“Our rural health program is spending $50 billion across all 50 states to help local hospitals, clinics, and mental health centers. It lets states decide how to use the money to fix their own problems. Democrats keep trying to repeal this funding, but rural communities need it, and we should keep it.”

“Mr. President, we are coming to the end of the first year of the Rural Health Transformation Program. This multiyear initiative created in Republicans’ Working Families Tax Cut legislation will invest $50 billion in all 50 States to put rural healthcare providers on a more sustainable footing for the future. Beyond helping to ensure that Americans in rural areas can access healthcare, it will also ensure that providers are able to leverage technology and innovation to address the challenges unique to rural States. One year in, this program is off to a promising start, and that is certainly the case in my home State of South Dakota. Just last week, CMS announced a $13 million investment in behavioral and mental health care in South Dakota. This funding will help expand crisis services and build out our State’s workforce in behavioral healthcare, and it comes after another announcement in August of funding to modernize technology and strengthen cyber security at rural healthcare providers in South Dakota, an initiative that will not only modernize care in my State but also support future innovation to address the unique needs of rural South Dakota. When Republicans created the Rural Health Transformation Program, last summer, we didn’t take a top-down, Washington-Senate approach. Instead, we designed it to give States the resources and freedom to find solutions to their particular challenges, and I am proud to see South Dakota taking the same approach when it comes to distributing the funding that it will receive. In the words of South Dakota Secretary of Health Melissa Magstadt, ``the initiatives that we’ve developed came strictly from the assessments we had, the expert input we garnered, and what citizens themselves said they needed in the community.’’ That is exactly how the Rural Health Transformation Program is supposed to work, and it is not just working in South Dakota. As I mentioned, all 50 States are taking advantage of this transformative program. Ohio is putting $3 million toward expanding offerings at pharmacies in rural communities. A nearly $5 million award will help a hospital in central Maine update its electric medical records system to integrate it with the wider health system it is part of. Providers in Kansas will benefit from nearly $17 billion this year to support new technologies and improve transportation options for specialty healthcare. And Missouri will use $35 million to support 20 rural hospital projects and another $4 million to train its rural EMS workforce. A hospital in South Carolina will use funding to add an additional operating room and upgrade its technology. And a nonprofit in Alaska received $16 million to improve primary care offerings and bring in more providers and staff. This is just some of the funding States are receiving for the first year of this program. As this list suggests, the Rural Health Transformation Program will make an impact in every corner of this country. All 50 States are receiving funding from this program, red States and blue States alike, which makes Senate Democrats’ opposition to this program particularly baffling. Our Democrat colleagues have made their opposition to the Rural Health Transformation Program very clear, with the Democrat leader going so far as to say this last year: Let me repeat that. That is from the Democrat leader. Well, perhaps the Democrat leader should check in with his State’s Governor, who said of a recent $76 million investment from this program: That is from New York’s Governor. Let me repeat that: Well, that doesn’t sound like fraud to me. But whether this would help the people in rural parts of their States didn’t seem to matter to Washington Democrats. In fact, Senate Democrats voted more than half a dozen times, last year, to repeal--repeal--the Rural Health Transformation Program. That is right. Around this time last year, during Democrats’ record-long government shutdown, Senate Democrats were working to end this program. I am curious if the Democrat leader would like to claw back the $212 million that rural healthcare providers in New York are going to receive from this program this year. Should already-strapped rural hospitals not spend this money because Democrats are going to take it back the next time they have the power to do so? Let’s hope it never comes to that. The Rural Health Transformation Program is helping Americans in rural areas across this country. It is helping South Dakota, Ohio, Idaho, Kansas, Rhode Island, Alaska, and everywhere in between. And I am proud that Republicans are delivering for rural Americans. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.”

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“Republicans are working to lower costs for Americans, cut taxes, and stop fraud. I want the Senate to pass a bill that makes big data centers pay for their own electricity so regular families do not get charged higher bills. Democrats are blocking this bill, and they want to raise taxes and waste taxpayer money on fraud.”

“Mr. President, I want to talk today about action, action Republicans are taking to lower the costs for American people. Let’s start with the cost of energy. We need to be able to build, to build things faster, better, cheaper, smarter. That is what we need in America today. We need to do it for pipelines, for energy projects, and we need to do it all across the country. There are critical energy projects right now that have been spending years trapped in regulatory purgatory. They have been in the penalty box. Lawsuits by environmental extremists keep these projects tied up even further than that. Republicans are committed to permitting reform, and the Presiding Officer has been one leading the charge. Senators Capito and Lee who chair the appropriate committees have spent months and months working on this critical topic. Democrats here in the Senate, led by Senator Schumer, continue to block our efforts. Democrats are objecting to solutions that actually would work to lower the cost of energy, to keep more money in people’s pockets. Democrats seem to embrace higher energy costs, and they have a long history of doing that. It is one of the features of the Democrat Green New Deal, their agenda, to keep the energy, American energy, in the ground. Last week, Senate Democrats blocked a bill from Senator Jon Husted of Ohio, a bill called the Ratepayer Protection Act, again, designed to keep more money in people’s pockets. It relates to energy. Senator Husted’s bill protects American workers; that is why it is called the Ratepayer Protection Act. Senator Husted’s bill guarantees that large users of energy, of electricity such as data centers, that they would end up paying the full cost of their electricity use, not the consumers. It also holds them responsible for upgrades to the grid, and we need upgrades to the grid. They are responsible for what they need and what they are doing. Well, this will block costs going up for families so that people aren’t forced to pay more; not just families but small businesses as well. Now, Senator Husted’s bill has actually been to the House of Representatives already. It passed the House of Representatives 417 to 3. That doesn’t happen all that often. That is overwhelming support. And 206 Democrats actually voted for it. You would expect there would be similar numbers here. The American people support it. Democrats in the House support it. All the Republicans support it, but yet Democrats here in the Senate following Senator Schumer stand in the way of relief for folks at home. We need to pass it. We need to pass Senator Husted’s Ratepayer Protection Act. Republicans are going to continue to fight to get it done, in spite of the delays by the Democrats. Tomorrow we are going to vote on this again, on Senator Husted’s bill. So Democrats tomorrow will have a choice: They can join Republicans in helping to lower costs for American families, or they can explain to American families why their party continues to stand in the way of relief. Republicans are never going to stop fighting to ensure Americans keep more of their hard-earned money. When Americans keep more of what they earn, the economy grows. And I have always said people at home with money in their pocket have a much better time figuring out how to spend it or save it or invest it than does the government. Across the country, more people are working. Take-home pay is rising. These are good signs. The Wall Street Journal recently pointed out ``it is one of the best job markets in decades’’ for young adults without college degrees. That is where the country stands today. Last year, the American people faced the largest tax increase in America’s history. Had Democrats gotten their way, there would have been an increase of taxes of $4 trillion. Democrats would have snatched hard-earned money away and right out of the pockets of our firefighters, police officers, nurses, and waiters. Republicans stopped that largest tax increase in history. We got rid of the tax on tips. We got rid of the tax on overtime. We eliminated tax on Social Security. More money in people’s pockets. And then on top of that, we expanded the child tax credit. It is now $2,200 per child. We delivered permanent relief--you know about this as do I, in my home State, from the dreaded death tax. Millions--farmers, ranchers, small business owners--have benefited. We permanently raised the standard deduction; that helps people keep more of what they earn. As a result of the Working Families Tax Cuts law, 97 percent of Americans received a tax cut when they filed their tax return last year. Refunds that they got this year were bigger than they were in the last years. People who benefited the most: people who earn less than $200,000 a year. Also, one of the unique aspects of the Republicans’ tax cuts bill are called the Trump Accounts. They are brand new. They are tax-advantaged investment accounts. Every American child can have one. Every child born between 2025 and 2028 starts with $1,000 in this account coming directly from the U.S. Treasury. Trump Accounts follow a very American idea: When families are free to invest their own money, their children can build wealth for the future. Millions of children in families all across America are using these Trump Accounts. Parents, family members, churches, community groups, and even employers are contributing as well. I am seeing it in my home State. Recently, Delta Airlines--the international company--Delta Airlines committed to invest $1,000 into Trump Accounts for each of their employees’ children--every one of them. Other businesses are doing the same. They are following the example. But yet every single Democrat in this House voted against these valuable accounts--every one of them--and that includes the two Senators from Georgia where Delta Airlines is headquartered. Democrats refuse to even put children’s financial interests first. As Republicans fight to put more money into people’s pockets, we continue to crack down on waste and fraud and abuse and corruption. And people watching the news have seen it. Last week, the Trump administration took another big step to root out fraud in our healthcare system. It identified three-quarters of a million names--not necessarily people but names--that were fraudulent, improper, and ineligible for ObamaCare. Many of these names didn’t even have a Social Security number associated with it. Many of the names were signed up without actually an individual knowing about it. It was insurance brokers gaming the system, and they earned a commission for each one of these new accounts. We are putting an end to this. There is no verification of identity, no notice of whatever the people made--if they were people or not--no identification of identity, income, or immigration status. Red warning lights were flashing, signaling fraud and corruption. And the crackdown on this fraud is helping taxpayers save $2.2 billion. That ensures that more money and services go to the people who actually have earned it, need it, and deserve it. Democrats want to keep the money flowing out of the Federal Treasury. It is astonishing. I remember Joe Biden and the Democrats--they enabled this fraud. They seemed to welcome it. Enrollment doubled under ObamaCare on their watch without justification and often falsehoods. It was juiced by generous bonus subsidies, by bonuses for people signing up, putting names on the roll, big checks that went directly from the taxpayers to the Federal Treasury, into the pockets of healthcare companies. Perverse incentives encouraged liberal Governors to spend money from Medicaid without any oversight. We have seen it all. I mean, people were shocked when they saw what happened in Minnesota--money going to phony treatment centers. In California, it went to phantom hospice providers--made up but the money kept flowing. Republicans are committed to stopping this abuse and to making sure that criminals pay the price. When it comes to the sort of things we have been talking about this morning--cutting energy costs, cutting taxes, fighting fraud and corruption--this is a core difference between commonsense Republicans and the craziness that has taken over the Democratic Party. Republicans want every American to keep more of their hard-earned money, more of what they earn. Democrats seem to want more money going to the Federal Government so that they can turn around and spend it. That is why Democrats are determined to repeal the Working Family Tax Cut law--because it means a direct tax increase on every American. They want to raise taxes on waitresses, on nurses working overtime, on firefighters, on police officers, and on our seniors. What do they want to use the money for? They have said it. A number of their candidates have said it around the country. They said so they can provide healthcare for illegal immigrants with taxpayers paying for it. That is the new Democratic Party. They are radical, they are extreme, they are dangerous, they are scary, and yet they proudly march off saying that is their new mantra. Actually, they don’t even call it a mantra. They call it a manifesto. We know what they want to do, and it will be very detrimental to the country. You read through it: Shut down the military. Shut down the police. Defund this. Open the prisons. Put the dangerous criminals into our communities. It is astonishing. They want to do that while Americans are struggling to pay their bills. Americans shouldn’t be paying the bills for millions of illegal immigrants. Joe Biden let 10 million of them into the country. We shouldn’t be paying the bills for these fraud centers that they are allowing in Minnesota and what we see happening in California. The American people shouldn’t have to be forced to be paying for that. Republicans are going to continue to fight to put more money in the pockets of the American people. The American people earned it, and they rightly deserve it. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.”

“I object to this bill. America needs to lead the world in artificial intelligence, not China. AI has real risks, but this bill gives government officials too much power to set rules without clear limits. I want to work with Democrats on a better bill that stops major dangers without hurting American innovation.”

“Madam President, in reserving the right to object, there is no doubt that AI will have profound effects on America’s economy, national security, and culture. It is already having an enormous beneficial impact on economic growth and productivity. Millions of Americans are using AI for everyday tasks like handling home repairs, teaching their children math, conducting legal research, or using it to work to draft memos. It is incredibly useful, and it will only become more so. So Congress must not legislate on the issue of artificial intelligence hastily or in a closed manner. Robust AI legislation needs to involve both sides, and I trust that my Democratic friends who are on the floor today genuinely want to work together on this. I would note that with all three of the Democrat Senators on the floor, I have worked productively on other legislative matters, and I look forward to continuing to work productively on this matter as well which, I agree, is of exceptional importance. As the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, I have also been having extensive and constructive conversations with Majority Leader Thune and Senator Klobuchar to give the government new authorities to protect against the potential catastrophic risks from AI. I think that is important. Now, I agree with Senators Warner, Schatz, and Kim that our artificial intelligence presents new challenges. Some of the warnings we have had are as scary as hell. I commend my colleagues for wanting to tackle the issue, but I retain real reservations about this specific proposal. This bill would let the executive branch handpick a new AI safety board to unilaterally draft standards for AI developers on whatever it believes is related to ``national security, national economic security, or public health and safety.’’ The Secretary of Commerce, in turn, would need to mandate by rule that AI developers then follow those standards. The Secretary would also exercise unilateral authority to change those standards based on national security. These terms are not bound by existing statutes or traditional legal doctrines or are even further defined. That concerns me because it is difficult to imagine what an ambitious bureaucrat couldn’t shoehorn under this broad authority. I would be more than happy to work with the sponsors on approaches that do not offer such unbounded discretion to the Federal Government and that are not an invitation for abuse, approaches like involving independent judges, which preserves debate and transparency through the adversarial process of litigation. Federal standards on advanced AI must also address the burgeoning patchwork of State laws. I would be glad to address my concerns with the sponsors and to work together. We need a bipartisan solution. AI offers enormous potential, and the question of who wins the race for AI, whether it is the United States or China, I believe is the single most important economic question facing America. The answer is that one or the other will win, and to whichever country wins, trillions of dollars of investment will follow as will millions of new jobs. I want those millions of new jobs to be here in America. I don’t want them in China. More fundamentally, as to whichever nation wins that race, the values of that nation will suffuse AI. I do not want the world using an AI that is governed by the values of communist China, that is, governed by surveillance and espionage and propaganda and coercion and control. The Chinese communist Government wants to use AI to control its citizenry and to control everyone else. I am not interested in the American people being captive to that degree of power by the Chinese communist Government. I would far rather American values suffuse AI: free speech, individual liberty, free enterprise, individual rights. So winning the race for AI matters enormously. Are there risks from AI? Of course. Any new tool has risks. I think we need guardrails particularly to protect against risks in the nuclear space with biohazards and critical infrastructure. Those are some of the most fundamental risks that we face. We need to, as with any technology, have rules, but those rules should be bipartisan, and they should be measured and prudent. I don’t believe we are there yet, although I am very happy to work with my colleagues constructively to get there and to get there in a bipartisan manner. As of now, though, I object.”