Legislative Session
Mr. President, I move to proceed to Calendar No. 168, H.R. 5371.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the motion.
The senior assistant executive clerk read as follows:
Mr. President, ``There is a time and a place to debate healthcare, just like there is a time and place to debate energy policy and immigration and education--but not''--not--``when the funding of the federal government, and all the lives that are impacted by it, hang in the balance.''
Those are not my words; those are the words of the junior Democrat Senator from Connecticut back in 2013.
These words were once emblematic of the Democrat position here in the Senate. Democrats once passionately opposed shutdowns--or so they said--in large part because of the impact they would have on American citizens and American workers.
Now? Well, now, government workers and every other American affected by this shutdown have become nothing more than pawns in the Democrats' political games.
On Friday, Federal workers missed their entire paychecks. The next paycheck for our troops--for our troops, Mr. President--is in jeopardy. And more than 40 million Americans could lose access to food stamps if the shutdown continues--40 million. Yet none of it seems to matter to Senate Democrats. The party that once decried the impact of shutdowns on Americans in need is now apparently content to see 40 million Americans go without food.
The senior Democrat Senator from Vermont was on TV the other day, and one of the hosts suggested that Members of Congress should refuse to take their paychecks during a shutdown. And what did the senior Democrat Senator from Vermont say? He said some Members of Congress couldn't afford to go without pay. That is right. Some Members of Congress couldn't afford to go without pay. Does he think that other Americans can?
The junior Democrat Senator from Arizona told NBC News during the beginning of the shutdown that he couldn't afford to miss his paycheck. That was his quote:
What on Earth does he think is happening to Federal workers and other Americans out of work because of the Democrat shutdown? Does he think they don't have mortgage payments, rent payments, school expenses, electric bills? If some Members of Congress can't afford to miss a paycheck, how much more is that true for the many workers making a lot less than Members of Congress pull down?
The junior Democrat Senator from Minnesota stated she would not be forgoing her pay because she is continuing to work--because she is continuing to work.
Do Democrats even hear themselves?
She does realize, right, that a lot of other people are continuing to work and have been working without pay now for 4 weeks, thanks to her actions and those of her Democrat colleagues? How many of those workers are going to miss their rent payments or mortgage payments before Democrats are satisfied?
``Shutdowns aren't victimless crimes,'' the senior Democrat from Virginia said--less than a year ago, I might add.
Mr. President, Democrats' victims are piling up, and Democrats don't look likely to spare anyone anytime soon. In fact, they are freely admitting it. The second ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives said recently:
``But it is one of the few leverage times we have.''
I guess the Americans currently lining up at food banks can comfort themselves with the knowledge that they are being sacrificed to advance Democrats' political goals.
If you ask Democrats the reason for the 180-degree flip in their views on shutdowns, if you challenge them to explain their hypocrisy, I suspect you wouldn't get much of an answer. I suspect that, at best, Democrats would bleat something about how this shutdown is a special case--right?
A special case--it is always a special case with the Democrats. A historic blockade of Presidential nominees--well, that was a special case. Ignore anything that you ever said about shutdowns right here on the floor of the Senate--well, this is a special case.
I will tell you what is actually special about this case. What is special about this case is the Democrats' far-left base demanded a showdown with President Trump, and Democrats have abandoned every principle that they possess relating to shutdowns to give it to their base.
While some Democrats may be privately uncomfortable about all the damage a 4-week shutdown is doing, so far, they are too scared of their base to do anything about it.
Democrats claim that this shutdown is about addressing the expiring Obamacare subsidies. That is not what this is really about. If this were really what this is about, the Democrats would be voting to reopen the government so that we could actually engage in a serious discussion about rising healthcare costs and how Obamacare has failed to address them. But they are not because, at the end of the day, Democrats don't want a solution; they want a political issue.
And if countless hard-working Americans are sacrificed in the process?
Apparently, that is just fine with the Democrats here in the Senate.
Mr. President, we will be voting once again, this week, to reopen the government--to reopen the government, restore hard-working Americans' paychecks, protect nutrition programs, support critical services like air traffic control, and that list goes on and on and on. And Democrats will have a 13th chance to vote on a clean, nonpartisan funding bill that will reopen the government. All we need are five Democrats to join the three who are with us already, and we could have the government open in a matter of hours.
It is that simple. The solution is sitting right at that desk. The bill that passed the House a month ago is sitting at this desk and has been now for a month. We have repeatedly called it up and asked us to vote on it. Every time, we get 55 Senators voting for it. Everybody knows the rules. The Senate requires 60. But that bill, with five courageous Democrats stepping forward in helping us pass it, could be on the President's desk, signed into law, and this government reopens. It could happen today. It could happen this afternoon. Let's just hope that somewhere those courageous Democrats exist.
That was what the senior Democrat from Virginia said just last year. So how do you justify what you are doing now?
It is up to them, Mr. President. We can do it, and we can do it today.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Democratic leader is recognized.
Mr. President, open enrollment is 5 days away. Starting this Saturday, tens of millions of Americans face the specter of financial crisis, all while Donald Trump is dancing on the tarmac in Malaysia.
Donald Trump may be having a nice time abroad, but people here at home are dreading--dreading--open enrollment. Insurance plans that cost $300 or $400 a month will suddenly cost $2,000 a month or more because Republicans prefer to shut the government down over working with Democrats to extend the ACA tax credits. Consequently, the average ACA plan is set to more than double--double--starting next year. The average 60-year-old couple making $85,000 a year will soon have to pay an extra $22,000 or more just to have health insurance. Imagine the specter. The devastation will be felt across the country even by Americans with private insurance. They are not exempt. Their insurance is going up quite a bit too. The rate of people without insurance will spike by the millions. More people will get sick. More people will lose coverage. More people will go bankrupt. More people will die from preventable illness.
Americans have never seen healthcare like this, the one that is about to begin on Saturday, and Donald Trump is nowhere to be found. Americans are going to sit at their kitchen tables on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and say: How the heck can we pay these bills? What are we going to do without health insurance? What if our kids get sick? What if we get sick? And there is Donald Trump overseas not even paying attention to this crisis.
Instead of sitting down with Leader Jeffries and me, Trump skipped town for his second foreign trip in less than a month. Open enrollment is just days away, and Trump's message to the American people facing financial disaster is: Greetings from Malaysia.
Here is what the President needs to do: He should negotiate with Democrats to reopen the government and end the ACA crisis right away. The President should stop focusing on foreign escapades, on ballrooms, on bailouts for Argentina, and start focusing on negotiating with Democrats to lower people's healthcare costs, but Donald Trump isn't taking this crisis seriously still as millions of Americans are just frightened--tens of millions--about what will happen.
Trump continues to use the American people as pawns. This weekend, we learned that the Trump administration, for instance, ordered the USDA, the Department of Agriculture, not to tap into emergency funds to keep SNAP benefits--food benefits--flowing to the States. The very same administration that sent $40 million to Argentina at the drop of a hat to help Trump's MAGA ally is now telling hungry families in America they can't have nutrition funding.
What gall. The administration's decision to let SNAP freeze is callous, is cynical, and entirely unnecessary.
Donald Trump says there is no money to pay hungry kids, but he is spending $40 billion to bail out Argentina, $300 billion on his vanity ballroom, $172 million on two luxury jets for Kristi Noem, hundreds of millions for outfitting his foreign jet but nothing, nothing, nothing to help hungry kids.
What warped priorities. What a bubble this President lives in--apart, away, and not caring about the trauma the American people are facing when it comes to healthcare.
Let's be very clear: The administration is making an intentional choice not to fund SNAP this weekend. The emergency funding is there, but the administration is just choosing not to use it. And for those who say the money can't be moved around so easily, that is a load of bunk. If the administration can cough up $40 billion for Argentina, they can find money for SNAP by this Saturday. This administration that all year long has trampled over the rule of law and illegally impounded funds left and right suddenly says the law won't let them fund SNAP to feed hungry kids? Give me a break.
Even Republicans privately know that Donald Trump's SNAP ploy is outrageously cynical. Here is what one House Republican said on the issue:
That is a quote from a House Republican.
So make no mistake, Donald Trump is manufacturing a SNAP crisis instead of working with Democrats to reopen the government and end the healthcare crisis, which is very, very real for tens of millions of American families because, after all, what Democrats are pushing for is the same thing that the American people want. Americans want to see their healthcare premiums go down. Americans want to see the government reopen. They don't want to have to pay an extra $20,000 a year just to have health insurance. We Democrats want to solve this crisis right away. Lowering healthcare is not a crazy demand. It is not some leftwing pipedream, which it seems the Senate Republican leader wants people to believe. It is, rather, just common sense.
Most Americans, even MAGA voters, agree, as 55 percent of those who voted for Trump want to see the ACA credits extended, but Donald Trump and his Republican colleagues in the Senate and even more so in the House, are nowhere--nowhere--to be found. So the choice to keep the government open or to keep the government closed is entirely in Donald Trump's and Republicans' hands.
Time is short, and Americans are on the brink of a crisis that could send millions and millions of families into financial disaster. Donald Trump and Republicans, meanwhile, are not even here in Washington to deal with the crisis heading straight toward us.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. President, a few weeks ago, the Catholic cardinal and archbishop of Washington, DC, gave a homily on the occasion of the annual celebration to honor and support immigrants. He made special note of what is currently happening across America, what he called an unprecedented assault upon millions of immigrant men and women and families in our midst.
He said:
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that this homily be printed in the Record in its entirety.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows:
A few days ago, some Jewish rabbis in the Chicagoland area sent a letter to the editor of the Chicago Sun-Times on the same immigration crisis. They wrote:
These rabbis wrote--
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that this letter to the editor from the Jewish rabbis in Chicago be printed in its entirety in the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows:
Mr. President, I make a point now, since the arrival of the military from President Trump into the Chicago area, to go home each weekend and visit the neighborhoods that are under assault from the ICE agents.
I did that last weekend. I visited a suburb of Chicago known as Elgin, IL. People have heard of it, I am sure. It is the sixth largest city in our State.
The mayor, Dave Kaptain, is a true bipartisan man. It is no surprise that he has been mayor for almost 12 years. He is a good mayor and a good person. We met in his office and talked about what is going on.
Elgin was one of the first targets of President Trump and ICE. They sent in the agents in the early morning hours,
Do you remember how many times he gave speeches at his rallies talking about these people who are now being disappeared by ICE? Remember how he referred to them--rapists, murderers, terrorists, sexual predators, criminally insane?
It turns out that of all of the people who were arrested, detained, and disappeared by ICE, 70 percent of those have no criminal record whatsoever.
So what is actually happening? The cardinal from the District of Columbia and the Jewish rabbis know, and we all know. It is a reign of terror--a reign of terror from this administration--not to make America safer but to make sure that people who weren't born here leave.
But, unfortunately, if you are a student of history, you know that is the story of America: immigrants who came to this country seeking freedom and opportunity and making this a great nation. My family tells that story, and I am sure most of the people listening to my voice can tell the same story. But what is going on now is a reign of terror.
I went to a section of Chicago known as Little Village. Little Village is primarily Mexican American. It is a great community--miles and miles of shops and stores and restaurants.
When I visited with them on Friday, they were largely empty. One fellow at the grocery store told me 50 percent of the customers have disappeared. Why? Because they are afraid. They are afraid to leave their homes. For what? To be arrested, to be detained, to disappear.
Oftentimes, we are asked to try to find someone who has been detained and get little or no cooperation from the Federal Agencies. These are the tactics of dictators in faraway countries, not American due process, but that is the reality of what we are facing.
I asked the mayor of Elgin what he thought about the population--the Hispanic population--in his town.
He said: Senator, 50 percent of the people in my city of Elgin are Hispanic. Many of them are immigrants. They make for a great community. We just had a beautiful festival, with 10,000 people showing up. It has been a tradition in Elgin for a long time, and one we are proud of.
He made a point of telling me that they are changing the ordinances in Elgin so as to make those who are protected by DACA eligible to apply to be firefighters and policemen. The one for policemen has been on the books for a while. Now they have expanded it to firefighters, and they have a long line of people interested--immigrants who are prepared to risk their lives to keep their community safe.
That, I think, is a great story of a great town, and I am proud to represent them.
But we cannot be proud of the tactics that are being used by ICE and by the Department of Homeland Security. If you are going after serious criminals, ``the worst of the worst''--the litany that is often given by President Trump in his rallies--count me in. I will be part of that. But to terrorize people in their homes, to make them afraid to go to church, afraid to go to the market, afraid to go to a restaurant, is not what this country is about.
There is only one parallel in history that I can think of that has occurred in my lifetime, and that, of course, would be the internment of 120,000 Japanese Americans during World War II. It was a discriminatory policy in the midst of a war that took these people from their homes and their businesses and held them in camps scattered around the West of the United States.
We look back on that, years later, and say: That was a terrible mistake. That is not what America is all about.
I was a Member of the House of Representatives when the U.S. Government, under President Clinton, issued a formal apology to Japanese Americans for that policy.
Sadly, we are building up another occurrence in the United States with the actions of ICE and the Department of Homeland Security, when it comes to Hispanic Americans. Profiling is part of the process, and it is a disgrace that it is. That is the reality of what we face in Chicago, and that is the reality of what they are going to face in other States to come.
It is time for not only the clergy to speak up but the people who care to speak up, who believe in human life and the value of it and who believe that people need to be treated with respect.
Mr. President, on an unrelated issue, over the weekend, we witnessed another brutal Russian onslaught against Ukraine--a scene brazenly repeated after overtures made to Russian President Putin to end the war.
I do not begrudge President Trump for trying to engage with Putin. I have met with my fair share of autocrats in my political career. But Putin is not serious about negotiating an end to the war in Ukraine. He is not driven by real estate or personal financial motivations but by deep personal grievances and twisted readings of history and nostalgia for the Soviet Empire--so much so that Putin has been willing to slaughter thousands of innocent Ukrainians, kidnap children, and send more than a million Russians to become war casualties in pursuit of his myopia.
We should also be under no illusions that this is just a Russian assault on Ukraine. It is an assault against the United States' values, and it is an assault against NATO and its allies.
Last week, again, Russia entered NATO airspace--this time, in Lithuania. The move followed years of increasingly provocative Russian incursions. And Russian planes have entered the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone at least nine times this year.
I welcome President Trump's recent decision to tighten sanctions on Russia. He can and should take further steps to increase military and economic pressure on Putin, and we in Congress should finally pass sanctions legislation, which has 80 cosponsors from both political parties, and we should do it soon.
Mr. President, on an unrelated topic, today, my constituents in Illinois will begin to receive letters from health insurance companies outlining the prices for next year's health insurance premiums. For many Illinois families, these letters will inform them that their premium costs will double.
Do you want to know why we are in a government shutdown? It is because of that letter that is being sent around by insurance companies to residents of Illinois and many other States this week. They are going to learn, unfortunately, that the cost of their health insurance, in many instances, is going to double--$1,000 or more for each one of these recipients--all because congressional Republicans have chosen to allow the Affordable Care Act's enhanced tax credits to expire.
These credits have helped millions of people in every State, but the Republicans want to get rid of them. They want American families to have to pay more for health insurance.
Last week, I sent a letter to the health insurance companies in Illinois, asking them what it will mean to lose these tax credits. Major health insurers, like Blue Cross Blue Shield and United, told me that the expiration of these tax credits will be a disaster.
In Illinois, these tax credits lower premiums by an average of more than $500 a month--$6,000 a year. Families who are struggling to try to pay electric and utility bills, struggling to pay grocery expenses, now face up to $6,000 a year more for the same health insurance they enjoyed this year.
When Illinoisans go online at getcoveredillinois.gov, today, to check their health insurance premiums for next year, they are going to see two devastating things: First, nearly 400,000 Illinoisans will have to grapple with the reality that they may no longer receive the premium assistance they received this year. These losses could reach hundreds to thousands of dollars a month, depending on the family size. Second, they will see that, across our State, health insurance premiums are going up approximately 30 percent next year, fueled by these expiring tax credits and the ``Big Beautiful Trump Budget Bill.''
It is a double hit--loss of the enhanced tax credits and underlying costs skyrocketing--all because the Republicans in Congress refuse to sit down with us now--now--and fix this problem.
Listen to what Melanie from Elmhurst shared with me. She said:
She is not alone. She is 1 of 100,000 people in my State and more than 4 million nationwide who stand to lose their health coverage because of this Republican decision.
Democrats tried to address the expiration of these credits this year, but the Republicans have refused to cooperate. Now is the time to get it done for families. Republicans, Democrats, and Independents, whether they vote or not, should have access to health insurance.
If you are looking for leadership from the White House, we have to hope that the President will return from his trip and take up this cause.
I hope that the House of Representatives will actually come to the Capitol for the first time in 4 or 5 weeks. Their presence is long overdue.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alaska.
Madam President, we are in day 27 of a government shutdown--27 days where the government is shut down--and yet we are here. You are presiding. We have pages on the floor. There are people in the Gallery. There are people coming and going. We have Capitol Hill police that are in the area. And it just kind of feels like business as usual. We are going to have committee hearings this week. We are going to be voting on judges and some CRAs. And it just kind of feels like business as usual, and yet it is so not business as usual. We are pretending that everything is OK. We are pretending that people are not being impacted by this shutdown.
I am looking at the people that are here recording this, that will be working to process this Record. None of them are getting paid.
The Capitol Hill police that I visit with on a daily basis outside and inside are not getting paid. And they share with me that: Well, I still had to drive in. I have a 40-minute drive to get here, so I have to fill up my car. I have kids at home that are young kids, and they go to childcare.
This is a Capitol Hill police officer saying this. And he says: So I still have to pay the childcare provider even though I have to come in and I am not getting paid. So my expenses are not going away.
Yet every single one of them says: I am not complaining. I am not complaining. I have signed up for this. This is my mission, and I will be here.
They are proud to be here. But what is wrong is that their families are stressed. I was talking with one Capitol Hill police officer on Thursday of last week, and he says: Every day, I go home and my wife says, ``So, did they open it up? Are we going to be paid?'' And he said: I tell her ``Nope, no progress today.''
So we are starting to feel that, because people who would otherwise just be saying ``I signed up for this. I am not going to complain. I am just going to do what I am going to do''--we are starting to feel this in real time, and it is having an impact not only financially but, I fear, from a mental health perspective.
We had a call come in just--well, actually today. This is a person who was calling from Fairbanks, and she said: It is getting chilly in Fairbanks. I woke up to a bill for heating oil of nearly $2,500. Normally, this wouldn't be that big of a problem for me, but I am a Federal employee. I love my job, but it has been very frustrating to have constant threats of shutdowns and RIFs looming over my head. I work hard. I am so tired of being labeled as one who is not working hard. I would first like to propose that Congress doesn't get paid while we aren't getting paid and maybe take fewer long weekends.
Well, I would let her know that, for many of us--I don't know about the occupant of the Chair, but for many of us, we have deferred our pay. It is not right that our staffs should not get paid and yet we get paid.
But she raises a good point. She says that maybe we in Congress should take fewer long weekends. I think she is right. I think she is right. We left here Thursday afternoon. Members are just now coming back. We will have our first vote here at 5:30.
In the meantime, people have done important stuff. We have important jobs. We go home, we do important things, and maybe we are able to carve out a little time to be with our families as well and try to have some of that balance.
But, for some, they still had to come in this weekend. Some of those Capitol Hill police officers still had to come in this weekend to keep this place moving. Some of the folks who are here to provide services to the building still had to come in this weekend, and they weren't getting paid.
So I think the suggestion about us maybe taking fewer long weekends is something not only that we should consider, but I am going to challenge this body. I have a long commute home, folks, and I am not begrudging that, but I don't think that we should be going home and just behaving as if this was another week in the U.S. Senate--not when we have a government shutdown.
There is so much--so much--that is coming at us like a freight train. Little kids are excited because Friday is going to be Halloween, but let me tell you, the scary costumes on Halloween night are not going to be the scariest things; it is going to be what is delivered, what is left on the doorstep the next morning, November 1, when it then becomes officially official that SNAP payments will not be processed, will not be available for the many, many--66,000 in Alaska--who rely on those food benefits. The WIC payments to the women, infants, and children-- those, too, will be impacted. It is a reality for us that we are seeing an impact across our society in ways that are not only scary but overwhelming for some.
We had a pretty, pretty tough week and a half with a major disaster. Thank you to the President for declaring that Presidential disaster following ex-Typhoon Halong. But I can tell you that those who are reliant on SNAP benefits are increasingly stressed because of what they have just gone through with displacement within their homes. And now it is across the whole State.
Our food banks are stressed. We were stressed going into the beginning of winter already. We keep in close touch with our food banks, and what I am hearing is that we are already seeing the lines at the food banks growing longer. And what is hard to see is to know how many military families are part of those lines now.
Madam President, this is simply--this is simply not right. And we may or may not have what we call rifle-shot votes this week that will-- maybe we will take up again the bill that would pay all the Federal workers. Maybe there will be a way that the military, who has been paid up until the end of this month--that we will be able to make that next pay increment. I certainly hope so. And not just our military but our U.S. Coast Guard and those that are in law enforcement. Maybe there is going to be a vote that would allow us to pay our U.S. Capitol Police. I have signed on to that bipartisan measure. And maybe there is going to be a vote for us to pay out the SNAP benefits. I have signed on to that legislation as well. Maybe but maybe not.
Again, if we do take the rifle-shot approach, who else are we leaving behind? What have we done for the men and women who are making sure that when we go through those airports--the TSA--you have gone through the TSA. What have we done to make sure that our air traffic controllers that are keeping us safe in the skies--that their wives aren't yelling at them at the end of a long, stressful day and saying: When is this going to end?
So we have to figure this out. And I know that we have our positions, and if people don't know what the Republican positions are and the Democrat positions are, they haven't been listening to this discussion for the past 27 days. We know what it is. We have got to come together, which means we have got to talk to one another. And it can't be about Republicans winning and Democrats losing or Democrats winning and Republicans losing because
A fellow in Petersburg was told that his telehealth appointment with his cardiologist was canceled because of the lapse in authorization of telehealth benefits. So they basically said: If you want to keep this appointment, you are going to have to fly to Seattle. Those of you that know Alaska know that Petersburg and Seattle are not connected by a road, and it is not cheap.
A couple in Anchorage said that they have been waiting on an approval from the FDA on a compassionate use exception for a medication to treat stage IV ovarian cancer, and now they are told: Just hold on. Hold on. The government is not operational right now.
We have a lot in our maritime community, and in order for them to be lawfully out on the water, they need to have a license renewed through the new merchant mariner credentialing. That is on hold.
We have a housing situation in Sitka, and we have an Army Corps permit for the housing authority that has been delayed. We can't figure that one out.
We are talking to people who have been trying to get an SBA loan--a local business owner in downtown.
The school district in Sleetmute has been waiting to get the impact aid emergency construction dollars so that they can repair this roof that is literally falling down on top of the kids in the back of the school there.
They are told: Well, there is nobody here to take your call. There is nobody here to take your call because the government is not open.
So for those who think that this is not that big of a deal, they need to start asking people--not only people who are Federal employees, not only people who are SNAP recipients; they need to be asking people about just some of the day-to-day, matter-of-fact things that happen when you have a small business or you are trying to get your fishing vessel out in the water. Real Alaskans are being impacted, and real Alabamans are being impacted.
Americans are being impacted when we don't do our job. And maybe this idea of ``We don't go home this weekend until we resolve this''--maybe it doesn't work. Maybe we just look at one another and say: I am not even going to talk to you. Maybe we just continue on with multiple rounds of the same vote that we have been taking for the past 27 days and see if we get a different result.
Now, some say that is the definition of insanity. I don't know. I don't know. But what I do know is that when we leave and we assume that things are fine or we send that message that things are fine because we have just gone home and it is just business as usual here, then people whose lives are really being impacted right now--they think we don't get it.
We do get it. We need to act to end this shutdown, and I am going to call on all of my colleagues to stay here until we get it done.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas.
Madam President, the name ``Hezbollah'' has become increasingly familiar in recent years to Americans as one of Iran's main proxy groups committed to the destruction of Israel and even the United States.
Beyond the horrific bombings of the U.S. Embassy and marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, in the 1980s, many of us now associate the name with Iran, of course, which has been the principal financial supporter of Hezbollah, to the tune of 70 to 90 percent of its budget. In return, Hezbollah acts as one of Iran's proxies in the so-called Axis of Resistance.
We all know that Hezbollah is one of the terror groups in the Middle East, responsible for numerous violent attacks over the past several decades. But lesser known is their influence in the Americas-- specifically in Latin America. Perhaps lesser known is the broad extent of Hezbollah's activities in the Western Hemisphere, which includes illicit drug trafficking and other criminal enterprises. Hezbollah uses these activities to generate cash to help finance terrorism back home in the Middle East.
So while many in the West are focused on Iran's proxy terrorism around the world, we cannot afford to ignore our own backyard.
Last week, I chaired a hearing for the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control to examine the role that terrorist networks played in creating the drug crisis that we face here in the United States, which has taken hundreds of thousands of lives over recent years. In this hearing, expert witnesses testified about Hezbollah's activities in Central America and in South America and how they have strengthened drug cartels and other criminal organizations that are actively trafficking drugs into our country across the southern border.
This illicit drug trafficking in Latin America is one of Hezbollah's primary sources of income used to finance terrorism, as I said earlier. As we learned at the hearing, now more than ever, Hezbollah will be looking to increase its cash flow and revenue from drug trafficking and other illegal activities in Latin America as they seek to rebuild from Israel's impressive campaign to rid the world of this terrorist threat.
We learned that Hezbollah takes advantage of free-trade zones in Central America, where they can carry out their illegal operations under minimal law enforcement and oversight. Then there is the triborder region between Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay, long known to be a hotbed of terrorist financing because it has a minimal law enforcement footprint and is a hub for commerce. It is a black market for all sorts of illicit activities, from drug trafficking, to arms trafficking, to identity theft, and even to real estate schemes. Hezbollah, when it comes to its fundraising, like many, many criminal organizations, is commodity-agnostic, meaning they will do anything for money.
The border of these three countries, known as the triborder region, is isolated and hard to monitor, making it possible for easy transit between them. It boosts a robust network of roads that connect the area to major cities as well as international airports. These attributes, paired with high levels of corruption and lack of good governance, create the perfect petri dish for both licit and illicit trade to flourish.
It was in this region in 2008 where the U.S.'s Operation Titan arrested upwards of 130 suspects and seized roughly $23 million associated with a joint operation between Hezbollah and Colombian cartels that were engaged in cocaine smuggling and money laundering. This operation uncovered about 700,000 wiretapped conversations revealing drug cartels' association with--working hand in glove with Hezbollah--700,000 wiretapped conversations tying these drug cartels to this terrorist organization.
For example, one key cartel leader was known as Taliban and was given permission to freely import drugs and launder cash into Lebanon in exchange for a 12-percent tax on his proceeds paid to Hezbollah.
Hezbollah's operations extend to other free-trade zones, like Margarita Island in Venezuela and Maicao in Colombia. It was in Maicao were Ali Mohamad Saleh, a designated Hezbollah facilitator, led a ``support cell'' that raised money for the broader Hezbollah network. His activities included transporting money from Colombia to Hezbollah in Lebanon through Venezuela.
The Venezuelan Government has openly embraced this illicit commerce and these criminal organizations. At last week's hearing, one of our witnesses described the regime of President Maduro as ``a key enabler of Hezbollah's malign activity in the Western Hemisphere.''
From providing passports to Hezbollah operatives, allowing them to travel more freely, to creating transportation pipelines, to intelligence collaboration, Venezuela has developed a partnership with Iran and Hezbollah, allowing them to finance their terror operations around the world while they engage in illicit money laundering and the transportation of drugs and other illegal activities in the Americas.
The U.S. Treasury Department has uncovered key evidence that the Maduro regime and Iran are collaborating at the state level. For example in 2020, Adel El Zabayar, a former Venezuelan official and political ally of
Notwithstanding the impressive work of the U.N.'s intelligence community, Maduro has not exactly been secretive about who his friends and who his enemies are. In 2022, Maduro openly bragged about his ``exemplary relationship'' and ``increasing cooperation'' with Iran in an interview where he said:
Now, if you didn't know that this was the President of Venezuela speaking, you might have mistaken the quote from a leader of Iran or some other state sponsor of terrorism or you might have mistaken it for one of America's elite universities or a slogan from one of the pro- Hamas clubs protesting on Columbia's campus, for example, last spring, who pride themselves in resisting ``western colonialism.'' Well, obviously, they are all drinking the same Kool-Aid.
In addition to aiding and abetting Hezbollah, Maduro has been criminally indicted based on his leadership of the Cartel of the Suns-- probably one of the least known cartels. Better known are the Mexican cartels. But Cartel of the Suns is actually headed up by Nicolas Maduro, the President of Venezuela, and it includes a network of Venezuelan military officials, including the army, navy, air force, and the Bolivarian National Guard.
Named for the insignias that Venezuelan military officials wear on their uniforms, the Cartel of the Suns--or the ``Cartel de los Soles''--is involved in everything from gasoline smuggling to illegal mining, drug trafficking, and a whole raft of other illegal activities in Central and South and North America.
The U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned the Cartel of the Suns this past July for its materiel support of Tren de Aragua and the Sinaloa Cartel in their illegal drug and criminal activity here in the United States.
This gives you an idea of how interconnected these networks are that seek to undermine our country and to threaten our people--not just in America but also our friends and allies in Central and South America. This is a network that chants threats to Israel--``Death to Israel''-- and also chants ``Death to America.''
We have known for a long time that much of the fentanyl trafficked through our southern border was manufactured using Chinese precursor chemicals. We also know that China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea have been working in concert for a long time to undermine the West. So it is no surprise that Maduro's despotic regime in Venezuela aspires to join that list as part of the Axis of Resistance. We should not be shocked when our enemies work together.
The crisis of drug trafficking and human trafficking and other crimes in the hands of international criminal networks that the Biden administration ignored at the southern border is another scheme that our enemies have devised to harm the United States. The Biden administration was asleep at the switch--and that is being kind--when it came to the threat of a porous southern border and their open border policies, allowing criminal networks, along with their poison, to be freely transported into the United States and take tens of thousands of lives and help enrich our adversaries in Iran and Hezbollah.
The deaths in America resulting from drug overdose and the violent crime that our people are suffering is not an accident; it is directly connected to this axis of resistance.
And while it may be easy to think we can ignore these terrorists in the Middle East because, well, there is an ocean between us and them, the fact of the matter is, there is not. They are operating right here in our own backyard.
Iran's proxy terrorist operations have contributed to and profited from the instability and corruption in South America that has led to a mass migration crisis in South America and Mexico, which has flooded our southern border with unprecedented numbers of illegal crossings during the Biden administration. This phenomenon, paired with the strengthening of the criminal cartels in Latin America, has led to much more criminal activities here in the United States, where street gangs distribute the drugs exported from these countries to America, to our border, then to be distributed across the United States to the detriment of the American people.
So the reason this hearing was so important is because we need to connect the dots. We need to make sure we understand the nature of the threat to our way of life, and it is not just about over there; it is about right here in our backyard that our enemies are collaborating and threatening the safety and security of the American people.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Madam President, I come to the Senate today to address my recent oversight relating to our Nation's Federal courts and to share some of my recent findings.
This month, I sent letters to a pair of Federal judges regarding their suspected use of artificial intelligence in published court orders. The two judges issued orders that were wrought with serious, inexplicable errors that were of great concern to the litigants, to the public, and to me.
One judge, sitting in the southern district of Mississippi, issued an order that named plaintiffs and defendants who were not even a party to the case. It misquoted statutory text. It erroneously cited evidence that didn't exist in the record, and it referred to sworn declarations by people who had not appeared anywhere in the case.
I have never seen or heard of anything like this from any Federal court. The other judge sitting in the district of New Jersey issued an order with fake quotes and misstatements about case law. The order even falsely attributed quotations to the defendants that apparently were never made, errors like I just described are unfathomable.
Both judges' errors are obviously reckless and unacceptable, but, in fact, it gets worse. When these flagrant mistakes were brought to the courts' attention by counsel in the cases, both judges attempted to minimize their faults. One even referred to the errors as ``clerical.''
Both judges removed their orders from the docket and the public record without even any explanation. This lack of transparency is breathtaking, and the judges' refusal to accept responsibility for their actions eroded public confidence in the competency and fairness of the Federal judiciary.
When litigants or their attorneys misuse artificial intelligence like this and file sloppy briefs with incorrect citations and falsehoods, they are rightly held accountable.
Just recently, we have seen attorneys sanctioned, attorneys fined, removed from their cases, and even referred for professional discipline and disbarment for this kind of conduct.
Well, that is how attorneys are handling it when they misuse or do the wrong thing. In fact, in a case assigned to one of these judges, a magistrate judge publicly chastised a counsel for using artificial intelligence in a brief.
Now, apparently some judges think accountability runs only one way, but we all know they are wrong. As the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals recently explained, ``The use of AI or other technology does not excuse carelessness or failure to follow professional standards.''
That is true for every officer of a Federal court, attorney, and judge alike.
Now, to their credit, finally, these two judges responded to my letters and explained that they are taking measures to ensure that these incidents never happen again.
Each acknowledges that the errors in their orders arose from the misuse of
A lawyer can't excuse an error-ridden brief by blaming a paralegal or junior associate, attorneys' names go on their filings, just as judges' names go on their orders. The judges issue orders in their own name that determine the rights of the parties before them.
The buck stops at the judges. It is bad enough that the Federal court order could misstate or pervert the law to the degree that we saw it in these two judges, but I am concerned that these now-public blunders arose in cases represented by sophisticated parties who had the resources and the legal talent to push back and make sure that their clients got justice.
So at the same time, through these errors that I have pointed out, we have to fear that people without resources--that if the same thing happened to an indigent party or a pro se litigant--the truth may never have come to light. I cannot and will not stand for that. All litigants are owed a fair shake in the court.
Our Federal courts must hold themselves to the highest of standards. Our Constitution depends on it. Justice requires it. Americans deserve better from their judges.
Now, to be clear, I appreciate these two judges finally accepting responsibility for what went on in their jurisdiction, and I believe them when they say that they are deploying measures to prevent the same mistakes from happening again. But this should be a lesson, not just for these two judges but for the entire bench and the bar.
Artificial intelligence is a powerful and potentially dangerous resource. Although it may have some role in preliminary legal research, it cannot and must not be a substitute for legal judgment.
The Senate confirms Federal judges. We don't confirm computer software to perform the duties mandated under article III.
As chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I am committed to safeguarding litigants' rights and ensuring that every party in Federal court receives fair treatment and careful review by article III judges.
I call on every judge in America to take this issue seriously and formalize measures to prevent the misuse of artificial intelligence in their chambers.
I also call upon the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts and also the Judicial Conference to quickly develop decisive and meaningful guidance on the use of artificial intelligence by our judiciary.
In the wake of my oversight, Judge Cronan, in the Southern District of New York, implemented a rule in his courtroom to ensure the accuracy of filings. He requires attorneys to disclose any artificial intelligence use and to certify that he or she ``personally reviewed the filings for accuracy.'' I applaud him for taking this issue seriously, and I encourage other members of the bench to consider similar rules and to hold themselves to the same standard as they require of litigants in the court.
I am hopeful that these two unfortunate episodes by the two judges that I referred to will serve as a wake-up call across the Federal judiciary. But if it isn't, I am here today to give a warning: I am watching. All of Congress is now watching. If this issue doesn't get fixed by the judiciary, we will step in to protect the rights of the American litigants using powers available to Congress under the Constitution.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the previously scheduled vote occur immediately.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
