{"database": "openregs", "table": "congressional_record", "rows": [["CREC-2025-01-16-pt1-PgS198", "2025-01-16", 119, 1, null, null, "LAKEN RILEY ACT", "SENATE", "SENATE", "ALLOTHER", "S198", "S218", "[{\"name\": \"John Thune\", \"role\": \"speaking\"}, {\"name\": \"Charles E. Schumer\", \"role\": \"speaking\"}, {\"name\": \"Mitch McConnell\", \"role\": \"speaking\"}, {\"name\": \"John Barrasso\", \"role\": \"speaking\"}, {\"name\": \"John Cornyn\", \"role\": \"speaking\"}, {\"name\": \"Tammy Duckworth\", \"role\": \"speaking\"}, {\"name\": \"Cynthia M. Lummis\", \"role\": \"speaking\"}, {\"name\": \"Thom Tillis\", \"role\": \"speaking\"}, {\"name\": \"Elizabeth Warren\", \"role\": \"speaking\"}, {\"name\": \"Tommy Tuberville\", \"role\": \"speaking\"}, {\"name\": \"Alex Padilla\", \"role\": \"speaking\"}, {\"name\": \"Adam B. Schiff\", \"role\": \"speaking\"}, {\"name\": \"Richard J. Durbin\", \"role\": \"speaking\"}, {\"name\": \"Patty Murray\", \"role\": \"speaking\"}, {\"name\": \"Ron Johnson\", \"role\": \"speaking\"}, {\"name\": \"Jerry Moran\", \"role\": \"speaking\"}, {\"name\": \"Jeff Merkley\", \"role\": \"speaking\"}, {\"name\": \"Katie Boyd Britt\", \"role\": \"speaking\"}, {\"name\": \"Dan Sullivan\", \"role\": \"speaking\"}]", "[{\"congress\": \"119\", \"type\": \"S\", \"number\": \"5\"}, {\"congress\": \"119\", \"type\": \"S\", \"number\": \"5\"}, {\"congress\": \"119\", \"type\": \"S\", \"number\": \"140\"}]", "171 Cong. Rec. S198", "Congressional Record, Volume 171 Issue 9 (Thursday, January 16, 2025)\n\n[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 9 (Thursday, January 16, 2025)]\n[Senate]\n[Pages S198-S218]\nFrom the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]\n\n                            LAKEN RILEY ACT\n\n                          Cabinet Nominations\n\n  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, the Cabinet confirmation process is well\nunderway here in the U.S. Senate. Confirmation hearings began this week\nwith Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth in the Armed Services\nCommittee on Tuesday. Yesterday, we had six confirmation hearings--the\nmost confirmation hearings, I might add, in a single day since 2001--\nand we have more happening today and tomorrow. By the time President\nTrump takes the oath of office on Monday, the Senate will have held\nhearings for 12 of his nominees, and there are plenty more to come.\n  Once the committees complete their work, the process will move to the\nfloor, and we will move as quickly as possible on those votes. I hope\nDemocrats will provide a level of cooperation that will allow us to\nquickly fill these positions so these nominees can begin their work for\nthe American people.\n  One of the nominees being considered this week is a familiar face to\nus in the Senate. Yesterday, our longtime colleague Senator Rubio found\nhimself on the other side of the dais in the Foreign Relations\nCommittee for his hearing to be Secretary of State. Members of that\ncommittee are well acquainted with Senator Rubio's expertise in foreign\npolicy. He has been a leading voice on these issues here in the Senate\nand on the Foreign Relations Committee since he arrived here in 2011,\nand yesterday, his expertise was on full display. Whether he was\ndiscussing China, the Middle East, Russia, our alliances, or anything\nelse, our colleague demonstrated his command of international affairs.\n  Marco also clearly laid out the philosophy he will bring to the job.\nHe spoke about peace through strength, restoring American leadership,\nand advancing America's interests.\n  Our colleague is ready to step into the leadership void that the\nBiden administration has too often left on the world stage. In too many\ninstances, the Biden administration has chosen to appease our enemies\nrather than demonstrate strength.\n  As yesterday made clear, we can expect Senator Rubio to bring a moral\nclarity to foreign policy that has been sorely lacking in the last 4\nyears. That is important--moral clarity--and it has never been a\nchallenge for Marco Rubio.\n  Take our relationship with China. The senior Senator from Florida has\nbeen a leading voice on the Chinese Communist Party's malign intentions\nand their implications for the United States. He has been clear-eyed\nabout what the United States ought to do to outcompete China in this\ncentury, and he has been outspoken in calling attention to China's\nhuman rights abuses. He was a leading voice on China's repression of\nits own people in Xinjiang, and he led the charge on the Uyghur Forced\nLabor Prevention Act in the U.S. Senate. And he didn't stop once it\nbecame law; he made sure the legislation was being implemented\nproperly. He called out companies suspected of using forced labor, and\nhe advocated for the Biden administration to do a better job of vetting\nimports.\n  All of us here in the Senate know of Marco's unwavering commitment to\nfreedom. He has been a strong supporter of freedom fighters in Hong\nKong, and he has been outspoken in his support for Taiwan as the\nChinese Communist Party has grown more aggressive.\n  He is also a fierce defender of democracy and human rights in Latin\nAmerica. His family watched their native Cuba deteriorate under a\ncommunist dictatorship, and it was conversations with his grandfather\nabout Cuba's plight that drew Senator Rubio into public service. So it\nis no surprise he is one of the strongest defenders of the rights of\nthe Cuban people.\n  He is also a strong voice for democracy and justice in Venezuela.\nMarco has been outspoken in his criticism of the Biden administration's\nappeasement of the Maduro regime, and he was a clear voice in defense\nof democracy as the country suffered through Maduro's corrupt election\nlast year.\n  As we heard in his testimony yesterday, our colleague is focused on\nadvancing America's interests. As he said, ``Every dollar we spend,\nevery program we fund, and every policy we pursue must be justified by\nthe answer to three simple questions: Does it make America safer? Does\nit make America stronger or does it make America more prosperous?'' I\nthink that is what the American people should expect from a Secretary\nof State and from their government, and anybody who watched his hearing\nyesterday knows that is what we are going to get from Marco Rubio as\nSecretary of State.\n  I will have more to say about Marco and other nominees for the Trump\nadministration as they move through the process here in the U.S.\nSenate, and I look forward to hearing from each of the President's\nnominees in the near future.\n  I yield the floor.\n  I suggest the absence of a quorum.\n  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.\n  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.\n  Mr. SCHUMER. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum\ncall be rescinded.\n  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.\n\n                   Recognition of the Minority Leader\n\n  The Democratic leader is recognized.\n\n                   President Biden's Farewell Address\n\n  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, last night, President Biden delivered his\nfarewell address, reflecting on his 4 years in office, which will be\nremembered as one of the most productive periods in modern American\nhistory. Working alongside President Biden for the American people was\nthe honor of a lifetime.\n  When President Biden took office, America was in crisis. The pandemic\nwas surging. The economy was reeling. Our democracy was under assault.\nBut President Biden, with good help from Senate Democrats, got right to\nwork, and together, I am proud that we achieved one of the most\nambitious legislative agendas in decades.\n  Working with President Biden, we created nearly 17 million new jobs,\nthe most in a single term. We passed historic legislation, like Chips\nand Science--that was a baby that I nurtured--the bipartisan\ninfrastructure law, and the Inflation Reduction Act. We lowered the\ncost of prescription drugs for tens of millions of Americans. We passed\nthe first gun safety law in 30 years. We enshrined marriage equality\ninto law. We confirmed 235 well-qualified and historic judges to\nlifetime appointments--more judges than any majority has confirmed in\ndecades--and so much more.\n  President Biden also left America with a somber warning in his\naddress--one that every American should listen to. He cautioned that\n``an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power, and\ninfluence'' that will threaten all the progress our country has made in\nthe last 4 years.\n  President Biden is right. An oligarchy is beginning to take shape in\nAmerica, and you can see it by looking at the incoming Trump\nadministration.\n  Donald Trump has not even taken office yet, but many of his top\nadvisers and Cabinet picks are extremely wealthy people with deep ties\nto corporate special interests. Many of these Cabinet picks seem to see\nthe world through the eyes of a very rich and privileged individual--a\nvery limited vision indeed. And the agenda they are pushing--tax cuts\nfor the ultrawealthy and draconian cuts to the working class--is narrow\nand only furthers inequality in America.\n  Donald Trump's agenda would precisely benefit the oligarchy class\nthat President Biden is warning about. The progress we have made under\nPresident Biden's leadership--lower taxes for families, more affordable\nhealthcare, investments in infrastructure and energy--should not be\nundone only to assuage the desires of a limited few.\n  We Democrats will continue the legacy that President Biden created,\ncontinue fighting for working families, and make sure that everyone in\nAmerica--not just the uberwealthy--has a fair shot.\n\n                                 TikTok\n\n  Mr. President, now on TikTok, the 170 million Americans who use\nTikTok are rightfully asking the same question: What will happen to the\napp after the ban enters into effect next week?\n\n[[Page S199]]\n\n  Today, I want to say a few words about protecting TikTok's future\nwhile also protecting America's national security at the same time.\n  We aren't against TikTok. We want TikTok to keep going. But we are\nagainst a Chinese company that is in cahoots with the Chinese Communist\nParty owning TikTok. Unfortunately, TikTok, as it exists today, has too\nmany security risks that cannot be ignored. The law passed last year\nwas intended to sever TikTok from the influence of the CCP while\nkeeping the app available for Americans.\n  It is clear that more time is needed to find an American buyer and\nnot disrupt the lives and livelihoods of millions of Americans, of so\nmany influencers who have built up a good network of followers. That is\nwhy, last night, Senate Democrats tried to pass a bill that would\nextend the deadline to give everyone more time to come up with a\nworkable solution, but Senate Republicans blocked our bill, which is\nstunning because time is running short.\n  We will continue to work to find a responsible solution to keeping\nTikTok going, protect American livelihoods, and protect against Chinese\nCommunist Party surveillance. We must and can do all three. I have made\nmy views clear to the current administration, and I will work with the\nTrump administration and with both parties to keep TikTok alive while\nprotecting our national security.\n  We can all agree that we must protect Americans' privacy from the\nprying eyes of the Chinese Communist Party, but we also should agree it\nmust be done in the right way, without risking content creators'\nlivelihoods by rushing this process in a premature way. TikTok should\nsurvive but under new ownership.\n\n                          Cabinet Nominations\n\n  Mr. President, on nominations, this week, the American people have\ngotten their first real look at what is in store for them under a\nsecond Trump administration, and it is very bad news for the working\nand middle class. Senate Republicans, of course, are in the majority.\nThey control, to a large extent, the final outcome of each nominee in\nthis Chamber if they stick together. And Donald Trump's hold on Senate\nRepublicans, as we have seen throughout the nominations process, is\nvery, very strong.\n  Even so, there are two reasons why holding these hearings is\nextremely important regardless of outcome. First, they create a\ncontrast between the parties. People will see what we stand for and\nwhat our Republican colleagues stand for as they support Trump's\nnominees. And second, the hearings create a record to hold these\nnominees accountable should they fail on the job down the line--which,\nunfortunately, I think many will, given their meager qualifications.\n  The contrast between whom Democrats will fight for and whom\nRepublicans will fight for is becoming exceedingly obvious, thanks to\nthese hearings. On the Democratic side, we want answers to the things\nAmericans are worried most about: What does Donald Trump's agenda mean\nfor jobs, for inflation? What are Trump's tariffs going to do to\npeople's bottom lines? Will it send prices shooting up?\n  And people are going to ask: Are my prescription drugs going to get\nmore expensive? They are going to ask: Will our broken tax system\nbecome even more unfair under President Trump in a way that rigs the\nsystem for the ultrawealthy? These are the questions Americans care\nabout. These are the things Democrats want answers to from President\nTrump's nominees. And in many cases, the answers are very, very\ntroubling.\n  Second, even if these nominees are confirmed in the end, given that\nDonald Trump's hold on Senate Republicans is so absolute, the American\npeople deserve to have a record they can reference down the line.\n  Candidly, many of President Trump's nominees are not fit for the job.\nLook at Pete Hegseth. Confirming some of these people would be a\nreckless roll of the dice for our country, but Republicans, under\npressure from President-elect Trump, seem willing to press ahead\nnonetheless.\n  Should the time come that some of these nominees fail on the job, the\nhearings we are holding right now will come back to haunt our\nRepublican colleagues because the warnings will have been there from\nthe start. By asking tough questions, by getting nominees on the\nrecord, by establishing that many of these individuals are unfit, these\nhearings will have been the canary in the coal mine that warns everyone\nthat some of these nominees are too great a risk.\n  So Democrats will continue to uphold our responsibility to scrutinize\neach nominee on the issues Americans care about. We will continue\nasking the tough questions because working people deserve to know whose\nside Donald Trump is truly on. Is it working people, like Donald Trump\nclaims, or is it corporate special interests like his nominations all\ntoo often suggest?\n  I yield the floor.\n  I suggest the absence of a quorum.\n  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.\n  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.\n  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order\nfor the quorum call be rescinded.\n  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.\n  The Senator from Kentucky.\n\n                          Biden Administration\n\n  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, earlier this week, President Biden went\nto the State Department and offered a final assessment of his record on\nforeign policy. He insisted that his leadership had ``increased\nAmerica's power in every dimension,'' that we were ``stronger at home,\nstronger in the world, and . . . more capable . . . than we have been\nin a long time.''\n  I suspect the only people who buy that assessment were right there in\nthe room with the President. No doubt, those watching from further\nafield found those remarks unconvincing. What most of us saw was a\nfinal rearguard action to cover for an administration that has been in\nretreat for 4 straight years.\n  The President's tough talk about Putin is undone by his chronic and\nwell-documented fear of escalation--the hesitation and half measures\nthat kept critical tools out of Ukrainian hands when they could have\nmade a difference. Even his most senior aides inadvertently\nacknowledged the truth. In a legacy-shopping column in the New York\nTimes, Secretary Blinken and Secretary Austin say it was ``steadfast\nAmerican leadership'' that rallied the world to ``help Ukraine survive\nthe Kremlin's imperial onslaught.''\n  To help Ukraine survive. Not to help defeat aggression, not to help\nrestore sovereignty, not to help degrade the power of a major\nadversary--just to let Ukraine's resistance languish on the slow drip\nof critical capabilities moving far slower than the speed of relevance.\n  Or take this administration's approach to the Middle East. On Monday,\nthe President was optimistic about the prospects of defeating Iran's\nterror proxies and restoring credible deterrence under which Israel and\nits neighbors could live in peace. But absent entirely was any\nrecognition that it was Israel, not the United States, that has created\nthis geopolitical opportunity.\n  And no recognition that Israel has done so in spite of the\nadministration's best efforts to restrain a sovereign ally's self-\ndefense. In the 468 days since the horrors of October 7, the\nPresident's public scolding of a close ally under attack and refusal to\ncheck the growing anti-Israel streak poisoning his party have exposed\nhis ironclad commitment to Israel as something of a hollow gesture.\n  This, after a disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan had given allies\nand partners enough reason to doubt the strength of America's word--and\nhis administration's competence.\n  And behind President Biden's bluster about ``winning the worldwide\ncompetition'' with China is a record of paltry investment in the hard\npower America needs to meet aggression and to reassure our allies.\n  For 4 straight years, he submitted defense budget requests that\nfailed to even keep pace with inflation, let alone the pacing threat of\nthe PRC.\n  While America's primary long-term strategic competitor extended its\nlead in developing and producing lethal capabilities, the Biden\nadministration focused on climate diplomacy. And its signature climate\nprotectionism picked avoidable trade fights with allies and\n\n[[Page S200]]\n\npartners we will need to deter or defeat Chinese aggression.\n  In light of the PRC's headway and closer alignment with other\nadversaries, America's warfighters are no better equipped today to\ndeter and defeat aggression than we were 4 years ago and no more\ncertain that the institutions designed to support them actually have\ntheir backs.\n  And from Europe to the Middle East to the Taiwan Strait, the forces\nthat wish harm to America, to our people, to our values, to our\ninterests, and to our allies have seized an opportunity.\n  On Monday, President Biden's foreign policy will end, and a new\nCommander in Chief will have to contend with his staggering failures. A\nnew administration will have to clean up the mess their predecessors\nmade of American power and American credibility.\n  It is no secret that the incoming national security team will take a\ndistinctly different approach. The President-elect has expressed\nrepeatedly his intention to reorient American national security\ndecision making around a simple guiding principle: peace through\nstrength. And he would be right to do so.\n  His administration's work must begin with restoring American hard\npower and bolstering our deterrent. The world they will inherit is more\ndangerous and more hostile to U.S. security interests than the one he\nleft to President Biden 4 years ago.\n  The free world is less likely to trust our commitments, and the\nauthoritarians convening against us are more likely to scoff at our\nthreats. Russia, Iran, North Korea, and the PRC are finding more and\nmore that the desire to weaken the United States and undermine the\norder we lead is a shared objective and one toward which they are now\nworking together in coordination to weaken the United States.\n  As I have counseled the President-elect already, we cannot afford to\ndiscount this coordination. No matter how loudly others press him to\nembrace retreat and retrenchment, America cannot address grave threats\nto our interests a la carte. And as I have said repeatedly, there is no\nlanguage these adversaries understand more clearly than strength.\n  There is no surer way to restore meaningful deterrence against them\nthan by investing in our capacity and proving our willingness to impose\ndevastating costs.\n  It is common to refer to today's challenges as the gravest America\nhas faced since World War II, but we certainly don't invest like we\nbelieve that is the case.\n  So here is a good way of looking at it: Beating the axis in World War\nII meant spending 37 percent of our GDP on defense; in the Korean War,\nit took nearly 14 percent; the height of Vietnam, 9 percent; the Reagan\nbuildup at 6 percent. Today we are spending 3 percent of GDP on the\narsenal of democracy.\n  Peace through strength must be more than a pithy phrase--vaguely\ntough-sounding but functionally benign. It must instead stand for a\nclear and measurable commitment to rebuild the arsenal of democracy and\nthe most lethal fighting forces in the world.\n\n  As chairman of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, I take the\nPresident-elect's commitments very seriously, and I know he knows that\ndeterring a war is cheaper than fighting one. And I stand ready to work\nclosely with this administration in the current urgent work ahead,\nrebuilding the capabilities and capacity we need in order to credibly\npursue peace through strength.\n  That work, of course, begins with assembling an experienced and well-\nqualified team. The incoming administration is right to expect swift\nconsideration of Cabinet nominations and broad deference on the\nconfirmation of nominees whose credentials and records prove them\nworthy of the highest public trust and whose policy views align with\nthe administration's goal.\n  Nominees whose professional experience is commensurate with the\nresponsibilities of the office and who have demonstrated in detail\ntheir command of relevant policy will certainly have my vote. I intend\nto support a large slate of nominees who satisfy these conditions. In\nparticular, I will vote to confirm nominees to senior national security\nroles whose record and experience will make them immediate assets, not\nliabilities, in the pursuit of peace through strength.\n  Our chance to turn the page on the damage of the Biden\nadministration's record simply cannot come soon enough.\n  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Hagerty). The majority whip.\n\n                          Cabinet Nominations\n\n  Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I come to the floor today having been in\na number of hearings involving President Trump's nominees overseeing\nAmerican energy dominance. I tell you, President Trump's energy\nnominees show that this administration that is coming in, the Trump-\nVance administration, is serious about unleashing affordable,\navailable, reliable American energy.\n  Doug Burgum is President Trump's nominee to be Secretary of the\nDepartment of the Interior. He is still testifying right now in the\nEnergy Committee. He is the son of North Dakota, and his roots run deep\nin the West.\n  Chris Wright, who had his hearing yesterday, is President Trump's\nnominee to be the Secretary of Energy. His data-driven leadership and\ncreativity laid the foundation for the fracking boom that we\nexperienced in this Nation that has fueled American energy\nindependence.\n  And Lee Zeldin, whom I had the privilege of introducing earlier this\nmorning at the EPW Committee, well, he is a nominee to be the\nAdministrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. He is a lawyer;\nhe is a veteran; and he is a former star Member of the House of\nRepresentatives. He is going to cut redtape. He is going to balance\nenvironmental stewardship with sensible energy production.\n  All three of these nominees are excellent choices to carry out\nPresident Trump's ``all of the above'' energy strategy. They all have\nmy vote.\n  Like most Americans, President Trump and his nominees understand that\nenergy policy is the foundation of our Nation's future and our success.\nIt is linked directly to the prices that we pay, to the technology that\nwe create, and to the world in which we live.\n  Unleashing American energy means lower prices, means more innovation\nat home, and it means more safety and security for our citizens.\n  Well, we have seen it before. Affordable, reliable energy was the\nrocket fuel for American security and prosperity, and we saw it during\nthe first Trump administration. But over the last 4 years, Democrats\nrestricted and regulated and tried to reduce American energy\nproduction, instead of unlocking its full potential. Their America-last\nenergy strategy policies led to painfully high prices and a more\nvulnerable nation. I think energy was on the ballot this year, and\nenergy won.\n  Fortunately, President Trump is placing a premium on energy\nproduction. He is already laying the groundwork to take the handcuffs\noff of American energy production. On day one, I expect the President\nis going to sign a blizzard of Executive orders to bring back American\nenergy dominance. First day priorities include ending the Democrats'\nelectric vehicle mandate, more drilling on Federal lands, and resuming\nexports of U.S. liquefied natural gas.\n  This is certainly good news for my home State of Wyoming. Wyoming is\nAmerica's energy breadbasket. Oil and gas is our bread and butter. We\nhave world-class reserves of coal. We have world-class wind. We have\nbenefited from American energy dominance, and our Wyoming tough energy\nworkers made it all possible. Wyoming energy workers now stand ready to\nunleash American energy once again.\n  I hear my colleagues on the other side of the aisle preach doom and\ngloom about energy independence. The Democrat leader here on the floor\nsaid yesterday Chris Wright, who is the President's nominee for the\nSecretary of Energy--he called this nominee an energy extremist. Why?\nBecause Chris Wright believes ``oil and gas make the world go round.''\nWell, it does.\n  This is the depth of the Democrats' climate delusion. Oil and gas\ndrive our economy, produce great jobs, and produce our prosperity. And\nbecause of American oil and gas, we do it cleaner; we do it safer; and\nwe do it more reliably than anyplace else on planet Earth.\n  The facts could not be clearer. Since 2005, America has been\nresponsible for\n\n[[Page S201]]\n\n66 percent of emission reduction among developed countries. We do it\nbetter than anyone else in the world. We have reduced more emissions\nthan the next six countries combined.\n  There is a reason why, and it is not because Joe Biden bribed\nAmericans to buy solar panels or buy electric cars. No, it is American\nenergy production, American energy dominance. It is because we\nunleashed affordable, available, reliable American energy. For the\nrecord, we can thank Chris Wright and the fracking boom for unleashing\na lot of that energy.\n  In 2019, America became energy independent for the first time in 50\nyears. Why? How did it happen? President Trump did it. With Doug\nBurgum, Chris Wright, and Lee Zeldin on America's team, we are going to\ndo it again.\n  (The remarks of Mr. BARRASSO pertaining to the submission of S. 140\nare printed in today's Record under ``Submitted Resolutions.'')\n  Mr. BARRASSO. I yield the floor.\n  I suggest the absence of a quorum.\n  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.\n  The senior assistant executive clerk proceeded to call the roll.\n  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for\nthe quorum call be rescinded.\n  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.\n\n                          Biden Administration\n\n  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, it is 4 days until President Trump will be\ninaugurated for the second time as President of the United States. That\nmeans we only have 4 more days of President Biden's absentee\nleadership, but he seems to be making the most of his final days as he\ngoes out the door, and he certainly isn't letting it kick him on the\nway out.\n  I think the most egregious example of the abuse of power, really,\nthat President Biden is engaged in, now that the election is over and\nhe doesn't have to stand for a vote among the American people--so he\npretty much has given them a thumb in the eye. Perhaps one of the most\negregious examples of this was his pardon of his son Hunter on December\n1 of last year.\n  Despite numerous efforts by the FBI and DOJ to protect Hunter Biden\nfrom accountability for his crimes, President Biden decided to attack\nhis own Department of Justice and say his son was selectively and\nunfairly prosecuted. Well, it is hard to imagine someone thinking they\nwere unfairly targeted when the entire government Agencies did\neverything they could to protect him from coming to justice.\n  And thanks to a diligent and careful judge who was able to expose a\nsweetheart deal that would have exonerated Hunter Biden previously, he\nwas convicted of illegally possessing a firearm, and he stood charged\nwith massive tax fraud.\n  President Biden said time and time again: I promise I am not going to\npardon him. And then he turned around, and he did.\n  But he didn't stop there. He used his last days in office to go on a\nlittle pardon spree, granting clemency to 39 individuals, as well as\ncommuting the sentences of convicted murderers on death row.\n  These people were convicted of crimes ranging from conspiracy to\ncommit wire fraud in a mortgage fraud scheme to stealing government\nproperty, to signing false documents, bank theft, participating in\nincome tax fraud, and the misuse of a Social Security number.\n  But the truth is, these are not victimless crimes, and they are not\nthe sort of occurrences we want to see happening more frequently. There\nis a reason why our criminal justice system provides for accountability\nand punishment in appropriate circumstances. That is to set an example\nfor others not to go down that path and to have some measure of\naccountability, which is an important part of justice.\n  These criminals were not the only people that got a last-minute gift\nfrom President Biden. On January 4, President Biden announced a list of\n19--19--new recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. This\nincluded George Soros and others.\n  George Soros, of course, is a billionaire philanthropist who has\ndoled out billions of dollars for leftwing political causes, from\n``defund the police'' movements to anti-Israel organizations, to those\nwho promote open borders, such as we have experienced, tragically, over\nthe last four years.\n  Of course, these are the same policies that have caused so much\nsuffering and frustration among the American people, which they voted\non. I believe it was a referendum on November 5. The people voted to\nchange the direction the country was headed in because most Americans,\naccording to public opinion polling, felt like America was on the wrong\npath and needed a change of course.\n  And now a key architect of those failed policies was awarded the\nPresidential Medal of Freedom. Talk about devaluing an award that is\nsupposed to be given for extraordinary service to the country.\n  Of course, I support the rights of individuals to be generous with\ntheir wealth. America is one of the most generous countries in the\nworld, and I think it is something we should be proud of.\n  I imagine how our colleagues on the other side of the aisle might act\nif Republicans honored a prominent conservative philanthropist. Do you\nthink the media or our Democratic colleagues would applaud it in the\nsame way? No chance. Conservative philanthropists have been not only\nnot given Medals of Freedom, they have been subjected to endless\nscrutiny, including politically motivated subpoenas from our Democratic\ncolleagues on the Judiciary Committee, just this last year. But now,\nDemocrats are rewarding their own with the Presidential Medal of\nFreedom.\n  It is like the hearing we had this morning on the Finance Committee.\nScott Bessent, the next Secretary of the Treasury, was there. We had to\nlisten to the ranking member go on a diatribe about why it is so\nimportant that American taxpayers be exposed to a multitrillion-dollar\ntax increase. He said this is about tax cuts for the wealthy. But the\nfact of the matter is--and the nominee pointed this out--that the top 1\npercent in the country pay the vast majority of income taxes. But the\nfacts, apparently, are not all that important to our Democratic\ncolleagues.\n  President Biden wasn't finished rewarding his friends with grants of\nclemency and Presidential honors before he left office. He also sent a\nparting gift to one of his favorite beneficiaries, which are radical\nclimate activists.\n  I don't doubt that the climate is changing. I don't doubt humans have\nan impact on it. But to say this is the end-all and be-all of all of\nour policies, to the detriment of our economy, job creation, and so\nmany other important issues, just strikes me as misguided.\n  One of the consequences is that Americans have been suffering under\nhigh prices for energy under President Biden's Presidency. Electricity\nprices have risen more than 30 percent. We know that these high prices\nare the direct result of President Biden's policies, which put climate\nactivists in the front seat, while working families are left behind.\n  But the President couldn't help himself from doing more damage on the\nway out the door. The day after Christmas, President Biden's Energy\nDepartment finalized new climate regulations that would functionally\nban almost all natural gas-powered water heaters. Why would he do\nsomething like that?\n  An analysis from the American Gas Association estimates that 40\npercent of customers will be directly impacted by a rule with a net\ncost increase, since they will be required to buy a new electric water\nheater. The AGA notes that the households affected are largely low\nincome and senior citizens on a fixed income, who are more likely to\nchoose a cost-effective water heater that will now be banned under the\nrule.\n  Of course, if people want to buy a more expensive water heater with\ntheir own money, I have no objection to that. I am all for the freedom\nto do so. But to impose additional costs on seniors who have fixed\nincomes and other low-income families who are struggling to get by\nunder the high prices and the 40-year high inflation under the Biden\nadministration simply adds insult to injury.\n  But President Biden didn't stop there. Two weeks ago, the Biden\nadministration gave the State of California permission to enforce zero-\nemissions rules for lawn mowers and leaf blowers. This may sound like a\nsmall thing, but it is emblematic of much bigger things, and it adds\nup. This rule\n\n[[Page S202]]\n\nwould prohibit the sale of new equipment under 25 horsepower or 19\nkilowatts that failed to achieve ``zero emissions.''\n  Is there no home appliance or device that is safe from this radical\nagenda? The Biden administration has targeted gas-powered cars, gas\nstoves, water heaters, and now they want to get after our lawn mowers\nand leaf blowers.\n  As I have said before, I don't have any objection to anyone who wants\nto improve their carbon footprint, if that is important to them, by\npurchasing new low-emissions lawn mowers. God bless them if they want\nto do that. But for working families to have to deal with this mandate,\nwho are just trying to keep up with inflation, a new lawn mower just\nmight not be in their budget.\n  Well, suffice it to say, the Biden administration is working hard on\nthe way out the door and wreaking havoc in the process.\n  Mr. President, Republicans are taking note. We know that, with\nPresident Trump being sworn into office next Monday, with new\nmajorities in the House and the Senate, things are going to change. The\nAmerican people voted for change, and they are going to see a change--a\nchange away from these radical policies and special interest pieces of\nlegislation or regulation that hurt the vast majority of Americans for\nthe benefit of an ideological agenda.\n  One of the tools we are going to be using is something called the\nCongressional Review Act. As the Presiding Officer knows, this is a\npowerful tool which allows a vote of Congress and a Presidential\nsignature to essentially veto an administrative Agency rule. There is a\ntimeframe. I believe it is 60 legislative days during which we can look\nback and essentially impose a legislative veto of that rule.\n  Using this mechanism, Congress can review and rescind regulations\nthat it disapproves of, because, of course, many of these regulations\nare promulgated by administrative Agencies that never have to stand for\nelection. They never have to appeal to the voters. They never have to\nexplain themselves to the voters. They just do what they do, which is\ncreate more and more redtape and regulation.\n  So I am glad we are going to be able to focus, soon after we confirm\nPresident Trump's Cabinet, on Congressional Review Act regulatory\ndisapprovals. I plan on introducing a few of these myself so we can\nreverse many of the Biden administration's misguided regulations. I\nknow other colleagues plan to do the same thing.\n  President Biden may have been busy over the last few months, since\nthe November 5 election, but we are gearing up to be even busier,\nundoing much of the mischief that he has wrought during these last\ncouple of months on his way out the door.\n  I yield the floor.\n  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Illinois.\n  Ms. DUCKWORTH. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to display a\nframed item during my remarks.\n  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.\n\n                     Nomination of Peter B. Hegseth\n\n  Ms. DUCKWORTH. Mr. President, in these serious times, we need a\nserious candidate to lead our military. We need someone with merit to\nlead our meritocracy, someone with moral strength to be in charge of\nprotecting our national strength.\n  For all these reasons and quite a few more, I will not be voting to\nconfirm the extremely unqualified Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense.\nOur troops deserve better than a guy who was seemingly only nominated\nbecause he used to host Trump's favorite TV show on FOX News.\n  I have plenty to say about Mr. Hegseth and the many, many ways in\nwhich he would degrade our military readiness. It is no secret I\ndisagreed with Trump on nearly everything during his first term. Yet I\nstill voted to confirm both James Mattis and Mark Esper when he\nnominated them for this very role. The thing is, Hegseth has never led\nthousands of people like Mattis had. He never ran an entire Army like\nEsper did. No, the only thing Hegseth has ever run, he has run it into\nthe ground. The only major organizations he has ever led, he has led\ninto debt.\n  Pete Hegseth is unqualified, he is unprepared, he is unethical, and,\nmost of all, he is unfit. Mr. Hegseth may talk about how having had\ndust on his boots makes him worthy of becoming Secretary of Defense.\nWell, as someone who left her boots in a dusty field in Iraq, let me\ntell you exactly why he is unfit to lead our heroes.\n  Mr. Hegseth likes to say that our military is a great meritocracy,\nand I agree with that. So let's go over his supposed merits for this\nrole.\n  The Secretary of Defense oversees the Federal Government's largest\nAgency. They manage a $900 billion budget, along with the 3 million\nservicemembers and civilians who fall under its umbrella.\n  During his time in uniform, Pete Hegseth never commanded a unit with\nmore than 200 people. Meanwhile, on the civilian side, both\norganizations that he led went into debt. In fact, he so badly\nmismanaged one of them that they had to bring in a forensic accountant\nto clean up the mess that he had made.\n  That is it. Those are his only supposed qualifications to head up one\nof the most complex, important organizations in the world.\n  Listen, there are plenty of Republicans whose policies I may disagree\nwith but whom I would vote to confirm because I know that they, too,\nhave spent their lives working to keep our country strong and could\ndemonstrate why they are qualified for this role. Mr. Hegseth is not\none of those people.\n  Who knows why Donald Trump picked this guy. Maybe Hegseth's business\nfailures make Trump feel better about his own six bankruptcies. Maybe\nit is because Hegseth spent years fawning over Trump on FOX News, and\nTrump's dream Cabinet is a bunch of yes-men who know how to kiss up to\nhim on TV--or maybe it is just that all of ``Cadet Bone Spurs''' draft\ndodging has left him with no clue as to what kind of leader our\nmilitary needs.\n  Look, at his confirmation hearing on Tuesday, I gave Mr. Hegseth\nevery opportunity to show me that I was wrong, to prove that he could\ndo this job, that he does know the first thing--or anything--about what\nit takes to take on this massive responsibility of being the Secretary\nof Defense. I asked him basic questions that even the most junior folks\nworking in the Pentagon would know, like naming one of the main\ninternational agreements he would be responsible for leading. He\ncouldn't name one. I asked him to tell me just a single country in the\nAssociation of Southeast Asian Nations. Again, he couldn't give me\none--and one of those is our longest treaty ally for 190 years--not a\nsingle one of the 10.\n  This was shocking--yet not surprising--from a man whose main form of\npolicy education has come from reading the FOX News teleprompter. This\nwas pitiful--yet predictable--from a guy who has said that we women do\nnot belong in combat, who has dared to claim that the military is\nlowering its standard so that we, the poor, fragile, fairer sex--and,\nGod forbid, us moms--can serve. Well, the only standards being lowered\ntoday are the ones for Secretary of Defense. Our female servicemembers\nhave earned the jobs that they are in, unlike Mr. Hegseth who won't\neven say whether he would refuse an unlawful order.\n  I have next to me a framed copy of the Soldier's Creed--a poster that\nusually hangs over my desk here in the Senate and has done so for the\nlast 8 years. It is the same copy that hung above my bed at the Walter\nReed Army Medical Center when I spent over a year in the hospital\nrecovering from my shoot-down. It is the same poster whose lines I read\nbefore I was wheeled into each and every one of my surgeries. It is the\nsame one whose words were repeated over and over to myself on the days\nwhen I was in so much pain that I couldn't breathe yet was determined\nto fight my way back to health so I could serve again next to the\nbuddies who saved my life. These words helped me find the strength I\nneeded when I needed it the most because they reminded me of who I was\nand that I was a proud member of the greatest fighting force on the\nface of the Earth, whose duty it was to live up to the sacrifices of my\nfellow soldiers.\n  I would like to quote a couple of lines from the creed right now.\n\n       I will always place the mission first . . . I am\n     disciplined, physically and mentally tough, trained and\n     proficient in my warrior tasks.\n\n  Our troops follow these words every day as we ask them to do the\nhardest\n\n[[Page S203]]\n\nthing imaginable. We ask them to leave their families, to potentially\nnever hold their spouses' hands again, to maybe never get to see their\nbabies take their first steps. We ask them to do all of that and then\nwalk into enemy fire and be good enough, competent enough, qualified\nenough that, regardless of the threat they face, they will still be\nable to do their jobs. We ask them to be so ready for the mission at\nhand that they can still fly that helicopter, still man that ship,\nstill fight that fire until their very last breaths.\n  Tell me: How can we ask these warriors to train and perform to the\nabsolute highest standard if we are going to confirm a guy who doesn't\nseem to care enough to prepare to lead them in any way?\n  Listen, these are dangerous times on the geopolitical stage. Our\nadversaries are watching, waiting to see if we really will put in power\nsomeone so obviously unqualified.\n  Mr. Hegseth made a point of saying at Tuesday's hearing that every\nsingle warfighter should be hired based on performance, readiness, and\nmerit. And I agree with him. However, he fails to meet every single one\nof those metrics. He is asking to be handed a job he is not prepared\nfor because of his relationship with Donald Trump, but this role is too\nimportant, our troops' lives too precious to let personal ambitions get\nin the way of the mission at hand.\n  So let me close with this: Part of being a leader is knowing when you\nare not competent enough to do the job.\n  Well, Mr. Hegseth, you are not technically proficient; you are not\ntactically proficient; and your nomination is an insult to those brave\nenough to be serving our Nation. So you, sir, are a no go at this\nstation.\n  I am voting no on Pete Hegseth's nomination to be Secretary of\nDefense. If my colleagues care more about keeping our Nation strong\nthan genuflecting to Donald Trump, then they should have the courage to\nvote no as well.\n  I yield the floor.\n  I suggest the absence of a quorum.\n  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.\n  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.\n  Ms. LUMMIS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for\nthe quorum call be rescinded.\n  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.\n\n                                  S. 5\n\n  Ms. LUMMIS. Mr. President, I rise today in support of the Laken Riley\nAct.\n  Nearly a year ago, Laken Riley--a college girl more than 1,000 miles\nfrom our southern border--was jogging on her university's intramural\nfields. Also more than 1,000 miles from our southern border, an illegal\ncriminal in our country brutally attacked and murdered her in broad\ndaylight. For 18 minutes, Laken Riley--that young woman in the prime of\nher life, with boundless potential--fought for her life against an\nassailant who never should have been in this country to begin with.\n  The Biden administration's open border policies served the criminal's\ndepravity more than Laken's and her family's. In fact, they served the\ncriminal every bit as much as they failed Laken and her family. Laken's\nkiller easily crossed our southern border with millions of others; and\nwhen he committed several crimes and was arrested, a Biden\nadministration-led ICE made no effort to deport him. Had he been\nappropriately prosecuted for his previous crimes, the Riley family\nwould have celebrated Riley's birthday instead of mourning an empty\nchair. On February 22, 2024, it would have been an ordinary day for\ntheir family instead of the worst day of their lives.\n  No family should face the nightmare Laken's family endured, and it is\nour responsibility as lawmakers to correct the glaring failures in our\nsystem that led to her tragic and preventable death.\n  The Laken Riley Act won't bring Laken back, but it is a vehicle for\nturning the Riley family's pain into purpose and partnering together to\nprotect American families. This legislation's sole goal is to hold\nknown criminal illegal aliens accountable for their actions and enable\nStates to bring civil charges against Federal officials who fail to\nuphold our immigration laws.\n  Like all of us serving in this body, I came to the U.S. Senate\nbecause I wanted to make a positive difference for the American people.\nThis is one of those opportunities. We have the ability to do that\nright now by getting this bill to the President's desk. Let's honor\nLaken's legacy by passing this bipartisan legislation to protect\nmillions of Americans across our country.\n\n  I yield the floor.\n  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Carolina.\n\n                     Honoring Officer Michael Horan\n\n  Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, I rise today to honor the service and\nsacrifice of Greensboro Police Officer Michael Horan.\n  On Monday, December 23--2 days before Christmas--Officer Horan was\nthe first officer to respond to a call of a man with a firearm at a\nFood Lion supermarket in Greensboro, NC. As Officer Horan entered the\nstore and confronted the suspect, the suspect engaged in a struggle\nthat eventually led to Officer Horan being shot and killed. The suspect\nfled the scene and led law enforcement on a multiple-county chase. The\nbrave men and women from various law enforcement agencies eventually\napprehended the suspect on Interstate 40.\n  Officer Horan personified the very best of law enforcement.\nGreensboro Police Chief John Thompson stated that Officer Horan was ``a\nvalued and respected member of the Greensboro Police family.''\n  He worked for the Greensboro Police Department since 2017 and had a\ndistinguished record of service with the U.S. Coast Guard. As a U.S.\nCoast Guard member, Officer Horan served as a law enforcement officer,\ntactical fast boat instructor, and search and rescue operator for the\nsafety and security of the United States.\n  Even when he was off duty, he exemplified valor. In 2019, Officer\nHoran received a lifesaving award from the Greensboro Police Department\nfor saving a father and son who had been caught in a rip current at a\nbeach at Emerald Isle.\n  As impressive as Officer Horan was for his exemplary work, it was his\njob as a family man--a loving husband, father, and son.\n  One of his colleagues noted:\n\n       One of the main things most people would know about officer\n     Horan, is how much he loved his family.\n       He loved his daughter. If you ask anybody in the department\n     to describe him--\n\n  One friend said--\n\n       I feel like his daughter would be in the conversation.\n\n  He loved his family, and he included it in virtually every\nconversation he had with his colleagues.\n  He upheld the oath to protect and serve his community and his\ncountry. He exemplified what it means to be an extraordinary public\nservant, and he made the ultimate sacrifice.\n  My deepest condolences go out to Officer Horan's family for their\ntremendous loss, and my condolences go out to the community of\nGreensboro, which lost one of their finest, most decent public\nservants. We will never forget his service.\n  Mr. President, Officer Horan actually passed away a year ago last\nDecember. We were not in session at the time, so I thought it was\nappropriate to recognize the anniversary of his death, but I want to\ntalk a little bit more.\n  (Mr. BUDD assumed the Chair.)\n\n                            Law Enforcement\n\n  Mr. President, since 2015, when I first took office as a U.S. Senator\nin my home State of North Carolina, we have tragically lost far too\nmany law enforcement officers. In fact, we have lost 85 in the time\nthat I have been a U.S. Senator, since 2015. This includes deaths\nrelated to law enforcement assaults, gunfire, vehicular pursuits, and\nduty-related illnesses.\n  These officers took an oath to protect and serve our communities.\nThese heroes made the ultimate sacrifice, giving their lives to protect\ntheir communities. I will not get into all the details about each\nofficer. What I would ask is unanimous consent to provide a list of the\nfollowing officers since I have been a Member of the U.S. Senate to be\nprinted in the Record.\n  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in\nthe Record, as follows:\n\n       Inspector Robert James Bowling, Automobile Crash, 2015;\n     Patrol Officer Anthony E. Lossiah, Duty Related Illness,\n     2015; K9 Officer Timothy James Brackeen, Gunfire, 2016;\n     Deputy Sheriff John Thomas Isenhour,\n\n[[Page S204]]\n\n     Struck by Vehicle, 2016; Major Jay Russell Memmelaar, Jr.,\n     Heart Attack, 2017; Trooper Brandon Carroll Peterson, Heart\n     Attack, 2017; Sergeant Meggan Lee Callahan, Assault, 2017;\n     Correction Enterprises Manager Veronica Skinner Darden,\n     Assault, 2017; Correctional Officer Justin James Smith,\n     Assault, 2017; Correctional Officer Wendy Letitia Shannon,\n     Assault, 2017; Deputy Sheriff Alexis Thunder Eagle Locklear,\n     Automobile Crash, 2018; Deputy Sheriff David Lee'Sean\n     Manning, Automobile Crash, 2018; Trooper Samuel Newton\n     Bullard, Vehicle Pursuit, 2018; Senior Police Officer\n     Christopher James Driver, Automobile Crash, 2018; Master\n     Trooper Kevin Keith Conner, Gunfire, 2018; Corporal Travis\n     Wells, Automobile Crash, 2018; Master Trooper Benjamin Derek\n     Wallace, Heart Attack, 2018; Police Officer Jared William\n     Franks, Automobile Crash, 2018; Police Officer Jason Barton\n     Quick, Struck by Vehicle, 2018; K9 Officer Jordan Harris\n     Sheldon, Gunfire, 2019; Deputy Sheriff Makeem Rictrell\n     Brooks, Automobile Crash, 2019; Trooper Nolan James Sanders,\n     Automobile Crash, 2020; Deputy Sheriff Sypraseuth ``Bud''\n     Phouangphrachanh, Covid19, 2020; Senior Detention Officer\n     Alexander Reginald Pettiway, Jr., Covid19, 2020; Deputy\n     Sheriff Ryan Phillip Hendrix, Gunfire, 2020; Correctional\n     Officer II Allen Bruce Trivett, Covid19, 2020; Correctional\n     Sergeant II Michael Robert Flagg, Covid19, 2020; Deputy\n     Sheriff LaKiya Louise Rouse, Covid19, 2020; Correctional\n     Officer III Charles Warren Harris, Jr., Covid19, 2020;\n     Lieutenant Terry Sampson, Covid19, 2020; Correctional Officer\n     III Thomas Daniel Roberts, Jr., Covid19, 2020; Correctional\n     Officer Joseph Lloyd Greinke, Covid19, 2020; Correctional\n     Sergeant III Christopher Eugene Sorrenti, Covid19, 2020;\n     Deputy Sheriff Jared Michael Allison, Automobile Crash, 2020;\n     Police Officer Tyler Avery Herndon, Gunfire, 2020; Master\n     Corporal Norman Odie Daye, Jr., Covid19, 2020; Police Officer\n     Jason Nicholas Shuping, Gunfire, 2020; Associate Warden III\n     Julian Arsenio Priest, III, Covid19, 2020; First Sergeant\n     Timothy Lee Howell, Covid19, 2021; Correctional Lieutenant\n     III Anthony Lynn Hardie, Covid19, 2021; Master Trooper James\n     Brent Montgomery, Covid19, 2021; Sergeant LaShonda Owens,\n     Covid19, 2021; Deputy Sheriff Joseph Brandon Gore, Covid19,\n     2021; Police Officer David Dewayne Parde, Gunfire, 2021;\n     Deputy Sheriff Logan Shane Fox, Gunfire, 2021; Sergeant\n     Christopher David Ward, Gunfire, 2021; Officer Robert Craig\n     Cloninger, Heart Attack, 2021; Deputy Sheriff Dennis Wayne\n     Dixon, Covid19, 2021; Deputy Sheriff Eric Otis Ritter,\n     Covid19, 2021; Correctional Sergeant III Ledell Graham,\n     Covid19, 2021; Probation/Parole Officer II Julie Ann Harper,\n     Covid19, 2021; Police Officer Carl Lee Proper, Covid19, 2021;\n     Captain David Edwin MacAlpine, Covid19, 2021; Police Chief\n     Donald Hall, Covid19, 2021; Sergeant Donald William Ramey,\n     Covid19, 2021; Lieutenant Matthew Eric Dow, Covid19, 2021;\n     Police Officer Julio Cesar Herrera, Jr., Covid19, 2021;\n     Master Deputy William Edward Marsh, Covid19, 2021; Lieutenant\n     William Oscar McMurtray, III, Covid19, 2021; Correctional\n     Lieutenant II Dennis Eugene Boykin, Covid19, 2021; Police\n     Officer Ryan Andrew Hayworth, Vehicular Assault, 2021;\n     Sergeant Michael Shannon McDonald, Covid19, 2021; Police\n     Officer Mia Danielle Figueroa-Goodwin, Automobile Crash,\n     2021; Trooper John Sumter Horton, Struck by Vehicle, 2022;\n     Captain Reginald Kamal Smith, Covid19, 2022; Correctional\n     Officer III Helen Mae Smith, Heart Attack, 2022; Detective\n     Michael W. Godwin, Covid19, 2022; Sergeant Matthew Ryan\n     Fishman, Gunfire, 2022; Deputy Sheriff Ned P. Byrd, Gunfire,\n     2022; Detention Corporal Gregory Thomas Horne, Sr., Duty\n     Related Illness, 2022; Police Officer Gabriel Jesus Torres,\n     Gunfire, 2022; Deputy Sheriff Jose Angel DeLeon, Automobile\n     Crash, 2022; Deputy Sheriff Oscar Yovani Bolanos-Anavisca,\n     Jr., Vehicular Assault, 2022; Deputy Sheriff II Auston Smith\n     Reudelhuber, Automobile Crash, 2023; Sergeant Russell Earl\n     Lavarl Jones, Heart Attack, 2023; Sergeant Philip Dale Nix,\n     Gunfire, 2023; Deputy Sheriff Christopher Johnson, Automobile\n     Crash, 2024; Deputy U.S. Marshal Thomas M. Weeks, Gunfire,\n     2024; Investigator William ``Alden'' Elliott, Gunfire, 2024;\n     Investigator Samuel Poloche, Gunfire, 2024; Police Officer\n     Joshua Eyer, Gunfire, 2024; Major Michelle Lynn Quintero,\n     Weather/Natural Disaster, 2024; Courthouse Security Deputy\n     James ``Jim'' Lau, Weather/Natural Disaster, 2024; Police\n     Officer Michael Horan, Gunfire, 2024; Master Trooper Anthony\n     S. Godwin, Medical Condition, 2024.\n\n  Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, as we start the 119th Congress, my\ncolleague from North Carolina, who is currently presiding--I think we\nboth agree that we want to emphasize that Congress has a role in\nsupporting and protecting our law enforcement officers across this\ncountry.\n  According to the National Fraternal Order of Police, in 2024, 342\nofficers were shot in the line of duty. Of those officers, 50 officers\nwere tragically killed by criminals.\n  Unfortunately, over the past few years, we have seen shameful\nbehavior from certain--and I hope and I pray that it is a minority of\nour society, but we have people out there raising money for fundraising\nruns called the 13.12-mile run. Mr. President, ``1312'' translates into\n``ACAB,'' and on their website, they proudly proclaim that ``ACAB''\nstands for ``All Cops Are Bastards.'' Let that sink in.\n  It is appalling to hear this kind of rhetoric, and it has to stop.\nThese dangerous statements not only create distrust and disdain for our\nbrave men and women in blue--the vast majority of whom are good, hard-\nworking people that we all know in our communities--but it has made\ntheir job to protect and serve more difficult and more deadly.\n  We have to do better. We have to protect law enforcement. That is why\nI plan to reintroduce multiple pieces of legislation in the coming\nweeks.\n  First among them is going to be the Protect and Serve Act. It makes\nit a Federal crime for anyone who knowingly causes or attempts to cause\nbodily harm or injury to a law enforcement officer. It is amazing it is\nnot a crime already. I hope to do so with strong bipartisan support\nwhen I file the bill and get it passed in this Congress.\n  We also must act to punish criminals who intentionally murder law\nenforcement. That is why I will also be introducing the Justice for\nFallen Law Enforcement Act. This legislation would create a criminal\npenalty for the murder of a local, State, or Federal law enforcement\nofficer, punishable with the death penalty or life imprisonment without\nparole.\n  I urge all Americans listening to contact your Senators and\nRepresentatives and tell them that you want to protect law enforcement\nofficers and support enhancing penalties for those who would do them\nharm.\n  The men and women in blue are heroes. They deserve our support. We\nneed everyone in our communities to stand up to these people who would\nnot want them in the community, who would not want them to respond to a\n9-1-1 call. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine our communities if\nthe logical conclusion of these people, who hate law enforcement\nofficers so much that they proudly profess that all cops are bastards,\npublicly to raise money?\n  We need to increase awareness, and we need to make absolutely certain\nthat every man and woman in blue knows we have their back.\n  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Massachusetts.\n\n                     Nomination of Peter B. Hegseth\n\n  Ms. WARREN. Mr. President, I rise today to urge my colleagues to\nreject Pete Hegseth as the next Secretary of Defense.\n  Pete Hegseth is the most unqualified nominee for Secretary of Defense\nin our Nation's history. At his confirmation hearing, Pete Hegseth\nbobbed and weaved to avoid answering just basic questions about his\nrecord, but what Hegseth failed to account for is that his entire\nrecord is damning.\n  I would like my Senate colleagues, people who are seriously\nconsidering voting to confirm Pete Hegseth, to think long and hard\nabout this decision. We need a Secretary of Defense who will be ready\nat 2 in the morning to give life-or-death national security advice to\nthe President. Would you trust Pete Hegseth, who has allegedly been so\ndrunk at work events that he passed out on a bus and urinated in front\nof the hotel where his colleagues were staying, to answer that call?\n  We need a Secretary of Defense who will help us root out the problem\nof sexual assault in the military. Would you trust Pete Hegseth, who\nhas been credibly accused of raping a woman and buying her silence, to\nprotect victims of sexual assault?\n  We need a Secretary of Defense who will be able to manage the\nNation's largest Federal Agency, one that oversees almost 3.4 million\npeople and a budget of nearly $850 billion a year. Would you trust Pete\nHegseth, who drove a small veterans nonprofit to the brink of\nbankruptcy, to manage billions of our tax dollars?\n  The list of glaring disqualifications goes on and on. Hegseth\nsupports requiring every senior military officer to pass a political\nlitmus test. This politicization of the military is a slap in the face\nto leaders who have served their country honorably for decades.\n  But the point is that Pete Hegseth is not just unqualified for the\nrole; he is a walking national security threat.\n  We need a Secretary of Defense who will help our country meet its\nrecruiting goals--something we are already struggling with. Pete\nHegseth has said that women in the military ``shouldn't\n\n[[Page S205]]\n\nbe in combat at all.'' Mr. President, 300,000 women have served in Iraq\nand Afghanistan since 9/11. Pete Hegseth has now insulted every one of\nthem. That is not how a leader of the military will inspire people to\njoin our cause.\n  When people are responsible for our national defense, we ask\nsomething extraordinary of them. We ask them to put their lives on the\nline. All three of my brothers served in the military. My oldest\nbrother was career military. So I know how important that service is\nand how important it is that we pick the right person to lead our men\nand women in uniform.\n  Pete Hegseth claims that our brave women in the military are somehow\nlowering our standards, but it is his lack of qualifications, his lack\nof character, and his lack of judgment that lower the standards for\nSecretary of Defense.\n  We need a Secretary of Defense whom we can rely on to keep all of us\nsafe. Frankly, it is hard to imagine a worse choice than Pete Hegseth.\n  I yield the floor.\n  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alabama.\n\n                          Trump Administration\n\n  Mr. TUBERVILLE. Mr. President, the last 4 years have been nothing\nshort of a national nightmare. The runup to the nightmare began in\n2020.\n  After fending off a ridiculous impeachment attempt in the early\nmonths of 2020, President Trump was riding high, and the economy was\nbooming.\n  Under President Trump, we saw record levels of low unemployment for\nall Americans, especially among Black and Hispanic Americans.\nInflation, which is ultimately a tax on the paychecks of hard-working\nAmericans, was also at record lows.\n  We had the most secure border in history. Dangerous terrorists,\ncartel members, and human traffickers weren't flooding into our\ncountry. Americans' jobs were more secure because they didn't have to\ncompete with millions of foreigners who have entered the country the\nlast 4 years trying to steal their jobs. The cost of buying a home was\nalso cheaper as a result.\n  Under President Trump, we were energy independent. This made the cost\nof living more affordable for all Americans. We were able to power\nAmerican homes, cars, and factories with reliable and abundant energy.\n  Those are just a few of the domestic successes that Americans were\nbenefiting from under President Trump.\n  On the global stage, we finally had stability after decades of\nforeign wars. Under President Trump, there were no new wars. We were\nrespected around the world and feared by our adversaries. Russia didn't\ndare invade Ukraine when President Trump was in office. NATO countries\nwere told to pay up: Pay your bills. China wasn't imposing its will in\nthe South China Sea or across the world. China was contained, and its\ninfluence was diminishing.\n  Under President Trump, the Abraham Accords were signed, bringing\npeace to the Middle East. As we have seen the last few years, achieving\npeace in the Middle East was no easy feat. But President Trump achieved\nit, and he did it quickly. The United States and the world were in\nharmony.\n  The left couldn't stand these many successes that President Trump's\nadministration was achieving at home and abroad, so they pulled out all\nstops to take him down. That is when the deep state bureaucrats and\nglobalist organizations worked together to intensify the COVID-19\ncrisis. At the same time, the George Floyd riots erupted and destroyed\ncities across our country. Liberal DAs and politicians didn't do\nanything to stop it. It was absolute anarchy--total chaos orchestrated\nby leftwing politicians, the media, and antifa thugs.\n  Meanwhile, the media tried to manufacture a scandal because President\nTrump held up a Bible in front of a historic church, while the rioters\nburning the city of DC were ignored.\n  It was all a ploy to take down President Trump and tarnish his\nlegacy.\n  Before the plot to take out the President was in full swing, we saw\nAmerica achieving heights we had never ever seen before.\n  For a moment, the left thought they had bested Trump with the COVID\nsham and the Floyd riots and ultimately by rigging the election. But\nafter controlling Biden by hiding him in the basement and then\ninstalling him as President, the Democrats were like a dog who finally\ncaught the car. Once the Democrats took the White House, they quickly\nrealized they didn't know how to run the country. It is not quite like\nrunning a struggle session in a Berkeley classroom or leading an HR\ncall for a woke corporation.\n  The Democrats had 4 years to show the country they could govern more\neffectively than President Trump, but what have they done? What is one\nthing they have done to make our country better? I can't think of one\npolicy, one law or directive that actually benefited the American\npeople.\n  From day one, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris invited foreigners to\nillegally enter our country. They weren't shy. Joe Biden told\nforeigners to ``surge the border'' and ``You should [all] come.'' While\nthe administration opened the border, they shut down the Keystone\nPipeline, making Americans pay more for groceries and gas.\n  The Biden administration engaged in a culture war domestically,\nembracing far-left ideas about sexuality, gender, and race. We have\nbeen told repeatedly over the past 4 years that men can get pregnant.\nAnd the Democrats didn't just push woke ideology on adults; they forced\nit on children in their classrooms and on social media.\n  They have supported biological men competing in women's sports. They\nare perfectly OK with men sharing locker rooms and showering with\ngirls. The Biden administration published a rule that would destroy\ntitle IX which was created to protect women and girls, all in the name\nof gender equity.\n  You know, not only did Democrats wage war on American culture, they\nweaponized our justice system, going after President Trump,\nconservatives, and anyone who dared to oppose their agenda. Just look\nat how they went after the January 6 protesters, pro-lifers with the\nFACE Act, parents at the school boards, and the dozens of illegal\nactions they took against President Trump.\n  The Biden administration, with the help of congressional Democrats,\npassed a bunch of bills with names that sound good, but actually they\nharm many Americans.\n  Take the Inflation Reduction Act, for example, one of their prize\nbills that they have passed in the last few years. It was a legal way\nto launder money to blue States to bail them out, while red States were\nhung out to dry.\n  It pumped money we don't have into the economy, causing the runaway\ninflation we are dealing with today. The administration was also weak\non the world stage appeasing every interest but the interests of the\nAmerican people. This administration was committed to cozying up to\nIran by reinstating the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action as if the\nworld wasn't already a dangerous place. Why would President Biden's\nadministration agree to help Iran improve their nuclear facilities? It\nmakes no sense.\n  This administration bent over backward for NATO, handing over\nbillions of hard-earned American taxpayer dollars with no plan on\nending the war in Ukraine. It executed a disastrous withdrawal from\nAfghanistan that left 13 servicemembers dead, with many others severely\nwounded. This administration was basically asleep at the wheel.\n  Who was running the country? Well, it wasn't Joe Biden. It was clear\nfrom the 2020 campaign that he didn't have the mental capacity to be\nPresident. To make matters worse, he spent 570 days, 40 percent of his\nPresidency, on vacation. Instead, the White House was run by a\ncommittee of leftwing staffers and special interests who ultimately ran\nthe country into the ground, and the media and the Democrats were\ncomplicit. It is truly shameful what they have done to this country in\nthe last 4 years.\n  But now we are finally turning the page. We are entering a new golden\nage in America with President Trump's return to the White House, and\nthis is our last chance at righting the ship the left has steered so\nfar off course.\n  President Trump will return our country to the values of life,\nliberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We will return to the Judeo-\nChristian beliefs and principles of the West that made our Nation so\ngreat. And how should the Senate help return our country to these\nprinciples?\n\n[[Page S206]]\n\n  We need to confirm every single one of President Trump's nominees as\nquickly as possible. We don't have time to drag our feet on any of\nthese nominees. The Democrats never once attempted to block President\nBiden's Cabinet nominees. Zero Senate Democrats voted against any one\nof his picks--zero.\n  President Trump needs to be able to exercise the full power and\nauthority of his office as soon as he is sworn in, and that requires\nconfirming his Cabinet picks.\n  It will also require the issuing of Executive orders to undo anything\nthat President Biden has done in taking congressional action to put\nthese policies in place.\n  Expect a flurry of Executive orders, a new offensive idea to rebuild\nour broken country. Expect Executive orders on the border, on\nunleashing American energy, and getting DEI out of our government and\nout of the lives of American people.\n  We also need to get behind President Trump on passing one\nreconciliation bill that will secure our border, reignite our energy\nindependence, and cut taxes so the American economy can boom again.\n  On the global stage, the Senate needs to get behind President Trump\npressuring NATO, all the NATO countries, to pay their fair share. No\nmore military handouts for European countries and no more lighting\ntaxpayer dollars on fire on behalf of Ukraine. It is time to get this\nwar over with.\n  The Senate needs to support President Trump and exert maximum\npressure on Iran and other terrorist organizations wreaking havoc on\nthe Middle East and the West.\n  We also need to join President Trump's commitment on shrinking the\nFederal Government through strong congressional action. We will do this\nby working closely with the Department of Government Efficiency, better\nknown as DOGE.\n  We need to shrink the government, cutting the ridiculous regulations\nthat are crushing American small businesses.\n  And, finally, we need to focus on accountability. We need to hold\npeople accountable for the damage that has been done to our country. We\nneed to support the pardon of January 6 protesters who were wrongly\nprosecuted and horribly treated by our justice system.\n  We need to step up and fight for pro-life, pro-life protesters who\nwere persecuted by the administration under the FACE Act. We need to\nopen investigations into DOJ Civil Rights and National Security\nDivisions, and that starts by confirming Kash Patel and Pam Bondi to\nthe posts where President Trump needs them and needs them in a hurry.\n  We need to be aggressive in these pursuits. Senate Republicans need\nto demonstrate courage and will and resolve like President Trump showed\non the campaign trail. Are we willing to take a bullet for this country\nlike President Trump did?\n  Are we willing to take on the fake news media who will try to\nundermine his everyday agenda? The job ahead of us won't be easy. The\neconomy is in bad shape, job numbers are down, inflation is sky high.\nOur enemies are on the move abroad and in the interior of our country,\nbut the American people chose President Trump and the Republicans for\nsuch a time like this.\n  They gave us a mandate to deliver them from the past 4 years of hell\nthat this administration has caused. But now, it is a new day in\nAmerica. The nightmare is almost over. And in a few more days, the Sun\nwill rise in America. Greatness awaits us if we answer the call of the\nAmerican people.\n  I yield the floor.\n  I suggest the absence of a quorum.\n  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.\n  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.\n  Mr. PADILLA. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order\nfor the quorum call be rescinded.\n  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.\n\n                     Southern California Wildfires\n\n  Mr. PADILLA. Mr. President, as you and everybody here knows, a little\nbit over a week ago, fires broke out in Los Angeles County. And some of\nyou have reached out in the time since to offer your support, to offer\nyour assistance, and even offer condolences for those who have perished\nin this significant disaster. And I want to thank you for your initial\noutreach.\n  My colleague Senator Schiff and I have come to the floor today to\nprovide you all a little bit of an update and to lay a foundation on\nsome of the key issues that we are going to need to work together on as\nwe move forward.\n  And let me begin by just taking a step back for a second and\nacknowledging that, even before the winds increased last week, we knew\nthat the risk of a potential large fire was high. In the midst of a\nhistorically dry season in Southern California, forecasters predicted\nhurricane-force winds, along with little to no humidity--essentially, a\ndry hurricane condition, if you can imagine that. Californians know\nthat when there is a red flag warning, conditions are ripe for large-\nscale fires. But what came next, what actually materialized, would\nbecome the worst natural disaster in the history of Los Angeles: 100-\nmile-per-hour winds carrying burning embers from home to home, multiple\nsimultaneous fires burning more than 12,000 structures and more than\n40,000 acres.\n  And to give you a sense of the area I am talking about, I am talking\nabout nearly three times the size of Manhattan. At least two dozen\npeople have lost their lives, with more expected as search and rescue\ncrews continue to comb through the devastation.\n  And over the course of the last week, I have had the opportunity to\nvisit command posts and meet with firefighters, had the opportunity to\ndistribute meals to many of the victims and to see, to tour, to visit\nthe destruction firsthand. Yes, there are survivors, people impacted\nfrom communities like the Pacific Palisades--some with names and faces\nthat you will recognize from television and the entertainment industry.\nBut I assure you there are also a lot of other faces and families that\nyou won't recognize from the working-class and diverse communities\nthroughout Los Angeles County.\n  It is people like a woman in Altadena who was 9 months pregnant when\nthe Eaton fire burned down not just her home but the new nursery that\nshe had prepared. And it is the 66-year-old man who stayed to try to\nprotect the home that had been in his family for five decades but who\nwas found dead with a garden hose in his hand. You can imagine his last\nmoments. It is one of the reasons why I have been saying over and over\nthat every house you see is really a home, and every home represents a\nfamily--a family who now mourns maybe the loss of a relative, maybe the\nloss of their home, or loss of irreplaceable items like family photo\nalbums or a wedding dress or baby pictures or a loved one's red, white,\nand blue military burial flag.\n  But through the destruction, we have also seen some signs of hope,\nlike the firefighter in the Pacific Palisades who offered to go back\nand save two dogs trapped while the neighborhood was still burning or a\n14-year-old Avery who saw the devastation that hit her community and\ncreated a charity, Altadena Girls, to provide beauty products and\nclothes to her friends so that they could feel like themselves again\nwhile coping with this disaster.\n  Every day we hear stories like this, even in the midst of a disaster,\npeople coming to each other's aid.\n  But even as I stand here today--as we stand here today--the fires are\nstill burning, and the fight continues. Our hearts go out to all the\nimpacted families, and they also go out to the heroic firefighters and\nother first responders working tirelessly through multiday shifts to\nput out these fires--not only the brave State and local firefighters,\nbut I want to acknowledge the Federal firefighters too. To the State\nand local officials working day and night to protect our State and our\ncommunities, thank you. And I also want to acknowledge Governor Newsom\nfor his steady hand during this time.\n  And we are so grateful to our neighboring States who continue to send\nresources. And, no, not just States that are considered blue States\nlike Oregon and Washington, but States that many people refer to as red\nStates like South Dakota and Wyoming and Montana and Florida, who\ncontinue to send resources with no strings attached, no conditions.\nThis is what we do for each other. There is a reason it is called\nmutual aid.\n  And I also want to thank every one of my colleagues who, in 2023,\nhelped me\n\n[[Page S207]]\n\nto secure seven C-130 air tankers for California. They were surplus\nmilitary aircraft that California received and paid to retrofit, the\nfirst of which is already on the scene fighting these fires as we\nspeak.\n  But soon there will come a time when we need to more than just\nsupport our response to these disasters; we will need support for our\nrecovery. And we expect Congress to support California just as Congress\nhas been there for States across the country in their times of crisis,\nwith no conditions and no strings attached. Because a recovery isn't\njust a California fight. We are truly in this together as Americans.\nWhether it is wildfires across the Western United States or tornados in\nthe Midwest, ice storms in Texas, or hurricanes in the Southeast,\nMother Nature does not distinguish between red States and blue States\nand neither should our disaster response efforts or our recovery\nefforts. That is why, when tragedy struck just a few months ago from\nhurricanes Milton and Helene, Democrats didn't demand aid be attached\nto some Democratic wish list of priorities. Not for a second did we\nthink of attaching strings.\n  So when I hear about political jabs and insults on social media while\nmy home State is burning, it is not distracting. It is certainly not\nentertaining. It is offensive, and it is dangerous. Because let's be\nclear, in times of crisis, California has always been there for the\nrest of our country. And now we expect our country to be here for\nCalifornia.\n  If Speaker Johnson or any Member of Congress, for that matter, is\nworried about the Federal debt, let me assure you: California has\nalready paid the bill. California, as you may know, is the largest\neconomy of any State in the nation. We are the single largest\ncontributor of tax revenue to the Federal Treasury by far. In 2022\nalone, California paid $83 billion more to the Federal Government than\nit received.\n\n  So from additional disaster assistance funding to a serious\nconversation about disaster insurance that I am eager to continue, we\nare going to need everyone onboard.\n  And to my Republican colleagues who may be wondering whether the\npolicy should change about no strings attached, let me remind you that\nthis is also a fundamental matter of decency as Americans. It is the\nsame decency that my colleague Senator Scott from Florida and my\ncolleague Senator Tillis from North Carolina have shown in their public\ncomments this last week or that several of my California House\nRepublican colleagues have shown by supporting our State's major\ndisaster declaration request. They know, as we should all remember,\nthat this is about our unity as a nation. So, yes, California will need\nyou for the long haul.\n  And to President-elect Trump, I, too, invite you to tour Altadena and\nthe Pacific Palisades, which, by the way, is about 30 miles from your\ngolf course in Rancho Palos Verdes. Come meet the first responders.\nCome meet the families that have been affected by these fires.\n  And, finally, I want to speak to the people of California because it\nis, indeed, a long road ahead. And there will be more challenges to\novercome as we continue the search and rescue phase of this, as we go\ninto the environmental remediation and debris removal, and eventually\nthe rebuilding of homes and businesses. It is a long road, and there\nwill be challenges to overcome indeed.\n  But I promise you this: There will be a day when the fires are put\nout, when the homes and entire communities are rebuilt better and more\nresilient than they have been before and the Sun will shine and the\nkids will smile.\n  Together--together--we are going to get through this.\n  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from California.\n  Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. President, I rise today to address the Senate on\nbehalf of the people of California. And I thank my colleague Senator\nPadilla for his leadership during this time of incredible difficulty\nand strain for our fellow constituents.\n  The unimaginable has happened, and our hearts are broken--a city\nencircled in a blaze and a perfect storm of fire and wind and with a\nsystem stretched beyond its breaking point. A natural disaster so\nimmense in size and scale it will dwarf any recovery and rebuilding\neffort since the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire.\n  It is that immense and impending recovery effort that I am asking--I\nam pleading--for your help with today.\n  Already, the support that you and the President have given California\nhave helped firefighters battle the flames, helped save lives, and\nhelped those who lost everything find shelter.\n  I want to express my particular appreciation for President Biden and\nwhat the administration has done, the almost immediate declaration of a\ndisaster which unlocked important FEMA and other funding, the\ncommitment to match--to provide, really--100 percent of Federal funding\nfor the first 6 months of these fire mitigation efforts.\n  I am very grateful for what the Congress and the President have done.\n  This recovery is going to be measured in years, not months. Even so,\nwe must bring a sense of urgency to the recovery and not let it linger.\n  When the flames are finally out, the cleanup begins in earnest, and\nthe rebuilding moves forward with all haste. After the attention of the\nworld has turned away from the raging inferno and its aftermath, ours\nin this body must not because the loss is immeasurable--lives lost,\nhomes lost, businesses lost, neighborhoods lost, pets lost, memories\nlost, neighborhoods simply gone in an hour. Entire communities burned\nto ash. Families brought together in grief. Churches and synagogues\nhave burned down, but their members still gather as one because amidst\nthe darkness and destruction, we have seen rays of hope. For when one\npart of our State is hurting--literally on fire--we all come together.\n  First responders from all across our great State and so many others\nrushed to Southern California. A woman I met at a Red Cross at the\nPacoima evacuation site, so grateful, despite everything, for the\nassistance that she was receiving, for the dignity with which she was\ntreated by these Red Cross workers--she told me she plans to set up a\n$10-a-month donation from her monthly Social Security disability check.\nPeople are dropping off clothes and supplies by the thousands, so much\nthat some of these centers are overwhelmed with people bringing\nmaterial by.\n  That is the California way.\n  This is deeply personal for Senator Padilla and myself. We know so\nmany families impacted by these fires because they are our neighbors\nand friends.\n  I represented Altadena in the House of Representatives for decades.\nIt is a vibrant, diverse community, a city of families, of places of\nworship, and of deep culture and history. When I drove through Altadena\njust a few days ago, the destruction was complete--entire city blocks\nrazed. Homes, small businesses, schools gone in just a few minutes like\nsome post-apocalyptic scene.\n  Driving around that area at night in which small fires still dotted\nthe landscape amidst the rubble, it was hard to recognize what I was\nseeing. The place where my wife and I got married burned to the ground.\nSo many other community institutions vanished: the Altadena Community\nChurch, gone; the Pasadena Jewish Temple, gone, still smoldering, that\ntemple, when I saw it, and burning inside like an eternal flame, a\nsymbol of God's presence even amidst the unimaginable; the mountains\nabove Altadena, once the scene of such beautiful greenery and nature,\nnow charred beyond recognition.\n  Just like Altadena, much of the Palisades are just gone. Fire ripped\nthrough this community leveling entire neighborhoods. One bakery owner\nin Topanga described the fires that tore through her community simply\nas ``Armageddon,'' charred cars, burned-out furniture block after\nblock.\n  These were generational homes and neighborhoods--neighborhoods people\nare proud to be part of and raise their children in, now forever\nchanged.\n  In Altadena, Victor Shaw was found in his house holding a garden\nhose. He died trying to save his home. His sister Shari barely escaped\nas the house went up in flames.\n  One man, Zaire, was separated from his sister who lived next door.\nAmidst the chaos, he was able to evacuate his baby and elderly mother.\nThe next day when he returned, he found his sister's car outside her\nhome and found her remains in the rubble. ``Evelyn, why didn't you\nleave,'' he asked.\n\n[[Page S208]]\n\n  ``[W]hy didn't you leave?''\n  One father refused to leave the side of his son who had cerebral\npalsy, fighting to his last breath. The last words he said to his\ndaughter were, ``Baby, I'm getting ready to evacuate, I love you . . .\nBaby, I got to go, the fire's made it to my yard.''\n  Anthony Mitchell is a hero.\n  Edgar McGregor is well known in Pasadena for his daily trash pickups\nin the foothills. But now, to the community, he will be known for\nsomething more. In a Facebook group post, he alerted residents 2 days\nbefore the fires to pack go-bags. When it mattered most, he typed two\nwords: ``Get out.''\n  ``Get out.'' His simple post may have saved lives.\n  People are surviving now but only barely hanging on.\n  I spoke with Patricia at one of the shelters on the West Side. She\nstayed a couple of nights in a motel but could no longer afford it, and\nher asthma was making it hard to breathe.\n  One firefighter, Jonathan, had been battling the blazes in the\nPalisades since the first night. I remember talking to this L. A. Fire\nDepartment firefighter, and he had told me he wasn't sure he was going\nto make it out when he was there during the early hours of the fire. I\nasked him what that was like. He said: Well, there were flames in front\nof me and flames behind me. The water was running low. My\ncommunications were going out. He said it was ``the closest thing to\nhell I can imagine.''\n  One family in Altadena who all lived on the same street lost three\nhomes. What was once a dream to live so close to each other had turned\ninto a nightmare.\n  Over the past week, we have seen firefighters--exhausted and yet\nunyielding--waging war to save communities and lives and property.\n  And in the last few days, we have seen some hopeful signs as the\nlevel of containment--particularly of the Eaton fire--has increased;\nmore slowly, the containment of the Palisades fire. But we are not out\nof the woods.\n  We have seen neighbors helping neighbors. We have seen Angelenos\nopening their doors to strangers left with little more than the clothes\non their back.\n  These are the angels who remind us that even in our darkest hours--\nthrough smoky skies and uncertain times--we do not stand alone because\nwhat makes this city of Los Angeles so extraordinary--what makes\nCalifornia extraordinary--is that we are not defined by our tragedies;\nwe are defined by our response to them.\n  In Los Angeles, resilience is a way of life. It is what has allowed\nthe city to rise from the devastation of earthquakes and floods and\nriots and fires time and again. And we are stronger, more resilient,\nmore united, more compassionate.\n  This is a moment when we can and must call ourselves to the better\nangels of our nature--the angels that are all around us: the paramedics\nwho rescued and evacuated seniors from a nursing home at the edge of a\nfire line, the volunteers I met who showed up at a shelter ready to\nhelp before anyone even asked, the father who stayed behind to try\ndesperately to keep his son alive.\n  In the coming weeks, after the fires are extinguished, we will seek\nanswers. We must not do so for partisan gain or seeking fault; in fact,\njust the opposite because only with the truth about what went right and\nwhat went wrong can we arrive at solutions.\n  I remember talking to one woman who lost her trailer in the\nPalisades. She wants answers about the lack of water to fight the\nfires. I want to know that too. I want to know if the Federal and State\nresources we are fighting to procure will be enough to stop the next\npotential megafire. I want to know what we can do to rebuild and\nrebuild with speed so the neighborhoods that we lost can be reclaimed\nby the neighbors who have been displaced, and communities can come\ntogether once more.\n  I am grateful for the Governor's efforts to streamline the permitting\nprocess so people can begin to rebuild and rebuild quickly. And I want\nto know if there is anything more that we can do or could have done to\nsave more lives and more homes. We should all want that.\n  We should all want to rebuild because Los Angeles is one of our\nNation's great cities. And to rebuild, we will need your help without\nfanfare or partisan rancor.\n  We need your help. Just like we worked together to help rebuild New\nOrleans and Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina, we must do so again\nhere. Just like after countless hurricanes struck Florida and the\nSouth, we rushed in aid. Just this year, after Hurricane Helene, FEMA\nis still on the ground in North Carolina helping those in its\ndestructive path. And we won't leave--we can't--until the job is\nfinished. That is what we must do here.\n  During my time in Congress, I have seen a lot of disaster aid bills.\nNever in my time have I ever considered whether an area votes red or\nblue. When people need help, we get them help. When people are fighting\nto rebuild, we help them rebuild, period. It cannot and should not\nchange no matter who is President, no matter who is in charge of\nCongress, no matter who the Governor is or who their Senators are.\n  That is my urgent plea today. We need your help desperately.\n  Southern California, we will rebuild. We will. But whether we can do\nso quickly will depend on the actions we take in the next few months.\n  This big and beautiful diverse city is not just made of steel and\nstone but of people--people who stand together when the skies turn dark\nand rise together when the smoke clears.\n  We are going to rise again because it is who we are. And when we do,\nwe will show the world what it truly means to be the ``City of\nAngels.''\n  I yield the floor.\n  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from California\n  Mr. PADILLA. I suggest the absence of a quorum.\n  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.\n  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.\n  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for\nthe quorum call be rescinded.\n  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.\n\n     10-Year Anniversary of the Passage of Water for the World Act\n\n  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, some people in the Chamber who served in\nthe Senate may remember my predecessor Paul Simon of Illinois. Simon\nwas ahead of his time on so many issues, including the importance of\nclean drinking water and sanitation for the poorest people in the\nworld.\n  He wrote a book called ``Tapped Out.'' He autographed this copy and\ngave it to me in 1998, many years ago. It certainly was not a New York\nTimes best seller, but Paul wrote about what he said was ``The Coming\nWorld Crisis in Water and What We Can Do About It.'' I read this book\nand reflected on it over the years.\n  Some 30 years have passed. How many times do people talk about clean\ndrinking water and sanitation? It is so critical to public health and\nso critical to development. Sometimes, we are looking for a big\nsolution, a complex solution, when a simple solution is the first thing\nthat is needed. Paul Simon realized that and that focusing on providing\nclean drinking water to some of the poorest places in the world can be\ntransformative.\n  He understood that to avoid conflict between nations, to keep girls\nin school and reduce infant mortality, to improve health and economic\nopportunity, you have to provide people with access to clean water.\nData supports this. Each dollar spent on clean water and sanitation\nreturns between $4 and $8 in economic health and other benefits, which\nis why I decided to do something about it as a Member of the U.S.\nSenate.\n  I knew his family, I knew Paul, and I knew the last thing in the\nworld he ever wanted was someone to build a statue of his image for\nfuture generations. But he would have been happy with perhaps the bill\nthat I introduced entitled the Paul Simon Water for the World Act,\nlegislation that built on an earlier law to improve access to clean\nwater and sanitation around the world. Former Representative Earl\nBlumenauer and former Senator Bob Corker, a Republican in Tennessee,\nwere my partners on this bipartisan effort.\n  Ten years ago, the legislation passed the Senate unanimously--\nsomething that is almost unimaginable today with the politics we live\nwith--but that underscored the true urgency and importance of this\nissue. Not only was\n\n[[Page S209]]\n\nthis legislation the right thing to do, but it made access to clean\nwater and sanitation for the world's poor a development priority for\nthe United States.\n  As a result of the bills that I introduced with my colleagues and\nsustained bipartisan funding over the last 13 years, American\nleadership has provided first-time, sustainable access to clean water\nto more than 76 million people and access to sanitation to 58 million.\n  I can remember a visit I made years and years ago to Port-au-Prince\nin Haiti. It is one of the poorest places on Earth, and of course, it\nis in our hemisphere. A lady who is a medical doctor and administrator\nof a clinic wanted to show me something. They had been having trouble\nwith waterborne illness, and a lot of people were sick. Some children\nwere dying.\n  She said they then decided to build a cistern of pure water and to\nprotect it and make sure the village could draw from that water when\nthey needed it. She said it has changed everything. The kids aren't\ndying. People aren't sick. Things have improved dramatically. She\nwalked out to show me a sewer lid and a pump on it. She said to me, We\ngot this from the United States. It had something to do with a man\nnamed Paul Simon. I laughed almost out loud, thinking for goodness'\nsake. I said, How much did you have to invest in this?\n  She said $15,000. That is $15,000 that has saved lives and had made a\ndifference, and it was in Paul's name, I was happy to report.\n  This is incredible work, and I want to salute my staffer Chris Homan,\nwho has traveled around Africa and parts of Asia to see these\ninvestments. They do make a dramatic difference in the lifestyle of\npeople, giving them dignity, giving them life, giving them a future.\n  Another such story is from a rural area of Ghana where these kinds of\nprograms have already eliminated waterborne illnesses. We can see, when\nvisited this project, that the investment--this small investment--by\nthe United States made an affordable and sustainable infrastructure\nthat families can use for sanitation options and safe drinking water.\nThe two have to go hand in hand.\n  This investment made a project where a disabled woman lives a place\nwhere she can find dignity, as the name suggests, for she no longer has\nto crawl through snake-filled fields to use the river.\n  But this lifesaving work is far from done. As the climate crisis\nworsens and industrial needs increase, ensuring global access to clean\nwater supplies is as important as ever.\n  The book might not have been a best seller, but the idea sure was.\nAnd I sure hope that we continue this modest investment in villages\naround the world that literally saves and transforms lives.\n  Around 2 billion people on this planet Earth still lack access to\nsafe drinking water, so I hope this historically important, bipartisan\ninvestment will continue long into the future ahead of us. Lives depend\non it.\n  I yield the floor.\n  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Washington.\n\n                                  S. 5\n\n  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, if you believe we should be able to\ndetain and deport undocumented immigrants who have committed serious\ncrimes and you took Republicans at their word that the Laken Riley Act\nwas necessary for us to do that, you need to know that is already\nFederal law. We can and do already detain and deport immigrants who\ncommit serious crimes, and we are not about to change that.\n  But Republicans have been ignoring the policies we already have on\nthe books to push for a bill that, in its current form, is more\nextreme, expensive, and broad than it first appears. I am very\nconcerned that without serious amendments, this bill is rife with\nunintended consequences and powers that could be abused.\n  As written, it will drastically undermine civil liberties in this\ncountry. It will throw our immigration system into absolute chaos by\nundermining any President's authority to shape Federal policy. It will\ncost tens of billions of dollars. And here is the kicker. It will end\nup punishing legal immigrants and diverting resources from detaining\ntrue threats to public safety.\n  First off, let's talk about how extremely broad the language of this\nbill is. Under this bill, you don't have to be found guilty of a felony\nto be detained and deported. That is a huge attack on due process. All\nyou need is to be arrested or charged, regardless of whether that is\nsomething as small as shoplifting a candy bar, regardless of whether it\nmay become clear that you are innocent, regardless of whether this\nhappened years or even decades ago, and even regardless of whether you\nare a child.\n  So let me just underscore that because it is important. This bill has\nno exemption for kids, no cutoff age, no process to keep it in line\nwith our general child welfare laws. As written, this bill appears so\nbroad that a child could be locked up and put on a plane without their\nparents. With such sweeping language, I am deeply concerned the Trump\nadministration could abuse this law to deport Dreamers or our\nfarmworkers or other essential workers who, again, may never be\nconvicted of a crime.\n  And to be fair, it is not just Trump I am worried about because this\nbill is an open invitation for Republican State officials to dictate\nindividual case outcomes regardless of ICE, derail national immigration\npolicy, and even disrupt international relations.\n  Under this bill as written, any State attorney general could wreck\nmajor humanitarian relief pathways like temporary protected status for\nVenezuelan or Ukrainian nationals. They can seek court orders to deport\nindividuals without signoff from ICE. And in some cases, they could sue\nto halt visas from entire countries.\n  That is a policy that, by its design, will end up punishing the\npeople who are following the law to enter the United States legally. It\ncould punish refugees who are fleeing violence. It could punish people\nwho come here to engage in trade and in commerce that helps our economy\ngrow. It could even punish American citizens if they are hoping to get\na visa for their spouse.\n  With a Federal immigration system that is already too chaotic and\ncomplicated, just wait until any State AG can overrule ICE, undermine\nthe President, and throw thousands of legal--legal--visa applications\ninto limbo.\n  The bill also promises these lawsuits priority, which could be a huge\nburden on our courts. And if that weren't counterproductive enough, not\nonly would this bill as written punish legal immigrants, it will also\ndivert resources we need to detain genuine threats to our public\nsafety. If ICE is required, as this bill says, to spend resources\ndetaining nonviolent--not even convicted--shoplifting cases and the\nlike, they will have their hands tied as resources are stretched\nthinner and thinner by an overwhelming number of minor cases, leaving\nthem with fewer and fewer resources then to tackle the most serious\ncases.\n  That is especially concerning because DHS already does not have\nanywhere near the resources to implement this bill. ICE would need,\nactually, more than three times the current number of detention beds--a\n265-percent increase--for this bill. It would need to execute 80\nremoval flights a week, almost double its current capacity, not to\nmention it would need to double ground transportation.\n  That all adds up to ICE needing to nearly double its staff, hiring\nover 18,000 additional people. And to give you a sense of how\nunrealistic that is, historically, DHS hasn't been able to onboard more\nthan 1,000 people a year.\n  And to give you a sense of how expensive this is, ICE estimates it\nwill need more than triple its budget in year one--really, closer to\nfour times their current funding level. We are now talking up to $83\nbillion for this legislation over the first 3 years to implement it.\nThat is more than the annual budget for the entire Department of\nHomeland Security. That is a lot of money to spend on a bill that is\ngoing to cause chaos, punish legal immigrants, and undermine due\nprocess in America, all while drawing resources away from true threats.\n  Make no mistake, there are serious challenges we have at our border.\nThere is a serious need for sensible immigration reform. But being\ntough on immigration does not require us to forsake our bedrock\nprinciples like due process or our moral obligation to keep children\nsafe. It does not require us to ignore our common sense and waste\ncrucial resources.\n\n[[Page S210]]\n\n  So while I hope to work with my colleagues to improve this bill, as I\ntry to improve every bill that I can, I have to say, we have a long\nroad ahead to address my deep concerns with the way this bill threatens\ndue process and the potential for it to be abused.\n  So I strongly urge my colleagues to demand a far more serious\namendment process on this bill, but more than that, I urge them to\ndemand a serious, bipartisan approach to tackling immigration in an\neffective, humane way, one that protects our country and upholds our\nvalues.\n\n                  Nomination of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.\n\n  Mr. President, on a very different topic, I wanted a chance to talk\ntoday about one of the nominees that is coming before us because, when\nI was a very young girl, the polio vaccine was approved, and to this\nvery day, I remember my mom saying: Thank goodness. We can now send our\nkids to school and not have to worry they will get sick, be paralyzed,\nor have to live in an iron lung or worse.\n  The relief was overwhelming. That is why the fear is so overwhelming\nnow that Donald Trump wants RFK, Jr.--an outright, unapologetic, anti-\nvax conspiracy theorist--as our Nation's Secretary of Health and Human\nServices.\n  Now, I want to be clear. I will not be shy about making my concerns\nquite plain with the American people. That is part of our Senate's role\nto advise and consent to the President's nominees. It is our job to vet\nthese nominees and put them through a rigorous process to determine if\nthey are qualified to serve.\n  That is why I met with RFK, Jr., yesterday, so I could be direct with\nhim about my concerns with his anti-vaccine record and so I could\ndiscuss the other challenges our Nation faces where HHS has a really\ncrucial role. I do appreciate his time, and I appreciate the\nopportunity to look for areas of common ground. But as I have said\nalready, I oppose his nomination because, regardless of any other views\nhe holds, his long history of explicitly anti-vaccine activism is\nutterly disqualifying.\n  And I am not the only one who is worried. Even Trump's former FDA\nCommissioner, Scott Gottlieb, has said RFK, Jr.'s agenda ``will cost\nlives in this country.''\n  I mean, just imagine if RFK, Jr., was Secretary when COVID struck. We\nstill might not have vaccines. After all, he called the COVID vaccine\nthe ``deadliest vaccine ever made.''\n  This isn't a case where we can just look for areas of agreement or\nhope for the best--maybe drug costs or maybe healthy food. We are\ntalking about a conspiracy theorist who is openly antagonistic to\npublic health and who will have tremendous authority over Americans'\nlives and their healthcare.\n  It is not asking too much to have a Secretary of Health who believes\nin healthy food and believes in vaccines, especially when we are\nalready backsliding on vaccines and seeing real and deadly\nconsequences.\n  We eliminated measles in 2000, but last year we had 16 outbreaks.\nWhooping cough has spiked in the country and in my home State of\nWashington. Polio--even polio--is making a comeback. These are\ndangerous diseases, and RFK, Jr., would let them spread through our\ncommunities and schools like wildfire. And as any parent knows, when a\nbug goes around a school, it doesn't stop there; it comes home to Mom\nand Dad and baby brothers and sisters, who could be at serious risks.\n  So I am here this afternoon to talk some truth to the American people\nabout the stakes here and lay out the facts for anyone who might not\nappreciate the serious threat posed by RFK, Jr.\n  Maybe you think: Well, he is not talking about vaccines like polio or\nmeasles, or: He is only asking questions. Except, know this: He founded\na nonprofit entirely focused on attacking vaccines. RFK, Jr.'s\nnonprofit has made videos promoting falsehoods about vaccines and\nautism and sowing distrust in vaccines, especially among the Black\ncommunity.\n  They tried to revoke the emergency authorization for kids' COVID\nvaccines. They sued against measles vaccine requirements, even amid\nmeasles outbreaks.\n  And it is not just RFK, Jr.'s nonprofit that should raise alarm here.\nHe has said he doesn't know if the polio vaccine caused more deaths\nthan it prevented.\n  Or another example: The HPV vaccine has led to a huge drop in\ncervical cancer. RFK, Jr., suggested it increases cancer risk.\n  And let's not get cute here with excuses like, well, he is just\nasking questions, because when he says we need to know vaccines are\nsafe, he is ignoring the centuries of research we have already done on\nthese vaccines. We do know they are safe.\n  What is more, he has not just been asking questions. These are\nstatements I am going to give you that RFK, Jr., has made. These are in\nhis own words. He has said:\n\n       I do believe that autism does come from vaccines.\n\n  He said:\n\n       They get the shot, that night they have a fever of 103,\n     they go to sleep, and three months later their brain is gone.\n\n  Again, he said the COVID vaccine was the ``deadliest vaccine ever\nmade.''\n  These statements are not just false; they are irresponsible, and they\nare disqualifying. Given his track record, we cannot just hope that if\nRFK, Jr., finally gets power to undermine vaccines--a cause that he\nhas, by the way, dedicated considerable time and money and effort to--\nthat he will just give that up. That is not believable, especially when\nwe know the lawyer helping him put together a team has tried to have 14\ndifferent vaccines pulled from the market himself--including, by the\nway, the polio vaccine.\n  And if you are thinking, well, he can't really do anything about\nvaccines, you need to think again. If confirmed, RFK, Jr., would have\ntremendous power to undermine vaccines. He could influence FDA's\napproval of medicine and drugs. He could directly appoint people to\nCDC's vaccine board, which influences vaccine coverage and costs.\n  He said he will fire top researchers by the hundreds and pause\ninfectious disease research for years--a threat far beyond vaccines, I\nwould say.\n  And let's not downplay the fact that, as Secretary, he would have one\nof the biggest megaphones in the world to spread anti-vaccine\nmisinformation.\n  Maybe you are someone who thinks: So what if we have more whooping\ncough, or: A lot of people had measles, but they lived. I realize some\npeople probably think like that because they have never seen the\nreality of these terrible diseases because vaccines have been so\neffective.\n  A nurse recently shared online what whooping cough can do to a baby,\nwhat she has watched families go through herself. I will warn you: It\nwas soul crushing. First, the baby can't stop coughing--not even to\neat, not even to breathe.\n  Then come seizures and strokes, then a breathing tube and a\nventilator, and finally a machine to take over failing heart and lung\nfunction, and then they die. That is horrific. That is whooping cough,\nand it is far from the only disease at risk of a comeback. We don't\nwant that to happen here in this country or around the globe.\n  Let's talk about measles. It is one of the world's most contagious\ndiseases. It is easily spread by coughing and sneezing. It lingers in\nthe air for hours. You are contagious 4 days before you develop a rash\nand 4 days after. Now, before the vaccine, millions of people caught\nmeasles annually, meaning thousands were hospitalized, hundreds died,\nmost of them young children.\n  But this is not just history. Do you want to know what RFK, Jr.,\nwould do as Secretary of Health? I want you to look at Samoa. Before\nSamoa had a measles outbreak, he was there--he was there propping up\nvaccine deniers and falsely blaming deaths on the measles vaccine.\nAfter Samoa had a tremendous measles outbreak with over 100\nhospitalized and at least 83 dead, mostly kids, no apology from him, no\nadmitting he was wrong. Instead, he doubled down and wrote to the Prime\nMinister suggesting vaccines were part of the problem.\n  That is who we want to put in charge of our Nation's healthcare? What\ndo we think is going to happen? How many outright lies are we going to\ntolerate? How many deaths before we realize this nonsense is dangerous?\n  And, look, the vaccine lies just scratch the surface here. This is\nsomeone who won't accept that HIV causes AIDS. This is someone who\nthinks chemicals in the water might turn people gay; he said that. This\nis someone\n\n[[Page S211]]\n\nwho thinks 5G wireless is being used to ``control our behavior.''\n  This is not someone we in the U.S. Senate should be telling the\nAmerican people to trust on healthcare. He is not someone we should be\nhanding the levers of power.\n  For that matter, the same goes for some of Trump's other healthcare\nnominees who have ignored science and promoted false conspiracy\ntheories. His nominee to lead the CRC is an anti-abortion extremist\nwith zero public health experience--unless you count peddling the\nconspiracy theory that vaccines cause autism or promoting junk\nhealthcare plans. Then you have Dr. Oz, who has been named to lead\nCMS--someone who is known for pushing quack treatments and debunked\njunk science, who will be shaping health coverage for millions despite\nclear conflicts of interest.\n  I cannot drive home enough to the U.S. Senate: This is not a game.\nThese are not political roles without consequence. They have real power\nover whether Americans can get basic information and healthcare.\n  I want to end on this note, and it is important. Vaccines save lives.\nThat is not a question. It is not a slogan. It is a fact. If you cannot\naccept that fact; if you cannot be honest with the American people\nabout it; if, when parents look to you, worried about their newborn,\nwanting to do what is best for their baby, trusting your advice as a\npublic health leader, if you cannot tell them the same truth that\ncenturies of science and experience tell us, which is that vaccines are\nsafe and effective and lifesaving, then you have absolutely no business\nleading the Department of Health and Human Services. None. That should\nnot be up for debate.\n  A vaccine denier should not be our highest ranking healthcare\nofficial.\n  I yield the floor.\n  I suggest the absence of a quorum.\n  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.\n  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.\n  Mr. JOHNSON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order\nfor the quorum call be rescinded.\n  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.\n  The Senator from Wisconsin.\n\n                          Government Spending\n\n  Mr. JOHNSON. Mr. President, I think by now you have seen all kinds of\ndifferent versions of this depressing chart of total U.S. debt.\n  Back in 1998--and we will be talking about that year--when Bill\nClinton was President and we had our first budget surplus since 1969,\nthe debt level was about $5\\1/2\\ trillion.\n  When I arrived here in my first year in the Senate in 2011, the debt\nwas about $14 trillion. I ran, quite honestly, because we were\nmortgaging our children's future.\n  I will talk a little bit about 2014 when President Obama had a\ncertain spending level that was up to $17\\1/2\\ trillion.\n  As recent as 2019, before the pandemic, our debt was somewhere around\n$22\\1/2\\ trillion.\n  Today, our debt exceeds $36 trillion on a path toward much higher\nheights.\n  If you look at President Biden's final budget here, he is predicting\nour total debt will be $52 trillion in 10 years. This is clearly not\nsustainable. As I said, this is a depressing reality.\n  The result of all that debt--one of the many results--was the\ndevaluation of the dollar. A dollar you held in 1998 is only worth 51\ncents today. We have basically cut the value of a dollar in half since\n1998. In 2014 when President Obama was President--now the value of that\ndollar is only worth 74 cents. The value of the dollar prior to the\npandemic, 2019, is now only worth 80 cents. That is why people can't\nafford things.\n  This inflation caused by massive deficit spending--this is the\nstealth tax on every American. It is a very regressive tax. It\nprimarily hurts people at the bottom part of the income spectrum.\nWealthy individuals have stocks, and they have other assets that\ninflate as the dollar devalues. So, again, this harm primarily affects\nlower income Americans. The men and women who work are harmed by this.\n  This can't go on. This is an outrage. This is a tragedy.\n  I just want to ask a bit of a hypothetical here before we talk about\nthis chart. Let's say you are an American family of four, and you are\ndoing pretty good. You make and you spend about $100,000 a year.\n  Let's say the next year, you have a serious illness in your family,\nand all of a sudden, you have major medical bills totaling $50,000. So\nthe next year, you spend $150,000.\n  Well, let's say you get some good news. That medical condition is now\nsolved. Your family member is healed. What would most American families\ndo? If their income level stayed the same--around $100,000--I don't\nthink they would keep spending at a $150,000 level. They certainly\nwouldn't borrow $50,000 to maintain that spending level. They would\nreduce their spending level back to what it was before the illness,\nright? It would go back to somewhere around 100,000 bucks, maybe a\nlittle bit more based on inflation. That is not what the Federal\nGovernment did. This, I know, is shocking most Americans as I am laying\nout the reality of the situation. In 2019, prior to the pandemic, total\nFederal Government spending was $4.4 trillion. Then we had COVID, and I\nthink we very unwisely shut down a lot of our economy. It destroyed\npeople's businesses. It destroyed people's lives, our miserable failed\nresponse to COVID. It cost a lot of money. So Washington went on a\nmassive spending spree, and in the year of the pandemic, we spent\nactually closer to $6.6 trillion.\n\n  Now, again, if it would have been like a normal family, once the\npandemic passed, we would have returned to some reasonable spending\nlevel, but we didn't do that. The last 5 years now, we spent, on\naverage, $6.5 trillion. That is $2.1 trillion more than we spent in\n2019. There is no justification for that.\n  This last year, we spent a total of $6.9 trillion, $2.6 trillion--\n$2.5 trillion higher than the $4.4 trillion. Again, there is no\njustification for that.\n  So the question I have been asking is, How do we return to a\nreasonable, prepandemic spending level?\n  I will guarantee you that the people who voted for President Trump do\nnot expect the Federal Government is going to continue spending at\nPresident Biden's and the Democrats who have been in charge, at their\nspending levels. This is unacceptable. It is unsustainable.\n  So what I have done is, I have laid out a couple different options\nhere. Again, I will use another analogy. Let's say that same family of\nfour I was talking about with an income of $100,00, let's say they have\na baby. Now their population, their family size, has increased 25\npercent. I think most people recognize that if that family of four\ncould increase their income 25 percent, from 100,000 to 125,000, and\nthen tack on an amount for inflation--let's say it is 3 percent\ninflation--up to 128,750, I think most people would recognize now that\nfamily has been kept whole. They have been made whole. They have been\nable to maintain their standard of living.\n  Well, I think the same thing would be true for the Federal\nGovernment, for Americans living within America, you know, looking at\ndifferent benefits the Federal Government bestows on Americans as it\nextracts our hard-earned tax dollars.\n  So I went back to a number of different years prior to the pandemic.\nI went back to 1998. Again, that was the first year we actually had a\nbudget surplus since 1969. That is how irresponsible the government has\nalways been. But back in 1998, what a magic moment. We actually had a\nbudget surplus. That was under Bill Clinton. We spent $1.7 trillion.\n  That is obviously too low because we have had inflation, because we\nhave had population growth. So what I have done in each one of these\nscenarios here is I have taken the basic spending levels. I have\nincreased them based on population growth and inflation, plus I exempt\nSocial Security, Medicare, and interest. And I have plugged in\nPresident Biden's 2025 budget amounts for Social Security, Medicare,\nand interest.\n  So the result of that analysis for 1998, for Bill Clinton's spending\nlevel--I don't think anybody would really argue that Bill Clinton spent\ntoo little in 1998--if you did that, the increase would be based on\npopulation and inflation, plus you use today's 2025 Social Security,\nMedicare, and interest expense, you would end up with $5.5 trillion.\n  Now, it is not a secret. The reason I chose 1998--I looked at all of\nthese\n\n[[Page S212]]\n\nyears. Doing that with 1998 spending levels, if you compare that to\nPresident Biden's budgeted revenue for this year, which has not\ndecreased because of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act--the revenue has\nconsistently increased to $5.5 trillion--we would have a balanced\nbudget. What everybody says is impossible to achieve, going back to\nBill Clinton's spending levels, increasing them by population and\ninflation and using today's Social Security, Medicare, and interest\nexpense would balance the budget. We wouldn't have to increase the debt\nceiling. We wouldn't be experiencing or threatened by more inflation.\n  OK. If that is too reasonable for Washington, DC, let's look at\nanother scenario. Let's take a look at Barack Obama's--President\nObama's--spending levels in 2014. Again, I don't think President Obama\nwas spending too little in 2014. I was here. He was spending too much.\n  But if you take his 2014 levels, inflate them by population growth\nsince then and inflation, using today's Social Security, Medicare, and\ninterest, we would be spending $6.2 trillion this year. Pretty\nreasonable. Not a balanced budget, but a whole lot better than the 6.9\nor the $7.3 trillion that President Biden budgeted for this year--a far\nmore reasonable spending level.\n  But if you don't like that, if that is just too reasonable, too\naggressive for you, just go back to 2019 when we spent $4.4 trillion,\nincrease it by population growth, inflation, using President Biden's\nSocial Security, Medicare, and interest, it would be 6.5. I mean, I\nthink that is completely unacceptable. That has been the average.\n  If we increase that $2.1 above the $4.4 trillion, it would still be a\nwhole lot better than President Biden's 7.3 trillion or last year's\nspending of $6.9 trillion.\n  How can anybody justify spending at this level when we were only\nspending $4.4 trillion 5 years ago?\n  Here is what I am suggesting. Set those other scenarios aside.\nPresident Trump was just elected. Again, I don't think anybody--\ncertainly not me. I voted for President Trump. I was not expecting\nPresident Trump, and I do not expect him, to come into office and\naccept and spend at President Biden's levels. So I would encourage\nPresident Trump to go back and take a look at the final budget he\nproposed for fiscal year 2021 and look at his estimate for spending in\n2025.\n  So I have done the exact same thing. I am using the fiscal year 2025\nestimates from his last budget, but I am using this year's Social\nSecurity, Medicare, and interest expense. If we do that, we are looking\nat a spending level of $6 trillion.\n  So, again, we can look at individual expense items. You can take a\nlook at defense, if you don't think we are spending enough on that, if\nit is too risky a world. I mean, somewhere within the range of 5.5,\nwhich would literally balance our budget, up to 6, $6.2 trillion, that\nis a reasonable base that we ought to include in a budget we will be\npassing this year, and that should drive future spending. That would\nreset spending levels to a far more reasonable level.\n  Again, let me just reemphasize, whether we use Bill Clinton's 1998\nspending level, which would result in a $5.5 trillion baseline; Barack\nObama's 2014 spending levels, which would result in a baseline budget\nof $6.2 trillion; or President Trump's final budget, which would result\nin a $6 trillion spending level, that is a reasonable approach.\n  That is what families do. That is what businesses in America are\nforced do. They don't just say: Spend whatever you want. Put 70 percent\nof our spending budget on automatic pilot. We will never look at it. We\nwill just spend whatever we want.\n  That is how you bankrupt a family. That is how you bankrupt a\nbusiness. That is how we are mortgaging our children's future. It has\nto stop.\n  So I am putting everybody on notice. I am on the Budget Committee. I\nam on the Finance Committee. I am going to insist that the budget we\npass now that Republicans are in control of the Senate returns to some\nreasonable baseline.\n  Listen, I am reasonable. I will negotiate. I am not saying this is\ngospel; this is etched in stone. But President Trump, our majority\nleader, our majority leadership, House leadership, they are going to\nhave to justify to me how you would justify spending more than these\nreasonable baselines.\n  I ran in 2010 because we were mortgaging our children's future. I\nremember doing parades, shouting that. ``We are mortgaging our\nchildren's future.'' It is immoral. It has to stop. We are spending 24,\n25 percent of GDP at the Federal Government level. That is not the\nvision of our Founding Fathers, of sovereign states where government is\nprimarily at the State level, at the local level, where it is close to\nthe people, where it is more efficient, it is more effective, and it is\nmore accountable.\n  Now Washington is gobbling up all of our resources, borrowing these\nvast amounts of money, devaluing our currency. They are not solving\nproblems. They are not reducing poverty. They are not making lives\nbetter. They are putting American lives at risk.\n  And as Government grows, our freedoms recede. And Americans have to\nunderstand that of all the things that have made this country great,\nthe men and women who have worked and built this marvel of a nation,\nthe one essential ingredient they have always used is just that,\nfreedom. It is freedom that allowed them to dream and aspire and build\nand create this marvel of a country. It is freedom that will allow\nthese young people sitting in front of me here to do the same thing.\n  But as long as government continues to grow, those freedoms will\nnecessarily recede. It is a direct relationship. So we have allowed\ngovernment to grow way too large. It influences far too much of our\nlives, negatively influences it.\n  We need to jealously guard our freedom. We need to jealously reclaim\nour freedom. And the best way to do that is to shrink the size, the\nscope, and the cost of the government and its influence over our lives.\nAnd the only way you do that is you have to reduce total spending by\nthe Federal Government. This is the metric. We talk about all kinds of\nthings. That is the metric.\n  And one final point: We are not going to be able to tax our way out\nof this. We don't have a taxation problem; we have a spending problem.\nI want to make my final comment, the refuting of the false narrative\nthat we hear ad nauseam from the other side. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act\ndid not cause our deficits. When the CBO scored that, the score at the\ntime it passed was that it was going to reduce revenue and increase our\ndeficits by $1.5 trillion. And CBO then after passage, I think April of\n2018, projected out revenue for 10 years. If you take a look at that\nrevenue from 2018 to 2024, we actually have the actual results. They\nprojected about $27 trillion worth of revenue over that 7-year period.\nThe actual amount of revenue we raised from 2018 to 2024 was $28.7\ntrillion. We beat CBO's estimate by $1.7 trillion. So if the original\nscore is 1.5 trillion--it was--in 7 years, we actually beat their\nestimate by 1.7. We paid for that tax cut in 7 years, plus $200\nbillion.\n  And we had the severe COVID recession in the middle of that. So don't\nbelieve anybody that tells you that Tax Cuts and Jobs Act caused our\ndeficits. They didn't. They paid for themselves in less than 7 years\nand then some.\n  We have a spending problem in this country. There is no justification\nfor going from $4.4 trillion to $6.5 trillion, and now we are at 6.9\nwith no end in sight.\n  This is immoral, what we are doing to our children. We have got to\nget this under control, and this is about as good a rationale, as good\na justification for setting some dollar limit and using the budget\nprocess unlike we have ever used it before, not just for being able to\npass some kind of reconciliation package with a mere majority vote but\nactually use the budget the way American families and American\nbusinesses do to set the spending limits.\n  And then ask our committees and the chair of our committees to take\nthose budget caps seriously and figure out how they can structure\nspending, how they can structure these programs to actually live within\nthose budget caps, and, again, if they actually used Bill Clinton's\n1998 spending level and inflate it the way I have done here, actually\nbalance the budget.\n  That is what the people who came out in November voting for President\n\n[[Page S213]]\n\nTrump, that is their goal. That is their expectation. I suggest we live\nup to their expectations.\n  I yield the floor.\n  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Ricketts). The Senator from Kansas.\n\n                         Tribute to Tom Brandt\n\n  Mr. MORAN. Mr. President, for the past 8 years, I have benefited from\nthe service, hard work, and loyalty of my communications director and\ndeputy chief of staff Tom Brandt.\n  Tom has worked in three congressional offices and is well-known and\nrespected in the Senate by reporters, staffers, and my colleagues. His\ncareer as a staffer on Capitol Hill is concluding, and I am sad about\nthat; but he will continue serving the American people as he pursues\none of his other passions, and that is a passion for space exploration\nand NASA.\n  I want to express my gratitude to him for his service to the people\nof Kansas and to me. Tom is from Oakland Park, KS, and comes from a\nlong line of Kansans. He embodies Kansas values of hard work,\ndetermination, and generosity, and I know he learned these traits from\nhis role models, his parents Carl and Nancy Brandt.\n  You have raised a great son, and I thank you for that.\n  His career on Capitol Hill began in Missouri Senator Roy Blunt's\noffice, first in the House and then in the U.S. Senate. He earned Roy's\ntrust early on as a driver. That is how we often meet some of our best\nmembers of our staff. And he, too, maintained a relationship with Roy\nduring his tenure here in the U.S. Senate. I asked Roy to tell me\nsomething about Tom, and he said:\n\n       Tom Brandt came to work for me in the House and was such an\n     asset that I asked him to join our Senate press team. Tom\n     always understood how to take advantage of the moment and the\n     value of a clear message. I know Senator Moran and his office\n     will miss Tom when he leaves as much as we did.\n\n  Tom's career took him to work on various campaigns and, eventually,\nback to Capitol Hill where he worked for Kansas Congresswoman Lynn\nJenkins during her time as the House GOP conference vice chair.\n  It was in her office that Tom was able to first pursue his passion\nfor NASA. Lynn provided me with some thoughts, in her words, that she\nwanted to share about Tom:\n\n       Tom is one of my all-time favorite co-workers.\n\n  When I asked her--this is me talking now--when I asked her whether I\nshould hire Tom Brandt, she said: He is the best I ever hired.\n\n       He is hardworking, honest, intelligent, kind and funny. Tom\n     has a deep appreciation for his home State of Kansas and\n     served it extremely well in his time in my office.\n\n  That is Lynn Jenkins speaking.\n\n       But, in many ways, it was his penance, as you see Tom is\n     perhaps the worst kind of traitor a native Kansan can be--he\n     chose to attend college at the University of Missouri. Tom's\n     interest in NASA and space policy is lifelong.\n\n  Again, Congresswoman Jenkins speaking.\n\n       Years ago, when he worked as my communications director, he\n     requested to handle my office's space legislative portfolio.\n     Given I represented a district with no NASA presence and\n     didn't serve on any committee of jurisdiction, no one [in our\n     office actually handled that topic.] In response, my Chief of\n     Staff told Tom, ``Sure, go for it, but it never comes up.''\n     Tom did take it and immediately reached out to NASA staff.\n     Soon after, he set up my office's first of many interactions\n     with NASA.\n\n  That is the end of Lynn Jenkins' quote.\n  After working in the House and private sector, Tom began working in\nour office in 2017. It became evident to me early on that one of Tom's\ngreatest strengths is his ability to quickly build friendships and\ncollaborations. He can quickly put folks at ease with his warm smile\nand personality. I always thought that smile, he was smirking at me\nevery time I saw him. I got accustomed to that smile as something much\nbetter than a smirk.\n  He will take the time to talk with frustrated constituents to assure\nthem they have been heard and that he will do his best to help. And Tom\nalways follows through on his promises.\n  The relationships he formed over the years expands from everyone--\nHouse Members, U.S. Senators, staff in both places--and these\nrelationships have aided Tom in his work.\n  Early on in his time in my office, he took a trip to Taiwan and\nestablished relationships with officials he met in the Taiwanese\nGovernment, and he maintained those relationships after returning home.\nDuring the COVID-19 pandemic, Taiwan generously offered to send face\nmasks and personal protection equipment to the United States. Tom\nreached out to his individual friends he had made, and he asked them if\nany of that equipment could be sent to Kansas to help the hospitals\nthat were in desperate need. Tom's request resulted in Taiwan sending\n100,000 surgical masks to Kansas.\n  In a moment of great need, Tom found a way to bring help and aid to\nthe people of his home State.\n  In his role as communications director--I expected a lot of press to\nbe sitting in the Gallery, but I see none. In his role as\ncommunications director, Tom has been a steadying hand helping me\nuntangle my own thoughts and express my positions in a way that is more\nclear and winsome.\n  When I have had to speak after taking an unpopular stand or something\nthat had caused me to be misunderstood--either on policy or\nlegislation--Tom always had my back, advocating for me and my\npositions, even when he had to face the anger of those who disagreed.\n  He has helped clear the way for tough but important legislation. I\nwould highlight one, the Empowering Olympic and Amateur Athletes Act\nthat was born out of our investigation into the abuses of gymnasts and\nother American athletes.\n  He has shown compassion toward veterans suffering from illnesses as\nthe result of their service, and we worked together to pass the PACT\nAct to help those who had encountered Agent Orange and burn pit\nvictims.\n  And he has always shown grit and determination, working through the\nnight on many occasions, helping me find exactly the right words to say\nto express my position to my constituents and the world.\n  As an Eagle Scout, Tom lives by the Eagle Scout motto: ``Be\nprepared.'' He is always prepared with the right answer and for the\ntough questions from reporters, like the time a reporter reached out to\nsee if ``Senator Jerry Moran was playing golf with Vice President\nPence.'' Tom, in all his wisdom, responded, ``Mike Pence golfs?''\n  Again, he has the gift to communicate.\n  While I congratulate Tom on his new job at NASA, his absence will be\nfelt not only by me and by our team but by his many friends and\ncolleagues on Capitol Hill.\n  Tom, we will miss your communications and policy expertise, your\nhumorous quips and one-liners, your loyalty to the Kansas City Chiefs\nand Red Friday, and, above all, your friendship and passion for making\nthe world a better place for Kansans and Americans.\n  I will miss, Tom, our nearly daily walks as I come over here to vote.\nIt is a difficult job to be a comms director for a Senator who almost\nalways shies away about visiting with reporters. Thanks for helping me\nexplain my errors and celebrating our accomplishments. You had no\nresponsibility for the errors and a great deal to do with the\naccomplishments.\n  Thank you for doing your job so well--pretty good for a Mizzou grad.\n  I yield the floor.\n  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oregon.\n\n                 Unanimous Consent Requests--Amendments\n\n  Mr. MERKLEY. Mr. President, I have come to the floor to talk about\nthe impact of the Laken Riley bill upon children here in the United\nStates of America and to suggest that we have a debate over several\namendments designed as to how to more appropriately treat our children\nwho reside here in the United States so we do not end up doing\nsignificant injury to them, which I very much believe is going to be\nthe result if we proceed without some changes.\n  But let me start just by noting that my thoughts are--as I think the\nthoughts of every Senator are--with Laken Riley's family.\n  Whenever there is a tragedy--no tragedy should happen, whether it is\nperpetuated by a citizen or it is perpetuated by an immigrant.\nAmericans should be safe in their communities. It is absolutely clear\nthat we need comprehensive, commonsense immigration reform.\n  Here in the Senate, Democrats and Republicans worked together back in\n\n[[Page S214]]\n\n2013 to pass just such a bill--an enormous investment in border\nsecurity 12 years ago, approved in this body by Democrats and\nRepublicans together. That bill never got a hearing in the House of\nRepresentatives. So I hope we will, in fact, try to resurrect the\nspirit that inspired us 12 years ago in this coming year for\ncomprehensive reform.\n  This particular bill is very troubling in how it impacts children. I\nam troubled that a bill of such consequence and, quite frankly, legal\ncomplexity was brought to the floor without going through a committee.\nReally, here in the Senate, the way to do responsible work on\ncomplicated, consequential bills is to have them go before a committee\nso the committee can bring in all the experts necessary to resolve\ndisputes and misunderstandings about how the bill might work. From that\ncommon understanding, needed reforms can be implemented. But here on\nthe floor of the Senate, where often only one or two of us are here at\na time, there is no such consideration. We can't bring experts to the\nfloor here to resolve these issues.\n  My colleague from Alabama is here today, and when I propose that we\nconsider certain amendments, I anticipate that she is going to object,\nalthough I will try to persuade her otherwise with the logic of my\npresentation. But I would say that the core point stands that this bill\nis consequential, it is complicated, and the potential impact on\nchildren is dramatic. So let's work to prevent something really awful\nfrom happening here in our country because I know that is not the\nintent of my colleague.\n  This bill as written requires ICE officers to detain individuals who\nhave neither been charged nor convicted of a crime--neither charged nor\nconvicted. Children imprisoned without being charged or convicted of a\ncrime--that is what this bill does.\n  In the current system, children can be, in fact, detained, but it is\nat discretion on the front end and discretion on the back end to\nunderstand the whole of the circumstances. Is the individual a flight\nrisk? Does the individual pose a risk to the community? Are we talking\nabout an assault with a deadly weapon or are we talking about grabbing\nand eating an apple while walking down the aisle of a grocery store?\nThat discretion is obliterated in this bill.\n  If a 5-year-old girl in either of our States--I am from Oregon, and\nSenator Britt from Alabama--gets hungry and grabs that apple, the Laken\nRiley Act says that young girl, if arrested, must be put into an ICE\nprison--must be, without discretion--and there is no provision in the\nbill to get that girl out. There is no required review.\n  This is an obliteration of everything we understand about due\nprocess. A child arrested but never charged because there was, in fact,\nin the end, no evidence--no conviction because since there is no\nevidence, there is no trial--is still sitting in prison without\nrecourse, in an ICE prison.\n  This is not the America I know, and I don't believe this is the\nAmerica my colleagues across the aisle want. So I come here to say\nlet's work together to fix this bill. That is what we are looking to do\ntoday.\n  I have three amendments. I will explain each of the amendments before\nI ask unanimous consent to set aside the pending amendment so that the\namendment can, in fact, be debated and voted on.\n  The first amendment excludes children from this bill. If the idea is\nthat mandatory detention should apply to adults, then let's exclude\nchildren. Children would still be subject to potential detention that\nexists under the current law at the discretion--in fact, under current\nlaw, they can be detained with discretion even just for an arrest,\nbefore they have been charged or convicted, but there is discretion\ninvolved.\n  I know of no case in which there has been permanent, mandatory\nimprisonment of a child who has only been arrested and never charged\nand never convicted in the entire history of the United States of\nAmerica, and we are about to change that. That is wrong.\n  So, Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to set aside the pending\namendment so I can offer my amendment No. 73; that there be up to 15\nminutes for debate on the amendment; and that upon the use or yielding\nback of time, the Senate vote on the amendment without further\nintervening action or debate.\n  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?\n  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alabama.\n  Mrs. BRITT. Reserving the right to object, Mr. President, with all\ndue respect to my colleague from Oregon, he voted against even\nproceeding to this bill. Now he is attempting to force amendments onto\nthe bill outside of the bipartisan amendment process that we are\nworking through.\n  Look, I get it. I understand the frustration when your caucus is\nworking and your bill doesn't get called up to be voted on. But the\ntruth is, we are working diligently to make sure that all voices are\nheard.\n  I also find it really interesting because for the past 4 years under\nthe failed Biden-Harris administration's open border policies, I have\nnot seen one bill be brought to the floor from this side of the aisle\nto really focus on what is happening to children as a result of these\npolicies.\n  If you look at our wide-open border, we have had over 468,000\nunaccompanied children come across our border in the last 4 years. When\nyou look at the numbers that HHS has put out, they admit to losing at\nleast 85,000 children. Where has the outrage been?\n  My colleagues and I on this side of the aisle have been diligently\nbringing this to the forefront time and time again, even holding our\nown version of a hearing because we couldn't get our Democratic\ncolleagues to shine light on this. How dare they step out of line with\nBiden and Harris and their open border policy and agenda. How dare\nthey. They should have. We did, and we will continue to make sure that\nwe speak up for these kids.\n  When you look at what is happening to migrant children being\ntrafficked, in many cases, from drug trafficking, to sex trafficking,\nto stories that are absolutely gut-wrenching and heartbreaking,\nsomething has to be done, and it begins with making sure that we have\naccountability and that we are taking criminals off our streets.\n  It is not just migrant children who have paid the price for the\nfailed policies of this last administration; it is American children as\nwell.\n  Look at 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray in Texas, who was brutally raped\nand murdered by two men who never should have been here. Look at Laken\nRiley, who last Friday would have celebrated her 23rd birthday had she\nstill been on this Earth. Had this bill been enacted, Laken Riley would\nstill be alive.\n  This bill is a lifesaving bill. This bill protects children.\n  We are going to continue to fight to expose the detrimental impact of\nthe Biden-Harris open border policies, and we on this side of the aisle\nlook forward to joining with those on the other side of the aisle who\nare willing to make commonsense, targeted reforms to keep Americans\nsafe.\n  Because of that, I object.\n  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The objection is heard.\n  The Senator from Oregon.\n  Mr. MERKLEY. My colleague laid out quite a set of factors there, but\nlet's not blur the picture. The picture is this: A child came here when\nthey were 2 months old. They have been here for 12 years or 14. They\nwalk out of a store with a group of children. A police officer thinks\nthey saw them put something into their pocket and arrests them. It\nturns out they didn't put anything into their pocket. Nothing was in\nthere, but they have been arrested. Now ICE is required to indefinitely\nimprison that child--that child in Alabama who was going to be a great,\noutstanding member of their school and of their community--sentencing\nthat child, with no charge, no conviction, no crime, to prison. We know\nexactly what harm that type of imprisonment does.\n  That is what this amendment is about. I can't take on all of the\nother issues, but I will say that last year, we had a bipartisan group\ndevelop a comprehensive bill, and my colleagues across the aisle\nblocked it from coming to the floor. But that was last year's debate.\n  This is a bill that has a purpose, but I don't think the purpose is\nto wrongly, indefinitely, mandatorily imprison innocent children. So I\nwould ask my colleague, while you are objecting now, let's continue\nthis conversation because it is that important to fairness in America.\n\n[[Page S215]]\n\n  There is a legal difference of opinion currently, so I am just going\nto describe that. It was sold on the House side by saying that there is\na settlement called the Flores settlement which will continue to\nprotect children and prevent this from happening--an innocent child\nindefinitely detained in prison with no review process.\n  But let's turn to the counsel for Flores. The counsel for Flores has\nput out a detailed statement. I have a copy. I understand that other\nlawyers may have other opinions, but these are the experts.\n  They say: The Flores settlement does not apply to undocumented\nchildren in the community. It applies only to children detained in\nFederal immigration custody by DHS under Customs and Border Protection\nor Immigration and Customs Enforcement in certain circumstances and so\non and so forth. ``Neither the Flores Settlement, nor any other\nexisting legal protection, would prevent undocumented children from\nbeing mandatorily detained by ICE under the Laken Riley Act'' as it is\ncurrently written.\n  It goes on to note and explain that the Flores settlement is a\nconsent decree, and law, Federal law, trumps consent decrees.\n  It goes on to say that ``children, including toddlers, are not\nexempted from the Laken Riley Act'' and that ``24 states have no\nminimum age for prosecuting children,'' meaning you can be arrested at\nany age, even a toddler.\n  So I will ask my colleague not, again, to consider granting consent\nfor this amendment, but I would ask that you work with me to explore\nthis topic and see if we can fix this problem to our mutual\nsatisfaction so we don't do harm to children, if you would consider\ndoing that.\n  Mrs. BRITT. I will always work with you to talk about how we can help\nchildren--always.\n  Mr. MERKLEY. Thank you.\n  We are in the same hallway over in the Hart Building.\n  Mrs. BRITT. Neighbors.\n  Mr. MERKLEY. I look forward to cooperating on many topics, but this\nis perhaps the most important one at the moment.\n  A second amendment that I have creates some of the flexibility that\nexists in current law that doesn't exist under this bill. It requires\nDHS to employ what is referred to as the best interest standard for the\nchild. This is a standard that is used in virtually every single State\nin the foster care and child service industry.\n  And so the amendment reads--it is nice to have very short amendments.\nIt requires DHS to only detain children in a manner consistent with the\nbest interest of the child and that does not abrogate, modify, or\nreplace protections for children in applicable Federal law, regulation,\ncourt orders, and decrees--in other words, preserving the flexibility\nthat exists in current law, which means could be detained but that a\njudge can consider the totality of the circumstances, the level of the\ncrime, whether or not there is a flight risk, whether or not there is a\npotential harm to the community.\n  The best interest standard seems like an appropriate thing to apply\nwhen we are, in fact, collectively striving for the best interest of\nthe children.\n  So I ask unanimous consent to set aside the pending amendment so that\nI may offer up amendment No. 72; that there be up to 15 minutes for\ndebate on the amendment; and that upon the use or yielding back of\ntime, the Senate vote on the amendment without further intervening\naction or debate.\n  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?\n  The Senator from Alabama.\n  Mrs. BRITT. Mr. President, reserving my right to object, we have\nrepeatedly confirmed with ICE that all existing consent decrees would\ncontinue to apply. This amendment addresses something the bill doesn't\ndo.\n  And as I have said, the Laken Riley Act would protect kids. It is\nbipartisan; it is targeted; and it is common sense. That is why we want\nto keep it that way. I object.\n  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.\n  The Senator from Oregon.\n  Mr. MERKLEY. Mr. President, I do disagree with my colleague because\nthis bill eliminates the flexibility in the current system to consider\nthe totality of the circumstances, and restoring the best interest\nstandard that every State is intimately familiar with is remedying the\nlack of flexibility in the bill as it is written.\n  But again, we will continue this conversation. I view coming to the\nfloor and having this dialogue as kind of a way for us to do something\nthat is too rare--way too rare--here in the Senate. We rarely have\nthese types of conversations in front of the American people, and I\nthink it is important we have them, especially when there is some\nvalue--that maybe we share the same value but have different\ninterpretations of how that value will be impacted. I am sure we share\nthe same value on trying not to do kids wrong. That is why I value this\ndialogue with my colleague, and I hope it will lead to the opportunity\nto resolve these issues.\n  I have a third amendment, and the third amendment is related to\nanother aspect of the way children are affected, including American\ncitizen children.\n  Imagine the parent who goes to work who is accused--I don't know--of\nstealing a tool out of the factory, and so he is arrested or she is\narrested. And now, under this bill, that adult has to be locked up--no\nflexibility on the front end--even though it turns out that they did\nnot steal the tool; they had nothing in their bag that they had with\nthem. The officer thought they did; they didn't. They never get\ncharged. They never get convicted so there is no trial. They are\ncharged. But that parent who has maybe one, two, three, four American\ncitizen children at home waiting for them--they come home from school,\nand no parent comes home. They have to be locked up under this bill.\n  So we are not just talking about an impact in this bill on immigrant\nchildren. We are talking about an impact on citizen children. Now, I\ncare about both, but I just want to note that there has been a\nconversation about this bill as if it only affects immigrants. No, it\naffects American citizens too. It affects spouses who might be American\ncitizens. It certainly affects the children who are likely American\ncitizens.\n  So this amendment says that if an adult with children under 17 is\nsubject to the mandatory detention that currently has no end, no back\nend to it, has no ability to appeal--it is permanent detention,\npermanent imprisonment--that if they have children at home, after 30\ndays, there would be a court proceeding to consider whether or not the\nconditions should exist for release after the normal set of issues are\nconsidered, such as is this person a danger to the community; is this\nperson a flight risk; can they be released with bail--the same things\nwe have now--because back at that home are a bunch of children, maybe\nnoncitizen children, maybe citizen children, but a bunch of children\nwho are going: My parent never came home. I am not just a latchkey kid\nwith a parent coming home at 10 p.m. because that is when their shift\nends; I am a kid who doesn't know what the hell to do now, and my life\nhas been shattered.\n  So this would create the opportunity for that flexibility that exists\nin current law after 30 days of mandatory detention. I think it is an\nappropriate way to address the potential for impact that I am sure no\none intended in writing this bill, which was to leave a bunch of\nchildren back in a home with no parent and no support.\n  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to set aside the pending\namendment so that I can offer amendment No. 71; that there be up to 15\nminutes for debate on the amendment; and that upon the use or yielding\nback of time, the Senate vote on the amendment without further\nintervening action or debate.\n  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?\n  The Senator from Alabama.\n  Mrs. BRITT. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, we have\nheard a lot of things that are untruthful about this bill today. First\noff, no one's due process is taken with regard to their immigration\nproceeding that may be moving and the ability to see the criminal\nproceeding through to the end.\n  At the end of the day, we have to make a decision, and that is the\ndecision that is in front of my colleagues right now. Are we going to\nprotect open border policies or are we going to protect kids?\n  I mean, we are seeing, even in this conversation about carveouts and\n\n[[Page S216]]\n\nwhatnot--you have got teen migrant gangs running rampant in New York\nCity, allegedly running theft rings, with children as young as 11.\n  Think about what you do when you think about each one of these things\nwe have discussed today. If you were to carve out a certain kid or a\ncertain age, you don't make that kid safer; you make them a greater\ntarget for the drug cartels, for the people looking to move crime.\n  We have to make sure that we are taking a commonsense approach to\nthis. And at the end of the day, if you don't commit a crime, you are\ngoing to be good.\n  So I am here today to say it is time to pass the Laken Riley Act. It\nis past time to do that--having a commonsense, targeted approach that,\nno, does not fix everything.\n  I hear my colleague's frustration with regard to regular order of\nlast year. I would like to echo that. You think about what we are\ndealing with right now. We have had over 11 million people come across\nthe border under the Biden-Harris administration. Some people say that\nnumber is much higher. There are at least 2 million that came across\nthe border that we don't know who they are, where they are going, or\nwhat their intentions are.\n  You look at the nondetained docket we have here in our country--7.8\nmillion. You look at those who have been given their due process--1.4\nmillion have been issued their final orders of removal, meaning they\nhave been given their due process, and we have said: You have no legal\nright to be here.\n  We have got to do better at tackling every bit of that, and doing\nbetter starts today. We are not only going to do right by Laken Riley\nand her legacy; we are going to do right by the children of this\ncountry, making it safer and more secure. That is exactly what this\nbill does. It is a bipartisan piece of legislation, and we must keep it\nstrong and keep it that way.\n  So on that, Mr. President, I object.\n  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The objection is heard.\n  The Senator from Oregon.\n  Mr. MERKLEY. Mr. President, I was hoping those last two words weren't\n``I object.'' But this is an important issue that has been raised, and\nwe need to look carefully because there is no intention to leave a\nhouseful of children home alone when the parent poses no flight risk,\nhas committed no crime, poses no risk to the community, and those\nchildren are being harmed.\n  In fact, I do take factual dispute with a few of my colleague's\npoints. She noted that no due process had been taken. When you\neliminate the discretion on the front end, you change due process. A\njudge can no longer say this person is no flight risk, no risk to the\ncommunity, has children at home, so we will put a high bond. They will\nabsolutely show up. We know where all their relatives are. And that\nwill be best because, if the person is subsequently charged, they will\nbe there for trial.\n  That due process is stripped away on the front end. There is due\nprocess in existence now on the back end, where a person can challenge\ntheir detention and whether or not they should be there.\n  In fact, during the previous Trump administration, there were\nchildren who were released with such challenges, but that is taken\naway. So, yes, due process is dramatically changed, with a huge impact\non children.\n  And my colleague mentioned that we don't want children to be targeted\nfor gangs. Amen to that. Who is more of a target for gangs than\nchildren left alone in the home because their parent has been unjustly\nimprisoned? That does exactly the opposite of what my colleague wants\nto achieve.\n  So I know this conversation will continue; at least, I hope it will.\nWe are now under a filed cloture motion, which means the majority\nintends to close debate probably on Monday, and yet one Democratic\namendment has been heard--one. The majority leader has said he wants to\ndo things differently; that he wants there to be an amendment process.\n  The amendment process I saw when I first came to this Senate\nconsisted of standing up and saying: I have a relevant, germane\namendment. I am asking for the existing amendment to be set aside so\nthat mine can be brought up, which puts it in a queue for\nconsideration. People can study it. And then you go to a whole series\nof votes on all those things that are in that queue.\n  We did this on Dodd-Frank. We did this on ObamaCare. I think we\nshould do it here because the consequences are high. But if that can't\nbe done, then I would ask my colleague who has worked so hard on this\nparticular bill to take a look at whether the Republican side will\nagree to hear these amendments and vote on them. They may be voted\ndown, but I think they are important.\n  I think it is extremely important that kids not be wrapped up in\nthis. They can currently be detained, but it is with discretion of the\ncircumstances. I think it is particularly important that we have a\nstandard for children in terms of their best interest. I think it is\nparticularly important that we have a way, after a few weeks, to have\nsome look at whether children who have been left home alone--and if the\ncircumstances are appropriate and there is no flight risk, the\ncircumstances are appropriate and there is no community risk--to help\naddress that situation or we are harming children this was never meant\nto harm.\n  So I ask for my Republican colleagues to consider providing an\nopportunity because they--it takes 100 percent. Every single Senator\nhas to agree to hear an amendment.\n  We used to have the Senate code. The Senate code was: I won't object\nto your amendment. You don't object to mine. They are on the topic\nbefore us.\n  These are on the topic before us. These are not some crazy thing.\nThese are addressing core due process issues that affect children. So I\nwould ask that at least they get some discussion for the possibility of\nconsideration.\n  I thank my colleague from Alabama for coming and hearing me out as\nwell as--I am not really thanking you for objecting, but I am thanking\nyou in the spirit in which I think you want to do the right thing.\n  And I will keep striving to convince you that the right thing here is\nwe should debate these amendments.\n  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alaska.\n\n                       Tribute to Kathlene Rowell\n\n  Mr. SULLIVAN. Mr. President, it is nearing the end of the week, and\nnormally, that is when I come down to the Senate floor to do my\nweekly--I try to make it weekly--Alaskan of the Week speech.\n  Now, I know for the pages, this is their favorite speech of the week.\nYou get to hear about Alaska; you get to hear about some great Alaskan\ndoing some great stuff. I usually try to give a little update about\nwhat is going on in our great State because it is always something\ninteresting. And then I encourage people watching on TV: Come on up to\nAlaska; you are going to have the trip of a lifetime if you do it.\n  So today the Alaskan of the Week is someone very special to me and my\nwife. I am going to talk in detail about all she has done for our\nState. Her name is Kathlene Rowell. And she has worked for me in Alaska\ngoing on 15 years. The Presiding Officer understands that as a former\nGovernor, where you have great staff that do amazing things, not just\nfor you and your team but for the whole State.\n  Her title in the office has been deputy State director, but she has\nbeen so much more than that. She has literally been the glue that has\nkept my whole team together, not just since I have been in the Senate\nbut even before I became a Senator.\n  So I am going to talk about Kathlene real quick here in a minute as\nthe Alaskan of the Week. She so much deserves it. Just wanted to\nmention a few things.\n  We are all, of course, praying for the people impacted by the fires\nin California. We are all ready to stand by to help. The States are\ncoming together. My State is certainly a State that understands natural\ndisasters, and, you know, even in Alaska right now, Anchorage just last\nweek--didn't make any news down here--was hit with hurricane-force\nwinds on Sunday, up to 130 miles an hour. A lot of people--hundreds--\nwere without power, a lot of property damage. So, you know, we are\nthinking about our Alaskan colleagues who were hit by that hurricane--\nthere is no other word--typhoon.\n  And, of course, praying for everybody in Los Angeles. You know, with\na State and population that big, we all know people. I have a good\ncollege roommate\n\n[[Page S217]]\n\nbuddy of mine Tom McMillin, my two sisters-in-law Janine and Jennifer,\nthey are all being real negatively impacted by that. So we are thinking\nabout them.\n  In Alaska, I always like to give an update. The Sun is actually\ncoming back. We hit the winter solstice. In Anchorage, we are gaining\nabout 4 minutes of sun a day; in Fairbanks, we are gaining about 5\nminutes of sun a day; and in about a week, January 22, the Sun will\nrise again in Utqiagvik, AK--Barrow, AK--the top of North America. That\nwill be the first time the sun comes up over the horizon in 2 months.\nSo they get a dark winter, and it is cold up there.\n  The Iditarod, the Last Great Race, is coming up March 2. If you are\nthinking about coming to Alaska, don't think just this summer. Come up\nin the winter, too; it is great. So that is a little bit of update to\ntell what is going on.\n  Now, back to Kathlene Rowell, the rock in our office whose last day--\noh, it breaks my heart, breaks my wife Julie's heart. Her last day was\nyesterday.\n  So little bit of background about Kathlene. She moved with her family\nto Alaska from Chicago when she was 3 years old. Her father worked in\nthe oil fields and had been commuting to Alaska, Illinois, Chicago--\nback and forth. He thought it was time for the family to come together,\nso they settled in beautiful Eagle River, AK, a gorgeous--and I mean\ngorgeous--patriotic community, mountainous community right outside of\nAnchorage.\n  Kathlene went to Chugiak High. Go Mustangs. She was an excellent,\ndriven student. Anyone who knows Kathlene knows that ``excellence'' is\nher motto. Everything she does is excellent.\n  But we got confirmation from her good friend Robyn Engibous--on my\nstaff, my deputy chief of staff here in DC--who went to school with\nKathlene and remains very close, that, yes, Kathlene was a straight-A\nstudent. We knew that. She showed horses. She worked at the coffee shop\nin Eagle River called Jitters, a mainstay in that great community. She\nexcelled academically.\n  Went to college first in Colorado, then in Washington State. Did a\nsemester with the National Outdoor Leadership, which she loved, and\nthen came back to Alaska, finished up, and graduated from Alaska\nPacific University which, very importantly, she did well there. But\nreally, really importantly, she met her husband Ben who is a great guy.\nGreat guy. They are a great couple.\n  So that is Kathlene's early background. She then worked in the parks\ndivision, division of parks and rec, right at the department of natural\nresources. That is when I first met her. I was the new commissioner at\nDNR--we call it DNR in Alaska; that covers everything in Alaska. We\nworked in the same building. I was a brandnew commissioner, and I was\nlooking for a special assistant--a young, smart, talented, special\nassistant--as the commissioner of the department of natural resources.\n\n  Now, this is a big job, right? If Alaska were its own country, it\nwould be the envy of the world in terms of resources, strategic\nlocation, critical minerals, our military, you name it. DNR has a lot\nof responsibility over all these things.\n  Matter of fact, not to go on a tangent here, but I had an op-ed in\nthe Wall Street Journal today titled ``Greenland Is Nice, but Alaska Is\nBetter.'' Goes into all this stuff about how great Alaska is.\n  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Wall Street Journal\nOp-Ed, ``Greenland Is Nice, but Alaska Is Better,'' be printed in the\nRecord at the end of my remarks. Just to give you a sense of our great\nState there.\n  So I needed a special assistant. And I was looking at all these\nresumes and these lawyers and stuff, and here, for the young pages,\nthis is the value of what they call an elevator speech. You have heard\nof an elevator speech, right? You have to make a pitch; you have to\nmake it quick. So I am getting on the elevator, Kathlene at the time\nshe is probably mid, early twenties. She is very young-looking, so then\nshe looked a lot younger than her early twenties.\n  And she gets on the elevator, and, boy, oh, boy, it was the elevator\npitch: Commissioner Sullivan, I understand you are looking for a\nspecial assistant.\n  The elevator is going up, all these people are listening: I believe I\nhave the qualities, the hard work, the ethics, the commitment to\nexcellence to be your special assistant. I would like to come by your\noffice and interview.\n  Boom, the door opens. I was like, dang, that was impressive. Elevator\npitch. So she made that. Came in, interviewed, and I am like, I am\nhiring her--none of these gung ho, high-falutin lawyers; I am going to\nput my trust in this young Alaskan. And, boy, oh, boy, I am so glad I\ndid. It was the best elevator pitch I have ever seen.\n  Kathlene rolled up her sleeves and learned everything she could, and\nbefore you knew it, she was running the department of natural\nresources, which in Alaska is the giant organization of hundreds and\nhundreds of people, the key to our economy.\n  She was working with my other special assistant John Katchen. She was\nhugely essential to the things we got done at our department of natural\nresources. We negotiated against ExxonMobil for a giant natural gas\ndeal. You want to talk about a tough thing. Exxon brings in like 25\nlawyers to negotiate against a group of 3 of us, right? We took them\ndown.\n  She organized summits. She helped us redo our State's oil tax regime,\nwhich is creating a big spur of development right now. Kathlene was\nessential in all of this, bringing more producers up to Alaska, a great\nteammate. Her heart was in serving our State.\n  Fast-forward a few years, I am going to run for the U.S. Senate--not\nan easy run. A lot of good Republicans in the primary. There was a\nDemocrat incumbent here; that is never easy. And the first person I\nsaid I am going to hire on my campaign team, first person, was\nKathlene.\n  Now, it was a risk. She had a 1-year-old at home at the time,\nBenjamin, who is now joined by his brother Niles. By the way, Kathlene\nis a great mom. Her boys are now 12 and 8. When she first started\nworking for me, she had no kids. She has got a beautiful family with\nher husband Ben and her two wonderful boys.\n  But it was a risk. She had a great State job, and she is going to,\nyou know, join this guy throwing his hat in the ring. You know, I am\nnot so sure it was looking like an easy deal, but she left her easy--\nnot easy--her secure State job, the first person I hired on my\ncampaign. Organized it. Traveled. And I am pretty sure I would not have\nwon without Kathlene's great work. That was in 2014.\n  And then she stayed in our office in Alaska, became the deputy State\ndirector. And you know how it is, she has been with me and my team, my\nwife, longer than any other staff member, and she has done an\nincredible job.\n  Now, we all know how important staff are, both here in DC and\nespecially back home. They work hard. Let's face it, you know,\ngovernment jobs aren't always the best: You certainly could probably be\nmaking more money in the private sector; the hours can be grueling. But\ngreat staff, they are vital to what we do.\n  They are vital to the work that we get done here in the Senate, in\nDC, and really vital back home where the work they do for our\nconstituents and the places they travel to are essential. They are\nessential.\n  And here is a big thing: As you know, the help that our offices back\nhome do to work for the people we are honored to represent is vital\nbecause there are so many giant Federal Agencies--Social Security, the\nVA, IRS, the Department of Defense, Immigration--that are giant\nlabyrinths that people don't know how to get through.\n  Our Federal Government can be unwieldy and often unforgiving. So when\nAlaskans need help on all those things--Social Security checks; VA\nbenefits, we are the State with more veterans per capita than any State\nin the country; Medicare; the IRS comes screwing up something--they\ncome to us and we work on these cases.\n  This is a rough number, but since I have been in office, our Alaska\nstaff has worked on more than 12,000 of these cases, and they are\nreally complicated and take hours and hours. We always have at least\none person attached to these cases, something they will always\nremember, and their lives are impacted by whether they are resolved in\na good way or bad way.\n  And as I am sure you probably believe, you don't always hear about\nthis\n\n[[Page S218]]\n\npart of the job of representing people in our great Republic; but in my\nview, it is probably the best part of the job because you have a direct\nimpact on someone you represent, and you can literally change their\nlives.\n  We do that, we put our heart and soul into it, but nobody has put\ntheir heart and soul into it more than Kathlene. She has made all of\nthis happen, 12,000 cases.\n  Now, I also have a fantastic director of constituent services in\nAnchorage, Carrie Keil, who has completed more than 3,600 of these\ncases herself. She is amazing. But here is what Carrie said about\nKathlene: Kathlene is at the helm of the ship. She is the captain of\nthe ship. She makes all of this possible. She is a master communicator.\nHer loyalty and integrity to the people of Alaska are unmatched.\n  That is what you want with great staff.\n  Margaret Sharpe, she runs our Mat-Su Valley regional area, our\nregional director, Margaret, who does a great job. She calls Kathlene\nour hero: She is our conscience. She is the gatekeeper of decorum. She\nis all about kindness and respect. She keeps all of us kind.\n  Isn't that a great compliment? That is from Margaret on my team.\n  Elaina Spraker, another great member of my team, our Kenai regional\ndirector on the Kenai Peninsula. Covers Kodiak as well. Elaina does a\ngreat job. She says that she has never worked\n\n =========================== NOTE ===========================\n\n  On page S218, January 16, 2025, in the second column, the\nfollowing appears: Elena Spraker, another great member of my team,\nour Kenai regional director on the Kenai Peninsula. Covers Kodiak\nas well. Elena does a great job. She says that she has never\nworked\n\n  The online Record has been corrected to read: Elaina Spraker,\nanother great member of my team, our Kenai regional director on\nthe Kenai Peninsula. Covers Kodiak as well. Elaina does a great\njob. She says that she has never worked\n\n ========================= END NOTE =========================\n\nwith anyone with more skills than Kathlene. Elaina says, ``Kathlene is\n  our rock,'' and I agree. That is so true.You know, in our line of\nwork, in elected jobs, whether Governors or commissioners or Senators,\nwe all know that certain people have an impact that goes way beyond\njust the work that they do, and Kathlene is one of those. She has\nworked so hard, often at the sacrifice of time with her beautiful boys\nand family and her husband. But she set the bar so high on\nprofessionalism, in excellence, in everything she does that everybody\naround her--in our Anchorage office, in our Alaska offices, in our DC\noffices--everybody around her, myself included, gets lifted up and made\nbetter and has improved by being in Kathlene's orbit. Those are special\npeople, and that is what Kathlene is.\n  Now, she has been a loyal employee, certainly to me and my wife\nJulie. There was a little going-away party for her back home in\nAnchorage, 2 days ago. Fortunately, Julie was able to make it. But\nthroughout all, it is not just loyalty to us. It is to the people of\nAlaska, to helping people, to helping our State move forward.\n  And, as I said, yesterday was Kathlene's last day. She is going to\nbring these same skills to a really great credit union in Anchorage--\ntheir gain, our loss--but she is always going to be a member of Team\nSullivan.\n  Kathlene, we all say staff is like family here, but Kathlene truly is\nlike family for me and my wife Julie. We definitely would not have\ngotten this far without her. We are going to miss her terribly.\n  So, Kathlene, thank you. Thanks for your great work. Good luck in\nyour new job. From the bottom of my heart and Julie's heart, thanks for\nall you have done for me and Julie, our office, our State, our country.\nAnd, of course, I hope you are honored by one of the most prestigious\nawards anyone can get in America by being our ``Alaskan of the Week.''\n  Congratulations, Kathlene. Godspeed.\n  There being no objection, the materia1 was ordered to be printed in\nthe Record, as follows:\n\n             [From The Wall Street Journal, Jan. 15, 2025]\n\n             OP-ED: Greenland Is Nice, but Alaska is Better\n\n                         (By Sen. Dan Sullivan)\n\n       There's been a lot of talk about President-elect Trump's\n     idea of buying Greenland. But one U.S. state offers all of\n     Greenland's benefits: Alaska. The problem is that the Biden\n     administration has spent its time trying to turn the Last\n     Frontier into a giant national park rather than recognizing\n     it as a great strategic asset.\n       Greenland would provide the U.S. a gateway to the Arctic.\n     But America is already an Arctic nation thanks to Alaska. The\n     Russians and Chinese know my state is at the forefront of\n     great-power competition. In the past two years, there have\n     been 12 air incursions into the state's air-defense\n     identification zone, including an unprecedented joint\n     Russian-Chinese strategic bomber operation, and large-scale\n     joint Russian-Chinese naval task forces in our waters.\n       Greenland plays an important part in missile-defense and\n     early-warning networks, but the cornerstone of America's\n     missile defense is Alaska. Any missiles launched by Russia,\n     China or North Korea against the U.S. would likely fly over\n     the state. That's why it hosts the vast majority of America's\n     radar systems and ground-based missile interceptors. To\n     create an Iron Dome for America--a priority of Mr. Trump--we\n     need to add to our national ballistic-missile interceptor\n     capability in Alaska and build a robust layered missile\n     defense and space-based missile sensor capability.\n       Greenland is rich in minerals and energy reserves. Alaska\n     is even richer. Our state holds an estimated 40 billion\n     barrels of oil and roughly 235 trillion cubic feet of natural\n     gas. In one field alone, Prudhoe Bay, Alaska reinjects into a\n     reservoir for oil-production purposes as much natural gas\n     each day as Oregon, Washington and California consume.\n       Alaska also has a wealth of metals and other minerals, some\n     of which are essential for our national defense, economy and\n     renewable-energy sector. President Biden worked to keep them\n     in the ground. The first Trump administration approved a road\n     needed to access one of America's richest mineral deposits,\n     the Ambler Mining District in Alaska's Interior. The Biden\n     administration killed that road last June. Then Mr. Biden\n     traveled to Angola to announce $600 million to build a\n     railroad to help that country market its critical minerals.\n       Buy Greenland? Sure, if the price is right and the Danes\n     are willing to sell. But as Mr. Trump prepares to unleash\n     Alaska's potential again, it's worth remembering what the\n     father of the U.S. Air Force, Gen. Billy Mitchell, once said:\n     ``I believe . . . whoever controls Alaska controls the world.\n     I think it is the most strategic place in the world.''\n\n  Mr. SULLIVAN. I yield the floor.\n  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from South Dakota.\n\n                          ____________________"]], "columns": ["granule_id", "date", "congress", "session", "volume", "issue", "title", "chamber", "granule_class", "sub_granule_class", "page_start", "page_end", "speakers", "bills", "citation", "full_text"], "primary_keys": ["granule_id"], "primary_key_values": ["CREC-2025-01-16-pt1-PgS198"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 7.941729971207678, "source": "Federal Register API & Regulations.gov API", "source_url": "https://www.federalregister.gov/developers/api/v1", "license": "Public Domain (U.S. Government data)", "license_url": "https://www.regulations.gov/faq"}