00:00So, Mr. President, if you want to understand Republicans' priorities right now, just look
00:07at the $72 billion reconciliation bill they revealed last week.
00:13The Republican bill would pump tens of billions of dollars into ICE and Border Patrol without
00:18any guardrails to prevent these rogue agencies from continuing to unleash violence on American
00:26streets.
00:27But that's not all.
00:28To add insult to injury, the Republican bill charges American taxpayers $1 billion to
00:38build Trump's gilded ballroom, while including $0 to help Americans with rising costs.
00:48Their billion-dollar bill has $0 to help Americans deal with groceries and their prices going
00:57up, gas prices going up, $0 to bring down Americans' health care, housing, and electricity bills.
01:06At a time when Republicans are struggling to put food on the table, Republicans say, let
01:15him eat cake.
01:16And demand American taxpayers build Trump a palace while they're at it.
01:22Keep in mind, Donald Trump said just a few months ago that, quote, not one penny is being used
01:28from the federal government for the ballroom.
01:30Not one penny, said Trump.
01:32Not one penny, said Trump.
01:32Well, give me a break.
01:33He's put a billion dollars in the budget for it.
01:37This staggering waste of taxpayer dollars has nothing, nothing to do with security and
01:43everything to do with Trump's ego.
01:46How long before Trump asked for his name to be emblazoned in gold on the side of the ballroom?
01:53The American people are calling out for help.
01:55But these ballroom Republicans have a constituency of one, Donald Trump's ego.
02:02That is a disgrace.
02:04Democrats will use every tool in our arsenal to fight this bill.
02:09We will bring changes.
02:10We will bring challenges under the Byrd rule.
02:13We will offer floor amendments.
02:15We will force Republicans to take vote after vote, showing that instead of helping working
02:20families, Republicans are forcing Americans to pay for Trump's billionaire ballroom.
02:30Americans don't want this ballroom blitz.
02:33They want Congress to bring down costs.
02:37On the Hantavirus, earlier today, 17 Americans, including three New Yorkers, were in the United
02:43Yorkers, who were on the cruise ship at the center of the Hantavirus outbreak, arrived in
02:48Nebraska where they remain in quarantine.
02:52One has since tested positive for Hantavirus.
02:55They should know that all of us here in the Senate are thinking of them, praying for their
03:00health.
03:00No one should have to go through such an ordeal.
03:04The Hantavirus outbreak reminds us of what happened during COVID-19.
03:09We need to invest in public health and pandemic preparedness.
03:13Sadly, the Trump administration has not learned that lesson.
03:18The Trump administration gutted our public health defenses.
03:22The public may not know it, but Trump fired the workers whose job it is to protect us from
03:30outbreaks like Hanta.
03:32Donald Trump, Russell Vogt, and Elon Musk have purged hundreds of federal workers at
03:38the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Health and Human Services,
03:43including, here's who Trump fired, cruise ship inspectors, port health station staff, disease
03:49detectives, and others.
03:51He cut all those.
03:53And now we have the Hantavirus.
03:55They were there for a purpose, blindly swinging their Doge train saw through the federal government.
04:04Trump, Vogt, and Musk also hamstrung the CDC's Vessel Sanitation Program, a program that didn't
04:12cost the taxpayers any money.
04:14The cruise ships paid for it.
04:17But of course, they didn't care.
04:20The solution is a simple one.
04:22I've put out a plan that calls on the Trump administration to rehire these fired outbreak
04:29response experts, to restore funding to protect Americans from infectious diseases, and to rejoin
04:37the World Health Organization and other groups that track outbreaks and provide early
04:42warning.
04:43Re-hire.
04:45Restore.
04:46Re-join.
04:47That's how we keep the American people healthy and safe.
04:51Diseases like Hantavirus and COVID don't care what your politics are.
04:55They threaten everyone.
04:56Donald Trump needs to stop politicizing public health and start investing in it.
05:02And Iran.
05:04Donald Trump and members of his administration have referred to the fighting in Iran as a,
05:09quote, skirmish, quote, a mini war, quote, a little excursion, quote, a blip, and most
05:15recently, quote, a love tap.
05:19Let's call the ongoing hostilities with Iran for what they are, a war.
05:24Let me repeat.
05:25Let me repeat.
05:26Donald Trump dragged America into a war, an illegal, costly war, without any goals, without
05:32any endgame.
05:34It's been over a week since we hit the 60-day threshold under the War Powers Act, which
05:40means the hostilities must cease unless Trump gets authorization from Congress.
05:45Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth tried to skirt the deadline when they told us the timer had
05:50stopped because the fighting was over.
05:52Tell that to the American service members who were dodging Iranian drones and missiles in
05:58the Strait of Hormuz last week.
06:00Tell that to the American people who just saw headlines the other day about Trump saying,
06:07we're getting ready for a protracted blockade.
06:11The war's over, bonk, poppycock, craziness, to even say it, but Trump says anything that
06:19enters his head which he thinks will please him at the moment, even if he gets himself
06:23in trouble by the end of the day.
06:25And to this war, there's still no end in sight.
06:29Just today, the most recent round of negotiations with Iran fell apart.
06:34Trump keeps digging himself into a deeper and deeper hole.
06:39Meanwhile, Americans are now paying over $4.50 for a gallon of gas.
06:47Families need real relief at the pump.
06:49And Senate Democrats will support real action to lower costs.
06:53But let's not pretend $0.18 of gas tax relief per gallon makes up for the damage Trump created
07:00with this war.
07:01$0.18 isn't $1.50, which is how much the price of gas has gone up since this war started.
07:11Trump wants credit for handing the American people a glass of water to put out the fire
07:17he started, the massive fire he started, when he launched this war.
07:22Americans don't need just a few cents back.
07:24They need an end to the chaos that sent gas prices soaring in the first place.
07:30The best way to lower costs is to end this illegal war.
07:34Trump could end this war tomorrow and prices would plummet by far more than $0.18 a gallon.
07:42And Republicans know that this blunder didn't magically end when the 60-day clock ran out.
07:49It's time to do something about it.
07:51So Democrats are forcing a seventh vote on our War Powers resolution this week to withdraw
07:57U.S. troops from hostilities with Iran.
08:02If Republicans care about preserving our War Powers, keeping our service members safe, lowering
08:08Americans' costs, they need to support the War Powers resolution and end this war.
08:15If Republicans vote against our resolution, they will continue to bear the blame for Trump's
08:21war.
08:21Not a skirmish, not a blip, not an excursion.
08:26It's a war.
08:27I yield the floor.
08:29Note the absence of a quorum.
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