sweden." he is telling you in russian history because you claim it, he wants it, the russians are going to take t this is medvedev. one of ukraine's former leaders once said ukraine is not russia. that concept needs to be to disappear forever. ukraine is definitely russia. this is the former president of russia. he's telling you, and you're not listening, that they want more than ukraine. ukraine is part of russia. the ukrainians don't believe that. they're fighting like tigers. i don't believe that. if you give him ukraine, he will want moldova, then the baltic dash the balkan nations. they'll make claims to them because they used to be part of the russian empire. hitler wrote a book and nobody believed him. putin and medvedev, to their credit, are telling you exactly what their ambitions are, and

you're not getting t you are making the same miscalculations that they made in the 1930's. you're making the same arguments. they can't win. it's not in our problem. stay out of it. don't help people fighting for their freedom. that gets you more war, not less. 50 million people died in world warrism i. -- world war ii because they got it wrong in the 1930's. we haven't lost one american soldier. but if you don't help ukraine now, that will change, unless you want to completely abandon nato. i am saying it as loud as i can say it, that if we don't help ukraine now, this war will spread, and americans who are not involved will be involved. you think this war costs a lot now? wait till you are in a war with russia and nato and see what that costs. i am not telling you things that i made up. i am quoting people who are in

charge of russia. nobody believed hitler. you should have. you should believe these people. they have a mission. isolationism leads to more war, not less. isolationism takes off the table confronting evil at a time it's the weakest. isolationists, in the name of peace, create more war than they ever avoid. because the bad guy won't stop. here's what you got to understand, does the ayatollah -- what does he want? he tells us he wants to destroy the jewish state. i believe him. he tells us he wants to purify islam in his own image, the image of shiism. i believe him. he tells us that we're the great

satan and he's coming after us. i believe him. so, the ayatollah has an agenda that israel can't accommodate. you cannot accommodate somebody who wants to kill you. hamas doesn't want to advocate for the palestinian people a better life. they want to kill all the jews. the agenda of hamas is not to make the palestinian people more prosperous. it's to destroy the jewish state, from the river to the sea. these people are religious nazis. what do you expect israel to do? october 7 was an attack not to restore the dignity of the palestinian people, but literally to rape, murder, and kill the jews. isolationism allows that to go unchecked. america first says let's help israel. let's help ukraine. let's turn it into a loan, rather than a grant.

let's get europe to do more and pay more. that's a big difference to me. to the people in this body, if you don't help israel now, you're sending the worst possible signal to the ayatollah. if you believe as i do he wishes to destroy the jewish state, how can you vote no? i know our border is broken, but voting no to israel doesn't make our border more secure. it makes us less safe. if you believe hamas wants to destroy every jewish person they can get their hands on, and destroy the jewish state, how can you vote no? if you believe as i do putin won't stop in ukraine, how do you vote no? you have to believe that putin won't go any further when he says he will. to vote no to israel, you're taking off the table money they desperately need because they're under attack from forces that haven't been under attack before. hamas and hezbollah has attacked

israel. they're proxies of iran. but the iranians launched attack towards the jewish state from iran. don't vote no. israel needs you now. nothing we can do will fix the border, but we can help israel, and we can help ukraine. helping ukraine means we're less likely to get in a war with the russians. helping israel means that we're helping an ally, and the same people who want to kill israel want to kill you too. so there's $20 billion to help israel replenish iron dome. there's $60 billion, some in the form of a loan, to help replenish our stockpile. most of this money is for us, but some goes to ukraine to tay in the -- to stay in the fight. they need air defense capability. to the isolationists, and i know you don't want to be called that, but you are, when you

don't support your allies from threats because you don't want to get involved, do you think it doesn't matter, i think you really are an isolationist. you would have to believe putin does not mean what he says. i believe him when he wants to take over the old russian empire and reconstruct the soviet union. i believe him. i want to stand up to him. i believe the ayatollah wants to kill all the jews. i want to help the jewish people. this is passover, for god's sake. we're taking this vote on passover. and not one of the people we're talking about here, the countries, want one american soldier. have we learned nothing? we withdrew from iraq in 2011. senator mccain, senator lieberman, and myself, we all spoke up. well, those two are gone and i miss them desperately at times like this, but we told the obama

administration, if you pull all the troops out of iraq you're going to regret it. the isis was not the j.v. team. they came back in full force. they established a caliphate, al qaeda, isis didn't exist, this idea of leaving radical islam unchecked and thinking it won't hurt you is insane. these people are not going to stop fighting us or our allies. you may be tired of fighting them. they're not tired of fighting you. i'd rather fight them over there before they get here. every one of these terrorists that israel kills is one less terrorist to attack us. containing putin in ukraine means it's less likely for us to get there a war. here's what i said, i feel all we have worked for, fought for, and sacrificed for is very much in jeopardy by today's announcements.

i hope i am wrong and the president is right, but i fear this decision has set in motion events that will come back to haunt our country. well, i was right, and i didn't want to be. al qaeda came back, iraq fell apart, we had to go back in. the people were pretty much wiped out, thousands slaughtered, isis attacked the french and they killed people all over the world, because we let them come back. so here's what i would say to people who vote no -- not one country we're helping wants any of our soldiers to come in and fight. they just want the weapons to do the fighting. and if you don't give them these weapons at a time of critical need, you're setting in motion america being deeper involved in conflict, not less. if they take israel down, i promise you you're next. and if you don't help israel replenish their conventional wea

weapons, there'll be a day when israel, if they have to, will play the nuclear card. i'll promise you this, the jewish people are not going down this time without a fight. the state of israel will do whatever it takes to survive. so i want to let the ayatollah know america has israel's back, which i think will create deterrence. but if the ayatollah ever thought we pulled the plug on israel, then i think he'd be more emboldened. you got 100,000 rockets, precision guided, to be fired at israel en masse. that's a nightmare for iron dome. so israel has to tell the region, when it comes to defending the jewish state, all bets are off. this thing could escalate big time. so when you vote no today, you're making it more likely the ayatollah does more, not less. when you vote no today, you incentivize putin to do more, not less. when you vote no today, you make china wonder if we're really

serious about helping taiwan. i understand that american people have needs here at home. i get it. our border is broken, and you're right to want to fix it. but we're not right to abandon allies in great need. if history has taught us anything, for those willing to learn from history, it's that when evil rears its head, stand up, be firm, be unequivocal. it will save a lot of lives and a lot of heartache. i'm going to end where i started -- what does china want? they want to turn world order upside down. they don't believe in the rule of law. they steal our intellectual property. they intimidate their neighbors. and they will go after taiwan if they believe we are weak and not helping taiwan. if you want to avoid a war between taiwan and china, give

taiwan the capability that would deter china. 80% of the semiconductors in the world are made in taiwan, and the digital economy would be dominated by china. we have a chance here to harden the defenses of taiwan to deter china. we have a $24 billion package to replenish the weapons that israel desperately needs, standing up in the face of multiple threats from iran and its proxies. they need the money, they need it now. this is passover. help our friends in israel. we have a chance to replenish the stockpile of the ukrainians who fought like tigers, but not just give them 155 rounds, give them the attack ems that can -- the atacms that can reach out and knock down the bridge between crimea and russia. the bill allows us to go after russian sovereign wealth funds

frozen all over the world, about 300 billion, to take money from the russian invader to pay for the reconstruction of ukraine. this is a package worth your support. it makes russia pay more. there's a loan component in this. pay us back if you can, because we are in debt. i get that part of it. this package coming back from the house was not own bipartisan, i thought it was smart. the component in this package to allow us to seize russian assets i think will have a deterrent effect all of its open. the oligarchs around putin are now more in jeopardy, not less. it is proper to go after russian sovereign wealth assets when russia has brutally invaded ukraine in violation of every agreement they made with ukraine in the world at large. so, the bottom line for me is that this package doesn't

address the border, and i am sorry it doesn't. this package addresses threats that exist to our allies, and it is in our national security interests to meet the needs of those allies before it gets worse. whether you want iran to stop or not, they're not. israel needs the weapons, and they need them now. our friends in ukraine, with the right set of weapons, they can go back on the offensive. and if you don't stop putin now, you'll regret it later. this is one of the moments in history that really matters. i always wondered how could the people in the 1930's not get it about hitler. now i know. it is complicated. i have very good friends that are going to vote no. i have very good friends who do not see putin the same way i see

him. i see him as a guy with ambitions that won't end in ukraine, that will get us in a bigger war if we don't stand up now. i believe him when he says the thing he says about taking more terr territory. i have friends that are strongly supportive of israel but going to vote no. the bottom line is israel needs you now more than ever. the ayatollah under the antti by a -- under the ante by attacking israel directly from iranian soil. there's a chance to seize russian assets to pay for the war to take the burden off the taxpayer. let's vote yes. as to taiwan, there's almost universal acknowledgment in this body that china will keep going until somebody stops them, and that we want to deter a war between taiwan and china. in this package, we have stelliteal military -- we have vital military assistance to taiwan to make it harder for the

chinese to attack and take it over by military force. do you think the chinese are watching what we do with ukraine? if you don't think they're watching, you don't know much about china. they're sizing us up. and if we pull the plug on ukraine, you're inviting more aggression from china to taiwan. if we send a signal that we're not -- if you vote no and we're not giving the package to israel to replenish their defenses, it will make the iranians more emboldened to keep going. so this vote you're about to take is probably one of the most important votes we've had since i've been here. this is the defining moment in world history. the world is on fire. it all started with afghanistan.

once we pulled out of afgha afghanistan, people thought we were weak and they took advantage. here's what i would say -- if you agree with me, don't vote no, vote yes, because a no vote i think continues that theme that america is unreliable. a no vote will make russia believe that there's a growing sentiment in america, and if we just outlast ukraine we'll not only get ukraine, we'll get more. a no vote emboldens the ayatollah. a no vote would encourage china, in my view, to be more aggressive. now how does this all end? here's my fear. these are the twin towers. this is what happens when something over there gets out of hand and we don't deal with it.

this is what happens when you ignore the taliban takeover of afghanistan and you sit on the sidelines and think it doesn't matter to you. this is what happens when a group of people take women in a soccer stadium and kill them for sport thinking it won't bother us. the 18 to 19 hijackers that were able to to do this were able to to do it because they had a safe haven in afghanistan. we didn't get involved. we looked the other way thinking it doesn't matter to us. we missed all the warning signs. remember when they said the lights were blinking red before september 11, 2001? let me tell you what the fbi director says. i've never seen so many blinking lights as i do now. wherever i turn, i see threats. i've never seen a time in american history that i've been involved as fbi director with this many threats all at once.

everywhere i look, i see blinking lights. he response to that is to help our allies, not turn away. how can you say we're under great threat and we're not willing to provide aid to people who are on the tip of the sphere? so this aid package coming back from the house is better than it was when it left the senate. it has more for israel, it has the ability to get russian assets to help the american taxpayer and reconstruct ukraine with russian money, not american money or other money. it has a component in here to let the ayatollah know we're not going to bend in israel. and it resfourss taiwan's -- reinforces taiwan's military defense at a time they're vulnerable. this is a good package, it has a loan component recognizing we are in debt. it's not a perfect package. i was hoping it had border security but it doesn't. since we last had a discussion about what to do iran launched

an attack on israel, 300 drones and everything is really getting out of hand here. the ukrainians are down to their last artillery shells. that can all change when we vote yes. they'll get not only more artillery shells, they're going to get more advanced weapons and we're going to go after russian money, put putin on his back foot. if you vote yes, it's a bad day for putin, it's a bad day for the ayatollah and it's a wake-up call to china. if you vote no you're going to encourage everybody i just talked about to do more. and we're friends. i respect everybody in here no matter how you vote. i just see this as clear as a bell. and there were people in the 1930's like churchill and others who saw hitler for who he really was. and a lot of people didn't want to confront that because they were weary of the war they just fought called world war i. they wanted to believe that hitler was all talk. they didn't want to get in

another war because millions of people had died. the last thing they wanted was another war. what they didn't realize is that hitler wanted things they couldn't give him. we've been at war since september 11, 2001. we're in debt, we're all tired. the last thing we want is to keep it going. well, let me tell you about our adversaries. they're not going to stop. it's wise for us to help people do the fighting so we don't have to, to have their backs at a time of great need. because if we abandon them and say this doesn't matter to us, everything you saw happen in the 1930's is going to happen again. if russia believes we can't stick with ukraine, they're going to keep going. if the ayatollah believed that american support for the jewish state was deteriorating, he's going to up the ante. these college campus protests make me sick to my stomach.

you have people on college campuses in this country supporting the terrorists, supporting hamas. they're not supporting a better life for the palestinian people. they're supporting the destruction of the jewish people. hamas doesn't want a better life for the palestinians. he wants to kill all the jews. and my good friend from connecticut just walked in. his grandparents were involved in the holocaust. i know where he's going to be. so what's going on in america is very similar to the 1930's but in many ways worse. to those who are out this protesting to stop aid to israel, you're fools. you're progressive. do you think hamas is progressive? do you think hamas will tolerate a society that you've come

accustomed to, where women can do whatever they want, people can live their lives? you're empowering people who are despicable. they're religious nazis. you're dumb as dirt if you think abandoning israel makes us safer and that hamas gives a damn about the palestinian people. they don't. i am urging a yes vote. i understand this is not a perfect package, but this is a really good package at an important time in world and american history. so i would urge a yes vote and a no vote, in my view, makes it more likely we spend more money and americans die that are not dying now. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor.

a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from wyoming. ms. lummis: i have such respect for the remarks of the gentleman who just completed his remarks. i know he feels very passionately, and i agree with him about what he said, especially about israel and what they're going through. the attacks on october 7 were unspeakable horrors imposed on the people of israel. and i want to come to their defense. i want to come to their defense so bad that i have joined my colleagues repeatedly to pass stand-alone $14 billion funding for israel multiple times since october 7. by unanimous consent, we came to the floor multiple times and

said let's send money to israel. and who stopped it? the democrats. the democrats stopped money to israel. and now we're here with a package of bundled things so we can roll enough stuff together that we can get passage of a piece of legislation that is highly imperfect. one of the main things that my constituents object to is that we're spending money for every country in this bill except our own. we will not defend our southern border. we will not spend money to protect our country from the invasion of terrorists and people we don't know and we don't know why they're here. the number of people who are coming into this country who we

don't know, we don't know why they're here, we're not identifying them, and we're turning them loose in this country is a crazy way to then turn around and say we're not going to protect our borders. y'all come. but we're going to send $95 billion to other countries to protect their border. that doesn't fly with my constituents. but interestingly, that's not even my biggest concern about this bill. regarding this bill, i filed an amendment to ensure the $95 billion price tag of this package is fully paid for by reducing the fiscal responsibility act spending caps for fiscal year 2025 in both nondefense and defense areas.

in other words, this is yet another thing we're doing that's not paid for. if we are that passionate about helping our friends in ukraine, in taiwan, in israel, let's pay for it. the american people are living paycheck to paycheck right now. they're going to the grocery store and paying twice as much for food in some cases than they were in 2020. the price of gas is up, the price of food is up, the price of rent is up. more people right now are living paycheck to paycheck in this country than were in 2020. they can't afford health insurance, and they're cutting back on important things in

their diets and for their families. so we're going to let our people endure these kinds of insults that are brought on by us, and yet we want to send $95 billion to other countries that we're going to pay for with borrowed money? we are $34 trillion in debt. in 22 months during covid, the united states government printed 80% of all the money that has ever been printed in the entire history of the united states. 22 months douching covid, we printed 80% of -- 22 months during covid we printed 80% of

all the money that the united states ever printed in its history. when you print that much money and you put it in an economy, you get inflation. why? because you have too much money chasing too few goods. that's kind of definition of inflation. we got ourselves into this. between the federal reserve and treasury, who printed money with nothing behind it except the full faith and credit of the united states, which is not nothing, but when they did, they put us in a position where this year we're going to owe more interest on the national debt than our entire defense budget and our entire budget for medicare. and last year we already passed spending more on interest than the entire budget for medicaid.

we're spending money on interest because we refuse to pay for the things we think are critical. i agree with the last gentleman who spoke. the world is in crisis. and i agree that we should help them, but we should pay for helping them. not run up debt. not put this burden on people in the future in this country. this is wrong, and i'm voting no. if we vote no, this bill is not the end of it. how many bills have we dealt with since october 7 dealing with funding for ukraine or taiwan or israel or some combination of them? both parties have people who want to help ukraine, israel,

and taiwan. we understand the world risks that are posed by china if we sit on our hands. the risks that are posed by russia if we sit on our hands. and iran and north korea. and we're not going to sit on our hands. we're going to pass a bill. we're going to fund these things. but since we know we're going to do it, why don't we do it right. why don't we pay for it. you know, if we had only passed a budget a few weeks ago that was at fiscal year 2019 levels, we actually collect enough revenue in this country to pay for that. we could have had a year where we balanced our budget. now hearken back to 2019.

is there anything the government is doing now that they weren't doing in 2019 that is a total game changer in your life? i'll bet the answer is no. so if we only would have gone back to the spending levels of 2019, i don't think it would have made a difference in anybody's lives the way that they live their personal lives, and we -- and we would have balanced the budget. but we keep spending more and more money that is not paid for. our national debt now exceeds per person $103,000, since i became a senator in 2021, our national debt increased

$7.8 trillion. when i first entered congress in 2008, our national debt was just over $10 trillion -- $10 trillion. now we're at $34 trillion. this is not sustainable. in just 15 years our national debt has more than tripled. our debt is the greatest threat our country faces today, not china, not russia. the american people will continue to shoulder the burden of our unhinged spending. when we have changing priorities, we should be doing what we do in our own personal lives. if something's more important to me than something else, i don't do this, i do the thing that's more important to me. we never have those discussions

here. in fact, the way our committees work, they never talk to each other. the people on the committee that crafts the budget, they don't talk to the people who are spending the money. they don't talk to the committee that's collecting the taxes. once the budget's set, the appropriators go to work. are they talking to the committee where -- that collects the taxes and oversees our tax code? no. they don't talk to each other. they're completely divorced from each other. if you look at the charts around here, it shows how much we're spending on discretionary spending and mandatory spending and defense and nondefense, but where does it compare it to the revenue that is taken in? we don't talk to each other about it. we're $34 trillion in debt and

by golly, we ought to start talking about it. now in the last two weeks we turned the constitution on its head. the u.s. house sent over impeachment articles that they have worked hard on. now, whether or not you thought that alejandro mayorkas was guilty of the crimes that were asserted and whether or not you felt that you would vote to impeach him doesn't matter. the constitution set up a process where the house impeaches and the senate sits as the jury. for the first time in our history we didn't have a trial. away didn't get a chance to say he's guilty or he's not guilty. and given the partisan politics of the day, we would have found

him not guilty, you know. but people in this body didn't want to hear the evidence against him. people in this body don't want to know how many terrorists are coming across our border, how many people are coming across the border and we don't know whether they came from a venezuelan prison. so the motion was tabled and then we dismissed it. we pushed it under the rug. now, the same week we had a bill come over from the house on section 702 of fisa. and we were told that it was just an extension of the expiring provisions of section 702. it wasn't. it expanded 702.

it expanded the opportunity for the government to telecommunications providers -- to tell communications providers you will give us this information without at warrant. they expanded the warrantless searches in that bill. the fourth amendment was under attack and again we just swept it be under the rug. and now we're passing a bill to spend $95 billion that's unpaid for. and you know, we have good reasons for making the decisions decisions we do around here. my colleague, senator graham just voiced very articulately why we should help ukraine, why we should help israel, why we should help taiwan, that our enemies are watching. well, let's fix this bill and make it better and then pass it.

but we're not allowed to do that. we're not allowed to have a debate. we're not allowed to have amendments. we're not allowed to make it better. we have one choice -- yes or no. and if you vote no, by golly, you must be an isolationist. well, i'm voting no. i'm not an icist. i -- isolationist. i have voted many times to help israel. i have helped bring motions to help fund israel specifically to the floor of this senate as a st stand-alone bill, and the democrats shot us down. and the be democrats shot us down from having a trial that was required by the constitution. and furthered, we -- and

further, we didn't get to amend the bill regarding section 702 of fisa of now, that debate was bipartisan. there were a lot of democrats and republicans who wanted to join together and fix that bill. and the people who encouraged us to vote for that bill knew it was faulty. they knew it was faulty. they knew that language was too broad. they knew we should fix it. they said, you know what, let's pass it now because the time's about to expire. it's 11:30 p.m., fisa 702 expires in half an hour, we don't have time to fix it, and yet we sat on our hands and fiddled around the whole day. we could have fixed that. but the proponents on both sides of the aisle, by the way, said, no, no, let's fix it later. we need to get this passed now.

this is important to get it done now before the clock expires, but we'll work on it maybe when we get to the ndaa. we put off the big decisions. we're trying to get things done but we don't care if they're right. let's just sweep this one under the rug. let's let this one pass today and deal with it another time. and that's what we're doing with this bill. we're saying, yeah, let's help ukraine and israel and taiwan. we're not going to pay for it. let's worry about that later. but the american people expect more of us. and we should demand more of ourselves. what we're doing here is wrong. we've been wrong year after year by ignoring this debt. you know, i rarely come to the floor and make this argument,

especially when people want to go home. i mean this is a week we were supposed to be out of session. we were supposed to be getting a week off, and we would -- it would have been richly deserved because what happened here last week ha lot of people ready for a cooling-off period. we don't get a cooling-off period because it was decided by the leadership we need to march forward with this and we can't amend it because then we'd have to send it back to the house. and the house isn't in session. you know, this is not the way this institution was designed to function. we shouldn't ram things down each other's throats. we shouldn't use the calendar as a weapon to force people to vote for things that could be fixed, that could be better. i'd hike to vote for this -- i'd

like to vote for this bill, but i'm not voting for something that's not paid for. mr. president, in 2008, after the financial crisis, we printed $3 trillion basically to bail out the banks. and we got adicked to easy -- addicted to easy money to quantitative easement, it's called, and then when covid came around, we printed $5 trillion more. and we're so addicted to easy money, to money that we just turn on the printing press and keep it going 24/7, that woour causing inflation and making it worse.

last week the international monetary fund says that the united states faces significant rbiing from -- risk from loose fiscal policy between spending and revenue. it's sad that the imf has to point that out to us. additionally, the federal reserve chairman jay powell announced that the u.s. is on an unsustainable fiscal path and we're borrowing from future generations, these are quotes from the chairman of the fed. i've been working on bipartisan legislation since i was elected to the senate to address our addiction to spending. i introduced the bipartisan bicameral sustainable budget act in 2021 and 2023 to establish a fiscal commission. there are so many proposals outside of that that we could address. we ought to listen to our fellow

senator bill cassidy who's coming up with some great ideas that we can sustain and reform and nurture and keep the solvency of social security. social security's going to go broke in 2034. we're down to 10 years, and the law says when social security is drained of its excess funds, that by law the amount of money that comes in and is collected each year is the amount that can go out. we can't subsidize it in another way. now, if that happened to 70 million americans will see their social security benefits cut by a quarter. now, the highway trust fund goes broke in about 2028 .

if we haven't fixed that, we're not talking about fixing that, we know that e.v., electric vehicles don't pay fuel taxes, and the more e.v.'s on the roads, the less money we collect to maintain our roads and the highway trust fund is going to be solvent, it's going to go broke in about six years. let's talk about medicare part a, it goes insolvent in the 2030's. we're not talking about that. we're talking about spending 95 billion more dollars today and so we can pat our chests and say we did something great for our colleagues around the world. and, in fact, we are doing something great for them, but we're doing something that is extremely harmful to ourselves

because we will not address our own unsustainable fiscal path. you know, i sit in my office and listen to my colleagues, and there are so many really worthy arguments, brilliant arguments, articulate people in this body, and i rarely come to the floor and have these conversations because i feel i know this bill is going to pass tonight. i'm going to vote no. the vast majority of people are voting yes. nobody cares that we're spending this much money and it's unpaid for. i'm tired. i woke up at 2:00 a.m. in wyoming this morning to try to get back here for these votes. i'm tired. a lot of people want to go home tomorrow. a lot of people wish that this debate was not occurring because the vote is a foregone

conclusion. but, you know, i've been here now for three and a half years and i've watched all of this happen, all this spending that away never pay for, we never pay for it. we don't talk about it. we pretend it's not a problem. we hear it's unsustainable. we hope the nation doesn't go broke while we're here. maybe people who are sitting in our chairs can deal with it when we're gone. but we're leaving them an unsustainable fiscal path -- i'll be voting no. i encourage my colleagues to want to do better. we can do better.

we can improve these bills. but we have to be allowed to amend them. we have to do this before amendment opportunities are lost. this process is designed to cram a product down the throats of u.s. senators and their constituents. without debate. mean be without the opportunity to amend and debate the amendments. i know we can do better because i know the people in this room. there are so many smart, thoughtful patriotic, caring senators on both sides of the aisle. i know we can do better. but we have to want to. we have to want to deal with the elephant in the room. and the elephant in the room is that we're $34 trillion in debt and we will not talk about it. we will not address it.

we will not try to fix it. every time in the last year that we've been talking about ukraine fun funding, i have said let's go get our money that we have at the imf and lend it interest free for, heck, 30 years to ukraine. nobody wants to talk about that. i don't know why. we just want to use taxpayer dollars to pay for things. taxpayer dollars meaning printed money down the federal reserve and treasury, just churn those printing presses. send money out the door. and export to other countries our inflation. other countries use our dollar because we're the world reserve

currency. and because they're trying to do business with us and among other countries in some common language, some common fiat currency, the common fiat currency of the world is the u.s. dollar. well, the more we print it and send out monopoly money, the more we export to other countries our inflation. every senator in this room makes $174,000 a year. that's our salary. by the way, our salary is the exact same as it was when i arrived in congress in 2009. congressional salaries have been frozen since 2009. $174,000 then is worth $122,000

today. that's how much inflation has eroded the paychecks of every member of congress. yet we think we can live with frozen salaries since 2009. why can't other people live with frozen dollars in federal agencies? do you know that our federal government is bigger than chi china's? this place has got to do some homework about its own spending, about its own fiscal situation, about what we're doing to the value of our dollar, about how we're threatening the dollar as the world's reserve currency because we're not nurturing and caring for and being good stewards of the united states fiat currency.

it's time to face reality. so this isn't the first time nor is it the last time that i'll be discussing this on the floor of the senate. and i wish that we could work together to have a more perfect un union. i know my colleagues and i can do it, because we've got to have the will, the gumption, the moral integrity, the virtue, the faith, and the free him dom to -- and the freedom to do it. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor.

the presiding officer: the senator from wyoming. ms. lummis: i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the. the clerk: will call the roll. quorum call: the clerk: ms. baldwin.

quorum call:

the presiding officer: the senator from utah. mr. lee: i ask unanimous consent to suspend the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. lee: mr. president. it wasn't too long ago republicans made a promise, to ourselves and to the american people, that before we sent another dollar, another dime, another nickel, another penny to ukraine, we'd ensure that our own house was in order, that our own country was secure, that our own border was secure, that we would pass a real border security measure. and yet, here we are, months later, preparing to dispatch nearly $100 billion, if you say it slowly you sound a little like dr. evil in the original "austin powers" movie. $100 billion to foreign countries, while the security of our own homeland languishes. house republicans have broken their promise, and at least a

critical mass of them under the direction of house republican leadership, they've betrayed the american people, because they've gone back completely on what they, what we, promised. tonight, we're seeing the same movie played out on the senate floor. now, this occurs at a time when about 60% of americans live paycheck to paycheck. yet, congress continues to add to a national debt that's about to blow past the $35 trillion mark. how then, mr. president, can we justify this to the american people? as a congress, are we really more concerned with the borders of a foreign country, ukraine, and with foreign wars around the world than we are with the safety and the security of the united states and its citizens? this bill tells the american people that the answer to that question is an unambiguous,

resounding yes. congress cares more about sending billions to wage endless war in foreign countries, cares more about this than saving our own country, especially at a time when we're being invaded, when we've seen an invasion between 8 million and 13 million people over the last few years al alone. that's a big deal. now, we're forgetting the wise caution left to us by our first president, the father of our country, george washington, who warned against entangling our peace and our prosperity with the affairs of other nations. he said, why, why, quote, by interpreting -- by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of europe entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of european ambition, rivalship, interest, humor, or capris, closed quote? indeed, it seems no price is too

high, no weapons system off-limits. our only strategy appears to be spend, spend, spend, then spend more, with little to no thought given to the consequences. it' it's the continuation to the lackluster approach to the ukraine-russia conflict. devoid of strategy, while advocating the jahs majority of funding to the middle east and europe, neglecting the looming threats from china and the warnings from great national policy experts who warn us time and again that the same weapons that we're depleting, sending to other parts of the world, to ukraine, are those in such dire need in taiwan and elsewhere. the $13 billion in military aid to israel is just poked -- just posed with the up to --

juxtaposed with the up to $9.1 billion in civilian aid going to hamas. now, some would say you mean gaza. i say no, i mean hamas. you cannot send this aid, even if it's labeled as humanitarian or for some other noble-sounding purpose. if you send it to gaza, it is aid to hamas, hamas terrorists, the same terrorists who massacred, who butchered, savagely mutilated innocent men, women, and children in israel just a few months ago in october. the architects of this bill undermine their own bill to secure stability and peace in the region. so i've come to the floor in an attempt to soften the blow to the american people. to that end, mr. president, i'd like to call up lee amendment number 1902 for consideration. my amendment would require ukraine to repay the money

loaned to it and that the funds repaid be used to secure our bo border. if congress is so determined to send taxpayer money abroad, then the repayment of this loan should not be waivable and must be used to secure our border. now, it's sad that it's shoring up our border and protecting our own citizens has to come at the mercy of our debtors, but that is what this administration thinks of everyday americans, that they don't deserve protection. we should be voting on cochlear 2 and doing -- voting on h.r. 2 and doing that today, addressing the crisis at the border. instead, we're focused on sending money to secure ukraine's border, not our own. now, mr. president, i ask unanimous consent to set aside any pending amendments and motions in order to call up my motion to concur with amendment number 1902. the presiding officer: is there

objection? mrs. murray: mr. president, i object. the presiding officer: objection is heard. mr. lee: if the objection is that my proposal is somehow not germane, then i'll offer another amendment. i want to bring up lee amendment 1857 for consideration. it would ensure that the repayment of the loan congress seems so determined to give ukraine is exclusively used to pay down the u.s. national debt. this bill demands the american people dig deeper into their pockets, funding the salaries and pensions of ukrainian officials and humanitarian efforts under the guise of a loan. the unsettling truth is that this loan can and almost certainly will be waived, possibly leaving americans without any reimbursement. i think that's part of the plan, in fact. it makes it easier to swallow, makes it look like something less than what it is. my amendment addresses this concern by prohibiting any cancelation of the debt owed by ukraine and ensuring its

repayments go directly to the u.s. national debt by presenting this amount, i came to offer the american people the financial security and oversight this bill currently lacks, deliberately so. effectively serving as an insurance policy against irresponsible fifshg a.m. -- fiscal gambles mav a world away. i ask unanimous consent to set aside any pending amendments and motions in order to call up my motion to concur with amendment number 1857. the presiding officer: is there objection? mrs. murray: mr. president. i object. the presiding officer: the objection is heard. mr. lee: next i'm going to call up in a moment lee amendment number 1882 for consideration. if we're genuinely concerned about security, let's just start by securing our own citizens' personal information, securing it from foreign adversaries. my amendment would prohibit the sale, transfer, or sharing of american personal data to governments like china, russia,

north korea, and iran, without explicit consent from the individual. now, for weeks proponents of the house-passed bill to force the sale of tiktok, legislation included in the package we're debating, have told us that this legislation is vital to protecting the security of americans' data. the reality, however, is far more complicated. indeed, forcing the sale of tiktok through that legislation won't itself secure the data of users. ins instead, it will simply allow another company to purchase tiktok and do with their users' data what they may. only by changing the underlying law and preventing companies from handing over americans' information to our adversaries can congress secure the personal information of every american. and my amendment applauds to do just that -- my amendment aims to do just that.

instead of a game of whack-a-mole where we allow ourselves to be distracted by whatever company happens to be making headlines at the moment, my amendment would implement a comprehensive prohibition on any individual or company operating in the u.s. from selling, transferring, or sharing the data of an american citizen to the government of a foreign adversary without that individual's express consent. this is a serious solution to a serious problem. no company should profit by exposing the personal information of an american citizen to a hostile foreign power, whether that company is owned by a foreign national or by an american citizen. to that end, i ask unanimous consent to set aside any pending amendments and motions in order to call up my motion to concur with amendment number 1882. the presiding officer: is there objection? mrs. murray: mr. president, i objection. the presiding officer: objection is noted. mr. lee: this really is too bad.

these are some really good amendments. apparently, we're not allowed to have those. we're just allowed to sing off of whatever hymnal they hand us preblessed by the law enforcement of schumer, mcconnell, johnson and jeffries. that's unfortunate. next, i want to call up lee amendment 1860 for consideration. which proposes to strike all emergency spending designations from the bill. we cannot continue to spend under the guise of an emergency, especially when an actual emergency, a real-life present-tense presently located emergency involving the security of our own nation's national border is not even being addressed in this bill, not just that it's not being resolved, it's not even being addressed at all. this irresponsible practice has led to a ballooning national

debt, now nearing $35 trillion. it will soon blow past that. if this spending is necessary, it should be subject to the same budgetary constraints as all other government expenditures. this bill spends almost $100 billion, $100 billion we don't have, on top of the more than $100 billion congress already appropriated for the war in ukraine over the last two years, in ex sense of $113 billion if i'm not mistaken. we'll spend more on interest payments on our national debt this year than on all base defense spending and within a year, i believe, we're likely to be spending well over a trillion dollars a year just in interest on debt. if congress believes it's worth spending a hundred billion dollars we don't have, congress should be making sure that that sum of money will be fully offset or subject to appropriate

budgetary enforcement. so my amendment would strike the emergency designations in this bill to subject this additional spending to the annual caps congress agreed to last year while simultaneously preventing the bill's budgetary effects from escaping proper enforcement. so, mr. president, i ask unanimous consent to set aside any pending amendments and motions in order to call up my motion to concur with amendment number 1860. the presiding officer: is there objection? mrs. murray: mr. president, i object. the presiding officer: the objection is noted. mr. lee: mr. president, it's profoundly distressing, disappointed to say the least, that these commonsense amendments have been so cav leerily -- cavalierly objected to, met only with one-word organizations. although my amendment to strike the emergency designations, all

of them, drew an objection pursuant to section 314-e of the congressional budget act of 1974, i intend to raise a point of order against these same emergency designations for international disaster assistance and migration and refugee assistance for gaza. we are, in the end, going to have to acknowledge that we're at a critical juncture, compel to reevaluate our priorities as a nation, and our responsibilities to the american pe people. every decision we make must be weighted against the best interests of those who are sworn to serve, and not those of people abroad but those who are right here at home. waving the flag of another nation in congress, as you vote to send them tens of billions of

dollars, doesn't inspire confidence. it creates distrust. as legislators, we've failed in our duty if we don't heed the call to prioritize the american people first. so, to all out there who find this distressing, to the distressed americans, to the distressed carpenters, the distressed plumbers, the distressed poets, i'm sorry that we weren't able and willing to secure the border. we should have been able to do that. we made a promise, and we as republicans shouldn't have deviated from that promise. certainly not with the critical mass necessary to facilitate passage of this in the house, and then before the night's finished likely the senate.

certainly not under the leadership of our own elected republican leaders, who themselves had repeated this promise just not too many weeks ago, a promise that's now apparently a thing of the past that we're supposed to forget. this $95 billion aid package to foreign countries is a stark testament of the misguided priorities of our current congressional leadership and a clear indication that we've let ourselves and, perhaps more critically, the american people down. the situation demands a wake-up call to every member of this body. by failing to address the fundamental needs of our own people, the american people, in favor of international interests, we risk not only the prosperity but also the security

of our nation. and make no mistake, this isn't free. although it can feel free to those of us who work in this hallowed chamber. it can feel free to us. it can feel as though we draw from an endless, unlimited well. but we don't. as we've seen to an acute degree, every time we spend more money than we have, that comes at a cost. sure, we borrow the money. and, sure, the credit of the united states is still just good enough that it can feel like we have the capacity to just print our own money, which is essentially what we're doing. but every time we do that, every dollar earned by every hardworking american, every mom and dad, married or single, in this country just trying to put food on the table for their kids

suffers. as they're having to shell out an additional $1,000 a month every single month just to live, just to put a roof over their head and keep food on the table. i agree with the assessment of nobel laureate, famed economist milton friedman who said that at any given moment, the true level of taxation in america can best be measured not by the top marginal tax rate or even the average effective tax rate but instead by the overall level of government spending. this, he explained, perhaps referring to the odd combination of credit rating and the way our deficit spending works, that in fact every year -- that in effect every year when we look

at overall federal spending, that's the true cost of the federal government because what we don't collect in taxes, we effectively print and thereby devalue every dollar that is earned by every american by degrees. only unlike other expenses that people have -- monthly bills that they receive or their annual tax return that they file -- there's no billing moment attached to this. there's no price tag. you don't ever see the overall amount that you're spending, as you do at least once a year when you file your federal income tax return. no, it's very different with inflation. each dollar is diminished bit by bit. the federal government is costly, and when it sends money abroad, sends money abroad that we don't have to fund somebody

else in fighting a war against somebody else, that costs money. another thing we learn about these proxy wars is that in the united states of america, which has assembled the greatest military force the world has ever known, certainly the strongest military force that exists today, proxy wars carry on for, well, going on two-plus years now, we're in the third year of this effort, they don't remain proxy wars forever. it becomes especially startling when the proxy war is being fought against a nuclear-armed adversary. that is not to say that we can never push back against any nuclear-armed adversary. but it does mean we should be darn careful when we do that. we should know exactly what our objective is, what it's going to take to secure the peace so that we don't have to fight that war. we don't avoid the profound risk to our own national security

simply by funneling money through a proxy. whether that proxy is a great steward of the funds, weapons, and resources that we send or not, whether that country happens to be one that's proven impervious to fraud, corruption, money laundering and grift or not. because how it's spent is going to have a very direct, very real potential outcome on the american people. we cannot pretend anymore that we have the money to do this, that the economic cost is free or that the military risk is free. none of them are. shame on us if we don't turn

this around. shame on us if we pass this tonight. shame on us if we do this without taking any steps to secure the integrity of our own border. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor.

the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: the clerk: ms. baldwin.

quorum call:

a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. sanders: i ask that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. sanders: mr. speaker, here is the good news. a few weeks ago the approval rating for congress was 10%. it has gone up to 14%.

according to a recent poll, 14% approve of what congress is doing and 68% oppose. i would tell my friend on both sides that it's about equal, on who people want to elect it's about half democrats and half republicans. why is that? why do we have a 14% approval rating? it might have something to do with things like we are witnessing today and the degree to which the congress is completely out of touch with where the american people are. let me read some other polls not on favorability but on people's feelings toward the role the united states is now playing in the war in gaza. april 10, economist pew golf poll, 37% report increasing military aid to israel.

18% support an increase. and to my democratic colleagues, i would say 48% of democrats support decreasing aid, 10% support increasing aid. then there's a march 29 poll from axios ipso telemundo, 16% latino said the united states should continue supporting israel. 39% said the u.s. should not be involved in the conflict. march 27 gallup poll, 36% of americans approve of israel's military action. 55% disapprove. among democrats, 18% approve. 75% disapprove.poll. march 27, more aid is opposed

sending to israel 52% oppose it, 39% support more aid. democrats, 63% oppose sending more military aid, 25% support. march 27, 52% said that weapons should be halted from being shipped. they say pretty overwhelmingly that the american people do not want to give more military aid to the netanyahu war machine to continue its horrendous destructive policies in gaza. that's what the american people are saying. earlier today i tried to bring up two amendments dealing with the crisis in gaza. one of them basically said that the united states should not

support -- should not supply anymore offensive -- offensive military aid to the netanyahu government. i support defensive emissions, the iron dome, the israeli people have a right to not be attacked with missiles and drones. that amendment not only -- that amendment could not even get a vote. that's the united states senate today. people overwhelmingly are in opposition to more u.s. aid, we cannot discuss this issue and have a vote. mr. president, why are the american people, as opposed as they are to more aid for the military in israel? well, among other things, it may have something to do with what some of the israeli leaders are

saying and, in fact, who they are. and i think the american people are catching on that what we have today in israel is not the israel of golda meir, it is a government now significantly controlled not only by right-wing extremists, but by religious zealots. mr. president, today what we are seeing is a situation where netanyahu himself has never favored a two-state solution and he has made that very clear and has worked to systematically to undermine the prospects for a deal. i might mention a two-state solution is the policy of the united states government. netanyahu's party founding

charter says quote, that between the sea and the jordan river there will only be israeli sovereignty. end quote. for many years before october 7, netanyahu told his allies in private that it was important to bolster hamas to ensure that the palestinians could never unify and form their own government. in january, in terms of the humanitarian crisis in gaza, netanyahu said, and i quote, quote, we provide minimal humanitarian aid if we want to achieve our war goals, we give the minimal aid. end quote. the rest of the government, or many others in that government is similarly extreme. at the start of the war the israeli defense minister declared a total siege saying quote, quote, israeli defense minister, we are fighting human

animals and we act accordingly. there will be no electricity, no fuel, no food, everything is closed. end quote. another minister, the start of the war, posted a picture of a devastated area in gaza saying it was, quote, more beautiful than ever. bombing and flattening everything, end quote. another israeli lawmaker said quote the gaza strip should be flattened and there should be one sentence for everybody there, death. we have to wipe the gaza strip off the map. there are no innocents there. end quote. several officials have openly talked about re-establishing israeli settlements in gaza. the current intelligence minister, among others, often talks about permanently displacing palestinians from gaza. israeli national security minister, who oversees the

police has long advocated for the forceful expulsion of palestinians from the region. this is the current israeli national security minister. finance minister, responsible for much of the occupied west bank has likewise long expressed long racist views and called for the expulsion of palestinians from their lands. he called for segregated hospital wards for jews and arabs because, quote, arabs are my enemies, end quote. as a younger man he was arrested by israeli authorities on suspicion of anti- -- mr. president, this is a significant part of netanyahu's government. that -- those are some of the people whose war we are subsidizing.

we can pretend to ignore all of this. we can pretend that today's israel is the israel of 20 or 30 years ago, but that is just not the case. and the reason i raise these issues and talk about some of the people in the israeli government is to understand that what is happening today in gaza is not an accident. it is a bringing forth, a doing of what many of these people have wanted to do for a long time. it should come as no surprise that this extreme government in israel right now is not simply waging a war against hamas and israel has a right to defend itself from the terrorist organization hamas, but it is at war with the entire palestinian people and fighting that war in

a deeply reckless and immoral way. and that is why the netanyahu government has consistently ignored president biden's requests that they do more to men miez civilian -- minimize civilian casualties, that they be more targeted in their approach and they let more humanitarian aid in. and so, mr. president, given the attitude and the belief, the racist beliefs of a number of people in netanyahu government, let us take a look and see what is happening today in gaza. we all know that hamas, a terrorist organization, began this war with a horrific attack on israel that killed 1,200 innocent men, women, and children and took 230 captives, some of whom are still in cav activity -- captivity today. and as i said many times and

repeated a moment ago, israel has the right to defend itself but it does not have the right to go to war against the entire palestinian people, including women and children. mr. president, let's take a deep breath and listen to some of these facts, and no one disputes these facts. war is about six and a half months old. more than 34,000 palestinians have been killed and 77,000 have been wounded. 70% of whom are women and children. 70% of whom are women and children. that means that 5% -- 5% of the 2.2 million people in gaza have been killed or wounded in a six and a half month period. that is an astronomical figure.

a number of people dead and wounded, the percentage of them, 70% are women and children, it is almost beyond comprehension. mr. president, 19,000 children are now orphans in gaza, 19,000 having lost their parents in this war. and when you think about the children in gaza, literally it is hard to imagine. imagine a 7-year-old in an area where the whole community has been flattened, where there is massive debt, no food, no water, into schools, your parents may or may not be alive, relatives are dead, that is what the children in gaza are going through right now and i doubt that any of them will ever fully recover from the sidekick trauma, the terrible, unbelievable trauma they are experiencing at this moment. mr. president, the killing has not stopped.

over the weekend, 139 palestinians were killed and 251 were injured. of these, 29 were killed in and around rafah, including 20 children and six women, one of whom with was pregnant. just today -- today more news emerged from mass graves found by palestinian health authorities and u.n. observers at the hospital. so far more than 300 bodies have been found. u.n. human rights office reports that the dead include elderly people, wounded and some have been found stripped of their clothes and some apparently had their hands tied, the u.n. said. mr. president, what can we say about this horror?

roughly 1.7 million people, and it's, again, hard to understand. members of congress, think about your own state and what this would mean and look like in your own states. we're dealing with a population of 2.2 million people, which is three and an of half times the size of the state of vermont. roughly 1.7 million people, over 75% of the population, have been driven from their homes. it's not a community which has been forced to evacuate in order for a military action to take place, this is three-quarters of the population driven from their homes. satellite associate shows -- data shows that 62% of the homes have been damaged or destroyed, including 231,000 housing units that have been completely destroyed. a number of months ago in vermont we had a terrible flood

and dozens of houses were destroyed and i saw the impact of what the destruction of dozens of houses in my small state meant. we're talking about 221,000 housing units that have been completely destroyed. but it's not just housing. mr. president, gaza's civilian infrastructure has been devastated. there is little or no electricity apart from generators or solar power. most of the roads are badly damaged. more than half of the water and sanitation systems are out of commission. clean water is severely limited and is sewage, raw sewage is running through the streets creating disease. but it's not just housing and civilian infrastructure. and this is quite unbelievable, but there is a reason, i think, for all of this. none of this is happening by

accident. mr. president, israel has systematically destroyed the health care system in gaza. we're not talking about an occasional accidental bomb that destroys a medical unit or a hospital. those things happen. what we are talking about is the reality that 26 out of 37 hospitals are completely out of service. they have been bombed and attacked in all kinds of ways. the 11 hospitals that are remaining are partially functioning but they are being overwhelmed by tens of thousands of trauma patients and they are short on medical supplies. see, 77,000 people who have been wounded and you've got almost all of the hospitals out of commission. and i met recently with a group of american and british doctors who recently returned from gaza where they had gone, bravely risking their own lives, tro try

to help -- to try to help alleviate the terrible suffering taking place there and it is difficult to relate the unspeakable things they witnessed. they saw thousands of patients, many young children, killed or maimed in israeli bombings. they operated on little children already orphaned on dirty hospital floors. on many days they had no morphine. on other days the water -- no water or clean gloves. they knew many victims, even if they survived the week would die of infection without access to sanitary environments or ante biotics. they reported that the israelis would not allow them to bring in wheelchairs or syringes. they witnessed israeli forces cutting off food, electricity and water to hospitals and b abduct medical workers. they reported that israeli

soldiers destroyed medical equipment like mri's, oxygen tanks for no reason. these are american doctors who witnessed these things. overall 84% of health facilities have been damaged or destroyed and more than 400 health care workers have been killed. an extraordinary number. but we're not just talking about housing being decimated. we're not just talking about physical infrastructure being decimated. we're not just talking about a health care system being decimated. mr. president, gaza is a young community, a lot of children live there. and their educational system has been destroyed. 56 schools have been bombed and completely destroyed, and 219 have been damaged. schools. the last of gaza's

universities -- i think they had 12 universities in gaza. and the last one was demolished in january. now, i'm not quite sure how fighting hamas has anything to do with destroying universities, but it does lead to the fact that some 625,000 students in gaza have today no access to education. mr. president, just today, today, david satterfield, the u.s. special enjoy to the gaza humanitarian crisis said that the risk of famine throughout war-devastated gaza, especially in the north, issout -- un kwoet unquote -- is, quote, unquote, very high. quote, we always stress we're in a manmade situation. so on top of the destruction of

housing, infrastructure, health kc care, and education, we're now looking at mass starvation and malnutrition. the united nations estimates that more than one million palestinians, including hundreds of thousands of children, face starvation. desperate gazians have been scraping by for months foraging for leaves or eating animal feed. at least 28 children have died of malnutrition and dehydration and that is a number that came out several weeks ago. there is a he no reason to believe that the real number is much, much higher. usaid administrator samantha powell said famine was already present in northern gaza. without feed, clean water, sanitation, or sufficient health care, hundreds of thousands of people are at severe risk of dehydration, infection, and easily preventable diseases. yet for months, thousands of

trucks carrying lifesaving food, medicine, and other supplies have sat just miles away from starving children. got that? and i hope we all try to put that image in our minds. starving children over here. trucks loaded with food on the other side of the border unable to get through. and they were kept from entering gaza by israeli restrictions and a brutal war fought with little regard for civilians. but let us be clear. and i think this is the main point that i want to make this evening. this war stopped being about defending israel and going to war against hamas a long time ago. this is not any longer a war against the terrorist organization called hamas. this is now a war that has everything to do with the destruction of the very fabric

of palestinian life. that is the goal of this war. it is impossible to look at these facts and not conclude that the israeli government's policy has been to make gaza uninhabitable. that's what some of their government leaders have wanted and that is in fact what is happening. these are not accidents of war, mistakes. this is calculated policy. indeed, this is what has been going on systematically over the last six months. these cruel actions are entirely consistent with the public statements of numerous israeli senior officials, including prime minister netanyahu himself. mr. president, that brings us to the united states' role in this horrific war. put simply, we are deeply complicit in what is happening. this is not an israeli war.

this is an israeli-american war. most of the bombs and most of the military equipment the israeli government is using in gaza is provided by the united states and subsidized by american taxpayers. the u.s. military is not dropping 2,000-pound bombs on civilian apartment buildings. u.s. military is not doing that. but we are supplying those bombs. the united states of america is not blocking the borders and preventing food, water, and medical supplies from getting to desperate people. we are not doing that. but we have supplied billions of dollars to the netanyahu government which is doing just that. so this is not just an israeli war. this is an american war as well. and yet despite the massive financial and military support the united states has provided to israel for many years,

netanyahu's extremist government has ignored urgent calls from the president and others to alter their military approach and to end this humanitarian disaster. in my view, the united states' unconditional, financial, and military support for israel must end. and that is why i offered an amendment to this bill to do in fact what a majority of the american people want us to do, and that is no longer to provide military aid to the destructive netanyahu government. mr. president, i would have welcomed the chance to vote for the humanitarian aid provision in this bill, terribly important that we start feeding people not only in gaza but in sudan and all over the word. it's an important provision. i want to support it. i believe very strongly that we should support ukraine and help

them end, defeat the impeeralist ventures of putin and the russian army, but i'm not going to be able to do that because i'm going to stand with the american people today who oppose more money for netanyahu. so let me conclude, mr. president, by simply saying this. what we are doing today is very bad policy. we are aiding and abetting the destruction of the palestinian people. what we are doing today is not what the american people want. i say to my democratic friends, it is absolutely not what -- a lot of republicans don't want us to continue that as well, but a strong majority of democrats are saying enough with netanyahu's war. you just can't give him another

$10 billion for unvetted military aid. i suppose as things happen in congress, we'll ignore the needs of the american people. we will not pay attention to what they want, and then they were shocked, just shocked that we have a 14% approval rating. with that, mr. president, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from washington. mrs. murray: i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: the clerk: ms. baldwin.

quorum call:

mrs. murray: mr. president, it's been no easy task to get us to this point. the world has been watching. the clock has been ticking. we are finally at the finish line, appeared i'm not just glad but relieved. we are finally about to pass the bill from the house that, as many of us have noted, includes every pillar of the package we passed overwhelmingly here in the senate back in february. essentially, identical in the funding that we're providing. i think it's fair to say, thanks to the bipartisanship and a shared commitment to doing what's best for america, the senate has made its voice heard. i want to once again thank senator collins. we don't agree on everything, but we both had a real appreciation for the seriousness of this work and the importance of negotiating a bill that would pass both chambers.

as i have said, this package is not the product i would have i think written just about myself. it is the result of a difficult bipartisan process. crafting this package has required serious, sober discussion, not partisanship, not political show. so thanks to senator collins, leader schumer, the minority leader, and many others. this legislation provides the resources necessary to make the world safer for america and its allies. we are delivering investments to address the challenges of today and investing in our strategy for the future. this package makes clear that congress understands that the conflict in ukraine is not disjointed from future aggression by the chinese communist party. from the beginning, i was clear the challenges we face around the world are interconnected. we have to deliver a comprehensive package. half steps cannot cut it. this package ensures that america keeps its word to all of

our allies and stands by all of of of our commitments and especially important to me in passing this package, we do not lose sight of the human reality on the ground. the fact that in the middle of every conflict our civilians, people displaced from their homes, people facing obstacles, getting basic medical services and kids and families who desperately need food and water. i made certain at every step that this bill delivers badly needed humanitarian assistance for gaza, sudan, ukraine, and many other regions caught in conflict. so now we're at the finish line. let's vote to stand by our allies, to say to dictators like putin that they cannot invade sovereign democracies freely and unchecked, and that america will not ignore the humanity and the crisis for help -- the cries for help from civilians caught in the middle of conflict and cross fire who we must protect.

tonight moscow and beijing are watching closely to see whether we have the vision to recognize how these crises are related and the resolve to come together and respond forcefully to them. our adversaries are cheering for dysfunction. let's show them unity instead. let's show them the strength of democracy. let's vote yes. thank you, mr. president. mr. lee: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from utah. mr. lee: mr. president, the pending measure, house message to accompany h.r. 815, contains an emergency designation. on page 12, lines 3 through 6, and on another emergency designation, lines 12-15. i raise a point of order purse unit to section 314-e of the congressional budget act of 1974 against both of thesingses did. -- both of these designations. mrs. murray: purr unit to section 904 of the congressional budget act of 1974 and the

waiver provisions of applicable budget resolutions, i move to waive all applicable sections of that act and applicable budget points of order for the purposes of the pending measure and i ask for the yeas and nays. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote: the clerk: ms. baldwin. mr. barrasso. mr. bennet. mrs. blackburn. mr. blumenthal. mr. booker. mr. boozman. mr. braun. mrs. britt. mr. brown. mr. budd. ms. butler. ms. cantwell.

mrs. capito. mr. cardin. mr. carper. mr. casey. mr. cassidy. ms. collins. mr. coons. mr. cornyn. ms. cortez masto. mr. cotton. mr. cramer. mr. crapo. mr. cruz. mr. daines. ms. duckworth. mr. durbin. ms. ernst. mr. fetterman. mrs. fischer. mrs. gillibrand. mr. graham. mr. grassley. mr. hagerty.

ms. hassan. mr. hawley. mr. heinrich. mr. hickenlooper. ms. hirono. mr. hoeven. mrs. hyde-smith. mr. johnson. mr. kaine. mr. kelly. mr. kennedy. mr. king. ms. klobuchar. mr. lankford. mr. lee. mr. lujan. ms. lummis. mr. manchin. mr. markey. mr. marshall. mr. mcconnell. mr. menendez. mr. merkley. mr. moran.

mr. mullin. ms. murkowski. mr. murphy. mrs. murray. mr. ossoff. mr. padilla. mr. paul. mr. peters. mr. reed. mr. ricketts. mr. risch. mr. romney. ms. rosen. mr. rounds. mr. rubio. mr. sanders. mr. schatz. mr. schmitt. mr. schumer. mr. scott of florida.

mr. scott of south carolina. mrs. shaheen. ms. sinema. ms. smith. ms. stabenow. mr. sullivan. mr. tester. mr. thune. mr. tillis. mr. tuberville. mr. van hollen. mr. vance. mr. warner. mr. warnock. ms. warren. mr. welch. mr. whitehouse. mr. wicker. mr. wyden. mr. young.

the clerk: senators voting in the affirmative -- cornyn, cramer, durbin, lankford, murray, padilla, schatz, schumer, smith, and stabenow.

senators voting in the negative -- blackburn, lee, and scott of florida. the clerk: mr. hagerty, no.

the clerk: mr. sullivan, aye. mr. schmitt, no. mr. rubio, no.

the clerk: mr. king, aye.

t the clerk: ms. cantwell, aye.

the clerk: mr. rounds, aye. vote: the clerk: mr. kelly, aye.

the clerk: ms. hassan, aye. the clerk: mr. fetterman, aye.

the clerk: mr. brown, aye. . .

the clerk: mr. whitehouse, aye. ms. warren, aye.

the clerk: mrs. hyde-smith, aye.

the clerk: ms. lummis, no. mr. vance, no. mr. kaine, aye. the clerk: mrs. shaheen, aye.

ms. klobuchar, aye. mr. warner, aye. mr. johnson, no. mr. heinrich, aye. mr. romney, aye. mr. blumenthal, aye.

the clerk: ms. collins, aye. 3 mr. carper, aye.

the clerk: mrs. capito, aye. mr. wyden, aye. ms. cortez-masto, aye.

the clerk: mr. boozman, aye.

the clerk: mr. thune, aye. the clerk: mrs. fischer, aye. mr. hoeven, aye. mr. marshall, no.

the clerk: mr. mullin, aye.

the clerk: mr. bennet, aye. mr. lujan, aye. mr. hickenlooper, aye. mr. kennedy, aye. ms. butler, aye. mr. ossoff, aye. mr. daines, no. mr. warnock, aye.

the clerk: mr. welch, aye. mr. wicker, aye. vote:

the clerk: ms. ernst, no. mr. graham, aye. the clerk: mr. young, aye. mr. moran, aye.

mrs. britt, no. ms. sinema, aye. mr. merkley, aye. mr. peters, aye. ms. hirono, aye. ms. baldwin, aye.

the clerk: ms. murkowski, aye. mr. ricketts, aye. the clerk: mr. tillis, aye.

the clerk: mr. mcconnell, aye. the clerk: mr. tester, aye. mrs. gillibrand, aye. ms. duckworth, aye.

mr. markey, aye. mr. grassley, no.

the clerk: mr. murphy, aye.

the clerk: mr. risch, aye. mr. crapo, aye. the clerk: mr. barrasso, no.

the clerk: mr. budd, no.

the clerk: mr. cassidy, aye. mr. manchin, aye. the clerk: mr. mendendez, aye. mr. cruz, no. mr. coons, aye. mr. braun, no. ms. rosen, aye.

mr. booker, aye.

the clerk: mr. sanders, no.

the clerk: mr. casey, aye. vote: the clerk: mr. van hollen, aye.

mr. reed, aye. the clerk: mr. cotton, no.

the presiding officer: on this vote the yeas are 75, the nays are 20. on this vote the yeas are 75,

the nays are 20. three fifths of the senators duly chosen and sworn, the point of order fails. the presiding officer: the republican leader. mr. mcconnell: could away have order? this is an extremely important day in the history of our country and of the free world. they're all watching, waiting to see what we would do. when putin escalated his war against ukraine, i told our colleagues that allies and adversaries alike would pay very close attention to america's response. when iran-backed terrorists invaded the jewish state on october 7 to slaughter innocent israelis, i warned that the world would watch closely for signs that american leadership was actually weakening.

for months our friends have watched to see whether america still had the strength that won the cold war or the resolve that has underpinned peace and prosperity literally for decades. our enemies have tested whether the ars that will of democracy -- arsenal of democracy is built to endure. tonight the senate will send a clear message. history will record even as allies and partners may have worried about the depth of our resolve, even as moscow, by shinning, and tehran -- beijing, and tehran grew more convinced of our influence and run its course and even those who insisted on abandoning our leadership, america stepped up and the senate held firm. it's time to reaffirm some basic

truths. a lineses matter -- alliances matter. foreign nations respect for american interest depends on our willingness to defend them. and the peace, prosperity and security are not accidents. they're products of american leadership and american sacrifice. so the votes we're about to cast will be among the most consequential, but the difficult work of restoring and sustaining hard power, industrial capacity and global influence must continue beyond this supplemental. so i'll just say to my colleagues, we can wish for a world where the responsibilities of leadership don't fall on us or we can act like we understand that they do.

tonight, as in so many moments of our history, idles call for -- none of us is rae solved to -- resolved to see our duty as it actually is, none of us is excused to equip the united states to face down those who wish us harm. i said it before, history settles every account, and i welcome the eyes of posterity that the senate does tonight. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. schumer: finally, after more than six months of hard work and many twists and turns in the road, america sends a message to the entire world. we will not turn our back on you. tonight we tell our allies we

stand with you. we tell our adversaries, don't mess with us. we tell the world, the united states will do everything to safeguard democracy and our way of life. this bill is one of the most conventional measures congress has pass in years to protect america's security and the future -- the very future of western democracy. and after overcoming a lot of opposition, tonight congress fin eshs the job -- finishes the job. to our friends in israel and to friends in the indo-pacific and to those caught in the midst of a war from gaza to sudan, america hears you. we will be there for you. to the whole world, rest assured -- rest assured, america will never shring from its -- shrink from its responsibilities on the world stage. today, tonight, we make vladimir

putin regret the day he questioned american resolve. i thank president biden for his unflinching leadership, i thank speaker johnson and leader jefferies for working together valiantly for working together, i thank chair murray and vice chair collins for their work and i especially want to thank my caucus for standing firm. we were always united to get this job done, i salute you. and i want to thank leader mcconnell, we worked on this bill together, shoulder to shoulder. without that kind of strong, bipartisan leadership, this difficult bill would never have passed. we now come to the end of a long, difficult and herculean effort, our allies around the world have been watching congress for the last six months

and wondering the same thing, when it matters the most, will america come together, overcome the pull of partisanship and meet the magnitude of this moment. tonight, under the watchful eye of history, the senate answers this question with a thunderus and resounding yes. now for more good news. for the information of senators, the senate will not be in session monday, april 29. the next roll call vote will be at 5:30 p.m. on tuesday, april 30. mr. president, i ask consent that all postcloture time be deemed expired. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. schumer: i ask consent that the pending motion to concur with amendment 1842 be withdrawn. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection.

the question occurs on the motion to concur. the yeas and nays were previously ordered. the clerk will call the roll. vote: the clerk: ms. baldwin.

vote:

cleric cleric ms. collins, mr. coons. the clerk: mr. cornyn. ms. cortez masto. mr. cotton. mr. cramer.

mr. crapo. mr. cruz. mr. daines. ms. duckworth. mr. durbin. ms. ernst. mr. fetterman. mrs. fischer. mrs. gillibrand. mr. graham. mr. grassley. mr. hagerty. ms. hassan. mr. hawley. mr. heinrich. mr. hickenlooper. ms. hirono. mr. hoeven. mrs. hyde-smith. mr. johnson. mr. kaine. mr. kelly. mr. kennedy. mr. king. ms. klobuchar. mr. lankford. mr. lee. mr. lujan. ms. lummis. mr. manchin. mr. markey. mr. marshall. mr. mcconnell. mr. menendez. mr. merkley. mr. moran. mr. mullin. ms. murkowski.

mr. murphy. mrs. murray. mr. ossoff. mr. padilla. mr. paul. mr. peters. mr. reed. mr. ricketts. mr. risch. mr. romney. ms. rosen. mr. rounds. mr. rubio. mr. sanders. mr. schatz. mr. schmitt. mr. schumer. mr. scott of florida. mr. scott of south carolina. mrs. shaheen. ms. sinema. ms. smith. ms. stabenow. mr. sullivan. mr. tester. mr. thune. mr. tillis. mr. tuberville. mr. van hollen.

the clerk: mr. van hollen. mr. vance. mr. warner. mr. warnock. ms. warren. mr. welch. mr. whitehouse. mr. wicker. mr. wyden. mr. young. the clerk: senators voting in the affirmative -- baldwin, bennet, blumenthal, booker, britt, brown, butler, cantwell, capito, carper, casey, cassidy, collins, cornyn, cortez

masto, cotton, cramer, crapo, daines, duckworth, durbin, ernst, fetterman, gillibrand, graham, grassley, hassan, heinrich, hickenlooper, hirono, hyde-smith, kaine, kelly, kennedy, king, klobuchar, manchin, markey, mcconnell, menendez, moran, mullin, murphy, murray, ossoff, padilla, peters, reed, ricketts, risch, romney, rounds, schatz, schumer, shaheen, sinema, smith, stabenow, tester, thune, tillis, van hollen, warner, warnock, whitehouse, wicker, wyden, young. mr. boozman, aye. mr. hoeven, aye. ms. murkowski, aye. mrs. fischer, aye.

ms. rosen, aye. senators voting in the negative -- barrasso, blackburn, braun, budd, hagerty, johnson, lee, lummis, marshall, merkley, rubio, sanders, schmitt, scott of florida, vance, welch. mr. hawley, no. mr. lankford, aye.

the clerk: mr. lujan, aye.

the clerk: mr. sullivan, aye.

the clerk: ms. warre

alexander. the clerk: mr. cardin, aye. mr. cruz, no.

the clerk: mr. coons, aye.

the presiding officer: the yeas are 79. the nays are 18. the motion to concur in the house amendment to the senate amendment to h.r. 815 is agreed to. mr. schumer: thank you, mr. president. now, mr. president, i move to proceed to executive session to consider calendar number 598. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. all those in favor, say aye. those opposed, say no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. the clerk will report the notion. -- the nomination. the clerk: the judiciary. georgia n. alexakis of illinois

to be united states district judge for the northern district of illinois. mr. schumer: i send a cloture motion to the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nomination of executive calendar number 598, georgia n. alexakis of illinois to be united states district judge for the northern district of illinois, signed by 17 senators as follows -- mr. schumer: i ask consent the reading of the names be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i move to proceed to legislative session. the presiding officer: question is on the motion. all those in favor, say aye. those opposed, say no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. mr. schumer: i send a cloture motion to the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the motion to proceed to h.r. 3935, an act to amend title 49 united

states code to reauthorize and improve the federal aviation administration and other civil aviation programs and for other purposes, signed by 17 senators as follows -- mr. schumer: i ask consent the reading of the names be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum call calls for the cloture motions filed today, april 23, be waived. the presiding officer: is there an objection? without objection. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of the following bills, en bloc -- calendar number 326, s.3639. calendar number 328, h.r. 292. calendar number 327, s.3640. calendar number 331, h.r. 3944. calendar number 361, s.3851. calendar number 320, s.2143. calendar number 329, h.r. 996. calendar number 321, s.2274. calendar number 330, h.r. 2379. calendar number 322, s.2717. calendar number 324, s.3357. calendar number 323, s.3267.

calendar number 325, s.3419. calendar number 363, h.r. 3865. calendar number 362, h.r. 2754. and calendar number 364, h.r. 3947. the presiding officer: is there an objection to proceeding to the measures en bloc? without objection. the senate will proceed to the measures en bloc. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent that the bills, en bloc, be considered read a third time and passed, and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, all en bloc. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the en bloc consideration of the following senate resolutions -- s. res. 661, s. res. 662, s. res. 663. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measures en bloc? without objection. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent that the resolutions be agreed to, the preambles be agreed to, and that

the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, all en bloc. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. schumer: finally, mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today, it adjourn to then convene for pro forma sessions only, with no business being conducted, on friday, april 26, at 10:00 am. further, that when the senate adjourns on friday, april 26, it stand adjourned until 3:00 p.m. on tuesday, april 30. that on tuesday, following the prayer and pledge, the journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be deemed expired, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and morning business be closed. following the conclusion of morning business, the senate proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the alexakis nomination. further, that the cloture motions filed during today's session ripen at 5:30 p.m. on tuesday. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: if there is no further business to come before the senate, i ask that it stand adjourned under the previous order.

the presiding officer: the senate stands adjourned until