Floor Statements

Madam President, if the motion for the Senate to adjourn with pro forma sessions scheduled until September 14 would have been a recorded rollcall vote, I would have voted no.

First off, I rise to recognize all my colleagues that have spoken about the importance of disaster relief, and I think we all want to make sure we help our States. Right now, I rise in support of the Doug LaMalfa Federal Disaster Tax Relief Certainty Act.

Florida is no stranger to natural disasters. As we speak, we are in the middle of hurricane season, which started June 1. When I was Governor, I wanted Florida to be the national model for disaster relief. We prioritized preparedness, safety, and quick action. But once the storms pass, you know, like anyplace else, Florida is in the same position. Floridians had to rebuild. Families lost homes. Some lost everything they had.

When you are in that position, one of the worst moments of your entire life, you shouldn't have to worry about a rising tax bill. That is why I helped lead this bipartisan bill and previous bills to provide not just Floridians but all Americans all across this country tax relief after disaster strikes, including Texans and Oregonians.

Our citizens need certainty when they are piecing their lives back together; they don't need the government taking a cut of the money they need. This bill just gives certainty of necessary tax relief to victims of natural disasters so they can focus on getting back on track and not worrying about the IRS.

This bill is very critical to my State, but it is also about more than hurricanes. It is not just about hurricanes; this bill helps families affected by all natural disasters, including wildfires, tornadoes, earthquakes, and any other scenario that can be declared a Federal disaster.

It is good for the entire country. It is a bipartisan bill, and it is a tribute to Doug LaMalfa, who passed away earlier this year.

This passed the House unanimously earlier this year, so if we pass this today, it will become law.

Americans don't need extra worries when the worst happens, and we shouldn't be an obstacle to their recovery. By passing this bill, we will make it easier to rebuild the American dream when hardships strike.

I am not going to give up. I look forward to continuing to work with my colleagues, including with my friend from Texas, to get this bill across the finish line for every Floridian and every American. I recognize the issue he is dealing with, and I look forward to working with him to try to solve the issues Texans are looking at right now.

I yield the floor

Madam President, I rise on behalf of all Floridians to recognize the 100th anniversary of the city of Miami Springs, FL, and to celebrate a century of its community. Since its incorporation on August 23, 1926, Miami Springs has grown from one of Florida's first communities, founded by aviation pioneer Glenn Hammond Curtiss, into a city with deep roots. For 100 years, Miami Springs has helped shape south Florida's aviation industry while preserving the history, landmarks, and strong community that make the city special. As Miami Springs celebrates

its centennial, I join my fellow Floridians in congratulating the city on this remarkable milestone and commend its residents for their contributions to the prosperity and history of the State of Florida and the United States.

Mr. President, I rise today to ask unanimous consent to pass the SAFE KIDS Act. I want to thank my colleagues who have joined me in this effort as cosponsors: Senators Lee, Blackburn, Banks, Sullivan, Ricketts, Lummis, Budd, Rounds, Kennedy, Moody, and Sheehy.

This bill is real simple. It is about protecting the integrity of American citizenship. It is also about our protecting children from exploitation and trafficking, and it is about closing a dangerous loophole that our foreign adversaries are using to undermine our national security right now.

To be an American citizen is one of the greatest privileges in the world. It is a sacred covenant between an individual and our Nation. It comes with rights, privileges, and immunities that people around the world would do anything to have. It also comes with the responsibility to protect and defend those liberties for future generations.

Right now, our Nation is vulnerable because foreign adversaries have found a backdoor around our immigration laws. Right now, citizens of foreign adversarial nations can have children born on American soil and as citizens through surrogacy. They actually never have to come into our country. Think about how insane this is.

Under the current system, a foreign adversary could arrange a surrogacy contract to have a child born in America and be given all the privileges of being counted as one of us. Then they can take that child back to their home country and raise that child under the influence of a regime that hates America. It is getting all the perks of American citizenship without any responsibility. It is taking a future voter and raising them in a country that wants to destroy our way of life. We can't let that happen.

Think about the Ayatollah in Iran. He could arrange a contract with an American surrogate. The child could get American citizenship at birth, be taken back to Iran, and be raised by a regime that chants ``Death to America.'' Then, years later, that child could come back to the United States as an American citizen.

That is not some farfetched, science fiction scenario; it is exactly the kind of vulnerability our foreign adversaries look for. The Chinese Communist Party has already demonstrated that it will exploit every weakness in our laws and institutions to advance its interest. Recent reporting has exposed disturbing examples of wealthy Chinese nationals exploiting American surrogacy arrangements to father more than 100 children born in the United States.

We should be asking: What happens to these children? Who raises them? What are they taught. What country are they taught to love? And what happens when they are old enough to return to the United States? Could they attend our universities? Could they serve in our military? Could they receive security clearances? Could they run for President? These are real questions and a real vulnerability we face if we don't act today.

We should not be creating a pipeline through which foreign adversaries can exploit American citizenship, raise American citizens under hostile, foreign influence, and potentially bring them back into our country as Americans.

But this is about more than national security; it is about children. We have already seen the heartbreaking consequences when an international surrogacy arrangement goes wrong. I have seen it right here in my own State.

A recent dispute in St. Augustine, FL--it is hard to believe-- involving a surrogate mother fighting for paternal rights demonstrates the devastating legal and emotional consequences when kids are treated like this. Kyla Simpson had triplets almost 2 years ago. Now she is fighting her way through court for custody of them because the Chinese national on the surrogacy contract didn't show up.

Let me make sure I tell you how this bill works, what it does and doesn't do. It doesn't ban surrogacy. It doesn't ban IVF. It doesn't take away women's rights. It doesn't interfere with Americans who use surrogacy or IVF to build their families. These are all separate debates. This bill is very narrow. It is focused on commercial surrogacy arrangements involving our country's most dangerous foreign enemies. This is about preventing hostile foreign regimes from exploiting legal loopholes to obtain American-born children.

My SAFE KIDS Act would do two simple things: It would invalidate commercial surrogacy contracts involving designated foreign adversaries, including China, Iran, Russia, and North Korea. Second, it would create a misdemeanor penalty for any broker who knowingly facilitates one of these prohibited arrangements. The way surrogacy works, there are groups that organize surrogacy contracts.

I cannot imagine why any Senator would oppose closing this loophole. Every Senator in this Chamber should be alarmed that this is currently possible under our laws. We should not wait for communist China, Iran, Russia, or North Korea to further exploit the vulnerability before we close it.

American citizenship cannot be bought. American children are not commodities. You do not need to be born here to be an American, but you do have to love what we have built. And we should never allow our foreign adversaries to turn our laws into weapons against the American people.

I urge my colleagues to support the SAFE KIDS Act.

Mr. President, as if in legislative session and notwithstanding rule XXII, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on the Judiciary be discharged from further consideration of S. 3101 and the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration. Further, I ask that the bill be read a third time and passed

and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. President, so first off, I appreciate the comments from my colleague from Illinois. I look forward to working with him to try to solve this.

Let's remember what this is about. This is not about IVF. IVF has been a very positive experience for my family. It doesn't impact a surrogacy for an American citizen.

Actually, surrogacy has impacted my family and friends, so those are important opportunities for Americans to have children.

What this bill says, though, is if you are a national from people that want to destroy our way of life, you could be Xi in China, you could be Putin in Russia, you could be Kim Jong Un in North Korea, you could be the Ayatollah, you will not have the right to have a child in this country by surrogacy. They don't even have to show up in this country, and they could have a child. Why would they do that when they could do it in their own country? It doesn't make any sense to me.

So this is a problem. We need to resolve it. It has been a problem in this country. It has been a problem in my home State, and I look forward to working with my colleague from Illinois to solve it.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, reserving the right to object.

Mr. President, at a time when we are seeing the Democrat Party embrace the hellish evils of socialism and ideologies that hate the founding ideals of America, Democrats are hoping to pass a resolution to direct this Chamber to sue the President of the United States on a very false premise.

The emoluments clause reads:

No title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States.

I don't think that is happening.

And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under

them, shall, without the consent of the Congress, accept of

any present, Emolument, Office, or Title of any kind

[whatsoever], from any King, Prince, or foreign State.

Now, the obvious answer is that these accusations by my colleague do not support the constitutional threshold of an emolument, and my Democrat colleagues are just playing politics.

This resolution seeks to authorize litigation rather than legislation.

This issue has already been litigated, and, as my colleague said, they lost. The Democrats just like don't like the answer.

Now, the President isn't taking a plane or any gifts for personal use, and the United States has long accepted diplomatic gifts pursuant to Federal law, with such gifts generally becoming property of the United States rather than any individual officeholder.

Now, what is going on here is the Democrats are putting their hatred for President Trump before the law. But aside from the obvious facts, this is the agenda Democrats want from this Chamber. They don't want to fund government; they want to shut it down.

They walked away from government funding negotiations. They don't want to secure elections. They want systematic fraud because it benefits their elected incumbents.

Department of Homeland Security just found 278,000 noncitizens on voter rolls for Federal elections. Are Democrats talking about that?

Just last week, President Trump exposed foreign adversaries like China and Cuba for interfering in our elections. Did my Democratic colleagues talk about that?

Leader Schumer responded to the facts about voter fraud by declaring the SAVE America Act, an election security bill--even though Democrats, Republicans, Independents all across the country believe in it--said it is ``dead on arrival.''

Unfortunately, my Democratic colleagues don't want fixes; they want to ignore the fraud because it benefits them.

They are trying to distract the American people with platitudes while they defraud them of their vote.

Have you looked at what Olive Garden is doing, OK? You can buy a pasta pass--an unlimited pasta pass, but guess what you have to do? You have to show an ID. So Olive Garden has a voter ID, but my Democratic colleagues don't want to do it for Federal elections.

This bill proves that the Democrats' goal right now is to attack President Trump instead of fixing problems Americans expect us to deal with. They don't want to reduce the cost of living, lower inflation, balance the budget. They do want to tax working Americans so they can spend more of it on special interests and run bigger deficits--already spending $2 trillion in deficits.

They want to use the Senate's time--the precious time we have--to attack President Trump by twisting the words of the Constitution.

The resolution is moot. The accusations: Purely political. We all know it is political. It is a waste of time. And this Chamber only works 2-and-a-half days a week. I think we need to spend every time doing something like pass the SAVE America Act, fund our government, lower the debt, lower the deficit. Unfortunately, my Democratic colleagues aren't coming to the table.

Why don't we spend some time on real issues rather than attacking the President?

For those reasons, I object to passage of this resolution and hope my colleagues can reject the anti-American socialists capturing the Democratic Party before it is too late for all of us.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I welcome my colleague from Oklahoma and thank him. I completely agree with his ideas. We have got to get energy production increased in this country and drive down the prices for all consumers.

Unanimous Consent Request--S. 3857

Mr. President, I rise today to seek the passage of my One Nation, One Visa Policy Act.

Imagine if every State in the Union, on a whim, had the power to allow foreign nationals to travel to their States without a visa. In other words, imagine if American States allowed anyone, from anywhere, for any reason, to access American sovereign territory--even those from adversarial countries; that you could do it in any State. Most Americans would say that that would be an insane policy, and they would be absolutely right. Florida can't set its own visa policies, neither can, you know, New Mexico, Texas, California, or New York. That would be chaos, and it would make our immigration system meaningless.

Currently, the only place in the United States where visa-free travel from foreign countries is allowed--the only place--is in the Mariana Islands, a territory. It is in this small U.S. Pacific island territory where foreign nationals can legally enter America without having a visa.

Since 2009, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, or CNMI, has become a hotbed for birth tourism, which is a strategy used by citizens of foreign powers to deliberately undermine our Nation's immigration laws. Over 3,300 communist Chinese nationals have been born on these islands except they are also bona fide American citizens. They have passports, birth certificates, and Social Security cards. Keep in mind this is a territory where only 45,000 Americans live. The CCP and Chinese civilians found this loophole and have exploited it for birthright citizenship. You can be a full-fledged devotee of the CCP-- you can actually hate America and hate our people and hate our way of life--and still abuse birth tourism to get a foothold in the country you seek to undermine and destroy.

Now, come on. That is ridiculous. It all needs to end now.

All the One Nation, One Visa Policy Act does is stop this visa-free travel from communist China to the United States. It doesn't ban travel from China--you can still come--but it says: If you are a citizen from China, which is our foremost adversary, you have got to get a visa. We have got to know who you are if you want to enter my State, any of our States, or any other sovereign territory of our country. You have got to get a visa if you are from communist China. It is common sense.

I am grateful to Secretary Mullin, who, while a U.S. Senator, signed on to my letter to then-Secretary Noem that called for an end to China's participation in any Chinese visa waiver program.

As Secretary Mullin continues to work to end China's visa-free privilege, I hope the United States Senate can offer the administration the support it deserves by passing this legislation immediately.

I would also like to thank my friends, Senators Lee, McCormick, Budd, and Lankford, for cosponsoring this legislation.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on the Judiciary be discharged from further consideration of S. 3857 and that the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration. I further ask that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. President, I recognize my colleague. We both are in the same position. We don't want to do anything that absolutely hurts the economy of the CNMI, but at the same time, we have got to figure this out to make sure that we don't have birth tourism.

So I look forward to working with my colleague in a constructive manner to make sure that, you know, the Communist Party of China does not abuse this so as to have birth tourism there.

Mr. President, reserving the right to object.

The only reason we are standing here and having this debate in the first place is because Democrats in administration after administration repeatedly weaponized the Federal Government against their political opponents and the American people. That is the entire reason this fund was proposed.

Weaponization of government by the Democratic administration is the entire reason for the lawsuit, and my Democrat colleagues could not distract from that fact by pretending to care about fiscal responsibility or the cost of living.

Democrats and Republicans in Congress running massive deficits is why the cost of living has skyrocketed.

Look at what the Democrats did when they controlled government under the Biden administration. Inflation hit 9 percent. At the same time, they weaponized the government.

I, unfortunately, have seen it firsthand. Democrats weaponized the government over the past three Democratic administrations. Under the Clinton administration, my company was illegally targeted by our government because I dared to stand up against ``Hillary care.''

Under the Obama administration, we saw conservative nonprofits targeted by the IRS to sabotage their mission to oppose the Obama machine.

Under the Biden administration, I was surveilled again illegally. My tax

returns were stolen and leaked to the public. Did the Biden administration do anything about it? Absolutely not. I was spied on after January 6. Democrats weaponized the government to target me and people like me. Not one person has ever been held accountable, and now they want to object to compensating victims.

How about Democrats apologize to people whose doors they beat down, whose information they stole, whose privacy they violated, and whose lives they ruined?

What about Scott Smith, a father just miles from this Chamber in Loudoun County who was targeted by the FBI because he demanded accountability from the school board after his daughter was sexually assaulted at school and the school board tried to cover it up.

How about Joe Robertson, a 77-year-old Montana Navy veteran--a veteran--who was fined $130,000 and sentenced to 18 months in prison for building a pond in his remote property to fight forest fires because the government would not do its job to keep his family safe?

What about the specific religious groups that were targeted? Catholics were singled out by the Biden administration as potential domestic terror threats for living their beliefs. Mark Houck, a father of seven kids and pro-life activist was targeted and publicly arrested for his protests. His home was raided, he was dragged through Federal court, and he faced trumped-up charges for the crime of living his Catholic faith.

DOJ data shows that they weaponized the FACE Act for decades to throw the book at pro-lifers who expressed their First Amendment rights.

I think any government that has the power to villainize one specific religious group or belief is a serious problem that precedes disaster. That is why back in my home State I am fighting against self-proclaimed Nazis like Kanye West for performing in my State using public dollars and facilities.

It is clear from DOJ evidence that the Biden administration weaponized the government. Meanwhile, Members of this body gave themselves the power to sue over being surveilled in Arctic Frost, yet Democrats don't want to extend that remedy to the American people they serve.

If the Democrats want lower costs for American families, they should look at how Congress spends money. Congress is spending $2 trillion--$2 trillion--more than we take in year after year.

If you spend more money than you take in, in government, it causes the cost of living to increase. Has a single Democrat acknowledged a problem with that? No.

Democrats walked away from this year's appropriations negotiations because Republicans refused to run the outrageous deficits Democrats want to continue to force onto the backs of the American people. Do my Democrat colleagues know what that deficit spending does? It fuels inflation, which makes your dollar buy less and less and forces prices higher.

Still my Democrat colleagues just want to spend and spend and spend. I am a victim of weaponized government. The American people are victims of weaponized government. A lot of them need to be made whole as best as we can.

If my Democratic colleagues want to decrease spending to lower the cost of living, great, me too. Let's balance the budget. We all have to do it in our homes. Let's go find some wasteful earmarks and fraudulent programs to cut. We know they are there. Thousands are there. These bills are nothing more than a bad-faith attempt to slander Republicans because the Democrats want to deflect from their own documented history of corruption and weaponization.

I absolutely object.

Mr. President, in my lifetime, the cost of healthcare for a family of four has gone from $700 a year to over $25,000. ObamaCare, which my Democratic colleagues all supported, was supposed to reduce family healthcare costs by $2,500. If that was true, we wouldn't be worried here about healthcare costs, would we? If you look at the cost of a new car in my lifetime it has gone from 16, 1,700 bucks. I think the minimum new car is probably $20,000.

If you look at the cost of housing, it just came out that in 242 cities in this country, the starter home is a million dollars. Now, what has caused all this? Government. Bigger and bigger government, more and more regulations. There is a study that just came out that said the Federal regulations I think it costs $3 trillion a year, something like $15,000 per family.

So if my Democratic colleagues actually really cared about the cost of living, they would stop passing bills that would have more and more regulation and stop running $2 trillion deficits.

Now, as I already said, what we are talking about in these bills are nothing more than a bad-faith attempt to slander Republicans because Democrats want to deflect from their own documented history of corruption and weaponization by Democratic administrations.

This is a history of targeting everyday Republicans, congressional opponents, Catholics, Christians, pro-life groups, gun owners, military officers that don't adhere to leftwing politics, parents standing up for their kids and challenging school boards, veterans working on their private property, farmers challenging our DC bureaucrats, and any American that fails to pay tribute to the tyrants of their administrative state.

Therefore, I object.

Mr. President, reserving the right to object.

So it is interesting that, you know, my Democratic colleague cares about law enforcement. In the last, what, year and a half, in this last year and a half--what--the government has been shut down three times, so all the Federal Government wasn't paid.

I never heard my Democratic colleagues that that didn't bother them then. Look at what we just finished. Federal law enforcement, ICE, and CBP weren't paid. They shut down the government this whole year. They had no interest in funding Homeland Security.

So these bills are nothing more than a bad-faith attempt to slander Republicans because the Democrats want to deflect from their own documented history of Democrat administrations' corruption and weaponization.

Let's remember: Democrat administrations have targeted everyday Republicans, congressional opponents, Catholics, Christians, pro-life groups, gun owners, military officers, parents standing up for their kids--I just can't imagine--parents standing up for their kids and challenging school boards, veterans working on their own private property, farmers challenging the power of DC bureaucrats, and any American that fails to pay tribute to the tyrants of the Democrat administrative state.

Therefore, I object.

Mr. President, first off, there is no fund. So we are talking about a fund that has never been created. And then we are talking about how the Democrats supposedly care about the cost of living when everything they do raises the cost of living--everything.

Government is your problem. If you have a cost-of-living problem, government did it to you. If your education costs are high, government did that to you. When I went to school, junior college was 200 bucks a semester. I went there because college was $250; the university was $255. Government did that. Look at what it is now--thousands and thousands of dollars. People end up with debt. When I went to school, people didn't end up with debt.

Government has done all this. Government has caused the cost of living to be high. There is no fund. We are talking about a fund that has never been created, and we are talking about the cost of living that is caused by Big Government.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I rise today and ask the Senate to pass my resolution, S. Res. 444, a resolution condemning the dictator and General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Xi Jinping.

There is no greater threat to America's way of life and peace and prosperity in the world than Xi Jinping and the CCP. Xi Jinping hates us. Communist China wants to destroy us. He is not a partner. He is not a competitor. He is a brutal dictator leading a criminal organization that lies, cheats, steals, exploits slave labor, and commits genocide and crimes against humanity on an industrial scale.

Don't take my word for it. Let's look at what he has done. He and his Communist Party lied about the origins of COVID, and they keep lying about it. They used the World Health Organization to spread lies while over a million Americans died. And their incompetent and malicious response to COVID isn't the only way communist China killed Americans.

Their unwillingness for years to completely curb the export of fentanyl precursors is directly responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of our fellow citizens.

Where communist China hasn't killed, it cheated. For decades, they have cheated on trade, causing millions of Americans to lose their jobs.

Communist China's currency manipulation continues to threaten our economy and destabilize the world global order, as well as their hundreds of billions of dollars' worth of intellectual property theft.

They don't treat other countries any better. In one egregious case last year, in the African nation of Zambia, communist China dumped toxic waste into Zambia's main river, poisoning the drinking water of 5 million innocent people. It also destroyed the livelihoods of up to 12 million people. It was intentional. They knew what would happen, and they did it anyway because they don't care.

I have not seen a peep of outrage from the international community. Rather than help, communist China coerced the Zambians into signing nondisclosure agreements, offering them next to nothing in cash in exchange for never talking about it.

That story of how communist China literally destroyed an entire country overnight should tell everyone exactly who we are dealing with. As the Zambian Government hopefully learned, with friends like communist China, who needs enemies.

It is clear that Beijing doesn't care about the damage they inflict on others, and, of course, we know that Xi Jinping and his goons couldn't care less about their own people either. In Xinjiang, Xi's communist China is committing a horrific genocide against the Uighur people, putting over a million innocent Uighurs in camps and forcing women to share beds with Han Chinese men sent by the state.

They harvest organs from political dissidents, including the Falun Gong. And in one case mentioned in the State Department's 2022 Country Report on Tibet, the CCP literally beat a Tibetan man to death for the crime of delivering food to a home for the elderly.

Communist China apparently saw a basic act of charity as an attack on the state's inability to take care of its own people, a task they repeatedly fail at. But Xi isn't above physically attacking and beating his own people. Just look at what happened in Hong Kong in the summer of 2020.

Six years later, they continue to unjustly imprison my friend Jimmy Lai. We will never stop fighting for his release.

The CCP doesn't care about cooperation or respect. They constantly attack anyone they don't agree with, including our allies in the Philippines and Taiwan.

They fly thousands of their military jets in Taiwan's airspace, utilize slave labor in their distant water fleet, and prop up terrorists and dictators from North Korea to Iran, to the Taliban.

The CCP, especially under Xi Jinping's tyranny, has a particular brand of evil. They seek to control the world, and in their mind that means destroying anyone who stands in their way, whether it is their own people or not.

We cannot be afraid to stand up to our enemies and hold the line for the next generation of Americans. The numerous policy mistakes we made in the last few decades, including the idea that if only every Chinese citizen could get an F-150 and a Coke, they would eventually abandon their communist system and become more like us.

Instead, the opposite has happened, where we have literally subsidized the CCP's military modernization, economic development, genocide, and crimes against humanity.

Despite everything Communist China has done to our Nation and to the world, we continue to invest over a trillion dollars into Chinese companies listed on our exchanges, to include newly designated Chinese military companies like Alibaba.

I hope that no one who cares about human rights and confronting our Nation's foremost enemy would prevent this resolution's passage. We cannot afford to abandon our responsibility to our people and to the world to denounce the evil agenda of the Chinese Communist Party. I hope my colleagues will join me in that effort.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Foreign Relations Committee be discharged from further consideration and the Senate now proceed to S. Res. 444.

I know of no further debate on the resolution.

I ask unanimous consent that the preamble be agreed to and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Madam President, I rise today to honor an important community in our country that has done so much for our country--Jewish Americans.

America as we know it would not exist without the contributions of Jewish Americans. From Jewish service men and women who have served in every conflict since the Revolutionary War to great minds like Albert Einstein, who helped us to understand the world we live in, their contributions helped to build this Nation. This includes Gertrude Elion, who helped to develop groundbreaking drugs for leukemia and other lifesaving treatments, and Sergey Brin, the cofounder of Google.

The success of our Nation is intertwined with the achievements of Jewish Americans. We can never walk away from our Jewish fellow citizens. I am more committed to this relationship than ever before. I am glad we finally have a President who shares that commitment.

President Trump has been the most pro-Israel President we have ever had. He moved the American Embassy to Jerusalem. He appointed the most pro-Israel Cabinet ever assembled, and he is committed to defending Israel, combating terrorism, and protecting Jewish citizens.

But still, unfortunately, we have seen a rise in anti-Semitism and in anti-Israel hate since the October 7, 2023, attacks. What we have seen in that time are some of the darkest parts of humanity on full display. We have seen Hamas sympathizers take over college campuses, destroy property, and do everything they can to instill fear into Jewish students. From being spat at to being verbally harassed, what some of these students have gone through is unconscionable. Countless stories at some of America's best universities, like Columbia, UCLA, and Rutgers, have all the same stories.

Anti-Semitism has cut its way into our political discourse. A new report from Axios this week shows how lawmakers right here in the Capitol are facing an ``explosion of antisemitism.'' Jewish lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, in the House and the Senate, are receiving death threats, harassment, and profane insults that should be out of bounds for American politics.

None of this is OK. We should all be concerned about the rise of anti-Semitism because it is un-American and because it is fundamentally inhumane.

George Washington knew that too. In 1790, Washington made it clear that America ``gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance'' in his letter to the Hebrew Congregation of Newport, RI. He understood and could see back then the importance our Jewish citizens would play in preserving the American experiment.

Make no mistake, the growth of anti-Semitism will not end with anti- Semitism. The Venn diagram of people who spread anti-Semitism and want to destroy Western civilization is just a circle. They are just starting with our Jewish friends. If it grows, everyone suffers. Just like the jihadist adage in the Middle East goes, ``First the Saturday people, then the Sunday people,'' and then it will come for everyone else.

This hatred, this evil--we have to root it out. We have to get it out of our schools, our neighborhoods, and our media. We need to call it out wherever we see it. When we go silent, that is when rot festers, and that is what anti-Semitism is. It is rotten to the core and has no place in American society.

The United States must always stand with Israel and the Jewish people. More than ever, we must remain committed to rooting out this evil. That is why I am here today with Senator Rosen to ask for unanimous consent to adopt a resolution recognizing the month of May as Jewish American Heritage Month.

Taking a stand against anti-Semitism and celebrating Jewish Americans mean we are fighting to protect our Nation and the blessings we enjoy. I am proud to lead this effort.

I yield to my good friend from Nevada Senator Rosen.

Madam President, as if in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 738, which was submitted earlier today.

I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to waive the mandatory quorum call with respect to the Rikhye nomination.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the previously scheduled rollcall vote start immediately.

Mr. President, the measure we are talking about is completely out of touch with the facts in Cuba, nor is it relevant to anything actually happening in Cuba right now.

President Trump has never suggested we put troops on the ground in Cuba, so this entire effort is moot.

The only reason I can think a Democrat would propose this is for a fundraising email showing how they are fighting President Trump tooth and nail.

I want to note that elected Democrats have turned up violent rhetoric against this President in the last several years, resulting in yet another radicalized leftwinger attempting to assassinate President Trump on Saturday night. And my Democrat colleagues still refuse to fund paychecks for the Secret Service agents who stopped the shooter or for the ICE and Border Patrol agents protecting Americans lives. But since Democrats refuse to fix that problem they created, let's talk about the resolution before us today.

I am from Florida. We probably have more Cuban Americans in Florida than any State in the country, and they have been unbelievably successful in our State. So I am really--I always love to talk about Cuba, and I am glad the Democrats want to talk about Cuba.

Since the 1959 socialist revolution, the authoritarian dictatorship has refused to hold free and fair elections in Cuba. So there are no elections in Cuba. There is no duly elected President in Cuba. The Castro regime has killed Americans and its citizens, and they cozy up to our enemies--Russia, communist China, Iran, and Hezbollah.

Democrats say they are the party of democracy, so where is their concern for the anti-democratic dictator operating 90 miles from the shore of Florida, 90 miles from the shore of the United States?

Many Democrats--some in this Chamber--are embracing socialism and even embracing a violent socialist leader, Hasan Piker, that wants me murdered. He says I should be murdered; capitalists should be murdered; 9/11--we deserved it; anti-Semitic; and he supports the regime in Cuba.

Some Democrats have even gone to Cuba with Piker, attempting to whitewash the atrocities of the illegitimate,

communist regime. Now, when they went there, did they go to the prisons to see any political prisoners? Did they ask about any political prisoners? Did they try to get one political prisoner released? Not one. One Democrat Congresswoman even said after her trip that ``Cuba has a remarkable public health system.'' If you talk to political prisoners and you talk to their families, that is not exactly what they would tell you.

Some Democrats say they want socialism. Where has that succeeded? Nowhere. It results in misery and death for everyone but the regime leaders. Everyplace that has tried, it has always failed, and the only people that succeed are the regime leaders.

Right now--right now--for decades, Cuba has been unjustly imprisoning hundreds of political prisoners just for demanding elections and complaining that the regime is failing to provide electricity. There is a 6-year-old boy in prison right now because he complained his family didn't have electricity. Have I heard one of my Democratic colleagues say ``Oh, that is wrong''?

When they say that under Obama, things were better, oh, did all the political prisoners get released? No.

There is a photo right here. What year do you think this was taken? Do you think it was taken during the Second World War at a concentration camp, a Holocaust survivor? Do you think it was maybe from a Soviet prison?

What year do you think, Mr. President? What is your guess as far as the year this was taken?

This was taken just a few miles from the Florida shore, probably less than 100 miles from our shore, just a few weeks ago.

This individual--his name is Alexander Diaz Rodriguez. If you look at the before-he-went-to-prison picture, he doesn't look 30 years old. But he is a political prisoner. He was tortured, starved, isolated. He was denied this unbelievable healthcare system in Cuba even though he has cancer--all because he opposed the socialist regime. Not one of my Democratic colleagues here, not one of my Democratic colleagues who went down to Cuba did one thing to get him out of prison.

This is the misery of the people of Cuba. This is the face of the misery of the people of Cuba.

The President of Cuba just had an interview with mainstream media. Did not ask one question about the political prisoners. Didn't ask any of these things.

A lot of people never want to look at these pictures, never want to post these. I am going to look at this, and I am going to talk about this as long as possible. We all should be thinking about, this is the face of the regime in Cuba, and when you go support the regime in Cuba, you are supporting what they are doing to an individual like Alexander.

Democrats in this Chamber will choose to oppose President Trump but not Cuba's illegitimate, communist dictator, Miguel Diaz-Canel.

The real reason we are discussing this is what one of my Democratic colleagues said. My Democratic colleague said he plans to keep introducing these resolutions just to criticize President Trump, waste our time and ask ``Have you seen enough?'' One of my Democratic colleagues even admitted that on national television.

But again, President Trump has never said that he wants to put boots on the ground. I don't think any of my Republican colleagues have said it. Even Lindsey Graham has not said it.

So this resolution is defending the regime that is oppressing people like Alexander Diaz Rodriguez.

I will ask my Democratic colleagues to take a look at this picture. Look at this picture, and think of what that regime is doing. This is what the Cuban regime is doing to the people right now.

So, to my Democrat colleagues, have you seen enough? Have you seen enough to say this has to stop?

President Trump is doing everything he can to bring back freedom and democracy all across Latin America, and we should do everything we can to support him. This President has never said he wants to put boots on the ground.

This is a complete waste of our time, and it is a complete insult to Cubans in Cuba and to Cubans in my State.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I just want to say I am from Florida, and I probably have more Cuban Americans in my State than anywhere else in this country. This is really important. The Cuban regime has just been despicable. They have killed Americans, and they have destroyed the lives of Cubans for decades. So this has to change.

Point of Order

Mr. President, I make a point of order that this joint resolution is not entitled to privilege under 50 U.S.C. 1546(a) due to U.S. troops not being engaged in hostilities.

Vote on Point of Order

I ask for the yeas and nays.

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to waive the mandatory quorum call in relation to the Davis nomination.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the scheduled rollcall vote begin immediately.

Mr. President, we are down to the 34th day of this partial government shutdown. For 34 days, the men and women who are serving our Federal Government at DHS have been forced to work without pay and without certainty about their future.

As I said on the floor yesterday, this is the third time in the last 6 months that the hard-working Americans who work to keep us safe every day have had to worry about how they are going to pay mortgages, pay rent, buy gas, and bring home groceries to feed their kids. I think that is clearly unfair, and it is un-American.

And while the American people are standing in line for hours at the airport and watching this unfold on the evening news, they are asking a reasonable question: What do Democrats actually want to accomplish by shutting down the Department of Homeland Security?

Yesterday, I talked about some of the stories of TSA agents. They are not

getting paid. They are worried about their mortgages, their rent, putting food on the table. They can't send their kids to camp. They can't go on vacation. And I think, in 5 days, on the 27th, they lose a full paycheck.

But let's talk about some of the other people.

Let me talk about Ambria Britt. In a CNN story published yesterday, Ambria Britt, who has multiple sclerosis and cannot stand for long periods, told a reporter that she was forced to pay a stranger to push her wheelchair through the jammed line.

She arrived at Hartfield-Jackson Airport on Friday, expecting to use the accessibility line like she normally does. Instead, she found pure chaos. On Friday, in Atlanta, the line spilled out of the security checkpoint, past the main security screening area, and into the airport's atrium. Unable to stand, she had to pay a complete stranger to push her wheelchair through the jam.

She said: Normally, I just go straight through.

She told CNN: I just don't understand. Pay your workers, because we need them.

Ambria is right. People do not understand why Democrats are forcing this on them. I think we owe it to folks to expose the why behind this terrible shutdown because the answer matters.

Thankfully, my colleague from Vermont recently gave us an answer to this question during his recent appearance on C-SPAN's ``Ceasefire'' program.

Now, the junior Senator from Vermont is a wonderful person to work with. We have worked on bills together during my time at the Senate, and I always felt like I could have good conversations with him about the issues.

But what he said to C-SPAN is pretty revealing. He gave the rest of us a peek--a peek--into the thinking behind Democrats' deciding to shut down DHS. So let's take his statements one by one.

The junior Senator from Vermont began by saying:

In all candor, with what has happened with ICE, I think it

is very hard for us to come to some agreement.

Now, that is honesty. It has been clear to me and a lot of people for a long time, that Democrats do not have any intention of working with Republicans to find common ground on reforming ICE operations.

President Trump has made offer after offer to Democrats to address their concerns with ICE. I know the junior Senator from Alabama has tried to meet with them multiple times. President Trump is trying to meet this moment with reasonable reforms to how ICE operates.

Unfortunately, my Democrat colleagues won't engage. In fact, they have only met with Republicans to negotiate one time.

Now, it is clear why. As the junior Senator from Vermont said, there isn't a belief among Democrats that they will accept any term proposed by Republicans.

So we have now established that this shutdown isn't about working in a bipartisan way to solve problems.

Let's move to the next statement from my colleague from Vermont.

He said:

The other reality is that ICE got forward funded, about 3

years, in the One Big Beautiful Bill. So this is--ironically,

it's not really affecting ICE.

Here, the junior Senator from Vermont is admitting that this shutdown, which Democrats caused by claiming that they needed to defund ICE to force bipartisan reforms, isn't actually impacting ICE agents at all.

Now, the folks at ICE that don't only work in law enforcement are being hurt. Now, there are a lot of people at ICE that are not law enforcement. They aren't covered by the money my colleague referenced in the Big Beautiful Bill. So the support staff, the public affairs staff, HR, IT professionals, leadership--none of them, it is my understanding, are being paid, in addition, more than 50,000 TSA agents that aren't getting paid--they are all being hurt by the Democrat DHS shutdown.

Just to make sure we are all keeping track, the junior Senator from Vermont said:

In all candor, with what has happened with ICE, I think it

is very hard for us to come to some agreement.

Then he said:

The . . . reality is that ICE got forward funded . . .

three years, in the One Big Beautiful Bill so this is,

ironically, it's not really affecting ICE.

So in these two sentences, my Democratic colleague from Vermont has now said that Democrats don't have the intention of reaching a bipartisan solution with Republicans. And he knows that the Agencies at the center of this dispute--ICE and CBPs--are not running out of money. They are fine.

Now, there are people at ICE and CBP who are not getting paid, and yet here we are. TSA agents, most of the people at DHS, everyone at ICE who isn't law enforcement, they are going hungry. You heard the stories. They don't have the money to pay their rent, pay their mortgages, put food on the table, pay for dance recitals, pay for camps, pay for sports--none of these things.

Now, here is what he said next:

If we were able to open up the rest of government and focus

on the ICE issue, it may allow us then to have a discussion

that I think is overdue. The border is secure now. It wasn't

under Biden. You say that and that's true.

So we know that. We know that, under Biden, the border was completely wide open and criminals just flocked into this country and not one of my Democratic colleagues said a word. They never want to talk about Laken Riley, Rachel Morin, Jocelyn Nungaray--murdered by illegal aliens.

Now, he ended his point by saying this:

It's ripe for us to have a sensible discussion about a

reasonable immigration plan, in a reasonable way to deal with

folks who don't have legal status.

Now, I am from a State that we have a lot of immigrants, right? I believe in immigration reform. I am always willing to have a conversation about it. I have actually proposed changes to TPS. I have proposed things that have always been blocked by my Democratic colleagues.

And we ought to fix our immigration system so the only people that come into our country are people who actually want to work, not go on American programs, and want to help build our capitalist country. I think that is the ones who should be allowed in. Unfortunately, that is not the type of reform the Democrats are holding out for. They want amnesty.

My friend, the junior Senator from Vermont, is talking about amnesty. He is talking about using a government shutdown, using the paychecks of TSA workers, using 3- or 4-hour security lines, using the pain felt by disabled Americans like Ambria Britt who had to pay a stranger to push her wheelchair through security as leverage--as leverage--to open a conversation about amnesty to people who are in this country illegally.

And here is the part that should make every American's blood boil: There is no Democratic proposal. I haven't seen it.

Mr. President, have you seen it? I haven't seen a proposal. I haven't seen anything--no plan, no bill, no written offer. Weeks and weeks of offers from the White House and dozens of failed Senate votes, and the American people still cannot read a single piece of paper that says what Democrats actually want.

The only thing Democrats keep harping on is banning ICE from wearing masks, so let's dig into that point now. This is important because it really exposes the disconnect between political posturing and human consequences. Democrat Senators introduced legislation to ban ICE agents from wearing masks during enforcement operations and required them to display their names or badge numbers at all times. House Democrats introduced a companion bill, and several States introduced or passed similar measures.

Now, on the surface, this sounds like accountability, right? I actually agree with making sure badges are visible for uniformed law enforcement officers. That seems like a commonsense idea to me, but let's talk about ICE agents not being allowed to wear a mask.

Now, there are radical anti-ICE activists. You might know that, Mr. President; I think most people do, right? They are all over the country. They have built and maintained websites that catalog photographs of alleged ICE employees organized by State, searchable by region. That should scare us. They encourage their fellow activists to hunt our law enforcement and give them all the tools to do so.

Now, here is what has already happened: ICE has reported a 1,000- percent increase--that is a tenfold increase--in assaults on officers. That is even more than tenfold, isn't it? Yeah, tenfold. And an 8,000- percent increase in death threats against officers and their families.

A Dallas gunman fired multiple rounds at an ICE field office from a nearby rooftop and used apps specifically to track the locations of ICE agents before the attack. In San Francisco and LA, a mob surrounded ICE agents in the street and at their offices. These agents were assaulted and threatened.

Now, ICE agents are just like you and me. They are normal Americans. They have got families, and they love their kids. If they have grandkids, they love their grandkids. They have great neighbors, great friends, and they are simply doing the job that they were hired to do to keep every American safe.

They are doing what police do, what sheriffs do: They are working every day to enforce the laws of this country that we pass, but many of my Democratic colleagues want to see them as monsters.

Now, here is the difference: The TSA workers, they are going to work every day enforcing the laws, trying to keep us safe, and they are under a lot of stress because they are not getting paid. The ICE agents might be getting paid right now, but they are being attacked by-- Democrats act like they are monsters. Their families are worried about them. They are worried about getting a threatening midnight phone call because an activist website posted their loved one's photograph and home address, so their families are worried.

That is what the mask ban would enable--not accountability; exposure. And for people who are already doing their jobs under impossible conditions, that additional threat is not a policy debate; it is a danger to their life.

Now, let's be clear: I don't think any of us want ICE to wear masks. I wish they didn't have to. But if wearing a mask keeps a law enforcement officer and their family safe from being attacked by radical anti-ICE activists, I am all for it.

Now, I support measures that keep our police accountable to the people they serve and protect. I believed that when I was Governor. We started bringing body cameras in when I was Governor of Florida. The White House has proposed body cameras, and I completely agree with that proposal. Cameras create accountability.

When I just flew through the Denver airport, I saw a couple of the law enforcement officers. They had cameras, and they thought it was the greatest thing in the world--complete accountability for everybody, them and for the public. Cameras create accountability through recorded evidence and supervisor review without turning every officer into a target for harassment and violence.

Democrats still impress that they want to ``have a conversation.'' They want to ``discuss.'' Meanwhile, most of the more than 260,000 workers at the Department of Homeland Security are going without paychecks, and your gate security lines stretch around the block.

Now, Democrats can disagree with us on immigration enforcement, and that is their right. But shutting down an entire Federal Agency, refusing to pay the hundreds of thousands of people who simply want to show up and serve the Federal Government by protecting the American people all to force a so-called negotiation on immigration policy that we have never seen written down, that is not governance; that is hostage-taking.

And let me remind you: The average salary of a TSA agent--Mr. President, what do you think the average salary is? $50,000. Now, these are the folks Democrats are withholding paychecks from, Americans making about $50,000 a year.

What do we make? U.S. Senators, we make 174,000 bucks a year. And I have tried--I have had a bill--No Budget, No Pay. My Democratic colleagues have always blocked it because they refuse to go without being paid, but they are OK with other people not being paid. So while the folks at TSA are working-class Americans fighting every day to live their dreams, guess what the average net worth for a Democrat in the Senate is? About $3 million.

Now, I am not here to shame anybody. I am glad they worked hard, they got rich, they have been successful in life. I worked my butt off, I have been very successful, and I don't apologize for it for a second. But in addition to donating my entire Senate salary every year, I am also not the one sitting here today denying a paycheck to the more than 260,000 hard-working Americans at DHS.

Now, I think my Democratic colleagues ought to have skin in the game. The last time Democrats shut down the government and hurt our Federal workers, one of my Democratic colleagues said that he couldn't go without his Senate paycheck because he has a mortgage to pay. Well, guess what? So does every Federal employee at DHS. They are either probably paying the rent or they have a mortgage. The people Democrats aren't paying right now, they have bills to pay.

It frustrates me, it makes me sick that a Member of the U.S. Senate that voted to say somebody else can't get paid, they said they have to get paid. I think that is insulting. Imagine how it makes someone at TSA feel to hear that: A U.S. Senator needs to get his paycheck when he is making 174,000 bucks, but you at DHS, good luck. I think that is pretty disgusting. I don't think, if Congress shuts down the government, Members should get paid.

Now, I have a bill to make that happen. I had a colleague that had a similar bill earlier today. My No Budget, No Pay Act would keep everyone in this Chamber from getting a paycheck if we can't provide them to the hard-working men and women who work in our Federal Government.

Look, I think there needs to be personal consequences for politicians that want to play games with other people's lives and cut off their paychecks, so I think we need to pass my No Budget, No Pay Act. Again, this is a simple proposal that says if Members of Congress can't complete our basic constitutional job of funding the government--the whole government, not part, not some but all of it--we shouldn't get paid.

So I urge my colleagues to consider this: What about the mortgages of DHS workers? What about their grocery bills? What about their kids' camp? What about their daughter's dance recital? I think we ought to care about them.

So I don't get it. I can't see how a Democratic colleague can get on a plane, fly home, probably go to the front of the line, look at these unpaid TSA agents in the eye, walk to the gate in front of all of them, pass Americans who just waited in line for 4 hours, and not feel some shame.

More than 260,000 American families are going without a paycheck, but my Democratic colleagues are still cashing theirs. Democrats shouldn't be shutting down the government and risking others' paychecks without being willing to put their paychecks on the line too.

So I am not going to ask for a UC, but I wish at some point we would pass my No Budget, No Pay Act so we all have skin in the game. If Republicans, Democrats--whoever--are going to shut down the government, then they ought to do the same thing that they are doing to other people to themselves.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I rise today for the hard- working American families who are struggling to make ends meet. These are hard-working American families who are struggling to make ends meet because they are victims of Democrats' political theater.

I grew up in public housing and watched my parents struggle to make ends meet. I saw my adopted dad lose his job. I remember when my dad had his car repossessed.

When these things happened, I felt the panic my parents dealt with in trying to keep food on the table for me and my siblings when the next paycheck wasn't guaranteed. I don't wish

what my family went through on anyone. I actually ran for Governor of Florida and the U.S. Senate because I wanted to change this country so fewer families grow up with the struggle that mine did.

So it makes me furious to see what Democrats are doing right now with this political stunt of shutting down the Department of Homeland Security. It has been more than a month since this shutdown began. This is the third time in the last 6 months that the hard-working Americans who work to keep us safe each and every day had to worry about how they are going to pay mortgages, pay the rent, buy gas, bring home groceries to feed their kids.

It is unfair, and it is un-American.

I think every American has probably felt the squeeze from this shutdown when they go to the airport. TSA's staffing shortages have gone through the roof, and that has meant longer screening times at airports across the country.

Lines are stretching out the door and wait times are skyrocketing into hours. People in Atlanta are missing 6 a.m. flights when they showed up to the airport at 3 a.m. in the morning.

But the Federal employees--the ones who show up to work every day to keep the rest of us safe--are the ones going through the worst of all this shutdown.

A union official who represents workers at TSA said:

A lot of employees that I've talked to don't have any money

in their bank account. They've already missed half a check,

so they don't know what bill to pay.

This week in my State of Florida, the good folks over at Feeding South Florida distributed food to Federal workers who aren't being paid because of this reckless shutdown.

Think about the situation that Democrats in the Senate have put DHS workers in. What if your boss called you tonight and said: Listen, I need you to come in tomorrow. Your job is absolutely essential to the security of our Nation. We need you to help us keep people safe. Millions of people around America rely on you to show up so they can be safe.

But management decided not to pay you, and we don't know when management will decide to pay you.

What would you do? Who would you call? What would you do when your rent was due? How would you feed your family? What would you do about that car payment coming up? What would you tell your child when you couldn't afford their upcoming field trip or sports lessons or were forced to cancel the thing that your little boy or girl was really looking forward to?

These aren't hypothetical questions for the more than 50,000 TSA agents Democrats are forcing to work without pay right now. But don't just think of them as a number. These are Americans, and here are some of their stories.

Alondra Galvan is a single mom and a TSA officer currently working without pay because of the partial government shutdown. She has been working for TSA for 2 years. Here is what she said:

It's very frustrating for everything, from financial

restraints to mental instability. There's times at night I'm

like what am I going to do, how am I going to do it.

She says:

I'm a single mom right now. My son usually goes to spring

break camps, and I can't afford that right now because

there's no money coming in, and I just don't know what to do

anymore. There's no babysitter. I don't have money to pay a

babysitter, so it's all around bad.

She is not alone.

There are food banks for DHS employees springing up all over the country--in San Diego, Pittsburgh, Chattanooga. Demands have been so great in Las Vegas that supplies are now limited, and they are looking for more donations according to one report.

``Most people have drained through their emergency funds'' said TSA agent Johnny Jones.

``The majority of TSA agents live paycheck to paycheck'' he said.

``A lot of them still have loans or debts from the previous shutdown'' he said.

In Omaha, NE, one man started a GoFundMe page to raise donations so he can buy meals to deliver to TSA employees at Eppley Airfield.

Airports across the country are asking for gift card donations so the people who keep our economy going, the people who make it safe and possible for other Americans to visit their families, do business, or go on vacation can keep scraping by while Democrat politicians in this Chamber can put on a show for the news cameras and fight for illegal aliens.

In Nashville, one TSA supervisor noted people are ``starting to get eviction notices.''

She summed the entire situation up when she told the same newspaper ``We are forgotten.''

I want to tell you another story I read about in the Christian Science Monitor. In an article published 2 days ago, they wrote about a woman named Susan. That is not her real name. She asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution at work. Her story is real, and it is fully verifiable.

Susan is a single mother. She has a teenage son. Next month, she will mark her 10th anniversary as a TSA employee. That is 10 years of showing up, 10 years of being the one who checks the bags, scans the boarding passes, and stands between the traveling public and whatever threats might be lurking.

Before the longest government shutdown in American history last fall, the 43-day shutdown--Susan had finally paid off all of her debts--all of them.

For a single working mother, that is pretty amazing.

Susan went through years of sacrifice, years of careful budgeting, years of telling her son ``no'' or ``not yet.'' And she got there. She was debt-free.

Then the fall shutdown came and the one after that and now this one. Today, two of Susan's credit cards are maxed out. She has three- quarters of a tank of gas left and enough food in the house to make it until yesterday.

She has $1.15 in her bank account. Still, when talking to a reporter for the Christian Science Monitor, she said she was one of the more fortunate ones.

She said ``We just dig in and hope that we get paid before we get evicted and our cars get repossessed.''

Susan is still going to work every day. She is still showing up to protect the traveling public. She is doing it on empty pockets, maxed- out cards, and on borrowed time. She considers herself one of the lucky ones. Think about what that says about the people who are less fortunate than Susan.

Democrat Members of the U.S. Senate: These are our fellow citizens. These are patriotic people who made the decision to serve our Federal Government, and you are torturing them.

Meanwhile, every Democrat Senator who voted to start this shutdown is getting paid. The average salary of a TSA agent is around $50,000. U.S. Senators make $174,000. While the folks at TSA are working-class Americans fighting every day to live their dreams, the average net worth for a Democrat in the Senate is nearly $3 million.

I am not here to shame those who worked hard and have been successful in life. I worked my butt off during my life, and I have been very successful, and I don't apologize for it for a second. But in addition to donating my entire Senate salary every year, I am also not the one sitting here today denying a paycheck to more than 260,000 hard-working Americans at DHS.

The last time the Democrats shut down the government and hurt our Federal workers, one of my colleagues on the left said that he couldn't go without his Senate paycheck because he has a mortgage to pay. What the hell do you think the hard-working people at DHS have to do? They have bills to pay. They have mortgages. They have to pay the rent. They have to buy groceries.

It makes you sick. It makes you sick to hear a Member of the U.S. Senate who voted to not pay people say something so insulting. Imagine how it makes someone at TSA feel to hear that. A U.S. Senator needs to get his paycheck to pay his mortgage, but if you are at DHS, good luck. I think that is disgusting.

If Congress shuts down the government, Members shouldn't get paid. I have a bill to make sure that is how it works. My No Budget, No Pay Act would keep everyone in this Chamber from getting a paycheck if we can't provide them to the hard-working men and women who work in our Federal Government. There needs to be serious personal consequences for politicians that want to play games with people's lives and cut off their paychecks. We need to pass my No Budget, No Pay Act.

After hearing about the suffering Democrats have caused for the TSA agents that I talked about earlier, how can anyone here oppose this? Sadly, the answer to that question is the same as the answer to the question of how we got here in the first place.

I don't get it, but Democrats want to defund the police and shut down ICE and CBP. Why? Because the brave officers in these Agencies were simply doing their jobs and enforcing existing U.S. law.

Here is what happened: During the Biden administration, Democrats allowed the office and power of a mentally incapacitated President to be hijacked by unelected radical staffers. Once these staffers seized the levers of power without President Biden even realizing it, they opened our southern border and actually allowed or encouraged millions upon millions of illegal aliens to flood into the United States. They let criminals in, rapists, murderers, child abusers, drug dealers. They all flooded in. They let drugs pour over the border and poison the American people. And my Democrat colleagues did nothing to stop it.

It was a national disaster, and the American people saw that it was intentional and would ruin our Nation, so they elected President Trump. They elected President Trump to take the White House and Republicans to take control of Congress because the American people knew we would clean up Biden's mess and secure the border.

The agenda wasn't a surprise. President Trump ran on securing the border and getting criminal illegal aliens out of our country. It was probably the biggest reason they elected President Trump.

Now that he is executing on that agenda, I don't get it, but Democrats can't stand it. He is undoing all of their work to let illegal aliens flood across the border, and he is doing it without passing any new laws. He is simply allowing ICE and CBP to do their jobs and enforce the laws that are already on the books. It is incredible what simply letting people do their jobs can accomplish.

Now, because radical Democrat mayors and Governors won't work with ICE and in some cases are actively encouraging resistance against our Federal law enforcement, there has been conflict.

Two Americans, Alex Pretti and Renee Good, lost their lives in incidents with Federal agents. It is horrible. I wish it never happened in this country. My heart goes out to their families.

If we didn't have illegal sanctuary cities in the States, ICE would be able to peacefully detain individuals at jails. That is how we do it in Florida. We don't have issues with ICE. But there are liberal mayors and Governors who want to put the concerns of illegal aliens over American citizens and American law enforcement. It doesn't make any sense to me.

President Trump has made offer after offer to Democrats to address the concerns they have with ICE actions that they have forced to happen. President Trump is trying to meet this moment with reasonable reforms to how ICE operates. He has even said he will bring ICE agents to help our TSA agents. But Democrats aren't engaging.

There are violent illegal aliens in our country. We have to remove them. If you don't believe me, here are three names: Rachel Morin, Jocelyn Nungaray, Laken Riley. Rachel Morin, Jocelyn Nungaray, Laken Riley--a mother and a child and a college student--all murdered. Three lives that were shattered. Three families that were devastated. Why? Because of the horrific violence caused by an illegal alien.

These are the people that ICE is targeting, and in my mind, it is worth it. If ICE can save one person, if ICE can prevent another woman from facing the same fate as Rachel Morin, Jocelyn Nungaray, and Laken Riley, it is worth it.

I don't get it, but Democrats insist on protecting illegal aliens with sanctuary policies while they spit in the faces of American law enforcement officers who risk their lives every day, every single day, to keep us safe.

It is happening here just outside Washington. Last month, a 40-year- old mother from Fredericksburg, VA, was stabbed to death. She was stabbed to death while standing at a bus stop in Fairfax County, VA. Her name was Stephanie Minter.

On a Monday morning, a mother was ripped from her children by an illegal alien that officials in Virginia refused--they refused--to let ICE deport.

Stephanie's alleged killer had a long criminal record. He was a known violent criminal who Fairfax County described as being ``a danger to the community.'' But not only was he never handed over to ICE, he was let off the hook again and again. He had more than 30 arrests to his name--charges of malicious wounding, assault, drug possession, identity theft, firing a weapon, contributing to delinquency of a minor. Over and over, the charges were dropped, and he was released.

But this injustice in Fairfax County wasn't limited to the alleged killer who murdered Stephanie Minter. The Center for Immigration Studies found that from October 2022 through February 2025, the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center freed more than 1,000 deportable individuals in direct defiance of over 1,150 ICE detainers.

Fairfax County ranked third in the entire Nation for refusing to honor ICE detainer requests, and soon, all of Virginia could follow suit, because the same week that Stephanie Minter was murdered at that bus stop, new Governor Spanberger ordered the termination of all 287(g) agreements between State agencies and ICE.

Think about that for a second and ask yourself, how could this happen in America?

Sadly, this is the reality facing Americans in Democrat cities, counties, and States. According to DHS, sanctuary jurisdictions across the country declined to honor 17,864 ICE detainer requests in 2025 alone--nearly 18,000 in 1 year.

In California alone, over 4,500 criminal individuals have been released since January 2025 despite active ICE detainers. The crimes those individuals were associated with include homicides, assaults, burglaries, and sexual offenses.

In New York, ICE has documented cases where individuals with records including rape, strangulation, and burglary were repeatedly released by sanctuary policies.

First, Democrats pass sanctuary laws to protect violent illegals that they know their Soros-funded prosecutors won't go after. Now Democrats are trying to destroy ICE completely so that the very system of brave law enforcement officers, which was established to save the lives of individuals like Stephanie, Laken, Rachel, and Jocelyn, could no longer protect our families.

I don't know why the Democrats want to defund our law enforcement. I don't understand why they want to watch as TSA agents suffer without pay. I don't know why Democrats are fine seeing Americans wait hours in line for a flight. The thing I struggle with most is, I don't know why the left is so hell-bent on protecting illegal aliens while letting a mother like Stephanie Minter be stabbed to death at a bus stop. It doesn't make sense to me.

I think it is time for Democrats to come to their senses and fund

Mr. President, let's remember who shut down Homeland Security. The Democrats shut down Homeland Security. They voted to shut down Homeland Security. They wouldn't fund it, and they wouldn't fund it because they don't want ICE to be able to do their job. It is a problem the Democrats caused because the border was completely open for 4 years. So, if we do one part and don't do the rest, we know what is going to happen: ICE will never get funded.

With regard to masks, law enforcement does use masks because they have to protect their privacy sometimes. There is doxing going on. Think about it. All of us have security, probably. I have been swatted, and maybe

my colleagues have been swatted. Think about these agents. They don't have security at home when their families are at home. There are websites out there that, when they find a picture of an ICE agent, they are putting it up on these websites to try to intimidate their families and intimidate their kids.

Sure, I think we ought to always have reasonable restrictions on how law enforcement works. But ICE is busting their butt to solve a problem that was caused by having 4 years of completely open borders, and nobody on the Democrat side wanted to talk about it. Now ICE is trying to do this job and clean up the mess, and, all of a sudden, Democrats want to put all of these rules on them so that they can't even do their job. That doesn't make any sense.

I want to tell my colleague--I mean, the White House proposed things, and for so many weeks, Democrats didn't come back with any proposal. So I am glad there are conversations going on now, but, in the meantime, all of these TSA agents haven't gotten paid, and some ICE agents are not getting paid. This is completely unfair.