Unanimous Consent Request--S. 4872

Floor Speech

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Mr. BUDD. Mr. President, if you open a history book in any middle school classroom in America, you are going to find a very familiar pattern. Throughout history, societies have repeatedly decided that certain groups of people were exceptions to the promise of human dignity.

When we look back on those injustices, it seems almost impossible to understand how people could have accepted such profound disregard for human life. Yet history shows that these tragedies rarely begin with hatred alone; they begin with a more subtle idea that some human beings somehow fall outside the circle of protection owed to everyone else.

Every generation faces its own unique question about human dignity, which brings me to a question, and I would like my colleagues and the American people and especially the next generation of leaders--some of them in this room today--the question is, Who deserves human dignity?

In the land of freedom and opportunity, we are constantly talking about equality, inclusion, and defending the most vulnerable, and we should ask those questions. I mean, those are fundamentally American values. But those ideas only mean something if they are applied consistently.

For 250 years, Americans have prided ourselves on being the voice of the voiceless, but for some reason, far too many fall silent when the dignity of the smallest and the most vulnerable members of our human race is questioned, and that is the unborn.

But human dignity is not conditional. It does not depend on age or size or ability or circumstance. Human dignity is inherent. It can't be earned. It can't be granted. It can't be taken away. And the most fundamental dignity we all possess is the right to life.

So if we aspire to be a nation that defends the equal dignity of every person, then our actions both at home and abroad must reflect the values we profess. The United States cannot credibly champion human rights while pursuing policies that deny the unborn the most basic right of all, and that is the right to life.

So as we approach the fourth anniversary of the ruling in Dobbs, there is more that we must do to defend the right to life. So I applaud the Trump administration for uncovering loopholes that previous administrations exploited to use U.S. foreign aid programs to fund and promote abortion abroad.

One of the greatest measures of American leadership is not merely the power that we profess, but it is the principles that we project. And it is the values we champion abroad that should reflect the values we share at home.

If human dignity is truly universal, then the foreign aid funded by American taxpayers must be consistent with our Nation's most fundamental truth, and that is that every human life possesses inherent dignity and that the first human right is the right to life.

That is why I have introduced the Protecting Human Flourishing in Foreign Assistance Act, so that we don't repeat history.

My bill would codify the Trump administration's efforts to once again put American values first in U.S. foreign assistance programs, preventing any future administration from using such programs as loopholes to deny life to the unborn.

One day, history will render its verdict on whether we choose to defend human dignity. It is my hope that future generations find that we remain faithful to America's first principle: that we are all created equal.

4873 and that the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration. I further ask that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

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Mr. BUDD. Mr. President, my colleague, whom I very much respect, has chosen to support the loophole through this objection. It allows taxpayer dollars to be used in a manner contrary to the values we cherish at home, allowing no voice to the voiceless.

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