[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 181 (Thursday, October 30, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7833-S7842]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
______
CONTINUING APPROPRIATIONS AND EXTENSIONS ACT, 2026--Motion to Proceed
Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I move to proceed to Calendar No. 168, H.R.
5371.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the motion.
The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:
[[Page S7834]]
Motion to proceed to Calendar No. 168, H.R. 5371, a bill
making continuing appropriations and extensions for fiscal
year 2026, and for other purposes.
Government Funding
Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, Democrats are grasping at straws these
days. The other day, the Democrat leader came to the floor and tried to
reboot the notion that the clean CR sitting before us here in the
Senate is a partisan CR. Yep. Apparently, a bill with no partisan add-
ons, strictly a bill to fund the government, is a partisan bill--only
in ``Democratland.''
The Democrat leader, of course, continues to try to push this
ludicrous narrative that Republicans--or President Trump--shut down the
government.
That is right. The party that demanded nothing and put forward a
clean, nonpartisan bill is the party that shut down the government.
And the party that demanded $1.5 trillion to keep the government
open--until Friday, until Halloween; that is what their bill will do--
$1.5 trillion in new spending to keep the Federal Government open until
Friday.
I wonder if Democrats have seen some of the recent headlines like
this one, and I quote: ``Benefits cliff amps up pressure on Senate
Democrats'' and ``Largest federal workers union calls for an end to the
shutdown, putting pressure on Democrats.''
``Putting pressure on Democrats,'' not Republicans. Now, why? Because
Republicans are ready to reopen the government today, and we are not
demanding a single thing in exchange. It is the Democrats who are
refusing.
In fact, the Democrats latest ploy is--get this--moral outrage that
the President isn't stepping in to save Democrats from the consequences
of their actions. That is right. Democrats are outraged--outraged--that
they are coming face-to-face with the consequences of their decision to
shut down the government, and so they are flailing around, blaming
President Trump for not stepping in to somehow save the SNAP program
from running out of money to pay benefits.
Yes, that is right. The very same people who were content to let the
Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women Infants and Children--
more commonly known as WIC--run dry are now positioning themselves as
crusaders for nutrition benefits.
President Trump did step in to save Democrats from themselves on WIC.
He somehow managed to find money to cover the program for the time
being. But there is a limit to what he can do.
That is kind of the reason we like to, you know, have the government
open. But, apparently, Democrats are still not willing to contemplate
allowing the government to function because the SNAP bill that they
tried to UC yesterday was not just a cynical political ploy to insulate
themselves from the consequences from their own actions, it was also a
disturbing signal the Democrats are ready to continue this shutdown, I
guess, forever.
Do Democrats have any--any--end date in sight? Are there any
consequences bad enough to get Democrats to reopen the government
again?
Because things are getting pretty serious here. The shutdown had
consequences from day one. But now, 30 days in, the consequences are
really stonewalling.
Here are some headlines I think that describe the situation:
``Government shutdown could lead to $14B in lost GDP, CBO reports.''
``Shutdown could close Head Start programs this week, jeopardizing
child care.''
``Shutdown crushes small business owners as losses hit billions--
industry leaders beg Congress for `clean CR.' ''
``Ongoing government shutdown threatens holiday travel.''
``National Guard Training Grinds To Halt Amid Shutdown--With No Pay
In Sight.''
``U.S. government shutdown: 60,000 aviation safety staff face
financial strain as crisis deepens.''
``Largest federal workers union calls for `clean' bill to end
shutdown.''
Those are just a sampling of the headlines out there, and they
represent the consequences as the Democrat shutdown accelerates.
So when will the Democrats put an end to this? When the economy is
ruins? When Federal workers have lost their homes? When housing
assistance and small business loans and Head Start and National Guard
training are distant memories? I hope the pain of the American people
is worth the plaudits the Democrats are getting from their liberal
base.
I don't know if listing out the consequences of Democrats' shutdown
moves Democrats anymore. I really don't. In fact, more than one Member
of their party--way more than one Member of their party--described
using the pain of the American people as ``leverage.''
Let me give you an example of some of the things they have been
saying, starting with the Democrat leader:
Every day gets better for us.
The whip, the No. 2 position among House Democrats, says:
There will be families that are going to suffer . . . but
it is one of the few leverage times we have.
The Senator from New Mexico: Paying our troops ``gives the President
more leverage.'' That is a really good reason not to pay the troops,
right?
The Senator from Arizona, when asked about it, said: Hey, I would
just go back and ``shut it down again.''
The Senator from Delaware:
Frankly, this is our only moment of leverage. And although
a very unpleasant tool to use--
Very unpleasant if you are a worker who lost their job and are not
getting paid.
And, of course, the Senator from Vermont:
You reopen the government, we lose our leverage.
It is all about leverage. That is what they are making it all about--
leverage. The question is, When are the American people going to matter
more than their leverage?
If there are any Democrats out there who can still see beyond the
demands of their far-left base, if there are any Democrats who care
about the damage that this shutdown is doing, then I have the bill
right there at the desk--a clean, nonpartisan continuing resolution to
fund WIC, SNAP, troop pay, air traffic controller pay, farm programs,
housing assistance, our national defense, and every single other
government priority. We just need five Democrats to show some courage
and join the three Democrats who are already with us, and we can get
this government open. That is all it takes.
Everybody knows that in the Senate, it takes 60 votes to do anything.
Democrats come down here and consistently say that Republicans have
control of the Senate, the House, and the White House. The Republicans
in the House, Senate, and White House all agree: Open up the
government. You can't do that in the Senate unless you have 60 votes,
meaning we have to have a few Democrats. We have a few already. We need
five Democrats with a backbone, five Democrats with the courage to take
on that far-left base and say: We care more about the lives of the
American people than about gaining some political leverage.
It just takes five, Mr. President.
Enough is enough. I urge my Democrat colleagues to agree to reopen
the Federal Government and to do it today.
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. 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 Democratic leader is recognized.
Government Funding
Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, this weekend, Americans face a healthcare
crisis unprecedented in modern times. Open enrollment begins in just 2
days, and Republicans have spent the entire shutdown with their heads
in the sand--a shutdown they caused because they would not negotiate
with Democrats.
Republicans are pretending that the ACA premium crisis does not
exist. They should go ask families who are getting their insurance
premium increases today, tomorrow, Saturday.
Republicans have brought Americans to the brink of financial
disaster. They have ignored a growing catastrophe. We have demanded
they act, and they have refused.
[[Page S7835]]
The shutdown is on them. The healthcare crisis is on them. And the
American people will see so this weekend as the bills start coming in.
To show the breadth, depth, and severity of the ACA crisis, if the
ACA enhanced premium tax credits expire, over 20 million Americans will
see their premiums more than double on average. That is a 114-percent
increase according to KFF. That is a fact.
Four million people on ACA plans will lose healthcare coverage
entirely if these tax credits don't get extended. That is also a fact.
If these enhanced tax credits expire, the people hurt, by far, the
most--the people hurt the most--will be working families, people who
live paycheck to paycheck, small businesses owners, farmers, ranchers,
and older Americans. They are all going to be sitting at their kitchen
tables this Friday night or Sunday evening and saying: How the heck are
we going to pay these bills? We can't afford $4,000 a year more for
health insurance.
Do my kids get no healthcare? Do we have to lose the doctors who have
been treating us for a long time? Do we have to travel 50 or 100 miles
to go to a clinic or a hospital?
Are my parents going to be kicked out of their nursing home, and I
will have no place to put them?
This is a fact. People are hurt badly--probably more than by any
other healthcare crisis we have had.
Americans who work more than one job, and Americans who live in red
States will all be hurt. That is a fact.
And here is another one: This crisis didn't come out of the blue. It
is not that people are just learning about it. It is not that Senators
are just learning about it this week.
Democrats have demanded that Republican leaders negotiate with us
about this crisis since the summer. Republicans said no. They put
together a partisan bill that did nothing to improve the healthcare
crisis, that had no input from Democrats, and said: Take it or leave
it.
Republicans had more than three chances this year to vote on
extending these ACA premium tax credits--as far back as February. What
did Republicans say? No, no, and no.
Today, Republicans still insist they will not move a muscle to fix
ACA premiums until it is too late. They have spent the entire shutdown
avoiding talking about healthcare. When that didn't work, they resorted
to lying--just making up total lies--about who gets the healthcare and
who doesn't.
As they trigger a healthcare crisis, they are also now triggering a
hunger crisis. Trump is doing that by halting SNAP benefits and
ordering his own Department of Agriculture to rip its own contingency
plan.
The money is there--over $6 billion in emergency funds that could
keep SNAP going--and Trump has said: Don't spend a dime. We want to use
hungry people as hostages in this crisis.
Trump is a vindictive politician and a heartless man.
Meanwhile, here in the Senate, this is still Leader Thune's position
on the ACA: Let's deal with this house fire later.
But the house is on fire. Republicans are living in a fantasy,
pretending as if the issue will fix itself.
Starting November 1, so many Americans are going to have to make
choices. Do they give up their healthcare? Do they have to take a plan
that has many higher deductibles and copays, with different doctors and
different hospitals, and watch their families suffer when they are
sick?
That is what it reality looks like for people back home. Yet our
Republican colleagues do nothing.
In Louisiana, the average 60-year-old couple, making $85,000 a year,
in a middle-tier plan, will see their premiums increase by $25,700.
That is right. How does that family come up with $25,000?
People in their fifties are looking for their retirement. What are
they going to do?
In South Dakota, that same couple on the same plan would see an
average increase of $26,000. In Florida, it is an annual increase of
$27,000.
Republicans have brought the American people to the brink.
Republicans have refused to do anything. They have sat on their hands
and have stuck their heads in the sand. Now families--millions of
families--from one end of America to the other--mostly, actually, in
red States--face the specter of financial disaster because, when
healthcare costs go up, more people lose coverage, more people get
sick, and more people die. Republicans just don't seem to care.
China
Now, Mr. President, on the China deal, in the middle of the second
longest government shutdown in American history, Donald Trump left the
country and traveled all the way to Asia to meet President Xi. And what
did he do? He bowed down to President Xi. China has called Donald
Trump's bluff, and Donald Trump has folded, leaving American families
and farmers and small businesses to deal with the wreckage from his
blunders, from his erratic on-again, off-again tariff policies.
Americans beware: Trump will spend the next few days trying to spin
the so-called agreement as a win for America, but that is total bull.
Don't believe Trump. He has folded to China. Donald Trump caved to
China in Busan. The so-called deal has left us no better off than we
were before Donald Trump's trade war began. If anything, things are
worse. Prices have gone up. China has agreed to nothing of substance
that will improve trade between our nations.
On soybeans, this has been a total capitulation. Donald Trump's trade
war has decimated soybean farmers in the United States, and, this year,
he is saying: Isn't it great? They will buy half the soybeans--China
will--that they bought last year.
So many farmers are suffering, and then so many other farmers are
seeing that their Chinese customers to whom they sold soybeans are now
making deals in Argentina and Brazil. And those are not 1-year deals.
Those are going to be 3-, 4-, 5-year deals. So the customers that
Americans had are not coming back.
China is still buying fewer soybeans this year from the United States
than before China's trade war. How is that a win for soybean farmers?
Trump's delusion is unbelievable. He starts a trade war; creates a
giant mess for businesses, consumers, and soybean farmers; and then he
celebrates for trying to clean up the very mess he created in the first
place.
Don't believe Trump. Trump has folded on China. Don't believe his BS.
He has created the mess. Now he is trying to clean up the mess, and he
says: Don't I deserve 17 pats on the back?
Americans have heard this old song and dance from China and Trump
before. I have long pushed Presidents of both parties to take tougher
action on China for its rapacious trade policies that have harmed
American workers, American businesses. None--absolutely none--of the
fundamental abuses by China are addressed in this agreement. Trump
didn't even bother talking about China's abuses against American
manufacturing.
He secured no clear actions from China to address their funneling of
chemicals that fuels America's fentanyl crisis. In other words, he says
we are doing something on fentanyl. There is nothing specific--a lot of
lip service. And the fentanyl that China makes--those precursor
chemicals that go to Mexico and then are made into fentanyl and are
flooding across our borders? There is nothing specific, nothing real--
more bunk.
Maybe, most egregiously--and this one I know many of my colleagues on
the other side of the aisle are furious about--he is the first
President in decades to walk back export controls that are vital for
our national security, essentially handing China vital chips necessary
for technologies like AI.
Where are our China hawks from the Republican side? I hope they are
going to speak up and decry this abdication. America is handing out--
Trump is handing out--American-made technology like it is Halloween
candy but straight into the hands of our biggest rival.
In the past, China has been desperate to get this technology, but now
they don't have to worry--Trump is just giving it away. With these
chips that China now doesn't have and can't make themselves, China will
dominate AI in a few years, and it will have severe consequences for
America and for the world.
When it comes to chips, Donald Trump, it is not ``America First'';
for you, it is ``China First'' so you can
[[Page S7836]]
have some picture that celebrates a so-called agreement that actually
hurts us.
America will regret the move of sending these chips to China for
generations. We will come in second on AI if this continues to happen.
They will set the rules of the road, and America's greatness will
diminish--all because Trump wanted to claim a false victory and brag
that he got a deal with Xi.
The list of Trump's capitulations to China goes on and on and on. For
months, Americans have been taking it on the chin, paying higher prices
for everything from appliances to Halloween candy and Halloween
costumes because of Trump's disastrous trade policy. Now, looking at
this agreement, it only begs the question: What was it all for?
Trump had no strategy, no planning, no strategic decision making, and
his bumbling has only emboldened President Xi, who must be laughing all
the way back to Beijing. You flatter Trump with a few words, and he
gives away things that America desperately needs.
When it matters most, when Trump comes face to face with autocrats
and dictators, the American people know Donald Trump is all talk and no
strength.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority whip.
Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I come to the floor today as the
minority leader Chuck Schumer leaves the floor because I saw some very
interesting new polling this week about the Schumer shutdown of our
government. It actually came, of all places, from CNN--not exactly a
Republican-friendly outlet. Let me share what the poll shows.
Since the Schumer shutdown began, approval of Republicans in Congress
is up 5 percent. By contrast, Democrats are now at their weakest and
lowest position in 20 years.
The American people are clearly paying attention to the damage being
wrought on the American people by the Democrats, and the American
people are sick and tired of the Democrats' dangerous political games.
They resent being used by Democrats as pawns, as leverage. They resent
being treated as pieces on a chessboard. Millions resent having their
paychecks held back; now it has been a full month.
Americans know who is to blame for the Schumer shutdown. They heard
the Democrats loud and clear.
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat from Rhode Island, just this
Tuesday called the shutdown ``the only lever we have.'' People are
suffering. To him, it is a lever.
Senator Chris Coons of Delaware said almost the exact same thing last
week to a national television audience. He said:
Frankly, this is our only moment of leverage.
He even admitted that shutdowns are, as he said, an ``unpleasant
tool.'' Then he voted for the 13th time yesterday to use the tool to
keep the government closed.
Food pantries in Senator Whitehouse's home State of Rhode Island are
getting ``slammed.'' Democrats call that leverage. Families in Delaware
are making ``backup plans,'' according to the news, just to get
groceries. Democrats call that leverage. It is not leverage; it is
picking pain--pain for people--for political purposes. It is using
hunger as a bargaining chip. Democrats refer to it as unpleasantness.
We are now 30 days into the Schumer shutdown. It is the longest full
shutdown in the history of this country. For 30 days, Democrats have
chosen leverage over lives, they have chosen politics over paychecks,
and they would rather fight President Trump than feed American
families.
This weekend, 42 million Americans will lose food assistance. Let me
say that again--42 million Americans. That is one in eight; twice as
many Americans as are on the failed ObamaCare exchanges, as the
minority leader was just talking about, which Democrats are still
trying to prop up even though it has failed on its promise to control
costs. As the headline in the New York Times on Sunday said, ObamaCare
is pricey.
Democrats are putting free healthcare for illegal immigrants ahead of
American families, ahead of American seniors, ahead of American
veterans, ahead of American soldiers, and ahead of American workers.
That is their priority--free healthcare for illegal immigrants.
We have citizens in this country, real people in real pain, and they
count on food assistance to put food on the table. Now these families
are living in limbo, and their balance is about to hit zero.
So what happens to them next week if the Democrats keep the
government shut down, as they voted 13 times to do? And what about the
week after that? Families will go hungry because Democrats keep playing
this dangerous political game.
Even some Democrats are calling on the Democrat party to change
course. Listen to the words of Senator Catherine Cortez Masto of
Nevada. She was interviewed, actually, yesterday on CNN. She said:
I don't think federal workers should be political pawns.
She said:
I don't think we should swap the pain of some Americans for
others. I think we should be lifting all of them up and
helping them.
Senator Cortez Masto is one of the few reasonable Democrats who has
been voting for a clean continuing resolution to reopen the government.
Here is the simple truth: Senate Republicans have voted 13 times on a
clean, bipartisan continuing resolution to reopen the government. That
is 13 votes for funding food assistance, for paying the troops, for
paying Federal workers, for paying TSA agents, for paying air traffic
controllers, for paying Border Patrol, for paying Capitol Police, who
are here and have been working for the last month without pay. Every
single time, Senator Schumer and radical Democrats have voted no--voted
13 times against funding food assistance, against paying for our
troops, against paying Federal workers, against paying TSA, against
paying air traffic controllers, against paying Border Patrol, and
against paying the Capitol Police.
Democrats stand here and claim President Trump can fund food
assistance on his own? They know what they are asking him to do is
against the law.
Democrats are not, in the words of Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon,
``powerless'' to fund that program--$9 billion a month. Democrats had
the power 13 times to end the shutdown. They voted no 13 times. The
Democrats are the ones who have the power. They are not powerless; they
are unwilling to help American families.
The Senate should be funding those programs today. We tried again
yesterday. It failed. The clean, bipartisan continuing resolution that
is sitting right there on that desk right now could be passed if we get
Democrats to vote for it. It funds SNAP. It pays our Federal workers.
It pays our troops. It pays TSA agents. It pays air traffic
controllers. It pays Border Patrol agents. It pays Capitol Police. It
reopens the government, which is what we ought to be doing.
We need five more Democrats to say yes.
The most ironic thing about this, the hypocrisy of it all, is that
Democrats had no problem voting for a clean, bipartisan continuing
resolution 13 times when Joe Biden was President. What has changed?
Donald Trump is in the White House. They are not happy about that, and
they are not happy about anybody who voted for him. So now they are
more interested in what they describe as leverage than children going
hungry in this country.
It is no wonder that Republicans' approval rating has gone up, as the
CNN poll shows, and that Democrats' polling has gone down during the
Schumer shutdown to the lowest and weakest point in 20 years.
Enough with the politics of pain. It is time to reopen the
government, and it is time to feed these vulnerable families.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Democratic whip.
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I was just checking the Congressional
Record. You see, we have a tradition here in the Senate. The tradition
is that what we say on the floor is printed and available the next day
right at our desk. It is kind of an amazing thing. It goes back to the
Congressional Record being the record of the proceedings in this body,
and the timely printing of it is part of the history.
[[Page S7837]]
I wanted to check and see, based on the statements made by my friend
and colleague the Senator from Wyoming, whether the Congressional
Record printed yesterday contained the efforts of Democratic Senator
Ben Lujan of New Mexico to fund the SNAP program.
Here it is. The page number is S7808 for the beginning of the debate
by Senator Lujan, who came to the floor and wanted to make sure that we
wouldn't have any gaps in coverage when it came to the SNAP or food
stamp plan across America. You see, the reason he did it was that 42
million people--1 out of 8 people in our population--need help putting
food on the table.
The SNAP program doesn't sound extremely generous--$6 a day. Imagine
if you had to feed yourself with that amount of money each day, the
sacrifices you would make.
So Senator Lujan came to the floor. Why was he taking on this
responsibility? It is because he is the chairman--or the ranking member
now of the subcommittee that funds the SNAP program. He came to the
floor to make sure that there would be no gaps in coverage and that
people would still get their paychecks starting November 1. I call them
paychecks, but they are basically SNAP checks that are a credit for
purchases at the store.
Do you know what happened when he came to the floor? There was an
objection. The objection came from the Republican leader of the Senate.
The Republican leader of the Senate yesterday, on the floor, page
S7808 and 7809--you can find it in the Congressional Record--was asked
if he would approve Senator Lujan's effort to protect all the SNAP
recipients across the United States, and he said no. He objected. He
wanted us to pass another bill. But he had a chance, with Senator
Lujan's request, to make sure that there would be no suffering of
anybody across America because of the SNAP program, and on page S7808,
Senator Thune said no.
Now we have the argument that was made by the Senator from Wyoming
that one of the reasons that it cannot be done is it is illegal. Now,
that is a real hoot, to use a technical term, as far as I am concerned.
So the Senator from Wyoming said it would be illegal in a government
shutdown to feed 16 million kids, 8 million seniors, and 4 million
people on disability during the shutdown. Well, the last record
shutdown under President Trump, in his first term, went for 35 days,
and he kept the SNAP program going.
Was he doing it illegally, I ask the Senator from Wyoming?
I think not.
In fact, the Trump administration, on their own website, acknowledged
that they were going to make this payment under the SNAP plan even with
the government shut down. They put that on their website, and we have
copies of it.
Guess what happened to that assertion on their website. It
disappeared. Just a few days ago, it disappeared. So a program they
used under Trump's first administration, a program that they said they
could follow again under this second Trump administration and second
Trump shutdown, disappeared magically from the website.
So, across America, some 42 million people, 12 percent of our
population, will not be able to put food on the table because of a
decision by the Trump administration not to feed Americans. Of all the
priorities, wouldn't you think that keeping our population--the poorest
among us, the neediest among us--with food on the table would be the
highest priority? Don't you think they could come up with the money for
it?
Well, it seems like the President can come up with money for
Argentina, when he said Argentina is in a terrible economic situation
and he was going to send $20 billion of American tax dollars to
Argentina--that was a week or two ago--and then find $20 billion in the
private sector to also go to Argentina. There was plenty of money for
Argentina but not enough money to pay for the SNAP program.
How can that be? And yet it is the reality.
We have 2 million recipients of SNAP in my home State of Illinois,
and we know we can take care of them. The Trump administration is
making the choice. They have the resources. They have the authority.
They just don't have the political will to take care of the problem.
I was on a radio call-in show in Bloomington, IL, this morning, and
we talked about the SNAP program. A lot of people really depend on it.
A third of the recipients are kids, another third are disabled, and a
third are seniors. They are needy people.
Long before the government shutdown, Congress sent the U.S.
Department of Agriculture funds for this purpose. The U.S. Department
of Agriculture used these funds, as I mentioned, in Trump's first
shutdown, his first decision to not fund the government. In fact, a
month ago, as I mentioned, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's
shutdown plan said this is exactly what they would do: They would pay
the SNAP benefits. And then, when it became public that they made that
claim, that vanished from the website--just a matter of a few days ago.
Why?
During this shutdown, the Trump administration did have the money for
Argentina. The President seems to be able to find money for things that
are important to him. Obviously, SNAP and the benefits are not
important to the President.
Well, I have news for the President. Because of his decision on the
SNAP plan, millions of Americans are going to have to struggle to feed
their families--Americans paying a price for this decision by the
President.
I recently heard from one of them: Michelle, from Hodgkins, IL. She
had a message that goes beyond her letter to me--her email to me--and
really is a message for all Americans. Here is what she said:
You are forgetting about the seniors that are age 60 to 65. I already
cut down my meals to two a day. I really don't want to try to live on
one meal. I take medicine, and I need to eat. My size shows that I have
not been eating. I know for a fact many eat cereal for dinner. It is
filling and cheap.
That is the plight facing poor people if the SNAP program is, in
fact, shut down by President Trump.
Here is another message, from Martin in Macomb:
I am on SNAP due to a disability--epilepsy as well as some
others. I rely on SNAP as well as [Social Security] and
[Disability payments] to survive.
Martin, of Macomb, IL, went on to say:
Most of the people in my building rely on SNAP to pay for
food. I am worried about how I will be able to afford food on
November 1.
And, sadly, there are millions of other individuals who will suffer
in silence because they receive this assistance but basically are
concerned about the stigma that might be attached to them if they say
anything publicly.
Meanwhile, for the past 6 weeks, Republican Members of the House of
Representatives have been gone. I am not sure what they are doing. I
hope they are home at least tending to their constituents, but they
should be in Washington. If we would have passed Ben Ray Lujan's--the
Democratic Senator's--proposal yesterday to fund the SNAP program, we
would have needed action by the House of Representatives, but it is not
here. And it hasn't been here for 6 weeks--6 weeks.
We need them. We need the President, when he comes home from his trip
overseas, to make this a high priority. The House has not held a vote
since September 19. President Trump is tearing down part of the White
House to build a new, lavish $300 million ballroom. Homeland Security
Secretary Kristi Noem found $200 million during the shutdown to buy two
luxury Gulfstream jets for her and her top staff. The Trump
administration sees those efforts as priorities, but it will not send
our most vulnerable American citizens $6 a day to afford to eat.
I suppose nobody should be surprised that is where we are. Under the
President's leadership this summer, the Republican-led Congress passed
their so-called Big Beautiful Bill, which made the biggest SNAP cuts in
history. So the program that they are now refusing to fund at all was
reduced dramatically to make it more difficult to pay out those
payments--food stamp-type payments--to SNAP recipients under the Big
Beautiful Bill, which I will refer to again in a moment. They made the
biggest cuts in the history of the SNAP and Food Stamp Program, cutting
the program by 20 percent, and now they are lamenting on the floor that
they
[[Page S7838]]
just can't pay anything at all; it is illegal for them to pay anything
at all.
We know that is not true.
President Trump has decided we can't wait any longer. He wants to
stop SNAP funding on Saturday and hurt 42 million Americans to teach
the Democrats a lesson--another example of cruelty to people who are
vulnerable by this administration.
I appreciate the leadership of Ben Ray Lujan, my Senate colleague
from New Mexico. He really believes this in his heart of hearts. If the
Congressional Record, which I referred to earlier in my statement, can
be referenced, you can read the words of Senator Lujan, which were
touching because he does care about not just in New Mexico but across
America what this is going to do.
I hope my Republican colleagues will allow us the opportunity to vote
on Senator Lujan's bill today before we leave. Let's make sure that
there is no gap in the program, and let's put away this argument that
was just heard on the floor that somehow it is illegal to feed people.
This week, the Secretary of Agriculture appeared on CBS News to
defend her Agency's refusal to fund SNAP. Here is what she said:
Look at [the President's] record standing behind the ag
community, rural communities. No one has done more than
President Trump to date for those communities in [her]
lifetime.
Well, after abandoning vulnerable families receiving SNAP and helping
South American farmers over U.S. farmers, President Trump and his U.S.
Department of Agriculture has certainly had an unprecedented effect on
American communities but not for the reasons she thinks.
The bottom line as well is bad news for people who may not be
receiving SNAP but are struggling to make payments for hospitalization
insurance. The cost of living continues to go up under the Trump
administration. And the issue which we are trying to drive home to our
friends on the other side of the aisle is it should be a bipartisan
concern, what is happening to health insurance premiums across America.
Take a look. If you are on an Affordable Care Act plan, you are going
to see a dramatic increase. In Illinois and the city of Chicago, people
who are under that plan, thousands of them, are going to see their
health insurance premiums double--double. At a time when they are
struggling to make grocery payments and electric utility payments, they
are going to double. Why? Because the Big Beautiful Bill, the budget
bill of President Trump, passed by all Republican votes--no Democratic
votes--unfortunately, has eliminated the tax credits that were
available to people in middle-income categories.
Who are these people, these faceless people? We will put a face on
them. One out of every four farmers--one out of every four farm
families in our country use the Affordable Care Act. Half of the people
who own small businesses use it. They are the ones who are facing these
heightened premiums.
What we are doing is begging the Republicans to correct the mistake
they made in the Big Beautiful Bill; come forward with sensitivity not
just to those receiving SNAP and food stamps but to the families who
are struggling to make health insurance premium payments. These
families need help. The cost of living goes up for them every single
day, and this is going to be a hardship many of them can't endure.
Millions--literally, millions--of Americans will lose their health
insurance because of the Big Beautiful Bill. We have a chance to
correct it, and we should do it as soon as possible. It is time to sit
down at the table as soon as the President gets over his jetlag and
comes home--to sit down at the table immediately.
The Republican leaders have got to come back to Washington, from the
House, and the Republican leaders in the Senate as well as Democratic
leaders--on both sides. They are the only ones who can solve this.
I have been in Congress for a number of years. I think I have seen
every major shutdown, and I have seen how they all end. There will be
some triggering device that does it. I hope that, whatever it takes, we
get it done and done quickly.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Sheehy). The Senator from Texas.
Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, it is hard to believe, even in a place
like the Nation's Capital that seems so detached from the rest of the
country--but it is hard to believe we have now reached the 30th day of
this completely pointless, profoundly dumb government shutdown at the
hands of Senate Democrats. Senate Democrats have now voted 13 times to
keep the government shut down, blocking the continuing resolution that
has been passed by the House of Representatives weeks ago. That is the
key to unlock the door to this government shutdown.
We are nearing a full month of that shutdown, a shutdown in search of
a rationale. My suggestion is, to our friends across the aisle, that
they need to look in the mirror and listen to their own people. The
American Federation of Government Employees, or AFGE, the largest union
that represents Federal Government employees, called on Congress to
``Reopen the government immediately under a clean continuing resolution
that allows continued debate on larger issues.''
That is exactly what we have asked for, time after time after time,
but to no avail.
Families across America, including the 31 million-plus Texans that I
have the privilege of representing, are continuing to deal with this
uncertainty.
Now, it is true that many people are not directly affected by the
government shutdown, but a lot of people are, including the very people
who are here in this Chamber--our staff, government employees. But it
is much bigger than that. It is not only the Federal employees' union;
it is the military; it is our Border Patrol; it is TSA, the air traffic
controllers. All of these people are working, because their jobs are
deemed essential, without any pay.
One in six Americans live paycheck to paycheck. I haven't heard a
single Senator on that side of the Chamber who said they are
withholding their pay during the government shutdown, which leads me to
conclude that they continue to get paid while they deny the same
benefit to their own staff and the U.S. military and all the other
Federal employees that I have mentioned. If that isn't hypocrisy, I
don't know what is.
And now, at the first of the month, November 1, 42 million Americans
who rely on SNAP, WIC, other nutrition assistance programs--food
stamps--will stop receiving the benefits they rely on as a safety net
to put food on the table. This includes 3.5 million of my constituents
in Texas, 1.7 million of whom are children.
These are among the most vulnerable people in our country. Our Senate
Democrat colleagues are literally taking food out of the mouths of
hungry children because of their stubbornness. It is shameful.
I have been hearing from food banks in Texas who are writing in with
their concerns, saying they will require a 50-percent increase in food
supplies next month in order to keep up with the increased demand for
people who aren't getting paid and people who are being denied this
basic assistance.
Well, what is the rationale? I mentioned a moment ago that our Senate
Democratic colleagues seem to be in search of a rationale for this
profoundly idiotic and dumb shutdown. Well, the Senate Democratic
leader, the fearless leader of our Senate Democrats, said to a news
outlet:
Every day gets better for us.
Of course, that leads to the question, Who is ``us''? Not the 31
million Texans I represent; not the 800,000 Federal Government workers
who are part of the union; not the children who depend on nutrition
assistance to be able to eat.
Well, not to be outdone, House Democratic whip Katherine Clark
recently said:
Of course there will be families that are going to suffer--
As if that is no big deal.
She said:
But it is one of the few leverage times we have.
So all of these Americans, our fellow citizens, who are being harmed
by this shutdown are leverage, political leverage.
I was disappointed to even hear one of the Members on the other side
who I look to as sort of a rare person of common sense among the crazed
Democratic Party these days who said that
[[Page S7839]]
this shutdown would prove to be ``unpleasant'' but then reiterated that
it would somehow give Democrats ``leverage.''
And now Democrats are trying to turn the tables and say it is Trump's
fault. This is surreal.
The American people are the ones paying the price for the
intransigence, the stubbornness, and the idiocy--that is what Chuck
Schumer once called government shutdowns. He called it idiocy. The
American people are paying for the idiocy of the Democrats who continue
to vote against reopening the government. I have to wonder, what do
they say to a mother who can't feed her own child because of their
intransigence and their stubbornness? ``Sorry for the inconvenience;
you are part of our leverage.''
We get paid--they get paid--not me, not people on this side of the
aisle who have had their paychecks withheld in solidarity with the
government employees who aren't getting paid. They get paid, and you
can't feed your kids?
What do they say to the Federal worker, including members of our
staff, people working here in the Senate, who wonder: Can I pay the
utility bill? How about my rent or my mortgage payment? Can I buy
gasoline for my car to take my child to school?
I guess their response is, well, you should expect some
unpleasantness during this shutdown because you are part of our
political leverage.
The best way in this disaster--this nightmare, really--for many
Americans who are directly affected is for just five of our colleagues
on the other side--just five--to vote with Republicans to reopen the
government, to pass this continuing resolution that will take us at
least to November 21. But we have burned so much of the time already
because of the shutdown--it is the 30th of October. This continuing
resolution would open the government until 3 weeks from now, and then
what happens? Are we going to go through this movie again and again and
again?
And then how about those Americans who depend on safe and timely air
travel for their jobs, or maybe they just want to take some time off if
they have some vacation plans. We can no longer depend on the
timeliness, and I fear for the safety of our air traffic control system
because so many air traffic controllers are overstressed and so many
airports are understaffed that they are literally having to shut down
some of the air traffic, and flights are being delayed. And I have no
doubt--or at least I worry that public safety is being endangered.
Earlier this week, Austin Airport, where I live, issued a ground
delay due to air traffic control staffing problems. The same day, over
at Dallas-Fort Worth, one of the largest airports in the country, they
experienced 413 flight delays and multiple flight cancellations due to
staffing shortages.
Air traffic controllers--the people who keep these airplanes flying
safely--will miss their first full paycheck this week. TSA screeners--
the people who are supposed to make sure that air travel is safe--are
similarly working without pay.
One air traffic controller recently said:
The job is stressful enough as it is. [And] now you're
adding this factor of, ``Hey, when am I going to get my next
paycheck?''
They will miss their first one this week, but they don't know if they
are going to get the next one because they don't know how long this
profoundly stupid idea of a government shutdown is going to last.
One Transportation Security Administration worker said that ``morale
is crumbling.''
You know, it is not just imposing a hardship on these innocent
Americans. What does this say about America and our ability to work
together to solve the Nation's problems? It is embarrassing. It should
be embarrassing. In the world's greatest deliberative body--that is
what the U.S. Senate is sometimes called--what a joke. What a joke
Democrats have made of the world's greatest deliberative body when they
have shut down the U.S. Senate and made it impossible for us to pass a
simple, stopgap spending bill that would take us to November 21.
Well, I applaud the men and women who are continuing to go to work to
keep the planes in the air and trains running on time even though they
are not being paid, but it is entirely unfair, unjustified for
Democrats to impose this burden on these individuals. They didn't do
anything wrong.
This is only weeks before the holidays and holiday travel begin in
earnest. If Senate Democrats don't let up soon, you might have to ditch
your Thanksgiving visit with your friends and family. And then who
knows how long this will go on--maybe Christmas. They will be
responsible for families having to cut back on their celebrations
during our holiday season--not just because of delayed air travel or
canceled flights but because they can't afford it. If they are not
getting paid, how are they going to buy the food items that we
typically enjoy during holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas?
What will Senate Democrats tell parents who haven't been paid for an
extended period of time when they have to tell their children ``Well,
Santa isn't coming this year because your mom and dad haven't gotten
paid; we don't have the money''?
Well, all this goes to show the utter callousness, the insensitivity,
and the wrongheaded motivation behind this government shutdown, all so
our friends on the other side can gain leverage. They don't have any
leverage. It is on them.
The American people deserve better than for their elected officials
to treat their livelihoods as political playthings, and that is what is
happening.
So it is high time for our Democratic colleagues to come to their
senses and vote to reopen the government. Is this going to go on
forever? What is their endgame? They don't know. They can't say because
they don't know. They know they have gotten themselves stuck in a
supremely stupid idea, and they can't find their way out of it.
I can make a suggestion. Three of them have already voted for the
House-passed continuing resolution to end this nonsense. We need five
more. Are those five Democratic Senators going to continue to listen to
the Democratic leader, the Senator from New York, who led them into
this box canyon in the first place? He is worried about being thrown
under the bus by a political opponent in the next Democratic primary
election.
This is about retaining power, using innocent Americans as leverage,
with no plan on how to exit this supremely dumb government shutdown.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Florida.
Sunshine Protection Act of 2025
Mrs. MOODY. Mr. President, I rise to the podium today to address my
colleagues as we are headed into one of the darkest times of the year,
when daylight saving time ends and our clocks fall back 1 hour. This
weekend, we will perform the outdated and unnecessary ritual of
changing our clocks.
Most countries don't even observe daylight saving time. The practice
was first adopted in Germany in 1916, and the United States followed 2
years later. The United States did that to save fuel during World War
I. Although most people think it was adopted to give farmers more
daylight, the agriculture industry at the time actually opposed it.
So flash-forward to now. We are still practicing shifting our clocks
twice a year.
In 2018, the great State of Florida, which leads the way on so many
issues--the State where I am proud to say I am the newest U.S.
Senator--Florida became the first State to call for year-round daylight
saving time, but we need Congress to affirm this change through
legislation.
After Florida took that step and led the way, 20 States followed and
have already passed laws or resolutions that would end the practice if
Federal law permitted, and we almost accomplished this.
In 2022, the U.S. Senate voted unanimously to end it, though it went
nowhere in the House.
When we choose not to end this absurd practice, we do so to the
detriment of Americans' health, and it is not just about our health. It
is about parental sanity.
I am a mom with a young kid in school, and that is somewhat of a
rarity here in the U.S. Senate. Yes, I am a rookie here, and I am also
balancing having a kid in school.
And there is nothing more frustrating than changing your clock twice
[[Page S7840]]
a year and forcing your family to adjust to a whole new schedule. In my
experience as a parent dealing with a kid that wanted to be outside
playing sports, who anxiously awaited his law enforcement father to
come home and throw the baseball, not having that extra hour of
daylight was really difficult, especially when all kids want to do, at
the end of their day of school and chores, is to be outside.
Making daylight saving time permanent makes time together as a family
outside with activities possible. We can lock the clock, once and for
all, by passing the Sunshine Protection Act that I have cosponsored
with my fellow Florida Senator Rick Scott.
We don't have to continue to fall back. We can spring forward once
and for all--no more changes, no more anxiety about waking up at the
wrong time or worrying about getting to church on time.
Florida is the Sunshine State. We are proud to lead this mission to
give families more sunshine in their day. And as Florida's newest
Senator, I am renewing the fight and urging my colleagues to put an end
to this archaic practice.
The Sunshine Protection Act has previously passed in the Senate
unanimously. I am hopeful we can come together on this bipartisan issue
once again, especially now that President Trump has said it is time to
lock the clock.
As a Senator but, more importantly, as someone who promotes common
sense in Washington, and as a mother of a young child, I am fully
supportive of ending this onerous twice yearly time change.
With that said, I hope we can count on the Presiding Officer.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oregon.
S.J. Res. 88
Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I rise to promote the passage of S.J. Res.
88, a resolution to repeal Donald Trump's price-hiking global tariffs.
American families are being squeezed by prices going up and up and
up. More than three-quarters of families say their monthly expenses
have increased by more than $100 a month.
There is however, colleagues, something the Senate can do today.
Today, it is possible for the Senate to focus on bringing families
relief to their wallets. Congress can vote to repeal Donald Trump's
trade taxes and stop taking money out of Americans' pockets.
Trump imposed these global tariffs by declaring an economic
emergency. In my view, Donald Trump's actions clearly go beyond what
the law allows, which is why I am urging passage of this bill to
finally end the President's unlawful tariffs.
The average family will see about $2,800 in higher costs because of
the Trump tariffs and taxes. The Senate ought to cancel that tax hike.
Let's cancel this tax hike. Let's cancel this tax hike.
Donald Trump won't do it. He is paying for tax cuts for billionaires
on the backs of working families.
Fortunately, Congress, not the President, has got the final word on
tariffs and taxes and trade. Senators can vote today to end the harmful
and dangerous global tariffs.
It has been 6 months since the Senate tied 49-49 on this same
proposal. Since then, our Nation's trade policy has looked pretty much
like a dog chasing a squirrel: more tariffs threatened, added, taken
away.
Thousands of packages are being destroyed because the Customs Service
wasn't prepared.
There are secretive deals to lift tariffs for certain companies and
products that have influence with the White House.
People across the country are being harmed by tariffs. In my State,
tariffs take a chunk out of the bottom line of everybody, from
blueberry farmers to brewers, to small manufacturers, to our crucial
semiconductor industry. Thousands of good-paying jobs in my State are
under pressure because of tariffs.
In many ways, red States and rural areas are being hit the hardest.
In Columbus, IN, thousands of jobs depend on manufacturing, mostly
diesel engines for export markets. They also use parts from overseas to
make the engines. The mayor of Columbus and business leaders warned
that tariffs are causing economic damage that will take years--years--
to recover from.
Farmers are getting a double whammy from the Trump trade taxes. They
have to pay more for fertilizer and tractors and a variety of inputs,
while their markets overseas evaporate.
In Kansas, farmers harvested a bumper crop this year, 20 percent more
of sorghum than normal. Farmers called it a ``blessing,'' but they are
not better off. Trump's trade war drove buyers to Brazil and Australia.
Prices for American sorghum are less than half of what they were in
2022.
Let me close by way of saying--and I thank my colleague Senator
Kaine. He and I have been on this floor for days talking about the need
to get rid of the Trump taxes.
And we are going to wrap up by saying potato farmers in Oregon,
Idaho, and across the West say the same thing. Buyers in Canada,
Mexico, and China have slashed orders for french fries, hash browns,
and a variety of other frozen potatoes.
The Senate is not a spectator to the workings of the Federal
Government. When it comes to international trade and tariffs, in
particular, the U.S. Congress has clear authority--not authority that
is up for grabs, not authority that hasn't been addressed. It is clear
authority. This is Congress's job. It is not a partisan issue. It is a
jobs issue, a kitchen-table issue.
I urge all Members to support this resolution. Roll back the
arbitrary global tariffs.
I thank Senator Kaine. We have been partners in this effort for
months now.
This is the big issue. This is going to affect people not just in our
country but all over the world, and we will be better positioned to get
more jobs in America if we get rid of these global tariffs.
I yield to my friend.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Virginia.
Mr. KAINE. Mr. President, I rise to speak, and I thank my colleague,
the lead Democratic Senator from the Finance Committee, Ron Wyden, for
his passionate advocacy. And I join him in this effort to get
colleagues in the Senate to vote for the resolution that will be
pending before us to eliminate Donald Trump's global tariff regime
announced in April.
This is a regime that, together with the other tariffs that he has
announced, is leading to serious harm in Virginia, as I have laid out
the last few days: higher prices, fewer jobs, and slower growth.
The IEEPA statute, as I have laid out, allows a President to declare
an emergency when there is an extraordinary and unusual event posing a
serious threat to American national security, foreign policy, or the
economy.
What was that extraordinary and unusual event that Donald Trump used
as the justification for this unilateral tax increase affecting
consumers and businesses? The threat that he declared was the existence
of trade deficits with many nations around the world.
Let me dig into the nonsensical nature of the President's declaration
and the use of trade deficits in the way he has calculated them.
First, the President and his team imposed tariffs based upon trade
deficits in goods. We don't live in the 19th century anymore. We have
an economy that is not just about goods. It is about goods and
services. And if you look at the actual trade figures, including both
goods and services, the United States looks better positioned in
virtually every country when you add in services.
Why doesn't the President be honest with the American public about
the extent of these trade deficits, if they are, in fact, such an
emergency?
The President has used these tariffs to impose tariffs on nations
where we have trade surpluses, like Brazil. He is imposing tariffs on
nations that have no trade barriers to the United States, like Israel
and Singapore. And he is measuring trade deficits the wrong way, by
only including goods, not services.
Second, the President has calculated these trade deficits on goods
without calculating the effect of the population of the countries
involved.
So let me give you an example.
The President says: If we have a trade deficit with Vietnam, they are
ripping us off because they are not buying as much American stuff as we
are buying Vietnamese stuff.
[[Page S7841]]
That is what the trade deficit in goods basically is. We are buying
more of their stuff than they are buying of our stuff.
But hold on a second. Vietnam is a third the size of the United
States. Vietnam is a country with per capita income much lower than
American per capita income. They don't have the purchasing power that
the United States does. So why is it a problem that they aren't
purchasing as much American goods as we are purchasing Vietnamese
goods? They are a smaller country.
It is the same with Canada, the same with Japan, the same with so
many nations around the world. They are dramatically smaller than us,
and so, naturally, they don't have the purchasing power that the
American consumer has.
Finally, and I will conclude with a word about the House after this,
the way that the President has imposed the tariffs is leading to
nothing but chaos: announce tariffs on everyone; then announce that
they may be suspended or delayed while I work out one-on-one deals with
different nations. And I may give an exception to this country or that
industry sector or that company. If you come and plead and make nice
with me, I will give you an exception.
This has led to a chaotic circumstance. When the President announced
the tariff rate with Korea, Toyota's stock--get this. There is going to
be a tariff on Korean imports. Toyota's stock went up. Why did it go
up? Because the rate that he announced was less than the tariff that is
being applied to automobiles coming in from Mexico and Canada, which
has a lot of the content of American automobiles.
It is a strange thing when you are cutting deals with other nations
that disadvantage American production. That is what this chaotic tariff
regime has done, and that is why my businesses around Virginia are
telling me: We want to make investments. We want to grow, but we can't
grow until we know what the rules are.
And every new announcement of a tariff or a delay or a suspension or
an exception or a new deal for some other country that makes our
products competitively disadvantaged slows down investment in Virginia.
The last thing I will say is this. I hope this passes as the two
previous resolutions did. And if it does, it will be up to the House to
take this up.
The House has done something that should really shock people in the
public and in this body. This matter is privileged in the House, as it
is in the Senate. If it passes, House statutes and rules suggest that
it should be taken up for a vote on the floor of the House. The rule in
the House was that it would need to be within the committee for 15 days
and then be reported and then pending for 3 days on the floor. Action
would be taken on these matters within 18 days in the House.
Guess what. The House is so afraid to vote on tariffs, they are so
afraid of the effects these tariffs are having on their constituents,
but equally afraid of crossing Donald Trump, that they passed a rule
that said: For purposes of this and this only--this and this only--the
day to day extends through the remainder of Congress.
So with the 15 days plus 3 days, it ripens in 18 days. Action must be
taken in 18 days. They have defined today as a day that lasts until the
end of Congress. So the matter will never ripen and be privileged in
the House.
If they are that afraid of a vote on tariffs that they would resort
to that kind of legislative chicanery, that should tell us something.
They need to do a discharge petition in the House, put this matter on
the floor, and put every House member on record, as Senators will go on
record, as to whether they are for higher prices or lower prices.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Idaho.
Mr. CRAPO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the following
Senators be permitted to speak prior to the scheduled rollcall votes:
myself for 5 minutes and Senator Sullivan for 10 minutes.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Waiving Quorum Call
Mr. CRAPO. And Mr. President, I also ask unanimous consent to waive
the mandatory quorum call in relation to the Dunlap nomination.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
S.J. Res. 88
Mr. CRAPO. Mr. President, I rise in opposition to S.J. Res. 88, which
would terminate the trade deficit national emergency.
I agree with my colleagues that tariffs should be more targeted to
avoid harm to Americans. I made precisely that point at a Finance
Committee hearing in May.
We should consider more exemptions, whether for unavailable natural
resources, capital equipment, or other key inputs.
It is equally important that enforcement guidance provides the
clarity that U.S. companies need to comply with the tariffs and make
critical business decisions.
Similarly, as the administration continues to negotiate with our
trading partners, I appreciate that my colleagues, as well as our
constituents, may be nervous about what comes next. However, at this
juncture, this resolution is counterproductive to helping American
families and businesses of all sizes.
It is no secret that, for decades, countries around the globe have
raised tariff and nontariff barriers against Americans and against
American businesses and have raised the cost for Americans and American
businesses without response by the United States. President Trump is
now responding and saying these countries need to take down their
tariff and their nontariff barriers and deal with us in fair and free
trade.
The President's negotiations are bearing fruit. President Trump
already announced new trade deals. Just today, because of his
negotiations, President Trump announced that China has agreed not to
implement its rare earth export controls. China also agreed to address
the flow of fentanyl and to purchase soybeans.
Other deals are, hopefully, forthcoming.
Consequently, S.J. Res. 88 is counterproductive to the progress
already made by the President and the new gains he can still achieve in
the ongoing trade negotiations.
On April 30, the Senate rejected this same resolution for these
reasons, and I urge my colleagues to reject the resolution for these
same reasons again today.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alaska.
S.J. Res. 80
Mr. SULLIVAN. Mr. President, we are getting ready to vote on my CRA,
S.J. Res. 80. And, by the away, I appreciated the strong bipartisan
vote yesterday to get on this bill.
This is a really important resolution for our country, for my State,
for the Native people, and the workers of America.
So I am asking my Democrat colleagues to really think hard about
this. I see the Schumer-Heinrich ``Vote no on the Sullivan CRA'' down
there, but I want to make a plea to my Democrat colleagues. You should
vote yes on this S.J. Res--you had one courageous one yesterday,
Senator Fetterman--and here is why: A vote yes on this resolution is a
vote to unleash American energy.
As I talked about yesterday, the best way to undermine Vladimir Putin
and his corrupt regime in Russia is to produce more American energy in
the place with the highest standards in the world. That happens to be
my State. That happens to be the National Petroleum Reserve of Alaska,
which is all about what this CRA is about.
Second, this is really important. My colleagues over there love to
say: Hey, we are the party of the working families, of working
Americans. No, you are not. A vote yes on this resolution is a pro-
union, pro-worker vote. The laborers, operating engineers--they all
want a yes on this. They all produce oil up here.
This is a chance. My colleagues, for too long on the other side of
the aisle, kowtow to the far-left environmental groups at the expense
of working Americans. That is why you are no longer the party of
working Americans. This is a chance. Maybe you won't kowtow to the far
left.
A ``yes'' vote on this S. Res. will also vindicate the rule of law.
[[Page S7842]]
What am I talking about? This is the National Petroleum Reserve of
Alaska. The Congress of the United States--us--in a law said that we
are going to develop this part of my State for oil and gas production.
And Joe Biden came in with a regulation saying: Nope, we are going to
shut that down, violating the rule of law.
If my colleagues on the other side of the aisle really want to
promote the rule of law, they should vote yes.
And, finally, as I mentioned yesterday, this is a vote for the
interests of the Native people of my State. As I said yesterday--here
is a letter I submitted for the Record. The Tribe in this area, the
borough, which is all run by Alaska Natives, elected officials; the
Alaska Native Corporation, all the leaders in this part of my State--
which is what this resolution is all about--all of them, all the
indigenous people, the leaders of this part of my State want this
resolution.
They didn't want the Biden lockup. They came down to Washington, DC,
eight different times to just request a meeting with the Secretary of
the Interior, saying: Don't lock up our lands. This will hurt our
future. This will hurt our life expectancy. This will hurt our jobs.
And the Secretary of the Interior never even met with them, neither
did the President--eight times.
So this is a strong vote for the interests of the indigenous people
of my State.
I will conclude with this: My Democratic friends often bristle when
accused of selling out the interest of working Americans--the men and
women who build stuff, the unions that build stuff, the building
trades, the men and women who drill for oil and gas and mines and rare
earths and critical minerals. Well, here is an opportunity for them to
say: No, we are going to stand with the people who build this great
Nation.
My friends on the other side of the aisle often talk about: Hey, we
are going to support indigenous people, people of color. Well, here is
an opportunity to do it.
But what I fear, what has happened way too much in this body, these
interests--working Americans, building trades, the unions, the Native
people of my State--they always get sold out to what? The far left,
coastal elites, the radical neocolonialists. That is why Heinrich and
Schumer are down there saying: Vote no on the Sullivan resolution.
But I know some of my colleagues know that a ``yes'' vote is the
right thing to do. It is the right thing to do for our energy
dominance. It is the right thing to do for our foreign policy. It is
the right thing to do for working Americans who have fled the
Democratic Party over issues like this. And it is the right thing to do
for the indigenous people of my State.
I hope I get a couple more Democrat Senators who cross the aisle.
Don't listen to your leader. Don't listen to Senator Heinrich, for
God's sake, on this issue. Vote yes on this important resolution for
America and for working families and the Native people of Alaska.
I yield the floor.
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