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Floor Speech

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Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, in November, President Trump and the Republicans really received a very powerful mandate from the American people. They wanted to make certain that our border was going to be secured and that we were going to strengthen the economy, get inflation under control, rein in wasteful government spending, get ourselves back on track, and make America great and prosperous and safe and secure once again.

By passing the One Big Beautiful Bill, we delivered on this mandate by securing the largest tax cut in U.S. history, including reduced taxes on tips and overtime, a $6,000 bonus deduction for seniors, and the permanent extension of President Trump's 2017 tax cuts. It also reduces the burden of the death tax for millions, providing critical relief for family-owned businesses and for so many of our Nation's farms and farmers. It bolsters our Armed Forces with a $150 billion increase in military spending. It provides the largest ever investment in border security so that we can, indeed, complete building the wall and also hire new Border Patrol agents and officers. It strengthens Medicaid by rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse. It restores fiscal sanity by eliminating hundreds of billions of dollars in far-left spending, and the list goes on and on.

These are all enormous wins for Tennesseans, whom I represent, and, indeed, for all Americans, but our work here in this Chamber is far from over.

At the top of the list, we have the need to confirm President Trump's nominees. The President deserves to have his team in place to enact his agenda, but instead of working with us to carry out the will of the American people, our colleagues across the aisle have chosen to obstruct at any cost. Right now, we have 130 pending--pending-- nominations of people who have been through committee. Their paperwork is in, and their questions are answered. All they need is a vote in this Chamber. There is absolutely no reason that we should have this backlog, especially when you look at the importance of these nominations: U.S. ambassadorships to the Vatican, the Netherlands, Chile, Greece, and the European Union; seven Federal judgeships; U.S. attorneys; Under Secretaries for the Departments of Veterans Affairs and the Navy; the Commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission. That is just a brief, partial list.

Our Democratic friends are trying to slow down the process on these nominees as much as they possibly can. They lost at the ballot box. They have lost in the Halls of Congress. They have tried the courts, and they have lost in the courts. So obstruction and stalling are what they have left as they try to spite the President.

They might think that they are hurting just the Republicans or just the President, but, you know, what they are doing is hurting the people whom they are elected to represent. Every single day that goes by without these nominees being approved and getting to work on the job means those nominees are not able to work on behalf of the American people. Unfortunately, it is the people who suffer because Agencies are not fully staffed and can't make responses. You have individuals who need help with VA benefits or help with an Agency and an item of concern. At this point, they are understaffed.

With the recent disclosures from DNI Gabbard, we are learning even more about how President Obama and the Democrats manufactured the Russia hoax to try to derail President Trump's first term. I bring this up because their obstruction is nothing new. When they run out of different roadways and different avenues and different opportunities, they have got one thing left. As I have said, they have lost at the ballot box, here in Congress, and they have lost in the courts. So now what they do is try to obstruct.

We know from the documents that have been released concerning the Russia hoax that the Democrats were hard at work on this in 2016 and 2017 with President Trump's first term. For months, far-left activist judges undermined our Constitution by blocking lawful orders from the Trump administration in a brazen effort to decide nationwide policy. Their abuse of power only came to an end when the Supreme Court reined in those Federal district judges and said: No, you have no ability, and you have no right to issue nationwide injunctions.

More recently, we have seen Democrats try their best to obstruct a core part of the ``America First'' agenda, and that is securing our southern border. Americans want our border to be secure, and they want criminal illegal aliens removed from their communities. Across the country, ICE and Border Patrol agents have been hard at work in carrying out this mandate and arresting criminals who have absolutely no right to be here in our country.

Well, the Democrats are working to vilify and undermine our brave Federal law enforcement. We have seen congressional Democrats try to storm ICE facilities, including a House Member who faces Federal charges for assaulting a Federal ICE officer. They have smeared ICE agents who risk their lives to protect our country, comparing them to the secret police and Nazis. They push legislation that would prohibit officers from wearing masks, exposing them and their families to targeted harassment.

This is all happening as ICE officers face an 830-percent surge in assaults. That is correct--an 830-percent increase in assaults. Just this month, far-left criminals ambushed officers at an ICE facility in Texas, shooting one officer in the neck. Three days later, a man sent three people to the hospital after firing dozens of rounds at a separate Border Patrol facility in Texas.

These brave officers deserve our total and undivided support, and the American people deserve to have elected Representatives who protect their interests. That is what Republicans are working to do every single day. They are working to protect our Nation's citizens, and nothing--not even this obstruction that continues every single day by the Democrats--is going to stop us.

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