I am very pleased the Senate has just passed the ALS Disability Insurance Access Act, 96-1, a bill that will bring relief to many Americans suffering from a terrible disease. ALS is a progressive neurodegenerative disease. People with ALS tragically lose the ability to control their muscles, leading to paralysis and ultimately death. There is no cure. Many are familiar with ALS because of the baseball legend who succumbed to it at the height of his career, Lou Gehrig. Others know Lou... Read More

A great American anniversary is upon us.  Four hundred years ago this Saturday, a battered old ship called the Mayflower arrived in the waters off Cape Cod.  The passengers aboard the Mayflower are, in many ways, our first founders.  Daniel Webster called them “Our Pilgrim Fathers” on the two hundredth anniversary of this occasion.  Regrettably, we haven’t heard much about this anniversary of the Mayflower; I suppose the Pilgrims have fallen out of... Read More

“I hope I am over wary; but if I am not, there is, even now, something of ill omen, amongst us. I mean the increasing disregard for law which pervades the country; the growing disposition to substitute the wild and furious passions, in lieu of the sober judgment of courts; and the worse than savage mobs, for the executive ministers of justice. This disposition is awfully fearful in any community; and that it now exists in ours, though grating to our feelings to admit, it would be a... Read More

Cancel culture.   We hear that in the news a lot these days. The idea that we all need safe spaces from mean words—trigger warnings on op ed's or TV shows—that might constitute a micro aggression.   This is the language of the campus social-justice seminar, but increasingly it's the language of our workplace and our culture.   We saw an instance of it just last week at the New York Times. I published an op-ed there that said simply, while we respect peaceful... Read More

The deadly coronavirus that emerged from China late last year has now spread across the globe. The Chinese Communist Party deceived the world-even their own people-and unleashed the worst pandemic in a century on us all. Now it falls to us to defeat it. Here at home, a strange and unsettling hush has fallen over much of the country, as businesses close and millions of Americans brace for what's to come. In New York, Seattle, New Orleans, and elsewhere, preparation for the virus has ended. The... Read More

Yesterday, the Senate passed my resolution to honor the life of Li Wenliang, the Chinese doctor who heroically tried to warn his fellow citizens and the world about the Wuhan coronavirus late last year.   Dr. Li tragically fell victim to that very disease—but not before he was victimized by his own government, the Chinese Communist Party.   Li was 34 years old when he passed away of coronavirus on February 7th. He had a wife, a young child, and another young child on the way. His... Read More

This week the Senate has another chance to vote on basic pro-life protections for babies, both born and unborn. This week we have another choice to live up to our nation's highest principle-that every person has the right to life-or stoop down to a narrow vision of humanity peddled by the abortion industry and its cronies. The first bill we're considering, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, would prohibit abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, when there is clear scientific evidence... Read More

In the next few days, Senate Democrats will move to discharge a war powers resolution to tie the president's hands in defending this nation against Iran and terrorist masterminds like Qassam Soleimani. Let's think about how we got here and the implications of this reckless action. Qassam Soleimani has the blood of thousands of Americans on his hands, and hundreds of thousands of innocent souls across the Middle East. For more than 20 years, he was the supreme leader's most trusted lieutenant,... Read More

Navy Storekeeper 1st Class John William Craig of Monroe, Arkansas perished aboard the USS Oklahoma on December 7th, 1941—a date which will live in infamy. On that day, Imperial Japanese bombers shattered the morning calm at Pearl Harbor, killing Petty Officer Craig and more than 2,000 of his brothers in arms.   Nearly eight decades later, however, his remains were listed as “unknown” and interred at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu. He was... Read More

The New York Times has recently obtained a secret trove of documents from the highest ranks of the Chinese Communist Party. Those documents reveal some chilling, terrifying details about Beijing’s campaign to stamp out all dissent and religious diversity in Xinjiang Province in northwest China, where the Party has concentrated more than one million Uighurs, Kazakhs, and other minorities in reeducation camps.   These documents bring to mind George Orwell’s famous novel 1984, not... Read More

I come to the floor today with the senior senator for Arkansas, Senator Boozman, to celebrate a great anniversary. 200 years ago this week, the very first newspaper in Arkansas was published. It was called The Arkansas Gazette; today we know it as The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. It’s the oldest paper west of the Mississippi, an institution in our state, and a credit to the many outstanding journalists who have made it possible over two centuries.   From its first... Read More

Army Corporal Jerry Garrison was reported missing in action on December 2, 1950. After all these years, Corporal Garrison is on his way home to be laid to rest with the full honor due to a member of the United States Armed Forces. Corporal Garrison was one of "The Chosin Few" who fought on that frozen ground to protect his fellow Soldiers and the independence of the Korean people against the communist hordes. God, in His mysterious providence, chose to call Corporal Garrison home during that... Read More

September 11 is a solemn anniversary. Eighteen years later, we still remember the toll from that terrible day. Nearly 3,000 Americans lost their lives in the attacks on the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and United Flight 93-but every American experienced the pain of loss that day. Just as we mourn the innocent lives lost, we also remember the heroism of our first responders, who ran toward danger and death to help their fellow Americans. Out of the ashes of that terrible tragedy arose a strength... Read More

Ten years ago today, Corporal Benjamin Kopp's spirit departed from this world-but he remains with us in far more than memory.Ben was raised in Minnesota, where his mother described him as a "boy's boy." He played in the dirt with toy trucks and revered his great-grandfather, a decorated veteran from World War II. Then came 9/11, which changed Ben's life forever, just as it changed the lives of so many Americans. Ben was only 13-little more than a boy-but on that day of tragedy, he felt the call... Read More

Below are his remarks as delivered:  Madam President, I want to call your attention to a story that is tragic but also heartwarming and uplifting.Honorary Colonel River "Oakley" Nimmo of Camden, Arkansas passed away last month at the age of five after a protracted struggle with his enemy, a rare form of cancer called neuroblastoma. Oakley's family remembers him as a "sweet, brave boy" who liked to play with power wheels and toy guns. But for all those who knew him or have learned about him,... Read More

Below are his remarks as delivered: Tomorrow morning, the Senate will vote on whether to disarm our troops as they hold the line in the face of Iranian aggression in the Middle East. Tomorrow morning, the Senate will vote on whether to empower the ayatollahs as they continue to rampage across the Middle East, attacking U.S. aircraft, attacking ships on the high seas, threatening our troops in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Bahrain, Qatar, and elsewhere. That's because tomorrow morning we'll be voting... Read More

Below are his remarks as delivered: There's been a lot of confusion and outright misinformation about some proposed arms sales to our Gulf partners, specifically Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. I'm grateful for the opportunity this morning to clear up a few things, especially considering the current high stakes in the region. As many of you probably have heard, the Islamic Republic of Iran just this morning has shot down an American surveillance aircraft over the Strait of Hormuz. Yet... Read More

Below are his remarks as delivered: Many state legislatures across the country have taken action recently to protect unborn babies from the violence of abortion. My home state, for instance, Arkansas, has just passed a law protecting unborn babies after 18 weeks of development. And this reform is not just supported by Arkansans. It's supported by a large majority of all Americans, more than 70% of whom believe unborn babies ought to be protected at or before that stage of pregnancy. These... Read More

Below are his remarks as delivered: Madam President, I want speak today about the proposed disapproval of arms sales to our Gulf partners, Bahrain and Qatar. Last month, the Administration notified Congress of its intention to sell Apache helicopters to Qatar. Those helicopters will help with security and counterterrorism patrols, especially ahead of the 2022 World Cup, which will of course be a prime target for terrorists. We're also scheduled to sell air-defense missiles to Bahrain, where we... Read More

Below are his remarks as delivered: I want to thank the Committee and Chairman Isakson and Ranking Member Tester for inviting me to speak at this hearing. I also want to thank my colleague from Arkansas, Senator Boozman, as well as Senator Blumenthal for co-sponsoring Senate Bill 857, which would increase the special pension for Medal of Honor recipients. Medal of Honor citations often read like Hollywood scripts-only the heroism is so amazing most people wouldn't believe it really happened if... Read More