Floor Statements

Madam President, over the weekend, our colleagues continued to make progress toward an agreement on border security. I am especially grateful to Senator Lankford for stewarding Senate Republicans' efforts to produce meaningful policy changes, fix our broken asylum system, and secure the southern border.

Addressing the border crisis at home is a fundamental part of legislation that will help America meet each of the most glaring national security challenges we face around the world. And there are a number of significant issues our colleagues are still working to resolve.

The effects of years of failed border enforcement are compounded. Border security policy is complex. And our colleagues at the negotiating table are clear-eyed about the fact that getting this agreement right and producing legislative text is going to require some time.

Senate Republicans will not make up for others showing up late to the table by waving our responsibility to carefully negotiate and review any agreement before voting on it. I am encouraged by our colleagues' commitment to keep making steady progress in negotiations over the coming week and beyond.

America is facing a never-before-seen border crisis. An imperialist thug is trying to redraw the map of Europe. A repressive authoritarian state is preparing to put more of the Indo-Pacific under its control. And the world's largest state sponsor of terror is showing us it is as determined as ever to kill American servicemembers and disrupt global commerce. There is simply no room for falling short here. We cannot afford to get this wrong.

Mr. President, it has been nearly 8 weeks since President Biden submitted his supplemental funding request and identified four key national security priorities. For 8 weeks, Senate Republicans have been working hard to produce legislation that takes appropriate action on all four fronts: helping Ukraine defeat Putin in Europe, helping Israel fight Iranian terror in the Middle East, helping Asian partners deter Chinese aggression, and helping the men and women of Border Patrol get the crisis at our southern border under control.

At the same time, we have had to spend several weeks now trying to convince some of our Democratic colleagues not to tank the entire effort just because they wish a Democratic President had not put border security in his request.

A number of Senate Republicans have been working in good faith to make sure that supplemental legislation makes substantive policy changes at the border, instead of just throwing money at the problem.

Meanwhile, we have had to explain to Members of President Biden's own party why the border security issue he included in his proposal was not extraneous to America's national security.

So here we are. Some very important conversations are ongoing. And here is the bottom line: The Senate cannot claim to address major national security challenges without a solution to the one we are facing on the southern border. We can't pretend to be serious about threats facing America and our allies without fixing the broken system that lets 10,000 illegal aliens cross our border in a single day.

I am serious. Senate Republicans are serious, and I hope our colleagues are as well.

Mr. President, on another matter, the events of the past 2 months have underscored that something is rotten in the state of America's most elite universities, and there aren't many more glaring examples than Harvard.

Last week, of course, Harvard's president refused to say whether calls for Jewish genocide would constitute harassment on her campus. Two months ago, in the immediate aftermath of the October 7 terrorist attack, she declined to condemn the Harvard student groups who openly declared that the murder of innocent Jews that day was Israel's own fault.

Under her leadership, radical ``Students for Justice in Palestine'' have organized to spin terrorist propaganda and mostly succeeded in getting Harvard graduates blackballed by major corporations and Federal judges.

One Jewish student at Harvard Business School was even assaulted on his way to study.

And yet despite her abysmal record on combating anti-Semitism and mounting allegations of plagiarism in her own scholarship, the cadre of leftwing financiers and university administrators who make up the governing Harvard Corporation has affirmed their ``confidence that President Gay is the right leader to help our community heal.''

Well, when you look at Harvard's history, this embarrassing lack of moral clarity is hardly a surprise. A century

ago, Harvard President Abbott Lowell proposed a numerical quota on Jewish students. His reasoning?

The anti-Semitic feeling among the students is increasing,

and it grows in proportion to the increase in the number of

Jews.

So one Harvard president says that the presence of Jews causes anti- Semitism. A hundred years later, another says that calls for Jewish genocide really depend on the context in which they are made. Frankly, you would be forgiven for wondering whether anti-Semitism isn't just business as usual at Harvard.

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

Mr. President, today, Senate Republicans are still working in good faith on border policy changes that will allow the Senate to pass a national security supplemental. I am hopeful that Democrats, both here and at the White House, are beginning to recognize how committed we are to addressing the crisis at our southern border. I am hopeful that we can reach an agreement and address two national security priorities.

Meanwhile, the challenges we are facing at home and abroad are not stopping themselves. As of today, U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria have faced at least 92 attacks from Iran-backed terrorists since October, including just last week against the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

Meanwhile, Iran's Houthi proxies are escalating their threats against shipping vessels in one of the busiest choke points of international maritime commerce. Iran and its terrorist network are not deterred. They believe they can try to kill Americans with impunity.

Yet, last week, leading Senate Democrats joined a failed effort to withdraw America's presence in Syria. Three Members of the Democratic caucus leadership cast votes to retreat--to retreat--in the face of an emboldened terrorist threat. So did the chair of the Foreign Relations subcommittee that deals with the Middle East.

It is time for our colleagues to get serious about the threats that we face. Fortunately, the Senate is on track to pass the long-awaited National Defense Authorization Act. I am grateful to Ranking Member Wicker and Chairman Reed for the extensive work required to bring this must-pass legislation across the goal line.

This year, the Armed Services Committee considered 445 amendments, and

another 121 were adopted here on the floor. Thanks to the dedicated efforts of many of our colleagues on this side of the aisle, the bill they produced asserts the Senate's priorities on a host of national security issues where the Biden administration's approach continues to fall short.

This year's NDAA recognizes the need to strengthen America's position in strategic competition with China through targeted improvements to critical capabilities--from long-range fires and anti-ship weapons to modernizing our nuclear triad.

It will authorize further investments in the defense industrial base and expand efficiency and accountability of the lethal assistance degrading Russia's military in Ukraine.

It will turbocharge cooperation with Israel on future missile defense technologies and ensure our closest ally in the Middle East can access the U.S. capabilities it needs when it needs them.

It will give America's men and women in uniform a pay raise.

It will focus the Pentagon more squarely on tackling national security challenges instead of creating new ones with partisan social policies.

In my home State of Kentucky, it will advance important initiatives to expand production at Bluegrass Army Depot and reduce U.S. reliance on competitors for materials critical to our defense.

Of course, Congress can't fix the Biden administration's weakness on the world stage by ourselves. We can equip a global superpower, but we still need a Commander in Chief who recognizes that he is leading one.

President Biden should be focused on restoring real deterrence against Iran-backed terrorists, not interfering with the internal politics of the democratic ally they are attacking. Israel is a modern, mature, and independent democracy. I imagine that neither Israel's leaders, nor its citizens appreciate President Biden's punditry to Democratic donors about their wartime coalition government. In fact, foreign influence in our own politics used to be something Washington Democrats loved to condemn.

So I would recommend that the President focus on the task at hand: imposing meaningful consequences in Iran and giving Israel the time, the space, and the support it needs to defeat Hamas.

This week, the Senate will move the National Defense Authorization Act one step closer to becoming law. I hope that will mark the first step toward giving the national security challenges America faces the urgent attention they require. But it will still fall to Congress to pass supplemental national security appropriations and full-year defense funding to ensure the investments we authorize this week deliver real progress in making America stronger and more secure.

Nominations

On another matter, this morning, the Judiciary Committee is examining another slate of President Biden's nominees to join the Federal bench.

Over the past 3 years, our colleagues on the committee have met and considered an alarming parade of nominees whose conduct or lack of legal qualifications make them so wildly unfit for confirmation that they had to be withdrawn, from the First Circuit nominee known best for helping defend an elite prep school against a victim of sexual assault to the Kansas District nominee whom the American Bar Association was expected to find ``not qualified'' for judicial service.

Unfortunately, today's nominees include yet another head-spinning example of the Biden administration's radical approach to filling the Federal bench.

Adeel Mangi is the President's nominee to serve as circuit judge for the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. Since graduating from Harvard Law, he has spent his career in private practice, but for years, he also served on the board of a Rutgers student organization that facilitates and amplifies grotesque, anti-Semitic activism. For example, on the 20th anniversary of September 11, the Center for Security, Race and Rights at Rutgers Law School hosted speaking engagements for a ringleader of recent calls for an intifada in the United States and a convicted supporter of Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

For those who need reminding, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas are holding hostages, including Americans, in Gaza as we speak.

American Jews are facing a historic wave of anti-Semitic hate, and this wave is emanating from campus organizations across the country like the one Mr. Mangi guided and supported at Rutgers. Is the Biden administration really asking the Senate to give life tenure on the court of appeals to a nominee with an extensive record of condoning terrorist propaganda?

I would urge our colleagues on the Judiciary Committee to take a closer look at Mr. Mangi's nomination and reject 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, this morning, the Senate welcomed Ukraine's inspirational and determined President Zelenskyy to the Capitol.

For nearly 2 years, the people of Ukraine have defied the world's expectations. They have ground down the world's second most powerful military, and they have confounded Putin's aggressive, imperialist aspirations. At every step of the way, America's commitment and support has provided critical fuel for Ukraine's resistance and helped European allies wake up from a holiday from history.

Now, our allies are awake. They are investing in collective defense, and clear majorities of Americans understand the importance of America's continuing to lead as the arsenal of democracy.

I have been a staunch supporter of Ukraine's fight to take back its land, liberate its people, and restore its sovereignty since the beginning of Russia's invasion way back in 2014. Our Ukrainian friends' cause is just, and if the West continues to stand with them, they can win.

But let's be absolutely clear: Ukraine's cause hasn't always been popular here in Washington.

In 2021, Republicans recommended that the Biden administration step up assistance to help Ukraine deter renewed Russian threats, and the administration seemed to think Ukraine was a frozen conflict and a distraction from other priorities. In early 2022, as the gravity of Putin's plans came into focus, Republicans urged the President to expedite shipments of critical weapons systems to stop Russia's advance, but his administration's unfounded fear of escalating the conflict repeatedly kept decisive capabilities out of Ukrainian hands at critical moments.

When Russian troops crossed the border and the administration first came

to Congress for assistance, it was Republicans who demanded we use emergency funds to pay for the cost of deploying U.S. forces to Europe rather than forcing our military to take those costs out of hide.

And it was Republicans who demanded that our supplemental appropriations bills include funding to replenish and modernize the stockpiles we were drawing down to support Ukraine.

Perhaps, they expected the war to be over quickly, but the Biden administration requested neither of these things. In fact, when the Senate received the President's first supplemental request, I called the Democratic leader and said: ``Double it.'' He agreed with my suggestion, and that is precisely what we did.

Republicans on the Armed Services, Foreign Relations, and Appropriations Committees have worked overtime to help equip Ukraine for victory. We have pushed relentlessly for investments that strengthen our Armed Forces, degrade our adversaries, and stand firmly with a sovereign democracy against authoritarian aggression--all while expanding our defense industrial capacity and creating American jobs at the very same time.

We have done it because we know that American leadership has ripple effects. Just look at how our European allies are now contributing more to Ukraine than we are, how allies across the world are investing in hard power and in our collective defense.

We know that the threats we face are intertwined; that Russia, Iran, China, and North Korea work together to undermine America and the West. We know that our border--just like Ukraine's borders and Israel's and Taiwan's--must be inviolable.

That is why, for months now, we have supported supplemental action on all four of the most pressing national security challenges we face. My support for Ukraine and Israel is rock solid. I am committed to preparing the U.S. military to deter and defend Chinese aggression. I am determined to get the national security crisis at the southern border under control. And I am going to work to get it done as long as it takes.

Mr. President, for all of its flaws, the supplemental request the Biden administration submitted to Congress did correctly identify four especially urgent national security priorities: defeating Russian invasion in Europe, countering Iran-backed terror in the Middle East, deterring Chinese aggression in the Indo-Pacific, and securing America's southern border.

Late last week, President Biden said he was willing to make ``significant compromises'' on Republican policy changes designed to restore real border security.

And across the country, elected Democrats are emphasizing just how urgent this progress is. The Governor of Arizona reported over the weekend that her State is ``at a breaking point'' and that it needs Washington to ``step up, do its job, and bring security and order to our border.'' She is a Democrat.

At the frontlines of the crisis that has unfolded on President Biden's watch, the mayor of Nogales, AZ, put it this way:

I think it's time to say enough is enough. . . . I'm a

Democrat, a registered Democrat, but I run this city as a

human being.

I know many of my colleagues here in the Senate share that frustration. Many of them recognize the urgency of the situation. Just over the weekend, in the time since Senator Lankford presented Senate Democrats with this latest opportunity to help fix America's broken asylum and parole system, the crisis at the southern border has actually gotten worse.

With average daily border crossings near 10,000--10,000--CBP is now saying it is releasing 6,600 illegal aliens into the interior every single day. The backlog of asylum cases sits at 3 million--3 million-- and counting. And officials have reported arrivals from more than 150 countries just since October 1.

This is what a crisis looks like. This is what the Democratic leader spent last week insisting was ``extraneous'' to America's national security.

Well, when it comes to keeping America safe, border security is not a side show; it is ground zero.

Senate Republicans have no more spare time to explain this basic reality.

We cannot convince anyone who doesn't want to acknowledge the glaring facts on the ground. The Senate has to act.

Mr. President, yesterday, every single Republican rejected the Democratic leader's attempt to separate border security from national security. As we have said for weeks, that was a futile effort that was doomed to fail from the very beginning. Hopefully, the Senate can now seize a new opportunity to make real progress on legislation that addresses urgent national security priorities both at home and abroad.

So let's establish a few things going forward: It is profoundly unserious to pretend that national security priorities don't include securing our Nation's borders, to warn about borders in jeopardy and not start with the one that is being overrun here at home, to invoke threats facing sovereign nations without a clear plan to uphold America's own sovereignty.

Mr. President, I am not in need of any lectures about the gravity of the challenges facing national security. I don't need any admonishments about what is at stake for America and our allies in Ukraine's fight against Russian aggression. I am well aware that the world's largest state sponsor of terrorism remains undeterred from trying to kill Americans in the Middle East. And I certainly have not forgotten that China, our top strategic adversary, is watching what we do very closely.

Instead, unfortunately, it has been the Biden administration-- including our Commander in Chief--who has all too often needed reminders about the responsibilities of a global superpower. From Europe to the Middle East, the administration has reached new heights of self-deterrence.

With Putin's forces massing on the borders of Ukraine, the administration slow-walked lethal assistance. As the Russian offensive unfolded, they held back the most decisive capabilities Ukraine needed out of an unfounded fear of escalation.

And even with further security assistance hanging in the balance, the Biden administration has been slow--very slow--to sell this urgent measure and its massive domestic benefits to our people here at home.

From the outset, the Biden administration resumed the Obama-era efforts to reset relations with Tehran and removed the Iran-backed Houthis from the terrorism list. Also, it is no surprise that Iran has snubbed its nose at these displays of weakness. It is no surprise that U.S. personnel are facing a spike in terrorist attacks from Iraq and Syria to the Red Sea. But the administration continues to pull its punches.

And meanwhile, Republicans have spent years urging the administration to start performing even the bare minimum of its fundamental responsibility to secure our southern border and enforce our Nation's laws.

Right now, the crisis created by the Biden administration's neglect is bringing illegal aliens to the United States at the rate of 300,000 a month. That is roughly the population of Lexington, KY, arriving every month. And thanks to an asylum and parole system that desperately needs fixing, many of them are just brought straight in.

I know many of our Democratic colleagues recognize the urgency of this crisis. I know many of them are ready to help restore sanity at our southern border.

Well, Senator Lankford, Senator Graham, and other Republican colleagues are still working hard to do exactly that. There is no time like the present to join them in those efforts.

Syria

Mr. President, now, on a different matter, this morning the Senate will vote on a resolution calling for the withdrawal of American military forces from Syria. Passage of such a resolution would be a gift to Iran and its terrorist network. Driving American troops from the Middle East is exactly what they would like to see.

Adopting this short-sighted measure would wreck America's credibility in the region. It would encourage Iran's proxies to open a northern front in the territorial war against Israel. It would invite America's adversaries to challenge our military presence throughout the world.

Back in 2019, as our colleagues may recall, the Senate went on record about the wisdom of withdrawing prematurely from Syria and Afghanistan. At that time, the vast majority of us rejected such a retreat. And those who didn't have since watched President Biden's disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, Putin's escalation against Ukraine, China's growing challenge to international peace and stability, and Iran's glaring threat to America and to Israel.

Today is the 82nd anniversary of Pearl Harbor. It is a day to remember the cost of being caught on our heels. A vote in favor of this resolution is a vote for retreat in the face of terror.

Bidenomics

Mr. President, now, on one final matter, working Americans can't seem to catch a break from Bidenomics. Washington Democrats' spending sprees on President Biden's watch have driven inflation up 17.6 percent. And the effects are becoming inescapable.

In my home State, many small business owners have been forced to raise their prices to keep up with the rising costs. One shop owner in Lexington, put it:

I make food and chocolates and all the ingredients have

gone up.

I've been battling with increasing my prices which I don't

want to do.

Just like in cities and towns across the country, small businesses in Lexington are facing declining foot traffic, which might have something to do with the consumers' shrinking paychecks. Inflation is eating away at people's savings.

By one estimate, the average American family would need an extra $11,400 a year just to maintain the standard of living they had when President Biden took office. And, needless to say, folks on fixed incomes are among the hardest hit.

One 68-year-old retiree in western Massachusetts summed up his struggle to make ends meet in the Biden economy. Here is what he said:

You get your check and then you have to sit down there . .

. like `What am I going to pay [out]? Am I going to get food

or lose my electricity?' . . . I can't spend nothing anymore.

I have to pay rent, utilities, food, medicine.

This is what the American people are up against. This is everyday life under Bidenomics. Bizarrely, the Biden administration still seems to hold its favorite phrase in high esteem. The White House Press Secretary called Bidenomics ``the word of the year.''

Well, working Americans feel quite differently. And the President's hometown is no exception. As one resident from Scranton, PA, reported recently:

[E]verything is going up, except for paychecks.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, later today, Senate Republicans are going to deny cloture on a bill that fails to address America's top national security priorities in a serious way. As we have said for weeks, legislation that doesn't include policy changes to secure our borders will not pass the Senate.

The situation unfolding at our southern border on President Biden's watch is a crisis of historic proportions. It is glaring, it is acute, and it is undermining America's national security.

President Obama's DHS Secretary used to say that 1,000 border crossings a day ``overwhelms the system.'' Today, they are reporting encountering over--listen to this--10,000 people a day down at the border--a large town's worth of illegal aliens each day. Thanks to a broken asylum and parole system, the vast majority of them are admitted into the country before their legal status is even determined.

Mr. President, 10,000 arrivals a day would mean a population the size of a middle-sized town in Kentucky every month--every month. The sheer volume has forced officials in the Tucson, AZ, sector, which has recently accounted for nearly 3,000 of those daily arrivals by itself, to shut down one port of entry altogether.

This is the crisis undermining America's national security right here at home, and today, some of our Democratic colleagues are showing just how little they want to do anything about it.

Senate Republicans know this isn't an either-or proposition. We know that national security begins with border security.

I have spent months highlighting the undeniable links between the threats we face in Europe, in the Middle East, and in the Indo-Pacific, but Democratic leadership appears to be telling us today that they are willing to risk each of these urgent priorities to avoid--avoid--fixing our own borders right here at home. Apparently, some of our colleagues would rather let Russia trample a sovereign nation in Europe than do what it takes to enforce America's own sovereign borders.

Now, it wasn't always like this. Democrats didn't always have such a hard time following the logic that national security begins right here at home.

I am reminded of the commission President Reagan set up in the mid- 1980s to assess the importance of peace and security in the Western Hemisphere. It was a bipartisan exercise that included everyone from Henry Kissinger to the former chair of the DNC and the president of the AFL-CIO. The commission concluded that America's security in the world ``depends on the inherent security of its land borders'' and that our adversaries would reap ``a major strategic coup to impose on the United States the burden of defending our southern approaches.''

``[A] major strategic coup'' for our adversaries. A past generation of Democrats understood the logic implicitly when it pertained to the threat of Soviet influence. Well, that logic applies even more today to the instability, cartel violence, terror, and drugs pouring over our southern border.

But in today's Democratic Party, some of our colleagues appear to be so terrified of their radical base that they are convinced open borders are worth jeopardizing U.S. security around the world, that securing America's borders is less urgent than helping our partners defend theirs.

The Democratic leader has insisted repeatedly that border security is an important issue, but whatever our colleagues want to call the issue, their actions suggest they are not at all interested in actually solving it.

Demanding serious border policy changes isn't injecting an unrelated issue into the conversation. President Biden's own request wanted us to throw billions of dollars at this exact problem. Fixing a badly broken asylum and parole system isn't hijacking the supplemental; it is strengthening it. Securing our southern border isn't extraneous to our national security; it is essential.

I know some of our Democratic colleagues understand this. I know not all of them are beholden to the same radical base that demands open borders at home and supports an intifada abroad. I invite them to work with Republicans on meaningful, lasting border security.

But if today's vote is what it takes for the Democratic leader to recognize that Senate Republicans mean what we say, then let's vote, and then let's finally start meeting America's national security priorities, including right here at home.

Coal

Mr. President, now on another matter, for millions of Americans, expensive heating bills and rolling blackouts are becoming the hallmark of the holiday season under President Biden. So it came as no small surprise when the Biden administration's climate czar, John Kerry, proclaimed this week that no coal plants should be ``permitted anywhere in the world''--``anywhere in the world.'' Goodness. Our former colleague may have bought himself applause from the jet-set crowd assembled at the conference, but his ban on coal would make energy even less reliable and affordable here at home.

As my colleague from West Virginia, Senator Capito, pointed out yesterday, many States in Middle America still rely on coal to keep their lights on. Kentucky, West Virginia, Wyoming, Missouri, Utah, North Dakota, Indiana, and Nebraska all use coal to generate over 50 percent of their electricity.

President Biden's handling of the economy is turning in dismal marks from working Americans. But the climate activists in his administration continue to wage war on the most affordable forms of American energy they rely on.

Unfortunately, Middle America is used to footing the bill for Washington's radical climate agenda. For 8 years under President Obama, Kentuckians watched the War on Coal kill jobs and cripple communities across Appalachia. These same communities continue to pay dearly under President Biden. Kentucky coal miner employment has never--never-- recovered from the Obama-era coal purge. Hasty plans to phase out fossil fuels only force more miners into early retirement in Kentucky and threaten the livelihood of Middle America.

The sort of power grid failures we have seen in California, Texas, and Kentucky will become even more common if Democrats' full-speed- ahead climate strategy continues. Meanwhile, our top strategic adversary is scaling up coal production. Despite the Biden administration's pleading, China continues to forge ahead with new coal projects and resurrect retired plants. Time and again, the President's climate czar has happily accepted empty climate pledges from our adversaries at the expense of American jobs and job creators.

So Democrats can repeat their tired green energy talking points until the cows come home, but the reality for Americans is all the same: less reliable and more expensive energy this winter.

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

Mr. President, the Senate has spent months considering

supplemental action to meet serious, connected threats to America's national security.

As I have said from the outset, our work needs to address four urgent challenges: Putin's war on a sovereign democracy in Europe; the terror campaign against Israel and U.S. forces in the Middle East; China's aggressive escalation against Taiwan and peaceful nations in the Indo- Pacific; and the Biden administration's continuing failure to contend with the crisis at our southern border.

Senate Republicans' focus on securing the border didn't just begin this fall. We have watched for 3 years as the border descended into chaos on President Biden's watch. And for 3 years, we have urged his administration to fulfill even its most basic responsibility to enforce our immigration laws.

Anyone who suggests that Senate Republicans are injecting the issue of border security into this discussion at the last minute either isn't serious or hasn't been paying attention.

Continuing to pretend that upholding American sovereignty is any less urgent than helping our allies and partners defend theirs is reckless. Borders in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona are every bit as inviolable as those in Ukraine, Israel, and the Indo-Pacific. And the sooner our Democratic colleagues realize it, the sooner we can deliver on urgent national security priorities.

Now, needless to say, America's adversaries aren't waiting for us to get serious about our own security. In the South China Sea, for example, the PRC is increasingly using aggressive posturing and outright force to disrupt peace, stability, and lawful maritime commerce.

Beijing now greets lawful passage in international waters with threatening, unsafe conduct and hyperventilating bluster and continues to undermine the long-established territorial claims of sovereign nations throughout Southeast Asia.

Unfortunately, China is not the only adversary stepping up its aggression in the maritime domain. Iran and its network of terrorists continue to illustrate the failures of the Biden administration's deterrence in dangerous detail. On Sunday, a U.S. Navy destroyer and Israeli-flagged commercial vessels came under fire from the same Houthi rebels this administration had inexplicably taken off--off--its list of terror organizations when it took office. This was, of course, a concession to Iran.

Of course, terrorist violence at sea is only the latest in a laundry list of Iran-backed attempts to kill Americans in the region since October 7. At least 77 times, Tehran's proxies have used lethal force against U.S. personnel in Iraq and in Syria, just since October 7.

By any objective standard, the Biden administration's response has been woefully inadequate. Tehran remains demonstrably undeterred. As President Obama's former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta put it last week: ``I would be much more aggressive.''

So effective deterrence requires both capabilities and credibility. And America can't hope to deter our adversaries if we signal hesitation and fear of escalation.

Consider the enemy we are up against. One of Hamas's top terrorists in Gaza told the media recently that the slaughter of Israelis on October 7 was ``just a rehearsal''--a bloody rehearsal that left 1,200 innocent people dead and hundreds more in terrorist captivity.

These savages--savages--mean what they say about erasing Israel from the map. But this is not just Israel's fight. Today, at least eight Americans are still being held hostage in Gaza. And if Iran and its proxies get their way, there will be more Americans killed and captured.

This is not--not--a time to go soft on terror. This is not a time to put constraints on Israel. This is a time to support your friends and stand up to your adversaries.

As the Senate considers urgent national security for priorities, our adversaries in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East are watching closely what we do.

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

Madam President, I would like to begin today with a few words about the late Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

Justice O'Connor was a transformative figure in the history of our country and of our highest Court. She was a trailblazer in both legislative politics and constitutional jurisprudence, and I am grateful for her extraordinary life and for her dedicated service.

I know our colleagues join me in offering our deepest condolences to Justice O'Connor's children, grandchildren, and the entire O'Connor family.

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

Mr. President, the past hundred years have seen few, if any, strategic thinkers shape world events as profoundly as Henry Kissinger. Few academics have had such deep experience in the practice of foreign policy. Few political appointees have had such bureaucratic savvy. Few senior government officials have carried such intellectual heft.

Who else could claim to have advised more than one-fourth of all U.S. Presidents, to have taken a seat across from every Chinese head of state since Chairman Mao?

Yesterday marked the end of the extraordinary Kissinger century.

If you consider just the early chapters of this remarkable life, you might expect Henry Kissinger to be the quintessential idealist. But by the age of 30, he had escaped Nazi brutality for America, returned home a decorated veteran of the campaign to defeat Hitler, and launched a successful career as an Ivy League academic.

Of course, instead of an idealist, this made-for-Hollywood origin story produced one of the world's staunchest realists. The Kissinger calculus was grounded in pragmatic assessments of national interest, the use of military force, and diplomatic compromise; and, by extension, so were decades of American foreign policy.

Several years ago, one particularly apt assessment of Henry Kissinger's legacy pointed out that he didn't believe ``the arc of history makes house calls.'' In other words, if the free world waits passively for its noble convictions to be vindicated, we will be waiting quite a while.

Instead, Henry Kissinger knew that the organizing principle for American strategy must be American interests, and he left no room for wondering what this approach looked like in practice. His careful negotiations ushered in a period of detente with America's greatest 20th century rival, and his bold diplomacy opened the door to a relationship with China that rebalanced Cold War dynamics in America's favor.

Of course, the enduring relevance of Dr. Kissinger's work is due in no small part to his prolific participation in public discourse on foreign policy and grand strategy, up until the very end. The author of 21 books confounded scholars half his age with the pace and the volume of his brilliant scholarship on topics ranging from the history of diplomacy to artificial intelligence.

In perhaps the truest expression of both his intellectual horsepower and understanding of power, he remains the only American statesman to have served as Secretary of State and National Security Advisor at the very same time.

Today, the world Henry Kissinger leaves behind bears his indelible mark. The Nation he served--the global superpower he helped create-- owes him our gratitude.

Elaine and I, along with so many of Dr. Kissinger's friends in the Senate, send our condolences to his wife Nancy, his children David and Elizabeth, and to the entire Kissinger family as they mourn a great American.