Business Before the Senate

Floor Speech

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Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, this past November, the American people gave President Trump and Republicans a mandate. Now the time has come to begin executing on it. One of the most important issues in this last election was the illegal immigration crisis. And that is the topic of the first vote that we are holding in the Senate under Republican majority.

For the last 4 years, the Biden administration's open border policies have wreaked havoc in both border communities and those far from the border. One of those communities is Athens, GA, where 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley was murdered by an illegal immigrant while out for a morning jog last year. Laken's murderer not only entered the country illegally, he was arrested twice--twice--in the United States and never deported.

This week, the Senate is going to vote on Senator Britt's bipartisan Laken Riley Act, which would ensure that illegal immigrants are deported when they are arrested, as Laken's killer was, for crimes like theft and burglary.

While this bill sounds like a commonsense measure--and it is--Senate Democrats uniformly opposed it last year despite the bill receiving bipartisan support in the House of Representatives. We will see what they do when the new Senate majority brings it up for a vote.

We are also going to be taking a vote to support our ally Israel, something my friends across the aisle seem to struggle with from time to time. After the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israel's Prime Minister and Foreign Defense Minister in November, I called on the Democratic leader to bring up an ICC sanctions bill that had already passed the House--again, with bipartisan support. The ICC's rogue actions only enable the terrorists who seek to wipe Israel off the map, and they cannot be allowed to stand unchecked.

In November, I promised that if Leader Schumer wouldn't bring the ICC sanctions bill to the floor, Republicans would. And we will soon fulfill that promise and have a vote to support our ally Israel.

Senators can also expect to vote on another commonsense measure this month. As thousands of pro-life Americans come to Washington for the 52nd annual March for Life, we will take up the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act. This straightforward bill simply states that a baby born alive after an attempted abortion is entitled to the same protection and medical care any other newborn baby is entitled to.

This vote will ask Democrats to answer whether a living baby born after attempted abortion should be provided with medical care or be left to die. It shouldn't be a hard question.

The Senate will also be working to get President Trump's team in place. Beginning next week, Senate committees will hold hearings on the President's nominees. We will work to ensure each nominee has a fair process without unnecessary delays or obstruction, and we will confirm those nominees swiftly so the Trump-Vance administration can hit the ground running.

Finally, Republicans in Congress are hard at work preparing to address some key priorities through the budget reconciliation process.

We have a lot to do there.

To begin with, the border security policies we expect President Trump to implement will need to be fully funded to maximize their effectiveness. Increasing the number of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and Border Patrol officers, increasing detention space and providing barriers and technology are just some of the resources needed to secure the border.

Border security is one key part of providing for our national security. Investing in our military is another. And we are working on investing in improvements to military readiness that will help restore American strength so that we can deter our adversaries and keep the peace.

We are also going to invest in American energy dominance. Energy security plays a key role in our national security, and Republicans plan to use budget reconciliation to help advance American energy production.

Another priority is extending the tax relief Republicans delivered during the first Trump administration. These pro-growth policies put more money in Americans' pockets and helped deliver a strong economy before the pandemic. We need to extend them to protect our economy and the American people from a $4 trillion tax hike next year.

This is just the start. We have a lot of work to do. But the American people have chosen the right team to get it done.

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