Floor Statements

Mr. President, on February 3, an illegal immigrant from Kyrgyzstan who was allowed into the United States under Joe Biden in 2023 killed four people on State Road 67 in Indiana--not far from where I live.

He drove a semitruck head-on into a van. That van was carrying a 50- year-old father and two boys who were only 19 and 25 years old, along with a family friend, and they were all from a local Amish community, and now they are all dead.

I am angry about it. I have had enough of it because it is stories like this that show why mass deportations matter and why they are needed now more than ever. At least seven Hoosiers have died on Indiana highways in the past 6 months because of illegal immigrants recklessly driving on our roads and at least eight more have been seriously injured and those are just the cases that I know about.

In November, an illegal immigrant with a fake green card crashed his SUV into a van killing the 76-year-old driver from Decatur--again, not far from Columbia City where I live--before fleeing the scene. The illegal immigrant also seriously injured three innocent drivers in that same crash.

Shortly before that accident, an illegal immigrant who was driving drunk and without a license crashed his car into two young parents who were on their way to pick up their kids from their grandparents' house. The young couple was seriously injured. I have seen images of the wreck, and they are lucky to be alive.

Just a couple of days before that, an illegal immigrant from the country of Georgia was driving a truck and towing a trailer when he swerved abruptly and forced a military Humvee off the road. That crash killed Hoosier National Guardsman Terry Frye and seriously injured three others. Terry was just 23 years old.

In October, an illegal immigrant driving a semitruck killed a 54- year-old man on Highway 20 in Indiana when he failed to stop in traffic. That illegal immigrant had a fake trucking license and opened a trucking company that received a $35,000 loan in taxpayer dollars funded through PPP.

At least seven innocent Hoosiers have died in their own State because of illegal-immigrant drivers. Every single one of these deaths were preventable. Every single one of these deaths happened because someone who shouldn't have been in our country in the first place got behind the wheel and killed American citizens.

Most of the deaths were at the hands of illegal immigrants driving semitrucks. Trucking is an incredibly important industry in my State because Indiana sits at the crossroads of the country. In fact, our State motto is literally ``The Crossroads of America.''

Indiana is the fifth busiest State in the country for commercial traffic freight. Each year, 724 million tons of freight travels through Indiana.

I speak to truckers regularly, and they are outraged by what is happening. One of my friends who works in the trucking industry said many trucking companies are hiring illegal immigrants to drive their trucks because they can pay them less. That takes jobs away from hard- working Americans. They would rather take care of their bottom line than put safe and trustworthy drivers out on the road.

We have to hold those trucking companies accountable for endangering us all. In fact, the truck that killed four Hoosiers last week belonged to a shady trucking company that the industry refers to as a ``chameleon carrier.'' ``Chameleon carriers'' are trucking companies that after being shut down or heavily fined by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, just disguise themselves by changing their name or address or Department of Transportation number to continue operating.

Many of these ``chameleon carriers'' are run by foreign nationals. The Government Accountability Office has said that ``chameleon carriers'' are three times more likely to be involved in serious crashes than legitimate operators.

Not only are illegal immigrants and foreign nationals running illicit trucking companies but Democrat States like California and New York and Pennsylvania are giving out commercial driver's licenses to illegal immigrants like they are Halloween candy.

In fact, 50 percent of CDLs reviewed by the Department of Transportation in New York had been issued improperly.

The driver of the truck that killed Indiana National Guardsman Terry Frye got his CDL from New York after he was waved across the border by the Biden administration in 2022. When police arrived at the scene of the crash, they reported there was a ``language barrier'' and that a translator was needed at the scene.

How could anyone give this guy a CDL to begin with? If he couldn't even talk to police, do we really believe that he could read our road and traffic signs? Do we really think that illegal immigrants who can't even speak English can obey our road rules?

The law doesn't think so. Federal regulations require that commercial truck drivers be proficient in English. Think about how insane this is. You get into the country illegally, you are living in violation of Federal law, but Democrat politicians in blue States violate the law and let you drive an 18-wheeler across State lines.

It is more than just insane. It is dangerous and deadly, and it is this reckless policy that is getting people killed in Indiana. So while Hoosiers are being killed in their own State by illegal immigrants, what are Democrats this week doing in Congress?

They are trying to cut funding to ICE. They are working to prevent illegal immigrants from being taken off of our streets.

We have a Federal Agency whose job it is to enforce immigration law and remove people who are here illegally, but Democrats want to defund that Agency. They want to tie ICE's hands while illegal-immigrant truckers are killing Americans on our highways. This is a deliberate choice to prioritize illegal immigrants over American citizens.

This has to stop, and it has got to stop right now. We need to support President Trump's efforts to deport every illegal immigrant out of this country. We are not doing enough to get them off of our roads as you can see in my State of Indiana.

Every day that we wait, every day that Democrats want to play petty politics, we run the risk of more Americans and more Hoosiers dying on our highways.

ICE needs more resources, not fewer, so that we can get illegal immigrants off of our streets and out of semitrucks driving on our highways. Hoosiers have had enough. I have had enough. It is time that Congress starts acting like American lives were worth protecting.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that notwithstanding rule XXII, all postcloture time be expired and the Senate vote on confirmation of the Burrows nomination at 11:30 a.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 be in a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.

I understand that there are three bills at the desk, and I ask for the first reading en bloc.

I now ask for a second reading, and I object to my own request, all en bloc.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on the Judiciary be discharged from further consideration and the Senate now proceed to S. Res. 586.

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned until 10 a.m. on Tuesday, February 10; 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, and the Senate be in a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each; further, that the Senate recess following the confirmation vote on the Burrows nomination until 2:15 p.m. to allow for the weekly conference meetings.

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, we are about to vote on the confirmation of Mr. Justin Olson, President Trump's nominee to serve as a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana. Justin is President Trump's first judicial nominee in Indiana of the second Trump administration.

I hope all of my colleagues will join me in voting to confirm Justin. He is more than qualified for this position.

I had never met or heard of Justin before this process, but let me just say that, from the very first time that I met with him, I knew he would make a great judge. I was really impressed by him, and I am grateful that President Trump nominated him.

Together with his wife Leah, Justin is the proud father of five young children. I enjoyed spending time with them recently, when they were here to visit DC for Justin's hearing.

Outside of his impressive legal career, Justin is an active member of his church, his community, and his community where he served as an elder and taught children Sunday school.

Justin is a graduate of Grove City College and the Maurer School of Law at Indiana University Bloomington. After graduating, he served his country in the U.S. Attorney's Office in Indianapolis. During his time in the U.S. Attorney's Office, Justin earned a stellar reputation for his incredible work ethic and his character. Before his time in the U.S. Attorney's Office, Justin earned a prestigious clerkship with the chief justice of the Indiana Supreme Court.

It is very clear that Justin has all of the qualifications to serve on the bench. But beyond his paper resume, Justin has the qualities that I think are most important in a judge. He cares deeply about America and American values. He especially cares about equality.

We all watched as the University of Pennsylvania and the NCAA allowed a man to dominate women's swimming. We all saw just how unfair and disgraceful that was. Justin has been part of the legal team that is suing Penn and the NCAA and other schools that have allowed men to compete in women's sports.

Justin has also been part of the team that is representing Riley Gaines and other female athletes who have been forced to compete against those men and to share private spaces with them.

Justin and his legal team have sought justice for those young women who have been robbed of medals, of dignity, and their safety. In fact, I think it is really incredible that Justin's confirmation comes one day after National Girls and Women in Sports Day. I can think of no one better prepared to make sure that women's sports are only for women than him, Justin Olson.

Justin has also represented a group that is very important to me, and that is the Turning Point USA's chapter at IU Bloomington, my alma mater. Justin has defended that group's right to express conservative ideas on college campuses. I have no doubt that Justin would make Charlie Kirk proud.

Earlier in Justin's career, before he even graduated from law school, Justin was already writing scholarly papers in support of States' rights to protect unborn children.

What I want in a judge, above all else, is courage. I want judges, especially in my home State of Indiana, who are not afraid to stand up for truth and who are willing to say things that others are afraid to say.

Really, anyone can say the right thing, but I want judges who have done the right thing, especially when it is hard or unpopular.

Well, look no further than Justin Olson. He has always done the right thing, even when it is hard. He has fought for women's rights, for the equal application of civil rights law, and for American liberties.

Our Nation is at a turning point. We need judges who believe in the American project and its goodness, judges that are just like Justice Thomas and Justice Alito. And we need judges who will not just uphold the Constitution but who will cherish it. Justin Olson is that type of person.

I am very pleased that President Trump nominated Justin to serve on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana. It was my honor to introduce him at his confirmation hearing, and it will be my honor to vote in favor of his nomination in just a few moments. He is the right person for the job. I can't wait to call him Judge Olson.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the previously scheduled rollcall vote begin immediately.

Mr. President, I rise today to speak about a very important and potentially lifesaving bill that I have introduced called Tyler's Law. But before I talk about what this law and this bill would do, I want to tell you a little bit about who it is named after.

Tyler Joseph Shamash was a bright, inquisitive, and compassionate boy from California. He was adventurous. He loved computers. He was interested in Bitcoin before most people had even heard of Bitcoin. He had a knack for building and fixing things. Tyler's mother Juli said that Tyler was ``like a little professor.''

But in his early teens, Tyler started using marijuana and eventually became addicted to hard drugs. His family did what any family would do--they tried to help him with therapy programs and sober living facilities--but Tyler continued to struggle with addiction. At one point, he overdosed.

On top of all of this, Tyler's family and doctors didn't know what the drugs that he was taking were or that they were laced with fentanyl.

In October of 2018, Tyler was taken to the hospital from his sober living house with a suspected overdose. At the hospital, Tyler was administered a standard drug panel, which came back clean, so he was eventually discharged. Shortly thereafter, though, Tyler died of a fentanyl overdose. He was just 19 years old.

When Tyler was still in the hospital, just hours before he passed, his mother Juli came to meet him there and asked the doctors if the drug test was really clean. She repeatedly asked if the drug panel tested for fentanyl. She was told yes, the drug panel did test for fentanyl because fentanyl is an opioid, is what she was told.

Tragically, that is just not true. Many doctors are unaware that the standard drug panels that many emergency rooms administer don't detect fentanyl because fentanyl is a synthetic opioid. This is a well-known problem. The College of American Pathologists has highlighted it. The Association for Diagnostics & Laboratory Medicine has warned labs about it. The Emergency Nurses Association has been advocating for a solution. But the problem continues.

Sadly, fentanyl overdoses are a common story, and a lot of families in my State, Mr. President, and I know in your State, too, know what it is like to have a loved one who has suffered from a fentanyl overdose.

If Tyler's family and doctors who were treating him had known that Tyler was suffering from a fentanyl overdose, they could have given him a higher level of care. Perhaps things might have turned out a whole lot differently, though we can never know for sure.

But one thing is clear: Tyler deserved to be tested. Thousands of Americans poisoned by fentanyl deserve to be tested so that they can receive the proper level of medical care.

Since Tyler's tragic passing, his mother Juli, who joins us in the Gallery today, has been on a mission to make sure that other parents do not have to suffer the same unimaginable heartbreak that she did.

I have had the pleasure to meet with Juli and so many other moms and dads who have been affected by this, and I can say that Juli has turned tragedy into action, and she is an inspiring woman. That is why I was honored to introduce Tyler's Law with my colleague Senator Padilla from California--truly a bipartisan effort--and it is why I was proud when the HELP Committee, of which I am a member, reported out Tyler's Law unanimously just a couple of weeks ago.

Tyler's Law directs the Department of Health and Human Services to study whether hospital emergency departments should routinely test overdose patients for fentanyl. Based on the study's results, HHS will also issue guidance to hospitals about whether and how they should implement fentanyl testing in the emergency room.

This is really simple and common sense.

It is hard to overstate just how badly needed this law is.

President Trump is aggressively going after the drug traffickers flooding our streets with deadly drugs, but the fentanyl epidemic is still taking far too many American lives. Synthetic opioids like fentanyl killed about 48,000 Americans in 2024, and it continues to kill thousands more each and every month.

But we could save many of those lives if emergency rooms were better equipped to detect and treat fentanyl overdoses. That is why it is so important that HHS help hospitals adopt effective fentanyl testing.

I am pleased to see that Tyler's Law has bipartisan support and that that support continues to grow. I look forward to bringing Tyler's Law to a vote on this floor--the Senate floor--soon so that we can begin to potentially save many, many lives.

Tyler's life was cut short by fentanyl, but if we can pass Tyler's Law, if we can take this important step in making sure that those battling fentanyl or different drug addictions get the care and the testing that they need, then Tyler's everlasting legacy will be saving lives.

And I am for that, Mr. President, and I know you are for that. And I hope that my colleagues will join me in supporting this bill when it comes to the Senate floor soon.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to 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 ask unanimous consent that the Committee on the Judiciary be discharged from further consideration and the Senate now proceed to S. Res. 581.

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned until 10 a.m. on Wednesday, February 4; 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 proceed to executive session and resume consideration of Executive Calendar No. 614, Aaron Peterson, postcloture.

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

Madam President, as we begin the new year, there are a lot of things that Members of Congress and the American people are paying attention to. But something really extraordinary is going on in my home State of Indiana. It is not just Hoosiers who are paying attention; the whole country is following Indiana football.

I am the first in my family to go to college, and it was a no-brainer for me to attend Indiana University in Bloomington.

Everyone knows that IU is a basketball school. IU basketball won five national championships. We had the legendary 1976 undefeated team in the NCAA--the only undefeated team in college basketball history.

When I got to college in the 1990s, one of the reasons I attended IU was to watch Bobby Knight-coached basketball games. We had great players over the years: Isaiah Thomas, Damon Bailey, Steve Alford, and so many others who played on the floor at Assembly Hall and made Indiana very proud. Assembly Hall is the mecca of college basketball. Again, it is one of the reasons that I wanted to go to college there in the first place. When I go back to IU and attend basketball games, I still get choked up in the pregame show at Assembly Hall each and every time.

But IU was never known as a football school. Sure, we had some great talent over the years--Antwaan Randle El was the star player when I attended IU--but IU football always had a lot more downs than it had ups. In fact, when I was a student at Indiana University, the football program was so bad that they gave free season tickets to all of the students who lived in the dorms, and at every game, the stadium was hardly ever even half full except for those occasions when the Ohio State Buckeyes came over the State line to play in Bloomington.

As IU fans, we were trained to never get our hopes up about Indiana football, but now, my, how the tides have turned. Now, the entire country is watching one of the greatest turnarounds in sports history. From being college football's alltime leader in losses to now having an undefeated season, wherein we won the Rose Bowl, the Big Ten Championship, and had a Heisman Trophy winner, IU football has captured the country's attention. In fact, the great Dick Vitale said, ``Hoosier football is the greatest turn around'' that he has ever seen.

When IU President Pam Whitten and athletic director Scott Dolson brought on coach Curt Cignetti, IU's football program turned around overnight. And when my wife and I attended the IU game earlier this season against Wisconsin, the stadium was absolutely packed--a real change from what past games used to look like. Coach Cignetti has brought great pride to the State of Indiana.

I want to highlight the incredible young man who has led IU's team to glory this season, the great Fernando Mendoza.

Just 3 weeks ago, Fernando became the first Heisman Trophy winner in Indiana University's history. When I was in college, I have got to tell you that it would have been impossible to imagine having had a Heisman Trophy winner at Indiana University. What makes this man truly exceptional is not simply his award-winning career on the field. What makes Fernando so incredible is that he represents the very best of what we hope to see in our Nation's young people--a combination of excellence, character, faith, and service to others.

In fact, a few days ago, Fernando led the Hoosiers to an incredible 38-to-3 victory over Alabama in the Rose Bowl, winning the first ever Rose Bowl in IU's history and the first win in the modern playoff era for the Indiana Hoosiers.

Right after the game, Fernando was asked about the big win. And do you know what he said? Before saying anything else, he said:

My team and I want to give all the glory to God.

In all of his interviews, Fernando always makes sure to thank God first. That is a man who has his priorities straight. That is a man who is proud to live out his faith, who honors God in everything that he does.

But there is more.

With Fernando Mendoza, there is really no ``I'' in ``team.'' When he received his Heisman trophy, Fernando made it clear that it wasn't his trophy alone. Instead he said that it was ``our trophy.'' That is why he has made the gracious decision to keep the Heisman Trophy in Bloomington, IN. It is because the Trophy belongs to the university and to the fans, he said.

I am incredibly proud of that decision, and I want to thank Fernando Mendoza for making that decision. I can't wait to go to Bloomington to see it.

In his Heisman Trophy speech, Fernando mentioned how his family has always stood by his side throughout his career and that they have never stopped believing in him. Fernando particularly thanked his mother Elsa.

He said:

This is your trophy as much as it is mine.

Elsa suffers from multiple sclerosis, a tough and often painful disease. In honor of his mother, Fernando has raised over $100,000 to fight MS. What an incredible act of kindness, and what a special way to honor his mother.

In that Heisman Trophy acceptance speech, after thanking his teammates, his family, and Coach Cignetti, Fernando addressed the young people who might be tuning in.

He said:

I want every kid out there who feels overlooked and

underestimated to know I was you. I was that kid too. I was

in your shoes. The truth is, you don't need the most stars,

hype, or rankings. You just need discipline, heart, and

people who believe in you, and you need to believe in your

own abilities.

Our young people need role models today more than ever, and they need role models like Fernando Mendoza. He shows them that faith matters, that family comes first, and that hard work pays off. He is proof that you can be a champion on the field and still be humble, that you can be competitive and still put God first, that success means nothing if you are not using it to help others. Fernando Mendoza is the kind of young man that I want my three daughters to look up to and other kids of their generation to look up to too. Indiana is lucky to have him. We are proud to have him, and America is better because of him.

I don't know how this story ends at the semifinal game in Atlanta on Friday that I am looking forward to attending and at the championship game in Miami the following week. I can't wait to cheer on the Hoosiers. I don't know how this great story ends. The Hoosiers have a possibility to be the first team ever to win 16 games and go undefeated, but I can't tell you how much pride the great State of Indiana has in this football team wearing the ``Indiana'' on their uniform. They represent us so well. The Hoosier State is proud, and I wanted to take a moment to come to the floor and just simply say, ``Go Hoosiers.''

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, last week, I had the pleasure of attending the Reagan National Defense Forum at the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, CA. I have been to the event a few times before. It is a beautiful setting. The library is such a great tribute to one of our greatest Presidents, Ronald Reagan, who is known for his efforts to rebuild the military through peace through strength in the Reagan years that we often think about and talk so much about today.

The forum has been around for 12 years. This was the 12th annual event, and I have been able to attend the incredible event a few times early on in my time in the House, serving in the House of Representatives. It has been a few years since I have been there.

The event is filled with some of our Nation's top military leaders, Cabinet officials, administration officials--much of the leadership of the Pentagon. It is also a bipartisan event with a congressional delegation from both sides of the aisle. It also includes leaders and innovators in our national defense industry who join the event every year as well.

At this past forum, I participated in a panel discussion about recruitment and retention in our military. I was actually joined by a former Democrat colleague of mine in the House, Jimmy Panetta, a Democrat from California.

Coincidentally, his father, the former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, was sitting in the audience to hear his son and myself and the other members of the panel talk about this important subject.

The panel got me thinking, though, as we close out 2025, about how far we have come in just 1 year on this subject--recruitment and retention in the military. As we close out 2025, I can think of many big wins that have come out of the Trump administration but none as significant as what President Trump and Secretary of War Hegseth have done to repair the recruitment crisis that took place on Joe Biden's watch. This unbelievable accomplishment doesn't get as much attention as it deserves, and that is why I wanted to come down to the floor today and talk about that incredible success story and share with you some of what I talked about in that panel a little over a week ago.

When I served in the House of Representatives before I got to the Senate, I chaired the Military Personnel Subcommittee on the House Armed Services Committee, so I saw up close how bad things got under Joe Biden--especially at the Pentagon and in our military.

When Joe Biden was President, he presided over the worst recruitment crisis in the over 50 years of an All-Volunteer Force of our military. In 2022, the Army set a goal to recruit 60,000 new soldiers but only managed to recruit 45,000. That is 15,000 soldiers short. The same thing happened again the following year, in 2023, when the Army was again 15,000 soldiers short of its 65,000 soldier recruitment goal.

When you add up the recruitment losses under Joe Biden, between 2021 and 2025, the Army shrank by 40,000 soldiers due to a lack of new recruits--that is as much as 4 divisions of troops in the U.S. Army.

The same story, Mr. President, happened to the Navy, which I know is important to you, and it is important to me. In 2023, the Navy was 7,500 short of its goal to recruit 37,000 new sailors. In 2024, it was nearly 5,000 short of its goal to recruit over 40,000 new sailors. So between 2021 and 2025, the Navy shrank by 16,000 sailors, which is about 3 aircraft carriers' worth of U.S. sailors.

That is how bad the recruitment crisis got on Joe Biden's watch.

How did this happen? I think this is an important context in history when we evaluate where we are today. It is clear to everyone that the Biden administration treated the military as a political experiment. I don't think, Mr. President, we have seen the military politicized in a way that it was under the 4 years that Joe Biden was President ever before in American history.

The Biden Pentagon dropped physical fitness standards to promote equity and supported woke DEI initiatives throughout the armed services.

As a side note, by the way, the marines were the only good news on recruitment during those 4 years because the Marine Corps never dropped their standards.

You had former Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, who immediately, after Joe Biden was sworn into office, ordered a 60-day stand-down to ``combat extremism'' in the military. They spent nearly 6 million man- hours militarywide on that stand-down. Those are hours, Mr. President, that could have been spent on training our troops to combat our biggest enemy, our biggest threat--that being China--or, I would contend to you, those 6 million man-hours could have been spent

on preparing to evacuate and leave Afghanistan in a much more responsible way than what the military did. Instead, they focused it on politics at the beginning of the Biden administration.

Then you had Gen. CQ Brown, who at the time was the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, who issued racial quotas for the U.S. Air Force. You had Joe Biden's Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth arguing that it was a bad thing that more than 80 percent of our recruits come from military families. Think about that for a minute. She said there was ``a risk of developing a warrior caste'' in America. When the Secretary of the Army should have been trying to boost recruitment, she insulted patriotic Americans who are inspired by their parents to serve and suggested that the Army didn't want them. It is no wonder that we had a recruitment crisis in the U.S. Army.

Mr. President, when you combine all of these factors, it is no wonder that the military under Joe Biden failed to meet its recruitment numbers.

Simply put, fewer young Americans wanted to serve because they stopped believing in the mission.

I often think back to an article from the Wall Street Journal that I read back in 2023. It had a poll that showed that patriotism among Americans, especially young Americans, had plummeted to historic lows.

Again, in 2023, Joe Biden is the President; the aftermath of what happened in Afghanistan; all of this other foolish experimentation; the politicization of our military.

According to that poll, only 38 percent of Americans in 2023 said that patriotism was very important to them. That is down from 70 percent in the 1990s.

To this day, this story astonishes me. I would love to see an update from the Wall Street Journal on that poll to show what those patriotism numbers look like today.

Mr. President, I know you know this: You can't build a military without patriots. You can't ask young men and women to put their lives on the line when the culture tells you that the country isn't worth fighting and dying for. You can't expect the next generation of Americans to raise their right hand--Mr. President, like you did, like I did, like so many of our colleagues did in the U.S. Senate--to protect this Nation when so few believe that America is the greatest country in the history of the world.

Something else that I think about is how the catastrophic withdrawal from Afghanistan played a huge part in the shortage in military recruitment under Joe Biden as well. Americans saw 13 brave servicemembers killed at Abbey Gate, including a Hoosier, and American guns and vehicles were abandoned to the Taliban on that embarrassing and disastrous and deadly day. It didn't exactly inspire people to serve. Young Americans asked themselves ``Who wants to be part of that type of military?'' and they said ``Not me.''

Mr. President, the good news, though--and I want to get to the good news because this is really good news. The good news is that this has all been fixed in a really short period of time. President Trump changed everything. In fact, it changed immediately on election day just a little over a year ago. Military leaders testify to the fact that military recruitment increased dramatically the day that Donald Trump won the election. The Army met its 2025 recruitment numbers 4 months early. The Army reached its retention goals for the whole year in just 6 months. Navy recruitment hit a 20-year record.

How did all of this happen? President Trump and Secretary Hegseth inspired young people to serve again because President Trump and Secretary Hegseth are restoring our military's strength and greatness. They cut away the woke DEI initiatives throughout the Department of War and focused on what really matters to our military--patriotism, a sense of mission, and lethality.

Under Joe Biden, young Americans saw the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan. Today, they see a military that puts America first--taking out narcoterrorist drug boats before they can bring deadly drugs into our country.

Seventy-one percent of Americans say they support these strikes on these drug boats. When you ask young men and women if that is the type of military they want to be part of--one that is stopping drugs from flooding into America and killing our brothers, our sisters, our neighbors, our friends--you get an overwhelming yes.

When America is strong, when America is competent, when America wins, our young people want to be a part of that. They want to serve.

Patriotism isn't dead; it was just dormant during those 4 years, waiting for leadership that America can believe in, like what we have in the White House today in Donald Trump.

Secretary of War Hegseth is doing an extraordinary job. He is the exact leader at the Department that we need to restore the focus on lethality after 4 disastrous years under Joe Biden when the focus was on anything but that. He has brought back the warrior ethos to our military and has worked hard to ensure that America's military can meet tomorrow's challenges. Our enemies have been put on notice under Pete Hegseth's leadership at the Department of War.

Mr. President, the path forward is clear: We must continue supporting this administration's efforts to restore our military and make our military as great as it can be again.

Our All-Volunteer military depends on Americans who choose to serve, and Americans will choose to serve when they believe in the mission, trust their leaders, and take pride in this great country. President Trump is giving them that, and America is stronger for it. That is some great news, Mr. President.

As we close out 2025, there are so many things to talk about, but this accomplishment in and of itself--what President Trump and Secretary Hegseth have done to restore recruitment, save our military-- is really good news, and I wanted to come to the floor and talk about it as we close out this year, on the eve of going home for this Christmas break.

Mr. President, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy New Year. I am looking forward to a lot more good news like this to come in 2026.

I yield the floor.