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March 24, 2026
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Download official Senate Record PDFReturn to issue contextDEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2026—Motion to
Proceed
Mr. THUNE. I move to proceed to Calendar No. 311, H.R. 7147.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report.
The legislative clerk read as follows:
Motion to proceed to Calendar No. 311, H.R. 7147, a bill
making further consolidated appropriations for the fiscal
year ending September 30, 2026, and for other purposes.
Mr. THUNE. I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. MURPHY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
War Powers Resolution
Mr. MURPHY. Mr. President, colleagues, in a few moments I am going to call up for a vote—a resolution on a privileged motion to end the war in Iran.
of us here in astonishment that 4 weeks into the most significant conflict in the Middle East in most of our careers in this body—12- plus Americans killed, $2 billion at least being spent every day, thousands dead throughout the region—we have still not yet had a single hearing in the United States Senate on the war in Iran.
We have not had a debate on a war authorization. We have not had a vote to allow Senators to weigh in—up or down—as to whether they want the United States to be at war again in the Middle East.
hyperbole these days, coming down to the floor and naming one moment as extraordinary after another moment. But I don't think we have had a moment like this, where the United States has been unquestionably at war with a foreign power, where American soldiers are dying as we speak and it is being hidden, actively, from the public by the Congress.
those forced by Democrats. We haven't had a hearing in the Foreign Relations Committee. We haven't had a hearing in the Armed Services Committee.
Now, I think we know the reason. The reason is that this administration cannot defend and explain this war. But if they cannot and if they are not willing to come to Congress and defend this war, it speaks to the indictment of the preparation and the strategy.
I am going to read to you an excerpt from a Washington Post article. Now, the Washington Post has been very careful about their criticism of the President recently:
A surge of additional U.S. forces to the Middle East and
President Donald Trump's threat to “obliterate” Iran's
energy infrastructure have set the stage for what U.S. and
Israeli security officials increasingly see as the war's . .
. endgame: a battle for control of the Strait of Hormuz and
key energy installations.
Reopening the strait . . . has emerged as perhaps the
paramount objective of [the] war . . . officials now believe
is unlikely to achieve goals that briefly seemed possible at
the outset of the [war] . . . including overthrowing Iran's
theocratic regime and putting a nuclear weapon permanently
out of Tehran's reach.
Let me restate that for you. The Trump administration now says that the goal of the war is not to dislodge an anti-American regime in Tehran; it is not to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon; it is not even to permanently end Iran's ability to have missiles that can reach their neighbors or drone capacity that can provoke in the region. The primary goal now is to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Here is the problem: The strait was open before the war began. We are now seeking to solve a problem that we created. This is insanity. Two billion dollars is a lot of money. That is the minimum amount of money that is being spent every single day on this war.
the United States, and there may be dozens more if this war continues. Prices are skyrocketing—not just in America but all across the world. Notices just went out from DuPont to their customers that the price of plastic is doubling. The price at the pump in many States is at $4, $5, and going higher. Fertilizer: soon to be unaffordable for American farmers. The consequences of this war are stunning in their scope: higher prices for American businesses and American families, a potential global recession, the wasting of billions of dollars of hard- earned taxpayer dollars, and new conflicts in the region that didn't exist before the war began.
In the last day, there have been 12 missile attacks inside Israel. Just during this last vote, news broke of another missile attack on a community, Bnei Brak, with nine people injured, six children injured. Just in the last week, there have been multiple missile and drone attacks on cities throughout Israel; six ballistic missiles from two separate attacks hit the Kurdish region in Iraq, killing six Kurdish fighters; and an Iranian missile attack on the Iranian-United States base in Diego Garcia. That is 2,500 miles away from Tehran.
and missile attacks because they happen so frequently, but on Monday, they did publicize they engaged with 16 drones and 7 ballistic missiles. That was just on Monday.
Israel has invaded Lebanon. Those two countries are on the verge of full-scale war. One-sixth of the population of Lebanon has already been displaced. Syria is at risk of falling apart again.
We have created a catastrophe in the Middle East. We are lighting taxpayer dollars on fire. We are causing prices to go up for everyone.
And what is our new war aim? Reopening the strait that was open before we started the war.
This is basic incompetence. This is what you get when you put talk show hosts and real estate developers in charge of American national security: a war that makes absolutely no sense.
damage
that we created, it is not even clear we can accomplish that goal. Word is that Iran has now figured out that they can open the strait for limited purposes if you pay them, and that may now be the permanent state of affairs in the strait, that Iran will decide who gets to go through and who doesn't.
That is not what happened before the war. We have created a new reality in which Iran has more power over the global economy than they have ever had before. We have not been able to stop their ability to project power. They are still, today, 4 weeks into the war, firing missiles and drones at their neighbors.
than the regime that it replaced. Yes, we killed a whole bunch of people, including the Supreme Leader, but from everything we understand, the group now in charge is more adversarial to U.S. interests and is going to be more provocative in the region.
So this war makes absolutely no sense. And the only way to save American consumers, the only way to try to put the pieces back together in the region is for the war to end.
colleagues. Many of them have introduced similar resolutions. This will be the third time that we have brought a War Powers Resolution before the floor—Senator Kaine and then Senator Booker. This will likely not be the last resolution that we will bring before the floor because we have a sacred obligation handed to us by our Founding Fathers for this body and the House of Representatives to decide war. It was a very deliberate decision not to give the power to make war to one individual—to the President of the United States—but to give it to the people. And the people make their voice heard through their elected Members of Congress.
are going to engage in an effort to hide the consequences of the war, if they are going to refuse to ask questions of our incompetent national security leaders at the White House who have waged this war without planning for the foreseeable consequences, then we will force a debate and a vote on this floor.
This war is not going to make more sense the longer it goes. It is not going to become more popular. Right now, by a 26-point margin, Americans do not support this war. It will be harder as time goes on— not easier—for my Republican colleagues to continue to vote for this war as a vote against this resolution will be. But it is our responsibility under the Constitution to have this debate, and I am glad to have my colleagues on the floor to make this case to the Senate as well.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Illinois.
Ms. DUCKWORTH. Mr. President, I thank Senator Murphy.
has saluted our troops with one hand and given them the middle finger with the other—because despite the lies he tells on Truth Social, he is actively making the choice to use our heroes as cannon fodder.
incompetence behind their valor. When asked to justify his actions, he has tried to hide his ignorance and cowardice behind their courage. He has tried to act as if questioning why we are at war is the same as questioning the skill and bravery of our troops themselves. It isn't— not at all.
I know that our military will always do the best job possible. When given a mission, our servicemembers don't say: Why me? They don't ask: But will I be safe? And they sure as hell don't run to their podiatrist crying “bone spurs.” No.
Instead, they pack their rucksacks; they lace up their boots; they show up. And they do what is asked of them—time after time and tour after tour. They will always—always—execute their orders to the maximum capability of their professionalism, and they are proud to do it.
The problem is the man who is giving those orders. The problem is that the Commander in Chief not only has no idea what the end state looks like in this war of choice but probably doesn't even know what the term “end state” means at all.
beating I would be in a position to make sure that our elected officials fully considered the true cost of war, not just in dollars and cents but in human lives of our heroes as well. So as those drums sound louder than they have in years, I am here today because, despite what he thinks, Trump does not have the authority to unilaterally force our Nation into war. He may have never read the Constitution, but I have.
attention to article I, which makes clear that the President does not have the power to declare war—only Congress does. We are the ones tasked with deciding when and how Americans are sent into combat. We are the ones charged with that most solemn duty. Yet Trump is acting as if article I simply doesn't exist, as if obeying the Constitution is something that is optional, as if our founding document is just a yellowing, crumbling piece of paper he can crumple at will.
a partisan issue. No matter if you are struggling to pay rent or your name is plastered in fake gold on a building on Fifth Avenue, no one can ignore the Constitution. No matter if you are a Mar-a-Lago worker pulling double shifts or the President of the United States, no one is above the law. And no matter if you are a Democrat or a Republican, you should know that our military men and women will always do their jobs.
our warriors lose their lives in service of theirs. Right now, our duty is to demand accountability. It is to get answers. It is to make sure that their mission is justified and feasible and worthy of the sacrifices we are asking our military to make.
That is why I am here today: to make sure that we never again get ourselves into an ego-driven forever war, just like we experienced the last time a President rashly sent our sons and daughters into an unjustified war in Iraq.
Look, I am no dove. I know there are certain solemn, urgent times when our military must make the call and be called up to defend our Nation. There are certain moments when the threat in question is significant and imminent, when military force is the most effective tool at hand, when using it is necessary to protect Americans, and when using military force would not create more threats than it eliminates.
Trump has shown no evidence that this was one of those times. Yet he has had almost a month to do so. But if the administration actually does believe that this war is justified, then they need to come to Congress and tell us why. We are not hard to find. The Capitol is the building with a big dome on top. It is about a 20-minute walk from the White House. They just need to walk through our doors and actually do their jobs.
enough to tell them why they are being forced to take on the cost of this conflict. They need to prove that they have thought this through, that they can tell us what their plan is to stop this war. They need to show us that they have even a concept of a plan of how to get to an end state in Iran that would make us safer, not more threatened. Then, when their case has been made, when Congress' debate is done, we in these Chambers must vote. It is our job. It is our responsibility. It is our burden.
America would be burdened with a Chief Executive who would be too fond of conflict and chaos and that that leader's affinity for bloodshed would have unthinkable consequences for the Nation at large. That— that—is why they placed the power to declare war in the hands of Congress, not a single person.
Trump won't bear the cost of this war that he started. His children won't serve in harm's way. Even though they could volunteer, none of them have. He has been lining his pockets with corrupt billions since the moment he took
up by his actions. No. It is the American people. They are the ones who suffer in wars of choice, so it is the American people, through their elected representatives, who should decide when war is worth that cost.
the interests of our constituents over those of one man and to stop our Nation from teetering further into this nightmare. That is what we are doing here this evening as we vote on Senator Murphy's War Powers Resolution.
conflict, and unnecessary tragedy. Our men and women in uniform sure as hell do as well. So until we get some answers, I will keep coming to this floor; I will keep voting to withdraw our sons and daughters from hostilities with Iran.
the President so casually, so callously threatens when he talks to the press. I am going to keep demanding that the administration end this deadly vanity project if they cannot justify the cost we have already been forced to bear, both in dollars and cents and daughters and sons. It is the least we can do for those willing to sacrifice the most for our Nation.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from California.
Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. President, last Friday, public reports indicated that more than 2,500 marines stationed at Camp Pendleton in San Diego County were now on their way to the Trump war in the Middle East, the Trump- Iran war.
the USS Comstock, and the USS Boxer. Their voyage joins the amphibious assault force aboard the USS Tripoli, which also called San Diego home until last year.
the potential tip of the next spear in this war. The Marines' recruiting slogan, going back to their founding in 1775, is “First to Fight,” and they continue to live up to that slogan and that ethos. They have been boots on the beaches of islands in the Pacific, the trenches of Europe, in the mountains of Afghanistan, in the sands of Iraq, in Syria, Africa, and theaters of American war everywhere, and for centuries. And that is just it—they are boots on the ground in times of war.
around the world, what solace can we offer their families about what awaits them? What can we tell them about this so-called excursion, as the President refers to it, or, as he called it today—reluctant to use the word “war” all of a sudden, he called it a military operation.
Iran, and already we have lost one American servicemember nearly every 2 days of the conflict.
Marzan from Sacramento, CA. He was killed in Kuwait by an Iranian strike. His memory has burned brightly in the hearts of those who knew him, and since his death, we have seen tributes pour in.
One said:
Rob was probably one of the best humans I've ever met. I
know that if I called him today, if he was still here, he
would drop what he was doing and help me.
“served as the surrogate family for a lot of soldiers” for their unit based in Des Moines.
communities have come together to raise money to help fly those who knew him home to California for his funeral later this month. That is a solidarity that Americans know in time of war.
the American people and without the authorization of this Congress. The Commander in Chief, who called it war in his first public comments about the strikes in Iran, now engages in semantics while thousands more servicemembers ship out, halfway around the world.
President's extended deadline puts us on track for at least a month of conflict, with more fighting in the future if Iran refuses to yield. There is no deadline that anyone at this point can rely upon.
We did Iwo Jima, we can do this.
facts of this conflict change by the day or even multiple times during the same press conference. The goalposts have moved from regime change and imminent threat to long-term freedom for the Iranian people and then back to preventing them from building out a nuclear program that was supposedly obliterated in a military operation only 9 months earlier.
before this week is over—the goalposts will move again. That is why last week we stood here and forced the Senate to again go on record. We cannot become “Lucy with the football,” constantly convinced that the latest market-calming post by the President in the morning will mean we will not have sent new marines off to the conflict zone that evening.
President Eisenhower, the architect of one of our Nation's greatest military victories over a murderous regime.
He said:
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every
rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from
those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are
not clothed.
of our servicemembers and the pain that overwhelms their families but in the hardships and poverty that we will no longer be able to address here at home, the illness that will go untreated, the school that will go unopened, the road that will go unpaved, the senior that will go unfed—as we drop the cost equivalent of 10 new hospitals a day on Iran.
The Pentagon is proposing a $200 billion supplemental to fund this war. Do you know what that means for your family? That means that the cost for your family is $1,400. That is just the starting cost for this supplemental funding bill—$1,400 for your family. That is not including all the more you are paying at the pump and for everything else; that is just the cost that is being proposed for your family.
Hoover said:
Older men declare war. But it is the youth that must fight
and die.
Diego as we speak; the youth like the thousands of others already sleeping in bunks aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln and the Gerald Ford.
declaration of war. Instead, we have quietly walked up to the redline that I know so many hold in their hearts when it comes to American military power being used abroad.
We are on the cusp of American boots on the ground. And as the goalposts have continued to shift and as we in this Congress have continued to abdicate our responsibility, I ask my colleagues: Will that still be your redline or will the President be allowed to put American Special Forces in harm's way for a war that Congress has not authorized, that has not been debated, that has not even held a single open hearing to discuss; a war whose true purpose has been kept hidden from most Americans; a war that by Saturday will have gone on for an entire month without the support of the majority of the American people and without the approval of the only part of government to whom the Framers gave the power to approve military force: the Congress?
One month of war. And for what? A new Supreme Leader? A new hardliner with a new appetite for revenge? A new windfall for Russia made possible by American sanctions relief? A new skyrocketing price of gas? A new rising
toll on servicemembers and their families?
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Jersey.
Mr. BOOKER. Mr. President, there is something awful going on here in the U.S. Senate, and people should focus on it right now. The Senate is not doing their job. And we see a President unilaterally going off to fight a war—to declare war without any authority from the U.S. Senate or the U.S. Congress.
and balances checks out? What does it mean when the body that is supposed to provide oversight covers its eyes and refuses to see what is happening? What does it mean when the body that should be having hearings on this war will not hear, will not look, will not ask questions?
cost—the worst of all costs: the deaths of our men and women, with 13 dead and over 200 injured. And Congress is doing nothing—no checks, no balances, no oversight, no hearings.
cost with the worst energy shock crisis in the history of our country? According to the International Energy Agency, as of yesterday, the crisis we are experiencing is larger than the two major oil shocks of the 1970s combined. And what does Congress do? Nothing. No oversight. No hearings. No checks. No balances.
healthcare for millions. They are feeling the pain already, seeing their energy prices go up. They are seeing the pain already from billions being cut from our Veterans' Administration and millions more being cut from student lunch programs and the services we provide for special needs. And Congress does nothing.
We are supposed to be the body that declares war. Well, we are at war. But we also have the power of the purse. And what is happening with the purse right now? We have just spent $25 billion in Donald Trump's war—that kind of expenditure with no oversight, no hearings, no checks and balances.
over 3 million Americans. Twenty-five billion dollars means 30 million children could have free school lunches. Twenty-five billion dollars could provide millions of Americans with affordable housing or housing assistance.
aisle thinks the President should be able to do without any kind of oversight, without any kind of hearings, like give Russia billions of dollars, relieving them of sanctions, the very adversary that continues to prosecute their war in Ukraine and undermine our democracy at home— no hearings, no checks and balances, no oversight. This is not just a constitutional crisis. This is a shame upon this body.
brought forward. I am grateful for Tammy Duckworth, Tammy Baldwin, Tim Kaine for joining together to force these War Powers Resolutions so that the Congress is not silent, that at least people have to take a vote.
But think about what is happening right now. We see a President moving to move more American troops. It was reported that the Pentagon is considering deploying 3,000 soldiers from Fort Bragg's 82nd Airborne Division. That is 3,000 of our American courageous sons and daughters— no oversight, no hearing, no checks and balances.
billions of dollars, American lives, the worst oil shock ever, prices going up—and what does this Senate do? Nothing. It is a shame upon this body. It is a surrendering of our duties. It is the submission before Donald Trump and his authoritarian-like inclinations to declare war and not come to Congress as the Constitution dictates.
We swore an oath in this body to defend the Constitution. Our fealty should be to the Constitution and not what this President is doing.
So we bring War Powers Resolutions, and we will bring more. My fear is that this body, amidst this shame, will be dismissed for a recess. How many soldiers will die during that recess? How many billions of dollars will be spent during that recess? How far will they go with this war?
Resolutions. We will continue to do so until this body does its job and lifts the shame off of this body and checks a President, who is clearly running us into a war with no off-ramp in sight, putting more of our men and women in danger as Americans suffer from skyrocketing costs.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Missouri.
Department of Homeland Security
Mr. SCHMITT. Mr. President, the horrific murder in Chicago last week has reminded this Nation that the battle to defend the American people, strengthen our Republic, and yield constitutional authority for the common good is not confined to the southern border. It is being fought and lost right here in our own cities, in the heartland, in the streets where our sons and daughters walk to class or watch the Northern Lights.
some virtue of federalism. Sanctuary cities are a declaration that illegal aliens' lives matter but American citizens' lives do not.
University in Chicago. Her family described her as a daughter, a sister, and the heart of their family. She was full of life, full of kindness, and full of love that she gave freely to everyone around her.
She made people feel seen. She made people feel valued. She was the kind of kid, the kind of daughter American families hope to raise; raised polite, hard-working, and the first in her family to go away to college, carrying the hopes of parents who still believe in the American dream.
Sheridan Gorman was not some statistic. She was somebody's everything. Whether it was her friends, her family, or someone she had just met, Sheridan had a way of leaving people better than she found them.
freshman, embracing new experiences, building friendships, and living the life every parent hopes their child will get to live.
Venezuela. She was killed, her life taken from her and a daughter stolen from her family by a criminal illegal alien who would not have been in this country but for the Democrats' open border and sanctuary city policies.
Border Patrol caught him in May of 2023. The Biden administration's open border policies let him go. That was the Democrats' first chance to prevent Sheridan's murder.
murder. It arrested the same illegal alien Jose Medina-Medina for shoplifting. But Illinois and Chicago's sanctuary policies ordered the police to say nothing to ICE.
monster loose on the streets of Chicago, the safety of American citizens be damned. And then last week, the same illegal alien shot Sheridan in the back as she went on a walk with her friends.
murder. That illegal alien was previously in law enforcement's custody twice, and both times radical Democrat policies released him back onto the streets to prey on the American citizenry.
policies and radical ideology are causing preventable murders of American sons and daughters at the hands of illegal aliens. So they try to deflect.
was
in the wrong place at the wrong time. What a disgusting lie.
Sheridan Gorman was in exactly the right place at the right time. She was exactly where an American college freshman should be: near the campus, with her friends, chasing the Northern Lights on a beautiful spring night.
the illegal alien murderer whose very presence in the country was the direct result of Democrat open border policies and sanctuary jurisdiction policies. He should have never been there. And if those policies had not existed, he would have been back in Venezuela years ago.
murder, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker released a statement saying that “Republicans need to stop politicizing heinous tragedies.” What an ugly, revealing statement.
We are not politicizing the tragedy. We are exposing the truth. Sanctuary policies are getting American citizens killed. I know it; the American people know it; and deep down the Democrats know it too.
itself. It is the reason government exists. Yet through these policies, Democrats made a deliberate choice: They sided with Jose Medina-Medina, a criminal illegal alien, over Sheridan Gorman, an American citizen and a college freshman.
They have chosen an open border's ideology over the American Nation. At root, the scourge of sanctuary cities forces us to answer the same question as the SAVE America Act: Who or what comes first?
illegal aliens and this radical open borders ideology? Or, dare I say, a theology? Not in theory, not in slogans, but in practice—when the handcuffs go on, when the phone call to federal law enforcement is made or not made, when lives hang in the balance.
Sheridan Gorman or Laken Riley or Stephanie Minter or Katie Abraham, then we are no longer arguing about immigration policy. We are confronting something far more fundamental: whether our government still understands the basic purpose for which it exists. The American people know the answer.
Democrats' conduct—their conduct betrays their answer. Democrats value illegal aliens more than Americans. This is a sick ideology.
would be rolling in his grave. John F. Kennedy would be rolling in his grave.
left is driving this debate we are having right now where they don't want to fund Federal law enforcement. They would rather a sanctuary jurisdiction not tell ICE that a murderer or a rapist is being released from prison to be deported. They don't want to do that. They hold onto this altar of this crazy ideology.
been skeptical from the beginning. I litigated with Democrats on title 42 and “Remain in Mexico.” Deep down in the DNA now is something that has been lost. I don't understand it. Democrats admitted as much last night in an interview.
Democrat noted that “we failed to deliver for the people we care about the most, undocumented migrants.”
The people Democrats care about most are not you or your family. Instead, it is Jose Medina-Medina and the 15 million other illegal immigrants that the Biden administration let into this country.
principle of the modern Democrat Party, this is not an outlier—the other actions are predictable, including this negotiation, this supposed negotiation that is happening, that is supposedly taking place.
everything makes sense. Democrats right now value illegal aliens more than traveling Americans. That is why they have defunded DHS and TSA.
Stephanie Minter, or Katie Abraham. That is why they have built sanctuary cities in Chicago, in New Orleans, in Los Angeles, in Minneapolis.
government is to keep Missouri families safe, I say this plainly: Prioritizing illegal aliens to American citizens is unacceptable, and it is downright un-American.
maybe we could agree on, is not complicated and is consistent with both the Constitution and common sense. Enforce Federal immigration laws. These laws were passed by Republicans and Democrats alike, enforced by Republican and Democrat Presidents alike until recently.
So enforce the laws. Deport the illegal aliens. Prioritize the safety of American citizens over ideology and illegal aliens because at the end of the day, this is not about ideology or politics. It is about whether or not we remain a country in which the government fulfills its most basic and fundamental obligation, a country where the law is enforced, a country where the responsibilities of governing for the common good is taken seriously, a country where the safety of its people is not treated as negotiable.
drifting, slowly but unmistakably, away from the principles that sustain a free and ordered society. And that is a drift we cannot afford to ignore any longer.
We will not allow this to be dismissed as wrong place,
wrong time. This was not random misfortune. This was a
violent and preventable act. We are gravely disappointed by
the policy and failures that allowed this individual to
remain in a position to commit this crime. When systems fail,
whether through release decisions, lack of coordination, or
unwillingness to act, the consequences are not abstract. They
are real. And in our case, they are permanent.
Federal law. There can be no gaps, no shortcuts, and no second chances that put others at risk. Accountability must be complete.
To the Gorman family: I am so sorry for your loss. As a dad who has my first daughter headed off to college next fall, I cannot imagine the grief and the pain that you feel when you send your little girl off to college and she is murdered in cold blood by somebody who should have never been here and there were two opportunities to get him the hell out of here.
I pray for you. I pray for Sheridan and all those who loved her.
We will not let this be memory-holed as “wrong place, wrong time.” This was a violent, preventable act, enabled by radical policies that put illegal aliens ahead of American citizens.
Federal laws. Accountability must be complete, and it will be. It is time—long past time—for this Senate to answer the question the American people have already answered: Whose country is this?
Enforce the laws. Deport the illegal aliens. End sanctuary cities once and for all. We must reclaim the foundational promise of this Republic that a nation of the people and by the people must be for the people. The American Government is for the American people.
The American people have made their choice clear. American citizens come first. That is the fight I came to Washington to wage, and with the help of the American people, that is the fight we are going to win.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Schmitt). The Senator from Wisconsin.
War Powers Resolution
Ms. BALDWIN. Mr. President, I rise today in opposition to Donald Trump's war of choice in Iran.
end foreign wars, but with this war, he has broken both promises at once. Wisconsin families are already seeing higher costs at the pump and on airfare. Wisconsin farmers are staring down higher fertilizer and fuel costs as spring planting gets underway. Meanwhile, the uncertainty and chaos caused by this President is keeping interest rates high and shaking the global stock market.
spending billions of dollars on a war that Wisconsin families did not choose. In just 6 days, Trump's war in Iran has cost American taxpayers almost $12 billion. We are now nearly a month into this war, and it is estimated that we have spent around $30 billion of taxpayer money.
extend the Affordable Care Act's tax credits for a full year. Republicans said that extending these healthcare tax credits for working families was too expensive, but they have not said a word about Trump spending $30 billion for another war. That money could have stopped 22 million Americans from seeing their healthcare costs increase by double, triple, or worse. It could have stopped 1 million people from canceling their coverage because the costs were simply too high to manage without those tax breaks. That $30 billion could have paid for more than 30 million children's school lunches. That $30 billion could have put a safe roof over the heads of more than 3.1 million Americans. That $30 billion could have covered a year of childcare for nearly 2 million children.
and now President Trump is reportedly planning to ask Congress for $200 billion more for his war with Iran.
Here is my question: For what?
That is not a rhetorical question. I genuinely don't know, and the American people don't know either what the goals of this war are and why American families are being asked to shell out billions of dollars for it. The Trump administration has, so far, been unable or unwilling to give the American people a straight answer.
ending this war, strikes continue, and all signs point to this conflict continuing to grow. We are hearing reports that the Pentagon is making detailed preparations for deploying United States ground forces in Iran as 5,000 marines and new warships are being deployed to the Middle East. Just today, it was reported that, roughly, 3,000 soldiers who are trained to parachute into enemy territory are being deployed to the region.
and Secretary Rubio can answer our questions under oath and in public before the American people. They need to answer why they are using taxpayer dollars on this illegal war instead of bringing down the costs of healthcare, housing, gas, groceries, and childcare for the families I represent.
agenda has done just the opposite. He has started expensive wars; has pursued tariffs that have jacked up costs on consumers; and has slashed programs that have helped Americans afford their healthcare and put food on the table.
Enough is enough. It is time for the Trump administration to make their case to the American people. I personally don't think that they have one, but at the bare minimum, they need to tell Congress and the public why we are in this war, putting more servicemembers' lives at risk and not focusing on the kitchen table issues.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Curtis). The Senator from Virginia.
Mr. KAINE. Mr. President, I rise in support of Senator Murphy's War Powers Resolution, which I am proud to cosponsor.
occasions on the floor under both Democratic and Republican Presidents, I came with one obsession, and that obsession was that the Nation should not be at war without a vote of Congress.
in the military and then having been Governor of Virginia and watching my Virginia guard members deploy repeatedly into Iraq and Afghanistan over the course of the years that I served in office. I had gone to too many deployments, too many homecomings. I had gone to too many wakes and to too many funerals to simply allow war to be waged on autopilot or at the say-so of any President—Democrat or Republican—no matter what their previous experience in military matters or lack of experience was.
our kids' lives to war was not a decision that should be made by one person. There are exceptions recognized in the Constitution. A President can take action without Congress. If there is an ongoing attack on the United States, in self-defense, no permission is needed. A President can initiate military action if Congress has previously voted on an authorization that covers it; but other than that, there no shortcut, and there is no E-ZPass lane, and there shouldn't be.
Murphy for bringing it—to basically ask the question of this body: Have we seen enough? Have we seen enough that we should at least have public hearings about this war? Have we seen enough that we should have a debate about whether this war should be authorized by Congress or not?
We plan on coming back every week and asking the question: Have we seen enough?—until the Senate does what the Senate is supposed to do according to the Founders, to the Framers, of our Constitution.
Since we were here last week, a number of things have happened. The number of casualties has continued to grow. The cost has continued to grow. There was significant reporting yesterday that other nations are encouraging the United States to continue this war. The reporting yesterday was that Saudi Arabia is encouraging the United States to continue this war. The reporting last week was that Israel is encouraging the United States to continue this war. Israel and Saudi Arabia are sovereign nations that have the right to make their own decisions for their own people, but they don't have the right to suggest what is the right course for the United States. We have very different interests—we have very, very different interests than those nations—and we should make the right decision for ourselves after consideration.
week. When I took the floor last week on Senator Booker's resolution, the price of oil had gone up $0.60 a gallon since before the war began on February 28. Now it has gone up $1.02. Just to convert that into the cost at the pump for Virginians, Virginians buy 8 million gallons of fuel at the pump every day. So, at $1 a gallon, that is $8 million that Virginians are spending for fuel every day that they weren't spending before the war. All indications by those who are experts in this area— and I do not proclaim expertise in energy—is that the energy shock is likely to continue to drive up costs at the pump for Virginians and Americans for a very long time.
So that you could ask questions.
What is the rationale for the war?
that he claimed had been obliterated; to stop a ballistic missile program when the missiles' progress in Iran would have been years before they could have developed a missile that would have reached the United States; to change a regime; to back up Iranian protesters; maybe to control Iranian oil. We would have been able to ask questions about the rationale and get an answer rather than a shifting collection of answers that has been given.
We would have been able to ask questions about: What are your plans to minimize harm to civilians? We have already seen tragedies with respect to harm to civilians.
discussion if the administration had done what the Constitution requires and come to Congress: What about the Strait of Hormuz where massive percentages of the world's energy and critical minerals— fertilizer and other byproducts—come through the Strait? What is the plan for that?
way that hurts everyday American families and the entire global economy?
I mean, this is not an unforeseen problem. The British closed off the Strait of Hormuz in the early 1950s to punish Iran. The Shah of Iran threatened that many times during the war between Iraq and Iran in the 1980s. As those two nations were fighting, tankers were hit in ways that often shut down the Strait of Hormuz. So the Strait of Hormuz being shut down and then having a massive effect on the global economy was an absolutely known and completely foreseeable consequence of a war in the region.
either—the White House didn't consider it or the White House was warned by military officials that this could happen and it would hurt the United States and others—a warning that they ignored.
Now, either of those options is bad. If they didn't consider the possibility that history demonstrated was a likelihood, that shows incredibly slipshod planning, and if they considered that possibility because it happened before and dismissed it, that also demonstrates a shocking degree of naivete.
punished by paying more at the pump because of the closure of those straits. This is an entirely predictable consequence of war that didn't get an airing before the public or before the Senate, who could have asked challenging questions.
questions is a burden or is a hassle or, you know, it is going to be something that we don't want to do.
No, that is exactly what should happen. Any proposal of this magnitude that is going to risk the lives of our troops should be subjected to the most searing examination that we would do of anything in this body.
but I will just take it back to Virginia. Hundreds, if not thousands, of Virginians are currently deployed on the USS Ford Carrier Strike Group. That was a strike group based in Norfolk that deployed in June.
7 months. So the expectation of all who deployed was that they would be home by the holidays; they would be home with the family by the holidays. Instead, at the end of last year, the President ordered that the deployment be extended so that the Ford that was positioned in the Middle East could come into the Caribbean or the Pacific to assist in the effort to ultimately invade Venezuela. And so they extended the deployment another 2 months.
water to provide support for the invasion and the attack of Iran, and so the deployment has been extended further.
but this has a cost. The Virginians and others who are deployed with the strike group thought they were going to be home at Christmas, and now it is being extended more and more and more.
that threaten the actual lives of those on board. First, it was threatening quality of life with problems with the toilet systems and other onboard systems on the carrier, which are not hard to predict when you run a carrier at a much greater length than was planned for the original deployment, and these affected basic quality of life and morale.
But it got more serious. Last week, we learned that a fire started at the laundry facilities on the Ford that took 30 hours to put out, and 200 sailors on the Ford suffered smoke inhalation injuries because of that fire.
support activities and taken back to Crete for repairs. But, again, these sailors aren't coming home anytime soon, and that ship that was supposed to be out there for 7 months is now into the 11 months—well, I guess it would be now coming on 9 months, with more to come.
without a rationale or without a plan. And so what we need is a plan, I believe, to bring this to a close.
hear a single colleague of mine come and make a speech on the floor to suggest that those 14,000-plus American lives killed or the 65,000-plus Americans injured or the $8 trillion spent—I have yet to hear a single person come here and say that was a chapter in American life that we should be proud of.
We should have learned something from it. The first thing we should have learned is that another war in the Middle East probably makes no sense. But we certainly should have learned that, before we go into one, we have to examine it in significant detail to make sure that we are not sending our sons and daughters into harm's way for no valid reason.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Idaho.
Mr. RISCH. Mr. President, I am not going to speak for a long time. I have given this speech over and over again. Some people say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting to get the same results.
by the United States. It was started by Iran when the Iranian regime took prisoner our staff at the Embassy in Tehran, 47 years ago, and held them for 444 days.
Americans by the thousands—not by the hundreds, but by the thousands— and they do it in the most insidious ways, with roadside bombs and that sort of thing, simply because they are Americans and they are present in the Middle East.
The President of the United States said we have had enough. He had very good reason to pull the trigger at the time that he did, and, of course, those, as time goes on, will come out more and more.
The fact of the matter is, we are in conflict. We have our brave young men and women on the ground. We have our brave young men and women fighting for the United States of America. So we need to back those people. We need to back the President of the United States.
The President is going to complete the job.
The first one is to the Iranians: This is over. You people have lost. You have no navy. You have no air force. You are running out of missiles and other materiel to fight this. This is going to be over very soon.
And the other message I would have to the Iranians is: No one has come to help you. And—breaking news—no one is coming to help you— with one exception, and I will talk about that in a minute.
First of all, let me tell you who is not coming to help. The Chinese are not coming to help. The Russians are not coming to help. The North Koreans are not coming to help. The Cubans are not coming to help. The Venezuelans are not coming to help. The worst actors on the planet, who are friends of the Iranians, are not coming to help. This is all on you, Iran.
They have tried and tried and tried. They cannot help you.
the aisle, we are going to stand behind the Commander in Chief. Most importantly, we are going to stand behind our fighting men and women on the ground because they are involved in a kinetic battle.
standing behind our fighting men and women. They need to continue on. They need to complete the job. The President of the United States is going to do this.
So to my friends on the other side of the aisle, stop this. Don't try to help the Iranians. You are the only entity on this planet trying to help the Iranians. Stop it. Vote with us.
This is going to fail tonight. It would be nice if you joined us in standing behind our fighting men and women as we try to end the regime of the last bad actor in the region.
I yield the floor.
Mr. MURPHY. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. SCHUMER. Now, I thank Senator Murphy for his great leadership on this issue, for speaking so clearly and fiercely about the need for this resolution.
This war has dragged on for long enough. It is long past time for it to come to an end. And, today, with this resolution, the Senate must assert its power on matters of war and peace.
given a chance to do the right thing and end this war. It is the third time, though, they stick their heads in the sand and pretend this war does not exist. But the war is expanding. The Senate has an obligation to step in.
I say to my Republican colleagues: If there was ever a time to stand up for the authority of the Senate, stand up for the powers given to us through the Constitution, the time is now.
injured. Energy prices are above $100 a barrel. And now the Wall Street Journal reports the Pentagon will deploy another 3,000 soldiers from the 82nd Airborne.
Enough.
be drawn into the discussion. That is the way to end endless wars, not to tell no one what is going on, not to keep it secret, not to give anyone else any authority. That is a loser, and it will be a loser for the American people.
fight endless wars. Americans are exasperated every time they go to the gas station and pay $4 a gallon. They are tired of Donald Trump making outrageous and deluded statements like saying he does both have a plan and does not have a plan. This is who is leading the war effort— someone who changes his mind every day, who can't answer the question of what is the goal here? what is the endgame? how much does it cost?
So enough is enough.
I thank Senator Murphy for pushing this resolution. I am proud to support it. I urge some of my Republican colleagues to vote yes.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Connecticut.
Mr. MURPHY. Mr. President, whatever you think about this war, it should be unacceptable to all of us that we have not had a single public hearing, a single opportunity for the American people to hear directly through their representatives the justification and the endgame for this war.
I thank my colleagues for joining me here today.