-9999

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. LUMMIS. Mr. President, today, President Trump completes the first 100 days of his return to the White House, and it has been nothing short of transformational.

Under President Trump and Vice President Vance's leadership, we are witnessing the rapid implementation of campaign promises that are already reshaping America's policy landscape. When I go home to Wyoming each weekend, people approach me everywhere, from restaurants to the feed store, eager to discuss the positive changes happening in Washington. The overwhelming sentiment is enthusiasm for what President Trump is accomplishing for everyday Americans.

For example, on day one, President Trump restored the dignity of men and women as biologically distinct sexes. It is hard to believe he had to do that, but, indeed, he did. One of the administration's first major actions was signing an Executive order directing Federal Agencies to recognize biological sex in athletic competition.

The left spent the past 4 years gaslighting Americans and making the failed argument that biological males should now be competing in women's sports in the name of fairness. Within a few weeks of taking office, President Trump tackled this issue and made it clear that this administration won't support the left's attack on female athletes. I believe this is the women's rights issue of our time, and I am grateful for President Trump's leadership.

For some people my age, we spent so many years trying to exercise our rights under title IX and other rights to recognize women's rights, only to have them swept under the rug and disregarded by the left, requiring that women not only compete against men but have them in their locker rooms in what were uncomfortable and, in some times, unsafe circumstances. President Trump recognized this and, thankfully, has put that issue to rest for a while.

President Trump is also delivering on his promise to unleash American energy dominance. A few weeks ago, I joined President Trump and some of my colleagues at the White House for his signing of an Executive order that starts to reverse the Biden and Obama administrations' anti-coal agenda. For energy States like Wyoming, the official lifting of the unconstitutional coal moratorium represents a significant economic opportunity for western States.

By removing unnecessary restrictions on energy extraction, the administration has signaled its commitment to blue collar jobs, cheaper energy for American families, and a new era of energy dominance.

Joe Biden and his administration didn't care about the impact their regulations have on working-class people. The Trump administration does care, and they are continuing to take action that will help Americans and our amazing energy communities.

Wyoming exports 12 times more energy than it consumes; and much of that is in the form of hydrocarbons. And each and every year, for years after the Clean Air Act passed, we were producing more energy and producing cleaner air. These things can happen simultaneously. And it is because of Yankee ingenuity and it is because we know how to do things better all the time, we don't have to accept the status quo when it comes to energy dominance.

But there were certain people in the Biden administration that forced something called environmental justice, an absolutely trumped-up, dreamed-up idea that we can't have clean energy and abundant energy at the same time. That is a totally wrong-headed approach to what has always been a great American tradition of ingenuity and entrepreneurs who can take a problem and solve it.

There is such a thing as clean air that can be produced from coal and natural gas, in particular, and I am proud that my State is part of that. I am proud that President Trump recognizes it and that he has taken steps to restore our statutory ability to produce both clean air and abundant hydrocarbon energy simultaneously.

Perhaps the most dramatic turnaround has been at the southern border. Where the Biden administration created chaos, President Trump has restored order--through multiple Executive actions, signing the Laken Riley Act, ending catch-and-release, re-implementing ``Remain in Mexico,'' and more. We have seen border encounters plummet from nearly 380,000 in February and March last year to just 22,000, plus a few, during the same period this year.

The people of Wyoming are grateful to have a President who cares about securing our border and deporting those who are not here legally, especially those from gangs that are causing unsafe communities, horrible crimes perpetuated on the American people--all unnecessarily, if we only followed the laws that were in existence and the statutes that were in existence all along, those laws that President Biden ignored and that President Trump is following and implementing.

For decades, America's leaders have failed our country when it comes to fiscal responsibility, and we in this very Chamber are partly responsible for that. Our $36 trillion national debt represents a real and present threat to America's future.

We all know it is unsustainable. And yet, after COVID, we never went back to pre-COVID spending levels. We have kept spending at post-COVID highs, even though the moneys spent during the COVID years is no longer necessary in our now more growing and robust post-COVID economy.

Most taxpayers don't realize their hard-earned dollars primarily service this massive debt through interest payments rather than funding national defense and essential services. That is why I strongly support President Trump's creation of the Department of Government Efficiency-- DOGE. It was done through a provision in ObamaCare and its subsequent ability to gain efficiencies through efforts that computers can assist us with.

And nobody knows better how to do it than the people who have voluntarily participated through their expertise and ability to identify waste, fraud, and abuse, using the Department of Government Efficiency and their remarkable skills with computers to ferret out waste, fraud, and abuse.

Elon Musk and the DOGE team have already identified a huge number of wasteful programs and abusive expenditures that don't benefit American families. All of us should be proud, in both parties, that the rhetoric that we have used over the years that we are going to pay for things by ferreting out waste, fraud, and abuse and then after elected, don't even try to find waste, fraud, and abuse, has finally come to an end.

Elon Musk and his team have found true waste, fraud, and abuse in government and is identifying it so Cabinet Secretaries can deal with it in their respective Agencies. That is exactly the kind of fiscal discipline that we value in Wyoming--that we all should value as Americans.

After years of the Biden administration's unbridled hostility toward digital assets and cryptocurrency, President Trump is fulfilling his promise to lead the most pro-digital asset administration in history. I could not be more proud. We know that we are moving into a digital future, a digital economy. It is something we should embrace. It is something we can include in a new, modern 21st century economy.

It is not something to fear. But it is something that cries for consumer protections, and our incredible ability that we have as Agencies to disclose matters that should be disclosed to investors and to allow innovation where it makes our ability to do business internationally, faster, cheaper, and more responsible. Through the ledgers, the blockchain's incredible ability to send money all over the world fast and inexpensively helps regular, everyday Americans avoid the tremendous friction that is in the banking system that costs taxpayers money and costs taxpayers time and allows us to do business all over the world in a much less expensive and a robust way.

What a blessing to have an administration that sees the future in this way, that understands the innovation that is at our fingertips and that we can use to go forward in a true 21st-century digital economy.

I am particularly pleased with President Trump's support of my strategic Bitcoin reserve initiative, which will address our national debt while securing America's position as the global leader in financial innovation.

As Bitcoin comes into more usage, its use makes the whole system more secure, more robust, and more capable of serving our needs all over the world. We should be the global leader with this fantastic, new, ledger- based asset that is in a digital format that is going to be transformative of the everyday economy and puts the everyday American-- in fact, the everyday worker all over the world--in control of their own money. What a wonderful blessing for hard-working people all over the world to have this great, new technology and to have America lead the way in implementing this wonderful, wonderful innovation.

Here in the Senate, we have confirmed 54 of President Trump's Cabinet and sub-Cabinet nominees. It has required some long hours--many in the middle of the night, much to our consternation. But our work is far from complete.

The Democrats' agenda threatens to impose crushing tax increases on hard-working Wyoming families and our local small businesses. If the tax cuts that were implemented under President Trump's first administration are allowed to expire, it will create the largest tax increase in history at a time when businesses need the innovation that allows our economy to grow. That can come through a robust, fair tax system. This is something that I look forward to assisting my colleagues in this body to implement in a permanent form and using our current standard practices.

Following years of punishing inflation under the Biden administration, our communities and working families cannot shoulder any additional financial strain, and keeping our Tax Code as is and making it permanent is yet another way of implementing advantages for local working economies.

It also just delights me that President Trump identified just real working Americans who are struggling to make ends meet, who are living paycheck to paycheck, and tried to identify ways to tax-advantage their lives--for example, no tax on tips, no tax on Social Security, no tax on overtime hours. These are things for regular, everyday, working people.

Some people allege that President Trump is trying to help his billionaire buddies. I am not seeing that at all. I am seeing a President who really gets the everyday working American and wants to make sure that as they live paycheck to paycheck and try to plan for their families, there is some relief in store for them with regard to his proposals for taxes.

These first 100 days of President Trump's return to office represent just the opening chapter of America's golden era. Already, his administration has made remarkable progress in securing our southern border, revitalizing American energy independence, cutting wasteful government spending, supporting innovative digital asset policies, and restoring America's rightful leadership position globally.

We know even today that as countries are renegotiating their trade policies and tariff policies with us, there is a newfound desire to find a level playing field, parity, and reciprocal trade agreements that allow for some of our products to go into their economies in ways that acknowledge that the United States has been globally at a trade disadvantage and to try to repair some of those long practices where the United States was participating in free trade and other countries were not. It is time to make it all fair trade. I applaud President Trump's desires to do that hopefully soon so we can get some of the turmoil associated with these important changes to our economy behind us and restore stability in our economy and our everyday lives.

I anticipate the next 100 days will bring equally significant achievements, and I feel deeply privileged to work alongside this administration and this President.

I served 14 years in the Wyoming Legislature, all with Democrat Governors. I have served 12 years in the Congress, all with Democrat Presidents. This is the first time in my entire life that I have legislatively served with a President of my own party. It is refreshing, it is delightful, and it is even, on occasion, fun.

I feel so privileged to be here with a Republican President who is delivering meaningful results to the people of Wyoming and our great Nation.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source