“I want the Senate to pass a resolution calling for an end to the trade war with Canada. Donald Trump's tariffs on Canada are hurting Nevada. Canadian tourism to Las Vegas dropped by 17 percent, which hurts our hotel and restaurant workers. The tariffs are also driving up prices for businesses and families, and Canada's response threatens 1.6 billion dollars in Nevada exports.”

“Mr. President, today I rise to speak up about Donald Trump’s reckless trade war against Canada and the impact it is having on my State of Nevada. Because of Trump’s childish fight with our neighbors, tourism is down, prices are up, and Canada is suddenly rethinking its relationship with our country. Let me tell you why this matters to my State. Canada is the No. 1 source of international visitors to Las Vegas. In 2024, nearly 1.5 million Canadians visited Nevada. It helped boost our tourism economy and the small businesses that depend on it. And Canada is also one of Nevada’s top trading partners. In fact, Nevada exports approximately $1.6 billion worth of goods to Canada. So think about this: $1.6 billion of revenue coming to businesses in my State of Nevada to further contribute to our economy. And this is exactly why a good, healthy relationship between Canada and the United States is important for Nevada and Nevada’s economy, Nevada’s families. Donald Trump is doing everything in his power to harm our relationship with Canada. He is hurting Nevada families. He is hurting Nevada businesses along the way. And one of the first actions that Trump took since returning to the White House was beginning a reckless and erratic trade war that has resulted in higher prices for American businesses, American families, for all of us, every single one of us. And to date, he has imposed tariffs on many items we buy from Canada with higher rates on products like building materials, brand-name prescription drugs, alcohol, and paper products. I have heard from restaurant owners paying more for paper towels and home builders paying more for materials. These costs not only make it impossible for our business owners to plan ahead, but then they get passed on to families. Most recently, Trump utilized a never--never-before-used trade authority. I want to emphasize this: never-before-used trade authority to target Canada, applying 50-percent tariffs on a wide array of Canadian goods. In retaliation, Canada recently imposed their own tariffs on goods they import from the United States, including from my State of Nevada. Remember the $1.6 billion in Nevada goods that we export to Canada? Well, that number is going to be reduced because of these retaliatory tariffs. Just yesterday, Trump’s ban on the import of many Canadian goods has gone into effect, restricting Americans’ freedom--restricting our freedom--to buy what we want to buy and making all of our prices go up. The back-and-forth tariffs, they are a disaster, but they only tell one side of the story of Trump’s hostilities toward Canada. Trump’s childish attacks on Canada included threats to annex it as the United States’ 51 State; its references to the Canadian Prime Minister as ``Governor’’; Trump has tried to rename Lake Ontario to ``Lake America.’’ Trump even canceled trade negotiations because a Canadian television ad hurt his feelings. After a year and a half of this nonsense, where has Trump gotten us? Well, I can tell you where, because last year, Canadian tourism to Las Vegas declined by 17 percent--you got that right, 17 percent. This contributed to an overall decline in tourism that made 2025 the worst nonpandemic drop in visitation for Las Vegas since we began tracking data. When we see a decline like this, it isn’t just a data point for us. Hospitality employs nearly a third of all workers in Nevada. So this means fewer guests in our hotel rooms, which leads to fewer shifts for housekeepers. It means fewer visits to our restaurants and less tip money for our servers and bartenders. It trickles down to less money for all of the hospitality workers and when they go home to the neighborhoods they live in, less money they can spend there. It is not only Nevada that is feeling this. According to the Canadian Government’s own data, total spending by Canadians in the United States declined by over $3 billion. Canadians themselves are pointing to Trump’s hostility as a reason for this decline. They are still traveling and spending money--Canadians are; they are just not coming to the United States. And this situation was 100 percent avoidable. None of this had to happen. So no one can argue with the facts. Tourism is down because of Trump’s trade war with Canada. Less money is being invested in our economy, and our small businesses are struggling to navigate expensive and constantly--constantly--changing conditions. That is why I am here today to pass a simple resolution expressing the sense of the Senate that Trump’s trade war against Canada must end. It must end to get our economy and the relationship with our northern neighbor back on track. I hope my colleagues look at the facts and agree. So as if in legislative session and notwithstanding rule XXII, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Finance be discharged from further consideration of S. Res. 898 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration; further, that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.”

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  Speech in the House

  Respect 97 of 100

  This statement targeted a person rather than their actions or views: “because a Canadian television ad hurt his feelings”.

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“I oppose this bill. Real fraud should be stopped, but this bill just cuts help for families who need healthcare, food, and childcare. It punishes normal people and childcare providers instead of going after real criminals. We should fund the investigators who already stop fraud and go after rich people and big companies who cheat on their taxes.”

“Mr. President, reserving the right to object, every bit-- every bit--of real fraud needs to be rooted out. Unfortunately, the Trump fraud policy is not about that. The Trump administration and Republicans in Congress have begun to make a habit out of calling any Federal policy they don’t like ``undeserving fraud”: Medicaid, fraudulent; Affordable Care Act coverage, fraudulent; SNAP, fraudulent; childcare, fraudulent; Social Security, fraudulent; kids with disabilities who need Medicaid for home care, fraudsters; small business owners with ACA plans, fraudsters; families who need help paying for groceries, fraudsters; working parents who need childcare, fraudsters; seniors living paycheck to paycheck, fraudsters. Americans are struggling to afford necessities--food and electricity and medical care. The Republican solution to these challenges is to create more hoops, more redtape, more cuts. The result is more pain and suffering for Americans in need and higher costs for families. When it comes to fighting fraud, there are proven approaches that we can use right now. Earlier this summer, I introduced bipartisan legislation with Chairman Crapo, the senior Senator from Iowa, and Senator Cortez Masto that provides a sustainable funding boost to the cops on the beat at the Office of Inspector General at HHS. This organization is so good at what it does that it recovers up to $12 in fraud for every $1 spent on resources. My view is that is a no-brainer. Senator Ernst’s bill is chock-full of automatic triggers, privacy violations, and power grabs for Trump’s false-flag schemes on fraud. It is nothing more than a veiled attempt to make life harder for the working families that I was just talking about, who need help with the rising costs of healthcare, childcare, and more. For example, an automatic HHS investigation is triggered if a childcare provider’s payments increase by 10 percent or more in a 6- month period. That increase could be triggered for reasonable situations: The provider is simply serving more kids, serving kids with disabilities, or creating more slots for infants. The prospect of a Federal investigation, if they increase their enrollment or care for more infants, would deter many providers from expanding their services, making it even more difficult for families to afford good healthcare and childcare. The bottom line is this government overreach wouldn’t fight actual fraud. It would make it harder and more expensive for families to get the care and support they need. In addition to funding the cops on the street, I am also squarely focused on going after the greatest source of fraud: sophisticated corporations and the ultrarich using well-heeled lawyers and accountants to flout the Federal laws to avoid paying what they owe or bilking billions from taxpayers. In my view, that ought to be the focus of Congress’ efforts to fight fraud. For those reasons, I object.”

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  Speech in the House

  Reasoning 100 of 100

  This statement drew 7 conclusions and gave a reason for each one.

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“I want the Senate to pass this bill today. Artificial intelligence makes it easy to create fake videos and recordings of anyone. This bill gives every American the right to control their own face and voice online. It lets people have fake content taken down while still protecting free speech for things like news, documentaries, and comedy.”

“Mr. President, I would like to start by thanking my colleague from the State of Tennessee. This has been a tremendous experience in working together to find a way to protect creators and, frankly, all Americans. We live in an age of AI anxiety, AI optimism, and AI experimentation in a way never previously thought possible. In the next 5 minutes, I could generate a brief film in which a colleague, say, from the State of Texas is the hero of a major football game or a colleague from the State of Tennessee is performing what is otherwise known as one of Elvis Presley’s landmark pieces of music. We each do have a right in what makes us ``us’’ in our voices, in our images, and in the property rights that attach to our likenesses. This bipartisan compromise is the result of years of negotiation with the creative community, with platforms, with studios, and with a lot of different interest groups, including First Amendment and civil rights advocates. This bill, the NO FAKES Act, creates a new intellectual property right to allow not just celebrities and famous Americans but all Americans to control their digital revenue. As my colleague just said, it creates a takedown system to allow you to promptly enforce those rights if you believe that a platform has wrongfully put it up and a prompt counter-notice process to allow you to have it taken down if the rights holder or the platform decides that it violates some fundamental right like the First Amendment. There are key and explicit protections for free speech, for parody, for satire, for documentaries, for newscasts, and for bio-pics. The work that went into this, over years, was substantive and serious. I want to thank my chief counsel, James Barton, and I want to thank my colleague and her staff for their tireless work to first secure the support of the movie and music industries--the actors, singers, songwriters, performers--to secure the commitment and engagement of online platforms, like YouTube and TikTok; to get AI companies, like OpenAI and IBM, on board; and to get organized labor and child safety groups on board. Ultimately, our bill passed the Senate Judiciary Committee by a voice vote, and it has 14 bipartisan cosponsors. It is my hope that we will be able to pass this today in recognition of the hard work of my colleague from Tennessee and our cosponsors, Senator Tillis and Senator Klobuchar. With that, I yield the floor to my colleague from Tennessee.”

“I want to compromise with my colleagues so we can pass this AI bill. It protects people's rights to their own likeness and work. We can still protect free speech and political satire while passing this into law.”

“Mr. President, if I might just briefly conclude my comments on the same matter. I look forward to working closely with my colleague from Texas and my colleague from Tennessee to find compromise that allows us to move this bill forward. It is one of the most ready- for-enactment, defined, complete bills in the AI space that creates a new intellectual property right for all Americans. We should not let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Of course I respect First Amendment concerns, and, of course, I want to make sure that the notice and takedown process is set in terms of its incentives such that it leans towards protecting political satire and other forms of free speech, and I very much look forward to working in the coming weeks to try and resolve this such that Senator Blackburn and I can see this bill enacted. I yield the floor.”