Floor Statements

Mr. President, last night, the Republicans--despite controlling the White House and Congress--shut the government down to avoid addressing their self-inflicted healthcare crisis.

It is another blow to ordinary Americans across this country. In July, Republicans used their majority to jam through Congress the President's so-called ``Big, Beautiful Bill.'' That cruel bill cuts nearly $1 trillion from Medicaid and will rip health insurance away from 10 million Americans. And for what? So the wealthiest Americans can continue to line their pockets.

Now, Republicans seem poised to allow premiums and out-of-pocket costs to skyrocket. That is the Republican agenda: Billionaires win. You lose. If Republicans allow the Affordable Care Act enhanced tax credits to expire, more than 20 million Americans will see their premiums go up and 4 million more will lose coverage altogether. Republicans seem to be fine with ballooning the national debt for tax cuts for the rich, but they draw the line at extending healthcare to millions of American families.

And already, the President is playing the blame game. In the Oval Office yesterday, the President said, ``Well, Democrats want to shut it down.''

We don't. And the American people see right through this. They know Republicans control government and refuse to negotiate. When lines are longer at the airport, when farmers cannot receive their loans, or servicemembers miss a paycheck, that is the fault of Republicans entirely.

Yesterday, too, the President said, ``A lot of good can come from government shutdowns, we can get rid of a lot of things.'' The President is wrong. No good can come from a shutdown. That is why Democrats continue to ask Republicans to negotiate and save healthcare for the American people.

Yesterday, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing entitled: ``Blue City Chaos and Tragedy: How the Trump Administration is Addressing the Human Cost of Soft On Crime Policies.'' Unfortunately, as the title makes clear, this hearing was a partisan attempt to politicize what should be a bipartisan issue: how best to protect the safety of all American communities.

Every American deserves to feel safe, no matter where they live. We must reject these acts of political theater and look at the facts. Over the last two decades, the murder rate in my home State of Illinois has been lower than the murder rates in Missouri, Louisiana, and Alabama-- all States led by Republicans. Ignoring these facts and the tangible success of the crime prevention programs working in cities like Chicago does nothing to make our Nation safer.

Unfortunately, President Trump has done everything he can to undermine efforts that have been effective at

fighting crime, like canceling hundreds of millions of dollars in Federal grants. These critical programs, which have long been supported by members on both sides of the aisle, include: $72 million in funding for State and local law enforcement; $158 million in gun violence prevention grants to cities like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, DC, and Baltimore; and $169 million of community safety funding authorized by the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.

If President Trump were serious about combating crime, he would restore these funds for ongoing joint Federal, State, and local law enforcement operations and crime prevention efforts. Instead, President Trump is deploying and threatening to deploy the National Guard to stroke his ego while falsely claiming he is restoring so-called order in Chicago, Portland, Memphis, and elsewhere. For months now, President Trump has been looking for any excuse to send troops into American communities to flex his power over cities and States he doesn't like.

Just this week, after months of threatening to deploy the Guard to Chicago, the Department of Homeland Security announced that 100 National Guard troops would be deployed there, despite the objections of Governor Pritzker and Mayor Johnson. Let's be clear: This deployment is a dangerous, illegal, and unconstitutional abuse of power by this President.

If anyone has any doubts about just how dangerous this is, they should listen to the speech Trump delivered yesterday to our most senior military leaders. He told them that, ``America is under invasion from within,'' and he joked that he told Secretary Hegseth they ``should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military.'' Trump went on to say that this ``invasion from within'' is ``more difficult in many ways because they don't wear uniforms.''

This is not about reducing crime or fixing our immigration system. This is about targeting those the President deems enemies--including those who exercise their First Amendment right to protest, question his authority when he flouts the law, or come to this country seeking a better life.

Instead of keeping our communities safe, Federal agents in camouflage are masquerading as military in the streets of Chicago, targeting immigrants with no criminal convictions. They are arresting families at Millenium Park. They are reportedly locking families with toddlers in rooms at O'Hare Airport. My constituents do not feel safer. They are afraid to take their children to school, to report crimes, or to go to church.

In Illinois, we have always known that immigrants are our neighbors. And as our neighbors, they deserve better from us than the terror and chaos of this administration. I hope that moving forward, we can come together to discuss and support bipartisan solutions to keep all American communities safe.

Mr. President, we are just hours away from the deadline to fund the Federal Government. This task of funding our government is one of the most important responsibilities vested in Congress.

This is not my first rodeo. I have been through shutdowns before. The last one and one of the longest was in President Trump's first term. So here in the second term comes another government shutdown just 9 months into his Presidency.

Accomplishing this funding of our government requires bipartisan compromise. Do the math. To pass anything of substance in the U.S. Senate, you need 60 votes. There are 53 Republicans and 47 Democrats. You need at least seven Democratic votes to join all the Republicans if you want to have a bipartisan rollcall that passes. So that would suggest to any President and any Member of the majority party that it is a good idea to sit down with the Senators from the other side of the aisle before you reach the shutdown phase of this conversation.

If we fail to fund this government, farmers won't receive their payments and loans they need to stay afloat facing President Trump's tariffs, medical breakthroughs and research will be put on hold, and American servicemembers and thousands of Federal employees across the country will be forced to work without pay. But unfortunately, we have seen little interest on the other side to sit down and talk about it and to reach a compromise. The Republicans control the White House, they control the Senate, they control the House of Representatives, and they have decided the best approach is: Don't negotiate with the Democrats. Give them a ``take it or leave it'' and let's see what happens.

Despite knowing since March that government funding was going to run out tonight, President Donald Trump waited until yesterday--yesterday-- to meet with Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer and House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries. What was he waiting for? He understands the President bears major responsibility if a shutdown takes place.

Think about it. He waited until the day before the government funding deadline to finally sit down and talk to both political parties.

Republican Majority Leader Thune said he is committed to passing appropriations bills through regular order. I agree. I am on the Appropriations Committee. I think we are doing a pretty good job, and we can do better.

We also want to pass government spending bills, but we refuse to rubberstamp President Trump's harmful cuts and reckless actions. Yet, instead of being here to do the work of funding our government, the Republicans in the House are gone. They left Washington last week and don't plan to return until next week. That doesn't help at all.

The House must stop playing political games and come to work so we can actually avoid this shutdown. Republicans must take responsibility for the government they control--the government they control.

White House Republicans are on vacation. Their refusal to prevent a shutdown will ruin millions of Americans' travel plans.

During a shutdown, air traffic controllers and TSA employees work without pay. That is not reassuring. This means delays and longer wait times for travelers at airports across the country, just like the last time President Donald Trump shut down the government in 2018 for 35 long days. It took pressure from the air traffic controllers to finally end that Trump shutdown.

Our aviation system will continue to bear the effects because a shutdown would pause hiring and training programs for air traffic controllers at a time when we should be improving safety.

Does it make you feel more confident to take a flight and realize that that air traffic controller is working without pay or that the testing and training of the air traffic controllers have been delayed because of a shutdown?

So the next time you are sitting in an airport and you see your flight delayed, you can thank those who didn't want to sit down and talk before the shutdown faced us.

Unfortunately, the Trump administration is preparing to weaponize the shutdown and continue their attacks on the Federal workforce. Without any rhyme or reason, they have been chopping off thousands and thousands of Federal employees. Sometimes employees are doing essential work, and they beg them to come back to work. Some do; some don't.

Last week, the Director of the OMB, Russell Vought, sent out a memo stating that any government employee who seeks funding for their role lapse because of a shutdown would be fired if their work does not align with the President's objectives.

They are promising a big shutdown of the Federal workforce. These firings jeopardize progress in Federal Agencies--Agencies already indiscriminately gutted by the Trump administration. The Trump administration has begged fired employees to return to work at Agencies like the National Weather Service and the Department of Energy.

Even Republican Senators--some--agree that government employees are not pawns to be played with during the debate on government funding. These employees and their families deserve a better boss. But the Trump administration apparently doesn't care. They are content to cause continual chaos across the government to score cheap points.

The American people know who is making the government work and who is trying to destroy it. For months, Democrats have been ready and willing to work with Republicans to avoid the awful effects of a shutdown.

Why should the average American care about a shutdown? What import does it have to you and your life and your family? It is basic. It is healthcare. That is what this is about on the Democratic side. We think this is a battle worth fighting.

We face a prospect of some 24 million Americans either losing their health insurance in the next several weeks or seeing dramatic increases in their premium payments. Some will have to get a different insurance policy with higher deductibles. Some won't be able to afford health insurance at all.

Take a look at what the cutback in Medicaid is going to do to hospitals across our country. Illinois is a great State--very diverse, with the beautiful, big city of Chicago and a lot of smaller, rural area towns as well. These rural areas count on hospitals like no other place in our State. They are literally the lifeline. If these hospitals start to close, it not only presents a hardship when it comes to medical care, it hurts the economy of the region. Imagine trying to keep or attract a company to bring their business to your town when you have just lost your hospital.

This cutback in the big, beautiful budget bill of the Trump administration of paying into Medicaid is exactly the wrong thing to do for my home State of Illinois and for most other States. We want to make sure that doesn't happen. We want to stop this cutback in healthcare quality and availability across this country. That is what we are holding out for. It isn't some big, beautiful border wall; it is what American families have to pay for health insurance each month.

You ought to see the numbers if we don't do anything. The so-called ACA tax credits means there is a helping hand for families in income situations where they are eligible to pay for health insurance. The Republicans eliminated this helping hand, and now that the premiums are going to go up, we have already received notice in Illinois of several insurance companies that have gone out of business. It is a problem--a really serious problem--in terms of the cost of premiums for families. So that is what this is about.

Bringing down the government is not a good policy by and large, but neither is cutting the healthcare for 25 million Americans. So that is what we are bringing this issue together on.

Can we have a sitdown with Democrats and Republicans and reach an agreement? Yes, we can. We can start tonight. There is no reason why we shouldn't.

So I hope that my friends on the other side of the aisle will understand that uninsured Americans and Americans with health insurance that they can't afford is a serious hardship for working families. I hope my Republican colleagues will join us in a bipartisan conversation. It is long overdue.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, the Senator from Wyoming is a friend of mine, really. And though we may disagree on some political issues, I greatly respect him and am glad to call him a colleague. But we do disagree on this point that he just made, and it is a very important disagreement because it affects every family in America.

The decision was made, in the big beautiful budget bill by Donald Trump, to cut $1 trillion out of Medicaid. Medicaid is a program which helps people who have limited income have health insurance. It also takes care of your mother and grandmother when they are in the nursing home. It is a critical element of funding healthcare in America, and the Republicans cut $1 trillion out of it.

If you go to the hospitals in Illinois, some of them are great hospitals, others do great things, but you will find that the hospitals that struggle to survive are ones that have more Medicaid patients than paying insurance patients. It is a tougher margin, and many of them worry about it. And the notion of cutting $1 trillion out of this program worries me.

Don't take my word for it. Ask the Illinois Health and Hospital Association or even, if there is one--I am sure there is--the Wyoming Hospital Association what the impact of cutting $1 trillion out of Medicaid reimbursement is going to be: not good, particularly in rural areas.

Senator Barrasso made reference to his situation in Wyoming. In the State of Illinois, we have plenty of these rural hospitals, and if one closes, it means your pregnant wife who goes into labor now has to drive 70 miles instead of 20 for that delivery. I would hate to have to go through that. Yet that is what is going to happen. So the position we are taking is that that kind of cut from Medicaid is going to hurt hospitals and hurt people across America.

Secondly, there is a tax credit available for people in middle-income categories to buy health insurance. It is part of the Affordable Care Act, which was the Barack Obama plan that extended more health insurance coverage to America than we had ever had in our history.

How important is health insurance to you?

I had a personal experience as a law student at Georgetown. I had decided I couldn't wait, and I asked a young lady to marry me, and she did. And my second year in law school, we learned that God was sending us a little baby, and we were so happy about it. And she arrived with her share of difficulties.

I had no health insurance--none. What do you do--as a student with a wife and a baby, and the baby is sick--when you have no health insurance? Well, Children's Hospital here in Washington, DC, brought us into the so-called charity ward, and we waited to see who would walk through the door with the name ``Doctor So-and-so'' to take care of my daughter.

I never felt more inadequate in my life, as a father and a husband, than not having health insurance. We got through it. She got through it too and lived a good life.

But the point was there were moments when I worried that I couldn't provide the basics for my baby because I didn't have health insurance, and 15 million Americans will lose their health insurance because of this Republican budget that I just referred to, the big beautiful budget. Fifteen million will lose health insurance. I wouldn't wish that on anybody.

So when the Democrats say there are healthcare issues that are part of this debate on funding the government, that is what we are talking about, keeping these hospitals open--critical hospitals in the inner city, as well as in rural areas--making sure that people have their health insurance.

And there is one third element I would add that I don't think will be able to be negotiated: medical research.

Did you ever hear of the National Institutes of Health? Why, sure you have. It is the best medical research Agency of any government in the world.

I went to the NIH about 12 years ago and met with Dr. Francis Collins, an amazing man, who was head of the NIH, and I said to him: I really believe in what you do. Your research in cancer and heart disease and so many other things makes a difference. What can I do to help?

Well, he said, thank you for asking. There have been some people who have done remarkable things.

I said: Oh, I remember. There was a bipartisan coalition, a few years back, that doubled the budget in medical research for NIH.

I said: I wish I could say I could do that again, but I don't think I can. What can I do?

He said: Give me and this Agency 5 percent real growth each year in medical research, and we will light up the scoreboard. We are so close--so close--to finding cures and new drugs in so many areas that if you can give us consistent research, it will make a difference.

I came back to the Senate. I sat down with my friends on both sides of the aisle. Roy Blunt, a Republican Senator from Missouri, was a leader in this effort. Lamar Alexander, a Republican Senator from Tennessee, was another leader. And Patty Murray is still serving as head of the Appropriations Committee and is one of the best when it comes to medical research.

We put our heads together, and over the span of 10 years, the budget for NIH medical research went from $30 billion to $48 billion. We got the 5 percent coming every single year. It was quite an achievement: a 60 percent increase in that budget. Things were happening--good news, good developments when it came to cures and treatments. I was so proud of that effort and glad that it was bipartisan from the start.

So what did the Trump budget suggest we do with medical research? Cut it back from $48 billion to $30 billion, where we started 10 years ago. Do you know what happens when you cut back on research that basic? You know what happens, and I do too. When that terrible diagnosis happens at the doctor's office, it breaks your heart. And you finally stop crying, and you say to the doctor: Is there anything you can do? Is there a surgery, a medicine, anything you can do for someone I love very much?

And they say: Well, there is a clinical trial. There is medical research underway. It is a longshot, but you have a chance.

It is hope. Medical research is hope, and it is one of the areas where I think Donald Trump's cuts are the most heartless cuts of all. Democrats care about this. I do. I am willing to fight over it.

I am not willing to say: We will just go on with business as usual. Let's accept this. Let's cut back a trillion dollars out of Medicaid. Let's take 15 million Americans and take away their health insurance. Let's cut back $18 billion of medical research each year. And we will say it is just a clean continuing resolution bill.

That is what we are fighting over. Is it important? For me, it is one of the most important things we can do in terms of helping families across America.

And let me tell you something that is going on, and you should know about it. You will soon, if you are covered by it. Health insurance has tax treatment

that helps you pay the premiums. It makes a dramatic difference. And now, in a matter of days--days--health insurance companies are going to announce what the new premiums are going to be because of the budget bill--the big beautiful budget bill--of President Trump. They are going to go up dramatically. And as these premiums go up, some people won't be able to pay for them, and they will be without health insurance. And others will see their family budget explode with an increased health insurance premium.

That is the reality of this debate. It is not about who gets bragging rights and gets to beat on their chest--Democrat or Republican. In my mind, it is a question of whether families across this country can count on us for the basics, and making sure that healthcare is there for America is one of the basics, as far as I am concerned.

Department of Justice

Mr. President, there is another issue I want to raise that relates to the administration, and you have to go back in history to appreciate it.

Richard Nixon--students of history, of course, know that name--was former Vice President of the United States, former Senator. He was a Senator and a Congressman, Vice President under President Eisenhower, and then President of the United States.

He went through a period we know as Watergate. It was controversial. Some people broke into the Democratic national headquarters. They were caught. They were prosecuted. When it was all over, we had the Watergate investigation, and, ultimately, President Nixon resigned. But before he resigned, he instructed his staff to give him background information on his enemies list, the people that he considered to be his political enemies. And the word was out that they were going to be treated harshly by his administration, whether it was the Department of Justice or the Internal Revenue Service.

Well, we went through that chapter. He resigned. And then Congress came together--Democrats and Republicans--and said: We can never let this happen again. We can't let a President put his finger on somebody and say: That is a political enemy. Go prosecute them. Try to find them guilty of a crime. Make sure they pay a fine. Give them bad publicity.

We agreed, on a bipartisan basis, for standards--between the White House, the Department of Justice, and Congress--when it came to these political decisions that could ultimately result in prosecution.

Well, under President Trump, we are back into the Nixon conversation about the ``enemies list,'' except President Trump's enemies list is longer than anything Richard Nixon ever dreamed of, and that is what we are looking at now.

On September 20, the acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Erik Siebert, announced his resignation. The acting U.S. attorney, appointed by Trump, resigned. Mr. Siebert resisted President Trump's demands to bring charges without sufficient evidence against New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey.

Mr. Siebert, a Republican appointed by Donald Trump just a few weeks ago, stayed true to his oath to the Constitution and his commitment to following the facts and the law, and for that, he was forced to resign his office. In his place, President Trump installed his personal attorney--an attorney with no experience as a prosecutor; never did it before--to indict James Comey in a politically motivated case considered by career prosecutors in that office too weak to bring charges.

This indictment represents the latest step in President Trump's long crusade to weaponize the Federal Government against his perceived political enemies--a return to the days of Richard Nixon.

We remember when the President was initially impeached in the first of his historic two impeachments after he attempted to pressure a foreign ally to dig up dirt against Joe Biden and his family. We remember when President Trump turned a mob of insurrections loose on our Capitol, where they violently attempted to prevent the peaceful transfer of power, leading to his second impeachment.

I will never forget that day as long as I live--January 6. It has been my honor to serve in this Chamber 29 years. I have seen a lot. I am honored to represent a great State like Illinois. But I will never forget that moment when we were sitting here counting the electoral college votes as to what the American people had decided of the next President. Vice President Pence was presiding. We were seated in our chairs. I noticed something unusual: Those two doors opened, and four or five people walked in, up to the Vice President, and literally yanked him out of his chair and took him out the door. We knew there was a political demonstration outside, but all of a sudden, it turned bad and scary and dangerous.

Capitol Police came in and announced to us seated in this Chamber: Stay at your desks. We are going to make this a safe Chamber here in the Capitol. Don't worry about those people demonstrating outside. They are not going to get close to the Chamber. Just stay where you are.

We looked at one another and thought, what is next? Well, what was next was, 10 minutes later, the same policeman came in and said: Leave immediately. Don't take anything with you; just get out of the Chamber. It is too dangerous for you to stay here.

We all--Democrats and Republicans--filed out those doors.

You know what happened next: The insurrections took over this building. It was one of the most embarrassing moments in the history of the U.S. Capitol Building.

Imagine, if you will, for a moment if you heard the news that the House of Commons in Parliament had its door broken down and people raided the chamber. You would say to yourself: What is going on in England, for goodness' sake? The House of Commons taken over by people in the street?

That is exactly what happened here, and it happened on January 6.

So this President, embarrassed by that moment, maybe--who knows if he is ever embarrassed--decided he would go after the people who prosecuted the insurrections, the people who were prosecuted for crimes like beating up policemen.

You all came here today, and we welcome you to this Chamber. The reason you are safe in this building today is a lot of women and men in uniform who are guarding you and me and all of our staff so we can do the people's business.

Those people were under attack by the January 6 insurrections. These were not curious tourists who came here. They ended up beating on these police, and 140 of them were seriously injured.

If you believe it, in his second administration, the President has gone further than Richard Nixon and what he has done before. His political appointees have fired FBI agents and Federal prosecutors who were called on to prosecute the insurrections. He has installed loyalists whose chief qualification is their loyalty to him, not their loyalty to the law or the Constitution.

We recently learned that a top Federal prosecutor in Sacramento was fired after she advised the Border Patrol to comply with a court order. Yes, the Trump administration fired a career prosecutor for following a court order.

Never in the history of our country has a President so brazenly demanded the baseless prosecution of his rivals, and he doesn't even try to conceal it or hide it. He glories in this constitutional outrage.

In a social media post, President Trump issued a command to Attorney General Bondi:

They impeached me twice, and indicted me (5times!), OVER

Mr. President, millions of Americans better check their mailbox over the next week or two. There is some bad news. Letters are being sent by health insurance companies that are trying to give some kind of a warning to these families about what is going to happen to their health insurance premiums because of the big beautiful Trump budget bill.

One family in Illinois tells the story, Leighanne Safford and her husband Lorry. Right now, Leighanne and Lorry pay $278 a month for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. But starting January 1, their monthly premiums--now get this--jump from $278 a month to $1,800 a month, a 550-percent increase--$1,500 more coming out of the paychecks of Lorry and Leighanne.

Why is this happening? Because we have a system, or had a system, that provided subsidies and tax credits to working families so that they could afford their health insurance. However, in the big beautiful budget bill of Donald Trump--passed with every Republican voting for it, every Democrat voting against it--these subsidies and credits started to disappear.

Thanks to President Biden and a Democratic Congress, those credits were there for families that they could count on. Because of the Republican decision with President Trump to give tax breaks to the wealthiest people in America, they cut back on the premium assistance that was available to the Safford family.

These credits had opened the door to millions of working and middle- class Americans like Leighanne and Lorry to be able to afford quality health insurance.

Now they have got to make a choice. This is a lot of money--$1,500 a month. Millions of Americans will decide: Are we going to cut back on essentials like food and dental or switch to a higher deductible plan, more money out-of-pocket if anybody gets sick? Leighanne said:

Right now, we're making a decision based on . . . being

relatively healthy. But, as we all know, with health, it can

change any day.

That is the same bind that millions of Americans are going to face because of the Republican decision to give a tax break to the wealthiest people in America.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, more than 4 million American families are going to lose their health insurance if Congressional Republicans allow these subsidies to expire, and that is what is going to happen if we don't change, including more than 100,000 in my State of Illinois.

It doesn't have to be this way. We can extend these tax credits and still fund government.

I remember a time in this Chamber when Democrats and Republicans came together on a bipartisan basis when real family challenges existed and tried to solve the problem. We just don't have that spirit here anymore. They have decided on the Republican side, we are going to give tax breaks to these wealthy people, even at the expense of working families.

And we have a President hell-bent on abusing his power and a Republican Congress that refuses to disagree with him.

Earlier this year, President Trump and Republicans in Congress signed into law this Big Beautiful Bill. It cuts nearly a trillion dollars from programs like Medicaid. What is Medicaid important for? Limited- income families and retired individuals.

This big beautiful Republican budget bill cuts nearly a trillion dollars from Medicaid and $300 billion from the Food Stamp Program, now known as SNAP.

As a result of their bill, the Republican bill, more than 10 million Americans will lose their health coverage.

Ever had a child who was sick and no health insurance? I have. You will never forget it as long as you live.

This is separate from 4 million others who stand to lose their health coverage if the Republicans continue to block our efforts with the ACA tax credits. It seems Republicans in Congress are fine adding more than 3 trillion to the national debt over the next 10 years to pay for those tax cuts, but they draw the line at extending healthcare to millions of hard-working Americans.

The math is clear. Republicans don't have the votes to force this extreme agenda. Government requires input from both sides. We are taking a stand for this family and millions more just like them. When they get the jolt of the news of where their health insurance premium is going to go, where do they turn? I hope they can turn to Congress and Members of the Senate who actually care for working families. If we refuse to do the job, Leighanne and Lorry are going to pay the price.

Let's be clear, Democrats stand ready to negotiate on a fair bipartisan basis. The only reason we are staring at this shutdown is because Republicans have refused to come to the table.

There was a meeting at the White House today. Don't let it be the last one. Let's come together and fix this healthcare problem for working families.

The President on FOX News said last week: Don't even bother dealing with the Democrats.

Well, the President is wrong. We are in this together. We need to solve this problem together. If the government shuts down, it will be because of President Trump walking away from a major challenge facing working families.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, Paul Harvey was a radio commentator. He used to say ``And now for the rest of the story.''

I would like to respond to my friend from Wyoming's comments he just made on the floor of the Senate. One of the proposals Democrats stand by is to reestablish the tax credit for Americans who are buying their health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. It could be up to 15 million Americans stand to lose their health insurance coverage because of changes in the law on the big beautiful Trump budget bill. Among those who stand to feel hardship, at least, or maybe lose their insurance, are some 60,000 residents of the State of Wyoming.

Last night, Senators came to the floor to discuss this issue of the cost of health insurance, which is going to go up dramatically for many Americans as of the 1st of October. The example was given by Senator Welch of Vermont of an individual making $80,000 a year in the State of Wyoming, which he would see his ACA health insurance premiums go up $3,000, $3,000 a month--$3,000. I doubt that many of us could put that sum on the table without some sacrifice. Many people would end up giving up their health insurance entirely.

This was referred to as a liberal radical idea to protect that tax credit which was taken away by the Republicans in their big beautiful Trump budget bill. I don't think it is radical. If you have ever lived without health insurance and had a sick child in your family, you will never forget it. I have been through that experience. So this notion that this is a radical idea is wrong.

The Senator from Wyoming goes on to say that we are cutting out $50 billion in a special program for hospitals across America. What he doesn't tell you is that that $50 billion was a small lifesaver put in the Big Beautiful Bill because the Republicans voted to eliminate $1 trillion in Medicaid spending, an essential program for small town and rural hospitals. So we restore--in addition to the ACA tax credit, we restored the $1 trillion which was in the Medicaid Program, which will spare many of these hospitals from closing.

So when you look at the specifics of the situation when it comes to healthcare, this really makes a difference. I also want to tell you that the policy, healthcare policy that we currently see with this administration is frightening. Let me tell you a story.

When I was growing up as a little boy in East St. Louis, IL, we were afraid of polio. One of our classmates would go to school healthy in the morning and would be paralyzed before dinner. When I was in the first grade, my friend disappeared for weeks. When I asked where she went, they just shook their heads and said ``Polio.'' When she finally returned, she couldn't walk without leg braces. I will never forget the agony I saw on her face.

For decades, polio ravaged America, killing and paralyzing thousands of people a year and then--and then--a vaccine was discovered. The Salk vaccine was a miracle. By 1979, polio was eradicated in the United States. A disease that struck fear in the heart of everyone soon became--thank God--a distant memory. We repeated that success early this century with diseases like measles and rubella.

Unfortunately, those vaccine victories are now under attack by the Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy, Jr. His actions threaten to reverse 50 years of progress in infectious disease treatment and prevention.

Let me tell you about the chaos that has occurred at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention since Secretary Kennedy was confirmed.

In February, Secretary Kennedy moved to fire--dismiss--more than 1,000 CDC staff members. That is 10 percent of the workforce. This included key members of the Agency's pandemic prevention and laboratory safety staff.

In August, he fired Dr. Susan Monarez from her position as Director of the CDC, despite the fact that she had been nominated by President Trump and confirmed by every Senate Republican just weeks before. Yesterday Dr. Monarez testified before the Senate HELP Committee about the circumstances surrounding her firing, and the revelations in her testimony were deeply, deeply troubling.

Dr. Monarez told the committee that Secretary Kennedy plans to upend our Nation's vaccine recommendation schedules this month. You see, the CDC's vaccine advisory committee meets regularly to make recommendations based on science on what vaccines Americans should receive at various points in their life.

States use these recommendations, professional medical recommendations, to develop guidelines for what vaccines our children should receive. Health insurance companies are required to cover the full cost of the recommended vaccines from this panel. Unfortunately, Secretary Kennedy unilaterally fired all of the members of the CDC Vaccine Advisory Committee, many of whom were infectious disease and vaccine experts. He fired them all. He replaced them with people who have espoused anti-vaccine views and aligned with extreme health- related conspiracy theories.

This new panel is set to meet today, and I fear they are about to upend decades of progress in preventing unnecessary illness by wiping out recommendations and access to childhood vaccines.

Dr. Monarez testified yesterday that she was fired from not preemptively agreeing to rubberstamp these new vaccine formulas absent scientific evidence that changes would warrant.

Think about that. Secretary Kennedy fired President Trump's pick to head the CDC because she insisted that the Agency's vaccine recommendations be actually backed by science.

Many States who see this anti-vaccine movement at the highest levels of our government are taking things to an even further extreme. Florida announced it would end most of its vaccine requirements, and other Republican States are likely to follow suit. The rising vaccine skepticism promoted by Secretary Kennedy and the Trump administration will cause a resurgence in preventable disease across America.

In Texas, two unvaccinated children died from measles earlier this year, the first such deaths in America in 10 years. Louisiana is experiencing its worse whooping cough outbreak in 35 years. More than 30 infants have been hospitalized, and many were not vaccinated with the DTaP vaccine that could have protected them. Tragically, two of these infants have already died.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., will be the first Secretary of HHS with a body count. He is a danger to the children of America. Kennedy's onslaught has targeted more than just vaccines; he and President Trump have spearheaded a historic level of dysfunction at the National Institutes of Health. They have frozen medical research funding and fired scientists and researchers. Think about that. This is going to make America great again--firing medical researchers?

I have been a supporter of the NIH in all the time I have served in Congress. The research gives people hope when they are faced with devastating diagnoses.

For 10 years, I have been part of a bipartisan task force to raise the NIH research budget. In those 10 years, we increased the budget by more than 60 percent, raising it from $30 billion to $48 billion today. But Trump and Kennedy's proposed budgets for next year eliminates this $18 billion increase in medical research. Every penny of the increase I fought for for the last 10 years is gone with this Trump budget. It will mean fewer novel cures and treatments for patients who need them. It will dramatically reduce research into Alzheimer's, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes. They have been suspended because of the Trump- Kennedy cuts.

Does anybody believe that America is greater as a nation with less cancer research? I don't. Patients desperate for cures for horrible conditions like glioblastoma are in agony today because President Trump and Secretary Kennedy canceled the research funding they depend on.

Secretary Kennedy's cuts will stifle a generation of researchers and jeopardize our medical research infrastructure. We will feel the effects of this rash decision for decades to come.

I call on my Republican colleagues to stand up to this public health massacre. Some of the Members are doctors or parents themselves who have vaccinated their kids or spent their careers trying to improve our healthcare system.

My colleagues know that Secretary Kennedy is unqualified, unhinged, and dangerous, and I hope they will find the courage to join me and speak out against the terrible decisions he has fostered. If they don't, I fear there will be dire consequences if we allow Secretary Kennedy to continue to serve in a role where lives are on the line, and he is clearly unqualified.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, today, the Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Immigration held a hearing entitled ``Another Biden Blunder: Missing Unaccompanied Alien Children and Criminal Sponsors.'' I attended this hearing. It certainly begs the question, Why, now that they are in control, are Senate Republicans continuing to focus on the Biden administration instead of examining the policies of this administration?

When I was chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, we held not one but two full committee hearings on the Biden administration's handling of unaccompanied children. It is a legitimate issue. We must do everything in our power to protect these kids, and that requires oversight of policies that are in place now, not stories of history.

Just look at yesterday's oversight hearing with FBI Director Kash Patel. Director Patel deflected my questions relating to his gutting of the unit in the FBI that was investigating something known as the 764 group--an organization the FBI itself described as a ``nihilistic violent extremist'' group that seeks to blackmail children to perform vile acts on camera.

News reports released yesterday noted that nearly every agent on Baltimore's domestic terrorism squad was reassigned this year to work full time on immigration enforcement, forcing them to walk away from investigations of the 764 group.

This change at the FBI is dramatic in counterterrorism, in counterinsurgency--all of these areas where the FBI has expertise--and developed professionals are being told they have a new assignment: Go out and find undocumented people in the United States. There are 11 million of them. In fact, roughly 20 percent of all FBI agents reportedly have been diverted from their critical national security and public safety roles, including protecting children from extremists and traffickers, to work on President Trump's mass deportation effort.

Even worse, the data show that this administration is not focusing its immigration enforcement on the ``worst of the worst,'' as the President says. Instead, they are picking up innocent, law-abiding people.

Just consider the recent raid of the Hyundai Metaplant in Georgia. Hundreds of agents from across the country raided this factory. The agents--many of whom work on priority counterterrorism and drug enforcement cases--did not have experience in low-priority immigration enforcement operations. They ended up arresting hundreds of South Korean nationals who were in the country to install equipment at the plant so that eventually American workers could go to work at that factory.

Now the South Korean Government is investigating human rights abuses during that raid, and construction on the facility is paused at least for another year, maybe two. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau was reportedly forced to express ``deep regret'' over the incident in a meeting with his South Korean counterpart.

I have read some of the news accounts. The South Koreans are livid. Here is our government, begging them to put businesses and factories in the United States, and we raid this and take away 300 South Koreans who were there for the transition on that factory. Some of them were in shackles and handcuffs.

Will the Senator yield for a question?

I would like to ask, through the Chair, a basic question of my friend from Vermont.

You have been involved in politics a few years. So have I. I am trying to understand if I were a Republican Senator who voted for this kind of premium increase for people in my State, more than a handful--a lot of people in my State--how I would explain it. Do you know?

Excuse me, Senator.

When you say it is just about to happen, is it the announcement of the premium or the actual imposition of the premium increase?

Through the Chair, you used an example of Wyoming.

You said 60,000 people in Wyoming.

Well, I was trying to figure out if someone is making $82,000 a year, I think that was your reference point.

And they qualified for the Affordable Care Act health insurance, they currently can receive a subsidy to help with the payments based on their income.

And you are saying the change in the big beautiful Trump budget by our Republican colleagues is going to result in an increase in monthly premiums in Wyoming of a person making $82,000 a year of $3,000 a month?

This is not a casual increase; this is for real.

Let me ask you this question: Since we have the continuing resolution being considered, which would go into effect September 30, if we agree on one, if you took care of this tax credit issue, you could spare that family in Wyoming from a $3,000-a-month addition to their hospitalization premium; is that correct?

Let me ask the Senator from Vermont his own personal experience. Mine was that last year, I decided to replace my knee--my football knee from high school--and my hip, same year.

I started receiving these projected bills and how much I might, personally, owe if I didn't have any health insurance. We are talking about thousands and thousands of dollars. Now, these were basically elective surgeries but much more than the average person has available on hand to pay a bill.

Imagine if instead of an elective surgery, I had, God forbid, broken my leg, ended up in the emergency room, and needed help with surgery when it was all over. The net result of it is a bill which most families would struggle to pay if they had no health insurance protection.

This seems like the reality of the situation. It is your money or your life is the Republican proposal. We are either going to have you pay $3,000 or more a month in premiums or you are going to have to gut it out and hope you don't get sick or don't have an accident that could cost thousands and thousands of dollars.

I thank the Senator from Vermont as well as the Senator from New Hampshire for organizing this block. I am going just say that people have contacted me from Illinois and are scared to death about what is going to happen on October 1. This big beautiful budget bill of President Donald Trump, unfortunately, is not going to extend the tax credits available to reduce premium costs. Families are asking me: How in the world, Senator, are we supposed to pay these increased costs of thousands of dollars each month?

I don't have an answer for them, but the Senate has the answer. The Senate can change that. We can restore this tax credit. There are a lot of priorities for a lot of people, but I will tell you, if you have ever lived without health insurance, you understand it is a basic priority.

You never know tomorrow what you are going to end up paying in a medical bill, and if you aren't prepared for it, it can wipe out your savings in no time flat.

I just want to thank my colleagues from Vermont and New Hampshire for organizing this floor block.

Access to healthcare is one of the most important issues facing Americans today, and it is an issue near and dear to my heart--because I know what it is like to live without health insurance.

I will never forget being the father of a new baby, who had a serious medical condition but I didn't have any health insurance. I never felt more helpless than I did in that moment. It is a terrible feeling and something I do not wish on anybody.

Unfortunately, Republicans in Congress are preparing to subject millions of Americans to the stress-filled, sleepless nights, that come from knowing your family does not have health insurance. If Congress fails to renew the Affordable Care Act's enhanced premium tax credits before the end of this year, the cost of health insurance will spike for almost every American who relies on an ACA Marketplace plan. Increased premiums will create financial hardship for middle-income families across the Nation and cause millions of Americans to lose their health insurance.

There has been a lot of confusion surrounding these tax credits, and I want to make clear who is at risk of being affected by these cuts. More than 90 percent of families with a Marketplace plan receive the ACA's premium tax credits to lower their monthly premiums. That is 22 million Americans who rely on these tax credits to afford healthcare.

Without these subsidies, 22 million people will see the cost of their insurance premiums rise rapidly. For most families, the cost will skyrocket 75 percent. That means that a family of four making only $32,150 a year will see a nearly $400 annual increase in their healthcare costs. A family earning $64,300 will see their premiums rise to $905 a year from $180--more than a 400-percent increase.

The imminent expiration of these tax credits, combined with the devastating Medicaid cuts passed earlier this year by Republicans, will devastate families of limited means and hospitals. The increase in premiums will be too much to bear for many families. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that if the ACA credits expire, 4 million people will become uninsured. And that is in addition to the more than 10 million set to lose their healthcare as a result of the so-called ``One Big Beautiful Bill's'' Medicaid cuts.

Last night, on the Senate Floor, I shared two messages my office received from Illinois constituents who are terrified about the upcoming tax credit expiration. The first message was from Kristen, from Rochester. She is a freelance writer, who has recently been diagnosed with a long-term degenerative disease. She said, ``I depend on the ACA Marketplace for insurance. Without it, one of my multiple medications could cost $7,500. Without these subsidies, I would be unable to cover the cost of my care.''

The second message was from Zach. He is a small business owner and father of four from Highland. Zach wrote, ``The Affordable Care Act has been a lifesaver for my family. It would ruin us if we lost the benefits from the Affordable Care Act. It would ruin us economically and physically if we lost these big, beautiful benefits from the ACA.''

These are real stories, from real people, who will be affected by the callous inaction of my Republican colleagues. But Kristen and Zach are not the only ones who are living in fear because of the upcoming expiration of these tax credits.

Melanie, from Elmhurst, wrote to my office and said, ``Without the tax credit my monthly payment is unaffordable, plain and simple.''

Vivien, from Evanston, emphasized that ``We cannot go back to the years when millions of Americans could not afford to get insurance.''

I could not have said it better. The end of the year is approaching, and my colleagues from the other side of the aisle seem uninterested in extending these lifesaving healthcare subsidies for Americans in red, blue, and purple States. I am calling on my colleagues, both Democrats and Republicans, to come together on a bipartisan basis to extend these subsidies and offer families some financial relief.

Senate and House Democrats will soon introduce a bill that would keep the government open and permanently extend these tax credits. We can do both. And we should do both. I ask my Republican colleagues to join us in these efforts. In doing so, I am reminded of something my former boss, the late Senator Paul Douglas, said after the creation of Medicare and Medicaid. He said, ``We will indulge in no comments about those who came at the 11th hour to the support of the measure . . . All can share in the thrill of victory. We merely ask that we all work together to make this measure a success.''

I hope my colleagues will heed his words and protect the tax credits that so many Americans rely on to afford their healthcare.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, last week, the world witnessed an unprovoked violation of NATO airspace by Russia. Nearly 20 Russian drones entered Polish airspace, some traveling up to 300 miles in the country. For nearly 6 hours, NATO aircraft sought out and destroyed these Russian intruders.

Then this weekend, fighter jets intercepted another Russian drone that entered NATO airspace--in this case, Romania.

The EU's chief diplomat Kaja Kallas promptly said of the recent incident: ``The violation of Romanian airspace by Russian drones is another unacceptable breach of an EU member's state sovereignty. This continued reckless escalation threatens regional security.''

I couldn't agree more. With such brazen testing of NATO defenses, one would expect our leader, the President of the United States, to make a similar condemnation and reaffirm the alliance's formidable defensive capabilities.

But the response from President Trump has been silence or bizarre musings saying maybe it was just a mistake by Russia. After months of Russian President Putin ignoring Trump's deadlines for negotiations to end the war in Ukraine, he is once again letting Putin embarrass him on a global stage.

Can anyone here imagine Ronald Reagan being played over and over again by the Russians like this? How about John McCain? How about the Republican Party before Trump, which has sat quietly month after month afraid to speak the truth about Vladimir Putin?

Is there anyone in this Chamber who would argue with a straight face that a Democratic President repeatedly kowtowing to Russian aggression wouldn't be met with howls of criticism?

So let me say this once again to President Trump: I don't fault you for trying to negotiate an end to this horrific war in Ukraine, but it has been clear for some time to everyone that Mr. Putin is not serious about your overtures.

In fact, he has repeatedly responded with embarrassingly clear replies. What did he do when we told him we wanted peace in Ukraine? He increased bombing. He violated NATO airspace. He teamed up with other global despots in acts of sabotage and mayhem all across Europe.

I urge President Trump to finally see Putin for the person he is and what he is doing to America's reputation and the President's own personal legacy. And we in Congress should finally move this week to pass the Russian sanctions bill, which I understand has 85 cosponsors. It is long overdue. Let's do it.

Mr. President, there are life experiences which you carry for the rest of your life because they are so meaningful and change the course of your life.

I will never forget what it was like to be the father of our new baby when she had a serious medical condition and I had no health insurance. I never felt more helpless than I did at that moment. It is a terrible feeling I wouldn't wish on anybody. That experience comes to mind when I think about healthcare. I thought about it when we passed the Affordable Care Act in 2010 and again when we expanded the ACA premier tax credit in 2021 and 2022, making insurance more affordable for tens of millions of Americans. We set a record.

There were more Americans covered by health insurance as a result of those actions than ever in our history. Unfortunately, my Republican colleagues are preparing to subject millions of Americans to the stress-filled sleepless nights as part of heading up a family when you have no health insurance.

At the end of this year, the ACA's enhanced premium tax credits will expire. If they are not renewed, insurance premiums will spike across the country for the people least likely to be able to pay, and millions and millions of Americans will lose their healthcare.

These tax credits subsidize the price of healthcare for lower and middle-income families, ensuring that premiums for marketplace health plans never exceed 8.5 percent of the families' income. This cap on premiums makes healthcare affordable for millions of Americans. Some only have to pay as little as $10 a month for coverage; others pay almost nothing.

Since the creation of these enhanced tax credits, the number of Americans enrolled in ACA plans has almost doubled, from 11.4 million in 2020 to 24.3 million in 2024. These credits are especially important for people living in small towns, as they often have few options and higher insurance premiums. The expiration of these tax credits as part of the so-called Big Beautiful Bill will devastate families of limited means and threaten the existence of hospitals all across the country, including in my State of Illinois. The people who run these hospitals in small towns, which are absolutely critical for healthcare, for the local economy, are bracing for the Medicaid cuts that are coming, again as part of the Republican Big Beautiful Bill.

If Republicans allow these tax credits to expire, insurance premiums are going to skyrocket by more than 75 percent for most marketplace plans. In Illinois, a family of four making $126,000 can see their annual premiums increase by $7,500. A couple making $82,000 can see more than a $17,000 increase. These price increases can be too much to bear for many families who are already dealing with some of the impacts of the tariff policies.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that 4 million people will become uninsured because of the ACA credit expiration. That is 4 million people who won't know if they will be able to afford a hospital bill if their child has an injury; 4 million people who might have to forego a doctor's visit because they can't afford it. Millions of people might be forced to put off a dentist visit because they lost their healthcare.

The expiration of these health insurance subsidies will be devastating for families across America in red States and blue States alike, and it will deal yet another blow to the American public who were promised by this President that he will bring down their cost of living.

I had two of my constituents contact me about this issue, Kristin from Rochester, IL, just outside Springfield said:

As a previously very healthy person recently diagnosed with

a long-term degenerative disease, health care is at the top

of my mind.

Without health insurance, one of my multiple medications

would cost $7500. I will likely be on that or something

similar for the rest of my life.

I'm a freelance writer--

She writes--

so I depend on the ACA marketplace for insurance. Without

those subsidies, I would be unable to cover the cost of my

care.

And Zachary from Highland, IL, in Madison County near St. Louis writes:

Please do everything you can to protect the Affordable Care

Act. It has been a lifesaver for my family.

We have four children and starting our own business is not

easy when factoring in healthcare costs.

It would ruin us if we lost the benefits from the

[Affordable Care Act]. It would ruin us economically and

physically if we lost these big beautiful benefits from the

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