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Floor Speech
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Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, today marks day 212 of this new Congress under Republican leadership. I would offer to my colleagues this has been the most successful--the most successful--beginning of a Congress.
When you look at the nearly 750 hours that we have spent working and the 450 votes that we have taken, when you look at how we have pushed to move forward and how we have fought obstruction from our colleagues on the other side of the aisle, you do realize that we, indeed, are helping to fulfill the promise President Trump made when he said: We will make America safe, secure, healthy, productive, and great again.
Do you know what? That is precisely what the American people voted for. They want action. They want things to be done differently. Indeed, with a Republican House and Senate and this administration, led by President Trump and Vice President Vance, they are delivering on this.
Look at the border. What we are seeing is a border that is secure. We know that we have some of the best numbers--the lowest illegal crossings that are coming across those borders. We are returning to building a wall. We are getting the Border Patrol what they need to do their job.
We have the Laken Riley Act, which Senator Britt led here in the Senate. This helps to detain those criminal illegal aliens. We have the HALT Fentanyl Act that Senator Grassley led, and we have Senator Hagerty with the GENIUS Act to give us that first crypto bill to make certain that we retain the lead in that emerging technology legislation.
Those are all a few of the things that have been accomplished.
Of course, look at what we did in the One Big Beautiful Bill. Tennesseans are really looking forward to this bill because of what it does.
When you look at the fact that we got rid of a lot of that far-left Green New Deal spending, we have put money into modernizing our military for 21st century warfare and into Border Patrol agents, and we have the funding there that is needed. It is all there.
The people said: Let's get back to addressing our debt and restoring some fiscal sanity to this country. We have $37 trillion of debt. We didn't get there overnight, and it is going to take a dedicated, focused, intentional process to get us out of this debt, to address it.
Of course, we are delighted--absolutely delighted--and we are so pleased to know that June was the first month in not a year or a decade but in three decades that this government ran a surplus.
Those are good signs.
Indeed, last night on this floor, we moved forward three of the appropriations bills. There are eight bills that have already come out of committee, and we processed three of those last night to make certain that we get onto a budget; that we get off of the Biden-era CRAs and onto the numbers that President Trump and our Appropriations Committee have moved forward on.
This marked the first time since 2018 that the Senate passed appropriations bills before the August recess. Now, that is so significant because what are the first things that we are supposed to do? One of them is to fund the government. And for my colleagues who always want to reduce Federal spending, which I am one of them, we have to go through the appropriations process to be able to do that.
Of course, in addition to the One Big Beautiful Bill, we also had the rescissions bill, which gave us an additional $9 billion in cuts.
We need to realize, when we do these rescissions, that is the equivalent of taking that red pen and marking through those line items and saying: They are gone.
The American people wanted to see the high cost of living and inflation addressed. Indeed, with the One Big Beautiful Bill, we have been able to get things heading in the right direction. For Tennesseans, we know that there is going to be a $2,600 per year savings in taxes with that One Big Beautiful Bill. We know that people are looking forward to this and that the One Big Beautiful Bill was the largest tax cut in our Nation's history. Indeed, we expect from the Council of Economic Advisers' numbers to see families in Tennessee increase take-home pay somewhere between $7,000 and $10,000. Those are numbers that are significant.
And do you know what that does? It says to people: We want you to have more control over your pocketbook--in how you choose to save your money, in how you choose to spend your money. All of those things are accomplishments. In 212 days of this Congress, those are all items that we have been able to move forward on.
Our other committees are hard at work. We are approving judges and getting them through the process, ready for floor votes. Indeed, the first appellate judge--appointed by President Trump and approved by Congress--was Whitney Hermandorfer out of Nashville. We look forward to seeing her on the Sixth Circuit. All of this we have moved forward at a rapid pace.
Now I want to talk about what has happened with nominees. Of course, everyone is aware we approved the Cabinet in record time in getting people to work. When it comes to those sub-Cabinet positions and judges and U.S. attorneys and U.S. marshals and Ambassadors, our friends across the aisle have enjoyed playing a game of obstruction. You know, it is as if they learned nothing on November 5.
Our friends across the aisle have lost at the ballot box; they have lost in the U.S. House and in the U.S. Senate. They have lost in the courts, and so now what we hear from many of them--and you can look at some of their campaign websites--is that they are holding resistance labs and encouraging people to obstruct. They think that they are harming us. What they are doing is harming the American people, thwarting the will of the American people.
They are trying to slow-walk these nominees. They are making a game out of it. How many can they hold back? But what they are doing is acting outside of the norm. What they are doing is proving to the American people that they are not here to address the issues of the day; they are here to see what they can stop.
I have got a chart with me that I think tells a great story. You will see the heading ``Civilian nominees confirmed by voice vote or unanimous consent in first term.'' That is a President's first term. In order to provide context for what is happening in the U.S. Senate, I think it is important that we go back and look at history and see what that yields for us and the lessons that it yields.
As I said, these are nominees who are confirmed by voice vote or by unanimous consent in a President's first term. That is a practice that has been an accepted and expected practice of this body. When you have a deputy or an Under Secretary and sometimes nominees for different boards, they are grouped together en bloc, and then they are moved through the process together. They receive either a voice vote, or they move forward by unanimous consent. It simplifies the process. Many times, as I have talked to Tennesseans, what they have said is: We are not certain how many nominees there are. When you talk about President Trump not getting his nominees, are we talking about 100 people or 200 or 300? No. It is about 1,200 positions.
So let's put the context on this.
President George H. W. Bush: He had 98 percent of his civilian nominees confirmed by voice or unanimous consent.
President Bill Clinton: 98 percent.
George W. Bush: 90 percent.
President Obama: 90 percent.
President Trump's first term: 65 percent.
President Biden: 57 percent.
President Donald Trump's second term--zero--zero--not one--not one single nominee, not one. This is the obstruction that they are practicing within this Chamber.
Not only are they doing that, but they are wanting multiple votes. They want cloture filed. Then they want the cloture vote. Then they want the 2-hour period or the 4-hour for appellate judges while a Cabinet Secretary is a 30-hour clock to run. They are doing that on every single nominee. You can imagine how much time this would take if you have to follow this pattern for 1,200 people.
You see why it is deemed by many people in this country to be active obstruction by the Democrats. This is a practice that has gained steam under the current Democrat leadership. They feel like they are hurting the Republicans, but what they are doing is harming the American people because the agenda they voted for--what they wanted to see accomplished--cannot be accomplished.
Of what the American people voted for President Trump to do, our friends across the aisle would choose to slow-walk that. What they are doing is hurting the people they were sent here to represent.
(Mrs. BRITT assumed the Chair.)
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