[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 56 (Thursday, March 27, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1879-S1884]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
______
DISAPPROVING THE RULE SUBMITTED BY THE BUREAU OF CONSUMER FINANCIAL
PROTECTION RELATING TO ``OVERDRAFT LENDING: VERY LARGE FINANCIAL
INSTITUTIONS''--Resumed
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will
resume consideration of S.J. Res. 18, which the clerk will report.
The assistant bill clerk read as follows:
A joint resolution (S.J. Res. 18) disapproving the rule
submitted by the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection
relating to ``Overdraft Lending: Very Large Financial
Institutions''.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Iowa.
FBI
Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I am going to ask my colleagues, as a
reminder, that there are some tricks of the trade to get to your
political enemies or for other reasons like covering up embarrassing
situations or just to cover up wrongdoing.
I am going to use and compliment this administration. As one of its
first acts after taking office, the Trump administration and Attorney
General Bondi shut down the FBI's Foreign Influence Task Force. Despite
criticism, this is a positive step, given what the task force had been
twisted into by the Biden administration.
This task force was created in 2017 by then-Director Wray for very
good reasons. We were told it was designed to counteract maligned
foreign influence operations. However, this task force became infected
with politics. In other words, this task force came to be used as a
political weapon.
So let me explain how this became weaponized.
As an example, in 2020, during my and Senator Johnson's Biden family
investigation, that FBI task force was used in unnecessarily briefing
us two Senators, but that only happened after pressure from our
Democratic colleagues for it to happen. So pure and simple, this was a
setup.
The FBI wrongly did the bidding of the Democrats. The results of the
setup was this: The contents of that briefing were later leaked to the
media, even though the FBI promised Senator Johnson and this Senator
confidentiality. Those leaks were used to falsely link our Biden family
investigation to somehow advancing Russian disinformation. The FBI's
conduct undermined and frustrated our congressional investigation.
My and Senator Johnson's investigation made public Obama-Biden
administration records. That included Treasury information of financial
transactions between and among Biden family members. We also made
public authentic bank records showing deep financial connection between
and among the Biden family and China. Authentic records like these, as
we all know now, have nothing to do with Russian disinformation.
So I compliment President Trump and Attorney General Bondi for
getting rid of this Foreign Influence Task Force and its obstructive
conduct. That is how it ended up.
If the task force did any good, I only know what it did bad, and that
was setting Senator Johnson and I up because there was some
embarrassing information that they obviously did not want out.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Recognition of the Majority Leader
The majority leader is recognized.
[[Page S1880]]
Broadband Equity Access and Deployment Program
Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, broadband deployment has long been a
priority of mine. It is something that is important to my home State of
South Dakota where many rural communities still lack access to reliable
internet connection. And it is something I have worked extensively here
on in the Senate.
More than 3 years ago, Congress created the $42.5 billion BEAD
Program to bring broadband services to unserviced parts of the country
like those in my State.
It was the single largest Federal investment in broadband expansion
ever made, but to date, it has not connected a single household to the
internet. That is right, not $1 of this $42 billion program has gone to
connect even one household to the internet.
Now, you might ask why. Well, because the Biden administration chose
to add a host of conditions to the funding that made it unworkable for
many providers like those serving rural areas in my home State of South
Dakota.
They added union labor and climate requirements. And despite the law
itself banning rate regulation, the Biden administration tried to add
that too. The Biden administration took a program that promised to
advance an important bipartisan priority and overburdened it with rules
and mandates.
The administration added so many requirements that the program
couldn't fulfill its core function, which is connecting households to
the internet. So we are in a situation today where you have a $42
billion program that hasn't connected a single household to the
internet after, I might add, 3-plus years since its enactment.
Think about that, $42 billion 3 years ago authorized, not a single
dollar spent, not a single household connected. Why? Because the Biden
administration weighted it down with so much of their liberal wish list
agenda that the providers in this country are unable to even use it.
Well, now we have a new administration in the White House, and
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is committed to finally getting this
program off the ground and beginning to connect unserved Americans to
the internet. This morning, I am sending a letter to Secretary Lutnick
with several of my colleagues in the Commerce Committee urging his
Department to remove the Biden administration's extraneous requirements
that are preventing this program from doing what it was designed to do.
We are asking Secretary Lutnick to look at the restrictive labor
requirements in the program that disadvantage rural communities and
States with few union workers, right-to-work States like mine in South
Dakota.
We are urging the Commerce Department to remove provisions that favor
government-owned networks over private investments and guidelines that
prioritize certain technologies over others, which contradict, again,
Congress's direction for the program to be technology-neutral.
And we are urging the elimination of climate change mandates and rate
regulation that create unnecessary barriers that slow deployment and
increase costs.
These regulations undermine the very purpose of the BEAD Program, and
by reviewing and ultimately eliminating these unnecessary requirements,
we can ensure that this funding is finally deployed to expand broadband
access to unserved areas quickly and efficiently.
I appreciate that President Trump and Secretary Lutnick are both
focused on ensuring that this program lives up to its goal, and I look
forward to continuing to work with them to eliminate the redtape that
has undermined its effectiveness and meant that not a single dollar
spent or single household connected in 3-plus years since its
enactment. That, frankly, is staggering.
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration, or
NTIA, which is responsible for administering the BEAD Program, will
need to be a partner in that effort.
This afternoon, the Commerce Committee is holding a hearing with
Arielle Roth, a staffer for the Commerce Committee and President
Trump's nominee to lead the NTIA.
Ms. Roth is very familiar with the burdens that have weighed down the
BEAD Program, and I am looking forward to working with them to remove
these barriers to broadband deployment after she is confirmed.
Many parts of our country have waited a long time for broadband
deployment, and the unnecessary and extraneous rules the Biden
administration imposed on the BEAD Program have only prolonged that
wait.
It is time--it is high time--to remove these barriers and start
getting households connected to the internet.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Recognition of the Minority Leader
The minority leader is recognized.
Trump Administration
Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, so first on tariffs, yesterday, President
Trump announced a new round of tariffs of 25 percent on all auto
imports into the United States, but we have no details, no timeline, no
plan, only more chaos. Donald Trump's trade war has accomplished only
one thing to date: chaos.
In the 66 days since Donald Trump has become President, he has had 66
different positions on this issue.
One day he says yes to tariffs; the next day he says no; then the day
after he says yes again. Can't make up his mind which country should
have them, which country shouldn't, how much, what products.
Donald Trump's tariffs--make no mistake about it, I say to the
American people. Make no mistake about it. Donald Trump's tariffs are a
national sales tax on American families. Tariffs without a plan will
only raise prices without anything to show for it. It is like he is
playing Russian roulette with the economy. Whatever seems to pop in his
mind one day, he talks about; and the next day it is something else.
Chaos. His trade war is sending stock markets crashing, hurting
people's retirement, increasing the risk of a recession. A lot of the
banks have increased their risk assessments of a recession because of
Trump's actions. Consumer confidence is cratering. Yesterday, we
learned people's outlook for the economy has hit a 12-year low, even
lower than it was during the height of inflation--a 12-year low.
And how can anyone feel confident about the economy when Elon Musk is
taking a chain saw to Social Security? How can anyone feel confident
about the economy when Donald Trump is imposing tariffs on people?
The average credit card debt, meanwhile, surpasses $10,000 for the
first time since 2009. With such chaos in the economy, with such chaos
in what is going on with tariffs, it is no wonder that the American
consumer doesn't have confidence in Donald Trump and the way he is
handling the economy. And as a result, the American consumer is being
more cautious about spending, keeping a little more money in their
pocket just in case something happens. And now it looks like a lot of
bad things will.
So the economic alarm bells are ringing. Donald Trump is pouring fuel
into the fire by launching America into a trade war with no plan
whatsoever. And making things even worse, he is cutting both Social
Security and the Agency that helps give Medicaid and Medicare to
people.
This morning, the Wall Street Journal reported that Donald Trump and
Secretary Kennedy are planning to cut 10,000 jobs--10,000 jobs--at HHS.
Let's be very clear what these layoffs represent: an assault on
Medicare, an assault on Medicaid, an assault on families and consumers
from one corner of the country to the next. When you fire people who
provide Medicare and Medicaid, that is the same as a benefit cut. When
you fire people who prevent the spread of diseases like measles,
America will get sicker, schools will get sicker, people, families,
will suffer.
Mass layoffs to Medicare workers will not make things more efficient.
Mass layoffs to Medicaid workers will not make things more efficient.
It is more sabotage, just like the attacks on Social Security. Donald
Trump and
[[Page S1881]]
Secretary Kennedy should reverse this attack on Medicare and Medicaid
immediately.
And where are Republican colleagues? They say they want to protect
Medicare. Some of them are worried about cutting Medicaid. We heard
them say it. Well, when you cut 10,000 employees from HHS, you are
cutting Medicare and Medicaid in terms of the benefits people will
receive--similar to what they are doing on Social Security. They don't
say outright they are going to eliminate it, but they try to strangle
it. They try to strangle it, and the American people suffer.
So that happened on Social Security yesterday. Yesterday, after a
huge wave of public outrage, the Social Security Administration
temporarily delayed its plan to cut phone services for seniors and
people with disabilities. But this is only a 2-week delay. This is not
stopping it; it is just delaying it because of the outrage, hoping it
will subside. But it won't. Americans from one end of the country to
the other want to keep their Social Security. The outrage will not stop
because they know that Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and DOGE want to cut or
even eliminate, as Musk said, Social Security. What Donald Trump and
DOGE are doing to Social Security is strangulation. They are taking a
telephone wire and wrapping it around the neck of Social Security.
But, sadly, it is only the tip of the iceberg of the attack on Social
Security. Up to 60 percent of all regional offices are shutting down.
Dozens of field offices will be closed. Wait times will explode.
Disability claims will face months of delay, and people will be in
danger of losing the benefits they so desperately need.
But the administration doesn't care. Listen to this. This is just
incredible. It is hard to fathom who is running the show in the Trump
administration. Howard Lutnick, the Commerce Secretary, thinks that if
seniors lose their benefits for a month, they won't mind. He said his
mother-in-law wouldn't.
Spoken like a true billionaire. Once again, I remind Mr. Lutnick not
everyone has a billionaire son-in-law, and so many people depend on
that monthly check for vital things like food and medicine and rent.
And what have Senate Republicans done while Donald Trump and DOGE
take a chain saw to Social Security? Absolutely nothing. They are quiet
as a church mouse. Instead, Senate Republicans are moving forward with
the President's nominee to lead Social Security, who is a self-
proclaimed DOGE person.
Let me tell my Republican colleagues once again: A vote to confirm
Frank Bisignano is a vote to cut Social Security. Senate Republicans
should think very carefully about their vote, because once the damage
is done to Social Security, there is no going back.
Now, on the budget, I want to reiterate something I have said about
Republican plans to cut taxes for billionaires while slashing Medicaid
for millions of people. It sounds as if Senate Republicans will soon go
to the parliamentarian to push their so-called current policy baseline
gimmick to hide the true cost of their billionaire tax giveaways. This
is budgetary hocus-pocus. Even Chip Roy called it fairy dust.
Republicans can try to use whatever baseline, whatever fake math they
want, but the American people and the markets can see right through it.
Don't be fooled by this hocus-pocus, this current baseline hocus-pocus.
It will increase the deficit by $37 trillion over 30 years, and the
American people will pay the price in higher interest rates, and
American standing in the world will go down.
The Atlantic Report
Mr. President, finally, on Mr. Hegseth and what happened this week.
Yesterday, I said Pete Hegseth should be fired from his position as
Secretary of Defense. In the short time that Secretary Hegseth has been
on the job, he has already shown--no surprise to us; we said this at
the hearing--that he lacks the judgment and character to lead America's
national defense. What we learned yesterday regarding the information
he shared on Signal is shocking. He sent very specific details about
military plans over unsecured text messages.
Yesterday's revelations were alarming, but they were not enough. We
need answers--more answers--because more damage may have been done than
the public and all of us know. That is why my colleagues and I are
calling on the Trump administration to release the full, unredacted
text conversation from this Signal chat, including everything
communicated after the journalist prudently removed himself.
We need to know if anyone, if any senior national security official,
was using his or her personal devices. Ms. Gabbard's silence on this
issue when asked repeatedly in committee was very, very troubling.
And we need to know if there have been other sensitive conversations
like this on unsecured channels. Senate Democrats across committees of
jurisdiction are taking action. It is encouraging that both Ranking
Member Reed and Chairman Wicker are calling for a DOD IG investigation.
Now for the past day, the Trump administration has tied itself into
knots about semantics. They are spending all their energy on what
counts as classified or not, what counts as a war plan, an attack plan,
and on and on and on. But that is utter nonsense. The plain fact is
that if the Russians or Iranians or the Houthis had somehow known about
these texts, if someone more nefarious than Mr. Goldberg had been added
to the text chain, our troops would have been in danger. The mission
would have been compromised.
And once he got caught, did Secretary Hegseth take responsibility for
his shocking lack of judgment--which is what he should have done? Any
upstanding Secretary of Defense would have done that. Did he exhibit
the kind of leadership Americans expect from the man who may deploy our
troops into battle, from the man who may send our family members, our
friends, our neighbors into harm's way? Did he accept that
responsibility? Nope, he didn't. Instead of accepting responsibility,
Secretary Hegseth attacked the journalist--amazing, amazing; it is like
an Alice in Wonderland world--and called him deceitful. He pointed
fingers. He blamed the liberal media, moaned about hoaxes.
Mr. Hegseth, this is not a hoax. It is very real and very serious.
You should not be in your job.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Sheehy). Without objection, it is so
ordered.
Energy
Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, let me start with a simple truth,
something we both know. It is good to produce more American energy--
energy that is available, affordable, and reliable. It is good for our
workers, good for our country, good for our safety, and good for our
Nation's security.
We in America are an energy superpower, and under President Trump and
Republicans, we are finally beginning to act like it. Last week,
President Trump announced a dramatic change. America is going to
produce more critical minerals, in addition to more energy, unlike what
we had been doing for years in the last administration by locking away
our critical minerals. They need to be developed. Interior Secretary
Doug Burgum is spearheading this change. It is part of the bold agenda
of ``mine, baby, mine.'' It is exactly what America needs to do to get
back on track.
There is a growing demand for critical minerals, and America must
boost our mining workforce in order to meet it. That is why, this week,
I have introduced bipartisan legislation to support our mining schools.
The students we recruit, the students we train, the students we
empower, the talent that we unlock will fuel America's energy dominance
for generations to come. We need to fuel our success by fueling theirs.
A vital piece of the Trump energy dominance strategy is unleashing
clean coal. President Trump wants America to produce more coal. I
agree. This is good for Wyoming, and it is good for America. Wyoming is
America's energy breadbasket. We have world-class coal, and Wyoming's
Powder River Basin produces the cleanest burning coal in
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the world. Now, the climate alarmists are going to say that coal is the
energy of the past. They are misinformed. Clean coal is the energy of
the future. Tomorrow's technologies are going to need more affordable,
reliable, available energy, not less.
America is making bold innovations in new technology. Only an ``all
of the above'' energy approach is going to sustain it. Coal is one of
the most affordable, reliable, and abundant sources of energy on the
entire planet. In America today, it is much cleaner than ever before.
With it, we can power our data centers. We can win the energy race. We
can win the artificial intelligence race. Clearly, this is a focus
against communist China, and Wyoming energy producers and Wyoming
energy workers are going to lead the charge to victory. American energy
dominance is the source of our Nation's strength. It keeps America and
our allies safe and secure now and into the future.
We learned from Europe an important lesson: Dependency is deadly.
Europe banned fracking because climate zealots in Russia told them to.
Europe shut down nuclear powerplants because the extremists told them
to. Unreliable and unaffordable energy sources couldn't keep up with
the demand for energy. As a result, you know what happened. Europe,
last year, spent $23 billion on Russian oil and gas, and $23 billion is
actually more money than Europe sent in aid to Ukraine. If this doesn't
prove that energy dependence is self-defeating, nothing else will.
Under the Trump administration, things are now different. America
finally has an ``all of the above'' energy strategy. On day one,
President Trump declared a national energy emergency. President Trump
slammed the brakes on Joe Biden's electric vehicle mandate. I have
legislation that pulls the plug on the Democrats' electric vehicle
subsidies. President Trump withdrew from the disastrous Paris climate
deal. President Trump lifted the self-destructive Biden ban on
liquefied natural gas exports. President Trump created the National
Energy Dominance Council.
The President and Republicans are serious about building the
infrastructure we need to power our Nation. President Trump supports
new natural gas pipelines and more powerplants. This is a 180-degree
turn from the previous administration. For 4 years, the previous
administration went on a regulatory rampage. Heavy-handed Washington
bureaucrats attacked American energy producers and American energy
workers, including those in my home State of Wyoming, and the costs
were catastrophic.
Let me ask a few rhetorical questions:
Does anyone believe that America was better off when energy prices
rose 31 percent? Of course not.
Does anyone believe that we were better off begging dictators to
power our Nation? Of course not.
Were Americans more prosperous? No, we were not.
The truth is, American energy is not the enemy of the economy.
American energy is the engine of the economy. American energy is a God-
given blessing, and we finally have an administration that treats it
that way.
So I applaud Secretary Burgum, Secretary Wright, and Administrator
Zeldin. They are America's energy all-stars. Their bold actions are
restoring American energy dominance.
Republicans in Congress are working aggressively on legislation that
will fully unleash American energy, and here is why: When we produce
more affordable, reliable American energy, our Nation is better off.
When we empower energy producers and energy workers, America is better
off. America has the energy; we have the workers; and we have the
capacity to produce energy responsibly. Today, America has a Senate
majority that is committed to making America energy dominant.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Democratic whip.
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I be
permitted to speak for 10 minutes and that Senator Merkley be permitted
to speak for up to 15 minutes prior to the scheduled vote.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Social Security
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, the State of the Union Address was quite a
performance by President Trump.
Maybe one of the highlights of humor was when he focused on the
Social Security Administration. Remember what he told us? There were
4.7 million ``Social Security members''--that is the term he used--4.7
million Social Security members who were between 100 and 109 years old.
He went on to say that 1.3 million Social Security members were between
the ages of 150 and 159 and that 130,000 were over the age of 160.
These were the President's words. He goes on to talk about 1,039
between the ages of 220 and 229--even one who is a 360-year-old person.
The place was rocking with laughter to think that a Federal Agency as
important as Social Security could be defrauded by people claiming to
be this age and still receiving checks--what a great joke, what a
misrepresentation of the truth. What the President said was not true.
It was misleading. It was overblown. It was inaccurate. In fact, it was
just plain wrong.
He delivered this address to a joint session of Congress to the
American people--the one time each year when we are focused on the
President's words--and he made these deliberate misrepresentations of
the Social Security Administration.
He claimed that the unelected billionaire, Elon Musk, and his DOGE
boys had identified ``shocking levels of incompetence and probable
fraud within Social Security.'' Mr. Musk then claimed at a later point
that tens of millions of dead people over the age of 100 were still
receiving Social Security benefits.
Outrageous. Outrageous and untrue.
In his speech, President Trump claimed there was a 360-year-old
somehow receiving Social Security benefits as a member. I am not sure
what that means. Obviously, it raised eyebrows. How could somebody born
in the 1600s be receiving Social Security benefits? It turned out it
wasn't true. What the President said was misleading and untrue, not
truthful.
The Social Security Administration has databases that include the
information of millions of Americans. Some of those records lack a
recorded date of death, but of course, that certainly doesn't mean that
the people are still alive, and it certainly doesn't mean, further,
that they are receiving any Social Security benefits.
The Washington Post obtained internal records which showed the Social
Security Administration looked into this very issue last month. What
did they find? Only 1,300 Americans over the age of 100 were still
receiving benefits. That is far short of the ``shocking levels'' the
President said ``of incompetence and probable fraud.''
The truth is, you would be hard-pressed to find another Agency that
is more closely scrutinized than Social Security. It routinely audits
benefit payments to make sure they are accurate. The Office of
Inspector General conducted a report in 2024 which found that less than
1 percent of Social Security payments were improper--less than 1
percent--but President Trump's statement made it seem like Social
Security is riddled with fraud and incompetence. Payments to a 360-
year-old individual? Outrageous. Untrue.
You wonder why he said these things to the American people in his
State of the Union Address. I believe President Trump and Mr. Musk are
intentionally misrepresenting the challenges Social Security faces as
the rationale to implement their harmful policies. The Trump
administration's disdain for Social Security is clear.
Elon Musk, the President's unelected buddy, describes Social Security
as the ``biggest Ponzi scheme of all time,'' said Mr. Musk, and shared
a post on Twitter that called those who benefit from Federal programs--
get ready--the ``parasite class.'' The ``parasite class'' are Social
Security recipients.
Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick called Americans who were
calling in to report missing Social Security benefits ``fraudsters.''
This same billionaire, Mr. Lutnick, bragged that his mother-in-law
wouldn't care if she didn't receive a monthly check from Social
Security. Well, perhaps, if your son-in-law is a billionaire, you don't
care, but most people don't live that kind of life.
These comments are not only wrong and misleading, they are
sickening--sickening. These people work their
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whole lives paying into Social Security with the promise that it will
take care of them when they decide to retire, and now the question is
being raised as to whether they were parasites throughout their lives.
First, this disdain for Social Security and the Americans who rely on
it can be found in the policies that are being pushed by the
administration. The President announced that 7,000 workers at Social
Security will be terminated--7,000. That is 12 percent of the total
Social Security workforce at a time when the Social Security
Administration is facing a 50-year staffing low.
Second, the President announced that Social Security will limit 1-800
phone services. It already takes a half an hour to reach a
representative at Social Security. Now there are reports it is taking
several hours to get a call picked up if you have a question. Nearly
9,000 people become eligible for Social Security benefits every single
day. They should not have to wait hours to speak with someone if they
have a legitimate question.
Third, President Trump announced the closure of Social Security
offices across America, including some in my State of Illinois. I ran
into an individual in the coffee shop in Springfield a few weeks ago.
He is retired now.
He said: Senator, it was smarter for me to get in the car and drive
40 minutes each way to Litchfield, IL, to the Social Security office
rather than to wait in line for hours at the Springfield office.
Each one of the actions taken by the Trump administration has made it
more difficult for seniors and people with disabilities to access their
benefits. Americans are worried, some are even terrified, questioning
whether or not they will continue to have access to earned benefits and
essential services. How do I know? Many have written to me.
Carolyn from Chicago recently told me she tried to call Social
Security to make an appointment. She was told the wait time on the
phone was 120 minutes. She waited the 2 hours but still didn't get to
speak to someone. She hung up and tried again later and was told again
it was another 120-minute wait. Imagine waiting on hold for 2 hours for
your phone call not to be picked up. Carolyn told me the level of
service from Social Security right now is unacceptable. She is kind,
and she is right. Americans depend on Social Security and its workers
to pick up the phone, answer their questions, and help them secure
their benefits.
Social Security is a bedrock of American society. It is a promise.
Almost all of us contribute to it throughout our lives and expect it
will be there when we need it, but as usual, President Trump is making
the problem even worse.
Since 2010, Social Security's customer service budget has been
reduced by 20 percent when counting for inflation. Staff has fallen by
11 percent while 13 million additional beneficiaries have started to
receive benefits. For too long, we have asked the Social Security
Administration to do more with less, and now President Trump is taking
that to an extreme, so I am calling on him to abandon these plans.
If you actually want to make Social Security more efficient, it needs
more well-trained people, more resources, more funding. We do not need
the recent college graduates in the so-called Department of Government
Efficiency to take Social Security for a joyride while their
grandparents are in the back, holding on for dear life. We certainly
don't need the sage advice of billionaires who cannot begin to
understand what it means to live month to month while waiting for a
Social Security check as so many Americans do.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oregon.
National Debt
Mr. MERKLEY. Mr. President and colleagues, back in 1974, the Senate
and the House were very agitated over the increases in the national
annual deficit that was adding considerably to the national debt. They
said we needed to do something about this. The levels that they were
concerned about at that time seem so small, to date. The debt-to-GDP
ratio was 23 percent. Now we are over 100 percent. The annual deficit
was about $6 billion. Now we are at about $2 trillion of annual
deficit. The total debt was only a third of a trillion rather than,
now, $37 trillion.
But those increases were seen as such a threat to the future of our
Nation that Democrats and Republicans together, House Members and the
Senate together, said: We have to get this under control. So they
created a bill--the 1974 Budget and Impoundment Control Act--to say: We
can't let this go forward.
Here is what it did. First of all, it created a fast-track for a
special bill called a reconciliation bill that would reduce the deficit
and not add more to the debt.
Second of all, it says that we have to have integrity in numbers.
When Republicans are in charge, they tend to increase the deficits and
then want to use smoke screens in order to say: We are not really doing
that. When the Democrats are in charge, the same thing. They both
wanted to undertake strategies that increase the deficit but pretend
they were being fiscally responsible.
So they said: We must have integrity on the numbers, so we are going
to create a new organization. The Congressional Budget Office will be
an independent assessor of the cost of any change in law related to
programs or related to tax revenue. Honesty and integrity will be the
foundation for the debate that takes place in this Chamber. Honesty and
integrity will be the foundation for the debate that takes place in the
House Chamber down the hall. Honesty and integrity in numbers will be
the foundation for the American people who are following the decision
making that is made by their representatives in the House and Senate.
So two pillars: a fast-track for reducing deficits--a reconciliation
bill; and integrity in numbers by using the Congressional Budget
Office--creating it and using their numbers to have honesty in the
debate on policy and revenue plans.
Well, that first pillar was destroyed in 1996 by a nuclear option
done by the Republican majority, who said: Do you know what, we are
going to reinterpret the law. So instead of just using this fast-track
to reduce the deficit, we are going to also use it for tax policy that
will increase the deficit.
Today, the second pillar of integrity in the numbers is under attack
by the Republican majority. They have lost their minds when it comes to
fiscal responsibility. They destroyed first, a couple of decades ago,
the fast-track dedicated only to deficit reduction, and now they want
to destroy the integrity in the accounting for what a tax policy costs
or what a program policy costs--all for a simple purpose, and that is,
they have a plan. That plan is to put forward a proposal that would
cost an additional amount to the debt of $37 trillion over the next 30
years. But they want to tell this Chamber that that $37 trillion
addition to the debt is actually a zero-dollar addition. They want to
tell the American people that that $37 trillion addition to the
national debt that is in their plan is actually a zero-dollar addition.
I can tell you that a $37 trillion deception--that is not a minor
fraud; that is a major fraud. In the process, they are destroying the
integrity not just for this budget cycle but for every budget cycle to
come.
The gimmick they are putting forward to accomplish this diabolical
plot is called current policy baseline. Why do they want to pursue this
Republican plan? Because they want to give tax breaks to the wealthiest
Americans and do so not only for a 10-year period but for permanent tax
breaks into the future. It is not just magic math. I mean, that is
almost too nice of a name to give to it. It is devastating fraud.
Last week, the Congressional Budget Office released a report
requested by a Republican Congressman, David Schweikert. He had asked
them: How much will this fraud cost, this Republican plan cost? The CBO
laid it out--$37 trillion of additional debt over the next 30 years.
It so happens that right now, our current national debt is just shy
of $37 trillion. They want to say the debt that has been run up in the
last 250 years--next year, we will be celebrating our 250th year as a
nation. The debt that has been run up over this first 250 years--we are
going to add that additional amount with one bill, with one vote, in
this budget cycle. This is fraud on an unparalleled scale.
[[Page S1884]]
Schweikert then said:
Anyone that says current policy baseline [is the right way
to go] is engaging in intellectual and economic fraud . . .
it's intellectually lazy. My basic mission in life is just to
try to create some honest math.
Honest math is what Democrats and Republicans together said they were
pursuing in 1974--House and Senate together--honest math. Honest math
is on the verge of destruction.
Chip Roy of Texas said this plan--referring to the plan--``This is
fairy dust, and they're full of crap. And I'm gonna call them out on
it.''
Anyone who cares about growing deficits and growing debt should call
them out on it--$37 trillion in this Republican plan of additional debt
and then adopting a gimmick to tell the American people and this
Chamber it costs zero.
In the free market, businesses need transparency--transparency so
investors can decide if things are going in the right direction, so the
board of directors of a company can change direction. They know that
they have to have integrity in their numbers. They know that it is
important for their board of directors. They also know that it is
important for those who buy their stock, the investors. Without honest
numbers, they can't make good decisions about where they are going.
The same is true for us in government. If we are not willing to use
honest numbers, we can't make good decisions about how we go forward.
It is that important. Integrity and honesty in our numbers are that
important.
That is the debate we need to have, an honest examination. Are you
for or against a plan that will add $37 trillion to the debt on top of
what additions might otherwise happen under current law? That is the
question we will be facing.
This idea of integrity in the numbers existed before the 1974 Budget
Control Act, but it was so important to have outside numbers that
people could rely on--independent numbers, bipartisan numbers or
nonpartisan numbers--that they created a whole Agency, the
Congressional Budget Office, to produce those numbers. It is that
essential, so you don't have some think tank giving you pretend numbers
from the right or some other think tank giving you pretend numbers from
the left. It is that important.
You know, this plan, this Republican plan, is like a landlord saying:
Don't worry. Your rent is free over the next 30 years because we are
not making any changes to your tenant contract.
What a farce because you know you have to keep paying that rent every
single month.
So there is $37 trillion of additional debt being hidden through a
gimmick.
I pointed out this enormous addition to the debt, but what is the
purpose? It is to give tax giveaways to the richest Americans. Sixty
percent of the additional debt goes to the richest 10 percent in
America. Half of that additional debt, $37 trillion, half of it goes to
the richest 5 percent of Americans. So they are not just running up $37
trillion in additional debt; they are running up $37 trillion in
additional debt to give the vast majority to the already richest
Americans. This is a straightforward, simple provision in which
families lose and billionaires win.
They are going to attack the spending on Medicaid. That is health
insurance that a good third of America, approximately, relies on, that
veterans rely on, programs that those with disabilities rely on. They
are going to attack that program for tax giveaways to the richest
Americans. They are going to steal from Social Security and make it
dysfunctional--already, the lines are starting to pile up, and the
phones aren't answered--in order to give tax breaks to the richest
Americans. They are going to betray working families with a tax on
healthcare, housing, and education. Why? To give massive tax breaks to
the richest Americans.
The situation is clear: Families lose, and billionaires win.
Democrats are paying attention. My colleagues the Republicans need to
pay attention. They said when they were running that they are for
fiscal responsibility, that they are for decreasing the deficit, but,
in fact, their plan increases the deficits massively--an additional $4
trillion over the next 2 years and an additional $37 trillion in debt
over the next 30 years--to give tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans
while slashing programs that help ordinary working families to thrive.
This is a vast betrayal of Trump's campaign plan. He campaigned on
being a champion for families. But that was a campaign. Now he is in
office, and the real plan? Families lose; billionaires win.
We must reject this gimmick that destroys the integrity of the
budgeting process. One pillar--a filibuster-free pathway for deficit
reduction--was destroyed by my Republican colleagues in 1996. The
second pillar--integrity in numbers using an outside, independent CBO
to give us honest numbers to work with here and for the American
people--is going to be destroyed under current policy baseline being
proposed right now.
Be awake, pay attention, and say hell no to this massive fraud on the
American people.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Dakota.
Waiving Quorum Call
Mr. HOEVEN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to waive the
mandatory quorum call with respect to the Lawrence nomination.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The clerk will read the title of the joint resolution for the third
time.
The joint resolution was ordered to be engrossed for a third reading
and was read the third time.
Vote on S.J. Res. 18
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The joint resolution having been read the
third time, the question is, Shall the joint resolution pass?
Mr. BARRASSO. I ask for the yeas and nays.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
There appears to be a sufficient second.
The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk called the roll.
The result was announced--yeas 52, nays 48, as follows:
[Rollcall Vote No. 153 Leg.]
YEAS--52
Banks
Barrasso
Blackburn
Boozman
Britt
Budd
Capito
Cassidy
Collins
Cornyn
Cotton
Cramer
Crapo
Cruz
Curtis
Daines
Ernst
Fischer
Graham
Grassley
Hagerty
Hoeven
Husted
Hyde-Smith
Johnson
Justice
Kennedy
Lankford
Lee
Lummis
Marshall
McConnell
McCormick
Moody
Moran
Moreno
Mullin
Murkowski
Paul
Ricketts
Risch
Rounds
Schmitt
Scott (FL)
Scott (SC)
Sheehy
Sullivan
Thune
Tillis
Tuberville
Wicker
Young
NAYS--48
Alsobrooks
Baldwin
Bennet
Blumenthal
Blunt Rochester
Booker
Cantwell
Coons
Cortez Masto
Duckworth
Durbin
Fetterman
Gallego
Gillibrand
Hassan
Hawley
Heinrich
Hickenlooper
Hirono
Kaine
Kelly
Kim
King
Klobuchar
Lujan
Markey
Merkley
Murphy
Murray
Ossoff
Padilla
Peters
Reed
Rosen
Sanders
Schatz
Schiff
Schumer
Shaheen
Slotkin
Smith
Van Hollen
Warner
Warnock
Warren
Welch
Whitehouse
Wyden
The joint resolution (S.J. Res. 18) was passed as follows:
S.J. Res. 18
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled, That Congress
disapproves the final rule submitted by the Bureau of
Consumer Financial Protection relating to ``Overdraft
Lending: Very Large Financial Institutions'' (89 Fed. Reg.
106768 (December 30, 2024)), and such rule shall have no
force or effect.
____________________