Floor Statements

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from South Carolina (Mr. Graham) and the Senator from Oklahoma (Mr. Mullin).

Further, if present and voting: the Senator from South Carolina (Mr. Graham) would have voted ``yea.''

Mr. President, something unexpected is happening in the early days of this new Congress, right here in the Senate, and that is we are seeing some bipartisanship. Republicans and a number of Democrats have now agreed that violent criminals who have entered our country illegally and are a threat to the safety and the security of the American people shouldn't be here and we need to do doing about it.

A headline in POLITICO this week tells the story. The headline reads ``Democrats make a right turn on immigration.'' This is an encouraging start to our new Senate year, and now it is time for the Democrats to prove that they really do want to work with us.

The Senate is going to vote today on this bipartisan Laken Riley Act. Now, just to remind those who are unfamiliar with the situation, Laken Riley was a young woman. She was a student at Augusta University in Athens, GA. She was studying to be a nurse. Tomorrow would have been her 23rd birthday. She was murdered by an illegal immigrant. All she was doing was out taking a jog. That illegal immigrant was in America because of Joe Biden and the Democrats' open border policies.

The Laken Riley Act has been sponsored and is now cosponsored by every Republican in the Senate, and there are also several Democrats who have recently signed on to this legislation and now support it. I was happy to hear the Democratic leader saying that he was going to vote to get on the bill as well.

The Laken Riley Act presents the Senate a simple choice: Are we willing to allow illegal immigrants to roam free in our country or do we want to save American lives? Protecting Americans from the dangers of a broken border makes sense to, I believe, most, if not all, of our citizens.

Earlier this week, Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania was asked about the Laken Riley Act. This is what he said. He said: If you are here illegally and you are committing crimes, I don't know why anybody thinks that that is controversial.

Well, not too long ago, his party certainly thought this point of view was controversial. That is what we saw happen here in the Senate. Last Congress, Republicans tried to bring up the Laken Riley Act. The Democrats blocked us. They wouldn't even let us debate it.

So I am happy to hear that Democrats are now open to debating this important bill. It is nice to see that the results of the election in November have changed the thinking of some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle.

Debating the Laken Riley Act isn't enough; the Senate must go on to pass it. The House has already passed this exact version of the Laken Riley Act this past week, and that vote was overwhelmingly bipartisan. The Senate now has an opportunity to make a real difference--a difference to protect American citizens from illegal-immigrant criminals.

There are some Democratic Senators who say that they support the Laken Riley Act but they want to weaken it. Well, to be clear, Senate Republicans are not weakening this lifesaving legislation. We will not allow that to happen. We must ensure that what happened to Laken Riley does not ever happen again.

When the time comes to vote on the Laken Riley Act, I encourage all of my colleagues to vote yes. If Democrats join us, the Laken Riley Act will actually become the law of the land, but more importantly than that, it will meet an urgent need of the American people. That is what we are really trying to do here--solve a problem, come up with a solution.

This isn't comprehensive immigration reform. To be very clear, there is much more that needs to be done to fix our broken open border. Today, I reintroduced a bill called the Build the Wall Act. That will certainly go a long way. We know that border walls work. My proposal finishes the wall, and it pays for it with unspent COVID money--money that is available to be used and should be used for that productive purpose.

We have already built more than 450 miles of border wall between the United States and Mexico. We know that it worked. Under President Trump, illegal crossings were at a record low. But now, after more than 10 million illegal immigrants have poured into our country during the last 4 years, we need to finish the wall. The need to do it is greater today than it has ever been before. The moment has come for safety and for security and, now, for serious action.

Joe Biden and the Democrats broke the border, opened the border, allowed and actually invited into this country people who are part of criminal cartels, drug dealers, terror suspects. This action turned every State, including my home State of Wyoming, into a border State.

It is time for even more Democrats to join Republicans today in securing our border, saving our lives, and passing this important piece of legislation that is coming before us today.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Alaska (Ms. Murkowski).

Further, if present and voting: the Senator from Alaska (Ms. Murkowski) would have voted ``yea.''

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, 2 months ago, the American people gave Republicans a clear mandate. It is a

mandate to get America back on track. Senate Republicans won 53 seats. In the House of Representatives, Republicans are in the majority. And President Trump won a historic victory. He won all seven of the battleground States, and he won the popular vote. The victory was decisive. Starting this week, Republicans are going to begin to deliver on the mandate.

You just heard the minority leader in the Senate talk about what Republicans are going to do to help the American people. I want to talk about that because I want to contrast it to what the outgoing President is doing right now in his final days in office.

The Democrat President who is leaving is trying to put in place leftwing, dangerous policies--policies that have been rejected by the American voters and policies that are going to make it more expensive for American voters to live their lives. These policies will make America less safe, less prosperous, and more vulnerable. These aren't policies the American people voted for.

It seems that the lameduck President is working overtime to undermine the American values and the demands and the wishes of the American people. The outgoing President has actually had his administration sign contracts with government unions so government workers have the right to stay home from work, maybe pretending that they are working, while still getting paid for a job that they are supposed to be doing.

To make matters worse, this past Monday, Joe Biden banned American energy production on 625 million acres of Federal waters. The Democrat leader says: Well, we need to do things to lower prices for the American people. That is not going to do it. That is going to make it more expensive for the American people when they use energy to heat their home and to drive their vehicles.

Joe Biden and the Democrats are using an obscure law to sabotage American energy independence and American energy production. In the process of doing this, all in the name of the environment and climate, they are going to make it much harder for the American people to make ends meet at the end of the month.

In my home State of Wyoming, the Biden administration issued a midnight rule that limits agriculture production and oil and gas leasing in Wyoming on public lands. He did this over the objections of the people of Wyoming. This is one more insult from this outgoing administration to the families and the workers in my home State.

So it is not surprising that Joe Biden continues to do more damage as he shuffles out the door. Under his administration, punishing regulations have replaced common sense. His war on American energy independence has hurt us strategically and has caused prices to go up dramatically. On the whole, he has been the most anti-American energy President in the history of this country.

Sadly, there are plenty more examples of malicious sabotage by this lameduck President. In December, what did we learn? We learned that the Biden administration was selling off materials purchased to build the wall at our southern border. It sold the materials for pennies on the dollar. Bidding began at $5. This is vindictive and an illegal violation of U.S. law.

Joe Biden and Democrats let more than 10 million illegal immigrants cross our border illegally into our country. Among them, we know, were over 300 individuals on the Terror Watchlist.

So this morning, when the Democrat leader says ``What are the Republicans doing? What are you starting out doing?'' Well, this week, we are going to be voting on the Laken Riley bill. She was a young woman--an innocent young woman--murdered by an illegal immigrant who came across into this country illegally. She was murdered. It is a bill that has been sponsored and cosponsored by every Republican in the Senate, and now I am happy to report that there are several Democrats who have also signed on to that legislation.

We are now talking about something that should have been done in a bipartisan way earlier, but we have an opportunity this week to get a bill passed in the Senate that is absolutely bipartisan and would make a huge difference in trying to protect American citizens from illegal immigrants who are in this country. We are talking about a group of at least 10 million, some of whom are members of criminal cartels, drug dealers, people on the Terrorist Watchlist. Yet, by Joe Biden's actions of selling off materials that taxpayers have paid for--pennies on the dollar--he is now making it harder and more expensive for President Trump to do the job at the border that he was elected to do and for which Joe Biden and his party were rejected at the ballot box.

This week, we also see that Joe Biden is rushing to release terrorists from American custody. One week after the New Orleans terrorist attack, this President has set free 11 terrorists from Guantanamo Bay--terrorists connected to the 9/11 attacks on America.

The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that Joe Biden wants to give back a dangerous terrorist and close friend of Osama bin Laden.

Here at home, we are seeing another type of Joe Biden jailbreak. Last month, the President pardoned 39 convicts and commuted the sentences of nearly 1,500 more--more commutations in a single day than the last three Presidents combined. These people are hardened criminals. They include murderers, child abusers, fraudsters, con artists, and corrupt public officials.

This ugly action was a disregard for the victims, for their families, and for the facts, and a slap in the face of every law-abiding citizen. This abuse of power undermines our justice system and the power of the Presidency.

This week, Joe Biden continued his march of shame by giving America's highest civilian honor to George Soros. Soros is a pro-crime activist. He is a supporter--an active supporter--of defunding the police. George Soros spent $50 million to elect soft-on-crime prosecutors, including the partisan New York City district attorney Alvin Bragg. Biden rewarded Soros for funding the lawyers who launched the legal attacks against his political opponent, President Trump.

In his final days in office now, Joe Biden is making America less safe, less prosperous, and more vulnerable. This is the opposite of what the American people voted for in November.

There was a column in the opinion page of yesterday's Washington Post Magazine. This is a reflection, an opinion of individuals on what legacy there is going to be for Joe Biden. Presidents are concerned about their legacy. This is by Matt Bai, called ``Biden's legacy: A bridge to nowhere.'' And pulled out on the big line is: Joe Biden ``will be chiefly remembered . . . as a man who didn't know when to leave''--``a man who didn't know when to leave.'' Joe Biden's shelf life has expired. It is time for him to go.

In our first days in office, Republicans have started to get America back on track. Working with President Trump, we will put our focus on what the American people care about: stopping the chaos at the border, taking the handcuffs off of American energy production, and putting the safety and the security and the future of all Americans first.

I yield the floor.

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

Madam President, I rise today to talk about the threats to America's security and our Republican effort to fight back.

On New Year's Day, 14 Americans were killed in a heartbreaking, deadly act of terrorism. Dozens of our fellow Americans were seriously injured as well in the carnage. These are people who were just celebrating the new year.

Their attacker was a terrorist. He flew an ISIS flag. It was off the back of his truck. As a result of the terrorist attack, he destroyed families, destabilized a community, and broke the hearts of so many, many Americans.

The shock of this attack is matched only by the urgency of the message that it sends to our country. The message is this: It is time to restore America's security and America's strength. Lives depend upon it.

To keep America safe, we need to refocus our government on the priorities that matter to the people of this Nation. We have seen this in realtime in terms of the danger of the distorted priorities of the last administration. Their priorities were a wide open border, a woke Pentagon leader, a weaponized and distracted FBI, a feckless foreign policy, and, of course, a weak President.

The current President's absence of leadership has made America and the world less safe. In 4 short years, our enemies have been emboldened; they have grown stronger; they are more aggressive; and they are more dangerous.

America once worked to deny terrorists a safe haven. Now the terrorist strongholds are back. Today, terrorists control Afghanistan. They control parts of Syria. They attack American troops from bases in Yemen. And this is only part of it.

Today, we face a serious security situation right here inside the United States. The New Orleans terrorist appears to have been radicalized while here in America. Over the past 4 years, over 300 individuals on the Terror

Watchlist--our own Nation's Terror Watchlist--have crossed into our country boldly and illegally. Those 300, they are just the ones that we know about.

We also know that Iran--the world's No. 1 state sponsor of terrorism--is actively funding anti-Jewish protests on our college campuses. President Biden did nothing. Instead of showing strength, he kept our borders open and continued to ignore Iran's aggression.

Weakness in the White House put us here. Returning to strength will help lead us out. In 13 days, our weak and wavering President will be replaced by a President who is respected for strength and for boldness.

We have seen failure up close. Americans will now get a very good look at what strong leadership looks like once again.

President Trump and Senate Republicans will act for Americans' safety. The Senate is going to work to confirm President Trump's strong nominees through a fair and speedy process. It is important for the President to have his national security team in place as quickly as possible. Especially right now, personnel is policy, and President Trump's team is ready to act.

The President's nominees are not a return to business as usual. No, not at all. They are motivated. They are skilled. They are committed to the safety and security of every American. Our national security depends on confirming them. The New Orleans attack proves it.

To my colleagues, I would remind each and every one of them that the Senate's power of advice and consent is no excuse to delay and deny or to try to search and destroy.

Last month, a sleeping woman in New York City was set on fire in the subway. She died. Her killer was an illegal immigrant. He was deported under President Trump and snuck back into this country under President Biden. Since 2023, he has lived--this illegal immigrant criminal murderer--in taxpayer-funded shelters here in this country. That is what we have seen the last 4 years.

The current President's actions invited and allowed 10 million people to cross into our country illegally. Our cities are overrun and overwhelmed.

It was weak border policies that got us here, put us in this position, and it is strong border policies that are going to get us back to safety. That means funding a border wall, deporting illegal immigrant criminals, and restoring successful policies such as ``Remain in Mexico.''

Our goal is to empower President Trump to enforce the law.

Republicans are also going to work to restore deterrence through strength and then what we have seen as the politicization of our military. Without a military focused on lethality, we can't be strong.

If these actions are taken, peace and safety, security and strength are not just possible, they will be coming very soon.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Madam President, as if in legislative session, and notwithstanding rule XXII, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources be discharged from further consideration of H.R. 6395, and the Senate proceed to the en bloc consideration of the following bills: Calendar No. 596, which is S. 3195, and H.R. 6395.

Madam President, I now ask unanimous consent that the committee-reported substitute amendment, where applicable, be agreed to; that the bills, as amended, if amended, be considered read a third time and passed; and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, all en bloc.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Madam President, I would just like to say a few words, if I may, about the Senate passing S. 1553. In Wyoming, we refer to it as the RANCH Act, and that stands for Resiliency for Ranching and Natural Conservation Health.

This is an important piece of legislation for my home State of Wyoming and for all Western States. Livestock grazing plays a critical role in my State of Wyoming and in a lot of the Rocky Mountain West. It is important to maintain rangeland health, and this is what this bill does. This also supports ranchers' livelihoods.

Natural disasters and emergencies occur. They can have a huge impact on so many of our rural communities. In fact, this past summer, we had significant wildfires, and this is just one example of how bad it can get and how quickly.

So when ranchers face the loss of the use of their normal public land allotments for grazing, they do need access to emergency pastures in a timely manner for their animals to continue to graze. So the RANCH Act allows for temporary use of vacant grazing allotments during extreme events and disasters, which, regrettably, happen more frequently than we would like.

This bill promotes resilient and healthy rangelands. It also supports effective grazing management for the West. The RANCH Act is going to provide land management agencies the authorities that they need to help ranchers and rural communities facing emergency situations. I am so pleased it has passed the Senate today by unanimous consent.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, as if in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the en bloc consideration of the following bills: Calendar No. 422, which is S. 1348, and Calendar No. 501, which is S. 1890.

I ask unanimous consent that the committee-reported substitute amendments be considered and agreed to and that the bills, as amended, be considered read a third time en bloc.

The committee-reported amendments in the nature of a substitute were agreed to en bloc.

The bills were ordered to be engrossed for a third reading and were read the third time.

I know of no further debate on the bills, en bloc.

I ask unanimous consent that the committee-reported title amendment to S. 1890 be considered and agreed to; that the title of S. 1890, as amended, be agreed to; and that the motions to reconsider with respect to S. 1348 and S. 1890 be considered made and laid upon the table, all en bloc.

Mr. President, I want to rise just to spend a couple of moments discussing a bill that we just passed. It is the Wyoming Public Lands Initiative. The Senate passed this by unanimous consent.

This legislation is very important to my home State of Wyoming-- something we have been working on for years. The bill would resolve the management status for thousands of acres of Federal public lands across 7 counties of the 23 counties in my home State of Wyoming.

These acres involve what are known as wilderness study areas. These are lands managed solely for preservation, even though they are not included in the National Wilderness Preservation System. The Bureau of Land Management studies these areas. They study them to determine whether they should be designated as wilderness lands or if these lands should be returned to multiple-use status.

Until Congress acts, the Bureau treats all of the land as if it is wilderness. In other words, these lands currently under study are closed off to almost every use. For the people of Wyoming who rely on access to the land to make a living and for recreation, this just doesn't work.

In 1991--now, here we are in 2024, but in 1991, the Bureau of Land Management released a report recommending a balanced approach for these Wyoming wilderness study areas. Specifically, the Bureau of Land Management recommended that Congress designate some of the lands as wilderness and release the majority of the lands back to multiple use.

Well, here we are over three decades later, and the lands still remain in limbo. That is why some of our counties began to work with me on the Wyoming Public Lands Initiative. I want to thank these Wyoming county commissioners for their collaboration going back 9 years, back to 2015.

The bill, which I am proud to sponsor on their behalf, generally follows the recommendations of the 1991 report. It strikes a balance between protecting these special places the people in Wyoming love while expanding the multiple-use areas that our State and local economies rely upon.

The bill was developed by the people who live near the land and who will be accessing the land when this bill is enacted. It has been developed really from the ground up by the people who know the land the best.

This legislation resolves a decades-old stalemate. The bill is going to increase conservation. It is going to ensure that other lands can be unlocked and for uses that are important to the people of Wyoming and to our economy. I firmly believe the people of Wyoming, not Washington, should decide how to manage these lands.

So I want to thank my friend and colleague Senator Wyden from the State of Oregon. We worked closely together. We serve on several committees together. We live near each other where we stay when we are in Washington instead of when he is home in Oregon and I am home in Wyoming. I look forward to continuing to work with him to get these bills passed into law and through the House in the near future.

As I see my friend and colleague from Oregon on the floor tonight, I just want to thank him for his years of cooperation and working together as we have on the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources and thank him for all of his consideration in allowing us to get this bill passed tonight.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, first, I want to express my gratitude to Senator Cruz for his very gracious effort today on the floor of the Senate.

You talk about a champion, a mature, experienced, reliable, and responsible voice in this body--that is Senator Cruz from Texas. What he just did today in deciding to not object to a piece of legislation that we worked on for so long was the right thing to do, and we credit him for that.

We also stand here saying that we want to do everything we can to ensure that his major piece of legislation is one that does get passed--out of Senate previously--out of the House, the TAKE IT DOWN legislation, and take it down to the White House, where it gets signed into law. It will be such a benefit to so many Americans.

We stand united in this Senate behind Senator Cruz, who will soon be the chairman of the Commerce Committee, to thank him for his efforts and his help and his assistance on this bill today in this body.

I also rise to congratulate my friend and colleague Senator Manchin, who will be leaving this body, on the success here today.

If the Senator from West Virginia would like to head over to thank and shake hands and walk in front of me to congratulate and thank the Senator from Texas--

I want to congratulate him on the success in the passage of the EXPLORE Act. This is great news for every State, all 50 States. It is certainly most important and very important to my home State of Wyoming.

As is often the case in this body but not often seen by the press and by the public, this bill is bipartisan. It is a first-of-its-kind recreation package, and it will boost our Nation's outdoor economy.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, outdoor recreation added over $1 trillion to our national economy in 2023--$1.2 trillion. That is 2.3 percent of our entire gross domestic product, our Nation's gross domestic product. This is a big deal.

In my home State of Wyoming, outdoor recreation contributed over $2.2 billion to our State's economy. That is 4.1 percent of our State's gross domestic product. We have a strong outdoor legacy in Wyoming. We work hard to support the local communities. We try to do that by developing an outdoor recreation economy. We do it all across the State.

The EXPLORE Act that we have just passed here in the Senate-- previously passed the House and will soon be on the way to the White House--is going to help Wyoming and help the rest of the Nation increase access to the great outdoors.

This legislation does several things. It streamlines and simplifies the permitting process for outdoor guides and outfitters.

Chairman Manchin and I began working on this legislation the last Congress. It is the result of years of work, bipartisan work. Senators east and west, north and south are committed to this legislation. It includes bills from many Members on the House floor as well as the Senate floor.

For example, this bill includes the Federal Interior Land Media Act. It is called the FILM Act. The FILM Act modernizes film and photography permitting on public lands. Now, you think that wouldn't be an issue, but it is. What we have seen is, currently, anyone who uploads a video at our national parks of the adventures they may have had as tourists-- they put it up on a social media platform--and I know, Mr. President, your social media platform is heavily subscribed. People turn to it regularly. Well, they also do that at the national parks, put things on social media posts. Well, you know, in national parks right now, you have to obtain a permit and pay a fee. You wouldn't think that would be the case.

The Park Service hasn't enforced that requirement consistently, but it has been fining people whose videos become very popular. So you would find yourself in that position, Mr. President, had you gone to the national parks and posted something, knowing how popular your videos have become.

There are examples of families who have been fined by the Park Service for posting their vacation videos on YouTube. That is not right. So this bill updates the law by requiring Agencies to focus on actual impacts to park resources. That is not visitors' videos.

The FILM Act is a win for the First Amendment and for commonsense management of our public lands.

This piece of legislation--there are lots and lots of very good component parts of this. It also includes something called the Connect Our Parks Act. That bill ensures visitors to our national parks have access to cellphone service--realizing how vital that is to save someone's life if they find themselves lost, stranded, or they can't find their way back. It directs the National Park Service to assess where broadband and cellular service is lacking in each park. The Park Service will then develop a plan on how to improve these services over time. This has been long overdue.

The legislation also includes something called the CAPE Act. The CAPE Act is a conservation victory for, specifically, Grand Teton National Park's native bighorn sheep. Of course, Grand Teton National Park is in my home State of Wyoming. These iconic animals are threatened by nonnative mountain goats. Through coordinated efforts with the U.S. Park Service, volunteers play a major role in helping to conserve the bighorn sheep by culling the nonnative goats.

Current law gives discretion to the Park Service to donate the meat obtained during these wildlife management activities. Unfortunately, the rest of the animal goes to waste. The CAPE Act would allow the Park Service to donate the hides and the horns to the volunteers who help protect our native bighorn sheep.

Finally, let me conclude by reminding all those viewing today that Americans love to recreate outdoors. Whether it is hunting or fishing, hiking or skiing, we need to support these and many other activities by modernizing the very way that the government manages them.

The EXPLORE Act does this, and I am glad the Senate has passed it. I am grateful for the cosponsorship and the hard work and the work together I have done with Senator Manchin, and I am so very grateful that Senator Cruz would come to the floor and, in such a gracious way, help us with the passage of this important piece of legislation on the Senate floor today.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, reserving the right to object, this bill does two things my friend and colleague from Nevada mentioned. It would eliminate multiple-use management from hundreds of thousands of acres of Federal land. It would also grant authority to the Secretary of the Interior to convey thousands of acres of Federal land to local governments in Nevada. Other Western States are trying to do this exact same thing.

Former Majority Leader Harry Reid cut special deals in the past like this for Nevada. I am happy to work with my friend and colleague from Nevada, but Congress should not enact another special deal for Nevada when other Western States are seeking similar legislation.

Therefore, I object.

Madam President, reserving the right to object. This bill is not the right response to address the permitting challenges at the Department of the Interior. The bill would create a duplicative database, and the database would lack privacy protections for sensitive business information. I am committed to addressing permitting challenges. This bill is not the right answer, and, therefore, I object.