Floor Statements

Madam President, we all understand we cannot leave our job here unfinished. The clock is ticking right now, and there is so much at stake. We have a strong, bipartisan package to support our allies in Ukraine, Israel, and the Indo-Pacific and provide humanitarian aid to civilians who are caught in conflict. By passing this bill, we would show our allies we stand by our word and we will help them in the time of need. We will show dictators that their flagrant attacks will not go unchecked and they cannot steamroll our allies. And we will show the world that American leadership is still alive and well and that we are still a strong protector of democracy and provider of humanitarian aid.

Given all the stakes of this moment, now--right now--is a critical time to send that message, which is why I am glad we are here on the cusp of passing this bill in the Senate.

And to my colleagues who have been holding this up and dragging the process out, we can disagree. You can vote against this. That is how it works. But one way or another, this aid will get to our allies. We spent months going back and forth to try and get a bill to the floor, and now we are here. We are not going to let a few more hours or a few more days wear us down.

However, what is an inconvenient delay for the U.S. Senate is a dangerous one for our allies in Ukraine. Putin's forces are on the march as we speak. Ukrainians are fighting bravely to defend their homeland, but they are running lower and lower on bullets, air defense missiles, and more every day.

We measure time in hours; they are measuring it in how many bullets they have left, how many more missiles fall on their cities, and how much closer Putin's tanks are getting. The question for us is: How long is this going to take? The question for them is: How much longer can they hold out?

We cannot leave them waiting. So I urge my colleagues to support moving forward on these votes, vote to waive the budget point of order, and let's keep this bill moving.

And once we get it through the Senate, we are going to push every way we can to get this to the President's desk and signed into law.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, I know of no further debate on the bill.

The amendment was ordered to be engrossed and the bill to be read a third time.

The bill was read the third time.

I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, I have spoken quite a bit about how the votes we cast as U.S. Senators for this funding have tremendous consequences.

I have talked about whether or not we deliver this aid, especially to Ukraine, is a question of whether or not America will stand by the world and stand by its allies.

How we all decide to vote on this bill could not be more important. It was just last night we heard the presumptive Republican nominee for President openly encourage Russia to attack our NATO allies. All of us in this Chamber--all of us--understand those words have consequences.

Our friends and adversaries alike listen to what major political leaders here in America have to say about issues of global concern, but as my colleagues know, our votes matter tremendously as well. Action, legislation that actually gets signed into law, $60 billion to support our Ukrainian allies, that sends a lot more than a message to Putin; it sends badly needed ammunition and weapons to Ukraine so they can put an end to Russia's bloody invasion.

So I urge every one of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to join me not only in sending a message to our friends that they can count on America to stand by its word, to our adversaries that they cannot invade sovereign democracies unchecked and unanswered, to civilians caught in conflict around the world that America will help deliver food and medicine and more, but to join me and vote against this tabling motion so we can finally take action and show the world that Congress is united when it comes to American leadership and resolve on the world stage. We have been negotiating for months now trying to get this funding over the finish line.

Let's all recognize that each time we falter, our adversaries have not been subtle in making a show of it, claiming that America will not do anything to protect its friends and allies.

This--this is the time to prove them wrong. I said it before; I will say it again: Those of us who understand the gravity of this moment are ready to stay here as long as it takes to get this done. I hope we can soon come together quickly and get this to the finish line as soon as possible.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, let's be clear. The stakes of this moment could not be higher. The question before us is nothing short of what kind of future do we want for our kids.

Our role as the leader of the free world is on the line. If we tell dictators like Putin they can trample sovereign democracies with impunity; if we tell our allies that they are on their own; if we tell suffering civilians help is not on the way; if we tell the world the era of American leadership and resolve is over, we will be inviting chaos, emboldening dictators, and leaving the world a much more dangerous place for our kids. That is exactly why this package is so important. That is why we have insisted for months on a serious, comprehensive national security supplemental that actually meets this moment and doesn't leave any of our allies behind.

It has been a long, frustrating road, but Democrats have been glued to the negotiating table because failure is not an option here.

Listen, I hope we move forward quickly on this package now. I, like many others, want a fair and reasonable, bipartisan amendment process, but recognize that those of us who understand the stakes of this moment are ready to stay here as long as it takes to get this done.

I hope all of our colleagues will continue to work with me and the Senator from Maine to get this over the finish line because right now soldiers in Ukraine are counting their bullets, wondering how long they can hold out. Dictators are watching closely to see if this is their time to make a move. Civilians, including kids, are caught in the crossfire and are in desperate need of food and water and medical care.

We do not have a second to lose, so let's get this done and show the world American leadership is still strong.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, it should never have taken us this long to move forward on this aid that so many of us are saying is necessary. But I am so glad that we are finally here making progress on this crucial package. We have more work ahead to get this passed in the Senate and House and, ultimately, signed into law. And we, frankly, do not have a minute to waste.

I hope this vote is the start of moving this package now in earnest, because this is serious. As the senior Senator from Maine just outlined, our allies are at war. Civilians are in harm's way. Dictators are watching closely to see what we are going to do about it. So, really, the stakes could not be higher. How we answer this moment will define America's future on the global stage and could well redefine the balance of power in the world.

I hope today is truly a breakthrough for bipartisanship, that cooler heads will prevail from here on out, and that we can move this forward in a reasonable, bipartisan way.

We will be doing everything in our power to move that forward. I stand ready to work with my vice chair, the senior Senator from Maine, on any amendments that Senators want to bring forward. And as the leader just said to everyone, we will stay here until this is done.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Madam President, I come to speak before the vote today, but I do hope that all of my colleagues heard the Senator from Oklahoma, heard his powerful words, especially the last several minutes, and pause and think about it. They were critically important for each one of us to think about, and I thank the Senator for all of his work on this and for his powerful statement just now.

But if you want to understand why people can't stand politics, watch how many Republicans vote against this bill. Some of my colleagues do not seem to understand this is not a game. There is a war happening right now in Ukraine where our allies are being gunned down and Putin is rolling his tanks into their homeland. There is a war happening right now between Israel and Hamas. There are civilians at this very moment caught in the crossfire. There are partners in the Indo-Pacific wondering if they can count on us. And let's not forget, there is the border, the site of countless Republican photo ops, where we have a genuine need of reforms and resources.

That is the moment we are in. That is the moment that this package is meant to address. And by voting it down, Republicans will be telling our allies, our word cannot be trusted; telling dictators like Putin that our threats are not serious; telling the world, American leadership has been hollowed out by Republican obstructionism. And let's be clear, they will be telling the American people they don't want to solve the crisis at the border; they want to campaign on it because if you genuinely believe something is a crisis, you take any step you can to address it. You don't let a fire burn because Donald Trump wants to campaign on ashes.

We have heard a lot of talk from Republicans about the border, about countering the Chinese Government, about supporting Israel and standing up to Putin. But governing is about action. Governing is about compromise. Governing is about standing behind your word in order to solve problems.

And I am sorry to say that despite the talks from many Republicans about continuing to support Ukraine, they have yet to join us in actually voting for serious aid for Ukraine since last Congress.

As the minority leader admitted yesterday, this was all because his side, Republicans, insisted--insisted--Ukraine aid be tied to border policies--a standard, by the way, that they have not applied to any of our other allies and one that tells every country who would partner with us that you better hope you don't become leverage for an unrelated, partisan demand.

It was an absurd request. I have said so from the start. But a lot hangs in the balance, so Democrats listened to them and took them at their word and have been glued to the negotiating table in order to address this problem, and I want to thank, from the bottom of my heart, my colleagues--to Senator Sinema, to Senator Lankford, to Senator Murphy--they worked so long and hard to hammer out a deal on border policies, one that is, quite frankly, more conservative than many of us would have liked, including myself.

But I worked tirelessly with my vice chair, the senior Senator from Maine, to ensure that the border resources were there to help address this problem. And through listening and compromising and working together in good faith, we reached a bipartisan agreement to fund the border policies that others negotiated.

And now after saying they had to have both of these in the package in order to support it, Republicans are now poised to kill it. Republicans went from ``We demand border policy changes'' to ``No policy is needed.'' They went from ``We need time to look at this bill'' to ``Dead on arrival'' in less than 24 hours. They went from ``The border is a crisis right now'' to ``It can wait until November,'' in the blink of an eye--and will not support the bipartisan policy nor the bipartisan funding.

What changed? What changed? Well, Donald Trump ordered Republicans to

kill the bipartisan border deal. Trump has not been subtle. He has literally said: ``Please blame it on me,'' if this deal goes down in flames, and there is no action on the border.

And we are going to see today just how many Republicans fall in line, and it may well be most of them. But I would remind my colleagues, the American people are the ones who sent us here, not Donald Trump. They are the ones we should answer to, not Donald Trump. And I think we all know the folks back home sent us here to solve problems--to solve problems--not to block bipartisan solutions. They want us to work together. They want us to make progress, even when it isn't perfect.

And, frankly, if that doesn't convince you to support this bill, if you are still thinking about what is good politics, not good policy, I still don't know why you would listen to Donald Trump because solving problems, that is good politics. Maintaining America's national security, that is good politics.

So I hope all of my Republican colleagues will think about this vote carefully. How long will you give Donald Trump a permanent veto over whatever policy he decides he doesn't like or isn't helpful to him personally? I have to ask: What is the point of being a Senator if you let Donald Trump make all of the decisions for you?

It wasn't so long ago that Donald Trump incited an actual insurrection. We all had to flee or we barricaded ourselves into our offices. Did any of my colleagues on the other side think you would let that same man dictate what policy you could or couldn't even debate? It was just 3 short years ago that some of you, on the other side, voted-- and many of us voted--to remove Trump from office.

So I ask my colleagues: Please listen when I say today is a critical vote. Today is a day to decide. Today is a vote about whether we, as U.S. Senators, will keep our word when we negotiate with each other. Today is a day we, as U.S. Senators, will vote to show we will work together to stand up for American interests and national security at home and abroad. And today is a day we, as Senators, show the world we are a country that stands behind our word and stands with our allies and works past politics to do what is right for this country and the people we were sent here to represent.

I hope my colleagues will think about that long and hard, and then I sincerely hope they will do the right thing and abandon the MAGA politics.

There is so much work we have left to do together moving forward, and you should all know me well enough to know I am always ready to work together, not against one another. So even if this vote fails, I am determined to not let partisanship win the day. We are going to try again to pass a package that gets our allies the aid they so desperately need, and I hope before we get to that, that every Senator in this body listens to what the Senator from Oklahoma said and pauses and thinks about what their word means to the people who sent them here to do the right thing for our country.

I yield the floor.

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

Mr. President, we recently released the text of the supplemental. This bill is about our national security, it is about our national credibility, and it is about our future. That is why Democrats have been glued to the table, negotiating in good faith every step of the way, because the stakes could not be higher.

On Sunday, we rolled out a bipartisan, compromise package with $60 billion in aid for Ukraine, $14.1 billion in security assistance for Israel, $4.8 billion to support our allies in the Indo-Pacific, $10 billion for humanitarian assistance, $20 billion for operational needs at the border, and more.

Now, I want to be clear, this is not the bill I would have written on my own. It is compromise legislation that came out of negotiations between Senate Democrats and Senate Republicans. As I have said before, I never believed that we should condition emergency aid for our allies on unrelated partisan priorities, but Republicans demanded that. They insisted we needed not just Executive action at the border or new resources but policy changes. So my colleagues--the junior Senator from Connecticut and the senior Senator from Arizona--worked around the clock, and now we have a bipartisan set of proposals, just as our Republican colleagues demanded.

Now, before I say anything else, this will not be the last word on immigration reform. I will keep fighting--and I know many of us will-- day in and day out until we deliver on comprehensive immigration reform that creates a pathway to citizenship for the more than 11 million undocumented immigrants living in America and makes our system work better and more fairly. I know we need to finally pass the Dream Act. We need an immigration system that creates new pathways for legal status, eliminates dysfunction and backlogs, and recognizes that immigrants do make America great.

Immigrants are not just crucial to our economy--although they absolutely are--they enrich our communities and strengthen the fabric of our country in countless ways. And we should, of course, be inviting the world's brightest minds and hardest workers to make America home. That will always remain a North Star for me as we push to make our system work better and meet new needs as more folks come to our country, fleeing persecution and seeking opportunity.

We also have to address the root causes of migration in a way that promotes stability and mutual economic prosperity for everyone.

The bipartisan compromise before us does not accomplish all of that. Border policy and immigration reform is a very tough issue, and in a divided government, compromise is required. So what we have in front of us is a tailored package aimed at addressing some of the challenges before us and one that can win passage in both Chambers.

I am not thrilled with several of the provisions, but there are some important steps forward in it, like a quarter of a million new family and work visas over the next 5 years and pathways to citizenship for the brave Afghans who worked alongside our servicemembers during the war in Afghanistan.

The bill would help speed up the processing of asylum claims, ensure for the very first time that everyone gets a written explanation of their asylum decision, and provide an important downpayment on new resources to clear the backlog.

It would provide immediate work permits for folks who pass through the

asylum screenings so they can provide for their families and build a life in our country.

The bill enshrines for the first time a legal right to representation for all asylum seekers in expedited removal, and, especially important to me, it provides legal counsel for the youngest kids who arrive at our borders without a parent, seeking relief in the United States.

It protects the President's parole authority--another means of preventing chaos at our borders.

It helps ensure that documented Dreamers, the children of H-1B visa holders, are not deported.

It provides critical new resources--a 75-percent boost--for our cities and our States and organizations around the country to provide lifesaving support to migrants who are already here.

It also includes funding to help resettle refugees fleeing Putin's war and other horrific conflicts across the globe.

It has significant new investments to not just detect and stop fentanyl at our borders but to stop the chemicals used to create it way up the supply chain.

So this bill does leave a lot to be desired, but it is a compromise bill. It takes really important steps to get urgently needed aid to our allies and innocent civilians, and it was crafted to win bipartisan support.

I will be voting for this package because American leadership is on the line here and because aid to our allies, including in Ukraine, and humanitarian aid to Gaza cannot wait a moment longer.

I have tremendous appreciation for the tireless effort my Democratic colleagues put into negotiating away some of the worst and most partisan proposals. I am not new to brokering deals here in the Senate, and I understand that in negotiations, you don't always get what you want. In fact, you never do. But I also know that after a bill passes, you don't stop pushing for the progress you want to see, and that will be the case here. But when it comes to the bill before us, there is no reason--none whatsoever--for further drama or delay or partisanship.

Funding for Ukraine, Israel, and the Indo-Pacific all have overwhelming bipartisan support, and Senate and House Republicans alike were some of the loudest voices calling for changes to border policy in the first place. So despite the flurry of statements from Republicans we have seen in the past 24 hours, rushing to judgment, I hope they will join us in moving the very steps that they demanded.

After all, if Republicans kill this deal without even voting, throwing out border policies that they demanded--that they demanded-- throwing their Senate colleagues under the bus, and throwing in the towel to dictators like Putin, how are they going to have any sort of credibility on addressing the border?

They won't. The American people will rightly see it for the kind of naked partisan politics people cannot stand.

We have a bill here that is serious. It is bipartisan, and it is urgently needed by our allies, especially Ukraine. If we do not fully meet this moment and soon, we are going to leave families living in a more dangerous world--a world where dictators like Putin trample democracies without consequences; a world where civilians who are caught in crossfire have less hope of getting basic aid, food, water, medical care; and a world where allies don't trust our promises and adversaries don't heed our warnings.

That is unacceptable to me, and I urge our colleagues to join me in passing this bill through the Senate and in pressing the House to vote on this bill without any further delay.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I have been fighting for over a decade to establish a new summer nutrition program to help end child hunger, and I come to the floor today to celebrate the tremendous progress we have made in that effort because, this year, legislation I fought to pass in 2022 based on my Stop Child Hunger Act will go into effect, establishing a permanent summer nutrition benefit for struggling families--Summer EBT, electronic benefit transfer.

Basically, that means millions of parents who rely on free or reduced-price meals to feed their kids during the school year will get help feeding their kids over the summer too. This has been a long time coming, and it is a huge deal that now this program is becoming permanent.

Child hunger isn't just something I heard about from parents across my home State of Washington; it is personal to me. I remember what it was like when my family fell on hard times when I was young. Growing up, my parents had seven kids. It was never easy, but when my dad could no longer work because he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, it wasn't just hard, it was impossible.

Fortunately for all of us, our country didn't just say ``tough luck.'' We got support. Food stamps helped put food on our table until my mom was able to go back to school and get a job. That was the difference between our family getting by or going hungry.

I want to make sure that we are showing up for families today in the same way because the painful reality is that right now in this country, we have some 30 million kids for whom the free or reduced-price meals they get at school are the difference between them eating a real meal that day or going hungry.

When summer comes, instead of feeling relief at getting a break from homework, many of these kids and their parents are worried about where they are going to get their next meal, until school starts again.

It is heartbreaking, and in the richest country in the world, it is unacceptable. That is why back in 2010 I helped fund the first of its kind pilot program for summer EBT at USDA. The idea is pretty simple: Create a program that gives families benefits they can use at the grocery store to help feed their kids over the summer. One of the pilot sites was in Vancouver, WA. Do you know what? The program worked. Those benefits decreased the number of kids with very low food security by about a third and supported a much healthier diet because they got more fruits and vegetables.

So to build off the success of that pilot program, in 2014, I introduced my Stop Child Summer Hunger Act. Rigorous evaluations made clear that benefit worked.

Still, even if it seems like common sense and basic humanity that kids shouldn't go hungry, it has been a very long journey to finally get this idea passed into law.

I reintroduced my bill several times with different colleagues. Then the pandemic struck and threw struggling families into even greater food insecurity. Everyone here remembers the enormous number of cars lined up outside food banks across the country in the early days of the pandemic.

So I started working with my colleagues to establish a temporary nutrition program to see families through that crisis in the relief packages that we passed during the worst of the pandemic. In doing so, we were also able to show how necessary that kind of support is and how effective it is and establish a foundation that we then built on to pass a permanent summer nutrition program into law as part of our omnibus government funding bill at the end of 2022.

I have to pause and really, really thank my great friend and colleague, the senior Senator from Michigan. She chairs the Senate Agriculture Committee, and she led on negotiating this big win for kids.

Now that bill is going into effect, and what it means for families is that this summer, in participating States, like my home State of Washington, families whose kids qualify for free or reduced-price school meals during the school year will receive a preloaded nutrition benefits card worth about $120 per child to buy groceries over the summer. Unlike the pandemic-era program we passed, this program is permanent. Those benefits will work similar to SNAP, which means parents can use them to buy food at grocery stores, farmers markets, and more.

In my home State alone, we are talking half a million kids who can benefit from this program. That is a meaningful step towards ending child hunger in America. But, as always, we have more work to do. No child should ever go hungry in the United States of America.

While I don't think that is a controversial idea, my message to all my colleagues who agree is that achieving this takes more than words; it takes action. That means giving a hand to families like mine who fall on hard times. It means making sure parents who rely on school lunches for their kids can keep them fed in the summer months and fully funding WIC, which is a lifeline to so many women and infants. That is something I am very focused on right now, and I will not let up until we see that through.

So I am here today not just to celebrate the important progress which I fought for years to make on fighting summer hunger but to make clear that I am not done fighting. I am going to keep pushing to make sure that no

child goes hungry--no child--and that every family gets the same kind of support my family got when I was growing up.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I rise in opposition to the motion to commit the CR with instructions. The Senate has before it a bipartisan, bicameral CR which keeps the government open and gives us time to negotiate and pass full-year funding bills under the Schumer-Johnson top-line agreement.

The junior Senator from Kansas wants us to walk away from the bipartisan compromise on the CR, guarantee a government shutdown, and accept a devastating, year-long CR rather than do our jobs as Senators and write full-year bills.

I spoke at length recently about how a full-year CR would lock us into last year's spending plans and policies as if nothing has changed in over a year, and it would force devastating across-the-board cuts to programs that our country and families rely on, defense and nondefense alike.

It is simply not an option. We need to pass this CR, keep working 24/ 7 to hammer out the strongest possible funding bills. And for all those reasons, I strongly oppose the motion and urge my colleagues to vote no.

I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, I urge all of our colleagues to join us in voting to pass the CR so we can continue the work of negotiating and passing full-year funding bills without a shutdown, causing needless harm and chaos for folks back home.

We know a shutdown come end of day Friday would be devastating. I will be frank. Just the fact that our Agencies have to continually plan around the potential of a shutdown nearly constantly is a huge opportunity cost. A shutdown tomorrow would force staff administering our Nation's veterans and nutrition assistance programs and so much else to either work without pay or stop working altogether.

The Chair of the National Transportation Safety Board said a shutdown this week would force the Board to hit pause on investigations it is conducting, including the recent incident when a door plug blew out midflight. This should not be an acceptable option to anyone.

Now, I have been working nonstop with my colleagues in both Chambers to keep this process moving as quickly as we possibly can so we can write and pass the strongest possible funding bills. Passing this measure will allow us the time we need to hammer out those funding bills for fiscal year 2024 after many months of needless delays.

I think we all want this to be a drama-free and reliable process, so I hope House Republicans will work with us to make that possible now, too, which means leaving extreme partisan demands at the door. We are all working as quickly as possible, but we aren't going to lose sight of the millions of Americans who count on the programs we fund whether it is WIC--for so many moms and babies we don't want to go hungry--or lifesaving healthcare research.

We have a lot of work left to do, but it has to happen in a bipartisan way. So let's get this CR passed and then work to make sure it is the last by keeping our focus on finalizing serious appropriations bills, which means no partisan poison pills and understanding that there needs to be a bipartisan agreement when it comes to key investments in our country's future.

I yield the floor.

Vote on H.R. 2872

Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, I come to the floor today, thrilled to announce major progress on something that I have been working on since my earliest days here in the U.S. Senate: replacing the I-5 bridge between Vancouver, WA, and Portland, OR.

Late last week, the administration began the notification and review process for grants from the brand new Mega Grant Program we all worked together to establish in the bipartisan infrastructure law, and I was proud to help write the provisions that made sure the Mega Program was funded when we passed that law. So I am ecstatic that the I-5 Bridge Replacement Project will be receiving $600 million in Federal funding from the Mega Grant Program to move us forward on a project that is hugely important to Washington State, to the Pacific Northwest, and really the entire country.

This has been a long time coming, and I should know because I have been there for just about every step of this journey. I remember meeting with Senator Hatfield from Oregon when I was first elected to talk about the need to replace the I-5 crossing between our States-- Washington and Oregon--which was already in bad condition in

the 1990s. We sat down with folks to hold one of the first of many, many, many conversations about what needed to be done and how we could make it happen.

Then, in 2003, as the top Democrat on the Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, I held a hearing in Vancouver to discuss why this project was so important. Back then, I was raising the alarm about predictions that peak congestion for traffic would hit 10 hours by 2020. And wouldn't you know it, today, we are dealing with 7 to 10 hours of slow-moving traffic during the morning and evening rush hours.

Ever since I held that field hearing 20 years ago, I have continued to champion this project at every possible opportunity and every juncture over the years--from securing tens of millions of dollars in Federal funding for the early stages of this project back when it was known as the Columbia River Crossing to sitting down with stakeholders and community leaders dozens of times and holding countless conversations on the thorny issues of moving ahead with a massive project like this, to passing a new provision into law to ease the FTA's evaluation process for multimodal projects and make the I-5 Bridge Replacement Project more competitive for Federal funding, and of course pressing hard to keep this dream alive when previous efforts fell apart. It has not been easy.

As anyone who has been involved in this process over the years knows, there have been no shortage of challenges and setbacks. And, make no mistake, we still have a lot more work to do to see this project through, but failing to replace the I-5 bridge has never been an option to me because I know how important this is to Southwest Washington and, really, to the entire region.

Let me just spell out the stakes for everyone here because too often we take our infrastructure for granted and ignore it until it completely fails. In just about every conversation I have had about the I-5 replacement project over the years, I have been clear we cannot afford to forget about this because, if we keep kicking the can down the road, one of these days, that entire bridge will collapse.

I am not about to sit back and let that happen. We are talking about infrastructure that dates back to World War I. We have over 130,000 cars a weekday and nearly $100 billion of goods a year driving bumper to bumper across an antique that is at serious risk of collapse in the event of an earthquake, which is not exactly unheard of in our region. That is a recipe for disaster. It is frightening for everyone who has to drive across that bridge every day, and it is a huge economic liability for the businesses and communities who rely on the goods that are trucked over it.

And beyond the risk of collapse in the future, there are losses caused by traffic we are seeing today, which is hampering billions of dollars in trade and commerce and stealing one of people's most precious and irreplaceable resources: their time. It is wasting hours of their lives every day, making them late for work, making them get home late, and keeping them away from their family and friends and loved ones.

Replacing this bridge that is overcrowded, over 100 years old, and underprepared for an earthquake should be a no-brainer, especially since this project also includes vital transit and roadway improvements like extending the light rail from Portland, OR, to Vancouver, WA, and making the crossing safer and more accessible for cyclists and pedestrians.

As everyone who has been involved in this discussion knows, Mega funding is critical to building out those key components of the project. This is a great and important reminder for all of my colleagues. Good things happen when we all roll up our sleeves and work together to make good bipartisan legislation a reality.

So a special thank-you especially to the 10 bipartisan Senators whose resolve and determination to work together and hammer out the details of the legislation made the bipartisan infrastructure law a reality.

Now, the importance and urgency of this project should be obvious. Unfortunately, as someone who has had to make this argument over and over again, I can tell you it has not always been the case. Much like the citizens on the I-5, this bridge replacement project has been stuck in gridlock way too long. I have been pushing hard for years to keep this moving forward, and with this announcement, we are now making big progress.

So I really was delighted to announce this major progress toward securing funding which I have worked on for so long, along with my amazing partners like Vancouver Mayor Anne McEnerny-Ogle, State Senator Annette Cleveland, Secretary Roger Millar at the Washington State Department of Transportation, Greg Johnson and his incredible staff, all of our Southwest Washington labor allies, and so many others who joined me in this effort over so many years. This Mega grant will be an important mile marker and a sign that we are finally picking up speed.

Now, I am determined to secure the additional Federal funding we will need to get this done, but this announcement is bringing a goal we have been working on together for decades--replacing the I-5 crossing-- closer into view, and that is a big deal. I am as ready as I have ever been to keep moving forward and finish the job.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I rise today to honor and congratulate Mayor Jill Boudreau on her retirement after 12 years of service as mayor of Mount Vernon, WA. During that time, she has been an inspiring and impactful public servant--leading a municipal government that has been a model of efficiency, adaptability, dignity, and inclusivity. Her leadership has been a guiding light through some of the city's most difficult times, and her advocacy has helped Mount Vernon prosper over the past decade-plus.

Mayor Boudreau was sworn into office in January of 2012 and quickly launched ambitious initiatives to bolster economic development, make the city's government more open and accessible to residents, and improve public transportation. Over her three terms, she has been an indispensable voice for the region--serving on countless boards and commissions and championing voting rights, public art installations, and civic engagement. Most recently, Mayor Boudreau has been the driving force behind the Mount Vernon Library Commons, a transformative project that will be one of the largest capital investments in Skagit County history. When completed, the Commons will be one of Washington State's most energy-efficient municipal buildings and will bring a library, community center, commercial kitchen, transit center, and one of our nation's largest electric vehicle charging stations all into one facility. The Commons is the product of Mayor Boudreau's bold vision and tireless efforts. Her extraordinary leadership on the Commons and other projects has been recognized by the Association for Washington Cities, the Secretary of the Navy, and the Ambassador to Uruguay.

I had the opportunity to work most closely with Mayor Boudreau on flood protection projects along the Skagit River, and throughout those discussions, it was clear to everyone just how deeply she cared about her community. Her dedication and compassion are also evident in Mayor Boudreau's leadership during challenging and stressful times, whether it was the Skagit River Bridge collapse, the Cascade Mall shooting, or the COVID-19 pandemic. I know the citizens of Mount Vernon are as grateful as I am for her strength and hard work during these difficult moments.

One of the things I admire most about Mayor Boudreau is her weekly commitment to meeting with residents for ``Coffee Hours.'' She has held more than 350 of these meetings during her administration, something I have heard about from her constituents during our shared time in public office.

This type of openness and accessibility to her community--and her willingness to listen and really engage with her constituents--is part of what makes Mayor Boudreau such an inspiring public servant. It has been a real privilege to work with her over the last 12 years, and I am tremendously thankful for her service to the people of Mount Vernon. I wish her the very best in future endeavors.

Mr. President, I rise today to honor and congratulate Ms. Debora Juarez on her retirement following nearly 35 years of public service and 8 years in elected office. Debora retires from the Seattle City Council. where she was the first representative of Seattle's District 5 (D5) and was elected by her peers to be council president. She also served as a King County Superior Court judge. A proud member of the Blackfoot Nation, she was the first Native American to serve in any of these roles.

In her many years of service to the Tribes, the State, and to Seattle, she has been guided by a simple mantra shared with her by her Uncle Billy Frank Jr.: ``lead to leave''--a mantra that has brought clarity of purpose to her work and she expanded upon by saying ``leave a legacy.'' Whether it was her legal work to save the historical village of Tse-whit-zen, doubling Seattle's 2016 housing levy to build more affordable housing, or her forceful advocacy for the 130th Street light rail station for the people of District 5 as a Sound Transit board member, Debora leaves behind a worthy legacy.

As the chair of the civic development, public assets, and Native communities committee, she oversaw the exciting reimagining of major projects in Seattle: saving the aging Seattle Coliseum from the 1962 World's Fair and turning it into a state-of-art arena without taxpayer dollars, revitalizing the Seattle Waterfront with a new park and boulevard, and dramatically expanding the Seattle Aquarium. Known to many as a bridge builder--both literally and figuratively--she shepherded the effort to add a bridge to reconnect the waterfront to Pike Place Market and helped build the John Lewis Memorial Bridge that connects light rail to North Seattle College and the University of Washington's Northwest Hospital. She also led the effort to revitalize Northgate Mall, considered to be the first indoor shopping mall in America, which is transforming around the new Kraken Community Iceplex to create a vibrant place for the community. In addition to three sheets of ice and light rail, Northgate will soon have hundreds of units of affordable housing and opportunity for more jobs and economic development, thanks to her strong vision.

As the council's first and only Native American councilmember in its 154-year history, Debora leaves an important Indigenous legacy. She worked with myself and my office to address the crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls--MMIWG--with the passage of Savanna's Act and on the Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization of 2022 to increase protections for women on Tribal lands. Knowing that Seattle has one of the highest numbers of MMIWG cases among U.S. cities, she passed first-of-its-kind local legislation to respond to the crisis and funded a data specialist position within the Seattle Police Department to review these cases. To improve access to healthcare and culturally appropriate medical services. Debora initiated a partnership between Seattle Indian Health Board and North Helpline to open a medical clinic in 2022 in Lake City. She created an Indigenous advisory council for the city and organized the first ever Tribal Nations summit to further the government-to-government relationship between Seattle and Tribes. One hundred and sixty-eight years after the signing of the Treaty of Point Elliot, Debora brought 11 Tribal Nations and six urban Indian organizations to meet directly with the mayor, city departments, and other city officials in a historic gathering.

While we have different taste in shoes, with Debora often rocking the highest heels imaginable, she has also been known to pull on her signature red tennis shoes when it is time to get to work, and like me, Debora has spent much of her life fighting for equal rights and greater opportunities for women. A champion for women's sports, Debora facilitated bringing the Seattle Storm Center for Basketball Performance to Interbay and successfully advocated for the NHL to include space for girl's hockey. Earlier in her career, as a mother to two young daughters, she breastfed and traveled between Olympia and Seattle every day to care for her family and serve as an adviser to two Governors.

Working with Debora over the years has been an immense privilege, and it is my honor to thank her for her lifetime of dedicated service. I wish her the very best during her well-earned retirement and know that she is looking forward to spending more time with her daughters, Raven and Memphis, and her grandbabies, Yvie and Cyrus.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that, following Senator Menendez, I be recognized for up to 20 minutes prior to the scheduled rollcall vote.

Madam President, we have a lot of work to get done before January 19, the next deadline to pass our funding and avoid a shutdown.

The American people are looking for serious leadership and results, and I come to the floor today to be clear about what the standard for success is here.

We need to pass regular, full-year funding, based on the bipartisan spending agreement from earlier this year, that actually responds to the challenges before us. Anything less means missing critical opportunities and worse.

A ``date-change, full-year CR,'' as proposed by House Speaker Johnson, would be unprecedented and reckless.

Why is that? Well, because the Speaker's proposal would lock in outdated spending plans and devastating across-the-board cuts while locking all of us out of any kind of thoughtful decision-making process for our Nation's future, all of which should be absolutely unacceptable to everyone here.

It is one thing to have a short-term CR so we have additional time to negotiate in good faith and finish passing bills, full-year bills that strengthen our Nation, but it is another thing entirely to do a yearlong CR because we have no intention of doing our job.

We cannot just throw up our hands, act like nothing in the world has changed in the past 12 months, abdicate our responsibility to our constituents, and box in our Nation's future by putting the government on autopilot.

When you put the government on autopilot, without direction or any consideration of changing needs, you are functionally causing year- over-year funding cuts without any rhyme, reason, or recalibration for new and changing priorities, causing huge uncertainties and inefficiencies across our Federal Government and seriously impairing every single one of our Agencies' ability to fulfill their mission and move our country forward. And that, by the way, is all before taking into account the incredibly steep across-the-board cuts that would come into play under this scenario under our Fiscal Responsibility Act.

This runs way deeper than numbers, at best, stagnating on a page and Agencies cutting hard-working staff and crucial services. We are talking about missing opportunities on issues where the clock is ticking, pulling the rug out from our families who are struggling, and undermining our national defense and security in front of the whole world.

I think we all understand now is a dangerous time to signal America's global leadership is faltering, but that is exactly the message a yearlong CR would send: a year of America's military falling behind and a year of our diplomatic and humanitarian efforts falling behind.

When we put our government on autopilot, we are telling the world Congress is asleep at the wheel and incapable of responding to the growing threats of an ever more dangerous world.

In practical terms for defense, as my colleague--the senior Senator from Maine and vice chair of the committee--said here on this floor recently, it means the Pentagon freezing 330 new programs or production increases. It means falling behind in building our ships and our subs and much more and doing so, by the way, at a time when China already has a larger navy.

It means essentially no new progress in our efforts to strengthen our military and diplomatic footprint in the Indo-Pacific so we can forge strong partnerships and deter aggression from the Chinese Government. This is something we devoted significant thought and resources to across our bipartisan spending bills, with new funding for our Indo- Pacific strategy and the Countering PRC Influence Fund, not to mention other global leadership investments like the new Economic Resilience Initiative that will help strengthen our supply chains for critical resources and weaken the financial pressure our competitors can exert on key U.S. partners.

But all that goes out the window with a full-year CR, particularly under the construct that has been proposed by the Speaker of the House, where he would simply change a date and quit--change a date and quit.

Can you imagine a leader, one of the highest ranking officials in this country, if not the world, seriously proposing that as an answer right now?

Under the yearlong CR, we would not have critical funding increases to support our servicemembers, to support their families, from troop readiness essentials like recruitment and training to family support like childcare and barracks, to other projects like the Shipyard Infrastructure Optimization Plan.

I also want to remind our colleagues, a full-year CR would not just hurt our national security, it would be devastating for our families and our communities across the country and our country's future.

When it comes to keeping our economy strong, there are simply too many missed opportunities to even list.

We would lose out increases in bolstering trade and U.S. business competitiveness. We would lose out on strengthening our supply chain and building innovation hubs. We would lose out on research funding for manufacturing; AI; agriculture; clean energy; cures and treatments for cancer, Alzheimer's, and other terrible diseases and a lot more.

We would lose ground in our plans to send Americans back to the Moon, while the Chinese Government is going full speed ahead.

And when it comes to fighting the opioid epidemic, resigning our Nation to a yearlong CR means the increased investments that we did include in our Senate bills to keep fentanyl out of our country by stopping drug cartels and getting help to patients and families won't happen.

Instead, stagnant funding means furloughs at our border and thousands of pounds of illicit drugs reaching our communities.

A CR also will not include any funding to reform cosmetics safety or retirement security or the organ donation and transplant system.

And let's talk about WIC. WIC is the lifeline for moms who need formula, nutritious food, and other essentials to feed their babies. It is at risk of being severely underfunded by a CR.

I grew up in a family who knew what it meant to fall on hard times and have a government that had our backs. I will not let our country pull out the rug from folks in their time of need. But if we put spending on autopilot for the next year, we will be kicking struggling families off benefits and onto wait-lists.

It is not just WIC that is going to see these painful shortfalls that will ultimately hurt families, it is programs that keep families warm in the winter or cool in the summer and safe from extreme temperatures like LIHEAP. It is programs that give people healthcare, like community health centers and the new suicide prevention lifeline. It is programs that make sure families have a roof over their head, rental assistance, affordable housing, homelessness prevention--programs that already can't meet the needs in their communities.

It is the Social Security Administration, for crying out loud. A CR would

force them to reduce hours and lay off staff. You want to call up and sign up for new benefits or see how you can fix a problem? There will be no one to answer you--long wait times.

And let's not forget, it is programs for folks who are trying to improve their situation, get a better job, and further their own career. A CR means no increases for apprenticeship funding, workforce training, or the maximum Pell amount.

What else do parents need if they are going to go to work? I have said it many times, childcare. We are in a childcare crisis, and with a full-year CR, this is only going to go from bad to worse because we will be resigned to across-the-board cuts to our Nation's childcare programs.

And our public schools also will face tight budgets. Kids are still recovering from this pandemic, and we can't afford to provide our schools less funding when our students deserve and need more support. It is that simple.

Look, I have been going on for a while. But the truth is, I have barely scratched the surface on what we will lose with a full-year CR: Increases throughout our bills to support Tribal communities, gone; over a billion dollars for FAA modernization efforts, gone; housing for wildland firefighters, improvements in our rail system, next-generation weather satellites, gone, gone, and gone.

And here is the kicker: I have only been talking so far about half the equation because the Fiscal Responsibility Act would force absolutely devastating across-the-board cuts on virtually all domestic programs that could be as much as nearly 10 percent.

Let's be clear about the damage here. Immediate hiring freezes and furloughs at just about every Agency. Millions of women and kids would lose WIC benefits; wait times at ports of entry would quadruple; wait times for new business permits from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau would increase fivefold; nearly 1,000 fewer full-time food safety inspectors; 2,500 fewer national park employees and less staff and equipment for our Federal firefighters; 5,000 scientists, students, and technical staff no longer receiving research support at our national labs and universities; 130,000 fewer small businesses getting training and counseling from the Small Business Association; nearly 700,000 households losing Federal housing assistance and being pushed toward homelessness; 2\1/2\ million patients across Indian Country hurt by a $235 million cut to the Indian Health Service hospitals and clinics.

And that is the tip of the iceberg. We are talking tens of billions of dollars slashed to programs that keep our country competitive and our economy strong and our families safe and sound. So this is really no run-of-the-mill CR outcome, which would be bad enough as it is.

The bottom line here is this: We have a job to do. We have a job to do. Our constituents expect us to come to work, to listen to them, respond to the challenges in their life, write the bills, solve our problems, and deliver results. At a minimum, they expect us to try--not threaten, as the Speaker is doing, to change a few words and give up.

A long-term CR wouldn't just shut out their voices, it would cede ground to our adversaries, let America fall behind, and cut off vital resources families count on each and every day.

If we want to make sure that America continues to lead; if we want a strong, competitive economy; if we want a safer world; and if we want a real future for our families, we cannot just throw our hands up and hope for the best. We have to come together, do the hard work of governing, hammer out bipartisan spending bills that actually reflect what we think our Nation needs, get back to the bipartisan spending agreement that the House Republicans wanted--actually, getting back to that, they demanded it--and agree that extreme partisan riders have no place in our spending bills.

In the full Senate here, as the Presiding Officer knows, we wrote 12 bipartisan spending bills that follow the full terms of the bipartisan spending agreement, but now we need House Republicans to hold up their end of the bargain. That means sticking to the entire agreement and using the full resources it provides for defense and domestic programs.

We cannot move forward if House Republicans are busy trying to go back on their word, especially for a deal that they pushed for and negotiated in the first place. Let's all remember that House Republicans were the ones who chose to hold the debt limit hostage until they secured this agreement. Let's also remember it was their leader who negotiated this deal directly with the President. They cut this deal. When you negotiate a deal, you don't then bargain over how much of your word you are going to keep. Deals are built on common ground and mutual trust, not shifting sand.

So, Madam President, I will be clear. I am not calling on Republicans to do anything extreme here or anything I wouldn't do myself. I get that no one ever gets everything they want, especially in a divided government. In fact, as I have said many times, I believe the cuts that were enacted by the Fiscal Responsibility Act set us back. But that was the deal. That was the deal we voted on. So, here in the Senate, we did write 12 bipartisan bills to those terms. That is the job. That is what legislating looks like in a divided government.

If we are going to avoid an unnecessary shutdown or an absolutely unacceptable, inflexible, yearlong CR--for the first time ever--we need everyone to get real about just what is at stake if we give up on writing serious, full-year funding bills. And that is just what it is going to take to get that done. So I call on everybody: Let's do our job.

Now, Madam President, I also want to take a few minutes to talk about the supplemental funding package we are going to move to vote on shortly.

The clock is ticking, and the eyes of the world are watching to see how quickly and how completely the United States responds to urgent challenges across the world. We cannot afford delays that tell our adversaries they can just wait us out. We cannot afford half-steps that tell our allies we will only stand by some of them, some of the time. We cannot accept the notion that there is a ``price'' that must be paid in order to stand by our allies. That is why we are voting today to move forward on a bill that would respond to the pressing security challenges. It is past time for Senators to show they appreciate the urgency of this moment.

Now, I have heard some Republicans criticize this package for what is not in it--the extreme, partisan policy changes to our Nation's immigration laws that they have been pushing. Well, here is how I see this: When you have a bill like this one, with funding that is urgently needed for issues that have really broad, bipartisan support, and you face a moment like this, where civilians are suffering, our allies are under attack, our adversaries are watching for signs of weakness, and American leadership and our country's long-term security are on the line, you don't vote down the bill because you weren't able to attach your partisan wish list to it. And you don't tie aid for allies you believe is vital--vital to their safety and security--to passing partisan nonstarters; you work to find consensus and get that aid across the finish line.

Now let's talk about that aid and the funding that is in this bill and why it is so crucial to pass it without delay.

First, this package extends essential support for our allies in Ukraine--something we have been discussing even longer than aid to Israel and have already been forced to delay too many times.

Ukraine has fought bravely to push back Putin's bloody invasion, and our support for their efforts has been indispensable, but it is now-- right now--at a critical juncture. We are about to leave the tank empty while Putin continues his attacks. If you are stopping us from getting this done, you are choosing to leave Ukraine with fewer resources and put Russia in a stronger position. Those are just the plain facts of the matter. This is not hyperbole; that is the military reality on the ground.

Ukraine's success on the battlefield depends on its air defenses, and those defenses depend on U.S.-made interceptor missiles, which they will not get without this package. So if we don't get this done quickly, we will, as just one example, give Russia an opening to potentially destroy Ukrainian air defenses and achieve air superiority.

That would mark a catastrophic turning point in the war, in the region, and in the balance of power between the free world and brutal dictatorships--a U.S. ally weakened, if not beaten, not due to lack of courage on their part but a lack of commitment on ours. That would send a dangerous and disgraceful message to our adversaries and our allies alike about just how serious to take America's commitments.

We cannot let this get pushed off again. We have to send a clear message to dictators: You cannot wait the United States out and trample democracies. We stand firm by our allies. And that is what this package does with aid to Ukraine.

It also includes security assistance for Israel in the aftermath of the horrific Hamas attacks.

The latest activity from Houthi rebels against U.S. forces underscores the importance of supporting our allies and promoting stability in the region.

Critically, this package provides humanitarian aid for Gaza and elsewhere to get the civilians the food, water, medical care, and other essentials they desperately need. This is not just the absolute right thing to do, but it is a key part of combating hopelessness and the extremism that it can breed.

This bill also includes much needed investments in the Indo-Pacific so we can strengthen our allies and bolster our presence in the region and deter our adversaries.

Let's be clear. This bill also does include resources for the border and to stop the flow of fentanyl. If you truly, honestly believe we need to do more on the border, I don't know how you decide to do nothing and think it is better than something substantial.

So let's cut to the chase here. This bill is made up of basic bipartisan priorities--supporting Ukraine, supporting Israel, getting humanitarian assistance to civilians, stopping fentanyl, making commonsense investments to humanely manage our border--and they all have broad support here in the Senate.

So let's take this opportunity, with this vote today, to get things moving, to get onto this bill so we can do the hard work of legislating and debating and considering amendments to it instead of pitting allies and crises against each other as political bargaining chips.

I urge all of my colleagues to vote yes and show they are serious about responding to all the crises before us, and then let's get right back to work in a bipartisan way on our annual spending bills, like I just talked about, and other urgent issues like childcare, because-- let's be clear--this is another crisis that is growing worse every day.

I yield the floor.

I ask for the yeas and nays.