Raphael G. Warnock

Madam President, it is my honor to rise today and give somebody gratitude for my first and, so far, only chief of staff, Mark Libell. Mark was with me from my first days in the Senate.

I have spent my entire adult life in ministry. This was my first public office. So as I made my way to the Senate, I knew that I needed someone who knew his way around here--you can relate--someone who knew where the bathrooms were and who knew how to get things done around here.

Mark was a Senate veteran and well respected by everyone who knew him, and it didn't take me long to understand why. He came to DC as an intern in 2003, and he decided he would intern until he found a job or ran out of money. He clearly was hooked. And if he ran out of money, he planned to pack up his car and return home to Alabama.

Well, luckily for all of us, Mark did not stay an intern for long. He went on to work for my friend Senator Debbie Stabenow, Representatives Bart Gordon and Linda Sanchez, and Senator Jay Rockefeller.

After 10 years working on Capitol Hill, Mark took his talents to the Federal Reserve Board but returned to the Senate a few years later to serve his beloved home State of Alabama as deputy chief of staff and legislative director for my friend Senator Doug Jones.

So when I say Mark knows the Senate, I mean he really knows the Senate. Although he hails from Alabama and everybody knows how serious that rivalry is between Georgia and Alabama football, we have never held that against him. He has seen this place from every angle, he has done just about every job there is to do in a Senator's office, and he has been a major asset to my mission and my work.

That is part of what makes Mark so special, because he saw so many roles. He sees himself in every staffer. He has a deep respect in every role that a person plays in a Senate office no matter their title.

Staff assistants and senior staff alike know that Mark's door is always open. He will make time to offer career advice or to solve a problem. And when staffers walk out of his office, they feel respected, and they feel heard. Most importantly, they feel like someone is in their corner rooting for them to succeed. And on more than one occasion, he has been a confidante and trusted counsel to me.

Mark has the heart of a public servant. He wrote his thesis on Bobby Kennedy. Even in a place as cynical as Washington, DC, Mark is leaving the Senate as much of an idealist as when he arrived over two decades ago. He has always believed in this institution's ability to make a difference in people's lives, and that is why Mark fought for me to keep on the entire casework team from my Republican predecessor and friend, the late Senator Johnny Isakson. That casework team that Mark advocated for has gone on to help nearly 68,000 constituents and is nationally recognized as one of the best casework teams in Congress. They get great things done for Georgians all the time. Because my name is on the door, I get the credit, but they do the work under Mark's leadership.

Mark believed that we could cut child poverty in half, and he helped me to do that when we passed the expanded child tax credit. He believed we could ban private equity from mass-purchasing homes, and we did just that. He believed that we could come together and lower the cost of insulin, and we did just that.

But what I most appreciate about Mark is that he always believes in this country's ability to do better, to be better. That idealism he saw in Bobby Kennedy is very much alive in him.

Mark believed in a country where a State in the old Confederacy could elect its first African-American Senator and first Jewish Senator in one fell swoop and where a kid from Florence, AL, could go on to become one of the most influential staffers serving today in the U.S. Senate.

Because no one achieves anything alone, I would also like to thank Mark's wonderful wife Carrie for the support she has shown to Mark and my entire operation through early mornings and late nights. I would also like to thank his mother Lynn and his brother Adam. I know his father, who about a year ago passed into the light, smiles from someplace in eternity.

While Mark may be leaving the Senate tomorrow, he leaves behind dozens of staffers whom he has inspired with his patriotic idealism that a career in public service is worth it, is worth the sacrifice, that the small wins add up, that they make the difference in the lives of ordinary people, and that our future is brighter when we choose to have faith in one another.

So, Mark, from me, from my staff, and from the people of Georgia, thank you so very much. God bless you and your future endeavors. Keep the faith, and keep looking up.

(Applause.)

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in

the Record this letter from U.S. Trade Representative Greer.

Mr. President, this letter restricts the President's tariff authority under the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act. This is a small but meaningful victory for all Americans who continue to suffer under this President's reckless tariffs.

Let's be clear: Putin is a war criminal, and his war machine must be stopped. But we should not have to choose between putting a check on Putin's aggression and putting a check on this President's tariff regime. That is a false choice, and it is one that I am not willing to accept.

And so I hope, in the coming hours, that we go further during the amendment process. I hope my colleagues will join me in stripping out any new Presidential tariff authorities. These are not normal times. This is not a normal President. If you give him an inch, he will take a mile. We don't have to imagine. We are seeing it in real time. And everyday people, as a result of that, are struggling--struggling to buy groceries, struggling to buy gas, struggling to buy their kids back-to- school supplies. They are the ones who are suffering the consequences of his reckless tariff regime.

But this commitment that we were able to get from Ambassador Greer is meaningful because if the President ignores the law, if he oversteps his power, we will see him in court.

I hope this weeklong process was the first step in Congress reasserting its role and placing guardrails on this President's tariff regime.

I urge my colleagues to go back home and talk to ordinary folks outside of the beltway. They will tell you that while they support any efforts to protect our national security--and that is what this is about. This isn't just about Ukraine. It is about our own national security. But we must do everything to protect our national security, while at the same time bolstering the economic security of everyday Americans.

So as we go back home, ask any parent you meet how much back-to- school shopping cost them this year. I can tell you as the father of two small children, that it is much more than they wanted to spend.

When we come back to Washington, we can fight for those parents and build on this work to check the power of this reckless President.

But I am glad that we have gotten as far as we have on this issue. I would like to thank my friend and brother Senator Cassidy for your partnership in this amendment process, and I would like to thank Senators Shaheen and Blumenthal for their efforts to find a solution and way forward to support Ukraine, to protect our national security and our economic security at the same time.

I yield the floor.