I think people in every single State care about access to healthcare. Now, I came to the Senate in 2009, and in that year, we decided to make a major effort to fill in huge holes in our healthcare system. Well, we had Medicaid for the…

nobody in our country should be above the law--not a politician, not a celebrity, not a billionaire--no one. The principle of ``equal justice under the law'' is so powerful that if you walk outside these doors and you look across to the…

Following the attacks on October 7, 2023, Israel had every right to go after Hamas, but how they do so matters. Indiscriminate bombing with massive casualties, women and children, is horrific, completely unacceptable. Blocking food and…

on July 1, 2025, the Senate passed H.R. 1, which is nothing more than one big, beautiful, betrayal for Americans across the country. This bill slashes healthcare for 17 million Americans by gutting Medicaid and dismantling the Affordable…

Colleagues, a bipartisan story: In 1984, four Senators came together to reduce the risk of war. All four were veterans of World War II: two Republicans--Mark Hatfield, a Navy lieutenant, and Ted Stevens, Army Air Corps pilot; and two…

My colleagues from Wisconsin and Michigan have spoken to the destructive nature of this rescission because of the programs that will be canceled midstream. I have seen, so often, the power of our international aid programs in assisting in…

We need guardrails that ensure that government officials aren't openly asking people to buy their coins in order to increase their personal profit or their family's profit.

Where are those guardrails in this bill? They're completely, totally absent.

Mr. Markey moves to commit the bill H.R. 1 to the Committee on Finance of the Senate with instructions to report the same back to the Senate in 3 days, not counting any day on which the Senate is not in session, with changes that-- (1) are…

You saw the billionaires lined up behind him at the inauguration, that’s who he’s working for.

There’s something here that everyone should notice. We are slipping into a strong man state where the president has such an acquiescent Republican caucus that they’re doing this crazy policy hurting America, hurting the next generation…

It’s not just over this bill. It’s also over preventing America from losing its architecture of its Constitution, separation of powers so that we can have government by and for the people, not government by and for the powerful.

this is very dangerous for the separation of powers, the checks and balances.

I rise today to cut any part of this ``Big Ugly Bill'' that would force rural hospitals to limit their services or actually close their doors. I have released a list of more than 300 rural hospitals across the country at risk of closing or…

this amendment is about defending the integrity of the legislative process. Every now and then, a new strategy creates either the appearance of a conflict of interest or a real conflict of interest. That is the case with elected officials…

In the time that you were Budget chair, did you ever contemplate a situation in which you argued that renewing a tax break that was by law expiring would somehow have no impact on the deficit?

So I find two things very interesting. They are saying, if something was in the law that they passed in 2017 and it expires, they are pretending it doesn't expire and that, therefore, extending it doesn't cost anything. But in their own…

Well, I must say, my impression is--and I hope the Senator will correct me if I am wrong--that the Republicans are embarrassed by the fact that they are proposing a bill that creates over $3 trillion in debt in 10 years and over $30…

No, they were not. In fact, that power has never been used on a reconciliation bill because the following section, 313, gives very specific instructions. It says each provision must be costed out for its impact on both outlays, the…

In 1974, 100 Senators agreed on reconciliation as a fast track, filibuster-free, but only for one purpose: reducing the deficit. It had three pillars: first, reduce the deficit over a 10-year period; second, reduce the deficit in each and…

We are here to address a fundamental violation of the law--of section 313--the Senate rules for reconciliation. To try to summarize this in the simplest words possible, 100 Senators voted to have a special fast-track, filibuster-free…

I have come tonight to the floor to talk about fiscal responsibility and how important it is that we preserve or, at least, advance a structure in which we engage with integrity in budgeting, so we don't run up massive debts that affect…

Democrats are continuing to make the case against every provision in this Big, Beautiful Betrayal of a bill that violates Senate rules and hurts families and workers.

over the decades, there is a lot of conversation here in the Senate about deficits and debt. And every now and then, there is a significant bipartisan effort to take on that challenge in a responsible way. But the biggest historic…

when I was in grade school, my dad, the mechanic, would point to the schoolhouse doors and say: Son, if you go through those doors and you work hard, you can do almost anything because we are so fortunate to live here in the United States…