Floor Statements

Mr. President, last week, the Senate passed legislation to fund the Department of Health and Human Services and other Agencies, including a section reflecting bipartisan, bicameral negotiations on healthcare policies in the jurisdiction of the Finance Committee. This bill takes important steps forward on healthcare priorities like taking on pharmaceutical middlemen, also known as pharmacy benefit managers, and achieving mental health parity by going after insurance companies that mislead seniors in Medicare Advantage with lists of doctors that aren't actually available. Americans have deep concerns about the state of their healthcare, and these reforms represent a down payment on the effort to ensure our system benefits families over giant corporations.

This package also includes a 5-year extension of the Hospital at Home Program, an innovative initiative championed by my friend and former colleague Senator Thomas R. Carper. I want to take a moment to recognize Senator Carper's leadership to advance the Hospital at Home Program. This special initiative allows hospitals to treat patients in their homes, rather than in-patient facilities. The program lets patients receive healthcare services where they want, supports family caregivers, and increases hospitals' capacity.

Through the Hospital at Home Program, hospitals are able to provide acute care to patients in their own living rooms through a combination of telehealth and in-person care along with home-delivered meals, nutrition, and medication. Hospitals are able to set patients up with equipment so they are continuously monitored from the comfort of their own homes.

Senator Carper knows the value of providing Federal support for solutions that help more Americans receive healthcare in the setting they prefer: their own homes. So far, 381 hospitals across 37 States are approved to participate in the Hospital at Home Program, and a long-term extension of the program will give more hospitals the certainty they need to take advantage of this opportunity to help patients receive healthcare in their homes. It will also help researchers evaluate whether the program is lowering out-of-pocket healthcare costs, improving outcomes for patients, and expanding access to services offered by rural and urban safety net hospitals. This data will be invaluable as Congress contemplates the future of the program.

Senator Carper championed Hospital at Home up until his last days serving the Senate because he knew of the value it delivered to his constituents and its potential to serve Americans across the country, especially in rural and underserved communities. In recognition of his leadership, the Congressional Record should reflect that this extension would not have been possible without the leadership, vision, and persistence of Senator Carper.

Mr. President, for the Trump administration to stomp to death the 1st, the 2nd, the 4th, the 5th, and the 10th Amendments to the Constitution is not immigration enforcement. It is a totally lawless abuse of Federal power.

The First Amendment guarantees Americans the right to make their voices heard and to document lawlessness by the Federal Government. It guarantees the right to peacefully assemble and protest against those abuses.

The Second Amendment guarantees the right to bear arms. Regardless of what you think about current gun law, there is no justification for murdering a man who was lawfully carrying a firearm.

The Fourth Amendment protects the American people against illegal search and seizure of their property. That includes private data and information. I will touch more on that in a minute.

The Fifth Amendment guarantees the right to due process. Instead, Trump's masked agents are now stopping people across the country and saying: Papers, please.

Then they get thrown into unmarked vehicles, herded into detention centers, and deported to dangerous conditions without due process.

The 10th Amendment limits Federal Government overreach, and it protects States' rights. The recent events in Minneapolis--the murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti--demonstrate exactly how the Trump administration is breaking the law and trashing the Constitution.

Mr. Pretti was exercising his First Amendment rights to peaceably observe and record abuses--abuses by ICE agents. He was exercising his Second Amendment right to lawfully carry a

firearm, and he had a permit. He was murdered by the CBP agents.

Renee Good was sitting in her car, exercising her First Amendment right to peaceably observe the actions of Federal agents. She was shot and killed in broad daylight.

In both instances, there is ample video evidence to disprove the Trump administration's idea that these Americans were domestic terrorists who were covering up lawful killings.

I warned, when Trump began deploying Federal agents to our cities, that lives would be at risk. That is now the reality. So our country needs appropriate Federal law enforcement to identify and remove those who committed violent crimes. What is not needed is an American Gestapo rousting tourists, immigrants, and naturalized and native-born Americans, alike, with guns to their head.

Shooting unarmed Americans on the street is not immigration enforcement. It is intimidation. It is a blatant attempt to suppress free speech and anybody who tries to stand up to Trump's abuse of Federal power.

Trump's ICE and CBP agents have clearly been trained in fear tactics, instead of in legitimate law enforcement.

I have said it before, and I want to say it again before the Senate: Kristi Noem and the political appointees at DHS have got to go.

So I am calling on ICE and CBP agents in our streets to get out of our communities. I am pushing for legislation to get them out of schools and hospitals, places of worship, childcare centers, courthouses, and additional public spaces.

I am also calling for the end of ICE locking people up who don't need to be, including the end of family detention and privately run immigration detention centers. And I call on the Border Patrol to go back to ports of entry and get out of the business of terrorizing our communities miles away from duty stations.

If an individual has committed a local crime, then local law enforcement can step up.

It is far past time that these armed agents who have now murdered two American citizens and shot more under disturbing circumstances are sidelined.

ICE and CBP agents certainly have proven they can't be trusted in our communities with weapons and firearms, as we have seen. If you listen to Trump and his crowd, they seem to think it is the American people who ought to be disarmed.

I think most people around our country understand we need to overhaul immigration to continue the rich history of welcoming immigrants and refugees as we secure our border and enforce immigration laws, but that is not what Trump's lawless activities are about. Right now, ICE is destroying the rule of law, not protecting it.

I have made it clear that I cannot and will not support more Federal funding for Trump's ICE unless there is an end to these killings and abuses and accountability for everybody involved. In its current form, ICE is no longer an immigration enforcement Agency; it is Trump and the administration's personal Gestapo. There can be no more funding for ICE when it kills people on the streets, incites violence, and defies the law.

When Democrats have the opportunity, we will investigate and publicly prosecute anybody complicit in these murders, from Kristi Noem to Mr. Bovino, all the way down to the ICE and CBP agents who pulled the trigger on Renee Good and Alex Pretti. It is also important to investigate the agents who have subjected immigrants, including children, to extraordinary cruelty.

Before wrapping up, I want to touch on something else that has been missed with regard to the abuses, and that is data privacy.

For years, I have come to this floor to sound the alarm on the growing appetite of ICE to exploit legal loopholes that allow the Federal Government to buy up troves of Americans' most private information, including geolocation data. We now see exactly how the Trump administration is abusing that information. ICE is using Palantir apps to collect biometric data and run protesters through facial recognition systems. This amounts to labeling people as domestic terrorists just for exercising their First Amendment right to peaceably protest and report on Federal agents. It is a clear threat to the constitutional rights of Americans, and I am working with Senator Markey and others to stop these abuses.

Second, ICE is buying Americans' private location data from sleazy data brokers through a legal loophole that allows the government to get around the Fourth Amendment. This isn't a red issue or a blue issue; it is a constitutional issue. The American Government has no business in purchasing the location data of American citizens. So I have proposed the Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act. That would put a stop to the government being able to buy up troves of Americans' personal data from anybody who has got a credit card. We ought to be pushing to get it passed into black-letter law as soon as possible so that Agencies like ICE don't have access to the personal information of millions of Americans.

Finally, my investigators exposed that ICE is using government data from State motor vehicle departments and other Federal Agencies. It has refused to answer questions as to how that data is being used. So we are leading a fight here in the Senate to rein them in.

I have warned States that care about their residents: They had better stop sharing DMV data and enabling ICE abuses. ICE is using this information to target Americans on our streets.

My view is that it is important for the Senate to recognize that data privacy is now a life-and-death issue in America. As long as Trump's agents are shooting American citizens dead on the street, this administration having access to our private location data and other information is a threat to everybody's safety.

I will close with this. My parents fled the Nazis during the very real threat of growing authoritarianism in Germany. What the Trump administration is offering us is, indeed, the authoritarian playbook: Attack the weakest in order to cow the rest of us.

My family knows a thing or two about watching a democracy slide toward authoritarian rule. I know a little bit about what comes next.

The American people have a right to feel and be safe. No one should be forced to live in a country where they are terrified that Federal agents might bust their door open in the middle of the night. I hope that all Americans who have a chance to follow this discussion and learn about it, in the days ahead, will speak out and that all Americans will never, never, never yield their liberties.

I yield the floor.

Tomorrow is the final day for Americans to sign up for health

insurance through the Affordable Care Act Marketplace. After that, the doors slam shut, high premiums are locked in, and millions of families all across the land will be unable to afford essential care.

On this side of the aisle, we have been working for more than a year to develop bipartisan support to prevent this from happening. We told our Republican colleagues we wanted to work with them, long before Donald Trump was sworn in. Democrats spent the summer warning about the dangers of higher premiums, while Republicans were forcing through the largest cut in history.

We pressed for action before the signup period began. At every turn, Donald Trump and congressional Republicans slammed the door in the face of millions of Americans seeking premium relief.

This morning, it is clear why. Yesterday, the Republican Study Committee, which constitutes a majority of the House Republican conference, released yet another new plan to unleash another set of harmful partisan changes to Americans' healthcare. This is being done when millions are already reeling from the cuts that we saw to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act in the last bill.

The new draft plan contains yet another trillion dollars in cuts to healthcare which, if passed, would represent a knockout blow to the American healthcare system. It is, once again, another hacksaw to Medicaid, targeting blue States and cities in yet another attempt to weaponize the Federal Government against the Republicans' political opponents. This new Republican plan would unleash insurance companies and shady brokers to push more junk plans that I can tell you aren't worth the paper they are written on.

Americans are fed up with high healthcare costs, and yet Republicans now want to double down on misery and, once again, allow these Swiss cheese health plans that don't cover healthcare like chemotherapy or prescription drugs.

This morning, the mask is off. It is clear Republicans haven't been serious about holding premiums down from the start. All the hemming and hawing about healthcare premiums and taking on big insurance has been for show, and the American people are fed up with excuses.

Today is an opportunity, finally, to do the right thing. Senator Schumer has made it clear that extending the tax credits for middle- class healthcare is a key first step--a first step--toward moving America toward a healthcare system that puts our families first. That is the priority, not helping giant corporations looking to do another stock buyback.

Unfortunately, it seems like Republicans, on healthcare, are focused on doubling down in the wrong direction. That is what this morning's developments say.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, before she leaves the floor, I just want to say that the Senator from Minnesota has been relentless in terms of standing up for folks who are just trying to get a fair shake on their premiums. I have been doing this since my days with the Gray Panthers, and I know what it means to be persistent. That defines Senator Klobuchar, and I thank her.

I am pleased to be working with Senator Warner and Senator Ossoff-- and I see Senator Kaine here--because all of us want to make sure we lower healthcare costs for American families.

Today, the Senate is going to vote to repeal a host of damaging policies that Donald Trump, Robert Kennedy, and Dr. Oz have unleashed on Americans who are unsuspecting. People are just trying to get by in tough times and are going to get hammered, and from the day Donald Trump was sworn in, this administration made attacking Americans' healthcare their top priority.

Last summer, Republicans in Congress rammed through a massive bill to give tax breaks to billionaires and giant corporations, while making the largest healthcare cuts in American history.

At the same time, the Trump administration used the Byzantine Federal rulemaking process to double down on these efforts by finalizing the rule that all of us on this side of the aisle are working to repeal today. The harmful changes made by the Trump administration come down to one proposition: It is OK to have more redtape, and it is just fine to increase healthcare costs.

That is the exact opposite of our agenda, which is to focus on affordability and making the American healthcare system simpler.

I am going to just tick through a couple of the worst examples to illustrate why these rules need to be junked.

First, the Trump rules will increase what American families have to pay out of pocket each year by nearly $1,000. So the question becomes: What is the purpose behind that change, other than to take money from Americans who are already struggling?

The rule adds new fees, such as a new reenrollment fee that applies to low-income workers. To be clear, that means, if you want to keep your health insurance, you have got to pay a fee to the government just for the right to keep what you have got. Even by Washington, DC, standards--I say to my friend from Montana--that just defies common sense.

They also create mandatory minimum premiums that are going to cause millions to lose their coverage.

Now, Republicans say that these fees are aimed at reducing fraud. There is just no evidence to back it up. My view has been, ever since my days with the Gray Panthers, and my friend from Virginia knows about this--I say any fraud--any fraud--is too much. But the numbers are clear. The vast majority of fraud in healthcare is conducted by shady insurance brokers who are looking to make a fast buck through commissions from phony enrollments, not working Americans looking to buy healthcare.

So I have introduced legislation to create tough, criminal penalties for these insurance brokers. So make no mistake about it, Senator Kaine, there is something we ought to be doing to root out fraud. Let's go after these insurance brokers with tough criminal penalties.

I have been talking to Republicans to ask them to join as cosponsors, and they haven't been willing, really, to give us the time of day. Instead of going after fraud where it exists, Donald Trump and Republicans create barriers that are going to trip up Americans trying to navigate a healthcare system that is just too complicated.

Beyond fees and higher premiums, the Trump rule also adds new verification checks and enrollment rules that amount to an enormous heap of redtape. These redtape measures, according to authorities who have analyzed them, are going to create 15 million hours of paperwork, and 1.8 million people are going to lose their coverage as they try to navigate this never-never land of a maze of healthcare rules.

These types of changes are right out of the playbook of Big Insurance because they create barriers and bureaucratic hurdles so they can keep more of your money while denying working families basic healthcare.

It is no secret that Americans are fed up with a healthcare system that gets in their way at every turn. It is time for Republicans to do the right thing and join with Democrats to lower Americans' healthcare costs, instead of creating new cost barriers and redtape restrictions. They can help those families by voting with us today.

I urge my colleagues to support Senator Warner, Senator Ossoff, Senator Klobuchar, and Senator Kaine. We are all here for one purpose: less bureaucracy, less redtape, lowering premiums for families.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I am announcing my intention to object to any unanimous consent request to proceed to H.R. 5345, the Improving Social Security's Service to Victims of Identity Theft Act.

I support my colleagues' efforts to support victims of identity theft, including children, and I am a proud cosponsor of this effort. However, I continue to be concerned that the bill's lack of administrative funding to implement the legislation would harm the Agency's ability to serve the American public.

According to SSA estimates in August 2024, implementing this bill would cost approximately $93 million over 10 years due to hiring and training new employees, implementing necessary system changes, and estimated increased workloads.

According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Social Security's customer service budget has dropped by 23 percent since fiscal year 2010 after adjusting for inflation. Over the same period, SSA is serving 17 million more Social Security beneficiaries, a 28- percent increase. Moreover, Since February 2025, SSA reduced staff by nearly 6,000 employees through encouraging retirements and voluntary resignations, including 2,000 from frontline positions. In August 2025, SSA diverted 2,000 field office staff away from serving customers in the front office to answer national 800 number calls indefinitely. Field offices, which bore the brunt of those staffing cuts, are now forced to backfill the staffing shortages with other employees at the expense of timely processing benefit claims and assisting seniors who come into the field offices. Simply put, SSA is having to do more with less resources and fewer staff.

Creating a new component within the Agency without sufficient funding will force SSA to divert even more of its skeletal staff away from its other core mission work to perform these duties, exacerbating wait times further.

I am committed to working with the sponsors of the legislation and our colleagues on the Committee on Appropriations to ensure that SSA has the necessary resources to effectively implement the bill while improving customer service for the millions of Americans who rely on Social Security. Until then, I will object to any unanimous consent request in relation to this legislation.

Mr. President, there is a runaway train barreling toward our country in the form of a massive increase in healthcare costs for millions of Americans who are tied to the tracks.

Today, the Senate will vote on two different plans: One, offered by Democrats, would save Americans from the health cost freight train and get them off the tracks. The other, offered by Republicans, amounts to tossing Americans a hacksaw and wishing them luck as the train speeds into view.

Come January 1, millions of Americans are going to have to figure out how they are going to pay for their healthcare. Families will be making a near-torturous decision between paying their premiums or paying for rent and groceries. Millions will decide to forgo coverage completely.

The Republican plan on offer is snake oil in a gaping wound. It is going to spark an avalanche of junk insurance plans designed to enrich big insurance

companies. A puny savings account to cover the cost of an appendectomy, having a baby, or getting your tonsils out under the Republican plan is going to leave patients up to their eyeballs in financial debt.

The biggest winner under this Republican scheme won't be Bartley and Carla of Eugene, OR, whose premiums will skyrocket by 500 percent on January 1. The real winner under the Republican proposal will be Big Insurance--specifically, the biggest, UnitedHealth Group. But enriching rich donors and giant corporations while typical Americans foot the bill is pretty much par for the course under a failed Republican leadership.

What Democrats are offering today is a clean extension of the tax credits to keep ACA plans in place.

Every Member of this body can agree that healthcare costs and insurance companies are spinning out of control and that more needs to be done to rein them in, but the solution is not to kick millions of people off their healthcare until Republicans get their act together to find a replacement.

I am now going to take a brief moment to talk about the off-base Republican claims about fraud in the individual market.

The fact is, Republicans are cherry-picking statistics or are outright distorting the facts to justify kicking millions of people off their healthcare under the guise of fighting fraud. Independent Federal watchdogs recently posed as sleazy insurance brokers to fraudulently enroll Americans in healthcare plans. That tells me that what is needed is tough criminal penalties aimed at stopping these unscrupulous insurance brokers.

I wrote that legislation--legislation that would, for the first time, hit the sleazy insurance brokers with criminal penalties.

Based on how much my Republican colleagues talk about fraud, you would think they would be tripping over themselves to support our bill, but none of them are doing so. That tells me that their rhetoric is just empty talk.

I will close with this: The only timely solution that saves Americans who are now in harm's way is by extending these credits and keeping costs down for families. Once the crisis is averted, let's look in a bold, new direction for American healthcare because it is clear the status quo doesn't work.

I urge my colleagues to support a clean extension of the ACA tax credits to provide American families the money they need to pay for high-quality healthcare.

I yield the floor.

While he is on the floor, I want to tell my colleague, it has been a pleasure to work with him on this, and what you have said is so eloquent. I am going to be very brief and just make one point. What you want to make sure of is that the American people aren't in the dark with respect to important health issues. You want them to be able to comment. You want them to be able to weigh in. And I think that is extraordinarily important.

And the reason it is needed is, earlier this year, Robert Kennedy took the unprecedented step of doing away with that and basically taking away that right to comment on matters that are so important to them. From day one of his tenure at HHS, he has gone to great lengths to upend public health and erode the safeguards that have been in place for decades to keep kids and seniors and families safe and healthy. He has fired thousands of scientists, health professionals, and staff in charge of the health and well-being of kids and families.

And one of the things that I appreciated your mentioning is, the roots of this--the roots of the Richardson waiver--are with Republicans. This was not some plot by a bunch of people for ideological reasons on the other side of the political spectrum. This was a basic proposition of making sure that people had a say in the healthcare policies that the Federal Government enacts.

And I would just say to my friend, back in my days when I was director of the Gray Panthers--I know my colleague was with legal aid-- we thought the right to participate was just about as fundamental as you can get. And doing away with that makes it a lot easier to undermine science and healthcare in America and make every one of us less safe.

And under the rule change that is being talked about, it is all being done for reasons of secrecy.

Since Kennedy's repeal of the Richardson waiver, HHS has abruptly and arbitrarily canceled hundreds of millions of dollars of previously approved public health funding. The Secretary has announced a major reorganization of his Department, resulting in fewer health experts at HHS, and without the Richardson safeguard in place, it seems to me that we will have a government that is emboldened to move forward with sweeping rules about vaccines without input from the public.

Robert Kennedy--and my colleague touched on this--promised radical transparency. We had the confirmation hearing in the Senate Finance Committee. So on promises for radical transparency, it looks like what we got, to me, I would say to my colleague, is radical secrecy. Instead of throwing open the doors of government, what has happened is the gates have been shut, and the key has been thrown away.

So the resolution that you are introducing today makes sure that the American people get their voice back, and on what I think is the most important issue, which is health.

I visited with my colleague before on this, I have always felt the most important issue is health because, if you and your loved ones don't have their health, everything else goes by the board.

And what you are doing with this important resolution is giving Americans a say in the future direction of their own health. You are giving them the power to speak up about this crusade against healthcare and the power to speak out against the policies that are making them less safe.

I come to the floor today to say that this is a thoroughly nonpartisan CRA. You look at this and the language and what you are trying to do, and how you describe it on the floor has really drained some of the ugly partisanship out of an important debate. You have said this comes down to--as I said earlier: Let's make sure the American people aren't in the dark.

I urge my colleagues to vote for transparency, to vote for the right to weigh in on these healthcare issues.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, reserving the right to object, I am going to make just a few brief points in response to Senator Ernst's proposal.

This bill would rescind each dollar of unspent funding from emergency supplementals, including funds America needs to prevent the spread of infectious diseases. For example, the Trump administration is using this funding right now--that is right now--to address an Ebola outbreak.

Rescinding this funding makes America less safe. The point of the Rapid Response Reserve Fund is to have money in case there is a need for a rapid response.

This funding can save lives. This bill would further rescind funding for medical supply chain development, manufacturing, and production to develop products like a universal flu vaccine to prevent the next pandemic. And it rescinds funding available to build a stronger healthcare workforce for nurses and disease specialists who can address emergency interventions.

I want to say to my colleague: We have always worked well together, and I would be glad to work with her and other colleagues to have a comprehensive look at what should and should not be rescinded because of the discussion that we have just had.

That is something that should be done as part of the appropriations process, not, in my view, through this legislation.

For that reason, Mr. President, I object.

Mr. President, families across the country are struggling with skyrocketing costs--health costs, grocery costs, energy costs--but instead of working to address these challenges, Republicans are bringing yet another disastrous Trump nominee forward to support his agenda.

Thomas March Bell has been nominated to be the independent watchdog at America's health Agency. There could not be a more dangerous choice for this position.

I have long believed in the bipartisan coalition that works here to defend the integrity and the independence of the inspectors general.

Senator Grassley once said:

Inspectors General are intended to be equal opportunity

investigators and are designed to combat waste, fraud, abuse

and misconduct . . . without regard to political affiliation.

They are the ultimate [drainers of the swamp].

One of Donald Trump's very first acts after taking office was to fire these independent investigators. In less than a year, he has gutted the integrity and independence of these Offices.

A few years ago, this body overwhelmingly passed a law to secure the independence of the inspectors general in government, but 4 days into his second term, Donald Trump threw that law into the dumpster. He unlawfully fired nearly two dozen inspectors general across the government. Now he is replacing them with a wave of partisan operatives who stand ready to sabotage the independent oversight of inspectors general. Meanwhile, it has been crickets from Republicans. They are just happy to let him do it.

No nominee has exemplified the assault on independent oversight quite like March Bell, the nominee to serve as Health and Human Services inspector general.

I would be remiss if I didn't start off by noting that he is nominated to fill a position that is not legally vacant. He is nominated to fill the role of an inspector general that was illegally fired by Donald Trump.

My Democratic colleagues and I on the Finance Committee urged Chairman Crapo to pause this nomination. It was met with radio silence. Now Republicans are pushing him through, unbothered by Donald Trump's complete disregard for the law that almost every one of them voted for just a few years ago. How times change.

Let me talk about Mr. Bell's supposed qualifications. Once in a while, I get called a privacy hawk, and I never consider that an insult. I have worked for decades, often with my Republican colleagues, to safeguard the privacy of Oregonians and all Americans. I have come to believe there are few places where privacy is more important than in the healthcare system. That is why this nomination is so dangerous for

Mr. President, I am announcing my intention to object to any unanimous consent request to proceed to H.R. 5284, the Claiming Age Clarity Act.

I support my colleagues' efforts to simplify the language the Social Security Administration, SSA, uses related to claiming retirement benefits. However, I am concerned that the bill's lack of administrative funding to implement the legislation would harm the Agency's ability to serve the American public.

According to SSA estimates in September 2025, implementing this bill would cost between $8 and $12 million and require significant manpower to update its rules, regulations, guidance, and other materials-- including benefit statements--both printed and online versions.

According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Social Security's customer service budget has dropped by 23 percent since fiscal year 2010 after adjusting for inflation. Over the same period, SSA is serving 17 million more Social Security beneficiaries, a 28- percent increase. Moreover, since February 2025, SSA reduced staff by nearly 6,000 employees through encouraging retirements and voluntary resignations, including 2,000 from frontline positions. In August 2025, SSA diverted 2,000 field office staff away from serving customers in the front office to answer national 800 number calls indefinitely. Field offices, which bore the brunt of those staffing cuts, are now forced to backfill the staffing shortages with other employees at the expense of timely processing benefit claims and assisting seniors who come into the field offices. Simply put, SSA is having to do more with less resources and fewer staff.

As my colleagues know, annual statements are an effective communication strategy to educate individuals about their earnings and payroll tax records, estimate of earned monthly benefits, and other information designed to help them more effectively plan for retirement. To this end, SSA has worked diligently over the last several years to streamline and modernize the Social Security annual statements to increase the public's understanding of its programs. However, SSA's funding constraints already limit SSA's ability to educate Americans about their Social Security benefits. Section 1143 of the Social Security Act, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1320b-13, SSA is required to mail Social Security annual statements to most workers aged 25 and older who are not currently receiving Social Security benefits. Yet, due to budgetary constraints, SSA has suspended mailing statements to those individuals since 2011.

Enacting this legislation without providing SSA with the necessary resources to implement and effectively communicate this change, including mailing annual statements, would stymie the bill's effects. Similarly, changing terminology--even to make it clearer--would presumably create confusion among some, resulting in increased call volume and foot traffic in the field offices and on the national 1-800 number.

I am committed to working with the sponsors of the legislation and our colleagues on the Committee on Appropriations to ensure that SSA has the necessary resources to effectively implement the bill while improving customer service for the millions of Americans who rely on Social Security. Until then, I will object to any unanimous consent request in relation to this legislation.

Reserving the right to object, I don't often disagree with my friend and longtime colleague from Illinois, and I very much share the stated goals of the STOP CSAM Act. Child sexual abuse material is a toxic plague on the internet. There are real victims who need support and criminals who have to be hunted down and locked up. I don't take a back seat to anybody when it comes to helping kids and punishing predators.

Last Congress, Senator Durbin and I compromised on a different version of this bill and agreed to let that version pass by unanimous consent.

Let me say that again. Last Congress, we reached agreement on a version of this bill that could have passed unanimously.

Today, to my regret, the sponsors have chosen to abandon those negotiations and instead are seeking to advance what I consider to be a dangerous bill that would make internet users unsafe. That is because the bill would weaken the single strongest technology that protects kids and families online. That is strong encryption. It will make it easier to punish sites using encryption to secure private conversations and personal devices.

While STOP CSAM sponsors claim that their bill does not target encryption, the bill explicitly allows courts to punish companies that offer strong encryption. It also would encourage scanning of content on users' phones or computers before information is sent over the internet, which has, in my view, the same consequences as breaking encryption.

Weakening encryption and other security technologies is the single biggest gift that can be given to the predators and dangerous criminals who want to stalk and spy on kids. Sexual predators will have a far easier time stealing and extorting photographs of children, tracking their phones, and spying on their private messages when encryption is breached.

Doing so threatens the privacy and security of every single law- abiding American.

I heard some talk about who supports the bill. Let me tell you who supports the bill. It is Big Tech. Google and X have endorsed that. Let me repeat that. Google and X have endorsed this bill. It is the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and the American Civil Liberties Union who oppose it.

This is really about who are you for. I am here for women who depend on encryption to seek reproductive healthcare information. I am here for journalists reporting on sensitive stories in places where their messages could be intercepted and used against them. I am here for kids and teenagers seeking information about immigration laws as Donald Trump continues a brutal crackdown.

The key to better protecting kids online is to do what is effective, not what only sounds effective. Congress ought to focus our energy on giving law enforcement officials the tools they need to find and prosecute criminals responsible for exploiting children and spreading vile abuse materials online and to help prevent children from becoming victims in the first place. I repeatedly have given that support to prosecutors and law enforcement officials to do more to protect kids from being exploited.

I remain open to revisiting conversations with the bill's sponsors to get back to a version that doesn't make the internet less safe. We did find a compromise in the last Congress, and I want to say to my longtime friend Senator Durbin and my colleagues on both sides of the aisle that I am willing to work together to find another such compromise.

I urge, for example, my colleagues to support my bipartisan Invest in Kids' Safety Act, which I will shortly reintroduce. The bill would direct $5 billion in mandatory funding to do three things: one, give law enforcement agencies the tools and personnel they need to catch the predators who create and spread CSAM; two, fund community-based programs to prevent at-risk kids from becoming victims in the first place; and three, invest in programs to support survivors of abuse. Any legislation that doesn't include those pieces is missing the point, and that is why I object today.

Mr. President, I was participating in the 2025 Oregon Business Plan Leadership Summit and necessarily absent for rollcall vote No. 635, the motion to invoke cloture on the nomination of Robert Chamberlin to be United States District Judge for the Northern District of Mississippi. Had I been present for this vote, I would have voted no.

Mr. President, I rise to speak in support of legislation to strike the provision in the Federal funding package that would give a windfall to a handful of Republican Senators who the Biden administration investigated in connection with Trump's effort to try to overthrow the government on January 6, 2021. This provision would give those Senators $500,000 for every phone call appearing on a call log, adding up to a corrupt giveaway of hundreds of millions or possibly even billions of taxpayer dollars. One of my colleagues has already bragged about his plans to sue the Federal Government to secure himself a payday.

How did we get here? My staff unearthed this secret provision shortly after the government funding bill was released. The brazenness of this corruption kind of takes your breath away. I immediately blew the whistle about this awful misuse of taxpayer money and alerted the press. Once the public learned of the heist, they were outraged and Members of Congress couldn't distance themselves from it fast enough.

Now, I am outraged over the corrupt Republican payoff, but I completely agree that it is important to notify Senators who have been surveilled by the government. Every American should have the right to be told, eventually, if the government spies on them, which is why I have authored the bipartisan Government Surveillance Transparency Act to do just that.

Notifying Congress when Federal, State, or Local government Agencies spy on it is essential to protecting the separation of powers and our Constitution. The fact is that right now, the FBI, any State attorney general, or even a local sheriff, can obtain the phone records of every Member of Congress, and we would never find out. This poses a major threat to the separation of powers. That is why I have called for Senators to be notified about surveillance in response to overreach by Trump in the past. Once Senator Heinrich's bill passes, I am committed to working with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to address the threat of surveillance by the executive branch.

It is deeply regrettable that my colleagues took a well-intentioned protection against government surveillance and wrapped it in an unacceptable giveaway of Americans' tax dollars to Republican Senators. I am committed to scrapping this provision and passing real protections against government overreach, not just for U.S. Senators, but for every single American.

It is my distinct honor and privilege to recognize and congratulate Dr. Bruce Siegel on his retirement after an extraordinary career as a visionary leader whose four decades of service in public health, hospital administration, and health policy have left an indelible mark on our Nation's healthcare system. Bruce has spent his entire career advocating on behalf of our Nation's most at-risk populations and the providers that care for them. For the past 14 years, he has led America's Essential Hospitals, formerly the National Association of Public Hospitals, championing the cause of mission- driven safety net hospitals that serve communities facing the greatest social and financial barriers to care.

Dr. Siegel's tenure has been defined by bold and effective advocacy. He led efforts to preserve the 340B Drug Pricing Program, secured $15 billion in targeted safety-net hospital funding during the COVID-19 pandemic, and fought to close Medicaid payment gaps. He was instrumental in stopping harmful cuts to Medicaid disproportionate share hospital funding and oversaw the association's successful rebranding in 2013. Perhaps most notably, Dr. Siegel spearheaded a national campaign to incorporate social risk factors into Federal value-based purchasing programs, an unprecedented step toward recognizing and addressing health disparities in policy and practice.

Dr. Siegel's medical career began after graduating from the Joan & Sanford I. Weill Medical College of Cornell University and reflects a deep commitment to public service and health equity. From his early days as New Jersey's Commissioner of Health to his leadership of NYC Health + Hospitals and Tampa General Hospital and later as a professor and director at George Washington University, Dr. Siegel has consistently worked to improve care for the most vulnerable among us, performing pioneering research into healthcare quality, healthcare disparities, and the safety net. He has had a significant and positive impact on our healthcare system, and his contributions will be sorely missed. As he prepares to retire at the end of 2025, I thank Dr. Siegel for his tireless dedication and visionary leadership. His legacy will continue to inspire future generations of healthcare advocates and public servants.

Mr. President, I come to the floor today to discuss several recent floor developments.

Yesterday, Senate Republicans started talking about big insurance companies and women's healthcare. Now, I have heard a lot of talk from Republicans about how the Affordable Care Act is just a big giveaway to insurance companies. I would ask any Republican who accuses Democrats of bailing out insurance companies to talk to a small business owner in their State who fears that if they don't have the tax credits next year--I repeat, next year--those small businesses won't be able to keep their doors open, run their business, pay their employees, and pay for healthcare.

Now, if Republicans are serious about cracking down on price gouging by insurance companies and executives who want a big payday, I welcome them to the fight. I have been at it for years. I wrote the first tough law--it was bipartisan; it is on the books--to stop the rip-offs of older people who had 10 or 15 insurance policies that weren't worth the paper they were written on.

But I can say that since a handful of Republicans joined me in 2008 to crack down on the abuses of insurance companies, Republicans willing to go after Big Insurance have been mighty few and very far between.

So let me repeat. I will work with any Republican that wants to go after profit-hungry crooks and get them out of the insurance business, where they are jacking up costs and denying care, but it shouldn't come--and I say this to my colleagues--it shouldn't come at the cost of kicking millions out of their healthcare in January.

Democrats want to bring down costs for families. It is that simple. So I am not a sympathizer with the UnitedHealth Group; I am here on behalf of Carla and Bartley of Eugene, who are looking--I say to my colleague in the Chair--they are looking at a 500-percent increase in their premium this year.

Now, Republicans say they might vote to lower Americans' healthcare costs but only if we agree, in addition, to a backdoor national abortion ban. As always, Republicans are spinning a tale that the government is funding abortion. It isn't. Here is the reality: The Affordable Care Act already prohibits the use of taxpayer dollars for this care. Zero Federal dollars pay for this care in ACA plans.

What Republicans are talking about putting on the table amounts to nothing short of a backdoor national abortion ban. Instead of working with Democrats to fix the healthcare crisis they created, Republicans now want to hold women's healthcare hostage and force a radical agenda on the American people.

I have one thing to say about that: Not on my watch.

Under this plan, Republicans could weaponize Federal funding for any organization that does anything related to women's reproductive healthcare. They could also weaponize the Tax Code by revoking the nonprofit status of these organizations.

Republicans have already demonstrated that they are willing to weaponize the law to deny women basic healthcare. Donald Trump defunded Planned Parenthood in his horrible budget bill. So the possibilities here are endless, but the results are the same--a complete and total restriction on abortion courtesy of Republican Senators. They have been laying the groundwork for decades, and now they are pulling out all the stops to do it. The Budget chair is already talking about another reconciliation bill in this session, so this is a real and present danger.

Donald Trump said he would leave abortion care up to the States. Well, this latest scheme makes it pretty clear: A de facto nationwide abortion ban has been his plan all along.

Since Roe was overturned, women are being denied lifesaving medical care; doctors are fleeing States where they fear persecution.

Democrats were told for years by Republicans that we were blowing these scenarios way out of proportion. We were told again and again that we were fearmongering. Instead, now it is all coming true.

Democrats must dismiss this radical Trojan horse against women's essential healthcare out of hand, and the time to do it is now.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I support this proposal and would like Americans to know why.

Since before Donald Trump was sworn in for a second term, Senate Democrats have known that this is a healthcare problem for millions of

American families that cries out for fixing.

Again and again, we asked our Republican colleagues to work with us, sit with us, and negotiate improvements in a black-letter law that makes Americans' healthcare better for American families. Again and again we were turned down.

So on the Senate Finance Committee, everybody knew this day was coming, long before Donald Trump took the oath of office. Now the crisis is here, and I am here to say our door is still open.

The Senate Finance Committee has a track record of getting bipartisan work done. Senator Crapo and I wrote a bill that transformed how pharmacy benefit managers work in Medicare. It passed the Finance Committee 26 to nothing. Despite this track record, Republicans still refuse to sit down and even have a conversation about how to help these Americans afford their premiums. That is why we have all been out on the floor today.

I am in a fight for Bart and Carla from Eugene, OR, a few years away from Medicare. They have had long careers as a carpenter and a teacher. They worked hard. Now the rug is being pulled out from under them. They have been paying $400 a month in premiums. Without an extension of the credits, they are going to pay $2,200 a month. That is an increase they just can't handle.

My Republican colleagues have provided a host of excuses about why they can't work with us, but the excuses don't hold water. For example, there have been allegations of fraud--the same straw man that they used to make the largest Medicaid cuts in history.

Republicans pretend they are fighting for us, but, really, they are just pushing up costs and kicking working people off their health insurance. So to, again, try to bring everybody together, we introduced legislation that would prevent bad-actor brokers from enrolling or switching people into plans without their knowledge. That way we could slap fraudsters with criminal penalties when they harm consumers. On the Republican side, after all the talk, no cosponsors.

Finally, there has been an excuse that says this policy was created during COVID, and now that the pandemic is passed, the tax credits ought to lapse too. It doesn't make any sense to me. I don't see Republicans coming down to the floor, for example, to say that telehealth benefits for seniors on Medicare should expire because they were created during the pandemic.

This is something I feel strongly about. As my friend from Minnesota knows, I wrote that with the late Orrin Hatch on a bipartisan basis. And the first Trump administration used them to great success.

Just because a good healthcare policy was created in a crisis moment doesn't mean it ought to be ripped away from Americans once the crisis is passed, especially when ending that policy would create a new crisis for over 20 million people who no longer will be able to afford good quality healthcare.

Those are just a couple of the Republican excuses. But the bottom line is, over here, we want to protect families' healthcare and keep premiums from rocketing into the stratosphere. Unfortunately, the Republicans haven't shared that view.

My hope is--and we have had an important conversation. I appreciate the leadership of Senator Klobuchar. We have had an important conversation about trying to get our colleagues on the other side of the aisle to do the right thing. Join us. Join us, as we have done so often in the Senate Finance Committee, and lower Americans' healthcare costs.

I yield the floor.