00:00So, the yeas are 47, the nays are 53, the motion is not agreed to.
00:12The senator from Louisiana.
00:14Mr. President, we've just spent 13 hours doing motions.
00:20Does the senator want to call up his amendment?
00:21Mr. President, I call up my amendment 2772 and ask that it be reported by number.
00:28The clerk will report.
00:30The senator from Louisiana, Mr. Kennedy, proposes an amendment number 2772 to amendment number 2360.
00:38Mr. President, we just spent 13 hours on motions to commit.
00:43I'm not blaming my Democratic colleagues because we had to agree to it.
00:47But anybody with a brain above a single cell organism knows that a motion to commit has no chance of passing.
00:55So, basically, we've been standing around for 13 hours.
00:58We might as well have just been standing around sucking on our teeth.
01:03Now, I'd like to ask for order in this chamber.
01:06At least we can have that.
01:08There'll be order, please.
01:10Mr. President, in this bill, $1 billion is set aside to be spent by September 30, 2027 to carry out the Defense Production Act.
01:26That's it.
01:27That's all there is.
01:30Now, I'm not a big fan of government-directed industrialization.
01:36Government-directed industrialization is when government, with its superior instincts and infallible judgment, decides to pick winners and losers in the private sector.
01:48This business gets some money, but you, Ms. Businesswoman, you can't have the money.
01:55I'm against that for two reasons.
01:57Number one, it's immoral.
02:00It's unfair to people who don't get the money, the gift, from government.
02:04And number two, when government does it, when it picks winners and losers.
02:08Now, I was against it in the prior administration.
02:13And just recently in my committee, we had, subcommittee, we had a hearing where the prior administration handed out $90 billion in the last 76 days of its administration in gifts and loans to entities in the private sector.
02:29And that raised fresh hell.
02:30And now we're about to do it again.
02:33A billion dollars.
02:36Now, I am told, and that's all it says, a billion dollars to be spent, period.
02:41Now, I have been told that the Secretary of Energy and the Secretary of the Interior are going to decide, in their unfettered discretion, who's going to get this money in the private sector.
02:52And they are both two good men.
02:53I know that both of those secretaries, I voted for them, they are total ballers.
03:00I love them to death.
03:03But, when I'm in Washington, I live by this adage, trust in God, but tie up your camel.
03:12Trust in God, but tie up your camel.
03:15This bill will say they can spend, they can give these gifts and grants to whomever they want.
03:22But, Congress has to approve them.
03:25Now, about, I don't know, an hour ago, I got a call from one of my supporters, Mr. President.
03:30And you know what he said to me?
03:33He said, Kennedy, for your own good, you need to pull down this amendment.
03:38You have to pull down this amendment.
03:41Kennedy, for your own good, you have to pull down this amendment.
03:44And you know what I told him, Mr. President?
03:45I said, Scooter, I said, Scooter, there are only two things I have to do in this world.
03:54Be cool and die.
03:57And I'm not pulling down this amendment.
04:00It wasn't right when it was done in the prior administration.
04:04It's not right now that we're in charge.
04:06This is Congress's job.
04:08And by God, we ought to do it.
04:11And I reserve my time.
04:19The senator from Vermont.
04:25All right.
04:25I support the Kennedy Amendment.
04:34But not for the reasons my friend from Louisiana does.
04:39I think that there should be some flexibility and there should be some governmental policy that helps our industry.
04:46And I do agree that the president should have some power.
04:49What I don't believe, what I do not believe, is that the Congress should be powerless.
04:58And that's what we have become.
05:01Ceding our Article I authority to a chief executive.
05:05And I don't care whether it's a Republican or Democrat.
05:08The most important branch is the Article I branch because we are the closest to the people.
05:14And how is it that we have in this bill a billion dollars, a billion dollars that goes to an executive to be spent in a way we have no input as to how it will be spent?
05:28We have no accountability.
05:30We have no way to tell the people we represent how this money is being spent and why.
05:36Mr. President, I believe that the biggest threat we have to this democracy is the failure of this Congress to assert its authority and accept its responsibility to make the decisions that the Constitution says is our obligation to do.
05:57And that starts with the power of the purse.
06:00I support the man from Louisiana in his amendment.
06:04I yield the floor.
06:06Mr. President, how much time do I have?
06:11Mr. President, I understand my esteemed colleague and I disagree.
06:20The Senate of Louisiana has 30 seconds and the Senate of South Carolina has four minutes.
06:26Thank you, Scooter.
06:26I'm Mr. President.
06:29Mr. President, I appreciate my colleague's support.
06:32I don't mean any disrespect to anybody.
06:35But this town operates on two wrongs, don't make it right, but they do make it even.
06:42It's time that Congress have a say in how the money's being spent.
06:46And this doesn't say the money can't be spent.
06:48It just says Congress gets to approve.
06:51Mr. President, I really like my good friend from the great state of Louisiana.
06:59And Scooter's cousin Bubba called me recently.
07:03And I got to tell you that there's no doubt in my mind that the importance of the Defense Production Act is undeniable.
07:12And specificity is a necessary component for us to have our oversight.
07:18And that is why this administration, unlike the last administration, has committed to making sure that we understand how the resources in the DPA will be spent.
07:29We have that commitment on a quarterly basis to receive the necessary information so that we understand with great clarity and transparency how the dollars within the DPA will be spent.
07:42But here's what we also know, that we remain reliant on China for critical minerals.
07:50Here's what we know, that the United States of America, the city on the hill, remains dependent on foreign powers for our necessary resources.
08:04We are not self-reliant in areas that matter the most to the American people and, frankly, to America's future.
08:15Now, you can think of this as just hyperbole.
08:18But the fact of the matter is clear when you look back to recent issues like COVID and PPE.
08:27We were begging China to help the American people, Mr. President.
08:32We were begging China for medicine, masks.
08:37We cannot allow this great nation to be dependent on other nations.
08:43We must become more self-reliant.
08:48And in the spirit of self-reliance, this administration, whom I will say I trust President Trump,
08:57I trust his word to produce the results we need for this nation, to make sure that we are self-reliant.
09:05And I trust the president to produce the information that will satisfy my good friend, Senator Kennedy.
09:14But let me close with this.
09:15We need the DPA and we need the funding at the levels requested.
09:24We must make sure we always have the resources to produce for ourselves if there's another COVID.
09:31In the same way that we use the DPA to build levees and flood walls after Hurricane Katrina,
09:38we need to make sure we have the resources in place for natural emergencies.
09:43In the same way that the DPA was used to help protect service members who were deployed overseas from IEDs,
09:51we need the DPA.
09:52So, Mr. President, I ask my colleagues to vote no on this amendment.
10:01The pending amendment does not produce a change in outlays of revenues.
10:06I raise a point of order under Section 313B1A of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974.
10:16The Senate for Louisiana.
10:22Excuse me, Mr. President.
10:24Take your time.
10:26Thank you, sir.
10:28Pursuant to Section 904 of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974,
10:35I move to waive the point of order
10:37reminding the body that I'm not striking the spending.
10:47Reminding the body that I'm not striking the spending.
