[Pages S1727-S1729]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                    Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

  Mr. TUBERVILLE. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to talk 
about how my delusional Democratic colleagues have tried to poison our 
country's young people with what I call a woke mind virus.
  Before I got into politics, I spent 40 years working with young 
people, from the high school level to the college level--higher 
education, we call it. I coached, recruited, and mentored young people 
all over the country--thousands of them. I saw firsthand how hard work 
and a quality education can change a person's life, no matter where 
they come from, what they look like, or how much money they have.
  I used to tell my players that, if they work hard, there is no limit 
to what they can achieve. It is called the American dream.
  Our Founders came here because they envisioned a country where the 
sky is the limit and people aren't bound by the circumstances that they 
were born in. But, unfortunately, the Biden administration and the 
Democrats have spent the last 4 years communicating a much darker 
message to our young people.
  This country was founded on merit, but instead of focusing on hiring 
the best and brightest, Biden, Harris, Obama, and the ``woke mind 
virus'' Democrats have spent the last 4 years dividing our country 
based on diversity, equity, and inclusion--or, better known to all of 
us, what is called DEI. This poisonous ideology says that people should 
be hired based on their skin color or sexual preference, not because of 
how they might do in a job.
  And to make matters worse, the Biden administration used 1 trillion 
American taxpayer dollars to pay for DEI programs in the Federal 
Government--1 trillion. You heard that right. American taxpayers are 
footing the bill, and they were paying for things that were racist, 
divisive, and woke--a woke propaganda.
  So I don't know about you; I want a refund. I want my money back. We 
all pay taxes. Why in the world would we do that?
  Let's call DEI what it really is: a fundamentally racist, prejudice, 
and anti-American ideology that is designed to divide and oppress 
people. That is exactly what it is. It is baffling to me how Democrats 
don't see this. Or do they?
  They claim to be a very tolerant, inclusive party rooted in equality, 
but as we have all learned, Democrats are only tolerant as long as you 
agree with them. I thought we left the stain of discrimination and 
race-based hiring practices behind in our country a long, long time 
ago, but apparently not. It is clear that Democrats would rather divide 
Americans based on their race, gender, creed, or sexual orientation 
than live in a world where people are hired based on intellect, 
experience, work ethic, and merit--what a thought.
  So let's set the record straight. This country owes you nothing 
except for the opportunity to succeed. That is what is great about this 
country. And if you don't succeed, you can get back up and go again. We 
are the only country that allows that. For generations, Americans 
understood this--all Americans: an opportunity to pursue your dreams, 
to use your God-given talents to contribute to making this country the 
greatest place to live in the world.
  I have always said this: If you were born in the United States of 
America, you hit the lottery, 100 percent. And I guarantee you, the 
other 7 billion people in this world would give anything to take the 
place of any of us, from the poorest to the richest.
  To my new granddaughter of just 2 weeks, Rosie Grace, if there is any 
one thing I can teach her as a grandfather, it is the value of hard 
work and determination. There is nothing that takes the place of that--
nothing. With a strong work ethic and a commitment to excellence, 
opportunities will open up for her, or anybody, to live a happy, 
successful life. And that is all a grandfather like me now can ask 
for--hard work and determination.
  So what kind of message is it if we are teaching our young people 
that they are victims of their circumstances and the American dream is 
only for people who have a certain skin color? That is the opposite of 
the American dream.
  But Democrats don't care one bit about that--not one bit. I have 
listened to it for 4 years. Obama started a horrible trend that 
Democrats carry on to this day. He used racism to divide the Americans 
and politically enrich themselves. Look at the money they have made. 
The woke mind virus has taken hold of them. They have lost their ever-
loving mind. They would rather promise racism and promote it--sexism, 
divisiveness--than support solutions that empower, unify, or uplift our 
country and our people.
  Democrats are obsessed with hating this country and tearing it apart. 
They want a different United States of America. If it is anything that 
is pro-American or pro-traditional values--it doesn't matter--Democrats 
will attack it, demonize it, and demonize us for supporting it.
  These people have zero respect for human life. They have shown their 
true colors in the past few years, ever since Roe v. Wade was 
overturned, which sent abortion back to the States, where it could be 
voted on by the people, instead of politicians. They have raised Cain. 
Since then, Democrat politicians have said the quiet part out loud, 
admitting that they think there should be no limits to abortion. How 
can you believe that?
  That means that they are OK with aborting a baby at 9 months of 
pregnancy.
  Former Virginia Governor Ralph Northam, a Democrat, said that he 
supports post-birth--after-birth--abortions. Are you kidding me?
  And other Democrats, like Minnesota Governor Tim Walz--remember him, 
flash in the pan?--signed a law to allow abortions after birth--signed 
a law in Minnesota for abortions after birth.
  What do they do with that? They cut these babies up and sell the body 
parts. It is never talked about too much, is it? Can you believe that 
this is who the Democrats picked as their Vice Presidential candidate? 
I can believe it. That means that, in Minnesota, a doctor can kill a 
baby after he or she is born, right there on the delivery table. It is 
evil, and it is absolutely sick.
  But it isn't just babies Democrats have no respect for. They also 
have gone out of their way to attack women and girls. Just last week, 
every single Democrat in this body voted against my bill to protect 
women and girls in sports.
  Oh, we have got to give these transitional boys an opportunity to 
participate.
  Really? How about giving, in fairness to young girls and women, the 
opportunity to compete at a level that they are in; give them an 
opportunity not to play for second or third but to play for first. How 
about that?
  The woke mind virus has struck again. Democrats who claim to be pro-
women would rather protect a few transgender people than protect the 
millions of women and girls who make up half of this country.
  Oh, we have to be nice. We have to be nice to everybody.
  No. We need a mental health program in this country. That is what we 
need.
  Democrats who claim to be pro-women would rather protect a few 
transgender people than protect the entire country of women and girls. 
It is backward, it is disgusting, and it is downright wrong.
  You would have to be dumber than a box of rocks to celebrate this, 
but that is what they did. They celebrated the handful of transgenders 
participating against women.
  Oh, we knocked it down because it was supported by Donald Trump, who 
wrote out an Executive order protecting women and girls.
  Thank you, President Trump.
  By the way, 79 percent of Americans and 67 percent of Democrats 
support that men do not compete against women--a huge majority. Every 
single one of my Democratic colleagues went against their constituents 
and voted against this commonsense bill to protect women and keep men 
out of women's sports.

[[Page S1728]]

  Democrats basically are hypocrites--big-time. They claim to be pro-
woman but allow men to dress up as women and take rights away from 
actual women.
  When we saw this firsthand, during the Biden administration, when 
they had actual drag shows at the White House, it made me sick at my 
stomach.
  But the hypocrisy doesn't end there. Democrats celebrate when Hamas 
protectors violently attack Jewish students, but they demonize and 
imprison pro-life activists who peacefully protest outside an abortion 
clinic.
  Whose side are you on?
  Democrat colleagues say they are pro-choice but lose their minds if a 
parent dares to ask a question about vaccines for infants. I mean, they 
go off the deep end when we talk about vaccines.
  They claim they are the party of decency--really? Tolerance--are you 
kidding me? But turn a blind eye to multiple Democratic mayors being 
arrested for being pedophiles. Yes, that is what I said--pedophiles.
  The former Democrat mayor of University Park, MD, was arrested and 
charged in 2024 with 28 counts of possessing and soliciting child 
pornography: in jail, 24, mayor, right down the street.
  The year before, 2023, a different Democrat mayor from College Park, 
MD, pleaded guilty to 140 counts of possessing and distributing child 
sexual abuse images: mayor, leader, Democrat, believes in the way of 
life for the Democratic Party, a pedophile.
  So two Democratic mayors in Maryland have been arrested in the past 2 
years for pedophilia. You can't make it up. The woke mind virus strikes 
again. I have yet to hear a single floor speech from my Maryland 
Democrat colleagues about this catastrophe, a leader caught doing this. 
They don't care. It doesn't bother them.
  They seem to find plenty of time to criticize President Trump every 
time he breathes, but they don't worry about pedophilia. How about we 
all speak out about it?
  I have yet to see them take the time to condemn multiple elected 
officials from their State who have been arrested and contributed to 
all this child pornography. It is sad, but we shouldn't be surprised.
  Democrats only pretend to care about the oppressed or the most 
vulnerable among us when it benefits their agenda. After all, it was 
Democrats in the States like California and Washington who introduced 
bills to change the term--the name of it--``sex offenders'' to ``minor-
attracted persons.'' You are not a sex offender anymore if you beat up 
a little child, molest a child. You are not a sex offender. You are a 
minor-attracted person. We don't want to hurt anybody's feelings, OK? 
What a joke. It makes me sick to my stomach.
  If it wasn't for the reelection of President Trump on November 5, I 
really don't know whether we would have made it. Our country was headed 
straight to the gutter--straight to the gutter. I mean, just listen to 
all of this. It makes no sense.
  Now we have common sense. We are trying to get common sense back in 
our country. We have to push for it. Thanks to President Trump and the 
ideas he has brought back to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, this 
administration is working around the clock to get this woke crap out of 
our government, our military, out of classrooms--out--get back to 
teaching our kids.
  President Trump is committed to abolishing the U.S. Department of 
Education, a Federal Agency that has failed our students for the past 
40 years that I have been in education and especially under Joe Biden 
and Barack Obama. President Trump believes and is correct that our 
young people are the country's most important, precious commodity that 
we have. They are the future.
  He understands that under President Biden, the Department of 
Education allowed radical leftwing teachers to push radical, hateful 
ideologies onto our kids. We don't need opinion teaching. We need to 
teach reading, writing, math, science, and history. What is wrong with 
that? What is wrong with giving them a chance because they have ruined 
the lives of thousands of young people because they have been 
indoctrinated.
  You had drag shows that were being performed recently in elementary 
schools. I mean, in my day, you would have been arrested for that. Woke 
anti-American curriculum taught kids to hate each other--actually in 
the classroom teaching them: Hey, you hate them because of who they are 
or where they are from, what skin color they are--absolutely a crime.
  Schools help children secretly transition genders behind the parent's 
back. Oh, you want to transition. You are 8 years old. Don't tell your 
parents. We will get it all set up for you--mind-boggling. The woke 
mind virus has struck again.
  All of this, by the way, on the taxpayers' dime. You are paying for 
it. Meanwhile, we are 26 in the world in math, and we are 6 in reading. 
That is simply not good enough for the most powerful country in the 
world.
  When I coached and recruited, I was shocked if anybody was over a 
ninth grade reading level. That is everybody. I don't care what color, 
where they are from; urban, rural. If you can't read, you can't learn. 
If you can't learn, you are going to end up working for somebody or 
just scraping to try to make a living.
  But instead of teaching our kids to read and write, the Department of 
Education under Joe Biden became ground zero for woke indoctrination.
  All they were concerned about was bowing to the teachers unions--you 
heard that--teachers unions teaching our kids to hate this country, its 
government, our Constitution, and each other. What are we doing? I am 
thankful President Trump is sending education back to the States where 
it belongs. I have advocated this for the last 20 years.

  Just this week, the Department of Education announced it was firing 
more than 1,000 people right down the street. Thank goodness. They 
hadn't been doing anything. They had been working from home, and what 
they do, we can do it back in the States a lot better, and we can use 
that money to educate kids--what an idea.
  Good. The Federal Department of Education needs to be completely shut 
down. It is not done yet, but we just got started. I have been saying 
it for a long time: We can't have a one-sized-fits-all, top-down 
approach to education.
  You know, I am from Alabama. We teach kids a little bit different 
because we are in a different environment; rural areas, 60 percent 
farmers, agriculture, all those things. We don't teach the same things 
that you would teach in Chicago or New York. Send it back to the 
States. Let them control it. Let them teach our kids to have a chance 
in the future. Each child is totally different.
  You know, the Federal Government can't do that. I haven't figured out 
in my 4 years yet what we can do, but at least we are figuring out: 
Hey, it is not working here. Close it down; quit spending money; and 
send it back to the States, which is why President Trump's plan to 
empower the States makes all the sense in the world.
  But, of course, Democrats don't believe in common sense. They are 
only concerned about we have to control this because they know that if 
they don't control education--education is the No. 1 thing we have in 
this country going for us--if you take that away, everything else goes.
  If they can't control education, they won't be able to infect the 
minds of all these young kids across the country. They want them to 
think that the Constitution is bad, that government is really bad, that 
your parents are bad, that you ought to listen to us.
  You know, a spoonful of common sense goes a long way. So let me sum 
this up for you: Merit-based hiring is the only way to make a business 
successful--merit-based. When I coached, I had to win games or I was 
gone. I didn't care who they were when they played for me. I didn't 
care whether rich, poor, rural, urban, Black, White, it didn't make me 
a dime of difference. I put the best ones on the field. They were going 
to earn it.
  That is how this country should be run. That is the difference 
between my Republican side and my colleagues on the left. They want 
everything given. It ain't going to work, folks. We are not going to 
have the country we had the opportunity to grow up in if we continue 
down that path.
  Merit-based; men are men, women are women. Men cannot get pregnant,

[[Page S1729]]

by the way, but I learned that very, very young in life. Evidently my 
Democrat colleagues didn't learn that.
  Protecting women and girls in sports is the right thing to do. 
Allowing elementary schoolers with undeveloped brains to get 
irreversible sex change procedures make absolutely no sense. It is evil 
and sadistic.
  Teaching kids to hate each other based on what they look like, that 
is racist. That is exactly the direction that the Biden administration 
was going.
  Children shouldn't be forced to watch drag shows. It you are an 
adult, you can do what you want in this country, but forcing this woke 
agenda on kids is downright wrong.
  Making taxpayers pay for abortions in the military--wrong, against 
the law, but they did it anyway. I fought it for a year. I lost out in 
the end, but you know what, it was worth the fight.
  Pedophilia is straight from the pit of hell. And, no, these aren't 
minor-attracted persons. These creeps, they are criminals, and they are 
sick in the head.
  I thank God every day for President Trump and the return of common 
sense in this country.
  I hope some of my Democrat colleagues will wake up to how the past 4 
years of this woke ideology has poisoned our country, especially our 
young people. Folks, we have got a long way to go--long way to go.
  Our future is in the hands of our kids. Let's give that future back 
to our kids. Let's educate them, put them on the right track, teach 
them the Constitution, teach them that we have a higher being in God--
put that back in our schools. What a thought that would be.
  Let's stay away--stay away--from our young kids, and let them have a 
chance to develop.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas.
  (The remarks of Mr. Cornyn pertaining to the introduction of S. 1053 
are printed in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced Bills 
and Joint Resolutions.'')
  Mr. CORNYN. I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Schmitt). The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. BUDD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.