During remarks on the Senate floor Wednesday, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) spoke about the Judicial Relief Clarification Act.
Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:
https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript
Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com
Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:
https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript
Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00dispense with the quorum call. Without objection. Thank you Madam President. In
00:05our Constitutional Republic, the President represents the will of we, the
00:12people. He does this more than any other elected official in this country because
00:21alongside the Vice President, he is the only officeholder who is elected by the
00:27entire nation, state by state. And in November, the American people gave
00:35President Trump a powerful mandate to secure the border, lower inflation, rein
00:43in spending, restore our standing in the world, and usher in what he terms is a
00:52new golden age for America. And to be certain, the administration is seeing a
00:59lot of success and the American people are very pleased with what he has done.
01:06However, on many fronts, the Trump agenda has been held up in court, not for
01:13legitimate legal reasons, but because activist judges want to block as many
01:18actions by this administration as they possibly can. In the last two months
01:25alone, judges issued more injunctions, and in February that was 15, against
01:35President Trump than they did against President Biden in his entire four years.
01:42There were 14 against him. Now, these judges are not issuing rulings on small
01:50details in narrow cases. They are trying to stop policies at the heart of
01:58President Trump's America First agenda. What we know that the American people,
02:06and indeed, Tennesseans whom I represent, what they want to see is a government
02:14that is going to be transparent, a government that is going to be
02:17accountable, a government that will be a good steward of their money. But activists
02:28on the left can't get what they want at the ballot box. They lost on November 5th.
02:36They lost, and they can't accept that. They can't get what they want legislatively.
02:43They don't have the votes. The American people said, we're tired of leftist DEI,
02:57ESG policies. We're tired of two tiers of justice. We're tired of seeing waste,
03:05fraud, and abuse in the government, reporting it, and the bureaucracy does nothing.
03:12Zip. Zero. Nada. They're tired of that. And they are pleased with the actions that
03:24are being taken by this administration to hold the bureaucracy to account.
03:30Not for just what is some of what they're doing, but for every single penny that they
03:40are spending and every decision that they are making. Now, as I said, we've got those
03:47on the left. They can't get what they want at the ballot box. They can't get what they
03:52want legislatively. They're looking at governors and state legislators who are
03:58not giving them what they want, which is control and power over the American people.
04:07But that is what the American people are saying, oh no, we're not going to let you have that.
04:14So what have our colleagues on the left decided to do? Well, there is one branch of government
04:23that is left for them to try to go in and say, you do it for us. We have failed. We
04:32can't get it legislatively. We can't win these elections, but we're going to count on you.
04:39And that is the judiciary. So what we have seen, and what is troubling
04:46so many Tennesseans, is activist judges that are on the bench, but all of a sudden they're
04:57trying to act like they're Supreme Court justices. They're trying to act like they have the authority
05:03to take down the decisions and actions of a president who is delivering what the American
05:13people want. So our colleagues and friends on the left are now depending on the judiciary to
05:21rescue them. To rescue them. They've failed because they are wrong. And the American people
05:34said, we're not with you. So now we have these judges. They're stepping up. They're a district
05:45judge. Now what we know is this. A district judge has a case before him. His decision, or her
05:56decision, applies to that case. And it applies to the district in which that judge is seated. But
06:06oh no, these activists on the court, they've decided they're going to make nationwide injunctions to
06:15try to stop some of President Trump's policies, which as I said, are policies the American people
06:23have said, we want to see this done. It's like cutting down the size of the federal bureaucracy.
06:32The American people are loving what Doge is doing, but the leftists go to a district judge out in,
06:41of all places, San Francisco, and they have that judge issue an order to block what the president
06:54is doing. So this district judge out in San Francisco, the left coast appropriately named,
07:05directed the administration to rehire thousands of terminated bureaucrats. Tennesseans and a lot
07:14of Americans also want a government that spends taxpayer dollars responsibly because we have 36
07:23trillion dollars in debt. 36 trillion dollars in debt. Now the Department of Government Efficiency
07:34or DOGE has already found north of 140 billion dollars in waste and fraud. They've identified
07:44and we are working to save this money for the taxpayers. But here again, the left can't pass
07:53what they want on the floor of the Senate or the floor of the House. So they go to the judiciary
07:59and they say, you stop them because we can't get enough of the taxpayer money. We want more of it
08:07and we want to shove it out the door to leftist NGOs and organizations and nonprofits. We want
08:16that money so we can waste it the way we want to waste it. Now that is in essence what they are
08:25saying. They want the power and the authority to waste your money. That's what the Democrats are
08:35working for. Well, DOGE is working for the people. For the people and go pick up those founding
08:47documents. People. We. The people. It is in caps. It is in caps. But see what happens with the
09:02bureaucracy? The people stand up to be the people and all of a sudden the leftists say,
09:08oh no, this is our sandbox. We got to have more spending. We got to have more money. We want to
09:16waste it all. Who is going to pay for this? It is going to be our kids and our grandkids because it
09:23not only affects our nation's solvency, that addresses our nation's ability to be a sovereign
09:33nation. Now, we've got activist judges and oh, you know, all these NGOs, they are just up in a tear
09:46over this. So you've got a judge that says, oh no, you've got to send this money out. Are you
09:53kidding me? They don't want to save the taxpayers' money? Now, I think one that has come up so often
10:05with Tennesseans and the reason this issue of these out of control leftist judges came up on
10:12our telephone town hall last night, by the way, we had thousands of Tennesseans on that call,
10:20and it had to do with deporting these criminal illegal aliens, Trande Aragua, MS-13, and to my
10:29colleagues, I remind you, we have deemed them foreign terrorist organizations. These are not
10:37people that are our friends. These are people who are terrorists. They are gangs. They have
10:46murdered. They have raped. They have robbed. But we have some of our friends on the left who are
10:55saying, oh, you can't deport them. You can't send them to the gang prison in El Salvador. You got to
11:03bring them back. Are you kidding me? Show me somebody that actually wants to have more murderers
11:15and rapists and robbers in their community. I invite anybody. If you want to go out there and
11:22protect rapists and murderers and robbers, you come on down here and you explain why you would
11:29like to have them come. Madam President, if they are for that, I would like to hear why they are.
11:37But what we see happening is these activist judges are undermining our nation's constitution.
11:48In each of our nation's 677 district judges, there is no veto power over the president.
12:00None. They do not have it. There is nothing, nothing that gives a federal district judge
12:10veto power over the actions of the president of the United States. Now, if they did have that power,
12:20they would be circumventing the will of the people and we would no longer be a sovereign
12:25nation. The separation of powers works both ways. Judges must respect the president's authority
12:35over the executive branch. That is his jurisdiction. To ensure that happens, my Republican
12:44colleagues and I are introducing the Judicial Relief Clarification Act. Now, this is being led
12:51by Senator Chuck Grassley, who's chairman of our Judiciary Committee, and it would end this harmful
13:00practice of nationwide injunctions, make temporary restraining orders against federal or state
13:07governments immediately appealable, and ensure the courts can only issue relief for the case
13:15or the controversy before them. A district judge in San Francisco or anywhere else should not ever
13:25be deciding national policy. That is not something they have the ability to do. Altogether,
13:34these provisions would help restore federal courts to their core purpose, which is administering
13:42justice under the rule of law, not deciding nationwide policy. Madam President, I ask
13:49unanimous consent that the next portion of my remarks be placed separately in the record.
13:55Without objection.
13:58This week, we're moving forward on a budget bill that will help unleash the Trump agenda
14:03that the American people voted for in November. At the top of that agenda is making life more
14:10affordable for families across the country, especially after they have lived through four
14:17full years of what everyone has termed Bidenflation. Now, to do that, Congress must
14:26extend the first Trump administration's tax cuts. This is the 2017 Tax Cut and Jobs Act,
14:37and this will deliver historic tax relief to hardworking Americans, which we did in 2017,
14:47and it would make it permanent. When you see it made permanent, this would supercharge small
14:54business growth and provide certainty for our Main Street small town businesses. Another thing
15:03that it would do is to restore U.S. global competitiveness. But if we let many of these
15:12provisions expire, then at the end of the year, Americans are going to face a $4 trillion tax
15:22hike. Think about that. A $4 trillion tax hike. The bill that we will bring forward will prevent
15:34that from happening by extending these crucial tax cuts. It will be so important for our families.
15:43In Tennessee, families already under Biden are paying $1,700 more every month because of
15:52inflation just to buy the same basket of goods that they were able to buy in April of 2021.
16:02This is what Bidenflation has done. So to support President Trump's agenda and get it across the
16:11finish line, it will bolster our nation's security, help rebuild our military and restore
16:18peace through strength, provide for border security, unleash energy production, provide
16:25a path to return federal spending to pre-pandemic levels. With this Trump agenda budget bill,
16:32we are going to deliver on our promise to the American people to do our part to
16:42pass the President's agenda and to make this nation safe and healthy and prosperous and great again.
16:55I yield the floor.