Floor Statements

Madam President, today, America looks like a country governed by teenagers who grew up reading ``Choose Your Own Adventure'' books. They got some authority and decided they could govern under a system of choose-your-own-laws. But a government that derives its power from the people cannot endure if its laws change every few years based on the whims of a select few in positions of power. That is, after all, why John Adams said we are ``a government of laws, not men.''

Folks, our laws are not a buffet. You can't pick and choose which ones to uphold and which to overlook based on your desires. But that is exactly what we are experiencing today under Democratic control. This is a political party that wants to rule but do so without following the rules. They want to break our institutions, rig the system in their favor, and fundamentally transform our country.

Today, we are seeing the result of this radical agenda. Look no further than the Biden border crisis. U.S. law requires that immigrants be deported or detained pending determination if they don't have a legal right to be here, but under this administration, enforcement simply no longer exists.

In September 2019, on the campaign trail, Joe Biden proudly said to those seeking asylum in America:

You should come.

In March 2020, he said:

The only deportations that will take place are commissions

of felonies.

President Biden knew we didn't have the detention space, the enforcement capacity, or the administrative staff to follow the law, but he encouraged people to come, and they listened.

If the illegal immigrants who have entered the United States since President Biden took office establish a new city, it would be the ninth largest city in the country, with a population of 1.34 million. And they are still coming. Just this week, we learned that what might be the largest caravan ever--nearly 15,000 migrants--is headed to our southern border. This is unacceptable and unsustainable, and it was completely avoidable.

This manufactured border crisis is also a boon for the deadly drug cartels. Customs and Border Protection estimates that smuggling migrants into the United States earns cartels up to--get this, folks-- $6 billion a year. And in the first 3 months of 2022, Border Patrol seized over 150 pounds of drugs on the southern border. Our country has been struggling with an opioid epidemic for far too long, and the Biden administration's solution is an open border that will allow some of the deadliest drugs to be transported across the country, turning every State into a border State. In fact, in 2021, more than 100,000 Americans died from drug overdoses--the highest number ever recorded-- with opioids such as fentanyl responsible for 3 out of 5 of those deaths. Not to mention the horrific abuses many young girls and women face at the hands of their smugglers.

Folks, don't miss this: The Biden administration is aiding and abetting illegal immigration and all the criminal activity that comes with it. They have the tools in their toolbox to curb the flow of drugs and human trafficking and to stop the historic record of illegal border crossings, but they refuse to use them.

On his first day in office, the President canceled the construction of the barrier along our southern border, calling it ``a waste of money.'' Ironically, his decision to not build the wall is the real waste of money because, while it is not providing any security, it is still costing taxpayers. Since pulling the plug on the project, Biden has continued paying contractors upwards of $3 million a day--yes, you heard it right, folks: $3 million a day--to watch over the unused materials that are lying in the desert. Taxpayers are being billed to babysit piles of surplus materials.

But some States being overrun by the influx of illegal immigrants would still like to set up barriers to control who is coming across the border from Mexico. Taxpayers have already paid $350 million for the concrete, the steel, and the fencing that is now sitting idle, collecting dust and dollars. Why not let States that want to build the wall access these unused materials? It would save taxpayers money and deter the unprecedented number of border crossings that we have seen as a result of Biden's border policies--or in this case, lack thereof.

To paraphrase a well-known quotation in Iowa, if you build it, they will come. Let's paraphrase: If you don't build it, they will come.

Folks, America is and always has been a welcoming nation, but those seeking a better life here have an obligation to respect our laws, and the President has a sworn duty to enforce them. That is why I introduced the Border's Unused Idle and Lying Dormant Inventory Transfer Act, or the BUILD IT Act, which would turn over the unused materials already purchased by taxpayers to construct the southern border barrier to any State wishing to finish the job.

President Biden's refusal to secure our border is causing chaos and allowing cartels to smuggle drugs into communities in Iowa and across the country, while costing taxpayers billions of dollars for nothing.

Here is a simple solution: President Biden, please enforce current immigration laws, curb cartel activity, and put these materials to use. Let's end the taxpayer-funded waste, and let's stop the unprecedented flow of illegal migrants, and let's build it.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, etched in marble above the chair you are sitting in is the Latin phrase ``E Pluribus Unum,'' meaning ``out of many, one.''

Despite our differences, the union among our respective States as a single nation expressed by this motto has endured for nearly 250 years. The principles of liberty and equality upon which our Nation was conceived have not only survived but continued to flourish and expand from one generation to the next.

Many of us who are Members of this body would not have been eligible to cast a vote, much less serve in Congress, not so long ago. We stand here as real, live proof that the American experiment in self- determination has been a success unlike any other in history. This triumph has been made possible by the institutions established by our Founders to serve as guardrails to ensure liberty and maintain order while preventing tyranny.

Today more than ever, those institutions are under attack by the intrusion

of a woke counterculture that has taken over the Democratic Party. They condemn America as culpable rather than exceptional and embrace socialism, a system in which government controls everything.

Under the spell of these radical elements, the Democrats have unleashed a strange multiverse of madness in which reality no longer has meaning and the foundations upon which our Nation was built are being turned upside down and inside out or destroyed altogether.

The left tells us to trust the science and to believe all women--yet they can't even define what a woman is--and that criminals are victims and the law enforcement officers who risk their own lives every day to protect us are somehow the real perpetrators of injustice. Now they want Washington to be the arbiter of truth. That is right, folks. The Department of Homeland Security, which should be focused on securing our borders, is now trying to police what the Biden administration deems disinformation. It sounds like a novel idea, and by that, I mean George Orwell's novel ``1984'' in which the Ministry of Truth pushed state propaganda which was the exact opposite of truth.

This attempt to control what you can and cannot say is not only an attack on our First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of speech and the press, but an assault on truth itself. We don't need anyone in Washington--especially Joe Biden, who is factually challenged himself-- telling us how to think or what to say. That may be how things are run in socialist countries like Russia and China but not in America, the land of the free.

The Senate itself is a prime target of this effort to undermine America's institutions by silencing opposing views. The Democrats are determined to end the Senate's long tradition of unlimited debate that has long guaranteed all voices can be heard. Senator Schumer once said that eliminating the filibuster would be ``a doomsday for democracy.'' He then ignored his own apocalyptic warning by voting to nuke the filibuster for executive and judicial nominations. In doing so, the Democrats, minus Joe Manchin, threw away the only leverage the minority party in the Senate has to influence Presidential appointments, including lifelong terms on the Court.

You would think they would have learned their lesson about how shortsighted that decision was, but they haven't. Now Senator Schumer is determined to do away with the legislative filibuster so he can push through the Democrats' radical plan to remake America by giving Washington control of how voters select their representatives and stacking the Supreme Court with liberal Justices who will legislate from the Bench rather than interpret the law through the lens of the Constitution.

Democrats have long been working to discredit and undermine the independence and legitimacy of the Supreme Court. The Senate majority leader himself has publicly issued personal threats against specific Justices, warning that if they do not rule as he desired, they will ``pay the price.''

Earlier this month, for the first time ever, a draft opinion of a pending case before the Supreme Court was leaked to the media. Chief Justice John Roberts called the unprecedented breach of the Court's confidential deliberations a ``betrayal of the confidences of the Court . . . intended to undermine the integrity of our operations.''

Following the cues from the majority leader, radical activists are harassing Supreme Court Justices in an effort to intimidate and influence their verdict.

Folks, this madness has got to end. This woke crowd is living in an alternate universe that is devoid of reality where our Nation and those who founded it are now the enemy. It is all very strange because no serious study of history can look at the impact made by our great Nation, especially in the last century, and conclude that the world is not considerably better off as a result of the American Revolution.

America led the world to end fascism, defeat communism, and counter terrorism. At home, we expanded the right to vote and ended segregation. And there are countless brave men and women from all walks of life who have answered the call of our Nation, who are stationed around the globe at this very moment, ready to sacrifice all to defend freedom and stop tyranny.

Our system of self-government has lived up to and surpassed the promise of our Founders to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.

All of this will be lost if we give in to the demands of the angry woke mob, which seeks to destroy the foundations that have long guided us and held us together as one Nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

I yield the floor.

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

Mr. President, I am really beginning to believe everyone in the White House is clueless. After promising to lead us away from crisis and chaos, President Biden has instead made achieving the American dream

more challenging and, folks, a heck of a lot more expensive while at the same time making the world a much more dangerous place. Then, to cover up the connection between his actions and their disastrous outcomes, the President plays the blame game.

Since Joe Biden was sworn in as President just a little over a year ago, we have experienced record-setting inflation, making everyday essentials unaffordable; an unprecedented number of migrants rushing our southern border; our national debt topping $30 trillion for the first time; the Taliban's retaking control of Afghanistan; and the world being brought to the brink of nuclear war.

Are these events purely the result of chance or are they direct consequences of the choices being made in the White House? You don't need to be a detective to solve this whodunit. Let's go ahead and examine the case.

All right. Over the past year, the cost of nearly everything has increased at the fastest pace in over four decades. A gallon of milk is up nearly 50 cents, and 2 pounds of ground beef costs over $1.50 more than it did a year ago. Add in rising rents and home prices, and these numbers really add up quickly.

While Iowans and the rest of Americans are struggling to adjust their family budgets to the ever increasing cost of living, the Biden administration has repeatedly dismissed concerns about the price problem.

Last summer, the President said:

It's highly unlikely that it's going to be long-term

inflation that's going to get out of hand.

Now that the problem can no longer be ignored, he is actually blaming corporate greed.

Get a clue.

The Federal Reserve says the reason prices in the United States have been outpacing inflation in other countries since 2021--when Biden became President--is as a direct result of Washington's unprecedented spending spree. It turns out you can't just print trillions of dollars and hand it out for free.

Republicans in Congress and even some Democrats warned that this would happen when the President began pushing one trillion-dollar spending bill after another. Now hard-working Americans are stuck paying for the Biden binge-spending twice--first with higher taxes and then again with higher bills. When you add it all up, Bidenomics is costing every family almost $500 more a month today than a year ago to buy the same exact items.

So, despite the President's finger-pointing, this problem isn't being caused by corporate greed for profits, and it isn't caused on Wall Street.

The White House is using a similar setup to hide the true cause of higher prices at the pump. President Biden wants us to believe that the skyrocketing costs to fill up your tank are all Vladimir Putin's fault, but gas was on the rise for more than a year before the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In fact, gas prices have steadily increased since the President's first day in office when he signed an Executive order to shut down the Keystone XL Pipeline. On that day, January 20, 2021, a gallon of gas cost less than $2.50. The President then signed an Executive order turning off all new oil and gas leases on public lands.

While the President was shutting down U.S. energy, he was helping to make the world more dependent on Putin for power. In May of last year, the Biden administration waived the sanctions on Russia's Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. By then, gas here in the United States had reached $3 a gallon. When Putin invaded Ukraine in February, the price was already more than $3.50 per gallon.

So don't be fooled, folks. It is really Biden's war on American energy that has been fueling the soaring costs. While the Russian dictator is guilty of many horrible things, the higher gas prices we have been paying for over the past year and a half did not begin as a result of Putin in Ukraine because of the war.

It is impossible to miss the irony of President Biden's pointing the finger at Putin since the Russian dictator's aggression against Ukraine may have been emboldened by Biden's abrupt abandonment in Afghanistan. The poorly planned evacuation also turned over billions of dollars of weapons and equipment to the Taliban and other terrorists and left countless Americans and our allies behind while costing the lives of 13 of our brave servicemembers.

The President blamed our own military--he blamed our own military-- for not warning him of the catastrophe that would occur if he withdrew all U.S. forces, but those claims were contradicted under oath before the Senate Armed Services Committee by his own advisers, who said the President was told Afghanistan would collapse. Try as he might to lay the blame elsewhere, the President singlehandedly made the call to completely withdraw from Afghanistan, which will go down as one of the worst foreign policy decisions in U.S. history.

Now Biden's blunders are threatening to turn the crisis at our southern border into total chaos. The number of illegal crossings last year exceeded 1.7 million--the most ever recorded. To make matters worse, the administration has announced that those attempting to enter our country illegally will soon no longer be turned away under the authority provided by title 42. As a consequence, Homeland Security officials are expecting a record surge of border crossings, which could reach as many as 18,000 people a day.

Just like his other abrupt, poorly thought-out decisions, the President has no plan to deal with the inevitable repercussions. When the predictable disaster occurs, the President will be surprised and confused and look for someone else to blame.

I could go on, but I am all ready to rest my case since the same set of fingerprints is on all of the evidence of these problems.

But, President Biden, if you still haven't figured it out, I will give you a clue. Spoiler alert: The culprit is you.

Whether signing Executive orders to turn off American-made energy or signing budget-busting bills that are fanning the flames of inflation, the source of these problems can all be traced back to President Biden, with the pen, in the Oval Office.

It is right there, folks. Case closed.

That is how all of these crises were created over the past year.

Now, imagine how some of the other policies being proposed by Democrats, like defunding the police, abolishing ICE, or enacting the Green New Deal, could turn out if President Biden is given the chance to sign them into law.

Taxpayers can rest assured that Republicans in Congress will keep doing our part to make sure those bills never make it to the President's desk. And if the President tries to bypass Congress and enact its radical agenda by signing Executive orders behind the closed doors of the White House, Americans can count on Republicans to clue you in.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I call up my motion to instruct conferees, which is at the desk.

Mr. President, the Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer Programs provide critical innovation support to America's small businesses. While this program is celebrating 40 years in business, SBIR continues to be exploited by foreign adversaries due to lack of controls within the programs to prevent the transfer of new American technology to our adversaries.

China has become one of the largest beneficiaries of the SBIR Programs because of the lack of adequate oversight. China and other foreign adversaries, like Putin's Russia, know this and have been establishing shell companies, acquiring beneficial ownership in American enterprises, selecting key awardee personnel for talent recruitment, and other state-directed technology acquisition. China has also infiltrated businesses known as SBIR mills that have won numerous grants.

This is a clear national security threat and is wholly unacceptable. Serious and comprehensive due diligence reforms are needed to combat adversarial foreign influence in these programs and to protect our national security.

I ask my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support this effort.

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

Mr. President, in the last few weeks, we have heard a lot about and from Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson.

I would like to start off by congratulating Judge Jackson and her family on her nomination. I had a wonderful meeting with the judge last week. She is a highly qualified attorney. I would also like to congratulate her for making it through the Senate Judiciary Committee. The hearing process can be grueling, but it is extremely important. Judge Jackson demonstrated grace under pressure. However, I have concerns about Judge Jackson's nomination and will not be supporting her confirmation to the Supreme Court.

Perhaps my greatest issue with Judge Jackson is her lack of adherence to a judicial philosophy. I have been very clear with each Supreme Court nominee since I took office that I am looking to support a nominee who prescribes to originalism. Judge Jackson explained during the Senate Judiciary hearing that she abides by a judicial ``methodology'' instead of a philosophy. This means, according to her, that she begins at a neutral position to understand the facts and to interpret the law, receives all the appropriate inputs, and then interprets the law.

While I would hope that all judges, no matter which court they sit on, approach their rulings from a neutral position and evaluate all applicable court filings, Judge Jackson's methodology says nothing about the way she understands and subsequently interprets the law.

In my mind, there are three areas of the law a judge must evaluate: the meaning of the Constitution, statutes, and case precedents. Different theories of interpretation sometimes lead to different answers about the meaning of each of these different areas, which is why it is vitally important to know what a Supreme Court nominee's philosophy is.

For example, Justice Breyer, whom Judge Jackson clerked for and is nominated to replace on the Court, often described his own judicial philosophy as pragmatic. As a result, Justice Breyer balances the interests and values surrounding a case.

While I don't agree with Justice Breyer's method of interpretation, Judge Jackson won't even commit to abiding by this judicial philosophy, and this is very troubling. If a Justice's legal interpretation has no philosophical grounding, that provides flexibility for a Justice to bend their thinking to achieve a desired outcome instead of following a structured analysis. We have enough politicians in the legislative branch; we don't need any in the courts, especially the Supreme Court.

My concerns with Judge Jackson's apparent lack of a judicial philosophy are magnified by her other progressive and activist choices. Case in point: her lax stance on the sentencing of pedophiles. The laws she applied simply hold those who distribute child pornography accountable, considering how often these offenders recidivate. Instead, Judge Jackson went out of her way to articulate her discomfort with imposing sentences based upon, in her words, ``outdated laws'' because the nature of child pornography distribution has changed. For the children depicted in these heinous images, it really doesn't matter how they are distributed. Judge Jackson afforded leniency to offenders and previewed for all of us how she applies outdated laws to modern problems.

Going further, when asked if she supports expanding the number of Justices on the Supreme Court, Judge Jackson refused to reject that position. Perhaps echoing this thought process during the Senate Judiciary hearing, Judge Jackson commented that she would be ``thrilled to be one of however many'' Justices. This tells me everything I need to know.

In addition, Judge Jackson's unverified stance on life issues gives me great pause. During several exchanges at the hearing, Judge Jackson refused to acknowledge when the life of an unborn child begins. As a result, the only information I have to evaluate is her previous decision supporting a Massachusetts law that created a buffer zone preventing pro-life sidewalk counselors from approaching expectant mothers outside of abortion clinics.

Without an articulated process on how the judge would approach a life question in combination with this troubling decision, I have no reassurance that the judge will not take an activist stance. I cannot and will not accept this answer.

Finally, I am deeply concerned at Judge Jackson's response when asked to define a woman. The judge responded that she is not a biologist. Well, folks, I am not a biologist either, but it seems pretty common sense to me. I can tell you the voters of Iowa didn't have to think about the answer to this question when they elected me as the first woman to represent Iowa in the U.S. Senate. I can tell you the Taliban didn't have to think about the answer to this question when they closed the doors of schools to female students 2 weeks ago. And I can tell you President Biden didn't have to think about the answer to this question when he nominated Judge Jackson as the first Black woman to the Supreme Court.

While I am grateful Judge Jackson believes science is the basis for determining a woman, I am deeply concerned that a fellow woman who is set to define the contours of laws that are specific to women has to even think about an answer to that question.

So Judge Jackson's language, or lack thereof, speaks volumes for me, and I cannot support her nomination for a lifetime appointment on our Nation's highest Court.

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 returned to the United States Sunday night after leading a bipartisan Senate delegation visit to Poland and Germany. Ten Senators--Republicans and Democrats--traveled together to demonstrate America's unwavering support for the freedom-loving people of Ukraine and affirm the strength of the world's most powerful alliance.

I will never forget an engagement with Ukrainian civil society leaders. This group of passionate, strong women demonstrated Ukraine's spirit and their will to fight. They delivered a very clear message to the United States. They said that Ukraine can win, but they need more lethal aid delivered now.

Our bipartisan delegation departed with the conviction that the United States, Ukraine, and the free world have the will and the means to stop Vladimir Putin's tyranny. I am here on the Senate floor today to state my belief that Ukraine will beat back Vladimir Putin's bloody invasion. They will throw the Russian army out of their country, and they will declare victory over this lawless criminal incursion.

Folks, Ukraine can win this war. When the shooting is over, the Russian military will be broken, and the Russian economy will collapse--consequences brought about by Putin's chosen isolation and rejection of the free world. He and his cronies, their futures are not bright either. Putin's propaganda media machine will break down. He will be marked by the international community as a war criminal and, I predict, will be held accountable by his own people. His best days are behind him. Freedom will win.

Most of us thought these outcomes were improbable just a few weeks ago. The President's policymakers circulated intelligence assessments in the first days of the invasion which concluded unequivocally that Ukraine didn't stand a chance. They predicted Putin would topple Kyiv within 3 to 5 days. Tomorrow marks 1 month since the start of the war. The Russian military is disorganized and demoralized.

Four separate divisions are all competing for logistics resupply.

Putin knows he is losing, and he is panicking. He jailed his deputy chief of intelligence, and his military is burning the bodies of their Russian casualties. Russia's manpower and ammunition are tapping out while, on the other side, Ukraine's forces are hanging tough.

The weapons the United States and our allies and partners provided are being deployed with lethal proficiency. The frontlines have been frozen for over a week, and Russian casualties are greater than 1,000 a day.

Ukrainians are intercepting unclassified calls and eliminating Russian field commanders. Most crucially, the Ukrainian people are ready to fight to the last man. The Russian army is a force of teenaged conscripts, subjects of an authoritarian war criminal whose delusions of grandeur about the old Soviet Union drove this invasion. The Ukrainian army is made up of free citizens who chose freedom over Russian tyranny. Putin's invasion doesn't change Ukraine's choice, and they will not go quietly.

Given all of this, has the United States shifted its strategy? Do we believe we can help make a Ukrainian victory a near certainty? We all know why we must come to Ukraine's aid. This body's memory is not that short. The United States is an agreement-bound partner with Ukraine. We entered into an agreement. We are their partners.

In 1994, Ukraine dismantled and surrendered its nuclear armament entirely in exchange for our security guarantee--the protection of the world's greatest superpower. Our agreement resulted in a prosperous Ukraine and made the world a much, much safer place.

Before Vladimir Putin attempted to snuff it out for good 3 weeks ago, the American people and the world benefited from the breadbasket of Europe's vital agricultural sector and energy production. Ukraine has been an invaluable economic and security partner for nearly 30 years.

Putin is not only testing that agreement today in the streets of Kyiv, Mariupol, and Kharkiv, he wants to break freedom's momentum all around the globe. Folks, we can't allow that to happen. We must not.

If it has not been made clear enough already, an unshakeable commitment to allies and partners keeps Americans prosperous and our families safe. Authoritarians--whether it is the Taliban, Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, the terrorists who rule Iran--they cannot dictate terms to our security and our economy. We still are the world's superpower 28 years after we made a security agreement with Ukraine. America cannot be pushed around.

We also know how we can come to Ukraine's aid. Congress just passed $14 billion of support for Ukraine, which included nearly $2 billion of lethal weaponry. That aid--those weapons and that logistical support-- must flow right now. I fought for a provision in the aid package that allows the President to draw down on pre-positioned military equipment, and I will be ensuring he follows through and gets these weapons into Ukrainian hands. There is no excuse for American inaction.

The Commander in Chief now has the authority to transfer pre- positioned weapons and logistical support, including as many as 40 Soviet-style helicopters purchased for Afghan security forces, to the Ukrainians. America's commitment to Ukraine and our NATO allies demands we expedite the delivery of weapons and capabilities to Ukraine. Any delay due to the fears of escalation is reflective of a doctrine of appeasement that will only further embolden our adversaries.

Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said recently that success for the U.S. mission in Ukraine is, at the end of the conflict, a free and independent, sovereign Ukraine.

Folks, I wholeheartedly agree with this sentiment, but if that is our mission, America has to provide more support to enable Ukraine to win this war. We cannot hold back. The U.S. mission in Ukraine must go beyond ensuring the country merely has the means to defeat itself-- defend itself against Russian aggression, defeat the Russians. Now is not the time to be risk-averse.

This administration did little to deter Putin's march on Kyiv, an invasion set in motion as early as April 2021. President Biden lifted sanctions on Nord Stream 2, framed the United States-Russia relationship as stable and predictable as late as June of last year, and canceled European Command military exercises calling them ``too provocative.''

Public opinion, Congress, and even European nations have hammered, begged, dragged, and pushed the Biden administration to action. From economic sanctions to the Russian oil ban, the administration has led from behind and from a position of weakness.

Take the Polish MiG debacle; three Sundays ago, Secretary Blinken gave Poland a green light to transfer MiG fighter jets to Ukraine. The following Tuesday, the White House did a flip and rejected the transfer of planes out of fear Putin would see the move as escalatory. Forty-one Republicans joined my letter voicing displeasure to the President for his failure to act. Letting an adversary define your military's rules of engagement, letting the aggressor dictate the boundaries of our response is not just a folly, it is suicidal.

The administration crossed their fingers and hoped Putin would play nice. Well, folks, we know Putin. He didn't play nice, and deterrence failed. But the failure of this administration's doctrine of appeasement doesn't mean Ukraine will lose the war.

I commend actions taken to shore up the NATO alliance following the invasion, but our Commander in Chief must now lead and give Ukraine the means to win. If he is to continue being the most powerful man in the free world, he must act as such.

Delaying the loss of Ukraine to Vladimir Putin is not a strategy. Success is not a Russian-occupied Ukraine. Success is not a protracted insurgency. Success is a free, independent, and sovereign Ukraine. Defending freedom in Ukraine is defending freedom everywhere. Authoritarianism cannot prevail in this conflict.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I want to thank my colleagues Senator Durbin, Senator Feinstein, and Senator Murkowski for joining me on the floor this morning to talk about a very important topic and one that we can finally celebrate, which is the passage and the signing of the Violence Against Women Act.

Nine years--it has been 9 years since the Violence Against Women Act was reauthorized, but, finally, the Senate reauthorized and modernized this very important bill.

Last week, the Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization Act of 2022 passed the House and the Senate, and yesterday, at long last, it was signed into law.

I have been a proud champion of this bill over the last 3 years. And while no bill is perfect, I am extremely grateful for the bipartisan work to get it over the finish line.

This bill is personal. Many of you know my story. I am the one out of three women who has experienced some form of physical violence by an intimate partner.

Similarly, one in four men have had the same experience. This means nearly 20 people per minute, more than 10 million women and men in the United States every single year have suffered this horrific personal abuse.

I am not a victim. I am a survivor. It took me a long time to say those words out loud. And my hope is that with this bill some women will never have to, and those who do will have the necessary support and resources in a moment of crisis to cope with and ultimately overcome their trauma.

The reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act is a bright light in our current troubling reality.

The bill includes so many critical resources, especially in our rural communities, that have been drastically overlooked.

Specifically, the bill doubles the support for both the rural domestic violence assistance program and the Rape Prevention and Education Program, both of which are of great importance to my home State of Iowa.

And my sincere hope is that the resources contained in this new law will finally help truly move the needle on domestic violence around the country and that some of our Nation's most vulnerable will have access to the support that they so desperately need.

To my colleagues, thank you, especially to Senators Feinstein, Durbin, and Murkowski for your diligent work on domestic violence- related issues over the years.

I also want to thank Republican Senators Cornyn, Collins, Capito, Portman, Cramer, Tillis, Moran, Burr, and Blunt for supporting this vital bill at introduction.

The negotiations were, at times--my colleagues will recognize this-- very tough, and there were several doubts along the way as to whether the bill would actually ever happen. But with a little bit of tenacity and good-faith negotiating, we got there.

To those who work every day around this great country to help domestic violence survivors, including our law enforcement officers who are answering those domestic violence calls, thank you.

While working at a victim's shelter answering the hotline in college, I heard the heartbreaking stories of abuse. I understand this is your daily reality. Please know your work is not going unnoticed and is making a difference in the lives of those around you.

To all of the advocates, I greatly appreciate and respect your passion for the causes you support. Your persistence made this bill possible, and it made this bill better.

While the end result isn't perfect, it modernizes the resources necessary to meet the evolving needs of our survivors.

This bill is proof that bipartisanship is not dead and Congress can tackle these tough issues.

Finally, for my fellow Americans who can say they are survivors, for those who have not come to terms with their abuse and for those who feel trapped in their situation and for those who have lost their battle, please know that you are not and will never be forgotten. The Violence Against Women Act is for you.

Today, I join my fellow survivors, my colleagues, and our strong and wonderful advocates across this country in celebrating VAWA's reauthorization and its modernization.

Thank you to my dear colleagues for their wonderful work in helping us get this over the finish line.

I yield the floor.

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

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, there are very few things that possess the power to change the course of history almost instantaneously. Information is one.

Consider, right now, citizens in Ukraine are holding one of the most ruthless, autocratic, and powerful men in the world, Vladimir Putin, accountable for his barbaric assault on their country with their firsthand accounts being live-streamed from behind the battle lines.

Putin is attempting to censor coverage of the bloody conflict by threatening to jail journalists and Russian citizens who dare use the word ``war'' to describe his unprovoked attack.

Even the United Nations instructed its staff not to refer to Russia's military assault on Ukraine as a ``war'' or ``invasion.'' Yet, every day, Ukrainians are bypassing this blockade of information and exposing the Russian tyrant's atrocities in real time by sharing images of civilians standing up to the heavily armed Russian invaders, the innocent victims and destruction caused by the bombing, and captured Russian soldiers in tears testifying that they were lied to and misled into attacking a peaceful country.

As a result, the people of Ukraine have rallied the world, including many Russians, behind their courageous struggle to preserve freedom and democracy against the largest military assault in Europe since World War II.

This is the power of information.

Authoritarians like Putin cannot hide their dirty deeds in the dark as long as light can be shined to expose the truth. It should serve as a reminder to every single American how important it is that we uphold and defend the fundamental principles of our Nation that make us so great--in particular, our First Amendment.

We should never take these American freedoms for granted. That is why it is important we celebrate the freedom of information every year during Sunshine Week. With widespread distrust in government and the media and Big Tech controlling what facts and opinions can even be shared, it has become increasingly important that each one of us has the power to access facts, unfiltered.

To arm us with information, over the past half century, a number of important laws have been passed by Congress to increase openness in government and give our citizens a right to know. These include the Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, which allows access to government documents, and the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act, which provides a detailed accounting of how, where, why, and by whom taxpayer dollars are being spent.

To demonstrate the importance of these laws, let me give you a relatively simple example with potentially profound implications.

In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, I teamed up with my friends at the White Coat Waste Project to use a combination of these transparency laws to follow a trail of U.S. taxpayer dollars to China's state-run Wuhan Institute of Virology, where they were being used to pay for dangerous research on coronaviruses. The world is now demanding to know if these studies could have been the source of the COVID-19 pandemic that shut down our planet for the past 2 years and claimed the lives of millions around the globe.

Regretfully, we still don't know the whole truth because communist China refuses to cooperate and is, instead, destroying evidence and coercing investigators to dismiss any suggestion that the virus might have escaped from the lab. Even many within the free press of our own country, the scientific community, and Big Tech fell for the Communist misinformation campaign, smearing anyone who even suggested the lab could have been the source of the outbreak as spreading ``conspiracy theories.''

We refused to be intimidated by this Communist Party's propaganda and continued our search for the truth. We followed the science and the money and discovered the world was being told a story that was very much different from what was transpiring behind those closed doors.

Thanks, in part, to a transparency law requiring the disclosure of details on projects paid for by U.S. taxpayers, we knew NIH was funding a group

called EcoHealth to conduct experiments on coronaviruses that were obtained from bats in China and that they were doing so in collaboration with the now-infamous Wuhan Institute.

The White Coat Waste Project then used FOIA to obtain internal NIH emails, which revealed the Agency was funding controversial gain-of- function research on coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute in 2016. They also revealed Dr. Fauci was told as early as January 2020 that COVID-19 looked engineered.

Was this project, paid for with your tax dollars, somehow related to the release of the COVID-19 pandemic, which just happened to begin in the vicinity of the lab in Wuhan?

EcoHealth might know the truth or even provide some clues, but the group's president refuses to answer questions. In fact, he organized a disinformation campaign to discredit scientists who dared to ask that question.

EcoHealth also evaded a number of Federal transparency laws requiring the disclosure of how our tax dollars are being spent. As a result, we still aren't even entirely sure how much of our money was sunk into subsidizing the unsafe, state-run lab in communist China.

Folks, we really deserve the answers, and if EcoHealth won't cooperate voluntarily, then that information will be obtained with subpoenas when Republicans are back in control of Congress. You can mark my words.

This troubling situation demonstrates both the power and the shortcomings of transparency laws. Armed with information, citizens can uphold the government and make it accountable and expose malfeasance but only if the laws are followed, and, right now, many of these laws are all bark and no bite.

So what can a civic-minded Iowan do to get answers from inside the DC beltway bureaucracy?

Well, you know what they say: If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog.

That is why I have introduced the Watchdog Act, which will establish within the White House a new Director of Openness--yes, you have got it, D-O-G--Director of Openness in Government, who will be the taxpayers' best friend. This top dog will hound our government bureaucrats to fetch the facts for our taxpayers. Agencies that would not provide information in a complete and timely manner would be dogged until they do.

In contrast to Russia, where the government controls and censors information, my bill creates a transparency czar to open government and spread information.

Folks, we can't have gatekeepers of truth in a free society. That is why, under my bill, those who censor information, rather than those who share it, will be held accountable.

The best way to restore trust in our public institutions and to discredit misinformation campaigns is by shining a light on what is really going on in Washington, and with the Sun now setting an hour later every day, we are all reminded what a big difference a little bit of sunshine can make.

Mr. President, there are very few things that possess the power to change the course of history almost instantaneously. Information is one.

Consider, right now, citizens in Ukraine are holding one of the most ruthless, autocratic, and powerful men in the world, Vladimir Putin, accountable for his barbaric assault on their country with their firsthand accounts being live-streamed from behind the battle lines.

Putin is attempting to censor coverage of the bloody conflict by threatening to jail journalists and Russian citizens who dare use the word ``war'' to describe his unprovoked attack.

Even the United Nations instructed its staff not to refer to Russia's military assault on Ukraine as a ``war'' or ``invasion.'' Yet, every day, Ukrainians are bypassing this blockade of information and exposing the Russian tyrant's atrocities in real time by sharing images of civilians standing up to the heavily armed Russian invaders, the innocent victims and destruction caused by the bombing, and captured Russian soldiers in tears testifying that they were lied to and misled into attacking a peaceful country.

As a result, the people of Ukraine have rallied the world, including many Russians, behind their courageous struggle to preserve freedom and democracy against the largest military assault in Europe since World War II.

This is the power of information.

Authoritarians like Putin cannot hide their dirty deeds in the dark as long as light can be shined to expose the truth. It should serve as a reminder to every single American how important it is that we uphold and defend the fundamental principles of our Nation that make us so great--in particular, our First Amendment.

We should never take these American freedoms for granted. That is why it is important we celebrate the freedom of information every year during Sunshine Week. With widespread distrust in government and the media and Big Tech controlling what facts and opinions can even be shared, it has become increasingly important that each one of us has the power to access facts, unfiltered.

To arm us with information, over the past half century, a number of important laws have been passed by Congress to increase openness in government and give our citizens a right to know. These include the Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, which allows access to government documents, and the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act, which provides a detailed accounting of how, where, why, and by whom taxpayer dollars are being spent.

To demonstrate the importance of these laws, let me give you a relatively simple example with potentially profound implications.

In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, I teamed up with my friends at the White Coat Waste Project to use a combination of these transparency laws to follow a trail of U.S. taxpayer dollars to China's state-run Wuhan Institute of Virology, where they were being used to pay for dangerous research on coronaviruses. The world is now demanding to know if these studies could have been the source of the COVID-19 pandemic that shut down our planet for the past 2 years and claimed the lives of millions around the globe.

Regretfully, we still don't know the whole truth because communist China refuses to cooperate and is, instead, destroying evidence and coercing investigators to dismiss any suggestion that the virus might have escaped from the lab. Even many within the free press of our own country, the scientific community, and Big Tech fell for the Communist misinformation campaign, smearing anyone who even suggested the lab could have been the source of the outbreak as spreading ``conspiracy theories.''

We refused to be intimidated by this Communist Party's propaganda and continued our search for the truth. We followed the science and the money and discovered the world was being told a story that was very much different from what was transpiring behind those closed doors.

Thanks, in part, to a transparency law requiring the disclosure of details on projects paid for by U.S. taxpayers, we knew NIH was funding a group

called EcoHealth to conduct experiments on coronaviruses that were obtained from bats in China and that they were doing so in collaboration with the now-infamous Wuhan Institute.

The White Coat Waste Project then used FOIA to obtain internal NIH emails, which revealed the Agency was funding controversial gain-of- function research on coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute in 2016. They also revealed Dr. Fauci was told as early as January 2020 that COVID-19 looked engineered.

Was this project, paid for with your tax dollars, somehow related to the release of the COVID-19 pandemic, which just happened to begin in the vicinity of the lab in Wuhan?

EcoHealth might know the truth or even provide some clues, but the group's president refuses to answer questions. In fact, he organized a disinformation campaign to discredit scientists who dared to ask that question.

EcoHealth also evaded a number of Federal transparency laws requiring the disclosure of how our tax dollars are being spent. As a result, we still aren't even entirely sure how much of our money was sunk into subsidizing the unsafe, state-run lab in communist China.

Folks, we really deserve the answers, and if EcoHealth won't cooperate voluntarily, then that information will be obtained with subpoenas when Republicans are back in control of Congress. You can mark my words.

This troubling situation demonstrates both the power and the shortcomings of transparency laws. Armed with information, citizens can uphold the government and make it accountable and expose malfeasance but only if the laws are followed, and, right now, many of these laws are all bark and no bite.

So what can a civic-minded Iowan do to get answers from inside the DC beltway bureaucracy?

Well, you know what they say: If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog.

That is why I have introduced the Watchdog Act, which will establish within the White House a new Director of Openness--yes, you have got it, D-O-G--Director of Openness in Government, who will be the taxpayers' best friend. This top dog will hound our government bureaucrats to fetch the facts for our taxpayers. Agencies that would not provide information in a complete and timely manner would be dogged until they do.

In contrast to Russia, where the government controls and censors information, my bill creates a transparency czar to open government and spread information.

Folks, we can't have gatekeepers of truth in a free society. That is why, under my bill, those who censor information, rather than those who share it, will be held accountable.

The best way to restore trust in our public institutions and to discredit misinformation campaigns is by shining a light on what is really going on in Washington, and with the Sun now setting an hour later every day, we are all reminded what a big difference a little bit of sunshine can make.

Mr. President, I call on this body to support the people of Ukraine fighting for their lives right now, today. Our mandate to act is clear.

Here is a little bit of history for this body. In 1994, in the months following the end of the Cold War, Ukraine was very fragile, working through the challenges of establishing and sustaining democratic government, while sitting atop the world's third largest stockpile of nuclear weapons, arms abandoned in the final days of the Soviet Union.

The United States intervened. In exchange for protection by the greatest superpower in the history of the world, Ukraine dismantled and surrendered their nuclear armament entirely. That agreement made the world a safer place, but Vladimir Putin called the United States to the carpet on our agreement last week. He gambled that America would again abandon our partners, as we did in Afghanistan. Putin gambled that U.S. treaties and agreements are no more valuable than the paper they are written on. He didn't bet against the Ukrainians, where he has every military advantage in a head-to-head conflict. His criminal invasion-- now a bloody war of aggression against Ukraine--was a bet against American supremacy.

We cannot allow Putin to get away with it. The American people don't want us to either. Over 80 percent of Americans want us to do more to bring down Vladimir Putin, stand with Ukraine, and end this conflict. They are not just feeling the impacts of the invasion at the gas pump, the grocery store, and in their retirement accounts; they feel it in their hearts.

We are the greatest Nation on the face of the planet. We stand for freedom. But our greatness and our standing are only as strong as our world. The American people know it, and they are looking for us to act.

Unfortunately, the U.S. response to this point is at best incomplete. It is tepid. It is halfhearted and impassive to the Russian bear that is looking to clamp down on the free world. This President and his administration are allowing the Germans, the Canadians, the Latvians, the Dutch, and the Swiss to lead in arming Ukraine.

This body, my colleagues, I implore you, we can do more, and we can do it better. We have seen the classified reports. We all understand, all 100 of us, that the Ukrainians are in dire need of our aid right now--not tomorrow, not next week, now. We also know the volume of not just combat capability but logistics supplies, secure communications equipment, and medical kits that we have purchased and staged all around the world to secure our partners.

My amendment does not spend another dime of taxpayer money; it calls on the Secretary of Defense to mobilize existing equipment, including provisions meant for Afghanistan, to arm Ukraine. This equipment will never be used by U.S. forces, but it is simply sitting in warehouses across the world. It belongs at the Polish border and in the hands of Ukrainians, who are fighting for their lives as I am speaking here on the floor today.

We know we have capabilities that we bought for the Afghans that could be loaded and flown to Poland to help our counterparts. That is open source. That information is out there. We have other capabilities as well that you all know belong in the hands of our Ukrainian friends. This administration's doctrine of appeasement has provided more arms for the Taliban than for the sovereign nation of Ukraine, and it is not even close.

The administration's abandonment of Afghanistan drew deserved condemnation from Democrats and Republicans in this body, but today and every day we don't act to arm our partners in Ukraine, we will be held to account. If we don't act now, this body's lack of immediate attention and action on this matter will be recorded in history.

We took an oath to ``support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.'' That obligates us to secure the homefront but also to stand with our allies and partners. Our oath demands Congress--just as it demands our men and women in uniform--protect the American people. That vow compels us to honor our commitments abroad, stand with freedom, and do what the American people sent us here to do.

The fight for Ukraine doesn't end today. I will continue to advocate for already procured equipment and capabilities that are programmed, budgeted, contracted, purchased, and sitting in containers unused to go to those who need it the most.

Let's execute our oath today.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, tonight, the President will deliver the annual State of the Union Address. And I have to admit, as a result of President Biden's policies over the past year, nearly everything is up--consumer prices, up; violent crime, up; the national debt, illegal border crossings, fatal drug overdoses, our trade deficit--they are all up.

But what isn't up is the public's view of the President and his policies. In poll after poll, the majority of Americans disapprove of the job that President Biden is doing. On nearly every key issue facing the country, Americans, by and large, just do not think Mr. Biden is up to the job. And more than two-thirds of Americans lack confidence that President Biden can bring the country closer together, something he promised the American people that he would do. Folks, this is really no surprise since it is, after all, the President's unpopular partisan policies that are driving Americans further apart.

President Biden might try to mask himself as a moderate, but no one is being fooled. Behind the mask, the real Biden agenda is more mandates from Washington, higher prices for all Americans, and less security at home and abroad. As a direct result of mandates imposed by this administration, for example, thousands of healthcare workers have lost their jobs at a time when we need them more than ever.

And because of the massive amount of money being printed in Washington, inflation is soaring at its highest point in 40 years. The cost of food, gas, housing, and just about everything else is significantly more expensive today than it was before President Biden was sworn into office.

The President chose leftwing climate fantasies over national security. His doctrine of appeasement has resulted in America becoming more energy dependent on foreign adversaries like Russia for the energy that is necessary to heat our homes and keep our country on the move.

And with the Russian military on the march in Europe and terrorists in control of Afghanistan once again, the national and economic security of our Nation has been set back decades. It is really quite stunning and gravely concerning what an incredible mess President Biden has created in such a short period of time.

Yet the White House is attempting to convince the American people that everything is fine. The President called his hastily ordered exit from Afghanistan an ``extraordinary success,'' despite leaving thousands of Americans and allies behind.

And the Biden administration has repeatedly denied that rising prices and empty shelves are even a problem, while fanning the flames of inflation and out-of-control spending. Folks, if simply printing money could solve the problem for us, we would be living in a utopia right now since Washington spent nearly $7 trillion last year alone. Instead, every American is feeling the pinch of Bidenomics--because spending is not the solution, folks; it is the problem.

And you would think that in light of Putin's aggression and the threats from other adversaries, our Commander in Chief would be focused on strengthening and modernizing our defenses. Instead, funding for the Department of Defense is being held hostage by the President and Democrats in Congress until the widely popular 50-year-old ban on taxpayer funding for abortions is repealed.

Folks, is this really the time to play abortion politics with our Nation's national security?

Having spent the last half-century in Washington, President Biden is totally out of touch with the everyday needs of Iowa families. And the world around us has become much more dangerous under his watch.

Just remember as you listen to his address, every time the President proposes increasing Washington spending, that translates into higher prices and taxes for you. Every new government expansion the President proposes means more Washington mandates and control over you. And no matter who he blames for the security crises we are in now, it is the President's poor decisions and lack of leadership that continue to make our Nation less safe at home and abroad.

To get our Nation moving in the right direction, we need a forward- looking, freedom-first agenda. To ensure our families have and can afford the food and essentials they need, the supply chain must be fixed. To protect and prepare our children for the future, we need schools to be a place of learning, not ``woke'' indoctrination. To protect our Nation from foreign threats, we need to ensure U.S. energy independence and the strength of our military remains unmatched. And to form a more perfect union, Washington needs to stop micromanaging how we live our lives and start abiding by the most important mandates in America, the ones that are listed in our Constitution's Bill of Rights, which protect us from government intrusion.

These goals don't represent a partisan platform but rather an inclusive agenda for all Americans that puts each one of us back in charge of the direction of our own lives. It is a vision based on freedom, on liberty, on opportunity.

Folks, I know this vision works because that is exactly what is happening in my home State of Iowa under the leadership of our Governor and my friend, Kim Reynolds. She has led with Iowa common sense and compassion since day one.

Right now, Governor Reynolds is expanding opportunities for everyone by cutting taxes to help families and small businesses. She is standing up for our freedom, putting our kids first, and ensuring parents have their voices heard.

Under her leadership, Iowa was the first State to reopen our schools during the pandemic. Governor Reynolds is pushing back on the massive Washington overreach from President Biden and standing up for our way of life. And she is fighting to keep the left's ``woke'' agenda out of Iowa.

Folks, Governor Kim Reynolds is the perfect choice for the Republican response to tonight's State of the Union Address and her record of success in Iowa is the ideal contrast to the life in Joe Biden's America.

Things are not fine, folks. You and I know that, and we feel that every day. But Governor Reynolds--her leadership and her vision for a better future--leaves me very optimistic about what lies ahead for America.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that Senators Graham, Gillibrand, Schumer, and I be able to complete our remarks prior to the vote on H.R. 4445.

Madam President, I also ask unanimous consent to engage in a colloquy with my colleague Senator Graham.

Madam President, protecting survivors of sexual assault and

harassment has been one of my top priorities here in the Senate. In fact, yesterday, I introduced the bipartisan Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization Act of 2022, which now has the support of 10 of my Republican colleagues.

Today, we are here to talk about another issue that is impacting too many in our Nation's workforce. The Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2022 provides survivors of sexual assault and sexual harassment with a choice between litigation and arbitration so their voices will not be silenced.

Earlier this Congress, I was glad to see progress in the Senate Judiciary Committee as they moved forward on this bill. The committee took action that I supported. They removed the provision on collective bargaining agreements. Just this week, I was even more encouraged when the House made further changes to the bill that improved the definition of sexual harassment.

While these changes are important and significant, it is still not a perfect solution. That is why, when I sat down earlier this week with the majority leader and the lead Republican sponsor of this bill, my friend from South Carolina, we agreed to come to the floor and ensure the congressional intent of the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2022 was crystal clear.

During our meeting, my colleagues agreed with me that this bill should not be the catalyst for destroying predispute arbitration agreements in all employment matters. Specifically, we agreed that harassment or assault claims should not be joined to an employment claim without a key nexus. Harassment and assault allegations are very serious and should stand on their own. The language of this bill should be narrowly interpreted. It should not be used as a mechanism to move employment claims that are unrelated to these important issues out of the current system. These clarifications are needed.

I care very much and support survivors of sexual harassment or assault having access to the appropriate process to ensure swift justice, but it is also very important to me that those claims stand separate from any other kind of claim. I am grateful that Senators Schumer and Graham stand with me today in knowing that those claims are meaningfully different.

There is one other important piece here that I would like to mention and that, I hope, my colleagues can agree with me on. If an employment agreement contains a predispute arbitration clause and a sexual assault or harassment claim is brought forward in conjunction with another employment claim and the assault or harassment claim is later dismissed, a court should remand the other claim back to the arbitration system under this bill.

I think we can all agree that we want to ensure survivors of sexual assault have their voices heard. We just have to do this in a thorough and thoughtful way.

My hope is that the legislative intent of this bill reflects the conversation with my colleagues discussed here today; namely, that the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2022 should not effectively destroy arbitration in employment litigation.

This bill is narrow and scoped to address sexual assault and sexual harassment cases. These clarifications we are making here reflect the specific challenges that victims of these particular allegations face. And if any subsequent litigation manipulates the text to game the system, Senators Schumer and Graham have pledged to work with me on a bipartisan bill to further codify the intent and language of this bill.

I would yield to Senator Graham for further discussion.

I am good.

I will yield the floor but want to thank my colleagues.