UNANIMOUS CONSENT REQUEST--S. 4791

On 2026-06-16, Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA) delivered a floor speech titled "UNANIMOUS CONSENT REQUEST--S. 4791" in the Senate.

UNANIMOUS CONSENT REQUEST--S. 4791

Congressional Record, Volume 172 Issue 101 (Tuesday, June 16, 2026) [Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 101 (Tuesday, June 16, 2026)] [Senate] [Pages S2807-S2809] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] UNANIMOUS CONSENT REQUEST--S. 4791 Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, we are going to speak on eliminating Trump's slush fund. Now, the only way--the only way--to ensure Trump's $2 billion taxpayer-funded MAGA slush fund and his family's sweetheart tax fraud deal with the IRS--the only way we are going to ensure that they never see the light of day is to ban them permanently by law. Republicans need to stop playing dumb and realize Trump has absolutely zero intention to table his slush fund. Just listen to him. Just this month, Trump said: Personally, I think the weaponization fund is a great idea, and so do many other Republicans. ``So do many other Republicans.'' I repeat. Trump said: I think the weaponization fund is a great idea, and so do many other Republicans. I invite Republicans to prove Trump wrong, support this bill, outlaw this corruption, say it is a terrible idea on the floor so that we can eliminate it permanently, once and for all. Republicans have passed up opportunity after opportunity to ban these corrupt cash handouts for Trump, his billionaire friends, and his cop- beating January 6 insurrectionists. That is what he wants to do, Americans. Instead of using money to reduce your healthcare costs, instead of using money to reduce your electric costs, your housing costs, your food costs, he wants to give it to his corrupt friends and probably, somehow, to himself. Will Republicans listen to the empty promises of Trump's personal fixer, Todd Blanche, or to the outraged cries of the American people, who despise--despise--this corruption? Will Republicans help Trump and family cheat on their taxes or will they stand up for American taxpayers? Will Republicans funnel billions of dollars to Trump, MAGA billionaires, cop beaters, convicted criminals; or will they work with Democrats to lower costs for working families? That is the question before us today, plain and simple. Trump's slush fund, [[Page S2808]] his permission slip for tax fraud, and his nonstop grifting are a running tally of corruption's cost and proof that Trump hasn't drained the swamp; he has just slapped a pool liner on it. In short, Trump isn't draining the swamp. He is swimming in it, and he likes it. So, Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. 4791, submitted earlier today. Further, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read three times and passed, and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there an objection? The Senator from Tennessee. Mr. HAGERTY. Yes, there is, Mr. President. Reserving the right to object, the President made clear that he would not seek any compensation from the anti-weaponization fund, and, for my own part, I have made it clear that I won't seek any compensation from the anti-weaponization fund. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, under oath, has said: We are not moving forward with the fund, period. Why is that not enough for my colleagues from across the aisle? Because they have a deeper and much darker motive. They want to erase the Biden Justice Department's unprecedented weaponization by abolishing every means of holding it accountable. I am not going to stand for it. Has there ever been a more systematic effort to surveil and oppress the political operation of a sitting President's opponents than under Joe Biden? We all know the answer. In fact, my esteemed colleague from Iowa Chairman Grassley has called it ``arguably worse than Watergate.'' The Biden DOJ's Arctic Frost Operation involved a taxpayer-funded army of lawyers obtaining financial information on over 400 individuals and groups that happened to support President Trump in the 2020 election. Yet, despite serious internal concerns and objections that were raised within the DOJ that this wasn't a proper basis for a search, President Trump's home was raided, at Mar-a-Lago, in a made-for-TV operation. This witch hunt extended even to the halls of the U.S. Senate. By now, everyone is familiar with how the Biden DOJ subpoenaed the records of eight Republican Senators--myself included--specifically because of conversations that we had in anticipation of a vote that was coming up on this matter. That is a serious affront to congressional privileges, and it was a clear violation of the Constitution's speech or debate clause. Did the Constitution matter to the Biden DOJ or to their allies at Verizon? It seems not. The Biden DOJ and Verizon violated the constitutional rights of numerous Republican Senators. Several of my staff were among those with the temerity to serve in the Trump administration. Without any reason to think they were involved in any wrongdoing, members of my staff were subpoenaed, they were forced to hire counsel, and they were subjected to depositions. The costs can be ruinous. As my staff was tortured, I saw firsthand how the process was the punishment. Think about it. If you could ruin someone's financial future, there is no need to prove them guilty. If you can set an example that working in a Republican administration will get you put on a ``do not hire'' list by left-leaning law firms or make you the target of taxpayer-funded investigations by a Democrat-controlled and weaponized DOJ, then you achieve another chilling objective--that is suppression. Democrats in the last administration weren't satisfied with targeting Republican officials and staffers; they went even further. To take just one example, the DOJ under President Biden brought its enormous power to bear on the groups it hates the most. In my home State, that was pro-life demonstrators. Yes, that is right. When violent crime had skyrocketed in American cities across the Nation, the Biden DOJ devoted precious resources to criminally prosecuting peaceful pro-life demonstrators in my home State of Nashville, TN. They were letting go criminal illegal aliens, who would strike again, just so they could prosecute those whose politics they disagreed with. What a disgrace. My colleagues across the aisle are simply trying to cover up and sweep under the rug the fact that the Department of Justice under President Biden became a tool to destroy his political opponents. Just so there is no mistake, this is far from the first political controversy involving the DOJ's settlement authority. I won't recount all of the instances in which the Biden or Obama administration used DOJ settlement funds to funnel billions of dollars to their pet projects. Needless to say, my Democrat colleagues apparently saw no problem with that. Indeed, not a single Democrat ever cosponsored the Stop Settlement Slush Funds Act in the 114th Congress, in the 115th Congress, nor in the 117th or the 118th Congress. Yet now, when any victim of the Biden DOJ's weaponization might actually receive some recompense--well, now, they have found religion. And even that is an overstatement. Today's bill is different in the worst way from Republicans' previous efforts to constrain the DOJ's settlement authority. This proposal by the minority leader isn't an evenhanded proposal that would constrain Presidents of both parties moving forward; it would solely invalidate a single settlement agreement involving specific parties. This treads dangerously close to the Constitution's prohibitions against ex post facto laws and retroactive legislation, and I have serious concerns that it violates the Fifth Amendment's due process clause. I can't stand for this unconstitutional, hypocritical bill; therefore, I object. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The objection is heard. The Democratic leader. Mr. SCHUMER. My colleague from Tennessee talked about things being swept under the rug. Nothing--nothing--sweeps under the rug this statement of Donald Trump's: Personally, I think the weaponization fund is a great idea, and so do many other Republicans. He is going to do it unless we stop it. The objection is so unfortunate. It allows Trump to continue with his slush fund. I yield the floor to my colleague from California. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from California. Mr. PADILLA. Mr. President, this past January 6, I introduced a bill we titled the ``No Rewards for January 6 Rioters Act'' because, as we knew, as we saw just last year, one of the very first things Donald Trump did when he came back into office was to issue pardons for every person convicted of crimes connected to the January 6 insurrection-- people convicted in a court of law by a jury of their peers for trying to not just subvert an election and the peaceful transfer of power but by assaulting Congress itself, assaulting Capitol Police officers, threatening to hang the then-Vice President of the United States. But we know that abuse of power, these pardons, were just the beginning. Since then, there has been an active campaign to raid taxpayer funds to reward those who stormed and ransacked the Capitol. So I for one was not surprised when Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced a corrupt settlement to create a $1.8 billion slush fund for Donald Trump to reward the perpetrators of the January 6 attacks. And I hope you all noticed--because it doesn't happen very often--that the outrage, the pushback on this fund was bipartisan. Many in Congress on both sides of the aisle viewed it as an unacceptable abuse of power. As a result, Mr. Blanche has testified to Congress that the fund is ``dead.'' But in the court proceedings, he, the Department, and the President refused to put it in writing. No one has been willing to confirm under penalty of perjury that the fund will never go forward. Why? What are they holding back on? Now making matters worse, the President is still using this corrupt

Referenced legislation: S4791, S4791