[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 56 (Wednesday, March 25, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1604-S1605]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              SENATE BILLS

  Mr. JUSTICE. Madam President, you know, I have got to say just this: 
We have Medal of Honor recipients with us right now, and I fast-
forwarded because I had this beautiful speech to give and all that 
stuff, and there have been some things happened that we will get to in 
just a second.
  But if U.S. Army MG Patrick Brady, just please stand up, just one 
second, sir. If you would, just stand for just a second, sir.
  And U.S. Army LTC William Swenson, please stand, if you would.
  And U.S. Navy Command Master Chief Britt Kelly Slabinski, if you 
would please stand.
  And U.S. Army SGM Thomas Payne, if you would stand, please.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Chair will ask the Senator to suspend 
momentarily.
  Mr. JUSTICE. Madam President, if I violated the rule, it is because I 
am new to the game, and I don't know all the rules. But I want to thank 
them for their service in every way.
  Medal of Honor winners--it is just unfathomable to think that those 
folks can grab a live handgrenade and try to throw it away from their 
comrades, to absolutely charge into enemy fire like you can't imagine.
  And I think all the time, and I say to myself: You know, if I were in 
that situation, could I have that courage?

[[Page S1605]]

Could I have that grit? Could I have that love for this unbelievable 
country and my comrades that are right with me?
  I don't know. It takes something that not many have, and we should 
honor them beyond belief.
  The reason I asked these gentlemen to stand was simply just this: 
Today--today--something happened to me that, to be perfectly honest, I 
may have thought was getting to be semi-impossible. And that was just 
this: People from both sides of the aisle actually talked to one 
another. I had an amazing conversation with Ranking Member Martin 
Heinrich. We sat, and we built some level of trust and communication.
  Now, we are always going to fight with one another; we know that. But 
at the end of the day, these four--and for all the other 3,500 almost--
today, we did something that, in all fairness, these four an hour and a 
half ago would have thought wasn't going to happen.
  So I am going to fast-forward and read something that we all thought 
was semi-impossible.
  But to others on the other side of the aisle--you know, Senator 
Shaheen; you know, Senator Padilla; to absolutely our great chairman of 
ENR, you know, Senator Lee, who I am so thankful that we just talked--
for God's sakes of living, we just talked, and lo and behold: wham, 
bam, bam. This monument that we have wanted to put on our National Mall 
that I am going to ask for your unanimous consent in just a second, 
absolutely we are there. No one would have believed it. No one really 
thought it.
  These people have given so much, and we needed to stand up for them, 
and, lo and behold, today, maybe just a lot of lessons--lessons maybe 
that we all ought to listen to, and that is just this: If we talked and 
we trusted and we absolutely told the truth to one another, there may 
just be passage of lots and lots and lots of stuff that we should be 
doing here.
  That is what we should be doing. I always call the voters Toby and 
Edith. But Toby and Edith need us. They need us in the worst way.
  I would say, someway, somehow, we have got to tone down and stop a 
little bit of the food fight.
  So right now--now, get this; get this--this is what I am reading to 
you right now.
  Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Energy 
and Natural Resources be discharged and the Senate proceed to the 
immediate consideration of the following bills en bloc; that the 
substitute-amendment at the desk to S. 858 be considered and agreed to; 
and that the bills, as amended, if amended, where applicable, be 
considered read a third time and passed en bloc; and that the motions 
to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, all en bloc: 
my bill, S. 858, the Hershel `Woody' Williams National Medal of Honor 
Monument Location Act, and S. 1142 the Scarper Ridge Golden Gate 
National Recreation Area Boundary Adjustment Act, from Senator Padilla.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The Committee on Energy and Natural Resources was discharged of the 
relevant bills, and the Senate proceeded to consider the bills en bloc, 
as follows:

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