Floor Speech2026-03-25

PROVIDING FOR CONGRESSIONAL DISAPPROVAL UNDER CHAPTER 8 OF TITLE 5, UNITED STATES CODE, OF THE RULE SUBMITTED BY THE INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE RELATING TO "BEGINNING OF CONSTRUCTION REQUIREMENTS...

Full Text

Congressional Record, Volume 172 Issue 56 (Wednesday, March 25, 2026) [Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 56 (Wednesday, March 25, 2026)] [Senate] [Pages S1599-S1604] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] PROVIDING FOR CONGRESSIONAL DISAPPROVAL UNDER CHAPTER 8 OF TITLE 5, UNITED STATES CODE, OF THE RULE SUBMITTED BY THE INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE RELATING TO ``BEGINNING OF CONSTRUCTION REQUIREMENTS FOR PURPOSES OF THE TERMINATION OF CLEAN ELECTRICITY PRODUCTION CREDITS AND CLEAN ELECTRICITY INVESTMENT CREDITS FOR APPLICABLE WIND AND SOLAR FACILITIES''--Motion to Proceed Ms. CORTEZ MASTO. Mr. President, I move to proceed to Calendar No. 363, S.J. Res. 107. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the joint resolution by title. The bill clerk read as follows: Motion to proceed to Calendar No. 363, S.J. Res. 107, providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the Internal Revenue Service relating to ``Beginning of Construction Requirements for Purposes of the Termination of Clean Electricity Production Credits and Clean Electricity Investment Credits for Applicable Wind and Solar Facilities''. Vote on Motion to Proceed The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the motion. Ms. CORTEZ MASTO. I ask for the yeas and nays. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second? There appears to be a sufficient second. The clerk will call the roll. The bill clerk called the roll. The result was announced--yeas 47, nays 53, as follows: [Rollcall Vote No. 70 Leg.] YEAS--47 Alsobrooks Baldwin Bennet Blumenthal Blunt Rochester Booker Cantwell Coons Cortez Masto Duckworth Durbin Fetterman Gallego Gillibrand Hassan Heinrich Hickenlooper Hirono Kaine Kelly Kim King Klobuchar Lujan Markey Merkley Murphy Murray Ossoff Padilla Peters Reed Rosen Sanders Schatz Schiff Schumer Shaheen Slotkin Smith Van Hollen Warner Warnock Warren Welch Whitehouse Wyden NAYS--53 Armstrong Banks Barrasso Blackburn Boozman Britt Budd Capito Cassidy Collins Cornyn Cotton Cramer Crapo Cruz Curtis Daines Ernst Fischer Graham Grassley Hagerty Hawley Hoeven Husted Hyde-Smith Johnson Justice Kennedy Lankford Lee Lummis Marshall McConnell McCormick Moody Moran Moreno Murkowski Paul Ricketts Risch Rounds Schmitt Scott (FL) Scott (SC) Sheehy Sullivan Thune Tillis Tuberville Wicker Young The motion was rejected. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader. Motion to Proceed to the Motion to Reconsider Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I move to proceed to the motion to reconsider the cloture vote from March 12 on the motion to proceed to Calendar No. 311, H.R. 7147. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the motion. The motion was agreed to. Motion to Reconsider Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the cloture vote on the motion to proceed to Calendar No. 311, H.R. 7147. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the motion. The motion was agreed to. Cloture Motion The PRESIDING OFFICER. Pursuant to rule XXII, the Chair lays before the Senate the pending cloture motion, which the clerk will state. The legislative clerk read as follows: Cloture Motion We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the motion to proceed to Calendar No. 311, H.R. 7147, a bill making further consolidated appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2026, and for other purposes. John Thune, Bill Hagerty, Marsha Blackburn, Eric Schmitt, James Lankford, Bernie Moreno, Cindy Hyde-Smith, Steve Daines, Josh Hawley, James C. Justice, Shelley Moore Capito, Kevin Cramer, Ashley Moody, Jim Banks, James E. Risch, Tim Sheehy, Joni Ernst. Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to make a couple of observations and remarks before this vote. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there an objection? Without objection, it is so ordered. Department of Homeland Security Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, let me just say that this obviously is a vote which we have had multiple times now. It is on the House-passed legislation that would fund the Department of Homeland Security in accordance with the agreement that was reached between Republicans and Democrats, House and Senate, some time ago. But I would say, to reflect on it, there have been a lot of conversations over the past couple of days with respect to how do we get the Department opened up and funded again, and this vote will reflect the amendment that was proposed by Senator Collins and others that would fund all of DHS, except the Office of ERO. So this is the one office that would be--that the Democrats have indicated, particularly over the weekend, this is what they had desired to see happen, and so this vote will reflect that particular provision that was put forward by Senator Collins. It is in response to what Democrats have insisted on and said that they wanted all along, which was to fund everything but the Office of ERO, the Office of Enforcement and Removal Operations at the Department of Homeland Security. So this vote should reflect that, and I hope Members who are interested in getting all of these Agencies within the Department opened up would cast a ``yes'' vote when the opportunity comes. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Nevada. Ms. CORTEZ MASTO. I suggest the absence of a quorum. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll. The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll. Ms. CORTEZ MASTO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is, Is it the sense of the Senate that debate on the motion to proceed to H.R. 7147, a bill making further consolidated appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2026, and for other purposes, shall be brought to a close, upon reconsideration? The yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. The clerk will call the roll. The legislative clerk called the roll. The yeas and nays resulted 54, nays 46, as follows: [Rollcall Vote No. 71.] YEAS--54 Armstrong Banks Barrasso Blackburn Boozman Britt Budd Capito Cassidy Collins Cornyn Cotton Cramer Crapo Cruz Curtis Daines Ernst [[Page S1600]] Fetterman Fischer Graham Grassley Hagerty Hawley Hoeven Husted Hyde-Smith Johnson Justice Kennedy Lankford Lee Lummis Marshall McConnell McCormick Moody Moran Moreno Murkowski Paul Ricketts Risch Rounds Schmitt Scott (FL) Scott (SC) Sheehy Sullivan Thune Tillis Tuberville Wicker Young NAYS--46 Alsobrooks Baldwin Bennet Blumenthal Blunt Rochester Booker Cantwell Coons Cortez Masto Duckworth Durbin Gallego Gillibrand Hassan Heinrich Hickenlooper Hirono Kaine Kelly Kim King Klobuchar Lujan Markey Merkley Murphy Murray Ossoff Padilla Peters Reed Rosen Sanders Schatz Schiff Schumer Shaheen Slotkin Smith Van Hollen Warner Warnock Warren Welch Whitehouse Wyden The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Schmitt). On this vote, the yeas are 54, the nays are 46. Three-fifths of the Senate duly chosen and sworn not having voted in the affirmative, the motion, upon reconsideration, is not agreed to. The motion was rejected. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Ohio. Unanimous Consent Request Mr. MORENO. Mr. President, I want to point out these are just texts that allow us to do certain motions here, and I don't need this for the moment. I want to speak to you--honestly, speak to my Democrat colleagues-- from the heart. We have a situation in America today in which 260,000 families are without a paycheck. This fiscal year, they have been without a paycheck for more than half of this year. Now, in the private sector you look at it and say: Well, why would you not pay somebody? Typically, it is because they didn't do a good job, they didn't show up for work, they didn't punch in properly--and all of those things are very litigated, by the way, meaning, in a private business, if you don't pay somebody what they are entitled to make, you have something called a wage-and-hour lawsuit against you. And yet, the third time in 6 months this body--this body--that is charged with a simple job, which is the power of the purse to appropriate money to fund the government, we have failed. And I get the political posturing: That side of the aisle would say it is our fault; this side of the aisle will say it is your fault. I can tell you who, unequivocally, it is not their fault, and that is the men and women of the Department of Homeland Security who wake up every day and go to work; they do their job. And by the way--you have been there, Mr. President, in your State of Missouri, St. Louis, you have seen them firsthand. Members of Border Patrol, Customs, immigration enforcement, CISA--you have seen them. We see their work. What should we, as the body here, tell those families? In fact, there is an expression that says: Explain it to me like I am a 5-year-old. And there are lots of 5-year-olds affected-- grandkids, kids, siblings--that are wondering why they can't go to camp because their mom or dad wasn't able to write a check. I don't know what I would say if I were a dad. You are a dad. You are a great dad, actually. I have seen you with your daughter. What do you say to her if you didn't have money to pay the bills, but you did everything right? One thing I think would help bring us to the negotiation table is for us to get together and say: Look--I will use the same expression that I used the other day--let's eat our own dog food. If we are OK and we find it acceptable for 260,000 American families to go without pay, then isn't it reasonable for us to say that this body--and this body alone, the U.S. Senate, who makes four, five times as much as they do-- for us to go without pay, that our pay be withheld? Now, I will be honest. I think our pay should be docked, honestly, because that is what would happen in a private

Referenced legislation: SJRES107, SJRES107, SRES526, S4127, HR4553, HR7147

View original source →