[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 165 (Tuesday, October 7, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6967-S6978]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     EN BLOC NOMINATIONS--Continued

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Massachusetts.


                           Government Funding

  Ms. WARREN. Madam President, it has been 1 whole week since 
Republicans shut down the government. So why did they close the 
government? Because Republicans decided they would rather shut down the 
entire government than lower costs and save healthcare for millions of 
Americans.
  Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress are knocking 15 million 
people off their health insurance, driving up the cost of healthcare 
for everyone else, closing rural hospitals, shutting down community 
health centers, and much, much more--all so that they can fund giant 
tax cuts for billionaires. Those are Republican priorities.
  Democrats are fighting to prevent insurance premiums from doubling. 
We are fighting to help American families hang onto their health 
insurance, because no one should go bankrupt because they got sick and 
needed to see a doctor.
  In the next few days, Americans will begin getting letters in the 
mail, telling them their insurance premiums are going up--way, way up. 
For some families, those premiums are doubling. Others will get priced 
out of their plans completely, leaving them with no coverage at all.
  Here is what that means: Thanks to Republicans in Congress, a 60-
year-old couple making $85,000 a year will have to pay more than 
$22,000 every year to keep their coverage--$22,000. For families 
already hanging on by their fingernails, that could be a matter of 
keeping healthcare coverage or just giving up, and that could be a 
matter of life and death.
  I know what it is like. Growing up, there was never a time when my 
family didn't worry about money. My daddy ended up as a janitor. When I 
was 12, my daddy had a heart attack. He lost his job. The family's 
station wagon was repossessed, and we were about to lose our home. My 
mother had never worked outside the home, but that is when she put on 
her best dress, got herself a minimum wage job of answering phones at 
Sears, and saved our home and saved our family.
  Our healthcare system was already broken with high premiums, 
insurance denials, and huge copays, and that was before Donald Trump 
and the Republicans decided to make the healthcare crisis so much 
worse.
  Democrats are fighting to reverse Republicans' giant healthcare cuts 
and lower costs for Americans. Right now, it is only the Republicans in 
Congress who stand in the way. Affordable Care Act tax credits help 
people afford their healthcare, and they are set to expire at the end 
of the year. And insurance companies are resetting their rates right 
now--right now.

[[Page S6968]]

  We are barreling toward a tipping point for American families. If 
Congress does not act, nearly 22 million Americans will see their 
health insurance premiums more than double on average. Democrats want 
to lower those costs right now. Republicans are shutting down the 
entire government instead of coming to the table to help American 
families.
  An overwhelming majority of Americans wants us to extend these tax 
credits so that insurance premiums don't go through the roof. Even most 
Trump supporters agree with us on this. Donald Trump himself just said 
he wants to make it better. It is only Senate Republicans who are 
standing in the way. Senate Republicans have refused to even sit down 
and negotiate over healthcare cuts, even though thousands of their 
constituents will see their costs go way up.
  For example, in Alabama, about 447,000 Americans will see their 
insurance premiums skyrocket. In Alaska, about 24,000 Americans will 
see their insurance premiums skyrocket. In Arkansas, it is about 
144,000 Americans. In Florida, it is 4.4 million Americans. In Idaho, 
it is 101,000 Americans. In Indiana, it is 290,000 Americans. In Iowa, 
it is 118,000 Americans. In Kansas, it is 182,000 Americans. In 
Kentucky, it is 77,000 Americans. In Louisiana, it is 276,000 
Americans. In Maine, it is 54,000 Americans. In Mississippi, it is 
320,000 Americans. In Missouri, it is 383,000 Americans. In Montana, it 
is 67,000 Americans. In North Carolina, it is 888,000 Americans. In 
North Dakota, it is 38,000 Americans. In Ohio, it is 514,000 Americans. 
In Oklahoma, it is 290,000 Americans. In Pennsylvania, it is 422,000 
Americans. In South Carolina, it is 588,000 Americans. In South Dakota, 
it is 50,000 Americans. In Tennessee, it is 593,000 Americans. In 
Texas, it is 3.7 million Americans; nearly 4 million Americans will see 
their insurance premiums skyrocket. In Utah, it is 395,000 Americans. 
In West Virginia, it is 63,000 Americans. In Wisconsin, it is 272,000 
Americans. In Wyoming, it is 43,000 Americans.
  Look, Democrats are fighting to lower costs for every single one of 
those Americans. Where are their Republican Senators? Those were the 
insurance premiums, which will cause about 5 million people to lose 
their coverage because they just can't afford those higher costs.
  But Republicans are also cutting healthcare for another 10 million 
Americans. Those are seniors in nursing homes, mamas with newborn 
babies, and it is your neighbor who needs a wheelchair or a home health 
aide to be able to live independently.
  Democrats have said, time and time again: If Congress is going to 
pass a budget for the U.S. Government, then saving healthcare for those 
millions of Americans has to be part of the deal. We will not stop 
fighting for Americans' access to their doctors and to their hospitals.
  What has been the response of Donald Trump? He doesn't want to talk 
about healthcare. Nope. Instead, his plan is to inflict maximum pain on 
Americans during this Republican shutdown.
  His right-hand man, Russ Vought, is shutting down important 
infrastructure projects as political punishment. They are threatening 
to fire many more Federal workers. And get this: The White House is 
furloughing hundreds of staffers because of the Republican shutdown, 
but they are keeping every single DOGE staffer on.
  In total, the Trump administration is furloughing over half a million 
workers who work every day to keep our country running. But at least 
Elon Musk's pals at DOGE are safe, and that tells you everything you 
need to know about the Republican plans.
  Look, this may feel like a surprise to millions of Americans, but the 
Republican attack on Americans' healthcare has been long in the making. 
It is exactly the shutdown playbook Donald Trump and his lackeys laid 
out in their Project 2025. Since day one, Trump has tried again and 
again and again to shut down the parts of government he just doesn't 
like. He has tried to illegally wipe away millions of dollars for 
programs that Congress had already agreed to fund. He has illegally 
fired tens of thousands of Federal workers. He has illegally sent our 
troops to invade American cities.
  The response of Republicans in the Senate has been to bow down and 
let Donald Trump do all of that and more.
  Now, during a government shutdown, the President of the United States 
is saying: ``A lot of good can come'' from a shutdown, and ``we can get 
rid of a lot of things we didn't want.''
  While all of that is going on, why would Democrats sign off on a 
Republican budget without ironclad guarantees to make sure that Trump 
won't just turn around and go back on the deal and not lower costs for 
families? The answer is, we won't. While Senate Republicans keep taking 
orders from their wannabe King and drag out their government shutdown, 
Senate Democrats will not stop fighting to save healthcare and to lower 
costs for families. We want rollbacks of the Republican cuts that will 
take away healthcare coverage from 15 million people and drive up 
insurance premiums for everyone else.
  This is not a partisan issue. This is not a partisan fight. Democrats 
are in this fight for all Americans, and we urge Senate Republicans to 
join us to protect healthcare coverage for millions of Americans and 
end this painful government shutdown.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maine.


                   Unanimous Consent Request--S. 1337

  Mr. KING. Madam President, as if in legislative session and 
notwithstanding rule XXII, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee 
on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs be discharged from 
further consideration of S. 1337 and the Senate proceed to its 
immediate consideration; that the bill 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?
  The Senator from Kentucky.
  Mr. PAUL. Madam President, I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  Mr. KING. Madam President, I want to express some thoughts on this 
motion that was just objected to.
  We are in an ongoing, serious, and debilitating conflict in the world 
of cyber.
  It is one of the most serious threats this country faces. In fact, 
right at this moment, it is probably the most serious threat this 
country faces from nation-states, from hacktivists, from ransomware, 
from crooks around the world. It is a serious daily challenge.
  We are being attacked--institutions in this country, including the 
U.S. Government, including the Department of Defense, including the 
CIA, but also private sector businesses are being attacked 5 billion 
times a day.
  I visited a small bank in Maine that is being attacked in the 
hundreds of thousands of times in a week, a small local bank. I have 
talked to utility executives that are being attacked--one major 
utility--3 million times a day, that the adversaries are trying to get 
into our systems to compromise them, which would be devastating in a 
time of conflict.
  Imagine for a moment a shot isn't fired, but the financial system 
collapses; water systems are poisoned; the electrical system is down; 
the gas pipeline system is compromised; healthcare, hospitals are down. 
That is a devastating attack. By not moving this bill, we are 
unilaterally disarming in the midst of this crisis.
  What this bill does is very simple. It simply renews an authority 
that was passed in 2015 to create a mechanism where the private sector 
and the Federal Government can exchange information about cyber 
attacks.
  The private sector is protected from liability for exchanging, for 
sharing the information. Then the government can collect that 
information, warn other sectors of potential attacks that are indicated 
in these kinds of reports, can help the victims respond, and also can 
help us to form a more coherent national strategy to deal with these 
attacks.
  I don't understand why the gentleman from Kentucky is objecting to--
and this isn't a spending bill. This has nothing to do with the 
continuing resolution. This is simply an authority that has been in 
place, as I say, for 10 years. It expired at the end of the fiscal 
year, and we want to extend that in order to maintain this kind of 
interaction, this kind of exchange of information that is critical to 
our ability to

[[Page S6969]]

realistically confront this really--I can't overemphasize how serious 
this crisis is.
  We just learned, for example, that the Chinese were in our 
telecommunication system. We know that the Russians have made 
consistent efforts to penetrate our critical infrastructure, along with 
the Chinese. This is not an abstract threat. This is before us right 
now. It is happening right now. And if we don't pass this extension, as 
I said, we are unilaterally disarming.
  I understand the chairman of the committee has some other items that 
he would like to consider. He is the chairman of the committee. I urge 
him to bring those issues before the committee, bring a bill to the 
floor, and they can be considered. But don't, in the meantime, hobble 
our ability to protect our citizens and entities, people and companies 
and businesses and our own government, from these ongoing attacks.
  At this very moment, this government is under attack by cyber 
criminals, by state actors. They are not doing it for fun. They are 
doing it maliciously to undermine our country and also to steal from 
us.
  The amount stolen through ransomware attacks, which can occur, by the 
way, at a local hospital or a town--the amount of money is in the 
billions every year.
  So I hope that as we keep coming to the floor to bring this matter 
up, we can have the withdrawal of the objection by the chairman of the 
committee because--the final thing I will say is what I said before: 
This is no time to be lowering our defenses, to be compromising our 
ability to defend ourselves from an attack that we know is happening 
and that we know is going to continue to happen.
  We know that this is going to continue. This attack is going to 
continue on our country, on our institutions, on our businesses, on our 
citizens, and we have to be on guard. We cannot--we cannot--allow this 
authority to lapse and compromise our ability to defend ourselves and 
the people of the United States.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Banks). The Senator from Montana.
  Mr. SHEEHY. Mr. President, first, I want to congratulate the 
Presiding Officer on the momentous occasion of becoming a golden gavel 
recipient. That is the achievement of a lifetime.


            Unanimous Consent Agreement--Executive Calendar

  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that if any nominations are 
confirmed during today's session of the Senate, the motions to 
reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table and the President 
be immediately notified of the Senate's action.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


                          Resource Management

  Mr. SHEEHY. Mr. President, I rise today to talk about a historic 
occasion where we are passing a CRA for the Miles City Resource 
Management Plan.
  In the last 5 years, in the previous administration, we have seen 
historic attacks upon American industry, primarily our resource 
industry, which is so critical to Montana's economy and, most 
importantly, is critical to the 21st-century economy of the United 
States.
  We are facing an energy crisis where we are not going to have enough 
power, literally, in our grid to power our homes, turn the lights on in 
our homes, and, most importantly, fuel the 21st-century economic 
revolution that is coming.
  From AI, to digital currency, to quantum computing, the needs for 
energy will be insatiable here in America and around the world. For us 
to lead in these technologies, to lead in artificial intelligence, to 
beat China in the digital currency game, to beat the rest of the world 
in quantum computing--if we want those technologies to exist in a free 
and flourishing market, in a free republic like the United States of 
America, we have to lead in those industries. That means we have to 
literally have enough electrons, we have to have enough electricity, we 
have to have enough power--baseload, reliable, cheap power--in our grid 
to power those industries, and right now, we do not. Not only do we not 
have it today, we won't have it tomorrow if we do not expand our 
resource economy yet again.
  That means things like coal have to be unleashed. China is building 
coal plants every single day. We haven't built one in decades here in 
America. Right now, there is enough coal under the ground in Montana to 
fuel our economy for another thousand years. It is about time we start 
extracting it yet again. Not only will it mean thousands of jobs in 
Montana--rural Montana--where economic development has stalled for 
decades, but most importantly, it means economic dominance for the 
greatest Nation in the history of mankind.
  Many other nations depend upon the economic leadership that America 
provides, and in the 21st century, that leadership will depend on a 
strong, 21st-century economy based on cryptographic currency, 
artificial intelligence, and quantum computing. All those industries 
revolve around cheap, reliable baseload power. We need that out of the 
coal mines in Montana; we need it all across the Nation.
  We need to bring commonsense policies back to our resource economy. 
We don't want to be pouring cyanide in our rivers, blowing tops off 
mountains, and clear-cutting forests. We do not want to go back to 
those days. We have learned our lesson, and nowhere more have we 
learned that than in Montana, the site of America's largest Superfund 
site based on disastrous copper and coal mining from decades ago. We 
have learned our lessons from those.
  If we don't mine these resources in America, all we are doing is 
pushing that mining somewhere else--places like Africa, South America, 
and Asia--where there are no environmental regulations, there are no 
labor laws. Eight-year-old kids are hauling these materials out of 
mines on the backs of their heads--child labor, slave labor, cyanide 
being poured into lakes without any environmental regulation 
whatsoever. We do it cleaner, safer, and better here in America than 
anywhere else in the world, and Montana is the perfect place to start 
reviving our resource economy.
  So I am proud to support this CRA. I am proud to see the resource 
economy of Montana once again be supported by our government. It is so 
important for these projects that they have a predictable regulatory 
environment to operate in. When these companies have to raise billions 
of dollars in capital to fund these projects, they have to have comfort 
that the projects will not simply be canceled the next time the 
political winds shift.
  Four years is not a long time when you are making tens of billions of 
dollars in investments--pipelines, mining, powerplants, and huge 
resource projects. Our investors--American investors and foreign 
investors--need to have confidence that if they put dollars into the 
American economy, those dollars are going to be respected, encouraged, 
and, quite frankly, rewarded.
  Nowhere is it better to mine coal than right here in the U.S. of A. 
and nowhere better than Montana. We have hard-working people with a 
great work ethic who take pride in their work and want to fuel the 
21st-century economic explosion that will happen right here in this 
country.
  The time is now to build our electrical grid. The time is now to 
revitalize our resource economy, from timber, to coal, to copper 
mining, to oil and gas. The Miles City CRA brings back common sense and 
gives certainty to a resource economy and, most importantly, our 
private sector partners, who will make the investment so that is 
possible.
  I vote in favor of this and hope our colleagues on the other side of 
the aisle also support the Miles City CRA.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Minnesota.


                           Government Funding

  Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I rise today because the American 
people deserve affordable healthcare, and they deserve a government 
that works for them--not a government of threats, not a government of 
bullies. They deserve a government that comes together in a bipartisan 
way to find solutions to the problems and challenges they face.
  Sadly, right now, we are on day 18 where the Republicans in the House 
of Representatives have not reported to work--day 18. I went over there 
this morning, and there are literally more statues of former Republican 
leaders than there are actual Republican House Members in the entire 
House. I

[[Page S6970]]

walked down the hallways. I went to the door. I went to see if anyone 
was there. There is no one there. There are just a bunch of statues of 
former leaders.
  We need real leaders right now over in the House that are willing to 
sit down and negotiate with Members of the Senate and, yes, with the 
President--not to be rubberstamps of the President but to actually come 
back and say ``This is what I am hearing from my constituents'' because 
we know what they are hearing. We have seen the numbers. And some of 
them have been willing to say it--some of the House Members on the 
Republican side and some of the Senators.
  Three-fourths of the people on the Affordable Care Act plans, 
according to a study from the Kaiser Family Foundation, three-fourths 
of them are in States won by President Trump. The vast majority of them 
are in red congressional districts.
  So we know what they are hearing because it is what I have been 
hearing. Some of the people are already getting notices in some 
States--like in Senator Warnock and Senator Ossoff's State of Georgia--
and they are seeing a doubling of their premiums or a tripling of their 
premiums.
  I have heard the proposed numbers in the State of Minnesota, and it 
is not pretty.
  A few weeks ago, I went on a 13-county rural tour in my State--I 
visit all 87 counties every year--and I met with soybean farmers. One 
of them told me that what he was seeing, between the tariffs drying up 
his market--60 percent of the soybeans in Minnesota are exported around 
the world. We are proud of that. We feed the world. Those markets have 
dried up. They can't sell their soybeans. They can't get a good price 
for their soybeans. I heard the same thing from our corn growers.
  So when you look at what is happening with their markets and then you 
look at what is happening with their input costs for things like 
fertilizer because of the Trump tariffs and you look at the increases 
for them in their daily living expenses--like electricity bills and 
grocery bills--because of these tariffs and, yes, these healthcare 
premiums--you look at this, and one soybean farmer told me this is the 
perfect storm of ugly.
  So what should our answer be--to stay away like these Republican 
House Members have done because they are afraid to have a vote on the 
release of the Epstein files? That soybean farmer is like: What? Go 
take care of your business. Your job is to come here and help me.
  Families' budgets are being squeezed. The President promised he would 
bring down prices on day one, but instead, it is day 261, and the 
opposite is happening, especially with healthcare.
  This isn't a December problem or a January problem; this is a ``now'' 
problem because November 1 is the date. November 1 is the day when 
these plans that are called different things in different States--in my 
State, it is called MNsure--when these plans, which over 25 percent of 
our farmers are on, for one thing, and a whole bunch of small business 
owners--they are not working at some big corporation. They do not have 
the option of getting their plans that way. Instead, they rely on these 
types of plans from the State. Ours existed even before the Affordable 
Care Act, but it is one of those Affordable Care Act plans.
  So November 1 is when that marketplace opens up, and then they have 
to decide--they can't afford a doubling of the premiums. That is what 
this fight is about.
  A poll published last week found that 78 percent of Americans think 
we should extend the ACA tax credits, including significant majorities 
of Democrats, Independents, and Republicans.
  Why don't my colleagues on the other side of the aisle and my 
colleagues who aren't here over in the House--Republicans--why don't 
they see this as an opportunity to do something good, to come to the 
table and do something good? That is what this is about to me. I 
thought that is what we were elected to do, but, instead, what do we 
see?
  According to Minnesota's health insurance marketplace, a 30-year-old 
in Mower County--that is one of our more rural counties kind of near 
the Iowa border--earning $39,000 per year would see their premium 
increase from $77 per month this year to $225 a month for the 
same plan--no extra bells and whistles; the same plan.

  A family of three in Roseau County--that is way up north--with an 
annual income of $106,000--this is a family of three--would see their 
premium jump from $675 a month to $1,100 a month--an annual increase of 
more than $5,000.
  A 60-year-old married couple in Bemidji earning $85,000 per year--
this is in the middle of our State, a beautiful lakes area. It is the 
home of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox. They just dealt with a 
horrible, horrible storm, and their town showed this incredible 
resilience.
  A 60-year-old married couple in Bemidji earning $85,000 per year will 
see their premium climb from less than $500 per month to $1,700 per 
month. That means an additional $15,000 next year for the same 
coverage. These increases are going to force people to make a decision.
  My rural hospitals told me--behind closed doors, some of it--they 
said: So we have a whole bunch of people that are going to be hurt by 
these Medicaid cuts that were in the budget bill this summer, and we 
have a whole bunch of problems because $500 billion in Medicare cuts 
was automatically triggered by that Big Beautiful Bill, as it is 
called--or ``Big Beautiful Betrayal'' of a bill.
  Five hundred billion in Medicare cuts was triggered why? Because the 
debt went up so high because of all the tax cuts for the wealthiest. 
That is just in law. If you put up the debt that much, you are going to 
get Medicare cuts that aren't going to hit individuals--they will 
eventually--but they are going to hit these hospitals. I say 
``eventually'' because there is not going to be anyplace to go get your 
healthcare if you are in a rural area and these hospitals and clinics 
start closing down.
  So on top of all that--Medicaid and Medicare--then you layer on these 
Affordable Care Act issues. What the people--the doctors and nurses--
told me is that because that is how so many of their patients get their 
healthcare, if they don't get their insurance, which some of them just 
won't be able to afford unless we do something about it, which is fully 
within our power to do--like, literally, you can take that money that 
was going to go to Argentina and screw over our soybean farmers in 
Minnesota, that $20 billion--I have no idea why that was a good idea--
you can take that money, and that is going to pay for a big chunk of 
just the first year of these tax credits for regular Americans and not 
screw over our soybean farmers.
  So, anyway, they told me that if you make sure these people still 
have insurance, that is a huge deal to these rural hospitals. It means 
that they can maybe just barely eke by and make it. Otherwise, people 
are going to get rid of their insurance, and they are going to show up 
at the emergency rooms because they are not going to be getting not 
just primary care but elective surgeries and regular things they should 
be getting because they don't have the insurance, and they are going to 
show up at the emergency rooms, and then the hospitals are going to be 
paying for that care. That is what we are dealing with here.
  These increases are going to force people across the country to make 
these impossible decisions.
  A constituent of mine was caught off guard by a $2,000 premium 
increase.
  A family of four is considering downgrading their insurance plan.
  A father expects that his family will owe $16,000 more next year.
  One woman currently saves more than $450 per month because of the ACA 
tax credit. She is retired. She is single, so she does not have any 
additional income coming in. That gives her $5,400 extra per year, and 
that is before you factor in--this is important for people to know 
because everyone is having trouble with what is going on in the 
insurance market right now--that is before you factor in what is 
expected to be a 21-percent increase in the premium.
  Another constituent shared that her biggest fear is affording 
healthcare for her family. She said: Please keep up the fight for the 
ACA subsidies. Every day, the cost of just living goes up. I am worried 
for my family.
  We know our healthcare system is far from perfect. There are many 
steps we should take to improve it. I could

[[Page S6971]]

spend the whole day giving some ideas that would be constructive.
  One of the things that I finally got passed into law that I spent 
years working on and leading the bill--a negotiation of prices under 
Medicare.
  Congress, before I got here, somehow locked itself into what the 
prices should be under Medicare, and you could see people and our 
worthy veterans under the VA getting much better deals on their drugs 
than all of the seniors in America. Why? Because the VA was negotiating 
prices, and Medicare was banned from negotiating.
  So we opened that up on at least 10 drugs in the first year, drugs 
like Xarelto and Eliquis and Januvia and Jardiance--big, big drugs with 
big populations of people that use them--and we got that negotiation 
started during the last administration and were able to get some 
remarkable savings.
  But there should be many more savings. These are supposed to be 
negotiated--15 more drugs and then 15 more drugs and then 15 more 
drugs--and I will tell you right now, I am watching to make sure that 
happens. But there could be a lot more we could do on the front of 
pharmaceuticals and many other areas of healthcare. But, instead, the 
least we can do right now is make sure that people aren't going to end 
up bankrupt--small-farm bankruptcy is at a 5-year high right now--who 
live in rural areas.
  We are asking our colleagues to come to the table. We are asking the 
Republicans in the House of Representatives to return to work so that 
they are not outnumbered by a bunch of statues that have been sitting 
there for a hundred years in the Rotunda. We would like the real 
Representatives to come back and join us in negotiating to end the 
shutdown, which is what we want, but also to do something to help 
Americans with their healthcare.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Colorado.
  Mr. HICKENLOOPER. Mr. President, this really is a turning point for 
our country and a turning point in our fight to make healthcare more 
accessible for all Americans.
  For the first time in 6 years, the government is shut down. 
Certainly, nobody wanted to get to this point, including me. But we are 
here for one reason: because MAGA Republicans shut down the government 
because they refuse to address the healthcare crisis they have created.
  Earlier this summer, the Trump administration passed their--what we 
call--``Big Bad Betrayal Act,'' as we call it. At a time when Americans 
are begging for financial relief, they were stripped of their 
healthcare and are faced with the loss of healthcare for 15 million 
people. That is right. MAGA Republicans have gutted more than a 
trillion dollars over the next 10 years from Medicaid and the 
Affordable Care Act, healthcare that literally millions of Americans 
rely on.
  And we are not just talking years in the future. It starts this 
month.
  At the end of this year, the Affordable Care Act's tax credits will 
expire, unless Republicans act now to extend them. If they don't--and 
they are clearly divided on this issue--premiums across the country, on 
average, are going to double starting next year.
  As a little perspective, that means many Coloradans will pay over a 
thousand dollars more for healthcare in 2026 than they did in 2025.
  Now, insurance companies are just starting to notify Americans about 
these massive cost increases. You talk about a kick in the gut.
  When I was Governor, we expanded healthcare to 400,000 Coloradans 
with help from the ACA tax credits. We got to 96 percent coverage for 
Coloradans to have healthcare. MAGA Republicans want to undo that 
progress, and we shouldn't let that happen.
  It doesn't end there. The budget bill is a centerpiece of a much 
broader campaign to strip healthcare coverage away from millions and 
millions of Americans. The moment the President took office, MAGA 
Republicans essentially handed him and Secretary Kennedy a free pass to 
attempt to dismantle our public healthcare system and to destroy much 
of the science-backed public health policy.
  Now, what exactly did they do? Well, the President and R.F.K., Jr., 
fired every single member of the CDC's independent panel on vaccines 
and replaced them with vaccine skeptics, people who really didn't 
believe too much in the value of vaccines. Then, when the President's 
own CDC Director voiced her opposition, they fired her too.
  Now, that puppet panel completely changed the COVID vaccine 
recommendations for Americans. Now, folks across the country are 
struggling to figure out whether they can get a vaccine at the pharmacy 
and what it is going to cost.
  The President's first administration oversaw Operation Warp Speed, 
which developed the first COVID vaccines in what was almost a 
miraculously rapid timeframe. But now he is actively undermining that 
same science. It is astounding.
  Reproductive healthcare? They are gutting that too. Again, back when 
I was Governor of Colorado, we made free and low-cost birth control 
accessible to every Coloradan. We reduced unwanted pregnancies by 
almost 60 percent. Now, this administration is doing everything it can 
to eliminate the last remaining abortion protections. They are 
threatening access to mifepristone, a medication that has been proven 
safe and effective for nearly 30 years.
  On top of that, they have completely given up on things like fighting 
cancer, slashing hundreds of millions of dollars in cancer-related 
research grants. That is right. You heard me clearly--cancer. Now, we 
can't even agree that cancer is worth beating.
  If that wasn't enough, the White House actually reached out and 
publicized--the President talked to pregnant women and told pregnant 
women not to trust their doctors, but that they can feel assured that 
taking Tylenol while you are pregnant would cause autism. They did this 
without any scientific proof. It is hard to believe that they were 
telling pregnant women that Tylenol was going to cause autism.
  It is in many ways one large diabolical fear tactic, and it puts the 
health of so many Americans at risk. And we can't let it continue, 
which really brings us to this showdown. We are asking for this 
administration to negotiate and to take basic action to restore 
healthcare to Americans.
  MAGA Republicans, I think they should be thanking us for giving them 
an off-ramp to undo the horrendous cuts that are going to ruin people's 
lives--real lives. It will cost people their lives.
  So far, no one seems to be listening, but here is what is at stake if 
we don't hold our ground.
  I, recently, a couple of weeks ago, visited a nursing home in 
Lakewood, CO. Now, many Americans don't know this, but Medicaid covers 
the cost of roughly 60 percent of residents in nursing homes across the 
country. At the facility I visited in Lakewood, over 90 percent of the 
residents are there because of Medicaid.
  I sat in a circle surrounded by residents, some with disabilities, 
and their caregivers, all trying to understand what these cuts meant 
for their health, for their lives. One resident told me pointblank that 
Medicaid saved his life. He said he would still be living on the 
streets without it because the cost of his epilepsy medication was far 
too high.
  His healthcare, his medication, and the roof over his head are now 
under threat with these cuts coming to Medicaid. This is a very 
sobering truth. If you are a single adult in Colorado, you don't even 
qualify for Medicaid--you will be making too much to qualify for 
Medicaid--if you earn more than $1,735 a month. That is $10 an hour. If 
you make more than $10 an hour, you don't qualify for Medicaid. So you 
have to be working, and you have to make less than $10 an hour. It is 
pretty easy to verify. And creating the redtape of bureaucracy to get 
at these mythical cases of abuse--it defies rational thought.

  The President's ``Big Ugly Bill'' doesn't just put a $1 trillion hole 
in healthcare, but it creates mountains of paperwork and endless reams 
of redtape. It creates challenges that people with disabilities and 
people making $10 an hour are going to have a really hard time 
navigating.
  And if they fill out a form incorrectly or they don't turn it in on 
time or they get something wrong, they will get kicked right off of 
healthcare. It is immoral. It is inhumane.

[[Page S6972]]

  This is what Medicaid is for, to make sure Americans get the care 
they need to stay alive, to keep shelter over their heads when they 
need around-the-clock care. All of it is under threat.
  Take one look on social media, and you will see why the White House 
and MAGA are trying to make this into one big joke. It is a carnival of 
jokes, but they can't avoid the suffering and the fear that their 
actions are causing.
  Americans elected the President because he promised to fight for the 
people who slipped through the cracks. But he is turning the very 
ground they stand on into quicksand.
  MAGA Republicans have passed a bill to take healthcare from 15 
million Americans--Americans with cancer, sick kids, people living in 
nursing homes. With the money they saved, they gave trillion-dollar tax 
breaks, in many cases, to the wealthiest of Americans and to the 
largest of corporations.
  Now, hundreds of rural hospitals and clinics are at risk of closure. 
Millions of Americans are going to be uninsured. Many of them have 
preexisting conditions, which will make them getting insurance again 
nearly impossible. And they are going to be faced with healthcare 
premiums that will be doubling, and that is for literally millions of 
Americans.
  And we are not talking decades in the future. We are talking about 
next month, when these premiums go up. By November 1, Coloradans on the 
marketplace plans that they get from the healthcare exchange, they will 
be getting the terrifying news--the alert from the insurance 
companies--that their premiums are about to increase.
  What we are being told is some Colorado families are going to see 
pricetags a thousand dollars a month higher than what their normal 
payments were.
  Democrats are fighting for one thing: to protect the essential care 
that millions of Americans rely on every single day. It is about making 
sure that moms and dads, little kids, grandparents, and newborn babies 
don't fall through the trillion-dollar hole that MAGA has created in 
our healthcare system.
  Let's work together. Let's reopen the government and protect the 
healthcare for the people of this country. We will be waiting and ready 
at the negotiating table.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Connecticut.


                          Trump Administration

  Mr. MURPHY. Mr. President, colleagues, I think there is a tendency in 
this place, but probably in the country, writ large, to 
compartmentalize each news cycle, to get outraged by every new contest 
to free speech or to the rule of law or to the power of Congress, but 
to really never see the full picture. Yesterday's assault on a 
particular democratic norm is forgotten, and we just wake up the next 
day to some new outrage.
  And I know that when people like me start talking about creeping 
authoritarianism in America, a lot of my Republican colleagues tune 
out. They think it is hyperbole or just politics. But I think it is 
time for all of us--Republicans and Democrats--to really step back and 
come to terms with the full picture of what is happening right now in 
America.
  I know that there are many Republicans in this Chamber who are not 
ready to give up on democracy, but there are a group of radicals 
surrounding the President who have convinced him to operationalize a 
plan that is designed to try to crush political opposition and dissent 
in this country.
  When democracies die, sometimes it is in a coup; sometimes it is 
through violence; sometimes it is the occupation of the Parliament 
building; sometimes it is the cancellation of elections. But normally, 
that is not how democracies wither and vanish.
  In countries that have lost healthy democracy, normally what happens 
is that, over time, the regime--the party in power--just contracts the 
space for dissent, for speech, for political opposition such that, 
while elections still happen, the opposition party can never win. The 
rules get rigged, essentially, so that the party in power never ever 
loses. That is the plan. That is what President Trump and the radicals 
around him are trying to do to America.
  I know that many of my colleagues aren't on board for this plan, but 
I worry that many of my colleagues refuse to see it in its totality 
because they deal with one outrage at a time. They justify one assault 
at a time without seeing the full scope of it.
  We aren't on the verge of an authoritarian takeover; we are in the 
middle of it. Now, it is not a fait accompli. It is not certain to be 
successful. But if we aren't clear-eyed about what is happening, then 
we have no chance to arrest it.
  If my Republican colleagues don't force themselves to pull back and 
see the totality of what is happening to the political opposition--it 
is hard to see because it is not happening to you. It is happening to 
your colleagues. You are not in jeopardy of being arrested; my 
colleagues are. Your allies are not being taken down off the air; ours 
are.
  If we don't all pull back and see this for what it is, we will wake 
up, and there will be a day where our democracy is gone. And so I want 
to talk to my colleagues today about the totality of this plan, and it 
really happens in five steps.
  The first step is to convert the justice system into a political 
witch hunt operation. Every totalitarian relies on the justice system 
to punish dissent, but also to immunize illegality for loyalists. That 
is the deal you get in a totalitarian state: If you speak out against 
the government, well, then the legal system comes crashing down on you. 
But if you are loyal to the government, then you can get away with 
crimes.
  We are seeing this at scale right now. The indictment of James Comey 
for no crime--not a single prosecutor in that office in Virginia would 
sign the indictment--not a single one--until President Trump sent his 
personal lawyer to take over that office because only she would sign 
the indictment.
  We see this in the arrests that are being readied for at least one 
Democratic Senator, for the Soros family, for the attorney general of 
New York--for behavior that is not criminal; for behavior that 
apparently, reportedly, has been engaged in by plenty of other people.
  But you also see it in the way that it ultimately plays out in a very 
quiet way. The goal here is not to arrest everybody that opposes Donald 
Trump. The idea here is to just put enough fear into the ranks of those 
who might speak truth to power that they stay quiet, and it is 
undoubtedly happening. There are undoubtedly people in this country who 
see what is being threatened to Senator Schiff, what has happened to 
James Comey, and they have just decided to remain quiet. This is a 
tried and true tactic of a totalitarian state, is that they threaten 
people with arrests if they speak up, and lots of people just decide 
not to speak up in the first place.
  But what also happens is that if you are loyal to the regime, you get 
away with crimes. See what happened to the mayor of New York Eric 
Adams. He allegedly had committed a crime. He had committed significant 
corruption but was exonerated by President Trump only after the mayor 
pledged his political loyalty to the President. In fact, one of the 
President's representatives and the mayor went on television to 
essentially publicly do the handshake--loyalty from the mayor to the 
President and exoneration of corruption from the government to the 
mayor. This is how totalitarian regimes control speech: They punish, 
through the legal system, dissent. They immunize corruption amongst 
those who are loyal.

  The second part of the plan is to eliminate free press and replace it 
with state-run media. Now, I don't know that I would go so far to say 
we have state-run media in the United States yet, but there is an 
attempt underway to try to use the vast regulatory powers of the 
administration to censor media. And, again, the administration isn't 
hiding it. They are going on TV and celebrating the fact that, in the 
latest instance, they threatened to pull the licenses of TV stations 
that didn't take off the air one of the President's loudest critics.
  But we also see it through the consolidation of media into the hands 
of allies of the President. One family that has just taken control of a 
major media group that owns, amongst other properties, CBS is looking 
to also take

[[Page S6973]]

control of CNN and may have an ownership stake and a control stake in 
TikTok. That family has shown a willingness to censor content, pulling 
Stephen Colbert off the air and to put in place, essentially, Trump-
approved censors for their future news content.
  So you get to state-run media not necessarily through the state 
owning and operating media, but by the state using its regulatory 
powers--its control of licenses and mergers--to make clear to the 
billionaire class that they can own media, that they can make a lot of 
money off of media, but only if it propagates Trump's narrative and 
suppresses criticism. It is happening right now. We are watching it 
happen.
  The third step in the plan is to militarize law enforcement. The 
deployment of the military to Chicago and to Portland, to Los Angeles, 
is illegal. It is illegal. But it is designed to try to, once again, 
quell dissent and protest. This isn't about public safety. This is 
about political intimidation.
  And you are just naive if you think that folks aren't going to be a 
little bit less interested in showing up at a protest if they are 
worried about getting roughed up by law enforcement. You are naive to 
think that there isn't an impact on speech when the military is 
patrolling your streets. The signal that is being sent is that, if you 
speak up in opposition to this President, you are going to be greeted 
by troop deployments and tear gas and military helicopters.
  The fourth step in this plan is seizing control of government 
spending and taxation, and here is where I fail to understand why there 
isn't bipartisan agreement, why we don't join hands. Our Founding 
Fathers saw what the British King did: using taxation and spending in 
order to compel loyalty to Crown, in order to punish the colonists when 
they rose up in defense of their rights. And so when they wrote the 
Constitution, they deliberately put the spending and taxation powers 
not in the hands of the Executive but in the hands of Congress, where 
every faction is represented; thus, this body is in a position to 
broadly protect the rights of all people.
  Trump is seizing spending power from us, canceling grants 
unilaterally--most recently brazenly deciding to refuse to spend money 
only in the States represented by Democrats. The day after the shutdown 
began, they announced that they were, first, suspending billions of 
dollars' worth of projects in just one city, New York City--not 
coincidentally represented by the Democratic leaders in the House and 
the Senate.
  And then, hours after, they released a list of canceled energy 
projects. They listed the States that they were being canceled in. 
Every single one of those States was represented by two Democratic 
Senators.
  Everybody knew what was happening. It was an effort to use the 
spending power, seized by the Executive, to punish--to punish--
representatives of the people who oppose the President politically.
  And then the fifth part of the plan is to rig the rules when the 
rules don't work for you. This is happening in the way that President 
Trump is going State by State and demanding that congressional lines be 
redrawn in the middle of a 10-year cycle in which, traditionally, we 
leave lines as they are. Why? He has, again, been totally honest and 
transparent about it. He just wants more Republicans elected. Even if 
the majority of people in a particular State favor Democrats, he wants 
the lines drawn in a way that would elect more Republicans to 
Congress. Now, in this case, it has, of course, forced Democratic 
States to do the same, but it was Donald Trump who started this cycle 
of changing the rules in order to make sure that his party stays in 
power and that he stays in power no matter how unpopular he gets.

  You see the same thing happening with respect to the control of 
information. Totalitarian states can't accept truth. They can't accept 
truth, so they try to destroy truth. Well, that is what Donald Trump is 
doing by banning reporters from the White House who don't toe the Trump 
or MAGA line. That is what they are doing in saying to reporters at the 
Department of Defense that you can't report on military operations 
unless you are given preapproval. That is what happened to the head of 
the Bureau of Labor Statistics. When the labor statistics showed that 
the economy wasn't good, that guy got fired and was replaced by 
somebody who would issue fake numbers that made the economy look 
better.
  You convert the justice system so that it pursues your political 
enemies and exonerates your political loyalists for crimes. You 
eliminate the free press, and you replace it with state-run or state-
influenced media. You militarize law enforcement. You seize control of 
government spending and taxation. You rig the rules of democracy in 
your favor.
  You can't see the indictment of Comey, the cancelation of Kimmel, and 
the troops in Chicago as different events. They are all part of the 
same story. They are all part of a plan--a well-thought-out plan--to 
try to destroy American democracy and create a new set of rules that 
will allow Trump and his allies to rule forever.
  I know this sounds extreme. It is. But, if you connect the dots, if 
you allow yourself to see the whole story--the totality--of this story, 
you will see the grave danger that we are in. I know that it is often 
easiest for all of us, but probably especially for supporters of the 
President who still support democracy, to just assume the best, instead 
of assuming the worst, or to just kind of close the door and batten 
down the hatches until the storm leaves town.
  But think about how we will feel if this 250-year democratic 
experiment disappears on our watch and we didn't do all we could as a 
body and as a citizenry simply because we didn't want to face the hard 
reality. The authoritarian takeover isn't coming; it is here. We are in 
the middle of it, but it is not too late for everybody to see it and 
for us to stop it.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Democratic whip.


                       Senate Judiciary Committee

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, today, for the first time since her 
confirmation earlier this year, Attorney General Pam Bondi appeared 
before the Senate Judiciary Committee to answer for her tenure in the 
Office of the Attorney General for this calendar year.
  From the outset, the Attorney General was not, apparently, happy to 
be there. She ducked many questions, and I think she believed we 
wouldn't notice. We did.
  In her opening statement, the Attorney General said that ``playing 
politics with law enforcement powers,'' as she claims previous 
administrations have, ``will go down as a historic betrayal of public 
trust'' and that ``this is the kind of conduct that shatters the 
American people's faith in our law enforcement system.''
  That is interesting coming from an Attorney General who, over the 
course of 8 very long months, has presided over exactly such a betrayal 
of public trust. The Attorney General has systematically weaponized the 
Department of Justice, turning it into a shield to protect President 
Trump and his allies and a sword to attack his opponents. She has made 
clear that her loyalties lie first and foremost with the President, not 
with the Constitution. In doing so, she effectively shut down justice 
at the Department of Justice, even before the party controlling the 
White House, Senate, and the House of Representatives shut down the 
government.
  Last week, on the Senate floor and in the wake of the Federal 
indictment against former FBI Director James Comey that was ordered by 
President Trump expressly, I warned of the dangers posed by weaponizing 
the Justice Department in a political fashion.
  A President, enabled by people like this Attorney General, who can 
warp the Department of Justice and FBI into a personal police force to 
target his enemies, can turn it against ordinary Americans too. 
Unfortunately, the city of Chicago, which I am proud to represent, is 
feeling that today.
  In an especially egregious instance in the city's South Shore 
neighborhood last Tuesday night, hundreds of armed Federal agents 
rappelled from Black Hawk helicopters and swarmed an apartment building 
in the South Shore area. This made-for-movies entrance was into a 
building, which apparently the ICE agents knew little about the 
occupants.
  ICE rampaged through the building, breaking down doors, rousting 
people

[[Page S6974]]

out of bed, rounding up the residents without cause, detaining many 
with zip ties, including women and children. When one of the ICE agents 
was confronted with the children, he said,
``F---- them kids.''
  Detaining not just immigrants but U.S. citizens for hours on end, 
with no justification, isn't fighting crime; it is cruel, and it is un-
American.
  Attorney General Bondi's Justice Department has defended this dubious 
legal basis for Federal deployments to Illinois and diverted Department 
of Justice personnel and their components to assist with these efforts. 
So, today, many of us pushed her for answers.
  I asked her if anyone at the White House consulted her about the 
National Guard deployments to Chicago and other cities. She refused to 
answer that she even had a conversation with the White House about 
their justification for sending hundreds of National Guard troops into 
the city of Chicago.
  I asked what secret the Attorney General was trying to hide from the 
American people who deserve to know the legitimate legal rationale for 
deploying American military to our cities. She responded by attempting 
to blame Democrats for the Republican shutdown and attacking me for not 
``loving Chicago as much as [I] hate President Trump.'' That was a 
quote.
  I have been a member of the Judiciary Committee for 20 years-plus. 
Never have I encountered a witness from any other administration of 
either political party responding to legitimate questions with personal 
attacks. She had a personal attack crafted for each one of the Senators 
and thought she was getting the best of us. But that kind of unserious 
response is what we have come to expect from Trump administration 
officials whose priority is loyalty, not the rule of law.
  If DOJ is serious about reducing crimes, then they would work in 
conjunction with State and local leaders to implement evidence-based 
policies that do drive down violence. The fact is, this administration 
actually cares more about spreading fear into the hearts of our 
communities and catering to the vengeful whims of President Trump and 
Stephen Miller. It is political theater with an immense human pricetag.
  I also asked the Attorney General about the Epstein client list. She 
wouldn't touch it. She said in February, publicly, that the client list 
was ``sitting on her desk.'' Well, it is October, and the American 
people are still waiting for answers on this. She refused today to 
provide any information about this list, and we know why.
  A few months ago, a credible whistleblower told my office that FBI 
agents were instructed to flag any mention of President Trump from the 
files of Mr. Epstein. If true, that is not law enforcement; that is 
political protection. So I pressed her again today for more information 
to be made public. She refused.
  Mr. President, what we saw in today's hearing was an Attorney General 
unwilling and maybe unable to defend what is happening in her 
Department. Whether it is the Epstein files, Chicago immigration raids, 
sweetheart deals for Trump allies, or the mass purging of career law 
enforcement, her silence tells a story.
  Saying ``I'm not going to discuss this with you'' may have worked 
today, but one day, she will need to answer for her conduct in this 
role, and she will need to defend her record--one that saw the 
dismantling of the Department of Justice for political purposes on her 
watch.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Utah.


                          Resource Management

  Mr. LEE. Mr. President, the story of America is the story of a people 
that looked upon the West and saw promise. Where others saw wilderness, 
Americans saw a future. They dammed rivers that had flowed ungoverned 
since creation, mined mountains that had defied the reach of man, and 
turned harsh plains into fields that would feed a continent. From that 
audacity came a republic that could feed itself, power itself, and 
then, when tested, defend itself.
  The Federal Land Policy and Management Act--known commonly as FLPMA--
enshrined this principle of multiple use and sustained yield for 
Federal lands. It codified the promise that the land belongs to the 
people and ought therefore to serve them. Its promise was plural: 
energy, grazing, recreation, timber conservation--each coexisting with 
the others in balanced and productive harmony. The law does not permit 
Federal officials to choose one purpose to the exclusion of all the 
rest. It demands balance, and it demands use in particular.
  But the Biden administration's clerics of the green new scam 
disregarded that agreement struck nearly half a century ago. They 
preferred a museum to a nation, an America under glass, admired but 
untouchable. Under their edicts, vast stretches of land--millions upon 
millions of acres--have been sealed off from the citizens who built 
their livelihoods upon them. In Montana, North Dakota, and Alaska, 
communities that have mined, grazed, and worked for generations are now 
treated as trespassers in their own story. Their supposed crime is 
self-reliance--hardly something we should be seeking to punish. Their 
punishment is unemployment.
  The Senate now faces three resolutions that would help restore the 
balance. Each disapproves of a Biden administration decision that 
violated the multiple-use mandate of FLPMA and locked away public land 
from productive Americans, contrary to FLPMA's promise.
  In Montana, for example, the Miles City Resource Management Plan 
barred future coal leasing across nearly 2 million acres, erasing 
access to 338 million tons of clean domestic coal. In North Dakota, 
more than 4 million acres of Federal coal reserves were closed--nearly 
99 percent of the reserves available in that State. In Alaska, the 
Central Yukon Resource Management Plan imposed new restrictions on 56 
million acres of land, including millions of acres newly labeled as 
``areas of critical environmental concern''--one of the great trick 
plays used by the left in order to bring about de facto wilderness or 
de facto monument designations without actually having to go through 
the process that the relevant laws would require.
  Joe Biden's bureaucrats wrote over the voices of those who actually 
live near that land and live with the consequences of these bad 
decisions, and the results were predictable: higher costs, lost jobs, 
and deeper dependence on nations that, to put it mildly, do not wish us 
well.
  Every shuttered mine, every idled rig is an act of self-imposed 
amnesia--a willful type of forgetting of what made America both 
prosperous and free.
  Now, luckily, President Trump and Secretary Burgum are correcting 
that course. They are returning resource management plans to their 
proper role under the law; that is, to manage the land responsibly and 
keep it working for the American people, the intended beneficiaries of 
those lands.
  The Congressional Review Act allows us, mercifully, to repeal these 
unlawful plans and restore the statutory balance Congress intended and 
Congress, in fact, created with the Congressional Review Act.
  When these resolutions of disapproval take effect, after they have 
been passed and signed into law by President Trump, the Bureau of Land 
Management will still have the necessary environmental analysis to 
issue new resource management plans that are consistent with the law 
and the clear intent of Congress--plans that open access where it was 
previously closed, respect local voices that were previously ignored, 
and bring Federal management back within its legal bounds. That is how 
the process should work. That is how it is supposed to work. Under the 
law as written, it is how it does work.
  It is, at least, how it always should have worked but didn't work 
under the Biden administration, like so many other things.
  Now Republicans are defending the right of a free people here--the 
right of a free people to power their own future, to determine their 
own course. Democrats are still genuflecting before the alter of the 
green new scam, clinging to their faith and their false hope that if 
only Americans grow poorer, the planet will somehow grow purer.
  In that same spirit of self-righteous delusion, this week, Democrats 
are yet again bringing forth a measure to denounce President Trump for 
declaring an energy emergency. It is a gesture so

[[Page S6975]]

unserious, it would be comical if it weren't so dangerous.
  At the very moment when the world is entering an energy race that 
will decide who commands the engines of artificial intelligence and all 
that goes along with it, who manufactures the tools of war, and who 
will feed and defend their people, Democrats have instead chosen to 
strike a pose. They are congratulating themselves for denying the 
existence of the fire while standing in the smoke and holding the 
matches. Theirs is the politics of aesthetic virtue: better to be cold 
and appear righteous than to be warm and competent.
  But the American people fortunately are not fools. They understand 
that we can no longer afford to pad the pockets of Democratic allies 
propping up unreliable industries that cannot--no matter how hard 
Democrats wish it were otherwise--cannot keep the lights on, while 
punishing the workers and the communities that can and will if only we 
will allow it without undue interference from the U.S. Government.
  These resolutions to overturn the reckless Biden-era land plans are 
part of that larger defense. They would restore lawful management of 
public lands, honor the voices of those who live nearest to them and 
are therefore most directly affected by them, and keep faith with the 
law Congress enacted.
  Nations that lose their memory soon lose their nerve. The same spirit 
that split the Rockies and bridged the Golden Gate cannot be reconciled 
with a bureaucracy that measures virtue by paralysis.
  America, in short, was not built by those who made idols of the land 
but by those who worked it and in so doing, ennobled both themselves 
and it.
  We cannot continue to bow to the Ashtoreth of climate alarmism and 
bow to the Moloch of ecoterrorism and pretend that is going to work out 
well for America. Americans know better.
  Rewinding these management plans will not desecrate the environment--
far from it--but they will deliver it from an orthodoxy that mistakes 
idleness for piety, reminding us that liberty, like the land itself, 
withers when left untouched.
  It is therefore with all the energy and enthusiasm that I am capable 
of communicating that I invite my colleagues to do the right thing--to 
vote for these resolutions of disapproval and to right the gross wrong 
that has been inflicted on the American people, particularly Americans 
in and around the States affected by these ill-designed, ill-conceived 
resource management plans.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Montana.
  Mr. DAINES. Mr. President, today, the Senate will vote to proceed to 
my joint resolution to congressionally disapprove and officially roll 
back President Biden's anti-coal rule in Montana.
  H.J. Res. 104 is supported by the entire Montana delegation, and I 
want to thank Congressman Downing and Congressman Zinke for leading 
this resolution in the House and Senator Sheehy for joining me in the 
Senate.
  This resolution is supported by many Montanans, starting with the 
Governor of Montana, Governor Gianforte; the mayor of Colstrip, MT; the 
Montana Coal Council; the Montana electric co-ops; Northwestern Energy; 
local counties; both of the affected coal mines; and many, many more 
and, I will tell you, many, many more coal miners.
  I want to explain quickly what we are doing here today. Today, we 
will take the first step in overturning the Miles City Resource 
Management Plan Amendment that prohibits--prohibits--any new coal 
leasing in Eastern Montana.
  Let me be very clear. This resolution only overturns the anti-coal 
amendment that was issued by the Biden administration after the last 
election, in the final days of their term.
  None of the actions taken today affect the underlying Miles City 
Resource Management Plan or how the BLM manages recreation, 
conservation, and other energy developments in the State. Future coal 
development will be managed under the existing resource management 
plan, as it had for years before Biden slipped in, at the last hour, 
this amendment.
  Now, why is this important to Montana? The Biden amendment prohibits 
all new coal leasing across all of Eastern Montana.
  Eastern Montana and Wyoming are home to the Powder River Basin. These 
are the largest coal reserves in the United States.
  Many who are watching, when you think about Montana, you think about 
our amazing fly-fishing streams, our national parks, our beautiful 
mountains, our wilderness areas, the tremendous hunting and hiking 
opportunities we provide, but many don't know that Montana has more 
recoverable coal than any State in the United States.
  Think about this: The Biden administration prohibited new coal 
development in America's largest coal reserve.
  BLM's resource management plans are meant to be a bipartisan process, 
taking in feedback from people on the ground and implementing the 
multiple-use mission of the BLM, but, sadly, the Biden administration 
tried to pull a fast one. They took this process, flipped it on its 
face, and they disregarded the voices of Montana.
  Well, I can tell you here this afternoon, the voices of Montana are 
speaking loudly with the united Montana delegation both here in 
Washington as well as Montanans back home in the State, and we are 
going to right that wrong today. We are going to give Montana a voice 
in the process.
  Overturning this partisan rule will grow Montana energy jobs and help 
our rural communities. In fact, according to the Montana Coal Council, 
coal supports nearly 900 high-paying jobs in Montana and has provided 
$2.7 billion in Federal, State, private, and Tribal royalties.
  In a letter from Montana's Governor Greg Gianforte, he states that 
this Biden rule ``amounts to a loss of $4.3 billion in future revenue 
to the State trust land beneficiaries, which includes K-12 public 
education.''
  This is a monumental moment for the State of Montana. I am thrilled 
this is being considered today on the floor of the U.S. Senate, and I 
urge my colleagues to support Montana jobs, Montana communities, 
reliable and low-cost energy, and to vote yes on today's motion.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Arkansas.


                           Order of Procedure

  Mr. COTTON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that 
notwithstanding rule XXII, it be in order for the majority leader or 
his designee to make motions to proceed to H.J. Res. 104, H.J. Res. 
105, and H.J. Res. 106, respectively, if the Senate companion measure 
has been discharged from committee, and for Senator Schiff or his 
designee to make a motion to discharge S.J. Res. 83.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


                      Vote on En Bloc Nominations

  Mr. COTTON. I know of no further debate on the nominations.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. If there is no further debate, the question 
is, Will the Senate advise and consent to the en bloc nominations 
provided under the provisions of S. Res. 412?
  Mr. COTTON. 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 senior assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. BARRASSO. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the 
Senator from Utah (Mr. Curtis) and the Senator from Montana (Mr. 
Sheehy).
  Further, if present and voting: the Senator from Montana (Mr. Sheehy) 
would have voted ``yea.''
  The result was announced--yeas 51, nays 47, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 547 Ex.]

                                YEAS--51

     Banks
     Barrasso
     Blackburn
     Boozman
     Britt
     Budd
     Capito
     Cassidy
     Collins
     Cornyn
     Cotton
     Cramer
     Crapo
     Cruz
     Daines
     Ernst
     Fischer
     Graham
     Grassley
     Hagerty
     Hawley
     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)
     Sullivan
     Thune
     Tillis
     Tuberville
     Wicker
     Young

[[Page S6976]]


  


                                NAYS--47

     Alsobrooks
     Baldwin
     Bennet
     Blumenthal
     Blunt Rochester
     Booker
     Cantwell
     Coons
     Cortez Masto
     Duckworth
     Durbin
     Fetterman
     Gallego
     Gillibrand
     Hassan
     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

                             NOT VOTING--2

     Curtis
     Sheehy
       
  The en bloc nominations were confirmed as follows:
  Calendar Number 62: Paul Atkins, of Virginia, to be a Member of the 
Securities and Exchange Commission for a term expiring June 5, 2031 
(Reappointment).
  Calendar Number 86: James Baehr, of Louisiana, to be General Counsel, 
Department of Veterans Affairs
  Calendar Number 92: Patrick David Davis, of Maryland, to be an 
Assistant Attorney General
  Calendar Number 126: Leah Campos, of Virginia, to be Ambassador 
Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to 
the Dominican Republic
  Calendar Number 127: Brandon Judd, of Idaho, to be Ambassador 
Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to 
the Republic of Chile
  Calendar Number 128: Joseph Popolo, of Texas, to be Ambassador 
Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to 
the Kingdom of the Netherlands
  Calendar Number 143: Catherine Jereza, of Maryland, to be an 
Assistant Secretary of Energy (Electricity)
  Calendar Number 155: Ned Mamula, of Pennsylvania, to be Director of 
the United States Geological Survey
  Calendar Number 158: David Fink, of New Hampshire, to be 
Administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration
  Calendar Number 159: Pierre Gentin, of New York, to be General 
Counsel of the Department of Commerce
  Calendar Number 160: David Fogel, of Connecticut, to be Assistant 
Secretary of Commerce and Director General of the United States and 
Foreign Commercial Service
  Calendar Number 163: Devon Westhill, of Florida, to be an Assistant 
Secretary of Agriculture
  Calendar Number 164: Kirsten Baesler, of North Dakota, to be 
Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education, Department 
of Education
  Calendar Number 168: Wayne Palmer, of Virginia, to be Assistant 
Secretary of Labor for Mine Safety and Health
  Calendar Number 169: Julie Hocker, of Virginia, to be an Assistant 
Secretary of Labor
  Calendar Number 170: Marco Rajkovich, Jr., of Virginia, to be a 
Member of the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission for a 
term of six years expiring August 30, 2030 (Reappointment)
  Calendar Number 178: John Busterud, of California, to be Assistant 
Administrator, Office of Solid Waste, Environmental Protection Agency
  Calendar Number 181: Stanley Woodward, Jr., of the District of 
Columbia, to be Associate Attorney General
  Calendar Number 196: Janet Dhillon, of Virginia, to be Director of 
the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation for a term of five years
  Calendar Number 252: David Keeling, of Kentucky, to be an Assistant 
Secretary of Labor
  Calendar Number 253: Kimberly Richey, of Texas, to be Assistant 
Secretary for Civil Rights, Department of Education
  Calendar Number 255: Jonathan Berry, of Maryland, to be Solicitor for 
the Department of Labor
  Calendar Number 256: Andrew Rogers, of Virginia, to be Administrator 
of the Wage and Hour Division, Department of Labor
  Calendar Number 265: Marc Andersen, of Virginia, to be an Assistant 
Secretary of the Army
  Calendar Number 268: James Woodruff II, of Florida, to be a Member of 
the Merit Systems Protection Board for the term of seven years expiring 
March 1, 2032
  Calendar Number 270: Kevin Rhodes, of Florida, to be Administrator 
for Federal Procurement Policy
  Calendar Number 272: Usha-Maria Turner, of Oklahoma, to be an 
Assistant Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency

  Calendar Number 284: John Dever, of Illinois, to be General Counsel 
of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence
  Calendar Number 299: Joseph Barloon, of Maryland, to be a Deputy 
United States Trade Representative (Geneva Office), with the rank of 
Ambassador
  Calendar Number 300: Brian Morrissey, Jr., of Virginia, to be General 
Counsel for the Department of the Treasury
  Calendar Number 304: Craig Trainor, of Virginia, to be an Assistant 
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
  Calendar Number 306: Francis Brooke, of Virginia, to be an Assistant 
Secretary of the Treasury
  Calendar Number 307: David Peters, of Virginia, to be an Assistant 
Secretary of Commerce
  Calendar Number 310: Mary Riley, of the District of Columbia, to be 
Assistant Secretary for Legislation and Congressional Affairs, 
Department of Education
  Calendar Number 311: Brian Christine, of Alabama, to be an Assistant 
Secretary of Health and Human Services
  Calendar Number 312: Jonathan Snare, of Virginia, to be a Member of 
the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission for a term 
expiring April 27, 2029
  Calendar Number 313: David Brian Castillo, of Washington, to be Chief 
Financial Officer, Department of Labor
  Calendar Number 314: David Barker, of Iowa, to be Assistant Secretary 
for Postsecondary Education, Department of Education
  Calendar Number 315: Brittany Panuccio, of Florida, to be a Member of 
the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for a term expiring July 1, 
2029
  Calendar Number 323: Michael Boren, of Idaho, to be Under Secretary 
of Agriculture for Natural Resources and Environment
  Calendar Number 341: Audrey Robertson, of Colorado, to be an 
Assistant Secretary of Energy (Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy)
  Calendar Number 342: Lanny Erdos, of Ohio, to be Director of the 
Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement
  Calendar Number 345: Taylor Jordan, of the District of Columbia, to 
be an Assistant Secretary of Commerce
  Calendar Number 347: Derek Barrs, of Florida, to be Administrator of 
the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
  Calendar Number 348: Michael Rutherford, of Florida, to be an 
Assistant Secretary of Transportation (New Position)
  Calendar Number 349: Gregory Zerzan, of Texas, to be General Counsel 
of the Department of Transportation
  Calendar Number 355: Christopher Fox, of Virginia, to be Inspector 
General of the Intelligence Community, Office of the Director of 
National Intelligence
  Calendar Number 357: Alex Adams, of Idaho, to be Assistant Secretary 
for Family Support, Department of Health and Human Services
  Calendar Number 358: Jonathan McKernan, of Tennessee, to be an Under 
Secretary of the Treasury
  Calendar Number 359: Macon Hughes, of Texas, to be an Assistant 
Secretary of Defense
  Calendar Number 360: Philip Weinberg, of Virginia, to be an Assistant 
Secretary of the Air Force
  Calendar Number 361: Timothy John Walsh, of Colorado, to be an 
Assistant Secretary of Energy (Environmental Management)
  Calendar Number 363: Gustav Chiarello III, of Virginia, to be an 
Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services
  Calendar Number 364: Michael Stuart, of West Virginia, to be General 
Counsel of the Department of Health and Human Services
  Calendar Number 367: William Kirkland, of Georgia, to be an Assistant 
Secretary of the Interior
  Calendar Number 368: Laura Swett, of Virginia, to be a Member of the 
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for a term expiring June 30, 2030
  Calendar Number 369: David LaCerte, of Louisiana, to be a Member of 
the

[[Page S6977]]

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for the remainder of the term 
expiring June 30, 2026
  Calendar Number 374: Arch Capito, of West Virginia, to be United 
States Attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia for the term 
of four years
  Calendar Number 375: David Dunavant, of Tennessee, to be United 
States Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee for the term of 
four years
  Calendar Number 376: Matthew Harvey, of West Virginia, to be United 
States Attorney for the Northern District of West Virginia for the term 
of four years
  Calendar Number 377: John Heekin, of Florida, to be United States 
Attorney for the Northern District of Florida for the term of four 
years
  Calendar Number 378: Leif Olson, of Iowa, to be United States 
Attorney for the Northern District of Iowa for the term of four years
  Calendar Number 379: Adam Sleeper, of the Virgin Islands, to be 
United States Attorney for the District of the Virgin Islands for the 
term of four years
  Calendar Number 380: David Toepfer, of Ohio, to be United States 
Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio for the term of four years
  Calendar Number 381: Kurt Alme, of Montana, to be United States 
Attorney for the District of Montana, for the term of four years
  Calendar Number 382: Nicholas Chase, of North Dakota, to be United 
States Attorney for the District of North Dakota for the term of four 
years
  Calendar Number 383: Bart McKay Davis, of Idaho, to be United States 
Attorney for the District of Idaho for the term of four years
  Calendar Number 384: David Metcalf, of Pennsylvania, to be United 
States Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania for the term 
of four years
  Calendar Number 385: Lesley Murphy, of Nebraska, to be United States 
Attorney for the District of Nebraska for the term of four years
  Calendar Number 386: Ronald A. Parsons, Jr., of South Dakota, to be 
United States Attorney for the District of South Dakota for the term of 
four years
  Calendar Number 387: Kurt Wall, of Louisiana, to be United States 
Attorney for the Middle District of Louisiana for the term of four 
years
  Calendar Number 388: David Charles Waterman, of Iowa, to be United 
States Attorney for the Southern District of Iowa for the term of four 
years
  Calendar Number 389: Daniel Rosen, of Florida, to be United States 
Attorney for the District of Minnesota for the term of four years
  Calendar Number 391: Somers Farkas, of New York, to be Ambassador 
Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to 
the Republic of Malta
  Calendar Number 392: Nicole McGraw, of Florida, to be Ambassador 
Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to 
the Republic of Croatia
  Calendar Number 393: Leandro Rizzuto, of Florida, to be Permanent 
Representative of the United States of America to the Organization of 
American States, with the rank of Ambassador
  Calendar Number 394: Herschel Walker, of Georgia, to be Ambassador 
Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to 
the Commonwealth of The Bahamas
  Calendar Number 395: Stacey Feinberg, of California, to be Ambassador 
Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to 
the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg
  Calendar Number 396: Kenneth Howery, of Texas, to be Ambassador 
Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to 
the Kingdom of Denmark
  Calendar Number 397: Richard Buchan III, of Florida, to be Ambassador 
Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to 
the Kingdom of Morocco
  Calendar Number 398: Bill Bazzi, of Michigan, to be Ambassador 
Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to 
the Republic of Tunisia
  Calendar Number 399: Lynda Blanchard, of Alabama, to be U.S. 
Representative to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture, 
with the rank of Ambassador.
  Calendar Number 400: Howard Brodie, of Florida, to be Ambassador 
Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to 
the Republic of Finland
  Calendar Number 401: Arthur Fisher, of North Carolina, to be 
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of 
America to the Republic of Austria
  Calendar Number 402: Melinda Hildebrand, of Texas, to be Ambassador 
Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to 
the Republic of Costa Rica
  Calendar Number 403: Michel Issa, of Florida, to be Ambassador 
Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to 
the Lebanese Republic
  Calendar Number 404: Nicholas Merrick, of Texas, to be Ambassador 
Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to 
the Czech Republic
  Calendar Number 405: Roman Pipko, of Florida, to be Ambassador 
Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to 
the Republic of Estonia
  Calendar Number 406: Thomas Rose, of Florida, to be Ambassador 
Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to 
the Republic of Poland
  Calendar Number 407: William White, of New York, to be Ambassador 
Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to 
the Kingdom of Belgium
  Calendar Number 408: John Giordano, of Pennsylvania, to be Ambassador 
Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to 
the Republic of Namibia
  Calendar Number 409: Anjani Sinha, of Florida, to be Ambassador 
Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to 
the Republic of Singapore
  Calendar Number 411: Sean O'Neill, of Virginia, to be Ambassador 
Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to 
the Kingdom of Thailand
  Calendar Number 412: Julie Stufft, of Ohio, to be Ambassador 
Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to 
the Republic of Kazakhstan
  Calendar Number 413: Dan Negrea, of Connecticut, to be Representative 
of the United States of America on the Economic and Social Council of 
the United Nations, with the rank of Ambassador, and to serve 
concurrently and without additional compensation as an Alternate 
Representative of the United States of America to the Sessions of the 
General Assembly of the United Nations
  Calendar Number 414: Sergio Gor, of Florida, to be Ambassador 
Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to 
the Republic of India
  Calendar Number 415: Stephanie Hallett, of Florida, a Career Member 
of the Senior Foreign Service, Class of Minister-Counselor, to be 
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of 
America to the Kingdom of Bahrain
  Calendar Number 416: James Holtsnider, of Iowa, a Career Member of 
the Senior Foreign Service, Class of Counselor, to be Ambassador 
Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to 
the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan
  Calendar Number 417: Jacob Helberg, of Florida, to be an Under 
Secretary of State (Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment)
  Calendar Number 418: Benjamin Black, of New York, to be Chief 
Executive Officer of the United States International Development 
Finance Corporation
  Calendar Number 419: Thomas DiNanno, of Florida, to be Under 
Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security
  Calendar Number 420: Paul Kapur, of California, to be Assistant 
Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs
  Calendar Number 423: Sarah Rogers, of New York, to be Under Secretary 
of State for Public Diplomacy
  Calendar Number 424: Michael DeSombre, of Illinois, to be an 
Assistant Secretary of State (East Asian and Pacific Affairs)
  Calendar Number 426: Riley Barnes, of Texas, to be an Assistant 
Secretary

[[Page S6978]]

of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor
  Calendar Number 427: Todd Wilcox, of Florida, to be an Assistant 
Secretary of State (Diplomatic Security)
  Calendar Number 428: Neil Jacobs, of North Carolina, to be Under 
Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the motion to 
reconsider is considered made and laid upon the table, and the 
President will be immediately notified of the Senate's actions.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.

                          ____________________