Terminating the National Emergency Declared to Impose Global Tariffs

Floor Speech

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Mr. PADILLA. Mr. President, as the American people can clearly see, President Trump's new tariffs have become a massive tax hike on consumers--a tax on the food we eat, a tax on the clothes we wear, the cars we drive, every cup of coffee we have in the morning.

These rising costs are not just hurting consumers, actually; they are hurting American businesses and our workforce too. We are already seeing the impact. It is not a hypothetical.

I call your attention to my home State, the great State of California, home to two of the largest ports in the Nation in southern California alone, the neighboring Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, that truly power our Nation's economy.

It is not an exaggeration. The Port of Los Angeles, which is the largest port in the United States, expects imports to drop by 35 percent in just 2 weeks' time, as Trump's tariffs and his manufactured chaos bring global trade to a halt. The Port of Long Beach is expecting similar declines.

Take a minute to think about the magnitude of that drop in cargo volume. That decline, at the end of the day, will mean empty shelves and higher prices.

The over $300 billion in cargo coming through what we know as the San Pedro Bay port complex is tied to nearly 1 million jobs in the region alone and 2.7 million jobs across the country. That is nearly one job for every four containers.

When the richest President in history decides on his own, unlawfully, to haphazardly apply an across-the-board tax on goods--because that is what these tariffs are--the goods-moving industry is going to take a hit. It will mean fewer jobs for port workers, for truckers, and for communities across the country. It will mean more Americans out of work.

While the western port communities may be the first to feel the pain, it won't be long before the effects of these tariffs reach the east coast and the gulf coast.

As I mentioned, this isn't just bad news for American consumers who rely on imports. It is also bad news for U.S. farmers and businesses that rely on the export of goods to other countries.

Trump's tariffs are already damaging important supply chains in ways that will be difficult and very expensive to reverse. And, in the meantime, China and others are all too happy to fill in the void.

I just had a group of growers from California in my office, just yesterday, and they were sharing with me their very specific experiences--fears--that are playing out. You see, U.S. companies, not just agricultural companies, depend on markets in China and elsewhere in Asia, India, and Europe for sales, for profits that they can, in turn, invest in their own companies and hire more employees.

Now, when those markets are shut off to them and those countries respond to these unnecessary tariff wars provoked by President Trump, they don't stop consuming. Whether it is fruit, vegetables, electronics, or otherwise, they just find somewhere else to get it. When those other countries, those other markets, find a replacement for their supply, they are not going to give it up in 2 months, maybe, if Donald Trump wakes up in a better mood and sees the error of his ways when it comes to these tariffs--because there is that deadline, right? We are in a 90-day postponement of a lot of these tariffs, but we don't know what is coming on day 91.

Tariffs are imposed. Tariffs are not imposed. More significant tariffs are imposed. I hope it has nothing to do with his poll numbers because the American public will continue to feel more pain.

My point is this. Other markets and consumers abroad who have purchased from the United States are going to purchase elsewhere, and they are not going to revert immediately back, even if we get the President to make the right decision in the next couple of months.

Now, like I said, Americans are already feeling the pain. It is going to get worse. Just this morning, the Commerce Department reported our Nation's gross domestic product for the first quarter. The results: Our quarterly GDP declined by 0.3 percent. It wasn't a reduction in growth. It was a decline of 0.3 percent in his first 100 days alone.

Donald Trump's reckless policies actually shrank the American economy. Is that what he bragged about? Is that what he campaigned on? Is that what people voted for?

This shrinking of the economy, by the way, follows 3 years of robust growth of our economy under President Biden. I don't think our Republican colleagues will recognize that, but it is true. The numbers do not lie.

So 100 days of chaos, increased costs, and corruption are shrinking our economy. To my Republican colleagues: Are you hearing this? Are you listening? Are you prepared to act?

American businesses are going to be forced to take on some of these higher costs for materials, to cut back on production, to try to make ends meet, to delay investment. That is the opposite of what we need. We need more investment, not to delay or postpone investment because of tariff uncertainty. And, certainly, they are going to raise prices, because, again, when American companies have to import, it is American companies that pay the tariffs. It is not other countries, as the President would like you to believe, and those costs get passed on to the consumer.

Meanwhile, the world is moving on without us, as I explained a minute ago.

So let's be clear about the stakes of what we are debating today: A vote against this resolution is a vote to maintain Trump's tariffs that are so clearly devastating our economy already. It will move us closer to a recession solely of Trump's doing. You can't blame it on anybody else. And it is a vote against the American worker, a vote against the American economy, a vote against American competitiveness. Is that what you want to go back and tell your constituents?

Colleagues, I urge you to listen to your constituents, to small businesses in our respective States, the State and local governments. It is not too late to turn back.

Support this resolution.

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Mr. PADILLA. Mr. President, I rise today with a number of my colleagues. I will speak for the next, probably, hour-plus on the topic of election integrity and the seemingly constant attacks on our election integrity by Donald Trump and our Republican colleagues.

I am joined by a number of my friends and colleagues in our remarks here for the next block. Senator Welch will be speaking next, our colleague from Vermont, and then Senator Blumenthal, Senator Merkley, Leader Schumer, Senator Klobuchar, and Senator Bennet. And it will be wrapped up with my partner in organizing this group of Senators, Senator Reed, who is not only the ranking member of the Armed Services Committee but is the ranking member of the Appropriations subcommittee overseeing funding for this space.

I rise today, with my colleagues, out of grave concern for the future of our democracy.

I currently serve as the ranking member of the Senate Rules and Administration Committee. I also, as many of you know, am the former secretary of state for the State of California. So I have seen firsthand, not just through the last 4 years but for the last 8, 9 years, the growing threats to our democracy and the threats to the public confidence in our elections.

Sadly, the truth in the year 2025 is that it is not just foreign actors who are trying to undermine our elections and the people's confidence in the elections. It is also so many Republican officials here at home, not just in the Capitol but in statehouses across America--but, yes, even here in the Capitol.

I think of the old horror movie where the person on the phone would say that the call is coming from inside the house. In State legislatures, in the Capitol, and in the Oval Office, radical Republicans are working hard--actively working hard--to make it harder for eligible Americans to exercise their constitutional right to vote. We see it in the endless lies and conspiracy theories about massive voter fraud. We see it in the new barriers being erected that would make it harder for eligible Americans to simply register to vote. And we see it in the Trump administration's firing of the hard-working and dedicated security officials who are tasked with protecting our elections.

So, yes, over the next hour, with my Democratic colleagues, we will peel back the curtain on the tactics being used to undermine our Federal elections, because our fundamental democracy is at stake.

In Rochester Hills, MI, Republican clerk Tina Barton worked hard to help administer and uphold a free and fair election in 2020. But for her dedication and hard work and professionalism, 1 week after the 2020 election, Tina received an anonymous phone call--not a phone call thanking her for her service but a phone call threatening her life. The voice on the other end threatened to come after her family, to hold a knife to her throat, and to kill her.

As shocking as threats like that may be, Tina represents just one-- one in every three election workers who has reported receiving threats, harassment, and abuse. So, for Tina and so many others, that harassment grew worse with every lie spread by the Trump campaign about a so- called stolen election, with threats against election officials continuing in subsequent elections.

There was no stolen election. That is a farce. But for those selfless election workers, Donald Trump hasn't even tried to lower the temperature of political rhetoric or combat the disinformation that leads to the threats and harassment. Instead, he has, actually, actively made it worse for those who are administering elections. Think of the election workers and all of the volunteers who work polling places to help our elections in our democracy thrive. He has made it worse for voters. He has fired Federal workers who combat election misinformation and disinformation.

Why would he and his administration and Republicans in Congress who support him want to make it easier for people to interfere with our elections?

I am at a loss. I am at a loss for an answer. What I do know is that, by failing to counter, by failing to elevate the truth, Republicans in Congress have become complicit as they just sit back instead of pushing back.

Believe it or not, there was a time, not that long ago, when even Republicans had the moral courage to speak out against Trump's attacks on our democracy.

I do think back a few years to my days as the California secretary of state when, during the first Trump administration, he created a commission to investigate these unfounded claims of ``voter fraud''-- without evidence, baseless claims--but for him, it was important enough to set up a commission to investigate and uncover the truth. The commission set out to collect sensitive, private voter information from every State, demanding that States hand over not just the names of every voter on the voter rolls but their dates of birth, their voting history, their Social Security information, and more.

It was a blatant power grab, long before Elon Musk started tapping into Federal servers, by the way. It was a blatant power grab which was responded to: 44 States, both Republican and Democratic, said no. Republican and Democratic elections officials throughout the country joined together to reject Donald Trump's demands under his first term. Even in Mississippi--hardly a woke, Democratic bastion, folks--even in Mississippi, then-Secretary of State and now-Lieutenant Governor Delbert Hosemann, a Republican, was outraged. He was so offended by the power grab that he responded to the White House's request with ``Go jump in the Gulf of Mexico,'' saying, ``Mississippi is a great state to launch from.'' Good for him.

So you can imagine my disappointment when, fast-forward to this past March, Trump announced yet another anti-voter Executive order that would empower DOGE to access sensitive voter data--very reminiscent of the request from that first term but now on steroids.

And what did so many of our Republican colleagues here in the Senate and the House of Representatives say? Nothing.

But it is not just that the Republicans have gone silent, they have actually become Trump's enablers here in Congress by forgoing their responsibility to serve as a check and balance on the executive branch.

Any day now here in the Senate, we could see Republicans take up the SAVE Act--the measure that recently passed the House of Representatives, a bill that, I should say, scapegoats immigrants simply to justify new barriers to voter registration. Not only is that wrong, it is un-American. And, again, it is based on a lie.

I bring to this body my 6 years of experience administering elections not just in any State but the most populous State in the Nation, with the largest number and the most diverse number of voters in the Nation. I understand the complexities of both keeping our elections free and fair but also secure. And I am happy to take time to meet with any of you to walk you through the security measures that are in place to ensure the integrity of our elections.

I can tell you this, in case you didn't know already: It is already a crime for noncitizens to vote in our elections. To propose it as a new law is misleading. It is already against the law. And, by the way, it is also extremely, extremely rare.

But if our Republican colleagues were to have their way, American citizens--American citizens--would feel the impacts of the SAVE Act, from the Active-Duty servicemember who has to move for a new deployment and has to work so much harder than they should have to, to update their registration with the new address at the local elections office, which could be hours and hours from the base where they are assigned, to think of a married woman who chose to change her last name when she got married, and now the name listed on the birth certificate and the name on their ID no longer match. They will have some explaining to do and hurdles to jump over simply to register to vote.

These are just two small examples that impact millions and millions of Americans, should the SAVE Act pass.

And if you make it harder to register, guess what, you have made it harder for eligible citizens to vote. That would be the result of the SAVE Act.

Here in the Senate, I want people to know that together with my Senate Democratic colleagues, I will do whatever it takes to kill this bill, to stop it from passing, to keep it even from coming up, if we can, because we owe it to our constituents to fight every Executive order that undermines our democracy and to keep demanding answers on the firing of Federal workers entrusted with safeguarding our elections.

So over the course of the next hour, Senate Democrats will lay down a marker. We will stand strong against the rising tide of attacks on our democracy. And I will keep leading the fight to stop this cynical and dangerous bill and to stop Trump and Republicans' attempts to undermine our voting rights.

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