Floor Statements

Will the Senator yield for a question?

I am glad you mentioned M&M's. Both of us are lawyers. I remember I got through the study for the bar exam by eating mounds and mounds of M&M's. I thank the Senator from New Jersey for continuing to provide me with M&M's.

I want to thank you, Senator Booker, for standing here for hours on end to push back, to fight against this administration's lawlessness. In fact, a reporter asked me today: Do you think this is a good use by Senator Booker of his time to be on the floor to do this?

I said: Anytime any of us gets up and uses our voices to counter the fight against the lawlessness of this station, it is a good use of our time.

So, thank you, Senator Booker for yielding to me and for standing up for the American people. Is it making a difference? Millions of people are watching you, Senator Booker. Millions have watched and are watching you. It is making a difference.

I want to ask you a question about the lawlessness of this administration. As you yourself said last night, ``These are not normal times in our Nation.'' In fact, these are the very words that I often use when I meet with anybody who comes to see me from Hawaii-- individuals, organizations. I say, ``These are not normal times.''

So Donald Trump has made no secret of the fact that he fancies himself a King with total disregard for the rule of law. From day one, he and his administration have taken one illegal action after another.

On his first day in office, Donald Trump issued an Executive order purporting to end birthright citizenship, a right protected in our Constitution for more than a century--birthright citizenship.

He tried to unilaterally freeze Federal funding--funding for everything from cancer research to disaster aid, funding that had already been appropriated by Congress, and the executive branch is required by law to spend it. It is not as though it is up to the President to decide what programs he is going to release money for; Congress already made that determination. By law, he is supposed to expend these funds. But, again, he thinks he is the King and he can do whatever he wants. So he put a freeze on these funds.

He has enabled Elon Musk, an unelected billionaire--the richest person in the world, whose only qualification is the more than $200 million he spent to get Trump elected--to run roughshod through our government.

Together, they have attempted to shutter USAID and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, just for two examples. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has returned more than $21 billion to consumers through its enforcement actions--$21 billion going to our consumers. Apparently, King Trump can't stand that, and neither can Elon Musk. These are Agencies that do critical work at home and abroad. They represent just a miniscule part of the Federal budget.

But this doesn't stop either Trump or Musk from going after these programs. And Musk's so-called DOGE team has gained access to sensitive databases and payment systems across our government, containing the personal information of millions of Americans. So he has access to the Treasury Department database--all our Social Security numbers, our tax payments, all of that. He was running roughshod, until stopped by a court, on these databases.

They have done all this without any transparency or accountability whatsoever, meaning we still don't know the full extent of where DOGE has been or what they have done.

Trump has launched an all-out assault on our Federal workforce. He attempted to fire tens of thousands--he actually fired them--who are on probationary status overnight, only for courts to order them--these thousands and thousands of Federal employees on probationary status--to be reinstated weeks later. Talk about chaos. Talk about sowing fear.

So now he is attempting to reclassify whole swaths of Federal employees to strip them of civil service protections and in some cases eliminate their ability to bargain collectively.

He fired Department of Justice and FBI officers for seemingly no other reason than their involvement in January 6 cases--cases they were assigned to as rank-and-file officials.

It is not as though the people all at the DOJ and the FBI had a choice in the kind of cases they were going to be assigned. They were assigned January 6 cases, and the names of these people--there are some 6,000 FBI and DOJ employees who worked on January 6 cases, and there is a fear that those names will be disclosed.

He is going after schools, from kindergartners to universities, as part of his war on diversity, equity, and inclusion. There are many examples of the kind of government overreach that they are exercising through their effort to ferret out what they call diversity, equity, and inclusion, which, actually, that is a positive. Do we want to be inclusive? So I want to give you just one example.

There was a teacher in Idaho who had a poster in her classroom that said ``Everyone is welcome here,'' and there were handprints of different colors--white, black, yellow handprints. She was told she had to take this poster down. She was told that if the handprints were all white handprints, she could have kept the poster up, but she was told she had to take down this poster in her classroom that says ``Everyone is welcome here.''

She took it down at first, but she felt so bad about it that she put it back up. Then she was told by the powers that be at her school that she had a certain amount of time to take this poster down. Otherwise, there will be disciplinary action. That is the kind of government overreach that is a hallmark of this administration.

To date, the Trump administration has withheld millions of dollars from handpicked colleges and universities, conditioning the funding on unreasonable demands meant to bring these colleges to their knees. So he is starting with Harvard and Columbia. There is probably a whole long list of colleges that he has threatened to withdraw hundreds of millions of dollars from.

They have slashed funding and staffing of the Department of Education. In fact, they would like to dismantle the Department of Education, which is responsible for administering billions in funding for low-income students, students with disabilities, and something as critical as school lunch for kids. Every single State in our country relies on the funding they receive from the U.S. Department of Education. In Hawaii, we are talking about some $300 million in funding for our schools to help our kids with disabilities and to provide school lunches through the U.S. Department of Agriculture--the things that I mentioned.

As Senator Booker knows well, the list goes on and on.

This administration continues to abuse its power, acting with total disregard for the rule of law, so we have turned to the courts to stop these illegal acts. Now Republicans are calling to impeach these judges who are applying the law, who are doing what they are supposed to be doing and not just giving Trump whatever results he wants, but these judges are now deemed open to impeachment.

It is clear Trump and his cronies will keep on doing whatever they want regardless of the Constitution or the law. They are crippling government and sowing total chaos across our country while doing nothing to address the actual issues people care about.

I know my colleague from New Jersey is just as concerned about lawlessness as I am. We both sit on the Judiciary Committee. We know how important adherence to the rule of law is. In fact, I have said many times that it is the rule of law that separates a democracy from all other forms of government, and we now have a President who does not think that the rule of law applies to him. WTF comes to mind.

So, Senator Booker, my question to you is, What are the consequences of this total lawlessness on our government, our country, and the American people?

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

Mr. President, over the past 2 months, we have seen chaos unleashed across our country as Donald Trump and Elon Musk take a chain saw to our Federal Government, firing thousands of Federal workers en masse with no explanation and more firings to come. I suspect that by the time they are through--if they are ever through--hundreds of thousands of Federal employees will have been fired.

Rather than making government more efficient, these indiscriminate cuts are gutting our government from the inside out, effectively eliminating crucial programs and offices.

While Republicans shamefully paint hard-working Federal workers as faceless bureaucrats, we know that our Federal workers do important work, from ensuring Social Security checks go out to providing care for veterans and so much more.

Every State has individual Federal employees doing critical work-- often work that goes unseen. In Hawaii, for example, Fish and Wildlife Service employees are responsible for keeping invasive species out of our State. Once invasive species arrive in our islands, it is often impossible to eradicate them. That is why the work of these employees is so important.

Last month, the Trump administration fired Fish and Wildlife Service employees whose job was to keep one particular invasive species--the brown tree snake--out of our State. You can see, Mr. President, it is pretty ferocious. This picture depicts a brown tree snake eating a bird whole.

Native to Australia, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea, the brown tree snake was accidentally introduced to Guam during World War II and has been wreaking havoc on that island ever since. One of the most destructive invasive species in the world, the brown tree snake is responsible for the extinction of at least a dozen animal species in Guam, including many of the island's forest-dwelling birds and native lizards.

But the snake didn't stop at birds and lizards; it also went after Guam's native bats, domestic poultry, and even pets. As its population grew, the brown tree snake began invading power facilities, causing short circuits and frequent power outages. To this day, brown tree snakes cause nearly 200 outages a year in Guam, costing $4.5 million each year in repairs and lost productivity. To this day, brown tree snakes cause nearly 200 outages a year in Guam, costing $4.5 million each year in what they are doing in repairs--you can imagine what kind of havoc--and lost productivity by the millions.

Despite years of various attempts to control the brown tree snake, as of 2024, Guam's population of brown tree snakes is estimated to be in the millions. Sadly, it is highly unlikely that this invasive and destructive species will ever be fully eliminated from Guam.

Thankfully, the snake does not yet exist in Hawaii or anywhere in the continental United States, but that is not by accident or chance. It is because of

the tireless work of Federal employees from several Agencies that has kept this snake out of Hawaii.

Since the creation of the Brown Tree Snake Program nearly 20 years ago, not a single brown tree snake has been found in Hawaii because the program works. The Federal investment in equipment, training, and hiring personnel works. Several Agencies, including the Department of the Interior, the Department of Agriculture, and the Department of Defense work together on the research, interdiction, and management of the brown tree snake.

But the firing of just one individual who served as the Brown Tree Snake Program coordinator in Hawaii threatens to nullify all of that successful work. This individual was responsible for ensuring that prior security protocols were being followed in coordinating amongst the different Agencies involved in the program. He has been doing this for a number of years. He has the expertise to do this well, to keep this snake out of Hawaii. He oversaw the implementation of the Brown Tree Snake Program for the entire Pacific region.

As I give this speech today, his position was eliminated for no good reason by Musk and Trump. To this day, his position remains vacant. As we know, there is a hiring freeze imposed by the President also. So if he is not reinstated, the likely scenario will be that it will not be a matter of if brown tree snakes are introduced to Hawaii, but when.

Let's be clear. If this snake makes it to Hawaii, I fear it is only a matter of time before it reaches the rest of our country.

Trump and Elon Musk think they can just take a chain saw to our Federal workforce and budget, hacking away with no consequences. But in 10 years, when brown tree snakes have decimated Hawaii's ecosystem and wreaked havoc in other States across our country, it will, obviously, be too late.

Mr. President, the brown tree snake is a real threat that Hawaii takes seriously. And in every State across our country, red and blue alike, there are Federal workers doing critical, often unseen work, to protect the health, safety, and well-being of our communities--critical Federal employees. Firing these employees will inevitably make our country and our communities less safe, less prosperous, and more vulnerable to outside threats from foreign governments to invasive species, and everything in between.

I stand ready to work with anyone serious about making our government more efficient, but these cuts are having the opposite effect.

I urge my Republican colleagues to join me in standing up for the critical Federal programs in our States and to the well-being of the American people by rejecting this administration's attacks on our government and the people who keep it working and who protect our communities.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Madam President, since 1996, we have recognized March 10 as Abortion Provider Appreciation Day.

I rise today, therefore, in gratitude for the doctors and healthcare professionals who bravely continue to provide necessary care despite attacks on reproductive rights and abortion providers, to express gratitude for the hard work and commitment of abortion providers and their staff across the country, and in remembrance of those providers tragically lost to extreme anti-abortion violence--providers like Dr. David Gunn.

On this day 32 years ago, Dr. Gunn, a dedicated medical professional, was murdered while walking into the clinic where he worked. Dr. Gunn was targeted by an anti-abortion extremist for simply doing his job-- providing crucial, lifesaving care to his patients.

Tragically, this kind of violence against abortion providers, patients, and clinics has only increased over the years since his murder and even before. Since the 1970s, there have been at least 11 murders, 42 bombings, 531 assaults, and thousands of other criminal incidents against innocent people, doctors, patients, and staff simply providing or receiving necessary reproductive care.

Congress enacted the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act in 1994--more than 30 years ago--to prevent this kind of violence at our reproductive healthcare centers and clinics, and the Justice Department prosecuted people who violated this law.

Rather than supporting this law, within days of being sworn in office as President, President Trump pardoned 23 anti-abortion extremists incarcerated for violating the law. Moreover, his Department of Justice announced they would stop prosecuting most cases under this law.

As the Trump administration is taking steps to dismantle safe, licensed clinics that provide quality, lifesaving reproductive care, Republicans are also working to fund unregulated anti-abortion centers or crisis pregnancy centers nationwide.

Earlier this year, Missouri Republicans introduced a bill that would let their taxpayers take 100 percent deduction on State income taxes for donations to crisis pregnancy centers. Essentially, in Missouri, they want to redirect funding from critical State services to these so- called crisis pregnancy centers that spread dangerous misinformation while doing very little to actually help women seeking fact-based medical counseling.

Republicans aren't trying to help women; they are attacking fundamental healthcare and emboldening violent anti-abortion extremists by not prosecuting violations short of murder, effectively eliminating any serious consequences for those who attack, threaten, or intimidate innocent people in reproductive healthcare spaces--patients and providers alike.

Democrats, on the other hand, remain committed to protecting abortion access and protecting the professionals who provide it where legal.

Today, on Abortion Provider Appreciation Day, we remember Dr. David Gunn and those killed and targeted by senseless acts of anti-abortion violence, and we honor the bravery of abortion providers across our country. These providers, their staff, and counselors continue to provide essential care despite the threats they face.

While Republicans work to ban abortion nationwide, we Democrats reaffirm our commitment to protecting and strengthening reproductive rights for all.

To abortion providers in Hawaii and across the country, mahalo for your critical, courageous work.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Reserving the right to object, my colleague thinks that this bill will reform our broken asylum system. As the other naturalized citizen in this body, I object.

We actually passed comprehensive immigration reform out of the Senate in 2013, and I was one of the Senators who worked on that bipartisan bill. But when the bill got to the House, it didn't pass. So we are here once again.

And more recently, there was a bipartisan immigration bill that was about to be brought to the Senate, and everything was set to go until the current President decided that he would much rather have this issue continue to not be addressed. So there you go.

We can all agree that our immigration and asylum systems need reforms, but I have serious concerns about this legislation. My colleague has stated that this bill is intended to prevent those who come to the United States in between ports of entry from applying for asylum.

But as it is drafted, this bill eliminates the section of the law that allows people present in the United States to apply for asylum. This means that it would prevent anyone, even those who have lawful status, from applying inside the United States. Instead, they would have to travel to a port of entry.

This bill would also require that anyone, including families, seeking asylum at a port of entry be arrested and held in custody for the entire time their request is pending. And it could take quite a long time, using taxpayer money, to detain them.

I certainly agree with my colleague that we need to do more to address our immigration court backlog, which includes many asylum cases, and improve our asylum system, but this legislation would not address these concerns.

Let me give you an example. This bill would prevent a Ukrainian fleeing Russian aggression who entered lawfully from applying for asylum from within the United States.

It would force them to travel with their families to a port of entry to apply for asylum. They would then be detained with their children while they wait for their application to be processed. These are individuals who have work permits and are contributing to our economy and society every day. They came here lawfully. How does making them leave and seek asylum at a port of entry improve our system? It doesn't.

Here is a reality: This bill and the recent actions by the Trump administration are not focused on truly addressing problems with our asylum system.

If the Trump administration was serious about improving our asylum system, why did they recently fire nearly two dozen impartial immigration judges without cause or notice?

They fired military veterans and expert judges who had experience processing immigration cases effectively. With a backlog of over 3.6 million immigration cases--you heard me right, 3.6 million immigration cases--we need more immigration judges, not less.

But the current leadership at the Executive Office of Immigration Review, which oversees immigration courts, has said they plan to fire more judges--exactly the wrong thing to do. This is no way to address our broken immigration system.

I urge Republicans to set aside this misguided bill and to stop taking a chain saw to our Federal workforce, including immigration judges.

Believe me, this chainsaw approach to what is going on in our Federal Government, if the administration wanted to create fear and chaos, if that is their aim, they are succeeding mightily.

I urge my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to join us in good faith to work on the truly comprehensive, bipartisan immigration reforms we so desperately need.

For these reasons, I object.

Mr. President, I hear my colleague acknowledging that the asylum system is broken. My objections remain.

Reserving the right to object. For the reasons previously stated, I object.

Mr. President, I request unanimous consent that Robert Goldman, Nicholas Kikuta, and Jordan Foley--fellows in my office--be granted floor privileges through December 31, 2025.

Mr. President, I was absent for one rollcall vote on March 6, 2025.

On March 6, had I been present, I would have voted nay on the motion to invoke cloture on Executive Calendar No. 29, Troy Edgar, of California, to be Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security, rollcall vote No. 107.

Mr. President, I rise today deeply concerned about the state of public education in our country.

Public education is foundational. It allows people to get ahead. As simple as that, it is foundational.

I have spoken before on the floor about the power of public education in my own life. As an immigrant from Japan, I arrived in this country speaking no English.

I started off by trying to learn how to count from 1 to 10--very humble beginnings. But it was the public education I received at schools like Koko Head Elementary and Kaimuki High School that enabled me, an immigrant from very humble beginnings, to learn English and to go on to college, law school, and, ultimately, the U.S. Senate.

We should all agree on the importance of a strong public education system for every student in our country. An educated citizenry helps grow the middle class and drive economic success in red and blue States alike.

Support for public schools should not be a partisan issue. There are millions of kids who are attending public schools in every single State in our country, so it shouldn't be a partisan issue. But just weeks into the Trump administration, public education is under attack. Already, chain saw-wielding Elon Musk--it is really hard to get rid of that image because he takes such delight in wielding that chain saw and willy-nilly cutting all kinds of government programs that we rely on. But Elon Musk and his minions have started unilaterally canceling contracts at the Department of Education without any transparency or accountability whatsoever, and Donald Trump has made no secret of his desire to eliminate the Department of Education entirely, as part of his quest to cut government services we rely on to give trillions in handouts to his billionaire buddies.

While only Congress has the power to eliminate the Department of Education in its entirety, that is not stopping Trump from using every means available to weaken Federal support for education. And as you heard from my colleague just previously, there is a lot of support for public education in our country. Why? Because most of the people in our country have to go to public schools.

The person who will help him do this, meaning totally weaken our public school system and eliminate the Department of Education, is billionaire Linda McMahon. As Trump's Secretary of Education, she will dismantle the Department of Education from the inside out.

President Trump told her that he wants her to ``put herself out of a job'' by eliminating this Department. Since President Trump only nominates people who are 100 percent loyal to him, we can expect Linda McMahon will comply with putting herself out of a job, which leads us to wonder why we are even giving her this job in the first place.

A nominee tasked to end the very Department that she is supposed to be leading does not need to have much by way of experience in leading or running such a Department, which is the case with Linda McMahon. In her confirmation hearing, Mrs. McMahon could not name a single requirement of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the main Federal law that supports K through 12 education.

She couldn't say whether teaching African-American history courses violated Trump's Executive order on radical indoctrination. Teaching the history of our country is considered radical indoctrination by this President. Think about that for a minute.

She couldn't even answer a simple yes-or-no question about whether schools receiving taxpayer dollars should be allowed to discriminate against children with disabilities.

Mrs. McMahon is totally unqualified to oversee the education of our Nation's children, but Donald Trump doesn't care about that. Linda McMahon will carry out President Trump's dangerous agenda to dismantle the Department of Education, privatize the Nation's public schools, and strip educational opportunities from millions of students across the country.

In doing so, she will be 100-percent loyal to Donald Trump above all else. She will execute the plans laid out in Project 2025 to eliminate funding for title I schools, which support low-income students. We are talking about funding for 49,000 title I schools throughout the country, including 170 schools in my State of Hawaii, 2,091 title I schools in Florida, 7,500 title I schools in Texas, and so many more. Every single State has title I schools. There are 49,000 title I schools throughout our country.

Project 2025, Trump's blueprint, will have the Secretary of Education dismantle civil rights protections for students and weaponize the Office of Civil Rights to advance Trump's hateful, far-right political agenda. Then the Secretary will come after funding for programs that help provide childcare, afterschool care, school meals, and more. Think about it: school meals. For many children, that would mean taking away access to the only meal a day they can count on.

Why? Not because she thinks these decisions will improve outcomes or benefit students. No. These attacks on the Department of Education are about one thing and one thing only: finding money to pay for massive giveaways to billionaires like McMahon, Elon Musk, obviously the President, and their ilk.

Republicans are robbing our children's futures to line the pockets of their billionaire buddies, and they are robbing our country of future doctors, innovators, leaders, and more.

A strong public education system is the foundation of a strong democracy, a strong economy, and a strong middle class. That is why Democrats are committed to strengthening our schools and ensuring every child has the opportunity to get ahead, regardless of disability, income, or background. That starts with our rejecting Linda McMahon's troubling nomination to lead the Department of Education, a Department that she is going to start dismantling and, indeed, working herself out of a job.

On behalf of students, teachers, and families in Hawaii and all across our country, I urge my colleagues to think about it and to oppose this nomination.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, as the leading law enforcement Agency in our country, the FBI does critical work

every single day to keep our Nation, to keep us, safe--from counterterrorism and countertrafficking to fighting cyberattacks and so much more. At a time of global instability, FBI agents are working day in and day out to protect us from threats, both foreign and domestic.

But today, the FBI and the Department of Justice face a crisis caused not by any outside threat but rather by the men and women tasked with leading these Agencies. Instead of focusing on potential attacks, hacks, or violent criminal enterprises, we have a DOJ and FBI that have been turned inward on themselves.

In just the last month, dozens of senior career FBI and DOJ employees have been purged--purged--en masse by President Trump and his administration. Hundreds of thousands of the prosecutors and FBI special agents and analysts may be next--in fact, I shouldn't use the word ``may,'' will be next. Purging hard-working and dedicated civil servants does nothing to make us safe; in fact, it does just the opposite.

Attorney General Bondi recently announced the creation of a ``weaponization working group.'' It only continues this trend. Through this working group, she is doing what she told us she would not do in her confirmation hearings. She is ``investigating the investigators'' with this working group, and I expect will be prosecuting the prosecutors.

I fear what a DOJ and FBI focused inward on themselves means for the safety and security of our Nation, which brings me to Kash Patel, President Trump's nominee to lead the FBI. For many reasons, Mr. Patel is not the man to answer the many challenges of the moment. Mr. Patel spent his nomination hearings avoiding every hard question, not even the hard questions. I asked him, for example, if he would investigate people--60 people--on his ``deep state'' list. He would not say no. And it was pretty clear, this list--and I suspect it is growing--but the 60-person list are all the people who are not sufficiently loyal to President Trump. So it has many, many Republicans on the list, and what the heck is he planning do with that list? Believe me, it is not because they are going to be commended for the work that they did.

I asked him in his hearings whether he profited from selling supplements to detox the COVID-19 vaccine, supplements he promoted on his social media channels. He did not answer.

I asked him if Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. He would not answer.

He claimed not to know an anti-Semitic extremist named Stew Peters, despite the fact that he appeared on this person's program eight times.

He tried to claim no involvement with the January 6 Choir made up of inmates--made up of inmates--serving in prison for their part in the violent insurrection on January 6 at the Capitol.

And, of course, we all know all of these inmates have been pardoned en masse by the President. He claimed no involvement with this choir despite promoting them and hawking their merchandise for years.

He was unwilling to provide any details about his grand jury testimony related to the January 6 insurrection--testimony he had to be compelled to give after taking the Fifth Amendment. Of course, Mr. Patel has the same rights as any American to plead the Fifth. But we have an equal right to ask him, as the nominee for the FBI Director, no less, why he did so and to learn what his ultimate testimony was.

The one thing Mr. Patel did testify to was in response to a question from Senator Booker about whether he was ``aware of any plans or discussions to punish . . . FBI agents or personnel associated with Trump investigations,'' and his response was that he was ``not aware of that.''

We have since learned of credible evidence that Mr. Patel perjured himself with that statement.

Mr. Patel is totally unfit to lead the FBI. It is clear he won't discern fact from fiction and that he will be loyal to Donald Trump and Donald Trump only, which means total disregard for the Constitution and the rule of law.

Ours is a nation of laws. Mr. Patel's nomination is one more indication that Donald Trump fancies himself above the law, even referring to himself as ``King'' in a recent tweet, and will weaponize the law however he wants to, and that is to advance his political agenda.

Mr. Patel's is a dangerous nomination that will make our country less safe, less secure, and will erode America's trust in the FBI.

Mr. President, our administrative Agencies--and, certainly, the Department of Justice and the FBI--do not exist to be used as tools for retribution by Donald Trump, Pam Bondi, or Kash Patel, but that is exactly what is happening with our Agencies and the firing and the purging of thousands of people who are doing the job of the people.

What can we be thinking in supporting Mr. Patel to lead an Agency that has the tools to spy and go after all the people that he doesn't like?

I urge my colleagues to vote no on this nomination.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, when I immigrated to this country from Japan, as a young girl, I spoke no English. But when I enrolled at Koko Head Elementary, I met Ms. Petri, the school librarian who read to us every week. It was Ms. Petri who helped me learn English and instilled in me a lifelong love of reading. The public education I received at school at Koko Head Elementary, gave me--a girl from very humble beginnings--the opportunity to get ahead.

My story is not unique. Our public education system has enabled generations of Americans to get ahead and has been essential to our country's economic success and global leadership. But despite their promises to make life better for working Americans, Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and their billionaire buddies have set their sights on gutting support for public education. Trump has made no secret of his desire to eliminate the Federal Department of Education altogether.

Thankfully, the Department of Education was created by Congress, and only an act of Congress can eliminate it. But, even so, Trump's assault on the Federal Government is already undermining the Department's ability to meet its mission of supporting our Nation's students and teachers. And in their quest to give trillions in handouts to Trump's billionaire buddies, Republicans are poised to gut the Department of Education and programs on which millions of American children rely. They have no problem eliminating Federal funding for programs that support low-income students, low-income schools, students with disabilities, students experiencing homelessness, and much more.

Just look at Project 2025. They want to eliminate funding for title I schools, which supports low-income students. We are talking about funding for 49,000 title I schools throughout the country, including 170 schools in my State of Hawaii.

They have no problem coming after Federal funding for programs that provide afterschool care, childcare, and even school meals. None of this is hypothetical. Cutting afterschool programs could make life even harder for working parents already struggling to make ends meet.

Republicans don't seem to give a rip about the millions of children in their schools. They care about one thing and one thing only: delivering for their billionaire buddies. But Democrats care about you, about your family, and about your children's fundamental right to a quality public education. That is why Senator Peters and I will be introducing a series of amendments to this massive, misguided budget proposal to fund a giveaway for billionaires at the expense of our kids. Our amendments will protect our schools and the services children and families rely on, including an amendment to protect school meals.

This is a simple amendment. It would prevent any reduction in funding for the National School Lunch Program and Breakfast Program, which have been wildly successful in feeding 29.6 million children at 95,000 schools nationwide every single day, including 93,000 children in Hawaii, 102,000 children in South Dakota, 518,000 children in South Carolina, and many, many more. Every single State has thousands of children who rely on the school meals paid for by the Federal Government.

From coast to coast and beyond, these programs keep our kids from going hungry. For many kids, school meals are the only meals they can count on all day. I can't believe we are standing here fighting over whether or not kids have the right to eat, but apparently even that is controversial to my Republican colleagues.

So here we are. It is simple, Mr. President. We have no business depriving our kids of lunch to fund massive giveaways to Trump and his billionaire buddies. It is that simple.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, in Hawaii, thousands of our keiki-- children--attend Head Start, setting them up for lifetimes of success. After the devastating wildfires on Maui in 2023, the U.S. Public Health Service was on the ground within days, providing care to survivors and first responders. On Oahu, the University of Hawaii's Cancer Center is leading on critical NIH-funded research on breast, liver, and lung cancer, studying diseases that disproportionately impact the Native Hawaiian and Asian-American communities. All of these programs are vital for people in Hawaii, and they are all made possible by the Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS.

HHS does critical work across our country keeping communities healthy and researching deadly diseases, from cancer to COVID and so much more.

Americans trust HHS because their mission has historically been guided not by politics but by science and data. But already Donald Trump is taking a sledgehammer to HHS and the essential work it does.

For weeks, HHS employees have been prohibited from making any external communications and have been directed to withhold grant disbursements--illegal, by the way--halting critical updates on emerging public health threats and delaying or denying funding for community health centers without explanation.

These edicts are already forcing clinics to consider reducing services and staff or, worse, closing these services, endangering healthcare access for our most vulnerable populations. And just last Friday, the National Institutes of Health, or NIH, announced it would slash indirect cost rates nationwide--funds that keep the lights on and the bills paid at America's medical schools, hospitals, and research institutions, enabling our country to lead globally on biomedical research.

This is lifesaving research. These across-the-board cuts aren't hypothetical. They will harm real people in need of help.

Just yesterday, I spoke with the University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine, who explained the catastrophic consequences this cap would have. This illegal action, as I mentioned, would compromise plans for the U.H. Cancer Center to begin offering phase 1 clinical trials in Hawaii for the first time.

What does this mean for the people of Hawaii? For the first time, people in Hawaii will not have to go to the mainland to participate in these trials. But with the help of this NIH funding--now being slashed--for the first time, people of Hawaii would be able to stay in Hawaii to participate in these very important clinical trials.

If allowed to stand, these actions will be catastrophic for our country and for global efforts to combat the spread of diseases, and all of these actions have been taken without a confirmed Secretary in place at HHS.

One would hope the President's nominee to lead such an important Department would be a level-headed individual guided by science and data. Instead, Donald Trump has nominated the total opposite: Robert Kennedy, Jr.

Mr. Kennedy is an anti-vaccine activist who peddles and profits from conspiracy theories and has a troubling history of misconduct. In his confirmation hearings, Mr. Kennedy appeared not to know the difference between Medicare and Medicaid, essential programs that 66 million and 72 million people, respectively, rely on for access to healthcare.

Mr. Kennedy purports to be a proponent of bodily autonomy when it comes to vaccines, as if we know better than scientists about the efficacy and safety of medical treatments.

But Mr. Kennedy's commitment to bodily autonomy suddenly flies out the window when it comes to women's rights to control our own bodies. He has shown he will do Donald Trump's bidding in his war on women and our freedom--where is our bodily autonomy?--as they work to reverse the FDA's approval of mifepristone, which has been used safely for medication abortion for more than 20 years--so much for bodily autonomy.

And it is clear Mr. Kennedy will be guided not by science but by the conspiracy theories he has pursued for decades on vaccines, raw milk, stem cell treatment, and much more.

Vaccines are a modern miracle that have saved an estimated 154 million lives and enabled us to all but eradicate diseases like polio and small pox. But due to the activism of conspiracy theorists like Mr. Kennedy, public trust in vaccines have eroded, endangering countless lives and threatening the herd immunity that protects us all.

I grew up in rural Japan, where we didn't have widespread access to most vaccines. As a child, I remember getting measles, mumps, whooping cough. When one kid in our village got sick, it just spread like wildfire in our village, and all the kids got sick. I know what it means to be vaccinated. To willingly submit our children to such a fate like what happened to us--to me in Japan--would be cruel, counterproductive, and deadly, but Mr. Kennedy seems not to care about those impacts.

We all agree there are things we can do to make our country healthier, and I stand ready to work with my colleagues to do that important work. But eliminating access to healthcare, promoting conspiracy theories, firing researchers, and undermining evidence-

based policymaking will do nothing to make us healthier. It will, instead, unleash chaos on patients, providers, and countless other Americans who rely on the services, funding, and research emanating from HHS.

Mr. Kennedy will not ``Make America Healthy Again''--yet another empty slogan. He will, in fact, instead make us less healthy, less safe, and less prosperous. We know this because it is exactly what happened in Samoa after misinformation about vaccines, pushed in part by Mr. Kennedy, led to a deadly measles outbreak there.

Hawaii's Governor, Josh Green, is also a physician, and he traveled to Samoa at the invitation of the country's Health Minister to help stem the consequences of this deadly misinformation. He recently wrote about his experiences in an op-ed in the New York Times, and I would like to read portions of that op-ed now.

Our Governor wrote:

[W]hen vaccination rates fall, preventable diseases can regain a foothold and pose a new danger. And that's precisely what happened in Samoa, after misinformation spread by anti-vaccine activists eroded trust in vaccines and led to the 2019 outbreak. Thousands of preventable cases of measles sprang up, leading to the deaths of 83 people, mostly children. One of the most prominent voices behind the anti-vaccine campaign was Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Governor Green goes on to say that:

[W]e also witnessed the deadly consequences of the anti-

vaccine campaign. We arrived at one home just minutes after a

toddler girl had died from measles, her mother bursting into

tears as we approached. The child was lying on a makeshift

bed in the middle of the family's one-room house, her face

still red from fever. I put my hands on her face and could

feel the warmth in her skin, but her eyes were fixed and

glazed over. My stethoscope confirmed she was no longer

breathing.

Governor Green went on to write:

Mr. Kennedy and others fanned the flames of this fear with

misinformation. The people of Samoa shared with me that they

got very little news from outside their community but that in

the months before the 2019 epidemic they were bombarded with

social media posts claiming that vaccinations were unsafe and

would harm or even kill their children. Activists from other

countries, including Mr. Kennedy, claimed vaccines were

dangerous. Many Samoans were afraid to vaccinate their

children, and by late 2019, the epidemic was raging,

overwhelming Samoa's national health care system.

Governor Green concluded by saying:

As we look to the future, the possibility of his being

confirmed--

He is talking about Robert Kennedy--

as the secretary of health and human services is cause for

grave concern. I worry he would jeopardize half a century of

progress and success gained by the United States as a result

of vaccination programs. Too much depends on our commitment

to truth and the lifesaving power of vaccines to entrust Mr.

Kennedy with the direction of these programs. Our children's

lives depend on it.

I thank the Governor for his service to the people of Samoa and for so eloquently describing what is at stake with Mr. Kennedy's nomination.

Our Governor was so concerned that he recently traveled all the way from Hawaii to Washington, DC, to speak to as many Senators that he could directly about what is at stake. Governor Green was that concerned about what this nominee could do to HHS.

During his confirmation hearing, Mr. Kennedy had the opportunity to take responsibility for his role in Samoa's measles outbreak. Instead, he stuck to his old tricks, blaming vaccines and spreading misinformation.

Governor Green is correct. Our children's lives depend on our commitment to vaccinations, and all of our lives depend on the science and research done by HHS. Mr. Kennedy poses a dire threat to that science and, indeed, to the American people.

For those reasons, I urge my colleagues to vote no on his forthcoming nomination.

I yield the floor.

I yield 30 minutes of postcloture debate time to the junior Senator from Oregon.

Mr. President, we are less than 3 weeks into the Trump administration, and already, Americans across the country are reeling from the chaos.

Donald Trump ran on lowering costs for working Americans--an admirable goal, but one he clearly had no intention of making good on. Instead, he is hellbent on sowing chaos and making life harder for the American people while he pushes through massive tax cuts for his billionaire buddies.

In just the last 2 weeks, here is what Trump did. He threatened tariffs on Canada and Mexico that will do nothing but raise costs on everyday essentials like food and gasoline, estimated to increase costs for the average household by nearly $1,200 a year. So much for lowering costs for the American people.

He put a freeze on all Federal funds, creating such uncertainty that seniors in Hawaii were calling my office asking if they needed to prepare for homelessness.

He tried to scam 2 million Federal employees, including more than 23,000 in Hawaii, into taking an unauthorized, unfunded buyout. Whoever heard of such a thing?

And he has given an unelected, unaccountable billionaire free rein to raid the Treasury, to root around in the Treasury and any other Federal Agency he sees fit, enabling him to get his hands on all of our data. If this isn't a data breach, frankly, I don't know what is--right in front of our faces.

In case there was any doubt, the last few weeks have shown that Trump never gave a rip about working people and has no interest in doing anything to help make our lives better. The chaos is dizzying. But behind this chaos is a detailed, methodical plan: Project 2025. While campaigning, Trump swore he had nothing to do with Project 2025--a big fat lie, like so much of what comes out of Trump's mouth.

As soon as he was elected, guess what, Trump began appointing many of the people behind Project 2025. His handpicked choice to lead the Office of Management and Budget, or OMB, is Russell Vought, the architect of Project 2025. Mr. Vought is dangerous, and he has a total disregard for the

Constitution, Congress, and the millions of hard-working Americans impacted by decisions he will make at OMB.

Americans need to know that OMB is extremely powerful, with oversight over the President's budget and, functionally, all Federal Agency actions, including regulatory decisions. With such responsibility, the person leading this office needs to be levelheaded and impartial. They need to put loyalty to the Constitution above loyalty to the President. Mr. Vought, however, is the ultimate yes-man.

In Trump's first term as acting OMB Director, Vought wrote a budget that, among other things, would have cut nearly $1 trillion from Medicaid; slashed nearly $300 billion from social safety-net programs, like food assistance; eliminated $170 billion from student loans; and zeroed out programs, like LIHEAP and community development block grants to help with housing assistance and building community infrastructure.

Just like for families, where we spend our money reflects our priorities and our values. Mr. Vought's 2021 budget demonstrated that he sees no value in helping the American people. This time, we know it will be even worse because he is going to be in charge at OMB. Like Trump, Mr. Vought will do whatever he wants, regardless of the law or the Constitution, from forcing out civil servants to withholding funds appropriated by Congress.

We know the story of Robin Hood, who stole from the rich to help the poor. With Mr. Vought, on the other hand, he is a robber baron, who wants to steal the tax dollars of hard-working Americans to line the pocket of Trump's billionaire buddies--a robber baron.

At the end of the day, Trump, Vought, and all their cronies have just won gold, giving huge tax cuts to billionaires on the backs of working people. We have been repeating this. Why? Because how the heck are they going to do this otherwise, except on the backs of working people?

Their plan to do so is so simple. First, they will gut programs working families rely on--things like nutrition assistance, education funding, and Medicare and Medicaid. Then they will borrow trillions of dollars and run our country deeper into debt, just like they did the last time.

Finally, they will give massive tax breaks to billionaires, leaving the American people to foot the bill. Their plan is clear. They wrote it all down. This is Project 2025--Project 2025, the 900-page plan Russell Vought helped to mastermind, filled with all sorts of terrible ideas for our country and the American people. That is why I call it the plan to screw the American people. They call it the mandate for leadership; I call it the 900-page plan to screw over the American people.

I thank Democracy Forward for summarizing some of the worst proposals in Project 2025 in a report that I am going to read parts of.

Democracy Forward said:

Project 2025 is among the most profound threats to the

American people.

What is Project 2025?

The Project 2025 Presidential Transition Project is a well-

funded . . . effort of the Heritage Foundation and more than

100 organizations--

More than 100 organizations--

to enable a future anti-democratic presidential

administration--

That would be this administration--

to take swift, far-right action that would cut wages for

working people, dismantle social safety net programs, reverse

decades of progress for civil rights, redefine the way our

society operates, and undermine our economy.

A central pillar of Project 2025 is the ``Mandate for

Leadership,'' a 900+ page policy playbook authored by former

Trump administration officials and other extremists''--

Like Russell Vought--

that provides a radical vision for our nation and a roadmap

to implement it.

Democracy Forward noted:

We--

They--

read Project 2025's entire 900+ page ``Mandate for

Leadership'' so that you--

We--

don't have to.

They said:

What we discovered was a systemic, ruthless plan to

undermine the quality of life of millions of Americans,

remove critical protections and dismantle programs for

communities across the nation, and prioritize special

interests and ideological extremism over people.

From attacking overtime pay, student loans, and

reproductive rights to allowing more discrimination,

pollution, and price gouging, those behind Project 2025 are

preparing to go to incredible lengths to create a country

only for some, not for all of us.

If these plans are enacted--

Even without congressional approval--

4.3 million people could lose overtime protections, 40

million people could have their food assistance reduced,

220,000 American jobs could be lost, and much, much more. The

stakes are higher than ever for democracy and for people.

These threats aren't hypothetical. These are their real

plans.

The Heritage Foundation and the 100+ organizations that

make up the Project 2025 Advisory Board have mapped out

exactly how they will achieve their extreme ends. They aim to

carry out many of the most troubling proposals through an

anti-democratic president--

Trump--

and political loyalists--

Vought--

loyalists installed in the executive branch, without waiting

for congressional action. And, while many of these plans are

unlawful, winning in court is not guaranteed given that the

same far-right movement that is behind Project 2025 has

shaped our current [judicial] system.

Proposals from Project 2025, discussed in detail throughout

this guide, that could be implemented through executive

branch action alone include:--

And I am going to repeat--

Cutting American Rescue Plan programs that have created or

saved 220,000 jobs

Limiting access to food assistance, which an average of

more than 40 million people rely on monthly

Rolling back civil rights protections across multiple

fronts, including cutting diversity, equity, and inclusion-

related, or DEI programs and LGBTQ+ rights in health care,

education, and workplaces

Eliminating the Head Start early education program, which

serves over 1 million children

Stopping efforts to lower prescription drug prices

Cutting overtime protections for 4.3 million workers

Pushing more people towards Medicare Advantage and other

worse, private options, that's 33 million people

Restricting access to medication abortion

Denying students in 25 states and Washington, D.C. access

to student loans because their schools provide in-state

tuition to undocumented immigrants

Exposing the 368,000 children in foster care to risk of

increased discrimination.

Again, I thank Democracy Forward for this summary.

Mr. President, these are just some of the countless proposals in Project 2025 that will make our country and the American people less free, less safe, and less prosperous.

Behind it all is Russell Vought. If confirmed, he will move to implement Project 2025 without delay to line the pockets of billionaires at the expense of working Americans.

You know, we have got to repeat this time and again because, guess what, this is exactly what happened during Trump's first term. Their goal was to give trillions in tax cuts to their billionaire buddies, and they are going to do it again. Trust me. That is what they are going to do.

Project 2025 is dangerous. Mr. Vought is dangerous. I urge my colleagues to oppose this nomination.

I yield the balance of my postcloture debate time to Senator Merkley, up to the 2-hour limit.

On behalf of 24,000 hard-working employees, I vote no.

Mr. President, in examining all of the President's Cabinet nominees, I am focused on two things: their fitness and their qualifications for the positions to which they are nominated, including their ability and willingness to put loyalty to the Constitution above loyalty to the President.

This independence is critically important for the Attorney General, our Nation's highest law enforcement officer. The Attorney General oversees thousands of career prosecutors in all 50 States, trying cases based not on politics but on facts.

However, Pam Bondi's record, her statements in her confirmation hearing, and her responses to questions for the record make clear she does not have the requisite independence to lead the Department of Justice.

In her confirmation hearing, Ms. Bondi shows she had trouble differentiating fact from fiction where her loyalty to President Trump might come into question.

Rather than attempting to assuage my concerns--concerns shared by many of my colleagues; you just heard from one of my colleagues just previous to myself--Ms. Bondi failed to provide clear and convincing answers to the following questions: whether President Biden won the 2020 election, whether she agreed with the President's characterization of January 6 felons as ``hostages'' and ``patriots,'' whether she would make good on her promise to ``prosecute the prosecutors'' and ``investigate the investigators'' by using the DOJ to go after the President's perceived political enemies.

I also asked her in writing, for the record, how she would resolve a conflict between a request from President Trump and her duty to the Constitution. Ms. Bondi provided no response, and she left the answer blank. This refusal to even try to answer the question told me a lot.

We have already seen in the 2 weeks since President Trump took office that he does not believe the rule of law applies to him. He issued an unconstitutional order on birthright citizenship. He put an illegal hold on all Federal funds. He fired or pushed aside scores of senior career FBI officials and Federal prosecutors.

Most egregiously, he issued a blanket pardon for more than 1,500 criminals convicted for their roles in the January 6 insurrection. Not content to stop at pardoning those who assaulted police officers, now he is compiling lists of FBI agents and DOJ prosecutors who did their jobs by working on January 6 cases to which they were assigned. This could be thousands of civil servants whom Donald Trump is apparently planning to punish to exact retribution.

Make no mistake, by focusing DOJ and the FBI inward on themselves instead of outward on the many threats against our country, President Trump is making our Nation less safe and sowing fear and chaos in the DOJ. When we suffer an attack, a hack, or a rise in crime, President Trump will try to blame everybody else, but he will be responsible.

As Senator Durbin so accurately put it, Donald Trump sees the DOJ as his personal law firm, but the DOJ and the Attorney General work for the people, not for the President. Any President but especially this President needs an Attorney General who will tell him when his actions break the law. What is more, the American public deserves an Attorney General who will put the law first and refuse an illegal order from the President. Ms. Bondi will not be that person. She will be yet another ``yes'' woman doing whatever the President wants her to do. The law, the Constitution, and our country will suffer the consequences.

For these reasons, I urge my colleagues to vote no.

I yield the floor.