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

Floor Speech

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Mr. BOOKER. Mr. President, I want to thank Senator Mark Kelly for bringing people to the floor to talk about that which is, unequivocally, the greatest threat to American democracy right now. It is the cancer that is metastasizing more and more and more.

Since the Citizens United decision, I have watched as to how this body has seen clearly corrupt forces beginning to overrun the common sense and the will of the people in policy. More and more are being bent to the whim and the will of the wealthiest of the wealthy in our country and the world, as well as to corporations--many of them, multinational corporations.

We are in crisis--our Nation is in crisis--as more and more Americans lose trust and lose faith in our country, in our democracy, in the people who serve--the 535 Members: the 100 Members of the Senate and the 435 Members of the House of Representatives. They feel more and more that they are in it for themselves and for the corporations and not to do the hard work of the people.

Trust is vital for a democracy to thrive, and there has been nothing more powerful in the undermining of that trust, in the years that I have been in the Senate, than what I have seen in the destructive force of money in our politics. We know that the decision that was made by a conservative majority of five Justices--three of whom are still on the Court--permitted those billionaires and corporations to pour unlimited, unchecked money into our elections, drowning out the collective voices of the people.

Let me give you an example, a sobering fact. In 2024, about 44 percent of all of the money raised to support Donald Trump came from 10 individual donors.

Think about that for a second. Of the billions of dollars that were spent on this election for the President of the United States right now, 44 percent of that money was contributed by 10 people. This is not just a purview of any party, though; this is something that is infecting our entire system.

People ask the question rightfully: What does all that influence and money buy? Well, right now, we are seeing it. Individuals like Elon Musk and other billionaires are exercising an outsized influence on our party, threatening people in this body and other bodies to drop millions and millions of dollars against them. And to say that doesn't have an influence is wrong. Unlimited corporate cash literally buys policies that put even more money in the pockets of the wealthiest, allows them to rig the system to benefit them, while working-class Americans more and more get a raw deal.

We are seeing a virtual welfare state for the wealthiest of the wealthy in our policies that benefits and protects the wealthiest, that serves the largest corporations, that is designed to line the pockets further and further of the wealthy. It is a tax cut for corporations that we have seen in policies, while Americans and their most important issues--whether it is their healthcare, whether it is their ability to make a living--are further and further undermined.

Citizens United has created a system where Presidential pardons are pay-to-play, where environmental regulations that keep us safe and healthy are slashed, where corporate mergers are rubberstamped by Federal regulators.

For 16 years now, we have seen the slow, cancerous corruption of American democracy. We have seen how folks who pay the price get outsized influence, that a small group of billionaires and corporations wield enormous power over elections and, in turn, over the policies that all Americans have to live under. And this has fueled what is growing to be a growing discontent.

Ending Citizens United is wildly popular on both sides of the aisle. The majority of Americans want to see an end to this cancerous decision. Americans are sick and tired, and they are demanding that we act.

I believe this body should come together in a bipartisan way to end the nightmare that has been unleashed on America by Citizens United. I know from private conversations with people on both sides of the aisle that it would be a relief not to have this outsized influence of money and power on this body. It would allow us to focus in an undeterred way on the business of the people.

I am proud to cosponsor bills that would end this nightmare like Democracy for All, the amendment to overturn this misguided decision. I am proud to champion commonsense reforms like the Freedom to Vote Act and--God--the DISCLOSE Act, which would ensure that the dark money pouring into our elections, the cancerous resources unleashed by the wealthiest of the wealthy--that at least they could not pour that money in and then hide their identity. It would shine light on what is a dark, dark process.

I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle but particularly my Republican colleagues to listen to the overwhelming majority of Americans who just not only want to avoid the dark, cancerous reality that Citizens United brought to us but are hoping and yearning for our democracy to get back to the ideals that we all share, that we pledge allegiance to, that could make this 250th anniversary of our country something truly to celebrate: that we are a nation free from this cancer, free from the dark money that is flooding our politics; that, indeed, we are free at last to see what can happen in America that focuses on the people and the power of the people and not just the power of the wealthiest.

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