PRIVILEGES OF THE FLOOR

On 2025-03-31, Senator Cory A. Booker (D-NJ) delivered a floor speech titled "PRIVILEGES OF THE FLOOR" in the Senate. The speech addressed healthcare and also covered taxes, foreign policy. It referenced legislation including S1931, S1959, S1932.

PRIVILEGES OF THE FLOOR

Congressional Record, Volume 171 Issue 57 (Monday, March 31, 2025) [Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 57 (Monday, March 31, 2025)] [Senate] [Pages S1931-S1959] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] PRIVILEGES OF THE FLOOR Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that DeNay Adams, Quentin Mansfield, Victoria Esparza, and Kelsey Handschuh be granted floor privileges until April 3, 2025. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. Mr. WICKER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the following law clerks on Senator Capito's staff be granted floor privileges until April 4, 2025: Camryn Runyon, Megan Banke, and Harry Kazenoff. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Jersey. Trump Administration Mr. BOOKER. Mr. President, I am really grateful you are in the Chair and grateful to be able to rise right now and speak. I want to say at the top that I have a tremendous love for this institution, and a lot of that is born from the people that are here-- from the pages I get to know in every class, to the folks that work the door, the clerks, the Parliamentarians. It is a special place, and a lot of people who are known here are not the ones that really keep this place functioning. I come in here days and I have good moods or bad moods but always find myself lifted when I walk onto this floor. It is a sacred civic space. It is extraordinary. And I am always aware of the weight of history when I walk in here. No matter a good day, bad day, whether I am in a rush or not, when I touch the Senate floor, I feel something really magnificent. I don't think that our Founders would have ever imagined a body like this with Black people on both sides of the aisle, with women serving here, with folks from many different backgrounds. We are in many ways doing what the Founders had envisioned, which was this idea of every generation making this a more perfect Union. [[Page S1932]] But there have been times in this journey where our Union was in crisis and was in peril. There were times in this great American journey, over our 250 years, where so many heroes had to emerge, people that I have come to revere, like Joshua Chamberlain from Maine, who played such a pivotal role in the Battle of Gettysburg. What a noble soul he was. He would later go on to be Governor of his State and go on to do great things, but his heroism lay that in a time of crisis, he stood up. I know there are veterans in this body--I admire them so much--who have answered that call to serve our country and put their lives in sacrifice. There are people I admire that are heroes of mine that were suffragettes. There were people who fought as abolitionists. There are people more recently that I have come to lionize and admire because they did so much for this country--not with titles, not with high ranks or positions, but folks who, when this country was facing crossroads, was facing crises, they stood up. They spoke up. One of my greatest heroes of life was a man I got to serve with named John Lewis. I served with him while in this body. Every opportunity I had, I would ask him about the times when he was just a 20-something. He was the youngest person who was a feature speaker on the March on Washington. He was called the bravest man in the civil rights movement because he kept putting himself in harm's way to dramatize, to let folks know, to bring attention to the injustices in this world and to say very strongly that this--what was going on in our country--is not normal, that what is going on in our country is wrong. I stand on this floor as a U.S. Senator, but I revere people who never stood on this floor; people who, before they even got to their thirties and forties and fifties in life, were out there as great patriots fighting for this Nation. I rise today in an unusual manner, and I want to be clear and explain that. But I just want to tell you what John Lewis said. It is a quote so many people know. He really spoke not to Members of the Senate or the Congress; he was really speaking to Americans. He said: Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and help redeem the soul of America. John Lewis died in 2020, in July, at a time that--it was Donald Trump's first term in office. He did what Congresspeople did, but he also did some really extraordinary things to fight for healthcare. My friend Chris Murphy knows about that. He was there when John Lewis did an open Facebook chat--not in this Chamber or the House Chamber; he sat on the steps, and people were there. I remember when he did a sit- in. They had to shut the cameras off him. He got in good trouble on the House side too. So I start tonight thinking about him. I have been thinking about him a lot during these last 71 days--``Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and help redeem the soul of America,'' and I had to ask myself, if he is my hero, how am I living up to his words? I think Democrats and Republicans have made a lot of mistakes. No side has a monopoly on the truth. No side has been perfect servants of this country. But what has happened in the last 71 days is a patent demonstration of a time where John Lewis's call to everyone has, I think, become more urgent and more pressing. If I think it is a call for our country, I have to ask myself, how I am living these words? So tonight, I rise with the intention of getting in some good trouble. I rise with the intention of disrupting the normal business of the U.S. Senate for as long as I am physically able. I rise tonight because I believe sincerely that our country is in crisis. And I believe that not in a partisan sense because so many of the people that have been reaching out to my office in pain, in fear, having their lives upended--so many of them identify themselves as Republicans. Indeed, in conversations from in this body, to in this building, to across my State, and recently in travel across the country, Republicans as well as Democrats are talking to me about what they feel is a sense of dread about a growing crisis or what they point to about what is going wrong. The bedrock commitments in our country that both sides rely on--that people from all backgrounds rely on--those bedrock commitments are being broken. Unnecessary hardships are being borne by Americans of all backgrounds. Institutions which are special in America, which are precious, which are unique in our country, are being recklessly--and I would even say unconstitutionally--affected, attacked, even shattered. In just 71 days, the President of the United States has inflicted so much harm on Americans' safety, financial stability, the core foundations of our democracy, and even our aspirations as a people from our highest offices, a sense of common decency. These are not normal times in America, and they should not be treated as such. John Lewis and so many heroes before us would say that this is the time to stand up, to speak up. This is the time to get in some good trouble, to get into necessary trouble. I can't allow this body to continue without doing something different, speaking out. The threats to American people and American democracy are grave and urgent, and we all must do more. We all must do more against them. But those 10 words--``If it is to be, it is up to me''--all of us have to think of those 10 words, those 10 two-letter words--``If it is to be, it is up to me''--because I believe generations from now will look back at this moment and have a single question: Where were you? Where were you when our country was in crisis and when American people were asking for help: Help me. Help me. Did we speak up? When 73 million American seniors who rely on Social Security were to have that promise mocked, attacked, and then to have the services undermined, to be told ``There will be no one there to answer if you call for help''; when our seniors became afraid and worried and panicked because of the menacing words of their President, of the most wealthy person in the world, of Cabinet Secretaries, did we speak up? When the American economy, in 71 days--71 days--has been upended; when prices at the grocery store were skyrocketing and the stock market was plunging; when pension funds, 401(k)s were going down; when Americans were hurting and looking up; when the resounding answer to this question was no--are you better off economically than you were 71 days ago?--where were you? Did you speak up at a time when the President of the United States was launching trade wars against our closest allies, when he was firing regulators who investigate America's biggest banks and biggest corporations to stop them from taking advantage of the little guy or the little gal or my grandmother or your grandfather, dismantling the Agency that protects consumers from fraud--the only one whose sole purpose is to look out for them? Did you speak up when the President of the United States, in a way that is so crass and craven, peddled his own meme coin and made millions upon millions upon millions of dollars for his own bank account at a time so many are struggling economically? Did you speak up when the President of the United States did what amounts to a car commercial for the richest man in the world right in front of America's house, the White House? When the President tried to take healthcare away, where were you? Did you speak up? Threatening a program called Medicaid that helps people with disabilities, helps expectant mothers, helps millions upon millions of Americans. And why? Why? As a part of a larger plan to pay for tax cuts for the wealthiest amongst us who have done the best over the last 20 years, for billionaires that seem so close to the President that they sat right on the dais at his inauguration and sit in his Cabinet meetings at the White House. Did you speak up when he gutted public education, slashed funds for pediatric cancer r