00:00Mr. President, yesterday afternoon, we reached an agreement with Democrats on an appropriations
00:06package, and I'm pleased to report that as of last night, we passed three of the fiscal
00:12year 2026 appropriations bills, military construction, I should say, and veterans affairs, legislative
00:20branch and agriculture.
00:22Those are the three appropriations bills that we were able to pass last night.
00:25I would say it is a very good start on appropriations, and a striking contrast, I might add, to last
00:32year when the Democrat leader failed to bring a single appropriations bill to the floor for
00:36a vote, notwithstanding the fact that 11 of the 12 had passed out of the Appropriations
00:40Committee with big bipartisan margins.
00:44And I want to thank Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Collins, as well as Senators
00:49Hovind, Bozeman, and Mullen.
00:51I also want to thank Senator Moran, who had done outstanding work on the Commerce Justice
00:57Science Appropriations Bill, and that would have passed last night had it not been for
01:03the opposition of a single Democrat Senator.
01:07Thanks are due to all the members of the Senate Appropriations Committee, which has now reported
01:11out eight, eight of the 12 fiscal year 2026 appropriations bills.
01:16The Senate is currently in its best place on appropriations in years, and I'm grateful
01:23for all those who work cooperatively and in good faith to make last night's votes happen.
01:28It is good, Mr. President, to have the Senate back on a regular order track on appropriations,
01:34and I will continue to work for a regular order process as we continue.
01:39And I hope that Democrats will join us in that effort.
01:43It was disturbing to hear the Democrat leader threaten to shut down the government in his
01:46July 8 Dear Colleague letter.
01:50And I hope, Mr. President, I really hope, the Democrats will not embrace that position,
01:55but will continue to work with Republicans to fund the government.
01:59As I said, we are in the best place we've been in years, but we have a lot of work to
02:03do.
02:05And I hope that we'll be able to continue the good work we began last night with continued
02:09bipartisan cooperation.
02:11Now, Mr. President, I wish I had more good news or better news to offer this morning on
02:18the nominations front.
02:20I wish I could say that we had also reached an agreement on a nominations package yesterday.
02:27But unfortunately, Democrats continue to engage in their historic obstruction.
02:32Mr. President, for decades, Democrats and Republicans have regularly cooperated to swiftly confirm
02:40the many, many individuals selected by each president to serve in their administration.
02:46Regardless of the party in the White House, both sides have long agreed that a president
02:52deserves to have his or her administration in place quickly.
02:57That doesn't mean we don't disagree.
03:00But it does mean when nominees are held up, opposed or blocked, it's for a legitimate purpose,
03:06not for leverage in partisan games to score political points at the expense of public safety.
03:13Let me repeat that last line, Mr. President.
03:17But it does mean when nominees are held up, opposed or blocked, it's for a legitimate purpose,
03:23not for leverage in partisan games to score political points at the expense of public safety, end quote.
03:32Now, interestingly enough, Mr. President, those last lines aren't mine.
03:41Those are the words of the Democrat leader just three short years ago.
03:47And I wish, I truly wish, it was the philosophy of the Democrat leader and his party still espoused today.
03:55But instead, they have embraced a historic level of obstruction, slow-walking every single one of
04:05of President Trump's civilian nominees, including nominees who have ultimately received substantial Democrat support.
04:17That is the very definition of the partisan games the Democrat leader deplored just a few short years ago.
04:26So just to put a fine point on that, Mr. President, I want to show you where we are relative to history with regard to nominations.
04:36As you can see, going back to the presidency of George H.W. Bush, 41, as he has affectionately described by many,
04:4698% of all the nominees were confirmed either by voice vote or unanimous consent.
04:53That was also true of a Democrat President, Bill Clinton.
04:57George W. Bush, 43, had 90% of his nominees confirmed either by voice vote or unanimous consent.
05:05And President Obama, so we went Republican back to Democrat, also had 90% of his nominees
05:12confirmed either by voice vote or unanimous consent.
05:16That started to drop off in the first Trump administration down to 65%, dropped down to 57% during
05:23the Biden administration.
05:25But what's really striking, Mr. President, is here we are six months into, more than that
05:32really now, into this current administration, and that right there, a big fat zero, is what
05:42the Democrats have allowed in terms of nominees either confirmed by voice vote or unanimous consent.
05:50Now, under any circumstance, Mr. President, and I understand there are strong disagreements
05:54with our colleagues on the other side of the aisle, don't like the President, all that,
05:59there's certainly that element.
06:01But this is historic and unprecedented obstruction when it comes to allowing someone who has been
06:09elected by the people of this country in a fairly significant, I would argue, mandate,
06:17an election, to get their person in place to do the jobs that the American people elected
06:24that President, President Trump, to do.
06:26And so you cannot, under any circumstance, defend that.
06:33Now you can say, you know, we can argue, and these numbers are not moving in the right
06:37direction, which is why I would argue we've got to change the process by which we do this.
06:41Because otherwise we're going to continue to deteriorate to where any President that comes
06:45in here is going to be very, very hard pressed to do the job the American people elected him to do.
06:50So, but, really, that one right there, that big fat zero sticks out in a very big and significant way.
07:02And I wonder how Democrats' continued determination to slow walk President Trump's nominees will
07:08play with the voters, who, after all, as I said, elected President Trump with the thought
07:13that he'd be able to fill up his administration.
07:15Mr. President, Democrats need to get serious about agreeing to a nominations package to confirm
07:22a number of these outstanding nominations.
07:24And I would tell you, and they are well aware of this, that a lot of the nominees on the current backlog
07:31are nominees who have bipartisan support.
07:34In some cases, broad bipartisan support.
07:38Multiple Democrats voting for these nominees coming out of the committee.
07:43There are a whole bunch of those that are backed up on this backlog.
07:48And so, Mr. President, I sincerely hope that they will change their tune
07:52and decide to work with this administration to make that happen.
07:56Otherwise, I mean, I've said this before, and I think it's true.
07:59I mean, we are setting records around here for hours in session.
08:03We are setting records around here for number of votes cast.
08:07I mean, not by a little, by a lot, relative to previous Senates.
08:12And a lot of it has to do with that statistic I just pointed out.
08:17It's time for that to change, Mr. President.
08:19And we're not asking a lot.
08:21We're just simply saying, treat this President, at least on some level,
08:26in the way that previous Presidents, both Democrats and Republican Presidents,
08:30have been treated in the past by both Republican and Democrat Senates.
08:37Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to waive the mandatory quorum call
08:41with respect to the Putzer nomination.
08:43Is there objection? Without objection?
08:46Mr. President, I yield the floor.
08:49I'm sorry.
08:50And I suggest the absence of quorum.
08:51The Clerk will call the roll.
08:53Ms. President.
08:54Hello, Ms. Vice.
08:56Mr. President .
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