[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 127 (Tuesday, August 4, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4419-S4425]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
AGOA EXTENSION ACT--Motion to Proceed--Continued
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Pennsylvania.
Recognizing The Pennsylvania State University Wrestling Team
Mr. McCORMICK. Mr. President, Pennsylvania is wrestling country. The
sport fits the character of our Commonwealth. From smalltown school
gymnasiums to the biggest stage in college athletics, generations of
Pennsylvanians have learned on the mat that nothing is given and
everything is earned.
Our proud tradition is embodied by a team that has once again set the
standard for intercollegiate wrestling and is here with us in the
Gallery today. So I rise to honor the 2026 NCAA national championship
Penn State Nittany Lions and submit a resolution congratulating them on
their fifth consecutive national championship and their 13th title in
the last 15 NCAA championships. This recognizes the
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dedication, the teamwork, and the perseverance that made this historic
achievement possible.
When I watch wrestling, I see the best of Pennsylvania and the best
of America: hard work, courage, resilience, humility, and respect. In
this remarkable group of young men, those virtues are on full display.
I grew up wrestling across Pennsylvania--from Shikellamy to
Shickshinny, from Selinsgrove to Schuylkill Haven--and years later, I
had the privilege of serving as the cocaptain of the Army wrestling
team at West Point. Last year, I sat in the front row in Philadelphia
at the NCAA national championships, alongside President Trump, as Penn
State defended its title.
I have spent much of my life around wrestling mats, and what I
learned there is simple: Wrestling reveals character. For 7 minutes,
there is nowhere to hide. No teammate can take your place. No excuse
can score a takedown. The work you did or didn't do when nobody was
watching shows up under the lights. That is why wrestling is more than
a sport. It teaches the virtues that have always sustained America, and
no program--no program--in the country embodies those virtues more
consistently than Penn State wrestling.
This season, the Nittany Lions went 15 to 0. They completed their
sixth straight undefeated season and extended dual-meet winning track
record to 86. Then they went to the national championships in Cleveland
and raised that standard again. The team scored 181.5 points, breaking
the NCAA record that Penn State had set just the year before.
This is not just a good weekend; this is sustained excellence. Six
Nittany Lions reached the national finals, tying the school record.
Luke Lilledahl, Josh Barr, Levi Haines, and Mitchell Mesenbrink
returned as champions, and Mitchell delivered one of the tournament's
most defining performances, winning in the finals by a technical fault
and earning the second straight national title for him and the
tournament's ``Outstanding Wrestler.''
But the most compelling statistic is that every one of Penn State's
10 NCAA qualifiers scored points toward the record total, and 8 became
All-Americans. That is teamwork. That is excellence.
There is so much discussion these days about how boys become good
men, and Penn State wrestling has found a winning formula: Demand
excellence, teach discipline and humility, and bind individual ambition
to a purpose larger than oneself.
That is why Coach Cael Sanderson's legacy is bigger than 13 national
titles. He has built more than a championship program; he has built a
culture that forms young men into the kinds of leaders our communities
and our country needs.
Cael often points to the Old Testament story of Nehemiah, who was
rebuilding Jerusalem's wall when the enemies repeatedly tried to lure
him away. Nehemiah's response was simple:
I am doing a great work, so I cannot come down.
Coach Cael and his fellow coaches and the Penn State wrestling team
are doing great work. As America celebrates its 250th anniversary, we
in this body are striving to do great work too: preserving the liberty
we inherited, renewing the character that sustains it, and proving that
a free people can accomplish hard things together. But to be a
champion, as this group knows, each of us needs to renew that great
work every single day. The Penn State wrestling team understands that,
and America sometimes needs to be reminded of it.
I ask my colleagues in this body to join me in this resolution
recognizing what this remarkable team has accomplished.
To the Penn State Nittany Lions, congratulations on another historic
championship. Pennsylvania is proud of you. The Senate honors you.
We are Penn State.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Arkansas.
Recognizing the Arkansas National Guard
Mr. COTTON. Madam President, I speak today in recognition of the
bravery, courage, and valor of nearly 9,000 men and women in the
Arkansas National Guard.
Day in and day out, the heroes of our National Guard protect our
communities and our homeland, stand at the ready to respond to natural
disasters, and defend our freedom around the world. Their work is
having a huge impact on many fronts.
In Little Rock, our National Guardsmen recently participated in the
Pentagon's largest unclassified cyber defense exercise, known as Cyber
Shield, alongside more than 1,000 participants from 44 States and
nearly two dozen countries.
Down at the southern border, Arkansas National Guard troops are
working to keep illegal aliens out of our country and stop the flow of
deadly, illicit drugs into our communities.
Additionally, Arkansas National Guardsmen on the homefront have
provided 15 percent of the targeting information for Operation Epic
Fury, while guardsmen deployed overseas work on the ground in support
of this critical mission.
Last but certainly not least and most recently, the National
Guardsmen stationed in Washington, DC, as part of the President's
``Safe and Beautiful'' mission are cleaning up our Nation's Capital for
all Americans to enjoy.
Earlier this summer, just a couple of miles from the Capitol
Building, Arkansas National Guardsmen intervened in a violent assault
and stopped a potential shooting. While out on patrol earlier, SGT
Memphis Perez, SPC Edwin Martinez, SPC Christian Diaz, and PFC Gabriel
Oliva encountered a woman with a bloody face, multiple groups of people
yelling and arguing, and a suspect threatening to shoot a group of
women. These brave guardsmen of Team Razorback stepped into action,
detained the suspect with flex cuffs after he attempted to retrieve a
Glock pistol from his car, provided medical assistance to the victim,
and secured the scene while waiting for Metropolitan Police Department
officers to arrive. The heroism of these men saved lives, and because
of their courage, they received the Joint Service Achievement Medal.
I would like to extend my gratitude and admiration to Sergeant Perez,
Specialist Martinez, Specialist Diaz, and Private First Class Oliva for
doing, as my drill sergeant used to say, the hard right over the easy
wrong.
You did your duty with honor and integrity in a very dangerous
situation. I commend you for your brave actions and congratulate you on
earning this distinguished award.
On the ground, in the air, in cyber space, and right here in the
Nation's Capital, Arkansas National Guardsmen are always ready and
always there.
To my fellow Arkansans who have answered the call to serve in the
Guard, I say: Thank you. Your example of selflessness, courage, and
patriotism has made our country and our State proud. May God bless you
and protect you. May God bless the United States of America.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Louisiana.
Russia
Mr. KENNEDY. Madam President, I know you are well aware of this, but
the Senate needs to pass the Russia sanctions bill, and we need to do
it now. We have the votes. Let's vote.
Ukraine has Putin down and is choking him. We need to help Ukraine
choke him to death. I am sorry that the people of Russia are having to
undergo what they are undergoing. I am doubly sorry the people of
Ukraine are, but it is not going to stop until Putin understands--and
we make him understand--that the costs of his barbarism outweigh the
benefits.
For the first time since 2022, through sheer will and some big brains
and help from Europe and help from the United States, Ukraine has Putin
on the back foot. It is truly remarkable.
I remember when Putin invaded in 2022. All the experts said Putin is
going to roll through Ukraine like thunder on a summer night; headed
toward Kyiv, he is going to take it over.
In fact, President Biden then asked President Zelenskyy if he needed
help evacuating. And I will never forget what President Zelenskyy said.
It was one of his finest hours. When President Biden asked him if he
needed a ride, needed help getting out, he said: I need ammunition.
I need ammunition, not a ride.
We should have known then that the Ukrainian people are tough as a
pine
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knot. And I guarantee you, in his heart of hearts, Vladimir Putin
wishes he never started that fight.
Putin thought time was on his side. It is not on his side anymore.
Russia has had, unfortunately, 1.4 million soldiers die. He is having a
hard time recruiting new ones. His flow of voluntary soldiers has dried
up. He is now having to pay people to fight, and he may have to impose
a draft on the good people of Russia.
Why? It is not hard to figure out. It is grit. It is guts. It is
determination. And it is drones. Ukraine is now the drone master of the
universe. They started with nothing. They are now the drone master of
the universe.
Ukraine is producing more drones. They are producing better drones.
They are producing long-range drones. They are going to produce 7
million drones in 2026. That is up from 2.2 million only a few years
ago.
Some of those drones can travel up to 2,000 miles. Ukraine is using
those drones to overwhelm the Russian air defense. Now, normally, when
you send a drone into Russia, Russia has an air defense.
What does that mean? That just means missiles on the ground or other
drones that will shoot down that foreign drone invading Russia. Ukraine
has figured out a way to overwhelm Russian air defenses so that some of
those drones get through. And boy, are those getting through.
No part of Russia is safe right now because of these drones by
Ukraine. In late June, Ukrainian drones took out two oil refineries in
a city called Ufa--I am probably mispronouncing it. That is a thousand
miles behind frontlines.
As a result of these drones, as of late June, Russia had lost 30
percent of its refining capacity.
What does that mean? It means they don't have any gasoline. It means
they don't have any diesel fuel. If you are a Russian in Crimea, you
can't buy gasoline. They have said no more consumer sales; they are
running short. There are long lines in Moscow, as we speak, as I know
the Presiding Officer knows, to get gas. The war has finally come to
the people of Russia.
Just recently, Ukrainians sent in drones to bomb Wildberries. What is
Wildberries? Wildberries is Russia's Amazon, and they keep all these
consumer goods in big warehouses. Ukraine used drones to take out two
of them--about $2 billion.
But everybody in Russia has felt the impact. They have seen it. Once
again, the war has come, unfortunately, to the people of Russia.
Recent polls--it is hard to get good data out of Russia because Putin
has turned Russia into China. You can't speak freely. Internet is
isolated. They will put you in prison and kill you and hurt you the
entire time you are dying if you speak out of turn.
But the good people of Russia still have feelings, and a recent poll
showed that only 21 percent of the people of Russia support its
government policies.
So now is the time. What this Russia sanctions bill would do is say:
If you want to buy Russian oil and gas, you can't use the dollar. And,
by the way, you also can't sell your goods in America.
Why are we doing that? Because between 30 and 40 percent of Russia's
budget and Putin's budget--they are one and the same right now--comes
from oil and gas. So if you cut off your oil and gas, you cut off your
cash flow. If you cut off your cash flow, you stop your ability to
prosecute the war.
This will not require any American money.
I want to thank the European countries. It took them a while. But
they finally faced reality, and they have stepped up and financially
supported Ukraine. And the American people generously supported Ukraine
for a long time, and we still are sharing intelligence with them. So I
want to thank the leadership in Europe and the good people of Europe.
But this will cut off Putin's cash fund--one simple bill. We need to
do it, and we need to do it now. And we need to vote. We just need to
stop talking and start voting.
Election Integrity
Madam President, No. 2, let me talk about election integrity.
Let me tell you what I think of when I think of the SAVE Act. I think
of integrity in American elections. Now, you don't have to be a senior
at CalTech to know that the American people, no matter what your
political philosophy is--Democrat, Republican, Independent; socialist,
communist, whatever--you wonder about elections now. You wonder about
the integrity.
I mean, I don't know how widespread, if at all, this is, but in New
Jersey, we just discovered that the entire population of Bolivia is
registered to vote in New Jersey. That is a bit of an overstatement.
But after saying there is no problem with our voter rolls, we discover
stuff like this.
And we just witnessed elections in California that take months to
resolve. When it takes a month to declare a winner for the good people
of California, what do you think they are going to think--particularly,
the loser?
Look, if America is going to survive, in terms of your party, you
have got to be willing to lose and accept that you have lost. And in
order to do that, you have to trust in the election.
So when I think of the SAVE Act, I am thinking of election integrity.
And, really, what the SAVE Act means to me is two things: It means you
have to prove you are who you say you are in order to vote and in order
to register to vote. It is very simple. Rule No. 1, you have to prove
you are who you say you are in order to register to vote and to vote.
And, No. 2, we need to go back to having an election day and not an
election month. We need to know who the winner is on election night.
And if it is a really close race, I can understand it bleeding over
until the next day.
Frankly, I don't care how you vote. That is up to the States. The
President does not want voting by mail. He is entitled to his opinion.
I just disagree with him.
If the people of Alaska or the people of New York or the people of
Florida want to vote by mail, that is up to them and their State
legislatures. So within reason, I don't care how you vote. I just want
to require those votes to be tallied by election night--on election
night.
Now, this is all really easy for me to say, but the States run
elections, and they run Federal elections. And it is really easy for me
and all of us in the Senate to give them orders, but they have to have
money to implement these rules.
And we have a budget resolution that was sent over to us by the
House--a budget resolution can only deal with money--and I think we
should take it up.
I am on the Budget Committee. Senator Ron Johnson is our chair. He is
going to be a very able chair. We talked about it this morning. I think
we need to take up that money bill, and I think part of it needs to be
election integrity.
And I think we are going to have to--the whole purpose of that bill
should be, and hopefully will be, to give our States--it is a money
bill; it is a money issue--to give our States the financial resources
to implement these two simple rules: You have to prove you are who you
say you are in order to vote, and you have to get those votes counted
by election night.
The States are going to need resources, and that is the whole purpose
of the so-called SAVE Act in the budget resolution. And we need to take
it up now--now.
Now, it may be that we can put in a provision--I don't know; some big
brains tell me it will work--that if we provide money to the States to
implement election integrity, that if enough States participate, that
it will become not just custom but law that these two rules apply.
Did I mention the two rules? You have to prove you are who you say
you are in order to vote, and that we need to have an election day not
an election month.
It may be that the money provision can be crafted to provide that if
enough States agree, that is going to become the policy for all States.
I don't know if that is possible under the Budget Control Act, but I do
know that the SAVE Act, right now--in addition to the two rules of
election integrity that I talk about--involves money, and that is what
we are going to try to do. It is to provide the States the money within
the parameters of the Budget Control Act.
But we can't do it unless we can vote, and it would be nice if we
could all agree. It would be nice if we could all have meetings and
talk about it and give and take. I am all for that. But,
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right now, it is not realistic because people have differences of
opinion.
Do you know what you do when you have a difference of opinion? You
vote. That is why God made votes. That is why God made the U.S. Senate.
We can continue to sit around. It is also true of the Russia
sanctions bill, but it is especially true with respect to election
integrity. And I am not criticizing anybody. I know the way the Senate
works, and the Presiding Officer does too. Senators will stall and
restall and cuss and spit, and we need one more meeting.
I can't tell you how many meetings I have been in, in the last 6
months, that should have been an email, that could have been an email,
to talk about the Russia sanctions bill and to talk about election
integrity and to try to get a consensus. It is not going to happen--not
in my natural lifetime, not in the Presiding Officer's, though you will
live longer than me, and not in yours, our friends in the Gallery.
We have got to vote, and we need to vote right now. And the American
people expect it.
And if there is a motion made on this floor to have us remain here
until we get our work done, I am going to vote yes. I am going to vote
yes. I can tell you right now. And what is the work we need to get
done? In no particular order, we need to pass the Russia sanctions
bill; we need to pass the budget resolution, which will include
election integrity; we need to confirm Todd Blanche; we need to pass
the continuing resolution to keep government open until December 11;
and we need to vote on the cryptocurrency bill, which we have spent
years on. And if we are waiting to take those votes to get a consensus,
it is not going to happen.
Did I mention that is why God made votes? When reasonable people
disagree, that is what we need to do.
Did I leave anything out, Madam President?
We need to get our business done, and then we can go on about our
business.
I am not saying that people go home in August and just lie around the
pool. I know that. I don't. The Presiding Officer doesn't. We go back,
and we meet with constituents. Some people run for reelection. I am
planning on being in all the battleground States, and I am anxious to
get there to help my colleagues.
But we have to stay here and get our business done.
And that is it. My work here is done. I can show myself out.
And I may be wrong, but I doubt it. I think the American people are
going to be really disappointed if we don't get our work done because
it is not our work. It is their work.
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. JOHNSON. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum
call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Banks). Without objection, it is so
ordered.
Unanimous Consent Request--S. 1306
Mr. JOHNSON. Mr. President, my fine State of Wisconsin has a gray
wolf population problem, but that was not always the case. Back in the
eighties and nineties, we had the opposite problem. We had an
endangered wolf population, as probably most of the lower 48 States
did. So back in 1978, under the Endangered Species Act, the gray wolf
was listed as one of those endangered species.
The good news is, it worked. You can see from the chart here--that
starts in 1980 to about the year 1999--our wolf population slowly
started coming back, to the point that in 1999, the Wisconsin DNR
agreed that once we hit 250 gray wolves in Wisconsin, that would be the
point at which we could delist the gray wolf as no longer an endangered
species.
We didn't delist them. The population continued to grow and grow, and
unfortunately, as much as we all value a healthy and sustainable gray
wolf population, there is a point at which it gets too large and it
starts threatening livestock, starts threatening people.
I think the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recognized that fact, and
so in 2007, the gray wolf was actually delisted by the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service. The problem is, in 2008, it was relisted by a Federal
court here in DC. So in 2009, we took action once again. The U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service delisted the gray wolf. That same year, that same
court relisted it. Three years later--again, looking at the science,
looking at the growing population--in 2012, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service delisted it. Three years later, the same DC court relisted it.
In 2021, again, you can start seeing the explosion, quite honestly, in
population. Our Wisconsin DNA states that about 1,250 is really the
most population of gray wolf that the State can sustain. We had already
hit that level, so U.S. Fish and Wildlife delisted it again, only to be
overturned in 2022 by a Federal court decision in California this time,
not DC.
Why is this a problem? We get report after report of families,
farmers in Wisconsin who are bearing the burden of this back-and-forth,
of the fact that the gray wolf is protected and the populations are
really at the maximum level right now.
It is threatening livestock. I mean, throughout Wisconsin, wolves are
killing cows, horses, goats, sheep, cats, dogs. We have a sheep farm in
Wisconsin, and a multigeneration herd of sheep was all wiped out except
for one sheep, in one night. In Price County, a dairy farmer had to
sell his entire herd because the wolves kept killing his cows.
Wisconsinites have to carry firearms just to walk their dogs. A Wood
County resident was forced to drive their children to school because
the bus route changed because wolf tracks were there at the bus stop.
So, Mr. President, you know, I am just asking what makes sense when
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has--one, two, three, four, five--
four times taken the gray wolves off the endangered species list,
which, again, we all agreed was required. We should have all agreed it
was successful. We are way past the delisting baseline established by
the Wisconsin DNR. We are at the maximum sustainable limit here.
I am asking consent to pass a bill that would simply delist them so
that Wisconsin farmers, Wisconsin families, and Wisconsin children can
feel safe in their residences, in walking about their properties.
So, Mr. President, notwithstanding rule XXII, I ask unanimous consent
that the Committee on Environment and Public Works be discharged from
further consideration of S. 1306 and the Senate proceed to its
immediate consideration; further, that the bill be considered read a
third time and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered made
and laid upon the table
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Curtis). Is there an objection?
The Senator from New Jersey.
Mr. BOOKER. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, look, my
esteemed colleague from Wisconsin--I don't mean to use any onomatopoeia
here, but he is howling about the gray wolves and seeking to pass
legislation to remove Federal protections under the Endangered Species
Act for gray wolves across the entire United States.
A hallmark of the Endangered Species Act is the requirement that
decisions be made solely on the basis of scientific data. Congress is
supposed to rely on that data.
This act was brought to bear in 1973 under a Republican President
with a very important mission: to protect species at risk of extinction
and to promote the conservation of ecosystems and habitats necessary
for the survival of those species.
For a species to be considered recovered, science must show that it
has returned to suitable habitats with durable populations that can
persist safely and endurably into the foreseeable future. That is the
law. Today, wolves have returned to only 10 percent of their historic
range and do not meet the Endangered Species Act requirements for
delisting. That is the law.
Gray wolves once numbered in the millions across North America, from
forests and plains to deserts and mountains. But wolves, with
insatiable, rapacious cruelty, were hunted, trapped, and poisoned--and
other actions to kill and eradicate them--to near extinction by the
mid-20th century in all of the lower 48 States.
There is this growing sympathy and empathy in the American public for
a species that has endured such cruelty and ruthlessness at human hands
over the centuries--a species that is the forbear of the dogs we love
and cherish in our lives.
As apex predators, gray wolves, we now know, play a vital role in
keeping
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the entire natural ecosystem in America healthy. When wolves were
brought back to places like Yellowstone National Park, it transformed
the park. More birds, beavers, and fish returned.
Research from Wisconsin, my colleague's home State, reveals the
overwhelming net benefits of healthy, wild wolf packs to our
landscapes.
My colleague cites that there are problems in Wisconsin. There are so
many Wisconsinites that speak out, especially the scientists, and some
of those scientists are actually economists. Wisconsin economists
proved that wolves are protecting human safety. One of the big ways
they protect human safety--and they enumerated this--is by reducing
vehicle collisions with the deer population, with deer. Other
independent research in Wisconsin suggests that chronic wasting disease
is suppressed where wolf packs hunt. And there are so many other
benefits.
But it is not just his State that this would affect; it would be so
many other States.
Look, we have a crisis in our country. We are living through a
biodiversity crash. Some people call it the sixth mass extinction. This
mass extinction is unique because it is being driven not by natural
disasters but primarily by human activity and decision making. Current
extinction rates are estimated to be hundreds to thousands of times
higher than the normal background rate.
We need to do better for what wildlife remains in our Nation,
including the gray wolf. We need to stand up for the role of science in
influencing our decisions, for expertise influencing the outcomes, and
not harmful legislation like this. That is why I will not allow it to
move forward, Mr. President. I object.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The objection is heard.
The Senator from Wisconsin.
Mr. JOHNSON. Mr. President, I only stand to point out that Wisconsin
DNR is not exactly an organization that is not willing to protect
wildlife. It certainly is. It set the delisting baseline at 250. We are
at five times that level.
From my standpoint, whether this legislation affects other States--
this ought to be looked at State by State and allow States to decide
that. Wisconsin would certainly like this delisted, and it is just
regrettable that my unanimous consent request was objected to.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Rhode Island.
Unanimous Consent Request--S. Res. 558
Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, simple fact: Climate change is real.
It is actually pretty widely known. I think it is a true statement that
every person knowledgeable about climate science who is not on the
payroll of the fossil fuel industry or its denial operation agrees with
that. Actually, a lot of people knowledgeable about climate science who
are on the payroll of the fossil fuel industry agree with that. In
fact, scientists from Exxon, from Chevron, in a report for API 30, 40
years ago, acknowledged climate science, predicted the harms, and
indeed quite accurately predicted the harms we are seeing now.
Given that, I came to the floor to ask my colleagues if they could
simply agree on that simple scientific fact--climate change is actually
real. Well, unfortunately, to no one's surprise, Republican colleagues
could not. So I came back to the floor and broke down the big
question--the scientific fact that climate change is real--into some of
its component truths, the smaller truths that make up the big truth
that climate change is real. Each time faced with simple, well-
documented truths, such as sea level rise and economic fallout from
climate change, Republicans objected.
Objectors have protested that they are not climate change deniers.
Well, you would never know that from their willingness to consider
solutions. Indeed, the objectors are stridently opposed to any--any--
climate solutions, and they have made their opposition clear. The
problem is that that comes with consequences.
So I will try another simple truth today. It is actually a pair. One,
climate change-driven extreme weather events are increasing, and at the
same time, the government is dismantling weather monitoring and alert
systems. I will ask you to accept those two truths together. I don't
think either one is subject to much debate, so I hope we can all agree
on that.
As I have explained repeatedly and as anybody knowledgeable in this
space pretty well knows, climate change exacerbates extreme weather and
disaster events. You can see on this chart the billion-dollar disasters
from 1980 to today. It gets worse and worse. It includes winter storms,
wildfires, hurricanes, and other severe storms; freezes, flooding, and
drought. But to make the chart, it has got to be a billion-dollar
disaster. Climate change increases both the frequency and the intensity
of these events. Scientists have known this to be true for decades now.
It has actually developed to the point where the National Academies
could release a report just this month making clear that the
attribution science--linking extreme weather to climate change to
emissions--is advancing. It is now quite well established.
So what do we know?
We know that the fossil fuel industry is making extreme weather
worse. Now we have an even better sense of how much worse; how it is
attributable to those companies.
I mentioned flooding. Climate change drives flooding in several ways:
wetter hurricanes, for one; sea-level rise for another. And I say this
as a Rhode Islander: It is not just our coastal communities that are at
risk; climate change increases rainfall intensity--powerful rain
bursts--that deliver unprecedented upland flooding. That happens
because a warmer atmosphere, just as a matter of simple physics, holds
more water.
This chart shows that, from 1970 to 2025, average rainfall intensity
increased by 28 percent. That is a lot more water, and it results in
more frequent and intense extreme rainfall, which can occur far away
from coasts. Ask Asheville, NC.
So how can communities like Asheville know when floods like that are
coming?
Well, the answer is, government warning systems from our National
Weather Service, which is part of the NOAA.
Most of us use National Weather Service data every day because
smartphones rely on Weather Service data to power the weather apps that
we look at. If you have gotten a thunderstorm warning, a tornado
warning, or a flood alert on your smartphone, that is the Weather
Service and its hundreds of civil servants diligently doing the
science, tracking the data, and putting out the warnings.
Well, since President Trump took office and unleashed Elon Musk and
his team of little DOGE boys, the Weather Service has lost about 600
employees--600. Half of those employees were meteorologists and
hydrologists--the people who work on doing the forecasting and the
warnings.
As climate change-driven extreme weather continues to worsen these
dangers, well, that spells trouble, and people need warnings. We can
trace the impact of those DOGE losses to the Weather Service already.
For instance, at the time of the deadly flooding in Kerr County, TX,
last year, the Weather Service's San Angelo office was missing a senior
hydrologist, a staff forecaster, and a chief meteorologist. They are
just not there anymore. The San Antonio office was missing a science
officer and a warning coordination meteorologist. What could possibly
go wrong? Well, they found out in Kerr County, TX.
In April of this year, East-Central Kansas got a Weather Service
tornado warning out with just minutes to spare. Weather forecasters can
usually issue tornado warnings hours in advance and then update. They
can do those early warnings because, when the government is properly
staffed and hasn't had Elon Musk's little minions wrecking it, it can
release daily weather balloons in the predawn hours to build the
dataset of what is going on. Well, due to staffing cuts, several
Weather Service offices now don't have the people to do the predawn
launches, so the balloons don't go up until regular office hours. By
then, when those balloons went up on April 13, the storms were already
on the move. This time, Kansans were warned to seek shelter just in the
nick of time, but that is not an acceptable gamble for the U.S.
Government.
[[Page S4424]]
You know, it is pretty basic government stuff to fund and maintain
weather monitoring and alert systems, including adequate staff at the
weather Agencies. If we can't do that, well, we will see more lives
lost as ever more frequent and dangerous climate-driven weather events
catch people by surprise because our Weather Service is understaffed
and underfunded. We should certainly be able to agree on that. Climate-
driven extreme weather is worsening, and the administration is taking
down the capabilities for weather forecasting and warnings. Both are
true. I hope that we can agree to this one.
So, notwithstanding rule XXII, I ask unanimous consent that the
Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation be discharged from
further consideration and that the Senate now proceed to S. Res. 558. I
further ask consent that the resolution be agreed to; that the preamble
be agreed to; and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and
laid upon the table.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there an objection?
The Senator from Wisconsin.
Mr. JOHNSON. Mr. President, in reserving the right to object, I guess
today is my day to refute the Democrats' false assertions and claims.
Earlier today, when chairing the Budget Committee hearing and
Democrats falsely accused the Republicans of cutting and slashing
Medicaid, I repeatedly had to remind them that the year that ObamaCare
kicked in, in 2014--the first year of Medicaid expansion--we spent $300
billion on Medicaid. Five years later, which was the year before the
pandemic, in 2019, we spent $400 billion on Medicaid. This last year,
we spent $668 billion on Medicaid. Medicaid spending is up 10 percent,
year on year, and we will probably spend about $735 billion. That is
more than double the amount we spent the year that Medicaid expansion
kicked in.
They apparently didn't like my correcting the record and refuting
their false assertions; so they complained in the Budget Committee
hearing that I was turning the committee into a debate society. Well, I
don't know. I thought this was supposed to be the world's greatest
deliberative body.
So now I have come to the floor to rebut, once again, the false
claims of the Senator from Rhode Island. He said he is making two true
assertions here: that climate events are worsening because of climate
change.
First of all, I will state that I am not a climate change denier. The
climate has always changed, and it always will. The last time I was
objecting to one of his false assertions--again, to one of his
resolutions--I pointed to the Vostok ice core sample, which were four
or five distinct cycles over 440,000 years of 22.7 degrees Fahrenheit
variation. Yes. So climate has always changed. The question is, To what
extent does mankind cause it? But the assertion that these climate
events like hurricanes or wildfires are being driven to greater
extremes because of climate change is just false. I mean, there is
reputable science that completely debunks those claims.
The Senator from Rhode Island talked about billions of dollars' worth
of property damage. Well, when you build multimillion-dollar homes
right on the coast of hurricane regions, you are going to have higher
dollar losses with normal hurricane activity. When you are as sloppy as
California is at wildfire mitigation--there is an excellent article
written by Representative McClintock, from California, saying that,
back in the 1800s, I think it was like 2\1/2\ million acres of
California that routinely burned, but through proper mitigation
efforts, they reduced that to, I think, 250,000 acres per year; but
then they stopped doing them under Democrat governance, and they are
back up to over, you know, millions of acres burning a year. That is
not because of climate change; that is just because of bad Democrat
governance, bad Democrat policies. So that is the first assertion.
The second assertion is easy to rebut, which is that we are not
funding the National Weather Service.
I mean, again, here are the figures. I know they don't like facts,
and they don't like figures, but here are the facts: In 2014, the
budget for the National Weather Service was $1.34 billion. The next
year--again, when Joe Biden was President still for fiscal year 2025--
he did only increase it by 0.7, but it increased to $1.35 billion. In
fiscal year 2026, it is up 8 percent to $1.46 billion. In the House, I
think the President's budget calls for the fiscal 2027 spending of $1.6
billion. That will be a 9.5-percent increase.
So, again, we are not cutting or slashing Medicaid. We are not
cutting or slashing the National Weather Service. Both claims in this
resolution are false.
I also have to quote Secretary Chris Wright: ``We are in the midst of
the greatest malinvestment in human history''--$10 trillion on a global
basis has been invested nominally on fighting climate change. What do
you get for $10 trillion? Well, to be very specific on energy sources,
you get solar up to 1.2 percent of global energy and wind at 1.4.
As a quick aside, in 1973, global oil, gas, and coal energy
consumption was 84 percent. In 2024, it was 83 percent. We spent $10
trillion on all of this renewable energy, and the mix hasn't changed at
all.
And we certainly haven't satisfied the Chicken Littles claiming
disaster. I have actually got a long list of these experts.
By the way, I think last week in Homeland Security and Governmental
Affairs, we tried to get answers out of one of these experts, Dr.
Fauci, who directed our miserably failed response to COVID. He won't
answer my questions.
But I have got a long list of these experts going back to the
seventies, you know. Harvard biologist George Wald estimated:
Civilization will end in 15 to 30 years unless immediate action was
taken.
Let's go up to climate change, 1980, ecologist Kenneth Watt predicted
the world would be 4 degrees colder--colder--in 1990 and 11 degrees
colder in 2000. That didn't happen.
No, this then started--this global cooling, right? That was the
fearmongering. Then it was global warming. Then when they couldn't
decide, they just turned it into generic climate change.
In 1989, Noel Brown, a U.N. environmental official, said entire
nations would be wiped off the Earth if rising sea levels from global
warming were not reversed by the year 2000. It is 26 years later; I
haven't seen these entire nations wiped off the Earth.
In 2007, head of the U.N. climate panel claimed it would be too late
unless drastic actions were taken by 2012, and that is 14 years ago.
In 2004, a Pentagon climate change report said Britain will be
Siberian in 2020. Didn't happen.
In 2008, Al Gore cited a claim from another climate researcher that
the North Pole may be ice free by 2013.
Again, there are literally dozens of these Chicken Little
scaremongering claims. Just not buying them.
These resolutions aren't harmful. There is a point to them. They are
trying to lay a documentary record to promote more of this
malinvestment--$10 trillion. Just think of what we could have done with
$10 trillion that we just frittered away on climate change alarmists.
So, Mr. President, I object.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The objection is heard.
The Senator from Rhode Island.
Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, just a few quick things. First of all,
Medicaid, from the budget discussion this morning, is facing a trillion
dollars in cuts. Second of all, that is being done by a redtape bomb
being dropped on Medicaid recipients that will fall the hardest on the
people least capable of the additional redtape and paperwork who have--
you know, are in addiction recovery, have severe mental health issues,
have such disabling physical health issues that it is hard for them to
take on the new project of keeping up with the Republican redtape and
bureaucracy.
And the question of whether it is real or not, you don't have to go
any further than looking at the organizations, hospitals, doctors
groups, nursing homes, that are having to prepare their finances for
that cut. They are not preparing their finances for level Medicaid
funding; they are preparing their finances for massive cuts. So that is
just the truth of the matter.
With respect to the Weather Service, 600 employees are gone. They
were driven out by Elon Musk and his little
[[Page S4425]]
minions, and there are vacancies in meteorological, hydrological, and
weather forecasting positions as a result. That is just another fact.
And, last of all, my colleague from Wisconsin's view of what is
happening with climate change is certainly entertaining in certain
circles. But if you want to take a look at what is real, you might want
to consider going to the universities in Wisconsin--like the quite
renown University of Wisconsin--to see that legitimate climate science
is what is taught in Wisconsin's own universities, not the entertaining
version that we just heard here on the Senate floor, but the real
stuff, taught by the people who really know to students who want to
know what the truth is. That is the choice Wisconsin made in its
universities. They teach the real stuff, and there is no way you can
reconcile the real stuff with the entertaining version of climate that
we just heard from the distinguished Senator from Wisconsin.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Washington.
Washington Wildfires
Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I rise today with a very heavy heart
because, right now, huge swaths of my State are being confronted by
some of the worst fires that we have ever seen. This weekend, three
fast-moving wildfires exploded across Spokane County.
In a matter of hours, entire neighborhoods were told: Leave now. This
may be your only notice. Over 65,000 people I represent have been
forced to evacuate their homes. At least 700 homes, businesses, and
buildings have been destroyed already.
Families are sleeping in the Spokane Convention Center tonight, not
knowing whether they even still have a home to go back to. And as of
this morning, these fires are still not contained.
The photos and videos tell the story: Houses reduced to ash, families
embracing outside the burned remains of what they once called home. It
is heartbreaking. Smoke so thick over Spokane that the air itself has
now become a health hazard.
To every family in Spokane and across eastern Washington who has lost
a home or a business or a lifetime of memories, hear me: I promise you
I am with you today, tomorrow, and for as long as it takes to rebuild.
And amid this devastation, I also want this Chamber to hear about the
extraordinary courage on display in my State right now. Within hours of
the evacuation orders, neighbors were opening their doors to strangers.
Families who had room to spare simply said: Come stay with us.
Volunteers worked through the night at the convention center, handing
out blankets, serving hot meals, sitting with frightened kids. Local
restaurants showed up with food for evacuees and for the fire crews who
are coming off the line. Churches and community groups collected
clothes and diapers, pet food. Whatever people needed, someone in
Spokane found a way to provide it.
Firefighters have been on the lines around the clock in brutal heat
against dangerous winds. Local fire crews, crews from across the State,
the Washington National Guard--all mobilized within hours. Incident
management teams and firefighters who actually came from out of State
all the way from Florida to Alaska--there are even firefighters from
Australia and New Zealand--because of them, because of the sheriff's
deputies and police officers who went door to door to get people out,
because of the emergency managers and dispatchers and shelter
volunteers, tens of thousands of people got to safety. These are real-
life heroes, and, on behalf of the people of Washington State, ``Thank
you.''
But gratitude is not enough. The people of Spokane need action, and
they deserve to know their government has their back.
So here is where things stand as I see them: Our firefighters must
have every resource they need to contain these fires--every aircraft,
every bit of equipment, every dollar. So far our State has gotten the
resources we need from the Federal Government, and I deeply appreciate
that. That is how it should be.
Yesterday, I led our congressional delegation in urging the President
to approve the Governor's request for an expedited emergency
declaration. The President has approved part of that request; that is
good, and I will be watching closely to ensure the full request is
approved.
The next few days will no doubt be difficult as local fire crews do
their best to try and contain these fires.
Looking ahead, it is important to say: Spokane's recovery will not be
measured in days or weeks; it will be measured in months and years.
Rebuilding homes, rebuilding businesses--it will take a long time, and
it will not be easy.
But as vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, I want the
people of eastern Washington to know they have a voice in the U.S.
Senate who will speak up for Spokane. I am not someone who will simply
write letters to this administration asking for support. I help write
the bills that fund the government across every Department and every
Federal program, and I will make sure Spokane's recovery is a priority
at every opportunity. There is not a single dollar I won't pursue if it
means helping Spokane and communities across the State as they rebuild
from these devastating fires. Whatever it takes, for as long as it
takes.
Spokane has been hurt and is being badly hurt by these fires, but
Spokane is not broken. A community that takes care of each other in the
way we have seen cannot be broken. Spokane will rebuild; Eastern
Washington will recover; and I will be standing with them every single
step of the way.
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.
(Ms. LUMMIS assumed the Chair.)
Mr. THUNE. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. Moody). Without objection, it is so
ordered.
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