[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 145 (Tuesday, September 15, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4701-S4702]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                Wyoming

  Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, during the past month, I traveled all 
around the State of Wyoming--great community events, one community 
after another: Dubois, WY, the firefighters' picnic and buffalo 
barbecue. Nothing like it in the world. We had our Wyoming Ag Hall of 
Fame in Douglas. We had the banquet. We had a celebration of the 100th 
anniversary of the Wyoming Pioneer Association. In Rawlins, I visited 
the hospital there to talk about the incredible advantages to all these 
small community hospitals now as a result of the bill that we passed to 
put up a fund to help rural hospitals stay focused and functioning and 
able to provide care in our communities. I was in Meeteetse on Labor 
Day for the parade and the pancake breakfast. I talked to a lot of 
people.
  And people all around Wyoming follow the cowboy code. The cowboy code 
says you live each day with courage, take pride in your work, and do 
what needs to be done. And the people of Wyoming are very proud of the 
progress that we have made here as Republicans over the last year and a 
half with President Trump in the White House, a majority in the House, 
and a majority of Republicans in the Senate. And people all want the 
same thing. They want safe communities, strong communities. They want a 
prosperous future. And they believe--rightly so--that Republicans have 
been delivering that the last 2 years.
  The border is now secure. I think about where it was 2 years ago and 
where we are today: No one caught and released into the country. This 
whole catch-and-release program of the Bidens', it is over.
  The largest tax increase in America that the Democrats were 
proposing, that has been stopped. Taxes on tips, taxes on overtime, 
taxes on Social Security, they are all gone now.
  America is now energy dominant, which is where we should have been 
all along.
  The crooks and the criminals that we know have been abusing Medicaid 
and abusing food stamps--today, they are paying the price; they are 
being held to account.
  Six hundred members of President Trump's team are now on the job, and 
they are on the job in spite of historic opposition by the Democrats. 
Republicans torpedoed their obstruction.
  People in Wyoming also shared with me their worries. And there are 
concerns. They are concerned about what the radical Democrat policies 
would do to harm them and harm their families and harm our communities.
  Democrats now have laid out their manifesto. And we are not just 
talking about in California or New York. We are talking about Democrat 
nominees all across the country. The Democrat nominee for the Senate in 
Minnesota claims Immigration and Customs Enforcement, she says, is 
evil, and she wants to ``rip ICE apart.''
  The Democrat nominee in Maine, he wants free healthcare for every 
illegal immigrant in the country. Democrats want it paid for by hard-
working Americans with their tax dollars.
  The Democrat nominee in Florida is a card-carrying member of the 
Democratic Socialists of America.
  The Democrat nominee in Texas says he would lay out a welcome mat at 
the southern border. He says men ought to be playing in women's sports.
  The Democrat nominee in Michigan, he wants to take away our guns. His 
campaign partner says that America deserved the horrific terrorist 
attacks of September 11.
  Our Nation, just a few days ago, commemorated the 25th anniversary of 
the horrendous attacks that killed nearly 3,000 Americans. But 
Democrats--north, south, east, and west--they are running on this 
radical roadmap. They plan to take away private property and seize 
businesses. When we just read their manifesto, it is all right there. 
They want to open the borders. They want to open the prisons. They want 
to put prisoners back into our communities. They want to get rid of 
ICE. They want to shut down our military. They want to shut down 
police. That is who they are.
  This is the difference between common sense and crazy. People see it. 
They know it.
  Democrats want to rip $50 billion away from our rural hospitals. 
These are rural hospitals that we have worked with over the years to 
just try to keep alive, to keep open at a time when we saw, both under 
Biden and Obama, rural hospitals close in my State and in the Presiding 
Officer's.
  Democrats want to start taxing tips and overtime and Social Security. 
That is a direct increase in taxes on waiters and waitresses, on police 
officers, on nurses. It is a direct increase in taxes on our seniors if 
they start taxing Social Security, which is what they want to do.
  What do they want to do with the money? Well, they have been very 
clear. They want to use it to pay for healthcare for illegal 
immigrants. I mean, that is the difference between the Republicans and 
the Democrats right now.

[[Page S4702]]

  People I talked to don't want taxes to be higher. People I talked to 
don't want men to play in women's sports. People in my home State of 
Wyoming I talked to don't want to defund the police; they don't want to 
defund the military. People I talked to at home, they don't want to put 
a welcome mat out at the southern border. The people I talked to at 
home don't want hard-working Americans to be forced to pay for 
healthcare for illegal immigrants. The people I talked to at home don't 
believe illegal immigrants should have the right to vote or to be made 
citizens.
  Many of the Democrats in this Chamber and on the ballot this 
November, they want all of those things; they are campaigning on those 
things. I continue to say the Democrats of today are radical, they are 
extreme, they are dangerous, and they are scary. It is the difference 
between common sense and crazy, and the American people see it.
  My Democrat colleagues in this very Chamber have called these radical 
policies--they call it the future of their party.
  We cannot allow that to become the future for our Nation. So 
Republicans are going to continue to fight for safety, for American 
prosperity, and for continued American greatness.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Ms. ROSEN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Graham). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.