Floor Statements

Madam President, nearly 6 years ago, our State, Nation, the city of Orlando, and Hispanic and LGBTQ communities were attacked. Forty-nine innocent and beautiful lives were lost. It was an evil and hateful act, an act of terrorism designed to divide us as a nation and strike fear in our hearts and minds. But, instead, we came together, we supported each other, and we persevered. We have proved to the world what we in Florida already knew: Floridians are resilient.

The days I spent in Orlando following the shooting will always be with me. I talked to parents who lost their children. I went to funerals and wakes. I sat in hospital rooms. It was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. It was heartbreaking. But in this horribly dark time, the selfless courage of so many--from community members to law enforcement, to healthcare workers--provided a sense of hope. This incredible strength, love, and bravery lifted up Orlando and the State of Florida and helped us begin to rebuild.

This week, on the sixth anniversary of this devastating tragedy, the State of Florida comes together to honor the lives lost too soon, and we vow to always stand up and fight against evil and hatred in this world.

I was proud that last year Congress passed and the President signed into law legislation I introduced with Senator Rubio and Senator Padilla to designate the location of the Pulse nightclub in Orlando as the National Pulse Memorial, which will honor the memory of those we lost.

Today, I am requesting all my colleagues to join Senator Rubio and me to pass a resolution honoring the memory of the 49 lives lost during the heinous attack at the Pulse nightclub. Let's come together now to say that our Nation will always stand against hate and evil in this world.

As if in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 663, 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.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

When I heard the horrific news from Uvalde, TX, yesterday, I immediately thought of two things, my grandchildren, most of

whom are in elementary school, and the 17 lives we lost in Parkland, FL, 4 years ago. Our hearts are shattered at the loss of these small children--19 children that are just in fourth grade and two teachers. It is infuriating and heart-wrenching.

I can't imagine losing a child or a loved one. Unfortunately, there are 17 families in Florida who don't have to imagine it. They know that pain and live it each and every day. There is seldom a day that goes by that I don't think about the families that lost their children and loved ones that day. No community should feel the pain that families in Parkland and Uvalde now feel. We will never be able to prevent every vicious crime, but we can and must act.

There are solutions to be found at the State level and the Federal level, and today, we can take action in the Senate to make our schools safer.

I want to thank Senator Johnson for leading this bill and Senators Rubio, Risch, and Grassley for their strong support of this legislation and other efforts to keep our kids safe.

This bill, the Luke and Alex School Safety Act was named in honor of Luke Hoyer and Alex Schachter. Luke and Alex were taken from us in the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14, 2018, in Parkland, FL.

Since that horrible day, I have worked closely with many of the victims' families as Governor and now as Senator to do everything possible so that no child, educator, or family has to experience that again.

There is clearly a lot more work to do. This legislation, the Luke and Alex School Safety Act, codifies a Federal school safety clearinghouse by informing parents and educators on expert recommendations and best practices that schools can implement to improve school security. This bill builds on our work to keep schools safe and prevent another tragedy.

Today, we can get something done that creates safer schools for our kids and our teachers. I appreciate the work again of Senators Johnson, Rubio, Risch, and Grassley and all of our colleagues.

As we continue to pray for Uvalde and the families that have suffered this tremendous loss, I urge the Senate to pass this good bill and take a step in the right direction that keeps our kids and teachers safe.

Reserving the right to object.

Throughout his presidency, Joe Biden and his administration have shown an inability to place qualified and competent people in many positions of power across the Federal Government. We have had crisis after crisis due to the failed leadership of President Biden and his appointees.

Americans have been left with no faith in President Biden's ability to lead or appoint qualified individuals to serve in these important roles. And this nominee, who will be in charge of critical healthcare programs in the Department of Veterans Affairs, is no different.

I cannot and will not consent to allow this nominee to move forward in an expedited manner.

We should take a vote so every Senator can get on the record with their support or opposition to this nominee.

Therefore, I object.

I don't think we should do this in an ex parte manner.

I don't think we should do this in an ex parte manner. I think everybody should be on the record.

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

Mr. President, at the end of April, I had the honor of traveling to Germany, Poland, and Lithuania to meet with American servicemembers and hear from high-level government officials on the state of democracy in Europe as Russia wages war against Ukraine. I returned to the United States with the reassurance that the commitment of our partners and allies to defending freedom and defeating tyranny has only grown stronger. I also returned with three important takeaways that I believe must be central in America's response to Russia's murderous invasion of Ukraine and must define our commitment to supporting our NATO allies and preserving democracy.

First, America and our freedom-loving partners across the world must renew our commitment to ``never again,'' support the massive humanitarian efforts underway to aid Ukrainian refugees and those who are helping them, and forcefully condemn the genocide occurring at the direction of Vladimir Putin in Ukraine.

Let me say that again. First, America and our freedom-loving partners across the world must renew our commitment to ``never again,'' support the massive humanitarian efforts underway to aid Ukrainian refugees and those who are helping them, and forcefully condemn the genocide occurring at the direction of Vladimir Putin in Ukraine.

In 2005, my wife, daughters, and I spent 2 days visiting the Auschwitz Memorial and Museum in Poland. Anyone who has had the opportunity to walk the grounds of that place will tell you how overwhelming it is to confront the horrors that occurred there. It is out of these horribly dark places that the phrase ``never again'' was born.

Following the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps, the world pledged to never again allow genocide to take the lives of innocent people, but today, Putin is choosing that path.

When I returned to Poland last month, I had the solemn honor of participating in a Holocaust memorial ceremony alongside U.S. Ambassador to Poland Mark Brzezinski in what was formerly the Warsaw ghetto and laid a wreath there to honor the Jewish people who fought the Nazi occupation. I also visited a refugee center serving the thousands of Ukrainians forced from their homes and who have been welcomed with open arms by the Polish people.

During the ceremony and as I walked through the refugee center, my thoughts constantly turned to the atrocious attacks on Mariupol. The leveling of that city and the mass graves found there in Bucha cannot be ignored or dismissed as part of the war. These are crimes against humanity. Children are dying. Families are dying precisely because they are Ukrainian and won't do what the dictator Putin wants them to do. This is genocide.

World leaders promise ``never again,'' but they are failing.

I thank God for the incredible hospitality of the Polish people to welcome these Ukrainian families. I am grateful, too, for what other European countries are doing to help them.

We must do everything in our power, using our voices, actions, and resources, to support these humanitarian missions and forcefully condemn Putin's genocide in Ukraine.

Second, we must continue to show full support to Ukraine and do everything in our power to help it win in this war. That includes approving delivery of the MiG-29 fighter jets that President Zelenskyy has been requesting for months.

President Biden's blockade of these aircraft is an act of weakness and makes no sense. If we want to prevent putting American men and women on the battlefield, we need to give Ukraine every military and intelligence resource it needs to fight and win this war. Most of our NATO allies agree with this, but Joe Biden insists on standing in the way and is actively helping Putin maintain dominance in the skies.

Vladimir Putin is a murderous thug. His unjust war intentionally targets civilians and has taken thousands of innocent lives. This is genocide.

The Ukrainians have shown that they are willing and able to fight this war themselves and can defeat Putin. We need to let them do it. When the war is over, accountability must be demanded and secured. Putin and his thugs in Russia and Belarus must be tried for their crimes in a war tribunal. They should never see another day of freedom as long as they live.

Third and finally, we must recognize the importance of energy and industrial independence from tyrannical and genocidal regimes like Russia and communist China.

I have long advocated for American businesses to decouple their operations from communist China. In March, I appealed directly to American business leaders and urged them in an open letter to begin the process of cutting ties with communist China and our dependence on its supply chain and realign American businesses with U.S. values.

Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine shows exactly why decoupling from evil regimes is so important, and Europe now understands this better than anyone else. That is why we should applaud businesses that have taken steps to end their relationships with these regimes and applaud nations like Lithuania, Estonia, and Poland, which have taken aggressive action to end their reliance on Russian energy.

Lithuania has also boldly stood up to communist China and supported Taiwan. Their bravery is exemplary and deserves our support.

These nations are the exception to the rule in Europe, but their leadership in forming partnerships with democratic neighbors like Norway has proven critical to freeing them from the Kremlin's threats of withholding resources.

To protect democracy and sovereignty from the influence of evil leaders like Putin and Xi, we must commit to preferring to do business with fellow democratic governments as much as possible. That is why I have been demanding that Biden take immediate steps to put America back on the path to energy independence, stop his appeasement policies with the world's dictators, and end all trade talks with Venezuela and other evil regimes.

I recently secured a commitment from Energy Secretary Granholm that the United States would not import any oil from Venezuela or Iran. She said so in an open and public hearing in the Senate Armed Services Committee. President Biden needs to publicly reaffirm that commitment.

Our attitude should always be America first, but if it can't be made in America, it must be made by a democratic partner or at the very least one who seeks mutual benefit with us instead of our downfall.

Decoupling from Russia and communist China and other tyrannical regimes will not be easy for many businesses or governments, America included. This move won't occur overnight, but it is absolutely necessary as these despots advance their plans for world domination and continue to carry out assaults on sovereignty and democracy in Europe and Asia, as well

as support dictators in Latin America like Maduro, Ortega, and the Castro/Diaz-Canel regime. If America and our freedom-loving partners are going to truly stand for democracy, we cannot do so while lining the pockets of those who seek to actively destroy liberty and independence wherever it exists.

Whether we like it or not, we need to recognize the evil in our world. It exists in the Governments of communist China, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Russia. They want a different world, one where the enemies of democracy, human rights, and sovereign nations issue the orders and the United States and our allies do what we are told. They will bully and crush anyone in their way if they are allowed. I, for one--and I know I am not alone--will not accept this.

Out of this terrible conflict, America has an opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to the security and independence of democratic nations, strengthen our energy and industrial independence and partnerships was fellow democracies, and stop genocide, renewing the promise of ``never again.'' We cannot allow this moment to pass without creating this need to change. The survival of democracy and the United States depends on it.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, last week, President Biden tried to blame me for the current inflation crisis. In a speech where he couldn't even get my State right--I proudly represent Florida, in case he needs another reminder--he attacked me and tried to blame the record inflation he created on Republicans. I guess he has also forgotten that he is the President and that it is his policies that created this mess. And, by the way, Democrats are in control of the House and the Senate.

What is clear to the American people is that Joe Biden is to blame for the inflation that is hurting them more every day. Families I talk to in Florida are sick and tired of this President's failures. They are sick and tired of seeing an incoherent, confused man ramble on in the White House, with no plan but to blame everyone else but himself for the problems he created.

Last week, the Biden administration reported that the Consumer Price Index, our main measure of inflation, increased 8.3 percent year-over- year, and the latest Producer Price Index, released just a day later, showed wholesale inflation in April increased 11 percent over the year. These price hikes hurt real families, and they are impacting every industry. We see it in the price of groceries, like milk, eggs, and meat. We see it in the price of gas at the pump and electricity for your home. We see it in the price of used cars and in the cost of transportation. Everything is going up, and some products, like baby formula, are nearly impossible to find.

It is causing families to make impossible choices. In March, a Census Bureau report found that over the last year, 24 percent of Americans reduced or went without basic items such as food and medicine as a way to afford their energy bills. In my home State, 26 percent of Floridians had to make this impossible choice.

Let's be clear. The financial pinch families are facing, the supply chain crisis families are facing, and the skyrocketing prices families are seeing are because of the radical spending agenda being pushed by President Biden and Democrats in Washington. Their reckless government spending has sent our economy into a downward spiral. Our debt has grown to over $30 trillion, and Biden wants to push it up to $45 trillion even as our GDP is contracting. Inflation has risen to the highest levels in over 40 years. It is wrecking our economy.

We need bold action to fix this mess and help families struggling to keep up.

I came to the floor to stop the insanity and introduce a budgetary point of order. My bill would stop any nondefense discretionary spending that would increase the deficit over the 10-year budget window when the average annual CPI inflation is 3 percent or higher. The Federal Reserve's target for inflation is 2 percent, so setting the bar for the point of order 50 percent above this target is totally reasonable.

My point of order would not even apply during time periods when inflation is at or slightly above the Federal Reserve's target. Of course, we need flexibility for emergencies, so my bill would allow this point of order to be waived if two-thirds of the Senate agree that deficit spending during times of elevated inflation is desperately needed. Further, my point of order would not apply to funding our armed services nor would it apply to any mandatory spending, such as Medicare or Social Security.

This is commonsense legislation. This bill would put in place the same scrutiny that families, especially poor families like mine when growing up, use in order to stay on budget. It is the same kind of careful examination that small business owners have to do to make sure they can pay their employees and make ends meet. The inflation we are seeing right now is unsustainable. It is time for action. I hope we will all come together to agree to this point of order.

As in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed

to the immediate consideration of S. 4249, which is at the desk. I further ask that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and that motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. President, I disagree with my colleague's objection, but I think this issue is too important not to try to get something done today.

So, instead of enacting this point of order when the CPI reaches 3 percent, how about we raise it to 8 percent? Our current CPI level is at 8.3 percent. We see how bad things are right now. When the CPI gets close to where we currently are--inflation levels that we haven't seen since the 1980s--that is when this point of order would take effect.

At 8 percent inflation, we have reached a crisis point. It only stands to reason for Congress to start looking closely at every bill that increases the deficit. Such deficit-increasing bills should only be passed by Congress when absolutely needed.

Again, this point of order could be waived in the Senate with a two- thirds majority. I think this is reasonable and that we owe it to American families to start holding Congress accountable for the reckless spending that we know fuels inflation. Hopefully, my colleagues can agree to pinning this point of order to inflation at 8 percent.

As in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. 4250, which is at the desk. 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 was hoping we could arrive at a deal today, so let me try it one more time.

Eight percent inflation, I think, is really high. Remember that the Federal Reserve's target is 2 percent. I am just here to see if we can work something out and get something with which we can control excess spending. So I am going to try one more time. I want to give Democrats a chance in Congress to step up and fight for families all across America who are being devastated by raging inflation. There is no reason not to get this done.

My colleague objected to setting this point of order at 8 percent, but certainly no one can object to saying that, at 12 percent inflation, things need to change. Inflation over 12 percent would be an even bigger emergency. We haven't seen the CPI that high since Jimmy Carter.

Think about it this way: Things are really bad now, and 12 percent inflation would be a 50-percent increase over the already sky-high prices we are seeing today. Remember, we started at 3 percent. Now I am offering my colleague a point of order that can only be triggered at 12 percent.

As in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. 4251, which is at the desk. 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 am clearly disappointed that we have had three opportunities to try to do something here that was going to try to stop the reckless spending that is causing this inflation.

I think all of us know that inflation is way too high. We also all know that reckless government spending is driving up the cost of inflation all across this country. I hope the Democrats in Washington will start figuring out how we can get inflation under control. It starts by living within our means. It starts by making sure that we live within our budget and that we stop wasting money.

I yield the floor.

I call up my motion, which is at the desk.

Mr. President, this government is $30 trillion in debt, and Congress is working every day to spend money like it is burning a hole in our pocket. This bill has billions of spending, billions of taxpayer dollars, and zero mandates for return on investment. That is crazy. It is crazy and illogical. No American would make a deal like this for their business or their family. Congress shouldn't do it with your tax dollars either.

The conferees must ensure this bill makes all taxpayer funds subject to a comprehensive return-on-investment analysis with clawback provisions and mandate a report on how every dollar is spent.

We used taxpayer dollars to incentivize private sector growth when I was Governor of Florida. It helped bring businesses to my State and create jobs. But we always had return-on-investment metrics and clawbacks for when those metrics weren't met. We should be demanding the same here, and I urge my colleagues to join me and support accountability to the taxpayer.

Madam President, if there had been a recorded roll call vote on the Menendez motion to instruct conferees in relation to H.R. 4521, USICA, I would have voted no.

If there had been a recorded roll call vote on the Kelly motion to instruct conferees in relation to H.R. 4521, USICA, I would have voted no.

Mr. President, the Senate is considering several of President Biden's picks to sit on the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve. I have already voted against two of these nominees. I believe they all should be voted down by the Senate.

Under its current leadership, the Fed has lost the trust of the American people and failed to uphold its role as an independent body.

I have been clear about my disapproval of the Fed's policies, especially its massive and its still-growing balance sheet. Both now and throughout recent history, the Federal Reserve has been behind the curve and far too late in taking action to keep America's economy stable.

Its policies to sustain and grow such a massive disproportionate growing balance sheet are a perfect example of its failure to properly manage the economic needs of our Nation.

For years, I have asked--I have urged--Chair Powell and members of the Federal Open Market Committee to reduce the Fed's unprecedented balance sheet. Nothing has changed. Month after month, we have watched the Fed continue to purchase billions in treasuries and mortgage-backed securities. There is still no plan to wind down and right size the Fed's balance sheet, which today, sits at nearly 40 percent of GDP.

Before the pandemic in 2019, the Fed's balance sheet assets totaled just under $4 trillion. Today, it is more than double to nearly $9 trillion dollars. That is more than 10 times the assets the Fed held in 2007, when the balance sheet was under $1 trillion.

The Federal Reserve's massive balance sheet is becoming a massive problem. When the Fed buys up treasuries and mortgage-backed securities and holds them like this, it is distorting the credit markets and allocation of capital, ultimately hurting our poorest families and Americans on fixed incomes.

And look at how the Fed's policies have made homeownership unattainable for young people. These policies have helped drive up home prices, putting the purchase of a home further out of reach for young families across our Nation.

Now, I will admit that the COVID-19 pandemic presented our Nation with historic challenges, but the Federal Reserve's overreaction and then refusal to react to changing economic circumstances over the last year is unacceptable. The Fed's mismanagement and their management failures have been especially disastrous during the Biden administration. Instead of fighting for the interests of American families, he has chosen to appease the administration hellbent on reckless, inflation-fueling spending.

It is clear to me that the raging inflation crisis we are seeing across America is the fault of Joe Biden and Joe Biden alone. But the Fed's weak appeasement has helped grease the wheels in advancing Biden's reckless spending agenda.

This isn't just my opinion. The Fed knows this is true. Just weeks ago, the San Francisco Fed wrote that the spending packages Biden pushed to allegedly counteract the effects of the pandemic actually fueled inflation.

I have written letters, held meetings, and had phone calls with Chair Powell and members of the Federal Open Market Committee to express my concerns and demand action to shrink the balance sheet. Again, Chair Powell and the Federal Reserve have chosen to do nothing.

Not one member of the Board of Governors has been able to explain to me why the balance sheet is so big and what size it should be. At every turn, when the Fed could have been fighting for American families by mitigating the long-term risks of its massive balance sheet and telling the truth about the terrible consequences of reckless government spending, it, instead, chose to appease Joe Biden, Wall Street, and the Democrats running Washington, all at the expense of American families. How does Biden reward the Fed for playing nice with him? By turning Chair Powell into his inflation scapegoat.

Earlier today, in the Senate Commerce Committee, after I asked the administration when inflation would come back down, Secretary Raimondo deflected and blamed Chair Powell and the Fed.

But here is my question: If the Biden administration really believes the Fed bears responsibility for inflation, why are they renominating these officials? Why aren't they putting people in who actually can solve the problem? It makes no sense, but that is the endless blame game the Biden administration likes to play.

Americans are sick of weak policy in Washington. It is time for the Federal Reserve to start fighting for real Americans, not Washington politicians. It is clear that the Fed needs new independent and courageous leadership to truly address our Nation's economic problems. Weakness in Fed leadership has produced unsustainable monetary policy that threatens the long-term economic health of our country. It is the very thing I have been warning about for months.

It is clear that the current leadership of the Fed just doesn't care. They don't deserve to hold these seats. They have lost the trust of the American people, and they should be replaced with individuals who will actually stand up for American families and protect the American economy.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, in my 8 years as Governor, I had the opportunity to appoint more than 400 Floridians to the bench. I interviewed thousands of applicants for these seats, and my standards in each of those interviews were the same. I asked them if they understood that they intended to be part of the judiciary and not part of the legislature. And I asked them if they intended to interpret the law and enforce the law but not make new laws. If they couldn't convince me that they believed that was their duty as a member of the judicial branch, then I wouldn't appoint them.

We need qualified jurists committed to fairly and accurately interpreting our Constitution and our laws as they are written, not activist judges who will rewrite the laws according to their own policy preferences.

Now, I have had the chance to meet with Judge Jackson. We had a nice conversation, and she seems like a nice person. But I have very serious concerns about her record as a Federal judge, which includes numerous instances of the type of judicial activism that we cannot and should not tolerate from the Federal judiciary.

The fact is that Judge Jackson has written only two appellate opinions in her current position. So we have no evidence of how she will approach serious constitutional issues as an appellate judge. And she has refused to disclose how she would interpret the Constitution as a Supreme Court Justice, despite being repeatedly and directly asked by Senators on the Judiciary Committee.

And while serving as a district court judge, she had a high rate of being reversed on appeal for applying the wrong legal standards, exceeding her authority, or simply ignoring clear law in her decisions.

And a peek into her history shows an alarming pattern of being weak on sex offenders, including easier sentences in child pornography cases. Judge Jackson imposed sentences that were 47 percent shorter than the national average in cases of child pornography distribution, and 57 percent shorter than the national average in cases of child pornography possession. She has even apologized from the bench when issuing such sentences--not to the victims of those heinous crimes. Of course, they never got an apology. She apologized to the offenders for the ``anguish'' the sentences for their horrific crimes would cause them.

What about the anguish of their victims--innocent children?

These are individuals who harm children. They don't deserve easy sentences or our sympathies.

And this sympathy for child predators has consequences. We recently learned that a child rapist, someone to whom Judge Jackson gave a very lenient sentence, sexually abused another victim after his light sentence. Had Judge Jackson given him the sentence he deserved and the one that the prosecution recommended, he would have been in prison, not out in the streets.

These are crimes that Judge Jackson has the power to prevent, but she has chosen every time to give these gross criminals easier sentences. That is why I have joined Senator Hawley to introduce the Protect Act, which protects children from sexual exploitation by enhancing the penalties for possessing child pornography and preventing judges from sentencing offenders below Federal guidelines. Our communities must be protected from sick individuals who exploit and victimize children, and also from liberal activist judges who abuse their sentencing guidelines to let offenders off the hook. Federal sentencing guidelines for these heinous crimes are critical, and we

must ensure guidelines are strictly enforced. I hope the Senate quickly passes this good bill.

We can't have a soft-on-crime Justice on the Supreme Court, and we can't have activist judges in the highest Court in the land.

I also don't think it is too much for the nominee to the highest Court in the land to be able to say what a woman is or to take a stand against partisan Court packing, which even liberal Justices like Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer have done. We have the right to be concerned and demand answers on behalf of the American people. I think our country deserves better.

That is why I can't support the nomination of Judge Jackson to the Supreme Court. I am committed to giving the American people qualified judges who understand their role in government and who apply the law as it is written, not as they want it to be. It is a simple standard, and it is one that Floridians expect. Unfortunately, based on my best assessment of her record on the bench, that is unfortunately not the case with Judge Jackson.

The Democratic Party needs to understand that the Supreme Court is not just another institution to infiltrate with their leftist ideology. I have no hope that they will, but, until they do, I will continue fighting to uphold the Constitution and ensure that there remains a separation of powers between branches of Government, and that judges who are appointed to the bench understand that they are there to interpret the law, not to make the law.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, reserving the right to object, I guess this is a crazy idea, but I believe that Americans should not be judged by the color of their skin but, rather, by the content of their character. I believe that every person is made in the image of God, and that to judge a person simply based on the color of their skin is wrong.

Unfortunately, across the country, politicians and universities are trying to divide people by race, skin color, ethnicity, or country of origin. It is immoral and a corrosive habit of the woke crowd.

Unfortunately, the professional career of this nominee is entirely wrapped up in promoting critical race theory and dividing people along color lines. His focus at the university where he works is to teach kids about how to divide one another into what Karl Marx referred to as the oppressed and the oppressors.

I am sick of this disgusting ideology, and Americans are sick of it too. Just look at all the Americans who are rejecting it through local elections and protests at school boards.

We shouldn't be elevating people who divide Americans. We should be working with those who want to unite us around our founding principles that made our Nation the greatest country on Earth.

Therefore, I object.

Madam President, reserving the right to object, the Biden administration has failed to properly oversee the Pan American Health Organization, or PAHO.

President Biden and Secretary Blinken know that PAHO has cooperated with the communist regime in Cuba to traffic doctors overseas, and they know there are Cuban doctors who are trying to sue PAHO and hold traffickers accountable.

Here are the facts. In July 2013, the Cuban Ministry of Health signed an agreement with the Brazilian Ministry of Health to formalize an arrangement for Cuban doctors to provide medical services in Brazil.

That agreement required the administration of former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff to transmit a monthly payment through PAHO to the Cuban Ministry of Health for the medical services provided by each Cuban doctor serving in Brazil.

It also prevented Cuban doctors from seeking employment in Brazil outside of the formal structure of the arrangement.

More than 20,000 Cuban medical professionals serving in Brazil under the Mais Medicos Program had their wages stolen by the Cuban Government and received only a small fraction of what they earned, and that was with the support of PAHO.

Their family members were prohibited from accompanying them, and many had their passports confiscated.

Cuban doctors were the only medical professionals participating in the program who had their salaries directly garnished by their government. Meanwhile, doctors from other countries, serving in Brazil, received their full wages for their medical services.

Other Cuban doctors have suffered similar abuses in Angola, Guatemala, Mexico, Qatar, and Venezuela.

For example, in 2019, a group of Cuban doctors reported they had been directed and often coerced to use their medical services to influence votes in favor of the Maduro regime, including by denying medical treatment to opposition supporters and by giving precise voting instructions to elderly patients.

This gross program is a huge moneymaker for the communist thugs ruling Cuba.

In 2018 alone, they pocketed more than $6.3 billion from exporting Cuban professionals to work overseas. This is clearly human trafficking, and medical missions by Cuban doctors represent a majority of those profits.

Since I have been in the Senate, since 2019, I have been fighting for these Cuban doctors and against human trafficking. But actually nothing has been done to hold PAHO accountable. PAHO is hiding behind legal immunity. President Biden has the power to lift their immunity, and I have requested his administration do so multiple times, but they have shamefully declined. It is wrong.

Victims of human trafficking deserve to see their alleged abusers in court, and PAHO should never be able to hide behind claims of immunity to avoid accountability for their role in facilitating those abuses.

I have informed Secretary Blinken that until substantial steps toward fulfilling this request are made, I will be blocking all relevant State Department nominees.

Americans deserve qualified and competent people in positions of power who put American interests first. If this administration wants to appease dictators like the Castro and Diaz-Canel regimes and go to Venezuela and try to buy oil, I am going to hold them accountable.

Therefore, Madam President, I object.

Mr. President, as the Federal Government rightfully continues to levy devastating sanctions on Russia and punish Putin and his thugs for their horrific and unlawful invasion of Ukraine, we cannot, as the Biden administration has signaled it will, choose to empower one dictator so we can punish another.

Nicoles Maduro is the illegitimate, ruthless dictator in Venezuela. I traveled to the Colombia-Venezuela border and saw the suffering of the Venezuelan people at the hand of Maduro's regime. I met with Venezuelan refugees and got updates from Colombian officials on just how bad Venezuelans were being treated by Maduro's tyranny.

Venezuelan children walk for hours through dense forests, across rivers, and over terrorist-controlled territory just to get to a school in Colombia for an education and a meal. Mothers with young children came to Cucuta to get the only meal they would eat for 3 days. I met a pregnant woman who was forced to sleep on the streets of Venezuela because she was homeless. Think about that. I am a father and a grandfather. Imagine having to look at your 3-year-old child or grandchild in the eyes and tell them that they are not going to eat today because there is no food.

The pain, the hunger, the devastation--I cannot believe any human being would do this to young children. It was heartbreaking, and it was evil. And there is one man responsible for it: Nicoles Maduro.

Since my visit, things have only gotten worse. In what is one of the worst humanitarian crises in Latin American history, more than 6 million Venezuelans have fled Maduro's oppression in Venezuela since 2014.

In 2020, a factfinding mission for the United Nations determined that Maduro's regime has engaged in crimes against humanity, including unlawful executions, enforced disappearances, arbitrary detentions, and torture. The regime has imprisoned hundreds of its political opponents and forced countless more into exile. They have used the guise of the COVID-19 pandemic to further crack down on journalists and dissenters.

We know that what has been happening at the direction of Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela is horrific. That is why, in 2019, the previous administration signed an Executive order issuing a complete economic embargo on Venezuela.

We can all agree that the United States should not be bolstering such a disgusting socialist regime, and we cannot forget that any lifting of sanctions or show of appeasement toward Maduro's Venezuela will only further the suffering there and help its evil allies, like Russia, Cuba, communist China, and Iran, which actively support Maduro's abuses. So I and many others were deeply disturbed last week when we learned that President Biden secretly sent a team to Venezuela-- secretly sent a team to Venezuela--and began negotiations on the potential purchase of Venezuelan oil and the easing of sanctions.

High gas prices caused by President Biden's war on American energy and Putin's invasion of Ukraine doesn't mean we can turn a blind eye to Maduro's genocide and oppression. We know that funds going to Maduro are used for terrorism in our hemisphere, and we know that Venezuela and Russia are aligned. If we support one, we support the other. That is why, just days after the American team left, the Russian Foreign Minister traveled to meet with the Venezuelan Vice President.

Now, I am glad the administration finally made the decision to stop buying Russian oil--I think it came too late--but I am glad the Biden administration reluctantly agreed not to purchase oil from Venezuela. We shouldn't be supporting Maduro or Putin. It would be foolish if we made the mistake of supporting one dictator so we could punish another dictator. Maduro has decided to be our enemy, and so is Putin. Neither of them deserves our money.

The Biden administration needs to realize that our enemies are not the world's only source of oil and natural gas. America has huge supplies of oil and natural gas, and we would have access to those resources right now if the Biden administration hadn't spent the past year relentlessly trying to destroy the U.S. oil industry.

On day 1, Biden killed the Keystone Pipeline, and 10,000--10,000-- jobs alongside it were lost. Then he cut off new drilling contracts on public lands. The Biden EPA has added one ridiculous regulation after another to make it more expensive and harder for American oil manufacturers to do business. We went from being nearly energy independent and a net exporter in 2019 to begging cartels and ruthless dictators for oil. This is not American leadership, and it is not American independence.

It is long past time for the administration to admit that its ridiculous Green New Deal policies put our security at risk and hurt American families. Prices at the pump are at an alltime high across the Nation.

We should be solving this problem with our own resources and with our own workers, not with Maduro and his thugs. That is why I have introduced the Banning Operations and Leases with the Illegitimate Venezuelan Authoritarian Regime Act, or the BOLIVAR Act. This bill would prohibit Federal Agencies from doing business with the oppressive Maduro regime. We can't stand by and let Maduro continue to commit genocide against his people, and we have to do everything possible to restrict the money Maduro uses to hold on to power and destabilize the region.

When I was Governor of Florida, I signed a bill that prevented State agencies from investing in companies doing business with the Government of Venezuela.

In 2019, my amendment to cut off funds to the Maduro regime was included in the National Defense Authorization Act.

In March of last year, my colleagues on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee agreed with me, and we unanimously passed the BOLIVAR Act through our committee.

I am thankful for Senators Jacky Rosen, Marco Rubio, and Thom Tillis, who have cosponsored this legislation and helped bring this legislation this far. I also want to thank Congressman Michael Waltz for introducing the companion bipartisan bill in the House of Representatives.

But we didn't introduce the bill only to have the Biden administration begin working with Maduro's thugs and bolstering the corrupt Venezuelan oil industry. We are trying to stop that, and no one should want to be on the side of Maduro's genocide.

I am grateful for the bipartisan support this bill has received, and I hope that the entire Senate will take a stand to support the fight for freedom and the people of Venezuela.

I yield the floor.