[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 96 (Thursday, June 5, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3239-S3240]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
One Big Beautiful Bill Act
Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, for many months now, we have been laying
the groundwork for legislation to make tax relief for hard-working
Americans permanent and invest in our security to build a stronger,
safer, and more prosperous America, and we are very nearly there.
It has been an exciting week in the Senate, with the Environment and
Public Works Committee and the Armed Services Committee releasing their
portions of the text. The text will come from the Commerce Committee
and the Banking Committee very soon.
I am grateful for the hard work of so many members and the committee
chairs. This has been a deeply collaborative project from the get-go
and the product of extensive work both within the Senate and between
the Senate and the House. Between the good work of the House and the
good work of the Senate, we are going to have an outstanding final
bill.
The bill text released this week by the Environment and Public Works
and Armed Services Committees covers
[[Page S3240]]
parts of the energy security and national defense sections of the final
Senate bill.
As I said on the floor yesterday, energy is the critical resource.
Without a reliable energy supply, our homes, schools, hospitals,
businesses, factories--our entire country--will literally grind to a
halt. That includes our national security and national defense
capabilities as well. A secure, stable, abundant energy supply is
essential for our national defense, it is essential for our economy,
and it is essential to keeping energy affordable for hard-working
Americans.
After 4 years of the Biden administration acting to constrain
American energy production, our bill will help unleash American energy.
It will suspend the Biden administration's natural gas tax, which
threatened to both reduce supply and drive up energy prices for
Americans. It will seek to end a key part of the Biden administration's
electric vehicle mandate, which threatened to put a dangerous new
burden on our already shaky electric grid. And more.
Meanwhile, the defense section of the bill released this week by
Chairman Wicker will promote peace through strength by reversing the
trend of underinvestment in our military. With China beginning to
outpace the United States in key defense capabilities and
manufacturing, it is especially critical that we act now to prevent the
United States from falling behind on the national security front.
The defense title, while no substitute for robust yearly funding,
will be a substantial step forward toward rebuilding our military to
ensure that our service-members are equipped to deter or defeat any
threat.
Our bill will provide $29 billion for shipbuilding to build 13 new
battle force ships, rapidly grow a fleet of unmanned vessels, and
expand our maritime industrial base.
It will provide $25 billion for the President's Golden Dome to defend
the homeland from missiles, drones, and hypersonics, including
accelerating capabilities for the Space Force and modernizing existing
U.S. missile defense sensors and sites like those we have in Alaska.
Our bill will provide $23 billion to expand advanced manufacturing
capacity, restock critical munitions, and rebuild U.S. supply chains.
It will provide $16 billion to develop and quickly field low-cost and
next-generation weapons to arm our troops--weapons like drones,
counter-drone capabilities, cheap munitions, AI capabilities, and a
whole lot more, including expanding our Air Force fighter fleet and
rebuilding our Pacific infrastructure.
Our Nation will be safer and stronger because of the bill. I am
grateful to Chairman Wicker, Chairman Capito, and all the Members both
on and off of these committees who have invested so much time to
produce this energy and defense language.
It is exciting to see so many months of work coming to fruition. I
look forward to the release of bill text coming from the Banking
Committee and the Commerce Committee in the very near future and
consideration of this bill on the floor in the coming weeks.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant executive 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.