▶ 0:16:58>> can you hear me? Thank you very much. Good morning. We will move into the markup. I will get the statement in a moment to lay out the rules. Look forward to the debate and the discussion. I think senator lujan, I think he has covid.
▶ 0:17:30We wish him well. Under the rules, he can vote by proxy. I will let him do that. I know he has some amendments he wants to offer. We can offer some on his behalf. I don't think he can vote on file passages. We wish him well. We want to make sure he can participate by proxy.
▶ 0:18:00Members will recognize in accordance with committee practice with recognition granted for the members present at the beginning of the markup in order of seniority. On the committee members arriving after the markup will be recognized in order they arrive. Following opening statements we will begin the consideration of the amendments to the chairman's mark. Only timely filed amendments will be considered. When debate is completed, we will vote on the resolution.
▶ 0:18:30It has been the practice of prior chairs all amendments must be fully offset over the total years covered by the resolution. Amendments with no force or effect are not an order under the rules. Senate amendments are not permitted. As the budget resolution is considered to be a privileged matter, amendments that risk the status of the resolution I will rule out of order.
▶ 0:19:02It is respect of our rules to not allow proxies but I have covered that before about senator lujan. Otherwise you must be present when those take place in order for your vote to be tallied as has been done in prior markups. I will recognize members to offer debate in certain blocks of time and stack the votes throughout the day. Our rules require we have 11 members present to vote on the reporting budget resolution and seven members to conduct committee business.
▶ 0:19:34In prior years the agreement has been reached to keep the markup moving forward even if there were times fewer than seven members. This has worked well in the past. I ask unanimous consent that for the purpose vote statement the offering of amendments and debate on the amendments during markup the current required markup the current require ement be considered.
▶ 0:20:03I asked members to limit their opening statements to 6 minutes. Just do the best you can. I will lead by example. We are here to pass a budget resolution bill that will allow $175 billion to be spent to secure the border.
▶ 0:20:31$150 billion to be spent to increase our military capability. $20 billion for the coast guard. We will instruct the appropriate committee to do that and we will instruct the other committees to find offsets that are reconciliation compliant for mandatory spending that are not social security. The reason we are doing that is there is debate between the house and the senate about what to do and why.
▶ 0:21:00The reason I want to start is because there is a sense of urgency about the immigration plan of president trump in this regard. 87% of the people according to the new york times support deporting immigrants who are here illegally and have criminal records.
▶ 0:21:2465% support deporting immigrants who are here illegally and arrived over the last four years. 59% support deporting all immigrants who are here illegally. That is where the public is. The problem we have now is that I.c.e. Is running out of money.
▶ 0:21:47To my colleagues in the house, I hope you can pass a bill meeting the priorities of president trump and what we are promising to do as a party. But we have to move on this issue. Tom holloman said yesterday that the I.c.e. Czar, there are 300,000 children missing in this country. If we get more money, we can find them quicker. Only god knows what they are going through. You need to finish the wall. That space is in short supply.
▶ 0:22:18When we apprehend somebody, they cannot be deported on the spot. They have to be housed and there is a legal process to go through. We are running out of bed space so we need more detention space. We need more I.c.e. To make this happen. What has happened here is that we are dealing with four years of irresponsible immigration policy.
▶ 0:22:43For the last four years people have been waived into the country following the parole statute. Lay can rightly -- laken riley, the young lady who was murdered in georgia. The man convicted of killing her was in custody and was paroled because of lack of detention space in texas. That is not a legitimate reason to paroled someone under the law. You can parole people for two reasons. A special need.
▶ 0:23:15They offer our country a unique humanitarian need that they have, not lack of bed space. We are going to fix this. We ran on campaigns about what to do with immigration and the party said that we would deport criminals. With finish the law. We will give I.c.e. The tools they need to bring law and order back to america. We need money to do that. To my republican colleagues in the house, I am pulling for one big beautiful bill.
▶ 0:23:45But there is a sense of urgency. I hope you will consider what we do. If you cannot produce the one big beautiful bill quickly. To my democratic colleagues. President trump was right to run on the idea of mass deportations in response to mass illegal immigration. The number of people who have crossed into this country illegally in the last four years is probably over 10 million.
▶ 0:24:14Now the hard work of getting the criminals out of the country begins. Securing the border and hiring the people necessary to make that happen. This bill will allow the money to be spent to make that happen. If we get this bill through the senate and the house, I.c.e. Will have the money they need to finish the job they promised they would do.
▶ 0:24:37If we get this bill through the senate and the house, the military will have $150 billion to upgrade their ability to defend this nation and the coast guard will be better off until my republican colleagues will pay for every penny of this. We will spend it in four years and pay for it in four years. I am ready to get started. The campaign is behind. We made promises. We are going to keep those promises. It starts today.
▶ 0:25:07The next thing we will do is deal with taxes and spending. Senator johnson, I am committed to making sure we spend consistent with the values we have as republicans. I am willing to work with my democratic colleagues to fix a broken immigration system but that only happens after you gain control of the border and deport the people who should have never been here to begin with.
▶ 0:25:34The idea of immigration reform will be put on hold until we get control of our border. I have been involved in every effort to produce a comprehensive immigration bill and the problem we have now is four years of just open borders that has done a lot of damage to that idea. It is hard to convince republicans to legalize anybody matter how worthy the case may be for legalization until we first control the border. We are never going to do that again.
▶ 0:26:03I will never be put in that position. We will control the border first. We will get control over the gangs that run the streets in america first. Then we will talk about what to do next. I look forward to the markup. >> thank you Mr. chairman for holding this markup so we can have a public discussion of the values and ideas that are behind this particular budget resolution.
▶ 0:26:30Many of us share the concerns about border concert he -- border security via the bipartisan bill we passed through the senate. It was the republican house that torpedoed that bill. There was a bipartisan plan last year that worked out. Again, it was the republican candidate for president, then Mr. trump, who torpedoed that bill. Working together in a cooperative fashion on border security and national security, we are all for.
▶ 0:26:58We are not for this budget resolution. I am going to explain why. This budget resolution contains $9 trillion in cuts to programs for working families. This budget resolution has a simple vision. Families lose and billionaires win. It mirrors the last budget presented by donald trump and his former omb director russell voug --ht.
▶ 0:27:28We now have again rushed we now have again rushs vought as omb director. It proposes a trillion dollar cut to programs. We also saw reflected that that is an amplification of what was in the last budget for 2021 which had a trillion dollars spent over one decade.
▶ 0:27:55That previous budget slashed programs for health care for housing for seniors and veterans, took the funding for seniors and community hospitals, took the head start programs, it did all that. Now we are seeing a replay of that strategy. Families on the chopping block, massive giveaways to the richest americans. This is a great betrayal because president trump campaigned on helping families.
▶ 0:28:27Not destroying the programs that help them stand up, do well, thrive, move into the middle class. That is why we are opposed to this budget resolution. This resolution sets up a bill that opens the door to making student loans more expensive, closing off the opportunity for millions of students to thrive by attending college.
▶ 0:28:52This proposal eliminates the methane fuel which is a critical fuel for encouraging the biggest incentive for them to control and reduce their leaks. This budget sets up a strategy for encouraging massive amounts of drilling for fossil fuels which puts fuel on the wildfire chaos which produces more floods, more fires afflicting our communities all across this nation.
▶ 0:29:24In turn, it drives up the cost of flood and fire insurance. We are already seeing insurers disappear for the markets in florida, california and oregon. We know families are terribly upset about this vision. We are getting thousands of phone calls, voicemails, emails from families, every one of our offices. They are concerned about the impact to education, housing and healthcare and childcare. Mr. chairman, that is not our only concern.
▶ 0:29:54Our other concern is that this will continue the record of republicans driving us deeper into debt. As you will see by this chart behind me, if we look at the first year of deficits for each republican administration compared to the last year, every single republican administration increases the deficits over the term of their service in office and every democratic administration reduces the deficits during their time in office.
▶ 0:30:24So we see republicans campaign on physical responsibility and then proceeding through massive tax cuts to the wealthiest of driving our country deeper into debt. Indeed, this is a vision that has now existed for 40 years. We are seeing a replay of this charade one more time, the trickle down never trickles down. We know many of the cuts promised in this budget are very real and will hurt families. But we also know that many of them are a mirage.
▶ 0:30:55If you take the chairman's mark for just the first year that calls for $1 trillion cuts in fy 25, we are halfway through fiscal year 2025. Our colleague senator johnson laid out a vision of what those cuts will look like and what they would look like is virtually wiping out all funding in the balance of fiscal year 2025 for energy, natural resources, agriculture, for community and regional development, for education, training, employment and social services.
▶ 0:31:23About half of the funding for healthcare, transportation, veterans benefits, international aid, commerce and housing. Those cuts are designed to offset the giveaway, the $3.7 trillion of giveaways to the richest americans. That magic asterisk, these un-allocated program cuts means when they do not happen, we run the country deeper into debt. Repeating the model we have seen time after time after time.
▶ 0:31:53I tell you if you are fooled once, shame on you but if you are fooled twice, shame on you. I am full twice, shame on me. This is the fourth or fifth time we are being full with this presentation of fiscal responsibility that is designed to give tax cuts of the richest americans and drive at the national debt while cutting programs for families. This is not government of and by the people. This is of, by and for the billionaires.
▶ 0:32:20I propose instead we write a budget together that lowers the cost of healthcare, that bills more affordable housing, that improves education, that creates good paying jobs and that tackles climate chaos. Thank you, Mr. chairman.
▶ 0:32:33Chair Graham: That was close to six minutes. That was good. >> thank you very much Mr. chairman. As part of the regular duties to execute the mandate given to republicans by the american voters in this last election, the senate budget committee will mark up the budget resolution for fiscal year 2025 today. This is not the end. It is the beginning. >> is your mic on? Is it on?
▶ 0:33:03Chair Graham: Ok. >> on his first day in office in january of 2021 president biden blew open the southern border by using executive authority to rescind the number of successful trump administration policies. His open border policies brought more than 10 million illegal immigrants into our country. President biden failed to uphold the law with regard to border security.
▶ 0:33:30Chair Graham: While president trump has reinstated many of these important policies through executive order, the fiscal year 2025 budget resolution implements lasting security for american citizens. Additionally this resolution restores america's military power to counteract russia, china and other adversaries around the world.
▶ 0:33:52Chair Graham: This work combined with president trump's america first foreign policy will keep america, the preeminent global power and shore up our national defense. To begin the process of returning to fiscal flexibility, this unlocks our ability to reverse a specific costly rule from the prior administration that threatens patients access to long-term care in rural communities.
▶ 0:34:24Chair Graham: Not only will this effort provide savings for our shared priorities in this legislation, but it will also serve as a commitment to reform our broken healthcare system which too often relies on ineffective structures that fail patients, providers and taxpayers.
▶ 0:34:39Chair Graham: I want to make it clear that if we receive this instruction in this budget and I have confirmed this with our budget committee chairman, the finance committee 's focus will be on this single provision, not on opening up the tax bill or other issues or other efforts to try to reform other parts of our healthcare system. I will do my best to keep us focused on this provision with this instruction.
▶ 0:35:03Chair Graham: Finally by committing to paying for this ambitious agenda of the senate republican's have said enough is enough with reckless fiscal policy. It is past time to get our fiscal house in order. More will be necessary to bring america back to living within its means but this resolution is a superb first step.
▶ 0:35:27Chair Graham: I just want to reply quickly to some of the comments that have already been made because it is very obvious that the criticisms of what we are trying to do rely on the politics of fear, saying that we will hurt every single person in america except those rich people and blaming us for raising taxes or trying to get us to raise taxes on everybody in america, claiming we want to give tax cuts to the wealthy.
▶ 0:35:54Chair Graham: The tc ja that was referenced already has a $2.6 trillion impact on people making less than $400,000 per year. That is reached by $200,000 per couple in a married joint return.
▶ 0:36:16Chair Graham: The vast majority of the numbers we are talking about are not the wealthy as has been claimed but they are in fact those who are in the middle and lower income brackets. And I might add, are pass-through entities, small businesses across the country.
▶ 0:36:34Chair Graham: It is time to stop the politics of fear, admit that we have to control our spending and let us get on with trying to do the critical work of restoring our border security, restoring our national security and unleashing the energy potential of this country so that we can again regain our preeminent posture as the strongest economy and the strongest nation in this world.
▶ 0:37:02Chair Graham: Thank you. That was five minutes. That was good. Senator mary.
▶ 0:37:10Sen. Murray: Thank you. We are just one month away from a deadline to pass the bills to fund the government and as we approach the deadline, the entire world is watching as president trump and elon musk effectively shut the government down piece by piece, bit by bit, whatever part elon musk does not like. We are already in a partial shutdown.
▶ 0:37:32Sen. Murray: Trump and elon musk are shuttering agencies and demanding the work of the american people come to a halt. They are illegally blocking hundreds of billions in funding for the people that we represent back home. Putting good paying jobs on the chopping block, creating incredible uncertainty for businesses and choking off key funds for infrastructure and energy projects and a lot more.
▶ 0:38:01Sen. Murray: Remember, this is the richest man on earth with deep ties to china and direct tie to putin. Unilaterally and illegally deciding if our constituents received the taxpayer dollars they are owed. What they are doing is not only illegal, it is devastating for working people in every zip code. Right now we need to be speaking out with a unified voice to ensure that when congress passes a bill, that law is followed.
▶ 0:38:29Sen. Murray: We need to focus on negotiating serious spending bills on a bipartisan basis ahead of the fast approaching march 14 deadline. That is what I'm trying to do right now. This is critical. We had to know that when those bills become law, trump will actually follow them. We cannot just reach an agreement, pass a bill and standby while president trump rips are laws in half. There is a serious bipartisan path forward for our country.
▶ 0:38:59Sen. Murray: It is one where congress works together to avoid a shut down, stops the defective shutdown that is already happening and reasserts its authority to protect the funding that our communities need. Unfortunately, that is a far cry from the path republicans are setting out today with this pro billionaire anti-middle-class budget resolution.
▶ 0:39:20Sen. Murray: Let's be clear, the chairman's markup does not just accept that doubles down on what trump is doing. It is another distraction on the bipartisan work that needs to happen for our government and it will enact policies and painful cuts to programs that families count on each day.
▶ 0:39:41Sen. Murray: Republicans are going down this partisan path because they know democrats are not going to join them in the ring medicaid, nutritious assistance and veterans benefits into the chopper so they can give more tax cuts to billionaires. Make no mistake, this resolution is the doge resolution as it assumes a staggering amount of $1 trillion in unspecified cuts in 2025 alone and $9 trillion over 10 years.
▶ 0:40:11Sen. Murray: Where do we think those cuts will come from? Snap benefits that keep kids from going hungry? Public schools, community health centers, lifesaving medical research? Make no mistake, if you are cutting that deeply and painfully, you will have to start cutting things like veterans healthcare, assistance to our farmers, medicare and medicaid. For the information of our senators, 30 million children rely on that.
▶ 0:40:38Sen. Murray: There is no other way to make the numbers work, especially when we know that this is just stuff one in the plan and step two is more tax breaks for billionaires and massive corporations. First they are heading elon musk a chainsaw to cut programs families rely on was no account ability. They are rewarding him with enormous tax breaks and that is unacceptable to me. We should not be cutting health care for working families to deliver massive tax breaks to the wealthiest billionaires.
▶ 0:41:08Sen. Murray: I urge all of my colleagues to hit the brakes and not just on this devastating partisan budget resolution. Hit the brakes on what president trump and elon musk are doing. Let's come together and work on a serious bipartisan bill to fund the government and get investments that are thoroughly needed after the people we represent. Let's come together to demand real accountability for the shut down are conducting right now instead of a markup to hand elon musk more power.
▶ 0:41:38Sen. Murray: We need a hearing to hold them more accountable. This billionaire is operating completely in the dark, hoping his lies about corruption are loud enough to drown out any calls for truth. When he tweeted out the names of government employees months ago, that was accountability. But when reporters named people gain illegal access to treasures payment system, that is a crime? He gets to look at all of our most sensitive data but no one gets to look at what he is actually doing.
▶ 0:42:08Sen. Murray: That cannot be the standard. When will we have a hearing with the people who are illegally firing workers who protect families from scams? Illegally canceling grants to community health centers? Illegally freezing funds to rebuild your local highway? Illegally shutting entire agencies that keep our country safe? And now, this plan outsourcing $1 trillion in cuts for this year alone. That is not rhetorical. I hope the chair will answer when will we have a hearing with elon musk.
▶ 0:42:39Sen. Murray: He seems to be central to this budget plan. But no one on our side of the aisle has heard from him. No one. He is making big decisions about our countries spending and he is not just doing it without congress. He is doing it in spite of what congress has already decided. We should not be giving up our power of the purse. We should be getting answers.
▶ 0:43:02Sen. Murray: If elon musk really has nothing to hide, then he should try to leave his safe place on x and trump rallies and come before this committee to be accountable to the public. I yield. >> as you are well aware, this budget does none of the things democrats are accusing. They are not giving draconian cuts, we are not giving to the ultra wealthy.
▶ 0:43:33Sen. Murray: We are hearing the same old rhetoric, the scare tactics that our colleagues have used for decades to mortgage our children's future. What this budget is all about, it is starting to clean up, take the first steps in cleaning up the enormous messes left behind by the biden administration and his allies here in congress. I want to talk about two of them. We are $36.2 trillion in debt.
▶ 0:44:00Sen. Murray: No family faced with a serious illness and had to buy $50,000 for medical bills, if that family member got well, would keep borrowing $50,000 and keep spending at that level. That is an insane approach. Nobody would do that. But that is exactly what the federal government has done. Let's look at the first chart.
▶ 0:44:22Sen. Murray: In 2019, the fiscal year before the pandemic the federal government spent 4.4 trillion dollars. During the pandemic we had to do something fast so the markets would not collapse and we went on a massive spree and spent $6.5 trillion. When the pandemic came down, you would think we would return to some reasonable they signed spending but we did not do that. For the next five years we averaged 6.5 trillion dollars.
▶ 0:44:51Sen. Murray: Last year we spent six point $9 trillion. The wall street journal just reported the first four months we spent 4.4 trillion dollars, that is $7.3 trillion. 61% above $4.4 trillion. Our population grew 2.6. This is completely unjustified. No family, no business would do this. That is what the government has done.
▶ 0:45:17Sen. Murray: The question is how do we return to a reasonable pre-pandemic spending level. I know republicans and maybe even democrats talk about the zero-based budgeting. I don't think we will ever go back to that but here is the next best thing. Over christmas break I went back to look at other budgets that we could use as a baseline. Do not accept them all but use them as a reasonable baseline.
▶ 0:45:43Sen. Murray: I looked back in 1898 when we had a surplus of $69 billion under bill clinton. If you take that $1.7 trillion from 1990 eight, increase it to account for population growth and inflation, use today's social security, medicare payments, exempt those programs but inflate bill clinton's total, you would have spent $5.5 trillion this year.
▶ 0:46:14Sen. Murray: President biden is projecting $5.5 trillion in revenue. Using bill clinton's budget from 1998. By the way, that was supported by senator grassley, senator murray, senator schumer, senator graham back in 1998. A very bipartisan budget. We would have a balanced budget. If that is too reasonable, take a look at president obama's 2014 budget.
▶ 0:46:46Sen. Murray: Again, use this year's social security medicare and interest but grew those total outlays by population growth and inflation. You would end up at $6.2 trillion. A $700 billion deficit. Is that too reasonable for you? Not reasonable enough? Go to 2019 actual spending, grow that by population and spending, 6.5 trillion dollars.
▶ 0:47:13Sen. Murray: No matter how you cut it, the worst case scenarios using those reasonable baselines, you save $800 billion by basically spending what we did only five years ago. There is nothing draconian about that. It is called reasonable. What chair graham has done, he has taken a fourth option. I took a look at what president trump budgeted this last year in office for 2025.
▶ 0:47:45Sen. Murray: That was $5.5 trillion that would balance the budget. That did not account for social security medicaid. Put those figures in there. $61 billion. That is the chairman's mark. No one is suggesting using every line item in president trump's budget. It is a topline figure. I would go back to the clinton budget. You would have half $1 trillion for things like defense, veterans benefits. All kinds of reasonable ways to approach this.
▶ 0:48:15Sen. Murray: We are just not approaching it reasonably. We have a pathway. We have four different options here of how to return to pre-pandemic levels to clean up that mess, this massive amount of deficit spending and debt. Here is why we are really here today. To clean up this mess. The open borders that president biden used his presidential authority.
▶ 0:48:44Sen. Murray: We kept hearing lies that we need a bill. We did not need a bill. President trump used the authority he had after his border crisis caused by daca to secure the border before he left office. President biden used that same authority to open it up, creating a clear danger that we have to clean up that mess. By the way, just got the presidential authority to close it back down, it became a political liability in 2024.
▶ 0:49:15Sen. Murray: He started using that authority and he started closing the border. President trump is closing it. But he needs help. He needs another $175 billion and that is the main purpose of this markup. We are not slashing or giving away tons of dollars to the wealthy. We are trying to keep a mess of an open border that threatens every american. That's what we're trying to do.
▶ 0:49:43Sen. Murray: I appreciate your dedication for coming up with a reasonable pre-pandemic spending level in our next round. Thank you.
▶ 0:49:48Chair Graham: Thanks very much. >> Mr. chairman. I'm going to start with a couple of quick comments about the big picture. This committee exists to serve as the foundation for our constitutional authority over the federal budget. According to our founding document, control over the federal purse begins in this room.
▶ 0:50:15Chair Graham: Right now president trump and elon musk are making a mockery out of the constitutional authority with brazen acts of lawlessness on a daily basis. President trump and elon musk have gutted funding for cancer research. Folks in red states get cancer too. They have gutted higher education funding.
▶ 0:50:41Chair Graham: We have seen students all over the last couple of days, students in red states going to suffer. Communities that depend on community colleges and universities and job centers and economic engines suffer too. Community health centers and rural hospitals are on the edge. Farmers are missing payments from the government. All of this is happening as a result of an unconstitutional power grab by the wealthiest man in the world.
▶ 0:51:10Chair Graham: A man who paid for an election but received no votes. My view is senators can either stand up and fight or they can beg for charity as some have already begun to do from those who are ripping our democracy apart. I would not plan on that second approach working out for long. Now I want to move to the resolution before us. I wish we were having a real discussion about fixing the border.
▶ 0:51:41Chair Graham: To do that you have to start with the facts. Here is the republican record. There was an effort in 2007 for a bipartisan agreement on immigration. Republicans tanked it. There was another agreement in 2013 that reached the senate floor. Again, republican's tanked it. Yet again in 2024 with an even more conservative proposal led by jim langford, republicans tanked that as well.
▶ 0:52:09Chair Graham: My view is president trump does not really have a plan to fix the border. He will yell about the border. He will look tough while he is doing it. This committee will spend more than $100 billion of real money to help him with all of that posturing. Now to the budget for today. This is about setting up a glide path to achieve two major republican goals.
▶ 0:52:35Chair Graham: Giving another round of tax breaks to the ultra-wealthy and paying for it by will -- ripping health insurance away from millions of americans particularly in medicaid. Congress used to make bipartisan progress on medicaid. We have a lot of finance members around and some remember that. That year of bipartisan progress on medicaid closed in 2017 when president trump first tried to gut. . It he would have succeeded if not for a thumbs down from the late john mccain.
▶ 0:53:07Chair Graham: In the days and weeks ahead here in the senate, there will be an effort to keep the medicaid cuts hidden behind the curtain. But they will come sooner or later. House republicans have been floating documents talking about $2 trillion according to press reports.
▶ 0:53:27Chair Graham: House speaker mike johnson is expected to release a budget between $1 trillion and $2 trillion for the safety net with the medicaid program target number one. I would like to comment briefly on the comments made by my colleague from idaho. What he has been describing on this nursing home rule, republicans would literally take the nurse out of the nursing home.
▶ 0:53:54Chair Graham: It would eliminate requirements that nursing homes have at least one nurse on site 24/7. That proposal that they are talking about on the republican side will make it harder for seniors in a nursing home to get a shower, go to the toilet or get their meals on time. I don't think this is where the country wants to go. I'm going to fight this every step of the way. This goes back to gray panthers days. This is real business talking about cutting senior citizens on nursing homes.
▶ 0:54:23Chair Graham: The fact is this medicaid budget is what keeps older people and the vulnerable out of squalor and destitution. Medicaid pays for two out of three nursing home beds in america, provides home and community-based care for millions more which is essential for americans with disabilities. Where are our seniors going to turn to when nursing homes no longer accept medicaid? It is an essential building block for kids as well.
▶ 0:54:50Chair Graham: Medicaid is especially important and senators know this because we are a rural institution. Medicaid is a lifeline. It is a survival tool in rural america. If republicans cut medicaid, rural america will become a healthcare desert. We are already seeing they are having problems delivering babies in rural america.
▶ 0:55:09Chair Graham: To the vulnerable people whose lives are made worse as a result of these cuts, it will be cold comfort that their hardship allowed some familiar pal to get a bigger yacht or more art for their private collection. We should not fall down on the job. We should be defending the constitution and making it possible for all americans to have a chance to get ahead. We want people to do well. We appreciate.
▶ 0:55:41Chair Graham: . It but we don't want the brakes just to go to the people at the top. We want all americans to get ahead. Those are our values and that is what will fight for.
▶ 0:55:47Sen. Cornyn: Thank you Mr. chairman. Americans know that the southern border has been in chaos under the previous administration. Nobody knows it better than my constituents in texas with the 1200 mile common border with mexico. Americans are aware that they are living in the most dangerous time since world war ii. A time where our military is stretched thin and underfunded and undermanned.
▶ 0:56:19Sen. Cornyn: I believe the chairman's mark lays down the necessary groundwork to secure the border and strengthen the military. These priorities will be funded not by spending more money that we don't have and adding to our national debt but by redirecting more priority federal programs, money for federal programs. That is what it means to budget. It is to make choices. That is what families and small businesses across the country do.
▶ 0:56:51Sen. Cornyn: I must say while I will certainly support this budget resolution, I am concerned it does not go far enough. 15 years ago retired admiral mike mullen, former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff said if the national debt grows, we are more beholden to creditors around the globe and have fewer resources to instruct -- invest at home.
▶ 0:57:19Sen. Cornyn: The national debt rep sends a clear threat to the united states to operate an efficient and effective response to the national defense. The national debt at that time was $14 trillion. Today according to senator johnson it is $36.4 trillion, more than double. What do we hear from our democratic colleagues? Do not cut a thing. Not a penny.
▶ 0:57:44Sen. Cornyn: With all of the outrageous expenditures that have been revealed as a result of the department of government efficiency led by elon musk, are democratic colleagues are not saying let's look at some of this spending and see what makes sense and what does not make sense. They are saying do not cut a thing. There is not a penny of wasteful spending. That defies common sense.
▶ 0:58:11Sen. Cornyn: Just this past monday the congressional budget office reported that federal spending rose 15% in the first four months of the current fiscal year. Even taking into account certain timing shifts, spending still rose by 7%. That is what it means to be on autopilot. I doubt the budgets of american families have risen by 7% during the same time.
▶ 0:58:36Sen. Cornyn: I appreciate the fact that the trump administration has shown a commitment to bringing fiscal sanity to washington by eliminating wasteful washington spending. As expected, big government advocates are especially shocked and horrified that anyone would even consider such a thing.
▶ 0:58:58Sen. Cornyn: What is less shocking is that these same folks had no problem with the previous administration illegally ignoring supreme court decisions by issuing a blank check to college loan borrowers for paying bills that they agreed to pay in the first instance. In other words taking billions from taxpayers who did not go to college to pay for those who did in defiance of a supreme court decision. Congress needs a reliable partner.
▶ 0:59:28Sen. Cornyn: The elections in november give us a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to act this year and to do serious work. That requires us to reform mandatory spending. Only 28% of the spending that congress does is addressed on an annual basis through the appropriations process. 28%. The rest of it is on autopilot.
▶ 0:59:55Sen. Cornyn: Mandatory spending, tax expenditures out of the 6.5 trillion dollars the federal government spends each year. It defies any reason to fail to look at that mandatory and tax expenditures and to try to balance the budget looking at only 28% of the federal spending. It will just not work.
▶ 1:00:20Sen. Cornyn: I cannot imagine anyone who would seriously argue that continuing to spend more on paying interest on the debt than our military is a positive development or sustainable but that is where we are today. Today's markup is an inflection point. It is good progress on two important priorities. But it is only a start.
▶ 1:00:46Sen. Cornyn: I worry that despite all the rhetoric on both sides about dealing with the debt, we will never do the hard work which requires us to address it. I applaud the house of representatives efforts to begin that process. More work remains in this body as well.
▶ 1:01:11Sen. Cornyn: I hope that we don't find ourselves down the road expecting to pass a bill that will alleviate a multi trillion dollar tax increase on the american people which I believe it is imperative that we do and we ignore our spending addiction.
▶ 1:01:28Sen. Cornyn: People say you have to vote for this tax bill because otherwise we will have a multi trillion dollar tax increase and ignore dealing with our fundamental mandatory spending problems. If that happens, we will have failed the american people for future generations. I will vote for this budget resolution.
▶ 1:01:56Sen. Cornyn: I think the priorities that the chairman have laid out a very important. I believe it is only a start. We should be incredibly cautious when we in the senate assume that the house of representatives can pass anything given the slender margins the speaker is working with.
▶ 1:02:25Sen. Cornyn: That is what we are betting on with this budget resolution, that we will come back and deal with the other parts of our spending addiction later on along with the tax bill. But that is where we are. Thank you.
▶ 1:02:38Chair Graham: Thank you. I want to echo what you said. You cannot grow your way out of debt. I believe the tax cuts will help the economy grow. But if you don't grow, you just cannot get there. Senator cornyn is right. I am dedicated to the idea that we will do that because if we don't, we will all fail together. Senator kaine.
▶ 1:03:03Sen. Kaine: Thank you. To my colleagues, I view this exercise and this resolution as a trojan horse. If the republican majority really cared about the budget, we would have appropriations deal. We would have had an appropriations deal before the end of the last calendar year we would have one by march 14th, especially since both houses are in republican majority.
▶ 1:03:32Sen. Kaine: That is the way you show you care about a budget. While I hope this is not true, signs suggest that the two houses do not want to reach an appropriations bill. If you cared about the budget, you will. If my colleagues cared about the budget, they would complain that elon musk and donald trump unilaterally violating past appropriations deals that we all voted for and that the president signed.
▶ 1:04:00Sen. Kaine: If you cared about the budget, that would matter to you. A deal should be a deal. Instead, my colleagues are quietly acquiescing to head start programs in their states being closed down, to community health clinics in their states being closed down, to veterans hospitals and clinics being on reduced staff.
▶ 1:04:24Sen. Kaine: Why would you quietly acquiesced to those kinds of violations of appropriations bills you voted for if you care about the budget? This is a trojan horse. The advertised purposes of this resolution are twofold. Border security and defense. Let me take defense first. I am on the armed services committee. Do you need to use reconciliation to do defense spending?
▶ 1:04:51Sen. Kaine: We not only spend hundreds of billions of dollars on defense in a bipartisan agreement, just last year we twice added to that in an april supplemental bill, we added money to defense. At the end of the year on an emergency bill, we added more money to defense and we did it with bipartisan votes. You don't need to use reconciliation to find spending on defense. We do it all the time in a bipartisan way. How about border security?
▶ 1:05:22Sen. Kaine: I have been here since 2013. We did a border security bill that was bipartisan. The house republicans killed it. We had a bipartisan bill in this body in 2018. President trump said vote against it. We had a bipartisan deal in 2024. President trump said vote against it. All of those head resources to invest in border security. Donald trump house republicans opposed them.
▶ 1:05:52Sen. Kaine: We just passed an immigration bill, the laken riley act that got bipartisan votes. You don't need reconciliation to do defense. You don't need reconciliation for border security. There is a demonstrated track record for this body that both of those can be done in a way. What is the bill about? If you don't need reconciliation for defense or border security, what is it about?
▶ 1:06:22Sen. Kaine: That is what my colleagues discussed. The effort begun today is an effort to dramatically cut spending on programs that affect everyday virginians and americans. Those dollars combined with the tariffs that donald trump is laying on american families that would make everything more expensive, they go into a big pot that is used to fund tax cuts for the wealthy.
▶ 1:06:50Sen. Kaine: This tax cuts for the wealthy is not part of this bill but is part of the big beautiful bill that the house is rolling out today. They are suggesting there needs to be $4.5 trillion of tax cuts and we know they will go to the wealthiest. That is the end result. I would just say let's just be candid about what's going on. We really cannot trick people.
▶ 1:07:14Sen. Kaine: They are the ones in the communities complaining about head programs being closed or health clinics being shuttered or workers being laid off or agencies being shut down. 30% of federal workers are veterans for god sake. It is about 1% to 3% of the civilian workforce. 30% of the feral workforce is veterans. They are the ones being laid off. Unilaterally by this president. We will fight today.
▶ 1:07:44Sen. Kaine: We will offer amendments to try to clarify what is going on, to try to protect the safety net programs. Let's be clear about what this is about. This is an effort to amass savings on the backs of everyday people whose programs are cut, plus, tariff revenue and.
▶ 1:08:14Sen. Kennedy: Thank you Mr. chairman. .1. I don't care whether we do one deal or two. I can teach it round or flat. I just want to see us pass something. I don't view this as a competition. I know mike johnson. I have complete confidence in mike johnson.
▶ 1:08:45Sen. Kennedy: And we should too. Point two. I don't know how many foreign nationals came into our country illegally under president biden. 8 million, 10 million, 12 million. I do know that it was a lot.
▶ 1:09:10Sen. Kennedy: Using the most conservative efforts, we probably added about 30 to the united states. We don't have the slightest idea who they are. Some of them are children. We don't have the slightest idea where they are. I believe it was intentional.
▶ 1:09:39Sen. Kennedy: I don't know why president biden and his team decided to do it. Only one of two circumstances are possible. Either it was intentional or the people in charge, you would not hire to manage a costco food court. I don't think it was the latter. I think an intentional decision was made. I don't hate president biden. I don't hate anybody.
▶ 1:10:11Sen. Kennedy: I hope he finds peace in retirement. The fact is we have an extra 12 million people who are in our country illegally. Most americans do not support illegal immigration. They think illegal immigration is illegal. Duh. It is not because they are racist. They at the southern border, they look at the front door of their home. Most americans lock the front door at night.
▶ 1:10:42Sen. Kennedy: They don't do that because they hate everyone on the outside. They lock the front door because they love the people on the inside. They want to know who is going in and out of their home. We have to fix the problem of illegal immigration and we have to have money to do it. Point three, defense.
▶ 1:11:06Sen. Kennedy: I am convinced based on the classified and unclassified information that I have seen that president xi jinping in china is working with president putin in russia and is working with iran against the united states of america in western values including but not limited to freedom.
▶ 1:11:33Sen. Kennedy: I believe their ultimate goal is to have russia dominate central and eastern europe. I believe their ultimate goal is to have iran dominate the middle east. President xi jinping's ultimate goal, the quarterback of this ballclub, is to dominate the indo-pacific, be free to roam at will in sub-saharan africa and south america.
▶ 1:12:04Sen. Kennedy: I don't want america to be the world's policeman. I don't want president xi jinping or president putin or iran to be the world's policeman either. The world I just described if I am correct, the objectives of our enemies is not a world that will be safe for america. Weakness invites the wolves.
▶ 1:12:33Sen. Kennedy: We have to spend more money on defense. Final point. Having said all of that, it is being proposed that we spend $300 billion for a good cause in my judgment. But $300 billion. There has been a lot of rhetoric.
▶ 1:13:02Sen. Kennedy: I do not mean that in a pejorative way, about we are going to pay for this. We need to pay for this. That is just as important and the defense money. We need to have real pay fors. We cannot sustain our spending.
▶ 1:13:30Sen. Kennedy: I understand it is for a good cause but no one around this place ever stands up and says I have a bad idea and I need money for it. It is always a good cause. This kind of spending is going to destroy america. There will not be a fiscal cliff. There will not be. That's not how this works. This kind of spending destroys you like termites.
▶ 1:13:59Sen. Kennedy: When you get termites, your house does not fall apart on a wednesday. But those termites eat away. You know what I'm saying. I hope we do this right. I would like to see us do it together. I will try to be here as much as I can and listen to my colleagues ideas.
▶ 1:14:27Sen. Kennedy: I think they are smart people and I would invite them to make their suggestions. I will take them seriously. Thank you.
▶ 1:14:39Sen. Van Hollen: Thank you Mr. chairman that the regular senate budget committee we had a hearing for the nomination to be the head of omb. At that time senator murray and I both ask him a direct question. Whether he would commit to complying with the law, including the impoundment control act. And he refused to say, yes.
▶ 1:15:10Sen. Van Hollen: And now he is over at omb and we see a whole lot of illegal actions going on, which is why our courts are now filled with various actions and complaints and judges are issuing tros. It would be helpful if our colleagues would help those lawyers defend article one, because they are shredding article one. I think it is also important to remember who russell vought is.
▶ 1:15:37Sen. Van Hollen: Because he is the architect of project 2025. What is project 2025? It is the plan, the blueprint that candidate trump, when asked about it said come out of no anything about it. I don't know who those people are. And yet he went about installing russell vought in the command and control center for the -- for the budget of the united states.
▶ 1:16:04Sen. Van Hollen: What they are doing now is implementing project 2025, and the reason candidate trump did not want to talk about it is because he knew how unpopular it was. That is why he ran away from it on the campaign trail. And yet they now have elon musk doing a lot of their dirty work. He is not trying to save money. This is not about government efficiency. If you care about government efficiency you don't start firing the inspector generals whose job it is to root out waste, fraud, and abuse.
▶ 1:16:34Sen. Van Hollen: By doing that you clear the way for more potential corruption, and that is what they are talking about in terms of this so-called schedule. They want to get rid of 50,000 to 60,000 merit-based and replace them with stooges. I think we should take a good look at project 2025.
▶ 1:17:01Sen. Van Hollen: Because I know the subject of this resolution purports to be focused only on immigration and defense. But if you read the fine print it opens the door for many of their unpopular proposals in project 2025. Like going after medicaid, which helps working families, which helps seniors, which helps kids with disabilities. Like going after the children's health program. Like going after food and nutrition programs for kids.
▶ 1:17:30Sen. Van Hollen: That is part of project 2025 that candidate trump said he knew nothing about but installed russell vought to be the command center guy at omb. If you look at this resolution, they actually begin to pave the way for those cuts just as they paved the way for big tax cuts to disproportionately go to the very wealthy and the biggest
▶ 1:18:00Sen. Van Hollen: Corporations. Because the resolution notes a b $.7 trillion cut to revenue over 10 years. Now, I support continuing the tax breaks that go to people under $400,000. I support it for the middle class. But the bulk of those tax cuts are going to very wealthy people and big corporations. So, that is laid out here.
▶ 1:18:25Sen. Van Hollen: The resolution also has a spending decrease of 11 point $5 trillion over 10 years, including about $1 trillion in cuts this year. So, it doesn't say where the $11.5 trillion are coming from. I don't know if elon musk is trying to dismantle big parts of the federal government to make way for those big tax cuts for very wealthy people. We have seen their actions already in a number of federal agencies, but let me tell you this.
▶ 1:18:56Sen. Van Hollen: If you fired every single civilian federal employee, including the 60% of them that work at dod, the v.a., and the department of homeland security you would save $271 billion. That would shut down social security. It would shut down medicare. And you are talking about $1 trillion. So, this year.
▶ 1:19:21Sen. Van Hollen: So, I'm going to be interested to see where our colleagues are going to come up with that, and I suspect project 2025 is going to be the blueprint. Yes, that blueprint trump said he knew nothing about. Cuts, as I said, to the affordable air -- affordable care act and nutrition programs.
▶ 1:19:41Sen. Van Hollen: And I will also point out that those who say they want to reduce the deficit and debt as I have, having another tax break for very wealthy people adds to the deficit and debt. This bill actually includes a little escape hatch. I just heard senator kennedy talk about it. Wanting to be real cuts.
▶ 1:20:04Sen. Van Hollen: If that is true why is there a provision in here that says there is a center point of order right now that prevents us from increasing the deficit by more than $10 billion in any fiscal year in the budget window without being offset. But this resolution includes language that turns off that point of order. So, senator kennedy, or I, on to get up and say, this actually, your plan is going to increase the deficit.
▶ 1:20:34Sen. Van Hollen: This resolution turns off that point of order. On the senate floor. I'm going to be very interested to see what happens here, because what it is, is a big open door for tax cuts for the very wealthy. For the people actually sitting behind donald trump when he gave that inaugural address, and he talked about the golden age with elon musk and the titans behind him. Those are not the forgotten people he talked about on the campaign trail, but that is who he wants to deliver tax cuts for.
▶ 1:21:06Sen. Van Hollen: I'm looking forward to the debate, Mr. chairman, because we have a president who said he was going to help ring down prices. Eggs are going through the roof. Waffle house just added a surcharge for eggs, yet he is talking about undermining these very important programs for the american people. While giving a big tax break to the super wealthy. I look for to our discussion.
▶ 1:21:26Chair Graham: Thank you. Senator ricketts.
▶ 1:21:29Sen. Ricketts: Thank you, chairman graham, and ranking member merkley, for holding today's markup. Chairman graham, thank you for your leadership in getting this resolution done quickly. I'm glad we are acting fast to reverse the policies of the last ministrations. The last four years of the biden administration failed the american people. Under biden's watch millions of illegal aliens flooded across our border.
▶ 1:21:56Sen. Ricketts: President biden's policies created a national security, humanitarian, and drug catastrophe at our southern border. Even worse, it made the biden border crisis made nebraska a border state. Let's go through some of the numbers. We had 10 point 5 million border encounters since biden took office. In 2023 agents with -- acquired 689 people on the fbi's terrorist watch list and another 103 in 20.
▶ 1:22:29Sen. Ricketts: Under the first trump administration in 2019 that number was often in the single digits. On a single day in december U.S. customs of order protection encountered 12,006 on the people trying to enter the country illegally. It tied an all-time record for the number of people trying to break into our country. In 2019 former administration secretary -- obama administration secretary of homeland security said 1000 crossings that they would be a crisis. 12,600 is a catastrophe.
▶ 1:23:00Sen. Ricketts: But crossings were not the only cost. Record amounts of daily drugs came across biden's borders into the hands of our children's -- children and loved ones. We experienced this in nebraska. Ms. griffin was a other of two that took a pill she thought was percocet was laced with fentanyl. And she died from it. Sadly, that has occurred all across our country.
▶ 1:23:27Sen. Ricketts: In 2019i was governor in nebraska law enforcement took 46 pills off of our streets. 46 pills. 2019. Then joe biden came into office as president and in just the first six months of his administration nebraska law enforcement took 151,000 pills. 151,000. From 46 to 150 1000 in six months of joe biden's administration.
▶ 1:23:57Sen. Ricketts: We see this annually across the country. Where the leading cause of death of young americans age 18 to 45 is defensible. 100,000 people a year. 70,000 from fentanyl are dying. If any country had attacked us and killed 100,000 of our citizens we would be up in arms. We would be declaring war. Well americans continue to died the drug manufacturers continue to smuggle the precursors of fentanyl across our borders.
▶ 1:24:30Sen. Ricketts: After biden became president law enforcement started confiscating twice as much methamphetamine, three times as much fentanyl, and 10 times as much cocaine because of our open borders policies and the southern border being open. The cartels took advantage of it. The point I'm trying to illustrate, chairman graham, the border is not a crisis, it is a catastrophe. President trump ran on securing the border. The american people voted for trump to secure our borders.
▶ 1:25:02Sen. Ricketts: President trump promised basic security. He knows better than anyone how to get border crossings down. During his first administration he brought those down to a 40-year low. That is why we are here today. We are here to support our order patrol agents, fund the border wall, and improve cbp port facilities. We will also support our immigrations and customs enforcement officers. They are dealing with unprecedented circumstances.
▶ 1:25:32Sen. Ricketts: As you mentioned in your open remarks there are 300,000 missing children we have crossed the southern border under the biden administration. Administration has no idea where they are. Additionally we have one point 4 million illegal immigrants who came to this country asking for asylum and have been refused and are now set to be deported. All the more concerning are the 10 point 5 million crossings under the biden administration, those who have committed crimes and were convict did and are pending charges. 350,000 of those.
▶ 1:26:04Sen. Ricketts: Over 35,000 were for homicides and sexual assault. We must secure the border for americans like laken riley, who was murdered by an illegal immigrant who came here, again, claiming asylum. We also must do it for nebraskans like sarah rood, who was killed in nebraska by an illegal alien drunk driver who was never held accountable.
▶ 1:26:31Sen. Ricketts: We can secure the border without adding to the national debt, which has been rising rapidly due to reckless spending under the biden administration. This package will be fully paid for. I look forward to passing this budget resolution package quickly. This is a very important first step in moving forward on the reconciliation bill so we can deliver results for the american people in the president's agenda. Thank you very much, chairman graham, for holding this markup. I yield back read -- back.
▶ 1:27:01Chair Graham: Senator warner.
▶ 1:27:04Sen. Warner: This budget wreck -- resolution and reconciliation bill that will spring from it has been billed as legislation that will secure the border, promote energy independence, and bolster the lee terry readiness. These are three principles that I've got to tell you, I cannot imagine any on this side of the aisle that not be proud to support. I just hope we will get a chance to participate in that process. For example, I want to secure the border.
▶ 1:27:31Sen. Warner: That is why I supported the senator lankford agreement to invest $20 billion to strengthen the security of the U.S.-mexico border. It's why I pushed the last ministrations to prioritize additional resources to stop the flow of illicit drugs like fentanyl from coming through ports of entry. As vice chair of the senate intel committee I know there are a number of threat actors seeking to exploit weakness in our security measures.
▶ 1:27:59Sen. Warner: I believe we should do more to protect the homeland and bolster our military readiness. We should invest more ships and submarines. And we should do more to support service members and their families both during their time in service and afterwards. And of course a strong national defense is not only about who has the most tanks and guns, but who is making strategic investments and harnessing emerging technologies like ai.
▶ 1:28:30Sen. Warner: If this is about energy independence we should use every tool at our disposal to lower the cost for working families while also working to make sure the new energy sources are affordable, sustainable, and efficient. For example, last year I started the senate advanced nuclear caucus. We are focused on finding practical solutions to scale up both the volume and use of safe, clean nuclear energy. I think particularly in smrs.
▶ 1:29:02Sen. Warner: Although smart investments may have entered the last administration we are seeing more in my home state taking a leading role in offshore wind production and producing clean energy vehicles will ride in the heart of southwest virginia in dublin. If my republican colleagues want to work in a bipartisan way to shore up our border defense, energy policy, sign me up.
▶ 1:29:26Sen. Warner: But what I will not do and what I cannot support is a one-sided partisan effort that slices the programs that help working families. Frankly, often times to pay for tax cuts for those of us at the top. I object to the idea that we should take seniors and children off of medicaid. Around 80 million americans are covered. Nearly half of them are kids. I cannot support a budget that takes a sledgehammer to health care for sick kids.
▶ 1:29:54Sen. Warner: And it is downright irresponsible to slash our nations most important hunger program at a time when households are seeing increased prices for groceries. Under the trump administration the cost of a dozen eggs is now over seven dollars. I heard those same eggs talked about a lot of times last year under the biden prices. Now that we are up to seven dollars for a dozen eggs under the trump administration I would point out those same eggs were about four dollars in october.
▶ 1:30:26Sen. Warner: Beef is more expensive. Orange juice is more expensive. And that is before we bring on the tariff costs. As a matter of fact, we are talking about cutting benefits of about $6.20 per person per day. This is a shortsighted move that will lead to food insecurity, poverty, lower health education outcomes for working people.
▶ 1:30:53Sen. Warner: I also cannot believe during these challenging times my colleagues would consider cutting vital education programs as well, as we all think about schooling up for ai purposes. I'm hearing that the majority wants to slash student loan programs, raising costs for young people. To my republican friends who like me, hear often from our constituents about the tremendous need for american workers.
▶ 1:31:22Sen. Warner: Going after student aid you are cannibalizing the workforce in the future. If you are a young person today watching this hearing I'm not sure what would drive you to be doing that. [laughter] and you are struggling to pay back a student loan, get on the phone. Call a republican senator now. If your parents who plotted out that last student program, let me flash senator graham's number on the screen now.
▶ 1:31:52Sen. Warner: Call now before noon and get an extra knife to go along with that loan. If you are a teacher, firefighter, cop who is hoping that the promise of the loan forgiveness will come to you, well, we are here to support it. Some of my colleagues on the other side or not. There are responsible ways for paying for packages like this.
▶ 1:32:15Sen. Warner: Those of us involved in the simpson bowles, dodd frank effort around debt and deficit, we laid out very bold cuts that spread the pain. I hope that we can go back and look at some of those ideas as well and in the meantime make sure that we do not end up going into long-term investments that were created by the bipartisan
▶ 1:32:45Sen. Warner: Infrastructure bill. We need to have a lot more conversation about supporting our defense industrial base, securing the border, but frankly, Mr. chairman, I think we can do better than what has been present. Thank you and I yield back.
▶ 1:33:00Chair Graham: The chair knows that senator warner has been involved in efforts to make hard decisions for a long time. It is much appreciated.
▶ 1:33:10Sen. Warner: Unsuccessfully.
▶ 1:33:12Chair Graham: Just keep plugging. We have a vote going on. Let's keep going with opening statements, then we will break for lunch and do amendments. Senator scott.
▶ 1:33:23Sen. Scott: Les november the american people make their voices heard. President trump was elected with a mandate under four years of the biden administration our border completely collapsed because of his radical policies and open border agenda. America is a more dangerous place because president biden allowed criminals, drugs, terrorists, and other dangerous people into our communities.
▶ 1:33:50Sen. Scott: There are real consequences to biden's failure to secure the border and each victim has a name. Real americans have been killed. Real americans have been torn apart by vicious crimes and deadly drugs because of biden's open border. Over 10 million people illegally crossed into our country. While millions were allowed to stay and had the red carpet rolled out for them courtesy of the american taxpayer, thanks to joe biden. There have been sexual assaults and murders committed by illegal aliens all over the country.
▶ 1:34:20Sen. Scott: Even in my home state of florida were a young man was killed the man charged for his death is an illegal alien. In 2023 separate toy mayorkas approved 320,000 in admissible, illegal aliens to 43 U.S. airports preapproved by dhs through the cbp one app. It made them go through florida on commercial flights.
▶ 1:34:44Sen. Scott: My colleagues, my democrat colleagues did against deporting illegal aliens who heard police. Some with known gang affiliations who unlawfully enter the country under biden's watch. And democrats voted against the laken riley act, which requires ice to take illegal aliens who commit crimes into custody before tragedy strikes. I want to thank president trump for signing the bill into law days after taking office.
▶ 1:35:16Sen. Scott: Democrats have also voted for opening borders and keeping our law enforcement officers safe. Unfortunately that is their record. Millions of illegal aliens who joe biden allowed to enter and remain in our country unlawfully. There have also been 70,000 fentanyl deaths in the U.S. each year. Violent crime is up 5% under the failed lighting administration because it had no regard for public safety or border security. Americans killed by illegal criminal aliens. Just in the guard.
▶ 1:35:48Sen. Scott: Age 12, was killed by two illegal aliens from venezuela who were charged with capital murder. The body was found in a creek in houston. Claudia casio died in a car accident about two miles south of portland, maine. Ruby garcia was killed during a carjacking attempt in michigan by an illegal alien who was deported in 2020, but entered the U.S. again without permission. She was found dead on a road with a gunshot wound to the head.
▶ 1:36:21Sen. Scott: Washington state trooper christopher gadd was killed when an illegal alien crashed into his cruiser more -- at more than 100 miles an hour. He was a husband and father of a beautiful daughter. Travis wilke was just 12 years old when an illegal alien crashed through the car traveling -- caring travis and his parents. Alex wise was heading killed by an illegal alien who had been deported five times. Elizabeth medina was reported stopped by an illegal alien who eventually killed her.
▶ 1:36:56Sen. Scott: Jeremy was just two years old when he and his mother were caught in the crossfire of an illegal alien in maryland. We all know laken riley, the nursing student killed on the campus of the university of georgia by an illegal alien while jogging. Powell, 47, were killed by an illegal alien from el salvador. Driving under the influence going about 100 miles an hour would have been deported four times.
▶ 1:37:25Sen. Scott: Young clark was killed when an illegal alien from haiti struck a school bus full of children in ohio. Rachel moraine, age 37 and mother of five was attacked, raped, and killed by an illegal alien while exercising on a trail in maryland. All of these innocent americans should be alive. But their lives were cut short because of joe biden's failures and refusal to enforce our laws.
▶ 1:37:50Sen. Scott: Last july they had released nearly 650,000 criminal illegal aliens were currently on ice's non-detained docket and roaming free in our country within the interior of the united states. This figure includes roughly 15,000 illegal aliens convicted or charged with murder. More than 20,000 illegal aliens convicted or charged with sexual assault and more than 105,000 illegal aliens convicted or charged with assault.
▶ 1:38:19Sen. Scott: Last year nbc reported nearly one point 5 million immigrants in the united states have orders of deportation. According to ice. By contrast deportations of illegal aliens plummeted. Since favorite 2021 ice under the biden a ministrations has supported less than 115,000 illegal aliens.
▶ 1:38:42Sen. Scott: Not to mention since 2021 there are estimated to be 2 million known evading border patrol agents. President trump's agenda is to fix the problem biden created and biting clearly created. To save the lives the ones I mentioned that were lost we have to deliver on that agenda. >> senator padilla.
▶ 1:39:06Sen. Padilla: Thank you, Mr. chair. Before I begin I just want to join with my colleagues on the side of the aisle, this committee, that are troubled at how the second trump administration has begun. Clearly laying the groundwork to cut crucial programs that american families rely on in order to fund yet another round of tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy.
▶ 1:39:37Sen. Padilla: During the budget committee, where we say the budget is a reflection of our values and priorities, want to talk about priorities. Not the president's priorities. I want to talk about the american people's priorities. I have heard over and over again that the outcome of last fall's election was a mandate and that the important take away from the election was americans' frustrations with the high cost of living. That was the main message.
▶ 1:40:07Sen. Padilla: That was the main take away. Too many families, republicans and democrats, struggling to pay for groceries, to afford gas. To pay the rent or mortgage every month. But for a nation that came out of last november trying to vote for lower prices, boy are they in for a rude awakening.
▶ 1:40:31Sen. Padilla: President trump has already moved to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum, taxing everything, and effect, from utensils, utensils used to cook your meals, to aluminum foil, to the very car you use to go pick up your food and groceries. Yes, even cars built in the united states have important parts. And it is not just a 25% tax on imported goods. He is threatening our workforce too.
▶ 1:41:01Sen. Padilla: On the campaign trail president trump promised to only go after violent criminals as part of the largest deportation program in american history. Yet sure enough, the first sunday of the administration nbc reported that nearly half of the 1200 arrests made as part of immigration enforcement actions were people with no criminal record.
▶ 1:41:31Sen. Padilla: Now, look, we all agree that we should target all violent criminals. I hope I speak for all of us when I say we should target all violent criminals whether they are immigrants or not immigrants. Violent criminals are violent criminals. Senator scott, others of my republican colleagues who have showcased some of the victims of crime in your respective states, my heart is out to you, to the victims, to their families. Absolutely.
▶ 1:42:02Sen. Padilla: But here is an inconvenient truth. For many. And that is the fact that immigrants, both documented and undocumented, are also critical to the success of our economy. Because the percentage of immigrants who are violent criminals is a very small percentage. A big percentage are, for example, undocumented workers who make up nearly 14% of construction workers.
▶ 1:42:30Sen. Padilla: Or about 42% of our agricultural workforce. In so often over the last several years I have heard from republican colleagues and democratic colleagues alike expressing frustration about the workforce shortage we see from our employers in our states. That is a real issue.
▶ 1:42:52Sen. Padilla: If president gets his way with the mass deportations that are not focused just on violent criminals, here is what american families can expect. Get ready also for more expensive fruit, or expensive vegetables, and that is if grocery stores can come you know, successfully keep up with stocking the shelves. If you have been saving up to buy a home, get ready to pay more and wait longer. Why?
▶ 1:43:22Sen. Padilla: Because construction will slow down and prices will go up. And on energy prices, we are hearing a lot about the need for american energy independence or even dominance as part of the lingo. The president's executive orders and budget resolution in front of us today would undo historic investments we have made to diversify the energy sector.
▶ 1:43:48Sen. Padilla: Because unlike fossil fuels whose prices are dependent on global markets, renewable energy sources represent the ultimate in energy independence. So undermining renewables is not just undermining energy independence, it is a threat to our national security and a threat to the good paying jobs we have created across the country in red states and blue states alike. So, folks, make no mistake. Under these plans life will be more expensive for families.
▶ 1:44:19Sen. Padilla: And all for what? That is really the big question. All for what? It is crystal clear. To help pay for hundreds of billions of dollars in tax breaks for billionaires large corporations. And to achieve this president trump and his allies here in congress seem determined to slash the programs american families depend on the most. Medicaid. Nutrition assistance programs. Pell grants.
▶ 1:44:51Sen. Padilla: Affordable health care coverage. Cancer research. Investments in our energy sector, including for hydrogen, biofuels, and carbon capture. And that is what the budget resolution before us suggests. Meanwhile, colleagues, as I'm sure you have heard, the house republicans have finally shared their draft plan.
▶ 1:45:24Sen. Padilla: In a race with senate republicans, apparently, they unleashed a plan that either way does not even include instructions for the senate. Not the best work product here. It does include, by the way, a debt limit increase, because even they recognize that to pay for all of the increases in spending that you all are suggesting you're going to have to raise the debt limit. For the folks watching at home, rest assured, we will get through this.
▶ 1:45:56Sen. Padilla: Just another minute, Mr. chairman. He will get through this and democrats are prepared to negotiate in good faith with our republican colleagues. But one of the first key steps we need is for republicans to finish negotiating with republicans. And as they get their act together it is nothing but a painful start for the american people. Because this is just the beginning.
▶ 1:46:19Sen. Padilla: Elon musk is already digging into social security and medicare as part of their effort to target working-class americans. It seems like funding for roads and bridges may be next. And in closing, I know that over the next several weeks, several months there is no doubt we hear a lot of talking points and misinformation by republicans trying to distract the american people from what is really happening. So to folks watching at home I have this to say.
▶ 1:46:49Sen. Padilla: Follow the money. Because it is going to start with cutting hundreds of billions of dollars in benefits that you have paid into and it is going to end with billionaires getting yet another tax break. So, I guess, Mr. chairman, I'm ready for this conversation and we will also lay out that for every cut that is proposed the american people demand an answer for why a billionaire deserves more of a tax break over the interests of working families. Thank you.
▶ 1:47:21Sen. Padilla: >> senator lee.
▶ 1:47:23Sen. Lee: I will note that on no planet -- literally no planet -- is doge, vivek ramaswamy, elon musk, or anyone else working as part of their efforts looking into messing with people's social security or medicare benefits -- it is not a thing. That is an invented fiction. It is fantasy and it does not exist.
▶ 1:47:50Sen. Lee: We are here today to talk about budgetary matters and budgetary matters that are brought about as a result of a unique crisis we faced over the last four years. A crisis that relates to our border security. Border security is something that I have given a fair amount of thought to. I spent two years of my life living on the -- along the U.S. border in the lower rio grande valley of the state of texas.
▶ 1:48:19Sen. Lee: Beautiful state, beautiful people. Loved living and working among them. One of the things that I discovered when I lived there for two years was that people prosper when the border is protected.
▶ 1:48:37Sen. Lee: And those who were most adversely affected by lapses in border security, especially by unsecured waves of illegal immigration, often are themselves immigrants, and as I deserved in -- I observed in that context, immigrants working on or near the U.S.
▶ 1:48:56Sen. Lee: Border is their neighborhoods, their children's schools, their jobs, their livelihoods, their safety of their security, and that of their loved ones is most directly put at risk when there are uncontrolled waves of illegal immigration. The biden-created order crisis is as real as it was preventable. Its consequences are as widespread as they are tragic.
▶ 1:49:26Sen. Lee: Americans across every corner of our country are worse off because a combination of criminals, contraband, drugs, flowed across the border freely into the united states. Cities and towns across our country are being overwhelmed by droves of non-citizens being relocated with their own hard-earned federal taxpayer dollars.
▶ 1:49:56Sen. Lee: Fatal fentanyl-caused poisoning deaths are on the rise and during one month alone of last year U.S. authorities seized enough fentanyl to kill more than 510 million people. To put that in perspective that is roughly every person, man, woman, and a child in the united states, canada, and mexico.
▶ 1:50:27Sen. Lee: That is the number of people who can be killed by the amount of fentanyl seized by U.S. authorities during one month of last year. This was made much worse by virtue of the porous border. And violent criminal noncitizens let into our country invaded by the previous administration continue to murder innocent americans.
▶ 1:50:50Sen. Lee: We are here today to take the next step in the process that will give president trump and republicans in congress the resources necessary to help end the biden border crisis. Make no mistake, this is a monumental task. It will require nothing less than a herculean effort. But that is why we are doing this. The funding will be used to deport violent felons, stop illegal immigration, and curb the flow of fentanyl into our country.
▶ 1:51:21Sen. Lee: Importantly, this budget is built on physically-responsible foundation. One with spending fully offset within the first four years. This is important, Mr. chairman, because what sometimes happens in the past, when funds are appropriated through the reconciliation process, sometimes there is a temptation to take the candy upfront and agreed to eat the vegetables later.
▶ 1:51:47Sen. Lee: To get the spending now with an agreement to offset it over a 10-year period of time. So if you spend in the first four years and plan to pay for throughout the duration of the 10 years very often the savings do not materialize. That is not what we are doing here. We are doing it right this time. There is no priority that is more urgent than putting an end to the biden border crisis.
▶ 1:52:12Sen. Lee: I strongly support this budget as a means to instruct the relevant committees to fund agencies and programs that will enforce our immigration laws, secure our border, stop this deadly poisonous, toxic flow of fentanyl into the united states, and help make america great again. Thank you, Mr. chairman. >> senator grassley.
▶ 1:52:34Sen. Grassley: Thank you, Mr. chairman. I appreciate you calling today's markup. It is a process to jumpstart the process for moving forward with a trump agenda. President biden used a pandemic as an excuse to ram through his budget-busting, far left agenda.
▶ 1:53:00Sen. Grassley: While wasting billions on leftist causes he neglected core government responsibilities. As we all know, the number one responsibility of the federal government, national security. But biden allowed our military to deteriorate, and as a result of not enforcing the immigration laws we had opened our borders.
▶ 1:53:29Sen. Grassley: This budget resolution represents a very first step towards correcting the biden-harris administration spending excesses and its disregard of security threats at our border and around the world.
▶ 1:53:48Sen. Grassley: The previous administration's open border policies resulted in an unprecedented surge of illegal immigration, approximately three times the population of iowa entered into the U.S. in just those four years, and everybody saw it nightly on our television.
▶ 1:54:09Sen. Grassley: This left our nation vulnerable to gang members, criminals, terrorists, national security threats, and drug smugglers crossing our border with impunity. President trump was elected with the mandate to remove these folks and secure our borders once again. This resolution green lights the resources necessary to make that important step.
▶ 1:54:44Sen. Grassley: The resolution also provides for funding to bolster our national military. Over the past several years the world has become an increasingly frightening place. Russia has revealed ambitions in europe which would result in the recreation of the soviet union.
▶ 1:55:11Sen. Grassley: China has shown increased aggression in the south china sea and its threats to taiwan. And iran's network of terrorist proxies threaten israel and even arab neighbors. Yet our military is ill-equipped for today's challenges, as president reagan proved by staring down the soviet union.
▶ 1:55:41Sen. Grassley: Peace is best maintained through strength. The resolution also lays groundwork for unleashing america's energy production. A coherent energy policy is vital to both national security and the economy.
▶ 1:56:01Sen. Grassley: Where I favor an all of the above approach to energy policy a biden administration's policy favored all of the above, but none from below the ground. It is time that we had a true all of the above approach to achieve american energy independence. That is fossil fuels, alternative energy, conservation, and nuclear.
▶ 1:56:32Sen. Grassley: Importantly, this budget represents a return to fiscal sanity. Any spending increases will be accompanied by corresponding spending decreases. While the pandemic is years behind us, spending as a share of the economy remains at levels previously reserved for national emergencies and for war.
▶ 1:57:02Sen. Grassley: In other words, defending america. During the heights of the pandemic we all agreed it was common sense for the government to step in to help individuals and families and small businesses weathered the storm that was created by a government shutdown of the economy.
▶ 1:57:27Sen. Grassley: But once the crisis subsides, show -- so should the programs and spending enacted in response to the pandemic. That is very much a common sense approach to spending. Our national debt is on path to eclipse world war ii-era records relative to the size of our economy and that is in just a few years.
▶ 1:57:57Sen. Grassley: We must begin to write our fiscal ship. So, in this process of bringing about this budget resolution don't forget the voter mandate. As part of the november mandate president trump is looking for ways to reduce wasteful government spending. Congress should not simply seed initiative to the president.
▶ 1:58:27Sen. Grassley: Congress holds the powers of the purse. So, in this action today and tomorrow we must show leadership to spare the american people from inflation and the crippling debt versions that comes from overspending. I yield the floor. >> senator sanders.
▶ 1:58:50Sen. Sanders: Thank, Mr. chairman. The federal budget is about our national priorities. It is about who we are as a nation, what we believe in, and let the committee is discussing today is very serious business. In my view no family, no business, no local or state government can responsibly write a budget.
▶ 1:59:16Sen. Sanders: First understanding the problems and challenges that it faces. Whether it is a business, a country, city, whatever. As I examined the budget brought forth in the senate and house by republicans, this is how I see how they analyze where we are as a country.
▶ 1:59:41Sen. Sanders: At a time of massive and unprecedented wealth and income inequality republicans look around and say, we have three people owning wealth than the bottom half of society. The very richest people becoming phenomenally richer. Working people are struggling. What is the solution? Obviously to give massive tax breaks to the rich and make a very bad situation even worse.
▶ 2:00:08Sen. Sanders: It is apparently not good enough that the top 1% today own more wealth than the bottom 90%. That is rather phenomenal. But in my republican colleagues' isaiah -- the wealthy and powerful need even more health -- help.
▶ 2:00:32Sen. Sanders: So, not only should the very wealthy be asked to pay their fair share of taxes, the republicans believe that we should give huge tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires. It is apparently for my republican colleagues not good enough that corporate america is now in many cases enjoying record-breaking profits that the ceos of large corporations now herne 300 times more than what their average employees make. 300 times more.
▶ 2:01:04Sen. Sanders: It is apparently not good enough that since 1975 there has been a $15 trillion transfer in wealth from the bottom 90% of our population to the top 1%.
▶ 2:01:18Sen. Sanders: That is apparently not good enough, so what we are looking at right now is a situation where republicans want to give massive tax breaks to the rich and come up with programs to hurt our kids, our elderly, and working families. Mr.
▶ 2:01:43Sen. Sanders: Chairman, as I'm sure you are aware, the united states of america is the only major on earth not to guarantee health care to all people and I think most americans would agree with me that whether you are rich, poor, young, old, health care is a human right. All of us get sick. All of us are going to need health care. We are the only major health care -- country not to provide health care to all.
▶ 2:02:08Sen. Sanders: And the result of that is not just an 85 million people in our country are uninsured or underinsured ninsured or underinsured despited or underinsured despite or underinsured despite spending twice as much as people of other countries. Here is the reality we don't talk about. Over 60,000 people in this country died every single year because they cannot afford to get to a doctor on time. People die because they cannot afford the outrageously-high costs of prescription drugs.
▶ 2:02:38Sen. Sanders: So, I think what we are talking about is priorities. Are we comfortable, as apparently some are, that at a time of income inequality the goal is to give more tax breaks to the rich? Are we comfortable at a time when so many people are uninsured, the only major country not to guarantee health care, the solution is to throw millions more children and elderly people?
▶ 2:03:07Sen. Sanders: When we cut medicaid let us not forget that it is not just low income kids. Or low income people. It is a lot of folks who are in nursing homes. I don't quite inc. That is an appropriate way to treat our elderly people in this country. So, one other, Mr. president. I have been hearing from the president and Mr. musk about military spending.
▶ 2:03:37Sen. Sanders: And what they have pointed out is that over the last -- I think it is seven years -- every independent audit the pentagon has not been able to make an independent -- succeed in doing an independent audit of the pentagon. And I think according to Mr.
▶ 2:04:01Sen. Sanders: Musk, according to president trump there are waste and fraud within the defense department of hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars. It is hard for me to understand that given the reality why anyone would want to give the pentagon a defense contract that is another $150 billion. I will be offering an amendment to do with that and many other amendments to try to create a budget that works for working families and just not for the very wealthy. Thank you very much, Mr. chairman. >> senator whitehouse.
▶ 2:04:35Sen. Whitehouse: Republicans clearly do not want to talk about a looming crisis headed for our economy and budget, but it is not hard to see how the dominoes fall. Fossil fuel emissions, methane one of the worst, are making the weather worse and harder to predict. This makes risk worse and harder to predict for insurance companies.
▶ 2:05:08Sen. Whitehouse: This means insurance companies have to raise their rates, or if they cannot figure it out, back away entirely. As insurance gets more expensive and harder to find property values begin to fall. Each member of this committee is likely experiencing this in your states. In fact, I'll bet you are even hearing from from your constituents. Let me start with florida, which is the preview of coming attractions for other coastal states.
▶ 2:05:38Sen. Whitehouse: It is the first and it is the worst. In florida glades and munro counties have seen homeowners insurance increase by more than 3000%. In glades county one in six homeowners was dropped from their insurance in 2023. In miami-dade premiums have spiraled up to $17,000 per year.
▶ 2:06:07Sen. Whitehouse: Premiums are expected to triple in coastal florida counties in the years to come, with home values consequently declining between 40% and 60% in many coastal counties. In some states major insurers are pulling out. In california all state and new form will not offer new policies. In florida most national companies have left this day.
▶ 2:06:35Sen. Whitehouse: Florida homeowners insurance rates are almost quadruple the national average. Many floridians cannot afford homeowners insurance and many more have rickety insurance that may well not pay claim what had tends if your homeowners insurance goes up? Quadruples, for instance? It is a carrier cost on owning your home, so your home's value declines.
▶ 2:07:03Sen. Whitehouse: Or if you cannot even get insurance, then your home cannot get a mortgage. When you try to sell no one can get a mortgage to buy your home. And again, your home's value crashes. That is what freddie mac's chief economist warned this committee about two years ago.
▶ 2:07:23Sen. Whitehouse: Coastal flood risk makes homes uninsurable, which makes them un-mortgagable, which then cascades through the economy like the 2008 mortgage meltdown. Except now the coastal homeowners insurance crisis he discussed has a new people slipping -- evil sibling. Fire risks for homeowners no one knew the coast. Same problem.
▶ 2:07:55Sen. Whitehouse: Here are counties where climate-related risks are expected to quadruple or more present insurance rates by 2050 five. Already-high insurance rates expected to as much as quadruple further. With obviously-predictable effects on property values.
▶ 2:08:23Sen. Whitehouse: Here property values are predicted to decline by as much as 100%. A decline of 100% is a total wipeout. Again, like 2055. You may say, that is not until 2055, that will not affect me. Except, who looks for 30 years? Mortgage companies do, who want to make sure their collateral is a sound and the homeowner is able to pay the mortgage.
▶ 2:08:53Sen. Whitehouse: It is why in high-risk areas they are dumping more and more mortgages into federal, fannie and freddie, grabbing the fees, and passing the risk to taxpayers. And I commend on that the report . Insurance companies have to be rated for that mortgage to get into freddie and fannie.
▶ 2:09:16Sen. Whitehouse: There is a rating agency which has leapt from being a negligible presence in florida's homeowners insurance market in the 1990's to now over 50% by 2018. For that I commend the report, when insurers exit climate losses, fragile insurers and mortgage markets.
▶ 2:09:41Sen. Whitehouse: Ratings are so slippery that almost 20% of florida insurance companies it rated have already gone bust. Remember 2008 and rating agencies? All of this is happening because the fossil fuel industry has been allowed to maintain a free to pollute is in this model, contrary to basic principles of market economics, not to mention basic morality and decency. When those negative externalities are not baked into the price of the product it is called a subsidy.
▶ 2:10:12Sen. Whitehouse: And this is a big one. $700 billion every year in the U.S. alone. When trump was soliciting $1 billion in money from the fossil fuel industry -- by the way, he got $100 million that we know of -- this was a pretty sweet deal. $1 billion to trump and $700 million to lock in that subsidy every year. And who pays? We do.
▶ 2:10:37Sen. Whitehouse: One of the ways is in this looming homeowners insurance crisis and its cascade into a property values crash and recession like 2008. It is not just national. Here is the economist magazine warning of a when trillion dollars hit to the global real estate market and the global economy, joined by the financial stability board which warns of systemic risks to banks as property values fall from insurance unavailability, joined by the commodities futures trading commission that under
▶ 2:11:08Sen. Whitehouse: The first trump administration warned that climate change poses a major risk to the ability of the U.S. financial system and its ability to sustain the american economy. That is the backdrop to the amendments I will be offering to strike the epw instruction. That is a giveaway to big polluters who will not even maintain their pipes and wells and will only make the climate crisis and the economic effects of it worse.
▶ 2:11:33Sen. Whitehouse: I will have more to say as I discuss each amendment, and I think -- thank the chairman for allowing me the extra minute.
▶ 2:11:41Chair Graham: Thank you very much. Is anyone else -- does anyone else need to make an opening statement? >> not an opening statement, but a quick comment. Thank you. I want to note that the $9 trillion in cuts have not been explained during any of the presentations by my republican colleagues. We know why they do not want to explain it. Because those are going to programs to working families across the board. The great betrayal.
▶ 2:12:12Chair Graham: Second of all, the trump tax cuts, which were referred to as helping working families, let's look at the story. Bottom 10% of americans struggling get six dollars. Not six dollars a day or week or month, six dollars a year. That is one cup of coffee. Don't drink it all at once, because you've got to spread it over an entire year. Meanwhile the richest 1% get a tax cut of about $314,000.
▶ 2:12:41Chair Graham: They represent about one 1000th of the population, but they get 1/7 of the benefits. This is just increasing the wealth disparity that is haunting us and corrupting our we the people democracy. Finally, I wanted to note, while we are talking here, the house put out their budget resolution and it contains the following. $4.5 trillion in tax giveaways for the richest americans. For americans overall, but mostly the richest americans.
▶ 2:13:12Chair Graham: 1.5 trillion in spending cuts, leaving a hole of $3 trillion to be barred from the treasury. So, to cover this additional massive increase in the national deficit, this fiscal irresponsibility, they propose putting an elimination of the debt ceiling. See the same issues being raised in the house that democrats have been talking about.
▶ 2:13:35Chair Graham: That this vision is a vision of cutting programs for families, increasing the wealth of the wealthiest americans, and funding that through a massive borrowing from the treasury running up the debt. I do have a final, final in the source of for the record. My colleague, senator lujan, who is ill today, has --
▶ 2:14:02Chair Graham: Is it on? >> my colleague, senator lujan -- I can repeat it.
▶ 2:14:09Chair Graham: I will read the book. [laughter] >> he is ill today, but he did have a statement for the record, representing his views. With unanimous consent out would have this submitted.
▶ 2:14:20Chair Graham: Without objection. Senator moran.
▶ 2:14:24Sen. Moran: Thank you for starting this process.
▶ 2:14:27Chair Graham: The vote is on. Second boat is on.
▶ 2:14:31Sen. Moran: I voted. That is why I am here last. We have another cabinet confirmation for president trump, which is very exciting. Thank you for starting this process. I think we need to go back in time for just a little bit. Bit. Not quite as much as in back to the future. Let's go back to 2020. There was an election in 2020. The senate and white house. What has been the result?
▶ 2:15:01Sen. Moran: During the four years of president trump, his first term, it was never better for working-class americans. Real wage growth group. The middle class was doing that are. Our economy was doing fantastic. The republicans passed the t cja, which gave tax relief to all americans. We received, the federal government received, a record amount of revenue.
▶ 2:15:31Sen. Moran: Even though there were tax cuts for the wealthy was the headline -- by the way, that line is as old as dirt and totally false. While the tax rates were cut, tax revenue was at a record level. It would be fascinating if there was just one democrat that acknowledged that we received a record amount of revenue in the federal coffers. You think to yourself, wait a second, I am a business guy.
▶ 2:16:02Sen. Moran: If my revenue was at an all-time high and I was losing money I would say, we have a huge expense problem. My god, how can I get record revenue and yet have record deficits? Why? When you give democrats control of our budget, what happens? I will give you some examples.
▶ 2:16:23Sen. Moran: When my colleagues talk about how they defend the working-class, I think the working-class spoke ready clearly on november 5, 2024 and they said, thank you, but no thank you. What can happen in my old world of owning car dealerships?
▶ 2:16:39Sen. Moran: You can walk into one of my dealerships, be a multimillionaire, pick out a beautiful custom-made rolls-royce specter where the audio system upgrade is $21,000, the logoed headrests in the backseat are $1500, an umbrella with the logo can be $10,000.
▶ 2:17:06Sen. Moran: You can lease that car and thanks to the remarkable policies from the democratic party the federal government will give you a check for $7,500. Think about that for a second. That is a bill that became law called the inflation reduction act, giving rolls-royce lease customers $7,500 lowers inflation, and every one of them voted for that bill.
▶ 2:17:35Sen. Moran: How did that bill become law, you ask? Did it get 60 votes? Rigorous debate? No. They did it through reconciliation. Kamala harris broke the tie-breaking vote so that multimillionaires can have their fifth vehicle parked in palm beach with a check for $7,500 thanks to the U.S. taxpayer.
▶ 2:18:00Sen. Moran: We have seen program after program that the democrats are crying foul about saying, americans did not vote for this! Absolutely, they did. Americans are sick and tired of political people in washington, D.C. spending our money and burning it. They are not even using it wisely. They are putting it into a pit and burning it.
▶ 2:18:26Sen. Moran: The reason I am here and not on a beach in florida today is I was sick and tired of elected leaders here who spend their money in such a callous way. Coaching us, we are here to help you. You are not helping us. They released generationally high inflation. There are more interested in giving hundreds of billions of dollars to foreign countries than helping the real people in my state and around the country who need help from our leaders.
▶ 2:18:54Sen. Moran: I was in new york city where my daughter lived, driving down fifth avenue. There is a hotel I remember going to as a kid. Incredible luxury hotel. We never stayed there. We had seven kids in our family. My parents could never afford it. The roosevelt hotel. I remember my mom and dad looking at me saying, that is where the rich people stay. Who stays in that hotel today?
▶ 2:19:26Sen. Moran: 1050 plus rooms. All full every single day with illegal aliens at a cost of over $6,000 per room per night. Who owns the hotel you ask yourself? The government of pakistan. The same government who housed osama bin laden is giving upwards of $100 million per year from the U.S. taxpayer.
▶ 2:19:58Sen. Moran: Our democrat colleagues, god bless you if you are good enough to sell that crap to the american people. On behalf of the people of ohio and writ large the united states of america, it is time for the united states government to do what every household has to do, and balance their damn budget. We are tired of wasteful spending. We won't put up with it anymore. Chairman, let's get started.
▶ 2:20:26Chair Graham: Thank you.
▶ 2:20:29Weair Graham: Thank you.
▶ 2:20:30We Ir Graham: Thank you.
▶ 2:20:31We Will Aham: Thank you.
▶ 2:20:31We Will Get : Thank you. We will get started you. We will get started after lunch. [laughter] 1:40 five, we are coming back. The meeting is adjourned until 1:45.
▶ 3:53:19We Will Get : Please stand by. Please stand by.
▶ 3:55:58We Will Get : . >> >> >>
▶ 3:56:56We Will Get : >>
▶ 4:02:37Sen. Graham: Thank you all for coming back. I call the marco back to order with the business quorum being present. The committee resumes its meeting today for the purpose of considering the budget resolution for fiscal year 2025. And ordering it reported consistent with the requirements of the budget act, only timely followed amendments will be in order. Members to be recognized for three men -- three minutes to explain their amendment.
▶ 4:03:08Sen. Graham: We will then put the amendment aside and we will have -- until we have our stacked votes. There will be an additional minute evenly divided prior to each of those votes. I will ask unanimous consent that the reading of the amendments be waived. Hearing no objection, it is ordered. With respect to voting, our committee rules do not allow for proxies. We have cover that with senator lujan. He will be allowed to do that.
▶ 4:03:40Sen. Graham: Members must be present when votes take place in order for their votes to be tallied, except for him. It has been done in prior budget markups, I will recognize members to offer and debate amendments in certain blocks of time. The ranking member and I have agreed to stack the votes on these amendments. This that fair to say? We are all good? Let the games begin.
▶ 4:04:10Sen. Merkley: Thank you very much, chair graham. I'm going to start with merkley amendment number one. This amendment takes us back to the original purpose of reconciliation. In 1974, all 100 senators of the U.S. senate agreed to create a filibuster free pathway for one purpose. Reducing the deficit.
▶ 4:04:35Sen. Merkley: During the debate we had earlier today, I heard a lot of colleagues across the aisle say they are all for reducing the deficit. I put up a chart that showed under every single republican administration, the deficit has increased year after year, and under every democratic administration, they have decreased every year. Let's match the rhetoric with the act.
▶ 4:04:56Sen. Merkley: Let's put the walk into the talk, and restore the principal that reconciliation is to either create a deficit neutral, that is not increased deficit, or better yet, decrease the deficits rather than to increase them. This amendment simply restores that vision. It is consistent with what chairman graham has said he wants to do with this reconciliation bill.
▶ 4:05:23Sen. Graham: Senator kennedy.
▶ 4:05:26Sen. Kennedy: I have a question. And I ask this gently and with great respect. If this is such a swell idea, why didn't you propose it under the biden administration? When my democratic colleagues used reconciliation.
▶ 4:05:49Sen. Merkley: The history of this is that it was changed in 1996. The principle of all 100 senators voting for reconciliation to only decrease the deficit was in 1974. Then held for 22 years. In 1996, the bush administration wanted to do a significant set of tax reductions and decided they could not get them past with democratic support, so they would do it by themselves.
▶ 4:06:18Sen. Merkley: So, the majority leader at that time, robert dold, put into the parliamentary position, robert dove, who had worked for dole, and the parliamentary -- parliamentarian delivered a ruling, and said, even though it is not in the law, even though it was all about deficit reduction, we will allow deficit increases if they are for taxes. And the republican majority proceeded to affirm that. This was called a nuclear option. Exercised in 1996.
▶ 4:06:47Sen. Merkley: Kent conrad, when he was chair of this committee, repeatedly every single time he was able, he put the conrad rule back in place. Since then, we have had multiple republican tax bills that have gone through this committee, increasing the deficit. We have also had one democratic bill that increased the deficit, they american rescue plan. That is the only time the democrats increased the deficit, and that was because of response to the challenge we faced with covid and the collapse of the economy.
▶ 4:07:15Sen. Kennedy: But my question remains, why didn't you want to make this change when you guys where the majority under president biden?
▶ 4:07:23Sen. Merkley: And to my colleague, I can't -- I-8 was not in charge of this committee, so I can't speak to the details. I don't know the answer. I know the only time the democrats used reconciliation that increased deficit was the american rescue plan. That was because the economy was in dire condition due to the collapse caused by covid.
▶ 4:07:46Sen. Graham: All right. Thank you. Along with what senator kennedy said, the last congress, you passed two reconciliation bills that blew up the deficit, the american rescue plan as you indicated increase the deficit by $2 trillion. Cbo and the joint committee on taxation badly underestimated the cost of inflation reduction acts, green energy tax credits which expected to cost over $1 trillion, by some estimates.
▶ 4:08:15Sen. Graham: Republicans border reconciliation bill is going to be fully paid for. So this amendment is unnecessary. Thank you very much.
▶ 4:08:25Sen. Merkley: Totally consistent with the chairman's vision.
▶ 4:08:28Sen. Graham: There you go. Next? I thought we are going to stop them -- stack them. The time has expired on the amendment, agreed upon time -- to be taken upon the agreed-upon time. Senator murray.
▶ 4:08:50Sen. Murray: Thank you. This is a very straightforward amendment. It strikes title two which contains the reconciliation instructions as well as accompanying reserve fund. It creates a new reserve fund to implement a bipartisan, multiyear agreement, to provide $171 billion in discretionary funding for defense, and 171 billion dollars in discretionary funding for nondefense.
▶ 4:09:18Sen. Murray: That will let us address defense, order, veterans, farmers, food, nutrition, biomedical research, disaster relief, childcare, and a lot of other needs on a bipartisan basis. Mr. chairman, I agree with you, we face serious challenges that require new investments. And I think you will find agreement up and down my side of the dais. Democrats share many of the concerns about investing international security. Providing more research to address the challenges at the border.
▶ 4:09:49Sen. Murray: And making sure we counter china. We also want to make sure we address critical areas like veterans, wildfires, disaster response, biomedical research, childcare and more. The approach in my amendment is simple. It is just to say we should work together on a bipartisan basis, and this should be part of the topline conversations we are having now as we hurtled toward the march 14 deadline. I want to make something very clear right now. Democrats are at the table on fy 25.
▶ 4:10:20Sen. Murray: Topline. But it is getting pretty lonely for us when we see republicans assume $1 trillion for this year alone in unilateral dump cuts, remain quiet, as the administration continues to unlawfully impounded those funds, and now proposed to jam through $342 billion in funding for your priorities on a partisan basis. While we are in the room trying to negotiate a good faith, bipartisan, four corner topline for fiscal year 25.
▶ 4:10:51Sen. Murray: I urge my republican colleagues to get serious, let's keep our eye on the ball regarding the funding lapse that is coming up on march 14, not to mention the sequester cuts that will go in effect at the end of april. They are big challenges. Democrats stand ready to work with you. But we need to know at some point that you want to work with us.
▶ 4:11:11Sen. Murray: By the way, working with us means actually working with us, and not telling us to accept $1 trillion in cuts to our priorities, at the same time that you are spending $342 billion on your own. I'm asking for my amendments to be considered.
▶ 4:11:26Sen. Graham: This amendment explains why we are here better than any other amendment we've got. We want to increase defense spending because we believe we have threats from china, russia, iran, terrorist levels, that are unprecedented. We want to rebuild our military as quickly as we can. The budget agreement you alluded to has defense under inflation. And you and senator collins, to your great credit, added new money for defense. I appreciate that very much.
▶ 4:11:58Sen. Graham: All of us believe we need to increase defense spending seriously now, and we don't need 171 more billion dollars for nondefense spending. Why are we doing reconciliation? So we don't have to do that. We can help the defense department that is underfunded, and we don't have to come up with $171 billion for nondefense spending. That's what -- why we are doing reconciliation. To break that cycle. To the extent that we can. So I oppose your amendment.
▶ 4:12:28Sen. Graham: All right. That will be, time is expired, we will vote at the appropriate time. Who is next? Senator wyden.
▶ 4:12:37Sen. Wyden: Thank you very much, Mr. chairman. Colleagues, this instruction is to in effect, prevent medicaid from being cut. Because it allows the opportunity to cut medicaid. As I said, our choice here is, are we going to be there for working -- are we going to be there for working people?
▶ 4:13:05Sen. Wyden: Most of the people on medicaid are working, taking care of families and walking and economic tight rope every month, food and health care costs. We had discussion earlier, nurse patients take much of the medicaid budget but if you are for the patients, for vulnerable people, and I will close with this. The senate is a rural institution.
▶ 4:13:37Sen. Wyden: You get these deep medicaid cuts and house republicans today, their planet spelled out what is ahead. This is not some abstract deal. There are cuts of nearly $1 trillion or more aimed at medicaid. For rural america, for the vulnerable across the land, this is the safety net they rely on.
▶ 4:14:00Sen. Wyden: I urge all my clients support striking the finance instruction because otherwise, we would open up the door in the senate to cut medicaid and that would be a grave mistake.
▶ 4:14:10Chair Graham: Senator crapo.
▶ 4:14:15Sen. Crapo: I want to make the point this is not the house republican budget proposed to be considered in the house, this is a specific budget reconciliation bill that focuses specifically on border, on national defense, and on energy enhancement. There is a very narrow, as I explained in my introductory statement, a narrow instruction to the finance committee that focuses solely on nursing homes, not on medicaid.
▶ 4:14:46Sen. Crapo: It focuses on a nursing home regulation, not on a spending authorization. This regulation, if implemented, would increase taxpayer costs by billions and jeopardize patient access in rural areas for long-term care. This will help patients and save spending.
▶ 4:15:04Sen. Wyden: Mr. chairman, briefly?
▶ 4:15:07Chair Graham: Absolutely.
▶ 4:15:09Sen. Wyden: What this role means is we will have a lot of nursing homes in america without nurses. There has been a great effort to try to work out something in this area that would be bipartisan. For example, as I mentioned rural areas being so important in the senate, we give them five years essentially to work this out. I would say, I think it would be a grievous error to cut the most vulnerable in our society. You can prevent that by supporting this amendment.
▶ 4:15:39Sen. Wyden: I yield back.
▶ 4:15:40Chair Graham: Time has expired. We will vote at the appropriate time. Senator sanders.
▶ 4:15:47Sen. Sanders: Thank you, Mr. chairman p this amendment I'm offering is quite simple and straightforward. Mr. chairman, at a time when we spend more on the military than the next nine nations combined, at a time when the pentagon failed its seventh financial order in a row and cannot account for trillions of dollars in assets, even in washington a
▶ 4:16:18Sen. Sanders: Trillion dollars is a lot of money, at a time of massive fraud, waste and cost overruns at the department of defense, this amendment says no, we should not be giving the pentagon an additional $150 billion. Mr. chairman, as you know, we already spend close to $1 trillion a year on the military.
▶ 4:16:52Sen. Sanders: If some people think it is important to build more ships, develop more air and missile defense systems, there is more than enough money to do that within the existing pentagon budget. They do not need another $150 billion. But Mr. chairman, don't take my word for it.
▶ 4:17:18Sen. Sanders: I will give you the feelings of some people you might pay more attention to than me. The president of the united states, donald trump, vowed to cut the bloated pentagon budget. He said, quote, let's check the military. We are going to find billions, hundreds of billions of dollars, in fraud and abuse, and of quote. That is not bernie sanders, that is donald trump.
▶ 4:17:49Sen. Sanders: And I know that on the other side of the aisle, we take what Mr. trump says very, very seriously. Michael waltz, presto's national -- president trump's national security buzzer told nbc, quote, the american people have said enough, enough with the bloat, the waste and the debt. We need to go in there and absolutely reform the conch -- the pentagon's acquisition process.
▶ 4:18:17Sen. Sanders: Last but not least, my good friend elon musk who is currently running the U.S. government, what Mr. musk says is, the pentagon has quote, little idea how its annual budget of more than $800 billion is spent. Mr. musk. Let's talk about the waste.
▶ 4:18:40Sen. Sanders: I was a mayor and we went after waste and there was a lot of it and there is waste from the federal government, nobody denies that. It is not just about what goes on in programs that impact working people. Take a hard look at what the military industrial complex is doing. Fiscal year 22, navy audits found $4.4 billion in untracked inventory. They simply lost $4 billion.
▶ 4:19:11Sen. Sanders: Let's talk about fraud. In recent years, defense contractors paid aliens in fines or unrelated settlements for fraud and misconduct. In october raytheon was fined $150 million for lying about costs and bribes to secure foreign businesses. In june lockheed martin was charged $70 million for overcharging the military. I trust that you are sincere, we want a cost-effective government.
▶ 4:19:42Sen. Sanders: I trust nobody here wants to see waste, but how can you talk about spending another $150 billion when the largest agency in the country is full of waste? Overruns, the f-35, most expensive weapons system in history, has run up hundreds of billions of dollars in cost overruns. Etc., etc.
▶ 4:20:07Sen. Sanders: I say this very sincerely because I trust all of us want to deal with waste and fraud and a bloated bureaucracy, but if you're going to do that, the first area you look at is a bloated defense budget and the idea of adding $150 billion more makes zero sense to me.
▶ 4:20:27Chair Graham: Thank you. Very quickly, it makes sense to me in this regard. These wars in ukraine and russia has been a wake-up call. We ran out of 155 rounds. What would happen if taiwan went hot tomorrow? We need to re-energize our military industrial base. We have been sending stuff to israel. They are under siege on seven fronts.
▶ 4:20:54Chair Graham: What I have learned from these conflicts that america needs to increase its military industrial capability. We need to be smarter. Drones seem to be fashionable. To my friends from virginia, your great navy guys. We have 296 ships in napa end of the decade we will not have a more -- enough. China has 450 ships. We will look at cutting --
▶ 4:21:21Sen. Sanders: , briefly respond? I'm not an expert, but we can argue on what the military needs. Before you add more money, why don't you get ready of the waste and fraud? Let them get rid of that --
▶ 4:21:36Chair Graham: If I may, for multiple wars, we are at war. Isis is reemerging. The technology we need to keep them over there so they can get here. We are at 2.9% of gdp in defense in 2025, the lowest in decades, at a time when I think the threats would justify more spending. I appreciate you, you are consistent.
▶ 4:22:07Chair Graham: We have a different idea of what it takes to defend america. You are right about waste, but half the budget is personal cost. Does anybody want to change the personnel, pay people less, give them less benefits? Half the budget is locked in with personnel costs. I think we need more capability now. That is why we're doing $150 billion. Time has expired. Next will be senator warner.
▶ 4:22:32Sen. Warner: On behalf of senator kaine and I, we need more 155 millimeters shells. We make them almost exclusively in all of north america in radford in a world war ii facility and would welcome any members of the committee to come down.
▶ 4:22:51Chair Graham: I actually would like to do that.
▶ 4:22:53Sen. Warner: It is wild. You can't believe how old and dystopian it looks. I call up warner amendment seven is modified by second-degree amendment warner 15 which establishes a deficit neutral reserve fund to protect sensitive and classified information from doge. This ought to be easy. As chairman and vice chairman of the intel committee, federal government has to do all we can to safeguard national security information.
▶ 4:23:23Sen. Warner: At the same time, protect privacy. During the past few weeks presto and his -- president trump and his cabinet have given doge operatives access to sensitive information including the ability to read and perhaps manipulate data on the 1.3 billion payments the treasury makes each year. This includes one doge operative who formerly worked for a russian hacker group and was fired for leaking sensitive secrets to a competitor.
▶ 4:23:54Sen. Warner: Another of the doge guys declared himself quote, a racist and said he would not mind of quote, gaza and israel were both wiped off the face of the earth. Now, I don't think somebody who would give up information to a competitor, who says israel and gaza ought to be wiped off the face of the earth, is that the kind of young person we want to be giving access to our banking information, social security information?
▶ 4:24:24Sen. Warner: I don't think the vast majority of us, I would not trust these kids to look at my checkbook let alone the overall payment systems of the united states of america. My fear is this doge work is not going to stop with their legally dubious and so far, the courts have said inappropriate. The truth is, the president said last week, it is time to send musk to check out the pentagon.
▶ 4:24:54Sen. Warner: Aside from obvious conflict of interest given Mr. musk's spacex plays a major role in that defense environment, opening the pentagon to doge presents a serious risk to the classified programs that keep our nation safe. My amendment provides a commonsense solution that all members of the committee should support.
▶ 4:25:16Sen. Warner: It allows for legislation to protect classified and sensitive information on american programs from being accessed by doge who do not have the necessary training, experience or in the case of some of these fellows mentioned, they did not even have the clearances. That is somebody with a secret clearance looking at materials that are beyond ts, beyond sci.
▶ 4:25:41Sen. Warner: Many of the colleagues on this committee now -- know how important it is to keep our information secret and secure. I would urge you to back this amendment. Thank you, Mr. chairman.
▶ 4:25:53Chair Graham: Senator crapo.
▶ 4:25:56Sen. Crapo: I welcome the invitation to come tour your ammunition factory. That would be very interesting. >> you vote yes. [laughter]
▶ 4:26:13Sen. Crapo: The trump administration has been clear on weeding out waste, fraud and abuse and I applaud its efforts to maximize government efficiency and productivity. As part of these efforts and expanding upon efforts begun by the prior administration, the treasury department is conducting a review of its systems and processes using its own employees.
▶ 4:26:38Sen. Crapo: The treasury employees responsible for this process are following standard practices, as has clearly been explained by the new secretary of treasury, to protect the integrity of the treasury systems and processes. . There is nothing unusual about auditing the federal reserve or auditing the treasury or any other agency and that is what is going on.
▶ 4:27:03Sen. Crapo: Those that vote -- involved art hearing to customary safety and privacy standards and are subject to the customary security obligations and ethical requirements. By defending status quo bureaucratic inefficiencies, democrats are opposing efforts to root out waste, fraud and abuse. I encourage a no vote.
▶ 4:27:25Sen. Warner: I love my friend, we worked together on a lot of things but I ask you respectfully, the fellow who quits, or got fired, with the racist chants, had nothing but a secret clearance that was temporary. You have allowed him to be exposed, or someone has, to a level of payment markers that even people with an sci clearance to not have.
▶ 4:27:54Sen. Warner: Maybe it was just a mistake the first time, but I completely fear these doge folks are not coming in with appropriate security clearances. I would ask th committee, if I'm wrong, prove me wrong. In the meantime, let's look at what the reporting says about the individuals. So far the criteria mike crapo raised are not being used.
▶ 4:28:17Sen. Crapo: Briefly I would say the secretary of treasury has indicated he has taken your challenge and request seriously. He has reviewed this and they are complying with all the appropriate privacy and other requirements. If that is not being done, let's talk to the treasury secretary again. But let's not try to stop the effort to audit our agencies and weed out waste, fraud and abuse.
▶ 4:28:43Chair Graham: Thank you. Time has expired. We will vote on that amendment soon. Senator kaine.
▶ 4:28:52Sen. Kaine: This is kaine amendment one, straightforward, a know before you cut amendment. It would create a point of order against considering any legislation that affects health insurance coverage without a cbo estimate that lays out what the effect on coverage would be.
▶ 4:29:11Sen. Kaine: We have heard rumors and seen lists including material from the house earlier today about potential cuts republican colleagues are planning to used pay for this additional border and defense spending as well as tax cuts. They are heavy on cuts to programs that help americans access health care, medicare, medicaid, the and others.
▶ 4:29:34Sen. Kaine: If that is the will of the majority, that will be the will of the majority, but we should not be trying to reduce health care coverage in this country, we should be trying to increase it. My point of order would do, if this package reaches the floor and there are provisions that affect the health programs, the cbo must come up with an estimate telling us how any millions of americans will be affected in their health care coverage before the vote.
▶ 4:30:02Sen. Kaine: If that estimate is on the table and it is the will of the majority to push forward with the proposal, so be it. But we should know what the effect on americans' health care is before we vote on major legislation that affects these programs. That is what my amendment would do.
▶ 4:30:17Chair Graham: Thank you, this amendment crates a new point of order that prohibits passage of legislation that impacts health care until a cbo score is available for 72 hours. This would unnecessarily slow down consideration of important legislation. They work as fast as they can to put together scores. This amendment is not appropriate for a budget resolution and would therefore jeopardize our ability to use reconciliation if adopted.
▶ 4:30:47Chair Graham: I respectfully oppose the amendment. All time has expired. Senator van hollen.
▶ 4:30:54Sen. Van Hollen: --
▶ 4:30:59Chair Graham: We are done. Senator van hollen.
▶ 4:31:05Sen. Van Hollen: , my amendment is labeled van hollen number four, says it shall not be an order for the senate to consider any legislation that cuts funding to medicare or medicaid benefits. I'm all in with anybody who wants to have more efficiency in the program, or anybody who wants to go after medicare fraud, we should do that. Candidate trump did not campaign on cutting medicare.
▶ 4:31:37Sen. Van Hollen: He did not campaign on cutting medicaid. As I said this morning, when asked about project 2025, he said I don't know anything about that. Project 2025 does call for changes to medicaid, they want to cap medicaid benefits, lifetime benefits, which would have a hugely disproportionate impact on people with disabilities.
▶ 4:32:03Sen. Van Hollen: If you look at house republican proposals they are talking about voucherizing, privatizing medicare, and talking about block granting medicaid. None of these are things now president trump ran on. This creates guard rails against cutting these very important benefits whether in medicare or medicaid, and I urge my colleagues to support it.
▶ 4:32:28Chair Graham: Thank you. This is out of order because it is not in the jurisdiction. If adopted it would jeopardize the budget resolution, our ability to use reconciliation. Democrats took money from medicare to pay for green energy tax cuts and the inflation reduction act. This amendment is out of order or will be out of order.
▶ 4:32:55Chair Graham: Senator lujan -- how about senator whitehouse, if you are here?
▶ 4:33:00Sen. Whitehouse: I will call up whitehouse one, repeals the effort to undo the proposed methane fee. Can I start with the proposition that this is leaks, this is oil and gas companies not maintaining their pipelines, not maintaining their vows, not maintaining their wells, and causing methane, which is explosive and poisonous, to be leaked. All they have to do is fix their damn equipment.
▶ 4:33:33Sen. Whitehouse: We also know they have been under reporting. Under reporting the leaks for years, for years. Now it turns out we can actually measure methane with satellites and we know they were reporting about 1/4 of their leakage. So this is not an industry that comes to this with clean hands. This is basic cleanup your own mess principles. All they have to do is fix their equipment to stop it.
▶ 4:34:03Sen. Whitehouse: And by the way, the way this developed through the ira, because of senator manchin's role in the fossil fuel industry, they got frontloaded, I think $1.8 billion to clean this up, and in return they got this fee on leakage, which they could avoid by fixing their damn leaks with the $1.8 billion.
▶ 4:34:32Sen. Whitehouse: To keep the money in their pockets and outright to undo this so they can keep spilling and leaking methane, now we can catch them at it. We see it. The satellites show the methane. There is a lot I disagree with about climate stuff and the direction we are going, and I spoke in my opening statement about the dangers which are hitting our home insurance markets, and which will translate into mortgage problems and property values problems, and an economics cascade.
▶ 4:35:05Sen. Whitehouse: But setting all that aside, this is just really dirty pool by this industry to ask all of you to allow them to maintain free leaks of poisonous, explosive methane wherever they go. Find something else. There are better ways to do whatever you want to do in this reconciliation than letting it be free for these companies to leak. A lot of this is in your states.
▶ 4:35:35Sen. Whitehouse: It is your folks who have to breathe this, your folks who get the explosions when they go off. For god's sake, let's at least say no with respect to this one thing.
▶ 4:35:49Chair Graham: Senator lee and senator kennedy would like to comment.
▶ 4:35:56Sen. Lee: This amendment would strike the instructions going to epw. By striking those instructions, we would foreclose the opportunity there to recover wasteful spending to the tune of $1 billion of wasteful spending that was brought about by a party-line vote in the inflation reduction act a few years ago.
▶ 4:36:26Sen. Lee: It has brought about awful inflation along with so many other things, and other pieces of legislation passed during that time period, making it more expensive to buy everything from gas to groceries, housing to health care.
▶ 4:36:41Sen. Lee: One of the reasons we need to do it, as we talked about in this bill, our border has been overrun, public safety threats are imminent, ongoing, and have been for a long time, as the previous administration's open doors policies have enriched international drug cartels to the tune of tens of billions of dollars as they have accelerated their human and drug trafficking operations into this country. We have to figure out ways to pay for them.
▶ 4:37:12Sen. Lee: This is one of many ways. The measure in question includes grants for things like environmental and climate justice. When we think of speaking of things that involve cleaning up your own mess, we are cleaning a mess left to us by democrats, a two fold mess. An open border now and a messy set of spending measures that have proven costly to the american people. I oppose this.
▶ 4:37:39Chair Graham: Senator kennedy, would you like to say something?
▶ 4:37:44Sen. Kennedy: I would. I don't know how quickly I can say it. As I read your amendment, it is more than just about methane. For what it is worth, I agree with what you said about methane leaks, but what if we found a methane leak program the biden administration has funded that is bone deep stupid and the money is being wasted?
▶ 4:38:15Sen. Kennedy: Just because it is about methane does not mean it is effective or efficient. This would prevent us from making common sense changes. That is why I was opposed.
▶ 4:38:27Sen. Van Hollen: This is clearly targeting one particular thing, the methane fee, which is putting a price on leaking methane, so that they don't.
▶ 4:38:36Chair Graham: But how do you know that? How are you reading our minds?
▶ 4:38:43Sen. Van Hollen: It is pretty clear.
▶ 4:38:48Sen. Kennedy: No it is not.
▶ 4:38:49Sen. Van Hollen: It is clear from looking at the instruction, but if I am wrong, I will apologize. Let's go to epw. If you want right now to say, we will lay off the methane fee and make these leakers fix their damned equipment so that 14 million homes worth of natural gas is not just being vented into the air we breathe every single year because they are leaking and not maintaining their equipment.
▶ 4:39:16Sen. Van Hollen: If you want to concede me that, if it will take that off the table for epw consideration, the gentleman sits on epw, he can help with that, I'm happy to pull this back. But I don't think that is the case. >> can I respond?
▶ 4:39:33Chair Graham: No good deed goes unpunished around here. >> the document says so. >> stopping the methane emissions fee.
▶ 4:39:42Sen. Kennedy: I will be brief. Senator, you're putting words in our mouth and thoughts in our head.
▶ 4:39:53Sen. Van Hollen: This is the chairman's press release.
▶ 4:39:56Sen. Kennedy: That is the chairman, not me, the other members of this committee. I love you like a taco, man, but you are assuming there is some communist plot to get rid of all the mitigation of methane, and I think you are way over stating your position.
▶ 4:40:15Sen. Van Hollen: I'm saying the methane fee is to target either chairman in the committee -- [crosstalk]
▶ 4:40:25Chair Graham: We all get to vote in a minute. Time is expired. Senator padilla.
▶ 4:40:31Sen. Padilla: Thank you, Mr. chair. Senator lujan filed an amendment marked lujan 37 asking ib listed as the primary sponsor.
▶ 4:40:43Chair Graham: Without objection.
▶ 4:40:46Sen. Padilla: And I recognize to offer this amended. This calls for the strike of the reconciliation instructions for the senate committee on a culture, nutrition and forestry. It was seeking to stop this to make steep cuts to critical nutritional assistance programs and important agricultural programs republican colleagues have made it clear are on the chopping block.
▶ 4:41:12Sen. Padilla: The nutrition assistance programs are the most effective and important tool to fight hunger, including childhood hunger. The program supports one in eight americans were about -- or about 40 million people across the country, including one in five children. One dollar in snap benefits generates $1.50 in economic activity, reducing food insecurity and lowering health care costs for children, parents, older adults, disabled individuals and more.
▶ 4:41:43Sen. Padilla: Despite this the administration said they want to cut benefits for participants across the board, eliminating benefits for our most vulnerable neighbors. Snap currently represents less than 0.5% of gdp and will continue to fall as a share of gdp over the next decade.
▶ 4:42:04Sen. Padilla: Cutting or eliminating food assistance will not go far in covering the more than $4.7 trillion needed for another round of republican tax cuts for the wealthy, but it will hurt working-class americans. Colleagues we have invested billions of dollars in climate smart agriculture and conservation through the inflation reduction act benefits farmers, forest land owners ranchers in every state.
▶ 4:42:33Sen. Padilla: These previously underfunded programs help farmers build more resilient operations and help ranchers sustainably manage their land. We've seen the increase in extreme weather from california to texas to the southeast and beyond. I'm surprised you want to strip farmers of the tools we enacted to help protect them.
▶ 4:42:54Sen. Padilla: I could go on and on, but I urge you to reject taking food away from children and making groceries more expensive for hard-working families by supporting this amendment.
▶ 4:43:04Chair Graham: Thank you, senator lee. >> no. Get me one. Get with him and get it straight. My mic is on.
▶ 4:43:32Chair Graham: Senator kennedy.
▶ 4:43:35Sen. Kennedy: Let me read what staff wrote. [laughter] lissa mem it would require reconciliation legislation, not make cuts to critical nutrition programs. It strikes agriculture committee reconciliation instruction from the budget resolution. Let me tell you what this means briefly. This would take agriculture committee and any savings we can find out of the picture.
▶ 4:44:03Sen. Kennedy: I don't think there is a person at this table that believes every nutrition program the usa government has has no waste or abuse. This would prevent us together eliminating any wasteful nutrition programs. For that reason I object.
▶ 4:44:21Chair Graham: All time has expired on that amendment. If it is ok, senator merkley, we will vote on the first charge. Oh, you have one more, I apologize.
▶ 4:44:36Sen. Padilla: Padilla a memo number seven to strike the reconciliation instructions for the senate committee on energy and natural resources. As you know from prior political attacks on the inflation reduction act, this instruction is aimed at undoing critical federal investments that have spurred private investment, and created hundreds of thousands of good paying jobs across the country.
▶ 4:45:02Sen. Padilla: We should be clear despite republican rhetoric, undoing the ira and programs to diversify our energy mix would undermine our energy independence, not strengthen it. The ira has been good for the economy, good for america's energy independence. So much so that many republicans have gone to events celebrating new manufacturing facilities and infrastructure investments after having voted against the bill.
▶ 4:45:31Sen. Padilla: As of november 2024 hundreds of billions of dollars have been funneled into energy projects and the majority has gone to republican districts. Not by a small share. Nearly 80% of the $243 billion worth of projects either completed or under construction have been in gop districts.
▶ 4:45:54Sen. Padilla: If this is cut off by republicans will hurt their local economies, their rural communities, manufacturing communities who have benefited most. Talk about a waste of taxpayer dollars. Last year house republicans sent a letter to their leadership opposing their party's own ira repeal efforts. They set up a repeal", would have spent billions of taxpayer dollars and received next to nothing in return, end quote. They want to see the ira projects finished.
▶ 4:46:25Sen. Padilla: I am curious at the same republican colleagues so eager to attend ribbon cuttings will be as vocal about announcing its repeal. Mr. chairman you highlighted energy independence and your announcement on this resolution. I cannot agree more that the U.S. should be energy independent.
▶ 4:46:42Sen. Padilla: That is why the ira supports all of the above energy approach, including wind, solar along with nuclear power, biofuels and newer industries like hydrogen and carbon capture, that will get us to energy independence versa find our energy sources. It is not just relying on the same old fossil fuels whose prices are determined by global markets that we don't control.
▶ 4:47:08Sen. Padilla: If we really want energy independence, we need to advance renewable energy and investments made in the inflation reduction act. That is why I urge all my colleagues who want to achieve energy independence support this amendment.
▶ 4:47:22Chair Graham: Senator lee.
▶ 4:47:24Sen. Lee: As chairman of the senate natural resources committee I asked colleagues to oppose this. This would offer additional funding for the very projects that received billions upon billions of dollars in handouts under the biden administration through the bipartisan infrastructure law and inflation reduction act.
▶ 4:47:47Sen. Lee: Projects funded by those bills are often imposed by impacted communities including wind projects, linked to the deaths of significant wildlife and solar projects that prevent multiple use, like recreational use or grazing on federal lands. I oppose it and -- encourage my colleagues to do the same.
▶ 4:48:05Chair Graham: All time has expired would we will start voting. Thank you for getting here. You have been very prompt. We will vote on amendments in the order they were offered. I will recognize each side for 30 seconds for each vote. All the debate time has expired. First is senator merkley 1.
▶ 4:48:27Sen. Merkley: Thank you, Mr. chairman. Very simply, the purpose of reconciliation was to do deficit neutral or deficit decreasing legislation. My understanding is, the goal of the budget resolution before us. Let's restore that principle so a bunch of proposals don't come back from the authorizing committees that violate that and increase the deficit.
▶ 4:48:53Chair Graham: Thank you. What I said before. Senator murphy. [indiscernible] call the roll. >> senator grassley? >> no. >> Mr. crapo? >> Mr. johnson. >> no. >> Mr. marshall. >> no.
▶ 4:49:23Chair Graham: >> Mr. cornyn. >> Mr. lee. >> no. >> Mr. kennedy. >> no. >> Mr. ricketts. >> no. >> Mr. marino --moreno. >> no. >> Mr. scott. >> no. >> Mr. merkley. >> aye. >> Mrs. murray.
▶ 4:49:54Chair Graham: >> aye. >> Mr. wyden. >> aye. >> Mr. sanders. >> Mr. whitehouse. >> aye. >> Mr. warner. >> aye. >> Mr. kaine. >> aye. >> Mr. van hollen. >> Mr. lujan. >> lujan votes aye.
▶ 4:50:24Chair Graham: >> Mr. padilla. >> aye. >> Mr. chairman. >> no. >> Mr. chairman, the ayes are 8, nays 10.
▶ 4:50:47Chair Graham: Senator sanders, go ahead and vote. [indiscernible]
▶ 4:50:54Chair Graham: We will wait for senator cornyn, he is on the way. He is on the way, right? [indiscernible]
▶ 4:51:17Chair Graham: We will get there.
▶ 4:51:48Chair Graham: >> that is the difference between kaine and warner, coal and peanuts.
▶ 4:51:56Chair Graham: I think he is on the way. We just don't know where he started.
▶ 4:52:19Chair Graham: Let's go ahead and call the boat. >> Mr. chairman the ayes are 9, nays 10.
▶ 4:52:30Chair Graham: Senator murray, 1. >> this amendment contains the written reconciliation instruction as well as -- sorry. My amendment has two things, strikes title ii which contains the reconciliation instructions in the accompany reserve funds.
▶ 4:52:54Chair Graham: It creates a new reserve fund to implement a bipartisan multiyear agreement to provide $171 funding in defense and $171 billion for nondefense. It allows us to address national security needs and challenges of the border, but makes sure we are also tackling wildfires, biomedical research, childcare, disaster response and supporting our veterans and more. I urge my colleagues to support the amendment.
▶ 4:53:20Chair Graham: Again what I said before. We need a lot more ships than we got and military spending is at a historical low. Any dollar we get is a blessing to the war fighter. Clerk will call the roll. >> Mr. grassley. >> no. >> Mr. crapo. >> Mr. johnson. >> no. >> Mr. marshall. >> no.
▶ 4:53:52Chair Graham: >> Mr. cornyn. >> Mr. lee. >> Mr. kennedy. Mr. ricketts. >> no. >> Mr. moreno. >> no. >> Mr. scott. Mr. merkley. >> aye. >> Mrs. murray. >> aye. >> Mr. wyden.
▶ 4:54:24Chair Graham: >> aye. >> Mr. sanders. >> aye. >> Mr. whitehouse. >> aye. >> Mr. warner. >> aye. >> Mr. kaine. >> aye. >> Mr. van hollen. >> aye. >> Mr. lujan. >> aye by proxy. Is that ok?
▶ 4:54:55Chair Graham: Thank you. Keep the momentum here. [laughter] >> Mr. padilla. >> aye. >> Mr. chairman.
▶ 4:55:08Chair Graham: No. >> Mr. chairman the yays are 10, nays 11.
▶ 4:55:15Chair Graham: Senator wyden, 1.
▶ 4:55:21Sen. Wyden: This takes medicaid off the chopping block in the U.S. senate and we know medicaid is a lifeline for nursing home patients and families, it is so important in rural communities, we know it is so important for employees who work somewhere with an employer that cannot afford health care coverage. I encourage my colleagues to support widen -- wyden 1.
▶ 4:55:50Chair Graham: I will oppose it. Clerk will call roll. >> Mr. grassley. >> no. >> Mr. crapo. >> no. >> Mr. johnson. >> no. >> Mr. marshall. >> no. >> Mr. cornyn. >> no. >> Mr. lee. >> no. >> Mr. kennedy.
▶ 4:56:20Chair Graham: >> no. >> Mr. ricketts. >>no. >> Mr. moreno. >> no. >>. Mr. scott >> no. >> Mr. merkley. >> aye. >> Mrs. murray. >> aye. >> Mr. wyden. >> aye. >> Mr. sanders. >> aye. >> Mr. whitehouse.
▶ 4:56:51Chair Graham: >> aye. >> Mr. warner. >> aye. >> Mr. kaine. >> aye. >> Mr. van hollen. >> aye. >> Mr. lujan. [indiscernible] >> Mr. padilla. >> aye. >> Mr. chairman.
▶ 4:57:19Chair Graham: Senator lujan votes aye by proxy, is that right? I vote no. >> Mr. chairman theyays are 10, nays 11.
▶ 4:57:32Chair Graham: Next senator sanders 1.
▶ 4:57:37Sen. Sanders: Thank you p I think everybody at this table knows there is massive waste, fraud and abuse at the pentagon. Donald trump knows that, he just said recently the other day, quote, let's check the military, we will find billions, hundreds of billions of dollars in fraud and abuse, end quote. Mr. muska said the same thing. Everybody knows this.
▶ 4:58:03Sen. Sanders: If the pentagon needs more money to do a, b and c, there is plenty of money available, if you deal with the waste, fraud and abuse. With -- what this amendment does is cuts out, ends the extra $150 billion in the resolution. I ask for the ayes.
▶ 4:58:26Chair Graham: Our military is at a historical gdp to defense low. If we want a bigger navy we have to invest now. Trump said two weeks ago we would go to 5% of gdp on defense, $400 billion above what we are spending. I respectfully disagree and oppose the amendment. Clerk will call the roll. >> Mr. grassley. >> no. >> Mr. crapo. Mr. johnson. >> no.
▶ 4:58:57Chair Graham: >> Mr. marshall no. >> Mr. cornyn. Mr. lee. >> no. >> Mr. kennedy. >> no. >> Mr. ricketts. >> no. >> Mr. moreno. >> no. >> Mr. scott. >> no openai -- no. >> Mr. merkley. >> aye. >> Mrs. murray. >> aye.
▶ 4:59:30Chair Graham: >> Mr. wyden. >> aye. >> Mr. sanders. >> aye. >> Mr. whitehouse. >> aye. >> Mr. warner. >> >> no. >> Mr. kaine. >> no. >> Mr. van hollen. >> aye. >> Mr. lujan. [indiscernible]
▶ 4:59:59Chair Graham: You sure about that? I'm checking out for him, trying to get my back, he goes no. >> Mr. padilla. >> no. Mr. chairman.
▶ 5:00:15Chair Graham: No. >> Mr. chairman, the yays are six, the nays r 15. -- are 15.
▶ 5:00:30Chair Graham: Senator whitehouse.
▶ 5:00:34Sen. Whitehouse: This would protect the methane leak fee targeted in this instruction by lifting the instruction related to 7.5 million metric tons leaked out for which the industry received 1.6 billion dollars upfront for repairs as part of the deal for this fee and they are walking away from it. The better way to walk away from paying the fee would be to stop leaking, and then there would be no fee.
▶ 5:01:06Sen. Whitehouse: So I ask everybody to vote aye.
▶ 5:01:09Chair Graham: Senator lee I will reiterate what he said. >> I hereby and reiterate by reference my previous remark and apply it to this.
▶ 5:01:20Chair Graham: Clerk will call roll. >> Mr. grassley. >> no. >>. Mr. crapo >> no. >> Mr. johnson. >> no. >> Mr. marshall. >> no. >> Mr. cornyn. [indiscernible] >> Mr. lee. >> no. >> Mr. kennedy.
▶ 5:01:50Chair Graham: >> no. >> Mr. ricketts. >> no. >> Mr. moreno. >> no. >> Mr. scott. >> no. >> Mr. merkley. >> aye. >> Mrs. murray. >> aye. >> Mr. wyden. >> aye. >> Mr. sanders.
▶ 5:02:23Chair Graham: >> aye. >> Mr. whitehouse. >> aye. >> Mr. warner. >> aye. >> Mr. kaine. >> aye. >> Mr. van hollen. >> aye. >> Mr. lujan. >> Mr. padilla. >> aye. >> Mr. chairman.
▶ 5:02:53Chair Graham: No. >> Mr. chairman, the yays are 10, the nays are 11.
▶ 5:03:01Chair Graham: Next is warner 7.
▶ 5:03:07Sen. Warner: Thank you Mr. chairman, as I explained earlier this would put in place for these doge officials, many of whom do not have appropriate clearances, to make sure we do all we can to protect national security and the information in these classified accounts. My fear is either by malfeasance or plain stupidity, some of this will get out and our nation will be made less strong. I urge adoption of the amendment.
▶ 5:03:38Chair Graham: Thank you. Senator crapo, I think, explanation stands. Call roll, faster. >> Mr. grassley. >> no. >> Mr. crapo. Mr. johnson. [indiscernible] >> Mr. marshall. >> no. >> Mr. cornyn. >> no. >> Mr. lee. [indiscernible] >>. Mr.
▶ 5:04:06Chair Graham: Kennedy >> no. >> Mr. ricketts. >> no. >> Mr. moreno. >> no. >> Mr. scott. >> no. >>. Mr. merkley I -->> aye. >> Mrs. murray. >> aye. >> Mr. wyden. >> aye. >> Mr. sanders. >> aye. >> Mr. whitehouse.
▶ 5:04:37Chair Graham: >> aye. >> Mr. warner. >> aye. >> Mr. kaine. >> aye. >> Mr. van hollen. [indiscernible] Mr. lujan. >> aye by proxy. >> Mr. padilla. >> aye. >> Mr. chairman.
▶ 5:05:01Chair Graham: No. >> yays are 10, nays 11. >> next is senator kaine 1.
▶ 5:05:11Sen. Kaine: I called this the know before you cut, against any legislation affecting health coverage until the cbo gives us the number of americans affected by that legislation. A point of order can be waived with 60 votes on the floor, but it would ensure we know the consequences of our actions on americans' health care before we vote on legislation affecting it.
▶ 5:05:33Chair Graham: Thank you, senator kaine. I think I have rolled this out of order. You want to appeal?
▶ 5:05:39Sen. Kaine: I will appeal.
▶ 5:05:42Chair Graham: All of us are going to vote aye [laughter] I'm voting -- you're tabling my decision.
▶ 5:05:52Sen. Kaine: Mr. chair, can I inquire because you may make other rulings, why is this out of order?
▶ 5:05:59Chair Graham: Outside of jurisdiction of the committee. Moved to table the appeal. The motion is not to beatable. The question on the motion to appeal the ruling of the chair. All those in favor of tabling say aye. >> aye. >>.all opposed >> no.
▶ 5:06:25Chair Graham: Want to roll call? >> Mr. grassley. >> aye. >> Mr. crapo. >> aye. >> Mr. johnson. >> aye. >> Mr. marshall. >> aye. >> mitt Mr. cornyn -- Mr. cornyn. [indiscernible] >> Mr. lee. Mr. kennedy. >> aye. >> Mr. ricketts. >> aye. >> Mr. moreno.
▶ 5:06:56Chair Graham: >> aye. >> Mr. scott. >> aye. >> Mr. merkley. >> no. >> Mrs. murray. >> no. >> Mr. wyden. >> no. >> Mr. sanders. >> no. >> Mr. whitehouse. >> no. . >>. >> no. >> Mr. kaine. >> no. . >> Mr. van hollen. >> no. >> Mr. van hollen. >> no.
▶ 5:07:27Chair Graham: >> Mr. padilla. >> no.
▶ 5:07:32Chair Graham: Mr. chairman no. >> no, aye.
▶ 5:07:36Chair Graham: Never mind. I did not think it would be this hard. >> ayes 11, nays 10. Senator van hollen number 4.
▶ 5:07:51Sen. Van Hollen: This creates a point of order that would cut medicare or medicaid benefits. We should go after fraud, waste and abuse in medicare or medicaid, but no one campaigned on cutting medicare or cutting medicaid, so this creates a guard rail against and I urge its adoption.
▶ 5:08:08Chair Graham: Thank you. I have determined the amendment threatens the privilege of the budget resolution therefore ruling out of order. I moved to table the motion, the table the appeal. The motion is non-debatable.
▶ 5:08:26Sen. Van Hollen: I had not yet appealed the motion but I do appeal the motion to the chair and I do call for a your vote to motion the table.
▶ 5:08:35Chair Graham: Being omnipotent knowing that it is to appeal the motion of the chair. All in favor of tabling the appeal say aye. >> aye.
▶ 5:08:46Chair Graham: Call the roll. >> Mr. grassley. >> aye. >> Mr. crapo. >> aye. . >> Mr. johnson. >> aye. . >> Mr. marshall. >> aye. >> Mr. cornyn. [indiscernible] >> Mr. kennedy. >> aye. . >> Mr. ricketts. >> aye. >> Mr. moreno. >> >> aye. >> Mr. merkley.
▶ 5:09:20Chair Graham: >> no. >> this is murray -- Mrs. murray. >> no. >> Mr. whitehouse. >> no. >> Mr. van hollen. >> no. >> Mr. lujan. >> Mr. president trump -- Mr. padilla.
▶ 5:09:52Chair Graham: Yays 11, nays 10. >> thank you, Mr. chair. A reminder this is striking reconciliation seeking to prevent instruction used a make deep cuts in critical nutrition assistance programs and the important agricultural program so many rely on because they are clearly on the chopping block.
▶ 5:10:21Chair Graham: Urge you to not turn your back on our constituents. Please join to support.
▶ 5:10:26Chair Graham: What senator kaine said is compelling, these should be looked at. Clerk, call roll. >> Mr. grassley. >> aye.
▶ 5:10:40Chair Graham: No. [laughter] this is harder than it looks. >> Mr. crapo. >> no. >> Mr. johnson. >> no. >> Mr. marshall. >> no. >> Mr. lee. >> no. >> Mr. kennedy. >> no. >> Mr. ricketts. >> no. . >> Mr. moreno. >> >> no.
▶ 5:11:12Chair Graham: >> Mr. merkley. Mrs. murray. >> aye. >> Mr. wyden. >> aye. >> Mr. sanders. >> aye. >> Mr. whitehouse. >> aye. >> Mr. warner. >> aye. >> Mr. van hollen. >> aye. >> Mr. lujan.
▶ 5:11:43Chair Graham: Mr. padilla. Mr. chairman.
▶ 5:11:47Chair Graham: We have one more and will get back to offering amendments. [indiscernible] >> yays 10, nays 11.
▶ 5:12:00Chair Graham: Senator padilla.
▶ 5:12:02Sen. Padilla: This meant would strike the reconciliation instructions for the senate committee on energy, natural resources, clearly is a signal to undo the progress under the inflation reduction act in the interest of protecting hundreds of thousands of good paying jobs that have been created in the interest of moving us toward true energy independence where we need all of the above approach to include renewable energy.
▶ 5:12:31Sen. Padilla: I urge you support this amendment.
▶ 5:12:36Chair Graham: Senator lee, do you want to say anything? I think you responded well last time. >> Mr. grassley. >> no. >> Mr. crapo. >> no. >> Mr. johnson. >> no. >> Mr. marshall. >> no. >> Mr. cornyn. Mr. lee. Mr. kennedy. >> no. >> Mr. ricketts. >> no.
▶ 5:13:06Chair Graham: >> Mr. moreno. >> >> no. >> Mr. scott. Mr. merkley. >> aye. >> Mr. wyden. >> aye. >> Mr. sanders. >> aye. >> Mr. whitehouse. >> aye. >> Mr. warner. >> aye. >> Mr. kaine. >> aye. >> Mr. van hollen. >> aye. >> Mr. lujan.
▶ 5:13:38Chair Graham: >> aye by proxy. >> Mr. padilla. >> >> aye. .Mr. chairman yays 10, nays 11.
▶ 5:13:52Chair Graham: Thank you for being here. It took 30 minutes but I don't know how to do it much faster. [indiscernible] so ordered. The next round will start now. Will give you notice when it comes time to vote. We will start with merkley number 5.
▶ 5:14:15Sen. Merkley: Thank you very much.
▶ 5:14:17Chair Graham: In about an hour we will vote again.
▶ 5:14:20Sen. Merkley: Perhaps the top issue many are worried about is the price of housing, the cost of homes. The cost of homes going up some first-time homebuyers are in big trouble. Certainly the cost of rent. I'm passing out three articles about what is driving up the cost of rents and homes which is a hedge fund investors buying up large swathes of homes across america.
▶ 5:14:44Sen. Merkley: The first article is titled for the home of your dreams." they are all cash, fast closing, no inspection offers, often tens of thousands above asking price.
▶ 5:15:10Sen. Merkley: "wall street has purchased thousands of single-family homes." the third is titled "wall street is buying up neighborhoods." this is true in every state. Florida and arizona have gotten the most attention. It's true of oregon and south carolina.
▶ 5:15:34Sen. Merkley: I just read an article titled, "all cash in offers." "the offers are all cash, they do very short due diligence, they typically close in two weeks." there is a site called we buy homes in south carolina as is. Hedge fund.
▶ 5:16:03Sen. Merkley: This is a huge factor destroying homeownership. That slice of the american pie is being shifted to the wealthiest americans. If you believe in the american dream for families, this is something we have to address. My amendment creates a deficit neutral reserve fund relating to bills that try to take this on.
▶ 5:16:34Sen. Merkley: We should all be concerned. It's affecting the rents and home prices. This is in line with president trump's desire to lower the cost to americans on real issues. Nothing more real than having a roof. >> senator ricketts. >> this amendment would create a reserve fund.
▶ 5:17:06Sen. Merkley: The biden administration reckless spending made homeownership less affordable. 25% of the cost of single-family homes is regulatory. We reduce regulations, that would bring down the price of homes.
▶ 5:17:32Sen. Merkley: Unlocking reconciliations to lockdown the border and keep americans safe. >> all this does is gives an opportunity to address an issue that is significant to folks in every state. Interest rates affect homeownership.
▶ 5:17:56Sen. Merkley: No question hedge funds competing with all cash, no inspection, fast closing offers are a huge driver as well. Let's team up as well and be prepared to take on one of the biggest issues affecting families across this country.
▶ 5:18:13Chair Graham: We will vote on it in the second trench of votes. Senator murray, number six.
▶ 5:18:22Sen. Murray: My amendment establishes a deficit neutral reserve fund to make sure no president can unilaterally impound, delay or withhold congressionally appropriated funds in violation of the constitution over the control act of 1974. This is not a partisan issue.
▶ 5:18:49Sen. Murray: The constitution grants congress the power of the purse. This has been affirmed by the supreme court, congress, government accountability office and others, yet today trump, elon musk and others have been holding up funding congress passed, often on a bipartisan basis.
▶ 5:19:13Sen. Murray: When presidents ignore spending laws in the power of the purse, our constitution gives congress, not the president, it doesn't just block funding for the people, it the trust necessary for negotiations in congress. Members of congress on both sides must know that a deal is a deal. This amendment is about protecting the integrity of our democratic process, our most fundamental checks and balances.
▶ 5:19:43Sen. Murray: Every senator should support this amendment to preserve congress's authority and maintain trust necessary for effective governance. I urge my colleagues to reaffirm congress controls federal spending.
▶ 5:19:59Chair Graham: Sandra marino.
▶ 5:20:02Sen. Murray: -- Sen. murray:
▶ 5:20:09No -- Se. Marino: There would be more interesting to make that retroactive to the last four years. A bill was attempted to pass congress and was rejected and yet joe biden relieved student debt. It went to the supreme court who ruled he could not do that and yet he did that.
▶ 5:20:39No -- Se. Marino: This would be more sincere if this amendment looked back retrospectively. We cannot do that. Joe biden put in place policies, for example, using fema money to resettle migrants. This is about political messaging, not about cutting the deficit.
▶ 5:21:05No -- Se. Marino: I hope my colleagues get to the point where we say let's work together. Here's what I know about this administration. We have a commander-in-chief calling the shots. Elon musk is doing things at his direction. Joe biden didn't know what day it was. We have no idea who was calling the shots.
▶ 5:21:32Sen. Murray: We cannot go backward. We should establish congress's authority. Everyone knows I have worked with partners on both sides of the aisle to get bipartisan spending agreements. There's no way we can have that trust to vote on either side anytime in the future for any president if we don't know our agreement, will be abided by the constitution and the law.
▶ 5:22:04Sen. Murray: I urge my colleagues who want to talk about what happened with president biden, to assure that is there in the future.
▶ 5:22:11Chair Graham: Time expired. We will vote on that in a bit. Senator wyden. 2.
▶ 5:22:20Sen. Wyden: I listened attentively to my colleagues on the republican side, senior members of the finance committee, who brought up tax breaks with respect to the wealthy and they all said we have no interest in giving tax breaks to the wealthy. I said to myself, my goodness. That sounds interesting.
▶ 5:22:53Sen. Wyden: Maybe I can get my prohibition on one of the biggest scams in the tax code featured on the wall street journal front page. If you're a billionaire and clever, you can pay little or no taxes pretty much forever. Given my colleagues comments and my interest in getting rid of some of these glaring loopholes, I said to myself, I will try to put this out as an amendment.
▶ 5:23:25Sen. Wyden: That is why have wyden 2. It would seem to me if everyone is interested in making sure there are no tax breaks for the wealthy, this puts down as part of the budget, the committee's principles.
▶ 5:23:45Chair Graham: Senator johnson.
▶ 5:23:48Sen. Johnson: As you stated, this is out of order for all those reasons. He said he listened to us carefully. This process is about trying to clean up two messes. We need to secure the border. It's not about taxes. The only thing in this budget is about taxes is current policy.
▶ 5:24:18Sen. Johnson: We open up the border, the administration needs the funding to secure the border. That is unfortunate. Had biden not opened it up, we would not need the extra funding. We will pay for this. It's not about giving tax breaks. When we adjust taxes, if we do cut, it will be for every american.
▶ 5:24:40Sen. Wyden: I was not the one who brought this up initially. It was brought up by my colleagues on the other side trying to make a case they don't want tax breaks for the wealthy. I would like accountability.
▶ 5:24:56Chair Graham: Debate expired. We will vote in a bit. Senator sanders, we will get back. White house 2.
▶ 5:25:07Sen. Whitehouse: This would lift the pw instruction targeting the methane leakage fee and chain nge finance construction to raise revenue which would reduce deficit. On the looming insurance danger, in south carolina one in 20 homeowners got dropped by homeowners insurance in 2023.
▶ 5:25:38Sen. Whitehouse: Average premiums up 25%. Predicted to double in the years to come. In iowa, non-renewables up 200%. Mitchell county, 150%. Idaho, more than 400%. Boise county, 200%. Boise county home values roughly declining 60% over the next 30 year mortgage window. Wisconsin, nonrenewables up 150%. Kansas, nonrenewables up 550%.
▶ 5:26:12Sen. Whitehouse: Nine kansas counties expect to see average home values decline by more than 20% over the next 30 year window. Texas, chambers county has seen an increase of 940%. 60 counties in texas are predicted to see average home values fall by 20%, with some experience and declines of 60% or 80%. Utah, nonrenewables, louisiana wins the prize.
▶ 5:26:45Sen. Whitehouse: Non-renewals, 1500%. Increases of between 130% and 1400%. Two dozen louisiana parishes are expected to see home values decline between 20% to 60%. Nebraska, york county, 500%. Seven other counties, more than double. Ohio, 250%.
▶ 5:27:16Sen. Whitehouse: Seven other counties have seen non-renewals more than double. Florida, glades and monro county have seen an increase of 3000%. This isn't just coming. This is already on us. The quicker react, the better off we will be.
▶ 5:27:42Sen. Whitehouse: The best way to act now is to stop the repeal of the methane fee that encourages oil and gas companies to take better care of what they leak out of their pipes, valves and wells. Straightforward stuff. This is coming to a neighborhood near you. Let's get together and stop it now.
▶ 5:28:05Chair Graham: Senator lee.
▶ 5:28:07Sen. Lee: This amendment would strike the epw instruction and require revenue increasing instruction to finance committee rather than repealing it, possibly harmful nursing home rules. If we were to adopt it, it would impair our ability to offset the cost of the bill. I oppose it.
▶ 5:28:30Chair Graham: Time expired. We will vote in a bit. Senator warner, 1.
▶ 5:28:38Sen. Warner: My amendment creates a point of order against legislation providing new budget authority for the office of the present during any period when there is litigation pending against the president alleging a violation of the take care clause. The take care clause of the constitution sets out one of the president's most central duties, to ensure federal laws are faithfully executed. That means carrying out all of congress's statutory directions.
▶ 5:29:08Sen. Warner: The law congress passes are not optional and the constitution does not give the president any legislative power. He cannot choose to follow the laws he likes and disregard the ones he dislikes. The president must take care to carry out congress's exact directions. If congress requires the U.S. agency for international annulment to exist, the president must take care to ensure usaid exists.
▶ 5:29:35Sen. Warner: If congress requires a president spend a certain amount of money on providing community health care in virginia, the president must take care to spend exactly that much money and not a penny more or less. President trump shown his contempt for the clause by refusing to follow the directions of congress, and set out duly passed law.
▶ 5:29:57Sen. Warner: He has shut down usaid, risking america's goodwill around the world, the musk wrote, grinding another congressional created agency to a halt. All these abuses of power continue. Congress should cut off funding for the office of the president. My amendment does that.
▶ 5:30:25Sen. Warner: We cannot stand by while the president walks all over constitutional powers that rightfully belong before the congress.
▶ 5:30:32Chair Graham: Senator lee.
▶ 5:30:35Sen. Lee: This amendment were created point of order against any spending provision, to provide funding to the executive office, while there is active litigation against the president and his administration, inhibiting the vital functions of the executive branch, which the president is charged with carrying out.
▶ 5:31:03Sen. Lee: We've seen how vexatious litigation can be and it has been abused. We have seen the weaponization of the law carried out for partisan reasons over the last year or two in particular against president trump with no reason to be assured it wouldn't be abused here. All they would have to do was make sure there is litigation brought.
▶ 5:31:28Sen. Lee: They could halt any measure through this point of order, to provide funding to the office of the president. In any event, the creation of this point of order is outside jurisdiction of the budget committee and is therefore not appropriate for inclusion in this budget resolution. The specificity of language also threatens the privilege of the resolution is not in order. I oppose the amendment.
▶ 5:31:58Chair Graham: Debate expired. We will deal with this in a minute. Senator kaine, 3.
▶ 5:32:07Sen. Kaine: It is about protecting the health care of american families who have access to the aca and deals with the family glitch issue which we are familiar with. When the aca was written, someone who does not have access to an affordable policy can access premiums, tax credits to bring down premiums of policies they would buy. The measure of affordability measured it to an individual, not of a family policy.
▶ 5:32:39Sen. Kaine: Someone who is married with kids who wants a family policy, that doesn't have access to an affordable policy cannot get tax credits. Biden administration fixed this and 5 million american families benefited. My proposal would create a deficit neutral reserve fund allowing that to be made permanent, should congress choose to do so.
▶ 5:33:03Sen. Kaine: This has been the repeal of the biden administration has been discussed by folks on the house republican side as a way to rack up savings in this reconciliation process. The purpose of 3 is to preserve our ability to protect american families who have been able to access tax credits for the aca.
▶ 5:33:25Chair Graham: Senator crapo.
▶ 5:33:28Sen. Crapo: . I will make the points, Mr. chairman, excuse me, you would like that, wouldn't you?
▶ 5:33:40Chair Graham: Yes.
▶ 5:33:43Sen. Crapo: Instruction to the finance committee in this budget procedure is limited, one topic issue relating to nursing homes. That's a rule. Not a program in medicare/medicaid. This amendment is not necessary.
▶ 5:34:09Sen. Crapo: We will hopefully do another reconciliation process in this committee. At that time I expect we will have a broader instruction for finance committee. When that day comes, I welcome the opportunity to talk about reforms necessary in our entitlement programs.
▶ 5:34:32Sen. Crapo: Unfortunately, our colleagues on the other side enacted a premium tax credit that used tax favored dollars -- taxpayer dollars. Let's get into these issues but this is not the procedure to do that.
▶ 5:34:48Chair Graham: Debate expired. Senator van hollen, 6.
▶ 5:34:58Sen. Van Hollen: This would establish point of order against legislation to repeal prescription drug negotiation provisions of ira. Earlier, I offered an amendment to prohibit cuts to medicare benefits. You responded, as part of the ira, we cut medicare but you did not point out we didn't cut a penny of benefits.
▶ 5:35:28Sen. Van Hollen: What we did was require negotiations for prescriptions under medicare. Like a big insurance company gets to negotiate on behalf of members, we wanted medicare to negotiate on behalf of the people. The results of that was to dramatically lower, yes, costs for medicare but also reduce prescription costs for everyone in medicare.
▶ 5:35:58Sen. Van Hollen: As a result, prices for blockbuster drugs are going down for people on medicare. We capped expenditures to $2000 per. That was because of the ira, not cutting benefits by getting a good deal for the people on medicare. This says let's keep that. If you want to keep it, those lower prices, vote yes. If you want to risk getting rid of it, oppose.
▶ 5:36:28Chair Graham: Senator crapo.
▶ 5:36:32Sen. Crapo: Two points. First, it's out of order for budget reconciliation. Second, I expect more, is not germane to the instruction in this process, to the finance committee which is limited, specifically the nursing home rule we are addressing in this instruction.
▶ 5:37:02Sen. Crapo: We will hopefully have further instructions in a separate process before this committee at which time I expect a broader instruction to the finance committee, then we can get into these issues. I have a lot of argument with the approach to prescription pricing that the democratic caucus has taken in the past so we can have a lively debate.
▶ 5:37:26Sen. Crapo: We should have a debate about how to lower the price of all health care services including prescriptions. We will have that time. Not in this particular bill.
▶ 5:37:37Chair Graham: Debate expired. Senator lujan, 41.
▶ 5:37:45Sen. Lujan: I asked consent I be listed as primary sponsor, thank you.
▶ 5:38:00Sen. Padilla: This amendment would create point of order against legislation that reduces medicare/medicaid benefits for middle-class americans. Seems like every time president trump is in the white house, is number one priority is tax cuts for the wealthy.
▶ 5:38:24Sen. Padilla: The cut from the first administration raised deficits by $2 trillion over the first 10 years. The booming investment americans were promised never materialized. A second round of cuts is projected to be even more expensive.
▶ 5:38:43Sen. Padilla: Republican colleagues are looking for $5.7 trillion in cuts, potentially more to many necessary government programs. Of all the unprecedented cuts proposed to safety net programs, medicaid seems at the top of the list.
▶ 5:39:07Sen. Padilla: Specifically, republicans propose $2.3 trillion of cuts to medicaid and $475 billion in cuts to medicare. A $2 trillion cut to medicaid over 10 years would be one third reduction in projected federal medicaid spending, 39% of all medicaid revenues to states.
▶ 5:39:30Sen. Padilla: The policies proposed, imposing a per capita cap, reducing the expansion metric, repealing the incentive for states to adopt medicaid expansion and more would change how medicaid financing works. The large cuts would put states of financial risk, reducing spending by limiting coverage, producing services and cutting rates paid to physicians/hospitals/nursing homes.
▶ 5:39:57Sen. Padilla: Millions of americans will no doubt lose health coverage as a result. By the way, this would exacerbate the alarming workforce shortage in the health care industry. I urge you to publicly commit to preserving medicare/medicaid benefits by supporting this amendment.
▶ 5:40:17Chair Graham: Senator crapo.
▶ 5:40:21Sen. Crapo: I will be repetitive on these. This is out of order, not appropriate to budget resolution. It is not germane for reasons in regard to previous amendments. We will get into broader debate. I assure you we do not seek to reduce benefits to medicare, medicaid. I look forward to robust discussion on how to deal with that.
▶ 5:40:49Chair Graham: Debate expired. Senator padilla, 6.
▶ 5:40:57Sen. Padilla: This would create a definite neutral reserve fund relating to achieving energy dominance and independence for the U.S. by continuing investments in renewable energy development as part of an all of the above energy approach which would include solar, wind and hydrogen.
▶ 5:41:21Sen. Padilla: I have spoken on the importance of preventing cuts to the ira and republican efforts to unwind billions in federal/private sector energy investments we unlocked across the country. These are critical to achieving our shared goal of energy independence.
▶ 5:41:41Sen. Padilla: To achieve independence, we have to reduce reliance on fossil fuels subject to international supply chain disruptions that affect prices at the pump. It's also about securing critical energy infrastructure against threats and improving the resilience of our power system against market volatility and extreme weather. Something specifically I worked on with senator cornyn over the years.
▶ 5:42:10Sen. Padilla: Unfortunately, the trump administration and republicans in congress want to return to the outdated playbook of prioritizing fossil fuels at the expense of newer renewable, increasingly cheaper techs. Said they don't intend to drill more, even oil and gas companies. Where are we doing at this point?
▶ 5:42:37Sen. Padilla: Accelerating the growth of new domestic energy sources increases our energy security. If fully harnessed, as the investments would allow us to do, our abundant renewable energy sources coupled with batteries and other storage where help us meet our growing energy demands and diversifying our energy supply would help improve our resiliency against geopolitical threats.
▶ 5:43:07Sen. Padilla: Many success stories in home states of many of these investments and projects increasing domestic manufacturing and american jobs. Let's continue to invest in the all of the above approach which includes renewable energy as the only way to achieve true energy independence while strengthening the economy and safeguarding our national security.
▶ 5:43:32Chair Graham: Senator kennedy.
▶ 5:43:36Sen. Kennedy: I oppose this. Amendment talks about an all of the above approach. I don't think the amendment means that. It mentions specifically solar, wind and hydrogen. It doesn't mention fossil fuels. Nuclear energy.
▶ 5:44:07Sen. Kennedy: I'm all for any form of energy that is affordable and accessible. Right now fossil fuels are both of those. You can debate this. Nuclear energy is both of those. What many who would support this want to do is kill fossil fuels and nuclear.
▶ 5:44:40Sen. Kennedy: They want to take american taxpayer dollars and subsidize solar/wind/hydrogen/other forms so they will be cheaper for the consumer. Problem is there is no free lunch and you don't get one now. There's a reason electricity prices, the average bill on americans under president biden went up 28%. That's average.
▶ 5:45:11Sen. Kennedy: After spending this money and treasure, you know how much we reduced world temperatures? None. Zero. Zilch. Nada. The world is warming.
▶ 5:45:36Sen. Kennedy: It will be solved in the private sector, not by a bunch of governments picking favorite industries and throwing money. I realize you disagree. You are still a fine american. I oppose this, not because you are a fine american, but for the reasons I said.
▶ 5:45:54Chair Graham: Debate expired. Senator sanders, would you like 3?
▶ 5:46:07Sen. Sanders: Pretty simple. Picks up on what senator kennedy was saying. Establishes deficit neutral reserve fund knowledge and -- the global crisis of climate change is existential threat facing the planet driven by the earning of -- by the burning of fossil fuels and that addressing
▶ 5:46:38Sen. Sanders: This requires a reduction of carbon emissions. I happen to believe given the extraordinary extreme weather disturbances we are seeing in the U.S.
▶ 5:46:55Sen. Sanders: And around the world, the increase in drought, flooding, etc., given the reality the scientific community is almost 100% in agreement climate change is real and if we do not get a handle on it, it will only get worse. I know it sounds like politics. This is real stuff.
▶ 5:47:23Sen. Sanders: If we don't cut emissions, the planet we are leaving our future generations to will become increasingly uninhabitable and unhealthy. All I am asking here is you to acknowledge the reality of climate change and the need for a deficit neutral fund to help us reduce carbon emissions. Nothing more complicated than that.
▶ 5:47:48Chair Graham: Sen. lee: my friend and colleague, he is both has introduced an amendment I must oppose. I oppose it in individual capacity, also as the chairman of the energy and natural resources committee. It would create a fund related to acknowledging climate change.
▶ 5:48:17Chair Graham: In my view, this is a measure that would prioritize climate alarmism over objectives we need to pursue now including providing energy security to the people and in the case of this bill, order security. The biden administration did everything in his power to destroy domestic energy production. This has made every aspect of life more expensive.
▶ 5:48:50Chair Graham: It is all more expensive. It will get worse if we don't fix this. This amendment seeks to continue those same policies. The american people deserve better. I oppose them.
▶ 5:49:07Sen. Sanders: Brief response?
▶ 5:49:08Chair Graham: Absolutely.
▶ 5:49:12Sen. Sanders: Let me ask my friend, you used the word climate alarmism. Attend last years are the warmest years recorded ever. -- the 10 last years. We are seeing massive extreme weather disturbances all over the world.
▶ 5:49:33Sen. Sanders: Is that alarmism or is it the reality climate change is an and norma's threat to this planet -- enormous threat to this planet?
▶ 5:49:44Sen. Lee: Acknowledging weather conditions can tell us things. I don't think throwing hundreds of billions at a problem with and I toured spending tens of trillions on a problem, one that will impoverish the people throughout the world, unduly enrich other nations including
▶ 5:50:15Sen. Lee: Countries like china that are generating more greenhouse gases every day, show no signs of slowing and are known to cheat on international commitments regarding emissions, I think that's climate alarmism. I think the people have suffered as a result.
▶ 5:50:35Sen. Lee: Humans have benefited to a tremendous degree as a result of our ability to utilize the resources nature has uniquely given us as americans. Human flourishing depends on our ability to utilize those sources of energy.
▶ 5:50:57Sen. Lee: We are kidding ourselves if we think we are better off depriving ourselves of using those things and relying instead on sources of energy that are at once unproven, unaffordable and in any event none of the proposals we've talked about have been shown with any degree of certainty of confidence that they are going to make a meaningful dent in global temperatures anyway. I am not on board with this.
▶ 5:51:30Sen. Lee: Most of the american people aren't either.
▶ 5:51:32Chair Graham: You will have the final word.
▶ 5:51:36Sen. Sanders: Thank you. This amendment calls for zero additional funding.
▶ 5:51:42Chair Graham: Debate expired. We have gone through around two. Members are busy today. I get that. We are targeting voting at 4:30 p.m.? 4:45 p.m.? Why don't we keep going. A lot of amendments. I want to get to as many as we can. We will vote at 4:45 p.m. And keep going. Senator merkley.
▶ 5:52:08Sen. Merkley: , 9. I'm correcting a typo on page two, line one, where facilitating should say prohibiting.
▶ 5:52:22Chair Graham: Without objection.
▶ 5:52:24Sen. Merkley: This addresses the situation in which we are providing lng to china. That's doing two things. Driving up the cost for american families. Lowering the cost for china. I hear talk about how we need to be competitive because china is a threat economically. I hear talk about tariffs.
▶ 5:52:55Sen. Merkley: We are subsidizing their economy, helping their thrive and we are raising the price on american families at the same time. For you who believe in lowering the price of goods for americans and don't want to help the chinese with lower energy prices, I would appreciate your support.
▶ 5:53:18Chair Graham: One of the worst decisions made. Sending american natural gas to allies in europe so they could break away from putin. I would like to produce more gas here and help our allies abroad. I oppose this.
▶ 5:53:43Sen. Lee: Another one I oppose. This amendment would create a fund relating to prohibiting financing facilities that will export lng to china. The U.S. is not in business of subsidizing energy to be provided to adversaries.
▶ 5:54:08Sen. Lee: Four years of abusive climate policies stifled domestic production including through the pause of lng exports which damaged their economy, raised prices for americans can put national security at risk by making it easier for producers of natural gas, some of whom are not friendly to the U.S. or their interests, have benefited from these moves.
▶ 5:54:39Sen. Lee: Increasing exports would remedy harm done by previous administrations and provide necessary energy resources to allies abroad, continued reliance on energy imports from china and other countries of concern.
▶ 5:55:00Sen. Merkley: Production of oil increased dramatically during the biting the initiation, natural gas and the export of lng increased dramatically and we did increased her medically exports to europe. This is about helping china or hurting american families. When you export lng to china, you raise the price for americans who are using fossil gas to heat their homes.
▶ 5:55:29Sen. Merkley: If your for the family and not for subsidizing china, vote yes on this amendment.
▶ 5:55:34Chair Graham: Debate has expired. Murray, 17.
▶ 5:55:43Sen. Murray: Friday night the trump administration announced it was implementing policy to cut nih funding that supports biomedical research to institutes across the country.
▶ 5:55:58Sen. Murray: In capping indirect cost rates at 15% for grants, the policy would cut funding essential to conducting research by cooperating and maintaining labs/research facility, in clear violation of our annual bills which have included explicit prohibition on nih implementing policies, exactly like this since 2018.
▶ 5:56:23Sen. Murray: I helped author that provision, working closely with my republican colleagues. A court has temporarily paused a policy but if the trump administration were to be successful in getting nih funding in this way, it would be catastrophic for life-saving research, patients and families are counting on including lifesaving cancer research, and my home state of washington and
▶ 5:56:53Sen. Murray: Many other institutions in red and blue states nationwide. Research would come to a halt, sick kids would not get treatment they need, clinical trials would be shut down at berkeley. Custodians to research trainees to scientists would be laid off. Our commitment to supporting basic scientific infrastructure is what helped make the american research enterprise the best in the world.
▶ 5:57:19Sen. Murray: This funding helps produce medical breakthroughs and changes patient lives ensuring the U.S. continues to be the global leader in biomedical research. Nih is an important economic driver in just about every one of our states, creates jobs and innovation. My amendment reinforces congress's support for life-saving biomedical support and its opposition to the arbitrary cut the administration announced friday.
▶ 5:57:48Sen. Murray: >> is there anyone desiring to speak in opposition? Seeing none, we will move on.
▶ 5:58:00Sen. Crapo: Senator wyden.
▶ 5:58:04Sen. Wyden: This would do what president trump says he wants done on health care. He said repeatedly according to what we accumulated social security/medicare shouldn't be cut and medicaid should be cherished. This quote, not mine. Spared from any cuts.
▶ 5:58:30Sen. Wyden: Clearly we have differences of opinion with respect to some health care issues but I would say to my colleagues you make these policies donald trump wants go along with what we are talking about to protect seniors, nursing homes, americans with disabilities and others for whom medicaid is a lifeline, then we have something which my colleagues know is in line with the bipartisan tradition we have had until recently on the finance committee.
▶ 5:58:59Sen. Wyden: It wasn't until 2017 we had this departure and went partisan. I hope my colleagues will support this proposal, wyden 3, which is basically putting into the budget donald trump's priorities with respect to health care, his words.
▶ 5:59:18Sen. Crapo: This is the same issue we've had on a number of amendments. This amendment is out of order for budget resolution for reconciliation and I would make that note. In terms of germaneness, we will get into a discussion of critical issues in health care and I hope the next and soon reconciliation legislation.
▶ 5:59:47Sen. Crapo: We are keeping the finance committee instruction limited specifically to that nursing rule I referenced earlier. I would ask for no vote.
▶ 5:59:57Sen. Wyden: What I'm trying to do is take off the table health care cuts which have significant support in the house, in particular, and that senators and the president say they don't want. We see these documents coming from the house calling for cuts. Senate republicans and the president say they don't want them. I'm trying to put it in the budget.
▶ 6:00:23Chair Graham: Time expired. Warner 11.
▶ 6:00:30Sen. Warner: Hope this would find bipartisan support. Modified by my secondary amendment 16, would allow for legislation to protect dedicated federal workforce including those at fbi, cia from retaliation and firing.
▶ 6:00:52Sen. Warner: We've seen in the past couple weeks president trump's willingness to use executive power to hurt his perceived political enemies including federal workforce workers responsible for protecting us from national security threats. Before the ic, we ask folks to speak truth to power and be independent. I fear that willingness is being undermined.
▶ 6:01:18Sen. Warner: Resolve recently seven of the most are springs, senior fbi employees got fired. They are simply the guys in charge of homeland security, cyber, counterespionage, economic competitiveness. I'm not sure how they will speak truth to power if there is that kind of retribution.
▶ 6:01:37Sen. Warner: The president's doj looks like it is going after any fbi agent who work at all on the january 6 investigations, which number in the thousands and that could undermine our talent and community. Recently we have seen the cia in a sloppy effort put out hundreds of cia officials with their first names and last initial.
▶ 6:02:06Sen. Warner: It takes nine months to one year to get a security clearance, it takes one year of training. These 200 plus individuals, our enemies, through ai will be able to discover their identities and their ability to go into the field is undermined.
▶ 6:02:28Sen. Warner: Those folks in the ic, who don't get the recognition they deserve, let's make sure they are not subject to political retaliation.
▶ 6:02:38Chair Graham: Senator lee.
▶ 6:02:42Sen. Lee: We just emerged from four years where the government was weaponized against the people for political purposes. More evidence comes out everyday. It would be tone deaf for us to adopt a measure that would protect people in those same agencies who may have been involved in deliberate political weaponization for partisan gains, for trying to imprison
▶ 6:03:13Sen. Lee: President biden's last standing impediment to becoming a second term president. I cannot believe we are having to have this conversation. To say people in those agencies, it's not all of them, but it is some of them, and there will be an effort to figure out who was a bad actor.
▶ 6:03:32Sen. Lee: To say we will protect all of them and any of them from being fired even if they didn't engage in dastardly acts -- this is offensive. Our constituents would be upset with us if we supported this.
▶ 6:03:53Sen. Warner: As a member who was here january 6, when the capitol police and fbi defended all of us, to somehow say protecting them would be an insult I find remarkable.
▶ 6:04:11Sen. Lee: That is not what I said. I want to be clear. In no way shape or form is that what I said. Make no reference to any of the people protecting us. Those people know who they are. The trump administration at some point will figure out who they are. I'm talking about those people who engaged in politically weaponized indefensible acts. We should not immunize them, not on our watch. I oppose.
▶ 6:04:39Chair Graham: Debate expired. Senator kaine, 5.
▶ 6:04:44Sen. Kaine: A program that helps people all over the country and affects young people would be my suspicion, public service loan forgiveness. It was created during the bush presidency, 2007. The idea was to get people to be teachers, firefighters, police, public servants at the capital, inner-city teachers. The program languished.
▶ 6:05:17Sen. Kaine: During the first trump presidency, 7000 people, 3% of those who applied were granted by d.o.e. Last administration, the pace of approval significantly expanded to match what the program was intended to do when it was passed in the bush administration. A million applicants were forgiven loans because of their public service including 33,000 virginians.
▶ 6:05:45Sen. Kaine: The purpose is to create a point of order against cuts to public service loan forgiveness. I am worried what h.e.l.p. May do is carving back on loan forgiveness, in this particular reconciliation. We want to encourage public servants like the young staffers in this room, I would ask for support on a point of order against cuts to the program.
▶ 6:06:16Sen. Kennedy: This committee does not have legal jurisdiction to create such a point of order. The amendment is out of order.
▶ 6:06:28Chair Graham: Debate expired. Senator van hollen, 3.
▶ 6:06:34Sen. Van Hollen: Creates a point of order against legislation that would cut funding for the national school lunch program for the school breakfast program. I think we agree we all want kids to have nutrition and food they need to have healthy lives. The school breakfast program and school lunch program are part of that effort.
▶ 6:07:02Sen. Van Hollen: For kids who come from families who cannot afford the food to make sure their kids have what they need, that's why we have these programs. 14 million children experience food insecurity in the last year , 1-5 don't know where their next meal will come from. This is an issue no one ran on in the last election.
▶ 6:07:30Sen. Van Hollen: Candidate trump didn't say he wanted to cut nutrition programs. Project 2025, he claimed to not know anything about, these are on the chopping block. This would create a point of order to make sure we protect these important nutrition programs for kids.
▶ 6:07:49Chair Graham: Senator ricketts. Sorry, senator moreno.
▶ 6:07:58Sen. Moreno: We need to think about how this is implemented currently. A school in toledo, 99% of the kids are african-american or hispanic, most of them low income. They don't teach those kids they are victims. They don't teach these kids d.e.I., they refused to do that. They teach science, math, reading, critical thinking.
▶ 6:08:28Sen. Moreno: D.o.e. Didn't like that. They took away the school lunch program to force them into submission. Our viewpoint as the republican party is the better answer is to get rid of the d.o.e. It is unconstitutional. Move the entirety of funding to schools and local communities where parents can make those decisions.
▶ 6:08:55Sen. Moreno: As someone who didn't speak english until I was seven, my parents never allowed me to feel like a victim. The fact that the government would take away my ability to have nutrition because teachers refused to beat into my head that I would be a victim is a disgrace.
▶ 6:09:14Sen. Van Hollen: With respect, I am more than happy to debate the d.o.e. I think it is a bad idea. This is about the school lunch and breakfast programs. I don't think anybody in the last campaign heard people talking about getting rid of these nutrition programs. Maybe you did. I did not follow the campaign that closely.
▶ 6:09:44Sen. Van Hollen: This would protect those programs. I asked for adoption.
▶ 6:09:49Sen. Moreno: The point is let's not have a conversation about the federal government controlling schools all over the country. That was definitely on the campaign trail.
▶ 6:10:00Sen. Van Hollen: This is the school lunch program, not about controlling school.
▶ 6:10:06Chair Graham: Is that it? Ok. [laughter] that was interesting. Time expired on that amendment. Senator padilla, 5.
▶ 6:10:20Sen. Padilla: It would create a deficit neutral reserve fund relating to protecting communities for fentanyl by prohibiting diversion of enforcement resources away from fentanyl related investigations and prosecutions for other purposes. President trump began his second term by declaring a national emergency at the southern border.
▶ 6:10:49Sen. Padilla: In this executive order, he continued to push the false narrative the fentanyl crisis in america is strictly an immigration problem. Let's be clear. Cbp data shows 90% fentanyl seized at ports of entry is trafficked by U.S. citizens.
▶ 6:11:13Sen. Padilla: Recent changes by the administration and doj including fbi, dea and atf have shifted critical resources away from fentanyl investigations and toward immigration enforcement. Last week, the senate judiciary committee held a hearing entitled the poisoning of america.
▶ 6:11:40Sen. Padilla: Witnesses at the hearing testified diversion of these resources hurts efforts to bring criminal groups to justice and weakens the ability of organized crime and drug enforcement task force. The witnesses shared data that shows the majority of fentanyl comes in at legal ports by U.S. citizens.
▶ 6:12:09Sen. Padilla: We all claim to be serious about addressing fentanyl in america. Senator ricketts, you spoke eloquently in this hearing earlier. I take you at your word. Please join me in protecting that funding, not letting it be diverted to other purposes.
▶ 6:12:31Sen. Padilla: I urge you to protect law enforcement resources dedicated to fentanyl related investigations and prosecutions from being diverted to other purposes. Please support this amendment.
▶ 6:12:45Chair Graham: Senator ricketts.
▶ 6:12:48Sen. Ricketts: I appreciate my colleague from california wanting to address the crisis. It is a crisis. In nebraska, we saw the dramatic increase of drugs coming in our state after biden implemented open border policies. You talked about ports of entry. What about between ports of entry's?
▶ 6:13:13Sen. Ricketts: That's what this is about, this bill, about trying to stop fennel from entering our country by closing down, giving the president the resources he needs to do that. We had 46 bills in '19 related to fentanyl taken off our streets and in the first few weeks of the biden administration, it jumped to 61,000. It was 10 times the amount of cocaine coming across.
▶ 6:13:47Sen. Ricketts: This reconciliation bill is about trying to make sure we close that down. I urge my colleagues to vote against and make sure we keep the reconciliation focused on making sure we are defending our border, giving resources needed to the president.
▶ 6:14:03Sen. Padilla: I remind my colleagues, there are different components here. No one disagrees with committing efforts to prevent the importation of fentanyl or its precursor ingredients. No one disagrees. We can look at the numbers, how much comes ports of entry versus between, who is carrying it across the data, our data shows it is primarily citizens. That is one thing.
▶ 6:14:34Sen. Padilla: The funding being diverted from programs and personnel to crackdown on towards enforcement action, the detention and deportation of individuals who are not crossing the border, people who are here, who have been here in roughly half the cases, not violent criminals, far in the interior. This has nothing to do with the border.
▶ 6:14:59Sen. Padilla: But if this goes as we are seeing, it's going to shift resources away from fentanyl crackdowns for something unrelated to keeping more from coming across the border. That's what I'm trying to get at. I appreciate your support for this amendment.
▶ 6:15:14Chair Graham: Thank you. All debate has expired on that amendment. Consulting with the ranking member, I think we will take a recess until 4:45. We will vote on the pending amendments and keep going. 4:45. Recess to 4:45. You can go out and play and get ice cream.
▶ 6:15:46Chair Graham: Find somebody to buy you an ice cream.
▶ 7:01:40Chair Graham: Thank you all. We will begin the voting process. I think what is going to happen is we are going to vote here. We've got some more amendments and pretty much got a rhythm to this thing now. So merkley number five. Yeah. You got your 30 seconds. And you don't have to take it.
▶ 7:02:08Sen. Merkley: This is all about lowering the cost of rents and restoring the dream of homeownership for american families by creating a deficit neutral fund to make it easier to consider legislation that removes or reduces the role of hedge funds who are buying up properties across america. So let's vote on it and support families for lower cost.
▶ 7:02:33Chair Graham: We will stand by what we said before. The clerk will call the roll. >> Mr. grassley. Mr. crapo. Mr. johnson. Mr. marshall. Mr. lee. Mr. kennedy. Mr. marino. >> no. >> Mr. scott.
▶ 7:03:07Chair Graham: Mr. merkley. Mrs. murray. Mr. sanders. Mr. whitehouse. Mr. warner. Mr. kaine. Mr. van hollen. Mr. lujan. >> aye by proxy. >> Mr. chairman.
▶ 7:03:34Chair Graham: No. >> Mr. chairman, the yeas are seven, the nays are 10. >> my amendment establishes a deficit new stroll fund to ensure that a president can unilaterally withhold funds -- and the empowerment and control act of 1974.
▶ 7:03:59Chair Graham: This is not a partisan issue, it's about upholding our laws and congress's constitutional authority over federal spending. The constitution grants congress, not the president the power of the purse. As I emphasize members of both sides must know that a deal is a deal when we make one, so I urge my colleagues to support this.
▶ 7:04:19Chair Graham: And we will stand by what we said before. Call the roll, please. >> Mr. grassley. Mr. crapo. Mr. johnson. >> no. >> Mr. cornyn. Mr. lee. >> no. >> Mr. kennedy. Mr. marino. Mr. scott. Mr. merkley. >> aye. >> Mr. wyden.
▶ 7:04:53Chair Graham: Mr. sanders. Mr. whitehouse. Mr. warner. Mr. kaine. >> aye. >> Mr. van hollen. Mr. lujan. Mr. padilla. Mr. chairman.
▶ 7:05:10Chair Graham: No. >> Mr. chairman, the yeas are seven, the nays are 10. >> Mr. chairman, are you talking widen number three?
▶ 7:05:25Chair Graham: It says two.
▶ 7:05:32Sen. Wyden: Colleagues, this basically takes what my finance committee republican colleagues have said to the course of the day, which is they didn't want tax breaks for the people at the top, the billionaires, the very wealthy and the like. And as soon as I heard him say that, I said, that's got some potential. That something we ought to be able to find some common ground around.
▶ 7:05:56Sen. Wyden: So what I have done is essentially place the thoughts of my finance committee republicans over the course of the day into this amendment and it would ensure that we protect the middle class and protect the middle class from tariffs as well. This is all about whether we can find some common ground in the way the senate finance committee used to do it and it builds on what I've heard my senate finance committee republican colleagues say in the course of the day. Thank you.
▶ 7:06:22Chair Graham: Thank you, I determined the amendment threatens the privilege of the budget resolution and therefore relit out of order.
▶ 7:06:31Sen. Wyden: I'd like an appeal.
▶ 7:06:33Chair Graham: By the ruling of the chair, you want a roll call vote? Call the roll. >> Mr. grassley. Mr. crapo. Mr. johnson. Mr. marshall. Mr. cornyn. Mr. lee. Mr. kennedy. Mr. ricketts. >> aye. >> Mr. marino. Mr. scott. Mr. merkley. >> no.
▶ 7:07:03Chair Graham: >> >> >> Mrs. murray. No. >> Mr. sanders. Mr. whitehouse. Mr. warner. Mr. kaine. Mr. van hollen. Mr. lujan. Mr. padilla. Mr. chairman.
▶ 7:07:23Chair Graham: Aye. >> Mr. chairman, the nays are 10, the yeas are seven.
▶ 7:07:35Chair Graham: Thank you. Sanders number three.
▶ 7:07:41Sen. Sanders: This amendment establishes a fund that acknowledges the global crisis of climate changes in existential threat facing the plan in which is driven by the burning of fossil fuels and that addressing this existential threat requires a substantial reduction of carbon emissions.
▶ 7:07:58Chair Graham: Thank you. We will stand by what senator lee said on our side. The clerk will call the roll. >> Mr. grassley. Mr. crapo. Mr. johnson. >> no. >> Mr. marshall. Mr. cornyn. Mr. lee. Mr. kennedy. >> no. >> Mr. ricketts. >> no. >> Mr. scott. Mr. merkley. >> aye.
▶ 7:08:31Chair Graham: >> Mrs. murray. Mr. wyden. Mr. sanders. Mr. whitehouse. >> aye, >> aye. >> Mr. kaine. Mr. van hollen. Mr. lujan. >> aye by proxy. >> Mr. padilla. Mr. chairman.
▶ 7:08:54Chair Graham: No. >> Mr. chairman, the ayes are eight, the nays are 11. >> more storms, more drought and worst drought, we're seeing worse hail and for those of us in coastal states, we are seeing sea level rise, this is causing homeowners rates to go up, homeowners insurance nonrenewal's to go up, and in states like florida and in counties in other states, it has reached true crisis levels with
▶ 7:09:27Chair Graham: 1000% increases, and this would be -- a response to that I would urge a yes vote on this repeal of the epw instruction and the change in the finance instruction to raise revenue.
▶ 7:09:43Chair Graham: Thank you. We will stand by what we said before. Please call the roll. >> Mr. grassley. Mr. crapo. Mr. johnson. >> no. >> Mr. marshall. Mr. cornyn. Mr. lee. >> no. >> Mr. ricketts. Mr. marino. Esther scott. Mr. merkley. Mrs. murray.
▶ 7:10:13Chair Graham: Mr. wyden. >> yes. >> Mr. sanders. >> yes. >> Mr. whitehouse. Mr. warner. Mr. kaine. Mr. van hollen. Mr. lujan. >> aye by proxy. >> Mr. padilla. Mr. chairman.
▶ 7:10:37Chair Graham: No. >> Mr. chairman, on this boat, the ya the yeas are eight, the nays or 11.
▶ 7:10:51Chair Graham: Came three.
▶ 7:10:54Sen. Kaine: It would protect the fix of the family glitch under the affordable care sure 5 million family members who have been able to get premium tax credits under the aca are protected going forward and would stop any cuts there.
▶ 7:11:10Chair Graham: We will stand by what senator crapo said. The clerk will call -- wait a minute. Sorry. I determined the amendment threatens the privilege of the budget resolution. Never mind, you are ok. It means I'm going to vote no. Clark, call the roll. [laughter] >> Mr. grassley. Mr. crapo. Mr. johnson. Mr. marshall.
▶ 7:11:40Chair Graham: Mr. cornyn. Mr. lee. Mr. kennedy. Mr. ricketts. >> no. >> Mr. marino. Mr. scott. Mr. merkley. >> aye. >> Mrs. murray. Mr. wyden. Mr. sanders. Mr. whitehouse. Mr. warner. Mr. kain Mr. van hollen. Mr. lujan. Mr. padilla.
▶ 7:12:12Chair Graham: Mr. chairman.
▶ 7:12:13Chair Graham: No. >> Mr. chairman, on this boat, the yeas are eight and thenays are 11.
▶ 7:12:23Chair Graham: Van hollen six.
▶ 7:12:27Senator Van Hollen: This creates appointed -- point of order getting rid of the negotiating authority of medicare to reduce the price of prescription drugs for seniors on medicare. I urge its adoption.
▶ 7:12:39Chair Graham: I've determined the amendment threatens the privilege of the budget resolution show therefore I relit out of order.
▶ 7:12:51Sen. Van Hollen: I will appeal.
▶ 7:12:53Chair Graham: The chair -- the clerk will call the roll. >> Mr. grassley. Mr. crapo. Mr. marshall. Mr. cornyn, Mr. lee. Mr. kennedy. Mr. ricketts. Mr. marino. Mr. scott. Mr. merkley. Mrs. murray. Mr. wyden. >> no. >> Mr. sanders. Mr. whitehouse.
▶ 7:13:24Chair Graham: Mr. warner. Mr. kaine. Mr. van hollen. Mr. lujan. >> no bob proxy. >> Mr. padilla. Mr. chairman. Mr. chairman, on this boat, the yeas or 11, the nays are eight.
▶ 7:13:47Chair Graham: Lujan 41.
▶ 7:13:51Sen. Lujan: A point of order, reducing medicare or medicaid benefits for middle-class working americans. There are dangerous cuts to programs that she would lead to not just cuts but loss of access to care and exacerbate the workforce shortage in the health care sector. I urge your support for this amendment.
▶ 7:14:16Chair Graham: I've determined the amendment threatens a privilege of the budget resolution, therefore a rule it out of order. I moved to table the appeal. The motion is non-debatable, the questions on the motion to table the appeal c1 the clerk will call the roll. >> Mr. grassley. Mr. crapo. Mr. johnson. Mr. marshall. Mr. cornyn. Mr. lee. Mr. kennedy.
▶ 7:14:47Chair Graham: Mr. ricketts. Mr. marino. Mr. scott. Mr. merkley. Mrs. murray. Mr. wyden. Mr. sanders. Mr. warner -- sorry, Mr. whitehouse. Mr. warner. Mr. kaine. Mr. van hollen. Mr. lujan. >> aye by proxy. >> Mr. padilla. Mr. chairman.
▶ 7:15:10Chair Graham: Aye. >> Mr. chairman, on this vote the a's are 11, -- >> this would create a deficit neutral reserve fund related to energy dominance and a dependence for the united states by continuing investments in renewable energy development as part of our all of the above energy approach, including solar, wind, and hydrogen.
▶ 7:15:44Chair Graham: I want to underscore the language in this amendment says including but not limited to, so we are not excluding some of the energy sources that you are so fond of. All of the above means exactly that, all of the above. By doing so, we increase our energy independence, our energy dominance, which you are also fond of saying. I urge your support for this amendment.
▶ 7:16:08Chair Graham: Senator lee did a great job of explaining all of the above. The clerk will call the roll. >> Mr. grassley. Mr. crapo. Mr. johnson. Mr. marshall. Mr. cornyn. Mr. lee. Mr. kennedy. >> no. >> Mr. ricketts. >> no. Mr. morano. >> no. >> Mr. scott. >> no. >> Mr. merkley. >> aye. >> Mrs. murray.
▶ 7:16:43Chair Graham: >> Mr. wyden. Mr. sanders. Mr. whitehouse. Mr. warner. Esther kane. Mr. van hollen. Mr. lujan. >> aye by proxy. >> Mr. padilla. Aye. Mr. chairman.
▶ 7:17:09Chair Graham: No. It is easy to get confused. >> the ayes are 7, the nays are 12.
▶ 7:17:21Chair Graham: Merkley nine.
▶ 7:17:23Senator Merkley: This is about supporting an effort to make sure that we are not increasing the cost to americans and strengthening the chinese simultaneously by financing and doing subsidies for the export of liquefied natural gas to china. We are already exporting to them. We are making their energy prices lower, making and pay lower for the gas that heats their homes. That is wrong on both fronts.
▶ 7:17:53Chair Graham: The clerk will call the roll. >> >> Mr. grassley. Mr. crapo. Mr. johnson. >> no. >> Mr. marshall. Mr. cornyn. Mr. lee. Mr. kennedy. >> no. >> Mr. ricketts. >> no. Mr. moreno. >> no. >> Mr. scott. >> no. >> Mr. merkley. >> aye. >> Mrs. murray. >> aye. >> Mr. wyden. >> aye. >> Mr. sanders. >> aye. Mr. whitehouse. Mr. warner.
▶ 7:18:28Chair Graham: Mr. kane. Mr. van hollen. Mr. lujan. >> aye by proxy. >> Mr. padilla. Mr. chairman.
▶ 7:18:35Chair Graham: No. >> >> the yays are 8, the nays are 11.
▶ 7:18:47Sen. Merkley: It wasn't as the trip administration was instituting a policy to cut funding that supports biomedical petitions across the country, capping rates at 15% for funded grants. That amounts to a massive funding cut to life-saving research for cancer and a lot more. It is also a clear violation of our annual appropriation bills, which have included unexpressive prohibition on nih implementing a policy exactly like that since fiscal year 2018.
▶ 7:19:19Sen. Merkley: The amendment is simple. It reinforces congress's support for lifesaving biomedical research. No one spoke against me. I am happy to take it on a yes vote.
▶ 7:19:27Chair Graham: I will speak against it. I don't mind capping expenses. That is more money to help people who are sick. The clerk will call the roll. >> were you speaking against it?
▶ 7:19:40Chair Graham: Yeah, unless everybody wants to vote for it. >> Mr. grassley. >> no. >> Mr. crapo. Mr. johnson. >> no. >> Mr. marshall. Mr. cornyn. Mr. lee. Mr. kennedy. >> no. >> Mr. ricketts. >> no. Mr. moreno. >> no.
▶ 7:20:13Chair Graham: >> Mr. scott. >> no. >> Mr. merkley. >> aye. >> Mrs. murray. >> aye. >> Mr. wyden. >> aye. >> Mr. sanders.
▶ 7:20:19Sen. Sanders: Yes. Mr. whitehouse. Mr. warner. Mr. kane.
▶ 7:20:26Sen. Kaine: Aye. >> Mr. van hollen. Mr. lujan. Mr. padilla.
▶ 7:20:36Sen. Padilla: Aye. > Mr. marshall.
▶ 7:20:41Sen. Marshall: No. Mr. chairman.
▶ 7:20:43Chair Graham: No. >> the yays are nine, the nays are 11.
▶ 7:20:50Chair Graham: Wyden number three.
▶ 7:20:57Senator Wyden: This protects retirement benefits using the same words donald trump has used with respect to social security, medicare, and medicaid. I hope my colleagues on both sides of the aisle will say, heaven forbid, this is another bipartisan opportunity, using the words of donald trump. I yelled back. -- yield back.
▶ 7:21:15Chair Graham: Apparently the words of donald trump threatened the budget resolution, and therefore I relate out of order.
▶ 7:21:24Sen. Wyden: Eye appeal.
▶ 7:21:24Chair Graham: He appeals. I moved to table. The clerk will call the roll. >> Mr. grassley. Mr. crapo. Mr. johnson. >> no. -- aye. >> Mr. marshall. Mr. cornyn. Mr. lee. Mr. kennedy.
▶ 7:21:38Sen. Kennedy: Aye. >> Mr. ricketts. Aye. Mr. moreno. Mr. scott. Mr. merkley. Mrs. murray. Mr. wyden. Mr. sanders. Mr. whitehouse. Mr. warner. Mr. kane. Mr. van hollen. Mr. lujan. >> no by proxy.
▶ 7:22:11Sen. Kennedy: >> Mr. padilla.
▶ 7:22:12Sen. Padilla: No. Mr. chairman.
▶ 7:22:14Chair Graham: Aye. >> the yays are 11, the nays are 9. >> I would like unanimous consent that I am voting aye on -- I further asked unanimous consent that I be recorded as voting no on the motion to table amendments wyden 2, van hollen 6, lujan 41.
▶ 7:22:46Chair Graham: >> I asked unanimous consent that I be recorded in the a affirmative on --
▶ 7:22:53Chair Graham: Without objection. Warner 11. Who passes? Kaine 5.
▶ 7:23:07Sen. Kaine: Kaine 5 is the point of order to cuts for loan forgiveness that benefit teachers, firefighters, and many members of our own staffs.
▶ 7:23:16Chair Graham: I have determined the mms threats the privilege of the budget resolution, therefore il relate out of order. The clerk will call the roll. >> Mr. grassley. Mr. crapo. Mr. johnson. Mr. marshall. Mr. cornyn. Mr. lee. Mr. kennedy.
▶ 7:23:38Sen. Kennedy: Aye. >> Mr. ricketts.
▶ 7:23:40Sen. Ricketts: Aye. >> Mr. moreno. Mr. scott. Mr. merkley. Mrs. murray. Mr. wyden.
▶ 7:23:50Sen. Wyden: No. >> Mr. sanders.
▶ 7:23:55Sen. Sanders: No. >> Mr. whitehouse. Mr. warner. Mr. kane.
▶ 7:23:59Sen. Kaine: No. >> Mr. van hollen. Mr. lujan. >> no by proxy. >> Mr. padilla.
▶ 7:24:05Sen. Padilla: No. Mr. chairman.
▶ 7:24:07Chair Graham: Aye. >> the yays are 11, the nays are 9.
▶ 7:24:13Chair Graham: Van hollen 3. I'm sorry? >> isaac I made a mistake when I passed by. I think we were sadly going to vote on my warner 11. -- simply going to vote on my warner 11.
▶ 7:24:29Chair Graham: You want to vote on it now? We will go back to you. >> my amendment simply looked at making sure we protect members of the intel from retaliatory firings. Higher to its adoption. -- I over to its adoption.
▶ 7:24:44Chair Graham: Please -- I urge its adoption.
▶ 7:24:48Chair Graham: We stand by what we said. We will call the roll. >> Mr. grassley. Mr. crapo. Mr. johnson. Mr. marshall. Mr. cornyn. Mr. lee. Mr. kennedy. Mr. ricketts. Mr. moreno. Seven moreno no. >> Mr. scott. Mr. merkley. Mrs. murray. Mr. wyden.
▶ 7:25:06Sen. Wyden: Aye. >> Mr. sanders. Mr. whitehouse. Mr. warner. Mr. kaine. Aye. Mr. van hollen. >> aye. Mr. lujan. >> yes by proxy. >> Mr. padilla. Mr. chairman.
▶ 7:25:27Chair Graham: Aye. No, I'm sorry, no. I'm sorry. Lost script. No. >> the yays are 9, the nays are 11.
▶ 7:25:35Chair Graham: Thank you, now back to van hollen number 3.
▶ 7:25:41Sen. Van Hollen: This is the amendment that would create a point of order against any proposes to cut funding for the national school lunch program or the school breakfast program. I urge its adoption.
▶ 7:25:53Chair Graham: We will stand by what we said. The courts will call the role. Wait a minute. I apologize. I'm sorry, I apologize. Madame chairman, the admin threatens the privilege of the budget resolution, therefore we will rule it out of order. You want to appeal? I'm sorry about that. I moved to table the appeal. It is not debatable. Please call the roll. >> Mr. grassley. Mr. crapo. Mr. johnson.
▶ 7:26:24Chair Graham: Mr. marshall. Mr. cornyn.
▶ 7:26:27Sen. Cornyn: Aye. >> Mr. lee. Mr. kennedy. Mr. ricketts. Mr. moreno. Mr. scott. Mr. merkley. Mrs. murray. Mr. wyden. Mr. sanders. Mr. whitehouse. Mr. warner. Mr. kaine. Mr. van hollen. >> no. >> Mr. lujan.
▶ 7:26:59Sen. Cornyn: Mr. padilla. Sorry, I forgot, Mr. lujan.
▶ 7:27:03Chair Graham: Do you want to say by proxy? >> no by proxy. Mr. chairman.
▶ 7:27:10Chair Graham: Aye. >> the yays are 11, the nays are 9.
▶ 7:27:17Chair Graham: Pedia number six.
▶ 7:27:20Sen. Padilla: I would like to be recorded as an aye vote on murray number 5 in 6, and the wyden commitment 2, and sanders 3, aye.
▶ 7:27:39Sen. Padilla: This amendment would create a deficit neutral reserve funds related to protecting communities from fentanyl by prohibiting the divergent of law enforcement resources away from fentanyl related investigations and prosecutions.
▶ 7:27:55Sen. Padilla: If we agree, we all said we have, that fentanyl is a big problem in america, let's protect the very programs and resources that congress has authorized and has appropriated funding for to keep it from getting diverted for other purposes by voting to support this amendment.
▶ 7:28:13Chair Graham: I think senator lee made a good argument. The clerk will call the roll. >> Mr. grassley. Mr. crapo.
▶ 7:28:20Sen. Crapo: No. >> Mr. johnson. Mr. marshall.
▶ 7:28:25Sen. Marshall: No. >> Mr. cornyn.
▶ 7:28:29Sen. Cornyn: No. >> Mr. lee. Mr. kennedy. Mr. ricketts. Mr. moreno. Mr. scott. Mr. merkley. Mrs. murray. >> aye. >> Mr. wyden. Aye. Mr. sanders. >> aye. >> Mr. whitehouse. Mr. warner. Mr. kaine. Mr. van hollen. >> no. >> Mr. lujan.
▶ 7:29:00Sen. Cornyn: >> a1 I.e. -- aye by proxy. >> Mr. padilla. Mr. chairman.
▶ 7:29:09Chair Graham: No. Mr. warner, I believe we skipped over one of your amendments. Would you like to do that now?
▶ 7:29:16Sen. Burr: Yes. Warner 1 is to put in place and make sure that the president uses to take care clause to make sure that he is enforcing congressional actions that have been mandated by law.
▶ 7:29:31Chair Graham: I have determined the amendment threatens the privilege of the budget resolution, therefore I will will it out of order yet I've moved to table -- rule eight out of order. I move to table. The clerk will call the roll. >> Mr. grassley. Mr. crapo. Mr. johnson. Mr. marshall. Mr. cornyn. Mr. lee. Mr. kennedy. Mr. ricketts.
▶ 7:29:58Sen. Ricketts: Aye. >> Mr. moreno. Mr. scott. Mr. merkley.
▶ 7:30:07Sen. Merkley: No. >> Ms. murray. >> no. >> Mr. wyden. Mr. sanders.
▶ 7:30:14Sen. Sanders: No. >> Mr. whitehouse. Mr. warner.
▶ 7:30:20Sen. Warner: No. >> Mr. kaine. Mr. van hollen. >> Mr. lujan. >> no by proxy. >> Mr. padilla. Mr. chairman.
▶ 7:30:32Chair Graham: Aye. >> the yays are 11, the nays are 9.
▶ 7:30:39Chair Graham: Thank you, that's all the votes. Senator cornyn, would you like to be recognized to make a request? No? Ok.
▶ 7:30:53Chair Graham: Without objection. All right. Thank you all. We did pretty good. It was a lot of amendments -- that was a lot of amendments. Round 4, merkley number 11.
▶ 7:31:11Sen. Merkley: In 2018, president trump put forward a powerful idea, that americans should not put forth more for the united states than any other developed country, and we should get the best price because we invest more in the r&d for these drugs for our taxpayer dollars than any other nation on earth, so the best price, not the worst. He raised this idea again in july of 2020 -- august of 2020.
▶ 7:31:41Sen. Merkley: He had an executive order and says I just signed an executive order to lower the drug rises -- the drug prices. My most favorite nation order will ensure the country gives the same low price that big pharma gives other countries. The days of global free writing at america's expense are over. That is the way it should be.
▶ 7:32:02Sen. Merkley: And when president trump was campaigning for his reelection in 2024, and he was campaigning in june 2023, I released a campaign video and a statement indicating that he would again bring this up. He said on day one, president trump will sign an executive order to end global free loading on consumers once and for all. This deficit neutral reserve fund finds an opportunity for considerable legislation that would lower the cost for americans to that paid by other developed nations.
▶ 7:32:32Sen. Merkley: The disparities are shocking. Insulin that costs $99 here is $12 in canada. Hepatitis c medicine that is $30,000 here is $14,000 in switzerland. And it goes on. The obesity drugs that are about a thousand dollars here or $87 in australia. We are getting ripped off. President trump knew it. He campaigned on it.
▶ 7:33:03Sen. Merkley: Let's provide an avenue for considering the opportunity so that americans do not pay more for drugs than those sentences of other developed nations.
▶ 7:33:14Chair Graham: Senator crapo.
▶ 7:33:18Sen. Crapo: Thank, Mr. chairman. I think we'll need to agree we need to address the cost of trips and drugs, particularly internationally. Once again, the scope of the instruction in this budget reconciliation process is for one specific item. We will get into the discussion of how we shall deal with many of the other parts of our health care system in the appropriate reconciliation vehicle.
▶ 7:33:47Sen. Graham: You make a good point. Should be looked at as an unfair trade practice, but that is a debate for another day. Murray 14.
▶ 7:33:58Sen. Murray: Thank you. As we saw in alabama last year, the nonstop attacks on reproductive rights have put ivf in jeopardy and our service members who serve all of us dreams of building a family at risk. Now I have worked for a long time to pass legislation called the veteran families health services act that would make sure that people who serve our nation by bravely putting on a uniform can access the services they need to build their families.
▶ 7:34:29Sen. Murray: So often, the reason they do not start their families is because of the very injuries they endured because of their sacrifice for our country. Today I am asking for a vote on an amendment that would provide additional funding for those services so that service members and veterans and their spouses and partners can build their families. Military families give a lot to our country. It is our responsibility to make sure that they have access to the healthcare services they need, including ivf.
▶ 7:34:58Sen. Murray: Unfortunately, many women have had their dreams shattered because republicans believe a frozen embryo kept in storage in an ivf clinic is the same and should have the exact same rights as a living, breathing human. Republicans say they care about ivf and then cosponsor legislation that enshrines fetal personhood into law, which makes ivf unavailable. You cannot have both.
▶ 7:35:22Sen. Murray: To my colleagues who are profamily and pro-ivf and claimed to be for our service members and on behalf, since I am the only woman member on this committee, I would ask that you all support this amendment, and I will see which guy wants to oppose me.
▶ 7:35:33Chair Graham: Thank you. I think president trump has been clear about supporting ivf. I think that sort of has us all together. We want the military to be more capable on the battlefield. This is not social policy here. We are here to secure the border where people are getting violently attacked because of illegal immigrants being let loose because of violent dead space. With all due respect, I oppose this.
▶ 7:36:08Chair Graham: >> I just want to respond, this is about people who serve our country and because of the injury they receive in service to all of us come home and are unable to have children. This just assures our men and women who serve our country that they will have access to ivf, and I again really asked all of you to support it.
▶ 7:36:23Chair Graham: With all due respect, we are talking about ivf, which I think we do have common ground, that we do believe that -- >> but you are denying it if you oppose it. >> no, what we are doing is a reconciliation bill about a border that has been absolutely decimated, about people who are dying because we let illegal immigrants out of custody. We did not have been space.
▶ 7:36:52Chair Graham: We are talking about hiring more ice agents so we can get these people out of the country. We are talking about going after gang members and spending $150 billion to upgrade the ability of the military to defend us, and at the most dangerous time I can remember, so that is what this whole exercise is about. I will oppose your amendment. >> I would just say $150 billion extra for defense means that we will have more men and women in service to our country. They deserve our support.
▶ 7:37:21Chair Graham: Thank you. I oppose your amendment. Senator wyden 14.
▶ 7:37:29Sen. Wyden: Just a quick word before I get into my amendment. I think what senator murray has said is it's ordinarily important. It is only one woman on this committee. It is time to make sensible legislation to reflect the priorities of women. Callings, there was more news coming in as of the last couple of hours from house republicans relevant to our work, in particular, folks in the house and close to the leadership are saying they need more dollars to pay for the trump tax cuts.
▶ 7:38:00Sen. Wyden: I have been trying all day to keep medicaid from getting squeezed for those dollars, but senate republicans voted earlier in the day specifically to say that medicaid is staying on the chopping block. We should all agree on something that will be philosophically low hanging fruit.
▶ 7:38:23Sen. Wyden: That is protecting american competitiveness against communist china, and doing so in a way that gets good paying jobs across the country, and we can do that with the clean energy tax credits. You can protect them as we go forward in these debates with this amendment of mine, and I hope my colleagues will do it, because I would like to close by saying a major portion of those jobs are in red states and in red communities across the country. Thank you, Mr. chairman.
▶ 7:38:51Chair Graham: Senator ricketts.
▶ 7:38:54Sen. Ricketts: Thank you. As we have talked about, this reconciliation bill is about protecting our border and in using our defense -- increasing our defense. That is the way we deter and win against china. Last year, more than 24,000 chinese nationals were encountered illegally while caressing the southern border. We would be naive to think there were not saboteurs and spies among the people coming across from china. National security applications of this are unprecedented.
▶ 7:39:26Sen. Ricketts: -- implications of this are unprecedented. They recently breached a military base in california and refused to leave. A strong national defense would also deter china. The biden administration allowed chinese companies to financially benefit from our tax dollars in the name of climate change. I urge my colleagues to reject this. >> Mr. chairman?
▶ 7:39:44Chair Graham: Go ahead.
▶ 7:39:48Sen. Wyden: All through the day we have heard one argument after another for putting off action, protecting seniors, protecting those who are vulnerable with medicaid. Now we are hearing people say let's put off the effort to protect american jobs depended on these kind of
▶ 7:40:18Sen. Wyden: Priorities we have for them to hear that coming after health care and jobs is going to happen, but it is just going to happen a few months from now. That is the message being sent and I think it is the wrong one.
▶ 7:40:27Chair Graham: Thank you. >> not one democrat approached me about any of these amendments. If these amendment's were so important, you would think one democrat could approach me and say this is coming your way if you want to think about it, but not one. Maybe they went to all my colleagues, but nobody came to
▶ 7:40:45Me Chair Graham: .
▶ 7:40:46Sen. Wyden: , the final word.
▶ 7:40:47Sen. Wyden: I just want to be collegiate and mention I would love to work with my colleague. I have back to proposal by the national association of police. Maybe that will be the beginning of working together.
▶ 7:41:04Chair Graham: Good luck there. I hope so. Senator sanders, number 6.
▶ 7:41:09Senator Sanders: --
▶ 7:41:11Chair Graham: Ok, senator whitehouse, number 11, senator warner number 10, senator kaine number 7. Always ready.
▶ 7:41:22Sen. Kaine: It would create a point of order against reconciliation legislation that would provide funding to agencies who reclassify their federal workers into new schedules that have not been created by congress. This picks up on the effort by president trump to create a schedule f in his first demonstration.
▶ 7:41:43Sen. Kaine: This administration he is calling schedule policy career pc, but encouraging agencies to reclassify employees from civil servants to political appointees whose measurement is their loyalty to the boss. We don't want to meet inspectors being hired based on political loyalty. -- we don't want meat inspectors being hired based on political loyalty. We don't want intelligence analysts. We don't want a spoil system that goes back to the way it was before the panel to -1883.
▶ 7:42:15Sen. Kaine: Senator van hollen did a great job explaining the history to us a couple weeks back I'm the pendleton act and the professional civil service is created after the assassination of president garfield. He was assassinated by somebody who thought I campaigned for, I was entitled to a job, and when he did not get it, he assassinated the president, and that was the beginning of the professional civil service.
▶ 7:42:38Sen. Kaine: This would be a bad precedent to create, and I remind my colleagues of something you already know, which as you all are feeling great being in the majority now. There will be another democratic president. There will be democratic majorities of houses of congress. It may be in the distant future, as I see colleagues laughing, but it will happen. If we go down the path of turning a political civil service into a civilized one, the nation is going to suffer.
▶ 7:43:05Chair Graham: This amendment would create a point of order against legislation creating funding for any agency that has been reclassified, reclassified federal employees who would hamstring president trump's efforts to reform the civil service. Creation of such point of order is outside the jurisdiction of the budget committee and would endanger the privilege of the buzz it -- the budget resolution adopted.
▶ 7:43:28Chair Graham: It will jeopardize the budget resolution, and I say we oppose it. Ok, let's see. Van hollen 1. Oh, yeah. Go ahead. I'm sorry. Do you want to table it? I want to table it. Did you ask for the appeal?
▶ 7:43:54Sen. Van Hollen: I thought we were saving this for the voting, yes. We are not voting, right?
▶ 7:43:58Chair Graham: You are right and we were wrong.
▶ 7:44:03Sen. Van Hollen: I will appeal your outrageous ruling. [laughter]
▶ 7:44:08Chair Graham: In a long day. Just ignore the votes. Van hollen 1? Idea 4?
▶ 7:44:16Sen. Padilla: Thank you, Mr. chairman. Padilla amendment number four would create a reserve fund related to protecting religious freedom by prohibiting the conduct of immigration enforcement operations at placement of worship -- places of worship, including churches and spaces rented for religious purposes. In the united states, we have long recognized the sanctity of places of worship.
▶ 7:44:43Sen. Padilla: It is a key tenet of this country's founding principles of religious freedom. Something I know is particularly important to many of my colleagues on the other side of the dais. It should shock us all that the trump administration is now giving ice what is essentially free reign to barge into churches and take away their prisoners, and it has been made clear we are talking about enforcement actions not just targeting violent criminals, but we are talking about actions
▶ 7:45:19Sen. Padilla: Against people who have come to the united states legally and have no criminal record. Prior to the recent policy changes, and gait -- immigration agents have needed special authorization to conduct operations in houses of worship. By removing this key protection, the president has introduced fear into these places of worship, places of prayer, solace, and safety.
▶ 7:45:48Sen. Padilla: There is no decreased attendance in convert -- there is now decreased attendance in convocations. People are afraid to pray because of president trump's actions. People cannot worship freely while living in fear. They have no doubt that if it were a democratic president and stealing feel -- instilling fear in religious congregations, my colleagues would be furious. I hope you do not sit passively by as president trump travels the values long claimed to be held dear.
▶ 7:46:19Sen. Padilla: Please stand up for religious freedom in this entity of our places of worship by supporting this amendment.
▶ 7:46:25Chair Graham: Senator grassley. I'm sorry, senator kennedy.
▶ 7:46:33Sen. Kennedy: There you go, you got it right. With respect to my friend senator padilla, and he is my friend, I do not think -- just a personal opinion, anybody in america is afraid to pray because of president trump I think that is a bridge too far.
▶ 7:47:02Sen. Kennedy: I also think that just because you are committing a crime in a church you should get a pass -- don't think that just because you are committing a crime in a church you should get a pass.
▶ 7:47:09Chair Graham: Thank you very much. Van hollen number one.
▶ 7:47:21Sen. Van Hollen: Thank you, Mr. chairman. This relates to make and provide resources for inspector general's in federal agencies. As all of you know, inspector general's are the watchdogs in these agencies. Their charge is to look out for waste, fraud, and abuse.
▶ 7:47:45Sen. Van Hollen: It is clearly a huge disconnect for the president to say he wants elon musk and the boys to come in and find savings and more government efficiency when you are getting rid of the inspector generals. Fire 16 inspector generals.
▶ 7:48:07Sen. Van Hollen: I know senator grassley has done yeoman's work over the years in protecting inspector generals, because we do rely on them to be important eyes and ears on behalf of the american public and make sure that these taxpayer funds are being spent wisely. When you clear out the inspector generals, it sends a terrible message that you are opening the door to more wasteful spending and more abuse. It is not a recipe for efficiency, it is a recipe for corruption.
▶ 7:48:38Sen. Van Hollen: I would urge my colleagues to support this amendment and making sure we provide funding for those inspector generals.
▶ 7:48:46Chair Graham: Senator grassley.
▶ 7:48:50Sen. Grassley: This amendment is not needed because the 1979 act requires ig's to use their funding to ensure their parent agency is acting in accordance with the laws and regulations that are applicable to any particular program. The reason I say it is unnecessary as aiji's are writing -- already have the authority and money to do what it says.
▶ 7:49:17Sen. Grassley: If they don't have -- or if they are not doing their work, congress must investigate. I rely on ig's for a lot of my help in congressional oversight.
▶ 7:49:35Sen. Grassley: I probably have also participated in, at my suggestion, that throughout may be a couple decades, I have had 4, 5 aiji's fired because they were not -- ig's fired because they were not doing their job, and even before the ig was fired for dod, I said he should be fired.
▶ 7:50:05Sen. Grassley: And when I see corruption in usaid, it is proper to fire that person who was not doing his job. The only thing I do not like about the way we had this mass firing is the law that said congress should get notified 30 days ahead of time besides a firing, that the president has not abided by that law, but he surely has the right to fire. And under what the legal requirements are.
▶ 7:50:37Sen. Grassley: This legislation that is suggested by senator van hollen is not necessary.
▶ 7:50:41Chair Graham: -- >> with respect, Mr. chairman and colleagues, it was not one or two inspector generals that were fired by president trump. He fired 16 inspector generals indiscriminately, and I think it would be news to them to learn that they continue to have the authority to do their job since they just filed a lawsuit today to protest and deal with their illegal firing, and it was not
▶ 7:51:11Chair Graham: Illegal firing. As to the statements about usaid, I realize facts have become pretty quaint in this political environment, but I would encourage all my colleagues to look at the claims that have been made about a id. Look at the fact checkers. It is a mountain of disinformation, starting with this claim put forward by the spokesperson at the white house that we are spending $50 million on condoms in gaza. Absolutely false. Untrue.
▶ 7:51:42Chair Graham: It has been a massive amount of distortion. Inspector generals actually are there to try to protect the public interest at the public resources, and firing 16 of them indiscriminately is a recipe for corruption and has nothing to do with government officials. I think we should stand up for government efficiency, and I urge adoption of my amendment.
▶ 7:52:07Sen. Grassley: It is ironic that there is all this concern from democrats now about ig's fired democrats now about ig's fi -- ig's being fired. When I complained about the firing of ig's in the obama administration, I did not get any support from the democratic side on that issue.
▶ 7:52:24Chair Graham: Just to talk, senator van hollen, about -- I'm trying to work with my colleagues. We met today about their programs in usaid that we need to save because they make a lot of common sense. I hope we can find a way to do that. That I have been supportive of soft power for a long time.
▶ 7:52:47Chair Graham: But it has been hard to read about $46,700 to promote the expansion of atheism in nepal. If that is not true, tell us it is not true. One million dollars to promote french-speaking lgbtq groups in west and central africa. $4 million in cash handouts to migrants at the southern border.
▶ 7:53:16Chair Graham: Money for a drag show in ecuador. $4720 for a transgender opera in colombia. On and on and on. It has been hard. I have gone to bat. Foreign aid is very unpopular, but I think it is very necessary to get safe -- to keep cost safe. And all these programs under usaid, it took us backward.
▶ 7:53:48Chair Graham: I hope we can find a way to move forward, senator van hollen, reassuring the american people this will never happen again, and we may focus on programs that take common sense. -- make common sense.
▶ 7:54:03Sen. Van Hollen: May I briefly respond? As you have been an advocate for a strong, robust U.S. foreign policy and know that aid is an essential tool in our foreign and national security policy, you also probably know that as soon as elon musk went about wrecking aid, our adversaries celebrated. Putin's cronies we did out "good move" at elon. China is already moving in.
▶ 7:54:33Sen. Van Hollen: I am fine having a fact-based discussion, but I would urge my colleagues -- "washington post" ran a detailed fact-check on 23 of between four claims that have been made by elon musk and others. 23 of them have and found to be -- this is an ongoing effort to defend aid based on false statements.
▶ 7:55:03Sen. Van Hollen: I would hope that we would not allow that to happen. We should be proud of the work we do overseas. The ig's we have fired come around 16 of them, all of them, if any of them thinks it is a good idea to use taxpayer dollars to fire 16 90's, my amendment would say let's provide resources so that the ig's can do their work on behalf of the american people.
▶ 7:55:30Sen. Grassley: No administration of any dollar spent is long overdue, and it is perfectly legitimate, and of congress, with the power of the purse, was doing its job and doing it through zero-based budgeting, we would have a review of every program and know what was going on, so what the german just set about how some of this money is being spent would not be news
▶ 7:56:02Sen. Grassley: Because congress would have found out about it when we do our appropriation process.
▶ 7:56:16Chair Graham: Hosting an event at a book festival on gender identity and racial equality. That to me is not soft power. That is somebody's personal political preference interjected into the state department's -- the usaid budget. People in china and russia, people in south carolina are what I have to deal with. I can't go back and tell these folks that usaid is living up to what I wanted to do.
▶ 7:56:47Chair Graham: It is time to look at all these programs. There probably is some misinformation. I will join forces with my colleagues to make sure that things that make sense, maternal health care, things that really make sense -- we've got food in houston that is going -- we've already paid for it. I can go down a list. Elon musk said yesterday that some of it makes sense. That's right.
▶ 7:57:12Chair Graham: It's fine with that good stuff is and make sense -- let's find what that good stuff is and make sense with keeping it. This has been a giant step backward for those of us in the soft power business, and it might be a thing where we work together and say we are going to keep helping people who are starving. We are going to keep making sure ebola does not come here.
▶ 7:57:38Chair Graham: The office of disease infection, I want to keep it open, don't y'all? Ebola is breaking out in uganda. That is a 95% lethal rate. To the american people, we need to reform these programs, but some of this stuff keeps you safe. We do not want anybody with ebola getting on a plane and coming here. We want people who are suffering with ebola over there so it does not come here.
▶ 7:58:08Chair Graham: I won't speak anymore about that, but as you can tell, you struck a nerve with me. So who is next, senator -- who do we have next? >> we've got merkley --
▶ 7:58:25Chair Graham: Ok, merkley 14.
▶ 7:58:28Senator Merkley: Mr. chairman, our government has been rapidly expanding the use of official -- facial recognition as some -- at some 430 airports across the country. They have stated that their desire is to make it mandatory. When you combine this and extensive technology with a database, you now have a government vent on national surveillance and tracking of its citizens.
▶ 7:58:54Senator Merkley: We have seen with this has done in china. It has facilitated the enslavement of the uighurs. China has used this to oppress all the rights we hold dear, rights of assembly, of speech, of worship. We do not want to have an america where the big brother government is tracking everybody everywhere they go. That is why this deficit neutral reserve fund is important.
▶ 7:59:26Senator Merkley: Preserves the opportunity to consider legislation that prevents the government of the united states from establishing a national surveillance state.
▶ 7:59:32Chair Graham: Senator kennedy.
▶ 7:59:37Sen. Kennedy: Mr. chairman, my office will be moved to test -- bethest if I voted for this amendment.
▶ 7:59:51Chair Graham: We don't want that.
▶ 7:59:55Sen. Kennedy: But this amendment has merit. Every time we go through the line at the airport, every single time, tsa is taking your picture. They are collecting that biometric data. We don't know what they are doing with it. We know they say they are destroying all of it.
▶ 8:00:25Sen. Kennedy: Except the link you to something else. In my judgment, senator merkley is absolutely right. We have to address this subject. But because I like my office, at this moment, I am going to have to vote no.
▶ 8:00:48Chair Graham: I am hoping y'all can find a freestanding bill that maybe all of us could get behind.
▶ 8:00:56Sen. Kennedy: Jeff is right. It is a serious problem. We need to look at it.
▶ 8:00:59Chair Graham: Yeah. Senator, number five. >> may I follow up and say senator kennedy, senator marshall, and I, and others have been jumping in. If we don't want 20 years from now to have the government tracking us everywhere we go, it is something we have to address now. It is so fast, so inexpensive, so effective, and it has been so misleading.
▶ 8:01:28Chair Graham: We never told tsa to establish a facial recognition system. Back when we had an attack on the 20 hours, we said we could experiment with biometric information. Biometric information at the time was a fingerprint. That is not allow the government to track you at every stadium you walk into. This is a big deal if you believe in freedom. I look forward to working with everybody on both sides of the aisle in partnership with senator kennedy.
▶ 8:01:59Sen. Kennedy: I will just say it is really creepy and we really need to take a look at it.
▶ 8:02:02Chair Graham: All right. Marie number 5.
▶ 8:02:08Sen. Murray: Amendment number five requests the government accountability office to review, audit, and report back within 90 days on the so-called department of government efficiency so that we can all understand its role, authorities, and impact. Mr. chairman, your mark assumes $1 trillion in savings over the remaining seven to eight months in 2025. That is an astronomical amount of savings to achieve in a very short amount of time with absolutely no detail that has been provided to us.
▶ 8:02:39Sen. Murray: Those savings would appear largely to come from doge on the which is operating throughout the government without any authorization from congress, without any disclosure of people or processes or conflicts, and really with no accountability whatsoever. Whether you support some actions at joe g -- at doge or not, you should support accountability to the american public.
▶ 8:03:05Sen. Murray: Elon musk and doge has already tried to shut down usaid, the consumer protection financial -- the consumer financial protection bureau. And it is said elon musk is wanted at the pentagon next. Not doge or the impact it has.
▶ 8:03:30Sen. Murray: Let's be clear, no one voted to let an unelected billionaire decide what bills the federal government would or would not pay, or whether our elementary schools and hospitals get funding, yet the president is giving elon the keys to the treasury. And yet the lack of transparency into its people, processes, and potential conflicts should concern every single one of us.
▶ 8:03:52Sen. Murray: My hope is that for this amendment we can agree to some oversight of doge and as for congress of us to be as independent, nonpartisan watchdog to review doge and report back to us within 60 days. What are you scared of finding out?
▶ 8:04:14Sen. Murray: Past budget resolutions have similarly test the congressional budget office -- tasked they consider a budget office and the committee on taxation on a bipartisan basis to perform analysis or studies. This commitment is offered in the same spirit. I urge my colleagues to support this amendment.
▶ 8:04:31Chair Graham: Senator ricketts.
▶ 8:04:35Sen. Ricketts: Mr. chairman, if you use 2019 as a baseline, we spent $4.4 trillion. 2024, we spent $6.9 trillion. We are on track this year to go to $7.2 trillion. Stop at 2024, that is a 55% increase in five years. If that is normal, we have to get away from normal. We have to look at what we can do to freespending down to levels pre-pandemic.
▶ 8:05:04Sen. Ricketts: There are things that grow, but we've got to get a handle on our budget. It got to be looking at what we can do to rein in spending -- we've got to be looking at what we can do to rein in spending. Looking at opportunities to lower costs. That is what I did when I was governor of nebraska. Any senator can always request from the gao whatever they wanted anytime. We have the project of doing that on our own.
▶ 8:05:33Sen. Ricketts: This is about making sure we secure our border, keeping the american people safe. I urge my colleagues to reject the amendment. >> Mr. chairman. I am not saying that this amendment would say you can't do it. I'm just saying that we have a right to have transparency and to see what they are doing. That is our job, and I believe we should be following our job.
▶ 8:05:54Chair Graham: Thank you. Debate has expired. Senator wyden number 5.
▶ 8:06:03Senator Wyden: Thank you, Mr. chairman. For all of you who have a significant amount of federal ownership of the land in your state, one of the priorities that has just been dragooned, never moves, is the secure rural schools program. It is absolutely essential for services like law enforcement and roads and education.
▶ 8:06:32Senator Wyden: I am offering the cement meant to say in the next reconciliation bill, secure rural schools ought to be funded not with any increases, but in the average for the last few years. I would just say to colleagues that if the federal government owns much of your land, there has to be long-term solutions that empower these regions of the country.
▶ 8:07:00Senator Wyden: Right now, we need something that is almost existential, because my colleagues from the west and south and elsewhere know that if they cannot have law enforcement, they cannot have education, they cannot have rural life area height -- rural life. I offer that for that purpose, which is getting it stuck, move, and enacted into law, and I yield back.
▶ 8:07:24Chair Graham: Thank you, the amendment is not in order.
▶ 8:07:29Sen. Wyden: I asked for an appeal and I will call vote.
▶ 8:07:30Chair Graham: Ok. -- on a roll call vote.
▶ 8:07:34Chair Graham: Ok. Thank you. We will do that later. Guess what I was going to say. When the time comes. Sanders 2. Whitehouse 11. Kaine 2. Warner? I don't see warner? >> he was on the previous round. He came back.
▶ 8:08:00Chair Graham: Warner 10.
▶ 8:08:03Sen. Warner: You will be happy, chairman, this is my last amendment.
▶ 8:08:06Chair Graham: I have enjoyed it. But I am happy. [laughter]
▶ 8:08:11Sen. Warner: You may enjoy it so much, you will want to vote for it.
▶ 8:08:14Chair Graham: I know, but go ahead.
▶ 8:08:17Sen. Warner: This is so no state will have to find extra money to fill in case medicaid, because I know you would never do this, might be used as a piggy bank during this reconciliation. I am not going to go through all the facts that we know about medicaid and how important it is to kids, to seniors who are in long-term care, who are disabled . Very simply, Mr.
▶ 8:08:43Sen. Warner: Chairman, my amendment would prohibit any policies in the reconciliation bill if it would lead to people losing their medicaid coverage, or that would require states to send more for the current benefits they are serving. That is it. There are simple ways to cut medicaid without harming individuals or states. Cap me in. If not, I would you to put it all in writing.
▶ 8:09:07Chair Graham: Senator crapo. >> thank you, Mr. chairman. This is another amendment which is fatal to a budget reconciliation bill, I believe, and is subject to a point of order, but in addition, as I have set on so many amendments today, we be dealing with -- we will be dealing with the finance committee's jurisdiction in reconciliation beyond the nursing world in the next bill. We can talk about these issues at that time. >> Mr.
▶ 8:09:34Chair Graham: Chairman, does that mean you use Mr. crapo as your hammer?
▶ 8:09:39Chair Graham: You have broke the code. Absolutely. >> Mr. chairman, can I briefly respond?
▶ 8:09:46Chair Graham: Absolutely.
▶ 8:09:49Sen. Wyden: I said this to my colleagues, what that really means for working families who here we are not doing anything about health care or protecting their jobs and the like today, as they are being told as they listen to this debate, hey, I am just going to get hammered in two months instead of today.
▶ 8:10:07Sen. Wyden: I hope that before we are done with our work, we can actually show we are doing something that responds to these heartfelt health care issues, economics such as the last amendment I offered to make sure we protect the clean energy tax credits which have been a jobs engine in so many red communities, and not just go home and tell people you are going to get hammered in a couple months rather than tonight.
▶ 8:10:32Chair Graham: Would you want to say anything? You are good?
▶ 8:10:37Sen. Crapo: I would just say ditto, we are going to be dealing with this.
▶ 8:10:43Chair Graham: Senator kaine, number 10.
▶ 8:10:46Senator Kaine: Kaine 10 goes right at this bill, the 100 $50 billion to the defense department to make the country safer. Kaine 10 is really simple. I will read it to you. It shall not be in order in the senate to consider any bill, resolution amendment that would provide funding for united states armed forces to be deployed to gaza for the purposes of the united states asserting control over gaza.
▶ 8:11:17Senator Kaine: There is no circumstance under which U.S. taxpayer dollars should be used to relocate gazans from their homes. No U.S. taxpayer funds should be used or U.S. service members' lives put at risk for a U.S. military incursion into gaza. It would be a huge mistake for the united states to suddenly take this challenge upon its own shoulders, to amount a hearing to effort to displace 2 million people.
▶ 8:11:46Senator Kaine: The idea has been roundly rejected by our partners in the region. Egypt, lebanon, and jordan have rejected this. It would likely bar efforts or hopes of saudi arabia or other arab countries normalizing their relations with israel. Our troops would be sitting ducks in gaza for attacks from hamas, hezbollah, or any number of other radical terrorist organizations.
▶ 8:12:13Senator Kaine: If we are giving money to the defense to the tune of 150 billion dollars, let's not use it for this purpose that has been discussed so frequently by the president recently. When I heard the president raise the idea of the U.S. taking control of gaza, and even including the option of U.S. military involvement, I was reminded of the U.S. decision that was a catastrophic one in 1954.
▶ 8:12:40Senator Kaine: The french colonial project in indochina did not have anything to do with -- they lost a battle in 1954, and then for some reason, the united states decided we will take the problem off your hands. Gaza is a global problem. The U.S. has a role in solving that global problem. But for the U.S. to say we are now going to take over that problem and put U.S. troops at risk in gaza would be the height of foolishness. We should have learned the lesson.
▶ 8:13:10Senator Kaine: I would ask for my colleagues to support this point of order against using funds in such a dangerous way.
▶ 8:13:17Chair Graham: Senator moreno.
▶ 8:13:23Sen. Burr: Reino --
▶ 8:13:28Sen. Moreno: We will not debate this year. We will debate it out into the committee of jurisdiction. I will say it is ironic because the only president on my lifetime who has not put this country into a new conflict is donald j. Trump. Mr. chairman?
▶ 8:13:45Chair Graham: Sorry. While debate has expired.
▶ 8:13:53Sen. Kaine: I will withdraw my mmn on a similar issue if I can just say a word about supporting senator kaine's amendment.
▶ 8:13:59Chair Graham: You certainly can. >> I have a very similar amendment, and as senator kaine said, it is straightforward. When the president made those statements on national tv, he essentially put gasoline on an already raging fire in gaza and throughout the middle east.
▶ 8:14:20Chair Graham: It was grossly reckless and c1 it is immoral to suggest the united states will participate in forcibly transferring 2 million palestinians out of gaza. It is a gross violation of international humanitarian law. And as senator kaine said, it will destabilize the region, which is why the king of jordan was here yesterday, saying, don't do this. I'm not going to take palestinians.
▶ 8:14:49Chair Graham: I will take some children who need health care. It's why the egyptians said, no way. And it's why the saudi immediately rejected the idea. This is an opportunity for this committee to make a statement saying, we don't want any funds being used to support U.S. military action in pursuit of this really reckless, dangerous and immoral idea. Thank you, Mr. chairman.
▶ 8:15:24Chair Graham: >> Mr. chairman, are we going to run through another?
▶ 8:15:28Sen. Graham: We will keep going as long as you want to go. Senator padilla. You are up.
▶ 8:15:37Sen. Padilla: I call up amendment number one. This amendment would create a deficit neutral reserve fund relating to prohibiting the detention and deportation of individuals who are not a threat to public safety, including dreamers who have not been convicted of a felony. Congressional republicans and president trump have previously expressed support for protecting dreamers from deportation.
▶ 8:16:05Sen. Padilla: In fact, I would like to recognize and thank the chairman for his long-standing leadership on the bipartisan dream act, which would allow those who are brought to the united states when they were very young to earn lawful, permanent residence. Again, this law, they are not convicted of a felony or a threat to public safety.
▶ 8:16:32Sen. Padilla: A reminder, folks, to be eligible for daca in the first place, an individual cannot have been convicted of a felony offense, a significant misdemeanor offense, or multiple misdemeanor offenses, and cannot pose a threat to national security or public safety. Dreamers are americans in every way except one. Their immigration status.
▶ 8:16:56Sen. Padilla: They have grown to become teachers, nurses, small business owners in our communities. But they live each day in fear of deportation. While we continue to work to modernize our immigration system, congress must at the very least act now to give dreamers the stability they deserve.
▶ 8:17:24Sen. Padilla: Again, president trump and congressional republicans have claimed they are focused on detaining and deporting only violent criminals. And I agree. That should be the focus and top priority. But that is not what's happening on the ground. Instead, the administration is going after people who pose no threat to public safety and is stripping legal status from immigrants who came following the rules.
▶ 8:17:48Sen. Padilla: Like we saw with the president's recent ramification of temporary protected status for venezuelans. All I'm asking, colleagues,'s we recommit to the clear bipartisan belief that dreamers who have not been convicted of a felony, into pose no threat to public safety, should be safe from deportation. I urge all my colleagues who have long advocated for this to also support this amendment.
▶ 8:18:14Sen. Graham: Thank you. I appreciate your passion on the topic. I've tried to work with my democratic colleagues to find a way forward on immigration. We have similar amendments with lincoln riley. What we are trying to do, at least what I'm trying to do, is salvage one day, finding a solution after four years of complete disaster.
▶ 8:18:38Sen. Graham: I was told by everybody on the right that if you ever do immigration and they get in charge, they will not enforce the border no matter how you write it. That narrative, unfortunately, has come true more than I would ever like to believe it was. We have to change the narrative. I think president trump has talked about doing something with the daca population. Laken riley, we had a similar debate.
▶ 8:19:05Sen. Graham: To my colleagues on the side, I think now is the time to focus on getting criminals and people who have come here illegally out, bring some order to chaos, and in my view, the whole immigration debate has been put back by years because of what we had for the last four years.
▶ 8:19:33Sen. Graham: And it does come in many ways, break my heart. But we are where we are. So I would respectfully oppose this. Senator merkley, six.
▶ 8:19:43Sen. Merkley: Thank you, very much. I believe most members have just one or two more amendments on my side. If anybody has more. Senator grassley is telling us it is getting close to dinnertime. But we want to make sure everybody gets the issues forward that he want.
▶ 8:20:02Sen. Graham: T cranky before dinner. We don't want him after dinner.
▶ 8:20:06Sen. Merkley: Can we bring him some dinner?
▶ 8:20:10Sen. Graham: They have to. [laughter]
▶ 8:20:12Sen. Merkley: Childcare. Childcare is such an expanse for working families president trump campaigned on helping working families. This is a big deal. We have talked about housing, that was a big deal. Childcare is another big deal. When you can't afford childcare, then you can't be part of the workforce. How sure they are of workers.
▶ 8:20:42Sen. Merkley: A win for economy, it went far families, for our children. That is why I put forward this point of order against legislation that would increase the cost of childcare care for working families.
▶ 8:20:54Sen. Graham: Senator marinosen.
▶ 8:20:55Graham: .
▶ 8:20:56Sen. Moreno: The amendment creates a situation where the point of order is outside our jurisdiction. I would love to see us work together on ways to reduce the cost of childcare. I have three get -- three grandkids now, and I get to be with them tomorrow night, so I'm looking forward to this meeting ending so I can get to that. It is very expensive. I look at my daughter's, and it's extremely expensive for them -- for them. But that's not what we're doing here today.
▶ 8:21:25Sen. Moreno: It is not what has happened over the last four years. Under democratic control, childcare became extraordinarily expensive, beyond even any metric that we had before. I would urge my colleagues, let's work together to find a way to make that happen. This is not the appropriate venue to do it.
▶ 8:21:46Sen. Graham: All debate is expired. Senator murray, 15.
▶ 8:21:51Sen. Murray: I believe senator whitehouse came back.
▶ 8:21:54Sen. Graham: Yeah. Do you want him to go first?
▶ 8:21:58Sen. Murray: He was behind me. I'm happy to go and then him. >> go ahead. We have a document circulating.
▶ 8:22:04Sen. Graham: Ok. Senator murray, obtain.
▶ 8:22:08Sen. Murray: Murray, amendment 15. This amendment ensures whatever plans my republican colleagues are hoping to accomplish through the budget reconciliation cannot come at the expense of communities in need of federal disaster assistance. Disaster relations should never be a partisan issue and it should never be used as a bargaining chip. For unrelated budget negotiations or for political standoffs.
▶ 8:22:32Sen. Murray: Let me take a moment to remind all of us that while -- wildfires and floods and hurricanes respect any geographic jurisdictional or ideological boundary. Disasters happen in red states, blue states, they happened to all types of people in all kinds of circumstances. I know my constituents have had to wait for months for relief. Their recovery was delayed, and that should never happen.
▶ 8:22:59Sen. Murray: When a disaster impacted individuals, they expect and deserve a swift and effective response. This guarantees that federal disaster relief funds go to the communities that need them. When they need them. I urge my colleagues to adopt this amendment and I yield my additional time to the senator from california, who asked to be a cosponsor on it.
▶ 8:23:20Sen. Graham: Thank you. >> thank you for your leadership in defending congress's appropriations authority, and for offering this amendment to ensure federal disaster relief funds are not improperly withheld or politicized. Colleagues, it wasn't that long ago we had the confirmation hearing on the number -- on the nomination for the director of omb.
▶ 8:23:45Sen. Graham: I raised concerns, several of us, around his and president trump's flagrant attitude toward adhering to spending laws and directives by congress. Disasters do not differentiate between red states and blue states. And neither should our response.
▶ 8:24:09Sen. Graham: All americans, when heard by natural disasters, deserve to be able to rely on their country without fear of politicization. We have historically come together in the aftermath of disasters, we should continue to, and we can further enshrine that with this amendment before us. Thank you, senator murray.
▶ 8:24:32Sen. Graham: Senator kennedy.
▶ 8:24:33Sen. Kennedy: Mr. chairman, I agree with much of what my two colleagues said. But not everything. I think with respect, the purpose of this reserve fund is just political messaging.
▶ 8:24:53Sen. Kennedy: And implicit in the proposal is the assertion that the executive branch will not faithfully interpret and execute legislation, related to natural disaster funds. Which we all support. For that reason, I'm going to vote no.
▶ 8:25:17Sen. Graham: All debate has expired. Now we have merkley four. Wait a minute. I'm sorry. Senator whitehouse, euronext.
▶ 8:25:28Sen. Whitehouse: This -- this is white house, 11. Their time's the charm. You said it. Instead of making the argument myself this time, I will read from a document that we are circulating right now which is an article in the houston chronicle about what is happening down there in their markets.
▶ 8:25:52Sen. Whitehouse: Here's the problem statement, higher home insurance premiums are threatening to destabilize the housing market as buyers back away from uninsurable homes and homeowners struggle to keep up with payments in areas prone to the impacts of climate change. Insurance hikes will crater property values in some communities, sending a shockwave through the country's economy.
▶ 8:26:12Sen. Whitehouse: The examples of this include real estate agents saying buyers are increasingly backing out of contracts because they can't afford the cost of insurance. Real estate agent said to him percent of the deals she represented last year fell apart because of the cost of insurance. Homes are sitting on the market for longer, and sellers are dropping list prices.
▶ 8:26:40Sen. Whitehouse: The founder and ceo of a real estate research company in texas spoke to the reporter and said, the whole notion of a 30 year mortgage is now in question. Because of this threat over time. A real estate agent who was the secretary treasury of the houston association of realtors said many sellers are dropping their list prices, home value is going down to factor in the rising cost of insurance.
▶ 8:27:09Sen. Whitehouse: And the last person interviewed is an independent mortgage broker who knows this industry, and she owns several houses around herself. And she told a reporter in league city that the insurance on every one of those homes has nearly tripled over the past year. Here is her quote. Now, you could say, just sell that house, and move to an area that has cheap insurance, she said.
▶ 8:27:39Sen. Whitehouse: Well, sell it to who? Nobody wants to pay. This is how this is coming into the property and insurance markets in texas in this story. I would ask this story be made part of the record.
▶ 8:27:54Sen. Whitehouse: If I may, for a procedural matter, can I be recorded as voting yes on cane three, merkley nine, murray 17, and padilla five, and voting no on the motions to table lujan 41, and holland three. And I have the sheet here so your people don't have to figure out what I said.
▶ 8:28:15Sen. Graham: Without objection. Thank you. That's very helpful. Senator lee.
▶ 8:28:19Sen. Lee: Mr. chairman, more energy is a good thing. Can this amendment is a direct threat to developing our energy resources. As I noted a few weeks ago in our hearing, confirming energy secretary chris right, and everything with energy development, there are trade-offs. The american people expect and demand we take them into account. Their needs and demands.
▶ 8:28:49Sen. Lee: The fact that we made things as unaffordable as we have suggests to me this would be an unwise move to foreclose more opportunities for energy development. I am holy -- I oppose it and encourage my colleagues to oppose it as well. >> I think it's hard to say that 14 million homes worth of additional energy, because it is not being leaked, is reducing our energy supply. It actually increasing our energy supply. This is about leakage.
▶ 8:29:15Sen. Graham: Thank you. Senator van hollen.
▶ 8:29:20Sen. Van Hollen: Thank you. This next amendment will be my last amendment.
▶ 8:29:24Sen. Graham: Can you give us the number?
▶ 8:29:26Sen. Van Hollen: This is amendment number five, and van hollen two. So, it creates a point of order against legislation that would reduce earned retirement benefits for federal employees or retirees. Colleagues, I think you know that federal employees, merit-based federal employees, our patriots do good work on behalf of the american people every day.
▶ 8:29:56Sen. Van Hollen: They are the folks who provide health care to our veterans and veterans hospitals. They are food inspectors who make sure the food we eat is safe and will not poisonous. They are the folks at the social security administration who provide and deliver social security benefits, and the folks who have -- and many other things. These are hard-working people. They have been much maligned. These are not wealthy people.
▶ 8:30:30Sen. Van Hollen: They earn a salary, middle-class salary for the most part. And they earn promised retirement benefits. Now you've got the richest man in the world who has been maligning hard-working federal employees making up a whole pile of lies about them. And I think we need to at least reaffirm commitments we have already made with respect to their retirement. Benefits. . That's what this bill does.
▶ 8:31:00Sen. Van Hollen: It says, we want to reaffirm our commitment to provide promised retirement benefits to federal employees and creates a point of order against an effort to pull the rug out from under them. And I urge this adoption.
▶ 8:31:15Sen. Graham: Senator marino.
▶ 8:31:20Sen. Moreno: If I could just add my voice in support for this measure. In addition to impressive numbers in virginia and maryland, it is the state of california that has the most impure numbers. 150 thousand federal employees across departments and agencies.
▶ 8:31:44Sen. Moreno: The administration is unlawfully trying to fire federal employees but the threats. There. They are working to increase pension contributions for federal employees, reduce health care benefits, and cutting federal 401k's, which we should be thinking and respecting federal employees for their service. Not punishing them. I support this amendment.
▶ 8:32:11Sen. Graham: Senator marino.
▶ 8:32:13Sen. Moreno: I appreciate the concern. This is outside our jurisdiction. The point of order would not fit within our bill and I think if you have these points, these are better argued in that committee.
▶ 8:32:27Sen. Graham: Senator merkley, number four.
▶ 8:32:30Sen. Merkley: Thank you. During this conversation, we have had it pointed at the many times that the court bill is about increasing funding for security at the border. We also had it pointed out that there are going to be cuts done to pay for that, so this is deficit neutral. We are raising many amendments to say those cuts should not fall on families.
▶ 8:32:56Sen. Merkley: Not on childcare, not on driving up the cost of rent or buying homes, not in making community health clinics more expensive or prescription drugs more expensive, for medicaid and medicare or student loans. And let's add in, groceries. My amendment provides a deficit neutral reserve fund to protect against legislation, or creates a point of order against legislation that would increase the cost of groceries for consumers.
▶ 8:33:23Sen. Merkley: On every one of these issues we are raising for families, we have been told, no. Well, whenever it -- when anything comes back from the authorizing committee that does these things, that is not great because it is wrong for families and it is also exactly the opposite of what president trump campaigned on, which was lowering costs for families.
▶ 8:33:46Sen. Merkley: My last amendment, and I invite my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to say, k, groceries are a big deal for families, let's make sure cost cuts that are done that are going to pay for the increases in security at the border or defense are not done on the backs of families.
▶ 8:34:06Sen. Graham: .
▶ 8:34:08Senator Ricketts Sen. Ricketts: .
▶ 8:34:12Sen. Ricketts: The cost of groceries is what senator trump ran on. It was created of the reich list -- the reckless biden administration. As has been pointed out many times, in the case with this point of order, the amendment is not an order.
▶ 8:34:30Sen. Ricketts: This amendment, it is a point of order against the legislation to increase the price of groceries this amendment is also outside of our community of girt -- of jurisdiction and would jeopardize our ability of reconciliation if adopted. I encourage the church or rule this amendment out of order at the appropriate time.
▶ 8:34:54Sen. Graham: The debate has expired. Senator merkley.
▶ 8:35:04Sen. Merkley: Can anyone on my right side of the aisle here raise your hand if you have one more amendment you want to present? Ron does want to speak to one amendment.
▶ 8:35:10Sen. Graham: You can speak of what you already offered.
▶ 8:35:14Sen. Merkley: I yield my time to the senator from oregon. >> we didn't make a whole lot of bipartisan headway today with respect to health care. Particularly around medicaid. I think that's going to be particularly important, because we already saw the house leaders say that they are going to need additional revenue. The question is, where is it going to come from?
▶ 8:35:41Sen. Merkley: I just felt that we didn't make headway on medicaid, but perhaps we could on something that philosophically ought to be low hanging fruit. And that is taking on the communist chinese in order to protect manufacturing jobs, high wages, and opportunities, particularly in hard-hit parts of the country.
▶ 8:36:04Sen. Merkley: We can do that with this measure, which ensures that we don't gut the clean energy tax credits, which is generating jobs all across the country, particularly in red states and red communities. And I hope that because this ought to be philosophically low hanging fruit, because we all want to have our country be competitive against the chinese, that my colleagues will look favorably on and I ask for a vote.
▶ 8:36:27Sen. Graham: Thank you. We are going to have the last tranche of votes. Number one, to the committee, thank you. Thank you all. To my democratic colleagues, you are very clear in what you thought. Very articulate in what you wanted to happen and why you object to our proposal. I don't know what more anyone could expect. From you all. On our side, thank you very much. For being ready, being prepared, showing up. What did we do today?
▶ 8:36:59Sen. Graham: We started a process that I think is going to bear some fruit, I hope. If you believe we need a secure border, help is on the way. If you believe the military is underfunded and they need more lethality, help is on the way. If you believe we need better energy policy, help is on the way. Bottom line, we are starting a process to give our border security apparatus $175 billion, more detention beds, finish the wall, hire more I.c.e.
▶ 8:37:29Sen. Graham: Agents to get the job done. They are running out of money. To my friends in the house, I hope you do one big beautiful bill. After yesterday when tom homan and russ voted, did you ever believe you would hear russ vote ask for money? That is like in the bible, the end times. Russ abode is saying we need money and tom homan is baking is for additional resources to finish the plan. There are 300,000 children missing, let's go find them. We talked about the defense department needing more money.
▶ 8:37:59Sen. Graham: Yes, they do. We have a lowest spending gdp in decades. At 2.9%. We need a bigger one. We need a lot of things in our military, and we need it now. That's what we are going to do. We are going to give the military a boost at a time they need a boost. We are going to give money to those trying to secure the border. And implement president trump's immigration agenda.
▶ 8:38:26Sen. Graham: And to my house colleagues, I hope you can do the one big beautiful bill. But I hope you will do something else. Invite tom homan and russ vote to your conference and listen to what they said. In my view, we don't have the time to wait. Time is wasting. Our country is very much at risk. And multiple fashions, abroad and at home, and we will get to tax policy. I want to make them permanent.
▶ 8:38:57Sen. Graham: We will have a spirited debate about off sentence -- offsets. I urged the public to understand that we are starting a process to fix a problem that is very dangerous. And it needs to be fixed yesterday. To all of my colleagues in the budget committee, thank you very much for the way you conducted yourselves. And I think now is the time to vote.
▶ 8:39:28Sen. Graham: Ok. Yes, please do. I'm sorry.
▶ 8:39:31Sen. Merkley: Families of america, get worried. Because today, we put forward provisions to make sure that the process that is underway is not going to raise your cost of health care, your cost of rent, the cost of buying a home, your community health clinic, your head, your groceries, every conceivable way you are being hit. And the answer from across the aisle was, we are not quick to protect those things. This process is opening the door to a two-part plan.
▶ 8:40:03Sen. Merkley: Cut programs for families and give massive tax giveaways to the billionaires. We don't want government buying billionaires paired we saw the billionaires lined up on inauguration day. They are having their boy club, their billionaire club. That's great for them, it's terrible for the families in america. We are going to continue to stand against policies that increase the cost. Today, what I appreciated were a lot of issues were raised and talked about. We don't see this very often in the senate.
▶ 8:40:34Sen. Merkley: I would love to see the process of amendments restored on the floor of the senate, so that all of the ideas you have that you care about can be presented and considered and voted on. Right now, we get few opportunities to express ourselves. This was one of them and chairman graham, thank you for your very gracious accommodation of the many amendments we put forward. We didn't put forward all 181 of them --
▶ 8:40:59Sen. Graham: But you did set a new record.
▶ 8:41:00Sen. Merkley: We also wanted to thank your team, nick myers leads it. I know they are scrambling to get the information on every one of these. The democrats team, led by ben ward. They work very well together too.
▶ 8:41:15Sen. Graham: Absolutely.
▶ 8:41:17Sen. Merkley: I appreciate the debate. I hope we can get more debates on more issues on the floor of the senate.
▶ 8:41:25Sen. Graham: I could not agree more. To the staff, thank you for your hard work. This is tough stuff. You have acquitted yourself well. Now, if anybody else. We will move forward to voting. Warner, number 10. Do you want to say anything? Ok. I like this.
▶ 8:41:52Sen. Graham: I determine the amendment, threats to privilege of the budget revenue -- resolution, roulette out of order. You want to appeal? I want to table the motion to make a motion to table. >> Mr. grassley. Mr. crapo. Mr. marshall. Mr. cornyn. Mr. lee. Mr. kennedy. Mr. ricketts. Mr. marino. Mr. scott. Mr. merkley.
▶ 8:42:24Sen. Graham: Mrs. murray. Mr. wyden. Mr. sanders. Mr. whitehouse. Mr. warner. Mr. kaine. Mr. van hollen. Mr. lujan. Mr. lujan.
▶ 8:42:46Sen. Graham: He's back! Yay. >> I didn't hear him. Ok. Mr. padilla. Mr. chairman.
▶ 8:43:03Sen. Graham: Aye. Did we get senator lujan recorded? >> senator lujan, confirming you are a no?
▶ 8:43:13Sen. Graham: Is it aes or no? He is recorded in person.
▶ 8:43:23Sen. Graham: Mr. chairman, the yea's are 11.
▶ 8:43:28Sen. Graham: Number 11. Sure, if you want to. You've got 30 seconds. >> this is to stop the gouging of americans on the price of drugs. We often pay two to 10 times more of our neighbors, and yet we, taxpayers in america, pay for the r&d. Let's get a fair shake for americans on the cost of drugs.
▶ 8:43:54Sen. Graham: Stand by our reply the first time around. The clerk will call the roll. [roll call votes]
▶ 8:44:34Sen. Graham: >> Mr. chairman, thea -- the y >> Mr. chairman, thea -- the yea's are 11. >> to make sure people who served their nation bravely in uniform can access the services they need to build their families.
▶ 8:44:56Sen. Graham: Masking for a vote on amendment that would provide the funding for the services, so servicemembers and veterans and their spouses and partners can build their families. If my colleagues are profamily and pro-ivf, and as they claim to be, I urge a yes vote on this amendment to make sure that our military and veteran families can access the fertility care they need and deserve after they serve us in this country.
▶ 8:45:20Sen. Graham: Gary briefly, we had a debate on the floor. Senator brent and cruz had an approach to the ivf issue that we could not find common ground on. I appreciate their efforts. I respect your point of view. To me, this debate needs to be done outside of reconciliation. Clerk will call the roll.
▶ 8:45:43Sen. Graham: [roll call votes] >> the yeas are 10, the nay are
▶ 8:46:22Sen. Graham: 11. >> I spoke on this a minute ago. This creates -- I hope my colleagues was supported in the name of american competitiveness.
▶ 8:46:31Sen. Graham: Thank you. We will stand by what we said. Will you call the roll? [roll call votes]
▶ 8:47:07Sen. Graham: >> yeas are 10. Nays are 11.
▶ 8:47:15Sen. Graham: Kane, number seven. >> funding agencies that reclassify -- [indiscernible]
▶ 8:47:31Sen. Graham: I have determined the amendment threatens the privilege of the budget resolution, so rule it out of order. I make a motion to table. And it's non-did -- non-debatable. Clerk, call the roll.
▶ 8:47:50Sen. Graham: [roll call votes] >>
▶ 8:48:25Sen. Graham: Yeas are 11. Nays are 10. >> van hollen, number one. >> van hollen number one is the provision that would establish funding support for independent inspector general's in federal agencies to be the watchdog for american taxpayers. I urge this adoption.
▶ 8:48:48Sen. Graham: Stand by what senator grassley said. The clerk will call the roll. [roll call votes]
▶ 8:49:31Sen. Graham: >> yeas are 10, nays are 11. >> a reminder, this would create the deficit mutual reserve fund related to protecting religious freedom by prohibiting the conduct of immigration enforcement operations at places of worship, including churches and spaces rented for religious purposes.
▶ 8:49:57Sen. Graham: We were served well by the prior policy of requiring special authorization to conduct operations and houses of worship. As senator kennedy spoke, maybe I was not clear that americans are afraid to pray. That's not the case. We are talking about being afraid to attend a place of worship because of the change in policies, just as the policy has been changed for enforcement operations in schools and in hospitals.
▶ 8:50:27Sen. Graham: As a matter of fact, I think may be more americans are praying because donald trump is back in the white house. I ask you to pardon this amendment.
▶ 8:50:38Sen. Graham: I will stand by what we said before. The clerk will call the roll. [roll call votes]
▶ 8:51:16Sen. Graham: >> yeas are 10. Nays are 11.
▶ 8:51:21Sen. Graham: Berkley, 14. -- merkley, 14.
▶ 8:51:27Sen. Merkley: This is all about preventing a national surveillance system that destroys the privacy of americans and the freedom of americans. . I encourage a yes vote.
▶ 8:51:36Sen. Graham: Thank you, senator kennedy. He might be a good partner on standalone legislation. I would oppose this approach. The clerk will call the roll. [roll call votes]
▶ 8:52:23Sen. Graham: >> yeas are 10, nays are 11. >> this amendment requests the government accountability office to review, audit, and report back within 90 days on the so-called department of government efficiency, so all of us can understand its role, its authority and impacts. Whether you support some actions of the doge or not, you should support transparency and support accountability to congress and american public. I urge a yes vote.
▶ 8:52:53Sen. Graham: Senator rickets, I stand by what he said. The clerk to call the roll. [roll call votes]
▶ 8:53:37Sen. Graham: >> yeas are 10, nays are 11.
▶ 8:53:42Sen. Graham: Widen, number five.
▶ 8:53:44Sen. Wyden: This allows colleagues to support the states and communities where the federal government owns much of the land, and the communities have been so hard hit with the disasters and the like they are having trouble even paying for law enforcement. I would read a yes vote.
▶ 8:54:02Sen. Graham: I have determined the amendment threatens the privilege of the budget resolution, therefore rule it out of order. Appeal. I will move to table the appeal. The clerk will call the roll. [roll call votes]
▶ 8:54:21Sen. Graham: Aye, aye. Yeah. [laughter] I'm glad we are getting there the end here. [roll call votes]
▶ 8:55:05Sen. Graham: Kane, number 10. >> reconciliation delivers $150 billion to market of defense [indiscernible]
▶ 8:55:23Sen. Graham: I have determined the amendment threatens the privilege of the budget resolution, therefore rule it out of order. I make a motion to table the appealed the clerk will call the roll.
▶ 8:55:37Sen. Graham: [roll call votes] >>
▶ 8:56:11Sen. Graham: Yeas are 11, nays are 10.
▶ 8:56:17Sen. Graham: We're getting really close. Padilla, number one.
▶ 8:56:22Sen. Padilla: This is the amendment that would create a deficit neutral reserve fund relating to prohibiting the detention and deportation of individuals who are not a threat to public safety, including dreamers, who have not been convicted of a felony. Again, dreamers have not been convicted of a felony and oppose no threats to public safety. They deserve to be free and safe from deportation. I ask for your support of this amendment.
▶ 8:56:53Sen. Graham: I will stand by my analysis before. The clerk will call the roll. [roll call votes]
▶ 8:57:29Sen. Graham: >> yeas are 10, nays are 11.
▶ 8:57:34Sen. Graham: Merkley, six.
▶ 8:57:36Sen. Merkley: Childcare is a very important issue. The cost of it is hurting america's families. We should work together to defend them against that cost. And recognize that this is also good for businesses, because folks they can afford childcare can join the workforce in our small businesses -- and our small businesses are in need of a lot of help. I ask for your support.
▶ 8:57:59Sen. Graham: I have determined the amendment threatens the privilege of the broke -- the budget resolution, and therefore appeal.
▶ 8:58:07Sen. Merkley: Out of order.
▶ 8:58:09Sen. Graham: I make a motion to table the appeal. [roll call votes]
▶ 8:58:43Sen. Graham: >> yeas are 11. Nays are 10.
▶ 8:58:51Sen. Graham: Murray, 15.
▶ 8:58:53Sen. Murray: This amendment ensures whatever plans my republican colleagues are hoping to accomplish either through this budget or process or through doge, cannot come at the expense of communities in need of federal disaster assistance. I urge a yes vote.
▶ 8:59:09Sen. Graham: Stand by what senator kennedy said. The clerk will call the roll. [roll call votes]
▶ 8:59:52Sen. Graham: >> yeas are 10. Nays are 11.
▶ 8:59:59Sen. Graham: Three more. White house, number 11.
▶ 9:00:04Sen. Whitehouse: If you spill a soda in the living room, you clean it up. If you spill 7.5 million metric tons of methane out through your leaks, you ought to clean it up. This amendment would preserve the incentive to stop the leaking.
▶ 9:00:22Sen. Graham: Thank you. Senator kennedy, I stand by what he said. The clerk will call the roll. [roll call votes]
▶ 9:01:03Sen. Graham: >> yeas are 10, nays are 11.
▶ 9:01:09Sen. Graham: Berkley, number four. -- merkley, number four. That's next, is what I've got.
▶ 9:01:16Sen. Merkley: The cost of groceries, every family experiences it every week in the grocery store. And everyone, the policy and political debates have said we need to make sure the prices don't go up. This is all about making sure that any programs that are affected becomes a reconciliation bill, does not increase the cost of groceries. Let stand together for that basic concept.
▶ 9:01:47Sen. Graham: I have determined it threatens the budget resolution and roulette out of order. -- and ruling it out of order. The clerk will call the roll.
▶ 9:02:05Sen. Graham: [roll call votes] >>
▶ 9:02:35Sen. Graham: Yeas are 11. Nays are 10.
▶ 9:02:42Sen. Graham: Last but not least, senator van hollen, number two.
▶ 9:02:51Sen. Van Hollen: , this is the provision that would create a point of order against legislation that would reduce earned retirement benefits for federal employees or retirees. I urge this adoption.
▶ 9:03:02Sen. Graham: I have determined the amendment threatens the privilege of the budget resolution, therefore rule it out of order. >> and I appeal the ruling.
▶ 9:03:06Sen. Graham: Make a motion to table the appeal. The clerk will call the roll. [roll call votes]
▶ 9:03:44Sen. Graham: >> yeas are 11. Nays are 10.
▶ 9:03:48Sen. Graham: If there are no further amendments, the question is on order that the resolution as amended be reported. A reporting quorum is present. All those, call the roll. 9 [roll call]
▶ 9:04:40Sen. Graham: >> yeas are 11. Nays are 10.
▶ 9:04:49Sen. Graham: The budget resolution is favorably reported. I ask that unanimous consent but in repairing the measure for -- preparing the measure for reporting, committee staff be authorized to make any required technical and conforming changes. Without objection, is so ordered. Resolutions reported out of committee, there is no further business.
▶ 9:05:11Sen. Graham: I remind members wishing to file additional or minority views, that hardcopies be signed and filed with the committee clerk no later than noon tomorrow. Thank you all very much for your involvement and professionalism. The meeting is adjourned.