Rep. Ted Cruz and Sen. Maria Cantwell lead a C-SPAN segment condemning Section 373 of the FY 2026 NDAA, which exempts military helicopters from D.C. airspace safety rules, reversing post-January 2024 reforms after a Black Hawk-American Airlines crash killing 67. Families like the Lillys and Stovalls oppose it as a preventable risk, while Cruz and Cantwell push their bipartisan Rotor Act, backed by Trump’s FAA and Senate leadership, to enforce ADS-B tracking for all aircraft. A JetBlue-Air Force near-miss over the Caribbean underscores the danger of outdated transponder exemptions, with Pentagon bureaucrats resisting despite Hegseth’s support. The senators vow procedural action to block Section 373, prioritizing crash prevention over loopholes. [Automatically generated summary]
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Next, the chair of the Senate Transportation Committee, Ted Cruz, and Ranking Member Maria Cantwell.
They talk about aviation safety and Section 373 of the National Defense Authorization Act, which was recently passed in the House.
It would allow military helicopters to operate more freely in D.C. airspace.
The lead senators on the committee both criticized the provision and said they hoped to get it struck out of the NDAA before final passage.
During the Senators' news conference, they're joined by family of the victims of the crash this January between a military helicopter and a passenger plane in D.C. Good afternoon.
Three days ago, the pilot of a JetBlue flight headed to New York reported that he narrowly avoided colliding with an Air Force tanker flying over the Caribbean.
The military aircraft was not broadcasting its location.
The pilot was quoted as saying, quote, they don't have their transponder turned on.
It's outrageous.
We almost had a mid-air collision up here.
Why do we continue to tolerate near-misses?
Seconds away from catastrophe, just months after an Army Blackhawk helicopter flew into American Airlines Flight 5342 at Ronald Reagan National Airport here in D.C.
Nearly one year after that tragic mid-air collision over the Potomac River on January 29th, we are here to bring attention to a provision in the fiscal year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act that was airdropped in at the last moment and that unwinds the actions taken by President Trump and Secretary Duffy to make the airspace around DC safer.
Section 373 of the NDAA lets the military fly by different rules than every other aircraft in civilian airspace.
This special carve out was exactly what caused the January 29th crash that claimed 67 lives.
American Airlines Flight 5342 was seconds away from landing at DCA when the flight crew began hearing traffic alerts in the cockpit.
Although the commercial flight was broadcasting its location, a military helicopter operating nearby was not because it was using this special loophole carved out for the military.
And the two aircraft were on a collision course.
After the crash at DCA, President Trump and Secretary Duffy immediately took action.
They diagnosed the problem, and since the accident, military helicopters have been required to transmit their precise location using ADS-B technology.
ADS-B can broadcast an aircraft's position, altitude, and velocity much faster than traditional radar, giving air traffic control and other aircraft this crucial information in near real time.
Section 373 would take steps to reverse this rule, not even a year after the fatal crash.
Instead of permitting more military helicopter flights in D.C., Congress should strip this provision from the bill.
President Trump, in just his first year, has started what his predecessors couldn't get done, fixing air traffic control and investing real funds to upgrade and modernize the system.
I was proud to lead Senate Republicans in providing $12.5 billion in the one big beautiful bill for air traffic control modernization.
Secretary Duffy has been making great progress, already replacing one-third of the FAA's antiquated telecommunications system with 21st-century fiber, satellite, and wireless coverage.
Through a commitment to both air traffic control modernization and requiring the military to broadcast ADSB out, the Trump administration has already greatly improved aviation safety.
Section 373 needs to be stripped and the bill sent back to the House so that President Trump can sign into law and cement his legacy as a champion of aviation safety.
In addition to stripping this language, Congress should enact the Bipartisan Rotor Act, which Senator Cantwell and I authored together.
Our bill, which we're working to tee up for a vote before the full Senate, would require precise location transmission for all aircraft operating around D.C. airspace.
The Rotor Act passed out of the Commerce Committee unanimously two months ago.
Every Republican and every Democrat on the committee supported the Rotor Act.
It would tighten the rules for the military operating in congested D.C. airspace.
It would require all aircraft in congested airspace to receive and transmit ADS-B signals and evaluate the airspace design around commercial airports.
The families up here with us are reminders that these are real people with real loved ones that are gone.
They should be here today.
That's the aviation system our nation should have.
Accidents like this do not need to rip family members away.
We're here because flight 5342 and the families that are with us, Amy Hunter, Laura Aubijan, and Christina Stroval, thank you so much for being here.
As Senator Cruz mentioned, this Section 373 of the NDAA doesn't belong in any bill.
There's no reason to have this language in the National Defense Authorization Act unless you're somebody who wants to continue to see letting the military do whatever they want to do in a congested airspace.
As Senator Cruz mentioned, passing the ROTAR Act is our real goal, a reform to the system that would assure that an accident like this would never happen again.
Almost one year ago, when 67 people died when a Black Hawk helicopter smashed into American Flight 5342 over the Potomac River, we created victims that didn't need to be there.
The families have turned that grief into action.
They have come to Washington to push for real safety reform.
They've met with members of Congress.
They have testified.
They've done everything we've asked them to do.
And what is the response of the Armed Services Committee on their efforts to be heard?
Apparently, a terrible provision, Section 373, that no one knows quite how got into the NDAA.
Believe me, it's not what Senator Cruz and I asked for.
It's not what our colleagues on this committee had agreed to.
Let me explain what the provision does.
After the crash, the FAA and Department of Defense agreed, they agreed in a room not unlike this over in the Capitol that military aircraft in DC airspace should broadcast their location with the ADBS broadcast system out after the military agreed that that loophole that it existed was there and that they had been using it 100% of the time.
So they all agreed then that this was the right move.
Section 373 allows by law the military to undo that agreement.
It says the military training flights can use less effective technology, and we all know the technology they're talking about isn't even used at this altitude that the crash occurred, and that's because it's so noisy and loud.
You would never have it alarming when a pilot is supposed to focus on the functions of landing the plane.
So that kind of warning system that is mentioned by those still supporting this provision of the Armed Services Bill are people that don't understand aviation safety.
They might be using it as an excuse, but anybody who is involved in aviation safety knows that it is not going to do the job.
So this puts a loophole into the law, and this is not what we need.
As we mentioned, Senator Cruz, myself, Senator Moran, Senator Duckworth, the NTSB Chair Homedy, we wrote a letter basically calling on this provision to be removed, saying that it was unacceptable, and it put the flying public at risk and a dismissal of the tragedy that 67 families and their loved ones have gone through.
So we're here to say to our colleagues, let's get this out of the National Defense Authorization Act.
Let's close this loophole, as Senator Cruz mentioned, when we have time on T-HUD or whatever legislative process we have.
But let's not codify a loophole into law that will allow the military to continue to do whatever they think or see fit and not promulgate a rule by the FAA to make sure that a crowded airspace is definitely not a pathway for allowing.
commercial aviation flights and military flights to become within a few hundred feet of each other.
That's literally what this does.
The NTSB does oppose Section 373.
The families oppose it.
You're going to hear from them right now.
The Bipartisan Commerce Committee obviously opposes it.
And I hope that the American people will help us oppose it.
It's time to make sure that aviation safety is a prime objective, not a secondary objective, a prime objective of this Congress.
I thank Senator Cruz, and I think you're going to introduce the family members.
And I want to say to each of the family members here, thank you for being here.
I know this is incredibly hard.
And you're turning your grief into advocacy to keep others safe.
The night of American Airlines Flight 5342, my wife Heidi, was in the air landing at Reagan about an hour after the accident.
I could just as easily have been standing there holding a photograph as you are.
And this is unacceptable.
I want to start by reading a tape statement from Tim and Sherry Lilly.
Tim and Sherry Lilly are the parents of American Airlines Flight 5342 First Officer Sam Lilly.
They previously participated in the Rotor Press Conference this year.
Quote, we oppose this provision in the strongest possible terms.
If it can't be changed before passage, we strongly urge Congress to update the language in Section 373 of the fiscal year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act as soon as possible.
Our collective standards must be higher.
All the users of our national airspace deserve better.
This bill recreates the risks and loopholes President Trump's administration eliminated after the January 29th collision that took 67 souls, including our son Sam.
I now turn to Amy Hunter and Laura Ajandra, who lost their cousin Peter in the DCA crash, and also Christina Stovall, who lost her son Mickey.
They are here representing the other families of Flight 5342.
unidentified
Hello, my name is Laura Ojam.
My cousin Peter Livingston, his wife, Donna, and our two girls, Everly and Alidia, were on Flight 5342.
I want you to see their faces.
This is a beautiful family, a branch of our family tree that is no longer here.
Shortly after the tragedy of Flight 5342, we started talking about what happened and why.
People listened.
But there was something missing.
There was no shock.
There was no real disbelief.
Instead, we kept hearing the same thing, that this was an accident waiting to happen.
Hearing that was like salt being poured on an open wound.
If this was an accident that was waiting to happen, then it could have been prevented.
It should have been prevented.
Immediately after the collision, safety measures were finally put into place.
Measures that should have been there before our loved ones were lost.
Rolling those back now does not move us forward.
It puts people at risk.
Now is time to build on that progress, not to reverse it.
There's already a bipartisan solution ready, the Rotor Act, presented by Senators Cruz and Cantwell.
We are asking that Section 373 of the NDAA be struck and replaced with the Rotor Act, so that safety is strengthened, not weakened.
We're not here to make political statements.
We're here as families who lost people we love, asking, we're demanding that the system do better.
No family should ever have to stand where we are standing today.
We expect better, and people deserve better.
Safety must come first.
We ask for thoughtful, evidence-based improvements that honor the memory of those we lost and protect every family that flies.
Hi, thank you for everybody being here.
My name is Amy Hunter.
We appreciate the decisive leadership that President Trump and Secretary Duffy showed immediately after the crash by implementing the urgent safety recommendations recommended by NTSB and prioritizing the modernization of our national airspace.
Section 373 in the current National Defense Authorization Act now threatens to undo everything that all the progress that was already made.
And it will compromise the safety around Reagan National Airport.
President Trump has been delivering airport, sorry, airspace safety.
We urge him to intervene.
Strike this provision and replace it with rotor.
We ask Congress, strike this provision and replace it with rotor.
Strong leadership to keep Americans safe.
Thank you very much.
Give me a second.
Okay.
Okay.
In memory of Mikey and his seven, there were seven hunters.
My name is Christina Stovall, and I stand before you as a mother who has lost her son, Mikey.
Mikey was a father, an outdoorsman, and a man who loved life with a laugh that filled a room and kindness that made strangers feel like family.
He taught his son, Jake, how to fish, hunt, and how to track the seasons and how to find joy in the small ordinary moments.
Losing him has left a silence in our home that nothing can feel.
Remembering a life lived fully, Mikey did not live a life of the headlines or grand gestures.
He lived simple and well.
He brightened every room he walked into and he carried with him the kind and steady, generous spirit that made people want to be better.
When I close my eyes, I see him on the riverbanks, sun on his face, teaching his little one how to cast a line.
That image is a gift and a wound because it is also a reminder of what was taken from us too soon.
For all the families we fear, this the phone call.
I can't say any more, but I would like to name all seven of our hunters besides our son, Mikey Stovo.
We had my husband's best friend, Tommy Claggett.
We got Steve Johnson.
We have John Boyd.
We have Alex Huffman, Jesse Pitcher, and Charlie McDaniels.
Seven guys who told their kids, I'll see you when I get back.
Now, our grandson, Mikey's son, is worried because Mikey said, I'll be back.
When his mom leaves and says, Jake, I'll be back.
He's having a hard time.
We don't live in this area.
We live in Florida.
Jake, if his mom is not around and doesn't come back in time, he calls me in Florida.
No parent should have to go through this.
We are so blessed to have Senator Cruz, Cantwell, President Trump, and Secretary of Transportation Duffy, UNTSB, and everybody.
And I may be showing tears, but I am grateful for all of them.
And please just keep our family in your thoughts and prayers because Christmas is going to be so empty.
This is a provision that didn't go through the ordinary clearances.
Normally, when you're adding a provision to the NDAA that impacts aviation, you would request clearance from the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee.
No clearance was requested.
We discovered this provision when the final version of the bill dropped out of the House and it was passed.
I think very few House members had any idea it was in there.
And in the days since it was dropped, we have not seen a single representative step forward and say, I authored that provision, and I agree with giving the military a special exception, particularly given that the special exception costs the lives of 67 souls in January of this year.
Yeah.
unidentified
What about President Trump Moranos in the White House and again on the TV to talk about this right now that the Senate passed this?
So I was at the White House last week with the President.
I spoke with the President's team about it last week.
As we noted, the President Secretary Duffy acted swiftly in the wake of this accident to end the military's exception.
The military had written a memorandum of understanding that created an exception that was designed to be for national security purposes.
I suppose if a plane was carrying a nuclear weapon to some place that was highly classified, you might understand limited circumstances where you would not be transmitting location.
But this was a training flight that was crossing right across a runway on DCA Reagan.
And unfortunately, the Pentagon had implemented a policy of using the exception 100% of the time.
That was indefensible.
And so this provision, part of the reason nobody's claiming credit for it in the House is this provision tries to reverse what President Trump did, and it tries to reverse what Secretary Duffy did.
Well, we did hear, I think it was a statement put out by the SAS committee in House and Senate that they were going to rely on the TCAS system, which we, anybody who spent any time on aviation issues, know that that system is not designed to, that's an alarm system that's used at a much different stage in aviation, not in the landing phase.
So it's not something that people recommend.
And clearly, nothing that the NTSB or FAA said was a solution to this when previously the military and the FAA said we were going to close this loophole.
So people are surprised.
I think maybe those members, now that they've heard that that's not really a technology solution for this incident, maybe they're now, maybe they're asking people how this got in there too.
You know, maybe that was the line they gave them that this is why it was there, that they thought there was some solution, but it's not.
It's not a solution.
And nobody who is serious about aviation thinks that it's a solution.
So I don't know if there was confusion, but it's time to just take it out.
unidentified
And the time that I'm talking to the question about the age of the emotional activity hired.
So why did you all heard the computer that the parent declared about it last week and the return on the Peter Monroe?
Well, this provision didn't go through the ordinary clearance process that the NDAA normally undergoes.
Had they sought clearance from the Commerce Committee, both the chairman and ranking member would have objected, not just objected, but objected emphatically.
And I can tell you in the Senate, I have not found a single senator who defends this provision.
When you look at it on the merits in light of what happens, happened, it is indefensible.
And look, sometimes the swamp operates in the dead of night, but it shouldn't he not when 67 lives were lost this year.
We owe it to not only those who lost their lives on that January night, but to every other member of the flying public who gets on a plane, who puts their son or daughter or their mom or dad on a plane.
We owe it to them to prevent another accident like that from happening again.
Yeah, if this was suggested in the House version, I became aware of it when it was being sent, and we objected that day when we found out it was going to be voted on in the House of Representatives.
So.
No, when I became aware that that language was in the NDAA the day that it was voted on in the House of Representatives, the day of or the day before.
So I think I don't know whether people thought that that was language that was going to be in this proposal, but I'm just telling you when I became aware of it.
unidentified
Thank you, Senator.
What's your level of concern that the House passed a version of the bill couldn't actually pass the Senate?
Is it possible or probable?
And secondly, what would the consequences of that?
Look, I think the rest of the House passed bill is going to pass the Senate.
It's going to pass the Senate with strong bipartisan votes.
There are important provisions in the NDAA that I support, that I'm sure Senator Cantwell supports.
But this provision, which was airdropped in at the last minute, has the support of nobody, and it is indefensible.
And so in my view, we should strip it out.
And the House, it would require the House to pass it again, but that's a fairly easy thing.
They had over 300 votes the first time to pass it, so they would easily pass it again, and we could put it on the president's desk by the end of the week.
How is it that we're in this situation to begin with?
How did we have Route 4 and military helicopters on the same flight path, or at least the ability to be within a few hundred feet of each other?
And how is it that when a rule was written saying everybody had to have this kind of broadcast system so planes could know where they were, the military asked for a rare exemption from it, which I don't even know if I would have granted that, not in the same corridor as the Route 4.
No, no.
I would personally, no, I would not be saying that helicopters and planes should be within 300 feet of each other ever, period.
Why?
Like, it's just too much to pull off.
It's just too much to pull off.
So why wasn't that corrected?
Why didn't people catch that?
And then when they used it all the time, you know, we had an infamous letter dropped off at my office that kind of let the cat out of the bag.
That was from a whistleblower from the region who had sent a letter to Eleanor Horms Norton asking the military, I think it was two or three summers ago, asked the military what was their use of it.
And the military wrote back in the letter to Eleanor Horms-Norton, we give this, we use it this way all the time, meaning we never tell people where we are.
And so that was like a huge wake-up call for us.
We had no idea that that kind of route and that kind of proximity even existed.
But then to find out that apparently the military, even though it testified before the FAA in a rulemaking that it was going to be very rarely used, basically changed their mind and was doing it that way all the time, 100% of the time.
So this system, it's got to get tightened up.
It's just, we need, as you can see from this most recent incident that Senator Cruz mentioned at the beginning of his remarks, I don't know exactly what's happened, but I know this, it's not acceptable.
So you either have different corridors that commercial flights aren't flying in, but you don't have corridors where military aircraft and planes are flying and then not letting each other know that they're in that space.
We just can't have that.
So we just had an incident over the weekend.
So what are we doing to get a better system so that the flying public feels safe about this situation?
And pilots aren't surprised, because clearly the JetBlue pilot was very surprised.
I would tell you that Secretary Hegseth, who I've spoken to several times about it, had committed to me that he would not oppose the Rotor Act.
At the same time, I think there is career bureaucracy in the Pentagon that is resistant to any changes.
And I will say, we had a hearing in this committee, in fact, in this committee room sitting almost exactly where you are now, was the Army general in charge of aviation who refused to hand over the memorandum governing when they would use ADS-B out.
And ultimately, Senator Cantwell and I had to threaten issuing a subpoena to the Army.
And I'll tell you, I reached out to Secretary Hegseth and said, look, this is stupid.
Don't make me subpoena the Army.
Just give us the damn memo.
And they did finally.
But I do think that there are career bureaucrats who are just reluctant to change anything.
And I think that is not a position that is remotely defensible in the light of day.
One, in the NDA, this provision of studying the ability of the Army to retrofit helicopters of ADSD, do you think that was the motivation for the delay the ADS-B requirements things that are built?
And can you address what Secretary Duffy said, which is that we had any controls in the airspace?
He's not going to allow helicopters near BCA to talk about these ADSP or television.
Is that enough safeguard, do you think, while the NDA goes on attack?
I'm pretty sure we're going to hear from Jennifer Homody and the NTSB that they think there are some issues related to helicopter altimeters.
So Senator Cruz and I are a solution that works and is effective, but we also want to see what else they come up with because there are military helicopters all over the United States.
And if they're going to have altitude altimeter issues, then we want to know what that looks like and what they're going to do to fix it.
But we also want FAA to make sure it's taking this into consideration.
So no, I think there's just no amount of detail here that I think the larger question for everyone is how much interface between military and commercial aircraft there really was at key airports across the country.
And what are the separation issues?
And how do we get a good handle on that?
And obviously the standard that everybody's agreed to, this ADBS out and in issue has been around for more than a decade.
Literally was put into the previous law saying get this implemented and people have pushed it off.
So the military obviously doesn't want to do this, but we have to have a resolution and we need an aggressive FAA to force them and we need a Congress to force them into a resolution.
Let me say also the Rotor Act is explicitly supported by the Trump administration.
When the Rotor Act was first introduced, I stood at this podium and next to me was Secretary Duffy, the Secretary of Transportation, explicitly supporting the legislation.
Next to me was Administrator Bedford, the administrator of the FAA, explicitly endorsing the legislation.
As I mentioned, Secretary Hegseth has committed to me that the Department of War would not oppose this legislation.
When we voted on this on committee, every single Republican voted yes, every single Democrat on the Commerce Committee voting in favor of the Rotor Act were the Senate Majority Leader and the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee both voted in favor of it.
And so there is a wide, wide range of agreement.
This is a committee that runs the ideological gamut from very conservative senators to very liberal senators.
And all of us came together and said, requiring ADSB in and out so that aircraft can see each other so that they don't crash into each other and we're not back here with another press conference with different families mourning their loved ones.
This ought to be easy.
And that's why I hope this week the Senate does the right thing.
Yeah.
Look, both are options.
I'm moving to fix.
I want to fix this problem.
And so procedurally, there are multiple possibilities, Senator.
Cantwell and I are engaging in those conversations.
Majority Leader Thune and I are engaging in those conversations.
And so the precise procedural vehicle for fixing this problem, there are multiple.
My objective is to fix it.
My objective is to fix it so that we don't see another horrific crash like we did in January of this year.
Yeah.
unidentified
Senator, I know you had tried to get the Rotor Act into the NDAA.
I'm just curious why that part of it didn't happen.
Coming up Tuesday morning, we'll discuss this week's votes on the future of health care subsidies, Ukraine, and other news of the day.
With Texas Republican Congressman Keith Self, chair of the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe and a member of the Freedom Caucus.
Then the Hudson Institute's Brigham McCown on attempts by the House to vote on a bill to accelerate permitting for energy projects.
Also, Harvard Institute of Politics John DeLa Volpe talks about the Institute's new poll on young Americans and their concerns about the future.
C-SPAN's Washington Journal.
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On Tuesday, the head of the Federal Aviation Administration, Brian Bedford, will testify before Congress for the first time since his confirmation in July.
He's expected to answer questions regarding FAA regulations, aviation safety, and issues facing the nation's air traffic control system.
Watch live at 10 a.m. Eastern on C-SPAN 3.
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President Trump signed an executive order classifying fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction.
During his Oval Office remarks, the president also weighs in on the weekend shootings at Brown University, his lawsuit against the BBC, and the death of actor and director Rob Reiner.
This came during a ceremony to recognize service members deployed to the U.S. border with Mexico.
We had a long discussion, and things are seemingly going well.
We had, as you know, settled eight wars, and one was having a little problem yesterday, Thailand and Cambodia.
We were able to straighten that out.
There was some killing going on that shouldn't have happened.
And we appreciate them working to get it straightened out, and they have.
The security protocols yesterday were amazing, and they have been amazing, having to do with Russia and Ukraine.
And I had a long talk with President Zelensky.
Also, I spoke with the heads of Germany, Italy, NATO, Finland, France, the United Kingdom, Poland, Norway, Denmark, and the Netherlands.
We had very long and very good talks.
And again, I think things are going along pretty well.
27,000 soldiers were killed last month.
Shouldn't happen.
Should never happen.
Should have never started.
That war should have never ever started.
But it did, and we're trying to get it solved.
That was Biden's situation.
We're trying to get it done.
And I think we're closer now, and they will tell you that they're closer now.
We had numerous conversations with President Putin of Russia.
And I think we're closer now than we have been ever.
And we'll see what we can do.
We want to save a lot of lives.
We sell equipment to NATO.
We don't spend any money, but we do want to see if we can save a lot of lives when you're losing 25,000 to 30,000 soldiers, mostly soldiers, other people too, from towns, like places like Kiev, various other places throughout Ukraine.
It's pretty bad.
Nobody's seen anything like it, actually, since World War II.
But we're getting closer.
We're having tremendous support from European leaders.
They want to get it ended also.
And at this moment, Russia wants to get it.
And the problem is they'll want to get it ended and then all of a sudden they won't.
And Ukraine will want to get it ended and all of a sudden they won't.
So we have to get them on the same page.
But I think that's working alone.
Very good talk.
On day one of my administration, I signed an executive order making it core mission of the United States military to protect and defend their homeland.
And today, we're here to honor our military men and women for their central role in the protection of our border, something that I campaigned very, very strongly on.
And they made me look really good.
They were unbelievable.
They made us all look good.
I mean, we went from having millions of people pouring over our border to having none in the last eight months, none.
In a few moments, we'll officially recognize their service by awarding them the Mexican Border Defense Medal, which is a big deal.
We're joined for this occasion by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Attorney General Pam Bondi, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Dan Kane, Commander of U.S. Northern Command, General Gregory Geo,
Commander of the Southern Border Task Force, Major General Scott Noman, Command Sergeant Major Brett Johnson of the U.S. Army's 10th Mountain Division, Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Agency, Terry Cole, and many other members of our administration who have done an incredible job on the border.
You know, people forget now that the border has been secure for actually seven months, think of it, more.
And they don't mention the border anymore.
Nobody talks about the border.
They talk about affordability, and we're the ones that are bringing the prices down.
We were given the worst inflation in our country's history, and we're bringing the prices down.
But the affordability is on the Democrats because they have made it unaffordable to be in this country.
But we're bringing those prices down, and they're coming down quickly.
Energy is coming way down, and if you look, gasoline prices are hitting in many locations $1.99 a gallon.
Nobody thought they'd see that.
They were $4, $5, and $6 a gallon under Biden.
In the four years before I took office, our southern border was surrendered to criminals, drug cartels, human traffickers, and child smugglers.
Our entire southwest border on the Mexican side is under the physical control of cartels that are among the most violent entities.
Nobody's ever seen anywhere on the planet the most violent people on the planet.
Remember when the Democrats and others, the radical left, used to say that the people they're allowing into our country, immigrants, are nice people.
They're not violent like our people.
Well, they make our people look like babies.
These are some of the most violent criminals anywhere on earth from many countries, not just Venezuela.
Venezuela emptied their jails into our country, but others have also.
The Congo has.
So many other countries have.
And we don't put up with it.
I have to say the drugs coming in by sea are down 94%.