Floor Statements

Mr. President, on an entirely different matter, Putin's brutal war on Ukraine has forced both us Americans and our friends in Europe to take a long, hard look at our country's commitments to military spending and self-defense.

NATO and the West have let important capabilities actually atrophy over time: like defense funding; like military modernization; like looking after our defense industrial base, which creates good American jobs, ensures our own security, and allows us to be the arsenal for our friends and allies.

It serves America's core national interests for us to exercise strong leadership in the world. Our security and Europe's security are interlinked. Our economies are intertwined. But the rest of NATO must do more to follow our lead: increase defense spending, upgrade their capabilities, and put skin in the game.

Tomorrow, I will be taking this message directly to our European friends in person. With a number of our colleagues, I will be traveling to the Munich Security Conference. I will come as a staunch supporter of NATO, but I will also come with homework assignments for our European friends. I will speak as a friend, but I will speak frankly.

Hard power is what kept the peace during the Cold War. Our allies simply have to reinvest in hard power. In the short term, both America and our allies need to serve our own interests by investing in the munitions and weapons systems that will help Ukraine defeat the invasion.

But this chapter of realism and resolve can't end with Ukraine, because the long-term threats and challenges that we face actually go much deeper. A nuclear-armed Russia poses a threat to the United States and to NATO. And China poses an even greater threat still to American interests and those of our allies.

These challenges are multifaceted; they are global; and they are actually only growing. So I look forward to talking to our allies in Munich, both about America's resolve to lead and Europe's responsibility to shoulder more of the load.

Mr. President, yesterday, the longest serving female Senator in American history announced she plans to retire at the end of her record fifth full term.

My good friend Dianne Feinstein made major history in 1992 when she became the first woman to represent California in the Senate. But, of course, both her knack for notching historic firsts and her commitment to her fellow Golden Staters were very well established by the time she arrived here in Washington.

Dianne's career in politics began where many do: at the local level. But for Dianne, that happened to mean shattering glass ceilings in a major metropolis. She was the first woman to serve as president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. While in office, she endured a failed attempt to bomb her home. Then her predecessor as mayor was assassinated. That is when Dianne became the city's first female mayor. And then she handily beat an attempted recall.

By the time this trailblazer became Senator Feinstein, there was practically nothing that could faze her. Dianne has been the top Democrat on the Rules Committee, the Intelligence Committee, and the Judiciary Committee.

For decades, she has been one of our country's most formidable legislators across numerous subjects. And, somehow, amid it all, this battle-tested veteran stateswoman has maintained a genuine warmth and collegiality that cuts through even the tensest debates.

Elaine and I have been fortunate to count Dianne a friend for many years. Elaine and Dick served on a board together in the private sector years ago. Frequently, when Dick was in town, the four of us would go out to dinner. We had a genuine friendship.

So as you can imagine, we hated to lose Dick recently. But the good news is Dianne will be here for 2 more years as our colleague. And that is very, very good news for Elaine and for me.

Mr. President, now on an entirely different matter, last week, President Biden spent part of his State of the Union Address celebrating what he seemed to think was a victory over inflation. Yesterday, however, another wave of official figures confirmed what working families already knew: The President was simply wrong. The Democrats' football spiking was premature. The American people are hurting badly. The CPI rose another half a point last month, even faster than predicted, for an overall price hike of 6.4 percent year on year.

Now, mind you, that is not 6.4 percent inflation since President Biden was sworn in. That is an additional 6.4 percent just since February of last year--since February of last year--a baseline that already had an entire previous year of historic and unacceptable inflation already baked into it.

The overall Biden inflation rate is 14.4 percent. The overall Biden inflation rate is 14.4 percent from January 2021 to today. Rents are up 12.7 percent since President Biden took office. Grocery prices are up 19.6 percent. Energy prices are up 38 percent after 2 years of total Democratic control here in Washington.

Prices are still rising out of control. And, even worse, the rate of increase is speeding back up again. This past month was the hottest for inflation since last October.

We have now had 21 straight months above 5 percent annual inflation-- a mind-boggling policy failure.

And what does the White House have to say about it? Well, yesterday, the President's press secretary claimed:

The President's economic plan is indeed working.

So I guess the official White House position is that Democrats caused all of this crushing inflation on purpose. This is the kind of insanity that has left just 16 percent of Americans saying they are in a better financial position than they were 2 years ago. That has nearly two- thirds of Americans saying they are living literally paycheck to paycheck. So much preventable pain, because Democrats gambled away families' security on their radical plans and their reckless spending.

Mr. President, now, on one final matter, yesterday, President Biden and the Senate Democratic leader took time to boast about their judicial confirmations. There was something interesting, strange, and telling about their statements. Both the President and the Democratic leader focused their comments overwhelmingly on identity politics and demographic box-checking.

The President's statement spent literally one part of one sentence paying lip service to the question of legal qualifications. The remaining five paragraphs were devoted solely to these new judges' demographic characteristics. It was really quite bizarre.

President Biden informed the American people that a particular District Court in Puerto Rico will now have its first judge who is not heterosexual. He pointed out that men have been a small minority of his judicial nominees; that certain percentages of his nominees fit into certain demographic categories. He went on and on and on like this.

Most Americans want our country to keep moving forward in a direction where people's physical characteristics

do not define us. Do you know what share of Americans believe race or ethnicity should be a major factor in university admissions? Seven percent. Do you know what percentage believe that gender should be a major factor in university admissions? Four percent.

But when these Democrats talk about our sacred legal system, they sound like the HR department at some liberal university.

The White House statements singled out three judges by name. In all three cases, the President belabored some aspect of the judge's identity. In zero--zero--of the three cases did the President have anything to say about their knowledge, intellect, or professional distinction.

It is offensive to all Americans who have a President seeming to view our judiciary as some kind of crude sociological math problem. This is just the kind of thing our Constitution cuts against.

Ironically, when it came to how these new judges actually think, both the President and the Democratic leader went out of their way to celebrate the lack of diversity in their thinking. They bragged about their coordinated and deliberate effort to stuff the judiciary with an unprecedented volume of former criminal defense attorneys.

Democrats have long said they want judges to have empathy. Well, that is good news if you happen to be the party for whom the judge has a special bias; not so good, however, if you are the other party and you are looking for a fair trial.

Now, Democrats are helpfully telling us whom they want judges to empathize with: accused criminals, not innocent victims.

Now, nobody is saying we shouldn't have any public defenders on the bench. But even the New York Times admits the Democrats' sweeping effort to tilt the playing field in one direction is ``a sea change in the world of judicial nominations.''

When Republicans held the Presidency and the Senate, we spent 4 years confirming staggeringly qualified and incredibly brilliant men and women to the courts, from widely diverse professional and educational credentials.

Back then, even the very liberal outlet Vox.com reported:

Based solely on objective legal credentials--

Objective legal credentials--

the average . . . appointee has a far more impressive resume

than any past president's nominees.

That was then. So where are we? These days, things are different. To name just one example, significantly smaller shares of this President's nominees have attained prestigious clerkships at the Supreme Court or the appellate level.

To name another example, one person President Biden has put up for a lifetime appointment could not even tell the Judiciary Committee what is in article II or article V of the Constitution.

Look, our courts uphold the rule of law and protect our citizens' rights. The American people deserve a judiciary that contains the smartest, most formidable, and most qualified legal all-stars in our country. And they deserve a President who takes this seriously.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, this approach has met our needs for five of the past six Congresses, and I, too, would like to see it continue. In addition, special reserves have been restored to its historic purpose. We should continue to fund special reserves to the extent possible in order to be able to assist committees that face urgent, unanticipated, nonrecurring needs. Recognizing the tight budgets we will face for the foreseeable future, it is necessary to continue to bring funding authorizations more in line with our actual resources while ensuring that committees are able to fulfill their responsibilities. I look forward to continuing to work with the majority leader to accomplish this.

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to complete my remarks prior to the scheduled rollcall votes.

Mr. President, today, our colleagues on the Commerce Committee will hear from someone they already know very well. Our Democratic colleagues have scheduled yet another hearing for a radical nominee they have already twice failed to get through the Senate. Now, the far left is betting the third time will be a charm.

The problem is Gigi Sohn is no more qualified to be installed on the FCC than she was back in 2021 or 2022.

The Federal Communications Commission is an important and sensitive regulatory body. It is charged with regulating a huge amount of our communications with each other as American citizens: our radio and television, our cable and satellite, our broadband internet. They are unelected people who exercise enormous power in areas that directly intersect with the American people's First Amendment rights and free speech and free expression.

The country needs our FCC Commissioners to be thoughtful, sober, nonpartisan referees, not activists and ideologues who want to bend our airwaves to their agenda.

This nominee, Ms. Sohn, has spent her entire career proving she is totally--totally--unsuited to this sensitive job. She is a hardcore liberal activist who has literally said the FCC should consider revoking the broadcast licenses at news stations that she disagreed with. That is completely disqualifying and then some. This is America. We don't pull journalists and broadcasters off the air because unelected bureaucrats disagree with them.

And this only scratches the surface. She has a record of siding with criminals over law enforcement. She has deep, longstanding ties to a radical organization that opposes law enforcement's lawful access to data and information--an organization connected to, among other people, the leaker, liar, and fugitive Edward Snowden.

Among the strongest supporters of her nomination are groups who have called American cops ``agents of white supremacy.'' The same people who want to defund the police, who oppose laws against online sex trafficking--they want this woman in this position of power. And they want it badly.

The Fraternal Order of Police wrote our colleagues Senator Cruz and Senator Cantwell to explain that putting Gigi Sohn on the FCC would be a disaster for law and order. They said confirming this person would ``show a complete disregard for the hard-working men and women of law enforcement.''

And even unrelated to her radical views, this nominee is also swamped with serious ethical questions. Seven years ago, when she was advising a past FCC Chairman, the Commission was closing in on a bipartisan deal she thought was too moderate. So she leaked nonpublic information in order to gin up outrage from the radical left, pressure the Commissioners, and tank the compromise.

In another instance, she was a board member of an organization that stole copyrighted content and illegally put it online.

Every American who watches sports on TV knows that familiar disclaimer--that you can't rebroadcast television programs without express written consent. Well, this nominee helped run an entire organization whose very mission--very mission--was violating copyright law in that sort of way.

And it gets even worse. Ms. Sohn's organization was supposed to pay a

huge fine to the broadcasters, over $30 million. But at just the same time that she was nominated by the President to regulate and oversee these broadcasters, they all magically reached a new settlement that just so happened to reduce the fine by 98 percent--from $32 million to a few hundred thousand dollars, just like that.

When Senators have asked for more details about these questionable settlements, she has been less than forthcoming. The fact pattern makes one wonder if she thought she could start cashing in favors from the people she is supposed to regulate before she even got the job.

Oh, and by the way, this nominee made personal cash contributions to the campaigns of multiple current sitting Senators while her own nomination was pending before them. She sent money to four Democratic Senators even as a pending nominee--a pending nominee--before the Senate.

The latest reappearance of this nomination is a case study in President Biden's refusal to pivot, moderate, or find common ground. They are tripling down on extremism that even a Democratic Senate has already rejected twice. I urge our colleagues on the Commerce Committee to push for answers.

The Senate must say no to a radical activist controlling our airwaves. And the American people should ask why--why--the Biden administration is this desperate to control what citizens can see, hear, think, and say.

Madam President:

Losing a child is the hardest thing that can ever happen to

a parent. It's out of the natural order.

Those are the words of a grieving father in Bowling Green, KY. After struggling for years against opioid addiction, his son was killed by a lethal dose of fentanyl in 2021. That year marked the second straight year in which overdose deaths in the Commonwealth set a new, alltime record. Thousands of lives are now claimed each year by a scourge of deadly drugs.

Last week, I met with narcotics officers from across Kentucky who work on the frontlines of this crisis. They told me that rampant flows of illicit drugs had driven the price of a pound of fentanyl down to less than a third of what it cost dealers in 2020. That is right. Working families are paying more for just about everything on President Biden's watch, but drug dealers, with unprecedented access to massive flows of foreign drugs, are literally making out like bandits. The one thing that has gotten cheaper under this administration is the last thing we want Americans buying.

The officers were crystal clear on the bottom line: They won't be able to beat the fentanyl crisis until Washington decides to do something about the

southern border crisis. Last fiscal year, Customs and Border Protection apprehended 14,700 pounds of fentanyl, and just a third of the way through the current fiscal year, they have already seized another 12,500 pounds.

But the growing death toll from fentanyl-related overdose tells us that more than enough of this lethal drug is still flowing unchecked. Kentucky isn't the only State losing thousands of its people to lethal drugs produced by China and shipped in by Mexican cartels. Since the Biden administration has ignored a functionally open southern border, every State in America has faced border-State problems.

Last fiscal year, Customs and Border Protection apprehended more than 2.7 million illegal immigrants. That was far and away the highest annual count they had ever seen. Without a coherent, coordinated response from the Biden administration, frontline States from Florida to Texas to Arizona have had to take the response to catch-and-release into their own hands.

These States have dealt with soaring arrivals by busing illegal immigrants to so-called sanctuary jurisdictions in the interior. Colorado's Democratic Governor followed suit.

But setting aside the record-shattering numbers of illegal immigrants who are met and processed at the border, CBP estimates that 1.2 million more people crossed the border and got away since President Biden took office--1.2 million ``got-aways.'' That is two times the population of my hometown of Louisville, just disappearing into our country.

Ninety-eight of the illegal immigrants CBP apprehended last fiscal year were watch-listed terrorists. Ninety-eight of them were watch- listed terrorists. Thousands were convicted criminals. Along with them, as Kentucky's narcotics officers understand all too well, came millions upon millions of lethal doses of fentanyl. I am proud of the Commonwealth's first responders who are fighting back against this truly devastating killer. But until the Biden administration decides to address the border crisis unfolding on its watch, my fellow Kentuckians will continue to fight a steep uphill battle.

Madam President, on an entirely different matter, there is something unusual going on in our Nation's skies, and President Biden needs to communicate and level with the American people.

About 2 weeks ago, the American people learned that a Chinese spy balloon had crossed into our airspace and was taking its time surveilling our homeland. We watched it tour a big chunk of the country before the administration finally, belatedly took it down.

Since then, the public has seemingly heard about another new unidentified flying object seemingly on a daily basis. Yesterday one of our F-16s shot down something they still have not identified near Lake Huron. The day before that, in consultation with Canada, an American F- 22 shot down something else over the Yukon. The day before that, we took out something else over Alaska. The administration has still not been able to divulge any meaningful information about what was shot down.

What in the world is going on? Has the Biden administration just dialed the sensitivity of our radars all the way up? If so, what are these objects that we are just now noticing for the very first time? Are they benign science projects and wayward weather balloons or something more nefarious that we have somehow been missing all this time?

President Biden owes the American people some answers.

What are we shooting down? Where did they come from? Whether they are hostile or not, is there coherent guidance about when to shoot them down? If the administration knew all along about China's surveillance efforts, why did it not have options to shoot that balloon down before it maneuvered itself all across the country? Did the right people in the government know about this surveillance threat? Did ODNI and DOD not adequately share intelligence about the growing threat?

How did we get into a position where the greatest Nation in the world doesn't know what it is traversing our own airspace? How long has the domain awareness gap that NORTHCOM Commander General VanHerck has identified existed, and what has the Department done about it?

The Commander in Chief owes the country some answers.

Mr. President, 13 percent of the American people believe the state of our Union is strong--13 percent. Just 16 percent say they are better off financially today than they were 2 years ago. But on Tuesday night, it took President Biden the most words in the history of the State of the Union to declare that everything is actually going swimmingly and he doesn't plan to change a thing.

To working families, who have been crushed by historic inflation because of his policies, President Biden offered to cut a few dollars off the fees of concert tickets and hotel stays they can't afford anyway. To Americans who are worried that he just let a Chinese spy balloon surveil our country from coast to coast, the President described his slow and unsteady reaction as a big success. To a country that is already teetering on the brink of recession because of him, President Biden proposed even more gigantic new tax hikes. To the American people who are frightened and curious about surging violent crime, President Biden took aim at the Second Amendment rights of law- abiding citizens and implied that taxpayers need to pay for even more welfare spending before we can expect people not to commit murder.

The President paid lip service to the obscene quantities of foreign fentanyl that flow across our open borders and kill our people, but his main border proposal was to dangle the prospect of amnesty for people who come here illegally.

He repeated his broken promise not to sign tax hikes that hit the middle class when he has already hiked taxes on American jobs and American energy.

The country got to hear a lecture about treating political opponents with respect from the President who lied about State voting laws and compared half the country to Bull Connor and Jefferson Davis and a lecture about our democratic institutions from the President who endorsed permanently breaking the Senate so that his party could grab more power.

President Biden expressed not one ounce of contrition or accountability

for the failures that have hurt families, cost his party the House, and left only 16 percent of Americans better off financially now than they were on Inauguration Day.

And the President's thin and paltry discussion of his failing foreign policy was downright alarming. Europe is in the grip of the continent's worst violent conflict since World War II. China is gaining as the largest strategic threat to American security since the Soviet Union. The Taliban has reinstated their oppressive regime and safe terrorist haven that America and our allies chased out more than two decades ago.

North Korea continues to modernize its nuclear and missile programs, making steady progress toward the leader's goal of being able to deliver Armageddon to our doorstep.

The Iranian regime continues to advance its own WMD programs while sponsoring terror campaigns all across the Middle East. Make no mistake, this radical regime is willing and eager to kill Americans if it is not deterred. And while the Iranian people protest nationwide against a brutal theocracy, President Biden couldn't even muster one mention of their struggle.

This is the state of the world on President Biden's watch. This is the state of America's interests under his leadership. But President Biden did not even mention the grave and growing challenges we face from abroad until the tail end of his lengthy remarks.

The President downplayed the threat posed by the People's Republic of China and claimed without any evidence that the United States was in its strongest position to compete with China in decades. I am not sure in what universe those remarks apply. Here in the real world, China's intelligence services just got a closeup look of the entire U.S. mainland. Reports indicate Chinese hypersonic weapons and land-based ICBM launchers exceed our own. And President Biden's last budget proposal tried to cut our national defense funding after inflation. The Commander in Chief seems more preoccupied with hidden ``resort fees'' than hidden Chinese malware in our phones, computers, and high-tech infrastructure.

Then there is Ukraine. President Biden said Putin's invasion of Ukraine has been a test of America's and our allies' resolve. That is certainly true, but, like the Chinese balloon, the Ukraine crisis was also a test of the Biden administration's response time, and they fell quite short.

Republicans tried to push the administration to better equip Ukraine to defend itself before the tanks rolled and to act more quickly and decisively in the early weeks to try to prevent a protracted stalemate. The indecision, hand-wringing, and sluggishness have carried a heavy price indeed. The President can't even get the bully pulpit right.

There is an overwhelmingly persuasive case that aiding Ukraine strongly and directly serves our core American national interests, but President Biden seems incapable of articulating any of it. It is top Republicans who are filling the leadership vacuum, connecting the dots, and making the case. Yet again, Presidential leadership is missing in action, and it is Republicans filling the void. So let's hope President Biden's upcoming defense budget request will treat our national security challenges more seriously than his speech did on Tuesday night.

With fewer than one in five Americans calling the state of our Union strong, President Biden needed to pivot, but he failed to. He spent the wordiest State of the Union in American history making excuses, doubling down, and spinning alternate realities. But if Washington Democrats will not pivot, the American people will pivot away from them. It is already starting.

Seated behind the President Tuesday night was the new Republican Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, and following him on the airwaves was the youngest Governor in America, Sarah Huckabee Sanders of Arkansas--part of a whole wave of Republican Governors who are laser- focused on fighting crime, improving education, and lifting more working families into prosperity.

The American people know which principles and solutions will bring our country back, and they are seeing which party actually provides them.

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 evening, President Biden will begin the back half of his term with his State of the Union address to Congress and to the American people. But the White House's attempts to script the message for this week have been upset by recent events. Over the last several days, the country learned that on President Biden's watch, the state of our Union is apparently under Chinese surveillance from our own skies.

It is ludicrous to suggest that Canada and the United States had no choice but to let this thing traipse across the continent from coast to coast. President Obama's own Defense Secretary, Leon Panetta, says, ``We should have acted earlier.''

The administration's handwringing and indecision, finally downing the balloon only after it had toured the length of our country, was typical of how President Biden and his team have conducted our foreign affairs.

Our top military commanders and civilian experts all say that our broader strategic competition with China is our most serious challenge. But this President's last budget request tried to cut funding for our military after inflation, while Beijing keeps investing in their own capabilities.

The commander of our U.S. Strategic Command just told Congress that China now has more land-based intercontinental ballistic missile launchers than we do. The administration's reckless retreat from Afghanistan blew past the expert warnings, cost the lives of 13 American servicemembers, let thousands of terrorists waltz out of prison, and incentivize others to challenge an America that looked cowardly.

Its hesitating, indecisive, self-deterred approach to helping Ukraine before Putin invaded and in the earliest days right afterwards left freedom's friends flat-footed and are making the substantive fight more difficult than it ever had to be.

And now the Biden administration apparently has pivoted from chasing another bad nuclear deal with Iran to trying to let terrorists out of Guantanamo Bay.

These are just some of the reasons why 41 percent of Americans say the state of our union is weak--weak--and only 13 percent say it is strong.

Of course, this administration has also created problems for American families closer to home. A nationwide poll published last week revealed that just 16 percent of Americans say they are in a better financial situation today than they were 2 years ago when the President and his party assumed total control of government.

For 84 percent of Americans, one-party Democratic control of Washington either failed to live up to its promises or actively made life worse. Two years ago, over the objections of their own party's top economists, Washington Democrats misinterpreted a narrow election victory as a mandate for an unprecedented spending spree.

When President Biden took office, inflation was at 1.4 percent. From Inauguration Day to today, inflation is over 13 percent.

Working families have seen grocery prices jump 18.6 percent, used car prices rise 26.2 percent, and energy prices soar by 33.9 percent. Millions--millions--of Americans have earned pay raises at work, but runaway inflation has left them with less purchasing power than before.

Our southern border is in crisis, shattering all-time records for illegal immigrant apprehensions. Streets and neighborhoods are being swallowed up by violent crime--after local Democrats have cut police budgets, liberal prosecutors have turned jails into revolving doors, and national Democrats spent years amplifying the kinds of anti-police rhetoric that result in more crime.

And President Biden is helping the radical left go on offense and bring a culture war to the doorsteps of normal American families-- trying to squeeze Catholic hospitals and faith-based daycares out of business; trying to take school choice and curriculum transparency away from parents--and on and on and on.

President Biden campaigned on being the adult in the room. But he is not even calling the shots in his own party. Over and over on issue after issue, this President hands the car keys to the radical left and turned himself into a passenger. That is why working families across the country have voted for change.

They elected a Republican majority in the House of Representatives to put the emergency brakes on runaway liberal spending. They reelected all-star Republican governors in places like Texas, Georgia, and Florida. And they elevated a talented new generation of leaders, including the youngest serving governor in America--Governor Sanders of Arkansas--whom the American people will hear from tonight.

Our country may still be struggling to understand what on earth Washington Democrats think they have actually accomplished in the past 2 years. But they can be absolutely sure where Republicans stand.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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