Discussion · Senate
Edward J. Markey Democrat
“I oppose this resolution, and I will keep blocking it. It attacks transgender people instead of helping Americans with rising costs for food, gas, and healthcare. We should be debating high prices and the risks of artificial intelligence, not trying to ban transgender kids from sports.”
“Mr. President, I reserve the right to object. Mr. President, I rise in opposition to Senator Blackburn’s resolution. Make no mistake, the Senator’s resolution is not about celebrating the impact of women and girls in sports. This resolution is yet another salvo in the relentless, escalating attacks on Americans’ freedom that MAGA Republicans are waging at every level of government. While families are facing the affordability crisis, the Trump administration and my Republican colleagues care more about limiting Americans’ access to vaccines and healthcare, dictating school curriculum and banning books, overruling the judgment of experts when the facts do not align with their extremist agenda, and even policing what sports kids can play. You know, we should be having a big debate out here right now on the fact that healthcare costs are skyrocketing, gasoline prices are skyrocketing, diesel prices are skyrocketing, food prices are skyrocketing--everything is skyrocketing--and it is all cascading down onto the kitchen tables of families trying to pay their bills. And it is all because of this war in Iran. And the price of fuel is going through everything in our society. The price of diesel is skyrocketing. That is what farmers use to do their farming. That is what farmers use once they finish their farming to put it in trucks and travel it across the country to put it on people’s kitchen tables. The prices are going up and up and up. We are not having a hearing on that. Yesterday, the President met with all of the trillionaires and the billionaires in the White House who are the AI giants. And, of course, people are scared in our country. They are wondering: Is the government going to do anything to control AI and these billionaires and millionaires? So Trump met with them, and when it was all finished, Trump said: You don’t have to worry about it--he just took care of it, Trump--because all of these trillionaires and billionaires are all agreeing that they are going to voluntarily agree to a morally binding standard. What? Are we really going to trust these people--by the way, they are all guys--these guys to really protect our people from AI? Donald Trump is talking about something that is morally binding. We should be having hearings on this. We should be having debates on this out here. But we are not because, in a Republican-controlled Senate, they put all these people in a witness protection program. They don’t appear before Congress. We don’t debate the issues that are really impacting people, their families, and their kitchen table--the things that they really want to have the Senate do something about. And that is because MAGA Republicans are obsessed with demonizing a small group of people to distract from the President’s disastrous policy agenda. And Senator Blackburn’s resolution is just the latest distraction. This effort is senseless. It is cruel. It is hateful. Politicians in Washington, they don’t get to decide who belongs in society and who does not. I lead the Trans Bill of Rights because it is our moral obligation to defend the rights of trans people. Trans people deserve the right to healthcare, to receive proper identity documents, to safe schools and workplaces, to serve their Nation, to celebrate the same unassailable rights to education and to jobs and to housing as every other American--simply put, to experience the freedom, the joy, the opportunity afforded to every other American. Earlier this year, I met with Abbott, a constituent of mine from Massachusetts. He is 13 years old, a three-time Little League all-star baseball catcher. Abbott is a successful and beloved student. And with the freedom and dignity to get the healthcare he needs, Abbott is thriving. Every child deserves that freedom, that safety, that opportunity. Abbott understands this. He came into my office to demand that his rights and the rights of other children like him be protected. And I fully support him. Today, I stand in opposition to this resolution, and I stand in defense of all children. Here in America, we know that freedom must be fought for. It is fought for by people who say ``no more’’ in the face of discrimination; ``no more’’ in the face of invasive laws that seek to limit what healthcare you can get; ``no more’’ to restrictions on whom you can love, what books you can read, what fields you can play on. Every transgender and nonbinary person deserves to live freely and without fear of discrimination. This resolution is not about freedom; this resolution is about fear. And I will stand to object as many times as necessary to stop such fear, such hatred. Mr. President, I object.”
Mr. President, I reserve the right to object. Mr. President, I rise in opposition to Senator Blackburn’s resolution. Make no mistake, the Senator’s resolution is not about celebrating the impact of women and girls in sports. This resolution is yet another salvo in the relentless, escalating attacks on Americans’ freedom that MAGA Republicans are waging at every level of government. While families are facing the affordability crisis, the Trump administration and my Republican colleagues care more about limiting Americans’ access to vaccines and healthcare, dictating school curriculum and banning books, overruling the judgment of experts when the facts do not align with their extremist agenda, and even policing what sports kids can play. You know, we should be having a big debate out here right now on the fact that healthcare costs are skyrocketing, gasoline prices are skyrocketing, diesel prices are skyrocketing, food prices are skyrocketing--everything is skyrocketing--and it is all cascading down onto the kitchen tables of families trying to pay their bills. And it is all because of this war in Iran. And the price of fuel is going through everything in our society. The price of diesel is skyrocketing. That is what farmers use to do their farming. That is what farmers use once they finish their farming to put it in trucks and travel it across the country to put it on people’s kitchen tables. The prices are going up and up and up. We are not having a hearing on that. Yesterday, the President met with all of the trillionaires and the billionaires in the White House who are the AI giants. And, of course, people are scared in our country. They are wondering: Is the government going to do anything to control AI and these billionaires and millionaires? So Trump met with them, and when it was all finished, Trump said: You don’t have to worry about it--he just took care of it, Trump--because all of these trillionaires and billionaires are all agreeing that they are going to voluntarily agree to a morally binding standard. What? Are we really going to trust these people--by the way, they are all guys--these guys to really protect our people from AI? Donald Trump is talking about something that is morally binding. We should be having hearings on this. We should be having debates on this out here. But we are not because, in a Republican-controlled Senate, they put all these people in a witness protection program. They don’t appear before Congress. We don’t debate the issues that are really impacting people, their families, and their kitchen table--the things that they really want to have the Senate do something about. And that is because MAGA Republicans are obsessed with demonizing a small group of people to distract from the President’s disastrous policy agenda. And Senator Blackburn’s resolution is just the latest distraction. This effort is senseless. It is cruel. It is hateful. Politicians in Washington, they don’t get to decide who belongs in society and who does not. I lead the Trans Bill of Rights because it is our moral obligation to defend the rights of trans people. Trans people deserve the right to healthcare, to receive proper identity documents, to safe schools and workplaces, to serve their Nation, to celebrate the same unassailable rights to education and to jobs and to housing as every other American--simply put, to experience the freedom, the joy, the opportunity afforded to every other American. Earlier this year, I met with Abbott, a constituent of mine from Massachusetts. He is 13 years old, a three-time Little League all-star baseball catcher. Abbott is a successful and beloved student. And with the freedom and dignity to get the healthcare he needs, Abbott is thriving. Every child deserves that freedom, that safety, that opportunity. Abbott understands this. He came into my office to demand that his rights and the rights of other children like him be protected. And I fully support him. Today, I stand in opposition to this resolution, and I stand in defense of all children. Here in America, we know that freedom must be fought for. It is fought for by people who say ``no more’’ in the face of discrimination; ``no more’’ in the face of invasive laws that seek to limit what healthcare you can get; ``no more’’ to restrictions on whom you can love, what books you can read, what fields you can play on. Every transgender and nonbinary person deserves to live freely and without fear of discrimination. This resolution is not about freedom; this resolution is about fear. And I will stand to object as many times as necessary to stop such fear, such hatred. Mr. President, I object.