You could make the case, why even bother? It's not very
     valuable stuff.

  Why even bother?
  And that is the story of this war in a nutshell. Trump sets before us
an impossible goal. And when it fails, he then moves the goalposts or
backs down completely.
  The next goal, obliterating Iran's missiles:

       We're going to destroy their missiles and raze their
     missile industry to the ground. It will be totally . . .
     obliterated.

  He said that on February 28. But according to press reports, U.S.
intelligence Agencies estimated that roughly 70 percent of Iran's pre-
war missile stockpile was still intact as of May. And just this week,
Iran started firing missiles again at tankers in the Strait of Hormuz
and at military bases across the Middle East, demonstrating both its
leverage and its ability to continue fighting.
  OK. Well, what about the goal of cutting off Iran's funding for proxy
groups?
  The administration has mostly stopped talking about it, and there was
no mention of Iran's support for Hezbollah or other groups in the MOU.
In fact, the MOU allowed Iran to sell its oil freely, even though
Trump's own State Department told Congress that oil exports are a
primary revenue source for Iran's financing of proxies.
  So all of the stated objectives of this war have not been met.
  Finally, how are they doing on keeping the Strait of Hormuz open and
free?
  Well, it is closed again, and Trump and Iran are back and forth going
at it over who gets control and who gets to charge tolls. To be clear,
this was never a problem prewar. And so now the objective in ending
this war is just to get to the status quo before the war.

  We went to war to eliminate their ballistic missile capability--not
on the nuclear side. Not a success.
  We went to war to change the regime. Not only not a success, but a
terrible failure. We have got a younger and more radical and entrenched
Ayatollah in the regime of Iran. And now they know they can withstand
our best hit.
  We went to war to eliminate their nuclear program; and not only did
we not do that, but Donald Trump himself is kind of characterizing it
like it is no big deal.
  And so now we are negotiating not for any of the reasons that were
stated to put our servicemembers in harm's way and to spend tens of
billions of dollars of taxpayer funding for this war and to raise the
price of gasoline by a buck, buck fifty a gallon, to raise the price of
fertilizer and plastics and natural gas and electronics--to raise the
price of almost everything.
  We met none of our objectives, and now our objective is just to keep
sea lanes open. Sea lanes were open. Sea lanes are always open. That is
not a foreign policy objective of the United States of America in the
sense that we have to work really hard to do it. Freedom of navigation
is a basic principle that we enforce around the world, but we don't
have to bomb anybody to get it.
  And so now the endgame is: Let's try to get the strait open and
pretend that the reasons that we went to war were not the reasons that
we went to war.
  And I think what is the most disgusting about all of this--you know,
someone used to say: Armies don't go to war. Countries go to war. Now,
why does that matter? You cannot go to war without the support of the
American public. You cannot go to war without explaining to the
American public what you are up to.
  And what happened many months ago was Donald Trump woke up one
morning and said: I guess we are taking kinetic action against Iran.
And people are finding: OK, sorry, what? What exactly are we doing and
why?
  There was no buildup; there was no explaining; and most importantly
for us as U.S. Senators, there was no vote on the authorization of the
use of military force.
  Now, they are going to say that under the War Powers Resolution, they
have this ability to basically take military action if there is an
imminent threat to the safety of the United States of America. And then
they would have 60 days, and it is kind of complicated exactly how it
works.
  But what they have said now is that ``No, this isn't a war.'' That is
No. 1.
  ``Oh, yeah. Sorry. It is a war, but we have 60 days.''
  ``Oh, the war is off because the MOU for the cease-fire is now being
implemented.''
  And now the war is back on, and they are acting as if, as a legal
matter, this new kinetic engagement is a second and separate war and
the clock starts again and you have got 60 days again to delay Congress
from weighing in.
  And this is not some procedural nicety. This isn't me as a
politician, like, protecting my prerogatives. The reason this matters
is the people's representatives in the Congress have to vote before we
go to war. And there are some narrow exceptions. If we are in danger,
you don't want to have to, like, assemble Congress if we are in
immediate danger. Fine. We are not in immediate danger. We were never
in immediate danger.
  If you want to claim that the ICBM array that the IRGC had was a
danger to the United States, come down, at least testify before the
Foreign Relations Committee and the Armed Services Committee, and then
at least have a debate on the damn floor of the U.S. Senate.
  And it is worse than that because to the extent that we have had any
votes at all, we actually have prevailed. A majority of Members of this
body have said that this war should come to a conclusion.
  And so my Republican colleagues are saying: Hey, why don't we pass
the Defense authorization? After all, it is a big bipartisan bill, and
we always do it. That is true. We always do it.
  And I think 13 out of 14 years or 12 out of 13 years, I voted for the
National Defense Authorization Act. And the reason I voted no yesterday
is because I am not voting for a defense bill until this war is over,
and I am not voting for a defense bill until we get to debate the most
important thing happening in terms of our national defense. We are at
war, and we are being prevented from even overseeing it. We are just
asked to fork over tens and tens of billions of dollars without so much
as weighing in on this is an authorization of the use of military
force.
  The President, as the Commander in Chief of our military, may engage
kinetically with another country. We have decided that. We have been
elected. We have decided that.
  None of that happened. Why? Because they don't have the votes for
that. Why do they not have the votes for that? Because this war is
stupid, and the public knows it.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Schmitt). The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

                       Remembering Lindsey Graham

  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, America lost a fearless patriot in our
friend Lindsey Graham. He devoted his life to serving the people of
South Carolina and this Nation. He never shied away from a difficult
fight, and he always stuck to his principles.
  It has been so moving to see all the tributes to his life and his
legacy pour in from each side of the aisle. It speaks to who he was as
a leader, statesman, and a public servant. He believed in robust,
respectful bipartisan debate, and he knew that, in Washington, you can
only solve problems by building a big tent and inviting people to join
you. He did it time and again, across more than three decades in public
office, working to protect our national security, strengthen our
military, secure our border, protect kids online, and save our
elections.
  I had the honor of serving alongside him on the Judiciary Committee,
including during his time as both chair and ranking member. He knew
that peace and prosperity are only possible under the rule of law, and
he fought to defend the rule of law.
  Just a few months ago, Lindsey and I filed the 287(g) Expansion Act
to encourage State and local law enforcement to partner with ICE and
accomplish President Trump's goal of deporting criminal illegal aliens
and keeping our communities safe.
  Last month, we also introduced the Election Security Partnership Act
to get more States to submit their voter rolls to DHS through the SAVE
Program and secure our elections. On that issue, Lindsey was a champion
of the SAVE America Act to ensure that only American citizens vote in
American elections. The Senate should put election integrity measures
on the floor for a vote and honor his legacy. That is exactly what he
would encourage us to do.
  It was so moving to see his sister Darline sworn into office
yesterday to complete his term. My prayers are with her and with his
family, friends, staff, and all who loved him. May he rest in peace.