[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 195 (Tuesday, November 28, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5624-S5630]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 EXECUTIVE CALENDAR--Motion to Proceed

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I move to proceed to the consideration of 
Executive Calendar No. 379, Micah W.J. Smith to be United States 
District Judge for the District of Hawaii.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the nomination.
  The bill clerk read as follows:

       Motion to proceed to Executive Calendar No. 379, the 
     nomination of Micah W.J. Smith, of Hawaii, to be United 
     States District Judge for the District of Hawaii.

  Mr. SCHUMER. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, as in legislation session, I ask unanimous 
consent that the Committee on Finance be discharged and the Senate 
proceed to the immediate consideration of S. 1250; that the Durbin 
amendment, which is at the desk, be considered and agreed to; that the 
bill, as amended, be considered read a third time and passed; and that 
the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table 
with no intervening action or debate.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Mr. DURBIN. I think I would like to----
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. I am sorry. Proceed.
  Mr. DURBIN. I thought that they told me the script was for some other 
reason.
  I ask consent to withdraw the request until--I made a misstatement, 
and Senator Grassley and the Senator from Idaho would agree.
  Mr. CRAPO. I would. I would agree.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


                           Prescription Drugs

  Mr. DURBIN. Thank you. I am new here. I am sorry I made that mistake.
  Mr. President, for years, one of the greatest challenges facing 
American families has been the rising cost of prescription drugs. A 
recent AARP survey found that the price for the top 25 medications used 
by seniors has tripled, on average, since those drugs came to market. 
Those drugs include: Xarelto, Trulicity, Januvia, Jardiance, Humira, 
and Eliquis.
  Now, I imagine most Americans already recognize the names I have 
read. They sound familiar because they are among the most heavily 
advertised products and medications on television. You may even have 
seen one of these ads during the Thanksgiving parade you and your 
family watched or while you watched a football game this weekend.
  Every year, Big Pharma spends more than $6 billion each year on ads. 
That is the size of the entire budget of the Food and Drug 
Administration. In fact, we know that most pharma companies spend more 
on advertising than on drug research and development of new drugs.
  It turns out, the United States is one of only two countries in the 
world that allows people to run ads on television for prescription 
drugs. Anybody want to guess the name of the other one? New Zealand. 
That is the only other country that allows this to occur.
  You want to know why pharmaceutical companies spend so much money 
promoting their drugs? Because it increases their profits dramatically. 
The average American sees an average of nine ads per day, nine. Pharma 
thinks if they pummel you with enough ads that you will finally learn 
how to pronounce and spell Xarelto. You will insist to your doctor that 
this is the one blood thinner you really need. Sometimes it is easier 
in a 10-minute meeting for a doctor to just write the prescription than 
to take the time to explain why the drug may not be needed or a generic 
version might be just as good for a lot less money.
  With billions in targeted spending, patients are bombarded with 
information but kept in the dark about one fact. Of all the things they 
mumble and chatter about at the end of these ads, the one thing they 
never want you to know is how much these drugs cost, the price.
  This name is probably familiar to you if you watch television at all, 
Rinvoq. With billions in targeted spending, patients are bombarded with 
information like the name of this drug. Take Rinvoq--which is 
manufactured by an Illinois-based company, AbbVie, for eczema and 
arthritis--it is now the most advertised drug on TV.
  AbbVie spent $315 million last year on TV ads for Rinvoq alone, but 
nowhere in the ad did they tell you how much it would cost. Want to 
guess what it costs for Rinvoq each and every month? The figure is 
$6,100. Think about that for a moment.
  Well, Senator Grassley and I think it is time for Big Pharma to end 
the secrecy about the real cost of these drugs. If they are advertising 
a drug, they should disclose the price upfront. It is a basic 
transparency measure for patients.
  We have introduced bipartisan legislation to require price disclosure 
in direct-to-consumer drug ads. Our plan is very simple. It has 
actually passed the Senate once before in 2018. In a minute, we are 
going to ask consent to pass it again.
  Here is why we think this transparency is so important. Earlier this 
year, a study found that more than two-thirds of drugs advertised on TV 
were considered ``low value.'' Those pricey wonder drugs with ads 
showing people golfing and having fun, they are often no better than 
the other, more affordable versions of the drugs. So don't you think it 
is worth knowing right away that Rinvoq is going to cost you $6,100 per 
month rather than waiting for that moment of truth at the pharmacy 
counter?
  One in five Americans do not take their medications as prescribed 
because they cannot afford it. They cut their pills in half or skip 
doses because they can't afford to take the medications as prescribed. 
Don't take my word for it. These advertisements often urge you to ``ask 
your doctor if it is right for you.'' So we did.
  The American Medical Association said:

       Direct-to-consumer advertising . . . inflates demand for 
     new and . . . expensive drugs, even when these drugs may not 
     be appropriate.

  Think about that--inflating demand for new and expensive drugs, even 
when they are not the best drug that the person should take.
  In 2018, Senator Grassley and I asked the GAO to look at the impact 
of these ads on television on Medicare's budget. The GAO found that 
between 2016 and 2018, these drugs accounted for 58 percent of Medicare 
spending on drugs. The drugs on television are more than half of the 
budget of Medicare's spending on drugs. These ads ballooned Medicare 
spending to $320 billion over 3 years. Humira topped the list with $500 
million in advertising in 2018, which contributed to 2.4 billion in 
Medicare costs.
  Let me show you this Humira chart so you get an idea of what we are 
talking about. I used this chart in 2017 when I first introduced this 
legislation and when the monthly cost of Humira was a mere $3,743 a 
month. Guess what has happened. The cost of Humira has now risen to 
$6,900 per month. Shouldn't AbbVie, the pharmaceutical company that 
makes Humira, disclose that real cost of the drug to you so you can use 
the information in making treatment decisions?
  Our bill is supported by AARP, which speaks for seniors across 
America; the American Medical Association, which speaks for doctors 
across America; the American Hospital Association and 88 percent of 
Americans support the concept of this bill. How can anyone object to 
it?
  Hold on tight. You will find out.
  In fact, President Trump supported it. After our bill passed the 
Senate but

[[Page S5625]]

was stopped by a single House Republican, President Trump issued rules 
to require these pricetags. Famous for his tweets, here is one that I 
want to advertise. Look what he said:

       Big announcement today. Drug companies have to come clean 
     about their prices in TV ads.

  This is from former President Trump.

       Historic transparency for American patients is here. If 
     drug companies are ashamed of those prices--lower them.

  I didn't always agree with President Trump, but he was sure right on 
in that statement. In fact, he supported our bill.
  Unsurprisingly, Big Pharma went to the courts to stop this 
legislation. They hate the idea of being open, honest, and transparent 
with the American people about the price of their drugs because they 
are afraid it is going to cut into their profits.
  Senator Grassley has been a great partner, and I want to ask him why 
he believes it is important to bring a dose of sunshine to these 
airways.
  Senator Grassley.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Iowa.
  Mr. GRASSLEY. Well, you just heard Senator Durbin say that this bill 
has passed the Senate once. It is still not law. We are back here 
again, and I hope my fellow Senators will see that Senator Durbin and I 
don't give up on this very important issue of trying to bring a dose of 
sunshine to the airwaves.
  Lowering the cost of prescription drugs is a top priority of mine and 
most of the Senators here. Without prescription medication, millions of 
Americans would not survive. As a nation, we are incredibly blessed to 
live in a country where investment and innovation unlock cures and 
treatments.
  But the escalation in price of prescription drugs, partly caused by 
this advertisement that goes on, are a consuming concern for millions 
of Americans, including Iowans who bring up this subject regularly at 
my county meetings.
  I have come to the floor of the Senate to address the sticker shock 
that greets consumers when they pick up their medicine at the pharmacy 
or open their medical bills after a hospital visit.
  In recent years, I have worked in a bipartisan manner to pass the 
CREATES Act, another bill called the Patient Right to Know Drug Prices 
Act, and another one, the Right Rebate Act into law. Each of these 
bills lowered prescription drug prices for patients and taxpayers by 
stopping anticompetitive practices, putting sunlight on medications for 
consumers at the pharmacy counter, and to keep drug companies in check.
  I was chairman of the Finance Committee when we hauled Big Pharma in 
for public hearings. As chairman, I also partnered with the senior 
Senator from Oregon on a groundbreaking 2-year investigation of insulin 
pricing. That investigation focuses not only on insulin manufacturers 
but also powerful pharmacy benefit managers--PBMs.

  I have worked to hold PBMs accountable by putting sunlight on their 
practices and working to ban their anti-competitive behavior that 
increases the cost to patients, rural pharmacies, and the taxpayers.
  In this Congress, I have gotten passed the Prescription Pricing for 
the People Act out of the Judiciary Committee and with bipartisan 
support. I hope the Senate doesn't miss the opportunity to hold the 
Federal Trade Commission accountable by requiring the 6(b) study of 
drug middlemen to be produced within 1 year instead of the typical 3 to 
5 years that it takes the FTC to do something.
  I have also worked with the junior Senator from Washington State to 
pass the PBM Transparency Act out of the Commerce Committee with 
bipartisan support. The FTC can play an important role in holding PBMs 
accountable in spread pricing and clawbacks across all health 
insurance.
  I have also contributed to and supported two Finance Committee 
markups this year that included six of my PBM accountability and 
transparency provisions. I am supporting the PBM provisions that have 
come out of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee to 
deal with this problem in the commercial insurance market.
  I hope the full Senate doesn't ignore the aggressive actions the four 
committees have taken this Congress to hold PBMs accountable. We must 
enact these bold committee-passed bills into law. If we are timid, we 
will be right back here a few years from now still fixing the problem.
  On top of PBM reforms and accountability, we need price transparency; 
so that brings me back to where Senator Durbin and I are right now. 
With that background, I now go to the purpose of this unanimous consent 
request and the Durbin-Grassley bill to bring important price 
information to prescription drug consumers. When patients complain 
about the high price of drugs, it is usually because they got their 
bill or found out how much it costs when they were at the pharmacy 
counter. They didn't have the ability to know the price before they 
bought it. Knowing what something costs before buying is common sense. 
So working with the Senator from Illinois to require the disclosure of 
medication list prices and advertisements makes common sense. President 
Trump pursued this through regulations, and the Senate even passed this 
measure--as Senator Durbin has already said--a few years ago.
  Each year, the pharmaceutical industry spends $6 billion in direct-
to-consumer drug advertising to fill the airways with ads, resulting in 
the average American seeing nine direct-to-consumer ads each day. 
Studies show that these activities steer patients to more expensive 
drugs even when a lower cost generic is available.
  The Government Accountability Office has found that prescription 
drugs advertised directly to consumers account for about 58 percent of 
Medicare spending on drugs. We ought to require the disclosure of this 
list price so that patients can make informed choices when inundated 
with drug commercials.
  Consumers and taxpayers would benefit from a dose of sunshine. By 
passing the Drug-Price Transparency for Consumers Act, we could begin 
the process of reforming the incentives in our prescription supply 
chain that reward high-cost drugs and their manufacturers, along with 
powerful middlemen.
  If you watch these commercials on television, you see a lot of 
information very quietly stated by the drug companies such as the side 
effects possible from using some of these drugs. You get all the 
information about what these drugs will accomplish, but you don't know 
what they cost. And that information ought to be available to the 
consumer.
  I thank Senator Durbin for giving me this opportunity to express my 
view on this piece of legislation.


                   Unanimous Consent Request--S. 1250

  Mr. DURBIN. I want to thank Senator Grassley. He is a proud 
Republican conservative. I am on the other side of the spectrum. I am a 
Democrat, proud of my progressive background.
  The two of us agree on this because it is common sense. If the drug 
companies are going to spend a fortune, billions of dollars--more than 
they spend on research for new drugs--advertising these drugs, we have 
a right to ask: What does it cost? Is that such a tough question to 
answer? Not if you are proud of your product. Not if you are proud of 
the price you are charging.
  But if you don't want the American public to know, you conceal the 
price and you send Senators to the floor to object.
  Now, both political parties spend an awful lot of money on political 
opinion surveys: What are Americans thinking? Do you know what shows up 
as a No. 1 concern year after year after year? The high cost of 
prescription drugs. That isn't getting any better.
  If you ask insurance companies: Why does the cost of health insurance 
keep going up? The No. 1 driver: the high cost of prescription drugs.
  If you ask: What are we going to do about Medicare's runaway costs? 
You have to do something about the high cost of prescription drugs.
  We are addressing that issue directly, but there are only four U.S. 
Senators on the floor of this Senate for this occasion, because we are 
not going to go to the measure and actually debate and consider it. It 
is going to be pushed aside for a procedural reason, and it will go 
back to an empty floor and an empty Chamber waiting for the next 
rollcall on a nomination.
  The American people have lost faith in this institution because we 
are afraid to tackle the real issues they

[[Page S5626]]

care about. This is one of those issues. It is a bipartisan matter, 
even approved by former President Trump, and I am sitting here talking 
about it. It is an indication to me that this an idea whose time has 
come.
  So, Mr. President, now at the appropriate time, as in legislative 
session, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Finance be 
discharged and the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. 
1250; that the Durbin amendment, which is at the desk, be considered 
and agreed to; that the bill, as amended, be considered read a third 
time and passed; and the motion to reconsider be considered made and 
laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  The Senator from Idaho.
  Mr. CRAPO. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, Americans 
deserve a transparent, affordable, and accessible prescription drug 
market. I agree with the concerns that each of my colleagues have 
raised here tonight. The current system fails to meet these needs, and 
I appreciate the intentions of my colleagues in attempting to shed 
light on the opaque pricing system that we now face. The problem is 
that the solution proposed in Senate bill 1250 is the wrong solution.

  If you listened carefully to the debate of my colleagues, their main 
objection was that the prescription drug companies are advertising and 
promoting and creating markets for their products. Their solution is to 
have them tell you what the price is, and what they are asking in their 
legislation is that the prescription drug manufacturers be required to 
state their list price.
  But we all know that the list price is not actually the correct 
price, and it will actually create confusion even further by forcing 
these pricing numbers to be put out into the marketplace through 
commercial advertising in a way that will then, I believe, undercut the 
major reforms that we are now undertaking in the Finance Committee to 
get the opaque system eliminated, to shed transparency onto the system, 
and help all consumers--including the United States Government--to 
understand what the real price is.
  Senator Grassley referenced three or four of his bills that we are 
working on in legislation right now in the Finance Committee that make 
major reforms to achieve this very price transparency that I am talking 
about. We had a markup on that legislation just recently, and it passed 
26 to 0 in the Finance Committee. It is ready to come to the floor. It 
will deal with many of these things that have already been discussed 
here, but it will not create a mandate that the wrong price be 
advertised on TV.
  Far too often, heavily concentrated health plans and PBMs force 
consumers to pay on that list price for prescription drugs, exposing 
seniors and working families to catastrophic costs. This bill, if 
enacted, would mandate the inclusion of these inflated figures in 
virtually all medication ads, reinforcing the notion of the list price 
as the best pricing opportunity for consumers.
  Respectfully, I see these requirements as moving our current system 
in the wrong direction by affirming deceptive price points that should 
never be the basis for a patient's cost or decisions.
  A drug's list price includes none of the discounts, none of the 
rebates or other price concessions found in the net price--the real 
price that is paid between the insurers and the PBMs and often then 
dealt with in pharmacies that are integrated with the insurance 
companies and the PBMs.
  A recent study showed that this gap between the list and the net 
price continues to inflate every year. In 2022, for instance, sticker 
prices for branded drugs, like those you have seen on charts here, grew 
by 3.7 percent; whereas, the net prices--the real price--which was not 
able to be figured out by the consumer accounting for rebates and 
discounts, remained unchanged.
  For medicines like insulin, the gap between the list and the net 
price can exceed 80 percent.
  Rather than broadcast and validate list prices, Congress should 
ensure that patients can share in the savings that are reflected in net 
price points, enabling both increased transparency and reduced out-of-
pocket costs at the pharmacy counter. The better act--the one I just 
referred to that is coming out of the Finance Committee with a 26 to 0 
vote--would take numerous steps toward achieving this goal with sizable 
cost-sharing reductions for seniors and no premium hikes. This proposal 
before us today, by contrast, would risk rubberstamping the centrality 
of sticker prices that no consumer should need to pay under a rational 
healthcare system.
  I share the concerns of scores of patient advocates and clinicians 
who agree with the need for more transparent pricing but disagree with 
the approach taken by this bill. As many of these groups have pointed 
out, list price disclosures can trigger confusion for consumers and 
deter healthy, proactive doctor-patient discussions.
  In fact, I would think that the drug manufacturers would love to have 
their list price--the one they want to start out asking for--be the one 
that is marketed.
  For Americans with solid prescription drug coverage, list prices 
provide no direct insight into what a patient will actually pay for a 
given drug. For the population more broadly and for policymakers, the 
mandates in this legislation do nothing to unearth critical information 
on the price concessions routinely withheld from consumers.
  Additionally, the bill's free speech concerns warrant further 
discussion and scrutiny, and its transformation of CMS into an 
advertising regulator raises legal questions of mission creep and 
Agency scope. I stand ready to work with my colleagues on both sides of 
the aisle to reduce patient costs and to move toward more transparency 
in the marketplace. That said, for numerous reasons, I cannot support 
this legislation and must object to its passage.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  The majority whip.
  Mr. DURBIN. The Senator from Idaho is my friend. We have worked 
together and served together, and I count him as my friend.
  I would just say that arguing that the list price is deceptive 
suggests that there is some third party, some Agency--perhaps in 
Government--that is creating this list price which we are asking to be 
on the ads that the pharmaceutical companies put on television.
  Do you know who creates the list price, Mr. President? The 
pharmaceutical companies themselves. We go directly to them. Give us 
the list price. You saw what happens over the span of a few years: The 
list price can double.
  Who is creating that doubling in the price? The pharmaceutical 
companies themselves. And, now, to argue that the price that they agree 
on, that they advertise, is one that is somehow deceptive to consumers 
just doesn't square.
  Have you ever heard of AARP, the American Association of Retired 
Persons? Most of us respect them because we have worked with them over 
the years. They speak for seniors. They have endorsed this bill. They 
don't think it is confusing or deceiving to tell consumers how much 
these drugs actually cost.
  Let's get down to reality. Whether it is from healthcare providers or 
pharmaceutical companies, many times the starting price is not the end 
price. But you never know where that is going to end up. It depends on 
the insurance company, for example, as to how much they are going to 
reimburse or whether there are any copays involved in it. So the one 
price we can stick with is the price created by the pharmaceutical 
companies themselves.

  Is it so confusing to consumers that you can't state a number? They 
get it. They know what the cost is. What they don't get and what they 
may not understand is all of that mumbling that goes on at the end of 
the ads: Don't take this drug if you are allergic to this drug. 
Incidentally, this drug may kill you.
  You listen to all that stuff, and you say: How in the world can they 
jam in all of that information in just a few seconds?
  Listing the price of a drug on TV is very simple, very straight, and 
very honest and transparent. Pharmaceutical companies should want to 
join in that effort.
  I thank Senator Grassley for coming to the floor to join in this 
effort today.

[[Page S5627]]

  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Carolina.


                                 Israel

  Mr. BUDD. Mr. President, a month and a half ago, Hamas terrorists 
committed a horrific act of barbarism. More than 1,200 innocent 
Israelis and 33 Americans were murdered in coldblooded acts of evil. It 
was the deadliest massacre of the Jewish people since the Holocaust and 
the deadliest foreign attack on Americans since 9/11.
  The Middle East is no stranger to violence, but the October 7 attack 
was particularly heinous: systematically hunting down and slaughtering 
young people at a concert; kidnapping elderly women out of their homes; 
beheading babies and burning them in ovens. The line between good and 
evil is as clear as it has ever been.
  For the remaining innocent hostages currently being illegally held in 
Gaza, the terrorists and the terror continue. While we are grateful for 
the release of some hostages over the weekend, our hearts remain with 
those still being held. This includes several Americans, including 
Keith Siegel, a native of my home State of North Carolina.
  So let me be as clear as I can: Hamas's continued holding of these 
innocent hostages is a violation of the law, and it represents a 
complete disrespect for the value of human life. Every single one of 
them must be released, and all levels of our government must remain 
united in working to get them home.
  In this clash between good and evil, the question that the United 
States should be asking is, Who can we count on to be on our side, and 
who stands on the side of the terrorists?
  This brings us to the state of Qatar. This is a nation that hosts 
Hamas's so-called political office, including Hamas leaders. From the 
safety of Doha, these terrorists gleefully watched and celebrated the 
attacks on October 7.
  Now, it is important to remember that Qatar is a major non-NATO ally 
of the United States, and it hosts U.S. military forces at Al Udeid Air 
Base--a strategically important location for our operations in the 
Middle East. Our two nations are friends, but sometimes friends must be 
honest with one another.
  You see, Qatar claims that they only host Hamas at the request of the 
U.S. Government and in coordination with Israel. There is some truth to 
this. Since October 7, Biden administration officials, such as CIA 
Director Burns, have beaten a path toward Doha, hoping that the Qatari 
Government's hosting of Hamas's senior leadership would provide a 
pathway toward ending the hostage crisis that Hamas initiated.
  I certainly agree that the U.S. Government, including both the 
administration and Congress, should be doing everything it can to bring 
the hostages home, including working through allies and partners, and, 
to be sure, Qatar's mediation with Hamas's leaders has helped free some 
hostages, but at what cost and to what end?
  In exchange for the release of innocent women and children who were 
kidnapped by Hamas, Israel was forced to exchange three Palestinian 
prisoners for every one innocent Israeli victim. Many, if not all, of 
these prisoners were arrested, charged, and sentenced for stabbings, 
attempted car bombings, and other heinous crimes as part of the 
campaign of terror. Some have already returned to the fight, donning 
the infamous Hamas headband and calling for the slaughter of more 
Jewish people.
  Every day that goes by without a resolution to the hostage crisis 
exposes Qatar's decision to host Hamas as both foolish and flawed.
  Earlier this month, I met with the Qatari Ambassador in my office. I 
told him in no uncertain terms that his government must pressure Hamas 
leaders living in Doha to immediately and unconditionally release all 
hostages.
  In the nearly 2 months after Hamas's horrific October 7 massacre, 
however, we need to recognize that Qatar's current approach, while 
yielding limited successes, is attempting to do something unacceptable, 
and that is to legitimize Hamas.
  Simply put, there is no future for Gaza or the Palestinians that 
includes Hamas. In the past 2 months, we have watched Hamas leaders use 
Qatar's hospitality to buy time--prolonging the war and the hostage 
crisis from the comfort of their luxury accommodations. While 
Palestinians suffer in Gaza because of the war that Hamas started, we 
have seen Hamas leaders push their genocidal agenda from Doha, 
including in multiple meetings with Iran's Foreign Minister and even in 
a visit to Moscow. If Qatar's leadership believes that any of this is 
consistent with what Washington has asked of them, it is not.
  So my message to the Qatari Government is very simple: Stop this now. 
You are hosting a brutal terrorist organization with American blood on 
its hands and who is holding American hostages. Your media 
organizations, starting with Al Jazeera, are regularly pushing out 
Hamas's propaganda that only further inflames tensions in the Middle 
East. Your leadership continues to speak out of both sides of its 
mouth--on one hand, committing to negotiate a resolution to the hostage 
crisis while, on the other, blaming Israel and absolving Hamas at every 
turn.

  We need to tell our friends in Doha loudly and clearly: Qatar is 
accepting a significant liability with its pro-Hamas policy.
  So we must end this myth that this policy is something that 
Washington wants and urge the Qatari Government to end this policy 
immediately.
  This is personal for Americans, and I have met with the families of 
hostages right here in Washington. I have heard their stories. I look 
at their photos every day on my desk. Every day that these families 
have to live with the pain and uncertainty is unacceptable. We must 
stand united and say: Not one more day.
  We must also start thinking about the day after because there will 
come a day when Israel will halt its military operations in Gaza 
because they will have achieved their stated goal of destroying Hamas. 
The remaining question will then be what to do with the Hamas leaders 
in Doha. My view is that they should be extradited to the United States 
so that these terrorists can face justice in a U.S. court of law for 
killing and kidnapping American citizens.
  I would hope that our friends in Qatar will not only be partners for 
peace and stability but will also be partners in ensuring that Hamas 
and its leaders are brought to justice for the despicable acts of 
terror they have committed.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Wyoming.


                               Bidenomics

  Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I rise today to talk about the failures 
of Bidenomics and to talk about the devastating impact Bidenomics has 
had on American families.
  Certainly, people in Wyoming are worried about the high cost of 
groceries. I hear it every time I am at the grocery store. People wince 
every time they fill up the gas tank. People have turned to either 
raiding their savings accounts or taking on increasing debt just to 
stay up to the current cost of living.
  President Biden has a message for all of these people who are wincing 
as they fill up, who are worried about the cost of groceries, and who 
are raiding their savings accounts. Joe Biden's message to them is just 
this. He says: Don't believe your lying eyes. That is what he believes.
  Tomorrow, the President will be in Colorado, and he is going to say 
some things that the American people just will not believe.
  He will say inflation is getting better. He will say Bidenomics is 
working. He will say that anyone who believes anything other than that 
is just a victim of misinformation. Well, that is not what the families 
of America are feeling. Americans know that they are subjected day in 
and day out to incredibly high prices, and they know that Joe Biden is 
the President of high prices.
  Before Thanksgiving, we got new inflation data, and prices went up 
again. Prices are now over 17 percent higher today than they were the 
day Joe Biden took office. In real terms, families are paying over $900 
each and every month more now for their cost of living than they were 
for the same things the day Joe Biden came into office. Americans are 
feeling it everywhere but specifically in the cost of gas, the cost of 
groceries, and the cost of everyday goods.

[[Page S5628]]

  As prices continue to go up, people are falling further and further 
behind when it comes to trying to pay their bills.
  Let's look at personal savings accounts. Do people have more money or 
less in their bank accounts now than they did before? Well, the answer 
is clearly they have less. Bidenomics is forcing three out of every 
five Americans to live paycheck to paycheck.
  Let's look at personal debt. Credit card debt now exceeds $1 
trillion. This is a record high in the history of the United States.
  Let's look at interest rates. Americans are maxing out their credit 
cards just to get by, and they are having to do it at higher interest 
rates just to pay their bills, so their debt number continues to go up.
  Under Bidenomics, Americans barely have enough money to pay their 
bills, let alone save for the future.
  President Biden equates Bidenomics with the American dream. So what 
do people think about the American dream? Well, for most families right 
now, that American dream is further and further out of reach than it 
has ever been before.
  According to a recent poll by NBC News, only one in five Americans 
today feels confident that their children's lives will be better than 
their lives were. That is an alltime low, and this is talking about the 
future and the loss of hope for a better future.
  President of the United States Joe Biden is disturbingly out of 
touch. According to NBC News, President Biden is baffled--baffled--that 
the American people are unhappy with the state of the economy. It is 
not baffling; it is the definition of ``Bidenomics.'' Americans are 
unhappy with the economy because they don't like paying 20 percent more 
for food, $1 more for a gallon of gas, or 8 percent mortgage rates. So 
why is the President of the United States so disconnected from the 
feelings of everyday Americans?
  Well, hard-working Americans deserve better leadership than what they 
have gotten out of this White House for the last 3 years. On issue 
after issue after issue, President Biden's actions have made matters 
worse. He has continued and increased wasteful Washington spending. The 
Democrats are as guilty as he is. He keeps attacking our affordable, 
available, reliable American energy, and my home State of Wyoming is 
America's energy breadbasket. He has pursued the costliest regulatory 
burden in American history. The regulations coming out of this 
administration are penalizing and punishing and are costing the 
American people a lot.
  Let there be no confusion that the policies of Joe Biden and the 
Democrats are why families have suffered the worst inflation in 40 
years. Democrats have done nothing to correct course or steer the 
economy in the right direction. Instead of working to cure inflation, 
Senate Democrats tell Americans to endure it. They are pushing policies 
that increase spending and choke off American energy--policies that 
keep driving prices and costs higher.
  Two weeks ago, President Biden met with the Chinese President, Xi. It 
was their first face-to-face meeting this year, 2023. Tensions with 
China continue to rise. Yet President Biden seems more eager to appease 
President Xi than to address China's serious threat to America's 
economy and safety. None of this lowers the cost of living. None of 
this makes our country stronger.
  Republicans have solutions to get the country back on track. Our 
solutions will lower the cost of living, will increase wages, will 
reduce Washington redtape, will unleash American energy, and will end 
our Nation's dependence on China.
  In this Congress alone, Republicans have put forward legislative 
solutions--workable, meaningful solutions--to restore a strong economy. 
We have introduced bills to reverse these political mandates and 
eliminate these punishing regulations. We have introduced bills to end 
America's dependence on China, reduce dependence for manufacturing, 
reduce dependence for medicines, and to promote our own manufacturing. 
We have introduced bills to increase America's production of oil, gas, 
coal, and critical minerals. That would immediately lower the cost of 
energy and groceries for families all across America.
  Under Joe Biden and the Democrats, America is heading in the wrong 
direction, and by overwhelming numbers, the American people will tell 
you that.
  Republicans have solutions to make a difference--to lower prices, to 
unleash American energy, to secure the southern border, and, in time, 
to get America back on track. The time to act is now.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Louisiana.


                                 Israel

  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, so far--so far--the United States is 
standing behind Israel, as it should, in Israel's fight against Hamas--
so far.
  Don't go wobbly on us, President Biden. Don't go wobbly on Israel.
  But some people in Washington seem confused as to why America backs 
Israel. I am seeing a lot of hand-wringing from folks who like to 
pretend that there is some kind of--they use this word a lot: 
``nuance''--that there is some kind of nuance we need to apply to the 
Hamas terrorist attacks of October 7 before we can condemn Hamas and 
hold its supporters accountable. President Obama has even suggested 
that somehow we are all complicit in the bloodshed.
  Some people promoting this idea of nuance, frankly, believe that 
Israel got what it deserves. Now, they don't say that, but that is what 
they believe. They believe that Israel got what it deserved. These 
folks who believe that also apparently believe in diversity, equity, 
inclusion, and the right to kill Jews.
  Thankfully, that is not most Americans. That is a lot of people here 
in Washington, DC.
  In Louisiana, however, my State, we understand that the debased 
people who slaughtered hundreds of young people at a peace concert are 
the bad guys. In Louisiana, we understand that the odious men who raped 
women, raped and sodomized women next to the bodies of their dead 
friends, don't deserve to be on this planet. We in Louisiana understand 
that the degenerates--the degenerates--who forced kidnapped Holocaust 
survivors to pose for photos--to pose for photos, for God's sake--next 
to their terrorist captors are just wrong.
  Nothing--nothing--that the Israeli Government has ever done or could 
do warranted throwing grenades at children hiding in a bomb shelter. 
Why are some people reluctant to admit that?
  You don't need to read a treatise on the Middle East to know that 
only monsters--monsters with black hearts--would put a baby in an oven 
and flip on the switch, as one first responder reported. That is not 
nuance; that is evil.
  The evil we saw unfold when Hamas butchered Israeli civilians is 
indefensible. It is indefensible. Those terrorists brutalized thousands 
of people, including dozens of our American friends and neighbors. 
Hearing the stories from the survivors and from the first responders--
it is nauseating. It is not nuance; it is evil.
  Yet the Hamas terrorists took joy, they yelped for joy, as they 
massacred civilians. One terrorist called his mom--called his mother--
to brag that he had ``killed 10 Jews with my own hands.'' Who would 
brag about something like that? Another Hamas official celebrated the 
violence and vowed to continue to wage attacks like this ``again and 
again and again'' until Israel no longer exists.
  No family in Israel will be able to sleep soundly at night until 
these terrorists are wiped off the face of the Earth.
  Israel has both the right and it has the responsibility to defend 
itself. I am proud that the United States of America is supporting 
Israel.
  Don't go wobbly on us, President Biden. Stand your ground. Don't go 
wobbly.
  I am proud that the United States is supporting Israel. The world 
will be a safer place for Israelis and Americans alike when Hamas 
ceases to exist.
  Hamas leaders told anyone who would listen--anyone who would listen--
they told us exactly what they intended to do and wanted to do and will 
continue to do. They told anyone who would listen that their goal is to 
kill as many Jewish people as possible, and that is still their goal.
  This wasn't a protest against Israel's Government; it was a massacre 
of Jewish people--the largest since the Holocaust.

[[Page S5629]]

  It is not surprising, then, that some who oppose intervention in Gaza 
have turned to attacking Jewish Americans.
  In New York City, those people cornered Jewish students in a library, 
forcing a librarian to offer to hide the students in an attic. At 
Cornell University, they threatened to shoot up the kosher dining hall. 
At my State's Tulane University, activists broke a student's nose 
because he opposed their anti-Israel demonstration.
  These protests didn't occur in New York City or Cornell or Tulane by 
accident; they targeted these areas because they are home to many 
Americans who happen to be Jewish. That is just a fact. New York is 
home to the largest Jewish population outside of Israel. Tulane, in my 
State, which was the first university in the South to welcome Jewish 
students, has a student body today that is roughly 40 percent Jewish. 
It was no accident.
  When confused activists twist themselves in knots trying to justify 
the torture and the rape and the killing of Jews in the Middle East, 
they are feeding the fires of anti-Semitism here at home as well. 
Unfortunately, we have seen that over the past few weeks.
  Let's not forget--it is Hamas who is using civilians as human 
shields. Hamas is the group also hoarding fuel and food as Palestinian 
civilians starve. Hamas is the group that dug up water pipes to turn 
them into rocket launchers.
  The truth is that the Palestine people, the people of Gaza, and the 
Israeli people all suffer because of Hamas, and any suggestion that 
Israel is culpable for this suffering plays into the hands of the 
terrorists.
  In Louisiana, we can see through the pseudo-intellectual hand-
wringing of Israel's critics. The truth is that Hamas brutalized 
Israeli citizens and then ran home to hide behind their women and 
children, using those women and children as human shields. They are the 
lowest kind of pond scum, the lowest kind of sadists imaginable.
  Over the past week, Hamas has released some hostages as part of a 
temporary cease-fire. I am happy for that, and the American people are 
happy for that. I and they hope that every hostage will be reunited 
with their family soon. We cannot forget, however--we should not 
forget, however--that Hamas vowed to continue attacking and kidnapping 
Israeli citizens again and again and again, and the only way to stop 
this cycle is to eliminate Hamas.
  I was out of the country, in another country, when Hamas attacked 
Israel, and I did not know what position President Biden would take. I 
didn't. He said: I am standing with Israel. I was so relieved.
  I know President Biden is under a lot of pressure from the loon wing 
of his party to abandon Israel, to demand a permanent cease-fire, to 
let Hamas go unpunished. But Hamas doesn't want a permanent cease-fire. 
Hamas had a permanent cease-fire on October 6, the day before they 
attacked Israeli civilians, and Hamas forfeited that cease-fire 
unilaterally.
  Here is what Hamas wants: Hamas wants to terrorize Israel until all 
of the Jewish people are dead. Hamas wants to terrorize Israel until 
all of the Jewish people are dead. Hamas wants to kill Jews. Hamas 
wants to kill Jews and drink their blood out of a boot.
  That is not nuance, President Obama; that is evil.
  President Biden needs to show the world--and, frankly, some members 
of his own party--that the United States of America and its good people 
will continue to stand with Israel until Hamas is in ruins, until Hamas 
is dead and we drink their blood out of a boot, until Hamas's genocidal 
agenda is abandoned.
  The world will be safer on that day, and it will certainly be safer 
because Hamas is not in it. By supporting Israel's efforts, Americans 
are helping to ensure that an attack like October 7 never happens 
again, and I think most fairminded Americans understand that.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Padilla). The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


                  Tribute to General Glen D. VanHerck

  Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I have had an opportunity over the 
years to work with some extraordinary leaders in our military, but one 
of the exceptional leaders whom I have recently come to know and work 
with is Gen. Glen D. VanHerck. He is the commander of North American 
Aerospace Defense Command--we know it as NORAD--and the U.S. Northern 
Command, or USNORTHCOM.
  General VanHerck is preparing to retire after more than 36 years of 
service to our Nation. As I mentioned, he is an individual whom I have 
come to know over the recent years, and I am proud to have been able to 
work with him in parts of my career. But I want to ensure that his 
distinguished service, which includes successful commands at every 
level--as director of the Joint Staff and a long list of U.S. Air Force 
assignments, flying the F-15, the F-35, and the B-2--is all reflected 
in the Congressional Record.
  General VanHerck has led by example and served selflessly throughout 
his career. He has always, always thought of the men and women under 
his command. He has thought of their families. He has thought of our 
future and the world that we all hope to leave for our grandchildren.
  I know that General VanHerck and his wife Marilyn are looking forward 
to his upcoming retirement, but I would hope that he will continue to 
serve in a different way, utilizing his extraordinary expertise and 
knowledge.
  From August 2020 to November 2023, General VanHerck oversaw the most 
robust and dynamic transformation in the history of NORAD and 
USNORTHCOM. This transformation enabled the commands to support the 
President of the United States and the Prime Minister of Canada while 
ensuring the defense of both homelands. His direction singlehandedly 
resulted in decisive national and international military operations 
that operationalized the commands and shifted from a reactive regional 
focus to a more proactive and globally integrated campaigning effort.
  General VanHerck has also been instrumental in leading a wide range 
of homeland defense operations, including defense efforts against 
Russian long-range aviation, North Korean intercontinental ballistic 
missiles, and Russian and Chinese out-of-area maritime operations. He 
established a clear strategic vision, focus, and priorities, inspiring 
consistent operational and organizational excellence throughout 
pandemic response operations; Operation Allies Welcome, which supported 
over 84,000 Afghan refugees; and the first kinetic engagements of 
hostile objects over North America in the whole history of NORAD and 
USNORTHCOM.
  General VanHerck also led a collaborative effort to focus on homeland 
defense, the top priority of the national defense strategy, by adopting 
a modernized and integrated deterrence approach toward strategic 
competitors. Prioritizing domain awareness, information dominance, 
decision superiority, and global integration empowered NORAD and 
USNORTHCOM to successfully campaign day to day in competition and will 
improve the commands' ability to deter in crisis and defeat, if 
necessary, in conflict.
  General VanHerck's strategic foresight and collaboration with members 
of the highest level of government, both here in the United States as 
well as in Canada, guided the commands to look beyond traditional 
approaches and customary missions and to examine evolving adversary 
actions, capabilities, and intent.
  Recognizing an urgent need to advance NORAD and USNORTHCOM's 
capabilities to outpace peer competitors and rogue nations, General 
VanHerck operationalized the commands, reaffirming their unyielding 
commitment to the highest priority mission of homeland defense.
  In response to our adversaries' efforts to operate and train in and 
through the Arctic region, NORAD executed the northernmost deployment 
of fighter and supporting aircraft from forward operating locations in 
Northern Canada to Pituffik Space Base in Greenland, formerly known as 
Thule.
  For its part, USNORTHCOM oversaw Arctic Edge--this is the largest 
exercise in Alaska--in 2020, deploying a joint and combined force of 
800 to advance communications, domain awareness, infrastructure, and 
sustainable

[[Page S5630]]

presence in coordinated air, land, maritime, and cyber domain field 
training.
  Additionally, for the first time ever, USNORTHCOM led a large-scale, 
multicombatant-command, homeland defense exercise from the USS Harry S. 
Truman Carrier Strike Group while the strike group was under 
USNORTHCOM's operational command. This allowed four combatant commands 
and NORAD to conduct homeland defense operations, exercise joint 
integration, conduct multinational operations, and strengthen 
interoperability in command and control.
  Throughout, General VanHerck clearly articulated warfighter 
requirements, including the need for ready, trained, and well-equipped 
forces that are capable of operating wherever they are needed. That, in 
turn, has led to significant advances in Arctic capabilities for the 
joint force, including infrastructure upgrades at northern bases, 
improvements to the Joint Pacific Alaska Range Complex, and facilities 
to support deployment of ground-based air defense systems at Eielson 
Air Force Base.
  These forward-looking efforts have also led to testing cold-weather 
technologies, developing deployable extreme-cold-weather expeditionary 
capabilities, evaluating satellite and terrestrial Arctic communication 
solutions aboard an icebreaker, and significantly increasing 
communications coverage in the region.
  Mr. President, as one who has focused on the Arctic for decades now, 
I can attest that General VanHerck gets the Arctic. He knows and 
understands the value and the significance of the Arctic. He gets it.
  Across decades and assignments, General VanHerck continuously 
demonstrated a clear strategic vision for defending the homeland, and 
his focus and priorities consistently yielded operational success and 
organizational excellence. His leadership and passion have defended the 
people of the United States and Canada, and, for that, we are grateful.
  So to General VanHerck, I thank you for your long and your 
distinguished career in the service of our Nation, and on the occasion 
of your well-deserved retirement, I wish you and your family nothing 
but the very best and congratulate you for a job well done.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

                          ____________________