Christopher A. Coons
Senator for Delaware · Democratic · United States
“Looking at how hard it was to get the nation of Colombia, which was nearly collapsing in internal conflict with Marxist guerrillas and drug cartels, we looked at something called Plan Colombia that over several administrations with a determined and broad engagement by the United States and hard work by the Colombian people and their gover…”
“And we will redouble our efforts to make real the dream that he and I wrote together to create a conservation foundation that will secure ungoverned spaces--South America and in Africa and Southeast Asia--and shut down jihadist groups and extremist groups and conserve and protect wildlife and open spaces for the future.”
“But part of why that attack had happened was this process of negotiating Saudi recognition of Israel and Israeli recognition of Palestinian self-governance, and an American guarantee to the Saudis was so close to conclusion, was making real progress, that Hamas chose that moment to strike.”
“Let me close by saying to everyone who worked for Lindsey--and I have known many of you over the years--to his sister Darline, to his extended friends and family in South Carolina, know that even though he and I fought like hell on many occasions, it was like fighting with a brother--someone, although he changed and moved and at times we…”
“There was a moment during the Kavanaugh hearings that was one of the most tense and ugly and difficult we had together on Judiciary. And it was also the time when we were working together on the bill that funds the State Department and foreign aid. And he and I had worked together to create an outside organization to support U.S.”
“I have many, many other stories of moments, tense moments with heads of state, moments with a group of Senators trying to hammer out a big bill on immigration or infrastructure where Lindsey's humor, his irreverent, often inappropriate, but hysterical humor broke the ice and brought us together.”
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“When President Biden and Prime Minister Trudeau met last year, the Biden administration's top priorities included encouraging both countries to increase climate spending and advance diversity and inclusion. But when it came to common priorities that Americans actually wanted to see progress on, like combatting illegal immigration, President Biden's view was that we should both--Canada and the United States--expand pathways to allow more migrants into the country and to promote Canada accepting 15,000 migrants. President Trump is right to change this trajectory, precisely because Canadians also are victims of illegal immigration and fentanyl. We must both prioritize these threats to our citizens.”
“Illegal migrant crossings skyrocket 50-fold under the Biden-Harris [administration] at the northern border . . . that includes New York. Indeed, we have a crisis at the northern border. It is a fentanyl crisis and a migration crisis. In considering these figures, I want to emphasize, I don't blame Canada. I blame President Biden. President Biden repeatedly refused to prioritize border security. Indeed, when President Biden's nominee for the Commissioner of Customs and Border Protection came through the Finance Committee, I asked him if he would at least admit that there was a border emergency, including on the southern border as well as the northern border. He, like President Biden himself, refused to take it seriously, with dire consequences for our communities in America.”
“Senator Kaine and the other cosponsors are challenging the ``how,'' meaning the means of what President Trump is doing, the threat of tariffs through which President Trump addresses a national emergency. The Senate, however, is set up to vote on this proposal today on the ``why''--whether an emergency exists. Under President Biden's watch, the number of people arrested on the northern border rose more than tenfold from 2022 to 2024. Indeed, publications like the Economist and the New York Times, documented here, showed extensively how the northern border has become increasingly insecure over the last year, with a massive spike in the number of migrant crossings. Just look at the spike on the chart. This is the New York Times reporting. And what do they say?”
“President, I rise today to speak in opposition to the resolution. Senator Kaine and his fellow cosponsors want a strong trade relationship with Canada. So do I. I consider, like President Reagan, Canadians to be not just ``friends and neighbors and allies . . . [but] kin, who together [with us] have built the most productive relationship between any two countries in the world today.'' By the way, I would note that the tariffs that President Trump announced today did not get applied to Canada. What we are talking about here today, however, in Senator Kaine's resolution is not about our trading relationship. It is about the emergency stemming from fentanyl and illegal immigration.”
“And I hope some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle will join Senator Kaine and many of us in recognizing it is ludicrous to use the special emergency powers that Congress gave to the President assuming he would only do so in a case of war or active open hostility, not in the case of one of our trusted and loyal partners and allies, the great and kind people of Canada. In recent meetings with Canadian leaders, they have said: Don't make us do it. Don't make us impose tariffs on you. But, tonight, the Trump administration has imposed tariffs on dozens and dozens of our trading partners. To my friends and colleagues, let's vote to undo this phony crisis and vote to undo the tariffs on U.S.-Canada trade. I yield the floor. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Idaho. MR. CRAPO. Mr.”
“Tonight, you have a chance, I say to my colleagues, to vote to undo the declaration of an emergency on our northern border. You can vote to undo the [[Page S2136]] harm to businesses, to small families, to retirement accounts. Don't look at your 401(k) if you don't want to know tomorrow the consequences of indiscriminately slapping tariffs on every one of our major trading partners. This is not ``Liberation Day'' but ``Tax Day''--a new national sales tax that will harm the imports we buy from virtually every country and, because of the countervailing tariffs, harm our exports. A tariff is a tax, and tonight we will take a vote.”
“So to my colleagues, if you have heard, as I have, from your constituents, calling with concern and alarm about how much prices have not gone down but have gone up, I recommend you think about one country, one of our most trusted and loyal allies--some of the nicest people on the planet. Who doesn't like Canadians? Canadians have served alongside us in virtually every war we have ever fought. They are a NATO ally and partner, and for my small-but- mighty State of Delaware, our major export destination and the nation from which we import the most. And yet, because of an emergency at our border, which I think is wholly unjustified by the data of how little fentanyl actually comes into our country across the northern border, President Trump is moving ahead with slapping tariffs on Canada.”
“Mr. President, I rise to bring the attention of this body to a broken promise by our President. Our President promised, in the campaign and recently in an address to all of us here in Congress, to make America affordable again; to deal with the high prices of groceries, of fruits and vegetables, of housing, of housing supplies, of energy--to deal with high prices. Millions of Americans who voted for President Trump said they did so out of frustration about high prices. Well, today, President Trump has announced he is going to impose tariffs on virtually every trading partner we have, and I rise in support of a piece of legislation we are about to vote on here in the Senate that gives us the chance to do something.”