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Floor Speech
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Mr. MORENO. Mr. President, I rise today to propose a very simple bill that I think most Americans can understand. It has a very simple basic principle: If you are on any type of government aid, you are restricted from sending money overseas. It is pretty straightforward. We want to help American citizens who are in need, but if they are in need, why would they need to send money overseas?
I would say this: A nation's strength lies in its people's ability to sustain themselves and their countrymen first. To divert public benevolence overseas weakens the bonds of union at home, inviting dependence where independence should prevail. We cannot allow the fruits of American labor meant to nourish our own be scattered to foreign soils. True charity begins with securing the liberties and livelihoods of our fellow citizens.
Government aid is a ladder for the American worker to climb from poverty to prosperity. To send it beyond our borders is to weaken that ladder, denying our people the fruits of their own toil and the promise of a more perfect Union.
We have framed laws to protect our citizens from poverty's grasp, ensuring homes, livelihoods, and security for Americans. Diverting those resources overseas betrays that compact, for our progress is measured by providing for those who have little within our own shores.
And, finally, I would say this, Mr. President: Welfare should lift Americans up, not fund foreign dependencies. When those in public aid send money overseas, it is a sign the system is broken, trapping people in poverty while draining our Nation's hard-earned resources from those who need it at home the most.
So, Mr. President, as if in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent that the Finance Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. 3746 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration. I further ask that the bill be considered read a third time and passed, and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.
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Mr. MORENO. To my colleague from Oregon, who I don't really know well, let me say this. As somebody that actually came to this country from a foreign land legally, I find it decently insulting that you would paint a picture of immigrants coming here to be dependent on the government. Let me just tell you, the exact opposite is true.
But that is actually the playbook of the Democratic Party--smearing with racist undertones immigrants, thinking that the only reason we would ever come to America is to be dependent on government.
Let me just be clear to the Americans out there who want to understand what is actually happening in DC, because I have only been here 13 months. My colleague has been here for 30 years. When you have been here for 30 years in Washington, DC, you think it is perfectly normal for government to provide aid to those in need and then have those people send that money overseas. To them, that is normal.
And in terms of your comment, to my colleague from Oregon, that we are shipping jobs overseas or incentivizing companies to send jobs overseas, welcome to the Republican Party's position on tariffs. I am happy to see, finally, that we have a Democrat who is willing to embrace tariffs, because we are sick and tired of seeing our jobs shipped overseas.
So I am disappointed that we couldn't agree on a basic premise, that U.S. taxpayer dollars intended to help our citizens should stay within our shores. That should highlight why, yesterday, the Democrat Members of both Houses could not stand up when President Trump asked a simple question: Is it the first duty of an elected official to defend and protect American citizens?
And you were there, Mr. President. Not a single Democrat could stand up.
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Mr. MORENO. I will remind the Senator: I in no way disparaged your family. I didn't even mention your family. What I did mention is that you made the point that we are harming immigrants who come here who might be dependent on social safety net programs and sending that money back overseas.
And I came here from another country--not my parents. I came here. I wasn't born in this country. I came here to seek the American dream, and I am honored every day to be here--although, on a day like today, not so much, because it is grossly disappointing that the Democrat Party that I once knew, a party of the working class, is not willing to make a very simple statement: When we help American citizens, we expect that money to stay in this country.
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