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Floor Speech

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Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, before I make any remarks in the Senate, I want to make remarks of a specific and personal nature to the Presiding Officer. The last time we were together was election night. And it was a wonderful night for you, for your family, and for the State of Illinois. Your victory was an amazing achievement, but your whole life has been an amazing achievement. And I particularly will remember when Brian brought the girls up to the stage, and they jumped all over their mom in her wheelchair. It was something that made the news and should have. It was a wonderful moment for you and your family. But it was a wonderful moment in American politics.

Your re-election in the State of Illinois was my No. 1 priority. And I didn't have to work as hard as I thought I would because they love you, and it showed in the vote. So congratulations to the Presiding Officer.

Madam President, in the fall of 1862, President Abraham Lincoln sent his second annual message to Congress. The Civil War was raging, and our Nation was really uncertain as to its future.

In the midst of what Lincoln called this ``fiery trial,'' he called on Congress to do something that was remarkable: to assure the freedom of every American, including the nearly 4 million Black Americans living in bondage. President Lincoln said this was the only way to ``save . . . the last best hope of earth,'' American democracy.

Last Tuesday, 160 years later, Americans across the country stood up, went to the polls, and did their part, in their time, to save the last best hope of earth. They voted to protect our fundamental freedoms and to preserve our democracy.

One of those voters was a young woman in our State named Lauren. She is a student at the University of Illinois in Champaign. The students at the university once again had to wait for hours in line. People were bringing pizzas to sustain them during their trial of waiting to vote. It worked. They voted in big numbers. And Lauren was one of them.

While she was waiting in line, a reporter with the Illinois Student Newsroom asked her, ``Why, why did you come out here and vote?''

She said:

I was voting based on women's rights in terms of candidates who were supporting women's choice. . . . It's important--as a student--as a young person to come out and vote for issues that I care about.

Thankfully, Lauren wasn't alone. In this year's election, young voters continued a trend that began in 2018 and 2020: They turned out in record numbers. They realized it is the responsibility of their generation to do a better job than our generation and to keep democracy alive.

So let's start off by thanking the young people: the sons and daughters who were raised properly when it came to their civic duty, who voted for the first time last week--and, for some, it was a repeat performance--along with every other American. With their votes, they sent a message to us and to the rest of America that was loud and clear: It is time for the Big Lie to die.

Last week, in State after State, voters rejected MAGA Republicans who ran on this Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen. This outrageous assertion, with no proof, no evidence and nothing to back it up other than the big liar, has become rampant among some corners of this country. But thank the Lord that it did not prevail on election day.

In fact, every single election denier who ran for Secretary of State in a swing State was defeated--every single one of them. So the takeaway here isn't all that complicated. I hope it is one that our Republican colleagues will finally take to heart: It is time to reject that extremist lie.

The American people are sick and tired of false claims that the 2020 election was stolen--the same claims that generated the insurrectionist mob, which on one of the saddest days in the history of this building stormed this Capitol on January 6, 2021, injuring over 149 law enforcement officials who were doing their duty to protect this building and the people in it and, sadly, leading to six deaths. Now the threats of violence continue.

After the election and the American people have spoken, can we finally join together in a bipartisan fashion to condemn all forms of violence, regardless of their political origin? It is inconsistent with the democracy that we can be proud of. And, yes, the American people are also sick and tired of rightwing assaults on our fundamental freedoms.

That young voter in Champaign I mentioned, Lauren, she is just one of millions of Americans motivated to vote after the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision earlier this year. By erasing the constitutional right to abortion--a right that millions of Americans have counted on for half a century--the Court's radical rightwing majority lit a fire in the hearts of voters across the country. And it wasn't just in the blue States. In the minority leader's home State of Kentucky--Kentucky-- voters rejected an anti-abortion ballot measure.

The lesson here at this moment isn't that a Democratic or Republican issue is at stake. This is about a basic constitutional right taken away from the women of this country--the right to make their own decisions about their own reproductive health choices. People don't want politicians--Senators, Congressmen, you name it--sticking their nose into the business of doctors in the hospitals and clinics across America. We need to respect the will of the people and protect the right to choose once and for all.

Let me also add something that happened over the weekend that bears comment. There has been a lot of loose talk as to whether or not this U.S. Supreme Court is too political. It has fallen in approval ratings to record lows. The American people think it has been dominated by political decisions and political choices.

So what did four of the nine Supreme Court Justices do over the weekend? They attended the Federalist Society gala ball here in Washington. The Federalist Society is an obvious political force which chose many of them under President Trump and others, and they basically fed the story line that this Supreme Court is enthralled with the Federalist Society.

You could not become a Federal judge--and I know this from serving on the Judiciary Committee--under Presidents of the Republican Party in recent times without the stamp of approval from the Federalist Society. In fact, their stamp of approval is even more important than being judged ``qualified'' by the American Bar Association. Nine Federal judges chosen by President Trump failed to be deemed qualified to serve on the Federal courts of our land, but they have been stamped ``approved'' by the Federalist Society.

This powerful political force had a party, and they invited members of the Supreme Court. Four of the nine members of the Court came to that party: Justice Alito, Justice Gorsuch, Justice Kavanaugh, and Justice Barrett. How can they dispel the belief many people have that they are too political when they attend such overtly political events?

That wasn't the only thing we learned. One of the top issues the American people were concerned about was the state of the economy--and rightly so. My wife does most of the shopping, but I get around to grocery stores in Illinois, my hometown, once in a while and take a look at the price of things. It is clear they have gone up for almost anything. You can't miss the price of gasoline; it is right there in front of you every single day. It must create--it does create--a hardship for American families.

It makes sense to understand historically why we are facing this. We are still recovering from a once-in-a-century pandemic. Like every nation, inflation has hit working families the hardest. But the American people also recognize that this Senate majority has made steady, meaningful progress in working against inflation. We can't will it away. We can't pass a law to ban it. We can't expect even the Federal Reserve, by their monetary policy, to dispense with inflation in a quick way. We have a large, complicated economy. It is part of the global economy. We have to work together--and we have--to help working families pay their bills and stay afloat.

Just a few months ago, we passed the Inflation Reduction Act on the floor. I remember that well, and I am sure the Presiding Officer does too. We had 41 rollcalls--41 rollcalls. It went all through the night. I think it was at least 24 hours or more, maybe 36 hours. We went straight through to finish it and get it done, and we did. In the end, the bill passed with only Democratic support. Every Republican voted against it. I am sorry that was the case because there are things in there the Republicans should join us in supporting.

Telling people on Medicare that they are never going to have to pay more than $2,000 out of pocket for prescription drugs is a great relief. You and I both know that the cost of prescription drugs in some cases ranges into the tens of thousands of dollars, breaking the backs of a lot of families finding that they are basically disbursing all of their savings for that purpose. Now we guarantee with that bill a maximum charge out of pocket of $2,000 a year.

If you happen to be on Medicare and are diabetic, we capped the cost of insulin each month to $35.

Insulin was discovered by Canadian researchers. When they discovered it, the doctors who came up with this wonderful drug said: We are going to surrender our patent rights for $1. We are finished. We don't believe any life-or-death drug should be bargained away to pharmaceutical companies.

Unfortunately, it has been. This changed for Medicare. Capping the cost of insulin means that many people who are diabetic will be able to take their medicine and afford it. That is a great thing for our future.

Do you recall, Madam President, when we had this on the floor and we tried to extend the same $35 insulin charge to all other diabetics in the United States, not just Medicare? We needed 10 of the 50 Republicans to join us--10 of 50--to cap the cost of insulin for all diabetics in America. We failed. Only 7 Republicans would join the 50 Democrats. We needed 60 votes; we got 57.

I heard this President say--and I am sure you have too--he is going back to this issue, and he should. This is something that should be bipartisan and pass very quickly.

In the Inflation Reduction Act, we started making changes when it comes to energy policy in America.

I think the young people voting were really motivated by several things. They were motivated by the threats of losing protections against discrimination for sexual orientation. They were motivated by the Dobbs decision on choice. But they were motivated as well because we made it clear, at least on our side of the aisle, that we were going to move forward with an energy policy which is going to address global warming and give them an Earth they can live on. I think that is an important part of the future.

I am not bragging, but I will tell you that several months ago, as you know, I put solar panels on my home in Springfield. My wife and I decided it was the right thing to do even if it didn't pencil out economically. Guess what. It is working great. The first bill we were able to compare with the previous year, we ended up generating more electricity than we purchased in the course of a month. I hope that continues. That dramatic reduction in my energy costs is also an investment in sustainable, renewable energy for the future. Those solar panels enhance the value of the home we live in.

We estimate that 280,000 families in our home State of Illinois are going to install solar panels. I am encouraging them to do that as quickly as possible. They are going to find great savings, and they are going to join us in the effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that threaten our future.

We also understand that we have to do much more in these fields, whether it is the cost of healthcare or whether it is the climate crisis in our country.

We want to make sure as well that the burden of government's costs is fairly shared. How can we possibly explain or rationalize that many of the wealthiest corporations in America don't pay their fair share of taxes? Families across America know they have to face their civic responsibility and pay their taxes. Very few of those families are applauding, but they are hoping that the basic social contract holds and that every corporation as well as an individual will pay their fair share. We moved in that direction with that bill.

These policies in terms of tax fairness are popular, and we saw that proof last Tuesday in the vote. The American people reelected a Democratic majority to the Senate because I believe they support the work we are doing.

I want to just comment on the statements made earlier by the minority leader from Kentucky. He really generalized the midterm election as if it was something other than what I saw.

A midterm election is tough on the President's party. Historically, every President has taken a beating. I can recall when my colleague from Illinois was President, Barack Obama. His midterm election he characterized as a shellacking, and he was right. I believe they lost 40 or 50 seats in that election. It happens, but it didn't happen last Tuesday.

We have to ask ourselves a basic question: If the Senator from Kentucky is right and everybody rejects what this President has done and rejects what the Democratic majority did, why didn't he do better? Why didn't his party do better? There is much more to the story.

We have the opportunity to build on the Senate's proud record of accomplishments starting again this week, and we should. Listen to what the American people told us. They told us: Roll up your sleeves, stop bickering, ignore the Big Lie because it is a big lie, and do something together. Show us cooperation. Can you do it?

Well, I will tell you, I reached out already to two of my Republican colleagues on the Senate Judiciary Committee, asking them to think about whether we can achieve anything in the next 3 or 4 weeks. I am hoping that we can. It was a good-faith effort on my part to say: Yes, we might have prevailed and we continue in the majority, but we can't get anything done unless we work together. I think that is what the American people are begging us to do now.

I will basically say that this bipartisanship is an easy task when you have Members on the other side who are willing to join with you. Our most basic duty, though, our most basic thing we can accomplish between now and the end of the year is make sure we don't face a government shutdown. Who can imagine that is good for the United States, our reputation in the world, our economy, or the people who are counting on us, to let the government shut down?

I am hopeful that in the coming weeks, before the first of the year, we can negotiate and pass an Omnibus appropriations package with bipartisan support. I am also hopeful that we can address that sword of Damocles hanging over our heads called the debt ceiling. From where I am sitting, the debt ceiling should be eliminated. It basically is a promise that we are going to pay the bills we have already incurred. Well, we wouldn't have voted for the bills if we didn't think we had to pay for them.

So this debt ceiling has to be renewed on a regular basis and has become a bargaining point for some extremists in Congress who argue that shutting down the government won't even be noticed by the American people. They are wrong. They have done it before, and we noticed. It was not good for our country, and we don't need it at this moment in history.

This week, we will also continue rebalancing the Federal judiciary by confirming highly qualified, evenhanded judges who will bring diversity to the Federal bench and who will defend our basic rights.

During this legislative session, we can do something Americans have been waiting on for decades: reform our broken immigration system. Everybody is talking about it. Now let's do something about it on a bipartisan basis. We can, and we should.

For the people--and the exact number, I am not sure--but thousands, tens of thousands protected by DACA are waiting to see if one judge in Texas is going to force them into deportation. Think about that. Thousands and thousands of young people were brought to the United States by their parents, grew up here, went to our schools, pledged allegiance to that flag every day in their classroom, and want to be part of America, and we have been unable and unwilling to come to a bipartisan agreement as to how to give them that chance.

I beg my Republican colleagues--particularly those who are leaving and told me privately that they have always wanted to vote for the Dream Act and this time they will--give us a chance to work together to come up with a good, sensible approach to our border; a good, sensible approach to the Dream Act; and to help bring in workers we desperately need for agriculture and for some specialties in healthcare where we are having severe shortages in this country. We can do this. There is no reason we can't do it. We have the basic legislation.

Let's really do something we can be proud of in the closing days of this year. I can think of no better way to show the American people that we were listening on November 8. After years of obstruction, we need bipartisanship. I know that means compromises by me as well as by them, but that is the nature of the Senate.

Millions of voters turned out across America last week. They challenged us in the Senate. They challenged us to continue making real progress for working families in this country. Let's show them we can get it done.

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