Floor Statements

Madam President, I so appreciate our colleague from West Virginia and his commitment to our Nation's veterans and today, on Medal of Honor Day, that he was taking the time to recognize them. We are grateful for that and grateful for their service and their sacrifice, and know that we are able to continue the work we do for our great Nation because of the service that they have rendered to our Nation.

Department of Homeland Security

Madam President, on Monday, I had the honor of joining President Trump in Memphis. This was his first visit to our great State after launching the Memphis Safe Task Force, last year.

And we were so thrilled with this. The task force has been working in Memphis for the last 6 months. And as we put that task force into place, what we saw is a city that has really transformed for the better.

Now, the reason the task force came to be is because Memphis, TN, in 2024 had the highest per capita crime rate of any city in this country. There were over 100 gangs that were there, vehicle thefts, carjackings, cargo theft. The list went on and on--aggravated assault, violent crime, murder.

What we saw was a rising crime rate, and regardless of how much energy local law enforcement put into this, apprehending criminals, there was a Soros-backed DA. It was a revolving door, and nothing seemed to get better.

Well, as Kash Patel and AG Bondi came before me before their Judiciary Committee hearings, I presented each of them with a crime stat sheet. These were the crime stats of Memphis.

I asked for their help. They committed for their help. At their hearings, they publicly committed for that help. And last summer, we started Operation Viper, and then, what we saw was a success. And because of that Operation Viper success with the FBI working with local police, then, last September, we started the Memphis Safe Task Force.

It is local, State, and Federal elected officials working with local, State, and Federal agencies, all working together: the mayor of Memphis; Chief Davis, the chief of police; our National Guard; Tennessee Highway Patrol; Tennessee Bureau of Investigations; 30 Federal

Agencies; our U.S. marshal; our U.S. attorney. And, yes, a difference is being made.

Residents had talked a lot about Memphis in 2024. They honestly could not walk outside their houses. Kids could not play outside. They were concerned about being robbed, assaulted, murdered, and seeing criminal gangs turn their community into a war zone.

Now, the fact that we have had such success in Memphis in dropping that crime rate by nearly 50 percent--50 percent--we are the example, the model, of how you can get in behind this and change what is happening with crime.

Some of the stats are that we have seen a 40-percent drop in sexual assault in Memphis, a 56-percent drop in robbery, a 68-percent drop in motor vehicle theft, a 36-percent drop in murder.

That is what happens when your mayor, your police chief, and your agencies are working in partnership getting criminals off the streets.

Now, since September, these combined agencies have made over 9,000 arrests, and more than 3,300 of those were for violent criminals, violent offenders.

Among them are hundreds of warrant arrests for domestic violence, aggravated assault, weapons crimes, as well as dozens more for sexual assault and homicide. These criminals are among the worst of the worst.

In late February, in 1 day, the authorities arrested a 26-year-old woman wanted for killing a 2-year-old baby. You know, that is pretty hard to hear. The Presiding Officer and I are grandmamas. We love these little ones. Hard to fathom somebody would kill a 2-year-old. This is the type criminal they have taken off the streets. They also arrested a 23-year-old man facing charges of first-degree murder, aggravated robbery, aggravated assault, and reckless endangerment with a deadly weapon and a 24-year-old man wanted for drug distribution and possession of prohibited firearms.

Members of the task force are working every single day to apprehend these individuals, and while they are apprehending them, they have recovered more than 2,200 illegal firearms, 1,200 stolen vehicles, and--get this--they have rescued more than 150 missing children.

You know, in the Biden administration, they lost track of about 500 children. Everyone said: Well, where are these children? What could have happened?

Because of the good work of these Federal, State, and local agencies and law enforcement, yes, indeed, 150 missing children.

This operation has been so successful in Memphis. It really ought not to surprise anyone in this Chamber. Sixty-two percent of Memphis citizens say the initiative has been effective at reducing crime, and 86 percent support hiring more police officers.

Imagine that. Everybody working together regardless of your political party, regardless of whether you are State, local, Federal. You have 86 percent of the population of the city saying: Let's do more of this.

Seventy-seven percent say: Let's build a new jail so we can keep these criminals off the street.

I am incredibly optimistic about the future of Memphis.

I am so grateful to President Trump, Director Patel, AG Bondi, and Secretary Hegseth, along with all the other Federal Agencies, for their commitment.

Department of Homeland Security

Madam President, you know, as we have heard on the floor today, it is the 40th day of the Democrats' shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security.

This is already one of the longest shutdowns in our Nation's history, and what we know is that our DHS employees have gone 46 percent of this fiscal year without a paycheck. This is something that is immoral.

Our colleagues across the aisle have voted not once or twice but seven times not to fund our DHS employees. So I think that it is incredible that they are doing this because they have two goals, and we know these are their goals because they have been on TV talking about this. They have talked to their base about these goals.

Goal No. 1, abolish ICE. They are all about it. They want to abolish

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

Mr. President, we are having quite a debate, and I do believe that the American people are learning quite a bit about the Democratic Members of the Senate and the Republican Members of the Senate as we go through this debate on the SAVE America Act.

Now, what we have heard from some of our Democratic colleagues is showing a voter ID is common sense. I am glad that they have come to that recognition and that they realize it does make sense that you would show an ID when you go to vote, that they show an ID many times a day, whether it is to pick up a prescription at the pharmacy or to register for Federal benefits or to go to a child's school. Voter ID is something that makes sense because the American people are accustomed to verifying to individuals that they are indeed who they claim to be. But our friends across the aisle, only here in this Chamber, are saying: Oh, we can't vote for that. Now, 71 percent of all Democrats, 85 percent of all Independents, and over 90 percent of all Republicans agree voter ID is a good idea.

We also see the same type of numbers when it comes to the other commonsense provision that if you are going to vote in a U.S. election, you really ought to be a U.S. citizen. That makes sense to people. They know that when they travel to other countries they don't vote in those elections, even if they are there on an election day. But because our friends across the aisle want to make it easy to cheat, they want to allow individuals that are illegally in the country or people that are here on a visa or people that are here as permanent residents or people that are touring our country to show up at a poll, grab a ballot, give an address, and cast that ballot because in 12 States in this country you can vote without showing anything when you go to the polls--just give them your name and cast that ballot.

Well, quite frankly, the American people think that the right to vote is precious and that we should defend ``one person, one vote.'' They look at casting that vote as their duty and their honor. And they are fully aware that if someone illegally in the country, someone not entitled to vote, casts a ballot, then it negates their ballot.

So the American people are watching and observing and learning, and we see that not only are they blaming the Democrats for this latest shutdown of Homeland Security; they think they have lost their ever- loving minds that they will not support voter ID and being a citizen of the Nation in order to cast a vote.

Now, there is another provision that I want to call attention to, and we are going to vote on this amendment in a few minutes. This is protecting girls in sports. We know that title IX has opened the doors for young women and girls to compete in sports.

Now, 50 years ago, when title IX came to be, we only had about 300,000 college and high school female athletes that were competing. Today, that number is over 3 million. And I know many of us are watching March Madness and the talented young women that are playing in this tournament. We love cheering for them. We love watching them excel and succeed. We love it when we are watching college sports and we see young women who have come together, who have formed a team, who have built that camaraderie and know how to compete as a team.

They like that, but obviously our friends across the aisle, who once upon a time liked to say that they were leading the pack supporting women, decided they no longer support women; they can't even define the word ``woman.'' So therefore they are not able to support women, and therefore they want to tear down title IX, which has opened doors of opportunity for young women.

Now, thank goodness President Donald Trump has tried to chase away some of the adverse actions against title IX that were carried out during the Biden administration, when opportunities for young women and girls were lost, when women would be forced to share a locker room with guys because the guy decided he was going to claim to be a female so he could compete, whether it is track or swimming or volleyball, softball. The guy couldn't win in the guys' category, so they claimed to be female so they could take away that opportunity, so they could take away that trophy, so they could take away the scholarship from young women.

Actually, I think that is disgusting--absolutely disgusting--but our friends across the aisle support that. They want to diminish these opportunities for women. But President Trump said:

I have had enough of that. He did an Executive order banning men from competing in women's sports.

Secretary McMahon, who is doing a fabulous job as our Education Secretary, is investigating educational institutions all across the country that are violating title IX and are allowing men to compete in women's sports and thereby take away the opportunities from women. Thank goodness she is doing that, and thank goodness these institutions are being held to account for discriminating against these women who want to compete, who want to be able to do it safely and without being injured.

In just a few moments, Senator Tuberville and I are going to push to pass the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act. We are doing this as part of the SAVE America Act because it is another of these issues where you have 80 percent of the American people, 90 percent, 70 percent of the American people who are for this.

What the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act will do is to codify President Trump's Executive order.

I am asked regularly by Tennesseans: These Executive orders are great, but when are you going to codify this and put it into law so that it will have the force of law behind it?

So today, when it comes to protecting women in sports, to making certain men cannot compete in women's sports; when it comes to affirming biological reality, we are going to take that vote as the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act is offered as an amendment.

To my friends across the aisle, I would encourage them: Choose today to honor women. Choose today to stand with women. Choose today to support so many young women that absolutely want to be able to compete.

You know, today is a beautiful day in the great State of Tennessee, which I think is the best place on the face of the Earth to live. It is a gorgeous spring day. The forsythia is bright yellow and blooming. The red buds are purple, and they are magnificent. The Sun is shining.

In driveways all across our great State, you have young girls who are out bouncing that basketball. They are hoping for their shot to play for Vanderbilt or to be a UT Lady Vol and to make that college team. They want to be able to compete. They are watching what is happening with March Madness. They are following women that they have seen compete on these college teams.

I hope they find it as absolutely disgusting as I do that our colleagues across the aisle have chosen a course of action. They cannot define ``woman,'' and they will not defend women. I would encourage them to change course and vote for the Protection of Girls in Sports Act.

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, you know, it is so interesting that we are finding ourselves here on a Thursday, and one of the pressing issues is DHS funding for Homeland Security. And I find it so interesting that my colleagues across the aisle continue to be given to this concept that they have grown over the last few years.

And it is that we need to defund Federal law enforcement, and we need to abolish ICE. And, of course, we know they have made this commitment to their leftist base that what they are going to do is find a way to go through defunding Federal law enforcement and abolishing ICE. And to them that is the holy grail.

So let's look at what this actually would do. I think it is important to note that the Department of Homeland Security--that ICE is already funded, fully funded, and will be fully funded through 2029.

Now, they can rant and rave all day long, but nothing is going to change that. That is already there. We did that this summer, and it was in the Big Beautiful Bill, working family tax cuts, but, of course, they all voted no. No one on the Democrat side voted for that, even though it was the largest tax cut in our Nation's history.

So they obviously never read the bill to find out what was in the bill, but one would think that with this much time having passed, that they would be aware that ICE is fully funded.

Now, what they are doing is prohibiting funding from FEMA, Secret Service, the Coast Guard, and other components of Homeland Security. And FEMA makes up 35 percent of the DHS budget.

And I just think it is so important to note TSA is not being paid, and this is now day 35 that the Democrats have said to TSA and to the American people: We are going to use you as our pawns because we want to make certain that we are defunding Federal law enforcement and we are abolishing ICE.

So our TSA workers are out there working without a paycheck because of this singular focus of our friends across the aisle. I encourage them to set this aside. We need to make certain that Homeland Security investigations, that TSA, that FEMA, that the Coast Guard, and that the Secret Service are all receiving appropriate funding and that we make certain DHS--Homeland Security--has the funds to keep this Nation safe.

I yield the floor.

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

Mr. President, I had spoken a little bit earlier about what was happening with Homeland Security funding. One of the things that we are hearing from so many school groups and church groups and

people and families who are coming up for spring break is their disappointment with these long lines at the airports and the difficulty in making those travel arrangements.

Again, I think it is so important to encourage our colleagues across the aisle to accept some of the concessions and the offers that have been made to them in order to fully fund DHS and focus on our Nation's security, but, as I mentioned earlier, they choose not to do that because they want to abolish ICE. That is their North Star right now. That is their guiding principle.

They are all about abolishing ICE, so let's look at what that would mean. One of the things that we learned from the American people is they wanted to see our Nation's borders closed. They wanted to make certain that we--the American people--know who is coming into our country and why they are coming into our country. We know that we want to be certain that people are not coming here with ill intent.

We have seen this play out. We know for a fact that there are about 18,000 known terrorists who came in during the 4 years of the Joe Biden administration. Many of these people came in with criminal records. We know they are on these Terrorist Watchlists. We know that they have moved across our country and that the Department of Homeland Security has been locating these individuals, moving to apprehend these individuals in order to detain them and prosecute them and to get them out of our country.

Interestingly enough, the vast majority of the American people agree with that process. They agree that these are individuals who should be removed from the country.

It is really quite amazing to me. In Tennessee, I have not talked to one single person--not one--who says ``Marsha, do you know what? I hope we get more terrorist moving into our neighborhood'' or ``Marsha, I hope we have more gangs, more drug dealers, more drug traffickers, more human traffickers, more sex traffickers, more pedophiles'' in their communities. They don't want that, and there is a good reason for that. The people in this country value public safety. They value that. They want our Nation to be safe. They want our communities to be safe. They want to make certain that we are going to have a safe environment in which to live.

Public safety and defending our country--that is kind of at the top of the to-do list when you talk with people about their expectations of the activities we are going to take up.

Mr. President, I am so grateful that we are having this discussion on the floor.

I will note that our friends across the aisle wanted a unanimous consent just to pass pay for TSA workers. I think it is imperative that we remind the body and also remind our citizens that this is one of their ploys. They have a ploy that they are trying to pull off here wherein their goal is to defund Federal law enforcement, abolish ICE, and return to a wide-open border. The only way they can get to that is if they use the American people and TSA workers as pawns in their scheme and say ``We are only going to fund them but not the rest of Homeland Security,'' because their goal is to defund Federal law enforcement, to abolish ICE, and to return to an open border.

But the American people are smart. They are watching, and they are listening. They see that what the Democrat Party has chosen to do with this continued shutdown--for now more than a month--is to not fund FEMA. Of course, many people need emergency management assistance right now. They don't want to fund TSA. They are asking them to work without paychecks. It is the same thing for the Secret Service. By the way, it is the same thing for those in Homeland Security Investigations, who are going after drug dealers, pedophiles, predators, and a lot of bad actors who came in across our border during the Biden administration.

So the American people know what this is about. They also know that by a vast majority--83 percent, actually, including 71 percent of all Democrats--83 percent of the American people think it is reasonable that if you go to the polls to vote, you show an ID. They do this many times a day, and they think that is common sense. You prove that you are who you are. If you go to a doctor's office, you are going to do that. When I go to the children's school to have lunch or pick them up, I show that ID. So of course you should do that when you go to the polls and cast that ballot.

In Tennessee, we have been rated No. 1 in election integrity. There is a reason for this. In Tennessee, you do a few simple things when you cast that vote. You show an ID. Our voter rolls are well maintained, and if you are going to register, you have to be a U.S. citizen. All common sense. All supported by 83 percent of the American people. You do that because you respect ``one person, one vote,'' and you want each and every vote to count.

You do that because you respect the men and women who have put on the uniform and have fought to defend the freedom of this great Nation so that you and I and each of our citizens have the opportunity to go to the polls and cast that vote. It is why voting has remained such a cherished institution in our representative form of government.

The SAVE America Act would require that everyone present that ID when they cast a ballot, it would require proof of citizenship in order to vote, and it would make certain that people who are not citizens are not going to vote in our elections.

This legislation should be going to President Trump's desk, and I am so pleased that he has really come out in front of this discussion and said: Let's get this done.

I find it really almost laughable that some of my colleagues are trying to say: Well, this would disenfranchise people. It would make it difficult for people to vote.

No, it would not, but what it would do is make certain that we know who is voting.

I think the other thing, too, is that it would make it harder to cheat. If you clean up your rolls, if you have to prove that you are a citizen, if you have to prove that you are who you are when you go to the polls to vote, it would make it more difficult to cheat.

There are 14 States in this country that require zero documentation in order to vote, and there are 12 other States that do not require a photo ID to cast a ballot. Some of these States--California, Hawaii, and New York--fail to take basic steps to ensure the accuracy of their voter registration lists.

There are some ways that States could do this if they wanted to. This isn't rocket science. These are things that the secretaries of state organization will tell you that many States do--States like Tennessee-- choose to do this.

Many of these States that work to keep these rolls clean and accurate go through and compare their voter rolls with the Social Security Administration's death records. Now, why would they do that? Well, it is to make certain that if you are mailing out ballots, you are not mailing unsolicited ballots and that you are not mailing ballots to an address where someone is deceased and someone could possibly have that ballot fall into hands and have someone vote who is not allowed to vote.

Our colleagues across the aisle, in addition, like to claim that there is very little illegal alien voting that takes place here in the country--oh, that never happens.

I heard one of my colleagues earlier today talking about this issue and saying: Well, there is just not that much

of a problem here. But just this week, the New York Post reported that illegal aliens from China, India, Cuba, and other nations have voted in United States elections and, you know what, it goes back decades.

And across the country, the Heritage Foundation has documented hundreds of instances of proven voter fraud. In October, Texas discovered more than 2,700 potential noncitizens on its voter rolls using the Federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements database--one database, 2,700. Ohio, that same month, found more than a thousand potential noncitizens registered to vote in the State. Governor Youngkin over in Virginia removed more than 6,000 noncitizens from Virginia's voter rolls last year.

And it is important to note that it is State Republican leaders who are leading the effort to show respect for the voter, clean up the voter rolls, and ensure that everybody's vote counts.

If there is someone illegally in the country and they are voting, that cancels out the vote of a citizen. It is imperative that States that have these large noncitizen populations make certain that noncitizens are not voting.

I would encourage my colleagues across the aisle, instead of enabling fraud, they should stand with the American people. As I said, 83 percent of the American people support the SAVE America Act. And they should stand there in support of fair, honest, transparent elections.

It is time to pass this legislation and move it to President Trump's desk.

Mr. President, I am going to have some comments on the SAVE America Act, and I think it is appropriate that we move forward on that legislation.

First, I want to talk a little bit about what has happened with the Department of Homeland Security. We are 32 days into a shutdown at the Department of Homeland Security. That is an unpleasant thought for a lot of our citizens in this country. Think about our TSA workers and our Secret Service agents who are out there working without a paycheck. FEMA, the emergency management response, FEMA has been suspended as communities in Tennessee, I know Michigan, the East Coast, places where we have had these storms, they are needing FEMA and the help that is there. But nope, because of the Democrats, the DHS is not funded.

Now, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, CISA, is facing staff shortages, increasing risk of cyber attacks from foreign adversaries like Iran, or the rest of the ``axis of evil,'' Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran. In that Agency, people are not showing up for work.

The Coast Guard, core operations of the U.S. Coast Guard, have been disrupted, maritime search and rescue, port security, patrols that stop drug traffickers, that has been disrupted. Why? Because our colleagues are refusing to fund the Department of Homeland Security. They have voted repeatedly to keep DHS shut down.

Now, I think it is irresponsible at any time to block these programs and this Department, but especially now. It is so reckless because of the elevated terror threats that we are seeing, especially from Iran, which, by the way, Iran is the world's largest state sponsor of terrorism.

Now, you can look at what has happened since Operation Epic Fury started. You had the shooting at a bar in Austin, TX. The attacker wore an undershirt displaying an Iranian flag. The FBI is looking at that as terrorism. On Thursday, a man from Lebanon plowed a truck strapped with explosives through a synagogue in Michigan.

Same day, you had an immigrant from Sierra Leone who opened fire on an ROTC class at Old Dominion University, killing one person, injuring two others, and we had some students who were able to apprehend this individual.

And the suspect was previously convicted of providing materiel support to ISIS, but he was released early in 2024 under the Biden administration.

Now, last Monday, the Justice Department charged two men for allegedly igniting homemade bombs outside the mayor's residence in New York City, and that was an ISIS-inspired attack.

Late last month, a Federal trial started against a Pakistani national who was allegedly recruited by Iran to kill a United States politician ahead of the 2024 election. President Trump was a potential target.

Now, it is important to note these are not isolated incidences; they are part of what we are seeing as a very unfortunate trend.

Over the course of his administration, Joe Biden and his administration allowed at least 18,000 known or suspected terrorists to enter our country. They had that open border. They liked that open border. They were working overtime trying to make illegal legal. And along the way, they let in 18,000--18,000--known or suspected terrorists. This does not include the more than 2 million ``got-aways'' that also came across that border without being apprehended.

I know that Homeland Security Investigations is working overtime to find these individuals to apprehend, detain, prosecute, and deport them, to get them out of this country, but there again, Homeland Security Investigations has a limited capacity to work on these threats because the Democrats have chosen yet again to shut down the Department of Homeland Security.

Now, one would think that addressing this issue would be important to them, but we think that they continue to say they want more restrictions on ICE.

What this is really about, Mr. President, is our friends across the aisle have promised their base--promised them: Look, we are going to defund Federal law enforcement. You leave it to us; we are going to abolish ICE. You leave it to us; we have got a plan.

Their plan, it turns out, is to use not only the American people but TSA agents, FEMA personnel, Homeland Security investigators, the Secret Service, and the Coast Guard as pawns in their political game--pure pawns.

The President has tried to work with them. They had agreed to a funding bill, and then they changed their mind.

The thing that is so interesting about this is they keep talking about ``Defund ICE. We need to defund ICE.'' ICE is funded through 2029. We did that in the Working Families Tax Cut.

What we have to look at is what the Democrats are doing is saying they would rather abolish ICE, open up our borders, and defund Federal law enforcement than actually provide for the security of our homeland--give paychecks that are earned, give these paychecks to the TSA, to FEMA, the Coast Guard, and CISA.

So I would encourage our colleagues to think about this and think about the danger and the risk they are causing to our homeland, the stress they are placing on TSA agents as they are trying to screen luggage to make certain that the flying public is safe, the inconvenience and the harm that are being caused to communities that really need FEMA to step in right now. They need to think about the work that is being done in communities all across this country by Homeland Security Investigations to apprehend drug traffickers, child predators, and to keep our communities safe.

Mr. President, one of the things I noticed about today is that it is March 4. That means it was exactly 8 months ago that President Trump signed into law the Working Families Tax Cut Act.

Now, we knew that this was a massive win for the American people, and what we are seeing now is that is beginning to play out. The American people are realizing what a big win passing this Working Families Tax Cut Act--the Big Beautiful Bill--was.

One of the things that have come up recently is the $150 billion investment it made in our Nation's defense, and certainly we are seeing that in action. It has been vital as our men and women of the military are working day and night to defend our Nation from these attacks from the largest state sponsor of terrorism on the face of the Earth, and that is Iran.

It also provided $170 billion for border security, including funding to complete building the wall on our southern border, building new detention facilities for those that have illegally entered the country and are awaiting deportation, and, to make all of this happen, of course, hiring and training more agents.

I think it is important to note that since this bill was signed into law, not a single illegal alien has been admitted into our country. Think about that. For years, millions--millions--of people were coming into the country, and Heaven knows how many known and unknown ``got- aways'' were getting into this country. But now, not one. And this has been especially crucial to maintain our border enforcement as our colleagues across the aisle, the Democrats, continue their push for a partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security.

When I talk with Tennesseans, the part of the law that they are most excited about is tax cuts, leaving more money in their pockets and sending less money to the Federal Government.

Now, true to its name, the Working Families Tax Cut Act delivered the largest tax relief for Americans in history, and it prevented a $4 trillion tax hike. Of course, that would have been the largest tax hike ever.

So while these provisions went into effect last year, most people are just now beginning to see how this is going to affect them because we are at the point where everybody is trying to get their information together and fill out their IRS filing for the year.

In this law, I was so pleased that my legislation to remove income tax from Social Security for our Nation's seniors was included. Every senior that is 65 years of age and older--every single one--gets a $6,000 bonus deduction. If it is a couple, married filing jointly, their bonus deduction is $12,000. What we know is that this eliminates the income tax for 88 percent of our Social Security recipients.

I think this is a matter of fairness. American workers spend a lifetime paying into Social Security. The Federal Government has that first bite at your paycheck. They take that money out. So why should seniors have to pay tax on that Social Security? It makes absolutely no sense to be taxing taxes. And that is what this provision has done for years. So by being able to remove this, we know that most seniors are going to see an extra refund of somewhere between $670 and $1,300. So for Americans on fixed incomes, these savings are going to help to pay for medicine, food, gas, groceries, and other expenses they may have.

For millions of workers, we have also lowered the taxes on tips and overtime. Americans who go the extra mile deserve to benefit from their hard work, and this provision of no tax on tips or overtime ensures that is going to happen. With the new tips deduction, single filers will see an average savings of $1,370, and some are going to see savings of as much as $5,500. With the new overtime deduction, the average is estimated at $1,440.

So this is delivering historic tax relief and benefits for families.

Earlier this year, I had the honor of joining President Trump and Treasury Secretary Bessent for the official summit for the Trump accounts. These are new tax-advantaged accounts that were established in our legislation, and they are going to jump-start the American dream for millions of children across this country.

With the accounts, Americans that are born between 2025 and 2028 are going to be eligible for a $1,000 contribution into their account from the Treasury Department.

Parents and grandparents and uncles and aunts who are always struggling with what to get for birthday, Christmas, or special events can contribute up to $5,000 a year into this account until that child turns 18.

We know these accounts are going to grow to tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of dollars by the time that child grows to be an adult. So I think it is so important for those of us that have grandchildren, for those of us that have children--think about what this could mean for those children and grandchildren to be able to have a debt-free college education or maybe a downpayment on a home or, for a child that is truly an entrepreneur, the ability to start a business.

We have been so excited about these, and the American people are excited about them too. Already 2 million families have applied for these accounts. To any of the Tennessee families who are hearing these remarks, I would encourage them to sign up for this. It is IRS form 4547.

Be sure you sign your child up for one of these accounts.

Now, it is impossible to list all the savings that are in the Working Families Tax Cut Act, and there are a few more that are so specific for families. The enhanced child tax credit was made permanent. That is going to benefit 40 million families that are now getting ready to file their Federal income tax.

We also have a new deduction for interest paid on made-in-America new vehicles. You will be able to deduct the interest on that car payment. That is going to yield thousands in potential savings for new car owners.

It permanently extends the estate and lifetime gift tax exemption. This is vitally important for people that own family farms, that have generational small businesses. What we have done for these family farms and small businesses is move that estate or death tax exemption up to $15 million per individual.

So for a couple that owns a family farm and they want to pass that on, that would be up to a $30 million exemption.

It also provides a significant increase to the basic standard deduction and permanently extends the first Trump administration tax cuts for businesses, bonus depreciation, interest expensing, and research and development. These are so important because your mom-and- pop shops that are on Main Street, your small business factories that are in every town across this country--certainly, we have many of them in Tennessee.

Families want to consider these businesses, but so often they have had to sell the business or sell the farm to pay taxes. So often, they end up losing money because interest expensing or bonus depreciation was not permanent or was not there at all.

We are looking, this year, at families seeing an average of $2,600 as a savings on their taxes, and, after they reset their deductions, seeing a take-home pay increase of about $10,000 for the year.

Our working families tax cuts are strengthening the buying power of our families. It is strengthening the growth opportunities for our businesses and our communities in Tennessee and across the country.

And I think it is important to note that I have laid out all of these things that the American people benefit from. But I would remind the Chamber: Not one single Democrat voted for any of this--not one.

So I think that is what our colleagues across the aisle will see. As our senior citizens realize they have got a

$6,000 bonus deduction, they are going to ask them: Why did you vote against this?

They are going to ask them: Why did you vote against no tax on tips? Why have you voted for higher taxes? Why did you want a $4 trillion tax hike?

Those are the questions that the citizens are beginning to ask, and I know that, as they learn more about what was included in the working families tax cuts--the Big Beautiful Bill--they are going to have more questions for our colleagues who were against leaving more money in the pocket of our citizens.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I move to proceed to Executive Calendar No. 651, Ryan McCormack.

Mr. President, new court documents that were made public last week revealed that nearly one in five--one in five--young teenagers have reported seeing ``nudity and sexual images on Instagram'' that they did not want to see. That is one in five--things that were just fed to them. They were not aware they were going to see this pop up on their screen. That is what was reported. These are the kids that said: Hey, this is what has happened on my Instagram screen.

That is just one shocking fact that we have learned from a landmark trial that is taking place in California that is focused on how social media platforms are harming our Nation's children.

It is appalling what these companies have done. Yet when he testified last week, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg actually doubled down on his record of denial. While sitting just feet away from parents who have tragically lost their children due to social media harms, he said: We didn't do this--nothing to see.

And, once again, he asserted that there is no link between youth, social media use, and, worse, mental health outcomes.

But we know that this is not what the facts and the data and the research tell us. We also know it is not what parents and principals and teachers and pastors and pediatricians and psychologists are telling us. We also know it is not what the kids are telling us.

We know that Meta has buried their child safety research because it didn't fit their narrative. They didn't like the results. They did not want to admit that the product that they are pushing is something that is harming kids. We learned that last year. We learned from brave whistleblowers who testified before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law that Meta knows what is going on, but they tried to hide it.

The whistleblowers have alleged that there is a toxic culture at Meta, starting at the top with Zuckerberg and the C-suite, and that they have encouraged a coverup and a denial of what their own research is telling them.

Years ago, internal reports showed that Meta downplayed the toxic impact of Instagram on teenage girls. To no one's surprise, Zuckerberg dodged questions last week about how Instagram can worsen anxiety, depression, body image issues, and eating disorder risks.

He claims that their platform does not allow people under the age of 13 to be on the platform. Yet internal Meta documents--their own documents--show that the company was building ``social products''-- using their term--``social products'' that are targeting children as young as 6 years old. Let's start this addiction early.

Now, Meta promises that their Instagram ``Teen Accounts'' are going to protect kids online. Yet reports show that only 17 percent of their safety features work as advertised. You know, that is a failing rate, and Big Tech companies have proven that you cannot trust them to police themselves. They cannot be trusted to tell the truth about the way their products are affecting young users.

Well, what we have seen is that parents are indeed outraged. And they have the right to be outraged. These

are their kids, and this is a product that is addicting their kids, and the company does nothing about it.

Research and a poll that we saw last week said 86 percent of Americans--86, a pretty good majority there--now say that they want tech companies to be held accountable for their role in the social media addiction crisis, and Congress should listen to them.

Last year, Senator Blumenthal and I reintroduced the Kids Online Safety Act. That legislation passed the Senate on a 91-to-3 vote. It has a veto-proof majority of 75 Senate cosponsors. I thank each of my colleagues who have cosponsored this bill. This legislation would place a duty of care on social media companies to ensure their platforms are safe for children--a duty of care, safety design, safety as the default.

Now, I think it is important to note that every industrial sector has safety standards and safety-by-design requirements. Whether you are buying a car or a toaster or a mattress or a curling iron, safety standards have to be met. The only industrial sector without safety product design is the virtual space--these AI companies and social media platforms.

We are finally seeing momentum that is saying: Let's pass some restrictions. Let's get the Kids Online Safety Act to the President's desk.

Last week, Vice President Vance called KOSA a ``great piece of legislation about child safety online.''

There is a reason Big Tech has fought us over the last 5 years, trying to keep this bill from passing. It is because they put profit over our children's safety. When a child is online, they are the product. The longer they are online, the richer their data. The more eyeballs they collect to a platform, the longer those eyeballs stay on that platform, and the data is richer.

And what do they do with that data? They sell it. They sell your child's data. They don't want to change their business model.

So last year, Meta spent roughly $20 million fighting the Kids Online Safety Act--greed, selfish.

They hired--get this--one lobbyist for every six Members of Congress. That is the extent they will go to to make certain they keep their business model and they keep your kid scrolling on their site. They have even gone so far as to assign a dollar value to each kid who is on their platforms.

We have had quite a feisty afternoon here on the floor, and I am so pleased that my colleagues have called out some of the actions that we have witnessed from the other side.

It is beyond me that they would want illegal aliens to vote in U.S. elections--beyond me. But maybe they don't want to preserve ``one person, one vote.'' Maybe that is not important to them. It is important to 80 percent of the American people.

And, you know, they are not wanting to fund DHS, and they are saying: Oh, it is over ICE. ICE is funded. Their money is going to continue. But what they are doing, they are defunding FEMA. They are defunding TSA. So if your flights don't go next week, blame the Democrats.

And this week we had a hearing in Judiciary Committee that looked at another inappropriate use of the Federal Government's inappropriate policies. And this week I chaired the first in a series of hearings at Judiciary Committee that will address Arctic Frost and the Arctic Frost investigation that targeted President Trump, elected Members of Congress, including me, and hundreds--hundreds--of conservative groups and individuals.

Now, the subcommittee I chair is on Privacy, Technology, and the Law. And we called before us the general counsels--legal representatives from Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile--the three wireless carriers that received unlawful subpoena requests from Jack Smith to access our phone records.

Now, what we know--because of whistleblowers--these are people that work over at DOJ. They are whistleblowers. They saw what was happening, and they said: This is wrong.

So we know what Mr. Smith was up to. What he and Merrick Garland and Joe Biden did was to weaponize the U.S. Federal Government to target President Donald Trump and his allies.

Just days after President Trump announced his 2024 campaign, President Biden named Jack Smith as special counsel. And with the approval of the Biden Justice Department, he issued 197 subpoenas to over 430 conservative organizations and individuals. Among them were more than a dozen sitting Members of Congress, including me and my Judiciary Committee colleagues Senators Graham, Lee, Cruz, and Hawley.

Now, the question would be: What does this set of individuals have in common? What we know is this: We are all Republicans; we all support President Trump; and each of us had valid questions about the 2020 election.

So here is Jack Smith, who was probably inappropriately appointed as special counsel. We never took a vote. He didn't have a statute that allowed him to be the special counsel. But he goes to great lengths to make certain that we could never find out about this deep invasion of our privacy and the violation of our constitutional rights. So he went to an Obama appointee, Judge James Boasberg, who signed nondisclosure orders--or you may call them a gag order. They did this to ensure that the subpoenas were going to be kept secret from us.

Now, the basis for the gag orders was this: that notifying the Members of Congress being spied on could possibly result in destruction of evidence, intimidation of potential witnesses, serious jeopardy to the investigation. I am reading that from the gag order. Imagine that.

We also know that Jack Smith's corrupt team of prosecutors consulted with the Biden DOJ Public Integrity Section about the subpoenas. They were informed--get this: The Public Integrity Section actually informed Jack Smith and his group that there was litigation risk for doing this. Oh, my goodness. That would be a violation of the speech or debate clause that covers Members of Congress while they are doing their job-- a constitutional defense.

Now, the speech or debate clause gives us broad constitutional protection from executive branch interference. This is what you call keeping the executive branch from running over the people's elected representatives. But the Biden DOJ--they were out for Donald Trump. They wanted to block him from ever being President. They wanted to go get him six ways from Sunday. They were after him. So they decided: Well, there is a risk, but if you put a gag order on it, they are never going to find out. So let's go ahead. Let's roll the dice, and let's go for it. Let's abuse their right to privacy. Let's infringe on the speech or debate clause. Let's get in and tear up the Stored Communications Act. All because they wanted to go after Donald Trump.

Well, thank God we have whistleblowers, and these whistleblowers over at DOJ came to Chairman Grassley. He started working on this. And, you know what, we did find out. We learned that Verizon and T-Mobile complied with the subpoena request--no questions asked, no concern for constitutional rights; they just rolled over without a fight.

During yesterday's hearing, we got to ask them: Why did you comply with these secret, unlawful subpoenas? Did getting a gag order on it not raise a red flag to you? Why did you do this?

The answer was not satisfactory. The representative for Verizon said they were aware of the speech or debate clause--good for them--but they had no system in place to flag subpoena requests for sitting Members of Congress. But, oh, they say they have learned a lesson. As he put it, ``Our processes could have been better suited to meet what was a new and unique set of circumstances.''

Well, you know what, we are turning 250 years old. I don't think the Constitution is exactly new. I don't think the speech or debate clause is exactly new. I think their response was actually an understatement.

Verizon utterly failed in its responsibility. So did T-Mobile. In fact, the company was under a specific contract that required it to notify the Senate Sergeant at Arms about subpoenas related to Senators. I think Verizon forgot that.

Yet not a single person at Verizon or any of the carriers lost their job because of this. I went down the road: Has anyone been fired? The answer was no and no and no, not a single person.

There has to be accountability. If they can trample on the constitutional rights of sitting Members of Congress and the President of the United States, they can do it to every U.S. citizen. We cannot let this stand.

Arctic Frost marked the worst weaponization of government in American history--worse than Watergate--and I am determined to make certain that Jack Smith is held accountable and that no American citizen--no one-- ever is going to face the weaponization of the U.S. Government against them.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, today, I rise to commend faith groups across the country for joining together in prayer for our Nation, as we near America's 250th anniversary. Causes like the Nehemiah Alliance's National 52-Day Rebuild Initiative offer a meaningful opportunity to unite in reflection on the enduring values that have guided our Nation since its founding: faith, family, freedom, hope, and opportunity. During this time of gratitude and celebration, I encourage all Americans to reflect on our many blessings and dedicate themselves to securing an even brighter future for generations to come.

Mr. President, 12,937 is the number of homes and businesses in Nashville that are still without power in the wake of Winter Storm Fern.

Eleven days after the storm hit, still, 12,937 customers of Nashville Electric Service are still in the dark. At its peak, hundreds of thousands of Tennesseans were without power. The consequences have been unimaginable. Many residents have had to leave their homes; others have struggled to power their life-sustaining medical equipment. Across Nashville, there have, tragically, been five fatalities linked to the storm, including some that occurred days after the storm hit the State.

One 92-year-old man, James Mitchell, passed away in his home after the generator powering his space heater stopped running. When a family member found him, it was 47 degrees in the house.

Two days later, 79-year-old Betty Doss, she passed away in her home after losing power for her HVAC system--her thermostat, 44 degrees in her home. I join all Tennesseans in mourning the tragic loss of every person across our State.

By failing to properly prepare for Winter Storm Fern, the Nashville Electric System, the 11th largest electric utility in the Nation put Tennesseans in harm's way.

In fact, in recent years, the company slashed funding for one of the most important ways to prevent power loss. Across Nashville, hundreds of tree branches have broken off into power lines due to the ice buildup. It is the main reason for power loss, and it is the responsibility of NES to trim trees around power lines to ensure this does not happen.

But between 2023 and 2025, the utility's leadership cut funding for tree-trimming services by $7 million dollars. The reason, as the NES CEO told local media in August:

We care about the tree canopy. We have to live here too.

Instead of funding tree trimming, the utility has focused on DEI. Between 2023 and early 2024, NES held 102 DEI training sessions for employees. It should be no surprise that when disaster struck, the utility was unprepared. In many cases, it offered completely contradictory information to customers.

People would get notices that their power was back on, but electricity was not restored. People would try to call NES and report an outage, but the phone system, it was not working.

They would pull up the website, but their online reporting was down. Yes, this is a failure. It is a failure for all 470,000 customers of NES. Half of them lost power. That is a 50 percent fail rate. When half of your customers lose power, then your system is not resilient. You do not have redundancies, and you are not able to provide the service that you are there to perform.

On Friday, I sent a letter to NES demanding a clear explanation for why it failed to prepare for the storm and prevent massive power loss for thousands of Tennesseans. In response, the company refused to take any responsibility and said that power should be fully restored by--get this--next week.

That would be a full 2 weeks of no power for many Nashville homes and businesses--businesses that have lost a lot of money.

So let me be clear, whomever is responsible for the disaster should be fired and should be replaced with competent leadership. This can never happen again.

In the meantime, I am incredibly grateful for the linemen who were on the ground making repairs and working in frigid temperatures to restore power. We thank them. They are the unsung heroes of the emergency response, along with our National

Guardsmen, first responders, local and State law enforcement who are working around the clock to keep people safe and get them out of the cold.

As we work to recover from the storm, I am grateful that Elon Musk has donated generators to hundreds of Tennesseans who are still without power. We have also seen everyday citizens coming together with that good Tennessee volunteer spirit. Yes, we are the volunteer State.

They are showing up, cleaning out debris, chopping down branches, and helping their neighbors in need. We thank them, and we thank friends who have come from other States to help with the cleanup.

In the face of any challenge, Tennesseans always come together. This challenge is no different.

I thank all who have been here to support us.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the previously scheduled rollcall vote begin immediately.

I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, I would like to take a moment and express my gratitude for the Tennessee National Guard, the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency, our Governor, our electric power distributors, and our first responders, who are in every county, for working around the clock, as well as local elected officials. I thank everyone who has stepped up to help keep Tennesseans safe during this horrific storm, as it is truly one of the worst winter storms that has hit our State in decades.

At its peak, you had over 200,000 people in the Middle Tennessee area who were without any power. Days later, people are still waiting for that power to come back on. We are hearing from some people that they have been told it is going to be days or weeks before that power is restored, and we know that everyone is working as quickly as they can to restore this. We are grateful for the support that has come from surrounding States in order to help in ours.

We know people are really braving these downed powerlines, these hazardous roads, frozen pipes, and frigid temperatures. We have lost 13 individuals connected to the storm, and I am joining all Tennesseans in mourning their loss and in praying for their families. We also are focusing on making certain that roads are cleared, that water mains are repaired, and that power is restored.

I am continuing to get updates from mayors across our State and especially there in the mid-State, and I am so grateful for President Trump's swift approval of Governor Lee's emergency declaration request so that we can get our State the resources that we need.

As we recover, I encourage everyone to stay off the roads, to stay home, and to be mindful of all of the recovery crews that are out working and to stay safe.

Online Ticketing Practices

Mr. President, any American who has purchased tickets for a concert, a sporting event, or a show knows that online ticket-selling is broken. Scalpers are using AI-powered bots and software programs to scoop up hundreds and thousands of tickets at a time. They are forcing some events to sell out within just a minute or two of the window's opening for ticket purchase. With no other options, consumers are forced into the secondary, or resale, market, and scalpers are marking up ticket prices to extreme rates.

The consequences have been disastrous for the ticket-selling marketplace. In 2022, Ticketmaster's website crashed after scalpers used bots to purchase thousands of tickets for ``Taylor Swift's Eras Tour,'' reselling them by as much as 70 times the face value.

One of the scalpers involved in the fiasco is a U.S.-based company that is actually located in Maryland. It is called Key Investment Group. They purchase more than 375,000 event tickets over the course of a year. In the process, they clear millions of dollars in markup resale.

These scalpers add zero value to the ticket-selling market. Fans are extorted to go see their favorite singers, teams, and entertainers. Performers do not see a dime of the money that these bots and scalpers are skimming.

This practice is illegal. In 2016, I led the enactment of the Better Online Ticket Sales Act, or the BOTS Act, which prohibits ticket scalpers from using software to purchase high volumes of tickets. Yet, under the Biden administration, the FTC rarely enforced the law, and scalpers like Ticketmaster turned a blind eye and bypassed the safeguards to prevent mass ticket buying. In some cases, the company allegedly engaged in bait-and-switch schemes with scalpers to drive up the ticket price.

Live Nation, the company that owns Ticketmaster, even, allegedly, provided tech support for scalpers by helping them aggregate tickets purchased from multiple Ticketmaster accounts.

The reason is simple: If Live Nation enforced its ticket-purchasing limits, then Ticketmaster would lose $220 million in resale revenue. But by working with the scalpers, it was able to collect fees at three different points in the purchase and resale process.

This extortion of the American people is inexcusable. That is why Republicans and the Trump administration are demanding accountability from ticket sellers and cracking down on the fraudsters.

In September, Senator Lujan and I sent a letter to Live Nation's president, demanding answers about his company's abusive practices.

Yesterday, I chaired a hearing for the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Technology, and Data Privacy on live performance ticket sale practices. We had the opportunity to hear from Kid Rock, who explained how bot scalpers harm the entertainment industry. I also questioned a representative of Live Nation, who had no explanation for why his company is putting fraudsters ahead of hard- working Americans.

Thankfully, the FTC, under President Trump and Chairman Ferguson, have launched several enforcement actions under the BOTS Act, including against Live Nation, Ticketmaster, and scalpers like Key Investment Group. Unlike the Biden administration, the Trump administration is enforcing the BOTS Act, as it is intended, to hold accountable both ticketing platforms and scalpers.

In the entertainment industry, nothing is more important than the relationship between the performers and their fans. With the exploitive practices of these scalpers and Ticketmaster, bot-powered scalpers threaten that bond. Republicans are doing everything possible to hold these criminals to account.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, with all of this upheaval in Minnesota and certainly with some other States, Tennesseans are learning a whole lot more about what is happening in this country with fraud and how people are defrauding not only the Federal Government but many State and local governments as well.

The calls that are coming into our office and the emails that we are getting show that this is an issue that has really grabbed the attention of Tennesseans. I think that one of the reasons is that people have seen fraud play out in their local communities. They have seen title theft, where forgers go in and steal properties. Then someone finds out their property is going to be sold on the courthouse steps. They all know of contractors who take deposits. They are fly-by- night, and they never show up to do the work. They know senior citizens who are being defrauded out of life savings. They have seen kickback schemes in their local counties and cities, where local officials go hire a friend and make a contract there at these enormous rates.

I do think that what has happened in Minnesota has caused the American people to look more closely at what is happening with their hard-earned taxpayer dollars and how these are being stolen through fraud.

We know that this issue goes far from Minnesota and into every corner of the country. The Government Accountability Office--and this report, I think, is significant--estimates that each year, each and every year, our government is losing between $233 billion and $521 billion to fraud--fraudulent programs, fraudulent claims.

So think about that. You have individuals and entities which willfully misrepresent themselves so that they can get taxpayer benefits--taxpayer dollars. They are stealing up to $521 billion a year of your money, and that

$521 billion could be an underestimation. We have a former Assistant Director for the Government Accountability Office who believes the number is actually closer to $750 billion a year. For context, that $750 billion is more than the entire amount of money we spent on Medicaid in fiscal year 2024.

That is $750 billion--estimate--that is going to fraud that would have more than funded everything we spend on Medicaid, and it is just shy of the $850 billion that we spend on defense. Those are some of the biggest components of our Nation's budget--Medicaid and defense--yet the estimate is that money is being spent via fraud.

Now, these figures don't include the taxpayer dollars that are lost through improper payments. These are payments that go to the wrong person or that maybe exceed the correct amount. Since fiscal year 2003, the GAO estimates that the Federal Government has lost $2.8 trillion to improper payments.

So you have to say ``Where is the money going?'' when you look at these numbers. According to the GAO, in fiscal year 2024, more than half--$85 billion--were improper payments under Medicare and Medicaid. That is called sloppy bookkeeping. And this should come as no surprise: In Minnesota, this is where much of the fraud has been occurring, including through the Medicaid housing program. This fraud could help explain why Minnesota saw the second highest in per-enrollee Medicaid spending under the ObamaCare expansion, where Federal dollars are underwriting nonexistent services and treatments. So Minnesota, with all of the fraud going on there, has the second highest cost per enrollee, and it shot up during the ObamaCare expansion.

We learned even more about the fraud occurring in blue State Medicaid Programs and in ObamaCare during the Schumer shutdown. Last month, the GAO released findings that showed just how easy it was to commit fraud with the Biden bonus credits under ObamaCare. It is the same program that the Democrats fought to bankroll with another 450 billion taxpayer dollars.

To test the program's safeguards against fraud, the GAO said: We are going to conduct an experiment. So they decided to make up 24 fictitious applications, and they did these quite sloppily. They made up names, addresses, information. They left out some required information on these 24 applications. So they are all false, and they are all missing information.

How many of those applications do you think were approved for ObamaCare? There were 23 of the 24 that were approved. They were fake, but they got approved anyway. So the Federal Government was paying more than $10,000 a month each and every month to insurance companies to provide coverage for enrollees who did not exist. That is a lot of money being wasted.

It gets worse. A preliminary analysis by the GAO found that there were at least 190,000 applications between 2023 and 2024--that is that fiscal year--that had unauthorized changes by agents or brokers. That means the individual--of course, we now know that many of these are fake--they didn't approve this or submit it or ask for it; it was the agent or the broker, without permission, who made that change.

Over the same period, there were close to 100,000 duplicate Social Security numbers enrolled in the program. In 1 case, there was 1 Social Security number that was used to apply for more than 125 policies. And guess what. They got approved. And guess what. All fake.

It is the insurance companies making the money every month, and it is your tax dollars at work for what is a fraud scheme.

Despite all of this fraud, the Democrats this week demanded a vote to overturn the Trump administration's Marketplace integrity rule, which protects consumers from the fraud that plagued the system under President Biden and his administration. I can't believe they wanted to overturn Marketplace integrity, but, oh, they did.

This is just one part of the puzzle. Every year, we spend more than $4 trillion on more than 2,400 aid and subsidy programs. Get that? More than 2,400 aid and subsidy programs. And almost all are vulnerable to fraud--housing subsidies, student loans, childcare programs, food stamps, unemployment insurance, and the list goes on.

We should be grateful that President Trump is working to root out this widespread fraud. The American people expect the government to work for law-abiding citizens, not criminals, and ensuring these scammers face justice is crucial to restoring trust and accountability.

To support his efforts, I recently introduced the Fraud Accountability Act. This legislation would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to explicitly make clear that fraud is a deportable offense. This will provide another tool for the President to deport or denaturalize scammers who have come to our country to steal from the American people--to steal from the U.S. taxpayer; to steal from the Federal Government--and pad their pockets.

Hard-working taxpayers deserve to know their money goes to those who truly need it. It should not be going to criminals who are choosing to game the system. I know the Fraud Accountability Act will help and assist in holding these individuals to account.