July 24, 2025
Remarks as prepared for delivery
Mr. President, I am honored to rise here on the Senate floor for the first time.
Each time I enter the Senate chamber, I’m humbled to walk in the footsteps of the Pennsylvanians who came before me—from Founding Father Robert Morris to Simon Cameron, from Joseph Clark to John Heinz.
It was the namesake of the Commonwealth, William Penn, who said, “Patience and diligence, like faith, remove mountains.”
In my short time here in the Senate, I have found these words to be of comfort. At this moment, our circumstances and fellow countrymen require us to “remove mountains,” and to do so with great haste.
I would also not be here today without the patience, love, and example of my parents, Jim and Maryan.
I’m also so grateful for the love, encouragement, and belief in me by my incredible wife, Dina, who is in the gallery today. She believed in me when few others did. Finally, we are so grateful for the love and support of our amazing six daughters through two hard-fought campaigns.
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Mr. President, I chose to rise today for the first time because something miraculous happened last week in Pittsburgh, the city that Dina and I are proud to call home.
In the middle of the so-called “Rust Belt,” President Trump, members of his Cabinet, the CEOs of the world’s leading energy, technology, and investment companies, labor leaders, and political leaders from both parties gathered at Carnegie Mellon University to commit over $90 billion in new investments—investments that affirm Pennsylvania’s central role at the crossroads of America’s energy and AI revolutions.
The projects announced at the inaugural Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit will bring enormous benefits to communities across the Commonwealth.
New data centers and power plants in Northeast Pennsylvania. Data centers and hydroelectric power in York and Lancaster Counties. New natural gas power capacity in Western Pennsylvania. And plans by Pittsburgh’s iconic Westinghouse to begin constructing ten large nuclear reactors by 2030.
For Pennsylvania workers, this will result in tens of thousands of jobs for skilled labor, including electricians, welders, steamfitters, machinists, and countless other trades. And many more indirect jobs supporting these projects will come to Pennsylvania communities.
And perhaps most important, the significant media focus on the Summit allowed Pennsylvania to tell its unique and compelling story to the world.
Last year, President Trump and I promised to make America energy dominant, to secure our nation’s AI leadership, and to create jobs and opportunity for working families in Pennsylvania and across America.
Last Tuesday, it was clear to all that we are delivering on those promises.
These investments come at a defining moment not only for Pennsylvania, but also for the future of our great nation. Embracing the AI revolution and achieving energy dominance will require us to once again build in the United States.
In the process, we can revitalize the American Dream for all Pennsylvanians, and all Americans, by training and deploying workers across our economy, from the trades, to engineers, to our finest scientists.
The stakes could not be higher: If the United States does not rise to this challenge, we risk putting our future in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party—which seeks to dominate the industries and technologies that will define the 21st Century.
This is a competition we must win. It is a moment that demands leadership, sound policies, and, yes, bipartisan cooperation to ensure our future prosperity.
That’s what the Summit in Pittsburgh was all about: Bringing together the President and his team along with leaders who can seize this moment, and chart a course forward to build the infrastructure, talent, and technology required to lead America’s next chapter of growth and opportunity.
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Mr. President, I’ll come back to the significance of the Summit in a few minutes, but let me step back for a moment and describe the journey that has brought me here today.
I am a seventh-generation Pennsylvanian, born in Washington County, and I grew up in a small town called Bloomsburg in Northeastern Pennsylvania.
I spent my Friday nights on the wrestling mat in high school gyms from Shikellamy to Shickshinny, from Selinsgrove to Schuylkill Haven. I spent my summers baling hay and trimming Christmas trees with my high school buddies, many of whom are still close friends today.
This upbringing, like for so many generations of Pennsylvanians, taught me the timeless lessons of toughness, hard work, and resilience.
My senior year in high school, I was nominated to the United States Military Academy at West Point, the first kid from Bloomsburg to attend the Academy in decades. There, I learned three words that General MacArthur called the “rallying points” for every cadet: “Duty, Honor, Country.”
Three years after graduating, I saw these words put into action when I deployed with the 82nd Airborne Division to Saudi Arabia, and later Iraq during Operation Desert Storm.
Following the Army, I joined and eventually led a successful technology company in Pittsburgh. I served in several positions in the government at the intersection of national security and our economy. And I led, as CEO, one of the world’s great global investment firms.
But, Mr. President, nothing I have done compares to the honor of serving as the 54th senator elected from the Keystone State. I am also proud to be the 9th senator in American history who is a graduate of West Point.
I decided to enter the political arena because America is a Superpower in Peril.
I gave up a successful business career because I could see that despite the strength and spirit of the American people, our future is threatened by a cycle of stagnation, disillusionment, and decline.
The American Dream is out of reach for far too many families in Pennsylvania. And the Chinese Communist Party is actively subverting America’s economic and military power.
Breaking that cycle, and focusing on the renewal of our nation, is the only way forward. I felt a calling to do my part in fulfilling this mission.
President Trump uniquely grasped this challenge.
He saw the struggling communities next to shuttered steel mills along the Monongahela River, on the outskirts of Pittsburgh.
He understood the devastation in small towns like Bloomsburg—50 miles from Scranton—where the Magee Carpet mill once employed more than 2,000 workers, including the parents of many of my high school classmates. It is now occupied by a mere two hundred.
Like the President, our fellow citizens saw the thousands of brave men and women who fought for two decades in the endless wars in the Middle East. Too many returned home with broken bodies or troubled minds, like Michael Wargo of Lehighton, the son of our dear friends Michael and Sally.
They lost Michael to suicide years after he returned from a tour in Afghanistan. I share their heartbreak and disbelief that 18 veterans still take their own lives every single day.
Finally, we all saw the wide-open southern border bringing millions of illegal immigrants into our towns and cities, and violent crime, and deadly fentanyl into our communities.
More than 4,000 Pennsylvania families lose a loved one to fentanyl overdose each year. One of those families is that of my good friend, Blair County Sheriff Jim Ott, who lost his 33-year-old son, Josh, to the scourge of fentanyl.
Mr. President, last year I heard these concerns over and over again from my fellow Pennsylvanians at hundreds of campaign stops I made across the Commonwealth.
In November, the people spoke. Pennsylvania voters gave President Trump and me a mandate for change. They wanted a dramatic turnaround from four years of open-border policies, soaring prices caused by reckless spending, and weak leadership on the world stage that emboldened China, Russia, and Iran.
After only six months, Mr. President, the results speak for themselves. President Trump, with the support of Congress, has made enormous progress.
Illegal border crossings are at record lows, with more resources on the way.
The One Big Beautiful Bill just delivered and made permanent the largest tax cut in American history for working families. And U.S. economic indicators, across the board, are getting better by the day.
And we are making America safer.
We are rebuilding our military. President Trump ordered a flawless attack on Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities so the Mullahs can never wield a nuclear weapon. And we are working to end the Russia-Ukraine War, while preserving Ukraine as a free and independent country.
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Mr. President, as senator, my job is to deliver for the people of Pennsylvania, whether they voted for me or not. We’re going to have some tough fights in this chamber. This year, we’ve already had many.
But when I look back on my time serving the people of Pennsylvania here, I want to be able to tell my children and my grandchildren that I worked with anyone, regardless of party, who shares the goal of delivering results, and much-needed change, for Pennsylvania and our nation.
That’s why I’m so appreciative of my collaboration with my colleague and friend, Pennsylvania’s senior Senator, John Fetterman. Despite our differences, we have found a way to work together on critical issues, such as fighting anti-Semitism at home and abroad.
In the months and years ahead, I hope to serve my constituents not only inside this chamber, through legislation, hearings, and votes, but also outside this chamber by using my platform, my voice, and my leadership to bring about meaningful change.
That’s why I began today by talking about the Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit.
Our vision for the event came from a realization that Pennsylvania sits at the crossroads of America’s energy and AI revolutions.
Yet, the key political, business, and labor leaders had never been brought together in one place to make things happen.
I highlight the Summit not because it’s an answer to all the problems we face, but because it exemplifies the key ingredients we need as a country at this unique moment.
This moment demands bold, innovative leadership across the political spectrum to build the coalitions required to tackle these challenges.
This moment demands a willingness to discard conventional wisdom to improve the lives of our fellow countrymen.
This moment demands embracing partnerships between our nation’s public institutions and the private sector, where much of the innovation takes place.
And this moment demands urgency, moving at the speed necessary to overcome the obstacles facing working families each and every day.
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Mr. President, I have the privilege of representing the birthplace of our nation during its 250th year.
But the Keystone State’s special place in American history extends far beyond our nation’s birth.
In the summer of 1787, Philadelphia gave our young nation new life at the Constitutional Convention.
As Benjamin Franklin emerged from the Convention, he famously said the United States would be “a Republic, if [we] can keep it.”
More than 100 miles to the west at Gettysburg —almost 100 years later—the Civil War put Franklin’s warning to the test.
On that hallowed ground, Abraham Lincoln told his audience to be: “dedicated to the great task remaining before us,” that task being the preservation of our Union.
Our nation’s history, and Pennsylvania’s history, are full of such significant milestones. Today, we face another make-or-break moment for America’s future.
I’ve seen our country at its best, from the brave men with whom I served in Iraq, to the merchants along the streets of vibrant small Pennsylvania towns, to the farmers whose ploughed fields dot our Commonwealth’s beautiful countryside.
And I’ve witnessed, firsthand, our uniquely American ability to get to the edge of the cliff in times of national peril, and then pull ourselves back.
We can do it again. A bright future can and should be ours, but it depends on what we do next.
We must confront the difficult tasks ahead while staying true to the values and ideals that have made America “the last best hope of man on earth.”
What I can say with certainty today, standing in this esteemed chamber, is that this senator—and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania—can be counted on to do our part.
Thank you.
Mr. President, I yield the floor.