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Floor Speech
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Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, early Friday morning, the Senate passed a budget resolution to lay the groundwork for border, energy, and national security legislation. We considered a lot of amendments from my Democratic colleagues, not one of which, interestingly enough, was centered on border security and very few of which addressed either national security or energy security. But that was, I have to say, not terribly surprising. After all, the Democratic leader seemed to think, to the very end, that this budget resolution had something to do with tax cuts for billionaires, even though it has absolutely and exactly nothing to do with tax cuts of any kind. I am not sure if he was honestly confused or merely felt that he could achieve something messaging-wise by pretending this bill had something to do with billionaires.
But for the record, let me review what this bill was about. As everyone here knows, whether they want to acknowledge it or not, the chaos that President Biden allowed to rage at our southern border left a gaping hole in our national security. That is a hole that President Trump and Republicans are determined to close. And since day one of his administration, President Trump has been fulfilling his campaign promise to crack down on illegal immigration and secure our border.
In addition to surging support to the southern border, his administration has been focused on arresting and deporting criminal aliens--from rapists and murderers to child sex predators and dangerous gang members--and they have made a lot of progress already.
But as the President's border czar made clear to Republican Senators 2 weeks ago, these efforts cannot continue without additional funding from Congress. So Republicans are moving forward on legislation to fund continued efforts to deport criminal aliens as well as provide other necessary resources to secure our border, discourage illegal immigration, and restore respect for the rule of law. That was what Friday's budget resolution was about.
And it is too bad that my Democratic colleagues aren't interested in joining us on border security legislation, but I will tell you, with or without Democrats, Republicans are moving full speed ahead. We owe the American people a secure border, and we intend to give it to them.
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