Floor Statements

Mr. President, every single day, our veterans use the skills and discipline they learned in uniform to build up our country. Countless veterans pass on these lessons to others. Colonel Earle Thompson, from Lake Martin, is one such example.

Colonel Thompson began his military service by signing up for the U.S. Army after graduating from Carroll High School in Ozark. This was the start of an accomplished 36-year-military career. Earle went on to get his bachelor's degree from the University of South Alabama. He balanced being a fulltime student while serving in the Alabama National Guard. After college, he transitioned to the Air Force, where he would serve 28 years across the globe, including combat sorties in Panama and Operation Desert Storm. He took full advantage of the training we have to offer right here in Alabama, particularly at Maxwell Air Force Base. There, he went through Squadron Officer's School, Air Command and Staff College, and Air War College.

Since retirement, Earle has been doing his part to help students make the most of Alabama's resources for successful careers. For the last 13 years, he has been using his military experience to lead aviation training at Auburn University. He serves as the deputy director for Defense Research Programs, where he teaches air traffic control and aerodynamics. His work helps address the shortage of both commercial and military pilots in the U.S.

Additionally, Earle serves as the chair of the Auburn University Regional Airport Safety Committee. He is also actively involved in Opelika First Baptist Church, where he sings in the choir. Earle spent 36 years protecting our Nation, and now, he is raising up the next generation of pilots who will help Alabama soar to new heights. It is my honor to recognize Colonel Earle Thompson as the March Veteran of the Month.

Mr. President:

I do solemnly swear or affirm that I will support and

defend the Constitution of the United States against all

enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith

and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation

freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion;

and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of

the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.

That is the oath that we all take once we become Senators of the United States.

Just imagine that you are Allyson and John Phillips. Last Thursday afternoon, you get a phone call from law enforcement in Athens, GA. The voice on the other end of the phone says that your daughter has been murdered by an illegal immigrant. I cannot imagine what that feels like. I cannot even begin to understand the shock and sadness and anger.

Laken Riley was a nursing student at Augusta, GA, this past year. On Wednesday morning, she went out for a jog on the campus of the University of Georgia. She never came back. Police found her body in the woods a few hours later around noontime. She was covered with blood and injuries from head to toe.

An autopsy found that she died of blunt force trauma to the head. The charging documents in this case say that her skull was disfigured. This was a brutal murder of an innocent young woman.

Laken Riley was just 22 years old. She had her whole life ahead of her. She had a bright future. Now that future will never be realized.

You know, I spent 40 years of my life on college campuses. I have dedicated my life to coaching young adults, but I wasn't just a coach; I was also a mentor. There is nothing more heartbreaking than losing a promising young person like Laken Riley, and I want to offer my condolences to the Riley family.

Our No. 1 commodity in this country is our young people. Laken's death is even more heartbreaking because it could have been prevented and should have been prevented. On Friday night, police arrested and charged Jose Antonio Ibarra with malice murder, felony murder, aggravated battery, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, kidnapping, and hindering a 911 call.

Jose Ibarra is an illegal immigrant from Venezuela. In other words, he should never have been in this country in the first place. This brutal and horrific murder would have been prevented

if Joe Biden and Democrats had done their job by enforcing the law.

Jose Ibarra crossed the southern border in El Paso in September of 2022, a year and a half ago. He was paroled into our country, and I will talk about parole here in just a minute. His social media accounts show that he went from El Paso to New York City. New York is a sanctuary State and city. That means that illegals who commit crimes will not be turned over to the immigration police when their jail time is up.

This is an open invitation by New York City to criminals. We have a lot of these sanctuary cities in our country today. According to ICE immigration police, he was arrested just 5 months ago in New York, charged with acting in a manner to injure a child and for driving without a license. Specifically, he was arrested for allegedly endangering a 5-year-old child, 5 months ago.

Athens police called the murder of Laken Riley a crime of opportunity. In other words, this was, essentially, a random act of violence. It could have been anyone's daughter. She did absolutely nothing wrong.

So my question is: Where are Georgia's Senators today? What are Georgia Senators doing to secure the border, to protect more people like Laken Riley? Where is their outrage? Soon, the Senate will hold a trial on articles of impeachment against Secretary of Homeland Security Mayorkas, the guy that is in charge of our border.

Georgia Senators, how are they going to vote when the trial comes up? Are they going to vote for Secretary Mayorkas since he has been impeached in the House? Because he is the one that let this killer in.

Are Senators from border States like California and Arizona going to save Mayorkas' job, the job that he has refused to do for the last 3\1/ 2\ years? We will find out and find out soon.

In the House, every single Democrat fell in line and voted--and voted to save Mayorkas' job just a few weeks ago, every single Democrat--and the guy hasn't done his job in 3\1/2\ years.

Every single House Democrat endorsed the job that Secretary Mayorkas is doing; that includes five Democrats from the State of Georgia where Laken Riley was killed.

In a separate vote, 150 House Democrats voted against deporting illegals who had been convicted of drunk driving.

Mr. President, 150, all Democrats, voted against deporting illegals if they got caught drunk driving. That includes all five of Georgia's Democrats in the House.

This is today's Democrat Party, and I go back to the oath that we all took to protect domestic and foreign, to protect.

Are Senate Democrats going to put their political careers on the line by continuing to support the least popular President in modern history, who has not done his job at the border? We will soon find out.

Or are they going to stand beside somebody who has broken the law? If Laken Riley were my daughter--if Laken Riley were my daughter, Secretary Mayorkas would have a lot more to worry about than a pending impeachment trial. He would need to go into hiding. It is embarrassing to this country of how these people are holding people accountable under the law.

I would do everything in my power to ensure he never forgot her name and that his inaction led to her death. Blood is on his hands.

I cannot possibly understand what this family is going through today. But for open borders--all the open-border crowd--she is just collateral damage, just somebody else that has been murdered. It won't be talked about again. Don't worry about it. All we care about is votes. All we care about is power.

To Democrats in this administration, Laken Riley is just another sacrifice on the altar of woke ideology. The blame for this crime lies with this administration and with the Democratic Senate majority. Democrats run Washington right now. The buck stops with them. They uphold the laws.

Democrats could have stopped this if they would have secured the border, if they had done their job. But they have utterly refused for the last 3\1/2\ years.

In fact, this administration has done exactly the opposite. This is globalism. This is putting the interest of other countries ahead of our own country, our own people, our own citizens.

Joe Biden has effectively erased our southern border--we don't have a border--and has invited the world in with no oversight or plan to figure out who is here and why.

I have been talking about this issue since I was elected to office 3 years ago. Nearly every American--excuse me. Nearly every Republican has been talking about it in both the House and the Senate.

I haven't seen Georgia Senators down here on the floor sounding the alarm on the southern border, not one time in the last 3\1/2\ years. I haven't seen California Senators giving speeches about the border and why is it open, because they are being overrun. I haven't seen Arizona Senators down here giving speeches on the border: You have got to help us. Let's close the border.

I haven't seen that. I am not sure I have seen one Democratic Senator on this floor in the last 3\1/2\ years talking about the open borders that we have--not one.

This is the biggest problem facing our country by far. President Biden says it is climate change. You have got to be kidding me.

Democrats don't want to talk about this. Republicans have tried to fix the problem.

I introduced the Border Safety and Security Act, which would close the border until the Federal Government regained control of operations along the southern border. I have sponsored legislation like H.R. 2, which is the best border security bill that we have had. I have offered more than 50 border amendments to the recently passed national security supplemental bill--any one of them which would have helped fix the border crisis.

Democrats have blocked me and the Republicans at every turn. They are the majority of the Senate, and they control the floor. I understand that.

A few week ago, we almost took up a so-called border bill from Senator Schumer and Senator Murphy. They worked on it for months. For months, they worked on it--embarrassing. It was more of a border giveaway--a border giveaway--than a border bill.

This would have not stopped the deaths of these young people. It would not have stopped and prevented the death of Laken Riley.

Unbelievably, the senior Senator from California actually opposed it for being too conservative. The people of California are suffering because of a wide-open border, just like all the people across our country.

I will just mention a few, starting in California. Last May, an illegal alien named Carlos Dominguez stabbed three people in Davis, CA. Two of them died, David Breaux and a student named Karim Najm. A third person was stabbed but survived, named Kimberlee Guillory. The alleged attacker in this case, Carlos Dominguez, came here in 2009 as an unaccompanied minor. He just had his first preliminary hearing in court this past week. Where is the outrage from the California Senators about the death and the stabbings of these people?

Let's talk about Arizona. Last year a young man named Harly Sellers was killed by a drunk driver in Fountain Hills, AZ. The alleged drunk driver who killed him is named Hilario Ortiz Cruz. He is an illegal alien who had previously been deported in 2013.

It is a felony to reenter this country after being deported. A lot of people don't realize that, but it is. We don't go by many laws anyway.

Harly Sellers was 29 years old. He was engaged to be married in just 2 months. That wedding will never happen. Harly Sellers left behind two young children, including a 1-year-old baby named Carter. Carter will never know his dad.

This was a crime that could have and should have been prevented. Where are the Senators from Arizona? Where is their outrage? The silence is deafening.

Part of the blame for this crime falls on this city, here in Washington, DC. This city should be blamed because we make the laws, and we push the laws.

Just a couple of weeks ago in Texas, a 16-year-old girl named Lizbeth Medina was killed in her own bedroom--just a couple of weeks ago. A grand jury has now charged an illegal alien in the case. He is charged with breaking into the home and then beating her to death and stabbing her.

This is happening all across our border. But it is not just limited to the border. Every State in our country now is a border State.

Just last night, people arrested and charged an illegal alien just a few miles from this building--just a few miles. It is about a 30-minute drive from the U.S. Senate. Police allege that an illegal alien named Nilson Granados-Trejo was among a group of gang members who shot at another group of gang members. Police say it was all about a drug dispute.

Caught in the middle of the crossfire was a mom and her 2-year-old son. That 2-year-old, Jeremy, has died. He didn't have a say about the border.

Nilson Granados has previously been arrested twice for alleged theft. The guy that shot this kid right here, twice has been arrested. He was subject to a deportation order from a judge in New Jersey, but he was released from custody several times, even though immigration police filed a detainer. He was never sent back.

Nilson Granados should not and should have not been in this country. He should have never been here in the first place. He should have been deported when he was caught the first and second time. Like the judge says, this crime could have and should have been prevented. But it was not prevented because of Joe Biden's open border.

Just this week, an illegal alien was arrested in Louisiana for allegedly raping a 14-year-old girl. He also allegedly stabbed someone in the face during an armed robbery a few weeks before.

A month ago, an illegal alien pled guilty in court to stabbing a man to death in Bozeman, MT, in 2022.

Just yesterday, in my home State of Alabama, in Albertville, police arrested two illegal aliens for alleged child exploitation. This goes on and on and on. I could have been up here all day.

Americans are dying due to our open borders at the southern and northern borders, and they are dying every single day. Who cares? We are worried about a budget here. We are worried about sending $60 billion to Ukraine. We are not worried about the citizens of the United States.

People are going to wake up, and when they do, there is going to be a huge change around here, and I hope it happens.

Americans are dying due to open borders every single day when it comes to drugs, and 100,000 Americans die every year because of drug overdose. You would think that would be something that people would talk about. Nobody cares. Nobody cares. That is 300 Americans a day dying from fentanyl--300 a day. That is like a commercial airliner crashing every day.

Nobody cares. This building doesn't care. Everybody is worried about their next election, getting reelected. That is our problem here. They don't do what is right.

The DEA tells us drugs that were brought here over our southern border are absolutely destroying the young people in this country. So Joe Biden, our President, is going to the southern border tomorrow-- hallelujah.

This will be only--I want you to think about this. This is a guy who has been up here for 50 years. Now, I don't know why. I don't know why anyone would want to be up here 50 years to watch what goes on here. He has been up here 50 years as Senator, Vice President, and President. This is only the second time he has been to the border. And he asked why we don't have border policies.

Well, hell, man, you have been here forever. What did you do while you were in office?

He did zero. His first time ever at the border was last January, after 50 years in politics. And he is trying to run for reelection again. Good luck.

He went to El Paso. Border Patrol cleared the streets of all illegal camps and immigrants. There was nobody there. He didn't talk to any illegal immigrants. He didn't go to the Border Patrol station. He just took his picture, walked around with his sunglasses on, had a relaxing day, not worrying about the border, not worrying about what is coming across the border. He just went down there to have his picture taken.

Now, the media says he is going to Brownsville, TX, tomorrow to get his picture taken. He is going to Brownsville, TX. Yesterday, 12 illegals come across at the border there.

You know we have got another President, former President Trump. He is also going to the border tomorrow. He has been down there many times. He is going to Eagle Pass, TX. Yesterday, there were over 500 that came across the border there. No matter what you think about President Trump, he actually cares.

One of Joe Biden's Executive orders was to let asylum officers give out asylum at the border without ever going to a judge.

In other words, when you come to this country, you are supposed to be given a time and a day to go see a judge to see whether you get to stay here or not. But, in the last 3\1/2\ years, we have been giving asylum at the border, giving a piece of paper which has a destination that you are going to; put on an airplane and flown somewhere across the country, and finding out what you can do to make a living and where you can go.

I know. I was on a plane not too long ago with a planeload from McAllen, TX, of illegals that were put on there, on this plane, going to cities all over the country. I was on there with them.

I am watching them come on. I am thinking: You know, it took me 45 minutes to go through TSA. I got patted down. All my stuff was scanned and didn't have anything on.

They brought them up straight to the plane, opened up the door, and let them get on. It was absolutely amazing.

Why do we need TSA? That is another point.

Meanwhile, as we are giving out all this asylum, Joe Biden has taken 94 Executive actions against immigration enforcement since he has been in office. In other words, 94 times he says: OK, we don't need this at the border. That is my law. That stands. We don't need this one--94 times.

Meanwhile, he said we can't do anything to fix the border.

If you want to fix the border, Mr. President, just take those 94 Executive actions and put them back somewhere on the shelf, and let law enforcement do their job. One of these Executive actions was the abuse of the parole system, and I said I was going to say something about this.

(Ms. CORTEZ MASTO assumed the Chair.)

That is how Jose Ibarra, who killed Laken Riley, got into this country. Joe Biden paroled him into the country, meaning he was arrested when he got to the border by Homeland Security and then released.

Federal laws say that parole is supposed to be used only on a case- by-case basis. Why are you here? Why do you need to come here? Full information given by the immigrant and should be on a case-by-case basis for urgent humanitarian reasons. That is the reason you are here. They just wave him on through.

That is not what Joe Biden is doing. He is not looking into the backgrounds of these people. They are just coming right through the front door, laughing at us--we have seen the pictures at the border-- and going on.

Joe Biden is paroling massive numbers of people into this country. We better wake up. This is illegal, but Joe Biden is doing it anyway. And now Laken Riley is dead. People will forget about her, except for her parents and her friends. I mean, we will go on to some other tragedy down the road. But we had better wake up. We had better wake up.

We need to bring back the ``Remain in Mexico'' policy. We have to bring it back. We do not need more asylum officers. Joe Biden has just turned our Border Patrol and our asylum officers into Walmart greeters at the border. Again, I have been down there several times, and these people need help.

He is going to go there tomorrow and say: Oh, we need a lot more help down here, more secretaries. We don't need law enforcement.

We don't need any more Walmart greeters. We need a wall. We need to bring back the ``Remain in Mexico'' policy, as I said a few minutes ago. We need to go back to the policies of President Trump. President Trump's policies worked, and the reason Joe Biden changed them is because he wanted to do exactly opposite of what Trump was doing. He didn't want to give him any credit. Joe Biden has the exact same laws on the books that President Trump had, but the difference is day and night.

Laken Riley's death and the death of every other American caused by this border crisis rests with President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas. I hope they can't sleep at night, because this could have been prevented. We need to go back to the policies that work, stop playing these dang games, and stop playing politics. Otherwise, this will keep happening.

We are here, and we took an oath of office to say we are going to watch over the citizens of this country. If we don't do something, more Americans will die, more Americans like Laken Riley. More parents will be forever scarred for what happened last week. We have to do something. We can't forget about this.

Every time we have somebody who has lost their life in this country because of an illegal alien, I am coming back up here and I am going to rub it in the faces of the Democratic Party, Secretary Mayorkas, Senator Schumer, and Joe Biden. It is 100 percent their fault.

With that, I yield the floor.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that Jacob Walker, an intern in my office, be granted floor privileges until March 1, 2024.

Madam President, I come to the floor today in opposition to the Senate's effort to give away 60 billion more of our taxpayer dollars in weapons to Ukraine. We should not give another dime to Ukraine until we secure our border for our citizens. That is what we are here for.

In December, all 49 Republicans voted to defeat similar legislation because it did nothing for our southern border.

Senate Republicans were unanimous. We had a consensus in the Republican conference that we should not give more money to other countries until we secured our southern border. I still believe that. My position has not changed since December. The 17 Republicans who voted to take up this legislation can explain their change of heart themselves. It is up to them. My demands have not changed. We should not send a dime to Ukraine until our borders are fully secured. We have already given Ukraine more than $120 billion. This is more than enough money to secure every border in our country.

Unfortunately, but predictably, the $120 billion we sent to Ukraine has resulted in a yearslong stalemate that has cost hundreds of thousands of lives, both Ukrainian and Russian.

This money is in addition to the Executive actions that Joe Biden has taken to isolate Russia from the global financial system. None of this has worked to either deter Russia or force parties to the table to negotiate a diplomatic solution. Yet some of my colleagues think that another $60 billion--another $60 billion--of what $120 billion failed to do will do the trick. It doesn't make sense.

Now should be a time for diplomacy--what a thought. Bring this war to an end. Stop the killing and bloodshed. When Joe Biden took office, he went to the State Department and claimed ``Diplomacy is back.'' That turned out to be a lie. We have yet to see a diplomatic effort from this administration. Joe Biden's idea of diplomacy is sending Anthony Blinken to Israel to tell Israel to slow down the war in Gaza. That is not diplomacy. We need some real diplomacy in Ukraine.

Right now, we are facing the possibility of a regional war in the Middle East. There have been 160 attacks on our troops in the Middle East since October 7. We are also facing the possibility of war in the South China Sea, with China threatening Taiwan.

A real leader has the right priorities. We cannot get involved in every conflict around the world. Last year, there was a war in Ethiopia. I ask my colleagues who support Ukraine, should we have paid for that? Last year, there was a war in Armenia. I ask my colleagues, should we have paid for that? No one was clamoring for billions in weapons for those two wars. Yet our entire defense industry is now being largely put in service to Ukraine.

Under Joe Biden, Americans' foreign policy is no longer dictated by American interests. It is not even dictated by American ideals. Instead, it is dictated by simplistic moralism with no depth or intellectual heft.

A land war in Europe is not America's top priority. Even President Obama said 13 years ago that we needed to pivot to Asia--13 years ago. Can there be any doubt that our No. 1 rival and adversary is China? It is not Russia. China is watching us. President Xi is watching America bankrupting ourselves for a war that gains us absolutely nothing. We can have a conversation about shifting Ukraine aid to somewhere high- priority, like Taiwan, but right now, aid to Ukraine is two-thirds of this bill.

The bill also includes money for Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas. The vast majority of Gaza supports Hamas. They elected Hamas as their leaders. The bill would send billions to Gaza. Can there be any doubt that some of that will end up in the hands of terrorists? I don't think there is.

Much of what we have sent to Ukraine has been stolen or wasted. There has been a complete lack of oversight. In this year's Defense bill, we finally got an inspector general for Ukraine aid, but it is a little too late. There has already been enormous theft and money laundering of our tax dollars in Ukraine. You don't have to take my word for it; Zelenskyy fired his own Cabinet members for corruption. Ukraine has been one of the most blatantly, notoriously corrupt places in the world for a long, long time.

We are paying Ukraine farmers, and yet we just punted the farm bill for American farmers to next year. We have been paying Ukrainian pensions. We can't even pay our own pensions in this country. We have paid more than $6 billion for Ukrainian pensions. That is enough money to pay for President Trump's border wall, an amount that the sitting Vice President said was too expensive.

We don't have a plan. We do not have a plan to win the war in Ukraine. We also don't have a plan for Ukraine if it loses. The Biden administration simply says ``as long as it takes.'' Hell, that is not a strategy; that is a blank check from the American taxpayers to another country. It would be irresponsible to give a blank check to any other country.

Three out of four dollars of Ukraine aid in this bill are for after the current fiscal year. It is not now. We keep hearing that we can't wait 2 weeks. This money is not going to Ukraine for months. And they say they are running out of aid. In other words, this money is for the next President. It is intended to force the next President to continue this war.

So I stand opposed to this legislation. I am not the only one. This bill could not pass the House of Representatives. Therefore, this bill is not going to become law. Passing this bill is purely an exercise in messaging. What message does this bill send? It says that those elected to represent Americans care more about the borders of countries halfway around the world than our own. It is not a winning message.

The American people are opposed to a blank check to Ukraine. The American people are saying enough is enough.

The arguments for this bill have been utterly lacking. Some of my colleagues have argued that Vladimir Putin wants to conquer the world. This is absurd. He can't beat Ukraine. Russian tanks are not going to conquer Europe if we don't pass this bill.

Another argument that has been made is that this money will stay in the United States to support defense contractors. In fact, a Washington Post columnist tweeted at me yesterday, claiming that we should pass this bill to give more money to Alabama's defense contractors. You know, it wasn't long ago that this would be referred to as corruption, but that is the kind of thing that gets published in the Washington Post these days.

Simply put, his argument is more about people should die so that we can increase profits for a few American companies. It is disgusting. These are the same people lecturing us about the morality of supporting Ukraine.

Alabama is deeply, deeply proud to be the top State in America when it comes to the defense industry. I strongly support Alabama's defense industry. I support funding Alabama's defense industry to strengthen our military. I support funding to replenish our stockpiles. It will take months, if not years, to do that. We are far behind. We couldn't fight one war right now, much less three.

The arguments from the other side just don't add up, so it is no surprise that they have resorted to personal attacks and name-calling. One of my colleagues accused opponents of Ukraine aid of getting their ``messaging from Russia.'' This is the best argument they can come up with--name-calling. If you oppose a blank check to another country, I guess that makes you a Russian.

We are $34 trillion in debt. We are borrowing $80,000 a second, $4.6 million a minute. American taxpayers, listen to that one more time. We are borrowing $80,000 a second, $4.6 million a minute. Does that make any sense when you are $34 trillion in debt? We cannot afford to keep giving any money to any countries or any illegal immigrants flooding our border. We don't have it. We are taxing the future of this country.

There is no moral, economic, military, or political argument in favor of more Ukraine aid. Our country--our country--has serious problems of its own, and we need to solve them. But there is no solving any of those problems in this room. It is about spending.

The top of that list is the southern border. If we are so worried about Russia, what about the actual Russians who are entering our country on a daily basis through the southern border? What about that? Is anyone in Washington worried about the Chinese coming in this country every day? It doesn't seem like it. Day after day, month after month, we are failing to meet that crisis with the seriousness it deserves.

Earlier this week, Senate leadership on both sides of the aisle laid out our border giveaway bill that had been written in secret by three Senators over a period of months. We were not allowed to see it until last Sunday night. For weeks--for weeks--there were leaks coming to the press about what it was. When my colleagues and I expressed concerns about these leaks, we were attacked. The authors of the bill said that it was fake news and wouldn't let us see the bill until last Sunday. However, once we got the text, we found out these leaks were true. The bill was even worse than we had feared.

Senators from across the spectrum of the Republican conference came out in opposition. Even some of the Senators who were initially involved in writing the bill opposed it.

After the bill was rejected, we were told that we were ``playing politics'' if we weren't from a border State. Here is the reality: Under the Biden administration, every State is a border State.

I met with some Alabama sheriffs last week from across our State. They are being absolutely overrun--overrun--by drugs, crime, criminals, illegal aliens. Every single part of every single State is being hurt by this border crisis. Do you think this body cares? No.

I won't belabor the point, but the border bill is a giveaway--is a giveaway. This bill did not attempt to address the seriousness of the crisis. This is the worst border crisis in the history of our country. It is worse than any natural disaster we have ever seen. Yet the response from Senate leadership to this crisis has been superficial, uncaring, and dismissive. The so-called border bill was more of a border giveaway than the actual border bill.

Remember, President Trump had the same laws on the books as President Joe Biden does. President Trump secured the border. It was a priority. Joe Biden opened it up his first day in office. So new laws are not absolutely necessary, but certain new laws would be very helpful.

I have proposed an amendment to the Ukraine bill that would actually truly secure the border. This amendment, the Border Safety and Security Act, would simply suspend all illegal entries completely until DHS has operational control of the border. They have no control--no control whatsoever.

My amendment prohibits mass parole programs. This Schumer border giveaway bill would have allowed parole programs to continue.

My amendment prohibits catch-and-release and requires detention. The border bill required the release of illegal aliens if we had passed it.

The Schumer bill would have allowed thousands of illegal border crossings a day. My amendment would mean zero illegal crossings. It also allows States to sue the administration if it doesn't do its job and enforce the laws.

We should not pass the Ukraine bill until we first pass a border bill. That is my position, that was my position in December, and it is my position again today.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam President, reclaiming my time, I come to the floor to sound the alarm, as a lot of my colleagues are, about the crisis at the southern border.

I have been here over 3 years, and I have never seen this group try to do more for people out of our country than within our country. It is amazing.

But this is the worst border crisis in our history. Since Joe Biden took office, there have been at least 8 million illegal crossings at our southern border--that we know of. This is in addition to the 2 million ``got-aways.'' These are the illegals that we know of. The real number is probably much, much higher.

Border crossings are at a record high. Deportations are at a record low. Why is this happening? You know, it didn't come out of the blue. This is a policy choice by President Biden and his allies here in Congress. We have been talking about this now for 3 years, asking why; and we have not gotten one good answer yet.

Why is our border open? Joe Biden campaigned on opening up our borders. He campaigned on giving free healthcare to illegal aliens. So it is no surprise that he is keeping his promise.

Since taking office, President Biden has taken 94 Executive actions related to immigration--94. We have the same laws on the books as we did when President Trump was in office, but President Trump secured the border. Joe Biden has opened our border more than it ever has been in the history of this country.

Let's take a look at just a few of these Executive actions. First, President Biden stopped building the wall. In fact, he has been selling all parts of the wall for pennies on the dollar. I know people in Alabama who have bought stacks of steel that the American taxpayers paid in lots--$300,000 for these certain lots; $300,000 of American taxpayer money. These people now can go online at an auction and buy these lots for 10 cents on the dollar. I know people who have bought $300,000 lots for $30,000, just throwing taxpayer money down the drain. The same thing with razor wire, same thing for other parts of the wall that are being sold. They are just, basically, being given away. So we have been selling parts.

President Biden--nobody told him to do it. He did it on his own. He chose to do it. President Biden got rid of President Trump's ``Remain in Mexico'' policy. That was the most effective policy we have seen in discouraging the abuse of our asylum system in years. I have been down the border several times. Border Patrol has told me time and time again: Finish the wall. That is the best thing we can do here. It won't stop it, but it will give us an opportunity to police the wall, make them come in through certain sections of the wall, and allow us to have some kind of border security.

President Biden is currently suing the State of Texas to get them to stop securing the border. Let's think about that for a second. The President of the United States is suing a border State for stopping illegal immigrants from coming into our country. That doesn't sound quite right.

I am proud that my State of Alabama has sent Texas hundreds of National Guardsmen to help them police Texas' borders. Unfortunately, President Biden is trying to stop them from doing that.

As I mentioned, Joe Biden has essentially stopped all deportations right now--completely stopped it. He is not letting ICE do their job, immigration police. All these policies have led to this unprecedented crisis. They have also sent a message to the world: If you can get here, you can get in, and you will never, never have to leave. That message has been heard around the world loud and clear. There are 193 countries around the world, and we know of 190 countries that have been accounted for coming across our southern borders. Illegal aliens have literally crossed our border wearing Joe Biden T-shirts. I would imagine the American taxpayers somehow paid for those.

TV reporters have asked people coming across our borders why they came across. Time and time again, they say because President Biden invited them. That is on television. FOX News recorded one illegal in Tucson saying, ``I love you, Joe Biden. Thank you for everything.'' That migrant was not from Mexico. He was from Africa. People are coming from every corner of the globe. People are flying to Mexico and then walking across our border. The whole world knows that our border is open.

These illegal aliens are criminals, drug traffickers. Just last year, nearly 500 people on the Terror Watchlist were caught trying to cross our border--500. You would think that would open somebody's eyes. You would think it would go all the way up Pennsylvania Avenue, but nobody seems to care.

Just a few weeks ago, Christopher Wray, the FBI Director, said something bad is going to happen. This is Christopher Wray, the guy that runs our FBI, Federal Bureau of Investigation, said something is going to happen. He seemed like in his voice, he was begging somebody to do something. Nobody has. But just imagine, if 500 have been caught, how many more terrorists have come across the border unchecked. It doesn't take many; it only takes a few--9/11 was committed by 19 foreigners here on visas--19. It only takes a small group to do terrible, terrible damage.

But Americans are already dying because of the border crisis. We all know that. We are here to protect American

citizens, but we are losing. We are losing that battle. More than 300,000 Americans--300,000 Americans--have died from drug overdoses since Joe Biden took office--300,000. I met with a police chief of Montgomery, AL, not too long ago. He said: Coach, I had never heard the word ``fentanyl'' until 2 years ago; and now, it is 95 percent of what we have on our streets here in Montgomery, AL, killing young people. That is roughly half of the Americans killed in the Civil War--300,000. And that was the deadliest war in American history. The Governor of Oregon recently declared a state of emergency over fentanyl. The Governor is a Democrat. But she declared a state of emergency. Where does she think the fentanyl is coming from? She should demand that the people that represent the constituents in her State do something about what is happening.

Federal law enforcement has said for years that almost all of these drugs are coming over the southern border. You don't have to take my word for it. That is what the DEA has said for years. Under Obama, under Trump, and under Biden, they said that most of the drugs that come into our country come across the southern border.

Every day we fail to secure our border, another 150 Americans die from overdoses--150 a day--a planeload of people. This is in addition to Americans who are victims of crime committed by illegals. A few weeks ago, we saw the video of illegal aliens attacking New York City police officers. New York City is a sanctuary city. In fact, New York City is giving out free money on debit cards to illegal aliens as we speak. American citizens don't qualify for this money that the New York City government is giving out. If you are a citizen, you don't qualify for it. American citizens just have to pay for it.

Yet New Yorkers wonder why there is a magnet pulling illegal aliens from all over the world into their city. You wonder why that is? New York State is also a sanctuary state. That was a policy choice by the current Governor. That means they do not cooperate with ICE. That is what a sanctuary city does. When an illegal commits a crime in New York or Philadelphia or Boston, they do not get sent to ICE when their jail time is up. It doesn't matter what crime they commit. My Democratic colleagues want these criminals to stay in our country because they don't want them to have to be sent home because that is exactly what ICE would do.

In the New York case, these illegals who attacked the NYPD officers were jailed and then released without bail. They were let back on the street where they can continue to commit crimes against Americans. This case shows you how much Democrats care about our police officers. ``Defund the police'' is all I have heard since I have been here. Really? They want police to go out and arrest the same people over and over again. Police are risking their lives every day. Every time they arrest someone, every time they kick in a door, they are risking their lives. Yet liberal judges and leftwing prosecutors will just let criminals go back on the street again, again, and again.

Democrats like President Biden talk about a lot of compassion in our immigration system. We have to be compassionate. They don't have any compassion for Americans. They don't have compassion for Americans like Kate Steinle who was murdered in San Francisco. They don't have compassion for the woman who was raped by an illegal on a train recently in Philadelphia. They don't have compassion for the mother and daughter killed by a drunk driver who had allegedly been deported four times.

When Americans get attacked or even killed by illegals, Democrats just see that as collateral damage. It is just the price of open borders. It is clearly more important to them to keep the border open than to bring justice to the victims.

Protect American citizens. What an idea. Just weeks ago, the House voted on legislation to deport illegals who have been caught driving drunk--deport them.

Madam President, 150 House Democrats voted against deporting anybody that was illegal caught driving drunk--150. The House also voted on legislation to deport illegals who committed Social Security fraud; 150 House Democrats voted against it. Democrats won't even do the most basic things to secure our border--won't do anything.

Now that it is an election year, obviously, now that we have gotten to this point and people have to have votes, we are supposed to believe that our Democratic colleagues have had a total change of heart-- because I have not seen anybody down there in 3 years and 2 months, and I have been going once or twice a year. I have not seen any of my Democratic colleagues down there. I wouldn't be shocked if I didn't see somebody down there in the near future because it is an election year.

They are paying lip service to the crisis at the border. They don't listen to their rhetoric. Look at their actions. Democrats are not doing anything of substance that would actually help. President Biden could start by undoing all 94 Executive actions on immigration. We didn't need to do that, but he did it because he wants open borders.

Earlier today, I spoke at length about why the Schumer-Murphy border bill is not good enough. I won't belabor the point, but, as Senator Murphy said, under their bill, the border never closes. That gets pretty much to the point. Even at 5,000 crossings a day, we would still process 1,400 illegals per day--1,400.

This is like putting a bandaid on a bullet hole. Why even worry about it?

The acceptable number of illegal crossings is not 5,000. It is not 4,000. It is zero. In a TV interview a few days ago, Chris Murphy said:

We failed to deliver for the [American] people we care

about most.

No, they care more about the undocumented Americans.

What is an undocumented American? Undocumented is just a leftwing code for illegal. They don't like using the word ``illegal.'' The term used in Federal law is ``illegal alien.'' That is who we are talking about.

These are not Americans who lost their paperwork and just can't find their documents or lost their passport. These are illegal aliens who have no right--no right--to be here. First, we stop them from coming in, and then we deport the ones who are here.

For decades, we have been told that there are about 11 or 12 million illegals here right now. I would say that is very, very short on numbers, but this is a huge problem. Alabama's population is 5 million--my home State. So there are two States of Alabama's worth of illegals already here before Joe Biden let in the other 8 million. This takes away power from American citizens.

They are overrunning our hospitals, our schools. They are even affecting the balance of power in Congress and the electoral college. Seats in the House of Representatives are divided up based on census. Votes in an electoral college are based in votes on Congress. Right now, illegals are counted as part of the census.

A Democratic Member of Congress went on TV recently and said:

I need more people in my district just for redistricting

purposes.

The presence of tens of millions of illegals in this country is tipping power to blue cities like New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles.

It is watering down the power of the American voter. I joined with Senator Hagerty to introduce legislation to fix this. Only American citizens should have representation in Congress. We ought to count citizens only. Otherwise, our voting system is not equal for all Americans.

This shouldn't be a partisan issue. This should be an American issue. But it looks like a partisan issue when Democrats in Congress go on television and say they need more illegals in their State for redistricting.

Democrats have shown no willingness to stop this crisis--none. They put out some press releases and a few vague statements in the press, but they have taken no meaningful action in 3 years. Actions speaks louder than words.

Remember, President Trump had the same laws on the books as President Biden, but President Trump secured the border. He went with the law. He went with the Constitution. Joe Biden opened it up.

And so new laws are not absolutely necessary, but certain new laws would be very helpful. And so, right now, I would like to propose an amendment to the Ukraine bill that would actually secure the border. My amendment is still a bill. It is a bill I have introduced called the Border Safety and Security

Act. The bill would simply suspend all illegal entries, completely, until the Department of Homeland Security has operational control over the border.

My amendment also prohibits mass parole programs. The Schumer border bill would have allowed parole programs to continue at an unlimited pace.

My amendment prohibits catch-and-release and requires detention. The Schumer bill would require release of illegal aliens.

The Schumer bill would have allowed up to 4,999 border crossings a day. My amendment would mean zero crossings as soon as it is signed into law.

It also allows States to sue the administration if it doesn't do its job and enforce the laws.

We should not pass a Ukraine bill until we first pass a border bill worthy of the name. That was my position in December, and it is my position now. Either we will end this border crisis, or this border crisis will end us.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I am proud today to join my colleague Dr. Marshall on the floor to support the State of Texas in their efforts to secure the disaster at the southern border.

I have been there many times. I would challenge my Democratic colleagues: How many times have you been to the southern border in Texas to see this disaster?

Right now, the Biden administration is actively trying to stop the State of Texas from protecting their and our border. Meanwhile, Democrats are telling the press that they want to fix the border crisis that President Biden has created. It has taken 3 years. But they say that the Republicans won't let them. That is not true.

The Biden administration is suing Texas and destroying barriers at the border actively, every day. The taxpayers have already paid for the wall--the extension of the wall that was stopped after President Trump stepped down a few years ago. President Biden refuses to build a wall.

He is pushing a bill on us that actually sets aside money it already appropriated for the wall and allows him to postpone new construction indefinitely. There is no plan. This is what they call a border bill. I call it a border giveaway.

Joe Biden is selling off the border for pennies on the dollar that the taxpayers have already paid for. It is online. You can go online and buy, in an auction, the wall and razor wire that is sitting on the ground mostly in Arizona, and you can buy it for 10 cents on the dollar.

He is actively destroying our southern border. This is something from the worst nightmares of our Founding Fathers: a President who is more concerned about other people's borders and not ours.

Now, about half of the American southern border is also the southern border of Texas. There is an old saying that the Constitution is not a suicide pact. The Federal Government cannot--I repeat, cannot--force Texas to let itself be invaded and destroyed.

Article IV, section 4 of the Constitution promises that the Federal Government shall protect every State from invasion. In fact, the Declaration of Independence accused King George of exposing the colonies ``to all the Dangers of Invasion.''

Article I, section 10 of the Constitution explicitly says that a State may engage in war without the consent of Congress if ``actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay.''

Now, let's look at the facts. At least 10,000 people a day, on several months, have been coming across our border, averaging 7,500 a day. The Biden administration admits to releasing 85 percent of that 7,500 a day into our country--85 percent are released into the country. This is in addition to the 2 million illegal immigrants that we have lost track of in the past 3 years.

More than 100,000 Americans are dying every year because of drugs, which a lot have come across our southern border--and getting worse. That is more than we lost in the Vietnam war, and that was a very long war.

Drugs, gangs, and even terrorists are flooding--are flooding--our border. We don't know who they are. Can there be any doubt that the Founding Fathers would consider this an invasion?

The population of our country at the founding was about 4 million people, at the beginning, 248 years ago. The population has grown, obviously. We have had more than 8 million illegal crossings since Joe Biden took office--8 million. The sheer scale of this is unlike anything that any of us have ever seen.

So it should be clear. The facts and the Constitution are both on the State of Texas's side, and Texas has every right to protect the people in its State and our country.

I am confident that the Supreme Court will uphold the Constitution on this ruling, but the real solution is not relying on a court ruling. The real solution is for President Joe Biden to stop destroying the border and put a stop to what is happening.

Stop cutting the wire. Stop suing our border States. Stop selling off the wall. Stop pretending to want a border bill that we know won't work. Stop encouraging. Stop encouraging the invasion. He is personally doing that from the White House. Stop encouraging the invasion of our country, which is costing American lives every single day.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, many of our veterans come home with scars, including scars you can't see. After fighting America's battles, they come home to fight their own personal battles. One American warrior who knows this well is SGT Lloyd Michael Austin of Mobile.

He grew up in a military family, the son of a World War II veteran. After graduating from Williamson High School, he enlisted in the Army to continue his dad's legacy of military service. Sergeant Austin deployed overseas during Desert Storm and Desert Shield. There, he drove a truck for multiple combat missions. After being diagnosed with PTSD from his time in combat, Sergeant Austin returned home to Alabama.

He found himself fighting a different war, as he struggled with substance abuse. He became isolated from family and friends, and even attempted to take his life. Thankfully, he survived and found help. Now, after more than 17 years sober, Sergeant Austin uses his own experience to help others. He works with Vets Recover, where he helps veterans struggling with drug and alcohol addiction. He is also a pastor at Love Me Anyway Ministries.

Sergeant Austin visits hospitals and treatment centers to encourage people, with special help from his poodle and service dog Ivy. His story has given hope to many Alabamians during some of the darkest moments in their lives. Alabama is grateful to have compassionate servant leaders like Sergeant Austin. It is my honor to recognize him as the February Veteran of the Month.

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

Mr. President, I come to the floor today to express my very strong support for school choice.

Sunday was the start of School Choice Week. Tens of thousands of parents, students, and educators are going to celebrate the accomplishments of the school choice movement.

I spent 40 years in education.

I was a government school teacher--better known as public school-- including in higher education. I was a coach. I was a mentor. For 40 years, I watched the school choice movement grow and change many, many lives. I have seen the changes that school choice has brought for students across our great country.

When I first started in education 40 years ago, there was no opportunity for school choice. Homeschooling was very, very rare. But our government schools were in better shape back then. Homeschooling today is practically like attending a small school. Today, there are about 2 million kids being homeschooled across our country. Homeschooling is the fastest growing form of education in America. It is growing because parents recognize that our schools are failing--I am going to repeat that: failing--our kids. It is time for lawmakers across this country at every level, including us, to recognize that our schools are failing.

Over the past 40 years, I have watched our education system decline with my own eyes. I have visited schools, parents, and principals in 49 States and American Samoa. What I saw sometimes was absolutely shocking. And, for today, it is the main reason that I ran for this seat here in the U.S. Senate. Education wasn't just a local problem; it was a national problem.

By now, it is undeniable that our K through 12 education system is in a crisis because of job protections and

teachers unions. We spend more money on education in the United States of America than any other country, but we are not in first place. We are not even close. And that is a shame.

Before the pandemic, we were 8th in reading, 11th in science, and 30th in math. You can't blame that on the pandemic. Some like to. This has been going on for a long time, even before the pandemic. It has been getting worse and worse and worse.

Last year, we had the worst ACT scores in 30 years. Let me repeat that. Last year, we had the worst ACT scores in 30 years. Nearly half of all of our students could not meet a single ACT benchmark--half. The most recent national report card showed a steep drop in reading and math scores in almost every State. These were the lowest scores in the last 20 years. Even Joe Biden's Secretary of Education called these test scores ``appalling'' and ``unacceptable.''

In some cities, there are entire schools--entire schools--where zero students can read or do math at the level that they are in. In Chicago alone, there are 55 schools where zero students can read or do math at grade level. Children in these schools are being robbed of their future. Our K through 12 system is failing. It is failing to prepare our kids for college or for life.

When I talk about education, I often hear my Democratic colleagues argue that we don't spend enough money. Their answer to everything is to spend more. We pay more than any other country in the world, and, again, we are not even in the top 10 with some of these countries that spend a lot less. We pay $14,000 per student in this country in our public and government schools. In other developed countries, it is $11,000 or less. So we are spending nearly 40 percent more money, but we are not getting 40 percent better test scores. We are getting a lot less. We are 26th in math in this country competing against other countries across the world--26th.

If you can't do math, you can't survive in today's world of technology. You can't pay your bills if you can't do math. How are we going to compete in a modern, high-tech economy if we can't do math? I don't think anybody has thought about that. We just keep going on down the same road.

According to the National Science Foundation, China graduated 1.2 million engineers in 2016. We graduated 130,000. One third of Chinese college students major in engineering. In America, it is 7 percent. How are we going to compete against our biggest adversary, China, if we are not educated? Kids in China are learning calculus, and this is in elementary school. Kids in China are learning calculus while our kids are studying pronouns and 50 genders and critical race theory. It is a disservice. We are cheating our kids. Frankly, it is a national security issue.

My Democratic colleagues need to remember that our education system does not exist for the sake of the teachers or principals and administrators, or even coaches. It doesn't exist for that. It is not about our teachers unions. It is about our students getting an education, learning to read and write, do math, preparing for a future. We forgot about that. Unfortunately, we forgot about that for a long time. It is about preparing kids for life--what an idea.

So what is school choice? School choice just means funding the student instead of the school building. That is what we do now: We send all of our money to these school buildings. We put it in teachers and administrators. The money is not going to exactly where it should be going--to prepare students for life.

It is the idea that the school was made for the student, not the student for the school. School choice brings the power of the free market, which is what we are supposed to be, to our education system. The results benefit everyone, even kids in the government or public schools.

Studies show that school choice means better test scores and better outcomes for students. When we talk about choice, my Democratic colleagues will say: If you are for school choice, then you are against public and government schools.

That is not true. That is not true. I used to teach in a public or government school. I was a member of the teachers union. I want our government schools to be the best in the world--the best--not 2nd, not 10th, not 20th, but the best. Our schools--our public and government schools--should be good enough to compete with our private schools, which are growing every day, but right now most of them are not. They are not competing against other schools. They don't have to compete because nothing is going on in the majority of our public schools. It is just a simple fact.

There is a laundry list of things we need to do about our public and government schools. But to make it better, what should be at the top of the list is competition, which is school choice--school choice to go where you want to go.

There are 20 studies--20 studies--that have shown that school choice improves our public schools. This is because school choice forces government schools to compete for students. And that is what this country is about. It is about competition. It is about the opportunity to do what you want, but it is all built on competition. Competition makes everyone better, whether it is in football, business, or just life. Competition makes us all better.

Kids deserve teachers, deserve teachers and schools that will compete for them, not for a teachers union but for them. The job is to make our students better, and we are failing.

A child's education should not be decided--should not be decided--on their ZIP Code, where they live. Their education should not be decided on their family's income. That is not the way this should work. It should be decided by the people who know them best and love them the most--which is who? Their parents. Parents are a big part of the equation.

When I was a coach, I always told my players that this country owes you only one thing, and that is an opportunity. I didn't care who you were. When I coached, I didn't care whether you were rich, poor, Protestant or Catholic, Jewish. It didn't make any difference what race you were. I was hired to teach football and to win games. It is no different in a classroom. Everybody has that opportunity. And don't give me ``Everybody doesn't have that opportunity.'' They do. You just have to take that opportunity and run with it.

So, at the end of the day, the key to unlock that opportunity is what? It is education. If you can't read and write in our country, in which we are struggling at almost every school--if you can't read and write, you can't make it. You are going to end up living off the government, and that is not what this country is about.

So our future is built on our kids. If we don't educate our kids, we won't have much of a future, and it has really declined. But if we unleash--and I know we have got a lot of problems going on in our world today, in our country, a lot of division. But if we unleash the potential of our young people, there is nothing that we cannot achieve.

So I urge my colleagues to support school choice in the upcoming budget process. Give them the opportunity to compete. Give them the opportunity for a better education. Put the pressure on our public and government schools. Make them compete to keep their students there. And the way you do that is you educate students. Get it to a point where we don't need school choice or homeschooling.

This should not be a partisan issue. This should not be about Republican and Democrat. This is about Americans. This is about Americans, giving them the opportunity to succeed and achieve. This is a huge American issue. We had better wake up and smell the roses. It is about basic American values--the values of education for all, opportunity for all, and letting our people live out their God-given potential, not keeping it locked up. Give everybody that opportunity.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, as a native of the State of Arkansas, I would like to add my congratulations to Harding University national champions football. Being a former football coach, I know how hard it is to achieve any kind of championship, but to win a national championship is special. It is special to these young men and coaches, and people involved will always remember. So my congratulations go out to Harding. I actually played against Harding for 4 years, being in the same conference as they were in, back in the seventies. So, man, what an honor--I guess the first time--the first ever national championship. So, again, congratulations to the Harding Bisons. It is quite an honor.

Mr. President, I come to the floor today to talk about the need for more American energy. We are now in the coldest time of the year. The demand for energy is going up as people try to keep warm. This is placing a strain on our power grid across this country.

This administration obviously has no solution for this problem. I think they are adding to the problem. The Biden administration is on a crusade to make us dependent on unreliable renewable resources, like wind and solar.

I am not against wind and solar. I think they are very good. I think it is feasible that we invest in them. There is a role that they play in our economy. But we can't depend on wind and solar. It is not possible. The Sun doesn't shine every day, and the wind doesn't blow every day. Our energy grid needs to stay running for 24 hours--what a thought.

Despite Joe Biden's best efforts, most of our energy grid today still comes from fossil fuels. By the way, it will always come from fossil fuels unless we have another alternative, which I will talk about. But when wind and solar power fail, people don't realize this.

At one time in my life, I had a huge wind turbine in my backyard--a couple hundred yards--and I noticed that even if the wind didn't blow, the turbine still ran. It ran because it ran off of a diesel generator--better known as fossil fuels.

You cannot run a modern economy without fossil fuels. It is impossible. I know we are talking about it every day, and you hear all the climate gurus talking about, you know, we have to do away with fossil fuels and we have to be net zero--which, by the way, if we did net zero, we wouldn't live very long because, by the way, we do need carbon in the air.

So with wind and solar, we need an all-above approach to American energy production to keep prices low and capacity high. We have to have it. And how do we do that? We do it by investing in nuclear power.

In 1979, we were on the way to being energy-independent through nuclear power.

We had a problem at Three Mile Island with a nuclear plant that went basically, in our words and in terms of this generation, berserk. They had problems. They had leaks.

There was a media presence at that time that started attacking nuclear energy because it was going to kill everybody; nuclear energy was going to be a disaster. At that time, we were constructing over 100 nuclear sites across the United States of America--100, closer to 150. Because of Three Mile Island and how it scared--the media actually scared the people of this country, we scratched those plans. We quit construction. We said: We can't do this. We are going to kill everybody on the planet with nuclear energy.

Right now, nuclear makes up about 20 percent of our energy grid. If we hadn't stopped back in 1979, it would be much closer to 70, 80 percent, and we wouldn't have to be burning fossil fuels.

I am proud the United States has the most nuclear power production of any country in the world. I think it shows that we are a leader. But we should get back to it. We could be producing a lot more nuclear energy right now. But, as I said earlier, the redtape from this administration and the ``climate cons'' is slowing permitting and production.

We actually just opened I think the first nuclear plant in many, many years in the State of Georgia, in the southeastern part of the country, which will provide energy for thousands and thousands and thousands of people for years to come because of

this--with zero carbon emissions, by the way.

The Biden administration is obsessed with wind and solar, but they know deep down that they can't touch nuclear energy. They know that their leftwing voting base hates nuclear energy--hates it.

I think we need to go back to the education department and start learning about nuclear energy. Everybody should be brought up to speed. Instead of being scared of it, we should adopt it. This opposition to nuclear power really has no basis in the facts. It is bad economics, and it is bad environmental policy.

Let's talk about the economics and let's talk about the environmental impact of nuclear energy. First, economics.

Nuclear energy is the most efficient source of energy ever known to man. In fact, nuclear energy is 8,000 times more efficient than fossil fuels--8,000 times. Fossil fuels are a lot more efficient than wind and solar. We know that.

Nuclear energy is cheap to produce. Nuclear is also safe for the environment. I am going to repeat that. Nuclear energy is safe for the environment. My Democratic colleagues are worried about carbon emissions, so why not nuclear energy? But I hardly hear any of them ever championing nuclear energy, which produces zero emissions and removes harmful pollutants from the atmosphere.

Environmentalists claim nuclear energy is dangerous. Environmentalists point to a few headlines from over the last 80 years, but they don't point to the facts. The fact is that our technology is better and better every day. We have different reactors that are unbelievable. They are cheaper to build. They are more efficient. They are almost 100 percent safe. They are salt-based. They have zero possibility of any reactor that melts down or releases any radiation in the atmosphere. But what have we done? We have just disregarded it. We just said: Oh, nuclear energy doesn't work. It is not safe. We are going to get away from it.

We better wake up and smell the roses. Nuclear energy is safer now than it was 40 years ago and certainly 80 years ago. Our scientists have learned. I can understand the thoughts of years and years ago when we had different reactors that actually melted down.

How many people died in Three Mile Island in 1979? I think if you are really interested, you ought to go back and look at this. You ought to go back and look at the things that were brought up by the media that never came to fruition.

So it should be clear: Nuclear energy is a good investment and should be a big target for investment for years to come for the United States.

I am deeply grateful to my State of Alabama's energy workers who are keeping the lights on for our people across our country. Right now as we speak, there are thousands of Alabama energy workers off the gulf coast exploring for oil and gas. I am also proud that Alabama is America's fifth largest producer of nuclear energy. We have two nuclear plants and five nuclear reactors.

The Tennessee Valley Authority--which is run by the government, by the way--operates Browns Ferry in Athens, AL, which is TVA's largest nuclear plant. The Browns Ferry plant produces one-fifth of the TVA's energy, which covers a lot of the South. It directly supports 1,500 jobs and powers more than 2 million homes. In Wiregrass, AL, which is in the southeast part of the State, Alabama Power runs Plant Farley, which produces about a fifth of Alabama Power's electricity. I am deeply grateful that Alabama's energy workers are keeping the lights on for all of us.

It is clear we need to stop the obsession with wind and solar. We can use that, but we can do a better job of investing in nuclear energy.

We need to fix the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Right now, it takes about 10 years--10 years--to get a nuclear reactor approved in our country. There is no good reason that it should take so long.

We also ought to support advanced small modular reactors, called SMRs. They are safe, they are cheaper, and they are quicker to build. They are small reactors with lower demands for fuel.

By the way, we gave this technology to China back during the Obama administration. They are building them every day in Asia. They have taken our technology and are using it.

They can bring energy costs down and also emissions down.

It is time we got to work on nuclear energy. The polls show the American people are becoming more and more supportive of nuclear power; there is no doubt about that. A clear majority of the American people want and need more nuclear plants. This should be a bipartisan issue. Let's look out for the American people. It is good economics, it is good energy policy, it is good for our environment, and it is long, long overdue.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, our men and women in uniform embody a special kind of courage. No one displays that better than Captain Maggie Amadei of Enterprise.

A veteran of Desert Storm and the Iraq War, Maggie served multiple combat aviation missions in the Middle East. Not only is Maggie a combat veteran, but she is also a Gold Star Spouse. Maggie and her husband Ben met while both serving in the Army. They deployed as part of the 101st Airborne Division and celebrated their first wedding anniversary while in Iraq. But 2 months after, Ben's helicopter was shot down, and he lost his life for this country. But this tragedy didn't destroy Maggie's desire to serve. She served in the military for 12 years and moved to the Wiregrass.

She immediately found ways to continue using her aviation skills and experience. And her work is having impact across the globe. Maggie manages operations for the Flight School Training Support Services Program at GDIT in Daleville. It is the largest rotary wing flight simulation facility in the world.

For 15 years, Maggie has helped provide over 1.5 million flight hours to pilots, making sure our pilots are ready.

Every day, she helps ensure the next generation of Army aviators are prepared for whatever challenge comes next.

Maggie's toughness, resilience, and her commitment to serve are an inspiration. Alabama is grateful for her service, and it is my honor to recognize her as the January Veteran of the Month.

Mr. President, many of our veterans carry both visible and invisible scars from their time in the military. This is true for U.S. Army SPC Matt Brannon of Boaz. Matt vividly remembers, as a young man, watching the events of 9/11 unfold. This inspired him to join the military in 2007 after graduating from Boaz High School. Matt was wounded in action by an RPG explosion, receiving wounds to his face, arms, and hands. He continued to fight even after sustaining injuries, saving the lives of many of his fellow soldiers. Matt was awarded a Purple Heart for his heroic actions.

In 2012, he returned home to Boaz, where he began working with the local police department. As Matt adjusted to living with his battle scars, he found healing through the outdoors. He decided to use his experience to help veterans like him who were struggling with the after-effects of war. This led him to bring Wounded Warriors in Action to the region. Each year, he helps veterans from Alabama--and across the Nation--who served in combat, find healing through hunting and fishing.

Matt also serves as a narcotics agent with the Bureau of Special Investigations arm of the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency. He is on the frontlines keeping our communities safe from deadly drugs like fentanyl.

Alabama is grateful for Matt's service. It is my honor to recognize Matt Brannon as the December Veteran of the Month.

Ten minutes.

I yield.

I yield.

Mr. President, I come to the floor today to talk about the military's new illegal abortion policy.

Last November, I got word from the Pentagon that it was planning on replacing a 40-year law that was passed in this building, about abortion in our military, that has worked perfectly for 40 years--no complaints. But our President, in his wisdom, decided to change that abortion policy with a memo.

So, because of that, I warned the Pentagon: Don't do this. Send this new policy through the Senate, and let's vote on it. Let's represent our colleagues. Let's represent the people back home who sent us up here. They elect us to do that, to make decisions for them, to represent them.

I said in writing that, if they imposed this new policy, I would put a hold on senior nominations in the military. That is the only power that we have in the minority to get the attention of the majority here in the Senate.

I hated to do it. These people needed promotions, but somebody needs to wake up in the White House and the Pentagon that they cannot dictate policy here in the U.S. Senate.

Send it over. Let's vote on it.

So I put a hold, 11 months ago, on admirals and generals and civil nominees. A few months went by--a few months being 11--and we have had that hold ever since they put this policy in place.

But somebody had to stand up to what was going on. So I did it. I stood up, knowing that I am 100 percent military. My dad was in the military. I was a military brat. I believe in our military. It is the No. 1 institution in this country because, if we don't have peace and security for the American citizens, we are in trouble.

Secretary Austin knew that I would hold these nominations. He knew it, but he decided to go ahead and do it anyway. It was his choice. The current leadership in the Pentagon seems to think that taxpayer-funded abortion is more important than military nominations.

Now, let's get this straight. This was in a policy that we had for 40 years that was about rape, incest, and harm to the mom. It had worked for 40 years, but they decided to change that because they thought they could without the consent of the Senate.

Since then, there has been absolutely no negotiation from my Democratic colleagues or the Biden administration. I have had a brief phone call a couple of times with the Secretary of Defense, but no negotiations at all. You would think, if they were really concerned about our military in a trying time in which we have all of the world which they have created, that they would have called me: Let's talk about this. Let's work it out. We need promotions.

Zero. Zero communications. I have been willing to negotiate the entire time.

So, instead, the Democrats have spent 11 months attacking me for trying to get them to do the right thing and to stand up for our military. No, they didn't want any of that. They wanted it their way or the highway.

Unfortunately, last month, even some of my Republican colleagues attacked me--and attacked me personally--here on this floor. I could see how this thing was going. They call themselves, you know, military--people

that support the military. There is nobody, again, who supports the military any more than me. But they are currently in the military, and they were standing up for their colleagues, which is fine. But I can stand and we all can stand for the life of the unborn and for our military. You can do both.

Unfortunately, the Democrats don't want to do that. They do not like the unborn, and they don't care anything about the military, or they would have done something about this. They were saying these guys and women need promotions. Well, these young unborn will never have a chance for a promotion because they want to kill them before they are born, which is absolutely amazing to me.

I have been asking the Pentagon to support evidence of changing this policy, again, for almost a year. They said it is because of recruiting: We need to be able to recruit more people, more women, because we need a better abortion policy.

Again, there was zero evidence that this was going to help in recruiting. And, folks, recruiting in the military has been an absolute, total disaster--the worst in the history of this country. We don't have anybody--hardly anybody--who wants to join a volunteer military. It has only gotten worse since this policy went into effect, which they started in February.

I have asked the Pentagon how many people have used this policy since it has gone into place. They refused to answer. They have given me no information at all.

I have also explained on this floor many times that this policy is illegal. Now, if it was sent over here and we voted on it and it passed, it is what it is. But that didn't happen. It wasn't going to happen because they didn't have the votes. They didn't have the votes to pass it. So we have an immoral, illegal policy that has no basis in facts.

The world is a much more dangerous place today because of some of the things that have happened, such as this abortion policy being put in by Joe Biden and Chuck Schumer himself. It has become much more dangerous, even since we put this policy in place last year.

Over the last 3 years, we have seen some of the worst humiliations in the history of our military. President Biden waved the white flag of surrender in Afghanistan: We are leaving; we want out. That is without even helping people who are Americans and who have helped Americans for 20 years. We abandoned them.

Just 2 months later, Vladimir Putin began massing forces on his border with Ukraine. I went to Ukraine right before the war started in Ukraine and talked to President Zelenskyy himself, who said: We need help. We need people at the border. If you will send materials, they won't come in.

This administration wouldn't listen. We got out of the way and let them come in. Since then, by the way, we spent 100 billion of the taxpayer dollars. Now we want to spend $100 billion more. Joe Biden failed to deter President Putin.

Joe Biden failed to deter Hamas because of his support of Iran--his appeasement of Iran for the last 3 years, giving them money. Iran is flush with cash now. Hamas is one of their proxies. Joe Biden has been softer on Iran than any President in American history. There is no question that America is less safe today than it was before Joe Biden and Chuck Schumer took control of Washington, DC. There is no question. The facts speak for themselves.

We have weakened our military, and Democrats in Congress have been more than happy to go along with all of these policies. There are no complaints from my Democratic colleagues.

I will just mention a few examples.

Joe Biden drove out 8,000--just think about this. We drove out 8,000 people in the military because they would not take a vaccine--8,000 people who love this country. Democrats in the Senate refused to reinstate them and give them backpay when we voted on it about a year ago. Now the Pentagon and my colleagues are begging them to please come back. We can't get anybody to take a job in the military. Please come back. It is no surprise that most of these heroes whom we ran out because of the vaccine will not come back.

Now, I heard that Senator Durbin now wants illegal immigrants to serve in the military because we can't find enough Americans.

Did I just not hear on the floor that Senator Durbin and Senator Schumer are against assault weapons?

I heard that. Everybody has got their opinion. But they want to turn around and give an assault weapon to a Chinese or a Russian or Iranian who is coming into this country illegally to protect the American citizens in the United States of America. Have we lost our minds? We have absolutely lost it when it comes to protecting the citizens of this country.

Is anybody in the White House asking why we can't recruit anymore? It is absolutely amazing to me.

Here is another example. Our Navy is not building enough ships that are required by law--that we passed. We are not building them. We are worried more about climate change and EV cars.

Folks, we had better start protecting our borders and our country or we are not going to have a country. I have never seen anything like it. The Pentagon has become more distracted from its core mission by things like diversity, equity, and inclusion. Hmm. The Pentagon just asked for $114 million.

Now, I have been told during these last 11 months when I have been attacked by the Democrats--and I have been attacked every day by the Democrats: Oh, this is not a ``woke'' military. Wait a minute. We are not teaching social justice programs in the military, but we want $114 million more to give for diversity, equity, and inclusion. We don't even know how much the abortion travel memo has cost.

More and more veterans are telling their kids: Don't join this woke military. I hear it every time I go out on the road and talk to groups of Democrats, Republicans, and Independents. I mean, it is not about party. It is about an institution that has been sacred to all of us in this country for 247 years, but now it is under attack. It is under attack by the politicians. This list goes on and on about the problems in the military. It is an absolute disaster.

Then, last week, Senator Schumer stooped to a new low. The House and the Senate, every year, pass a budget independently. Then we bring it together, and we vote on the discrepancies to build one bill together with the House--voted on by people on each side. I was involved in that, but it was a sham. The conference is supposed to report it out as a single bill after we put it together, but we had no vote. We had no vote. The conference committee was just brought in for pictures. All of the confirmations were done by the leadership, and Senator Schumer got the No. 1 vote. The abortion policy was on the House side. It got kicked out. We were supposed to vote on it. I had the votes to get it done, but he knew that; so now we have an illegal abortion policy. This bill was written in the back rooms, which is like a lot of things that are done here, not by many but by a few.

I came here to represent the people of Alabama. If you are not given a vote, why even send people up here? I didn't come here to outsource my job to the Pentagon or the White House or, frankly, to the leadership of either side--it doesn't make any difference--Democrat or Republican.

This issue of taxpayer-funded abortion could have been resolved through the NDAA, and whatever the outcome, I am fine; but bring it to the floor, and let's vote on it. That is our job. But that doesn't happen. It is not happening because Senator Schumer knew that he couldn't get it passed. That is how DC works. Abortion is so important to Senator Schumer that he is not letting us vote on this. Therefore, there no longer appears to be any short-term path to ending the Pentagon's illegal abortion policy. Some other policy will take time for me to work through the process, but that doesn't happen overnight.

So, yesterday, I announced that I would change my tactics and let the promotions go through--promotions that they needed, that our military needed. But, again, Senator Schumer and his colleagues could care less. They held their feet to the fire--no negotiation. But I am going to continue to hold the four-star generals.

People say: Why would you insist on holding the four stars? We have got 11 of them.

Today, we have 44 four-stars in the military. In World War II, we had 7--44 to 7. We had 12 million with 7 four-stars. Today, we have 44 four-stars with 2 million. It doesn't make sense--too many chiefs. So we are going to hold those four stars. We can bring them up one at a time, but they need to be vetted. We need to know who is running our military. These jobs are too important to rubberstamp.

We need to keep fighting to make our military stronger and stronger. The fight for the integrity of our military leadership will continue as long as I am here. The fight to keep politics out of the most sacred institution will continue. The fight to protect Senate and executive branch overreach will continue. Senator Schumer can rig it all he wants, but this fight is not over. We will continue to take it to the American people because elections have consequences; and don't think next year's is not very, very important.

I am not going to stop fighting for these things, and I am not going to stop fighting for the American people. That is the reason we are here. A lot of people forget that.

I yield the floor.