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Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, there are so many issues Senate Republicans could be working with us on this week that Americans actually care about. Republicans could focus on whether Americans can afford groceries or on lowering healthcare premiums or bringing down childcare costs or fixing our power grid.

But what have MAGA Republicans chosen to focus on this week? Voter suppression. That is what the Republican Senate is wasting our time on, pushing a voter suppression bill that most Americans do not support--a bill that appeals to only the most fringe element of the MAGA base.

If this is the path our Republican colleagues want to take, Democrats are ready. We will hold the line to ensure the forces of voter suppression do not win the day. We will debate this bill for as long as Republicans want because the more time we spend on this bill, the more Senate Democrats will expose it for what it really is.

I heard our Senator from Utah last night talk on the floor, and he talked--the times I heard him--about having an ID when you go to vote. This SAVE Act is not about voter ID. In fact, the original bill didn't even have a sentence about voter ID, and they had to put it in at the last minute so it could meet their subterfuge argument.

Democrats support commonsense voter ID, but this bill is not that-- not at all. So don't lie and make it seem like that is the purpose of this bill, because it isn't. It is just a sentence that was added at the last minute so they could engage in this subterfuge.

This is suppression, a MAGA power grab that could disenfranchise more than 20 million American citizens--because what is the core of the bill? The core of the bill is handing the voter rolls over to DHS, putting them through an algorithm designed by DOGE and Musk that supposedly knocks out illegal immigrants from voting.

But the evidence is almost no illegal immigrants vote, and on an experiment in a county of Missouri, more than half the people knocked out were American citizens, using this algorithm.

Is that what the Senators from Missouri or any other State want-- their legitimate citizens being knocked off the ballot, being purged, and then not knowing about it until you show up to vote on election day, and you say to the person at the election facility: Well, I voted at this booth for the last--I have voted at this place for 20 years. I have used the same ID.

Well, you were knocked off.

And to get back on is very onerous and very difficult. It is harder to reregister under this bill than it is to purchase a firearm. It is absolutely crazy.

And it is all based on one fact: that Donald Trump has lied that our elections are rife with voter fraud. We know that is bull. Even the Wall Street Journal--no friend of Democrats; certainly, no friend of mine--said in an editorial yesterday--the Wall Street Journal said the President's voter fraud claims ``aren't backed by hard evidence.'' And yet that is what this bill is supposedly all about.

I hope every single Republican, yesterday, read the editorial in the Wall Street Journal because they may not listen to us from this side of the aisle, but maybe they will listen to the Journal. The SAVE Act makes voting harder and makes registration much harder for U.S. citizens--for U.S. citizens.

The Journal notes: ``Many driver's licenses wouldn't'' comply-- ``wouldn't qualify.''

So I ask my colleagues on the other side of the aisle: Do you want to tell your voters--your citizen voters--that if they move and have to reregister, it is much harder? I don't think so.

The Journal makes another important point. It says the SAVE Act ``can't save Republicans from voter anger at unpopular policies.''

Let me say that again, the Wall Street Journal editorial page says: ``It can't save Republicans from voter anger at unpopular policies.''

Even the Wall Street Journal seems to recognize why Donald Trump and MAGA radicals are so obsessed with this bill. They think it will save them from what otherwise looks like a bad November--a November where voters are fed up with Trump's policies. That is what is going on here.

If Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans are so worried about November, the answer shouldn't be to take away the vote. They should try to come up with policies that are popular, rethink their awful policies that have made life more expensive and painful for working people.

If Donald Trump and Republicans are worried about November, then maybe they should focus on lowering costs instead of kicking millions of people off healthcare. Maybe Donald Trump should not have started an unpopular war in the Middle East, with no plan on how to get out.

Maybe MAGA Republicans should stand up to Donald Trump's tariffs. A lot of them didn't like them.

A headline from AP reads:

Trump's tariffs are hurting American manufacturers instead of helping them.

Of course, Trump would say we should get rid of the AP when they don't agree with him. That is another issue.

Maybe Republicans should fight against Donald Trump's corruption, his lavish gifts, his pardoning of ultrarich fraudsters, his administration's crypto get-rich-quick schemes.

But instead of doing any of these things, instead of doing what Americans want Republicans to do, MAGA radicals, instead, are trying to tick away the vote. They want to short-circuit the mechanisms of accountability that underpin our democracy.

If MAGA Republicans want to waste this week and beyond on voter suppression, we are happy to have the debate. We are happy to show the American people how radical the SAVE Act is and how out of touch Republicans have become by wasting time on this bill, instead of lowering costs like people want; how they are going to, with this bill, disenfranchise millions of their own voters--Republican voters in red States--by doing this bill. Iran

Mr. President, on Iran, well, we are 3\1/2\ weeks into Donald Trump's Iran war, and, today, the price of Brent crude hit nearly $110 a barrel. Experts say that even if the war ended tomorrow, it would take a long time for prices to come back down. We know oil prices are sticky for going down. When oil prices spike quickly, they tend to fall very slowly.

And now central banks are worried that Trump's war is driving up costs not just for energy but for transportation, for shipping, and other key goods that pass through the Middle East.

Mortgage rates, after inching down, are moving back up, and the worst part is there are no signs the war is going to end tomorrow, next week, or any time soon.

Donald Trump, the old saying is: If you break it, you buy it.

Donald Trump is breaking the Middle East, but now he is trying to dodge the cost and leave the American people with the bill.

So I will affirm again what Democrats have been saying for days. We need Cabinet officials to testify because the story from the administration does not add up.

This morning, before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard insisted in her prepared remarks that Donald Trump's operation from last year, Midnight Hammer, did, in fact, obliterate Iran's nuclear enrichment program.

She noted that ``there has been no efforts since then to try to rebuild their enrichment capability.''

So what gives now, Tulsi? Why did Donald Trump strike Iran again if you say that Midnight Hammer did, in fact, obliterate the nuclear enrichment program?

And, of course, nobody wants a nuclear Iran.

Why do the American people still not have any clear answers on the goals and timeline of this war?

Secretary Rubio needs to publicly testify under oath. He must answer tough questions from both sides of the aisle--which there will be--in public.

Hegseth needs to testify publicly under oath.

The American people deserve to directly hear from them. They deserve answers. They deserve accountability, and they need to hear from the administration about how we are going to get out of this before it is too late. Nomination of Markwayne Mullin

Mr. President, finally, on Senator Markwayne Mullin, he has been testifying before the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs as President Trump's nominee to be the next Secretary of Homeland Security.

I will not be supporting Senator Mullin's nomination, should it come before the Senate. The problems at DHS, especially at ICE and CBP, run far deeper than who is in charge. What Americans need far more than just a change in leadership is a change in policy. Americans demand legislation to rein in ICE and end the violence.

But the White House is still refusing to engage on some of the most pressing demands that Democrats have called for since day one.

We are going to continue to engage the White House and congressional Republicans, but we need them to get serious about responding to the chaos we have seen in too many American cities. If ICE is not reformed and reined in, sooner or later, another American citizen is at risk of getting killed.
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Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, in a moment, my good friend my colleague from Georgia will offer a resolution that is very simple: It says fund TSA. Period. No ands, ifs, or buts, no excuses, no secondary reasons.

If Senators want to fund TSA, they should simply support the resolution of Senator Warnock. No ands, ifs, or buts.

Who is blocking TSA money from being approved? Republicans.

On several occasions, Democrats have gone to the floor and said: Let's just fund TSA. We know that there are discussions about ICE and Border Patrol that we haven't resolved, but why hold TSA hostage? Why hold passengers at our airports who are waiting on long lines hostage?

All the Republicans have to do is say: Yes, and those lines will be greatly reduced or go away, the waiting will be greatly reduced, and people will be much happier.

So to hold our airport travelers and our TSA workers as hostages is so much the wrong thing to do, and the American people don't like it.

But the American people should know, if they get up and block the Warnock resolution, it is Republicans blocking funding for TSA, creating those long lines, and standing in the way of funding our hard- working TSA workers.

Democrats are giving Republicans another chance. We can fund TSA workers today. We can make sure our airports are secure today. We can make sure the workers are paid today. They just need to get out of the way and stop blocking TSA officers' paychecks.
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Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I want to thank Senator Booker for leading this important measure.

Thirteen U.S. servicemembers have been killed since the start of the Iran war. Another 200 have been injured. Thousands more across the Middle East have been killed or injured. We pray for all those killed and hurt. We pray for their families.

Meanwhile, the Strait of Hormuz traffic has crawled to a halt. The price of Brent crude has risen to $110 a barrel. Americans are now paying an average of $3.80 or more at the pump. And when Donald Trump was asked last week if we were toward the beginning of this war or toward the end, he said both. He said both.

Enough is enough. Trump's war in Iran is turning into a disaster, and there is no end in sight. We do not know Trump's goals. We do not know Trump's timeline. We do not know what victory even looks like in his eyes. Enough is enough.

A few weeks ago, Senator Kaine, Senator Schiff, Senator Paul, and I brought a simple resolution to the floor affirming that Donald Trump cannot send our servicemembers into war without coming to Congress first. Republicans voted no.

Today, we are pushing another War Powers Resolution led by Senator Booker, and I want to thank him for his leadership.

To my Republican colleagues, the American people are watching. They oppose this war. They expect us to do our jobs.

No more senseless wars in the Middle East, no more gas prices shooting through the roof, no more U.S. servicemembers fighting and dying in endless wars--enough is enough. The Senate will put a stop to it tonight.

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