Richard Blumenthal

Mr. President, Procedure · 18 wordsI am here to talk about the Kids Online Safety Act and receive unanimous consent for its passage, ProcedureThanks · 27 wordsbut I cannot begin this conversation without remarking on the colloquy that we just heard because I so strongly welcome the powerful statements made by Senator Tillis.Thanks Claims · 88 wordsI hope he reflects a growing consensus on his side of the aisle in favor of action by the United States to help prepare Ukraine for the long, hard, cruel, potentially devastating winter ahead. I came back from my 11th trip to Ukraine just several weeks ago more convinced than ever that the United States must stand behind Ukraine, not just with words on the floor of the Senate and not just with the Russia sanctions bill--as profoundly and important as it is--but the kind of materiel, self-defense, ¹Reasoning · 17 wordsand other military aid and economic support that will help Ukraine weather the cruel, hard winter ahead. Claims · 53 wordsAnd there were three requests that President Zelenskyy made to me when I sat face-to-face with him at the National Prayer Breakfast: ²the Russia sanctions bill, air defense, and Starlink. They are all potentially within the control of the United States of America. And time is not on our side or their side, Positioning · 6 wordsand they are fighting our fight.Positioning Claims · 7 wordsOur national security interests are at stake. Reasoning · 29 wordsIn North Carolina and Oklahoma and Utah--all across the country--our sons and daughters will be in harm’s way if we allow Ukraine to fall to Putin’s slaughterous, murderous aggression. Promise · 37 wordsSo I am hoping we can have a conversation in the next 30 days so that when we come back and we do the NDAA, we can make use of this consensus to take that next step.Vague promise Claims · 13 wordsWe are not done with the Russia sanctions bill, significant as it was. Thanks · 34 wordsAnd I thank my colleagues for joining in that effort in the memory of Senator Graham and the response to the pleas from Ukrainians for our throttling flow of revenue to Putin’s war machine.Thanks Reasoning · 28 wordsTo bring him to the table and to seek peace, that is the goal--peace in Ukraine, security for the people of Ukraine who are so bravely fighting now. Thanks · 29 wordsI thank my colleagues for their support for Ukraine and for the United States standing up and standing strong for the people of Ukraine, and I welcome this colloquy.Thanks Promise · 30 wordsI hope the next time we are on the floor, talking about it, we can make it a bipartisan colloquy because support for Ukraine should be and has been bipartisan. Mr. President, Thanks · 24 wordsI want to share my appreciation--speaking of bipartisanship--for my partner in drafting and advocating the Kids Online Safety Act, Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee.³Thanks Claims · 14 wordsUnfortunately, she had to make a flight and so is not with us physically. Aside · 7 wordsI think she is here in spirit.Aside Procedure · 7 wordsI don’t claim to speak for her, ProcedureClaims · 127 wordsbut we have worked together tirelessly on this bill through public hearings--the kinds of advocacy that it has taken to get us this far with whistleblowers, documents showing that Meta and others knew that their products were harming children. This bill is the result of years of painstaking negotiations with our colleagues, with advocates, with tech companies. And because of those negotiations, and all the work that was done, we were able to pass this legislation through the Senate by a 91-to-3 vote.⁴ We have hundreds of endorsements from across the tech industry itself. But the major reason we have reached this point is very simply the parents and young people who came forward and spoke to colleagues, gained the consensus that we needed to go forward. Thanks · 16 wordsThis bill is a tribute to parents and kids who have been the most effective advocates.Thanks Claims · 227 wordsAnd let me begin by making absolutely clear, the talking points about censorship or privacy are simply a red herring. This bill is about product design, not blocking content. It is about making product design safe, not about censoring. Those talking points about censorship or privacy are simply misleading and false. None of it exists in this legislation. The Kids Online Safety Act simply imposes the same standards of accountability that every other industry faces. It requires tech companies to be responsible for their own products. It requires transparency. It gives kids and parents the tools to protect themselves. Now, just very bluntly, the reason this measure hasn’t passed is the tech industry’s power, its money, its sway, its lobbyists and lawyers-- armies of them.No reason given And there is a human cost to delay. The human cost is lives. One of the most heartbreaking experiences of this fight is meeting parents who have lost their children--some of them who lost children after the Kids Online Safety Act was introduced.Logical leap If the Kids Online Safety Act had been law, maybe their kids would be alive today. I meet parents whose children were taken from them in 2023, 2024, 2025. Holding back this legislation has cost lives. The excuse was engineered in Silicon Valley and K Street not to adopt our legislation.Logical leap Those excuses and lobbying have cost several lives. Procedure · 2 wordsAnd, frankly, ProcedureClaims · 28 wordsif delayed today--if it occurs--that is potential damage as well. More children will suffer because the tech industry seems to have a powerful veto over the U.S. Congress. Procedure · 19 wordsI want to speak directly to all the parents, everybody watching at home, especially parents who have lost children.Procedure Claims · 53 wordsThere are moms and dads who are anxious that social media is doing harm to their children, and young people themselves who know that they are losing control over their lives because of the addictive content, purposefully made addictive and driven to them by algorithms beyond their control and beyond their knowledge--secret algorithms. Promise · 29 wordsWe will overcome Big Tech’s obstruction.Vague promise We will overcome Meta and Mark Zuckerberg. We will overcome the Big Tech obstruction that has so far prevented KOSA from becoming law. Claims · 18 wordsOur coalition has grown, and it is growing. We have more cosponsors and more support than last session.⁷ Promise · 42 wordsWe will not go away.Vague promise We will not surrender. We will not give up. That is a promise. Senator Blackburn and I will fight as long and hard as necessary to pass this bill.Vague promise We will pass it again through the Senate. Claims · 8 wordsIt was approved unanimously by the Commerce Committee.⁵ Promise · 13 wordsAnd we will send KOSA to the President’s desk after it is passed. The ask · 62 wordsBut we need your help. We need your help to contact, literally, Members of Congress over the next 30 days to ask them--as they ask you for your vote: Where do you stand on the Kids Online Safety Act? Will you vote for it? Put KOSA on the ballot and demand that Congress pass a strong internet safety bill to protect children. Thanks · 25 wordsSo I want to thank all the cosponsors, all of my colleagues who have supported us, all the parents and children, all of the advocates, ThanksPromise · 21 wordsand hope that we can actually pass it by unanimous consent today. And if not then, as soon as we return. Procedure · 76 wordsAnd I ask, as if in legislative session and notwithstanding rule XXII, unanimous consent that the Committee on Commerce, Science, ⁶and Transportation be discharged from further consideration of S. 1748 and that the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration; further, that the substitute amendment at the desk be agreed to, the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time and passed, and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.Procedure