Floor Statements

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to enter into a colloquy with my colleagues Senator Curtis and Senator Armstrong.

Mr. President, I have the privilege--I have been in the Senate for 12 years, and I have never led a codel, but I decided one last trip that I wanted to take before I left the Senate was to get back over to Ukraine to really understand what is going on, on the ground and maybe what message we should convey to our colleagues here in the Senate and to our--to the administration and to the American people.

This is the second time I went to Ukraine. We also had a very, very productive visit with the government leaders in Poland before we traveled over to Kyiv and then to Kharkiv. We were actually the first delegation since the war began that has been able to get out to Kharkiv where the fighting is only about 10 or so miles away from the city's center.

But as we were going on the trip--well, first, when you are in Kyiv, which we spent the first 24 hours, it is an amazing sight to see a country that was illegally invaded that is being bombed on a daily basis still trying to have some semblance of normalcy--and this is in Kyiv.

But then when you go to Kharkiv and you see, as you are riding out there, civilian targets: gas stations, convenience stores, schools, and buildings that have all been bombed by the indiscriminate bombing of Russia, it gives you a real sense of the devastation, the heartbreak, and all that is wrong with the decision that Vladimir Putin made to invade a sovereign nation.

And I, for one, think that the war--I agree with the people of Ukraine. That invasion started in 2014. As a matter of fact, I remember vividly when I was campaigning in 2014 how critical I was of the Obama administration; in the face of an illegal invasion, the idea was to send them blankets, not to send them the support that they needed to repel a foreign invader.

Now fast forward, they are invaded again, and they are doing the same things in the outer reaches of Ukraine that they have been doing in Crimea. They are trying to--they tell kids in Crimea in school that the leaders of Ukraine are Nazis; that they are there for the denazification of Ukraine.

I find that rich since the President of Ukraine is Jewish, but that is what Vladimir Putin is telling his folks to tell these kids in school; that they are subhuman; that the people of Ukraine are. You can't think of them as human beings; you think of them as life forms that they need to eliminate.

But later on in the colloquy, I want to talk about what we need to do. But I also want to go back to a trip that I took a couple of years ago, my first time into Kyiv, and the devastation and the stories that I witnessed in an area called Bucha.

I did a floor speech after that visit, and I really want the American people to understand what happened there in about the first month of the war shortly after they invaded that February 2022.

Vladimir Putin directly allowed mercenaries and military officers to authorize their folks on the ground to indiscriminately kill innocent civilians.

There are numerous reports of rape of a daughter, rape of a wife in the presence of the husband, then to have the husband murdered. This is not fake; this is well documented. As a matter of fact, I went to a memorial where I saw those victims' names on a wall. That is what we are dealing with in Ukraine. That was 4 years ago, and they are continuing that systematic terror of this population.

That is what we are dealing with here. We are not dealing with two adversaries or two countries that we have good relationships with and that we are trying to calm a dispute between the two. We are literally talking about, in my opinion--I will let my colleagues speak for themselves--a fight between good and evil, between communism and Western democracy, between freedom and totalitarianism. That is what we are confronted with in Ukraine.

I could go on with a number of other examples, but rather than do that now, I would like to defer to my colleague from Utah, Senator Curtis. It was his first time in Ukraine, but some insights and takeaways from you, Senator Curtis, and then we will go to Senator Armstrong

I am so glad you mentioned that. I agree. Thank you.

Thank you, Senator Armstrong and Senator Curtis.

I think what we all left with is an unambiguous view that Russia is the aggressor and Ukraine is the victim.

We all need to understand that when Russia was lying to us and saying they were just doing a training exercise and then turned it into a special military operation, our best intelligence estimates indicated to us--not publicly but in a private setting at the time--that Russia would likely have air superiority within about 3 or 4 days and total control of the ground within a week or two.

Putin has failed. He never achieved anything resembling that. He has sent tens of thousands of Russians into a meat grinder. It is so bad now that he is talking about conscription beyond the forced conscription he has now. And get this--he is forcing young Ukrainians to kill Ukrainians because they are brainwashing these young people into thinking they are subhuman.

He is not conscripting Russians yet. He is likely going to. But what he is doing is letting people out of prison and giving them U.S. dollars--$40,000 and $60,000 bonuses--to go on the battlefield. One of them was a prisoner of war. He was a sexual predator right out of prison. His family was given $60,000 to go fight. Now he has been captured, and he is going to be used to possibly trade to get a prisoner of war back to Ukraine.

Right now, 30,000 Russians are dying every month. They are being plowed down, and they are making no ground. You heard Senator Curtis talk about a snail moving more quickly. That is mathematically true. If the snail started to get to where they are on the frontline right now, they would have beaten the Russians.

So the last 10 minutes we have here before we have a UC coming up, I think, at 5:05 is to talk about what is next.

What I think is next is asking the President, encouraging the President to use to the maximum extent possible the sanctions capabilities that Congress sent to him over the past couple of weeks to put the pressure on Russia, to not be the first President who equivocates against a Russian dictator, to continue the tradition of getting an opportunity. When you can win against communism, when you can win against totalitarianism, you do everything you can to win. And guess what. It will not require a single drop of American blood on the battlefield.

All the Ukrainians want is support. All they want is intelligence. All they want is to make sure that the European nations continue to do what they are doing and the United States maybe do a little bit more, and that has as much to do with sanctions as it has to do with materiel support. I, for one, hope we can do both.

If I have time remaining, I do want to talk about what I think is a dreadful trend in the last year and a half in terms of materiel support, but I would like to hear from Senator Curtis and Senator Armstrong about what we think we need to do to help Ukrainians before they go into the winter, which is when they are most vulnerable, because I firmly believe that if they make it through this winter, Putin's days are numbered and rightly so.

Senator Curtis.

Mr. President, thanks again to my colleagues from Utah and Oklahoma.

This graphic--by the way, the gentleman putting this graphic up is my staff--my MLA--Mike Leeman. It is his birthday today. I don't know if that is allowed, to say that. I won't sing ``Happy Birthday,'' though, for the Parliamentarian's sake. But Mike Leeman is one of the ones who coordinated the trip.

You did a great job, Mike.

Mike also prepared these stats for me because I want to give you an idea of what the winter is going to look like and what the Ukrainians are up against if last year is any indication.

Between October 2525 and March of 2026, the U.N. Human Rights Monitoring Mission documented at least 423 attacks on electricity generation, transmission, and distribution facilities; 74 strikes on combined heat and powerplants.

Vladimir Putin is trying to freeze the Ukrainians to death. This is not targeting military facilities. It is targeting homes like people in the Gallery have here, hopefully, safely. It is targeting schools. It is targeting hospitals.

In Kyiv, the attacks resulted in nearly 6,000 multistory buildings not having heat. That is what happened last year. Does anybody believe that Putin is going to do anything less this year?

I could go through a long list of civilian targets, healthcare facilities, schools. Kids are meeting in subways now because they can't safely go to school.

That is the environment the Ukrainian people are living in year- round, but they have the unique threat of a harsh winter. And literally Putin's strategy of terrorism is to freeze them to death in their homes. That is what we are up against. That is what he did last year. Many people died.

What I am worried about--and what we need to do getting ready for this winter--is to change this trend. Our spending has dropped to almost nothing. Now, we are providing support and other forms beyond just the cash appropriations, but we need to do all of the above, ladies and gentlemen.

With the proper execution of the sanctions that we have authorized the President to move forward with, with the proper resourcing--and they are not asking for a lot. This speech alone gives the Ukrainian people hope. They are a pro-American country, and the Ukrainian people need to know that the Americans are behind them, that Congress is behind them. And we need this administration to take a few steps to make it very clear that they are behind them too.

And it starts with fast-tracking some of the funding that is available. I know it is complicated, but we have got to move quickly. And it also continues with the proper imposition of sanctions capabilities enabled in the bill that we passed in honor of Senator Lindsey Graham.

So over the next 93 days that I have left in Congress, I am going to do everything I can to use every lever we can to convince the administration that we have got to make it a priority. We have to move quickly.

The Ukrainian people are patient and still silently pro-American. I didn't go anywhere without having people in bombed-out facilities thanking America for what we have done there.

Well, I think in this winter America can do a little bit more and, if we do, Putin's days are numbered. That is good for democracy, and that is great for the Western World.

And that is our future--not a reemergence of the Russian Empire, not an opportunity to get success in Ukraine, move to Moldova, and try to Russify all of the free countries that the United States and the European nations liberated. That is the end goal, folks.

It doesn't stop with the occupied territory in Ukraine, unless America steps up, Europe continues to do its job, and we stop them in their tracks.

And that, by the way, is not only good for Europe, but it is good for the Russian people who are suffering under his leadership.

I am going to offer to my colleagues--we are going to be mindful of time. But if you would like to make a few closing comments, I want to thank you.

I see at least one of the staff up in the audience. It was a trek. We were on planes, trains, and automobiles, but I can't think of a more rewarding trip. I had the pleasure of traveling with you all and your staff, and I thank you.

Senator Curtis, do you want to wind up, then Senator Armstrong?

Mr. President, we appreciate the opportunity to have this discussion amongst my colleagues. Again, I thank you all for joining us and the staff that have put it together and support us, and I hope everybody will say a prayer for Ukraine.

Madam President, Republicans yield back all time.

Vote on Motion

Madam President, I rise today to recognize Toyota's extraordinary commitment to North Carolina and to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Japanese Automobile Manufacturers Association.

Toyota's nearly $14 billion battery manufacturing facility in Liberty represents one of the most significant economic development investments in our State's history. When fully staffed, the facility is expected to support 5,100 high-skill American jobs and further establish North Carolina as a leader in advanced manufacturing.

What makes this investment particularly meaningful is the broader commitment Toyota has made to the communities it calls home. Long before production began, the company worked with schools, colleges, and local partners to help build a workforce prepared for the opportunities created by this facility. That effort underscores the importance of connecting education and training with the skills employers need.

Toyota's commitment to North Carolina also extends beyond manufacturing. Its support for local nonprofits, small businesses, and sustainability projects reflects the kind of long-term community partnerships that can accompany major economic investments.

North Carolina's experience with Toyota is part of a larger story. Japanese automakers have invested in American workers and American communities for decades. Today, those relationships are helping our country expand domestic manufacturing capacity, reinforce critical supply chains, and compete in the next generation of automotive technology.

As JAMA marks 50 years representing Japanese-brand automakers in the United States, Toyota's growing footprint in North Carolina is a strong example of what the economic partnership between our two nations can produce.

I ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing JAMA on its 50th anniversary and Toyota for its continued investment in North Carolina and our communities.

Mr. President, I enter a motion to reconsider the vote.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to waive the mandatory quorum call with respect to the cloture motion on the motion to proceed to S. 4668.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that there be 1 hour of debate equally divided between the proponents and opponents of the bill.

Mr. President, I ask the Chair to execute the order of August 8 in relation to S. 4668 following the use or yielding back of the debate time.

Mr. President, I rise today to recognize and congratulate Rebecca Redding Briles on over 30 remarkable years of dedicated service to the people of North Carolina.

Rebecca began her public service career with Congressman Bill Cobey before joining Congressman Howard Coble's office in 1995 as a caseworker and community outreach representative. Working in a one- person district office, she managed all constituent requests for the region while serving as a trusted liaison between North Carolinians and the Federal Government. She provided expert assistance on a wide range of issues involving Federal agencies, represented the Congressman at community events throughout North Carolina's Sixth Congressional District, and built lasting relationships with constituents, local leaders, and public officials through her unwavering commitment to public service.

Rebecca continued her dedication to serving North Carolinians in Congresswoman Renee Ellmers' office from 2013 to 2015 as director of constituent services. In this leadership role, she managed operations across two district offices, mentored a team of constituent liaisons, and ensured that constituents received responsive, compassionate, and effective assistance.

In 2015, Rebecca brought that same leadership and steadfast dedication to my office as regional director of constituent advocacy. She has been a trusted resource, providing expert assistance on immigration and U.S. Department of State matters. Her work has helped employers secure critical workforce talent through successful visa coordination, including support for businesses expanding operations in North Carolina. She has also been a tireless advocate for veterans and Social Security beneficiaries.

When a North Carolina family faced severe financial hardship, Rebecca worked tirelessly to expedite the processing of their Social Security benefits. With the family's home on the brink of foreclosure, her persistent advocacy secured the timely release of those benefits, allowing them to remain in their home during a time of great need. This example reflects the compassion, persistence, and effectiveness that have defined Rebecca's work throughout her distinguished career.

Rebecca Redding Briles' lifetime of service to North Carolina stands as a testament to the extraordinary impact one dedicated public servant can make in the lives of others. I congratulate Rebecca on this well- deserved recognition and thank her for her unwavering commitment and compassionate service to the people of the great State of North Carolina.

Mr. President, I rise today to recognize and congratulate Susan Rene Collins on her remarkable 23 years of dedicated service to the people of North Carolina.

Rene began her public service career with then-Congressman Richard Burr as a constituent advocate and continued serving alongside him after his election to the U.S. Senate as a senior constituent advocate from 2003 to 2022. Throughout her tenure, she demonstrated an unwavering commitment to the people of North Carolina, assisting thousands of constituents in navigating complex Federal agencies. She also led critical efforts during times of crisis, coordinating the rescue and evacuation of Americans from Lebanon, Peru, and Afghanistan. In addition, she helped North Carolina communities recover from devastating hurricanes by working closely with Federal, State, and local partners to ensure that countless families and individuals received the assistance they needed most.

Continuing her dedication to serving North Carolinians, Rene joined my office as a senior constituent advocate in 2022. She quickly became a trusted resource, providing expert assistance on immigration and U.S. Department of State matters. Her work has helped employers secure critical workforce talent through successful visa coordination, including support for businesses expanding operations in North Carolina and healthcare providers working to address physician shortages. She also continued her commitment to humanitarian service by assisting Afghan Special Immigrant Visa recipients in navigating the relocation process safely, reflecting her steadfast dedication to serving others with professionalism and compassion.

Rene's commitment to public service extends far beyond the ordinary. In one extraordinary case, she worked tirelessly to secure visas for a father and his young son, who had been diagnosed with brain cancer and required lifesaving treatment at Texas Children's Hospital. Not only did she obtain the visas, but she did so in record time, helping ensure the child received the medical care that ultimately saved his life. Her efforts forever changed the lives of that family.

Susan Rene Collins's lifetime of service to North Carolina stands as a testament to the extraordinary impact one dedicated public servant can make in the lives of others. I congratulate Rene on this well- deserved recognition and thank her for her unwavering commitment and compassionate service to the people of the great State of North Carolina.

Mr. President, I rise today to recognize and congratulate Janine M. Osborne on her remarkable 41 years of dedicated service to the people of North Carolina.

Janine began her public service career as a district representative for Congressman Howard Coble. From 1985 to 2015, she managed constituent requests and served as a trusted liaison between constituents and all levels of government. She provided expert assistance on a broad range of Federal matters, represented the Congressman at public events, and built lasting relationships with constituents and public officials throughout North Carolina's Sixth Congressional District.

Janine continued her commitment to serving North Carolinians in Congressman Mark Walker's office from 2015 to 2021 as director of constituent services. In this role, she demonstrated exceptional leadership by supervising and mentoring a team of constituent liaisons while personally managing nearly half of all constituent cases received by the district office.

In 2021, Janine brought that same leadership and dedication to my office as deputy director of constituent services. She oversaw complex constituent casework, mentored staff, and served as a trusted resource. While carrying these responsibilities, she continued to maintain an active caseload, further strengthening the reputation my State offices have earned for delivering exceptional constituent service.

Janine's commitment to helping North Carolinians extends far beyond the ordinary. One of the most powerful examples of her dedication is her effort to secure the Medal of Honor for U.S. Army Captain Hugh R. Nelson, Jr. Spanning 7 years, this effort began in Congressman Walker's office and culminated in my office, where then-

President Joe Biden posthumously presented Captain Nelson with the Medal of Honor. Her perseverance throughout this yearslong endeavor exemplifies her ability to carry an important mission across congressional offices and Presidential administrations while never losing sight of the individual she was determined to honor.

Janine Osborne's lifetime of service to North Carolina stands as a testament to the extraordinary impact one dedicated public servant can make in the lives of others. I congratulate Janine on this well- deserved recognition and thank her for her unwavering commitment and compassionate service to the people of the great State of North Carolina.

Mr. President, I rise today to recognize the Hindu Center of Charlotte, which first opened in 1982. Since its founding, the Hindu Center of Charlotte has been an anchor of the local Hindu community and exemplifies the enduring values of faith, family, service, education, and civic engagement. Recently, I was glad to attend the grand inauguration of the center's new Vedic Mandir alongside community leaders, other elected officials, and thousands of devotees celebrating this historic milestone.

The grand inauguration of the new Vedic Mandir represents the continued growth of the Hindu community in Charlotte, as well as the deep cultural and social bonds that have been formed. It was an honor to attend the grand inauguration with so many other important community leaders and attendees, and I look forward to seeing the community continue to grow.

I ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing the Hindu Center of Charlotte for this historic milestone and wishing them continued growth and prosperity.

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

Mr. President, I also ask unanimous consent to use a prop during my remarks.

Mr. President, it is actually fitting. I just had somebody in the cloakroom tell me the last person that came to the floor and used the chart to draw on was none other than Lindsey Graham, so I will dedicate these comments to Lindsey.

Senator Cornyn, I would describe as probably the ultimate statesman and gentleman here in the Senate. I am not.

And so Senator Cornyn talked about all the merits of the bill, and we stand by them. I should also say he gets special credit for a lot of those provisions because they are in there because of his participation.

I have long said that I don't hold grudges, but I settle scores. And today is a good day to settle a score on another anniversary of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.

We had a lot of people, actually organizations I have been a member of in the past, spread a lot of false information about this bill. They said it was going to be a red flag bill.

Well, the fact of the matter is, there is funding in this bill for red flag, for States that have implemented red flag laws. Here is the little secret: not even Republican red flag States satisfy our rigorous standards for due process, which is why they haven't applied for any funding. They wouldn't qualify for it unless they changed their plans.

So this didn't cause a wave of red State laws to be implemented. Quite the contrary, it provided resources in behavioral health and veterans courts and drug courts and family courts to help people that may be in crisis ahead of them.

Those same people who were saying: Send money now, support us because

we are defending your Second Amendment right. I should mention as speaker of the house, we expanded concealed carry rights of North Carolina at levels that people couldn't imagine.

I am a concealed carry permittee. I have more than one gun, but I am a responsible gun owner who also finished the concealed carry class and also hunter safety. And I think we all need to be responsible gun owners.

But at the end of the day, you have got to decide whether or not a kid going into a gun store on their 18th birthday, if that is their day to buy a gun.

So let's talk a little bit about what this bill really does versus what the mercenaries were trying to do to raise money and kill this bill.

All we are saying--show of hands, do we have any pages that are 18 years old? OK. Younger or older? Younger, OK.

So these kids right now, whatever--sorry, these young adults right now, whatever they are doing, if they have got a committal, a behavioral health committal, if they assaulted a police officer, shot at one, got prosecuted for it when they were 16\1/2\ years old or 17 years old, on their 18th birthday, it is like that device in--what was it--``Men in Black,'' where you erase that. Can you imagine that?

If you were 18 years old on your birthday and you had been convicted of a crime or had a serious legal entanglement, when you go to the NICS system, it was as if you were a day old. Does anybody think that really makes sense, that the crime you committed a couple of months, let's say a month, 60 days, 90 days earlier, would have not been relevant? That is absurd.

Of course if you are under 21, we need to have some insight into what your life looked like when you were 16 or 17 years old. That is what the enhanced background check was, and yet some of these gun advocacy organizations thought that was horrible. It was going to lead to a mass confiscation of guns. It was a backdoor, I think. It was a backdoor into just taking all of our guns away.

It was going to devastate the Second Amendment protections of our Constitution. I heard them all saying it, saying some of it. Let me tell you what actually happened. All we did was say: If you are under 21, we are going to try and find out as much as we need to know about you for your safety and for the safety of your community.

So all we did was say: We are going to go to local law enforcement. We are going to try and get information out there and encourage States to provide the information to our national center for clearing gun purchases in West Virginia sooner so that those who do not have a bad record can get their gun purchased sooner so that we can in a matter of 3 to 10 days get this done.

All the people that were opposed to this bill said that we were not going to get any approvals done, that even the good law-abiding over 21s were going to get swept into this somehow.

Well, let me tell you what has happened since June of this year. The NICS system is doing just fine. About 4,000 people who were going to be denied based on the law have been denied.

So look at these numbers again. Talking about mass confiscation, how disruptive this was, how nobody was going to be able to get guns, right? That is what all the people said: Send money, we are defending your Second Amendment right here in Washington.

Almost 551,000 transactions for purchasing guns have been processed as of June of this year. About 3,800 of them were denied for reasons that existed before we ever passed this law. What we have done though is found some 1,630 young people that that was not their day to buy a gun.

That was--I could go through a long list. I could talk about people being convicted of assaulting a police officer. I could talk about people who had a long gun after they had been convicted of a crime in their car. I could talk about people who accidentally in North Carolina shot their girlfriend a year before and all of a sudden--at 17 and wanted to get a gun.

Does anybody in their right mind think that is a good day for that kid to get a gun?

I am not talking about a 38-year-old person going in. I am talking about an 18-year-old. I am talking about a 19-year-old. I am talking about a 20-year-old. All we did was say: Guys, let's make sure that this is a safe decision for the child and for the community. That is what this bill did, and that is why this bill has withstood the test of time and not a single--not one scintilla--and I would defy anybody who was against this bill to find one of the things that they predicted and guaranteed would happen have actually occurred.

What has happened is we may have saved 1,600 people who may have been buying that gun to hurt themselves, maybe to hurt their community-- maybe not. But what we know is that day was not the day that we should allow them to leave that gun store with a weapon for their safety and the safety of the community.

This is Congress at its best. It is looking at the people that you generally support--and Senator Cornyn was first among them--and the gun rights community and saying: Guys, I can't take the top-line arguments against this because you all know it is not really true. It is this black-and-white world that we live in here, and it requires the very seldom impactful language like, and legislation like, the Communities Act ever get done because people get afraid of the noise and they back into their corners.

And I want to give Senator Cornyn an enormous amount of credit for stepping up and doing what he did to make Texas safer, make the country safer, and make these people and their loved ones and their neighbors in the community safer.

The last thing I will leave you with is, to the States that do have red flag laws--including, I believe, the State of the Presiding Officer--let's get those red flag laws consistent with due process and show respect to gun owners because I am not aware of any red flag law, even in red States, that come close to the sorts of protections that we also put into this bill.

So let's give them an incentive to get it right. Let's make sure that every law-abiding citizen who wants to have a gun can--like me and like Senator Cornyn and like so many other people--but let's be smart about it.

And let's make sure that we continue this trend of being sure that when a person applies for a weapon, that they can safely own it, they are going to be safe for themselves and their community, and stop this nonsense of fearing any sort of positive change because of political repercussions.

This bill is one of the best bills that I had the privilege to work on. And the thing that is amazing about this bill is, it went from concept to implementation in fewer than 6 weeks. That is what happens when Congress gets together, they set aside their partisan differences, they refuse to listen to the false information trying to kill a bill, and they do something good for their State and their country. That is exactly--on this anniversary of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act-- what we accomplished.

I want to thank Senator Cornyn for his partnership. It was not an easy bill. It was a lot of work, but we got it done. I thank Senator Murphy, and I should have mentioned Senator Gillibrand--or not Gillibrand--wrong Kirsten--Senator Sinema for working together.

I mean, we had people across the political spectrum, folks. Chris Murphy, whom I consider a friend and colleague, about as liberal as anybody in this Chamber--and I think he would admit that. And we have got John Cornyn, who is one of the most conservative. And then you have got me and Sinema probably somewhere in the middle.

We got together, and we got this done. And there are more people safe, and I believe there are people alive today that may not have been if this bill hadn't passed.

So, Senator Cornyn, I appreciate the work that you did on this bill. I believe we have got something that we should be proud of. And I also believe, Senator Cornyn, that the straw purchases, the gun trafficking, all the other things that we didn't spend a lot of time on--we can come down here and do a colloquy and talk about more and more of the positive aspects of this bill. And I appreciate your leadership in moving it.

Purchased later.

That is exactly right.

You take a look at the--I spend a lot of time and focus on behavioral health, Senator Cornyn, and the data is compelling.

There is no question in my mind--just the sheer number here--there is no question in my mind that we saved the life of somebody who is buying a gun for that purpose. There is no doubt in my mind the numbers stipulate that.

No, quite the contrary. That is why I am saying--look, I love saying I told you so, and I believed that that was going to be the case here.

But, Senator Cornyn, let me just say it for anybody--for the 20 people watching on C-SPAN--and, hopefully, some will cover our statements--I defy anybody--anyone--who opposed this bill, who scored it, who threatened Members to vote against it, I defy them to come to my office and find one example of what they were telling people to oppose this bill that actually came to pass--one.

Here it is: Public challenge. Guys, you who so--you were out there. You were emailing. You were raising money. You were saying the world is going to end, guns are going to be confiscated, that straw purchases were going to destroy--you know, that we weren't going after trafficking, that we were going after law-abiding officers, and their licenses were going to be--all these things, all this noise.

I will dedicate an hour to somebody who wants to come into my office and prove to me that one--one--negative behavior by any State or local government or Federal Government has occurred. This is what happened, folks.

But you want to come to my office, I will guarantee you, you refer to this C-SPAN segment and you want to come to my office and prove that something bad happened, I will take that. My guess is, I will get that hour back, and that is what I mean.

You know, at some point on these tough issues, we keep kicking the can down the road because we let people off the hook for saying things that are patently untrue and then not hold them to account a year or two later. Well, I am here to tell you: I am here for the next 173 days before I retire. Anybody who wants to come in and prove one bad outcome from this bill, give me a call.

And, Senator Cornyn, again, you and I are both--we are both here for another 173 days. We got--and I say that not because I am counting the days to leave, but I am counting the days that we have to make an impact. And I hope I can continue to work with you on this and other bills to even make it better.

We are, unabashedly, unapologetically, pro-Second Amendment Republicans. But we are smart about it, and we have the courage to step up when we see a change can be made that will keep us true to those values but also keep our communities safer. And I appreciate your leadership on this.

Mr. President, I rise today to recognize Dashaun Brown, Ryan Gillespie, and Giuseppe Marturano for their heroic actions on May 21, 2026. While playing soccer on Wrightsville Beach, NC, Mr. Brown, Mr. Gillespie, and Mr. Marturano heard cries for help. As Mr. Marturano called 911, Mr. Brown and Mr. Gillespie ran into the water to rescue Nicole Woods and her nephew.

As the current continued to pull Ms. Woods and her nephew farther out to sea, Mr. Brown and Mr. Gillespie fought through rough surf and reached them. Ms. Woods was able to push her nephew toward the two men, and within minutes, first responders arrived and

brought both Ms. Woods and her nephew to shore.

Thanks to their bravery and the rapid response of first responders, an otherwise tragic outcome was averted. Their actions reflect the very best of our great State, and I am proud to recognize these young men today.

I ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing Dashaun Brown, Ryan Gillespie, and Giuseppe Marturano for their extraordinary heroism and in expressing our deepest gratitude for their service to others in a moment of urgent need.

Mr. President, reserving the right to object, I am going to be brief because I know we have other Members waiting to speak. But just by way of offsets, I know that my friend from Connecticut said he is offended by requiring an offset.

I think the Presiding Officer and I might be like-minded on this. The Presiding Officer and I both have the distinction of voting against the PACT Act in 2022. I voted against the PACT Act--only nine Members of the U.S. Senate did; the majority of my conference voted with it-- because it was unfunded. It was a trillion-dollar promise being made to veterans. I knew absolutely well that if we didn't do the work to figure out how to pay for it, we weren't going to fulfill that promise.

As I told everyone back then, I am from a veterans State. We have 1 million veterans in our State. One in 10 people in North Carolina is a veteran. I talk to them every single day. When they asked me why I voted against it, I said: When I make a promise, I want to fulfill it.

When you vote on something here and you don't put a pay-for in it, you are just making a promise. You haven't created the mechanics and you haven't really made a promise you can fulfill because you haven't said how the money is going to come.

I have seen endless hearings since the PACT Act was passed about all the problems with implementing the PACT Act. I have seen other hearings about how other promises have been broken so that we can start fulfilling the promises of the PACT Act. That is what happens when you don't think through the process, and I think that is what we have here.

We have nearly five dozen bipartisan, bicameral priorities at risk in the Take Care of America's Veterans Act. Rather than come down here and produce the same result--and I should add that my colleague from Connecticut was not able to pass this through unanimous consent when Democrats were in the majority. If we want to solve this problem, if we want to solve this specific problem, which I want to solve, we do the work in the committee to put the policy down and to fund it.

For that reason, I do not believe this bill is ready for prime time, and I object.

Reserving the right to object, it has been said that if it has already been said before, there is no need in saying it again. So I object.