Floor Statements

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Foreign Relations be discharged from further consideration and the Senate now proceed to S. Res. 267.

I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions 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 10 a.m. on Thursday, July 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 proceed to executive session and resume consideration of Calendar No. 131, Matthew Lohmeier, postcloture; further, that notwithstanding rule XXII, the Senate vote on confirmation of the Lohmeier nomination at 11:30 a.m.; and if cloture is then invoked on Executive Calendar No. 87, Richard Topping, all postcloture time be expired at 1:45 p.m. and the Senate vote on confirmation; finally, if cloture is invoked on the Bove nomination, all postcloture time be expired and the Senate vote on confirmation at a time to be determined by the majority leader in consultation with the Democratic leader no earlier than Monday, July 28.

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, on Friday, President Trump signed the first major digital assets bill in American history into law. The GENIUS Act opens the door for digital assets to come into the mainstream, and it sets us up for sustained American leadership and financial innovation. Thanks to the work of Senators Lummis and Hagerty and Chairman Tim Scott, the GENIUS Act will help, as President Trump said, make America the crypto capital of the world.

The GENIUS Act creates a first of its kind regulatory framework for stablecoins, an important part of the digital asset ecosystem. Now, $250 billion in stablecoins is in circulation today, up 22 percent just this year. On an average day, around $100 billion in transactions is executed using

stablecoins, and the vast majority of those stablecoins are backed by the U.S. dollar.

Stablecoins have an important role to play in payments. While digital asset advocates generally believe in holding Bitcoin because of its price fluctuations and growth in value over the last several years, stablecoins offer both the speed and security of the blockchain and the stability and usability of a dollar bill.

And since most stablecoins are backed by the dollar, this represents an opportunity to strengthen the dollar and, by extension, the economy.

When it comes to digital assets, in many ways, the future is already here. The question is whether we welcome that future. The GENIUS Act offers an emphatic ``yes'' to that question.

After years of stablecoins operating in a legal gray zone, the GENIUS Act finally lays out a clear regulatory framework. That includes consumer protections so Americans can trust who they are doing business with when they purchase stablecoins. The bill's light touch and tailored standards will provide consumers with confidence, while promoting continued innovation right here in the United States. And its enforcement provisions offer clarity to stablecoin issuers and ensure accountability for violations.

The GENIUS Act also protects against bad actors using stablecoins for malicious purposes. It holds stablecoin issuers to the same standard as other financial institutions, subject to the Bank Secrecy Act. That means issuers will need to monitor and report suspicious activity, comply with U.S. sanctions, and block transactions that violate State and Federal law.

What is at stake here became clear last week when the Wall Street Journal reported that China seems to be concerned about stablecoin solidifying dollar dominance in the global financial system, spurred in no small part by the GENIUS Act. It is clear that the GENIUS Act is already helping our country secure American leadership in this important space. We want stablecoins to be made in America. We want digital assets to take root and to flourish in our country. We want America to lead in financial innovation, and the GENIUS Act will help us get there.

It won't be the last word on digital assets, though. There is still much more work to be done in this space, including on market structure. Senators Lummis, Hagerty, and Scott are once again leading on this issue, releasing the Senate's market structure framework today, and I thank them for their important work.

And I want to say that the next steps on digital assets should look to the GENIUS Act as a model, both for its light touch and pro- innovation approach and for the bipartisanship that characterized the process.

Digital assets are the future, and we are going to continue working to make sure that that future is American made.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Mr. President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 292.

Vote on Motion

I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, I send a cloture motion to the desk.

Mr. President, I ask that the Senate execute the order of July 21 in relation to Calendar No. 121, H.R. 3944, and that the mandatory quorum be waived; further, that following the cloture vote, the Senate execute the order of July 17 in relation to the Lukas and Hansell nominations.

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

Mr. President, yesterday marked 6 months since President Trump took office, and today is the 200th day of the Republican majority here in the U.S. Senate.

In that time, the Trump administration and Senate Republicans have been hard at work executing the mandate we received from the American people last November. We already have a number of accomplishments on the list.

We got started by sending the Laken Riley Act to President Trump's desk during his first week in office to keep criminal illegal immigrants off our streets.

President Trump signed the HALT Fentanyl Act last Wednesday, which permanently classifies fentanyl analogs as the deadly drugs they are.

On Friday, he signed the GENIUS Act, the landmark bill to bring digital

assets into the mainstream and secure U.S. leadership in financial innovation.

And the first rescissions package in three decades is headed to the President for signature.

We have passed measures to end 16 burdensome Biden-era regulations. We passed the TAKE IT DOWN Act to combat nonconsensual explicit images being shared online.

And, of course, 2 weeks ago on the Fourth of July, the President signed into law the Big Beautiful Bill to deliver permanent tax relief to the American people to make our country safer, stronger, and more prosperous.

We have additional bills coming down the pike. The Armed Services Committee under Chairman Wicker recently reported the National Defense Authorization Act of fiscal year 2026, and the Appropriations Committee under Chair Collins has reported out four bipartisan bills, which we will begin considering this week.

I said last year that I was committed to bringing appropriations bills to the floor through regular order, and we are in the process of doing exactly that.

Of course, any regular order consideration of appropriations bills is going to require cooperation from Democrats. This week, we will get a glimpse of where Democrats are on this issue.

It was deeply disappointing the Democrat leader threatened to shut down the government if Republicans dared to pass legislation to trim just one-tenth of 1 percent of the Federal budget, but I am hopeful that is not the position of the Democratic Party.

Time will tell.

The Senate also has important work to do to confirm the President's nominees. We started out this year by confirming 21 of the President's Cabinet nominees at the fastest pace in more than two decades, and we have kept up our focus on getting President Trump's team into place.

We have now confirmed 96 civilian nominees, far outpacing where the Senate was at this point in the first Trump administration. And the only reason, frankly, that we are not moving faster is because of Democrats' historic--that is right historic--level of obstruction.

Democrats have been forcing cloture votes for every civilian nominee. Something that is without precedent. President Trump is the first President on record not to have a single civilian nominee go by unanimous consent or voice vote at this point in his Presidency. The first President on record. Think about that.

And Democrats are using this strategy even on noncontroversial nominees. Almost a quarter of the nominees whose confirmation process Democrats have dragged out actually got more than 60 votes here on the Senate floor.

The American people gave President Trump a mandate, and he deserves to have his team in place to execute that mandate for the American people. Democrats can continue to drag this process out, but Republicans are going to get these nominees confirmed.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Mr. President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 259.

Mr. President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 87.

Mr. President, I send a cloture motion to the desk.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to resume Calendar No. 171.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.