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Floor Speech

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Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, I actually want to thank my colleague from Pennsylvania for bringing up what I think is a very important subject. I am proud, as you are, coming from a State that had voter ID.

Senator McCormick, you wouldn't necessarily know this, but we passed the first voter ID when I was speaker. I heard all of these arguments, and they fall on deaf ears.

As a matter of fact, if you take a look at the Help America Vote Act and other things, we can make it easy to vote. But we have to make it hard to cheat.

Most people in America don't realize that we estimate about 20 to 25 million people are illegally present in this country. And you should keep in mind that in each of the five last Presidential elections, the margin of victory at the height was 9 million and at the low point was 2 million.

So when we say that illegally present people who are able to vote can actually change the outcome of elections, it is not theoretical. It is proven by the math.

So I appreciate your comments. Federal Reserve

Mr. President, I am here to talk about a different subject. It sort of relates to the commentary that Senator Blackburn spoke about but only with a little bit different twist.

You see, I think that prosecuting--vindictive prosecution--is wrong, period. Whether the administration is a Democrat or a Republican, vindictive prosecution is wrong, period.

What we are on the brink of with respect to the Chair of the Federal Reserve is the pot calling the kettle black. We can't come here and talk appropriately about the Arctic Frost investigation, we can't talk about the various prosecutions under the Obama era and the Biden era as being bad if we actually condone what I believe, in many cases, are the same sorts of behavior today.

I am a Republican. I voted for President Trump. I support the vast majority of what President Trump is doing. But I think we have a trend here that makes us no better than the people that some of my colleagues are coming down to the floor and criticizing.

At some point, one of the two parties has to stand on principle and end this cycle or it gets worse, and it gets worse, and it gets worse.

Let me give you an example of where I think it is getting bad.

On a Sunday night, about a month or so ago, I saw a report that the Chair of the Fed Board Jerome Powell was being investigated by the DOJ. We all know the President's frustration with Chair Powell. I have got some frustration with him too. I am an armchair quarterback. There are certain things I didn't like him doing, but I never thought of him as a criminal.

But I find out, on a Sunday night, that we have somebody in the bowels of the DC District of the U.S. attorney--an assistant U.S. attorney--who has decided to pursue an investigation and seek an indictment of prosecution against 2 minutes of testimony in the Banking hearing that I attended. I not only attended that Banking hearing, but several of my colleagues did too.

. . I do not believe that he committed a crime during the hearing.''

--Interview with Fox Business, 2/4/26

Senator Mike Crapo:

``I'd like to see this resolved as quickly as possible,'' adding that it's important for the Fed to remain ``free of political influence.''

--MS Now article, 1/12/26

Senator John Kennedy:

``We need this like we need a hole in the head,'' quipped Senator John Kennedy, also on the banking committee.''

--Reuters article, 1/12/26

``Kennedy said he'd be ``stunned'' if Powell had done anything wrong and predicted litigation between the Fed and the administration will raise interest rates.''

--Semafor article, 1/12/26

Senator Cynthia Lummis:

``Senator Cynthia Lummis, one of Powell's more strident critics usually, on Monday said the Justice Department's use of a criminal statute looked like a ``heavy lift'' and that she did not see any criminal intent.''

--Reuters article, 1/12/26

Senator Kevin Cramer:

``I do not believe however, he is a criminal. I hope this criminal investigation can be put to rest quickly along with the remainder of Jerome Powell's term. We need to restore confidence in the Fed.''

--NOTUS article, 1/12/26

Senator Dave McCormick:

``I believe strongly in an independent Federal Reserve,'' he said. ``I also agree with President Trump that Chairman Powell has been slow to cut interest rates. I think the Federal Reserve renovation may well have wasted taxpayer dollars, but the proper place to fix this is through Congressional oversight. I do not think Chairman Powell is guilty of criminal activity.''

--NOTUS article, 1/12/26

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Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, what this document does, and the reason I thought it was important to put it in the Record, is we have got--let's see--one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, including me, who have said that we don't think a crime was committed. We are on the Banking Committee. We are the majority of the Republicans on the Banking Committee.

I am an old man. So I like watching ``Forensic Files.'' I don't know if young people watch it, but I have been watching it for like 20 or 30 years. I can imagine this being the opening of a ``Forensic File.''

Normally, it is about a perpetrator, and something bad happened. The prosecutor is going after them because they have the eyewitnesses.

Well, this ``Forensic File'' opens like this: All of the witnesses at the scene of the crime said no crime was committed, right down the line. In fact, they have even submitted printed evidence. Yet the prosecutor thinks otherwise.

I don't think that would be a very interesting ``Forensic Files'' because what it says is no crime got committed.

Now, can we talk about whether or not there was an overrun in the building? There may have been. But I don't know if everybody is paying attention, but that happens a lot in government. If we are going to actually accuse someone of criminal behavior because of a project overrun in Federal Government, we had better start budgeting a lot more for prisons because that is the norm here.

I hate it because I came from a world where you lost your job if you went over budget and over time. But that is just a part of the way this place works.

Two minutes of testimony, seven members in the Banking Committee, present on that day, saying that they do not believe there was criminal intent sends a very clear message to a young U.S. attorney with a dream in the DC District: Why don't you come talk to people who were at the alleged scene of the crime?

We said we do not believe there was any criminal intent--2 minutes.

Mr. President, as a matter of fact, the other thing, if I could ask unanimous consent to have another two pages printed in the Record, which are some of the allegations that were being quoted from a press report that are patently wrong.

Chair Powell:

I would just point out that there's no VIP dining room, there's no new marble. We took down the old marble and are putting it back up. We will have to use new marble where some of the old marble broke, but there are no special elevators. They are old elevators that have been there. There are no new water features. There are no beehives and there are no roof terrace gardens. All of the sort of inflammatory things that the media carried are either not in the current plan or are simply inaccurate. Hearing Topics (June 25, 2025) Powell Written Responses (July 14, 2025) VIP Elevator

There is no VIP elevator. The original elevators are being rehabilitated, including an elevator that services historic conference rooms that are also used for mealtime meetings. There are no elevators where access is limited to governors. Water Features

The Board's initial design included new water features for 1951 Constitution Avenue, but they have been eliminated. Fountains that were original to the Eccles Building are being restored. Rooftop Garden Terrace

The term ``garden terrace'' in the 2021 submission refers to the ground-level front lawn, which serves as the roof of the parking structure beneath. Vegetated (green) roofs are commonly used for stormwater management, building efficiency, and roof longevity. Green roofs are found on other federal government buildings, including the Department of Justice and the Department of the Interior. Marble

The buildings were originally constructed with marble facades and stonework. The project has salvaged the original exterior marble to be reinstalled and will use new domestic marble where the original was damaged or where needed to comply with historic preservation guidelines. VIP Dining Rooms

No new VIP dining rooms are being constructed as part of the project. The Eccles Building contains multi-purpose rooms used for mealtime meetings, which are being renovated and preserved.

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Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, this is a case where we had members on the committee responding to news reports that were proven wrong.

Folks, I thought this was probably going to end this way, and it is one of the reasons why I decided to invite myself to a tour when the President went to this building to take a look at it.

I was there with the President. He was very kind, shook my hand, and welcomed me to participate in this tour.

I saw nothing there. I saw a few things--frustration. You know, you have got the historic commission and everybody else controlling the state of the project. But I certainly didn't see any criminal activity. I certainly didn't see any of these alleged rooftop garden terraces, water features, VIP elevators, special marble. They had to take it down and put it back up. Building in DC is complicated.

So almost all of the allegations were disproven. And yet we still have a prosecutor that is trying to pursue a criminal prosecution of the Chair of the Federal Reserve.

The night that it was announced, I made the statement that I will take this allegation seriously. But I am concerned that it comes from someone without consultation with Big DOJ. I don't think Pam Bondi or any of the senior people in the DOJ knew anything about it. Without consultation with the White House, they decided to pursue this investigation.

So they put me in an untenable position. If I am quiet on that Sunday night and don't say something, Monday morning, we may wake up to a very different market. If, all of a sudden, the Federal Reserve, that since its creation has been considered independent and separate from many Presidents who have been angry with them--Democrats and Republicans alike--I felt like, if I didn't put my foot down and say, ``No one is going to fill that seat until this investigation is done,'' that we could have literally had headlines across all financial markets that the United States no longer has an independent Federal Reserve.

Unless you track it as closely as I have, in my current role as Senator and in my past role as a partner at Pricewaterhouse, tracking financial or banking institutions, you may not be able to appreciate this. But, folks, this is real. The Federal Reserve is the gold standard for central banks, and its independence is critically important. It is critically important for us continuing to have the gold standard for the economy, the gold standard for the rule of law.

We cannot allow some junior U.S. attorney--assistant U.S. attorney-- in some jurisdiction here, all of a sudden, to play with fire. They didn't know what they were doing. They didn't look through the second- and third-order effects, and, quite honestly, they exposed the President in the process.

I find myself in a position where I want to reaffirm what I said very directly on that Sunday night before the markets opened on Monday morning: I will not allow any Board member for the Federal Reserve to go through the Banking Committee for a Chair or for replacement of expired terms until this matter is settled. I have no problem with us having an investigation, like we should with so many other areas of the government.

I would like to have oversight of the East Wing construction to make sure that that stays on target and doesn't go over budget. I would like to have oversight into the Qatari 747 as the new Air Force One--kind of ``Air Force lite'' because you can't take it out of the United States. All of those are taxpayer dollars being spent, and we should have visibility into that.

So count me in for doing an investigation for the comments on that day. The 2 minutes of testimony, that is the only reason I am on the floor today and refusing to allow a Fed Board member to be confirmed, because I feel that strongly. As a matter of fact, it may take us to a new low in terms of a vindictive prosecution. And if you think Arctic Frost was bad, if you think some of the other investigations in the Obama era were bad, ladies and gentlemen, we are setting a new low that could make that look like child's play.

For that reason, until the investigation is resolved, I cannot and I will not vote to support anyone on the Federal Reserve in my remaining tenure in the U.S. Senate.

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