What Maria Cantwell said, and what was done

“Mr. President, today, we are faced with a critical choice here in the U.S. Senate and across the country about the future of traditional Medicare. We had an opportunity to protect Medicare, the thing that seniors care about most, and they wanted to hear from us that we were going to do that.”

“Another constituent Keith Magnuson of Seattle who used to be an extremely active man who could regularly walk 6 miles a day, now, because of a lumbar spinal stenosis, he can barely walk 100 yards without severe pain.”

“Mr. President, I rise today along with my colleague Senator Murray to join many in the Pacific Northwest community and Indian country to honor Mel Tonasket, a leader and member of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation.”

“Mr. President, the attack on vote by mail and other efforts to disenfranchise Americans, whether it is the SAVE Act or redistricting to take away representation from minority-majority districts as the result of the Supreme Court decision in Louisiana v Callais--all of these are actions to take away the right to vote.”

“Mr. President, I rise to recognize the recent retirement of one of my most respected staff members: Shannon Smith. Shannon is a native of Washington and is returning home to be in Seattle.”

“Mr. President, the Senator from Alabama is right about one thing, and that is that college sports is facing a crisis. Today, we see a free-for-all driven by ever-increasing spending on football and basketball.”

“Mr. President, I come to the floor to speak in support of the Senator from Rhode Island's resolution, S. Res. 551, and applaud him for recognizing that sea level risings are accelerating the rates that we are seeing and driving measurable impact.”

“Madam President, the hour is late and many people have spoken tonight on this proposal by my colleague from Utah and others. But I just want to add my voice to the many who are very concerned about this legislation.”

“So I do want to say to my colleagues in the Senate that the Federal law does prohibit non-U.S. citizens from voting. That is a cornerstone to our law.”

“Mr. President, I come to speak about the opposition to the nominee before us that we are going to vote on soon, Mr. John DeLeeuw. It is not necessarily about Mr.”

“Mr. President, I rise today because I think the President tonight is going to continue to talk about his radical changes to our electoral system. He has tried by Executive order, just as he tried to impose tariffs by Executive order, and he found out that he didn't have that authority, according to the Supreme Court.”

“Mr. President, I come to the floor to join my colleagues today to talk about the events of the last several days, and to say to my colleagues here in the U.S.”

“Yes, the Department of Justice had an oversight division and a consent decree with the Seattle Police Department and the Spokane Police Department to get your act together and do training so that you are not killing people that don't deserve to be killed.”

“Mr. President, I come to the floor this afternoon to congratulate the appropriations colleagues who have got us to this point of voting today on final passage of three important appropriations bills.”

“American families know it; and they are being squeezed by it. So I am hopeful the Supreme Court will act soon and help Americans by lowering the prices they are feeling because of the Trump tariffs and the fact that they are being imposed on manufacturers, on households, and consumers that are having an effect on our economy.”

“Mr. President, I rise to support the gentleman's future request here and to say that the bipartisan ROTOR Act, the Rotorcraft Operations Transparency and Oversight Reform bill represents a major step forward for aviation safety.”

“Mr. President, I rise today to speak in favor of the nomination of Jared Isaacman to be the next NASA Administrator, but first, I want to make a few comments about the unbelievable weather events that are impacting the Pacific Northwest.”

“Mr. President, I rise today to make a point clear, and that is that section 373 of this year's National Defense Authorization Act poses a serious risk to the aviation safety and should be removed.”

“Army's helicopter fleet. The crash helicopter equipment was improperly installed and hadn't been working for more than 700 days. The Army never caught it. In fact, the helicopters in the battalion, 8 of 16, could not even transmit when required to do so because of maintenance failures.”

“Now, Mr. President, I rise today to urge my colleagues to continue to work on the affordable care issues that are facing our Nation. We know that we have to work together to address the Affordable Care Act and that the system needs to continue to have updates.”

“I would like to turn now before I get to healthcare, Mr. President, to come to the floor to speak about the National Defense Authorization Act. I see it was just delivered here from the House.”

“Mr. President, I have come to the floor tonight to talk about a few issues. Literally, I thought I was going to come and talk about healthcare and the need for us to come together to help reduce healthcare costs and to continue to fight to make sure Americans are covered because covering them helps reduce all our costs when you have the reduction of uncompensated care.”

“Mr. President, I come to the floor to speak on the 11:30 vote we are about to have. And I come because I want to speak against the effort to overturn the land management plan for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.”

“What is the Senator from Louisiana's interpretation of how the market controls the--you are trying to create a market mechanism where you are giving the consumer the same amount of money you would give them in the tax credits to make the insurance more affordable, only through a health savings account.”

“Well, if the Senator would yield for another question. I am assuming that you think affordability is the key. I certainly think affordability is the key. Nobody wants to subsidize expensive health insurance.”

“So I would say what we are trying to do is make people, as the market is out there, whole over the next year or two. That is exactly what we are trying to do.”

“Mr. President, I actually like good local journalism. I am going to fight as hard as I can in the U.S. Congress to keep local journalism and fight AI, that basically might obliterate it, for all intents and purposes.”

“Congress created the premium tax credit in 2014, as part of the Affordable Care Act, to lower health plan premium costs for eligible households. The American Rescue Plan in 2021 expanded who was eligible for the credit and the Inflation Reduction Act extended it to this year.”

“Mr. President, I rise to join my colleagues here on the floor tonight to talk about the importance of SNAP benefits. And I think you can see that what we don't need is more chaos.”

“So instead of coming to the table on meaningful negotiations, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are still refusing to address the high costs of food and the high costs of healthcare.”

“Mr. President, I hope that as we continue to talk about trade, that Congress will take the steps necessary to end tariffs on U.S. small businesses and American families.”

“Mr. President, I rise to ask the Senator from Oregon a question. I appreciate my Northwest colleague being here to bring attention to these important issues, and I--so much has transpired in the last few weeks, and so I just appreciate the fact that you are trying to bring part of the awareness.”

“Mr. President, if I could--the Senator from Oregon, if he had time for another question on this point. You know that the Pacific Northwest has a big export economy.”

“Mr. President, I believe every Senator knows and agrees that our constituents are concerned about the cost of healthcare. Just this morning, I heard some of my Republican colleagues also talking about healthcare affordability.”

“Mr. President, I know many of my constituents are contacting me about the rising cost of healthcare. I know that many of my colleagues are saying that they are being contacted about the rising cost of healthcare.”

“Mr. President, I appreciate my colleague from Wisconsin talking about her own healthcare experience and why those in Wisconsin want to see us take action to help keep insurance affordable.”

“So how did we get here? Why are Americans facing this looming threat? When the Affordable Care Act passed in 2010, the health insurance through Medicaid, the marketplace exchange was now available to millions of Americans.”

“Mr. President, I come to the floor today to remind everyone in the United States of America that we have a cleanup obligation at the Hanford Site in the State of Washington and to remind the Secretary of Energy and the Trump administration of a commitment to that part of the United States, to our Nation, and to the cleanup of the most contaminated nuclear site in our Nation.”

“When Secretary Wright testified in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, he said, ``Senator,'' speaking to me, ``I can't overstate how critical I think it is to finish the job, finish the cleanup at Hanford.”

“Mr. President, I rise today to acknowledge the passing of a friend, a great Washingtonian, Bill Neukom--one of the most thoughtful and caring human beings I have had the pleasure of working with and knowing.”

“Mr. President, while we are waiting for our colleague to come, if I could make remarks. My colleague, I so appreciate Senator Murray and Leader Schumer out here speaking on these important issues.”

“Mr. President, I rise to join my colleagues. I want to thank the Senator from Illinois for helping to organize this today. I thank my colleague from Oregon and my dear colleagues from the Commerce Committee Senator Welch and Senator Baldwin.”

“Mr. President, I rise to speak about President Trump's costly trade policies and the damage that it is causing American manufacturers, businesses, and a family budget. Tariffs will cost an average household at least $2,300 in the year 2025.”

“Mr. President, I come to the floor to speak in opposition to the nomination of Bryan Bedford to serve as the FAA Administrator--the Federal Aviation Administration. Everyone knows that the FAA is at a critical point in its history.”

“Mr. President, I stand with my Idaho colleagues. This is a very tight-knit community between Washington and Idaho. Many Washington police and responders participated in yesterday's activities. Our hearts go out to the people of Idaho.”

“Mr. President, I rise to ask my colleagues to turn down this legislation in front of us--to reject it and instead work together on fiscal policy that would help us by growing our economy more successfully and not devastating for our constituents.”

“Mr. President, their letter I would like to read from is really about this point I was trying to make about fighting China. I mean, I thought we were here to be competitive against them, to basically beat them in a race on innovation, just like we did with CHIPS and Science to try to move for the future.”

“Mr. President, I introduced the Promoting Resilient Supply Chains Act, S. 257, with Senators Blackburn and Blunt Rochester to mitigate or prevent disruptions of critical supply chains that could have a devastating impact on the U.S. economy.”

“Thank you, Senator Wyden, I agree with you and will work with you and our House colleagues to incorporate these changes into the bill as the legislative process moves forward.”

“Mr. President, I rise today to urge my colleagues, my Republican colleagues, to reverse course on their proposal that would take affordable healthcare away from the many patients across the United States who will suffer, I believe, financial strain and the financial strain will be put on the rest of us in our healthcare system.”

“For an ACA market plan, a 60-year-old couple making $85,000 a year who want to keep the same plan could see their annual premiums increase--and these are numbers according to the Center for American Progress--and you could even see the cost of an annual premium increase by as much as $15,000 a year.”

“Mr. President, I rise to express my concerns about reports that President Trump is going to again extend the deadline for getting TikTok out of the control of ByteDance and the Chinese Government--concern because that means that, again, we are going to allow this national security issue to fester and to continue on, maybe for several more months.”

“Mr. President, I am here too to focus on some history and a resolution. Today is the 95th anniversary of one of the worst economic policies our country ever made: the Smoot-Hawley tariffs.”

“Mr. President, I thank my colleagues for coming to the floor to remember this horrific shooting in their State and to remember those and the family ones who were affected by this.”

“Mr. President, I come to the floor to join my colleagues to express outrage over the actions taking place in Los Angeles when our dear colleague Alex Padilla, Senator Padilla, was thrown out of an event where he was just simply trying to express his opinion on behalf of the millions of Californians that he represents.”

“Mr. President, I come to the floor to talk about the action that we are seeing in the House of Representatives today that will lead to action here in the Senate and asking our colleagues to reverse course on this reconciliation bill that I think is going to have unbelievable economic consequences to our economy.”

“Mr. President, I rise today to urge my colleagues to oppose any proposals to take healthcare coverage away from the American people who need it most. Today, the House Energy and Commerce Committee is marking up a section of what is called their budget reconciliation bill, which would reduce spending by $912 billion over 10 years.”

“Mr. President, I come here today to urge my colleagues to vote no on the nomination of Mark Meador to be the FTC Commissioner. But before I do that, I did want to take a moment and talk about today's actions that happened when the President created a 90-day pause on the tariffs, taking the temperature down a bit.”

“Mr. President, I come to the floor with my colleagues today to echo concerns about the budget process that is pursuing here related to a proposal that we will be voting on that I am not sure I understand the math.”

“Mr. President, I rise today to speak about the important role that Congress plays in ensuring our economy remains strong, and very important for the American people, to lower costs.”

“I so appreciate the Senator from New Jersey trying to articulate the urgency of this moment. I know you have discussed many things over the last I don't know how many hours it is, but it has been many, many hours.”

“So my constituent, who they basically said was dead, was not dead. He wanted his Social Security. So not only did they not give him his check in January, they tried to claw back checks from the previous months out of his bank account.”

“I thank the Senator from New Jersey. The issue that I think is not being illuminated enough is the sheer numbers here. In my State of Washington, 1.4 million people are on Social Security and 1.8 million people are on Medicaid.”

“Mr. President, before I go to my remarks, I wanted to thank the Senator from Mississippi for that fabulous statement. I really do appreciate his leadership. I am pretty sure your father served in World War II, as did my father.”

“Mr. President, I come to the floor this morning to speak in opposition to the nomination of Steven Bradbury. He is nominated to be the Deputy Secretary of Transportation.”

“Mr. President, I rise to support Senator Cruz in our efforts here to pass the Coast Guard bill. Chairman Cruz and I worked diligently on this bill in the last Congress with many of our colleagues.”

“Mr. President, I rise to speak today on important public policy issues related to my State's economy and appreciate the opportunity to follow our senior Senator, Senator Murray, who is articulating the impact of some of these so important public policy issues on the State of Washington.”

“Mr. President, starting last week, the Trump administration began firing hundreds of Federal Aviation Administration employees. Today, we had a hearing in the Commerce Committee to talk about what kind of a key Deputy Secretary we need at the DOT, and we asked questions about this.”

“Mr. President, I come to the floor today to talk about the nomination of the President's nominee to run the Department of Commerce, an Agency that is charged with a broad mission and a lot of complex issues that affect many sectors of our economy.”

“So it is fair to say that if the Commerce Secretary doesn't get it right, the American people and our American economy pay the price. Unfortunately, I believe that Howard Lutnick, the President's nominee, isn't the right person for this job at this point in time.”

“Mr. President, I rise to share my deep concerns about entrusting our Nation's ability to respond to another pandemic, our world leading medical innovation infrastructure, the ability of women in my State to choose a medical abortion, and continued research for healthcare of millions of Americans, putting that in the hands of the HHS Secretary nominee, Robert F.”

“Mr. President, I join my colleagues--I thank the Senator from Nevada for her great comments in articulating why we want to have a budget process here that recognizes the U.S.”

“Madam President, I come to the floor to talk about export strategies, collaboration, and American principles. Madam President, no one likes to be left behind. I know somewhere people think there is this, ``I win, you lose,'' mentality.”

“Mr. President, I rise today to speak about TikTok, which I think all people here know that we have been having a lot of attention about--a lot of debate, a lot of discussion, and a lot of action by the Supreme Court.”

“In further information, the Director of the CIA, William Burns, indicated that ByteDance can use the private data of American TikTok users to shape TikTok content to suit the interests of the Chinese Government.”

“Mr. President, I rise today in opposition to this deceptively named Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act. Tomorrow is the 52nd anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the decision that guaranteed fundamental rights to choose abortion before that right was stripped away.”