[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 183 (Monday, November 3, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7860-S7866]
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 bill by title.
The legislative clerk read as follows:
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, it is November--November. It has been 5
weeks since Democrats shut down the government, and once again, we
start this week by asking, is this the week that Democrats end their
shutdown?
I have said before that there are no winners in a government
shutdown. There are no winners, but there are plenty of losers. Chief
among them is the American people. As the senior Democrat from Virginia
said just last year, ``Shutdowns aren't victimless crimes.'' And, after
5 weeks, the victims of the Democrats' shutdown are starting to pile
up.
Military families have turned to food banks in significant numbers,
and they are not the only ones. Food banks in this area and around the
country have seen an influx of Federal workers who are missing
paychecks due to the shutdown. And things are set to get much worse
with SNAP running on limited emergency funds and its future uncertain.
Thanks to the Democrats, millions more Americans--millions--are now at
risk of going hungry. Yet the Democrats' shutdown marches on.
Of course, letting Americans go hungry is just the beginning. Thanks
to Democrats, Head Start Programs are beginning to close, housing
assistance programs are at risk, seniors and people in rural areas
can't access telehealth services, National Guard training is on hold,
and veterans programs are on pause. I am sorry to say I could go on.
Actually, I could go on for a while. Shutdowns have consequences, and
the pain is being felt around the country.
Last week, it seemed that Democrats were beginning to acknowledge
that their shutdown was having consequences. We even heard Democrats
express concern that Americans were suffering. But when they were given
the chance to end all of that suffering, the vast majority of Democrats
in this body were perfectly willing to prolong the shutdown and the
American people's pain. The vast majority of Democrats voted once again
against a clean continuing resolution--the only bill on offer that
could end all this suffering literally in a matter of hours. It is the
only bill in the Senate that would fix every single issue I just
mentioned. It would pay our troops and fund SNAP, Head Start, veterans
programs, and pay our staffers.
Three Democrat Senators already support that clean continuing
resolution.
The Democrat from Maine, who supported the clean CR in the House,
said:
There is a lot of important work to be done in Congress,
none of which will be any easier if Mainers are suffering the
harms of a government shutdown.
The Teamsters Union and the American Federation of Government
Employees--more traditionally allies of Democrats, to be frank--have
called for Congress to spare the American people further pain and to
pass the clean continuing resolution, and they are far from the only
ones.
It should not be this hard for a handful of Democrats to support a
clean bill that simply reopens the government. It is a very
straightforward proposition. It is a 24-page bill that is sitting right
here at the Senate desk--not a single new Republican policy, no
partisan policy riders, nothing that Democrats haven't supported before
on numerous occasions. It just reopens the government, and it is just
five Democrat votes away from being sent to the President, who would
sign it literally in a matter of hours.
This bill is also the quickest way to get to discussions about
healthcare--that is, if Democrats are serious about solving the
ObamaCare problem and not just interested in using it as a political
issue. As I have said more times than I can count, Republicans are more
than willing to have a healthcare discussion with Democrats. In fact,
had Democrats voted to reopen the government last week, President Trump
would be meeting with them this week.
Unlike Democrats, who want to continue papering over the
unaffordability of ObamaCare forevermore, Republicans have ideas for
actually lowering healthcare costs--and lowering costs not just for
Americans on ObamaCare but also for seniors, vulnerable Americans, and
the majority of Americans who get their healthcare through their
employers. So we are ready and willing to have that discussion, but
first Democrats need to stop playing politics with people's lives and
reopen the government.
[[Page S7861]]
Airline travel is snarled. Small businesses are suffering. Hundreds
of thousands of Americans are working without pay. And now 40 million
Americans in need are at risk of losing their food stamps.
So the question is, How long--how long--are Democrats going to
continue this? Another month? two? three? How much suffering is enough
for Democrats?
The bill is sitting right there. We have voted on it 13 times
already. We will get that opportunity to vote on it a 14th time
tomorrow. For the sake of the American people, let's hope that at least
some Democrats can see their way to ending this and ending it soon.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. 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.
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, last Friday, the courts spoke loudly.
They spoke clearly: Donald Trump cannot block SNAP benefits and treat
hungry Americans as political pawns.
The stories from the weekend were shameful and sickening: people
overwhelming food banks, handing out groceries in lieu of Halloween
candy, teachers paying out of pocket to give their students extra food.
Across America, appalling scenes were seen of people worried they
wouldn't be able to feed their families and even themselves. This is
appalling, and the courts did the right thing to step in to follow the
law.
But the Trump administration still refuses to fully comply. A few
hours ago, the administration announced that it will provide only
partial SNAP benefits to 42 million Americans facing food insecurity,
even though the courts affirmed that the USDA has the transfer
authority to ensure everyone can receive full benefits. Everyone can
get full benefits. The only person standing in the way is Donald
Trump--Donald Trump.
Even after the courts have spoken, the administration continues to
use kids, seniors, disabled Americans, and working parents as political
pawns, dangling the threat of hunger over their heads.
Providing partial benefits is not enough, is not compliant with the
law, and it is particularly cruel of Trump with the Thanksgiving season
around the corner. Let me say this: Providing partial SNAP benefits is
a floor and cannot be a ceiling. Let me repeat. Providing SNAP benefits
is a floor, not a ceiling.
The administration must do more, and the courts should do everything
they can to force this administration--cruel as it may be manipulating
hungry people, as it is doing, the courts must make sure that full
benefits are restored. Only Trump is standing in the way.
Healthcare
Mr. President, on open enrollment, it was a bitter, stressful weekend
for millions of Americans, but you would never guess it listening to
Donald Trump. Let's start with open enrollment, which began Saturday.
If you look at the papers this weekend, the phrase that everyone used
was ``sticker shock''--``sticker shock.'' While Donald Trump is
bragging about remodeling bathrooms at the White House, Americans are
panicking about how they will afford healthcare next year.
I read an article from ABC News that interviewed a photographer from
Utah who gets her healthcare through the ACA. She will go from paying
$495 a month--already outrageous--to $2,100 a month--an increase more
of than four times. It is more than her mortgage.
That is Donald Trump's America: Americans pay more for healthcare
than they do on their mortgage. It is outrageous, and it just puts an
anchor, a financial anchor, around the ankles of every family.
And what is Donald Trump doing in the middle of all of this, this
horrible sticker-shock crisis that people are just feeling so awful
about? Well, if you watched Donald Trump this weekend on ``60
Minutes,'' you saw a President utterly dismissive of the pain his
policies have caused working people. While people are paying more for
everyday expenses, Donald Trump went on TV to insist that everything is
fine. He claimed, yet again, that we have no inflation in this country.
The only problem: That is a lie.
Trump, talk to the average American and tell them they have no
inflation as they are paying more for everything; particularly this
weekend, they learned how much more they are paying for healthcare.
Inflation
Mr. President, inflation has accelerated--actually accelerated--since
the start of Trump's trade war. Donald Trump also celebrated that
grocery prices are ``going down.'' Which grocery store does he shop in?
Probably none. But when Donald Trump celebrates that grocery prices are
going down, it is a surprise to people who actually shop at grocery
stores because they are seeing prices go up and up and up.
When Donald Trump was asked what he is doing to end the shutdown, he
said his usual nonsense: It is the other side's fault.
It is utterly ridiculous. Donald Trump is the President. People look
to him to negotiate, to fix problems.
Finally, I will note this: Donald Trump was also asked several times
what his plan is for fixing healthcare. And what was his answer? Pure
gibberish because he doesn't have a plan for healthcare.
The only plan Republicans have for healthcare seems to be to
eliminate it and then to tell working people to go figure it out on
their own. That is not a healthcare plan; that is cruel. But it is what
Republicans have tried to do with healthcare for decades. We all
remember the moment when John McCain rebuked his party to preserve it.
Democrats have been very clear from the start. We need to lower
people's healthcare costs. We need to reopen the government. We need to
extend the ACA premium credits. That is what a majority of Americans
want.
Remembering Omer Neutra
Mr. President, now on Omer Neutra, my late constituent from New York.
Today is a bittersweet day of heartbreak and relief. Two deeply
anguishing years after Hamas brutally murdered Neutra on October 7,
finally--finally--Omer Neutra's remains have been returned to Israel.
Omer was a proud New Yorker, a Long Islander, a constituent of mine.
I have met with his family many, many times since October 7, and I have
been so inspired by their courage, their strength, their resolve.
Nothing--nothing--will ever reverse the pain of losing their beloved
son. Nothing will erase that pain. But after long last, Omer can now be
laid to rest in a proper burial. May his memory be a blessing.
Still today, the remains of eight more hostages murdered by the
brutal Hamas remain in captivity, including that of another New Yorker,
Itay Chen. We will never stop working until every last hostage is home.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Democratic whip.
Immigration
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, last week, I came to the floor on
Wednesday to tell the story of some high school kids in Chicago. They
did a remarkable thing last Tuesday, 6 days ago. These kids live in a
neighborhood known as Little Village, and they go to high school
there--to some well-respected high schools--Little Village Lawndale
High Schools.
They decided on Tuesday to stage a parade in Little Village to
protest what ICE is doing to that community and to the city of Chicago.
It was peaceful. It was constructive. They marched several blocks,
carried copies of the Constitution with them, American flags, Mexican
flags, signs that they had prepared. I remember one, and I may misstate
exactly what it said, but it basically said: Our parents have done so
much to protect us. Now we are going to do everything we can to protect
them.
I went, on Friday, to meet with these students. It turned out they
were all girls--all women Latina students. For some reason or another,
the boys didn't get into the organization, though they did participate
in the parade. These
[[Page S7862]]
young women--about 15 of them--sat with me in a room, and we talked for
over an hour about their deepest personal emotional feelings about what
was happening to their families and what they did to stage this parade.
I have been to a lot of meetings with a lot of so-called experts in
this country about its future, but I learned more in that hour with
those girls, those young women, than in many of those other meetings.
They knew exactly what they were doing was dangerous. Their parents
had warned them not to stage a parade because the ICE agents had been
in the neighborhood in the previous 2 weeks, but they were determined
to do something and say something. Most of them were in tears as they
talked to me about what they felt personally about this experience.
One of the leaders said: I am an American. I was born here. I love
this country, and I want to be part of it. Look what it is doing to our
families.
And another young woman broke down when she said that, right before
the parade happened, her father had been detained. She said in tears,
over and over again: My father is not a criminal.
Her father has been involved for 7 years to try to get his
citizenship status cleared up. He has been back and forth in court. He
was in the process of doing this when he was detained and has been
spirited off somewhere we don't know.
I thought of that experience and what both those young girls had been
through, and I thought about the courage they showed, their love of
this country, their determination to be part of it. But their love of
their family and their willingness to risk everything for their
parents, that is the reality of life in Chicago and in many
neighborhoods today. When President Trump announced publicly that he
was going to send in the military, if necessary, but the ICE forces to
go through Chicago, he said he was looking for rapists and murderers
and terrorists and the criminally insane. He said it over and over
again.
Well, guess who he is arresting. Guess who they are detaining. They
have yet to report one rapist, murderer, or terrorist. They are taking
people--they are taking the man who sells the tamales on the corner--I
am not kidding--a 75-year-old man who sells what they call elote, which
are corncobs that they steam and are very popular in the community.
Rapists, murderers, terrorists, criminally insane--no. Some of them
are clearly out of status in their citizenship papers. Some are
American citizens. Of all the people that they have arrested and
detained, 70 percent of them have no criminal record--no criminal
record--and yet they are being harassed.
So they picked the weekend to do that--this last weekend--which is so
special to so many American families. I think, if I had to pin my wife
down on her favorite holiday, it would be Halloween. She loves it. She
gets these big bowls of candy, and the kids come from everywhere in our
neighborhood in Springfield. And they did this last Friday. I am sure
many of us had a similar experience. The kids are so excited to get
free candy and show off their costumes, and she greets everyone like
they are her grandkids. It is a personal thing.
We were worried about this last Halloween weekend in Chicago because
of the ICE forces that were roaming the streets. Governor Pritzker
asked for a special favor. He asked the ICE agents to take off
Halloween night. Spare the kids. Don't make them worry about whether,
when they go out for candy, somebody is going to be arrested. I joined
him in that plea. I thought it was common sense.
You know what happened? Kristi Noem, who is the Secretary of DHS,
said: By no means; we are going out, if necessary. And they did.
The ICE agents went to Evanston, which is a town just north of the
city of Chicago. There was an incident that occurred there which was
incredible. The ICE agents were roaming through the town looking for
landscape workers.
Well, guess what is going on. Those landscape workers are raking
leaves. They are doing the work that they do every year, that we count
on them to do. And this year ICE was going to arrest them, and they
did.
Terrible things happened too. There was a long story, and I ask
unanimous consent that the story from the Chicago Tribune be printed in
the Record at this point.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
[From the Chicago Tribune]
On Halloween, `State-Sponsored Terror' in Chicago and the North Suburbs
(Jonathan Bullington, Gregory Royal Pratt, Alice Yin, Tess Kenny,
Richie Requena, Brian Cassella, Laura Turbay, Rebecca Johnson)
In Albany Park, they fired pepper-spray balls to disperse
an angry crowd and arrested two U.S. citizens. In Evanston,
one repeatedly pointed his weapon at protesters while another
knelt on a man's back and punched him in the head.
They grabbed workers at an apartment complex in Hoffman
Estates, landscapers, house painters and laborers in Edison
Park, Skokie and Niles.
Despite pleas from Gov. JB Pritzker to pause federal
immigration enforcement operations while children celebrate
Halloween, teams of Border Patrol agents--including one led
by Cmdr. Greg Bovino--tore through Chicago's Northwest Side
and nearby suburbs Friday, sparking violent clashes with
community members throughout the day.
In a statement provided late Friday, a U.S. Department of
Homeland Security spokesman said five Mexican citizens were
detained in the raids. None of them had violent criminal
histories, according to the information released by DHS.
Three U.S. citizens were also arrested for ``violence
against law enforcement,'' the statement said.
One of the first reported encounters took place around 9:30
a.m. in Albany Park. There, witnesses spotted three vehicles
carrying federal agents along West Lawrence Avenue near North
Kedzie Avenue.
A crowd quickly gathered on the street, drawn by the sound
of car horns and whistles--what's now become a familiar
soundtrack of public resistance in the Chicago area to the
U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Operation Midway
Blitz.
Neighborhood resident Olivia Dunn and Alivia Olson said
they were walking back from a coffee shop when they saw three
agents, two clad in camouflage, handcuffing their friend, a
U.S. citizen who lives in the same building as them. Video
from the scene shows their friend face down on the pavement
in front of a business on Lawrence. One agent is heard in the
video telling both women that their friend assaulted a
federal agent.
The video goes on to show their friend being led into the
back of a black truck with a Missouri license plate.
``It's horrible,'' a visibly shaken Dunn said of her
friend's arrest.
Moments after their friend was detained, federal agents
arrested a second man, who witnesses said had tried to
intervene as agents were trying to yank someone from a
vehicle that pulled out of an alley and into their path.
Video from the scene shows a dark-colored Toyota Prius
trying to turn onto Lawrence from an alley. The Prius appears
to be unable to leave amid the crowd of people. An agent
approaches and opens the driver's side door. A woman in pink
tries to step between the agent and the driver.
As an agent tries to move her, she leans down into the open
driver's seat while 33rd Ward Ald. Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez
opens the passenger side door and, with a second person,
pulls the woman free from the agent's grasp.
The agents continue trying to grab someone from the Prius.
One stops to shove Rodriguez-Sanchez as she approaches them,
then a man steps in front of the driver's open door. The
agent turns back, grabs the man around his shoulders and
slams him to the street.
Someone in the crowd screams: ``Don't (expletive) touch
him!''
A masked agent is seen holding what looks to be a pepper
ball gun. Multiple white chalk-like marks were visible on the
street where witnesses said agents fired pepper balls toward
the ground to disperse the crowd. Video shows the Toyota
driving from the scene.
Chicago police arrived and helped clear a path for agents
to leave, drawing sharp rebukes from those gathered on the
sidewalk.
It's unclear why agents were in the neighborhood. A Border
Patrol spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request
for comment.
After agents and police left, Rodriguez-Sanchez talked
about the arrests on social media, saying she understood both
men arrested by agents were U.S. citizens.
``They came to terrorize our community,'' she said of the
federal agents, before thanking the community's response.
`State sponsored terror'
Perhaps the most troubling clashes between federal agents
and the public played out in Evanston.
A 54-year-old Evanston resident told the Tribune that she
saw agents detain two of her neighbor's landscapers Friday
morning.
``That's when I said to myself, `You know what, I should be
recording this.' And so I ran into my house to get my
phone,'' said the woman, who asked her name not be used.
[[Page S7863]]
The officers tried to grab a third landscaper, but they let
him go after he insisted he was an American citizen,
according to a video the woman shared with the Tribune. Her
daughter's middle school went on soft lockdown shortly after.
``It feels like state-sponsored terror,'' the woman said,
``The two men that they took today, they probably have
children. Their kids were probably expecting them to come
home and go trick-or-treating with them.''
The most chilling part, she added, was that an hour and a
half later the landscaping company returned with a new set of
workers to finish the project on her neighbor's yard.
``Can you believe that? Like, that's the people that
they're taking,'' the woman said. ``It is so upsetting to me.
I just think that these are not hardened criminals. This is
really intended to just scare people.''
In a separate Evanston incident, librarian Kerry Littel
captured on video a federal agent kneeling on a man's back
and apparently punching him on the side of the head while
residents shouted, ``He can't breathe!''
The man was apparently detained after a crash with
officers. Littel said she did not see the crash but was told
it was caused by federal agents.
``They had yanked his shoes off, they were shoving him on
the ground multiple times. It got to the level where they
punched him. They kicked him. They slammed his head on the
ground,'' Littel said. ``I'm angry that I stopped the video.
The community just started coming and trying to protect this
kid. This kid needs help. He seriously was battered.''
Lindsey Rose, a school administrator at Evanston Township
High School, also witnessed the scene at Oakton and Asbury
and called the punches ``violent and horrific.'' She said it
appeared like the man had a concussion after the incident
because ``his eyes were like gone.''
Rose said another agent, on the passenger side of their
vehicle, repeatedly pointed a weapon at onlookers while
attempting to restrain a woman. She said the agent started
getting ``frustrated'' while trying to force the woman in the
car, and then he ``whipped out his gun.''
A video she took shows the agent at least twice pulling a
weapon out of his holster while people shout ``put the gun
away.'' Rose said other agents pointed what appeared to be
pepper spray at them.
``We were screaming and filming, and that's when the
officer pulled the gun out and pointed it at us and
threatened to shoot us,'' Rose said. ``We were posing no
immediate threat to him, and we were filming and making
noise.''
She described the scene as something out of an ``apocalypse
movie,'' and questioned how it could be real.
``It was terrifying,'' Rose said. ``I mean, they had the
most soulless eyes, it was so horrific. How could you treat a
human like this?''
The Evanston Police Department said its officers responded
to the crash while paramedics gave medical care to those
exposed to pepper spray. The enforcement actions drew a swift
rebuke from local leaders, who held a news conference
blasting the presence of federal agents on streets hours
before children were expected to trick-or-treat for
Halloween.
The Department of Homeland Security said the incident
started when a car that was ``aggressively'' tailgating
federal agents crashed into a border patrol vehicle.
According to the statement, a ``hostile crowd'' began
spitting and verbally abusing the agents, prompting them to
deploy pepper-spray projectiles.
The DHS statement did not address the agent pointing his
gun or the man who was punched.
``These confrontations highlight the dangers our agents
face daily and the escalating aggression toward law
enforcement. The violence must end,'' the statement read.
Littel, meanwhile, said she was ``still shaking'' well
after recording the encounter.
``If they think this is creating safety by quote unquote
removing criminals, this is creating a much more dangerous
situation,'' she said. ``I'm blown away. I'm flabbergasted.
I'm still trying to process what just happened and the
aggression and the physical force that was used. It just
doesn't make sense to me. I can't wrap my head around what I
just saw.''
`I'm not proud'
While agents were leaving Albany Park, 25 miles west in
suburban Hoffman Estates, Efrain Cuevas said he saw eight
vehicles with black-tinted windows surround 30 to 40 workers
on a window improvement project at an apartment complex.
Everyone yelled ``ICE'' and scattered, Cuevas said. Agents
gave chase, detaining three people. The agents asked for the
workers' wallets and documentation, he said, and searched
through the vehicles of those who didn't respond.
Cuevas, 24, said he trained with the U.S. Marine Corp for
four months.
``I remember when I first went to boot camp I was proud to
wear the uniform, proud to say I was a Marine,'' Cuevas said.
``Now it's something I don't share anymore, because I'm not
proud. Now we live in a world that looks like the government
is turning the military against the citizens.''
`I didn't vote for this'
Around 11 a.m., a caravan of federal agents was spotted on
Chicago's Northwest side and nearby suburbs. Led by Border
Patrol Cmdr. Greg Bovino, a dozen agents detained people in
Edison Park, Skokie and Niles. They stopped landscapers,
house painters and laborers to ask for proof of citizenship
or legal residency, taking those who couldn't immediately
prove their status into custody.
A man was tackled on the sidewalk in front of Frederick
Stock Public School while a resident watched and asked, ``Are
you proud of yourselves?''
The detainees were put into SUVs, then driven to an
industrial area where they were loaded into passenger vans
and spirited away.
One carpenter ran when he saw the patrol. When the agents
caught the man, they seemed surprised that he was able to
prove he was legally in the United States.
``Why did you run?'' the agent asked.
The agents also confronted a man pouring concrete in Edison
Park on Chicago's Far Northwest Side. When he showed them his
proper paperwork, Bovino complimented the man on his
concrete-pouring skills.
Skokie resident Morgan Krupinkski said two workers from an
American company, The Scottish Plumber, were doing flood
control work on his property in the 8300 block of Harding
Avenue when federal agents' vehicles came down the
residential street. The agents stopped and demanded documents
from both workers, who were able to produce evidence they
were U.S. citizens.
``I'm angry,'' said Krupinski, who identified himself as a
Republican and a conservative. ``As someone who believes in
the Constitution, for someone to be stopped by federal agents
because of the color of their skin and their appearance, and
to be asked for papers is completely unimaginable and
completely unconstitutional, because where is probable cause?
Where is reasonable search and seizure? They're working in a
residential neighborhood.
``And as someone who voted for this president, I didn't
vote for this. I didn't vote for people to be harassed, I
didn't vote for people to be brought out at gunpoint with
machine guns, and to harass Americans.''
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, when you read this article, you realize
what is happening here. These ICE agents, whom Kristi Noem calls her
``dream team,'' they have completely ignored the Constitution when it
comes to due process. They are snatching up people right and left. Who
are their targets? The Hispanic population, for sure, or anyone who
looks Hispanic, or anyone who lives in a Hispanic neighborhood, or
anyone who stands on the street corner with a whistle to try to warn
off people that the ICE agents are coming, and certainly those who are
in the occupations normally filled by immigrants like landscape
workers.
Those are the targets. This is a ``racist'' effort. I use that word
advisedly. It is a racist effort. It is not about terrorists and
murderers and rapists. It is about people with an accent, people who
look like they are Hispanic.
Well, that is what happened in the city of Evanston. And their vans--
unmarked vans--roamed through the neighborhoods. These masked secret
police of the immigration Agencies were roaming through the
neighborhoods looking for anyone who appeared to be Spanish. That is
what they did.
I want to read a statement. They pulled over a man, certainly not
Spanish. His name is Morgan Krupinski, part of the great Polish
population of the city of Chicago. Listen to what he had to say after
he watched the ICE agents go through his neighborhood in Skokie.
Skokie resident Morgan Krupinski said two workers from an
American company, The Scottish Plumber--
That is the name of the company--
were doing flood control work on his property in the 8300
block of Harding Avenue when federal agents' vehicles came
down the residential street. The agents stopped and demanded
documents from both workers, who were able to produce
evidence they were [in fact] U.S. citizens.
``I'm angry,'' said Krupinski, who identified himself as a
Republican and a conservative. ``As someone who believes in
the Constitution, for someone to be stopped by federal agents
because of the color of their skin and their appearance, and
to be asked for papers is completely unimaginable and
completely unconstitutional, because where is probable cause?
Where is reasonable search and seizure? They're working in a
residential neighborhood.''
And then he said:
``And as someone who voted for this president, I didn't
vote for this. I didn't vote for people to be harassed, I
didn't vote for people to be brought out at gunpoint with
machine guns, and to harass Americans.''
That is in the article that I put in the Record.
So I say to my Republican friends: If you think you are winning in
the popular vote with this approach, think twice. This is not American.
This is not necessary. This is intimidation--and intimidation felt by a
high school in Little Village in Chicago and intimidation felt by a
suburb north of Chicago which is not usually characterized
[[Page S7864]]
as Hispanic in nature, but they were going after the workers who were
raking the leaves.
It is really an amazing historical experience, constitutional
experience, that we are facing, and it is one that we won't soon
forget.
And as I reflect on going back every weekend and seeing further
evidence of this travesty, I think--bottom line--there are good stories
coming out of this as well: neighbors who finally gather together with
their neighbors in the neighborhood and stand up for those who are
being harassed by ICE and its Agencies.
Recognizing Manny's Delicatessen
Mr. President, there is another thing that is going on, too, that
seems to be totally unrelated, but I want to call it out.
If you are looking for a kosher delicatessen in Chicago, let me tell
you my favorite: Manny's. It is right off Roosevelt Road in downtown
Chicago. The Raskin family has owned this deli for many years--80, in
fact. Danny Raskin, a grandson of the founder of the delicatessen, is
running it today. He is a wonderful young businessman. He is struggling
with the impact of the trade war and the impact of increasing costs for
the basic products he sells. But you won't find a better pastrami
sandwich, a corned beef, or a latke or kreplach soup anywhere. Manny's
is one of the best.
Why do I break in with this advertisement for Danny Raskin? I want to
tell you why. Manny's Deli, located right by the University of Illinois
at Chicago, has been a legend in the community for eight decades. If
you walk into Manny's, you will see a microcosm of the city of
Chicago--people from everywhere, every kind of background--joined
together over a fondness for his hearty portions and delicious
sandwiches.
Manny's has been a staple in this community. Today, they announced
they will provide free meals for those on SNAP--free meals. Why has
Manny's found it necessary to feed those on SNAP? Because President
Trump became the first President in history to deliberately disrupt the
processing of November's SNAP benefits, jeopardizing 42 million
Americans' food security.
Although the Department of Agriculture was told by two Federal courts
that they had the authority to fully fund SNAP, today they announced
they will only pay half of the November benefits. That is going to
cause a real hardship for millions of Americans on what used to be
known as the Food Stamp Program.
Thankfully, Manny's Delicatessen in Chicago is willing to do what the
Trump administration is not--working to make sure that nobody in their
city goes hungry. They are going to offer a sandwich, potato pancake,
and some desert to the people who come in with SNAP cards. I am
grateful to the great staff at Manny's and their owner Danny Raskin for
their generosity as SNAP payments are cut under President Trump.
But Manny's isn't the only restaurant in the city of Chicago helping
those on SNAP; it is one among many stepping up across Chicago to make
sure Illinoisans don't go hungry. Tazza Italian Ristorante, Wooden
Paddle, and one of the better pizza places, Lou Malnati's, and other
restaurants as well are offering SNAP recipients free or discounted
lunch during the month of November. I am grateful for their assistance
as Chicagoans face the reality of President Trump's cruel SNAP cuts.
I hope that we here in Washington will learn from the kindness
demonstrated by these restaurants and that we will work as hard as they
do to feed and keep Americans safe.
Let me just add in closing that there is another man involved in this
story, and I want to mention his name. It is Wayne Gordon. Wayne Gordon
has been the minister at Lawndale Christian Church for over 40 years.
He graduated from Wheaton College, went into the ministry after he
coached basketball at Farragut High School, and started the church in
the Lawndale section--a poor, largely Black section of Chicago. But he
and his wife moved there 40 years ago and still live there to this day.
They started Lawndale Christian.
He is an evangelical minister who prays for me every day, thank
goodness, and I try to return the favor. But I am sure he is the mentor
that Danny Raskin mentioned as his inspiration for providing this food.
Hats off to Coach Wayne Gordon and Danny Raskin for this amazing
display of care at a time when it is needed more than ever.
Mr. President, let me close saying this: We can solve this problem in
the Senate, and we can do it this week. There is no excuse. The
President is back from his trip overseas. The House can be called into
session and return--and they should be--sooner rather than later. We
can sit down and work out the problem of what to do with skyrocketing
health insurance premiums.
Let me tell you what I have been told by the Illinois Department of
Insurance. They told me that health insurance premiums are going to
double in the northern part of our State, near Chicago, and triple in
the rural, smalltown sections downstate--triple the current level of
health insurance premiums. How in the world will families struggling to
get by paycheck to paycheck manage that?
That is a legitimate question. My Republican friends should join me
in asking that question, and they should go beyond these vague
references the President made last night on ``60 Minutes'' about ``We
have some ideas.'' I have heard that for years now, and we don't know
what those ideas are.
What we should do is sit down and work together to solve both
problems. Open up the government, which we can do when we reach an
agreement--and we can going forward--on health costs that are going to
make 24 million Americans lose their health insurance.
We all should share feelings about the families that are struggling
with this--both things--and we can do it if we work together. Drop the
fanfare. Close the door. Find a table. Invite the President and the
leaders, Republican and Democrat. Get it done this week. We can do it.
I believe we can if we have the will to. I hope some of the people will
step up on the other side of the aisle and join in this bipartisan
effort. That is the only way to end this government shutdown.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas.
Waiving Quorum Call
Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to waive the
mandatory quorum call with respect to Tung nomination.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Government Funding
Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, we are now over a month into a shutdown
caused by the refusal of Senate Democrats to vote for a short-term,
stopgap spending bill that expires November 21. So much time has passed
that we are now only 3 weeks out from that new deadline even if they
were to vote to pass this short-term funding bill that has passed the
House of Representatives.
This cannot be explained by logic or reason; this can only be
explained by politics and by the Democratic leader's desire to keep his
job and to survive in the next election because he is afraid of his own
political party and that they will throw him overboard if he were to
agree to a short-term, stopgap spending bill, which we did 13 times
when President Biden was in office.
But we are also hearing that they want us to negotiate the expiring
Biden COVID-era subsidies for the ObamaCare exchange. Since they want
to talk about that, I would just reiterate what President Trump has
said, what Speaker Johnson has said, and what the majority leader of
the Senate has said: We are happy to talk about anything and everything
you want to talk about once you reopen the government.
But since Democrats brought it up and since they still insist on
keeping the government shut down, endangering people flying, causing
enormous inconvenience at the international Bush Airport in Houston--
there is a 3-hour wait for people to simply get through the security
line at TSA.
We know that 42 million people have been denied access to
supplemental nutrition--some of the most vulnerable people in our
country--and we know that Federal Government employees are not being
paid even though they are obviously working.
I have not heard a Senate Democrat say ``Well, I am going to withhold
my pay during this shutdown,'' as those of
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us on this side of the aisle have done, including yours truly, so
presumably they are continuing to get paid while everybody else is not
being paid and while enormous numbers of the most vulnerable of our
population, who depend on supplemental nutrition for food on the table,
are being denied that relief--all because they are afraid to deal with
the politics associated with simply passing a short-term, stopgap
spending bill.
But they also say they want this conversation to be about health
insurance. Since they want to talk about ObamaCare, I figured I would
oblige them.
Now, we know that health insurance rates have certainly continued to
go up. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that the cost of a
family health insurance plan in 2025 is nearly $27,000.
If you are 1 of the 16 million people on the Affordable Care Act
exchanges, your premium is scheduled to go up 18 percent next year--18
percent. At the same time, if you are on an employer-provided insurance
plan, premiums will go up roughly 6 or 7 percent--6 or 7 percent versus
18 percent. Well, there must be a good reason for that astronomical
figure for the ObamaCare plans, and I plan on mentioning a few reasons
why that is so.
Well, employers are paying for much of the health insurance premiums
for their employees, but increased costs eat away at the budget they
have to pay wages and other benefits. So employee salaries will become
stagnant as employers have to pay more each year for health insurance.
For small businesses, the margin is even greater--or I say the margin
should be smaller. The increased costs of healthcare for their
employees might mean they can't offer generous raises or might mean
they can't afford to hire as many people as they previously did.
So clearly the rising cost of healthcare and health insurance is a
problem for individuals and employers, but a fair question is, How did
we get here?
Well, the first place we have to look is ObamaCare, popularly known
as the Affordable Care Act. The fact of the matter is, it is the
``Unaffordable Care Act.''
When President Obama signed this highly controversial signature
healthcare plan into policy, he promised that it would make health
insurance affordable for the American people.
In 2016, in a speech to students in Florida, President Obama said:
The Affordable Care Act has done what it was designed to
do: It gave us affordable healthcare.
Now 15 years later, this claim has aged like spoiled milk. Since
2013, the year before ObamaCare took effect, the average ObamaCare
enrollee has faced a premium increase of 221 percent. That is since
2013 until today--a 221-percent increase in the premium. This mind-
boggling number is only for those who receive health coverage through
the Affordable Care Act, which is, of course, as I indicated, a
misnomer for the ages. Those who received their coverage through their
employer-sponsored plan were not affected by these premium hikes. As I
mentioned, the Wall Street Journal said their premiums will go up
roughly 6 or 7 percent.
From 2013 to 2019, individuals buying health insurance on the private
market faced 143 percent increases in their healthcare premiums. And
this number does not account for all Americans who kept their plans but
faced increased premiums or less comprehensive coverage.
President Obama knew but he refused to say that for many people, even
though this new healthcare law claimed to make healthcare affordable,
it did just the opposite. So what did he do? He tried to shift the
blame.
The claim that the ``Unaffordable Care Act'' would make healthcare
affordable was far from President Obama's only broken promise. In a
quip that was later described by a political fact-checking site as the
lie of the year for 2013, President Obama said that ``if you like your
health care plan, you can keep it.'' A 2013 political fact-checking
site called that the lie of the year.
But we know how the story has ended. By the fall of 2013, 4 million
Americans received letters informing them that their then existing
healthcare plan would be canceled.
In the same 2016 speech, he said:
Now, some people may say, well, I've seen my copays go up,
or my networks have changed. But these are decisions that are
made by your employers. It is not because of Obamacare.
They're not determined by the Affordable Care Act.
Now, that was a complete and utter abdication of responsibility for
the disruption that ObamaCare caused. And while it may be true that
they were not directly determined by the Affordable Care Act, it is
because of the Affordable Care Act that people lost their coverage,
and, thus, they could not keep the coverage they had if they wanted it.
ObamaCare did not make healthcare affordable. It created a tangled
web of regulations alongside taxpayer-funded subsidies that ultimately
only led to higher costs for taxpayers and those receiving care.
The only party that stood to gain the benefit from the ObamaCare
chaos was the health insurance companies themselves. They have enjoyed
a windfall as a result of ObamaCare. By now, insurance companies have
figured out how to use the muddled mess that is the Democrats'
healthcare system to lobby for government subsidies, including the
continuation of the expiring COVID-19 era subsidies that the Biden
administration imposed.
They knew that Democrats would not want to be responsible for the
increased premiums and lower coverage. So they threatened premium
increases while lobbying Congress to give these insurance companies
even more money in the form of enhanced subsidies.
In 2025 alone, U.S. government healthcare subsidies paid directly to
insurance companies totaled more than $130 billion. That is your tax
dollars paid to insurance companies--$130 billion in 2025 alone.
In some cases, these subsidies pay for phantom enrollees who are
likely not even to know that they are covered by one of these policies.
In 2024, there were approximately 12 million Affordable Care Act
marketplace enrollees who made zero medical claims, a highly unusual
circumstance--12 million, no claims. Roughly 40 percent of those fully
subsidized by the Biden-era COVID credits made zero claims, meaning
that these insurance companies received these very generous subsidies
but incurred zero costs.
Since 2021, the cost taxpayers have incurred to subsidize ObamaCare
plans has increased a staggering 150 percent, and many of the ones on
these policies are far from the most vulnerable in our population. In
2021, when the Democrats lifted the cap on these subsidies, removing
the income eligibility limit, households earning upward of $500,000
were made eligible for taxpayer-subsidized plans.
So you tell me why taxpayers should have to subsidize somebody who
makes a half a million dollars a year and buy their health insurance
policy for them.
These increasingly expanded subsidies for high earners proves the
point that was perhaps the only promise that ObamaCare actually kept--
that the Affordable Care Act was ``just a first step'' toward a
taxpayer-funded healthcare system, a single-payer system.
Back in 2016, President Obama compared his signature law to a starter
home that would later be upgraded into one that would be much bigger.
But based on the way the law actually worked, it is clear that
expanding it is not going to make people better off, just the contrary.
So here we are in 2026, and what happened? Are we living in a utopia
where healthcare is free or suddenly affordable? Well, just the
opposite. Healthcare is now more expensive than ever, with analysts
warning that increased costs will continue to eat away at workers'
paychecks.
Millions of Americans have faced cancellations of their private
insurance plans, while many more are facing devastating premium
increases.
And then there are the insurance companies that have reaped hundreds
of billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies while continuing to raise
premiums on patients.
I think it is safe to say that ObamaCare was a golden promise that
turned out to be almost entirely false.
So when we look for a solution to rising healthcare costs, we should
be wary
[[Page S7866]]
of listening to the same people who sold us ObamaCare on false premises
and not trust those who would prefer we continue to prop up a failed
system that enriches insurance companies while leaving Americans to
pick up the pieces.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. Britt). The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. CASSIDY. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
____________________