00:00I wanted to check on the bill that we're considering today, H.R. 4.
00:09I just heard the senator from Wyoming, my colleague and friend, talk about a lot of programs that are part of the Democratic Alternative.
00:18This bill contains no reference whatsoever to the projects that he's mentioning.
00:24I don't know where they came from.
00:26They certainly are news to me.
00:28But I do know what this bill does, and I know what it's going to mean to Wyoming and Illinois and Oklahoma and Washington, even the state of Hawaii.
00:39You see, national public radio and public broadcasting are opportunities for Americans to learn information that is critical to their lives and their futures and their businesses and their farms.
00:51And do you know what the Republicans believe?
00:53Well, I can tell you, they want to eliminate the federal assistance for this public broadcasting.
01:01That's what's in this bill.
01:02I have a basic premise.
01:05I believe the American people are entitled to information, and they're entitled to be making the choice of their source of that information.
01:13Public broadcasting is one choice.
01:15It's one I respect, and many of both political parties respect.
01:18And the notion that we're going to take what is a minuscule part of the federal budget and punish the people who are involved in public broadcasting particularly hurts rural areas.
01:29Those rural areas that I represent in Illinois, small towns and part of our state that is limited in population count on public broadcasting, not only for the news, not only for the entertainment, but also for critical information when it comes to terrible emergency weather conditions.
01:51Is this something that we want to walk away from, just think, just a few days ago, this body was voting for a Republican proposal called the Big Beautiful Bill, which was a betrayal of rural areas as well.
02:03I know because the administrators of hospitals in downstate Illinois have come to meet with me personally in Washington and tell me what the elimination of Medicaid and the reduction of Medicaid coverage is going to mean.
02:18For many of these hospitals, more than half of the patients are covered by Medicaid.
02:22More than half of the services that are rendered by the hospitals are paid by Medicaid.
02:27A cutback in funding for that program is going to hurt individuals.
02:31Eleven million individuals are going to lose their health insurance in the United States.
02:36Millions of others will see their health insurance become much more expensive, dramatically more expensive.
02:42Is that what the American people voted for in the last election?
02:45I think not.
02:46Overwhelmingly, by a margin of two to one, they reject this Republican strategy of cutting health care and cutting health insurance coverage in order to give tax breaks to the wealthiest people in America.
02:58For goodness sakes, $346,000 tax cut for Elon Musk, he won't even notice it.
03:05He's a multi-billionaire.
03:07And yet they're risking health insurance for working families in rural areas to give Elon Musk a tax break.
03:14Give me a break.
03:15The American people believe that's unnecessary.
03:18Do I believe working families deserve a tax cut?
03:21You bet.
03:21Vote for it in a minute.
03:22But when you're making over $400,000 a year, I think, frankly, you're in a situation where you shouldn't be asking for a tax break at this point.
03:31And that's my position.
03:32So that's one of the conditions that we face as we go into this bill.
03:36Eliminating government support for public broadcasting and national public radio is a setback in terms of information and choice for American families to decide where they want their source of information.
03:49But I do want to raise one other point that I think goes to the heart of our vote today on H.R. 4.
03:56The senator from Wyoming, the Republican senator, just called it wasteful Washington spending.
04:03Well, I don't believe this falls in the category of inefficiency, fraud, and abuse are waste.
04:10Two weeks ago, the Republicans used budget reconciliation to take health care away and raise its cost for 17 million Americans.
04:18This week, they're moving forward on H.R. 4 in an effort to eliminate programs that Elon Musk decided he wanted to take a chainsaw to.
04:27Let's talk about Trump and Elon's first target, U.S. foreign assistance to the world's most vulnerable people.
04:34They have virtually ended USAID, which officially closed last week.
04:41What did they say about the program?
04:44Well, it was pretty explicit.
04:46Trump said these types of USAID programs are run by, quote, radical lunatics, close quote.
04:52The exact words of the president of the United States, radical lunatics.
04:56Elon Musk, a great government authority, said, quote, a criminal organization that should die, USAID programs.
05:07Let's talk about these programs.
05:10You see, despite many lies spread about U.S. foreign aid, such programs cost about 1% of the federal budget, 1%.
05:19And billions of these aid dollars flow back into the American economy.
05:22These programs have enjoyed broad bipartisan support, and they help make America stronger and more influential on the global stage.
05:31Moreover, these kinds of deep cuts proposed in the current recessions package threaten the long-term safety, stability, and leadership of our country, as well as growing markets for American goods.
05:42USAID programs stem threats that don't respect borders, pandemics, failed states, dictatorships, and displacements.
05:51The clean water and sanitation programs have provided more than 70 million people with first-time sustainable access to clean water in the last decade.
06:01Programs that have a six-to-one return in dollars saved in health, economic, and educational terms.
06:07My predecessor in the United States Senate and good friend was a man named Paul Simon from Illinois.
06:12Paul was a publisher of newspapers, an author who published many books, and one of the last books he published before he passed away related to the availability of clean drinking water in the future of the 21st century.
06:28It was not a bestseller on the New York Times list, but it was certainly advice that should have been taken seriously by all.
06:34When I asked Paul Simon's family what kind of memorial he wanted for his service in the House and the Senate and public life, they said he doesn't want any statue anywhere.
06:45Do something good in his name.
06:47So I created the Paul Simon Water for the World Act.
06:51Paul Simon Water for the World Act provided a limited amount of money by federal standards to projects around developing nations that provided clean drinking water.
07:01I remember going to Port-au-Prince in Haiti, one of the most war-torn and devastated countries in the world.
07:09I went to a local hospital in Port-au-Prince, and the woman who was the head of the hospital said that they had a terrible problem with a cholera epidemic, but it was under control.
07:18And I said, what did you do?
07:19She said, well, we ended up building a purification unit and a cistern with clean drinking water and provided it to people so that they wouldn't get sick from cholera.
07:29And I said, where is it?
07:30She showed me, and it just looked like a sewer lid out in the back of the hospital.
07:35And I said, so where did you get the money to build it?
07:37She said, it was something called Paul Simon's Water for the World.
07:41I said, how much did it cost?
07:42She said, $20,000.
07:45That kind of small investment of $20,000 literally saved hundreds of lives in his name, and I was glad to do it.
07:52But it also spoke about the United States of America, that this country would take a small amount of money and make a dramatic difference in the lives of people around the world.
08:02I remember going to a village in India.
08:05It was a dusty little village.
08:07I can't remember the name of it.
08:08And there were kids eating lunch.
08:10What they called lunch, no American kid would even consider eating.
08:14It was a grain formula that had been gathered with water and made into a, looked like a dough ball.
08:22And these kids were eating this dough ball with a great amount of speed because they were so hungry.
08:27And I looked at the bag that was providing this grain for this basic lunch for these kids, and it said, this is a gift from the people of the United States of America.
08:39And I thought to myself, when they paused before they started eating to say a prayer of thanks, they thanked the United States for caring enough to feed them that day.
08:48Does that speak well of the United States?
08:50I think it does.
08:52It defines us and it defines our values.
08:54And that's what's at stake in this bill.
08:56That's what we're voting on today.
08:59It cut and eliminate programs just like that that provide grain and foodstuffs around the world to the poorest people on earth.
09:08USAID programs stem threats that don't respect borders.
09:11The clean water and sanitation programs have provided more than 70 million people with first-time sustainable access to clean water in the last decade.
09:20Programs that have a six-to-one return in dollars saved.
09:23Now, Doctors Without Borders is an amazing organization.
09:28They have doctors in 70 different countries around the world.
09:33They provide medical care in conflict zones, natural disasters, and epidemics.
09:37They already are seeing that vital U.S.-funded programs that provide vaccinations and basic health protection for those caught in war and nutrition are being slashed.
09:47The CEO of Doctors Without Borders, Avril Benoit, recently noted, and I quote,
09:54It is shocking to see the United States abandon its leadership in advancing global health and humanitarian efforts.
10:03And then she went on to say,
10:04U.S. assistance has been a lifeline for millions of people, and yanking this support will lead to more preventable deaths and untold suffering around the world.
10:13That's what we're voting for on the floor of the Senate today.
10:16This isn't just some administrative battle that doesn't have human consequences.
10:22This is a matter of life and death for some of the poorest people on earth.
10:25This is the reputation of the United States as to whether we care.
10:30This is why American defense officials have even told us for generations that they support these programs.
10:36As they say, it's far cheaper than military intervention and wildly ineffective.
10:41Trump's own first-term Secretary of Defense, Jim Mattis, said,
10:45If we don't fund foreign aid, quote, then I need to buy more bullets, close quote.
10:50So let's be clear what we're asked to do today.
10:54Rip funding away from historically bipartisan programs that keep the most vulnerable populations and fragile nations from slipping into chaos.
11:04In addition to weakening our stand abroad, these proposed rescissions would hurt Americans here at home.
11:11I hope that my colleagues will pause and think for a moment of what the consequences will be.
11:16This publication was sent to me in my home in Springfield last week.
11:20It is from Doctors Without Borders.
11:22It goes through pages and pages of the programs that have been eliminated because of the Trump administration's decision that foreign aid is for suckers.
11:31This president believes it is.
11:34Some of the people voting today may believe it as well.
11:37I don't at all.
11:39When it comes to malnutrition in Somalia, Doctors Without Borders reports that our cutback in funding has meant that patients are traveling as far as 120 miles for care because closure of facilities nearby.
11:53The HIV program, I don't know what it will end up looking like, but originally it was proposed to eliminate the PEPFAR program.
12:01Now, I didn't have a long list of projects that I worked with President George W. Bush on, but PEPFAR was one of them.
12:08PEPFAR was a program that addressed the HIV-AIDS epidemic directly, and it saved lives.
12:14Some estimates saved 25 million lives, and I want to salute President George W. Bush and all those who supported on both sides of the aisle.
12:23You see, sensible foreign aid used to be a bipartisan undertaking, and President Bush proved that over and over again.
12:30I could go through the long list of projects around the world that Doctors Without Borders have noted are being cut back because of this decision, but I want to make this more direct and more personal.
12:40This morning, one of my colleagues, Chris Coons of Delaware, who has been a leader in this field of foreign assistance, spoke to the prayer breakfast in the United States Senate.
12:53I'm not going to quote him or try to, but I will tell you this.
12:56His message was clear that he believes that as a man of faith, he has a responsibility, a responsibility that even goes beyond his family, even beyond his country.
13:05He has a responsibility to his fellow man, and he believes that this decision by the Senate today will decide whether or not we as a nation share that sense of responsibility.
13:17I believe it speaks well of the United States that we come together and take 1% of our budget and spend it for the poorest people on earth.
13:25And that's why I believe it's critically important today that we defeat this effort to rescind the spending in SR4.
13:34The consequences of these recessions will prove to be devastating here and across the globe.
13:39I urge my colleagues to stand up against the mindless cuts.
13:44Predictably, President Trump said, quote,
13:46It is important that all Republicans adhere to my rescission's bill.
13:52And then he said, any Republican that votes to allow this monstrosity to continue broadcasting, referring to PBS, will not have my support or endorsement.
14:03It's a political threat.
14:04There's no doubt about it.
14:05There's a risk for the Republicans who stand up for principle.
14:09The president has turned this vote away from a discussion of the merits of the cut,
14:13of which there are none, into a loyalty test personally.
14:18Because Donald Trump doesn't care about the impact of these cuts,
14:21he only cares about the bended knee, the craven congressman, the servile senator.
14:27We need four Republicans today, four, to stand up and vote a matter of conscience.
14:33I hope they will join us to preserve these strategic bipartisan programs and vote no on this rescission bill.
14:40Please, today, to my colleagues on both sides, give a voice to the poorest children on earth
14:47who survive only because of a caring nation called America.
