[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 102 (Wednesday, June 17, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2880-S2881]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




REQUESTING INFORMATION ON HONDURAS'S HUMAN RIGHTS PRACTICES PURSUANT TO 
   SECTION 502B(c) OF THE FOREIGN ASSISTANCE ACT OF 1961--Motion To 
                               Discharge

  Ms. CORTEZ MASTO. Mr. President, I rise today to bring transparency 
to the American people.
  S. Res. 616 requires the Trump administration to produce a report 
detailing the human rights violations in Honduras under its former 
President, Juan Orlando Hernandez.
  Let me just stress this--and I am going to be talking about this 
quite often--Juan Orlando Hernandez--most people don't know--was 
convicted here in the United States. He is a notorious drug trafficker. 
And President Trump pardoned him last year.
  The American people deserve to know the consequences of pardoning 
such an infamous criminal and, quite honestly, how that conflicts with 
President Trump's focus, as he talks about, on law and order and 
combating drug trafficking.
  Mr. Hernandez was serving a 45-year sentence for drug trafficking 
when President Trump pardoned him. He had been convicted by a U.S. jury 
in 2024 for conspiring to import hundreds of tons of cocaine to the 
United States and for related firearms offenses. He also had been 
accused of taking bribes from the infamous Mexican cartel leader El 
Chapo and raking in millions of dollars in drug money himself.
  This is the man who is responsible for illegal drugs entering our 
country, for harming families, and for endangering our communities. Yet 
President Trump pardoned him.
  This is the man who prosecutors said had partnered with some of the 
world's most prolific narcotics traffickers to build a corrupt and 
brutally violent empire. The prosecutors who were later able to get a 
conviction against him said that. Yet President Trump deemed him worthy 
of a pardon.
  The President's action here is the opposite of law and order. In 
fact, it contradicts efforts to combat drug trafficking, and it 
undermines law enforcement. Why do I know that? Because as a former 
attorney general, these are areas in which I worked with law 
enforcement in my State--our law enforcement agents, our investigators, 
our prosecutors in the State of Nevada--to combat drug trafficking that 
comes into the State of Nevada.
  Let me clarify this because most people don't realize that Nevada is 
not on the border with Mexico, but what happens on that border bleeds 
into Nevada. So the drug trafficking that crosses that border comes 
into Nevada, where we were seeing opioid abuse, where we were seeing 
methamphetamine abuse, where we were seeing fentanyl abuse--the very 
drugs the President now is talking about wanting to combat and stop 
from coming into our country. Yet--yet--he pardons a big drug 
trafficker who was convicted in this country for doing that very thing.
  You know, quite frankly, it is an insult to the professional men and 
women--nonpartisan, let me just say, men and women--who work year after 
year to address this issue and who actually worked hard to put 
Hernandez behind bars.
  It also sends the wrong message. Here is why: Since he was pardoned, 
Mr. Hernandez has been giving interviews to the BBC, and he is saying 
that President Trump's pardon proves he was innocent.
  I will tell you what: The American people deserve better than that, 
and they deserve transparency.
  Quite honestly, our law enforcement, who works so hard to address--
really address--the drug trafficking that is coming into this country, 
deserves to know why President Trump pardoned this man. They deserve to 
fully understand the connections between Hernandez' government, drug 
trafficking organizations, and Honduras' human rights record. That is 
why I am calling up this resolution today.
  This resolution would require the Trump administration to provide 
information about Honduras' domestic human rights practices. 
Specifically, the administration would have to assess human rights 
violations during the time that President Juan Orlando Hernandez was 
President. That includes analyzing the connections between high-level 
government officials and drug trafficking organizations, and it means 
looking at the corruption of Honduras' Government officials as it 
relates to drug trafficking, money laundering, and bribery.
  In this report, they would also have to evaluate the links between 
the drug cartels in Honduras and torture, rape, illegal detention, 
witness tampering, and murder.
  Finally, it would include understanding efforts in Honduras to 
undermine police reforms and drug crime investigations.
  The resolution also requires an assessment from the Secretary of 
State of any ongoing ties between Hernandez and--whether he has 
maintained those with drug cartels.
  Now, I have heard some of my colleagues talking out against this in 
that somehow this is some ``gotcha'' moment or this is some sort of 
lefty, liberal effort to make the President look bad.
  Well, let me just say this: Everybody is responsible for their 
actions. I don't know, in working in law enforcement, that there is a 
left or a right to it. We want to stop drug trafficking. We want to 
hold those drug traffickers accountable, and they shouldn't be pardoned 
after they have been convicted in the United States. If we are truly 
going to combat the War on Drugs in this country, everybody needs to be 
held accountable--everyone.
  This resolution is important because if the administration fails to 
give us this report, the resolution would pause U.S. security 
assistance to Honduras. There is no good reason for the administration 
not to author this report.
  Again, some colleagues have voiced concerns about the potential 
pausing of assistance to Honduras. Well, let me be very clear. Trump 
has already threatened to pause aid to Honduras multiple times. In 
fact, since the start of his second term, his administration has 
slashed the amount of funding we are sending to the country. There is 
no promise that the Trump administration won't threaten support for 
Honduras again with or without this resolution, right?
  So if President Trump is really concerned about preventing drug 
trafficking and supporting Honduras, he can start by not pardoning drug 
kingpins.
  At the end of the day, this vote is about giving the American people 
the answers they deserve. We need the truth. We need the facts. We need 
to understand what is going on here. The President is going to use his 
pardon power to pardon a drug kingpin who has been convicted in this 
country. People deserve the right to know why. They deserve the right 
to know why.
  So I hope my colleagues will work with me to pass this resolution. I 
thank Senators Kaine and Welch for standing with me and joining me in 
this resolution and talking on the floor today as to how important this 
is.
  Again, I cannot stress this enough: This is not a lefty or a right 
issue. This is not a Republican or a Democrat issue. This is a 
nonpartisan issue. This is about drug trafficking, who is responsible, 
and accountability for them. And if we have a President who decides he 
is going to use his pardon power to pardon them, we have every right to 
question that and understand the extent to which an individual is being

[[Page S2881]]

pardoned in this country and what he did. That is what this resolution 
is all about--transparency for the American people. It is about time.
  With that, Mr. President, pursuant to section 502B(c) of the Foreign 
Assistance Act of 1961, I move to discharge the Committee on Foreign 
Relations from further consideration of S. Res. 616.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       Motion to discharge S. Res. 616 from the Committee on 
     Foreign Relations, a resolution requesting information on 
     Honduras's human rights practices pursuant to section 502B(c) 
     of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961.

  Ms. CORTEZ MASTO. I know of no further debate.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there further debate?


                      Vote on Motion to Discharge

  If not, the question is on agreeing to the motion to discharge.
  Ms. CORTEZ MASTO. I ask for the yeas and nays.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
  There appears to be a sufficient second.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. BARRASSO. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the 
Senator from Kentucky (Mr. McConnell).
  Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Colorado (Mr. Bennet), 
the Senator from Delaware (Ms. Blunt Rochester), the Senator from New 
Jersey (Mr. Booker), the Senator from Arizona (Mr. Gallego), and the 
Senator from Arizona (Mr. Kelly) are necessarily absent.
  The result was announced--yeas 44, nays 50, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 179 Leg.]

                                YEAS--44

     Alsobrooks
     Baldwin
     Blumenthal
     Cantwell
     Cassidy
     Collins
     Coons
     Cortez Masto
     Duckworth
     Durbin
     Fetterman
     Gillibrand
     Hassan
     Heinrich
     Hickenlooper
     Hirono
     Kaine
     Kim
     King
     Klobuchar
     Lujan
     Markey
     Merkley
     Murphy
     Murray
     Ossoff
     Padilla
     Peters
     Reed
     Rosen
     Sanders
     Schatz
     Schiff
     Schumer
     Shaheen
     Slotkin
     Smith
     Van Hollen
     Warner
     Warnock
     Warren
     Welch
     Whitehouse
     Wyden

                                NAYS--50

     Armstrong
     Banks
     Barrasso
     Blackburn
     Boozman
     Britt
     Budd
     Capito
     Cornyn
     Cotton
     Cramer
     Crapo
     Cruz
     Curtis
     Daines
     Ernst
     Fischer
     Graham
     Grassley
     Hagerty
     Hawley
     Hoeven
     Husted
     Hyde-Smith
     Johnson
     Justice
     Kennedy
     Lankford
     Lee
     Lummis
     Marshall
     McCormick
     Moody
     Moran
     Moreno
     Murkowski
     Paul
     Ricketts
     Risch
     Rounds
     Schmitt
     Scott (FL)
     Scott (SC)
     Sheehy
     Sullivan
     Thune
     Tillis
     Tuberville
     Wicker
     Young

                             NOT VOTING--6

     Bennet
     Blunt Rochester
     Booker
     Gallego
     Kelly
     McConnell
  The motion was rejected.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Moreno). The Senator from Nevada.

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