Floor Statements

Madam President, at a time when Vladimir Putin is killing Ukrainians, my Democratic colleagues want to kill more unborn American children for any reason up until the moment the baby takes its first breath--up until the moment the baby takes its first breath. Indeed, this bill should be called the ``Abortion on Demand Until Birth Act.''

This is the most egregious, horrific attack on the lives of unborn children and the health of moms in American history. In fact, if my Democratic colleagues had their way, this baby whom I delivered years ago could have been murdered--aborted--the moment prior to this cesarean section.

Listen, just for a moment, to what this bill would do.

No. 1, it goes far and beyond Roe v. Wade by invalidating State laws that protect the unborn child and the health and the well-being of moms. It would likely lead to taxpayer-funded abortions at home and abroad.

It would tie up faith-based hospitals in courts for their not offering abortion services.

This bill fully blows open the door to sex-based abortions.

It eliminates the requirement for informed consent or parental consent.

It eliminates conscience protections. I can tell you, as a physician myself, I wouldn't be surprised if half of the medical students in the Nation and half of the nursing students in the Nation would quit medical school or nursing school if they were going to be forced into participating in abortions.

This bill has a total disregard for women's health. Instead of the standards of a surgery center, this bill would allow for these services to be offered in a garage or in a backroom apartment.

The bill provides the right to provide abortions by any healthcare provider. No longer would it take a physician to do abortions. It would allow nurse midwives, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants to do abortions.

I had to take care of women who had gone through miscarriages at every gestational age. This is not a job for a nurse midwife, a physician assistant, a nurse practitioner. Before we would let residents take care of this type of a miscarriage, they would have gone through 4 years of medical school, and they would have been, most likely, in their second or third year of training before we would have entrusted them with this type of procedure. Again, for a woman who has had a miscarriage, the risks of infection, of hemorrhage, and creating infertility are too great.

This bill would allow States to go unrestricted as to any type of telehealth abortions--abortion by phone. In my opinion, it is malpractice to prescribe such a medicine without examining the patient, seeing how big the uterus is, seeing what the size of the baby is. This procedure is wrought with complications. I am the person who had to take care of those complications. Wichita, KS, was home to one of the biggest abortion clinics in the country, and just 2 hours down the road was Great Bend. Time after time, patients would show up in our emergency room with complications from the procedure or this pill.

I never--I never, ever--imagined, when I would come to the Senate, that I would be fighting harder on the Senate floor to save the lives of moms and babies than I did in the emergency room and the delivery room.

Before I close, I want to say a heartfelt thanks to all of the pro- life advocates across the country who have worked so hard, especially those folks who are part of Kansans for Life and all the pro-life advocates in Kansas who have worked so hard to pass previous legislation to protect the lives of moms and unborn babies that this bill would wipe out with one swoop. I am so proud of the Kansans for Life and their advocacy of the Value Them Both amendment--again, protecting the life of the mom and the baby.

Our work is not done yet. We can't let up. We have more work to do. I can promise you I have only just begun to fight to protect the lives of unborn babies and to protect the health and well-being of mothers.

I urge my colleagues tonight to vote no on this most extreme anti- life legislation.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, I wish to honor a brave citizen of Topeka, KS, Tami Rossillon. This brave woman put herself in the face of danger to rescue not only a drowning dog, but the dog's owner as well.

In late January, Tami was taking a quick work call in her car near Lake Shawnee, when she saw a dog going near the edge to grab a drink. Suddenly, the dog fell through the ice, and shortly after, the owner dove right in to save her pet. Before Tami even saw the owner go into the water, she raced over to offer assistance. She initially tried breaking the ice to get through, but she couldn't puncture enough. With quick thinking, Tami then grabbed the dog leash from another person walking their dog nearby and, after a few attempts, was successfully able to throw the leash to the dog owner and pull her out of the water.

Once everyone was out, Tami's nurse instincts and training were able to ensure that the owner and dog stayed

warm and not harmed. All the while, Tami's work call was still going on and what an explanation she had to give to her coworkers.

Brave acts like this truly showcase the best in Kansans. Tami put her life on the line to save others, showcasing the selfless nature we all possess. She is a true hero for her actions and makes me proud to be a Kansan. I ask my colleagues to join me in honoring and recognizing this noble woman.

Madam President, today I wish to honor the hard work, determination, and sheer grit of the community of Plains, KS. Last month, Grand Avenue Market, the first grocery store in Plains in more than 20 years, opened for business.

For too many across Kansas, food deserts--areas with little access to fresh produce--are all too commonplace. Last month, thanks to the decades-long commitment of community members in Meade County, especially the Community Enhancement Foundation of Plains, the grocery drought was finally brought to an end. But it wasn't easy.

The project to bring a grocery store to Plains began in 2008, when the communities of Kismet and Plains raised nearly $500,000 out of the $2 million required for the initiative. Every day since, amid turbulence and trial, the greater community and the people of Plains never gave up.

After receiving a loan from a USDA, the dream of not having to travel between up to 25 miles to neighboring towns to simply get groceries began to look more like reality. But hurdles in the form of a bank unwilling to honor a letter of credit and banks reluctant to supply another made that dream look rather dim. That is when the community contacted my office.

Using our knowledge of USDA rural development financing programs, we reached out to banks in the area to see if they would be willing to participate in the project to bring fresh produce to Plains. Exploring community banks that understand the importance in investing in community infrastructure, one bank in particular began to emerge.

Heartland Tri State Bank in Elkhart simply made this dream of so many in southwest Kansas possible. I know I speak for all Kansans when I say thank you. Thank you for your investment. Not merely an investment in a grocery store, but a much more important investment--an investment in people and their lives.

It was my sincerest honor to play a small part in helping make Grand Avenue Market a reality. It is with great pleasure that I recognize Plains, KS; Heartland Tri State Bank; the Community Enhancement Foundation of Plains; and the surrounding community for their diligence, effort, and pure will in bringing an end to the grocery drought in their parcel of the prairie that we Kansans call home.

Mr. President, I have two words for you today: ``crack pipes''--crack pipes, not crackpots.

Many of us went to bed last night, others waking up this morning, and heads are exploding across this Nation as we learn that this administration is giving crack pipes to crackheads. I think when the history books are written about this President and 2020 through 2024, that will be the picture right next to the President's name--a picture of crack pipes being given out by this administration.

I want to come back to that in a second, though.

I have a picture of my dad today and our dog Rennie. My dad and our family--my mom, an older brother, younger sister--moved off the family farm when I was 5. My dad was a proud, proud police officer. I remember the day in kindergarten when my dad and our family dog Rennie came to visit and what a proud moment it was for me. In 3 years, my dad was head of the fire department, and 2 years after that, he became the chief of police. My dad was the chief of police in El Dorado, KS, for some 25 years.

My dad represented law in the community. He represented right from wrong, and he applied that law equally. There was never a gray area for my dad. I remember having dinner at my grandma's house one Sunday evening and the phone ringing. We didn't have pagers. We didn't have cell phones.

All I remember, my dad was saying: Stand down.

My grandma looked at us and said: You guys better hug your dad goodbye.

I said: Grandma, what do you mean?

She said: He may not come back.

It was a familiar story of a domestic violence, of a drunk husband with his wife on the front porch. There was always a 12-gauge shotgun. It was never a 16-gauge or a 20; it was always a 12-gauge shotgun. My dad was the person who would go and disarm that person. It happened way too often.

But I just tell that story as we reminisce because we know how important law enforcement officers are to all of us.

I remember, you know, you sit around and you listen while you are making homemade ice cream, and people asked my dad questions about crime. I think of those crack pipes and my dad always saying that drugs and crime go hand in hand like peanut butter and jelly--the more drug abuse there is, the more crimes there were in the community.

I remember somebody asking him why would the police officers be so strict about petty crimes. Maybe it was a little vandalism. Maybe it was a broken window. Maybe it was graffiti. I remember my dad talking about, you have to set an example, that if you allow people to vandalize, if you allow people to do graffiti, if you allow people to break windows, it is just a cascade of bigger crimes.

I finished up some townhalls this past weekend--15 townhalls in the past 2 weeks--and what Americans are concerned about are inflation and crime. This is what Americans--Kansans--are telling me that they are seeing every night on their television sets. They are seeing 2 million people--maybe 6 million people--cross our border illegally, and they see this administration reward them with an all-expenses-paid vacation trip to any city in America.

America has seen riots and vandalism on television, and this administration and this party applaud them. Every night, we see looting and shoplifting, but this administration says: Don't prosecute.

Last year, America saw 5 tons of fentanyl cross the border illegally, cross our southern border--five tons. Think of five big semitrucks loaded with a ton--that is 2,000 pounds--of fentanyl. I remind everybody that 1 teaspoon of fentanyl can kill 2,000 to 3,000 Americans.

We are seeing our law enforcement officers being told to turn their backs on violent crimes, to not chase the bad guys. America sees this White House and their party turn their backs on law enforcement officers.

Again, I go back to my dad. I remember it was probably around 2014, and my dad and I were fishing, as we often do together, probably crappie fishing on a farm pond in the Flint Hills of Kansas, my favorite place to be. My dad said to me: You know, Son, I don't think this President has the back of our law enforcement officers any more.

As I visit with those law enforcement officers every time I am back-- and I appreciate them coming to my townhalls and having my back--I can tell you, the law enforcement officers across this country do not feel like they are being supported by this White House.

As I think about an America of today versus growing up, I do think there has been a decay in our culture, and this ``defund the police'' movement from the radical left made that culture even weaker. We have members of this squad wanting to close Federal prisons. They encourage open borders. They want illegals to use arrest warrants to get through the TSA. Of course, they want criminals to get off the hook. There is this culture of lawlessness.

Again, I go back to my generation of ``If it feels good, do it.'' I remember that saying for the first time from some song, I believe, from the early 1970s, ``If it feels good, do it,'' and that is the way this country is acting right now. What is the result? We see crowds chanting ``Pigs in a blanket, fry `em [up] like bacon.''

``Pigs in a blanket, fry `em [up] like bacon.''

The next time one of those houses is burning down that one of those people lives in, I wonder who they are going to call. If they are stranded in a motor vehicle accident, who is going to be the first one on the scene? Again, I go back to thinking about my dad and him carrying out one of my classmates in second grade from a fire. Unfortunately, my classmate didn't make it.

Three hundred forty-six law enforcement officers were shot in 2021. Seventy-three were intentional. Twenty-four were shot last month--a 40- percent increase. Ambush-style attacks increased 115 percent. We have never seen a crimewave like this across our Nation--not since the early 1990s, anyway. The United States recently saw the fastest increase in murder rates ever recorded. Violent crimes spiked. Fourteen major, Democratic-run cities are setting alltime highs for homicide records. The numbers continue to go up.

As I think about advice for this administration, I know if they had the will, they could fix this problem. I know exactly what my dad would tell them. He would say: Treat criminals like criminals. Treat police officers, law enforcement officers, like heroes. Tell them thanks. Reward them. Respect them.

It is time to re-fund the police, folks. It is time to secure the border. Let's hold criminals accountable.

It was a rare day, but I do remember my dad talking at the supper table about someone they worked so hard to convict, and a judge or DA let them off easy. We need to prosecute the smallest of crimes.

We need an Attorney General. Where is our Attorney General? Where is he? In the middle of this crime spree, where is our Attorney General? He needs to be tough on crime instead of labeling parents as ``domestic terrorists.''

Simply, America, it is time to get back to our values--the same values my dad raised us on. It is time to, like my dad did, apply the law equally.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, it was just a couple weeks ago that President Biden asked the Nation--he asked Republicans: What are Republicans for?

I want to make it clear tonight that I am for border security. I am for law and order.

I have been to the border three times in the past 4 to 5 years, and what I saw there was a crisis. And if I could, I just want to paint just for a minute what that crisis looks like.

Having been overseas doing medical mission work, I think I know a humanitarian, a health crisis when I see it, and this was a humanitarian crisis, a health crisis--thousands of people sleeping underneath a bridge. They just traveled across Mexico for days, maybe weeks, maybe months.

And as a physician, I looked out there, and what did I see? I saw people who were dehydrated, malnourishment, dehydration from diarrhea, from dysentery, scabies, tuberculosis.

The Border Patrol was overwhelmed. The doctors were overwhelmed, the nurses, the dentists--everybody was overwhelmed. That is what I would call a humanitarian crisis.

One of the biggest humanitarian crises going on, though, is human trafficking. As an obstetrician/gynecologist in Kansas, believe it or not, we would have to take care of young women who had been abused from human trafficking. Maybe they had chlamydia, maybe they were having a miscarriage, but I am just shocked at the amount of human trafficking going on across the border.

In fiscal year 2021, 145,000 unaccompanied minors were apprehended at the southern border. And I want to emphasize, this is young girls and young boys that are being abused and sold into sex slavery.

Of that 145,000, about a third of the minors that were released to a sponsor we lost contact with. Are we turning children over to human trafficking? I think that is what we are all concerned about.

So I think certainly there is indeed a humanitarian crisis, a health crisis there.

Just to talk a little bit more about the border--and we will put that up here and renegotiate the microphone.

Look at the statistics from last year alone. Two million people were apprehended at the border last year--2 million people. Do you realize that there are 14 States in this country with less than 2 million people?

And beyond that, as I spoke with the Border Patrol there, they told me for every person they apprehend that two got across the lines, so probably an additional 4 million people came across, a total of 6 million. There are 30 States in our country with a population of 6 million people.

Furthermore, what we are doing is making the cartel rich. Again, what I was told by Texas Rangers and Border Patrol officers is the cartel is making $3,000 to $9,000 per person. And, of course, if it was some person maybe from the Middle East, a little bit harder to get across the border, they were getting $20 to $30,000 a person as well.

I haven't talked yet about the national security crisis. I think we have all seen the films and the reports of single adult males being flown on nighttime flights across the Nation being released, migrants using arrest warrants as forms of identification. I think, you know, America is not stupid. We see what is going on.

I want to talk about fentanyl for a second. So probably 90, 95 percent of the fentanyl coming into this country is made in China, coming across our southern border.

An average month of fentanyl being seized at the border was over 800 pounds. That is almost a half a ton of fentanyl. That would kill 200 million people. Now, this is a drug that if a drug dog sniffs it, it kills them. It makes them stop breathing. Most normal people, if they just had a small, small amount in it, it would make them stop breathing.

This is the national security crisis going on--more young people dying from fentanyl overdose than from COVID--and that is just part of the national security crisis.

You know, I kind of started off this discussion saying what I am for; that I am for border security. I want to tell you how we can fix the problems there, and these are solutions every American knows.

DHS, several years ago, came up with a $25 billion budget to control the border. I couldn't think of a better way to invest $25 billion of American dollars--to build a wall where it needs to be built, to finish the wall, to put the gates in that are sitting there rusting away. We could start with that.

We, of course, need more boots on the ground, more technology, more drug dogs--but $25 billion would significantly improve the situation on the southern border.

Next, the administration can fully and in good faith enforce the ``Remain in Mexico'' policy and then catch-and-release practices.

And, finally, this, of course: work with Mexico. Let's go back and ask Mexico to help us to get the control, the security on the border; ask them to work on their southern border, which is much easier to control and, of course, work with our Border Patrol on our common border.

This is a crisis that America sees. Every townhall I do, someone is going to bring it up. Every one of them, without any question, someone is going to ask me--they say: Why does President Biden want this crisis?

I say: Well, what do you mean, he wants it?

They say: Well, obviously, he wants this crisis because it would still--it would be so easy to fix.

So if we see the problem, we know the solution--that would be my question for President Biden. Do you have the will to fix this crisis?

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, today I wish to recognize VADM Paul Frederick Foster, USN, of Wichita, KS, on the 50th anniversary of his passing. Foster was the first Naval Officer to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor. Moreover, he earned the Navy Cross, the Distinguished Service Award, and Navy Merit Commendation. VADM Paul Frederick Foster was a true American hero.

Paul Foster was in Wichita, KS, in 1889. He was the son of a traveling minister and thus grew up in Kansas, Utah, Oklahoma, and finally Idaho. There, he would attend the University of Idaho for 1 year before earning an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD, from Senator Fred Dubois of Idaho in 1907. In June 1911, Foster exited the Naval Academy as a passed midshipman with a bachelor of science. He was commissioned as ensign in July 1911. After graduation he would be attached to the USS Washington, but by December was quickly transferred to the USS Utah, a battleship in the Atlantic Fleet.

In the beginning of 1914, the United States chose to intercede in the Mexican Revolution. While on its way to Mexico, the USS Utah was instructed to intercept a German ship carrying arms intended for the Mexican dictator Victoriano Huerta. The German ship arrived in Veracruz before the Utah, which resulted in the American occupation of the city. During the fighting on April 21 and 22, Foster led his company ashore. For distinguished conduct in battle, he was awarded the Medal of Honor.

Paul Frederick Foster would go on to serve as commanding officer of multiple submarines during World War I. During his service a submariner, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant commander and was decorated with the Navy Distinguished Service Medal for the sinking enemy submarine. At the outset of U.S involvement in World War II, Foster was called for Active Duty at the rank of commander. He was tasked with naval inspections. The highest rank he would achieve was vice admiral at the time of his second retirement from the Navy. After the war, Paul Frederick Foster was appointed to the Atomic Energy Commission in Vienna, Austria, by President Eisenhower.

It is my honor to commemorate VADM Paul Frederick Foster for his

heroic military service. Today, I send my best wishes to his son, Rear Admiral Paul L. Foster SC, USN-Ret.

Mr. President, I rise today to recognize a truly incredible, and historic performance on the basketball court from K- State's own, Ayoka Lee.

Ayoka is the starting center for the Kansas State Women's Basketball Team and recently set the NCAA all-time record on January 23 in Bramlage Coliseum for most points in a single game, scoring an astounding 61 points against the 14th-ranked Oklahoma Sooners. To put into perspective just how extraordinary this is, the entire Oklahoma roster only scored 65 points against the Wildcats in that game. There is not much more I enjoy than seeing my alma mater win, so this record performance truly brings immense pride to myself and every other K- State alumni.

It is also no surprise that Ayoka was able to achieve this, given her resume. She came to Manhattan as a top 50 national recruit out of high school, then went on to be Big 12 freshman of the year, and First Team All Big-12 her freshman and sophomore year. Not to mention, she has also been on the Big 12 Commissioner's Honor Roll four times. Now in her junior year, Ayoka will surely be First-Team All Big-12 again and is even in the Wooden Award Top-25 Watch List. If this 61-point performance doesn't earn her the Wooden award, it has at least won her a spot in every K-Stater's heart, and we are all thrilled to hear about her plans to come back and play in her final year of NCAA eligibility as she completes her master's degree in the Little Apple.

I ask my colleagues now to join me in recognizing this outstanding achievement by Ayoka Lee. She has made the K-State community proud, and we are all rooting for her to succeed in her career and can't wait to see her and the team bring home a national championship. ``Go Cats!''

Madam President, as everyone in this Chamber knows, the filibuster requires a supermajority--60 votes--to proceed on most issues in the Senate. The filibuster is truly the essence of this deliberative body. It is what makes the Senate the Senate. It is what forces collaboration, long-term solutions, and prevents a partisan roller coaster ride of ever-changing laws and rules every 2 years. The filibuster puts the brakes on hasty legislation and helps prevent unintended consequences, which come with most every new law.

I ask America this: Do you want more laws or less laws? Do we want more certainty from our government or less certainty?

Arguably, the best speeches to keep the filibuster in place have been made by Presidents and Senators from across the aisle. Nothing is more convincing than my Democrat friends' own words.

President Obama, then-Senator Obama, said in a floor speech here in 2005:

But the American people sent us here to be their voice.

They understand that those voices can at times become loud

and argumentative, but they also hope we can disagree without

being disagreeable. At the end of the day, they expect both

parties to work together to get the people's business done.

What they do not expect is for one party, be it Republican

or Democrat, to change the rules in the middle of the game so

they can make all the decisions while the other party is told

to sit down and keep quiet.

I am still quoting President Obama here:

The American people want less partisanship in this town,

but everyone in this Chamber knows that if the majority

chooses to end the filibuster, if they choose to change the

rules and put an end to democratic debate, then the fighting,

the bitterness, and the gridlock will only get worse.

In that same year, our current majority leader stated from this very floor, and I quote the majority leader again:

We are on the precipice of a crisis, a constitutional

crisis. The checks and balances which have been at the core

of this Republic are about to be evaporated by the nuclear

option, the checks and balances which say if you get 51

percent of the vote you do not get your way 100 percent of

the time. It is amazing. It is almost a temper tantrum by

those on the hard right.

Still quoting the current majority leader:

That is not becoming of the leadership of the Republican

side of the aisle, nor is it becoming of this Republic. That

is what we call abuse of power.

If the current Democrat majority party jams this through, they will live to rue the day, possibly as soon as next year. But for now, my colleagues across the aisle are kowtowing to the radical left base. The tail is wagging the proverbial dog.

Sadly, 25 of my colleagues across the aisle have flip-flopped from a position they staked out in writing just 4 years ago, but thank goodness that 1 Senator who signed the letter has remained true to his word.

What has happened to change the minds of these 25 Senators? Why is the national media not asking them the same question? Because it would point out the hypocrisy.

Let me remind them all, as President Joe Biden once stated to this body, that removing the 60-vote threshold would, and I again quote-- again from President Biden:

Quite frankly, it is the ultimate act of unfairness to

alter the unique responsibility of the Senate and to do so by

breaking the very rules of the Senate. . . . Put simply, the

nuclear option would transform the Senate from the so-called

cooling saucer our Founding Fathers talked about to cool the

passions of the day, to a pure majoritarian body like

parliament. . . . But the Senate is not meant to be a place

of pure majoritarianism. At its core, the filibuster is not

about stopping a nominee or a bill, it is about compromise

and moderation.

These men and women of noble character, in their heart of hearts, do they truly believe in making this rule change that will forever alter the way our government functions, the way our Founding Fathers intended it to be? What will they say to the people of their State when the shoe is on the other foot, when Republicans hold the majority in the Senate once again and Republicans show them how the hog eats the cabbage?

I yield the floor.

Madam President, today I wish to recognize Gary Amble of Kansas City, KS. For the last 30 years, Gary has worked for his community by broadcasting the weather. I would like to congratulate him on his retirement from KCTV5 and thank him for the invaluable service that he has provided Kansas over the last three decades.

In 1987, Gary graduated from the University of Kansas with a degree in atmospheric science. Before his employment at KCTV5, Gary worked as the head anchor at WHO-TV in Des Moines, morning meteorologist for KDFA in Amarillo, weekend weathercaster for KSNT in Topeka, and chief weathercaster for Cable 6 in Lawrence. While in Des Moines, he worked 22 hours continuously live on the air covering the unprecedented flood of 1993, which affected nine States along the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. He has described it as a highlight of his career. Gary's tenure at KCTV5 began in the summer of 1994, where he would stay for the next 28 years. There, he cemented himself as the Kansas City area's familiar face of weather, always charismatic and--most importantly--accurate whenever he came on screen. Because of his distinguished career, Gary has been awarded the American Meteorological Society seal of approval, and is currently a member of the society.

Tracking and reporting on the weather is great public service, so I take pride in recognizing Gary Amble as an exceptional member of the Kansas community. I would like to wish Gary and his family the best in this new chapter of their lives.

Madam President, I rise today to honor and memorialize a true representation of Kansas values. Mrs. Ruth Scheer departed this Earth on January 4, 2022, after a long life full of faith, family, service, and community.

Ruth was born and raised in Wichita, KS, where her parents, Clyde and Edith, provided a childhood full of love and support. She quickly picked up a love for music, beginning with the accordion before she turned 10. Her musical efforts, nurtured by her parents, continued to grow as she did. Ruth's talent and dedication were rewarded by the opportunity to perform in the National Piano Playing Auditions and winning multiple piano diplomas throughout high school and college. Her love of music and the arts continued as she started a family with her husband, Harold. She taught her children to play various instruments and sing. She even led the family to perform multiple operettas in the community as the ``Scheer Delights.''

Beyond music, Ruth also inspired children by publishing seven children's books. Each book contained different messages, but at the heart of her literary philosophy was finding the best version of one's self through God's guidance. These books have undoubtedly touched many lives, and I appreciate that she spent her career bringing such a wonderful sentiment to life.

Ruth practiced what she preached by finding the best version of herself and employing her time and talents with an impressive number of prominent organizations throughout Wichita. Highlights of her involvement include the First Evangelical Free Church, 3-time president of the Thursday Afternoon Music Club, member of the Alpha Beta Mothers Club, and she even received the Kansas Mother of the Year Award.

In my own life, my parents showed me the importance of community and staying involved. A strong, connected community benefits its members by fostering happiness and success. Ruth embodied what it means to be a community builder, mother, and teacher. Wichita is a better place because of her efforts. She is a role model everyone should strive to emulate in their own communities. I ask my colleagues to join me in remembering Ruth Scheer and celebrating a life well-lived.

Madam President, I rise today to honor a true hero from Labette County, KS, Deputy Gabe Vitt. His quick thinking and expertise helped save the life of a woman in a situation only seen in movies.

Deputy Vitt was on patrol in Parsons, when he heard over his radio that a woman had been hit by a train. EMS was preparing to respond to the situation like they normally would, but the person calling about the accident disconnected before they could say where the woman was hit. By great luck and coincidence, Deputy Vitt was only a few blocks from the tracks.

Realizing that emergency medical services wouldn't be there in time, he rushed to the scene to find a woman with a severed leg. Making use of his EMT training from school at Labette Community College, Vitt was able to apply a tourniquet which stabilized the woman's leg steady, ultimately saving her life. After the incident, Deputy Vitt credited that training heavily, describing his heroics as a natural reaction to the situation. Had he not been nearby or received his EMT training, that woman may very well not be here today.

I want to thank this brave officer for being so courageous to dive headfirst into peril. As the son of a police chief, I know the risks our men and women in blue take on each day. I admire these unique citizens for continually working to ensure our safety. Deputy Vitt has shown what true valor looks like, and Labette County is safer because of him. I ask now that my colleagues show this same admiration and recognition for Deputy Vitt and that he may stay safe protecting his community.

Mr. President, I may be one of the Senate's newest Members, but that does not mean I don't understand the importance of the filibuster to this body or to this Nation as a whole.

Like Senators before me, I have observed the practice from the other side of the Capitol as a Member of the House and have heard the calls from a frustrated majority to eliminate it for the sake of jamming through an agenda and cashing in the political gain that would come from doing so.

But anyone who has an appreciation for our founding knows the purpose of the filibuster is indeed to frustrate the majority, to serve as an additional check in our government, and drive consensus and cooperation. Its purpose is to protect the rights of the minority and prevent the tyranny of the majority--in short, to save us from ourselves.

The Senators supporting the majority leader's effort to eliminate the 60-vote threshold seemed to once understand this too. Just a few years ago, 25 of them cosigned a letter opposing ``any effort to curtail the existing rights and prerogatives of Senators to engage in full, robust, and extended debate.''

Sadly, we are now witnessing the most blatant hypocritical policy switch we have ever seen, as many current Democrat Senators and the President have abandoned these principles.

This flip-flop appears to be all in the name of greed and power. They want to break the filibuster so they can break other institutions, such as the Supreme Court and State-run elections, to rig our political system in their favor because they can't win on their own radical socialist policies.

Without the filibuster, we will see tax laws, immigration rules, and more major policy go up and down like a roller coaster, negatively impacting our economy, creating uncertainty, and making it impossible for long-term business planning.

The filibuster is meant to force both parties to work together to come up with long-lasting policies which will help all Americans.

Take, for example, voting legislation. I want to make it easier to vote and harder to cheat--easier to vote, harder to cheat. With Nancy Pelosi's power grab act and other radical election proposals, the Democrats want to let the Federal Government take over our elections, which is unconstitutional, make it easier to commit fraud, pave the way for mass ballot harvesting, let felons vote, take integrity out of the elections process by prohibiting voter ID--something I am proud to say Kansas requires, voter identification, and it is working--and, finally, route taxpayer dollars toward funding political candidates they may not agree with.

I hope that Members of this body can come together, in a bipartisan way, to tackle the important issue of election integrity without destroying the 60-vote threshold in the Senate.

We have shown, in recent weeks, we can work together in a bipartisan fashion. The Senate voted 88 to 11 to pass the annual Defense authorization bill in December. The HELP Committee is currently working through a bipartisan bill to help tackle future pandemics. We can still tackle major issues in the Senate without abandoning our principles.

The right to extended debate for Members of this body has been preserved for two centuries, longer than the constitutional method of electing Senators via their home State legislature, which was ended when the 17th Amendment was ratified.

It is a dark day that Senators are being forced to come to the Senate floor to defend the 60-vote threshold. It would be one of the body's darkest days if 51 Senators changed the rules and removed our rights to robust debate and the right of our home States to have equal representation in this most distinguished legislative body. And it will come back to haunt them.

The answer to these partisan times is not to double down on partisanship and blow up the filibuster. I pray cooler and wiser heads will prevail, and we will maintain this important function of the Senate. Otherwise, our Nation is destined to become a winner-takes-all system, where the rights of the minority will never again be considered, and our Nation will suffer for it.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the following interns from my office be granted floor privileges for the remainder of the Congress: Francis Prosser, Jared Sackett, Emily Irsik, and Tel Wittmer.

Mr. President, it was 2 years ago this month that I stood on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives and was the first person to speak about a novel coronavirus, soon to be called COVID-19. Two years ago, I had been reading about this virus for several weeks, and something in my gut as a physician told me this was not going to be a common cold. I chatted with the CDC, and I implored them to start doing research on the origins of the virus, asking ``Was it from nature or from a laboratory?'' and that we needed to work on vaccines, therapeutics, and testing.

As we all know, the development of an American vaccine, thanks to Operation Warp Speed, was successful. As for the testing, we know the CDC fumbled it, but the private sector saved us. And therapeutics? Not so much. Therapeutics have never been a priority for this administration.

As we return to our Nation's Capital, I would venture to say that very few Americans didn't have somebody in their families catch Omicron, and my family was no different. We shared the same experience as millions of other Americans did. Despite being vaccinated, one of my loved ones with underlying healthcare conditions caught the Omicron virus. As I saw my loved one start having asthma, wheezing, and become short of breath, I did what every spouse would do and said: Well, we need to go get tested. We need to talk to a doctor.

So we drove to several testing sites, and we had the option of standing in line for 3 or 4 hours with sick people. If we didn't have the Omicron, we certainly would have by the time we left. We called around and finally were able to get an appointment the next day for testing.

I am not sure if you have ever seen a person with asthma, but you can see the distress in their face as they wheeze, as they become short of breath. This is something with which I am all too familiar. I have taken care of thousands of women, pregnant women, with asthma. I have been in the emergency room with them, having to admit them to the ICU, and I knew that was the road that we were headed to.

I called around, hoping to find some monoclonal antibodies--a place where we could go and we could get monoclonal antibodies. Then there is this new miracle of biotherapeutics out there. I thought, well, maybe we could get those, but none were to be had.

In watching my wife continue to suffer, I decided, you know, I think we need to do some type of telemedicine. So we called a doctor and set up a telemedicine visit--someone who had taken care of thousands of patients with the coronavirus. We did the appointment, and he prescribed Ivermectin for her. After the first tablet, it was a miracle. Within an hour, her labored breathing had settled down. By the next day, her second dose, she was almost completely better right before my eyes.

Again, I remind everybody it has been 2 years since this pandemic started, and we still have limited access to therapeutics. Again, as we all know, the Biden administration's approach to this is to put all of their eggs in one basket. They believed in a one-size-fits-all approach. Vaccine mandates, masks, and testing was their prescription to getting us through this pandemic. All of those have had a place, and all of them have had some successes, but when a million people in 1 day are testing positive, it is not surprising we can't keep up with the testing, and that is why we need therapeutics.

In fact, the Federal Government has allocated over $80 billion for testing--$80 billion for testing--and only $15 billion for therapeutics. This is simply unacceptable. We are 2 years into this pandemic, and we have only spent $15 billion on therapeutics. The Biden administration should have already established an Operation-Warp-Speed approach to the development, manufacturing, and distribution of therapeutics.

It just always seems like this administration has been a day late and a dollar short. For example, in mid-2021, we saw the Delta wave coming. We all knew it was coming, and we had real-world evidence in the summer of 2021 to suggest that a booster shot would be helpful for seniors and at-risk individuals. It was in June of 2020 that I asked the CDC and the FDA to consider letting physicians meet with their patients and prescribe a booster ahead of

the Delta wave--again, in the summer of 2020.

Unfortunately, the FDA waited until September 22 to approve the booster. Between June and September, more than 11,000 seniors died from breakthrough infections, while more than 230,000 people tested positive. No doubt, a booster and/or therapeutics could have made a big difference in these seniors' lives.

It is easy to talk about the mistakes we have made with this virus. I want to spend a moment talking about solutions, though.

We need to unleash our community health centers and our county health departments in this COVID-19 fight. They have been the backbone of vaccination and treatment for communicable diseases for decades.

Once the Biden administration agrees to prioritize therapeutics, we need community health centers and county health departments to take over the telemedicine visits with trained nurses and implement treatment protocols across the United States.

In Kansas alone, we have over 200 community health centers and clinics funded with Federal dollars, along with over 100 local health departments that are accustomed to dealing with infectious diseases on a daily basis. These folks can implement these protocols based upon triaging at-risk individuals and starting early treatment. This will prevent many trips to the ER, as well as hospitalizations. Early treatment is what works.

Finally, and this goes without saying, I trust these nurses to make necessary referrals to the emergency room. They can do this. How do I know it? I have worked with these nurses for 30 years. I helped sponsor--was the medical director for three county health departments for almost 30 years. They do an incredible job. They are well equipped to handle this effort, but they need the Biden administration to move on therapeutics and move fast.

The medicines you could get for less than $100 can oftentimes prevent hospitalizations and ICU visits. We need to give doctors the options of using therapeutics, along with steroids, anti-inflammatories, and other standard protocols that have been developed by these physicians who have treated literally thousands of COVID-19 patients.

Certainly, if we have better access to monoclonal antibodies or if these new miracle antiviral agents were available, we could use them as well. But, please, let's empower physicians and these health departments and community health centers, these experienced nurses, to do their job.

Time is precious. We cannot afford additional delays. We can't afford more confusion, more mixed messaging, and more mixed management. The Biden administration must let patients and physicians decide what is best in their unique healthcare situation, not somebody who is sitting on a throne in Washington, DC, who seldom sees patients in the real world.

Thank you.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I rise today to recognize the 40th anniversary of the U.S. Coast Guard Pay and Personnel Center in Topeka, KS. The Pay and Personnel Center was first established in 1979 in the suburb area of Washington, DC. In 1982, with the help of Senator Bob Dole, the center permanently moved to the Frank Carlson Federal Building in Topeka. It is a true honor that I and my staff have the pleasure of working with this devoted lineup of leaders on a routine basis.

The Pay and Personnel Center offers a focused and essential service to more than 142,000 men and women of the U.S. Coast Guard. Their mission is to provide caring and responsive personnel and compensation services for each of their military members, retirees, annuitants, and other customers in support of the Department of Homeland Security missions. The Pay and Personnel Center has continued to operate with superb attention to detail without much attention publicly. They carry out the passionate mission of providing the compensation and services necessary to keep our Coast Guard focused, secure, and dedicated. These men and women truly go above and beyond to help our Coast Guard members.

I offer congratulations and accolades to the Pay and Personnel Center on 40 years of hard work and superior service to our men and women in the U.S. Coast Guard. The center is an illustrious example of the Coast Guard motto, Semper Paratus, Always Ready. I ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing this milestone.