Terminating the National Emergency Declared to Impose Global Tariffs

Floor Speech

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Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I have a brief question for this body before I proceed to my motion: What is it that keeps our Nation secure? It is millions of Armed Forces, Active-Duty Reserves, National Guard, civilians supporting them, the Department of Defense, the Coast Guard, the intelligence Agencies; they are keeping us safe now, like all Federal employees, not knowing when they will get another paycheck.

Our military is less than 1 percent of our Nation. That is how many people sign on the dotted line up to and including their lives to keep us safe. They put their lives on the line to secure liberty and security, and I am grateful to the thousands serving today at Dover Air Force Base, the Delaware National Guard, and throughout our Armed Forces.

They and their families deserve the same devotion to them that they are providing to us.

I come from a military family. My father, brother, sister-in-law, uncles all served in the Army, and my father long said he first really understood what it means to be an American when he was responsible for others and others' lives when deployed.

Taking care of them is our sacred obligation. So while we keep fighting for better healthcare, more affordable healthcare for all Americans, my bill will pay our Armed Forces now.

It will pay Active-Duty, Reserves, National Guard, Coast Guard, civilians at the Pentagon, and intelligence Agencies, and give those who keep us safe, often at great sacrifice, a small piece of security in return.

3079 introduced earlier today; that the bill be considered read three times and passed, and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

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Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I want to convey my thanks, my gratitude to the chair of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, my colleague and friend from Kentucky. We and our staffs have had a genuinely constructive and positive process in appropriations this year.

Frankly, overall, the Senate Appropriations Committee has worked well. We have passed out of committee a significant number of major bills by big bipartisan margins--26 to 3 in the case of our bill and the Labor, Health and Human Services bill. But there is a stark contrast between the real progress we are making on appropriations and the lack of progress on addressing the core issue of can Americans afford their healthcare.

Of course, I want to move ahead and appropriate, as my colleague from Kentucky has indicated. Of course, we need to do our job and appropriate, for this body to carry out and to continue its core article I responsibility. But part of what has got us to this moment is a vote earlier this year on the Big Beautiful Bill in July to destroy healthcare for millions of Americans.

We need to find a path forward toward ensuring that millions of Americans do not lose insurance through the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid, something that will raise insurance costs for everyone and that will increase ER wait times in my State and in every other.

This Saturday, 20 million Americans will see how much their premiums go up. And if the calls that come into my colleagues are anything like the calls I am getting, there will be then an accelerated motion toward resolving this issue and moving forward with appropriations.

I will close by just citing one conversation I had yesterday.

I spoke with a small business owner from Delaware. Her name is Jan. She is a stage IV cancer survivor. She is a small business owner.

She told me yesterday that, without the Affordable Care Act, she would have died 10 years ago because insurance would have dropped her. And if her rates double, she will need to close her business of 30 years.

This is one of many stories of entrepreneurs and families, of veterans, of servicemembers, of constituents that have reached out to me.

There is an urgency about reopening the government--yes, I agree--and an urgency about finding a path forward on healthcare. We should be negotiating both now.

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