Floor Statements

Madam President, I thank my colleague from Oregon for setting out what is going on here because, as he said, on Friday night, President Trump announced that he was stealing more money from the American people.

Trump and his Budget Director, Russ Vought, call it a pocket rescission. Well, whatever you call it, it is illegal. Trump is taking the bipartisan funding that we passed, funding that Democrats and Republicans agreed on, that he signed into law, and he is now ripping out the pages he doesn't like. Forget about ideas like Congress and the law.

Look, this is theft from the American people, plain and simple. In this case, Trump is tearing away funding to help Americans buy a home. He is cutting off funds for healthcare research which would prevent things like hospital infections that are dangerous or saving taxpayers literally billions of dollars. But you know what, Trump could not care less. While he blows your tax dollars on an illegal war, Trump is illegally cutting off funding for health research, housing, and more.

I guess that is no surprise given how this President is constantly out of touch with American families--saying ``tariffs'' is his favorite word or saying that he loves inflation or saying he wants housing costs to go up. He said that. But where are my Republican colleagues who passed these funds that Trump is now stealing? Because this did not come out of left field. No one can pretend to be surprised by what is happening now.

When Russ Vought was nominated as Trump's budget chief, he was pretty darn transparent about the fact that he planned to break the law, he planned to tear up our bills, and he dared us to stop him. That didn't stop every Republican Senator from voting for him. When his Deputy was nominated and told us this summer that pocket rescissions were very much still on the table, what happened? Once again, every Senate Republican voted to confirm him too.

Anyone watching could see this coming from a mile away. Trump used this scheme to unlawfully impound $5 billion last summer, for heaven's sake. That is why Democrats have fought again and again and again to prevent the President from being able to use this illegal tactic, including in recent negotiations over the CR that is now law. But Republicans have refused to work with us to prevent Trump and Russ Vought from stealing from the American people. Time after time after time, they have shot down our attempts to stop this administration from defying Congress and robbing our constituents.

Let's talk more about this pocket rescission scheme for a minute and what is at stake. President Trump and Russ Vought are saying: Hey, we can ignore the law. We can ignore bipartisan deals and just make our own decisions as long as we do it last-minute.

Everyone knows that is ridiculous and illegal. Congress would never have created a system that gave any President the ability to decide to just ignore or bypass a law. It makes no sense. In fact, GAO has looked at what this President has done and has said it is clearly illegal twice.

My Republican colleagues know this. Some of them have even said so. But whenever they have had the chance,

they have not joined us to put an end to this. Democrats have language that Republicans could have let us put in the last CR or the CR before. We have taken vote after vote on versions of this language on the floor and in committee. And, of course, we had the vote where Republicans confirmed the unabashed architect of Trump's illegal scheme as budget director.

Well, now, tonight, they are getting one more chance. Senator Merkley and I and others have a bill to help Congress reassert its authority-- our authority--and head off Trump's completely illegal pocket rescission scheme. And we should be clear. Trump isn't just illegally robbing our constituents through this pocket rescission; there are a whole lot of other funds that he is refusing to get out the door--more healthcare research funding, grants to prevent teen pregnancy, funding to protect Americans from global health threats, and even a quarter of a billion dollars to help families in rural areas get the financing they need to finally achieve their dream of owning a home. Hundreds of families in rural America will be denied the shot to buy a home as Trump lights this money on fire tonight. So it is not just the pocket rescission; it is all the rest of the money this administration is holding up or misspending. The Republicans have been pretty quiet about it.

Russ Vought has always made his message to Congress painfully clear. He thinks the votes we all take here don't count. He thinks the laws we pass are optional.

Now is the time for our Republican colleagues who said they would never let this happen to help us now pass a bill that makes our message to Russ Vought equally clear: Stop stealing from our constituents. Start following our laws.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, as President Trump himself has admitted-- his quote--``I am not so careful with what I say'' and ``Americans' financial situation? I don't think about anybody.'' No kidding. We noticed.

When it comes to the economy, President Trump's statements could not be more divorced from reality, let alone the experience of everyday Americans. Yes, in a shock to no one, the billionaire who gets advice from a trillionaire is way out of touch today with everyday people.

Trump said last year that he never even knew the word ``affordability'' until recently.

He said that ``tariffs''--the taxes he raised on working families--is his ``favorite word.''

Trump said that we can't afford childcare.

He said, ``No one . . . [cares] about affordable housing.''

He said, ``Health care . . . [is] not of tremendous interest.''

Get a load of this: Trump said that he loves inflation and that $4 for a gallon of gas is ``okay'' and that ``when oil prices go up, we make a lot of money.'' Well, that may be true for his buddies--the billionaires and the oil robber barons--but it sure is not true for working families.

Of course, I know it is hard to keep track of all of Trump's wackadoodle claims about the economy, especially with the constant stream of new nonsense spewing out of this President's brain, so today, I want to take a trip down memory lane and discuss what I consider Trump's craziest quotes about the economy and working families.

It is no secret that Americans are fed up with inflation--at least all Americans except for one.

President Trump said:

I love it. The numbers were great. You know what I really

love? I love the inflation.

Do my Republican colleagues agree? Do they love inflation? Because I will say they have not lifted a finger to help us stop the Trump policies driving inflation through the roof. Republicans have not helped rein in Trump's absurd trade wars. Republicans have not stood up against Trump's war with Iran. They have not helped reject Trump's cuts to programs that lower energy costs. They did not stop the MAGA healthcare hike that caused insurance premiums to skyrocket.

I know Trump is out of touch with everyday Americans when he says he loves inflation. I know it because I hear directly from people back in Washington State about this all the time. But what about Republicans here in Congress? They may not be as blunt about it as Trump, but their actions--or, rather, their inaction to lower prices--speak pretty darn loudly.

If you are not a billionaire like Trump, you are probably very familiar with groceries and the fact that costs have been going up, up, and up. If you are Trump, well, then you are saying things like this: It is a ``very simple word, groceries. Like almost--you know, who uses the word?'' or ``It's such an old-fashioned term, but a beautiful term. Groceries. It sort of says a bag with different things in it.''

For most of us, the grocery trip is a weekly errand, it is everyday life, but the way Trump talks about groceries, he may as well be from another planet. It is very clear that Trump has no idea what it is like to clip coupons for discounts on milk and bread. He does not know what it is like to compare cereal boxes to see what size has the best value or to check the clearance aisle in hopes of finding a deal. And I would bet my bottom dollar that he has never in his life bought the generic brand to save a few bucks. He probably doesn't even know they exist.

Groceries may seem old-fashioned to Trump, but for everyone else, whether or not we can afford groceries is the difference between being able to put a healthy dinner on the table, scraping by on the cheapest junk, or just going hungry.

Now, if you were wondering why President Trump doesn't seem to care at all about rising prices, well, it may just be that a billionaire like Trump literally doesn't understand the idea of struggling to pay for something. The word ``affordability'' is practically a new concept for him. He doesn't believe in it. He thinks it was made up.

In his own words:

First time I heard it was a word, you know, made up by the

Democrats: affordability.

He said:

Affordability is a Democrat scam.

They made up a phony word that they used. They said,

``affordability.''

And he said:

Look, affordability is a hoax.

A scam? A hoax? A phony, made-up word? That is what Trump thinks affordability is, but for families across this country today, affordability is a very real problem, one that they are having to deal with every single day and one that is being made worse by this President's own policies.

In case anybody thinks Trump doesn't have any solutions on affordability, don't forget this little pearl of wisdom from Trump:

I don't think that a beautiful baby girl needs to have 30

dolls. I think they can have three dolls or four dolls. . . .

They don't need to have 250 pencils. They can have five.

Seriously?

I talk to moms and dads all the time who are struggling to get by and to families who are already stretching their budgets and pinching their pennies. People are not struggling because they are blowing their savings on dolls. The problem is not their pencil budget. Good Lord! It is everything. It is their healthcare costs, which Trump has sent higher. It is childcare, which is out of control. It is goods across the border, which are up due to Trump's insane trade wars. It is gas, which Trump launched to new heights with his Iran war. Trump just does not get it. He has no idea what Americans are going through.

Trump has already told us that he views ``groceries'' as an old- fashioned word. He has already said he thinks the word ``affordability'' is made up. But what has he said about tariffs? You almost have to hear it to believe it.

Trump said:

I always say ``tariffs'' is the most beautiful word to me

in the dictionary.

Now, as a reminder, since Republicans keep trying to put their heads in the sand on this, tariffs are taxes. Our Republican President is saying his favorite thing is a tax increase. Reagan must be spinning in his grave.

And not only are tariffs taxes, they are taxes that hurt working families especially hard. We have seen that time after time. Trump's tariffs have rocketed grocery prices through the roof. Trump's tariffs have made baby items--strollers, car seats, toys--more expensive. Trump's tariffs have put a strain on back-to-school shopping. They have squeezed our local coffee shops. And Trump's favorite word is crushing small businesses too. I have talked to local restaurants and sporting goods stores and farmers and a lot more. They are all facing serious hardship because of Trump's tariffs. They are losing customers for produce that they ship abroad. They are having to raise prices in their stores. They are having to pay their employees less and let people go or even shut their doors entirely--all because Trump chose to pursue some of the biggest tax hikes in American history while Republicans cheered him on.

Let's not forget Trump is also totally out of touch on healthcare. As Trump put it, ``I've found health care sort of like . . . not of tremendous interest.'' That explains why he has done absolutely nothing to lower healthcare costs. Worse than that, Trump and Republicans passed the largest cut to healthcare in our Nation's history and then stood by and cheered as patients faced some of the largest healthcare price hikes in history.

In their ``Big Ugly Bill,'' Republicans gutted Medicaid with changes that are, right now, kicking families off their healthcare coverage. And while Trump and Republicans are plenty interested in tax cuts for billionaires and while they will bend over backward to help keep the private jets fueled, they did not lift a finger to save families from exploding insurance premiums. They stood by as tax credits for working families expired and as people saw their monthly premiums double, triple, or even worse. We know millions of people lost their coverage because of Trump and Republicans. And don't forget: Trump put tariffs on pharmaceuticals--of all things.

Maybe a billionaire like Trump does not find healthcare interesting because Trump has never had to ration his prescription and hope it would be OK, and he has never had to delay a needed checkup until the next paycheck. He has never debated whether to go to urgent care or not because he was worried about the bill or wondered how on Earth he could afford a lifesaving cancer treatment.

But that is the reality millions of patients face every day, and they deserve leaders here in Washington who are interested in the challenges they face and who are focused on solutions so that everyone can get the care they need without worrying about the cost.

I, of course, have to talk about childcare. I got into politics fighting for childcare, and it is something I push hard on every day. So I was floored when I heard Trump say:

The United States can't take care of day care. That has to

be up to a state. We can't take care of day care. . . . It's

not possible for us to take care of day care, Medicaid,

Medicare, all these individual things.

Talk about out of touch. That is exactly backward. We have a childcare crisis in this country. It is holding our country back.

A billionaire like Trump may not understand that working parents are the backbone of this economy, and if Mom and Dad cannot find childcare, then Mom and Dad can't go to work. That is a big problem for parents who are trying to make ends meet and for small businesses that are trying to find workers.

Trump says we can't afford childcare. The truth is, we cannot afford to ignore childcare.

One of the most outrageous things Trump has said about the economy was something he actually said behind closed doors.

According to Punchbowl News earlier this year, Trump told Republican leaders:

No one gives a [bleep] about housing.

How ridiculous. We have an enormous housing shortage in this country, especially when it comes to affordable housing. The rising costs from Trump's tariffs and the Iran war have made it harder for people to make rent. And because Trump has done so much damage to the economy, Federal interest rates are on the rise, meaning mortgage rates are going higher and higher, and millions of families are watching as Trump pulls the rug out from under them--putting their dream of owning a home further and further out of reach, but Trump doesn't care.

Worse than that, Trump sees high housing costs as a good thing.

He literally said:

I don't want to drive housing prices down. I want to drive

housing prices up.

Spoken like a true slumlord.

And let's not forget that while Trump doesn't know words like ``affordability'' and ``groceries'' and loves inflation and tariffs and while he doesn't care about healthcare or housing and doesn't think we need money for childcare, there is one issue Trump is ready to throw trillions of dollars at--war. He started a pointless war with Iran, with no plan and no concern for how it would explode gas prices. Even now, he is saying $4 gas is OK.

He doubled down recently and said:

You have a higher gas--it's a very inexpensive price to pay

for what we've done. Remember that. It's a little more.

Frankly, even if it was a lot more.

Meanwhile, he has put forward a completely war-bloated budget calling for $1.5 trillion for war spending. That is ``trillion'' with a ``t.'' We are talking about 12 zeroes here.

I know what you are thinking. It is the same thing most Americans are thinking. We cannot afford another forever war. We have investments right here that we need to be making: childcare, healthcare, energy, roads, housing, and more. But Trump, who once promised no more forever wars, has actually done a complete 180. Not only did he launch a new war, he wrote online about his belief that ``wars can be fought forever and very successfully.''

So, to recap, Trump thinks wars can be fought forever, but we can't afford childcare at all. He wants to spend trillions on bombs and weapons but doesn't care about housing and healthcare. It simply does not get more wrong or out of touch than that.

There are so many insane things Trump has said about the economy, but a lot of it comes down to one basic fact: He is in complete denial. Maybe it is because he has let AI videos melt his brain. Maybe it is because he is a hopelessly out-of-touch billionaire. Maybe it is just because he is exactly what he has always been--a liar.

They say the first step is admitting you have a problem. When it comes to the economy, Trump cannot even do that. Despite the painful inflation, despite the sluggish job growth, despite the red flashing lights like rising bond rates and slowing GDP growth and plummeting consumer confidence--despite all of that--when Trump was asked to give himself a grade on the economy, he gave himself an ``A-plus . . . A- plus-plus-plus-plus-plus.''

A plus? That is more like BS.

Maybe the high prices and chaos are working great for corrupt billionaires like Trump. After all, he has made more stock trades as President than all of Congress combined; he is raking in billions through crypto scams; and his family is cashing in through highly conflicted foreign business deals.

However, Trump's rigged economy is not working for working families, but here is the thing: We live in a democracy. At the end of the day, Trump's final grade on the economy won't come from himself. The American people--the ones who are paying the price of Trump's tariffs, the ones who are paying the price of his war with Iran, the moms and dads who are struggling to find childcare, the patients who are struggling to find healthcare, the families who are struggling to pay rent--they are the ones who will pass final judgment later on this year on Trump's economy.

I have no doubt that, in the meantime, Trump will continue making out-of-touch statements and bizarre AI videos.

But here is a reminder to all of my colleagues who are afraid to stand up to this President: Even if Trump has lost touch with reality, he is going to have to face all of that this fall.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I was never going to come out here and support Todd Blanche for a long list of reasons.

I do believe he is one of the most corrupt Justice Department officials in our country's history, for one. He was Trump's former personal lawyer, and it seems that he never quit. The only difference now is that taxpayers are signing his checks instead of Trump. He was the one who negotiated a $1.8 billion slush fund to pay off violent insurrectionists and who cut a backroom deal to give the President and his entire corrupt family immunity from IRS investigations, not to forget that Todd Blanche is the guy who botched the Epstein file so badly that survivors had their names and faces exposed while the names of alleged abusers were hidden.

This is a man who wouldn't meet with survivors until Senators put him under a tremendous amount of public pressure. When the meeting eventually got on the books, the survivors made it crystal clear Blanche didn't listen to them. He was more interested in checking a box than in hearing their stories or bringing them justice.

All of that is, of course, absolutely unacceptable and disqualifying, but I come here today to sound the alarm on some of the most disturbing comments I have ever heard from the Nation's top law enforcement official. I guess Todd Blanche thought no one was listening because, on a private call with anti-abortion activists, Mr. Blanche told us all exactly what he plans to do if Senators confirm him. His goal was to make the Dobbs decision ``permanent in every single state''--``every single state''--not just in Texas or Idaho. He wants to ban abortion in Washington State, in California, in New York--in every State.

He told them:

We will have victory, and victory will be soon, and it will

be permanent.

Victory over what exactly? Victory over women who just want to make their own healthcare decisions? Victory over patients in States where abortion is legal--where voters have said over and over at the ballot box: Keep your hands off our rights?

A DOJ spokesperson tried to clean up Blanche's words, saying he was only focused on restricting access to medication abortion in all 50 States, as if that is somehow better.

I am here to say: I will believe the tape. I believe Todd Blanche's own words.

So let's be crystal clear about what this vote is. A vote to confirm Todd Blanche is a vote to endorse his fight to ban abortion in all 50 States. Whatever happened to this being a State's decision?

Every Republican who votes yes is voting for exactly that--his words, not mine--and any Republican who votes to confirm him will own that in every State, in every way. This isn't just a confirmation vote anymore; it is a rollcall vote in which Senators endorse banning abortion in all 50 States at the Federal level. I am voting no.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I rise today with a very heavy heart because, right now, huge swaths of my State are being confronted by some of the worst fires that we have ever seen. This weekend, three fast-moving wildfires exploded across Spokane County.

In a matter of hours, entire neighborhoods were told: Leave now. This may be your only notice. Over 65,000 people I represent have been forced to evacuate their homes. At least 700 homes, businesses, and buildings have been destroyed already.

Families are sleeping in the Spokane Convention Center tonight, not knowing whether they even still have a home to go back to. And as of this morning, these fires are still not contained.

The photos and videos tell the story: Houses reduced to ash, families embracing outside the burned remains of what they once called home. It is heartbreaking. Smoke so thick over Spokane that the air itself has now become a health hazard.

To every family in Spokane and across eastern Washington who has lost a home or a business or a lifetime of memories, hear me: I promise you I am with you today, tomorrow, and for as long as it takes to rebuild.

And amid this devastation, I also want this Chamber to hear about the extraordinary courage on display in my State right now. Within hours of the evacuation orders, neighbors were opening their doors to strangers. Families who had room to spare simply said: Come stay with us. Volunteers worked through the night at the convention center, handing out blankets, serving hot meals, sitting with frightened kids. Local restaurants showed up with food for evacuees and for the fire crews who are coming off the line. Churches and community groups collected clothes and diapers, pet food. Whatever people needed, someone in Spokane found a way to provide it.

Firefighters have been on the lines around the clock in brutal heat against dangerous winds. Local fire crews, crews from across the State, the Washington National Guard--all mobilized within hours. Incident management teams and firefighters who actually came from out of State all the way from Florida to Alaska--there are even firefighters from Australia and New Zealand--because of them, because of the sheriff's deputies and police officers who went door to door to get people out, because of the emergency managers and dispatchers and shelter volunteers, tens of thousands of people got to safety. These are real- life heroes, and, on behalf of the people of Washington State, ``Thank you.''

But gratitude is not enough. The people of Spokane need action, and they deserve to know their government has their back.

So here is where things stand as I see them: Our firefighters must have every resource they need to contain these fires--every aircraft, every bit of equipment, every dollar. So far our State has gotten the resources we need from the Federal Government, and I deeply appreciate that. That is how it should be.

Yesterday, I led our congressional delegation in urging the President to approve the Governor's request for an expedited emergency declaration. The President has approved part of that request; that is good, and I will be watching closely to ensure the full request is approved.

The next few days will no doubt be difficult as local fire crews do their best to try and contain these fires.

Looking ahead, it is important to say: Spokane's recovery will not be measured in days or weeks; it will be measured in months and years. Rebuilding homes, rebuilding businesses--it will take a long time, and it will not be easy.

But as vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, I want the people of eastern Washington to know they have a voice in the U.S. Senate who will speak up for Spokane. I am not someone who will simply write letters to this administration asking for support. I help write the bills that fund the government across every Department and every Federal program, and I will make sure Spokane's recovery is a priority at every opportunity. There is not a single dollar I won't pursue if it means helping Spokane and communities across the State as they rebuild from these devastating fires. Whatever it takes, for as long as it takes.

Spokane has been hurt and is being badly hurt by these fires, but Spokane is not broken. A community that takes care of each other in the way we have seen cannot be broken. Spokane will rebuild; Eastern Washington will recover; and I will be standing with them every single step of the way.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Madam President, we have our work cut out for us as we work to fund the government for the coming fiscal year.

As costs for our families go up and up and up, the President wants a $1\1/2\ trillion war budget, and he wants to cut programs working people depend on to pay for it. No. No way. And as his disastrous war with Iran rages on, Trump is even asking for another $70 billion on top of that to bankroll the war. It is really hard to imagine more backward funding priorities, especially as so many families today are struggling and being hurt by the cuts to healthcare and food aid.

Congress is not an ATM to fund Trump's disastrous wars abroad, so, as I have said many times, we need to rip up the President's budget and write a new one. I have been very clear from the start: We absolutely must prioritize helping families and lowering costs as we do that, and that means rejecting the President's astronomical defense request and instead delivering significantly more funding for our nondefense budget so we can invest in helping people here at home.

It is clear that we will definitely need more time to get this done and reach bipartisan agreement on the funding levels, just as we have done in the Senate for the last 3 years, which then allows us to draft bipartisan bills for fiscal year 2027. So I am very glad we were able to craft a bipartisan CR to keep the government funded and to make sure we can avert a shutdown that no one wants, while giving us time to reach a bipartisan agreement on a top line in our funding bills.

Two weeks ago, House Republicans sent us an incomplete CR with several major issues. It is critical that we address those issues in any CR, and that is exactly what we have done.

Perhaps most important, we closed a loophole in the House Republican CR that would have allowed the Trump administration to transfer funding provided for other programs to Border Patrol. That was a nonstarter. Until Republicans finally agree to enact desperately needed reforms to ICE and Border Patrol, we cannot approve another cent for them.

This new CR that we have written includes some really important extensions and language that House Republicans did not, and that includes extensions of authorizations for important health, veterans, and infrastructure programs and language to make sure that key housing programs and a program to help feed low-income seniors can continue serving Americans.

This bill also rejects requests from President Trump for even more flexibility and funding for the Pentagon, including $1 billion for Trump-class battleships.

My Democratic colleagues and I pushed very hard and secured an important provision to prevent the Office of Management and Budget from implementing its corrupt new grants rule, which would have required a Trump political appointee to sign off on every last Federal grant and empowered them to terminate any grant at any

point for any reason. That disastrous rule would put politics above science when determining, for example, what cancer research grants to fund. I am going to keep working to kill that rule outright as our spending talks continue later this year.

Unfortunately, Republicans would not take action in this bill to protect our constitutional power of the purse and prevent Russ Vought from attempting another illegal pocket rescission, nor would they agree to our efforts to extend critical advanced appropriations for infrastructure, which were provided by the bipartisan infrastructure law. That runs out on October 1. Make no mistake--we will keep fighting to get those priorities done in the negotiations in the fall.

We do have a lot of work ahead, and this CR provides us a reasonable runway to get it done. So I hope this CR sets us up to roll up our sleeves and focus on getting to a bipartisan top line so we can then write good, bipartisan spending bills.

For all of those reasons, I will be voting yes tonight to advance this bipartisan bill.

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate resume legislative session.

Mr. President, I move to proceed to Calendar No. 533, S.J. Res. 199.

I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, while President Trump's top priorities are $1.5 trillion in war spending and a golden ballroom, those are not the priorities that American families are focused on. Everywhere I go, I hear from families about the crushing cost of childcare, so it is no surprise to me that 80 percent of voters say the high cost of childcare is a major problem. This is at the beating heart of our economy. If Mom and Dad don't have affordable, high-quality childcare, Mom and Dad can't go to work.

But while Trump has plunged us into an affordability crisis, a war that no one asked for, all while families are struggling to get by, he is hell-bent on making our country's childcare crisis even worse. Right now, Trump's HHS ended a 7-percent copayment cap on childcare costs for the very low-income families who already receive Federal childcare support. This is already a very modest Federal program that needs to be supersized in order to meet the needs of every child who needs it. Even with this program, many households are paying more than 20 percent of their household income on childcare costs.

When Democrats put forward this policy, we said no family who qualifies for this subsidy should pay more than 7 percent of their income for childcare. Trump tore that up.

We should be having a debate about how we increase childcare funding. How about, instead of a $1.5 trillion war budget, we make sure every working family in America can afford childcare. Well, Trump's tariffs already tax diapers, formula, and the car seat. Now he is coming for commonsense childcare policies, taking us in the wrong direction at a time when families need affordable childcare more than ever. If Trump had simply done nothing and left the 7-percent cap in place, some of these families would have ended up saving as much as $15,000 a year for their family.

This is really a slap in the face to moms and dads all over the country--and to childcare providers, who are already stretched thin to make their budgets work and keep their doors open and keep qualified employees in a field that has very high turnover.

The good news: Congress can now force Trump to reverse course on this--today, right now. Very soon, we are going to be voting on my resolution to overturn Trump's anti-childcare rule and bring back that 7 percent income cap. This shouldn't be controversial. You are either voting to lower childcare costs or to increase them.

Not too long ago, President Trump said openly that he believes--and I am going to quote him--we can't afford daycare; we have to pay for war.

We can afford childcare. Trump just wants to use our taxpayer dollars to fund war and tax cuts for billionaires. Trump says we can't afford childcare, but he is wrong.

The truth is, we can't afford to ignore childcare. I know that investment in childcare is an investment in our families and an investment in a stronger economy.

To my colleagues: If you vote to let this rule stand, own it. Go home and tell the parents in your State you voted to raise their childcare bill. You cannot call yourself pro-family while voting to make it more expensive to raise one. You just can't.

That is why I am calling on my colleagues to join me today and pass this resolution.

Every Senator is going to cast a vote today on a simple question: Should working parents pay more for childcare or less? Donald Trump wants them to pay more--more at the pump, more at the grocery store, and now more to drop the child off at daycare. Now the Senate will give its answers, and I promise you this: Parents are watching and parents remember.

To my colleagues: Vote for the moms. Vote for the dads. Vote for the kid in the back seat at the 7 a.m. dropoff. When childcare costs as much as the mortgage, whose side are you on?

So, again, I urge my colleagues to vote yes to lower childcare costs.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, reserving the right to object. I am going to ask pretty bluntly, what on earth are my colleagues doing here? I don't know why Republicans are focused on making a really petty and offensive statement to Canada, saying they need to do a better job of containing wildfire smoke as if the Canadian Government is letting their forest burn and its own citizens inhale wildfire smoke just to spite us. This is a joke. Maybe my colleagues across the aisle don't realize this, but Canadian firefighters cross that border to help us fight our wildfires right here all the time.

And guess what. Our firefighters do the exact same when they are able. In fact, for the information of all Senators, a firefighter actually just passed away who was helping us fight a wildfire in Colorado; he was from British Columbia.

Now, what we don't do is pass resolutions here telling our friends and our neighbors to do a better job of handling wildfire smoke.

And also, maybe somebody should alert the President and my colleagues, but wildfire smoke from the United States often makes its way into Canada. It is happening right now where wildfires are burning in Oregon and in Washington.

I think what this might be really about is telling Trump that, Mr. President, look how much we agree with you.

This is a waste of everybody's time. So, respectfully, to my colleagues, understanding that time on the Senate floor is precious, here are my suggestions: Maybe we should pass legislation to rehire all of the red card holders that Trump fired. Those are the Forest Service employees who are trained here to help fight wildfires.

Or how about we pass legislation to stop the Trump administration's so-called reorganization of the Forest Service, which would actually shutter offices across our country, including the research labs that helped us study the wildfires and pushed out even more Forest Service employees.

Or maybe instead of entertaining Trump's outrageous requests for a $1.5 trillion war budget, Republicans could work with us to adequately fund our needs here at home.

Our Forest Service, right here in the United States, is understaffed and underresourced. Maybe my colleagues don't realize it, but Trump's chaotic funding cuts and freezes, along with the chaotic mass layoffs, have actually hurt our public lands and leave us here less prepared to prevent and respond to wildfires here at home.

I remember speaking with a Forest Service ranger last year. He was a longtime dedicated employee. He was a former marine. He served our country in more ways than one, and he did an incredible job. He literally saved people's lives on forest trails, and he fought wildfires here and even saved a small rural town in my State from being burned to the ground. Know what happened to him? Trump and DOGE fired him. No cause, just fired him. That was a huge loss for our State and for our country.

So I do want my colleagues to get serious about the wildfires. And I will just say this, the President should actually apologize to our Canadian neighbors for the many threats and insults and, of course, drop those absurd tariffs he is imposing on these wildfires. I am not holding my breath, so enough with gimmicks, Mr. President. You want to work together to prevent wildfires? My door is wide open, and I hope we can all work together to do that.

But I will tell you what I am not going to do: insult our Canadian friends to suck up to a President who does nothing but threaten our neighbors.

Thank you, Mr. President, I object.

Mr. President, if I could respond quickly. If the Senator would just let me respond quickly before you pass it on.

Mr. President, let me just say to my friend, and he is a friend, and I do hear his quiet, calm tone. I appreciate it. It is not something we all often hear here. But I will say this, in the words that you hear from this resolution, if you are a Canadian, it is that we are insulting them by saying you are not trying to fight your forest fires.

And I will tell you this, I am working my tail off to help us fight our wildfires; our Canadian friends are as well. And I think, in this very heightened time--when I know I don't live far from the border either; we have a lot of trade with our Canadian friends; we go back and forth--they feel very insulted by a lot that is going on. So I think this adds fuel to that fire.

So what I say to my friend, let's work on our country, making sure that we are fighting our forest fires, which I outlined in my response to you, of some of the things we can do, and I believe that our Canadian friends are doing the same. But that is why I object at this time.

Madam President, I wanted to talk today about not just how Republicans are making healthcare more expensive but also how they are making it just plain worse for seniors.

President Trump came into office saying he would not cut Medicare, but that was clearly a lie because right now his administration is trying to privatize Medicare; in part, by putting AI between Medicare beneficiaries and their healthcare.

In January of this year, under Secretary Kennedy and Dr. Oz's leadership, CMS began this pilot program that uses AI to require prior authorization in traditional Medicare for the first time ever, and it is set to run for 6 years. They call it the Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Reduction Model. Well, they got the wasteful and inappropriate part right.

The WISeR Model uses AI to deny vulnerable seniors the care they need and that their doctors recommend.

Not only that, but the for-profit contractors that conduct this prior authorization are paid a percentage of the cost of care that they deny. They are literally incentivized to rip healthcare away from seniors because that is best for their bottom line. When your business model relies on denials, denials are what seniors are going to get, and that is perverse.

WISeR was rolled out in the beginning of this year in my home State of Washington and five other States without safeguards and without any transparency and without the best interests of Medicare beneficiaries at the heart of this program.

President Trump is saying: Forget the doctors who went to medical school and took an oath to do no harm. AI knows better when it comes to healthcare decisions for our seniors.

The consequences of that poor judgment are real, and they are life- threatening. I hear from Medicare patients in Washington State all the time. They are suffering debilitating pain for weeks because they are not getting the care they need, thanks to this harmful model--patients like Joanne. She is a Medicare beneficiary from Quilcene, WA.

She went to her doctor for severe pain. An MRI showed that a herniated disk was pressing on her sciatic nerve. Joanne's doctor prescribed an epidural injection to help ease that pain. This was standard, routine care--care that, before this year, she would have been able to get quickly after it had been recommended by her doctor. But because of this WISeR Model, she had to wait 6 weeks to get approval. That means, thanks to WISeR, Joanne had to deal with unnecessary, unrelated pain for 6 weeks. Because of this nonsense delay, her day-to-day life was disrupted and the burden fell on her then to fight for the care she needed.

This is simply outrageous, but that is also WISeR working by design, and that is a direct impact of the Trump administration's actions.

We have seen way too many stories like Joanne's from States that have been selected for this pilot program. No way should an algorithm decide if seniors should get the care they need. That is exactly why I join my colleagues here in introducing a resolution to overturn this model. And I want all of my colleagues to join me in voting for it so we can make sure seniors in my State and all over the country can, once again, receive their healthcare on time and without interruption.

Let's just use our common sense. It is clear as day that some AI models should never be at the wheel making healthcare decisions left and right. And it is not just patients I have heard from. I have met with healthcare providers all over my State. Whether it is a rural hospital or a doctor in Seattle, no one--no one--has had anything good to tell me about prior authorization in traditional Medicare.

Now, I ran for office because I believe regular people deserve a say in how their government is run, and that is especially true when it comes to the government deploying AI technology. I don't know any senior--Republican or Democrat--who asked President Trump to let AI decide if their doctor-recommended treatment was necessary. Of course, AI can help make things more efficient or do good things. That is not what the WISeR Model is doing.

So let's get to the crux of it. As a country, we make a promise to American seniors: If they paid their taxes throughout their careers, they earned their Medicare coverage. Full stop. WISeR breaks that promise to seniors with these senseless AI-driven prior authorizations that deny and delay care.

Let me be clear, many seniors choose traditional Medicare over other options because traditional Medicare rarely requires prior authorizations. People choose traditional Medicare because they want to make their healthcare decisions with their doctor, not with a private company that is out to make a profit.

Simply put, the WISeR Model--which, again, delays and denies necessary care to Medicare patients--is reckless, and it is irresponsible.

I want my Republican colleagues to join us in voting to get rid of WISeR once and for all because this should not be a partisan issue. We all have seniors in our States that deserve the highest level of care without having to deal with redtape and delay. Thanks to Trump, AI is getting in between our seniors and their healthcare in Arizona, in New Jersey, in Ohio, in Oklahoma, in Texas, and in my State of Washington. We have an opportunity to stop this harmful experimental pilot program before more seniors are harmed. No senior in America should have to appeal their pain and suffering to a machine.

To my colleagues, if it were your spouse or parent who needed care, whom would you want to decide if they get their treatment, their doctor or a for-profit algorithm? Would you want them to suffer in pain for weeks for care that they are entitled to? I know what my answer is.

Let's maintain the promise of Medicare. Let's pass this resolution.

I yield the floor.

Thank you. Thank you.

Mr. President, today I come to the floor to honor a true American legend, Jim Whittaker. Jim passed away at his home in Port Townsend on April 7, 2026, at the age of 97. A memorial in his honor will be held at the Mountaineers in Seattle on Sunday, June 14.

Jim was born and raised, along with his twin Lou, in West Seattle. A towering figure, Jim was nicknamed ``Big Jim,'' and he more than lived up to the moniker.

Born February 10, 1929, as a young boy, the mountains called to him, and by the 1940s he was exploring with the Boy Scouts and the Mountaineers. In 1948, he and his brother began running guiding services on Mount Rainier, eventually taking over management of that operation.

In 1953, Jim answered the call to serve during the Korean war. He served at the Army's Mountain and Cold Weather command in Colorado, providing training to the 10th Mountain Division in skiing, climbing, mountain maneuvers, and bivouacs.

Following an honorable discharge, Jim began another adventure: heading the first retail store for the fledging REI Co-op. Over 25 years, he helped build REI, eventually becoming CEO and president. Under his leadership, it became a national brand focused on providing quality outdoor gear and fulfilling environmental conservation goals.

Throughout this time, Jim's passion for big mountains never faded and led to one of the greatest achievements in American mountaineering history. In 1963, Jim and his Sherpa partner Nawang Gombu summitted Mount Everest. Jim was the first American to accomplish this feat. He was awarded the Hubbard Medal by President John F. Kennedy, who became a family friend.

Building on this incredible achievement, in 1978, Jim led the American expedition to K2, largely considered one of the most difficult and dangerous peaks in the world. The expedition achieved the first ascent of K2, and Jim's leadership was crucial during harrowing times on the mountain.

The word legend can become overused and diminished--not in ``Big Jim's'' case. Jim's life and legacy inspired generations of Americans to pursue heights they could only previously dream of.

Beyond the mountains, Jim had a passion for sailing, conserving pristine landscapes in the Pacific Northwest, and for his family. I had the opportunity to meet Jim personally a few years ago and was honored to stand side by side with him in the fight to conserve our majestic State and protect the Wild Olympics.

His legacy will live on for generations to come in his daring adventures, his efforts to pass on protected landscapes for future generations, and through the incredible family and friends who shared in his adventures.

We should all look to the passion with which Jim lived his life day in and day out as an example to follow on our own journeys and adventures.

Mr. President, 26 years ago, almost to the day, I came here to the Senate floor to speak about a mom in Washington State and a member of my staff. Mary Glenn had come to Congress with Senator Feinstein, a few years before, to share the story of her son Shaun, who was tragically killed by gun violence, and to advocate for change.

As a mother myself, I couldn't imagine the pain that she had gone through, but I could absolutely recognize her passion and her resolve to respond to challenges and hardships, not by getting discouraged but by getting determined to make a difference.

So not long after Mary brought her story here to the Senate, I brought Mary herself onto my team in Seattle, in September of 1995, and it was the best decision I could have made.

Over her 31 years on my team, Mary has handled well over 20,000 constituent cases. That is astounding--20,000. Each case represents an individual or a family seeking help, usually under difficult circumstances. Mary gave everyone who reached out compassion, and she got them results: helping people who were struggling to keep their utilities on and connecting them with social services that could assist them; helping families stay in their homes and fight off eviction.

And no one--absolutely no one--could do more to help seniors get their Social Security and Medicare benefits than Mary Glenn. In some cases, Mary helped people finally get hundreds of thousands of dollars they were owed by the government.

We are talking about life-changing and lifesaving victories for people back in my State.

I remember, during the 2008 economic crisis, she saved so many families from losing their homes that we heard lobbyists here in DC were complaining about her for being too effective. My response to that: Too bad.

Whatever the case, whatever the challenges, Mary has never been afraid to go against big Agencies, navigate complicated systems, or even go toe to toe with powerful special interests.

Now, after many years and countless victories for Washington State families, Mary is moving on to a well-earned retirement. We all wish her the best as she spends more time with her family--her daughter Tiffany, her son-in-law Jon, and especially her grandkids Adalyn and Ellis--and more time at Dawson's, her home away from home.

We are all going to miss her dearly at our office because Mary is more than a trusted resource for our constituents. She is also an invaluable resource to everyone she works with, someone we all turn to for her knowledge, her advice, and her guidance. She exemplifies a true commitment to public service.

When I came to this floor to share Mary's story all those years ago, I came here to speak about a mom who had the strength to speak out after a painful tragedy. Today, I am speaking about a mom but also a grandma, an incredible champion for Washington State families, and a friend.

Mary, thank you. I know Shaun would be so proud of everything you have done to fight for change. You have helped so many families through your hard work, and you have inspired so many people through your resilience, including me.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, today, it is my honor to recognize the American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists, or ACOG, as it celebrates the 75th anniversary of its founding. Since 1951, ACOG has played a central role in advancing the field of obstetrics and gynecology and improving the health and well-being of patients across the United States.

ACOG is the leading professional membership organization for obstetrician-gynecologists, representing more than 62,000 members who live in and provide care to patients in every congressional district nationwide, including over 1,300 members in Washington State. Its members uphold the highest professional standards and are united in their delivery of exceptional, respectful, and science-based care for patients across their lifespan. For three-quarters of a century, ACOG has set the standard for obstetrics and gynecology through clinical guidance, education, and advocacy, empowering physicians to provide the best care possible for their patients.

ACOG has served as a trusted source of accessible and reliable health information for both healthcare providers and the public. In partnership with its members, ACOG has championed initiatives to improve maternal health outcomes, protect the patient-physician relationship, create more sustainable practice environments for obstetrician-gynecologists, bolster the healthcare workforce, and protect and advance access to quality healthcare for all individuals.

In my time in the Senate, I have been proud to partner with ACOG in efforts to protect access to reproductive healthcare; prevent harmful treatment of pregnant and postpartum patients in immigration detention; advance investments in women's health research; require pregnancy- related accommodations for workers; expand access to fertility services for veterans, servicemembers, and their families; and secure support for State maternal mortality review committees.

ACOG's 75th anniversary is an important opportunity to recognize its historic contributions and enduring leadership in obstetrics and gynecology. To name a few, ACOG was a leading voice advocating to extend Medicaid coverage to at least 1 year postpartum, advocated for legislation to address opioid use during pregnancy, led quality improvement initiatives to address and prevent the leading causes of maternal mortality and severe maternal morbidity, helped pave the way for broader access to contraception, and translated the scientific advances of HPV vaccine development into clinical practice.

For 75 years, ACOG has helped shape the future of women's health and continues to play a vital role in ensuring high-quality care for patients and families nationwide, and I look forward to continuing to partner with them to improve access to healthcare for women in my State and across the country.

Mr. President, right now, Trump is waging a war in Iran. He is threatening war crimes. He is threatening an end to an entire civilization and mentally deteriorating in front of our eyes.

Meanwhile, costs for our families are going through the roof. Grocery costs and everyday expenses are going up because of inflation and fueled by Trump's tariffs. Estimates show Trump's trade war cost families well over 1,000 bucks last year.

Healthcare costs are skyrocketing for families as Republicans refuse to extend the tax credits and prevent the mega-healthcare hike. People have seen their premiums double, triple, and even worse. We now know that millions of families were completely priced out of their health coverage, and millions more switched to a worse plan, often still at a higher price.

And, of course, energy costs, energy costs are going through the roof because Trump has also chosen, all on his own, to start a reckless war with Iran that is putting servicemembers at risk and jeopardizing our national security.

Gas is up to 4, 5, 6, even 7 bucks a gallon in some places. The challenges that we are facing right now are many, and they are major. But Republicans can't be bothered with any of them. Republicans aren't trying to rein in Trump's absurd tariffs, they are not trying to address soaring healthcare costs, and they are certainly not lifting a finger to stop Trump's war and bring down gas prices. Instead, Republicans' top priority right now is shoveling $70 billion--billion-- at ICE and Border Patrol, covering multiple years, and cutting another blank check for Stephen Miller's deranged mass deportation dreams without ensuring any sort of accountability--none whatsoever.

After providing over $190 billion to DHS last year without any real strings attached, Republicans are now again pushing to give ICE and Border Patrol tens of billions of dollars more, and they plan to do it without any new accountability steps, like the ones Democrats have been demanding for months, without any of the accountability steps Republicans themselves agreed to during negotiations, and even without the same basic accountability steps we have long included in our annual funding bill.

I really want to underscore that. Not only have Republicans refused even the most basic accountability measures for DHS--things like displaying their IDs or taking off masks or requiring judicial warrants, basic use-of-force standards--in choosing to send these Agencies more money through this process, through reconciliation, Republicans are planning to proceed without the basic accountability requirements we put in place every year in our spending bills.

Republicans are making clear that their biggest priority is not lowering prices or helping families with the basics, not stopping Trump's warmongering--it is giving tens of billions of dollars more of your hard-earned tax dollars to ICE and Border Patrol.

Republicans want to supercharge Stephen Miller's budget to harass communities with no restraint, smash in car windows with no warrant, detain Americans with no reason, and mass-deport members of communities with no criminal record whatsoever. We are talking about firefighters and grandpas and grandmas and caregivers for our seniors and parents and spouses and veterans themselves.

To anyone thinking this sounds familiar, well, you are right, because

guess what Republicans were doing last summer: the exact same thing-- ignoring the needs of working families while hurling billions at ICE.

Last year, Republicans moved heaven and earth to cut taxes for billionaires and hand tens of billions of dollars to ICE and Border Patrol. They passed that ``Big Ugly Bill,'' shoveling money at ICE and Border Patrol, shoveling money at billionaires, and cutting healthcare and SNAP to do it.

Now here we are a year later, after Republicans unleashed chaos on our streets by cutting a $75 billion blank check to ICE, after the American people were outraged by ICE and Border Patrol tear-gassing and tackling peaceful protestors, and after Republicans themselves admitted DHS had gone way too far following the outrageous and horrifying shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. After all of that, Republicans refused commonsense reforms that we put forward, and now they are choosing to deliver even more money for ICE and Border Patrol with exactly zero steps to rein them in.

So if you are watching this Republican farce and wondering why this feels pretty darn familiar, don't worry--you don't have deja vu. Republicans are just faking amnesia. Republicans are choosing-- choosing--to ignore the violence we have seen unleashed on our streets by a rogue Federal Agency that they threw tens of billions of dollars at. They are choosing to ignore the shocking killings we saw this year and the parade of injustices we are seeing every single day.

Instead of lifting a finger to lower prices or to exercise their constitutional responsibility over the power to declare war, Republicans are spending this week working hard to send ICE more money--no strings attached.

Families across the country are struggling to make ends meet. Gas prices and grocery prices are squeezing out moms and dads. Childcare is hard to find. Housing is unaffordable. Healthcare costs are skyrocketing. But ICE and Border Patrol? Well, they are literally wasting billions of dollars from the ``Big Ugly Bill'' as we speak.

Just consider this: There was plenty of money for former Secretary Noem to blow hundreds of millions to cut ridiculous ads and plaster her face on TV. There is plenty to blow hundreds of millions on new private jets. ICE was able to waste millions on souped-up SUVs with flashy paint jobs, which they can't even use. Throughout this shutdown, ICE has continued to acquire new warehouses way above the asking price and even buy more planes.

So even after all of the waste, fraud, and abuse funded by Republicans, ICE and Border Patrol still have billions upon billions of dollars on hand right now. Not even a year ago, Republicans gave them more funding than most militaries. Meanwhile, Republicans are acting like they have no idea why Democrats have been demanding accountability and reform, so let me refresh your memory.

The reason we want actual judicial warrants? ICE dragged off a kid who was working at Target, only to release him when they realized he was a citizen. They dragged a woman out of her car on her way to a doctor's appointment. They dragged a man out of his house in the freezing cold, in his underwear, and didn't even check to see if they had the right guy. Another man who was a U.S. citizen got dragged off his worksite and wrongly detained--not once but twice.

That is not targeted law enforcement. It is unbelievable to me that any Republican can say that with a straight face. You want targeted law enforcement? That is what judicial warrants help ensure.

Look at the use-of-force standards. Pastors have been shot in the head with pepper balls. A family on the way home from a basketball game was tear-gassed. We have seen peaceful protestors tackled to the ground. We have seen people pinned down and pepper-sprayed in the face. And then, of course, we have seen several horrific, unjustifiable shootings.

I am not just talking about Alex Pretti and Renee Good, whose killings did send a shock through the Nation--at least until Republicans decided to move on and buy ICE more bullets. Last year in Chicago, a Federal agent rammed Marimar Martinez and shot her several times. They tried to blame her until the video came out and showed the truth. The agent sharply turned his wheel and rammed her car.

Just recently, new video footage showed ICE agents lied about another shooting in Minnesota. The agent said he fired when he was attacked with a shovel. It turns out that was a flatout lie. He actually fired blindly through a door.

ICE agents shot Ruben Martinez in March of last year. His own mother didn't know how he died until a year later. That video, by the way, also did not match the ICE version of events.

I am all for laws. I want to see our laws followed and enforced, and that is why I want ICE and Border Patrol held accountable. These rogue Agencies have been breaking our laws. They have been hurting our citizens. But what is the Republican response to this pattern of abuse? How are Republicans addressing this rogue Agency? Well, here we are choosing to give it even more money and less oversight. That is a perversion of justice and an utter rejection of responsibility. I don't know how you can pretend you are for law and order while shoveling money at a lawless Agency.

But the important thing for everyone to remember is that it did not have to be this way. Despite what some Republicans are saying, this is not something they are forced to do. This is a policy choice that Republicans are making, because there has been a straightforward, bipartisan path available this entire time. Democrats have been ready, willing, and truly begging Republicans to work with us to enact some very basic reforms as part of a bipartisan funding bill.

I have spent weeks working hard to land the plane on some commonsense steps, and we were having some productive conversations across the aisle and actually with the White House. The White House publicly agreed to enact a set of steps into law. But ultimately Republicans decided to walk away and end any talk of reform. Even when we offered a narrower set of basic reforms in exchange for some funding, Republicans said: No, won't do. They ultimately refused to enact even the basic reforms the White House itself agreed to.

So nobody's hand was forced here. Republicans just chose to walk away from the basic reforms the American people were demanding.

What is more, they have decided that instead of spending their time working on urgent issues, like oversight of Trump's war and addressing skyrocketing costs, instead of using taxpayer dollars to actually solve problems for families who see healthcare costs rising, childcare costs increasing, energy costs, housing costs, Republicans have chosen to waste their time and waste your money, writing Stephen Miller a $70 billion check and turning a blind eye to the rights that he and ICE are trampling.

This is not what America wants. It is not what America stands for. You can bet Democrats will be pushing every single minute to stop this massive waste of time and money and focus on how we can help working families instead.

If Republicans decide that instead of cutting another enormous check for ICE, they would like to resume conversations about a bipartisan path forward to enact some basic reforms, I am right here where I have always been--at the table, ready to get it done.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, we are nearly done with our fiscal year 2026 spending bills. It has been a long road--no question--and we still have some serious disagreements around reforms and funding for ICE and Border Patrol, which I will speak to in a minute, but despite the major challenges, we accomplished something important in passing 11 and, hopefully soon, 12 of our funding bills.

We outright rejected Trump's plan to gut the programs families rely on. We protected crucial investments that people count on every day, and we took some important steps to reassert Congress' power of the purse. That matters immensely. We would almost be there on the Homeland appropriations bill if it were not for Speaker Johnson. Despite the Senate unanimously passing a bill--twice, in fact--to fund the parts of DHS we can agree on while continuing to work on the areas of disagreement when it comes to ICE and Border Patrol, Speaker Johnson and the House Republicans have refused to put the bill up for a vote. They have chosen to needlessly extend the DHS shutdown, making it the longest shutdown in history. House Republicans need to stop holding disaster relief hostage and put that bill up for a vote. We know it will pass overwhelmingly.

I also want to step back for a moment because we cannot lose sight of the fact that the reason we find ourselves in this mess is that, last summer, in their ``Big Ugly Bill,'' Republicans did an end run around the bipartisan appropriations process and handed ICE and Border Patrol vastly more money than they receive each year. They gave ICE $75 billion, the CBP $65 billion, and even more funding on top of that for the Secretary to tap however they would like. All told, Republicans signed off on over $160 billion in funding for Trump's mass deportation campaign at DHS. That is nearly three times the entire Department's annual budget, and they did so with virtually no guardrails.

We all know what happened next. President Trump and Stephen Miller built ICE and Border Patrol up into untrained paramilitary forces and sent them out to terrorize communities across the country. American citizens were wrongfully detained. Peaceful protesters were teargassed, tackled to the ground, and pepper-sprayed for no reason. Windows and doors were smashed in by masked agents with no warrants and no IDs. Of course, American citizens like Renee Good and Alex Pretti were shot by Federal agents and slandered by the Trump administration.

Democrats made clear there has to be reform, and we will not approve more funding for their Agencies until that happens; but after weeks of very tough negotiations, Republicans ultimately refused to agree on some very basic reforms, including reforms that the White House had, by the way, already agreed to. Now, while they continue refusing those commonsense reforms, Republicans are, once again, vowing to give ICE and the Border Patrol even more money, without any accountability. That is right. After America spoke out, demanding more accountability, Republicans are actually doing less accountability.

From what I am hearing, they are looking to now approve funding for ICE and Border Patrol for the rest of Trump's term, with none of the accountability measures we regularly include in our annual spending bills. By pursuing this path, they are intentionally walking away from the reforms that we were negotiating over, and on top of that, they will not include longstanding legacy guardrails that have been bipartisan when it comes to DHS funding.

So let's be crystal clear about what that means: Republicans are now choosing to cut another blank check for these Agencies and to forfeit Congress' ability to put checks on them for the next 3 years.

If Republicans want to cut Stephen Miller another blank check to terrorize American cities and communities, Democrats will have no part of it, and we will fight them every step of the way. But if they are ready to get serious about reforms--and ICE needs a heck of a lot more than another money bomb--Democrats are at the table, ready to rein in those rogue Agencies.

This week, now that President Trump has finally submitted his fiscal year 2027 budget request, which he did over the recess, we are kicking off the fiscal year 2027 appropriations process in earnest with hearings in the Appropriations Committee.

Now, a budget is a statement of values, and what this budget says about our President's values is bleak. Trump's vision for our future is not better schools for our kids; it is not curing diseases like cancer or Alzheimer's; and it is not lowering costs for families, like childcare or home energy bills. It is war--war--plain and simple.

None of the priorities Trump campaigned on are reflected in this budget. He is breaking every single promise he made about lowering costs and helping families and putting America first. Instead of putting America first, he is asking Congress to slash investments in families to help fund his reckless foreign wars and line the pockets of defense company CEOs and their stockholders.

He summed it up pretty well when he said recently:

We're fighting wars. We can't take care of day care.

That was him. It doesn't get more explicit or more wrong than that. Trump is saying we can't afford to help families afford the basics because we have to fight wars that he chose to start.

We also have Trump admitting in an interview that gas prices may be higher in a few months because of his latest

war. But for my Republican colleagues who can't bring themselves to watch Trump's interviews or read his posts, don't worry because Trump's budget is sending the same pro-war, anti-family message just with more numbers and fewer typos, fewer unhinged tangents attacking the Pope, and no AI photos depicting Trump as Jesus.

Now, I assure you the values in this budget are just as morally bankrupt because Trump wants to defund programs that lower people's costs while increasing war spending by half a trillion dollars.

All told, he wants a $1\1/2\ trillion defense budget. That is a trillion--that has 12 zeros. And there seems to be no rhyme or reason for that number, except that Trump liked the sound of it, woke up one day and announced on Truth Social he would seek $1\1/2\ trillion for defense.

It is really hard to put that number into perspective, but I am going to try because the tradeoffs could not be more stark. Instead of spending half a trillion dollars more on war, we could easily extend the healthcare tax credits that Republicans let expire for many years to come. We could afford millions of affordable new homes or help millions of Americans afford quality childcare or just about end homelessness or make sure that no kid in this country goes hungry. We could develop new cures and treatments for devastating diseases or cut families' energy bills in half or help students actually afford to go to college.

Seriously, half a trillion dollars more for war is such a mind- boggling amount that White House aides scrambled to even produce a request to meet Trump's number. There is no world in which the Pentagon can spend that kind of increase responsibly.

But blowing up the war budget and blowing up the debt is only half the story with Trump's absurd budget. Because while Trump's budget has plenty of cash for warmongering, while he is more than happy to shovel your tax dollars at defense contractors, Trump wants to cut funding for our schools. He wants to cut funding for medical research. He wants to cut funding for affordable housing programs and a whole lot more.

Truly, the only thing that might be more breathtaking than the amount of money Trump wants to spend on warmongering abroad is the amount of damage he wants to do with those cuts here at home. There are entire programs that do real good for families across this country that Trump wants to turn into dust. A few examples: Trump wants to eliminate programs that help families pay their energy bills, which Trump has already sent skyrocketing with his tariffs and clean energy cuts and now this war. Just last month, the price of home heating oil increased by 30 percent--30 percent.

Trump wants to eliminate nutrition assistance for our seniors, not even a year after Republicans made the largest SNAP cuts in history.

Trump wants to eliminate title X programs, cutting off access to family planning, preventive care, at the same time the Republican healthcare hike just pushed millions of people off their health insurance and extreme abortion bans that are putting women's lives in danger.

Trump wants to eliminate housing supply programs, even as he wrecks the economy, sends inflation higher, and puts home ownership even farther out of reach.

He also wants to eliminate roughly 30 K-12 programs, totaling over $6 billion in funding, including support for our homeless students and our afterschool programs, not to mention another 30 DOJ programs that help keep our communities safe.

You know, I could go on all day. And beyond the programs Trump wants to zero out completely, there are many others he just wants to cut down to the bone. He wants to cut NIH by $5.75 billion. He wants to cut CDC by a third, and cut funding for mental health and rural health and maternal health even more.

Think about that. Trump wants to slash funding to fight against disease so he can bankroll his war against Iran that no one asked for.

At the same time, Trump wants a recordbreaking, budget busting half a trillion dollar increase for war. He wants to cut COPS grants by a quarter; that will make our communities less safe. He wants to cut our national parks by a third; that would eliminate 2,500 positions and put our national treasures at risk. He wants to slash EPA in half; that would let polluters run amok and put our families in danger.

He wants to cut the Small Business Administration by two-thirds, as if he hasn't already done enough damage to the economy.

Or when it comes to NASA. The world was just captivated by the Artemis mission, sending humans further from Earth than ever before and preparing to return to the moon for the first time in this century. Most of us in this country watched that mission, and we were awestruck. We watched and said: Wow. This country can still inspire the world. We can still reach for the stars.

Well, Trump watched that mission, and he said: Whatever. Let's cut NASA by a quarter.

Not to mention the other cuts to science, slashing the National Science Foundation in half. So we just let China continue to win when it comes to science and technology.

Trump also wants to cut funding for Amtrak and for transit projects across the country. He wants to cut funding to address violence against women. He wants to slash WIC benefits that help our moms and kids get healthy food. He wants to practically eliminate Federal funding for drinking water and sewer infrastructure, even as those old sewage pipes in DC nearly put our Nation's Capitol at risk.

Not to mention he wants to rob States like mine of funding for critical projects. He is, once again, zeroing out funding for Howard Hanson Dam, and he is trying to shortchange the Hanford cleanup. And, once again, I will not stand for that.

I cannot drive home enough how backward all of this is. Trump's budget has zero dollars--zero--to increase childcare funding, but, again, he has got a half trillion dollars more to increase war spending--not because we actually need that much to keep our country safe; because Trump apparently likes starting wars and threatening to end civilizations. He likes sending our sons and daughters into Venezuela and Iran and who knows where next without any sort of plan or any regard for the consequences, like those skyrocketing gas prices.

This is not what Trump campaigned on, and it is not what anyone wants. And as long as I am on the Appropriations Committee, you can be darn sure it is not what we are going to be doing in our annual funding bills.

Trump's budget request to blow half a trillion on wars across the world while cutting programs here at home belongs in the trash, and that is exactly where I intend to send it.

But as we look ahead to fiscal year 2027, we are staring down some major challenges. In many respects, even bigger challenges than we have faced in the past year. Because while Trump pushes this half a trillion dollar war spending bonanza, the reality is that for 3 successive years now, our domestic budget has essentially remained flat, and that is in nominal terms. For 3 years in a row, Republicans have squeezed nondefense programs as much as possible while pushing for higher defense spending.

Democrats have fought off countless cuts pitched by Trump and House Republicans. But the fact of the matter is, when Republicans hold these programs roughly flat for 3 years and inflation--not to mention tariffs and chaos--keep raising costs, that is effectively a cut.

Over the last few years, we have turned over just about every couch cushion we can find to prevent the cuts to childcare or cancer research, but there is only so many cushions in that couch; and we will need significantly more funding for nondefense to simply tread water this year.

For example, the Pell Program is facing a $17 billion shortfall. If we don't address that, students are going to pay the price.

Medical care for our veterans will cost many billions more. If we don't have more nondefense funding, we will either shortchange veterans or have to cut other programs that families rely on.

Housing costs, as we all know, continue to rise; and we will need more funding just to tread water and keep serving the Americans who count on rental assistance.

And it is the same story for WIC and many other important programs that people count on.

And then there is the massive infrastructure cliff we are about to barrel over because the bipartisan infrastructure law that we passed about 5 years ago included tens of billions of dollars each year for key nondefense programs. Those programs and funds have supplemented our annual appropriations in an absolutely critical way. Those funds run out in September. We are talking about resources to repair our roads and bridges, expand public transit, lower energy costs, create jobs, and invest in communities across this country--all gone in the blink of an eye.

You know how many pages Trump spends planning to address that in his budget? Zero. None. That is unacceptable, and we cannot fail to address this infrastructure cliff and increase domestic investments that help families and put our communities first.

And as we know, meanwhile, inflation is squeezing families across the board. Electric bills are going up. Tariffs have sent grocery prices higher and higher. Childcare is expensive, hard to find, and healthcare premiums are skyrocketing.

In the face of all of that, we have to put more resources into helping people out, not funding Trump's wars abroad. Do Republicans really want to give Trump's warmongering a blank check while giving families the short end of the stick? Because that is the basic pitch that Trump has made.

The problem with Trump's budget are many, but it does boil down to this: Trump would rob our families to pay for war while still burdening our grandkids with mountains of debt. And for what? To make defense contractors rich? To buy more bombs that Trump can threaten to end civilization with?

We should be building bridges here in America, not destroying them in Iran. We should be lower costs here in America, not waging wars that send prices through the roof. We should be fighting a war against cancer, not another war in the Middle East. We should be investing in our working families, not funding whatever new war Trump decides to start.

So as we now start our appropriations process for fiscal year 2027, I am going to be pressing Trump's Cabinet about these backward priorities. As for the previous fiscal years, I hope my colleagues on the Appropriations Committee can do what we do best: Come together, write commonsense bills that put the priorities of American families first and our communities first.

As I said when I started, we are nearly there on Homeland Security funding, and we got this far despite the obstacles because we have worked so closely in a bipartisan fashion to focus on what is important, what is needed, and truly what we can do best.

And I look forward to working with my colleagues as we start this process. And throughout it, I will be clear with my colleagues: I want to work with you, but we have to write funding bills that instead of slashing funding for our families, we provide significant new investments in the American people, especially as we face major shortfalls, a fast-approaching IIJA cliff, and rising prices that are hitting every family's budget.

And instead of writing a blank check for whatever war Trump wants to start next, we have to write here a measured, strategic defense budget focused on actually keeping our country safe.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.