Business Before the Senate

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. THUNE. Madam President, on Saturday morning, we took a major step forward on the Republican agenda by passing a budget resolution to lay the groundwork for a permanent extension of tax relief for American families and a transformational investment in our border, energy, and national security.

And while I think Republicans' goals are obvious, for the sake of my Democratic colleagues who still seem to be operating under the delusion that we are here to hand out tax cuts to billionaires, let me review what we are doing and why we are here.

First, we are here to ensure that hard-working Americans don't see their tax bills rise next year. In 2017, Republicans delivered tax relief to the American people, but that relief is expiring this year. If we don't act, American families making less than $400,000 a year will see a $2.6 trillion tax hike next year. Tax rates will rise. The standard deduction will shrink. And the child tax credit will--will--be cut in half. That is not acceptable, so we are here to prevent tax hikes on American families and permanently extend the 2017 tax relief.

Second, we are here to address the remains of the Biden border crisis, bolster our military readiness, and unleash American energy production. After 4 years of chaos at our southern border under President Biden, President Trump has taken action to secure the border and take criminal illegal immigrants off America's streets. But the administration needs additional resources from Congress if this progress is going to continue, and we need a serious investment in our military to restore readiness and ensure that our men and women in uniform are equipped to deter and to defeat threats.

We also need to take action to unleash American energy production. The Biden administration put us on a dangerous trajectory by seeking to stifle domestic conventional energy production, and we need to recommit to domestic production to protect our Nation and ensure that the American people have a reliable and affordable energy supply both now and in the future.

And finally, we are here to take a hard look at how taxpayer dollars are being spent. We saw an incredible growth in government spending under the Biden administration. Federal spending in 2024 was 54 percent higher than in 2019--54 percent. So Republicans are going to take a good, hard look at how taxpayer dollars are being spent and work to return us to a more sustainable spending and fiscal trajectory.

As I said, the resolution we passed this weekend--I might say, over the objections of my Democratic colleagues, who are apparently perfectly OK with allowing taxes to rise for working families--was a major step forward on delivering on our agenda, and I am looking forward to arriving at a final bill. Discussions on that will continue off the floor. Meanwhile, on the floor, we will continue to deliver on other priorities, including building out the President's administration and lifting burdensome Biden regulations through Congressional Review Act resolutions.

We have kept up a very brisk pace on confirming nominees, and that will continue. By the end of this week, I expect to have added several more to our total, and I also expect to consider a resolution this week to roll back a heavyhanded Department of Energy rule.

Democrats will continue to distract. Republicans will continue to act.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source