Floor Statements

Mr. President, as students head back to school, college campuses across the country are hoping this academic year begins more calmly than the last one ended.

Back in May, the tantrums of campus radicals made some elite schools so inhospitable to learning, particularly for Jewish students, that administrators were driven to cancel commencement ceremonies. Since then, Columbia University's president has resigned, along with three deans who were put on notice for anti-Semitic comments made about a panel on Jewish life on campus back in May.

These are, of course, steps in the right direction for an Ivy League institution that professes--professes--a commitment to ``thoughtful, rigorous debate'' and a campus culture ``free of bigotry, intimidation, and harassment,'' but Columbia and other universities have a great deal of work still to do to earn back the trust of students, parents, and alumni alike.

Other recent personnel decisions actually inspire less confidence. Remember, for example, the Columbia doctoral student who served as the unofficial spokesperson of the violent Hamasnik mob that forcefully occupied a campus building? In between her studies of Marxist poetry, she demanded that campus officials provide the trespassers with food and water. Months later, she is now scheduled to teach a required course for undergraduates on nothing less than contemporary Western civilization.

So the decline in the Ivy League's academic rigor is well-documented, but it would seem that, at a bare minimum, its instructors ought to be able to distinguish between civilization and barbarism and to act accordingly. A survey conducted over the summer by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression found that 72 percent of college students agreed that, in at least rare circumstances, it could be acceptable for students to have an encampment as part of a campus protest, and more than one-third agree that it would be acceptable to deface school property.

I have to wonder whether a survey of the parents of college students or, for that matter, the campus staff who clean up their misbehavior, wouldn't paint a different picture.

Unfortunately, what used to be a reliable path to the middle class appears to have turned into a breeding ground for childish radicalism. Fortunately, this radicalism may begin to face limits to its own upward mobility.

Earlier this year, over a dozen Federal judges described Columbia as an ``incubator of bigotry''; declared that they had ``lost confidence in Columbia as an institution of higher education''; and announced that they will not hire law clerks from Columbia Law School until it undertakes serious reforms.

Predictably, this news is met with howling from liberal busybodies. In fact--get this--a State prisoner even filed an ethics complaint against a number of judges.

Apparently, the left would have the signs outside America's courthouses read: ``Hate must have a home here.''

Fortunately, Chief Judge Richman of the Fifth Circuit wasn't having it. She observed in her opinion dismissing a complaint that ``judges . . . have discretion to refuse to hire law clerks who graduated from a university that does not foster what the judges believe to be important aspects of higher education, such as viewpoint diversity and tolerance and differing viewpoints.'' Indeed.

Columbia would do well to heed these judges' warning, and their colleagues on the bench would do well to heed their example.

Meanwhile, the Biden-Harris administration hasn't skipped a beat in ensuring that taxpayer dollars go toward subsidizing the post-modern indoctrination on display in so many American towns.

Over the summer, the Supreme Court upheld a stay on the administration's SAVE plan. But the administration still won't take no for an answer, pushing forward with yet another version of student loan socialism.

Last week, the scheme hit another roadblock in Federal court.

Remember, the Penn-Wharton model has estimated that previous iterations of this scheme would have cost taxpayers tens of billions of dollars. Even left-leaning think tanks have criticized student loan socialism for the regressive nature of its beneficiaries. But the Biden-Harris administration, like the Marxists of Morningside Heights, keep coming back for more.

Madam President, on an entirely different matter, I would like to welcome everyone back from the August State work period. Hearing from the people we represent is what allows us to be effective here. So I know our colleagues will agree that the time we spent back home last month was particularly valuable.

Unsurprisingly, the issues I heard about across Kentucky are familiar to millions of American families. In Daviess County, I heard about how small family farms are struggling to stay afloat amid rising costs.

Of course, historic inflation hasn't just hit our Nation's growers and producers. From Pikeville to Hopkinsville, job creators and working families are bearing the brunt of the Biden-Harris administration's reckless spending.

I also heard from Kentucky farmers who are waiting for Congress to act on the farm bill--legislation for which the Democratic majority has yet to secure a single minute of floor time.

In my hometown of Louisville, I spoke with legislators about the regulatory costs that are crippling State leaders and Main Street alike. Today, navigating the maze of redtape from Washington nearly requires a black belt in bureaucratic politics.

And, finally, I heard from Kentucky's brave servicemembers as we celebrated the first newly renovated barracks facility to open at Fort Campbell.

I was proud to work with Army leaders to modernize 11 barracks that have stood untouched for nearly half a century. In just one year, we accomplished what would have taken close to a decade to finish.

As I have said time and time again, rebuilding American hard power starts here at home in projects just like this, modernizing our capabilities, rebuilding the arsenal of democracy, and equipping America's servicemembers to keep us safe.

Madam President, I need to begin today by addressing a shooting that took place along I-75 in southeastern Kentucky this past weekend. My office is in close contact with local law enforcement as their search for the perpetrator continues.

Elaine and I are grateful for their swift efforts to protect the surrounding communities, and we are holding those who were injured in this senseless violence in our prayers.

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

I ask unanimous consent I be permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes prior to the scheduled rollcall vote.

Mr. President, today, as the Senate prepares to leave town for the August State work period, the Democratic leader has decided to squeeze in one more vote that isn't ready for prime time. To our colleagues on the Finance Committee--and to anyone paying attention in recent months--it has been clear that the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act that Chairman Wyden wrote with the House needed some serious revisions in order to earn 60 votes here in the Senate.

We don't need a vote today to tell us that is still the case. Colleagues on this side of the aisle have serious unresolved concerns. They don't like how more than 90 percent of the supposed benefits of the bill, as written, come as a $30 billion expansion of cash welfare, instead of relief for working taxpayers.

They are concerned about how it would weaken the work requirements tied to those benefits under current law. For a bill with the potential to so seriously impact working Americans, one might expect its proponents to engage seriously on resolving obstacles to bipartisan support.

You might have expected the chairman of the Finance Committee or the Democratic leader to provide regular order, to schedule a markup, to give this bill a shot at actually passing the Senate, but, alas, you would be wrong. Of course, months without progress on

this front aren't for lack of effort from Ranking Member Crapo, and I am grateful for his dedication to addressing Republican concerns.

Today's vote doesn't seem to be intended to produce a legislative outcome. In fact, the Democratic leader himself admitted this week that even losing the vote would still be a political benefit for vulnerable Senate Democrats running for reelection. Well, I am not so certain the American people are impressed by message votes, and I don't think they give out points for incomplete work.

Mr. President, on a different matter, today, the Appropriations Committee is considering defense funding for the coming year. From the outset, colleagues who take seriously our obligation to provide for the common defense knew that they had their work cut out for them.

This spring, the President sent down a fourth straight defense request that would cut funding for the national defense after inflation. The request was grossly insufficient when it went to print; it is even more so today.

Then, this summer brought our closest allies and partners here to Washington, underscoring the importance of American leadership by example.

Just a few days ago, a final report of the Commission on the National Defense Strategy put an even finer point on the stakes of the growing and interconnected threats to our national security. As I discussed earlier this week, the bipartisan expert panel behind the report delivered a grave warning. Here is more of what they said:

The U.S. military lacks both the capabilities and the

capacity required to be competent it can deter and prevail in

combat.

The American public have been--again, according to the report-- ``inadequately informed by government leaders of the threats to U.S. interests--including to people's everyday lives--and what will be required to restore American global power and leadership.''

They went on further:

Very little progress will be possible without Congress,

where a relatively small number of elected officials have

imposed continual political gamesmanship over a thoughtful

and responsible legislating and oversight.

Goodness.

It is past time to prioritize our national security. It is totally obvious to all of us that this needs to begin. Just take the pacing threat from China, for example. Plenty of our colleagues on both sides of the aisle like to talk about outcompeting the PRC, but not as many seem to recognize that winning this competition, preserving American primacy, and protecting America's interest are first and foremost about investing in hard power.

As the Commission put it, China has ``largely negated the U.S. military advantage in the Western Pacific through two decades of focused military investment. Without significant change by the United States, the balance of power will continue to shift in China's favor.''

But the vast majority of supposed counter-China policies that folks in Washington like to talk about won't do much to arrest this shift, and neither will pretending that the pacing threat is the only threat we face. It is naive to believe we can ignore or assume away threats in other regions.

Anyone who believes our security and prosperity don't require urgent investments in hard power, in alliances and partnerships, and in our defense industrial base clearly doesn't know what they are talking about.

So I am grateful to my friend Vice Chair Collins and to colleagues on the Appropriations Committee, who recognize the urgency of the task in front of us, for fighting hard to negate as much of the President's real-dollar cut to national defense as they could. The bill in committee right now exceeds the President's request by nearly $19 billion. This is less than the additional $25 billion authorized by the Armed Services Committee.

Senate Democrats refused to spend more on defense without adding funding for nondefense discretionary programs. However, thanks to our colleagues' efforts, this bill secures crucial steps forward on a number of urgent priorities.

The bill includes the largest ever appropriation for shipbuilding, with hundreds of millions in new resources for growing and retaining the critical shipbuilding industrial base.

It tackles maintenance backlogs head-on and invests in enough spare components to bring 500 more aircraft to full readiness than the President's request accounts for. It goes $3 billion beyond his request for overdue investments in expanding the defense industrial base and provides for modernizing ammunition and vehicle production facilities, from Iowa and Missouri to Ohio and Tennessee.

It delivers important downpayments on critical munitions, from the long-range and precision strike capabilities needed in the Indo-Pacific to the naval interceptors required to defend U.S. personnel and global commerce from terrorist attacks in the Red Sea.

But let's be absolutely clear. When it comes to rebuilding our stockpiles and preparing our Armed Forces to deter and defeat threats, there is much, much more work to be done. There is no serious reading of post-World War II history that doesn't trace the preservation of Western peace or the growth of American prosperity to an order underpinned by American strength.

The U.S. military is the reason our neighbors back home sleep in peace. It is the reason our communities reap the benefits of global trade. It is the weight behind our leader's words. We cannot afford to shortchange it, and I cannot make the stakes of the task before us any more clear.

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

Madam President, it has been less than 2 weeks since

President Biden's name was removed from the Democratic Party's ticket. I have already spoken about how the effort to sideline Democrats' de facto nominee robbed primary voters of their role in the electoral process.

Now, as the dust settles, more and more Americans are realizing this wasn't just a process foul, it was also a massive promotion for someone with a failing record in her current job.

Remember, just 2 months into their term, the President asked the Vice President--gave her the task of getting to the bottom of the surging illegal immigration at the United States-Mexico border. He called her ``the most qualified person'' to lead on this issue.

So why don't we take a look at how she did. In the past 3\1/2\ years, the crisis at our southern border has made history. Border Patrol agents have recorded over 9.9 million illegal encounters. We know that nearly 2 million more have literally gotten away, and the administration's catch-and-release policies have let in over 3 million without any credible means of enforcing immigration law.

What rapidly became a humanitarian crisis on Vice President Harris's watch is also a national security vulnerability of alarming proportions. Since October 2021, CBP have encountered 539 individuals on the Terror Watchlist along the southern border.

The failure is vast. The facts are shocking. The numbers are staggering. But for too many American families, there is only one number that matters: the one empty chair at the dinner table.

For some families, that chair is empty because an illegal immigrant killed their loved one. For many more, it is empty because Chinese manufacturers and Mexican cartels have exploited the chaos at the border and made fentanyl the leading cause of death for American adults.

And yet--yet--in the face of pain and suffering, the administration's point person on the border has approached this crisis with profound unseriousness. It took the Vice President months to get around to visiting the border. When asked why she hadn't made time to see the effects of the administration's open border policies firsthand, she quipped that she had not been to Europe either.

Sometimes, instead of deflection, she has employed outright denial. For example, she said:

We have a secure border.

Another example:

[E]verything . . . is going rather smoothly.

Of course, years earlier, under an administration that took border security seriously, then-Senator Harris found plenty of time to elaborate on her aversion to that commonsense policy.

In 2017, when a Federal judge blocked the previous administration's effort to deny Federal funding to sanctuary cities, she reacted as follows:

It's fantastic, I'm jumping up and down. Put five

exclamation points after what I just said.

Democrats are poised to nominate someone with a long record of being dead wrong on securing American borders. So perhaps it is not surprising that their immediate allies are working overtime to absolve the Vice President of responsibility for the undeniable crisis that has unfolded on her watch.

Last week, we read headlines like: ``No, Kamala Harris Is Not The `Border Czar.'''

And claims that ``the Vice President's role was more limited.''

After the short hiatus of asking tough questions about President Biden's fitness for office, the legacy media are back in the business of papering over Democratic vulnerabilities, even in this case if it means blatantly gaslighting the public.

But at the end of the day, the American people know what neglect looks like. Families missing loved ones know what this sort of catastrophic failure feels like, and in November, I expect they will have plenty to say about it.

Madam President, now on another matter, the Senate is about to leave Washington for the August State work period.

When we come back, Senate Democrats will face a daunting list of judges that the Biden-Harris administration will want them to confirm.

There is Adeel Mangi and his record of bumping elbows with terrorist apologists and advocates for cop killers.

There is Kevin Ritz and Karla Campbell, both the nepotistic beneficiaries of corrupt bargains between the Biden-Harris administration and the judges they would replace.

There is Julia Lipez, another nepotism hire, who has distinguished herself in her leniency toward a parent who killed their baby with fentanyl.

There is Embry Kidd, who went soft on sex abusers and then misled the Judiciary Committee about it.

There is Ryan Park, the self-described ``tip of the spear'' of progressive activism, who fought hard to let colleges discriminate illegally against Asian applicants.

There is Sparkle Sooknanan, whose nomination Congressman Velazquez called ``an insult to the people of Puerto Rico.''

And then there is Mustafa Kasubhai who has advocated incorporating-- listen to this--Marxist theory into property law.

So as our Democratic colleagues head out of town, I would suggest that they consider whether the radical goals of the Biden-Harris judicial project are really worth it.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Mr. President, the Senate is preparing to leave town for the August State work period, but there is no mistaking that our most important business here in Washington remains unfinished. Let's take a look at how the Senate has spent its summer so far.

In June, the Democratic leader called up a series of show votes, spending precious floor time on what Senate Democrats seemed to have thought would be political home runs. Instead, they gave Republicans the opportunity to reiterate our support for Americans hoping to start families.

In June, it was the month of fearmongering. July was the month of giving unqualified nominees lifetime promotions to the Federal bench.

Take Nancy Maldonado, unfortunately now a Federal judge on the Seventh Circuit. This is the judge infamous for letting her work pile up and blaming her clerks for lack of time management. It is particularly ironic that Senate Democrats chose to procrastinate on their most urgent responsibilities by confirming a nominee with a nearly unparalleled record of judicial procrastination.

Congress has real work in front of us, some of which really should be behind us by now--from the National Defense Authorization Act, to the farm bill, to annual appropriations.

Our colleagues on the Armed Services Committee reported the NDAA by an overwhelming bipartisan vote over a month ago, but so far, the Democratic leader hasn't come close to putting this must-pass authorizing legislation out here on the floor. Of course, urgent national security priorities won't fund themselves, either. The Senate hasn't cleared a Defense appropriations bill or any other government funding, for that matter. Well, at least the fiscal 2025 appropriations have been written. The farm bill that is supposed to help America's growers and producers succeed doesn't even exist yet. Apparently, it is just a twinkle in Chair Stabenow's eye.

The American people sent us here to do a job, and a show-vote summer can't hide the fact that Senate Democrats' majority isn't earning its keep.

Mr. President, on a different matter, as the Maduro regime continues its attempt to steal an election, the people of Venezuela are standing up forcefully against the predations of a hellish socialist dictatorship.

Across the country, working Venezuelans are protesting in the streets. They have torn down a statue of Maduro's socialist predecessor, Hugo Chavez. In at least one instance, security forces have removed their uniforms and refused to use force against the demonstrators.

The people of Venezuela are putting up an inspired resistance. Unfortunately, they are up against an authoritarian who will stop at nothing to retain his grip on power. After all, Maduro has learned from the worst--Moscow, Beijing, Tehran, Damascus, and Havana--and he has no shortage of useful idiots and fifth columns at his disposal.

Some of the same corners of social media that defended Bashar Assad, spun conspiracies about Ukraine, and demonized Israel are now laughably accusing the CIA--believe it or not--of masterminding Venezuela's unrest.

Meanwhile, supposedly mainstream media here in America are already hard at work whitewashing history. According to the New York Times, Venezuela's problem isn't the abject failure of socialism but the incursion of a supposed ``brutal capitalism.''

George Orwell would like a word.

Mr. President, the free world ought to have the courage to look evil in the face and call it what it actually is.

Madam President, the partners, puppets, and proxies of America's biggest adversaries spent a busy weekend repressing and killing innocent people.

On Saturday, in the Golan Heights, Israeli Druze children were playing soccer when Hezbollah launched a rocket made in Iran and killed 12 of them. On Sunday, Venezuela's communist dictator hijacked an election, promising the suffering people of his country even more brutal days to come.

We live in a world where thuggish repression and terrorist violence are increasingly common. Tragically, the slaughter of innocent children by terrorists is not surprising. Neither, unfortunately, is a stooge of the world's most powerful authoritarian's tightening his own chokehold on power.

But one thing doesn't ever get less shocking or alarming: the continued naivete with which our leaders respond. The Secretary of State says the Biden-Harris administration has ``serious concerns that the result announced does not reflect the will or the votes of the Venezuelan people.''

Well, many of us have serious and longstanding concerns that the administration does not know how to credibly change the calculus of America's adversaries. Autocrats don't care about disapproving looks from Western diplomats.

Don't believe me? Ask the mullahs in Tehran how worried they were about stern condemnations of their ongoing nuclear enrichment efforts.

We certainly don't have to wonder whether promises of sanction relief from Washington succeeded in convincing Nicolas Maduro to permit a free and fair election.

``Concern'' is not a strategy. And speeches, for that matter, are not policy, especially when they are not backed by facts and by force.

Last week, President Biden tooted the horn of his own foreign policy and declared proudly that ``the United States is not at war anywhere in the world.'' Well, that was news to America's servicemembers deployed in harm's way.

The very next day, Iran-backed terrorists attacked U.S. personnel in Iraq and in Syria again. For months, at his orders, U.S. Navy destroyers have expended more than $1 billion in high-tech munitions to intercept the Houthis' Iran-made arsenal of missiles and drones in exchange for no measurable increase in deterrence.

It is well and good to insist America is not at war, but a growing list of authoritarians, rogues, and strongmen are at war with us. The President's failure to respond decisively to threats may have let him believe we are not at war, but the same failure has emboldened our adversaries.

Time and again, the Biden-Harris administration has limited support, agonized over perceived risks of escalation, and tried to micromanage the way our friends in Ukraine and Israel actually defend themselves. In Secretary Blinken's first public comment after Hezbollah's most recent strike, he insisted that ``we don't want to see it spread.'' Well, neither did Israel on October 6, before Hamas spread murderous violence into peaceful kibbutzim, in violation of a cease-fire agreement. And neither does Israel now, as its military continues to focus on finishing the job against Hamas and building the pressure necessary to secure a stable peace.

There is simply no question Iran and its proxies are the instigators and aggressors in this conflict. They have planned and prepared this violence for years. And they will escalate, spread, and perpetuate it until it is no longer in their interests to do so.

If the so-called international community wants an end to the war in Gaza and chaos in the region, they can do more than issue statements expressing concern about escalation. It is past time for civilized countries to present Tehran with cold consequences, with heavy pressure on the leaders responsible for the campaign of death and destruction across the Middle East. Instead, Western leaders have repeatedly blamed the victim.

This is the message sent by Democrats who boycotted the joint address to Congress by the democratically elected Prime Minister of Israel. This is the message sent by their presumptive Presidential nominee who, instead of extending a hand of solidarity, pressured a friend and ally to cease military operations to defend itself.

This sort of pressure will please the American left, but restraining Israel also pleases the butchers in Tehran.