Floor Statements

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the filing deadline with respect to second degree amendments to Calendar No. 1, S. 5, be at 9:45 a.m. on Friday, January 17.

I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned until 9:30 a.m. on Friday, January 17; 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 resume consideration of Calendar No. 1, S. 5; further, that at 10 a.m. the Senate vote on the motion to invoke cloture on Calendar No. 1, S. 5.

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, it is more than 1,000 miles from El Paso, TX, to Athens, GA, yet a man who crossed the border illegally near El Paso was able to wreak havoc in Athens.

Last February, an illegal immigrant murdered nursing student Laken Riley while she was out for a morning run on the Athens campus of the University of Georgia. This was a tragedy, and it was preventable. The man who killed Laken Riley should not have been in the United States in the first place. He definitely shouldn't have been on the streets after previously being involved in two crimes, but he was. It is, unfortunately, just one example of how the Biden border crisis has made every State a border State.

Like many illegal immigrants whom law enforcement encounters at the border, Laken's killer was released on parole into the interior of the United States. He made his way to New York City, where he was arrested and released before a detainer could be issued and he could be turned over to immigration authorities. Then he went to Athens, GA. He was cited in Georgia for shoplifting. Once again, he was released, and now we know what happened next.

Laken's killer is now serving a life sentence for murder, and while her family can perhaps take at least some comfort in the fact that justice has been served, Laken Riley should be alive today.

The truth is that what happened to Laken Riley could have happened anywhere. That is why the Senate is currently considering Senator Britt's Laken Riley Act. This bill would help reduce the chances of another tragedy like this one by requiring that illegal immigrants be detained when they are charged with theft-related crimes like the one for which Laken's killer was cited less than 5 months before he killed her. If this bill had been law then, Laken Riley might well be alive today.

I hope to see this bill become law, and I hope that my Democrat colleagues are as committed to making it law as we are on this side of the aisle. This is not a comprehensive bill, but it is an important step toward keeping Americans safe, and it should be an easy ``yes'' vote for every Senator. We have had strong bipartisan votes for this bill in recent days, and I hope that will continue.

We are going to have an amendment process here on the floor, the type of amendment process that has been lacking in recent years. We will push for votes on amendments that make this bill even stronger.

One of the amendments that would do that is Senator Ernst's amendment known as Sarah's Law. Like Laken Riley, Sarah Root was killed by an illegal immigrant. Soon after graduating from college in 2016, Sarah was killed by a drunk driver who was in the country illegally. The driver was arrested, but he posted bond and fled shortly after the crash that took Sarah Root's life. The Root family didn't get justice. So Senator Ernst's amendment would require ICE to detain illegal immigrants accused of a crime that resulted in death or serious bodily injury.

Every Member of the Senate should be able to agree that illegal immigrants who commit a crime that kills or seriously injures another person should, at the very least, be detained.

In the coming days, the Senate will have a serious debate about this and other amendments and about the Laken Riley Act. That is the Senate's role. We will have a debate, and we will aim to produce the strongest bill that we can pass into law. That is our goal, and I hope our Democrat colleagues are as interested in making a law as we are.

Mr. President, time will tell.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Madam President, filing cloture does not signal an end to our amendment process. We have been having constructive conversations all day. Those yielded the votes this evening, and I expect those conversations to continue tonight and into tomorrow so we can vote on more amendments this week. But at some point, we need to pass this commonsense legislation and get it to the House so that they can ratify what we have done.

Cloture Motion

Madam President, I send a cloture motion to the desk for Calendar No. 1, S. 5.

Madam President, I ask consent that the mandatory quorum call be waived.

Madam 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.

Madam President, I understand that there is a bill at the desk, and I ask for its first reading.

Madam President, I now ask for a second reading, and in order to place the bill on the calendar under the provisions of rule XIV, I object to my own request.

Madam President, this one causes me great pain, but I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 27, which is at the desk.

Go Jacks.

I ask unanimous consent, Madam President, 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.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned until 12 noon on Thursday, January 16; 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 resume consideration of Calendar No. 1, S. 5.

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, 2 months after Americans soundly rejected his Presidency and its policies, President Biden is doubling down. Last week, he unveiled a new front in his war on American energy: a sweeping ban on new offshore oil and gas development covering the entire east coast and large portions of the west coast, the eastern Gulf of Mexico, and parts of the Northern Bering Sea in Alaska. All told--all told--he is closing off more than 625 million acres to new oil and gas development, on top of the bans that were already in place.

The President's decision last week was particularly notable for its size and for the clear snub to American voters. But this is just the latest in a long series of actions by the President hostile to conventional energy development: a pause on approvals of liquefied natural gas exports; a sharp decline in leases issued for oil and natural gas on public lands and waters; restrictions on drilling in large areas of the Natural Petroleum Reserve in Alaska; the cancellation of leases in the Arctic; the administration's so-called good neighbor rule, designed to effectively force fossil-fuel-powered powerplants to close. And the list goes on. In short, President Biden has done everything he can to set us up for a future of diminished conventional energy production.

That is a problem because we are nowhere near being able to rely primarily on alternative energy. And if we don't have sufficient conventional energy, we are going to find ourselves in serious difficulties.

For starters, insufficient conventional energy production could mean big increases in energy bills for American families. A lack of domestic supply--or the need to rely on expensive energy imports--would be likely to make things like gas and electricity far more expensive. Needless to say, that is the last thing that Americans are looking for after the steep increases in gas and electricity bills under the Biden administration.

And apart from price, there is the even more concerning prospect of major supply shortages. I am fairly sure Americans don't want to wait in long lines for gas--or face rationing--or wondering whether the lights are actually going to turn on when they hit the light switch.

Then there are the national security implications. If we are not producing enough conventional energy here at

home, we are going to have to make up the supply from abroad, most likely from hostile nations or volatile areas of the world. As European countries learned the hard way after Russia invaded Ukraine, relying on hostile nations for your energy supply is not a winning proposition.

Plus, foreign production can be far less environmentally friendly than producing oil and gas here at home.

One of the best things that we can do for our national security is to ensure that we have a stable, reliable, and affordable domestic energy supply.

Fortunately, the Biden administration is being supplanted by the Trump administration, and I know that President Trump is committed to reversing President Biden's anti-conventional energy policies and unleashing American energy production.

Hopefully, it will be possible to undo much of the damage that President Biden has done and set us up for a secure energy future. But it is worth reflecting on what might have been--and could be again--if we don't have a Congress and a President committed to conventional, as well as renewable, energy development.

I hope that future administrations--Democrat, as well as Republican-- will make American energy security a priority.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Madam President, as if in executive session, I ask unanimous consent that the injunction of secrecy be removed from the following treaty transmitted to the Senate on January 14, 2025, by the President of the United States: Treaty with the United Arab Emirates on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters (Treaty Document No. 119- 1); I further ask that the treaty be considered as having been read the first time; that it be referred, with accompanying papers, to the Committee on Foreign Relations and ordered to be printed; and that the President's message be printed in the Record.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 26, which is at the desk.

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

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:

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned until 12 noon on Wednesday, January 15; 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 resume consideration of Calendar No. 1, S. 5.