What Brian Schatz said, and what was done

“Mr. President, I rise today in support of the nomination of Kenneth Sorenson to serve as U.S. Attorney for the District of Hawaii. Mr. Sorenson has devoted four decades to the Department of Justice, serving with distinction as an assistant U.S. attorney, first assistant U.S. attorney, criminal chief, senior litigation counsel, and most recently as acting and interim U.S. attorney.”

“Mr. President, the price of everything is up, and that is on purpose. It is on purpose because Donald Trump made it so. We are not in the middle of a pandemic or a recession or a national emergency, but the President of the United States has decided that Americans should pay more for everything--food, gas, electricity, healthcare, housing, clothes, everything.”

“Hawaii and everybody across this country about the death of 1LT Tyler Feehan of Ewa Beach, HI, who was among those killed in Jordan this past weekend while serving our country.”

“Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to an exceptional noncommissioned officer in the U.S. Army, SGM David J. Marshall, who currently serves as the deputy chief for the Army's Senate Liaison Division and will retire from Active Duty after 20 distinguished years of active Federal service at the end of this year.”

“Mr. President, Donald Trump is dragging us back into war again, and no one is exactly sure why. He achieved almost none of his objectives that he set out at the beginning of war, while spending tens--if not hundreds--of billions of dollars and forcing Americans to pay more for everything, especially gas and groceries.”

“Look, regime change wars rarely ever end well. And the idea that Trump was going to be able to go in and quickly topple the regime, much like he did in Venezuela a month earlier, was always absurd.”

“Mr. President, for every American who is wondering what on Earth the war in Iran over the past 3\1/2\ months was for, the answer is relatively simple: next to nothing.”

“Mr. President, $600 million to build a ballroom at the White House, $100 million to build a triumphal arch, $250 million to renovate the Kennedy Center, $60 million to host a UFC fight on the south lawn of the White House--these are the things Donald Trump is putting his time and energy into right now, along with a whole lot of taxpayer money.”

“Mr. President, I join everyone in Hawaii in congratulating chefs Rhoda Magbitang and Lee Anne Wong on their recent wins on ``Top Chef'' and ``Last Chef Standing.'' Both chefs displayed incredible skill and perseverance in their respective competitions and showcased what makes Hawaii's food scene so special, with our unique blend of cultures and cuisines.”

“If the Senator from Florida is ready to deliver her remarks, I would defer. I don't have enough time to give my remarks before the 2:15 vote, so just to keep the Senate on time, I will defer and try to land another time.”

“Mr. President, a billion dollars goes a very long way, especially in a State like Hawaii. With a billion dollars, we could cover out-of-pocket costs for insulin for every person in the State who relies on it for almost 20 years.”

“Trump a billion dollars for, of all things, a ballroom. Now, let's be perfectly clear, I have no problem investing in our great Capital City or its infrastructure.”

“Mr. President, on Monday, the University of Hawaii men's volleyball team won the national championship, prevailing over the University of California at Irvine in a four-set thriller. Every player played his part, and the win caps off one of the most successful seasons in the team's history.”

“Mr. President, Hawaii experienced its worst flooding in more than 20 years last month. Two storms, less than 2 weeks apart, whipped up hurricane force winds of up to 135 miles per hour and dumped more than 62 inches of rain in parts of the State.”

“Mr. President, there is a lot going on in the country and the world. Gas is at 4 bucks a gallon nationwide, and it is 5.65 at my corner Shell station in Honolulu.”

“Legislative Affairs for the Trump administration. I won't read the whole thing, except to point out that there are five substantive areas in which the administration expressed a willingness to enact reforms.”

“Mr. President, I will be brief. I always enjoy our exchanges, and this one, I think, was particularly constructive on substance. I will just say, my job is to count, and the votes do not exist for what the Senator from Oklahoma is asking for.”

“Mr. President, in my 13 years serving in the U.S. Senate and before that as Lieutenant Governor in Hawaii, I have met military officers at every level. And no matter age or rank, regardless of what they do or where they serve, they are every bit as disciplined, principled, committed, and brave as you could possibly imagine.”

“War presents impossible choices, and wanting precision planning and professionalism does not make you weak. It means that you grasp the gravity of the war. It means that you are not casual about using kinetic force--not because you are afraid, but because you understand exactly what comes next, that for all our military might and capability, war is not something to revel in.”

“Mr. President, I thank the leader and Senator Lankford for the deference. In trying to turn this into a little bit more of a debate, I want to ask unanimous consent that we turn this into a colloquy between myself and the leader for 5 to 8 minutes.”

“Mr. President, I can understand what the leader is saying. I understand what the Senator from Alabama is proposing. But I think what the vice chair of Appropriations said should not be glossed over as some sort of talking point.”

“Mr. President, where is the redline? You know, a lot of us wake up every day trying to figure out, exactly how bad is it? Is this the moment that Republican Members of the U.S.”

“Mr. President, among the bills in the funding package that was signed into law yesterday was the State and Foreign Operations appropriations bill. And while people are understandably focused elsewhere, I want to take a moment to talk today about what is in the so-called SFOPS bill and why it matters because, simply put, this bill will save lives all around the world.”

“Mr. President, President Ronald Reagan founded the National Endowment for Democracy, in 1983, as an independent, nonprofit foundation with a bipartisan board, and since then, it has been the main way that the United States has helped to strengthen democratic institutions around the world.”

“NED exposes Russian propaganda, counters Chinese Communist Party censorship, circumvents the Iranian regime's efforts to silence critics, and highlights corruption and drug trafficking in Venezuela. And it does all of that for a fraction of a penny on the dollar.”

“Mr. President, I want to thank the Senators from Minnesota--the junior and senior Senators from Minnesota--for their incredible leadership in serving as a ballast not just for the people of their State but for the whole country.”

“Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Rhode Island for his leadership and his clarity, and I want to underscore one of the most basic points that has to be made.”

“The criticism about Biden during the inflation crisis was that he wasn't doing enough about inflation, but this is a different criticism. This is deliberate policy choices to drive up the cost of something that everybody needs.”

“Well, our grid is different, obviously, because we have a series of islands, and they are kind of self-contained grids. But our challenge is, to meet the load, we need electrons.”

“Mr. President, no regime-change wars. No regime-change wars. I heard it from leftists. I heard it from rightwing people. I heard it from Bernie Sanders. I heard it from Tulsi Gabbard.”

“Mr. President, S. 612 is a bipartisan bill that amends the Native American Tourism and Improving Visitor Experience Act, which authorizes grants to Indian Tribes, Tribal organizations and Native Hawaiian organizations to support recreational travel and tourism activities.”

“Mr. President, the President of the United States is very focused. He is focused on building a $300 million ballroom in the White House, while the price of everything has gone up--food, housing, healthcare, electricity, clothes--you name it.”

“Mr. President, when Republicans tell you over and over, over a period of generations, that they have no interest in protecting people's healthcare, you should take them seriously.”

“Mr. President, a couple of weeks ago, I came to the floor to talk about where the Republicans are, and this is now--effectively, the House of Representatives has adjourned.”

“Mr. President, Donald Trump is sending $20 billion not to America but to Argentina. Donald Trump is sending $20 billion to Argentina to bail out their economy, and he wants to spend $50 billion to clean up the mess that he made by starting a trade war that crushed American soybean producers.”

“Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Kansas. And at the risk of getting him into political trouble, I am a huge fan of his, but I want to address the question that he asked, which I think is a legitimate one, which is: What is the hurry on the Affordable Care Act premiums?”

“Mr. President, Donald Trump is powerful, but he is not all-powerful. It is true that he is trying to consolidate power in illegal and dangerous ways, but it is also true that he is often failing to do that because of public opinion, because of markets, because of institutions, and because of the law itself.”

“So were we to work a weekend to try to land this airplane, that would be beneficial to the country, to the body, to Republicans and Democrats alike.”

“Mr. President, I was listening to the majority whip, and I have got to say, I have a little whiplash. I mean, I was here. I was negotiating.”

“Mr. President, the numbers do not lie. The job market is practically frozen. Unemployment is at its highest level in 4 years. Inflation is rising. Homebuilding is stagnant.”

“If it wasn't clear before, it is abundantly clear now that unless you are a billionaire getting enormous tax cuts and generous corporate giveaways, this economy sucks. Costs are piling up, saving money is nearly impossible, and just getting by, let alone buying a home or raising a family, is a lot harder.”

“Mr. President, I join people on Maui and across Hawaii in honoring the life and service of Maui Police Department officer Suzanne O, who was tragically killed in the line of duty on August 15, 2025.”

“Mr. President, people voted for Donald Trump for all kinds of reasons, but the main reason was that they thought he would bring down the price of goods, groceries, food, housing, gas.”

“Third World country, but now it is happening here in our cities, in our communities. Now, whether you supported or hated the previous administration's immigration policies is not the point anymore.”

“Mr. President, on rollcall vote No. 494, I voted no. It was my intention to vote yea; therefore, I ask unanimous consent that I be permitted to change my vote since it will not change the outcome.”

“Mr. President, on rollcall vote No. 493, I voted no. It was my intention to vote yea; therefore, I ask unanimous consent that I be permitted to change my vote since it will not change the outcome.”

“Mr. President, the mass starvation and death sweeping through Gaza is a moral tragedy and a strategic abomination. What started as a war with a just cause--to go after Hamas for the unspeakable atrocities it committed on October 7 and bring home the hostages--quickly turned unjust and immoral.”

“Mr. President, when it comes to one of the most basic necessities in life for people--housing--both political parties have failed. Both political parties have failed. Housing costs more than ever today, with the median home costing five times as much as the median income for your average American.”

“Mr. President, Dr. Fredrick ``Skip'' Burkle, Jr., is a distinguished veteran, physician, and humanitarian whose service to our Nation exemplifies the highest ideals of courage and compassion. Throughout his career, Dr.”

“More ridiculous USAID spending repealed. Elon purged DC's slush fund. As the smear campaign kicked into overdrive, DOGE locked out all of the Agency's employees, including those working in conflict zones, from their phones and emails.”

“Mr. President, Republicans don't actually have to do this. I understand, as well as anybody, wanting to go along with your party's President, especially in the early months.”

“So Mike Rounds got his deal so that his Tribes will be taken care of. I am glad for him. But there are 49 other States where your emergency communications infrastructure is about to be defunded.”

“Madam President, 2 weeks ago, Republicans passed one of the most unpopular bills in the history of the country--one of the most unpopular bills in the history of the country.”

“I know I am a Democrat, and I wanted this bill to fail, and I want to tell you why this is a failure of a bill, but that is literally in their projections.”

“We are going to strand hundreds of billions of dollars in capital. And so the impact on price is going to be crazy. The impact on jobs is going to be crazy.”

“Mr. President, more than 16 million people are going to lose their healthcare, and tens of millions of Americans are going to pay more for healthcare every month.”

“Mr. President, I have given a lot of speeches on this floor, and this is the least prepared but the most clear I ever will be: This is the stuff of dictatorships.”

“Mr. President, if you heard the leader of a foreign country was sending armed soldiers into his own cities, you would correctly call it authoritarian behavior. If you heard them say that the bar for unleashing troops on their own civilians is ``What I think it is,'' you would put them in a long line of dictators throughout history and the world.”

“Mr. President, no one asked for this. No one asked for the biggest wealth transfer in American history from the poorest people in the country to the richest people to ever exist.”

“Mr. President, there is a sort of general rule in politics, which is that if you start your meeting at 1 a.m., you are probably not proud of what you are doing.”

“Mr. President, on another matter, it really should go without saying, but no President should be accepting a $400 million gift from a foreign country. It is gross; it is reckless; it is corrupt; and the outrage and condemnation, especially on the Republican side, should be universal.”

“Mr. President, reserving the right to object, I would like to explain what I am doing here. I have a hold on nominees coming out of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee because it has been almost 4 months since Donald Trump and Marco Rubio illegally and unilaterally shuttered the U.S.”

“Mr. President, I am just a little bit taken aback by the personal--the tone here. But I do enjoy working with the Senator on the Commerce Committee, so I am not going to respond in kind, except to say something very simple, which is: It is Tuesday.”

“Madam President, I cannot believe I have to say this, but a President should not take a $400 million gift from a foreign country. It doesn't matter which President or what party.”

“Lisa Murkowski, and many others. But today we remember the many victims lost to this devastating epidemic of violence and recommit ourselves to helping to find justice and healing for all of those affected.”

“Mr. President, I would like to recognize and celebrate the Merrie Monarch Festival, an annual event held in Hilo, HI, that honors the legacy of King David Kalakaua, known as the ``Merrie Monarch.'' The festival continues to be a beacon of cultural preservation and a showcase of the rich heritage and traditions of the Native Hawaiian culture.”

“Mr. President, yesterday, the Health Secretary, RFK, Jr., announced that the Department would subject all new vaccines--including vaccines for children and vaccines for well-researched diseases like measles and polio--to placebo testing.”

“Mr. President, we are 100 days into Donald Trump's term, and it is time that we ask the most important question, the most obvious question, but it is a question, actually, that has not been asked enough--not ``How is he doing?'' not even ``What is he doing?'' That is important too.”

“I was in Europe a couple of months ago, and it was kind of jarring when our allies--and I mean our allies, our closest allies, who have always been there with us, who have defense treaties with us, who have economic partnerships with us, who have people-to-people ties--came to us and said that the biggest destabilizing force on the planet is the President of the United States.”

“Madam President, everyone enters public service hoping that they can make a difference, but few have the ability or the fortune to do as much good as Senator Dick Durbin has over his long and storied career.”

“Mr. President, Donald Trump is ruining the economy on purpose. He is ruining the economy on purpose. I am not sure if there has ever been an American President, let alone a Chief Executive of any country, that has ruined the economy on purpose.”

“Madam President, leave Social Security alone. Leave Social Security alone. Donald Trump wants to gut the most successful antipoverty program in American history. Over the past 3 months, his administration has made sweeping cuts to Social Security in ways that are already being felt across the country.”

“Mr. President, we are 50 days into Donald Trump's second term, and the American economy is already in free fall; prices are soaring, stocks are plummeting, and people are panicking about a recession.”

“Mr. President, the price of everything is going up. Outbreaks of measles and bird flu are killing people. Airplanes are almost crashing or actually crashing and falling out of the sky.”

“Mr. President, as I hear the senior Senator from Iowa, it is like I am living in another world. I am not alleging that Mr. Patel has an enemies list.”

“Mr. President, I just want to say how much I have come to admire, in a short period of time, the junior Senator from New Jersey. That was a--that was a real speech, you know.”

“Last week, without any advanced notice, OMB issued a memo freezing all Federal funding in order to end wokeness, ``Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies.'' Like, I just want to--we can pause right here, right?”

“Can I say one thing about--I did not know that this whole Senate is powered on Celsius. I never had Celsius before. I was walking around offering people coffee, and everyone had a Celsius.”

“I just want to drill down on why the profit motive is so dangerous to public service. If you are in the business of trying to figure out where to drop a Starbucks or whatever, you have got to figure out where the people are, right?”

“I used to run a social services agency. We had a couple hundred employees, and we delivered mental health services, and we were a Medicaid provider. It was back in the day when we weren't yet receiving electronic payments, and I would go to--like, I would wait for the mail every Wednesday and Thursday to see if we had to dip into our line of credit to make payroll.”

“Even in the private sector, just so we are clear--because there are also differences between the public and the private sector in terms of civil service protections and unions and all that.”

“Is that it has too many Democrats. Mr. MURPHY.--is absolutely absurd, that there are too many Democrats. So I guess we are going to shut down any Agencies that have 50 percent plus 1 Democratic affiliation, and we are going to hold on to Agencies in which the employees are 50 percent plus 1 Republican.”

“All sorts of integration. And now we are deciding that some people are not eligible to serve, not because they can't meet the requirements but because somebody finds it weird.”

“Yeah, yeah. This is the crazy thing. By the way, different, I am an Ashkenazi Jew, right, I do actually have--there is a thing called--I think it is called Tay-Sachs or something that I have a proclivity to having it, so we have to have a special check.”

“And we have the Fair Housing Law, we have equal employment law, like you are not allowed to discriminate in housing. And so just to understand, they are not trying to just like cancel these programs related to DEI; they are trying to cancel the civil rights movement, like in statutory law, and defund anything that mentions a woman or mentions gender or mentions civil rights, right?”

“Don't Google it. Google doesn't work anymore. But anyway, this is the end of this as a useful way to understand something. It is now just an epithet that you hurl when you are not sure what else to say, right?”

“Well, I think I have been, on one level, trying not to overreact, but I also think there is a little danger of underreacting. And I have been talking about this a little bit with my brother, who is a professor with an expertise in former Soviet Union countries, Kazakhstan in particular.”

“Yes, I think you are exactly right that we are--look, every day I try to sort out, of the 20 outrages, how many can I even focus on?”

“Before you came on, Senator Kim talked about taking on the New Jersey political machine. Political machines everywhere work pretty much the same. If you behave well, you get your stuff.”

“As happened in 2017. They couldn't even do the things that they promised they were going to do, except for the tax cuts. So I think they understand the fundamental weakness of their position, which is we have a President who is likely to do very unpopular things.”

“Mr. President, thank you to the ranking member of the Budget Committee for his leadership. We are doing something a little unusual. First of all, every Democrat is united on the vote that will occur 26 or 27 hours from now.”

“I think where the rubber hits road, right, is that it is very easy--I mean, look, I am sure plenty of Republicans could talk like me if they wanted to, and I could talk like Republicans.”

“No. And I thank the Democratic leader for his leadership on this. I will just say, I think the idea of getting rid of USAID is a radical one and a wrong one, but that is actually not what we are arguing about.”

“We have all had that moment where you are like: OK. It is closing day. And the VA home loan office was not available for you to execute on your loan.”

“Yeah. Look, I think our job over the next couple of days--and the leader has been very strong on this--is to point out that, look, I have never seen a floor fight over the OMB Director.”

“Now, if there was a for-profit or a nonprofit and you were in the process of trying to become more efficient, right, and you were looking at a bunch of people who did a bunch of things and you think, ``You know, we need an electronic system for this, or we need a better way to do this; we need a better mousetrap,'' you don't shut the whole thing down and then figure it out.”

“Mr. President, the American public won yesterday. After 36 hours of public panic and confusion and outrage, the Trump White House rescinded the illegal and unconstitutional order to freeze Federal funding for every State in the country.”

“Mr. President, if it weren't for a judge's temporary administrative stay, we would still be in the middle of Trump's pointless and illegal shutdown right now. Federal funding for a whole host of things would be frozen, meaning people all over the country who count on the Federal Government wouldn't get help.”

“Mr. President, the government shutdown that Donald Trump just ordered is illegal and unconstitutional. He is not a King, and we do not live in a monarchy. It is Congress's authority to decide on Federal funding.”

“Mr. President, if you heard your doctor say there is no vaccine that is safe or effective or there are much better candidates than HIV for what causes AIDS or school shootings started happening with the introduction of Prozac and other drugs--if your physician said any of those things to you, you would look for a new physician.”

“Mr. President, anyone who has tried to buy a carton of eggs at the grocery store lately has probably seen a sign on the empty shelves saying there is a national shortage of eggs because of the bird flu.”

“Mr. President, a new story was published today about the extent of Mr. Robert F. Kennedy's involvement in the 2019 measles outbreak in Samoa, and it shot a chill down my spine.”

“Mr. President, Pete Hegseth is just not qualified to be in charge of the Department of Defense. He would oversee almost 3 million employees around the world and an annual budget of over $800 billion.”

“Later, when he was asked by Senator Slotkin whether he would carry out an illegal order from Donald Trump, like using the military against civilians, he refused to give a straight answer.”

“Mr. President, after months of swearing up and down that they were focused on lowering the price of eggs, the price of groceries, the price of gas, the price of insurance--that was what the last election was about, right?”