Providing for Congressional Disapproval Under Chapter 8 of Title United States Code, of the Rule Submitted By the Internal Revenue Service Relating to ``Gross Proceeds Reporting By Brokers That Regularly Provide Services Effectuating Digital Asset Sales''--

Floor Speech

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Mr. KELLY. Mr. President, we made a sacred promise to our veterans that after their service, they would get the care and support that they earned. That promise did not come with an expiration date. And as a combat veteran myself, I take this responsibility personally on behalf of Arizona's more than 500,000 veterans and veterans across the country. But with these mass firings of staff at the VA, President Trump and Elon Musk are breaking that promise.

In the last month, thousands of VA employees, people who care for our Nation's veterans, were fired with no warning, no phone call, no meeting--just an email telling them that they no longer had a job, that they were no longer wanted. These aren't just nameless, faceless bureaucrats; these are Americans who signed up to serve our country by taking care of veterans. They deserve to be treated with respect. These are the people on the frontlines of veterans' care and services, and they were fired without even a thought.

We can all agree that the VA can do a better job, but aimlessly firing thousands of people will do nothing to help speed up veterans' healthcare--nothing. It will just make accessing care more difficult.

Secretary Collins and the VA claim that these were ``non-mission critical'' jobs. Well, that is simply not true. In Arizona, we have seen VA workers and the families who rely on the VA impacted in a real way--like Brandy and David, who shared their story with Arizona's Family News and are both veterans themselves who became loan specialists to help fellow veterans navigate financial hardships and avoid homelessness. Before they were fired, each of them was handling 1,500 cases. Each of those cases represents one veteran who needs help. How much longer will it take veterans in need to get answers?

Another Arizona family reached out to my office, afraid to speak out publicly because of fear of retaliation. The husband is a doctor at the Tucson VA. He treats patients with lung disease. But last week he got an email--not a meeting, no conversation--just an email telling him to resign. Is that who Secretary Collins calls ``non-mission critical''? His wife now fears that her job could be next. They have two young kids, and now they are being forced to rethink everything because this administration--this administration--kicked them to the curb.

Donald Trump claims to care about veterans but then turns around and fires the very people whose job it is to ensure that veterans get the care that they need, the care that they earned from serving our Nation, for keeping us safe. These are real people. These terminations, they are not just numbers on a spreadsheet; they are real people who execute a mission serving veterans. And these layoffs--these layoffs are going to mean longer wait times for appointments, fewer options for mental health care, fewer options for pain management, more delays in processing benefits.

Is this really where Elon Musk and Donald Trump want to save a buck? Off the backs of veterans who have risked everything for us?

This is not how the United States should treat our veterans. That is why I stand here today as a veteran myself, with Senator Blumenthal and our colleagues, to support this resolution.

Let's get the folks back to work serving our veterans. The work they do is mission critical. Veterans in Arizona and across the country are counting on them, and they are counting on us.

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