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Floor Speech

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Mrs. MOODY. Mr. President, I am one of the newest Senators in this esteemed body. In fact, I just marked my sixth month here in the U.S. Senate.

Over and over and over again, you could just plug and play the same speech because, apparently, everyone nominated by President Trump to every position that we have to confirm as a body is wholly unqualified. That is what the Democrats would have you believe. In fact, I don't think we heard much else about any of the nominations.

If you look at the statistics going back administration after administration, Democrat and Republican, at this point in time, you saw 90 percent of nonmilitary civilian nominees confirmed. And how many of President Trump's administration have we confirmed? Zero. It is almost as though they are trying to thwart the will of the American people.

I stand here to reflect on a situation that I am astounded by as the newest U.S. Senator. In November 2024, the American people elected President Trump to be the 47th President of this Nation. And with that election, the people expressed their willingness to see this country move down a new path, a better path, a stronger and safer path, a path where leaders actually looked at the well-being of this country and the security of this country and the interests of our people and made commonsense policy decisions based on that and not some radical wish list that filled some Marxist governing philosophy. How about we get back to the founding ideals of this Nation?

How did the colleagues on the other side of the aisle respond to that election? What have we seen since January of this year when the 119th Congress set out to do the people's work? We have seen obstruction. It was the same response they have always had, a blend of histrionics and performance theater.

Instead of committing to the calls for reflection from within their own party in the aftermath of an electoral loss, they resorted to obstruction in the name of democracy--in the name of democracy. I find it strange that in protecting democracy, it requires ignoring the will of the people.

Here in the Senate, both on the floor and in our committees, we have found that carrying out the people's will is being stymied every step of the way. We have seen Presidential nominees and legislation as opportunities for a performance. And every day this goes on, important positions critical to the national security and the well-being of this country and improving the lives of our citizens, those positions go left unfilled.

So while China continues to staff their diplomatic postings abroad and undercut the prosperity of our country, our Embassies go without Ambassadors. As our domestic Departments seek to unleash the American economy for the benefit of the working-class Americans, they are left without leadership. Our colleagues have sought to protect this country by obstructing the very exercise of the people's will, ensuring it is incapable of meeting the challenges of the moment.

So here we are, on a Saturday in August, voting on the President's nominees because our colleagues continue to hold out. This ultimately places this body and our Nation at a crossroads.

If we continue down this path, if we continue to allow obstruction at every turn or continue to allow people on the other side of the aisle to gain personal points or even political points, we weaken this body created by the Framers to carry out the responsibilities the American people have asked of us, protecting our liberty and protecting this Union.

I hope that our colleagues will avoid this path and join us in moving forward with putting Americans and America first.

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