Floor Statements

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent for the Senate to pass S. 1838, the DeOndra Dixon INCLUDE Project Act.

Thousands of Americans live with Down syndrome, and yet research has been underfunded for decades.

In 2017, Congress encouraged the National Institutes of Health, the NIH, to launch the INCLUDE Project--an effort to make groundbreaking discoveries about conditions that disproportionately affect people with Down syndrome, like Alzheimer's disease.

The INCLUDE Project brings together multiple NIH institutes under a coordinated approach that is already delivering significant scientific discoveries as well as new treatments.

The bipartisan, bicameral DeOndra Dixon INCLUDE Project Act will officially authorize the INCLUDE Project into law.

The bill will ensure that Congress and the American people have visibility into the scientific breakthroughs that are so needed for this community. The INCLUDE Project is already yielding significant scientific results, and Colorado is at the core of these scientific advances.

Today, Colorado is proudly home to the world's leading Down syndrome advocacy, research, and medical care partners at the Global Down Syndrome Foundation, the Linda Crnic Institute for Down Syndrome, the Alzheimer's and Cognition Center, and the Sie Center at Children's Hospital Colorado.

We need to make sure that improving health outcomes for individuals with Down syndrome remains a priority and do so in honor of DeOndra Dixon, an extraordinary person who was an advocate leaving a legacy that will help improve lives for generations.

This bill has support on both sides of the aisle, including Senators Jerry Moran and Cory Booker and Representatives Diana DeGette and Richard Hudson. We also thank Senators Bennet, Padilla, Capito, Coons, Van Hollen, and Ossoff for their support.

We are determined to get this bill across the finish line for DeOndra and for the thousands of Americans who will see their lives improve for the better by this critical research.

Mr. President, as if in legislative session and notwithstanding rule XXII, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions be discharged and the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. 1838.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Hickenlooper substitute amendment at the desk be agreed to and that the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time.

Mr. President, I know of no further debate on the bill, as amended.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. President, I also would be remiss if I didn't recognize, once again, the incredible partners that have been behind these Down syndrome advocacy, research, and medical care--primarily the Global Down Syndrome Foundation, but also the Linda Crnic Institute for Down Syndrome, the Alzheimer's and Cognition Center, and the Sie Center at Children's Hospital Colorado.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, the Senate is currently considering the nomination of Todd Blanche to serve as Attorney General of the United States. The Attorney General is one of the most important positions in the U.S. Government.

Not only does the Attorney General serve as a trusted member of the President's Cabinet, but he also leads the Department of Justice, the Agency responsible for enforcing the laws of the land and, hopefully-- traditionally--enforcing them in a nonpartisan way.

That is a difficult job in any administration, but under this President, who values personal loyalty above pretty much all else, it may well be impossible.

During his confirmation hearing, Mr. Blanche was asked about his relationship with the President. He responded, ``I'm his lawyer,'' before quickly correcting himself to say that he previously ``was'' his lawyer. Now, this wasn't a slip; this was a tell.

Mr. Blanche will not be an impartial check on the President.

And here is another tell: For months, Mr. Blanche has insisted the Department of Justice slush fund is dead. Yet, as recently as this weekend, President Trump was saying the exact opposite. He defended the fund.

So when Mr. Blanche says the slush fund is dead, the slush fund isn't moving forward, don't believe him, not for 1 second. His word is worth about as much as the Trump meme coin.

During reconciliation, we introduced an amendment to permanently-- permanently--end the DOJ slush fund. Despite bipartisan support, it ultimately was voted down. That means taxpayers could still be on the hook for paying bounties, rewards to people who attacked our democracy, attacked this Capitol.

At a time when working families are struggling with rising costs, the last people the Federal Government should seek to reward, to subsidize are those who assault our elections, people like convicted election criminal Tina Peters, who tried to undermine Colorado's free and fair elections; people like the January 6 rioters--my first full day of work in this position--the rioters who stormed this very Chamber in an attempt to tear apart our democracy.

The DOJ slush fund isn't dead; it is dormant. Until Congress permanently closes this avenue through legislation, we shouldn't rely on assurances alone. If there is even a chance that this fund could be revived, this confirmation, this moment, is when this Chamber and its Members have the greatest leverage to act. We should not surrender that leverage for promises that can be undone at the President's whim.

A DOJ letter promising to end the slush fund isn't law, it isn't binding, and it is certainly not enough.

Now, to be clear, we don't believe Mr. Blanche will break all of his promises. When he says behind closed doors that he wants the Dobbs v. Jackson decision to become, in his words, ``permanent in every state,'' we should believe him.

When someone reveals themselves to you, it is generally a good idea to believe them.

Whether it is abortion access or access to the ballot box, we should have little confidence that this new Attorney General will not target Colorado or other blue States because that is exactly what his boss wants.

We cannot allow a fox to guard the henhouse. We need an Attorney General who is loyal to the Constitution, not to President Trump. Mr. Blanche does not seem to be that person. Mr. Blanche is not that person.

I strongly, strongly oppose his confirmation and urge all of my colleagues to do the same.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, June 27 was one of the worst days in recent Colorado history. As the Knowles fire rolled along the Colorado- Utah border, the Rifle Helitack team put on their uniforms and rushed toward danger. While battling the blaze, one firefighter was badly injured and four others--Nick Hutcherson, Emily Barker, Sydney Watson, and Nathan Matthews--ultimately lost their lives.

There is bravery--and then there is wildland firefighting. The word ``hero'' gets used a lot. Nick, Emily, Sydney, and Nathan embodied that word.

They came from across the country to Colorado to form a unit united by one common mission: protecting lives, protecting property, and the landscapes we all cherish.

Their commitment to our public lands wasn't a hobby; it was their life's work. Together, they collectively spent decades fighting fires. And as dedicated as they were to their vocation, they were equally devoted to their friends and to their families, making this loss even more devastating.

Our hearts break for these firefighters and their families and all who loved them. These families deserve answers, and we need to understand what went wrong so we can prevent future tragedies.

That is why I am calling on the Department of the Interior to conduct a swift and thorough investigation into what happened, including whether the administration's recent shift to the Wildland Fire Service played any role in this event.

This isn't about playing politics or gotcha, trying to find blame. With wildfires still raging across Colorado, we can't afford to wait months and months to learn lessons that could save lives right now.

Colorado's firefighting community is close-knit. They are almost like an athletic team. The loss of one firefighter is felt by everyone. The loss of four is quite simply unimaginable. So we have to get to the bottom of what happened and do everything we can to make sure that we prevent a repeat tragedy.

As we do that, we are also mourning the loss of Nicholas Dale of British Columbia. Nicholas was a helicopter pilot who was tragically killed while battling a fire near Ouray in southwest Colorado. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family as well.

Last month, I traveled to the Snyder fire command post, and there I met with some of Nick, Emily, Sydney, and Nate's fellow firefighters and heard some of their stories. It brought me back to my time as Governor, standing with crews after a terrible tragedy. The heartbreak never gets easier; it only gets worse over time.

And Colorado's wildfires keep getting worse too. In the 1990s, Colorado averaged 13 wildfires a year. By the 2020s, that number has climbed from 13 to 70 a year. And that is why I am here today--because we have a responsibility, all of us, regardless of politics, to prevent wildfires, to protect our communities, and to help people recover from disasters.

We know we are not going to stop every wildfire, but we also know that many of the worst wildfires could have been less destructive if we had taken certain commonsense steps sooner, both from a shorter and a longer term perspective.

First, we need to treat climate change like the emergency it is, and that is a long-term horizon but an important one. On a visit outside of Leadville earlier this year, one individual told our office that the annual snowpack averaged 240 inches. That is 20 feet. The thinnest snowpack in that equal period, that last 100 years--and, again, these are data collected every March for 100 years--the smallest, thinnest snowpack was 182 inches--not 240, which was the average--but 182 inches, roughly 15 feet. Two-hundred forty inches is 20 feet.

This winter, it was about 60 inches. That is 5 feet. So the average was 20 feet, the alltime low in 100 years was 15 feet, and suddenly this year it is 5 feet.

And this isn't an isolated incident. Colorado is facing its worst drought in 1,200 years, according to sediments from the Grand Canyon. Let me say that again because it is hard to believe. Colorado is facing its worst drought in 1,200 years. That means you have to go back to the 9th century to find drought conditions this bad in Colorado.

Lake Mead and Lake Powell, two of our biggest reservoirs in the West, have now fallen to their lowest levels on record. If the water in Lake Powell falls just another 33 feet, we will hit what they call the power pool, meaning that point where there won't be enough water to generate hydroelectric power.

Not every wildfire is caused by climate change, but scientists widely agree that climate change is making the problem far worse. Heat, drought, a moisture-starved atmosphere all increase wildfire risk, and each of these factors can be connected back to climate change.

Since joining the Senate, tackling wildfires and drought has been among my top priorities. That is why we passed the Inflation Reduction Act, which included the largest climate investment in American history. We won $4 billion for the Colorado River Basin and $8 billion for western water infrastructure.

We have brought Senators from seven States together to form the Colorado River Caucus, a bipartisan caucus, to build consensus on how to use our shared resources, and we have introduced legislation that would help manage our forests better as well.

Overgrown woodlands are tinderboxes that let wildfires spread faster and farther, but too often government bureaucracy blocks the projects that we most need in order to reduce that risk before disaster strikes.

Together with Senators Alex Padilla, John Curtis, and Tim Sheehy, we introduced the bipartisan Fix Our Forests Act. The idea is simple: streamline forest management and speed up new technologies for wildfire prevention, detection, and response.

Our bill has passed through committee, and it is waiting for a full vote on the Senate floor. It shouldn't take another tragedy for the Senate to act. We need to pass Fix Our Forests now.

Solving our drought and our wildfire challenges requires cooperation across every level of government, but recently, that cooperation has been strained. Last year, the Trump administration froze over $150 million in already-obligated funding for 17 Colorado water and drought resiliency projects. At a time of unprecedented drought, that is quite simply unconscionable.

We refused to accept it, and we pushed the administration to release that money. So far, we have gotten roughly two-thirds of the funds released. We will not stop pushing until Colorado communities get every dollar they are entitled to.

Colorado is also home to one of the world's great scientific resources, the National Center for Atmosphere Research, which is in Boulder, CO. For years, NCAR has given weather, climate, and wildfire forecasts that firefighters and emergency managers rely on to fight disasters. And we are going to keep fighting for NCAR and for science.

And, finally, solving our wildfire problem and responding to disasters requires all of us to work together.

So I want to, for a moment, just speak directly to our President. Last summer, one of the largest wildfires in Colorado history tore through Rio Blanco County. President Trump should know this county well. Can't expect him to know every county, but this is a special county. They love him. They voted overwhelmingly to support him in 2024, but there are now a lot less campaign signs there than there were in 2024.

When Colorado filed a disaster declaration to help these same people rebuild and prevent future tragedies, the White House denied their request. These are people who did everything right their entire lives, only to lose it all in a natural disaster. They paid their taxes, believing that if the worst ever did happen, their government would be there for them.

I think President Trump broke that promise. Disasters should never be political, but this administration has politicized it. And if you are a Republican living in a blue State, you had better hope that disaster doesn't strike your community or, if you live in a red State and our next President happens to be a Democrat, you better hope this new Democratic President doesn't stick to these new rules created by President Trump.

The President has approved 80 percent of disaster requests from Republican Governors but only about 60 percent from Democratic Governors. That is not normal. To my knowledge, that has never happened before at that scale.

Under prior administrations, the approval rate was roughly the same no matter which way a State had voted. And that is the way it should be. That is the way it has to be in a democracy. Politics should never decide whether you can rebuild your house after a fire.

The Aspen Acres fire in south-central Colorado has already destroyed over 300 houses. Colorado is slowly getting that fire under control, thanks to the brave firefighters who are working day and night, addressing it.

It is the seventh-largest wildfire in State history, and we are grateful FEMA has authorized fire management assistance grants for that fire, as well as for the Gold Mountain fire and the Willow fire.

The Aspen Acres fire will likely require a major disaster declaration. If it does, we will push this administration with everything we have to make sure Colorado gets the resources it needs and deserves.

We are also fighting to take politics out of disaster relief. Congress needs to pass our bipartisan Disaster Declaration Transparency Act. It gives Congress the power to review disaster relief denials driven--or at least apparently driven--by politics because disaster relief should never be political.

In the meantime, it is important that every single Coloradan do their part to help reduce wildfire risks. They have got to follow local restrictions, practice campfire safety, and create defensible space around their property.

On a recent trip to Beulah--which was engulfed by the Aspen Acres fire--I saw firsthand the devastation that wildfires leave behind.

Mr. President, block after block, all that remained was heavy smoke and heartbreak, charred chimneys, and maybe a hearth here and there.

Drought and wildfires aren't going away. Unless we act, they will only become more frequent, more destructive, and more expensive. That is why we need to work together on commonsense solutions to make everything we do safer.

That is why we are fighting here. That is what we are fighting for here in Washington, and I hope my colleagues will join me in this effort.

I yield the floor.

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

Mr. President, as a former English major, one of the great tales in Greek mythology was the legend of King Midas.

As the story goes, Midas was granted a wish. He wished that everything he touched would turn to gold.

At first, it seemed like a blessing. Twigs became gold. Stones became gold.

Midas thought he had found true wealth. But he soon realized it wasn't much of a blessing. It was more of a curse.

Midas' food turned to gold. His water turned to gold. And, eventually, even his daughter turned to gold.

The lesson is simple: A man who mistakes gold for greatness will end up with neither.

President Trump never learned that lesson, and he corrupts pretty much whatever he touches.

Take his gold-plated ballroom. The President promised it wouldn't cost taxpayers a nickel, but those promises turned out to be fool's gold.

The cost has skyrocketed and President Trump now wants to spend $300 million of your taxpayer money to pay for it. He is not building affordable housing in Denver, Durango; he is building a ballroom for himself and his rich friends to enjoy.

President Trump promised to drain the swamp; instead he has turned the Reflecting Pool into an algae-infested bird killer. The administration awarded a no-bid contract for this project to President Trump's neighbor, one of his donors. The renovation was supposed to cost $1.5 million. It is now estimated at $16 million, and the job still isn't done.

President Trump isn't working to extend the Affordable Care Act subsidies or reverse the Medicaid cuts that will kick 240,000 Coloradans off of their healthcare. His Reflecting Pool got a makeover while our insurance pool was gutted.

Now President Trump wants to build an enormous arch near Arlington Cemetery. While planning this project, he unilaterally, on his own volition, went to war with Iran, promising immediate victory, total and complete.

What he has delivered is one of the great failures in our Nation's history. He made America less safe and less secure.

He made America's economy weaker, and 14 American servicemembers lost their lives. When asked about the tragic casualties, President Trump said:

[T]here will likely be more before it ends. That's the way

it is.

That's the way it is.

Our heroes deserve a Commander in Chief who looks out for them, not a

monument looking down on them. This administration seems to believe the key to making America great again is more bouillon and more branding, like King Midas. They don't seem to understand where true wealth comes from.

America's prosperity isn't measured in monuments; it is defined by dreams, dreams that are only made possible here in this country. Those dreams are what brought me to Colorado as a geologist 20 years ago--or I should take that back--45 years ago, and they are what inspired me to enter public service, so one day my sons and your daughters will inherit a country where everyone has an equal shot at life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

But right now the American dream is slipping out of reach because the deck is stacked against working people. Whether your biggest worry is fuel or fertilizer or gas or groceries, whether you live in a mountain community or an inner city, whether you are surrounded by cows or concrete, this administration's misplaced priorities are making life harder for you. And I don't think it has to be this way.

First, we have got to stop the bleeding from this administration. We have got to end the illegal war, end the disastrous tariffs. We must curb ICE's lawlessness and repair our social safety net, reversing the administration's cuts to healthcare, to SNAP, to student aid. But then we have got to get back to making your life better once again.

We need to lower the cost of living. We need to create more and better jobs and protect our public lands. This work is not going to be easy as we mark America's 250th anniversary--our 250th anniversary. Many are questioning whether we are still capable of meeting the magnitude of this moment, a moment where a technological revolution promises unbelievable innovation at unprecedented speed like a runaway train.

It also leaves us more isolated and struggling to discern fact from fiction. A moment when the consequences of climate change are increasingly impossible to ignore with unprecedented wildfires, drought, destruction; a moment when wealth is flowing to the wealthiest Americans at an unprecedented rate. I am not immune to skepticism, frustration, despair, but a better and a brighter future requires that we work harder and harder and harder. It requires us to giddyap.

Progress is possible because we have seen it, we have done it. This week Congress passed the biggest housing reform bill in decades.

We worked with Senator Warren to diminish Wall Street from buying single-family homes and to limit their influence in disturbing the housing markets. This matters to every Coloradan because home ownership is one of the single best paths to economic stability and upward mobility.

It is a reminder that our government works best when it works for working people. When it does, good policy reflects our highest values; and the values that made this country have always been about opportunities for all, not wealth at all costs.

Earlier this morning right as the bill was about to be signed, President Trump decided to hold the legislation hostage. Instead of passing this commonsense bill, he wants to peddle a voter suppression bill that has literally nothing to do with housing.

This is a clear choice before us. Speaker Johnson and Senator Grassley and Senator Thune should sign this housing bill and send it to the White House, or they should not adjourn Congress for the July 4th recess; it is as simple as that.

This saga is exactly why so many Americans have lost so much faith in our President. He has had every opportunity to lower costs, but he chooses not to. The Coloradans I meet on the Front Range or the West Slope aren't looking for more attacks on mail-in voting; they aren't looking for more ballrooms, bombs, and billionaires. They are looking for help, all the while looking out and helping each other.

I see it across Colorado, people showing up for their neighbors, families sharing what they can: Meals, clothing, rides to school. America's wealth has never been found in monuments, reflecting pools, or arches. It is found in our families. It is found in our communities. It is found in you. Our charge has always been to help each other and to keep the American dream alive for the next generation. That is what it has always meant to be a Coloradan. That is what it has meant to be an American. And that is worth more than gold.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, last week, President Trump was asked about the surge in inflation. His response:

I love the inflation.

``I love the inflation''? It is almost like the reality betrays reality. What else does he love? Does he love the increase in measles cases, screwworm infecting our cattle, record credit card debt?

The truth is the President's economy has become a disaster for Americans. Families feel like they are getting squeezed every which way they look. This has become a cost-of-living emergency.

According to a recent report by the Joint Economic Committee minority, Coloradans have spent $3,300 more on goods and services since President Trump took office last year. That is $416 more on rent and mortgage payments; $310 more for groceries at the checkout line, as everything from ground beef to coffee has spiked; and $1,000 more in average deductibles for people on the Affordable Care Act insurance plans.

And Americans have gotten completely ripped off at the gas pump. In total, Coloradans have spent over $780 million more on gas since the beginning of President Trump's illegal war with Iran. That means Colorado families are spending $347 more now than they did before the war started.

Not only did President Trump raise your bills, but he also broke another campaign vow. He repeatedly promised, in his campaign, no more expensive, deadly wars.

Now, we are almost 14 months into an illegal war--a war of choice--in Iran. It is a war that Trump promised would be over in 4 to 5 weeks.

Mr. President, $100 billion later, 14 servicemembers lost, and we are still waiting for it to end.

A few hours ago, the administration finally released the details of a memorandum of understanding, which appears to kick the can down the road on many of the hard decisions still to be

made, kicking that can down the road for another 60 days.

They still haven't briefed Congress, including the top Republican leaders.

What is clear is that the deal he is pitching comes nowhere close to limiting Iran's ability to obtain a nuclear weapon. It is clearly nowhere near the deal President Obama secured over a decade ago that meaningfully curbed Iran's nuclear ambitions--that is, until Trump ripped it up.

It is also hard to explain to Americans why the Iranian regime would get hundreds of billions of dollars in this settlement and sanctions relief, as well, all to restore access to a waterway that was free and open to all before Trump took us to war in the first place.

We will have spent all this money on the war, on the aftermath, on the future settlements, just to be in a position where the United States is worse off than where it was when we began.

Right before Trump bombed Iran, farmers and ranchers in Colorado and across this country were preparing to plant for this season. Trump's tariffs increased the cost of farming equipment, while retaliatory tariffs from other countries reduced access to international markets that bought better prices for American farmers. The climate change- driven megadrought in the West made matters even worse.

As the war stretched on, farmers and ranchers reckoned with a new hurdle--diesel and fertilizer costs. Approximately one-third of global fertilizer passes through the Strait of Hormuz, resulting in prices, with the blockade, rising over 40 percent.

These rising costs are crushing our farmers and our ranchers and sending grocery prices soaring for American families.

President Trump was elected to bring down prices. He pledged to ``end inflation'' on day one. He promised a government that finally works for working people. Yet President Trump's agenda can be better summed up in just three letters: A, B, C--anything but costs--the cost of diesel, the cost of fertilizer, the cost of food, housing, healthcare.

President Trump has plenty of time to host a UFC fight on the White House lawn. He has been laser-focused on refurbishing the Reflecting Pool on the National Mall. He has been unrelenting in his desire for a Department of Justice slush fund for election criminals like Tina Peters and the January 6 rioters. But he is not doing much to help you, the taxpayers.

Trump isn't unrigging the system, as he promised voters. He is rerigging it for himself. He is rerigging it for his pals and cronies. His family and close associates have pocketed billions, while Colorado families struggle to pay their monthly bills.

His ``One Big Bad Betrayal Act'' gave billions in tax cuts to ultrawealthy friends and the largest corporations and threw literally millions of Americans off their healthcare.

He sued the IRS so he wouldn't have to pay taxes again, while teachers, police officers, and nurses pay their taxes every year.

While working families worry about the cost of groceries, housing, and healthcare, this administration is focused on ballrooms, bombs, and billionaires.

This isn't why the American people sent us to Washington.

When I travel across Colorado, I hear the same things again and again. I hear: I can't afford to get sick. I can't afford my rent. I am scared about the kind of world my kids are going to inherit.

Working families don't ``love'' inflation. They don't think affordability is a ``hoax.'' They are desperate for a country that works for them--a country where Washington focuses on lowering costs and improving their lives, not giving record tax breaks to the Epstein class; a country where healthcare is a right and not a privilege; and a country where every family can afford to buy a home, instead of getting outbid by Wall Street.

So while the White House administration focuses on their ``anything but cost'' agenda, we are showing up every day to build a country that works better for you, better for your family, better for your neighbors.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, this weekend, my eldest son Theodore--Teddy--is going to graduate from college.

Over the past couple of decades, I have been lucky to serve as mayor of Denver, as Governor of Colorado, and now as a U.S. Senator, but the greatest title of all is ``Dad.'' Teddy and now my 3\1/2\-year-old son Jack give my life and my public service real meaning.

Like millions of parents, I catch myself thinking about them and their future constantly. Will Teddy's generation be able to afford a home? Will our healthcare system still be a broken mess when they have to take their own kids to the hospital? Will the hiking trails I took Teddy on as a boy still be there when he has children? These aren't just my worries; they are the worries of many Coloradans.

Americans were right to be frustrated before President Trump took office. Our country was recovering from a global pandemic. Costs were too high. Help was too slow. So when President Trump came along and made promises--no more expensive wars, lower costs on day one, a government that finally works for working people--Americans took the deal. But President Trump didn't just fail to keep his promises, he broke them, and now Americans are paying the price.

The President promised no more expensive, deadly wars. Instead, we are stuck with a war in Iran with no exit, no strategy, no end in sight. Every time you fill up your gas tank or buy your groceries, you are paying the price.

The President promised lower costs on day one. A year and a half later, household debt has hit a recordbreaking $18.8 trillion--$18.8 trillion in terms of household debt. The average American household has $105,000 in consumer debt, and families are spending money they don't have on necessities they can't go without.

The President promised a government that worked for Americans. Instead, he gutted Medicaid and our healthcare coverage. He slashed food assistance. He dismantled programs designed precisely for moments like these when families are already underwater. It is as if President Trump started a wildfire for the American people and then took away every bucket of water.

I hear from Coloradans every single day, and for years--long before this administration--they have been telling me the same three things: I can't afford to get sick. I can't afford my rent. I am scared about the kind of world my children will be inheriting.

While President Trump is busy spending trillions on bombs, ballrooms, and billionaires, my colleagues and I are trying to solve real problems--the ones Coloradans tell us about every day.

When Coloradans told us they couldn't make the rent, we got to work. Over my first 5\1/2\ years in the Senate, we secured over $800 million from the bipartisan infrastructure law and congressionally directed spending for affordable housing in Colorado. That money turned a Durango Best Western into apartments. It delivered badly needed workforce housing in Alamosa, CO. It helped convert the Stay Inn in Denver into housing for the homeless.

We have heard from Coloradans who have risked their lives to afford healthcare--stretching their prescriptions, skipping the ER, and avoiding pricey ambulance rides--so when we wrote the Inflation Reduction Act, we allowed Medicare to negotiate drug prices for the first time ever, and we capped the cost of insulin at 35 bucks.

Americans couldn't afford their premiums, so we expanded the Affordable Care Act tax credits, which helped lower costs by $2,400 a year for millions of Americans. That is $200 a month.

Across the State, we met with communities ravaged by drought and wildfire. We knew we needed to adapt to our hot, dry future. We need to do a better job of adapting to that hotter and dryer future, so we passed the Inflation Reduction Act, the single largest climate investment in human history--$4 billion for the Colorado River Basin, hundreds of billions of dollars in clean energy that created jobs and lowered energy costs. Then we created the Colorado River Caucus in the Senate to help conserve the West's most significant and scarce resource.

That is what governing actually looks like. It is putting Coloradans at the center of everything we do. And when this administration threatened to take it all away, we fought at every turn. When they slashed $1 trillion from Americans' healthcare to pay for tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and corporations, we refused to fund their corrupt government. When they moved to sell off 3 million acres of our public lands to pay for tax breaks for the billionaires, we stopped them in their tracks because Colorado's public lands are not for sale-- not now, not ever. And just last week, when they tried to pass a taxpayer-funded slush fund for election criminals, we stood up.

Time and time again, we fought this administration--not over politics; we fight because Colorado's pain should never be their profit.

Good government isn't flashy. Good government is built on thankless hours spent fighting to keep people at the table without bullying or bribing, without compromising our values to get there. That is the only way we are going to pull Americans out of this mess. It starts by helping Americans get their heads above water and then building a country that actually works for them.

We will end the tariffs and the war that are driving up costs for everybody, because a family in Grand Junction shouldn't be paying high prices at the grocery store for this administration's reckless policy decisions.

We need to restore the healthcare this administration cut. Then we need to go further: We need to get and fully operate universal health coverage.

I recently spoke with a Coloradan whose husband put off chemotherapy so she could get lifesaving surgery. They couldn't afford for both of them to have health insurance in both cases, so it became a tradeoff that no family should be making. No family--not just in Colorado but anywhere in the country--should be making that kind of a tradeoff in the wealthiest country in the world.

This administration told Americans you can't lower costs and protect our resources. Their bright solution? Send energy costs through the roof while the Colorado River runs dry. That is not a tradeoff; it is a failure. The only way forward is a clean energy economy that lowers your bills and keeps Colorado's farms, forests, and rivers healthy for the next generation.

This weekend, my son is going to cross the stage and start his adult life. Back in Denver, Jack is probably outside somewhere covered in dirt--after all, his first word was ``dirt.'' The reason I believe my kids are going to be OK is the same reason I believe yours will be too: America never gives up. From Gettysburg to Selma, from Ludlow to Minneapolis--each time Americans face adversity, we grow stronger.

I see it in Colorado every week: neighbors showing up to help each other, protecting each other, sharing what they have--food, childcare, a bed to sleep in--even when they don't have that much themselves. It is that spirit that gives me hope for my children's future and yours. It is the American spirit. It is the spirit that this administration can't defund, can't destroy.

Here is my promise to Colorado and to our country--one that can't be broken: If you are willing to roll up your sleeves and take on the tough fights, there is no peril, no problem, no President that we can't overcome.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I call up my amendment No. 5501 and ask that it be reported by number.

Mr. President, this week, former Colorado county clerk Tina Peters was released from prison after serving less than a quarter of her sentence for her role in trying to illegally corrupt Colorado's free and fair elections. I don't believe she deserved clemency, but wherever you stand on her release, taxpayers should never be forced to pay people who illegally undermine our elections.

Unfortunately, that is exactly what this administration's slush fund is for. They believe people like Tina Peters and the January 6 rioters should get cash payouts while American families struggle to afford groceries, housing, and healthcare. The administration now says the fund is dead. We should not believe them.

My amendment prohibits the Federal Government from distributing taxpayer dollars to any individual convicted of election-related crimes. This vote should be 100 to zip because those who attack our democracy are not victims; they are criminals. Election criminals like Tina Peters do not deserve pardons, and they absolutely sure as damnation don't deserve a dime of your taxpayer dollars.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I encourage everyone to vote yes for this. We are trying to make sure slush fund dollars and taxpayer money don't go to people who break the law.

Mr. President, pursuant to section 904 of the Congressional Budget Act and all budget resolution disciplines that apply, I move to waive all points of order for the purposes of the pending measure.

I ask for the yeas and nays.

Vote on Motion

Mr. President, when the Senate considers the reconciliation bill, S. 2, it is my intention to make the following motions to the bill:

A motion to commit the bill to the Committee on the

Judiciary with instructions to report the same back to the

Senate in 3 day, not counting any day on which the Senate is

not in session, with changes that are within the jurisdiction

of such committee; and would extend the enhanced premium tax

credit under section 36B of the Internal Revenue Code of

1986, as in effect for 2025, for two years.

Mr. President, on Monday, Tina Peters walked out of prison. The convicted felon and former county clerk is free after serving less than a quarter of her sentence, a sentence she earned when she violated her oath and tried to undermine Colorado's free and fair elections.

That doesn't just make her a conspiracy theorist; it makes her a criminal. Tina Peters had her day in court. She was prosecuted by a Republican district attorney and convicted by a jury of her peers in a Republican stronghold. The verdict was unanimous. Tina Peters was guilty as sin. But if you ask the Trump administration, they believe she needs and deserves a payday.

Last month, the Department of Justice announced the creation of a $1.8 billion fund, a slush fund--can't call it anything else--for criminals just like Tina Peters.

President Trump plans to hand out nearly $2 billion of your tax money, taxpayer dollars, to January 6 rioters, to wealthy business partners, and people who have attacked democracy.

We are going to do everything we can to make sure that doesn't happen. The Acting Attorney General says they will no longer pursue this slush fund. I am not sure I believe that for 1 second.

The only promises this administration has seemed to keep are to billionaires and President Trump's cronies. The President calls it the ``Art of the Deal.'' Well, what is the deal? The taxpayers pay in; his allies get payouts?

This administration isn't just trying to give your tax dollars to criminals. They are spending literally trillions of dollars, when you add it up, trillions of dollars on bombs and tax breaks for billionaires. And what do Americans get in return? Higher bills, benefits that have been gutted, and a tab that they never agreed to pick up.

While the Trump administration is busy cashing in, people working-- the so-called working people of America--are facing a cost-of-living emergency. The President's war in Iran--his war of choice--is sending costs through the roof. The costs are already adding up. On energy alone, Americans have spent an average of $450 per person more since the start of this war. Gas in Colorado is now roughly $4.50 a gallon. Before the year is out, Americans will spend hundreds of dollars more than they would have before just on groceries.

Here is how bad it has gotten. Americans now carry a record $1.25 trillion in credit card debt. That is the highest level since the stock market crashed in 2008. That is the equivalent of every single American owing $3,600. That is not a working class that is thriving. That is one that is barely surviving.

And here is the cruel reality: People are working harder than ever. Coloradans are doing everything they can to hold up their end of the bargain--long days, multiple jobs, paying taxes. But the more they contribute, the less they get back, the less they get in return.

And there is a clear explanation for this: The President doled out roughly $4 trillion in tax breaks--so that is over 10 years--but roughly $4 trillion in tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans so that the largest corporations, so the wealthiest individuals like him, can skip their taxes. And to pay for it, they slashed--over 10 years, they slashed $1 trillion from the healthcare of Americans. That is astounding.

Trump's tariffs generated $133 billion. Nearly every dollar came right out of the pocket of American consumers' pockets--an average of more than $1,000 a person.

Now, the Supreme Court ruled that these tariffs were illegal, and a Federal court ordered the administration to repay American businesses. Has the government responded? Have they complied? No, of course not. They are using every excuse they can to resist. They have failed to pay back the $166 billion that they owe. Even worse, just yesterday, President Trump announced new tariffs on 59 countries, in addition to the European Union.

When they are not busy taxing Americans, the Trump administration is pouring hundreds of millions into this new ballroom. Meanwhile, 9,000 families in Colorado just lost their SNAP benefits. That is their food stamps, their nutrition. Our economy is leaving too many Americans behind.

Just talk to Leah, a young woman I met recently at a healthcare roundtable in Colorado Springs. She is the full-time medical caregiver for her daughter Victoria, who was diagnosed as a baby with spina bifida. Victoria is a paraplegic, fed through a tube, and requires a ventilator.

Leah works around the clock to keep her child alive. That hard work is about to get even harder. This year, Leah's income will be cut by 40 percent as a direct result of this administration's Medicaid cuts. That cut puts her daughter's life at risk.

The Trump administration claims these Medicaid cuts were about preventing graft and fraud, but there is clearly no fraud whatsoever in a mother doing everything she can, trying to keep her child alive.

Leah doesn't even know if they will be able to keep their house, whether they will have enough money to make their payments. That house had been specifically fitted to take care of Victoria's needs.

Without Leah's around-the-clock care, Victoria would have to be institutionalized in an acute care facility at a dramatically higher cost. Now, that is waste. It might not be fraud, but that is waste.

Leah is living every parent's worst nightmare. She works as hard as she possibly can every day to try and keep her child alive, and now it is still not enough. So many Americans are living with these kinds of fears.

At a local nonprofit in Boulder--I take that back. At a local nonprofit in Denver, I met a woman named Brittany, who told me that healthcare is one of her biggest stressors, one of the major things that causes her emotional stress.

Brittany's daughter recently had a severe asthma attack. Brittany watched her daughter gasp for breath and begin to turn blue. In that split second, she faced a second fear. Should she rush her daughter to the hospital herself and risk the drive with no one to care for her daughter or call an ambulance, which she knew she wouldn't be able to afford?

That is a fear no parent should have to live with. The Trump administration made it a reality because they chose these tax breaks for the wealthiest people in this country, many of whom--if not most of whom--don't even want the tax breaks. But they chose tax breaks for these billionaires over healthcare for working people.

At another event in Denver, I met Luisa, who spends $90 a week on gas as she drives 28 miles to work and home every day. She had moved farther from Denver because the housing was more affordable. Now she wonders if she made the right choice.

Luisa is watching costs increase while she takes home less every week. She does everything she can to insulate her kids from fear--from her fear. On weekends, she tries to take her kids to the park right about lunchtime. She hopes they are too busy playing to remember how hungry they are. As she says, ``It's one less meal to buy.''

Our country is measured in these moments: the way we care for the most vulnerable, the life-or-death journey between the house and the hospital, the cost to fill an empty refrigerator.

By every measure, our President--President Trump--is failing. He has run up costs; he has paid himself and his friends; and he has stuck Americans with the tab, waiting for Americans to pay the bill.

This is the moment where we decide whether that is acceptable-- whether the people who work the hardest, already pay the most, and ask for the least finally get a country that works for them. It is a question that echoes throughout our entire history, one that built the Civil Rights Movement, women's suffrage, and the long fight for workers to have a seat at the table.

At its core, it is the American question: Whom does this country actually work for? This administration has given their answer to Coloradans. Leah from Colorado Springs will lose close to $80,000 in support. Brittany calculates the cost of an ambulance while her daughter is turning blue and can't breathe. Luisa hopes her kids will not remember that they are hungry.

Americans fund the system. Trump takes billions for himself, and Americans--Americans--get the shaft.

We know there is a better way. Americans have held up their end of the bargain long enough, with long days and multiple jobs and taxes paid over long periods of time. They have earned more than a slush fund for felons, more than a government that builds ballrooms while 9,000 Coloradans lose their groceries. And these are families that are struggling to put food on

the table. It is more than an administration that takes everything and returns nothing.

And we have introduced an amendment to stop elected criminals like Tina Peters from getting a dime of your taxpayer dollars. Soon, Republicans are going to be forced to vote on it. So while hard-working Americans struggle with rising costs, those who undermine our elections are the last people our government should subsidize, the last people that should ever get your hard-earned tax dollars.

We need to put an end to the slush fund. We need to put that end in writing so the Trump administration can't change their mind later on. Working Americans have paid in too long to keep getting played, and we will fight tooth and nail to make sure they get what they are owed.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, there is a debate right now about the cost of the Iran war. Now, this administration won't or can't give us a straight answer, but Coloradans can.

They are paying $4.50 a gallon for gas that not too long ago they were getting for 2.50 a gallon. That is $25 more every time they fill up their tank.

Shoppers are seeing their grocery bills go through the roof. Since January alone, the price of berries--strawberries, blueberries--has doubled. Today, the average family of four spends over $1,000 a month just on groceries, and that number keeps climbing the longer the war drags on.

Mortgage rates jumped half a point in 2 months, costing most home buyers trying to buy a house over $100 additional each month.

Just yesterday, President Trump admitted he doesn't ``think about Americans' financial situations.'' He doesn't think about the financial situation of Americans when making the decisions on the war in Iran-- well, finally the truth. The American people know this, and they have seen how the policies of this administration are costing lives overseas and exaggerating a cost-of-living emergency here at home.

While the White House has a hard time keeping track of what it is spending on the war--there was no plan at the beginning; it doesn't seem we have a good off-ramp--American families are struggling just to deliver their basic needs. To the administration, these might be just numbers on a spreadsheet, but to the rest of us, these are our family members, these are our neighbors, it is all of you.

Last week, I met an Uber driver named Kareem. It costs him $68 every day to fill up his tank with gas. Kareem's expenses now exceed his take-home pay. He had to find a second job just to support his first job. He told me he worries every day about having enough money to feed his children.

It is not just the President's war that is increasing costs; this comes on the heels of numerous Republican efforts to gut and eviscerate our healthcare subsidies and our healthcare system and to, in whole terms, slash the social safety net.

Last week in Denver, I met a guy named TJ. He told me his marketplace premium went from 30 bucks a month to $500 a month. These are real numbers. This happened right at the time when he was diagnosed with a rare blood cancer. TJ couldn't afford his marketplace plan, so he was forced to drop it. He had to move in with his parents just to stay afloat.

I also met with a Denver resident who is living with a rare neurological condition they picked up from COVID. Last year, in the middle of an endless health battle, her husband was diagnosed with cancer. Their marketplace premium doubled. They couldn't afford for both of them to stay on insurance and have healthcare at the same time, so her husband put off his chemotherapy so that she could get a badly needed treatment.

Let me say that again. In the wealthiest Nation on Earth, a man with cancer was forced to go without healthcare to make sure his wife got a fair shot at beating her sickness, just so his wife could get that chance. That is shameful.

Her words are going to stay with me. This woman told me that she has come to terms with death and with the severity of her husband's cancer, but what she can't accept is the daily battle to afford her healthcare when the cost of staying alive might well turn out to be bankruptcy.

These Coloradans aren't outliers. Over 1 million Americans--1 million Americans--had to drop their health insurance plans in January after this Congress--the Republicans--refused to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits that eliminated a big chunk of those subsidies. So 1 million dropped off. Of the Americans who stayed on with their insurance, over 3 million missed their monthly payment in January. So 1 million dropped off, and 3 million have stopped payment as of January. So we could have up to 4 million people newly uncovered. How long before those 3 million people lose their health insurance? We don't know.

It is not just people in big cities; farmers across America, farmers across Colorado were already being crushed by a cost-of-living emergency. Now soaring food and fertilizer costs are making a grave situation a crucial one.

One sweet corn farmer in Montrose, CO, told me that fuel normally takes up about 15 percent of his operating costs. Now it is 65 percent. He said: If I didn't have a son that was crazy enough to farm, I would probably quit because the unknowns make it impossible to plan.

Let me tell you, if a farmer can't plan, if he can't make a plan for how he is going to make the whole year work, he can't plant. Think about that, because the unknowns make it impossible to plan.

Farmers are now paying 40 percent more for nitrogen-based fertilizer and, as I said, 60 percent more for diesel. With just a few weeks remaining in the planting season, 70 percent of farmers and ranchers in America are saying they can't afford their operating costs.

Add in the tariffs, which are diminishing the futures market for whatever they are selling, and the worsening drought conditions, the climate change-caused drought, it is no wonder that so many Colorado producers are choosing to fallow their land instead of farming as they have always done.

You don't need a crystal ball to see what comes next. Fewer crops are suddenly going to mean higher prices. That will be good for those few farmers who did take the risk--probably an exceptional risk--to go forward with planting with such unknown outcomes.

As one farmer told me, a country that can't feed itself cannot survive.

We are hearing stories like this all the time. It doesn't matter if we are meeting farmers or teachers or restaurant owners, rural or urban, Republican or Democrat, we are hearing the same thing: Costs are too high, and Americans need help.

This cost-of-living emergency didn't start with the war, but the war is making it far worse, and the President's response has just been to spend more--not on you but on this war. The President recently requested $1.5 trillion--$1.5 trillion requested to fund the Department of War, what used to be the Department of Defense.

Madam President, $1.5 trillion--that is money we don't have, money we are going to have to borrow and add to our ballooning deficit. To put that in perspective, $1.5 trillion is the equivalent of borrowing roughly $18,000 for every American family. We are passing $18,000 per family on to the children of those families.

Now, you ask yourself: Do we really want to take on the cost of that war when we have no clear path to victory? we don't know what the off- ramp looks like?

And that doesn't even cover the full cost of the Iran war. The White House budget director told Congress that a separate funding request is coming. We are being told to expect up to $200 billion just for operations and to replenish our stockpiles from the war in Iran--$200 billion. With that money, we could fully fund pre-K for every kid in America; we could have free community college all across this country; we could get much closer to universal healthcare coverage.

I think our Nation's priorities have somehow gotten backward. We have money for ballrooms and bombs and tax breaks for billionaires but very little for hard-working Americans, the people that make this country work. It is just plain wrong.

The MAGA Republicans are giving the White House a blank check while all of you get stuck with the bill.

We need to end this war and stop asking the American people to carry costs they never agreed to bear.

The President sometimes treats billions like a rounding error. Coloradans don't have that luxury. Every dollar counts, and hard- working families are paying the price.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, Colorado is one of the most beautiful places not just in America but in the world.

In Denver, we have got over 300 days of sunshine annually. We have access to incredible green spaces, and if you look west, you can lose yourself in the best view in America--the Rocky Mountains.

But it wasn't always this way.

In the 1950s, Colorado was and still is one of the fastest growing cities in America. Even stretching back to my days as mayor back in the 2000s, one of our main goals was to attract young people to not just come and ski in Colorado but to visit Denver, perhaps consider starting a business there, building a business, growing your family, building a life.

To put it in perspective, between 1950 and 1960, Denver's population grew by just about 20 percent. This brought more cars, more industry but also more pollution. By the 1970s and 1980s, the smog was so bad that, nationally, there was a nickname for Denver--the ``brown cloud.'' There were days you couldn't even see the mountains at all, which, as a geologist and a Coloradan, pained me.

But then something incredible happened. In 1970, a Democratic Congress passed the Clean Air Act. It was signed into law by a Republican President. It is a reminder that clean air has never been a partisan issue. It benefits literally everyone. The Clean Air Act helped to propel States like Colorado and others to turn things around, to look at that pollution in a different light. Emissions testing and fuel standards soon followed, and guess what happened. The air got cleaner. Visibility improved. People such as my son who has asthma would be healthier.

Then, in 1999, the EPA created the Regional Haze Program. The initiative was rooted around one single idea: If you go to a national park, you should be able to see it. So States were asked to develop plans to cut pollution that limits those gorgeous views.

Once again, Colorado stepped in and led the way. In my first year as Governor, Colorado submitted our Regional Haze State Implementation Plan, which was first approved in 2012. It put us on a path to improving the quality of air we breathe in the place that we are lucky to call home.

We also brought environmentalists and the energy industry together to create the first methane regulations in the world in 2014. This was the blending of environmental and industry discussions. I think those regulations--again, the first methane regulations in the world were in Colorado--helped in the years leading up to 2017 to reduce methane emissions from Colorado's oil and gas sector by 70 percent. That is right--70 percent.

Despite all that success, the Trump administration is now threatening to turn back the clock and reduce and diminish the success of Colorado's clean air efforts.

Earlier this year, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, whom I voted against, rejected Colorado's updated Regional Haze Plan. They didn't reject Colorado's plan because the science was wrong. They didn't dispute the goals, and they didn't dispute the modeling. They rejected it to prop up a handful of aging coal plants--coal-fired electrical generation plants--that were already planning to close. The utilities had created the models, had found the replacement sources of energy, and were ready to close those older, less-efficient, and significantly dirtier generation plants.

The Trump administration seems to think we must choose between clean air and affordable energy, which is nonsense. Colorado has shown that that is a false choice. Time and time again, we have brought communities and utilities and regulators together to protect our clean air supply without hurting our economy or our energy supply.

Last summer, the Front Range experienced the lowest number of ozone action alerts in a decade. Let me say that again. Last year was the lowest number of ozone action alerts in a decade. Thanks to bipartisan investments in renewable energy, Colorado ranked among the top 10 States in overall energy production.

The administration's decision doesn't lower costs for anybody. It just means more pollution and more haze in those very places we treasure the most.

Colorado is never going to move forward by returning to the 1970s. For decades, we have fought tooth and nail to ensure that our mountains are visible and our national parks are the most beautiful and the most enjoyable in America. We should support this measure and prevent Washington politics from clouding Colorado's hard-fought progress.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I call up my amendment No. 4956 and ask that it be reported by number.

Mr. President, the President of the United States calls affordability a hoax, but 92 percent of Americans call it a crisis.

The President's tariffs, his healthcare cuts, and the unwanted war

created a cost-of-living emergency. Mortgage rates are up over half a percent making it almost impossible for people to buy homes. Gas is up over $4 across most of the country. Electricity prices are climbing faster than inflation, and healthcare premiums have doubled and even tripled. Parents are worried they can't afford care if their child gets sick.

Farmers have all this and more. Fertilizer prices are up more than 40 percent. Diesel is up 50 percent. Together with what many scientists refer to as a climate-caused drought, farmers are wondering if they should even plant at all.

Our amendment is simple. It gives Congress a path to lower costs for Americans by investing in and supporting clean, affordable energy and other technologies without adding to the deficit.

Across this country, working families are struggling to make ends meet. Let's do our job and help them.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, pursuant to section 904 of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 and the waiver provisions of the applicable budget resolutions, I move to waive all applicable sections of that act and applicable budget points of order for the purposes of the pending measure. I ask for the yeas and nays.

Vote on Motion

Mr. President, I rise today to honor a great American and an exceptional member of the U.S. Space Force, Lt. Col. Felix Abeyta.

A true champion for our Nation and expert communicator, this Colorado native and U.S. Air Force Academy graduate brings over 15 years of distinguished uniformed service. He has consistently demonstrated exemplary leadership and an unparalleled ability to navigate complex legislative landscapes in service to our country and the 119th U.S. Congress. He left an indelible mark as the first guardian dedicated to the U.S. Senate, providing that vital link between Congress and the Space Force as he effectively advocated for critical defense priorities. Throughout his military career, he has demonstrated exceptional and unrivaled excellence in a myriad of positions critical to U.S. defense and national security worldwide.

As a legislative liaison and action officer in the Department of the Air Force's Senate Legislative Liaison Division, Lieutenant Colonel Abeyta expertly advised Department of the Air Force senior leadership, developing strategic opportunities to advance Air and Space Force priorities on Capitol Hill. His leadership facilitated seamless collaboration on behalf of the Department of the Air Force across 64 congressional offices, expertly resolving 103 requests for information. He supported numerous congressional engagements and delegations to showcase Department equities in the United States and abroad. Most notably, his strategic acumen during key hearings on Space Force capabilities was instrumental in securing a $32 billion investment from Congress and forging a stronger relationship between the Department and the Senate. Through his tireless efforts, Lieutenant Colonel Abeyta secured direct engagement between Members of Congress and key decision- makers, including the Secretary of the Air Force, resulting in successful advancements of critical Space Force initiatives. Leveraging his deep expertise in Space Force acquisitions, Lieutenant Colonel Abeyta secured congressional alignment for the future of space-based global satellite communications for 12 service vehicles, degrading adversary jamming capabilities and protecting critical national security objectives.

Finally, as the sole guardian on the Department of the Air Force Senate liaison team, he effectively advocated for Department priorities. Collaborating with U.S. Space Command, he arranged 10 visits to 31 space-based locations for key decision-makers, highlighting capabilities, and the quality-of-life concerns of guardians. His efforts have expanded the U.S. Space Force Caucus by 25 percent on the Hill. Due to his direct involvement, advocacy, and stewardship, Members of Congress were able to make informed decisions and ensured the Department of the Air Force was properly resourced and funded.

After serving in this crucial role and becoming a fixture on Capitol Hill, Lieutenant Colonel Abeyta will move on to become the system program manager for the Space Launch Procurement Branch, Space Systems Command, Los Angeles Air Force Base, CA. Felix and his wife Zantia have instilled a legacy of service for their three children Dylan, Tillman, and Charlotte. They have sacrificed much as a family in service to our Nation. I am thankful for Felix's service and his work with my office and the Senate over the past year on issues of vital importance to the defense of the United States. I salute this American patriot whose selfless service has kept our country safe and strong.

Mr. President, I am going to switch gears a little bit here. I want to talk a little bit about the SAVE Act.

Despite its name, the SAVE Act is not going to help you or anyone in America save on anything. It won't help you save on your gas bill, your medicine, your rent. It won't help you save on student loans or childcare or what you pay for utilities. This bill has nothing to do with money at all, and it certainly isn't about helping Americans.

We are going to fight against this bill with everything we have got, and it will fail because it is bad for the country. That is right--the Republicans know the bill will fail, and they are intent on dragging this out for hours, for days that could be spent addressing the real issues that Americans face.

The cost of gas is rising every day, week after week. In parts of Colorado, the price of gasoline has almost doubled in the last several weeks. That is money taken straight out of your pockets. Grocery prices are going up. Doctor's visits are going up. Housing costs are going up as well.

Right now, one in three American households spends more than 30 percent of their income on housing--one-third. And when they are not shelling out for rent, they are shelling out more for healthcare. Despite living in the wealthiest country in the world, Americans pay the highest costs for healthcare globally and in many cases get worse results.

But we don't have to tell all of America this. We don't have to tell all of you this; you already know it. You are living it every single day--at the checkout line, in the pharmacy, at the doctor's office, when you pay your electric or water bill.

And here is what makes it worse. You are doing everything right. You are working longer hours, picking up second jobs. You are cutting back in every way you can to make ends meet. You are skipping vacations. You are delaying buying a home. You are putting off starting a family. Some folks today are even skipping doses of medication just to stretch their prescription a few more days. This is not because you want to but because you have no choice, you see no other way.

A year ago, at his inauguration, our President promised lower prices and no more foreign wars. This administration has already spent 20 billion of your dollars waging war on Iran, and the war has gotten bigger, bloodier, and more expensive every day since. Just today, the Pentagon announced their plan to ask Congress for $200 billion to fund the war in Iran--$200 billion. That is money that we don't have. Our deficit last year was somewhere in the vicinity of $1\3/4\ trillion. Yet Congress is going to be asked to borrow $200 billion more and add that to the national debt.

The SAVE Act isn't going to save any of that. It is not going to save any American any money, and it certainly isn't going to change reality.

So what is it really about? I think it is about saving this administration's failing agenda. And how is that? It is through voter suppression.

The President knows that costs are high. He knows that you are angry. He knows that the majority of Americans disapprove of the war, are unhappy that their costs keep rising. But instead of actually lowering prices, he is backing a bill that is going to make it harder for most people to vote, especially for Americans whom he doesn't trust will vote for him.

The SAVE America Act creates mountains of redtape for voters and will ultimately remove millions of Americans from the voting rolls-- Republicans, Democrats, and Independents. It requires every voter to dig through their basement, go up into their attic, and try to find their birth certificate--right--find their passport, just so they can register to vote, something most of them have been doing year after year for decades.

But there are problems--real problems--with this plan. More than 21 million American citizens don't have their original birth certificate handy or they don't have a passport, they don't have either one of these types of identification; and 69 million married women have birth certificates that don't have their correct last name. They changed their name when they got married.

Taken together, the SAVE America Act would make it more difficult for tens of millions of people to vote. It would also dismantle vote-by- mail as we know it. Now, about one in three Americans voted by mail in 2024, an election that President Trump won. During the 2024 election, the voters most likely to vote by mail were those over the age of 65. It is the single best way for folks with limited mobility to exercise their constitutional right.

Just look at Colorado. Almost 99 percent of Republican voters in Colorado voted by mail in 2025. Now, way back in 2013, when I was still the Governor, we passed a set of laws that established our State as the gold standard for secure and accessible elections. We started by making voting as accessible as possible. We established one of the first universal vote-by-mail systems in the country. Now, you can still vote in person, but every single Coloradan gets a ballot mailed to them. Now, these reforms were largely created by Republican county clerks working with our Republican secretary of state.

Vote-by-mail has proven to be less expensive, more secure, and people love it. The turnout just goes up. It is perhaps the single most effective way to increase voter turnout. Today, as I said, every single registered voter gets a ballot in the mail. Every ballot that they receive in the mail is printed on paper, meaning that we have a physical record across the entire voting system that can be easily audited at even the faintest hint of fraud. And we go beyond that.

It is basic common sense. The ballot arrives weeks before the election, which gives Coloradans plenty of time to research the candidates, talk around the kitchen table about whom they think is going to do the best job, and submit their ballot by mail or go drop it off at a ballot box. And even if voters wait until the last minute, they can still register to vote and vote on election day.

Now, Colorado Republicans were behind this initiative literally every step of the way because this was about making voting, the act of voting, easier for everyone. Coloradans--Democrats, Republicans, Independents--we have almost a third--actually, we have more than a third Independents now--everybody loves this system. During the 2025 election, 98 percent of all the Coloradans who voted, voted by mail. They submitted mail-in ballots. They dropped it off or they put it in the mail.

And Coloradans didn't just make voting accessible; we made it secure. We created a multilayer system of checks and balances. Every single drop box that receives ballots is under 24-hour video surveillance from the time the box opens for ballot return until the end of an election-- day and night. We made sure Coloradans could track their ballot the same way you would use FedEX or UPS to track a package so voters could trust that their ballot had been counted.

And in 2017, under the leadership of the Republican secretary of state Wayne Williams, Colorado took election security to the next level. We became the first State in the Nation to conduct a bipartisan statewide audit after every election. The results from these audits over the 6 years show that Colorado's vote-counting systems were more than 99.99 percent accurate. We put the burden on a team of Democratic and Republican leaders to use the State's resources--in other words, the State pays for this--to ensure that every person who votes is eligible and every vote counted matches the ballot.

Now, the SAVE Act would completely reverse this progress. It would bog down the voter in endless mountains of new redtape, and in the end, millions of Americans wouldn't cast a ballot at all. Now, think about it and ask yourself who this really impacts: seniors who no longer drive, rural Americans who live hours from a government office. These are likely Republican voters, but it is going to impact them negatively. It will impact working parents who can't take time off to track down paperwork or take work off to vote in person. It would impact women whose last names have changed, as I mentioned. At the end of the day, none of it helps you, the voter.

It is all a distraction--a rather large distraction. Every hour that we are spending in the debate about the SAVE America Act is an hour we are not spending bringing down the cost of groceries or housing, healthcare.

While Americans are worried about costs and they are worried about their families and their future, the administration is relitigating the 2020 election and waging a war most Americans don't want. All of this chaos--from Colorado to Venezuela to Iran to Minnesota--is one big distraction from this administration's failure to lower costs for Americans.

The bill was never about saving Americans money. They call it the SAVE Act. It creates a misrepresentation. But what we should be here today to accomplish is to figure out how to save money for the American people, for all of you.

If your agenda is working and you are delivering on promises, you don't have to make it harder for people to vote. I would argue that agenda might not be working. I think the results, if your agenda is working--and the people--speak for themselves.

So let me spell it out. Americans want lower costs--not wars abroad, not violence in the streets. Americans are looking literally for any sign that this administration still sees them, still sees the rising grocery costs, the gas prices, the huge bill increases from doctors' offices.

This administration refuses to acknowledge these problems exist, and there is so much infighting within the President's ranks that they can't decide whether this war will go on for 2 weeks or 5 weeks or a year. Are American troops going to be deployed? The jury is still out on that as well. It is a lot of noise and not a lot of substance. So far, there is no evidence of a comprehensive plan and certainly no--and by that I mean zero--accountability to the American people.

Let's remember, the Pentagon just announced their plan to ask Congress for $200 billion to fund the war in Iran. They want the American taxpayers to sign off on borrowing--because we don't have the cash--$200 billion more money--$200 billion more. With that kind of money, we could fund universal pre-K in every State in this country, we could get to universal healthcare coverage, we could have free school meals for every child and free community college for every American for a full year.

So when they shout out the importance of the SAVE Act, remember this one thing: It will not help you save a penny on your rent, your groceries, the cost of your healthcare. The only thing it is saving, I would argue, is their political skin.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.