Floor Statements

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, I want to offer my warmest congratulations to President Trump and Vice President Vance.

There is a sense of optimism today in Washington as we turn the page on the past 4 years, and I am looking forward to working with President Trump and Vice President Vance in the coming months and years to build a bright new future for our country.

Our priority here in the Senate for the next few weeks is getting President Trump's nominees confirmed so that he has the team that he needs in place to deliver. We have already been hard at work on that.

Last week, Senate committees held hearings on 12 nominees. On Wednesday, we held hearings on a total of six Cabinet nominees--the most Cabinet confirmation hearings in a single day since 2001. I am hoping to begin floor votes imminently.

I am excited to vote to confirm a longtime colleague, Senator Marco Rubio, as Secretary of State this week as well as former Congressman and Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe as head of the CIA. Both of these men will bring a renewed focus to restoring American strength, knowing that the surest guarantee of peace here at home and in other regions of the globe as well is a strong and prepared America. More confirmation votes will follow, and I will work to have the President's Cabinet in place in the very near future. President Trump and Republicans have been given a mandate by the American people, and the President needs to have his team in place so that we lose no time in delivering.

Along with approving President Trump's nominees, Republicans are hard at work on our legislative priorities. Among other things, we are focused on extending tax relief for American families, lifting burdensome Biden administration regulations, building up our military, and securing our border.

The Senate took an initial step on border security this past week with consideration of the Laken Riley Act, which hopefully will pass the Senate today. This legislation will ensure that illegal aliens who steal or assault a law enforcement officer are detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement instead of being allowed out on the streets. I am looking forward to getting this legislation to the President's desk.

When I was elected majority leader, I talked about my commitment to empowering Members and restoring the Senate as a place of discussion and deliberation. I think we achieved that this past week. We have had an extended debate on the Laken Riley Act, with multiple amendment votes already and one more scheduled for this evening, and we passed Senator Cornyn's amendment with a strong bipartisan margin.

I am grateful to Senator Katie Britt, author of the Laken Riley Act and manager of the bill, for all her work and to Senator Budd for his leadership on these issues, and I am grateful also to Senators Cornyn and Ernst for their amendments to further strengthen this legislation.

Israel

Mr. President, before I close, I want to mention the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, agreed to at the end of last week. This agreement is due in no small part to the unequivocal message President- elect Trump delivered to Hamas and the world after his election and, above all, to Israel's unwavering commitment to crippling the terrorist organization that has dedicated itself to wiping Israel off the map.

Thirty-three hostages--women and children, the injured, and those over 50 years old--will be released during the first phase of the cease-fire, including the three hostages who were released yesterday. The rest of the hostages are scheduled to be released over the next two phases of the cease-fire, and the families and loved ones will continue to wait in agony until they are safely home.

It is intolerable that these innocent individuals have been in the hands of terrorists for more than 15 months, and I want to underscore the absolute imperative of the return of all hostages as soon as possible. Hamas should be on notice that the United States is watching and that we will not tolerate further delays or further aggression.

I want to again offer my warmest congratulations to President Trump and to Vice President Vance. I look forward to all that we can achieve together, and I pray that God will bless their new administration.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the next vote be a 10-minute vote.

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 up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. President, I have four 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:

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the letters from Senator Rubio regarding his resignation from the Senate be printed in the Record.

The letters follow:

Mr. President, I move to proceed to Calendar No. 4, S. 6.

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

And I ask consent that the mandatory quorum call be waived.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned until 11 a.m. on Tuesday, January 21; 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 morning business be closed; further, upon the conclusion of morning business, the Senate resume consideration of the motion to proceed to Calendar No. 4, S. 6; finally, that the Senate recess from 12:30 to 2:15 p.m. to allow for weekly conference meetings.

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

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

Mr. President, the first bill that a new majority considers is an indication of its priorities. The American people are rightly concerned about the illegal immigration crisis in this country, and they sent a clear message in November that they want to see it addressed. That is why the Republican majorities in the House and the Senate have made it our first order of business to take up the Laken Riley Act. This bill is a small but critical step for resolving the Biden border crisis--the first of many, I might add.

The Laken Riley Act is not a complicated bill. It says that an illegal immigrant involved in a theft-related crime must be detained. That means, if someone who is in the country illegally--in other words, who has already broken our laws--commits a robbery, he or she will be detained.

If this bill had already been law, the illegal immigrant who killed Laken Riley would not have been on the streets the day that he murdered her. When he was cited for shoplifting, less than 5 months before that day, he would have been detained, and Laken Riley might still be alive today. That is what we are trying to do here: prevent another tragedy.

Unfortunately, it seems that even a simple and straightforward bill to detain criminal illegal immigrants is too much for some on the left. Some of our Democratic colleagues have spent the week searching for a reason--any reason--to justify voting against this bill.

For starters, we have heard that this bill would cover too many illegal immigrants. The admission that there are too many individuals on our streets who have committed a crime after coming into the country illegally is an argument for this bill, not against it.

We have also heard that Immigration and Customs Enforcement lacks the detention capacity for the number of individuals that this bill will require to be detained. Well, if resources are scarce, the answer is to provide those resources. The answer is not to let criminals continue to walk our streets.

Republicans believe that keeping criminal illegal aliens off our street is a good investment, and we are currently working on a bill that will provide ICE with additional agents and additional capacity.

We have also been told that this bill will overwhelm ICE, such that there won't be enough space to detain violent criminals. Once again, this is not an argument against the bill. It is an argument for giving ICE more resources and for quickly deporting criminals.

These arguments say a lot more about Democrats' unwillingness to crack down on illegal immigration than they say about this bill.

Look at the vote that we took on Wednesday. We adopted Senator Cornyn's amendment to require illegal immigrants who assault a police officer to be detained. Staggeringly, under current law, this is not the case. But 2 days ago, 25 of our Democratic colleagues could not even bring themselves to support detaining an illegal immigrant who assaults a police officer. That is right. More than half of the Democrats in the U.S. Senate apparently don't believe we should have to detain these individuals.

I think that is out of step with the American people. For sure, it is out of step with the American people.

The American people want to see an end to open borders and the chaos they have brought to communities around the country--communities like Athens, GA, where Laken Riley was murdered last February.

Laken Riley's death was a tragedy, and it was preventable. The bill we are considering today may prevent a similar tragedy from affecting another family.

Laken's loved ones have had to suffer the heartbreak of losing their daughter, their sister, their friend--a bright light in their lives. But her mother and stepfather said of this bill:

There is no greater gift that could be given to her and our

country than to continue her legacy by saving lives through

this bill.

Saving lives, that is what this is about.

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 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.

Mr. President, I have one request for a committee to meet during today's session of the Senate. It has the approval of the Majority and Minority Leaders.

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned until 4:30 p.m. on Monday, January 20; 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 morning business be closed; further, that upon the conclusion of morning business, the Senate resume consideration of Calendar No. 1, S. 5, postcloture; finally, that all postcloture time expire at 5:30 p.m.

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 understand that there is a bill at the desk that is due for a second reading.

In order to place the bill on the calendar under the provisions of rule XIV, I would object to further proceeding.

Mr. President, the Cabinet confirmation process is well underway here in the U.S. Senate. Confirmation hearings began this week with Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth in the Armed Services Committee on Tuesday. Yesterday, we had six confirmation hearings--the most confirmation hearings, I might add, in a single day since 2001-- and we have more happening today and tomorrow. By the time President Trump takes the oath of office on Monday, the Senate will have held hearings for 12 of his nominees, and there are plenty more to come.

Once the committees complete their work, the process will move to the floor, and we will move as quickly as possible on those votes. I hope Democrats will provide a level of cooperation that will allow us to quickly fill these positions so these nominees can begin their work for the American people.

One of the nominees being considered this week is a familiar face to us in the Senate. Yesterday, our longtime colleague Senator Rubio found himself on the other side of the dais in the Foreign Relations Committee for his hearing to be Secretary of State. Members of that committee are well acquainted with Senator Rubio's expertise in foreign policy. He has been a leading voice on these issues here in the Senate and on the Foreign Relations Committee since he arrived here in 2011, and yesterday, his expertise was on full display. Whether he was discussing China, the Middle East, Russia, our alliances, or anything else, our colleague demonstrated his command of international affairs.

Marco also clearly laid out the philosophy he will bring to the job. He spoke about peace through strength, restoring American leadership, and advancing America's interests.

Our colleague is ready to step into the leadership void that the Biden administration has too often left on the world stage. In too many instances, the Biden administration has chosen to appease our enemies rather than demonstrate strength.

As yesterday made clear, we can expect Senator Rubio to bring a moral clarity to foreign policy that has been sorely lacking in the last 4 years. That is important--moral clarity--and it has never been a challenge for Marco Rubio.

Take our relationship with China. The senior Senator from Florida has been a leading voice on the Chinese Communist Party's malign intentions and their implications for the United States. He has been clear-eyed about what the United States ought to do to outcompete China in this century, and he has been outspoken in calling attention to China's human rights abuses. He was a leading voice on China's repression of its own people in Xinjiang, and he led the charge on the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act in the U.S. Senate. And he didn't stop once it became law; he made sure the legislation was being implemented properly. He called out companies suspected of using forced labor, and he advocated for the Biden administration to do a better job of vetting imports.

All of us here in the Senate know of Marco's unwavering commitment to freedom. He has been a strong supporter of freedom fighters in Hong Kong, and he has been outspoken in his support for Taiwan as the Chinese Communist Party has grown more aggressive.

He is also a fierce defender of democracy and human rights in Latin America. His family watched their native Cuba deteriorate under a communist dictatorship, and it was conversations with his grandfather about Cuba's plight that drew Senator Rubio into public service. So it is no surprise he is one of the strongest defenders of the rights of the Cuban people.

He is also a strong voice for democracy and justice in Venezuela. Marco has been outspoken in his criticism of the Biden administration's appeasement of the Maduro regime, and he was a clear voice in defense of democracy as the country suffered through Maduro's corrupt election last year.

As we heard in his testimony yesterday, our colleague is focused on advancing America's interests. As he said, ``Every dollar we spend, every program we fund, and every policy we pursue must be justified by the answer to three simple questions: Does it make America safer? Does it make America stronger or does it make America more prosperous?'' I think that is what the American people should expect from a Secretary of State and from their government, and anybody who watched his hearing yesterday knows that is what we are going to get from Marco Rubio as Secretary of State.

I will have more to say about Marco and other nominees for the Trump administration as they move through the process here in the U.S. Senate, and I look forward to hearing from each of the President's nominees in the near future.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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.