Floor Statements

Mr. President, meanwhile, on the international front, President Trump is taking a similarly assertive approach to protecting our country and our interests.

Over the last 18 months, since Hamas's October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, Iran-backed Houthis in the Middle East have carried out literally hundreds of attacks on U.S. international shipping and on U.S. forces. Airstrikes by the Biden administration failed to stop the Houthis' activities, and international shipping has been significantly affected. Ships now routinely avoid the Red Sea and the Suez Canal in favor of going around the southern tip of Africa, a route that means longer travel times for goods. And those ships that do traverse the Red Sea face significant danger to their cargoes and, above all, to their personnel.

This is an unacceptable situation, and so President Trump is taking action. Within days of taking office, President Trump had redesignated the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization--after the Biden administration took them off the list--and 10 days ago, President Trump ordered extensive airstrikes against Houthi targets. Even more importantly, he has made it very clear to the Houthis that those strikes will continue, unless and until the Houthis cease their attacks on U.S. forces and commercial shipping in the Red Sea.

And because the Houthis do not act alone but with the support of Iran, President Trump is also making it clear to Iran that it needs to stop aiding and abetting Houthi terror. So much of the violence and unrest in the Middle East is carried out by groups funded, armed, and sometimes trained by Iran, and any response to this violence must recognize Iran's role, as well as that of its proxies, like the Houthis.

I am grateful for the long-overdue action that President Trump is taking, both here at home, on our border, and against Houthi terrorists abroad. It is this kind of decisive action that will encourage our enemies to think twice before menacing our Nation or threatening our interests.

Mr. President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 43.

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

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to waive the mandatory quorum call with respect to the Bhattacharya nomination.

Madam 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 have eight requests for committees to meet during today's session of the Senate. They have the approval of the Majority and Minority Leaders.

Pursuant to rule XXVI, paragraph 5(a), of the Standing Rules of the Senate, the following committees are authorized to meet during today's session of the Senate:

committee on armed services

The Committee on Armed Services is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, March 25, 2025, at 9:30 a.m., to conduct a closed briefing.

committee on finance

The Committee on Finance is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, March 25, 2025, at 9:30 a.m., to consider a nomination.

committee on finance

The Committee on Finance is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, March 25, 2025, at 10:10 a.m., to consider a nomination.

committee on foreign relations

The Committee on Foreign Relations is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, March 25, 2025, at 10 a.m., to conduct a hearing on nominations.

committee on the judciary

The Committee on the Judiciary is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, March 25, 2025, at 2 p.m., to conduct a hearing.

select committee on intelligence

The Select Committee on Intelligence is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, March 25, 2025, at 10 a.m., to conduct an open hearing followed by a closed hearing.

subcommittee on cybersecurity

The Subcommittee on Cybersecurity of the Committee on Armed Services is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, March 25, 2025, at 2:30 p.m., to receive testimony in closed and open session.

subcommittee on seapower

The Subcommittee on Seapower of the Committee on Armed Services is

authorized to meet in open session during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, March 25, 2025, at 2:30 p.m., to receive testimony.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. Res. 138, submitted earlier today.

Madam President, 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 with no intervening action or debate.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned until 10 a.m., Wednesday, March 26; that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, 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. 39, James Bishop, postcloture, and at 11 a.m., the Senate vote on confirmation of the Bishop nomination; finally, if any nominations are confirmed during Wednesday's session, the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table and the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action.

Madam 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, we recently completed a 10-week session. The Senate's longest in-session stretch in 15 years. It was a very busy 10 weeks filled with substantial results. We confirmed nearly the President's entire Cabinet--the fastest pace since the administration of George W. Bush.

We laid the groundwork for a transformational investment in border security and national defense. We continued to develop legislation to extend the tax relief we put in place for American families in President Trump's first term.

We passed legislation to ensure that illegal aliens arrested for various crimes are detained instead of being returned to America's streets.

We considered other bills that Democrats blocked--bills to achieve such commonsense goals as protecting Americans and our allies from illegitimate targeting by the International Criminal Court, and ensuring that athletic opportunities for women and girls are not taken away from them by biological males.

In our final week of session, we passed the HALT Fentanyl Act-- legislation to give law enforcement a critical tool to go after the people trafficking fentanyl into our country. We also passed legislation to fund the government, by a narrow margin. Ten Democrats voted to allow us to proceed to the bill and fund the government. The rest preferred to filibuster the bill and shut down the government.

It was a double dose of Democrat hypocrisy. Democrats who had campaigned to abolish the filibuster enthusiastically embraced it now that it served their purposes. And Democrats who had decried the evils of government shutdowns now embraced shutting down the government.

One Senator, for example, who just last March called shutdowns ``as devastating as they are stupid,'' voted for a shutdown 10 days ago.

Another Democrat, who last February noted that ``even a partial shutdown could disrupt supply chains, hurt small businesses, risk travel delays, and increase food prices for millions of Americans,'' that Democrat also voted to shut down the government.

Democrats are changing their positions so abruptly, it could give you whiplash. The only thing that doesn't look likely to change is Democrats' willingness to change their principles when it suits their political purposes.

A new period of session begins today, and I hope the Democrats will manage to move past the fact they weren't able to shut down the government. But whether they accept their defeat or decide to throw a tantrum about it, we are going to continue to do the job that we were elected and sent here to do. In the next three weeks, we will continue to build out the President's administration by voting on more of his nominees. With the Cabinet almost entirely confirmed, we will be turning to undersecretaries and deputy secretaries as well as ambassadors. And like the White House, this work period will be focused on rolling back burdensome government regulations--in our case, through the Congressional Review Act resolutions.

This week, we will send the President Senator Cruz's resolution to roll back the Biden administration's digital asset broker rule, which puts at risk the privacy and security of tens of millions of Americans who trade digital assets. We will also look to take up Senator Tim Scott's overdraft fee resolution overturning a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rule that threatens access to credit for individuals and small businesses.

And we will take up a number of other CR resolutions this work period. Finally, as I said, we have been hard at work on legislation to extend the tax relief we passed during President Trump's first term and to make a transformational investment in our border and national security.

And those efforts will accelerate over the next three weeks. Confirming nominations, lifting burdensome regulations, laying the ground work for tax and border security legislation, I look forward to another busy work period ahead.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I move to proceed to legislative session.

Mr. President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 51.

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

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.