What Pete Ricketts said, and what was done

“Mr. President, we have a drug problem in this country today, and right now, there is an industry that is targeting our children with look-alike products with intoxicating levels of THC.”

“We have seen, since 2016 to 2023, the number of THC poisonings of children under 5 go up 10 times and the number of hospitalizations of children under 5 go up 3 times.”

“Mr. President, integrity; integrity inspires confidence, and the reverse is true. If there is a perception of lack of integrity, it undermines confidence. We have a problem here in the Congress: 80 percent of Americans believe that we do not do a good job of separating our financial interests from the insider information that we receive as part of our jobs.”

“Now, the insider trading act has real teeth to it. It says that you cannot buy stock, and if you own stock already when you come into the Congress, you can only sell it on 7 to 14 days' notice.”

“Mr. President, what we were just attempting to do was to pass it with unanimous consent. That means all 100 Senators agree that we can move forward on H.R. 7008, which includes the Stop Insider Trading Act and the voter ID.”

“Mr. President, integrity--integrity inspires confidence. We have a problem here in the Senate and in the House: 80 percent of Americans believe we do a poor job of keeping our financial interests separate from the insider information that we have.”

“Mr. President, people generally in this country--and Nebraskans in particular--expect when they send their elected officials to Washington, DC, that they are going to serve the communities. Sadly, that belief that we are coming here is undermined by some of our policies that we have.”

“Mr. President, I rise today to talk about our colleague Lindsey Graham, who tragically passed away last weekend. Lindsey Graham was the definition of the word ``patriot.'' He loved this country and dedicated his life to serving this country.”

“Mr. President, our country was founded on the belief that all Americans have the right to pursue life, liberty, and happiness. It is fundamental to who we are as Americans, and these are the building blocks of the American dream.”

“Charles Schwab has said he will match the government's $1,000 with another $1,000 for all the people who work at his company. These are just a couple of examples of how philanthropists are working together with the U.S.”

“Mr. President, Nebraska is the best place in the world. Nebraska is where Americans want to be. And just recently, U.S. News just said Omaha, our largest city, is the second best place in the country for recent college grads.”

“Act; Rural Housing Service Reform Act, which I am a cosponsor of. All of these are included here to be able to help us cut the regulatory redtape, make housing more affordable, and be able to help reduce the costs for Nebraskans and Americans across the country.”

“So I encourage my Senate colleagues to take a look at this to be able to work with my colleagues like my senior Senator from the State of Nebraska to be able to find common ground to get this passed.”

“Mr. President, 75 years ago, the voice of rural Nebraska made its debate on air. Broadcasting from Lexington, NE, farm families officially had a voice--KRVN. KRVN doesn't just cover rural Nebraska, though; it belongs to rural Nebraska.”

“Mr. President, I rise today to talk about the benefits of renewable fuels. My State of Nebraska is a leader in renewable fuels. We have 24 ethanol plants, for example, to create 2.2 billion gallons of ethanol.”

“Mr. President, I am proud to represent the great State of Nebraska. Agriculture is our No. 1 industry in Nebraska. I am also proud to represent our farmers and ranchers, who are the best in the world.”

“Mr. President, my home State of Nebraska is currently experiencing a natural disaster of unprecedented proportions for our State. We are experiencing the largest wildfires since Nebraska became a State.”

“Mr. President, I rise today to honor and remember a great Nebraskan. Noah Tietjens was killed by the Islamic Republic of Iran in Operation Epic Fury. As a young man, he joined the military to protect and serve our Nation, and he gave his last full measure of devotion after serving nearly two decades in protecting our country.”

“Mr. President, in the last several weeks, we have witnessed some terrible tragedies in Minnesota that involved law enforcement operations and the loss of life. We should all continue to pray for the families of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.”

“Mr. President, I rise today to note that the House, earlier today, passed a series of appropriations bills that will now be sent to the President's desk that will allow us to continue to fund our Agencies.”

“In 2025, the deficit had declined by 9 percent. Now, we still have a long way to go. We have to get that spending under control, and that is why this appropriations process is so important.”

“Mr. President, earlier today, we heard about an offer from the minority leader. It shows just how unserious he and the Democrats are. That offer is full of horse hockey.”

“The government is shut down today, and the responsibility lies squarely on the minority leader and the Democrats. In fact, you can call it his shutdown. Republicans have offered a clean continuing resolution that would keep government open to allow us to continue working on the appropriations process, and my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have called foul.”

“Mr. President, 13 years ago, an inspired and patriotic 18-year-old by the name of Charlie Kirk launched a political organization. He wanted to identify, train, and organize students to engage in American politics.”

“Now, Mr. President, I would like to say a prayer not just for Charlie but for our entire country. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.”

“Mr. President, I rise today to talk about the loss of a man who had a great impact on the city of Chicago, the Chicago Cubs, and my family.”

“Madam President, Iran cannot be allowed to have a nuclear weapon. This has been a redline for decades, going back to President Clinton. The reason is because the results would be catastrophic.”

“Mr. President, I appreciate my colleague from Idaho's remarks because they are spot-on with regard to what is going on here. Under previous administrations like the Obama administration and the Biden administration, the strategy was to try to buy off Iran, to try to give them enough money to be our friend.”

“Mr. President, reserving the right to object, my esteemed colleague from Kentucky has argued that we should pursue diplomacy, and, indeed, the Trump administration is pursuing diplomacy. However, the path he is arguing for right now was tried by the last administration and failed miserably.”

“Mr. President, reserving the right to object, I echo my colleague from Arkansas' comments with regard to TikTok. Let's recall that in communist China, there really isn't such a thing as a private company, as much as ByteDance might want to say it is.”

“Mr. President, I rise today to join my colleagues in talking about the fentanyl crisis that Joe Biden created in our country. Joe Biden had 4 years of open border policies.”

“And we saw the impact in Nebraska. In 2019, law enforcement in Nebraska took 46 pills--just 46 pills--laced with fentanyl off of our streets. But after Joe Biden got elected, in just the first 6 months of 2021, that number jumped to 151,000 pills.”

“Mr. President, I want to thank my colleagues who yesterday voted to proceed on my Congressional Review Act to undo the eleventh-hour regulation that the Biden administration put through the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that would have greatly expanded the powers of the CFPB to start regulating payment systems as opposed to just the banking system that it was really designed to do.”

“Mr. President, I rise today in strong support of the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act. This act will protect our daughters and granddaughters and keep the original meaning of title IX that was meant to help protect girls and promote females in sports.”

“Mr. President, following their election loss, the Biden-Harris administration rushed an eleventh-hour rule through the Federal Government to allow the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to start regulating nonbank entities, specifically, around digital consumer payment systems.”

“Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask that it stand adjourned under the previous order following the remarks of my colleagues.”

“Mr. President, I rise today to talk about the Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act that we voted on earlier in this Chamber. The International Criminal Court was created to hold accountable war criminals, for example, in countries that did not have a system of justice, did not have the rule of law, and were incapable of holding those people accountable.”

“Mr. President, President Biden's open border policies have created a national security, humanitarian, and drug catastrophe in our country. In 2023, law enforcement encounters at the border found 169 people on the FBI's Terrorist Watchlist.”

“Reserving the right to object. The Chinese Communist Party is our chief foreign adversary in the world and the only external existential threat to our Nation. They threaten our freedom, our prosperity, our security, and our very way of life.”

“As many as 150 million Americans use TikTok. Fifty-two percent of them say they regularly get news through TikTok, and we know that the CCP uses TikTok to slant the news.”

“I just want to briefly build upon my colleague from Arkansas. Two quick points: One, our colleague from Massachusetts has called this a TikTok ban. That is inaccurate.”

“Mr. President, I rise today to compliment my esteemed colleague from Iowa, who is the founding member of the DOGE Caucus, as well as Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy for their effort to be able to create the Department of Government Efficiency.”