Commerce, Justice, Science; Energy and Water Development; and Interior and Environment Appropriations Act, 2026

Floor Speech

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Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, you know, Republicans have a simple message for the American people, and that is, what we are doing here as Republicans is putting more money in your pockets, creating more opportunities for the American people, for American families, and families all across America are feeling it today.

Americans are no longer seeing these sky-high increases in prices like we experienced over the 4 years of the Biden administration--not at all.

Five years ago, inflation began to soar because of the Democrats' reckless tax-and-spending plan. As a result, we saw inflation hit 40- year highs, and people suffered all across this country as a result.

Well, over the last year, Republicans--now with President Trump and a Republican House and Republican Senate--have eliminated billions of dollars of wasteful Washington spending, and we are seeing that the pressure on prices is easing.

Families in more than 40 States are paying less than $3 a gallon for gasoline. In the Presiding Officer's State of Oklahoma and in my home State of Wyoming, it is at $2 for gasoline right now.

Lower gas prices, as the Presiding Officer knows, impact everything that a family does. It impacts everything in the country: the cost of groceries, the cost of commuting to work, or keeping going a ranch or family business. Energy prices affect all of it.

And lower prices are happening because Republicans are successfully changing the direction of the country. We promised to cut burdensome Biden regulations--regulations that have been punishing, penalizing-- and we are getting it done. We promised to unleash American energy and we have done it. We have delivered on our promises.

You know, under the Trump administration, permits to explore for energy right here in America have gone way up. It has been successful. The United States has never produced more energy than we are producing today. Energy dominance is fueling our opportunity economy. It is making a difference in families and in their lives.

America is standing by our manufacturers and helping them. And, look, our Working Families Tax Cuts law and the incentives in that are making a real difference for our economy. It is helping businesses build things, building them right here at home in America.

It allows for full expensing for factory improvements, new machinery, and farm equipment. We are seeing that in farms and ranches across Wyoming.

I heard it at the Farm Bureau. I heard it from our stock growers. It is encouraging businesses to innovate.

We have restored full and immediate expensing for research, for development, done right here in America. And we have made those savings permanent.

For businesses, that means it is more affordable to build at home in America, not 5 years from now but today, not overseas but in places like Wyoming.

And people are responding. These pro-growth policies are already driving a surge of business investment. More investment means more manufacturing at home and more American jobs--jobs that have been shipped overseas by the Democrats in the past. More manufacturing leads to high-paying jobs at home.

Construction sites are booming. You are seeing it there in the construction sites. You are also seeing it in the assembly line. More innovation, more production means prices go down.

And small businesses are the engine of Americans' prosperity. The Working Families Tax Cuts law helps small businesses all across America.

The law makes permanent the 20 percent small business tax deduction. Every Democrat voted against that. Republicans are focused on helping small businesses grow.

So American workers are the clear winners in what we have done with the Working Families Tax Cuts law.

You know, what we put in that law--no tax on overtime--that means a lot for the miners and the linemen in Wyoming. They are going to be able to keep $1,400 more this year in their paychecks.

Now, the Democrat leader, Senator Schumer, was just on the floor, and he talked about firefighters. Well, firefighters work a lot of overtime. They need to stay on the job. They do that. No tax on overtime now--that means more money in their pockets to take home. Firefighters, the nurses in Wyoming--they are happy with what we have done.

Chuck Schumer, who was just talking about it, voted against it. The Democrats wanted to raise taxes by $4 trillion. How is that going to help our country? It is not.

And then I heard Senator Schumer talk about bartenders. Well, we say no tax on tips. Bartenders get tips as part of their pay, so do waiters, waitresses. Lots of people work with tips. No tax on tips-- every Democrat voted against that. That was taking money--they would rather just take that money for themselves. They like the tips. They want it to go to the tax so they can spend more. We said: no tax on tips.

Look, this is money that our workers in America have earned. They ought to be able to benefit from it. It is not going to be wasted away anymore by these unaccountable, unelected, heavyhanded bureaucrats who think they know better than the American people. And it is certainly not going to continue to be stolen like it has been by these fraudsters in Minnesota, while the Democrats look the other way.

In all, American workers are going to see higher take-home pay, more money in their pockets, thanks to what we passed with the Working Families Tax Cuts law.

Republicans are creating an economy that works for working Americans. We are creating a prosperous America, an America where citizens are free to use their money. If they want to save it, if they want to spend it, if they want to invest it, they get to decide.

They want to use it to build a small business, good. They want it to control their family's future, perfect.

It is no wonder that the University of Michigan found that consumer sentiment continues to go up. That confidence rose the most among blue- collar workers--the workers who were hit the hardest by the Democrats' unaffordable economy.

Republicans were successful in stopping the Democrats' $4 trillion tax increase. We eliminated burdensome regulations. We unleashed American energy. We are getting America back on track. So that is why, today, Americans are seeing more money in their pockets. They are going to see bigger tax refunds. They are going to see more opportunities in their future.

That is what Americans voted for last November, and that is what Republicans have delivered. And this economic progress is just the start of the prosperity to come.

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