to get this done. But if it is my family trying to be able to get to a paycheck, they just want to know it is going to get done.

So I would like to offer a simple amendment, that is take DHS funding, do a continuing resolution for the next month, and be able to have it all funded. Let's keep debating. Let's keep working this out but make sure that everybody gets paid.

So I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 156, H.R. 4553. I further ask that the substitute amendment at the desk be considered and agreed to; that the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time and passed; and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. President, reserving the right to object, I do thank my colleague for coming to the floor to be able to talk about this today. He and I are both on airplanes a lot.

The comment that has been made here on the floor, though, is: Before we leave here this week, this should be resolved. I could not agree more on that principle.

In fact, last Thursday, I came and said we should not leave at all this weekend; we should commit to stay. In fact, Senator Hassan and I, my Democratic colleague from New Hampshire, she and I have a bill that says when we get to a moment like this and we have an impasse, we stay; we don't leave.

I brought that to the floor last Thursday and said: Let's stay.

And everybody left, went right past TSA officials who are not being paid and went wherever people went over the weekend.

I am saying the same thing again. We should stay here and work out our differences. The easiest way to actually resolve this long term is to say, when we get to an impasse on funding, those workers are still paid. There is an automatic continuing resolution that kicks in to make sure they are paid, but we stay in session 7 days a week until we resolve the issues.

We shouldn't have weekends when there is a problem somewhere in funding around the country. The pressure should be on us to be able to get things resolved, to debate it out.

We are the grownups that are supposed to be talking about all these things and working out all of our differences, but that is not happening. And that has been frustrating.

Last Thursday, I brought up that the White House had sent over a counterproposal. There was a proposal that was sent over at the very beginning of this closedown of DHS, and the White House said: Here are some ideas we want to have.

The Democrats then said: No, we want this instead.

They sent it back over to the White House.

The White House then said: OK, we will take some of your ideas, and we will send this back to you.

And then they waited 18 days for Senate Democrats to respond to the White House. For 18 days, the White House just had to wait for a counteroffer. As my Senate colleagues were just saying, we are thinking about it.

Well, that response did finally come on Monday, but it was a response back to the White House of the same thing they had said before.

The White House is trying to get this resolved, not just for TSA. But how about for the Coast Guard? My Democratic colleagues came and said: Well, OK, we will fund the Coast Guard, as well, and TSA, and the Secret Service.

Do you know who has not been funded? There is no offer to fund Customs officials that actually work at all of our ports of entry. Their pay is going to be blocked. For Homeland Security individuals, there has been no offer to be able to pay those folks at all. For the Homeland Security investigators that actually handle child trafficking, human smuggling, and all of our investigations along the border dealing with drug smuggling, there has been no offer to fund them at all.

This is silly to try to break this up into different aspects of who is going to get funding and who is not going to get funding. TSA is going to get funding, but the Customs officials aren't going to get funding. Coast Guard is going to get funding, but the people investigating human smuggling are not going to get funding.

Let's sit down and figure this out. Let's not have 18 days between an offer and a counteroffer. Let's actually figure this out. Senator Warnock and I could probably sit down this afternoon and solve this.

All that everyone is looking for is: How do we actually get people in the room, willing to make the decision and making the decisions on this, so we can get this all worked out and done?

I was incredibly humbled because, when I walked through TSA this week, I walked through with grief as I walked through, because all I can think is, these folks are busting it. When I get there early in the morning, they have been there for hours already, and they are not getting paid.

The folks in Oklahoma are still showing up. We are not seeing the long lines and sick calls and all that, because that is not happening in my State. People are still showing up. And I walk past them embarrassed, saying: I am so sorry we have not been able to get everybody together to be able to get this solved.

But when I came through this week, as I walked through, the first TSA agent that I encountered said to me: We have something for you. And the second person, as I came through the line, said: Don't walk away. We have something for you.

And then, when I got to my gate, the head of the TSA group in my city walked out and handed me their challenge coin from my local TSA group. And he handed it to me, and he said: We see what you are doing. You are trying to get us paid. You are trying to get everybody paid. And we are really grateful that you are actually trying to get this solved. And we just want to say thanks because it has been a really hard year of sometimes funding happening and sometimes not.

In fact, one of the agents in Oklahoma City, last month, told me they feel like their check is bipolar because they never know where it is going to be at any moment. That just shouldn't be so. That just shouldn't be.

So my challenge, this week, is the same as it is every week. Let's stay here until this actually gets done. Let's not walk away. Let's sit down. Let's figure out how we actually solve this. Let's not take 2\1/ 2\ weeks to do a counteroffer to a legitimate offer from the White House.

And can I just remind my colleagues, the White House's counteroffer expanded the use of body-worn cameras dramatically. It required ID on every single officer. These were all requests that my Democratic colleagues have made to be able to put in. They said that they won't do enforcement activities in sensitive locations and make sure that all Members of Congress can do oversight and get access to detention facilities.

I mean, the list goes on and on and on. This is the list of what my Democratic colleagues all asked for. But it never seems to be enough, and my fear is that it is because the politics are better than the resolution.

Well, it is not if you are a TSA officer. It is not if you are in the Coast Guard. It is not if you are a Customs official. It is not if you are a Homeland Security investigator. Your family is not getting fed. It is not getting better for them. So the politics may be helpful for some, but it is not helpful for all.

So let's do it, at least while we are in the debate, where we started this debate. We didn't start with a shutdown. We started with, OK, let's at least agree we will keep the government open in all these areas while we are debating.

We started with just 2 weeks here, and said: For 2 weeks, let's do a continuing resolution. Let's keep our argument going but pay everybody.

That is where we began on this, but it seems like the easiest thing that we could literally do today and keep our argument going, because, hopefully, we are close, at least, on all this agreement, if we can ever get everybody to sit down in one room and to solve them.

So I am just going to ask--to repeat--what we did at the start of this.

I ask the Senator if he would modify his request so that the Senate can proceed immediately to the consideration

of Calendar No. 156, H.R. 4553, which is a 2-week continuing resolution for Homeland Security. I ask that Senator Warnock would substitute his amendment No. 4353 to be considered and agreed to, that the bill be amended and be considered read a third time and passed, and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Painfully so, I do object.

I appreciate my friend Raphael Warnock coming to the floor, the Senator from Georgia, and being able to talk about these issues.

The challenge of this is that the request has been made to say: Let's reform ICE.

You referred to law enforcement families who get up every day and put their lives on the line to be able to protect the country as paramilitary officers jumping out on people. I don't refer to them that way.

But I would only say, the White House has said: We agree with you; let's reform them.

They put in writing: new deescalation training, requirements for badges, requirements for individuals that step out of the vehicle to then identify themselves on it, changes in the way they handle uniforms, body-worn cameras, changes in processing.

My colleague is saying: I can't agree to move and just ignore this didn't happen.

No one is asking for that--no one. What we are saying is we agree with you. Let's make changes in this. I don't like what I have seen. You don't like what you have seen. So let's change it. Let's require body-worn cameras. Let's require badges. Let's require a change in uniforms. Let's require differences in how we actually identify officers and uniforms and vehicles. And those are all reasonable things.

So the offer has been made. Then let's make that change. The problem has been there has been no answer back. We are OK to make those changes. We have literally put in writing, in legislative language, that this could go into appropriations today to say: Let's actually do these changes and things that you are recommending on it.

But, at the end of the day, that isn't what moves.

What moves is back and forth, on different things like this, to try to identify TSA and divide TSA folks from Customs folks and say: Customs folks are bad, but TSA agents are good.

I think both of them are good families, because CBP is included in this as well. Those are the folks working on our docks at Long Beach right now. Those are the folks working in our international Customs, trying to be able to bring stuff off a ship and get inspections on it. They are not being paid. In fact, they are not even going to offer to pay them because they are looped into Border Patrol folks.

That is the problem. Once you slice it all up and say, ``This person gets this; this person doesn't,'' it doesn't work. So because that doesn't work, the offer has been made: Let's fix the way we are handling ICE and the way we are handling patrols. But we have got to have somebody say yes. In the meantime, offers keep getting sent over, and we are waiting on a yes to be able to actually move to resolve the issues.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I rise today to recognize Dr. Joe Leverett of Altus, OK, whose lifelong commitment to community service and support for our Nation's military has left a lasting impact on southwest Oklahoma, the men and women who serve at Altus Air Force Base, and our U.S. Air Force.

A fourth-generation resident of Altus, Dr. Leverett calls himself ``just a country doctor.'' Yet, as a board-certified physician in internal medicine and geriatric medicine and former chief of staff at Jackson County Memorial Hospital, he has spent decades caring for patients in Altus and the surrounding region, improving the health and well-being of Oklahomans while embodying the highest ideals of his profession.

His contributions to the Altus community and southwest Oklahoma extend far beyond his medical career. Following in the footsteps of his late father, Darill Leverett, he has been a dedicated civic leader, volunteering countless hours to strengthen the partnership between the people of Altus and the airmen stationed at Altus Air Force Base.

As chairman of the Altus Military Affairs Committee, Dr. Leverett has long championed the understanding that the success of the base and the vitality of the surrounding community are deeply connected. Through his leadership, he has helped foster a culture of support and appreciation for those who serve our country, ensuring that the base and the community continue to thrive together to meet the mission at hand.

In recognition of his tireless advocacy for Altus Air Force Base, the KC-46 Flight Training Center at Altus Air Force Base bears Dr. Leverett's name, a lasting tribute to the profound role he has played in strengthening the relationship between the installation and the surrounding community.

Dr. Leverett's leadership extends far beyond the city limits of Altus. He has served as a member of the Oklahoma Strategic Military Planning Commission, was appointed to the Secretary of the Air Force's Air and Space Force Civic Leader Program, received the respected Tampa Bay Trophy during the Airlift/Tanker Association Convention in 2016, and, in 2023, was honored with the Distinguished Public Service Award presented by the Secretary of the Air Force. Dr. Leverett's selection for these honors reflects the profound impact he has had in building enduring ties between Altus Air Force Base and the community it calls home.

Dr. Leverett's life is a testament to the power of service--to his neighbors, to his community, and to the men and women of the U.S. Air Force. His leadership has strengthened the bond between Altus and the airmen stationed there, and his work will benefit both his community and Nation for years to come.

As he steps back from his leadership role with the Altus Military Affairs Committee, I ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing Dr. Joe Leverett for his remarkable dedication and in thanking him for the many ways he has served the people of Oklahoma and the United States. We are deeply grateful for his service.