Ron Wyden
Senator for Oregon · Democratic · United States
“Congressional Record, Volume 172 Issue 116 (Thursday, July 16, 2026) [Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 116 (Thursday, July 16, 2026)] [Senate] [Pages S4127-S4129] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] PROVIDING FOR CONGRESSIONAL DISAPPROVAL UNDER CHAPTER 8 OF TITLE 5, UNITED S…”
“We are forcing patients to come back again and again and again. That just defies common sense. And on the issues like skin substitutes, that has been addressed through a payment process, payment policy reform, to get at the incentives and wasteful utilization.”
“199 Leg.] YEAS--46 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 Murray Ossoff Padilla Peters Reed Rosen Sanders Schatz Schiff Schumer Shaheen Slotkin Smith Van Hol…”
“Fortunately, for--let me say to Senator Murray that I so appreciate your presentation, and particularly talking about the algorithms. And, also, the fact is that under what you have described very clearly, the big winner under this flawed experiment is a bunch of middlemen who are trying to profit off denials, and not the people who reall…”
“President Trump came into office saying he would not cut Medicare, but that was clearly a lie because right now his administration is trying to privatize Medicare; in part, by putting AI between Medicare beneficiaries and their healthcare. In January of this year, under Secretary Kennedy and Dr.”
“I have met with healthcare providers all over my State. Whether it is a rural hospital or a doctor in Seattle, no one--no one--has had anything good to tell me about prior authorization in traditional Medicare.”
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“Congressional Record, Volume 172 Issue 116 (Thursday, July 16, 2026) [Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 116 (Thursday, July 16, 2026)] [Senate] [Page S4142] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] PRIVILEGES OF THE FLOOR Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the following members of my team be granted floor privileges for the remainder of the Congress: Ava Wyden, Kira Posner, Julia Long, Collin Park, Olivia Hicks, Daniel Reichert, and Mahima Yogesh. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. ____________________”
“Madam President, I would ask consent to start the 1:30 vote now. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. Vote on Motion to Proceed The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the motion. The yeas and nays were previously ordered. The clerk will call the roll. The senior assistant executive clerk called the roll.”
“Fortunately, for--let me say to Senator Murray that I so appreciate your presentation, and particularly talking about the algorithms. And, also, the fact is that under what you have described very clearly, the big winner under this flawed experiment is a bunch of middlemen who are trying to profit off denials, and not the people who really desperately need care. So I very much appreciate it, and Oregon is proud to be a partner with Washington State in leading the country to get rid of this very flawed idea. And I thank you for your remarks.”
“That is why we ought to be voting for what we are trying to do today on the Democratic side. I yield back and hope we will have a bipartisan vote. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Washington.”
“Madam President, we don't take a back seat to anybody in terms of fighting inefficiency, fighting fraud. We have been working on those issues, as the chair of the Finance Committee knows, together wherever possible. Unfortunately, what we have seen in this experiment is that we are not dealing with inefficiency and fraud. We are forcing patients to come back again and again and again. That just defies common sense. And on the issues like skin substitutes, that has been addressed through a payment process, payment policy reform, to get at the incentives and wasteful utilization. So on the points that the minority is making, the reality is patients are not going to get care, and we are not going to make sensible changes as we have in other areas to deal with fraud and inefficiency.”
“Let's work on that together, and we can start by ending this AI-driven prior authorization experiment. It is a mistake. We can't run the risk of it being sent to other parts of the healthcare system. I urge a ``yes'' vote. I yield the floor. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Idaho.”
“And that would mean that seniors who selected it precisely because they don't want to deal with the headaches and complexity of an insurance company would suffer. This is not a partisan issue. Many of my Republican colleagues have expressed concern about prior authorizations and the state of Medicare Advantage. I hope that they will stand with those of us today who want to tell the Trump administration to abandon an ill-advised experiment that seniors don't want. They didn't ask for it. It doesn't make sense. There is a lot of work to be done to improve both traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage for seniors that count on the Medicare guarantee. And I have been working on that Medicare guarantee since the days when I was a codirector of the Oregon Gray Panthers.”
“In 2024, insurance companies that sell Medicare Advantage plans denied more than 4 million prior authorization requests--just think about that: 4 million prior authorization requests. Of those denials, only 1 in 10 were appealed by a senior or their doctor. But when the denial was appealed, it was overturned 8 times out of 10. What this tells me is that prior authorization is being used to deny legitimate care, often acting as a bureaucratic hurdle meant to discourage seniors and their doctors from pursuing a course of treatment that might impact insurance company's bottom line. It is bad enough that this is the state of affairs in Medicare Advantage, but now the Trump administration is trying to import insurance company tactics into traditional Medicare.”
“First, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services already have now lowered payment rates for this procedure; in doing so, closed the loophole driving the dramatic increase. (Mrs. CAPITO assumed the Chair.) Second, the skin substitute procedures only account for a tiny fraction of care under the model. In the case of Oregon's neighbor to the north, Washington State, skin substitutes account for less than 1 percent of services--less than 1 percent of the services, Madam Chair-- subject to the prior authorization under this model. So the excuses hold no water. Prior authorization has run rampant in the American healthcare system. For-profit insurance companies are increasingly using this business tactic to block and deter care in order to increase their profits. I want to put a fine point on this.”
“Seniors with severe back pain have to wait weeks for relief, upending their lives and leaving them suffering because of the bureaucracy of healthcare. The types of care that are subject to these restrictions are not frivolous: knee arthroscopies, nerve stimulations, steroid injections, cervical fusion. These types of procedures are the care that seniors rely on to stay mobile and pain-free in the aging process. Now, decisions between doctors and patients are overridden by for- profit AI contractors. The Trump administration's only defense of this model has been to point to the rapid rise of skin substitute procedures to justify their flawed experiment. The Trump administration's work doesn't pass the smell test.”
“Mr. President, colleagues, at the beginning of this year, the Trump administration empowered unaccountable AI companies to delay and deny certain types of care in traditional Medicare. Now, Donald Trump promised--promised--that he would not touch Medicare, and, today, it is clear that that Trump promise has been broken. Seniors paid into Medicare out of every paycheck during their working years, and they did so with an expectation they would have an ironclad guarantee of affordable healthcare. Today, seniors in six States across America are discovering that care their doctor has recommended for them has been slowed or halted by a shadowy AI-driven third party. The consequences are not abstract.”
“Mr. President, I move to proceed to Calendar No. 447, S.J. Res. 198. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report. The bill clerk read as follows: Motion to proceed to Calendar No. 447, S.J. Res. 198, a joint resolution providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services of the Department of Health and Human Services relating to ``Medicare Program; Implementation of Prior Authorization for Select Services for the Wasteful and Inappropriate Services Reduction (WISeR) Model''.”
“Congressional Record, Volume 172 Issue 116 (Thursday, July 16, 2026) [Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 116 (Thursday, July 16, 2026)] [Senate] [Page S4142] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] PRIVILEGES OF THE FLOOR Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the following members of my team be granted floor privileges for the remainder of the Congress: Ava Wyden, Kira Posner, Julia Long, Collin Park, Olivia Hicks, Daniel Reichert, and Mahima Yogesh. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. ____________________”
“199 Leg.] YEAS--46 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 Murray Ossoff Padilla Peters Reed Rosen Sanders Schatz Schiff Schumer Shaheen Slotkin Smith Van Hollen Warner Warnock Warren Welch Whitehouse Wyden NAYS--50 Armstrong Banks Barrasso Blackburn Boozman Britt Budd Capito Cassidy Collins Cornyn Cotton Cramer Crapo Cruz Curtis Daines Ernst Fischer Graham Grassley Hawley Hoeven Husted Hyde-Smith Johnson Justice Kennedy Lankford Lee Lummis Marshall McCormick Moody Moran Moreno Murkowski Paul Ricketts Risch Rounds Schmitt Scott (FL) Scott (SC) Sheehy Sullivan Thune Tillis Tuberville Young NOT VOTING--4 Hagerty McConnell Murphy Wicker The motion was rejected.”
“The question is on agreeing to the motion. The yeas and nays were previously ordered. The clerk will call the roll. The senior assistant executive clerk called the roll. Mr. BARRASSO. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Tennessee (Mr. Hagerty), the Senator from Kentucky (Mr. McConnell), and the Senator from Mississippi (Mr. Wicker). Further, if present and voting: the Senator from Tennessee (Mr. Hagerty) would have voted ``nay'' and the Senator from Mississippi (Mr. Wicker) would have voted ``nay.'' Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Connecticut (Mr. Murphy) is necessarily absent. The result was announced--yeas 46, nays 50, as follows: [Rollcall Vote No.”
“Fortunately, for--let me say to Senator Murray that I so appreciate your presentation, and particularly talking about the algorithms. And, also, the fact is that under what you have described very clearly, the big winner under this flawed experiment is a bunch of middlemen who are trying to profit off denials, and not the people who really desperately need care. So I very much appreciate it, and Oregon is proud to be a partner with Washington State in leading the country to get rid of this very flawed idea. And I thank you for your remarks. Mrs. MURRAY. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. WYDEN. I yield the floor. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oregon. Mr. WYDEN. Madam President, I would ask consent to start the 1:30 vote now. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. Vote on Motion to Proceed The PRESIDING OFFICER.”
“Thanks to Trump, AI is getting in between our seniors and their healthcare in Arizona, in New Jersey, in Ohio, in Oklahoma, in Texas, and in my State of Washington. We have an opportunity to stop this harmful experimental pilot program before more seniors are harmed. No senior in America should have to appeal their pain and suffering to a machine. To my colleagues, if it were your spouse or parent who needed care, whom would you want to decide if they get their treatment, their doctor or a for-profit algorithm? Would you want them to suffer in pain for weeks for care that they are entitled to? I know what my answer is. Let's maintain the promise of Medicare. Let's pass this resolution. I yield the floor. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oregon. [[Page S4129]] Mr. WYDEN.”
“WISeR breaks that promise to seniors with these senseless AI-driven prior authorizations that deny and delay care. Let me be clear, many seniors choose traditional Medicare over other options because traditional Medicare rarely requires prior authorizations. People choose traditional Medicare because they want to make their healthcare decisions with their doctor, not with a private company that is out to make a profit. Simply put, the WISeR Model--which, again, delays and denies necessary care to Medicare patients--is reckless, and it is irresponsible. I want my Republican colleagues to join us in voting to get rid of WISeR once and for all because this should not be a partisan issue. We all have seniors in our States that deserve the highest level of care without having to deal with redtape and delay.”
“I have met with healthcare providers all over my State. Whether it is a rural hospital or a doctor in Seattle, no one--no one--has had anything good to tell me about prior authorization in traditional Medicare. Now, I ran for office because I believe regular people deserve a say in how their government is run, and that is especially true when it comes to the government deploying AI technology. I don't know any senior--Republican or Democrat--who asked President Trump to let AI decide if their doctor-recommended treatment was necessary. Of course, AI can help make things more efficient or do good things. That is not what the WISeR Model is doing. So let's get to the crux of it. As a country, we make a promise to American seniors: If they paid their taxes throughout their careers, they earned their Medicare coverage. Full stop.”
“This is simply outrageous, but that is also WISeR working by design, and that is a direct impact of the Trump administration's actions. We have seen way too many stories like Joanne's from States that have been selected for this pilot program. No way should an algorithm decide if seniors should get the care they need. That is exactly why I join my colleagues here in introducing a resolution to overturn this model. And I want all of my colleagues to join me in voting for it so we can make sure seniors in my State and all over the country can, once again, receive their healthcare on time and without interruption. Let's just use our common sense. It is clear as day that some AI models should never be at the wheel making healthcare decisions left and right. And it is not just patients I have heard from.”
“They are suffering debilitating pain for weeks because they are not getting the care they need, thanks to this harmful model--patients like Joanne. She is a Medicare beneficiary from Quilcene, WA. She went to her doctor for severe pain. An MRI showed that a herniated disk was pressing on her sciatic nerve. Joanne's doctor prescribed an epidural injection to help ease that pain. This was standard, routine care--care that, before this year, she would have been able to get quickly after it had been recommended by her doctor. But because of this WISeR Model, she had to wait 6 weeks to get approval. That means, thanks to WISeR, Joanne had to deal with unnecessary, unrelated pain for 6 weeks. Because of this nonsense delay, her day-to-day life was disrupted and the burden fell on her then to fight for the care she needed.”
“They are literally incentivized to rip healthcare away from seniors because that is best for their bottom line. When your business model relies on denials, denials are what seniors are going to get, and that is perverse. WISeR was rolled out in the beginning of this year in my home State of Washington and five other States without safeguards and without any transparency and without the best interests of Medicare beneficiaries at the heart of this program. President Trump is saying: Forget the doctors who went to medical school and took an oath to do no harm. AI knows better when it comes to healthcare decisions for our seniors. The consequences of that poor judgment are real, and they are life- threatening. I hear from Medicare patients in Washington State all the time.”
“President Trump came into office saying he would not cut Medicare, but that was clearly a lie because right now his administration is trying to privatize Medicare; in part, by putting AI between Medicare beneficiaries and their healthcare. In January of this year, under Secretary Kennedy and Dr. Oz's leadership, CMS began this pilot program that uses AI to require prior authorization in traditional Medicare for the first time ever, and it is set to run for 6 years. They call it the Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Reduction Model. Well, they got the wasteful and inappropriate part right. The WISeR Model uses AI to deny vulnerable seniors the care they need and that their doctors recommend. Not only that, but the for-profit contractors that conduct this prior authorization are paid a percentage of the cost of care that they deny.”
“We are forcing patients to come back again and again and again. That just defies common sense. And on the issues like skin substitutes, that has been addressed through a payment process, payment policy reform, to get at the incentives and wasteful utilization. So on the points that the minority is making, the reality is patients are not going to get care, and we are not going to make sensible changes as we have in other areas to deal with fraud and inefficiency. That is why we ought to be voting for what we are trying to do today on the Democratic side. I yield back and hope we will have a bipartisan vote. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Washington. Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, I wanted to talk today about not just how Republicans are making healthcare more expensive but also how they are making it just plain worse for seniors.”
“Every Member of this body agrees that patients should have access to high-quality care, providers deserve predictable payment for services, and avoidable waste, fraud, and abuse in Medicare should be stopped. Ending this pilot program prematurely will deprive CMS of a useful tool to accomplish each of those goals. And I urge my colleagues to consider the facts and oppose this resolution. I yield the floor. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oregon. Mr. WYDEN. Madam President, we don't take a back seat to anybody in terms of fighting inefficiency, fighting fraud. We have been working on those issues, as the chair of the Finance Committee knows, together wherever possible. Unfortunately, what we have seen in this experiment is that we are not dealing with inefficiency and fraud.”
“The potential benefit of this ``detect and prevent strategy'' is substantial. For example, Medicare spending on skin substitutes, one of the chosen WISeR model services, increased and--hear this--increased from $256 million in 2019 to $10 billion in 2024. It doesn't even take a technological machine to tell you that something is wrong there. Proactive, technology-based scrutiny could have detected this outlier spending growth and protected both patients and taxpayers. Regrettably, misinformation about this model has sparked fears of delays in essential patient care and additional burdens on providers. Later today, the Senate will proceed to a resolution to stop this important work of the WISeR model.”
“Well- meaning clinicians often face opaque coverage guidelines that can result in denied reimbursements, while malicious actors exploit bureaucratic vulnerabilities to defraud the program. Through the wasteful and inappropriate service reduction model--work WISeR--CMS is testing whether enhanced technology can help address these systemic failures. For a limited set of nonemergency services with a documented history of abuse and overuse, providers in select States must submit claims for review. Claims that meet existing Medicare coverage requirements are quickly approved, offering providers payment predictability. [[Page S4128]] When issues arise, board-certified clinicians--not technological machines, board-certified clinicians--intervene to make the final decision.”
“Madam President, in response to the discussion that my colleague from Oregon has just engaged in, far too often, our Nation's healthcare system incentivizes low-value, high-cost services. For years, bipartisan policy makers throughout Capitol Hill and across administrations have endeavored to disrupt this flawed paradigm, especially in the Medicare Program. Unfortunately, despite progress to incorporate new value-based payment arrangements, Medicare's underlying reimbursement structure continues to rely heavily on the volume of services provided, rather than the quality of care. In addition to failing patients and providers, Medicare's perverse financial incentives contribute to massive waste and abuse.”
“I hope that they will stand with those of us today who want to tell the Trump administration to abandon an ill-advised experiment that seniors don't want. They didn't ask for it. It doesn't make sense. There is a lot of work to be done to improve both traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage for seniors that count on the Medicare guarantee. And I have been working on that Medicare guarantee since the days when I was a codirector of the Oregon Gray Panthers. Let's work on that together, and we can start by ending this AI-driven prior authorization experiment. It is a mistake. We can't run the risk of it being sent to other parts of the healthcare system. I urge a ``yes'' vote. I yield the floor. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Idaho. Mr. CRAPO.”
“What this tells me is that prior authorization is being used to deny legitimate care, often acting as a bureaucratic hurdle meant to discourage seniors and their doctors from pursuing a course of treatment that might impact insurance company's bottom line. It is bad enough that this is the state of affairs in Medicare Advantage, but now the Trump administration is trying to import insurance company tactics into traditional Medicare. And that would mean that seniors who selected it precisely because they don't want to deal with the headaches and complexity of an insurance company would suffer. This is not a partisan issue. Many of my Republican colleagues have expressed concern about prior authorizations and the state of Medicare Advantage.”
“In the case of Oregon's neighbor to the north, Washington State, skin substitutes account for less than 1 percent of services--less than 1 percent of the services, Madam Chair-- subject to the prior authorization under this model. So the excuses hold no water. Prior authorization has run rampant in the American healthcare system. For-profit insurance companies are increasingly using this business tactic to block and deter care in order to increase their profits. I want to put a fine point on this. In 2024, insurance companies that sell Medicare Advantage plans denied more than 4 million prior authorization requests--just think about that: 4 million prior authorization requests. Of those denials, only 1 in 10 were appealed by a senior or their doctor. But when the denial was appealed, it was overturned 8 times out of 10.”
“These types of procedures are the care that seniors rely on to stay mobile and pain-free in the aging process. Now, decisions between doctors and patients are overridden by for- profit AI contractors. The Trump administration's only defense of this model has been to point to the rapid rise of skin substitute procedures to justify their flawed experiment. The Trump administration's work doesn't pass the smell test. First, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services already have now lowered payment rates for this procedure; in doing so, closed the loophole driving the dramatic increase. (Mrs. CAPITO assumed the Chair.) Second, the skin substitute procedures only account for a tiny fraction of care under the model.”
“Now, Donald Trump promised--promised--that he would not touch Medicare, and, today, it is clear that that Trump promise has been broken. Seniors paid into Medicare out of every paycheck during their working years, and they did so with an expectation they would have an ironclad guarantee of affordable healthcare. Today, seniors in six States across America are discovering that care their doctor has recommended for them has been slowed or halted by a shadowy AI-driven third party. The consequences are not abstract. Seniors with severe back pain have to wait weeks for relief, upending their lives and leaving them suffering because of the bureaucracy of healthcare. The types of care that are subject to these restrictions are not frivolous: knee arthroscopies, nerve stimulations, steroid injections, cervical fusion.”
“Res. 198, a joint resolution providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services of the Department of Health and Human Services relating to ``Medicare Program; Implementation of Prior Authorization for Select Services for the Wasteful and Inappropriate Services Reduction (WISeR) Model''. Mr. WYDEN. I ask for the yeas and nays. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second? The yeas and nays are ordered. S.J. Res. 198 Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, colleagues, at the beginning of this year, the Trump administration empowered unaccountable AI companies to delay and deny certain types of care in traditional Medicare.”
“Congressional Record, Volume 172 Issue 116 (Thursday, July 16, 2026) [Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 116 (Thursday, July 16, 2026)] [Senate] [Pages S4127-S4129] 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 CENTERS FOR MEDICARE & MEDICAID SERVICES OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES RELATING TO ``MEDICARE PROGRAM; IMPLEMENTATION OF PRIOR AUTHORIZATION FOR SELECT SERVICES FOR THE WASTEFUL AND INAPPROPRIATE SERVICES REDUCTION (WISeR) MODEL''--Motion to Proceed Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I move to proceed to Calendar No. 447, S.J. Res. 198. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report. The bill clerk read as follows: Motion to proceed to Calendar No. 447, S.J.”
“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.”
“Thank you, Mr. President. Senators, the devastating economic news we got this morning should be enough for Senators to vote yes tonight. The only winner from the tariffs is China, which is scooping up markets and allies Donald Trump has left in the dust. Senators, vote yes. Reclaim American trade policy, and end its outsourcing to Donald Trump. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The minority leader.”
“Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for up to 1 minute to conclude, and Senator Schumer will ask for an additional minute as well, and we would wrap up. But I ask unanimous consent to speak for 1 minute. The PRESIDING OFFICER. That order has been granted. S.J. Res. 49”
“Listen to what you are hearing from home, because what I heard was, overwhelmingly, Oregonians and the people I ran into in airports and the like said it is time to bring some certainty and predictability back to making these urgently needed trade policies. I urge this body to vote for jobs and prosperity rather than unending trade conflict that leaves our country as a loser. I urge every Senator to support this crucial resolution. I yield the floor. The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Banks). The Senator from Vermont.”
“The best way to restore our Nation's good name is for Congress to step in and assert, finally, our constitutional authority over trade. Article I, section 8 of the Constitution grants Congress power ``To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations'' and ``To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises.'' In other words, this is our job. It is not always pretty, but Congress can provide stability and certainty on trade that last beyond a single President's administration. This body has already signaled bipartisan support for reversing pointless tariffs. We did that when we passed Senator Kaine's bill to end the tariffs on Canada. Today, the Senate can take another powerful step--a powerful step in the right direction--by voting to repeal the global tariffs on a bipartisan basis. I would just close by saying: Listen to your constituents.”
“I believe it is hard to see how any foreign country right now would make concessions to Donald Trump. That is because he has proven himself to be both untrustworthy and incapable of sticking to a position on tariffs for more than a few weeks at a time. One foreign diplomat told the press that countries are worried that any [[Page S2689]] deal they make with the Treasury or Commerce Secretaries will be contradicted by Trump. Other trading partners said they don't want to make a deal now only to have Trump decide on a unilateral tariff in the future. Donald Trump has trashed America's credibility. He hasn't just made it unlikely for his administration to get a good deal for American workers. My view is he has hurt every future president who wants to strike a good trade deal.”
“This weekend, the Agriculture Secretary said 100 countries had reached out to start trade talks, and almost at the same time, Secretary Bessent said there are actually 18 so-called priority countries, and those talks would take about 90 days. If nobody in this administration can even agree on what is happening right now, how can they negotiate smart trade deals with nearly every nation on Earth? Anonymous White House aides continue to say that Donald Trump is working to deescalate his trade war, but Donald Trump doesn't sound like he is willing to admit he got it wrong. He told Time magazine that if tariffs are at 20 percent or even 50 percent a year from now, that would be a ``total victory.'' So, once again, no one can tell what his administration wants or what the end game is.”
“But, as usual, it is not clear at all what the plan is, what their tariffs are supposed to accomplish, or when, if ever, American families and workers will see the relief. Earlier this month, Donald Trump claimed he would have 200 deals completed within 3 or 4 weeks. Then he said: No, that is ``physically impossible'' to have all of the meetings needed to seal the deals. He should have thought of that before he started a trade war against the entire world. Now, he claimed that he was already negotiating with China to lower tariffs and calm trade tensions, but China and Secretary Bessent said that talks have not even started.”
“The cost of those products goes up because of tariffs. Worse, foreign markets for Bob's goods are drying out. That is because other countries put their own tariffs on Bob's flour and other Oregon ag products in retaliation for Trump's aimless war. Oregon grass seed growers estimate that about half of their exports-- nearly $200 million in sales--are being canceled, thanks to the global tariffs. Donald Trump and his advisers claim there is nothing to worry about. They say the economists and the pundits are overreacting, and everything is going according to plan. Secretary Bessent is on cable news so often, trying to calm investors, that it is a wonder that he has got any time to do a bit of negotiating.”
“Donald Trump, meanwhile, puts higher taxes on groceries, clothes, and cars for working families, while he puts his extra time in to pass tax cuts for the wealthy. That is his agenda. My state knows how Donald Trump's tariff chaos is already hurting real people, and we know how it is drying up markets for ``red, white, and blue'' products. About one in five jobs in Oregon depends on trade, and the trade jobs often pay better. Speaking with small businesses and workers all over Oregon--I did it just last week--every single one warned of damage from tariffs, and soon. Bob's Red Mill, for example, sells delicious flour and grains, mostly made from wheat and other crops in Oregon. But some of their ingredients--like coconut or tapioca, which just aren't grown here-- come from outside the country.”
“Many products from China won't even be available soon, and that is thanks to the tariffs. For the products that are still available, prices are going up--a fact that Donald Trump flails about trying to hide. When Amazon was rumored to list the impacts of tariffs on prices, Donald Trump threw a fit, reportedly threatening Jeff Bezos and calling it a hostile act. God forbid that Americans actually know what the real costs of his tariffs are. Meanwhile, Donald Trump and Republicans are charging ahead with plans to go forward with their tax bill, which features more bailouts for billionaires, paid for by kicking millions of people off their health insurance and gutting programs that kids and families rely on to stay safe and healthy.”
“Now, I am going to talk for just a few minutes with respect to taking stock of the economic carnage that Donald Trump's trade chaos has already inflicted on our country. We are going to examine the administration's own claims about what their plan is and make the case for why every Member of this body should vote to assert the powers of Congress to trade and to end the tariffs, and they should do it no matter their party or which State they represent. I already mentioned the shocking economic news this morning. By every single forecast, by every measure, Donald Trump's self-defeating tariffs are actively making Americans poorer, and they are doing it now and for years to come. Economic growth, gone. Inflation, rising. Unemployment projections, up again. Experts estimate Trump's tariffs will cost average families about $4,000 a year.”
“I think we all understand goldfish have memories that last longer than Donald Trump's tariff promises. Before these global tariffs, there was the on-again, off-again trade war with China and Mexico; tariffs on steel, aluminum, and cars; and ad hoc exemptions for things like electronics and fertilizer. When the public outcry was so great, Donald Trump had to backtrack. Donald Trump imposed his global tariffs by declaring an economic emergency under a law call IEEPA. No President has ever imposed tariffs under this law. In my view, Trump's actions clearly go beyond what the law allows, which is why Senators Shaheen, Kaine, and I have offered a bill to make it clear that this law does not allow the President to issue tariffs. Members can vote today to repeal the so-called emergency Trump declared and end the harmful global tariffs.”
“If this continues to be our tariff policy, every major economist and forecaster is, unfortunately, predicting recession, job losses, and the misery that was all over our news feeds this morning. The U.S. Senate cannot be an idle spectator in the tariff madness. The Congress has the power to set tariffs and regulate global trade, and Members can vote today--not do something in a month or some other time--but Members can vote today to put an end to Trump's global tariffs and the economic disaster they are creating. Earlier this month, Donald Trump slapped new 10 percent taxes on nearly everything Americans buy from overseas, 125 percent tariffs on nearly everything from China, and he promises even higher taxes in July on products from nearly five dozen countries. That is just the latest plan.”
“Mr. President, before he leaves the floor, I just want to thank Leader Schumer for all the help. We are going to be focused today on something that really matters to people, and I thank him. Mr. President, we are beginning, as you can tell, to discuss the resolution to repeal the global tariff emergency. As is becoming routine under this President, Americans were greeted with grim economic news this morning. After 3 years of strong growth and rising job numbers, the U.S. economy actually shrank in the first 3 months of 2025. The trade deficit hit a record $162 billion. The United States added only half as many jobs this month as expected. A major culprit is unquestionably Donald Trump and his senseless global tariffs.”