Rick Scott · TranslatePolitics.com

Senate

Unanimous Consent Requests (Executive Session)

2026-08-06

“I rise to support the Doug LaMalfa Federal Disaster Tax Relief Certainty Act. I helped lead this bipartisan bill to provide tax relief to Americans affected by natural disasters. When families lose everything, they shouldn't have to worry about a rising tax bill. This bill gives certainty of necessary tax relief to victims so they can focus on getting back on track and not worry about the IRS. It helps families affected by all natural disasters, including wildfires, tornadoes, and earthquakes. It is a good bill for the entire country. It passed the House unanimously. If we pass it today, it will become law. We shouldn't add extra worries when the worst happens. This bill will make it easier to rebuild the American dream when hardships strike. I will continue to work with my colleagues, including my friend from Texas, to get this bill across the finish line for every American. I yield.”

Official Congressional Record

First off, I rise to recognize all my colleagues that have spoken about the importance of disaster relief, and I think we all want to make sure we help our States. Right now, I rise in support of the Doug LaMalfa Federal Disaster Tax Relief Certainty Act. Florida is no stranger to natural disasters. As we speak, we are in the middle of hurricane season, which started June 1. When I was Governor, I wanted Florida to be the national model for disaster relief. We prioritized preparedness, safety, and quick action. But once the storms pass, you know, like anyplace else, Florida is in the same position. Floridians had to rebuild. Families lost homes. Some lost everything they had. When you are in that position, one of the worst moments of your entire life, you shouldn't have to worry about a rising tax bill. That is why I helped lead this bipartisan bill and previous bills to provide not just Floridians but all Americans all across this country tax relief after disaster strikes, including Texans and Oregonians. Our citizens need certainty when they are piecing their lives back together; they don't need the government taking a cut of the money they need. This bill just gives certainty of necessary tax relief to victims of natural disasters so they can focus on getting back on track and not worrying about the IRS. This bill is very critical to my State, but it is also about more than hurricanes. It is not just about hurricanes; this bill helps families affected by all natural disasters, including wildfires, tornadoes, earthquakes, and any other scenario that can be declared a Federal disaster. It is good for the entire country. It is a bipartisan bill, and it is a tribute to Doug LaMalfa, who passed away earlier this year. This passed the House unanimously earlier this year, so if we pass this today, it will become law. Americans don't need extra worries when the worst happens, and we shouldn't be an obstacle to their recovery. By passing this bill, we will make it easier to rebuild the American dream when hardships strike. I am not going to give up. I look forward to continuing to work with my colleagues, including with my friend from Texas, to get this bill across the finish line for every Floridian and every American. I recognize the issue he is dealing with, and I look forward to working with him to try to solve the issues Texans are looking at right now. I yield the floor The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. Moody). The Senator from New Hampshire.

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Senate

Unanimous Consent Request--S. 3101 (Executive Session)

2026-07-30

“I want to stop foreign leaders from having surrogate children here. I don't trust them. They should have the babies in their own country. It doesn't make sense for them to have babies here. I want to work with you to solve this problem.”

Official Congressional Record

Mr. President, so first off, I appreciate the comments from my colleague from Illinois. I look forward to working with him to try to solve this. Let's remember what this is about. This is not about IVF. IVF has been a very positive experience for my family. It doesn't impact a surrogacy for an American citizen. Actually, surrogacy has impacted my family and friends, so those are important opportunities for Americans to have children. What this bill says, though, is if you are a national from people that want to destroy our way of life, you could be Xi in China, you could be Putin in Russia, you could be Kim Jong Un in North Korea, you could be the Ayatollah, you will not have the right to have a child in this country by surrogacy. They don't even have to show up in this country, and they could have a child. Why would they do that when they could do it in their own country? It doesn't make any sense to me. So this is a problem. We need to resolve it. It has been a problem in this country. It has been a problem in my home State, and I look forward to working with my colleague from Illinois to solve it. I yield the floor.

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“I want to pass a bill that closes a loophole. The loophole lets foreign adversaries get American citizenship for their children through surrogacy. It's a vulnerability. It's not fair. My bill would invalidate contracts involving certain countries and penalize brokers who facilitate them.”

Official Congressional Record

Mr. President, I rise today to ask unanimous consent to pass the SAFE KIDS Act. I want to thank my colleagues who have joined me in this effort as cosponsors: Senators Lee, Blackburn, Banks, Sullivan, Ricketts, Lummis, Budd, Rounds, Kennedy, Moody, and Sheehy. This bill is real simple. It is about protecting the integrity of American citizenship. It is also about our protecting children from exploitation and trafficking, and it is about closing a dangerous loophole that our foreign adversaries are using to undermine our national security right now. To be an American citizen is one of the greatest privileges in the world. It is a sacred covenant between an individual and our Nation. It comes with rights, privileges, and immunities that people around the world would do anything to have. It also comes with the responsibility to protect and defend those liberties for future generations. Right now, our Nation is vulnerable because foreign adversaries have found a backdoor around our immigration laws. Right now, citizens of foreign adversarial nations can have children born on American soil and as citizens through surrogacy. They actually never have to come into our country. Think about how insane this is. Under the current system, a foreign adversary could arrange a surrogacy contract to have a child born in America and be given all the privileges of being counted as one of us. Then they can take that child back to their home country and raise that child under the influence of a regime that hates America. It is getting all the perks of American citizenship without any responsibility. It is taking a future voter and raising them in a country that wants to destroy our way of life. We can't let that happen. Think about the Ayatollah in Iran. He could arrange a contract with an American surrogate. The child could get American citizenship at birth, be taken back to Iran, and be raised by a regime that chants ``Death to America.'' Then, years later, that child could come back to the United States as an American citizen. That is not some farfetched, science fiction scenario; it is exactly the kind of vulnerability our foreign adversaries look for. The Chinese Communist Party has already demonstrated that it will exploit every weakness in our laws and institutions to advance its interest. Recent reporting has exposed disturbing examples of wealthy Chinese nationals exploiting American surrogacy arrangements to father more than 100 children born in the United States. We should be asking: What happens to these children? Who raises them? What are they taught. What country are they taught to love? And what happens when they are old enough to return to the United States? Could they attend our universities? Could they serve in our military? Could they receive security clearances? Could they run for President? These are real questions and a real vulnerability we face if we don't act today. We should not be creating a pipeline through which foreign adversaries can exploit American citizenship, raise American citizens under hostile, foreign influence, and potentially bring them back into our country as Americans. But this is about more than national security; it is about children. We have already seen the heartbreaking consequences when an international surrogacy arrangement goes wrong. I have seen it right here in my own State. A recent dispute in St. Augustine, FL--it is hard to believe-- involving a surrogate mother fighting for paternal rights demonstrates the devastating legal and emotional consequences when kids are treated like this. Kyla Simpson had triplets almost 2 years ago. Now she is fighting her way through court for custody of them because the Chinese national on the surrogacy contract didn't show up. Let me make sure I tell you how this bill works, what it does and doesn't do. It doesn't ban surrogacy. It doesn't ban IVF. It doesn't take away women's rights. It doesn't interfere with Americans who use surrogacy or IVF to build their families. These are all separate debates. This bill is very narrow. It is focused on commercial surrogacy arrangements involving our country's most dangerous foreign enemies. This is about preventing hostile foreign regimes from exploiting legal loopholes to obtain American-born children. My SAFE KIDS Act would do two simple things: It would invalidate commercial surrogacy contracts involving designated foreign adversaries, including China, Iran, Russia, and North Korea. Second, it would create a misdemeanor penalty for any broker who knowingly facilitates one of these prohibited arrangements. The way surrogacy works, there are groups that organize surrogacy contracts. I cannot imagine why any Senator would oppose closing this loophole. Every Senator in this Chamber should be alarmed that this is currently possible under our laws. We should not wait for communist China, Iran, Russia, or North Korea to further exploit the vulnerability before we close it. American citizenship cannot be bought. American children are not commodities. You do not need to be born here to be an American, but you do have to love what we have built. And we should never allow our foreign adversaries to turn our laws into weapons against the American people. I urge my colleagues to support the SAFE KIDS Act. Mr. President, as if in legislative session and notwithstanding rule XXII, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on the Judiciary be discharged from further consideration of S. 3101 and the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration. Further, I ask that the bill be read a third time and passed and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

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Senate

Unanimous Consent Request--S. Res. 807 (Executive Calendar)

2026-07-21

“I want to object to this resolution. I don't like that Democrats attack Trump. They want to twist the Constitution to hurt him. They already lost this in court. They just don't like that they lost. They want to use Senate time to keep attacking Trump. They want to tax working Americans and spend more on things I don't like. They don't want to pass SAVE America Act. They don't want to fix real problems. I want them to reject socialism. I think we need to spend time on other things.”

Official Congressional Record

Mr. President, reserving the right to object. Mr. President, at a time when we are seeing the Democrat Party embrace the hellish evils of socialism and ideologies that hate the founding ideals of America, Democrats are hoping to pass a resolution to direct this Chamber to sue the President of the United States on a very false premise. The emoluments clause reads: I don't think that is happening. Now, the obvious answer is that these accusations by my colleague do not support the constitutional threshold of an emolument, and my Democrat colleagues are just playing politics. This resolution seeks to authorize litigation rather than legislation. This issue has already been litigated, and, as my colleague said, they lost. The Democrats just like don't like the answer. Now, the President isn't taking a plane or any gifts for personal use, and the United States has long accepted diplomatic gifts pursuant to Federal law, with such gifts generally becoming property of the United States rather than any individual officeholder. Now, what is going on here is the Democrats are putting their hatred for President Trump before the law. But aside from the obvious facts, this is the agenda Democrats want from this Chamber. They don't want to fund government; they want to shut it down. They walked away from government funding negotiations. They don't want to secure elections. They want systematic fraud because it benefits their elected incumbents. Department of Homeland Security just found 278,000 noncitizens on voter rolls for Federal elections. Are Democrats talking about that? Just last week, President Trump exposed foreign adversaries like China and Cuba for interfering in our elections. Did my Democratic colleagues talk about that? Leader Schumer responded to the facts about voter fraud by declaring the SAVE America Act, an election security bill--even though Democrats, Republicans, Independents all across the country believe in it--said it is ``dead on arrival.'' Unfortunately, my Democratic colleagues don't want fixes; they want to ignore the fraud because it benefits them. They are trying to distract the American people with platitudes while they defraud them of their vote. Have you looked at what Olive Garden is doing, OK? You can buy a pasta pass--an unlimited pasta pass, but guess what you have to do? You have to show an ID. So Olive Garden has a voter ID, but my Democratic colleagues don't want to do it for Federal elections. This bill proves that the Democrats' goal right now is to attack President Trump instead of fixing problems Americans expect us to deal with. They don't want to reduce the cost of living, lower inflation, balance the budget. They do want to tax working Americans so they can spend more of it on special interests and run bigger deficits--already spending $2 trillion in deficits. They want to use the Senate's time--the precious time we have--to attack President Trump by twisting the words of the Constitution. The resolution is moot. The accusations: Purely political. We all know it is political. It is a waste of time. And this Chamber only works 2-and-a-half days a week. I think we need to spend every time doing something like pass the SAVE America Act, fund our government, lower the debt, lower the deficit. Unfortunately, my Democratic colleagues aren't coming to the table. Why don't we spend some time on real issues rather than attacking the President? For those reasons, I object to passage of this resolution and hope my colleagues can reject the anti-American socialists capturing the Democratic Party before it is too late for all of us. I yield the floor.

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Senate

Legislative Session

2026-07-16

“I agree with my colleague. We don't want to hurt the economy. But we need to stop birth tourism. I want to work with my colleague to fix this. We need to make sure the Communist Party of China does not abuse the system.”

“I want to talk about my bill. One Nation, One Visa Policy Act. I don't like that some people can come to America without a visa. I don't like that people from China can have babies in America. I want my bill to pass. I want people from China to need a visa. I want to say thank you to some of my friends. I want the Senate to pass my bill now.”

Official Congressional Record

Mr. President, I welcome my colleague from Oklahoma and thank him. I completely agree with his ideas. We have got to get energy production increased in this country and drive down the prices for all consumers. Mr. President, I rise today to seek the passage of my One Nation, One Visa Policy Act. Imagine if every State in the Union, on a whim, had the power to allow foreign nationals to travel to their States without a visa. In other words, imagine if American States allowed anyone, from anywhere, for any reason, to access American sovereign territory--even those from adversarial countries; that you could do it in any State. Most Americans would say that that would be an insane policy, and they would be absolutely right. Florida can't set its own visa policies, neither can, you know, New Mexico, Texas, California, or New York. That would be chaos, and it would make our immigration system meaningless. Currently, the only place in the United States where visa-free travel from foreign countries is allowed--the only place--is in the Mariana Islands, a territory. It is in this small U.S. Pacific island territory where foreign nationals can legally enter America without having a visa. Since 2009, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, or CNMI, has become a hotbed for birth tourism, which is a strategy used by citizens of foreign powers to deliberately undermine our Nation's immigration laws. Over 3,300 communist Chinese nationals have been born on these islands except they are also bona fide American citizens. They have passports, birth certificates, and Social Security cards. Keep in mind this is a territory where only 45,000 Americans live. The CCP and Chinese civilians found this loophole and have exploited it for birthright citizenship. You can be a full-fledged devotee of the CCP-- you can actually hate America and hate our people and hate our way of life--and still abuse birth tourism to get a foothold in the country you seek to undermine and destroy. Now, come on. That is ridiculous. It all needs to end now. All the One Nation, One Visa Policy Act does is stop this visa-free travel from communist China to the United States. It doesn't ban travel from China--you can still come--but it says: If you are a citizen from China, which is our foremost adversary, you have got to get a visa. We have got to know who you are if you want to enter my State, any of our States, or any other sovereign territory of our country. You have got to get a visa if you are from communist China. It is common sense. I am grateful to Secretary Mullin, who, while a U.S. Senator, signed on to my letter to then-Secretary Noem that called for an end to China's participation in any Chinese visa waiver program. As Secretary Mullin continues to work to end China's visa-free privilege, I hope the United States Senate can offer the administration the support it deserves by passing this legislation immediately. I would also like to thank my friends, Senators Lee, McCormick, Budd, and Lankford, for cosponsoring this legislation. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on the Judiciary be discharged from further consideration of S. 3857 and that the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration. I further ask that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

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