[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 12]
[Issue]
[Pages 15929-16171]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]
[[Page 15929]]
SENATE--Wednesday, December 7, 2016
The Senate met at 9:30 a.m. and was called to order by the President
pro tempore (Mr. Hatch).
____________________
PRAYER
The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Today's opening prayer will be offered by
Elder D. Todd Christofferson, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve
Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt
Lake City.
The guest Chaplain offered the following prayer:
Let us pray.
Our Father who art in Heaven, we bow before Thee this day, the 75th
anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, and remember with soberness
and humility the sacrifice of so many who have offered their lives to
preserve our liberty. We pray that Thou wilt bless their descendants
and sustain the vital institutions of our government that this precious
liberty may be preserved through the generations to come.
We ask Thy blessing upon the U.S. Senate and each of its individual
Members this day and in the days and months ahead. Grant them the
wisdom and judgment they seek in the disposition of all matters that
come before them. Honor their desire to contribute to the well-being of
the people of this Nation and indeed those of all nations who may be
influenced for good by their decisions.
We thank Thee for Thy abundant mercy and constant blessings upon us.
In the Name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
____________________
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
The President pro tempore led the Pledge of Allegiance, as follows:
I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of
America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation
under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
____________________
RECOGNITION OF THE MAJORITY LEADER
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Paul). The majority leader is recognized.
____________________
LEGISLATION BEFORE THE SENATE
Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, the continuing resolution was filed in
the House yesterday. As we wait for the House to take the next step, I
encourage all Members to continue reviewing the legislative text, which
has been available for some time.
The Water Resources Development Act legislation has been filed in the
House as well. This is bipartisan legislation that will strengthen our
Nation's infrastructure and commerce while investing in the safety and
reliability of our drinking water. As colleagues know, it includes, let
me repeat, aid for families in Flint.
As we wait for final passage in the House, I encourage Senators to
keep doing our part to ensure that we can bring WRDA and its assistance
for Flint over the finish line as soon as possible.
On another matter, I am pleased the 21st Century Cures Act bill will
pass this afternoon with significant support from both sides of the
aisle. This medical innovation bill will help foster solutions when it
comes to heartbreaking illnesses such as Alzheimer's, opioid addiction,
mental health disorders, and cancer--heartbreaking illnesses that
affect our families, friends, and constituents. This is one of the most
meaningful bills we will pass this year, and it would not have been
possible without the hard work of colleagues such as Chairman
Alexander, Senators Cornyn, Hatch and Cassidy, and of course along with
Ranking Member Murray.
Let us also again recognize Vice President Biden for his work on the
Cancer Moonshot initiatives, which have fittingly been renamed for Beau
Biden in this legislation. I will have more to say about the Vice
President when he joins us again this afternoon, but for now I look
forward to passing the 21st Century Cures Act today.
On another matter, we will have another important vote this
afternoon. It is a vote to move forward on the national defense
authorization conference report.
We all know the world the next administration will inherit is a
difficult and dangerous one. There are many threats. There are numerous
national security challenges, and there is much to be done to better
prepare our military and the next administration to deal with them.
That is what this bipartisan national defense legislation aims to do.
It will help strengthen our military posture. It will send clear
messages to both our allies and our adversaries, and it will provide
more of the tools our servicemembers need to be successful. It makes
clear that we must also pass the continuing resolution that includes
funding for the war against ISIL and for our forces in Afghanistan.
We have already seen the consequences of failing to take the
necessary steps to confront our national security challenges. It is
another reason we need to move forward and pass this defense
legislation so we can take forward-looking steps now to help take on
these challenges and support our men and women in uniform.
____________________
75TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ATTACK ON PEARL HARBOR
Mr. McCONNELL. Of course, Mr. President, it is fitting that we are
talking about the bravery of our servicemembers on December 7. Today
marks the 75th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, a date that
FDR rightly predicted ``will live in infamy.'' It is a time when we
reflect on the meaning of this day for our country and for our
military, a time when we remember all those who sacrificed on our
behalf, and a time when we recognize the men and women in uniform
currently serving to keep our country safer.
Through the years, one of my greatest experiences has been the
opportunity I have had to meet with distinguished Kentucky veterans as
they visit Washington through the Honor Flight Program. I know many of
our colleagues do the same thing when veterans from their States come
to town.
Today I ask our colleagues to join me in remembering all those who
served and sacrificed so much and in thanking our men and women in
uniform who are stationed around the world this holiday season.
____________________
TRIBUTE TO KELLY AYOTTE
Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, ``God gave us two ears so we would
listen more than talk.''
It is a simple phrase that many of us have likely heard before, but
to Senator Kelly Ayotte, it is the best piece of advice she says she
ever received, and it is a proverb she has lived by during her time in
the Senate. In fact, it is how she got her start here in the first
place.
As New Hampshire's first female attorney general, Kelly listened to
the concerns of those around her. She heard their concerns about the
direction our country was going, about the numerous security threats
facing our Nation, and about out-of-control spending. She could have
just sat on the sidelines as these problems escalated--it certainly
would have been the easier choice--but she chose to jump in the game
and work to solve them instead. From day one, Senator Ayotte rolled up
her sleeves and got to work. As the most prominent New Hampshire
newspaper put it, she has never been a ``freshman back-bencher,'' she
has been a dynamo from the start.
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I can't say I was surprised. I still remember the first time I heard
about Kelly. It was from our former colleague Judd Gregg, who told me
about this rising star in New Hampshire. Boy, was he right. It didn't
take long for everyone to reach a similar conclusion.
Kelly is tough, she is a problem solver, and she is a fighter.
Senator Ayotte doesn't view the challenges of this job as obstacles
either. She prefers to call them opportunities. She says: ``It's how
you react to those bends in the road that will make the biggest
difference in your life.'' During her 6 years here, she has clearly
made a difference in the lives of a lot of others as well.
Senator Ayotte has helped make a difference as a champion for jobs
and as a champion for the economy. As someone who has helped start a
small business, she knows firsthand how regulations can stifle growth.
She fought to cut through the redtape and the burdensome rules. She
cosponsored a law to help small businesses expand and refinance, and
she worked to strengthen manufacturing and support job training.
Senator Ayotte has helped make a difference as a leader on combating
opioid abuse. As a former prosecutor who has been among the loudest
voices drawing attention to this horrible epidemic, she knows how
devastating it has been in her State and across the country. She worked
with first responders and families to figure out how to address this
heartbreaking challenge. She sponsored and helped pass comprehensive
legislation that will help us tackle it. Now, in no small part because
of her efforts, we will pass critical funding this very week that will
help our communities begin to heal.
Like New Hampshire, my home State of Kentucky has been among the
hardest hit by this epidemic. It has been a privilege working with my
friend to help do something about it.
Senator Ayotte has helped make a difference as an expert on national
security issues too. This military spouse didn't need someone to tell
her what it means to serve nor what it means for veterans and their
families. She mastered the issue almost overnight. She fought for
language in the VA reform legislation to expand choice when it comes to
veterans' health care. She helped prevent dangerous Guantanamo
terrorists from being moved to U.S. soil, and she has long spoken out
about the threat posed by Iran. She just voted to extend some critical
sanctions against the regime last week, and Senator Ayotte has helped
lead efforts to counter its ballistic missile program for years.
It is clear she has been a leader on national security issues right
from the start. I was proud to have Senator Ayotte join me and other
colleagues on a congressional delegation I led to the Middle East not
long after she took office. It was evident then what a difference she
would make on these important matters. She has regularly joined in
efforts with two other leading voices in our conference on defense,
too, Senators McCain and Graham. Together, they are the ``Three
Amigos'' or, as our former colleague Joe Lieberman might point out, we
should really call them the ``Three Amigos 2.0.''
Either way, here is what is clear. It is an equal partnership, one of
mutual respect and trust, one that has strengthened our conference and
defense policy, and one that I am sure Senators McCain and Graham would
tell you has enriched both their Senate work and their lives. I am sure
many other colleagues feel exactly the same way.
Senator Ayotte set out to make an impact. She clearly made one on her
State, her country, for her constituents, and her colleagues, but I
know Senator Ayotte would tell you the most cherished moments of her
life aren't those spent in classified briefings or on congressional
delegations, they are the ones spent with her family--with her husband
Joe and their two children, 9-year-old Jake and 12-year-old Kate. They
have always been her biggest fans. They are a constant source of
comfort and support. Sometimes they like to jump in on the action
themselves.
In fact, Kate recently made a cameo--alongside her mother--in an ad
featuring the two shooting hoops and practicing layups. From what I
hear, Kate may even have her sights on a future in politics. She once
advised her mom not to run for President.
Senator Ayotte was taken aback. She said she wasn't planning on it
but wondered why she would ask in the first place. Well, Kate replied:
``Because I want to be the first woman President.''
I guess it is true what they say, the apple doesn't fall far from the
tree. It is not surprising when you consider the example Kelly Ayotte
has set, not just for Kate but for so many others as well. If anyone
can do it all, it is Kelly Ayotte. From sports practices and Lego
competitions to 5Ks and trips to the largest lake in New Hampshire, the
time with her kids is what truly brings Kelly joy.
As all of you know, this job can make you appreciate the little
things even more. It is why you will never hear her complain about
waiting in the pickup line at school. It is why she enjoys spending her
weekend grocery shopping at the Market Basket, probably picking up the
ingredients for Grape-Nuts pudding--whatever that is. Apparently, it is
one of Kelly's favorites. I will just take her word for that.
I wish to acknowledge what a privilege it has been getting to know
Senator Ayotte and working with her over the past few years. Her impact
has been immeasurable, her friendship indisputable. I know she has made
her family proud as well.
I want to conclude with a mantra that Kelly and Joe rely upon when
facing a challenge: ``Brush the dirt off and get back in the game.'' It
is a good reminder for each of us. I feel confident in saying that
Senator Ayotte will be back in the game, looking out for her State and
making our country stronger and safer no matter where her next journey
leads.
____________________
TRIBUTES TO DEPARTING SENATORS
Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, finally, as each session of Congress
comes to a close, both leaders traditionally pay tribute to the
retiring Members of their own parties. This year is a bit different, of
course, with the retirement of the Democratic leader. So in addition to
what I will be saying about him tomorrow, I figured I might shake
things up just a bit more, just this one time. I figured I would tell
my colleagues about two colleagues from across the aisle who have made
their own mark on this Chamber for many years.
barbara mikulski
The first colleague I wish to speak about is from Maryland. Some call
her Senator Mikulski, some call her Senator Barb, but everyone knows
this: She is tough. It explains how she got here in the first place.
You see, Barbara Mikulski had a lot of dreams growing up. She wanted
to be a scientist. She wanted to be a nun. She even wanted to be an
astronaut. And if not for a ``C'' in chemistry, a vow of obedience, and
the thought of wearing a flight suit--or so we have heard--she probably
could have done all of those things. But Senator Barb chose a different
path--or rather all of them at once. You see, you don't have to work in
a lab to champion science research; you can serve as the lead
Democratic appropriator on the Commerce-Justice-Science Subcommittee.
You don't have to put on a habit to look out for others; you can serve
as dean of the Senate women and cultivate mentorship among your
colleagues. And you certainly don't have to blast into space to blaze a
trail--something this longest serving female Member of Congress knows
very well. It wasn't an easy road getting here. It wasn't an easy road
when she got here. No Democratic woman had ever been elected to the
Senate in her own right before Barbara Mikulski. But, as she said on
the stump, ``I might be short, but I won't be overlooked.'' And, boy,
she hasn't been. I doubt she ever will be. Maybe it has something to do
with the mantra she follows: Do or do not--there is no try. No surprise
that this ``Star Wars'' fan is taking advice from Master Yoda.
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She has learned a lot from others, too, like her great-grandmother,
who emigrated from Poland with hope and little else--hope that her
family might one day experience this country's many freedoms and
opportunities. I know she would be proud of her great-granddaughter
today, proud of this crime novelist, this crab cake gourmet, this
senior Senator from Maryland.
So here is what we have come to know about Senator Mikulski: Her word
is her bond, she is a passionate advocate for the causes she supports,
and good luck stopping her once she puts her mind to something.
Barbara Boxer
You could say the same thing about another Barbara I know too.
Senator Boxer, like her colleague from Maryland, is hardly the tallest
Member around here, but she is not in the habit of getting overlooked
either. The Boxer box helps with that, of course. It is what she stands
on at press conferences to give her just a little more height. And,
yes, if that sounds familiar, that is because it is that box which once
served as inspiration for an episode of HBO's ``Veep.''
It is a good thing our colleague has a sense of humor. She
understands how far that can go around here. She has often relied on it
through her years in the Senate, in fact, including when she announced
her retirement via rhyme: ``More than 20 years in a job I love,'' she
wrote, ``thanks to California and the Lord above.'' You get the
picture. It goes on, but here is the key line: ``As long as there are
issues and challenges and strife, I will never retire, `cause that's
the meaning of my life.'' That sure sounds like the Senator Boxer I
know.
It is not always easy to find common ground around here. It takes
hard work. It takes negotiation. It often takes those intangibles too--
like comic relief. So enter Senator Inhofe. I am really going to miss
the Jim and Barbara show when it comes to an end next year, especially
after such a storied run over at EPW. One day, she is the boss; the
next day, it is he. They are the best of pals; they are the fiercest of
rivals. They work together on everything; they agree on almost nothing.
It sounds like the premise for some buddy comedy from the 1980s, but
here is what it really is: a political masterstroke.
This unlikeliest of partnerships led this year to the first
significant environmental reform law in decades. It also led this year
to Senate passage of a waterways infrastructure bill that will support
important projects across our country. And while some may refer to
Boxer and Inhofe as the ``oddest of Senate odd couples,'' here is what
I would call them: pretty smart.
I remember Senator Inhofe always telling me how much he enjoyed
working with Senator Boxer and how there were things they could
actually agree on, so I made a note of it and kept an eye out for an
opportunity of my own. It finally happened in this very Congress.
Senator Boxer and Senator Inhofe and I worked together to pass the
longest term highway transportation and infrastructure bill in nearly
two decades. This isn't something the critics thought could be done. We
each harbored our own doubts. Yet, a bill that repeatedly threatened to
come apart actually never did. As Senator Boxer put it, it was ``the
impossible dream.'' And it succeeded because we worked in good faith,
because we came together, and because we focused on the areas where we
did agree and not just the ones where we didn't.
That is what happens around here when the Senate is working the way
it should. We see colleagues from opposite sides working through
political differences and coming together on solutions for the American
people. Perhaps that is one reason why nearly a quarter of a century
later, Senator Boxer says she is leaving the Senate with a full heart.
I know she is leaving with the respect of many of her colleagues, too,
including some she might not have expected when she first came.
Let me finish with some advice Barbara Mikulski gave to young Barbara
Boxer as she contemplated her first Senate run. ``If you run,'' Senator
Mikulski said, ``it will be the toughest thing you will ever do,'' but,
she added, it will also be ``the best thing you will ever do.'' I think
this is something we can all relate to regardless of which party we
belong to and regardless of which State we come from. At the end of the
day, we all came here to accomplish things for the people we represent,
even if we have different ideas on how to do them.
So, thankfully, there should be no disagreement over this next task.
I ask all Senators to join me in recognizing our colleagues for their
service and to join me in wishing them good luck as they begin the next
chapters of their lives.
____________________
RECOGNITION OF THE MINORITY LEADER
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Collins). The Democratic leader is
recognized.
____________________
TRIBUTE TO PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA
Mr. REID. Madam President, I apologize to Senator Boxer and Senator
Mikulski. They are going to give their final speeches, but I would like
to have this opportunity to speak a few words about President Obama. Of
course I will be here for their full speeches.
It is hard to imagine today, but it wasn't that long ago that Barack
Obama was a little-known Illinois legislator with a very unusual name.
I still remember the first time I heard that name. I was in the House
gym, where Members congregated, and one of the people I shared the room
with was Abner Mikva, a longtime Illinois Congressman, an appellate
court judge, and President Clinton's chief legal officer.
I had known that Republican Senator Peter Fitzgerald decided not to
run for reelection after one term. Judge Mikva turned to me and said he
knew the perfect person to fill that open seat.
I said: Who could that be?
He said: Barack Obama.
I said: What?
He said: Barack Obama.
I said: Who? What kind of a name is that?
He said: He is one of the most talented people I have ever met in all
of my years.
That said a lot to me, even though at that time I smiled and left the
room.
It didn't take long, though, before I understood what Abner Mikva
said to me. Barack Obama won that election in the Senate. He came from
nowhere, a man with an unusual name, but once he was here, it was
obvious he was the real deal. His ability to communicate was, and is,
stunning. I can remember one of the first floor speeches he gave here
in the Senate on George Bush's policy regarding the Middle East war. It
was eloquent, thoughtful, powerful. I was so impressed that following
his speech--there had been a quorum call--his seat was way back there,
and I walked up to him and I said--he was sitting, I was standing
looking over him, and I said: Senator, that was really terrific. That
was really good.
I will never forget his response. Without hesitation, without any
braggadocio, no conceit, but with humility, he looked up to me and
said: I have a gift.
It wasn't a boast; it was a fact. I have never met anyone with the
ability to communicate as well as Barack Obama. Whether it is in his
writing, speaking to huge crowds of tens of thousands of people or
small crowds, or someone on a one-on-one basis, he is without equal
when it comes to communicating.
His reputation was well known even before he came to the Senate. He
had written a book--a bestseller called ``Dreams from My Father''--a
decade before arriving here in the Senate. Like his 2006 book--also a
bestseller--called ``The Audacity of Hope,'' this book was full of
lyrical and insightful writing.
In ``Dreams from My Father,'' he outlined the remarkable story of his
life we have all come to know. Born in Kenya in faraway Africa was his
father. His mother was from Kansas. He was raised by his grandparents
in Hawaii. His mother and grandparents set positive examples for him.
They pushed
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him to always do better, to be the man he was born to be. That
upbringing would serve him well.
Barack Obama went to some of the most elite schools in the world. He
was an undergraduate at Columbia, where, of course, he was an honor
student, then Harvard Law School. He graduated with distinction. He
made history as the first African American to be elected president of
the Harvard Law Review. Just to be a member of the Harvard Law Review--
having gone to law school myself--is significant, but he was the No. 1
guy in that very prestigious law school. Even then, his reputation for
bringing people together and his gift of communication were renowned.
He continued to excel after law school. He became a professor of
constitutional law at one of America's great law schools. He became a
community organizer, as he has spoken about a lot. He became an
Illinois State senator before giving one of the most dramatic
convention speeches in American history at the 2004 Democratic
Convention in Boston.
Throughout it all, his ability to communicate and connect with people
fueled his ascendancy. Those skills made Barack Obama a terrific
Senator, and they have greatly benefited our country over the past 8
years.
In just a few weeks, Barack Obama will finish his term as the 44th
President of our great country. He will be leaving office. I don't know
if I am leaving with him or if he is leaving with me. I guess I leave a
few days before he does, but we are leaving together. I cannot think of
a better person with whom to leave public service than Barack Obama.
For 8 years I was his point man, and it has been an honor and an effort
of pleasure.
What this man accomplished, despite unprecedented obstruction from
the Republicans, is remarkable. History will remember President Barack
Obama's many accomplishments. I don't want to get the Presiding Officer
in trouble, but it was because of her and two other Republican Senators
that his first congressional session was remarkably historic. We wanted
to do more, but this good woman presiding over the Senate today said:
Enough is enough. We had to retract some of the things we wanted to do.
It was hard, but I do say this: It would not have happened but for the
Presiding Officer.
President Obama saved the country from economic collapse, ushering in
a new era of growth. Since 2010, the economic recovery has added more
than 16 million private sector jobs. Median household incomes have
risen significantly. The unemployment rate is now 4.6 percent. In some
States, like the State of Nevada, it is more than 14 percent. President
Obama brought the American auto and manufacturing industries back from
the brink of collapse with unique programs--Cash for Clunkers--and more
than 800,000 new manufacturing jobs since 2010. The auto industry has
added almost 700,000 jobs since 2009. Domestic production of
automobiles doubled from below 6 million units per year to 12 million
per year in 2015.
President Obama brought health care to tens of millions of Americans
through the Affordable Care Act. Every day, we learn how important this
bill has been. We heard from the very conservative American Hospital
Association today that doing away with ObamaCare would bankrupt the
hospital industry. We would lose over the next few years almost $200
billion. Through the Affordable Care Act, 21 million more Americans now
have affordable health care. The uninsured rate is at an all-time low,
and 92 percent of Americans now have coverage. Insurance companies
cannot deny coverage and charge more to cover people with preexisting
conditions.
How many of us have gone out to our home States and had people with
tears in their eyes say: You know, Debbie has been sick since she was a
little girl with diabetes, and now, for the first time in her life, she
can have health insurance.
Insurance companies can't discriminate anymore against anyone because
of their gender. All women were discriminated against before. Every
American with insurance has access to preventive care without cost
sharing. That means no copays for immunizations, cancer screenings,
contraceptive coverage for women, diabetes screenings, or blood
pressure and cholesterol tests.
President Obama held Wall Street accountable. He signed into law the
most comprehensive Wall Street and financial reform legislation since
the Great Depression. His administration established a new watchdog to
help protect consumers from unfair financial practices. He signed
legislation into law that protects homeowners from mortgage fraud.
President Obama took more action to protect our planet from a
changing climate, including the historic Paris Agreement.
I met yesterday with Native Alaskans. It was scary to talk to a
Native Alaskan woman. In her town of 800, people are having trouble
getting in and out of the town. She told me the animals are confused
because the seasons are changing.
The caribou have traveled for 20,000 years, we believe, 3,000 miles
to migrate every year. They walk in single file, not in large herds
jammed together. She said they are having such difficulty. They used to
be able to walk over the ice. They can't. There is no ice. They have to
swim.
President Obama made the largest investment ever in renewable energy.
He tripled wind power and increased solar power by 30 times, creating
more than 200,000 jobs in solar alone, with hundreds of thousands more
jobs in the next few years.
President Obama protected more than 260 million acres of public lands
and waters. That includes more than 700,000 acres in Nevada with one
order that he signed called the Basin and Range National Monument, a
place where John Muir came looking around for special places in
America. He camped in hills in the Basin and Range. Hopefully, some day
every Senator can go to this magnificent place in the desert. It has
taken 40 years to build. One man has done it, a famous artist by the
name of Michael Heizer. It is called the City. It is stunning. When I
talk about 40 years, it wasn't work done on weekends. It was days,
weekends, overtime, and large contingencies of people he directed. This
magnificent thing in the middle of the desert is now protected forever.
President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama have made our Nation's
children a top priority. In 2010, President Obama signed a bill into
law to fight child hunger and improve school meals to ensure children
receive the nutrition they need to have healthy, successful futures.
President Obama made strides on education. Our Nation's high school
graduation rate is the highest in the history of our country. He
reformed student loan programs, increased Pell grants, made student
loan repayment more affordable, and expanded loan forgiveness for
graduates who enter public service professions.
President Obama granted deferred action to immigrant youth who would
have qualified under the DREAM Act, bringing nearly 800,000 young
people out of the shadows.
President Obama made our country more inclusive. He signed the repeal
of don't ask, don't tell. He signed Executive orders protecting LGBT
workers. Americans are now free to marry the person they love,
regardless of their gender.
As Commander in Chief, President Obama brought bin Laden to justice.
These are just a few aspects of President Obama's storied legacy, and
it is still growing--what a record. It is a legacy of which he should
be satisfied. America is better because of this good man being 8 years
in the White House.
I am even more impressed by who he is as a person than who he is as
President. He is a man of integrity and honesty. I have learned so much
from him. I have never heard Barack Obama denigrate anyone, ever. There
have been times he could have. Perhaps, I thought a negative word
should have been said and I suggested that to him, but he would never
take it. No, he wouldn't do that. That is Barack Obama.
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Above all, I admire the attention he has given his family. He may be
President of the United States, but nothing gets in the way of his
family. He is a terrific husband to Michelle and an outstanding father
to Sasha and Malia. He arrives home for dinner with his family
virtually every night he is in Washington. He goes to their plays and
games. President or not, he is a husband and a father.
His devotion extends to his staff as well, and he has had a terrific
staff working for him. I can't mention all of them, but I will mention
his present Chief of Staff, Denis McDonough. He and I have a very close
relationship. Close relationships come with a lot of difficulty
sometimes. It has been tough, but we tried to work through it together.
Pete Rouse is one of the nicest people I have ever known. He also
worked with the President very closely. He was his chief of staff as
Senator, and, of course, a chief adviser when he was in the White
House.
Rahm Emanuel, now the leader of Chicago, IL, was former Chief of
Staff, and is currently mayor of Chicago. He is a man known for his
bluntness and his productivity as a Member of Congress and as Chief of
Staff.
Alyssa Mastromonaco was former Deputy Chief of Staff and I hope that
I had something to do with the romance that wound up with her marrying
my chief of staff, David Krone.
These are just a few of the incredible people I have had the pleasure
of working with. They are all wonderful.
Then there is President Obama's Cabinet--a Cabinet of quality. That
includes my friend, Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar, a wonderful man
and a terrific public servant, a man of substance like no other ever
known.
After 8 years leading the country, President Obama is leaving office
on a high point. When he first took office, our country was in an
economic free fall and hemorrhaging jobs. Now the country is
experiencing the longest streak of private sector job growth ever. We
have the lowest unemployment rate in nearly a decade.
After 8 years of President Obama, we are now as a country on a
sustainable path to fight climate change and grow renewable energy
sources. We are more respected around the world. We reached
international agreements to curb climate change, stop Iran from
obtaining a nuclear weapon, and we are on the path to normalizing
relations with our neighbor Cuba.
Our country has made significant strides in nearly every way. There
is no doubt that the United States is better now than we were 8 years
ago, and we have Barack Obama to thank for that.
Thank you, President Obama, for being the person you are.
____________________
RESERVATION OF LEADER TIME
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the leadership time
is reserved.
____________________
TSUNAMI WARNING, EDUCATION, AND RESEARCH ACT OF 2015
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will
resume consideration of the House message to accompany H.R. 34, which
the clerk will report.
The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:
House message to accompany H.R. 34, an act to authorize and
strengthen the tsunami detection, forecast, warning,
research, and mitigation program of the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration, and for other purposes.
Pending:
McConnell motion to concur in the amendment of the House to
the amendment of the Senate to the bill.
McConnell motion to concur in the amendment of the House to
the amendment of the Senate to the bill, with McConnell
amendment No. 5117, to change the enactment date.
McConnell amendment No. 5118 (to amendment No. 5117), of a
perfecting nature.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from California.
Farewell to the Senate
Mrs. BOXER. Madam President, this is a moment for me that, I think it
is fair to say, I will never ever forget.
I am so honored. I am so honored to have members of my family here,
staff from past and present from both my personal office and committee,
extraordinary colleagues whom I adore and love, whom I worked with,
fought with and debated. I am so honored that Senator McConnell and
Senator Reid have said really nice things about me. I think, in Senator
Reid's case, we go back so long, and I will talk a little bit more
about that. In Senator McConnell's case, we didn't talk for a long
time, and then we did get together and we did some great work together.
But I think he was here just to make sure I am leaving. My leader over
in the House is here--Nancy Pelosi. I will talk about her more. My
colleagues from the House came over in the midst of all their work. I
love them. I have enjoyed working with them.
I look around this Chamber, and I realize the reason I am able to
actually leave is because I know each of you and your passion to make
life better for people, and that is what it is all about.
When I decided not to run for reelection, you know how the press
always follows you around. They said: ``Is this bittersweet for you?''
My answer was forthcoming: ``No way is it bitter. In every way it is
sweet.''
Why do I feel that way? It is because this has been a dream, to be in
a profession that I think is noble, no matter how beaten up it gets,
for 40 years--for more than half my life--and I was able to do every
day what I always wanted to do, which is simply to make life better for
people. I didn't always succeed. Were there frustrations? Yes. Were
there disappointments? Yes. Were there defeats? Yes, many, but every
morning when I woke up, I knew I had a chance to do something good.
As a first generation American on my mother's side, and, most
particularly, as a woman, I never in my wildest dreams imagined that I
could be in the U.S. Senate. It was an uphill battle, and I know I
speak for a lot of people sitting right here who know what I am talking
about.
When I first ran for the Marin County Board of Supervisors in 1972,
it was a Republican landslide year. It was more than tough. I will
never forget one woman I spoke with after knocking on her door. I
introduced myself and said, ``Hi, I am Barbara Boxer. I am running for
county supervisor.''
She greeted me by saying, ``I never thought you would be so short.''
Then, she said she wasn't supporting me because, quote, ``You have four
kids, and you are going to neglect them if you are elected.''
Well, never mind that this was a part-time job just a few minutes
from the house. Never mind that the man I was running against had a
family and a full-time job. Never mind that I actually had two kids,
but she insisted. She said, ``I know you have four kids because I read
it in the newspaper.''
I said, ``Lady, when you give birth, you never forget it, and I did
it twice.''
Well, I lost that seat, but two things helped get me through it. The
first was an article by Gloria Steinem, who essentially said women tend
to take losses too personally. We have to understand that we could be
just a little bit ahead of our time, and we can't give up.
Second, my son Doug, only seven at the time, ignored any attempts to
cheer him up by saying, ``Mom, can you make me a peanut butter and
jelly sandwich for lunch?''
The point is that life goes on no matter how deep the
disappointments. You pick yourself up, and you keep fighting because
this is your country. It is our country, and it is worth fighting for.
I ran again four years later and won. I was eager to get to work on
issues such as:
Afterschool for kids.
Protecting the natural beauty of my county.
Ensuring that a child walking to school would be safe. I put up so
many stop signs to protect kids that I soon became known as the ``Stop
Sign Queen.''
It was local government, and the world was changing. The Vietnam War
was raging. The women's movement was ramping up. The oil companies
wanted to drill off the pristine coast of
[[Page 15934]]
California. Even from my position as a local county supervisor
representing only 40,000 people, I was exposed to these national issues
that would soon require all of my attention.
Tip O'Neill, one of Nancy Pelosi's great predecessors, was known for
his saying that ``All politics is local,'' but the global became local
when Marin County got a Federal grant saying the threat of nuclear
attack is real, and you have to have a plan to evacuate the county in
case there is a bomb dropped in San Francisco. This was in the 1980's.
The Reagan administration, I think, missed the obvious. Getting in a
car on a narrow road to evacuate to Napa or going under your desk was
not going to protect you, so all five supervisors--three Republicans
and two Democrats--rejected the grant. Instead, we mailed an
informational booklet to every household, telling them there was no way
to evacuate from a nuclear bomb; you have to prevent it in the first
place.
During that same period, James Watt wanted to drill off the coast of
California. We put together business people, environmentalists,
farmers, and we said no. The tourist industry joined us, and we stopped
it.
That was my first attempt at very broad coalition building. As
national issues unfolded before my eyes, I had to do more if I really
wanted to stay true to making life better for people.
When John Burton's seat for Congress opened up in 1982, I jumped in.
It was a long shot. And I will always be grateful to the people who
brought me to that dance: working people, environmentalists, children's
advocates. They put me over the top.
After I won this election, I began hearing about the mysterious
disease that was stealing the lives of so many in my congressional
district. I remember feeling so helpless because we didn't know what it
was and what caused it. One thing was clear: AIDS was devastating, and
too many in Washington were not taking action.
When we found out it could be transmitted sexually, I had to go up
against the far rightwing who didn't want to provide any information
about the disease. Yet here I was, a middle-aged mother of two from the
suburbs, talking about condoms. It was uncomfortable, but this would
become my way. In the face of a crisis, never look away, never back
down, and never be afraid.
In the case of AIDS, I got to work with the Chairman of the House
Appropriations Committee, a southern gentleman. He had never heard of
AIDS. He said to me: ``If people are sick, then we must help.'' We got
the first double-digit Federal AIDS funding, and we established an AIDS
Task Force and brought in people such as Elizabeth Taylor and Elizabeth
Glaser, and we fought back. We took it under our wing to solve this
crisis--both adult AIDS and pediatric AIDS.
By that time, I had an extraordinary new partner in the House, Nancy
Pelosi. We immediately bonded. I was so impressed with her passion and
her energy. We remain the dearest of friends to this day. I am so proud
of her. Nancy has changed the face of politics in America, and she will
go down in history as one of the most influential leaders of our time.
Recently--on a recent issue--I was expressing deep disappointment,
and Nancy told me: ``Don't agonize. Organize!'' This was two nights
ago. She is right. When things get tough, that is what you do.
Over the years, the issues kept coming my way and came the way of a
lot of people in this room: the Violence Against Women Act, LGBT
equality, protecting a woman's right to choose, workers' rights,
protecting the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act, and the Safe
Drinking Water Act. Those are all examples. These fights continue, and
they keep coming whether you are in elected office or not. They come to
you if you are a single parent trying to raise a child and struggling
to make ends meet on a minimum wage that is not fair. They come to you
if your kid gets asthma. They come to you if your job has been
outsourced and you have nowhere to turn. They come to you when college
tuition gets out of reach.
Whether it is happening to you or someone else, the great thing about
our participatory democracy is each of us has a chance to make a
difference. You can make a difference by holding an elected office or
working for someone who does. You can make a difference by working for
a campaign. You can make a difference by starting a business and
employing good people to help you build it. You can make a difference
by becoming a teacher, a nurse, a firefighter or a police officer.
There are so many noble ways to make a difference in America. The one
thing you cannot do, even when it is tempting: You cannot turn away--
never. The forces and the people who shape you cannot be ignored. I say
to everybody within the sound of my voice that you have it within you
to step out and make your mark.
A lot of young people come up to me and say, ``I would love to do
what you do. How do I become a U.S. Senator?''
I am sure a lot of us get that question.
I always say, ``It is not important to be something; it is important
to do something.''
If you choose my path and the path of many in this room, I want to be
clear: You will need mentors and you will need friends like two of
mine--John Burton and Barbara Mikulski. John encouraged me to run for
the House, where he had always been a fighter for those without a
voice.
Barbara had been my friend in the House and encouraged me to run for
the Senate. When I went to see her, she said, very simply: ``Go for
it.'' That and $40 million--that was good advice. And I did. Senator
Mikulski is everything a Senator should be. She is intelligent, caring,
always focused, and as an added bonus, she can have you in stitches. I
am so grateful for her guidance and, most important, her friendship.
I launched my campaign for the Senate. It was very difficult. No one
predicted I would win. I was less than an asterisk in the polls. I was
filled with doubt. Coming to my aid was my senior Senator, Dianne
Feinstein. She stood by my side, even though it could have cost her
votes. I will never, ever forget that. Thank you, Dianne.
I also need to pay tribute to Anita Hill because without her, I never
would have been elected to the Senate. Anita Hill courageously told her
story to the all-male U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, breaking the
silence on this painful issue. In addition, people saw there were only
two women in the Senate.
Anita Hill, you showed us all that we must never be afraid to take on
the powerful. It certainly isn't easy, but if you learn to be tough in
the right way, you can find the sweet spot, even in this atmosphere
where the parties have grown so far apart. This is one of my biggest
regrets--how far the parties have grown apart, especially when it comes
to the environment.
Remember, Richard Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency.
He signed the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and the Endangered
Species Act. George H.W. Bush signed the extension of the Clean Air
Act. Many Republicans led the charge for environmental protection. Now,
unfortunately, protecting the environment has become a divide where we
truly duke it out.
As I leave here, I intend to do everything in my power to work to
bridge that divide because we all live on one planet. It doesn't matter
what party we are. We all breathe the same air. We all want our
families to be healthy and live on a planet that can sustain us and all
of God's creations. In this time of deep division, we have to find
areas to work together.
I think I found a proven formula in my relationship with my friend
and chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, Senator Jim
Inhofe. We never surprise each other, even where we disagree--ever. Our
word is our bond to each other. We found that we could work as a
winning team to build and strengthen our Nation's infrastructure, and
we have made incredible progress for the American people on those
issues--long-term highway bills, long-term water bills
[[Page 15935]]
and the first update on the Toxic Control Act. That was a doozy for us.
I will never forget that battle.
Transportation turned out to be a sweet spot between Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell and me. We hadn't talked seriously for 20 years because
of the Packwood case. It was: Hello, hello. That was it. But we did
come together to save the Highway Trust Fund at an urgent time.
Our work together surprised so many of our colleagues, but I think it
surprised the two of us more than anything else. But it worked because
we set aside all of our past legitimate divisions in order to rescue
America's transportation system. We took a risk, and the risk paid off.
And, of course, all of my colleagues helped make that possible.
Also, I want to mention my Republican counterpart on the Ethics
Committee, Senator Johnny Isakson, because when it comes to ethics, we
have proven there is no room for partisanship. All we want to do is
make sure the Senate is a respected institution. Friendship and trust
with Members on both sides and in the House of Representatives--I am so
proud so many of you are here--that is the only way to get things done.
Having a leader who has your back is essential. A good leader knows
and understands each member of his caucus and where they draw the line.
Harry is so humble. Whenever you talk about him, he puts his head down.
Harry, could you just look at me for a second?
A good leader knows when to speak up and when to listen. A good
leader knows when to pick up the gloves and fight like hell. That is
what Harry Reid has done. He is not a show horse; he is a workhorse.
He is a soft-spoken man. How many of us have to say: Harry, could you
speak up? He is a soft-spoken man of a few words, but he chooses his
words wisely, and he chooses his fights wisely. He doesn't seek the
spotlight. When it comes to standing up for what is right, he is right
there when others try to slip out of the room.
Harry has not only been an extraordinary leader and colleague, he and
his wife, Landra, have been close and treasured friends of me and my
husband, Stewart. I call him the brother I never had, and he calls me
the sister he never had. He treats me like a sister; he always hangs up
on me when I call him. And he never calls on me when I madly wave my
hand at caucus. You know, I am like a sister. You don't have to worry,
the love will be there. I am forever grateful for his leadership and
his friendship.
Another quality of Harry Reid is that he encouraged women to run for
the Senate. Once we got here, he made sure we had major
responsibilities. Harry, you will go down in history for that.
I am, of course, ecstatic that my successor is Kamala Harris, who
served as attorney general for my State with great distinction and who
will continue the tradition of having a strong, progressive woman in
this seat.
Kamala, you heard it here--a strong, progressive woman in this seat
is what we need.
As I wind down my remarks, I must be completely honest about my
broken heart. I worked hard, along with so many millions of Americans,
so that we would have our first female President. It was not to be this
time, but we made history with Hillary Clinton, the first female
nominee of a major party, who, I might add, won the popular vote by
millions and still counting. She truly shattered the glass ceiling and
showed that women had the ability to take it on the chin again and
again.
My message to everyone who supported Hillary is, the work goes on.
Yes, you build on success and you learn from failure, but you never
stop working for human rights, civil rights, women's rights, voting
rights, children's rights and the environment. I certainly don't plan
to stop.
I am not only fortunate to have had this extraordinary career, but I
am also so fortunate to be going home to a State that stands for
everything I believe in.
I wish to thank every one of my staffers--those who worked for me in
Washington, either on my personal staff, committee staff, those who
worked for me in the State, and those who helped me get elected. A lot
of them are here today. Without them, I never ever could have done my
job, and I never could have accomplished the things I have accomplished
that I am proud of.
I also wish to thank the floor staff. The floor staff never gets
thanked enough because they deal with us when we are very nervous. They
have to deal with us when we are about to have an amendment come up or
about to vote on something and need to understand the rules and our
rights.
To Gary and his team, Trish, Tim, and all of you--thank you.
When I look back on everything I fought for, there are more than a
thousand accomplishments, and I am certainly not going to talk about
all of those, but I am going to, briefly, very fast, go through 10 of
my favorites. The first afterschool programs that were funded by the
Federal Government, covering more than 1.6 million kids every day; 1
million acres of California wilderness preserved; the first-ever
comprehensive combat casualty care center in California for our most
wounded warriors; ensuring that our transportation programs remain in
place for years to come with millions of jobs protected; upholding our
landmark environmental laws, and I hope that continues, but I will not
go off on that; setting clean drinking water standards to protect
pregnant women, children, and other vulnerable people; the dolphin-safe
tuna label; protecting victims of rape in the military from irrelevant,
harassing questions that have already been barred in civilian courts;
establishing the first-ever subcommittee to oversee global women's
issues, which Jeanne is going to carry on; recommending a diverse group
of supremely qualified judicial nominees who are carrying out our laws
in California's Federal courts. There are many more I could talk about,
and we all know this because each one of them is like a child to us and
we remember how hard it was to get it done, but let me be clear, you
don't get anything done here unless your colleagues help you from both
sides of the aisle.
My biggest regret is that I couldn't end the war in Iraq. It hurt my
soul. I came down to the floor every day and read the names of fallen
soldiers. I was accused of being too emotional. I asked probing
questions in committee to expose the fact that we were in the middle of
a civil war. Day after day I made my case, but the war went on and on.
It took President Obama to finally end that war, and I will always be
grateful to him.
Of course, there is unfinished business, and I know my colleagues are
going to carry on. We must restore the Voting Rights Act. We need to
restore trust between our communities and law enforcement. We have to
continue to protect and provide affordable health care. We must take
action on climate change or we are in deep trouble as humankind. We
must protect the DREAMers and immigrants who contribute to our
communities every day. We must raise the minimum wage and ensure equal
pay for equal work. We must protect reproductive freedom and work
across party lines for a safe world.
I have often joked about some of the things that have been said to me
over the years that are too colorful, in a negative way, to repeat
here, but I want everyone to know, whether friend or foe, whether
critic or admirer, I do appreciate the fact that you let me know how
you felt about my work one way or the other.
To close, I will read a handwritten letter I received in October from
one of the greatest jazz musicians in our country, Sonny Rollins, into
the Record. He was recently honored at the Kennedy Center. He wrote in
longhand the following:
Greetings--so so sorry that we are not going to have you
for us anymore. I've always been interested in politics,
marching as a 6 year old with my activist grandmother for
civil rights. It has been such a joy and inspiration knowing
that Barbara Boxer was there for us.
God bless you, your family, and loved ones--And thank you.
You will be missed and we all love you.
[[Page 15936]]
Have a beautiful life, just like you have made life
beautiful for so many citizens.
I wish to thank Sonny Rollins. I don't know him personally. I met him
once, but what he said is all I wanted to do--make life beautiful for
people. I didn't always succeed. I didn't always prevail. I felt the
pain of losing many times, but I can honestly say I never stopped
trying. I was able to do it because of the love, understanding and
support of my husband of 55 years, Stewart, who is here today. He gave
me so much, including the best political name ever. I did it because of
my son Doug, my daughter Nicole, my daughter-in-law Amy, my son-in-law
Kevin, and four incredible grandchildren, Zach, Zain, Sawyer, and
Reyna, and because of the people of California who sent me here time
and time again--10 years in the House and 24 years in the Senate. I had
the opportunity to never stop trying. I had the opportunity to speak
out, and no matter how many times I had to try, I did. Here is the
thing. I have this platform, which is an extraordinary honor. This is a
sacred position, and I say to my colleagues that no matter who says
what about it, it is a sacred position. Hold your head high.
So many here have fought the good fight and will continue to fight
the good fight, and I will always treasure my time serving the people.
They gave me a purpose in my life that I will always cherish. They made
me a better person. They made my life more beautiful than I ever could
have imagined, and for that I am forever grateful.
I thank the Presiding Officer and yield the floor.
(Applause, Senators rising.)
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Coats). The Senator from Oklahoma.
Tribute to Barbara Boxer
Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, that was a very emotional and heartfelt
speech. As I look around, I know there are a lot of people who want to
respond and be heard, but I grabbed it first. This will be real short.
I believe it was the majority leader who gave me a quote this
morning. He made the comment that the two of you agree on nothing, but
you get everything done.
Mrs. BOXER. That is right.
Mr. INHOFE. There is a reason for that. If you stop and think about
it, we came to the House and Senate at about the same time. There are
no two people in this body who are further apart from each other than
Barbara Boxer and Jim Inhofe. Yet we have something beautiful. I
hesitate to show this AP picture of our embrace, but it has to be in
the record here somewhere.
For 12 years, we swapped--back and forth--being chairman of the
Environment and Public Works Committee. I always remember when the
Republicans were in the majority back in--let's see. We lost it in
2006. I remember seeing Barbara, Al Gore, and all these other people
danced in and out the door saying the world is going to come to an end
unless we do all of these things.
At that time, she said something very profound that I never forgot,
and I thought about it for the next 8 years. She said that we look at
things differently. We had an election and elections have consequences.
Remember that elections have consequences. Well, 2 years ago, the
Republicans took over, and I gave her a T-shirt that said: ``Elections
have consequences.'' During all that time, we didn't really change in
terms of what we were doing together. I have a list of the things we
have done that I left someplace, but, nevertheless, we did the highway
bill in 1998 and 2005. All of the things we did actually worked. I
remember when we had a news conference on TSCA. When I looked around, I
saw all of my very liberal Democratic friends and me, and I thought:
Wait a minute. How did this happen?
We have been able to work together and get things done, and I have
been very proud of that. In fact, I shouldn't say this because I am
going to divulge our confidence, but we have meetings just as Democrats
have their meetings. All the chairmen get together, and when it was my
turn to make a statement, I said: Now, from the committee that gets
things done. Anyway, that is the way it has been.
I disagreed with Senator Boxer on a lot of the regulations, and I
have told her many times she has every right to be wrong.
Mrs. BOXER. You do.
Mr. INHOFE. But on the things that were really important, we did
manage to get things accomplished. There is an awful lot of hate around
here, and it is so unnecessary. You can disagree with someone and love
them anyway. I have to say that confession is good for the soul, but I
want my good friend to know I am truly going to miss her around here.
Mrs. BOXER. I thank the Senator from Oklahoma so much.
Mr. INHOFE. I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from California.
Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, the relationship we felt was based on
trust and honesty. We never ever misled each other. I just love the
Senator's staff. I really do. Our staff developed the same type of
relationship that we developed--disagreeing on many things but
understanding that we can work together and find common ground. I just
hope, as I step out the door--Lord knows when that will be, given this
place--that others will form this type of bond across party lines
because without it, things just don't work right.
I want my friend to know it has been a great pleasure to work with
him in every way, shape, and form. One of us is from Venus and one of
us is from Mars, and that is just the way it is. We just see the world
differently, but it hasn't stopped us from putting aside those
disagreements. We were never bitter with each other.
We had a pretty big divide. One person said climate change is a hoax
and the other said it is the biggest threat we have to deal with, but
we knew there was no way we could come together so we kind of put it
aside and didn't let it spoil our friendship or our ability to work
together in any way.
So I think it is a very important message to many chairmen and
ranking members that if there is honesty--set it aside if you can't
work together, but where you can find those sweet spots, do it because
everyone wants--they are cheering us on from the outside. I can't tell
you how many people at home tell me: We don't know how you do it, but
it is great what you and Inhofe get done.
Fortunately, we never lost an election over our friendship, which
could have happened, you know. They could have said: I am not going to
vote for him; he talks to her. But we were able to prove that we can do
it.
So, Jim, I am honored that you came down to the floor. I am honored
that Senator McConnell said such nice things. I am so honored that so
many came to the floor to hear my farewell remarks.
Again, I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Hampshire.
Farewell to the Senate
Ms. AYOTTE. Mr. President, it is with deep gratitude that I rise
today to address my Senate colleagues and members of my staff with whom
I have had the privilege of serving over the last 6 years.
First and foremost, I want to thank the people of New Hampshire for
giving me the extraordinary opportunity to serve them. From Nashua to
Newport, to the North Country, they have inspired me. The people of our
State are hard-working, caring, compassionate people with grit. They
have a fierce sense of independence that I respect and admire. That
spirit has guided me during my time here, and it has been the privilege
of a lifetime to serve them.
I want to thank my family--my husband Joe, my wingman. Joe is a
patriot with a heart of service. That is why he served our country as a
fighter pilot in the Air Force and why he has been my biggest supporter
during my service not only as New Hampshire's attorney general but as a
Senator. We are so proud of our children, Kate and Jake, who are now 12
and 9. My family has sacrificed so that I could serve the people of New
Hampshire, and I am grateful for their patience and love. I also thank
my mother Kathy, who is and always has been my mentor and No. 1
[[Page 15937]]
cheerleader. I could not have done it without her help and that of my
stepfather Jim, my uncle Jack, my aunt Jane, and all of our extended
family who have done so much for us. They made it possible for me to
serve, and there are not adequate words to express how much their love
and support means to me.
I also thank my wonderful and hard-working staff in New Hampshire and
Washington, whose dedication, work ethic, and talent are unparalleled
in the Senate. I am especially fortunate that some of the members of my
staff have served by my side since I was first sworn in 6 years ago. My
staff is dedicated, creative, tireless, and compassionate. I am so
proud of our team and all we have accomplished together. I am confident
that they will continue to work to create a brighter future for New
Hampshire and for our country.
I ask unanimous consent to have a list of their names printed in the
Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
current staff
Kristine Adams, Erica Andeweg, Daniel Auger, Camden Bisson,
Bradley Bowman, John Chambers III, Ryan Clark, Frederick
Dressler, Adam Hechavarria, Kelsey Keegan, Shaylyn Kelly,
Marne Marotta, Myles Matteson, Richard Murphy III, Kayla
Nations, Gabriel Noronha, Taylor Reidy, Samantha Roberts,
Chloe Rockow, Bethany Scully, DeWayne Thomas, Elizabeth
Johnson, Gene Chandler, Jerome Maslan, Cynthia Woodward, Jane
Bosse, Christopher Connelly, Joseph Doiron, Orville Fitch,
Michael Garcia, Eric Hensel, Stephen Monier, John Pearson,
Neva Varsalone, Gretchen Wade, Lauren Zelt, Matthew Bartlett,
Brenda Kittle, Anne Warburton, Kathryn Sullivan.
former staff
Kelcey Raymond, Nathanael Anderson, Robin Anderson, William
Ardinger, Christin Ballou, Benjamin Bradley, Gwendolyn
Cassidy, Thomas DeRosa, Virginia Demers, Dennis Deziel,
Elizabeth Drumm, Danielle Duchesne, John Easton, Robert
Fraser, Robert Ganim, Elliot Gault, Claire Gimbastiani,
Jeffrey Grappone, Elizabeth Guyton, Timothy Hefferan, Brian
Hodges, Kathryn Horgan, Debra Jarrett, Alison Kamataris, Sean
Knox, John Lawrence, Andrew Leach, Emily Lynch, Cathy Myers,
Francy Nichols, Margaret Ouellette, Irina Owens, Kelsey
Patten, Brianna Puccini, Matt Reeder, Wade Sarraf, Michael
Scala, Robert Seidman, Lauren Spivey, Alexander Stanford,
Susan-Anne Terzakis, Simon Thomson, Linda Tomlinson.
Ms. AYOTTE. I want to take a moment to thank the Capitol Police, who
devote themselves to keeping us safe each and every day and who have
become friends to my staff and me over the years. I am so grateful for
all of our first responders who put their lives on the line each and
every day to keep us safe. I also thank the Senate floor staff, the
pages, and everyone who works so hard behind the scenes to make our
work possible here.
During the past 6 years, I have traveled throughout New Hampshire
talking to people from all walks of life, listening to their ideas and
learning from their experiences. I have met so many hard-working people
in our State who have, in turn, inspired me to work hard on their
behalf. True to the nature of our great State, they have never been shy
about letting me know what is on their minds, whether it was at one of
the 50 townhall meetings we held or in the grocery aisle at the Market
Basket. They sent me to the Senate with a sense of purpose. It has been
an honor to fight for them and their families every single day.
One of the most rewarding aspects of my time in the Senate has been
standing up for those who put their lives on the line for our country--
our veterans and our men and women in uniform and their families.
Today, we mark the 75th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. We
are reminded once again of their selfless service and sacrifice on
behalf of our great Nation.
I was honored during my time here to lead the charge to repeal unfair
cuts for our military retirees and to help make progress toward
improving access to local health care for veterans in New Hampshire,
who for far too long have been forced to travel long distances to
receive care from a VA facility because we don't have a full-service
hospital, unfortunately, in the State of New Hampshire. Too often, our
veterans are not treated as they should be, and this has to change.
They have sacrificed so much for our freedom and deserve only the best
from us.
As the wife of a combat veteran who served in Iraq, nothing has been
more important to me than keeping our country safe. That commitment is
deeply personal to me. One of the greatest privileges I have had as a
Senator is to visit with members of our New Hampshire National Guard
and our men and women in uniform who serve overseas and are there now
as we are here today. We pray for their safe return. They make us so
proud. They represent the very best of our State and our country.
As a member of the Armed Services Committee, I have been proud to
advocate for the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and the skilled workers
there who make vital contributions to our national security. This has
been a team effort between New Hampshire and Maine. I thank my
colleagues--Senator Shaheen; Senator Collins, whom I see here today;
and Senator Angus King--for their incredible work in supporting the
shipyard.
I especially want to thank Senator Shaheen for all the work we did
together on important issues for our State. Whether it was advocating
for the shipyard, for Pease and the 157th Air Refueling Wing to receive
the new tanker, for our National Guard, or for our veterans, we always
looked for ways to come together for the people of New Hampshire, and I
appreciate her dedication and service.
Since I first came to the Senate, one of my top priorities has been
reversing the Obama administration's misguided policy to empty and
close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility. Each year I have led
efforts to prevent the transfer of terrorist to the United States, to
our soil here, and to urge the administration to be transparent with
the American people about these dangerous detainees.
As I have called for previously, I hope the new administration will
immediately halt the dangerous policy of releasing Guantanamo
terrorists to other countries where they even rejoin terrorist
activities, and finally establish a commonsense detention policy that
keeps terrorists off the battlefield and protects American lives and
our national security.
We made progress in saving taxpayer dollars at the Pentagon--and I
know there is more work that needs to be done--by ending wasteful
programs, such as the missile to nowhere, and passing the Never
Contract With the Enemy legislation that cut through redtape and helped
prevent tens of millions of dollars from ending up in the hands of our
enemies.
Working with Chairman McCain, I was proud to help lead the successful
effort to help prevent the premature retirement of the A-10 aircraft,
ensuring that our ground troops continue to have the best close air
support possible to keep them safe.
During my time on the committee, I have had the privilege of working
closely with Chairman John McCain and Senator Lindsey Graham to ensure
that America maintains the strongest and best military in the world and
to ensure that our country continues to be the greatest force for good
in the world. There are no stronger voices in this body for America's
leadership in the world, nor fiercer advocates for our men and women in
uniform than Chairman John McCain and Senator Lindsey Graham. Now more
than ever, we need their leadership, expertise, and passion for keeping
this country safe with the challenges we face around the world. I am
honored to have worked with them and, most of all, to call them my
friends.
Serving on the Armed Services Committee has been one of the best
experiences I have had in the Senate. I want to express my gratitude to
all of my fellow committee members because it has truly been a
bipartisan effort each year to ensure our troops have the resources
they need to do their jobs.
I see Senator McCaskill, the Senator from Missouri, here. I have
deeply appreciated the work we have done together on behalf of our men
and women in uniform. Thank you.
[[Page 15938]]
Going forward, it is critical that Congress and the next
administration work together to reverse the harmful cuts to our
military and to ensure that we have a defense budget based on the
threats we face around the world right now, which are unprecedented.
Another issue that has been near and dear to my heart is addressing a
devastating epidemic that is facing the State of New Hampshire; that
is, the heroin and prescription opioid epidemic that is taking a
devastating toll on our State. I have met so many people in New
Hampshire who are hurting because of this epidemic--mothers and fathers
who have lost children, brothers and sisters who have lost siblings.
Many of the families who have been affected have become my dear
friends, like Doug and Pam Griffin of Newton, NH, who lost their
beautiful daughter Courtney, who had so much potential. They lost her
to an overdose.
The Griffins, like so many other families in New Hampshire I have
met, have turned their pain into passion to save our families. I have
learned so much from their experiences. They inspired me to work with a
group of great Senators and my colleagues: Senator Rob Portman, who I
know is here today; Senator Sheldon Whitehouse from Rhode Island; and
Senator Amy Klobuchar from Minnesota. The four of us came together and
worked on what is called the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act.
This bill will provide a much needed framework for addressing this
epidemic through prevention, treatment, recovery, and support for our
first responders, who are doing so much for this epidemic. As a
bipartisan team, we worked on this legislation for more than 2 years.
Our bill passed the Senate overwhelmingly and was signed into law
earlier this year.
CARA will focus on the best programs to help State and locale efforts
in turning around the tide of addiction that is facing so many in this
country. CARA is an important first step, but there is so much more
work that needs to be done. I am encouraged that because of our
efforts, this body has recognized the seriousness of this crisis.
I was particularly glad to advocate for $1 billion in funding to
address the heroin epidemic being included in the 21st Century Cures
Act, which we are expected to pass and send to the President this week.
I thank Senator Lamar Alexander for his incredible leadership in
getting this important public health bill passed. The funding in the
21st Century Cures bill goes hand in hand with the important policy
provisions in the CARA bill and will help save lives in New Hampshire
and across this country.
Finally, I would like to return to the reason I ran for the Senate
back in 2010: to make sure we leave New Hampshire and our Nation
stronger and better off for the next generation. As the mother of two
young children, I was increasingly concerned that, left unchecked, our
skyrocketing national debt would ultimately burden future generations
and diminish their opportunities.
I ran because I believed it was time for New Hampshire to bring some
of its common sense here to Washington to deal with our Nation's
spending habits. On every committee I served on, we looked for ways to
cut wasteful spending and fought to hold the government accountable for
the way it spends our hard-earned taxpayer dollars. It is my hope that
this issue will be at the top of the agenda of the incoming Congress
and the new administration. If there is anything I have learned in my
time here, it is that it takes cooperation from both sides of the aisle
to get things done.
It has been a privilege to serve with so many in this body who care
about our country deeply and work tirelessly each day on behalf of
their constituents.
I am so honored as I see my colleagues who are here today, because I
know how hard you work every day. I want to thank you for what you do
on behalf of the people of this country. I am humbled by what I have
learned from each of you and from each of my colleagues in the Senate
and for the opportunity to serve with so many good people on behalf of
our great Nation. I thank each of you for your dedicated service and,
most of all, for your friendship.
Without leadership here, things just don't get done. I especially
want to thank Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for his commitment to
making the Senate work and to making sure we are doing the people's
business.
On a personal note, I have deeply appreciated his mentorship and his
friendship.
Working with our new President, the Senate has a fresh opportunity to
create a better quality of life for all Americans in this great
country. That means elected leaders will need to work together and put
aside our partisan differences.
During this election, we heard the frustrations of the American
people with their government. They rightly expect this body to move
forward in solving the significant challenges facing our Nation, such
as getting our fiscal House in order, ensuring that families can afford
quality health care without Washington between them and their doctors,
reforming our broken Tax Code so we can keep and grow jobs here in the
United States of America, and foremost, keeping America safe in a
dangerous world.
My hope is that the Members of this body will appeal to the better
angels of our nature, put partisanship aside, and focus on the
challenge of building a more perfect union because the challenges
before us are great and we cannot hope to overcome them unless we do so
working hand in hand. I know my Senate colleagues are people of great
character, and they are up to this challenge. I wish them the very best
as they continue their very important work on behalf of the people of
the greatest Nation on Earth.
To the people of New Hampshire, Joe and I thank you from the bottom
of our hearts for the greatest honor of a lifetime, for serving you and
for the privilege of serving in the United States Senate with so many
good people.
Mr. President, I thank you, and I yield the floor.
(Applause, Senators rising.)
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Sullivan). The Senator from New Hampshire.
Tributes to Kelly Ayotte
Mrs. SHAHEEN. Mr. President, I am pleased that I could be here for
Senator Ayotte's farewell address and honored to have had the
opportunity to serve with her over the past 6 years. Six years ago, I
stood on this floor to recognize another departing Senator from New
Hampshire, Judd Gregg. I said then about my relationship with Senator
Gregg something that is also true about my relationship with Senator
Ayotte: that we always managed to disagree without being disagreeable.
I am grateful to Senator Ayotte for this, and I am proud that we have
been able to maintain that civility and bipartisanship even in the
course of two very close and very tough election cycles. That is the
New Hampshire way--putting partisanship aside whenever possible and
seeking practical, pragmatic solutions to address people's critical
needs.
As she said, time and time again, Senator Ayotte and I have teamed up
to advance legislation of special importance to the Granite State,
including strongly advocating for veterans, for the Portsmouth Naval
Shipyard, and for the New Hampshire National Guard and that new KC-46
tanker. Together, we fought to secure more resources for law
enforcement and treatment professionals who are on the frontlines of
the opioid crisis, including this week important new funding in the
21st Century Cures Act.
I want to publicly express my gratitude to Kelly for her dedicated
service to the people of New Hampshire and, more broadly, the people of
the United States. Over the last 6 years, Senator Ayotte has earned
respect on both sides of the aisle in this body and in New Hampshire. I
know that her husband Joe and their two wonderful children, Kate and
Jacob, are very, very proud of her service in the Senate. Looking to
the future, there is no question in my mind that she will continue to
serve the State and the country she loves.
[[Page 15939]]
Kelly, I wish you and your family all the best in the years ahead.
Thank you.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Arizona.
Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to pay tribute
to my dear friend and colleague, the Senator from New Hampshire, Kelly
Ayotte. I first met Kelly in 2010 when I joined her for a townhall
meeting in Nashua, NH. My affection for the State of New Hampshire
dates back to my bid for President in 2000, so it was a familiar
setting to join so many old friends in support of her campaign for the
U.S. Senate. I was impressed with Senator Ayotte's deep understanding
of the top challenges facing the country, the seriousness with which
she approached her work, and the ease with which she engaged with
members of the audience, gracefully handling spirited debates and
sparring matches with voters--a staple of the townhall meetings in New
Hampshire I always admired. I knew then we would be fast friends.
In the Senate, Senator Ayotte brought the same tenacity to her work,
distinguishing herself as a rising star in the Republican Party and a
leader willing to work across party lines to get things done. Senator
Ayotte has approached every issue candidly and pragmatically--something
that is all too often lacking in politics today. ``I call them like I
see them,'' she once said. ``And that means not just with the opposing
party, but with my own party.'' Senator Ayotte took this mantra on the
road, continuing the tradition of the New Hampshire townhall meetings
by holding more than 50 townhall meetings in small towns and cities
across New Hampshire, where she spoke directly with her constituents
about the issues impacting their families.
But, in my view, Senator Ayotte's best work lies in her contribution
to defense and national security as a member of the Armed Services
Committee. Coming from a military family, her commitment to
strengthening our Armed Forces is deeply personal. That has contributed
to her tireless advocacy on issues important to New Hampshire, to Pease
Air National Guard Base, the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, and to all
military and civilian personnel supporting our national security who
call New Hampshire home.
As chairman of the Subcommittee on Readiness, Senator Ayotte has
called attention to the dangerous readiness crisis and has been a
consistent advocate for making sure the men and women of our Armed
Forces have the resources they need to defend the Nation. She has
authored numerous legislative proposals to eliminate wasteful and
duplicative spending in the Department of Defense so that we can
reinvest the savings in rebuilding our military. She passed legislation
to save over $1 billion in the Pentagon's budget and to keep U.S. tax
dollars out of the hands of America's enemies. She has been a leading
advocate for repealing arbitrary budget cuts and the mindless mechanism
of sequestration which continues to weaken our military and puts the
lives of our servicemembers at greater risk.
Senator Ayotte's fight to prevent the Air Force from mothballing the
A-10 Warthog attack planes showed the very best she has to offer. As
the wife of a retired A-10 pilot who flew combat missions in Iraq and
an expert in defense policy, Senator Ayotte understood the critical
role this aircraft plays in providing close air support for our
fighting men and women. Year after year, she led the fight to prevent
the Obama administration from following through on its plan to retire
that fleet, pushing through measures in annual Defense authorization
bills that would prevent any premature divestment of this aircraft. At
the end of the day, she was right. The Air Force conceded to this
aircraft's value and reversed its decision, delaying any divestment
until at least 2022.
Anyone who has watched Senator Ayotte question a witness in the Armed
Services Committee will not be surprised to learn of her background as
New Hampshire's first female attorney general. I have been a fortunate
observer of more than one occasion in which a bureaucrat withered under
skilled cross-examination by Senator Ayotte. She takes her oversight
role extremely seriously and believes in holding our Nation's leaders
accountable.
In every way, Senator Ayotte rose to meet the responsibilities and
opportunities of her office. There are many qualities that are
important to being a good Senator, but none, in my opinion, is more
important than standing firm for what you believe. That is what Senator
Ayotte has done. She has never wavered in her commitment to principle,
and this body is better for it.
On a more personal note, I have cherished the friendship and
partnership of Senator Kelly Ayotte. The kindness and courtesy she has
extended to her colleagues has made this institution a better place,
and her principled leadership has served as an example to all of us. In
Kelly, you could always find a warm smile that served as a reminder
that serving here is truly a joy and a privilege.
While I will miss Kelly's presence in the Senate, I will continue to
rely on her wise counsel and friendship, and I am confident our Nation
will continue to benefit from her talents for many years to come. With
this in mind, I thank my dear friend and valued colleague, Senator
Kelly Ayotte, for her service to the Nation and this body. And until
the Nation calls on her again, I wish her and her husband Joe and their
children, Katherine and Jacob, fair winds and following seas.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Missouri.
Mrs. McCASKILL. Mr. President, I don't have eloquent prepared
remarks, as the chairman just delivered, but I will tell you this: I
have been lucky enough to be in the trenches with Kelly Ayotte, and
when you are in the trenches with Kelly Ayotte, there is something
about her demeanor that lifts you up. It was a tough fight where we
were outnumbered, particularly by our fellow women Senators, and it was
hard. It was really hard and emotional, and every time I would walk up
to Kelly in full-blown panic mode, this smile would radiate; the
reassuring pat on my shoulder that we have the facts on our side, that
the emotional arguments might be on the other side but the facts were
on our side. It kept me strong and it kept me focused.
I will tell you three things I know in my heart about Kelly Ayotte:
She is a warrior, she is a class act, and she is my friend.
Thank you, Kelly.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from South Carolina.
Mr. GRAHAM. Thank you very much.
Mr. President, I just want to attest to Claire and Kelly--if I go to
war, I want to go with you all because when the bullets fly, you get
tougher. I love all my colleagues, but sometimes the stress of the
debate wears you down pretty quickly. The more contentious, the better
you were.
So, Kelly, the best way we can pay you back is to keep up the fight
and make sure that we have a fair military justice system and that
commanders are accountable but they are still in charge.
An observation: For people with young kids, this has to be a tough
job. I don't have any children, but I can't imagine the schedule if you
have young kids. I have gotten to know Kelly, Joe, and Kate and Jake,
and I can only imagine what it is like for Joe to be a single parent 3
days a week, running a business, trying to get kids off to school. I
can tell you from being Kelly's friend--and John and I have traveled
all over the world with Kelly--that was a constant strain for her. I am
sure it is true of every young mother in America doing any job, but
having to be gone and having to balance the needs of her kids and being
a mom and a wife and all that good stuff--all I can tell you, for you
and Joe--if you meet Kate and Jake, you all did good. If you meet these
kids, it has been an enriching 6 years. They are full of life. I think
you both handled it very well.
You should be proud of the long list of things you have accomplished.
But I guess what I saw in you and what I wish more of us would embrace
is an
[[Page 15940]]
attitude that nothing is too hard, nothing is too challenging if you
really believe you are here for a purpose.
You didn't talk about immigration. I don't blame you. The immigration
fight is one of the hardest fights I have ever been in, particularly on
our side. It is not easy on your side, but on our side it is really
tough. Kelly was there pushing over the line a bill that I think made a
lot of sense.
The debt. Everybody talks about it, but nobody wants to do anything
about it. We have had a couple of sessions with 10 and 20 Senators
trying to find a way to get more revenue and do entitlement reform,
something like Simpson-Bowles. If you don't do that, the country is
going to become like Greece. Every time we had a meeting, every time we
had a session about doing hard stuff, Kelly was there.
I remember sequestration. Jeanne Shaheen and Kelly Ayotte were two of
the six Senators trying to find a way to set aside these defense cuts
in a balanced approach without destroying the military.
I think what you should be most proud of is that you served for 6
years and your kids are great, that you made a lot of friendships that
will last a lifetime, and that your best days are yet to come.
You can tell the people of New Hampshire--or I will tell them for you
if they can understand me. Apparently they couldn't because I didn't do
that well when I ran for President. The bottom line is that Kelly never
blinked. She went into the sound of gunfire. She took on the hardest
challenges. She did it with style and grace, and everybody in this body
is better off for having met Kelly Ayotte.
I look forward to working with you for years to come. The three
amigos are now two, and there will never be a third amigo like you.
I yield.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Ohio.
Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, we have heard a lot of wonderful things
about Kelly Ayotte today and all are deserved. You notice they have
come from both sides of the aisle, and they come from Members who were
talking about her expertise on national security--as John McCain did
eloquently--and homeland security.
I certainly have worked with her on those issues. I was with her on
the Armed Services Committee when I first came to the Senate, and we
are on the Homeland Security Committee now. She has been a champion for
those issues, there is no question about it. She has helped to keep our
country safer, and legislation that she has championed will help to
make it safer for our kids and grandkids.
I have also worked with her on other issues, and I wish to talk about
that for a second. One is this way in which we as a Chamber can ensure
we are creating more jobs, being more energy independent, helping the
environment, and that is energy efficiency. She has been a leader on
that issue.
Jeanne Shaheen and I have legislation that we are still working to
get all of it done, but we have gotten some of it done, and Kelly
Ayotte was a huge part of that. In fact, her legislation on Tenant Star
is now law of the land. It is helping to make commercial buildings and
office buildings, more energy efficient. Again, it has the added
benefit of creating jobs and making the economy stronger while
improving our environment. That is what she has led on as well.
I have also worked with her on issues you would expect someone who is
a national security expert to lead on. Iran sanctions, she has taken
the lead on some of the issues that resulted in the incredible vote we
had on the floor of this Senate just a few days ago when virtually
every Senator voted to extend those sanctions, but I have worked with
her on another issue that has nothing to do with our national security;
it has everything to do with our family security. It has to do with
ensuring that people have the opportunity to achieve their God-given
purpose in life. It has to do with stopping the deterioration of our
communities, families being torn apart, and the enormous impact we have
seen of the opioid epidemic. Starting often with prescription drugs,
often leading to heroin--now synthetic heroins such as fentanyl,
carfentanil, and U-4, these are very difficult issues.
I have seen no one in this Chamber who has a greater passion for this
issue than Kelly Ayotte, and it comes out of experience. It is borne of
experience of walking around New Hampshire communities with families
who have lost a loved one. Earlier she talked about befriending a
family who had lost their beautiful daughter to this horrible epidemic.
It comes from going to the treatment centers and seeing the people who
are in the trenches, saving lives, and improving lives. It comes from
talking to those who at one point had great promise in their lives and
got off track, seeing those people in a detox unit as she has done or
seeing them in a treatment center or, promisingly, seeing them now in
recovery and beginning to get their lives back together.
This is not an issue of Republicans or Democrats. It is not an issue
that is political. It is an issue that is in the heart of Kelly Ayotte
because it affects the communities she knows in New Hampshire, the
people she loves in New Hampshire, and now, sadly, our Nation.
On that issue, she has led, not just to draft legislation--and she
talked about the CARE legislation which is going to change the dynamic
and get the Federal Government to be a better partner with State and
local and begin to turn this tide--not just the Cures legislation,
which does have funding for the next 2 years to try to stop some of
this horrible growth in addictions, overdoses and deaths, but she has
done this house-to-house, family-to-family, person-to-person back home
to give people hope and to help gather the support in communities
around New Hampshire to fight back. She will continue to do that. She
is not doing it as a U.S. Senator. After all, she is doing it as a mom,
she is doing it as a citizen.
I am looking forward to continuing to work with her on that issue as
well as the other issues we have talked about today. Her public service
career is not over; in a sense, it is really just beginning. I know she
will be active on the national security issues, on fighting against the
heroin epidemic, on ensuring that we continue to have a safer and
stronger country. I, for one, look forward to working with her on that.
I thank her for her service. I thank her, her kids, and Joe for their
sacrifice because this isn't an easy job. It does take you away from
your family. Yet, in 2009, she decided she was going to serve her
country because she was worried about the direction it was going. She
did that, she did it valiantly, and she deserves our praise today.
Kelly, we are going to miss you, but we also look forward to
continuing to work with you on all of the issues that were talked about
today. Thank you for your service.
I yield back the remainder of my time.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from West Virginia.
Mrs. CAPITO. Mr. President, I am very pleased to be on the floor with
my colleagues today and most especially pleased to be here to honor my
good friend Kelly Ayotte as she leaves the Senate but does not leave
public service.
Believe it or not, I first met Kelly on the softball field when we
were on the Congressional women's softball team. I was in the House,
and Kelly was the cocaptain in the Senate. We raised money for young
survivors of breast cancer. I knew then I wanted to get to the Senate
to be good friends with Kelly because when you talk about being in the
trenches, she was such a competitor.
When you think about a team, a baseball team or a softball team, who
is the toughest person on the team? Everybody wants to say the pitcher.
In my view, it is the catcher. Guess who our catcher was. Kelly Ayotte
was and is, and so we became good friends then.
We found we have a lot of love for physical activities. We are both
runners. We have run a couple of times together. We participate in the
3-mile
[[Page 15941]]
run that we have every May that determines who is the fastest male
Senator, who is the fastest woman Senator. Well, guess who the fastest
woman Senator is. You got it. She just blew right by me every year so I
might have hope next year. I don't know. I will have to check out the
newcomers. But Kelly was always such a great competitor on the softball
field, running in 5Ks, and just being around in general.
As we have heard from everybody, you have served your State with
integrity and passion. I know it is tough on your family. I see Joe in
the Gallery. I have met your beautiful children, Kate and Jake. I have
heard you on the phone planning daycare while the rest of us are
figuring out how we are going to get home that night or what we are
doing in our committees. As a young mother, Kelly is still trying to
make the ends meet. I have such admiration for that as a mother myself.
I know how difficult it is, but I know the three of them know that no
matter if you were here figuring that out, they were always No. 1 in
your heart. I think that is a real tribute to you.
We have heard all of the issues she has been so out front on.
Particularly as I am from a State like West Virginia--the opioid issue
has really impacted our rural areas. When I visited Kelly twice over
the last 6 months in New Hampshire, it was the same kind of impact. It
is small towns, families, people who know each other. It hurts
everybody. Kelly, thank you for your leadership there. That is going to
make not just a mark in your State but across our Nation and in my
State in particular.
We traveled to Gitmo together. I had never been to Gitmo before. To
have an expert such as Kelly explain to me and to hear her question
what is going on there and how important it is and was, she continues
to be in the fight that she led to make sure we don't have terrorists
on our own home soil. The fact that Gitmo is still open and is still
functioning to keep those very dangerous folks off of our shores I
think is a tribute to Kelly's leadership.
In terms of New Hampshire, as you move away from here, I know you are
going to realize how you have impacted the people where you live and in
your home State, but just kind of multiply that all over the Nation. We
have a huge debt of gratitude to you and your family for being here for
6 years, but as I have told you repeatedly since the election, this is
not the last time we are going to hear from Kelly Ayotte or about Kelly
Ayotte. To me, that is a very strengthening thing when I talk about my
friend.
I am not going to say goodbye because I don't think we will be saying
goodbye. I am going to say Godspeed, good luck. You will land on your
feet because you always do. Keep running, I will keep running, and
maybe I can keep running and improve my time so I can at least see the
backs of your feet as you are running past me.
It has been a real privilege to serve with you. It has been great to
be your friend, and I look forward to keeping our relationship very
viable and alive as the time moves on.
Thanks, Kelly.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. Capito). The Senator from Alaska.
Mr. SULLIVAN. Madam President, like my friends on both sides of the
aisle, I, too, come to the floor to say a few words about my friend and
mentor, Senator Kelly Ayotte. I use the word ``mentor'' in actually an
official capacity. When you come to the Senate--and like you, Madam
President, I am part of the new class of 2014. When you come to the
Senate, you are assigned a mentor. I think the idea is that you come
in, you are clueless, you don't really know what is going on, and so
you have somebody who is smart and experienced to mentor you. Everybody
gets a mentor.
I was very fortunate to have Kelly Ayotte as my mentor. I certainly
learned a lot from her. She took the time to help me understand how
this important body works. We talked about things like work life
balance--with somebody such as Kelly who has kids.
It wasn't just those kinds of issues. I had the great opportunity to
serve on a couple of very important committees with Senator Ayotte--on
the Armed Services Committee, on the Commerce Committee--and like my
colleague from Missouri, I really learned a lot watching her in action.
She was always prepared, always engaged, and always tenacious when it
came to certain witnesses. Of course, like a lot of us, we shared
certain passions for our country--certainly a strong national defense.
My State, like a lot of States such as New Hampshire, is suffering
from the opioid crisis. Watching her and Senator Portman literally lead
the country on this issue was so important.
I end by saying what I really learned from my mentor was from
watching the way she dealt with other people, the way she always
treated people with respect, with class, with optimism, and with
dignity. That is probably more important than anything, not only in the
U.S. Senate but in our country.
I thank Kelly as a mentor. She was a great role model not only for me
but all of the 13 Members of the class of 2014. I know she will be
serving her country and her State in a lot more ways. I look forward to
watching that and continuing to call her my good friend.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Sullivan). The Senator from Maryland.
Farewell to the Senate
Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I rise to take the floor for what I call
my summing-up speech. It is not my farewell speech because I have the
honor and privilege of being the ranking member and former chairman of
the Appropriations Committee. I will speak later on this week when we
move the continuing resolution.
It is the practice and the tradition of the Senate that when a
Senator is departing the Senate, they give what they call their
farewell address. Well, mine is not going to be as memorable as when
George Washington resigned his commission or other memorable speeches,
but I do want to say words about how I feel today about having the
great opportunity to serve in the Congress.
I have spent 30 years in the Senate, 10 years in the House of
Representatives, and, yes, 5 years in the Baltimore City Council. I
have served in elected public office for 45 years. More than half of my
life has been in elected public service but, at the same time, all of
my life has been focused on service.
I rise today to thank the people of Maryland. I rise to thank them
for their vote of confidence. When people vote for you, it is not only
that they are sending you to Washington or sending you to city hall.
They are giving you a vote of confidence that you will be their voice,
that you will be their vote, that you will be at their side and on
their side, and that is what I want to be able to talk about today.
The people of Baltimore gave me my first shot at running for the
Baltimore City Council. When I beat the political bosses, when running
for political office as a woman was considered a novelty, they said:
You don't look the part. But I said: This is what the part looks like,
and this is what the part is going to be like. Along the way, so many
people helped me. Behind ``me'' is a whole lot of ``we.''
I got started in public life because of volunteers and activists who,
on their own time and on their own dime, volunteered themselves to not
only help me get elected but to be involved in their communities, to be
civically engaged, to make their community and their country a better
place. These are the people who were behind me. Well, guess what. No, I
was behind them, because they certainly have led the way.
Along the way, there were people who also not only helped me get
elected, but they helped me govern--people who, again, volunteered
their own time. I had a wonderful service academy board that helped me
pick the best and the brightest to serve in our military academies--
people with distinguished careers in either the military or in
education. I had a judicial appointment advisory board that made sure I
helped nominate the best people to serve in the Federal judiciary.
Also, I had a veterans advisory group that brought to me what was
really happening to the veterans, not what was in
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the press releases from the Veterans' Administration. Of course, I had
a fabulous strategy group that functioned as a kitchen cabinet. It was
a kitchen cabinet. We spent a lot of time cooking things up to try to
make our country and our communities better places. So I thank them all
for what they did.
But, when we come here to try to serve the people who sent us here,
we cannot do it alone. So we have a fabulous staff, both that serves us
in Washington and serves us in our State. I wish to thank my current
staff: my chief of staff, Shannon Kula; my deputy chief of staff,
Rachel MacKnight; my State director, Nichelle Schoultz; my legislative
director, Brigid Houton; my communications director, Matt Jorgenson; my
scheduling director, Catie Finley; my office manager, Josh Yearsley; my
appropriations staff director, Chuck Kieffer; and my appropriations
deputy staff director, Jean Toal Eisen; and of course, all of my staff
in my State office who helped me.
There is also the support staff who made sure that the phones got
answered. You didn't get one of those ``call 1, call 2, press 7, press
184,'' et cetera. Also, there are the people who answer the mail,
whether it was snail mail, which so much of it was when I came, or
email, because we really believed that we needed to be here for the
people.
I called their names, but there are also others who filled those jobs
throughout my time in public office. They worked very hard to make sure
that we could represent the people of Maryland and to be on their side.
After 45 years, though, it is time for me to say goodbye to elected
office, but not to service.
I have the high privilege of being the longest serving woman in
congressional history. But I say it is not how long you serve but how
well you serve. For those who know me and have been to rallies and so
on, they know that I say: ``I am here to work on the macro issues and I
am here to work on the macaroni and cheese issues''--to work on the big
picture, to make sure that the people's day-to-day needs were converted
into public policy or, while we are working on public policy, to try to
help our communities.
We also have to remember in our own States that we have constituent
service issues. One of the things I am really proud of is my
constituent service staff, where if you were a veteran and you needed
help or you had a Social Security or Medicare problem, you could call
Senator Barb and you didn't feel that you had to go to a $100
fundraiser or know somebody who had connections. The only connection
you needed was a phone. You didn't even need Wi-Fi. You could just call
me. Summer, winter, spring, or fall, they had Senator Barb. I tried to
be of service because service was in my DNA. I was raised to think
about service.
My mother and father ran a small neighborhood grocery store in one of
Baltimore's famous row house neighborhoods. Every day they would get
up, and they would open that grocery store and say to their customers:
Good morning. Can I help you?
Now, in running that business, they also wanted to be sure that they
were connected to the community. We weren't a big-box shop. We were a
shop for the little people. If anybody was in difficulty, my father was
happy to extend credit. It was called: We will write your name down in
a book. Pay us when you can. Don't worry that you got laid off at
Bethlehem Steel. We know that your wife had a difficult childbirth and
needs this extra stuff. We are here to help.
My father would say: Barbara, deliver those groceries. Take it down
in that little red wagon I got for you. With my little red wagon, I
would maybe take orange juice down to a shut-in, but my father would
say: Don't take a tip. But the tip he gave me was to always be of
service and to treat people fair and square.
The other place where I learned so much about service was from the
nuns who taught me. I had the great fortune to go to Catholic schools.
I was taught by the Sisters of Notre Dame and the Sisters of Mercy.
These wonderful women, who led the consecrated life, taught us not only
about reading, writing, and arithmetic, but they taught us religion and
emphasized the Beatitudes. If anybody reads the Scripture, if you go to
Matthew 5 and you go to the Beatitudes, you know what has shaped us.
One of them is this: Blessed are those who are meek at heart. I had to
really work at that one--really, really work at that one. At the same
time, there were those who said: those who hunger and thirst after
justice. That is what motivated me. It was focusing on the values of
faith, like love your neighbor, care for the sick, and worry about the
poor.
I was also inspired by a motto from something called the Christopher
Movement, where you would help carry the burden. It said: ``It is
better to light one candle than to curse the darkness.'' That is what
was motivating me to service.
You see, we really believed in America in my family, and we really
believed in it in my community. When my great grandmother came to this
country from Poland in 1886, she had little money in her pocket, but
she had big dreams in her heart. Women didn't even have the right to
vote. One hundred years to the year that she landed in this country, I
landed in the Senate. That is what opportunity means in the United
States of America.
I never thought I would come into politics. Growing up in Baltimore,
my family wasn't involved in politics. My family was involved more in
church work, philanthropy, doing good works in the way they did their
business. In Baltimore in those days, there were political bosses--guys
with pot bellies who smoked cigars and did deals, et cetera--and that
wasn't going to be me. I thought I would go into the field of social
work.
But I got involved because they wanted to put a 16-lane highway
through the European ethnic neighborhoods of Baltimore and not even
give the people relocation benefits, and they were going to smash and
bulldoze the first African-American home-ownership neighborhood in
Baltimore, in a community called Rosemont.
I said: Look, we can fight this. We just have to give ourselves a
militant name.
I helped put together a group called SCAR, or the Southeast Council
Against the Road. Our African-American neighbors were on the other side
of town, and they had a group called RAM, or Relocation Action
Movement. Then the citywide coalition had a group called MAD, or
Movement Against Destruction. So you see, I have always had a certain
flair about these things.
So we did take on city hall. But the more I knocked on doors--and our
community did--we weren't heard. So I decided: the heck with it. If I
knocked on a door and I wasn't going to be heard, I was going to knock
on the door to get elected, and that is what I did--knocking on doors,
putting together a coalition, defying the odds, defying what people
said: You can't win. No woman can win in an ethnic, hard-hat
neighborhood. No woman can win who isn't part of the political machine.
And no woman could win who had been active in the civil rights
movement. I said: Guess what. We defied the odds, and we denied the
odds, and that is how I came into public office--a champion on behalf
of the people.
I wanted to come to be an advocate for people to have better lives,
to have better livelihoods and better neighborhoods, to be able to save
jobs and to do what I could to be able to help them. I knew that to do
that I had to show up, stand up, and speak up for my constituents,
staying close enough to the people so they wouldn't fall between the
cracks and meeting their day-to-day needs and the long-range needs of
the Nation.
When I came to the Senate, I was the very first woman elected in her
own right. Though I was all by myself, I was never alone. When I came,
there was only one other woman here--the wonderful and distinguished
colleague from Kansas, Senator Nancy Kassebaum, a wonderful colleague.
When I say I was by myself as the only woman in the Democratic caucus,
I say I was never alone because of the great men that we could work
with in the Senate.
Now, I have had the privilege to work with two of the best men in
America.
[[Page 15943]]
Senator Paul Sarbanes, who was my senior Senator when I came and who
certainly was my champion, helped me to get on the right committees and
convinced everybody that my name was Barb Mikulski and not Bella Abzug.
But I was a little bit of both. As to Senator Sarbanes and now, of
course, Senator Ben Cardin, who also has been at my side, we have
worked together on issues related to Maryland both large and small.
But there were others who taught me, like Senator Byrd, Senator
Kennedy, and others. What it was all about was being able to work for
jobs and for justice.
Though I was the first Democratic woman, I wanted to be the first of
many. I wanted to help women get elected to the Senate and do what I
could to be able to help them to do that. It has been just wonderful to
see that now there are 20 women who are currently serving in the
Senate. One of the great joys has been to work to help empower them so
that they can be a powerhouse. That is why we have those power
workshops that struck fear into the hearts of the guys--not to worry
about us but to keep an eye on us.
I have been proud of what I have learned, taking the values that I
had growing up and trying to put them in the Federal lawbooks, because,
for me, no issue was too small to take up, and no cause was too big for
me to not take on.
I firmly believe that the best ideas come from the people. That is
where some of my greatest accomplishments came from. One of the things
I loved the most was being in Maryland, moving around the State, going
to all of the counties in the State. I loved my Mondays in Maryland,
where I could meet and go into unannounced places like diners. A lot of
people like to do townhalls, and they are terrific, but I like to show
up at a diner, go from table to table to table and not only eyeball the
french fries but listen to what the people have to say.
The other thing that I really liked was roundtables--absolutely those
roundtables--where you could engage in conversation with people and
listen to them, not show off how smart or cool you were. I really loved
doing that. Out of it came some of my first big accomplishments.
When I came to the U.S. Senate, my father was quite ill with
Alzheimer's. My father was a wonderful man. He worked hard for my
sisters and me so that we would have an education. He saw his role as a
protector and provider, and by providing us an education, we could
always take care of ourselves.
When he became so ill and went into a nursing home, I listened to
other families who would come to visit people in long-term care. We saw
that the very cruel rules of our own government were forcing people to
spend down their entire life savings and put in their family home or
their family farm as an asset base. Well, listening to them, Barbara
Mikulski said this: Family responsibility--yes, you need to take
responsibility for your family, but the cruel rules of government
should never push a family into family bankruptcy. So I crafted
something called the spousal anti-impoverishment rules that enable
elderly couples to keep their assets and keep their home. AARP tells me
that since that legislation passed over 20 years ago, we have helped 1
million seniors not lose their homes or their family farms because one
becomes too ill because of that dreaded A-word or Parkinson's or
others. That is what I mean about the best ideas coming from the
people.
Then I also listened to women who worked hard every single day yet
weren't getting equal pay for equal work. Of course we heard it from
Lilly Ledbetter, but we heard it from lots of Lillies, and we heard it
from lots of Roses and lots of Marys and lots of Otanias and lots of
Marias. That is why we worked hard to pass the equal pay for equal work
act.
Working together with Senator Nancy Kassebaum, Olympia Snowe, our
friends over in the House, Connie Morella, Pat Schroeder, we also found
that women were being excluded from the protocols of NIH. The famous
study to take an aspirin and keep a heart attack away was done on
10,000 male medical students, not one woman. So Olympia, Connie, Pat,
Barb showed up at NIH and pounded the table and said: Let's start
practicing good science instead of bad stereotypes and make sure we are
included where we should be in a legitimate, scientific way. Out of
that came the appointment of Bernadine Healy as the head of NIH; out of
that came the Office of Research on Women's Health at NIH; and out of
that came the famous hormone replacement study that Dr. Healy
championed. Then Tom Harkin and Arlen Specter helped us get money in
the Federal checkbook.
One study changed medical practice and lowered breast cancer rates in
this country by 15 percent. Wow. That is what working together does--to
try to save lives a million at a time. That was on women's health.
Then we saw growing concerns about the issue of the high cost of
college. The first mortgage many of our kids are facing is their
student loans. Working together with the other side of the aisle, we
created AmeriCorps, making sure we enabled people to be able to be of
service to our country and earn a voucher to pay down their student
loans.
Then there was a roundtable where I met with parents of special needs
children, and a mother asked me to change the law from ``retardation''
to ``intellectual disability'' because she was being bullied. Well, I
came back here and drafted legislation. Again, on the other side of the
aisle was Mike Enzi, who worked with me to pass that.
Rosa now is a member of the Special Olympics. She wins medals. She
was Person of the Week on TV. That is what Mondays in Maryland means.
It is worth everything to do things like that.
In Maryland, we worked along with Senators Sarbanes and Hardin to
clean up the bay. We worked to make sure our port was viable. We worked
not only on our Port of Baltimore for ships of commerce, but also we
worked on the space community at Goddard. I am so proud of the fact
that I worked very hard to save the Hubble Space Telescope. That Hubble
Space Telescope turned out to be the richest contact lens in world
history. But again, with astronaut Senators Jake Garn and John Glenn
working together, we did it, and it ensured America's premier
leadership in astronomy and in space for years and for several decades.
Over the years, though, I could go through accomplishment after
accomplishment, but one of the things I have learned as my lesson in
life is that the best ship you could sail on in life is something
called friendship. It is friendship that makes life worth living. It
enables life to have the value of giving. That is what friendship is.
When I think about the friends along the way whom I have met both in my
hometown and my State, there are also those who are here, people who on
both sides of the aisle are absolutely so important to me--and the fact
that we have worked on both sides of the aisle.
I spoke about Senator Cardin and Senator Sarbanes. But also on the
Senate Appropriations Committee, it was Senator Shelby and Senator Kit
Bond; we could actually work together. We put our heads together to try
to come up with real solutions for real problems, and we could do that.
The other is not to judge one another because we have a party label.
I am so darned sick of that. In the year of the women, so many came--
like Barbara Boxer and Patty Murray and Dianne Feinstein, also Senator
Kay Bailey Hutchison, who came from Texas. I got a call from Senator
Hutchison one day, and my staff said: Ew, she wants to work with you on
something. Ew, ew. She is a conservative from Texas and she wants to do
something for women.
I said: How about if we listen? Could we start with listening? Could
we start with just listening?
Senator Hutchison had a fabulous idea on IRA contributions. In those
days, if you were in the marketplace, you could put in $2,000, but if
you worked full-time at home, you could put in only $500. What Senator
Hutchison wanted to do was to make it have parity--that old word,
``parity.'' I
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said yes. Our staffs told us not to work with each other, but we were
going to forge ahead.
We went out to dinner to talk over strategy, but we talked together
about our lives, how she got her start, obstacles she faced. We had
such a good time that we said: Let's invite other women. Well, that
became the famous dinners--the famous dinners that the women of the
Senate have. We knew we would never be a caucus because we were not
uniform in our views or the way we voted, but what we wanted to be was,
No. 1, a zone of civility where we would treat each other with respect,
our debates would be observed with intellectual rigor, and when the day
was over, the day would be over. Those dinners have now stood the test
of time, and I am so proud of them.
I have been so proud to work with my colleague, the senior Senator
from Maine, Ms. Collins, who has been such a friend and such an ally.
Though we are not a caucus, we are a force when we can come together.
We have made change, and we have made a difference. That doesn't go
down in the roll books, but I think it certainly should go down in the
history books.
So as I get ready to leave the Senate, what will I miss? Well, I will
never have another job as consequential as this. This is pretty
consequential. The fate of this country, and maybe even the world, lies
in the hands of the Congress of the U.S. Senate.
I will miss the people in the Senate the wonderful professional
staff, but I am also going to miss the doorkeepers, the elevator
operators, the cafeteria workers, the police officers who say: In
helping the one, we help the many. We learn so much from them; I have
learned so much from them.
I learned a lot from the elevator operators. One was a lady of very
modest means who every day would say to me and to all of us, ``Have a
blessed day.'' What a great gift she gave us: ``Have a blessed day.''
Another elevator operator, who himself has recovered from very
challenging health issues, always cheerful, asks, ``How is your day?''
The last thing you could do is to not return a smile. Those are the
kinds of people whom I will always remember, all those helping hands.
So I say to my colleagues now that I will never, ever forget you.
Helen Keller, though she was blind, was a great visionary, and she said
that all that you deeply love you never lose. And all whom I have ever
met have become a part of me; each and every one of you have become a
part of me. Everybody I met along the way, whether it was at
roundtables or the elevator operators, have become a part of me. You
shaped me, and you have helped me become a better person.
So when I wrap up and people say ``Well, what do you think you are
going to do, Barb,'' I will say my plan is not a job description but a
life description. Every day I am going to learn something new. Every
day I am going to give something back. Every day I am going to do
something where I keep an old friend or make a new one. I want to thank
God that I live in the United States of America, which enabled me to do
this.
In conclusion, George Bernard Shaw--I don't know how he would have
felt about me, but he wrote this, and I think it is pretty good. He
said this:
I am [of the opinion] that my life belongs to the [whole]
community, and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do
for it whatever I can.
For the harder I work, the more I live. I will rejoice in
life for its own sake. Life is no ``brief candle'' to me. It
is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the
moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible
before handing it on to future generations.
God bless the United States Senate, and God bless the United States
of America.
(Applause, Senators rising.)
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maryland.
Tributes to Barbara Mikulski
Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, yesterday I had an opportunity on the
floor to talk about Senator Mikulski, but I just want to take 1
minute--because I know a lot of my colleagues want to speak--to thank
her on behalf of the people of Maryland.
Yesterday I was with Senator Mikulski at the inauguration of
Catherine Pugh, our new mayor of Baltimore. As is the tradition on
programs, the senior Senator speaks and then the junior Senator speaks,
so I had the opportunity to speak after the dynamic remarks of Senator
Mikulski. That has been a burden that I have had now for 10 years. As I
pointed out to the people of Maryland, we are losing one of the great
giants and advocates for our State, and that is going to be a great
loss. The only benefit I can see is that I will not have to follow
Senator Mikulski on the program in the future.
We are living part of a legacy, and we know that. We know that what
we do here in the U.S. Senate one day will be recorded in the history
of our country. I know that Senator Mikulski will be mentioned
frequently for her incredible accomplishments here in the U.S. Senate.
On a personal basis, I just wanted to express that my life in the
U.S. Senate has been special. For all of us, being in the Senate is
special, but my enjoyment, productivity, and life in the Senate has
been made so much greater because of my seatmate and friend, Senator
Barbara Mikulski.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. Ernst). The Senator from Maine.
Ms. COLLINS. Madam President, it is with deep affection, admiration,
and appreciation that I rise today to offer my heartfelt
congratulations to our colleague and my dear friend, Senator Barbara
Mikulski, as her service in the Senate comes to a close. As the longest
serving woman in the history of the United States Congress--30 years in
this Chamber, in addition to 10 years in the House--she has earned the
gratitude of the people of her beloved Maryland and of the entire
Nation. That gratitude is based on much more than simple arithmetic,
much more than just how many years she has served here, impressive
though that is. In reflecting on her service, it is difficult to decide
where to begin--her accomplishments, her vision, or her complete
dedication to the people she serves, the dedication that began in that
neighborhood in Baltimore that she describes so passionately today. No
matter where we begin, we end up in the same place--it is all about her
character.
Perhaps the best way to describe Senator Mikulski's character is by
noting that she is not only officially the longest serving woman in the
history of the Congress, but she is also unofficially the dean of the
women in the Senate. That title perfectly demonstrates the trust and
respect she has earned her from her colleagues. As a brandnew Senator
in 1997, I was one of those tutored by this accomplished and
experienced dean. At that time, Senator Mikulski had already been in
the House and the Senate for a combined 20 years. She didn't know me
from Adam--or perhaps I should say from Eve--yet, despite the
difference in our seniority, our States, and our parties, she took me
under her wing. She was one of the first people who called me after I
was sworn in as a new Senator. I was so grateful for her kindness and
her wisdom. She invited me to a power workshop in her office, along
with Mary Landrieu, the other woman who was elected that year. She
taught me the ropes of the appropriations process and instituted
regular bipartisan dinners for the women of the Senate.
In the years since then, I have come to know her as a fighter, a
trailblazer, and a person of such integrity.
Maybe it is all those years with the nuns that taught you that.
It has been a privilege to work with her on such vital issues as home
health care, maritime issues, higher education, pay equality, and an
issue near and dear to both of us, Alzheimer's research. Serving with
her on the Appropriations Committee, I have witnessed firsthand what an
extraordinary leader she is--fair, openminded, yet with firm
expectations and a clear sense of direction.
Senator Mikulski is, above all, a hard worker. Growing up in East
Baltimore, she learned the value of hard work in her family's grocery
store, as we have heard today. Her commitment to making a difference in
her neighborhood led her to become a social worker,
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helping at-risk children and our seniors. The statement she made sums
up her approach to serving in Congress: ``I was a social worker for
Baltimore families. Now I'm a social worker building opportunities for
families throughout America.''
Two years ago, I was honored to stand alongside Senator Barb to
accept Allegheny College Prize for Civility in Public Life. We were
representing all of the women of the Senate for our leadership in
bringing an end to the devastating government shutdown of 2013 and
working together on so many other issues.
With our dean setting the example, we have always rejected the idea
of a women's caucus because we, like the men in the Senate, span the
ideological spectrum. Who would expect otherwise? We have worked
together across party lines to serve all Americans. As Senator Mikulski
puts it ``It's not about gender, it's about the agenda.'' In fact, all
of us have our favorite sayings that the Senator from Maryland has
taught us, and we will miss her way with words so much.
When Senator Mikulski reached her Senate longevity milestone 5 years
ago, she surpassed my personal role model in public service, the
legendary Senator from Maine, Margaret Chase Smith. Just as the great
lady from Maine inspired me and countless other young women of my
generation to serve, the great lady from Maryland inspires the young
women of today, always encouraging them to go for it.
Throughout her life in public service, she has lived by one guiding
principle: to help our people meet the needs of today as she helps our
Nation prepare for the challenges of tomorrow.
What an honor it has been to serve alongside Senator Barbara
Mikulski. I have learned so much from her. I will never forget the day
she told me I had the soul of an appropriator, which I knew was the
highest compliment she could give me. And she was right. We have worked
on that committee to get so much done.
I wish her many more years of health, happiness, and, most of all,
that most important ``ship,'' friendship.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from California.
Mrs. BOXER. Madam President, before Senator Collins leaves the floor,
I want to thank Senator Collins for her beautiful remarks about Barbara
Mikulski. As I leave here, I have said publicly--the press has asked:
What is your hope?
I often say: My hope is with the Senator from Maine, Senator Collins,
to bridge some of the partisan divides.
It has been an honor to serve with you. I know you have a lot on your
shoulders as we move forward.
Senator Mikulski, I want to take a few minutes to talk about you.
Some Senators have focus and drive. Some have compassion. Some have
empathy. Some have sharp negotiating skills. Some have a quick wit.
Some are great students of history. Some are champions for the least
among us. Senator Barbara Mikulski, you are all of these things. You
are everything a Senator should be and more. As my mentor, as my
treasured friend, you have been a major influence in my career.
Honestly, I can say I would not be here as a United States Senator
without your guidance.
One of my favorite things about Barbara is her wonderful sense of
humor. It is legendary. She is hilarious when she wants to be.
When I was in the House of Representatives, I was fighting to
integrate the all-male House gym. The room to which they had assigned
the women was about 6 by 6, and it had showers and hair dryers. You
know the big hair dryers that come over your head like that? It had no
exercise equipment. It had no space. It was the size of a shoebox. We
women decided we needed some exercise, so we packed into the tiny room.
There was then-Congresswoman Mikulski, Congresswoman Ferraro,
Congresswoman Schroeder, Barbara Kennelly, Olympia Snowe, who looked
like she had just stepped out of Vogue magazine. I was in my sweat
suit, and so was Barb. The teacher was leading us in an aerobics class,
and she said: Put your hands above your head. We did it. She said: Put
your hands out on the side. We did it. Then she said: Put your hands on
your hips and bend at the waist. And with that, Barbara yelled: ``Look,
if I had a waist, I wouldn't be here.'' That is my Barb. She can use
laughter to defuse any situation. I will always love her for it.
When I started thinking about my own long shot bid for the Senate--
and it was worse than a long shot--the first person I went to after my
family was Barb. It was a few years after she had made history by
becoming the first Democratic woman ever elected in her own right to
the U.S. Senate. She got right to the point: ``How old are you,
Babs?''--using the nickname she calls me to this day. I told her I was
almost 50.
God, that sounds so young, Barbara.
I told her I was almost 50. I explained it was going to be a tough
fight. I was up against two powerful male opponents in the Democratic
primary, and I was an asterisk in the polls. What was her response? She
looked at me and she said: ``Go for it. It's worth the fight you'll
have to wage to get here. And it will be a fight.'' And it was.
In 1992, four new women came to the Senate, and who was waiting for
us with open arms? Senator Mikulski. And this is what she said: ``Some
women stare out the window waiting for Prince Charming. I stared out
the window waiting for more women Senators--and it is finally
happening!'' That is who Barbara is. She never set out to make a name
for herself. She wanted to blaze a trail that was wide enough for all
of us to follow.
Just days after I won that first Senate race, she sent all the new
women Senators a guidebook she herself had written about how to get
started in the Senate, how to get on committees. She invited us to her
office for lessons on Senate procedure and how to set up our offices.
She had covered everything.
In the years since, as you have heard, she has hosted regular dinners
for all the women in the Senate--Democratic and Republican alike. We
reach across party lines and come together because of her. We talk
about our work, our families. We share our struggles and our triumphs.
What is said there stays there.
Senator Mikulski has led us by example, showing us how to build
coalitions, how to bridge the partisan divide, which includes strong
partnership with our male colleagues, whom she calls ``Sir Galahads.''
She has also shown us how to stand up and make our voices heard. As she
says, go ``earring to earring'' with our opponents and ``put on our
lipstick, square our shoulders, suit up and fight.'' Legendary Mikulski
words.
To me, Senator Mikulski is the whole package--a skilled, intelligent
negotiator, a Senator who fights for the people, and a woman who helps
other women. She is our cherished leader, and that is why she will
always be known as the dean of the Senate women.
When Barbara announced she would be leaving the Senate, I wrote her a
rhyme. I love to write rhymes and lyrics. I wrote her the following
rhyme:
Before Mikulski won the day,
A guy would have to pass away,
And then his wife would take his place.
Finally, a woman in a Senate space.
But Barb she got there in her own right.
First Democratic gal to win that fight.
She won the race and joined the misters.
But finally NOW she has nineteen sisters!
Barbara, next year, because of what you started, because of the
people you encouraged, there will be 21 women in the Senate--a record.
Sitting here in my chair, my seat, will be an incredible woman.
Senator Mikulski, Barb, my treasured mentor, my dear friend, thank
you for everything. We have been through battles together. I am forever
grateful to you, and I will always treasure our friendship.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maryland.
Ms. MIKULSKI. Madam President, I thank the gentlelady from
California.
Mrs. BOXER. I like ``gentlelady.''
Ms. MIKULSKI. That is the way we talk here. I thank the gentlelady
from California for her kind words. We have
[[Page 15946]]
been together through thick, thin, and the attempt to get thin, and
that story about bending at the waist is a true one.
I am not the person with the best hairdo or sleek or chic, but one of
the things I have so admired about my friend is her authenticity. We
first got to know each other in the House, and then I encouraged you to
come to the Senate, which certainly was the right thing to do. You are
yourself. You are true to yourself, you are true to your beliefs. You
are true to your constituents, and you are true to the Constitution.
You are such a true, blue person. There are many words to describe you,
such as outspoken, feisty, and all of that, but I would say the word
that describes you best is ``authenticity.'' You are who you are. The
people of California have loved you for it and sent you to the
Congress.
We started out together basically in city council roles, sometimes
called the pothole parliament. It has been a pleasure to serve with the
Senator from California. I have watched you stand up for your beliefs,
and along the way, as you stood up for your beliefs, you made believers
of us all.
Godspeed to you, Barbara. We are friends forever.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Michigan.
Tribute to Departing Senators
Ms. STABENOW. Madam President, I wish to speak about Senator Mikulski
and then also Senator Boxer, the two great Senator Barbaras who have
been such giants in the Senate. We are so grateful to both of them.
Barbara Mikulski
Madam President, I do have to say that among the many things with
which I have been honored and have appreciated was when Senator
Mikulski accepted my offer to stay at the Stabenow bed and breakfast
after long session nights and days when the Appropriations Committee
was negotiating and doing the incredible work that had to be done. I
had the honor of being able to put up a plaque in my home that says:
Senator Barb slept here. I will always be honored to have had that
opportunity on top of all of the other ways we have worked together.
It really is an honor to stand here. I can't imagine the Senate
without Senator Mikulski and Senator Boxer. I can't imagine the Senate
without the incredible service of my dear friend and colleague, who is
our dean in every sense of the word--the senior Senator from the State
of Maryland. For over 30 years she has worked tireless. We know that.
We hear it every day. We know what the people in Baltimore, the
Chesapeake Bay area, and all of Maryland care about. She has been
fighting and standing up for them every single moment of every single
day. I so admire that, and I am so grateful. She has been a wonderful
inspiration and mentor to me. We have all heard about our dinners and
the power briefings on appropriations. She has been a continual source
of inspiration and a mentor to me.
She reached out to me, as she does to all of our colleagues, when I
was first elected. She welcomed me and showed me what it meant to be a
good Senator representing my State of Michigan and how to get things
done. Senator Mikulski has always been willing to lend a helping hand
and has never given up when it comes to fighting for the people she
represents and being a trailblazer.
I came into the Senate with a master's degree in social work. Senator
Mikulski has often said that we are the two official do-gooders in the
Senate. We have taken our interest from helping people individually to
another level by becoming policymakers, thereby giving us the
opportunity to touch more lives by using our skills and our background
in education as well.
We all know--but I think it is important to remind ourselves--that
she was only 26 when Senator Mikulski talked about the highway proposal
that would have destroyed a neighborhood full of working people. She
spoke up. She was noticed, and she wasn't afraid to say exactly what
she was thinking. She was and is absolutely fearless in every good
sense of that word. She brought that fearlessness to the Senate. That
fearlessness made her the first woman to serve as chair of the
Appropriations Committee of the Senate. It doesn't get more important
than that in setting policy and having an impact on people's lives in
our country by prioritizing the interests of the American people in
every funding decision. That fearlessness was on display when she
helped bring us closer to the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009,
making it closer to having equal pay for equal work than it has ever
been before.
Senator Mikulski fought for health care. I was proud to join her in
making sure that women could receive preventive care without a copay.
She made sure that women were truly represented and that our needs were
met in health care reform, and that will continue to impact all of the
lives of women across the country.
When she turned her eyes to the stars, wondering what was up there,
she made sure that the Goddard Space Flight Center was a leader in
exploring the unknown. Like the supernova named after her, she has
absolutely astonished us with her brilliance, and nothing will be quite
the same after she leaves here.
Her work in the Senate has made it possible for so many women and
girls across America to put their hat in the ring and say: I want to
run for office, and I can do it.
Senator Mikulski said it best--there are so many wonderful quotes I
will always use--when she said: Put your lipstick on, square your
shoulders, and suit up. Go into the fight and get things done. That has
become a mantra for us in working together.
I thank Senator Barb. You will be greatly missed, but I know you have
so much more to give. I know you will always make a difference in
people's lives in every single thing you do every single day, and we
will be forever grateful.
Ms. MIKULSKI. Madam President, again, I thank the gentlelady from
Michigan. We both have master's degrees in social work. I joke, but I
am actually serious when I say we are certified do-gooders. When people
hear about social work, they sometimes think it is about giving money
away, but it is really about trying to help people build lives, build
families, and therefore build the Nation. The Senator from Michigan's
championship in that area has been amazing to me.
I am so glad my friend from Michigan is here in the Senate, whether
she is standing up for the people in Flint, MI, so they have safe
drinking water, or standing up for those who need help in the area of
food and nutrition so there aren't food deserts in communities. That is
one of the biggest public health initiatives. If you are a diabetic,
you can't comply if all you can get is fast food and french fries. If
you are a child, you need good food and good nutrition. My friend knows
more than anybody that you need to feed the body, the mind, and the
spirit, and she has certainly done that. It has been great being your
pal and partner.
Many people don't know this, but Senator Cardin and I commute every
day. When those appropriation cycles got pretty late, after midnight,
the gentlelady from Michigan offered her home to me. We had a saying:
Stop whining and have a glass of wine. There was nothing like being
able to talk about your day with a colleague who will offer inspiration
and encouragement at the end of the day. My friend offered her home,
but she has really fought for so many people to have a home and a
community in order to have what they need so they can learn and prosper
in this country.
I just wish you so much and wish you all the best.
Thank you very much.
Barbara Boxer
Ms. STABENOW. Madam President, as her name suggests, Senator Boxer
has always been a fighter, a champion for the people of California, and
a good friend.
Though Senator Boxer began her life in Brooklyn, California has
always been her home.
It is where she got elected to the Marin County Board of Supervisors,
becoming the first woman to hold the board's presidency.
It is where she first got elected to the House of Representatives,
where she
[[Page 15947]]
quickly rose and became a leader we could all aspire to be.
And as Senator, she has worked tirelessly for families, children,
consumers, everyone in the State of California and Americans
everywhere.
Senator Boxer has always been a wonderful mentor to me, and she has
been relentless on moving forward on some of the most critically
important issues of our time.
As the first woman to chair the Environment and Public Works
Committee, she has provided the support that has kept America's air and
water safe and to fight climate change. She defended mercury and lead
standards and installed choking warnings on packages.
I will personally always be grateful for her tireless advocacy and
support for the 100,000 Flint citizens who have been poisoned by lead
in their water.
We have her to thank when we know that children and families all over
the country can be safer and more secure in their own neighborhood.
She has been an incredible supporter of transportation, extending the
highway trust fund, helping protect over 1 million jobs. Or her Mat
Map-21 Transportation Bill, which modernized Federal highway, highway
safety, and transportation programs.
And she has fought for children and families, her work in the
Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act--
providing extra services for young adults under 21 and helping some of
America's young people who need it most.
On a personal note, I have greatly enjoyed sharing a love of music
with my friend, Barbara. Her creativity and passion for song has been a
special part of who she is.
Her retirement, while well earned, will be a loss for all of us.
Thank you so much for your service.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Delaware.
Tribute to Barbara Mikulski
Mr. COONS. Madam President, I wish to offer a few brief comments, if
I might, so I may thank and congratulate Senator Mikulski for her
tireless contributions to the State of Maryland and the whole country.
As many know, she is a passionate, capable, effective champion for
people of all backgrounds, and she got her start in local government.
One of the things we have in common is that I, too, started in a very
humble office as a county council member in my home community of New
Castle County, DE.
The way I first met Barbara Mikulski and first saw her toughness,
grit, passion, and determination was in a fight over a program she
helped give life to, the national service program known as AmeriCorps.
AmeriCorps is a fantastic national program that partners with the
Federal Government, State, and local governments, the private sector,
and nonprofit volunteers. She has been a tireless champion for
AmeriCorps over many years and has made a lasting difference in its
areas of focus and work.
During my short 6 years here, she has been a great friend and a
mentor to me and to so many others on both sides of the aisle. Joe
Biden, our Vice President, has often said: Show me your budget, and I
will show you your values. As leader of the Senate Appropriations
Committee, Senator Mikulski helped to lift up our values and helped to
make sure we invested in effective programs that made sure we fed the
hungry, housed the homeless, fought for manufacturing, and ensured that
Federal workers who lived in Maryland and Federal agencies that were
rooted, not just in Maryland but around the country, had the resources,
support, and capacity to make a lasting difference here in our region
and for the entire country.
I just wanted to add my voice to colleagues who stood here on the
floor and said: We are so grateful to Senator Barbara Mikulski for her
decades of service to Baltimore, to Maryland, and to our country and
for all she has done to lift us up together.
Thank you.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Iowa.
200th Anniversary of the Senate Judiciary Committee
Mr. GRASSLEY. Madam President, this Saturday, December 10, marks the
200th anniversary of the establishment of the Committee on the
Judiciary of the Senate. I am very proud to be the chairman of that
committee--the first chairman who is not a lawyer, I might add--and I
will be submitting a resolution, along with some other committee
members, to commemorate this 200th anniversary.
Madam President, 200 years ago, the Senate established 11 original
standing committees. Today, although there are many committees, the
Senate Judiciary Committee is one of four original committees that
still meet today. During the past two centuries, some of the most vital
and important questions facing the Nation have come before the
committee. For example, during the Civil War, the committee ensured
that President Lincoln had the emergency powers he needed to pursue the
Civil War effort, and in 1864, the committee took a critical step in
ending slavery in the United States when it reported the 13th Amendment
of the Constitution.
The committee has jurisdiction over issues that directly impact
American lives and is on the forefront of deciding important policy
issues, including immigration, civil liberties, criminal laws and the
protection for victims, and, of course, civil rights. In addition, the
committee examines those nominated for lifetime appointments to the
Federal bench.
Over the years, the committee has reported legislation that has been
vital to the safety and protection of the American people. I don't have
time today to discuss all the committee has accomplished over the last
200 years, but I do want to take a minute to recognize this important
anniversary. I am very proud of the committee's storied history. Today,
I celebrate these accomplishments and will follow that up with the
submission of a resolution. I am truly humbled today to be its
chairman.
I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. HOEVEN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Dakota Access Pipeline
Mr. HOEVEN. Madam President, I rise again to speak about the Dakota
Access Pipeline issue in North Dakota. Again, I want to emphasize that
we need to focus on the facts and understand what is really going on
there. On Saturday, the Obama administration announced its refusal to
issue the final easement for the Dakota Access Pipeline to cross a
narrow section deep underneath the Missouri River.
This easement is required to finish the 1,172-mile-long pipeline
which is already 98 percent complete in North Dakota--98 percent
complete in North Dakota--and 86 percent complete overall. As I have
indicated before on the floor, it runs from the Bakken oilfields in
North Dakota, moving North Dakota light sweet crude all the way to
Patoka, IL, so oil can go into all of the refineries along the eastern
part of the country and the eastern seaboard.
In fact, our light sweet crude oil competes with OPEC. If they are
not using our light sweet crude, they are bringing in oil from places
like Saudi Arabia for these eastern refineries. So very important in
terms of energy independence for our country, but as I said, this
pipeline is 98 percent complete in our State. Now, again, the Obama
administration is delaying it.
Unfortunately, this latest Obama administration decision fails to
follow the rule of law, it fails to resolve the issue, and it
perpetuates an extremely difficult situation for North Dakotans.
Furthermore, it is estimated that over 5,000 protesters are still
unlawfully gathered on Federal or Corps of Engineers land in our State.
They are there in direct violation of the Army Corps' December 5
eviction notice, as well as an evacuation order from North Dakota's
Governor.
However, now that the Obama administration has made its decision,
protesters should move from their unlawful site on the Army Corp of
Engineers' land. Even Standing Rock Chairman
[[Page 15948]]
David Archambault has finally said that protesters need to leave and
return home. Let me repeat that. Even Standing Rock Sioux Chairman
David Archambault has finally said protesters need to leave and return
home. He is the tribal chairman. The Obama administration needs to do
the same. The administration needs to call on the protesters to leave
this illegal site as well.
As I said, the Dakota Access Pipeline issue has been difficult for
the people of North Dakota. In recent months, protesters have
trespassed on private property, they have blocked state highways and
damaged bridges, they have committed acts of vandalism to construction
equipment by cutting hydraulic hoses, breaking windows, filling gas
tanks with gravel, and setting equipment on fire.
Protesters have blocked intersections in Bismarck and Mandan. They
have disrupted area businesses, and farmers and ranchers in the area
have reported instances of trespassing and butchered livestock. The
rule of law matters in this country, but by committing acts of
lawlessness at this construction site as a proxy for changing broader
environmental policies, the rule of law is undermined.
Just as the pipeline company must follow the law, the protesters
themselves need to follow the law as well. By continuing to remain in
the camp, the protesters are defying Federal and State orders to leave.
They are subjecting residents in the area to additional weeks of
disruption and hardship. They also require our law enforcement to
continue their around-the-clock presence, 24 hours a day, 7 days a
week.
The protesters need to follow the law, just like everyone else. I
repeat, it is time--past time--to leave this illegal camp. I would like
to address the dedication of our State and local law enforcement
officers--the professionals who make up the North Dakota Highway
Patrol, our sheriffs, and our deputies around the State and from other
States who have come in to assist us.
Members of the North Dakota National Guard and other first responders
have acted with professionalism and diligence to maintain peace and
order under very difficult circumstances. They continue to protect the
public, especially now with the onset of challenging winter conditions.
In my 10 years as Governor of North Dakota, I spent a lot of time
working with our law enforcement officers to prepare for weather
emergencies. I know the preparations these situations require.
Even today, our law enforcement and State Department of
Transportation crews are working to keep evacuation routes open,
rescuing people stranded on the highways and providing assistance to
many from outside North Dakota who are unprepared to deal with the
recent blizzard we had in North Dakota.
The men and women in law enforcement are doing their best to protect
everyone, including the protesters. We owe our law enforcement a debt
of gratitude for their diligence, for their dedication, and for their
professionalism, but North Dakota's law enforcement resources are
severely strained. I have repeatedly called on the U.S. Department of
Justice to provide additional funding and law enforcement officers to
ensure public safety.
Our State has requested Federal assistance and was assured--was
assured--by the Attorney General that we would be given expedited
consideration, but that has not been the case. Our Byrne grant
application for Federal assistance has still not been approved by the
Attorney General. I will continue to call on the U.S. Department of
Justice, the U.S. Department of the Interior, and the Corps to provide
additional Federal resources, including funding and law enforcement
personnel to assist our State and local law enforcement officers and
ensure public safety.
As I have said before, everyone has a right to be heard, but it must
be done lawfully and peacefully, whether that is during the permitting
process, with its opportunities for public comment, or through the
court system. I emphasize through the court system. That is the
established method in our country for dispute resolution. So it is
time--it is past time--for the protesters to stand down and to
recognize that the courts and the next administration will resolve this
issue.
It is also important to recognize that this pipeline is not unique or
unusual as an infrastructure project. There are more than 38,000 crude
oil pipeline river and water body crossings in the United States--more
than 38,000--and more than 1,000 in my State of North Dakota alone.
This is one more. These crossings range from rivers, streams, and lakes
to ponds, canals, and ditches. Also, it is important to understand the
oil is already being transported across a river on rail and across
bridges.
Once again, I just want to show--this is the network of oil pipelines
in the country. They cross many bodies of water. We are doing it one
more time with the latest, greatest technology. The pipeline does not
go in the river in any way, shape or form. It is about 100 feet
underneath the river. So even if there was a leak, somehow that oil
would have to come up through bedrock to even get into the area.
In other words, it is the latest, greatest technology. This oil is
already moving to market. It is already crossing the river on rail and
on truck. If we don't build this, we are relying on the old
infrastructure, which is less safe and less environmentally sound,
instead of building the new, latest, greatest infrastructure with the
technologies that will be more efficient, more safe, more
environmentally sound. That is what makes sense. Again, it is not
unique.
Additionally, the pipeline company has modified its route on its own
140 times in North Dakota to avoid any important or cultural resources.
So they have modified the route to avoid any cultural resources 140
times just in our State.
In July 2016, the Army Corps issued its final environmental
assessment, which concluded with the finding of ``no significant
environmental impact'' and ``no historic properties affected.'' These
determinations have been upheld not once but twice by the Federal
courts, including a judge appointed by the Obama administration--a
Federal district court judge here in Washington, DC.
As for the way forward for this difficult issue, we need to look at
the facts at hand. In the midst of the ongoing news coverage, it can
seem that heated rhetoric leaves little room for good-faith efforts to
find common ground, but I want to highlight that there continues to be
attempts at finding consensus among the stakeholders, even as recently
as last Friday.
To that point, in a meeting I had yesterday with the Army Corps'
Northwestern Division Commander, BG Scott Spellman, he stated that last
Friday, on December 2, the Army Corps' Omaha district commander, John
Henderson, convened representatives from the pipeline company, the
Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, and Army Corps officials. They met in
Bismarck for 5 hours. The meeting included tribal staff and the
company's engineering and technical experts who came together for the
sole purpose of reviewing Standing Rock's 19 specific safety and
environmental concerns raised in the tribe's October 2016 letter to the
Corps.
In this meeting, the pipeline company, tribe, and Army Corps
discussed all 19 concerns raised by the Standing Rock, and they
considered 36 potential terms and conditions that could further reduce
the risk of a spill or pipeline rupture. Again, let me repeat that. In
order to directly address the river crossing concerns raised by the
tribe and the protesters, the pipeline company was willing to consider
more than 36 additional safeguards for this crossing.
Friday's meeting actually resulted in a revised proposed easement,
which was presented to the Assistant Secretary of the Army, Jo-Ellen
Darcy, the next day, on Saturday, December 3--last Saturday. However,
the following day, on Sunday, December 4, Assistant Secretary Darcy
promptly rejected the revised easement and instead required more
``broad public input and analysis.''
[[Page 15949]]
Clearly, the Obama administration is not interested in finding a way
forward based on the merits of the project, even in light of two
Federal court rulings upholding the Army Corps' reviews and even with
subsequent attempts by the company to specifically address the tribe's
remaining environmental concerns.
In recent days, I have met directly with President-Elect Trump's
transition team and conveyed the importance of bringing this situation
to a resolution. I have also spoken directly on the matter to Vice
President-Elect Mike Pence and to the next Attorney General, Jeff
Sessions.
President-Elect Trump has now publicly communicated his support for
the project, as well as for providing Federal assistance, including
additional resources and law enforcement personnel. This project should
be decided on the merits and in accordance with the law. Failure to do
so will cast new uncertainty on all future infrastructure projects,
from pipelines that carry oil and gas and other liquids to transmission
lines carrying both traditional and renewable energy.
If companies and individuals cannot rely on a system that follows the
rule of law, nobody will risk making future investments in our
country's vital infrastructure. That will make our Nation less safe,
less secure, and less competitive. As I said a minute ago, think about
it. If we can't build new infrastructure, then we will continue to use
the old infrastructure, which is less safe and less environmentally
secure.
To avoid this situation in the future--the kind of standoff we have
with the Dakota Access Pipeline--we need to focus on ways to improve
the permitting process. We need to improve the process so we can make
sure all people's voices are heard and provide regulatory certainty to
companies willing to invest in large infrastructure projects. This
should be done prospectively, not retroactively--looking for ways to
better streamline procedures, reduce duplicative hurdles, and improve
methods for public input.
This pipeline can be built safely and include necessary protections
for both the tribe and everyone else downstream. The fact is that our
country needs energy, and we cannot have it without energy
infrastructure--pipelines, transmission lines, roads, rail, and
bridges--to move both traditional and renewable energy from where it is
produced to where it is consumed. Move it both safely and efficiently.
Let's all work together to make that happen.
With that, Madam President, I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Hawaii.
75th Anniversary of the Attack on Pearl Harbor
Mr. SCHATZ. Madam President, I rise to commemorate the 75th
anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
For the people of Hawaii, it started as an ordinary sunny Sunday
morning in December. Families were getting ready for church; others
were preparing breakfast. It was quiet. It was peaceful.
Just before 8 a.m., the first wave of Japanese warplanes started
their coordinated surprise attack on the island of Oahu. Bombers
attacked aircraft clustered wing tip to wing tip at Wheeler and Hickham
Airfields, making it too easy for Japanese pilots to destroy their
targets. By the end of the attack, Japanese forces sunk four of the
eight battleships at Ford Island. Another battleship intentionally ran
aground in the harbor to avoid blocking the channel. Three destroyers
and seven other ships were sunk or severely damaged. It was the worst
disaster in U.S. naval history. There were 2,403 servicemembers killed
or mortally wounded, and 1,247 servicemembers were injured. Fifty-seven
civilians were killed.
Across Oahu, people watched as smoke and fire blackened the sky over
Pearl Harbor. Among those were two 17-year-olds, Daniel K. Inouye and
Daniel K. Akaka. Like many others that day, they were called to duty.
Senator Daniel Akaka, then an ROTC student at the Kamehameha School for
Boys, grabbed a rifle and guarded the hills above the school from
potential Japanese paratroopers. Senator Inouye, then a volunteer
medical aid, reported to Lunalilo Elementary School, where for a week
he tended to the wounded.
In the weeks that followed, the shipyard was back to work repairing
vessels raised from the harbor. Incredibly, all but two ships returned
to service in just 2 years. The Nevada went on to support the invasion
of Normandy. Five other ships damaged at Pearl Harbor later met
Japanese forces in the Philippines. That ``Day of Infamy'' and the
events that followed would ultimately galvanize more than 12 million
Americans to serve in uniform during the Second World War. We remember
the men and women who left their homes to fight an enemy they did not
know in places they had never heard of. They said goodbye to their
families to protect their neighbors--foreclosed the promise of their
own dreams to protect our freedom. We know well the stories of courage
and devotion: the Tuskegee Airmen, the 442nd Infantry Regiment. We
remember the ingenuity and heroism of Doolittle's Raiders, the Navajo
code-talkers, and Nisei translators.
The war in the Pacific lasted 2,194 days. When American occupation
forces landed 4 years later at the end of the war, Japan was in ruins.
But instead of turning our backs on the people of Japan, we extended a
hand. We chose to turn an enemy into an ally. American occupiers
immediately set out to transform Japan into a peaceful democracy,
implementing land and economic reforms, improving working conditions,
and granting women the right to vote. The United States sent billions
of dollars in economic aid to rebuild Japan. Most of that assistance
was delivered as food, for even several years after the surrender,
there was widespread starvation in Japan. It is hard to forget someone
who sends you milk for hungry children, as Prime Minister Abe recently
told Congress.
The attack on Pearl Harbor set in motion a chain of events with
painful consequences for our two countries, but the decision we made to
partner with, rather than punish, Japan helped to forge between our two
countries what Senator Mike Mansfield described as ``the most important
bilateral relationship in the world, bar none.''
Today, Japan is a leader in the Western world. We cooperate as
partners to maintain regional peace. Our countries work together to
stop the flow of extremism and arms in the Indian Ocean. We work side
by side in humanitarian relief missions and to defend against ballistic
missile threats. Our relationship has never been stronger. President
Obama's trip in May to Hiroshima and President Abe's trip to Pearl
Harbor demonstrate the endurance of this friendship and the importance
of reconciliation.
So as we commemorate the 75th anniversary of the attack on Pearl
Harbor, we remember the service and sacrifice of the men and women who
lost their lives on that day in December. In remembering them and the
service of those who fought, we know that their sacrifices were not in
vain. America and Japan are forever joined in history. We move forward
together, in the memory of those who sacrificed for a better world and
for peace.
Madam President, I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. Capito). The Senator from Mississippi.
Tribute to Barbara Mikulski
Mr. COCHRAN. Madam President, I rise to compliment and congratulate
my good friend and colleague, the senior Senator from Maryland, Barbara
Mikulski, on her decision to retire from the U.S. Senate. We are going
to miss her very much. She has been a very effective Senator in
speaking not only as a representative for the State of Maryland but
also for the entire country on so many different issues and Federal
responsibilities of our government. She has been very successful in
every way--serving as chair of the committee on Appropriations, where
it has been my pleasure to work closely with her as the vice chair when
the Republicans were in the minority, and then coming to chair the
committee, with her as the ranking Democratic member during other
periods.
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It has been a distinct honor to serve with her on the Appropriations
Committee. In 2012, she became the first woman to chair the committee.
She has also served as vice chairwoman for the past 2 years. I am
pleased that we have been able to work together to report bills that
reflect our shared commitment to national security, scientific
research, education, and economic development. Senator Mikulski has
been a very valuable partner throughout. Her approach to funding
decisions as chairwoman and vice-chairwoman highlights the importance
of the constitutional role of Congress to be good stewards of taxpayer
money.
I congratulate Barbara Mikulski on her distinguished career
representing the people of Maryland which reflects great credit on our
U.S. Senate. Best wishes to her.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Rhode Island.
National Defense Authorization Bill
Mr. REED. Madam President, I rise to discuss the National Defense
Authorization Act. After several months of debate and negotiation, the
House and Senate Armed Services Committees have arrived at a completed
conference agreement. This will be the 55th consecutive time that we
pass a National Defense Authorization Act, which sets national security
policy and provides important authorities to the Department of Defense.
I want to begin by thanking Chairman McCain for his leadership during
the course of this year. At his direction, the Senate Armed Services
Committee undertook a robust review of how the Department develops
strategic guidance and executes their business processes to help the
Department operate more effectively and efficiently. I commend the
chairman for making this effort a priority for the committee, and I
appreciate his willingness to work in a bipartisan fashion on this
important endeavor.
The conference report we are considering today includes many Senate
reforms, including efforts to improve the defense strategy documents
produced by the Department and reorganizing the Office of Acquisition,
Technology and Logistics to ensure that the Pentagon emphasizes
research and innovation in support of our warfighters.
In particular, one of the most important reform efforts included in
the final conference agreement is a Senate provision that would create
cross-functional teams. This is a new tool for the Secretary of Defense
to manage the formation and implementation of policies and solutions
for complex problems that inherently cut across the many stovepiped
functional organizations in the Department of Defense. The private
sector has pioneered and mastered this highly effective integration
mechanism for a generation, and business schools and business
consultancies have championed its use for decades. I consider this
provision to be one of the most important reform initiatives in this
bill. None of this would have happened without the leadership,
guidance, and constant urging of the chairman, Senator McCain. Once
again, I commend him for his extraordinary efforts.
As these reforms are introduced, it is imperative that we continue to
collaborate with the Department of Defense to ensure that these reforms
contribute to our national security and do not create unnecessary and
detrimental consequences. This will be a partnership going forward to
ensure that these reforms are adequate, appropriate, and work for the
benefit of the men and women in uniform, and that is a process in which
we will all be engaged.
With respect to the budget, the conference agreement we are
considering today authorizes a total of $619 billion, which includes
$543.4 billion in base budget funding for the Department of Defense and
certain security activities of the Department of Energy and $67.8
billion in overseas contingency operations, or OCO, funding.
This OCO amount includes $5.8 billion in supplemental funding
requested by President Obama for operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, and
Syria, as well as an additional $3.2 billion above President Obama's
budget request for base budget requirements primarily devoted to
increased end strength. I have serious concerns about increasing OCO
funding above the President's budget request without a corresponding
increase in domestic spending. While the OCO account is exempt from
budget caps, the purpose of the Budget Control Act was to establish
proportionately equal caps on defense and nondefense discretionary
spending to force a bipartisan compromise on the budget.
During consideration of the NDAA, the House and Senate had different
approaches on how best to fund these base budget requirements and
ongoing military operations. However, after a robust debate, we reached
an agreement on a modest increase in OCO to fund increased end strength
and to replenish depleted munitions inventories.
With respect to Afghanistan, the conference agreement supports our
military operations. Specifically, the bill authorizes approximately
8,400 troops in Afghanistan in 2017, including fully funding the Afghan
Security Forces Fund at $4.26 billion to continue support to the Afghan
National Defense and Security Forces. Likewise, the bill contains $814
million to enhance the capabilities of the Afghan Air Force and begin a
transition from Mi-17 to the UH-60 helicopters.
Also--and this is an issue that I support very strongly after a
recent trip to Afghanistan--it accelerates the Afghan Aviation
Initiative, which is designed to build greater rotary wing capability
and fixed-wing capabilities in the Afghan Air Force. This is a critical
battlefield advantage that the Afghan forces will have over the
Taliban.
With respect to Europe, we have fully funded the President's request
of $3.4 billion for the European Reassurance Initiative. This funding
will support critical investments that will increase rotational U.S.
military presence in Europe, improve key infrastructure, and enhance
allied and partner military capabilities to respond to external
aggression and preserve regional stability. The agreement also includes
an authorization of $350 million for the Ukraine training assistance
initiative, to continue and expand security assistance and intelligence
support to the Ukrainian security forces to protect their sovereignty
and encourage a continued focus on robust defense reform efforts.
With regard to our special operations forces, they are at the
forefront of our fight against ISIL, Al Qaeda, and other terrorist
groups. The bill also includes important reforms designed to improve
the oversight and advocacy for their important efforts by enhancing the
role of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and
Low Intensity Conflict. I think those reforms will be something we
watch and encourage.
With respect to other aspects of our security programs, the
conference agreement includes a comprehensive reform of Defense
Department security cooperation programs. This is the first time such a
reform has been undertaken, and it is an effort to ensure there is
unity of effort across our government in the security assistance arena.
Likewise, the conference agreement includes a provision that would
enhance the scope and authority of the Global Engagement Center. For
too long we have been losing the information space to our adversaries--
both state and nonstate actors. It is my hope that by providing this
critical center at the State Department with a powerful mandate, we can
begin to improve our efforts in the information space.
The bill also supports modernization efforts of many different
weapons platforms. I am particularly pleased to see that we are
continuing two-per-year construction of the Virginia-class submarine.
It also supports additional requests for advance procurement to keep
this production on track. Furthermore, it authorizes $1.9 billion for
the Ohio-class replacement, including the first strategic nuclear
submarine procurement funds, to begin the process of reinvigorating and
rebuilding our underwater nuclear deterrence through the Ohio-class
replacement.
In addition to modernization of our underwater forces, we are also
looking
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at modernizing our triad of air, sea, and ground delivery platforms for
strategic deterrence. This is the beginning of a multi-decade effort
involving three major acquisition programs: our ballistic missile
submarines--as I have mentioned, the Ohio-class replacement--long-range
penetrating bombers, and also the land-based intercontinental ballistic
missiles. Most importantly, we will be modernizing their command and
control systems to ensure that our President always has positive
control of these forces. As I have stated many times, modernization is
critical in light of the increasingly belligerent actions by Russia,
which conducted a nuclear exercise immediately after invading Crimea as
a form of nuclear intimidation.
In the area of technology and acquisition, I am pleased the
conference report takes a number of important steps to help DOD
maintain its technological superiority. We continue to build on past
work on acquisition reform undertaken by the committee, as well as the
successes of Defense Secretary Carter and his colleagues, including
Under Secretary Kendall, in controlling the costs of major weapons
systems procurement programs.
The agreement includes a number of steps to improve defense
acquisition processes, including strengthening the acquisition
workforce, simplifying and streamlining regulatory and bureaucratic
burdens on the government and industry, making it easier for DOD to
work with innovative small businesses and commercial companies, and
promoting the use of prototyping and rapid fielding to speed the
development and deployment of advanced new systems.
In the area of technological innovation, I hope that reconstituting
the position of Under Secretary of Research and Engineering will help
promote connections with innovators both inside and outside of the
government and ensure that the policies and practices governing our R&D
programs, our defense labs, and our engagements with universities and
industry are optimized to promote the most efficient and effective
development of new systems and technologies.
Finally, I think the conference report includes important provisions
designed to streamline and modernize Pentagon management processes. The
bill supports efforts to develop and execute the modern management
techniques and practices modeled on private sector best practices,
including the use of big data to improve Pentagon business processes. I
believe that refining Pentagon management practices will result in cost
savings and efficiencies, freeing up funds for other critical needs.
I note that the conferees did not include several provisions
regarding the application of Obama administration Executive orders
related to labor, safe workplace, and LGBT issues. Many of these are
very problematic. I hope we continue to work to ensure the Department
engages with fiscally and socially responsible and effective
contractors to the best benefit of warfighters and taxpayers alike.
Of course, one of the key issues for the committee was the readiness
of troops. I am pleased the conference report includes significant
resources for the military services' unfunded requirements, with the
goal of restoring full-spectrum readiness as soon as possible. For
example, the bill includes additional funding for Army units to conduct
additional home station training in order to prepare them for future
combat training center rotations, as well as additional flight training
for the other services.
We have also included significant resources in order to provide
additional depot maintenance to repair our military aircraft, ships,
and combat vehicles. There is also additional funding to better sustain
our military installations, specifically in the facilities restoration
and modernization accounts.
In the area of military personnel, the conference agreement
accomplishes much on behalf of our servicemembers and the Department of
Defense because we owe them much. It authorizes a 2.1 percent pay raise
for all servicemembers, supports requested increases in the housing
benefit, and reauthorizes a number of expiring bonus and special pay
authorities to encourage enlistment, reenlistment, and continued
service by Active-Duty and Reserve component military personnel.
Unfortunately, the bill does not include the provision in the Senate-
passed bill that would have required women to register for the draft to
the same extent men are required. I continue to believe this is the
right policy for the Nation and the military. If we are going to have a
draft, women must share equally the burden and privilege of service. We
must be able to take advantage of their extraordinary talents because
without those talents our military today could not function as it does.
However, the bill does establish an independent national commission
on military, national, and public service to study the need for a
military selective service process, including whether the Nation
continues to need a mechanism designed to draft large numbers of
replacement combat troops; whether women should be required to
participate equally in the process; the means by which to foster a
greater attitude and ethos of service among the United States' young
men and women, including an increased propensity for military service;
and how to obtain military, national, and public service individuals
with skills for which the Nation has a critical need. This commission
could provide valuable insight on how we should proceed, particularly
in a state of national emergency, in pulling together the best of our
young people to serve the Nation.
With respect to health care, the bill contains a robust package of
health care reforms that will bring the military health care program in
line with the best practices in the civilian health care industry. This
is something we have to continue to emphasize--the ability to care and
treat all of our personnel and retirees with respect to their health
care.
I think we have done a lot of important work in this legislation.
Let me conclude, as I began, by thanking Chairman McCain and my
Senate colleagues on the committee for their thoughtful contributions
to this process. I also thank my colleagues on the House Armed Services
Committee, Chairman Mac Thornberry and Ranking Member Adam Smith. They
did a superb job, along with their staffs. This was truly a thoughtful,
bipartisan process that resulted in a bill that I believe will receive
overwhelming support on the floor of the Senate, as it did in the
House.
Finally, of course, this agreement would not have been possible
without the extraordinary work of the staff. I thank so many, but I
particularly thank Chris Brose, Steve Barney, and all the majority
committee staff for their hard work.
On the Democratic side, I thank my staff director, Elizabeth King. I
also thank Gary Leeling, Creighton Greene, Carolyn Chuhta, Maggie
McNamara, Jonathan Clark, Jonathan Epstein, Ozge Guzelsu, Jody Bennett,
Mike Kuiken, Kirk McConnell, Mike Noblet, John Quirk, Arun Seraphin,
and Jon Green.
I deeply appreciate all of their efforts. They have made this bill
possible.
With that, I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. MORAN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. MORAN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in
morning business.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. MORAN. Madam President, I come to the Senate floor to thank
Chairman McCain for his efforts on the National Defense Authorization
Act. Yesterday I was here talking about the Cures Act, and I know that
is the business of the day, but I also want to recognize the importance
of the NDAA
[[Page 15952]]
and its assumed or hoped-for passage today or this week. I appreciate
Senator McCain working with me and supporting my amendment to remove
language that would allow the administration to expend taxpayer dollars
on plans to close Guantanamo Bay detention facility.
As in previous years, the NDAA continues to prohibit the closure of
Gitmo and the transfer of detainees to U.S. soil. Fort Leavenworth, in
my home State of Kansas, has been a site under this administration's
consideration. This administration and foreign countries have lost
track of numerous detainees, which escalates the risk for military men
and women if the detainee is returned to the battlefield. With the
total reengagement rate at Gitmo detainees returning to that
battlefield at more than 30 percent, this provision is a life-and-death
matter.
This Defense authorization also halts troop reduction and increases
end strength across our Active, National Guard, and Reserve Forces. In
every Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee hearing this past year
with Department of Defense officials, from service chiefs to the
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, I received answers that concluded our
Armed Services would welcome more forces, not less.
I introduced the POSTURE Act, S. 2563, with my colleagues Senator
Blunt and Senator Perdue, to reverse these force reductions, increase
end strength in the Active Duty, National Guard and Reserve, and
specifically increase levels for our ground forces in the Army and
Marine Corps. I am pleased this defense legislation--the one we are
considering this week--reflects the objectives of the POSTURE Act by
stopping force reductions and increasing end-strength levels across the
Armed Services.
There are many unknowns around the world, and to reduce the size of
our defense force would be a mistake. We have been impacted already by
budget decisions rather than based upon what our Armed Forces need to
defend America. Readiness is paramount, and this NDAA allows for
increased funding to make certain we are training, equipping, and
readying our forces as challenges around the world unfold. As Chief of
Staff of the Army GEN Mark Milley has repeatedly said, ``Readiness wins
wars.''
The Big Red One--the Army's 1st Infantry Division located at Fort
Riley in Manhattan, KS, near Junction City, KS, has deployed its
headquarters to Iraq for a second time in less than 2 years. That kind
of turnaround requires the highest levels of readiness.
This bill also authorizes critical military construction funding for
Fort Riley, Fort Leavenworth, and McConnell Air Force Base, helping
Kansas remain a stronghold for our military training and power.
As we head into the holidays, I am pleased that servicemembers and
their families will receive, with the certainty of the passage of this
bill, benefits which they have earned and that they deserve, which
includes a 2.1-percent pay increase, which is the largest increase in 5
years.
75th Anniversary of the Attack on Pearl Harbor
As we pass this defense legislation to support our military men and
women, those who serve our Nation, we must take a moment to also
reflect upon the significance of this day--December 7, 1941--that
horrific attack on Pearl Harbor 75 years ago. That day forever changed
our Nation and our national defense. We should never forget those who
perished in that attack, as they made that ultimate sacrifice: 2,008
naval men, 109 Marines, 218 Army men, and 68 civilians.
Shortly after I was elected to the U.S. Senate on December 7, 2010, I
had the distinct opportunity to present service medals to Kansans who
had served and survived the attack on Pearl Harbor. It took us 69 years
after they survived that attack, but I was honored to bestow U.S. Navy
veterans Arthur Dunn and Paul Aschbrenner with their much deserved
commendations. It was a special moment I will not forget.
Veterans Health Care and Benefits Legislation
To honor those who perished that day as well as those who survived,
like Arthur and Paul, we must care for the 21.8 million veterans who
live among us today and who deserve the best our Nation can offer. We
have an opportunity to better care for our veterans with the passage of
H.R. 6416, the Jeff Miller and Richard Blumenthal Veterans Health Care
and Benefits Improvement Act of 2016, which has passed the House and is
coming to the Senate.
This legislation includes 76 bipartisan provisions to improve VA
health care, streamline disability compensation, and address other
benefits and services that must be reformed to better serve our
veterans. I thank the chairman of my committee, the Senator from
Georgia, for his leadership in this regard.
I am particularly pleased that this legislation includes legislation
that I, along with Senator Blumenthal, have diligently worked on for
over the last several years. It is sponsored by 48 of our Senate
colleagues. It is the Toxic Exposure Research Act. This legislation
takes a significant step toward researching the potential health
effects of toxic exposure to veterans and their descendants. To send a
strong message to our veterans, we must pass this legislation.
I often meet with World War II veterans at the memorial that was
built in their honor on the National Mall. The message I try to convey
is one that I also shared with my dad upon my first visit to the
memorial. I stepped away and called my dad at home in Plainville, KS,
and I said: Dad, I should have said this a long time ago, but I thank
you for your service, I respect you, and I love you. That, we do again
today. On this significant day in our Nation's history, with the
passage of veterans legislation, with the passage of NDAA, we certainly
can tell our service men and women and our veterans, those who served
our country so diligently and so faithfully, that we thank you for your
service, we respect you, and we love you.
Madam President, I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Virginia.
Affordable Care Act
Mr. KAINE. Madam President, I rise to talk about the ongoing
discussions about the repeal of the Affordable Care Act. I basically
want to make the case that this repeal, without a replacement being
known, would be malpractice for the health care of millions of
Americans as well as malpractice for the American economy. Before I
talk about why, I just want to tell two stories.
On Monday of this week, I visited Neighborhood Health, which is a
community health center in Northern Virginia that serves 14,000
patients. It is not a walk-in clinic; they are sort of a medical home
for 14,000 low-income Northern Virginians, mostly working people.
Community health centers in Virginia, West Virginia, and in every State
are a critical part of the health care safety net. In Virginia, they
serve about 300,000 patients and millions nationally.
They are medicine with a mission. They don't deny anybody primary
health care services because of inability to pay, and residents have
equal access regardless of where they live, their culture, their
gender, their race, or resources.
Many centers, including the one I visited just 20 minutes from here,
were centers that were able to build or expand because of the
Affordable Care Act. Facilities have gotten better in communities
across the country because of the Affordable Care Act. That visit made
powerfully clear to me how much every ZIP Code in this country has been
affected by the Affordable Care Act because of these centers and other
services that are provided.
The second story is a story from my recently completed, 105-day,
unsuccessful venture as part of a national ticket. I was at the Iowa
State Fair. A grandfather was carrying a little boy who looked to be
about 3\1/2\ years old. I said: Tell me this youngster's name. The
grandfather said: This is Jude. Of course, I said: Hey, Jude, and I
said: Tell me about Jude. The grandfather and now the father walked
over and started to talk to me, and what they said is this: Jude is
3\1/2\ years old and he
[[Page 15953]]
has already had five open heart operations at the Omaha Children's
Hospital, which is just across the river from Western Iowa, in
Nebraska. They looked at me and they said he couldn't have had these
operations had it not been for the Affordable Care Act. Had it not been
for the Affordable Care Act, he now would have exceeded his lifetime
limit of any policy he could ever get, and he also would have a
preexisting condition because of his heart condition that would render
him unable to get insurance for the rest of his life. They looked at
me, and--the father especially is a pretty big guy--and they asked:
Will you do all you can--will you do all you can to make sure that this
act is not repealed? You can strengthen it, you can improve it, but
will you do all you can to make sure it is not repealed? I looked at
them and I said--because I believed this even before they asked me the
question: I will do anything to my last breath to make sure that we
improve this but that we don't get rid of it. That is why I stand on
the floor today.
Since the Affordable Care Act was passed in March of 2010, 20 million
Americans have health insurance and many of them for the first time in
their life. That is, I think, the combined population of about 14 or 15
States, having health insurance for the first time in their lives.
Now, when you have health insurance, it is not only that you can get
care for an illness or an accident, even when you are healthy, you can
go to bed at night with the knowledge that if something happens to my
wife tomorrow, if something happens to me tomorrow, if something
happens to my child tomorrow, they will be able to receive care.
The percentage in the Nation of people who were uninsured when the
Affordable Care Act was passed was 16 percent. One in six Americans was
uninsured. Now it is down to 8.6 percent. That is the lowest level of
uninsured we have had probably since we have measured it. In Virginia,
the drop has been from 13 percent--we were a little better than the
national average--and we have dropped down to 9.1 percent uninsured. We
are a little higher than the national average now because my State does
not accept Medicaid expansion, but the difference in 6 years is 327,000
more Virginians have health insurance in 2015 than had it in 2010. That
is a powerful thing.
In addition to having health insurance, families are protected
because they can't get turned away because of preexisting conditions,
they can't get turned away because they have reached lifetime limits in
terms of their medical care, as Jude would have reached by age 3\1/2\.
Children can stay on family policies until age 26. Women cannot be
charged different health care premiums than men. Insurance companies
are required to rebate excess premium payments back to consumers if
they overcharge.
It is not just about the millions who have health insurance who have
never had it before, there are also millions and millions more to
receive protections they have never had before. These are important
provisions.
There has been discussion that I have been reading and following that
what some want to do is just repeal the Affordable Care Act, with a
vague promise that something will happen down the line. Of course,
those who want to repeal the Affordable Care Act who voted against it
in March of 2010 have had 6 or now nearly 7 years to come up with what
they think would be better, and there has been no consensus about what
they think would be better. So the notion of we are going to repeal it
and don't worry, we will come up with a better alternative, rings
pretty hollow to a family like Jude's parents and grandparents who have
a three-and-a-half-year-old-boy who needs open heart surgery. The
notion that don't worry, we will find a replacement, we will find a
fix--I think we could forgive somebody like Jude's family for not
having a lot of confidence in that.
If, in fact, we are serious about finding a fix, why don't we go to
work finding a fix before we pass legislation to repeal the law.
I have said I think it is health malpractice and economic
malpractice. Let me start with the economic malpractice. The worst
thing Congress can do for the economy is to inject uncertainty into it.
I have been a mayor and I have been a Governor and I am a certainty
fanatic. What I have learned about the economy is that our strong and
resilient business sector--if you give them certainty, they can plan.
They may not like a policy, they might not like a budget number, but if
you tell them this is the way it is going to be, the ingenuity of our
private sector is significant. They are going to be able to plan, they
are going to be able to make the best of it, they are going to be able
to figure it out, but if you provide uncertainty and don't tell people
what you are going to do, that is very devastating.
I am on the Budget Committee. I came into the Budget Committee in the
Senate, and I told me colleagues on both sides of the aisle: I am a
certainty fanatic. We should be doing a budget. We shouldn't be doing a
continuing resolution right now. We should be doing appropriations
bills because when we tell both our own planners in our own departments
and also the private economy: This is what it is going to be for the
next year, they can figure it out, they can adjust, and they can do
well. When we instead deliver a message that we don't know what we are
going to do--oh, there will be a fix, but it will be a few years from
now, we can't tell you what it is going to be now, and really we can't
even promise we will do it since we haven't done it in 6 years--you
inject uncertainty into the economy, and that is the worst thing we can
do.
I have made the argument that the recovery we have been on
economically--which is not a robust recovery, but it is a steady
recovery--the principal reason it has been steady but not robust is
because of uncertainty, and the principal generator of uncertainty in
the United States is this body, Congress. Congress's inability to do
budget in regular order, Congress's inability to tackle priorities,
Congress's inability to work on big picture fiscal issues generates
uncertainty.
So now we are talking about a repeal of the Affordable Care Act, the
single largest sector in the American economy. One-sixth of the GDP of
this country is health care. If you tell the entire American economy we
are going to go into the largest sector in the economy, we are going to
repeal it, and don't worry, we will get to something down the road as a
replacement, you will inject uncertainty into an economy in a degree
that has never been done by this body that I think will have
catastrophic economic consequences even beyond health care.
It is also malpractice in the health lives of Americans. The Urban
Institute has come out with a study today, an update of a study they
did a year ago. There was a proposal a year ago to repeal the
Affordable Care Act that President Obama vetoed. They did a study about
what would repeal mean. This is what repeal means to the American
public as we get ready to celebrate the holidays, a time when we are
mindful of the needs of others:
The number of uninsured people in the United States, if the ACA is
repealed, would rise from its current 28.9 million to 58.7 million, an
increase of 29.8 million uninsured in this country. The share of
nonelderly people without insurance would increase from 11 percent to
21 percent.
Of the 29.8 million newly uninsured as a result of the repeal, 22.5
will become uninsured as a result of eliminating premium tax credits,
Medicaid expansion, and the individual mandate, and the additional 7.3
million would become uninsured because of the near collapse of the
nongroup insurance market, and 82 percent of the new 29 million who
will become uninsured are working families, 82 percent; 38 percent
would be ages 18 to 34; 56 percent would be non-Hispanic Whites; 80
percent of adults becoming uninsured are adults who do not have college
degrees. There will be 12.9 million fewer people with Medicaid or CHIP
coverage in 2019 if the Affordable Care Act is repealed, and nearly 9.5
million people who have received tax credits to help them purchase
private nongroup health coverage in 2019 will no longer receive that
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assistance. This is catastrophic to tens of millions of Americans.
I will tell a third story that is a story about me. I have to have
the healthiest family in the United States, my wife and I and our three
children. The only hospitalizations we have ever had, until my wife
recently broke a bone, was for three child births. Our kids are 27, 24,
and 21. We are the healthiest family in the United States. I was
required once to go out right after the Affordable Care Act passed to
buy health insurance on the open market. I didn't have an employer who
could cover it. Two insurers turned me down because they said: We can't
write a policy for your whole family because of a preexisting
condition. One insurer turned me down because of something about me,
and one insurer turned me down because of something about one of my
children. Again, we are the healthiest family there is.
We were able to say: Wait a minute. The Affordable Care Act just
passed. You are not legally allowed to do that now. You have to write a
policy for the whole family.
The insurance agent who dealt with us on the phone said: Let me talk
to my supervisor, and then called back and said: You know, what. You
are right. We have to write you a policy.
This is a law that not only provides health insurance to 20 million
people who never had it before but for even healthy families like mine
provides benefits to protect against some of the worst and most
predacious behaviors of insurance companies. If the act is repealed,
this all goes away.
Americans agree, repeal is not the answer. A Kaiser Foundation poll
that was done in the last 2 weeks showed that only 26 percent of
Americans support a repeal of the Affordable Care Act. Of the other 75
percent, some think it should stay the same, some think it should be
tweaked backward a little bit, some think it should be advanced, but
only one in four Americans believe we should repeal this law.
Overwhelmingly, what the American public is telling us is, we should
improve the law. That is what we should be about in this body.
When I was the Governor of Virginia, I noticed at the end of every
legislative session there would be 1,100 bills on my desk for me to
review, sign, veto, or amend. Of the 1,100 bills, pretty much every
year 200 or 300 would be new, but 800 would be improvements to existing
law. The job of a legislature is more about taking existing laws and
reforming and improving it than repealing or doing something brand new.
That is what puzzles me. Why aren't we doing that? Clearly, there is no
rush. There is no rush because the discussions are, we would repeal the
Affordable Care Act with a promise we will find a replacement in 2 or 3
years. So if the notion is we are going to work for 2 or 3 years to
find a replacement, there is no rush, and if there is no rush, why
aren't we sitting down right now? Instead of repealing the law, why
aren't we sitting down right now? Let's sit down around the table,
let's talk about what we don't like, let's talk about what we do like,
let's talk about what it means to have 20 million people in this
country with health insurance, many for the first time in their lives,
and what they might think. Let's get the perspectives of hospitals.
Let's get the perspectives of insurers, of doctors, and other medical
professionals. That is what we should be doing. What is the rush?
I fear the rush is for one reason: a desire to do something before
this President leaves office that can be a little bit of a poke in his
eye, but it is a poke in his eye politically in a way that takes
families like Jude's family or the families I saw at the neighborhood
health center in Alexandria and puts deep fear and uncertainty in their
lives and also puts uncertainty into one-sixth of the American economy.
I know we will be having this discussion in earnest, I suspect a
little bit over the next couple of days but more when the year begins,
just as we are going to be having discussions about Medicare and
Medicaid, with 1.3 million Medicare enrollees in Virginia as of 2015.
The CHIP and Medicaid Programs in Virginia have an additional 970,000
enrollees. I read dramatic discussions about these programs as well,
these basic safety net programs.
I will conclude and say there is no reason we shouldn't be able to
sit down around the table and talk about improvements. What I might
call a reform somebody else could call a replacement. I don't care
about the label, but what I do care about is repealing a law that
provides millions of people the confidence that they have health care
for the first time in their lives, doing it and having the discussion
during the holiday season, doing it in a way that will hurt working
people, will hurt working people who don't have high school degrees,
doing it in a way that will hurt people who are already sick, who are
already dealing with illnesses in their families.
I am a student of this body. I am not a historian. I am a student of
this body, but my prediction would be this: If this body goes down the
path of repealing this important law that provides important
protections to millions with no idea about what the replacement is, I
think it will be a day we will look back on and those who care about
this body will look back on, probably in the not-too-distant future,
and will say this will be one of the low moments in the history of the
United States Senate. There is no need for it because there are people
of good will in this body who are willing to sit down and find
solutions and find improvements and find reforms, but nobody seems
willing to have that discussion. Let's have that discussion rather than
the repeal discussion, and we will serve our constituents better.
Madam President, I yield the floor.
Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, today, the Senate will vote on
significant legislation--a bill that aims to make it easier for
innovative medical treatments to be approved, while investing over $6
billion in medical research and combating the opioid crisis. The bill
also takes an important step toward improving our mental health system,
specifically by strengthening our parity laws to ensure mental health
treatments are covered by insurance companies.
Medical research holds tremendous promise, but our commitment to this
funding has not kept pace with what is needed to make more
breakthroughs with diseases like cancer and Alzheimer's. In recent
years, Congress has supported increased funds for medical research, but
these increases have come at the expense of other important domestic
programs. We can and should do more.
In October, Vice President Biden joined me in Vermont to discuss the
future of cancer treatment. We learned that we are on the cusp of so
many developments in fighting the disease, but that more research is
needed to get there. This bill contains $1.8 billion dedicated to Vice
President Biden's cancer moonshot and another $1.4 billion in precision
medicine to help target treatments to individual patients. It also
includes $1.5 billion for President Obama's BRAIN Initiative, to expand
brain mapping technologies that help scientists understand brain
disorders and diseases affecting the central nervous system. Since the
BRAIN Initiative was established in 2013, it has already made
significant advances in medical knowledge, including improving
artificial limb technologies and discovering more links between brain
chemical functions and depression.
I am also pleased that this bill finally fulfills our commitment to
fund efforts to combat the opioid crisis. This is especially critical
since Congress failed to include necessary funding resources when the
Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act passed earlier this year. This
bill contains $1 billion to combat the opioid crisis, with the first
half of the funding to be dedicated this fiscal year. Each day, 129
people die from drug overdoses in this country. Vermont and many other
predominately rural States have been hit particularly hard by this
epidemic. I suspect that almost every Vermonter knows someone who has
been impacted by addiction. It is something I hear about regularly when
I am home in Vermont. This is not the future we want for our children,
for our grandchildren, or for our communities. I am
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hopeful that the funding included in this bill will help States move
people into treatment to eventually stop the tragic cycle of abuse.
While I strongly support this funding, in addition to the bill's
expansion of medical research and mental health parity, this bill is
far from perfect. Whereas the bill contains $6.3 billion in upfront
cuts to offset funding for its many efforts, these funds are not in
fact guaranteed each year. Rather, the Appropriations Committee must
act each year to ``unlock'' the funding. Republican leaders assure us
that this funding will go out the door, and as the incoming vice
chairman of the Appropriations Committee, I intend to hold them to that
promise.
I am also concerned that the bill includes provisions to fast-track
prescription drug approval through the Food and Drug Administration,
FDA. We all want to ensure that patients have access to medications,
but we must also be sure those treatments are both safe and effective.
I have concerns that this bill may weaken the standards by which the
FDA can review certain medications, for example, by allowing the agency
to use existing data from different drug trials to prove the safety of
new medications that include similar drug compounds.
Furthermore, while the bill makes it easier in many cases to get
drugs approved, it does nothing to address the unreasonable price hikes
we have seen in some prescription drugs. I filed an amendment with
Senators Grassley, Klobuchar, and Lee that would address some of the
anticompetitive behavior many drug companies are engaging in to help
drive up the cost of their drugs. For example, in order to delay
approval of generic drugs entering the market, some drug companies
withhold drug samples or refuse to enter into shared safety agreements
with generic manufacturers--both of which are necessary for FDA
approval. Our amendment, which mirrors our CREATES Act, would close
this loophole and help generic drugs come to the market faster.
Unfortunately, the Senate will not have the opportunity to consider
this improvement to the bill or any others before we vote on the bill's
passage. I am frustrated that a bill of this enormity--that has never
been considered by the full Senate--is being placed on the calendar at
the end of a session with no opportunity for amendments. I hope the
Senate leadership will promptly schedule floor debates on this and
other improvements to this package early next year.
Nevertheless, improvements were made to this bill before it was
considered by the House last week. For example, the bill no longer
includes a provision that would weaken the disclosure requirements for
physicians receiving gifts. The bill also now clearly directs opioid
funding to States that have been hit hardest by the crisis. Lastly,
more of the funding for medical research is set to go out this fiscal
year, which will have an immediate impact on improving the important
work of the NIH and our overall medical research community.
On balance, this is an important piece of legislation that offers a
great promise to move the bar forward on medical research, while also
providing critical relief to families suffering from opioid addiction.
I believe these strong investments will benefit us for generations to
come, and I will support the passage of this bill.
Mr. REED. Madam President, I am pleased to support the 21st Century
Cures Act, which includes a number of critical mental health
provisions, much needed funding for medical research and innovation at
the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration,
as well as funding to help combat the opioid crisis in our country.
First, I would like to highlight division B of this legislation, the
Mental Health Reform Act. The Mental Health Reform Act represents years
of work in Congress across party lines to improve the quality of and
access to mental health and substance abuse treatment, such as training
more behavioral health workers and strengthening parity for mental
health and substance abuse treatment. This bill also includes my
legislation, the Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Reauthorization Act, which
supports youth suicide prevention grants for schools--elementary
schools through college where children and young adults spend most of
their time--to be able to reach at-risk youth. I am especially pleased
that, for the first time, this bill will allow funding to be used for
mental health treatment on college campuses, the most effective way to
prevent suicide. I have worked with advocates across the mental health
community for the better part of the last decade on this effort, so I
am pleased to see this come to fruition.
This legislation also includes an infusion of funding for National
Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration--$4.8 billion
over the next 10 years, including $1 billion to be concentrated over
the next 3 years for the Cancer Moonshot initiative. I commend Vice
President Biden for his work to spearhead the Cancer Moonshot
initiative over the last year, and I think it was a fitting tribute
that the Senate agreed unanimously to rename this title of the bill
after his son, Beau Biden, who tragically lost his life to cancer last
year. The remaining funding will be used to support key efforts at the
NIH, such as the Precision Medicine Initiative, the BRAIN Initiative,
and regenerative medicine using adult stem cells. In addition, the bill
contains $1 billion in funding for States to respond to the ongoing
opioid epidemic. Earlier this year, passage of the Comprehensive
Addiction and Recovery Act was an important first step in addressing
this crisis, but my colleagues on the other side of the aisle voted
against efforts to fund the legislation and provide access to treatment
in our communities. I am pleased that we will finally have real funding
going to communities this year to provide this treatment.
However, I am disappointed that this bill does not make this funding
mandatory. We will still have to rely on appropriations in the future
to ensure that this funding goes out as intended. I am also concerned
about the cuts in this bill, which many of my colleagues have spoken
about at length during consideration of the bill, and I would like to
echo those comments. For example, this legislation cuts the Prevention
and Public Health Fund by $3.5 billion, to the detriment of worthy and
vital efforts such as youth suicide prevention, immunizations, and lead
poisoning prevention.
While I have these reservations, I am pleased that the Congress is
able to support bipartisan reforms to our mental health system, as well
as funding for medical research and the opioid response. I hope that we
will be able to work on a bipartisan basis to ensure that these efforts
continue to be funded over the next several years.
Mr. BURR. Madam President, I am pleased to rise to talk about the
21st Century Cures bill we have before us today.
At the beginning of this Congress, my good friend Senator Alexander
and I issued a report entitled Innovation for Healthier Americans in
which we asked a simple, but critical, question: how can we do it
better? Chairman Alexander and I asked this question because we must do
it better for our constituents and their loved ones who are battling
devastating diseases--diseases like Alzheimer's, cancer, and rare
pediatric conditions--for which we have no treatments today, but hope
that we will in time to help the courageous individuals with these
diseases to win their fight. I commend Chairman Alexander for his
resolute focus on this critical work and for his leadership in bringing
forward the bill we have before us today.
For decades, our Nation has led the world in medical innovation, but
the challenges to maintaining this global edge have never been greater.
We recognized that our Nation's biomedical discovery and development
must work as well as possible to ensure that Americans are able to
benefit from the most cutting-edge medical innovations in as timely a
manner as possible. We are at a tremendously exciting era in medicine
that will be defined by innovation. Innovation holds great potential.
Our ability to respond to public
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health threats, including those that pose a direct threat to our
national security, will in large part be defined by whether or not we
embrace innovation. In other words, the stakes could not be greater and
innovation will be the key to our success in these endeavors.
The bill before us today reflects a tremendous amount of bipartisan
work and covers many areas of health care. I want to take just a few
moments to highlight a handful of provisions on which I have partnered
with my colleagues and that I believe answer the question of how we can
do it better.
I am pleased that the final Cures bill includes the Advancing
Targeted Therapies for Rare Diseases Act, legislation that will help
advance the development of targeted drugs for patients with serious or
life threatening rare genetic diseases. Each of us has met constituents
facing a difficult diagnosis, and these cases are particularly
devastating when the patient is a young child who should have a
lifetime ahead of them, but for which we have no treatment to offer
them. These are the patients who move us to bring an unapologetic
urgency to our work on these issues. The choice between nothing and
nothing is not a choice. And so I want to thank my colleagues,
particularly Senator Bennet, Senator Hatch, and Senator Warren, for
their work on the Advancing Targeted Therapies for Rare Diseases Act.
Developing drugs for rare diseases is particularly difficult, but as
our genetic understanding of rare diseases increases, there will be new
opportunities to pursue treatments for Duchenne muscular dystrophy,
cystic fibrosis, and certain cancers, and these provisions will help to
pave the way for these therapies to reach patients sooner. With these
opportunities will come renewed hope for the children, adults, and
families battling these conditions.
I am particularly pleased that the final Cures bill also includes the
Advancing Breakthrough Devices for Patients Act. This legislation
builds on the Advancing Breakthrough Therapies for Patients Act, which
was enacted 4 years ago and has been very effective in helping to bring
forward breakthrough therapies for patients. I want to thank Senator
Bennet and Senator Hatch for their collaboration and partnership on
these breakthrough bills. Like our 2012 bill, these provisions will
ensure an all-hands-on-deck approach, this time for devices, with the
goal of expediting the development and review of breakthrough
technologies. These provisions are appropriately focused on what these
technologies will mean for patients. In order to qualify for FDA
designation as a breakthrough device, a device must provide more
effective treatment or diagnosis of life-threatening or irreversibly
debilitating diseases or conditions. These devices must represent
breakthrough technologies, have no approved alternatives, offer
significant advantages over existing approved alternatives, or their
availability must be in the best interest of patients. These devices
might be the next technology that better prepares us to respond to
needs in a disaster or life-threatening situation or the innovation
that improves the manner and quality of an individual's episode of
care. In other words, bringing forward these breakthrough devices will
improve health care.
The timely and predictable review of medical products is key to
promoting and protecting the public health. The FDA Modernization Act I
authored in 1997 sought to modernize the agency in a way that supported
regulating in the least burdensome manner, while ensuring that
innovative products would reach patients in as timely a manner as
possible. The FDA Device Accountability Act's bipartisan provisions
included in the final Cures bill build on these efforts. I want to
thank Senator Franken for his collaboration on this legislation, which
will ensure that FDA eliminates unnecessary burdens when reviewing
devices. It will also permit more efficient device clinical trials. In
addition, the bill will require FDA to update guidance on certain tests
performed in doctors' offices to ensure that the guidance on this
matter aligns with the FDA Modernization Act's intent that, if the
results by trained and untrained users are comparable, a test is
considered to be accurate for CLIA waiver purposes. If we are going to
ensure devices are able to reach Americans in as timely a manner as
possible, we need to focus on what is necessary to know to meet FDA's
gold standard for approval. What might be nice to know is not
necessarily central to what FDA needs to know to make regulatory
decisions. These provisions will help provide needed regulatory
certainty and focus when it comes to FDA's review of medical devices.
As we worked on the Cures bill this Congress, we have been reminded
of the need to be prepared for the full range of public health threats
that may present themselves, whether naturally occurring, like the Zika
virus, or the result of a deliberate attack. I want to thank Senator
Casey for his partnership in making sure we are as prepared as possible
for these threats. The final Cures bill includes provisions from our
bipartisan bill, the Medical Countermeasures Innovation Act, which will
encourage the development of the medical products needed to protect the
American people in the event of a global pandemic or biological weapons
attack. Cochairs of the Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense, Joe
Lieberman and Tom Ridge, wrote that this legislation would further
strengthen the underpinnings of biological preparedness by creating new
incentives for public-private partnerships; clarifying and streamlining
contracting processes at the Biomedical Advanced Research and
Development Authority; and ensuring that our Nation's health care
providers have the guidance they need to use medical countermeasures in
an emergency. The Alliance for Biosecurity has said that the medical
countermeasure priority review voucher provided for in our legislation,
and the final Cures bill, would be a game changer for investment in
biodefense. Researching, developing, and getting a medical
countermeasure across the approval finish line to market is a long,
difficult, costly, and very risky but necessary endeavor. The priority
review voucher for medical countermeasures will help to invigorate
partnerships to ensure we have the medical countermeasures we need
against the most serious identified threats--threats that have been
found to affect our national security. We have heard that this program
will benefit not only our civilian needs, but those of our Nation's
warfighters, and, in doing so, better protect the American people. I
look forward to continuing to work with my colleagues to ensure we
fully leverage this provision, including ensuring that partners and
innovators in this space have the certainty of knowing the Federal
Government is committed to seeing this work through and not
undercutting it by stopping our work on these fronts before we are
fully prepared to protect the American people from these serious
threats.
I also want to take this opportunity to thank Senator Casey for
working with me in our annual efforts to advocate for the National
Institutes of Health having the robust resources it needs to advance
its lifesaving work. In addition to the funding increases the NIH has
been provided through the appropriations process, this legislation will
give NIH a meaningful booster shot in dedicated funding to enhance its
work in promising areas.
While passage and enactment of this legislation is a significant
step, it is by no means the last. I will continue to hold the NIH and
FDA accountable for their work on behalf of America's patients, and I
look forward to continuing to partner with my colleagues on these
important issues. As I have said before, the day-to-day actions--and,
in many cases, inaction--at the FDA has a profound effect on our
Nation's patients. It also directly impacts our economy, as FDA-
regulated products account for about 25 cents of every dollar spent by
American consumers each year. The importance of holding the agency
accountable for its actions and inactions--all the way from frontline
reviewers to the Commissioner--has never been more important.
The former FDA Commissioner, Dr. Andy von Eschenbach, once wrote that
government policy can either inhibit or accelerate the next revolution
in
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science and technology. We must continue to advance and see through
policies that spur, foster, and support the innovation and regulatory
pathways necessary to realize cutting-edge treatments. Like the FDA
Modernization Act in 1997, the bill before us today represents a
remarkable opportunity--the opportunity to embrace innovation for
healthier Americans. The director of the Lineberger Comprehensive
Cancer Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
summed it up well when he wrote to me and said that passage of this
legislation will not only touch lives, it has the potential to save
them. Therefore, it is my strong hope that the tools provided by this
legislation will be leveraged and the medical products our constituents
are counting on accelerated. This will be good for America's
innovators, North Carolinians, and our Nation.
Mr. KAINE. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Wicker). Without objection, it is so
ordered.
Mr. ALEXANDER. Madam President, at 2 p.m., the Senate will move to a
final passage vote on legislation we call 21st Century Cures. It has
been called by the majority leader the most important piece of
legislation the Congress is likely to act on this year.
The House of Representatives added to the bill a Mental Health Reform
Act--actually three separate bills that Senator Murphy, Senator Cornyn,
and Senator Cassidy worked on especially here, which is the most
important reform of many mental health programs in more than a decade.
It is very important to one out of five adult Americans who have a
mental illness.
It caused me to think this: This is Pearl Harbor Day. Pearl Harbor
Day is a day when we remember the terrifying attacks on the American
military that killed more than 2,000 and launched us into World War II.
We also remember it as a day that began to create and define what we
now refer to as the ``greatest generation''--the generation
distinguished by the men and women of that era, the era of Bob Dole,
George H.W. Bush, and men and women now in their nineties and late
eighties. They were defined by being willing to work hard on behalf of
the entire country, put their differences aside and work for the
greater good; to recognize that our diversity is important, but what is
more important is the fact that we are all Americans.
There have been some other times in our recent history when we have
been reminded of that, and 9/11 is the most important of those. I
remember how I felt after 9/11. I watched President George W. Bush
speak, and I thought he spoke eloquently, as did Al Gore at that time,
about the principles that unite us a country.
Celebrating our diversity is a good thing. Celebrating our oneness is
more important, and it is harder work. What we are doing today is a
more modest--much more modest--example of the same sort of spirit. I do
not want to suggest that passing a bill in Congress equals going to war
or running into a burning building in New York City after it has been
attacked, but it is the same spirit. I don't have any apology for
suggesting that. It is a spirit of facing up to a big issue, a complex
issue that affects lots of people, about which there are lots of
legitimate differences, and working hard to resolve those differences
so that we are not celebrating those differences, we are celebrating
the fact that we came together and--as we did in the House of
Representatives last week 392 to 26 and as we did on Monday in the
Senate with 85 votes in favor of 21st Century Cures--we moved toward a
solution that we all can support.
Sometimes we govern by Executive order in Washington, and Executive
orders can be repealed by any new administration. Sometimes we have
partisan exercises, as we did with Obamacare 6 years ago, and we have
been like the Hatfields and McCoys ever since, shooting each other
until we forget what we are arguing about. We actually remember, but it
makes it much more difficult than to come together and get a consensus.
Other examples are the civil rights bill of the 1960s, the Medicare
bill, and the bill last December that President Obama called a
Christmas miracle when we fixed No Child Left Behind and came forward
with a piece of legislation about which there was a consensus not just
to fix it but on how to fix it, a consensus supported by Governors as
well as teachers unions, classroom teachers as well as school boards.
On that bill, there will not be a movement in Congress to repeal it
because everybody voted for it. So those who are teaching in our
classrooms in our 100,000 public schools and those who are working in
State departments of education and the parents will know that for the
foreseeable future, there is a consensus and stability about elementary
and secondary education.
We hear every day that we have a fractured country, that we have so
many differences of opinion, we can't operate. Well, there is one
institution in the country that is an institution that is capable of
leading the country toward consensus on important issues, and it is the
U.S. Senate. Sometimes we are able to do that. We were able to do it
last year. As the President said--he called it a Christmas miracle. We
fixed No Child Left Behind. We are able to do it today on mental health
legislation, which had to navigate its way through gun issues, funding
issues, and a whole variety of other issues. We are doing it on 21st
Century Cures, which, as I and the majority leader have said, is the
most important piece of legislation we will act on.
It is pretty rare that we have legislation that the President of the
United States says is an opportunity we just can't miss and the Vice
President of the United States is telephoning Senators before they go
into their caucus meetings to urge them to support it. At the same
time, the Speaker of the House, a Republican, is saying: This is part
of my agenda for the future of our country. And the majority leader is
saying it is the most important bill we will act on.
It still wasn't easy to pass because we are dealing with a lot of
life-and-death issues: How rapidly can we move treatments and cures
through the Food and Drug Administration and make sure they are still
safe or how slowly can we do it and run up the cost so high that nobody
can afford these treatments? How long can we take so that everybody is
dead by the time the medicine is ready? We don't want that to happen.
Those were the issues we had.
What kind of incentives can we give to drug companies so they can
tackle rare diseases in children like the ones at St. Jude whom we see
from Mississippi, Tennessee, and across the country? They have rare
cancers and other diseases. Nobody is making medicines for those
diseases because there is no incentive in the marketplace for it, so we
give some incentive in the marketplace for such things.
Electronic medical records have been a real burden to doctors. We
spent 30 billion taxpayer dollars, and they were in a ditch. This
legislation moves it out of the ditch.
Francis Collins, the distinguished head of the National Institutes of
Health, says that in the next 10 years, we will be able hopefully to
prevent Alzheimer's or to identify it before symptoms, an artificial
pancreas for diabetes, a vaccine for HIV/AIDS, a vaccine for Zika and a
universal vaccine for flu, which killed 30,000 last year. According to
the Mayo Clinic, regenerative medicine is a game changer--using our own
stem cells to restore eyesight or to restore our damaged hearts. There
are provisions in this legislation to move that ahead. There is $4.8
billion in funding for the National Institutes of Health. The bill
includes the EUREKA Act, sponsored by the Senator from Mississippi,
which is so important. The funding includes money for the President's
Precision Medicine Initiative, for the Vice President's Cancer
Moonshot, and for the BRAIN Initiative. There is an additional $500
million for the FDA and $1 billion for
[[Page 15958]]
State grants over the next 2 years to fight opioid abuse.
As the President says, this is an opportunity we cannot miss. It is
an opportunity we cannot miss and we are not going to miss. We are
going to have this bill down to the President very shortly, and he will
have an opportunity to be presented with another Christmas miracle.
I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record following my
remarks today's editorial from the Wall Street Journal, which says:
Cures is a stride toward a more rational and humane drug
development system, and legislation is about compromise. The
bill could become a useful precedent for successful progress
as the 115th Congress starts to take shape next year.
On Pearl Harbor Day when we celebrate the ``greatest generation'' and
the contributions they made by remembering that while diversity is
important, our oneness is more important, this is a much more modest
example but a very important one of the same spirit, one that affects
virtually every family in America.
I would like to extend my deep thanks and sincere appreciation to the
dedicated staff who worked on the bill. We talk about that a lot here,
but every one of us who is a Senator knows how crucial that is. We have
worked for 2 years on the bill, numerous hearings, numerous
discussions. It passed the House of Representatives twice. It came
through our committee, the Senate HELP Committee, in the form of 19
different bipartisan bills. Every one of those bills, by the time it
passed, 2 was the largest number of recorded votes against each one of
those 19 bills.
The staff did a tremendous job on that. I want to especially thank
David Cleary, who is my chief of staff, and Evan Schatz, Senator
Murray's chief on these issues, for the remarkable way they are able to
work together with both Senator Murray's staff and my staff.
On Senator Murray's staff, John Righter, Nick Bath, Andi Fristedt,
Wade Ackerman, Remy Brim, Colin Goldfinch, Madeleine Pannell, Julia
Tierney, Kalah Auchincloss--I thank them very much for their passion
for the issue and their willingness to work toward a result.
On our staff, in addition to David, I thank Mary-Sumpter Lapinski,
Lindsey Seidman, and Grace Stuntz, who did an enormous amount of work,
as did Laura Pence. I thank Brett Meeks, Kara Townsend, Melissa Pfaff,
Liz Wroe, Margaret Coulter, Curtis Vann, Kathryn Bell, Andrew Burnett,
Bobby McMillin, Lowell Schiller, Jim Jeffries, Liz Wolgemuth, Margaret
Atkinson, Taylor Haulsee, Alicia Hennie, and Jamie Garden.
We have had an unusual opportunity in this to work across the aisle
with Chairman Upton, Representative Pallone, Representative DeGette,
and others in the House of Representatives and their staffs. I want to
especially thank Speaker Ryan and Senator McConnell. Speaker Ryan did a
triple somersault to try to find a funding mechanism that would satisfy
both Democrats and Republicans, and Senator McConnell made time on the
floor for it. Not everyone is satisfied with the funding mechanism, but
we are all voting for it because this is such an important bill.
On Chairman Upton's staff, I would like to thank Gary Andres, Paul
Edattel, John Stone, Carly McWilliams, Adrianna Simonelli, Katie
Novaria, James Paluskiewicz, Josh Trent, and Clay Alspach.
On Ranking Member Pallone's staff, I would like to thank Tiffany
Guarascio, Kimberlee Trzeciak, Megan Velez, Waverly Gordon, and Arielle
Woronoff.
I would like to thank the hard-working staff of our Senate HELP
Committee members, who played important roles in reaching this
agreement, including Liz Schwartz with Senator Enzi, Anna Abram and
Angela Wiles with Senator Burr, Jordan Bartolomeo with Senator Isakson,
Natalie Burkhalter with Senator Paul, Olivia Kurtz and Amanda Lincoln
with Senator Collins, Chelsea Holt with Senator Murkowski, Cade Clurman
and Andrew Vogt with Senator Kirk, Claire Brandewie with Senator Scott,
Matthew Richardson and Stuart Portman with Senator Hatch, Emily Mueller
with Senator Roberts, Robb Walton and Brenda Destro with Senator
Cassidy, Jean Doyle with Senator Mikulski, Sophie Kasimow with Senator
Sanders, Sarah Mabry with Senator Casey, Beth Wickler with Senator
Franken, Rohini Kosoglu with Senator Bennet, Jennifer DeAngelis with
Senator Whitehouse, Kathleen Laird with Senator Baldwin, and Joe Dunn
with Senator Murphy, and Beth Pearson with Senator Warren.
From the Senate Finance Committee, I would like to thank Kim Brandt,
Jennifer Kuskowski, Erin Dempsey, Brett Baker, Chris Campbell, and Jay
Khosla.
I would also like to thank much of the hard-working staff from the
White House and Department of Health and Human Services who provided
great help in getting this bill completed.
From the White House, I would like to thank Chief of Staff Denis
McDonough and Kate Mevis.
From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I would like
to thank Secretary Sylvia Burwell, NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins,
Dr. Kathy Hudson, FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf, Dr. Janet
Woodcock, Dr. Jeffrey Shuren, Dr. Karen Desalvo, Acting SAMHSA
Administrator Kana Enomoto, Sara Singleton, Jill Adleburg, Dayle
Cristinzio, Jennifer Tomasello, Rachel Stauffer, Maren McBride, Karson
Mahler, Lauren Higgins, Adrienne Hallett, Laura Berkson, Ned Culhane,
Patricia Brandt-Hansberger, Dena Morris, Miranda Katsoyannis, Brian
Payne, Brian Altman, and Peggie Rice.
We always rely on the experts at the Congressional Research Service
to give us good information in a timely manner, so I extend my thanks
to Andrew Nolan, Maeve Carey, and Wendy Ginsberg.
The Senate and House legislative counsel staff worked long hours on
the many drafts of this bill, so I would like to extend my thanks to
Bill Baird, Jessica Shapiro, Kim Tamber, Katie Grendon, Warren Burke,
and Margaret Bomba.
From the Congressional Budget Office, I would like to thank Chad
Chirico, Holly Harvey, and Ellen Werble.
On Senator McConnell's staff, I would like to thank Scott Raab.
On Speaker Ryan's staff, I would like to thank Matt Hoffman.
Finally, I would like to thank all the patients, doctors,
researchers, innovators, thought leaders, and experts who dedicated
time and expertise to helping us come up with this legislation.
I see my colleague, the Senator from Washington, on the floor. I once
again thank her for her strong leadership in helping create the
environment where 21st Century Cures and the mental health legislation
can succeed.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
[From the Wall Street Journal, Dec. 6, 2016]
Congress's Cures Breakthrough
Medicine moves faster than government, thank goodness, but
every now and again government tries to catch up. After years
of thoughtful bipartisan work, Congress is now poised to pass
the 21st Century Cures Act, a bill designed to accelerate the
development of new medicines and modernize a malfunctioning
corner of the regulatory state.
The sweeping measure cleared a Senate procedural vote 85-13
on Monday night and passed the House 392-96. These margins
are testimony to renewed self-confidence in U.S. innovation
and health-care progress, not much expressed in Washington
until recently. A few dead-enders like Bernie Sanders and
Elizabeth Warren are denouncing Cures for its lack of
pharmaceutical price controls, which might have become a
reality had Hillary Clinton won on Nov. 8.
Cures includes a $4.8 billion infusion for the National
Institutes of Health for basic research. The bill funds the
NIH's neurological program on diseases like Alzheimer's, Joe
Biden's ``cancer moonshot'' and rare diseases, while one
encouraging earmark is for ``high risk, high reward'' studies
that might not be financed by the private economy.
By the way, these new dollars are roughly offset with
budget cuts elsewhere, which exposes the liberal claims of
crisis if every program doesn't last forever. Congress is
supposed to set priorities.
Perhaps the most promising component of Cures is a new
regulatory model for Food
[[Page 15959]]
and Drug Administration approvals. The FDA remains fused to
an outdated clinical model that is too slow, costly and
arbitrary. The FDA was not designed to govern an era of
genomics, biomarkers, systems biology, artificial
intelligence and other advances, not that its own inadequacy
has prevented it from trying.
Thus Cures encourages the FDA to supplement classical
randomized clinical trials with more information, such as
adaptive trial designs that target patient sub-groups who are
more likely to benefit. This would allow research to succeed
or fail faster at some fraction of the current expense. The
agency is also ordered to consider ``real-world evidence'' in
approvals outside of trials.
What the FDA calls ``RWE'' is controversial because the
agency is preoccupied with ``proving'' how a medicine will
perform. But modern trials are so tightly controlled that the
results are often artificial, or irrelevant to how a medicine
will be used and refined in actual medical practice. In any
case, debates about drug approval are never about ``proof,''
but how to interpret evidence of benefits and risks.
The main limitation of Cures is that the problems at FDA
aren't due to a shortage of laws. They flow from the agency's
institutional culture of control, delay and abuse of
regulatory discretion. Cures requires the FDA merely ``to
evaluate the use of real-world evidence,'' and this wouldn't
be the first political instruction that the bureaucracy has
defied.
Still, Cures is a stride toward a more rational and humane
drug development system, and legislation is about compromise.
The bill could become a useful precedent for successful
progress as the 115th Congress starts to take shape next
year.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Washington.
Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I would like to express my heartfelt
thanks to all of our colleagues in the House and the Senate who worked
so hard to make this bill the best it could be for the patients and
families we serve. In particular, I want to express my appreciation to
Vice President Biden for his leadership, vision, and determination. I
especially want to thank the chairman of the HELP Committee, Senator
Alexander, for his work and his leadership on this bill, as well as
Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton, Ranking Member Frank Pallone,
and Congresswoman Diana DeGette.
I would like to reiterate my gratitude to our staff on both sides of
the aisle who put in very long hours and weekends and more to get this
legislation finished.
As a result of a lot of strong bipartisan work, we are now sending a
bill to the President's desk that will invest in tackling our hardest-
to-treat diseases, put real dollars behind the fight against the opioid
epidemic, and make badly needed changes to mental health care in our
country. I am particularly thankful for the strong bipartisan work of
Senator Murphy and Senator Cassidy, as well as Congressman Murphy.
I am confident that I am not alone in saying that I have heard from
so many people in my home State about each and every one of these
challenges. There are patients and families waiting and hoping for new
cures and treatments, people from every walk of life who make clear
that the opioid epidemic has cost too many lives and torn too many
families apart, and families who have struggled to get loved ones the
mental health care they need, and our broken mental health care system
got in their way, rather than helping.
I listened to these stories in my home State of Washington. I brought
them back and told them here on the Senate floor, and now I am very
proud to be taking bipartisan steps to help give patients, families,
and communities the relief they need in response to some of the biggest
challenges in health care of our time.
Thank you again to all of the Senators who worked on this and all of
our colleagues in the House for this bipartisan effort.
I want to thank the Congressional staff from both Houses and both
parties who worked so hard over the last 2 years on this legislation.
From my staff, Wade Ackerman, Kalah Auchincloss, Nick Bath, Jane
Bigham, Remy Brim, Andi Fristedt, Colin Goldfinch, Megan Howard,
Madeleine Pannell, Melanie Rainer, Julie Tierney, Elizabeth Wagner, Eli
Zupnick, Helen Hare, Evan Schatz, John Righter, Aravind Sreenath,
Natalie Kirilichin, and Kate Blizinsky.
From Chairman Alexander's staff David Cleary, Margaret Coulter,
MarySumpter Lapinski, Brett Meeks, Laura Pence, Melissa Pfaff, Kara
Townshend, Curtis Vann, Lindsey Seidman and Elizabeth Wroe.
From Representative Pallone's staff, Eric Flamm, Waverley Gordon,
Tiffany Guarascio, Rachel Pryor, Kim Trzeciak, Arielle Woronoff, and
Megan Velez.
From Chairman Upton's staff, Paul Edattel, Adrianna Simonelli, John
Stone, Carly McWilliams, JP Paluskiewicz, Adam Buckalew, Jay Gulshen
and Josh Trent.
Thank you to the staff from all our committee Democrats who worked so
hard on the package: from Senator Murphy's staff, David Bonine and Joe
Dunn; from Senator Whitehouse's staff, Jen DeAngelis and Anna Esten;
from Senator Baldwin's staff, Kathleen Laird and Jasmine Badreddine;
from Senator Casey's staff, Sara Mabry and Doug Hartman; from Senator
Franken's staff, Beth Wilder and Rachel Cumberbatch; from Senator
Bennet's staff, Rohini Kosoglu and Rina Shah; from Senator Mikulski's
staff, Jean Doyle, Jessica McNiece, and Amanda Shelton; from Leader
Reid's staff, Kate Leone and McKenzie Bennet; from Senator Schumer's
staff, Veronica Duron; from Leader Pelosi's office, Wendell Primus;
from Representative Hoyer's office, Charlene MacDonald.
Thank you to the tireless staff of the Senate legislative counsel:
Kim Tamber, Bill Baird, and Katie Grendon; and Holly Harvey, Ellen
Werble and Julia Christensen of the Congressional Budget Office.
At the White House, let me thank Amy Rosebaum, Jeanne Lambrew, Carole
Johnson, and Kate Mevis. Each of the agency heads played a crucial role
in pushing this bill forward: Secretary of Health and Human Services
Sylvia Mathews Burwell, National Institutes of Health Director Dr.
Francis Collins, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Robert
Califf, Principal Deputy Administrator for the Substance Abuse and
Mental Health Services Administration Kana Enomoto, and National
Coordinator for Health Information Technology Dr. Vindell Washington
and his predecessor Dr. Karen DeSalvo. The staff of each of these
agencies did invaluable work over a long period of time: Andrea Palm,
Jim Esquea, Sara Singleton, Jeremy Sharp, Dayle Cristinzio, Rachel
Sher, Sara Walinsky, Adrienne Hallett, Laura Berkson, Lauren Higgins,
Alex Khalife, Rachel Stauffer, Maren McBride, Steven Posnack, Karson
Mahler, Tom Coderre, Brian Altman, Brian Payne, Peggie Rice, and Jon
White.
I thank Senator Alexander, who has worked diligently across the aisle
to get this done.
My sincere thanks to you today.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Tennessee.
Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, the Senator from Washington knows how
much I appreciate her leadership and enjoy working with her, and I
think we all respect the fact that she enjoys getting results that help
the American people.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, all postcloture time
has expired.
Vote on Motion to Concur With Amendment No. 5117
Mr. ALEXANDER. I move to table the motion to concur with the
amendment.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the motion to
table.
The motion was agreed to.
Vote on Motion to Concur
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the motion to
concur in the House amendment to the Senate Amendment to H.R. 34.
Mr. ALEXANDER. I ask for the yeas and nays.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
There appears to be a sufficient second.
The legislative clerk called the roll.
Mr. CORNYN. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator
from Arkansas (Mr. Cotton).
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber
desiring to vote?
[[Page 15960]]
The result was announced--yeas 94, nays 5, as follows:
[Rollcall Vote No. 157 Leg.]
YEAS--94
Alexander
Ayotte
Baldwin
Barrasso
Bennet
Blumenthal
Blunt
Booker
Boozman
Boxer
Brown
Burr
Cantwell
Capito
Cardin
Carper
Casey
Cassidy
Coats
Cochran
Collins
Coons
Corker
Cornyn
Crapo
Cruz
Daines
Donnelly
Durbin
Enzi
Ernst
Feinstein
Fischer
Flake
Franken
Gardner
Gillibrand
Graham
Grassley
Hatch
Heinrich
Heitkamp
Heller
Hirono
Hoeven
Inhofe
Isakson
Johnson
Kaine
King
Kirk
Klobuchar
Lankford
Leahy
Manchin
Markey
McCain
McCaskill
McConnell
Menendez
Mikulski
Moran
Murkowski
Murphy
Murray
Nelson
Paul
Perdue
Peters
Portman
Reed
Reid
Risch
Roberts
Rounds
Rubio
Sasse
Schatz
Schumer
Scott
Sessions
Shaheen
Shelby
Stabenow
Sullivan
Tester
Thune
Tillis
Toomey
Udall
Vitter
Warner
Whitehouse
Wicker
NAYS--5
Lee
Merkley
Sanders
Warren
Wyden
NOT VOTING--1
Cotton
The motion was agreed to.
____________________
CLOTURE MOTION
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Pursuant to rule XXII, the Chair lays before
the Senate the pending cloture motion, which the clerk will state.
The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:
Cloture Motion
We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the
provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate,
do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the conference
report to accompany S. 2943, National Defense Authorization
Act for Fiscal Year 2017.
Mitch McConnell, Deb Fischer, Thom Tillis, Daniel Coats,
James M. Inhofe, John Hoeven, Cory Gardner, Orrin G.
Hatch, Mark Kirk, Tom Cotton, John Cornyn, Lindsey
Graham, Mike Rounds, Lisa Murkowski, Dan Sullivan, John
McCain.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. By unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum
call has been waived.
The question is, Is it the sense of the Senate that debate on the
conference report accompanying S. 2943, an original bill to authorize
appropriations for fiscal year 2017 for military activities of the
Department of Defense, for military construction, and for defense
activities of the Department of Energy, to prescribe military personnel
strengths for such fiscal year, and for other purposes, shall be
brought to a close?
The yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule.
The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
Mr. CORNYN. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator
from Arkansas (Mr. Cotton).
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cruz). Are there any other Senators in the
Chamber desiring to vote?
The yeas and nays resulted--yeas 92, nays 7, as follows:
[Rollcall Vote No. 158 Leg.]
YEAS--92
Alexander
Ayotte
Baldwin
Barrasso
Bennet
Blumenthal
Blunt
Booker
Boozman
Boxer
Brown
Burr
Cantwell
Capito
Cardin
Carper
Casey
Cassidy
Coats
Cochran
Collins
Coons
Corker
Cornyn
Crapo
Cruz
Daines
Donnelly
Durbin
Enzi
Ernst
Feinstein
Fischer
Flake
Franken
Gardner
Graham
Grassley
Hatch
Heinrich
Heitkamp
Heller
Hirono
Hoeven
Inhofe
Isakson
Johnson
Kaine
King
Kirk
Klobuchar
Lankford
Leahy
Manchin
McCain
McCaskill
McConnell
Menendez
Mikulski
Moran
Murkowski
Murphy
Murray
Nelson
Perdue
Peters
Portman
Reed
Reid
Risch
Roberts
Rounds
Rubio
Sasse
Schatz
Schumer
Scott
Sessions
Shaheen
Shelby
Stabenow
Sullivan
Tester
Thune
Tillis
Toomey
Udall
Vitter
Warner
Warren
Whitehouse
Wicker
NAYS--7
Gillibrand
Lee
Markey
Merkley
Paul
Sanders
Wyden
NOT VOTING--1
Cotton
The PRESIDING OFFICER. On this vote, the yeas are 92, the nays are 7.
Three-fifths of the Senators duly chosen and sworn having voted in
the affirmative, the motion is agreed to.
____________________
NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2017--CONFERENCE
REPORT
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the conference report.
The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:
Conference report to accompany S. 2943, a bill to authorize
appropriations for fiscal year 2017 for military activities
of the Department of Defense, for military construction, and
for defense activities of the Department of Energy, to
prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year,
and for other purposes.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Delaware.
Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Toomey). The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The VICE PRESIDENT. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the following
Senators who wish to speak in honor of the Presiding Officer be
recognized in the following order for up to 4 minutes each: me, the
majority leader Senator McConnell, the minority leader Senator Reid,
Senator Schumer, Senator Hatch, Senator Leahy, Senator McCain, Senator
Durbin, Senator Isakson, Senator Murray, Senator Feinstein, Senator
Collins, Senator Mikulski, and Senator Carper.
The VICE PRESIDENT. The Democratic leader.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senator
from Delaware amend his request so that Senator McConnell and I will
use our leader time. That will not count against his hour.
The VICE PRESIDENT. Is there objection?
Without objection, it is so ordered.
The Senator from Delaware.
Tributes to Vice President Joe Biden
Mr. COONS. Mr. President--and it does bring me some joy to call you
Mr. President. I am honored to be here today with so many of our
colleagues, and I am grateful to Majority Leader McConnell and Leader
Reid for their enthusiasm in pulling together this bipartisan tribute.
I am honored to be joined by my senior Senator from Delaware, Tom
Carper, who will make closing remarks this afternoon.
Before I begin, I would like to remind my colleagues that there will
be a reception for the Vice President in the Mansfield Room, after we
conclude here, beginning sometime after 4. We have many Senators who
wish to speak so we will move quickly through the order. I encourage my
colleagues to submit their remarks for the Record, those who are not
able to speak in the next hour. Their remarks will be combined with all
the other remarks given on the floor, and the resulting speeches
printed, bound, and presented to the Presiding Officer.
Mr. President, in a place known these days for some disagreements, my
colleagues--our colleagues, Republicans, Democrats, and Independents--
are all here today because we agree on one powerful and simple thing:
our deep gratitude for the difference you have made in your decades in
public service.
The greatest honor of my life is to serve in the seat that you held
for 36 years--and not just literally this seat in the Senate but also a
seat on the 7:15 Amtrak train down from Wilmington every morning. You
logged over 2 million miles on Amtrak and millions more traveling
around the world fighting for our country, and as long as I have the
privilege of representing our
[[Page 15961]]
State in the Senate, I will be humbled by the challenge of living up to
your legacy of fighting for and making a real difference for the people
of our shared home.
Like so many Americans, I have long been inspired by your loyalty to
your family, and I am so glad to see so many familiar faces in the
Gallery today. This job requires a strong partner and teammate, and to
Dr. Biden, Jill, your unwavering support for your family, for Delaware,
and your country is something for which we are all deeply grateful.
As a son of Delaware, and of Catherine Eugenia and Joe Senior, you
have never forgotten from where you came or for whom you are fighting.
Even as Vice President, our fellow Delawareans have the blessing of a
surprise visit week in and week out, to see you at the Columbus Day
breakfast or Return Day or St. Anthony's Procession.
Whether meeting personally with world leaders you have known for
decades, whether chairing the Judiciary or Foreign Relations Committees
or just stopping by a Claymont diner, there is universal agreement
about what you have brought to this work--your passion, your heart,
your character, and your integrity. That is because you genuinely
listen to people, you ask them questions, and then you lift them up. We
know that when you give us your word as a Biden, you mean it, and you
will keep it.
Your service as a Senator stands as a model for all of our colleagues
and for me. Through challenging times, you always worked across the
aisle, through eight Presidents. You were willing to reach across to
anyone willing to roll up their sleeves and get to work for the
American people.
So many families across Delaware and this country and I, myself, as
we have struggled with loss--maybe the loss of a job or loss of hope or
the impending loss of a loved one--have experienced the incredible
personal comfort and power of a call from you. When it comes to
providing advice and inspiration that touches our hearts and makes a
real difference, no one--no one--is better than you. We know you will
share our challenges, you will give us meaningful comfort and encourage
us, and you will fight for us.
As we look ahead to next year and beyond, I know you and Jill have so
much more great and good work to do, starting with the fight to cure
cancer through the Cancer Moonshot. This next chapter will be every bit
as exciting and meaningful as the life of service you have led for 44
years. What an honor to see you in that chair earlier this week as the
majority leader led the Senate in a unanimous vote to rename a title of
the 21st Century Cures cancer initiative after Beau. That bill, which
we passed finally just an hour ago, would not have happened without
your leadership.
Now, let me close with a line you know all too well, a line you
shared countless times in this Chamber, sometimes from this very desk.
As the Irish poet Seamus Heaney once wrote, ``History says, don't hope
on this side of the grave. But then, once in a lifetime, the longed-for
tidal wave of justice can rise up, and hope and history rhyme.''
No one, sir, no one has done more to make hope and history rhyme than
you. Thank you, Mr. President, for your service, your counsel, your
advice, your friendship, and your leadership.
It is now my pleasure to yield to the majority leader, Senator
McConnell of Kentucky, who has been so generous with floor time and
support this afternoon.
The VICE PRESIDENT. The majority leader.
Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, it is great to see the Presiding
Officer back in the Senate. It is good news for everyone he is in the
chair. Good news for him because, as Senator Coons said, the rest of us
have to call him ``Mr. President.'' Good news for the rest of us
because he has to let everyone else talk.
The amazing thing is, the man we honor today wasn't always a talker.
He suffered from a debilitating stutter for most of his childhood. He
was teased for it, but he was determined to overcome it, and so he
did--with hard work, with determination, with the support of his
family. It is classic Joe Biden. He has never stopped talking since.
He cites overcoming that stutter as one of the most important lessons
in his life. It led him down a path few might have foreseen: winning
election to the county council, securing an improbable victory for the
U.S. Senate, becoming our Nation's 47th Vice President.
Now, the Presiding Officer would be the first to tell you that he has
been blessed in many ways. He has also been tested, knocked down,
pushed to the edge of what anyone could be expected to bear, but from
the grip of unknowable despair came a new man--a better man: stronger
and more compassionate, grateful for every moment, appreciative of what
really matters.
Here in the Senate he heeded the advice of Mike Mansfield. Here is
what Senator Mansfield had to say:
Your job here is to find the good things in your
colleagues. And, Joe, never attack another man's motive,
because you don't know his motive.
Look for the good. Don't attack motives. It is the basis of a simple
philosophy and a very powerful one.
Vice President Biden says he views his competitors as competitors,
not enemies, and he has been able to cultivate many unlikely
friendships across the aisle--with Jesse Helms, with Strom Thurmond,
with me.
Over the years, we have worked together on issues of mutual interest,
like Burma--and regarding the vote we just took a few moments ago--21st
Century Cures, and the Cancer Moonshot.
We have also negotiated in good faith when the country needed
bipartisan leadership. We got results that would not have been possible
without a negotiating partner like Joe Biden. Obviously, I don't always
agree with him, but I do trust him implicitly. He doesn't break his
word. He doesn't waste time telling me why I am wrong. He gets down to
brass tacks, and he keeps in sight the stakes. There is a reason ``Get
Joe on the phone'' is shorthand for ``time to get serious'' in my
office.
The Vice President is a likeable guy too. He has a well-developed
sense of humor. He doesn't take himself too seriously either. When The
Onion ran a mock photo of him washing a Trans-Am in the White House
driveway, shirtless, Americans embraced it, and so did he. ``I think
it's hilarious,'' he said, but ``by the way, I have a Corvette--'67
Corvette--not a Trans-Am.'' So you see what I mean.
Joe Biden may exist in the popular imagination aboard an Amtrak, but
this son of a used car salesman will always be a muscle guy at heart.
And what a road he has traveled, from New Castle to the Naval
Observatory, from Scranton to the Senate. His journey in this body
began by the side of those who loved him; hand on the Bible, heart in a
knot, swearing the same oath he now administers to others. It is a
journey that ends now by the side of those who care about him still--
those like his wife Jill, who understands the full life he has lived.
Here is a man who has known great joy, who has been read his last
rites, and who has never lost himself along the way.
``Champ,'' his father used to say, ``the measure of a man is not how
often he is knocked down, but how quickly he gets up.'' That is Joe
Biden right there--unbowed, unbroken, and unable to stop talking.
It is my privilege to convey the Senate's warm wishes to the Vice
President on this Delaware Day as the next steps of his long journey
come into view. There are many here who feel this way in both parties.
I am reminded of something the Presiding Officer said when he
addressed the University of Louisville several years ago. It was one of
the McConnell Center's most popular lectures ever. And as I sat beside
him, he offered his theory as to why that might be: I think you're all
here today--remember, these are young people, students. He said: I
think you are all here today because ``you want to see whether or not a
Republican and Democrat really like each other,'' he said. ``Well,'' he
continued, flashing a smile, ``I'm here to tell you we do.'' It was
true then, and it is true today.
[[Page 15962]]
I hope the Presiding Officer won't mind if I conclude with some words
directed to the Chair.
Mr. President, you have been a real friend, you have been a trusted
partner, and it has been an honor to serve with you. We are all going
to miss you. Godspeed.
The VICE PRESIDENT. The minority leader.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, to everyone listening, Joe Biden's life has
been the material of which movies are made.
Joe was born in Scranton, PA, to Joe and Jean Biden, the first of
four children. As a young man, as we have heard about today--once in a
while, though not very often, Senator Biden talks about his stammering.
He didn't get any professional help, no therapy. He did it on his own,
long hours of reading, mostly poetry. He would stand in front of a
mirror and recite poetry time after time after time, watching himself
to make sure he didn't contort his face when he stammered or stuttered.
This wasn't easy for a young man. People made fun of him, but he knew
he could do it on his own. He felt that, and he did it. He worked hard.
He developed a rhythm and a cadence of speaking that helped him
overcome his stammer to become one of the United States Senate's all-
time great orators, without any qualification.
Joe was an outstanding high school running back and wide receiver.
His coach said he had never seen anyone with such hands. His coach saw
in Joe what we all see, a hard worker who refuses to fail. His coach
said:
Joe was a skinny kid. But he was one of the best pass
receivers I had in 16 years as a coach.
In college, Joe continued to display his athletic prowess, playing
football for the University of Delaware.
This is quite a story. During spring break, his junior year--Joe and
I were traveling from Indianapolis to Reno, NV, and he talked to me
about this, just the two of us. I will never forget that conversation.
He and one of his college buddies had gotten a tax return, and they
were going to take a little vacation away from the cold of Delaware.
They went to Florida. Frankly, they didn't like it. They had a few
dollars left over from their tax returns, and I believe they went to
the Bahamas. They got an inexpensive hotel. I was going to say
``cheap,'' but I will say ``inexpensive'' hotel.
Right next to them was an exclusive hotel, and they noticed when the
people came out of the fancy hotel off that private beach, many times
they would lay their towels on the fence. Joe and his pal said: Well,
those towels aren't even wet. They went down to that private beach, and
it was there that he met a young woman by the name of Neilia, Neilia
Hunter. I am sure that, just like Jill, she must have been a knockout
to look at. She went to the University of Syracuse. She was on the
dean's list. She had been homecoming queen.
That was the beginning of the relationship that they had. Joe had
been smitten. After graduating from the University of Delaware, he
enrolled in law school in Syracuse to be closer to her.
The story of his and Neilia's relationship is stunning. I repeat, it
was something that movies are made of. Without being too personal, I
will say it the way it is because it is a wonderful story, and I can
identify with it so well because of Landra and me. There came a time
when her father came to her and said: You know, he is not that much. He
comes from a family that is not like ours. And she said: Dad, stop. If
you make me choose between you and Joe, I am going to choose Joe.
So that was that relationship. I repeat, Landra and I understand that
story quite well. They were married a short time later. They had three
children, Beau, Hunter, and Naomi.
After starting his law practice and serving as city councilman in New
Castle, DE, Joe stunned and embarrassed a few of his friends and
relatives by saying he was going to run for the Senate.
You will run for the Senate against a two-term incumbent, Caleb
Boggs?
I think I can do it.
I am sure he said to himself: A lot of people said I couldn't
overcome certain things, and I did, and I am going to do my best to
overcome this race I am in. I am starting way behind.
Joe and his family went at this as hard as they could. They canvassed
the entire State. They pulled off an incredible upset. Joe Biden was
elected to the U.S. Senate. In every respect, Joe's life has been
unique. It has been special. His election to the Senate was no
different.
The great Constitution that leads this Nation stipulates that the
person must be 30 years old to be elected to the Senate. Joe was 29 on
election day. He turned 30 2 weeks after the election. Just a few weeks
later, tragedy struck and struck really hard. Neilia and their three
children were in a terrible car accident just days before Christmas. He
had not been sworn in as a Senator yet.
His wife was killed, their baby girl was killed, and Beau and Hunter
were grievously injured--hospitalized, of course. To say Joe was grief-
stricken is an understatement. How can you describe how he felt? I am
sure, as I have heard, he didn't know what to do. He had two boys to
raise. He wasn't a man of great means. He strongly considered: I
shouldn't be sworn in to the Senate; I can't do this.
He had friends, people who didn't know him who were Senators, who
treated him as fathers. Without the help of Valerie, his sister, Joe
Biden's life may have been completely different because with the
support he got from her, the encouragement he got from Democratic and
Republican Senators, and the fact that she moved in, took care of Beau
and Hunter to replace their mom--she was there for 4 years helping with
those boys.
Joe is a remarkable man. When I was in the House of Representatives,
he agreed to come to the house in Nevada for me. It was a big deal to
get this senior Senator to come to Nevada. He came. Every place he
traveled, he had one of his boys with him.
With the support of his sister and other members of his family, Joe
embarked on a long, storied, 36-year career that was productive and
unsurpassed in the history of the Senate.
That was not the end of Joe's difficulties. Joe is, as you can see
now, a very well-conditioned man. He always has been. As a Senator, he
suffered a massive bleed on the brain, and he was hospitalized for a
long time. He didn't come to the Senate for a long time. When I got
hurt, one of the first people to call me was Joe. He said: Look, the
fact you are going to be missing a little time in the Senate doesn't
mean you can't be a good Senator. That was the example that Joe Biden
set.
He recovered, and he became chairman of the Senate Judiciary
Committee, the Foreign Relations chair, author of many pieces of
legislation--Violence Against Women--too numerous to mention.
In a love story unsurpassed, he also met a woman who has been by his
side for 40 years, Jill Biden. It is an incredible love story. Joe says
it was love at first sight. It was the same for his boys. Joe remembers
the day that Beau and Hunter came to him with the recommendation:
``Daddy, we were talking and we think we should marry Jill,'' not he
should marry Jill. ``We should marry Jill,'' a direct quote.
Joe and Jill were married, and before long, Beau and Hunter had a new
sister, Ashley, and a new mom. There is not a family that I know of who
is any closer, more tight-knit than the Bidens. Joe Biden loves his
family above all else. He is a good Senator, a terrific Vice President,
but he is a family man.
For the last 8 years as Vice President, he has traveled the world,
meeting with dignitaries in trouble spots on behalf of this country,
oftentimes at the direction of President Obama. He has done it with
dignity--more than a million miles.
As we have heard from the junior Senator from Delaware, that pales in
comparison to the miles he has traveled on Amtrak. He has traveled more
than 2 million miles on Amtrak. He took the train home every night to
Delaware. If we worked late, he would go to a hotel here. If it had
been necessary, he would have gone more than 2 million miles to take
care of his boys and to be with Jill.
[[Page 15963]]
Vice President Biden's time serving at President Obama's side has
been historic. He has been the President's rock, his confidant, and his
friend. I have been told that not by Joe Biden but by the President.
Joe has had a stellar career as Vice President of our great country. He
has used his skills and his experience to help shape American
diplomacy.
Vice President Biden is helping lead the quest for a cure for cancer.
His Moonshot initiative is the most ambitious plan ever to accelerate
cancer research. I say, through the Chair, to my friend Lamar
Alexander, that this would not have happened but for the good man from
Tennessee.
We know that Joe and Jill know firsthand the pain and heartache
caused by cancer and the toll it takes on families. Tragically, just
last year, Beau was diagnosed with terminal cancer, which took his
life. He was somebody I knew well. He was an Iraq veteran. He didn't
have to go to Iraq, but he did. He was attorney general of the State of
Delaware.
Beau was a light to everyone who knew him but especially to his
family. Beau's passing broke Joe's, Hunter's, and Jill's hearts and, of
course, their sister's. As with all the other heartbreaking challenges
and setbacks, Joe Biden continues his life's work. He is still the same
kid that his coach praised. His No. 1 asset is that he works hard; he
does the best he can.
Joe Biden continues to serve his country, and he will continue after
January 20. He continues to do what is right. And above all, he
continues to love and take care of his family.
I have been gratified to call Senator Biden a man of the Senate,
Senator Biden, Vice President Biden, Joe. He is an awe-inspiring man,
so Steven Spielberg, Hollywood, you should be listening. Joe Biden's
life is that which movies are made of.
I yield the floor.
The VICE PRESIDENT. The Senator from New York.
Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, it is such a pleasure and honor to rise
to recognize a great son of Scranton--sitting next to me, another son
of Scranton--a grandson of Ireland--sitting in this Chamber are many
grandchildren of Ireland--and a Syracuse University graduate. How many
others in the room can say that? More importantly than any of those, he
is one of the most dedicated public servants, one of the most
successful public servants I have ever had the pleasure to serve with
during my time in Washington.
Everyone knows Joe is proud of his ancestry. His ancestors came from
Ireland, as many millions have. He is deeply proud of being an Irish-
American. Like so many others from the Emerald Isle, our Vice President
inherited the gift of gab, and thank God for that because he has used
his booming voice to speak out on so many issues.
We have only a little time today. I know my colleagues are eager to
speak, so I will just focus on one of the issues that Senator Biden led
the charge on and changed America. I worked with him on the Assault
Weapons Ban and the Brady law when he was a Senator and I was
Congressman and we were each head of the crime committees. But maybe
the thing he was proudest of was the Violence Against Women Act. It
sounds like a different world, but a few years ago, a few decades ago,
rape and domestic violence and abuse were considered in many ways
lesser crimes--crimes in which the victim was as much at fault as the
perpetrator. It was disgraceful. If you were beaten, abused, sexually
assaulted, you faced a hostile, skeptical criminal justice system. That
got at Joe Biden and his sense of justice, so he exploded the myths
behind domestic violence.
I remember hearing the speeches against sexual abuse and put together
the strongest ever violence against women law on the books. Not only
did the law make women safer; it made men better. It moved our society
forward.
Our work on these issues is not nearly over, but I am certain there
are literally millions of women who have avoided pain and suffering--
both physical and mental--because of the courage, the steadfastness,
and the legislative brilliance of the then-senior Senator from the
great State of Delaware.
I could go on and on and almost write a book on accomplishments like
that where Joe almost singlehandedly changed the world. He was also a
great friend and leader to so many of us.
I will conclude with one little story. I was elected to the Senate
after 18 years in the House, and an issue I wanted to get going on was
college affordability. I had run for the Senate on the promise of
making college tuition tax deductible. So I get to the Senate,
introduce my bill, make my speech, and get ready to lead the way on
what I thought was my issue. We have all experienced this. A call comes
into my office from Joe's chief of staff. Of course I spoke to him.
``Mr. Biden has been working on this issue for 10 years. Go work on
something else.'' That was the nice version. Naturally, me and my
brandnew office were in a panic. I was chastened. I didn't know what to
do. I am sitting on the floor and feeling really forlorn. Why did I
even come here? I was a senior Member of the House. I feel an arm on my
shoulder, and I look up. There is the revered and exalted Senator Joe
Biden. He says to me: I understand you have your college tuition tax
deduction bill. Go ahead, take the issue. I know what it is like for
new Senators to carve their own path.
How many times can any freshman say any senior Senator has said that
to them? They can't because he is unique. Not only is he a towering
figure and superb man, but he has a good heart and looks out for the
Members of this body. He always has, does to this day, and always will
because I know in Joe's heart, with all of his accomplishments, he is
still a Senator--our Senator.
Mr. President, I say to Mr. Vice President, thank you. Thank you for
your heart and passion, thank you for bringing every ounce of yourself
to public service, and thank you for that lesson of humility and
leadership you taught me when I first came to this Chamber.
I yield the floor.
The VICE PRESIDENT. The Senator from Utah.
Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, it is an honor for me to rise and talk
about our friendship and what you have done for this country.
I rise today to pay tribute to a dedicated public servant,
distinguished leader, and dear friend, Vice President Joe Biden.
For more than three decades, I had the distinct privilege of serving
alongside Joe in the U.S. Senate. As anyone who worked closely with Joe
can tell you, he was no ordinary Senator. He had boundless energy and
undeniable charm. He paired an unmatched work ethic with a disarming
smile that dared you not to smile back. Joe's innate ability to
befriend anyone--and I mean anyone, including his fiercest political
opponents--was critical to his success as a legislator. His genuine
sincerity endeared him to all, and his gregariousness transcended
partisan boundaries.
Even in the most polarizing debates, Joe never let politics stand in
the way of friendship. One minute Joe could be scolding you from the
Senate floor, and the next minute he could be hugging you in the
hallway, cracking jokes and asking about your grandkids. I am, of
course, speaking from plenty of personal experience. It is no secret
that Joe and I often found ourselves on opposite sides of almost every
major issue--that is not quite true. We agreed on a lot of things. In
countless legislative battles, Joe proved himself to be a worthy
political opponent and an able sparring partner. Whether on the Senate
floor or in the Judiciary Committee hearing room, Joe and I locked
horns on a number of occasions, sometimes on a daily basis. Indeed, we
were at odds about as often as we were on C-SPAN.
At the end of the day, I couldn't help but admire the man. You see,
Joe Biden was beloved by everyone in this Chamber, even those he drove
crazy from time to time, and I count myself among that group. Through
his ability to forge friendship even amid conflict, he embodies the
ethos of a noble generation of legislators--a generation that embraced
the virtues of comity and compromise above all else. I believe this
body--indeed, this Nation--
[[Page 15964]]
could learn from Joe's example of kindness, courtesy, and compassion.
For 17 years, then-Senator Biden served as chairman and ranking
member of the Judiciary Committee, overseeing some of the most
significant court appointments of our time. Chairing the Senate
Judiciary Committee is no easy task. I know because I have been there.
The committee boasts some of the biggest egos on this side of the
Potomac--or this side of the Milky Way, for that matter. It takes a
certain kind of political genius to navigate the assertive personalties
and lofty ambitions of its members, but Joe was more than up to the
task. As both chairman and ranking member, he was tough and tenacious
but also decent and fair. Through his trademark work ethic, he won the
respect of every member of that committee.
Joe also served admirably as the chairman and ranking member of the
Foreign Relations Committee. In this capacity, he played an
indispensable role in shaping American foreign policy. When President
Obama tapped Joe to be his Vice President, the Senate lost a seasoned
statesman, but our Nation gained a wise and capable leader with
unparalleled experience in public affairs.
Joe was the administration's bridge to Congress, often serving as an
intermediary between the President and legislators. On more than one
occasion, his close relationship with lawmakers and his deft
negotiating skills helped our Nation to overcome some of its greatest
obstacles. He was the President's trusted emissary and an invaluable
asset in helping Congress resolve the fiscal cliff dilemma in late
2012--something I wasn't sure we could resolve. He was also a brilliant
ambassador for our country, leveraging his foreign policy expertise in
meetings with leaders across the world.
I am deeply grateful for my friend Joe Biden. I have long admired his
devotion to his family, as well as his grace amid suffering, and he did
suffer, and I know it. I was here. Having experienced tremendous loss
in his family life, he draws from a rich reservoir of empathy to
connect with everyday Americans. Ask anyone Vice President Biden has
served: When you speak, Joe listens. He loves, and he cares. He is
perhaps the most personable public figure in American politics today.
In the nearly 8 years he has served as Vice President, Joe Biden has
become a fixture of American public life. Today, I wish to join my
colleagues in thanking Vice President Joe Biden for his dedication to
the American people. Although his tenure as Vice President is drawing
to a close, I am confident that his service to our Nation will only
continue. This is said by a Republican who loves Joe Biden and believes
he is one of the truly great people who served here in this body.
I just want Joe Biden to know that we all respect him, and I think
most all of us love him. Those of us who have worked with him really
appreciated how he would from time to time put his arm around us, put
politics aside, and speak the truth.
Joe Biden is a wonderful man. I wish him the absolute best as we go
into the future, and I will be there to help if he needs it.
God bless Joe Biden.
I yield the floor.
The VICE PRESIDENT. The Senator from Vermont.
Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I enjoy calling you by that title. I hope
you do, too--because you know that you could easily hold that title as
President of this body or President of the United States--you have
shown your qualifications for either one.
But let me speak about your role as President of the Senate. It makes
you a Member of this body, a body that can be, and on some occasions
has been, the conscience of the Nation. You have served longer in this
body than any other member here. The fact is you came here 2 years
before I did, so as the other longest serving member, I look at you as
my senior Senator, and I am delighted to be your junior.
I think back to some of the things we did together, Mr. President. I
remember when I was running for the Senate in Vermont in 1974, and
people told me I was far too young to get elected to the Senate at 34
years old. My predecessor was somebody who had been elected here when I
was born and served there until I arrived. You put your arm around me
and you said, it would be nice to have an older person that I could
look up to. I believe you were 32, and I was 34. But that helped.
Of course, little did I know until I came here how closely we would
work together. We served on the Judiciary Committee throughout that
time. We worked on such duties as Supreme Court nominations, civil
rights, and the criminal justice system. Then, when you were chairman
of the Foreign Relations Committee, and bringing the rest of the world
American values--which happened to be Joe Biden values--how I enjoyed
traveling with you.
I think of the time, Mr. President, when you and I, and our wives,
Jill and Marcelle traveled together. We had been good friends
throughout all of that time. I will take the liberty of telling one
story. When the four of us were in Paris, we had gone out to dinner. It
was a cold, winter night. We were coming back. I think Marcelle
mentioned that the Eiffel Tower lights up on the hour. You and Jill
stood on a bench and were hugging each other, the Eiffel Tower behind
you. I snapped a picture. Now, we had a close friendship. We never lied
to each other, but that was one time I lied to you because you asked
me, ``Where is the picture?'' I said, I think I lost it. I apologize.
We were conspiring to print out that picture, and I know your wonderful
wife gave it to you for a wedding anniversary present with words to the
effect that you ``light up her life.''
Well, you lit up many, many lives. I think of our Irish bond of
friendship, stories I can't tell. Some of those closed-door sessions
with other Irish-Americans, such as Pat Moynihan, Chris Dodd, and Ted
Kennedy, when we would have some holy water together. Somehow it came
from Ireland. It was usually at least 12 years old. And we would tell
Irish stories. And after 42 years here, I know the rules well enough, I
can't repeat any of those stories here. But they were good ones because
it was a friendship and we worked together. We learned how to bring in
others from both parties.
And, Mr. President, I remember you and others showing all of us how
to find common ground, and we did things together. And I respect you so
much for that. I must admit, I learned something else on the Judiciary
Committee. I learned the Amtrak schedule because, if we had a meeting
that was going on a little bit long, we were reminded what time the
train was going to Delaware. I know you kept in good shape because you
could run to the station in 3 minutes and get on the train, where you
would go home to Beau and Hunter and, later, Jill and Ashley--because
even though you were a leader in the United States Senate, and later
Vice President, you were, first and foremost, a father and a husband.
You and I and Marcelle talked about that this summer, when you came
to Vermont for the Cancer Moonshot. I told you what an important part
of our lives you have been. You have gone through tragedy and glory,
but you have remained yourself throughout all of it.
And the memories of those evenings when you let this Irish-Italian
boy come in and sit as a member of the Irish--we would speak of our
values, we would speak of America, we would speak of friendship. That
is why I admire you, Mr. President, and I am glad to be here on the
floor with you.
Mr. President, I yield the floor.
The VICE PRESIDENT. The Senator from Arizona.
Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, I join my colleagues today in addressing a
few thoughts directly to the occupant of the chair, to commend his long
and honorable service to the United States and to thank him for his
friendship. Mr. President--I know how much you enjoy my calling you Mr.
President--you and I have served together in this body for three
decades. We have been friends for almost 40 years, since I was the Navy
Senate liaison and used to carry your bags on overseas trips.
I joked recently that I resented it ever since. But that was part of
my job
[[Page 15965]]
description--escorting and handling logistics for Senate codels,
including making certain everyone's luggage arrived at our
destinations. Back then, some Senators, unlike the 100 egalitarians who
occupy the Senate today, could be a little haughty and high-handed. A
few held an exalted opinion of themselves that exceeded the esteem with
which their colleagues and constituents held them in. If they paid any
attention to staff, it was only because we had annoyed them somehow.
But not my friend Joe Biden--he was fair and courteous to everyone,
even people who did not always deserve it. He is always an example of
how a powerful person with character and class treats anyone in a
subordinate position. He treats them with humility, as God's children,
with dignity equal to his own.
In the book ``The Nightingale's Song,'' the late journalist Bob
Timberg wrote about one military liaison officer, escorting a codel to
Athens, who joined some of the Members in a tavern for a little after-
hours merriment and was later observed dancing on a tabletop with
Senator Biden's lovely wife, Jill.
I don't recall witnessing such an event myself, and I can't testify
to it having actually happened. Neither can I imagine the temerity of
that rascal, whoever he was. He was lucky the Senator whose spouse he
made endure awkward moves he euphemistically called ``dancing'' was Joe
Biden. Few other Senators would have seen the humor in it.
Many years have passed since we shared those adventures, and many
events have transpired, personal and public, that enriched our lives
with the rewards and disappointments, blessings and challenges. We were
still young when we came to the Senate. We are old men now. Although
you can't tell from looking at us, the Vice President is actually a
little younger than me, though we both passed the Biblical threescore
and ten.
This place, the Senate, has been central to both of our lives. Here
we work together on our country's challenges. Here we fought and argued
over the country's direction. Here we compromised and joined forces to
serve the public interest. Here we watched history made and made our
small contributions to it. Neither of us is the shy and retiring type.
We both have been known to hold a strong opinion or two. When
circumstances warrant, we would rather make our points emphatically
then elliptically. I know that Joe appreciates the adage that I have
tried to follow in my public life: a fight not joined is a fight not
enjoyed.
When we have had differences of opinions over the years, we have
managed to make our positions crystal clear to each other, perhaps in
the persistent triumph of hope over experience. We both still cling to
the expectation that we can persuade the other that he is mistaken. I
think deep down we probably know better.
In addition to being regularly mistaken, here is what I have also
known about my friend and occasionally sparring partner. He is a good
and decent man, God-fearing and kind, a devoted father and husband, a
genuine patriot who puts our country before himself. I know, too, that
it has been a great privilege to call him my friend.
Mr. President, if I haven't made clear to you over these many years
how much I appreciated your friendship and have admired you, I beg your
forgiveness. We both have been privileged to know Members of this body
who were legends in their own time and are remembered as important
historical figures. But I haven't known one who was a better man than
you. You are an exemplary public servant, a credit to your family, to
the Senate, and to the country.
On behalf of the country and the Senate, thank you for your lifetime
service to America. Thank you for your example of how to represent your
constituents with honor and humility and how to remain the same good
guy that you were when you first got here. Thank you, most of all, for
your friendship. My life and the lives of many have been enriched by
it.
Thank you, Mr. President.
The VICE PRESIDENT. The Senator from Illinois.
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, there is a story about an Irishman walking
down the street. He passes two guys who are fighting. He asks them: Is
this a private fight or can anybody get into it?
Well, you know a little bit about that; don't you, Mr. Vice
President? For 40 years or more, you have always been ready to fight
for those who needed a champion and never walked away from a good fight
for a good cause. Your public career has been marked by so many amazing
victories but also by unbearable losses and sorrows. You have had joys
and passions, determinations and immense accomplishments.
The list of your legislative achievements has been recounted on the
floor today. One of them I am sure you are most proud of is the
Violence Against Women Act. You made a big difference in the lives of
so many people whom you will never meet, in protecting them and giving
them hope in a hopeless circumstance.
Between 1993, when your bill was passed, and 2010, the rate of
violence against intimate partners--almost all women--declined by 67
percent in the United States. We often wonder here, when bills we take
to law are passed and signed by the President, whether they can make a
difference. We know that your unsparing effort when it came to violence
against women made a significant difference.
I had that in mind 9 years ago when I was riding around Florida in a
recreational vehicle. It was with my fellow Senator from Illinois by
the name of Barack Obama. He was running for President, and we were in
the back of this RV as he was cruising through Florida. We were talking
about potential running mates, someone who could be his Vice President.
We went through a short list. We came to your name, and I said to the
soon-to-be President, then Senator and my colleague: You couldn't pick
a better choice than Joe Biden. I know him as a person. I know him as a
fellow Senator. I know his heart. You would be blessed to have him on
your team.
He made that choice, even though at the beginning, I am sure both of
you wondered: Is this going to work? It did. It did for your purpose
and for his and for America's. I am reminded of that famous poet Seamus
Heaney. He wrote:
History says, Don't hope
On this side of the grave,
But then, once in a lifetime
The longed-for tidal wave
Justice can rise up,
And hope and history rhyme.
Obama-Biden--hope and history certainly did rhyme. The things that
you have been able to achieve with this President have made a
difference in America to millions of lives. Whether we are talking
about coming out of a recession where we were losing 800,000 jobs a
month, making sure that Wall Street didn't make the same mistakes again
at the expense of businesses and families across America, or making
sure that some father did not face the heartbreak of a sick child with
no health insurance. You made a difference in their lives.
Just this week, there is the Cancer Moonshot. Who knows, Mr. Vice
President, what will happen as a result of that investment in your
son's name. But I sense that something good is going to happen for a
lot of people around this country. I am glad that the Biden name is
closely associated with it.
Mr. President, there is an old story--a joke--about the Pope. The
story goes that the day came when he said to his driver: You know, I
haven't had a chance to drive the car in a long time. Why don't you sit
in the back and I'll drive.
The story goes that the Pope started driving the car and started
speeding and got pulled over. This policeman looked inside the car,
then looked out again, and looked back and said: Excuse me. He got on
his cell phone and he called the police station. He said: I have an
extraordinary circumstance here. I have just pulled over a car with
someone very important in it.
They said: Well, who is it?
He said: I don't know who he is, but he has the Pope for a driver.
The reason I remember that story is that one time I was on Air Force
Two
[[Page 15966]]
with Vice President Joe Biden. We flew you home to Delaware. I was
going to catch an Amtrak train at Wilmington, and I asked you to drop
me off.
You said: No, I'm going to take you up to the train.
So we get up to the train, and the train is pulling in the station.
You look at what I have for a ticket and you said: That ticket is not
good. You need a real ticket. I will get it for you.
You grabbed it and took off running, with the Secret Service trailing
behind you as the train pulled into the station. I am thinking: Am I
going to make this train? Is he going to make it back? You came running
up the steps with the Secret Service trailing behind you while the
train was stopped. All of these passengers were looking as the Vice
President of the United States ran up to me, handed me a ticket, and
said: Go ahead and get on the train.
Now, the people on the train had no idea who I was, but they knew if
the Vice President was carrying my ticket, I must be somebody
important.
Let me say one personal word. You and your wife Jill really embody
what I consider to be the best of public life--not only your commitment
to people who are less fortunate around the world but your genuine
sense of caring and your good heart, both of you. I recall when my
colleague Marty Russo of Illinois had a son who was sick with cancer.
There was one person who called every day to make sure that he was
doing well.
Well, that is the way you not only build a friendship but you build a
reputation as not just a glad-handing politician but someone who
really, really cares. I have been honored to count you as a friend. I
am honored that the President whom I love chose you as his Vice
President. I am honored that we have served in the Senate together and
that I can tell my kids and grandkids. I wish you the best whatever
life brings you next.
The VICE PRESIDENT. The Senator from Georgia.
Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I rise to pay tribute to a person who has
had a tremendous impact on my life and my career in the Senate and also
a tremendous impact on my country, the United States of America. I
still remember to this day the date and time Mitch McConnell called me
in 2007 and said: Hey, we have an opening for a Republican on Foreign
Relations and nobody will take it. Will you take it?
I did not know if that was a benefit--a perk or whoever--but I said:
Anytime you are offered a gift, don't look a gift horse in the face. So
I did it.
Two days later, Joe Biden saw me at the committee and said: I am glad
you joined our committee. I am glad to have you. I have an opening on
the Africa Subcommittee. I can't get a Republican to take it. Will you
do it?
I said: Mr. Biden, I have never been to Africa.
He said: Well, you will soon. How about taking it?
I did. I have been to Africa 12 times since. It has become a passion
in my career, and I give Vice President Biden a lot of credit for the
influence he had on that. I also remember the day when the mock
swearing-in took place down on the second floor, and I had my nine
grandchildren here to watch me being sworn into the Senate.
At the mock signing ceremony, Joe stood there, and we all raised our
hand, and we repeated the ceremony that we had done on the floor. Then
Joe greeted each one of my grandchildren one by one as they walked by.
When little Jack, who was then 7 years old, stopped, Joe Biden said:
Jack, what do you like about the Capitol?
Jack said: Well, Mr. Vice President, there is no Lego store.
Joe Biden said: The next time you come here, there will be one.
I want to tell the Vice President that he is coming on January 2 to
see me sworn in again. I have already bought the Lego box. It is on the
desk in my hideaway, and I am going to tell him that Vice President Joe
made sure he had Legos when he came back to the Capitol. You know the
real character of a man and the real credit to a man is what influence
he has on children. I can tell you from that story, it is just one of
many that Joe Biden has had.
On me, personally, I will never forget the day Joe Biden called me as
Vice President of the United States and said: Johnny, I have got the
mayor of Baltimore and the mayor of Philadelphia going with me to
Panama City next week to look at the deepening of the Panama Canal. I
know Savannah's port is important to you. I know you have been fighting
with us to get the authorization you need to deepen the Port of
Savannah. How about flying with me down there and let's take a look at
it and let's do a press conference together. And I did and he did and
we did, and today the Port of Savannah is being deepened to 47 feet.
Panamax ships will be sailing through it in 4 more years. I am
convinced it would not have happened at the level of the administration
had it not been for Joe Biden, the Vice President of the United States
but more importantly my friend.
Joe, I don't have the words to adequately tell you how much I
appreciate you as a person and as a leader, but there is a little poem
I know that says more about what you really are than anything I could
say.
I'd rather see a good person
Than hear one any day;
I'd rather one should walk with me
Than merely show the way.
For my eye's a better pupil
And more willing than my ear,
Fine counsel is confusing
But example's always clear;
And the best of all preachers
Are the ones who live their creeds,
For to see good put in action
Is what everybody needs.
I soon can learn to do it
If you'll let me see it done;
I can watch your hands in action,
But your tongue too fast may run.
And the lecture you deliver
May be very wise and true,
But I'd rather get my lessons
By observing what you do;
For I might misunderstand you
And the high advice you give,
But there's no misunderstanding
How you act and how you live.
Joe, you have lived the life of a patriot and you act like a
gentleman. You are my friend, and may God bless you and your family and
thank you for your service to the country and your friendship to me.
I yield back.
The VICE PRESIDENT. The Senator from Washington.
Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President--and it is a pleasure to say that. Some
may know him as ``the guy in the aviators'' deboarding Air Force Two or
the man in the 1967 Corvette in the viral Internet video, gleeful, as
he had the rare opportunity to drive himself around in his favorite
car.
Mr. President, it is so clear that the American public has embraced
this grinning, approachable, unstoppable life force known as Vice
President Joe Biden, but little do many Americans know of the heart of
our Vice President. They have caught glimpses of it in 1972, when his
wife and daughter were killed in a terrible car accident and his two
sons severely injured. It is hard to imagine that kind of devastation,
and Joe picked himself up and was sworn in to his first term in the
U.S. Senate from his son's hospital room.
Maybe they saw it last year when Joe's son Beau, following in his
father's footsteps to be an extraordinary public servant and, more
importantly, a wonderful father, lost a long and hard-fought battle
with cancer. I know as a mother and grandmother myself that I will
never understand what Joe went through.
Mr. President, again, Joe picked himself up and continued to serve
our country as a strong, dedicated Vice President in the midst of a
raucous election season when Americans needed him the most. Joe Biden's
commitment to his family, his struggles, and his service encompass what
it means to be not just Vice President and a brilliant husband and
father but an American.
Joe grew up in a middle-class family who worked hard for everything
they had. He was just 29 years old when he ran for a seat in the United
States Senate.
Mr. President, you might have been young, but you already saw what
divided people in Delaware.
He also knew that people across the State also held the same hopes
for
[[Page 15967]]
themselves and their families, and he believed he could work through
those disparities. In an upset victory, he won a seat in the Senate in
November of 1972.
Since his swearing in, Joe has worked every day on behalf of families
in Delaware and for the entire country, especially the last 8 years.
When Joe lost his son to cancer, he launched a Moonshot for this
generation to end cancer as we know it today. He is now working on
behalf of every family whoever lost a loved one to cancer to push
forward on medical innovations and discoveries. I am so proud Joe's
Moonshot is included in the final Cures bill we just voted on this
afternoon and even more so that the Senate renamed the provisions to
support cancer research in that bill to honor Beau in calling it the
Beau Biden Cancer Moonshot. We will now use those investments to fight
to cure cancer so we can look forward to a world where no family has to
go through what the Bidens did and the devastation that millions of
other Americans have experienced after being touched by cancer.
Mr. President, back when I was serving with the Presiding Officer,
Joe, my friend, in the Senate in 1994, I had the pleasure of working
with him to pass the Violence Against Women Act, VAWA, as we know it.
It was a landmark piece of legislation that changed the way our country
responded to domestic violence and sexual assault. Joe has come out as
a strong advocate for ending violence against women through his
campaign, ``1is2Many,'' spreading awareness and working to help reduce
dating violence and sexual assaults among students, teens, and young
adults. And his ``It's On Us'' campaign has been a wake-up call to the
epidemic of campus sexual assaults across the country. Women are safer
today in America than they were 20 years ago due in part to Joe's
fearless leadership on these issues that affect too many in our Nation.
Despite everything he has been through or maybe because of everything
he has been through, he gets back up and he fights on and he fights on
behalf of every family in our country, and that is heart. That is
heart, the way he always wants to make people happy, no matter what the
circumstance.
Last time he was in Seattle, he brought a little stuffed animal--a
little dog--to give to my granddaughter. Now, she is very shy, but the
second he smiled and handed her that little dog, she became his best
friend ever, and she keeps it by her side, Joe. That is why he is going
to be missed, by his colleagues and by the entire country, because of
his humanity. That is the Joe Biden I know and I want everyone else to
know that too.
It has been an honor to call Joe a fellow Senator, Mr. Vice
President, but mostly a great friend.
I want to thank Joe for what he has taught me and all of our
colleagues through his service and thank him for his extraordinary and
inspiring leadership throughout his life in the best of times and in
the worst. Joe--and his aviators--will be sorely missed.
Mr. President, I yield the floor.
The VICE PRESIDENT. The Senator from Maine.
Ms. COLLINS. Thank you, Mr. President.
In 1974, a freshman Senator from Delaware named Joe Biden was
identified as one of Time magazine's ``200 Faces for the Future.'' That
prescient prediction anticipated the more than four decades of
contributions and accomplishments that followed. Joe Biden served six
terms in the U.S. Senate and became Vice President of the United
States, but he is exactly the same person today as he was when more
than 40 years ago he took that first train trip from Wilmington to
Washington to be sworn in as a United States Senator. He is everybody's
friend--but nobody's fool. And while Joe Biden changed Washington,
Washington never changed him.
It is an article of faith among those of us who know and love Joe
Biden that nothing is more important to him than family. It is,
therefore, a cruel irony that this good and decent man has faced so
many family tragedies during his long and fruitful career in public
service.
Although he has been sorely tested by several wrenching losses, Vice
President Biden's irrepressible spirit has never been broken. He is as
optimistic about his country today as he was in 1972, when as a county
councilman he defeated a long-serving Senate incumbent and began the
journey that ultimately led him to the second highest office in the
land. With his Cancer Moonshot Initiative, Joe Biden once again has
turned personal tragedy into a public cause that undoubtedly will save
lives.
To know Joe Biden is to admire him, his warmth, his devotion to
friends and family, his commitment to all things Delaware, and his
fierce loyalty to his party that somehow never alienated those of us on
the other side of the aisle. Perhaps that is due to the many thoughtful
gestures the Vice President demonstrates every day.
How well I remember bringing my younger brother to the White House
holiday party one year and running into the Vice President just as he
was leaving after a long day of work. He instantly stopped and asked if
we would like for him to give us a personal tour of the West Wing of
the White House. For the next 45 minutes, instead of being driven home,
the Vice President of the United States took my brother and me on the
best tour of the White House that anyone could ever have. I still
remember the shocked look on the face of the marine at the situation
room when we arrived there.
Another wonderful memory that I have was of the time Joe Biden and I
were named Irish Americans of the Year by the American Ireland Fund. I
thought it was so telling that both of us brought our family members to
the celebratory dinner, and both of us talked about our Irish mothers.
Now, I do remember that Joe's speech was considerably better than mine,
but mine was much, much shorter.
In a time of almost suffocating partisanship, Joe Biden is a breath
of bipartisan fresh air. People may disagree with Joe on 1 or 2 or even
10 issues, but nobody finds him disagreeable. It is often said that if
you don't love Joe Biden, it is time for some serious introspection.
You may have a serious problem.
No one can say with certainty what lies ahead for Vice President Joe
Biden, but this much is certain: He will face the future with unbridled
enthusiasm, extraordinary energy, and an unwavering commitment to his
family, his friends, and his country.
I thank the Vice President for his outstanding service to our
country, but most of all I thank him for his extraordinary friendship
to me. I wish the Vice President and his wonderful family all the best.
Thank you, Mr. President.
The VICE PRESIDENT. The Senator from Maryland.
Ms. MIKULSKI. Thank you very much, Mr. President and Vice President.
Well, Mr. President, we all take pleasure in calling you that. Mr.
Vice President, Senator, foreign policy guru, the Senator who was tough
on crime but a soft touch when it came to compelling human need, a
longtime colleague, but most of all, I know you as my friend Joe. My
friend Joe. It is not only that I know you as my friend Joe, the people
of Delaware know you as ``my friend Joe.'' The fact is, your
colleagues, both present and past, here feel the same way about you and
so do the American people.
You have a unique ability to make a visceral connection to people.
You actually connect to them, not only on the abstraction of big ideas,
of which you were more than capable, but I think your connection was
hand to hand, heart to heart. I think when you talk with people, that
is why you have this visceral connection.
Sure, you can debate the great ideas, whether it is national security
or economic growth, but it is that heart connection you are able to
make that I think has been one of your great, great signatures.
We in Maryland know you as a neighbor, the Delmarva gang from
Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. We also know you as ``Amtrak Joe.'' I
think that is so fitting because not only have you
[[Page 15968]]
been a champion of Amtrak and ridden the train so faithfully--which has
now become the stories of fact and fiction--but also Amtrak Joe is
right because, really, in the way you have lived your life, conducted
yourself in public service, you have kept America on track and going in
the right direction because you knew what your destinations were. I
salute you for that. You have done a great job in everything you have
undertaken.
I know you because while others just go for the pomp and they love
the policy--if I hear one more ``I'm going to dive deep in policy,'' I
am going to shake my head.
I am like you. I believe that we do need policies that help people,
keep our Nation strong and safe, help our people be able to help
themselves, and make sure there is an opportunity structure here. But
we are here to be champions of the people. That is what you have been,
a champion of the people, and you have been a steady friend.
When I arrived in the Senate, I was the only Democratic woman. I have
often said that, though I was all by myself, I was never alone. I was
surrounded by the good men in the Senate, and particularly the
Democrats reached out their hands and helped me.
Of course, my very good friend Paul Sarbanes, who is here today, was
my senior Senator when I came and was my colleague and my champion, but
you were right up at the top of the list too. I call the men who were
so incredibly helpful to me, Galahads. You help me in every way you
can.
In my time in the Senate, when I reached out to you, you were always
there. When I reached out to fight for women to be included in the NIH
protocols, you were there to help me. When I reached out to fight
against the skimpy and spartan money for breast cancer research, you
were there to help me. When we organized the women of the Senate, the
Democratic women, to fight then-Bush on the privatizing of Social
Security, when we said we shouldn't rely on the bull of political
promises while we fear the bear market, you joined right there with us,
side by side, shoulder to shoulder. Whether it was equal pay for equal
work or so many issues, you were always there when we called upon you.
You were always such tremendous help.
I was also there to try to help you. I remember a day in the mid-
1990s when I got a call from you. Maybe you remember that, but I
remember it. You said you really wanted to stop violence against women.
You knew of my social work background, my advocacy for what was then
called battered women. You said: Can you help me kind of go over this
legislation to make sure that the money goes to people who will help
those women and not to people who just want to get grants?
So we worked together. We talked about the need for shelters. We
talked about the reform of police, courts, and so on. Then you came up
with that fabulous, fabulous idea to have a hotline. So it didn't
matter whether you lived in Delaware or in Des Moines or in San Diego,
there was always help on the other side of that line.
I was so happy to work with you and to support you as you led that
battle through--as only a good man could--to stand for women who were
being battered in their own homes and facing danger.
Lately I checked on the statistics on that hotline. Joe Biden, since
that hotline legislation passed, over 1.5 million have called that
hotline. Many of them were in lethal danger--lethal danger. Because of
you, Joe Biden, there are thousands, if not tens of thousands, of women
and children alive today because you had the foresight and the
fortitude to create this legislation. That in and of itself would have
been enough for a career. But, oh, you did so many other things.
Now we know you are advocating the national Cancer Moonshot, but you
have been a champion on finding the cure for cancer for a long time,
whether it was for women with breast cancer or others. I am so pleased
that in that cloture vote we are going to include $352 million for
that. So on issue after issue, we were there.
I know you have been a great leader, but I also know that behind
great men there are also very terrific women. I think we owe a salute
to Jill. She is a wonderful woman, a leader in her own right, with a
belief in higher education, a belief in working at the community
college level so people who had big dreams in their hearts but not a
lot of money in their pockets could be able to go on to college. What a
champion she has been there and also what a champion for our veterans
and for our wounded warriors. Wow, she is just terrific. I know she has
been at your side.
There are so many stories I could tell, but I want to wrap up with
one. I met your mother. She was spunky. She was feisty. She was a
delight. If there is anything spunkier, feistier, or more delightful
than an Irish mother, it is a Polish mother. I wish you could have met
mine. Those two would have been kindred spirits.
Do you remember when the Pope came to Baltimore? The Pope was coming
to Baltimore, and I told my mother I wanted to greet the Pope in
Polish. My mother's response was: Oh, my God.
I grew up in a family that before World War II was bilingual. I was
bilingual as a child, but during World War II we stopped speaking all
foreign language, so my pronunciation is really awkward. My mother made
me practice Polish words, how to say hello to the Pope and how to say
goodbye to the Pope.
You and I were at the Baltimore-Washington airport. There goes the
Pope in his popemobile. He is heading up, he is getting on ``Shepherd
Two,'' and you are saying goodbye: Goodbye Your Holiness.
I say: No, say it in Polish. You have a large Polish community.
I taught you how to say one simple phrase, ``sto lat.'' In the tongue
of my ethnic heritage, when you say ``sto lat'' to someone, you say may
they live 100 years.
So, Joe, sto lat.
The VICE PRESIDENT. The Senator from Delaware.
Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I wish to recognize the presence in the
Chamber of five former Senators--Senators Bayh, Harkin, Kaufman,
Salazar, and Sarbanes--and to thank many Senators who have asked that
their comments be placed in the Record.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record,
given the lateness of the hour, the lengthy and moving remarks that
former Senator and now Secretary of State Kerry has provided.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
Secretary of State John Kerry
Statement on Joe Biden
December 7, 2016
Mr. President: Almost four years ago this winter, after
almost 29 years serving in the Senate from Massachusetts, and
after five times the people of Massachusetts voted to send me
to Washington--my Senate colleagues were kind enough to vote
to send me away, but not far away, just up the street to the
State Department.
So, as a prodigal United States Senator, I am especially
grateful to Senator Coons for the privilege to share some
thoughts about my colleague of a quarter century in the
Senate, and my colleague of the last four years in the Obama
Administration--the Vice President of the United States, Joe
Biden. That Senator Coons--who sits in the Senate seat which
Joe held for almost thirty seven years--organized this
remarkable tribute says something about Delaware--a small
state where politics is personal, where courtesy is still the
currency--but it says much more about the kind of friend and
mentor Joe has been to Chris, and to so many of us who have
known the Vice President. It is, simply, the right thing to
do--but the kind of thing that doesn't happen enough these
days in Washington, in politics, or in the institution which
Joe reveres, the U.S. Senate.
I first heard the name ``Joe Biden'' about 38 years ago.
1972--The first year Joe and I ran for national office. We
shared a set of friends and political teammates in
progressive politics, friends Joe and I have shared to this
day--and they shuttled between Wilmington, Delaware and
Lowell, Massachusetts, trying to help both us to victory. In
that improbable year, I lost and Joe won--and weeks later
tragedy intervened and changed the trajectory of Joe's life
not as a Senator, but as a father and a person. I won't
forget reading his words back then: ``Delaware can find
another Senator, but my boys can't find another father.'' We
are all grateful that Joe was persuaded not to give up on
[[Page 15969]]
public service, but to be sworn in, and to rely--as the
Bidens do in their remarkable way--on the closeness of
family--of Val and Jimmy in particular--to help him be both a
remarkable father and a remarkable public servant.
Twelve years as Joe was elected, I finally arrived in
Washington--a junior Senator, second to last in seniority--
and one of the first people to pull me aside and offer
himself up not as a generational rival, but as a slightly
older big brother ready to show me the ropes was the then,
senior Senator from Delaware--two years older than me,
Senator Joe Biden.
I loved serving with Joe--and I don't just mean we served
contemporaneously; we were friends and partners in so many
efforts--environment, civil rights, the empowerment of women,
foreign policy--and always--always with Joe Biden, whether
you agreed or disagreed with him, no matter where you were
from in the country or where you stood ideologically, you
knew exactly what you could expect: a person of conviction, a
person of character, a person who studied the issues and
never cut corners--and a Senator in the best tradition whose
word was his bond.
For Joe, that's a quality that's deeply personal. The Vice
President lives by a very old-fashioned code of loyalty: You
always tell the truth, you never forget where you came from,
and your word is your bond. And I can't tell you how many
times in the Senate when I was listening to Joe negotiate or
we were working on something he would say, ``I give you my
word as a Biden.''And you knew you had a very special
commitment that would not be broken. That never changed when
he became Vice President.
That code also guided his approach as a legislator--not
just in how he worked with his colleagues, but to how he
approached the issues. I'd been a prosecutor back in the days
when some people still argued that violence against women
wasn't crime--but it was Joe Biden who was far, far ahead of
the curve in the Senate--throughout the 1980's and 1990's--
beating the drum on the Judiciary Committee to pass a
Violence Against Women Act because there was no crime
comparable, as he saw it, in robbing a human being of two
things to which everyone is entitled, two words Joe talks
about often: dignity and respect.
That is why he was so outspoken about the horrors happening
in Bosnia and Kosovo--thousands of miles from our shores--and
why as one of those most powerful voices on the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee he stood up to Slobodan
Milosevic, looked him in the eye, and called him a war
criminal. That's Joe Biden--on issues of moral clarity, you
know exactly where he stands. It is no surprise to me then
that long before he served in Iraq, his beloved son Beau
volunteered to go to Kosovo and do legal work helping victims
find justice, helping victims reclaim dignity through the
judicial system. For the Bidens, this was an article of
faith.
Over the years, I had the privilege of traveling with Joe
overseas--often with Chuck Hagel and Lindsey Graham. I saw
firsthand that when Senator Biden traveled overseas, it
wasn't government tourism, whether the Administration was
Democratic or Republican, Joe always traveled with a
constructive purpose in mind: To learn first-hand about
foreign leaders and other perspectives--to forge
relationships--and to advance America's cause. In long
flights and long meetings headed into places like Afghanistan
and Pakistan, again and again I saw someone who leads by
listening, who leads by learning, and who speaks with
conviction--wherever the place, whatever the language.
Joe's leadership as Vice President has been a terrific
asset on domestic issues, and his fluency in the ways of the
Senate a special tool called upon at many key moments by
Leaders McConnell and Reid. But as Secretary of State I've
been particularly grateful for the role he has played on
foreign policy. Joe believes to his core that American
diplomacy isn't about admiring problems--it's about solving
them. When thousands of unaccompanied children showed up on
our southwestern border, Joe Biden worked with Congress to
provide funding to help Central America's leaders make the
difficult reforms and investments required to address the
region's multifaceted challenges--because he knew the
security and prosperity of Central America are inextricably
linked with our own. As the conflict in Ukraine has pressed
on, Joe has worked hard--not only to keep the Minsk deal in
place, but to encourage and help the government of Ukraine
take on corruption and make necessary economic reforms that
will help Ukraine flourish and thrive in the years to come.
And again and again, in our breakfasts at the Naval
Observatory and in phone calls from far flung places, he
always encouraged me to keep pressing--to speak up and speak
out, and to fight--even inside the Administration--for the
policies I believed in, even when he didn't agree. That's Joe
Biden.
We still joke about a trip that we took with Chuck Hagel to
Afghanistan back in 2008. We went up to a forward operating
base up in Kunar province. And our helicopter, on the way
back, got caught in a snow squall in the mountains. And our
pilot found himself effectively snow blind, and suddenly we
were banking and heading down and braced for an emergency
landing on this snow-covered road high in the mountains near
Bagram Airbase. And Joe Biden turned to Hagel and me and he
offered an alternative. He said, ``Maybe we could keep the
helicopter aloft if the three of us just started to give a
speech.'' But laughter aside, on that frozen mountaintop, as
we waited to be rescued, you learn the measure of a person.
And throughout that time, what Joe kept coming back to was
the gift of family, and the privilege of public service.
America has known Vice President Biden in moments of great
triumph and also on occasions of immeasurable pain. We revere
the dignity with which he carries himself through all of it.
We admire him. We love him. And above all, we thank him--a
great Vice President, a ``Senate man'' still to the core, and
someone I know I can call on and count on as a friend long
after we both leave office on January 20th. Thank you,
Senator--Mr. Vice President--``Joe''--and I know you will
carry on in contribution to the cause of country.
Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, today I wish to honor Joe Biden, the
47th Vice President of the United States.
After I came to the Senate in 1992--known as ``the Year of the
Woman''--then-Senator Joe Biden invited me to lunch at his office in
the Russell Senate Office Building. We sat at small table in his
elegant office and discussed the importance of having a woman on the
Judiciary Committee, of which he was chairman at the time.
This was in the wake of the Anita Hill hearings, and there were no
women on the committee. It was a real honor when Joe Biden asked me to
join. He then asked Senator Carol Moseley Braun to join, giving the
committee two women for the first time.
Serving on the committee with him, I noticed immediately that he had
a commanding presence. As I watched him chair the committee, I was
impressed by the passion he displayed while working to slow the drug
trade, protect women from domestic violence, and help advocate for a
ban on assault weapons. These were issues that I, along with millions
of other Americans, felt strongly about, and we had a champion in Joe
Biden.
During discussions about a proposed crime bill in 1993, I told Joe I
was working on an assault weapons ban. This was in the wake of a mass
shooting in San Francisco that shocked me. I told Joe we had at least
48 votes and I wanted to introduce it as an amendment to the crime
bill. He laughed--a big raucous laugh--and said, ``Well, you're just a
freshman. Wait till the gunners get to you.''
He may have had his doubts, but he was a staunch supporter of the
amendment, and with the help of President Clinton and Chuck Schumer in
the House, we were able to secure bipartisan support and pass the
amendment. It was a proud day for me when it was signed into law.
Joe was right about the gunners, though. The gun lobby did come after
us, and they continue to oppose commonsense gun laws today.
During that debate and in every fight since then, Joe Biden has been
staunch, impassioned, and a committed partner.
That crime bill was a monumental piece of legislation. In addition to
our assault weapons ban, it put 100,000 more cops on the street,
protected children from dangerous predators and included a very
important piece of legislation: the Violence Against Women Act.
It has been two decades since Joe introduced the Violence Against
Women Act. In that time, domestic violence rates have decreased by 64
percent, conviction rates for abusers increased, and 3.4 million women
and men have been helped by the National Domestic Violence Hotline.
Beyond the numbers, Joe changed the debate around domestic violence
with enactment of this bill. States and localities changed outdated
laws. Victims were given courage to speak out and seek help, and
millions of women felt empowered knowing that in America, they had the
right to be free from violence and free from fear.
Joe's legacy as chair of the Judiciary is matched by his time leading
the Foreign Relations Committee. From atop the committee, he was a
forceful advocate for peace and stability around the world. He called
for strategic arms limitations with the Soviet Union, helped
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secure peace in the Balkans, helped bring former Soviet bloc states
into NATO, called for U.S. action to end the genocide in Darfur, and
spoke out against failed policies in Iraq.
He was also a critic of the CIA's detention and interrogation program
and backed our efforts to release the torture report. During heated
debate, Joe made the argument simple and easy to understand: America
will be stronger by saying the following: ``This was a mistake, we
should not have done what we've done and we will not do it again.''
He was right, and our Nation is stronger for having the courage to
admit that.
Joe Biden's willingness to speak the truth is one of the many reasons
President Obama tapped him to be his running mate. The President knew
Joe would discuss every issue with the same frank honesty--whether he
was offering counsel in the Oval Office or chatting with someone on the
train ride back home.
President Obama relied on his Vice President to oversee the recovery
after the worst economic recession since the Great Depression. He was
tasked with implementing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act,
the Ready to Work Initiative and to chair the Middle Class Task Force.
Joe Biden was the perfect choice for the job. He is the product of
his Catholic faith and the values instilled in him growing up in
Scranton. Those same values that he carried throughout his career in
Delaware and into the Vice Presidency.
He is a tough individual who has faced adversity that would knock a
lesser man down; yet through it all, Joe never wavered from his
commitment to serving others.
To those of us who have had the pleasure of working with him and to
millions of Americans, Joe Biden is a good and honest man who simply
wants to make the world a better place.
After 44 years in this Chamber, the last 8 as the President of the
Senate, Joe can leave knowing he has accomplished just that. The world
is a better place thanks to you, and it is grateful for your service,
Joe Biden.
Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, for more than 30 years, Vice President Joe
Biden has held a big place in my heart. Through thick and thin, he
trusted me to be his partner in so many fights, and I will be forever
grateful to him.
Joe first impressed me after he took a stand against the Reagan
administration's support of South Africa when it was still in the
depths of apartheid. So when he asked me to help organize women for his
1988 Presidential campaign, I was all in.
While that race wasn't meant to be, I fell in love with Joe's vision
of ``reclaiming the idea of America as a community'' and his beautiful,
persistent optimism and hope--qualities we all still love him for
today.
I cherished our time serving in Congress together, and I was so
honored that he asked me to carry the Violence against Women Act in the
House. Joe was determined to put the spotlight on this quiet epidemic--
and he has been doing just that ever since.
I took 5 years, but President Bill Clinton finally signed VAWA into
law in 1994. It was one of Joe's many monumental achievements.
By then, I had won election to the U.S. Senate where Joe played a
major role in one of my own biggest personal accomplishments: the
Dolphin-Safe tuna label law. Well, if I am being honest, it was his
then 8-year-old daughter, Ashley, who got him involved.
Schoolchildren across the country were boycotting their tuna fish
sandwiches after learning that dolphins could be killed as tuna was
caught, and Ashley was begging her father to take action.
I was so proud that Joe chose to partner with me on a bill that
required companies that sell dolphin-safe tuna to prove that dolphins
were not hurt in the fishing process. Like any good father, Joe wanted
to show Ashley that he would come through for her--and he did.
Our bill became law in 1992, and it is estimated that it saves tens
of thousands of dolphins every year.
Joe also served as an extraordinary chairman on the Foreign Relations
Committee, where I am a member. He was gracious and respectful,
listening to every viewpoint, but he also wasn't afraid to speak up and
take charge. I thought he was very courageous to point out a better way
to solve the civil war in Iraq, and I was so proud to stand with him.
For all of these reasons, and so many more, it is no surprise that
President Barack Obama chose Joe Biden to serve as his Vice President.
And it is no surprise that Joe will go down as one of the most
effective Vice Presidents in history because of his warm, open
relationship with President Obama. They have spent a great deal of time
together, exchanging thoughts and ideas, and Joe was one of the key
advisors who influenced President Obama as he successfully confronted
horrific challenges, such as: two wars; the worst recession since the
Great Depression; and rising violence in our communities.
Who could ever forget Joe Biden's immense respect and gratitude for
our men and women in uniform and their families and his determined
fight to bring them home safely?
Who could ever forget how he shepherded the Recovery Act through
Congress--a near impossible feat in this polarized political climate?
Who could ever forget his long history of fighting for community
policing and to strengthen the bonds between police officers and their
communities?
No one has fought harder for the things he believes in than Joe
Biden--no one--and there is nothing that he will not do for the country
he so deeply loves.
Love of country is second only to the love Joe has for his beautiful
family. When he talks about his incredible wife, children, and
grandchildren, you know they are his guiding star.
It is because of this love that we have all come to know and adore
Joe, and for that same reason, it is why our hearts broke for him over
the profound, unspeakable loss of his son, Beau. All of America mourned
with Joe.
He had every right to stay down, but Joe is as resilient as they
come. He likes to tell the advice that his father gave him as a child:
``Champ, when you get knocked down get up. Get up.''
Well, Joe always gets up. He gets up again and again and again.
And we are all so fortunate that he does because, from the U.S.
Senate to the Office of the Vice President, Joe has never stopped
fighting for the things he believes in--for civil rights, women's
rights, worker's rights, economic fairness, a world-class education for
our kids, health care for all, and a safe and peaceful world.
Joe has taught me so much, and I am so proud to call him my forever
friend.
Many of you know that I love to rewrite song lyrics.
This is what I wrote for Joe:
Joe is a many splendored thing.
He is tough and smart and strong and wise.
Winter, fall and spring.
He's for kids and health and child care.
Our Joe will always be there.
A smile, a glow,
It's not for show, it's true.
Joe worked with us for years and years,
And there is no sleep for our busy Veep.
He has hope not fears.
Whether guy or gal,
Joe is our pal.
And this we know is true,
Joe Biden, colleagues,
All love you.
Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I join my colleagues today in honoring
you and thanking you for the incredible devotion you have shown to the
United States Senate and to express my deep respect for you--respect
that I know the people of Michigan share.
You have been a longtime friend to me and to the people of my home
State. One thing we have always had in common: our parents were both in
the automobile industry. As of course you know, your dad was a car
salesman, and my father owned an Oldsmobile dealership.
So we have both known, from the very beginning, how critically
important American manufacturing is for so many people in Michigan and
across the country.
We worked together, both when you were the Senator from Delaware and
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then as the Vice President of the United States, to save the auto
industry back in 2008.
You know that the only way we succeed is if we do everything we can
to support and grow America's middle class, which you have done your
entire career.
There are countless instances over your 40 years of service when you
were on the right side of history: when you led the passage of the
Violence Against Women Act; in your work as the chair of the Judiciary
and Foreign Relations Committee; through your wise counsel as Vice
President and your ability to work with us to get so much done over the
last 8 years; with Dr. Biden, who is here today, for your work
supporting Michigan's military families and community colleges; and now
in your effort to cure cancer through the Cancer Moonshot.
Early on in your career, you said that the work that we do here
allows us to ``literally have the chance to shape the future--to put
our own stamp on the face and character of America, to bend history
just a little bit.'' I would believe, as every one of my colleagues
does, that you have done more than bend the future of America ``just a
little bit.''
You have changed this Nation and you have changed this Senate for the
better.
There is a great quote from a poet I know that you admire very much,
William Butler Yeats.
It is a piece of advice that he gave out frequently to young writers.
It goes: ``Think like a wise man but communicate in the language of the
people.''
Yeats--like you Mr. President--understood that the best way to reach
people is by appealing to their heart, meeting them where they are.
And I think, moving forward, we have to remember that we all have to
reach people's hearts and strive to serve as well as you have.
Thank you for your service to this Senate and to the American people.
Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, it is fitting that Joe Biden ascended
from Senator to Vice President--or as the office is known around here,
President of the Senate.
Joe was elected to the Senate as a very young man. We have heard Joe
talk about how hard it was after losing his wife, Neilia, and baby
daughter, Naomi, in an automobile accident, just weeks before he was to
be sworn in, to come to Washington and assume his duties. He credits
his older colleagues like Mike Mansfield, Ted Kennedy, Danny Inouye,
Hubert Humphrey, Fritz Hollings, and Rhode Island's Claiborne Pell, who
opened his Washington home to the young Senator, with convincing him to
stick it out, just for a few months.
Well, he did more than stick it out. He dove in. The Senate saved his
life, he has said, in that time of grief. And in return, he gave his
life to the Senate, serving the people of Delaware for more than three
decades.
Joe Biden presided over Supreme Court nomination hearings as chairman
of the Judiciary Committee. He shepherded the assault weapons ban and
the Violence Against Women Act. He served also as the chairman of the
Foreign Relations Committee, facing down dictators and championing
nuclear nonproliferation.
He is, of course, recognized in Senate lore as a particularly strong
speaker and debater. From his familiar perch in the back row of the
Chamber, Joe would hold forth on the merits of legislative proposals
and the positions of his colleagues. If the Chamber was empty of
Senators, he would even turn and deliver his speeches to the captive
audience in the staff gallery behind him.
But Joe can always be counted on for telling it like it is. Not long
ago, he was in my home State of Rhode Island to tout needed
infrastructure projects. Now, Rhode Island has one of the highest rates
of structurally deficient bridges in the Nation, and my senior Senator,
Jack Reed, and I have worked hard to bring Federal resources to bear in
addressing that need. But Joe put it no uncertain terms. Standing under
the East Shore Expressway Bridge on Warren Avenue in East Providence,
the Vice President cried, ``For 10 years you've had Lincoln logs
holding the damn thing up! No, I mean go look at it. The press went and
looked at it. If everybody in Rhode Island watched the news tonight and
saw that, they'd try to go around the damn bridge!''
Whatever his style or accomplishments, Joe will always pin his
success in the Senate on the personal relationships he forged so deeply
and so sincerely, with ideological allies and strange bedfellows alike.
``Every good thing I have seen happen here, every bold step taken in
the 36-plus years I have been here, came not from the application of
pressure by interest groups, but through the maturation of personal
relationships,'' he said in his 2009 farewell speech. ``Pressure groups
can and are strong and important advocates. But they're not often
vehicles for compromise. A personal relationship is what allows you to
go after someone hammer and tong on one issue and still find common
ground on the next.''
That is why Joe Biden was uniquely well suited for the one job in
this country with one constitutional foot in the executive branch and
the other in the legislative. He was at the center of a number of high-
stakes compromises between the White House, Congress, and the two
parties. And every once in a while, he still got to vote.
``Except for the title `father,''' he said, ``there is no title,
including `vice president,' that I am more proud to wear than that of
United States senator.'' Joe Biden is a great father to Hunter and
Ashley, and to Beau, whose passing last year was felt by the entire
Senate family. He served honorably as Vice President. But he will
always be the pride of the Senate.
I thank him for his faithful service and for his enduring example.
And I wish him and Jill great happiness in the adventures to come.
Mr. UDALL. Mr. President, I wish to pay tribute to Vice President Joe
Biden, a man who has dedicated his life to serving our country, working
across the aisle whenever he can, and always doing his best to get
things done for the American people.
I am proud to have known and admired Joe a long time. I first met Joe
toward the end of his first campaign for the Senate, in the fall of
1972. My father, Stewart Udall, had been called to Delaware to help the
young Democratic candidate with environmental issues. I tagged along
with my dad and spent a day on the campaign trail with a man who would
come to spend 36 distinguished years in the Senate and become our 47th
Vice President.
The following summer, I worked as a staffer in his Senate office--
writing constituent letters, researching policy issues, preparing press
materials. That was my first job in the Senate.
In so many ways, Joe Biden is the same person now as then--caring,
passionate, energetic, tenacious, and ready and able to get things
done.
Joe gave me my first Senate job, and this January--44 years later--he
swore me in for the 114th Congress.
I note that Senators from across our country--from both parties--have
lined up to speak to Joe's character and accomplishments. We respect
him as a colleague, and we love him for his passion and commitment to
public service.
Joe has never forgotten his blue collar roots. He has never forgotten
our country's working class. Joe has fought all his life to make sure
the working class gets a fair shake. He sounded the clarion call in the
last months and weeks of the Presidential campaign--that we not forget
working families and, more broadly, America's middle class.
In his words, ``The middle class is not a number; it's a value set.
It's being able to own your house and not have to rent it; it's being
able to send your kid to the local park and know they'll come home
safely. It's about being able to send your kid to the local high school
and if they do well they can get to college, and if they get to
college, you can figure out how to [pay to] get them there, and when
your mom or dad passes away, you can take care of the other who is in
need and hope your kids never have to take care of you. That's Joe
Biden's definition of the middle class, and the middle class has been
clobbered.''
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Joe championing the working and middle class helps my State of New
Mexico, helps all of our States.
His policy expertise is broad and deep but maybe in no area as much
as foreign policy. He has spent decades working on international
matters--as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as the
committee's chair or ranking member, as President Obama's foreign
relations troubleshooter.
From my service on the Foreign Relations Committee, I have a keen
appreciation for the complexity of foreign policy matters in today's
world.
Joe's foreign policy is at once pragmatic and sophisticated. He has
stalwartly promoted peace and nonproliferation. But he understands the
need for military force when national interests are at stake, diplomacy
is not an option, and such action will bear intended results.
Joe recently summed up what can be called the Biden Doctrine in
Foreign Affairs. He identifies the broad themes of Obama foreign policy
strategy and advises the next administration. The essay should be
required reading for anyone serious about foreign policy, and I hope
the new administration takes his advice to heart.
While Joe's legislative accomplishments are too many to list, I would
like to underscore one achievement that has made a difference in my
home State of New Mexico--The Violence Against Women Act.
As chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Joe drafted VAWA and led
the charge for enactment. Passed in 1994, VAWA reordered how the
Federal criminal justice system handled rape, sexual assault, and
domestic violence cases. VAWA gave victims needed protections and
strengthened prosecutors' tools.
I was attorney general of New Mexico in 1994. In the wake of VAWA's
passage, I formed the Violence Against Women Task Force. We got
strengthened antistalking laws passed in the New Mexico Legislature in
1997.
While VAWA was easily reauthorized and strengthened during the 2000s,
reauthorization became difficult in 2012. As Vice President, Joe was
instrumental in breaking impasses.
VAWA represented a sea change for how our society addresses violent
crime against women.
The law was reauthorized and strengthened in 2013, and now extends
protections to gay and transgender persons, immigrant women, and on-
reservation Native Americans.
Like Joe, I am a husband and father of a daughter. I am proud to have
voted in favor of reauthorization.
We all know that Joe has faced deep, personal tragedies. But he has
confronted tragedy with courage and love for his family and with an
unimaginable determination to keep working for the American people--
turning his own losses into ways to help others.
Joe and his equally capable, determined, and indefatigable wife Jill
have brought new energy and urgency to the fight to cure cancer. The
Cancer Moonshot has already had many successes. Joe turned the
premature death of his son into actions to help others with cancer.
This week, the Senate that Joe gave so much to gave something back,
sending the 21st Century Cures Act to President Obama for signature.
The $1.8 billion cancer initiatives in that bill are the direct result
of Vice President Biden's Cancer Moonshot initiative.
It is fitting that we named the cancer initiatives in the Cures Act
after Beau Biden.
Joe Biden leaves the Vice Presidency, but he will never leave the
fight for all Americans--Black, Brown, White, poor, working class,
middle class, gay, straight, Muslim, Christian--everyone--fighting for
what is right, fighting to make sure we all have a fair shot.
Joe's heart is as big as they come. I honor his decades of work,
commitment, and accomplishments, and I look forward to Joe continuing
being Joe--the same guy I met in 1972--working hard every day to make a
difference in the lives of all Americans.
Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, today I wish to honor the contributions
and the long and colorful career of Vice President Joe Biden--the pride
of Scranton, PA--and of Wilmington, DE--and the pride of the entire
United States.
Joe Biden lived, learned, and grew up among hard-working Americans in
the 1950s and 1960s, when everything in America seemed possible--and it
was. Remarkably, this gifted orator grew up with a crippling stutter--a
challenge which he overcame through determination and perseverance. He
displayed that same uncommon strength after he lost his wife and
daughter in a horrific car accident just weeks after being first
elected to the United States Senate.
Vice President Biden considered giving up his seat to tend to his
injured children. It is one of this country's great fortunes that Joe
Biden decided against that. Scarred by the tragedy and by a close brush
with death himself and more recently by the loss of his son Beau, the
Vice President has shown us the power of and the comfort derived from a
deep personal faith.
When he was first elected to the United States Senate in 1972, he was
only 29 years old. And in a Senate career spanning 36 years, Senator
Biden left behind a legacy as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee. Perhaps his greatest achievement was his tireless advocacy
for civil rights, especially the protection of women and children from
domestic violence. The passage of the Violence Against Women Act in
1994 is an enduring Biden legacy which we will continue to build upon
for years to come.
And now, even as he is about to retire from political life, Vice
President Biden has taken on a new cause: to find a cure for the
disease which has claimed too many millions of Americans, including his
beloved son, Beau. The Cancer Moonshot has refocused and reinvigorated
our Nation's efforts to eradicate this devastating disease, and I was
proud to support renaming the legislation to honor Beau Biden.
Vice President Biden is as honest and authentic a person as you will
find, providing a welcome dose of humanity and authenticity to the
business of governing. And he has served with great honor and humility.
I recall a dinner the Vice President attended at my home where,
before he greeted a single guest, he made sure to spend time with my
children--greeting them and engaging them in a real conversation. They
have never forgotten that.
And, as the meal was ending, the Vice President said he wanted to
hear from each of our guests. Now, this may come as no surprise to
those of you who know Joe Biden, but he actually spoke at some
considerable length about how important he thought it was to hear from
everybody who was there. Two and a half hours into a dinner scheduled
to last just 90 minutes, I think one guest got to ask the Vice
President a question.
I know Vice President Biden and his exceptional partner, Jill, will
continue to be engaged in the life of our Nation, so I will simply
thank him today for four decades of public service--and pledge my
continued respect for his many contributions to this great Nation which
he loves so completely.
Thank you, Mr. Vice President.
Mr. BENNET. Mr. President, I want to join in honoring Vice President
Biden's lifetime of service and sacrifice to our country.
Throughout his career, Vice President Biden has carried out his work
with a sense of humility, integrity, and authenticity that often seems
missing in today's politics.
He served as either chairman or ranking member of the Senate
Judiciary Committee for 17 years. In this capacity, he crafted the
Violence Against Women Act, which provided critical new protections to
victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. The landmark bill also
supported local law enforcement to help increase prosecutions and
convictions of abusers. He has continued this legacy by serving as the
White House Adviser on Violence Against Women.
Most recently, he led the White House's efforts on the Cancer
Moonshot initiative, which seeks to hasten our
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advances in cancer research, prevention, and treatment. Earlier today,
the Senate passed a bill to help make the Cancer Moonshot initiative a
reality, which is a further testament to the Vice President's
leadership and character.
The Vice President's involvement in the Cancer Moonshot initiative
was born out of the death of his son, Beau, who lost his battle with
brain cancer last year. The Vice President also grappled with tragedy
at a young age when his first wife and his 13-month-old daughter were
killed in a car accident. The poise, dignity, and humility that the
Vice President has been able to maintain in the face of these tragedies
speaks to his strength and his character. Through all this, he has
continued to serve the American people with the utmost integrity and
authenticity, which have undoubtedly contributed to his successful
career in public service.
The Vice President has also consistently advocated for the leadership
role the United States plays in the world. Over the years, Vice
President Biden has lent his diplomatic hand to U.S. engagement in
development and security in places like Eastern Europe and the Northern
Triangle countries of Central America. He has worked tirelessly to
strengthen our partnerships across the globe, in places like Asia,
Europe, and the Middle East, in an effort to further U.S. interests and
the values upon which our Nation has thrived.
When he was in Denver this past September to speak at the Korbel
School, the Vice President warned against ``turning inward.'' Joe has
no capacity to turn inward in any walk of life. His career is
characterized by reaching outward to the American people and to the
world, working to listen, collaborate, heal, and serve. We can all
learn a lot from that open and inclusive approach.
We are grateful for the Vice President's leadership and example. I
thank him and his incredible family for their service to our Nation.
Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I would like to pay tribute to an
incredible leader, public servant, mentor, and friend.
It seems impossible to place a period on the public service career of
Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr.
So perhaps this is just an ellipsis.
For 36 years, Joe Biden was a towering presence in this body. As a
member, ranking member, and chairman of the Foreign Relations
Committee, he dove headfirst into the most challenging issues in a
volatile world, shaping a generation of U.S. foreign policy. He tackled
arms control issues, stood up directly to Slobodan Milosevic, fought
against apartheid in South Africa, and strongly advocated for NATO
bombing of Serbia in the 1990s. He once called his contribution to
ending the Yugoslav wars one of the ``proudest moments'' of his
political career. For years, he worked to shape our policy in Iraq and
the Middle East. He did so not just from his Washington office, but
through regular visits to warzones, where he met face to face with
military leaders and enlisted men and women, alike. This is Joe Biden's
legacy.
As a member and chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Senator Biden
spearheaded the Federal assault weapons ban, presided over Supreme
Court confirmations, and--in perhaps his most significant legislative
triumph--authored the Violence Against Women Act.
For generations, violence against women was a private matter--a
tragedy suffered over and over by women with no recourse against
abusive partners. VAWA brought this scourge out of the shadows and into
the open, affirming that domestic violence survivors would NOT also be
victimized by the system that was supposed to protect them. Because of
VAWA, which Senator Biden helped reauthorize three times, 3.4 million
women and men have called the National Domestic Violence Hotline and
gotten the support they need. From 1994, when VAWA became law, until
2010, the rate of domestic violence in the United States has fallen by
64 percent. These are real accomplishments and real people--not just
statistics. This is Joe Biden's legacy.
And, as everyone knows, he did it all commuting daily from and to his
beloved Delaware.
Then he got a job that included accommodation in Washington, DC.
Joe Biden has transformed the job of Vice President. A key liaison to
Congress because of his years of relationships on the Hill, Joe Biden
stood shoulder to shoulder with President Obama and brought our economy
back from the brink. Vice President Biden was tasked with implementing
and overseeing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which laid
the foundation for a sustainable economic future we are experiencing
today.
He also tackled longer term economic challenges, traveling the
country in support of American manufacturing jobs and working
tirelessly to rein in the exorbitant cost of college and spiraling
student loan debt. Joe Biden believes in his bones that all Americans
deserve a fair shot.
That is why he was an early advocate for marriage equality. He
accelerated change, forcing a conversation that, at its heart, was
about love and the simple premise of all men and women being equal.
His belief in a fair shot for all is why Vice President Biden devoted
incredible energy after the Sandy Hook shooting to sparing other
families the heartbreak felt by too many in Newtown. Some of the most
challenging days of the Obama administration were days of mass
shootings.
Aurora, San Bernardino, Orlando, Fort Hood, Charleston, Tucson, and
of course Newtown--to anyone who has been active in the push for
commonsense gun safety measures--as I have--the Vice President's steady
hand, commitment, and leadership in this space have been obvious. Along
with the President, he has comforted families, devoted countless hours
to healing, and contributed energy and ideas to a years-long push that
will eventually affect real change and keep the most lethal weapons out
of the hands of the most dangerous people.
And that will be Joe Biden's legacy.
Vice President Joe Biden was taught early on by his parents that hard
work mattered, that how you treat others matters, and above all else
that family matters most. Throughout his career, he had a rule in his
office: if one of his children, his wife Jill, or a sibling called,
staff was to pull him out of a meeting so he could take the call. The
same rule extended to staff. He never wanted to hear that someone had
stayed at work instead of making it to a graduation, Little League
game, or school play.
That, laid bare, is Joe Biden. He came to Washington on the shoulders
of his family, which fanned out across Delaware and knocked on doors
until there were no more doors to knock. When tragedy struck--between
his improbable election victory and his swearing in--and he suffered
the unimaginable loss of his wife and infant daughter, his family
pulled him closer. He stayed by the hospital beds of his two sons, Beau
and Hunter, and nursed them back to health, questioning all along
whether he would ever serve in the Senate.
But this body--this Senate--pulled him closer, too. Senators Inouye,
Mansfield, Humphrey, Hollings, and Kennedy all pleaded with him to give
the Senate a chance: ``Just six months, Joe. Just stay six months.''
He stayed 36 years. And he learned lessons about character and
motives--lessons we are all still learning today. He learned from Mike
Mansfield never to question another man's motive--question his judgment
but never his motive. It was a lesson that bridged divides that too
often keep us apart. The lesson made for lasting friendships with Jesse
Helms and Strom Thurmond--whose eulogy he delivered.
Joe Biden arrived in the Senate after a 1972 campaign heavy on civil
rights. Years later, the centerpiece in his Senate office was a large
table that had belonged to Senator John Stennis, around which Senator
Richard Russell and Southern segregationists had planned the demise of
the civil rights movement. In 2009, Joe Biden became Vice President to
our first African-American President.
The arc of the moral universe is long, but it does indeed bend toward
justice.
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We have not seen the end of Joe Biden. Just this week, he presided
over this body as we took an important step toward realizing the dream
of the Cancer Moonshot--an ambitious project to end cancer as we know
it.
It is another effort that has profound personal meaning to the Vice
President, who lost his son Beau to this horrible disease. It is also a
place where Joe Biden's work will have lasting, indelible effect on
Americans--indeed all of humanity--if he is successful.
And that is Joe Biden's legacy.
He brought people together. He tackled the impossible. He overcame
obstacles. He bridged divides. Tireless and fierce, Joe Biden put
family and country first. We cannot ask for more than that.
Ms. HIRONO. Mr. President, I rise to join my colleagues to pay
tribute to Vice President Joe Biden.
Joe has made countless contributions to our country throughout his
more than 40 years in public service and six terms in the U.S. Senate.
Whether it was passing the Violence Against Women Act, leading the
congressional opposition to apartheid South Africa, or advocating for
Amtrak, Joe honored the Senate with his service.
This year, after the loss of his beloved son Beau, Joe harnessed his
grief to spearhead a new Cancer Moonshot initiative to accelerate
finding cures for cancer.
This past Monday night, with Joe presiding, we named this initiative
in memory of Beau.
After Monday's vote, Joe said that it made him realize all of the
support he has had since Beau's passing.
In the face of his own loss, Joe has supported countless other
families in similar situations.
I will remember Joe for this incredible empathy.
This year we lost our colleague and friend Congressman Mark Takai of
Hawaii.
I affectionately called Mark my younger brother, and his passing was
a shock to many of us.
Joe joined us to honor Mark at a memorial service here in the
Capitol.
Reflecting on his own life, Joe spoke directly to Mark's wife, Sami,
and his children, Matthew and Kaila:
I promise you that the day will come when Mark's memory
brings a smile to your lips before it brings a tear to your
eye.
My prayer for you and your family is that they come sooner
rather than later. But I promise you. I promise you it will
come.
Like so many times in his life, Joe's words spoke to our hearts.
From his own experience, he comforted the Takais and so many of us
who knew Mark.
That is who Joe is--a man of empathy and soul, who always had a kind
word, and who will leave a legacy of commitment to doing the right
thing, and a legacy of hope.
Joe, you will be missed.
Mahalo for your service.
Mr. KING. Mr. President, today I would like to join with my
colleagues to honor Vice President Joseph R. Biden.
Though I did not have the privilege to serve with Vice President
Biden while he was a Member of the Senate, I have long admired Joe and
his sincere commitment to the people of this country and especially to
those in his beloved home State of Delaware.
The details of Joe's early years are well known to this body and to
the Nation, but because they are so central to his character, they bear
repeating. After an upset win of a U.S. Senate seat at just 29 years
old, Joe experienced a tragedy that most of us cannot even begin to
fathom--the death of his wife, Neilia, and his young daughter, Naomi,
in a car accident just weeks before he was set to take office. A now-
iconic photograph shows a young Joe being sworn into office at his
sons' hospital bedside.
A tragedy of that magnitude, so early in Joe's career, would have
been reason for most to put on hold--or even end--a promising future in
public service. Indeed, no one would have faulted Joe had he decided
that the demands of the work he was set to undertake were not worth
pursuing after the unimaginable loss he had just experienced. But, from
the depths of his sorrow, Joe summoned the courage to press forward,
committing himself to his two sons and to his work fighting for
Delaware in the U.S. Senate. Committed to caring for his young family
in the wake of such loss, Joe would take the train from Wilmington to
Washington each day the Senate was in session.
During his 36 years as a member of this body, Joe distinguished
himself as a thoughtful, principled leader on a number of critical
issues. Joe's leadership on the Senate Judiciary Committee put him at
the center of some of the most consequential debates in recent years,
from passage of the 1994 Crime Law to the enactment of the Violence
Against Women Act. In his role on the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee, Joe garnered the respect of lawmakers on both sides of the
aisle as he helped to shape U.S. foreign policy. His leadership in both
of these areas, as well as the respect of his colleagues in Congress,
made Joe a natural pick to join then-Senator Obama as his running mate
in 2008.
As Vice President, Joe has been a trusted adviser to President Obama
and has been tasked with overseeing significant initiatives within the
administration. From his work on the economic stimulus package in 2009
to his continued leadership in the fight against sexual assault and
domestic violence, Joe has brought to the White House his
characteristic dedication and charisma. It has been a pleasure to
observe the real friendship that the Vice President has forged with
President Obama, one grounded in mutual respect and admiration for one
another.
We saw again last year Joe's strength in the face of adversity when
cancer claimed the life of his son, Beau. Like his father, Beau Biden
was a gifted communicator, and the Nation mourned alongside Joe at the
news of his passing. In the aftermath of Beau's death, Joe accepted the
President's charge to lead the Cancer Moonshot initiative to accelerate
cancer research--yet another shining example of Joe channeling his
experience with loss into advancement for the public good. It is a
fitting testament to Joe's leadership that the cancer provisions in the
bill currently under consideration in the Senate, the 21st Century
Cures Act, were renamed in honor of Beau. I know of few people who have
endured the magnitude of loss that Joe has over the course of his life,
and the fact that he carries on every day with a full heart and renewed
dedication to fighting for the American people is an inspiration.
Beyond his accomplishments--which are many--Joe is perhaps best known
for his good humor and genuine ability to connect with people. In a
city associated more with political rancor than authenticity, Joe has
long been a breath of fresh air, an homage to a more amicable past. His
ability to get things done while making steadfast friends on both sides
of the aisle is a model for all of us and an inspiration to me.
I wish Joe and his wife, Jill, nothing but the best as they move onto
their next adventure. I know in times of trial, I will look to Joe's
leadership and example for the wisdom to make the right decision.
Mr. Vice President, on behalf of the people of Maine, I thank you for
your service to our country.
Ms. WARREN. Mr. President, today I join my colleagues in celebrating
the many contributions of Vice President Joe Biden, a man who has spent
his career fighting for working families.
For more than four decades, Vice President Biden has tirelessly
served the people of Delaware and the United States. As many of my
colleagues have already noted, he has been on the frontlines of some of
our Nation's toughest battles--from steering the Foreign Relations and
Judiciary Committees, to introducing the Violence Against Women Act and
championing efforts to reduce gun violence in our communities. He takes
on every fight with restless energy and relentless optimism.
I first met then-Senator Biden back in the 1990s when I was a law
professor with no experience in the ways of Washington. We tangled over
an issue, each of us laying into the fight with determination. Senator
Biden won, and I lost. Years later, when I next saw
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him, he held out his arms and shouted from halfway across the room,
``Professor! Come here and give me a hug!''
He had not forgotten our earlier battle, but he made it clear that he
continued to think and rethink issues about working families and that,
even when we disagreed, we could respect--and even like--each other.
And when I was later sworn into the United States Senate, I thought
about the example he set to fight hard, but to treat each other with
respect.
The Vice President has faced down hardship with exceptional grace and
courage, and he continues to wake up every day with a steadfast
commitment to ensuring that the voices of ordinary Americans are heard
here in Washington. And for me personally, he has provided
encouragement, wisdom, and good counsel, time and again--and for that,
I am truly grateful.
So, Vice President Biden: those of us here in the Senate are
fortunate to have had the opportunity to work alongside you. And I know
I speak for millions of Americans when I say that we all are enormously
grateful for your many years of service to this country. Thank you, and
I wish you the very best as you begin the next chapter of your life and
career.
Mr. COONS. We have five Senators remaining who have asked to speak
briefly: Senator Alexander, Senator Cardin, Senator Casey, and Senator
Kaine. My senior Senator, Tom Carper of Delaware, will conclude this
session today.
I yield the floor to the Senator from Tennessee.
The VICE PRESIDENT. The Senator from Tennessee.
Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, knowing there is a reception coming, I
will try to set a good example. After hearing a speech, my late friend
Alex Haley, the author of ``Roots,'' said: May I make a suggestion?
I said: Well, yes.
He said: If, when you make a speech, you would say ``Instead of
making a speech, let me tell you a story,'' someone might actually
listen to what you have to say.
I have always remembered that, so let me tell one short story about a
Vice President who knows how to get things done.
Nearly 2 years ago, you and President Obama invited Senator Corker
and me to go with you to Knoxville when the President announced his
community college program. Before that, we had lunch privately, and we
talked about many things, but the President talked about his interest
in precision medicine.
I said: Mr. President, we are working on something we call 21st
Century Cures. Why don't we fold that into your precision medicine
interest, and we will do it together.
At the State of the Union address a year later, the President talked
about the Cancer Moonshot and announced Vice President Joe Biden would
be in charge of that. So I talked to you and said: Well, we will just
fold that in as well.
It wasn't moving along as fast as I would like because, as you know
and as most people here know, it is full of difficult issues--FDA,
safety, moving things though, drug companies' incentives, and then the
funding issue on both sides of the aisle.
So I called you and I said: Joe, we are not moving as we should.
You said: Well, let me see what I can do.
And you held a meeting of the Democrats and Republicans in the
House--Senator Murray and me--and you moved us along pretty well and
off we would go. You didn't take credit for that; nobody knew much
about it. You were the key to that.
Then it got stuck again. So I called you again. I said: Joe, I have
the precision medicine, I have the Cancer Moonshot, we have the BRAIN
Initiative, we have the opioids money, but I can't get a response. I
feel like the butler standing with a silver platter outside the Oval
Office, and no one will take the order.
You said: If you want to feel like a butler, try being Vice
President.
Well, the fact was, you went to work again. The President called; he
went to work. Speaker Ryan went to work, Senator McConnell went to
work, and today that legislation on which you worked so hard passed the
Senate with 94 votes. That is an example of a man who understands the
issues, who knows how to get things done, and who has the respect of
everyone in this body.
This is Pearl Harbor Day. Pearl Harbor Day reminds us of the greatest
generation of men and women who cared about the country, didn't care
about the credit, resolved their differences, and realized that
diversity is important but turning that diversity into one America is
even more important. You are not of that generation, but you show the
same spirit as that generation did. Your work on 21st Century Cures and
the fact that the Cancer Moonshot section is not only something that is
your initiative--is named for your son--is important not just to you
but to all of us.
You are a friend of every single one of us. We honor you today. We
are delighted you came down to let us tell a few stories about your
effectiveness as Vice President of the United States.
The VICE PRESIDENT. The Senator from Maryland.
Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, I also wish to join in thanking you for
your incredible service. Senator Mikulski talked about a lot of things
you have done. The two of us represent the State of Maryland. Other
than the two of us, there is no other Senator who has spent more time
in Maryland than the Vice President.
Admittedly, most of that time was spent on an Amtrak train, but we
consider you to be a resident of Maryland. We have tried to find a way
to tax you, but we will let you get by. We very much appreciate your
interest in our entire region and in our entire country.
When I was elected to the Senate in 2007, I talked to Senator
Sarbanes--the person whom I was replacing in the Senate--about
committee assignments, and we talked about the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee. He said: Get on the committee. Joe Biden is an incredible
leader. Any time you can spend with him is going to be time well spent.
I talked to Senator Mikulski, and she told me the same thing. I was
honored to be able to serve on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
and saw firsthand your extraordinary leadership on behalf of our
country. But bringing us together in that committee, you didn't know
who the Democrats and who the Republicans were. We worked together in a
unit in the best interests of our country. That really was a model for
all of us in the service of the Senate and service on behalf of our
people.
A little over 8 years later, I became a ranking member of the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee, and we had some extremely challenging
issues that could have divided us. You helped me through that period. I
really wish to thank you for that. Your extraordinary leadership in
helping us resolve some very difficult issues, your openness, your
willingness to listen, and your ability to find a way to go forward
were incredibly helpful. I think it allowed the Senate to do the right
thing on that issue--as well as the oversight. I thank you very much.
That wasn't your only opportunity to help us resolve issues. You have
heard Members talk about the Violence Against Women Act and how
important that was. The Cancer Moonshot is going to be incredibly
valuable. Each one of our families has been affected by cancer. Through
your efforts, we know we are going to find the answer to this dread
disease. You have done this in so many different areas, law
enforcement--the list goes on and on.
Last year I was in Central America. I think there you could easily
run for office and have no problems at all. They know what you have
done to give them a hope, to give them a future. You take an interest
in an area and find a way to be helpful that I think has made our
country stronger. You have given hope to people all over the world.
You have a love for people. You hear that. You hear that often. It
was Will Rogers who famously said he never met a man he didn't like.
That is true of Joe Biden. It is incredible.
I remember when I was being sworn in, in the ceremony in the Old
Senate Chamber, you not only talked to Members of the Senate, you
talked to every
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member of our families. I don't know if you had the best staff work or
not, but you knew every Member's family. To this day my grandchildren
talk about the conversation they had with you during that swearing-in
ceremony. You really care about people, and that really shows. This is
a family here, and you have truly shown that to us. Myrna and I look at
you and Jill as people who are part of our family.
I think you are, perhaps, the most ebullient politician in America.
Horrific family tragedies and life-threatening cranial aneurysms
severely tested, but ultimately didn't diminish, your faith in God or
your love for the ``retail'' aspect of politics--meeting and greeting
people, making those human connections.
Mr. President, for those who may not know your story, I would like to
tell them part of it. Joe Biden was born in Scranton and raised there
before his parents moved the family to Delaware. He was the first
member of his family to attend college. He earned his B.A. from the
University of Delaware and then went to law school at Syracuse
University, during which time he married his college sweetheart, Neilia
Hunter. They had three children--two sons and a daughter.
In 1972, just four years after Joe graduated from law school and when
he was just 29 years old--he ran a bare bones, longshot campaign for
the U.S. Senate against the incumbent, Caleb ``Cale'' Boggs, who had
previously been Delaware's Governor and had served three terms in the
U.S. House of Representatives. Joe's sister Valerie ran the campaign;
most of the other ``staff'' were other family members. He demonstrated
his extraordinary ability to connect with voters and won the election
by 3,162 votes and became the sixth-youngest Senator in U.S. history.
Just a few weeks after the election, Joe's wife and their infant
daughter Naomi were killed in a traffic accident; their two young sons,
Hunter and Beau, were seriously injured. Joe was sworn in to the U.S.
Senate next to his sons' hospital beds and steadfastly began commuting
to Washington from Wilmington every day by train, a practice he
maintained throughout his career in the Senate.
In 1977, Vice President Biden married Jill Jacobs. Jill has a Ph.D.
in education and is a lifelong educator. Together, Joe and Jill had
daughter, Ashley, who is a social worker.
Joe's affinity for the people of Delaware was reciprocal: he was re-
elected to the Senate six times, including in 2008 when he was also
elected Vice President.
In February of 1988, Joe was admitted to Walter Reed Army Medical
Center. He had an intracranial aneurysm that had begun leaking. The
situation was dire, a priest had actually administered last rites at
the hospital. The surgery was successful but he suffered a pulmonary
embolism and had to undergo another operation, which was successful, in
May 1988. Two brain operations might slow down most people, but not
Joe. Two years after he nearly died, he won re-election to a fourth
Senate term.
Joe's Senate career wasn't just long; it was distinguished. He became
the Ranking Member of the Judiciary Committee in 1981. Three years
later, he helped to steer the Comprehensive Crime Control Act to
passage. It was the first of many major legislative accomplishments
which included the Violent Crime Control & Law Enforcement Act of 1994.
That bill contained the assault weapon ban and the Violence Against
Women Act, and it established the Community Oriented Policing Services
(COPS) program.
Joe's accomplishments on the domestic policy side are impressive, but
he also became a foreign policy expert. When Congress refused to ratify
the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) II Treaty Soviet leader
Leonid Brezhnev and President Jimmy Carter signed in 1979, Joe met with
Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko. He was able to secure changes
to the Treaty to overcome the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's
objections. He has played a pivotal role in shaping U.S. foreign policy
ever since. I was honored to serve on the Foreign Relations Committee
for the last 2 years Joe served as Chairman. I have been honored to
work with him in his current capacity as Vice President to expand the
North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO, to include the former Warsaw
Pact countries of Eastern and Central Europe and support a sovereign,
democratic Ukraine. He is a champion of Israel and has been one of the
principal architects of administration's rebalance to the Asia-Pacific.
He has developed deep relationships with the world leaders by excelling
at face-to-face diplomacy.
Mr. President, we were all devastated when your beloved son Beau lost
his battle with brain cancer last year. Beau was just 46. It was a
poignant moment on Monday when you were in the Chair, presiding over
the Senate as we voted to invoke cloture on the motion to concur in the
House message to accompany H.R. 34, the 21st Century Cures Act. The
bill contains provisions to implement the administration's ``Cancer
Moonshot''--yet another one of your sparking accomplishments. I want to
commend Senator McConnell and the majority for renaming that title of
the bill the ``Beau Biden Cancer Moonshot and National Institutes of
Health (NIH) Innovation Projects''. I know it means a lot to you and
your family.
I have made my lifetime serving in public life. You have made that
profession an honorable profession through the manner in which you have
conducted yourself, your integrity, who you are, and the way that you
bring people together. I am proud to have served with you in this body.
Mr. President, you have been an extraordinary public servant for
nearly half a century. You have also been a dedicated family man and a
good friend. I said at the beginning of my remarks that you never met a
man you didn't like. I don't think anyone who has ever met you didn't
like you, too.
Congratulations.
The VICE PRESIDENT. The Senator from Pennsylvania.
Mr. CASEY. Mr. President, it is an honor to be here today. I was
thinking about what I would say today and making it as brief and as
personal as I could. I have to say that on a day like today it is
difficult. We all have the privilege of being able to go to this floor
on a regular basis to talk about issues, to talk about our country, and
to talk about the world, but we also have one of the great privileges
to talk about those with whom we have served and for whom we have great
respect.
This is one of those moments. It is of great significance for me that
I am able to stand on the floor of the Senate as a native of and as a
resident of the city of Scranton in Lackawanna County to talk about a
son of Scranton.
I know this is a pretty big day for Delaware--Delaware's No. 1
citizen and on this historic day for Delaware. But I have to say I am
so grateful to be able to say on behalf of the people of Scranton and
Lackawanna County in Northeastern Pennsylvania how proud we are today
to be able to pay tribute to Vice President Joe Biden.
There is so much to say about that history, so much to say about what
it means to be able to stand on the floor and talk about his record,
his life, his achievements, but mostly to talk about who he is.
When I consider what he has contributed to our country, to his State,
and to the world, it is difficult to encapsulate it. I tried to jot
down a few notes to remind myself of how best to encapsulate that life.
I guess I would start with the word ``integrity.'' It may be a word
that we take for granted, but it is a word that has to be part of the
life of a public official. I would say in the case of Joe Biden, he has
the kind of integrity that is uncommon--uncommon not because it is a
rare trait but uncommon because it is so much a part of his whole life.
He was a public official with integrity, and we hope he is again when
he might consider public office again. But he is also a person of great
integrity when it comes to the fights he has had to wage on behalf of
people without power, the work he has had to do as a public official
infused with that kind of integrity and, at the same time, the same
kind of integrity we expect from
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a family member and a friend. So I would start with that word.
Certainly the word ``compassion'' comes to mind. Every one of us can
tell a story. I was hearing stories just yesterday from a colleague
about a phone call the Vice President made over the last couple of
years to someone who was grieving, who was in the depths of the
darkness of grief, and the phone call he made to that person.
I have heard stories over the years about not just phone calls but
visits with people, stopping into a funeral home for a long lost friend
who had lost a loved one, letters he has written. I know a personal
friend who lost his wife and his sons had lost their mom and what the
Vice President wrote to them just this summer. Over and over again, he
has demonstrated that kind of compassion.
I can remember my own case in a very personal way. It was only an
election loss. I ran for Governor of Pennsylvania in a primary. As many
of my colleagues know, primaries are particularly difficult. I lost
badly. No one called on Wednesday after Tuesday. One reporter showed up
at my door, and I opened the door and I really couldn't say much to
this reporter, but I was grateful she was there. But I got one phone
call on Wednesday--maybe a couple of family members; I come from a
family of eight. I think my wife was talking to me, but other than
that, the only person who called me was Joe Biden. He made some kind of
grand prediction--I thought he was just being nice--that I would
somehow come back. But he was right. And he made me feel much better
that day. He may not remember it, but I will remember that for the rest
of my life.
I think certainly when we think about the Vice President, we could
center on another one word: ``justice''--an abiding and enduring
commitment to justice. His whole public life could be summarized in
that word and the commitment he has had to justice. We could quote from
the Bible: ``Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for justice, for
they shall be satisfied.'' I am not sure Joe Biden has ever been
satisfied yet with justice. He is always pursuing it, always trying to
bring justice to a problem or to a situation or to the life of a fellow
citizen.
We think of what Saint Augustine said about justice a long time ago,
but it still bears repeating: ``Without justice, what are kingdoms but
great bands of robbers?'' That is what Saint Augustine said hundreds of
years ago. Joe Biden has lived his life as a public official and as a
man, as a citizen, with that same burning desire to bring justice into
the dark corners of our world. And he knows that without that justice,
someone is, in fact, robbed of so much--robbed of their dignity, robbed
of their safety, robbed of a full life.
But I think I would say that maybe the best line, with all due
respect to the Scriptures and to Saint Augustine, was one my father
said. He wrote it down years ago, but he probably gave maybe the best
description of what a public official should be about. I am not sure I
have ever attributed this to anyone else but him. He said the most
important qualities a public official can bring to their work are two
things: No. 1, a passion for justice--which, of course, Joe Biden has
in abundance--and a sense of outrage in the face of injustice; that if
you have both of those, on most days, you are going to get it right.
And his life as a U.S. Senator for 36 years, as Vice President for 8
years, and as a citizen for all of those years and more, has been about
that passion for justice and a sense of outrage in the face of
injustice.
We all know his record; we don't have to recite all of it. From the
Violence Against Women Act, which we know is an acronym--VAWA--but it
doesn't do justice to the name of what that meant. So many today have
talked about how he saved the lives of women and families because of
that legislation. So from VAWA to ARRA, as we call it--the American
Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the act that helped dig this economy out
of the ditch it was in and rescued this country and improved the lives
of so many people--he not only worked to get it passed, but then he
made sure it was implemented. It might be the most popular piece of
legislation 25 years from now when people really appreciate what
happened with the Recovery Act.
From diplomacy, to law enforcement, to not just supporting our
troops, not just working on legislation and supporting them not only
when his son was a member of our Armed Forces but long before that, to
what he did very specifically to protect our troops--we know the
scourge of IEDs, which was the No. 1 killer of our troops in Iraq and
in Afghanistan. A lot of those troops' lives were saved because of Joe
Biden up-armoring vehicles and doing all the work he did to protect our
troops.
So whether it was national security or security on our streets,
whether it was protecting women who would be the subject of abuse or
helping children or improving our economy--on and on--we could talk
about that record. But just as you can't just list achievements in a
record and encapsulate what it means, so the same is true of a 36-year
career in the U.S. Senate and then 8 years as Vice President.
Lincoln probably said it best. Lincoln said, ``It is not the years in
your life that matters, in the end, it is the life in those years.''
And that is, I think, true of Joe Biden as well.
Two more points. One of the best qualities of the Vice President as a
man especially but also as a public official is his sense of gratitude.
If you knew him for half an hour or for your whole life, you know that
almost always he is speaking about people in his life who made him who
he is today, whether it is his mother and father or whether it is his
whole family, including brothers and sisters and his sons and daughters
and, of course, Jill. It is a reminder of how grateful we should be. In
so many ways, when you hear Joe Biden speak, his speeches tend to be,
on many occasions, a hymn to gratitude, and that comes through all the
time.
We know how much he suffered with all of the losses he has sustained.
I was talking to him recently at an event in Scranton about his son
Beau and his life and what a patriot Beau Biden was. I think today we
can say the following about the Vice President: This is a man who was a
great, great Vice President. This is a man who was a committed and very
effective U.S. Senator, but maybe most important, he has been a
faithful son, a loving and proud husband and father, and a patriot.
Thank you, sir, and God bless you.
The VICE PRESIDENT. The Senator from Florida.
Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, these speeches were just supposed to go on
for 1 hour, and we are already at the 2-hour mark, but perhaps, since
we are honoring you, this is most appropriate.
I would say to our colleagues and our guests, you say the name among
us of Joe Biden, and a smile automatically comes to our lips, and that
is because the Vice President is a lover of people. That is true. We
know it is true. And that is why today we have this genuine affection
being expressed.
Since the hour is late, my remarks are going to be very short, but I
just want to highlight that it is very true and it is very
characteristic. I can even tell all of the stories of the Biden family
because I have heard them so much.
It is also very true that if you are talking to Joe and suddenly your
wife comes up or your daughter comes up, all of a sudden, Joe is not
focusing on you, he is giving his total attention to the ladies
present, and that is most appreciated. That, of course, is why he is
such a big fan of the Nelson household, not only of Grace and Nan Ellen
but also of Bill Junior. He always treats our children with respect and
goes out of his way.
In Florida, fortunately we had the good fortune of seeing him a lot
in his two campaigns as Vice President and then the campaign for the
ticket in this last campaign. I can remember those days. It was so cold
in a horse pasture west of Ocala. And I can remember recently just
absolutely cooking in North Palm Beach on the stage in the hot sun, and
Joe was always there making the case for whoever it was he was standing
up for.
Of course, he always made you feel that you were welcome. I remember
one time we got off an airplane, and he
[[Page 15978]]
was going to his limousine and I am going back to the guest van in the
back. He motions, I am to come with him. I said, ``Mr. Vice President,
I never presumed that I should come here.'' He says, ``I always want
you here with me when we are traveling together.'' That is what makes
him so special.
Finally, I want to comment about Moonshot. Why is the effort at
cancer research called the Moonshot? It is because we achieved what was
almost the impossible when the President said we are going to the moon
and return safely within the decade, and America marshaled the will and
in fact did that incredible accomplishment. That is why we are going to
have the Moonshot for cancer.
We have already made so much progress; but now, with the former Vice
President of the United States heading up all the efforts where we can
keep the attention on NIH, so it doesn't go from a level rocking along
about $24 billion, $25 billion a year, and the stimulus shoots it in
the first 2 years of the Vice President's office up to $30 billion a
year, then it drops down to $24 billion, $25 billion, and Dr. Francis
Collins has to cancel 700 of the medical research grants that he has
already issued. Because we have the Moonshot headed by Joe Biden, we
are going to find the cure for all those kinds of cancer. That is the
great legacy that the Vice President of the United States will have.
Mr. President, I yield the floor.
The VICE PRESIDENT. The Senator from Virginia.
Mr. KAINE. Mr. President, I rise in honor of your service.
I just want to tell my favorite Joe Biden story. This is a story the
Vice President has heard me tell, but I want it on the Record because
everyone should know this story. It is the story of an interaction
between our Vice President on one of the most important days of his
life and a young man from Richmond, VA, my hometown, on one of the most
important days of his life.
It was election day 2008, and I was Governor of Virginia. I was
responsible for the running of the elections in my State that day when
Senator Joe Biden was running for Vice President with our President,
Barack Obama.
I received a call in the middle of the morning: There was going to be
a surprise visit to a polling place in Richmond. After having voted in
Wilmington, Senator Biden was going to make a stop in Richmond and
wanted to meet some voters before he headed to Chicago to await the
election results. We gave him the address of an elementary school
polling place that was very near the Richmond Airport, and I raced
there with my security detail to get there a few minutes before he
arrived for a surprise visit with voters who were going to love having
the chance to meet the soon-to-be Vice President. I got there a few
minutes before Senator Biden arrived, and I saw a friend who had come
to vote. I asked how he was doing. He said: I am doing great. I am
really excited about voting today. And it is also a special day because
I have a nephew with sickle cell anemia and he is casting his first
vote, but he is so sick, he can't even get out of the vehicle.
I watched the election officials at the polling place take a voting
machine from inside the school into the car so that his 18-year-old
nephew could cast the first vote of his life. I saw this young man, the
nephew of my friend, and he was very ill.
I said to my friend and his nephew: Can you wait here for 5 minutes?
Because I think we can do something really exciting.
What?
Well, just wait.
And they said they would.
Within 5 minutes, Senator Biden came up to meet voters and shook the
hands of those in line. I said: Senator, there is a young man here, and
just as this day is very important to you, because I think you are
about to be elected Vice President of the United States, for this young
African-American male, who is very ill but extremely excited even in
his illness to get out of his house to come here and cast his vote to
elect the first African-American President--he is sitting there in that
vehicle. Will you go and visit with him?
I didn't even have to finish the sentence and put the question mark
at the end before Senator Biden shot across the parking lot and went up
to the vehicle. The press corps was following him. The young man was
sitting in the back seat. Joe just jumped in the front seat, closed the
door, rolled up the window so nobody could hear the conversation, and
the press corps gathered around all four sides of the vehicle with
their cameras taking pictures of Senator Biden in an extremely animated
and somewhat lengthy conversation with the 18-year-old who had just
cast his vote. To me, that will always be the quintessential Joe Biden
story.
Joe Biden is the Irish poet of American politicians. He and I share a
passion for the Irish poet William Butler Yeats. Yeats, like our Vice
President, was not just a poet. He was a man of the public. He was a
public official. People asked him to weigh in on political matters all
the time.
Once, in the middle of the First World War, somebody asked Yeats to
write a war poem. He wrote a war poem, and the poem was titled ``On
Being Asked for a War Poem.'' The poem says this:
I [often] think it better that in times like these
A poet's mouth be silent, for in truth . . .
He has had enough of meddling who can please
A young girl in the indolence of her youth,
Or an old man upon a winter's night.
The meaning of the poem is this: I may be a public figure. I may have
a public job to do. I may be asked to do a public job and to claim upon
matters of public importance. But sometimes even more than the matter
of public importance is the ability to please a young girl or an old
man--or an ill young man casting a first vote, an important vote.
The fact that you took your time on that day of importance to you to
shed some light and offer some joy to someone who was struggling--that
is the Joe Biden who has us here for 2 hours offering these tributes.
I yield the floor.
The VICE PRESIDENT. The Senator from Connecticut.
Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I never had the privilege of serving
with you in this Chamber, but, like many of my colleagues, I have come
to know you as a friend and public servant and a model and a mentor. I
have barely enough time to say a few words of tribute here, but I will
add more to my remarks on the Record.
What I want to say very simply is that you have inspired so many of
us, beyond this Chamber, beyond the people whom you have known
directly, and beyond the people with whom you have worked. Countless
young people are involved in this noble profession because of your
example.
At a time when public officials and politics are often held in little
repute and often challenged in their integrity, you have given us a
good name, you have given politics a good name, and you have enabled so
many of us to serve with pride in a profession that is so vital to the
continuance of our democracy. Beyond pieces of legislation, whether it
is the Violence Against Women Act or the assault weapon ban or criminal
justice--the list goes on--is that model of public service.
I want to close by saying that as long as I have known Joe Biden, I
really came to know him through the eyes of his son. I had the honor of
working and serving with Beau Biden when he was attorney general of the
State of Delaware and I was attorney general of my State of
Connecticut. My ambition in life is to have my four children talk about
me with the sense of admiration and love and pride that Beau Biden
talked about his dad.
I am very proud and grateful that we had the opportunity to vote
today on a law that bears his name. As proud as his dad is of him, his
pride in his dad is an example that all of us as parents hope our
children have for us.
I am proud to be in this Chamber and to have been sworn in to this
Chamber by you, Mr. Vice President. I hope our paths will continue to
cross, as I know they will, with so many of us in this Chamber and in
this country. Thank you for your service.
[[Page 15979]]
I yield the floor.
The VICE PRESIDENT. The Senator from Missouri.
Mrs. McCASKILL. Mr. President, me too.
The VICE PRESIDENT. The Senator from Massachusetts.
Mr. MARKEY. Mr. President, in 1972 I was a young man in my last year
at Boston College Law School, and I decided to run for State
representative. I had a cousin who worked at NASA, an older cousin, the
smart one, the physicist. He said: Well, there is a young man in
Delaware who is running for the Senate.
So what is his name?
Joe Biden.
From that moment on, I was following the career of this Irishman,
this latter-day descendent of Hubert Humphrey, a happy warrior, the man
who stands up for the common man and woman in our country.
In 1972 you had this great campaign team led by John Marttila--the
great John--who captured your spirit, your soul, what you represented
now in this half century of American politics.
In 1976, when I ran for Congress, just 4 years later--the same as
you, age 29--saying ``I think I can run,'' I walked into the office of
this man, John Marttila, in Boston, and it looked like a museum to Joe
Biden with all the Joe Biden literature and messages on his wall. So
from that moment on, from John Marttila, through Larry Rasky, through
Ron Klain--through all of these people who worked for me and worked for
you, I have been privileged to be able to chronicle your journey of
work and inspiration for our country.
I think it is just perfect that you are the commander in chief of
this rocket ship to the Moon to find the cure for cancer because that
is a mission that has the right man who is going to be leading it. I
think that each and every one of us out here knows that one of the
reasons this bill is receiving such an overwhelming vote today is
because of you, Mr. President. It is because of the respect we have for
you. It is the knowledge that when you were negotiating this bill, at
the end of the day, you were going to put the American people first,
you were going to make sure that bill reflected the highest aspiration
of every American.
So I want to speak briefly because there is a reception after this,
and many people are still waiting to say hello to you. I think every
Member wanted to come out here, and you inspired them to speak a lot
longer than they may have intended on speaking, but it is because of
the incredible respect and admiration they have for you. My best to
you. My wife Susan's best to you. There has never been a better public
servant in American history. All my best.
The VICE PRESIDENT. The Senator from Indiana.
Mr. DONNELLY. Mr. President, on behalf of all the people in our great
State--and our dear colleague Senator Bayh is here because of his love
as well--we want to tell you how grateful we are for your services, for
the extraordinary job you have done as Vice President for President
Obama.
Everybody is telling stories. As you know, I had the privilege of
having you put your arm around me, and when everybody said there was no
chance I could ever win, you said: You and I are a lot alike and you
can do this and you can win.
I came back, and they said: What advice did Vice President Biden give
you?
I said: He told me that I could win.
They said: Well, he is right a lot; I don't know about that one.
You turned out to be right.
Then we were blessed that your sons, Hunter and Beau, often came to
Indiana during the summers. You would then come out as well. I will
never forget going to the coffee shop one Sunday morning. The lady at
the coffee shop said to me: This has been an unbelievable day because
the Vice President came in with all his grandchildren; and, by the way,
Joe, he bought ice cream for everybody in the store, and you have never
done that.
I said how sorry I was that I never did that.
She also said: This is one of the greatest days of my life, to meet
somebody who has always looked out for working families, who has always
looked out for us.
That is how we see you back home. You have always looked out for us.
You have always cared about us. As a second-generation Irish immigrant,
you have always been an example to all of us that we can accomplish
anything we dream of.
God bless you and Jill and your whole family. We are so lucky to have
been touched by you.
The VICE PRESIDENT. The Senator from Minnesota.
Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Vice President Biden, earlier Hubert Humphrey's name
was mentioned. You know the great love the people of Minnesota have for
you. Vice President Humphrey was your mentor when you first got to the
Senate, where you didn't even know if you were going to last a few
months here, and he was there for you. You have extended that kindness
to so many since then.
Vice President Mondale, another Minnesotan, has great affection and
love for you, and I will report back to him tonight that I was here
with you today.
When I first got elected to the Senate and made one of my first
speeches about police funding to a completely empty Chamber--and I
thought even my mom wasn't watching on C-SPAN--I walked out of this
place and I got a phone call on my cell phone and it was Joe Biden,
then a Senator, saying ``that was a really great speech.''
When you came to my State and one of my best friends suddenly lost
her husband and you heard about it, you did not know who she was, you
just heard the story, and in 2 weeks, on her first day back at work,
she was driving home and she got a call from you. You talked to her for
20 minutes. When you were done and had given her all this wonderful
advice, you said: We are not done; I want you to write down my phone
number.
She said: I am driving, Mr. Vice President; I can't do that.
You said: Pull over.
She wrote your phone number on her hand. You did that for her, Mr.
Vice President, and you have done that for so many Americans. On behalf
of our entire State of Minnesota that has loved you forever, thank you.
I yield the floor.
The VICE PRESIDENT. The Senator from Delaware.
Mr. CARPER. Mr. President, a few minutes ago, I sent up a note to you
that I handwrote that said: ``Flattery won't hurt you if you don't
inhale, so don't breathe too deeply up there.''
I also recall walking into a hearing with EPA Administrator Gina
McCarthy not too long ago in the House of Representatives, a joint
House-Senate hearing. A lot of people had been there asking questions,
and she was in the seat for 4 hours. It finally became my turn to ask a
question, and I said to her: Is there any question, Administrator
McCarthy, that you have not been asked today? She said: I wish somebody
had asked me if I needed a bathroom break.
There are 30 more Senators in the cloakroom who want to come out and
speak. If you need one, let us know and one of the pages or somebody
will take your spot up there.
It has been a joy to sit here and listen to all these stories. John
Carney, our Congressman, Governor-elect, has been here and come and
gone. He has gone back to the House to go into session. He used to work
for you, and you are one of his great mentors. He wants you to know he
was here, in case you didn't.
I want to say to Chris Coons, who put this all together, making
possible a wonderful tribute, this is the Senate at its best. It is
wonderful to see some of our still young colleagues who have come back
to visit us and to be with us on this special, special day.
Over the years, people have asked me why I have had some success in
my life, and I say that my sister and I picked the right parents. My
sister and I picked the right parents. Joe Biden and his brother and
sister picked the right parents. I have had the privilege of knowing
them both. When your dad was sick and in the hospital, I visited and
spent time with him, just the two of us.
[[Page 15980]]
Joe, I want to say for those who maybe didn't know your parents, they
valued education and made sure you got a good one, along with his
brother and sister. Val is up there somewhere. I want to say hi to Val.
They valued education and people of faith. I am Protestant, and Joe and
his family are Catholic, but he doesn't wear it on his sleeve. I will
tell you this, nobody believes in the Golden Rule of treating other
people the way you want to be treated any more than Joe Biden.
Nobody adheres to Matthew 25, the ``Least of These,'' any more than
Joe Biden. Nobody does a better reading of James 2: ``Show me your
faith by your words, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.'' He
doesn't just talk a good game. He doesn't talk a whole lot about his
faith, but he sure lives it.
From his family--from his mom and dad--he learned the importance of
family and the importance of loyalty to his family and, frankly, to his
friends--his multitude of friends. He learned there is a difference
between right and wrong and figure out what it is and do right. Do it
all the time.
He learned a little bit about common sense. My dad used to say to my
sister and me when we did some boneheaded stuff, just use some common
sense. I think your dad said that to you once or twice as well. One of
the things your mom used to say to you was, if you are knocked down,
get up--the idea you just never give up. You know you are right, never
give up. That is Joe Biden.
People say to us in this Chamber I am sure every day that they
wouldn't want our job. I wouldn't want your job. I know you heard that
a lot of times. I think we are fortunate to have these jobs and
responsibilities to serve. An even tougher job is to be married to one
of us. Several people talked about Jill and your bride--for how many
years? Almost 40 years. Is that possible? I first saw Jill Biden when I
was a graduate student when I was just out of the Navy. I was a
graduate student at the University of Delaware. I happened to see her
on campus. I thought then, and I would say now, one of the two
loveliest people I think I have ever seen. The other being Martha
Carper. Not only is she lovely--as Joe knows--on the outside, really
lovely on the inside. She is a person with deep caring, a person with
incredible warmth and compassion. She is a terrific educator. She
taught in our State in public schools. She taught in a hospital for
folks with special needs. She taught at Delaware Technical Community
College when it was selected as the best technical community college in
the Nation during the time that she was on the faculty there.
She continued as Second Lady to continue to critique, but she started
off in a place called Willow Grove, PA. There is a naval air station
there where I used to fly P-3 aircraft--mission commander--out of
there. I retired as a Navy captain in 1991. She was just down the road,
growing up with her four sisters, Jill Jacobs and the Jacobs girls. I
am sure they broke a lot of hearts.
In the case of Jill Biden, she helped to mend one. As much as
anybody, Val and your family are hugely supportive and helped you get
through a terribly tough time, but I think Jill perhaps made you whole.
She got her undergrad, I believe, from the University of Delaware. She
has two master's degrees--a Ph.D. focused on how to increase retention
in community colleges around the country. She got those advanced
degrees while working and raising a family, three kids that any of us
would be proud to claim as our own.
Last week, I happened to be in a classroom in a school where the Vice
President probably has been before, Mount Pleasant Elementary School,
right down the road from the high school. I was in a classroom of a
woman by the name of Wendy Turner, who is the Delaware Teacher of the
Year. I had a chance to be with her and her grade school kids. We all
gathered around together, and I sat on a stool. They gathered around
me. There were about 20, 25 kids. I said: Why is she such a great
teacher? Talking about Wendy Turner, Teacher of the Year.
They said: She loves kids. She loves us. They said: She knows her
stuff. She really knows what she is talking to us about. She knows how
to make clear why it is important, like when we leave school, and why
it is important we learn these things. She believes everybody can
learn--everybody can learn.
I thought about her, and I think about Jill Biden today. She is that
kind of educator as well, continues to be that kind of educator as
well.
A lot has been said today of the Cancer Moonshot that Joe has been
leading with great skill and success here, especially today. Before
there was Cancer Moonshot, there was Joe Biden's breast health
initiative, which helped thousands of young women to learn about the
importance of early detection for breast cancer.
Beau went into the military, Delaware National Guard, deployed to
Iraq. Some people would send cookies and packages to their kids and
maybe write emails or Skype with them. Jill decided she was going to
take that experience and create something with Delaware Boots on the
Ground to look out for families. Later on, as Second Lady, working with
Michelle Obama, she created something they called Joining Forces, which
focuses on education for military families--education, employment
opportunities, access to wellness services.
She even managed to write a book. She wrote a book from a child's
point of view of having a loved one in their family deployed overseas
in the military. As I said earlier, she helped raise three terrific
kids.
Sometimes I like to quote Maya Angelou, who sang at the second
inauguration of Barack Obama and Joe Biden, and she passed away not
long ago. Maya Angelou said something that I think is appropriate for
all of us today when she said: People may not remember what you said,
people may not remember what you do, but they will remember how you
made them feel. One of the threads through everything that has been
said here today really reminds me of what Maya Angelou said because
people may not remember what we said. They may not remember what we do,
but there are not just thousands, not just tens of thousands, not just
hundreds of thousands, but there are millions of people in this country
who will remember how you and Jill made them feel--cared for,
important, loved.
I know our Vice President likes music, and as a Boomer he later on
liked a British group. I forget what their Fab Four was called. I think
it might have been the Beatles, and maybe the best rock 'n' roll album
ever, ``Abbey Road,'' ends with these lyrics--the last part of Abbey
Road, side two, was largely written by Paul McCartney. The last words
on ``Abbey Road'' were these words: ``The love you take is equal to the
love you make.''
You are going to take a lot of love with you, and Jill as well, far
from here and for the rest of your lives. God bless you.
Mr. President--I have always wanted to call you Mr. President. With
that, Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The VICE PRESIDENT. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The VICE PRESIDENT. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I would like to invite all of my colleagues
to join us in a reception in honor of the Vice President. I remind any
colleagues who wish to speak who did not have the opportunity to submit
their comments for the Record, and I very much look forward to our
jointly presenting a bound copy to the Vice President.
Thank you for your service, and we look forward to hearing from you
at the reception.
With that, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The VICE PRESIDENT. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
[[Page 15981]]
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Lee). Without objection, it is so ordered.
Tribute to Departing Senators
Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, this is one of those weeks where, every 6
years or 4 years or 2 years, we pause and pay tribute to those who have
been elected to the Senate and have served with us and will be retiring
or were possibly defeated in the last election.
Kelly Ayotte
The first Senator I wish to talk about is Kelly Ayotte, from the
great State of New Hampshire. Kelly's departure from the Senate is a
great loss for all of us. I remember the day Kelly Ayotte became a
rising star, not only on the horizon of Republican politics but more
importantly on the horizon of the Senate.
During her campaign 6 years ago, we would get phone calls asking:
Have you heard about Kelly? Everybody knew who Kelly was. She was the
attorney general of the State of New Hampshire, running for the U.S.
Senate, and she was catching fire. She did catch fire and won in
convincing fashion. She is a great lady with a great family and has
done a phenomenal job.
Our U.S. Armed Forces are better today because of her efforts and
hard work. We passed the agreement to go to the final passage on the
authorization of the military appropriations today, and in large
measure, Kelly Ayotte was behind that. When we were debating our policy
on interrogation and torture, Kelly Ayotte was on top of that. Every
significant decision we have made in the last 6 months, whether it was
our military, policies, or process, she has been at the forefront of
those decisions and has done a phenomenal job.
I wish her the very best in her career and future, and I thank her
for the service she has given to our country.
As a son of the South, in Georgia we love New Hampshirites anytime we
can get one, and Kelly is the best. They have the best lobsters, the
best clams, and the best attorney general and Senator in Kelly Ayotte.
God bless you, Kelly, and best of luck to you.
Barbara Boxer
At this point, I wish to pause and pay attention to Barbara Boxer
from California. A lot of my colleagues will say: Wait a minute. Why
are you talking about Barbara Boxer? You are a Republican. She is an
icon in the Democratic Party. She is a liberal, and you are a
conservative.
She is a great Senator, and I will tell you why. Barbara and I served
on the Ethics Committee for the last 9 years. When I was asked to go on
the committee, she was the chairman. Later on, I succeeded her as the
chairman. I am the chairman today, and she is still a member until she
retires.
The Ethics Committee is the one assignment nobody wants to get. But
when you get it, you want to have somebody who will do what is right.
Regardless of their party, you need somebody who will do what is right
for the Member, the institution, and will carry out their
responsibilities under the Constitution, which all of us are obligated
to do in the Senate.
In the last 9 years, I worked with Barbara Boxer on any number of
complaints, allegations, and cases against Members of the Senate for
unethical conduct or conduct unbecoming of a Senator. We have
admonished some, cleared some, and recommended the expulsion of some,
and some have resigned because of our investigation. I take no pride in
anyone leaving the Senate because of the actions of the committee, but
I take great pride in the fact that no one in 9 years has questioned
the integrity of the Senate Ethics Committee, the job it has done, or
the final decision it has made, and I give most of the credit for that
to Barbara Boxer. She is a liberal Democrat, and I am a conservative
Republican, but when it comes to calling balls and strikes in terms of
ethics, we call them down the middle. That is a credit to the
institution, a credit to her, and a credit to the Ethics Committee.
At this moment, I want to pause and say to my retiring friend Barbara
Boxer: Thank you for your service to the country, thank you for what
you have meant to the State of California, and thank you for what you
have meant to the institution of the Senate and the commitment to
ethical behavior by our Members. Thank you for making it a standard
that you and I stood for. It was a pleasure for me to serve with you
and be called one of the members of the odd couple. Isakson and Boxer,
the two Senate chairs that love our country, are committed to ethics
and will always try to do what is exactly right.
God bless you, Barbara. Best of luck to you.
I yield the floor.
Hurricane Matthew Recovery
Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, about a month and a half ago, I came into
this Chamber to talk about the damage that occurred in the aftermath of
Hurricane Matthew. It was actually 2 months ago to the day that
Hurricane Matthew hit eastern North Carolina, and I don't think that
many people, unless you have been down there--even in the State, it is
hard to really conceive of the extent of damage that Matthew caused,
even for people in my part of the State, the middle part of the State,
Charlotte, so I know it is difficult for those who may be in other
States and did not see the local news coverage. Matthew took 28 lives.
It displaced tens of thousands of people in the near term, and now
thousands of people are still without homes. It damaged businesses and
infrastructure. Miles of Interstate 95 were underwater. Bridges have
been washed out. We have a lot of damage we have to recover from.
We have one community that was washed away by Hurricane Floyd and was
washed away again just about 17 years later with Hurricane Matthew,
neighborhoods completely underwater. I was in Fayetteville. There was a
Habitat for Humanity neighborhood that had 90 homes. Six of the houses
are uninhabitable now. They were in areas that were not flood plains.
This was a 1,000-year rain event, a 500-year flood event. In other
words, this is not likely to happen again in our lifetime, maybe not
even in the pages' lifetimes.
It was an incredible event that is going to take a lot of time and
effort to recover from and a lot of resources to rebuild. We are still
trying to tally the human and economic toll. It is going to take
probably decades to fully recover from this disaster, as we are seeing
with Floyd, but we will recover because that is what North Carolinians
do. That is what Americans do.
To begin the long rebuilding process, though, we need Federal
assistance. That is why Gov. Pat McCrory formally requested a disaster
assistance package and why we very quickly got a team together--my
staff, who led the effort, working with Congressman Price, members of
the delegation, Senator Burr--to try to figure out what we need to do
to provide assistance to North Carolina so that they can begin their
recovery. Over the past weeks, we have worked very closely with the
Appropriations Committee.
I want to particularly thank the leadership of the Appropriations
Committee. They have done an extraordinary job of working with us,
advising us on what we need to do to make our requests clear, to make
it more likely that we would be able to get some resources for North
Carolina.
I specifically want to thank two of my staff who have worked very
hard. They were literally working on the disaster plan after the rains
fell and before the rivers started cresting. I want to thank Towers
Mingledorff and Kayla Dolan from my office. They did extraordinary
work. I am proud of the work they have done on our behalf and on behalf
of North Carolinians. At the end of the day, we now have a continuing
resolution as a result of their hard work and cooperation with the
Appropriations Committee. We have a provision in the continuing
resolution to allocate some $300 million to North Carolina for
immediate needs to assist in recovery efforts. This is a beginning. We
will continue to work with the Federal agencies which that money will
be directed to and then ultimately down to the State so that we can
find out what additional needs are there.
I think it is extraordinary that 8 weeks to the day, we were able to
work
[[Page 15982]]
together, get the support of the Members of this body, and get the
support of the Appropriations Committee to at least begin the process.
We have to help these North Carolinians get back to their normal lives.
We have to put people back in their homes. We have to allow businesses
to recover and bring people back in and let them go back to their daily
lives and working. We are going to do it.
We also need to help the farmers. There are thousands of acres of
land that were affected by the floods. In some cases, the flooding was
so extensive that these farms--many of them were already ready for next
year's crops. Some of them still have crops in the field, covered by
sand and sediment. They will need to be cleared.
In other cases, there are washed-out bridges, and there are ditches
and drainage areas that will all have to be cleared out so that we can
get the ninth largest agriculture State in the Nation ready to produce
crops next year.
I know we will do it. I know we will do it because we have the
support of this body, and we are going to be able to start sending that
money and that desperately needed support to North Carolina. But in the
coming weeks and months, we will also spend time figuring out what more
we can do. In the meantime, I want to let everybody in North Carolina
know that if they need help, they should contact my office. They can
reach me online at tillis.senate.gov. We will do everything we can to
help them recover and to get back to their daily lives.
Again, I thank the Members of this body who have supported our
efforts to provide this much-needed aid.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Illinois.
DACA
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I want to introduce the Senate to a young
man I met last Friday. His name is Luke Hwang. Luke was born in Korea.
His parents brought him to the United States when he was in the fifth
grade. They took him to New Jersey. Luckily he had taken some classes
in Korea and was able to speak English. He grew up in Palisades Park.
He said:
It didn't take me long to adjust and assimilate because my
elementary school offered bilingual classes. . . . This is
the kind of America I have known and experienced--not just
mundanely accepting diversity but going above and beyond to
serve the unique needs of a diverse community.
This is an amazing young man. He started off with a passion for
science. He was accepted into the math and science magnet school called
Bergen County Academies, ranked by Newsweek as one of the top five
public high schools in the United States. At Bergen County Academies,
Luke won several awards at regional science fairs. He volunteered as an
emergency medical technician in the local ambulance corps as a high
school kid.
Because of his academic achievements, Luke was accepted as a
university scholar in the Macaulay Honors College at the City College
of New York. In 2013 Luke graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor's
of science in chemistry. He received an award for the highest grade
point average of any chemistry major in the school.
This brilliant young man is currently a Ph.D. candidate in chemistry
at the University of Chicago. He works as a researcher at the
university. In his spare time, he volunteers for the Chicago Korean
American Resource and Cultural Center, an organization that tries to
help poor people in that community.
Here is the kicker: Luke is undocumented. He was brought to the
United States in the fifth grade and turned out to be one of the
smartest chemistry students in his high school, in his college, and now
in his graduate program.
When I met him last Friday--he is a very quiet fellow--I said: What
do you want to do, Luke?
He said: I want to teach. That is what I would like to do, research
and teaching.
Well, here is the problem: He is undocumented. He is not legally in
the United States of America. His family brought him here. They did not
file the papers, or if they could have, they did not file the papers.
Whatever the case, this young man grew up here in the United States,
took advantage of the best schools in New Jersey, and now is going to
one of the best universities in the United States and is destined to do
great things in his life. Maybe he will teach. Maybe he will start a
company. Maybe he will just come up with some breakthrough achievement
in chemistry that will change the lives of many people.
What are we going to do with Luke Hwang? Well, there are 744,000
people just like him. These are young people who are undocumented, whom
President Obama gave a chance to stay here in the United States after
they went through a criminal background check, after they paid their
filing fee.
He said: You can stay and study in the United States of America. We
won't deport you. You can travel to another country and come back
without being arrested. You can work in this country if you wish. You
have a work permit.
There are 744,000 of them under what is called the DACA Program.
Well, the new President says he is going to eliminate that program and
eliminate the only thing that is keeping Luke Hwang in the United
States; that is, the DACA Program protection against deportation. We
can't let that happen. Why would we do that to this young man who was
brought here as a fifth grader? Why would we walk away from his
talents? Why would we say: Despite all that you have achieved with the
highest grade point average in chemistry, America does not need you,
Luke. Of course we need him and many more just like him.
I am trying to find a way to give people like him a chance to stay in
the United States without being deported, to continue their education
in medical school, in law school, in graduate programs, and in so many
other different fields. Well, there was a breath of hope today. The
President-elect was interviewed for Time magazine. Here is what he said
about DREAMers and people like Luke:
We're going to work something out that's going to make
people happy and proud. They got brought here at a very young
age, they've worked here, they've gone to school here. Some
were good students. Some have wonderful jobs. And they're in
never-never land because they don't know what's going to
happen.
That statement by the President-elect gives me some hope that I can
give Luke some hope and others just like him.
We can straighten out this immigration system in this country, but
let's not do it at the expense of these young people. Let's do our job,
but in the meantime, let's us protect them. Let's let them continue
their education. Let's let them achieve what they want to achieve for
themselves and for America. We will be a better nation for it.
Senator Lindsey Graham and I are working on a bill. Whether you are
for immigration reform or against immigration reform, join us in the
basic proposition that we need to protect young people like this while
we debate this important issue. I think that is the right to do. It is
certainly the right thing to do for this young man. Some day, he is
going to do something very important in this world. I would like to
have it happen in the United States.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. ROUNDS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Tillis). Without objection, it is so
ordered.
Regulatory Reform
Mr. ROUNDS. Mr. President, I rise today to speak on the need for
regulatory reform and also on the work that we have been doing and are
doing in the Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Superfund,
Waste Management, and Regulatory Oversight, of which I have had the
great privilege to chair in the 114th Congress.
[[Page 15983]]
I would be remiss if I did not also recognize our ranking member from
Massachusetts, Senator Markey, for his contributions to our oversight
efforts.
As chairman, one of our main goals has been to conduct a thorough and
systemic review of the regulatory process, focusing on the impacts of
these regulations on citizens, businesses, and--most importantly--
solutions to these problems. We have sought to make certain that
Federal regulations are promulgated in a transparent, open process with
adequate public participation. Our subcommittee has held hearings
conducting oversight on various aspects of the rulemaking process. This
includes the adequacy of the science the agencies rely on when
promulgating regulations, the increasing number of unfunded mandates
agencies impose on State and local governments, the impact of lawsuits
on the rulemaking process, and the impact these regulations have on
small businesses, State and local governments, and landowners.
Since I began working in the Senate nearly 2 years ago, it has become
increasingly clear that economic growth, American innovation, and job
creation are being smothered by heavy-handed Federal regulations
imposed by Washington bureaucrats who think they know what is best for
American families, States, local governments, and businesses.
According to the American Action Forum, since 2009 this
administration has finalized 2,973 regulations at a cost of $862.7
billion dollars as of today, December 7.
Of these, 179 regulations have come from the Environmental Protection
Agency, costing American taxpayers $342.5 billion.
Since writing this speech--or beginning to write it, about 1 week
ago--10 more regulations have been finalized, with 5 of those coming
from the EPA. EPA regulations alone make up nearly half of the cost of
all the regulations finalized in the last 7 years.
As chairman of the EPW Subcommittee on Superfund, Waste Management,
and Regulatory Oversight, it has become clear to me that EPA is one of
the most egregious government agencies in imposing burdensome Federal
regulations on citizens, States, and businesses. We have found a
failure to review the most current and important science the Agency
supposedly bases its regulations on.
We have found that the sue-and-settle process utilized by special
interest groups leads to a rushed and reckless rulemaking process that
does not follow the proper regulatory process or allow for adequate
public participation from those these rules will impact the most.
Further, the EPA regularly fails to take into account how their
regulations will impact States and shows little regard for how the
States will use their limited resources to comply with these
regulations, thereby issuing rules that impose Federal unfunded
mandates on States and local and tribal governments.
From 2009 to 2015, the EPA issued a total of 19 rules that contained
costly, unfunded mandates on State governments.
The Office of Management and Budget's 2015 report to Congress
estimated that Federal regulations and unfunded mandates cost States,
cities, and the general public between $57 billion and $85 billion
every single year. State and local governments are then required to
enforce these misguided regulations that have been promulgated by
Washington bureaucrats who lack any understanding of the real-world
consequences of their regulations or the unique characteristics of the
various States.
Alarmingly, we have also found that the EPA regularly fails to
conduct a thorough and accurate economic analysis, which should provide
an accurate representation of the cost their regulations will impose on
taxpayers and businesses.
This leads to grossly inaccurate economic analysis of regulations
that affect huge swathes of the U.S. economy and thousands of U.S.
businesses and American jobs.
A 2014 report from the Government Accountability Office found that on
multiple occasions and with major costly regulations, the EPA did not
provide the public with an explanation of the economic information
behind its decisionmaking, despite its obligations to do so.
The U.S. Supreme Court recently issued the Michigan v. EPA decision,
finding that the EPA unreasonably failed to consider costs when
deciding to regulate mercury emissions from powerplants. This impacts
the ability of our businesses to conduct business on a daily basis, to
compete in a competitive global marketplace, and to employ Americans in
steady, well-paying jobs. Notably, small businesses make up 99.7
percent of U.S. employer firms.
Federal agencies are required by law to examine the impact of their
regulations and what it will have on small businesses. Throughout our
oversight process, we found that the U.S. Small Business Administration
Office of Advocacy submitted comments to the EPA expressing concerns
over a number of recent rulemakings, such as the waters of the United
States rule and the EPA's greenhouse gas regulations.
However, the EPA moved forward with these regulations with little to
no regard for their impact on U.S. small businesses. They are the
backbone of the U.S. economy.
As a result, rather than creating jobs and focusing on growing their
business, U.S. small businesses are forced to use limited resources to
comply with a myriad of costly and burdensome regulations.
This year alone, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals imposed a
nationwide injunction on the waters of the United States rule, and the
Supreme Court imposed a nationwide stay on the Clean Power Plan. While
I applaud these decisions, we should not be forced to rely on the
courts to prevent such regulations from taking effect.
I am also deeply troubled by the reports that the EPA and the Army
Corps are illegally continuing to implement the Waters of the United
States rule despite the court's nationwide stay.
During our subcommittee field hearings in Rapid City, SD, earlier
this year, we heard from several witnesses about the difficulty and
confusion landowners are facing with regard to the waters of the United
States. I am concerned that, if this continues, it may get to the point
where the property that is the subject of these burdensome regulations
loses its value.
Make no mistake. I understand that rules and regulations have a place
in society. We all want clean air, clean water, and safe chemicals, but
there is a better way to achieve this without imposing burdensome
regulations. These flaws in the EPA's rulemaking process have prevented
agencies from making well-informed decisions. Even more troubling, the
public, State and local governments, and American businesses are
prevented from understanding the need, basis for, and the real impact
of regulations.
This regulatory quagmire did not happen overnight. It comes from
decades of increased Federal bureaucracy, out-of-control spending, and
Federal agencies not being held accountable for their actions.
Similarly, we will not come to a solution overnight. It will take a
serious bipartisan effort to move the ball forward to address this
problem. Throughout this Congress, the goal of our subcommittee has
been to unify and lead an effort to advance meaningful regulatory
reform in Congress.
We must make certain the regulatory process reflects transparency and
sound science and is based on a realistic economic foundation and
meaningful public participation that considers the multitude of facets
of the U.S. economy.
With an ally in the White House next year who has committed to
reducing burdensome regulations, I plan to continue this effort
throughout the next Congress and beyond. The success of the U.S.
economy and the creation of American jobs depends on Congress making a
concerted effort to take back their authority and rein in the
rulemaking process.
I thank you, and I yield the floor.
[[Page 15984]]
Mr. INHOFE. Will the Senator yield?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oklahoma.
Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, if the Senator from South Dakota would
rescind his request to yield the floor, I would like to share one
thought.
First of all, I am honored to chair the committee of which you are a
subcommittee chairman, and what a Godsend the Senator from South Dakota
has been, I have to say to my friend. I was concerned, with this last
election coming along, with what might be happening. I think people are
aware of what has happened to our military. They are aware of what is
happening with the debt going all the way up from $10.6 trillion to $20
trillion, the largest increase of all the Presidents, from George
Washington, Bush 1, and Bush 2.
My concern was that people wouldn't realize what an impairment the
overregulation has been to our businesses in how we are no longer
competitive. I think the Senator really struck the note here that it
had a lot to do with the awareness of the public.
The Senator knows how many hearings we had on the Clean Power Plan in
our committee, and the Senator's subcommittee. We actually had 10
hearings and we had three oversight reports.
I have to say the liberals really like overregulation. Does the
Senator know why? This is the question I want to ask the Senator
because, generally, if you are of a liberal philosophy, you want to
have as much control centered here in Washington, DC. However, when you
get home and they get complaints about overregulation, what this is
costing them, they then say: Well, that is not the case now because I
had nothing to do with it. That was the regulation.
That is what we are in the midst of right now.
I have a friend who is the head of the Oklahoma Farm Bureau who came
to me and he said: Have you seen this document that we have? This is
true in South Dakota as well as Oklahoma, that the major problem with
the farmers in America today is not anything that is found in the
agriculture bill, it is overregulation, primarily by the EPA. The
Senator from South Dakota struck a nerve when he spoke about the waters
bill, the Waters of the United States. My State is an arid State, but
they know full well if the Federal Government can take away from States
that jurisdiction of regulating water, what will happen in my State of
Oklahoma?
So I would ask my friend--I think a lot of what happened on November
8 has to do with overregulation, and I think we have devoted a lot of
time to that. I would suspect the same thing is true in South Dakota.
Mr. ROUNDS. I thank the Senator for the question. The answer is, yes,
we have spent a lot of time not only because it is critically a very
important item to address--because in the United States today we spend
over $1.9 trillion a year responding to the Federal regulatory morass
that we have. That is one-half of a trillion dollars more than what we
pay in personal income taxes on April 15.
For people who are producers and have to respond not only in terms of
the cost of the regulations but in terms of requesting from a Federal
agency the ability simply to mow the ditches, seems to me to be
overreach that most people with common sense and the rest of America
simply don't think is necessary.
Mr. INHOFE. And, too, I would say the wisdom of the statements
brought out that if we stop and think about it, over half of the States
had a lawsuit against the Clean Power Plan. That is 29 States. Of
course, I am sure that had a lot to do with the U.S. Supreme Court
putting a stay on this, and now of course we will have a different
administration, but I guess maybe we missed the boat on that one.
Overregulation has been the problem. People have not been as aware of
that as they are of other problems. I think that had a lot to do with
what happened on November 8 and what is going to happen in the future,
particularly in your subcommittee and my committee.
Mr. ROUNDS. Mr. President, I appreciate those comments, and I
appreciate the facts that the Senator is bringing out here. This is
something that cannot be done overnight; it has to be done in a
businesslike manner.
The real challenge is to listen to the individuals who are impacted
and to make reasonable regulations because we all want to make sure we
have a clean America but also an America that can get back to business
again employing people, putting them back to work. Then we can begin
building the economy so we can afford to actually provide for the next
generation so they don't have the problems we see right now with family
income down over 6 percent in just the last 9 years.
So this is a part of it. It is a significant part not just in the
cost but in the impact on our economy as well.
I thank the Chair, and I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oregon.
Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in
morning business, and I ask unanimous consent that our distinguished
colleague from Colorado, Senator Bennet, follow my remarks.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
Without objection, it is so ordered.
Family First Legislation
Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, right now, this evening, hundreds of
thousands of vulnerable youngsters across America are living in foster
care, separated from family and growing up in a constant struggle
instead of in a loving home. For years, this body has worked on a
bipartisan basis to come up with an alternative--we call it the Family
First legislation--in order to give new hope to our youngsters.
I am particularly grateful to Senator Bennet because he and I have
teamed up on this with our colleagues on the other side of the aisle,
including Chairman Hatch, Kevin Brady--the chairman of the Ways and
Means Committee--and Congressman Buchanan. We have had a bipartisan
team working for this. Now, in the waning moments of this Congress,
after the legislation passed the House unanimously, after there were a
number of hearings in the Finance Committee, and after objections were
raised when we used the process in the Senate called the hotline to see
if Senators had problems with this legislation and three indicated they
had concerns, and we resolved all of them--yet it looks like this
Senate is going to go home and end up continuing a policy that causes
so much pain to vulnerable children and their families.
What our bipartisan bill would do is to say that for the first time,
foster care dollars could be used to keep families together instead of
ripping them apart. For example, if in a family a parent has bumped up
against substance abuse challenges or mental health services and a
grandparent or an uncle would like to help out, that is exactly what
could be done under our proposal.
Now, over Thanksgiving--and I truncated the description of what
happened into just a couple of sentences--over Thanksgiving, the Family
First Act was included in the 21st Century Cures package. The
legislation passed earlier today. And all of us--Senator Bennet,
Chairman Brady--all of us said together that it sure looks like we are
on our way.
After having months to come forward to work out concerns--and I will
say to the distinguished Presiding Officer who has been kind enough to
talk to me about this, we basically said that if a State is having
problems meeting these kinds of opportunities--perhaps there aren't
enough families--well, we just give them more time. In effect, we would
say: OK. You have made a good-faith effort, we will give you a bit more
time. But still, at the last moment, there was opposition that swooped
in--opposition that really hadn't registered any specific concerns
during those years and months in which we worked on this legislation.
At the eleventh hour, the Family First Act was stripped out of the
Cures package. That is why I voted no.
By dropping Families First, the Senate basically is sending a message
today to the most vulnerable, neglected children in America that it is
[[Page 15985]]
just fine with us if they just wait a little bit longer. They probably
are saying: Well, where else do we look for help? By the way, there
aren't a lot of places because Chairman Brady, Chairman Buchanan,
Congressman Levin, the other part of the Capitol, did a terrific job
coming together. So when those families who have been neglected go
looking for somebody else to help, when the House has done its job and
the administration is with you, there is only the U.S. Senate. I am
curious whether anybody is going to come here tonight and say they are
not on the side of the neglected youngsters and families whom Senator
Bennet and I want to stand up for.
So I am going to just make a couple of additional comments and then
turn this over to Senator Bennet.
The Family First Act reaches out to the families who are struggling
with addiction to opioids or other substances, it helps with programs
that fight child abuse and neglect, and it also makes it a special
priority to set basic standards for foster care facilities and group
homes. I want to emphasize that point just for a moment. Some troubled
or abused youngsters have been through such severe trauma that they
need the kind of help you can only get in a temporary, high-quality
treatment facility. They are kids who are struggling with mental
illnesses and behavioral problems, young people suffering from
addiction, victims of sex trafficking. The support they need is unique
and they need access to reliable care in a safe place.
But these kinds of placements shouldn't be a destination; they should
really be an intervention. And whenever we can, we need to make it
possible for the kids to have the opportunity to reunite with kin or
join a foster or adoptive family.
For the first time, our bill laid down a roadmap so youngsters don't
have to face the prospect of growing up in the kinds of struggling
circumstances I have described. There would be standards guided by the
States and laid out to protect the kids. They would raise the bar for
group homes and make sure the kids aren't sent away and forgotten. In
effect, the bill turns the system on its head. I think I shared that
thought with the distinguished Presiding Officer. Instead of paying a
dollar for families to be split up, the bill says let's find a way to
use that dollar to help the families stay together. Let's see if the
dollar can keep a youngster safe at home or with kin, where he or she
is most likely to be healthy and happy and succeed in school.
The bill has 28 bipartisan cosponsors in the Senate.
I also want to thank Chairman Grassley because he has been in our
corner, along with Senator Bennet and Chairman Hatch, month after month
after month. I hope we can work this out overnight so Families First
can pass; if not tonight, in the morning. It is the right policy for
vulnerable kids. It is the right policy for families, the right policy
for taxpayers. What we are doing today isn't helping vulnerable kids
and families the way it ought to.
Five hundred organizations, led by the pediatricians, nurse
practitioners, the Catholic bishops, and the Children's Defense Fund,
all agree with our basic premise: try to find ways to keep families
together and only look for something else where you have those
extraordinary circumstances where you need another kind of care. The
status quo is not working, and it seems to me we have a choice. We have
a choice tonight and in the morning, with the 114th Congress wrapping
up, closing the books, packing up, heading home for the holiday
season--let's make sure before that wrap-up is finished that we haven't
forgotten vulnerable children and families.
With that, I yield the floor.
I note by virtue of unanimous consent that Senator Bennet has
recognition. He has been an invaluable colleague, a terrific member of
the Finance Committee, and I appreciate his leadership.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Colorado.
Mr. BENNET. Mr. President, I will be brief.
I want to thank Mr. Wyden, the Senator from Oregon and the ranking
member of the Finance Committee, for his leadership on this bill. I
thank, as he did, Senator Hatch for his leadership on this bill and
Senator Grassley for his leadership on this bill.
As the Senator from Oregon indicated, this bill passed unanimously in
the House of Representatives. This bill passed with 500 groups
supporting the bill from every geographic area in the United States.
There are groups from Oregon. There are groups from Colorado. There are
groups from the Presiding Officer's State that have weighed in on this
and said we should have this legislation passed. We have had testimony
in the Finance Committee from people who were foster children who came
to the Congress to testify about what had gone wrong in their lives as
a result of the system we have in place today, who still made the time
to come here to advocate on behalf of children all over the country who
are situated in the same way they once were.
Now, because of a disagreement in the Senate, this bipartisan bill
that passed the House unanimously, that has almost 30 cosponsors in the
U.S. Senate, a bill that was supported universally by the testimony we
had in the Finance Committee, somehow can't get done before we leave
for the holidays. That would be a terrible shame, a terrible stain on
this Senate.
Tonight there are 5,000 children in Colorado who are in foster care.
There are over 650,000 children in the United States of America. What
we have heard from them, what we have heard from their advocates, what
we have heard from people who serve them--Republicans and Democrats
alike--is that the institutional settings that too many of them are
consigned to because of the way the law is written today is not the
best thing for foster children; that families who can support them and
who can nurture them, when they get the benefit of some help, are a far
better place for foster children to be than these institutions. When it
comes to drug addiction, when it comes to graduation rates from high
school, when it comes to attending college--all of these things are
affected by the way the current law exists.
The Presiding Officer may know that half of the cases of foster
children in the United States are related, one way or another, to the
scourge of opium addiction that is happening in the United States. This
bill allows us to recognize that. It allows the people who serve the
children and the families best to be able to intervene in a way that
can keep the families together longer. What we know from the testimony
in the hearings is that is the best thing for foster kids, it is the
best thing for our States, and it is the best thing for the country.
So I join my colleague from Oregon in saying we should not go home
with this unresolved. We should not go home, with the kind of momentum
that exists for this bill inside the Congress and, much more important
than that, outside the Congress, without having addressed this
vulnerable population of people who live in the United States.
It is my fervent hope that we in the Senate will find a way to come
to our senses and do our job, just as the people who came here to
testify did their job, expecting that the U.S. Congress would respond
to their description of their life experience, and what went wrong in a
foster care setting has been established by the U.S. Congress. It is up
to us to fix it, and that is what we can do tonight or tomorrow
morning, I hope, at the very latest.
With that, Mr. President, I thank my colleague from Oregon for his
leadership on this bill. I thank, once again, the thoughtful chairman
of the Finance Committee, Orrin Hatch from Utah, for his leadership on
this bill, and I hope over the next 12 or 24 hours we find a way to get
this through the Senate.
Mr. President, I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
[[Page 15986]]
Mr. CRUZ. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Pearl Harbor Day and Foreign Policy
Mr. CRUZ. Mr. President, on this Pearl Harbor Day, we should learn
the lessons of the past and seize new opportunities for America and
Asia and beyond. The great lesson of Pearl Harbor--and more broadly
World War II--was America's commitment to utterly defeat our enemies by
whatever means necessary and then, when victory was secure, to bring
them back into the community of civilized nations.
It was an extraordinary achievement. To think that if, on December 7,
1941, I were to tell you that Japan would be, on December 7, 2016, a
staunchly democratic ally, a vital security and economic partner to the
United States, you would have said that I was barking mad.
Here we are, three-quarters of a century later, and the day of infamy
has become a day of remembrance, reflection, and above all gratitude--
gratitude for that greatest of generations who answered the call to
service after Pearl Harbor, who stood staunchly with our allies, looked
the evil of the axis squarely in the eyes, and saved the free world.
They are leaving us now, making it all the more important that we
assure each and every one of them of our boundless thanks while we
still can. Indeed, I would encourage each and every one of us to thank
every veteran we know, every veteran we encounter, every man and woman
serving this country who risks their lives to keep us safe.
We can also find much to be thankful for today as what had seemed
unthinkable has come to pass. A nation that brutally attacked us 75
years ago today can now be a great and good friend. It is a tribute to
both the Japanese and the American people that we have been able to not
ignore or whitewash the past but to learn from it and come to the
understanding that we are so much stronger as allies than as
adversaries.
As a Texan, I am personally appreciative of the fruits of this
alliance. We host a range of Japanese companies who have invested in
our State, with Toyota, for example, building its new North American
headquarters in Plano this year and creating some 4,000 new jobs, all
in Texas. Also this year, the Lockheed Martin plant in Fort Worth has
started to produce the F-35s that Japan is purchasing to bolster its
defenses against increasing regional aggression from China and North
Korea.
So against all odds, the attack on Pearl Harbor has been transformed,
and as we face great challenges around the world, and particularly in
Asia, we can be grateful today to have our Japanese friends standing by
our side, which is yet another lesson from the post-World War II era to
be on the lookout not just for challenges and dangers but for
unexpected opportunities. We might be forgiven as we contend with
hostile nations with nuclear capability or intent--nations such as
North Korea or Iran--to see a glass half empty and become consumed with
fears of another Pearl Harbor-like attack potentially so much more
catastrophic and deadly than the one in 1941.
That would be a mistake. As with some of the fortitude our parents
and grandparents showed, we can now count new allies as our partners,
not just Japan but also--and equally stunningly--Germany. The list does
not end there. We have Israel, which had yet to be born in 1941, not to
mention the eastern and central European countries that languished so
long under Soviet domination but now are helping build enduring
democracies, many of which have joined NATO.
That is simply amazing. If I had told you even 30 years ago that
there would be a Czech Republic or a Republic of Poland that would be
key NATO allies, I would have again been met with well-founded
skepticism. But they are, and as we look forward to a new American
administration, it is my hope that we can get off on a much better foot
than the last one did in the region when they canceled the missile
defense installations intended for those countries, squandering an
opportunity to link them more closely to us.
I have to say I am encouraged in this department by the activities of
the President-elect, particularly in terms of the congratulatory phone
call he received last week from the President of the Republic of China,
Tsai Ing-wen. The liberal foreign policy elites were, of course,
shocked and appalled. How, they wonder, could the President-elect have
committed such an appalling gaff? Wasn't he aware we had degraded our
relationship with Taiwan for more than 35 years and no longer
recognized this friendly, prosperous, and democratic country as a
nation state? Compounding their consternation was the concern that the
People's Republic of China might not like it. Quelle horreur. The
Chinese might not like it.
Now, to be fair, given the flaming train wreck that is the Obama
foreign policy writ large, our relationship with the PRC is, by
comparison, a bright spot. All they have done is throw Mr. Obama's
successor as Nobel Peace laureate, Liu Xiaobo, into prison, constructed
3,000 acres of weaponized artificial islands in the middle of one of
the world's busiest shipping lanes, and utterly failed to contain North
Korea, while dismantling the last vestiges of freedom in Hong Kong.
Even so, I don't think our President-elect needs to clear his phone
calls with Beijing. The phone call between President Tsai and the new
American President was, in fact, an acknowledgement of a simple truth:
that Taiwan has become an important friend to the United States, even
after Jimmy Carter downgraded them in 1979 in acknowledgement of the
``One China'' policy the elites are so eager to perpetuate.
That is another thing. Just because a policy is old doesn't make it
sacrosanct. I don't think anyone here can honestly say our relations
with the PRC is so fantastic that we shouldn't do anything to rock the
boat. I don't think the Carter-era foreign policy was such a success
that we should unquestionably continue it.
I hope the President-elect continues to make clear that while he
understands the importance of China and looks forward to a positive
relationship with Beijing, he is not going to ignore our friends in the
region.
The call between President Tsai and the President-elect reminded me
of another phone call which took place in September of 2013. At the end
of that year's United Nations General Assembly in New York, while
driving to the airport, the new President of the Islamic Republic of
Iran, Hasan Ruhani, took out his cell phone and called President Obama.
The Obama administration was in a tizzy of excitement over Mr. Ruhani's
election, as they believed him to be a ``moderate'' who would be a
good-faith partner in their planned and hoped-for negotiations over
Iran's nuclear program. Even at this early day, the signs were not
promising. Despite Mr. Obama's offers, President Ruhani had refused to
have a face-to-face meeting at the United Nations, opting for a call
instead. There were no preconditions placed on this first direct
exchange between an Iranian and American leader since 1979, such as,
say, demanding that the Iranians release their American hostages and
acknowledging Israel's right to exist--steps that would have indicated
a fundamental shift in Iran's virulent hostility to the United States
and our allies and suggested we were truly on a new path.
We all know what has happened over the last 3 years as the Obama
administration made concession after concession to get a deal--any
deal--with Tehran. Even as Iranian belligerence and hostility had
grown, as they have tested ballistic missiles, violated the Joint
Comprehensive Plan of Action, detained our citizens, and repeatedly
threatened to wipe Israel off the map, Mr. Obama has over and over
again proffered his hand in friendship, even sending them $1.7 billion
in cash as a sweetener, all of which may well result, as I said
earlier, in a terrible threat to the United States that could dwarf
Pearl Harbor.
In closing, I want to leave you with a message of hope. Our
friendship with Japan, as well as Germany, Israel, the Czech Republic,
and Poland, makes me hopeful. There is a discrete reason
[[Page 15987]]
these nations are now aligned allies: the persistence and resolve of
American leadership--leadership to discern moral from immoral, freedom
from tyranny, right from wrong, life from death, and then to fight for
the right. Such leadership has been sorely lacking in the past 8 years.
Yet the past month affords ample reason for hope.
Quite frankly, I think talking to President Tsai and not to President
Ruhani was a material improvement for the national security interests
of the United States, and it demonstrates renewed resolve to once more
assume the mantle of leadership. That is enough to make all of us
hopeful.
With that, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Sullivan). The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Unanimous Consent Request--H.R. 5456
Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, in a moment, I am going to ask unanimous
consent to pass the bipartisan Family First Act, to help the hundreds
of thousands of vulnerable children and their parents stay together and
make the biggest improvement in child welfare policy in decades and
decades in America.
Right now, Federal policy says taxpayer money can be used to split
families apart and uproot the family home. With Families First, our
bipartisan bill, terrific work has been done by so many Members on both
sides of the aisle. Senator Bennet was here and gave an eloquent
address about how important this is. With Chairman Hatch, Chairman
Grassley, and Chairman Brady, this has been a bipartisan effort for
months for a number of Members for close to 3 years.
With our reform, the Family First bill, families will finally see
that they will get some assistance to stay together and stay together
when it is safe to do so. If a parent can get a leg up with some help
if they face a drug addiction or a mental health problem, everybody
wins because the family stays together.
A grandparent can step in. One of the things I am proudest of is that
I wrote the kinship care law as part of welfare reform when I was a new
Member of this body. So we know that there are hundreds of thousands of
grandparents out there who could step in in those situations, or an
uncle, and they could get a little bit of help raising a youngster,
again, keeping the family together.
Sometimes foster care is lifesaving. I think all of us have said that
from the beginning. But it should not be the only option. That is what
kids who have been in the foster care system came to the Senate this
week to tell us. It is our job as policymakers to protect the most
vulnerable. Those kids don't have a powerful lobby. They don't have
deep pockets.
It just seems to me, as we wrap up this session and everyone here
goes back to their families and their holidays, that it is not in good
conscience to turn our backs on the foster kids and allow this
important bipartisan legislation to wither and to die in the last days
of the 114th Congress.
So in a moment I will make this unanimous consent request. I ask that
our colleagues end this standing in the way of providing a new measure
of hope for vulnerable kids and their families and that we help lift
the weight of this broken status quo--this broken status quo that falls
heaviest on the hundreds of thousands of foster kids living in a quiet
struggle every single day.
So at this time, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to
the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 527, H.R. 5456; that the
Wyden substitute amendment at the desk be agreed to; that the bill, as
amended, be read a third time and passed; and that the motion to
reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no
interviewing action or debate.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
The Senator from North Carolina.
Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, I was
wondering if I could direct a question through the Chair to the Senator
from West Virginia. I was curious as to whether or not the good
Senator, my friend and colleague, intends to object to this measure.
Mr. MANCHIN. To this measure? No, sir.
Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, I actually think Senator Wyden has done
some good work on this measure. I hope that we can get to a point where
we can bridge the gap and address some concerns that some of the
Members have in States that are concerned with unintended consequences.
But at this time, and for reasons unrelated to this measure but to our
inability to get other unanimous consents through, I am going to have
to object.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
The Senator from Oregon.
Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I will be very brief. As I have indicated
to our colleague from North Carolina--and he is new to the Senate--he
really brings a refreshing openness to these debates. I know this was a
new topic for him. He has not had a chance to hear a lot about it over
the last few years. He was concerned about what this would mean to
group facilities and group homes in his State.
I said: Look, if there is a problem in North Carolina in terms of
trying to meet these measures, we said we will give States more time.
We will give them more flexibility. I would just like to point out that
there seems to be enormous support across North Carolina with respect
to this bill because in North Carolina they seem to be saying that they
understand that what this legislation is all about--what Family First
is all about--is just getting high-quality care for these youngsters.
All of the providers would be eligible. It does not speak to the type
of provider. It is all the providers. So I am just going to wrap up by
a few quotes that came into the Finance Committee over the course of
this legislation. From the North Carolina Association of County
Directors of Social Services, which, as I understand, is the
association of entities that administer child welfare programs in the
State of North Carolina supports the legislation, we have a letter that
reads: ``We go on record as supporting the act and respectfully request
your support in passing this important legislation.''
The North Carolina Association of Social Workers supports the bill.
They wrote: ``The legislation would strengthen families so that more
children could remain safely with their parents and family caregivers
and avoid the need for foster care.'' For the overwhelming majority of
children, this North Carolina group says: This legislation could be a
lifesaver.
The North Carolina Pediatric Society writes:
The bill is a pivotal opportunity for a major Federal
policy shift away from placing children in out-of-home care
and toward keeping families together. Congregate care remains
one of the options on the continuum, and the bill doesn't
impose time limits or restrictions on the use of these
settings for children who need them. But the focus is on
keeping families together. The only changes this bill makes
for congregate care providers is raising the standards for
quality so that all children-needs settings benefit from the
therapeutic value of the best providers, of which we have
several in North Carolina.
So the Children's Home Society of North Carolina, Children's Hope
Alliance, the Exchange Family Center, Family Preservation Community
Services, and FIRST North Carolina--a number of groups, all based there
and serving in North Carolina citizens--have come out for this.
So I recognize that there has been an objection. It is my intention
to keep working through the night, through the early part of tomorrow.
I appreciate that this Senator from North Carolina has kept an open
mind on this. He has indicated in our conversations that he understands
that there is a lot of good in this bill, and for the reasons he has
stated, he cannot support it tonight and I gather reasons unrelated to
the bill.
I look forward to working with him. He has come to the Senate fairly
recently, but I have found him open and
[[Page 15988]]
accessible. That is all you can ask of a colleague.
With that I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Carolina.
Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, I appreciate the comments of the Senator
from Oregon. I may be new to the Senate, but I am not new to North
Carolina. I was speaker of the house for 4 years, and I worked with a
lot of the agencies that the Senator from Oregon referenced. But the
fact of the matter is that the first time I heard that these agencies
supported the bill was about 90 seconds ago.
This has not been fully vetted in the Senate. It sounds like it has a
lot of merit, but even having said that, this is not why I am objecting
to the bill. I am objecting at this time, in large part, because of a
number of other objections we are receiving that are not allowing
things that would otherwise move through unanimous consent.
Unanimous Consent Request--S. 2912
Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, on that note, I ask unanimous consent that
the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee be discharged from
further consideration of S. 2912, the Trickett Wendler Right to Try Act
of 2016, and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration. I ask
unanimous consent that the bill be read a third time and passed and the
motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
The Senator from West Virginia.
Mr. MANCHIN. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, I will
continue to object to any unanimous consent on legislation until the CR
includes a permanent long-term solution for our miners' health care, as
included in the Miners Protection Act, S. 3470.
So this is something that we have been talking about and working on
for 2 years. That is all we have asked: Fulfill our promises as those
representative of people who have given everything. So I will have to
object for these reasons.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
The Senator from North Carolina.
Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, I appreciate that, but the reason I
directed the question about the objection to the motion of the Senator
from Oregon is that there seems to be maybe selective application of a
strategy that the Senator from West Virginia is trying to do to get a
measure passed.
Unanimous Consent Request--S. 3084
Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, if I may move on. I ask unanimous consent
that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No.
695, S. 3084, the American Innovation and Competitiveness Act. I
further ask that the committee-reported substitute amendment be
withdrawn, the Gardner substitute amendment be agreed to, the bill, as
amended, be considered read a third time and passed, and the motion to
reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
The Senator from Ohio.
Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, we have
heard a lot of talk during the election, since the election about
communities like my hometown of Mansfield, OH, not far from where the
Presiding Officer grew up--communities that have been ignored by their
representatives in Washington.
A lot of politicians responded during the election, since the
election. They pledged to do better. This is our chance to actually
show that we mean it--with the work that Senator Manchin has done, and
Senator Casey, Senator Warner, Senator Portman in my State, a
Republican, and Senator Donnelly of Indiana--simply to take care of
these mine workers.
Senator Manchin has been on this floor, as I have--but he has been on
this floor even more times--talking about taking care of those mine
workers, living up to the promise that Harry Truman made, extending
their health insurance.
Instead, the only offer we have had from the majority leader, the one
person--Senator Tillis is not standing in the way. Senator Sullivan is
not standing in the way. It is one Senator--the majority leader. For
whatever reason he does not like the United Mine Workers union. I don't
really care about what he thinks about the union. I support the union.
But I care about these workers. What they proposed is a 4-month
extension, which means these workers, these widows, these retired
workers got a notice back in the last couple of weeks saying they were
going to lose their health care. We do 4 months, and they will get
another notice--Senator Manchin, right?--in January.
We are going to make these retired mine workers, these widows who saw
their husbands die from an accident in a mine or died from black lung
disease or died from heart diseases every 3 months get another notice
and then say: Well, we will extend it for 4 months. No, we have to make
sure that we provide them--this is not giving them--the health
insurance they have earned.
It is the right thing to do. It is the moral thing to do. For one
Senator, who happens to be from Kentucky, of all places, who happens to
also be the majority leader, to stand in the way--Senator Wyden is on
my committee and Senator Hatch, Senator Portman, Senator Toomey.
We passed 18-to-8 a bipartisan bill to move forward on this and do
this right. Senator McConnell asked to go through regular order. We
have to do this right. Yet we are going to go home for Christmas. We
are going to go home for the holidays. Whether you celebrate Christmas
or not, we are going home for the holidays.
We are going to have fun with our families. These widows, these
retired miners, well, it is not so much fun with their families because
they don't know when their health insurance is going to run out.
Mr. President, we need to do this. We need to do it right. We need to
do it today or tomorrow. We have no business going home before that.
For these reasons, I object.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
The Senator from North Carolina.
Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, I appreciate the comments of the Senator
from Ohio. I believe, if I have the facts correct, that it was the
majority leader who pushed for the patch into the CR.
I am not quite sure I agree with some of the specifics that were put
forth by the distinguished Senator from Ohio, but I would like to move
on.
Unanimous Consent Request--S. 2763
Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate
proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 654, S. 2763,
the Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery Act of 2016, with a committee-
reported substitute amendment. I further ask that the committee-
reported substitute amendment be agreed to, the bill, as amended, be
considered read a third time and passed, and the motion to reconsider
be considered made and laid upon the table.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
The Senator from Indiana.
Mr. DONNELLY. Reserving the right to object, Mr. President, I rise
today to discuss a crisis facing 16,000 retired coal miners and widows
across the country. We made promises. Roughly 1,000 of these people are
in my State. These retirees will lose their health insurance at the end
of this year unless Congress acts.
My colleagues, Senators Manchin, Brown, Casey, and Warner have spoken
on this topic, and together, along with a larger bipartisan group, we
pushed for months for the passage of the Miners Protection Act to
guarantee pension and health benefits to hundreds of thousands of
retirees.
We have a responsibility to enact this legislation to ensure that the
Federal Government makes good on its promise--its promise to the
miners. It wasn't a suggestion. It was a promise to these people who
risked their lives to help our country meet our energy needs. In fact,
many of us stood here together in June calling for action before it was
too late.
Well, now it is almost too late. While Congress is in a rush to get
out of
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town, those 16,000 retirees are desperate for help. Their health needs
are not dependent on our schedule. Their desire to be able to stay
alive shouldn't be subject to our desire to leave town. They are
praying this legislation is enacted so the health insurance is still
there next month when they still need it.
It is inexcusable. It is beyond disappointing to learn that the bill
we are set to consider to keep the Federal Government running includes
only a scaled-down provision for our miners. Rather than guarantee the
promised benefits, leadership chose only to include the bear minimum of
a 4-month extension of health coverage through April without addressing
the pension concerns.
I have seen leadership. That is not it. I will repeat once again:
16,000 mining retirees, 1,000 from Indiana, will lose their health
coverage in 3 weeks unless Congress acts. For the health and the
financial security of thousands of families, immediate attention is
required. Kicking the can down the road for 4 months has never been a
solution. Enrollment periods for other health plans end this week and
next. These retirees are watching us closely and are already in the
process of making painful and costly decisions.
This is about life and death for thousands of retirees across the
country right now. They are praying that we will stand up and keep our
word. We made a promise. The United States made a promise to our
citizens, to our coal miners. The provision in the spending bill does
not come close to meeting that promise that was made.
I urge the Senate to act immediately to consider a stronger measure
that addresses this crisis facing thousands of retirees in my State and
in so many other States across the country. These are not just numbers.
These are our citizens. These are the people we represent. These are
the people who dug the coal to keep the lights on in this building.
Their ancestors dug the coal that helped win the war in World War II.
We made a promise, and here we stand making a decision whether it will
be kept or whether it will not.
This is about who we are as a country and who we are as Senators. Do
we honor the word of the people before us?
Do we honor the coal miners with black lung, with broken kneecaps,
with broken shoulders, with widows who are wondering if they are going
to be able to make it alone?
I will continue to object to any unanimous consent request or
legislation until the CR includes a permanent long-term solution for
our miners' health care as included in the Miners Protection Act, S.
3470. Therefore, Mr. President, for these reasons, I object.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
The Senator from North Carolina.
Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, let me direct a question through the Chair
to the Senator from Indiana.
I don't believe the Senator was in at the time that the Senator from
Oregon offered his motion. Would the Senator have objected to that
motion--Senator Wyden's motion?
Mr. DONNELLY. I was not here to listen to what he said. I was
elsewhere. So I cannot answer the question because I didn't hear what
the Senator had to say.
Unanimous Consent Request--S. 3364
Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee
on Veterans' Affairs be discharged from further consideration of S.
3364, a bill to authorize the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to carry
out a pilot program to accept the donation of facilities and related
improvements for use by the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the
Senate proceed to its immediate consideration; further, that the bill
be considered read a third time and passed and the motion to reconsider
be considered made and laid upon the table.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
The Senator from West Virginia.
Mr. MANCHIN. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, I would
like to explain why we are here and what is really happening, so people
have a good grasp of things.
First of all, the Miners Protection Act--this protection act
basically goes back to a commitment, a promise, and a transaction that
we have done in Congress in 1946, under President Harry Truman. It is
the Krug act. Basically, it was said that from that day forward, we are
basically taking certain amounts of money from all the coal that is
mined. This is not public funds. We are not asking for public funds. If
we had done what we were supposed to do, we would have taken that money
and put that money in the funds for the miners' protection of their
health and their pension. They had nothing before that. They are the
ones who basically gave us the energy that we had to win two world wars
and become the super power of the West. All they asked for was that. It
wasn't guaranteed by taxpayers going to pay it. It was going to come
from the coal that was mined.
Now this same Congress comes back 20, 30 years later, and we changed
the bankruptcy laws to allow companies now to declare bankruptcy and to
shed their legacy costs. They don't have to pay it no more. So we are
caught. Every promise we made now is this: Oh, I am sorry; we can't pay
you.
So we did step in. We stepped in a couple of times--in 1993, in 2006.
Congress has basically a history with this piece of legislation. So we
are working now to shore it up.
AML means abandoned mine lands. That is money that goes from every
kind of coal into a reclamation fund that takes care of any reclamation
that is needed from the mining process. As you are putting the mines
back or putting the environment back and taking the environment and
putting the land back, that money would be used for that. If there was
not much reclamation or if that money accumulated, then we have a
surplus. We have only asked for the surplus.
So we were all on the same page, and we have been negotiating back
and forth. This is 2 years ago and up until present. We have been
negotiating back and forth, up to 2 weeks ago. Two weeks ago we were
told, and I have had good, honest, upfront negotiations with the
majority leader. He said: I just don't think the pension is going to
fly this year. I said: I understand it. I am still going to work my
tail off for this thing.
I had to tell all the widows and all the people whom we represent--
16,300 who were notified in October. They have to give a 90-day
notification that you are going to lose your health care benefits. They
gave that notification in October for December 31. That happened. I had
to tell them now that we are not going to get the pension this year. We
are doing everything we can, but I am almost positive we are going to
get the health care because I was told we were going to get the health
care. Not until 2 days ago did I have any inkling that now, all of a
sudden--I am not blaming my colleagues here--the House said: Oh, I am
sorry. We are only going to do an extension for the CR--the same
extension for the health care.
I know that my colleagues would agree with this. Let's say it was
your aunt or your grandmother or a retired person basically being paid
those benefits. They were told in October. Now we are supposed to
accept this CR coming over with this language that says: Ok, now let's
tell Mrs. Smith again. We are basically going to say: OK, we gave you a
4-month extension, but we are going to notify you again in January that
you are going to lose it again in April. They don't even have time to
work with the deductibles to get any insurance--nothing.
Let me tell you how they were going to pay for it. This is what came
from the House--not my colleagues here but from the House. The House
says: OK, we are going to take $47 million from the VEVA transfers.
VEVA was money that was set aside for other bankruptcies. These were
bankruptcies that were basically going to give people who were retired
under those bankruptcies at least health care coverage until June.
Those same people are going to lose theirs because it is going to take
their money and they are going to lose theirs also. It is almost
incomprehensible that they would give us something like this and think
it is something we could do.
[[Page 15990]]
We got a bipartisan agreement here on this side, and we can't get
just a consideration from our colleagues over in the House. So I just
can't explain it. I can't go home and explain this. We are walking out
of here, trying to get out this weekend because everybody wants to go
home. That is wonderful. The only thing we have this time certain is
December 31. They know they are going to lose everything--their health
care benefits. It is in doubt that they will have their pensions taken
care of, and we won't stay here because it is too much of an
inconvenience. That is why we are prepared. We are going to stay. If
they want to stay through Christmas, fine--through the New Year, fine.
I think that they think: I know everybody wants to go home; so I am
sure everybody will fold their hands and leave.
I want to thank all of you and all of my colleagues for jumping up
here because you all have been helping us. They just have to get the
message that we are sincere about helping these people.
Everybody is standing for the working person. Every campaign ad I saw
this year said: We are all for the working man and the working woman.
Well, you got a chance to prove it right now. You got a chance to show
that I am for you, that I respect what you did, what your husband did,
what your family has done for the country, and I am trying to help you.
What we are asking for is to give us a permanent long-term solution
for the miners, included in the Miners Protection Act that we have been
working on for so long, S. 3470. Reluctantly, therefore, for these
reasons, I have to object.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
Mr. TILLIS. Objection?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
The Senator from North Carolina.
Mr. TILLIS. Thank you, Mr. President.
The Senator from West Virginia, I believe, is trying to make a
compelling argument. I understand that he feels very strongly about
this. We feel very strongly about a number of these motions I am going
to continue to make and hopefully not get objection.
Mr. President, I do want to remind the Senator from West Virginia
that it was the majority leader who worked to at least get the patch in
the CR, and like so many things around here, we wish we were working on
longer horizons, but that seems to be the challenge we have to deal
with and that we will have to deal with in the waning days of this
session.
Unanimous Consent Request--S. 1831
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on the
Judiciary be discharged from further consideration of S. 1831, the
Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act, and the Senate proceed to
its immediate consideration; further, that the Toomey substitute
amendment be agreed to, the bill, as amended, be considered read a
third time and passed, and the motion to reconsider be considered made
and laid upon the table.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Gardner). Is there objection?
The Senator from Ohio.
Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, I am a bit
incredulous. I like the Senator from North Carolina. We sit across from
each other in the Veterans' Affairs Committee. We have done at least 2
or 3 bills that reached the President's desk and were signed into law
together.
But I think my Republican friends are kind of missing the point
here--to give the majority leader credit for fixing this when, No. 1,
he wouldn't do it, he wouldn't do it, he wouldn't do it, he wouldn't do
it. Senator Manchin has asked him for weeks and months and months to
take care of the pension and the health insurance, and the majority
leader refused month after month after month.
The majority leader said: I need you to do several things. We need
you to follow regular order. We did. We went through the Finance
Committee, 18 to 8. Senator Hatch, the chairman, helped us. Senator
Wyden, the ranking member, was one of the strongest supporters, joined
by Senators Casey and Warner, Finance Committee members who represent a
lot of mine workers.
The Senate majority leader then said: You have to find a way to pay
for it. We did it. We found a way to pay for it. It comes from the
abandoned mine fund. There are no tax dollars involved in this. The
majority leader still wouldn't do anything.
So finally, Senator Manchin comes to the floor, I come to the floor,
Senator Casey comes to the floor, and Senator Warner comes to the floor
over and over, and we say we are not going to agree to anything until
you take care of these pensioners, until you take care of these miners'
widows. Then, out of the goodness of the majority leader's heart, he
gives these miners--these retired miners and widows--4 months. What
does 4 months mean?
It means that these widows and miners--these retired miners and
widows got a notice in the last couple of weeks saying their insurance
will expire December 31. If we agree to the majority leader's bountiful
offer, then they will get another notice in January or February saying:
Oh, it is going to run out again in 4 months.
What is really interesting around here is, I hear Republican Senators
day after day after day--whether it is the Affordable Care Act, whether
it is Dodd-Frank--say: All we want is predictability. We want to be
able to plan. Businesses can't produce jobs, can't create jobs, unless
we have a path forward, unless we can predict what will happen, unless
we can have some certainty.
That is all right for corporate America. They want certainty.
Corporate America wants to be able to plan. But it is not all right for
mine workers' widows? It is OK to jack them around--pardon my
language--it is OK for them to stumble around every 4 months and we
renew their pensions, we renew their health care? Really.
This is so easy. Give us a year, and then we will be back next year
and we will work on this. But, as Senator Manchin said, for us to go
home for Christmas--whether or not you celebrate Christmas--and be with
our families, which I really want to do--I have five grandchildren. I
can't wait to get to spend time with them in the next 3 weeks. But we
have to do our job. If we don't do it tonight, then we are going to be
here tomorrow. If we don't do it tomorrow, we are going to be here the
next day. If we don't do it at the end of this week, we are going to be
here next week because we are not leaving. We are going to stay here as
long as we need to, even if it means a session on Christmas Day, in
order to get these retirees and their widows the pensions and the
health care that they earned, not a little 4-month bump.
Mr. President, I object.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
The Senator from North Carolina.
Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, earlier the distinguished Senator from
Oregon said he recognizes that I am new to the Senate and there may be
something different between what we would call a blanket position in
the North Carolina House and a blanket position here.
Mr. President, I want to ask a question of the distinguished Senator
from Ohio. I might add that I appreciate the kind comments that I think
you were recently reported as saying. We are working together on
veterans issues, and I look forward to continuing to work for you.
Mr. President, I would ask the Senator from Ohio, if he was in the
Chamber at the time of the motion offered by Senator Wyden, would he
have been prepared to object to that motion being consistent with the
position that they are having blanket objections to all motions?
Mr. BROWN. Mr. President--Senator Tillis, I heard the tail end of it.
I was in the cloakroom trying to find out exactly what the
parliamentary procedure was going be on this. I would be willing to say
yes to a lot of these once we take care of the mine workers. This is a
wide-open forum. Let's take care of the mine workers, and then we can
consider each of these other bills. But none of these bills has the
immediacy of thousands of mine workers, retirees, and their widows in
West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, and Indiana. None of them
have the immediacy
[[Page 15991]]
of these mine workers' health care being cut off December 31.
These are important public initiatives. I can't think of anything
that we are considering--I mean, I really want to get ``Buy American''
in the WRDA bill. We had it in the Senate bill. It was bipartisan.
Speaker Ryan--even though we tweeted the President-elect of the
United States asking him to weigh in on ``Buy American,'' saving
thousands of dollars in Coshocton, OH, in Wheeling, and in other places
all over this country, we couldn't get any response to that. I want to
see us do that. I would like to stay and do that, but the immediate
question is, How do we protect these miners and retirees and how do we
protect these widows and widowers, for that matter, make sure their
health care is protected? That is the fundamental question. I am
willing to do a whole lot of other things. Do this first, and then the
floor is open to do other things.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Carolina.
Unanimous Consent Request--H.R. 3286
Mr. TILLIS. In a moment, I will be making another unanimous consent
request. I will give a classic example of the kinds of things I wish we
could get done before we leave here.
The unanimous consent request I am about to make would encourage
effective, voluntary private sector investments to recruit, employ, and
retain men and women who have served in the U.S. military, with annual
Presidential awards to private sector employers recognizing such
efforts for their purposes.
This is an example of something that right now, today, without
objection, we can get through.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the
immediate consideration of H.R. 3286, a bill to encourage effective,
voluntary private sector investments to recruit, employ, and retain men
and women who have served in the U.S. military, with annual
Presidential awards to private sector employers recognizing such
efforts, which was received from the House. I further ask consent that
the bill be considered read a third time and passed and the motion to
reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
The Senator from West Virginia.
Mr. MANCHIN. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, first, I
say to my good friend from North Carolina, Mr. Tillis, I have been in
the Senate for 6 years, so I have never used this procedure--never
believed it, never thought I would have to, never thought anything
would be so direly needed that I would even have to stand here and
object to all the good things we both have worked on. I have so many
good things on my side that I am not moving right now, and you have so
many great things on your side that I would love to help you with.
But, sir, if you were in my position--let me go a little bit further
because I don't think maybe I made it. If you want to add insult to
injury to what has happened to our retired miners and all the people
dependent on their health care benefits, the $47 million that I told
you they transferred--that is what they are going the pay for from the
House, the VEBA--basically takes it from other bankrupt funds that were
set aside. They are going to do that, and when all is said and done--
and it has even been scored that Medicaid and Medicare would save so
much because now they are paying for it out of the miners health care
fund, and they are not going to have to. But on top of that, from the
$47 million they took, they are going to make $2 million profit
returned back to the Treasury. They are going to take $2 million from
money set aside to pay--that the bankruptcy courts put aside to pay
miners because they will lose their health care by June. Now they are
going to lose it by April, by this provision that has been passed by
the House. And on top of that, they will have $2 million in surplus.
I had a lady call me today. She said: You know, Senator Manchin,
where I come from, they call that theft. They call that theft. And why
would you all let them do that? If they don't do anything, some of our
miners are, till June--16,000 of us lose. We don't want to punish them,
but now you are punishing them. You are punishing them an extra 3
months. Why would you all do that?
I am not sure they really realize it on the other side.
Like I said, I am not at our colleagues here, my friends and
Republican colleagues I have here, but why would the House send that to
you, and why would you all accept it?
That is all we are asking for. We can all gather forces here and send
a large message to them that we are not going to do this until they
come to their senses and take care of the miners' health care benefits.
You know what. We can come back. We can let all of this--all of our
UCs that have been worked on and that I think are so needed can go
right through, we can all go home, and hopefully our miners know they
have health care, we know we have done a lot of good for a lot of
people, and hopefully everyone will have a better Christmas. So all I
am asking for--until the CR includes that permanent, long term, I am
going to have to object.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
The Senator from North Carolina.
Unanimous Consent Request--Senate Resolution
Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate
proceed to the immediate consideration of a Senate resolution at the
desk designating December 17, 2016, as ``Wreaths Across America Day,''
submitted earlier today. I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be
agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be
considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or
debate.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
The Senator from Ohio.
Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I reserve the right to object. We can keep
doing this. I think it is very clear what Senator Manchin and I are
asking for. We are not asking for anything unusual; we are asking for
the Senate to honor the pledge made by President Truman more or less
seven decades ago to take care of the health care that mine workers
earned.
Don't ever forget, we all work around here. We wear coats and ties,
and our work might be stressful, sort of, but we are not likely risking
our lives, we are not likely picking up occupational diseases from the
work we do. But we are saying to these widows and mine workers and
retired mine workers that I guess you don't matter very much because we
are going to have our Christmas vacation and you are going to have to
worry about your health care.
Their health care runs out December 31. Senator McConnell, finally,
after great pressure from constituents and mine workers and us, finally
said he would give us 4 months. You can't run your life not knowing
your health insurance is going to run out in 4 months or 8 months or 3
months.
So we shouldn't keep repeating ourselves, but Senator Tillis keeps
bringing up one issue after another. We are going to keep saying no
until we get in this bill much more time for this health care for these
retired mine workers and their families and their widows.
Mr. President, I object.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, I just want to be clear that my friend
from West Virginia, whom I actually consider to be one of my favorites,
to be honest with you, since I have been here--I have loved serving
with him on committees, and I serve with him on the Senate Armed
Services Committee and Veterans' Affairs. I asked the Senator from West
Virginia if he would have objected to the motion set forth by the
Senator from Oregon, Mr. Wyden, and the answer was no. So we have an
inconsistency here.
Unanimous Consent Request--Senate Resolution
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the
[[Page 15992]]
consideration of a Senate resolution at the desk honoring the
individuals who lost their lives in the tragic fire in Oakland,
California, on December 2, 2016, submitted earlier today. I ask
unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be
agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid
upon the table with no intervening action or debate.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
The Senator from West Virginia.
Mr. MANCHIN. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, I would
like to explain to my good friend, the Senator from North Carolina,
that I have been deferring to you the pleasure of objecting, and that
is the reason I didn't object to the Senator from Oregon. As you said,
we can stay here. I think we all have a lot of appreciation for the
situation.
With that being said, we have come to an impasse that if we cannot
get the House, with the help of our Senate colleagues on both sides, to
agree to a permanent, long-term fix and a solution for the miners'
health care--and I would say to the Senator, we took off the pension;
you heard me say that. We took the pensions off of that. We thought
that might provide us a way to move forward. We thought we had a way to
move forward.
With that being said, we stand here today objecting to things that we
would all like to move forward on. It pains all of us to be in this
position. Hopefully, you all can help us, talking to the House and
basically asking them to come to their senses and, hopefully, take care
of this.
So for that reason, until we have a long-term solution for our
miners' health care as included in the Miners Protection Act, S. 3470,
I object.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, I would like to direct another question
through the Chair to the Senator from West Virginia. I just want to be
clear that, hypothetically, if the Senator from Oregon were to come
back to the Chamber and offer that motion, would the Senator from West
Virginia actually object to that motion?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection to the Senator posing a
question?
Mr. BROWN. I object.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, we may have that opportunity.
Unanimous Consent Request--Senate Resolution
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the
consideration of a Senate resolution at the desk recognizing the 75th
anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor and the lasting significance
of National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day submitted earlier today. I ask
unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be
agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid
upon the table with no intervening action or debate.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, I was
incredulous at the beginning of the night, not quite believing that
Senator McConnell--I don't know what he is doing now--was sending his
people to the floor and finding ways to push back against the mine
workers in West Virginia and Ohio and Pennsylvania and Indiana and
Virginia, not willing to help those pensioners and widows. Now we have
this incredible coincidence that the last two resolutions--we are
talking about mine workers--retired mine workers' health care; we are
talking about widows of mine workers who have either died on the job or
died perhaps from an illness that mine workers so often have--brown
lung or some kind of heart disease. Instead, my friend from North
Carolina has offered two resolutions, one to honor people who died in a
fire--a tragedy--and one to mark the 75th anniversary of Pearl Harbor,
both reasonable things. But they are not resolutions to provide college
to the children of the people who died in the fire, and they are not to
increase benefits for the grandchildren of people who died in Pearl
Harbor; they are resolutions that don't mean anything except they are
nice. I am for these resolutions. I love to support anything we do to
say something nice and pat somebody on the back. But we have these two
resolutions saying aren't they nice, aren't we nice, compared to taking
care of widows who are going to see their health care expire on
December 31. I don't understand the equivalency.
I suppose we could go all night if Senator McConnell were perhaps in
his office or perhaps out to dinner or perhaps he went home. But it is
ordering or asking or however we do things around here--Senators come
to the floor and delay and delay and delay and try to change the
subject so that people forget about these mine workers. Well, we are
not going to let the Presiding Officer or Senator Tillis or Senator
McConnell or Senator Cornyn or anybody else--we are not going to let
you forget the mine workers. We are going to keep talking about this.
I don't mind working late tonight. I don't mind working late
tomorrow. I would rather not work until December 24, but Senator
Manchin said he will, and I will. My wife is not thrilled about it, and
my children and my grandkids aren't thrilled about it. But these are
thousands of people who are going to lose their health insurance on
December 31, and all that Senator McConnell can do, after huge pressure
from mine workers around the country and his constituents in Kentucky
and from us--all Senator McConnell can do is say, well, we can give you
maybe 4 months, and that is supposed to satisfy us. It doesn't matter
if it satisfies us; it matters that we take care of these retired mine
workers and their widows.
For all of those reasons, I object.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, the distinguished Senator from Ohio did
mention a couple of resolutions, but I would add there was also the
American Innovation and Competitiveness Act that we worked very hard on
to provide much needed resources for a number of States, including
Ohio. There are a number of other items, including I think hiring vets,
providing programs or providing preferences and trying to do everything
we can to get our veterans hired; preventing animal cruelty and torture
I think is a worthwhile cause, and a number of other things.
But, again, the point here is that we are trying to move things that
we generally have consent on, and for one reason or another--and I
don't question the motives of the Senator from West Virginia--they are
being held up. We kind of have a double standard in that some of these
things do not rise to the same level as the unanimous consent request
made by Senator Wyden earlier.
Unanimous Consent Request--H.R. 5456
So I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate
consideration of Calendar No. 527, H.R. 5456; that the Wyden substitute
amendment at the desk be agreed to; the bill, as amended, be read a
third time and passed, and the motion to reconsider be made and laid
upon the table with no intervening action or debate.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
Mr. BROWN. I object.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from West Virginia.
Mr. MANCHIN. Mr. President, reserving the right to object--
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection has been heard.
The Senator from North Carolina is recognized.
Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, I am happy to yield the floor to the
Senator from West Virginia.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Carolina yields the
floor to the Senator from West Virginia.
Mr. MANCHIN. I just want to clarify. I think there is some confusion.
It seems like everybody is in a hustle right now. I think they think we
are being selective. I want to make it very clear. I have been very
clear to everybody. I have had to object on everything. I have had to
object on my own
[[Page 15993]]
pieces of legislation to stop everything. With that being said, I think
I was asked about Senator Wyden's request, and I said, no, I wouldn't
at that time, and then I think at that time Senator Tillis objected.
For that you were asked did I object, and I said no.
With that being said, I would have objected to everything, and I
think everybody knew where I stood in this body that I will and have to
reluctantly--I don't want to be in this position. I am so committed to
fulfilling the promise and commitment we have made. That is all.
I am sorry if there has been confusion. I have to, for the position
we have taken. I think the good fight that we have here--and,
basically, what the House has done to us is not humane to the people we
represent. That is all I said. I am sorry for that.
So if there is a motion on the table, I object to that too.
____________________
MORNING BUSINESS
Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate be
in a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak
therein for up to 10 minutes each.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Ohio.
Mr. BROWN. Reserving the right to object, but I withdraw my
reservation.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
____________________
TRIBUTE TO BARBARA BOXER
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, in 1922, Rebecca Latimer Felton was the
first woman to sit in the U.S. Senate. She served in this body for only
1 day, but during those 24 hours she made a bold prediction for her
time about the future role women would play in the Senate. She said:
``When the women of the country come in and sit with you . . . you will
get ability, you will get integrity of purpose, you will get exalted
patriotism, and you will get unstinted usefulness.'' I will second
that.
Barbara and I served together in the House--and we have served
together in the Senate for 20 years. And let me tell you, no one
embodies Senator Felton's prediction better than Barbara Boxer.
Throughout the years, I have loved getting to know Barbara as a
colleague, but more importantly as a friend. Loretta and I joined
Barbara and her husband, Stu, on official trips, personal vacations and
countless dinners. We have eaten, drank, joked, and bonded. And as her
career in the Senate comes to an end, keeping those bonds of friendship
strong as she heads west is one my life goals.
Barbara made quite an impact on the Senate Chamber before she even
entered this body. On October 9, 1991, the Senate Judiciary Committee
was set to vote on the nomination of Justice Clarence Thomas to serve a
lifetime appointment on the U.S. Supreme Court, without listening to
Professor Anita Hill's allegations of sexual harassment. At the time,
there were two women in the Senate, Barbara Mikulski and Nancy Landon
Kassebaum. Now, while this was going on in the Senate, the women of the
House tried speaking out in that body. They were censured. And they had
enough. So they marched out of the House and over to the Senate--29
women House Members, led by Congresswoman Pat Schroeder from Colorado
and Barbara Boxer from California. American politics has never been the
same.
The following year, a number of esteemed women were elected to the
U.S. Senate. Several reporters deemed 1992: ``the Year of the Woman.''
Senator Mikulski, the dean of women, as she is often referred to, said:
``Calling 1992 the Year of the Woman makes it sound like the Year of
the Caribou or the Year of the Asparagus. We're not a fad, fancy or a
year.'' She was right. But California made history. For the first time,
one State sent two women to represent them in the Senate: Dianne
Feinstein and Barbara Boxer.
Barbara often reminds me of the line from Shakespeare's--A Midsummer
Night's Dream: ``Though she be but little, she is fierce.'' In 1994,
when Republicans took control of Congress, one of the first things they
did was go after environmental regulations, including rules to limit
the amount of arsenic in the drinking water. Barbara immediately
launched a good, old-fashioned, 3-day ``Ms. Smith Goes to Washington''
filibuster. And like most of the fights she takes on, she won.
Barbara is a call-it-as-you-see-it kind of person. Maybe it is
because she grew up in the no-nonsense, working-class town of Brooklyn.
Or maybe it is because her parents and Jewish grandparents, who
immigrated to this country from Russia instilled in her a deep love for
America's Constitution and freedoms--a sense of obligation to give
something back and a determination to fight for underdogs, truth and
justice.
She has sponsored or cosponsored more than 1,200 pieces of
legislation and helped lead the fight on issues ranging from women's
rights to healthcare to protecting California's natural wonders to
keeping lead and other potentially lethal hazards out of children's
toys.
The vote that sealed our spiritual kinship took place in October 2002
when she and I voted against the Iraq war resolution. One of our dear
friends, Paul Wellstone, also voted against the resolution. Paul was in
a tough reelection fight that year. A reporter asked him if it was a
hard choice to vote against the war. Paul said it was a risk, but not a
choice. His conscience wouldn't let him vote any other way. It seems to
me that is how Barbara Boxer approaches every one of her votes in
Congress: It might be a risk, but it is not a choice. She listens to
her conscience, and the people of California respect her for it. But
let me be clear: that doesn't mean she will not work hard to find a
compromise.
She proved that in recent years when she and Jim Inhofe--the
unlikeliest of odd couples--worked together to pass important
legislation updating regulations on toxic chemicals and shepherding
through a surface transportation bill that no one thought could be
done.
I will close with this. Early in Barbara's political career, people
used to come up to her and say: How did you get so strong, how did you
get so tough? Barbara would humbly respond: Oh, not tough. I am just an
ordinary person, and I do what I think is right. I agree with most of
that, but let me tell you--Barbara is as tough as they come. She can't
be bullied or intimidated, and she never loses her courage. I want to
thank Barbara for sacrificing so much time with her own family to make
the families of America safer, healthier, and more hopeful. For that
and a thousand other reasons, I will miss her in the Senate. But I know
I can count on her to keep pushing those of us who remain to listen to
our consciences--to fight for change and do the right thing.
____________________
MARKETPLACE FAIRNESS BILL
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, this past Thanksgiving marked the
beginning of the holiday shopping season.
In an effort to find deeply discounted electronics, toys, and other
Christmas gifts for family and friends, bargain-hunting shoppers
searched for Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals.
While these deals provided great savings for shoppers, Main Street
retailers and States did not reap the same benefits.
Because we have let another year and holiday season come and go
without closing the online sales tax loophole, States missed out on
millions of dollars in sales tax revenue owed to them from online
purchases. And Main Street retailers continued to lose business.
However, this was not without trying.
Around this time last year, Senators Enzi, Alexander, Heitkamp, and
myself opposed the air dropping of legislation in the customs
conference report that would have taken away a State's right to collect
taxes on accessing the internet unless we gave States the ability to
collect taxes on internet sales that were already owed, and we leveled
the playing field for brick and mortar businesses.
Despite our opposition, the customs bill passed, and Majority Leader
[[Page 15994]]
McConnell promised to give us a vote later this year on the Marketplace
Fairness Act or similar e-fairness legislation.
This would give House Republicans the opportunity to go through
regular order, a process they said was necessary to address the issue.
Yet, unfortunately, here we are, at the end of the Congress, and
House Republicans have still refused to act.
The Marketplace Fairness Act levels the playing field for retailers
by allowing States to treat brick and mortar retailers the same as
remote retailers in the collection of State and local sales and use
taxes.
Internet retailers benefit under our current system with a 5-10
percent price advantage over their Main Street competitors.
This is because customers visit local retailers, browse goods, use
their phone to take a picture of it, and go online to purchase the item
tax-free.
Products sold online seem cheaper when sales taxes are not collected
at the point of sale. But they are not because the tax is still owed,
though not paid, by the customer.
This is not fair, and it is not right.
Thousands of Main Street businesses have worked hard to grow their
businesses, but have become showrooms because of this price advantage,
making it difficult, and, in some cases, impossible for them to
compete.
I have come to this floor in the past to share the stories of Main
Street businesses, such as Play It Again Sports in Naperville and
Soccer Plus in Palatine, that have gone out of business due, in large
part, to the unfair advantage of their online competitors.
Since then, Sports Authority has met that same fate, and many
department stores and big-box retailers have closed a number of stores
because of the increase in online shopping.
These are local jobs and community anchors that no longer exist.
There is nothing we can do now for these shuttered retailers. But we
can, and should, still help thousands of retailers avoid the same fate
by leveling the playing field for Main Street retailers.
For the first time in history, consumers said they made more of their
purchases online than in stores.
This trend is evidenced by an increase in online retail spending,
which grew 14.6 percent last year, to $341 billion, and is projected to
reach $523 billion in 2020.
During the weekend following Thanksgiving--the biggest shopping
weekend of the year--online retail spending was over $9.3 billion, a
16.4 percent increase from 2015.
As online sales increase, the potential sales tax revenue that States
lose increases.
The longer we delay in closing this loophole, the longer we
perpetuate an uneven playing field between local and online retailers
that erodes the revenues needed by State and local governments to fund
essential public services.
Despite the looming budget deficits State and local governments are
facing and the competitive disadvantage experienced by brick and mortar
businesses, House Republicans have refused to address the issue for
more than a decade.
This year is no different.
Numerous requests to the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee to
markup e-fairness legislation from the ranking member and other
bipartisan members on committee, Main Street retailers, State and local
governments, labor, and the sponsors of the Marketplace Fairness Act
remain unanswered.
Instead, Chairman Goodlatte drafted his own proposal that created
more problems than it solved.
I didn't support the chairman's proposal, but I supported the process
and his calls for regular order and encouraged him to work with his
colleagues in the House to send us a bill so that we can resolve our
differences.
We are still waiting.
The chairman has continued to refuse to work with us on reasonable
compromise legislation that didn't turn 100 years of sales and use tax
law on its head, even though he doesn't have the support of the
majority of the House Republican Caucus on his approach.
It is apparent that these calls for compromise and regular order are
nothing more than veiled attempts to delay and obstruct, which have so
far been successful.
If Congress continues to ignore this issue and fails to act, the
courts will.
Because States are missing out on an estimated $23 billion a year in
potential sales tax revenue, they are looking to the courts for a
solution, heeding the call from Supreme Court Justice Kennedy to
reexamine the Court's precedent on the issue.
This year alone, 16 States have introduced over 40 sales tax bills,
and others have enacted legislation that have triggered legal
challenges that would help States collect sales tax without
congressional action.
This week, a Federal court in South Dakota will begin hearing oral
arguments on a South Dakota law that requires remote retailers to
collect and remit sales tax.
And we may know, as early as next week, if the Supreme Court will
grant review of a law Colorado recently enacted that imposes reporting
and notification requirements on remote retailers.
Let me be clear. This is not the approach I prefer. I would rather
Congress do its job to pass a uniform, comprehensive Federal solution
instead of the States moving forward individually so we don't have a
patch work of laws that small businesses have to navigate.
But I understand that, in the absence of Congressional action, the
States have no other options. They must either raise taxes or cut vital
public services if Congress continues to sit on the sidelines.
As you can see, the States are no longer waiting for Congress to get
its act together.
But there is still time for us address this issue.
And I hope my colleagues in the House will work with me to do that
before it is too late.
____________________
ELECT AND FREEING OF POLITICAL PRISONERS IN THE GAMBIA
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, in recent years, we have seen a troubling
trend of democratic backsliding in several parts of the world,
including Russia, Thailand, Uganda, Turkey, and Venezuela.
Even some parts of Europe and the United States have seen long
established democratic norms challenged in deeply upsetting ways.
So imagine my great surprise late last week when the people of The
Gambia peacefully voted for a new democratic government.
Many probably don't know much about The Gambia--a small West African
nation whose uniquely odd colonial borders have it straddling the
meandering Gambia River almost completely surrounded by Senegal.
Gambia is English speaking--Senegal speaks French--with several local
languages shared between the unusual borders.
Some of you may remember The Gambia was the ancestral home in the
novel and then-television miniseries ``Roots.''
Because of its strong ties to the U.S. and geographic location, for
some time The Gambia also had a unique distinction of being an
emergency landing spot for the Space Shuttle should one need to abort
its mission early in the launch phase.
And until 1994, it had the proud distinction of being the longest
postcolonial democracy on the African continent.
You see, for the last 22 years, The Gambia was ruled by a regime that
took power in a coup, with troubling arrests and disappearances of
journalists, activists, and opposition members.
I and several of my Senate colleagues raised a number of these cases
over the years, most notably the 2007 disappearance of journalist
Ebrima Manneh--for which I now hope there will finally be a fair and
healing accounting.
And yet, last Thursday night, the people of The Gambia, voting with
colored marbles placed in different containers to make it easier for
illiterate voters, chose a new leader in a peaceful and democratic
process.
[[Page 15995]]
And outgoing President Yahya Jammeh honorably conceded the election
and agreed to a peaceful transfer of power.
He offered to help President-Elect Adama Barrow.
While we have had our differences, I want to acknowledge this
important act of leadership and love of country by outgoing President
Jammeh.
And not only has there been this notable peaceful transfer of power,
but in just the few short days since the election, at least 18
political prisoners have been released from jail, including a key
opposition figure.
So to the Gambian people, let me say congratulations on your
important demonstration of democracy--a model for the African continent
and the world.
I look forward to significantly improved relations between our two
nations and working together on a host of shared concerns.
____________________
TRIBUTE TO BARBARA MIKULSKI
Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, history is dotted with the stories of
trailblazers. People who shape the public discourse at a pivotal moment
in time or change the direction of the debate. One of those
trailblazers is Barbara Mikulski, the longest serving woman in Senate
history, the first woman to represent Maryland in the U.S. Senate, and
the first woman to chair the Senate's Appropriations Committee. She is
tough. She is direct. She is dedicated. She is a fighter. She is a
leader.
Barbara Mikulski has always fought for our families and our children.
From her roots as a social worker and community activist to the levels
of leadership in the Senate, she has held firm to her adage that she is
not just the Senator from Maryland, she is the Senator for Maryland.
From her first years in the Senate until now, she has promoted
education, nutrition, healthcare, and gender equality in the Senate.
She led our historic efforts to pass the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay
Act--shouting from the rooftops the simple principle that women deserve
equal pay for equal work. She continued that legacy with the Paycheck
Fairness Act. Wouldn't it be a fitting tribute if the Senate considered
and approved that commonsense legislation before she retires?
Like others in this Chamber, she was a vocal and steadfast supporter
of Violence Against Women Act and our most recent efforts to
reauthorized and expand those lifesaving programs. She led the efforts
to ensure that the Affordable Care Act made clear that no one should be
discriminated against in preventive care. Who can forget her fierce
advocacy to make the letter of the law clear that being a woman is not
a preexisting condition?
And when Barbara assumed the mantle chairing the Appropriations
Committee, she brought with her the tough but fair grit that has been
her hallmark in the Senate. When asked about earmarks, her retort was
simple: ``I've told senators that if you're opposed to earmarks, I'll
honor that and won't include any for your state.'' You always know
where you stand with Barbara Mikulski.
Thirty years ago, when she first came to the Senate, women filled
just two seats in this body. When the Senate convenes next year, there
will be 21. I hope it won't be another 30 years for the Senate to be
truly representative of the country we serve.
A lifelong Baltimore resident, ``Senator Barb'' has never forgotten
her roots, probably because she never left. She remains a Marylander
through and through, dedicated to her State and never forgetting that
listening to your constituents is the most important job of all. When
Senator Mikulski announced her retirement, she told her constituents
that the question came down to whether she wanted to spend her time
``raising money or raising hell to meet your day-to-day needs?'' That
is Barbara. This rang through in her farewell speech today to the
Senate.
We often talk of the lions of the Senate. Barbara Mikulski ranks
among them. I will miss her fierce advocacy, her counsel, her
commitment, her tenacity, and her grit. I value her friendship, and we
will miss her.
____________________
ARMS SALES NOTIFICATION
Mr. CORKER. Mr. President, section 36(b) of the Arms Export Control
Act requires that Congress receive prior notification of certain
proposed arms sales as defined by that statute. Upon such notification,
the Congress has 30 calendar days during which the sale may be
reviewed. The provision stipulates that, in the Senate, the
notification of proposed sales shall be sent to the chairman of the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
In keeping with the committee's intention to see that relevant
information is available to the full Senate, I ask unanimous consent to
have printed in the Record the notifications which have been received.
If the cover letter references a classified annex, then such annex is
available to all Senators in the office of the Foreign Relations
Committee, room SD-423.
Defense Security
Cooperation Agency,
Arlington, VA.
Hon. Bob Corker,
Chairman, Committee on Foreign Relations,
U.S. Senate, Washington, DC.
Dear Mr. Chairman: Pursuant to the reporting requirements
of Section 36(b)(1) of the Arms Export Control Act, as
amended, we are forwarding herewith Transmittal No. 16-31,
concerning the Department of the Army's proposed Letter(s) of
Offer and Acceptance for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for
defense articles and services estimated to cost $3.51
billion. After this letter is delivered to your office, we
plan to issue a news release to notify the public of this
proposed sale.
Sincerely,
James Worm, Acting Deputy Director,
(For J.W. Rixey, Vice Admiral, USN, Director).
Enclosures.
Transmittal No. 16-31
Notice of Proposed Issuance of Letter of Offer Pursuant to
Section 36(b)(1) of the Arms Export Control Act, as
amended
(i) Prospective Purchaser: The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
(ii) Total Estimated Value:
Major Defense Equipment* $2.60 billion.
Other $ .91 billion.
Total $3.51 billion.
(iii) Description and Quantity or Quantities of Articles or
Services under consideration for Purchase:
Maior Defense Equipment (MDE):
Forty-eight (48) CH-47F Chinook Cargo Helicopters.
One hundred twelve (112) T55-GA-714A Engines (ninety-six
(96) installed, sixteen (16) spares).
One hundred sixteen (116) Embedded Global Positioning
System (GPS) Inertial Navigation Systems (EGI) (ninety-six
(96) installed, twenty (20) spares).
Fifty-eight (58) AN/AAR-57 Common Missile Warning Systems
(CMWS) (forty-eight (48) installed, ten (10) spares).
Forty-eight (48) M240H 7.62mm Machine Guns with spare
parts.
Non-MDE: This request also includes the following Non-MDE:
M134D Mini-Guns or equivalent type guns with support
equipment and training; Aircraft Survivability Equipment (AN/
APR-39A(V) 1/4, AN/AVR-2B, AN/ARC-231, AN/ARC-201D, AN/APX-
123A, ARN-147 VOR/ILS, ARN-153 TACAN, APN-209, IDM-401
Improved Data Modem, and AN/ARC-220); Infrared Signature
Suppression System (IRSS); Fast Rope Insertion Extraction
System (FRIES); Extended Range Fuel System (ERPS); Ballistic
Armor Protection System; facilities; air worthiness support;
spares and repair parts; communications equipment; personnel
training and training equipment; site surveys; tool and test
equipment; Ground Support Equipment (GSE); repair and return;
publications and technical documentation; Quality Assurance
Team (QAT); U.S. Government and contractor engineering,
technical and logistics support services; and other related
elements of logistics and program support.
(iv) Military Department: Army (SR-B-ZAG).
(v) Sales Commission. Fee, etc., Paid, Offered, or Agreed
to be Paid: None.
(vi) Sensitivity of Technology Contained in the Defense
Article or Defense Services Proposed to be Sold: See Annex
attached.
(vii) Prior Related Case, if any: None.
(viii) Date Report Delivered to Congress: December 7, 2016.
*As defined in Section 47(6) of the Arms Export Control
Act.
policy justification
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia--CH-47F Chinook Cargo Helicopters
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has requested a possible sale
of:
Major Defense Equipment (MDE):
Forty-eight (48) CH-47F Chinook Cargo Helicopters.
One hundred twelve (112) T55-GA-714A Engines (ninety-six
(96) installed, sixteen (16) spares).
[[Page 15996]]
One hundred sixteen (116) Embedded Global Positioning
System (GPS) Inertial Navigation Systems (EGI (ninety-six
(96) installed, twenty (20) spares)).
Fifty-eight (58) AN/AAR-57 Common Missile Warning Systems
(CMWS) (forty-eight (48) installed, ten (10) spares).
Forty-eight (48) M240H 7.62mm Machine Guns with spare
parts.
Non-MDE: This request also includes the following Non-MDE:
M134D Mini-Guns or equivalent type guns with support
equipment and training; Aircraft Survivability Equipment (AN/
APR-39A(V)1/4, AN/AVR-2B, AN/ARC-231, AN/ARC-201D, AN/APX-
123A, ARN-147 VOR/1LS, ARN-153 TACAN, APN-209, IDM-401
Improved Data Modem, and AN/ARC-220); Infrared Signature
Suppression System (IRSS); Fast Rope Insertion Extraction
System (FRIES); Extended Range Fuel System (ERPS); Ballistic
Armor Protection System; facilities; air worthiness support;
spares and repair parts; communications equipment; personnel
training and training equipment; site surveys; tool and test
equipment; Ground Support Equipment (GSE); repair and return;
publications and technical documentation; Quality Assurance
Team (QAT); U.S. Government and contractor engineering,
technical and logistics support services; and other related
elements of logistics and program support. The total overall
estimated value is $3.51 billion.
This proposed sale will contribute to the foreign policy
and national security of the United States by helping to
improve the security of a strategic partner which has been
and continues to be a leading contributor of political
stability and economic progress in the Middle East. This sale
will increase the Royal Saudi Land Forces Aviation Command's
(RSLFAC) interoperability with U.S. forces and convey U.S.
commitment to Saudi Arabia's security and armed forces
modernization.
The proposed sale of this equipment and support will not
alter the basic military balance in the region.
The proposed sale of the CH-47F aircraft will improve Saudi
Arabia's heavy lift capability. Saudi Arabia will use this
enhanced capability to strengthen its homeland defense and
deter regional threats. Saudi Arabia will have no difficulty
absorbing these aircraft into its armed forces.
The prime contractors will be The Boeing Military Aircraft
Company, Ridley Park, Pennsylvania, and Honeywell Aerospace
Company, Phoenix, Arizona. There are no known offset
agreements in connection with this potential sale.
Implementation of this sale will require up to sixty (60)
U.S. Government and contractor representatives to travel to
Saudi Arabia for up to sixty (60) months for equipment de-
processing, fielding, system checkout, training, and
technical logistics support.
There will be no adverse impact on U.S. defense readiness
as a result of this proposed sale.
Transmittal No. 16-31
Notice of Proposed Issuance of Letter of Offer Pursuant to
Section 36(b)(1) of the Arms Export Control Act
Annex Item No. vii
(vii) Sensitivity of Technology:
1. The CH-47F Chinook Cargo Helicopter is a medium-lift
helicopter equipped with the Common Avionics Architecture
System (CAAS) cockpit, which provides aircraft system,
flight, mission, and communication management systems, five
multifunction displays, two general purpose processor units,
two control display units and two data concentrator units.
The navigation system will have two Embedded Global
Positioning System/Inertial Navigation System (GPS/INS), two
Digital Advanced Flight Control Systems (DAFCS), one ARN-149
Automatic Direction Finder, one ARN-147 Very High Frequency
Omnidirectional Range/Instrument Landing System (VOR/ILS)
marker beacon system, one ARN-153 Tactical Airborne
Navigation (TACAN) system, two air data computers, and one
Radar Altimeter system. The aircraft survivability equipment
includes the AN/APR-39A(V)1/4 Radar Signal Detecting Set, and
the AN/AAR-57 Common Missile Warning System.
The Embedded Global Positioning System/Inertial Navigation
System (GPS/INS) is SECRET. The AN/AAR-57 Common Missile
Warning System (CMWS) is CONFIDENTIAL. Releasable technical
manuals for operation and maintenance are SECRET. The AN/APR-
39A(V)1/4 Series Radar Detecting Set (RDS) is SECRET. The AN/
AVR-2B, Laser Warning Set is CONFIDENTIAL. Releasable
technical manuals for operation and maintenance are SECRET.
The AN/ARC-231 (V)(C) is UNCLASSIFIED. The AN/ARC-201D Single
Channel Ground and Airborne Radio System (SINCGARS),
performance capabilities, Electronic Countermeasures/
Electronic Counter Counter-Measures (ECM/ECCM) specifications
and Engineering Change Orders (ECOs) are SECRET. The AN/APX-
123A, Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) Transponder is
UNCLASSIFIED. The AN/ARN-147, Very High Frequency Omni
Ranging/Instrument Landing System (VOR/ILS) receiver is
UNCLASSIFIED. The AN/ARC-220 is UNCLASSIFIED. The KN-77 is
UNCLASSIFIED. The AN/PYQ-10 (C) Simple Key Loader (SKL) is
UNCLASSIFIED. The TSEC KY-58 voice secure equipment is
CONFIDENTIAL if software fill is installed. The TSEC KY-100
voice secure equipment is used with the FM Command Radio to
provide secure two-way communication. It is Communications
Security (COMSEC) Equipment and is classified SECRET if
software fill is installed. The AN/AVS-6/7(V)1 is
UNCLASSIFIED.
2. If a technologically advanced adversary were to obtain
knowledge of the specific hardware and software elements, the
information could be used to develop countermeasures or
equivalent systems which might reduce weapon system
effectiveness.
3. A determination has been made that Saudi Arabia can
provide the same degree of protection for the sensitive
technology being released as the U.S. Government. This sale
is necessary in furtherance of the U.S. foreign policy and
national security objectives outlined in the Policy
Justification.
4. All defense articles and services listed in this
transmittal have been authorized for release and export to
the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
____
Defense Security
Cooperation Agency,
Arlington, VA.
Hon. Bob Corker,
Chairman, Committee on Foreign Relations,
U.S. Senate, Washington, DC.
Dear Mr. Chairman: Pursuant to the reporting requirements
of Section 36(b)(1) of the Arms Export Control Act, as
amended, we are forwarding herewith Transmittal No. 16-62,
concerning the Department of the Air Force's proposed
Letter(s) of Offer and Acceptance to the Government of Qatar
for defense articles and services estimated to cost $700
million. After this letter is delivered to your office, we
plan to issue a news release to notify the public of this
proposed sale.
Sincerely,
James Worm, Acting Deputy Director
(For J.W. Rixey, Vice Admiral, USN, Director).
Enclosures.
Transmittal No. 16-62
Notice of Proposed Issuance of Letter of Offer Pursuant to
Section 36(b)(1) of the Arms Export Control Act, as
amended
(i) Prospective Purchaser: Government of Qatar.
(ii) Total Estimated Value:
Major Defense Equipment (MDE)* $ 0 million.
Other $700 million,
Total $700 million.
(iii) Description and Quantity or Quantities of Articles or
Services under Consideration for Purchase:
Major Defense Equipment (MDE): None.
Non-MDE includes: Follow-on support for eight (8) C-17
aircraft, to include contract labor for sustainment
engineering, on-site COMSEC support, Quality Assurance,
support equipment repair, supply chain management, spares
replenishment, maintenance, back shop support, and
centralized maintenance support/associated services. Required
upgrades will include fixed installation satellite antenna,
Mode 5+ installation and sustainment, Automatic Dependent
Surveillance-Broadcast Out, and two special operations
loading ramps.
(iv) Military Department: Air Force (QAI).
(v) Prior Related Cases, if any: QA-D-QAB.
(vi) Sales Commission. Fee. etc., Paid, Offered, or Agreed
to be Paid: None.
(vii) Sensitivity of Technology Contained in the Defense
Article or Defense Services Proposed to be Sold: See Attached
Annex.
(viii) Date Report Delivered to Congress: December 7, 2016.
*As defined in Section 47(6) of the Arms Export Control
Act.
policy justification
Qatar--Continuation of Logistics Support Services and Equipment
The Government of Qatar has requested a possible sale of
continued logistics support for eight (8) C-17 aircraft which
will include contract labor for sustainment engineering, on-
site COMSEC support, Quality Assurance, support equipment
repair, supply chain management, spares replenishment,
maintenance, back shop support, and centralized maintenance
support/associated services. Required upgrades will include
fixed installation satellite antenna, Mode 5+ installation
and sustainment, Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast
Out, and two special operations loading ramps. The estimated
total cost is $700 million.
The proposed sale contributes to the foreign policy and
national security of the U.S. by helping to improve the
security of an important regional ally. Qatar is a vital
partner for political stability and economic progress in the
Middle East. The C-17 provides a heavy airlift capability and
complements the normal, day-to-day operations of the
Government of Qatar's C-130J fleet. Qatar will have no
difficulty absorbing this equipment into its armed forces.
The proposed sale will enhance Qatar's ability to operate
and maintain its C-17s, supporting its capability to provide
humanitarian aid in the Middle East and Africa region and
support its troops in coalition operations. Qatar's current
contract supporting its C-17 fleet will expire in September
of 2017.
The proposed sale of this equipment and support will not
alter the basic military balance in the region.
[[Page 15997]]
The prime contractor will be the Boeing Corporation of
Chicago, Illinois. The U.S. Government is not aware of any
known offsets associated with this sale. Any offset agreement
will be defined in negotiations between the purchaser and the
contractor.
Implementation of this sale will require the assignment of
approximately five additional U.S. Government and
approximately 50 contractor representatives to Qatar.
There will be no adverse impact on U.S. defense readiness,
as a result of this proposed sale.
Transmittal No. 16-62
Notice of Proposed Issuance of Letter of Offer Pursuant to
Section 36(b)(1) of the Arms Export Control Act
Annex A Item No. vii
(vii) Sensitivity of Technology:
1. This sale will involve the release of sensitive
technology to Qatar in the performance of services to sustain
eight (8) Qatar C-17 aircraft. While much of the below
equipment supporting the C-17 is not new to the country,
there will be replenishment spares of the below sensitive
technologies purchased to support the fleet.
2. The Force 524D is a 24-channel SAASM based Global
Positioning System (GPS) receiver, with precise positioning
service (PPS) capability built upon Trimble's next generation
OPS technology. The Force 524D retains backward compatibility
with the proven Force 5GS, while adding new functionality to
interface with digital antenna electronics, to significantly
improve anti-jam (AJ) performance. The host platform can
select the radio frequency (RF) or digital antenna
electronics (DAE) interface. In the digital mode, the Force
524D is capable of controlling up to 16 independent beams.
The hardware and software associated with the 524D receiver
card is UNCLASSIFIED.
3. The C-17 aircraft will be equipped with the GAS-1, which
is comprised of the Controlled Reception Pattern Antennas
(CRPA), with the associated wiring harness and the Antenna
Electronics (AE)-1, to provide AJ capability. The hardware is
UNCLASSIFIED.
4. The KIV-77 is the crypto applique for Mode V
Identification Friend of Foe (IFF). The hardware is
UNCLASSIFIED and COMSEC controlled.
5. Software, hardware, and other data/information, which is
classified or sensitive, is reviewed prior to release to
protect system vulnerabilities, design data, and performance
parameters. Some end-item hardware, software, and other data
identified above are classified at the CONFIDENTIAL and
SECRET level. Potential compromise of these systems is
controlled through management of the basic software programs,
of highly sensitive systems and software-controlled weapon
systems, on a case-by-case basis.
6. Qatar is both willing and able to protect United States
classified military information. Qatari physical and document
security standards are equivalent to U.S. standards. Qatar
has demonstrated its willingness and capability to protect
sensitive military technology and information released to its
military in the past.
7. If a technologically advanced adversary were to obtain
knowledge of the specific hardware or software source code in
this proposed sale, the information could be used to develop
countermeasures, which might reduce weapon system
effectiveness or be used in the development of systems with
similar or advanced capabilities. The benefits to be derived
from this sale in the furtherance of the U.S. foreign policy
and national security objectives, as outlined in the Policy
Justification, outweigh the potential damage that could
result if the sensitive technology, where revealed to
unauthorized persons.
8. All defense articles and services listed in this
transmittal are authorized for release and export to the
Government of Qatar.
____
Defense Security
Cooperation Agency,
Arlington, VA.
Hon. Bob Corker,
Chairman, Committee on Foreign Relations,
U.S. Senate, Washington, DC.
Dear Mr. Chairman: Pursuant to the reporting requirements
of Section 36(b)(I) of the Arms Export Control Act, as
amended, we are forwarding herewith Transmittal No. 16-61,
concerning the Department of the Air Force's proposed
Letter(s) of Offer and Acceptance to the Government of Qatar
for defense articles and services estimated to cost $81
million. After this letter is delivered to your office, we
plan to issue a news release to notify the public of this
proposed sale.
Sincerely,
James Worm, Acting Deputy Director
(For J.W. Rixey, Vice Admiral, USN, Director).
Enclosures.
Transmittal No. 16-61
Notice of Proposed Issuance of Letter of Offer Pursuant to
Section 36(b)(1) of the Arms Export Control Act, as
amended
(i) Prospective Purchaser: Government of Qatar.
(ii) Total Estimated Value:
Major Defense Equipment (MDE)* $51 million.
Other $30 million.
Total $81 million.
(iii) Description and Quantity or Quantities of Articles or
Services under Consideration for Purchase:
Major Defense Equipment (MDE): Four (4) F117-PW-100 C17
Engines (spares).
Non-MDE includes: Quick Engine Change (QEC) Kits, Engine
Transport Trailers, Engine Platforms, Engine Trailers, and
other various support.
(iv) Military Department: Air Force (LAC).
(v) Prior Related Cases, if any: QA-D-QAB.
(vi) Sales Commission, Fee. etc., Paid, Offered, or Agreed
to be Paid: None.
(vii) Sensitivity of Technology Contained in the Defense
Article or Defense Services Proposed to be Sold: None.
(viii) Date Report Delivered to Congress: December 7, 2016.
*As defined in Section 47(6) of the Arms Export Control
Act.
policy justification
Qatar--Spare C-17 Engines and Equipment
The Government of Qatar has requested a possible sale of
the following in support of its eight (8) C-17 Globemaster
III aircraft procured under a Direct Commercial Sale (DCS):
four (4) spare F117-PW-100 engines, Quick Engine Change (QEC)
Kits, Engine Transport Trailers, Engine Platforms, Engine
Trailers, and other various support. The estimated total
program cost is $81 million.
The proposed sale would contribute to the foreign policy
and national security of the U.S. by helping to improve the
security of an important regional ally. Qatar is a vital
partner for political stability and economic progress in the
Middle East. The C-17 provides a heavy airlift capability and
complements the normal, day-to-day operations of Qatar's C-
130J fleet. Qatar will have no difficulty absorbing this
equipment into its armed forces.
The proposed sale would enhance Qatar's ability to operate
and maintain its C-17s, supporting its capability to provide
humanitarian aid in the Middle East and Africa region and
support its troops in coalition operations.
The proposed sale of this equipment and support will not
alter the basic military balance in the region.
The prime contractor will be the Boeing Corporation of
Chicago, Illinois. The U.S. Government is not aware of any
known offsets associated with this sale. Any offset agreement
will be defined in negotiations between the purchaser and the
contractor.
Implementation of this proposed sale will not alter current
assignment of additional U.S. Government or contractor
representatives to Qatar. The number of U.S. Government and
contractor representatives required in Qatar to support the
program will be determined in joint negotiations as the
program proceeds through the development, production and
equipment installation phases.
There is no adverse impact on U.S. defense readiness as a
result of this proposed sale. All defense articles and
services listed in this transmittal are authorized for
release and export to the Government of Qatar.
____
Defense Security
Cooperation Agency,
Arlington, VA.
Hon. Bob Corker,
Chairman, Committee on Foreign Relations,
U.S. Senate, Washington, DC.
Dear Mr. Chairman: Pursuant to the reporting requirements
of Section 36(b)(1) of the Arms Export Control Act, as
amended, we are forwarding herewith Transmittal No. 16-52,
concerning the Department of the Army's proposed Letter(s) of
Offer and Acceptance to the Kingdom of Morocco for defense
articles and services estimated to cost $108 million. After
this letter is delivered to your office, we plan to issue a
news release to notify the public of this proposed sale.
Sincerely,
James Worm, Acting Deputy Director
(For J.W. Rixey, Vice Admiral, USN, Director).
Enclosures.
Transmittal No. 16-52
Notice of Proposed Issuance of Letter of Offer Pursuant to
Section 36(b)(I) of the Arms Export Control Act, as
amended
(i) Prospective Purchaser. Kingdom of Morocco.
(ii) Total Estimated Value:
Major Defense Equipment* $101 million.
Other: $7 million.
Total: $108 million.
(iii) Description and Quantity or Quantities of Articles or
Services under Consideration for Purchase:
Major Defense Equipment (MDE):
One thousand two-hundred (1,200) TOW 2A, Radio Frequency
(RF) Missiles (BGM-71-4B-RF)
Fourteen (14) TOW 2A, Radio Frequency (RF) Missiles (Fly-
to-Buy Lot Acceptance Missiles)
Non-MDE includes: U.S. Government and contractor
engineering; technical and logistics support services; and
other related elements of logistics and program support.
(iv) Military Department: Army (VTG).
(v) Prior Related Cases, if any: MO-B-USZ for $137,034.913
signed on 4 May 2016.
(vi) Sales Commission, Fee. etc., Paid, Offered, or Agreed
to be Paid: None.
(vii) Sensitivity of Technology Contained in the Defense
Article or Defense Services Proposed to be Sold: See Attached
Annex.
[[Page 15998]]
(viii) Date Report Delivered to Congress: December 7, 2016.
*As defined in Section 47(6) of the Arms Export Control
Act.
policy justification
Government of Morocco--Radio Frequency (RF) TOW 2A, Radio Frequency
(RF) Missile (BGM-71-4B-RF and Support)
The Government of Morocco has requested a possible sale of
one thousand two-hundred (1,200) TOW 2A, Radio Frequency (RF)
Missiles (BGM-71-413-RF) and fourteen (14) TOW 2A, Radio
Frequency (RF) Missiles (Fly-to-Buy Lot Acceptance Missiles).
Also included with this request is U.S. Government and
contractor engineering, technical and logistics support
services; and other related elements of logistics and program
support. The estimated MDE sale is $101 million. The total
estimated value is $108 million.
This proposed sale will contribute to the foreign policy
and national security of the United States by helping to
improve the security of a Major Non-NATO Ally that continues
to be an important force for the political stability and
economic progress in North Africa. This proposed sale
directly supports Morocco and serves the interests of the
Moroccan people and the United States.
The proposed sale of TOW 2A Missiles and technical support
will advance Morocco's efforts to develop an integrated
ground defense capability. Morocco will have no difficulty
absorbing this equipment into its armed forces.
The proposed sale of this equipment and support will not
alter the basic military balance in the region.
The principal contractors involved in this program are:
Raytheon Missile Systems, Tucson, Arizona. There are no known
offset agreements proposed in connection with this potential
sale.
Implementation of this proposed sale will require the U.S.
Government or contractor representatives to travel to
Morocco.
There will be no adverse impact on U.S. defense readiness
as a result of this proposed sale.
Transmittal No. 16-52
Notice of Proposed Issuance of Letter of Offer Pursuant to
Section 36(b)(1) of the Arms Export Control Act, as
amended
Annex Item No. vii
(vii) Sensitivity of Technology:
1. The Radio Frequency (RF) TOW 2A Missile (BGM-71E-4B-RF)
is designed to defeat armored vehicles, reinforced urban
structures, field fortifications and other such targets. TOW
missiles are fired from a variety of TOW launchers in the
U.S. Army, USMC, and FMS customer forces. The TOW 2A RF
missile can be launched from the same launcher platforms as
the existing wire-guided TOW 2A missile without modification
to the launcher. The TOW 2A missile (both wire & RF) contains
two trackers for the launcher to track and guide the missile
in flight. Guidance commands from the launcher are provided
to the missile by a RF link contained within the missile
case. The hardware, software, and technical publications
provided with the sale thereof are UNCLASSIFIED. However, the
system itself contains sensitive technology that instructs
the system on how to operate in the presence of
countermeasures.
2. The highest level of classified information that must be
disclosed in training to use the end item is UNCLASSIFIED.
The highest level of classified information that must be
disclosed in maintenance of the end item is UNCLASSIFIED. The
highest level of classified information that could be
disclosed by sale of the end item is SECRET. The highest
level of classified information that could be revealed by
testing the end item is SECRET. The highest level of
classified information that could be revealed by reverse
engineering of the end item is SECRET.
3. If a technologically advanced adversary were to obtain
knowledge of the specific hardware and software elements, the
information could be used to develop countermeasures that
might reduce weapon system effectiveness or be used in the
development of a system with similar or advanced
capabilities.
4. All defense articles and services listed in this
transmittal have been authorized for release and export to
the Government of Morocco.
____
Defense Security
Cooperation Agency,
Arlington, VA.
Hon. Bob Corker,
Chairman, Committee on Foreign Relations,
U.S. Senate, Washington, DC.
Dear Mr. Chairman: Pursuant to the reporting requirements
of Section 36(b)(1) of the Arms Export Control Act, as
amended, we are forwarding herewith Transmittal No. 16-15,
concerning the Department of the Army's proposed Letter(s) of
Offer and Acceptance to the Government of the United Arab
Emirates for defense articles and services estimated to cost
$3.5 billion. After this letter is delivered to your office,
we plan to issue a news release to notify the public of this
proposed sale.
Sincerely,
J.W. Rixey,
Vice Admiral, USN, Director.
Enclosures.
Transmittal No. 16-15
Notice of Proposed Issuance of Letter of Offer Pursuant to
Section 36(b)(1) of the Arms Export Control Act, as
amended
Prospective Purchaser: United Arab Emirates.
(ii) Total Estimated Value:
Major Defense Equipment* $1.68 billion
Other $1.82 billion
Total $3.50 billion
(iii) Description and Ouantity or Quantities of Articles or
Services under Consideration for Purchase:
Major Defense Equipment (MDE):
Twenty-eight (28) AH-64E Remanufactured Apache Attack
Helicopters.
Nine (9) new AH-64E Apache Attack Helicopters.
Seventy-six (76) T700-GE-701D Engines (56 remanufactured,
18 new, 2 spares).
Thirty-nine (39) AN/ASQ-170 Modernized Target Acquisition
and Designation Sight/AN/AAR-11 Modernized Pilot Night Vision
Sensors (28 remanufactured, 9 new, 2 spares).
Thirty-two (32) remanufactured AN/APR-48B Modernized--Radar
Frequency Interferometers.
Forty-six (46) AAR-57 Common Missile Warning Systems (31
remanufactured, 9 new, 6 spares).
Eighty-eight (88) Embedded Global Positioning Systems with
Inertial Navigation (72 new, 16 spares).
Forty-four (44) Manned-Unmanned Teaming-International
(MUMTi) Systems (28 remanufactured, 9 new, 7 spares).
Fifteen (15) new MUMTi System Upper Receivers.
Non-MDE: Training devices, helmets, simulators, generators,
transportation, wheeled vehicles and organization equipment,
spare and repair parts, support equipment, tools and test
equipment, technical data and publications, personnel
training and training equipment, U.S. government and
contractor engineering, technical, and logistics support
services, and other related elements of logistics support.
(iv) Military Department: Army (AE-B-GUA).
(v) Prior Related Cases. if any: FMS case: AE-B-JAH-02 Jan
92-$617M, FMS case: AE-B-UDE-06 Jan 00-$195M, FMS case: AE-B-
UDN-28 Nov 05-$755M, FMS case: AE-B-ZUL-21 Oct 09-$252M, FMS
case: AE-B-ZUF-22 Dec 08-$174M
(vi) Sales Commission, Fee, etc., Paid, Offered. or Agreed
to be Paid: None.
(vii) Sensitivity of Technology Contained in the Defense
Article or Defense Services Proposed to be Sold: See Annex
Attached.
(viii) Date Report Delivered to Congress: December 7, 2016.
*As defined in Section 47(6) of the Arms Export Control
Act.
POLICY JUSTIFICATION
United Arab Emirates--Apache AH-64E Helicopters and Services
The Government of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has
requested a possible sale of twenty-eight (28) AH-64E
Remanufactured Apache Attack Helicopters; nine (9) new AH-64E
Apache Attack Helicopters; Seventy-six (76) T700-GE-701D
Engines (56 remanufactured, 18 new, 2 spares); thirty-nine
(39) AN/ASQ-170 Modernized Target Acquisition and Designation
Sight/AN/AAR-11 Modernized Pilot Night Vision Sensors (28
remanufactured, 9 new, 2 spares); thirty-two (32)
remanufactured AN/APR-48B Modernized--Radar Frequency
Interferometers forty-six (46) AAR-57 Common Missile Warning
Systems (31 remanufactured, 9 new, 6 spares); eighty-eight
(88) Embedded Global Positioning Systems with Inertial
Navigation (72 new, 16 spares); forty-four (44) Manned-
Unmanned Teaming-International (MUMTi) systems (28
remanufactured, 9 new, 7 spares); and fifteen (15) new MUMTi
System Upper Receivers. This request also includes training
devices, helmets, simulators, generators, transportation,
wheeled vehicles and organization equipment, spare and repair
parts, support equipment, tools and test equipment, technical
data and publications, personnel training and training
equipment, U.S. government and contractor engineering,
technical, and logistics support services, and other related
elements of logistics support. Total estimated program cost
is $3.5 billion.
This proposed sale will enhance the foreign policy and
national security of the U.S. by helping to improve the
security of a friendly country that has been and continues to
be an important force for political stability and economic
progress in the Middle East.
The proposed sale will improve the UAE's capability to meet
current and future threats and provide greater security for
its critical infrastructure. The UAE will use the enhanced
capability to strengthen its homeland defense. The UAE will
have no difficulty absorbing these Apache aircraft into its
armed forces.
The proposed sale of this equipment and support will not
alter the basic military balance in the region.
The prime contractor will be Boeing in Mesa, AZ and
Lockheed Martin in Orlando, FL. Offsets are a requirement of
doing business in UAE; however offsets are negotiated
directly between the Original Equipment Manufactures or other
vendors and the UAE government and details are not known at
this time.
Implementation of this proposed sale will not require the
assignment of contractor representatives to the UAE.
[[Page 15999]]
There will be no adverse impact on U.S. defense readiness
as a result of this proposed sale.
Transmittal No. 16-15
Notice of Proposed Issuance of Letter of Offer Pursuant to
Section 36(b)(1) of the Arms Export Control Act
Annex Item No. vii
(vii) Sensitivity of Technology:
1. The AH-64E Apache Attack Helicopter weapon system
contains communications and target identification equipment,
navigation equipment, aircraft survivability equipment,
displays, and sensors. The airframe itself does not contain
sensitive technology; however, the pertinent equipment listed
below will be either installed on the aircraft or included in
the sale:
a. The AN/APG-78 Fire Control Radar (FCR) is an active,
low-probability of intercept, millimeter-wave radar, combined
with a passive AN/APR-48B Modernized Radar Frequency
Interferometer (M-RFI) mounted on top of the helicopter mast.
The FCR Ground Targeting Mode detects, locates, classifies
and prioritizes stationary or moving armored vehicles, tanks
and mobile air defense systems as well as hovering
helicopters, helicopters, and fixed wing aircraft in normal
flight if desired, the radar data can be used to refer
targets to the regular electro-optical Modernized Target
Acquisition and Designation Sight (MTADS). This information
is provided in a form that cannot be extracted by the foreign
user. The content of these items is classified SECRET. User
Data Module (UDM) on the RFI processor, contains the Radio
Frequency threat library. The UDM, which is a hardware
assemblage, is classified CONFIDENTIAL when programmed with
threat parameters, threat priorities and/or techniques
derived from U.S. intelligence information.
b. The AN/ASQ-170 Modernized Target Acquisition and
Designation Sight/AN/AAQ-11 Pilot Night Vision Sensor (MTADS/
PNVS) provides day, night, and limited adverse weather target
information, as well as night navigation capabilities. The
PNVS provides thermal imaging that permits nap-of-the-earth
flight to, from, and within the battle area, while TADS
provides the co-pilot gunner with search, detection,
recognition, and designation by means of Direct View Optics
(DVO), EI\2\television, and Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR)
sighting systems that may be used singularly or in
combinations. Hardware is UNCLASSIFIED. Technical manuals for
authorized maintenance levels are UNCLASSIFIED. Reverse
engineering is not a major concern.
c. The AN/APR-48B Modernized Radar Frequency Interferometer
(M-RFI) is an updated version of the passive radar detection
and direction finding system. It utilizes a detachable UDM on
the M-RFI processor, which contains the Radar Frequency (RF)
threat library. The UDM, which is a hardware assemblage item
is classified CONFIDENTIAL when programmed. Hardware becomes
CLASSIFIED when populated with threat parametric data.
Releasable technical manuals are Unclassified/restricted
distribution.
d. The AAR-57 Common Missile Warning System (CMWS) detects
energy emitted by threat missiles in-flight, evaluates
potential false alarm emitters in the environment, declares
validity of threat and selects appropriate countermeasures.
The CMWS consists of an Electronic Control Unit (ECU),
Electro-Optic Missile Sensors (EOMSs), and Sequencer and
Improved Countermeasures Dispenser (ICMD). The ECU hardware
is classified CONFIDENTIAL; releasable technical manuals for
operation and maintenance are classified SECRET.
e. The AN/APR-39 Radar Signal Detecting Set is a system
that provides warnings of radar-directed air defense threats
and allows appropriate countermeasures. This is the 1553
databus-compatible configuration. The hardware is classified
CONFIDENTIAL when programmed with U.S. threat data;
releasable technical manuals for operation and maintenance
are classified CONFIDENTIAL; releasable technical data
(technical performance) is classified SECRET. The system can
be programmed with threat data provided by the purchasing
country.
f. The AN/AVR-2B Laser Warning Set is a passive laser
warning system that receives, processes, and displays threat
information resulting from aircraft illumination by lasers on
the multi-functional display. The hardware is classified
CONFIDENTIAL; releasable technical manuals for operation and
maintenance are classified SECRET.
g. The Embedded Global Positioning System/Inertial
Navigation System plus MultiMode Receiver (EGI+MMR). The
aircraft has two EGIs which use internal accelerometers, rate
gyro measurements, and external sensor measurements to
estimate the aircraft state, provides aircraft flight and
position data to aircraft systems. The EGI is a velocity-
aided, strap down, ring laser gyro based inertial unit. The
EGI unit houses a GPS receiver. The receiver is capable of
operating in either non-encrypted or encrypted. When keyed,
the GPS receiver will automatically use anti-spoof/jam
capabilities when they are in use. The EGI will retain the
key through power on/off/on cycles. Because of safeguards
built into the EGI, it is not considered classified when
keyed. Integrated within the EGI is an Inertial Measurement
Unit (IMU) for processing functions. Each EGI also houses a
Multi-Mode Receiver (MMR). The MMR is incorporated to provide
for reception of ground based NAVAID signals for instrument
aided flight. Provides IMC I IFR integration and
certification of improved Embedded Global Positioning System
and Inertial (EGI) unit, with attached MMR, with specific
cockpit instrumentation allows Apaches to operate within the
worldwide IFR route structure. Also includes integration of
the Common Army Aviation Map (CAAM), Area Navigation (RNAV),
Digital Aeronautical Flight Information File (DAFIF) and
Global Air Traffic Management (GATM) compliance.
h. Manned-Unmanned Teaming-International (MUMT-I) provides
Manned-Unmanned Teaming with Unmanned Aerial Systems (UASs),
other Apaches and other interoperable aircraft and land
platforms. Provides ability to display real-time UAS sensor
information to aircraft and transmit MTADS video. Capability
to receive video and metadata from Interoperability Profile
compliant (IOP) as well as legacy systems. It is a data link
for the AH-64E that provides a fully integrated multiband,
interoperable capability that allows pilots to receive off-
board sensor video streaming from different platforms in non-
Tactical Common Data Link (TCDL) bands. The MUMT-I data link
can retransmit Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) or Apache
Modernized Target Acquisition Designation Sight full-motion
sensor video and metadata to another MUMT-I-equipped Apache.
It can also transmit to ground forces equipped with the One
Station Remote Video Terminal. It provides Apache aircrews
with increased situational awareness and net-centric
interoperability while significantly reducing sensor-to-
shooter timelines. This combination results in increased
survivability of Apache aircrews and ground forces by
decreasing their exposure to hostile fire.
i. Link 16 is a military tactical data exchange network.
Its specification is part of the family of Tactical Data
Links. Link 16 provides aircrews with enhanced situational
awareness and the ability to exchange target information to
Command and Control (C2) assets via Tactical Digital
Information Link-Joint (TADIL-J). Link 16 can provide a range
of combat information in near-real time to U.S. and allies'
combat aircraft and C2 centers. This will contribute to the
integrated control of fighters by either ground-based or
airborne controllers and will greatly increase the fighters'
situational awareness and ability either to engage targets
designated by controllers or to avoid threats, thereby
increasing mission effectiveness and reducing fratricide and
attrition. The Link 16 enables the Apache to receive
information from the command-and-control platforms and
enables it to share this data with all the other services,
making it more efficient at locating and prosecuting targets.
The material solution for the AH-64E is currently the Small
Tactical Terminal (SIT) KOR-24A from Harris to satisfy its
requirement for an Airborne and Maritime/Fixed Station (AMF)
Small Airborne Link 16 Terminal (SALT). The SIT is the latest
generation of small, two-channel, Link 16 and VHF/UHF radio
terminals. While in flight, the SIT provides simultaneous
communication, voice or data, on two key waveforms.
2. If a technologically advanced adversary were to obtain
knowledge of the specific hardware and software elements, the
information could be used to develop countermeasures which
might reduce weapon system effectiveness or be used in the
development of a system with similar or advanced
capabilities.
3. A determination has been made that the recipient country
can provide the same degree of protection for the sensitive
technology being released as the U.S. Government. This sale
is necessary in furtherance of the U.S. foreign policy and
national security objectives outlined in the Policy
Justification.
4. All defense articles and services listed in this
transmittal have been authorized for release and export to
the Government of the United Arab Emirates.
____________________
21ST CENTURY CURES BILL
Mr. RUBIO. Mr. President, I am pleased to see that the 21st Century
Cures Act will fix one of the issues associated with payments for
hospital outpatient departments that arose from the Bipartisan Budget
Act of 2015. You will recall that section 603 of that act changed the
way these departments will be reimbursed by Medicare in the future.
Hospital outpatient departments that were billing Medicare prior to
November 2, 2015, however, were exempted from these reduced payments.
We have heard from a number of hospitals in Florida that were in the
middle of developing hospital outpatient departments when the new law
went into effect. They had made substantial investments in these new
departments under the assumption that Medicare
[[Page 16000]]
would pay them just as it had been doing for years. I am pleased to see
that the 21st Century Cures Act will permit hospitals that were in the
process of developing outpatient departments to be reimbursed under the
previous payment system.
In my State, Jackson Health System, a large public hospital which is
known throughout the world for its high-quality healthcare and its
value as a public hospital in our community, was in the process of
building four new outpatient departments for patients in the Miami-Dade
County area when the new law was passed. They had executed binding
leases on three of the departments, constructed facilities, and
finalized contracts for architectural and engineering reviews on
several of the facilities. They had gone through a long process of
getting the necessary approvals and financing from the county and State
governments.
It is obvious that all four of Jackson's outpatient facilities meet
the ``mid-build'' exception contained in section 16001 of the 21st
Century Cures Act. The actual construction of these facilities was
complete, and Jackson was in the process of securing all the necessary
requirements for the renovations of these facilities when the new law
was passed on November 2, 2015. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
Services, CMS, clearly agreed when they issued provider numbers to all
four new outpatient departments in September and October 2015. For
hospitals like Jackson, the subsequent change in the law essentially
changed the rules in the middle of the game. I urge CMS to work with
all hospitals in similar situations.
I am very pleased that the 21st Century Cures Act will provide relief
to the Jackson Health System and hospitals like it that had made these
investments in future outpatient healthcare departments prior to the
Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
____________________
FEDERAL RULE OF CRIMINAL PROCEDURE 41
Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the following
letters from law enforcement groups be printed in the Record in support
of the recent changes to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 41 that was
the subject of debate on the floor of the Senate on November 30, 2016:
a December 6, 2016, letter signed by the Association of State Criminal
Investigative Agencies, the International Association of Chiefs of
Police, the Major Cities Chiefs Association, the National District
Attorneys Association, the National Sheriffs' Association, and the
Sergeant's Benevolent Association NYPD; a December 5, 2016, letter
signed by the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association; a December
5, 2016, letter signed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation Agents
Association; a December 5, 2016, letter signed by the National
Fraternal Order of Police; and, a December 5, 2016, letter signed by
the National Association to Protect Children.
December 6, 2016.
Re: Rule 41 Changes.
Hon. Chuck Grassley,
Chairman
Hon. Patrick Leahy,
Ranking Member, Committee on the Judiciary,
U.S. Senate, Washington, DC.
Dear Chairman Grassley and Ranking Member Leahy: We write
in support of changes to Rule 41 of the Federal Rules of
Criminal Procedure that improve the ability of law
enforcement to obtain evidence despite efforts by criminals
to hide behind technology. The changes encourage judicial
oversight of complex online investigations and give
investigators a clear roadmap to seek authorization for their
techniques.
Rule 41 improvements help solve a simple conundrum for law
enforcement: if you don't know where a computer is located
that is being used to commit a crime, how do you know which
court to ask for a search warrant to find the computer?
Investigators sought these common-sense changes because they
needed court oversight and authorization to identify
criminals hiding behind technological barriers, not because
they wanted to avoid oversight.
Rule 41 only governs cases where investigators are seeking
a search warrant issued by a neutral magistrate based upon
probable cause, particularly describing the place to be
searched and the persons or things to be seized. If these
changes are not made, then criminals could hide behind
anonymizing services with impunity, knowing that law
enforcement could never lawfully figure out which court had
jurisdiction over them.
The stated goal of several legislative reforms addressing
law enforcement access to digital evidence is to modernize
the law to accommodate changing technology, preserving law
enforcement access while protecting privacy. Ensuring that
law enforcement can access evidence it needs with appropriate
judicial oversight is precisely what these Rule 41 changes
will do.
Sincerely,
Association of State Criminal Investigative Agencies,
International Association of Chiefs of Police,
Major Cities Chiefs Association,
Major County Sheriffs' Association,
National Association of Police Organizations,
National District Attorneys Association National Sheriffs'
Association,
National Sheriffs' Association,
Sergeant's Benevolent Association NYPD.
____
Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association,
Washington, DC, December 5, 2016.
Re: Rule 41 Amendments.
Hon. Mitch McConnell,
Majority Leader, U.S. Senate, U.S. Capitol, Washington, DC,
Hon. Charles E. Grassley,
Chairman, Senate Committee on the Judiciary,
U.S. Senate, Washington, DC.
Hon. Harry Reid,
Minority Leader, U.S. Senate,
Washington, DC.
Hon. Patrick J. Leahy,
Ranking Member, Senate Committee on the Judiciary,
U.S. Senate, Washington, DC.
Dear Senators: On behalf of the Federal Law Enforcement
Officers Association (FLEOA)--the nation's largest
professional, non-profit association representing over 26,000
federal law enforcement officers from 65 agencies--I am
writing to express our strong support for the recently
implemented amendments to Rule 41 of the Federal Rules of
Criminal Procedure. These amendments will enhance and improve
the ability for law enforcement officials to investigate and
prosecute terrorists, transnational child pornographers, and
cyber criminals who use computer networks to conceal their
physical location.
FLEOA shares the same opinion of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation Agent's Association (FBIAA), the National
Association of Assistant United States Attorneys (NAAUSA) and
the National Association to Protect Children. We all agree
that the Rule 41 amendments are necessary to address
investigative hindrances that result from the difficulty of
identifying the exact location of a computer when seeking a
warrant. Terrorists and criminals frequently use complex
computer networks, spread across the country and the world to
anonymize communications, but the previous version of Rule 41
only allowed magistrate judges to issue warrants for evidence
within their jurisdictions. This situation created ambiguity
and significant burdens for investigators allowing
transnational sexual predators and cyber criminals anonymity.
The Rule 41 amendments resolve the uncertainty surrounding
the warrant process by establishing a court-supervised
framework for conducting investigations that will protect the
privacy interests of the public. FLEOA believes these
changes, which took effect on December 1, 2016 are reasonable
and necessary.
Respectively,
Nathan Catura,
FLEOA National President.
____
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Agents Association,
Alexandria, VA, December 5, 2016.
Re: Rule 41 Amendments.
Hon. Mitch McConnell,
Majority Leader, U.S. Senate, Washington, DC.
Hon. Charles E. Grassley,
Chairman, Senate Committee on the Judiciary,
U.S. Senate, Washington, DC.
Hon. Harry Reid,
Minority Leader, U.S. Senate, Washington, DC.
Hon. Patrick J. Leahy,
Ranking Member, Senate Committee on the Judiciary,
U.S. Senate, Washington, DC.
Dear Senators: On behalf of the FBI Agents Association
(``FBIAA''), a voluntary professional association currently
representing over 13,000 active duty and retired FBI Special
Agents, I write to express our
[[Page 16001]]
support for the recently implemented amendments to Rule 41 of
the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure (``Rule 41''). These
amendments will enhance the ability for law enforcement
officials to investigate and prosecute criminals, such as
terrorists and child pornographers, who use computer networks
to disguise their physical location.
The FBIAA shares the opinion of FBI Director Comey and the
Department of Justice that the narrow changes included in the
Rule 41 amendments are necessary to address investigative
obstacles that result from the difficulty of identifying the
specific location of a computer when seeking a warrant.
Criminals frequently use complex computer networks spread
across the country and the world to anonymize their
communications, but the previous version of Rule 41 only
allowed magistrate judges to issue warrants for evidence
within their jurisdictions. This situation created
uncertainty and significant administrative burdens for
investigators, and as Director Comey noted earlier this year,
the previous iteration of Rule 41 created problems ``for some
of our most important investigations.''
The Rule 41 amendments resolve the uncertainty surrounding
the warrant process by establishing a court-supervised
framework for conducting investigations that will protect the
privacy interests of the public. The FBIAA believes these
changes, which took effect on December 1, 2016, are
reasonable and necessary.
The FBIAA is pleased that the Senate did not interfere with
the implementation of the Rule 41 amendments, and we look
forward to continuing our work with Congress on these
important issues.
If you have any questions, please contact me, FBIAA General
Counsel Dee Martin, [email protected], and Joshua
Zive, [email protected].
Sincerely,
Thomas O'Connor,
President.
____
National Fraternal
Order of Police,
Washington, DC, December 5, 2016.
Hon. Charles E. Grassley,
Chairman, Committee on the Judiciary,
U.S. Senate, Washington, DC.
Hon. Patrick J. Leahy,
Ranking Member, Committee on the Judiciary,
U.S. Senate, Washington, DC.
Dear Mr. Chairman and Senator Leahy, I am writing on behalf
of the members of the Fraternal Order of Police to advise you
of our strong and continued support for the changes to Rule
41 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure made by the
U.S. Department of Justice.
The FOP supports these changes and we believe they will
benefit law enforcement officers conducting online
investigations. These changes will ensure that Federal agents
know which judge to go to in order to apply for a warrant
when the cybercriminals they are investigating have hidden
their location through anonymizing technology. This search
warrant will help law enforcement discover where these
criminals are located and end their illicit activity.
Law enforcement officers are now able to obtain warrants
from a single judge instead of multiple applications in many
jurisdictions to obtain the same information. This will help
speed up investigations into crimes like computer hacking,
where offenders unlawfully access computers remotely and
cross jurisdictional boundaries.
On behalf of the more than 330,000 members of the Fraternal
Order of Police, I want to thank you for your consistent
strong support for the men and women of law enforcement
throughout this country. I look forward to working with you
and your staff on this issue. If I can be of any additional
help in this matter, please do not hesitate to contact me or
Executive Director Jim Pasco in my Washington office.
Sincerely,
Chuck Canterbury,
National President.
____
National Association to
Protect Children,
Knoxville, TN, December 5, 2016.
Hon. John Cornyn:
U.S. Senate, Majority Whip, Chair, Judiciary Subcommittee on
The Constitution, Washington, DC.
Dear Senator Cornyn, We are writing you in support of the
amendment to the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, Rule
41. It has been with great concern over the last decade that
we have watched as child sexual predators take advantage of
new technologies, including ways to hide their exploitation
of children through the use of proxies, anonymizers and
encryption.
The internet was not created to give technologically savvy
offenders an advantage in obfuscating their crimes, and
offenders who participate in the global demand for the rape
and torture of children should not be rewarded for being good
at hiding.
Make no mistake, the offenders who take advantage of the
``dark web'' are some of the most dangerous offenders that
exist. For proof of this one need look no further than one of
the most notorious ICE cases in history, the recent
``Operation Delego''. This transnational child exploitation
case involved between 600-900 of the worst offenders ICE has
seen. It led to 72 indictments (of which 15 are for ``John
Doe'' warrants) and 57 arrests. This investigation uncovered
a private bulletin board where hands on offenders produced
hardcore child rape imagery and shared it by utilizing
sophisticated proxies and encryption methods. The members
were segregated into groups, including a ``Super VIP''
section and according to the ``Hawkeye Indictment'' provided
by the US Department of Justice, ``The rules controlling what
could be posted in that section were as follows:
``Keep the girls under 13, in fact, I really need to see 12
or younger to know your (sic) a brother''.
and:
``It's very young kids, getting (expletive), and preteens
in distress and or crying, etc. . . . Getting hit hard on the
ass, with a belt and so on . . . I can't believe some of you
guys can't work it out for yourselves? And ``pretend''
bondage, ``pretend light whipping'' is not super hardcore. If
the girl looks total (sic) comfortable, she's not in
distress, it does NOT belong I (sic) this section (smiley
face icon)''.
In another transnational child exploitation case
investigated by ICE dubbed ``Operation Round Table'',
Jonathon Johnson, a 27 year old predator from Louisiana,
operated a 27,000 member hidden service site on TOR for the
production and dissemination of child sexual abuse images.
Johnson created a ``honeypot'' site by stealing a young
woman's identity and pretending to be her. Not only did he
persuade over 251 child victims to provide him with sexually
explicit images and video but he was successful in convincing
some of his victims to sexually assault their younger
relatives on camera for him, some of whom were under the age
of 3.
We applaud Congress and the US Supreme Court for providing
this amendment to rule 41, which can only be described as
long overdue.
The internet has provided vexing challenges to today's law
enforcement efforts to protect children and for their sake
government must keep pace.
With much gratitude,
Camille Cooper,
Director, Government Affairs, The National Association to
PROTECT Children & PROTECT.
____________________
TRIBUTE TO DEPARTING SENATORS
Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, today I wish to honor our colleagues
who are leaving us at the end of this Congress, six individuals who
have done a lot to shape how the Senate operates today.
First I would like to thank my three Republican colleagues who are
departing. Thank you not only for their service to our country but your
willingness to work with me and other members of my party on a number
of issues.
Dan Coats
Mr. President, Senator Coats and I served on the Intelligence
Committee together. He was a supporter of many of our efforts,
including our encryption bill to require all companies to abide by
lawful court orders.
Mark Kirk
Mr. President, Senator Mark Kirk took a brave stance on gun violence
issues, bucking his party by cosponsoring our amendment to close the
terrorist loophole.
Kelly Ayotte
Mr. President, Senator Ayotte and I have worked very closely to
improve breast cancer detection. I am hopeful that together we can pass
our bill before the end of this Congress.
I would also like to speak to three of my closest colleagues on our
side of the aisle.
Over the past 24 years, I have had the pleasure of serving in the
Senate with Harry Reid, Barbara Mikulski, and Barbara Boxer, and I am
grateful not just for our working relationships but for the close
friendships I have formed with each of them.
Harry Reid
Mr. President, Senator Reid has served in Congress since 1983, and he
has been our party's leader for the past decade. Despite more than
three decades in Washington, Senator Reid still retains the values
instilled in him while growing up in Searchlight, NV. Often described
as a tough fighter, he has respect from both sides of the aisle for
being a consensus builder who is willing to constantly work to find a
deal.
One issue on which Senator Reid and I share a passion is Lake Tahoe,
the High Sierra lake that straddles the California-Nevada border.
[[Page 16002]]
Twenty years ago, Harry invited President Bill Clinton to announce a
major commitment to restoring the health of Lake Tahoe. That first
summit launched a public-private partnership that has now invested $1.2
billion in conservation and restoration projects around the lake.
This year, Senator Reid told me he wanted to turn the annual summit
into a celebration by inviting President Obama to speak. The event was
a huge success, with more than 7,000 people attending.
I will miss Harry's passion and leadership, but if anyone deserves a
break, it is him.
Barbara Mikulski
Mr. President, Barbara Mikulski is another fearless leader whom I
admire.
When I first came to the Senate in November of 1992, there were only
three female Senators: Jocelyn Burdick of North Dakota, who retired a
month later; Nancy Kassebaum of Kansas; and, of course, Senator Barb.
Senator Mikulski often quips, ``I may be short, but I won't be
overlooked.'' History certainly will not overlook the contributions she
has made.
Rising to become the first woman to chair the Senate Appropriations
Committee, Senator Mikulski is often described as a trailblazer. To the
women in the Senate, she is a mentor, the dean of the Senate women.
From three women in 1992 to 20 women senators today--and 21 in the
next Congress, much of that progress can be attributed to the
leadership of the longest serving woman in Congress, Senator Mikulski.
Barbara Boxer
Mr. President, finally, I would like to talk about my partner from
California, Barbara Boxer.
Senator Boxer and I were elected to the Senate on the same day in
1992, the ``Year of the Woman.''
The day Barbara was sworn in was historic; it was the first time two
women represented their State together in the Senate. That is an honor
I am grateful to have shared with my good friend.
From the Marin County Board of Supervisors, to the House of
Representatives, to the United States Senate--Senator Boxer has been a
champion for families, children, consumers, and the environment.
She rose to become the chair and now ranking member of the
Environment and Public Works Committee. I have great respect for
Senator Boxer's passion, dedication, and enthusiasm for protecting the
environment. No one does it better.
She led an effort to protect California's coast from offshore
drilling. She authored the California Missions Preservation Act to
restore and protect the 21 historic missions in California. She helped
create Pinnacles National Park, Fort Ord National Monument, and Caesar
Chavez National Monument. And she led the effort to expand the Gulf of
Farallones and Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuaries.
In California, there are now more than 1 million acres of protected
wilderness thanks to Senator Boxer.
But she was more than just a champion for our environment.
In the Senate, Barbara was a staunch advocate for issues related to
children.
She pushed to protect children from dangerous toys by removing lead
or other dangerous chemicals and requiring cautionary warnings on
children's products sold over the Internet. She fought to remove
arsenic from drinking water to protect children. As chair of the After
School Caucus, she wrote legislation to secure Federal funding for
afterschool programs. Thanks to Senator Boxer, 1.6 million children now
have a safe place to go after school.
She fought for our servicemembers.
She founded the Military Families Caucus to provide support for the
families of servicemembers. She helped establish the West Coast Combat
Care Center in San Diego, so that southern California veterans with
traumatic wounds would have access to quality care.
And Senator Boxer fought for consumers.
She authored a bipartisan measure to prevent a conflict of interest
with banks acting as real estate brokers. After the housing crisis, she
wrote measures to protect homeowners whose mortgage is transferred or
sold. And she pushed for legislation to help homeowners refinance with
lower rates--thanks to that effort, 1 million borrowers were able to
save thousands of dollars in interest payments each year.
And finally, Barbara was a staunch defender of women's rights.
She led the floor fight to pass the Freedom of Access to Clinic
Entrances Act and pushed back against repeated attacks on women's
health and a woman's right to privacy. Her efforts led to the passage
of the Violence Against Women Act that protects women from domestic and
sexual abuse.
She worked closely with then-Senator Joe Biden to pass that landmark
bill. After she announced her retirement, the Vice President said:
``You always knew in the Senate if you had Barbara on your side, you
didn't need much more.''
Well, I have been lucky to have Barbara by my side for the past 24
years.
She has been a strong advocate for the people of California, and I am
grateful to have served with her.
I am also grateful for the friendship we have shared over the years.
Barbara and her husband, Stewart, are two of the kindest, most caring
people I have had the pleasure of knowing. Their marriage of more than
50 years has brought them considerable joy. Together they raised two
wonderful children and are now blessed with four grandchildren.
I am sure she is looking forward to spending more time with them.
While she may be retiring from the Senate, the passion Barbara
displayed for public service will not end.
I know she will continue to advocate and remain a powerful voice for
the causes she championed here in the United States Senate.
I look forward to seeing what she is able to accomplish in the next
phase of her life and offer her best wishes in a well-deserved
retirement.
____________________
TRIBUTE TO BARBARA BOXER
Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, today I wish to pay tribute to Senator
Barbara Boxer, who has served her State and country with boundless
energy, enthusiasm, and exuberance.
Senator Boxer's 24 years in the Senate are only part of her legacy of
leadership and accomplishments. Previously, she served for 10 years in
the House of Representatives for California's Sixth Congressional
District and before that as the first woman president of the Marin
County Board of Supervisors.
That remarkable record of service includes another record. In her
reelection in 2004, Senator Boxer received nearly 7 million votes, the
most in Senate history until that time and a mark that stood for 8
years.
During her service in the Senate, Senator Boxer has established
herself as a champion of the environment, infrastructure, and medical
research. Along with Senator Inhofe, she authored a 5-year
transportation bill that many thought was an impossible task in a
gridlocked Senate. But she worked across the aisle and did it. The
United States-Israel Enhanced Security Cooperation Act she authored in
2012 reaffirmed the special relationship between our two countries and
is another of Senator Boxer's accomplishments.
It has been especially rewarding to work with her on legislation to
better protect women from violence, in our country and around the
world.
In her first campaign for Congress in 1982, she ran under the slogan,
``Barbara Boxer Gives a Damn.'' She always has and always will. It is a
pleasure to thank Senator Barbara Boxer for her years of service and to
wish her and her husband, Stewart, many more years of good health and
great happiness.
____________________
TRIBUTE TO KELLY AYOTTE
Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, Maine and New Hampshire share a border, a
history, and an invigorating climate. When Kelly Ayotte came to the
Senate 6 years ago, I immediately saw in
[[Page 16003]]
her those traits shared by the people of our two States: a strong work
ethic, a respect for tradition balanced by a spirit of innovation, and
fiscal prudence always tempered by compassion.
During those years, I came to know Senator Ayotte as a diligent,
energetic, and committed public servant.
She brought with her to the Senate a remarkable record of public
service. As her State's attorney general, she fought hard to protect
the people of New Hampshire and the environment that is so crucial to
their way of life.
It has been rewarding to work with her on such bipartisan efforts as
the Terrorist Firearms Prevention Act, the Runaway and Homeless Youth
Act, and addressing the opioid addiction crisis confronting our States.
From her support for land conservation to advancing biomass energy, she
has been a strong leader in the wise use of natural resources and their
role in growing the economy.
Coming from a military family, she has demonstrated her respect for
our men and women in uniform as a member of the Armed Services
Committee and is recognized as a leading voice on national security
issues and the well-being of our veterans. We have joined together on
many occasions to advocate for the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard that is so
important to our Nation's defense and to the dedicated men and women of
our two States who work there.
It has been an honor to serve with Kelly Ayotte in the United States
Senate, and the American people are better off for her service. I wish
Kelly and her wonderful family all the best in the years to come.
____________________
HONORING SERGEANT STEVEN C. OWEN
Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, today I ask my colleagues to join me in
honoring the life of Sergeant Steven C. Owen, a beloved husband and
father who tragically lost his life in the line of duty on October 5,
2016.
Sergeant Owen was born in Encino, CA, and proudly joined the Los
Angeles County Sheriff's department almost three decades ago. He spent
most of his career at the Lancaster Sheriff's station, patrolling the
streets of his Antelope Valley community with pride. Well known for his
courage as well as kindness, Sergeant Owen received a Meritorious
Conduct Medal in 2014 after safely rescuing a hostage held at gunpoint,
devising the rescue plan and ensuring that his deputies were kept out
of harm's way.
Colleagues fondly remembered Sergeant Owen's tireless work ethic,
selfless nature, and deep commitment to the community he served.
``Sergeant Owen had the qualities of a religious man--maybe a priest, a
minister or a rabbi, or someone who took vows to serve mankind,'' said
Los Angeles County Sheriff Jim McDonnell. ``He fed the hungry, he
clothed those who needed it, and Steve Owen comforted the
traumatized.''
Outside of work, Sergeant Owen spent most of his time volunteering,
coaching youth football, and mentoring young students. He also taught
landlords and businessowners how to reduce crime on their properties. A
skilled water-skier and equestrian, Sergeant Owen also enjoyed camping
and gardening in his free time.
Above all else, Sergeant Owen was devoted to his family and his
faith. On behalf of the people of California, whom Sergeant Owen served
so bravely, I extended my gratitude and deepest sympathies to his wife,
Tania; children, Branden, Chadd, and Shannon; and his entire extended
family.
____________________
HONORING OFFICER LESLEY ZEREBNY
Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I ask my colleagues to join me in honoring
to the life of Police Officer Lesley Zerebny, a beloved wife, devoted
mother, and esteemed colleague who was tragically killed in the line of
duty on October 8, 2016.
Officer Zerebny was born in Hemet, CA, to David and Luanne Kling. She
was raised in a law enforcement family and expressed a desire to become
a police officer from a young age. In 2014, Officer Zerebny joined the
Palm Springs Police Department as a police officer trainee and was
promoted to police officer after graduating from the Riverside County
Sheriff's Academy.
Her positive attitude and commitment to the job helped Officer
Zerebny stand out at the Palm Springs Police Department. She
consistently accepted additional assignments and always offered a
helping hand to her colleagues. She was described as ``small in
stature, but fearless'' and ``fiery, creative, full of life and tough
as nails.'' Hard-working, dedicated, and compassionate, Officer Zerebny
courageously served her community with distinction.
Officer Zerebny took enormous pride in everything she set out to do--
especially in her service as a police officer--but her proudest
accomplishment was her family. On behalf of the people of California
whom Officer Zerebny served so bravely, I extend my heartfelt
condolences to her husband, Zach; daughter, Cora; and her parents,
David and Luanne.
____________________
REMEMBERING HAROLD JOHN SHIMER
Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, today marks the 75th anniversary of the
Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. It was during that fateful event that
more than 2,400 American lives were lost and another 1,100 were
wounded. While that day took a tragic toll, heroes were made of those
who rushed to action. I wish to honor the life and memory of one such
Pearl Harbor hero who went on to serve his country for an additional 20
years after that day. That man is Harold John Shimer, who passed away
on October 30, 2016, at the age of 97 in Anacortes, WA.
Mr. Shimer was born on February 12, 1919, in Wurstboro, NY, the son
of Harold and Irma Shimer. He attended schools in Wurstboro and
Middleton, NY, and enjoyed working with his father on their 640-acre
dairy farm. After graduating high school, Mr. Shimer joined the U.S.
Navy.
Mr. Shimer had begun his naval career as a storekeeper third class
aboard the newly commissioned USS Helena, where the ship's first
assignment was as neutrality patrol in South America, protecting
Uruguay and Argentina prior to the United States' entrance into World
War II. Mr. Shimer had the very unique and rare account of watching the
famous German Graf Spee warship and its captain, which had sunk nine
merchant ships, scuttle itself after being pursued by English warships.
The USS Helena was assigned to the Pacific, where it was at Pearl
Harbor on December 7, 1941. It was hit by a Japanese torpedo and lost
23 men. Mr. Shimer and the other surviving crewmembers immediately
fired back against the attackers. He passed ammunition for the new guns
that had just been installed that summer. He recalled, ``In a
superhuman effort we emptied the ammunition locker in less than two
hours.'' Mr. Shimer and his team were credited with saving the USS
Pennsylvania, the flagship of the fleet in a drydock just forward of
the Helena. Following repairs, the Helena went on to win fame for
sinking a number of Japanese ships before being sunk herself by a
submarine in 1943.
Mr. Shimer returned to the States before being reassigned to
establish a submarine depot in Fremantle, Australia, and was promoted
to chief warrant officer. In 1947, he was assigned to the Bureau of
Naval Personnel in Washington, DC, then to Japan Naval Supply Depot,
Yokosuka, Japan, and finally Naval Depot, Seattle, WA. Mr. Shimer had
served aboard the USS Philippine Sea, USS Mount McKinley, and USS
Constellation. He retired from Naval Station Seattle in June 1961,
after 22 years of patriotic service to his country.
Mr. Shimer's great pleasure was golfing with all his friends in the
Similk Men's Golf Club, and he was an active member of Pearl Harbor
Survivors, life member of VFW and American Legion, and member of the
Anacortes Elks Lodge.
Mr. Shimer is survived by his wife, Carolyn; daughters Patricia
Armstrong, Terrie Hughes, and step-daughter Brenda Eissenstat;
grandchildren
[[Page 16004]]
Toni Gill and Clayton Hughes and step-grandsons Ethan and Daniel
Eissenstat; great-grandchildren Mitchell, Jamie, and Katelin Gill and
Hayley and Brynn Hughes; step-sister Gale Angelostro; sister-in-law
Blanche Shimer; and numerous nieces and nephews.
Please join me in extending our warmest gratitude to Mr. Shimer and
his family for the years of dedicated service to his country and for
being an upstanding and active member of the Anacortes community. His
stories, which were described as no less than ``amazing'', will be
missed, but they will also live on in the memories of family and
friends that knew him well.
____________________
REMEMBERING LEROY MAZELL SMITH
Mr. BOOZMAN. Mr. President, today I wish to honor Leroy Mazell Smith,
an aviation mechanic from Fordyce, AR, who was part of the illustrious
Tuskegee Airmen and served his country with honor and distinction.
Born in 1927, Smith loved to tell the story of his birth with wry
humor and fondness. A midwife helped his mother deliver him while on a
bridge where some had taken refuge from the great Mississippi River
flood of that year. They remained there for 4 days before his birth was
documented. The result was that his birth certificate indicated a
different date of birth, 4 days after his actual birthday.
From that unusual beginning, he went on to lead a remarkable life. He
credited his Baptist grandfather with having a large influence on him
growing up, including teaching him the value of hard work. He graduated
from high school at age 16 and took preflight aeronautical classes.
After graduation, Smith joined the U.S. Army Air Corps and became a
mechanic.
He completed basic training in Texas and was stationed at Chanute
Field in Illinois. Later, during World War II, he was sent to Europe
where he was assigned to the Tuskegee Airmen Red Tail squadron. He
remembered being scared during his time in theater but always relayed
his sense of pride in the work he did and the fact that the Tuskegee
unit never lost a bomber.
Smith also helped break social and racial barriers in the military.
As part of the group of African Americans who served in the Armed
Forces in the mid-20th century, he was among many servicemembers who
confronted segregation within the barracks and beyond. Even so, he
recalled his time in the Army Air Corps as ``one of his best
memories.''
Leroy Smith honorably served with the U.S. Army Air Corps and the
U.S. Air Force for more than 25 years, including further combat tours
in Korea and Vietnam. He retired in 1968 as a master sergeant.
Leroy Mazell Smith passed away on December 1, 2016. He will be laid
to rest on December 9, wearing an Air Force uniform complete with the
medals he earned during his service, a recent request that the
nonprofit veterans' support group Team Red, White and Blue helped
fulfill.
Smith is an American hero whose admirable service is recognized and
appreciated by all Arkansans. I extend my sincere condolences to his
family and friends, and I hope that they take comfort in the wonderful
legacy that he leaves behind.
____________________
TRIBUTE TO JOE AND
LOUISE HEAD
Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, today I wish to recognize Joe and Louise
Head, recipients of the Greater Cincinnati Foundation's 2016 Jacob E.
Davis Volunteer Leadership Award, which is presented annually to honor
citizens who have made significant contributions to the greater
Cincinnati community.
Recognized for their generosity as philanthropic and civic leaders,
Joe and Louise have volunteered their time, talents, and treasure to
countless community endeavors to make the greater Cincinnati community
a better place to live.
They have both been very active volunteers to many local
organizations including Xavier University, Seven Hills School, the
Metropolitan Growth Alliance, and the Cincinnati Nature Center. Joe and
Louise have also provided significant leadership by serving as trustees
and board members to many civic and charitable organizations. Louise is
a former governing board chair of the Greater Cincinnati Foundation,
and Joe is a former chair of the Christ Hospital Health Network board
of directors. No couple is more community-minded, and the people of
greater Cincinnati have been the beneficiaries.
I would like to congratulate Joe and Louise Head on this award.
____________________
NASHVILLE FIRE DEPARTMENT'S CENTENNIAL
Mr. BURR. Mr. President, today I wish to recognize the Nashville Fire
Department in North Carolina. On December 17, 2016, the men and women
of the department will celebrate their 100th anniversary.
The Nashville Fire Department has a tremendous history of dedicated
service to its community. On December 17, 1916, it was outfitted with
their first hose and reel to replace the previous bucket brigades. As
the oldest fire department in Nash County, NC, its volunteers and
employees continue, to this day, risking their lives to protect the
welfare of their citizens. I am so proud of their dedication to keeping
us safe in the Tar Heel State.
The mission of the Nashville Fire Department is to ``protect lives,
property, and the environment by providing skillful and cost effective
fire and life safety services.'' The Nashville Fire Department goes
above and beyond accomplishing this by answering approximately 1,700
calls for service yearly for either fire protection, EMS response, or
vehicle extrication. Additionally, this department specializes in
trench rescue--one of the most challenging rescue events that emergency
responders can face.
I salute the brave men and women of the Nashville Fire Department for
100 years of protective service to the people of Nashville, NC. Through
their efforts, they make their community a better, safer place.
____________________
ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS
______
RECOGNIZING THE CITY OF SANTA BARBARA
Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I ask my colleagues to join me in
recognizing the tremendous accomplishments of the city of Santa
Barbara, a community that has pioneered efforts in sustainability and
environmental preservation for many years.
For over four decades, the city of Santa Barbara has been a leader in
protecting and enhancing the local environment. In 1969, a devastating
oil spill released an estimated 80,000 to 100,000 barrels of oil into
the Santa Barbara Channel, resulting in public outcry over the
significant damage to the ocean waters and wildlife. Local residents
and civic leaders immediately began advocating for environmental
reforms, and a few months later, Congress passed the National
Environmental Policy Act, one of the first laws to establish a national
framework for protecting our environment. Soon after, the California
Coastal Commission was created in 1972 as an independent State agency
committed to preserving California's beautiful coastline.
As the Santa Barbara community grew and the effects of global climate
change became more apparent, local leaders developed innovative
initiatives to reduce waste, decrease emissions, and conserve natural
resources. Specifically, the city imposed stormwater requirements for
development projects to prevent runoff and implemented a shared-use
vehicle program to reduce fuel costs and the number of vehicles in the
city's fleet. These efforts helped cut water consumption by 15 to 20
percent and reduce emissions by 10 percent, respectively. Next year,
Santa Barbara will begin using a state-of-the-art water desalination
facility that will reduce electrical demand and environmental impacts
while supplying roughly 30 percent of the city's water.
[[Page 16005]]
I want to congratulate the city of Santa Barbara for its dedicated
efforts to preserve our precious natural resources. Santa Barbara's
leadership will continue to make a profound difference for generations
to come.
____________________
TRIBUTE TO BRYON J. YOUNG
Mr. CASEY. Mr. President, today I wish to honor the career of
Mr. Bryon J. Young, executive director of the Army Contracting
Command--Aberdeen Proving Ground (ACC-APG). Mr. Young will be retiring
after 40 years of distinguished service to the country. Throughout his
career, Mr. Young has proven himself a true public servant and his
leadership will be truly missed. I would like to take this time to send
my congratulations to Mr. Young on his retirement and reflect upon his
long career, exemplified by his hard work, dedication, and passion.
Mr. Young dedicated his career to the defense and service of his
Nation and his fellow citizens. A graduate of the University of
Delaware and Boston University in the 1970s, Mr. Young went on to
complete degrees at the Defense Systems Management College Program
manager's course and executive program manager's course, as well as the
U.S. Army War College and the U.S. Army Command and General Staff
College.
Prior to his time with the Army Contracting Command, Mr. Young served
for 27 years as an air defense officer in the Army with the 101st
Airborne Division and as an ROTC instructor at Princeton University.
Throughout his career, Mr. Young has displayed a commitment to
excellence, and his numerous commands over the years are a testament to
his work ethic and dedication. Among his many commands, Mr. Young has
served as director of the U.S. Army Research Development and
Engineering Command Contracting Center, director of the U.S. Army
Contracting Agency in Falls Church, Virginia, chief of staff to the
Army Contracting Agency, commander of the Defense Contract Management
Agency Raytheon, and procurement team chief of U.S. Army Missile
Command. Mr. Young's years of service and experience have benefited not
only those around him, but the Nation as a whole. In his most recent
role as executive director of the Army Contracting Command--Aberdeen
Proving Ground, Mr. Young managed a geographically dispersed
contracting center responsible for executing more than 35,000
contracting actions valued at $11 billion.
Mr. Young's dedication to the Armed Services and our country are
evident not only from his four decades of service and leadership, but
also from his numerous decorations, which include the Defense Superior
Service Medal, Legion of Merit, Defense Meritorious Service Medal,
Meritorious Service Medal, Army Commendation Medal, and the Army
Achievement Medal.
Throughout his long and distinguished career in public service, Mr.
Young has always placed his community and country first. We are all
grateful for his dedicated service which will long be remembered. On
behalf of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and a grateful Nation, I
would like to once again extend my congratulations to Mr. Young on his
retirement and thank him for his decades of public service. I wish him
all the best in the years ahead.
____________________
MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT
A message from the President of the United States was communicated to
the Senate by Mr. Pate, one of his secretaries.
____________________
EXECUTIVE MESSAGE REFERRED
As in executive session the Presiding Officer laid before the Senate
a message from the President of the United States submitting a
nomination which was referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science,
and Transportation.
(The message received today is printed at the end of the Senate
proceedings.)
____________________
MESSAGES FROM THE HOUSE
Enrolled Bills Signed
At 9:33 a.m., a message from the House of Representatives, delivered
by Mrs. Cole, one of its reading clerks, announced that the Speaker has
signed the following enrolled bills:
S. 1555. An act to award a Congressional Gold Medal,
collectively, to the Filipino veterans of World War II, in
recognition of the dedicated service of the veterans during
World War II.
S. 2234. An act to award the Congressional Gold Medal,
collectively, to the members of the Office of Strategic
Services (OSS) in recognition of their superior service and
major contributions during World War II.
The enrolled bills were subsequently signed by the President pro
tempore (Mr. Hatch).
____
At 1:47 p.m., a message from the House of Representatives, delivered
by Mrs. Cole, one of its reading clerks, announced that the House has
passed the following bills, without amendment:
S. 817. An act to provide for the addition of certain real
property to the reservation of the Siletz Tribe in the State
of Oregon.
S. 818. An act to amend the Grand Ronde Reservation Act to
make technical corrections, and for other purposes.
S. 2873. An act to require studies and reports examining
the use of, and opportunities to use, technology-enabled
collaborative learning and capacity building models to
improve programs of the Department of Health and Human
Services, and for other purposes.
S. 3076. An act to amend title 38, United States Code, to
authorize the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to furnish
caskets and urns for burial in cemeteries of States and
tribal organizations of veterans without next of kin or
sufficient resources to provide for caskets or urns, and for
other purposes.
S. 3492. An act to designate the Traverse City VA
Community-Based Outpatient Clinic of the Department of
Veterans Affairs in Traverse City, Michigan, as the ``Colonel
Demas T. Craw VA Clinic.
The message also announced that the House has passed the following
bills, in which it requests the concurrence of the Senate:
H.R. 756. An act to amend the Energy Policy and
Conservation Act to provide for the dissemination of
information regarding available Federal programs relating to
energy efficiency projects for schools, and for other
purposes.
H.R. 875. An act to provide for alternative financing
arrangements for the provision of certain services and the
construction and maintenance of infrastructure at land border
ports of entry, and for other purposes.
H.R. 3381. An act to maximize discovery, and accelerate
development and availability, of promising childhood cancer
treatments, and for other purposes.
H.R. 4150. An act to amend title 38, United States Code, to
allow the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to modify the hours
of employment of physicians employed on a full-time basis by
the Department of Veterans Affairs.
H.R. 4352. An act to direct the Secretary of Veterans
Affairs to carry out a pilot program establishing a patient
self-scheduling appointment system, and for other purposes.
H.R. 4680. An act to prepare the National Park Service for
its Centennial in 2016 and for a second century of promoting
and protecting the natural, historic, and cultural resources
of our National Parks for the enjoyment of present and future
generations, and for other purposes.
H.R. 5399. An act to amend title 38, United States Code, to
ensure that physicians of the Department of Veterans Affairs
fulfill the ethical duty to report to State licensing
authorities impaired, incompetent, and unethical health care
activities.
H.R. 6375. An act to provide for consideration of the
extension under the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of
nonapplication of No-Load Mode energy efficiency standards to
certain security or life safety alarms or surveillance
systems.
H.R. 6394. An act to require the Federal Communications
Commission to submit to Congress a report on promoting
broadband Internet access service for veterans.
H.R. 6401. An act to amend Public Law 94-241 with respect
to the Northern Mariana Islands.
H.R. 6416. An act to amend title 38, United States Code, to
make certain improvements in the laws administered by the
Secretary of Veterans Affairs, and for other purposes.
H.R. 6438. An act to extend the waiver of limitations with
respect to excluding from gross income amounts received by
wrongfully incarcerated individuals.
The message further announced that the House agreed to the amendment
of the Senate to the resolution (H. Con. Res. 174) directing the Clerk
of the House of Representatives to make a correction in the enrollment
of H.R. 34.
Enrolled Bills Signed
The message also announced that the Speaker has signed the following
enrolled bills:
S. 795. An act to enhance whistleblower protection for
contractor and grantee employees.
[[Page 16006]]
S. 3395. An act to require limitations on prescribed burns.
The enrolled bills were subsequently signed by the President pro
tempore (Mr. Hatch).
____
At 5:46 p.m., a message from the House of Representatives, delivered
by Mrs. Cole, one of its reading clerks, announced that the House has
passed the following bill, in which it requests the concurrence of the
Senate:
H.R. 5790. An act to provide adequate protections for
whistleblowers at the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
____________________
MEASURES READ THE FIRST TIME
The following bill was read the first time:
S. 3516. A bill to authorize the Secretary of Veterans
Affairs to conduct a best-practices peer review of each
medical center of the Department of Veterans Affairs to
evaluate the efficacy of health care delivered at each such
medical center.
____________________
ENROLLED BILLS PRESENTED
The Secretary of the Senate reported that on today, December 7, 2016,
she had presented to the President of the United States the following
enrolled bills:
S. 795. An act to enhance whistleblower protection for
contractor and grantee employees.
S. 1555. An act to award a Congressional Gold Medal,
collectively, to the Filipino veterans of World War II, in
recognition of the dedicated service of the veterans during
World War II.
S. 2234. An act to award the Congressional Gold Medal,
collectively, to the members of the Office of Strategic
Services (OSS) in recognition of their superior service and
major contributions during World War II.
S. 2577. An act to protect crime victims' rights, to
eliminate the substantial backlog of DNA and other forensic
evidence samples to improve and expand the forensic science
testing capacity of Federal, State, and local crime
laboratories, to increase research and development of new
testing technologies, to develop new training programs
regarding the collection and use of forensic evidence, to
provide post-conviction testing of DNA evidence to exonerate
the innocent, to support accreditation efforts of forensic
science laboratories and medical examiner officers, to
address training and equipment needs, to improve the
performance of counsel in State capital cases, and for other
purposes.
S. 3395. An act to require limitations on prescribed burns.
____________________
REPORTS OF COMMITTEES
The following reports of committees were submitted:
By Mr. ISAKSON, from the Committee on Veterans' Affairs,
with an amendment in the nature of a substitute and an
amendment to the title:
S. 425. A bill to amend title 38, United States Code, to
provide for a five-year extension to the homeless veterans
reintegration programs and to provide clarification regarding
eligibility for services under such programs (Rept. No. 114-
395).
By Mr. CORKER, from the Committee on Foreign Relations,
without amendment:
S. 8. A bill to provide for the approval of the Agreement
for Cooperation Between the Government of the United States
of America and the Government of the Kingdom of Norway
Concerning Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy.
By Mr. CORKER, from the Committee on Foreign Relations,
without amendment and with a preamble:
S. Con. Res. 30. A concurrent resolution expressing concern
over the disappearance of David Sneddon, and for other
purposes.
H. Con. Res. 40. A concurrent resolution encouraging
reunions of divided Korean American families.
S. Con. Res. 57. A concurrent resolution honoring in praise
and remembrance the extraordinary life, steady leadership,
and remarkable, 70-year reign of King Bhumibol Adulyadej of
Thailand.
By Mr. CORKER, from the Committee on Foreign Relations,
with an amendment in the nature of a substitute and with an
amended preamble:
S. Res. 535. A resolution expressing the sense of the
Senate regarding the trafficking of illicit fentanyl into the
United States from Mexico and China.
By Mr. CORKER, from the Committee on Foreign Relations,
with an amendment in the nature of a substitute and an
amendment to the title and with an amended preamble:
S. Res. 537. A resolution expressing profound concern about
the ongoing political, economic, social and humanitarian
crisis in Venezuela, urging the release of political
prisoners, and calling for respect of constitutional and
democratic processes.
By Mr. CORKER, from the Committee on Foreign Relations,
with an amendment in the nature of a substitute:
H.R. 1150. A bill to amend the International Religious
Freedom Act of 1998 to improve the ability of the United
States to advance religious freedom globally through enhanced
diplomacy, training, counterterrorism, and foreign assistance
efforts, and through stronger and more flexible political
responses to religious freedom violations and violent
extremism worldwide, and for other purposes.
By Mr. THUNE, from the Committee on Commerce, Science, and
Transportation, without amendment:
S. 1182. A bill to exempt application of JSA attribution
rule in case of existing agreements.
By Mr. THUNE, from the Committee on Commerce, Science, and
Transportation, with an amendment in the nature of a
substitute:
S. 2658. A bill to amend title 49, United States Code, to
authorize appropriations for the Federal Aviation
Administration for fiscal years 2016 through 2017, and for
other purposes.
By Mr. CORKER, from the Committee on Foreign Relations,
with an amendment:
H.R. 2845. A bill to promote access to benefits under the
African Growth and Opportunity Act, and for other purposes.
By Mr. CORKER, from the Committee on Foreign Relations,
with an amendment in the nature of a substitute:
H.R. 4481. A bill to amend the Foreign Assistance Act of
1961 to provide assistance for developing countries to
promote quality basic education and to establish the goal of
all children in school and learning as an objective of the
United States foreign assistance policy, and for other
purposes.
H.R. 4939. A bill to increase engagement with the
governments of the Caribbean region, the Caribbean diaspora
community in the United States, and the private sector and
civil society in both the United States and the Caribbean,
and for other purposes.
____________________
EXECUTIVE REPORT OF COMMITTEE
The following executive report of a nomination was submitted:
By Mr. THUNE for the Committee on Commerce, Science, and
Transportation.
*Ann Begeman, of South Dakota, to be a Member of the
Surface Transportation Board for a term expiring December 31,
2020.
*Nomination was reported with recommendation that it be confirmed
subject to the nominee's commitment to respond to requests to appear
and testify before any duly constituted committee of the Senate.
____________________
EXECUTIVE REPORT OF COMMITTEE--TREATY
The following executive report of committee was submitted:
By Mr. CORKER, from the Committee on Foreign Relations:
Treaty Doc. 114-12: Protocol to the North Atlantic Treaty
of 1949 on the Accession of Montenegro with 2 conditions and
7 declarations (Ex. Rept. 114-16)
The text of the committee-recommended resolution of advice and
consent to ratification is as follows:
As reported by the Committee on Foreign Relations:
Resolved, (two-thirds of the Senators present concurring
therein),
Section 1. Senate Advice and Consent Subject to
Declarations and Conditions.
The Senate advises and consents to the ratification of the
Protocol to the North Atlantic Treaty of 1949 on the
Accession of Montenegro, which was opened for signature in
Brussels on May 19, 2016, and signed on behalf of the United
States of America (the ``Protocol'') (Treaty Doc. 114-12),
subject to the declarations of section 2 and the conditions
of section 3.
Sec. 2. Declarations.
The advice and consent of the Senate under section 1 is
subject to the following declarations:
(1) Reaffirmation that United States Membership in NATO
Remains a Vital National Security Interest of The United
States.--The Senate declares that--
(A) for more than 60 years the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO) has served as the preeminent organization
to defend the countries in the North Atlantic area against
all external threats;
(B) through common action, the established democracies of
North America and Europe that were joined in NATO persevered
and prevailed in the task of ensuring the survival of
democratic government in Europe and North America throughout
the Cold War;
(C) NATO enhances the security of the United States by
embedding European states in a process of cooperative
security planning and by ensuring an ongoing and direct
leadership role for the United States in European security
affairs;
(D) the responsibility and financial burden of defending
the democracies of Europe and North America can be more
equitably shared
[[Page 16007]]
through an alliance in which specific obligations and force
goals are met by its members;
(E) the security and prosperity of the United States is
enhanced by NATO's collective defense against aggression that
may threaten the security of NATO members; and
(F) United States membership in NATO remains a vital
national security interest of the United States.
(2) Strategic Rationale For NATO Enlargement.--The Senate
finds that--
(A) the United States and its NATO allies face continued
threats to their stability and territorial integrity;
(B) an attack against Montenegro, or its destabilization
arising from external subversion, would threaten the
stability of Europe and jeopardize United States national
security interests;
(C) Montenegro, having established a democratic government
and having demonstrated a willingness to meet the
requirements of membership, including those necessary to
contribute to the defense of all NATO members, is in a
position to further the principles of the North Atlantic
Treaty and to contribute to the security of the North
Atlantic area; and
(D) extending NATO membership to Montenegro will strengthen
NATO, enhance stability in Southeast Europe, and advance the
interests of the United States and its NATO allies.
(3) Support for NATO's Open Door Policy.--The policy of the
United States is to support NATO's Open Door Policy that
allows any European country to express its desire to join
NATO and demonstrate its ability to meet the obligations of
NATO membership.
(4) Future Consideration Of Candidates For Membership In
NATO.--
(A) Senate Finding.--The Senate finds that the United
States will not support the accession to the North Atlantic
Treaty of, or the invitation to begin accession talks with,
any European state (other than Montenegro), unless--
(i) the President consults with the Senate consistent with
Article II, section 2, clause 2 of the Constitution of the
United States (relating to the advice and consent of the
Senate to the making of treaties); and
(ii) the prospective NATO member can fulfill all of the
obligations and responsibilities of membership, and the
inclusion of such state in NATO would serve the overall
political and strategic interests of NATO and the United
States.
(B) Requirement for Consensus and Ratification.--The Senate
declares that no action or agreement other than a consensus
decision by the full membership of NATO, approved by the
national procedures of each NATO member, including, in the
case of the United States, the requirements of Article II,
section 2, clause 2 of the Constitution of the United States
(relating to the advice and consent of the Senate to the
making of treaties), will constitute a commitment to
collective defense and consultations pursuant to Articles 4
and 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty.
(5) Influence Of Non-NATO Members On NATO Decisions.--The
Senate declares that any country that is not a member of NATO
shall have no impact on decisions related to NATO
enlargement.
(6) Support for 2014 Wales Summit Defense Spending
Benchmark.--The Senate declares that all NATO members should
continue to move towards the guideline outlined in the 2014
Wales Summit Declaration to spend a minimum of 2 percent of
their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on defense and 20 percent
of their defense budgets on major equipment, including
research and development, by 2024.
(7) Support for Montenegro's Democratic Reform Process.--
Montenegro has made difficult reforms and taken steps to
address corruption. The United States and other NATO member
states should not consider this important process complete
and should continue to urge additional reforms.
Sec. 3. Conditions.
The advice and consent of the Senate under section 1 is
subject to the following conditions:
(1) Presidential Certification.--Prior to the deposit of
the instrument of ratification, the President shall certify
to the Senate as follows:
(A) The inclusion of Montenegro in NATO will not have the
effect of increasing the overall percentage share of the
United States in the common budgets of NATO.
(B) The inclusion of Montenegro in NATO does not detract
from the ability of the United States to meet or to fund its
military requirements outside the North Atlantic area.
(2) Annual Report on NATO Member Defense Spending.--Not
later than December 1 of each year during the 8-year period
following the date of entry into force of the Protocol to the
North Atlantic Treaty of 1949 on the Accession of Montenegro,
the President shall submit to the appropriate congressional
committees a report, which shall be submitted in an
unclassified form, but may be accompanied by a classified
annex, and which shall contain the following information:
(A) The amount each NATO member spent on its national
defense in each of the previous 5 years.
(B) The percentage of GDP for each of the previous 5 years
that each NATO member spent on its national defense.
(C) The percentage of national defense spending for each of
the previous 5 years that each NATO member spent on major
equipment, including research and development.
(D) Details on the actions a NATO member has taken in the
most recent year reported to move closer towards the NATO
guideline outlined in the 2014 Wales Summit Declaration to
spend a minimum of 2 percent of its GDP on national defense
and 20 percent of its national defense budget on major
equipment, including research and development, if a NATO
member is below either guideline for the most recent year
reported.
Sec. 4. Definitions.
In this resolution:
(1) Appropriate Congressional Committees.--The term
``appropriate congressional committees'' means the Committee
on Foreign Relations and the Committee on Armed Services of
the Senate and the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the
Committee on Armed Services of the House of Representatives.
(2) NATO Members.--The term ``NATO members'' means all
countries that are parties to the North Atlantic Treaty.
(3) Non-NATO Members.--The term ``non-NATO members'' means
all countries that are not parties to the North Atlantic
Treaty.
(4) North Atlantic Area.--The term ``North Atlantic area''
means the area covered by Article 6 of the North Atlantic
Treaty, as applied by the North Atlantic Council.
(5) North Atlantic Treaty.--The term ``North Atlantic
Treaty'' means the North Atlantic Treaty, signed at
Washington April 4, 1949 (63 Stat. 2241; TIAS 1964), as
amended.
(6) United States Instrument of Ratification.--The term
``United States instrument of ratification'' means the
instrument of ratification of the United States of the
Protocol to the North Atlantic Treaty of 1949 on the
Accession of Montenegro.
____________________
INTRODUCTION OF BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS
The following bills and joint resolutions were introduced, read the
first and second times by unanimous consent, and referred as indicated:
By Ms. WARREN:
S. 3511. A bill to require the Secretary of Defense to
expand the Secretarial Designee Program of the Department of
Defense to include victims of acts of terror; to the
Committee on Armed Services.
By Mr. GRAHAM:
S. 3512. A bill to reauthorize the Historically Black
Colleges and Universities Historic Preservation Program; to
the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
By Mr. FLAKE:
S. 3513. A bill to amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002
to facilitate communication between U.S. Customs and Border
Protection and border ranchers in Arizona and other border
States and for other purposes; to the Committee on Homeland
Security and Governmental Affairs.
By Mrs. BOXER:
S. 3514. A bill to adjust the boundary of the Santa Monica
Mountains National Recreation Area to include the Rim of the
Valley Corridor, and for other purposes; to the Committee on
Energy and Natural Resources.
By Mr. DONNELLY (for himself and Mr. Graham):
S. 3515. A bill to authorize previously appropriated
resources for communities to address persistent or historical
crime through collaborative cross-sector partnerships; to the
Committee on the Judiciary.
By Mr. McCAIN:
S. 3516. A bill to authorize the Secretary of Veterans
Affairs to conduct a best-practices peer review of each
medical center of the Department of Veterans Affairs to
evaluate the efficacy of health care delivered at each such
medical center; read the first time.
By Mr. PORTMAN (for himself, Ms. Stabenow, and Mr.
Brown):
S. 3517. A bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986
to provide appropriate rules for the application of the
deduction for income attributable to domestic production
activities with respect to certain contract manufacturing or
production arrangements; to the Committee on Finance.
By Mr. RUBIO (for himself, Mr. Kirk, Ms. Ayotte, and
Mr. Cornyn):
S. 3518. A bill to impose nonnuclear sanctions with respect
to Iran, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Banking,
Housing, and Urban Affairs.
By Ms. HEITKAMP (for herself, Mr. Durbin, and Mr.
Franken):
S. 3519. A bill to address the psychological, social, and
emotional needs of children, youth, and families who have
experienced trauma, and for other purposes; to the Committee
on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
____________________
SUBMISSION OF CONCURRENT AND SENATE RESOLUTIONS
The following concurrent resolutions and Senate resolutions were
read, and referred (or acted upon), as indicated:
[[Page 16008]]
By Mr. MARKEY (for himself, Mr. Merkley, Mr. Cardin,
Mr. Schatz, Mr. Sanders, Ms. Hirono, Mr. Franken, and
Ms. Warren):
S. Res. 632. A resolution supporting a transition to 100
percent clean, renewable energy to help consumers, support
the economy and national security of the United States, and
avoid the worst impacts of climate change; to the Committee
on Energy and Natural Resources.
By Mr. BOOKER:
S. Con. Res. 58. A concurrent resolution expressing the
sense of Congress that rates for inmate calling service
should not exceed the affordable modified rate caps adopted
by the Federal Communications Commission; to the Committee on
Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
____________________
ADDITIONAL COSPONSORS
S. 24
At the request of Mrs. Feinstein, the name of the Senator from Texas
(Mr. Cruz) was added as a cosponsor of S. 24, a bill to clarify that an
authorization to use military force, a declaration of war, or any
similar authority shall not authorize the detention without charge or
trial of a citizen or lawful permanent resident of the United States.
S. 299
At the request of Mr. Nelson, his name was added as a cosponsor of S.
299, a bill to allow travel between the United States and Cuba.
S. 1148
At the request of Mr. Nelson, the name of the Senator from Minnesota
(Ms. Klobuchar) was added as a cosponsor of S. 1148, a bill to amend
title XVIII of the Social Security Act to provide for the distribution
of additional residency positions, and for other purposes.
S. 1524
At the request of Mr. Blunt, the name of the Senator from Michigan
(Ms. Stabenow) was added as a cosponsor of S. 1524, a bill to enable
concrete masonry products manufacturers to establish, finance, and
carry out a coordinated program of research, education, and promotion
to improve, maintain, and develop markets for concrete masonry
products.
S. 1911
At the request of Ms. Collins, the names of the Senator from Montana
(Mr. Tester), the Senator from Connecticut (Mr. Blumenthal) and the
Senator from South Dakota (Mr. Thune) were added as cosponsors of S.
1911, a bill to implement policies to end preventable maternal,
newborn, and child deaths globally.
S. 2595
At the request of Mr. Crapo, the names of the Senator from Alaska
(Ms. Murkowski) and the Senator from Alaska (Mr. Sullivan) were added
as cosponsors of S. 2595, a bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of
1986 to permanently extend the railroad track maintenance credit.
S. 2712
At the request of Mr. Inhofe, his name was added as a cosponsor of S.
2712, a bill to restore amounts improperly withheld for tax purposes
from severance payments to individuals who retired or separated from
service in the Armed Forces for combat-related injuries, and for other
purposes.
S. 2748
At the request of Ms. Baldwin, the names of the Senator from Kansas
(Mr. Moran) and the Senator from North Dakota (Ms. Heitkamp) were added
as cosponsors of S. 2748, a bill to amend the Public Health Service Act
to increase the number of permanent faculty in palliative care at
accredited allopathic and osteopathic medical schools, nursing schools,
social work schools, and other programs, including physician assistant
education programs, to promote education and research in palliative
care and hospice, and to support the development of faculty careers in
academic palliative medicine.
S. 2878
At the request of Mr. Rubio, the name of the Senator from Oklahoma
(Mr. Lankford) was added as a cosponsor of S. 2878, a bill to amend the
International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 to improve the ability of
the United States to advance religious freedom globally through
enhanced diplomacy, training, counterterrorism, and foreign assistance
efforts, and through stronger and more flexible political responses to
religious freedom violations and violent extremism worldwide, and for
other purposes.
S. 2895
At the request of Mrs. Feinstein, the name of the Senator from
Arizona (Mr. Flake) was added as a cosponsor of S. 2895, a bill to
extend the civil statute of limitations for victims of Federal sex
offenses.
S. 2957
At the request of Mr. Nelson, the names of the Senator from Minnesota
(Ms. Klobuchar), the Senator from Kansas (Mr. Roberts), the Senator
from Connecticut (Mr. Murphy), the Senator from West Virginia (Mrs.
Capito), the Senator from Idaho (Mr. Risch), the Senator from Rhode
Island (Mr. Reed), the Senator from Indiana (Mr. Donnelly), the Senator
from New York (Mr. Schumer), the Senator from Wyoming (Mr. Enzi), the
Senator from Montana (Mr. Daines), the Senator from Maryland (Ms.
Mikulski), the Senator from West Virginia (Mr. Manchin), the Senator
from Ohio (Mr. Brown), the Senator from Washington (Mrs. Murray), the
Senator from North Dakota (Mr. Hoeven), the Senator from Wisconsin (Ms.
Baldwin), the Senator from North Carolina (Mr. Tillis), the Senator
from Illinois (Mr. Kirk), the Senator from Indiana (Mr. Coats), the
Senator from South Carolina (Mr. Graham), the Senator from North
Carolina (Mr. Burr), the Senator from Nevada (Mr. Heller), the Senator
from New Jersey (Mr. Menendez), the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Leahy),
the Senator from Alabama (Mr. Sessions), the Senator from North Dakota
(Ms. Heitkamp), the Senator from Connecticut (Mr. Blumenthal), the
Senator from Missouri (Mrs. McCaskill), the Senator from Kansas (Mr.
Moran) and the Senator from Virginia (Mr. Warner) were added as
cosponsors of S. 2957, a bill to require the Secretary of the Treasury
to mint commemorative coins in recognition of the 50th anniversary of
the first manned landing on the Moon.
S. 2989
At the request of Ms. Murkowski, the names of the Senator from
Delaware (Mr. Coons), the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Booker), the
Senator from New Hampshire (Mrs. Shaheen) and the Senator from Hawaii
(Mr. Schatz) were added as cosponsors of S. 2989, a bill to award a
Congressional Gold Medal, collectively, to the United States merchant
mariners of World War II, in recognition of their dedicated and vital
service during World War II.
S. 3188
At the request of Mr. Grassley, the name of the Senator from New
Mexico (Mr. Udall) was added as a cosponsor of S. 3188, a bill to amend
the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to modify the incentives for
biodiesel.
S. 3256
At the request of Mr. Durbin, the name of the Senator from New York
(Mrs. Gillibrand) was added as a cosponsor of S. 3256, a bill to amend
the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to provide assistance for developing
countries to promote quality basic education and to establish the goal
of all children in school and learning as an objective of the United
States foreign assistance policy, and for other purposes.
S. 3284
At the request of Mr. Cruz, the name of the Senator from Georgia (Mr.
Perdue) was added as a cosponsor of S. 3284, a bill to oppose loans at
international financial institutions for the Government of Nicaragua
unless the Government of Nicaragua is taking effective steps to hold
free, fair, and transparent elections, and for other purposes.
S. 3364
At the request of Mrs. Fischer, the name of the Senator from
Minnesota (Ms. Klobuchar) was added as a cosponsor of S. 3364, a bill
to authorize the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to carry out a pilot
program to accept the donation of facilities and related improvements
for use by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
S. 3478
At the request of Mr. Rubio, the name of the Senator from Colorado
[[Page 16009]]
(Mr. Gardner) was added as a cosponsor of S. 3478, a bill to require
continued and enhanced annual reporting to Congress in the Annual
Report on International Religious Freedom on anti-Semitic incidents in
Europe, the safety and security of European Jewish communities, and the
efforts of the United States to partner with European governments, the
European Union, and civil society groups, to combat anti-Semitism, and
for other purposes.
S. 3504
At the request of Mr. Hatch, the name of the Senator from Colorado
(Mr. Bennet) was added as a cosponsor of S. 3504, a bill to amend title
XVIII of the Social Security Act to implement Medicare payment policies
designed to improve management of chronic disease, streamline care
coordination, and improve quality outcomes without adding to the
deficit.
S.J. RES. 40
At the request of Mr. Boozman, the name of the Senator from Georgia
(Mr. Perdue) was added as a cosponsor of S.J. Res. 40, a joint
resolution approving the location of a memorial to commemorate and
honor the members of the Armed Forces that served on active duty in
support of Operation Desert Storm or Operation Desert Shield.
____________________
SUBMITTED RESOLUTIONS
______
SENATE RESOLUTION 632--SUPPORTING A TRANSITION TO 100 PERCENT CLEAN,
RENEWABLE ENERGY TO HELP CONSUMERS, SUPPORT THE ECONOMY AND NATIONAL
SECURITY OF THE UNITED STATES, AND AVOID THE WORST IMPACTS OF CLIMATE
CHANGE
Mr. MARKEY (for himself, Mr. Merkley, Mr. Cardin, Mr. Schatz, Mr.
Sanders, Ms. Hirono, Mr. Franken, and Ms. Warren) submitted the
following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and
Natural Resources:
S. Res. 632
Whereas, in December 2016, nearly 200 nations that are
parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change adopted an historic international agreement to
undertake ambitious efforts to combat climate change;
Whereas transitioning to clean energy will help reduce
carbon pollution in the United States, and combat climate
change;
Whereas transitioning to clean energy will help the United
States meet its international commitments to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions;
Whereas transitioning to a clean energy economy will create
millions of well-paying jobs in the United States, save
consumers in the United States money, and boost economic
growth;
Whereas low-income communities, communities of color, and
indigenous people in the United States are inordinately
exposed to pollution from fossil fuels;
Whereas distributed renewable energy and energy efficiency
can provide access to local jobs in cities in the United
States while cleaning up neighborhoods;
Whereas, in 2005, the United States had fewer than 10,000
megawatts of installed wind and solar electric generating
capacity;
Whereas, in 2016, the United States has more than 100,000
megawatts of installed wind and solar electric generating
capacity;
Whereas, in 2016, the United States is projected to add
more electric generating capacity from solar and wind than
from any other source;
Whereas, by the end of 2016, there are projected to be--
(1) 310,000 individuals in the United States employed in
the solar industry; and
(2) 88,000 individuals in the United States employed in the
wind industry;
Whereas, by 2020, there are projected to be nearly 600,000
individuals in the United States employed in the wind and
solar industries;
Whereas more than \1/2\ of all new electricity capacity
added in the world in 2015 was renewable; and
Whereas according to the National Renewable Energy
Laboratory, the United States has the technical potential to
generate more than 100 times the quantity of electricity it
consumes each year as of 2016 solely from wind, solar, and
other renewable resources: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the Senate--
(1) supports a national goal of phasing out fossil fuel
emissions and, by 2050, generating 100 percent of the
electricity consumed in the United States from clean energy
resources, such as solar, wind, geothermal, and other
renewable resources; and
(2) supports policies to achieve that goal that will--
(A) create jobs for all individuals, especially in
communities with high rates of unemployment or
underemployment, and build a sustainable economy; and
(B) ensure universal access to clean energy for all homes
and businesses in the United States, including for moderate-
and low-income families.
____________________
SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 58--EXPRESSING THE SENSE OF CONGRESS THAT
RATES FOR INMATE CALLING SERVICE SHOULD NOT EXCEED THE AFFORDABLE
MODIFIED RATE CAPS ADOPTED BY THE FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION
Mr. BOOKER submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was
referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation:
S. Con. Res. 58
Whereas an estimated 5,000,000 United States children have,
or have had, a parent in prison or jail;
Whereas phone calls make it easier for families of
incarcerated individuals to maintain positive relationships
with their loved ones who are incarcerated;
Whereas phone calls help to reduce recidivism and promote
the well-being of children;
Whereas a reduction in recidivism rates by just 1 percent
would save United States taxpayers $250,000,000 per year in
correctional costs;
Whereas families of incarcerated individuals frequently
experience financial hardship because of the loss of a key
wage earner;
Whereas the cost of maintaining contact with incarcerated
loved ones through in-person visits can be prohibitive;
Whereas written correspondence, especially with small
children and disabled individuals, can be an inadequate way
of maintaining communication; and
Whereas the Federal Communications Commission has been
steadfast in its efforts, in accordance with its authority
under the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 151 et
seq.)--
(1) to bring about a compromise on inmate calling service
rate caps; and
(2) to ensure that those rates are just and reasonable:
Now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives
concurring), That it is the sense of Congress that--
(1) rates for inmate calling service should not exceed the
affordable modified rate caps adopted by the Federal
Communications Commission as of the date of the adoption of
this resolution; and
(2) reduced inmate calling service rates should be
implemented swiftly because of the importance of inmate
calling service as a rehabilitative means of communication.
____________________
AUTHORITY FOR COMMITTEES TO MEET
Mr. HOEVEN. Mr. President, I have five requests for committees to
meet during today's session of the Senate. They have the approval of
the Majority and Minority leaders.
Pursuant to Rule XXVI, paragraph 5(a), of the Standing Rules of the
Senate, the following committees are authorized to meet during today's
session of the Senate:
COMMITTE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION
The Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation is authorized
to meet during the session of the Senate on December 7, 2016, at 2
p.m., in room S-216 to the Capitol Building.
COMMITTE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION
The Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation is authorized
to meet during the session of the Senate on December 7, 2016, at 2:30
p.m., in room SR-253 of the Russell Senate Office Building to conduct a
Subcommittee hearing entitled ``Assessing the Security of our Critical
Surface Transportation Infrastructure.''
COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS
The Committee on Indian Affairs is authorized to meet during the
session of the Senate on December 7, 2016, in room SD-628 of the
Dirksen Senate Office Building, at 2:15 p.m., to conduct a hearing
entitled ``Examining the Department of the Interior's Land Buy-Back
Program for Tribal Nations, Four Years Later.''
SUBCOMMITTEE ON ANTITRUST, COMPETITION POLICY, AND CONSUMER RIGHTS
The Committee on Judiciary, Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition
[[Page 16010]]
Policy and Consumer Rights is authorized to meet during the session of
the Senate on December 7, 2016, at 10 a.m., in room SD-226 of the
Dirksen Senate Office Building to conduct a hearing entitled
``Examining the Competitive Impact of the AT&T-Time Warner
Transaction.''
SELECT COMMITTEE ON INTELLIGENCE
The Select Committee on Intelligence is authorized to meet during the
session of the Senate on December 7, 2016, from 3 p.m. in room SH-219
of the Hart Senate Office Building.
____________________
EXECUTIVE SESSION
______
EXECUTIVE CALENDAR
Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate
proceed to executive session for the consideration of Calendar Nos. 742
through 765 and all nominations on the Secretary's desk; that the
nominations be confirmed en bloc, the motions to reconsider be
considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or
debate; that no further motions be in order; that any statements
related to the nominations be printed in the Record; that the President
be immediately notified of the Senate's action, and the Senate then
resume legislative session.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The nominations considered and confirmed en bloc are as follows:
IN THE AIR FORCE
The following named officer for appointment in the Reserve
of the Air Force to the grade indicated under title 10,
U.S.C., section 12203:
To be major general
Brig. Gen. Robert N. Polumbo
The following named officer for appointment in the United
States Air Force to the grade indicated while assigned to a
position of importance and responsibility under title 10,
U.S.C., section 601:
To be lieutenant general
Maj. Gen. Jerry D. Harris, Jr.
The following named officer for appointment in the United
States Air Force to the grade indicated while assigned to a
position of importance and responsibility under title 10,
U.S.C., section 601:
To be general
Lt. Gen. James M. Holmes
IN THE NAVY
The following named officer for appointment in the United
States Navy to the grade indicated while assigned to a
position of importance and responsibility under title 10,
U.S.C., section 601:
To be vice admiral
Rear Adm. William K. Lescher
The following named officer for appointment in the United
States Navy to the grade indicated under title 10, U.S.C.,
section 624:
To be rear admiral (lower half)
Capt. Kelly A. Aeschbach
The following named officer for appointment in the United
States Navy to the grade indicated while assigned to a
position of importance and responsibility under title 10,
U.S.C., section 601:
To be vice admiral
Vice Adm. Dixon R. Smith
IN THE AIR FORCE
The following Air National Guard of the United States
officers for appointment in the Reserve of the Air Force to
the grade indicated under title 10, U.S.C., sections 12203
and 12212:
To be brigadier general
Col. Joel E. DeGroot
Col. Christopher M. Faux
Col. Robert J. Gregory, III
Col. Henry U. Harder, Jr.
Col. Eric W. Lind
Col. David D. Zwart
The following Air National Guard of the United States
officers for appointment in the Reserve of the Air Force to
the grade indicated under title 10, U.S.C., sections 12203
and 12212:
To be major general
Brig. Gen. David P. Baczewski
Brig. Gen. Timothy J. Cathcart
Brig. Gen. Brian T. Dravis
Brig. Gen. James O. Eifert
Brig. Gen. Richard W. Kelly
Brig. Gen. Christopher J. Knapp
Brig. Gen. Jon K. Mott
Brig. Gen. Clayton W. Moushon
Brig. Gen. Kerry L. Muehlenbeck
Brig. Gen. Howard P. Purcell
Brig. Gen. David P. San Clemente
Brig. Gen. Michael R. Taheri
Brig. Gen. Roger E. Williams, Jr.
The following Air National Guard of the United States
officer for appointment in the Reserve of the Air Force to
the grade indicated under title 10, U.S.C., sections 12203
and 12212:
To be major general
Brig. Gen. Jesse T. Simmons, Jr.
The following Air National Guard of the United States
officers for appointment in the Reserve of the Air Force to
the grade indicated under title 10, U.S.C., sections 12203
and 12212:
To be major general
Brig. Gen. David M. McMinn
Brig. Gen. Ronald E. Paul
The following named officer for appointment in the Reserve
of the Air Force to the grade indicated under title 10,
U.S.C., section 12203:
To be brigadier general
Col. William E. Dickens, Jr.
The following named officers for appointment in the Reserve
of the Air Force to the grade indicated under title 10,
U.S.C., section 12203:
To be brigadier general
Col. Brian K. Borgen
Col. Jeffrey S. Hinrichs
Col. Jay D. Jensen
Col. Bret C. Larson
Col. Todd J. McCubbin
Col. Patrice A. Melancon
Col. Ellen M. Moore
Col. Boyd C. L. Parker, IV
Col. Steven B. Parker
Col. Bryan P. Radliff
Col. Scott A. Sauter
Col. Constance M. Von Hoffman
The following Air National Guard of the United States
officer for appointment in the Reserve of the Air Force to
the grade indicated under title 10, U.S.C., sections 12203
and 12212:
To be major general
Brig. Gen. Randolph J. Staudenraus
The following named officers for appointment in the Reserve
of the Air Force to the grade indicated under title 10,
U.S.C., section 12203:
To be major general
Brig. Gen. Craig L. LaFave
Brig. Gen. Pamela J. Lincoln
Brig. Gen. Donald R. Lindberg
Brig. Gen. Randall A. Ogden
Brig. Gen. James P. Scanlan
Brig. Gen. Patrick M. Wade
The following Air National Guard of the United States
officer for appointment in the Reserve of the Air Force to
the grade indicated under title 10, U.S.C., sections 12203
and 12212:
To be brigadier general
Col. Stephen C. Melton
IN THE ARMY
The following named officer for appointment in the United
States Army to the grade indicated while assigned to a
position of importance and responsibility under title 10,
U.S.C., section 601:
To be lieutenant general
Maj. Gen. Paul E. Funk, II
The following named officer for appointment in the United
States Army to the grade indicated while assigned to a
position of importance and responsibility under title 10,
U.S.C., section 601:
To be lieutenant general
Maj. Gen. Gary J. Volesky
The following named officer for appointment in the United
States Army to the grade indicated while assigned to a
position of importance and responsibility under title 10,
U.S.C., section 601:
To be lieutenant general
Maj. Gen. James H. Dickinson
The following Army National Guard of the United States
officer for appointment in the Reserve of the Army to the
grade indicated under title 10, U.S.C., sections 12203 and
12211:
To be major general
Brig. Gen. Patrick M. Hamilton
The following Army National Guard of the United States
officers for appointment in the Reserve of the Army to the
grade indicated under title 10, U.S.C., sections 12203 and
12211:
To be major general
Brig. Gen. Benjamin F. Adams, III
Brig. Gen. Wayne L. Black
Brig. Gen. Christopher M. Burns
Brig. Gen. Kurt S. Crytzer
Brig. Gen. Ivan E. Denton
Brig. Gen. James C. Ernst
Brig. Gen. Kevin R. Griese
Brig. Gen. Mark G. Malanka
Brig. Gen. Roy V. McCarty
Brig. Gen. Blake C. Ortner
Brig. Gen. Christopher J. Petty
Brig. Gen. Jessie R. Robinson
Brig. Gen. Steven T. Scott
Brig. Gen. Raymond F. Shields, Jr.
Brig. Gen. Bryan E. Suntheimer
Brig. Gen. Kirk E. Vanpelt
Brig. Gen. Timothy J. Wojtecki
Brig. Gen. Michael R. Zerbonia
The following Army National Guard of the United States
officer for appointment in the Reserve of the Army to the
grade indicated under title 10, U.S.C., sections 12203 and
12211:
[[Page 16011]]
To be brigadier general
Col. Mark A. Piterski
The following Army National Guard of the United States
officer for appointment in the Reserve of the Army to the
grade indicated under title 10, U.S.C., sections 12203 and
12211:
To be brigadier general
Col. Ellis F. Hopkins III
The following Army National Guard of the United States
officers for appointment in the Reserve of the Army to the
grade indicated under title 10, U.S.C., sections 12203 and
12211:
To be brigadier general
Col. Michael A. Abell
Col. Joseph L. Biehler
Col. Janeen L. Birckhead
Col. Marti J. Bissell
Col. Scott J. Boespflug
Col. Raymond D. Bossert, Jr.
Col. Patrick R. Bossetta
Col. Thomas R. Bouchard
Col. Robert A. Boyette
Col. Kenneth E. Brandt
Col. Stanley E. Budraitis
Col. Anthony R. Camacho
Col. Mike A. Canzoneri
Col. Rita B. Casey
Col. Gregory P. Chaney
Col. Paul B. Chauncey, III
Col. Bobby L. Christine
Col. Edward J. Chrystal, Jr.
Col. William E. Crane
Col. Darrell W. Daniels
Col. Gregory T. Day
Col. Henry S. Dixon
Col. Scott A. Doust
Col. Dwaine E. Drummond
Col. Diane L. Dunn
Col. Robert A. Dwan
Col. Leonard H. Dyer, Jr.
Col. Steve D. Elliott
Col. Francis J. Evon, Jr.
Col. Kelly A. Fisher
Col. Robert C. Frick
Col. Robert B. Gaston
Col. Andrew L. Gibson
Col. Kerry W. Goodman
Col. William D. Griswold
Col. Dennis J. Humphrey
Col. Robert W. Intress
Col. Richard F. Johnson
Col. Jeffrey A. Jones
Col. Eric T. Judkins
Col. Kipling V. Kahler
Col. Moses Kaoiwi, Jr.
Col. Eric K. Little
Col. Zachary E. Maner
Col. James R. Mathews
Col. Mark A. Merlino
Col. Douglas R. Messner
Col. David J. Mikolaities
Col. Charles W. Moore
Col. Leah M. Moore
Col. Michel A. Natali
Col. Reginald G.A. Neal
Col. John M. Oberkirsch
Col. Stephen E. Osborn
Col. Rodney B. Painting
Col. Chad J. Parker
Col. Roger A. Presley, Jr.
Col. Jose J. Reyes
Col. Frank M. Rice
Col. Timothy L. Rieger
Col. James W. Ring
Col. John W. Rueger
Col. Adam R. Silvers
Col. Jeffrey D. Smiley
Col. Michael E. Spraggins
Col. Steven E. Stivers
Col. Mechelle M. Tuttle
Col. Jeffrey P. Van
Col. Thomas M. Vickers, Jr.
Col. Louis W. Wilham
IN THE NAVY
The following named officer for appointment in the United
States Navy to the grade indicated while assigned to a
position of importance and responsibility under title 10,
U.S.C., section 601:
To be vice admiral
Rear Adm. (1h) Mary M. Jackson
Nominations Placed on the Secretary's Desk
in the air force
PN1553 AIR FORCE nominations (15) beginning DANIEL J.
BESSMER, and ending CHRISTIE BARTON WALTON, which nominations
were received by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional
Record of June 16, 2016.
PN1832 AIR FORCE nominations (28) beginning KIP T. AVERETT,
and ending DANIEL S. WALKER, which nominations were received
by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional Record of
November 15, 2016.
PN1833 AIR FORCE nominations (2) beginning SHAWN M. GARCIA,
and ending MORGAN H. LAIRD, which nominations were received
by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional Record of
November 15, 2016.
PN1834 AIR FORCE nominations (1903) beginning DANIEL C.
ABELL, and ending PETER ZWART, which nominations were
received by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional
Record of November 15, 2016.
PN1835 AIR FORCE nomination of Gary A. Fairchild, which was
received by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional
Record of November 15, 2016.
PN1836 AIR FORCE nomination of Megan M. Luka, which was
received by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional
Record of November 15, 2016.
PN1837 AIR FORCE nominations (2) beginning BRANDON D.
CLINT, and ending EDMUND J. RUTHERFORD, which nominations
were received by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional
Record of November 15, 2016.
PN1838 AIR FORCE nominations (90) beginning ISAMETTIN A.
ARAL, and ending LESLIE ANN ZYZDA-MARTIN, which nominations
were received by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional
Record of November 15, 2016.
in the army
PN1557 ARMY nomination of Brian C. Garver, which was
received by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional
Record of June 16, 2016.
PN1689 ARMY nomination of Clifford D. Johnston, which was
received by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional
Record of September 6, 2016.
PN1692 ARMY nomination of Reinaldo Gonzalez, II, which was
received by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional
Record of September 6, 2016.
PN1712 ARMY nomination of Graham F. Inman which was
received by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional
Record of September 8, 2016.
PN1839 ARMY nomination of Eileen K. Jenkins, which was
received by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional
Record of November 15, 2016.
PN1840 ARMY nomination of Jeffrey M. Farris, which was
received by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional
Record of November 15, 2016.
PN1841 ARMY nomination of Matthew T. Bell, which was
received by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional
Record of November 15, 2016.
PN1842 ARMY nomination of Melissa B. Reister, which was
received by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional
Record of November 15, 2016.
PN1843 ARMY nomination of Charles M. Causey, which was
received by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional
Record of November 15, 2016.
PN1844 ARMY nominations (2) beginning STEPHEN A. LABATE,
and ending RAYMOND J. ORR, which nominations were received by
the Senate and appeared in the Congressional Record of
November 15, 2016.
PN1845 ARMY nomination of Roxanne E. Wallace, which was
received by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional
Record of November 15, 2016.
PN1846 ARMY nomination of Eric A. Mitchell, which was
received by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional
Record of November 15, 2016.
PN1847 ARMY nomination of Jonathan J. Vannatta, which was
received by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional
Record of November 15, 2016.
PN1848 ARMY nomination of Dennis D. Calloway, which was
received by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional
Record of November 15, 2016.
PN1849 ARMY nominations (3) beginning KENNETH L. ALFORD,
and ending BRUCE T. SIDEBOTHAM, which nominations were
received by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional
Record of November 15, 2016.
PN1850 ARMY nomination of Henry Spring, Jr., which was
received by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional
Record of November 15, 2016.
PN1851 ARMY nomination of Craig A. Yunker, which was
received by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional
Record of November 15, 2016.
PN1852 ARMY nomination of Cornelius J. Pope, which was
received by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional
Record of November 15, 2016.
PN1853 ARMY nomination of Anthony K. McConnell, which was
received by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional
Record of November 15, 2016.
PN1854 ARMY nomination of Jennifer L. Cummings, which was
received by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional
Record of November 15, 2016.
PN1855 ARMY nominations (2) beginning DONALD J. ERPENBACH,
and ending TIMOTHY A. FANTER, which nominations were received
by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional Record of
November 15, 2016.
PN1857 ARMY nomination of Carl I. Shaia, which was received
by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional Record of
November 15, 2016.
PN1858 ARMY nomination of Lisa M. Barden, which was
received by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional
Record of November 15, 2016.
PN1859 ARMY nomination of Roger D. Lyles, which was
received by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional
Record of November 15, 2016.
PN1860 ARMY nomination of Clara A. Bieganek, which was
received by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional
Record of November 15, 2016.
PN1861 ARMY nomination of Isaiah M. Garfias which was
received by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional
Record of November 15, 2016.
PN1862 ARMY nomination of Louis E. Herrera, which was
received by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional
Record of November 15, 2016.
PN1863 ARMY nomination of Schnicka L. Singleton, which was
received by the Senate
[[Page 16012]]
and appeared in the Congressional Record of November 15,
2016.
PN1864 ARMY nomination of John R. Burchfield, which was
received by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional
Record of November 15, 2016.
PN1865 ARMY nomination of Elizabeth S. Eatonferenzi, which
was received by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional
Record of November 15, 2016.
PN1866 ARMY nomination of Richard D. Mina, which was
received by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional
Record of November 15, 2016.
PN1867 ARMY nominations (44) beginning TEMIDAYO L.
ANDERSON, and ending D0127914, which nominations were
received by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional
Record of November 15, 2016.
PN1869 ARMY nomination of Richard A. Gautier, Jr., which
was received by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional
Record of November 15, 2016.
PN1870 ARMY nomination of Joseph A. Papenfus, which was
received by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional
Record of November 15, 2016.
PN1871 ARMY nominations (9) beginning STUART G. BAKER, and
ending WALTER D. VENNEMAN, which nominations were received by
the Senate and appeared in the Congressional Record of
November 15, 2016.
PN1872 ARMY nomination of David S. Yuen, which was received
by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional Record of
November 15, 2016.
PN1873 ARMY nomination of Donta A. White, which was
received by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional
Record of November 15, 2016.
PN1874 ARMY nomination of Tony A. Hampton, which was
received by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional
Record of November 15, 2016.
PN1875 ARMY nominations (18) beginning CHARLES C. ANDERSON,
and ending JAMES D. WILLSON, which nominations were received
by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional Record of
November 15, 2016.
PN1876 ARMY nomination of David A. Yasenchock, which was
received by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional
Record of November 15, 2016.
PN1877 ARMY nomination of Aaron C. Ramiro, which was
received by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional
Record of November 15, 2016.
PN1878 ARMY nomination of Richard M. Strong, which was
received by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional
Record of November 15, 2016.
PN1879 ARMY nomination of Brendon S. Baker, which was
received by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional
Record of November 15, 2016.
PN1880 ARMY nominations (19) beginning LANNY J. ACOSTA,
JR., and ending LANCE B. TURLINGTON, which nominations were
received by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional
Record of November 15, 2016.
PN1900 ARMY nomination of Andrew J. Wade, which was
received by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional
Record of November 16, 2016.
PN1902 ARMY nomination of Christopher S. Besser, which was
received by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional
Record of November 29, 2016.
PN1903 ARMY nomination of Chad C. Black, which was received
by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional Record of
November 29, 2016.
PN1904 ARMY nomination of Thomas D. Starkey, which was
received by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional
Record of November 29, 2016.
in the foreign service
*PN1808 FOREIGN SERVICE nominations (2) beginning Marva
Michelle Butler, and ending Adonis Mariano Matos de Mello,
which nominations were received by the Senate and appeared in
the Congressional Record of November 15, 2016.
*PN1907 FOREIGN SERVICE nominations (2) beginning Stephen
Donald Mull, and ending Victoria Jane Nuland, which
nominations were received by the Senate and appeared in the
Congressional Record of November 29, 2016.
*PN1908 FOREIGN SERVICE nominations (181) beginning Robert
L. Adams, and ending Laura Ann Griesmer, which nominations
were received by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional
Record of November 29, 2016.
*PN1909 FOREIGN SERVICE nominations (5) beginning Robert
Stephen Beecroft, and ending Marie L. Yovanovitch, which
nominations were received by the Senate and appeared in the
Congressional Record of November 29, 2016.
*PN1910 FOREIGN SERVICE nominations (42) beginning Tristan
J. Allen, and ending William F. Zeman which nominations were
received by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional
Record of November 29, 2016.
*PN1911 FOREIGN SERVICE nominations (180) beginning Anthony
Abba, and ending Michael David Zgoda, which nominations were
received by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional
Record of November 29, 2016.
in the marine corps
PN1905 MARINE CORPS nomination of Joshua D. Fitzgarrald,
which was received by the Senate and appeared in the
Congressional Record of November 29, 2016.
PN1906 MARINE CORPS nomination of Anthony C. Lyons, which
was received by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional
Record of November 29, 2016.
in the navy
PN1633 NAVY nomination of Suzanne L. Hopkins, which was
received by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional
Record of July 13, 2016.
PN1881 NAVY nominations (46) beginning JAFAR A. ALI, and
ending ANTHONY K. WOLVERTON, which nominations were received
by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional Record of
November 15, 2016.
PN1882 NAVY nomination of Meryl A. Severson, III, which was
received by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional
Record of November 15, 2016.
PN1883 NAVY nomination of Ashley R. Bjorklund, which was
received by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional
Record of November 15, 2016.
PN1884 NAVY nomination of Adeleke O. Mowobi, which was
received by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional
Record of November 15, 2016.
PN1885 NAVY nominations (2) beginning MARY K. ARBUTHNOT,
and ending JOHN K. WERNER, JR., which nominations were
received by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional
Record of November 15, 2016.
PN1886 NAVY nomination of Stephen W. Hedrick, which was
received by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional
Record of November 15, 2016.
PN1887 NAVY nomination of Vincent M. J. Ambrosino, which
was received by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional
Record of November 15, 2016.
PN1888 NAVY nomination of Neal P. Ridge, which was received
by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional Record of
November 15, 2016.
PN1891 NAVY nomination of Abdeslam Bousalham, which was
received by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional
Record of November 15, 2016.
PN1892 NAVY nomination of Scott M. Morey, which was
received by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional
Record of November 15, 2016.
PN1893 NAVY nomination of Christian R. Foschi, which was
received by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional
Record of November 15, 2016.
____________________
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senate will now resume legislative
session.
____________________
MEASURE READ THE FIRST TIME--S. 3516
Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, I understand there is a bill at the desk
and I ask for its first reading.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will read the bill by title for the
first time.
The legislative clerk read as follows:
A bill (S. 3516) to authorize the Secretary of Veterans
Affairs to conduct a best-practices peer review of each
medical center of the Department of Veterans Affairs to
evaluate the efficacy of health care delivered at each such
medical center.
Mr. TILLIS. I now ask for a second reading and, in order to place the
bill on the calendar under the provisions of rule XIV, I object to my
own request.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection having been heard, the bill will be
read for the second time on the next legislative day.
____________________
ORDERS FOR THURSDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2016
Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the
Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 9:30 a.m.,
Thursday, December 8; that following the prayer and pledge, the morning
hour be deemed expired, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date,
and the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the
day; further, that following leader remarks, the Senate resume
consideration of the conference report to accompany S. 2943
postcloture; finally, that all postcloture time on the conference
report to accompany S. 2943 expire at 12:30 p.m. tomorrow.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
____________________
ADJOURNMENT UNTIL 9:30 A.M. TOMORROW
Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, if there is no further business to come
before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that it stand adjourned
under the previous order.
There being no objection, the Senate, at 8:24 p.m., adjourned until
Thursday, December 8, 2016, at 9:30 a.m.
[[Page 16013]]
____________________
NOMINATIONS
Executive nomination received by the Senate:
DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
ANN BEGEMAN, OF SOUTH DAKOTA, TO BE A MEMBER OF THE SURFACE
TRANSPORTATION BOARD FOR A TERM EXPIRING DECEMBER 31, 2020.
(REAPPOINTMENT)
____________________
CONFIRMATIONS
Executive nominations confirmed by the Senate December 7, 2016:
IN THE AIR FORCE
THE FOLLOWING NAMED OFFICER FOR APPOINTMENT IN THE RESERVE
OF THE AIR FORCE TO THE GRADE INDICATED UNDER TITLE 10,
U.S.C., SECTION 12203:
To be major general
BRIG. GEN. ROBERT N. POLUMBO
THE FOLLOWING NAMED OFFICER FOR APPOINTMENT IN THE UNITED
STATES AIR FORCE TO THE GRADE INDICATED WHILE ASSIGNED TO A
POSITION OF IMPORTANCE AND RESPONSIBILITY UNDER TITLE 10,
U.S.C., SECTION 601:
To be lieutenant general
MAJ. GEN. JERRY D. HARRIS, JR.
THE FOLLOWING NAMED OFFICER FOR APPOINTMENT IN THE UNITED
STATES AIR FORCE TO THE GRADE INDICATED WHILE ASSIGNED TO A
POSITION OF IMPORTANCE AND RESPONSIBILITY UNDER TITLE 10,
U.S.C., SECTION 601:
To be general
LT. GEN. JAMES M. HOLMES
IN THE NAVY
THE FOLLOWING NAMED OFFICER FOR APPOINTMENT IN THE UNITED
STATES NAVY TO THE GRADE INDICATED WHILE ASSIGNED TO A
POSITION OF IMPORTANCE AND RESPONSIBILITY UNDER TITLE 10,
U.S.C., SECTION 601:
To be vice admiral
REAR ADM. WILLIAM K. LESCHER
THE FOLLOWING NAMED OFFICER FOR APPOINTMENT IN THE UNITED
STATES NAVY TO THE GRADE INDICATED UNDER TITLE 10, U.S.C.,
SECTION 624:
To be rear admiral (lower half)
CAPT. KELLY A. AESCHBACH
THE FOLLOWING NAMED OFFICER FOR APPOINTMENT IN THE UNITED
STATES NAVY TO THE GRADE INDICATED WHILE ASSIGNED TO A
POSITION OF IMPORTANCE AND RESPONSIBILITY UNDER TITLE 10,
U.S.C., SECTION 601:
To be vice admiral
VICE ADM. DIXON R. SMITH
IN THE AIR FORCE
THE FOLLOWING AIR NATIONAL GUARD OF THE UNITED STATES
OFFICERS FOR APPOINTMENT IN THE RESERVE OF THE AIR FORCE TO
THE GRADE INDICATED UNDER TITLE 10, U.S.C., SECTIONS 12203
AND 12212:
To be brigadier general
COL. JOEL E. DEGROOT
COL. CHRISTOPHER M. FAUX
COL. ROBERT J. GREGORY III
COL. HENRY U. HARDER, JR.
COL. ERIC W. LIND
COL. DAVID D. ZWART
THE FOLLOWING AIR NATIONAL GUARD OF THE UNITED STATES
OFFICERS FOR APPOINTMENT IN THE RESERVE OF THE AIR FORCE TO
THE GRADE INDICATED UNDER TITLE 10, U.S.C., SECTIONS 12203
AND 12212:
To be major general
BRIG. GEN. DAVID P. BACZEWSKI
BRIG. GEN. TIMOTHY J. CATHCART
BRIG. GEN. BRIAN T. DRAVIS
BRIG. GEN. JAMES O. EIFERT
BRIG. GEN. RICHARD W. KELLY
BRIG. GEN. CHRISTOPHER J. KNAPP
BRIG. GEN. JON K. MOTT
BRIG. GEN. CLAYTON W. MOUSHON
BRIG. GEN. KERRY L. MUEHLENBECK
BRIG. GEN. HOWARD P. PURCELL
BRIG. GEN. DAVID P. SAN CLEMENTE
BRIG. GEN. MICHAEL R. TAHERI
BRIG. GEN. ROGER E. WILLIAMS, JR.
THE FOLLOWING AIR NATIONAL GUARD OF THE UNITED STATES
OFFICER FOR APPOINTMENT IN THE RESERVE OF THE AIR FORCE TO
THE GRADE INDICATED UNDER TITLE 10, U.S.C., SECTIONS 12203
AND 12212:
To be major general
BRIG. GEN. JESSE T. SIMMONS, JR.
THE FOLLOWING AIR NATIONAL GUARD OF THE UNITED STATES
OFFICERS FOR APPOINTMENT IN THE RESERVE OF THE AIR FORCE TO
THE GRADE INDICATED UNDER TITLE 10, U.S.C., SECTIONS 12203
AND 12212:
To be major general
BRIG. GEN. DAVID M. MCMINN
BRIG. GEN. RONALD E. PAUL
THE FOLLOWING NAMED OFFICER FOR APPOINTMENT IN THE RESERVE
OF THE AIR FORCE TO THE GRADE INDICATED UNDER TITLE 10,
U.S.C., SECTION 12203:
To be brigadier general
COL. WILLIAM E. DICKENS, JR.
THE FOLLOWING NAMED OFFICERS FOR APPOINTMENT IN THE RESERVE
OF THE AIR FORCE TO THE GRADE INDICATED UNDER TITLE 10,
U.S.C., SECTION 12203:
To be brigadier general
COL. BRIAN K. BORGEN
COL. JEFFREY S. HINRICHS
COL. JAY D. JENSEN
COL. BRET C. LARSON
COL. TODD J. MCCUBBIN
COL. PATRICE A. MELANCON
COL. ELLEN M. MOORE
COL. BOYD C. L. PARKER IV
COL. STEVEN B. PARKER
COL. BRYAN P. RADLIFF
COL. SCOTT A. SAUTER
COL. CONSTANCE M. VON HOFFMAN
THE FOLLOWING AIR NATIONAL GUARD OF THE UNITED STATES
OFFICER FOR APPOINTMENT IN THE RESERVE OF THE AIR FORCE TO
THE GRADE INDICATED UNDER TITLE 10, U.S.C., SECTIONS 12203
AND 12212:
To be major general
BRIG. GEN. RANDOLPH J. STAUDENRAUS
THE FOLLOWING NAMED OFFICERS FOR APPOINTMENT IN THE RESERVE
OF THE AIR FORCE TO THE GRADE INDICATED UNDER TITLE 10,
U.S.C., SECTION 12203:
To be major general
BRIG. GEN. CRAIG L. LAFAVE
BRIG. GEN. PAMELA J. LINCOLN
BRIG. GEN. DONALD R. LINDBERG
BRIG. GEN. RANDALL A. OGDEN
BRIG. GEN. JAMES P. SCANLAN
BRIG. GEN. PATRICK M. WADE
THE FOLLOWING AIR NATIONAL GUARD OF THE UNITED STATES
OFFICER FOR APPOINTMENT IN THE RESERVE OF THE AIR FORCE TO
THE GRADE INDICATED UNDER TITLE 10, U.S.C., SECTIONS 12203
AND 12212:
To be brigadier general
COL. STEPHEN C. MELTON
IN THE ARMY
THE FOLLOWING NAMED OFFICER FOR APPOINTMENT IN THE UNITED
STATES ARMY TO THE GRADE INDICATED WHILE ASSIGNED TO A
POSITION OF IMPORTANCE AND RESPONSIBILITY UNDER TITLE 10,
U.S.C., SECTION 601:
To be lieutenant general
MAJ. GEN. PAUL E. FUNK II
THE FOLLOWING NAMED OFFICER FOR APPOINTMENT IN THE UNITED
STATES ARMY TO THE GRADE INDICATED WHILE ASSIGNED TO A
POSITION OF IMPORTANCE AND RESPONSIBILITY UNDER TITLE 10,
U.S.C., SECTION 601:
To be lieutenant general
MAJ. GEN. GARY J. VOLESKY
THE FOLLOWING NAMED OFFICER FOR APPOINTMENT IN THE UNITED
STATES ARMY TO THE GRADE INDICATED WHILE ASSIGNED TO A
POSITION OF IMPORTANCE AND RESPONSIBILITY UNDER TITLE 10,
U.S.C., SECTION 601:
To be lieutenant general
MAJ. GEN. JAMES H. DICKINSON
THE FOLLOWING ARMY NATIONAL GUARD OF THE UNITED STATES
OFFICER FOR APPOINTMENT IN THE RESERVE OF THE ARMY TO THE
GRADE INDICATED UNDER TITLE 10, U.S.C., SECTIONS 12203 AND
12211:
To be major general
BRIG. GEN. PATRICK M. HAMILTON
THE FOLLOWING ARMY NATIONAL GUARD OF THE UNITED STATES
OFFICERS FOR APPOINTMENT IN THE RESERVE OF THE ARMY TO THE
GRADE INDICATED UNDER TITLE 10, U.S.C., SECTIONS 12203 AND
12211:
To be major general
BRIG. GEN. BENJAMIN F. ADAMS III
BRIG. GEN. WAYNE L. BLACK
BRIG. GEN. CHRISTOPHER M. BURNS
BRIG. GEN. KURT S. CRYTZER
BRIG. GEN. IVAN E. DENTON
BRIG. GEN. JAMES C. ERNST
BRIG. GEN. KEVIN R. GRIESE
BRIG. GEN. MARK G. MALANKA
BRIG. GEN. ROY V. MCCARTY
BRIG. GEN. BLAKE C. ORTNER
BRIG. GEN. CHRISTOPHER J. PETTY
BRIG. GEN. JESSIE R. ROBINSON
BRIG. GEN. STEVEN T. SCOTT
BRIG. GEN. RAYMOND F. SHIELDS, JR.
BRIG. GEN. BRYAN E. SUNTHEIMER
BRIG. GEN. KIRK E. VANPELT
BRIG. GEN. TIMOTHY J. WOJTECKI
BRIG. GEN. MICHAEL R. ZERBONIA
THE FOLLOWING ARMY NATIONAL GUARD OF THE UNITED STATES
OFFICER FOR APPOINTMENT IN THE RESERVE OF THE ARMY TO THE
GRADE INDICATED UNDER TITLE 10, U.S.C., SECTIONS 12203 AND
12211:
To be brigadier general
COL. MARK A. PITERSKI
THE FOLLOWING ARMY NATIONAL GUARD OF THE UNITED STATES
OFFICER FOR APPOINTMENT IN THE RESERVE OF THE ARMY TO THE
GRADE INDICATED UNDER TITLE 10, U.S.C., SECTIONS 12203 AND
12211:
To be brigadier general
COL. ELLIS F. HOPKINS III
THE FOLLOWING ARMY NATIONAL GUARD OF THE UNITED STATES
OFFICERS FOR APPOINTMENT IN THE RESERVE OF THE ARMY TO THE
GRADE INDICATED UNDER TITLE 10, U.S.C., SECTIONS 12203 AND
12211:
To be brigadier general
COL. MICHAEL A. ABELL
COL. JOSEPH L. BIEHLER
COL. JANEEN L. BIRCKHEAD
COL. MARTI J. BISSELL
COL. SCOTT J. BOESPFLUG
COL. RAYMOND D. BOSSERT, JR.
COL. PATRICK R. BOSSETTA
COL. THOMAS R. BOUCHARD
COL. ROBERT A. BOYETTE
COL. KENNETH E. BRANDT
COL. STANLEY E. BUDRAITIS
COL. ANTHONY R. CAMACHO
COL. MIKE A. CANZONERI
COL. RITA B. CASEY
COL. GREGORY P. CHANEY
COL. PAUL B. CHAUNCEY III
COL. BOBBY L. CHRISTINE
COL. EDWARD J. CHRYSTAL, JR.
COL. WILLIAM E. CRANE
COL. DARRELL W. DANIELS
COL. GREGORY T. DAY
COL. HENRY S. DIXON
COL. SCOTT A. DOUST
COL. DWAINE E. DRUMMOND
COL. DIANE L. DUNN
COL. ROBERT A. DWAN
COL. LEONARD H. DYER, JR.
COL. STEVE D. ELLIOTT
COL. FRANCIS J. EVON, JR.
COL. KELLY A. FISHER
COL. ROBERT C. FRICK
COL. ROBERT B. GASTON
COL. ANDREW L. GIBSON
COL. KERRY W. GOODMAN
COL. WILLIAM D. GRISWOLD
COL. DENNIS J. HUMPHREY
COL. ROBERT W. INTRESS
COL. RICHARD F. JOHNSON
COL. JEFFREY A. JONES
COL. ERIC T. JUDKINS
COL. KIPLING V. KAHLER
COL. MOSES KAOIWI, JR.
COL. ERIC K. LITTLE
COL. ZACHARY E. MANER
COL. JAMES R. MATHEWS
COL. MARK A. MERLINO
COL. DOUGLAS R. MESSNER
COL. DAVID J. MIKOLAITIES
COL. CHARLES W. MOORE
COL. LEAH M. MOORE
COL. MICHEL A. NATALI
COL. REGINALD G.A. NEAL
COL. JOHN M. OBERKIRSCH
COL. STEPHEN E. OSBORN
COL. RODNEY B. PAINTING
COL. CHAD J. PARKER
COL. ROGER A. PRESLEY, JR.
COL. JOSE J. REYES
COL. FRANK M. RICE
COL. TIMOTHY L. RIEGER
COL. JAMES W. RING
COL. JOHN W. RUEGER
COL. ADAM R. SILVERS
COL. JEFFREY D. SMILEY
COL. MICHAEL E. SPRAGGINS
COL. STEVEN E. STIVERS
COL. MECHELLE M. TUTTLE
COL. JEFFREY P. VAN
COL. THOMAS M. VICKERS, JR.
COL. LOUIS W. WILHAM
IN THE NAVY
THE FOLLOWING NAMED OFFICER FOR APPOINTMENT IN THE UNITED
STATES NAVY TO THE GRADE INDICATED WHILE ASSIGNED TO A
POSITION OF IMPORTANCE AND RESPONSIBILITY UNDER TITLE 10,
U.S.C., SECTION 601:
To be vice admiral
REAR ADM. (LH) MARY M. JACKSON
IN THE AIR FORCE
AIR FORCE NOMINATIONS BEGINNING WITH DANIEL J. BESSMER AND
ENDING WITH CHRISTIE BARTON WALTON, WHICH NOMINATIONS WERE
RECEIVED BY THE SENATE AND APPEARED IN THE CONGRESSIONAL
RECORD ON JUNE 16, 2016.
[[Page 16014]]
AIR FORCE NOMINATIONS BEGINNING WITH KIP T. AVERETT AND
ENDING WITH DANIEL S. WALKER, WHICH NOMINATIONS WERE RECEIVED
BY THE SENATE AND APPEARED IN THE CONGRESSIONAL RECORD ON
NOVEMBER 15, 2016.
AIR FORCE NOMINATIONS BEGINNING WITH SHAWN M. GARCIA AND
ENDING WITH MORGAN H. LAIRD, WHICH NOMINATIONS WERE RECEIVED
BY THE SENATE AND APPEARED IN THE CONGRESSIONAL RECORD ON
NOVEMBER 15, 2016.
AIR FORCE NOMINATIONS BEGINNING WITH DANIEL C. ABELL AND
ENDING WITH PETER ZWART, WHICH NOMINATIONS WERE RECEIVED BY
THE SENATE AND APPEARED IN THE CONGRESSIONAL RECORD ON
NOVEMBER 15, 2016.
AIR FORCE NOMINATION OF GARY A. FAIRCHILD, TO BE COLONEL.
AIR FORCE NOMINATION OF MEGAN M. LUKA, TO BE MAJOR.
AIR FORCE NOMINATIONS BEGINNING WITH BRANDON D. CLINT AND
ENDING WITH EDMUND J. RUTHERFORD, WHICH NOMINATIONS WERE
RECEIVED BY THE SENATE AND APPEARED IN THE CONGRESSIONAL
RECORD ON NOVEMBER 15, 2016.
AIR FORCE NOMINATIONS BEGINNING WITH ISAMETTIN A. ARAL AND
ENDING WITH LESLIE ANN ZYZDA-MARTIN, WHICH NOMINATIONS WERE
RECEIVED BY THE SENATE AND APPEARED IN THE CONGRESSIONAL
RECORD ON NOVEMBER 15, 2016.
IN THE ARMY
ARMY NOMINATION OF BRIAN C. GARVER, TO BE MAJOR.
ARMY NOMINATION OF CLIFFORD D. JOHNSTON, TO BE MAJOR.
ARMY NOMINATION OF REINALDO GONZALEZ II, TO BE MAJOR.
ARMY NOMINATION OF GRAHAM F. INMAN, TO BE MAJOR.
ARMY NOMINATION OF EILEEN K. JENKINS, TO BE LIEUTENANT
COLONEL.
ARMY NOMINATION OF JEFFREY M. FARRIS, TO BE COLONEL.
ARMY NOMINATION OF MATTHEW T. BELL, TO BE LIEUTENANT
COLONEL.
ARMY NOMINATION OF MELISSA B. REISTER, TO BE MAJOR.
ARMY NOMINATION OF CHARLES M. CAUSEY, TO BE COLONEL.
ARMY NOMINATIONS BEGINNING WITH STEPHEN A. LABATE AND
ENDING WITH RAYMOND J. ORR, WHICH NOMINATIONS WERE RECEIVED
BY THE SENATE AND APPEARED IN THE CONGRESSIONAL RECORD ON
NOVEMBER 15, 2016.
ARMY NOMINATION OF ROXANNE E. WALLACE, TO BE LIEUTENANT
COLONEL.
ARMY NOMINATION OF ERIC A. MITCHELL, TO BE MAJOR.
ARMY NOMINATION OF JONATHAN J. VANNATTA, TO BE COLONEL.
ARMY NOMINATION OF DENNIS D. CALLOWAY, TO BE LIEUTENANT
COLONEL.
ARMY NOMINATIONS BEGINNING WITH KENNETH L. ALFORD AND
ENDING WITH BRUCE T. SIDEBOTHAM, WHICH NOMINATIONS WERE
RECEIVED BY THE SENATE AND APPEARED IN THE CONGRESSIONAL
RECORD ON NOVEMBER 15, 2016.
ARMY NOMINATION OF HENRY SPRING, JR., TO BE COLONEL.
ARMY NOMINATION OF CRAIG A. YUNKER, TO BE COLONEL.
ARMY NOMINATION OF CORNELIUS J. POPE, TO BE LIEUTENANT
COLONEL.
ARMY NOMINATION OF ANTHONY K. MCCONNELL, TO BE COLONEL.
ARMY NOMINATION OF JENNIFER L. CUMMINGS, TO BE LIEUTENANT
COLONEL.
ARMY NOMINATIONS BEGINNING WITH DONALD J. ERPENBACH AND
ENDING WITH TIMOTHY A. FANTER, WHICH NOMINATIONS WERE
RECEIVED BY THE SENATE AND APPEARED IN THE CONGRESSIONAL
RECORD ON NOVEMBER 15, 2016.
ARMY NOMINATION OF CARL I. SHAIA, TO BE COLONEL.
ARMY NOMINATION OF LISA M. BARDEN, TO BE LIEUTENANT
COLONEL.
ARMY NOMINATION OF ROGER D. LYLES, TO BE COLONEL.
ARMY NOMINATION OF CLARA A. BIEGANEK, TO BE LIEUTENANT
COLONEL.
ARMY NOMINATION OF ISAIAH M. GARFIAS, TO BE MAJOR.
ARMY NOMINATION OF LOUIS E. HERRERA, TO BE COLONEL.
ARMY NOMINATION OF SCHNICKA L. SINGLETON, TO BE MAJOR.
ARMY NOMINATION OF JOHN R. BURCHFIELD, TO BE COLONEL.
ARMY NOMINATION OF ELIZABETH S. EATONFERENZI, TO BE MAJOR.
ARMY NOMINATION OF RICHARD D. MINA, TO BE MAJOR.
ARMY NOMINATIONS BEGINNING WITH TEMIDAYO L. ANDERSON AND
ENDING WITH D0127914, WHICH NOMINATIONS WERE RECEIVED BY THE
SENATE AND APPEARED IN THE CONGRESSIONAL RECORD ON NOVEMBER
15, 2016.
ARMY NOMINATION OF RICHARD A. GAUTIER, JR., TO BE MAJOR.
ARMY NOMINATION OF JOSEPH A. PAPENFUS, TO BE COLONEL.
ARMY NOMINATIONS BEGINNING WITH STUART G. BAKER AND ENDING
WITH WALTER D. VENNEMAN, WHICH NOMINATIONS WERE RECEIVED BY
THE SENATE AND APPEARED IN THE CONGRESSIONAL RECORD ON
NOVEMBER 15, 2016.
ARMY NOMINATION OF DAVID S. YUEN, TO BE COLONEL.
ARMY NOMINATION OF DONTA A. WHITE, TO BE MAJOR.
ARMY NOMINATION OF TONY A. HAMPTON, TO BE MAJOR.
ARMY NOMINATIONS BEGINNING WITH CHARLES C. ANDERSON AND
ENDING WITH JAMES D. WILLSON, WHICH NOMINATIONS WERE RECEIVED
BY THE SENATE AND APPEARED IN THE CONGRESSIONAL RECORD ON
NOVEMBER 15, 2016.
ARMY NOMINATION OF DAVID A. YASENCHOCK, TO BE COLONEL.
ARMY NOMINATION OF AARON C. RAMIRO, TO BE MAJOR.
ARMY NOMINATION OF RICHARD M. STRONG, TO BE LIEUTENANT
COLONEL.
ARMY NOMINATION OF BRENDON S. BAKER, TO BE MAJOR.
ARMY NOMINATIONS BEGINNING WITH LANNY J. ACOSTA, JR. AND
ENDING WITH LANCE B. TURLINGTON, WHICH NOMINATIONS WERE
RECEIVED BY THE SENATE AND APPEARED IN THE CONGRESSIONAL
RECORD ON NOVEMBER 15, 2016.
ARMY NOMINATION OF ANDREW J. WADE, TO BE COLONEL.
ARMY NOMINATION OF CHRISTOPHER S. BESSER, TO BE LIEUTENANT
COLONEL.
ARMY NOMINATION OF CHAD C. BLACK, TO BE MAJOR.
ARMY NOMINATION OF THOMAS D. STARKEY, TO BE COLONEL.
IN THE MARINE CORPS
MARINE CORPS NOMINATION OF JOSHUA D. FITZGARRALD, TO BE
MAJOR.
MARINE CORPS NOMINATION OF ANTHONY C. LYONS, TO BE
LIEUTENANT COLONEL.
IN THE NAVY
NAVY NOMINATION OF SUZANNE L. HOPKINS, TO BE LIEUTENANT
COMMANDER.
NAVY NOMINATIONS BEGINNING WITH JAFAR A. ALI AND ENDING
WITH ANTHONY K. WOLVERTON, WHICH NOMINATIONS WERE RECEIVED BY
THE SENATE AND APPEARED IN THE CONGRESSIONAL RECORD ON
NOVEMBER 15, 2016.
NAVY NOMINATION OF MERYL A. SEVERSON III, TO BE CAPTAIN.
NAVY NOMINATION OF ASHLEY R. BJORKLUND, TO BE LIEUTENANT
COMMANDER.
NAVY NOMINATION OF ADELEKE O. MOWOBI, TO BE LIEUTENANT
COMMANDER.
NAVY NOMINATIONS BEGINNING WITH MARY K. ARBUTHNOT AND
ENDING WITH JOHN K. WERNER, JR., WHICH NOMINATIONS WERE
RECEIVED BY THE SENATE AND APPEARED IN THE CONGRESSIONAL
RECORD ON NOVEMBER 15, 2016.
NAVY NOMINATION OF STEPHEN W. HEDRICK, TO BE LIEUTENANT
COMMANDER.
NAVY NOMINATION OF VINCENT M. J. AMBROSINO, TO BE
LIEUTENANT COMMANDER.
NAVY NOMINATION OF NEAL P. RIDGE, TO BE CAPTAIN.
NAVY NOMINATION OF ABDESLAM BOUSALHAM, TO BE LIEUTENANT
COMMANDER.
NAVY NOMINATION OF SCOTT M. MOREY, TO BE LIEUTENANT
COMMANDER.
NAVY NOMINATION OF CHRISTIAN R. FOSCHI, TO BE LIEUTENANT
COMMANDER.
FOREIGN SERVICE
FOREIGN SERVICE NOMINATIONS BEGINNING WITH MARVA MICHELLE
BUTLER AND ENDING WITH ADONIS MARIANO MATOS DE MELLO, WHICH
NOMINATIONS WERE RECEIVED BY THE SENATE AND APPEARED IN THE
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD ON NOVEMBER 15, 2016.
FOREIGN SERVICE NOMINATIONS BEGINNING WITH STEPHEN DONALD
MULL AND ENDING WITH VICTORIA JANE NULAND, WHICH NOMINATIONS
WERE RECEIVED BY THE SENATE AND APPEARED IN THE CONGRESSIONAL
RECORD ON NOVEMBER 29, 2016.
FOREIGN SERVICE NOMINATIONS BEGINNING WITH ROBERT L. ADAMS
AND ENDING WITH LAURA ANN GRIESMER, WHICH NOMINATIONS WERE
RECEIVED BY THE SENATE AND APPEARED IN THE CONGRESSIONAL
RECORD ON NOVEMBER 29, 2016.
FOREIGN SERVICE NOMINATIONS BEGINNING WITH ROBERT STEPHEN
BEECROFT AND ENDING WITH MARIE L. YOVANOVITCH, WHICH
NOMINATIONS WERE RECEIVED BY THE SENATE AND APPEARED IN THE
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD ON NOVEMBER 29, 2016.
FOREIGN SERVICE NOMINATIONS BEGINNING WITH TRISTAN J. ALLEN
AND ENDING WITH WILLIAM F. ZEMAN, WHICH NOMINATIONS WERE
RECEIVED BY THE SENATE AND APPEARED IN THE CONGRESSIONAL
RECORD ON NOVEMBER 29, 2016.
FOREIGN SERVICE NOMINATIONS BEGINNING WITH ANTHONY ABBA AND
ENDING WITH MICHAEL DAVID ZGODA, WHICH NOMINATIONS WERE
RECEIVED BY THE SENATE AND APPEARED IN THE CONGRESSIONAL
RECORD ON NOVEMBER 29, 2016.
[[Page 16015]]
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES--Wednesday, December 7, 2016
The House met at 10 a.m. and was called to order by the Speaker pro
tempore (Mr. Neugebauer).
____________________
DESIGNATION OF SPEAKER PRO TEMPORE
The SPEAKER pro tempore laid before the House the following
communication from the Speaker:
Washington, DC,
December 7, 2016.
I hereby appoint the Honorable Randy Neugebauer to act as
Speaker pro tempore on this day.
Paul D. Ryan,
Speaker of the House of Representatives.
____________________
MORNING-HOUR DEBATE
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of
January 5, 2016, the Chair will now recognize Members from lists
submitted by the majority and minority leaders for morning-hour debate.
The Chair will alternate recognition between the parties, with each
party limited to 1 hour and each Member other than the majority and
minority leaders and the minority whip limited to 5 minutes, but in no
event shall debate continue beyond 11:50 a.m.
____________________
PROTECTING PENSIONS OF COAL MINERS
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from West
Virginia (Mr. Jenkins) for 5 minutes.
Mr. JENKINS of West Virginia. Mr. Speaker, miners and their widows in
West Virginia and across the country are asking us to protect their
pensions and health care, families like Robin Workman of Boone County,
who wrote to me about how she and her husband depend on these benefits.
These are the benefits that they earned.
She said: ``My husband put in 35 years underground, a promise made to
them shouldn't be broken. West Virginia helped keep the lights on back
then as well as today. Please don't forget about us.''
This promise dates back to 1946 when the Truman administration signed
an agreement with coal miners, an agreement that guaranteed their
pensions and health care would be there for them when they retired. Now
that agreement--no, that promise--is in jeopardy.
In just a few weeks, tens of thousands of miners and widows will lose
their health insurance. These miners have back problems, knee problems,
and breathing problems, all from their work in the mines. They simply
cannot go without insurance.
Kenny Meade's father is one of those retired miners. He lives in
Chapmanville and reached out to me to share the story of his parents.
Kenny wrote about his father. He said: ``He worked 31 years in the
mines and often for less than other miners so he could bargain for
their right to health care and pensions.''
This is an issue we can fix, but it is not an issue that arose
overnight. The war on coal has decimated coal jobs in West Virginia and
across the country. An onslaught of overreaching Federal regulations
have made it harder to mine coal and harder to burn coal. Coal-fired
power plants have shut down, making electricity more expensive and
reducing the market for coal.
As demand has decreased and regulations have made it harder to mine
coal, mines are closing and companies are filing for bankruptcy. A
company in bankruptcy isn't going to have the resources to meet its
pension obligations.
All of these market forces, regulations, and the war on coal have had
devastating impacts on our miners and their families. It is time for
Congress to act to keep the promise and protect the benefits the miners
worked their entire life to earn.
The Coal Healthcare and Pensions Protection Act won't cost taxpayers
anything. It uses existing funds paid for by mining companies to
provide for retired miners. This is not a tax. Taxpayers won't be on
the hook for these pensions. This is about ensuring a promise made is a
promise kept.
Mr. Speaker, as we approach the holiday season, I hope we will
remember the retirees and widows worried about what the new year will
bring. We must act now to pass a solution to this crisis to keep our
word.
____________________
FAREWELL TO THE HONORABLE STEVE ISRAEL
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from
California (Mr. Schiff) for 5 minutes.
Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak about my friend and
colleague, Steve Israel, who is retiring from Congress after 16 years.
We came into Congress together and have been the best of friends and
brothers ever since.
Now, the last time I mentioned Steve Israel on the House floor was
after making a bet with Steve over the Dodgers-Mets series, a bet that
I lost, and I had to sing the ``Meet the Mets'' song on the House
floor. I want to assure all my colleagues that is never going to happen
again either on the playing field or on the House floor.
When we came to Congress together, we were given a book, like all
incoming freshmen, called ``Charting the Course.'' This is a book that
basically says that there are three different models of being a
Congressman. You can be the policy expert or you can be the political
animal or you can be the pothole Congressman who is focused on district
needs and excellent at meeting the needs of constituents, but the gist
of the book is you can't be all three. You have to pick where you are
going to make your specialization, and if you try to do all three, you
will end up not doing any one of them very well. Steve Israel proved
the premise of that book wrong because he proved to be superlative at
each and every aspect of being a Member of Congress.
On policy, Steve developed an expertise in energy policy and became a
leading champion of the development of renewable sources of energy. He
became an expert on defense issues; and as one of the members of the
Appropriations Committee, he helped eliminate wasteful expenditures on
systems we didn't need and investment in defenses that would really
protect the country.
He became an expert on Middle East policy and sorting out the
difficulties of all the complicated relationships between the nations
in the Middle East. He became an expert on the Syrian conflict.
He also became an expert on issues affecting the middle class and has
always been a champion for what needs to be done to make sure that
people in this country can enjoy a secure retirement, can get a good
job, can raise their family, and that their kids will enjoy a quality
of life at least as great as that of their parents, and hopefully even
better.
He also founded and co-chairs the Center Aisle Caucus, doing
something very difficult in this institution, and that is bringing
people together of both parties--something we need to see a lot more
of.
In addition to those policy strengths, he was also and has been one
of our greatest political leaders. He served for many years as the DCCC
chair and had an encyclopedic knowledge of each and every district in
the country belonging
[[Page 16016]]
to friend or foe alike. He was an extraordinary chair, not only in
terms of raising resources, but recruiting some of the finest
candidates, and a great many Members of this institution owe their very
presence here to his incredible work.
He then became the chair of the House Democratic Policy and
Communications Committee and was a very effective Member at shaping our
message and at helping us articulate what the Democratic Party was
about and has been among the most effective surrogates the Democrats
have.
In addition to his political expertise and policy expertise, having
visited his district and having met his constituents, I know he was
also so attuned to the needs of his constituents, particularly the
veterans and the homeless, but also in championing the economy and
bringing improvements to Long Island Sound. His casework was renowned
within New York, and his staff was among the most superb anywhere on
the Hill or in any district office.
In addition to all that--and that would be enough for any of us--he
also wrote a fabulous novel on his iPhone, ``The Global War on
Morris.'' Who can do that? Who can write a book at all, let alone one
on his iPhone, let alone it gets published by a major publisher and
does phenomenally well?
When Steve retires, this Congress is going to lose another of its
great Members, someone of genuine talent, intellect, and integrity,
someone who has come to be relied upon by Presidents. We are also going
to lose someone with a great sense of humor, who is a wonderful friend
and a bit of a practical joker--like the time he convinced his chief of
staff that one of his district staff had run over his dog. Yes, Steve
is a cruel man, but funny. We are going to miss him tremendously.
I want to wish him all the luck in the world in the exciting career
that awaits him when he retires, and all his new endeavors. I look
forward to finding him not in the center aisle necessarily, but in a
different aisle in the bookstore near me with his latest work.
I want to join my colleagues in thanking Steve Israel for his
tremendous years of service and for his wonderful friendship. We will
all miss him as, indeed, will this entire institution.
____________________
TRAGIC LOSS OF AMERICAN LIFE IN AFGHANISTAN
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from
North Carolina (Mr. Jones) for 5 minutes.
Mr. JONES. Mr. Speaker, I am back on the floor again today to discuss
the tragic loss of American life in Afghanistan. This past week, I was
touched by George Stephanopoulos and ABC as they publicly listed the
nine servicemembers that died in Iraq and Afghanistan during the month
of November.
Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record the names of the nine American
heroes.
Sergeant John W. Perry of Stockton, California; Private 1st
Class Tyler R. Lubelt of Tamaroa, Illinois; Sergeant 1st
Class Ryan A. Gloyer of Greenville, Pennsylvania; Captain
Andrew D. Byers of Rolesville, North Carolina; Senior Chief
Petty Officer Scott C. Dayton of Woodbridge, Virginia;
Specialist Ronald L. Murray, Jr., of Bowie, Maryland; Staff
Sergeant James F. Moriarty of Kerrville, Texas; Staff
Sergeant Kevin J. McEnroe of Tucson, Arizona; Staff Sergeant
Matthew C. Lewellen of Lawrence, Kansas.
Mr. JONES. Mr. Speaker, I find it quite ironic that the last moment
of silence for our men and women in uniform who have died serving this
Nation during wartime by the House Chair took place on March 23, 2015,
almost 2 years ago. I, frankly, do not understand how House leadership
is not more concerned about those who have given their life serving
this Nation.
Additionally, Mr. Speaker, I wrote to Secretary of Defense Ashton
Carter several weeks ago regarding an article that said that there are
200,000 Afghan soldiers who do not exist--they call them ghosts--who
are on the payroll of the Department of Defense. I asked him in the
letter: Why are we wasting this money, and can you identify where the
money is going?
Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record my letter to Secretary Ashton
Carter.
Congress of the United States,
House of Representatives,
Washington, DC, October 14, 2016.
Hon. Ashton B. Carter,
Secretary of Defense,
Washington, DC.
Dear Secretary Carter: I am responding to Deputy Assistant
Secretary of Defense (Acting) Jedidiah Royal's October 3,
2016, response to the Office of the Special Inspector General
for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR)'s letter to you (dated
August 5, 2016) regarding ``ghost soldiers'' in Afghanistan.
I am appalled that the U.S. taxpayer has, and continues to
pay, for ``ghost soldiers'' in Afghanistan. Moreover, I am
also concerned about the risks that inadequacy of data
concerning personnel levels of the Afghan National Security
and Defense Forces (ANDSF) may pose to American forces in
Afghanistan.
In Deputy Assistant Secretary Royal's response to SIGAR, he
indicates the systems that U.S. Forces-Afghanistan are
putting in place to try to verify Afghan personnel data will
not be ready until at least July 2017. Given the estimate
that there may be up to 200,000 ``ghost soldiers,'' I would
respectfully request an estimate of how much funding provided
to the ANDSF for salaries in fiscal years 2016 and 2017 is
expected to be wasted on ``ghost soldiers.''
Additionally, Deputy Assistant Secretary Royal indicates
that a limited amount of funds has been withheld from the
ANDSF for not adhering to the agreed-upon timeline for
implementation of personnel verification systems. How much
money was withheld, and what percentage does that number
represent of the amount originally designated to be
allocated?
Given that many Afghan military and police outposts have
limited, if any, access to electricity and telecommunications
systems, I would also ask whether there is a contingency plan
to back-up the biometric database and personnel system given
that units may not always have regular access to the
technology needed to operate them? Further, under the current
deployment arrangement ordered by President Obama, U.S.
forces do not have the capability to witness firsthand, at
the lowest levels of the ANDSF, whether there is fraudulent
use of the biometric cards. With that in mind, does DOD
expect there will be salary overpayments even after July
2017?
I am also concerned about the effect the ``ghost soldier''
problem is having on U.S. forces in Afghanistan. While the
Afghan Minister of Defense was recently quoted as saying
there is not a single ``ghost soldier'' in Afghanistan, the
Deputy Assistant Secretary's letter makes clear that is not
the case. We know the collapse of the 215th Corps in Helmand
in 2015 was at least in part due to an overestimation of
ANDSF personnel in Helmand based on inflated numbers reported
to the Ministry of Defense. USFOR-A subsequently deployed
additional personnel closer to the front lines in Helmand to
assist with improving that corps. The ``ghost soldier'' issue
clearly is affecting decision-making within the Defense
Department that affects U.S. personnel. I would like to know
how DOD plans to mitigate any further risk to U.S. military
and civilian personnel that may result from the ongoing
``ghost solider'' problem.
Finally, how confident is the Defense Department that the
ANDSF and the Afghan government have the capability and the
will to effectively implement the new systems, and when will
that implementation be fully achieved? When implemented, does
the Defense Department expect the ``ghost soldier'' problem
to be eliminated, or merely reduced?
Mr. Secretary, the ``ghost soldier'' problem has clearly
existed in Afghanistan since the beginning of U.S. operations
there. The Defense Department should have known that ``ghost
soldiers'' represented a major risk to American personnel and
American taxpayers no later than 2008, when a Government
Accountability Office report raised the issue. But year after
year, the administration--with far too little oversight from
Congress--continues sending tens of millions of U.S. taxpayer
dollars to pay the salaries of Afghan military and police,
thousands of whom never show up for duty or may not even
exist. And now, we are almost $20 trillion in debt.
After 15 years of wounded and murdered Americans, it is
time to bring this waste, fraud and abuse to an end. It is
sickening, unaffordable, and it must stop. Many scholars have
said that Afghanistan is a graveyard of empires--when this
financial disaster finally brings us to our knees, maybe the
ghost soldiers can visit the headstone that says United
States of America.
Sincerely,
Walter B. Jones,
Member of Congress.
Mr. JONES. Mr. Speaker, the reason I mentioned these ghost soldiers
is because Americans are still dying in this godforsaken country known
as Afghanistan, all while our Nation is headed for an economic collapse
as we soon will see the $20 trillion debt number come forward. For the
sake of our military, we need to end this madness in Afghanistan.
[[Page 16017]]
I have beside me a photograph of a flag-draped coffin being taken off
of an airplane. This is a humble way that I can say to the nine
Americans who also came home in a flag-draped coffin in the back of a
plane thank you for your service.
Mr. Speaker, it is time for Congress to have a debate on the floor of
the House as to whether we need to stay in Afghanistan for another 16
years. We have been there for 16 years now.
Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record an article that tells the story
of Afghanistan better than I can today on the floor. The title of that
article is ``It's Time for America to Get Out of Afghanistan.''
[Dec. 2, 2016]
It's Time for America To Get Out of Afghanistan
(By Mark Kryzer)
``Nation-building'' hasn't achieved lasting goals, Afghanis
continue to suffer casualties and be displaced, and the costs
to the U.S. keep mounting.
After 15 years and $115 billion of taxpayer dollars spent
on failed ``nation-building,'' it's time for the U.S. to let
go of Afghanistan. (The actual ``total cost of war and
reconstruction'' which includes all U.S. military spending,
has been estimated at $783 billion by the Cost of War project
at Brown University.)
The situation in 2016 has been described by one senior U.S.
government official as an ``eroding stalemate.'' That's
optimistic. We are losing whatever has been achieved there
and the Afghan government is slowly collapsing under the
Taliban onslaught and its own ineptitude driven by
corruption.
The Taliban control more territory now than at any time
since their overthrow by the U.S. in 2001 with the Afghan
government controlling only two-thirds of the country--during
daylight hours. Since January 2016, the Taliban have
contested five provincial capitals, carried out some of the
largest terrorist attacks in the capital city of Kabul, and
have pressed attacks in all 34 provinces of the country, with
an average of 68 attacks a day.
As a result, the Afghan army and police forces have
incurred about 15,000 casualties so far this year, with
civilians suffering more than 5,000 casualties, the highest
levels ever recorded. An estimated 1.2 million Afghans have
been displaced because of the fighting and are living as
refugees in their own country, with another 85,000 opting to
leave the country in the first six months of 2016 alone for
the migrant trail to Europe.
Adding to the Taliban threat, ISIS has now established
itself in two eastern Afghan provinces and Al Qaida
operatives are active in seven provinces, according to a
recent report in ``The Guardian.'' With opium production also
up by 43 percent in the country, there is no shortage of
funds to fuel the insurgency and corruption.
According to a 2016 World Bank report, the social and
economic gains achieved with international assistance over
the last 15 years are also quickly eroding due to war and
corruption.
The Obama administration has opted to leave 8,400 troops in
Afghanistan in 2016 in a support role to the Afghan army,
down from a high of 100,000 in 2010. And the U.S. completely
pays for the Afghan army and police forces. On the civilian
side of reconstruction, the U.S. continues to pour money into
the country for ``nation-building.'' At the Brussels
Afghanistan ``Donors Conference'' in early October, the
international community pledged another $15 billion in
support; the U.S. is the largest contributor.
Given the abysmal results achieved so far, isn't it time to
re-evaluate U.S. foreign policy goals in Afghanistan?
Recently, a group of U.S. generals and former U.S.
ambassadors to Afghanistan announced that a ``generational
commitment'' of assistance was still required of the American
people toward Afghanistan to see it securely to the end goal
of . . . what? Nobody can give a coherent answer to that
question, indicating that we have seriously lost our way.
Most Americans have forgotten about Afghanistan (or no
longer want to hear about it) and are not aware of the
ongoing costs in American lives and resources. It's time for
the next American president to drastically change direction
and explain it to the American people.
That direction should be to start the pullout of
Afghanistan after 15 years of failure to achieve any lasting
policy objectives there. The U.S. should immediately stop the
multitude of civilian ``nation-building'' programs that have
been so costly and failed to achieve their unrealistic goals.
U.S. funding for the Afghan army and police forces should be
put on a diminishing schedule that would stop entirely after
two years, forcing Afghanistan to finally stand or fall on
its own.
It's time to let go of Afghanistan and end the 15-year
drain on American lives and resources.
Mr. JONES. Mr. Speaker, I ask God to bless our men and women in
uniform, and I ask God to continue to bless America.
____________________
PUTTING FLORIDA FIRST
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from
Florida (Ms. Graham) for 5 minutes.
Ms. GRAHAM. Mr. Speaker, I am so very fortunate to have grown up in a
family dedicated to public service. I watched and learned from my
father as he served as a State legislator, Florida's Governor, and as a
United States Senator, and from my mother who worked tirelessly as an
advocate for students and seniors. Together, they were a team that
always put Florida first.
Following in their footsteps, I served my community as a PTA
volunteer, and I worked for my local school district. While I was happy
to serve, I never planned to follow in my father's footsteps into
politics. But as our country became more divided, my thoughts began to
change. Like so many Americans, I was disappointed to see our Nation's
civil discourse deteriorate to shouting matches on cable news and
gridlock in government.
In 2013, I decided to run for office with my own message and my own
mission: to bring back civility, to work with both parties to actually
get things done, and to always put the people of Florida first.
{time} 1015
I ran for office to bring the north Florida way to Washington. Almost
4 years after making that decision, I am proud to say we have had many
successes in our own mission.
After winning my election, I immediately began reaching out to my
Florida colleagues, Republicans and Democrats. I am proud to say that
those friendships have paid off to the benefit of Florida.
We were able to recruit almost the entire State delegation to support
our Apalachicola Bay Restoration Act. I cosponsored legislation with
Congressman Patrick Murphy to protect the Everglades and with
Congressman David Jolly to ban oil drilling off the coast of Florida.
I asked to serve on the committees that were most important to my
district--the Armed Services Committee and the Agriculture Committee.
On the Armed Services Committee we were able to make substantial
legislative gains. We were able to amend the National Defense
Authorization Act with initiatives to protect programs that helped
Florida's economy, create jobs, and strengthen our national security,
as well as the work we have done to improve our relationship with
Israel, including authorizing a joint anti-tunneling program to fight
terrorism and to protect both of our countries' borders.
On the House Agriculture Committee, I work closely with farmers
across the State. I will never forget our 14-county north Florida farm
tour, where I tried my own hand at planting peanuts and even pregnancy
checked a cow. I am so proud of the work we did to bring the U.S.
Department of Agriculture Strike Force program to Florida, which will
help rural counties to protect their communities, to grow their
economies, and to create jobs.
While we have had many successes in Washington, I am even more proud
of the work we have accomplished in Florida. Our focus on constituent
services and cutting through bureaucratic redtape has paid off. We have
helped return almost $2 million in benefits owed to Florida seniors and
families, including more than half-a-million dollars to veterans.
While the numbers are impressive, the stories behind them are what
really count. Stories like Kenneth McCray, a Vietnam veteran who was
denied benefits by the VA until our office stepped in to help. In every
vote and in every way, we always put the people of Florida first.
While working in Congress, the people of north Florida have never let
me down. I have felt their love and support in each hug, whether at a
press conference or along a parade route. I have witnessed their
compassion after Hurricane Hermine, when neighbors helped neighbors
clear debris and sheltered those in need. I have seen local leaders put
partisanship aside to fight for our communities.
[[Page 16018]]
We call this the north Florida way, but we don't have a monopoly on
that spirit. It is the essence of the American spirit. I have witnessed
a bit of it here in Washington. Between campaigns and commercial
breaks, I have seen that Republicans and Democrats can actually like
one another. If we can begin talking to each other again instead of
shouting at each other, we can move our country forward in a way that
helps every American.
So, as I prepare to leave Congress, I offer up this parting advice to
new and veteran Members. Take the time to form friendships, put
partisanship aside, and always put the people you represent first.
Now that I have shared this advice, I would like to end my speech by
saying thank you. Thank you to my committed staff, my family, and, most
importantly, I want to thank the people of north Florida's Second
Congressional District. I am so thankful to them for giving me the
opportunity to serve. Running for Congress and serving in the House has
been an enriching experience with many workdays, possum festivals, and
parades along the way.
I am sad it is coming to an end, but this moment is bittersweet. I
will always treasure the friendships and experience I have gained in
Congress. I know that as this chapter closes, another opens, and I will
continue to serve my community and the people of Florida for as long as
I am able.
____________________
75TH ANNIVERSARY OF PEARL HARBOR
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Utah
(Mr. Stewart) for 5 minutes.
Mr. STEWART. Mr. Speaker, as I think all of us know, today marks the
75th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor; a devastating event
that took the lives of more than 2,300 Americans and ultimately led, of
course, to the United States' entrance into World War II.
Though it is painful to think of all the brave men and women we lost
that day, I am grateful for this heroic generation of soldiers,
including my own father, who served in defense of the freedoms of our
country during World War II. I wear my father's wings. I have them on
today. I wear them every day. My mom and dad love their country and
they, like so many others, sacrificed so much. It was examples of
heroes such as these that led me to make the decision when I was a
young man to become a pilot in the Air Force.
I would like to take a moment and share the story of one brave Utahn,
Mervyn Bennion, who was stationed at Pearl Harbor on the day of the
attack. After graduating from high school in Salt Lake City, Bennion
accepted his appointment to the United States Naval Academy, where he
graduated near the top of his class. He later assumed command of the
USS West Virginia in July of 1941.
The ship was moored with other vessels on Battleship Row on that
Sunday morning. Just shy of 8 a.m., Japanese forces struck the USS West
Virginia with at least six torpedoes and two bombs.
Under attack and struggling to organize a defense from the bridge,
Captain Bennion was struck with shrapnel from one of these bombs; but,
still, he continued to direct the ship's battle while using one of his
hands to hold his own wounds closed. Several sailors attempted to
convince him to go to the first-aid station and seek medical attention,
but he refused to leave his post. Sadly, he later died from a loss of
blood.
Captain Bennion was recognized with the Medal of Honor--our Nation's
highest military honor--for his ``conspicuous devotion to duty,
extraordinary courage, and complete disregard for his own life.''
Today, on the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, let us
remember not only the brave men and women who lost their lives in that
attack, but also those who have continued to fight for our freedoms for
the last 75 years.
In dark and dangerous places all around the globe, American soldiers,
sailors, and airmen are doing what they can to bring stability and
safety to many parts of the world. We should remember them. We should
thank them. We should keep them and their families in our prayers. What
we have asked them to do is not easy. They deserve our gratitude and
our respect.
Congratulating Completion of the Freedmen's Bureau Records Project
Mr. STEWART. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take a few minutes to
congratulate the completion of the Freedmen's Bureau Records Project.
The Freedmen's Bureau was organized by Congress in 1865 at the
conclusion of the Civil War. It offered assistance to freed slaves in a
variety of ways. The Bureau opened schools to educate the illiterate.
It managed hospitals, it rationed food and clothing for the destitute,
and it even solemnized marriages. In the process, it gathered priceless
handwritten personal information on potentially 4 million African
Americans.
Due to the work and commitment of over 25,000 volunteers, with the
help of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and
FamilySearch International, they have been able to uncover the names
and stories of over 1.9 million freed slaves. In some cases, for the
very first time, African Americans are able to discover their Civil
War-era families through an online and searchable database.
I was especially pleased to attend an event yesterday where the newly
indexed database of the Freedmen's Bureau Records was delivered to the
Smithsonian's new National Museum of African American History and
Culture.
If I could just divert for a moment, I would like to share a story
from this experience from one of the leaders of the museum, and I hope
he will forgive me for stealing his story and repeating it to you. This
gentleman told of how his grandparents passed away when he was very
young. He had no memory of his grandparents, except for going to his
grandmother's house and watching her cook on some old tin cookie
sheets.
But as he was able to, for the first time, research his own family
records, he found the records of one of his ancestors who was a slave;
and part of those records was an accounting of money that was paid to
her and some of the things that she was able to purchase. One of them
was a line which recorded that she paid 22 cents for a set of tin
cookie sheets. What an emotional moment it was for him to have that
connection now with his ancestors that he would not have been able to
otherwise.
The Freedmen's Bureau Records Project allows families to discover
their ancestors. It allows them to connect with them. It allows them to
see the heroes among their ancestors that so many of them have.
I would like to congratulate and thank the thousands of volunteers
who sacrificed their time in this wonderful project.
____________________
HONORING REID RIBBLE AND RICHARD HANNA
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from
Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer) for 5 minutes.
Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, I have been privileged to serve with
many exceptional people during my tenure in Congress. This year, there
are a number of my Democratic colleagues who are leaving who will be
sorely missed. We just heard from one--Gwen Graham. And Lois Capps is
in a chair in front of me and will be speaking soon.
Today I would like to take a moment to recognize two exceptional
friends of mine on the other side of the aisle, Republicans who
enriched my time in Congress and brought honor to this body. I rise
today to speak of the service of Richard Hanna and Reid Ribble. These
two gentlemen represent small town America--rural Upstate New York, in
the case of Richard; and Green Bay, Wisconsin, and surrounding
environments in the case of Reid.
They have a number of similarities. They are both hardworking,
dedicated Members of this Chamber, who leave
[[Page 16019]]
after only three terms. They are fiercely dedicated to their family,
and family concerns figured heavily into their decision not to seek
reelection.
They have both been very successful businesspeople, building their
own enterprises; taking pride, in the case of Reid, in the employment
and terrific service from a roofing company; and Richard, founding and
growing a construction enterprise.
Both are accomplished in a broad range of other areas. Richard is a
pilot who travels across the country piloting his own plane. Reid
recently completed a motorcycle trip from Alaska, all the way across
North America to the Florida Keys; most of it with his wife riding
along with him.
They are both what normally would have been regarded as conservative
Republicans. That description really belies their approach and their
value to the institution. In some respects, they may actually entertain
some libertarian leanings. But they believe in less interference,
whether it is liberal overreach or zealotry of the other extreme.
Richard is equally disdainful of government telling women what they and
their doctors should do with women's bodies.
They are both deeply concerned about budgets and the economy--core
Republican values in the past--with Reid famously, in an exchange with
some of his Tea Party constituents, indicating that they weren't fair
to their grandchildren by refusing to even consider raising the gas tax
to meet our transportation needs, and he made an eloquent case.
Richard has been a partner with me for the last two Congresses as we
work with transportation stakeholders to try to inform one another and
find common ground, working forward on solutions to common problems of
rebuilding and renewing America.
I fully respect the decision of both gentlemen to follow their
instincts and their families to the next phase of their careers, but
their decision to end congressional service weakens this institution.
The fact that we could not find enough incentive to keep them here,
being productive and adding their wisdom and energy, says something
about the challenges that this Congress faces in the years ahead.
Serving with them has been a remarkable pleasure. They have helped
both Republicans and Democrats function a little better in a largely
dysfunctional climate. They have both given good advice to their
Republican colleagues, which I hope, as they leave, will find greater
resonance with those who are left.
We are going through a great period of a national civics lesson,
where Americans discover that elections have consequences, that facts
really should matter, and voters need to be very discerning about the
decisions they make.
Richard Hanna and Reid Ribble have helped, through their service, to
advance that civics lesson. I will be grateful to them for as long as I
am a citizen, and I look forward to years of friendship in the future
and maybe ways to advance that national civics lesson that they speak
to so eloquently by their service.
____________________
{time} 1030
WRDA CONFERENCE REPORT: WATER FOR CALIFORNIA; FIRE PROTECTION FOR TAHOE
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from
California (Mr. McClintock) for 5 minutes.
Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, the conference report on the Water
Resources Development Act is the product of many hours of good faith
negotiations between the House and the Senate and between Republicans
and Democrats. Like any compromise, I don't like everything that is in
it, but the net effect is an important step forward in protecting
against the devastation of future droughts in California and
catastrophic wildfire that threatens Lake Tahoe.
It provides $335 million for desperately needed surface water
storage. It opens a new era of hatcheries to provide for burgeoning
populations of endangered fish species. It adds flexibility to the
management of New Melones Reservoir and enables water transfers to
assure that water can be more efficiently moved to where it is the most
needed. It adds strong protection to northern California area of origin
water rights. It expedites the review and approval of new projects. It
updates flood control management criteria to make better use of our
existing reservoirs.
I particularly want to highlight the provisions related to Lake
Tahoe. For many years, we have spent enormous resources to adjust
drainage in the basin to improve water clarity at the lake. The Senate
version of the measure, which was introduced this session by Senators
Heller and Feinstein, continued this effort; but the Heller-Feinstein
bill neglected the most immediate environmental threat to Lake Tahoe,
and that is catastrophic wildfire. The Senate bill had no provision for
forest management, specifically for fire prevention.
The number of acres burned by wildfire in the Lake Tahoe Basin has
increased each decade since 1973, including a tenfold increase over the
past decade. Eighty percent of the Tahoe Basin forests are now densely
and dangerously overgrown. They are dying. At lower elevations, there
are now four times as many trees as the land can support. Modeling by
the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit warns that, in two-thirds of the
forest, conditions now exist for flame size and intensity that are
literally explosive. If a super fire of the size we have seen in other
parts of the Sierra were to strike the Tahoe Basin, it could decimate
this lake and its surroundings for a generation to come.
For this reason, Congressman Amodei and I introduced a bill focused
on fire prevention. This measure was specifically designed, after
extensive input from fire districts throughout the Tahoe region, to
reduce excess fuel before it burns. It provides for expediting
collaborative fuel reduction projects consistent with the Lake Tahoe
Land and Resource Management Plan, and it calls for funds generated by
timber sales and other fee-based revenues to stay in the Tahoe Basin to
provide for further fuels management and other improvements.
This was falsely portrayed by leftwing activists in the region as a
substitute for the Senate bill. As Congressman Amodei and I made clear
repeatedly, it was designed to supplement that bill and fill a glaring
deficiency that ignored the single greatest environmental hazard to the
lake.
I am very pleased to note that the critical provisions of both
bills--for lake clarity and fire prevention--are now in the conference
report, thanks to bipartisan negotiations between House and Senate
negotiators, most notably by Senator Feinstein and House Majority
Leader McCarthy.
Unfortunately, in the last 48 hours, Senator Boxer has threatened to
blindside this effort and destroy the fruit of these years of labor and
endless hours of negotiation. She has threatened to assemble enough
votes, not to put forward a positive and credible plan of her own to
address these critical needs but, rather, to ruin the painstaking
negotiations of many others just as they are coming to fruition.
In the last 4 years, the King Fire, the Butte Fire, the Rough Fire,
and the Rim Fire have destroyed more than 1,000 square miles of forest
in the Sierra Nevada. If we don't restore sound forest management for
fire prevention in the Tahoe Basin now, the next fire could reduce its
magnificent forests to cinders and clog the lake with ash and debris
for decades to come. We can only pray that wiser heads prevail in the
Senate and that this conference report is speedily adopted by both
Houses and signed into law by the President.
____________________
MY TENURE AS RESIDENT COMMISSIONER
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from
Puerto Rico (Mr. Pierluisi) for 5 minutes.
Mr. PIERLUISI. Mr. Speaker, after 8 years, this will be my last floor
speech as the Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico in Congress. I want
to thank
[[Page 16020]]
my constituents for giving me the opportunity to serve as their voice
in Washington. They are enduring difficult times, but they never lose
their hope, dignity, or appreciation for life's blessings.
I also want to thank my colleagues in the House and the Senate. I
respect your dedication to public service, energy, and commitment to
the causes you champion. In addition, I want to thank my staff, which
has served me and the people of Puerto Rico with skill, passion, and
loyalty.
Most importantly, I want to thank my wife, Maria-Elena; my four
children; and the rest of my family. They have walked alongside me on
this journey through the peaks and valleys, and my love for them cannot
be captured with words.
It is impossible to condense 8 action-packed years into 5 minutes.
However, if there is a central theme to my tenure as Resident
Commissioner, it has been ``fighting the good fight'' on behalf of the
3.4 million American citizens in Puerto Rico, who have been treated
unfairly for too long.
In an example of baptism by fire, the battle began almost as soon as
I assumed office in 2009, when Congress was debating the stimulus bill
known as ARRA. Even as I was still learning to navigate my way through
the Capitol, we managed to secure virtually State-like treatment for
Puerto Rico, injecting almost $7 billion into the island's economy when
we needed it most.
The fight continued the following year with the Affordable Care Act,
which resulted in the largest funding increase in history for Puerto
Rico's Medicaid program. Separately, we secured legislative and
administrative action that eliminated many of the disparities that
Puerto Rico faced under the Medicare program.
I am also proud of our work to combat drug-related violence in Puerto
Rico, requiring the Federal Government to prepare the Caribbean Border
Counternarcotics Strategy and persuading Federal lawsuit agencies to
increase their resources in Puerto Rico. The number of homicides on the
island was cut in half between 2011 and 2015. But this is not about
statistics. It is about preserving human life.
Moreover, I have tried my best to serve those who have served us.
Residents of Puerto Rico have a rich military tradition, and no unit
exemplifies their courage and character better than the 65th Infantry
Regiment, which fought the enemy on the battlefield and discrimination
in the barracks. After we enacted legislation to award them the
Congressional Gold Medal, these warriors--now in the twilight of their
lives--stood beside President Obama as he signed the bill into law and
were honored at a ceremony in the Capitol, one that I will never
forget.
The toughest fight of my tenure came earlier this year when Congress
and the White House worked together to enact legislation, called
PROMESA, to prevent the Government of Puerto Rico from collapsing.
Nobody was pleased that such legislation was necessary, and nobody
liked every provision in the bill, but I firmly believe that PROMESA,
if properly implemented, provides a path to a better future for Puerto
Rico.
I close with this thought: Puerto Rico's current territory status,
which gives Congress license to treat my constituents like second class
citizens, is undignified and unsustainable.
Following a 2012 local referendum in which island residents expressed
their opposition to the current status and their support for statehood,
Congress enacted legislation that provided funding for the first
federally sponsored referendum in Puerto Rico's history. The
significance of this achievement has yet to be sufficiently
appreciated. Puerto Rico should use this authority to conduct a vote on
whether the territories should become a State. If the people of Puerto
Rico ratify their support for statehood, as I expect they will, it will
be incumbent upon Congress to implement that result. This country,
which was founded on the principles of equality and justice, must live
up to its creed.
May God bless Puerto Rico and the United States of America.
____________________
PAYING TRIBUTE TO JOSE ABEYTA
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from
Colorado (Mr. Tipton) for 5 minutes.
Mr. TIPTON. Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor Mr. Jose Abeyta of Montrose,
Colorado, who passed away on November 14, 2016. Jose is survived by his
wife, Loretta, whom he married 40 years ago, and they have two sons,
Lenny and Juan.
Jose was a personal friend of mine and was a beloved member of his
community. He served our country proudly during the Vietnam war from
1969 to 1971, as a fixed wing mechanic for the Army's 358th Aviation
Detachment. He received an honorable discharge after serving for 2
years. Mr. Abeyta was a hero for the time he spent in the Army, but the
life he lived after his service showed us what an honorable man and
model citizen he truly was.
Jose married Loretta 1 month after returning home from Vietnam, and
they moved to Colorado Springs, where he went to school and earned a
degree in sociology at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.
Mr. Abeyta paid his own way through school. He and Loretta then moved
back to Montrose, where he began his career as a probation officer. He
later ran successfully for the city council in 2006 and served as the
mayor of Montrose in 2009.
Mr. Speaker, it was not just his work that defined who Mr. Abeyta
was. It was the devotion to serving others. As a husband, a father, a
war veteran, a little league coach, and a public servant, he lived a
life full of selfless service and stood as an example for all Americans
to live by. He started out as the new guy in Montrose, and he ended up
serving as the mayor, which speaks volumes about the impact he had on
his community.
Mr. Speaker, I am saddened by Jose's passing because he was an
irreplaceable figure in Montrose, but I am grateful that I had the
opportunity to know him. His family is in my thoughts and prayers, and
I hope that the community of Montrose will continue to celebrate his
tremendous accomplishments in the weeks and months to come. Jose Abeyta
will be missed.
____________________
END HUNGER NOW
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from
Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern) for 5 minutes.
Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, on the Monday and Tuesday before
Thanksgiving, back in Massachusetts, I participated in the seventh
annual Monte's March, which is a 43-mile walk to raise awareness about
hunger in our community and to raise money for The Food Bank of Western
Massachusetts.
The leader of this remarkable event is Monte Belmonte, a well-known
local radio personality with WRSI, the River, and a committed activist
on behalf of those who are most vulnerable. This year, the march raised
a record $211,213. This translates into over a half a million meals for
individuals and families who struggle with food insecurity. I was
impressed by the stamina of all of those who walked and by the
incredible generosity of the community.
The sad reality is that there is no congressional district in the
United States that is hunger free, and those who battle hunger defy
stereotypes. Some are homeless; some are jobless; but there are many
who work but who earn so little that they can't afford to put food on
the table on a regular basis for their families.
While food banks and food pantries and charitable organizations are
vital in our efforts to combat hunger, they cannot do it alone. We need
a strong commitment by our government to do its part. Indeed, I would
argue that we have fallen way short of doing what is needed to ensure
that no one goes hungry. Those whom I marched alongside during Monte's
March are good people who understand what it means to truly be part of
a community.
I want to thank, first and foremost, the incredible Monte Belmonte
and all of the people at the River, including
[[Page 16021]]
Mark Lattanzi, Joan Holliday, Michael Sokol, Kaliis Smith, Dave
Musante, and Matt Peterson. They are amazing people who worked overtime
to make this march a success.
I am grateful to Andrew Morehouse, the executive director of The Food
Bank of Western Massachusetts, and to everyone at the food bank. They
do incredible work.
Thanks to all of the elected officials who joined part of the march,
including my colleagues, Congressmen Richie Neal and Joe Kennedy. We
were also joined by State Representatives Steve Kulik and Aaron Vega,
State Representative-elect Solomon Goldstein-Rose, as well as by
Northampton Mayor David Narkewicz and District Attorney Dave Sullivan.
We kicked off the march at Friends of the Homeless in Springfield,
and I am grateful for all that they do. The Sheriff's Departments in
Hampden, Hampshire, and Franklin Counties, as well as the Deerfield
Police, helped provide escorts for us during all 43 miles.
A special thanks to the students who joined the march from Greenfield
Center School, HEC Academy, Conway Grammar School, and Erving
Elementary. We were joined by a contingent from Greenfield Community
College, which included its president, Bob Pura. We also had a group of
farmers from The Kitchen Garden in Sunderland who joined the effort.
Sean Barry, from Four Seasons Liquors in Hadley, was, as usual,
Monte's right-hand man and always at the front of the line. We had a
large group of individuals who marched and raised a lot of money.
Thanks to all of them. My friend Chia Collins of Northampton deserves
special credit for raising the most.
Thanks to all of the people who greeted us along the way, including
Karen Blanchard of Kate's Kitchen, Andrea Marion at Lorraine's Soup
Kitchen and Pantry, Mindy Domb at the Amherst Survival Center, Lori
Divine and Vitek Kruta at Gateway City Arts, Chancellor Subbaswamy at
UMass Amherst and his top aide Natalie Blais, who marched 27 miles with
us.
{time} 1045
We are grateful to Northampton Brewery for a wonderful dinner on
Monday, Chandler's in Deerfield for a great lunch on Tuesday,
Richardson's Candy Kitchen in Deerfield for the indulgent chocolates
that gave us energy, and all the folks at Seymour's in Greenfield for
the magnificent celebration at the end of the march. Also, a special
thanks to Tea Guys for their wonderful tea in honor of the march and
for their generosity.
Thanks to Ben Clark from Clarkdale Fruit Farm in Deerfield for the
apples and for keeping us in line. Thanks to Erika Connell Cooper's
mother for the delicious apple pies. And thank you to Mr. Michael
Brooks and the students at the Smith Vocational and Agricultural High
School in Northampton for making the shopping carts we used during the
march.
Mr. Speaker, I was glad to be part of this, but I want to close by
expressing my deep concern about the future. I remain worried about
rumors of more cuts to SNAP or separating SNAP from the farm bill or
weakening child nutrition. With so many relying on these programs to
help put food on the table, these cuts would be devastating for
families across the country. We must protect and strengthen these
programs.
I believe food ought to be a right for every single individual in
this country and on the planet, but the sad reality is that it isn't.
All of us need to do better. All of us need to care more. All of us
need to recognize our moral failings in not addressing this issue
sooner.
So on behalf of the dedicated crew that took part in Monte's March, I
urge all of us in Congress to act and end hunger now.
____________________
IN HONOR OF DAVID HOWLE
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from
North Carolina (Mr. Holding) for 5 minutes.
Mr. HOLDING. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize David Howle.
For the past 29 years, Coach Howle has served as the head football
coach for the Bunn High School Wildcats in Franklin County. During that
time, Coach Howle had unprecedented success, amassing 214 wins and just
90 losses. He has had 45 players go on to play at the collegiate level,
a nearly unheard of number for an AA high school.
While Coach Howle built the Bunn football program into a regional
powerhouse, it is more important to recognize the impact he has had on
thousands of students, parents, and staff in the Bunn community. His
expectation of his players to work hard, not just on the field, Mr.
Speaker, but also in the classroom, translated into a 99 percent
graduation rate for his student athletes.
Coach Howle has famously told his team, ``show me your friends and
I'll show you your future,'' encouraging his players not just to be
good citizens, but also to be productive members of society.
And no matter the outcome of any game--win, loss, or draw--Coach
Howle was always there to encourage his players to keep their heads up
and to look to the future as the team ended every game with the Bunn
High School fight song followed by the Lord's prayer.
David Howle exemplifies what the thousands of dedicated educators in
North Carolina do every day. The lessons Coach Howle taught and the
difference he made in thousands of lives will be remembered in his
community for years to come.
____________________
FAREWELL ADDRESS
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from
California (Mrs. Capps) for 5 minutes.
Mrs. CAPPS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to address the House one last
time as a Member of Congress. Over 18 years ago, I was honored and
humbled to be elected to this House. It has been the job and the
responsibility of a lifetime.
After a career spent as a nurse and in our public schools as a school
nurse, it was the start of a life I never expected, but I was eager to
answer the call to public service on behalf of the citizens of the
central coast of California. It was the same call that had beckoned my
husband, Walter, before me. He was a religious studies professor who
felt compelled to serve. Like Walter, I sought to help restore the
bonds of trust between the people and their government.
While the circumstances of my joining Congress were unexpected, it
has been a tremendous honor to serve with all of you over these years.
Together with our colleagues, our dedicated staff, and our
constituents, I have been proud to work on behalf of issues so
important to our congressional district on the central coast of
California, issues important also to our entire Nation.
We have worked hard to ensure that everyone has the chance to fulfill
their American Dream, while moving our economy and our country forward.
We have fought to protect women's rights, strengthen families, and push
for equality. We have made great strides in making health care more
accessible and affordable so that no one has to go bankrupt just
because they get sick. And we have championed a clean energy future
while protecting our beautiful landscapes, our coastlines, and our
precious natural resources for future generations.
In recent months, I have often been asked what I will miss most about
serving in Congress. While there is much to miss, the answer is easy:
it is the people. To me, this job has always been and always will be
about the people: the people we represent, the people who work so hard
to keep this place going, the people on my staff over the years who
have been so dedicated to making our community and our country just a
little bit better--and the people I serve with here, you, my
colleagues.
It has been such a privilege and pleasure to get to know you and work
alongside many of you over the years, learning more about your
districts,
[[Page 16022]]
your backgrounds, and your families. After all, isn't this what
Congress was meant to be? You, my colleagues, coming from all over the
country, from all walks of life, to represent your neighbors and
communities in this place, this Congress, to work together for the good
of our Nation.
During my time in Congress, I have been so proud of those laws we
have passed that have made a real difference in people's lives. When I
am home, I often hear about the positive impact of our work, the role
our office has played in the district, the difference our efforts have
made in individual lives.
I am proud of the progress we have made as a country, but we need to
keep this momentum going. As we all know, cooperation and progress is
not always easy, but it is what we are sent here to do and it is what
we must do, regardless of partisanship. We are here, each one, because
we believe in the role of government to make the lives of everyday
Americans better, and that has been my guiding light both as a Member
of Congress and as a nurse before.
As I have said, I may be retiring, but I do not want to consider
myself retired. I prefer to say I am graduating to continue working
locally on issues that have defined my time in Congress.
Our work is cut out for us, but I am deeply optimistic about what the
future holds. I trust that the next Congress will hold healthy debates
about how to build a better country for our children. I urge my
colleagues to remember that, even during the most trying times, as my
husband Walter often said: There is much more that unites us as a
people than that which divides us.
Now I want to take one last opportunity to thank my staff, the people
who have become family to me both here in D.C. and in the district. And
I want to thank you, my colleagues, for your camaraderie, your hard
work, and the friendship that has lasted over 18 years. It has meant
the world to me.
And finally, thank you. Thank you, truly, to the people of the
central coast for trusting me as your Representative, for inspiring me
every single day with your passion and your dedication for our Nation
and for California's 24th District. You make our community a place in
which I have been proud to raise my children and my grandchildren now,
one I am proud to call home.
____________________
8-YEAR ASSAULT ON AMERICA'S COAL INDUSTRY
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Fleischmann). The Chair recognizes the
gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Barr) for 5 minutes.
Mr. BARR. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to mark the end of a long, harsh,
partisan, politicized campaign, unprecedented in American history. I am
not talking about the recent election. No. We are finally at the end of
the Obama administration's 8-year assault on Kentucky's and America's
coal industry.
In two terms, President Obama's policies have successfully put
thousands of coal miners and utility workers into the unemployment
line. In 2008, then-candidate Obama pledged that any company looking to
build a coal-powered electric plant would be bankrupted. The combined
regulations of the EPA, the Army Corps of Engineers, the Office of
Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, and several other
bureaucracies have turned that pledge into a reality, choking off
investment in new state-of-the-art, clean-burning, coal-fired electric
generation; and it led to the premature closing of existing plants.
If we continue on this path, the other promise made by candidate
Obama will also come to pass: electricity rates will necessarily
skyrocket. And that would be a disaster for consumers, for whom energy
prices are often the second or third largest line item in the family
budget.
I also think about industrial consumers and the many manufacturers in
my district and around the Nation who depend on affordable, reliable
energy that will face skyrocketing costs if we fail to act and reverse
these administration policies. However, it is a new day; and voters--
particularly in the Rust Belt and Appalachia--turned out in November to
close the book on this legacy of job-killing regulation and to seek a
new path forward.
President Obama said that elections have consequences, and this is
true; but his administration ignored every electoral outcome since
2010, doubling down on failed policies while the American people called
for a different approach.
The inverse is also true: consequences drive elections. The
consequences of the Obama administration's unilateral decisions decided
last November's election, and no place in this country felt those
consequences as acutely as coal country.
National coal production is at its lowest level in 35 years. Pike
County, the long leading coal producer in Kentucky, until losing that
title in 2012, is down 89 percent since its peak in 1996. Nationwide,
consumption of coal has dropped nearly a third since 2007.
In Kentucky, coal employment hit its lowest level in 118 years. To
repeat, coal employment in Kentucky is now at its lowest level since
1898. In 2009, 18,850 people were employed by coal. About 73,000 jobs
were indirectly supported by that economic activity. Today, only about
6,500 Kentuckians now work in the coalfields, and those losses have
rippled throughout the economy. Yet this is the legacy that this
administration will earn as it leaves office.
Never in the history of our country has an administration singled out
and targeted a lawful industry--in this case, an industry that has
provided jobs and opportunities for American workers for generations,
an industry that has literally powered America, and, through that
overregulation, crushed an entire sector of our economy.
Now, Obama administration apologists will say that depletion in
Appalachian coalfields and new competition from natural gas are the
primary factors in those job losses, but they don't give the regulators
enough credit. The turnaround in natural gas production on State and
private lands has been dramatic, to be sure, but relative price parity
with coal does not explain two-thirds of mining jobs in Kentucky
disappearing in 7 years.
The administration has targeted coal supply and demand, prohibiting
production leases, rejecting mining permit applications, stretching the
Clean Air and Clean Water Acts against congressional intent,
prohibiting new and existing plants from using coal--the list goes on
and on.
Many of these rules have been halted or overturned by the courts, and
several more remain subject to challenge by the States and industry;
but since the President could not get Congress' support for his agenda
of banning the production and use of coal, most of these regulations
can be unwound by the courts or the next administration.
I urge the incoming Trump administration to do just that and to
engage with Congress in a bipartisan fashion on our Nation's energy and
environmental policies. The livelihoods of people in the coalfields, of
those working in the manufacturing and rail industries, of families
trying to keep their homes warm and their lights on must never again be
the collateral damage in partisan warfare.
I must address the issue of climate change. Let the last 8 years
serve as a lesson to all of us. Let's never again attempt to solve
problems through central planning by punishing innocent Americans whose
paychecks put food on their table. Instead, let's address problems like
climate change the American way: not through central planning or
government, but through innovation, science, technology.
While it will be a tough road back for coal country and it may never
be the same after 8 years of regulatory attack, I do look forward to a
new day dawning in the coalfields.
____________________
ROBERT LEVINSON STILL MISSING IN IRAN
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from
Florida (Mr. Deutch) for 5 minutes.
Mr. DEUTCH. Mr. Speaker, the holiday season is upon us. We are
getting
[[Page 16023]]
ready to head home to spend time with family and friends, yet I rise
today with a heavy heart.
For the family of my constituent Robert Levinson of Coral Springs,
Florida, these weeks are a painful reminder of another Thanksgiving,
another Christmas--their 10th, in fact--without their father,
grandfather, and husband.
____________________
{time} 1100
Bob has been missing in Iran for 3,561 days. He disappeared from Kish
Island, Iran, on March 9, 2007. Late that year, Bob's wife, Christine,
and his oldest son Dan traveled to Iran to learn as much as they could
about his whereabouts.
It was a brutal 3-year wait for the first proof of life, a video of
Bob dressed in an orange jumpsuit, pleading for help. A year later, in
2011, another proof of life, pictures of Bob, his beard long, his face
thin, his gregarious smile gone, a shadow of the exuberant family man
in this photograph.
In March, marking the ninth anniversary of Bob's disappearance, south
Florida came together in support of Bob's return with a rally. Each of
Bob's children spoke so beautifully about the special relationship that
they share with their father, his commitment to his family, his words
of wisdom, his ability to touch the lives of everyone that he meets.
Bob Levinson served this country for nearly 30 years, first as a DEA
agent, and then as an FBI agent. He is the definition of a patriot. He
loves this country. He dedicated his life to public service. Now we
must do whatever we can to bring Bob home; home to Christine, his wife
of over 40 years; home to his daughters Susan, Stephanie, Sarah, and
Samantha; home to his three sons, Dan, David, and Doug, and son-in-law
Randy; home to meet, for the first time, the newest members of his
growing family, his sons-in-law and daughter-in-law, Ralph, Ryan, and
Sophia, and his six beautiful grandchildren, Ryan, Grace, Caroline,
Harry, Sean, and Bobby; home in time for the birth of two new
grandchildren; and home in time to hold 2-year-old Bobby as he begins
treatment for lymphoma.
Bobby was named after Grandpa Bob. Bob's daughter Susan said: I
always wanted to name my son after my dad not because he has been
taken, but because growing up I always knew how special my dad is.
The family needs Bob home. We can't wait any longer. Whether you
support engagement with Iran or not doesn't matter. The fact is, for
the first time since Bob went missing, the United States Government
sits directly across the table from their Iranian counterparts.
The future of our relationship with Iran is uncertain. That is why we
can't wait. The Iranians have spent the last 2 years seeking acceptance
from the international community, but to be treated as a responsible
nation, they must act as a responsible nation. After Iran released
other Americans this year, the U.S. Government announced Iran's
commitment to use newly established channels to move us closer to Bob's
return, but, 11 months later, Iran has not fulfilled that commitment.
Our allies are looking to invest in Iran. U.S. businesses are seeking
new economic opportunities, and Iran is seeking to change its standing
in the world. I am not here today to debate U.S. policy. I am only here
to remind Iran and to remind the world that an American is still not
home.
I am grateful to this Congress for the unanimous passage of a
resolution earlier this year calling on the Government of Iran to find
Bob and bring him home and for the deep, deep support so many of my
colleagues have offered the Levinson family. I don't want to have to
introduce that legislation again next year. I don't want to come back
to the House floor in 2017 to plead for Bob's return. This is the
moment for action. This is the time to bring Bob home.
When the Levinson children were growing up, they would pile into the
family Suburban before Christmas in search of the best holiday
decoration displays. The kids would sit back singing Christmas songs,
and Bob would hold Christine's hand while he drove. Even though the
family has grown too large to fit in one Suburban now, Bob and his
family deserve to see the lights together this year. They deserve to
sing together. This must be the last season that Bob spends away from
his family.
____________________
CELEBRATING 60TH ANNIVERSARY OF HOLY CROSS CATHOLIC CHURCH
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from
Kansas (Mr. Huelskamp) for 5 minutes.
Mr. HUELSKAMP. Mr. Speaker, this year my parish, Holy Cross Catholic
Church in Hutchinson, Kansas, is celebrating its 60th anniversary.
Sixty years ago, then-Bishop of Wichita, Most Reverend Mark K. Carroll,
proclaimed Holy Cross Parish to be the third parish in Hutchinson. On
June 23, 1957, the church celebrated their first mass in a 4-H
building.
Holy Cross Parish has come a long way from that first mass held on
the Kansas State Fairgrounds. Now a beautiful church adorned with holy
images, the parish serves Christ's people from the moment they are born
with the Sacrament of Baptism, to feeding them with the Word of God and
the Holy Eucharist, to couples exchanging marriage vows, to those
seeking forgiveness in the confessional, and, finally, to when we
prepare to meet our Lord at the end of our earthly lives. At each
milestone of a Catholic's life, Holy Cross Catholic Church is there to
guide us toward the truth: to know, love, and serve the Lord in this
life so as to be with Him in the next.
The work of the Holy Cross community certainly extends outside the
church walls. The parish is present in the community, serving meals to
the needy, visiting inmates in prison, working to save the lives of the
precious unborn children, and comforting those who grieve.
Additionally, education has always been a high priority for the Holy
Cross Parish. Hundreds upon hundreds of boys and girls, young men and
women, have received a superb Catholic education at Holy Cross Catholic
School and Trinity Catholic High School. Dedicated teachers,
administrators, coaches, committed families, holy priests and nuns, and
supportive parishioners have worked together to prepare each of these
students to serve as Christ's light to the world. The families that
make up Holy Cross Catholic Church are a living example of individuals
who live out their faith in their work and their daily lives.
Our country was founded on Judeo-Christian principles. The First
Amendment guarantees the freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and
freedom of conscience. It is my sincere hope that, as America moves
forward, our leaders will place the issue of religious liberty at the
forefront of their political and legislative agendas.
On this 60th anniversary of Holy Cross Catholic Church, it is my
prayer that the parish will continue to grow and thrive, welcome new
members, and share the Gospel with the world.
____________________
THE WAR ON SCIENCE
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from
California (Mr. McNerney) for 5 minutes.
Mr. McNERNEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to discuss the growing
antiscience attitude in Washington. This attitude has manifested itself
even on the cover of the respected National Geographic magazine, titled
``The War on Science.'' The war on science is being conducted in two
ways. First, by rejecting or trying to discredit legitimate science.
Second, by reducing Federal science funding.
Skepticism of science is hardly new and is sometimes well founded,
but what is happening today is different and is part of a trend in the
United States to discount or disbelieve experts in any field. I hear
from scientists who are very worried that the quality and quantity of
science produced in this country will decline as a result.
American inventors and innovators have improved our lives and have
given our country an economic edge, helping
[[Page 16024]]
make us the strongest country in the world. Let me share a partial list
of revolutionary achievements by American scientists: airplanes,
phonographs, practical incandescent lamps, wireless communications,
microwave ovens, lasers, personal computers, washing machines,
cyclotrons, 3D printing machines, polio vaccinations, the nuclear bomb,
light-emitting diodes or LEDs, fiber optic cables, mobile telephones,
computer mouse, public key cryptography, global positioning systems or
GPS, and social media.
Now let's recall an earlier battle against science that used the
discredit tactic; namely, the tobacco companies' effort to dispute the
science that smoking is addictive and causes deadly diseases. The
tobacco industry tried to both discredit and threaten the scientists
who were advancing the facts, and funded questionable scientists to
create doubts about the actual scientific results. The tactic worked
for a time while tobacco producers were able to continually hook
millions of new people on their dangerous product. Eventually the
science won out, but the cost was terrible.
Today a similar effort is underway with respect to climate change.
The science is clear, with a vast majority of climate scientists
agreeing that the climate is warming and that continuing to emit carbon
into the atmosphere at current levels will bring significant and mostly
detrimental change to our environment. Moreover, even though the
evidence that climate change is already taking place and is
overwhelming and increasingly obvious, there is widespread denial that
climate change is even happening or that it would be possible to help
combat it. But the things that need to be done to address climate
change, such as taxing carbon emissions, can be done gradually,
predictably, and in a way that helps the economy grow and puts people
to work.
So why is there so much resistance?
The resistance in America is caused by a well-funded campaign to
create doubt about obvious scientific facts. The fossil fuel industry,
in particular, has been paying its own scientists to go on talk shows,
to publish in their own denial journals, and generally to create doubt
whenever possible about climate change, suggesting that it would be
better to wait for conclusive evidence before doing anything. But to
wait for conclusive evidence is to wait for catastrophe.
While Republicans in Washington are trying to reduce or eliminate
funding for climate change research, there also seems to be an effort
by Republicans to reduce science funding across the board. This will
result in fewer scientific advances in the U.S., which will likely
cause us to fall behind our competitors. But this is part of a larger
trend that denies there are real experts. Science denial has become a
pop culture. This is dangerous because modern society is built upon the
things that science got right.
I see the war on science in this country as shortsighted and very
damaging to our economy. We need to change the tone and direction
toward a positive process that acknowledges and supports the role
science has played and will continue to play for our country. That
means working with legislators and getting more scientists and other
concerned citizens involved in the political process to ensure that our
Nation can continue to benefit from new scientific discoveries and
innovation and which will help create the jobs we need to continue to
be a great economic power.
____________________
FAREWELL TO THE HONORABLE JOE PITTS
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from
Pennsylvania (Mr. Costello) for 5 minutes.
Mr. COSTELLO of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, in my hand is a book,
``Congress: The Chester County Line'' written by Wayne C. Woodward. A
portion of the foreword reads as follows: ``From the very beginning of
our great Nation and the first American Congress, Chester Countians
have served their southeast Pennsylvania constituents in the United
States House of Representatives. Not all have been nationally known
leaders or internationally renowned legislators, but, by and large,
Congressmen from Chester County have played a major role in American
history.'' That was written by Richard T. Schulze, member of the United
States House of Representatives, serving from 1975 to 1993.
Mr. Speaker, I want to recognize Congressman Joe Pitts, who has
served Chester County, Lancaster County, and Berks County with
tremendous distinction for the past two decades. Whether it was his
legislative focus and advocacy involving religious liberty, life,
health care, land conservation, or focusing on those issues at the most
local level, Joe Pitts' legacy and achievements as a legislator will
prove lasting in the history of Chester County and this Congress.
My predecessor, Jim Gerlach, serving in the neighboring Sixth
Congressional District, commented: ``I had the good fortune of working
with Joe from my first years as a State legislator in the PA house all
the way through my last year in Congress. During those 24 years, Joe
Pitts was a steady and committed voice for conservative principles and
policies that are the bedrock of our economy and society. He cared
deeply about his constituents and country, and he always voted for what
he believed was best for both. In short, he was a principled leader who
worked hard every day to do the right thing, and his leadership will be
missed.''
Joe Pitts' predecessor in Congress, occupying what is commonly
referred to as ``the Pennsylvania Dutch seat,'' Congressman Bob Walker,
commented: ``Joe Pitts has distinguished himself and the district he
represents with his congressional service. He has become an
acknowledged leader in healthcare policy, and his human rights work has
won worldwide claim. I have been proud to call him my congressman for
the past 20 years, and wish Joe and Ginny the very best in the years
ahead.''
This book, ``Congress: The Chester County Line,'' was written in
1992. There will be a day when a second book about the history of
Congress and Chester County will be written. We don't know who will
write it, but we do know there will be a chapter on the service of Jim
Gerlach and on the service of Bob Walker; and there will also be a very
long chapter, rich in content, on the contributions that Joe Pitts has
played in American history for the betterment of this country, for the
betterment of Chester County, Berks County, and Lancaster County.
Congressman Pitts, I wish you the very best as you retire, and a long
and healthy retirement to you and your family. God bless you.
{time} 1115
Farewell to the Honorable Bob Dold
Mr. COSTELLO of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, when I came to Congress,
as I suspect when most new Members come to Congress, you tend to look
around for those Members who you can take a little something from to
improve yourself and to see what they do and also what they don't do.
Congressman Bob Dold is finishing his second term. I would like Mr.
Dold to know that I have taken a great deal from him. I find him to be
a very honorable man and a friend who has served with purpose, a
positive attitude, and is partisan-free. He is a great example of how
to serve in this body effectively, with distinction, and with a great
attitude.
I wish Congressman Dold the very best in all his future endeavors.
Farewell to the Honorable Richard Hanna
Mr. COSTELLO of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, Richard Hanna, serving New
York's 22nd Congressional District, is retiring. I want to commend
Congressman Hanna on his thoughtfulness, independence, and courage of
convictions. I find him to be a great example of how to serve in this
body honorably, and I wish him and his family the very best in his
retirement.
Farewell to the Honorable Mike Fitzpatrick
Mr. COSTELLO of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, Congressman Mike
Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania's Eighth Congressional District is
retiring. His
[[Page 16025]]
brother, Brian, has big shoes to fill to serve in Mike's place.
When I came to Congress, one thing that you would always hear in
political circles is that Mike Fitzpatrick, while serving in Congress,
never stopped being a Bucks County Commissioner. What that really means
is, while he came down here to focus on Washington and issues important
to this country, he never stopped spending time in Bucks County,
serving the district with distinction.
I wish Mike Fitzpatrick the very best in retirement and thank him for
his mentorship during my first year in Congress.
____________________
CONGRATULATING STAFF SERGEANT AARON TOBLER
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New
York (Mr. Tonko) for 5 minutes.
Mr. TONKO. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Staff Sergeant
Aaron Tobler, an Albany native and La Salle Institute of Troy graduate
who was recently selected for the Outstanding Airman of the Year award
by the United States Air Force.
The Air Force provides this recognition to top enlisted Airmen for
their unique individual achievements in leadership, job performance,
significant self-improvement, and community involvement.
Sergeant Tobler is a fine example of the best the capital region, the
Air Force, and our Nation have to offer. In addition to his military
service, he serves as a manager at the California Department of Social
Services, mentors local youth, and is a regular blood donor.
I thank Staff Sergeant Tobler for his military and civilian service
to our Nation. He and his colleagues are truly what has made, and
continues to make, this country great.
109th Airlift Buzz Aldrin Evacuation
Mr. TONKO. Mr. Speaker, last week, the National Science Foundation
announced that the 109th Airlift Wing provided a humanitarian medical
evacuation flight from Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica
to astronaut Buzz Aldrin, one of the first men to walk on the Moon.
As the Representative for New York's 20th Congressional District, I
am, indeed, honored that we are home to Stratton Air National Guard
Base, which hosts the 109th Airlift Wing in Scotia, New York. Their
unit flies the world's only ski-equipped LC-130s, better known as Ski
Birds.
The 109th continues a proud tradition of critical contributions that
New York's capital region makes to our national security, our economy,
and yes, our standing in the world. I am, indeed, proud of their unique
service to this country and thank them for their continued support.
____________________
PEARL HARBOR
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from
Hawaii (Ms. Hanabusa) for 5 minutes.
Ms. HANABUSA. Mr. Speaker, 75 years ago, the Imperial forces of Japan
attacked Pearl Harbor and other bases in Hawaii. This unforgivable act
thrust our country into the war in the Pacific. On this day, 2,403
Americans died, 1,177 of them on the Arizona, and 1,178 were wounded.
Today, to honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice, there will be
services here in D.C., throughout the Nation, and particularly at Pearl
Harbor. This is where Pearl Harbor, the symbol of World War II and the
attack, is found. That, of course, is the USS Arizona Memorial.
Designed by Alfred Preis, it was controversial when first unveiled
because people could not understand the significance of it. They said
it kind of looked like a squashed milk carton. But when you really
understood what went behind it, it made sense.
The middle part that looks like it is sagging represented the defeat
of December 7; however, the two proud, strong sides represented the
victory that our country faced. Think about it. There is a portion of
it that is open to the ocean. That is where leis like this were thrown
in to honor those who were buried below.
In addition, there is a wall with the names of all those who
perished. But there is another wall--and this is very significant--with
the names of those who survived the attack but chose to return to be
buried with their colleagues. A Navy diver takes their ashes down and
puts them on the USS Arizona. There are seven large windows on one side
representing December 7. There are 21 windows altogether, representing
a 21-gun salute.
When Mr. Preis designed it, he said he wanted the memorial to be
everything to anybody as they looked at it, but, most importantly, he
wanted it to be serene. You have to ask yourself: Why?
What very few know about Mr. Preis is, like the Japanese Americans,
he was detained because he was Austrian. In Hawaii, there were
internment camps, not only of Japanese Americans but of Germans of
American descent, as well as Italians. Mr. Preis was one of them.
World War II created the Greatest Generation of all time, and we must
never forget them. We must honor them. But we must always remember that
ultimate sacrifice they made. They made it for all of us so we would
appreciate and enjoy civil liberties.
Remember, in February of the following year is when President
Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 putting Japanese Americans, whose
only crime was that they were Japanese Americans, into internment
camps. This group fought the fight to prove their loyalty to this
country.
Let us not forget them, the Filipino World War II veterans who also
served, and everyone who served in World War II. Let us not forget why
they served and why they did that ultimate sacrifice. It was so that we
would be the greatest country on this Earth and we would provide people
with civil liberties.
So let us not, as we move forward, forget that. Let us not forget
what it means to be a country that welcomes all and has protected the
civil liberties. As we look and hear about things like the Muslim
registry or building walls, would those brave men of the Greatest
Generation really think they fought for that? Is that what they want
this country to become? I contend that they do not.
On this day, Mr. Speaker, as we honor those who gave that ultimate
sacrifice, let us not forget why we are the greatest country on the
face of this Earth and why they are the Greatest Generation.
____________________
DROUGHT: HUMAN IMPACT
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from
California (Mr. Costa) for 5 minutes.
Mr. COSTA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to bring attention to the real
human impact that the drought has had on families across California's
San Joaquin Valley. This drought has lasted for 6 years.
Tomorrow, the House will have an opportunity to vote on legislation
that will help address the impacts of the drought and begin to repair a
broken water system that we have in California today. I hope more than
anything that we can get the legislation across the finish line, but it
seems that some of my colleagues in the House and the Senate remain
unconvinced that a solution is necessary. I tell you that a solution is
necessary and we are working on borrowed time.
I would like to take the opportunity to dispel that misconception.
The picture next to me here is Mr. and Mrs. Cabrera from Madera,
California. I represent these constituents. As you will notice, they
look happy. The reason they look happy is because, when I had the
pleasure of meeting with them that day, they found out that they had
received a Federal resource grant to dig a new well in their backyard.
Two years prior to that day, their well had gone completely dry.
For my colleagues who do not represent the rural constituencies
across this country or in California, that means for 2 years the
Cabrera family could not turn their faucet on to get water to bathe or
cook. Instead, they went outside to haul buckets of water into their
house. A 2,500-gallon tank in their backyard was where they got the
water from. Some families are even less fortunate and had to have water
trucked into their neighborhoods.
[[Page 16026]]
Also, pictured next to them is Juana Garcia. Juana lives in East
Porterville. She was featured in a Fresno Bee story last year. Her
family and 700 households in East Porterville have no water. This photo
illustrates the delivery of nonpotable water to Ms. Garcia and her
family. They walk to the local church several times a week so they can
take a shower.
The Cabrera and Garcia families represent the faces of thousands of
families throughout the Valley who don't have water and don't have a
long-term plan to get water. They have been impacted.
Farmers, farm workers, and farm communities throughout the San
Joaquin Valley have been impacted as well. Without water, hundreds and
thousands of acres of productive ag land have gone fallow. That means
they are not planted. Without planting, that means no jobs and no
water. Unemployment, in many of these Valley farming communities, is in
the double digits and at an all-time high.
While a California drought relief bill will not resolve every single
challenge we face in the Valley and in California's broken water
system, it will provide some relief to help these suffering families.
To my colleagues in California and elsewhere who think that the
language in the WRDA bill is a poison pill, I say it is not. This is
important to help solve the problems of the people in this Valley to
ensure that more Valley families do not become the victims of polluted
water and dry wells. This is not a poison pill. You should not look at
it that way. It is wrong.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues in the House and the Senate to
support this legislation and act swiftly, not only on the behalf of the
people of the San Joaquin Valley but Flint, Michigan, and the others
who will benefit in the very important WRDA bill that will be before us
tomorrow.
Time is of the essence. The drought-stricken community in California,
especially in the San Joaquin Valley, and others who are impacted by
very important and needed efforts that Senator Feinstein and others
have put together as part of the WRDA bill, a bipartisan bill that
Congressman McCarthy has worked on, should be passed tomorrow. Do the
right thing before Christmas.
____________________
CONFLICTS OF INTEREST IN TRUMP ADMINISTRATION
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from
Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) for 5 minutes.
Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I rise today with a strong recommendation
that President-elect Trump address immediately and put to rest the
overwhelming conflicts of interest that abound with his personal
business affairs that threaten to undermine the public interest and
destabilize his future administration.
When America's Founding Fathers wrote the Emoluments Clause in our
Constitution, their firm intention was to insulate our new government
from unethical foreign inducement to our elected officials and
corruption attendant to the intertwining of Europe's politics with our
own.
{time} 1130
So reads our Constitution, Article I. Article I, right at the
beginning, Section 9, clause 8: ``No Title of Nobility shall be granted
by the United States''--that means we don't coronate kings here--``And
no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall,
without the Consent of the Congress, accept any present, Emolument,
Office, or Title, of any kind whatever from any King, Prince, or
foreign State.''
No elected official in this country is above the Constitution, the
law of the land. This is the strict, time-tested standard, ethical
standard to which the President and Congress and all senior government
appointees are held.
Unfortunately, American history has no shortage of examples of
Presidents and senior officials who attempted to skirt this ethical
standard outside of appropriate channels, and they paid the price:
Ulysses S. Grant's Whiskey Ring, or Warren G. Harding's Teapot Dome, or
Richard Nixon's Jewel Scandal or Watergate, to name a few. Each
represents an instance of improper gifting, self-dealing, and an array
of clandestine and illegal activities, of which President-elect Trump
would be wise to reflect upon their consequences.
There have been many suggestions offered to the President-elect on
what he should do to clear up such potential conflicts about his
foreign investments, contacts, and his vast private wealth that could
compromise his position as President; yet President-elect Trump's
advisers keep us waiting and dodging the main question.
He, himself, has said that action is not legally required. He is
wrong. He also incorrectly asserts there can be no conflict of interest
for a President. History shows that is false.
Without separation of his private interests from his public
interests, how will the American people know he is acting fairly and
impartially in his appointments to regulatory agencies, for example? or
his funding recommendations of budgets and departments that could
impact his investments? Or how about the contracts that are let by the
Federal Government itself?
How will he work with banks, and which ones, nation-state-owned or
foreign, that have loaned him and his associates money?
Who will he be appointing to key regulatory positions that could
impact his vast financial interests across many continents?
A former Reform Party Vice Presidential candidate opined on the
Huffington Post site that Mr. Trump has three options to address his
conflicts of interest:
Number one, to place his company and assets into a true blind trust,
supervised by a totally independent entity;
Number two, to persuade the GOP-controlled Congress to enact a law
that exempts the President from the Emolument Provision, which I would
vote against; or
Number three, to resign, or risk impeachment.
As the Office of Government Ethics advised, only a true divestiture
of his financial stake in his sprawling and global business dealings
will resolve ethical concerns about conflicts of interest as he assumes
the role of President of the United States.
Now, this map gives you a sense of some of his interests that he has
acknowledged in some of his filings, of 144 companies in 25 different
countries. We don't know what these relationships are. He has a
sprawling global business empire, and the list includes countries with
strained diplomatic ties to the United States.
As the President, his responsibilities will force him to make
decisions on foreign policy and tax policy, for example, that will
impact these significant business interests. Only a truly complete
removal of his ownership can assure the American people that his
Presidential actions and political decisions are not motivated by
personal financial interests. Even then, suspicion will arise about
every move he makes and be subject to prosecution.
In the 3 weeks since his election, President-elect Trump has held
meetings and calls with foreign dignitaries, Prime Ministers, and
Presidents in his official capacity as President-elect. That is normal.
What is not normal or appropriate, though, is for the public to hear
afterwards that his adult children, who are slated to take over the
family business, were also present.
The American public is well aware that the Trump team has a steep
learning curve in understanding his role, the operation and legal
allowances of our Federal Government, and he has a long way to go in
separating his personal financial interests from his public financial
interests. I can't say in strong enough terms we do need to have his
tax filings on record, and we do need to have clarification for the
American people that our Constitution must prevail.
No public official--no public official--is exempt from the law of the
land, and the highest law is the Constitution of the United States. He
must separate himself from his business dealings.
[[Page 16027]]
____________________
ST. XAVIER FOOTBALL STATE CHAMPIONSHIP
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Ohio
(Mr. Wenstrup) for 5 minutes.
Mr. WENSTRUP. Mr. Speaker, on Friday, December 2, my alma mater, St.
Xavier High School in Cincinnati, Ohio, beat the odds in a true
underdog story and won the Ohio high school Division I football State
championship. They join the St. Xavier water polo team as State champs
this year as well.
Through a tough regular season schedule, the St. X Bombers went into
the final regular season game with a record of 4 and 5, needing one
more win to make it to the playoffs, and they were losing at halftime.
They won and went on to win five more times, ultimately beating a tough
Cleveland Saint Ignatius team, in front of 13,000 people at Ohio
Stadium, to win the State championship.
In one of the most thrilling high school football games, St. X won
27-20 in double overtime. In fact, three of the five playoff victories
were won in overtime.
In a historic year, St. X became the first team in Ohio high school
athletic history to lose five regular season games and then go on to
win the State championship. The 2016 football season can teach us all
something about perseverance and never giving up.
I would like to congratulate the St. Xavier players, Coach Steve
Specht, and his staff, for their hard work and dedication. This win
adds to a long history of sportsmanship and commitment on the field at
St. Xavier High School.
Go Bombers.
____________________
CONGRATULATING DR. BEN CARSON
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from
South Carolina (Mr. Wilson) for 5 minutes.
Mr. WILSON of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I am grateful that
President-elect Donald Trump has appointed Dr. Ben Carson to serve as
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, where he will promote
opportunity for success for everyone.
President-elect Trump announced: ``Ben Carson has a brilliant mind
and is passionate about strengthening communities and families within
those communities . . . Ben shares my optimism about the future of our
country and is part of ensuring that this is a Presidency representing
all Americans.''
Dr. Carson knows that there is power in education and hard work. He
earned a full scholarship to Yale University, received his doctorate
from the University of Michigan, and then, at just age 33, became the
director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins.
With his dear wife, Candy, he started the Carson Scholars Fund, a
valuable national scholarship program to empower students from all
backgrounds to strive for academic excellence and community service.
Our Nation is fortunate that Dr. Ben Carson has been nominated to
this important position, and I am confident in his future success for
American families.
In conclusion, God bless our troops, and may the President, by his
actions, never forget September the 11th in the global war on
terrorism.
9/11 was the Pearl Harbor of our era, being a surprise attack on our
civilization. President-elect Donald Trump, with Secretary of Defense
Jim Mattis, will lead us to victory to protect American families.
____________________
RECESS
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 12(a) of rule I, the
Chair declares the House in recess until noon today.
Accordingly (at 11 o'clock and 38 minutes a.m.), the House stood in
recess.
____________________
{time} 1200
AFTER RECESS
The recess having expired, the House was called to order by the
Speaker at noon.
____________________
PRAYER
The Chaplain, the Reverend Patrick J. Conroy, offered the following
prayer:
Eternal God, we give You thanks for giving us another day.
On this day 75 years ago, our Nation was attacked, and war was
visited upon our people. In so many places in our world, war rages
still. May all leaders be empowered to work toward lasting peace, with
the help of Your grace.
We ask also this day for wisdom, patience, and understanding among
the Members of this people's House. Give them the generosity of heart,
and the courage of true leadership, to work as true statesmen and
women, toward a common solution to the many issues facing our Nation.
May all that is done be for Your greater honor and glory.
Amen.
____________________
THE JOURNAL
The SPEAKER. The Chair has examined the Journal of the last day's
proceedings and announces to the House his approval thereof.
Pursuant to clause 1, rule I, the Journal stands approved.
____________________
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
The SPEAKER. Will the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Barton) come forward
and lead the House in the Pledge of Allegiance.
Mr. BARTON led the Pledge of Allegiance as follows:
I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of
America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation
under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
____________________
ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE SPEAKER
The SPEAKER. The Chair will entertain up to 15 requests for 1-minute
speeches on each side of the aisle.
____________________
RECOGNIZING DR. EDUARDO J. PADRON ON RECEIVING THE PRESIDENTIAL MEDAL
OF FREEDOM
(Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN asked and was given permission to address the House
for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize and congratulate
Dr. Eduardo Padron, president of my alma mater, Miami Dade College, for
receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
As a fellow refugee who escaped the Castro regime, I was honored to
help lead the effort to nominate Dr. Padron for this meritorious
recognition. He has always made it his life's work to advocate on
behalf of underserved populations.
Through his expert guidance and leadership, Dr. Padron has propelled
Miami Dade College into national prominence by improving student
access, retention, and graduation, as well as helping them with their
professional achievements.
Today, MDC enrolls and graduates more minority students than any
other institution of higher education in the country.
Congratulations to Dr. Padron on receiving our Nation's highest
civilian honor. South Florida and the MDC community could not be more
proud of you.
____________________
75TH ANNIVERSARY OF PEARL HARBOR
(Ms. GABBARD asked and was given permission to address the House for
1 minute.)
Ms. GABBARD. Mr. Speaker, my heart is in Hawaii today. At almost this
exact time, on this very day 75 years ago, the first bombs were dropped
in the attack on Pearl Harbor. More than 2,400 people perished on that
fateful day that will forever live in infamy.
We remember our brothers and sisters who paid the ultimate price and
those who answered the call to serve in the months and years that
followed, including our two former Senators Inouye and Akaka, and the
more than 320,000 who gave their lives in that war.
We remember the Japanese Americans whose lives were forever changed
[[Page 16028]]
when, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, were thrown into internment
camps; and the brave nisei who, in spite of these atrocities,
volunteered to serve, forming the nisei-only ``Go for Broke'' 442nd
Infantry Regiment, serving courageously and sacrificing greatly.
May we never forget what happened at Pearl Harbor, the lessons
learned, and the sacrifices of all who served.
____________________
HONORING NED RANDOLPH
(Mr. ABRAHAM asked and was given permission to address the House for
1 minute.)
Mr. ABRAHAM. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor a faithful public
servant of Louisiana, Mr. Edward Gordon Randolph, Jr., better known as
Ned, who passed away October 4, 2016, at the age of 74.
Ned was a political force in Louisiana. He served in the Louisiana
House of Representatives, the Louisiana Senate, and served as mayor of
his hometown, the great city of Alexandria, Louisiana.
Ned served in that capacity for over 20 years, and he had many, many
accomplishments in that job. Among those was the opening of the
Alexandria Riverfront Center, and advocating for the transition from
England Air Force Base to England Airpark, which is still in existence.
He revitalized that entire city and left behind a legacy of great,
great success.
So, again, just a tribute to Ned Randolph. He will be missed.
____________________
75TH ANNIVERSARY OF PEARL HARBOR
(Mr. HIGGINS asked and was given permission to address the House for
1 minute.)
Mr. HIGGINS. Mr. Speaker, today marks the 75th anniversary of the
tragic attacks on Pearl Harbor. It is a day we reflect to remember over
2,400 Americans whose lives we lost that morning.
Today I especially remember Army Corporal Earl Wickett, a south
Buffalo native, who was stationed at Pearl Harbor on the day of the
attacks. Mr. Wickett went on to fight on behalf of our Nation for over
4 years.
Following his tour, he returned home to western New York, raised a
family, and continued to serve his community as a Buffalo firefighter.
Unfortunately, Mr. Wickett is no longer with us, passing away a few
years ago, but his stories and acts of bravery live on.
Today I join all Americans in remembering those who paid the ultimate
price at Pearl Harbor and those who sought and seek to protect our
freedom here and throughout the world. This Nation is always grateful
for those like Mr. Wickett, for their bravery, dedication, and selfless
service.
____________________
CONGRATULATING FAIRFIELD AREA HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS' SOCCER TEAM
(Mr. PERRY asked and was given permission to address the House for 1
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
Mr. PERRY. Mr. Speaker, today I proudly honor my constituents, the
Fairfield Area High School girls' soccer team, for earning the PIAA 1A
championship. These young women have brought home the first State team
sports title in Fairfield's history.
The Green Knights defeated District 7 champion, Shady Side, in a 9-4
victory, at Hersheypark Stadium, on November 18, 2016. The Green
Knights finished the season with a 25-1 record and scored 27 goals in
four State playoff games, including two nine-goal performances.
For a team from a small community, the Green Knights had an army of
loyal supporters.
I extend my congratulations to the team, to the head coach, Phomma
Phanhthy, and the school officials, family, and friends who supported
these young women on this incredible journey. We are all so very proud
of you.
____________________
RESPONSIBILITIES OF PUBLIC SERVANTS
(Ms. JACKSON LEE asked and was given permission to address the House
for 1 minute.)
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I, too, rise to acknowledge the fallen
on this day, December 7, at Pearl Harbor, the day of infamy, and offer
to them our greatest admiration and gratitude. Our prayers continue to
be with their ongoing families.
Mr. Speaker, I also rise today to speak about the responsibilities of
public servants.
To my knowledge, Air Force One does not belong to any particular
Presidency, regardless of party. Therefore, any attempt to ensure the
technological sophistication and the quality of that aircraft should be
left to the decisionmakers who have the responsibility of protecting
the President of the United States or, in essence, those who have the
responsibility of governing the United States military, which includes
the Congress and, certainly, our Pentagon.
I am concerned when the incoming person that will take the oath of
office begins to abuse the process and suggests that this is too costly
and that this company--Boeing, in particular--should be undermined.
Our job is to create and save jobs, not to destroy jobs. Our job
also, Mr. Speaker, is to protect the President of the United States;
and that kind of interference, uninformed, should be stopped
immediately.
____________________
75TH ANNIVERSARY OF PEARL HARBOR
(Mr. LaMALFA asked and was given permission to address the House for
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today, on the 75th anniversary of
the attack on Pearl Harbor, to remember, in particular, the recognition
of one of the survivors we still have with us, David Edward Callahan, a
great northern California veteran who put his life on the line to serve
in the United States Navy at a time when the world was on fire.
Less than 4 months after he reported to the U.S. naval training
station in San Diego at the age of 16--he fibbed a little on his
application--Mr. Callahan soon would be standing to colors aboard the
USS New Orleans when the drone of the first Japanese aircraft was heard
that morning at Pearl Harbor.
It would only be the start of his service to us in the U.S. For 6
years, he would fight the Japanese in almost every major battle of the
Pacific war as a combat swimmer, which later became known as the Navy
SEALs, from Guadalcanal to Iwo Jima, where he was awarded a Purple
Heart.
On behalf of the First District of California, we want to show our
gratitude to Mr. Callahan because his service didn't end there. Later
on in the Pacific nuclear proving grounds, he used his diving skills
there to see how that would work in the nuclear testing that was going
on at that time.
He has never stopped serving. He has never been less than an
inspiration for all of us. He will be taking part in Pearl Harbor
ceremonies today. We are glad to have him, and we are proud to have him
as an American.
____________________
75TH ANNIVERSARY OF PEARL HARBOR
(Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas asked and was given permission to
address the House for 1 minute.)
Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, today marks the 75th
anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. It was a defining moment in
our Nation's history, and, as has been said, a day that will live in
infamy.
The events of Pearl Harbor demonstrated the resolve of the American
people and our Armed Forces. It is a day when we honor those who gave
their lives in the defense of this country, but also honor those who
have saved lives of others during this tragedy.
Petty Officer Doris ``Dorie'' Miller, from my hometown of Waco, was
one such individual who went above and beyond the call of duty in
defense of this country and his fellow Americans. Dorie Miller is
widely recognized as a hero after the attack on Pearl Harbor for his
remarkable courage when his
[[Page 16029]]
ship, the USS West Virginia, came under attack by the Japanese.
In the face of imminent danger, he assisted his ship's commander, who
was mortally wounded, to safety. He then reportedly manned a .50-
caliber anti-aircraft machine gun to shoot down at least 3 of the 29
Japanese planes that went down that day.
Mr. Speaker, ever since I have been a Member of Congress, I have
worked time and time again to get Dorie Miller awarded the
Congressional Medal of Honor. Yet, today he is left with still the Navy
Cross. It is time we honor the unheard sacrifices of our men and women
in uniform and award Dorie Miller the Congressional Medal of Honor.
____________________
WHY THE CONSTITUTION IS IMPORTANT
(Ms. FOXX asked and was given permission to address the House for 1
minute.)
Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, the United States of America is a nation of
laws, where the government derives its limited powers from ``We the
People,'' the consenting governed.
Since 1789, the Constitution has served as our country's legal
foundation. Its wisdom is timeless. And just as George Washington
called the Constitution the guide he would never abandon, we won't
abandon it either or try to tinker unnecessarily with its brilliance.
Thanks to the foresight of the Constitution's Framers, their
understanding of government overreach, and their grasp of human nature,
we have an abiding document that checks the power of the Federal
Government and protects the rights of individual citizens.
It is genius in its brevity, in its endurance, and in its
aforethought to limit and separate the governing powers established
therein.
As a Member of Congress, it is an honor and sacred duty to protect
and uphold the Constitution.
____________________
{time} 1215
FBI AND WALL STREET
(Mr. PASCRELL asked and was given permission to address the House for
1 minute.)
Mr. PASCRELL. Mr. Speaker, I wrote to FBI Director James Comey in
September and requested the materials related to the FBI's
investigations into the 2008 financial crisis. Elizabeth Warren joined
me in this request, which we made as a result of the precedent the FBI
established in a high-profile case involving a Secretary of State's
emails. In citing ``intense public interest'' and ``the interest of
transparency,'' the FBI saw fit to provide extensive testimony to
Congress and hundreds of pages of documents that gave context to its
decision not to prosecute.
It has been 8 years since casino-style bets and a culture of fraud on
Wall Street crashed our economy and caused millions of Americans to
lose their jobs and their homes; yet no top executives were charged
with crimes, and many Americans have a gnawing sense that justice has
not been served. As of today, I have not received one word.
The DOJ has obtained financial settlements from major institutions,
like Citigroup and Bank of America.
The American public has a clear interest and stake in understanding
why the FBI did not pursue charges against the recommendations of its
own commission.
____________________
RECOGNIZING THE KEYSTONE LITTLE LEAGUE TEAM
(Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania asked and was given permission to
address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize the
Pennsylvania State Little League champions, the Keystone Little League
team, from Clinton County, Pennsylvania. Today, I had the privilege of
hosting them for a Capitol tour, and they currently join me from the
House Gallery.
The team had a remarkable 2016 season, claiming their district and
sectional titles before winning the statewide championship for
Pennsylvania.
As the Pennsylvania champions, they made an impressive run in the
regional playoffs and came just one game short of representing the mid-
Atlantic region in the Little League World Series. Pennsylvania's Fifth
Congressional District has a rich history of great Little League
players and teams, and this year's Keystone team continues that legacy.
They join greats such as Specialist Ross A. McGinnis, a Medal of Honor
winner and Little League Hall of Excellence inductee, and the 2011 Mid-
Atlantic Little League World Series team, also the former Keystone
team, which also hailed from Clinton County.
In keeping with this tradition, Keystone made their region proud
through their love and dedication to America's favorite pastime--
baseball. Congratulations to the players and coaches on such a great
run.
____________________
CONTINUING RESOLUTION: NYPD REIMBURSEMENT FOR PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD
TRUMP
(Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York asked and was given permission
to address the House for 1 minute.)
Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York. Mr. Speaker, I rise to express
my deep disappointment in the continuing resolution that was released
last night.
The $7 million appropriated to reimburse New York City for costs
incurred to provide security for President-elect Trump and his family
was a mere fraction of the $35 million requested by the city and the
police department.
The security efforts involved are unprecedented, and it is totally
unfair to ask New York City taxpayers alone to pay for these costs.
This is the second busiest intersection, not in New York City, not in
New York State, but in the entire country. Over 10,000 residents per
hour cross at 57th and 5th. It is a security challenge personified.
Because of this budget's failure, New Yorkers are now being forced to
provide a no-interest loan to the Federal Government and have no
guarantee of being paid back.
This is a terrible deal. Securing the President-elect is a national
security priority, and it must be paid for by the Federal Government.
____________________
COMMENDING PRESIDENT-ELECT TRUMP'S PHONE CALL TO PRESIDENT TSAI
(Mr. BARTON asked and was given permission to address the House for 1
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
Mr. BARTON. Mr. Speaker, I rise for two reasons today.
First, I honor the life of my father, Larry L. Barton. He died on
this date, December 7, 1996. He was a World War II veteran and a B-24
Liberator navigator. He was based in Italy and flew 40 combat missions
over Central Europe.
I also rise to commend President-elect Trump for his phone call to
the President of Taiwan, President Tsai. Taiwan is a friend of the
United States. We recognized Taiwan from the late 1940s to 1972. We
then recognized Mainland China but maintained diplomatic relationships
with Taiwan until 1978. President-elect Trump was right to make a phone
call to President Tsai. They are a friend of the United States. In my
opinion, there is no reason we can't have diplomatic relations with
both nations. I am told that President Tsai is going to come through
Texas in the fall on her way to Guatemala. I will welcome her if that
trip occurs and will try to give her the hospitality that she gave me
when I visited her great nation last month.
A phone call is a phone call, Mr. Speaker. I commend the President-
elect for calling President Tsai. I hope this means a warming of a
relationship with Taiwan.
____________________
JOSIE AND ROLLIE HEATH
(Mr. POLIS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
Mr. POLIS. Mr. Speaker, as Members of Congress, we know it is truly a
privilege to serve because of the people we
[[Page 16030]]
serve. Today, I want to acknowledge two very special constituents of
mine who are retiring this year. Josie and Rollie Heath are beloved
members of the community in Boulder, Colorado.
The pair moved to Boulder, Colorado, in the 1970s, where their family
and love grew alongside their history of public service. In a recent
newspaper article, Josie said that people say to her: Oh, now that you
are retiring, you can do what you want to do.
And she thinks: Well, I have been doing what I want to do.
This month, Josie retired after 20 years as the head of The Community
Foundation Boulder County. Prior to that, she was a county
commissioner, and she served in the Carter and Clinton administrations.
When I was 15 years old, I volunteered on her United States Senate race
in 1990.
Early next month, Rollie Heath, a 23-year veteran of the Army, is
retiring as a State Senator. Prior to the legislature, he had a career
in international business and founded the Rocky Mountain World Trade
Center.
For Rollie and Josie, their jobs weren't simply about the work they
did. They were about building community. Both served on so many boards
and advocated for so many just causes. Above all, they have remained
true to themselves as purveyors of progress in all that they do. I am
honored not only to be their Congressman but to be their friend.
On behalf of the United States House of Representatives, I
congratulate them on their life's work, and I look forward to joining
them in future adventures.
____________________
CAPTAIN WILLIAM W. PETERSON
(Mr. NEWHOUSE asked and was given permission to address the House for
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
Mr. NEWHOUSE. Mr. Speaker, I rise to congratulate Captain William W.
Peterson of Richland, Washington, who was recently inducted into the
Wall of Gallantry in the Hall of Heroes at the United States Coast
Guard Academy.
While serving as an aircraft commander with the Coast Guard in July
of 1982, then-Lieutenant Peterson engaged in a perilous rescue of nine
survivors from an HC-130 that had crashed in bad weather on Attu
Island, off the coast of Alaska. Flying in extremely hazardous
conditions, with winds gusting up to 40 knots, and with visibility as
low as 50 feet, Lieutenant Peterson inched his helicopter along the
side of a mountain and transported nine survivors back to safety over
multiple trips from the crash site.
Captain Peterson demonstrated the highest forms of courage, judgment,
and unwavering devotion to duty that day. I congratulate him on this
much-deserved honor. I also offer my humble appreciation to Captain
Peterson for serving on my Academy Nomination Board.
Your heroic service is an inspiration to these future military
leaders.
____________________
HONORING LINDA CHRISTLE
(Mrs. HARTZLER asked and was given permission to address the House
for 1 minute.)
Mrs. HARTZLER. Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize Linda Christle, who
is retiring as executive director of Economic Development Sedalia-
Pettis County.
She has faithfully served the community of Sedalia for the past 12
years. Throughout her tenure as executive director, Linda has achieved
many accomplishments, including the creation of three enhanced
enterprise zones, resulting in over 50 companies benefiting and growing
their businesses in her community. Additionally, this past year, the
community was able to complete its third strategic plan in 15 years. As
a result, multiple task forces were established to enhance the
community, which also led to the eventual creation of the
entrepreneurial program called 1 Million Cups.
Mr. Speaker, it is an honor to congratulate and to thank Linda
Christle for her years of distinguished service in Sedalia and Pettis
County. I am blessed to represent her in Congress, and I wish her all
the best in her future endeavors.
____________________
MEDIACRATS
(Mr. SMITH of Texas asked and was given permission to address the
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
Mr. SMITH of Texas. Mr. Speaker, we need a new word for the
dictionary, a new term for the merger of the liberal media and the
Democratic Party.
Obviously, the liberal media have no intention of treating President-
elect Trump objectively or fairly. They want to continue to link arms
with the Democrats. This is no surprise, given that 96 percent of
national reporters' contributions went to Hillary Clinton.
As chairman of the Media Fairness Caucus, here is my proposal: let's
combine the two words--``media'' and ``Democrat''--and go with
``mediacrat.'' It is short; it gives the media first mention; and it
sounds like a new species. Now, I realize the liberal media is not
likely to use this word ``mediacrat'' very often, but there are two
reasons for them to do so--first, to show they have a sense of humor,
and, second, to show they have a sense of humility.
I think most Americans would be happy if the liberal media didn't
display their bias every time they covered the President-elect. Maybe
the mediacrats should try balanced reporting. It surely would help
their credibility.
____________________
FEDERAL IMMIGRATION LAW MUST BE ENFORCED
(Mr. HARRIS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
Mr. HARRIS. Mr. Speaker, a disturbing trend has developed of leading
universities in their promoting lawlessness by refusing to comply with
Federal immigration law; so, today, I am introducing the Federal
Immigration Law Compliance Act of 2016, with cosponsors from California
to New York to Florida.
This act requires any entity that receives Federal funds, including
institutions of higher learning, to comply with all lawful requests
made by Federal immigration enforcement authorities. Should the entity
refuse to comply with Federal immigration enforcement requests, all
Federal funding can be withheld. For instance, the University of
Pennsylvania, which charges $51,000 tuition, despite its having an
endowment of $10.7 billion, would stand to lose $700 million in Federal
grants if they were to choose to continue their policy of not complying
with Federal immigration law.
Congress has the responsibility to protect the rule of law in our
country and to provide for the safety of our citizens. The American
people have spoken loudly in this past election that they want Federal
immigration law enforced. Shame on those universities that take Federal
money and then promote lawlessness.
____________________
PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 5143, TRANSPARENT INSURANCE
STANDARDS ACT OF 2016; PROVIDING FOR PROCEEDINGS DURING THE PERIOD FROM
DECEMBER 9, 2016, THROUGH JANUARY 3, 2017; AND PROVIDING FOR
CONSIDERATION OF MOTIONS TO SUSPEND THE RULES
Mr. BYRNE. Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I
call up House Resolution 944 and ask for its immediate consideration.
The Clerk read the resolution, as follows:
H. Res. 944
Resolved, That upon adoption of this resolution it shall be
in order to consider in the House the bill (H.R. 5143) to
provide greater transparency and congressional oversight of
international insurance standards setting processes, and for
other purposes. All points of order against consideration of
the bill are waived. In lieu of the amendment recommended by
the Committee on Financial Services now printed in the bill,
an amendment in the nature of a substitute consisting of the
text of Rules Committee Print 114-68 shall be considered as
adopted. The bill, as amended, shall be considered as read.
All points of order against provisions in the bill, as
amended, are waived. The previous question shall be
considered as ordered on the
[[Page 16031]]
bill, as amended, and on any further amendment thereto, to
final passage without intervening motion except: (1) one hour
of debate equally divided and controlled by the chair and
ranking minority member of the Committee on Financial
Services; (2) the further amendment printed in the report of
the Committee on Rules accompanying this resolution, if
offered by the Member designated in the report, which shall
be in order without intervention of any point of order, shall
be considered as read, shall be separately debatable for the
time specified in the report equally divided and controlled
by the proponent and an opponent, and shall not be subject to
a demand for a division of the question; and (3) one motion
to recommit with or without instructions.
Sec. 2. On any legislative day of the second session of
the One Hundred Fourteenth Congress after December 8, 2016--
(a) the Journal of the proceedings of the previous day
shall be considered as approved; and
(b) the Chair may at any time declare the House adjourned
to meet at a date and time, within the limits of clause 4,
section 5, article I of the Constitution, to be announced by
the Chair in declaring the adjournment.
Sec. 3. The Speaker may appoint Members to perform the
duties of the Chair for the duration of the period addressed
by section 2 of this resolution as though under clause 8(a)
of rule I.
Sec. 4. Each day during the period addressed by section 2
of this resolution shall not constitute a calendar day for
purposes of section 7 of the War Powers Resolution (50 U.S.C.
1546).
Sec. 5. Each day during the period addressed by section 2
of this resolution shall not constitute a legislative day for
purposes of clause 7 of rule XIII.
Sec. 6. It shall be in order at any time on the
legislative day of December 8, 2016, for the Speaker to
entertain motions that the House suspend the rules as though
under clause 1 of rule XV. The Speaker or his designee shall
consult with the Minority Leader or her designee on the
designation of any matter for consideration pursuant to this
section.
{time} 1230
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Bost). The gentleman from Alabama is
recognized for 1 hour.
Mr. BYRNE. Mr. Speaker, for the purpose of debate only, I yield the
customary 30 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Hastings),
pending which I yield myself such time as I may consume. During
consideration of this resolution, all time yielded is for the purpose
of debate only.
General Leave
Mr. BYRNE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may
have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Alabama?
There was no objection.
Mr. BYRNE. Mr. Speaker, House Resolution 944 provides for
consideration of H.R. 5143, the Transparent Insurance Standards Act of
2016. The resolution provides for a structured rule. This legislation
is an important effort to protect the U.S. model of insurance
supervision, provide for improved oversight, and keep the U.S.
insurance industry strong and competitive.
For over 150 years, individual States have successfully regulated
insurance and coordinated their activities. This model has worked and
ensured that the focus remains on the consumer.
Well, when Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Act back in 2010, the
Federal Government assumed a new role in the regulation of the
insurance industry. This change included the creation of the Federal
Insurance Office, otherwise known as FIO, and charged FIO with
representing the interests of U.S. insurers--not consumers, insurers--
during the negotiation of any international agreements.
The change also allowed for both the FIO Director and the Federal
Reserve to participate in an international organization known as the
International Association of Insurance Supervisors. Previously,
insurance regulators from the individual States participated in the
international discussions. Remember, the State insurance regulators are
there to protect consumers.
The International Association of Insurance Supervisors is responsible
for developing regulatory guidelines and best practices for insurance
supervisors around the world to adopt. Europe and the United States
have very different regulatory models for insurance.
Recently, the European Union has developed a regulatory protocol
known as Solvency II. Solvency II is significantly different from the
successful State-based insurance regulatory system that has been
successful in the U.S. for the last 150 years. The fear is that the
International Association of Insurance Supervisors will adopt Solvency
II as the gold standard, which would put U.S. insurers and consumers at
a severe disadvantage.
More alarming, the Treasury Department and the U.S. Trade
Representative are already engaged in negotiations with the European
Union regarding a ``covered agreement'' over insurance regulations. If
based on the Solvency II model, this could severely hurt the U.S.
insurance industry and consumers.
That is where our legislation comes in. The Transparent Insurance
Standards Act simply enhances Congress' oversight of international
deliberations relating to insurance standards. The bill sets reasonable
requirements that must be met before the United States can agree to
accept, establish, or enter into the adoption of any international
insurance standard. The same requirements would be followed throughout
any negotiations over a covered agreement with the European Union.
To be clear, this bill would not stop the international process. It
simply will ensure that the United States is leading on the issues
instead of being led by foreign governments.
This bill also requires that the Federal Insurance Office and the
Federal Reserve report and testify before Congress at least twice a
year about ongoing negotiations.
I appreciate Mr. Luetkemeyer and Chairman Hensarling for their
leadership on this very important issue, and I hope we can come
together to pass this very important legislation.
I just don't understand why anyone would be opposed to greater
congressional oversight over such an important issue. Adoption of these
standards or entering into an agreement with the European Union could
fundamentally alter the U.S. insurance industry and, yes, hurt
consumers. It only makes sense for the democratically elected Congress
to play a role in the process.
This legislation is simply about improving oversight and protecting
the State-based model of insurance regulation that has held up so well
in our country over the last 150 years and has enjoyed wide, bipartisan
support. Most importantly, this bill is about ensuring the concerns of
the American people come first, not the worries of some foreign
government or group.
I urge my colleagues to protect insurance consumers across America by
supporting House Resolution 944 and the underlying bill.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. HASTINGS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume,
and I thank the gentleman from Alabama for yielding to me the customary
30 minutes for debate.
I rise to debate the rule for consideration of H.R. 5143, the
Transparent Insurance Standards Act of 2016. At best, this bill is
unnecessary. At worst, it will harm our ability to reach vital
international agreements to protect our financial system.
Mr. Speaker, the 2008 financial crisis and the subsequent Great
Recession was the worst financial disaster in our Nation's history
since the Great Depression. Nearly 9 million Americans lost their jobs,
doubling the unemployment rate. More than 11 million Americans lost
their homes to foreclosures. Home values dropped more than 30 percent.
Our Nation lost more than $13 trillion in economic output. To put that
in perspective, that is the equivalent of losing a year's gross
domestic product.
From this disaster, we learned many lessons and passed the Dodd-Frank
Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act to ensure that we are
better able to prevent such a financial calamity from occurring again.
One lesson we learned was the significant risk posed to our financial
system by potentially unstable, large, globally active insurance
companies, as demonstrated by the near collapse of AIG. As a result,
commonsense reforms to the insurance industry were put in place,
including the creation of the
[[Page 16032]]
Federal Insurance Office to coordinate Federal efforts, develop policy,
and represent the United States in the International Association of
Insurance Supervisors.
This office, along with new authorities for the Federal Reserve and
the Department of the Treasury, allow our regulators to work to ensure
that our unique insurance regulatory regime provides stability in our
financial system, both nationally and globally. Now, however, the
majority seems to have forgotten the lessons of the 2008 financial
crisis.
Mr. Speaker, at best, this legislation is unnecessary. Under the
guise of transparency, H.R. 5143 would require additional public notice
and comment regarding potential agreements on international insurance
standards. But such international agreements would only take effect
domestically after regulations were promulgated in accordance with U.S.
law, which already includes a notice and comment period. The
transparency this bill is seeking is already enshrined in our
rulemaking process.
Then, at worst, this bill will harm U.S. negotiators by tying their
hands and making setting workable insurance standards nearly impossible
to achieve. Mr. Speaker, by requiring our negotiators to seek consensus
positions with all 50 State insurance commissioners, this bill weakens
the United States' ability to work with other countries to improve the
regulation of large global insurance companies. By placing unnecessary,
counterproductive, and overly cumbersome reporting and negotiating
requirements on the Federal Reserve and Treasury, we will not be able
to achieve the global insurance stability we need to prevent future
financial disasters.
As we approach the end of the 114th Congress, I am dismayed to see
that consideration of this bill is how the majority has decided we
should spend what few precious legislative days remain. I guess my
dismay carries over from last night's so-called impeachment
consideration of the IRS Commissioner, who will be gone from office by
the time they could get through this process. I was pleased to see the
chairman of the Judiciary Committee refer it to his committee, where I
am sure it will die.
It just seems that we get to this important juncture and we find
ourselves caught up in bumper sticker politics, as we have for most of
the session of the 114th Congress. It appears that, in the final hours
of this Congress, the majority is attempting to throw up roadblocks to
prevent commonsense financial regulations aimed at preventing large
insurance companies from once again threatening the stability of our
economy.
The American people--all of them, Republican and Democrat--deserve
better. Assuredly, we can anticipate that if this measure were to
become law--and I predict it won't--but if it were to become law, then
I can see us, at some point, faced with another serious financial
crisis.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. BYRNE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I have listened to my colleague from Florida's remarks, and I
certainly understand the concern that we all have with the aftermath of
the Great Recession of 2008. But there are many of us who believe that
the Dodd-Frank law, which contains the provision that we are trying to
affect here, really did things that went way outside of what we should
have been doing to try to prevent another recession from happening
again.
How does ceding control over the U.S. insurance market to foreign
governments and groups help our economy or help prevent a future
recession? How does a bill like the underlying bill, that protects
consumers and provides congressional oversight, hurt our economy? How
does that not help our economy, help the consumers?
{time} 1245
This bill is necessary because the United States faces losing control
over our insurance that is so very important to everybody in the United
States of America.
My colleague talked about State insurance departments. One thing we
have seen these last several years is a steady effort to take power
away from State governments, which is, frankly, contrary to the intent
of our Constitution.
Our State governments do very important things, like they are the
primary providers for public education. But they are also the primary
regulators for insurance, and they have done a good job of that. We
have 150 years of experience with that. We have bipartisan support for
that. Why would we be taking power away from them? Why isn't continuing
to allow them to have that power and utilize it as each State sees fit,
why isn't that a good thing?
Finally, my colleague talked about how, at the end of this Congress,
we are doing bumper sticker things. Well, I believe that passing, with
a huge bipartisan vote, the National Defense Authorization Act last
week was a good thing. If that is a bumper sticker, I want that bumper
sticker.
We passed, last week, the 21st Century Cures Act that I really
believe is going to save lives. If that is a bumper sticker, I want
that bumper sticker.
And I predict on the floor tomorrow we are going to take a WRDA bill
for everybody in the United States that is going to enhance the well-
being of people all over this country. That is another bumper sticker I
will be happy to have on my car.
So I appreciate my colleague's remarks. He knows the tremendous
respect that I have for him, but I respectfully disagree with the
premise for his arguments.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. HASTINGS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
My colleague from Alabama and I do have mutual respect for each
other, and I agree with him the three measures that he cited, and I can
cite others during the course of the 114th that were substantive
legislation that rightly we should have bipartisan support for and did,
and I agree with him that the WRDA bill will be one that we could
equally wear proudly on our bumper stickers.
The point that I was making was that we spent a good portion of the
114th Congress, number one, doing nothing. We didn't even make any
bumper stickers because we weren't here that often to undertake to do
anything. At the very same time, many of the things that we did fell in
the category, at least as I perceive it, of being bumper sticker
measures: 60-plus times repealing the Affordable Care Act, knowing full
well that the sitting President was not going to sign anything, so all
we did it for was for certain people to have talking points. Now, we
are entitled; that is a part of what politics is. But make no mistake
about it: we did a lot of bumper sticker legislation in the last
session because a lot of it went nowhere, and a lot of it was done
during a period that we should have been about the business of
substantive legislation.
Mr. Speaker, if we defeat the previous question, I am going to offer
an amendment to the rule to bring up a bill that would close a tax
loophole that rewards companies for moving jobs overseas and would,
instead, provide a tax credit for companies that move jobs back to the
United States.
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to insert the text of my
amendment in the Record, along with extraneous material, immediately
prior to the vote on the previous question.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Florida?
There was no objection.
Mr. HASTINGS. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the
distinguished gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pascrell), the bill's
sponsor and my good friend, to discuss our proposal.
Mr. PASCRELL. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to the rule.
In the waning days of the 114th Congress, here we are debating a bill
once again to roll back Wall Street reforms. This is what it comes down
to.
How tone deaf can we be? Here is a news flash: the whole country is
focused on defending blue-collar jobs,
[[Page 16033]]
bolstering our industrial manufacturing base. Folks are zoned in on
that, focused on that issue. So we need to stop outsourcing now.
This Congress should start by defeating the previous question and
bringing up the Bring Jobs Home Act. Around 5 million United States
manufacturing jobs have been lost since 1994, good-paying jobs. Their
loss has led to a somewhat demise of the middle class in America. Just
ask folks in places like Ohio and Pennsylvania, who have seen steel
mills and rubber factories shipped overseas. My hometown of Paterson,
New Jersey, was formerly the hub of the textile manufacturing industry,
which no longer exists.
So why are we subsidizing it? Why are we subsidizing American
companies to move to other shores? That is what we are doing. Right
now, when companies move overseas, they can take a tax deduction for
the cost of the move. That is a huge tax break. How do we defend it and
why do we defend it?
So the bill that the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Hastings) referred
to eliminates this tax deduction and gives a tax credit of up to 20
percent of the cost of moving businesses, bringing businesses back to
the United States of America through U.S. companies. That seems to me
to make more sense. Why are we paying folks to leave when we could be
paying them to get back into this country? I don't know how you
disagree with that.
The companies would have to add jobs to claim the tax credit. That is
the caveat. I think it works. I ask you to consider it. Let's stop
subsidizing companies that ship jobs overseas and start bringing jobs
back to our shores. Let's stop talking about it. Let's do something
about it. Mr. Speaker, it doesn't get much simpler than that.
This is not a new idea at all. President Obama and the Democrats in
Congress have raised this bill for years, and the Republican Congress
has blocked the bill at every turn. Senator Stabenow of Michigan leads
this bill in the Senate, where it cleared a procedural vote 93-7 in
2014.
I challenge you today to take up and pass the bill, to stand up for
American manufacturing and the workers here at home who need help.
Don't be all talk. Step up to the plate. Take a stand where it counts.
I urge a ``no'' vote on the previous question so we can bring up the
Bring Jobs Home Act and start bringing jobs back to the United States
of America, the greatest country in the world.
Mr. BYRNE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
This bill, the underlying bill, has nothing to do with Wall Street
and everything to do with consumers, so I respectfully disagree with my
colleague from New Jersey. I know that it would be good for them to try
to characterize this bill as something having to do with Wall Street,
but it really has to do with you and me and the average people in this
country.
I listened to his remarks about his proposal regarding doing things
to try to keep American companies from going abroad and doing
everything we can to attract other companies abroad, whether they are
U.S. based or not, to come back here. That sounds a whole lot like what
President-elect Trump is saying, and I think it is pretty clear that
that is going to be a big priority for him when we come back in
January.
Now, we had been talking about tax reform here in this House, and
there is a proposal moving forward that is comprehensive that will not
only provide the appropriate incentives for American companies to stay
here, but also provide incentives for companies that are in other
countries to come here and provide jobs for the American people, which
is really what this is all about.
Our tax reform proposal would actually lower tax rates for everybody
in America, and we should be about that as well. Instead, our friends
on the other side of the aisle, every time we talk about tax reform,
they want to stick some tax increases in there.
The American people don't want a tax increase. They are tired of tax
increases. They are tired of the overextension of the Federal
Government, and they are tired of ceding control over things in America
to international governments and groups. What the underlying bill does
is it keeps control over our domestic insurance market here in America
and doesn't give that control, doesn't give any of that authority to
people in other countries.
I listened with interest to the remarks that were just made. I am
looking forward to President-elect Trump being President Trump so that
we can have a comprehensive approach to keeping American businesses
here and attracting more businesses here for more jobs. I believe that
is exactly what we are going to see during this very exciting year to
come.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. HASTINGS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
As my friend from Alabama knows, we are currently debating the rule.
This is a tool used to set the House's agenda and to prioritize
consideration of legislation. For that very reason, this is, in fact,
the appropriate time for us to explain to the American people what
legislation we would like to prioritize and what agenda we would like
to pursue in this House. That is why we have a previous question.
Mr. Speaker, the gentleman will also be pleased to learn that our
amendment does not prevent the House from considering the majority's
bill. Our amendment simply allows the House to consider our bill as
well. As Mr. Pascrell pointed out, it is not as if this isn't something
that hasn't been brought up for the last 2 years; and therefore, I join
the gentleman in his excitement about the possibilities going forward
of us being able to address this legislation, but now is the time that
we can do it if we were to vote the previous question as requested.
Mr. Speaker, in closing, let me reiterate that the bill before us is
unnecessary; it is a waste of valuable time; and if it were ever to be
enacted into law, which I predict it won't, it would be harmful to our
country's fiscal well-being. Let me go back and put a caveat there. It
won't become the law in the 114th session. It may very well pass the
115th session.
We need to protect and wisely continue to implement commonsense
regulations and oversight passed in the wake of the 2008 financial
crisis to ensure it doesn't happen again. I urge my colleagues to
oppose the rule and the underlying measure.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. BYRNE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
In closing, I want to go back to some remarks I made at the very
beginning. No one wants to see a repeat of the Great Recession. It
harmed everybody in this country. But in response to it, by passing the
Dodd-Frank law, which this provision is going to try to affect, we
essentially took a liberal grab bag of ideas that have been hanging
around for years and just threw it into a bill and then tried to
pretend that somehow that was going to have something to do with
preventing a future recession.
{time} 1300
Virtually everything that is in the Dodd-Frank law has nothing to do
with preventing a future recession, and the particular provision that
we are talking about with the underlying bill has nothing to do with
preventing a future recession. What it does do is take the bill we have
right now--not the underlying bill but the law we have right now--and
take authority away from the American people.
We have sat back the last several years and watched this
administration go through negotiation and agreement after agreement
that were bad for the American people. My colleague and I have agreed
over and over again that the Iran deal was a bad deal for the American
people. So why would we continue to cede control to foreign governments
and groups?
I think the election that we just had was, in part, about taking
control of our country back--taking it back from Federal overreach and
taking it back from ceding authority to people in other countries.
[[Page 16034]]
This bill, the underlying bill that this rule deals with, gets that
authority back for the American people and gets the control back to the
States, where it has been successful for 150 years. That is what is
good for the American people, and that is why we have chosen to bring
this bill forward.
Mr. Speaker, I, again, urge my colleagues to support House Resolution
944 and the underlying bill.
The material previously referred to by Mr. Hastings is as follows:
An Amendment to H. Res. 944 Offered by Mr. Hastings
At the end of the resolution, add the following new
sections:
Sec 7. Immediately upon adoption of this resolution the
Speaker shall, pursuant to clause 2(b) of rule XVIII, declare
the House resolved into the Committee of the Whole House on
the state of the Union for consideration of the bill (H.R.
2963) to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to encourage
domestic insourcing and discourage foreign outsourcing. The
first reading of the bill shall be dispensed with. All points
of order against consideration of the bill are waived.
General debate shall be confined to the bill and shall not
exceed one hour equally divided and controlled by the chair
and ranking minority member of the Committee on Ways and
Means. After general debate the bill shall be considered for
amendment under the five-minute rule. All points of order
against provisions in the bill are waived. At the conclusion
of consideration of the bill for amendment the Committee
shall rise and report the bill to the House with such
amendments as may have been adopted. The previous question
shall be considered as ordered on the bill and amendments
thereto to final passage without intervening motion except
one motion to recommit with or without instructions. If the
Committee of the Whole rises and reports that it has come to
no resolution on the bill, then on the next legislative day
the House shall, immediately after the third daily order of
business under clause 1 of rule XIV, resolve into the
Committee of the Whole for further consideration of the bill.
Sec. 8. Clause 1(c) of rule XIX shall not apply to the
consideration of H.R. 2963.
____
The Vote on the Previous Question: What It Really Means
This vote, the vote on whether to order the previous
question on a special rule, is not merely a procedural vote.
A vote against ordering the previous question is a vote
against the Republican majority agenda and a vote to allow
the Democratic minority to offer an alternative plan. It is a
vote about what the House should be debating.
Mr. Clarence Cannon's Precedents of the House of
Representatives (VI, 308-311), describes the vote on the
previous question on the rule as ``a motion to direct or
control the consideration of the subject before the House
being made by the Member in charge.'' To defeat the previous
question is to give the opposition a chance to decide the
subject before the House. Cannon cites the Speaker's ruling
of January 13, 1920, to the effect that ``the refusal of the
House to sustain the demand for the previous question passes
the control of the resolution to the opposition'' in order to
offer an amendment. On March 15, 1909, a member of the
majority party offered a rule resolution. The House defeated
the previous question and a member of the opposition rose to
a parliamentary inquiry, asking who was entitled to
recognition. Speaker Joseph G. Cannon (R-Illinois) said:
``The previous question having been refused, the gentleman
from New York, Mr. Fitzgerald, who had asked the gentleman to
yield to him for an amendment, is entitled to the first
recognition.''
The Republican majority may say ``the vote on the previous
question is simply a vote on whether to proceed to an
immediate vote on adopting the resolution . . . [and] has no
substantive legislative or policy implications whatsoever.''
But that is not what they have always said. Listen to the
Republican Leadership Manual on the Legislative Process in
the United States House of Representatives, (6th edition,
page 135). Here's how the Republicans describe the previous
question vote in their own manual: ``Although it is generally
not possible to amend the rule because the majority Member
controlling the lime will not yield for the purpose of
offering an amendment, the same result may be achieved by
voting down the previous question on the rule . . . When the
motion for the previous question is defeated, control of the
time passes to the Member who led the opposition to ordering
the previous question. That Member, because he then controls
the time, may offer an amendment to the rule, or yield for
the purpose of amendment.''
In Deschler's Procedure in the U.S. House of
Representatives, the subchapter titled ``Amending Special
Rules'' states: ``a refusal to order the previous question on
such a rule [a special rule reported from the Committee on
Rules] opens the resolution to amendment and further
debate.'' (Chapter 21, section 21.2) Section 21.3 continues:
``Upon rejection of the motion for the previous question on a
resolution reported from the Committee on Rules, control
shifts to the Member leading the opposition to the previous
question, who may offer a proper amendment or motion and who
controls the time for debate thereon.''
Clearly, the vote on the previous question on a rule does
have substantive policy implications. It is one of the only
available tools for those who oppose the Republican
majority's agenda and allows those with alternative views the
opportunity to offer an alternative plan.
Mr. BYRNE. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time, and I
move the previous question on the resolution.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on ordering the previous
question.
The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that
the ayes appeared to have it.
Mr. HASTINGS. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The SPEAKER. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, further proceedings on
this question will be postponed.
____________________
COMMUNICATION FROM THE CLERK OF THE HOUSE
The SPEAKER pro tempore laid before the House the following
communication from the Clerk of the House of Representatives:
Office of the Clerk,
House of Representatives,
Washington, DC, December 7, 2016.
Hon. Paul D. Ryan,
The Speaker, House of Representatives,
Washington, DC.
Dear Mr. Speaker: Pursuant to the permission granted in
Clause 2(h) of Rule II of the Rules of the U.S. House of
Representatives, the Clerk received the following message
from the Secretary of the Senate on December 7, 2016, at
12:24 p.m.:
Appointments:
United States-China Economic Security Review Commission
Virgin Islands of the United States Centennial Commission
With best wishes, I am
Sincerely,
Karen L. Haas.
____________________
ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE SPEAKER PRO TEMPORE
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, the Chair
will postpone further proceedings today on motions to suspend the rules
on which a recorded vote or the yeas and nays are ordered, or on which
the vote incurs objection under clause 6 of rule XX.
Record votes on postponed questions will be taken later.
____________________
INDIAN EMPLOYMENT, TRAINING AND RELATED SERVICES CONSOLIDATION ACT OF
2016
Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and
pass the bill (H.R. 329) to amend the Indian Employment, Training and
Related Services Demonstration Act of 1992 to facilitate the ability of
Indian tribes to integrate the employment, training, and related
services from diverse Federal sources, and for other purposes, as
amended.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 329
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Indian Employment, Training
and Related Services Consolidation Act of 2016''.
SEC. 2. AMENDMENT OF SHORT TITLE.
(a) In General.--Section 1 of the Indian Employment,
Training and Related Services Demonstration Act of 1992 (25
U.S.C. 3401 note; 106 Stat. 2302) is amended to read as
follows:
``SEC. 1. SHORT TITLE.
``This Act may be cited as the `Indian Employment, Training
and Related Services Act of 1992'.''.
(b) References.--Any reference in law to the ``Indian
Employment, Training and Related Services Demonstration Act
of 1992'' shall be deemed to be a reference to the ``Indian
Employment, Training and Related Services Act of 1992''.
SEC. 3. STATEMENT OF PURPOSE.
Section 2 of the Indian Employment, Training and Related
Services Act of 1992 (25 U.S.C. 3401), as amended by section
2 of this Act, is amended--
[[Page 16035]]
(1) by striking ``The purposes of this Act are to
demonstrate how Indian tribal governments can'' and inserting
``The purpose of this Act is to facilitate the ability of
Indian tribes and tribal organizations to'';
(2) by inserting ``from diverse Federal sources'' after
``they provide'';
(3) by striking ``and serve tribally-determined'' and
inserting ``, and serve tribally determined''; and
(4) by inserting ``, while reducing administrative,
reporting, and accounting costs'' after ``policy of self-
determination''.
SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS.
Section 3 of the Indian Employment, Training and Related
Services Act of 1992 (25 U.S.C. 3402), as amended by section
2 of this Act, is amended--
(1) by striking paragraph (2) and inserting the following:
``(2) Indian tribe.--
``(A) In general.--The terms `Indian tribe' and `tribe'
have the meaning given the term `Indian tribe' in section 4
of the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act
(25 U.S.C. 450b).
``(B) Inclusion.--The term `Indian tribe' includes tribal
organizations (as defined in section 4 of the Indian Self-
Determination and Education Assistance Act (25 U.S.C.
450b)).'';
(2) by redesignating paragraph (4) as paragraph (5); and
(3) by inserting after paragraph (3) the following:
``(4) Program.--The term `program' means a program
described in section 5(a).''.
SEC. 5. INTEGRATION OF SERVICES AUTHORIZED.
Section 4 of the Indian Employment, Training and Related
Services Act of 1992 (25 U.S.C. 3403), as amended by section
2 of this Act, is amended to read as follows:
``SEC. 4. INTEGRATION OF SERVICES AUTHORIZED.
``The Secretary shall, after approving a plan submitted by
an Indian tribe in accordance with section 8, authorize the
Indian tribe to, in accordance with the plan--
``(1) integrate the programs and Federal funds received by
the Indian tribe in accordance with waiver authority granted
under section 7(d); and
``(2) coordinate the employment, training, and related
services provided with those funds in a consolidated and
comprehensive tribal plan.''.
SEC. 6. PROGRAMS AFFECTED AND TRANSFER OF FUNDS.
Section 5 of the Indian Employment, Training and Related
Services Act of 1992 (25 U.S.C. 3404), as amended by section
2 of this Act, is amended to read as follows:
``SEC. 5. PROGRAMS AFFECTED.
``(a) Programs Affected.--
``(1) In general.--The programs that may be integrated
pursuant to a plan approved under section 8 shall be only
programs--
``(A) implemented for the purpose of--
``(i) job training;
``(ii) welfare to work and tribal work experience;
``(iii) creating or enhancing employment opportunities;
``(iv) skill development;
``(v) assisting Indian youth and adults to succeed in the
workforce;
``(vi) encouraging self-sufficiency;
``(vii) familiarizing individual participants with the
world of work;
``(viii) facilitating the creation of job opportunities;
``(ix) economic development; or
``(x) any services related to the activities described in
clauses (i) through (x); and
``(B) under which an Indian tribe or members of an Indian
tribe--
``(i) are eligible to receive funds--
``(I) under a statutory or administrative formula making
funds available to an Indian tribe; or
``(II) due to their status as Indians under Federal law; or
``(ii) have secured funds as a result of a competitive
process, a noncompetitive process, or a specific designation.
``(2) Treatment of block grant funds.--For purposes of this
section, programs funded by block grant funds provided to an
Indian tribe, regardless of whether the block grant is for
the benefit of the Indian tribe because of the status of the
Indian tribe or the status of the beneficiaries the grant
serves, shall be eligible to be integrated into the plan.
``(b) Program Authorization.--The Secretary shall, in
cooperation with the Attorney General, the Secretary of
Agriculture, the Secretary of Commerce, the Secretary of
Education, the Secretary of Energy, the Secretary of Health
and Human Services, the Secretary of Homeland Security, the
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the Secretary of
Labor, the Secretary of Transportation, and the Secretary of
Veterans Affairs, after the Secretary approves a plan
submitted by an Indian tribe or tribal organization under
section 8, authorize the Indian tribe or tribal organization,
as applicable, to coordinate, in accordance with the plan,
federally funded employment, training, and related services
programs and funding in a manner that integrates the programs
and funding into a consolidated and comprehensive program.''.
SEC. 7. PLAN REQUIREMENTS.
Section 6 of the Indian Employment, Training and Related
Services Act of 1992 (25 U.S.C. 3405), as amended by section
2 of this Act, is amended to read as follows:
``SEC. 6. PLAN REQUIREMENTS.
``A plan submitted to the Secretary for approval under this
Act shall--
``(1) identify the programs to be integrated and
consolidated;
``(2) be consistent with the purposes of this Act;
``(3) describe--
``(A) a comprehensive strategy identifying the full range
of potential employment opportunities on and near the service
area of the Indian tribe;
``(B) the education, training, and related services to be
provided to assist Indians to access those employment
opportunities;
``(C) the way in which services and program funds are to be
integrated, consolidated, and delivered; and
``(D) the results expected, including the expected number
of program participants in unsubsidized employment during the
second quarter after exit from the program, from the plan;
``(4) identify the projected expenditures under the plan in
a single budget covering all consolidated funds;
``(5) identify any agency of the Indian tribe to be
involved in the delivery of the services integrated under the
plan;
``(6) identify any statutory provisions, regulations,
policies, or procedures that the Indian tribe believes need
to be waived to implement the plan; and
``(7) be approved by the governing body of the Indian
tribe.''.
SEC. 8. PLAN REVIEW; WAIVER AUTHORITY; AND DISPUTE
RESOLUTION.
Section 7 of the Indian Employment, Training and Related
Services Act of 1992 (25 U.S.C. 3406), as amended by section
2 of this Act, is amended to read as follows:
``SEC. 7 PLAN REVIEW.
``(a) In General.--Upon receipt of a plan from an Indian
tribe, the Secretary shall consult with--
``(1) the head of each Federal agency overseeing a program
identified in the plan; and
``(2) the Indian tribe that submitted the plan.
``(b) Identification of Waivers.--The parties identified in
subsection (a) shall identify any waivers of applicable
statutory, regulatory, or administrative requirements, or of
Federal agency policies or procedures necessary to enable the
Indian tribe to efficiently implement the plan.
``(c) Tribal Waiver Request.--In consultation with the
Secretary, a participating Indian tribe may request that the
head of each affected agency waive any statutory, regulatory,
or administrative requirement, policy, or procedure
identified subsection (b).
``(d) Waiver Authority.--
``(1) In general.--Except as provided in paragraph (2),
notwithstanding any other provision of law, the head of each
affected Federal agency shall waive any applicable statutory,
regulatory, or administrative requirement, regulation,
policy, or procedure promulgated by the agency that has been
identified by the parties under subparagraph (b).
``(2) Exception.--The head of an affected Federal agency
shall not grant a waiver under paragraph (1) if the head of
the affected agency determines that a waiver will be
inconsistent with--
``(A) the purposes of this Act; or
``(B) the provision of law from which the program included
in the plan derives its authority that is specifically
applicable to Indians.
``(e) Decision on Waiver Request.--
``(1) In general.--Not later than 90 days after the head of
an affected agency receives a waiver request, the head of the
affected agency shall decide whether to grant or deny the
request.
``(2) Denial of request.--If the head of the affected
agency denies a waiver request, not later than 30 days after
the date on which the denial is made, the head of the
affected agency shall provide the requesting Indian tribe and
the Secretary with written notice of the denial and the
reasons for the denial.
``(3) Failure to act on request.--If the head of an
affected agency does not make a decision under paragraph (1)
by the deadline identified in that paragraph, the request
shall be considered to be granted.
``(f) Secretarial Review.--If the head of an affected
agency denies a waiver request under subsection (e)(2), not
later than 30 days after the date on which the request is
denied, the Secretary shall review the denial and determine
whether granting the waiver--
``(1) will be inconsistent with the provisions of this Act;
or
``(2) will prevent the affected agency from fulfilling the
obligations of the affected agency under this Act.
``(g) Interagency Dispute Resolution.--
``(1) In general.--Not later than 30 days after the date on
which the Secretary determines that granting the waiver will
not be inconsistent with the provisions of this Act and will
not prevent the affected agency from fulfilling the
obligations of the affected agency under this Act, the
Secretary shall establish and initiate an interagency dispute
resolution process involving--
``(A) the Secretary;
[[Page 16036]]
``(B) the participating Indian tribe; and
``(C) the head of the affected agency.
``(2) Duration.--A dispute subject to paragraph (1) shall
be resolved not later than 30 days after the date on which
the process is initiated.
``(h) Final Authority.--If the dispute resolution process
fails to resolve the dispute between a participating Indian
tribe and an affected agency, the head of the affected agency
shall have the final authority to resolve the dispute.
``(i) Final Decision.--Not later than 10 days after the
date on which the dispute is resolved under this section, the
Secretary shall provide the requesting Indian tribe with--
``(1) the final decision on the waiver request; and
``(2) notice of the right to file an appeal in accordance
with the applicable provisions described in section 8(d).''.
SEC. 9. PLAN APPROVAL; SECRETARIAL AUTHORITY; REVIEW OF
DECISION.
Section 8 of the Indian Employment, Training and Related
Services Act of 1992 (25 U.S.C. 3407), as amended by section
2 of this Act, is amended to read as follows:
``SEC. 8. PLAN APPROVAL; SECRETARIAL AUTHORITY; REVIEW OF
DECISION.
``(a) In General.--The Secretary shall have exclusive
authority to approve or disapprove a plan submitted by an
Indian tribe in accordance with section 6.
``(b) Approval Process.--
``(1) In general.--Not later than 90 days after the date on
which the Secretary receives a plan, the Secretary shall,
after coordinating with the Secretary of each Federal agency
providing funds to be used to implement the plan, approve or
deny the plan.
``(2) Approval.--If the Secretary approves a plan under
paragraph (1), the Secretary shall authorize the transfer of
program funds identified in the plan in accordance with
section 13.
``(3) Denial.--If the Secretary denies the plan under
paragraph (1), the Secretary shall provide to the Indian
tribe a written notification of disapproval of the plan that
contains a specific finding that clearly demonstrates, or
that is supported by a controlling legal authority, that the
plan does not meet the requirements described in section 6.
``(4) Partial approval.--
``(A) In general.--If a plan is denied under paragraph (3)
solely on the basis that a request for a waiver that is part
of the plan has not been approved (or is subject to dispute
resolution) under section 7, the Secretary shall, upon a
request from the tribe, grant partial approval for those
portions of the plan not affected by the request for a
waiver.
``(B) Approval after resolution.--With respect to a plan
described in subparagraph (A), on resolution of the request
for a waiver under section 7, the Secretary shall, on a
request from the tribe, approve the plan or amended plan not
later than 90 days after the date on which the Secretary
receives the request.
``(5) Failure to act.--If the Secretary does not make a
decision under paragraph (1) within 90 days of the date on
which the Secretary receives the plan, the plan shall be
considered to be approved.
``(c) Extension of Time.--Notwithstanding any other
provision of law, the Secretary may extend or otherwise alter
the 90-day period identified in subsection (b)(1) for not
more than 90 additional days, if, before the expiration of
the period, the Secretary obtains the express written consent
of the Indian tribe.
``(d) Review of Denial.--
``(1) Procedure upon refusal to approve plan.--If the
Secretary denies a plan under subsection (b)(3), the
Secretary shall--
``(A) state any objections in writing to the Indian tribe;
``(B) provide assistance to the Indian tribe to overcome
the stated objections; and
``(C) unless the Indian tribe brings a civil action under
paragraph (2), provide the Indian tribe with a hearing on the
record with the right to engage in full discovery relevant to
any issue raised in the matter and the opportunity for appeal
on the objections raised, under such rules and regulations as
the Secretary may promulgate.
``(2) Civil actions.--
``(A) In general.--The district courts of the United States
shall have original jurisdiction of a civil action against
the appropriate Secretary arising under this section.
``(B) Administrative hearing and appeal not required.--An
Indian tribe may bring a civil action under this paragraph
without regard to whether the Indian tribe had a hearing or
filed an appeal under paragraph (1).
``(C) Relief.--In an action brought under this paragraph,
the court may order appropriate relief (including injunctive
relief to reverse a denial of a plan under this section or to
compel an officer or employee of the United States, or any
agency thereof, to perform a duty provided under this Act or
regulations promulgated thereunder) against any action by an
officer or employee of the United States or any agency
thereof contrary to this Act or regulations promulgated
thereunder.
``(3) Final agency action.--Notwithstanding any other
provision of law, a decision by an official of the Department
of the Interior or the Department of Health and Human
Services, as appropriate (collectively referred to in this
paragraph as the `Department') that constitutes final agency
action and that relates to an appeal within the Department
that is conducted under paragraph (1)(C) shall be made--
``(A) by an official of the Department who holds a position
at a higher organizational level within the Department than
the level of the departmental agency (such as the Indian
Health Service or the Bureau of Indian Affairs) in which the
decision that is the subject of the appeal was made; or
``(B) by an administrative law judge.''.
SEC. 10. EMPLOYER TRAINING PLACEMENTS.
Section 10 of the Indian Employment, Training and Related
Services Act of 1992 (25 U.S.C. 3409), as amended by section
2 of this Act, is amended to read as follows:
``SEC. 10. EMPLOYER TRAINING PLACEMENTS.
``(a) In General.--Subject to subsection (b), an Indian
tribe that has in place an approved plan under this Act may
use the funds made available for the plan under this Act--
``(1) to place participants in training positions with
employers; and
``(2) to pay the participants a training allowance or wage
for a training period of not more than 24 months, which may
be nonconsecutive.
``(b) Requirements.--An Indian tribe may carry out
subsection (a) only if the Indian tribe enters into a written
agreement with each applicable employer under which the
employer shall agree--
``(1) to provide on-the-job training to the participants;
and
``(2) on satisfactory completion of the training period
described in subsection (a)(2), to prioritize the provision
of permanent employment to the participants.''.
SEC. 11. FEDERAL RESPONSIBILITIES.
Section 11 of the Indian Employment, Training and Related
Services Act of 1992 (25 U.S.C. 3410), as amended by section
2 of this Act, is amended to read as follows:
``SEC. 11. FEDERAL RESPONSIBILITIES.
``(a) Lead Agency.--
``(1) In general.--Notwithstanding any other provision of
law, the lead agency responsible for implementation of this
Act shall be the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
``(2) Inclusions.--The responsibilities of the Director of
the Bureau of Indian Affairs in carrying out this Act shall
include--
``(A) in coordination with the head of each Federal agency
overseeing a program identified in the plan, the development
of a single model report for each Indian tribe that has in
place an approved plan under this Act to submit to the
Director reports on any consolidated activities undertaken
and joint expenditures made under the plan;
``(B) the provision, directly or through contract, of
appropriate voluntary and technical assistance to
participating Indian tribes;
``(C) the development and use of a single monitoring and
oversight system for plans approved under this Act;
``(D)(i) the receipt of all funds covered by a plan
approved under this Act; and
``(ii) the distribution of the funds to the respective
Indian tribes by not later than 45 days after the date of
receipt of the funds from the appropriate Federal department
or agency; and
``(E)(i) the performance of activities described in section
7 relating to agency waivers; and
``(ii) the establishment of an interagency dispute
resolution process.
``(3) Memorandum of agreement.--
``(A) In general.--Not later than 1 year after the date of
enactment of the Indian Employment, Training and Related
Services Consolidation Act of 2016, the Secretary (acting
through the Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs), in
conjunction with the Secretaries of Agriculture, Commerce,
Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland
Security, Housing and Urban Development, Labor,
Transportation, and Veterans Affairs and the Attorney
General, shall enter into an interdepartmental memorandum of
agreement providing for the implementation of this Act.
``(B) Inclusions.--The memorandum of agreement under
subparagraph (A) shall include provisions relating to--
``(i) an annual meeting of participating Indian tribes and
Federal departments and agencies, to be co-chaired by--
``(I) a representative of the President; and
``(II) a representative of the participating Indian tribes;
``(ii) an annual review of the achievements under this Act,
including the number and percentage of program participants
in unsubsidized employment during the second quarter after
exit from the program, and any statutory, regulatory,
administrative, or policy obstacles that prevent
participating Indian tribes from fully and efficiently
carrying out the purposes of this Act; and
``(iii) a forum comprised of participating Indian tribes
and Federal departments and agencies to identify and resolve
interagency conflicts and conflicts between the Federal
Government and Indian tribes in the administration of this
Act.
``(b) Report Format.--
``(1) In general.--The lead agency shall develop and
distribute to Indian tribes that have in place an approved
plan under this Act a single report format, in accordance
with the requirements of this Act.
[[Page 16037]]
``(2) Requirements.--The lead agency shall ensure that the
report format developed under paragraph (1), together with
records maintained by each participating Indian tribe,
contains information sufficient--
``(A) to determine whether the Indian tribe has complied
with the requirements of the approved plan of the Indian
tribe;
``(B) to determine the number and percentage of program
participants in unsubsidized employment during the second
quarter after exit from the program; and
``(C) to provide assurances to the head of each applicable
Federal department or agency that the Indian tribe has
complied with all directly applicable statutory and
regulatory requirements not waived under section 7.
``(3) Limitation.--The report format developed under
paragraph (1) shall not require a participating Indian tribe
to report on the expenditure of funds expressed by fund
source or single agency code transferred to the Indian tribe
under an approved plan under this Act but instead shall
require the Indian tribe to submit a single report on the
expenditure of consolidated funds under such plan.''.
SEC. 12. NO REDUCTION IN AMOUNTS.
Section 12 of the Indian Employment, Training and Related
Services Act of 1992 (25 U.S.C. 3411), as amended by section
2 of this Act, is amended to read as follows:
``SEC. 12. NO REDUCTION IN AMOUNTS.
``(a) In General.--In no case shall the amount of Federal
funds available to an Indian tribe that has in place an
approved plan under this Act be reduced as a result of--
``(1) the enactment of this Act; or
``(2) the approval or implementation of a plan of an Indian
tribe under this Act.
``(b) Interaction With Other Laws.--The inclusion of a
program in a tribal plan under this Act shall not--
``(1) modify, limit, or otherwise affect the eligibility of
the program for contracting under the Indian Self-
Determination and Education Assistance Act (25 U.S.C. 450 et
seq.); or
``(2) eliminate the applicability of any provision of the
Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (25
U.S.C. 450 et seq.), as the provision relates to a specific
program eligible for contracting under that Act.''.
SEC. 13. TRANSFER OF FUNDS.
Section 13 of the Indian Employment, Training and Related
Services Act of 1992 (25 U.S.C. 3412), as amended by section
2 of this Act, is amended to read as follows:
``SEC. 13. TRANSFER OF FUNDS.
``(a) In General.--Notwithstanding any other provision of
law, not later than 30 days after the date of apportionment
to the applicable Federal department or agency, the head of a
Federal agency overseeing a program identified in a plan
approved under this Act shall transfer to the Director of the
Bureau of Indian Affairs for distribution to an Indian tribe
any funds identified in the approved plan of the Indian
tribe.
``(b) Transfer of Funds.--Notwithstanding any other
provision of law, at the request of the Indian tribe, all
program funds transferred to an Indian tribe in accordance
with the approved plan of the Indian tribe shall be
transferred to the Indian tribe pursuant to an existing
contract, compact, or funding agreement awarded pursuant to
title I or IV of the Indian Self-Determination and Education
Assistance Act (25 U.S.C. 450 et seq.).''.
SEC. 14. ADMINISTRATION OF FUNDS.
Section 14 of the Indian Employment, Training and Related
Services Act of 1992 (25 U.S.C. 3413), as amended by section
2 of this Act, is amended--
(1) by redesignating subsection (b) as subsection (d);
(2) by striking the section designation and heading and all
that follows through subsection (a) and inserting the
following:
``SEC. 14. ADMINISTRATION OF FUNDS.
``(a) Requirements.--
``(1) In general.--
``(A) Consolidation and reallocation of funds.--
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, all amounts
transferred to a tribe pursuant to an approved plan may be
consolidated, reallocated, and rebudgeted as specified in the
approved plan to best meet the employment, training, and
related needs of the local community served by the Indian
tribe.
``(B) Authorized use of funds.--The amounts used to carry
out a plan approved under this Act shall be administered in
such manner as the Secretary determines to be appropriate to
ensure the amounts are spent on activities authorized under
the approved plan.
``(C) Effect.--Nothing in this section interferes with the
ability of the Secretary or the lead agency to use accounting
procedures that conform to generally accepted accounting
principles, auditing procedures, and safeguarding of funds
that conform to chapter 75 of title 31, United States Code
(commonly known as the `Single Audit Act of 1984').
``(2) Separate records and audits not required.--
Notwithstanding any other provision of law (including
regulations and circulars of any agency (including Office of
Management and Budget Circular A-133)), an Indian tribe that
has in place an approved plan under this Act shall not be
required--
``(A) to maintain separate records that trace any service
or activity conducted under the approved plan to the program
for which the funds were initially authorized or transferred;
``(B) to allocate expenditures among such a program; or
``(C) to audit expenditures by the original source of the
program.
``(b) Carryover.--
``(1) In general.--Any funds transferred to an Indian tribe
under this Act that are not obligated or expended prior to
the beginning of the fiscal year after the fiscal year for
which the funds were appropriated shall remain available for
obligation or expenditure without fiscal year limitation,
subject to the condition that the funds shall be obligated or
expended in accordance with the approved plan of the Indian
tribe.
``(2) No additional documentation.--The Indian tribe shall
not be required to provide any additional justification or
documentation of the purposes of the approved plan as a
condition of receiving or expending the funds.
``(c) Indirect Costs.--Notwithstanding any other provision
of law, an Indian tribe shall be entitled to recover 100
percent of any indirect costs incurred by the Indian tribe as
a result of the transfer of funds to the Indian tribe under
this Act.''; and
(3) in subsection (d) (as redesignated by paragraph (1))--
(A) by striking ``All administrative'' and inserting the
following:
``(1) In general.--All administrative''; and
(B) by striking ``regulations)'' and all that follows
through the end of the subsection and inserting the
following: ``regulations).
``(2) Treatment.--The amount equal to the difference
between the amount of the commingled funds and the actual
administrative cost of the programs, as described in
paragraph (1), shall be considered to be properly spent for
Federal audit purposes if the amount is used to achieve the
purposes of this Act.
``(e) Matching Funds.--Notwithstanding any other provision
of law, any funds transferred to an Indian tribe under this
Act shall be treated as non-Federal funds for purposes of
meeting matching requirements under any other Federal law,
except those administered by the Department of Labor or the
Department of Health and Human Services.
``(f) Claims.--The following provisions of law shall apply
to plans approved under this Act:
``(1) Section 314 of the Department of the Interior and
Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 1991 (Public Law 101-
512; 104 Stat. 1959).
``(2) Chapter 171 of title 28 (commonly known as the
`Federal Tort Claims Act').
``(g) Interest or Other Income.--
``(1) In general.--An Indian tribe shall be entitled to
retain interest earned on any funds transferred to the tribe
under an approved plan and such interest shall not diminish
the amount of funds the Indian tribe is authorized to receive
under the plan in the year the interest is earned or in any
subsequent fiscal year.
``(2) Prudent investment.--Funds transferred under a plan
shall be managed in accordance with the prudent investment
standard.''.
SEC. 15. LABOR MARKET INFORMATION ON INDIAN WORK FORCE.
Section 17(a) of the Indian Employment, Training and
Related Services Act of 1992 (25 U.S.C. 3416(a)), as amended
by section 2 of this Act, is amended in the first sentence--
(1) by striking ``The Secretary'' and all that follows
through ``manner,'' and inserting ``The Secretary of Labor,
in consultation with the Secretary, Indian tribes, and the
Director of the Bureau of the Census, shall''; and
(2) by striking ``, by gender,''.
SEC. 16. REPEALS; CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.
(a) Repeals.--Sections 15 and 16 of the Indian Employment,
Training and Related Services Act of 1992 (25 U.S.C. 3414,
3415), as amended by section 2 of this Act, are repealed.
(b) Conforming Amendments.--Sections 17 and 18 of the
Indian Employment, Training and Related Services Act of 1992
(25 U.S.C. 3416, 3417) (as amended by this Act) are
redesignated as sections 15 and 16, respectively.
SEC. 17. EFFECT OF ACT.
Nothing in this Act or any amendment made by this Act--
(1) affects any plan approved under the Indian Employment,
Training and Related Services Act of 1992 (25 U.S.C. 3401 et
seq.) (as so redesignated) before the date of enactment of
this Act;
(2) requires any Indian tribe or tribal organization to
resubmit a plan described in paragraph (1); or
(3) modifies the effective period of any plan described in
paragraph (1).
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Alaska (Mr. Young) and the gentleman from the Northern Mariana Islands
(Mr. Sablan) each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Alaska.
[[Page 16038]]
General Leave
Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all
Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks
and include extraneous materials on the bill under consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Alaska?
There was no objection.
Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
Mr. Speaker, my bill, the Indian Employment, Training and Related
Services Consolidation Act, will empower tribes and tribal
organizations to offer workforce development issues that uplift Native
communities throughout the country. This bipartisan legislation will
make the tribal 477 program permanent and make improvements to its
administration.
The 477 program was established in 1992--by the way, I was the
sponsor of that legislation at that time, also--as a demonstration
program. It allows tribes to combine employment, child care, and job
training funding from a variety of Federal sources to conduct
consolidated, comprehensive reporting. This has enabled tribes to run
innovative programs and saved both the tribes and the Federal
Government money and resources.
I would suggest respectfully that this is a great piece of
legislation. The 477 program embodies tribal self-determination by
allowing tribes to provide opportunities tailored to the unique needs
of their communities. Significant education and training needs exist in
Indian country, and the 477 program has a proven track record of
success. This is particularly true in Alaska, where the Cook Inlet
Tribal Council has pioneered a smart model that provides holistic
services, all under one roof, for individuals and families.
My bill improves accounting procedures and reporting mechanisms to
uphold the original intent of the program, ensures that agencies treat
tribes fairly, and sets a foundation for participants' continued
success.
I especially, at this time, would like to thank the members of the
477 tribal work group who, over the past 4 years, have been dedicated
to developing and advancing this legislation. Without the work group's
tireless advocacy, this bill would not have been possible.
I would also like to thank Chairman Bishop and Ranking Member
Grijalva and their staffs for their work on the bill and commitment to
advancing it through the process. I would specifically like to
recognize Ken Degenfelder on Chairman Bishop's staff and Alex Ortiz on
my staff.
Finally, I would like to offer my thanks to Chairman Brady, Chairman
Kline, and Chairman Goodlatte and their staffs for working together on
the committee on which I serve to improve this bill.
I would like to thank them for agreeing to help expedite
consideration of this bill today, and I urge adoption of H.R. 329.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
House of Representatives, Committee on Education and the
Workforce,
Washington, DC, December 5, 2016.
Hon. Rob Bishop,
Chairman, Committee on Natural Resources, House of
Representatives, Washington, DC.
Dear Mr. Chairman: I write to confirm our mutual
understanding with respect to H.R. 329, the Indian
Employment, Training and Related Services Consolidation Act
of 2015. Thank you for consulting with the Committee on
Education and the Workforce with regard to H.R. 329 on those
matters within my committee's jurisdiction and making
improvements to the legislation to address concerns.
In the interest of expediting the House's consideration of
H.R. 329, the Committee on Education and the Workforce will
forgo further consideration of this bill. However, I do so
only with the understanding this procedural route will not be
construed to prejudice my committee's jurisdictional interest
and prerogatives on this bill or any other similar
legislation and will not be considered as precedent for
consideration of matters of jurisdictional interest to my
committee in the future.
I respectfully request your support for the appointment of
outside conferees from the Committee on Education and the
Workforce should this bill or a similar bill be considered in
a conference with the Senate. I also request you include our
exchange of letters on this matter in the Committee Report on
H.R. 329 and in the Congressional Record during consideration
of this bill on the House Floor. Thank you for your attention
to these matters.
Sincerely,
John Kline,
Chairman.
____
House of Representatives,
Committee on Natural Resources,
Washington, DC, December 2, 2016.
Hon. Kevin Brady,
Chairman, Committee on Ways and Means,
Washington, DC.
Dear Mr. Chairman: On November 16, 2016, the Committee on
Natural Resources favorably reported as amended H.R. 329, the
Indian Employment, Training and Related Services
Consolidation Act of 2016. The bill was sequentially referred
to the Committee on Ways and Means and the Committee on
Education and the Workforce until December 8, 2016.
I understand our staffs have been able to negotiate out
text that is agreeable to you. Therefore, I ask that you
allow the Committee on Ways and Means to be discharged from
further consideration of the bill before December 8, 2016, so
that this revised text for H.R. 329 may be scheduled by the
Majority Leader. This discharge in no way affects your
jurisdiction over the subject matter of the bill, and it will
not serve as precedent for future referrals. In addition,
should a conference on the bill be necessary, I would support
your request to have the Committee on Ways and Means
represented on the conference committee. Finally, I would be
pleased to submit this letter and any response to the
Congressional Record.
Thank you for your consideration of my request and for the
extraordinary cooperation shown by you and your staff over
matters of shared jurisdiction. I look forward to further
opportunities to work with you next Congress.
Sincerely,
Rob Bishop,
Chairman, Committee on Natural Resources.
____
House of Representatives,
Committee on Ways and Means,
Washington, DC, December 2, 2016.
Hon. Rob Bishop,
Chairman, Committee on Natural Resources,
Washington, DC.
Dear Chairman Bishop: I write with respect to H.R. 329, the
``Indian Employment, Training and Related Services
Consolidation Act of 2015,'' on which the Committee on Ways
and Means received a sequential referral.
I appreciate your willingness to work with my Committee on
this legislation. In order to allow H.R. 329 to move
expeditiously to the House floor, I agree to forgo a markup
of this bill. The Committee on Ways and Means takes this
action with our mutual understanding that by forgoing
consideration of H.R. 329 at this time, we do not waive any
jurisdiction over subject matter contained in this or similar
legislation, and that our Committee will be appropriately
consulted and involved as this bill or similar legislation
moves forward. Our Committee also reserves the right to seek
appointment of an appropriate number of conferees to any
House-Senate conference involving this or similar
legislation, and asks that you support any such request.
I would appreciate your response to this letter confirming
this understanding, and would request that you include a copy
of this letter and your response in the Congressional Record
during the floor consideration of this bill. Thank you in
advance for your cooperation.
Sincerely,
Kevin Brady,
Chairman.
____
House of Representatives,
Committee on Natural Resources,
Washington, DC, December 2, 2016.
Hon. Kevin Brady,
Chairman, Committee on Ways and Means,
Washington, DC.
Dear Mr. Chairman: On November 16, 2016, the Committee on
Natural Resources favorably reported as amended H.R. 329, the
Indian Employment, Training and Related Services
Consolidation Act of 2016. The bill was sequentially referred
to the Committee on Ways and Means and the Committee on
Education and the Workforce until December 8, 2016.
I understand our staffs have been able to negotiate out
text that is agreeable to you. Therefore, I ask that you
allow the Committee on Ways and Means to be discharged from
further consideration of the bill before December 8, 2016, so
that this revised text for H.R. 329 may be scheduled by the
Majority Leader. This discharge in no way affects your
jurisdiction over the subject matter of the bill, and it will
not serve as precedent for future referrals. In addition,
should a conference on the bill be necessary, I would support
your request to have the Committee on Ways and Means
represented on the conference committee. Finally, I would be
pleased to submit this letter and any response to the
Congressional Record.
[[Page 16039]]
Thank you for your consideration of my request and for the
extraordinary cooperation shown by you and your staff over
matters of shared jurisdiction. I look forward to further
opportunities to work with you next Congress.
Sincerely,
Rob Bishop,
Chairman, Committee on Natural Resources.
____
House of Representatives,
Committee on Natural Resources,
Washington, DC, September 12, 2016.
Hon. Bob Goodlatte,
Chairman, Committee on the Judiciary,
Washington, DC.
Dear Mr. Chairman: On March 16, 2016, the Committee on
Natural Resources favorably reported as amended H.R. 329, the
Indian Employment, Training and Related Services
Consolidation Act of 2016, by unanimous consent. My staff has
shared the reported text of the bill with your staff.
The reported bill contains provisions regarding judicial
review, a matter within the jurisdiction of the Committee on
the Judiciary. Specifically, section 9 of the bill amends
section 8(d) of the Indian Employment, Training and Related
Services Act of 1992 to provide for judicial review of the
Secretary of the Interior's denial of a plan. I understand
that you have concerns regarding this provision. Based on my
agreement to drop this text from the bill when it is
considered by the House of Representatives, I ask that the
Committee on the Judiciary not seek a sequential referral of
the bill so that it may be scheduled by the Majority Leader
before the House adjourns for the election. This concession
in no way affects your jurisdiction over the subject matter
of the bill, and it will not serve as precedent for future
referrals. In addition, should a conference on the bill be
necessary and the issues raised by the omitted text are
within the scope of the conference, I would support your
request to have the Committee on the Judiciary represented on
the conference committee. Finally, I would be pleased to
include this letter and any response in the Congressional
Record to document this agreement.
Thank you for your consideration of my request, and I look
forward to further opportunities to work with you this
Congress.
Sincerely,
Rob Bishop,
Chairman, Committee on Natural Resources.
____
House of Representatives,
Committee on the Judiciary,
Washington, DC, September 22, 2016.
Hon. Rob Bishop,
Chairman, Committee on Natural Resources,
Washington, DC.
Dear Chairman Bishop: Thank you for your letter regarding
H.R. 329, the ``Indian Employment, Training and Related
Services Consolidation Act.'' I appreciate your willingness
to work with me on this issue.
As you note in your letter, the reported bill contains
provisions regarding judicial review that fall within the
Rule X jurisdiction of the Committee on the Judiciary.
Specifically, section 9 of the bill amends section 8(d) of
the Indian Employment, Training and Related Services Act of
1992 to provide for judicial review of the Secretary of the
Interior's denial of a plan. The Judiciary Committee has
concerns with this provision. However, based on your
agreement to drop this text from the bill or similar
legislation when it is considered by the House, the Judiciary
Committee will not seek a sequential referral of the bill.
The Committee takes this action with our mutual understanding
that by forgoing a sequential referral of H.R. 329 at this
time, we do not waive any jurisdiction over subject matter
contained in this or similar legislation and that our
committee will be appropriately consulted and involved as
this bill or similar legislation moves forward so that we may
address any remaining issues in our jurisdiction. Our
committee also reserves the right to seek appointment of an
appropriate number of conferees to any House-Senate
conference involving this or similar legislation and asks
that you support any such request.
I would ask that a copy of our exchange of letters on this
matter be included in your committee report and in the
Congressional Record during floor consideration of H.R. 329.
Sincerely,
Bob Goodlatte,
Chairman.
Mr. SABLAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, Public Law 102-477 established what is commonly known as
the 477 program to foster employment and economic development in Indian
country. This highly successful program authorizes tribal governments
to consolidate up to 13 different Federal grant programs into a single
plan with a single budget and a single reporting system.
Current participants in the program have significantly improved
effectiveness of the delivery of services included in the 477 plan,
while lowering administrative costs. These cost savings have been
translated into more and better direct services for their communities.
H.R. 329 will build on this success by permanently authorizing the
program, by increasing the scope and availability of participating
Federal grant programs, and by setting a streamlined process for tribes
to follow.
I want to congratulate Chairman Young for his tireless work on this
legislation and for putting together a piece of legislation that we
should always consider and for bringing together all of the
stakeholders to address the concerns and find a workable solution.
I ask my colleagues to join me in supporting this legislation.
Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers, and I yield back the balance
of my time.
Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers, and I
urge passage of the legislation.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I rise to express my concerns
with H.R. 329. While the legislation seeks to provide additional
flexibility and support to Indian tribes--a worthy goal--I remain
concerned that it could have the effect of weakening the services
provided to families and children in Indian tribes.
Currently, Indian tribes have the option to consolidate certain
federal funding streams related to work and job training into one
grant. H.R. 329 includes a number of changes to this consolidation
option and expands the number of programs that can be consolidated.
The legislation could be interpreted in an overly broad fashion
resulting in the inclusion of programs that may not be appropriate to
include--programs or services only ``relating to'' job training, skill
development, and economic development, or other related goals.
The Education and the Workforce Committee, on which I serve as
Ranking Member, was given a sequential jurisdictional referral on this
legislation, but has not considered the legislation nor considered its
impact on education and training programs within our jurisdiction.
Specifically, our Committee has an interest in ensuring that program
funds are used for their intended purpose. Whether the TANF program or
Head Start, adequate reporting and oversight protect beneficiaries and
ensure the quality of services. For example, Head Start performance
standards are vital to the success of the program.
While I do not intend to oppose the legislation, I encourage
continued robust oversight of the programs impacted by this bill to
ensure that quality and effective education and job training programs
remain available to our nation's tribes.
Mr. BRADY of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 329, the
Indian Employment, Training, and Related Services Consolidation Act of
2015.
In particular, I'm grateful for the opportunity I had to work with
Representative Young and the Natural Resources Committee to address
some concerns I had with a previous version of the bill, and I'm
grateful for the collaborative effort between our two committees so
this bill can move forward today.
Under current law, Indian tribes can combine funding for employment,
training, and related services to streamline their administration of
social service programs--often referred to as ``section 477
demonstration projects.'' Many times the dollar amounts received from
the individual programs are rather small, so being able to combine
funds with similar purposes allows tribes to achieve more effective
economies of scale. However, in recent years these tribes have run into
challenges as they have sought to operate these demonstration projects
to best serve their members. The goal of H.R. 329 is to clarify
confusion related to these demonstration projects, increase the
flexibility Indian tribes have in consolidating these programs, and
ensure accountability of taxpayer dollars.
While I agreed with the general intent of the prior version of this
bill, I was concerned that it may have unintentionally undermined
important requirements in current law for programs under Ways and Means
jurisdiction, such as TANF and child care. To balance the goal of
increased flexibility for tribes with appropriate oversight and
accountability, I asked Representative Young to amend the text to
ensure the bill would not:
Undermine important rules regarding how funds appropriated for
specific purposes can be used;
Eliminate requirements specifying how the spending of consolidated
funds must be accounted for; and
Change how funds authorized by the Ways and Means Committee are
treated for matching purposes.
[[Page 16040]]
First, I'm glad this bill now reiterates that agencies providing
funding to tribes have the authority to approve or deny waivers of key
program provisions. For example, this would mean the Department of
Health and Human Services (HHS) could deny an Indian tribe's request to
use federal child care funds for the purchase or improvement of land,
as such use of child care funds is not permitted under current law. HHS
could also forbid a tribe from using federal TANF funds to pay for
medical services, something states and tribes are not permitted to do
under current law. At the same time, agencies and departments, like
HIS, are encouraged to waive program requirements when they will assist
the tribe in streamlining the administration of their social service
programs to better serve their members, as long as they don't undermine
the central purposes for which the money was originally appropriated.
Second, there was some concern that the bill would eliminate
requirements that tribes report how they spend funds consolidated in
section 477 projects. Mr. Young has modified the bill to reiterate that
tribes must report how funds are spent, but that they will not be
required to report spending by specific program. Since 2011, a tribal
working group has worked diligently to simplify tribal financial
reporting, and the group has recently agreed upon a unified financial
report that allows tribes to report by category, instead of by program.
This form allows taxpayers to understand broadly how dollars are spent,
without requiring tribes to maintain complex accounting systems
necessary to report on spending per the rules for each separate
program. This form is now in use, and I hope this working group, or
future iterations of it, will continue to engage, as needed, to ensure
this form adequately serves all stakeholders in the same manner.
Third, the earlier version of this bill allowed tribes operating
section 477 projects to count federal funding received through HHS and
the Department of Labor (DOL) to count as tribal spending for matching
purposes. Because this would have allowed tribes to use federal funds
as match to draw down additional federal dollars--and because it would
have advantaged tribes operating these demonstrations compared to those
not operating these demos--I asked that this language not apply to
funding administered by HHS and DOL. Mr. Young agreed to incorporate
this change, and I'm grateful for his willingness to do so.
Finally, I'm glad we could work together to restore language in the
bill regarding coordination between the Department of the Interior and
other departments as these projects are approved. It is important that
agencies work together to ensure tribes have the flexibility they need
to streamline their services, while maintaining a balance between
flexibility and accountability.
Together, these changes will support tribes as they seek to better
serve their members, while maintaining appropriate accountability of
taxpayer dollars and ensuring funds are used to meet the goals for
which they were appropriated.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Alaska (Mr. Young) that the House suspend the rules and
pass the bill, H.R. 329, as amended.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the
rules were suspended and the bill, as amended, was passed.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
____________________
JOHN H. CHAFEE COASTAL BARRIER RESOURCES SYSTEM BOUNDARIES REVISION
Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and
pass the bill (H.R. 6400) to revise the boundaries of certain John H.
Chafee Coastal Barrier Resources System units in New Jersey.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 6400
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. REPLACEMENT OF JOHN H. CHAFEE COASTAL BARRIER
RESOURCES SYSTEM MAP.
(a) In General.--The map subtitled ``Seidler Beach Unit NJ-
02, Cliffwood Beach Unit NJ-03P, Conaskonk Point Unit NJ-
04'', dated August 1, 2014, that is included in the set of
maps entitled ``Coastal Barrier Resources System'' referred
to in section 4(a) of the Coastal Barrier Resources Act (16
U.S.C. 3503(a)) and relating to certain John H. Chafee
Coastal Barrier Resources System units in New Jersey, is
hereby replaced by another map subtitled ``Seidler Beach Unit
NJ-02/NJ-02P, Cliffwood Beach Unit NJ-03P, Conaskonk Point
Unit NJ-04, Sayreville Unit NJ-15P, Matawan Point Unit NJ-
16P'' and dated October 7, 2016.
(b) Availability.--The Secretary of the Interior shall keep
the replacement map referred to in subsection (a) on file and
available for inspection in accordance with section 4(b) of
the Coastal Barrier Resources Act (16 U.S.C. 3503(b)).
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Alaska (Mr. Young) and the gentleman from the Northern Mariana Islands
(Mr. Sablan) each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Alaska.
General Leave
Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all
Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks
and include extraneous materials on the bill under consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Alaska?
There was no objection.
Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
Mr. Speaker, H.R. 6400, introduced by my colleague, Mr. Pallone,
makes boundary adjustments to multiple units of the Coastal Barrier
Resources System along the coast of his New Jersey congressional
district. I have no objection to this bill and compliment the gentleman
for introducing the bill.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. SABLAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, under the Coastal Barrier Resources Act--or CoBRA--the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service identifies hazardous areas on the
Atlantic and Gulf Coasts, and submits maps to Congress recommending
that we make Federal subsidies off limits to people who choose to
develop those lands.
This is a commonsense, scientific, fiscally conservative way to
protect private property and public infrastructure, while also ensuring
that taxpayers do not have to foot the bill for risky coastal
development. In this time of rising sea levels and increased storm
surge brought on by climate change, CoBRA is becoming more and more
important every day.
H.R. 6400 would adjust the boundaries of several Coastal Barrier
Resources System units in New Jersey, including one that contains an
important flood control structure. These changes have been carefully
mapped by the Fish and Wildlife Service, and reflect improvements in
technology that have allowed us to show with great accuracy which
parcels of land do and do not constitute ``coastal barrier resources''
under the law.
As a result, numerous properties that were originally included by
mistake will be removed, and other properties that have been identified
as at-risk will be included.
These changes to the C.B.R.S. are protective of private property
rights, the environment, and the taxpayers, and I support passage of
the bill.
Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman
from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone), the author of the bill.
Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 6400.
This bill is extremely important to my constituents, especially those
living in Union Beach, New Jersey. Passing this bill will allow the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to move forward on an important flood
control project for Union Beach.
H.R. 6400 would realign the mapping of several New Jersey units of
the John H. Chafee Coastal Barrier Resource System. Congressional
approval is required for any changes to these maps by the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service. Over the past year, the Fish and Wildlife Service
worked with the Corps to make noncontroversial changes to the mapping,
completed its review, and transmitted them to Congress on November 21
of this year.
Until these maps are approved by Congress, Mr. Speaker, the Union
Beach flood control project will be in limbo. The Corps cannot sign a
project partnership agreement or make other progress until the updated
maps are approved.
Union Beach was devastated by Superstorm Sandy, and residents have
been waiting far too long for this
[[Page 16041]]
project to be completed. It was initially authorized by the Water
Resources Development Act of 2007 on November 8, 2007, and funding and
authorization for the project came from Sandy relief funding in 2013.
Moving forward on this project is a priority for the State of New
Jersey, local authorities in Union Beach, and the Army Corps; however,
that can only be done if Congress approves the new maps, which it can
do by passing H.R. 6400.
Again, passing this bill is vitally important. It is
noncontroversial. I want to thank Chairman Bishop, Ranking Member
Grijalva, and House leadership for allowing this legislation to be
considered under suspension of the rules.
I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 6400. The people of Union Beach
have waited long enough to rebuild and protect their community from
future storms.
Mr. SABLAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my
time.
Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers, and I would like to
compliment the gentleman from New Jersey. I do hope he understands that
this is his district and I will support his legislation. I would like
to have him do the same thing when I bring legislation to the floor
that only affects my district.
So, with courtesy to him, I will urge a ``yes'' vote on this
legislation.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Dold). The question is on the motion
offered by the gentleman from Alaska (Mr. Young) that the House suspend
the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 6400.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the
rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
____________________
CHICANO PARK PRESERVATION ACT
Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and
pass the bill (H.R. 3711) to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to
conduct a special resource study of Chicano Park, located in San Diego,
California, and for other purposes, as amended.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 3711
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Chicano Park Preservation
Act''.
SEC. 2. SPECIAL RESOURCE STUDY.
(a) Study.--The Secretary of the Interior shall conduct a
special resource study of Chicano Park and its murals located
in San Diego, California.
(b) Contents.--In conducting the study under subsection
(a), the Secretary shall--
(1) evaluate the national significance of the site;
(2) determine the suitability and feasibility of
designating the site as a National Historic Landmark or
Affiliated Area of the National Park System;
(3) consider other alternatives for preservation,
protection, and interpretation of Chicano Park and its murals
by Federal, State, or local governmental entities, or private
and nonprofit organizations;
(4) consult with interested Federal, State, or local
governmental entities, private and nonprofit organizations or
any other interested individuals; and
(5) identify cost estimates for any development,
interpretation, operation, and maintenance associated with
the alternatives.
(c) Applicable Law.--The study required under subsection
(a) shall be conducted in accordance with section 100507 of
title 54, United States Code, except that the study shall not
consider any options that involve Federal acquisition of
lands, interests in lands, or any other property related to
the Chicano Park and its murals.
(d) Report.--Not later than 18 months after the date on
which funds are first made available for the study under
subsection (a), the Secretary shall submit to the Committee
on Natural Resources of the House of Representatives and the
Committee on Energy and Natural Resources of the Senate a
report containing the results of the study and any
conclusions and recommendations of the Secretary.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Alaska (Mr. Young) and the gentleman from the Northern Mariana Islands
(Mr. Sablan) each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Alaska.
General Leave
Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all
Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks
and include extraneous materials on the bill under consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Alaska?
There was no objection.
Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
Mr. Speaker, located in the Barrio Logan community of San Diego,
Chicano Park is a 7.4-acre parcel known for its display of nearly 50
vibrant murals depicting the history, culture, and its civil rights
movement.
{time} 1315
Residents secured the creation of the park in 1970 by protesting the
construction of a parking lot on the vacant land the city previously
promised for the development of the community park. After successfully
taking over the land, artists painted dozens of vibrant murals on the
pillars and ramps of the San Diego-Coronado Bay Bridge located in the
park, creating the largest concentration of these murals in the world.
H.R. 3711 authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to evaluate the
national significance of the park, determine the suitability and
feasibility of designating it as a national historic landmark or
affiliated area of the National Park Service through a special resource
study. The bill prohibits the Secretary from considering any options
that result in the Federal acquisition of the park.
I urge adoption of this bill, H.R. 3711.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. SABLAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the
distinguished gentleman from California (Mr. Vargas).
Mr. VARGAS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to ask my colleagues for their
support of H.R. 3711, the Chicano Park Preservation Act. Again, I thank
the chairman for those kind words about the park. I appreciate it very
much.
Ranking member, thank you again for allowing me to be here to support
moving this legislation forward.
Chicano Park is a historic park under the San Diego-Coronado Bridge
that embodies the spirit of the Hispanic culture in San Diego.
As was said, in the spring of 1970, the Barrio Logan community in San
Diego united to advocate for the community park and, with the support
of the city and State officials, the park was born. Since then, the
park has been transformed by world-renowned muralists who have adorned
the freeway pillars with breathtaking murals, sculptures, and
architectural pieces that tell the story of the Hispanic community in
San Diego.
Chicano Park is home to the largest collection of outdoor murals, 89
of them, in the country, in addition to various sculptures, earthworks,
and an architectural piece dedicated to the cultural heritage of the
community. The murals are recognized at the local, State, and national
levels as historical, cultural, and public art.
This legislation, as was said, authorizes a special resource study of
Chicano Park and its murals to evaluate the feasibility of the park
becoming a national historic landmark or an Affiliated Area of the
National Park Service.
It is also interesting that now the community has taken it on as a
community park. Unfortunately, the area has very few parks, and this is
one of the places where the community now, since 1970, has been coming
and having picnics there with their families, their children, and it
has become really a wonderful opportunity for the people that live in
the community.
Even more than that, if you go there on a Saturday, you will find
artists and different people from throughout the State, and Arizona,
and other places
[[Page 16042]]
coming to look at the murals and to look at the art. It is quite a
vibrant area. If you take a look at some of the things that are sold in
the area, you will see T-shirts and you will see lots of cultural food.
It has become a wonderful place for everyone to come together.
So I appreciate very much the opportunity here, and I thank the
ranking member, and especially the chairman, for this opportunity.
Again, I encourage them to come to the park. It is not quite as grand
as some of the things in Alaska, and I look to going to Alaska some day
because I have only seen them in the pictures. Again, I thank you for
your kind words about the park.
Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, I have no additional speakers on
this legislation. I do urge the passage of the legislation as a classic
example of where people are working together to have a place to rest
and save some great art. I congratulate the gentleman for introducing
the legislation. So I urge the passage of the legislation.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. SABLAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, this bill will permit the National Park Service to study
and evaluate the Chicano Park for inclusion on the National Register of
Historic Places and possibly to become an affiliated site of the
agency.
Chicano Park has come to represent not only the civil rights
struggles and victories for the residents of the Barrio Logan
community, but has become a center for discussions around civil rights
movements for all Mexican Americans today.
Today, this space has become a vibrant expression of the history and
concerns of the community and, because of their efforts, I know it will
continue to remain a relevant site for generations to come. I am glad
to see that this community will receive the national recognition it
deserves.
I thank my colleague, Congressman Vargas, for introducing this bill,
and I am very pleased to see that we are able to move this through the
House expeditiously.
I would also like to, one day, visit Alaska, but at this point in
time I urge adoption of this legislation.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, I would assure both gentlemen,
Alaska will welcome you on a visit. I hope to visit both of their
communities in the future. The only way we can get things done around
here is if we understand your locations, your people, and what you will
treasure, as I do in my State of Alaska.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Alaska (Mr. Young) that the House suspend the rules and
pass the bill, H.R. 3711, as amended.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the
rules were suspended and the bill, as amended, was passed.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
____________________
ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE SPEAKER PRO TEMPORE
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, proceedings
will resume on questions previously postponed.
Votes will be taken in the following order:
Ordering the previous question on House Resolution 944;
Adoption of House Resolution 944, if ordered;
The motion to suspend the rules and pass H.R. 1219; and
The motion to suspend the rules and pass S. 3028.
The first electronic vote will be conducted as a 15-minute vote.
Remaining electronic votes will be conducted as 5-minute votes.
____________________
PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 5143, TRANSPARENT INSURANCE
STANDARDS ACT OF 2016; PROVIDING FOR PROCEEDINGS DURING THE PERIOD FROM
DECEMBER 9, 2016, THROUGH JANUARY 3, 2017; AND PROVIDING FOR
CONSIDERATION OF MOTIONS TO SUSPEND THE RULES
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The unfinished business is the vote on
ordering the previous question on the resolution (H. Res. 944)
providing for consideration of the bill (H.R. 5143) to provide greater
transparency and congressional oversight of international insurance
standards setting processes, and for other purposes; providing for
proceedings during the period from December 9, 2016, through January 3,
2017; and providing for consideration of motions to suspend the rules,
on which the yeas and nays were ordered.
The Clerk read the title of the resolution.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on ordering the previous
question.
The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 231,
nays 178, not voting 24, as follows:
[Roll No. 609]
YEAS--231
Abraham
Aderholt
Allen
Amash
Amodei
Babin
Barletta
Barr
Barton
Benishek
Bilirakis
Bishop (MI)
Bishop (UT)
Black
Blackburn
Blum
Bost
Boustany
Brady (TX)
Brat
Bridenstine
Brooks (AL)
Brooks (IN)
Buchanan
Buck
Bucshon
Burgess
Byrne
Calvert
Carter (GA)
Carter (TX)
Chabot
Chaffetz
Clawson (FL)
Coffman
Cole
Collins (GA)
Collins (NY)
Comer
Comstock
Conaway
Cook
Costello (PA)
Cramer
Crawford
Culberson
Curbelo (FL)
Davidson
Davis, Rodney
Denham
Dent
DeSantis
DesJarlais
Diaz-Balart
Dold
Donovan
Duffy
Duncan (SC)
Duncan (TN)
Emmer (MN)
Farenthold
Fleischmann
Fleming
Flores
Fortenberry
Foxx
Franks (AZ)
Frelinghuysen
Gibbs
Gibson
Gohmert
Goodlatte
Gosar
Gowdy
Granger
Graves (GA)
Graves (LA)
Griffith
Grothman
Guinta
Guthrie
Hanna
Hardy
Harper
Harris
Hartzler
Heck (NV)
Hensarling
Herrera Beutler
Hice, Jody B.
Hill
Holding
Hudson
Huelskamp
Huizenga (MI)
Hultgren
Hunter
Hurd (TX)
Hurt (VA)
Issa
Jenkins (KS)
Jenkins (WV)
Johnson (OH)
Johnson, Sam
Jones
Jordan
Joyce
Katko
Kelly (MS)
Kelly (PA)
King (IA)
King (NY)
Kinzinger (IL)
Kline
Knight
Labrador
LaHood
LaMalfa
Lamborn
Lance
Latta
LoBiondo
Long
Loudermilk
Love
Lucas
Luetkemeyer
Lummis
Marchant
Marino
Massie
McCarthy
McCaul
McClintock
McHenry
McKinley
McMorris Rodgers
McSally
Meadows
Meehan
Messer
Mica
Miller (FL)
Moolenaar
Mooney (WV)
Mullin
Mulvaney
Murphy (PA)
Neugebauer
Newhouse
Noem
Nugent
Nunes
Olson
Palazzo
Palmer
Paulsen
Pearce
Perry
Pittenger
Pitts
Poliquin
Pompeo
Posey
Price, Tom
Ratcliffe
Reed
Reichert
Renacci
Ribble
Rice (SC)
Rigell
Roby
Roe (TN)
Rogers (AL)
Rogers (KY)
Rohrabacher
Rokita
Rooney (FL)
Ros-Lehtinen
Roskam
Ross
Rouzer
Royce
Russell
Salmon
Sanford
Scalise
Schweikert
Scott, Austin
Sensenbrenner
Sessions
Shimkus
Shuster
Simpson
Smith (MO)
Smith (NE)
Smith (NJ)
Smith (TX)
Stefanik
Stewart
Stivers
Stutzman
Thompson (PA)
Thornberry
Tipton
Trott
Turner
Upton
Valadao
Wagner
Walberg
Walden
Walker
Walorski
Walters, Mimi
Weber (TX)
Webster (FL)
Wenstrup
Westerman
Williams
Wilson (SC)
Wittman
Womack
Woodall
Yoder
Yoho
Young (AK)
Young (IA)
Young (IN)
Zinke
NAYS--178
Adams
Aguilar
Ashford
Bass
Beatty
Becerra
Bera
Beyer
Bishop (GA)
Blumenauer
Bonamici
Boyle, Brendan F.
Brady (PA)
Brownley (CA)
Bustos
Butterfield
Capps
Capuano
Cardenas
Carney
Carson (IN)
Cartwright
Castor (FL)
Castro (TX)
Chu, Judy
Cicilline
Clark (MA)
Clarke (NY)
Clay
Cleaver
Cohen
Connolly
Conyers
Cooper
Costa
Courtney
Crowley
Cuellar
Cummings
Davis (CA)
Davis, Danny
DeFazio
DeGette
Delaney
DeLauro
DelBene
DeSaulnier
Deutch
Dingell
Doggett
Doyle, Michael F.
Duckworth
Edwards
Ellison
Engel
Eshoo
Esty
Evans
Foster
Frankel (FL)
Fudge
Gabbard
Gallego
Garamendi
[[Page 16043]]
Graham
Grayson
Green, Al
Green, Gene
Grijalva
Gutierrez
Hanabusa
Hastings
Heck (WA)
Higgins
Himes
Hinojosa
Hoyer
Huffman
Israel
Jackson Lee
Jeffries
Johnson (GA)
Johnson, E. B.
Kaptur
Keating
Kelly (IL)
Kennedy
Kildee
Kilmer
Kind
Kuster
Langevin
Larsen (WA)
Larson (CT)
Lawrence
Levin
Lewis
Lieu, Ted
Lipinski
Loebsack
Lofgren
Lowenthal
Lowey
Lujan Grisham (NM)
Lujan, Ben Ray (NM)
Lynch
Maloney, Carolyn
Maloney, Sean
Matsui
McCollum
McDermott
McGovern
McNerney
Meeks
Meng
Moore
Moulton
Murphy (FL)
Nadler
Napolitano
Neal
Nolan
Norcross
O'Rourke
Pallone
Pascrell
Payne
Pelosi
Perlmutter
Peters
Peterson
Pingree
Pocan
Polis
Price (NC)
Quigley
Rangel
Rice (NY)
Richmond
Roybal-Allard
Ruiz
Ruppersberger
Rush
Ryan (OH)
Sanchez, Linda T.
Sarbanes
Schakowsky
Schiff
Schrader
Scott (VA)
Scott, David
Sherman
Sinema
Sires
Slaughter
Smith (WA)
Speier
Swalwell (CA)
Takano
Thompson (CA)
Thompson (MS)
Titus
Tonko
Torres
Tsongas
Van Hollen
Vargas
Veasey
Vela
Velazquez
Visclosky
Walz
Wasserman Schultz
Waters, Maxine
Watson Coleman
Welch
Wilson (FL)
Yarmuth
NOT VOTING--24
Brown (FL)
Clyburn
Crenshaw
Ellmers (NC)
Farr
Fincher
Fitzpatrick
Forbes
Garrett
Graves (MO)
Honda
Jolly
Kirkpatrick
Lee
MacArthur
Miller (MI)
Poe (TX)
Rothfus
Sanchez, Loretta
Serrano
Sewell (AL)
Tiberi
Westmoreland
Zeldin
{time} 1349
Messrs. CICILLINE, PETERS, VELA, and VISCLOSKY changed their vote
from ``yea'' to ``nay.''
So the previous question was ordered.
The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the resolution.
The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that
the ayes appeared to have it.
Recorded Vote
Mr. HASTINGS. Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.
A recorded vote was ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. This is a 5-minute vote.
The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--ayes 232,
noes 180, not voting 21, as follows:
[Roll No. 610]
AYES--232
Abraham
Aderholt
Allen
Amodei
Babin
Barletta
Barr
Barton
Benishek
Bilirakis
Bishop (MI)
Bishop (UT)
Black
Blackburn
Blum
Bost
Boustany
Brady (TX)
Brat
Bridenstine
Brooks (AL)
Brooks (IN)
Buchanan
Buck
Bucshon
Burgess
Byrne
Calvert
Carter (GA)
Carter (TX)
Chabot
Chaffetz
Clawson (FL)
Coffman
Cole
Collins (GA)
Collins (NY)
Comer
Comstock
Conaway
Cook
Costa
Costello (PA)
Cramer
Crawford
Culberson
Curbelo (FL)
Davidson
Davis, Rodney
Denham
Dent
DeSantis
DesJarlais
Diaz-Balart
Dold
Donovan
Duffy
Duncan (SC)
Duncan (TN)
Emmer (MN)
Farenthold
Fleischmann
Fleming
Flores
Fortenberry
Foxx
Franks (AZ)
Frelinghuysen
Gibbs
Gibson
Gohmert
Goodlatte
Gosar
Gowdy
Granger
Graves (GA)
Graves (LA)
Griffith
Grothman
Guinta
Guthrie
Hanna
Hardy
Harper
Harris
Hartzler
Heck (NV)
Hensarling
Herrera Beutler
Hice, Jody B.
Hill
Holding
Hudson
Huelskamp
Huizenga (MI)
Hultgren
Hunter
Hurd (TX)
Hurt (VA)
Issa
Jenkins (KS)
Jenkins (WV)
Johnson (OH)
Johnson, Sam
Jones
Jordan
Joyce
Katko
Kelly (MS)
Kelly (PA)
King (IA)
King (NY)
Kinzinger (IL)
Kline
Knight
Labrador
LaHood
LaMalfa
Lamborn
Lance
Latta
LoBiondo
Long
Loudermilk
Love
Lucas
Luetkemeyer
Lummis
Marchant
Marino
McCarthy
McCaul
McClintock
McHenry
McKinley
McMorris Rodgers
McSally
Meadows
Meehan
Messer
Mica
Miller (FL)
Moolenaar
Mooney (WV)
Mullin
Mulvaney
Murphy (PA)
Neugebauer
Newhouse
Noem
Nugent
Nunes
Olson
Palazzo
Palmer
Paulsen
Pearce
Perry
Pittenger
Pitts
Poliquin
Pompeo
Posey
Price, Tom
Ratcliffe
Reed
Reichert
Renacci
Ribble
Rice (SC)
Rigell
Roby
Roe (TN)
Rogers (AL)
Rogers (KY)
Rohrabacher
Rokita
Rooney (FL)
Ros-Lehtinen
Roskam
Ross
Rouzer
Royce
Russell
Salmon
Sanford
Scalise
Schweikert
Scott, Austin
Sensenbrenner
Sessions
Shimkus
Shuster
Simpson
Smith (MO)
Smith (NE)
Smith (NJ)
Smith (TX)
Stefanik
Stewart
Stivers
Stutzman
Thompson (PA)
Thornberry
Tipton
Torres
Trott
Turner
Upton
Valadao
Wagner
Walberg
Walden
Walker
Walorski
Walters, Mimi
Weber (TX)
Webster (FL)
Wenstrup
Westerman
Williams
Wilson (SC)
Wittman
Womack
Woodall
Yoder
Yoho
Young (AK)
Young (IA)
Young (IN)
Zeldin
Zinke
NOES--180
Adams
Aguilar
Amash
Ashford
Bass
Beatty
Becerra
Bera
Beyer
Bishop (GA)
Blumenauer
Bonamici
Boyle, Brendan F.
Brady (PA)
Brownley (CA)
Bustos
Butterfield
Capps
Capuano
Cardenas
Carney
Carson (IN)
Cartwright
Castor (FL)
Castro (TX)
Chu, Judy
Cicilline
Clark (MA)
Clarke (NY)
Clay
Cleaver
Cohen
Connolly
Conyers
Cooper
Courtney
Crowley
Cuellar
Cummings
Davis (CA)
Davis, Danny
DeFazio
DeGette
Delaney
DeLauro
DelBene
DeSaulnier
Deutch
Dingell
Doggett
Doyle, Michael F.
Duckworth
Edwards
Ellison
Engel
Eshoo
Esty
Evans
Farr
Foster
Frankel (FL)
Fudge
Gabbard
Gallego
Garamendi
Graham
Grayson
Green, Al
Green, Gene
Grijalva
Gutierrez
Hanabusa
Hastings
Heck (WA)
Higgins
Himes
Hinojosa
Hoyer
Huffman
Israel
Jackson Lee
Jeffries
Johnson (GA)
Johnson, E. B.
Kaptur
Keating
Kelly (IL)
Kennedy
Kildee
Kilmer
Kind
Kuster
Langevin
Larsen (WA)
Larson (CT)
Lawrence
Levin
Lewis
Lieu, Ted
Lipinski
Loebsack
Lofgren
Lowenthal
Lowey
Lujan Grisham (NM)
Lujan, Ben Ray (NM)
Lynch
Maloney, Carolyn
Maloney, Sean
Massie
Matsui
McCollum
McDermott
McGovern
McNerney
Meeks
Meng
Moore
Moulton
Murphy (FL)
Nadler
Napolitano
Neal
Nolan
Norcross
O'Rourke
Pallone
Pascrell
Payne
Pelosi
Perlmutter
Peters
Peterson
Pingree
Pocan
Polis
Price (NC)
Quigley
Rangel
Rice (NY)
Richmond
Roybal-Allard
Ruiz
Ruppersberger
Rush
Ryan (OH)
Sanchez, Linda T.
Sarbanes
Schakowsky
Schiff
Schrader
Scott (VA)
Scott, David
Sewell (AL)
Sherman
Sinema
Sires
Slaughter
Smith (WA)
Speier
Swalwell (CA)
Takano
Thompson (CA)
Thompson (MS)
Titus
Tonko
Tsongas
Van Hollen
Vargas
Veasey
Vela
Velazquez
Visclosky
Walz
Wasserman Schultz
Waters, Maxine
Watson Coleman
Welch
Wilson (FL)
Yarmuth
NOT VOTING--21
Brown (FL)
Clyburn
Crenshaw
Ellmers (NC)
Fincher
Fitzpatrick
Forbes
Garrett
Graves (MO)
Honda
Jolly
Kirkpatrick
Lee
MacArthur
Miller (MI)
Poe (TX)
Rothfus
Sanchez, Loretta
Serrano
Tiberi
Westmoreland
Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore
The SPEAKER pro tempore (during the vote). There are 2 minutes
remaining.
{time} 1357
Mrs. TORRES changed her vote from ``no'' to ``aye.''
So the resolution was agreed to.
The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
____________________
ARBUCKLE PROJECT MAINTENANCE COMPLEX AND DISTRICT OFFICE CONVEYANCE ACT
OF 2016
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The unfinished business is the vote on the
motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1219) to authorize
the Secretary of the Interior to convey certain land and appurtenances
of the Arbuckle Project, Oklahoma, to the Arbuckle Master Conservancy
District, and for other purposes, as amended, on which the yeas and
nays were ordered.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Utah (Mr. Bishop) that the House suspend the rules and
pass the bill, as amended.
This is a 5-minute vote.
The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 412,
nays 1, not voting 20, as follows:
[[Page 16044]]
[Roll No. 611]
YEAS--412
Abraham
Adams
Aderholt
Aguilar
Allen
Amodei
Ashford
Babin
Barletta
Barr
Barton
Bass
Beatty
Becerra
Benishek
Bera
Beyer
Bilirakis
Bishop (GA)
Bishop (MI)
Bishop (UT)
Black
Blackburn
Blum
Blumenauer
Bonamici
Bost
Boustany
Boyle, Brendan F.
Brady (PA)
Brady (TX)
Brat
Bridenstine
Brooks (AL)
Brooks (IN)
Brownley (CA)
Buchanan
Buck
Bucshon
Burgess
Bustos
Butterfield
Byrne
Calvert
Capps
Capuano
Cardenas
Carney
Carson (IN)
Carter (GA)
Carter (TX)
Cartwright
Castor (FL)
Castro (TX)
Chabot
Chaffetz
Chu, Judy
Cicilline
Clark (MA)
Clarke (NY)
Clawson (FL)
Clay
Cleaver
Coffman
Cohen
Cole
Collins (GA)
Collins (NY)
Comer
Comstock
Conaway
Connolly
Conyers
Cook
Cooper
Costa
Costello (PA)
Courtney
Cramer
Crawford
Crowley
Cuellar
Culberson
Cummings
Curbelo (FL)
Davidson
Davis (CA)
Davis, Danny
Davis, Rodney
DeFazio
DeGette
Delaney
DeLauro
DelBene
Denham
Dent
DeSantis
DeSaulnier
DesJarlais
Deutch
Diaz-Balart
Dingell
Doggett
Dold
Donovan
Doyle, Michael F.
Duckworth
Duffy
Duncan (SC)
Duncan (TN)
Edwards
Ellison
Emmer (MN)
Engel
Eshoo
Esty
Evans
Farenthold
Farr
Fleischmann
Fleming
Flores
Forbes
Fortenberry
Foster
Foxx
Frankel (FL)
Franks (AZ)
Frelinghuysen
Fudge
Gabbard
Gallego
Garamendi
Gibbs
Gibson
Gohmert
Goodlatte
Gosar
Gowdy
Graham
Granger
Graves (GA)
Graves (LA)
Grayson
Green, Al
Green, Gene
Griffith
Grijalva
Grothman
Guinta
Guthrie
Gutierrez
Hanabusa
Hanna
Hardy
Harper
Harris
Hartzler
Hastings
Heck (NV)
Heck (WA)
Hensarling
Herrera Beutler
Hice, Jody B.
Higgins
Hill
Himes
Hinojosa
Holding
Hoyer
Hudson
Huelskamp
Huffman
Huizenga (MI)
Hultgren
Hunter
Hurd (TX)
Hurt (VA)
Israel
Issa
Jackson Lee
Jeffries
Jenkins (KS)
Jenkins (WV)
Johnson (GA)
Johnson (OH)
Johnson, E. B.
Johnson, Sam
Jones
Jordan
Joyce
Kaptur
Katko
Keating
Kelly (IL)
Kelly (MS)
Kelly (PA)
Kennedy
Kildee
Kilmer
Kind
King (IA)
King (NY)
Kinzinger (IL)
Kline
Knight
Kuster
Labrador
LaHood
LaMalfa
Lamborn
Lance
Langevin
Larsen (WA)
Larson (CT)
Latta
Lawrence
Levin
Lewis
Lieu, Ted
Lipinski
LoBiondo
Loebsack
Lofgren
Long
Loudermilk
Love
Lowenthal
Lowey
Lucas
Luetkemeyer
Lujan Grisham (NM)
Lujan, Ben Ray (NM)
Lummis
Lynch
MacArthur
Maloney, Carolyn
Maloney, Sean
Marchant
Marino
Massie
Matsui
McCarthy
McCaul
McClintock
McCollum
McDermott
McGovern
McHenry
McKinley
McMorris Rodgers
McNerney
McSally
Meadows
Meehan
Meeks
Meng
Messer
Mica
Miller (FL)
Moolenaar
Mooney (WV)
Moore
Moulton
Mullin
Mulvaney
Murphy (FL)
Murphy (PA)
Nadler
Napolitano
Neal
Neugebauer
Newhouse
Noem
Nolan
Norcross
Nugent
Nunes
O'Rourke
Olson
Palazzo
Pallone
Palmer
Pascrell
Paulsen
Payne
Pearce
Pelosi
Perlmutter
Perry
Peters
Peterson
Pingree
Pittenger
Pitts
Pocan
Poliquin
Polis
Pompeo
Posey
Price (NC)
Price, Tom
Quigley
Rangel
Ratcliffe
Reed
Reichert
Renacci
Ribble
Rice (NY)
Rice (SC)
Richmond
Rigell
Roby
Roe (TN)
Rogers (AL)
Rogers (KY)
Rohrabacher
Rokita
Rooney (FL)
Ros-Lehtinen
Roskam
Ross
Rouzer
Roybal-Allard
Royce
Ruiz
Ruppersberger
Rush
Russell
Ryan (OH)
Salmon
Sanchez, Linda T.
Sanford
Sarbanes
Scalise
Schakowsky
Schiff
Schrader
Scott (VA)
Scott, Austin
Scott, David
Sensenbrenner
Sessions
Sewell (AL)
Sherman
Shimkus
Shuster
Simpson
Sinema
Sires
Slaughter
Smith (MO)
Smith (NE)
Smith (NJ)
Smith (TX)
Smith (WA)
Speier
Stefanik
Stewart
Stivers
Stutzman
Swalwell (CA)
Takano
Thompson (CA)
Thompson (MS)
Thompson (PA)
Thornberry
Tipton
Titus
Tonko
Torres
Trott
Tsongas
Turner
Upton
Valadao
Van Hollen
Vargas
Veasey
Vela
Velazquez
Visclosky
Wagner
Walberg
Walden
Walker
Walorski
Walters, Mimi
Walz
Wasserman Schultz
Waters, Maxine
Watson Coleman
Weber (TX)
Webster (FL)
Welch
Wenstrup
Westerman
Williams
Wilson (FL)
Wilson (SC)
Wittman
Womack
Woodall
Yarmuth
Yoder
Yoho
Young (AK)
Young (IA)
Young (IN)
Zeldin
Zinke
NAYS--1
Amash
NOT VOTING--20
Brown (FL)
Clyburn
Crenshaw
Ellmers (NC)
Fincher
Fitzpatrick
Garrett
Graves (MO)
Honda
Jolly
Kirkpatrick
Lee
Miller (MI)
Poe (TX)
Rothfus
Sanchez, Loretta
Schweikert
Serrano
Tiberi
Westmoreland
Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore
The SPEAKER pro tempore (during the vote). There are 2 minutes
remaining.
{time} 1405
Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York changed her vote from ``nay'' to
``yea.''
So (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the rules were suspended and
the bill, as amended, was passed.
The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
____________________
DANIEL J. EVANS OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK WILDERNESS ACT
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The unfinished business is the vote on the
motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill (S. 3028) to redesignate
the Olympic Wilderness as the Daniel J. Evans Wilderness, on which the
yeas and nays were ordered.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Utah (Mr. Bishop) that the House suspend the rules and
pass the bill.
This is a 5-minute vote.
The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 401,
nays 8, answered ``present'' 2, not voting 22, as follows:
[Roll No. 612]
YEAS--401
Abraham
Adams
Aderholt
Aguilar
Allen
Amodei
Ashford
Babin
Barletta
Barr
Barton
Bass
Beatty
Becerra
Benishek
Bera
Beyer
Bilirakis
Bishop (GA)
Bishop (MI)
Bishop (UT)
Black
Blackburn
Blum
Blumenauer
Bonamici
Bost
Boustany
Boyle, Brendan F.
Brady (PA)
Brady (TX)
Bridenstine
Brooks (AL)
Brooks (IN)
Brownley (CA)
Buchanan
Buck
Bucshon
Burgess
Bustos
Butterfield
Byrne
Calvert
Capps
Capuano
Cardenas
Carney
Carson (IN)
Carter (GA)
Carter (TX)
Cartwright
Castor (FL)
Castro (TX)
Chabot
Chaffetz
Chu, Judy
Cicilline
Clark (MA)
Clarke (NY)
Clawson (FL)
Clay
Cleaver
Coffman
Cohen
Cole
Collins (GA)
Collins (NY)
Comer
Comstock
Conaway
Connolly
Conyers
Cook
Cooper
Costa
Costello (PA)
Courtney
Cramer
Crawford
Crowley
Cuellar
Culberson
Cummings
Curbelo (FL)
Davidson
Davis (CA)
Davis, Danny
Davis, Rodney
DeFazio
DeGette
Delaney
DeLauro
DelBene
Denham
Dent
DeSantis
DeSaulnier
DesJarlais
Deutch
Diaz-Balart
Dingell
Doggett
Dold
Donovan
Doyle, Michael F.
Duckworth
Duffy
Duncan (SC)
Duncan (TN)
Edwards
Ellison
Emmer (MN)
Engel
Eshoo
Esty
Evans
Farenthold
Farr
Fleischmann
Fleming
Flores
Forbes
Fortenberry
Foster
Foxx
Frankel (FL)
Franks (AZ)
Frelinghuysen
Fudge
Gabbard
Gallego
Garamendi
Gibbs
Gibson
Gohmert
Goodlatte
Gowdy
Graham
Granger
Graves (GA)
Graves (LA)
Grayson
Green, Al
Green, Gene
Griffith
Grijalva
Guinta
Guthrie
Gutierrez
Hanabusa
Hanna
Hardy
Harper
Hartzler
Hastings
Heck (NV)
Heck (WA)
Hensarling
Herrera Beutler
Hice, Jody B.
Higgins
Hill
Himes
Hinojosa
Holding
Hoyer
Hudson
Huelskamp
Huffman
Huizenga (MI)
Hultgren
Hunter
Hurd (TX)
Hurt (VA)
Israel
Issa
Jackson Lee
Jeffries
Jenkins (KS)
Jenkins (WV)
Johnson (GA)
Johnson (OH)
Johnson, E. B.
Johnson, Sam
Jordan
Joyce
Kaptur
Katko
Keating
Kelly (IL)
Kelly (MS)
Kelly (PA)
Kennedy
Kildee
Kilmer
Kind
King (IA)
King (NY)
Kinzinger (IL)
Kline
Knight
Kuster
Labrador
LaHood
LaMalfa
Lamborn
Lance
Langevin
Larsen (WA)
Larson (CT)
Latta
Lawrence
Levin
Lewis
Lieu, Ted
Lipinski
LoBiondo
Loebsack
Lofgren
Long
Loudermilk
Love
Lowenthal
Lowey
Lucas
Luetkemeyer
Lujan Grisham (NM)
Lujan, Ben Ray (NM)
Lummis
Lynch
MacArthur
Maloney, Carolyn
[[Page 16045]]
Maloney, Sean
Marchant
Marino
Matsui
McCarthy
McCaul
McClintock
McCollum
McDermott
McGovern
McHenry
McKinley
McMorris Rodgers
McNerney
McSally
Meadows
Meehan
Meeks
Meng
Messer
Mica
Miller (FL)
Moolenaar
Mooney (WV)
Moore
Moulton
Mullin
Murphy (FL)
Murphy (PA)
Nadler
Napolitano
Neal
Neugebauer
Newhouse
Noem
Nolan
Norcross
Nugent
Nunes
O'Rourke
Olson
Palazzo
Pallone
Palmer
Pascrell
Paulsen
Payne
Pearce
Pelosi
Perlmutter
Perry
Peters
Peterson
Pingree
Pitts
Pocan
Poliquin
Polis
Pompeo
Posey
Price (NC)
Price, Tom
Quigley
Rangel
Ratcliffe
Reed
Reichert
Renacci
Ribble
Rice (NY)
Richmond
Rigell
Roby
Roe (TN)
Rogers (AL)
Rogers (KY)
Rohrabacher
Rokita
Rooney (FL)
Ros-Lehtinen
Roskam
Ross
Rouzer
Roybal-Allard
Royce
Ruiz
Ruppersberger
Rush
Russell
Ryan (OH)
Salmon
Sanchez, Linda T.
Sarbanes
Scalise
Schakowsky
Schiff
Schrader
Schweikert
Scott (VA)
Scott, Austin
Scott, David
Sensenbrenner
Sessions
Sherman
Shimkus
Shuster
Simpson
Sires
Slaughter
Smith (MO)
Smith (NE)
Smith (NJ)
Smith (TX)
Smith (WA)
Speier
Stefanik
Stewart
Stivers
Stutzman
Swalwell (CA)
Takano
Thompson (CA)
Thompson (MS)
Thompson (PA)
Thornberry
Tipton
Titus
Tonko
Torres
Trott
Tsongas
Turner
Upton
Valadao
Van Hollen
Vargas
Veasey
Vela
Velazquez
Visclosky
Wagner
Walberg
Walden
Walker
Walorski
Walters, Mimi
Walz
Wasserman Schultz
Waters, Maxine
Watson Coleman
Weber (TX)
Webster (FL)
Welch
Wenstrup
Westerman
Williams
Wilson (FL)
Wilson (SC)
Wittman
Womack
Woodall
Yarmuth
Yoder
Yoho
Young (AK)
Young (IA)
Young (IN)
Zeldin
Zinke
NAYS--8
Amash
Brat
Gosar
Grothman
Harris
Massie
Sanford
Sinema
ANSWERED ``PRESENT''--2
Mulvaney
Rice (SC)
NOT VOTING--22
Brown (FL)
Clyburn
Crenshaw
Ellmers (NC)
Fincher
Fitzpatrick
Garrett
Graves (MO)
Honda
Jolly
Jones
Kirkpatrick
Lee
Miller (MI)
Pittenger
Poe (TX)
Rothfus
Sanchez, Loretta
Serrano
Sewell (AL)
Tiberi
Westmoreland
Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore
The SPEAKER pro tempore (during the vote). There are 2 minutes
remaining.
{time} 1413
Mr. RICE of South Carolina changed his vote from ``yea'' to
``present.''
So (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the rules were suspended and
the bill was passed.
The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
____________________
{time} 1415
AUTHORIZING DIRECTORS OF VETERANS INTEGRATED SERVICE NETWORKS TO ENTER
INTO CONTRACTS TO INVESTIGATE MEDICAL CENTERS
Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and
pass the bill (H.R. 6435) to authorize the Directors of Veterans
Integrated Service Networks of the Department of Veterans Affairs to
enter into contracts with appropriate civilian accreditation entities
or appropriate health care evaluation entities to investigate medical
centers of the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 6435
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. AUTHORITY OF DIRECTORS OF VETERANS INTEGRATED
SERVICE NETWORKS TO INVESTIGATE MEDICAL CENTERS
OF THE DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS.
(a) In General.--The Director of a Veterans Integrated
Service Network of the Department of Veterans Affairs may
contract with an appropriate entity specializing in civilian
accreditation or health care evaluation to investigate any
medical center within such Network to assess and report
deficiencies of the facilities at such medical center.
(b) Coordination.--Before entering into any contract under
subsection (a), the Director of a Veterans Integrated Service
Network shall notify the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, the
Inspector General of the Department of Veterans Affairs, and
the Comptroller General of the United States for purposes of
coordinating any investigation conducted pursuant to such
contract with any other investigations or accreditations that
may be ongoing.
(c) Rule of Construction.--Nothing in this section may be
construed--
(1) to prevent the Office of the Inspector General of the
Department of Veterans Affairs from conducting any review,
audit, evaluation, or inspection regarding a topic for which
a review is conducted under subsection (a); or
(2) to modify the requirement that employees of the
Department assist with any review, audit, evaluation, or
inspection conducted by the Office of the Inspector General
of the Department.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Tennessee (Mr. Roe) and the gentleman from California (Mr. Takano) each
will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Tennessee.
General Leave
Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all
Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their
remarks.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Tennessee?
There was no objection.
Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
I rise today in support of H.R. 6435, a bill to authorize the
Directors of Veterans Integrated Service Networks, or VISN, of the
Department of Veterans Affairs to enter into contracts with appropriate
civilian accreditation entities or appropriate health care evaluation
entities to investigate VA medical centers.
This bill would allow VISN directors to contract with an appropriate
non-VA entity with expertise and civilian accreditation or healthcare
evaluation to investigate any medical center within that director's
catchment area.
It is no secret that the last few years have been tumultuous for the
VA healthcare system, beginning with the access and accountability
crisis in Phoenix and across the country in 2014, and continuing to
just last week when reports surfaced of potential infectious disease
concerns at a troubled VA medical center in Tomah, Wisconsin.
While the committee has an important oversight and investigative
responsibility toward VA, as a Federal bureaucracy, VA is all too often
charged with policing itself through internal watchdogs like the Office
of Medical Inspector and the VA Office of Inspector General. However,
despite all of our best efforts, waste, fraud, and abuse still persist
and still continue to harm veterans throughout the VA healthcare
system.
H.R. 6435 would provide VA regional leadership yet another tool to
root out deficiencies within the VA medical facilities while providing
VISN directors the ability to work with an experienced, objective
entity to assess a given VA medical center's operations and management.
I believe this bill will empower VISN leaders to take a more active
role in creating a culture of quality and accountability and lead to
the provision of better, safer care to veteran patients.
I am grateful to my friend and colleague Congressman Markwayne Mullin
of Oklahoma for sponsoring this legislation, and I encourage all of my
colleagues to join me in supporting it.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I rise today in support of this legislation by the gentleman from
Oklahoma (Mr. Mullin).
Ensuring VA delivers safe and high-quality health care to veterans is
an important priority for this committee. This bill will allow Veterans
Integrated Service Network directors to contract with civilian
accreditation and healthcare evaluation organizations to inspect and
investigate VA medical centers. This gives VA another tool to evaluate
and improve the quality of care provided at its facilities.
[[Page 16046]]
VA medical centers are routinely inspected and accredited by
recognized organizations in the healthcare world, such as the Joint
Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals and the Commission on
Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities. This bill would allow other
organizations to inspect and accredit VA hospitals at VA's discretion.
Since the VA inspector general and Government Accountability Office
also routinely conduct investigations, inspections, and audits of VA
medical facilities, I would like to emphasize that this bill requires
both GAO and the IG to be notified when a VISN chooses to contract with
civilian inspection and accreditation organizations.
Coordination of efforts with GAO and the IG will avoid duplication
and prevent the waste of taxpayer dollars. I also want to emphasize
that this authority should not be used to replace the role of the IG
and GAO in conducting investigations, inspections, and evaluations of
VA medical facilities.
I urge my colleagues to support this bill.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman
from Oklahoma (Mr. Mullin), who brought this legislation to our
committee.
Mr. MULLIN. Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman-elect Roe for yielding and
for his work on the committee. I have no doubt that he will perform
admirably in his new role, and I want to extend my appreciation to him
and to Chairman Miller for their leadership in getting this bill to the
floor for consideration.
This bill is simple, so I will keep it short. All the bill does is
authorize the Department of Veterans Affairs to contract with
appropriate civilian healthcare accrediting or evaluating groups to
investigate the VA medical centers.
Our veterans deserve care equal to the finest civilian hospitals, so
let's allow the VA to invite the people who evaluate and accredit those
private hospitals to take a look at our VA medical centers when they
have problems.
This is a commonsense bill that will help improve the care of our
veterans who need us the most. I urge passage of this bill.
Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I encourage all of my colleagues to support
this important legislation and to join me in passing H.R. 6435.
I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, as Mr. Mullin said, this is a very
commonsense piece of legislation.
I worked in hospitals for almost four decades that had joint
commission supervision. It is a good way. It is best for patient
safety. With that, I encourage all Members to support this legislation.
I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Roe) that the House suspend the rules and
pass the bill, H.R. 6435.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the
rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
____________________
COMMUNITIES HELPING INVEST THROUGH PROPERTY AND IMPROVEMENTS NEEDED FOR
VETERANS ACT OF 2016
Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and
pass the bill (H.R. 5099) to establish a pilot program on partnership
agreements to construct new facilities for the Department of Veterans
Affairs, as amended.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 5099
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Communities Helping Invest
through Property and Improvements Needed for Veterans Act of
2016'' or the ``CHIP IN for Vets Act of 2016''.
SEC. 2. PILOT PROGRAM ON ACCEPTANCE BY THE DEPARTMENT OF
VETERANS AFFAIRS OF DONATED FACILITIES AND
RELATED IMPROVEMENTS.
(a) Pilot Program Authorized.--
(1) In general.--Notwithstanding sections 8103 and 8104 of
title 38, United States Code, the Secretary of Veterans
Affairs may carry out a pilot program under which the
Secretary may accept donations of the following property from
entities described in paragraph (2):
(A) Real property (including structures and equipment
associated therewith)--
(i) that includes a constructed facility; or
(ii) to be used as the site of a facility constructed by
the entity.
(B) A facility to be constructed by the entity on real
property of the Department of Veterans Affairs.
(2) Entities described.--Entities described in this
paragraph are the following:
(A) A State or local authority.
(B) An organization that is described in section 501(c)(3)
of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 and is exempt from
taxation under section 501(a) of such Code.
(C) A limited liability corporation.
(D) A private entity.
(E) A donor or donor group.
(F) Any other non-Federal Government entity.
(3) Limitation.--The Secretary may accept not more than
five donations of real property and facility improvements
under the pilot program and as described in this section.
(b) Conditions for Acceptance of Property.--The Secretary
may accept the donation of a property described in subsection
(a)(1) under the pilot program only if--
(1) the property is--
(A) a property with respect to which funds have been
appropriated for a Department facility project; or
(B) a property identified as--
(i) meeting a need of the Department as part of the long-
range capital planning process of the Department; and
(ii) the location for a Department facility project that is
included on the Strategic Capital Investment Planning process
priority list in the most recent budget submitted to Congress
by the President pursuant to section 1105(a) of title 31,
United States Code; and
(2) an entity described in subsection (a)(2) has entered
into or is willing to enter into a formal agreement with the
Secretary in accordance with subsection (c) under which the
entity agrees to independently donate the real property,
improvements, goods, or services, for the Department facility
project in an amount acceptable to the Secretary and at no
additional cost to the Federal Government.
(c) Requirement to Enter Into an Agreement.--
(1) In general.--The Secretary may accept real property and
improvements donated under the pilot program by an entity
described in subsection (a)(2) only if the entity enters into
a formal agreement with the Secretary that provides for--
(A) the donation of real property and improvements
(including structures and equipment associated therewith)
that includes a constructed facility; or
(B) the construction by the entity of a facility on--
(i) real property and improvements of the Department of
Veterans Affairs; or
(ii) real property and improvements donated to the
Department by the entity.
(2) Content of formal agreements.--With respect to an
entity described in subsection (a)(2) that seeks to enter
into a formal agreement under paragraph (1) of this
subsection that includes the construction by the entity of a
facility, the formal agreement shall provide for the
following:
(A) The entity shall conduct all necessary environmental
and historic preservation due diligence, shall comply with
all local zoning requirements (except for studies and
consultations required of the Department under Federal law),
and shall obtain all permits required in connection with the
construction of the facility.
(B) The entity shall use construction standards required of
the Department when designing, repairing, altering, or
building the facility, except to the extent the Secretary
determines otherwise, as permitted by applicable law.
(C) The entity shall provide the real property,
improvements, goods, or services in a manner described in
subsection (b)(2) sufficient to complete the construction of
the facility, at no additional cost to the Federal
Government.
(d) No Payment of Rent or Usage Fees.--The Secretary may
not pay rent, usage fees, or any other amounts to an entity
described in subsection (a)(2) or any other entity for the
use or occupancy of real property or improvements donated
under this section.
(e) Funding.--
(1) From department.--
(A) In general.--The Secretary may not provide funds to
help the entity finance, design, or construct a facility in
connection with real property and improvements donated under
the pilot program by an entity described in subsection (a)(2)
that are in addition to the funds appropriated for the
facility as of the date on which the Secretary and the entity
enter into a formal agreement under subsection (c) for the
donation of the real property and improvements.
[[Page 16047]]
(B) Terms and conditions.--The Secretary shall provide
funds pursuant to subparagraph (A) under such terms,
conditions, and schedule as the Secretary determines
appropriate.
(2) From entity.--An entity described in subsection (a)(2)
that is donating a facility constructed by the entity under
the pilot program shall be required, pursuant to a formal
agreement entered into under subsection (c), to provide other
funds in addition to the amounts provided by the Department
under paragraph (1) that are needed to complete construction
of the facility.
(f) Application.--An entity described in subsection (a)(2)
that seeks to donate real property and improvements under the
pilot program shall submit to the Secretary an application to
address needs relating to facilities of the Department,
including health care needs, identified in the Construction
and Long-Range Capital Plan of the Department, at such time,
in such manner, and containing such information as the
Secretary may require.
(g) Information on Donations and Related Projects.--
(1) In general.--The Secretary shall include in the budget
submitted to Congress by the President pursuant to section
1105(a) of title 31, United States Code, information
regarding real property and improvements donated under the
pilot program during the year preceding the submittal of the
budget and the status of facility projects relating to that
property.
(2) Elements.--Information submitted under paragraph (1)
shall provide a detailed status of donations of real property
and improvements conducted under the pilot program and
facility projects relating to that property, including the
percentage completion of the donations and projects.
(h) Biennial Report of Comptroller General of the United
States.--Not less frequently than once every two years until
the termination date set forth in subsection (i), the
Comptroller General of the United States shall submit to
Congress a report on the donation agreements entered into
under the pilot program.
(i) Termination.--The authority for the Secretary to accept
donations under the pilot program shall terminate on the date
that is five years after the date of the enactment of this
Act.
(j) Rule of Construction.--Nothing in this section shall be
construed as a limitation on the authority of the Secretary
to enter into other arrangements or agreements that are
authorized by law and not inconsistent with this section.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Tennessee (Mr. Roe) and the gentleman from California (Mr. Takano) each
will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Tennessee.
General Leave
Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all
Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their
remarks and add extraneous material.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Tennessee?
There was no objection.
Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 5099, as amended, the
Communities Helping Invest Through Property and Improvements Needed for
Veterans Act of 2016--and that is a mouthful--or the CHIP IN for Vets
Act of 2016. This bill, sponsored by our colleague Congressman Brad
Ashford from Nebraska, would authorize the Department of Veterans
Affairs to carry out a pilot program to accept from certain non-Federal
entities up to five donations of either real property that includes a
constructed facility or is to be used as a site of a facility
constructed by the entity, or a facility to be constructed by the
entity on VA real property. Such donation may be accepted only if it is
for a project for which funds have been appropriated for a VA facility
or is identified as meeting both a VA need as part of the Department's
long-range capital planning process and as the location for a VA
facility project that is included on the strategic capital investment
plan.
VA is one of our government's largest real property holders; and,
considering that the average age of a VA medical building is five times
older than the average age of a building in a nonprofit hospital
system, VA's capital needs continue to grow in both cost and
complexity. Meanwhile, the high-profile scandals and failures that VA's
construction and capital asset program has undergone have been well
publicized over the last few years.
In April of 2013, the Government Accountability Office found that
VA's major medical facility construction projects, which are already
costly, complicated endeavors, experienced cost increases ranging from
66 percent to 427 percent and schedule delays ranging from 14 months to
86 months. Needless to say, it is clear that the time to look for
innovative solutions to VA's capital needs is now.
Currently, VA has the authority to accept a donated facility if that
facility is already complete; however, it can be challenging to find
existing facilities that both meet demonstrated VA need and satisfy all
the requirements and mandates that a Federal facility must meet.
Allowing VA to accept unconditional donations of real property,
improvements, goods, or services from community donors, within certain
parameters, could provide a viable solution to meeting VA's capital
needs in an expedient, fiscally responsible manner while allowing
communities and individuals the opportunity to step up and contribute
in honor of their veteran friends and neighbors in a meaningful way.
As chairman in the 115th Congress, I look forward to continuing to
aggressively oversee VA's troubled construction program and to leave no
stones unturned when looking for new ways to ensure that VA has
facilities they need to provide the services our veterans require. I
believe that the pilot program could lay the foundation for doing just
that.
I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this legislation.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I rise in support of H.R. 5099, as amended, Communities Helping
Invest through Property and Improvements Needed for Veterans Act of
2016. Indeed, it is a mouthful but is a very, very important,
potentially transformative piece of legislation. Otherwise, we can
shorten it down to the CHIP IN for Vets Act of 2016, which was
introduced by my friend and colleague, the gentleman from Nebraska,
Brad Ashford. The bill is a testament to his hard work, as well as many
Members and staff on both sides of the Capitol, that we are considering
this bill today.
This bipartisan legislation will authorize a pilot program, allowing
the Department of Veterans Affairs to partner with nonprofit and
private donors to build VA hospitals, receive donated land, and acquire
other VA facilities so that the VA may continue to serve veterans.
Today there are generous donors and organizations ready to pitch in
and invest in their community's willingness to support and serve our
veterans. That is why we must take immediate action and pass H.R. 5099,
as amended.
This bill will permit the VA to accept facilities constructed by
donors, land where a future facility will be constructed by a donor,
and permit a donor to construct a facility on VA property under an
agreement to donate the facility to VA upon completion. It will also
preserve VA's authority to determine need by only allowing projects to
move forward under this program based on projects authorized and funded
by Congress or included on the VA's strategic capital investment
planning process priority list.
This bill is necessary not only because of the Federal Government's
significant budget constraints, but also so that VA has clear authority
to undertake these projects and accept donations for the acquisition of
facilities.
It also allows VA and Congress to determine whether this pilot
program that permits the VA and non-Federal organizations to combine
resources to construct facilities is a viable future model for the
funding and management of major and minor VA construction projects.
Thanks to the public-private partnerships this legislation will
foster, the VA will be able to take meaningful steps in improving its
capacity to provide our veterans the quality care they deserve at
state-of-the-art VA facilities, all the while saving American taxpayers
millions of dollars in the process. It is the very definition of a win-
win situation.
[[Page 16048]]
Mr. Speaker, strengthening the VA and increasing its capacity to
provide and coordinate care is one of our highest priorities at the
Committee on Veterans' Affairs, and I am pleased to support H.R. 5099,
as amended, which will only improve VA's ability to do so.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman
from Nebraska (Mr. Fortenberry) for his comments.
Mr. FORTENBERRY. Mr. Speaker, as we are about to conclude this
legislative session, I hope everyone here realizes the magnitude of
what this bill before us does.
Yes, we have got a lot going on. We are distracted. We are eager to
finish up business and start a transition period. But, as Congressman
Takano just said, this is transformative. This creates a blueprint of
the architecture for a 21st century VA. And why? As Congressman Roe
pointed out, we have had extreme difficulties and complexities and
problems in the VA with service delivery as well as budgetary cost
overruns.
{time} 1430
We have had for a very long time an aging hospital in Omaha. We have
had a community that is very eager to find a new innovative way out of
this problem. We have a pot of money that has been sitting here for a
very long time and will continue to sit here for a very long time
unless we become innovative, unless we do something different.
That is what Congressman Ashford has done with the rest of the
Federal delegation from Nebraska, including Senator Fischer. He has
come up with an innovative transformative model that will create a new
center of excellence based on a public-private partnership, using
existing Federal moneys, using a base of community support that has
already come forward looking to help the VA better integrate with the
private facilities that already exist in the community of Omaha, which
are quite extraordinary. As Congressman Takano said, this is a win-win-
win.
I want to congratulate my friend and colleague, Congressman Ashford,
for his extraordinary leadership and vision in this regard as well as
the integrity to stay with it until the very end. We have had some
complexities along the way, but it is my hope, Mr. Chairman,
particularly as you take over the reins of the entire committee, that
you will help us implement this rapidly, as I know you will, because it
is a transformative mechanism by which we are going to deliver the
highest and best possible care for our veterans back home.
Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from
Nebraska (Mr. Ashford), who had the tenacity to stick it through and
bring this legislation finally in this form to the floor.
Mr. ASHFORD. Mr. Speaker, I thank Ranking Member Takano, Chairman
Roe, certainly Chairman Miller, and Mr. Speaker for bringing this
important bill up for a vote today.
H.R. 5099, the CHIP IN for Vets Act, was introduced by myself and
others in the House and by my good friend and colleague, Senator Deb
Fischer, in the United States Senate. There is an identical bill in the
Senate awaiting action as we speak.
As has been suggested and mentioned, this bill allows for the
Department of Veterans Affairs to enter into donation agreements with
community groups in order to complete VA construction projects. This is
a new and innovative idea not necessarily brought to this body by
myself, but by so many other people, as has been mentioned, who have
worked on this bill for literally 2 years. I appreciate my good friend,
Congressman Fortenberry from Lincoln, Nebraska, for his comments and
his ability to hold me back from time to time as we proceeded down this
course.
I think when we started out with this process, what I was focused on
was the idea that in our own communities it is veterans who can make
those tough decisions as to what their needs are. Nobody better than
our veterans understands those needs. What this bill will allow us to
do is to combine community donors with veterans to actually involve
themselves together in the development of these projects. Certainly in
Omaha, in my community in Iowa, and Nebraska area, we have had a need
for such a renovated facility for many, many years.
My bill, I believe, empowers our veterans. It puts an end to the
decades-long wait for hundreds of thousands of veterans in my area who
have been promised new facilities. I think, as clearly as Congressman
Fortenberry, Ranking Member Takano, and Chairman Roe mentioned, that
this really does open up opportunities for VA facilities across the
entire country and starts the course moving forward.
Let me just conclude by thanking so many of you. I would be here much
longer than 5 minutes if I were going to name everyone, but certainly I
appreciate my cosponsors, Congressman Walz from Minnesota, Congressman
Fortenberry, Congressman Smith from Nebraska, Congressman Dave Young
from across the river in Iowa.
I thank Chairman Miller, who gave me the opportunity to discuss, even
on weekends, some of the positive elements of what we were trying to do
in Nebraska.
Lastly, thanks to the staff and certainly my staff leader on this
bill, Denise Fleming. I am going to be in the House only a few more
weeks, but I can't say that she is actually welcoming me leaving, but
she certainly has been a tenacious advocate and has worked very, very
hard.
There have been other staff members as well, and certainly they have
all added a tremendous amount to this bill: Christine Hill and Grace
Rodden most particularly.
Moving this bill ensures that Senator Fischer's bill, which is now in
the Senate, can move in the Senate and become law so we can begin this
project now. My friends in Omaha, in Nebraska, and Iowa are ready to
donate what is necessary to unleash, as Mr. Fortenberry suggests, the
money that has already been appropriated for our Omaha facility.
Lastly, I would like to thank the Secretary of the Veterans
Administration, Robert McDonald. I met Bob McDonald 2 years ago about
just now when I was coming in to Congress. I suggested to him that we
needed something to be done in Omaha, and I also suggested that I
thought that our donor community and our veterans community would work
together on an innovative public-private partnership to enable some
sort of new way, some sort of center of excellence to develop; and
certainly Secretary McDonald and his team have been great and have been
so incredibly helpful in moving this along.
Lastly, again, I thank my colleague and friend actually from our
years together in the unicameral legislature in Nebraska, Deb Fischer,
whose staff has been tireless and helpful in this matter.
Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman
from Iowa (Mr. Young), my good friend, to speak on this issue.
Mr. YOUNG of Iowa. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to speak in support of
H.R. 5099, the bipartisan CHIP IN for Vets Act of 2016, which is
sponsored by my colleague from across the river, Congressman Brad
Ashford in Nebraska.
Our veterans make great sacrifices in defense of our freedoms, and it
is incumbent upon us to provide them with the best possible health care
when they return home.
Now, many of our Department of Veterans Affairs facilities are aging.
They are in need of upgrades and repair, some complete overhauls, yet
cost overruns and significant delays trouble VA construction programs
and hinder work on other VA facilities in need of improvements.
The CHIP IN for Vets Act of 2016 seeks to address some of these
problems by authorizing the VA to carry out a 5-year pilot program
examining the feasibility of leveraging private donations to construct
new VA facilities, that public-private partnership.
This is a new way of doing things and a unique opportunity for the
taxpayer and for veterans. This bill could help facilities--and it
will--like the Omaha VA Medical Center, which serve my constituents in
Iowa as well as those in Nebraska.
[[Page 16049]]
Now, I appreciate my colleague's work, Congressman Ashford, for
pushing this bill along. I was proud to sign on as a cosponsor.
Congressman Ashford has shown great leadership and tenacity in getting
this bill over the finish line. That is what he came here to do, to get
things done.
I urge my colleagues to support this bill.
Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
I want to add some more comments about the legislation that we are
about to pass. I concur in and associate myself with the remarks of my
colleague from Nebraska, Mr. Fortenberry. I certainly want to extend my
appreciation to the majority for its generosity of spirit in this
particular case. If there is anything that fills me with great hope
that we can restore the esteem of this great institution in the eyes of
the American people, it is when we pass legislation such as Mr.
Ashford's bill today. We rose above politics--both sides rose above
politics--to do the right thing for veterans. It was our regard for
veterans that brought us together. It is fitting that this action is
happening in the heartland of our country. This is no small measure
today. The American people do not really see the drama. It looks very
effortless about what we are going to do because it is going to be
voice voted. No real big drama is going to play out in front of
everybody, but I am going to tell you that Republicans and Democrats
worked together.
I want to congratulate and show my appreciation to my whip, Mr.
Hoyer. He worked his relationships with some Members on the other side
in the Senate, and it showed that we shouldn't be so hasty to move our
more senior Members so quickly out of their positions because these
relationships matter after so many years. I will go more into detail
with anyone who cares to know more about it later. Mr. McCarthy, of my
home State of California, my own Leader Pelosi, and staff on both sides
of the aisle worked tirelessly to bring this bill.
We are about to head home for the holiday season, and I can't think
of a greater gift that we can give--well, I can think of a lot of
greater gifts, but this is a very important gift that we are going to
give. It is truly a potentially transformative piece of legislation.
Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers at this time. I just want to
encourage all of my colleagues to support this important piece of
legislation and join me in passing H.R. 5099, as amended.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my
time.
I, too, want to associate myself with the remarks of all the speakers
and thank Mr. Ashford for his perseverance in bringing this, along with
Mr. Fortenberry on our side and Chairman Miller and Ranking Member
Takano. This is the way we are going to have to do this more. There is
a finite amount of money we have. There is a finite amount of money we
can provide for services, and looking for public-private partnerships,
as my city in Johnson City, Tennessee, is doing right now with other
projects. I think this is a model for what could go on in the country.
I have a CBOC in my district where the local mayor provided use at a
hospital for a dollar a year for the VA to have the VA facility there.
I think that is going on in Nebraska right now. They are trying to see
that happen. We need to be thinking about how we can provide these
facilities to serve these great veterans who have served our country.
Mr. Speaker, I encourage all Members to support this legislation.
I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Rodney Davis of Illinois). The question
is on the motion offered by the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Roe) that
the House suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 5099, as amended.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the
rules were suspended and the bill, as amended, was passed.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
____________________
{time} 1445
TO RESEARCH, EVALUATE, ASSESS, AND TREAT ASTRONAUTS ACT
Mr. BABIN. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill
(H.R. 6076) to require the Administrator of the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration to establish a program for the medical
monitoring, diagnosis, and treatment of astronauts, and for other
purposes, as amended.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 6076
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``To Research, Evaluate,
Assess, and Treat Astronauts Act'' or the ``TREAT Astronauts
Act''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS; SENSE OF CONGRESS.
(a) Findings.--Congress makes the following findings:
(1) Human space exploration can pose significant challenges
and is full of substantial risk, which has ultimately claimed
the lives of 24 National Aeronautics and Space Administration
astronauts serving in the line of duty.
(2) As United States government astronauts participate in
long-duration and exploration spaceflight missions they may
experience increased health risks, such as vision impairment,
bone demineralization, and behavioral health and performance
risks, and may be exposed to galactic cosmic radiation.
Exposure to high levels of radiation and microgravity can
result in acute and long-term health consequences that can
increase the risk of cancer and tissue degeneration and have
potential effects on the musculoskeletal system, central
nervous system, cardiovascular system, immune function, and
vision.
(3) To advance the goal of long-duration and exploration
spaceflight missions, United States government astronaut
Scott Kelly participated in a one-year twins study in space
while his identical twin brother, former United States
government astronaut Mark Kelly, acted as a human control
specimen on Earth, providing an understanding of the
physical, behavioral, microbiological, and molecular reaction
of the human body to an extended period of time in space.
(4) Since the Administration currently provides medical
monitoring, diagnosis, and treatment for United States
government astronauts during their active employment, given
the unknown long-term health consequences of long-duration
space exploration, the Administration has requested statutory
authority from Congress to provide medical monitoring,
diagnosis, and treatment to former United States government
astronauts for psychological and medical conditions
associated with human space flight.
(b) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that--
(1) the United States should continue to seek the unknown
and lead the world in space exploration and scientific
discovery as the Administration prepares for long-duration
and exploration spaceflight in deep space and an eventual
mission to Mars;
(2) data relating to the health of astronauts will become
increasingly valuable to improving our understanding of many
diseases humans face on Earth;
(3) the Administration should provide the type of
monitoring, diagnosis, and treatment described in subsection
(a) only for conditions the Administration considers unique
to the training or exposure to the spaceflight environment of
United States government astronauts and should not require
any former United States government astronauts to participate
in the Administration's monitoring;
(4) such monitoring, diagnosis, and treatment should not
replace a former United States government astronaut's private
health insurance;
(5) expanded data acquired from such monitoring, diagnosis,
and treatment should be used to tailor treatment, inform the
requirements for new spaceflight medical hardware, and
develop controls in order to prevent disease occurrence in
the astronaut corps; and
(6) the 340-day space mission of Scott Kelly aboard the
ISS--
(A) was pivotal for the goal of the United States for
humans to explore deep space and Mars as the mission
generated new insight into how the human body adjusts to
weightlessness, isolation, radiation, and the stress of long-
duration space flight; and
(B) will help support the physical and mental well-being of
astronauts during longer space exploration missions in the
future.
SEC. 3. MEDICAL MONITORING AND RESEARCH RELATING TO HUMAN
SPACE FLIGHT.
(a) In General.--Subchapter III of chapter 201 of title 51,
United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the
following:
[[Page 16050]]
``Sec. 20148. Medical monitoring and research relating to
human space flight
``(a) In General.--Notwithstanding any other provision of
law, the Administrator may provide for the medical monitoring
and diagnosis of a former United States government astronaut
or a former payload specialist for conditions that the
Administrator considers potentially associated with human
space flight, and may provide for the treatment of a former
United States government astronaut or a former payload
specialist for conditions that the Administrator considers
associated with human space flight, including scientific and
medical tests for psychological and medical conditions.
``(b) Requirements.--
``(1) No cost sharing.--The medical monitoring, diagnosis,
or treatment described in subsection (a) shall be provided
without any deductible, copayment, or other cost sharing
obligation.
``(2) Access to local services.--The medical monitoring,
diagnosis, and treatment described in subsection (a) may be
provided by a local health care provider if it is unadvisable
due to the health of the applicable former United States
government astronaut or former payload specialist for that
former United States government astronaut or former payload
specialist to travel to the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center,
as determined by the Administrator.
``(3) Secondary payment.--Payment or reimbursement for the
medical monitoring, diagnosis, or treatment described in
subsection (a) shall be secondary to any obligation of the
United States government or any third party under any other
provision of law or contractual agreement to pay for or
provide such medical monitoring, diagnosis, or treatment. Any
costs for items and services that may be provided by the
Administrator for medical monitoring, diagnosis, or treatment
under subsection (a) that are not paid for or provided under
such other provision of law or contractual agreement, due to
the application of deductibles, copayments, coinsurance,
other cost sharing, or otherwise, are reimbursable by the
Administrator on behalf of the former United States
government astronaut or former payload specialist involved to
the extent such items or services are authorized to be
provided by the Administrator for such medical monitoring,
diagnosis, or treatment under subsection (a).
``(4) Conditional payment.--The Administrator may provide
for conditional payments for or provide medical monitoring,
diagnosis, or treatment described in subsection (a) that is
obligated to be paid for or provided by the United States or
any third party under any other provision of law or
contractual agreement to pay for or provide such medical
monitoring, diagnosis, or treatment if--
``(A) payment for (or the provision of) such medical
monitoring, diagnosis, or treatment services has not been
made (or provided) or cannot reasonably be expected to be
made (or provided) promptly by the United States or such
third party, respectively; and
``(B) such payment (or such provision of services) by the
Administrator is conditioned on reimbursement by the United
States or such third party, respectively, for such medical
monitoring, diagnosis, or treatment.
``(c) Exclusions.--The Administrator may not--
``(1) provide for medical monitoring or diagnosis of a
former United States government astronaut or former payload
specialist under subsection (a) for any psychological or
medical condition that is not potentially associated with
human space flight;
``(2) provide for treatment of a former United States
government astronaut or former payload specialist under
subsection (a) for any psychological or medical condition
that is not associated with human space flight; or
``(3) require a former United States government astronaut
or former payload specialist to participate in the medical
monitoring, diagnosis, or treatment authorized under
subsection (a).
``(d) Privacy.--Consistent with applicable provisions of
Federal law relating to privacy, the Administrator shall
protect the privacy of all medical records generated under
subsection (a) and accessible to the Administration.
``(e) Regulations.--The Administrator shall promulgate such
regulations as are necessary to carry out this section.
``(f) Definition of United States Government Astronaut.--In
this section, the term `United States government astronaut'
has the meaning given the term `government astronaut' in
section 50902, except it does not include an individual who
is an international partner astronaut.
``(g) Data Use and Disclosure.--The Administrator may use
or disclose data acquired in the course of medical
monitoring, diagnosis, or treatment of a former United States
government astronaut or a former payload specialist under
subsection (a), in accordance with subsection (d). Former
United States government astronaut or former payload
specialist participation in medical monitoring, diagnosis, or
treatment under subsection (a) shall constitute consent for
the Administrator to use or disclose such data.''.
(b) Clerical Amendment.--The table of contents for chapter
201 of title 51, United States Code is amended by inserting
after the item relating to section 20147 the following:
``20148. Medical monitoring and research relating to human space
flight''.
(c) Annual Reports.--
(1) In general.--Each fiscal year, not later than the date
of submission of the President's annual budget request for
that fiscal year under section 1105 of title 31, United
States Code, the Administrator of the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration shall publish a report, in
accordance with applicable Federal privacy laws, on the
activities of the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration under section 20148 of title 51, United States
Code, as added by subsection (a).
(2) Contents.--Each report under paragraph (1) shall
include a detailed cost accounting of the Administration's
activities under such section 20148 of title 51, United
States Code, and a 5-year budget estimate.
(3) Submission to congress.--The Administrator shall submit
to the appropriate committees of Congress each report under
paragraph (1) not later than the date of submission of the
President's annual budget request for that fiscal year under
section 1105 of title 31, United States Code.
(d) Cost Estimate.--
(1) Requirement.--Not later than 90 days after the date of
enactment of this Act, the Administrator of the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration shall enter into an
arrangement with an independent external organization to
undertake an independent cost estimate of the cost to the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Federal
Government to implement and administer the activities of the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration under section
20148 of title 51, United States Code, as added by subsection
(a). The independent external organization may not be an
entity of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration,
such as the Office of Safety and Mission Assurance.
(2) Submittal to congress.--Not later than one year after
the date of the enactment of this Act, the Administrator
shall submit the independent cost estimate undertaken
pursuant to paragraph (1) to the Committee on Science, Space,
and Technology of the House of Representatives and the
Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the
Senate.
(e) Privacy Study.--
(1) Study.--The Administrator of the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration shall carry out a study on any
potential privacy or legal issues related to the possible
sharing beyond the Federal Government of data acquired under
the activities of the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration under section 20148 of title 51, United States
Code, as added by subsection (a).
(2) Report.--Not later than 270 days after the date of the
enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall submit to the
Committee on Science, Space, and Technology of the House of
Representatives and the Committee on Commerce, Science, and
Transportation of the Senate a report containing the results
of the study carried out under paragraph (1).
(f) Inspector General Audit.--The Inspector General of the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration shall
periodically audit or review, as the Inspector General
considers necessary to prevent waste, fraud, and abuse, the
activities of the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration under section 20148 of title 51, United States
Code, as added by subsection (a).
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Texas (Mr. Babin) and the gentlewoman from Maryland (Ms. Edwards) each
will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Texas.
General Leave
Mr. BABIN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may
have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to
include extraneous material on H.R. 6076, the bill under consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Texas?
There was no objection.
Mr. BABIN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, for over 50 years, the United States of America has
asked its bravest to travel to space in service of their country. From
the dynamic launch environment to the unforgiving vacuum of space, to
the energetic reentry of Earth, human spaceflight places astronauts in
challenging environments. Even training for spaceflight carries
significant risks. I am very proud to say that I represent a great
number of these astronauts who call Houston their home.
As a nation, we have an obligation to those whom we put in harm's
way. As a Congress, we have a responsibility to
[[Page 16051]]
provide for the treatment of conditions caused by Federal service. As a
healthcare professional myself, and as their Representative, you can
say it is my duty to make sure that these folks are taken care of
properly. This is why I have sponsored H.R. 6076, the TREAT Astronauts
Act, a very commonsense, fiscally responsible, bipartisan bill that
makes sure that our brave men and women who venture into space receive
the support for medical issues associated with their service.
The psychological and medical data associated with an astronaut's
human spaceflight service is very important for our future space
endeavors. The TREAT Astronauts Act will provide this additional data
and will enable NASA to better understand the medical risks of
spaceflight, minimize these risks, and enable future long-duration
missions to Mars and even beyond.
I am very thankful to Chairman Lamar Smith for his support of the
TREAT Astronauts Act and for his leadership as chairman of the Science,
Space, and Technology Committee. I am also very glad that my colleague,
Ms. Edwards, is an original cosponsor and that the bill was reported
out of committee by a voice vote with broad bipartisan support.
The amendment before us today represents compromise language agreed
upon with the Senate in good faith that this language will be included
and passed in a NASA Authorization Act before the 114th Congress
recesses. The program established under this compromise language is
very similar to the program that passed out of the committee.
In developing this bill, my staff and I had extensive discussions
with former astronauts, NASA, and a number of other Federal agencies.
The TREAT Astronauts Act is also informed by a hearing the Space
Subcommittee held back in June, at which a number of former astronauts
testified, including Captain Scott Kelly, who spent a year on the
International Space Station.
Under existing statutes, NASA has the authority to collect voluntary
astronaut medical data for research. It exercises that authority
through the Lifetime Surveillance of Astronaut Health program, or LSAH.
However, there are limitations on the usefulness of the LSAH program.
Former astronaut participation is only 61 percent and the existing LSAH
program only affords NASA access to yearly checkup data, not the
entirety of the former astronauts' medical records.
Furthermore, NASA is unable to provide for the appropriate diagnosis
and treatment under the existing authority to conduct research. The
TREAT Astronauts Act solves this problem by supplementing existing
authorities.
Congress would be remiss not to ensure that the TREAT Astronauts Act
is fiscally responsible. The TREAT Astronauts Act is not a mandate and
is subject to existing discretionary appropriations.
In order to address cost risks, the bill establishes NASA as a
secondary payer to existing obligations of the United States or third
parties, ensuring that the cost to NASA is minimal. Establishing NASA
as a secondary payer is not unprecedented. For example, the Department
of Defense is a secondary payer to veteran and civilian healthcare
programs.
Allow me to make this clear for the record. Although NASA is a
secondary payer, the TREAT Astronauts Act provides that no
participating former astronaut or payload specialist will have to pay
for anything out of pocket, including deductibles and copayments
associated with the primary payer.
There are a number of reporting requirements, including an
independent cost estimate and an annual fiscal report. These reports
will ensure that Congress is well informed and able to conduct
appropriate oversight.
Participation in the program is voluntary. No astronaut should be
forced or coerced to participate in this program. In the event that an
astronaut chooses not to participate in the program, there are still
other occupational healthcare options available to them. But if they do
participate, the astronauts have consented that NASA can use and
disclose the data they collect, subject to protecting their personally
identifiable health information.
In conclusion, I strongly support the TREAT Astronauts Act, and I
urge my colleagues to support this commonsense, fiscally responsible,
bipartisan bill that makes sure that our brave men and women who
venture into space receive the support for medical issues associated
with their service.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. EDWARDS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 6076, as amended, the TREAT
Astronauts Act.
The House-passed, bipartisan NASA Authorization Act of 2015 set the
long-term goal of sending humans to the surface of Mars. The amendments
to the TREAT Astronauts Act being considered today will help provide
the research results needed to achieve this goal. As Chairman Babin
noted, the amendment reflects compromise language agreed upon with the
Senate in good faith.
Committee Ranking Member Johnson and I thank Space Subcommittee
Chairman Babin and his staff for working together to achieve bipartisan
and bicameral consensus on this amendment.
Chairman Babin and I both want to do the right thing for the health
of our current and future astronauts. That is why I was pleased to be a
cosponsor of this act to provide for monitoring, diagnosis, and
treatment of former astronauts.
Our astronauts are heroes. They serve this Nation in the face of
extreme risks. Some of those risks involve the potential for medical
conditions that may not reveal themselves for years or even decades
after an astronaut's service.
It is our responsibility to ensure that we, as a nation, acknowledge
the risks that these heroes have taken and, in return, provide our
astronauts with the medical monitoring and treatment they need.
It is also our responsibility to mitigate the risks for future NASA
explorers, especially as we put in place the systems and missions to
prepare the way for human exploration to Mars. Such risk mitigation
requires data about astronauts' mental and psychological health.
H.R. 6076, as amended, maintains the three principles I identified as
critical to this legislation in the original bill.
The first principle is getting care to former astronauts under this
program as soon as possible. NASA has indicated that some former
astronauts could already benefit from this new authority.
As Chairman Babin noted, this bill provides NASA with supplementary
authority. As such, I would expect that monitoring provided by NASA's
Lifetime Surveillance of Astronaut Health program will continue to be
made available to any former astronaut or payload specialist electing
not to participate in the program being established by this
legislation.
The second principle is being respectful of astronaut rights and
privacy. As we expand the amount of data collected on former astronaut
health, it is important that we place a priority on ensuring the
privacy of the data. NASA is tasked to report on how the agency will
ensure the privacy of astronauts in the program when data is shared
beyond the Federal Government.
The third principle is ensuring that the program is in sync with the
goal of sending humans to Mars. Expanded data acquired from the
monitoring, diagnosis, and treatment of former astronauts and former
shuttle payload specialists will be invaluable for informing the
requirements for new spaceflight medical hardware and developing
controls to prevent disease occurrence in the astronaut corps.
Mr. Speaker, it is also my hope that Congress and the administration
will enable NASA to get to Mars sooner rather than later. As part of
that effort, we must establish the safeguards that will get our
astronauts there and back safely. Supporting this bill will allow us to
stay on that vector.
I ask my colleagues to support the bill.
[[Page 16052]]
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. BABIN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Texas
(Mr. Smith), the chairman of the full committee.
Mr. SMITH of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Texas, the
author of this bill, for yielding. I also want to say that Congressman
Brian Babin is an excellent chairman of the Space Subcommittee of the
full Science, Space, and Technology Committee.
Mr. Speaker, since NASA selected the first group of astronauts in
1959, more than 300 brave American astronauts have ventured into the
cosmos as explorers. In an age when spaceflight has come to seem almost
routine, it is easy to overlook how dangerous it is and how little we
know about its long-term health effects.
H.R. 6076, the TREAT Astronauts Act, ensures that our courageous men
and women who venture into space receive support for medical issues
associated with their service.
The TREAT Astronauts Act also will help us better understand the
medical science of human spaceflight, enabling next generation of
explorers to literally go where no man has gone before. I should say
where no man or woman has gone before.
The TREAT Astronauts Act builds upon NASA's existing Lifetime
Surveillance of Astronaut Health program and will operate within
existing NASA resources. It provides for enhanced monitoring,
diagnosis, and treatment of conditions associated with spaceflight
service.
I thank Space Subcommittee Chairman Brian Babin again for introducing
this legislation and for his persistence in getting us to the point of
passage. We wouldn't be here today without him.
I urge my colleagues to support the TREAT Astronauts Act.
Before I conclude, Mr. Speaker, I would just like to take a moment to
thank the gentlewoman from Maryland (Ms. Edwards), who is a friend and
has been the ranking member of the Space Subcommittee for the last 2
years, for her outstanding service to Congress and for being a
wonderful contributor to the Science Committee as a whole, and in
particular the Space Subcommittee. To almost any subject, she always
brings enthusiasm, knowledge, and in this case, an almost unequal
dedication to space exploration, which we will continue to appreciate
both now and in the future. I just thank her again for, as I said, her
many contributions to the committee and the subcommittee and say that I
hope she stays in touch with us. She will always be a friend of the
committee and many members of this side of the aisle.
Ms. EDWARDS. Mr. Speaker, I want to share with Chairman Smith that I
am so grateful for his remarks today on the floor. He beat me to the
punch, but it has been a pleasure both to work on the committee since
the beginning of my time here in the Congress. It is the most fun I
think that I have ever had, and I have truly enjoyed the collegial
working relationship and friendship that we have shared on both sides
of the aisle.
Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman
from Texas (Ms. Eddie Bernice Johnson) the ranking member of the
Science, Space, and Technology Committee.
Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of
H.R. 6076, as amended, To Research, Evaluate, Assess, and Treat
Astronauts Act, or the TREAT Astronauts Act.
Long-duration exposure to microgravity and space radiation can lead
to chronic health effects such as muscle atrophy, bone loss, permanent
vision impairment, and cancer. However, there is much we still need to
understand regarding how the space environment relates to these effects
and other critical biological functions, such as immunity and tissue
healing, so that appropriate countermeasures can be developed.
{time} 1500
This bill, as amended, would provide NASA with the statutory
authority to perform monitoring, diagnosis, and treatment for former
astronauts for medical or psychological conditions associated with
human spaceflight.
Through this authorization, NASA would be able to acquire data from a
larger set of participants, and the data acquired on former astronauts
would be more comprehensive.
This bill, as amended, reflects several changes that strengthen and
improve the bipartisan bill that passed out of committee in September.
In particular, the provision that would sunset the monitoring,
diagnosis, and treatment program for former astronauts after 10 years
has been removed.
In addition, the current version of the bill removes a provision that
would have denied a fiscal year's authorization of appropriations for
the program if NASA did not submit an annual report on time.
Mr. Speaker, NASA's astronauts are some of the most accomplished,
highly trained, and courageous individuals who serve our Nation in the
pursuit of furthering our exploration of outer space. We owe them a
debt of gratitude for their willingness to risk their health and their
lives in the furtherance of space exploration. I would urge all of the
House Members to vote for and pass H.R. 6076, as amended.
I too want to join the chairman to express my appreciation and thanks
for the services of Congresswoman Donna Edwards for her leadership in
bringing this measure to this point and to her overall leadership as
subcommittee ranking member of the Space Subcommittee. She has made
many efforts, has led the committee with much understanding, and we
certainly will miss her.
Mr. BABIN. Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers, and I reserve the
balance of my time.
Ms. EDWARDS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I hope that my colleagues will join us in this
bipartisan effort to make sure that we can get signed into law the
TREAT Act for our current, former, and future astronauts.
I would like to close by expressing my gratitude to Chairman Lamar
Smith, to Ranking Member Eddie Bernice Johnson, and to our Subcommittee
Chair Babin for their graciousness and for their leadership. It has
truly been a joy to work on the Science, Space, and Technology
Committee. It is one of the few places in the United States House of
Representatives where our charge is really to think about the future,
and it is in this spirit that this legislation is in front of us today.
I hadn't anticipated, Mr. Speaker, that I would have a moment on the
floor of the House, my last moment on the floor of the House before I
depart my service to the United States House of Representatives, but I
am grateful for that.
As I reflect on the last 8\1/2\ years, it has really been a pleasure,
particularly, to work on the Science, Space, and Technology Committee,
and to do that in what seems like a contentious environment sometimes
but has been a lot of collegiality.
As I close my service in the Congress, I am, Mr. Speaker, reminded
that, as a little girl, I used to picnic with my father and my mother
and my siblings on the west front of the Capitol. My dad was in his Air
Force uniform, prepared to go back to work after we had had our little
picnic.
As little girls, we would run around to the east front of the
Capitol, Mr. Speaker, and climb the steps, when you could climb the
steps. And we would sit there in between my father and look out on the
United States Supreme Court and the Library of Congress.
I never would have imagined, Mr. Speaker, that I would have an
opportunity to serve in the House of Representatives; and it has been a
great privilege and a joy to represent the people of the Fourth
Congressional District of Maryland.
I wish for my colleagues here in the Congress that, as we approach
the 115th Congress, and in the spirit of service to this great Nation,
that we work together in service to the Nation.
When we come to work every day, Mr. Speaker, people think about
things that are big and small; but for a lot of people out there, a lot
of our constituents, it is about their health and their
[[Page 16053]]
life, their safety and their security, the ability of them to raise
their children, and to move forward. And I wish that, in the upcoming
Congress, that we have an opportunity to do those things together, and
that you do.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the staff of the Science, Space,
and Technology Committee, and the Space Subcommittee, Allen Li, Pam
Whitney, Dick Obermann; Anne Nelson on the minority staff, and the
majority staff for all of their work; to the people who serve in this
institution and serve us tremendously, from the Parliamentarians to the
stenographers and the Clerk's staff, and the Marshals Service and the
Capitol Police, and all of it, because it makes the trains run, and it
means that we can get the job done of the people of the United States.
God bless the United States of America.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. BABIN. Mr. Speaker, once again, I would like to thank our full
committee chairman, Lamar Smith; our ranking subcommittee member, Ms.
Edwards from Maryland; and also our ranking member of the full
committee, Eddie Bernice Johnson from Texas as well.
I would also like to thank my staff and the staff of the full
committee, as well as the subcommittee, who have worked so hard to make
this bill happen. It was so badly needed for our astronauts.
Mr. Speaker, I include a letter from the American Association of
Space Explorers into the Record. This is signed by the president of the
American Association of Space Explorers, astronaut Michael Lopez-
Alegria.
Association of Space
Explorers--USA,
Webster, TX, 7 December 2016.
Hon. Brian Babin,
Chair, Subcommittee on Space, House Committee on Science,
Space and Technology, Washington, DC.
Dear Chairman Babin: I am writing on behalf of the U.S.
chapter of the international Association of Space Explorers
(ASE-USA) to strongly endorse H.R. 6076, the ``To Research,
Evaluate, Assess, and Treat Astronauts'' (TREAT) Act, that is
under consideration by the House of Representatives.
Our organization counts over 210 American current and
former flown astronauts as its members. Our mission is to
provide a forum for professional dialogue among individuals
who have flown in space, to promote education in science and
mathematics and inspire in students a lifelong commitment to
learning, to foster environmental awareness and encourage
planetary stewardship, to promote the benefits of space
science and exploration and to advocate for international
cooperation and operational compatibility in current and
future space exploration endeavors.
We in the astronaut community applaud your Committee for
recognizing the risks inherent in traveling to and exploring
space, and for ensuring that the men and women who do so on
behalf of our nation receive support for medical issues
associated with their service.
I urge the House to pass the TREAT Act so that my
colleagues and future generations of Americans can continue
to explore and expand the frontiers of space and human
knowledge, and can return home to Earth suitably protected
from the potential medical consequences of those endeavors on
behalf of the United States.
Sincerely,
Michael Lopez-Alegria,
President.
Mr. BABIN. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Duncan of Tennessee). The question is on
the motion offered by the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Babin) that the
House suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 6076, as amended.
The question was taken.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds
being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
Mr. BABIN. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, further
proceedings on this motion will be postponed.
____________________
NATIONAL URBAN SEARCH AND RESCUE RESPONSE SYSTEM ACT OF 2016
Mr. BARLETTA. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the
bill (S. 2971) to authorize the National Urban Search and Rescue
Response System, as amended.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
S. 2971
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``National Urban Search and
Rescue Response System Act of 2016''.
SEC. 2. NATIONAL URBAN SEARCH AND RESCUE RESPONSE SYSTEM.
(a) In General.--Title III of the Robert T. Stafford
Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5141
et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following:
``SEC. 327. NATIONAL URBAN SEARCH AND RESCUE RESPONSE SYSTEM.
``(a) Definitions.--In this section, the following
definitions shall apply:
``(1) Administrator.--The term `Administrator' means the
Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
``(2) Agency.--The term `Agency' means the Federal
Emergency Management Agency.
``(3) Hazard.--The term `hazard' has the meaning given the
term in section 602.
``(4) Nonemployee system member.--The term `nonemployee
System member' means a System member not employed by a
sponsoring agency or participating agency.
``(5) Participating agency.--The term `participating
agency' means a State or local government, nonprofit
organization, or private organization that has executed an
agreement with a sponsoring agency to participate in the
System.
``(6) Sponsoring agency.--The term `sponsoring agency'
means a State or local government that is the sponsor of a
task force designated by the Administrator to participate in
the System.
``(7) System.--The term `System' means the National Urban
Search and Rescue Response System to be administered under
this section.
``(8) System member.--The term `System member' means an
individual who is not a full-time employee of the Federal
Government and who serves on a task force or on a System
management or other technical team.
``(9) Task force.--The term `task force' means an urban
search and rescue team designated by the Administrator to
participate in the System.
``(b) General Authority.--Subject to the requirements of
this section, the Administrator shall continue to administer
the emergency response system known as the National Urban
Search and Rescue Response System.
``(c) Functions.--In administering the System, the
Administrator shall provide for a national network of
standardized search and rescue resources to assist States and
local governments in responding to hazards.
``(d) Task Forces.--
``(1) Designation.--The Administrator shall designate task
forces to participate in the System. The Administration shall
determine the criteria for such participation.
``(2) Sponsoring agencies.--Each task force shall have a
sponsoring agency. The Administrator shall enter into an
agreement with the sponsoring agency with respect to the
participation of each task force in the System.
``(3) Composition.--
``(A) Participating agencies.--A task force may include, at
the discretion of the sponsoring agency, 1 or more
participating agencies. The sponsoring agency shall enter
into an agreement with each participating agency with respect
to the participation of the participating agency on the task
force.
``(B) Other individuals.--A task force may also include, at
the discretion of the sponsoring agency, other individuals
not otherwise associated with the sponsoring agency or a
participating agency. The sponsoring agency of a task force
may enter into a separate agreement with each such individual
with respect to the participation of the individual on the
task force.
``(e) Management and Technical Teams.--The Administrator
shall maintain such management teams and other technical
teams as the Administrator determines are necessary to
administer the System.
``(f) Appointment of System Members Into Federal Service.--
``(1) In general.--The Administrator may appoint a System
member into Federal service for a period of service to
provide for the participation of the System member in
exercises, preincident staging, major disaster and emergency
response activities, and training events sponsored or
sanctioned by the Administrator.
``(2) Nonapplicability of certain civil service laws.--The
Administrator may make appointments under paragraph (1)
without regard to the provisions of title 5, United States
Code, governing appointments in the competitive service.
``(3) Relationship to other authorities.--The authority of
the Administrator to make appointments under this subsection
shall not affect any other authority of the Administrator
under this Act.
``(4) Limitation.--A System member who is appointed into
Federal service under paragraph (1) shall not be considered
an employee
[[Page 16054]]
of the United States for purposes other than those
specifically set forth in this section.
``(g) Compensation.--
``(1) Pay of system members.--Subject to such terms and
conditions as the Administrator may impose by regulation, the
Administrator shall make payments to the sponsoring agency of
a task force--
``(A) to reimburse each employer of a System member on the
task force for compensation paid by the employer to the
System member for any period during which the System member
is appointed into Federal service under subsection (f)(1);
and
``(B) to make payments directly to a nonemployee System
member on the task force for any period during which the
nonemployee System member is appointed into Federal service
under subsection (f)(1).
``(2) Reimbursement for employees filling positions of
system members.--
``(A) In general.--Subject to such terms and conditions as
the Administrator may impose by regulation, the Administrator
shall make payments to the sponsoring agency of a task force
to be used to reimburse each employer of a System member on
the task force for compensation paid by the employer to an
employee filling a position normally filled by the System
member for any period during which the System member is
appointed into Federal service under subsection (f)(1).
``(B) Limitation.--Costs incurred by an employer shall be
eligible for reimbursement under subparagraph (A) only to the
extent that the costs are in excess of the costs that would
have been incurred by the employer had the System member not
been appointed into Federal service under subsection (f)(1).
``(3) Method of payment.--A System member shall not be
entitled to pay directly from the Agency for a period during
which the System member is appointed into Federal Service
under subsection (f)(1).
``(h) Personal Injury, Illness, Disability, or Death.--
``(1) In general.--A System member who is appointed into
Federal service under subsection (f)(1) and who suffers
personal injury, illness, disability, or death as a result of
a personal injury sustained while acting in the scope of such
appointment, shall, for the purposes of subchapter I of
chapter 81 of title 5, United States Code, be treated as
though the member were an employee (as defined by section
8101 of that title) who had sustained the injury in the
performance of duty.
``(2) Election of benefits.--
``(A) In general.--A System member (or, in the case of the
death of the System member, the System member's dependent)
who is entitled under paragraph (1) to receive benefits under
subchapter I of chapter 81 of title 5, United States Code, by
reason of personal injury, illness, disability, or death, and
to receive benefits from a State or local government by
reason of the same personal injury, illness, disability or
death shall elect to--
``(i) receive benefits under such subchapter; or
``(ii) receive benefits from the State or local government.
``(B) Deadline.--A System member or dependent shall make an
election of benefits under subparagraph (A) not later than 1
year after the date of the personal injury, illness,
disability, or death that is the reason for the benefits, or
until such later date as the Secretary of Labor may allow for
reasonable cause shown.
``(C) Effect of election.--An election of benefits made
under this paragraph is irrevocable unless otherwise provided
by law.
``(3) Reimbursement for state or local benefits.--Subject
to such terms and conditions as the Administrator may impose
by regulation, if a System member or dependent elects to
receive benefits from a State or local government under
paragraph (2)(A), the Administrator shall reimburse the State
or local government for the value of the benefits.
``(4) Public safety officer claims.--Nothing in this
subsection shall be construed to bar any claim by, or with
respect to, any System member who is a public safety officer,
as defined in section 1204 of title I of the Omnibus Crime
Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (42 U.S.C. 3796b), for
any benefits authorized under part L of title I of that Act
(42 U.S.C. 3796 et seq.).
``(i) Liability.--A System member appointed into Federal
service under subsection (f)(1), while acting within the
scope of the appointment, shall be considered to be an
employee of the Federal Government under section 1346(b) of
title 28, United States Code, and chapter 171 of that title,
relating to tort claims procedure.
``(j) Employment and Reemployment Rights.--With respect to
a System member who is not a regular full-time employee of a
sponsoring agency or participating agency, the following
terms and conditions apply:
``(1) Service.--Service as a System member shall be
considered to be `service in the uniformed services' for
purposes of chapter 43 of title 38, United States Code,
relating to employment and reemployment rights of individuals
who have performed service in the uniformed services
(regardless of whether the individual receives compensation
for such participation). All rights and obligations of such
persons and procedures for assistance, enforcement, and
investigation shall be as provided for in such chapter.
``(2) Preclusion.--Preclusion of giving notice of service
by necessity of appointment under this section shall be
considered to be preclusion by `military necessity' for
purposes of section 4312(b) of title 38, United States Code,
pertaining to giving notice of absence from a position of
employment. A determination of such necessity shall be made
by the Administrator and shall not be subject to judicial
review.
``(k) Licenses and Permits.--If a System member holds a
valid license, certificate, or other permit issued by any
State or other governmental jurisdiction evidencing the
member's qualifications in any professional, mechanical, or
other skill or type of assistance required by the System, the
System member is deemed to be performing a Federal activity
when rendering aid involving such skill or assistance during
a period of appointment into Federal service under subsection
(f)(1).
``(l) Preparedness Cooperative Agreements.--Subject to the
availability of appropriations for such purpose, the
Administrator shall enter into an annual preparedness
cooperative agreement with each sponsoring agency. Amounts
made available to a sponsoring agency under such a
preparedness cooperative agreement shall be for the following
purposes:
``(1) Training and exercises, including training and
exercises with other Federal, State, and local government
response entities.
``(2) Acquisition and maintenance of equipment, including
interoperable communications and personal protective
equipment.
``(3) Medical monitoring required for responder safety and
health in anticipation of and following a major disaster,
emergency, or other hazard, as determined by the
Administrator.
``(m) Response Cooperative Agreements.--The Administrator
shall enter into a response cooperative agreement with each
sponsoring agency, as appropriate, under which the
Administrator agrees to reimburse the sponsoring agency for
costs incurred by the sponsoring agency in responding to a
major disaster or emergency.
``(n) Obligations.--The Administrator may incur all
necessary obligations consistent with this section in order
to ensure the effectiveness of the System.
``(o) Equipment Maintenance and Replacement.--Not later
than 180 days after the date of enactment of this section,
the Administrator shall submit to the appropriate
congressional committees (as defined in section 2 of the
Homeland Security Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 101)) a report on the
development of a plan, including implementation steps and
timeframes, to finance, maintain, and replace System
equipment.''.
(b) Conforming Amendments.--
(1) Applicability of title 5, united states code.--Section
8101(1) of title 5, United States Code, is amended--
(A) in subparagraph (D), by striking ``and'' at the end;
(B) by transferring subparagraph (F) to between
subparagraph (E) and the matter following subparagraph (E);
(C) in subparagraph (F)--
(i) by striking ``United States Code,''; and
(ii) by adding ``and'' at the end; and
(D) by inserting after subparagraph (F) the following:
``(G) an individual who is a System member of the National
Urban Search and Rescue Response System during a period of
appointment into Federal service pursuant to section 327 of
the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency
Assistance Act;''.
(2) Inclusion as part of uniformed services for purposes of
userra.--Section 4303 of title 38, United States Code, is
amended--
(A) in paragraph (13), by inserting ``, a period for which
a System member of the National Urban Search and Rescue
Response System is absent from a position of employment due
to an appointment into Federal service under section 327 of
the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency
Assistance Act'' before ``, and a period''; and
(B) in paragraph (16), by inserting ``System members of the
National Urban Search and Rescue Response System during a
period of appointment into Federal service under section 327
of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency
Assistance Act,'' after ``Public Health Service,''.
(c) Technical Amendment.--Section 1086(d) of the National
Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013 is amended as
follows (which amendments shall take effect as if enacted on
January 2, 2013)--
(1) in paragraph (1)--
(A) by striking ``paragraph (1)'' and inserting ``paragraph
(2)''; and
(B) in subparagraph (B) by striking ``filed or'' and
inserting ``filed (consistent with pre-existing effective
dates) or''; and
(2) in paragraph (2)(A), by striking ``amendments made by
this Act'' and inserting ``amendments made to section 1204 of
the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (42
U.S.C. 3796b) by this Act''.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Pennsylvania (Mr. Barletta) and the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr.
Cohen) each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Pennsylvania.
[[Page 16055]]
General Leave
Mr. BARLETTA. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members
may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks
and include extraneous material on S. 2971, as amended.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Pennsylvania?
There was no objection.
Mr. BARLETTA. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, let me begin by thanking Chairman Shuster for his
tremendous support and leadership on this issue. For over 8 years, the
bipartisan leadership of the Transportation and Infrastructure
Committee has been the driving force behind trying to get these reforms
through Congress, and, today, we are closer than ever.
I also want to thank Ranking Member DeFazio and Ranking Member Carson
for their bipartisan support.
The House unanimously passed a nearly identical measure earlier this
year as part of the FEMA Disaster Assistance Reform Act, H.R. 1471.
Today, when members of the search and rescue teams are federalized
and sent across State lines, they don't know who, if anyone, will pay
for their injuries, disabilities, or death. So S. 2971 addresses that
issue and clarifies that longstanding concern which has hindered the
deployment of critical search and rescue teams between States.
Currently, there are 28 USAR teams across the Nation. Members of
these teams are cross-trained in areas such as search, rescue, medical,
hazardous materials, and logistics. The teams include firefighters,
physicians, structural engineers, and first responders, and they are
trained and equipped with help from FEMA. While the members of these
teams are not Federal, they do not hesitate to respond to disasters in
other States.
These teams have been deployed over the years to numerous disasters,
including the Pentagon and World Trade Center on 9/11, Hurricane Sandy,
and, most recently, Hurricane Matthew. The challenge has been that when
these team members are federalized, they do not have clarity on who
would be responsible if they were injured or even killed while
performing their jobs.
It is amazing that we ask these men and women to go into collapsed
structures to search for trapped survivors, risking life and limb,
without providing them with clarity when it comes to liability and
injuries.
The stories of the selfless heroism of these men and women are
numerous and humbling. Their work is tireless, physically and
emotionally demanding, and nerve-racking.
In Hurricane Matthew, one team helped make more than 100 rescues in
North Carolina alone, including the rescue of a 98-year-old hospice
patient, when they had to go into areas where the water was 5 to 7 feet
above street level, and they could only see the tops of the street
signs.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, a single task force rescued more
than 850 individuals in 17 hours from a flooded area overwhelmed by a
tidal surge. And there are hundreds more such as these accounts.
These heroes play an essential role in the Federal response to
national disasters and catastrophes. In addition, the National USAR
system benefits our State, local, and regional emergency managers and
first responders through training, equipment, and preparedness.
The local government and other entities that sponsor the members of
the teams should not have to worry about being left vulnerable or
exposed by allowing their employees to participate in such a critical
national asset.
After 8 years, it is time to give men and women who put their lives
at risk the liability protections they and their families need and
deserve. I urge my colleagues to support this bill.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
First, I would like to compliment the Senate on passing the bill we
passed last week, the 21st Century Cures Act, which will help research
and save the lives of many Americans, something we did in a bipartisan
fashion. I am pleased that that happened.
I rise in support of S. 2971, the National Urban Search and Rescue
Response System Act of 2016, as amended, which codifies the Urban
Search and Rescue Response System.
Authorizing the urban search and rescue teams, better known as USAR
teams, and codifying protections for team members, such as workers'
comp and liability protections, have been a top priority of mine since
I first introduced a bill to do so in 2007, my first year in Congress.
I was pleased that the late former Democratic Transportation and
Infrastructure Chairman, an outstanding Member, Mr. Oberstar, now
deceased, included my USAR language in a bill that was reported from
the committee in 2010. Since then, legislation authorizing USAR teams
has passed the House several times, and now the Senate has passed one
as well.
{time} 1515
The 28 urban search and rescue teams that are strategically located
across the United States provide timely response when needed in the
aftermath of a disaster. In fact, USAR teams can be ready for
deployment within 6 hours of being called up.
These specialized teams of first responders provide search and rescue
services, extraction from structural collapses, and swift, rapid
rescue, among other activities, after disaster strikes. Their
dedication is truly commendable, as they drop everything in their busy
daily lives to come to the prompt assistance of others when needed.
It should be noted that USAR teams even respond internationally when
assistance is requested. In fact, two USAR teams deployed in the
aftermath of Nepal's earthquakes in 2015 and were responsible for many
rescues from structural collapses.
It is only appropriate that we ensure that they have the protection
they need to perform their jobs as well as the peace of mind that will
come from clarity in compensation and liability issues.
USAR teams may be composed of firefighters, law enforcement officers,
paramedics, engineers, medical professionals, and canine handlers.
Often, these team members are civil servants. By extending job
protection benefits when activated for Federal service, team members
know that their jobs will be waiting at home for them. In addition, it
helps USAR teams recruit and retain new members.
Tennessee's USAR, known as Tennessee Task Force One, has a strong
commitment to their jobs, and they do an extraordinarily good job.
Tennessee Task Force One is based in Memphis, Tennessee, and consists
of firefighters, police officers, and civilians; and they responded
when called to assist in the aftermath of disasters, such as Hurricane
Matthew in South Carolina and, most recently, for the tragic wildfires
in our Smoky Mountains. They did so despite the uncertainty of whether
they would be covered for any injuries.
Their actions are truly heroic, and I applaud them and their
dedication. The protections in today's bill are long overdue, and team
members can now rest assured that they will be taken care of if they
are injured when performing Federal duties.
I am sadly disappointed, though, that the Republican leadership is
once again selectively choosing when and when not to enforce its budget
rules. The underlying Senate bill we are considering authorized ``such
sums as necessary'' to carry out the USAR system. Despite the House
having passed a bill authorizing ``such sums as necessary'' for the
Integrated Public Alert and Warning System earlier this year, we are
now told that this authorization violates budget rules and an amendment
and further consideration by the Senate is required.
As a result, USAR team members must wait another day before we afford
them the protections that they deserve. They deserve better, and they
deserve laws that will ensure that Congress will appropriate adequate
funds to support them and their activities.
I thank all the USAR teams for their service, and I thank Mr.
Barletta for
[[Page 16056]]
working on this bill as well. I urge my colleagues to support our USAR
teams by supporting the legislation.
Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers.
I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. BARLETTA. Mr. Speaker, I again urge my colleagues to vote ``yes''
on S. 2971.
I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Barletta) that the House suspend the
rules and pass the bill, S. 2971, as amended.
The question was taken.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds
being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
Mr. BARLETTA. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, further
proceedings on this motion will be postponed.
____________________
MESSAGE FROM THE SENATE
A message from the Senate by Ms. Curtis, one of its clerks, announced
that the Senate concurs in the House amendment to the Senate amendment
to the bill (H.R. 34) ``An Act to authorize and strengthen the tsunami
detection, forecast, warning, research, and mitigation program of the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and for other
purposes.''.
____________________
FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION WHISTLEBLOWER PROTECTION ENHANCEMENT
ACT OF 2016
Mr. CHAFFETZ. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the
bill (H.R. 5790) to provide adequate protections for whistleblowers at
the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as amended.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 5790
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Federal Bureau of
Investigation Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of
2016''.
SEC. 2. PROHIBITED PERSONNEL PRACTICES IN THE FEDERAL BUREAU
OF INVESTIGATION.
Section 2303(a) of title 5, United States Code, is amended
by striking ``any employee of the Bureau'' and all that
follows through ``health or safety'' and inserting the
following: ``an employee in, or applicant for, a position in
the Bureau as a reprisal for a disclosure of information--
``(1) made--
``(A) in the case of an employee, to a supervisor in the
direct chain of command of the employee, up to and including
the head of the employing agency;
``(B) to the Inspector General;
``(C) to the Office of Professional Responsibility of the
Department of Justice;
``(D) to the Office of Professional Responsibility of the
Federal Bureau of Investigation;
``(E) to the Inspection Division of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation;
``(F) as described in section 7211;
``(G) to the Office of Special Counsel; or
``(H) to an employee designated by any officer, employee,
office, or division described in subparagraphs (A) through
(G) for the purpose of receiving such disclosures; and
``(2) which the employee or applicant reasonably believes
evidences--
``(A) any violation of any law, rule, or regulation; or
``(B) gross mismanagement, a gross waste of funds, an abuse
of authority, or a substantial and specific danger to public
health or safety''.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Utah (Mr. Chaffetz) and the gentlewoman from Michigan (Mrs. Lawrence)
each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Utah.
General Leave
Mr. CHAFFETZ. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members
may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks
and include extraneous materials on the bill under consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Utah?
There was no objection.
Mr. CHAFFETZ. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 5790, the FBI
Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2016, as amended.
We have great respect and admiration for the FBI. They do wonderful
work. In fact, I was always proud of my grandfather. He was a career
FBI agent serving here in the Greater Washington, D.C., area and then
up in Pennsylvania for a long period of time. It is because I respect
the FBI and its agents that I helped introduce this bill.
The whistleblower protections in the FBI have really not kept up with
the rest of government. That is why we need a change here. The
whistleblowers at the FBI should be treated the same as they are within
the rest of the Federal Government, and this simple bill goes to help
correct that.
H.R. 5790 would clarify Congress' longstanding intent to protect
whistleblowers when they make disclosures to the same supervisors who
have the power to take personnel actions against them. While a great
many changes remain to be made in how the Department of Justice and the
FBI respond to whistleblowers, this clarification is not a minor one.
If implemented, it would have far-reaching implications in protecting
whistleblowers at the FBI just as Congress intended in 1978 in the
Whistleblower Protection Act.
The FBI Director, Mr. Comey, testified a year ago in the Senate that
he ``very much'' supports legal protections for FBI employees who
follow FBI's own policies and report wrongdoing to their supervisors.
Similarly, the Attorney General, Loretta Lynch, testified: ``We
certainly support protecting those who report within their chain of
command.''
I want to thank, in particular, the Senate Judiciary Committee, and
specifically Chairman Chuck Grassley for his leadership in first
introducing this version of the bill. We are also grateful for the
support of my colleagues, including Representative Hakeem Jeffries, who
joined me as the lead Democrat on this bill in this House.
I also want to particularly thank Elijah Cummings, the ranking member
of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, a great friend and
colleague and somebody who also has been very supportive of the passage
of this bill. I thank him for his work and commitment on this issue.
Mr. Cummings, personally and through his dedicated staff, continually
has worked hand in hand on whistleblower protections, and this is no
exception. Together, we have sent the message throughout the Federal
Government that protecting whistleblowers is not a partisan issue, and
passing this bill will not mark the end of the road for reforming
whistleblower protections at the FBI. In fact, in the next Congress, I
look forward to addressing other issues raised by the whistleblower
community in the GAO as well as the Department of Justice.
I urge my colleagues to support this bill.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mrs. LAWRENCE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 5790, as amended. This bill
will provide FBI employees with protection for blowing the whistle to a
supervisor and make it a prohibited personnel practice to retaliate
against a whistleblower for making such a disclosure.
This bill will also ensure that FBI employees are protected when they
blow the whistle to certain other individuals, including the Inspector
General of the Department of Justice and the Office of Special Counsel.
These small improvements to protect FBI whistleblowers are why I
support this measure before us.
The version of this bill that was reported by the Oversight and
Government Reform Committee would have done much more to protect the
whistleblowers at the FBI than the measure before us today. The
introduced version of this bill would have strengthened the
whistleblower protections for FBI employees by more closely aligning
them with those of the rest of the Federal workforce.
For example, it would have strengthened the appeals process for
whistleblowers by requiring appellate review
[[Page 16057]]
by the Attorney General and giving employees access to the courts. It
would have defined prohibited personnel practices to be consistent with
those of other Federal employees, and it would have prohibited the use
of nondisclosure agreements unless the employee was fully aware of his
or her rights before signing such an agreement.
We should work to enact these additional improvements in the next
Congress. All employees deserve strong whistleblower protections,
including the employees of the FBI.
Mr. Speaker, I want to say to my ranking member, Mr. Cummings, and to
our chair of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, thank you
for the hearings and the dedicated work to ensure that our FBI agents
are protected in any case of whistleblowing.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. CHAFFETZ. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank, again, Mrs. Lawrence. I
want to thank the ranking member, Mr. Cummings.
This is a good, bipartisan issue. It is really a nonpartisan issue.
It is to protect Federal employees within the FBI so that they can have
the whistleblower protections that, really, most of the rest of the
government has, and I urge its adoption.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Utah (Mr. Chaffetz) that the House suspend the rules and
pass the bill, H.R. 5790, as amended.
The question was taken.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds
being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
Mr. CHAFFETZ. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, further
proceedings on this motion will be postponed.
____________________
TRANSPARENT INSURANCE STANDARDS ACT OF 2016
Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 944, I call
up the bill (H.R. 5143) to provide greater transparency and
congressional oversight of international insurance standards setting
processes, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate
consideration in the House.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to House Resolution 944, in lieu of
the amendment in the nature of a substitute recommended by the
Committee on Financial Services, printed in the bill, an amendment in
the nature of a substitute consisting of the text of Rules Committee
Print 114-68, is adopted and the bill, as amended, is considered read.
The text of the bill, as amended, is as follows:
H.R. 5143
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Transparent Insurance
Standards Act of 2016''.
SEC. 2. CONGRESSIONAL FINDINGS.
The Congress finds the following:
(1) The State-based system for insurance regulation in the
United States has served American consumers well for more
than 150 years and has fostered an open and competitive
marketplace with a diversity of insurance products to the
benefit of policyholders and consumers.
(2) Protecting policyholders by regulating to ensure an
insurer's ability to pay claims has been the hallmark of the
successful United States system and should be the paramount
objective of domestic prudential regulation and emerging
international standards.
(3) United States officials participating in discussions or
negotiations regarding international insurance standards
shall support standards designed for the protection of
policyholders.
(4) The Secretary of the Treasury shall seek advice and
recommendations from a diverse group of outside experts in
performing the duties and authorities of the Secretary to
coordinate Federal efforts and develop Federal policy on
prudential aspects of international insurance matters.
(5) The draft of the Higher Loss Absorbency capital
standard adopted in 2015 by the International Association of
Insurance Supervisors, notwithstanding the concerns of U.S.
parties to the International Association of Insurance
Supervisors, unequally affects insurance products offered in
the United States, an issue that must be addressed.
(6) Any international standard agreed to at the
International Association of Insurance Supervisors is not
self-executing in the United States for any insurer until
implemented through the required Federal or State legislative
or regulatory process.
SEC. 3. OBJECTIVES FOR INTERNATIONAL INSURANCE STANDARDS.
The objectives of the United States regarding international
insurance standards are as follows:
(1) To ensure standards that maintain strong protection of
policy holders, as reflected in the United States solvency
regime.
(2) To ensure, pursuant to enactment of the Insurance
Capital Standards Clarification Act of 2014 (Public Law 113-
279), standards that are appropriate for insurers and are not
bank-centric in nature.
(3) To promote a principles-based approach to insurance
supervision, in which capital adequacy is assessed using
risk-based capital requirements for insurance combined with
qualitative risk assessment and management tools.
(4) To consider the most efficient and least disruptive
approaches to enhancing regulatory assessment of the capital
adequacy of insurance groups, including tools that are
already in place.
(5) To ensure that any international insurance standard
recognizes prudential measures used within the United States
as satisfying standards finalized by international standard-
setting organizations.
(6) To support increasing transparency at any global
insurance or international standard-setting organization in
which the United States participates, including advocating
for greater stakeholder public observer access to working
groups and committee meetings of the International
Association of Insurance Supervisors.
(7) To ensure that there is a sufficient period for public
consultation and comment regarding any proposed international
insurance standard before it takes effect.
(8) To ensure that the Secretary of the Treasury and the
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System achieve
consensus positions with State insurance commissioners when
the Secretary and the Board are United States participants in
discussions on insurance issues before the International
Association of Insurance Supervisors, Financial Stability
Board, or any other international forum of financial
regulators or supervisors that considers such issues.
(9) To consider the impact of any such standard on the
availability and cost of products to consumers.
(10) To avoid measures that could limit the availability
and accessibility of risk protection and retirement security
products that are essential to meeting the needs of aging
populations.
(11) To ensure that the merits of existing State-based
capital standards are recognized and incorporated in any
domestic or global insurance capital standard.
(12) To advocate for insurance regulatory standards that
are based on the nature, scale, and complexity of the risks
posed by the regulated insurance group and entity or
activity.
SEC. 4. REQUIREMENTS FOR CONSENT TO ADOPT INTERNATIONAL
INSURANCE STANDARDS.
(a) Publication of Standards; Adoption of Capital and
Prudential Standards.--The United States may not agree to,
accept, establish, enter into, or consent to the adoption of
a final international insurance standard with an
international standard-setting organization or a foreign
government, authority, or regulatory entity unless the
requirements under both of the following paragraphs are
complied with:
(1) Publication.--The requirements under this paragraph are
complied with if the conditions under one of the following
subparagraphs have been met:
(A) By federal reserve and treasury.--The Chairman of the
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the
Secretary of the Treasury have caused the proposed text of
the proposed final international insurance standard to be
published in the Federal Register and made available for
public comment for a period of not fewer than 30 days (which
period may run concurrently with the 90-day period referred
to in subsection (b)(3)).
(B) By state insurance commissioners.--The State insurance
commissioners have caused the proposed text of the proposed
international insurance standard to be published in a similar
form and manner that provides for notice and public comment.
(2) Capital standard.--In the case only of a final
international insurance standard setting forth any capital
standard or standards for insurers--
(A) such international capital standard is consistent with
capital requirements set forth in the State-based system of
insurance regulation;
(B) the Board has issued capital requirements for insurance
companies supervised by the Board and subject to such
requirements, which shall be issued through rulemaking in
accordance with the procedures established under section 553
of title 5, United States Code, regarding substantive rules,
under which the periods for notice and public comment shall
each have a duration of not fewer than 60 days; and
(C) to the extent that such international capital standard
is intended to be applied to a company or companies
supervised by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve
System, is consistent with the capital requirements of the
Board for such companies.
[[Page 16058]]
(b) Submission and Layover Provisions.--The Secretary and
the Board may not agree to, accept, establish, enter into, or
consent to the adoption of an international insurance
standard established through an international standard-
setting organization or a foreign government, authority, or
regulatory entity unless--
(1) the Secretary and the Board have--
(A) conducted an analysis under subsection (c) of the
proposed international insurance standard; and
(B) submitted to the covered congressional committees, on a
day on which both Houses of Congress are in session, a copy
of the proposed final text of the proposed international
insurance standard and the report required under subsection
(c)(2) regarding such analysis;
(2) the Secretary and the Chairman of the Board have
determined, pursuant to such analysis, that the proposed
standard will not result in any change in State law;
(3) with respect to a capital standard under subsection
(a)(2), the Secretary and the Chairman of the Board certify
that the proposed international capital standard is designed
solely to help ensure that sufficient funds are available to
pay claims to an insurer's policyholders in the event of the
liquidation of that entity; and
(4) a period of 90 calendar days beginning on the date on
which the copy of the proposed final text of the standard is
submitted to the covered congressional committees under
paragraph (1)(B) has expired, during which period the
Congress may take action to approve or reject such final
standard.
(c) Joint Analysis by Chair of the Federal Reserve and
Secretary of the Treasury.--
(1) In general.--An analysis under this subsection of a
proposed final international insurance standard shall be an
analysis conducted by the Secretary and the Chairman of the
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, in
consultation with the State insurance commissioners, of the
impact of such standard on consumers and markets in the
United States and whether any changes in State law will
result from such final standard.
(2) Report.--Upon completion of an analysis under this
subsection of a final international insurance standard, the
Secretary and the Board shall submit a report on the results
of the analysis to the covered congressional committees and
the Comptroller General of the United States. The report
shall include a statement setting forth the determination
made pursuant to paragraph (1) regarding any changes in State
law resulting from such final standard.
(3) Notice and comment.--
(A) Notice.--The Secretary and the Chairman of the Board of
Governors of the Federal Reserve System shall provide notice
before the date on which drafting the report is commenced and
after the date on which the draft of the report is completed.
(B) Opportunity for comment.--There shall be an opportunity
for public comment for a period beginning on the date on
which the report is submitted under paragraph (2) and ending
on the date that is not fewer than 60 days after the date on
which the report is submitted. Nothing in this subparagraph
shall affect the authority of the Board to issue the rule
referred to in subsection (a)(2).
(4) Review by comptroller general.--Upon submission of a
report pursuant to paragraph (2) to the Comptroller General,
the Comptroller General shall review the report and shall
submit a report to the Congress setting forth the conclusions
of the Comptroller General's review.
(d) Limited Effect.--This section may not be construed to
establish or expand any authority to implement an
international insurance standard in the United States or for
the United States or any representative of the Federal
Government to adopt or enter into any international insurance
standard.
(e) Treatment of State Law.--In accordance with the Act of
March 9, 1945 (Chapter 20; 59 Stat. 33; 15 U.S.C. 1011 et
seq.), commonly referred to as the ``McCarran-Ferguson Act'',
this section may not be construed to preempt State law.
SEC. 5. REPORTS.
(a) Reports and Testimony by Secretary of the Treasury and
Chair of the Federal Reserve.--The Secretary and the Chairman
of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System shall
submit to the covered congressional committees an annual
report and provide testimony, not less often than every 6
months, to the covered congressional committees on the
efforts of the Secretary and the Chairman with the State
insurance commissioners with respect to international
insurance standard-setting organizations and international
insurance standards, including--
(1) a description of the insurance standard-setting issues
under discussion at international standard-setting bodies,
including the Financial Stability Board and the International
Association of Insurance Supervisors;
(2) a description of the effects that international
insurance standards could have on consumers and insurance
markets in the United States;
(3) a description of any position taken by the Secretary
and the Board in international insurance discussions or on
any international insurance standard;
(4) a description of the efforts by the Secretary and the
Board to increase transparency and accountability at the
Financial Stability Board with respect to insurance proposals
and the International Association of Insurance Supervisors,
including efforts to provide additional public access to
working groups and committees of the International
Association of Insurance Supervisors; and
(5) a description of how the Secretary and the Board are
meeting the objectives set forth in section 3, or, if such
objectives are not being met, an explanation of the reasons
for not meeting such objectives.
(b) Reports and Testimony by State Insurance
Commissioners.--The State insurance commissioners may provide
testimony or reports to the Congress on the issues described
in subsection (a).
(c) Report on Transparency.--Not later than 180 days after
the date of enactment of this Act, the Chairman of the Board
of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Secretary
shall submit to the Congress a report and provide testimony
to the Congress on the efforts of the Chairman and the
Secretary pursuant to subsection (a)(4) of this section to
increase transparency at meetings of the International
Association of Insurance Supervisors.
(d) GAO Report on Transparency of Outside Organizations.--
(1) In general.--Not later than one year after the date of
enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General of the United
States shall submit to the covered congressional committees a
report, and provide testimony to such committees, identifying
and analyzing the transparency and accountability of any
organization acting as a designee of, or at the direction of,
the head of a State insurance department on issues related to
international insurance standards, which is not employed
directly by the State.
(2) Content.--The report and testimony required under this
section shall include a description and analysis of--
(A) the role, involvement, or relationship, of any
organization identified pursuant to paragraph (1), of, with,
or to the State insurance departments' activities as
authorized by, directed by, or otherwise referred to in this
Act, including a description and analysis regarding such
organization's participation in policy and decision-making
deliberations and activities related to international
insurance standards;
(B) any financial support provided by such organization to
any State insurance department personnel in furtherance of
their activities related to international insurance
standards, the nature and amount of such support, and any
understandings between the organization and the State
regarding travel protocols and State laws governing State
officials' receipt of, benefitting from, or being subsidized
by, outside funds;
(C) the budget, including revenues and expenses, of any
organization identified pursuant to paragraph (1) relating to
participation in international insurance discussions on
issues before, involving, or relating to the International
Association of Insurance Supervisors, the Financial Stability
Board, or any other international forum of financial
regulators or supervisors that considers such issues, and how
the organization collects money to fund such activities;
(D) whether each such budget of such an organization is
developed under a process comparable in its transparency and
accountability to the process under which budgets are
developed and appropriated for State departments of insurance
and Federal executive branch regulatory agencies, including--
(i) an identification of any bodies independent of the
organization that set standards for and/or oversee that
organization's budgeting process; and
(ii) a description of the extent to which and how the
organization, in funding its operations, uses or benefits
from its members' ability to compel entities subject to its
members' regulatory authority to use the services of the
organization or any of its affiliates; and
(E) the extent to which the work product of any
organization identified pursuant to paragraph (1)has the
effect of establishing any self-executing national standards,
and in what way, and whether such standards are developed
under processes comparable in their transparency and
accountability to the process under which national standards
are developed by the Congress or Federal executive branch
agencies.
SEC. 6. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) Board.--The term ``Board'' means the Board of Governors
of the Federal Reserve System, or the designee of the Board.
(2) Covered congressional committees.--The term ``covered
congressional committees'' means the Committee on Financial
Services of the House of Representatives and the Committee on
Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs of the Senate.
(3) International insurance standard.--The term
``international insurance standard'' means any international
insurance supervisory standard developed by an international
standards setting organization, or regulatory or supervisory
forum, in which the United States participates, including the
Common Framework for the Supervision of Internationally
Active Insurance Groups, the Financial Stability Board, and
the International Association of Insurance Supervisors.
(4) Secretary.--The term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary
of the Treasury, or the Secretary's designee.
(5) State insurance commissioners.--The term ``State
insurance commissioners'' means the heads of the State
insurance departments or their designees acting at their
direction.
SEC. 7. TREATMENT OF COVERED AGREEMENTS.
Section 314 of title 31, United States Code is amended--
[[Page 16059]]
(1) in subsection (c)--
(A) by redesignating paragraphs (1) and (2) as paragraphs
(2) and (3), respectively; and
(B) by inserting before paragraph (2), as so redesignated,
the following new paragraph:
``(1) the Secretary of the Treasury and the United States
Trade Representative have caused to be published in the
Federal Register, and made available for public comment for a
period of not fewer than 30 days (which period may run
concurrently with the 90-day period for the covered agreement
referred to in paragraph (3)), the proposed text of the
covered agreement;''; and
(2) by adding at the end the following new subsections:
``(d) Consultation With State Insurance Commissioners.--In
any negotiations regarding a contemplated covered agreement,
the Secretary and the United States Trade Representative
shall consult with and directly include State insurance
commissioners.
``(e) Prohibition on Regulatory Authority.--In accordance
with subsections (k) and (l) of section 313, a covered
agreement shall not be used to establish or provide the
Federal Insurance Office or the Treasury with any general
supervisory or regulatory authority over the business of
insurance or with the authority to participate in a
supervisory college or similar process.
``(f) Treatment Under Other Law.--A covered agreement shall
not be considered an international insurance standard for
purposes of the Transparent Insurance Standards Act of 2016
and shall not be subject to such Act.''.
SEC. 8. DUTIES OF INDEPENDENT MEMBER OF FINANCIAL STABILITY
OVERSIGHT COUNCIL.
Subsection (a) of section 112 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street
Reform and Consumer Protection Act (12 U.S.C. 5322(a)) is
amended by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
``(3) Duties of independent member.--To assist the Council
with its responsibilities to monitor international insurance
developments, advise Congress, and make recommendations, the
Independent Member of the Council shall have the authority
to--
``(A) regularly consult with international insurance
supervisors and international financial stability
counterparts;
``(B) consult with, advise, and assist the Secretary of the
Treasury with respect to representing the Federal Government
of the United States, as appropriate, in the International
Association of Insurance Supervisors (including to become a
non-voting member thereof), particularly on matters of
systemic risk, and to consult with the Board of Governors of
the Federal Reserve System and the States concerning such
matters;
``(C) attend the Financial Stability Board of The Group of
Twenty and join with other members from the United States,
including on matters related to insurance and financial
stability, and provide for the attendance and participation
at such Board, on matters related to insurance and financial
stability, of State insurance commissioners; and
``(D) attend, with the United States delegation, the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and
observe and participate at the Insurance and Private Pensions
Committee of such Organization on matters related to
insurance and financial stability.''.
SEC. 9. STATE INSURANCE REGULATOR INVOLVEMENT IN
INTERNATIONAL STANDARD SETTING.
Parties representing the United States at the Financial
Stability Board of the Group of Twenty on matters, and in
meetings, related to insurance and financial stability shall
consult with, and seek to include in such meetings, the State
insurance commissioners.
SEC. 10. RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.
Nothing in this Act or the amendments made by this Act may
be construed to support or endorse the domestic capital
standard for insurers referred to in section 4(a)(2) or any
such domestic capital standards established by the Board.
SEC. 11. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION RESERVE FUND.
Clause (i) of section 4(i)(2)(B) of the Securities Exchange
Act of 1934 (15 U.S.C. 78d(i)(2)(B)(i)) is amended by
inserting before the semicolon the following: ``, except that
for fiscal year 2017, the amount deposited may not exceed
$43,000,000''.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Texas (Mr. Hensarling)
and the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Maxine Waters) each will
control 30 minutes.
The Chair now recognizes the gentleman from Texas.
General Leave
Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members
may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks
and submit extraneous materials on the bill under consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Texas?
There was no objection.
{time} 1530
Mr. HENSARLING. I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, today I rise in support of H.R. 5143, the Transparent
Insurance Standards Act of 2016.
Introduced by my good friend and colleague, the chairman of the
Housing and Insurance Subcommittee of our committee, Blaine
Luetkemeyer, H.R. 5143 enhances Congress' constitutional oversight of
international deliberations relating to insurance standards. Mr.
Speaker, again, this is legislation which is about accountability,
transparency, and oversight.
More specifically, the legislation establishes a series of
requirements to be met before the Federal Insurance Office or the
Federal Reserve may agree to accept, establish, enter into, or consent
to the adoption of a final international insurance standard. Permit me
to go into greater detail.
First, the Federal Insurance Office and the Fed must publish any
proposed final standard and allow for public comment. A public comment
is critical to our negotiating posture, Mr. Speaker. In so doing, the
involved agencies must provide a joint analysis of the impact the
standard will have on consumers and the U.S. insurance markets. Before
agreeing to any international standard relating to capital, the Fed is
required to first promulgate its domestic capital standard rule.
The bill makes similar requirements for negotiations concerning
insurance covered agreements. It sets negotiating objectives for U.S.
parties and also mandates that the Federal Insurance Office and the Fed
report and testify before Congress twice annually.
Finally, H.R. 5143 ensures that the independent member with insurance
expertise who sits on the Financial Stability Oversight Council, known
as FSOC, is permitted to assist the FSOC in international discussions
and attend meetings of international bodies where insurance standards
are discussed.
Mr. Speaker, for almost 150 years, U.S. insurance companies of every
type--including property-casualty, life, reinsurance, health, and
auto--have been primarily regulated by our States. Congress and the
States have occasionally reviewed the effectiveness of the State-based
regulation of insurance and coordinated efforts to achieve greater
regulatory uniformity. In 1949, Congress passed the McCarran-Ferguson
Act, which confirmed the States' regulatory authority over insurance,
except where Federal law expressly provides otherwise.
Mr. Speaker, this changed with the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act in
2010. Dodd-Frank changed the insurance landscape and further enlarged
the Federal Government's role in the insurance industry by creating a
Federal office specifically tasked with insurance matters. Dodd-Frank
established the Federal Insurance Office at Treasury and charged its
director with representing the interest of U.S. insurers during
negotiations of international agreements.
Among other things, H.R. 5143 seeks to prevent any Federal overreach
and establishes essential guardrails for the Federal Government when
discussing international insurance issues abroad. The bill is not
intended to bring international negotiations to any type of halt. Team
USA has experienced victories at the International Association of
Insurance Supervisors, and has kept Congress informed of its intent to
negotiate the first of what could be many covered agreements.
However, we should not underestimate the importance of these
conversations or the implications they can have on insurers and the
American consumers because they need to be heard and they need to be
represented.
As the leader of a Missouri-based midsized insurance company has told
our committee, Mr. Speaker:
We worry about the potential negative impacts any
international agreement could have on the domestic
marketplace or the State-based regulatory system that has
served consumer and insurance needs for more than a century.
He added:
Congress should conduct strong oversight in this area in
order to protect domestic insurance markets, companies, and
especially their policy holders.
Strong oversight and transparency are, indeed, absolutely essential,
and that is what we get with this bill.
It is simply imperative that our States, the executive branch, and
Congress work cooperatively to signify to
[[Page 16060]]
the International Association of Insurance Supervisors, the Financial
Stability Board, and to foreign governments that we will only lend our
name to standards and agreements that benefit U.S. consumers. The bill
we are considering today will assuredly lead us to this goal.
Again, H.R. 5143 provides greater transparency, allows for a stronger
Team USA in negotiations, and sends a signal to foreign governments and
international organizations that the United States will lead and not be
led into bad agreements. With the greater congressional oversight the
bill provides, we can ensure that any deal that is reached will be a
fair deal, and a good deal, for the American people.
Again, I thank my colleague, the gentleman from Missouri (Mr.
Luetkemeyer), for his leadership, yet again, on bringing an excellent
bill to the House floor.
I urge my colleagues to support this important piece of legislation.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. MAXINE WATERS of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such
time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, here we go again. Last week, the majority made it clear
that it was just getting started with the special interest giveaways at
the expense of financial stability and consumer protection.
Now, before we adjourn, we are here to debate one last holiday gift
to Wall Street. This bill's gift is less oversight of the largest
insurers in the United States, which will put us at risk for another
AIG. Don't forget, AIG was bailed out to the tune of $182 billion.
While Democrats passed Wall Street reform to prevent another crisis
and future bailouts, Chairman Hensarling and Donald Trump have made it
clear that Dodd-Frank is on the chopping block. Without the safeguards
in Dodd-Frank, a lack of capital standards for large insurance
companies will put our economy at risk.
No one should be surprised at what is taking place here. This is
Donald Trump's agenda. Despite promises to hold Wall Street
accountable, the President-elect is proposing an administration that is
heavy on Wall Street insiders. Their plans will do little to help the
millions of Americans struggling to get ahead, but that is by design.
Because ``Trumpism'' isn't really about helping the middle class. It is
about lining the pockets of some of our biggest banks and insurance
companies.
AIG, as I mentioned, is a poster child of the financial crisis. It
engaged in financial activities that more closely resemble investment
banking than traditional insurance.
Prior to the crisis, State regulators, which have primary
jurisdiction over insurance companies, did not effectively account for
AIG's activities related to credit derivatives or securities lending,
for example, which allowed it to skate by with minimum capital. When
AIG's bets on subprime mortgage-backed securities failed, it collapsed
and required a taxpayer bailout. Recall that we bailed out AIG because
it was a counterparty to nearly all of the largest global banks;
meaning that if AIG failed, it would bring down a series of global
megabanks with it.
So under Dodd-Frank, we improved the oversight of insurance companies
by giving Federal regulators the necessary tools to prevent another
collapse of large, globally active insurance companies. We are talking
about the big boys here: AIG, MetLife, and Prudential. For the past
several years, Federal regulators have been overseeing systematically
important financial institutions, which are identified as such because
they are expected to pose a substantial risk to our financial stability
if they fail. Our Federal regulators have also been negotiating with
140 other countries on international standards for large globally
connected insurers.
However, today's bill is designed to undermine the progress we have
made on this front, and to ultimately prevent the adoption of these
capital standards in the United States.
In fact, H.R. 5143 would add layers of burdensome red tape and
unworkable requirements on our Federal negotiators, making it virtually
impossible for them to advocate effectively for U.S. interests on these
issues or agree to any kind of standard. For example, this bill would
prevent negotiators from agreeing to any standard unless it focuses
exclusively on a company's ability to pay claims. However, focusing
exclusively on a company's ability to pay claims can lead those same
policyholders vulnerable to systemic failure.
Moreover, by crippling our ability to engage effectively on
international insurance issues, this bill will ensure that the rest of
the world will move on to adopt standards that are not in our best
interest.
At worst, this bill is unconstitutional--something that the
administration detailed in its statement of policy--raising multiple
conflicts between the President's exclusive authority on international
agreements and the bill's requirements to directly include State
insurance commissioners in international negotiations.
At best, this bill is a solution in search of a problem. It caters to
an unfounded fear that internationally agreed upon policies would be
forced upon the small, domestic insurance companies and unwilling
States.
Let me again reiterate that the standards being negotiated
internationally are for the largest insurers that operate all over the
world--companies like AIG, MetLife, and Prudential. It is a scare
tactic to claim that these standards would be applied to anyone but the
largest and most interconnected global insurers.
Second, States can never be compelled to adopt international
standards such as these. These standards are nonbinding and each
individual State has the discretion to adopt them, modify them, or
reject them entirely after going through their full regulatory process.
Third, stakeholders have ample opportunity to weigh in on these
discussions. For example, Federal negotiators have held multiple
sessions for stakeholders to provide input, and the International
Association of Insurance Supervisors has greatly improved public access
and consultation. Yet, this bill, H.R. 5143, would require several
additional notice and comment periods and several other layers of
unnecessary red tape.
To make matters worse, the sponsor proposes to pay for the bill's
costs by taking $7 million from the Securities and Exchange
Commission's reserve fund, which means that our financial watchdog will
be unable to respond to unforeseen events, like the flash crash.
In short, this bill would ask taxpayers to pay for the cost of
rejecting capital standards by taking away the funding the SEC needs to
respond to emergency situations that threaten financial stability. That
just doubles down on the irresponsible policymaking we have seen by the
opposite side of the aisle.
As the veto threat issued by the White House on this bill states:
The Nation has made great progress as a result of Dodd-
Frank, and we cannot allow this bill to hamper the United
States' ability to implement the best standards for our
unique regulatory regime.
Mr. Speaker, it is clear that the Republicans will go to any lengths
necessary to give industry what it wants--less oversight, less
supervision, and less regulation. Republicans have repeatedly tried to
hamstring our efforts to more effectively monitor and respond to
systemic risk by working to dismantle the FSOC and its designation
authority for SIFIs. They have called the FSOC unconstitutional and
helped companies like MetLife challenge its designation in court. So I
am not really surprised that Republicans would close out 2016 by
bringing this bill to the floor, but I am disappointed because the
American people deserve better.
For these reasons, I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on this bill.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from
Missouri (Mr. Luetkemeyer), the author of H.R. 5143 and the chairman of
our Housing and Insurance Subcommittee.
[[Page 16061]]
{time} 1545
Mr. LUETKEMEYER. I thank the chairman for his tireless help and
support in getting this bill to where it is today.
Mr. Speaker, insurance serves as the backbone of financial
independence for millions of Americans. It offers support when it is
needed the most so that consumers can be assured that they are
protected in the event of a loss. Our Nation has a history of
thoughtful insurance regulation and strong consumer confidence. To
ensure that, we need to make sure that foreign regulators don't do
anything to jeopardize that.
The Transparent Insurance Standards Act would establish a series of
reasonable requirements to be met before our Team USA, if you will--the
Treasury's Federal Insurance Office, the Federal Reserve, or any other
party to international regulatory conversations--consents to the
adoption of a final insurance standard. H.R. 5143 would also require
Team USA to publish any proposed final standard for congressional
review and public comment.
Additionally, H.R. 5143 would institute a 90-day layover period,
allowing Congress the ability to block any international agreement. It
would also ensure State insurance commissioners a broader role in
negotiations, thereby protecting our State-based regulatory system that
has served policyholders so well. In doing so, the bill would not only
help protect the best interests of U.S. insurance customers, but it
would also be a step in restoring the powers vested to Congress in
Article I of the Constitution.
Mr. Speaker, when the Financial Services Committee embarked on this
journey, the intent was to craft a bill that not only respected the
process, but that provided this body and the public with more
opportunity. As such, H.R. 5143 has been drafted with the input of a
wide variety of stakeholders, and it has generated broad support. This
bill is not intended to bring the international process to a halt.
Rather, it will serve as leverage for U.S. negotiators and will ensure
that we are in a position to export domestic standards rather than
import European-centric ones.
The truth of the matter, Mr. Speaker, is that our constituents don't
read about international insurance standards in the local paper or
discuss them at the dinner table. However, these conversations and the
negotiations at the IAIS have real implications on U.S. companies and,
more importantly, on every American policyholder.
Given that, consideration of this bill shouldn't be a partisan
affair. Many of my friends across the aisle and their constituents
would like to see more sunshine on this international process, and this
bill does just that. It is imperative that the United States--that is,
the States, the executive branch, and Congress--work cooperatively to
signal to the IAIS and foreign governments that we will only lend our
name to standards and agreements that benefit U.S. customers. We will
lead and not be led, as our chairman just said.
Again, I thank Chairman Hensarling for his support of this important
bill, and I urge my colleagues to join me in voting in favor of H.R.
5143.
Ms. MAXINE WATERS of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to
the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Cleaver), the ranking member of the
Housing and Insurance Subcommittee on the Financial Services Committee.
Mr. CLEAVER. I thank the ranking member for allowing me to speak on
this legislation.
Mr. Speaker, I find much greater satisfaction in working on
legislation with the subcommittee chairman, Blaine Luetkemeyer, than
opposing such; but, Mr. Speaker, I do, in fact, believe that H.R. 5143
would prescribe narrowly tailored reporting and negotiating
requirements that must be completed before any international regulatory
insurance standard could be agreed on.
In the wake of the financial crisis with the passage of Dodd-Frank,
the Federal Insurance Office, FIO, was tasked with representing the
United States at international insurance forums. Currently, the FIO has
been negotiating alongside the Federal Reserve and the National
Association of Insurance Commissioners, NAIC, on behalf of our
country's insurance interests. The Housing and Insurance Subcommittee
has held numerous hearings on this topic, giving us ample opportunity
to more fully understand the process that is being undertaken at the
International Association of Insurance Supervisors as well as with
other international bodies.
It is critical that Team USA continue to advocate strongly on behalf
of the U.S. insurance system, and it is imperative that we do not
hamstring their ability to do so. More specifically, the bill contains
a number of provisions that would ultimately delay our negotiations
abroad. If we limit the ability of our negotiators to do their job, we
lose our seat at the international table, which, I believe, will weaken
our position. Like most on the other side, I am a strong proponent of
the State-based system.
Our Missouri insurance commissioner has recently held a national
position. In order to effectively communicate our position and advocate
for this unique American system, we need to ensure that our
international representatives are empowered, and we believe that this
actually impacts their role at the table.
Additionally, none of the standards that may be decided upon
internationally are binding. This is, perhaps, the most significant
thing I am saying. As everyone knows, the States would have to approve
any standards because we can't impose those standards on them. These
standards would have to be agreed to domestically--they would have to
go to each and every State--and they won't be approved on the Federal
level. This process would include a notice and a comment period.
I do believe that this bill does not address a single problem, that
it does not fix any broken part of this process that is going on.
Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Speaker, it is with great pride and a heavy heart
that I yield to the next gentleman. I have a heavy heart because I fear
this will be the last time I yield time to the gentleman from Texas
(Mr. Neugebauer); but it is with great pride that, for 14 years, I have
called him friend and colleague. He is retiring from this institution.
He has been tireless in his service to our committee, his constituents,
and this country. He has been a tireless advocate for the cause of
freedom, free enterprise, and the lot of the common man and the common
woman; and this will be a lesser institution upon his departure.
I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Neugebauer), my
friend.
Mr. NEUGEBAUER. I thank the chairman and thank him for his leadership
and his kind words.
It has been a great pleasure to serve on this Financial Services
Committee. I think we have done some good work. I enjoyed working with
my colleagues on the other side of the aisle on some issues as well. I
wish you the very best as you continue as a committee to work on behalf
of Americans all across the country to make sure that they have access
to the financial products that they need for their families.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 5143, offered by my good
friend from Missouri (Mr. Luetkemeyer).
The Transparent Insurance Standards Act is critically important to
ensuring that the U.S. State-based model for regulating insurance is
preserved and that international agreements benefit U.S. consumers.
Since the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act, the increased role of the
Federal Government in insurance regulation has led to changes to U.S.
participation in international insurance forums, like the International
Association of Insurance Supervisors.
The Federal Insurance Office, FIO, is charged with representing the
interests of U.S. insurers during negotiations of international
agreements. Further, the FIO, along with the Federal Reserve, is an
active participant in international standard-setting bodies. Over the
last several years, developments in international insurance supervision
have created tension with our State-based model.
[[Page 16062]]
The European Union has moved toward a single regulatory structure for
its member states. This effort, known as Solvency II, will harmonize
the varied regulatory regimes in each European nation. Many have raised
concern that Solvency II will be adopted as the gold standard for
international insurance supervision. Solvency II could put the U.S.
insurance industry and the U.S. policyholders at a disadvantage.
H.R. 5143 is important legislation that enhances the congressional
oversight of international deliberations for insurance regulation. It
holds both the FIO and the Federal Reserve to important benchmarks that
ensure that U.S. interests are being represented. For example, the
agencies must provide joint analyses on the impact of proposed
international standards on U.S. consumers and insurance markets.
Further, it allows for public comment on any proposed final standard
that the U.S. may agree to.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. HENSARLING. I yield the gentleman an additional 1 minute.
Mr. NEUGEBAUER. These regulatory checks are not new to many U.S.
agencies, which already must comply with certain Administrative
Procedure Act requirements when setting Federal standards. While there
may be a critical role for U.S. representatives to play in the
international insurance discussion, it is important that our advocates
ensure that U.S. interests are not recklessly pushed aside in the name
of global harmony.
I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 5143.
Ms. MAXINE WATERS of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to
the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Carolyn B. Maloney), the ranking
member of the Capital Markets and Government Sponsored Enterprises
Subcommittee on the Financial Services Committee.
Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York. I thank the gentlewoman.
I join the chairman in thanking Congressman Neugebauer for his
outstanding service to this institution, to his district, and to this
country. He has been an outstanding Member. It has been a pleasure to
serve with him.
We will miss you. Thank you for your friendship, your consideration,
and your really hard work for good, sound policy in this country. Thank
you.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition to H.R. 5143.
I believe that it would undermine the Fed's ability to negotiate
international agreements on insurance regulation, and I think that that
will cause a big problem for insurance in our country.
Telling the Fed that it can't agree to any international standard on
insurance that isn't already the law in the United States absolutely
makes no sense whatsoever. The other countries would simply stop
negotiating with us, and I believe we would lose our voice and our seat
at the table, and that is not good for America.
It is also important to remember that nothing the Fed or Treasury
agrees to internationally can be binding on State insurance regulators.
That is already the law, and we don't need a new law to tell us that.
The Fed does regulate 14 insurance companies through its holding
companies. This has been a Federal authority, and there is nothing new
about that.
The Fed should be able to align the insurance regulations that it has
authority over with the regulations in other countries. One of the big
lessons of the scandal and of the economic downturn of 2008 was that
different regulatory regimes in different countries could have
different incentives, and some of them were bad incentives--for
example, AIG. The only problem that existed with this country was in
the different incentives in England.
I am very uncomfortable with a bill that hamstrings the Federal
Reserve's ability to regulate the safety and soundness of the large
insurance holding companies that it has authority over and to ensure
that those regulatory standards are consistent internationally, so I
urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on this bill.
Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Speaker, I yield the balance of my time to the
gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Luetkemeyer), and I ask unanimous consent
that the gentleman be able to control the remainder of such time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Texas?
There was no objection.
Mr. LUETKEMEYER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from
Michigan (Mr. Huizenga), who is the Monetary Policy and Trade
Subcommittee chairman.
Mr. HUIZENGA of Michigan. I thank my fellow subcommittee chairman for
working with me to protect the State-based insurance regulatory model
that has served our Nation so well for 150 years.
To my colleague from New York, I am very comfortable with this bill
and with the underlying philosophy that has brought us here.
Mr. Speaker, I am a former State representative in the Michigan
Legislature, and I know firsthand that Michigan does a better job of
protecting policyholders within their borders than the Federal
Government does or could. Even more so, Michigan certainly knows how to
maintain a robust insurance marketplace that works for Michigan
customers. Additionally, Michigan serves as an entry point for several
foreign companies which then come into the U.S. marketplace.
However, there are bureaucrats in Washington who believe that they
know best. The Dodd-Frank Act significantly expanded the Federal
Government's role in the insurance marketplace by creating the Federal
Insurance Office and charging the Director with representing the U.S.
during the negotiations of international agreements. At the same time,
the Dodd-Frank Act changed domestic insurance regulation, which also
led to the changes in U.S. participation at the International
Association of Insurance Supervisors, or IAIS.
{time} 1600
The IAIS develops international insurance regulations for its 190
jurisdictions in more than 140 countries to then adopt those. I am
concerned that this could influence the U.S. to replace the State-based
insurance regulatory model with international standards that were
created by unelected European bureaucrats.
Mr. Speaker, our States are, as Justice Brandeis so eloquently
coined, ``laboratories of democracy;'' and in his words that means that
a ``State may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try
novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the
country.''
I can't think of a better example of a successful experiment than the
State-based insurance regulatory system, especially in my home State of
Michigan. That is why the protections provided in the Transparent
Insurance Standards Act are so vitally important.
The straightforward bill simply gives the States and Congress the
opportunity to comment on any international insurance standard before
it may be adopted.
I urge my colleagues to join me in support of this very, very
important bill and support our system that has existed for 150 years.
Ms. MAXINE WATERS of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to
the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Heck), who is a member of the
Financial Services Committee.
Mr. HECK of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I am especially grateful to the
ranking member for allowing me this opportunity.
First, I would like to associate myself with the remarks of the
gentlewoman from New York and the other gentleman from Texas regarding
our colleague, Mr. Neugebauer. From the day that I walked into this
Chamber, he has been nothing but a paragon of gentlemanliness toward
myself and my colleagues. In fact, every freshman receives a flag flown
over the Capitol that Congressman Neugebauer has had flown. And
wouldn't you know it, small world category: 2,000 miles away, he
happened to be good friends with my uncle, which I didn't even know
until he arrived here. He will be missed. He is a testament to how you
can see the world completely differently, yet be able to treat one
another with respect.
[[Page 16063]]
Mr. Speaker, I am a little uncomfortable because this is the second
time in a week I have risen to oppose a proposal by my friend from
Missouri who I think actually is trying to do the right thing and with
whom I have dealt in good faith and who has dealt in good faith with
us. But I do, in fact, rise to oppose this bill because in some cases
it goes too far, in some cases it won't work, and in some cases,
frankly, it doesn't go far enough.
It goes too far in terms of stealing the money from the SEC reserve
to pay for this. Its costs and those associated with its implementation
should not be borne by another enforcement agency whose job it is to
keep us safe.
It won't work in terms of its reporting requirements: all of these
expensive requirements that require the rate on the SEC, the
transparency, the reporting. Anybody who knows anything about
negotiations knows you can't post a public notice about what you intend
to do and hope to be successful on the outcome.
I happen to have been a professional on both sides of the labor
management negotiations table, and I can tell you, the last thing in
the world you want to do is post your playbook. That would be a little
bit like the football team saying: Come here, defense; let me tell you
what we are going to do.
That would, in fact, be the net effect of this particular approach.
The objective: to maintain the integrity in the McCarran-Ferguson Act
is the right one. It is the wrong approach. In some cases it, frankly,
doesn't go far enough because, the truth is, we ought to have these
international discussions and negotiations for international firms; but
this bill would only apply to the IAIS. There are a lot of
international forums where insurance is at the table. The fact of the
matter is, the State regulators ought to be at those tables as well.
Look, there is a better way. I offer it to you. It is a bill I have
introduced, which is H.R. 6436, that takes a principle-based approach.
It merely says that the State-based insurance regulators have got to be
at the table, and we have to protect that system. It is a principle-
based, not a top-down, command and control heavy bureaucracy approach
to achieving the same objective while at the same time ensuring that we
provide adequate protection and regulation for international insurance
companies, but respecting the State-based system.
I don't know why we can't get the win-win here. You know, I find it
ironic that my legislation, H.R. 6436, actually enjoys broad-based
support among the stakeholders: the regulated and, yes, the regulators.
The State-based insurance regulators believe that this is the best
approach to take, and it is the one I think is a win-win for everybody.
It achieves everybody's objectives. That is not what H.R. 5143 will do.
H.R. 5143 goes too far in some cases, won't work in others, and
doesn't go far enough in others. So I hope that you will reject it,
provide us with an opportunity to continue to negotiate in good faith,
and get to win-win because win-win is possible in this circumstance.
I, once again, thank the ranking member very much for this
opportunity.
Mr. LUETKEMEYER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from
Wisconsin (Mr. Duffy), who is chairman of the Oversight and
Investigations Subcommittee.
Mr. DUFFY. Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Luetkemeyer for all of his
work on this bill, H.R. 5143.
As we enter into this debate, I think it is important to look at who
supports what. If you look at insurers in States like Wisconsin, they
have looked at Mr. Luetkemeyer's bill and they love it. They think it
is a great bill because it protects the American State-based model.
If you are a large global insurer, you don't like this bill because
you want one global international standard that you have to comply
with.
So we are here fighting for the little guy, those little insurance
companies that dot all of our States, that serve our communities and
our families; and the opposition is standing with the large insurers
which have been more concerned about this bill than the little guy,
which goes to my point.
I am concerned that the Federal Reserve and Treasury could enter into
an international framework that undermines the U.S. system in favor of,
again, this European-centric model that is inconsistent with our
American model. If you look at this great American model, it has worked
for 150 years.
Look back to the 2008 crisis. This system in America, with a ton of
pressure, it performed beautifully. It did really well. Why do you want
to cash that in for a different model?
I guess my concern is that those State insurers like in my State,
they are not even regulated at the Federal level, but they are
concerned that on the track that we are going, they very well may be.
This is pretty simple stuff.
What Mr. Luetkemeyer is looking for is openness and transparency. He
just doesn't want Washington bureaucrats negotiating a deal. He wants
all stakeholders as part of this deal. And lo and behold, it is a
remarkable concept; but if we are going to have fundamental changes to
our insurance law, why only have unelected bureaucrats make those
decisions? Why not empower the Congress, the people who are responsive
to the American electorate?
We should have a say in this process. Put us back in control, which
is exactly what Chairman Luetkemeyer does.
It is a great bill. I encourage all of my friends on both sides of
the aisle to show their resounding support.
Ms. MAXINE WATERS of California. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance
of my time.
Mr. LUETKEMEYER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from
New Mexico (Mr. Pearce).
Mr. PEARCE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Missouri for his
work on H.R. 5143. I rise in strong support of the legislation.
Now, what we are hearing on the floor today is very similar, I
suspect, to the discussion at the founding of this country, yet some
who wanted a strong central government, strong regulating powers from
Washington and some who said, no, that will not be the best way to
provide a strong economy, that we should send the decisions closer to
where people live. Frankly, that choice is being played out worldwide
right now, and that is the case with the question in front of us.
Should we allow people in Europe to tell us what our markets will
look like here?
Now, there are those who say yes. I am in the group that says no.
Because our system here has created its own stability. In the financial
difficulties of 2008 and 2009, our market performed just perfectly. We
have got 56 different regulators, each one has their own
responsibility. It provides a safer market for the consumer. It
provides a safer product for the consumers to purchase. Why we would
send that authority to some other country across the oceans just never
made sense to those of us who want the decisions made closer to the
people.
Secondly, we have to think that it is good for American jobs. Anytime
people in a different country are deciding what the rules are, they are
going to skew it in favor of themselves. Again, our market is well
diversified. It is spread among the States, and it provides insurance
markets for every individual State and some more than just the one.
So that tells us that it is good for the economy, it is good for the
consumer; but, finally, we need the stabilizing force here, the ability
for Americans to determine what we are going to do.
I think that the recent election has been maybe a referendum on: Do
we want to give up power to the local people, or do we just send it
away?
Mr. Luetkemeyer's bill preserves power for the people. It preserves
power for the Congress. I would urge support for Mr. Luetkemeyer's
bill, H.R. 5143.
Ms. MAXINE WATERS of California. Mr. Speaker, I will continue to
reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. LUETKEMEYER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman
from Missouri (Mrs. Wagner).
Mrs. WAGNER. Mr. Speaker, I am proud to cosponsor H.R. 5143, the
[[Page 16064]]
Transparent Insurance Standards Act of 2016, with my good friend and
colleague from the State of Missouri, Representative Blaine
Luetkemeyer.
Dodd-Frank reversed a nearly 150-year precedent of the U.S. insurance
industry being regulated primarily by the States. From property-
casualty, life, reinsurance, health, and even auto, the Obama
administration and Dodd-Frank created a more invasive role for the
Federal Government to intervene in this industry.
Where this has become apparent is during the negotiations of
international agreements regarding insurance standards, where our
foreign counterparts, particularly in the European Union, are trying to
force us to adopt their standard and forgo our State-based insurance
regime.
Most concerning is that many of these meetings take place behind
closed doors with little accountability or transparency while our
Federal Government says they are negotiating on behalf of our best
interests.
H.R. 5143 would enhance congressional oversight into these
deliberations by establishing requirements to be met before the Federal
Government can agree to the adoption of any final international
insurance standards or covered agreements. Setting these procedures in
place ensures that Missouri policyholders and customers will be
protected from premium increases by having to adopt international
standards that don't apply or make sense here in the United States.
Americans are sick and tired of the Federal Government making choices
on their behalf without proper input and oversight. Congress needs to
be more involved in these negotiations that could have substantial
impacts on policyholders across the country.
I have two letters of support from companies in Missouri that
represent over 40,000 customers and employees in the State. The
companies state that this bill will help prevent costs from being
driven up in Missouri, and I would like to include these letters in the
Record.
Cameron Insurance Companies,
August 19, 2016.
To: Members of the Missouri Congressional Delegation
Dear Representatives: On behalf of Cameron Mutual Insurance
Company and the 39,370 policyholders/employees in Missouri, I
am writing to ask for your support. During the next few
months, U.S. negotiators and their international counterparts
are scheduled to meet behind closed doors around the globe
approximately three dozen times to make strategic decisions
on new international capital and regulatory standards. The
U.S. is under pressure from international regulators to adopt
their standards. These types of changes have the very real
potential to drive up costs here at home.
It is important that the U.S. defend its effective system
of insurance regulation. Our U.S. negotiators should not
agree to new standards that could eventually weaken U.S.
consumer protections, reduce competition, and, according to
economist Robert Shapiro, cost homeowners insurance consumers
up to an additional $100 per year.
H.R. 5143, the Transparent Insurance Standards Act of 2016,
introduced by Missouri's own Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer,
provides critically important checks and balances regarding
negotiations on international insurance standards by
requiring transparency, accountability, and consultation with
Congress, and allowing for public input. The bill passed the
House Financial Services Committee in June.
It is critical for Congress to act on this legislation now
and I am asking you to defend U.S. insurance markets and to
preserve our effective, consumer-focused, state-based system
of insurance regulation. Please contact House leadership and
the Financial Services Committee leadership and request a
September House floor vote on H.R. 5143.
Transparency, accountability, and consultation with
Congress and the public is a simple and reasonable approach
to ensure our system is not undermined by closed-door
international regulatory fora. H.R. 5143 strengthens the U.S.
voice by requiring U.S. state and federal negotiators reach
consensus on advocacy positions and supporting them by
shining a light on the negotiations.
Sincerely,
Brad M. Fowler,
President/Chief Executive Officer,
Cameron Mutual Insurance Company.
____
Shelter Insurance Companies,
September 7, 2016.
Re: H.R. 5143, the ``Transparent Insurance Standards Act of
2016''
Hon. Ann Wagner,
Washington, DC.
Dear Representative Wagner: Shelter Insurance is the
largest domestic property and casualty insurance company in
Missouri, writing more than $1.6 billion in premium, and is
home to almost 1,700 Missouri constituents/employees.
On behalf of Shelter Insurance Company, our agents,
employees and mutual policy holders in Missouri, I am writing
to ask for your help to defend the state-based system of
insurance regulation. Congressman Luetkemeyer's bill, H.R.
5143, the Transparent Insurance Standards Act of 2016,
provides critically important checks and balances regarding
negotiations on international insurance standards by
requiring transparency, accountability, and consultation with
Congress, and allowing for public input.
We ask that you please encourage Chairman Hensarling and
House leadership to schedule a House vote on this legislation
in September.
As you well know, the next few months are important when it
comes to international insurance regulation. By the end of
2016, U.S. negotiators and their international counterparts
are scheduled to meet behind closed doors around the globe
approximately three dozen times to make strategic decisions
on new international capital and regulatory standards. The
U.S. is under pressure from international regulators to adopt
their standards. These types of changes have the very real
potential to drive up costs here at home in Missouri.
It is important that the U.S. defend its effective system
of insurance regulation. Our U.S. negotiators should not
agree to new standards that could eventually weaken U.S.
consumer protections, reduce competition.
Again, our ask is that you please work with House
leadership and the Financial Services Committee leadership
and request a September House floor vote on H.R. 5143,
I thank you for your help on this bill and for your
continued leadership on these efforts that are important to
my company and many insurers around the United States.
Sincerely,
Rick Means,
President and CEO.
Brian Waller,
Director of Government Relations.
Mrs. WAGNER. Mr. Speaker, I simply ask my colleagues to support this
commonsense piece of legislation that instills transparency and
accountability for our government when negotiating with their foreign
counterparts.
Ms. MAXINE WATERS of California. Mr. Speaker, I will continue to
reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. LUETKEMEYER. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to how much time is
remaining on each side?
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Missouri has 11\1/2\
minutes remaining. The gentlewoman from California has 12 minutes
remaining.
Mr. LUETKEMEYER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman
from Kentucky (Mr. Barr).
{time} 1615
Mr. BARR. Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the chairman and his
staff for the hard work that went into crafting this legislation,
coordinating with the insurance industry and the diverse array of
stakeholders and consumers.
Mr. Speaker, for about 150 years, the American insurance industry has
been regulated at the State level. This has enabled the tailoring of
regulations and business models to local circumstances for insurance
companies of all types, structures, and sizes. This system has provided
our domestic insurance industry a competitive advantage that benefits
consumers and the market for insuring against risk. It is a superior
model to the concentrated national champion insurance models of Europe.
Some of Dodd-Frank's policies threaten to upend this existing
regulatory infrastructure by interjecting the Federal Government, and
ultimately international regulators, into the oversight of the American
insurance industry. Regardless of one's views on Federal oversight of
insurance, I think we should all agree that Congress should have a
stake in this process and engage in robust oversight of any Federal or
international standards.
The Transparent Insurance Standards Act achieves just that. The
legislation sets clear objectives, or rules of the road, for the
Federal Insurance Office and the Federal Reserve that must be met
during negotiation and, ultimately, adoption of any international
insurance standards or covered agreements.
The bill ensures that State insurance commissioners or their
designees are
[[Page 16065]]
directly involved in the negotiation process; and before adoption of
such an international standard, the public and Congress must have
access to the final text and the opportunity to provide comments.
FIO and the Fed would be required to file reports and come before
Congress twice a year to brief us on the progress and implementation.
If the standards include capital requirements, the Fed must have
promulgated a domestic standard first, and this will prevent the tail
wagging the dog that we have seen with other international financial
standards.
These reforms and several other provisions ensure that, if the United
States is going down the road of Federal and international insurance
standards, the process is transparent, and Congress, the States, and
the American people have a say in that process.
For these reasons, I am a proud cosponsor of this legislation, and I
urge its passage.
Ms. MAXINE WATERS of California. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve
the balance of my time.
Mr. LUETKEMEYER. Mr. Speaker, I believe this is my last speaker. Last
but not least, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from
Texas (Mr. Williams), an entrepreneur who understands the importance of
our free enterprise system and how important it is for the insurance
industry to be able to protect those interests of the free enterprise
folks.
Mr. WILLIAMS. Mr. Speaker, I think by now the secret is out the Dodd-
Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act has been a
complete failure.
For the last 6 years, in an effort to protect consumers, the Dodd-
Frank Act has instead stifled job creation for millions of Americans
with regulation after regulation. H.R. 5143, which I am a proud
cosponsor of, aims to roll back one of the many unintended consequences
forced upon U.S. insurers.
For 150 years, the State-based model, the American model, has been
successful because it focused on one thing--the consumer. The U.S.
State-based insurance regulatory system is unmatched by any insurance
regulatory system in the world. It is important that U.S. insurers are
not put at a competitive disadvantage worldwide and we continue to act
in their interest.
H.R. 5143 requires Congress to conduct oversight of international
conversations focused on insurance standards and establish a series of
requirements to be met by our top negotiators at Treasury's Federal
Insurance Office.
Furthermore, transparency and accountability is often lacking in
international regulatory discussions, something that is fundamental to
the State-based system. It is important that Congress takes every
opportunity to open doors, not close doors, and allows all interested
parties to participate in negotiations with our international
counterparts. Mr. Speaker, this legislation will strongly encourage
increased transparency and information sharing and bring to light the
true objectives.
Just as Congress is routinely involved in international trade
negotiations, this should be no different. It is important we work
cooperatively and only agree to standards and agreements that benefit
U.S. consumers and allow us to maintain a strong insurance marketplace.
Again, I want to thank Chairman Luetkemeyer for his leadership and
the work our committee has done to stand up for U.S. insurers and
consumers. I strongly urge passage of this bill. In God we trust.
Ms. MAXINE WATERS of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the
balance of my time to close.
The gentleman who just gave testimony indicated that the secret is
out. I don't think he described the secret accurately, but let me just
say it is out, and, just as Mr. Hensarling said on the floor the other
day, we ain't seen nothing yet. They are out to destroy Dodd-Frank,
they are out to destroy the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and
they keep coming forward, as they are doing today, to protect Wall
Street.
I ask my colleagues to consider the great progress we have made since
the enactment of Wall Street reform to fix the blind spots that
prevented our regulators from seeing the big picture. Our U.S.
financial system is increasingly complex, and the regulatory structure
for the oversight of our system was fragmented before the financial
crisis. This was particularly true of the insurance industry, which is
regulated primarily by the States.
While our State-based system for insurance regulation has many
strengths, by its very nature, it is ill-suited to address all of the
issues related to large, globally active insurance companies. That is
why Dodd-Frank, while continuing to recognize the primacy of State-
based regulation, changed many of the ways in which the insurance
industry is supervised for consolidated supervision and enhanced
regulation.
If we take a look at AIG, of course, one cannot help but ask: What
State regulated AIG; and why did we get into the problem that we got
into with AIG? It was because of its London-based operation. That is
why it is so important to have cooperation between the countries on
these big insurance companies that are operating all over the world.
Let's remind everyone what this bill really does. It takes us
backward. It says: forget about examining systemic risks across
jurisdictions, and, instead, let's continue to leave the largest
internationally active insurers in the world off the hook for any risk
they may pose to our economy. Not the small, domestic insurers that
engage in traditional activities, not the companies that make up such
an important part of our economy in rural areas, and certainly not the
insurers that had absolutely nothing to do with the financial crisis.
We are talking about the biggest and most complex insurers that have
operations all over the globe and pose risks to international financial
stability.
This bill is not about transparency, as its title would suggest. It
is about weakening oversight of these large firms and making it
virtually impossible to agree to any kind of international insurance
standard. This bill is also not about protecting policyholders. It is
about burying our head in the sand and going back to the precrisis days
where all of us, including policyholders, were vulnerable to a systemic
failure.
So let's call this bill what it is. It is a giveaway to the insurance
industry that is trying to escape more oversight. And let's not pretend
that this bill would ensure a more unified U.S. posture on the
international stage because, under the provisions of this bill, the
U.S. will be severely crippled in its ability to negotiate on these
issues, which means that the rest of the world will move forward while
American interests get left behind.
What are we talking about? We are talking about capitalization. And
if we are not willing to engage with other countries in this
international community about these big insurance companies that are
operating all over the world about capital standards, we are putting
our own country at risk. The administration has already issued a strong
veto threat for all of these reasons. For these reasons, I urge my
colleagues to vote ``no'' on this bill.
Let me share with you exactly what the administration is saying.
``The restrictions that this legislation seeks to place on United
States representatives in international insurance matters under H.R.
5143 would raise serious constitutional concerns and severely outweigh
any potential attendant benefits. . . .
``FIO, the Federal Reserve, and state insurance commissioners are all
actively engaged at the IAIS and regularly coordinate with one another,
ensuring that each aspect of the unique United States regulatory regime
is adequately represented in any international negotiation. Despite
their effective coordination and extensive work thus far to improve
global insurance regulation, the restrictions which H.R. 5143 seeks to
impose would stop this work in its tracks and would put in place
cumbersome and counterproductive requirements. . . .
``Because this legislation seeks to tie the hands of U.S.
representatives, in an unconstitutional manner, and prevent
[[Page 16066]]
them from effectively negotiating on international insurance matters,
the Administration strongly opposes H.R. 5143.''
Mr. Speaker, despite the fact that my colleague, the chairman of the
Committee on Financial Services, promised me and threatened me and
others that we ain't seen nothing yet, I think it is very clear about
what is happening on the opposite side of the aisle and how Mr.
Hensarling and the committee are already carrying out the Trump agenda.
They are making sure that before we leave here on break everyone
understands that they are not about to support Dodd-Frank in any shape,
form, or fashion, but, rather, they are going to take every opportunity
to undermine Dodd-Frank because they don't believe in reforming Wall
Street.
Mr. Trump said that he was running for the United States President
because he wanted to drain the swamp, but Mr. Trump and his leadership
are already showing us that they intend to expand the swamp, that they
are going to grow the swamp, that they are going to make sure that they
have everybody from Wall Street, many of whom have already been fined,
been accused of fraud, who are under investigation--somehow he is
bringing them close to him, and I wonder why.
This legislation today basically tells you a story. It tells you a
story that they are talking about. They are saying, in essence, that
we, the United States of America, operate unto ourselves. Yes, we have
these big firms, and we don't mind that they have big businesses in
other countries, like AIG. We don't mind that they are operating
internationally. We have State regulations, and our State regulations
will take care of whatever our needs are for oversight of insurance.
But they can't tell you why that didn't happen with AIG. As a matter
of fact, they don't mention AIG. They wish the story of AIG would just
simply go away. They don't want the American people to be reminded of
what happened with AIG that almost brought this country to its knees.
They don't want to remind the people that we had to bail them out. They
don't want to remind the people that they were undercapitalized, their
credit default swaps were fraudulent, and they didn't have anything to
back it up. So here we are, and they are asking the American people to
ignore all of this, just forget all of this. We are out to protect
those who certainly should not be protected.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. LUETKEMEYER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
Just to recap what we are doing here: We have a bill in front of us
here that is basically trying to give leverage to Team USA, which are
the representatives from the United States, one of which was created by
Dodd-Frank, to represent the United States insurance industry at the
negotiating table with regards to the International Association of
Insurance Supervisors. Now, this is a group of people from around the
world that regulate insurance companies in each of these other
countries.
Now, these regulators have a different set of rules and regulations
and a different purpose from the standpoint that they regulate
insurance at the national level in each one of these countries, where
we in this country regulate insurance at the State level.
{time} 1630
When the IAIS tries to promulgate rules and regulations, it is like
trying to put a square peg in a round hole when they try and put those
rules and regulations on our companies here. As a result, this bill is
to try and give leverage to our negotiations so that doesn't happen and
so they can protect our industry. In fact, the negotiators want this
bill because they need that leverage to be able to go and say no to
some of the standards that are being proposed so that they can protect
our industry.
Now, I will give you a quick example. In my own State, we have a
company that provides reinsurance in one of the countries in Europe.
That country right now is trying to impose some new standards on that
company to be able to do business there.
We need to have the regulators be able to go to the IAIS and say:
Look, this is not working. You cannot impact and undermine our own
companies in this country with these rules that do not work. They need
to be on a level playing field with everybody else.
So this is a way that we can protect our companies and our industries
and our consumers from this regulation that is basically out of control
sometimes.
Mr. Huizenga made a great point. He said: Why would we allow
unelected foreign regulators to tell our industry what to do? That is
what we have got. We have got a group of bureaucrats from around the
world who are trying to tell our companies, our insurance industry--it
isn't one company; it is everybody in this country--what to do. They
are not elected, but we are in this Congress. Shouldn't we put the
people's representatives in charge of this?
Mr. Pearce made that comment. These regulations need to be decided by
the people's representatives. That is us. That is what this bill does.
It puts us in charge of saying yes or no to whatever agreements are
done over there.
Mr. Barr made the comment that we need to protect the insurance model
of our industry. And that is what this does. We in the Congress can
look and see if these rules and regulations will protect the industry.
It doesn't mean we throw them all out either. The underlying
principle of everything that the minority ranking member is talking
about here is that we are going to throw out every regulation that is
being proposed. No, this is not the case.
What we want to do is make sure the ones that are being proposed are
okay and will not negatively impact our industry. The ones that are
going to be helpful, we will support those. We will let them go
through. That is up to Congress. We should be in charge of those
decisions, not somebody else around this world.
Mr. Williams made a good point. He said this is kind of like a trade
agreement. We approve all the trade agreements over in the other body,
if I am not mistaken. Should we approve an agreement like this where we
are going to impact an entire industry? I think so, Mr. Speaker.
Let me just move on to a couple of points that were made by a couple
of folks during the discussion on the other side.
They talked about the pay-for in the bill. The pay-for in the bill
actually comes from a slush fund of the SEC, which is overfunded at
this point and that they are going to use less than 20 percent of that
money this year. It is well paid for. It is well within the reason of
being able to afford this, and it is not going to impact that regulator
at all. So I think we are in great shape.
Somebody made the comment that the Fed does have the authority to
make these rules. No, they don't. They don't have authority to make a
rule across the board on all insurance companies in this country. That
is not a true statement.
The statement was also made about the G-SIFIs and systemic
institutions. This bill doesn't do anything to address G-SIFI
designation. This bill is about protecting the IAIS, which is a
supervisory body. It is not the Federal Stability Board. It is not the
international board that decides all of these G-SIFI designations. This
is the board that oversees the regulatory structure of insurance
companies.
Somebody said it has constitutional concerns. If it has
constitutional concerns, then you have just told me that Dodd-Frank is
unconstitutional. That is all we are doing is dealing with what has
gone on in Dodd-Frank when setting up the FIO office to try and give
them the leverage and power they need to do something.
It is interesting because the ranking member last week was railing on
a bill that we had on the floor about transparency and oversight of
regulators. You know what? We listened to her. This bill today does
that very thing. It adds to transparency, and we are providing
oversight for the regulators. I would think she would be excited about
this legislation and be willing to support it.
[[Page 16067]]
One other comment, Mr. Speaker, and I will close.
The ranking member keeps throwing AIG at us. That is a red-herring
from the standpoint that AIG is made up of two separate entities: one
is an insurance company; one is the securities and investment company.
The company that was in trouble was the securities and investment part.
The insurance company stayed solid and solvent. That is not the one
that was bailed out.
So, again, the point was made by one of my colleagues--Mr. Duffy, I
believe it was--that in 2008 our system worked. And he is correct; it
did work. Our insurance industry in this country withstood one of the
largest and most devastating recessions in history since the Great
Depression, and it came out of it with very little negative problems
that could impact the quality of insurance being provided for our
citizens.
So, Mr. Speaker, let me just close by saying this bill does what we
would hope that every bill would do in this Congress, and that is that
it gives leverage to people who can do good to protect our industries
and our people, our way of life and our economy.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. All time for general debate has expired.
Amendment No. 1 Printed in House Report 114-846 Offered by Mr. DeSantis
Mr. DeSANTIS. Mr. Speaker, I have an amendment at the desk.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Clerk will designate the amendment.
The text of the amendment is as follows:
Page 4, line 11, before the period insert the following:
``and that any such final standard is composed in plain
writing (as such term is defined in section 3 of the Plain
Writing Act of 2010 (5 U.S.C. 301 note))''.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to House Resolution 944, the
gentleman from Florida (Mr. DeSantis) and a Member opposed each will
control 5 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Florida.
Mr. DeSANTIS. Mr. Speaker, my amendment is very simple. It requires
that any international agreement needs to be written in plain writing
as a condition to enter into the agreement.
I am offering this from the perspective of people in Florida, my
district, and elsewhere who are small businesses, who are small
companies who can't afford to hire large legal teams simply to
understand overly complex regulations. They are already beset with way
too much, both in terms of the scope, but also in terms of the
complexity; and when you have complex agreements or regulations imposed
on them, it not only makes life difficult for them, it actually gives
them a competitive disadvantage over some of the big companies that we
are always hearing about.
So I think writing in plain language, clear and concise, makes it
easier for small businesses to comply without amassing huge amounts in
legal fees and other overhead costs.
Plain writing doesn't change the regulation. You can have a
regulation. It just requires it to be written in a way that doesn't
require you to hire $500-an-hour attorneys to interpret it for you. So
I think it is a commonsense way to help small business with no taxpayer
expense.
I would note that the need for plain writing has been something that
the Congress, on both sides of the aisle, has embraced over decades.
I appreciate my friend from Missouri's bill. I intend to support it.
I think this amendment will be added protection for those who are
struggling to do well in an economy in which so much that comes out of
Washington seems to be making it more difficult for them to succeed.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. MAXINE WATERS of California. Mr. Speaker, I claim the time in
opposition to the amendment, although I am not opposed to the
amendment.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Without objection, the gentlewoman is
recognized for 5 minutes.
There was no objection.
Ms. MAXINE WATERS of California. Mr. Speaker, this amendment requires
that any final standard agreed to under the terms of this bill be
composed in plain writing in accordance with the Plain Writing Act of
2010. That law basically requires that Federal agencies use ``clear
government communication that the public can understand and use.''
As a matter of general policy, I think that makes good sense. We want
the public to be able to understand the rules and regulations that
impact their daily lives. When government regulations are difficult to
comprehend, it undermines rather than enhances our goal of setting
clear rules of the road and preventing misconduct. But no amount of
clear communication or plain writing will improve the basic issues with
the underlying bill.
Of course we support plain writing. I wish that all of us would adopt
and carry out and implement the legislation that was passed, supported
by both sides of the aisle, for plain writing, for plain English. I
wish the State would do it with their propositions, et cetera. We all
pay lip service to it, but then we come with the gobbledygook that the
American public has to try and understand.
So, yes, I support plain writing. I support the public being able to
understand what we do, but I don't want people to be confused. Plain
writing has nothing to do with the basic issues in this underlying
bill.
While I do not take issue with the amendment offered by the gentleman
from Florida, I continue to urge my colleagues to oppose this bill. It
is a solution in search of a problem, one that certainly does not
exist.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. DeSANTIS. Mr. Speaker, I am glad that this is an amendment that
my friend from California can embrace. I urge everyone to embrace it
and would just urge people to support the amendment.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the previous question
is ordered on the bill, as amended, and on the amendment offered by the
gentleman from Florida (Mr. DeSantis).
The question is on the amendment by the gentleman from Florida (Mr.
DeSantis).
The amendment was agreed to.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the engrossment and third
reading of the bill.
The bill was ordered to be engrossed and read a third time, and was
read the third time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the passage of the bill.
The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that
the ayes appeared to have it.
Ms. MAXINE WATERS of California. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the
yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, this 15-
minute vote on passage of the bill will be followed by 5-minute votes
on motions to suspend the rules with respect to H.R. 6076, S. 2971, and
H.R. 5790, in each case by the yeas and nays.
The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 239,
nays 170, not voting 24, as follows:
[Roll No. 613]
YEAS--239
Abraham
Aderholt
Allen
Amash
Amodei
Ashford
Babin
Barletta
Barr
Barton
Benishek
Bilirakis
Bishop (MI)
Bishop (UT)
Black
Blackburn
Blum
Bost
Boustany
Brady (TX)
Brat
Bridenstine
Brooks (AL)
Brooks (IN)
Buchanan
Buck
Bucshon
Burgess
Byrne
Calvert
Carter (GA)
Carter (TX)
Chabot
Chaffetz
Clawson (FL)
Coffman
Cole
Collins (GA)
Collins (NY)
Comer
Comstock
Conaway
Cook
Costello (PA)
Cramer
Crawford
Crenshaw
Cuellar
Culberson
Curbelo (FL)
Davidson
Davis, Rodney
Denham
Dent
DeSantis
DesJarlais
Diaz-Balart
Dold
Donovan
Duffy
Duncan (SC)
Duncan (TN)
Ellmers (NC)
Emmer (MN)
Farenthold
Fitzpatrick
Fleischmann
Fleming
Flores
Forbes
Fortenberry
Foxx
Franks (AZ)
Frelinghuysen
Garrett
Gibbs
Gibson
Gohmert
Goodlatte
Gosar
Gowdy
Graves (GA)
Graves (LA)
Griffith
Grothman
Guinta
Guthrie
Hanna
Hardy
Harper
Harris
Hartzler
Heck (NV)
[[Page 16068]]
Hensarling
Herrera Beutler
Hice, Jody B.
Hill
Holding
Hudson
Huelskamp
Huizenga (MI)
Hultgren
Hunter
Hurd (TX)
Issa
Jenkins (KS)
Jenkins (WV)
Johnson (OH)
Johnson, Sam
Jones
Jordan
Joyce
Katko
Kelly (MS)
Kelly (PA)
Kind
King (IA)
King (NY)
Kinzinger (IL)
Kline
Knight
Labrador
LaHood
LaMalfa
Lamborn
Lance
Latta
LoBiondo
Long
Loudermilk
Love
Lucas
Luetkemeyer
Lummis
MacArthur
Marchant
Marino
Massie
McCarthy
McCaul
McClintock
McHenry
McKinley
McMorris Rodgers
McSally
Meadows
Meehan
Messer
Mica
Miller (FL)
Moolenaar
Mooney (WV)
Mullin
Mulvaney
Murphy (PA)
Neugebauer
Newhouse
Noem
Nugent
Nunes
Olson
Palazzo
Palmer
Paulsen
Pearce
Perry
Peterson
Pittenger
Pitts
Poliquin
Pompeo
Posey
Price, Tom
Ratcliffe
Reed
Reichert
Renacci
Ribble
Rice (SC)
Rigell
Roby
Roe (TN)
Rogers (AL)
Rogers (KY)
Rohrabacher
Rokita
Rooney (FL)
Ros-Lehtinen
Ross
Rothfus
Rouzer
Royce
Russell
Salmon
Sanford
Scalise
Schweikert
Sensenbrenner
Sessions
Shimkus
Shuster
Simpson
Smith (MO)
Smith (NE)
Smith (NJ)
Smith (TX)
Stefanik
Stewart
Stivers
Stutzman
Thompson (PA)
Thornberry
Tipton
Trott
Turner
Upton
Valadao
Wagner
Walberg
Walden
Walker
Walorski
Walters, Mimi
Weber (TX)
Webster (FL)
Wenstrup
Westerman
Williams
Wilson (SC)
Wittman
Womack
Woodall
Yoder
Yoho
Young (AK)
Young (IA)
Young (IN)
Zeldin
Zinke
NAYS--170
Adams
Aguilar
Bass
Beatty
Becerra
Bera
Beyer
Bishop (GA)
Blumenauer
Bonamici
Boyle, Brendan F.
Brady (PA)
Brownley (CA)
Bustos
Butterfield
Capps
Capuano
Cardenas
Carney
Carson (IN)
Cartwright
Castor (FL)
Castro (TX)
Cicilline
Clark (MA)
Clarke (NY)
Clay
Cleaver
Cohen
Connolly
Conyers
Cooper
Courtney
Crowley
Cummings
Davis (CA)
Davis, Danny
DeFazio
DeGette
Delaney
DeLauro
DelBene
DeSaulnier
Deutch
Dingell
Doggett
Doyle, Michael F.
Duckworth
Edwards
Ellison
Engel
Eshoo
Esty
Evans
Farr
Foster
Frankel (FL)
Fudge
Gabbard
Gallego
Garamendi
Graham
Grayson
Green, Al
Green, Gene
Grijalva
Gutierrez
Hanabusa
Hastings
Heck (WA)
Higgins
Himes
Hinojosa
Honda
Hoyer
Huffman
Jackson Lee
Jeffries
Johnson (GA)
Johnson, E. B.
Kaptur
Keating
Kelly (IL)
Kennedy
Kildee
Kilmer
Kuster
Langevin
Larsen (WA)
Larson (CT)
Lawrence
Levin
Lewis
Lieu, Ted
Lipinski
Loebsack
Lofgren
Lowenthal
Lowey
Lujan Grisham (NM)
Lujan, Ben Ray (NM)
Lynch
Maloney, Carolyn
Maloney, Sean
Matsui
McCollum
McGovern
McNerney
Meeks
Meng
Moore
Moulton
Murphy (FL)
Nadler
Napolitano
Nolan
Norcross
O'Rourke
Pallone
Pascrell
Payne
Pelosi
Perlmutter
Peters
Pingree
Pocan
Polis
Price (NC)
Quigley
Rangel
Richmond
Roybal-Allard
Ruiz
Ruppersberger
Rush
Ryan (OH)
Sanchez, Linda T.
Sarbanes
Schakowsky
Schiff
Schrader
Scott (VA)
Scott, David
Sewell (AL)
Sherman
Sinema
Sires
Slaughter
Smith (WA)
Speier
Swalwell (CA)
Takano
Thompson (CA)
Thompson (MS)
Titus
Tonko
Torres
Tsongas
Van Hollen
Vargas
Veasey
Vela
Velazquez
Visclosky
Walz
Waters, Maxine
Watson Coleman
Welch
Wilson (FL)
Yarmuth
NOT VOTING--24
Brown (FL)
Chu, Judy
Clyburn
Costa
Fincher
Granger
Graves (MO)
Hurt (VA)
Israel
Jolly
Kirkpatrick
Lee
McDermott
Miller (MI)
Neal
Poe (TX)
Rice (NY)
Roskam
Sanchez, Loretta
Scott, Austin
Serrano
Tiberi
Wasserman Schultz
Westmoreland
{time} 1705
Mr. MESSER changed his vote from ``nay'' to ``yea.''
So the bill was passed.
The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
____________________
TO RESEARCH, EVALUATE, ASSESS, AND TREAT ASTRONAUTS ACT
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Carter of Georgia). The unfinished
business is the vote on the motion to suspend the rules and pass the
bill (H.R. 6076) to require the Administrator of the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration to establish a program for the
medical monitoring, diagnosis, and treatment of astronauts, and for
other purposes, as amended, on which the yeas and nays were ordered.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Smith) that the House suspend the rules and
pass the bill, as amended.
This is a 5-minute vote.
The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 413,
nays 0, not voting 20, as follows:
[Roll No. 614]
YEAS--413
Abraham
Adams
Aderholt
Aguilar
Allen
Amash
Amodei
Ashford
Babin
Barletta
Barr
Barton
Bass
Beatty
Becerra
Benishek
Bera
Beyer
Bilirakis
Bishop (GA)
Bishop (MI)
Bishop (UT)
Black
Blackburn
Blum
Blumenauer
Bonamici
Bost
Boustany
Boyle, Brendan F.
Brady (PA)
Brady (TX)
Brat
Bridenstine
Brooks (AL)
Brooks (IN)
Brownley (CA)
Buchanan
Buck
Bucshon
Burgess
Bustos
Butterfield
Byrne
Calvert
Capps
Capuano
Cardenas
Carney
Carson (IN)
Carter (GA)
Carter (TX)
Cartwright
Castor (FL)
Castro (TX)
Chabot
Chaffetz
Chu, Judy
Cicilline
Clark (MA)
Clarke (NY)
Clawson (FL)
Clay
Cleaver
Coffman
Cohen
Cole
Collins (GA)
Collins (NY)
Comer
Comstock
Conaway
Connolly
Conyers
Cook
Cooper
Costello (PA)
Courtney
Cramer
Crawford
Crenshaw
Crowley
Cuellar
Culberson
Cummings
Curbelo (FL)
Davidson
Davis (CA)
Davis, Danny
Davis, Rodney
DeFazio
DeGette
Delaney
DeLauro
DelBene
Denham
Dent
DeSantis
DeSaulnier
DesJarlais
Deutch
Dingell
Doggett
Dold
Donovan
Doyle, Michael F.
Duckworth
Duffy
Duncan (SC)
Duncan (TN)
Edwards
Ellison
Ellmers (NC)
Emmer (MN)
Engel
Eshoo
Esty
Evans
Farenthold
Farr
Fitzpatrick
Fleischmann
Fleming
Flores
Fortenberry
Foster
Foxx
Frankel (FL)
Franks (AZ)
Frelinghuysen
Fudge
Gallego
Garamendi
Garrett
Gibbs
Gibson
Gohmert
Goodlatte
Gosar
Gowdy
Graham
Granger
Graves (GA)
Graves (LA)
Grayson
Green, Al
Green, Gene
Griffith
Grijalva
Grothman
Guinta
Guthrie
Gutierrez
Hanabusa
Hanna
Hardy
Harper
Harris
Hartzler
Hastings
Heck (NV)
Heck (WA)
Hensarling
Herrera Beutler
Hice, Jody B.
Higgins
Hill
Himes
Hinojosa
Holding
Honda
Hoyer
Hudson
Huelskamp
Huffman
Huizenga (MI)
Hultgren
Hunter
Hurd (TX)
Hurt (VA)
Issa
Jackson Lee
Jeffries
Jenkins (KS)
Jenkins (WV)
Johnson (GA)
Johnson (OH)
Johnson, E. B.
Johnson, Sam
Jones
Jordan
Joyce
Kaptur
Katko
Keating
Kelly (IL)
Kelly (MS)
Kelly (PA)
Kennedy
Kildee
Kilmer
Kind
King (IA)
King (NY)
Kinzinger (IL)
Kline
Knight
Kuster
Labrador
LaHood
LaMalfa
Lamborn
Lance
Langevin
Larsen (WA)
Larson (CT)
Latta
Lawrence
Levin
Lewis
Lieu, Ted
Lipinski
LoBiondo
Loebsack
Lofgren
Long
Loudermilk
Love
Lowenthal
Lowey
Lucas
Luetkemeyer
Lujan Grisham (NM)
Lujan, Ben Ray (NM)
Lummis
Lynch
MacArthur
Maloney, Carolyn
Maloney, Sean
Marchant
Marino
Massie
Matsui
McCarthy
McCaul
McClintock
McCollum
McGovern
McHenry
McKinley
McMorris Rodgers
McNerney
McSally
Meadows
Meehan
Meeks
Meng
Messer
Mica
Miller (FL)
Moolenaar
Mooney (WV)
Moore
Moulton
Mullin
Mulvaney
Murphy (FL)
Murphy (PA)
Nadler
Napolitano
Neal
Neugebauer
Newhouse
Noem
Nolan
Norcross
Nugent
Nunes
O'Rourke
Olson
Palazzo
Pallone
Palmer
Pascrell
Paulsen
Payne
Pearce
Pelosi
Perlmutter
Perry
Peters
Peterson
Pingree
Pittenger
Pitts
Pocan
Poliquin
Polis
Pompeo
Posey
Price (NC)
Price, Tom
Quigley
Rangel
Ratcliffe
Reed
Reichert
Renacci
Ribble
Rice (NY)
Rice (SC)
Richmond
Rigell
Roby
Roe (TN)
Rogers (AL)
Rogers (KY)
Rohrabacher
Rokita
Rooney (FL)
Ros-Lehtinen
Ross
Rothfus
Rouzer
Roybal-Allard
Royce
Ruiz
Ruppersberger
Rush
Russell
Ryan (OH)
Salmon
Sanchez, Linda T.
Sanford
Sarbanes
Scalise
Schakowsky
Schiff
Schrader
Schweikert
Scott (VA)
Scott, Austin
Scott, David
Sensenbrenner
[[Page 16069]]
Sessions
Sewell (AL)
Sherman
Shimkus
Shuster
Simpson
Sinema
Sires
Slaughter
Smith (MO)
Smith (NE)
Smith (NJ)
Smith (TX)
Smith (WA)
Speier
Stefanik
Stewart
Stivers
Stutzman
Swalwell (CA)
Takano
Thompson (CA)
Thompson (MS)
Thompson (PA)
Thornberry
Tipton
Titus
Tonko
Torres
Trott
Tsongas
Turner
Upton
Valadao
Van Hollen
Vargas
Veasey
Vela
Velazquez
Visclosky
Wagner
Walberg
Walden
Walker
Walorski
Walters, Mimi
Walz
Wasserman Schultz
Waters, Maxine
Watson Coleman
Weber (TX)
Webster (FL)
Welch
Wenstrup
Westerman
Williams
Wilson (FL)
Wilson (SC)
Wittman
Womack
Woodall
Yarmuth
Yoder
Yoho
Young (AK)
Young (IA)
Young (IN)
Zeldin
Zinke
NOT VOTING--20
Brown (FL)
Clyburn
Costa
Diaz-Balart
Fincher
Forbes
Gabbard
Graves (MO)
Israel
Jolly
Kirkpatrick
Lee
McDermott
Miller (MI)
Poe (TX)
Roskam
Sanchez, Loretta
Serrano
Tiberi
Westmoreland
Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore
The SPEAKER pro tempore (during the vote). There are 2 minutes
remaining.
{time} 1713
So (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the rules were suspended and
the bill, as amended, was passed.
The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
____________________
NATIONAL URBAN SEARCH AND RESCUE RESPONSE SYSTEM ACT OF 2016
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The unfinished business is the vote on the
motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill (S. 2971) to authorize
the National Urban Search and Rescue Response System, as amended, on
which the yeas and nays were ordered.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Barletta) that the House suspend the
rules and pass the bill, as amended.
This is a 5-minute vote.
The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 405,
nays 7, not voting 21, as follows:
[Roll No. 615]
YEAS--405
Abraham
Adams
Aderholt
Aguilar
Allen
Amodei
Ashford
Babin
Barletta
Barr
Barton
Bass
Beatty
Becerra
Benishek
Bera
Beyer
Bilirakis
Bishop (GA)
Bishop (MI)
Bishop (UT)
Black
Blackburn
Blum
Blumenauer
Bonamici
Bost
Boustany
Boyle, Brendan F.
Brady (PA)
Brady (TX)
Bridenstine
Brooks (AL)
Brooks (IN)
Brownley (CA)
Buchanan
Buck
Bucshon
Burgess
Bustos
Butterfield
Byrne
Calvert
Capps
Capuano
Cardenas
Carney
Carson (IN)
Carter (GA)
Carter (TX)
Cartwright
Castor (FL)
Castro (TX)
Chabot
Chaffetz
Chu, Judy
Cicilline
Clark (MA)
Clarke (NY)
Clawson (FL)
Clay
Cleaver
Coffman
Cohen
Cole
Collins (GA)
Collins (NY)
Comer
Comstock
Conaway
Connolly
Conyers
Cook
Cooper
Costello (PA)
Courtney
Cramer
Crawford
Crenshaw
Crowley
Cuellar
Culberson
Cummings
Curbelo (FL)
Davidson
Davis (CA)
Davis, Danny
Davis, Rodney
DeFazio
DeGette
Delaney
DeLauro
DelBene
Denham
Dent
DeSantis
DeSaulnier
DesJarlais
Deutch
Diaz-Balart
Dingell
Doggett
Dold
Donovan
Duckworth
Duffy
Duncan (SC)
Duncan (TN)
Edwards
Ellison
Ellmers (NC)
Emmer (MN)
Engel
Eshoo
Esty
Evans
Farenthold
Farr
Fitzpatrick
Fleischmann
Fleming
Flores
Fortenberry
Foster
Foxx
Frankel (FL)
Franks (AZ)
Frelinghuysen
Fudge
Gabbard
Gallego
Garamendi
Garrett
Gibbs
Gibson
Gohmert
Goodlatte
Gosar
Gowdy
Graham
Granger
Graves (GA)
Graves (LA)
Grayson
Green, Al
Green, Gene
Griffith
Grijalva
Grothman
Guinta
Guthrie
Gutierrez
Hanabusa
Hanna
Hardy
Harper
Hartzler
Hastings
Heck (NV)
Heck (WA)
Hensarling
Herrera Beutler
Hice, Jody B.
Higgins
Hill
Himes
Hinojosa
Holding
Honda
Hoyer
Hudson
Huelskamp
Huffman
Huizenga (MI)
Hultgren
Hunter
Hurd (TX)
Hurt (VA)
Israel
Issa
Jackson Lee
Jeffries
Jenkins (KS)
Jenkins (WV)
Johnson (GA)
Johnson (OH)
Johnson, E. B.
Johnson, Sam
Jordan
Joyce
Kaptur
Katko
Keating
Kelly (IL)
Kelly (MS)
Kelly (PA)
Kennedy
Kildee
Kilmer
Kind
King (IA)
King (NY)
Kinzinger (IL)
Kline
Knight
Kuster
Labrador
LaHood
LaMalfa
Lamborn
Lance
Langevin
Larsen (WA)
Larson (CT)
Latta
Lawrence
Levin
Lewis
Lieu, Ted
Lipinski
LoBiondo
Loebsack
Lofgren
Long
Loudermilk
Love
Lowenthal
Lowey
Lucas
Luetkemeyer
Lujan Grisham (NM)
Lujan, Ben Ray (NM)
Lummis
Lynch
MacArthur
Maloney, Carolyn
Maloney, Sean
Marchant
Marino
Matsui
McCarthy
McCaul
McClintock
McCollum
McGovern
McHenry
McKinley
McMorris Rodgers
McNerney
McSally
Meadows
Meehan
Meeks
Meng
Messer
Mica
Miller (FL)
Moolenaar
Mooney (WV)
Moore
Moulton
Mullin
Mulvaney
Murphy (FL)
Murphy (PA)
Nadler
Napolitano
Neal
Neugebauer
Newhouse
Noem
Nolan
Norcross
Nugent
Nunes
O'Rourke
Olson
Palazzo
Pallone
Palmer
Pascrell
Paulsen
Payne
Pearce
Pelosi
Perlmutter
Perry
Peters
Peterson
Pingree
Pittenger
Pitts
Pocan
Poliquin
Polis
Pompeo
Posey
Price (NC)
Price, Tom
Quigley
Rangel
Ratcliffe
Reed
Reichert
Renacci
Rice (NY)
Rice (SC)
Richmond
Rigell
Roby
Roe (TN)
Rogers (AL)
Rogers (KY)
Rohrabacher
Rokita
Rooney (FL)
Ros-Lehtinen
Ross
Rothfus
Rouzer
Roybal-Allard
Royce
Ruiz
Ruppersberger
Russell
Ryan (OH)
Salmon
Sanchez, Linda T.
Sarbanes
Scalise
Schakowsky
Schiff
Schrader
Schweikert
Scott (VA)
Scott, Austin
Scott, David
Sessions
Sewell (AL)
Sherman
Shimkus
Shuster
Simpson
Sinema
Sires
Slaughter
Smith (MO)
Smith (NE)
Smith (NJ)
Smith (TX)
Smith (WA)
Speier
Stefanik
Stewart
Stivers
Stutzman
Swalwell (CA)
Takano
Thompson (CA)
Thompson (MS)
Thompson (PA)
Thornberry
Tipton
Titus
Tonko
Torres
Trott
Tsongas
Turner
Upton
Valadao
Van Hollen
Vargas
Veasey
Vela
Velazquez
Visclosky
Wagner
Walberg
Walden
Walker
Walorski
Walters, Mimi
Walz
Wasserman Schultz
Watson Coleman
Weber (TX)
Webster (FL)
Welch
Wenstrup
Westerman
Williams
Wilson (FL)
Wilson (SC)
Wittman
Womack
Woodall
Yarmuth
Yoder
Yoho
Young (AK)
Young (IA)
Young (IN)
Zeldin
Zinke
NAYS--7
Amash
Harris
Jones
Massie
Ribble
Sanford
Sensenbrenner
NOT VOTING--21
Brat
Brown (FL)
Clyburn
Costa
Doyle, Michael F.
Fincher
Forbes
Graves (MO)
Jolly
Kirkpatrick
Lee
McDermott
Miller (MI)
Poe (TX)
Roskam
Rush
Sanchez, Loretta
Serrano
Tiberi
Waters, Maxine
Westmoreland
Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore
The SPEAKER pro tempore (during the vote). There are 2 minutes
remaining.
{time} 1719
So (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the rules were suspended and
the bill, as amended, was passed.
The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
Stated for:
Mr. BRAT. Mr. Speaker, I was unavoidably detained. Had I been
present, I would have voted ``yea'' on rollcall No. 615.
____________________
FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION WHISTLEBLOWER PROTECTION ENHANCEMENT
ACT OF 2016
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The unfinished business is the vote on the
motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5790) to provide
adequate protections for whistleblowers at the Federal Bureau of
Investigation, as amended, on which the yeas and nays were ordered.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Utah (Mr. Chaffetz) that the House suspend the rules and
pass the bill, as amended.
This is a 5-minute vote.
The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 404,
nays 0, not voting 29, as follows:
[[Page 16070]]
[Roll No. 616]
YEAS--404
Abraham
Adams
Aderholt
Aguilar
Allen
Amash
Amodei
Ashford
Babin
Barletta
Barr
Barton
Bass
Beatty
Becerra
Benishek
Bera
Beyer
Bilirakis
Bishop (GA)
Bishop (MI)
Bishop (UT)
Black
Blackburn
Blum
Blumenauer
Bonamici
Bost
Boustany
Boyle, Brendan F.
Brady (PA)
Brady (TX)
Brat
Bridenstine
Brooks (AL)
Brooks (IN)
Brownley (CA)
Buchanan
Buck
Bucshon
Burgess
Bustos
Butterfield
Byrne
Calvert
Capps
Capuano
Cardenas
Carney
Carson (IN)
Carter (GA)
Carter (TX)
Cartwright
Castor (FL)
Castro (TX)
Chabot
Chaffetz
Chu, Judy
Cicilline
Clark (MA)
Clarke (NY)
Clawson (FL)
Clay
Cleaver
Coffman
Cohen
Cole
Collins (GA)
Collins (NY)
Comer
Comstock
Conaway
Connolly
Conyers
Cook
Cooper
Costello (PA)
Courtney
Cramer
Crawford
Crenshaw
Crowley
Cuellar
Culberson
Cummings
Curbelo (FL)
Davidson
Davis (CA)
Davis, Danny
Davis, Rodney
DeFazio
DeGette
Delaney
DeLauro
DelBene
Denham
Dent
DeSantis
DeSaulnier
DesJarlais
Deutch
Diaz-Balart
Dingell
Doggett
Dold
Donovan
Duckworth
Duffy
Duncan (SC)
Duncan (TN)
Edwards
Ellison
Ellmers (NC)
Emmer (MN)
Engel
Eshoo
Esty
Evans
Farenthold
Farr
Fitzpatrick
Fleischmann
Fleming
Flores
Fortenberry
Foster
Foxx
Frankel (FL)
Franks (AZ)
Frelinghuysen
Fudge
Gabbard
Gallego
Garamendi
Garrett
Gibbs
Gibson
Gohmert
Goodlatte
Gosar
Gowdy
Graham
Granger
Graves (GA)
Graves (LA)
Grayson
Green, Al
Green, Gene
Griffith
Grijalva
Grothman
Guinta
Guthrie
Gutierrez
Hanabusa
Hanna
Hardy
Harper
Harris
Hartzler
Hastings
Heck (NV)
Heck (WA)
Hensarling
Herrera Beutler
Hice, Jody B.
Higgins
Hill
Himes
Hinojosa
Holding
Honda
Hoyer
Hudson
Huelskamp
Huffman
Huizenga (MI)
Hultgren
Hunter
Hurd (TX)
Hurt (VA)
Israel
Issa
Jackson Lee
Jeffries
Jenkins (KS)
Jenkins (WV)
Johnson (GA)
Johnson (OH)
Johnson, E. B.
Johnson, Sam
Jones
Jordan
Joyce
Kaptur
Katko
Keating
Kelly (IL)
Kelly (MS)
Kelly (PA)
Kennedy
Kildee
Kilmer
Kind
King (IA)
King (NY)
Kinzinger (IL)
Kline
Knight
Kuster
Labrador
LaHood
LaMalfa
Lamborn
Lance
Langevin
Larsen (WA)
Larson (CT)
Latta
Lawrence
Levin
Lewis
Lieu, Ted
Lipinski
LoBiondo
Loebsack
Lofgren
Long
Loudermilk
Love
Lowenthal
Lowey
Lucas
Luetkemeyer
Lujan Grisham (NM)
Lujan, Ben Ray (NM)
Lummis
Lynch
MacArthur
Maloney, Carolyn
Maloney, Sean
Marchant
Marino
Massie
Matsui
McCarthy
McCaul
McClintock
McCollum
McGovern
McHenry
McKinley
McMorris Rodgers
McNerney
McSally
Meadows
Meehan
Meeks
Meng
Messer
Mica
Miller (FL)
Moolenaar
Mooney (WV)
Moore
Moulton
Mullin
Mulvaney
Murphy (FL)
Murphy (PA)
Nadler
Napolitano
Neal
Neugebauer
Newhouse
Noem
Norcross
Nunes
O'Rourke
Olson
Palazzo
Pallone
Palmer
Pascrell
Paulsen
Payne
Pearce
Pelosi
Perlmutter
Perry
Peters
Peterson
Pingree
Pittenger
Pitts
Pocan
Poliquin
Polis
Pompeo
Posey
Price (NC)
Price, Tom
Quigley
Rangel
Ratcliffe
Reed
Reichert
Renacci
Ribble
Rice (NY)
Rice (SC)
Richmond
Rigell
Roby
Roe (TN)
Rogers (AL)
Rogers (KY)
Rohrabacher
Rokita
Rooney (FL)
Ros-Lehtinen
Ross
Rothfus
Rouzer
Royce
Ruiz
Ruppersberger
Russell
Ryan (OH)
Salmon
Sanchez, Linda T.
Sanford
Sarbanes
Scalise
Schakowsky
Schiff
Schweikert
Scott (VA)
Scott, Austin
Scott, David
Sensenbrenner
Sessions
Sewell (AL)
Sherman
Shimkus
Shuster
Simpson
Sires
Slaughter
Smith (MO)
Smith (NE)
Smith (WA)
Speier
Stefanik
Stewart
Stutzman
Swalwell (CA)
Takano
Thompson (CA)
Thompson (MS)
Thompson (PA)
Thornberry
Tipton
Titus
Tonko
Torres
Trott
Tsongas
Turner
Upton
Valadao
Van Hollen
Vargas
Veasey
Visclosky
Wagner
Walberg
Walden
Walker
Walorski
Walters, Mimi
Walz
Wasserman Schultz
Waters, Maxine
Watson Coleman
Weber (TX)
Webster (FL)
Welch
Wenstrup
Westerman
Williams
Wilson (FL)
Wilson (SC)
Wittman
Womack
Woodall
Yarmuth
Yoder
Yoho
Young (AK)
Young (IA)
Young (IN)
Zeldin
Zinke
NOT VOTING--29
Brown (FL)
Clyburn
Costa
Doyle, Michael F.
Fincher
Forbes
Graves (MO)
Jolly
Kirkpatrick
Lee
McDermott
Miller (MI)
Nolan
Nugent
Poe (TX)
Roskam
Roybal-Allard
Rush
Sanchez, Loretta
Schrader
Serrano
Sinema
Smith (NJ)
Smith (TX)
Stivers
Tiberi
Vela
Velazquez
Westmoreland
Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore
The SPEAKER pro tempore (during the vote). There are 2 minutes
remaining.
{time} 1726
So (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the rules were suspended and
the bill, as amended, was passed.
The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
PERSONAL EXPLANATION
Mr. TIBERI. Mr. Speaker, on rollcall Nos. 611 (motion to suspend the
rules and pass, as amended H.R. 1219), 612 (motion to suspend the rules
and pass, as amended S. 3028), 613 (on passage of H.R. 5143), 614
(motion to suspend the rules and pass, as amended H.R. 6076), 615
(motion to suspend the rules and pass, as amended House Amendment to S.
2971), and 616 (motion to suspend the rules and pass, as amended H.R.
5790) I did not cast my vote due to a death in the family. Had I been
present, I would have voted ``yea'' on all of the votes.
____________________
BETTER ONLINE TICKET SALES ACT OF 2016
Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to take from the
Speaker's table the bill (S. 3183) to prohibit the circumvention of
control measures used by Internet ticket sellers to ensure equitable
consumer access to tickets for any given event, and for other purposes,
and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentlewoman from Tennessee?
There was no objection.
The text of the bill is as follows:
S. 3183
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Better Online Ticket Sales
Act of 2016'' or the ``BOTS Act of 2016''.
SEC. 2. UNFAIR AND DECEPTIVE ACTS AND PRACTICES RELATING TO
CIRCUMVENTION OF TICKET ACCESS CONTROL
MEASURES.
(a) Conduct Prohibited.--
(1) In general.--Except as provided in paragraph (2), it
shall be unlawful for any person--
(A) to circumvent a security measure, access control
system, or other technological control or measure on an
Internet website or online service that is used by the ticket
issuer to enforce posted event ticket purchasing limits or to
maintain the integrity of posted online ticket purchasing
order rules; or
(B) to sell or offer to sell any event ticket in interstate
commerce obtained in violation of subparagraph (A) if the
person selling or offering to sell the ticket either--
(i) participated directly in or had the ability to control
the conduct in violation of subparagraph (A); or
(ii) knew or should have known that the event ticket was
acquired in violation of subparagraph (A).
(2) Exception.--It shall not be unlawful under this section
for a person to create or use any computer software or
system--
(A) to investigate, or further the enforcement or defense,
of any alleged violation of this section or other statute or
regulation; or
(B) to engage in research necessary to identify and analyze
flaws and vulnerabilities of measures, systems, or controls
described in paragraph (1)(A), if these research activities
are conducted to advance the state of knowledge in the field
of computer system security or to assist in the development
of computer security product.
(b) Enforcement by the Federal Trade Commission.--
(1) Unfair or deceptive acts or practices.--A violation of
subsection (a) shall be treated as a violation of a rule
defining an unfair or a deceptive act or practice under
section 18(a)(1)(B) of the Federal Trade Commission Act (15
U.S.C. 57a(a)(1)(B)).
(2) Powers of commission.--
(A) In general.--The Commission shall enforce this section
in the same manner, by the same means, and with the same
jurisdiction, powers, and duties as though all applicable
terms and provisions of the Federal Trade Commission Act (15
U.S.C. 41 et seq.) were
[[Page 16071]]
incorporated into and made a part of this section.
(B) Privileges and immunities.--Any person who violates
subsection (a) shall be subject to the penalties and entitled
to the privileges and immunities provided in the Federal
Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 41 et seq.).
(C) Authority preserved.--Nothing in this section shall be
construed to limit the authority of the Federal Trade
Commission under any other provision of law.
(c) Enforcement by States.--
(1) In general.--In any case in which the attorney general
of a State has reason to believe that an interest of the
residents of the State has been or is threatened or adversely
affected by the engagement of any person subject to
subsection (a) in a practice that violates such subsection,
the attorney general of the State may, as parens patriae,
bring a civil action on behalf of the residents of the State
in an appropriate district court of the United States--
(A) to enjoin further violation of such subsection by such
person;
(B) to compel compliance with such subsection; and
(C) to obtain damages, restitution, or other compensation
on behalf of such residents.
(2) Rights of federal trade commission.--
(A) Notice to federal trade commission.--
(i) In general.--Except as provided in clause (iii), the
attorney general of a State shall notify the Commission in
writing that the attorney general intends to bring a civil
action under paragraph (1) not later than 10 days before
initiating the civil action.
(ii) Contents.--The notification required by clause (i)
with respect to a civil action shall include a copy of the
complaint to be filed to initiate the civil action.
(iii) Exception.--If it is not feasible for the attorney
general of a State to provide the notification required by
clause (i) before initiating a civil action under paragraph
(1), the attorney general shall notify the Commission
immediately upon instituting the civil action.
(B) Intervention by federal trade commission.--The
Commission may--
(i) intervene in any civil action brought by the attorney
general of a State under paragraph (1); and
(ii) upon intervening--
(I) be heard on all matters arising in the civil action;
and
(II) file petitions for appeal of a decision in the civil
action.
(3) Investigatory powers.--Nothing in this subsection may
be construed to prevent the attorney general of a State from
exercising the powers conferred on the attorney general by
the laws of the State to conduct investigations, to
administer oaths or affirmations, or to compel the attendance
of witnesses or the production of documentary or other
evidence.
(4) Preemptive action by federal trade commission.--If the
Commission institutes a civil action or an administrative
action with respect to a violation of subsection (a), the
attorney general of a State may not, during the pendency of
such action, bring a civil action under paragraph (1) against
any defendant named in the complaint of the Commission for
the violation with respect to which the Commission instituted
such action.
(5) Venue; service of process.--
(A) Venue.--Any action brought under paragraph (1) may be
brought in--
(i) the district court of the United States that meets
applicable requirements relating to venue under section 1391
of title 28, United States Code; or
(ii) another court of competent jurisdiction.
(B) Service of process.--In an action brought under
paragraph (1), process may be served in any district in which
the defendant--
(i) is an inhabitant; or
(ii) may be found.
(6) Actions by other state officials.--
(A) In general.--In addition to civil actions brought by
attorneys general under paragraph (1), any other consumer
protection officer of a State who is authorized by the State
to do so may bring a civil action under paragraph (1),
subject to the same requirements and limitations that apply
under this subsection to civil actions brought by attorneys
general.
(B) Savings provision.--Nothing in this subsection may be
construed to prohibit an authorized official of a State from
initiating or continuing any proceeding in a court of the
State for a violation of any civil or criminal law of the
State.
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) Commission.--The term ``Commission'' means the Federal
Trade Commission.
(2) Event.--The term ``event'' means any concert,
theatrical performance, sporting event, show, or similarly
scheduled activity, taking place in a venue with a seating or
attendance capacity exceeding 200 persons that--
(A) is open to the general public; and
(B) is promoted, advertised, or marketed in interstate
commerce or for which event tickets are generally sold or
distributed in interstate commerce.
(3) Event ticket.--The term ``event ticket'' means any
physical, electronic, or other form of a certificate,
document, voucher, token, or other evidence indicating that
the bearer, possessor, or person entitled to possession
through purchase or otherwise has--
(A) a right, privilege, or license to enter an event venue
or occupy a particular seat or area in an event venue with
respect to one or more events; or
(B) an entitlement to purchase such a right, privilege, or
license with respect to one or more future events.
(4) Ticket issuer.--The term ``ticket issuer'' means any
person who makes event tickets available, directly or
indirectly, to the general public, and may include--
(A) the operator of the venue;
(B) the sponsor or promoter of an event;
(C) a sports team participating in an event or a league
whose teams are participating in an event;
(D) a theater company, musical group, or similar
participant in an event; and
(E) an agent for any such person.
The bill was ordered to be read a third time, was read the third
time, and passed, and a motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
____________________
DIRECTING THE SECRETARY OF THE SENATE TO MAKE A CERTAIN CORRECTION IN
THE ENROLLMENT OF S. 1635
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I send to the desk a concurrent
resolution and ask unanimous consent for its immediate consideration in
the House.
The Clerk read the title of the concurrent resolution.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Fortenberry). Is there objection to the
request of the gentlewoman from Florida?
There was no objection.
The text of the concurrent resolution is as follows:
H. Con. Res. 181
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate
concurring), That in the enrollment of the bill S. 1635, the
Secretary of the Senate shall make the following corrections:
(1) In section 113, in the proposed subsection (j)(1) of
section 4 of the Foreign Service Buildings Act, 1926, strike
``subject to paragraphs (2) and (3), the Secretary may
transfer to, and merge with, any appropriation for embassy
security, construction, and maintenance such amounts
appropriated for fiscal year 2018 for any other purpose
related to the administration of foreign affairs on or after
January 1, 2017, if the Secretary determines such transfer is
necessary to provide for the security of sites and buildings
in foreign countries under the jurisdiction and control of
the Secretary'' and insert ``subject to paragraph (2), the
Secretary may transfer to, and merge with, any appropriation
for fiscal year 2018 under the heading `Diplomatic and
Consular Programs', including for Worldwide Security
Protection, and under the heading `Embassy Security,
Construction, and Maintenance' funds appropriated under such
headings if the Secretary determines such transfer is
necessary to implement the recommendations of the Benghazi
Accountability Review Board, or to prevent or respond to
security situations and requirements''.
(2) In section 113, in the proposed subsection (j) of
section 4 of the Foreign Service Buildings Act, 1926, strike
the proposed paragraph (2).
(3) In section 113, in the proposed subsection (j) of
section 4 of the Foreign Service Buildings Act, 1926,
redesignate the proposed paragraph (3) as paragraph (2).
(4) In paragraph (7) of section 307, strike ``Office of
Inspector General of the Department of State and the
Broadcasting Board of Governors'' and insert ``offices of
inspectors general of relevant United Nations agencies''.
The concurrent resolution was agreed to.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
____________________
{time} 1730
REQUIRING A REGIONAL STRATEGY TO ADDRESS THE THREAT POSED BY BOKO HARAM
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the
Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Permanent Select Committee on
Intelligence be discharged from further consideration of the bill (S.
1632) to require a regional strategy to address the threat posed by
Boko Haram and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentlewoman from Florida?
There was no objection.
The text of the bill is as follows:
[[Page 16072]]
S. 1632
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. REGIONAL STRATEGY TO ADDRESS THE THREAT POSED BY
BOKO HARAM.
(a) Strategy Required.--
(1) In general.--Not later than 180 days after the date of
the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of State and the
Secretary of Defense shall jointly develop and submit to the
appropriate committees of Congress a five-year strategy to
help enable the Government of Nigeria, members of the
Multinational Joint Task Force to Combat Boko Haram (MNJTF)
authorized by the African Union, and relevant partners to
counter the regional threat of Boko Haram and assist the
Government of Nigeria and its neighbors to accept and address
legitimate grievances of vulnerable populations in areas
affected by Boko Haram.
(2) Elements.--At a minimum, the strategy must address the
following elements:
(A) Enhance, pursuant to existing authorities and
restrictions, the institutional capacity, including military
capabilities, of the Government of Nigeria and partner
nations in the region, as appropriate, to counter the threat
posed by Boko Haram.
(B) Provide humanitarian support to civilian populations
impacted by Boko Haram's activity.
(C) Specific activities through which the United States
Government intends to improve and enhance the capacity of
Multinational Joint Task Force to Combat Boko Haram partner
nations to investigate and prosecute human rights abuses by
security forces and promote respect for the rule of law
within the military.
(D) A means for assisting Nigeria, and as appropriate,
Multinational Joint Task Force to Combat Boko Haram nations,
to counter violent extremism, including efforts to address
underlying societal factors shown to contribute to the
ability of Boko Haram to radicalize and recruit individuals.
(E) A plan to strengthen and promote the rule of law,
including by improving the capacity of the civilian police
and judicial system in Nigeria, enhancing public safety, and
responding to crime (including gender-based violence), while
respecting human rights and strengthening accountability
measures, including measures to prevent corruption.
(F) Strengthen the long-term capacity of the Government of
Nigeria to enhance security for schools such that children
are safer and girls seeking an education are better
protected, and to combat gender-based violence and gender
inequality.
(G) Identify and develop mechanisms for coordinating the
implementation of the strategy across the inter-agency and
with the Government of Nigeria, regional partners, and other
relevant foreign partners.
(H) Identify the resources required to achieve the
strategy's objectives.
(b) Assessment.--The Director of National Intelligence
shall submit, to the appropriate committees of Congress, an
assessment regarding--
(1) the willingness and capability of the Government of
Nigeria and regional partners to implement the strategy
developed under subsection (a), including the capability
gaps, if any, of the Government and military forces of
Nigeria that would need to be addressed to enable the
Government of Nigeria and the governments of its partner
countries in the region--
(A) to counter the threat of Boko Haram; and
(B) to address the legitimate grievances of vulnerable
populations in areas affected by Boko Haram; and
(2) significant United States intelligence gaps concerning
Boko Haram or on the willingness and capacity of the
Government of Nigeria and regional partners to implement the
strategy developed under subsection (a).
(c) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that
lack of economic opportunity and access to education,
justice, and other social services contributes to the ability
of Boko Haram to radicalize and recruit individuals.
(d) Appropriate Committees of Congress Defined.--In this
section, the term ``appropriate committees of Congress''
means--
(1) the Committee on Armed Services, the Committee on
Foreign Relations, the Committee on Appropriations, and the
Select Committee on Intelligence of the Senate; and
(2) the Committee on Armed Services, the Committee on
Foreign Affairs, the Committee on Appropriations, and the
Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence of the House of
Representatives.
Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record the following letters
exchanged between myself and the gentleman from California, Mr. Nunes,
Chairman of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, regarding
S. 1632, an Act to require a regional strategy to address the threat
posed by Boko Haram.
House of Representatives,
Committee on Foreign Affairs,
Washington, DC, December 8, 2016.
Hon. Devin Nunes,
Chairman, Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence,
Washington, DC.
Dear Mr. Chairman: Thank you for consulting with the
Committee on Foreign Affairs on S. 1632, a bill to require a
regional strategy to address the threat posed by Boko Haram,
and for agreeing to be discharged from further consideration
of that bill so that it may proceed expeditiously to the
Floor. I concur in your understanding that the assessment
required by section 1(b) shall be conducted and provided in a
manner that protects intelligence sources and methods.
I agree that your forgoing further action on this measure
does not in any way diminish or alter the jurisdiction of
your Committee, or prejudice its jurisdictional prerogatives
on this measure or similar legislation in the future.
I will seek to place our letters on S. 1632 into the
Congressional Record during floor consideration of the bill.
I appreciate your cooperation regarding this legislation and
look forward to continuing to work with your Committee as
this measure moves through the legislative process.
Sincerely,
Edward R. Royce,
Chairman.
____
House of Representatives, Permanent Select Committee on
Intelligence,
December 7, 2016.
Hon. Ed Royce,
Chairman, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Washington, DC.
Dear Chairman Royce: On September 24, 2015, S. 1632, ``A
bill to require a regional strategy to address the threat
posed by Boko Haram,'' was referred to the Committee on
Foreign Affairs, and in addition, to the Permanent Select
Committee on Intelligence.
In order to expedite the House's consideration of the bill,
the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence will forego
consideration of the measure. This courtesy is, however,
conditioned on our mutual understanding and agreement that it
will in no way diminish or alter the jurisdiction of the
Permanent Select Committee with respect to any future
jurisdictional claim over the subject matter contained in the
bill or any similar measure. It is also conditioned on our
mutual understanding and agreement that the Director of
National Intelligence shall carry out the assessment required
by Subsection 1(b) of the bill consistent with the protection
of intelligence sources and methods.
I would appreciate your response to this letter confirming
this understanding and would request that you include a copy
of this letter in the Congressional Record during its floor
consideration. Thank you in advance for your cooperation.
Sincerely,
Devin Nunes,
Chairman.
The bill was ordered to be read a third time, was read the third
time, and passed, and a motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
____________________
GENERAL LEAVE
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all
Members may have 5 legislative days to submit statements and extraneous
materials for the Record on S. 1632.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentlewoman from Florida?
There was no objection.
____________________
HOUR OF MEETING ON TOMORROW
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that when the
House adjourns today, it adjourn to meet at 9 a.m. tomorrow.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentlewoman from Florida?
There was no objection.
____________________
ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE SPEAKER PRO TEMPORE
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, the Chair
will postpone further proceedings today on additional motions to
suspend the rules on which a recorded vote or the yeas and nays are
ordered, or on which the vote incurs objection under clause 6 of rule
XX.
Any record votes on postponed questions will be taken later.
____________________
VIETNAM HELICOPTER CREW MEMORIAL ACT
Mr. HECK of Nevada. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass
the bill (H.R. 4298) to direct the Secretary of the Army to place in
Arlington National Cemetery a memorial honoring the helicopter pilots
and crew members of the Vietnam era, and for other purposes.
[[Page 16073]]
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 4298
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Vietnam Helicopter Crew
Memorial Act''.
SEC. 2. PLACEMENT OF MEMORIAL HONORING HELICOPTER PILOTS
DURING THE VIETNAM WAR.
(a) In General.--Subject to the requirements of section
(c), the Secretary of the Army shall place in Arlington
National Cemetery a memorial honoring helicopter pilots and
crew members who served on active duty in the Armed Forces
during the Vietnam era.
(b) Design.--The memorial placed under subsection (a) shall
measure 4 feet in height, 5 feet in width, and 1 foot in
depth, and shall be based on a design approved by the
Secretary of the Army and the Vietnam Helicopter Pilots
Association.
(c) Agreement for Upkeep and Maintenance.--The Secretary of
the Army may only place a memorial under subsection (a) if
the Secretary enters into an agreement with the Vietnam
Helicopter Pilots Association under which the Association
agrees to pay all costs necessary to construct, install, and
maintain the memorial, and to such other provisions as the
Secretary may require.
(d) Approval of Site.--The Secretary of the Army shall
approve an appropriate site within Arlington National
Cemetery for the memorial under subsection (a) to be placed.
(e) Waiver of Environmental Assessment.--Section 102 of the
National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4332)
shall not apply with respect to the memorial placed under
subsection (a).
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Nevada (Mr. Heck) and the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Davis) each
will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Nevada.
General Leave
Mr. HECK of Nevada. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all
Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their
remarks and to insert extraneous material on the bill under
consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Nevada?
There was no objection.
Mr. HECK of Nevada. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
I rise in support of H.R. 4298, which directs the Department of the
Army to place in Arlington National Cemetery a memorial honoring
helicopter pilots and crew members who served on Active Duty in the
Armed Forces during the Vietnam war.
Mr. Speaker, it is hard to think about the Vietnam war without
thinking about the significant role both man and machinery played
throughout the war effort. The helicopter was the mainstay for
operational mobility, with approximately 12,000 helicopters used during
the war by the Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force.
These helicopters, flown by tremendously skilled pilots and manned by
brave and competent crew chiefs, door gunners, and medics, brought a
constant stream of troops and supplies to the battlefields and carried
the wounded from the battlefields--all while operating under extreme
conditions and at tremendous personal risk. Helicopter support to
combat operations in Vietnam was not without significant loss. An
estimated 5,000 helicopter pilots and crew members made the ultimate
sacrifice during the war.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Nevada for introducing this
bill to permanently honor and remember the sacrifice by the
extraordinary helicopter pilots and crew members who served in Vietnam
by placing a memorial in their honor in Arlington National Cemetery.
Therefore, I strongly urge all Members to support this bill.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mrs. DAVIS of California. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my
time.
Mr. HECK of Nevada. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the
distinguished gentleman from Nevada (Mr. Amodei), my friend and
colleague and the sponsor of this bill.
Mr. AMODEI. I thank my colleague from the Silver State and also the
ranking member from the subcommittee.
Mr. Speaker, I really shouldn't be here talking about this bill right
now. The reason this bill was necessitated is that the public law says
that the Secretary of the Army can have monuments placed only in those
sections of Arlington National Cemetery that are designated by the
Secretary for such placement and only on land that the Secretary deems
not suitable for burial. There are about 30 million square feet at
Arlington National Cemetery when you take the presently under-
construction addition and the planned additional constructed addition--
30 million square feet. This bill seeks this amount of space out of 30
million square feet.
For those of you who are challenged by visual numbers, that is 5
square feet that they have asked for for all services--not just the
Army but all services--and to commemorate the fact that they were
nearly 10 percent of the casualties in the Vietnam war--the Helicopter
war.
I understand graves to be the primary mission for Arlington National
Cemetery, and I respect that. I understand that there is a concern
about being overrun with requests for memorials, and I concur with that
concern. My problem is that that public law doesn't say there will be
no memorials at Arlington National Cemetery.
By the decision that the administration at Arlington has made that
says you can't have 5 square feet, they have basically changed the law
effectively to: there are no memorials. The high bar that there should
be for memorials, in effect, has been set up there, touching the
ceiling. If these folks--for all services and for nearly 10 percent of
the casualties in the Vietnam war--can't qualify, I wonder who can. So
the necessity for this legislation: 5 square feet.
By the way, in the last quarter of a century, do you know how many
memorials have been approved for placement at Arlington? You don't need
all of the fingers on one hand. Four. You need all of the fingers; you
just don't need the thumb. Four. We are not overrun with memorials.
As we sit here on the anniversary of Pearl Harbor and as we talk
again about some Vietnam veterans, isn't it funny that we now have to
come to Congress and run a bill to respect those folks who, by the way,
probably kept a heck of a lot more names off that wall a little farther
down the Mall from here.
I thank the bipartisan support that I have received from Members in
both Houses--nationwide support. My request is this: if we want to say
``no more memorials at Arlington,'' then we ought to say that in the
law. We shouldn't talk about space not being available for graves, and
we shouldn't talk about people who represent almost 10 percent of the
casualties in a conflict not being entitled to 5 square feet. By the
way, at no cost to the government and with maintenance at no cost to
the government.
With that in hand, I urge bipartisan nationwide support to do the
right thing for almost 5,000 people who paid the ultimate sacrifice in
the Helicopter war in the service, in these--what were then--cutting-
edge iconic machines.
I thank my colleagues.
Mrs. DAVIS of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my
time.
Mr. HECK of Nevada. Mr. Speaker, as my colleague stated, the service,
commitment, and dedication of the helicopter pilots during the Vietnam
war were critical to saving many lives. As somebody who was an Army
flight surgeon, who spent hundreds of hours in the back of a
helicopter, and who served as the chief of aeromedical evacuation for
the 325th Combat Support Hospital in Iraq in 2008, I can personally
attest to the dedication, bravery, and commitment of the helicopter
pilots and of the crew members and what they do for our men and women
in uniform. Therefore, I strongly urge the House to support this bill
and provide this memorial at Arlington National Cemetery.
I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. THORNBERRY. Mr. Speaker, I include the following exchange of
letters in the Record during consideration of H.R. 4298:
[[Page 16074]]
House of Representatives,
Committee on Veterans' Affairs,
Washington, DC, December 6, 2016.
Hon. William M. ``Mac'' Thornberry,
Chairman, Committee on Armed Services,
Washington, DC.
Dear Mr. Chairman: I am writing to you concerning H.R.
4298, the Vietnam Helicopter Crew Memorial Act. There are
certain provisions in the legislation which fall within the
Rule X jurisdiction of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs.
In the interest of permitting your committee to proceed
expeditiously to floor consideration of this important bill,
I am willing to waive this committee's right to sequential
referral. I do with the understanding that by waiving
consideration of the bill, the Committee on Veterans' Affairs
does not waive any future jurisdictional claim over the
subject matters contained in the bill which fall within its
Rule X jurisdiction. I request that you urge the Speaker to
name members of this committee to any conference committee
which is named to consider such provisions.
Please place this letter into the committee report on H.R.
4298 and into the Congressional Record during consideration
of the measure on the House floor. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Jeff Miller,
Chairman.
____
House of Representatives,
Committee on Armed Services,
Washington, DC, December 6, 2016.
Hon. Jeff Miller,
Chairman, Committee on Veterans' Affairs, House of
Representatives, Washington, DC.
Dear Chairman Miller: Thank you for your letter regarding
H.R. 4298, the Vietnam Helicopter Crew Memorial Act. As you
noted, the bill contains subject matter that falls within the
Rule X jurisdiction of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs.
I am most appreciative of your decision to waive formal
consideration of H.R. 4298 so that it may proceed
expeditiously to the House floor. I acknowledge that although
you waived formal consideration of the bill, the Committee on
Veterans' Affairs is in no way waiving its jurisdiction over
the subject matter contained in those provisions of the bill
that fall within your Rule X jurisdiction. I will urge the
Speaker to appoint Members of the Committee on Veterans'
Affairs to any conference committee named to consider this
legislation.
I will include a copy of our letters in the Congressional
Record during consideration of this legislation on the House
floor.
Sincerely,
William M. ``Mac'' Thornberry,
Chairman.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Nevada (Mr. Heck) that the House suspend the rules and
pass the bill, H.R. 4298.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the
rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
____________________
HOLOCAUST EXPROPRIATED ART RECOVERY ACT OF 2016
Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the
bill (H.R. 6130) to provide the victims of Holocaust-era persecution
and their heirs a fair opportunity to recover works of art confiscated
or misappropriated by the Nazis.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 6130
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Holocaust Expropriated Art
Recovery Act of 2016''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) It is estimated that the Nazis confiscated or otherwise
misappropriated hundreds of thousands of works of art and
other property throughout Europe as part of their genocidal
campaign against the Jewish people and other persecuted
groups. This has been described as the ``greatest
displacement of art in human history''.
(2) Following World War II, the United States and its
allies attempted to return the stolen artworks to their
countries of origin. Despite these efforts, many works of art
were never reunited with their owners. Some of the art has
since been discovered in the United States.
(3) In 1998, the United States convened a conference with
43 other nations in Washington, DC, known as the Washington
Conference, which produced Principles on Nazi-Confiscated
Art. One of these principles is that ``steps should be taken
expeditiously to achieve a just and fair solution'' to claims
involving such art that has not been restituted if the owners
or their heirs can be identified.
(4) The same year, Congress enacted the Holocaust Victims
Redress Act (Public Law 105-158, 112 Stat. 15), which
expressed the sense of Congress that ``all governments should
undertake good faith efforts to facilitate the return of
private and public property, such as works of art, to the
rightful owners in cases where assets were confiscated from
the claimant during the period of Nazi rule and there is
reasonable proof that the claimant is the rightful owner.''.
(5) In 2009, the United States participated in a Holocaust
Era Assets Conference in Prague, Czech Republic, with 45
other nations. At the conclusion of this conference, the
participating nations issued the Terezin Declaration, which
reaffirmed the 1998 Washington Conference Principles on Nazi-
Confiscated Art and urged all participants ``to ensure that
their legal systems or alternative processes, while taking
into account the different legal traditions, facilitate just
and fair solutions with regard to Nazi-confiscated and looted
art, and to make certain that claims to recover such art are
resolved expeditiously and based on the facts and merits of
the claims and all the relevant documents submitted by all
parties.''. The Declaration also urged participants to
``consider all relevant issues when applying various legal
provisions that may impede the restitution of art and
cultural property, in order to achieve just and fair
solutions, as well as alternative dispute resolution, where
appropriate under law.''.
(6) Victims of Nazi persecution and their heirs have taken
legal action in the United States to recover Nazi-confiscated
art. These lawsuits face significant procedural obstacles
partly due to State statutes of limitations, which typically
bar claims within some limited number of years from either
the date of the loss or the date that the claim should have
been discovered. In some cases, this means that the claims
expired before World War II even ended. (See, e.g., Detroit
Institute of Arts v. Ullin, No. 06-10333, 2007 WL 1016996
(E.D. Mich. Mar. 31, 2007).) The unique and horrific
circumstances of World War II and the Holocaust make statutes
of limitations especially burdensome to the victims and their
heirs. Those seeking recovery of Nazi-confiscated art must
painstakingly piece together their cases from a fragmentary
historical record ravaged by persecution, war, and genocide.
This costly process often cannot be done within the time
constraints imposed by existing law.
(7) Federal legislation is needed because the only court
that has considered the question held that the Constitution
prohibits States from making exceptions to their statutes of
limitations to accommodate claims involving the recovery of
Nazi-confiscated art. In Von Saher v. Norton Simon Museum of
Art, 592 F.3d 954 (9th Cir. 2009), the United States Court of
Appeals for the Ninth Circuit invalidated a California law
that extended the State statute of limitations for claims
seeking recovery of Holocaust-era artwork. The Court held
that the law was an unconstitutional infringement of the
Federal Government's exclusive authority over foreign
affairs, which includes the resolution of war-related
disputes. In light of this precedent, the enactment of a
Federal law is necessary to ensure that claims to Nazi-
confiscated art are adjudicated in accordance with United
States policy as expressed in the Washington Conference
Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art, the Holocaust Victims
Redress Act, and the Terezin Declaration.
(8) While litigation may be used to resolve claims to
recover Nazi-confiscated art, it is the sense of Congress
that the private resolution of claims by parties involved, on
the merits and through the use of alternative dispute
resolution such as mediation panels established for this
purpose with the aid of experts in provenance research and
history, will yield just and fair resolutions in a more
efficient and predictable manner.
SEC. 3. PURPOSES.
The purposes of this Act are the following:
(1) To ensure that laws governing claims to Nazi-
confiscated art and other property further United States
policy as set forth in the Washington Conference Principles
on Nazi-Confiscated Art, the Holocaust Victims Redress Act,
and the Terezin Declaration.
(2) To ensure that claims to artwork and other property
stolen or misappropriated by the Nazis are not unfairly
barred by statutes of limitations but are resolved in a just
and fair manner.
SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) Actual discovery.--The term ``actual discovery'' means
knowledge.
(2) Artwork or other property.--The term ``artwork or other
property'' means--
(A) pictures, paintings, and drawings;
(B) statuary art and sculpture;
(C) engravings, prints, lithographs, and works of graphic
art;
(D) applied art and original artistic assemblages and
montages;
(E) books, archives, musical objects and manuscripts
(including musical manuscripts and sheets), and sound,
photographic, and cinematographic archives and mediums; and
(F) sacred and ceremonial objects and Judaica.
(3) Covered period.--The term ``covered period'' means the
period beginning on January 1, 1933, and ending on December
31, 1945.
[[Page 16075]]
(4) Knowledge.--The term ``knowledge'' means having actual
knowledge of a fact or circumstance or sufficient information
with regard to a relevant fact or circumstance to amount to
actual knowledge thereof.
(5) Nazi persecution.--The term ``Nazi persecution'' means
any persecution of a specific group of individuals based on
Nazi ideology by the Government of Germany, its allies or
agents, members of the Nazi Party, or their agents or
associates, during the covered period.
SEC. 5. STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS.
(a) In General.--Notwithstanding any other provision of
Federal or State law or any defense at law relating to the
passage of time, and except as otherwise provided in this
section, a civil claim or cause of action against a defendant
to recover any artwork or other property that was lost during
the covered period because of Nazi persecution may be
commenced not later than 6 years after the actual discovery
by the claimant or the agent of the claimant of--
(1) the identity and location of the artwork or other
property; and
(2) a possessory interest of the claimant in the artwork or
other property.
(b) Possible Misidentification.--For purposes of subsection
(a)(1), in a case in which the artwork or other property is
one of a group of substantially similar multiple artworks or
other property, actual discovery of the identity and location
of the artwork or other property shall be deemed to occur on
the date on which there are facts sufficient to form a
substantial basis to believe that the artwork or other
property is the artwork or other property that was lost.
(c) Preexisting Claims.--Except as provided in subsection
(e), a civil claim or cause of action described in subsection
(a) shall be deemed to have been actually discovered on the
date of enactment of this Act if--
(1) before the date of enactment of this Act--
(A) a claimant had knowledge of the elements set forth in
subsection (a); and
(B) the civil claim or cause of action was barred by a
Federal or State statute of limitations; or
(2)(A) before the date of enactment of this Act, a claimant
had knowledge of the elements set forth in subsection (a);
and
(B) on the date of enactment of this Act, the civil claim
or cause of action was not barred by a Federal or State
statute of limitations.
(d) Applicability.--Subsection (a) shall apply to any civil
claim or cause of action that is--
(1) pending in any court on the date of enactment of this
Act, including any civil claim or cause of action that is
pending on appeal or for which the time to file an appeal has
not expired; or
(2) filed during the period beginning on the date of
enactment of this Act and ending on December 31, 2026.
(e) Exception.--Subsection (a) shall not apply to any civil
claim or cause of action barred on the day before the date of
enactment of this Act by a Federal or State statute of
limitations if--
(1) the claimant or a predecessor-in-interest of the
claimant had knowledge of the elements set forth in
subsection (a) on or after January 1, 1999; and
(2) not less than 6 years have passed from the date such
claimant or predecessor-in-interest acquired such knowledge
and during which time the civil claim or cause of action was
not barred by a Federal or State statute of limitations.
(f) Rule of Construction.--Nothing in this Act shall be
construed to create a civil claim or cause of action under
Federal or State law.
(g) Sunset.--This Act shall cease to have effect on January
1, 2027, except that this Act shall continue to apply to any
civil claim or cause of action described in subsection (a)
that is pending on January 1, 2027. Any civil claim or cause
of action commenced on or after that date to recover artwork
or other property described in this Act shall be subject to
any applicable Federal or State statute of limitations or any
other Federal or State defense at law relating to the passage
of time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Virginia (Mr. Goodlatte) and the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Cohen)
each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Virginia.
General Leave
Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members
may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks
and to include extraneous materials on H.R. 6130, currently under
consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Virginia?
There was no objection.
Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
From 1933, when Hitler took power in Germany, until 1945, when the
Allied Forces liberated Europe, the Nazis and their collaborators stole
countless works of art and cultural objects from museums and private
collections throughout Europe.
Indeed, according to the American Alliance of Museums, the Nazi
regime orchestrated a system of theft, confiscation, coercive transfer,
looting, pillage, and the destruction of objects of art and other
cultural property in Europe on a massive and an unprecedented scale.
Millions of such objects were unlawfully and often forcibly taken from
their rightful owners. This systematic looting and confiscation of the
cultural property of the Jews and of other persecuted groups has been
described as the greatest displacement of art in human history.
In order to provide the victims of the Holocaust and their heirs a
fair opportunity in our courts to recover artwork that had been
confiscated or misappropriated by the Nazis, Representative Nadler and
I, along with several other bipartisan cosponsors, introduced the
Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery Act, or HEAR Act. Companion
legislation has been introduced by Senators Cornyn and Schumer in the
Senate.
Since World War II ended, the United States has pursued policies to
help Holocaust victims reclaim artwork and other cultural property that
was unlawfully taken.
In recent years, the United States has joined with other nations to
declare the importance of restoring Nazi-looted and confiscated art to
its rightful owners. For instance, in the 1998 Washington Conference
Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art, the United States and 43 other
nations declared that Holocaust victims and their heirs should be
encouraged to come forward and make known their claims to art that was
confiscated by the Nazis and not subsequently restituted and that steps
should be taken expeditiously to achieve a just and fair solution to
such claims.
In 2009, we joined with 48 other countries in declaring that
governments should ensure that their legal systems facilitate just and
fair solutions with regard to Nazi-confiscated and looted art and make
certain that the claims to recover such art are resolved expeditiously
and based on the facts and merits of the claims.
The enactment of the HEAR Act is an important step in following
through on these principles. The vast majority of victims whose
property was misappropriated during the Holocaust simply lacked the
information, resources, and sometimes wherewithal to pursue litigation
to recover their property. Even for those with the resources, locating
and proving ownership of Nazi-looted art proved to be extremely
difficult. Moreover, the psychological trauma of the Holocaust often
prevented victims from pursuing lost property.
Those who have seen the recent movie ``Woman in Gold,'' which tells
the story of Maria Altmann's arduous legal battle to recover her
family's possessions that were seized by the Nazis, including the
famous portrait of her aunt by Gustav Klimt, can understand just how
difficult litigation to reclaim Nazi-confiscated art can be.
{time} 1745
Ms. Altmann was in litigation for many years before her family's
artwork was recovered from the Austrian Government in 2006. At least in
Ms. Altmann's case, litigation was successful.
However, as the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has observed: ``Many
obstacles face those who attempt to recover Holocaust-era art through
lawsuits,'' including ``procedural hurdles, such as statutes of
limitations'' that prevent the merits of claims from ever being
adjudicated.
Given the unique and horrific circumstances of World War II and the
Holocaust, State statutes of limitations can be an unfair impediment to
the victims and their heirs and contrary to the stated policy of the
United States.
Accordingly, the HEAR Act's uniform, 6-year Federal limitations
period is needed to ensure that the United States fulfills its promises
to ``facilitate just and fair solution with regard
[[Page 16076]]
to Nazi-confiscated and looted art'' and to ``make certain that claims
to recover such art are resolved expeditiously and based on the facts
and merits of the claims.''
I urge my colleagues to support this legislation so that cases
involving Nazi-confiscated artwork are resolved in our courts in a just
and fair manner on the merits of those claims.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I appreciate the work Mr. Conyers, the ranking member, has done on
this bill; Mr. Goodlatte, the chairman and the sponsor; and Mr. Nadler,
our Democratic colead.
I rise in support of H.R. 6130, the Holocaust Expropriated Art
Recovery Act of 2016. H.R. 6130 creates a new 6-year Federal statute of
limitations for civil claims filed in Federal or State court to allow a
claimant to recover artwork and other cultural property that was
stolen, seized, sold under duress, or otherwise lost as a result of
Nazi persecution during the period from January 1, 1933, to December
31, 1945.
The bill provides that this limitation period begins upon a
claimant's ``actual discovery'' of the identity and location of the art
that was unlawfully lost, and information or facts sufficient to
indicate that the claimant has a possessory interest in the art.
In addition, the bill specifies that this new limitations period
applies to cases filed prior to December 31, 2026. Finally, the bill's
provisions sunset on January 1, 2027.
The new Federal limitations period established by H.R. 6130 is
necessary because State statutes of limitations often bar claims if
they are not filed within some specified number of years from the date
of the loss.
For Holocaust-era claims concerning stolen art, this means that most
statutes of limitations would bar cases even before victims are able to
have actual knowledge of whether their art or other cultural property
had been stolen by the Nazis and been located and still was present.
Importantly, H.R. 6130 restores the claims that were barred by
existing State statutes of limitations by deeming the bill's date of
enactment as the moment of ``actual discovery'' for purposes of
triggering the bill's new 6-year limitations period.
This critical legislation reinforces longstanding American policy,
encouraging restitution for victims of the Nazi government or its
allies and agents, including with respect to Nazi-confiscated or looted
art.
As recently as this morning, a feature article was in The New York
Times: ``Jewish Dealer's Heirs File Suit Over Art in Bavarian State
Collection.'' Indeed, that case is about the facts, but it shows that
there are still active cases where it has been discovered that there
was art that was owned by Jewish people that was taken by others and
put in the hands of the Nazis, and there is an issue about whether or
not there is a right to recovery.
This would guarantee that those people who discover art--and this art
was discovered some person's house that had been hidden for years in a
person's house behind walls, and all of this valuable art that had been
stolen and hidden was only discovered about 3 years ago--that the
rightful owners, or heirs to the owners, would have a right in American
courts to pursue justice.
In recognition of the Nazi government's deliberate campaign to steal
artwork and other cultural property from its victims, H.R. 6130
rightfully ensures victims are given a chance to have their day in
court to pursue justice.
Accordingly, I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this
legislation.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes and 36 seconds to the
gentleman from New York (Mr. Nadler).
Mr. NADLER. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 6130, the Holocaust
Expropriated Art Recovery Act. This legislation will help restore
artwork and heritage stolen by the Nazis during the Holocaust to the
rightful owners or heirs.
I was proud to join Chairman Goodlatte in introducing this bill, and
I appreciate his efforts in moving it forward.
In addition to their crimes of genocide and mass murder, the Nazis
engaged in comprehensive, systemic theft of art and property mostly,
but not entirely, from Jews all across Europe. The scope of their theft
was massive, and the damaging effects remain with us today, with
victims still seeking justice and some form of compensation.
Nearly 20 years ago, in 1998, the United States brought together 44
nations to produce a set of principles on Nazi confiscated art. They
agreed that steps should be taken expeditiously to achieve a just and
fair solution to the outstanding claims.
In 2009, the United States joined 45 other nations in Prague to issue
what was known as the Terezin Declaration, which reaffirmed these
principles.
Unfortunately, today, 71 years after the defeat of the Nazis and the
liberation of Europe, many American victims are still unable to pursue
their claims in court because of restrictive statutes of limitations in
the States. These laws generally require a claimant to bring a case
within a limited number of years from when the loss occurred or should
have been discovered; but in many instances, the information required
to file a claim regarding artwork stolen by the Nazis was not brought
to light until many years later, forcing courts to dismiss cases before
they could be judged on the merits. In some cases, the law would have
required a claim to be brought even before World War II ended. This is
obviously unjust.
Some States have attempted to make an exception to their statutes of
limitations to accommodate these claims, but such efforts have been
ruled unconstitutional, as an infringement on the Federal Government's
exclusive authority over foreign affairs. Federal legislation,
therefore, is needed to bring justice to this area.
This bill would set a uniform 6-year Federal statute of limitations
for the claims of Nazi-confiscated art from the time that the identity
and location of the artwork and the ownership interests of the claimant
are actually discovered. It would also restore the claims of those
claimants whose cases were dismissed previously because of a statute of
limitations.
This bill would finally ensure that the rightful owners and their
decedents can have their claims properly adjudicated.
I thank Ronald Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, for
his determined efforts to see that this issue is resolved; and Chairman
Goodlatte for working with me and our colleagues to bring this
legislation forward.
While no legislation or act of contrition will ever reverse the many
horrors committed by the Nazis, one thing we can do is establish a fair
judicial process so that some victims can achieve some small measure of
justice.
Mr. Speaker, I urge strong support for this legislation.
Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I have no more speakers and I am prepared
to close.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman
from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee), the carrier of the spirit of
Congresswoman Barbara Jordan.
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the manager, Mr. Cohen; the
chairman of the committee; both sponsors; the lead sponsor, Mr. Nadler
of New York; and I thank the ranking member, Mr. Conyers.
I rise in strong support of H.R. 6130, the Holocaust Expropriated Art
Recovery Act of 2016. I am very grateful that my colleagues have
brought this to the attention of the House. This important legislation
tries to bring some remedy and solace to a devastating era of genocide,
the Holocaust. It provides the victims of Holocaust-era persecution and
genocide and their heirs a fair opportunity to recover works of art
confiscated or misappropriated by the Nazis, and there were many.
[[Page 16077]]
People wishing to claim ownership of art lost or confiscated during
the Holocaust would have the proper time necessary to do so under H.R.
6130. The bill would apply to art and other antiquities, such as books,
that were stolen from Jewish people and other persecuted groups by the
German Nazi regime from 1933 to 1945.
In the times that I visited Israel, I have spent much time in the
Holocaust Museum, as I have spent time in the Holocaust exhibit and
tribute here in Washington, and our own Holocaust Museum in Houston,
Texas.
I have been on the advisory board of the Holocaust Museum in Houston,
Texas, and have participated in the Holocaust ceremonies here.
This is a very important legal remedy. While the United States is a
signatory of the 2009 Terezin Declaration, which states legal systems
can facilitate claims of ownership of items lost during the Holocaust,
the claims of potential owners in the U.S. have, however, faced
barriers because of State statutes of limitation, which in some cases
would have expired even before the end of World War II.
Under this legislation, individuals would have as much as 6 years
from the time they discover the identity and location of a piece of art
or other property or learned that they may have ownership of such art
or property to file an ownership claim.
The bill's findings would express the sense of Congress that setting
one Federal statute of limitations will allow claims to be settled
through alternative dispute resolution methods that will produce more
just and fair outcomes.
The actual bottom line of this legislation, as we were able to see in
the Academy Award-winning actress in the film ``Woman in Gold,'' which
many of us saw, is that it is a fair and just relief for those so
persecuted.
What more can be taken from you--your life, your liberty, your lost
loved ones--and then those special artifacts, antiquities that would
bring back the memories of your family and your history?
This legislation is well needed. It is a relief for those who are in
pain. I support and ask my colleagues to support the Holocaust
Expropriated Art Recovery Act of 2016.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 6130, the ``Holocaust
Expropriated Art Recovery Act of 2016''.
I thank our colleague, Chairman Goodlatte for his work in guiding
this legislation through the people's House.
This legislation provides the victims of Holocaust-era persecution
and genocide and their heirs a fair opportunity to recover works of art
confiscated or misappropriated by the Nazis.
People wishing to claim ownership of art lost or confiscated during
the Holocaust would have the proper time necessary to do so under H.R.
6130.
The bill would apply to art and other antiquities, such as books,
that were stolen from Jewish people and other persecuted groups by the
German Nazi regime from 1933 to 1945.
While the United States is a signatory of the 2009 Terezin
Declaration, which urged legal systems can facilitate claims of
ownership of items lost during the Holocaust, the claims of potential
owners in the U.S. have, however, faced barriers because of state
statutes of limitation, which in some cases would have expired even
before the end of World War II.
In a 2009 case, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled
that a law in California that sought to extend the statute of
limitations for Holocaust art recovery infringed on federal authority
over foreign affairs.
Under this legislation, individuals would have as many as six years
from the time they discovered the identity and location of a piece of
art or other property, or learned that they may have ownership of such
art or property, to file an ownership claim.
The bill's findings would express the sense of Congress that setting
one federal statute of limitations will allow claims to be settled
through alternative dispute resolution methods that will produce more
just and fair outcomes.
Pre-existing claims would be considered discovered on the date of the
bill's enactment, including claims that had previously been barred by
federal or state statutes of limitation.
While we can never erase the horrors of the Holocaust from human
history, we can do our part to bring these treasures back to the
families of those who suffered and sacrificed so much during that dark
time.
I join the American Society of Appraisers, B'nai B'rith
International, the Federal Bar Association, the World Jewish Congress,
and the World Jewish Restitution Organization in supporting this
important legislation.
Academy Award-winning actress Helen Mirren, who starred in the 2015
film ``Woman in Gold,'' about the real life Maria Altmann's fight to
reclaim a painting taken from her family during this horrific atrocity,
has pledged her support as well, testifying on behalf of companion bi-
partisan legislation introduced in the Senate Judiciary Committee by
the Senior Senator from Texas, my friend John Cornyn.
We know there are many cases that still cry out for justice.
For 75 years, since the start of World War II, these unremedied
claims have seared festering wounds into the lives of brave survivors
and their families.
This legislation will finally allow us to celebrate the heirlooms and
artifacts of varied heritage that stitch together the diversity of
American culture with the thread of age-old and integral property
rights we still cherish today.
The legislation before us is intended to help us remove that stain
once and for all.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I strongly support this legislation and urge
all Members to join me in voting for its passage.
Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
This legislation is supported by many, including the American Jewish
Committee, B'nai B'rith International, the Commission for Art Recovery,
the World Jewish Congress, the World Jewish Restitution Organization,
and the Association of Art Museum Directors.
I do applaud Chairman Goodlatte and Mr. Nadler for their work on this
important legislation. I urge my colleagues to support it.
Just kind of parenthetically, I watched a movie called ``Race,''
which was put out last fall, about Jesse Owens. It was a movie about
the 1936 Olympics and how Hitler didn't want him to participate and how
there were two Jewish runners who were supposed to participate and they
were scratched by our American Olympic chairman because he didn't want
the Jewish men to run in front of Hitler and win--because they would
have--and the Americans won by a large amount of space and time, and
that was not allowed.
Things that happened there should never be forgotten. Elie Wiesel was
remembered at the Holocaust Museum recently, after he passed earlier
this year. He told us that we can never forget, and we always should
bear witness.
We should bear witness and remember and try to do justice for the
victims of the Holocaust, as we should to the people who have been
disenfranchised and damaged and hurt by our periods of Jim Crow and
slavery. Keep us attuned and aware and alert.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, this is important legislation. I commend
my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, as well as Members on
this side of the aisle, for their bipartisan spirit in passing this.
This will only do a small thing relative to trying to right the
wrongs of the history of the Nazi regime, but it is an important step
in that process. I strongly support the bill and urge my colleagues to
do the same.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 6130, the
``Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery Act of 2016.''
This bill creates a new uniform Federal 6-year statute of limitations
for Nazi-stolen artwork and other cultural property and would allow
Nazi-era stolen art claims currently barred by existing statutes of
limitations to proceed in court. It also makes clear that the statute
of limitations begins only after a claimant makes an actual discovery
of his or her claim to artwork of disputed provenance.
Victims of Nazi theft of artwork deserve access to the courts so that
they can try to get some justice for the wrongs committed against them.
This bill is critical to giving them that chance. The Nazis were
notorious for, among other things, stealing hundreds of thousands of
artworks from Europe during their reign of terror in the 1930s and
1940s, in what has been described as the greatest displacement of art
in human history.
The American Jewish Congress, B'nai B'rith International, and the
Association of Art Museum Directors, among others, support this bill.
[[Page 16078]]
While nothing we do can ever fully compensate victims of the Nazis,
we can at least take this modest step towards helping those victims get
some measure of restitution.
I strongly urge my colleagues to support this bill.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Goodlatte) that the House suspend the
rules and pass the bill, H.R. 6130.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the
rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
____________________
REPORT ON RESOLUTION PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF THE SENATE
AMENDMENT TO H.R. 2028, ENERGY AND WATER DEVELOPMENT AND RELATED
AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2016, AND PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF
S. 612, GEORGE P. KAZEN FEDERAL BUILDING AND UNITED STATES COURTHOUSE
Mr. WOODALL, from the Committee on Rules, submitted a privileged
report (Rept. No. 114-849) on the resolution (H. Res. 949) providing
for consideration of the Senate amendment to the bill (H.R. 2028)
making appropriations for energy and water development and related
agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2016, and for other
purposes, and providing for consideration of the bill (S. 612) to
designate the Federal building and United States courthouse located at
1300 Victoria Street in Laredo, Texas, as the ``George P. Kazen Federal
Building and United States Courthouse'', which was referred to the
House Calendar and ordered to be printed.
____________________
{time} 1800
KEVIN AND AVONTE'S LAW OF 2016
Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the
bill (H.R. 4919) to amend the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement
Act of 1994, to reauthorize the Missing Alzheimer's Disease Patient
Alert Program, and to promote initiatives that will reduce the risk of
injury and death relating to the wandering characteristics of some
children with autism, as amended.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 4919
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Kevin and Avonte's Law of
2016''.
TITLE I--MISSING ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE PATIENT ALERT PROGRAM
REAUTHORIZATION
SEC. 101. SHORT TITLE.
This title may be cited as the ``Missing Americans Alert
Program Act of 2016''.
SEC. 102. REAUTHORIZATION OF THE MISSING ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE
PATIENT ALERT PROGRAM.
(a) Amendments.--Section 240001 of the Violent Crime
Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (42 U.S.C. 14181) is
amended--
(1) in the section header, by striking ``alzheimer's
disease patient'' and inserting ``americans''; and
(2) by striking subsection (a) and inserting the following:
``(a) Grant Program To Reduce Injury and Death of Missing
Americans With Dementia and Developmental Disabilities.--
Subject to the availability of appropriations to carry out
this section, the Attorney General, through the Bureau of
Justice Assistance and in consultation with the Secretary of
Health and Human Services--
``(1) shall award competitive grants to health care
agencies, State and local law enforcement agencies, or public
safety agencies and nonprofit organizations to assist such
entities in planning, designing, establishing, or operating
locally based, proactive programs to prevent wandering and
locate missing individuals with forms of dementia, such as
Alzheimer's Disease, or developmental disabilities, such as
autism, who, due to their condition, wander from safe
environments, including programs that--
``(A) provide prevention and response information,
including online training resources, and referrals to
families or guardians of such individuals who, due to their
condition, wander from a safe environment;
``(B) provide education and training, including online
training resources, to first responders, school personnel,
clinicians, and the public in order to--
``(i) increase the safety and reduce the incidence of
wandering of persons, who, due to their dementia or
developmental disabilities, may wander from safe
environments;
``(ii) facilitate the rescue and recovery of individuals
who, due to their dementia or developmental disabilities,
wander from safe environments; and
``(iii) recognize and respond to and appropriately interact
with endangered missing individuals with dementia or
developmental disabilities who, due to their condition,
wander from safe environments;
``(C) provide prevention and response training and
emergency protocols for school administrators, staff, and
families or guardians of individuals with dementia, such as
Alzheimer's Disease, or developmental disabilities, such as
autism, to help reduce the risk of wandering by such
individuals; and
``(D) develop, operate, or enhance a notification or
communications systems for alerts, advisories, or
dissemination of other information for the recovery of
missing individuals with forms of dementia, such as
Alzheimer's Disease, or with developmental disabilities, such
as autism; and
``(2) shall award grants to health care agencies, State and
local law enforcement agencies, or public safety agencies to
assist such agencies in designing, establishing, and
operating locative tracking technology programs for
individuals with forms of dementia, such as Alzheimer's
Disease, or children with developmental disabilities, such as
autism, who have wandered from safe environments.'';
(3) in subsection (b)--
(A) by inserting ``competitive'' after ``to receive a'';
(B) by inserting ``agency or'' before ``organization'' each
place it appears; and
(C) by adding at the end the following: ``The Attorney
General shall periodically solicit applications for grants
under this section by publishing a request for applications
in the Federal Register and by posting such a request on the
website of the Department of Justice.''; and
(4) by striking subsections (c) and (d) and inserting the
following:
``(c) Preference.--In awarding grants under subsection
(a)(1), the Attorney General shall give preference to law
enforcement or public safety agencies that partner with
nonprofit organizations that appropriately use person-
centered plans minimizing restrictive interventions and that
have a direct link to individuals, and families of
individuals, with forms of dementia, such as Alzheimer's
Disease, or developmental disabilities, such as autism.
``(d) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are
authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section
$2,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2017 through 2021.
``(e) Grant Accountability.--All grants awarded by the
Attorney General under this section shall be subject to the
following accountability provisions:
``(1) Audit requirement.--
``(A) Definition.--In this paragraph, the term `unresolved
audit finding' means a finding in the final audit report of
the Inspector General of the Department of Justice that the
audited grantee has utilized grant funds for an unauthorized
expenditure or otherwise unallowable cost that is not closed
or resolved within 12 months from the date when the final
audit report is issued.
``(B) Audits.--Beginning in the first fiscal year beginning
after the date of enactment of this subsection, and in each
fiscal year thereafter, the Inspector General of the
Department of Justice shall conduct audits of recipients of
grants under this section to prevent waste, fraud, and abuse
of funds by grantees. The Inspector General shall determine
the appropriate number of grantees to be audited each year.
``(C) Mandatory exclusion.--A recipient of grant funds
under this section that is found to have an unresolved audit
finding shall not be eligible to receive grant funds under
this section during the first 2 fiscal years beginning after
the end of the 12-month period described in subparagraph (A).
``(D) Priority.--In awarding grants under this section, the
Attorney General shall give priority to eligible applicants
that did not have an unresolved audit finding during the 3
fiscal years before submitting an application for a grant
under this section.
``(E) Reimbursement.--If an entity is awarded grant funds
under this section during the 2-fiscal-year period during
which the entity is barred from receiving grants under
subparagraph (C), the Attorney General shall--
``(i) deposit an amount equal to the amount of the grant
funds that were improperly awarded to the grantee into the
General Fund of the Treasury; and
``(ii) seek to recoup the costs of the repayment to the
fund from the grant recipient that was erroneously awarded
grant funds.
``(2) Nonprofit organization requirements.--
``(A) Definition of nonprofit organization.--For purposes
of this paragraph and the grant programs under this part, the
term `nonprofit organization' means an organization that is
described in section 501(c)(3) of
[[Page 16079]]
the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 and is exempt from taxation
under section 501(a) of such Code.
``(B) Prohibition.--The Attorney General may not award a
grant under this part to a nonprofit organization that holds
money in offshore accounts for the purpose of avoiding paying
the tax described in section 511(a) of the Internal Revenue
Code of 1986.
``(C) Disclosure.--Each nonprofit organization that is
awarded a grant under this section and uses the procedures
prescribed in regulations to create a rebuttable presumption
of reasonableness for the compensation of its officers,
directors, trustees, and key employees, shall disclose to the
Attorney General, in the application for the grant, the
process for determining such compensation, including the
independent persons involved in reviewing and approving such
compensation, the comparability data used, and
contemporaneous substantiation of the deliberation and
decision. Upon request, the Attorney General shall make the
information disclosed under this subparagraph available for
public inspection.
``(3) Conference expenditures.--
``(A) Limitation.--No amounts made available to the
Department of Justice under this section may be used by the
Attorney General, or by any individual or entity awarded
discretionary funds through a cooperative agreement under
this section, to host or support any expenditure for
conferences that uses more than $20,000 in funds made
available by the Department of Justice, unless the head of
the relevant agency or department, provides prior written
authorization that the funds may be expended to host the
conference.
``(B) Written approval.--Written approval under
subparagraph (A) shall include a written estimate of all
costs associated with the conference, including the cost of
all food, beverages, audio-visual equipment, honoraria for
speakers, and entertainment.
``(C) Report.--The Deputy Attorney General shall submit an
annual report to the Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate
and the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of
Representatives on all conference expenditures approved under
this paragraph.
``(4) Annual certification.--Beginning in the first fiscal
year beginning after the date of enactment of this
subsection, the Attorney General shall submit, to the
Committee on the Judiciary and the Committee on
Appropriations of the Senate and the Committee on the
Judiciary and the Committee on Appropriations of the House of
Representatives, an annual certification--
``(A) indicating whether--
``(i) all audits issued by the Office of the Inspector
General under paragraph (1) have been completed and reviewed
by the appropriate Assistant Attorney General or Director;
``(ii) all mandatory exclusions required under paragraph
(1)(C) have been issued; and
``(iii) all reimbursements required under paragraph (1)(E)
have been made; and
``(B) that includes a list of any grant recipients excluded
under paragraph (1) from the previous year.
``(f) Preventing Duplicative Grants.--
``(1) In general.--Before the Attorney General awards a
grant to an applicant under this section, the Attorney
General shall compare potential grant awards with other
grants awarded by the Attorney General to determine if grant
awards are or have been awarded for a similar purpose.
``(2) Report.--If the Attorney General awards grants to the
same applicant for a similar purpose the Attorney General
shall submit to the Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate
and the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of
Representatives a report that includes--
``(A) a list of all such grants awarded, including the
total dollar amount of any such grants awarded; and
``(B) the reason the Attorney General awarded multiple
grants to the same applicant for a similar purpose.''.
(b) Annual Report.--Not later than 2 years after the date
of enactment of this Act and every year thereafter, the
Attorney General shall submit to the Committee on the
Judiciary and the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate
and the Committee on the Judiciary and the Committee on
Appropriations of the House of Representatives a report on
the Missing Americans Alert Program, as amended by subsection
(a), which shall address--
(1) the number of individuals who benefitted from the
Missing Americans Alert Program, including information such
as the number of individuals with reduced unsafe wandering,
the number of people who were trained through the program,
and the estimated number of people who were impacted by the
program;
(2) the number of State, local, and tribal law enforcement
or public safety agencies that applied for funding under the
Missing Americans Alert Program;
(3) the number of State, local, and tribal local law
enforcement or public safety agencies that received funding
under the Missing Americans Alert Program, including--
(A) the number of State, local, and tribal law enforcement
or public safety agencies that used such funding for
training; and
(B) the number of State, local, and tribal law enforcement
or public safety agencies that used such funding for
designing, establishing, or operating locative tracking
technology;
(4) the companies, including the location (city and State)
of the headquarters and local offices of each company, for
which their locative tracking technology was used by State,
local, and tribal law enforcement or public safety agencies;
(5) the nonprofit organizations, including the location
(city and State) of the headquarters and local offices of
each organization, that State, local, and tribal law
enforcement or public safety agencies partnered with and the
result of each partnership;
(6) the number of missing children with autism or another
developmental disability with wandering tendencies or adults
with Alzheimer's being served by the program who went missing
and the result of the search for each such individual; and
(7) any recommendations for improving the Missing Americans
Alert Program.
(c) Table of Contents.--The table of contents in section 2
of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994
is amended by striking the item relating to section 240001
and inserting the following:
``Sec. 240001. Missing Americans Alert Program.''.
TITLE II--EDUCATION AND OUTREACH
SEC. 201. ACTIVITIES BY THE NATIONAL CENTER FOR MISSING AND
EXPLOITED CHILDREN.
Section 404(b)(1)(H) of the Missing Children's Assistance
Act (42 U.S.C. 5773(b)(1)(H)) is amended by inserting ``,
including cases involving children with developmental
disabilities such as autism'' before the semicolon.
TITLE III--PRIVACY PROTECTIONS
SEC. 301. DEFINITIONS.
In this title:
(1) Child.--The term ``child'' means an individual who is
less than 18 years of age.
(2) Indian tribe.--The term ``Indian tribe'' has the
meaning given that term in section 4(e) of the Indian Self-
Determination and Education Assistance Act (25 U.S.C.
450b(e)).
(3) Law enforcement agency.--The term ``law enforcement
agency'' means an agency of a State, unit of local
government, or Indian tribe that is authorized by law or by a
government agency to engage in or supervise the prevention,
detection, investigation, or prosecution of any violation of
criminal law.
(4) State.--The term ``State'' means each of the 50 States,
the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico,
the United States Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, and
the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
(5) Unit of local government.--The term ``unit of local
government'' means a county, municipality, town, township,
village, parish, borough, or other unit of general government
below the State level.
(6) Non-invasive and non-permanent.--The term ``non-
invasive and non-permanent'' means, with regard to any
technology or device, that the procedure to install the
technology or device does not create an external or internal
marker or implant a device or other trackable items.
SEC. 302. STANDARDS AND BEST PRACTICES FOR USE OF NON-
INVASIVE AND NON-PERMANENT TRACKING DEVICES.
(a) Establishment.--
(1) In general.--Not later than 120 days after the date of
enactment of this Act, the Attorney General, in consultation
with the Secretary of Health and Human Services and leading
research, advocacy, self-advocacy, and service organizations,
shall establish standards and best practices relating to the
use of non-invasive and non-permanent tracking technology,
where a guardian or parent, in consultation with the
individual's health care provider, has determined that a non-
invasive and non-permanent tracking device is the least
restrictive alternative, to locate individuals as described
in subsection (a)(2) of section 240001 of the Violent Crime
Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (42 U.S.C. 14181), as
added by this Act.
(2) Requirements.--In establishing the standards and best
practices required under paragraph (1), the Attorney General
shall--
(A) determine--
(i) the criteria used to determine which individuals would
benefit from the use of a tracking device;
(ii) the criteria used to determine who should have direct
access to the tracking system; and
(iii) which non-invasive and non-permanent types of
tracking devices can be used in compliance with the standards
and best practices; and
(B) establish standards and best practices the Attorney
General determines are necessary to the administration of a
tracking system, including procedures to--
(i) safeguard the privacy of the data used by the tracking
device such that--
(I) access to the data is restricted to law enforcement and
health agencies determined necessary by the Attorney General;
and
(II) collection, use, and retention of the data is solely
for the purpose of preventing injury or death to the patient
assigned the tracking device or caused by the patient
assigned the tracking device;
[[Page 16080]]
(ii) establish criteria to determine whether use of the
tracking device is the least restrictive alternative in order
to prevent risk of injury or death before issuing the
tracking device, including the previous consideration of less
restrictive alternatives;
(iii) provide training for law enforcement agencies to
recognize signs of abuse during interactions with applicants
for tracking devices;
(iv) protect the civil rights and liberties of the
individuals who use tracking devices, including their rights
under the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution of the United
States;
(v) establish a complaint and investigation process to
address--
(I) incidents of noncompliance by recipients of grants
under subsection (a)(2) of section 240001 of the Violent
Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (42 U.S.C.
14181), as added by this Act, with the best practices
established by the Attorney General or other applicable law;
and
(II) use of a tracking device over the objection of an
individual; and
(vi) determine the role that State agencies should have in
the administration of a tracking system.
(3) Effective date.--The standards and best practices
established pursuant to paragraph (1) shall take effect 90
days after publication of such standards and practices by the
Attorney General, unless Congress enacts a joint resolution
disapproving of the standards and practices.
(b) Required Compliance.--
(1) In general.--Each entity that receives a grant under
subsection (a)(2) of section 240001 of the Violent Crime
Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (42 U.S.C. 14181), as
added by this Act, shall comply with any standards and best
practices relating to the use of tracking devices established
by the Attorney General in accordance with subsection (a).
(2) Determination of compliance.--The Attorney General, in
consultation with the Secretary of Health and Human Services,
shall determine whether an entity that receives a grant under
subsection (a)(2) of section 240001 of the Violent Crime
Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (42 U.S.C. 14181), as
added by this Act, acts in compliance with the requirement
described in paragraph (1).
(c) Applicability of Standards and Best Practices.--The
standards and best practices established by the Attorney
General under subsection (a) shall apply only to the grant
programs authorized under subsection (a)(2) of section 240001
of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994
(42 U.S.C. 14181), as added by this Act.
(d) Limitations on Program.--
(1) Data storage.--Any tracking data provided by tracking
devices issued under this program may not be used by a
Federal entity to create a database.
(2) Voluntary participation.--Nothing in this Act may be
construed to require that a parent or guardian use a tracking
device to monitor the location of a child or adult under that
parent or guardian's supervision if the parent or guardian
does not believe that the use of such device is necessary or
in the interest of the child or adult under supervision.
TITLE IV--MISCELLANEOUS
SEC. 401. NO FUNDS AUTHORIZED FOR BYRNE CRIMINAL JUSTICE
INNOVATION PROGRAM.
For fiscal year 2017, no funds are authorized to be
appropriated for an Edward Byrne Memorial criminal justice
innovation program.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Hultgren). Pursuant to the rule, the
gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Goodlatte) and the gentlewoman from Texas
(Ms. Jackson Lee) each will control 20 minutes.
Parliamentary Inquiry
Mr. GOHMERT. Mr. Speaker, I am inquiring whether anyone is in
opposition to the bill. If not, I would like to claim the time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair would inquire if the gentlewoman
from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee) is opposed to the bill.
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I support the bill.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Texas will control 20
minutes in opposition to the bill.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Virginia.
General Leave
Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members
may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their
remarks and include extraneous materials on H.R. 4919, currently under
consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Virginia?
There was no objection.
Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
Mr. Speaker, it is estimated that 60 percent of the 5.3 million
individuals with Alzheimer's disease and 49 percent of children with
autism are susceptible to wandering or leaving safe areas and the
protection of a responsible caregiver. The results of wandering can be
devastating to individuals with Alzheimer's disease and children with
developmental disabilities.
The legislation we are considering today is named in honor of two
boys with autism who wandered away from their caregivers and tragically
drowned. The special circumstances surrounding cases of wandering
individuals are circumstances that people in local communities such as
first responders and school personnel are often not specifically
trained to handle.
The cost to local communities for a search for a missing person is
extremely expensive, even in instances where the local law enforcement
agency is trained. That is why we are considering Kevin and Avonte's
Law of 2016. It reauthorizes the Missing Alzheimer's Disease Patient
Alert Program and broadens the program to protect children with autism.
This legislation authorizes DOJ to make grants to law enforcement
agencies, public safety agencies, and nonprofit organizations to
provide educational wandering prevention programming to families and
caretakers of individuals who wander, as well as training to first
responders and school personnel to facilitate rescue and recovery.
The bill also enables parents and caregivers to apply for voluntary,
noninvasive tracking technology that can be used to help locate a
person who has wandered away from the care and safety of his or her
home. While these devices are already in widespread use, there are many
families that simply can't afford them. The result is oftentimes an
expensive search borne by State and local enforcement agencies that all
too frequently results in tragic consequences.
We have worked hard to address the privacy concerns that some have
raised about this bill. The updated language makes it explicitly clear
that this is a completely voluntary program, that all tracking devices
must be noninvasive, and that the Federal Government may not store
location data related to the devices.
Finally, we make it clear that such devices are only to be
recommended where they are the least restrictive alternative. American
communities are safer when they are equipped with the training to
prevent tragedies from happening. This legislation will assist
communities in receiving valuable education on how to prevent
individuals with Alzheimer's disease and children with autism from
wandering and to respond quickly and appropriately in cases in which
they do. I urge all Members to support this important legislation.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. GOHMERT. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise, but I actually do so with a heavy heart. The
level of respect I have for the people involved in this bill is really
off the charts. These are wonderful people. I appreciate their mental
clarity, their intellect, and their big hearts all involved in pushing
this legislation in Congress. I can't attribute motive outside
Congress, but in Congress, I know it is with the best of intentions and
best of hearts.
When we start a Federal program, things that will be only temporary--
things that were going to be only temporary come to mind like the
income tax, and it was going to be small and temporary. Well, it is
still going on, and it has gotten bigger. I have read the bill, and I
want to thank the people involved. I have ultimate respect for both
Chairman Goodlatte and my friend Chris Smith. I just couldn't have
stronger feelings for people. And my friend across the aisle, it would
surprise some people, but we get along quite well, and I appreciate the
care she has for people.
Though there have been provisions added--there have been changes made
to try to deal with some of the concerns that people like me have had--
it
[[Page 16081]]
is still a problem. If you look at page 21, the last page of the bill,
it has this language added: ``Voluntary participation. Nothing in this
Act may be construed to require that a parent or guardian use a
tracking device to monitor the location of a child or adult under that
parent or guardian's supervision if the parent or guardian does not
believe the use of such device is necessary.''
Frankly, I looked at making a provision like that and asking that it
be in the bill, and then I realized: Wait a minute. There are back
doors. There are things the Attorney General could do that could
satisfy the language we have for ``voluntary.'' Okay. No, the parent or
guardian won't have to do that or monitor that, but we have the system
in place. It is a Federal system.
So now we have the capability to monitor and track people so, you
know, gee, this person is a problem. The definition of who could have
this procedure or implement used is, as we are told, people with
Alzheimer's, people with autism, people who may wander off or, and the
words are, a developmental disability. Well, developmental disability,
that is a severe or chronic disability of an individual 5 years or
older that is attributable to a mental or physical impairment or
combination of those. And so then we get over into the Diagnostic and
Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, and we have seen the evolution
of the DSM through 1, 2, 3--major changes at 3--4, 5. Personality
disorders like antisocial disorder were once called sociopath or
psychopath, but there is an argument that they are a developmental
disorder, and they are chronic for so many people.
So then you begin to see, well, we don't have a very tight definition
of what a developmentally disabled person is, and we look to the bill,
and of course in trying to make this bill broader so it would include
autism and other developmental disabilities, we see, on page 2, in the
section header, we want to make clear this isn't just Alzheimer's
disease patients so we insert the word ``Americans,'' which is a little
broader than ``Alzheimer's disease patient.''
Again, that is in the header, so it is not necessarily language, and
people like me that have had to review language as a judge or a chief
justice and write opinions on what words mean, how they apply to these
circumstances, I see where this goes. We will have a Federal tracking
program, but it is only for people with Alzheimer's or autism that
wander off. Well, yeah, or developmental disabilities, and that is
pretty far reaching where we go with that. But it is just a mental
health issue and it is a physical issue because we know--and I know
this is what has driven my friend supporting this bill, we have had
people wander off and be found dead. All of us have seen stories like
that.
The question is: Is it the job of the Federal Government to start a
tracking program? And since it is mental disease, obviously the person
who would be in charge of such a wonderful program that would help us
track people with Alzheimer's, autism, or other developmental
disability, it would be the Secretary of Health and Human Services. But
wait. The bill gives the authority to the Attorney General of the
United States. We are talking Department of Justice.
It does say a couple of places the AG will get with the Secretary of
Health and Human Services and collaborate, but ultimately these
decisions are the decisions of the Attorney General. The Attorney
General will make the call. The bill specifically says that the
Attorney General will also, basically, make all the rules and
regulations with regard to this tracking system. And then it also says
that the Attorney General will formulate the ``best practices.'' So
maybe to me or someone in this body, developmental disability would
mean one thing, and we do have definition in Federal law, but there,
too, it is quite broad.
I so much appreciate the insertion of the word ``noninvasive'' for
the tracking device or system, and nonpermanent. Well, I know tattoos
are nonpermanent if you go through what I understand is a pretty
painful process. I had felony judge friends who would order people to
have tattoos removed, so I guess you could say those were nonpermanent.
But when you look at definitions of what noninvasive is--and I don't
find it in the bill. Perhaps it is somewhere in Federal law. But even
then, you have the word ``noninvasive'' subject to interpretation.
Whose interpretation? The Attorney General, the Department of Justice's
head, to make the determination of what is noninvasive.
A definition in medicine, this or some similar are often used, that
noninvasive would be a process that does not violate the integrity of
the mucocutaneous barriers. Well, if you insert a chip just above the
subcutaneous barriers, would that be noninvasive? If you go a little
bit under the subcutaneous barriers, would that be noninvasive? Well,
there is only one way to find out, and that is once the Attorney
General formulates the regulations and the best practices, then we find
out what is actually noninvasive.
There is a procedure, and this indicates the people who prepared this
bill--and I am not being sarcastic. They were really trying to figure
out a way to protect an overoppressive government. You have to have a
procedure of appeal, and the Attorney General will help set that up. If
you have a complaint, you think something is not being done properly,
well, the Attorney General is going to help create the rules that allow
you to complain or appeal on that.
{time} 1815
Oh, and by the way, I never wanted to be in a football, basketball,
or baseball game--and I love all those sports and played them all--but
I never wanted to be in the game where the referee is the one that
wrote the rules for our league, because they didn't yield and their
opinion was better than the rules on the page, no matter what the page
said. So the Attorney General can tell us what he really meant or she
really meant.
Voluntary, I appreciate that part, but we have a Federal tracking
system and it says here in the bill it is to prevent violence or injury
or even death to one's self, to the person, or injury to someone else.
Now, why would this be a concern today, other than the fact that we
have seen reports come out of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and
the Department of Homeland Security who think that people who deny
manmade climate change are committing, basically, a law against nature.
They are violating a law against nature.
We see now where there are people who just put in your search engine
religious beliefs, mental disorders, and you will have all kinds of
investigations come up. There are people in this government, like those
in the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, that think that those who claim
to be Christians and use code words like `religious liberty,' that that
is code for Islamophobia, homophobia, xenophobia, not understanding
that a true Christian is basing their beliefs and their trust in Jesus
Christ, who is love incarnate.
Nonetheless, we have government officials that think that religious
beliefs are a problem, and that the even bigger problem is, if you are
a veteran--that is what Homeland Security has said--and you believe in
the strict interpretation of the words on the pages of the
Constitution, that makes you a bigger threat.
So when we are talking about terms that we have seen change over the
years, we have seen the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual have massive
change. Why? Sometimes it is because medicine, psychology, or
psychiatry has made great discoveries and improvements, and sometimes
it is because one group has a better lobbying group than others.
Mr. Speaker, by the way, other good language here is that none of the
money can be used for conferences that may cost more than $20,000,
unless they do certain things. Another good provision is that none of
the money may be used to create a Federal database, but the money will
be used for State, local, nonprofit organizations.
I can't find anything that says that we in the Federal Government
cannot
[[Page 16082]]
fund State and local databases of individuals that have developmental
disabilities such as they are too religious and, therefore, they are
deemed to have a developmental disability, antisocial personalities. It
is just too open and there are too many loopholes.
I like the idea; and the more I thought about it, the more I read the
language, the more I saw the open loopholes that could result in a
Federal tracking system that George Orwell would have been embarrassed
about.
So, with brotherly and appeared appreciation for those pursuing this
bill out of the best of intentions--just wanting to stop death and harm
to one's self because you have autism, Alzheimer's--Mr. Speaker, I
humbly submit this is a dangerous door for any government to open, a
door that Orwell would have warned about.
People told me, well, gee, there is ink that you can use in a tattoo
that can be tracked. I don't know. It is a door that we should not open
at the Federal level to begin a program of tracking, no matter whether
it is State or local officials that have the database and we get it and
look at it or what.
So I hope that the bill doesn't pass and we can work together to find
ways to help those who cannot help themselves.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire how much time remains on
each side.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Virginia has 17 minutes
remaining. The gentleman from Texas has 4\1/2\ minutes remaining.
Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentlewoman from
Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee).
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, let me thank the gentleman from
Virginia for yielding and let me thank the sponsor of this bill.
Five minutes certainly will not be enough time to refute my good
friend from Texas, but let me start by saying to my colleagues that
this bill is about saving lives. Let me say it again. It is squarely,
on its face, simply about saving lives.
I support this bipartisan measure because it addresses an urgent
need, one with which I have had firsthand experience. As a Member of
the United States Congress, I take great concern, as we all do, with
the individual lives of our constituents. I have had at least two
occasions to deal with missing adults whose families have been in pain.
Those adults have been missing because of dementia or Alzheimer's. Out
of their plight, we have sought law enforcement to be of help to look
for these loved ones.
This bill would amend the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement
Act of 1994 to reauthorize and expand the Missing Alzheimer's Disease
Patient Alert Program. Across our Nation, there are millions of
children who suffer from autism or mental developmental disorders, as
well as individuals suffering from Alzheimer's disease or other forms
of dementia.
What is the crux of this bill? A few years ago, Congresswoman Waters
and myself introduced amendments to the Elder Justice Act and Elder
Abuse Victims Act, which reauthorized and expanded the Missing
Alzheimer's Disease Patient Alert Program's key provisions.
The Department of Justice program supports the use of new
technologies to help local communities and law enforcement officials
quickly locate and identify people with Alzheimer's disease who wander
or are missing and reunite them with their families, providing vital
assistance to a vulnerable population.
Again, Mr. Speaker, it is about saving lives. We know, in 2016, one
in nine older Americans have Alzheimer's disease; 6 in 10 people with
dementia will wander. Alzheimer's was the sixth leading cause of death
in 2013 in Texas alone.
As it relates to children and autism, nearly half of the children
with autism engage in wandering behavior. More than one-third of
children with autism who wander are never or rarely able to communicate
their name, address, or phone number. Accidental drowning accounts for
approximately 90 percent of lethal outcomes as relate to children with
autism who wander.
Let me speak specifically to the legislation before us and answer the
concerns. There is no evidence in this bill that any invasive activity
will occur. No chip will be put in an adult or a child who is suffering
either from autism as a child--a wanderer--or an adult.
It clearly says that this is a collaboration between the Attorney
General and the Secretary of Health and Human Services, who will only
focus on leading research advocacy, self-advocacy, and service
organizations to help establish standards and best practices relating
to the use of noninvasive, nonpermanent tracking technology where the
guardian or parent, in consultation with the individual's healthcare
provider, has determined that a noninvasive and nonpermanent tracking
device is the least restrictive alternative to locate individuals.
Nothing will occur, Mr. Speaker, to any loved ones without the
permission of that loved one's guardian or parent, and it is only to be
able to save lives. The Attorney General and the Secretary of Health
and Human Services will have no further input, other than to make sure
that whatever is utilized is noninvasive, best practices, and will do
no harm.
What is the role of the Federal Government? It is to solve problems.
We are attempting to come here today for the loved ones all over
America. Meet the family of an autistic child--a loving child, a loving
family. They know that is a talented and wonderful, beautiful child,
but they have a tendency to wander.
Come, for example, and stand in the shoes of a family in Houston,
Texas. During a wonderful holiday season, the Thanksgiving season, a
time of joy and family gathering, a beautiful little 9-year-old boy
walked out of the house. They said he may have his iPad with him, he
may have his earphones, he might not have any shoes on, but don't call
his name, don't bother to chase him, because the likelihood is he will
run away from you.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentlewoman has expired.
Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I yield the gentlewoman from Texas an
additional 1 minute.
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Just think, if there had been that acceptable
tracking device, noninvasive.
Mr. Speaker, I am as concerned about privacy as my good friend from
Texas. We have sat on the Judiciary Committee together and we have
supported, first, when we were dealing with the issues of terrorism
after 9/11, the PATRIOT Act. We came together. We were standing strong
against the invasiveness that violates the privacy of the American
people and violates the Constitution. This is not that case.
There are families out there who are suffering the loss of their
loved ones, whether it is an elderly person or whether it is that
beautiful, young child who happens to be autistic, who is in a world of
their own and who decided to wander. Just think of the wonderful device
that would help save lives.
I ask my colleagues to vote on this bill as a lifesaving bill that
needs the love and affection of every Member of Congress to give love
and affection to those families that are suffering and need our help.
We are problem solvers.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 4919, the ``Kevin and Avonte's
Law of 2016,'' as amended.
I support this bipartisan measure because it addresses an urgent
need. The bill would amend the Violent Crime Control and Law
Enforcement Act of 1994 to reauthorize and expand the Missing
Alzheimer's Disease Patient Alert Program.
Across our Nation, there are millions of children who suffer from
autism or mental developmental disorders as well as individuals
suffering from Alzheimer's disease or other forms of dementia.
These children and adults are often at serious risk of injury or even
death when they wander away from their caregivers. In many cases, they
are disoriented and unable to seek help for themselves. They may not
even remember their name or where they live. Worse yet, they can be
seriously injured or worse.
This bill, in fact, is named for two young boys--Kevin and Avonte--
who died tragically after wandering away from their caregivers.
[[Page 16083]]
To address this problem, H.R. 4919 would significantly improve the
Missing Alzheimer's Disease Patient Alert Program in several
significant respects.
First, the bill would expand the scope of the Program to authorize
grants to locally based organizations to fund initiatives, activities,
and services related to children with autism and developmental
disabilities.
Second, the bill would authorize grants for the development and
operation of location tracking services in appropriate circumstances.
H.R. 4919 also expands the grant program authorized by the Missing
Children's Assistance Act specifically for the National Center for
Missing and Exploited Children to provide technical assistance and
training in cases involving children with developmental disorders.
Although H.R. 4919 expands the existing grant system and renames it
as the Missing Americans Alert Program, the central purpose of the
Program will remain the same.
Grants would continue to be provided to the many agencies and
organizations that protect and locate missing individuals suffering
from disorders that result in wandering with the goal of reducing
incidences of wandering and the resultant risk of injury and death.
To ensure these efforts are done effectively, prevent abuse with
respect to any use of tracking technology, and protect privacy
interests, the bill establishes standards and best practices.
While H.R. 4919 will help address an important issue, I am concerned
that the suspension version of the bill will reduces the authorization
for funding for another grant program in order to satisfy the ``cut-
go'' requirements of the Majority.
I do not see the need to reduce the authorization for one good
program to fund another, and I hope we will be able to address this
issue as we work with the Senate on final legislation for enactment.
Nevertheless, H.R. 4919 overall is an important measure that will
provide real assistance to those who are among the most vulnerable in
our society.
As this Congress comes to a close, I am pleased that my colleagues on
both sides of the aisle have worked together in a spirit of compromise
to address a critical issue that unfortunately affects so many
Americans.
It is my hope that this spirit of cooperation will continue into the
next Congress, particularly in the area of criminal justice reform.
I am pleased to support H.R. 4919 because this bill would reauthorize
and expand the Missing Alzheimer's Disease Patient Alert Program and
authorize grants to establish and operate programs that provide
location tracking services for children with autism or other
developmental and adults with Alzheimer's or dementia--something I have
long advocated for and worked to make law.
Thousands of adults and children go missing each year.
While we must be concerned for all individuals who go missing, adults
and children, with mental deficiencies or disabilities, require more
particularized consideration due to their vulnerability.
Adults who suffer from Alzheimer's or dementia and children with
autism spectrum disorders, or other developmental disorders, are prone
to wander away from safe places.
A study published this year by researchers at Cohen Children's
Medical Center of New York reported that more than 250,000 school-age
children with autism or other developmental disorders wander away from
adult supervision each year.
The National Crime Information Center reported that, between 2011 and
2015, roughly 16-17 percent of adults reported missing suffered from a
mental or physical disability or senility.
When these individuals wander away, they are oftentimes at great risk
of serious injury or even death.
This bill is named for two children who wandered away and drowned.
Sadly, each one of us has a similar story about a constituent.
I have pushed so hard for this type of legislation so that we do not
have to tell more stories like the one of Mr. Sammy Kirk, a native of
Houston, whose family called me for help in locating him.
Mr. Kirk was 76 years old and suffered from dementia when he wandered
away.
His family searched for him for days to no avail.
In their desperation, they called on me to lend my services to them
to help find him.
We searched together for Mr. Kirk for three days and nights.
When we found him, he had succumbed to dehydration.
His body lay alongside a bayou, many miles away from his home.
I have advocated for so long, along with my colleague, Rep. Maxine
Waters, in attempting to establish a pilot program during the 109th and
110th Congresses to provide voluntary electronic monitoring services to
elderly individuals to assist in locating such individuals when they
are reported missing.
Mr. Kirk and many others might have been saved if such a program
already existed.
The need for individual location tracking is just as critical as it
was in 2008, when I and Congresswoman Waters offered amendments to
several bills providing for such programs, including the Elder Justice
Act and the Elder Abuse Victims Act.
I am pleased that the key provisions of the Jackson Lee-Waters
Amendments have been incorporated into the bill before us today.
More than 5 million Americans suffer from Alzheimer's disease and 1
in 68 children has an autism spectrum disorder.
Almost half of wandering Alzheimer's patients will be seriously
injured or die if they are not found within 24 hours of their
departure.
Like their older counterparts, almost half of autistic children are
expected to wander away from their caregivers.
Several studies predict that many of these children will be at risk
of drowning or sustaining a traffic injury.
The number of citizens suffering from Alzheimer's, dementia, autism,
or developmental disorders is expected to grow rapidly and
exponentially.
The time has come for us to offer all that we have available to
prevent any more stories like that of Kevin Curtis Wills, or Avonte
Oquendo, Mr. Sammy Kirk, or just as recently as this Thanksgiving
holiday, Marcus McGhee.
Let us focus our efforts on assisting state and local governments in
the development of alert systems and technology to protect some of our
most vulnerable constituents and locate them, if the time ever comes.
This bill would provide for a host of entities and measures that work
together to protect, locate, and recover loved ones, including
education and training.
This bill would also expand the grants that can be awarded to the
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to provide technical
assistance and training in the prevention, investigation, prosecution,
and treatment of cases to also include children with developmental
disabilities.
Mr. Speaker, I am glad to see this bill before us today.
It is a good piece of legislation that responds to a need that has
reached a tipping point.
I am concerned about the cutting of funds for the Byrne Innovation
program for 2017, however the Continuing Resolution will provide
funding until April 2017.
children with autism fact sheet
Autism is one of the fastest-growing developmental
disorders in the U.S.
Nearly half of children with autism engage in wandering
behavior.
More than 1/3 of children with autism who wander are never
or rarely able to communicate their name, address or phone
number.
Accidental drowning accounts for approximately 90% of
lethal outcomes among children with autism who wander.
Other dangers include dehydration; heat stroke;
hypothermia; traffic injuries; falls; physical restraint
encounters with a stranger.
After intellectual disabilities, autism is the most common
developmental disorder.
A white child with autism is almost 3 times more likely to
receive an accurate diagnosis of autism on their first visit
to a specialist, than a black child.
Children diagnosed as early as 18 months to 3 years have
the benefit of preschool intervention programs in their most
formative years.
The average African-American child with autism is not
diagnosed until they are 5 years old.
Recently, the Centers for Disease Control released a 2016
report, announcing an increase in autism from one child in 88
to one in 42.
Autism costs a family $60,000 a year on average.
Boys are nearly five times more likely than girls to have
autism.
Half of families report they have never received advice or
guidance about elopement from a professional.
____
americans with alzheimer's fact sheet
In 2016, 1 in 9 older Americans had Alzheimer's disease.
6 in 10 people with dementia will wander.
Alzheimer's was the 6th leading cause of death in 2013 in
Texas.
Of the 5.4 million Americans with Alzheimer's, an estimated
5.2 million people are age 65 and older, and approximately
200,000 individuals are under age 65 (younger-onset
Alzheimer's).
Almost 2/3 of Americans with Alzheimer's were women in
2014.
Among people age 70, 61% of those with Alzheimer's are
expected to die before the age of 80 compared with 30% of
people with Alzheimer's--a rate twice as high.
In 2015, 15.9 million family and friends provided 18.1
billion hours of unpaid care to
[[Page 16084]]
those with Alzheimer's and other dementias--an estimated
$221.3 billion.
In 2016, Alzheimer's and other dementias will cost the
nation $236 billion.
Studies have shown that early diagnosis and the creation of
a stimulating and supportive environment can be beneficial in
slowing the progression of Alzheimer's.
In addition to looking for a cure, researchers are focusing
more and more on supporting the caregivers who spend upwards
of 13 hours a day caring for loved ones.
Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from
New Jersey (Mr. Smith), the chief sponsor of this legislation.
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman of the
Judiciary Committee, Mr. Goodlatte, for his enormous efforts and those
of his staff to, out of an abundance of caution, address some of the
issues that were raised by my friend from Texas. I don't think some of
his concerns were included or at risk in the bill, but we clarified and
made very clear about voluntary participation and the issue of
noninvasiveness and nonpermanent, which is now clearly defined in the
legislation. So it is an improvement. Mr. Goodlatte was the one who
came up with that language. The language that deals with the
collection, use, and retention of data is solely for the purpose of
preventing injury or death to the patient.
Mr. Speaker, in the year 2000, I cofounded two caucuses: the Autism
Caucus and the Alzheimer's Caucus. I wrote three laws on autism,
including the most recent Autism CARES Act, which not only provides
$1.3 billion for autism and research at NIH, CDC, and HRSA, but also
looks at the aging out issue.
Law enforcement is not ready to deal with severely autistic children
who, when you approach them, need a certain approach so that they don't
react violently, especially if they have a sense of threat.
As my good friend and colleague from Virginia, the distinguished
chairman said, about 50 percent of autistic children wander. We know at
least 100 children since 2011 have died. The bill is named after two of
them who drowned.
{time} 1830
A benign tracking device that is noninvasive, there is no collection
or use other than for the prevention of injury or death, and, of
course, there is no national storage. If you ask, I say to my
colleagues, your local sheriffs, your law enforcement about the
lifesaving program, some have it, some don't. Within about one-half
hour of an Alzheimer's patient or an autistic patient being lost,
wandering, they find them. Those who are not found in 24 hours, not
only have got a 50 percent chance of getting hurt themselves, but can
hurt other people. About 60 percent of the Alzheimer's community wander
at some point. This is a way of protecting and preventing injury.
I say to my colleague, my good friend from Texas, he is reading into
the things that are not there. One of the groups put out an alert
suggesting a vote against this and hadn't even read the clarifications
out of an abundance of caution, again, put in there by Mr. Goodlatte.
So I would hope that Members would support this. This will save
lives. And we are not reinventing the wheel. The Alzheimer's program
was in effect without any parade of horribles occurring as a result.
I check with Alzheimer's patients all the time, Alzheimer's
Association and, of course, Autism Speaks, and others who are all for
this. They want this desperately because wandering is a serious
problem.
We want to get our loved ones, find our loved ones who have
developmental disabilities or have Alzheimer's, and make sure they get
back to a safe and secure environment as quickly as possible. That is
all this does.
So I urge my colleagues to support it. I, again, thank the chairman.
I thank Mr. Conyers and others. This is a bipartisan bill. Senators
Grassley and Schumer sponsored it on the Senate side, Ms. Maxine
Waters--it is the left, right, middle, everybody in between. This is
about helping people who are at grave risk when they wander.
Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I have no other speakers other than
myself, and I believe I have the right to close, so I will reserve the
balance of my time.
Mr. GOHMERT. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I will not bow to anyone who may think they have greater love or care
or commitment to people who suffer from dementia or other developmental
disabilities. I have spent an awful lot of time with people I love.
But let me just tell you, Mr. Speaker--let me finish that. The people
I love, I don't know if they knew where they were. I have spent time
with family and people I love who struggle with these very issues. I
know there is a danger of death. There is a danger of injury.
Whether Franklin said it or not, those who will give up a little
liberty to get security deserve neither. Whoever said it, I think it
was Franklin, some say it wasn't, but it is true.
We are told, this is strictly for all those people out there that
have autistic kids or people with developmental disability. Well, they
haven't used--nobody here has used developmental disability but me.
But the truth is, the reason I heard about this bill, my staff tells
me, is we just got a call from someone who has an autistic child, and
they are scared to death that the Federal Government is going to start
a tracking program for kids with autism.
And yeah, they will provision in here that it is supposed to be
voluntary, but once you have the system in place--I can guarantee you,
I have seen programs like this get started. And when I am a judge and
law officers come in and say, this person is a threat, they swear to
it, the evidence is in the affidavit then, yes, I will give them a
warrant to go use whatever they say they believe will be the best way
to handle the situation.
Once it is in place, it is going to be used by more than parents; you
can count on it. And if you look at Page 17: The Attorney General shall
determine the criteria. The Attorney General shall determine the
criteria for determining who should have direct access to the tracking
system and determine what is noninvasive, what is nonpermanent. The
Attorney General shall make sure that the tracking device access to
data is restricted to law enforcement and health agencies, but whoever
the Attorney General determines.
I am telling you, this is opening Pandora's box. And as a parent said
to us, we can track our child using our own resources. And if we don't
have the resources, there are charities that will help us. Please don't
let the government start a tracking program because people in this room
could end up being on the list of people who end up having
developmental disabilities; and they are a threat, as Homeland Security
says, so many of our veterans and our constitutionalists are today.
This is about using resources that people have, and if they don't
then let's use charitable money so that the government doesn't invade
our privacy any more than it already has, already does.
I care about the injuries. I have devoted so much of my life to
punishing those who violate people's space; that harm others; that kill
others. I have not backed away from that commitment. But the
government's job is not to be a dictator or to be a big brother. We
never do that well.
I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, I would say to my good friend from Texas, and he is my
good friend from Texas, that I know that he loves people with
developmental disabilities, people with Alzheimer's, families that face
the challenge of autism, and I know that his heart is in the right
place. But I also know that we have just an honest difference of
opinion about what we are doing here and the best way to save the lives
of people when they are lost.
I know in my community of Roanoke, Virginia, that we have people,
both with Alzheimer's and with autism, who wander off. Sometimes
families are able to provide other means of keeping them safe, and
sometimes they are not.
[[Page 16085]]
But I would argue to you that a tracking device that is not federally
administered, that does not have data that is stored by the Federal
Government, that is simply a program that already exists and is simply
being changed to allow it to apply to families with autistic members of
the family who want to voluntarily participate in this, and is
something that not only saves lives but also creates more freedom, not
more government surveillance or more government intervention in
people's lives, as the gentleman is concerned about, but actually more
freedom, more freedom so that people can move about a little more
freely, and others can know, family members can know where they are.
I think that this is an important change in this law that is going to
make life better for families and give them peace of mind, more freedom
of movement, and the ability to find them if they do wander off, as has
happened so often, as happened in the case of Kevin and Avonte, the
children for whom this legislation is named.
I want to thank the gentleman from New Jersey for his hard work over
a long period of time on this. I think the Judiciary Committee has done
good work to improve this.
I want to thank the ranking member. I want to thank the gentlewoman
from Texas. I want to thank the staff on both sides of the aisle for
their hard work to make this bill, a good bill, even better.
To address the concerns raised by the gentleman from Texas, again,
this is voluntary. We are not starting a program. It already exists.
And the authority of the Attorney General, in conjunction with the
Department of Health and Human Services, because it is primarily a
training and education program to State and local law enforcement, so
that when first responders and law enforcement personnel and so on are
called to look for someone whose life is endangered, as it happens
every day, unfortunately, somewhere in this great country, they will
have a new, good, noninvasive tool to help protect the lives of the
innocent, the lives of those who don't know where they might be headed
or where they might be and, therefore, can help families find them,
help first responders find them, bring them back to safety, save their
lives. That is what this bill is about.
I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Goodlatte) that the House suspend the
rules and pass the bill, H.R. 4919, as amended.
The question was taken.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds
being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
Mr. GOHMERT. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, further
proceedings on this motion will be postponed.
____________________
PROMOTING TRAVEL, COMMERCE, AND NATIONAL SECURITY ACT OF 2016
Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the
bill (H.R. 6431) to ensure United States jurisdiction over offenses
committed by United States personnel stationed in Canada in furtherance
of border security initiatives.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 6431
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Promoting Travel, Commerce,
and National Security Act of 2016''.
SEC. 2. JURISDICTION OVER OFFENSES COMMITTED BY CERTAIN
UNITED STATES PERSONNEL STATIONED IN CANADA.
(a) Amendment.--Chapter 212A of title 18, United States
Code, is amended--
(1) in the chapter heading, by striking ``TRAFFICKING IN
PERSONS''; and
(2) by adding after section 3272 the following:
``Sec. 3273. Offenses committed by certain United States
personnel stationed in Canada in furtherance of border
security initiatives
``(a) In General.--Whoever, while employed by the
Department of Homeland Security or the Department of Justice
and stationed or deployed in Canada pursuant to a treaty,
executive agreement, or bilateral memorandum in furtherance
of a border security initiative, engages in conduct (or
conspires or attempts to engage in conduct) in Canada that
would constitute an offense for which a person may be
prosecuted in a court of the United States had the conduct
been engaged in within the United States or within the
special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United
States shall be fined or imprisoned, or both, as provided for
that offense.
``(b) Definition.--In this section, the term `employed by
the Department of Homeland Security or the Department of
Justice' means--
``(1) being employed as a civilian employee, a contractor
(including a subcontractor at any tier), or an employee of a
contractor (or a subcontractor at any tier) of the Department
of Homeland Security or the Department of Justice;
``(2) being present or residing in Canada in connection
with such employment; and
``(3) not being a national of or ordinarily resident in
Canada.''.
(b) Technical and Conforming Amendments.--Part II of title
18, United States Code, is amended--
(1) in the table of chapters, by striking the item relating
to chapter 212A and inserting the following:
``212A. Extraterritorial jurisdiction over certain offenses3271'';....
and
(2) in the table of sections for chapter 212A, by inserting
after the item relating to section 3272 the following:
``3273. Offenses committed by certain United States personnel stationed
in Canada in furtherance of border security
initiatives.''.
(c) Rule of Construction.--Nothing in this section or the
amendments made by this section shall be construed to
infringe upon or otherwise affect the exercise of
prosecutorial discretion by the Department of Justice in
implementing this section and the amendments made by this
section.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Virginia (Mr. Goodlatte) and the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson
Lee) each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Virginia.
General Leave
Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members
may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their
remarks and include extraneous materials on H.R. 6431, currently under
consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Virginia?
There was no objection.
Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
Today we consider on suspension H.R. 6431, the Promoting Travel,
Commerce, and National Security Act of 2016. The bill's origin stems
from an international agreement entered into between Canada and the
United States in March 2015, known as the agreement on Land, Rail,
Marine, and Air Transport Preclearance. This agreement established an
immigration and trade preclearance system to strengthen economic
competitiveness and national security.
Preclearance facilities permit travelers to pass through U.S. Customs
and Border Protection inspections at a particular foreign port prior to
entering the United States. This process expedites a traveler's arrival
in the U.S., while also protecting national security by preventing from
entry those individuals deemed a threat.
CBP officers currently conduct preclearance operations at airports
around the world, including various Canadian airports, marine ports,
and a rail station in British Columbia.
H.R. 6431 helps implement the foregoing agreement by ensuring that
U.S. Government personnel who are stationed in Canada, particularly CBP
preclearance officers, may be held accountable in U.S. courts if they
commit a crime while performing their official duties, assuming their
actions would constitute a crime, if committed in the United States.
[[Page 16086]]
Strengthening our Nation's relationship with our northern neighbor is
important for both our economy and national security. H.R. 6431 helps
pave the way for increased cooperation with Canada to spur economic
growth here at home and prevent those who shouldn't be coming to the
United States from arriving in the first place.
I want to thank Representatives Kuster and Stefanik for their work on
this bill, and I urge my colleagues to support this important
legislation.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
Mr. Speaker, my first order of business is to thank Congresswoman
Kuster for her leadership on this legislation; and then to make mention
of a bill just an hour or two ago that bears mentioning, that I want to
take note of the importance of its passage, and that is S. 1632. In the
House it was H.R. 3833. The Senate bill has now passed, a bill to
require a regional strategy to address the threat posed by Boko Haram.
{time} 1845
As I begin to discuss this bill, the issue of security is on all of
our minds, certainly the tragedy of the Boko Haram onslaught in
Nigeria, the missing Chibok girls should be on our mind, and this bill
that I just mentioned that was passed and supported by Congresswoman
Wilson of Florida will be a very, very important initiative, one of
which I cosponsored and will continue to work on this issue.
Now I rise in strong support of H.R. 6431, the Promoting Travel,
Commerce, and National Security Act of 2016. The bill would establish
U.S. criminal jurisdiction over offenses committed by Federal employees
conducting border security duties in Canada. In so doing, H.R. 6431
will strengthen our national security as well as promote the safe and
efficient flow of travelers and goods between the United States and
Canada, one of the United States' strongest allies.
In addition, it will facilitate the expansion of the U.S. Customs and
Border Protection preclearance facilities in Canada, which is our
Nation's largest trading partner. Each day, our countries trade
billions of dollars of goods, services, and stock investments. Annually
this relationship generates in excess of $1.4 trillion in value. This
partnership also creates millions of jobs for both Canadians and
Americans.
To protect this incredibly important relationship, the Beyond the
Border agreement between the United States and Canada created a plan to
enhance national security and promote efficient travel and trade.
This agreement is intended to facilitate the expansion of U.S.
Customs and Border Protection preclearance facilities in Canada, which
prevents inadmissible people and items from entering the United States
before they reach a U.S. entry point.
The United States, as a result of this agreement, saves millions of
dollars in processing costs, and our national security is strengthened
because potential threats are stopped before they access U.S. soil.
In addition, preclearance facilities help alleviate congestion for
millions of travelers and traders arriving at U.S. airports from
Canada. That is a very, very important aspect of this legislation,
along with its very strong security commitment. The expansion will
include rail preclearance facilities for the first time, thereby
creating another safe and efficient way to travel between each country.
This bill is intended to resolve a final procedural impediment to the
full expansion of the preclearance facilities in Canada by ensuring
that U.S. personnel who work at these facilities are held accountable
under U.S. law.
Again, I thank my good friend, Congresswoman Kuster. Her leadership
is one that we are greatly appreciative of. I ask my colleagues to
support H.R. 6431.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 6431, the ``Promoting Travel,
Commerce, and National Security Act of 2016.''
This bill would establish U.S. criminal jurisdiction over offenses
committed by federal employees conducting border security duties in
Canada.
In so doing, H.R. 6431 will strengthen our national security as well
as promote the safe and efficient flow of travelers and goods between
the United States and Canada.
In addition, it will facilitate the expansion of the U.S. Customs and
Border Protection pre-clearance facilities in Canada, which is our
Nation's largest trading partner.
Each day, our countries trade billions of dollars of goods, services
and stock investments. Annually, this relationship generates in excess
of $1.4 trillion in value. And, this partnership also creates millions
of jobs for both Canadians and Americans.
To protect this incredibly important relationship, the ``Beyond the
Border Agreement'' between the United States and Canada created a plan
to enhance national security and promote efficient travel and trade.
This Agreement is intended to facilitate the expansion of U.S.
Customs and Border Protection pre-clearance facilities in Canada, which
prevents inadmissible people and items from entering the United States
before they reach a U.S. entry point.
The United States, as a result of this Agreement, saves millions of
dollars in processing costs and our national security is strengthened
because potential threats are stopped before they access U.S. soil.
In addition, pre-clearance facilities help alleviate congestion for
millions of travelers and traders arriving at U.S. airports from
Canada. And, the expansion will include rail pre-clearance facilities
for the first time, thereby creating another safe and efficient way to
travel between each country.
This bill is intended to resolve a final procedural impediment to the
full expansion of the preclearance facilities in Canada by ensuring
that U.S. personnel who work at these facilities are held accountable
under U.S. law.
H.R. 6431 is an important bill that will advance the interests of the
United States.
I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this bill, which will
allow the expansion of preclearance facilities in Canada and thereby
enhance national security and promote trade and travel in the United
States.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to
the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Stefanik), who is one of the chief
sponsors of this legislation.
Ms. STEFANIK. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R.
6431, the Promoting Travel, Commerce, and National Security Act.
First I want to take a moment to thank my colleague, Congresswoman
Kuster, for all of her efforts on this important bill. As you can see,
the need for preclearance and this bill stretches across party lines
and across our great Nation.
In my district and communities in northern New York, Canada is more
than just a bordering nation. They are our neighbors, our friends, and
our largest trading partner. Plattsburgh, a city in my district, has
even branded itself as Montreal's U.S. suburb, home to more than 100
U.S. subsidiaries of Canadian companies with 15 percent of our area
workforce working for a Canadian or border-related employer.
That is why I helped lead the efforts to craft H.R. 6431, the
Promoting Travel, Commerce, and National Security Act--a necessary step
to solidify the preclearance agreement between the U.S. and Canada,
which was reached over a year ago.
This significant, bipartisan legislation is great news for U.S.-
Canadian relations. It maintains a positive working relationship with
border officials, especially in rural regions like ours in the north
country, and it allows for facility sharing along the border. This bill
also expands U.S. preclearance operations to help provide expedited
screening for Amtrak passengers prior to traveling. This process will
allow for an easier and accelerated trip while ensuring necessary
protections for our national security.
Mr. Speaker, I strongly encourage my colleagues to support this vital
legislation to maintain a secure northern border and facilitate travel
and commerce between the U.S. and Canada. I urge the Senate to act
quickly to send this measure to the President.
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the distinguished
gentlewoman from New Hampshire (Ms. Kuster), who is the author of this
legislation.
Ms. KUSTER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Texas, and I
thank the chair, Mr. Goodlatte.
[[Page 16087]]
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of my bill, H.R. 6431, the
Promoting Travel, Commerce, and National Security Act of 2016.
In my home State of New Hampshire, Granite Staters understand the
special relationship that Americans have with Canada. For families in
the north country and my district, many of their relatives live just
across the border in Quebec, and many of our businesses rely on cross-
border trade to grow and expand their operations.
According to the State Department, the United States and Canada share
the single longest international border in the world and trade over
$1.8 billion every day in goods and services, supporting millions of
jobs in the U.S.
Furthermore, approximately 380,000 people cross our border every day,
and can do so safely because of the close coordination between U.S. and
Canadian border security officials. Many of these travelers save time
by utilizing preclearance facilities that are operated by Customs and
Border Protection officials at nine different Canadian airports.
Preclearance has numerous security, travel, and trade benefits that
present the United States and Canada with a win-win opportunity. First
and foremost, preclearance enhances our national security efforts by
detecting threats early before they reach U.S. soil. Because travelers
go through customs and border inspection prior to boarding their plane,
preclearance can intercept inadmissible travelers before they reach the
U.S. In fact, in 2014 alone, preclearance operations prevented more
than 10,000 inadmissible travelers from coming to the United States,
saving American taxpayers more than $20 million in detention,
processing, and repatriation costs.
Second, preclearance boosts cross-border trade by increasing foreign
direct investment, creating new jobs and opening up high value tourism
to regional markets in the United States.
Third, preclearance improves the overall experience for travelers--
particularly those who travel frequently for work--by reducing wait
times at border crossings. Because passengers undergo screening prior
to travel, they are not subjected to long lines when they arrive in the
United States.
To build upon the existing benefits of preclearance, the United
States and Canada signed a new, groundbreaking preclearance agreement
in 2015 that will pave the pathway for the expansion of these
facilities at land, rail, marine, and air ports of entry.
This new agreement represents a 21st century approach to border
security, but in order for the 2015 preclearance agreement to be
finalized, we must pass legislation in both the United States Congress
and the Canadian Parliament, which is what brings us to the floor
today.
My bipartisan legislation, H.R. 6431, the Promoting Travel, Commerce,
and National Security Act, will finalize the 2015 preclearance
agreement by ensuring that the United States has the legal authority to
fairly hold CBP officials accountable if they engage in wrongdoing
abroad. Under the new preclearance agreement, the United States secured
the right to prosecute U.S. officials if they commit crimes on the job
while stationed in Canada. Our legislation gives the United States the
ability to prosecute any cases of wrongdoing on our own soil and
ensures that we are holding all officials accountable.
I am so proud of the bipartisan efforts to get this bill across the
finish line. I thank my colleague, Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, for
her tireless efforts to advance this critical piece of legislation. I
would also thank the 23 bipartisan cosponsors who have championed this
bill and supported our efforts to pass the bill before the close of the
114th Congress.
I ask for immediate passage of the bill. I thank the chair and the
gentlewoman from Texas.
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Madam Speaker, I have no further speakers, and I
will close at this time.
It is my pleasure to indicate what an important bill H.R. 6431 is
because it will advance the interests of the United States. I thank the
two leading cosponsors for their collaboration and for their
leadership: the gentlewoman from New York and the gentlewoman from New
Hampshire. I thank the gentlewomen so very much for bringing this bill
forward and working so hard on it to improve the relationships and the
ability for travel and commerce between Canada and the United States.
Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this
bill, which will allow the expansion of preclearance facilities in
Canada, thereby enhance national security and promote trade and travel
in the United States. I ask my colleagues to support this bill.
Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. GOODLATTE. Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
Madam Speaker, I would just like to say congratulations and good work
to the gentlewoman from New York and the gentlewoman from New
Hampshire. This is a good bill, and we should pass it right now.
Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. CONYERS. Madam Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 6431, the
``Promoting Travel, Commerce, and National Security Act of 2016.''
The United States and Canada have enjoyed a long and fruitful trade
relationship which has created millions of jobs and pumped trillions of
dollars into both economies.
This bill protects and supports this relationship by taking the final
step necessary to expand the U.S. Customs and Border Protection pre-
clearance facilities in Canada.
It does this by establishing U.S. criminal jurisdiction over offenses
committed by federal employees conducting border security duties in
Canada.
Pre-clearance facilities help expedite travel between the United
States and Canada by allowing the U.S. Customs and Border Protection to
inspect people before they leave Canada. This helps travelers avoid the
backlog at our Nation's airports. And helps stop potential threats to
our national security before they reach the United States.
Moreover, this joint effort each year saves the United States
millions of dollars by repatriating individuals and items that are not
allowed in the United States.
This bill, which is required for the expansion of pre-clearance
operations in Canada, simply ensures that U.S. personnel who work at
these facilities are accountable under federal criminal law for their
conduct.
I encourage my colleagues to support H.R. 6431, which ensures a safer
and more efficient trade relationship with Canada.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Ms. Stefanik). The question is on the motion
offered by the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Goodlatte) that the House
suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 6431.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the
rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
____________________
EMMETT TILL UNSOLVED CIVIL RIGHTS CRIMES REAUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2016
Mr. GOODLATTE. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass
the bill (S. 2854) to reauthorize the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights
Crime Act of 2007, as amended.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
S. 2854
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Emmett Till Unsolved Civil
Rights Crimes Reauthorization Act of 2016''.
SEC. 2. INVESTIGATION OF UNSOLVED CIVIL RIGHTS CRIMES.
The Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act of 2007 (28
U.S.C. 509 note) is amended--
(1) in section 2--
(A) in paragraph (1), by striking ``and'' at the end;
(B) in paragraph (2), by striking the period at the end and
inserting a semicolon; and
(C) by inserting after paragraph (2) the following:
``(3) meet regularly with eligible entities to coordinate
the sharing of information and to discuss the status of the
Department's work under this Act;
``(4) support the full accounting of all victims whose
deaths or disappearances were the result of racially
motivated crimes;
[[Page 16088]]
``(5) hold accountable under Federal and State law all
individuals who were perpetrators of, or accomplices in,
unsolved civil rights murders and such disappearances;
``(6) express the condolences of the authority to the
communities affected by unsolved civil rights murders, and to
the families of the victims of such murders and such
disappearances;
``(7) keep families regularly informed about the status of
the investigations of such murders and such disappearances of
their loved ones; and
``(8) expeditiously comply with requests for information
received pursuant to section 552 of title 5, United States
Code, (commonly known as the `Freedom of Information Act')
and develop a singular, publicly accessible repository of
these disclosed documents.'';
(2) in section 3--
(A) in subsection (b)--
(i) in paragraph (1), by striking ``1969'' and inserting
``1979'';
(ii) in paragraph (2), by inserting before the period at
the end the following: ``, and eligible entities''; and
(iii) by adding after paragraph (2) the following:
``(3) Review of closed cases.--The Deputy Chief may, to the
extent practicable, reopen and review any case involving a
violation described in paragraph (1) that was closed prior to
the date of the enactment of the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil
Rights Crimes Reauthorization Act of 2016 without an in-
person investigation or review conducted by an officer or
employee of the Criminal Section of the Civil Rights Division
of the Department of Justice or by an agent of the Federal
Bureau of Investigation.
``(4) Public engagement.--
``(A) In general.--The Department shall hold meetings with
representatives of the Civil Rights Division, Federal Bureau
of Investigation, the Community Relations Service, eligible
entities, and where appropriate, state and local law
enforcement to discuss the status of the Department's work
under this Act.
``(B) Authorization of appropriations.--In addition to
amounts made available to carry out this Act under section 6,
there is authorized to be appropriated to the Attorney
General $1,500,000 for fiscal year 2017 and each of the next
10 subsequent fiscal years to carry out this paragraph.'';
and
(B) in subsection (c)--
(i) in paragraph (1)--
(I) in subparagraph (A), by striking ``1969'' and inserting
``1979'';
(II) in subparagraph (F), by striking ``and'' at the end;
(III) in subparagraph (G), by striking the period at the
end and inserting ``; and''; and
(IV) by inserting after subparagraph (G) the following:
``(H) the number of cases referred by an eligible entity or
a State or local law enforcement agency or prosecutor to the
Department within the study period, the number of such cases
that resulted in Federal charges being filed, the date the
charges were filed, and if the Department declines to
prosecute or participate in an investigation of a case so
referred, the fact that it did so, and the outreach,
collaboration, and support for investigations and
prosecutions of violations of criminal civil rights statutes
described in section 2(3), including murders and including
disappearances described in section 2(4), within Federal,
State, and local jurisdictions.''; and
(ii) in paragraph (2), by inserting before the period at
the end the following: ``and a description of the activities
conducted under subsection (b)(3)'';
(3) in section 4(b)--
(A) in paragraph (1), by striking ``1969'' and inserting
``1979''; and
(B) in paragraph (2), by inserting before the period at the
end the following: ``, and eligible entities'';
(4) in section 5--
(A) in subsection (a), by striking ``1969'' and inserting
``1979''; and
(B) in subsection (b), by striking ``each of the fiscal
years 2008 through 2017'' and inserting ``fiscal year 2017
and each of the 10 subsequent fiscal years''; and
(5) in section 6--
(A) in subsection (a)--
(i) by striking ``each of the fiscal years 2008 through
2017'' and inserting ``fiscal year 2017 and each of the 10
subsequent fiscal years''; and
(ii) by striking ``1969'' and inserting ``1979''; and
(B) by amending subsection (b) to read as follows:
``(b) Community Relations Service of the Department of
Justice.--Using funds appropriated under section 3(b)(4)(B),
the Community Relations Service of the Department of Justice
shall provide technical assistance by bringing together law
enforcement agencies and communities to address tensions
raised by Civil Rights era crimes.'';
(6) in section 7--
(A) in the heading, by striking ``definition of `criminal
civil rights statutes''' and inserting ``definitions'';
(B) in paragraph (6), by redesignating subparagraphs (A)
and (B) as clauses (i) and (ii), respectively, and indenting
the clauses accordingly;
(C) by redesignating paragraphs (1) through (6) as
subparagraphs (A) through (F), respectively, and indenting
the subparagraphs accordingly;
(D) by striking ``In this Act, the term'' and inserting:
``In this Act:
``(1) Criminal civil rights statutes.--The term''; and
(E) by inserting at the end the following:
``(2) Eligible entity.--The term `eligible entity' means an
organization whose primary purpose is to promote civil
rights, an institution of higher education, or another
entity, determined by the Attorney General to be
appropriate.''; and
(7) by striking section 8.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Virginia (Mr. Goodlatte) and the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Conyers)
each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Virginia.
General Leave
Mr. GOODLATTE. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all
Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend
their remarks and include extraneous materials on S. 2854, currently
under consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Virginia?
There was no objection.
Mr. GOODLATTE. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
Madam Speaker, this bill is an important step in continuing to
investigate the crimes and terror inflicted on so many involved in the
civil rights movement. This bill will help to right those past wrongs
and help to find justice for the families who lost loved ones in the
civil rights effort.
Specifically, this bill reauthorizes and updates the Emmett Till
Unsolved Civil Rights Crimes Act that was passed 10 years ago. It
responds to concerns that victims' families and those working in this
area have had about the implementation of the original legislation. In
doing so, it strengthens the collaboration between the FBI, the
Department of Justice, and local law enforcement to make sure that the
goals of this legislation are met. By providing clearer direction and
improved coordination between all the relevant stakeholders, this bill
will help to ensure that these crimes will be solved and families who
lost loved ones will be able to find justice.
This legislation also addresses some of the concerns with the Senate-
passed language by making sure that the bill is fully offset, that a
sunset provision is included, and by providing greater clarity
regarding the collaboration between various stakeholders.
Finally, I thank both Ranking Members Conyers and Lewis--civil rights
leaders and icons on these issues--for working with Senator Burr and
other stakeholders to reach agreement on this bill, as well as for
their tireless work on the underlying legislation.
{time} 1900
It is important that the Federal Government investigates and
prosecutes these crimes to the greatest extent possible, and this
important legislation will give the Department of Justice the ability
and the direction to do just that.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. CONYERS. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
Madam Speaker, in June of 2007, this body passed, and the President
subsequently signed, the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act.
Since that time, the Department of Justice and cold case advocates have
reviewed hundreds of cases in a search for justice and a sense of
closure for the families of those who fell victim to racial violence in
one of the most tumultuous periods of this Nation's history.
For those who did not live through the civil rights era, it is
difficult to understand the combined climate of excitement for change
that coexisted with one of fear and violence. Simply for acting on
their ideals of racial equality, innocent people--young and old, Black
and White--were struck down.
In some cases, unfortunately, State and local law enforcement
colluded with the perpetrators of anti-civil rights violence; and
attempts at justice
[[Page 16089]]
often proved to be a charade, ending with jury nullification or
tampering by racist citizens' councils.
The civil rights community has reported that for every infamous
killing that tore at the South in the 1950s and 1960s, there were many
more that were barely noted or investigated. We, I am proud to say,
passed the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act in 2007 to help
bring these cases to light and seek justice for victims and their
families.
Even after nearly a decade of effort by advocates in the Justice
Department, it remains clear that much work remains to heal the wounds
of this period of history. To that end, the Emmett Till Reauthorization
Act will create a formal framework for public engagement between the
Department of Justice and cold case advocates to share information and
review the status and closure of cases through 1980.
The legislation further authorizes appropriations and tasks the
Department's Community Relations Service with bringing together law
enforcement agencies and communities to address the tensions raised by
civil rights era crimes.
The title of this bill serves as a reminder of one of the many lives
that was cut much too short as a result of racially motivated hate and
violence. Emmett Till was a 14-year-old African American young man from
Chicago who allegedly whistled at a White woman. Shortly thereafter, he
was found murdered and tortured.
Though his accused killers were tried, they were acquitted by an all
White jury. Despite attempts at gaining a Federal indictment in the
case, his torture and murder remain unpunished. While his family still
grieves, they have channeled their sorrow into activism for those
victims still seeking justice.
I believe that it remains important that the perpetrators of civil
rights era crimes be brought to justice, even 50 years later. While
justice has been delayed for the victims of these crimes, the fact that
we are raising these cold cases breathes new life into our new justice
system. I am thankful to the chairman of the Judiciary Committee,
Chairman Goodlatte.
Ultimately, that commitment bodes well for our collective future and
reconciliation within these communities. So I, accordingly, urge my
colleagues to join those of us who are leading in this movement and
effort and support this important legislation.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. GOODLATTE. Madam Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my
time.
Mr. CONYERS. Madam Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to
the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee).
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Madam Speaker, I thank the dean of this institution.
Anyone who has had the privilege of working with John Conyers and John
Lewis have nothing but admiration and understanding through their
teachings of the lives which they lived. This important legislation is
a reflection of their commitment to these families and their personal
knowledge of the pain that so many families still now experience
through unsolved civil rights crimes.
Emmett Till was one of the most noteworthy and violent, and many of
us still are able to see in our vision the picture of the open casket,
of brutalized and beaten young Emmett Till, a 14-year-old boy, and what
he had to suffer. His mother was willing to go through what might have
been considered absolute humiliation in terms of seeing her son's body
open to the world; but because it was such a heinous crime, she was
willing for the world to see.
This legislation is enormously important because it extends, until
2027, the authority of the Department of Justice to investigate and
prosecute unsolved criminal civil rights cases and expands, by a
decade, the time period for which the Department can reopen cases to
investigate. Under current law, the cutoff date was 1970. The Emmett
Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act of 2007 remains necessary
legislation intended to complete some of the Nation's most important
unfinished business.
I will just say, in concluding, this legislation will have to be a
document which the Members of Congress will have to breathe life into.
We will have to insist, regardless of the changing of the guard at the
Department of Justice, that this section have the kind of funding that
is necessary. So the task of this Congress is not finished by the
authorization; it must be funded.
Many families have come to my office in deep pain needing more
resources for that section, more lawyers, more energetic activity. And
so I say to those who may be assigned to this at the Department of
Justice, take this as a special cause. It is not just unsolved cold
cases. It is a smear on the democracy of this Nation. It is a stain. It
is a taint that we should live above by insisting that every family
have justice for the murder of their loved ones, particularly those who
were in the battle of civil rights when many in this country lived in
the second-class shadow of racism and discrimination.
The civil rights battles were real; they were violent in some
instances; but thank God there were leaders like John Lewis, John
Conyers, many in this Congress, and certainly the late Dr. Martin
Luther King, who always believed, as I do, that we can do this through
peace and nonviolence. This is a tool of nonviolence. We must insist
that they do their task and that we solve these unsolved murderous
civil rights cases, and we do so to heal the Nation and to continue to
promote our democracy.
Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of House Amendment to S.
2854, the ``Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crimes Reauthorization
Act.''
I thank our colleague, John Lewis of Georgia, who is widely
recognized as the moral conscience of the House for sponsoring the
original legislation and I thank Chairmen Goodlatte and Ranking Member
Conyers, for their work in shepherding this reauthorization through the
Congress.
This legislation reauthorizes the ``Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights
Crimes Act of 2007,'' which I co-sponsored and strongly support when it
was reported favorably by the Judiciary Committee, passed by the House
and Senate, and signed into law by President George W. Bush on October
7, 2008 as Public Law 110-344.
The legislation before extends until 2027 the authority of the
Department of Justice to investigate and prosecute unsolved criminal
civil rights crimes, and it expands by a decade the time period for
which the department can reopen cases to investigate; under current law
the cut-off date is 1970.
The Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crimes Act of 2007 is and
remains necessary legislation intended to complete some of the nation's
most important unfinished business.
And that is to solve some of the most depraved acts of violence
against persons belonging to a racial group that was vulnerable,
politically powerless, and innocent, and against those persons who
risked life and limb to help them secure the rights promised in the
Declaration of Independence and made real in the Constitution.
Madam Speaker, in 1989, the Civil Rights Memorial was dedicated in
Montgomery, Alabama, the birthplace of the modern Civil Rights
Movement.
The Memorial honors the lives and memories of 40 martyrs who were
slain during the movement from 1954 to 1968, including Emmett Till.
But we know that many more people lost their lives to racial violence
during that era.
In fact, at the time the Memorial was dedicated, the killers of 13 of
the 40 martyrs whose names are inscribed on the Memorial had not been
prosecuted or convicted.
In 10 of the 40 deaths, defendants were either acquitted by all-white
juries or served only token prison sentences.
We also know there are many cases that still cry out for justice.
These unsolved crimes represent a continuing stain on our nation's
honor and mock its commitment to equal justice under law.
The legislation before us is intended to help us remove that stain
once and for all.
The 40 victims selected for inclusion in the Civil Rights Memorial
fit at least one of three criteria: (i) they were murdered because they
were active in the civil rights movement; (2) they were killed by
organized hate groups as acts of terror aimed at intimidating blacks
and civil rights activists; or, (3) their deaths, like the death of
Emmett Till, helped to galvanize the movement by demonstrating the
brutality faced by African Americans in the South.
The 40 persons who fit the selection criteria ranged in age from 11
to 66.
[[Page 16090]]
Seven were white, and 33 were black.
They were students, farmers, ministers, truck drivers, a homemaker
and a Nobel laureate.
But Madam Speaker, there are many, many other victims besides the 40
who are remembered on the Memorial.
The Southern Poverty Law Center reports that its research uncovered
approximately 75 other people who died violently between 1952 and 1968
under circumstances suggesting that they were victims of racial
violence.
For most of them the reason their names were not added to the
Memorial is because not enough was known about the details surrounding
their deaths.
Sadly, the reason so little is known about these cases is because
they were not fully investigated or, in some cases, law enforcement
officials were involved in the killings or subsequent cover-ups.
And because the killings of African Americans were often covered up
or not seriously investigated, there is little reason to doubt that
many slayings were never even recorded by the authorities.
The reason justice had not been served was the callous indifference,
and often the criminal collusion, of many white law enforcement
officials in the segregated South.
There simply was no justice for African Americans during the civil
rights era.
The whole criminal justice system--from the police, to the
prosecutors, to the juries, and to the judges--was perverted by racial
bigotry.
African Americans were routinely beaten, bombed and shot with
impunity.
Sometimes, the killers picked their victims on a whim.
Sometimes, they targeted them for their activism.
In other cases, prominent white citizens were involved and no
consequences flowed.
Herbert Lee of Liberty, Mississippi, for example, was shot in the
head by a state legislator in broad daylight in 1961.
It is, of course, fitting and proper that this legislation bears the
name of Emmett Till, whose slaying in 1955 and his mother's decision to
have an open casket at his funeral stirred the nation's conscience and
galvanized a generation of Americans to join the fight for equality.
Sadly, hundreds of them were killed in that struggle, and many of the
killers, like those of Emmett himself, were never successfully
prosecuted.
Madam Speaker, the heart of the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights
Cases Act is sections 3 and 4.
Section 3 establishes a Deputy Chief of the Criminal Section of the
Civil Rights Division.
Section 3 now requires the Attorney General to designate a Deputy
Chief of the Criminal Section of the Civil Rights division who will be
responsible for coordinating the investigation and prosecution of
violations of criminal civil rights statutes that occurred before
December 31, 1979, and ended in death.
Section 3 also requires a study and report to Congress about the
number of cases opened, the number of federal prosecutions commenced,
the number of cases of state and local prosecutions where the DOJ
assisted, the number of cases that have been closed, and the number of
open pending cases.
Section 4 of the bill establishes a parallel component in the Civil
Rights Unit of the Federal Bureau of Investigation to be headed by a
Supervisory Special Agent designated by the Attorney General.
This Supervisory Special Agent in the Civil Rights Unit is
responsible for investigating violations of criminal civil rights
statutes that occurred not later than December 31, 1979, and resulted
in death.
The Supervisory Special Agent should, where appropriate, coordinate
investigations with State and local law enforcement officials.
Madam Speaker, over the past half century, the United States has made
tremendous progress in overcoming the badges and vestiges of slavery.
But this progress has been purchased at great cost.
Examples of unsolved cases include the 1968 ``Orangeburg Massacre''
at South Carolina State University where state police shot and killed
three student protesters; the 1967 shooting death of Carrie Brumfield,
whose body was found on a rural Louisiana road; the 1957 murder of
Willie Joe Sanford, whose body was fished out of a creek in
Hawkinsville, Georgia; the 1946 killing of a black couple, including a
pregnant woman, who was pulled out of a car in Monroe, Georgia, and
dragged down a wagon trail before being shot in front of 200 people.
Solving these cases like these is part of the great unfinished work
of America.
Madam Speaker, 53 years ago, Medgar Evers was murdered in Jackson,
Mississippi; justice would not be done in his case for more than twenty
years.
But that day was foretold because the evening before the death of
Medgar Evers, on June 11, 1963, President John F. Kennedy addressed the
nation from the Oval Office on the state of race relations and civil
rights in America.
In his historic speech to the nation President Kennedy said:
We are confronted primarily with a moral issue. It is as
old as the scriptures and is as clear as the American
Constitution.
One hundred years of delay have passed since President
Lincoln freed the slaves, yet their heirs, their grandsons,
are not fully free. They are not yet freed from the bonds of
injustice. They are not yet freed from social and economic
oppression. And this Nation, for all its hopes and all its
boasts, will not be fling free until all its citizens are
free.
S. 2854 will help ensure that justice is received by those for whom
justice has been delayed for more than two generations.
In doing so, this legislation will help this Nation fulfill its hopes
and justify its boast that in America all persons live in freedom.
I strongly support this legislation and urge all Members to join me
in voting for its passage.
Mr. CONYERS. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. GOODLATTE. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume simply to say to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Conyers), the
gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis), and the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms.
Jackson Lee) that this is a quest for justice that needs to be ongoing.
I am pleased to support this legislation, and I urge my colleagues to
do so.
I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. LEWIS. Madam Speaker, I rise today in strong support of S. 2854,
the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crimes Reauthorization Act.
This is the Senate companion to H.R. 5067, the bill I introduced with
the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Conyers) and the gentleman from
Wisconsin (Mr. Sensenbrenner). This has been a bipartisan, bicameral
effort from the first day, and I ask each and every one of our
colleagues to support this important legislation.
Ten years ago, I stood on the House Floor and promised to work
tirelessly to pass this legislation. Two years later, we were
successful in passing the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act.
That legislation created a Federal strategy to bring justice and
healing to the victims, survivors, and families.
When the bill was signed into law, family members, academics,
historians, lawyers, advocates started working towards a full
accounting for these gross human and civil rights atrocities. The
reauthorization that we are considering today responds to the their
appeals to Congress to make the law whole--to ensure that their
thoughtful, tireless work did not fall on deaf ears and end up in a
forgotten drawer.
So many people have died; so many families have mourned; so many
communities have suffered. Mr. Speaker, as you know this bill is named
for a 14-year-old boy who was brutally murdered 61 years ago for
allegedly whistling at a white woman. Many people here tonight will
recognize the names of Emmett Till, Medgar Evers, James Chaney, Andrew
Goodman, and Michael Schwerner, but few know of the countless other
possible victims of racially motivated crimes during this period.
This bill restores hope for the families of so many who have
unanswered questions--like the Atlanta Five in my congressional
district. In 1974, five African-American men--Lee Roy Holloway, Robert
Walker, Marvin Walker, John Sterling and Lonnie Merritt--left Atlanta
for a fishing trip near Pensacola Florida. Their families never saw
them alive again. Their pain and that of so countless others is real.
I said before, and I will say it again--we have a mission, an
obligation, and a mandate to restore faith in the cornerstones of our
democracy and accountability in the pursuit of truth and justice
whenever possible. This bill does just that.
In developing this legislation, we took the time to research and
study what happened after the original bill was signed into law. We
listened to and were guided by the advocates, by law professors, by
families, and by the press. We worked across the aisle and across the
Dome to develop a bill that fulfills our promise to never give up on
this effort--to never abandon the pursuit of truth.
Madam Speaker, at this time, I would like to thank the Civil Rights
and Restorative Justice Project at Northeastern University School of
Law; the Cold Case Justice Initiative at Syracuse University College of
Law; the Emmett Till Justice Campaign; the Emmett Till Legacy
Foundation; the Georgia Civil Rights Cold Case Project at Emory
University; the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR); the
[[Page 16091]]
Mamie Till Mobley Memorial Foundation; the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People (NAACP); the NAACP-Legal Defense Fund
(NAACP-LDF); the National Urban League; and the Southern Poverty Law
Center (SPLC). The leadership and staff of these institutions fought
long and hard for this legislation. They deserve recognition and
appreciation.
I would also like to thank the thousands of people across the country
who signed petitions, called, emailed, and urged for Congress to act.
Mr. Speaker, we must thank them for their determination, their passion,
and their commitment to justice.
In closing, I would like to thank the Chair, the Ranking Member, the
lead sponsors, our House Leadership, the staff, and all the Members who
supported this effort. I ask each and every one of my colleagues to
support this important legislation and let it become law.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Goodlatte) that the House suspend the
rules and pass the bill, S. 2854, as amended.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the
rules were suspended and the bill, as amended, was passed.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
____________________
COMMUNICATION FROM CHAIR OF COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION AND
INFRASTRUCTURE
The SPEAKER pro tempore laid before the House the following
communication from the chair of the Committee on Transportation and
Infrastructure; which was read and, without objection, referred to the
Committee on Appropriations:
House of Representatives, Committee on Transportation and
Infrastructure,
Washington, DC, December 7, 2016.
Hon. Paul Ryan,
Speaker of the House, House of Representatives,
The Capitol, Washington, DC.
Dear Mr. Speaker: On December 7, 2016, pursuant to section
3307 of Title 40, United States Code, the Committee on
Transportation and Infrastructure met in open session to
consider six resolutions included in the General Services
Administration's Capital Investment and Leasing Programs.
The Committee continues to work to reduce the cost of
federal property and leases. Of the six resolutions
considered, the two construction projects include a federal
courthouse consistent with existing funding, and the four
lease prospectuses include significant reductions of leased
space. In total, these resolutions represent $56 million in
avoided lease costs and offsets.
I have enclosed copies of the resolutions adopted by the
Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure on December 7,
2016.
Sincerely,
Bill Shuster,
Chairman.
Enclosures.
Committee Resolution
construction--fbi headquarters consolidation national capital region
Resolved by the Committee on Transportation and
Infrastructure of the U.S. House of Representatives, that
pursuant to 40 U.S.C. Sec. 3307, $834 million in
appropriations are authorized for the site acquisition,
design, management and inspection, and construction of a new
federally-owned headquarters facility for the Federal Bureau
of Investigation of not more than 2.1 million rentable square
feet in the National Capital Region for the General Services
Administration, for which a prospectus is attached to and
included in this resolution.
Provided, the total funds made available through
appropriations, including funds transferred to the ``Federal
Bureau of Investigation, Construction'' account, do not
exceed $2.11 billion (excluding the value realized from the
exchange of the J. Edgar Hoover building, outfitting, and
decommissioning costs).
Provided further, the Administrator considers
transportation impacts, including National Capital Planning
Commission recommendations on parking and proximity to metro
rail.
Provided further, the Administrator considers the total
costs to the government for relocations, site preparation,
and site acquisition.
Provided further, that such appropriations are authorized
only for a project that results in a fully consolidated FBI
Headquarters facility.
Provided further, that the Administrator of General
Services shall transmit to the Committee on Transportation
and Infrastructure of the House of Representatives and the
Committee on Environment and Public Works of the Senate a
report on the construction of a new headquarters for the
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The report transmitted
under this provision shall include a summary of the material
provisions of the construction and full consolidation of the
FBI in a new headquarters facility, including but not limited
to, a schedule, the square footage, proposed costs to the
Government, and a description of all buildings and
infrastructure needed to complete the project.
Provided further, that the Administrator shall not delegate
to any other agency the authority granted by this resolution.
Provided further, that the Administrator's authority to
make an award of this project expires two years from the date
of the adoption of this resolution.
[[Page 16092]]
[[Page 16093]]
[[Page 16094]]
[[Page 16095]]
[[Page 16096]]
[[Page 16097]]
[[Page 16098]]
[[Page 16099]]
Committee Resolution
new u.s. courthouse--anniston, al
Resolved by the Committee on Transportation and
Infrastructure of the U.S. House of Representatives, that
pursuant to 40 U.S.C. Sec. 3307, appropriations are
authorized for the site acquisition, design and construction
of a new U.S. Courthouse of approximately 63,000 gross square
feet, including approximately 13 parking spaces, in Anniston,
Alabama at an additional site and design cost of $2,414,000,
a total estimated construction cost of $32,527,000, and total
management and inspection cost of $3,234,000 for a total
estimated project cost, including prior authorizations, of
$42,575,000, for which a prospectus is attached to and
included in this resolution. This resolution amends prior
authorizations of July 24, 2002 and July 23, 2003.
Provided, that the Administrator of General Services shall
ensure that construction of the new courthouse complies, at a
minimum, with courtroom sharing requirements adopted by the
Judicial Conference of the United States.
Provided further, that the Administrator of General
Services shall ensure that the construction of the new
courthouse contains no more than two courtrooms, including
one for Senior District Judges and one for Bankruptcy Judges.
Provided further, that the design of the new courthouse
shall not deviate from the U.S. Courts Design Guide.
[[Page 16100]]
[[Page 16101]]
[[Page 16102]]
[[Page 16103]]
[[Page 16104]]
[[Page 16105]]
[[Page 16106]]
Committee Resolution
lease--department of homeland security, customs and border protection,
office of information technology, northern va
Resolved by the Committee on Transportation and
Infrastructure of the U.S. House of Representatives, that
pursuant to 40 U.S.C. Sec. 3307, appropriations are
authorized for a lease of up to 562,000 rentable square feet
of space, including 4 official parking spaces, for the
Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border
Protection, Office of Information Technology currently
located in 11 separate buildings dispersed across six
locations including six buildings in the VA-95 complex
located at Boston Boulevard and Fullerton Road in
Springfield, Virginia and other locations at 1801 N.
Beauregard Street in Alexandria, 6350 Walker Lane in
Springfield, 7799 Leesburg Pike in Falls Church, 13990 Park
East Circle in Chantilly, and 5971 Kingstowne Village Parkway
in Alexandria, Virginia at a proposed total annual cost of
$21,918,000 for a lease term of up to 15 years, a prospectus
for which is attached to and included in this resolution.
Approval of this prospectus constitutes authority to
execute an interim lease for all tenants, if necessary, prior
to the execution of the new lease.
Provided that, the Administrator of General Services and
tenant agencies agree to apply an overall utilization rate of
124 square feet or less per person, except that, if the
Administrator determines that the overall utilization rate
cannot be achieved, the Administrator shall provide an
explanatory statement to the Committee on Transportation and
Infrastructure of the House of Representatives prior to
exercising any lease authority provided in this resolution.
Provided that, except for interim leases as described
above, the Administrator may not enter into any leases that
are below prospectus level for the purposes of meeting any of
the requirements, or portions thereof, included in the
prospectus that would result in an overall utilization rate
of 124 square feet or higher per person.
Provided that, to the maximum extent practicable, the
Administrator shall include in the lease contract(s) a
purchase option.
Provided further, that the Administrator shall require that
the delineated area of the procurement is identical to the
delineated area included in the prospectus, except that, if
the Administrator determines that the delineated area of the
procurement should not be identical to the delineated area
included in the prospectus, the Administrator shall provide
an explanatory statement to the Committee on Transportation
and Infrastructure of the House of Representatives prior to
exercising any lease authority provided in this resolution.
Provided further, that the General Services Administration
shall not delegate to any other agency the authority granted
by this resolution.
[[Page 16107]]
[[Page 16108]]
[[Page 16109]]
[[Page 16110]]
[[Page 16111]]
[[Page 16112]]
Committee Resolution
LEASE--FOOD & DRUG ADMINISTRATION, ATLANTA, GA
Resolved by the Committee on Transportation and
Infrastructure of the U.S. House of Representatives, that
pursuant to 40 U.S.C. 3307, appropriations are authorized for
a lease of up to 162,000 rentable square feet of space,
including 27 official parking spaces, for the Food and Drug
Administration currently located at the FDA Atlanta complex
consisting of three leased buildings; Crawford Building,
Annex I and Annex II, and an additional lease location in
College Park, Georgia at a proposed total annual cost of
$5,994,000 for a lease term of up to 20 years, a prospectus
for which is attached to and included in this resolution.
Approval of this prospectus constitutes authority to
execute an interim lease for all tenants, if necessary, prior
to the execution of the new lease.
Provided that, the Administrator of General Services and
tenant agencies agree to apply an overall utilization rate of
322 square feet or less per person, except that, if the
Administrator determines that the overall utilization rate
cannot be achieved, the Administrator shall provide an
explanatory statement to the Committee on Transportation and
Infrastructure of the House of Representatives prior to
exercising any lease authority provided in this resolution.
Provided that, except for interim leases as described
above, the Administrator may not enter into any leases that
are below prospectus level for the purposes of meeting any of
the requirements, or portions thereof, included in the
prospectus that would result in an overall utilization rate
of 322 square feet or higher per person.
Provided that, to the maximum extent practicable, the
Administrator shall include in the lease contract(s) a
purchase option.
Provided further, that the Administrator shall require that
the delineated area of the procurement is identical to the
delineated area included in the prospectus, except that, if
the Administrator determines that the delineated area of the
procurement should not be identical to the delineated area
included in the prospectus, the Administrator shall provide
an explanatory statement to the Committee on Transportation
and Infrastructure of the House of Representatives prior to
exercising any lease authority provided in this resolution.
Provided further, that the General Services Administration
shall not delegate to any other agency the authority granted
by this resolution.
[[Page 16113]]
[[Page 16114]]
[[Page 16115]]
[[Page 16116]]
[[Page 16117]]
Amended Committee Resolution
LEASE--NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION, JACKSON AND CLAY
COUNTIES, MISSOURI, AND JOHNSON COUNTY, KANSAS
Resolved by the Committee on Transportation and
Infrastructure of the U.S. House of Representatives, That
pursuant to 40 U.S.C. Sec. 3307, appropriations are
authorized for a lease of up to 806,794 rentable square feet
of space, including 142 official parking spaces, for the
National Archives and Records Administration, Federal Records
Center currently located at 200 NW Space Center in Lee's
Summit, Missouri at a proposed total annual cost of
$5,647,558 for a lease term of up to 20 years, a prospectus
for which is attached to and included in this resolution.
This resolution amends the resolution adopted by the
Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure on September
14, 2016.
Approval of this prospectus constitutes authority to
execute an interim lease for all tenants, if necessary, prior
to the execution of the new lease.
Provided that, the Administrator of General Services and
tenant agencies agree to apply an office utilization rate of
129 square feet or less per person, except that, if the
Administrator determines that the office utilization rate
cannot be achieved, the Administrator shall provide an
explanatory statement to the Committee on Transportation and
Infrastructure of the House of Representatives prior to
exercising any lease authority provided in this resolution.
Provided that, except for interim leases as described
above, the Administrator may not enter into any leases that
are below prospectus level for the purposes of meeting any of
the requirements, or portions thereof, included in the
prospectus that would result in an office utilization rate of
129 square feet or higher per person.
Provided that, to the maximum extent practicable, the
Administrator shall include in the lease contract(s) a
purchase option.
Provided further, that the Administrator shall require that
the delineated area of the procurement is identical to the
delineated area included in the prospectus, except that, if
the Administrator determines that the delineated area of the
procurement should not be identical to the delineated area
included in the prospectus, the Administrator shall provide
an explanatory statement to the Committee on Transportation
and Infrastructure of the House of Representatives prior to
exercising any lease authority provided in this resolution.
Provided further, that the General Services Administration
shall not delegate to any other agency the authority granted
by this resolution.
[[Page 16118]]
[[Page 16119]]
[[Page 16120]]
[[Page 16121]]
[[Page 16122]]
[[Page 16123]]
Committee Resolution
LEASE--NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH, MONTGOMERY AND PRINCE GEORGE'S
COUNTIES, MD
Resolved by the Committee on Transportation and
Infrastructure of the U.S. House of Representatives, that
pursuant to 40 U.S.C. Sec. 3307, appropriations are
authorized for a lease of up to 238,000 rentable square feet
of space, including 5 official parking spaces, for the
Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes
of Health currently located at 6001 and 6101 Executive
Boulevard in Rockville, Maryland at a proposed total annual
cost of $8,330,000 for a lease term of up to 15 years, a
prospectus for which is attached to and included in this
resolution.
Approval of this prospectus constitutes authority to
execute an interim lease for all tenants, if necessary, prior
to the execution of the new lease.
Provided that, the Administrator of General Services and
tenant agencies agree to apply an overall utilization rate of
183 square feet or less per person, except that, if the
Administrator determines that the overall utilization rate
cannot be achieved, the Administrator shall provide an
explanatory statement to the Committee on Transportation and
Infrastructure of the House of Representatives prior to
exercising any lease authority provided in this resolution.
Provided that, except for interim leases as described
above, the Administrator may not enter into any leases that
are below prospectus level for the purposes of meeting any of
the requirements, or portions thereof, included in the
prospectus that would result in an overall utilization rate
of 183 square feet or higher per person.
Provided that, to the maximum extent practicable, the
Administrator shall include in the lease contract(s) a
purchase option.
Provided further, that the Administrator shall require that
the delineated area of the procurement is identical to the
delineated area included in the prospectus, except that, if
the Administrator determines that the delineated area of the
procurement should not be identical to the delineated area
included in the prospectus, the Administrator shall provide
an explanatory statement to the Committee on Transportation
and Infrastructure of the House of Representatives prior to
exercising any lease authority provided in this resolution.
Provided further, that the General Services Administration
shall not delegate to any other agency the authority granted
by this resolution.
[[Page 16124]]
[[Page 16125]]
[[Page 16126]]
[[Page 16127]]
[[Page 16128]]
[[Page 16129]]
[[Page 16130]]
There was no objection.
____________________
HONORING CONGRESSMAN
JOSEPH R. PITTS
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 6, 2015, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith) is
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from
Georgia (Mr. Jody B. Hice).
Mr. JODY B. HICE of Georgia. Madam Speaker, what an honor it is to
join my colleagues this evening in taking a moment to honor my good
friend and fellow alum from Asbury College, Pennsylvania Congressman
Joe Pitts.
My friend, Joe Pitts, has spent his life literally engaged in serving
those around him. In fact, early in his career, Joe and his wife worked
as teachers to educate the next generation until he joined the Air
Force in 1963. He answered the call of duty, serving three tours in
Vietnam, where he completed 116 combat missions and earned the Air
Medal with five oakleaf clusters.
Just a few years after returning home from the war effort, Joe
continued his service in his State and our Nation as a member of the
Pennsylvania House of Representatives, spending some 24 years assisting
his fellow Pennsylvanians.
In 1997, Joe brought his leadership skills and his servant's heart
right here to the Halls of Congress, where he has now served for 20
years.
{time} 1915
In this role and through his service as chairman of the Values Action
Team, Joe has been a guiding force for bringing our Judeo-Christian
ethics and moral values to Washington, D.C., and he has literally been
a champion for the cause of life.
In Mark, chapter 10, the Lord tells us that those who aspire to
leadership must be great servants. Further, in Matthew, chapter 7, we
find that we are recognized by our fruits.
In other words, you can tell who someone is not merely by what one
says, but by what one does.
Joe, I would just say to you, sir, thank you. You have been tested,
and you have shown yourself approved.
We are all going to sincerely and deeply--genuinely--miss Joe Pitts.
I hope, Joe, that as you continue in your next chapter that, in your
absence here, we may each have a portion of your servant's heart, and
how blessed this body will be if we do so.
I just thank the gentleman so much for the opportunity to take a
moment to say ``thank you'' to this giant of a leader here in Congress
and how we will deeply miss him.
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. I thank my good friend for his very eloquent
remarks about our great friend and colleague, the distinguished Joe
Pitts.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Alabama, Robert
Aderholt.
Mr. ADERHOLT. I appreciate the time to come to honor Joe Pitts.
Congressman Smith, I appreciate your organizing this evening so we
could thank Joe Pitts for his many years of service to not only this
Chamber, but also to the public in general.
Madam Speaker, of course, Joe is retiring after 20 years of service
to this institution and to the American people. He served, as has been
said, 24 years in the Pennsylvania Legislature. The gentleman from
Pennsylvania, Joe Pitts, is a hero for conservatives. He fights daily
for families, for unborn children, and for persecuted Christians around
the world.
I know firsthand about his work for persecuted Christians because one
of the first overseas trip opportunities that I had as a Member of
Congress was to travel with Joe Pitts to the country of Egypt to
advocate on behalf of persecuted Christians. I had the chance to sit
there with Joe as we both talked about the plight of the Coptic
Christians in the country of Egypt. We sat across the table from Hosni
Mubarak, who, at the time, was the President of Egypt, and we let him
know of the concerns that we had and that the American people had for
Christians who were treated unfairly for no other reason than because
of their beliefs and their faith.
Joe Pitts has been a friend and a colleague since we were first
elected. He and I were first elected back in 1996. We started here in
January of 1997. He has worked tirelessly as chairman of the Values
Action Team since the late 1990s. That was when Newt Gingrich had asked
him to work on pro-life, pro-family issues. He has been an active,
leading member of the Pro-Life Caucus, along with Congressman Smith,
since that time.
I also had the opportunity to work with Joe on OSCE issues, the
Organization for Security and Co-operation of Europe. We would meet in
the parliamentary assembly once a year with other parliamentarians to
try to work on issues. I can tell you the pro-life issue and trying to
protect the unborn and the family has been at the forefront of those
issues with him as well with the OSCE.
I want to take a minute to thank his staff. Over the years, they have
worked hand in glove with Congressman Pitts. They have been champions
for the conservative causes over the last 20 years alone here in the
House of Representatives, and we will certainly miss working with them
as they go on to the next chapters of their lives.
Again, I wish Joe Pitts all the best as he moves on to the next phase
of his life. I certainly pray that he and his wife, Ginny, will have,
maybe, a slightly slower pace as they go back to Pennsylvania. I know
that Joe, in whatever next chapter of life he is involved, will be
involved in protecting families; he will be protecting the unborn--the
most vulnerable--and he will be making sure that he does what he feels
is in the best interest of this country. I wish Joe Pitts and his
family all the best in the many years to come.
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. I thank the gentleman.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the distinguished gentlewoman from
Tennessee, Diane Black.
Mrs. BLACK. I thank the gentleman for yielding, my good friend, who
is also very involved in protecting life and families, and I appreciate
his work in this area as well.
Madam Speaker, I rise to honor my friend and colleague, Congressman
Joe Pitts, on his upcoming retirement from the House of
Representatives.
As a former teacher, Congressman Pitts spent years investing in the
next generation of leaders, and as an Air Force captain, with three
tours of duty in Vietnam, he was on the front lines of protecting the
freedoms that we talk about in this Chamber every day.
His service in Congress, now spanning nearly 20 years, will be marked
by a quiet strength and a steady leadership that always sought
solutions over attention, and that ran towards answers instead of
running to the cameras. Congressman Pitts was never the loudest person
in the room, but oftentimes he may very well have been the wisest.
As the founder of the Values Action Team, Congressman Pitts created a
platform to build stronger relationships between value-oriented Members
of Congress and grassroots organizations that shared those same
principles. Through his appointment as the chairman of the Energy and
Commerce Health Subcommittee, Congressman Pitts worked to advance real-
world healthcare solutions that empowered patients, not bureaucrats.
I will always be most grateful to Congressman Pitts for his fearless,
unflinching defense of our Nation's unborn. From his own legislation,
like Protect Life Act, to his invaluable leadership in the fight to
pass the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, to his work on the
Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives, Congressman Pitts has been
a champion for the voiceless and vulnerable at every turn.
I thank Congressman Pitts for his service, for his friendship, for
his guidance. I wish him and his wife, Ginny, and his beautiful family
all the best in the next chapter of their lives.
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. I thank the gentlewoman very much for those
very, very eloquent remarks.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Illinois, Randy
Hultgren.
[[Page 16131]]
Mr. HULTGREN. I thank my very good friend, Chris Smith, for doing
this.
Madam Speaker, it is such a privilege to serve in this amazing place.
Some of us have the opportunity--really, the blessing--to be able to
meet our heroes. Some of us have the greater blessing of being able to
actually not only get to meet them, but to work with our heroes; and
those very special few get to become friends with our heroes. That is
the feeling I have with Joe Pitts.
Joe Pitts is truly a mentor to me, a hero to me, someone who has
served so well in every step of his lifetime. I am here to honor him
tonight, to thank him for his service, and to let him know that we are
forever grateful.
Joe Pitts is known for many things. Clearly, he is a man of faith.
Faith is such a part of his life--his love for God, his love for Jesus
Christ. His passion for serving Him influences everything he does. I
also love Joe Pitts' commitment and love for his family. Joe and his
wife have had a long tradition--for many years--of having grandkids
camp, where they will have grandkids--no parents allowed--come and be
with them for a week. They will take special trips, do special
training, raise up the grandkids to love God, to love this Nation, and
to share the values that are so important to Joe and his family.
I am also so grateful for his service here in this Congress. Joe has
been faithful over his years. He was tapped early on to be the leader
of the Values Action Team so as to recognize that our values are so
important. We need champions every single day to be looking out and to
be making sure that we are passing legislation that reflects our
values--the values of our Founders, the values of so many who have led
throughout our Nation--and to be making sure that we are going in the
right direction as we go forward. Joe has been faithful there as well--
a champion for life, a champion for the persecuted, especially for the
religious persecuted around the world. He has been fighting for them,
stepping up for them, making sure that their voices are heard. Fighting
for the unborn is something that is a passion--a big part--of Joe's
life as well.
I am forever grateful to have had the privilege not only to meet Joe
Pitts, to get to know Joe Pitts, but to say that Joe is a friend of
mine.
Joe, thank you for your service to America. Thank you for your love
for your God and for your family. Thank you for all that you have done
to make America this wonderful place and for leaving not only a
heritage, but such a rich challenge as we go forward to protect the
wonderful values that we enjoy. We appreciate you. God bless you, Joe,
and God bless America.
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. I thank the gentleman from Illinois.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr.
LaMalfa).
Mr. LaMALFA. I thank Mr. Smith. I really appreciate his efforts in
honoring Joe Pitts here tonight and all of the gentleman's efforts over
the many years in sticking up for the values that really are important;
so I thank the gentleman for that.
Madam Speaker, indeed, it is a night to recognize our leader of the
Values Action Team, Mr. Joe Pitts, and all of his dedication to these
important causes for our values, which are the things that, I like to
say, are going to be remembered long past all the other stuff we do--
the fiscal-related things and some other things--that nobody will
remember. I like to think they will remember that we stood up for the
things that were truly important to families, to the things that endure
over time; so being able to join in tonight in recognizing our friend
from Pennsylvania is a privilege for me as it was to be able--and it
is--to work with Joe.
Over the few short years I have been in the House, I have gotten to
know what he is about, and I respect him greatly as a man of faith and
courage in standing against the tide that is pretty unpopular these
days, a lot of times, in this era of political correctness where what
is up is down and what is down is up. He stood in there on some very
difficult issues--on life, on basic liberties, on moral conscience, and
even on religious conscience. He joined in on some issues from crazy
California sometimes, where I come from, in helping to fight a battle
there that would allow people to have religious freedom and freedom of
conscience. Again, I think a cornerstone of the founding of this
country has been lost a lot of times here, in recent reinterpretations,
as to what I think true, traditional values are.
He has given that voice to the unborn. He stood side by side with the
Little Sisters of the Poor in their direct fight for religious liberty.
He defended the conscience of Americans who should never be forced to
finance something that goes against one of the very principles our
Nation was founded on--life--with their religious convictions.
Joe Pitts, when it comes down to protecting conservative values in
our government or outside of it, there was no issue too small, too
insignificant, or anything that he would shy away from. Indeed, he
inspires us to be bold, to stand up for those who can't always speak
for themselves or who have been beaten down by political correctness to
even be able to speak for themselves. We need these conservative
values. We need visions like Joe Pitts has always exhibited. To have
been able to have worked beside him these years I have been here in the
House, it has been a privilege, and I appreciate his work and his
courage in being fearless against a tide that sometimes I can't
understand.
At the end of all of this, I think some of the most rewarding words
and the ones that we can try and express here tonight--but that will be
expressed in a bigger place--is: well done, good and faithful servant.
God bless Joe Pitts. Again, we thank him for his service on the
Values Action Team and for all he has stood for, and I am proud to be
able to stand beside him.
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. I thank my good friend from California for
his very, very fine remarks.
General Leave
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Madam Speaker, as there are a number of
Members who would like to submit, I ask unanimous consent that all
Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their
remarks and to insert extraneous materials on the topic of this Special
Order.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from New Jersey?
There was no objection.
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Madam Speaker, it is hard to imagine a
Congress without the incomparable Joe Pitts--a remarkable and highly
accomplished lawmaker, a distinguished statesman, a man of principle
and bedrock moral conviction and a Christian, who faithfully seeks to
do God's will on Earth as it is in Heaven no matter the cost, no matter
the sacrifice, no matter the hardship.
{time} 1930
As I think some of my colleagues know--particularly those who know
him well--Joe was born in Kentucky into a family of strong Christian
faith, a faith that has been passed on to his own three children;
Carol, Karen, and Daniel.
Joe's father was an Army chaplain during World War II, serving in the
South Pacific after the war. The elder Pitts returned to the
Philippines with his wife and children to serve as a missionary in a
war-ravaged country. It was there that Joe saw the after effects of
war; and that so profoundly affected him, he developed a heart there
for human rights and a commitment to a strong national defense.
After high school, Joe attended Asbury College in Kentucky, as my
friend and colleague earlier pointed out. He met Virginia--Ginny, as we
know her--a wonderful lady. My wife Marie and I and Joe and Ginny have
traveled and have been together many times. She is just a wonderful
wife of a half a century. Again, they not only have three children but
a number of grandchildren as well.
Joe taught math, science, English, and physical education, as well as
coached basketball. He served 5\1/2\ years in the United States Air
Force, including three tours in Vietnam. He was the
[[Page 16132]]
EW officer, electronic warfare officer, on a B-52 and completed 116
combat missions and earned the Air Medal with five oak leaf clusters.
Here in Washington, Joe has worked hard helping political prisoners,
including people like Saeed Abedini and other Christian and non-
Christian--Jewish and other religious and political prisoners around
the world.
He has been tenacious in promoting prayer breakfasts all around the
world so that members of parliaments and congresses from many countries
would know the blessings of fellowship and prayer and being in touch
with God.
He even traveled to Mongolia for the first prayer breakfast in the
late 1990s. Joe leads an ambassadors' prayer breakfast fellowship at
the Cedars, right nearby in northern Virginia. I have had the privilege
to join him for those breakfasts on occasions. It is a time for
ambassadors to get together from all over the world--different regions
meeting at different times, sometimes many from many regions--to break
bread, to talk about the Scriptures with some emphasis on policy but
mostly about how God does minister to us, how forgiving He is, and how
all of us are in need of reconciliation. And Joe Pitts is there leading
that fellowship and has been doing it for decades.
Joe has been a leader in the fight against ongoing human rights
abuses in Western Sahara and elsewhere. He is co-chair of the Lantos
Human Rights Commission. And in Congress, of course, we know he has
served in a number of key leadership positions, including his current
position as chairman of the Health Subcommittee of the Energy and
Commerce Committee, obviously working on so many important issues on
diseases and disabilities. Top officials from the healthcare system
present themselves before his committee for his review and oversight.
He has been a problem-solver--he and his staff, working across the
aisle to try to find solutions to these often vexing issues of health
care.
On the greatest human rights issue of our time--protecting unborn
babies and their mothers from the violence of abortion--Joe Pitts has
not only saved countless precious lives and fostered reconciliation and
hope for post-abortive women, but he has also been an extraordinary
inspiration to all of us in Congress.
The way he comports himself. He never gets angry. He deals with the
issue in a way that reaches out to people who may have a different view
in the hopes that they will see the wisdom of protecting the innocent
and most vulnerable.
Joe has been a leader on every pro-life congressional policy--bills,
amendments, administrative actions--since he won his seat in Congress
in 1996. We are grateful for his powerful voice and vote on ending the
hideous method called partial birth abortion; enacting multiple annual
abortion funding bans; proscribing sex selection abortion, which is the
ultimate violation of women's rights to say: you are susceptible to
killing because you happen to be female; protecting pain-capable unborn
children as well as born-alive infants; and enforcing the conscience
rights of pro-life Americans has been remarkable. His leadership has
been remarkable.
Had the Senate adopted the House-passed Pitts-Stupak amendment,
ObamaCare, with all of its egregious flaws, would have at least been
abortion-free.
Joe Pitts has been the greatest friend and ally of persons with
disabilities, including his robust defense of Terri Schiavo.
His service in the Pennsylvania General Assembly from 1973-1997,
including his chairmanship of the powerful Appropriations Committee, to
which he was elected by his peers, was filled with accomplishments,
including his bold leadership in enacting the Abortion Control Act.
Someday future generations will look back on America's culture of
death and wonder how and why a seemingly enlightened society, so
blessed with civil rights protections, wealth, educational
opportunities, information, medical breakthroughs, a free press, and a
strong and diverse faith community could have allowed 60 million unborn
children to be killed by abortion.
When the day comes and legal protections for the weak and the most
vulnerable are restored, I believe future generations of Americans will
remember and celebrate the tenacious heroes, the human rights heroes of
today, people like Henry Hyde, compassionate women like Mother Teresa,
and Joe Pitts, who persevered, prayed, and worked tenaciously on behalf
of the least of these.
St. Francis once famously said: Always preach the gospel, and when
necessary, use words.
By his example, by his perpetual radiating of Christ--just look at
his eyes; there is kindness and compassion and empathy in Joe Pitts'
eyes--he has inspired all of us to strive to do His will on Earth, as
it is in Heaven. And it is a distinct privilege and honor to be known
as one of Joe Pitts' friends.
I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. ROTHFUS. Madam Speaker, Joe Pitts is a man whose faith and
values, I believe, animate him to protect life in all its stages.
Through his decades of service both in the military and public office--
and as a dedicated husband and dad--Congressman Joe Pitts has nurtured,
protected, and preserved the lives of others.
First, as a young married man and a public school teacher, he
nurtured the intellectual life of his students.
Then, so that he could better support his wife and children, he
signed up for Officer Training School.
As an Air Force Captain, he did three tours in Vietnam over a five
and a half year period, completing 116 combat missions throughout that
time, and earning an Air Medal with five oak leaf clusters. Once again,
Joe risked his own life to protect the lives of others.
After retiring from military service, Joe returned to teaching, and
in 1972, he commenced his 24-year tenure as a PA State Representative,
where he was known for being a key advocate of the 1990 Abortion
Control Act.
In 1997, Joe became a member of Congress, and understanding that from
the family springs new life, he was asked to chair the pro-family
Values Action Team.
Throughout his service at the state and federal level, he has worked
to improve the lives of others by exercising fiscal responsibility. As
a member of the House Armed Services Committee, he fought to improve
our military readiness, so that our service members can better protect
American lives.
I know that each of us here today honoring Joe feel that he has
touched our lives, both as a colleague and as a friend. He has touched
the lives of countless others through his service.
I wish him all the best in the years to come, and, after decades of
serving the lives of others, that he enjoys time with his family,
especially his grandchildren.
____________________
RETIRING MEMBERS
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 6, 2015, the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lofgren) is
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
Ms. LOFGREN. Madam Speaker, I am honored to be here this evening to
talk about the remarkable records of five individuals who are retiring
from the Congress. I have had the honor of chairing the California
Democratic delegation for many years; and these five Members--
Representative Sam Farr, Representative Lois Capps, Representative
Loretta Sanchez, Representative Mike Honda, and Representative Janice
Hahn--are going home to California after serving distinguished careers
here in the House.
The Honorable Sam Farr
Ms. LOFGREN. Madam Speaker, I will start with my near neighbor, who
has served since 1993. He came in in a special election, and that is
Congressman Sam Farr. He has honorably represented the central coast of
California for more than 40 years and here in Congress for the last 23.
Sam was born and raised in the Monterey County area. Before his
service here in the House, he early on served in the Peace Corps in
Colombia, and his wonderful fluent Spanish is a product of his Peace
Corps service in Colombia. To this day, he has a special soft spot for
that country.
As the ranking member on the House Appropriations Subcommittee on
Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and
[[Page 16133]]
Drug Administration, and Related Agencies, he has championed safe and
nutritious food for consumers, farmers, and producers. He has made sure
that the need of getting fresh food into school lunches has never been
far from our thoughts, and he has had remarkable success there, which
has served the health of children across the country.
After serving in the Peace Corps, Sam represented his constituents on
the Monterey County Board of Supervisors for 6 years. As a member of
the Board of Supervisors, he continued to fight for environmental
issues and for people who were disadvantaged. After that, he served in
the California Legislature.
Sam founded the bipartisan House Oceans Caucus and authored the
Oceans Act, which created the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy.
He is the longest serving Democrat on the Subcommittee on Military
Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies. And while he
served on that subcommittee, he did something simply remarkable. We all
know that bases across the United States were closed under the BRAC
system, and one of those bases was the Fort Ord military base. It is
the biggest California base, and it left a hole in that county. What
Sam did was, he worked with the local community to make sure that that
base could be repurposed to good use, and he led the effort to make the
Cal State University at Monterey a reality at Fort Ord.
Sam is a former chair of the congressional Democratic delegation and
did such a great job when he chaired this group. He stands for peace,
for diplomacy. Sam is always standing up for the little guy. And one of
the things in addition to that is that he has been the photographer for
House Democrats. Whenever we go anywhere, Sam is there with his camera,
and we really don't know who is going to keep track of our activities
when Sam retires.
We wish him well. We know he is going to have a great time in the
serene beauty of the region where he grew up. He said: It is time to go
home and be a grandpa. And we know that he is a wonderful grandpa.
The Honorable Lois Capps
Ms. LOFGREN. Madam Speaker, Lois Capps is also retiring. Lois was
sworn in on March 17, 1998. But I remember the day that her late
husband, Walter Capps, passed away unexpectedly. She and Walter were on
their way to the Capitol, and Walter passed away.
We had an unplanned Special Order here. We were all so shocked that
that had happened. And Lois was here with us. She later went on to run
for the seat that her husband had represented really for a short time:
Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, and parts of Ventura County. She has
represented that area with tremendous distinction.
You know, she will be the first to tell you, she never expected to be
a Member of Congress. She is a former nurse, a public health advocate.
She was a school nurse and still talks about the work she did as a
school nurse with children. And when she got elected to Congress, she
was committed to improving schools, to quality health care, and a
cleaner environment. She built a legacy of commonsense solutions that
have helped make her district, her State, and our country cleaner,
healthier, and more sustainable.
And here is something not everyone knows; but when they hear it, it
makes so much sense. She has been voted the nicest Member of Congress
over and over again, and so she is.
She serves on the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee and sits on
the Health Subcommittee, the Energy and Power Subcommittee, as well as
the Environment and the Economy Subcommittee. She has focused on
Medicare reform, the nursing shortage, mental health, the protection of
our air and water. She also serves on the House Natural Resources
Committee.
Lois is someone who not only serves with distinction but who is a
warm friend. We will miss her greatly next Congress, but we know that
she deserves the retirement that she has earned, and she will be going
home to her beautiful district.
The Honorable Loretta Sanchez
Ms. LOFGREN. Madam Speaker, our colleague Loretta Sanchez is a true
trailblazer. Beginning with her election in 1996, where in then-
Republican Orange County, she had an upset victory against former
Representative Bob Dornan. She defeated Representative Dornan by less
than 1,000 votes.
{time} 1945
When she got here, she immediately tried to do what she could for the
defense of this Nation. She has served honorably as a senior member on
the House Committee on Armed Services and the House Committee on
Homeland Security and ranking member of the Subcommittee on Tactical
Air and Land Forces. She is considered a leader on military and
national security issues.
She is also the co-chair of the Congressional Women in the Military
Caucus, where she advocated for female servicemembers to serve in
combat roles, and she fought to end sexual assault in the Armed Forces.
She served on the Subcommittee on Strategic Forces, where she made
sure our Nation is prepared for anything, any missile or nuclear
attack.
Another thing that I know so well about Loretta is how much she cares
about human rights, and specifically her advocacy for human rights in
Vietnam. She and I have co-chaired the Congressional Caucus on Vietnam.
She has gone to Vietnam, and she is a reliable, vocal, smart, and
dedicated advocate for human rights, for religious freedom and labor
rights for people in Vietnam.
Obviously a member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, she served
in the past as co-chair of the Immigration Task Force. She is a
spectacular person. I will miss her a great deal, and I am thinking
about who do I go to on the committee to talk about the nerdy but
important things like the National Ignition Facility and big science
projects that are also part of the armed services. She has served her
country so well.
The Honorable Mike Honda
Ms. LOFGREN. Madam Speaker, Mike Honda will also be going home. I
have had the honor of knowing Mike Honda for many decades. As a matter
of fact, I think I first met Mike when he was serving on the planning
commission of the city of San Jose, appointed by then-Mayor Norm
Mineta, who later became a Member of Congress. He was later elected to
the San Jose Unified School Board, and then to the Santa Clara County
Board of Supervisors. In fact, Mike and I served together on the Santa
Clara County Board of Supervisors.
Many of us know his history. During World War II, Mike Honda and his
family spent 3 years imprisoned in an internment camp for Japanese
Americans. That experience, I think, was the beginning of the fuel for
his zeal in his fight for civil rights, for public service, and against
discrimination. We will miss him because, although we have a very
distinguished member in Doris Matsui, who was actually born in an
internment camp, I believe that Mike Honda is the last of our Members
who actually was old enough to remember being in that internment camp.
We have discussions in our country today about locking up people
based on their ethnicity or their religious beliefs. It is important
that people like Mike Honda can stand up and say America made a
mistake. America apologized for that mistake. Let's never make that
mistake again.
Mike serves on the House Committee on Appropriations and is serving
now as the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice,
Science, and Related Agencies. In that position, he played a key role
with me and Congresswoman Anna Eshoo in helping to locate the Patent
Office in San Jose and to make sure that the Department of Justice has
the resources to address the backlog in rape kits. He also serves on
the Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, and Related Agencies.
He is chair emeritus of the Congressional Asian Pacific American
Caucus, the founding chair of the Congressional Caucus to End Bullying,
the vice chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and the
Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus. In fact, he spent
[[Page 16134]]
many years fighting anti-Muslim bigotry and discrimination against the
LGBT community.
The Honorable Janice Hahn
Ms. LOFGREN. Finally, I want to mention our friend Janice Hahn, who
took office just, I think, this week as a member of the Los Angeles
County Board of Supervisors. Janice was elected to Congress in 2011 and
immediately made strong contributions to her district in a short time.
But the story of Janice doesn't begin with her election to Congress. It
begins long before that.
Her father, Supervisor Kenny Hahn, served longer as a member of the
board of supervisors than anyone in the history of the United States;
and Janice tells stories of growing up with her father and
understanding that public service means getting down and actually
talking with your constituents, providing direct services to them. He
had a tremendous influence on her, and she served on the Los Angeles
City Council before she ran for Congress successfully.
Here, Janice served on the Committee on Transportation and
Infrastructure, where she did important things like helping to pass the
National Freight Network Trust Fund Act to increase investments in port
and freight network infrastructure. As a result of her efforts, the
harbor maintenance trust fund provided over $1 billion in resources to
operate more efficiently and remain globally competitive.
The Port of Long Beach, which she represented in Congress and now as
a Los Angeles County supervisor, moves more than $180 billion of goods
each year and is the second busiest seaport in the United States. She
has always made sure that that port got the resources necessary to be
efficient not only for the need for business in her district, but
recognizing that the goods that come through that port help support the
economy across the United States.
She served also on the Committee on Small Business, where she worked
to improve access to loans for small businesses to improve job
creation. She cofounded the bipartisan Congressional Ports Opportunity,
Renewal, Trade, and Security Caucus, the PORTS Caucus, and she also
served with Jim Costa and me on the California High-Speed Rail Caucus,
where she championed the California high-speed rail project, which will
improve transportation in California and reduce traffic congestion and
airport wait times.
Janice Hahn is someone who really cared about her district in
Congress, but her district in Congress is tiny compared to the district
she represents on the L.A. County Board of Supervisors. We know that
she will do a terrific job there.
Many also know her as someone who was very involved in the prayer
breakfast movement here in Congress. She made many friends across the
aisle as she did that, and we will miss her.
We know that we will see all of these fine individuals when we go
home, as we do every week to California. Now before calling on my
colleague Mr. Farr, I would also like to note that the timing of this
was a little bit different than we had expected, and a lot of Members
have statements.
General Leave
Ms. LOFGREN. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that Members have
5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and insert
extraneous material into the Record.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentlewoman from California?
There was no objection.
Ms. LOFGREN. Madam Speaker, I yield to Sam Farr.
Mr. FARR. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding. This
is probably the last time I rise on this floor to speak after 23 years
of serving here. It may take me a little more than 5 minutes.
Ms. LOFGREN. That is all right.
Mr. FARR. My daughter is on the way with my grandkids, who are trying
to watch this. Maybe we can delay it a little more than that.
Madam Speaker, I want to thank Ms. Lofgren for her leadership in the
California delegation. She is the head of the Democratic side of the
aisle in our caucus from California, the largest caucus just the
Democrats alone. I would just like to point out what the politics of
the West has done since I first got elected in 1975.
I arrived here, and there were an even number of Democrats and
Republicans representing California. Today there are 39 Democrats, and
that is because the State has really shifted in their registration and
voting. So the California Democratic delegation, it is interesting that
Zoe is the chair of because it is the most diverse delegation in
Congress: majority women, the highest delegation of Hispanics, of
women, of Asians, and I would like to say with, Mike Honda and Mr.
Garamendi and myself, the largest delegation of returned Peace Corps
volunteers. It has been quite a change in the 23 years that I have been
in Congress.
I first arrived in 1993. I was the last guy in the door here because
Leon Panetta, my predecessor, had been elected in the 1992 election,
sworn in to the Congress that January; and then when President Clinton
was sworn in for his first term, he turned around and appointed Leon
Panetta to be head of the Office of Management and Budget. Leon resigns
on that day, notifies Governor Wilson, who declares a special election.
Interesting enough, in the special elections in California, it is an
open election, so the highest vote getter from each party at the time
would be in the runoff, and 27 people filed. I was in the state
assembly. They said: You file and you will clear the field.
No, it didn't happen at all. It was quite a primary, and it ended up
with a June election; and on June 15, I think I was sworn here, right
in this very spot, to the United States Congress.
What was interesting is I was the 435th Member of Congress, the last
person, and today I think my seniority ranks me around 50, from 51 to
55. So it takes 23 years to move from the bottom slot all the way up to
the top 50 or so slots in this House. It has been a very interesting
experience.
This truly is--and I have seen it through all the years--a
representational democracy. There are all kinds of people in Congress
with all kinds of issues: personal issues, family issues, financial
issues. It really is representational of the society we live in. One
thing in common is that they all want to serve the public; they want to
serve this country.
That service, particularly in this House, because we are
representatives, we serve districts. Madam Chair was a former county
supervisor, as I was, and I like jokingly saying that, frankly, because
we all serve districts, we are like 435 county supervisors back here.
We are more concerned about our district than the whole country.
That is a strength for the constituents of the district, to be able
to have direct access to their elected Members of Congress. It is
probably a drawback when you are trying to draw the whole country into
a common purpose. It is very difficult to get at least 218 people to
agree, and that is the challenge here.
I have had the privilege of serving on the Agriculture Committee, the
Defense Committee, the Resources Committee, and, in the last 20 or so
years, on the Appropriations Committee. It has been a wonderful
experience because you are able to really get involved in the
Appropriations Committee with all the details of running government.
I am ranking member, the chief Democrat on the Agriculture
Subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee, and our budget for that
committee is about the same as the entire budget for the State of
California. That is an agency which was created by Abraham Lincoln. It
was created to essentially deal with the home ec of westward expansion.
So all of the rural development, the rural poverty programs, are in
the Department of Agriculture. Plus you have ag attaches in every
Embassy in the United States, in the world. You have the commodities
futures exchange. You have Wall Street. You have everything in that
committee and it is really interesting, and the biggest feeding program
through food stamps, the WIC program, Food for Peace, and so on.
[[Page 16135]]
I have been able to do a lot in changing policies so that we got
fresh fruits and vegetables, and trying to get them in every school
lunch program in the United States. That is good for California
agriculture, and it is, more importantly, good for the kids of this
Nation.
I have had the privilege of being, I think, the only one in this
House to create a national park during my service. The Pinnacles
National Park was the 59th national park created in the history of this
country.
We have done a big expansion of ocean protection with the Monterey
Bay National Marine Sanctuary. We have created a visitors center for
that sanctuary. We have created, for the Department of Fish and
Wildlife, a center in Santa Cruz.
We have created a brand-new university out of the largest base
closure that ever happened in the history of the United States, with
the closure of Fort Ord. Cal State Monterey Bay is really up and
coming, about 7,000 students, a great university, really reaching out
to the underserved populations of California.
I have been able to raise the pay for Federal workers in my district,
what they call the locality pay.
I have been able to, I think, save the Naval Postgraduate School and
the Defense Language Institute from being closed or reorganized,
realigned to other States. The list goes on and on.
I think what I am most proud of is the fact that I have had such
incredible staff. I would just like to take a moment to tell you about
Rochelle Dornatt, my chief of staff, who has been with me for 23 years;
Debbie Merrill; Troy Phillips; Tom Tucker; Sam Chiron; Dushani De
Silva; Zoe Gentes, who is a Sea Grant fellow in my office; Rosie Julin;
and Ana Sorrentino, who is my foreign service staffer.
{time} 2000
On my district staff, Alec Arago, Carina Chavez, Nancy DeSerpa,
Bertha Munoz, Kristen Petersen, and Alicia Castro. Kristen Petersen
just got elected to the Capitola City Council.
All of these people are moving on as I leave tomorrow, and I am very
excited that they were part of my life.
Just in closing, I would like to say that my daughter, Jessica, is
here in the cloakroom, I hope, and she has with her my grandson,
Zachary, and my granddaughter, Ella. I am so pleased that they could be
here and share this moment with me.
Congress is a great experience. It is the check and balance. It is
the initiator of new ideas. It is the people's House. And I just hope
that as Member's face this next uncertainty of a new administration--
there is always uncertainty, and probably more so now with the
controversial election we had in this country, but I really hope that
this House will rise to the occasion to not let the people down. We
fight for all kinds of wonderful reasons. This House, the people's
House, has really got to protect the people.
So I thank the gentlewoman for yielding time for me to make a few
comments. I am sure that I will have a lot more that I would love to
say, but I include in the Record a list that I have here of over 20
years of getting results for the 20th Congressional District.
Over 20 Years of Getting Results. . . .
Helping change things for the better while in Congress
doesn't just mean passing bills, though Sam Farr did a lot of
that. It means looking for every opportunity--to form
partnerships, to push for White House involvement, to secure
earmarks, and even on occasion, to block others from
interfering in the district's welfare.
Sam Farr did all this while in Congress and will continue
to do so until the day he leaves. There is never a time when
Sam Farr is not working for the best interests of the
community. He leaves an indelible mark on the district that
will have long-term, wide-ranging impact now and far into the
future.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Item Approximate Date
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Authored federal organic standards 2002
legislation/law.
Got WH to include Salinas in its Violence 2010-present.
Prevention strategy (to fight gangs).
Helped legislate the RCI program, which 2001-ongoing.
has rebuilt military housing at Fort Ord
(now the Ord Military Community).
Monterey Bay Sanctuary Trail.............. 2001-present.
Obtained approval of VA cemetery at Fort 1993-2014
Ord.
NMFS lab in Santa Cruz.................... 1996-2002
Provided approximately $65 million, total, 1994-1999
to underwrite the new CSUMB.
Oceans 21/National Ocean Policy........... 2000/2014
Helped negotiate, then got $$ for Salinas 1994-95
Valley Water Reclamation project and the
Castroville Water Intrusion project.
Opened up DLI to civilian students on a 1994
selected, space-available basis.
Congressional Travel & Tourism Caucus..... 1997-present.
White House Oceans Conference............. 1998
Prevented closure of local Social Security 1999
office.
Transfer of EDD-owned building via DOL to 1999
city of Salinas for child care center.
Creation of the center for stabilization 2000
and reconstruction studies; also a
permanent office within the State
Department.
Got WH to use Antiquities Act to establish 2000
Coastal National Monument.
House Oceans Caucus....................... 2000-present.
Marine Protected Area center in Santa Cruz 2000
Plan Colombia (revising aid for local 2000
capacity growth).
Annual Citizenship ceremonies............. 2001(?)-present.
Cleaned up FUDS at Monterey Airport....... 2001
Got Fair Trade Sustainable Coffee mandated 2001
for House restaurant facilities.
Wilderness bill (Ventana, Silver Peak).... 2001
Prevented the Navy from expanding bombing 2002
runs at Fort Hunter Liggett.
Provided the funds (via earmark) for a new 2002
Olympic-sized public pool in Salinas.
Created the U.S. Travel & Tourism Board... 2003
Legislated FHL lands into permanent status 2004
as a national forest under the direction
of the Forest Service if FHL is ever
surplussed by the military.
Moved FORA policy from 0% affordable 2004
housing to a minimum of 20%.
Passed a law making California Missions 2004
eligible for federal restoration/
rehabilitation grants.
Won locality pay for federal workers in 2004
Monterey County.
Environmental Services Contract Agreement-- 2006-2014
Fort Ord (clean up complete).
Golf carts for the disabled at military 2006
golf courses.
Transferred Pt. Pinos Lighthouse to City 2006
of Pacific Grove.
Established the Center for Homeland 2007
Defense and Security at NPS.
Organized Team Monterey--all DOD entities 2007
in Monterey County.
A Salad Bar in Every School............... 2008
Launched the Civilian Response Corps...... 2008
Negotiated the swap of lands at Fort Ord 2008
(``Stilwell Kidney'') to allow the
expansion of military housing and a new
``gateway'' for the City of Seaside.
Saved post office in Aromas from closure.. 2008
Finalized new VA/DOD health clinic (now 2012
under construction).
Got WH to use Antiquities Act to establish 2012
Fort Ord National Monument.
Legislated elevation of Pinnacles National 2012
Monument to full National Park status.
Marine debris bill (became law)........... 2012
Saved DLI, NPS from BRAC.................. 1995, 2005
Legislated the Economic Development 1993, 2009
Conveyance for BRAC properties.
``Monterey Model'' for contracting 2000, 2012
municipal services at military bases.
Secured increased per diems for government 2003, 2012
rates in the district.
Proud to be An American Act (became law).. 1996, 2006, 2008
Santa Cruz Visitors Center................ 2012
Helped break the logjam on H-2A visas for 2013
local growers during the government
shutdown, ensuring a sufficient workforce
for the holiday growing & harvest season.
Overcame the government shutdown that had 2013
closed off parking for the annual Jade
Festival in Big Sur.
Passed a bill in the House (and sent it to 2013 and 2014
the Senate) to name the new VA-DOD health
clinic after Gen. Bill Gourley.
Approximate total dollars brought in to $1,016,000,000+
the district in 22 years (appropriations
only, not formula money).
Approximate number of constituent letters 511,000
answered in 22 years.
Pajaro River flood prevention............. Multi-year.
Provided nearly $7 million to Salinas/ Various.
Monterey County to fight gangs.
San Clemente Dam--working toward removal.. Multi-year.
Secured waivers for Salinas and Hollister Various, on-going.
so they can get Rural Development money.
Authored legislation on medical marijuana 2014, 2015
that became law.
Forced FAA to review the SAFR flight plan 2015
over Santa Cruz (on-going).
Secured the funds to renovate the ``Low 2015
Water Bridge'' at Fort Hunter Liggett.
Locked in $56.3 million from previous 2015
appropriations for a new barracks at DLI.
Saved PEPRA funds for Monterey-Salinas 2015
Transit.
Guaranteed a new ARS station would be 2015
built in Salinas by USDA.
Reinstated $7.2 million in funding for 2015
NOAA's B-WET program.
Engineered the highest appropriations 2015
level for the Peace Corps in its history
(410 million).
Got the House to pass H.R. 1838 to allow 2016
the recreational use of BLM land at Clear
Creek as a public recreation area.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ms. LOFGREN. Mr. Speaker, I think the comments the gentleman has made
show what a difference a Member of Congress can make in the lives of
his or her constituents.
One of the things I will say as Sam leaves is that we have joint
swearing-in sessions around the Fourth of July. Sam was born on the
Fourth of July. Some of the most memorable moments I have are in
Gilroy, with hundreds of people wanting to become American citizens.
The remarkable thing about our country is that we have 200 people walk
in from 150 countries, and they walk out the citizens of just one
country.
Sam has been a leader in immigration, the environment, and so many
things, and we honor him and respect him for his service to our
country.
Mr. FARR. Mr. Speaker, I passed legislation called Proud to be an
American Day. I was hoping that we could do that on the morning of the
Fourth of July, but, because it is a Federal holiday, the Federal
immigration people don't work that day. So we have been scheduling this
around the Fourth of July and days before.
It has been a huge turnout. It is the largest turnout for press
because there are so many interesting people to interview. I really
appreciate the gentlewoman coming as an immigrant
[[Page 16136]]
family and talking about her family background. It has been a highlight
to see the smiles and enthusiasm of a day when we are really proud to
be Americans.
Ms. LOFGREN. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from California
(Mrs. Davis), a distinguished Member of the Armed Services Committee
and the Education and the Workforce Committee.
Mrs. DAVIS of California. Mr. Speaker, as the only member from the
53rd District, the only district that is 53rd in the country--the
highest number district ever--and I am so aware of the size and scope
of California and its congressional delegation.
We have such a wide range of talents and perspectives and
contributions that California Members bring to this body. As we see the
114th Congress now come to a close, we have more departing Members than
many delegations have in the first place. So I am here to talk about
some of them.
We are losing leaders, we are losing friends and mentors, Members
whom we have looked to and served beside. We are losing Members who
have been so influential as they have shared to make their passion to
make lives better, each in their own way. As we bid them farewell, I
want to take this moment to pay tribute to five members that I am going
to dearly miss.
The first one is Lois Capps. Lois has really been an example and a
role model for how to be the quintessential Congresswoman. She is
generous, classy, hardworking, collaborative, and never afraid to stand
up for people who are in need. One of the things about Lois that we all
know is she has a lock on the Nicest Member of Congress award, and that
is for a really good reason.
She has been very helpful to me, and my staff, from the minute I came
to Congress. I came a few years after she did. Since then, they have
been helpful whenever we needed them. I certainly will miss her
leadership, her perspective as a nurse and a healthcare advocate, and
our region's voice on the Energy and Commerce Committee.
She has always looked out for and delivered for women, kids,
consumers, and anyone who has had problems with healthcare coverage. On
that committee, she really has been a leader on the environment and a
leader in promoting clean energy and green technology.
Everybody knows Lois here on the floor. We all just look for her
assurance and her smile all the time.
Sam Farr just spoke a few minutes ago. He really is a Member that you
look to for results.
I learned about Sam when I was a member of the California
legislature. One year, when the California members came to visit our
Members of Congress, Sam was there to greet us. I remember having
discussions with him. I think we were both chairing Consumer Affairs at
one time in the State legislature and so we became kind of fast
friends.
Sam was also one of my walking buddies. There were a few years there
where we walked often in the morning, meeting about six o'clock. We had
a gang of us who went down to the park. We were there always talking
and having a good time and really sharing our experience here.
One thing we all know about Sam is that he was a legendary photo
taker. I can assure you, whenever you see Sam wandering down here on
the floor, he was often bringing pictures of people from one event or
another that he had taken. They were great mementos. I know that we all
treasured them dearly.
Sam is known from Monterrey, which he represents, to Colombia.
Everywhere he goes, he speaks to people. Often, if you travel with Sam,
you know how hard it is to get him moving because he really wants to
stop and talk to everybody along the way.
Sam was really shaped by his service in the Peace Corps and dedicated
himself to giving back and looking at tough issues from a global
perspective. He has been an earmark and appropriations leader. His
staff made him a book of accomplishments, and it was so thick. There
were so many things that they had to share about Sam and what he has
accomplished.
Just like my colleague had said, he really stands for how we can work
hard and we can get things done, especially when we know how to work
with people. And Sam knows how to do that. That is why he has such a
great, thick binder and lots of wonderful pictures.
Sam has been a leader in the fight against offshore drilling and a
smart thinker when it comes to BRAC solutions.
I also want to talk about Loretta Sanchez. As my Armed Services
colleague, my housemate, and Longworth neighbor, Loretta is someone I
really got to see a lot of.
In this kind of funny button-down town we have, Loretta is really a
breath of fresh air. We know she is never afraid to be herself, and she
is not like anyone else who has ever served.
She surprised people when she came to Congress after a very long-shot
campaign that really wasn't decided for months after she came here. Of
course, she has never been afraid to take on a tough-odds fight. She
was one of the first younger women before we had a lot of women coming
here to Congress--women who had young children--who were really in
their earlier years. A lot of us waited until we were later in our
careers, but not Loretta. She came when she was really a young woman.
Loretta is famous, of course, for her holiday cards and a lot of
things that I just can't repeat right now, and for being one of the
smartest, thoughtful, and funniest Members that we have here in
Congress.
I know that when San Diego groups come to town and want an
interesting speaker, I always recommend Loretta. I never know what she
is going to say, but that is why people listen.
She is someone I will dearly miss, but at least she is leaving her
little sister here with us in leadership, no less. We are glad to have
Linda in that position.
I want to talk about my friend, Mike Honda. Mike and I have been on
the same path. We served in the legislature together, we campaigned in
the year of George W., and we came to Congress in the same small
Democratic class in 2000. Our staffs have worked very closely together,
and he has ruled the seventh floor of Longworth from the same office
that he has held the whole time he has been here in Congress.
Like Sam Farr, Mike was shaped by his service in the Peace Corps in
El Salvador. He has been a warrior for justice, whether it is
educational justice or civil rights, and he has taken API issues to a
new level and really made people aware of the struggles of Asian
Americans from internment camps to POW issues to sex trafficking.
Mike is something of a bridge as well between the generations. He has
represented Silicon Valley with pride and been an advocate and example
of new technology. His office always crushes all of us in the Golden
Mouse Web site competition, and I think he was the first Member to
drive a Prius. He still has that same green Prius with a stuffed animal
we see parked all over campus.
More than anything, we miss stories of Mike's famous karaoke nights.
I hear nobody does Sinatra better.
Janice Hahn. Janice actually turned out to be one of my newer
colleagues from nearby LA, and I certainly hate to see her leave, but
she will be a huge asset as a member of the Los Angeles Board of
Supervisors. She joins a former colleague here and a former colleague
of mine of the State legislature. Go girl.
She is going to do tremendous work. The group of them who are in
charge now at LA County, I know, will make tremendous strides for the
region and for all of their constituents.
It is very clear that Janice is an expert on transportation and
infrastructure. She has helped a lot of us to understand port issues
and stands up for the working people who make the goods move.
It is always a great privilege to travel with Janice. I had that
opportunity on a few occasions. I am certainly glad she will be serving
in elected office. She still has such a great contribution to make.
[[Page 16137]]
So, in closing, I just want to say that we certainly are going to
miss these Members for different reasons, but those of us still here
will carry on their legacies and never forget the marks they have each
made.
I have learned from all of them, and I will try to carry on their
legacies by making my New Year's resolution to be as genuine as Lois,
as edgy as Loretta, as engaging as Sam, as good at singing as Mike, and
as spiritual as Janice.
Ms. LOFGREN. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California
(Mr. Huffman), who represents north of San Francisco and the north
coast.
Mr. HUFFMAN. Mr. Speaker, one of the things I love about serving in
Congress is I am always presented with new and interesting experiences.
Each year brings more of these experiences, but I have already, in just
4 years, found that there is one experience I have quite enough of, and
that is saying goodbye to incredible, irreplaceable colleagues who are
just remarkable public servants. I wish them well. I am happy for them
in retiring, but I am going to really miss them.
Last year, we had the tough duty of saying goodbye to Henry Waxman
and George Miller. This year, we have got another class of terrific
people who are moving on.
{time} 2015
I am going to miss all of my California colleagues, including our
southern California friends, Janice Hahn and Loretta Sanchez; but I
want to focus the time I have on our northern California neighbors,
starting with our great friend, Sam Farr.
A lot will be said, now and long into the future, about Sam's
incredible public service career. People will talk about his time in
Colombia in the Peace Corps, the 6 years that he spent on the Monterey
County Board of Supervisors, his 12 years in the State assembly, his
nearly 23 years in Congress. Sam has been such a dedicated and
passionate public servant. It is not just the duration and the breadth
of those offices. It is really the quality and the character of Sam's
service and, particularly, when it comes to the ocean.
Sam was the founder of the House Oceans Caucus, and a longstanding
advocate for our coasts and oceans, and reminding all of us and our
country, how important they are to our economy. He helped lay the
groundwork for a National Ocean Policy that recognizes that there are
tens of millions of jobs across this country and trillions of dollars
of economic activity that depend on healthy oceans.
Sam has helped all sorts of special places throughout his career,
especially in the Central Coast. He has never rested on his laurels.
Despite his many accomplishments--and there are too many to list here--
I think it is important to note that he created the Pinnacles National
Park, which was signed into law in 2013.
He successfully lobbied to have a national monument at Fort Ord,
which was designated in 2012. And Sam has told me many times, even in
recent days, that the most satisfying part of his work here in Congress
is the enduring part of his legacy, those permanent protections that
he, through a lot of hard work and perseverance, has been able to make
happen.
Beyond all of this, all of these achievements, all of these offices
that define Sam's public service career, I think it is also important
to just note he is a heck of a human being.
I will miss Sam. It has been said by Susan and others that he has
just always got a warm smile. He greets you on the airplane. He is a
pleasure to travel with. He will come up and give you a picture that he
took from the last holiday party, sometimes like a year and a half
earlier because he has kept it in his pocket for a long time waiting to
see you.
Sam, you are just a wonderful friend and human being, and I am so
honored to have served with you.
So let's talk about another great human being and public servant,
Lois Capps. What I love about Lois and will deeply miss is the fact
that she is a nurse to the core, and a health advocate. She really, as
a Member of Congress, and as a health advocate, just walks the walk all
the time, constantly advocating for affordable and accessible health
care for all, and that includes, obviously, being a champion with her
work for the Affordable Care Act. She really does leave this
institution, I think, as one of its most respected members, one of the
kindest members, certainly one of the ones with widespread affection
from her colleagues. That is a reputation that I think everyone in
public life should strive for.
Lois, of course, is another stalwart for California's oceans and our
coast, and has helped lead the charge against offshore drilling
throughout her tenure.
I think the part of Lois that I will especially appreciate and
especially miss is that she is my living bridge to a wonderful time in
my life when I was a student at UC Santa Barbara. Of course, Lois
herself is a graduate of USCB, and I know that my fellow alumni and
everyone in the UCSB community is so proud of her.
It is extra special because, of course, she holds the seat in
Congress that was previously held by the late Walter Capps, a UCSB
professor who was one of my favorite professors way back in the 1980s
when I was a Gaucho student.
Finally, it is tough to say good-bye, but we have to, to our great
friend, Mike Honda, who has so ably represented the Bay Area on the
Appropriations Committee. He has made sure that Congress has invested
in key priorities for our Bay Area region. The extension of BART is
just one of many, many examples of Mike's great work.
He served in public life for more than 3 decades, from the San Jose
School Board to the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors, the
California Assembly, and here in Congress.
Mike's very special service draws upon his life experience. He has
just been an incredible champion for civil rights and human rights and
equality. He has really been our North Star, I think, here in Congress
on these critical issues.
He has gone to bat for the AAPI community, the LGBT community and,
frankly, anyone who has been disadvantaged and who needs a champion in
their quest for equality.
Mike is my neighbor here in Washington. I will miss running into him.
I will miss seeing that old, beat-up, first-generation Toyota Prius
with all the faded stickers on the bumper. Most of all, I will just
miss Mike's great sense of humor, his warm smile, and his friendship;
but I do know that that friendship will continue.
Mr. Speaker, and my colleague, Zoe Lofgren, thank you for the time to
lend my voice of appreciation and gratitude to these great, great,
champions for California and for our country. We wish them well.
Ms. LOFGREN. Mr. Speaker, I had a number of other Members who had
planned to be here but, because of the hour, there is a conflicting
event, so they will be adding their voices to the Record.
Let me just close by saying that our delegation--really, all the
Congress and the public--are going to miss the distinguished service of
Sam Farr, Lois Capps, Loretta Sanchez, Mike Honda, and Janice Hahn.
Each of them very different, but each of them made their mark in a way
that will not be forgotten. We are sad to see them go, but here's the
good news: we have fresh faces coming in to replace them who are very
distinguished and who will also make their mark because none of us here
will be here forever. We are just passing through this people's House
in an effort to serve our country as best we can. Certainly, these
Members have served that public with tremendous distinction, and we are
honored to have served with them.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Ms. MATSUI. Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor my fellow Californians who I
have had the honor of working with here in the House of
Representatives.
Sam Farr has spent more than two decades serving the Central Coast in
Congress . . . and so many years before that serving locally.
He has been a longtime advocate for our veterans and military
families in California. And he always stands up for essential
environmental protection efforts . . . and ocean conservation.
[[Page 16138]]
Because of Congressman Farr . . . many of our natural treasures in
California will be preserved. He will be greatly missed, but I know he
will enjoy spending more time in his beautiful hometown of Carmel.
My friend Mike Honda will be returning home to California after
serving more than 35 years as an elected official . . . and 16 years as
a member of Congress . . . representing the people of Silicon Valley.
Congressman Honda has worked tirelessly on behalf of those who don't
have a voice . . . serving as an important advocate for underserved
communities. He has always understood the importance of closing gaps in
education for our young people . . . and has put that on the forefront
of his work in Congress.
Congressman Honda has dedicated his life to public service . . . and
we're incredibly grateful for all that he has done for the people of
California. I know he will continue to be an important voice on the
issues he cares about.
Janice Hahn has always been willing to tackle important issues in
Congress. I'm particularly grateful for her work to ensure we are
strengthening infrastructure in California . . . and for her advocacy
on behalf of women.
I know that as she transitions to her new role as Los Angeles County
Supervisor . . . she will continue to deliver results for her region.
Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez has been an important advocate for
women in the military . . . and a leader on immigration issues. I'm
grateful for her decades of service here in Congress.
I will also dearly miss Lois Capps . . . who I have had the pleasure
of serving with for many years. As a former school nurse . . .
Congresswoman Capps has provided valuable insight on public health
issues in Congress.
I've enjoyed working with her on the Energy & Commerce Health
Subcommittee on issues that impact everyday Americans . . . from
ensuring people have affordable healthcare . . . to bolstering medical
research . . . to strengthening programs like Medicare.
Congresswoman Capps has also been an important environmental advocate
during her time in Congress. She understands the connections between
public health and our changing climate . . . and has continuously
fought to ensure that future generations in Santa Barbara . . . and
across the country . . . have clean air to breathe.
I'm grateful to all of my departing colleagues from the great state
of California. Each of you has brought a unique and important
perspective to Congress . . . and I will miss the insights and
friendship that you have provided me over the years.
Thank you for your service to our great nation . . . and I wish you
all the best of luck as you enter into the next chapter of your lives
back in California.
Know that you will always be welcome back here in the Nation's
Capital.
Mr. THOMPSON of California. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor my
colleagues and good friends Reps. Sam Farr, Lois Capps, Loretta
Sanchez, Mike Honda and Janice Hahn upon their retirement from the
House of Representatives.
These Members of Congress have been true fighters for California and
have been instrumental in achieving progress on a number of issues
important to our state and our country. With their help, California
Democrats have led the fight to ensure access to affordable healthcare,
to address the legal needs of our immigrant community and to give every
family a fair shot at a good living.
Their work here certainly hasn't been easy, and they have made many
personal sacrifices through the years. Nonetheless, they've been tough
fighters for some of the most vulnerable people in our country. I'm
proud to be able to count them among my friends, and I want to express
my sincere thanks to Sam, Lois, Loretta, Mike and Janice for all the
work we've been able to accomplish together. They have all set a high
bar for the rest of us in Congress.
Mr. Speaker, Sam, Lois, Loretta, Mike and Janice have been great
friends to Californians and good friends of mine. It is fitting and
proper that we honor them here today for their dedicated public
service.
____________________
UNMANAGEABLE CABINET AGENCIES
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. LaHood). Under the Speaker's announced
policy of January 6, 2015, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from
Arkansas (Mr. Hill) for 30 minutes.
Mr. HILL. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to address the
people's House this evening.
Last night, I talked about my initial reflections on having been a
freshman Congressman spending my first term in the United States House
of Representatives. Last evening, I talked at length about the growth
of the administrative state, the expansion of executive power, to the
detriment of the first branch, the legislative branch. I traced those
changes from my previous service on Capitol Hill as a young man in the
Senate staff of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, and then, most
recently, working for President Bush 41 during his 4 years in the
Presidency.
Tonight I want to turn and continue that discussion with our American
people, Mr. Speaker, and talk about how the cabinet agencies, since I
worked for President Bush, worked in cabinet affairs, coordinated
economic policy during the last 2 years of his Presidency from the
White House staff. I want to talk tonight about those cabinet agencies
and how, in my view, they have become essentially unmanageable.
You can see the critical need for spending and personnel reform in
many of our departments. In fact, one may assume that change is desired
by both the legislative and executive branches, yet reform flounders,
whether it was at the Pentagon under Secretary Rumsfeld during Bush 43
or the Veterans Affairs Department today under the current
administration.
I have watched the VA for the past 2 years. Secretary McDonald's
plans changed, laws are changed, yet malfeasance, incompetence, and
worse persist.
On just this Monday, Mr. Speaker, The Washington Post published a
shocking report that Pentagon officials buried evidence of $125 billion
in bureaucratic waste during 2015. For that horrific activity, they
were the recipient of this month's Golden Fleece Award by my office.
To make it worse, they even made the effort, according to The
Washington Post, of hiding this effort, knowing that it would be
impetus for the Congress to come together and cut their budget.
Clearly, that is a problem with an unmanageable cabinet agency.
I have seen this firsthand right in Little Rock, my hometown, where
the center of the Air Force's C-130 program is, for America's airlift,
where the Department of the Air Force officials planned for years to
transfer aircraft from Keesler Air Force Base in Mississippi to Little
Rock Air Force Base, basing it as a critical, cost-saving initiative,
along with other force structure changes of some $922 million across
future years of their 5-year plan.
Yet, Congress' meddling prevented this commonsense Air Force plan
cost-saving initiative. So these bureaucratic efforts in the cabinet
agencies that make them, in my view, unmanageable come both from the
executive and from the legislative.
Looking at the Veterans Affairs Department, some 360,000 employees,
up 140,000 in the past decade alone. About two-thirds of the members
are civilian employees, are part of the American Federation of
Government Employees and Service Employees International Union. These
VA employees are subject to, of course, the protections by the Merit
Systems Protection Board.
While there are many hardworking and dedicated VA employees, both in
the healthcare area, across our VA hospitals, and in benefits, and many
union members fight for high standards and fight for high quality
across our veterans system, the facts are stubborn things, and they
remain that the VA has had serious quality, ethics, and management
issues that are hurting veterans and hurting the reputation of the
Federal Government.
Just in this Congress alone, under the leadership of Congressman Jeff
Miller, the chairman of our Veterans Affairs Committee during this
Congress, we have seen reforms to rein in construction spending by the
VA, clawback bonuses, fire bad actors, stop paying official time to do
union work. We have seen, though, people not fired, even though people
have died in VA health care.
We have seen a $300 million hospital complex, Mr. Speaker, be $1
billion over budget; not possible, in my view, in the private sector.
So there is no doubt that our cabinet agencies need reform. We talked
about regulatory reform, executive overreach reform, but we must have
work rule reform in our agencies.
[[Page 16139]]
The other thing I want to touch on tonight before I talk about
solutions is just spending overall to fund the obligations of our
Federal Government.
Every month, I receive numerous letters about the $1.1 trillion in
annual spending that Congress typically approves each year. When done
properly, this annual spending is approved by way of 12 appropriations
bills in this body, the people's House, and six appropriations bills in
the Senate. They are conferenced together, and they are presented to
the President for his veto or approval.
The problem is that this very typical, very constitutional program
that has been applied for 240 years about how to authorize and
appropriate funds to operate our government just no longer typically
happens, yet this is Congress' most fundamental obligation under
Article I.
The appropriations clause is but 16 words long. ``No money shall be
drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by
law.''
This is our job, yet the last time that all the appropriations bills
were passed individually and enacted into law before October 1 of a new
fiscal year was 1994. My, that is a terrible track record.
So this is not a President Obama issue or a President Bush issue.
This is an issue of the Congress itself. Now you know why, after 20
years, I have seen so many things change, and not for the better,
coming back to Washington to represent the people of central Arkansas.
{time} 2030
What happens without such a process of appropriations bills is what
we will be voting on this week: a continuing resolution which simply
freezes spending at current levels and extends forward to a date
certain, or, as an alternative to that kind of continuing resolution,
an omnibus spending bill where everything is rolled into one.
These massive bills reflect the work, hopefully, of our House and
Senate committees. They frequently contain items, Mr. Speaker, that are
parachuted into the bill at the end of the negotiations between the
House and the Senate, and those produce fireworks on both sides of the
political spectrum.
The irony about that debate of that $1.1 trillion in typical annual
spending, approved by this body, is that it composes about $600
billion--50 percent--that goes to our national defense that funds the
essential expenditures for our men and women in uniform. About $80
billion goes to our veterans and military construction projects around
the United States and the world, and the balance is for everything else
that we consider government: highway finance, local education
initiatives that go to our States, our national parks, and help for our
Corps of Engineers on our ports and along our rivers.
What shocks the Arkansans that I respond to about their letters is
that, while I appreciate their correspondence, their emails about that
$1.1 trillion in spending, the so-called domestic discretionary
spending, I remain frustrated that Congress' lack of action on the
other $3.5 trillion that this government spends is in the mandatory
spending portion of the budget. It is not subject to annual
appropriations.
So I thank you for your mail and your suggestions about how we can
reform spending at the Pentagon or reform spending in our national
forests or our national parks, but $3.5 trillion is in mandatory
spending which funds Social Security, Social Security Disability,
Medicaid health care for the poor, Medicare health care for the
elderly, and interest on our national debt--and these programs are
essentially based on eligibility.
Yet, many of us remain concerned about the size of our annual
deficits--the total size of our national debt--particularly when you
consider the size of the national debt to our total economy. We
currently have about $19 trillion in outstanding debt of the United
States with about $6 trillion of that owed to foreign investors outside
the U.S., principally in Japan and China. This debt is a percentage of
our GDP, that is $19 trillion, which is about 100 percent of GDP.
Back in my twenties, when I worked for Senator Tower from Texas on
the Senate Banking Committee, debt to GDP was about 30 percent. When I
worked for President Bush 41 as a member of his White House staff for
economic policy, our debt was about 50 or 60 percent of GDP. Now you
know why after 20 years I remain so concerned, because it has now
doubled.
There is a lot of economic research that tells us about the dampening
impact on our national growth rates if we have national debt at these
kinds of levels. It saps capital alternatives to the private sector
that can bring faster growth. Clearly, since the Great Recession of
2008, we have had low growth--well below what I believe should be the
growth rate of this great economy.
Likewise, we are at a time of low interest rates. Interest rates are
likely on the rise. And while we are paying a modest amount of interest
on that soon-to-be $19 trillion dollars today, the Congressional Budget
Office believes that, as interest rates gradually increase over the
next few months and years, interest will move from about $220 billion
to $830 billion, Mr. Speaker, over the next 10 years, surpassing what
we spend as a nation on our national defense. So there is no doubt the
Federal Government has grown too big and too complex and interferes too
greatly. We must get our fiscal house in order.
Mr. Speaker, eliminating waste and fraud will not do it. Raising
taxes won't do it. I am always reminded by members of the opposition
that insist that we can only balance our budget by raising taxes.
Winston Churchill's favorite quote about taxes: ``We contend that for a
nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a
bucket and trying to lift it himself by the handle.'' It is not going
to do it, Mr. Speaker.
This problem is too large and requires reform, and it requires this
Congress to reform in the out-years and put us on the right track.
Former Joint Chief of Staff Chairman Michael Mullen said in 2010, 6
years ago, Mr. Speaker, that the biggest national security problem
facing the United States was the size of our national debt.
So let me talk now, Mr. Speaker, about potential solutions that this
Congress has to adopt working with our President-elect in the coming
days, in the coming years, and in the early months of the Trump
administration. First, Congress, heal thyself. We must reassert our
Article I powers: the power of the purse; the power of the proper
appropriations process. We don't need someone to impose that. We need
to impose it on ourselves.
We need to remind the American people to contact us, to help us
return to regular order and return to the appropriations process. We
need all 12 of those bills passed and we need to stop depending on
continuing resolutions like we will this week. This is something I
think that is fundamental.
Let's talk about some of the reforms to that budget process tonight.
In this Congress, I was proud to support the Biennial Budgeting and
Enhanced Oversight Act, which was introduced by Reid Ribble of
Wisconsin. If this bill passes, it would help the government fix our
broken budget system by establishing a biennial budget cycle. I think
this would provide Federal agencies with the kind of planning
capability that would make them much more effective. We could identify
cost savings, no doubt, in the important infrastructure area and long-
term systems issues that we have, particularly in the Pentagon. This
would be a large advantage.
After reflecting on this, I support abolishing our Budget Committee
process. Put in place in 1974, the intent was to have a way to rein in
the executive. The Budget Act of 1974 was to help punish Richard Nixon.
I believe that if we abolish the Budget Committee, we can allow our
authorizing committees to serve both an authorizing and an
appropriating function. We can eliminate redundancies in our Federal
Government, and we can look inward in how we can eliminate also
unnecessary procedures in Congress that waste time. In turn, our
Appropriations Committee
[[Page 16140]]
would oversee the budget resolutions, making sure that Congress spends
no more than what we have approved in a budget resolution and that we
can review individual ceilings for appropriating money for those
government functions that don't require an authorization.
I also support the idea of properly directing the Congressional
Budget Office to account for, or score, in their terminology, for long-
term investments as budget impacts versus just current-year spending.
These ideas are not revolutionary; they are well known.
We are stuck in the past, Mr. Speaker, and we must reform ourselves
starting with this budget and appropriations process. In fact, these
ideas are as old as my boss' suggestions. John Tower was a 24-year
veteran of the Senate. He served on the Budget Committee and was
chairman of the Armed Services Committee in the Senate. These were his
ideas upon his retirement in 1984 as to how to make the Congress more
effective.
The Congressional Budget Office relies on a set of government
statistics including GDP growth, inflation, and tax receipts. It takes
into account dynamic scoring. In my view, these things need to be done
in a more proper way to better calculate the cost of legislation and
the benefits for the economy. For example, CBO does not currently
include interest payments on the debt when scoring new legislation. As
previously mentioned, this interest will grow exponentially in the
coming years, and now spending programs and reforms, in my view, ought
to be calculated and take into account the agency costs and the
carrying costs on our national debt.
Another recommended reform to the CBO from our House Budget Committee
would be to eliminate built-in discretionary inflation, removing the
automatic extensions of expiring programs, and removing the current
assumption that entitlement payments will continue at current levels
even when their trust funds are predicted to be insolvent. These
practices currently used by CBO result in automatic plus-ups for the
baseline budget, and these reforms, in my view, will remove the current
bias to ever higher spending levels.
We ought to consider what we do in the private sector, Mr. Speaker,
zero-based budgeting to assess what is really needed and not needed in
our Federal agencies. What a great idea for Mr. Trump's incoming new
Director of the Office of Management and Budget. Interior Department,
let's go to zero-based budgeting. Let's have you justify to the Chief
Financial Officer in the Interior Department every program, and then
come to Congress with your recommendation of what we really should be
doing at Interior or any other bureau or cabinet agency of the
government.
House and Senate bills have been introduced on this issue.
Representative Duncan of Tennessee and Senator Thune of South Dakota
would, I think, bring a lot of common sense. They would say that if
private enterprises are performing activities duplicated by an arm of
the Federal Government, then they would have the opportunity to compete
for that work that Federal agencies unnecessarily handle in-house and,
therefore, give better value to our taxpayers.
IT investments--information technology--is a critical function in all
of our private sector life. Yet, GAO, the Government Accountability
Office, found that 75 percent of the technology budget for the Federal
Government goes to just painting up and fixing aging technology rather
than modernizing and going in a different direction on IT.
They are actually still using floppy disks at the Pentagon and
maintaining 1970s-era computer platforms. Look, that stuff ought to be
in the Smithsonian, not at the Pentagon. The report notes that the
Social Security systems that are used to determine our eligibility and
our benefits are more than 30 years old and are based on COBOL computer
language. Mr. Speaker, I used COBOL computer language when I was in
college almost 40 years ago. We need that kind of reform in order to be
competitive and provide services to our constituents and safe, cyber-
ready protections. We have already witnessed the Office of Personnel
Management losing people's identities and creating identify theft right
in the middle of a Federal computer system that is supposed to be the
best.
Our chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee,
Jason Chaffetz, has expressed his support for modernizing our
government's aging systems, calling it a vital part of infrastructure
that we need in order to have a fully functional government. I couldn't
agree more. We don't need to shortchange these agencies when it comes
to delivering a safe, cyber-protected IT infrastructure.
Last night I talked about the administrative state, the growth of
regulation, and the cost of regulation exceeding that of all the
revenues from the tax system. Let's talk about what we can do to rein
in regulatory costs. The House passed a Separation of Powers
Restoration Act in 2016, which would amend the Administrative Procedure
Act, to require the courts to decide all de novo relevant questions of
law, including the interpretation of constitutional and statutory
provisions and rules. This bill would eliminate the Chevron deference,
which, in my view, is blocking common sense being used and direction of
this people's House and the Senate over our regulatory body.
This is not a new topic, Mr. Speaker. James Madison in Federalist No.
51 discussed the need of each branch of government to guard against
overreach by another. He stated that when an overreach occurs, ambition
must be to counteract ambition.
That is what we want to do in this House, Mr. Speaker. We have passed
the REINS Act, Regulations From the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act.
The REINS Act, which passed this act overwhelmingly, said that any
major rule like those that I described last night that cost the economy
more than $100 million would require coming back to Congress for
approval. That will put the people's Representatives here in charge of
the administrative state and not the other way around.
I referenced a few minutes ago The Washington Post story about
uncovering $125 billion of hidden-away, misdirected spending at the
Pentagon that I awarded this month's Golden Fleece Award.
{time} 2045
I brought back the Golden Fleece from the seventies. It was created
by Senator William Proxmire of Wisconsin. It is that kind of thing that
I think calls attention to egregious behavior by the Executive and
allows us to have policy changes here. I commend former Senator Tom
Coburn and his successor Senator Lankford for the same kind of work.
Finally, Mr. Speaker, I want to turn to the subject of the Community
Empowerment Initiative, something that I have spent a lot of time on in
my district in Little Rock, finding ways to fight poverty and use the
talents and time of the private sector to do that, and also to identify
ways that we can find a better way to enhance the lives of American
citizens, get them out of poverty, get them the education they need and
the skills they need to succeed in our economy.
This is the big challenge before the incoming Trump administration
and this Congress. It is important that people have a vested interest
in their community and have a sense of community engagement about how
we do what I talked about last night, the idea that we let people
closest to the problems solve those problems and not be dependent on
one-size-fits-all challenges here.
So, Mr. Speaker, it is an honor to have been reelected and continue
to serve the citizens of Arkansas and our country. I am humbled to be
asked to raise my hand on January 3 and again affirm my allegiance to
our country and our beloved Constitution.
Every Thursday morning, we assemble for the House prayer breakfast,
and every Thursday morning I feel the prayers around our country, for
our country. We in that group pray for all of our families. We pray for
our men
[[Page 16141]]
and women in uniform around our world protecting our liberties and our
freedoms. I pray for each of the families in my district, that they
have the health and prosperity and the ability to pursue happiness
under our great Constitution.
On behalf of my family, I wish all of the people of the Second
Congressional District of Arkansas a blessed Christmas season. May God
bless our troops overseas and our great Nation.
General Leave
Mr. HILL. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may
have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and
include extraneous materials on the subject of this Special Order.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Arkansas?
There was no objection.
Mr. HILL. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
____________________
LEAVE OF ABSENCE
By unanimous consent, leave of absence was granted to:
Mr. Clyburn (at the request of Ms. Pelosi) for today.
____________________
SENATE ENROLLED BILLS SIGNED
The Speaker announced his signature to enrolled bills of the Senate
of the following titles:
S. 795. An act to enhance whistleblower protection for
contractor and grantee employees.
S. 3395. An act to require limitations on prescribed burns.
____________________
ADJOURNMENT
Mr. HILL. Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.
The motion was agreed to; accordingly (at 8 o'clock and 47 minutes
p.m.), under its previous order, the House adjourned until tomorrow,
Thursday, December 8, 2016, at 9 a.m.
____________________
EXECUTIVE COMMUNICATIONS, ETC.
Under clause 2 of rule XIV, executive communications were taken from
the Speaker's table and referred as follows:
7785. A letter from the Secretary, Department of Defense,
transmitting a letter on the approved retirement of
Lieutenant General Anthony G. Crutchfield, United States
Army, and his advancement to the grade of lieutenant general
on the retired list, pursuant to 10 U.S.C. 1370(c)(1); Public
Law 96-513, Sec. 112 (as amended by Public Law 104-106, Sec.
502(b)); (110 Stat. 293); to the Committee on Armed Services.
7786. A letter from the Director, Regulations Policy and
Management Staff, FDA, Department of Health and Human
Services, transmitting the Department's final rule --
Submission of Food and Drug Administration Import Data in the
Automated Commercial Environment [Docket No.: FDA-2016-N-
1487] (RIN: 0910-AH41) received December 2, 2016, pursuant to
5 U.S.C. 801(a)(1)(A); Public Law 104-121, Sec. 251; (110
Stat. 868); to the Committee on Energy and Commerce.
7787. A letter from the Director, Regulations Policy and
Management Staff, FDA, Department of Health and Human
Services, transmitting the Department's direct final rule --
New Animal Drugs for Use in Animal Feed; Category
Definitions; Confirmation of Effective Date [Docket No.: FDA-
2016-N-1896) received December 2, 2016, pursuant to 5 U.S.C.
801(a)(1)(A); Public Law 104-121, Sec. 251; (110 Stat. 868);
to the Committee on Energy and Commerce.
7788. A letter from the Attorney-Advisor, U.S. Coast Guard,
Department of Homeland Security, transmitting the
Department's temporary final rule -- Safety Zone; Arkansas
River; Little Rock, AR [Docket No.: USCG-2016-0992] (RIN:
1625-AA00) received December 2, 2016, pursuant to 5 U.S.C.
801(a)(1)(A); Public Law 104-121, Sec. 251; (110 Stat. 868);
to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
7789. A letter from the Secretary, Federal Trade
Commission, transmitting the twelfth annual Federal Trade
Commission Report on Ethanol Market Concentration, pursuant
to 42 U.S.C. 7545(o)(10)(B); July 14, 1955, ch. 360, title
II, Sec. 211 (amended by Public Law 109-58, Sec. 1501(a)(2));
(119 Stat. 1074); to the Committee on Energy and Commerce.
7790. A letter from the Secretary, Federal Trade
Commission, transmitting the Commission's final rule --
Energy Labeling Rule (RIN: 3084-AB15) received December 2,
2016, pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 801(a)(1)(A); Public Law 104-121,
Sec. 251; (110 Stat. 868); to the Committee on Energy and
Commerce.
7791. A letter from the Secretary, Federal Trade
Commission, transmitting the Commission's final rule -- Used
Motor Vehicle Trade Regulation Rule (RIN: 3084-AB05) received
December 2, 2016, pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 801(a)(1)(A); Public
Law 104-121, Sec. 251; (110 Stat. 868); to the Committee on
Energy and Commerce.
7792. A letter from the Principal Deputy Assistant
Secretary, Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, Department
of State, transmitting the 2016 edition of the Department's
annual ``To Walk the Earth in Safety'' report; to the
Committee on Foreign Affairs.
7793. A letter from the Director, Defense Security
Cooperation Agency, Department of Defense, transmitting a
proposed Letter of Offer and Acceptance for the Government of
Peru, Transmittal No. 16-76, pursuant to Sec. 36(b)(1) of the
Arms Export Control Act, as amended; to the Committee on
Foreign Affairs.
7794. A letter from the Director, Defense Security
Cooperation Agency, Department of Defense, transmitting a
proposed Letter of Offer and Acceptance for the Government of
Finland, Transmittal No. 16-65, pursuant to Sec. 36(b)(1) of
the Arms Export Control Act, as amended; to the Committee on
Foreign Affairs.
7795. A letter from the Director, Defense Security
Cooperation Agency, Department of Defense, transmitting a
proposed Letter of Offer and Acceptance to the Government of
Australia, Transmittal No. 16-54, pursuant to Sec. 36(b)(1)
of the Arms Export Control Act, as amended; to the Committee
on Foreign Affairs.
7796. A letter from the Assistant Secretary, Legislative
Affairs, Department of State, transmitting Transmittal No.
DDTC 16-069, pursuant to the reporting requirements of
Section 36(c) of the Arms Export Control Act; to the
Committee on Foreign Affairs.
7797. A letter from the Assistant Secretary, Legislative
Affairs, Department of State, transmitting Transmittal No.
DDTC 16-110, pursuant to the reporting requirements of
Section 36(c) of the Arms Export Control Act; to the
Committee on Foreign Affairs.
7798. A letter from the Assistant Secretary, Legislative
Affairs, Department of State, transmitting Transmittal No.
DDTC 16-098, pursuant to the reporting requirements of
Section 36(c) of the Arms Export Control Act; to the
Committee on Foreign Affairs.
7799. A letter from the Assistant Secretary, Legislative
Affairs, Department of State, transmitting Transmittal No.
DDTC 16-039, pursuant to the reporting requirements of
Section 36(c) of the Arms Export Control Act; to the
Committee on Foreign Affairs.
7800. A letter from the Assistant Secretary, Legislative
Affairs, Department of State, transmitting Transmittal No.
DDTC 16-095, pursuant to the reporting requirements of
Section 36(d) of the Arms Export Control Act; to the
Committee on Foreign Affairs.
7801. A letter from the Assistant Secretary, Legislative
Affairs, Department of State, transmitting Transmittal No.
DDTC 16-112, pursuant to Sections 36(c) and (d) of the Arms
Export Control Act; to the Committee on Foreign Affairs.
7802. A letter from the Deputy Chief Financial Officer,
Department of Education, transmitting the Department's FY
2014 and 2015 Inventory of Inherently Governmental Activities
and of Commercial Activities, pursuant to 31 U.S.C. 501 note;
Public Law 105-270, Sec. 2(c)(1)(A); (112 Stat. 2382); to the
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
7803. A letter from the Attorney-Advisor, Regulatory
Affairs Law Division, Office of the General Counsel,
Department of Homeland Security, transmitting the
Department's final rule -- Freedom of Information Act
Regulations [Docket No.: DHS-2009-0036] (RIN: 1601-AA00)
received December 5, 2016, pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 801(a)(1)(A);
Public Law 104-121, Sec. 251; (110 Stat. 868); to the
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
7804. A letter from the Attorney-Advisor, Department of
Transportation, transmitting a notification of a federal
vacancy and designation of acting officer, pursuant to 5
U.S.C. 3349(a); Public Law 105-277, 151(b); (112 Stat. 2681-
614); to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
7805. A letter from the Program Specialist, LRAD, Office of
the Comptroller of the Currency, Department of the Treasury,
transmitting the Department's final rules -- Appraisals for
Higher-Priced Mortgage Loans Exemption Threshold [Docket No.:
OCC-2015-0021] (RIN: 1557-AD99) received December 5, 2016,
pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 801(a)(1)(A); Public Law 104-121, Sec.
251; (110 Stat. 868); to the Committee on Financial Services.
7806. A letter from the Director, Congressional Affairs,
Federal Election Commission, transmitting the Commission's
Fiscal Year 2016 Agency Financial Report, pursuant to 31
U.S.C. 3515(a)(1); Public Law 101-576, Sec. 303(a)(1) (as
amended by Public Law 107-289, Sec. 2(a)); (116 Stat. 2049);
to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
7807. A letter from the Executive Director, Federal
Retirement Thrift Investment Board, transmitting the Board's
Report of FY 2016 Audits, pursuant to 5 U.S.C. app. 8G(h)(2);
Public Law 95-452, Sec. 8G(h)(2) (as added by Public Law 100-
504, Sec. 104(a)); (102 Stat. 2525); to the Committee on
Oversight and Government Reform.
7808. A letter from the Treasurer, National Gallery of Art,
transmitting the Performance and Accountability Report for
the year
[[Page 16142]]
ended September 30, 2016, pursuant to 31 U.S.C. 3515(a)(1);
Public Law 101-576, Sec. 303(a)(1) (as amended by Public Law
107-289, Sec. 2(a)); (116 Stat. 2049); to the Committee on
Oversight and Government Reform.
7809. A letter from the Executive Analyst, Office of the
Secretary, Department of Health and Human Services,
transmitting a notification of a federal vacancy and
designation of acting officer, pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 3349(a);
Public Law 105-277, 151(b); (112 Stat. 2681-614); to the
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
7810. A letter from the Special Counsel, U.S. Office of
Special Counsel, transmitting the Counsel's FY 2016
Performance and Accountability Report, pursuant to 31 U.S.C.
3515(a)(1); Public Law 101-576, Sec. 303(a)(1) (as amended by
Public Law 107-289, Sec. 2(a)); (116 Stat. 2049); to the
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
7811. A letter from the General Counsel, National Credit
Union Administration, transmitting the Administration's final
rule -- Civil Monetary Penalty Inflation Adjustment (RIN:
3133-AE59) received December 5, 2016, pursuant to 5 U.S.C.
801(a)(1)(A); Public Law 104-121, Sec. 251; (110 Stat. 868);
to the Committee on the Judiciary.
7812. A letter from the Attorney-Advisor, U.S. Coast Guard,
Department of Homeland Security, transmitting the
Department's final rule -- Security Zone; Potomac River and
Anacostia River, and adjacent waters; Washington, DC [Docket
No.: USCG-2016-0675] (RIN: 1625-AA87) received December 2,
2016, pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 801(a)(1)(A); Public Law 104-121,
Sec. 251; (110 Stat. 868); to the Committee on Transportation
and Infrastructure.
7813. A letter from the Attorney-Advisor, U.S. Coast Guard,
Department of Homeland Security, transmitting the
Department's temporary final rule -- Safety Zone; Great Egg
Harbor Bay, Marmora, NJ [Docket No.: USCG-2016-1011] (RIN:
1625-AA00) received December 2, 2016, pursuant to 5 U.S.C.
801(a)(1)(A); Public Law 104-121, Sec. 251; (110 Stat. 868);
to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
7814. A letter from the Attorney-Advisor, U.S. Coast Guard,
Department of Homeland Security, transmitting the
Department's final rule -- Anchorage Grounds; Delaware Bay
and River, Philadelphia, PA [Docket No.: USCG-2016-0110]
(RIN: 1625-AA01) received December 2, 2016, pursuant to 5
U.S.C. 801(a)(1)(A); Public Law 104-121, Sec. 251; (110 Stat.
868); to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
7815. A letter from the Assistant Secretary, Legislative
Affairs, Department of State, transmitting a memorandum of
justification regarding the suspension of limitations under
the Jerusalem Embassy Act, pursuant to Public Law 104-
45(7)(a); (109 Stat. 400); jointly to the Committees on
Foreign Affairs and Appropriations.
____________________
REPORTS OF COMMITTEES ON PUBLIC BILLS AND RESOLUTIONS
Under clause 2 of rule XIII, reports of committees were delivered to
the Clerk for printing and reference to the proper calendar, as
follows:
Mr. BISHOP of Utah: Committee on Natural Resources. H.R.
3764. A bill to provide that an Indian group may receive
Federal acknowledgment as an Indian tribe only by an Act of
Congress, and for other purposes; with an amendment (Rept.
114-847). Referred to the Committee of the Whole House on the
state of the Union.
Mr. GOWDY: Select Committee on the Events Surrounding the
2012 Terrorist Attack in Benghazi Final Report of the Select
Committee on the Events Surrounding the 2012 Terrorist Attack
in Benghazi (Rept. 114-848). Referred to the House Calendar.
Mr. WOODALL: Committee on Rules. House Resolution 949.
Resolution providing for consideration of the Senate
amendment to the bill (H.R. 2028) making appropriations for
energy and water development and related agencies for the
fiscal year ending September 30, 2016, and for other
purposes, and providing for consideration of the bill (S.
612) to designate the Federal building and United States
courthouse located at 1300 Victoria Street in Laredo, Texas,
as the ``George P. Kazen Federal Building and United States
Courthouse'' (Rept. 114-849). Referred to the House Calendar.
Discharge of Committee
Pursuant to clause 2 of rule XIII, the Committees on Education and
the Workforce and Ways and Means discharged from further consideration.
H.R. 329 referred to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of
the Union.
____________________
PUBLIC BILLS AND RESOLUTIONS
Under clause 2 of rule XII, public bills and resolutions of the
following titles were introduced and severally referred, as follows:
By Mr. SWALWELL of California (for himself and Mr.
Cummings):
H.R. 6447. A bill to establish the National Commission on
Foreign Interference in the 2016 Election; to the Committee
on Foreign Affairs.
By Mr. BEYER:
H.R. 6448. A bill to establish the National Wildlife
Corridors System to provide for the protection and
restoration of native fish, wildlife, and plant species and
their habitats in the United States that have been diminished
by habitat loss, degradation, fragmentation, and
obstructions, and for other purposes; to the Committee on
Natural Resources, and in addition to the Committees on Armed
Services, Agriculture, and Transportation and Infrastructure,
for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in
each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within
the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
By Mr. BRENDAN F. BOYLE of Pennsylvania:
H.R. 6449. A bill to amend the Federal Election Campaign
Act of 1971 to provide political advertising vouchers and
payments to defray the costs of postage for candidates in
general elections to the Senate or House of Representatives
who agree to restrictions on the types of contributions such
candidates raise and the types of expenditures such
candidates make, and for other purposes; to the Committee on
House Administration, and in addition to the Committee on
Energy and Commerce, for a period to be subsequently
determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of
such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the
committee concerned.
By Mr. CHAFFETZ (for himself, Mr. Cummings, and Mr.
Meadows):
H.R. 6450. A bill to amend the Inspector General Act of
1978 to strengthen the independence of the Inspectors
General, and for other purposes; to the Committee on
Oversight and Government Reform.
By Mr. DENHAM (for himself and Mr. Chaffetz):
H.R. 6451. A bill to improve the Government-wide management
of Federal property; to the Committee on Oversight and
Government Reform, and in addition to the Committee on
Transportation and Infrastructure, for a period to be
subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for
consideration of such provisions as fall within the
jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
By Mrs. RADEWAGEN:
H.R. 6452. A bill to implement the Convention on the
Conservation and Management of High Seas Fisheries Resources
in the North Pacific Ocean, to implement the Convention on
the Conservation and Management of High Seas Fishery
Resources in the South Pacific Ocean, and for other purposes;
to the Committee on Natural Resources, and in addition to the
Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, for a period to
be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for
consideration of such provisions as fall within the
jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
By Mr. FITZPATRICK:
H.R. 6453. A bill to clarify the effect of a Memorandum
Opinion for the Assistant Attorney General, Criminal
Division, dated September 20, 2011, and pertaining to the
lawfulness of proposals by Illinois and New York to use the
Internet and out-of-state transaction processors to sell
lottery tickets to in-state adults, and for other purposes;
to the Committee on Financial Services, and in addition to
the Committee on the Judiciary, for a period to be
subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for
consideration of such provisions as fall within the
jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
By Mr. GARAMENDI:
H.R. 6454. A bill to require a certain percentage of LNG
and crude oil exports be transported on United States-built
and United States-flag vessels, and for other purposes; to
the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the
Committee on Foreign Affairs, for a period to be subsequently
determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of
such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the
committee concerned.
By Mr. GARAMENDI (for himself and Mr. Duncan of
Tennessee):
H.R. 6455. A bill to require a certain percentage of LNG
and crude oil exports be transported on vessels documented
under the laws of the United States, and for other purposes;
to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to
the Committee on Foreign Affairs, for a period to be
subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for
consideration of such provisions as fall within the
jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
By Mr. VEASEY:
H.R. 6456. A bill to render the amounts authorized to be
appropriated for U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement for fiscal years 2018
through 2021 contingent upon the amount appropriated for the
Executive Office for Immigration Review for fiscal year 2017;
to the Committee on Homeland Security, and in addition to the
Committees on Ways and Means, and the Judiciary, for a period
to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case
for consideration of such provisions as fall within the
jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
By Mr. VEASEY:
H.R. 6457. A bill to amend title XVIII of the Social
Security Act to provide Medicare coverage of preventive
services that are required to be covered by group and
individual
[[Page 16143]]
health plans; to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in
addition to the Committee on Ways and Means, for a period to
be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for
consideration of such provisions as fall within the
jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
By Mr. VEASEY:
H.R. 6458. A bill to amend title IV of the Social Security
Act to prohibit a State from requiring individuals to submit
to drug testing as a condition of assistance under the
program of block grants to States for temporary assistance to
needy families, to amend the United States Housing Act of
1937 to prohibit a public housing agency from requiring
individuals to submit to drug testing as a condition of
assistance under the Housing Choice Voucher Program, and for
other purposes; to the Committee on Ways and Means, and in
addition to the Committee on Financial Services, for a period
to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case
for consideration of such provisions as fall within the
jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
By Mr. CURBELO of Florida (for himself and Mr. Scott of
Virginia):
H.R. 6459. A bill to reauthorize and improve the Juvenile
Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974, and for other
purposes; to the Committee on Education and the Workforce.
By Mrs. BUSTOS (for herself, Mr. Lipinski, Mr. Jones,
Mr. Rush, Ms. Kaptur, Mr. Nolan, Ms. Norton, Ms.
Moore, Mr. Pocan, Mr. Gallego, Mr. Garamendi, Mr.
Foster, and Ms. Schakowsky):
H.R. 6460. A bill to amend the Safe Drinking Water Act to
require, for projects for the construction, alteration,
maintenance, or repair of treatment works funded through a
State drinking water treatment revolving loan fund, the use
of iron and steel products that are produced in the United
States; to the Committee on Energy and Commerce.
By Mr. COHEN:
H.R. 6461. A bill to encourage school bus safety; to the
Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, and in
addition to the Committee on Education and the Workforce, for
a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in
each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within
the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
By Mr. COLLINS of New York (for himself, Mr. Guthrie,
Mrs. Blackburn, Mrs. Brooks of Indiana, Mr. Flores,
and Mr. Mullin):
H.R. 6462. A bill to amend title XIX of the Social Security
Act for purposes of prioritizing the most vulnerable Medicaid
patients; to the Committee on Energy and Commerce.
By Mr. COLLINS of New York (for himself and Mr. Long):
H.R. 6463. A bill to direct the Secretary of Health and
Human Services to issue guidance with respect to three-
dimensional human tissue models, and for other purposes; to
the Committee on Energy and Commerce.
By Mrs. DAVIS of California:
H.R. 6464. A bill to direct the Secretary of Education to
award grants for teacher-led projects to improve academic
growth in elementary school and secondary school, and for
other purposes; to the Committee on Education and the
Workforce.
By Mr. DUNCAN of Tennessee:
H.R. 6465. A bill to authorize the incorporation of water
quality improvement partnership programs into Federal Water
Pollution Control Act NPDES permit programs, and for other
purposes; to the Committee on Transportation and
Infrastructure.
By Mr. EMMER of Minnesota (for himself and Mr.
DeFazio):
H.R. 6466. A bill to establish a website for Federal
Government apps, and for other purposes; to the Committee on
Oversight and Government Reform.
By Mr. GRAYSON:
H.R. 6467. A bill to provide that individuals may elect to
retain work-related benefits when moving throughout the
workforce, and for other purposes; to the Committee on
Education and the Workforce.
By Mr. HARRIS (for himself, Mr. Perry, Mr. Davidson,
Mr. Gosar, Mr. Brat, Mr. Wilson of South Carolina,
Mr. Webster of Florida, Mr. Babin, Mr. Gohmert, Mr.
Franks of Arizona, Mr. Yoho, Mr. LaMalfa, Mr. King of
Iowa, Mr. Roe of Tennessee, Mr. Collins of New York,
Mr. Smith of Texas, Mr. Duncan of South Carolina, Mr.
Jody B. Hice of Georgia, Mr. Smith of Missouri, Mr.
Walker, Mr. Chabot, Mr. Pitts, Mr. Lamborn, Mr.
Sanford, Mr. Conaway, Mrs. Hartzler, Mr. Allen, Mr.
Kelly of Mississippi, Mr. Weber of Texas, Mr.
Wenstrup, Mr. LaHood, Mr. Palmer, Mr. Grothman, and
Mr. Posey):
H.R. 6468. A bill to prohibit any entity that receives
Federal funds and does not comply with a lawful request for
information or detainment of an alien made by any officer or
employee of the Federal government who is charged with
enforcement of the immigration laws from receiving additional
funding; to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition
to the Committees on Oversight and Government Reform, and
Appropriations, for a period to be subsequently determined by
the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such
provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee
concerned.
By Mr. HUFFMAN:
H.R. 6469. A bill to revise the Yurok Reservation, and for
other purposes; to the Committee on Natural Resources.
By Mr. KENNEDY (for himself and Mr. Messer):
H.R. 6470. A bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of
1986 to permit fellowship and stipend compensation to be
saved in an individual retirement account; to the Committee
on Ways and Means.
By Mr. MOONEY of West Virginia:
H.R. 6471. A bill to expand retroactive eligibility of the
Army Combat Action Badge to include members of the Army who
participated in combat during which they personally engaged,
or were personally engaged by, the enemy at any time on or
after December 7, 1941; to the Committee on Armed Services.
By Miss RICE of New York (for herself and Ms.
Stefanik):
H.R. 6472. A bill to amend the Elementary and Secondary
Education Act of 1965 to establish a Volunteer Teacher
Advisory Committee and a Volunteer Parents and Families
Advisory Committee; to the Committee on Education and the
Workforce.
By Mr. UPTON:
H.R. 6473. A bill to express the sense of Congress that
information security is critical to the economic security of
the United States and to direct the Assistant Secretary of
Commerce for Communications and Information to submit to
Congress a report on the costs of information security; to
the Committee on Energy and Commerce.
By Mr. WALDEN (for himself, Mr. Yarmuth, Mr. Gene Green
of Texas, Mr. Rush, Mr. Bilirakis, Mr. Olson, and Mr.
Guthrie):
H.R. 6474. A bill to eliminate the daily newspaper cross-
ownership rule of the Federal Communications Commission; to
the Committee on Energy and Commerce.
By Mr. YOUNG of Alaska:
H.R. 6475. A bill to remove reversionary clauses on
property owned by the municipality of Anchorage, Alaska; to
the Committee on Natural Resources.
By Mr. RUSH:
H. Con. Res. 180. Concurrent resolution expressing the
sense of Congress that rates for inmate calling service
should not exceed the affordable modified rates adopted by
the Federal Communications Commission; to the Committee on
Energy and Commerce.
By Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN:
H. Con. Res. 181. Concurrent resolution directing the
Secretary of the Senate to make a certain correction in the
enrollment of S. 1635; considered and agreed to.
By Mr. JENKINS of West Virginia (for himself, Mr.
McKinley, and Mr. Mooney of West Virginia):
H. Con. Res. 182. Concurrent resolution commemorating the
75th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7,
1941, and the sinking of the U.S.S. West Virginia during that
attack; to the Committee on Armed Services.
By Ms. LEE:
H. Res. 948. A resolution honoring the individuals who lost
their lives in the tragic fire in Oakland, California, on
December 2, 2016; to the Committee on the Judiciary.
By Mr. GARRETT:
H. Res. 950. A resolution expressing support for the
designation of October 23 as a national day of remembrance of
the tragic 1983 terrorist bombing of the United States Marine
Corps Barracks in Beirut, Lebanon; to the Committee on
Oversight and Government Reform.
____________________
CONSTITUTIONAL AUTHORITY STATEMENT
Pursuant to clause 7 of rule XII of the Rules of the House
of Representatives, the following statements are submitted
regarding the specific powers granted to Congress in the
Constitution to enact the accompanying bill or joint
resolution.
By Mr. SWALWELL of California:
H.R. 6447.
Congress has the power to enact this legislation pursuant
to the following:
Article I, Section 8
By Mr. BEYER:
H.R. 6448.
Congress has the power to enact this legislation pursuant
to the following:
This bill is enacted pursuant to the power granted to
Congress under Article I, Sec. 8, Clause 3; Article IV,
Section 3, Clause 2; and Article I, Sec. 8, Clause 18 of the
United States Constitution.
By Mr. BRENDAN F. BOYLE of Pennsylvania:
H.R. 6449.
Congress has the power to enact this legislation pursuant
to the following:
Article I, section 8 of the U.S. Constitution, which grants
Congress the power to ``lay and collect Taxes, Duties,
Imposts, and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the
common defense and general Welfare of the United States.''
By Mr. CHAFFETZ:
H.R. 6450.
Congress has the power to enact this legislation pursuant
to the following:
[[Page 16144]]
Article I, Section 8, Clause 18
To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for
carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other
Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the
United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.
By Mr. DENHAM:
H.R. 6451.
Congress has the power to enact this legislation pursuant
to the following:
Article I, Section 8 of the United States Constitution,
specifically Clause 1 (relating to providing for the general
welfare of the United States), Clause 6 (relating to post
offices and post roads), and Clause 18 (relating to the power
to make all laws necessary and proper for carrying out the
powers vested in Congress), and Article IV, Section 3, Clause
2 (relating to the power of Congress to dispose of and make
all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or
other property belonging to the United States).
By Mrs. RADEWAGEN:
H.R. 6452.
Congress has the power to enact this legislation pursuant
to the following:
Article 1, Section 8 of the United States Constitution.
By Mr. FITZPATRICK:
H.R. 6453.
Congress has the power to enact this legislation pursuant
to the following:
In conjunction with the Commerce Clause (Article 1 Section
8 Clause 3) which states that Congress has the power to
regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several
states, and with the Indian tribes.
By Mr. GARAMENDI:
H.R. 6454.
Congress has the power to enact this legislation pursuant
to the following:
Article 1, Section 8
By Mr. GARAMENDI:
H.R. 6455.
Congress has the power to enact this legislation pursuant
to the following:
Article 1, Section 8
By Mr. VEASEY:
H.R. 6456.
Congress has the power to enact this legislation pursuant
to the following:
Article 1, Section 8
By Mr. VEASEY:
H.R. 6457.
Congress has the power to enact this legislation pursuant
to the following:
Article 1, Section 8
By Mr. VEASEY:
H.R. 6458.
Congress has the power to enact this legislation pursuant
to the following:
Article 1, Section 8, Clause 1
By Mr. CURBELO of Florida:
H.R. 6459.
Congress has the power to enact this legislation pursuant
to the following:
Article 1, section 8 of the Constitution of the United
States
By Mrs. BUSTOS:
H.R. 6460.
Congress has the power to enact this legislation pursuant
to the following:
This bill is enacted pursuant to the power granted to
Congress under Article I, Section 8, Clause 18 of the United
States Constitution.
By Mr. COHEN:
H.R. 6461.
Congress has the power to enact this legislation pursuant
to the following:
This bill is enacted pursuant to the power granted to
Congress under Article I, Section 8, Clause 18 of the United
States Constitution.
By Mr. COLLINS of New York:
H.R. 6462.
Congress has the power to enact this legislation pursuant
to the following:
Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution.
By Mr. COLLINS of New York:
H.R. 6463.
Congress has the power to enact this legislation pursuant
to the following:
Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution.
By Mrs. DAVIS of California:
H.R. 6464.
Congress has the power to enact this legislation pursuant
to the following:
Article 1, Section 8
By Mr. DUNCAN of Tennessee:
H.R. 6465.
Congress has the power to enact this legislation pursuant
to the following:
Congress has the power to enact this legislation pursuant
to Article I, Section 8, Clause 3 of the United States
Constitution.
By Mr. EMMER of Minnesota:
H.R. 6466.
Congress has the power to enact this legislation pursuant
to the following:
Article I, Section 8, Clause 3: To regulate Commerce with
foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the
Indian tribes
By Mr. GRAYSON:
H.R. 6467.
Congress has the power to enact this legislation pursuant
to the following:
Article I, Section 8, of the United States Constitution.
By Mr. HARRIS:
H.R. 6468.
Congress has the power to enact this legislation pursuant
to the following:
Clause 4 of Section 8 of Article 1 of the Constitution of
the United States.
By Mr. HUFFMAN:
H.R. 6469.
Congress has the power to enact this legislation pursuant
to the following:
Article 1, Section 8, Clause 18: To make all Laws which
shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the
foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this
Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in
any Department or office thereof.
By Mr. KENNEDY:
H.R. 6470.
Congress has the power to enact this legislation pursuant
to the following:
Article I, Section 8, Clause 1 (relating to the power of
Congress to provide for the general welfare of the United
States) and Clause 18 (relating to the power to make all laws
necessary and proper for carrying out the powers vested in
Congress).
By Mr. MOONEY of West Virginia:
H.R. 6471.
Congress has the power to enact this legislation pursuant
to the following:
Article I, Section 8. of the United States Constitution,
wherein it reads: ``Congress shall have the power . . . to
provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the
Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be
employed in the Service of the United States . . .'' and
``Congress shall have the power to . . . make all Laws which
shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the
foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this
Constitution in the Government of the United States or in any
Depaitinent or Officer thereof.''
By Miss RICE of New York:
H.R. 6472.
Congress has the power to enact this legislation pursuant
to the following:
Article I, Section 8
By Mr. UPTON:
H.R. 6473.
Congress has the power to enact this legislation pursuant
to the following:
Article I, Section 8, Clause 3 of the United States
Constitution.
By Mr. WALDEN:
H.R. 6474.
Congress has the power to enact this legislation pursuant
to the following:
Article I, Section 8, Clause 3 of the United States
Constitution.
By Mr. YOUNG of Alaska:
H.R. 6475.
Congress has the power to enact this legislation pursuant
to the following:
Article IV, Section 3, Clause 2
``The Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all
needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory or
other Property belonging to the United States; and nothing in
this Constitution shall be so construed as to Prejudice any
Claims of the United States, or of any particular State.''
____________________
ADDITIONAL SPONSORS
Under clause 7 of rule XII, sponsors were added to public bills and
resolutions, as follows:
H.R. 239: Mr. Perlmutter.
H.R. 446: Mr. Brendan F. Boyle of Pennsylvania.
H.R. 1095: Ms. Eshoo.
H.R. 1098: Mr. Serrano.
H.R. 1111: Ms. Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas.
H.R. 1258: Mr. Paulsen.
H.R. 1305: Mr. Visclosky.
H.R. 1342: Mrs. Radewagen and Mr. Lucas.
H.R. 1401: Mr. Gene Green of Texas.
H.R. 1459: Mr. Brendan F. Boyle of Pennsylvania.
H.R. 1571: Mr. Bera.
H.R. 1733: Mr. Doggett.
H.R. 1814: Mr. David Scott of Georgia.
H.R. 2016: Mr. Norcross and Ms. Norton.
H.R. 2067: Mr. Coffman.
H.R. 2519: Mr. Delaney.
H.R. 2798: Mr. Pallone.
H.R. 2849: Ms. Norton.
H.R. 2863: Mr. Delaney.
H.R. 2972: Ms. Duckworth.
H.R. 3084: Mr. Katko and Ms. Judy Chu of California.
H.R. 3222: Mr. Davidson.
H.R. 3861: Ms. Pingree.
H.R. 3970: Mr. Cohen.
H.R. 4298: Mr. Ross.
H.R. 4622: Mr. Vela.
H.R. 4794: Mr. Pascrell and Ms. Kuster.
H.R. 4795: Mr. Pascrell and Ms. Kuster.
H.R. 4796: Mr. Lowenthal.
H.R. 4813: Mr. Pascrell.
H.R. 4833: Mr. Al Green of Texas and Mr. Gutierrez.
H.R. 4919: Ms. Meng.
H.R. 4932: Mr. Visclosky.
H.R. 4938: Mr. Veasey.
H.R. 5008: Mr. Clay.
H.R. 5067: Mr. Danny K. Davis of Illinois, Mr. DeSaulnier,
Ms. Kaptur, Ms. Duckworth, Ms. Fudge, Mr. Delaney, and Mr.
Brady of Pennsylvania.
H.R. 5183: Mr. Larson of Connecticut and Mr. Heck of
Washington.
H.R. 5235: Mr. Ruiz and Mrs. Mimi Walters of California.
[[Page 16145]]
H.R. 5272: Mrs. Carolyn B. Maloney of New York and Ms.
McCollum.
H.R. 5369: Ms. Lofgren.
H.R. 5386: Mr. Langevin, Mr. Beyer, and Mr. Nadler.
H.R. 5474: Mr. Pallone.
H.R. 5589: Mr. Mooney of West Virginia.
H.R. 5654: Mr. Davidson.
H.R. 5851: Ms. Meng, Mr. Kilmer, and Mr. Smith of
Washington.
H.R. 6041: Ms. Sinema.
H.R. 6117: Ms. Judy Chu of California and Mr. Pallone.
H.R. 6159: Mr. Neal.
H.R. 6166: Mr. Rokita.
H.R. 6176: Mr. Rokita.
H.R. 6205: Ms. Judy Chu of California.
H.R. 6208: Mr. Brendan F. Boyle of Pennsylvania.
H.R. 6226: Mr. Burgess.
H.R. 6320: Mr. Bishop of Georgia.
H.R. 6340: Mr. Keating, Mr. Serrano, Mr. Lowenthal, Ms.
Judy Chu of California, and Mr. Smith of Washington.
H.R. 6343: Mr. Cardenas.
H.R. 6377: Ms. Judy Chu of California.
H.R. 6382: Ms. Kuster, Mr. Quigley, Mr. DeFazio, Ms.
Pingree, Mr. Delaney, Mr. Engel, Ms. Clark of Massachusetts,
Mr. Serrano, and Mr. Grijalva.
H.R. 6417: Mr. Cohen, Mr. Castro of Texas, Mr. Scott of
Virginia, and Mr. Yarmuth.
H.R. 6421: Mr. Curbelo of Florida, Mr. Carter of Georgia,
Mr. Jeffries, Ms. Wasserman Schultz, Mr. Zeldin, Mr.
Fitzpatrick, and Mr. Dent.
H.R. 6424: Mr. McGovern, Mr. Serrano, Mr. Tonko, and Mr.
Quigley.
H.R. 6428: Ms. Judy Chu of California.
H.R. 6436: Mr. David Scott of Georgia, Mr. Kind, Mr.
Perlmutter, Mr. Foster, and Mr. Kilmer.
H.R. 6446: Mr. Pascrell.
H. Con. Res. 144: Ms. Bonamici, Mr. DeFazio, and Mr.
Tipton.
H. Con. Res. 159: Mr. Perlmutter and Mr. Keating.
H. Con. Res. 175: Mr. Nadler.
H. Con. Res. 176: Mr. Cardenas.
H. Res. 12: Ms. Ros-Lehtinen.
H. Res. 289: Mr. Tonko and Mr. Brendan F. Boyle of
Pennsylvania.
H. Res. 590: Mr. Thompson of Pennsylvania.
H. Res. 833: Mr. Takano and Mr. Carson of Indiana.
[[Page 16146]]
EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS
____________________
BEVERLY WINTERS
______
HON. ED PERLMUTTER
of colorado
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. PERLMUTTER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to applaud Beverly Winters
for being recognized by the West Chamber as a 2016 Celebrate Women
Honoree. Celebrate Women Honorees are known for their perseverance,
accomplishments, generosity, and dedication to their passions and their
community.
Beverly is the current Executive Director of Developmental
Disabilities Resource Center (DDRC). She began pursuing her dream of
building a community that provided responsive support to individuals
and families after graduating from the University of Denver with a
Master's degree in Social Work. At DDRC, Beverly assists people with
intellectual and developmental disabilities and serves in a variety of
roles such as Residential Counselor, Medicaid Waiver Coordinator, Case
Manager, Director of Resource Coordination and Assistant Executive
Director. During her tenure at DDRC she has developed case management
services, established the first Family Support Council and the highly
successful DDRC behavior health services program, and shaped the self-
determination initiative.
Prior to her work at the DDRC, she was the administrator of a
residential care facility and a clinical services coordinator for a
mental health clinic in Des Moines, Iowa. Beverly has also been a
champion for abuse prevention as a member of various county, state and
legislative work groups and councils, including the HCPF Mental Health
Advisory Committee, Conflict-Free Case-Management task force, Jefferson
County Infant/Toddler Interagency Council, CORE Services Commission,
Adult Protection Advisory Committee Jefferson County Child and Youth
Leadership Commission, and Jeffco Thrives.
I extend my deepest congratulations to Beverly Winters for this well-
deserved recognition by the West Chamber.
____________________
RECOGNIZING THE 21ST CENTURY WILBERFORCE INITIATIVE
______
HON. K. MICHAEL CONAWAY
of texas
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. CONAWAY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the 21st Century
Wilberforce Initiative for working towards a world of religious
freedom.
On October 1, 2014, Dr. Randel Everett founded the 21st Century
Wilberforce Initiative. Dr. Everett has a long and distinguished record
of service, which includes establishing the John Leland Center for
Theological Studies, serving as the Executive Director of the Baptist
General Convention of Texas, and over 40 years of pastoring all over
the nation including as my own pastor at First Baptist Church in
Midland, Texas.
Under Dr. Everett's leadership, the 21st Century Wilberforce
Initiative has experienced remarkable growth and has left a lasting
impact through their work. The organization has now grown to two
offices: one in the Washington, D.C. area that focuses on the United
States' engagement in protecting religious liberties and a second
office in Dallas, Texas, which serves as a headquarters that mobilizes
and engages with churches to help raise public awareness of people who
are facing religious oppression around the world.
Since its conception, the 21st Century Wilberforce Initiative has
helped thousands of people worldwide by working alongside policymakers.
In 2015, members from the organization traveled to Iraq and met with
Christians and Yazidis impacted by the Islamic State. Their report,
``Edge of Extinction,'' helped elevate the awareness regarding the
atrocities of religious and ethnic minorities in the Nineveh Plain.
Through their efforts, the organization was successful in establishing
a Special Advisor for Religious Minorities in the Near East and South/
Central Asia within the State Department and in passing H. Con. Res.
75, which officially declared ISIL's persecution and mass murder of
Christians, Yezidis, and other groups in Iraq and Syria as genocide,
war crimes, and crimes against humanity. This bill passed the House on
March 14, 2016, by a vote of 393-0--a success I was proud to support.
The 21st Century Wilberforce Initiative has become a leading advocate
for religious minorities in other areas, such as northern and central
Nigeria. Throughout 2016, the 21st Century Wilberforce Initiative has
traveled throughout areas of Nigeria that the UN describes as the
world's worst current humanitarian crisis. During these trips,
Wilberforce spoke with thousands of pastors and victims throughout the
country and listened to their heartbreaking stories. The group's
published report ``Fractured and Forgotten'' has been featured at
numerous conferences and has been used to brief Congressional leaders.
The group worked extensively with the Nigerian National Assembly to
help confirm a new U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria in September of 2016.
In addition to raising awareness, the 21st Century Wilberforce
Initiative has trained more than 2,700 religious and government leaders
from across the world on the importance of religious freedom, worked to
expand religious liberties in Nepal's Constitution, and met with
leaders within the Taiwanese government to discuss creating a Religious
Freedom Caucus in the Legislative Yuan. These are just some of the many
accomplishments the 21st Century Wilberforce Initiative has been able
to accomplish in their efforts to advance religious freedom around the
world.
As a nation that was built by those who escaped religious persecution
in their homelands, we must not forget that thousands of others across
the globe are facing the same persecution as our forefathers. The 21st
Century Wilberforce Initiative has given these people a voice and hope
that one day they can share the same liberties that we all cherish here
in this great nation. I applaud the 21st Century Wilberforce Initiative
for their hard work and pray that God blesses them and continues to
provide them with the strength and courage to continue their mission to
help save their fellow man.
____________________
CONGRATULATING HASTINGS COLLEGE VOLLEYBALL AND MEN'S SOCCER ON NATIONAL
CHAMPIONSHIPS
______
HON. ADRIAN SMITH
of nebraska
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. SMITH of Nebraska. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate the
Volleyball and Men's Soccer teams from Hastings College in Hastings,
Nebraska, on their 2016 national championships.
This is the Bronco Volleyball team's first national title. Despite
trailing by two sets in the final match, the Broncos confidently swept
their final three sets for the championship. The team ends their season
with a record of 33-3. Katie Placke of Grand Island and Logan Drueppel
of Schuyler were selected as first team All-Americans, with Katie also
receiving a CoSIDA College Division Academic All-American and Logan
being named the 2016 NAIA Volleyball National Championship MVP. They
are joined by first team All-American Jill Bax of Lincoln, who is the
2016 NAIA Libero of the Year. Coach Matt Buttermore was named the 2016
NAIA Volleyball Coach of the Year.
The Bronco Men's Soccer team is celebrating their second national
title, having first won a championship in 2010. The team finished with
a record of 24-0-1 under head coach Aaron Champenoy in his first season
at Hastings College. The team's roster includes players from seven
states and nine countries. Daniel Whitehall was named the 2016 NAIA
Player of the Year and the tournament's Most Valuable Offensive Player.
Joe White was the tournament's Most Valuable Player and a second team
All-American, and Marc Tautz is a third team All-American.
On behalf of the people of Nebraska's Third District, I commend these
talented men and women on their athletic and academic achievements.
They certainly have made our state proud, and it's a great day to be a
Bronco.
[[Page 16147]]
____________________
HONORING THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF EDGAR ``DOOKY'' CHASE
______
HON. CEDRIC L. RICHMOND
of louisiana
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. RICHMOND. Mr. Speaker, I rise today with my colleague Congressman
Scalise to honor a true New Orleans legend, Mr. Edgar ``Dooky'' Chase
Jr. Mr. Chase is known in New Orleans not only for the decadent cuisine
served at Dooky Chase's Restaurant, but also for his continued
dedication to being a leader in the African-American community. He used
food and music to bring people from all walks of life together under
one roof. From the age of 16 to the age of 88, Mr. Chase worked
tirelessly for the people of New Orleans.
During his teenage years, Mr. Chase was an active member of the
Musicians Union and helped increase the pay for local entertainers. He
also worked with the Musicians Union to promote the first racially
integrated concert performed at the Municipal Auditorium in the
historical Treme neighborhood.
Mr. Chase and his wife Leah, graciously known as the ``Queen of
Creole Cuisine,'' turned his family po-boy restaurant into an eloquent
dining experience for the likes of Martin Luther King Sr., Ray Charles,
President Barack Obama, and everyday citizens like Rep. Scalise and I.
This restaurant served as a safe place where African-Americans could
dine when other establishments did not serve them.
Even in hard times, Mr. Chase's faith did not waver. After Hurricane
Katrina, he and his wife lived in a FEMA trailer across from their
restaurant for more than a year until they could reopen their doors in
2007.
Because of Mr. Chase's relentless dedication and service to the New
Orleans community, his legacy will live on through his iconic
restaurant, and through his beloved wife.
____________________
HONORING THE SERVICE OF COMMANDER MICHAEL F. BRINCK ON HIS RETIREMENT
______
HON. JEFF MILLER
of florida
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. MILLER of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize and
honor the service, dedication, and accomplishments of Commander Michael
F. Brinck (USN Ret.), Deputy Staff Director of the House Committee on
Veterans' Affairs, upon the occasion of his retirement from the U.S.
House of Representatives.
A native of West Point, Iowa, Commander Brinck received a Bachelor's
degree in Political Science from St. Ambrose University in 1968.
Following his graduation, Commander Brinck entered the Officer
Candidate School for the United States Navy. In 1969, he received his
Navy wings and reported to Helicopter Attack Light Squadron 3 in the
Republic of Vietnam in support of Riverine operations in the Mekong
Delta. Fleet assignments include carrier deployments to the Gulf of
Tonkin and the Mediterranean, flight instructor, three deployments in
support of Operation Deep Freeze in Antarctica, the Naval War College,
Washington D.C. and assignments at the Navy Command Center at the
Pentagon, the Bureau of Naval Personnel, and the Arms Control and
Disarmament Agency. After two decades and a distinguished career, he
retired from the United States Navy in 1988 with the rank of commander.
Commander Brinck began his career on Capitol Hill in 1995 as the
Staff Director for the Subcommittee on Education, Training, Employment,
and Housing and continued to serve as a Subcommittee Staff Director for
the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs in the 104th, 105th, 109th,
110th, 111th, 112th, and 113th Congresses.
Due to his steadfast commitment to his work and his expertise
navigating the plethora of issues facing America's veterans, Commander
Brinck was named the Deputy Staff Director of the full Committee in
2013.
Throughout his tenure on the Committee staff, Commander Brinck
faithfully served three different Committee Chairmen--Bob Stump, Steve
Buyer, and myself--as well as countless other Members. I know I speak
for us all when I say that his wise advice and sage counsel was
instrumental in assisting us in honoring the service and sacrifice of
America's servicemembers, veterans, and their families.
Commander Brinck was a key contributor in the drafting and passage of
landmark pieces of veterans' education and training legislation and
personally contributed to the creation of policies that continue to
improve the daily lives and ongoing well-being of veterans and their
families.
During my tenure as Chairman, Commander Brinck was instrumental in
creating the Veterans Retraining Assistance Program or VRAP which
provided job training for in-demand occupations for nearly 100,000
unemployed veterans. He was also a tireless advocate in drafting and
pushing legislation that would ensure that returning veterans received
in-state tuition when attending public schools, which became a reality
with the passage of the Choice Act in 2014.
Over a long and multifaceted career of distinguished service in the
halls of Congress, Commander Brinck has been a dogged advocate for the
interests of America's veterans and taxpayers, embodying excellence and
commitment in service to his fellow citizens.
Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the United States House of Representatives
and the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, it gives me great pride
to honor the selfless service of Commander Brinck.
My wife, Vicki, joins me in honoring him for his many years of
exemplary service to our Nation, thanking him for his unyielding
dedication to America's veterans, and wishing him and his wife, Marla,
all of the best in their future endeavors.
____________________
RECOGNIZING MRS. ANN DRAWDY
______
HON. DANIEL WEBSTER
of florida
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. WEBSTER of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to recognize Mrs.
Ann Drawdy on her tremendous service to the people of Florida. This
month, Mrs. Drawdy will retire after serving more than a quarter
century as a constituent service representative. It gives me great
pleasure to recognize her service to Floridians and the Central Florida
community.
The lives of hundreds of citizens have been changed for the better
thanks to Ann's knowledge and persistence in providing assistance with
issues involving state and federal agencies. During her six years of
service to the constituents in Florida Congressional Districts eight
and ten, Ann assisted and closed over 200 constituent cases. Countless
other constituent cases at the state level were the beneficiaries of
her assistance during her time of service in the Florida Senate to
Senators Dick Langley, Carey Baker and myself.
From asking for information or a status report on a pending case, or
requesting clarification, to serving as a direct point of contact to
liaisons in federal agencies, Ann was instrumental in our office
successfully intervening on a person's behalf to answer questions, find
solutions, or simply attempt to cut through the red tape.
It was a personal honor to have Ann Drawdy on my team serving Central
Floridians. Her attitude of service and dedication to quietly assisting
Floridians navigate state and federal agencies are a testimony to her
kindness and humility. Ann's character, life, and efforts will surely
inspire others to follow her example of serving.
I am truly grateful for Ann's faithful service to our state and her
dedication to finding solutions on behalf of Floridians. Our community,
our state and our country are better due to her service.
____________________
ANDREA BURCH
______
HON. ED PERLMUTTER
of colorado
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. PERLMUTTER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to applaud Andrea Burch for
being recognized by the West Chamber as a 2016 Celebrate Women Honoree.
Celebrate Women Honorees are known for their perseverance,
accomplishments, generosity, and dedication to their passions and their
community.
Andrea is currently a Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer at
Lutheran Medical Center and has transcended expectations through her
work both in the medical field and in leadership. During her nearly 25
years of nursing, Andrea has served in many roles, from certified
nursing assistant to a critical care specialty nurse in neurosciences.
She has also fulfilled several leadership positions, managing a variety
of departments, initiatives, and committees.
[[Page 16148]]
Today, Andrea provides strategic direction for nursing professional
excellence, quality and safety at Lutheran and serves as an advocate
for staff and patients. She believes in collaborative, authentic
leadership that helps nurses reach their highest professional
potential. Andrea is a registered nurse with a Master's Degree in
Leadership of Healthcare Systems from Regis University, and she is
currently pursuing a Distinguished Leader Executive Certificate from
the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business.
I extend my deepest congratulations to Andrea Burch for this well-
deserved recognition by the West Chamber.
____________________
RECOGNIZING THE SERVICE OF THE HONORABLE JOE PITTS
______
HON. BILL SHUSTER
of pennsylvania
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. SHUSTER. Mr. Speaker, as members of Congress, we all know that
our time in this chamber is limited. Each election brings new faces,
while history records the names of members as they leave the chamber
for the last time. Some members, however, will be remembered long after
they have left for the work they do on behalf of the American people.
Joe Pitts is one of those members. During his time in Congress, he
became known for his dedication to helping his constituents. He was
always someone who could be counted on to help create real solutions
and to uphold the best traditions of this chamber. He took the lead on
helping craft legislative solutions to some of the most difficult
problems of our time, including fixes to Medicare and research for
deadly diseases. He was also a dedicated fighter on behalf of the pro-
life cause, and used the pulpit of elected office to give a voice to
the unborn. But perhaps most of all, Joe will be remembered as a man
who cared deeply about helping others, and his legacy will be one of
working to improve the lives of the American people. Oh behalf of
myself and all Pennsylvanians, thank you Joe for your years of
dedicated service. I am honored to call you a friend, and wish you all
the best in the years to come.
____________________
IN RECOGNITION OF WELDON BURGOON AND WELDON'S SADDLE SHOP & WESTERN
WEAR
______
HON. MICHAEL C. BURGESS
of texas
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize a long-time
Denton business, Weldon's Saddle Shop & Western Wear. The community and
I are saddened that the store will close its doors after nearly 60
years of business on January 14, 2017. Weldon's presence on the
downtown Denton square will be long remembered.
Weldon Burgoon opened his shop in 1957, where he sold handmade
leather saddles and accessories. In the '60s and '70s Weldon's was
surrounded by many feed shops and farming centers, and when ranchers
and cowboys came into town, many made sure to stop by Weldon's before
they left. Over the years, Mr. Burgoon worked with his daughter,
Kippie, and grandson, Clint, to make Weldon's a staple in downtown
Denton.
During his time as store owner, Mr. Burgoon crafted over 150 custom
saddles and provided thousands of customers with quality Western wear,
but he also offered more than just merchandise. Weldon's attracted many
high school and college students who were members of the Future Farmers
of America organization. These students would work at Burgoon's shop
and on his ranch to get school credit and to gain valuable work
experience. Mr. Burgoon also served as the rodeo chairman for the North
Texas Fair and Rodeo for 14 years. Noted for his reputation for
excellence, demonstrated work ethic and dedication to cowboy culture,
he was inducted into the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame in 2010. Last year,
his store was named a Denton County Heritage Business for being in
existence for over 50 years.
Mr. Burgoon, now 86, has decided to close the shop after the 2016
holiday season. He looks forward to spending more time with his wife,
Joy, and seeing his grandson's new luxury leather store open in
Weldon's original location. It is an honor to represent Mr. Burgoon, a
local business icon, in the U.S. House of Representatives.
____________________
THE 25TH ANNIVERSARY OF KAZAKHSTAN'S INDEPENDENCE
______
HON. JEFF FORTENBERRY
of nebraska
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. FORTENBERRY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the 25th
anniversary of Kazakhstan's independence and the establishment of
diplomatic relations between Kazakhstan and the United States of
America. I would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate the
people of Kazakhstan on the tremendous progress achieved by their
country during the past quarter century.
The U.S. is the first country to have recognized Kazakhstan's
independence and since then we have significantly increased our areas
of cooperation. However, the cornerstone of the U.S.-Kazakhstan
relations has always been cooperation in nuclear non-proliferation and
security.
After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Kazakhstan inherited the
fourth largest nuclear arsenal in the world and the world's largest
nuclear test site at Semipalatinsk. In the first years of Kazakhstan's
independence, President Nazarbayev renounced nuclear weapons and closed
the Semipalatinsk Test Site. The United States provided Kazakhstan with
comprehensive assistance in the removal of nuclear warheads, weapons-
grade materials, and their supporting infrastructure.
Five years after gaining its independence, Kazakhstan signed the
Comprehensive-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) and ratified it in May of 2002.
The CTBT bans any nuclear weapon test explosion above or below ground
or any other contained environment. Ratifying the CTBT was a milestone
toward creating a safer world. However, as a universally recognized
leader in nuclear non-proliferation, Kazakhstan understands that it is
time to move from a nuclear test ban to a nuclear-weapons free world.
This is why Kazakhstan and its neighbors--Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan,
Turkmenistan & Uzbekistan--created the Central Asian Nuclear Weapons-
Free Zone.
We should acknowledge that Kazakhstan has continued to show its
commitment expanding its cooperation with the United States on matters
of nuclear non-proliferation. As an important example, our two
countries are collaborating in building the Nuclear Security Training
Center (NSTC). The NSTC will provide training of personnel on security
and safeguards essential for safe operation of nuclear facilities in
Kazakhstan.
Twenty-five years of close cooperation between Kazakhstan and the
United States are the foundation of an important strategic partnership
focused on creating a world without nuclear weapons and ultimately a
more stable peace around the globe. It is important that we recognize
Kazakhstan's leadership in nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation.
Kazakhstan continues to serve as an example to the international
community, and the United States must remain committed to supporting
Kazakhstan's efforts to further prevent the proliferation of nuclear
weapons and materials toward a goal of global security.
Mr. Speaker, it is a true pleasure to celebrate the quarter century
of Kazakhstan's independence. I would like to extend my warm wishes to
the people of Kazakhstan and President Nazarbayev.
____________________
PERSONAL EXPLANATION
______
HON. ROBERT J. WITTMAN
of virginia
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. WITTMAN. Mr. Speaker, I missed a series of recorded votes on
December 5, 2016. Had I been present, I would have voted ``YES'' on
roll call vote No. 601, No. 602, and No. 603.
____________________
HONORING MR. DANIEL S. CONDRON
______
HON. MIKE THOMPSON
of california
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. THOMPSON of California. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Daniel
S. Condron upon his retirement after serving for 11 years as the Vice
President of University Affairs at Sonoma State University. Mr. Condron
has led an impressive career over 44 years and has been a leader in the
areas of education, economic development and transportation.
A native of North Tonawonda, New York, Mr. Condron completed his B.S.
and M.S. Degrees in Electrical Engineering at Stanford
[[Page 16149]]
University. Mr. Condron worked with Hewlett-Packard for 33 years in
management positions across a number of business areas including
research and development, production, and public affairs.
Mr. Condron has focused his career in education on increasing
opportunities for all students from preschool through employment. In
his role as Vice President, Mr. Condron's priorities have included
community and governmental relations, marketing and communication,
creative services and special events for Sonoma State. He currently
serves as the Chairman of the Sonoma County Cradle to Career Operations
Team. Mr. Condron has also served as President of the Santa Rosa City
Schools Board of Education, Vice President for the Santa Rosa Junior
College Foundation, and Chairman of the Vice Presidents for Advancement
for the California State University System. Mr. Condron has
demonstrated a unique ability to bring people together to accomplish
goals to improve the future for countless individuals in our community.
Mr. Condron is a proven community leader. He has served many
community organizations including serving as President of the Boy
Scouts of America Redwood Empire Council, the Luther Burbank Center for
the Performing Arts, and the Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce. Mr.
Condron is also the Chair-elect of United Way of the Wine Country.
Mr. Speaker, Mr. Condron has made tremendous, long-lasting
contributions to Sonoma State University and to improving opportunities
for students in our community. He is a true friend of Sonoma State
University and a good friend of mine. Therefore, it is fitting and
proper that we honor him here today and extend our best wishes for an
enjoyable retirement.
____________________
PERSONAL EXPLANATION
______
HON. ROGER WILLIAMS
of texas
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. WILLIAMS. Mr. Speaker, on Roll Call 591 on final passage of H.R.
5047, the Protecting Veterans' Educational Choice Act of 2016, I would
have voted Aye, which is consistent with my position on this
legislation.
____________________
HONORING THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FIRST CHURCH OF GOD
______
HON. JIM COSTA
of california
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. COSTA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the 100th
anniversary of the First Church of God in Merced County. Their practice
in faith and education has provided love and charity to the people of
Merced County and the San Joaquin Valley for the last century. The
future is looking even brighter for this outstanding center of
community faith in the years to come.
The roots of the First Church of God found humble beginnings in 1916,
when the Bowen and Houser families moved from Lodi, California to
Atwater to begin their fellowship. Their first church services were
held in their own homes until they found the opportunity to rent the
old Winton Community Hall for larger gatherings, with nothing more than
dirt floors and handmade backless benches. By 1924, the church was able
to raise their first building with a $350 credit and payments of $25 a
month. That very building would now fit in the lobby of the First
Church of God's current place of worship, which was built in 1961. The
First Church of God's Christian Preschool was born in 1964 and has
grown into one of the largest places of faith based childcare and in
the Atwater-Merced area.
The services provided by the First Church of God and Christian
Preschool are as commendable as they are diverse. Sunday school, bible
studies, troubled youth outreach, marriage counseling, finance and debt
management, and shared missionary services in 87 countries are only a
few of the programs offered by the Church and Preschool.
The coming years will prove to be a fruitful time for this place of
worship and education. Their undertaking of a $1.2 million project to
furnish a new learning center, which will potentially double the
enrollment of children in their facility over the next two years of
operation. While it will certainly be challenging, their fellowship has
said, ``faith is tested and demonstrated in the midst of challenges God
places in front of us. If we had everything we needed to start and/or
finish, it wouldn't be faith--it would be fact.''
Mr. Speaker, I rise to commend the First Church of God for their
remarkable service to the people of Merced County over the last 100
years. Their history illustrates the uncompromising will that
individuals with big dreams can exercise when brought together with
enough faith in God and community.
____________________
MARY BERG
______
HON. ED PERLMUTTER
of colorado
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. PERLMUTTER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to applaud Mary Berg for
being recognized by the West Chamber as a 2016 Celebrate Women Honoree.
Celebrate Women Honorees are known for their perseverance,
accomplishments, generosity, and dedication to their passions and their
community.
For more than 21 years, Mary Berg has served the Jefferson County
community in many different capacities. She is currently the Deputy
Director of Jefferson County Department of Human Services. She is
passionate about ensuring the safety and well-being of children and
their families. Her actions at the local, state and national levels
have promoted the expansion of child welfare training programs and
systems of care as well as legislation impacting children and families.
Mary received her Master's Degree in Social Work from the University
of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and is also a graduate of the Leadership
Jefferson County class of 2008. She has co-authored publications on
teamwork and has presented at multiple state and national conferences.
Her tireless efforts to enable Jefferson County to serve more
vulnerable children and families have improved the community greatly.
I extend my deepest congratulations to Mary Berg for this well-
deserved recognition by the West Chamber.
____________________
TRIBUTE TO JOEL HANRAHAN
______
HON. DAVID YOUNG
of iowa
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. YOUNG of Iowa. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Iowa native
Joel Hanrahan upon his retirement from Major League Baseball (MLB)
after a successful seven-year career, playing for 3 different MLB
franchises.
Ever since the second grade, when his teachers or classmates would
ask what he wanted to be when he grew up, Joel knew he wanted to be a
baseball player. He became known to Iowans as a star pitcher for the
Norwalk High School Warriors, later pitching for the University of
Nebraska before being drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2000. After
honing his skills in the minor leagues, he made his MLB debut with the
Washington Nationals on July 28, 2007. He earned his first win as a
pitcher a week later against the St. Louis Cardinals. Despite his love
of the game, Joel ultimately had to make the difficult decision to
retire in 2016. During his career, he compiled a 22-18 record with a
3.85 earned-run average and 100 saves. He also earned a coveted
position in the 2011 and 2012 Major League Baseball All-Star games.
Mr. Speaker, I commend Joel for his years of dedication to a game he
loves. I am certain that the drive that led him to become an MLB All-
Star pitcher will lead to success no matter where his path takes him
next. I ask that my colleagues in the United States House of
Representatives join me in congratulating him and in wishing him
nothing but continued success.
____________________
IN RECOGNITION OF THE COURAGE AND BRAVERY OF THE FALLEN OFFICER COLLIN
ROSE IN THE LINE OF DUTY
______
HON. DEBBIE DINGELL
of michigan
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mrs. DINGELL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the life and
accomplishments of Officer Collin Rose of the Wayne State University's
Police Department, who was tragically lost in the line of duty. The
Wayne State University Police serve a significant portion of the City
of Detroit in addition to the university, and Officer Rose performed
his duties with distinction. The community will miss his courage and
bravery.
Officer Rose established a reputation as a kind and caring individual
dedicated to solving
[[Page 16150]]
issues in his community. Rose was born and raised in Pittsburgh, where
he excelled as a standout football player in high school. After
graduating from Ferris State University in 2010, he began his career in
law enforcement as an intern for the Springfield Police Department in
southwest Michigan. He then was hired as a cadet in the New Baltimore
Police Department, after which he became a police officer at the
Village of Richland Police Department. Rose then took a position with
the Wayne State University Police, where he had an outstanding record
of service and was known for his selflessness and dedication in
protecting the city of Detroit and its citizens. Rose also served the
community through his involvement with various charitable causes,
including the Police Unity Tour, which raises awareness of officers who
have died in the line of duty.
Officer Rose's death at a young age is a heartbreaking tragedy.
Officer Rose embodied the principles of service and duty, and having
such a promising young man's life cut short is a tremendous loss for
the law enforcement community and the city of Detroit. His sacrifice
shows the extraordinary risks that our nation's police face on a daily
basis, and my heart goes out to his family during this difficult
period. Officer Rose is a true hero, and it is my hope that his family
and the community find strength and come together to honor such an
amazing life in the aftermath of his passing.
Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me today in recognizing the
extraordinary life and courage of Officer Collin Rose. Rose was a fine
young officer who was committed to improving the Detroit community, and
we honor his life and work as the community mourns his passing.
____________________
TRUMP PROMOTES STRONG MILITARY
______
HON. JOE WILSON
of south carolina
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. WILSON of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, as a son of a World War II
Flying Tiger who served in India and China, a 31-year veteran myself,
and the grateful father of four sons who served overseas in the Global
War on Terrorism, I truly appreciated the remarks of President-elect
Donald J. Trump in Fayetteville, North Carolina, on December 6, 2016
promoting our military and our military families.
Remarks as Prepared for Delivery by
President-Elect Donald J. Trump
I am here today for one main reason: to say thank you to
the people of North Carolina.
You went out and pounded the pavement, organized your
fellow citizens, and propelled to victory a grassroots
movement the likes of which the world has never seen before.
I want to give a very special thank you to the incredible
military families, service members and Veterans of North
Carolina.
Your state's legacy of service is an inspiration to us all.
North Carolina has produced many of the finest soldiers,
airmen, sailors and marines the world has ever seen.
Our men and women in uniform represent the very best of us.
We must follow their example: working in unison toward a
shared goal across every social, racial and economic line.
They understand that to accomplish the mission, we must all
be pulling in the same direction. And they know that we must
leave no man or woman behind.
These patriots have shed their blood to defend our country
in distant fields of battle across the Earth. Our debt to
them is eternal and everlasting.
We salute their sacrifice, and we salute the flag they
fought to protect.
Tomorrow is the 75th anniversary of Pearl Harbor. It is a
milestone that marks the ultimate sacrifice of those who wear
the uniform. It is a reminder, too, of the valiant efforts of
America's fighting men and women who have liberated millions
from tyranny and oppression.
Now, today, our brave men and women are the first line of
defense against Radical Islamic Terrorism--an ideology of
death that slaughters innocent men, women and children.
In every generation, a new threat to freedom arises. And
just as we defeated the threats we faced in generations past,
so too will we defeat the forces of terrorism. We will
prevail.
We stand here today just miles from Fort Bragg, the home of
heroes.
Our Special Forces at Fort Bragg have been the tip of the
spear in fighting terrorism. The motto of our Army Special
Forces is `to free the oppressed' and that is exactly what
they have been doing.
At this very moment, soldiers from Fort Bragg are deployed
in 90 countries.
Based in Fort Bragg is the 82nd Airborne Division--also
known as The All-American Division.
We stand in awe of their achievements.
Not far from here sits forty-five percent of the entire
United States Marine Corps, at Camp Lejeune.
12,000 citizen-soldiers fill the ranks of the North
Carolina Army and Air National Guard. The National Guard
rushed to the scene to help the victims of Hurricane Matthew,
and we continue to send our thoughts and prayers to those
recovering in its wake.
The military families in North Carolina are a national
treasure, and it will be the duty of my Administration to
ensure that we protect those who protect us.
That brings me to the second reason I am here today: to
discuss our Action Plan To Make America Great Again--
beginning with the rebuilding of our military and taking care
of our Vets.
Here are the priorities that will guide our Military and
Veterans Policy:
--All men and women in uniform will have the supplies,
support, equipment, training, services, medical care, and
resources they need to get the job done.
--The best care in the world for our Veterans, both at
public VA facilities, as well as the right to see a private
doctor.
--And finally, a commitment to only engage the use of
military forces when it is in the vital national security
interests of the United States.
From now on, it's going to be: America First.
We will stop racing to topple foreign regimes. Instead, our
focus must be on defeating terrorism and destroying ISIS.
Any nation that shares these goals will be our partner in
this mission.
We want to strengthen old friendships and seek out new
friendships. Rather than a rigid dogma, we are guided by the
lessons of history and a desire to promote stability: this
destructive cycle of intervention and chaos must come to an
end.
We seek harmony and goodwill among the nations of the
world--and we believe that respect for mutual sovereignty
helps form the basis of trust and understanding.
We build up our military not as an act of aggression, but
as an act of prevention. We pursue and build up arms not in
order to seek conflict, but in order to avoid conflict.
In short, we seek Peace Through Strength.
That is why, in my first budget report to Congress, I am
going to ask for the elimination of the defense sequester.
We will show the world that America is going to be strong
again.
But in order to succeed with our defense policy, we must
find the right person to lead our Defense Department.
That is why I am proud to formally announce today my
intention to nominate General James ``Mad Dog'' Mattis as the
next Secretary of Defense for the United States of America.
Jim is a Marine Corps four-star general, the former
Commander of U.S. Central Command and NATO's Supreme Allied
Commander for Transformation. He led an assault battalion in
Operation Desert Storm, led the Forces that went after the
Taliban, and commanded the First Marine Division in Iraq.
He is one of the most effective generals and extraordinary
leaders of our time, who has committed his life to his love
for our country. General Mattis is the living embodiment of
the Marine Corps motto, `Semper Fidelis,' always faithful,
and the American people are fortunate that a man of his
character and integrity will now be the civilian leader atop
the Department of Defense. Under his leadership, we will
rebuild our military and alliances, destroy terrorists, face
our enemies head on, and make America safe again . . .''
____________________
HONORING 2017 SOMALI INDEPENDENCE DAY
______
HON. BETTY McCOLLUM
of minnesota
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Ms. McCOLLUM. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Minnesota's
vibrant Somali-American community and the many cultural, economic and
social contributions members make to our state as they begin
preparations to celebrate 2017 Somali Independence Day week next summer
in Saint Paul and Minneapolis.
Annual commemoration of Somali Independence Day is the culmination of
Somali Week celebrations in Minnesota, which drew together more than
30,000 participants last July. Somali Week has grown into the Minnesota
Somali communities' largest community event of the year and is one of
the largest gatherings of the Somali Diaspora.
Hosted in locations throughout Saint Paul and Minneapolis, this week-
long festival unites people from around the world and around the state
to share in cultural, entertainment and athletic events. The most
notable of these activities include a multicultural soccer tournament
known as `The Cup of Nations,' hosted by Concordia University in Saint
Paul and a family-friendly street festival on Somali Independence Day.
[[Page 16151]]
`Promoting Diversity through Unity and Inclusion' is the 2017 Somali
Week theme established by organizers. Kajoog, a local Somali non-profit
organization is leading efforts with other community partners to plan
exhibitions, performances, and wide ranging panel discussions, aimed at
uplifting the strengths of inclusivity. Kajoog Executive Director Daud
Muhammad has forged strong collaborations with the Minnesota Historical
Society, the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, the Somali Museum of
Minnesota, among many others to plan this vibrant festival.
In addition to organizing Somali Week, Kajoog has earned recognition
by local, state and federal officials, as well as law enforcement for
their effective job-training and positive youth programs, and efforts
to combat extremism throughout the community.
Mr. Speaker, Minnesota's Somali community has added greatly to the
fabric of our state and our nation. Please join me in paying tribute to
community members who come together each year to celebrate Somali Week,
and every day work to foster, educate, and promote cultural
understanding and traditions among all Minnesotans.
____________________
RECOGNIZING THE NOMINEES FOR THE 2016 WASHINGTON POST TEACHER OF THE
YEAR AWARD FOR PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY SCHOOLS
______
HON. GERALD E. CONNOLLY
of virginia
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. CONNOLLY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the nominees for
the Washington Post Teacher of the Year Award for Prince William County
Schools.
The Washington Post Teacher of the Year Award was designed to
``recognize excellence in teaching, to encourage creative and quality
instruction, and to contribute in a substantive way to the improvement
of education in the Washington metropolitan area.''
The annual recipients include one representative from each of the
nineteen metropolitan public school systems, a representative from the
Washington metropolitan area private schools and a representative from
the District of Columbia Public Charter Schools.
The winner selected from the Prince William Public School Division
will also be named the Prince William County Outstanding Teacher of the
Year. Teachers who meet the criteria for the award are those who
instill in students a desire to learn and achieve, understand the
individual needs of students, and demonstrate a thorough knowledge of
subject matter and have the ability to share it effectively with
students.
I would like to extend my personal congratulations to the 2016 Prince
William County nominees for The Washington Post Teacher of the Year
Award.
Elementary School Teachers
Edward Abram, T. Clay Wood Elementary School.
Rebecca Anderson, T. Clay Wood Elementary School.
Amy Aylor, T. Clay Wood Elementary School.
Michael Ciampaglione, Bristow Run Elementary School.
Phyllis Cooke, Sudley Elementary School.
Andrew Cossaboon, Leesylvania Elementary School.
Sherri Croghan, Pattie Elementary School.
Adam Dove, T. Clay Wood Elementary School.
Carmen Hankerson, Neabsco Elementary School.
Toni Anne Harris, Buckland Mills Elementary School.
Lisa Jacobsmeyer, Henderson Elementary School.
Elizabeth Johnson, Buckland Mills Elementary School.
Stacy Ross, King Elementary School.
Roberta Wallingford, Ashland Elementary School.
Timothy Wilson, Williams Elementary School.
Middle School Teachers
Christina Barcalow, Graham Park Middle School.
High School Teachers
Erin Anderson, Pennington Traditional School.
Stacie Bonat, Independent Hill School.
Kathleen Dail, New Directions Alternative Education Center.
Stephen Dittmer, Battlefield High School.
Nancy Dow, Independent Hill School.
Carrie Gahagan, Osbourn Park High School.
Megan Hostutler, Patriot High School.
Lorri Jones, Independent Hill School.
Kathleen Kieffer, Osbourn Park High School.
Ann Lightfoot, Potomac High School.
Stephanie Nash, Stonewall Jackson High School.
Juan Sampedro, Hylton High School.
Karen Shaver, Gar-Field High School.
Lauren Wilson, Hylton High School.
Alison Young, Forest Park High School.
Mr. Speaker, I ask that my colleagues join me in commending the
nominees for the 2016 Washington Post Teacher of the Year Award in
Prince William County and in thanking them for their dedication to our
children. Their continued service will ensure that Prince William
County students are provided with a world class education in a more
vibrant learning community.
____________________
RETIREMENT OF BELL COUNTY COMMISSIONER RICHARD CORTESE
______
HON. JOHN R. CARTER
of texas
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. CARTER of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to celebrate the
retirement of Bell County Commissioner Richard Cortese. His
extraordinary commitment to community service over nearly a quarter
century reflects the best values of Central Texas.
A native son of Little River-Academy, a growing community in the
heart of Central Texas, Richard has led a life devoted to causes bigger
than him. Upon completion of his U.S. Air Force career, he returned
home to build a ranch while continuing to dedicate himself to his
community. In 1992, he was elected to county commissioner and later was
active in the Texas Farm Bureau.
Even outside of his professional career, Richard has dedicated
himself to his community. He has been active in the Young Farmers of
Texas Association and even served as president of the Little River-
Academy Lions Club. He has been a member and has acted as president or
chairman of various associations and committees that worked to make
Texas a great place to live. He has even been involved with the
development of the consolidated 9-1-1 dispatch center in Bell County as
well as the planning and construction of additional courts and jail
facilities for Bell County.
Retirement is to be celebrated and enjoyed. It is not the end of a
career, but rather the beginning of a new adventure. I heartily salute
Richard Cortese's work and contributions to his community. I'm sure I
echo the thoughts of all when I wish him the best in both his
retirement and all his future endeavors.
____________________
RECOGNIZING JUAN R. LOPEZ AS AN OUTSTANDING PUBLIC SERVANT
______
HON. ALAN GRAYSON
of florida
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. GRAYSON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Juan R. Lopez for
his tireless work as my District Director.
Starting in 2004, Juan R. Lopez began his career working as a
Constituent Advocate in the United States Senate. In 2008, I was
elected to serve Florida's Eighth Congressional District for the 111th
Congress. I asked Juan to join my team as my Director of Constituent
Services. During the 111th Congress, Juan was instrumental to managing
staff, casework, and assisting thousands of constituents. His work on
behalf of veterans was outstanding.
When I returned to Congress in the 113th Congress, this time
representing Florida's Ninth Congressional District, I once again asked
Juan to join my team as my Director of Constituent Services. During the
113th Congress, Juan continued to excel at assisting my constituents
and worked his way up to Deputy District Director, and in the 114th
Congress, District Director.
As District Director, Juan was instrumental in assisting thousands of
Floridians. In Juan's spare time, he ran for and won Chairman of the
Orange County Florida, Democratic Executive Committee. Under his
leadership, he helped guide the Orange County Democratic Party to wins
in almost every local, state, and Congressional race in Orange County.
In recognition of all those in Florida that Juan has helped, I am
honored to recognize Juan R. Lopez for his service to my office and the
constituents of Florida's Ninth Congressional District.
[[Page 16152]]
____________________
RECOGNIZING THE GRADUATION OF THE FAIRFAX COUNTY FIRE AND RESCUE
DEPARTMENT 140TH RECRUIT CLASS
______
HON. GERALD E. CONNOLLY
of virginia
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. CONNOLLY. Mr. Speaker, I rise to congratulate the Fairfax County
Fire and Rescue Department on the graduation of the 140th Recruit
Class. As they prepare to join the ranks of the Fairfax County Fire and
Rescue Department, I encourage the 47 graduates to reflect on the
history of the department and the contributions and dedication of the
brave men and women who have served before them to protect our
community.
The Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department's Recruit School
consists of an extensive and demanding 30-week program. In addition to
two weeks of orientation, recruits completed eight weeks of EMT
training and twenty weeks of fire suppression training. Upon
graduation, these recruits will be certified at the level of
Firefighter I/II by the Virginia Department of Fire Programs.
These recruits have the distinct honor of joining one of the best
Fire and Rescue Departments in the United States. The efforts of the
Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department have been recognized across
this country. Members from the Department serve on the elite VA Task
Force I, which is among the first units called to disaster zones to
provide search and rescue support. Recently, members of that Task Force
were recognized by the International Association of Fire Chiefs with
the Benjamin Franklin Award for Valor as a result of their efforts in
the aftermath of the devastating earthquakes that struck Nepal last
year.
As the newest members of the Fire and Rescue Department, the 140th
Recruit Class graduates join the department as integral parts of our
community's emergency response and public safety team. I am confident
that this graduating class will serve the residents of Fairfax County
with honor and distinction.
It is my great honor to enter the names of the 140th Recruit Class
into the Congressional Record:
Roberto C. Acha Melgar, Adam A. Boyd, Jr., Quincy D.
Branch, Casey P. Braswell, Timothy G. Breslin, Jr., James M.
Brittenham, Rachael A. Callison, Jesus E. Castro, Michael J.
Coppersmith, James C. Cox, Erica L. Cruikshank, Joshua A.
Eimers, Preston R. Elder III, Caroline A. Evey, Daniel P.
Fitzhenry, Joseph E. Gallo III, Rodne W. Getgen, Garrett A.
Green, Taylor, A. Grigg, Bryan M. Haring, Brian C. Harris,
Grant M. Higginbotham, Robert E. Hunt, Matthew G. Ifert,
Michael C. Johnson, Brian A. Krause, Mark C. Langmead, Burke
W. M. Latimer, Jacob T. Maund, Justen A. Moreland, Ali S.
Najjar, Jacqueline C. Norris, Shonay L. Owens, Gracie J. Pak,
Bo Lam P. Park, Harold I. Parra Romero, Roberto Rodriguez,
Jr., Jordan P. Scheutzow, Ian M. Sebastian, Shaun M. Serich,
Joseph M. Shipman, Marcus E. Tines, Thomas M. Tippett,
Zachary J. Webb, Joel W. Whitney, Robert W. Wine III,
Cristina-Michael M. Wittlinger.
Mr. Speaker, I ask that my colleagues join me in congratulating the
newest members of the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department. I
thank them for their service to their community and to all members of
the Fire and Rescue Department, past and present, I say: ``Stay safe.''
____________________
RECOGNIZING THE LIFESAVING EFFORTS OF JON PUTNAM AND LaRHONDA BRYSON
______
HON. RICHARD HUDSON
of north carolina
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. HUDSON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize LaRhonda Bryson
and Jon Putnam of Concord, North Carolina. Their quick decision making
and immediate action saved the life of a man who collapsed while
working out at the West Cabarrus YMCA located in Concord. Their
selfless actions embody the principles of the YMCA and we are extremely
fortunate to have these individuals in our community.
On June 22, 2016, a member of the West Cabarrus YMCA was running on a
treadmill when he suddenly collapsed. Both LaRhonda and Jon
instinctively reacted to assist the man. Upon initial examination they
discovered the man was not breathing and his pulse had stopped. At this
moment, Jon began CPR while LaRhonda applied an automated external
defibrillator. Shortly after they delivered a jolt from the device the
man's pulse returned and he began breathing again. LaRhonda and Jon
remained by the man's side caring for him until paramedics arrived and
he was taken to the hospital.
It brings me great pride whenever I can share stories like this that
showcase the character of individuals in our community. The rapid
response of both LaRhonda and Jon is an embodiment of the selfless
attitude and commitment to serving others that we should all strive
toward.
The West Cabarrus YMCA is part of the Cannon Memorial YMCA network.
Since its founding in 1908, the Cannon Memorial YMCA has a rich history
of serving the people of Cabarrus County and has become a staple of the
community. Having served as a member of the West Cabarrus YMCA Board of
Directors, I have seen firsthand the quality and commitment to
excellence of its employees. Their commitment to the values driven and
faith-based approach of the YMCA has made their community a better
place as it continues to serve the people in our community. Again, I am
extremely proud of all of those at West Cabarrus YMCA and especially
LaRhonda and Jon.
Mr. Speaker, please join me today in recognizing the actions of
LaRhonda Bryson and Jon Putnam for their lifesaving efforts and wishing
them well as they continue to serve our community.
____________________
TRIBUTE TO HANK BOHLING
______
HON. DAVID YOUNG
of iowa
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. YOUNG of Iowa. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize and
congratulate Hank Bohling of Greenfield, Iowa, for being selected to
receive the 2016 Aaron Eilert's Community Service Award. Hank is the
son of Lynn and Elaine Bohling.
The Aaron Eilert's Community Service Award is presented to an
individual who is dedicated to community service and positively
impacting their fellow citizens. The award is named in honor of Aaron
Eilert, who was known throughout his community for giving back and
graciously dedicating his time to others. Hank has been involved in the
Holidays for Heroes program for the last seven years through the
American Red Cross, collecting over 14,000 holiday cards, and
distributing them across the globe. He is also active in a number of
leadership projects throughout his community, including the local 4-H
Club.
Mr. Speaker, Hank has made his state and his community very proud. It
is with great honor that I recognize him today. I ask that my
colleagues in the United States House of Representatives join me in
congratulating him for receiving this award and in wishing him nothing
but continued success.
____________________
HONORING ELIZABETH AND HOWARD GREEN, ANGELS IN ADOPTION
______
HON. BARBARA COMSTOCK
of virginia
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mrs. COMSTOCK. Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor two extraordinary
parents, Dr. Howard and Elizabeth Green of Winchester, Virginia. Due to
their unwavering dedication to children in need, I nominated the Greens
as Congressional Angels in Adoption this year.
The loving generosity of Howard and Elizabeth has formed a family of
12 children, seven of them adopted, who are now between the ages of 15
and 22, and five biological children, between 16 and 24 years of age.
Their adopted children all came from difficult circumstances, yet they
worked tirelessly to provide them a warm and loving home. Their first
adopted child came from China when she was 15 months old; shortly
thereafter they adopted six children from Ethiopia, four siblings ages
11, 9, 6 and 3, followed by two brothers, 6 and 7 years old. They
identified at-risk children and took it upon themselves to change their
lives for the better.
After having been raised by the Greens in a loving home with strong
spiritual guidance, all 12 children are extraordinary. For instance,
the oldest three adopted children are thriving in college at Virginia
Tech, James Madison University and Hillsdale College; while their
biological children have either graduated or are currently in college.
Meanwhile, their five youngest children are still in high school.
[[Page 16153]]
While the years have surely been filled with joyous moments, it has not
always been easy. With all their children, the Greens have provided the
necessary accommodations for all of them to succeed.
The story of the inspirational generosity on the part of Dr. Howard
and Elizabeth Green has been celebrated for many years in the
Shenandoah Valley and is recognized nationally, including by my
colleague, Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington, whose husband was a
Naval Academy classmate of Howard Green. I am honored to count among my
constituents, Elizabeth and Howard Green, whose faith in a loving God
has inspired them to become such amazingly generous and loving adoptive
parents.
Mr. Speaker, I ask that my colleagues join me in honoring Dr. Howard
and Elizabeth Green. The Greens are stellar examples of the generosity
of Americans, who have a long tradition of opening their hearts and
their homes in adopting children from all over the world.
____________________
ANNE BURKHOLDER
______
HON. ED PERLMUTTER
of colorado
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. PERLMUTTER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to applaud Anne Burkholder
for being recognized by the West Chamber as a 2016 Celebrate Women
Honoree. Celebrate Women Honorees are known for their perseverance,
accomplishments, generosity, and dedication to their passions and their
community.
Anne Burkholder has served the Jefferson County community for more
than 50 years. Her passion for education began in Seattle as the
daughter of two university educators. While in high school, she had the
opportunity to visit 15 countries, spawning an international awareness
and deepening her appreciation of the freedoms afforded by U.S.
citizenship. After completing her degree at CU Boulder, Anne settled
into Jefferson County with her husband, Steve.
Anne has improved the community as a teacher, tutor, sponsor and
leader, and she currently serves on the boards of the Jeffco Schools
Foundation and the American Association of University Women, Lakewood
Branch. Five years ago, Anne co-founded the Parent-Child Home Program
Jeffco, which just successfully completed its three-year pilot program.
I extend my deepest congratulations to Anne Burkholder for this well-
deserved recognition by the West Chamber.
____________________
RECOGNIZING J.P. JOHANSON, LENNOX KOHN AND JOHN THOMAS, V
______
HON. MIKE COFFMAN
of colorado
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. COFFMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize J.P. Johanson,
Lennox Kohn, and John Thomas, V for their hard work and dedication to
the people of Colorado's Sixth District as interns in my Washington,
D.C. office for the autumn of the 114th Congress, Second Session.
The work of these young men has been exemplary and I know they all
have bright futures. They served as tour guides, interacted with
constituents, and learned a great deal about our nation's legislative
process. I was glad to be able to offer this educational opportunity to
these three and look forward to seeing them build their careers in
public service.
All three of our interns have made plans to pursue careers in public
service. I am certain they will continue in their great success and
wish them all the best in their future endeavors. Mr. Speaker, it is an
honor to recognize J.P. Johanson, Lennox Kohn, and John Thomas, V for
their service this autumn.
____________________
HONORING THE JOHN MUIR LAND TRUST
______
HON. MIKE THOMPSON
of california
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. THOMPSON of California. Mr. Speaker, I, along with Congressman
Mark DeSaulnier, rise today to honor the John Muir Land Trust, which
earned Land Trust Accreditation status from the Land Trust Alliance in
August 2016. The John Muir Land Trust is one of only 350 land trusts
nationwide to receive this prestigious commendation.
The John Muir Land Trust began in 1989 as the Martinez Regional Land
Trust in Contra Costa County, California. The Trust initially protected
150 acres of land in the Alhambra Valley, but its success soon
attracted more supporters. Over the succeeding years, the renamed John
Muir Land Trust grew to incorporate 13 properties throughout Contra
Costa County and now protects 2,500 acres of multi-use land.
To demonstrate its ongoing commitment to future conservation, the
John Muir Land Trust applied for formal accreditation from the Land
Trust Alliance. For a decade, the Land Trust Alliance has provided
accreditation to land trusts that demonstrate success in supporting the
public interest and that meet high conservation standards. The John
Muir Land Trust's recent accreditation is a testament to its tremendous
accomplishments and importance within our Contra Costa community.
The Trust's work ensures that people throughout our community have
access to trails for walking, hiking and cycling while also preserving
agricultural lands. The John Muir Land Trust protects air and water
quality and preserves habitats for endangered animal and plant species.
Recently, the Trust expanded its community engagement by creating the
POINTing to Success program to support STEM education for middle and
high school students, enhancing students' education through exposure to
natural resources.
Mr. Speaker, the John Muir Land Trust conserves vital parts of our
community's natural resources and provides residents with magnificent
open spaces and an enhanced quality of life. Therefore, it is fitting
and proper that we honor the John Muir Land Trust here today.
____________________
THE RETIREMENT OF PIETRO PARRAVANO FROM THE BOARD OF THE SAN MATEO
COUNTY HARBOR DISTRICT
______
HON. JACKIE SPEIER
of california
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Ms. SPEIER. Mr. Speaker, I rise to offer my congratulations to Pietro
Parravano as he retires after 21 years of distinguished service on the
board of the San Mateo County Harbor District. Pietro is as much an
institution at the district as the docks, hoists and loading ramps that
make the facility such a community treasure. His thoughtful guidance
during his time on the board assured the public of good stewardship and
a perspective based upon hands-on experience.
Pietro was first appointed to the harbor district board in 1995 and
won re-election every four years thereafter. It is easy to see why he
has earned the confidence of the public.
Pietro commercially fished the Anne B. out of Pillar Point Harbor for
many years and remains a fixture at the Half Moon Bay farmers market.
He knows the sea, the fishing industry, and the long-term needs of
both. He is also sensitive to other public needs, such as the need for
recreation and visitor-serving facilities at the two ports.
Pietro, originally from Princeton, New Jersey, moved to the West
Coast in 1966 when his father spent a sabbatical at Stanford
University. He began his career as a teacher but dedicated most of his
life to commercial fishing and environmental advocacy. He served as
President of the Half Moon Bay Seafood Marketing Association from 1988
to 1995. In 1997, he was one of two U.S. delegates to the World Forum
of Fish Harvesters and Fish Workers in New Delhi. From 1992 to 2004 he
was a member of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen. In 2005,
Pietro started the San Mateo County Food Alliance. He currently serves
on the Joint Oceans Commission Initiative, the Institute for Fisheries
Resources, and the Culinary Institute of America/Singapore which brings
students from Singapore to the Bay Area to learn about sustainable food
sources.
His community service is legendary in Half Moon Bay and beyond. In
1996, Pietro was recognized by the Chamber of Commerce for his
Community Service, and in 1999, he was recognized as an Environment
Leader when he was president of the Pacific Coast Federation of
Fishermen. In 2008, Pietro was the fisheries representative at the
opening of Ocean Hall at the Smithsonian in Washington DC. In 2013, he
was awarded the Margi Grant Heart of Hospitality by the San Mateo
County Convention and Visitors Bureau. In sum, he is the ``go-to''
person in San Mateo County for sustainable food and good fishing
policy.
Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing Pietro
Parravano for two decades of public service and a lifetime of
dedication to our oceans and sustainable fisheries.
[[Page 16154]]
While Pietro is retiring from the Harbor District Commission, his
contributions will continue to shape life on the coast and I have no
doubt that he will remain active and an important voice in our
community.
____________________
TRIBUTE TO U.S. DEPUTY MARSHAL PATRICK CAROTHERS
______
HON. DOUG COLLINS
of georgia
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. COLLINS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak about a
great loss that my home state of Georgia experienced on Friday,
November 18th.
On that day, United States Deputy Marshal Patrick Carothers was
killed in the line of duty while attempting to serve a warrant on a
dangerous fugitive in Long County, Georgia.
At Marshal Carothers' memorial service, his son Paul remembered him,
saying, ``The day he went to heaven, he showed great heroism. But I
believe he is a hero because of his character--because of who he chose
to be every day.''
I had the honor of meeting this man who, as a U.S. Marshal, protected
our families and friends for 26 years. His legacy encourages us to
reflect each day on who we choose to be.
I remain grateful for individuals like Deputy Marshal Patrick
Carothers who selflessly serve, and, Mr. Speaker, I ask that we keep
his wife and five children in our prayers in the coming days.
____________________
EDINA GIRLS' SWIMMING AND DIVING TEAM
______
HON. ERIK PAULSEN
of minnesota
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. PAULSEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate the Edina High
School Girls' Swimming and Diving team for winning the Minnesota state
title.
The Hornets' victory was a complete team effort as competitors from
every grade level contributed to the win. Edina took the lead over
their rivals after the third event and never looked back. Senior Rachel
Wittmer led the way in swimming by winning the 50 freestyle for the
fourth year in a row, and setting a new state record in the 200 and 400
freestyle relays with her teammates. In the diving competition,
freshman Megan Phillip defeated the defending state champion on her
final dive to claim the title.
Excelling in swimming and diving takes incredible dedication, and
their championship is a testament to that continued discipline. These
athletes pushed themselves every day to shave hundredths of a second
off their personal best or repeated dive after dive until it was
perfect. When adding in schoolwork, family obligations, and other
commitments, it is remarkable these student-athletes accomplish all
that they do.
Mr. Speaker, once again, congratulations to the Edina High School
Girls' Swimming and Diving Team on a job well done.
____________________
IN RECOGNITION OF REPRESENTATIVES CHARLES B. RANGEL AND CORRINE BROWN
______
HON. SANFORD D. BISHOP, JR.
of georgia
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. BISHOP of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in recognition of
the legacies of two of my esteemed colleagues, Charles B. Rangel and
Corrine Brown. At the close of this Congress, Representative Rangel and
Representative Brown will be concluding a combined sixty-nine years of
service in the U.S. House of Representatives.
I am truly appreciative and honored to have worked with these two
dedicated and respected individuals. Today, I want to especially
recognize their work for the Veterans Braintrust Forum, founded by
Congressman Rangel in 1988. The Veterans Braintrust Forum serves as a
virtual advisory group for the Congressional Black Caucus on veteran's
issues. This year's forum focused on the VA's Commission on Care
report. I am so thankful for the unwavering commitment that these two
Members of Congress have for our nation's military, veterans, and
African Americans, and I am proud to call them my friends.
Representative Rangel began his work in Congress forty-six years ago,
and I am proud to have been able to work beside him. A Korean War
veteran, he entered public service fighting for civil rights and
military veterans. In 1965, he participated in the historic march from
Selma to Montgomery and in 1971 he was elected to the United States
House of Representatives for the first time.
During his tenure in Congress, Representative Rangel provided decades
of leadership on veteran's issues by increasing educational and health
benefits for the Vietnam Era and Desert Storm veterans, securing the
creation of the Harlem Veterans Outreach Center, and implementing tax
protection for members of our Armed Forces and veterans. He also was a
founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus, an organization
dedicated to advancing the global African American community.
Representative Rangel is not the only one transitioning from the
House at the end of this term. Over two decades ago Representative
Corrine Brown and I began serving together in Congress. She has been an
effective advocate for our nations' veterans. Her leadership on the
House Veterans Affairs Committee has helped to ensure that veterans
have the resources they need to live healthy and productive lives. She
also spent her time supporting the concerns of women veterans and
fighting to end homelessness among veterans. Through her efforts, the
first African American Marines, the Montford Point Marines, also were
awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 2012.
Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in extending our
sincerest appreciation and best wishes to Representatives Charles
Rangel and Corrine Brown, as they enter this next chapter in both of
their lives. The U.S. House of Representatives will surely not be the
same without their leadership.
____________________
IN MEMORY OF JUDITH MONASTRA DAVIS
______
HON. JOE WILSON
of south carolina
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. WILSON of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, sadly, on November 24,
2016, the Midlands of South Carolina lost a beloved business leader and
civic volunteer with the death of Judy Davis. As Executive Vice
President and Chief Legal Officer for BlueCross BlueShield of South
Carolina, she achieved extraordinary professional success. The
following obituary was published in The State newspaper of Columbia,
South Carolina on November 30, 2016:
Columbia.--Judith Monastra Davis, 57, of Columbia, South
Carolina passed away unexpectedly on November 24, 2016 at
Palmetto Health Richland following an extended illness. She
was born on January 13, 1959 in Mansfield, Ohio to Basil
Herman Monastra and Carmella Greer Monastra of Lexington,
Ohio, who survive. She also is survived by her husband of
thirty years, Gerald L. (Jerry) Davis, Jr. of Columbia, South
Carolina. In addition, she is survived by a brother, James
Monastra and aunt, Carol Greer, both of Lexington, Ohio.
Judy earned a Bachelor of Science in Business
Administration degree from Ohio Northern University,
graduating summa cum laude in 1981. She earned her Doctor of
Jurisprudence degree from The Ohio State University in 1984,
where she also was recognized as the Moot Court Distinguished
Oralist.
She began her corporate law career and met her husband at
Lincoln National Corporation in Fort Wayne, Indiana in 1984.
They were married on March 15, 1986 at St. Mary's Catholic
Church in Fort Wayne where they have maintained their parish
membership.
At Lincoln National, Judy worked in various legal,
strategic planning, and domestic and international mergers
and acquisitions positions over 10 years. She helped that
company to develop and receive one of the first U.S. patents
in the insurance industry for the use of artificial
intelligence in the underwriting of life reinsurance and she
led the spinoff of a subsidiary health insurance company in a
billion-dollar public offering. Recruited to BlueCross
BlueShield of South Carolina in 1995 as Vice President and
General Counsel, her intellect, expertise, broad and deep
experience, and emotional intelligence made her a valuable
member of the corporation's senior leadership team. In 2007,
she was promoted to Executive Vice President and Chief Legal
Officer where she served as the senior officer responsible
for five of the corporation's subsidiaries including
Companion Life Insurance Company, Companion Captive
Insurance, Companion Property & Casualty Insurance Company,
and UCI Medical Affiliates, as well as having three corporate
divisions reporting to her--Law, Government Affairs and
Corporate Marketing Communications. She also served as the
corporation's Secretary.
Judy lived a full and engaging life as a champion for her
community, leaving an indelible imprint. She served on the
boards of directors and in leadership positions for many
nonprofit, civic and educational entities, lending her
gracious and genuine leadership style and skills to each
organization. In 2006, she was pressed into replacement
[[Page 16155]]
service as chairman for the United Way of the Midlands
campaign and helped to raise $9.5 million. She worked
tirelessly and shared her passion for connecting people and
ideas with the United Way of the Midlands, the Central
Carolina Community Foundation, the South Carolina Campaign to
Prevent Teen Pregnancy, Trinity Housing Corporation,
EngenuitySC, SC Launch, the Palmetto Conservation Foundation,
Columbia College and the South Carolina Governor's School for
Science and Mathematics, as well as many other organizations.
Judy was especially known and appreciated throughout the
state as a mentor, cheerleader and champion to countless
people from all walks of life for whom she served as an
inspiration and role model. She always valued kindness and
often would wake up early in the morning and ask her husband,
``Who can I help today?'' She believed that if you put
yourself out there and convince others to join in, meaningful
differences can be made with only modest efforts to improve
people's lives. For colleagues and friends alike, Judy took
it as a personal responsibility and challenge to find ways to
lift people up and to help them to realize their untapped
potential. She did this because it was an important part of
who she was. It was never a job requirement.
A recipient of numerous awards and accolades for her
professional and philanthropic efforts, in 2010, the Girl
Scouts of South Carolina Mountains to Midlands recognized her
as a Woman of Distinction. In 2011, Insurance Networking News
(INN) named her one of six nationally recognized Women in
Insurance Leadership winners. In 2014, Judy received the
prestigious Humanitarian of the Year award from the United
Way of the Midlands.
Her family wishes to express its deep and heartfelt thanks
to the caring and loving staff at South Carolina Oncology
Associates in Columbia, as well as to the other health
professionals who contributed to her care over the past year.
At Judy's request, the family will hold a brief reception
for her friends and colleagues on Thursday, December 15 from
4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. at the new United Way of the Midlands
Center at 1818 Blanding Street in downtown Columbia, South
Carolina. A private, family interment service will be held
later in Mansfield, Ohio. Dunbar Funeral Home, Devine Street
Chapel, is assisting the family.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorials be
made to the United Way of the Midlands Legacy Fund, the
Central Carolina Community Foundation, Columbia College South
Carolina, and The Northern Fund at Ohio Northern University.
____________________
JESS WIEDERHOLT
______
HON. ED PERLMUTTER
of colorado
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. PERLMUTTER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to applaud Jess Wiederholt
for being recognized by the West Chamber as a 2016 Celebrate Women
honoree. Celebrate Women Honorees are known for their perseverance,
accomplishments, generosity, and dedication to their passions and their
community.
Jess Wiederholt has used her medical knowledge and selfless heart to
not only to make a difference in Jefferson County, but on a global
scale as she strives to improve the well-being of HIV-positive women
and children in Africa. Mother of seven--four of which were adopted
from East Africa--Jess entered the pediatric health care world as a
therapist, helping patients in Illinois and Kentucky for 10 years.
Today, Jess pursues her passion for collaborating with other mothers
to help them dream, grow and unleash their full potential through her
personal health and wellness business, Isagenix, which assists parents
and families in Jefferson County in finding solutions for weight loss,
healthy aging, energy, performance and additional income opportunities.
In addition to her passion for empowering families and promoting
healthy lifestyles, Jess takes her family to Ethiopia and Uganda each
year to give business grants to single mothers who are HIV-positive.
Through this act of servitude, Jess demonstrates her belief that every
woman deserves to be empowered to live out her life with hope, dignity
and confidence--regardless of surroundings or circumstance.
I extend my deepest congratulations to Jess Wiederholt for this well-
deserved recognition by the West Chamber.
____________________
TRIBUTE TO EVAN BURNHAM
______
HON. DAVID YOUNG
of iowa
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. YOUNG of Iowa. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize and
congratulate Evan Burnham, a senior at Valley High School in West Des
Moines, Iowa, for earning a perfect score on his American College
Testing (ACT) examination.
Evan is one of only 2,235 students out of 2.1 million 2017 high
school test-takers who earned this very rare honor. He was one of five
students in his Valley High School class to earn the top composite
score of 36, a milestone that had never before been reached in the
school's history. Evan is known for being a naturally good test taker,
and went into the ACT examination well-prepared. He has not yet decided
what will be his field of study but his interests are chemistry and
environmental science. With the work ethic he has displayed on his ACT
examination, I am confident he will excel no matter what route he
decides to take.
Mr. Speaker, I commend Evan for his hard-work, dedication, and
commitment to excellence. I ask that my colleagues in the United States
House of Representatives join me in congratulating Evan and in wishing
him nothing but continued success.
____________________
PERSONAL EXPLANATION
______
HON. ROGER WILLIAMS
of texas
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. WILLIAMS. Mr. Speaker, on Roll Call 599 on final passage of H.R.
6392, the Systemic Risk Designation Improvement Act of 2016, I would
have voted Aye, which is consistent with my position on this
legislation.
____________________
RECOGNIZING THE FAIRFAX EDUCATION ASSOCIATION
______
HON. GERALD E. CONNOLLY
of virginia
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. CONNOLLY. Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize the Fairfax Education
Association (FEA) and two of its remarkable leaders.
For over 50 years FEA has served as the voice of Fairfax County
educators. Throughout its history FEA has upheld its mission of service
to educators while demanding the highest standards of education for the
children of Fairfax County.
FEA leadership is largely responsible for setting the goals of the
organization and focusing resources necessary to achieve those goals.
Kimberly Adams, who has served as President of the FEA since 2013, has
embraced the mission of the FEA and worked to expand community outreach
programs to garner support for and understanding of the contributions
of public education to the prosperity and quality of life for Fairfax
County residents. Throughout her tenure, Kimberly has been a fierce
advocate for funding our school system as well as providing support to
our educators.
As a former member and Chairman of the Fairfax County Board of
Supervisors, I understand firsthand that the success of our local
communities is tied directly to the quality of our school system. I
have been proud to partner with the FEA on many occasions to ensure
that Fairfax County public schools remain among the best in the
country.
I have often said that public service is a noble profession and this
is especially true when it comes to the issue of education. I commend
Kimberly for her advocacy and thank her for lending her voice for these
last three years as FEA President. Although she may be returning to her
``former life'' as a librarian, I have no doubt that she will continue
to stay engaged in the important issues facing our community, our
educators, and our children.
Succeeding Kimberly in the role of President of the FEA is Kevin
Hickerson. I congratulate him on his election and wish him great
success going forward. Kimberly's shoes will certainly be difficult to
fill, but I have no doubt that Kevin will continue the progress that
has been made by the FEA during the last 50 years.
It is possible to tell a great deal about the health of a community
by the level of civic engagement that is exhibited by its residents. If
the spirited conversations held throughout our community on education
are any indication, then Fairfax County remains a picture of civic
health. The efforts of Kimberly Adams, Kevin Hickerson, and the FEA are
a large part of that, and I trust that they and the FEA as a whole will
continue to play a vital role in ensuring that our teachers and our
students succeed for many years to come.
Mr. Speaker, I ask that my colleagues join me in congratulating
Kimberly Adams and
[[Page 16156]]
Kevin Hickerson as well as all of the members of the FEA for their
immeasurable contributions to our community.
____________________
RECOGNIZING THE LIFE AND WORK OF ROBERT I. THOMAS
______
HON. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON
of texas
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, today I want to
recognize the significant leadership of a selfless motivator and
inspirational man, Robert Thomas. Robert Thomas touched countless lives
in his storied career within the Dallas Independent School District as
a teacher, coach and administrator. Though he is now passed, his
attention to people will survive him.
Mr. Thomas is a real Dallasite and a native of one of the finest
neighborhoods in south Dallas--Oak Cliff, or more specifically, ``The
Bottom.'' He attended Lincoln High School where he played football and
ran track. After high school, Mr. Thomas went on to Wiley College for
one year, before leaving to serve his country in the United States Army
for two years. After his service, he returned to Wiley College, where
he won two national championships in 1956 and 1957, and was named an
All-American.
After his storied athletic career, he was determined to dedicate his
passion for sports to the generation younger than he. In 1958, he
became a physical education instructor at George Carver Elementary
School, yet he would truly start his coaching career at Lincoln High
School as a football and track coach in 1962. Robert would go on to
enjoy a storied career in coaching and athletic administration work
that included a staggering win record, city championships, two district
championships and one co-championship.
In reward for his hard work, Robert was appointed to the position of
Assistant Athletic Director for the Dallas Independent School District
in 1982. He served in this position until 1993, when he was appointed
Assistant Superintendent of Athletics in 1993. He held this position
until he retired in 2000.
Robert Thomas brought success in athletics to Dallas throughout his
entire career. But more important than any of that, he touched the
lives of so many young people, showing them that hard work can give
them what they deserve, in a world with more resources than he ever
enjoyed. He was never bitter, and always loving. He will be sorely
missed.
Robert was preceded in death by his wife, Eula Faye Thomas, parents,
Hester and Lindon Thomas, sister Dorothy Thomas Mayes. He is survived
by his three sons, Kenneth, Gregory and Ricky Thomas; brothers, L.T.
Thomas, Wilson Thomas and Bernard Thomas; three grandchildren, eight
great grandchildren, as well as by several nieces and nephews and a
host of other relatives and the children and adults that loved him so
in Dallas.
____________________
CLERMONT COUNTY SHERIFF A.J. ``TIM'' RODENBERG
______
HON. BRAD R. WENSTRUP
of ohio
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. WENSTRUP. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate Clermont
County Sheriff A.J. ``Tim'' Rodenberg on a distinguished career serving
the residents of Clermont County and southern Ohio.
With over 25 years of law enforcement experience, including
leadership as the sheriff and assistant prosecuting attorney, Tim's
involvement and acumen has been invaluable in helping make Clermont
County a safe place to live and work.
A great American committed to service, Tim served on active duty as
an officer with the U.S. Marines, during which he was appointed to the
Commanding General's Honor List for outstanding academic and leadership
performance.
Originally elected sheriff in 1997, Tim has effectively guided the
Clermont County Sheriff's office into the 21st Century. He has been
involved in everything from the Senior Visitation Program, a program
that pairs deputies with senior citizens in the community, to the
Summer Junior Police Academy, an introduction into police and emergency
service work for middle and high school students. Tim has worked
tirelessly to improve Clermont County over the years, devoted to the
big picture and listening to the people he serves without expectation.
Tim also serves as a state certified police and corrections academy
instructor and has taught criminal justice and legal courses at four
Greater Cincinnati colleges and universities.
As he prepares to retire, I commend him for his hard work and
leadership to make southern Ohio a better place. Our community is lucky
to have someone so committed to service.
Thank you Tim, and God bless you.
____________________
RECOGNIZING THE VFW POST 7327 AMERICANISM AWARD RECIPIENTS
______
HON. GERALD E. CONNOLLY
of virginia
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. CONNOLLY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the Veterans of
Foreign Wars Post 7327 in Springfield, Virginia and the winners of its
annual Americanism Awards. As combat veterans, members of this post
understand the importance of patriotism and public service, and they
have continued their legacy of service right here in our community.
Through programs like Adopt-a-Unit, clothing drives, America's
Promise--Alliance for Youth, the March of Dimes, volunteering with
local Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts troops, and many others, nearly two
million VFW members worldwide continue to contribute to their fellow
veterans as well others in our community.
Each year VFW Post 7327 recognizes the winners of the Patriot's Pen,
in which students from grades 6-8 are encouraged to examine our
nation's history as well as their own experiences in modern American
society. The VFW also recognizes the winners of the Voice of Democracy
contest. Established in 1947, the Voice of Democracy provides students
from grades 9-12 the opportunity to voice their opinions on democratic
ideas and principles through spoken essays.
VFW Post 7327 also recognizes Teachers of the Year, members of the
local police and fire departments, and local businesses who have
supported the military and veterans.
On behalf of the 11th District of Virginia, I commend the members and
auxiliary of VFW Post 7327 for their ongoing service to our country and
community, and I congratulate the following honorees on their awards:
Patriot's Pen
1st Place--Melanie M. Jimenez.
2nd Place--Ella S. Harrison.
3rd Place--Grace F. Lemley.
Voice of Democracy
1st Place--Abigail E. Mills.
2nd Place--Cynthia L. Johns.
3rd Place--Diana L. Haemer.
Teachers of the Year
Elementary--Donna Ruggles.
Middle School--Beauregard Patrick Fay.
Public Safety Awards
Master Police Officer James ``JT'' Frey.
Emergency Medical Technician Susan Yu.
Advanced Life Support Medical Technician Victor Popovich.
Community Americanism Awards
Kenneth Morrissette, Jr., Interstate International.
Matt Rose, The Forge Brew Works.
Bruce Donato, K&A First Aid and Safety.
John Blake, K&A First Aid and Safety.
Mr. Speaker, I ask that my colleagues join me in thanking VFW Post
7327 for its continued efforts on behalf of our community and in
congratulating the honorees of the 2016 Americanism Awards.
____________________
TRIBUTE TO CAYDEN CODEL
______
HON. DAVID YOUNG
of iowa
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. YOUNG of Iowa. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize and
congratulate Cayden Codel, a senior at Valley High School in West Des
Moines, Iowa, for earning a perfect score on his American College
Testing (ACT) examination.
Cayden is one of only 2,235 students out of 2.1 million 2017 high
school test-takers who earned this very rare honor. He was one of five
students in his Valley High School class to earn the top composite
score of 36, a milestone that had never before been reached in the
school's history. Cayden was able to accomplish this impressive feat
while still remaining active in a number of extracurricular activities,
including: Knowledge Bowl, Mock Trial, Moody's Mega Math Challenge
Team, swim team, National Honor Society's student tutoring committee,
Valley High School show choir, Iowa Opus Honor Choir, Iowa All-State
Orchestra, summer junior counselor at the
[[Page 16157]]
Science Center of Iowa and the Plymouth Congregational Church Youth
Choir.
Mr. Speaker, I commend Cayden for his hard-work, dedication, and
commitment to excellence. I ask that my colleagues in the United States
House of Representatives join me in congratulating him and in wishing
him nothing but continued success.
____________________
IN SUPPORT OF STRONGER TIES WITH TAIWAN
______
HON. JOE BARTON
of texas
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. BARTON. Mr. Speaker, I rise to commend President-Elect Trump on
his phone call with the President of Taiwan last week.
Taiwan has long been a friend of America, a beacon of democracy in a
complicated region. A phone call is not complicated.
I was fortunate enough to travel to Taiwan earlier this year and meet
President Tsai. She is a balanced and judicious leader who is well
aware of her nation's realities and promotes peace and prosperity with
her neighbors. I would be honored if I could return the courtesy and
extend some Texas hospitality to the President during her trip to South
America in January and pledge to work with the new Administration to
re-establish official diplomatic relations in Taiwan.
Our nation's reality is that Taiwan is our friend and we should
nurture and value that relationship. Over $67 billion dollars in trade
flows between our countries and 148 sister cities connect us at a local
level. A phone call doesn't change that.
____________________
RECOGNIZING LIZY PRICE AS AN OUTSTANDING PUBLIC SERVANT
______
HON. ALAN GRAYSON
of florida
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. GRAYSON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Lizy Price for
her tireless work as Director of Constituent Services.
During her time as a staffer in my office, Lizy managed our staff,
casework, and the processing of over 3,000 constituent requests for
assistance. Her commitment to improving the lives of constituents in my
district resulted in the release of over a million dollars in benefit
payments.
Lizy's dedication led to many families in our district securing much-
needed answers and resolutions as they waited to be reunited with their
loved ones. Whether they were parents adopting children from a foreign
country or constituents with spouses, parents, or siblings hoping to
immigrate to the United States, they were all aided through Lizy's
tireless efforts.
Her work on behalf of veterans was also invaluable to many who felt
they were being ignored in their hour of need. Veterans seeking
immediate appointments at VA Medical Centers, veterans whose claims
were among the many in the VA backlog, and veterans seeking aid and
attendance benefits, were all grateful to not only have received help
in obtaining answers, but grateful for her showing them the respect and
attention they rightfully deserve for their service to our country.
Lizy's parents, Jorge and Martha, immigrated to New York City from
Honduras. Together they raised four daughters, Lizy, Peggy, Esther and
Patricia in The Bronx. Lizy attended the Academy of Mount St. Ursula,
the oldest continuously operating Catholic college preparatory high
school in New York State. She has been a resident of Central Florida
since 2004 and is the proud mother of Alexander. Her grandson Elijah is
the apple of her eye.
I am honored to recognize Lizy Price for her service to my office and
the constituents of Florida's Ninth Congressional District.
____________________
MICHELLE POOLET
______
HON. ED PERLMUTTER
of colorado
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. PERLMUTTER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to applaud Michelle Poolet
for being recognized by the West Chamber as a 2016 Celebrate Women
Honoree. Celebrate Women Honorees are known for their perseverance,
accomplishments, generosity, and dedication to their passions and their
community.
Michelle is the Co-Founder and President of Mount Vernon Data Systems
LLC which focuses on database administration, OLTP engine performance
tuning, database architecture and data modeling. She has created and
delivered courseware on all facets of database systems for academic
environments and corporate training facilities. Michelle has been part
of IT and database management systems since 1965, on computers ranging
from mainframes to PCs and beyond. She pioneered the computer
programming world in the Master of Computer Information Systems program
at the University of Denver and as a Zachman-Certified Enterprise
Architect.
Michelle has been teaching and training since 1989 as adjunct faculty
at the University of Denver and as a technical trainer with ProTech and
UCI/AmeriTeach. She is the author of 13 books, almost 200 database
articles, and innumerable white papers and blog posts on database
design and programming. Michelle's technological endeavors make it
easier and quicker for businesses to progress in the modern age of
communication.
I extend my deepest congratulations to Michelle Poolet for this well-
deserved recognition by the West Chamber.
____________________
IN MEMORY OF CATHY BLACKBURN NOVINGER
______
HON. JOE WILSON
of south carolina
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. WILSON of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, South Carolinians are
mourning the recent passing of Cathy Blackburn Novinger who achieved
the highest levels of business, civic, and philanthropic success. Her
affection for the citizens of South Carolina is evident from the
following obituary published in The State newspaper of Columbia, South
Carolina on November 29, 2016:
Cheraw.--Cathy Blackburn Novinger passed away November 27,
2016 at her home in Cheraw, SC after a heroic battle with
ovarian cancer. She was the CEO of Palmetto AgriBusiness
Council and President and CEO of Novinger QTR, Inc.
Born April 7th, 1949 in Portsmouth, Ohio, she was the
daughter of Leona Collingsworth Blackburn and the late Donald
Everett Blackburn. She is survived by her mother; her husband
of 48 years, Robert L. Novinger; her son, Dr. Travis Novinger
and daughter in law, Laurie Novinger; grandchildren, Taylor
Novinger and Abbey Novinger; sister, Donna Blackburn Jumper
and brother in law, Henry Jumper; niece, Cristie Russell;
nephew, Tyler Russell (Sarah); great niece, Emma Grace
Russell; and brother in law Dean Novinger (Lisa).
Cathy received her Business Administration Degree from
Southeastern Business College and was a graduate of the
Edison Electric Institute's Electric Utility Executive
Management Program. She moved to her adopted city of
Columbia, SC in 1968 where she went to work for SCANA
Corporation as a file clerk and rose to Vice President at the
early age of 32, retiring as Senior Vice President in 1999.
Her career as a Senior Officer and Senior Public Policy Maker
for SCANA included roles in economic development,
communications, labor relations, governmental affairs,
strategic planning, human resources and public relations.
After retiring from SCANA, she was chosen to lead the state's
new agribusiness association, Palmetto AgriBusiness Council
and under her leadership for 16 years, the Council became a
unified voice for South Carolina's largest industry of
agriculture and forestry. It was also at this time she formed
her consulting company, Novinger QTR, Inc.
After her diagnosis of ovarian cancer and seeing the need
to educate women about this deadly disease, Cathy founded an
ovarian cancer organization, today known as the Ovarian
Cancer Coalition of Central SC, which brings awareness to the
symptoms and the importance of early detection. She served as
the organization's Board chair since 2006. She began the
Coalition's signature event, the Ovarian Cancer Butterfly
Release which is held every September at the State House to
honor and remember those affected by ovarian cancer. She
became a symbol of inspiration and hope to women who were
battling this disease.
An advocate for improving the quality of life in her
community, Cathy earned a lifetime of achievements and honors
including: the University of South Carolina Honorary
Doctorate Degree of Public Service, 2011 Humanitarian of the
Year, 2010 Ag Advocate of the Year, 2010 West Metro Chamber
Lifetime Achievement Award, 2006 Ambassador of the Year, 1999
Order of the Palmetto, SC Historical Foundation Society
Businesswoman of the Year, SC Schools Public Relations
Association Outstanding Leader in Education, Ohio Council of
Colleges Outstanding Private Career Graduate, SC Business &
Professional Women's Career Woman of the Year, Columbia
Metropolitan Magazine's Five Women of the Decade and Midlands
Top 25 Influential Leaders. During her professional career,
Cathy served on numerous Boards
[[Page 16158]]
and Commissions including: Midlands Business Leadership
Group, Advocates for Agriculture, SC Chamber of Commerce
Board of Directors, SC Office of Rural Health Board, SC State
University Board of Trustees, USC School of Medicine
Partnership Board, SC State Board for Technical &
Comprehensive Education (past chair), Greater Columbia
Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors (past chair),
Lexington Medical Center Foundation Board, SC Civil Justice
Coalition (past chair), SC Department of Commerce Executive
Committee, Midlands Housing Alliance (past chair), The River
Alliance Executive Committee, USC Dean's Council-College of
Hospitality, SC Research Authority Board of Trustees (past
chair) and Cultural Council of Richland and Lexington
Counties (past chair). On the national level, she served on
the White House Council on Rural America as chair, Southern
States Energy Board Utility Advisory Council, the U.S.
Business & Industry Council Board of Trustees and the Junior
Achievement National Liaison.
Cathy lived her life devoted to her God, her family and her
community. As much as she loved her work, she loved her
family even more. Her legacy will live on in the paths she
has blazed, the many lives she has impacted and her profound
sense of service to others. We will miss her goodness and
grace. The family would like to thank Dr. Greg Konduras,
Lexington Family Practice; the staff at SC Oncology
Associates, especially Dr. Terry Smith and Dr. William
Merritt and nurses, Kathy Chavis and Mary Leitch; Ultra Med
Plus, Cheryl Evans; Gentiva and the staff at Embrace Hospice,
especially Jamie Perkins, Cathy's Administrative Assistant,
NRS Sandy Boozer and the Eleventh floor, Palmetto Health
Richland.
Funeral service will be held Sunday, December 4, 2016 at
3:00 p.m. at Trinity Baptist Church, 2003 Charleston Highway,
Cayce. Burial will be in Elmwood Cemetery, Columbia. A
visitation will be held Saturday, December 3, 2016 from 5:30
p.m. until 8:00 p.m. at Trinity Baptist Church. In lieu of
flowers, memorial may be made to the Ovarian Cancer Coalition
of Central SC, 602 Meeting Street, Suite B, West Columbia, SC
29169.
____________________
RECOGNIZING THE AWARD RECIPIENTS OF THE CENTREVILLE IMMIGRATION FORUM
ANNUAL DINNER
______
HON. GERALD E. CONNOLLY
of virginia
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. CONNOLLY. Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize the Centreville
Immigration Forum on the occasion of its 2nd Annual Dinner. The theme
of this year's gala is ``Our Global Community'' and will celebrate the
rich diversity of cultures in Northern Virginia.
Northern Virginia is blessed by its diversity. In Fairfax County,
nearly 1 in 4 residents were born in another country, more than 100
languages are spoken in our schools, and we are home to more minority-
owned technology firms than anywhere else in the nation. Our different
cultures and heritages do not divide us; they make us stronger.
Three exceptional individuals will be honored during this gala who
have gone above and beyond in ensuring that everyone, regardless of
their country of origin, has full access to the benefits and
opportunities this community and our nation provide. I am pleased to
include the names of the following 2016 Annual Dinner honorees.
Walter Tejada, Former Chairman of the Arlington County Board of
Supervisors. Mr. Tejada is well known for his extensive knowledge and
experience on the issues of cultural outreach and public service. He
has served in numerous leadership roles including as Chairman of the
Arlington County Board of Supervisors and with the National Council of
La Raza. Prior to his election to the Board, Mr. Tejada served in
various positions with the League of United Latin American Citizens,
Virginia Coalition of Latino Organizations, the American Salvadoran
Association of Virginia and the Virginia Latino Leaders Council, where
he currently serves as President. He has received several awards for
his work, including the Phyllis Campbell Newsome Award from the Center
for Non-Profit Advancement and the Legacy Award from the Greater
Washington Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
Grace Community Clinic. Grace Community Clinic was opened in October
2013 by Dr. Tong S. Park and other leaders from the Korean Central
Presbyterian Church, which I am proud to represent. The clinic provides
free medical services to 40-50 people each month. More than 40
volunteers support the Clinic, including five doctors as well as
nurses, receptionists, and translators. In addition to primary care
consultations, the Clinic offers limited referrals for free dental care
to a nearby dentist, and free radiology and lab work through donations
from INOVA and Fairfax Radiology. The clinic also makes referrals to
specialists who provide low-cost care on an as needed basis.
Ibrahim Choudhary, Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth of Northern Virginia. The
motto of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, ``love for all, hatred for
none'', is a vision that it seeks to fulfill through peaceful dialogue
and public service. Mr. Choudhary and the members of his youth group
have focused their efforts on correcting misunderstandings and
misconceptions about Muslim youth by serving their local communities
through various projects, from food drives for the poor to handing out
flyers with messages of peace. Local Ahmadiyya Muslim youths have also
volunteered regularly with the Capital Area Food Bank to help hand out
food to those in need in the DC Metro area.
Mr. Speaker, the efforts of these individuals are noteworthy not only
because they are rooted in an appreciation for our region's cultural
and ethnic diversity, but also because they help to strengthen the
bonds of friendship and cooperation in our community. I congratulate
them on their awards and ask my colleagues to join me in commending
them for their service to the Northern Virginia region.
____________________
HONORING MS. CAROL GIOVANATTO
______
HON. MIKE THOMPSON
of california
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. THOMPSON of California. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor
Sonoma, California City Manager Carol Giovanatto upon retirement from
an impressive career in local government that has spanned 41 years.
A native of Cloverdale, California Ms. Giovanatto graduated from
Cloverdale High School and attended classes at Santa Rosa Junior
College. In addition to her work with the City of Sonoma, Ms.
Giovanatto has brought her strong leadership skills to many committees
and boards on which she serves.
During her tenure as City Manager, Carol was instrumental in
addressing important city issues and preventing conflicts. Ms.
Giovanatto negotiated a contract to preserve the historic Sebastiani
Theater, formed a joint powers agreement for the Valley of the Moon
Fire Protection District and proposed a sales tax measure to protect
continued city services. A dedicated public servant, Ms. Giovanatto
strengthened the economic development partnership with the Sonoma
Valley Chamber of Commerce, created a grant funding program for non-
profits, completed a new mobile home ordinance and raised the funds
needed for the proposed community pool.
Ms. Giovanatto will be recognized long after her retirement for her
foresight in identifying 22 measures for greenhouse gas emissions
reduction and establishing the City of Sonoma as the first Evergreen
City in Sonoma County. Ms. Giovanatto was a founding board member and
past President of the Cloverdale Youth and Family Services Partnership,
a member of the Leadership of Sonoma Valley Class of 2008, and a board
member of the Sonoma Tourism Improvement District.
Mr. Speaker, Ms. Giovanatto has dedicated her career to improving the
lives of the people of the City of Sonoma. She is known for her
unfailing kindness, loyalty and commitment to high ethical standards.
Therefore, it is fitting and proper that we honor her here today and
extend our best wishes for an enjoyable retirement.
____________________
CELEBRATING DAVID FLORES
______
HON. JOHN R. CARTER
of texas
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. CARTER of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to celebrate the life
and work of David Flores of Georgetown, Texas. After nearly four
decades of impeccable work as County Auditor, David is beginning his
richly-deserved retirement.
County Auditors play a vital role in maintaining the fiscal integrity
in county government and few have taken on this important
responsibility with greater professionalism than David. He knows that
second-rate work isn't acceptable. The people of Texas deserve that
level of excellence when it comes to managing their precious tax
dollars. David doesn't let them down.
David's positive impacts on the counties he's served cannot be
overstated. Under his leadership, Williamson County's bond rating went
from ``low investment grade'' to AAA, the highest rating available.
He's established thoughtful standards for county purchases and has
provided superb oversight for $1 billion in
[[Page 16159]]
capital projects. Central Texas is better because of his leadership and
hard work.
David's commitment to excellence doesn't stop when the work day ends.
He has been a trustee for the Texas County and District Retirement
System and is a past president for the Texas Association of County
Auditors. David shouldered the demanding responsibilities as the
Chairman of the Investment Committee for the Texas Association of
Counties from 2008 to 2012. Over the years, he's deservedly received
numerous awards and commendations as well as the admiration of his
peers and colleagues.
Retirement is to be celebrated and enjoyed. It is not the end of a
career, but rather the beginning of a new adventure. I heartily salute
David Flores' work and contributions to his community. I'm sure I echo
the thoughts of all when I wish him the best in both his retirement and
all his future endeavors.
____________________
280TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE UNION FIRE COMPANY
______
HON. ROBERT A. BRADY
of pennsylvania
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. BRADY of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the
280th anniversary of the Union Fire Company. Founded by Benjamin
Franklin in 1736, the Union Fire Company was Philadelphia's first
volunteer fire company.
Dr. Franklin established the Union Fire Company as the very first
fire suppression unit which universally responded when summoned. This
overcame the issues surrounding prior firefighting clubs that existed
in Boston, which also paid for fire wards or watchmen as early as 1711.
The difference between Franklin's Union Fire Company and the other
clubs in Boston and New York was that Franklin saw the advantage of
protecting all the homes and businesses of the community, not just
those who had joined the club. Franklin formed the Union Fire company
from roughly 30 volunteers from what is today the Old City section of
Philadelphia. Their equipment included leather buckets, with strong
bags and baskets (for packing and transporting goods), which were to be
brought to every fire. All homeowners were required to have these
leather fire-fighting buckets in their houses. Recognizing the efficacy
of Dr. Franklin's model, similar volunteer fire companies began to
spring up throughout Philadelphia.
In the late 1860's, Philadelphia city officials spoke of transforming
Franklin's volunteer service into a professional fire department to
meet the demands of the ever-growing city. Finally, on December 29,
1870, Philadelphia city council enacted an ordinance to professionalize
the fire service into a singular department. The Philadelphia Fire
Department, administered by seven Commissioners chosen by the City
Council, officially entered into service on March 15, 1871.
Mr. Speaker, I ask this Congress to pause and reflect on the
unquestionable courage of all firefighters throughout America, be they
volunteer or professional. As we are indebted to the many thousands of
America's firefighters who died in the line of duty, I ask that the
list of the 289 Philadelphia firefighters who have given their lives in
the line of duty be recorded with the year, rank, and company to which
they served:
1994, Acey, Vincent, Firefighter, Rescue 01; 1960, Adgie,
William, Lieutenant, Engine 54; 1962, Ahlers, Thomas,
Firefighter, Engine 71; 2003, Allen, James, Firefighter,
Ladder 16; 1964, Anderson, Albert, J, Fireman, Ladder 9;
1918, Anderson, John, Hoseman, Engine 54; 1975, Andrews,
John, Firefighter, Engine 49; 1933, Arnold, Charles, Hoseman,
Engine 44; 1921, Atkinson, George, Captain, Engine 36; 1965,
Balkie, Alfred, Firefighter, Engine 61; 1954, Bandos, Joseph,
Firefighter, Engine 02; 1892, Barnes, William, Hoseman,
Engine 12; 1884, Barr, Phillip, Hoseman, Engine 11; 1961,
Berg, Rolla, Firefighter, Engine 02; 1908, Berry, William
Dick, Foreman, Truck 04; 1910, Bertolet, Harry, Hoseman,
Chemical 2; 1910, Bihlmire, William, Ladderman, Truck 01.
1961, Bordier, Raymond, Firefighter, Engine 06; 1905,
Boyle, Aloysius, Ladderman, Truck 05; 1975, Brenek, Carroll,
Firefighter, Engine 57; 1978, Brightcliffe, John,
Firefighter, Ladder 03; 1982, Brown, Stanley, Firefighter,
Engine 09; 1879, Burke, Francis, Ladderman, Truck B; 1960,
Bushfield, Joseph, Firefighter, Engine 59; 1969, Caldwell,
Charles, Firefighter, Engine 35; 1975, Campana, Ralph,
Firefighter, Ladder 19; 1875, Carlin, Francis, Ladderman,
Truck A; 1910, Carroll, John, F., Ladderman, Truck 07; 1999,
Casiano, Eric, Firefighter, Engine 02; 1933, Cavanaugh,
George, Ladderman, Truck 24; 2004, Champion, Tracy,
Firefighter, Engine 54; 1899, Chance, William, Hoseman,
Engine 32; 1991, Chappell, James A., Firefighter, Engine 11;
1884, Clayton, James, Foreman, Engine 18; 1900, Cocker, Frank
B., Hoseman, Engine 14; 1910, Collins, John, Ladderman, Truck
04; 1925, Connison, Walter R., Ladderman, Truck 12.
1900, Cook, John, Hoseman, Engine 21; 2009, Cospelich,
Stephen, Lieutenant, Ladder 08; 1913, Costello, Walter,
Hoseman, Engine 23; 1907, Cox, John J., Asst. Foreman, Truck
04; 2014, Craig, Joyce, Firefighter, Engine 64; 1898, Craven,
Charles, Hoseman, Engine 02; 1955, Crawford, Robert,
Firefighter, Engine 26; 1985, Cronin, David, Firefighter,
Ladder 16; 1950, Crupp, John J., Lieutenant, Truck 10; 1901,
Davis, Frank, Ladderman, Truck 09; 1910, DeHaven, Frank,
Hoseman, Engine 47; 1896, Dever, Edward, Hoseman, Engine 20;
1999, Devine, Joseph, Firefighter, Engine 28; 1874, Devitt,
George, Hoseman, Engine 03; 1894, Dickel, George, Ladderman,
Truck C; 1942, Doman, Francis J., Hoseman, Engine 59; 1954,
Donahue, Thomas, Firefighter, Engine 01; 1888, Donnelly,
Felix, Hoseman, Engine 08; 1980, Donovan, William, Batt.
Aide, Battalion 07; 1920, Dorff, Millford St., Hoseman, Pipe
Line 2.
1933, Douglas, Charles, Batt. Chief, Battalion 4; 1918,
Doyle, James, Ladderman, Truck 09; 1954, Doyle, James,
Firefighter, Engine 29; 1895, Doyle, Michael, Ladderman,
Truck 01; 1927, Duane, Thomas A., Lieutenant, Engine 05;
1899, Duffy, Hugh, Hoseman, Engine 32; 1943, Dugan, Joseph,
Fireman, Fireboat 2; 1880, Dungan, George, Ladderman, Truck
B; 1908, Dunlap, Samuel, Engineer, BC; 1967, Dusenberry,
Wllm., Batt. Chief, Battalion 2; 1910, Edelman, Charles,
Hoseman, Engine 06; 1909, Ellinger, Alfred, Foreman, Engine
11; 1944, Ennis, James, Ladderman, Truck 14; 1910, Entwistle,
Thomas, Asst. Foreman, Engine 21; 1881, Exley, Oliver,
Ladderman, Truck E; 1975, Fagan, John R., Batt. Aide,
Battalion 03; 1913, Fahey, Joseph A., Hoseman, Engine 32;
1901, Fells, James A., Foreman, Engine 49; 1922, Fisher,
Albert, Hoseman, Engine 21; 1975, Fisher, Robert J.,
Firefighter, Engine 33.
1916, Fitzgerald, Thomas, Hoseman, Engine 03; 1949, Ford,
James, Captain, Engine 26; 1891, Forsythe, James, Driver,
Engine 11; 1933, France, George, Hoseman, Engine 62; 1916,
Fredericks, Frank, Ladderman, Truck 12; 1938, Friedenberger,
W., Hoseman, Rescue 01; 1986, Friel, Edward D., Firefighter,
Engine 27; 1982, Gallagher, Kenneth, Firefighter, Ladder 21;
1929, Gallop, William, Hoseman, Engine 41; 1955, Garrett,
Leonard, Firefighter, Engine 44; 1894, Geissel, George,
Hoseman, Engine 21; 1886, Gibson, John, Hoseman, Engine 04;
1922, Gilloway, Thomas J., Ladderman, Truck 02; 2013,
Goodwin, Michael, Firefighter, Engine 53; 1934, Gordon,
Frederick, Ladderman, Truck 11; 1937, Gormley, John B.,
Ladderman, Truck 05; 1906, Gray, James B., Ladderman, Truck
09; 1919, Green, John J., Hoseman, Engine 21; 1952, Guenther,
Edward, Hoseman, Engine 45; 1952, Hacker, Allen, Firefighter,
Ladder 08.
1875, Hanley, James C., Ladderman, Truck D; 1887, Harbauer,
George, Ladderman, Truck D; 1894, Hart, Joseph W., Hoseman,
Fireboat; 2004, Harvy, Derrick, Lieutenant, Engine 72; 1940,
Hassell, Thomas, Firefighter, Boat 2; 1897, Heller, William,
Engineer, Engine 01; 1986, Henz, Harry, Firefighter, Engine
33; 1902, Hetzell, Charles, Ladderman, Truck 02; 1900, Hicks,
John, Hoseman, Engine 41; 1877, Hill, John, Ladderman Truck
C; 1964, Hiller, Carl, Firefighter, Engine 08; 1915, Hillman,
John R. Jr., Ladderman, Truck 07; 1991, Holcombe, David P.,
Captain, Engine 11; 1954, Holtzman, Charles, Firefighter,
Ladder 03; 1872, Humphreys, David, Engineer, BC; 1997, Hynes,
James, Firefighter, Engine 63; 1976, Iannacone, Richard,
Firefighter, Ladder 34; 1975, Iaquinta, Michael, Firefighter,
Engine 55; 1919, Innes, Thomas, Hoseman, Engine 13; 1958,
Jackson, Joseph, Firefighter, Ladder 22.
1915, James William F., Batt. Chief, Battalion 6; 1886,
Johnson, John, Ladderman, Truck B; 1926, Jones, Charles G.,
Hoseman, Engine 34; 1926, Jones, John C., Captain, Engine 50;
1954, Junod, Bernard, Firefighter, Engine 02; 1910, Kalberer,
John, Foreman, Engine 23; 1933, Kasper, Joseph, Hoseman,
Engine 55; 1905, Kelly, James, Ladderman, Truck 05; 1919,
Kelly, Thomas, Lieutenant, Engine 21; 1961, Kennedy, Robert,
Lieutenant, Photo Lab.; 1909, Keyser, Robert C., Foreman,
Engine 20; 1888, Killen, Robert, Hoseman, Chemical 2; 1913,
King, Frank L., Hoseman, Engine 23; 1877, King, Patrick E.,
Driver, Engine 22; 1966, Klemmer, Albert, Firefighter, Engine
59; 1895, Klinberger, C., Hoseman, Engine 02.
1954, Kline, Thomas, Deputy Chief, Division 2; 1900,
Knouff, Edward, Ladderman, Truck 02; 1984, Konrad, Joseph,
Firefighter, Engine 25; 1962, Krewson, Lynford, Batt. Aide,
Battalion 11; 1949, Krol, Edward, Hoseman, Engine 06; 1919,
LaGrand, Harry, Ladderman, Truck 02; 1939, Lawson, James J.,
Hoseman, Engine 19; 1933, LeHart, Edward, Hoseman, Engine 43;
1901, Lehman, George, Hoseman, Engine 22; 1938, Limaka, John,
Hoseman, Rescue 01; 1974, Long, Walter, Batt. Chief,
Battalion 06; 1892, Lowery, Francis M., Ladderman, Truck D;
1973, MacDonald, Warren, Firefighter, Lad. 20 [Eng. 65];
1898, Magee, James, Hoseman, Engine; 1954, Magrann, John,
Batt. Chief, Battalion 3; 1973, Malley, Robert F.,
Firefighter, Engine 24; 1904, Malloy, William, Hoseman,
Engine 45; 1928, Mangarano, Silvio, Hoseman, Engine 49; 1942,
Martin, Frank, Hoseman, Engine 12.
1904, Mason, Edwin, Hoseman, Engine 04; 1910, Matchinsky,
George, Ladderman, Truck
[[Page 16160]]
07; 1969, McAlister, John, Firefighter, Engine 13; 1991,
McAllister, Phyliss, Firefighter, Engine 11; 1876,
McClintock, Hugh, Engineer, BC; 1911, McClister, Charles,
Hoseman, Engine 52; 1928, McConaghy, George, Batt. Chief,
Battalion 1; 1910, McConnell, William, Hoseman, Engine 23;
1889, McCuen, James, Hoseman, Engine 04; 1901, McCullen,
John, Hoseman, Engine 49; 1997, McElveen, Terry, Lieutenant,
Engine 63; 1894, McFarland, James, Hoseman, Engine 04; 1930,
McGee, Daniel C., Hoseman, Engine 49; 1915, McGowan, John,
Hoseman, Engine 49;1896, McGranaghan, Hugh, Ladderman, Truck
01; 1975, McIntyre, Hugh, Firefighter, Engine 56; 1965,
McIntyre, Joseph, Firefighter, Boat 3; 1963, McKernan, John,
Firefighter, Ladder 14; 1976, McSloy, Bernard, Firefighter,
Ladder 28; 1918, Merges, Charles C., Lieutenant, Engine 45.
1953, Meskill, James, Captain, Battalion 4; 1925, Metzger,
Charles H., Hoseman, Engine 25; 1925, Minnick, John R.,
Ladderman, Truck 05; 1940, Monoghan, Charles, Hoseman, Engine
03; 1873, Mooney, Frank, Hoseman, Engine 04; 1912, Moore,
James, Ladderman, Truck 01; 1919, Moorehead, Robert,
Lieutenant, Engine; 1913, Moritz, Charles, Hoseman, Engine
23; 1954, Mortimer, Louis, Captain, Battalion 9; 1955,
Mumbauer, Arthur, Firefighter, Engine 17; 1926, Murdock,
Robert, Hoseman, Engine 34; 1960, Murphy, David J.,
Firefighter, Ladder 24; 1998, Murphy, Stephen, Lieutenant,
Ladder 01; 1937, Murray, George J., Hoseman, Engine 20; 1891,
Murray, John, Asst. Foreman, Truck F; 1922, Murray, Patrick
A., Hoseman, Engine 21; 1933, Murray, Peter, Hoseman, Engine
54; 1940, Murtha, James, A. Hoseman, Engine 30; 2012, Neary,
Robert, Lieutenant, Ladder 10; 1954, News, John, Batt. Chief,
Battalion 6.
1942, O'Brien, William, Hoseman, Engine 47; 1874, O'Neill,
Charles, Hoseman, Engine 04; 1910, Park, Samuel A.,
Ladderman, Truck 01; 1975, Parker, Roger, Firefighter, Ladder
27; 1946, Parsons, George R., Ladderman, Truck 08; 1910,
Pass, Thomas M., Hoseman, Chemical 2; 1922, Paxson, Edward
T., Ladderman, Truck 02; 1894, Peck, John, Foreman, Engine
39; 1903, Pflueger, Albert, Hoseman, Fireboat Stuart; 1971,
Pietrak, Constantine, Captain, Engine 35; 1928, Piper, Henry,
Batt. Chief, Battalion 9; 1918, Pollick, James, Hoseman,
Chemical 1; 1975, Pouiliot, James, Lieutenant, Engine 20;
1907, Presco, Stephen, Hoseman, Engine 11; 1879, Raymond,
Francis, Hoseman, Engine 07; 1994, Redmond, John J.,
Firefighter, Ladder 11; 1930, Rein, Paul, Hoseman, Engine 10;
1920, Rishall, Ward A., Driver, Fire Hdqtrs.; 1905, Robinson,
William J., Hoseman, Engine 28; 1918, Roller, Samuel, G.,
Hoseman, Chemical 1.
1947, Rothfuss, Jacob, Hoseman, Engine 38; 1970, Rotondo,
Vincent, Batt. Chief, Battalion 13; 2004, Rubio, Rey,
Firefighter, Engine 28; 1895, Ryder, Joseph F., Hoseman,
Engine 18; 1946, Saraullo, Vincent, Hoseman, Engine 46; 1898,
Schimmel, Walter, Hoseman, Engine 22; 1939, Schultz, Frank
B., Hoseman, Engine 09; 1924, Schulze, George, Hoseman,
Engine 55; 1951, Schwartz, Charles, Lieutenant, Ladder 23;
1920, Schwartzkopf, Edw., Batt. Chief, Engine 26; 1955,
Senderling, George, Firefighter, Rescue 04; 1963, Senior,
Charles, Firefighter, Engine 20; 1895, Sergeant, William,
Foreman, Engine 32; 1902, Seveall, William, Hoseman, Engine
10; 1945, Shane, William, Ladderman, Truck 12; 1899, Shea,
James, Hoseman, Engine 01; 1932, Sheppard, Curtis C.,
Hoseman, Boat 3; 1920, Sherman, Ambrose, Hoseman, Engine 53;
1889, Showers, George, Hoseman, Engine 04; 1941, Silbert,
Joseph W., Captain, Engine 03.
1937, Slinkard, Oscar, Hoseman, Engine 13; 1977, Smedley,
Edward T., Firefighter, Lad. 28 [Eng. 58]; 1909, Smith,
Eugene, Hoseman, Engine 41; 1890, Snyder, Charles, Foreman,
Engine 16; 1900, Sowney, James, Foreman, Engine 48; 1953,
Spencer, William, Captain, Engine 19; 1878, Spisky, Wm,
Foreman, Engine 2; 1914, St. Ledger, George, Lieutenant,
Engine 25; 1896, Stagart, William, Engineer, District 03;
1961, Steger, William, Lieutenant, Engine 31; 1899, Steinle,
George, Hoseman, Engine 32; 1919, Stevenson, Albert, Batt.
Chief, Battalion; 1976, Steward, David, Firefighter, Ladder
20; 1951, Stewart, Charles, Lieutenant, Engine 50; 1948,
Stewart, Howard A., Batt. Chief, Battalion 11; 1918, Stewart,
James D., Captain, Truck 06; 1910, Stewart, Robert, Hoseman,
Engine 02; 1965, Stewart, Thomas F., Firefighter, Rescue 12;
1943, Struble, David, Lieutenant, Truck 10; 1907, Sullivan,
John J., Hoseman, Engine 11.
2012, Sweeney, Daniel Firefighter, Ladder 10; 1926, Sykes,
John J., Hoseman, Engine 50; 2004, Taylor, John, Captain,
Engine 28; 1893, Taylor, Joseph, Hoseman, Engine 14; 1941,
Thumm, William, Hoseman, Engine 58; 1912, Titus, Walter,
Hoseman, Engine 19; 1913, Tobin, Michael J., Captain, Engine
24; 1909, Toner, Joseph, Hoseman, Engine 18; 1954, Tygh,
James F., Firefighter, Engine 29; 1904, Vaughan, Thomas,
Hoseman, Engine 28; 1949, Vegenberg, Frank, Hoseman, Engine
45; 1942, Vernon, John, Hoseman, Engine 62; 1954, Vivian,
Joseph, Firefighter, Ladder 03; 1961, Walsh, Walter T.,
Firefighter, Engine 02; 1969, Wannop, Thomas, Firefighter,
Eng. 73 [Lad. 13]; 1976, Welsh, Aloysius, Firefighter, Ladder
20; 1973, Welsh, John, Firefighter, Ladder 05; 1955, Wendt,
Charles, Captain, Engine 55; 1912, Wentz, George, Hoseman,
Engine 06; 1965, Weres, John F., Firefighter, Ladder 07.
1919, Wiest, George S., Jr., Ladderman, Truck 02; 1975,
Wiley, Joseph R., Firefighter, Ladder 27; 1920, Wilfrin,
Harry, Hoseman, Engine 43; 1949, Wilkinson, Ray, Batt. Chief,
Battalion 4; 1884, Williams, Henry, Hoseman, Engine 27; 1907,
Wilson, Charles E., Foreman, Engine 11; 1945, Wilson, Howard,
Hoseman, Engine 01; 1954, Wilson, Thomas, Firefighter, Engine
29; 1918, Wirth, Harry, Lieutenant, Engine 41; 1910, Wittig,
Gustave, Foreman, Engine 15; 1942, Wolf, Frank W., Hoseman,
Engine 33; 1872, Wolf, George W., Ladderman, Truck A; 1944,
Woodruff, Francis, Hoseman, Engine 30; 1880, Woolston,
William, Hoseman, Engine 23; 1991, Yale, Stephen D.,
Firefighter, Ladder 29; 1951, Young, Frank J., Batt. Chief,
Battalion 2; 1919, Zorr, Charles, Hoseman, Pipe Line 2.
____________________
HONORING RONDO PLAZA
______
HON. BETTY McCOLLUM
of minnesota
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Ms. McCOLLUM. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize residents of the
historic Rondo neighborhood of Saint Paul, Minnesota as the community
comes together to seek hope and healing. Earlier this fall, it was an
honor to join community leaders to break ground on a Rondo
Commemorative Plaza as a first step toward reconciliation for this
neighborhood that was torn apart during the construction of the
National Interstate Highway System in the 1960s. Like so many
predominately black urban neighborhoods around the nation, cultural,
social, and political trauma stemming from this civic wound still scars
our community today.
Old Rondo was Saint Paul's largest and most prominent African
American community centered around a once thriving street called Rondo
Avenue. From the 1900 to the early 1960's African Americans migrated
from the south to seek good jobs and Saint Paul's rich and vibrant
quality of life. Generations created and invested in businesses,
schools, civic organizations and families.
When plans were made for a National Interstate Highway System, people
of color, those of limited means or political representation were not
at the table. Designs for Interstate 94 landed squarely on Rondo. Over
the cries and protest of its residents, bulldozers were brought in, and
Rondo Avenue and the homes and businesses nearby were razed. This
tight-knit community was devastated. During the decades since the
freeway was built, longtime residents have worked hard to rebuild a
community lost. Thanks to them today the spirit of Rondo's neighbors
still burns bright.
Immutable leaders like Marvin ``Roger'' Anderson, Floyd Smaller,
Nathaniel Khaliq, Debbie Montgomery and countless others have brought
tireless dedication and commitment to restoring the Rondo spirit and
community. They've begun successful local festivals like Rondo Days and
the Selby Avenue Jazz Festival which bring community together in new
ways to celebrate and chart a new future.
While, nothing can be done to undo the injustice that was done to the
Rondo community more than four decades ago, that doesn't mean nothing
should be done to help our residents remember our history so that we
don't repeat it again. Anderson and other Rondo leaders are planning
the Rondo Commemorative Plaza as a tangible place to acknowledge and
confront the dark chapter in Saint Paul's relationship with its African
American community. It will be a place to remember the vibrant Rondo
neighborhood, and continue moving forward into the 21st century--with
all voices at the table.
This plaza will be a beautiful community gathering spot to learn
about Rondo through written and oral presentations, music and art. It
will serve as a social gathering place for all generations, for
visitors to appreciate and remember the history of Rondo and the
strength of residents that lives on.
Mr. Speaker, please join me in recognizing the strong will and
unassailable pride of the Rondo community as they build the Rondo
Commemorative Plaza. We look forward to the grand opening of this
special place and the big step in healing and reconciliation of the
past.
____________________
TRIBUTE TO ARJUN GANGA
______
HON. DAVID YOUNG
of iowa
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. YOUNG of Iowa. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize and
congratulate Arjun Ganga, a senior at Valley High School in West Des
Moines, Iowa, for earning a perfect score
[[Page 16161]]
on his American College Testing (ACT) examination.
Arjun is one of only 2,235 students out of 2.1 million 2017 high
school test-takers who earned this very rare honor. He was one of five
students in his Valley High School class to earn the top composite
score of 36, a milestone that had never before been reached in the
school's history. He was able to accomplish this impressive feat while
still remaining active in a number of extracurricular activities,
including: co-founding and co-directing the Des Moines Student-to-
Student STEM Speaker Series, Science Bowl, tennis team, the Principal's
Advisory Council, National Honor Society, student government, National
Council on Youth Leadership, and the Silver Cord Volunteer Program.
Mr. Speaker, I commend Arjun for his hard-work, dedication, and
commitment to excellence. I ask that my colleagues in the United States
House of Representatives join me in congratulating him and in wishing
him nothing but continued success.
____________________
21ST CENTURY CURES ACT
______
HON. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN
of maryland
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the 21st Century
Cures Act. The bill is not perfect, but it makes important progress on
key health and addiction treatments that will help people in Maryland
and across the country.
Maryland's drug poisoning death rate is higher than the national
average, with both urban and rural areas facing the scourge of opioid
addiction and death. This bill will provide $1 billion in funding to
states for new programs to combat the opioid and heroin epidemic. It
also takes critical steps to improve our nation's mental health system
by reauthorizing several grant programs aimed at crisis response,
behavioral health integration in pediatric primary care, and diversion
from the criminal justice system to community-based services.
Additionally, the 21st Century Cures Act aims to improve the
discovery, development, and delivery of medical treatments. It creates
incentives for new scientists to begin their career in research,
requires more input from patients, and modernizes clinical trials--all
of which will help advance treatments for rare diseases such as
childhood cancer.
The bill allocates over $6 billion in new investments to implement
vital health priorities such as the President's Brain Research through
Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative that will
help us to better understand the human brain and could lead to cures to
diseases such as Alzheimer's. Additionally, the funding will go towards
the President's Precision Medicine and the Vice President's Cancer
Moonshot Initiatives by dedicating $4.8 billion to the National
Institutes of Health (NIH). The inclusion of $500 million for the Food
and Drug Administration (FDA) will help make its approval process more
efficient and accelerate treatments to patients. Maryland is proud to
be home to so many federal agencies that are leading the fight to
improve the health of all Americans, and I will keep fighting to
provide the resources they need in this effort.
Furthermore, the package includes legislation I authored--Advancing
Research for Neurological Diseases Act. It will create a neurological
disease surveillance program at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC),
which would provide a foundation for evaluating and understanding
factors of neurological diseases like Multiple Sclerosis and
Parkinson's.
While the bill includes important bipartisan provisions, I am
concerned that this bill includes far less funding than what was
included in the Cures package considered by the House last year.
Additionally, Congressional Republicans refused to allow for the
funding in this bill to be mandatory. Instead, Congress will have to
vote annually to make the funding available as part of the
appropriations process--the American people must hold us accountable to
deliver on this promise. Finally, I still have concerns with some
provisions that might impact patient safety, but I understand that FDA
worked with Congress on the provisions that relate to their agency to
provide feedback--much of which was incorporated. I look forward to
continuing to work with the FDA through implementation to safeguard
patients.
As a country, we must work together to combat drug addiction and
prioritize medical research. The Cures Act moves this effort forward,
but we are far from finished.
____________________
PERSONAL EXPLANATION
______
HON. ROGER WILLIAMS
of texas
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. WILLIAMS. Mr. Speaker, on Roll Call 600 on final passage of S.
294, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017, I
would have voted Aye, which is consistent with my position on this
legislation.
____________________
RECOGNIZING THE NOMINEES FOR THE 2016 WASHINGTON POST PRINCIPAL OF THE
YEAR AWARD FOR PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY SCHOOLS
______
HON. GERALD E. CONNOLLY
of virginia
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. CONNOLLY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the 2016
Washington Post Principal of the Year Award nominees for Prince William
County Public Schools.
The Principal of the Year for Prince William County will receive the
Washington Post Principal of the Year Award. Nominees must demonstrate
the ability to:
1. Manage effectively.
2. Demonstrate and encourage creativity and innovation.
3. Foster cooperation between the school and the community.
4. Maintain a continuing dialogue with students, parents,
faculty, and staff.
5. Keep abreast of developments in the field of education.
6. Encourage team spirit.
7. Demonstrate leadership and exemplify commitment.
8. Continue to play an active role in the classroom.
9. Maintain their position as principal throughout the
2016-2017 school year.
I would like to extend my personal congratulations to the 2016
nominees for Prince William County Schools, Principal of the Year
Award.
Neil Beech--Osbourn Park High School.
Andrew Jacks--Ashland Elementary School.
Michael Lint--New Dominion Alternative Center.
Mr. Speaker, I ask that my colleagues join me in commending Principal
of the Year Award nominees for Prince William County Public Schools,
and in thanking them for their dedication to leadership in our school
system. Their continued service will ensure that Prince William County
students are provided with a world-class education in a more vibrant
learning community.
____________________
HONORING COLLEEN AND RICHARD DAVIS, ANGELS IN ADOPTION
______
HON. BARBARA COMSTOCK
of virginia
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mrs. COMSTOCK. Mr. Speaker, it is my great honor to introduce you and
my colleagues to Colleen and Richard Davis, constituents of mine from
the Shenandoah Valley in the 10th Congressional District of Virginia
who have provided extraordinary support for mothers in crisis and their
children.
I nominated Colleen and Richard Davis for the Angels in Adoption
program of the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute this year
because, even with three children of their own, including one special
needs adopted child, Colleen and Richard Davis opened their home to two
infants in need.
Colleen had been dedicating her time and energy to residents of the
New Eve Maternity Home in Winchester, Virginia, a home for pregnant
women in need. At the New Eve home, Colleen met a young woman with twin
newborn boys who was having difficulty caring for her babies. Colleen
and Richard generously offered to take the twins into their home and
care for them until the mother was able to provide a stable home.
For more than two years now, Colleen and Richard Davis have welcomed
these two children into their family and have raised them as their own.
These acts of extraordinary generosity are inspired by a sense of
loving compassion for their neighbors in need.
Mr. Speaker, stories of unsung heroes like Colleen and Richard Davis
are taking place throughout our nation and I ask that we remember with
gratitude these ``Angels in Adoption'' who are making a significant
difference in our communities. I ask that my colleagues join me in
honoring Colleen and Richard
[[Page 16162]]
Davis, and wishing them all the best in their future endeavors.
____________________
RECOGNIZING JOSE R. RODRIGUEZ AS AN OUTSTANDING PUBLIC SERVANT
______
HON. ALAN GRAYSON
of florida
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. GRAYSON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Jose R. Rodriguez
for his tireless work as Director of Operations and Grants Coordinator.
I first met Jose when he began an internship in my office in 2013 and
from the beginning he stood out as an exceptional worker. After only a
few weeks, he was hired as Constituent Services Representatives where
he helped many of my constituents and their families with housing,
immigration, and veterans issues. He was part of the team of
caseworkers that helped recover and save over $500,000 for residents of
Florida's Ninth Congressional District.
After a few months on the job, he proved to be a valuable asset,
capable of handling multiple roles with great knowledge and skill. For
this reason he was promoted to Director of Operations, where he was
responsible, among other things, for overseeing the administrative
operations of my district offices. He also served in a dual role as
Grants Coordinator and helped many local municipalities and nonprofit
organizations seek federal funding. Jose was able to help bring over $7
million dollars in federal funds for various local organizations,
including money for education and first responders.
As further proof of his tenacity, Jose was able to complete his law
degree while working fulltime and raising two beautiful children, Josue
and Deborah.
As Jose's tenure in my office comes to an end, I want to recognize
his service to my office and the community, and I wish all the best to
him and his family.
____________________
IN RECOGNITION OF THE ALLEN PARK HISTORICAL MUSEUM ON THE DATE OF ITS
PEARL HARBOR REMEMBRANCE DAY 75TH ANNIVERSARY FUNDRAISER
______
HON. DEBBIE DINGELL
of michigan
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mrs. DINGELL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the Allen Park
Historical Museum on the date of its Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day 75th
Anniversary Fundraiser. The Allen Park Historical Museum has served as
an important venue for the metro Detroit community to educate
individuals about the background of historically significant events
that have shaped our country.
Located in a farmhouse built in 1888, the Allen Park Historical
Museum has provided Allen Park and the surrounding communities with a
free and accessible forum to learn about the history of the city and
pivotal events in American history. The Museum displays police and
firefighter memorabilia as well as military artifacts and cultural
objects like furniture and toys that showcase life from different eras.
In addition to regular exhibits, the Allen Park Historical Museum also
periodically sponsors fundraisers to engage with the community while
providing resources for the museum. These additional events allow
historians and other experts to further explore our nation's heritage
in different contexts.
The Allen Park Historical Museum not only serves as a venue for
residents of Allen Park and surrounding areas, but also provides
important resources that help educate southeast Michigan about
historically significant events. The underwriting of experiences like
Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day underscore the community's commitment to
ensuring that critical milestones in American history are placed in the
proper context. It is heartening to see the Allen Park community play a
leading role in promoting American history, and I am confident that the
museum will continue to host engaging and relevant exhibits that
educate and entertain individuals of all ages.
Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me today in recognizing the
success of the Allen Park Historical Museum on the date of its Pearl
Harbor Day fundraiser. The museum provides cultural enrichment through
its documentation of historical events through its exhibits.
____________________
TRIBUTE TO JIM DERMODY
______
HON. DAVID YOUNG
of iowa
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. YOUNG of Iowa. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize and
congratulate Jim Dermody, Principal of Lewis Central Middle School in
Council Bluffs, Iowa, for being named the Administrator of the Year by
the Iowa Talented and Gifted (ITAG) Association.
Jim has been an outspoken advocate for ITAG programs at Lewis Central
Middle School, recognizing that success requires participation from the
whole school, not just special ITAG instructors. He utilizes
partnerships with each teacher in the middle school to ensure they have
the resources and training to promote and encourage ITAG students. It
is an honor to represent educators like Jim, who take the extra steps
to ensure student success. ITAG's 44th Annual Conference officials
noted that Jim Dermody believes ``learning isn't about books,
worksheets, and presentations. It's about using learning to improve the
world.''
Mr. Speaker, I commend Jim for being named the ITAG Administrator of
the Year and for shaping our future generations into bright, young
leaders. I ask that my colleagues in the United States House of
Representatives join me in congratulating Jim for this outstanding
accomplishment and in wishing him nothing but continued success.
____________________
NORMA ANDERSON
______
HON. ED PERLMUTTER
of colorado
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. PERLMUTTER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to applaud Norma Anderson
for being recognized by the West Chamber as a 2016 Celebrate Women
Honoree. Celebrate Women Honorees are known for their perseverance,
accomplishments, generosity, and dedication to their passions and their
community.
Norma Anderson, former Colorado State Senator and Jefferson County
resident since 1950, served as a legislator for nearly 19 years helping
to improve the education system, transportation planning, criminal
justice reform and healthcare policy. Norma has served her community in
many capacities including on numerous boards and committees.
Norma was elected to the Colorado House of Representatives in 1986
where she prioritized the needs of her community through her support of
the School Finance Act of 1994 and the Third Grade Literacy Act of
1996. She sponsored other education legislation including the College
Opportunity Fund and accountability for K-12 schools. Norma also helped
establish the Colorado Department of Transportation's 20-year
transportation plan, sponsored Lifetime Parole and Probation for Sex
Offenders, and assisted in the restructuring of the Departments of
Social Services and Institutions saving Colorado ten million dollars.
From 1997 to 1998, she served as the House Majority Leader, and in 2003
she served as the Senate Majority Leader, making her the first woman in
Colorado history to serve in this role in both houses. Norma always
kept her commitment to Jefferson County and was instrumental in
promoting progress in Colorado.
I extend my deepest congratulations to Norma Anderson for this well-
deserved recognition by the West Chamber.
____________________
TRIBUTE TO NORANNE DOWNS, P.E.
______
HON. JOHN L. MICA
of florida
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. MICA. Mr. Speaker, it is my privilege to rise today to recognize
and honor Ms. Noranne Downs, P.E. as she marks 25 years of service with
the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT).
After eleven years of public works experience with the City of
Daytona Beach and in the private sector, Ms. Downs was hired by FDOT in
September of 1991 as a project manager. Her talent and ability were
recognized, and in October of 2006, Ms. Downs was named District Five
Secretary.
Soon after her joining FDOT 25 years ago, I was honored to be elected
to the U.S. House of Representatives to represent Florida's Seventh
Congressional District and assigned, at
[[Page 16163]]
my request, to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
While we worked together prior to this, our shared focus of maintaining
Central Florida's infrastructure and preparing our region for the
future cemented our bond and our friendship.
For over two decades, Noranne and I worked on the many transportation
projects important to our community. Together we helped bring our
region into the 21st Century and laid a solid foundation for Central
Florida's infrastructure to thrive in the future. In addition to
working to meet the Transportation requirements of one of America's
fastest growing regions, I am extremely proud of our work together on
projects such as SunRail which brought fixed commuter rail service to
the region, the I-4 Ultimate and Beyond the Ultimate projects which
will increase capacity and reimagine the main interstate roadway
serving our area and updating our roadways and traffic management
systems with the latest technologies to most effectively and
efficiently manage traffic flows. Noranne played an integral role in
these projects and so many more.
It is with much appreciation and admiration that I recognize my
friend and a great public servant, Noranne Downs at this milestone in
her career. It is also with regret that Noranne will be retiring from
her position at FDOT in January 2017. Her pivotal work has truly left
an indelible mark on Central Florida and our State.
I ask my colleagues to join me in thanking Noranne Downs for her 25
years of service to our community and at FDOT, and in wishing her the
best as she turns the page of her remarkable career.
____________________
HONORING THE LIFE OF
PEGGY KIRK BELL
______
HON. RICHARD HUDSON
of north carolina
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. HUDSON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life of Mrs.
Margaret Anne ``Peggy'' Kirk Bell who passed away peacefully in the
comfort of her home on Wednesday, November 23, 2016. Our thoughts and
prayers are with the entire Bell family as they mourn the loss of this
extraordinary woman.
A native of Findlay, Ohio, Mrs. Bell dedicated her life to sharing
the joys of golf with those around her. At the age of seventeen, she
picked up the sport that would transform her life and define her
legacy. Mrs. Bell would go on to establish what has been described as
``one of the best amateur records ever compiled'' before becoming a
charter member of the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) and
competing for several years professionally.
Best known as a teacher of the game, Mrs. Bell's reach expanded
around the world as she shared her passion with golfers of all ages and
abilities. Her achievements include being named LPGA Teacher of the
Year, Golf Digest's ``One of the Six Best Women Teachers in the
World,'' and winning the first ever LPGA Senior Championship. Her
lifetime of dedication and love for golf was recognized several times
including when she received the Bob Jones Award in 1990, which is the
United States Golf Association's highest award for distinguished
sportsmanship in golf.
In 1953, the opportunity of a lifetime presented itself to Mrs. Bell
and her husband, Warren ``Bullet'' Bell, when they purchased Pine
Needles Golf Course in Southern Pines, North Carolina. From there the
couple transformed the golf course to what is today one of the premier
golfing destinations in the world. Mrs. Bell quickly became a staple at
the resort, taking a hands-on approach to its management and personally
investing her time and effort in the lives of its staff and visitors.
On any given day at the course you could expect a challenging round of
golf and the warmest of welcomes from a smiling Mrs. Bell. Her focus
was always to serve others and make certain that everyone was having
fun.
Compassionate, kind, and loving, Mrs. Bell's impact resonated through
the entire sport of golf. She served as both a pioneer of the game and
teacher for future generations. To say that she will be missed would be
a gross understatement. While we mourn the loss of this extraordinary
woman, there is no doubt that her legacy will continue to be celebrated
for generations to come. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the entire
Bell family, especially her children, Bonnie, Peggy Ann, and my dear
friend, Kirk.
Mr. Speaker, please join me today in commemorating the life of Mrs.
Peggy Kirk Bell.
____________________
REMEMBERING TERRY BELCOE
______
HON. RICK LARSEN
of washington
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. LARSEN of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the
memory of Terry Belcoe, who passed away on Friday, September 23, 2016,
after fighting a courageous battle with cancer.
Mr. Belcoe was born in Mount Vernon, Washington on April 19, 1956,
and spent most of his life in Bellingham, Washington. After completing
his Associates degree at Whatcom Community College, he earned his
Bachelor's degree in Administration and Accounting, and later his
Master's in Business Administration at Western Washington University.
Throughout his career, Mr. Belcoe was known for forging partnerships
to improve the community. He served as the Board Chair of the United
Way of Whatcom, Skagit County Community Action Agency, United Way of
Skagit County and the Oversight Committee for Leadership Skagit
program. His advocacy extended to acting as a guest speaker and mentor
to students at WWU and volunteering with the Big Brothers Big Sisters
program of Whatcom County.
In line with his passion for fighting for children in need of
nutrition and housing, Mr. Belcoe actively engaged with legislators and
communities to support low-income families. Recently, he celebrated 15
years as the President and CEO of North Coast Credit Union in Whatcom
and Skagit counties and in October of 2016, he was selected as the
Washington Credit Union Advocate of the Year, but unfortunately he
passed away less than three weeks before the honor could be presented.
Mr. Speaker, Terry Belcoe was a dedicated public servant and I would
like to honor him for his many contributions to our community and our
state. My thoughts are with his partner Karen, his daughters and his
sister. Terry will be greatly missed.
____________________
PERSONAL EXPLANATION
______
HON. PETER A. DeFAZIO
of oregon
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, I was absent December 1st and 2nd due to a
medical appointment. Had I been present I would have voted:
On Roll Call Vote 594, I would have voted No. On Roll Call Vote 595,
I would have voted No. On Roll Call Vote 596, I would have voted No. On
Roll Call Vote 597, I would have voted No. On Roll Call Vote 598, I
would have voted Aye. On Roll Call Vote 599, I would have voted No. On
Roll Call Vote 600, I would have voted No.
____________________
HONORING ERICA STRIEBEL
______
HON. ANDER CRENSHAW
of florida
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. CRENSHAW. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize and honor my
Chief of Staff, Erica Striebel, for her service and commitment to the
Fourth Congressional District of Florida, and to our country.
For the last 15 years, Erica has been one of my closest advisers. She
was a sounding board for me on legislative issues as Congress fought
through many difficult challenges facing our country. Erica has been my
chief strategist during my time on the House Appropriations Committee
and my right hand for my work on the Defense Subcommittee.
The late management consultant Peter Drucker said, ``Management is
doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.'' Fortunately
for me, my staff, and the people I have had the privilege to represent,
Erica is both an excellent manager and an inspiring leader. She has a
special talent for seeing around corners to identify the next
challenges and leading others to solutions.
Erica's devotion to the servicemen and women who protect our nation
at home and around the globe sets an example for all to follow. Erica
Striebel is a patriot. She values those who serve today and respects
the veterans of yesteryear. Her knowledge was acquired through her
Bachelor's degree in International Affairs and Security Policy from The
George Washington University and her Master's degree in National
Security from the Naval War College. She shares my strong belief that
national security is our country's number one priority. Erica fights on
the policy front to ensure our military can effectively defend
[[Page 16164]]
the United States of America. An integral portion of her work--
traveling to military bases to meet with commanders--is a vital part of
how Erica makes sure that she is prepared to fight for what is needed
to keep our military the best trained and best equipped in the world.
Military leaders in Northeast Florida at Naval Air Station Jacksonville
and Naval Station Mayport remind me often that their confidence in
Erica is unique. Her command of the missions and the intricacies of
military assets is well respected. She is the staffer who makes things
happen. Also, in a spirit of teamwork, Erica unselfishly shares her
expertise with other Capitol Hill staffers. She fully appreciates that
all Members of Congress need to work together to support our military.
Erica is diligent in ensuring that the contributions of our veterans
are recognized, and they receive the benefits they have earned and
deserve. With her support, more than 2,400 veterans in the 4th
Congressional District have attended ceremonies and received my
Veterans' Special Recognition Certificate. She also played a key role
in ensuring all the necessary steps were accomplished to locate the
Jacksonville National Cemetery on Florida's First Coast.
I have no doubt that Erica will bring the same drive and
determination she has shown in my office to the next chapter in her
professional career. Mr. Speaker, I ask you and Members of the House to
join me in thanking Erica Striebel for her leadership and for her
commitment to public service and wish her continued success in her
future endeavors.
God bless and Godspeed.
____________________
TRIBUTE TO GABRIEL MINTZER
______
HON. DAVID YOUNG
of iowa
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. YOUNG of Iowa. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize and
congratulate Gabriel Mintzer, a senior at Valley High School in West
Des Moines, Iowa, for earning a perfect score on his American College
Testing (ACT) examination.
Gabriel is one of only 2,235 students out of 2.1 million 2017 high
school test-takers who earned this very rare honor. He was one of five
students in his Valley High School class to earn the top composite
score of 36, a milestone that had never before been reached in the
school's history. He was able to accomplish this impressive feat while
still remaining active in a number of extracurricular activities,
including: co-founding and co-directing the Des Moines Student-to-
Student STEM Speaker Series, Science Bowl and Knowledge Bowl teams,
Central Academy mathematics team, and treasurer of Valley High School's
National Honors Society chapter.
Mr. Speaker, I commend Gabriel for his hard-work, dedication, and
commitment to excellence. I ask that my colleagues in the United States
House of Representatives join me in congratulating Gabriel and in
wishing him nothing but continued success in all of his future
endeavors.
____________________
RECOGNIZING THE BURKE VOLUNTEER FIRE AND RESCUE DEPARTMENT
______
HON. GERALD E. CONNOLLY
of virginia
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. CONNOLLY. Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize the Burke Volunteer
Fire and Rescue Department on the occasion of its 68th Annual
Installation of Officers Banquet, and to thank its volunteers for
filling an essential role in keeping our community safe.
The Burke Volunteer Fire and Rescue Department was founded in January
1948, and for more than 6 decades it has provided lifesaving fire
suppression/prevention and emergency medical and rescue services to the
residents of Burke and the surrounding communities. It also provides,
houses, and maintains firefighting and emergency medical equipment;
provides opportunities for professional growth and development for the
membership; and maintains and fosters a strong viable organization.
As one of the county's most active volunteer fire and rescue
departments, the Burke Volunteer Fire and Rescue Department works in
cooperation with the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department to serve
the community. Last year alone, the Burke VFD provided more than 3,000
hours of volunteer time as well as an additional 2,159 hours of
supplemental staffing.
I am honored to recognize the dedicated men and women of the Burke
Volunteer Fire Department who have volunteered for extra duty as
officers or as members of the board of directors.
Board of Directors--President Patrick Owens, Vice President John
Powers, Secretary Tonya McCreary, Treasurer Ian Dickinson, Larry
Bockneck, Rich Guarrasi, Becky Dobbs.
Officers--Chief Thomas Warnock, Deputy Chief Tina Godfrey, Deputy
Chief John Hudak, Captain Melissa Ashby, Captain Keith O'Connor,
Lieutenant Emily Fincher, Lieutenant Kevin Grottle, Sergeant Jennifer
Babic, Sergeant Peter Hamilton, Sergeant Shaun Kurry, Sergeant James
Reyes, Team Leader Paul Stracke, Team Leader/Chaplain Harry Chelpon.
In addition to the men and women who have generously assumed the
responsibilities of serving as an Officer or a member of the Board of
Directors, the Burke Volunteer Fire Department is also presenting
awards to the following individuals in recognition of their exemplary
service during the last year:
Rookie of the Year--Lindsay Fox and Blaine Reis
Firefighter of the Year--Ian Dickinson
EMS Provider of the Year--Caitlin Curran
Officer of the Year--Shaun Kurry, James Reyes
Administrative Member of the Year--Charlene Murphy
Career Member of the Year--FireMedic Anthony Tran
Team Award--BVFRD Bingo Team (Tina Godfrey, Matt Bryant, Charlene
Murphy)
Chief's Award--E414 Procurement Team (John Hudak, Larry Bockneck,
Peter Hamilton, Mike Istvan, George Hahn, Sam Sandeen, Robin Clement)
Mr. Speaker, I ask that my colleagues join me in congratulating the
department for 68 years of service and in thanking all of the brave
volunteers who do not hesitate to drop everything when the community
calls in need of help. To all of these men and women who put themselves
in harm's way to protect our residents I say: ``Stay safe.''
____________________
H.R. 34, THE 21ST CENTURY CURES ACT
______
HON. BARBARA LEE
of california
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition to H.R. 34, the 21st
Century Cures Act, a bill which aims to authorize and promote
biomedical research, mental health, opioid abuse assistance, and
advance medical future research, but falls woefully short.
Unfortunately, this bill is a missed opportunity for Congress to take
meaningful action to address skyrocketing drug prices. It also falls
far short of the funding that is needed to support the National
Institutes of Health (NIH) and to address the growing opioid abuse
epidemic. I also believe that this bill puts the goals of
pharmaceutical and medical device companies ahead of the needs of
individuals.
As a Member of the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education
Appropriations Subcommittee and as an ardent supporter of biomedical
research and public health funding, I was disappointed in the
inadequate funding levels in this bill. Last year, this bill included
$10 billion in mandatory funding for the NIH. Unfortunately, the
revised version that passed the House Floor last week included only
$3.8 billion for the NIH, and it is not mandatory spending.
And to make matters worse, this bill strips $3.5 billion from the
Prevention and Public Health Fund, which provides critical investments
to improve health outcomes through prevention activities like
screenings and public health workforce training. We should be
increasing support for public health programs, not robbing Peter to pay
Paul.
Additionally, I am concerned that this legislation loosens Food and
Drug Administration (FDA) standards for approving pharmaceuticals and
medical devices. While we do need to ensure that new, lifesaving
treatments are available to consumers, we cannot do so at the expense
of safety and efficacy. We need to make the FDA's standards stronger--
not weaker.
Lastly, despite outcry from constituents and despite months of
hearings and press conferences on the issue of rising prescription drug
prices, H.R. 34 did not include any provisions to make drugs more
affordable.
Mr. Speaker, as Members of Congress, we have a shared obligation to
ensure that ALL Americans have access to equitable, high-quality and
affordable healthcare. While this bill does include a few good
provisions, like positive steps to address mental health reform, it
ultimately puts industry and profits
[[Page 16165]]
over patients, and I therefore cannot support it.
____________________
HONORING THE SERVICE OF DAVID SIMAS
______
HON. JIM COSTA
of california
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. COSTA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the service,
dedication, and brilliance of our good friend and distinguished
Portuguese American, White House Political Director David Simas. After
eight years guiding the policy of the Obama Administration it is both
fitting and appropriate to honor his service to the United States of
America where he helped craft policy that improves the lives of
countless Americans.
A self-proclaimed ``Kid from Taunton, Massachusetts,'' Mr. Simas is
the son of Portuguese immigrants, Antonio and Deolinda Simas. Although
his parents did not attain more than an elementary school education,
Mr. Simas ever excelled under their parentage. His father taught him
the impact political policy has on everyday lives and his mother
instilled in him the importance of family and the support they lend in
times of need.
From his upbringing in Taunton, Mr. Simas went on to attend Stonehill
College and later Boston College Law School. Returning home after
graduation, he started a law practice and launched a political career
of his own running for and winning a seat on the school board. Lending
his talents to the local Portuguese community, Mr. Simas defended those
in need and led successful political movements on behalf his friends
and neighbors.
Later, as an advisor to the mayor of Taunton Mr. Simas helped devise
a strategy to bring down the city's health care costs, working with the
public sector unions to reach an agreement that saved the city money
while ensuring access to good health care. Mr. Simas became well known
in Massachusetts policy circles, and in 2006, he joined the office of
Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick where he served as Deputy Chief of
Staff.
It was not long after the 2008 election of President Barack Obama
that Governor Patrick connected the two, officially introducing Mr.
Simas to the President and starting a run of eight years of service to
the President and our country.
Calm, unflappable, clinical, and humble are just a few of the words
used to describe Mr. Simas. He has taken his knowledge and political
acumen and applied them to the service of the American people. He
dedicated himself to pass health care reform, bringing coverage to
millions who previously were left out of the American health care
system.
Mr. Simas has always thought about how the decisions he makes and the
issues he fights for impact everyday people. From his childhood in
Taunton's Portuguese Village to the West Wing of the White House he has
always been an advocate for the disadvantaged and underrepresented. I
wish him, his wife Shauna, and daughters Rowan and Payton the best of
luck in the years to come. In whatever endeavor he finds himself next,
I know he will continue to ask himself the same question President
Obama asked of him: ``Are you doing something every day to help
people?''
I am confident he will.
Mr. Speaker, it is with great appreciation that I ask my colleagues
in the U.S. House of Representatives to recognize the service of Mr.
David Simas and his many contributions to the wellbeing of the American
people.
____________________
HONORING MS. LINDA SEIFERT
______
HON. MIKE THOMPSON
of california
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. THOMPSON of California. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Linda
Seifert upon her retirement from the Solano County Board of
Supervisors. Ms. Seifert has represented the Second District on the
board since 2008 and served as the Chair of the Board from 2012 through
2014.
Ms. Seifert has been a longtime leader in our state's legal
community. She earned her bachelor's degree from the California State
University, Fullerton and then went on to complete her law degree at
the University of the Pacific's McGeorge School of Law. Ms. Seifert led
a tremendously successful law career and became the first female
partner at the McNamara Law Firm in Walnut Creek, before she went on to
serve as General Counsel for the California Dental Association.
Since her election as Supervisor in 2008, Ms. Seifert has been a
champion for Solano County's citizens and our community's future. She
has worked to preserve the agricultural heritage and resources of our
community and to create more park space and recreational services. For
instance, Ms. Seifert successfully pushed to dedicate open space in
Rockville Hills and secured $13 million to permanently protect the land
for future generations.
Education and responsive social services have also been Ms. Seifert's
priorities as supervisor. To protect victims of domestic violence, she
secured the site for the Family Justice Center in Fairfield. She
believes that investing in members of our community improves both their
well-being and our economy.
Mr. Speaker, Supervisor Linda Seifert has been a champion of our
community for the past eight years. Therefore, it is fitting and proper
that we honor her here today.
____________________
PERSONAL EXPLANATION
______
HON. ROGER WILLIAMS
of texas
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. WILLIAMS. Mr. Speaker, on Roll Call 592 on final passage of H.R.
34, the 21st Century Cures Act, I would have voted Aye, which is
consistent with my position on this legislation.
____________________
TRIBUTE TO GUOWEI QI
______
HON. DAVID YOUNG
of iowa
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. YOUNG of Iowa. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize and
congratulate Guowei Qi, a senior at Valley High School in West Des
Moines, Iowa, for earning a perfect score on his American College
Testing (ACT) examination.
Guowei is one of only 2,235 students out of 2.1 million 2017 high
school test-takers who earned this very rare honor. He was one of five
students in his Valley High School class to earn the top composite
score of 36, a milestone that had never before been reached in the
school's history. Guowei was able to accomplish this impressive feat
while still remaining active in a number of extracurricular activities,
including: Science Bowl, Valley High School honors program,
concertmaster of the Valley High School Chamber Orchestra, volunteering
at Iowa Lutheran Hospital, and organizing ``Blank Tales,'' a non-profit
publication by Valley High School students to raise awareness of
homelessness in the Des Moines area.
Mr. Speaker, I commend Guowei for his hard-work, dedication, and
commitment to excellence. I ask that my colleagues in the United States
House of Representatives join me in congratulating him and in wishing
him nothing but continued success.
____________________
HONORING THE 1965 INTEGRATION OF BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA'S WOODLAWN HIGH
SCHOOL
______
HON. TERRI A. SEWELL
of alabama
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Ms. SEWELL of Alabama. Mr. Speaker, today, we honor six individuals--
Myrtice Chamblin, Cynthia Holder, Leon Humphries, Lillie Humphries,
Cedric King, and Rita Eileen King--for courageously integrating
Woodlawn High School in Birmingham, Alabama during September of 1965.
We applaud these six individuals for their noble act to recognize the
historic precedence they established and to acknowledge the exceptional
bravery they displayed.
The mid-20th century was an extraordinarily turbulent time for
Alabama, especially Birmingham. The city and surrounding area had
become a crucible for civil rights activity and peaceful protests that
were often met with inconceivable hostility. Segregation and
discrimination both had a strong grip on Birmingham society, which
affected all aspects of life for African Americans. Despite the
enactments of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments nearly a century
beforehand, Birmingham's black citizens had yet to fully experience the
promises that these constitutional changes intended to engender.
Thankfully, the Supreme Court's unanimous decision of Brown v. Board of
Education in 1954 overturned the long-standing decision of Plessy v.
Ferguson, which had
[[Page 16166]]
emboldened and reinforced the ferociousness of ``separate but equal.''
While these successive legislative modifications and landmark cases
created a platform for diversity in theory, racial inclusiveness was
still confronted with horrific opposition in actuality. It would take
solemn individuals animated with daring spirits to truly produce the
social changes needed to foster an integrated and equal United States
of America. Today, we honor these six outstanding individuals who are
exemplary of the heroicness herein described.
The integration of Woodlawn High School by these stellar young people
was not an occurrence of happenstance. It was not the decision of
adults or older citizens who had completed school many years earlier.
Instead, it was a strategic act by six underclassmen eager to learn. By
boldly encountering aggression and animosity, they knew it was a
sacrifice necessary to create a better city, state, and nation.
Disciplined with the tools of non-violence and aided with the support
of their caregivers and community, these six champions of equality and
freedom that we praise today stood against injustice to impact future
generations. Armed with nothing more than a consciousness of integrity
and dignity, these six young people chose to walk in the line of danger
and take a stand for human equality.
In the spirit of grace and appreciation, we salute Myrtice Chamblin,
Cynthia Holder, Leon Humphries, Lillie Humphries, Cedric King, and Rita
Eileen King for their act of valor. Let their testimony and story of
triumph continue to be a lesson to us all as we stand on their
shoulders to combat oppression. Most importantly, let us not be remiss
in our effort to shine light on exemplars that have moved mountains for
us to walk through and paved paths for us to walk on. The routes we
travel are easier because of you.
____________________
TRIBUTE TO GARY MERSON
______
HON. JOHN CONYERS, JR.
of michigan
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I, together with Subcommittee on
Immigration and Border Security Ranking Member Zoe Lofgren of
California, would like to pay tribute to Mr. Gary Merson for his
outstanding service to the House of Representatives and the House
Judiciary Committee in particular. For the past 15 months, Gary has
served as the chief counsel to the Judiciary Committee's Immigration
Subcommittee.
A native of Lewiston, Maine, Gary's passionate dedication to the
advancement of immigration law and policy is reflected in his
distinguished 18-year legal career spanning private practice, non-
profit advocacy, and government service. Gary will return as the Acting
Director of the Office of the Ombudsman at United States Citizenship
and Immigration Services, where he has served since 2005.
Gary previously served as counsel to the Immigration Subcommittee
from February 2012 through December 2012 during which he played an
important role in advancing the Violence Against Women Reauthorization
Act of 2013. Prior to joining the Ombudsman's Office, Gary was
Government Affairs Counsel with Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy from
1999 to 2005, and prior to that an Advocacy Associate with the American
Immigration Lawyers Association from 1998 to 1999. Gary is a graduate
of Tulane Law School and Vanderbilt University.
Gary's wide-ranging expertise on immigration law and policy and his
longstanding leadership in the area of employment-based immigration
have greatly benefitted both sides of the aisle during the 114th
Congress and this Committee in particular. Gary was exceptionally
instrumental in the efforts of 225 Congressional Democrats (186 in the
House and 39 in the Senate) to file an amicus brief with the U.S.
Supreme Court in United States v. Texas, a case considering whether
certain aspects of President Obama's executive actions on immigration
will be allowed to move forward. Gary also led committee efforts on a
variety of immigration issues in the areas of refugees, immigration
enforcement, high-skilled immigration, the EB-5 program, the H2-A/H2-B
programs and executive authority.
Although Gary entered the chief counsel role during a time of
transition, he was able to handle committee matters with ease and
grace. His rhetorical skills and natural political inclinations made
the transition seamless. Gary's professionalism, dedication to
committee business and pleasant demeanor earned him the universal
respect of members and his colleagues. Gary is easily approachable and
able to provide a witty remark even during difficult moments. While his
guidance and leadership on immigration law and policy will be sorely
missed, we are pleased that he will continue to serve immigrants and
the American people through his work at the Ombudsman's Office.
Mr. Speaker, we applaud Gary's tireless, principled and loyal public
service to the U.S. House of Representatives and the American people
and wish him every success in his future endeavors.
____________________
RECOGNIZING JUSTIN TAYLOR AS AN OUTSTANDING PUBLIC SERVANT
______
HON. ALAN GRAYSON
of florida
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. GRAYSON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the service and
commitment of my Deputy Director of Constituent Services, Mr. Justin
Taylor, for his tireless dedication to the residents of Florida's Ninth
Congressional District.
Throughout his tenure with my district office, Justin has proven
himself to be a vital part of our team. As a caseworker, he has
collaborated with management to improve our casework system so that my
constituents could better receive meaningful, timely responses to their
requests for assistance.
Although Justin is not a native of Central Florida, his commitment to
serving our diverse community is apparent. Since joining my office in
2014, he has made a positive difference in the lives of countless
individuals. Some highlights of his work include assisting veterans in
obtaining critical financial benefits, as well as helping to secure
medical care for the sick and elderly. Furthermore, as an advocate for
LGBT rights in Florida and across the country, Justin played an
important role in assisting family members of the deceased following
the tragedy at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando.
As the 114th Congress comes to an end, so too will Justin's tenure in
my office. I wish him all the best in the next stage of his career in
public service.
____________________
THE 75TH ANNIVERSARY OF PEARL HARBOR
______
HON. JOE WILSON
of south carolina
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. WILSON of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, on December 7, 1941, our
nation was attacked. Today marks the 75th anniversary of the day that
will live in infamy of the surprise attack.
Today is a time to honor the courage and sacrifice of those two
thousand service members that lost their lives in this devastating
attack. President Franklin Roosevelt stated that ``no matter how long
it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American
people, in their righteous might, will win through to absolute
victory.''
As the son of a World War II Flying Tiger of the U.S. Army Air Corps,
14th Air Force, who served in India and China, I am inspired by the
service from this time. They are stories of how the American people met
this unspeakable tragedy head on with remarkable determination. I
believe that it is this same strength that has carried our great nation
through trials since World War II and will be a firm foundation for our
future, learning the importance of peace through strength.
As a grateful 31-year veteran and the father of four sons who have
all served overseas in the Global War on Terrorism, I believe in the
power of our armed forces and the righteous might they demonstrate in
the face of conflicts around the world promoting peace through strength
while liberating dozens of countries.
In conclusion, God Bless Our Troops and may the President by his
actions never forget September 11th in the Global War of Terrorism.
September 11th was the Pearl Harbor of our era with a surprise attack
to destroy our civilization.
____________________
COMMEMORATING THE 70TH ANNIVERSARY OF GEORGE'S SHOESHINE IN PEORIA,
ILLINOIS
______
HON. DARIN LaHOOD
of illinois
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. LaHOOD. Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize George Manias of
Peoria, Illinois on
[[Page 16167]]
the 70th anniversary of his Peoria business, George's Shoeshine and
Hatters World Headquarters, a fixture in the Peoria community since
George began his shoeshine business 70 years ago.
As a small child, George moved from America to Crete, a Greek isle,
before World War II. George, his family, and their community worked
tirelessly to fight off Nazi invasions, often having to shoot Nazi
paratroopers before they could land on the island. Despite their
gallant efforts, however, the Nazis did eventually invade the island.
George's father, a U.S. citizen, was imprisoned numerous times
throughout Nazi occupation during World War II. During this difficult
time, young George went four years without a pair of shoes.
In 1946, as a teenager, George returned to Peoria, Illinois, where he
would become an integral member of our community. He started his
shoeshine business with one seat, charging 25 cents a shine. A model of
the American entrepreneur, George steadily grew his business, making it
the national landmark it is today.
During his 70 years of business in Peoria, countless public figures
have walked through George's doors in hopes of meeting this industrious
man and having the opportunity to place a signed photo in his place of
business. Over the past 70 years, George has met various public
figures, including four U.S. Presidents, numerous U.S. Vice Presidents,
Governors, U.S. Senators, U.S. Representatives, White House Chiefs of
Staff; Mayors, world champion athletes, CEOs, and local leaders.
George's Shoeshine business is known throughout Central Illinois for
the personal service, craftsmanship, and incredible attention to detail
he puts into every shoe he shines. I am honored to share the same
hometown as George, where a humble man can achieve the American dream
through dedication, commitment, and hard work. I extend my sincere
congratulations to George Manias on a successful 70 years and I look
forward to seeing his legacy carry on in downtown Peoria.
____________________
PAMELA NISSLER
______
HON. ED PERLMUTTER
of colorado
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. PERLMUTTER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to applaud Pamela Nissler
for being recognized by the West Chamber as a 2016 Celebrate Women
Honoree. Celebrate Women Honorees are known for their perseverance,
accomplishments, generosity, and dedication to their passions and their
community.
Pamela has been working to support and advance education in Colorado
for more than 45 years. Currently, she serves as the Executive Director
of Jefferson County Public Library (JCPL). Prior to that role, she has
served as the Library Manager, Substitute Librarian, Director of
Community Services, and Director of Library Programs. Pam's seven years
at the JCPL have elevated the institution to new levels in terms of
historical importance and educational value in the community.
Pam is a member of both the American and Public Library Associations,
as well as a past president of the Colorado Library Association. Pam's
involvement in Jefferson County expands outside of the library as a
member of the West Chamber Board of Directors and the Child and Youth
Leadership Commission of Jefferson County. She has also served on
community leadership associations throughout Douglas County and
Highlands Ranch. Pam has a Bachelor's degree in Education and a
Master's degree in Library Science.
I extend my deepest congratulations to Pamela Nissler for this well-
deserved recognition by the West Chamber.
____________________
IN RECOGNITION OF MS. DAWN DICKERSON FOR RECEIVING THE EDUCATOR OF THE
YEAR AWARD FROM THE OMEGA PSI PHI FRATERNITY'S SIGMA MU MU CHAPTER
______
HON. BARBARA COMSTOCK
of virginia
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mrs. COMSTOCK. Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize Ms. Dawn Dickerson of
Broadlands, Virginia, for being named the Educator of the Year by the
Sigma Mu Mu chapter of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity. Ms. Dickerson is
the Assistant Principal at Rock Ridge High School located in Ashburn.
This award was granted to Ms. Dickerson for her work to improve
inclusion and acceptance within the student body at Rock Ridge High
School.
Ms. Dickerson has been instrumental in organizing special events to
help her students become introduced to new topics as our country's next
generation of leaders. One such instance of her devotion was when she
put together a visit from Freedom Rider Joan Trumpauer Mulholland to
speak with students during Black History Month last year. Ms. Dickerson
was also a key component in the Loudoun International Youth Leadership
Summit. This Summit enables students to engage in discussion with, and
learn from, a number of international delegations who attended the
event.
Ms. Dickerson's role as Assistant Principal at Rock Ridge High places
her in a position where she can have a positive impact on the lives of
countless young minds. This recognition from the Omega Psi Phi
Fraternity comes as a result of her dedication to the students of
Loudoun County, and it is a reflection of the wonderful and civic-
minded citizens we have throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Mr. Speaker, I ask that my colleagues join me in congratulating Ms.
Dawn Dickerson from Rock Ridge High School for receiving this Educator
of the Year Award from the Sigma Mu Mu chapter of the Omega Psi Phi
Fraternity. I wish her all the best in her future endeavors.
____________________
RECOGNIZING THE FAIRFAX COUNTY EXCELLENCE IN COMMUNITY SERVICE AND
PUBLIC SAFETY AWARDS
______
HON. GERALD E. CONNOLLY
of virginia
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. CONNOLLY. Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize the Fairfax County
Alcohol Service Action Program (ASAP) on the occasion of the 25th
Annual Excellence in Community Service and Public Safety Awards. This
year's awards are being jointly sponsored with Mothers Against Drunk
Driving.
ASAP is a criminal justice program which uses community and state
services to reduce the problem of driving under the influence of
alcohol or other drugs. It identifies and provides appropriate services
to offenders convicted of driving under the influence or other
substance abuse-related charges as referred by the local courts. The
goal of ASAP is to improve transportation safety by decreasing the
incidence of driving under the influence of alcohol or other drugs and
thereby reducing the number of alcohol or other drug-related crashes.
According to the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles, in 2014
nearly 36 percent of all traffic fatalities in the Commonwealth were
alcohol-related. Tragically, more than 40 percent of those killed in
alcohol related deaths were ages 21-35. While alcohol-related traffic
deaths in Virginia have been on the decline, we are still averaging a
crash nearly every hour as a result of drunk driving. Sadly, national
statistics reflect an 8 percent increase in alcohol related traffic
deaths in the first 6 months of 2015 when compared to 2014. We can only
hope that, thanks to the work of organizations like ASAP and MADD, that
trend begins to reverse.
Every year, ASAP honors those in the law-enforcement community who
have been instrumental in fighting impaired driving. I am pleased to
include the names of this year's recipients.
City of Alexandria: Officer Anthony LaRusso.
Arlington County: Officer Brett Kooharian.
Fairfax County: APO Donald Brodie, PFC James Burleson, PFC Hyun
Chang, Ms. Annette Dodson, Officer Harrison R. Gamble, OFC Sameer A.
Kahn, APO William Ridgeway, APO Richard Zhu.
City of Fairfax: Officer Bryan P. Nelson.
City of Falls Church: Officer Kevin Hedden, PFC Dimitri Issaev.
George Mason University: Sergeant Michael F. Lighthiser, MPO Edward
T. Gannon.
Town of Herndon: PFC Eliezer A. Cabo, PFC Charles W. Findley.
City of Leesburg: Officer Bradley Schultz.
Loudoun County Sheriff's Office: Deputy Ruben Cardenas, Deputy Glenn
P. Keough.
City of Manassas Park: Officer Christopher Koglin.
Prince William County: Officer Simon Chu, Officer Christopher
LaFarree, Officer Jeremy Schenck, Officer Brett Tillett.
Town of Purcellville: Officer Kristopher Fraley, Corporal Clark
McDaniel.
[[Page 16168]]
United States Park Police: Sergeant Jonathan Daniels, Officer Pentti
Gillespie, Officer Christopher Gogarty, Officer Greg Harper, Officer
David Lamond, Officer Lisa Marie Weisbaum, Officer Charles Whiteman,
Sergeant Adam Zielinski.
Town of Vienna: Officer Ara Post, Officer Brad Reedy.
Virginia State Police, Division Seven: Trooper Nicholas Casey,
Trooper Diego A. Espinosa, Trooper Lorenzo Goode, Trooper Kevin
Fleenor, Trooper Adam Hassan, Trooper Andre D. Jones, Trooper Tomasz
Karbowski, Trooper Zachary Koon, Trooper Wesley Paul, Trooper Michael
Walton, Trooper John Yacek.
Town of Warrenton: Sergeant Arthur Leeper, Officer Matthew McGuirk.
Mr. Speaker, I congratulate the 2016 award recipients, and thank each
of the men and women listed above for their service to our community.
Their efforts are selfless acts of heroism that save innocent lives and
truly merit our highest praise. I ask my colleagues to join me in
commending this extraordinary group of law enforcement professionals.
____________________
REMEMBERING PEARL HARBOR--75 YEARS LATER
______
HON. TED POE
of texas
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, the sun was lazily rising on the
horizon over the islands of Hawaii. It was around breakfast time on a
stunning Sunday morning. It was quiet, peaceful, calm. People felt
secure. There was a small tropical breeze as the American flag was
being raised on a nearby flagpole. On December 7, 1941, America was at
peace and unprepared for war.
Suddenly, large formations of aircraft swarmed the blue Hawaii sky.
The rising sun was darkened by hundreds of Japanese planes as they
strafed and bombed Pearl Harbor. The Japanese unleashed a fury of
deadly, devastating bombs and torpedoes on the small island. The first
attack of the Second World War on American soil was underway. It was 75
years ago today when Luke Trahin, a 22-year-old sailor from Beaumont,
in southeast Texas and his fellow sailors, soldiers, and marines saw
war unleashed upon America.
Until that moment World War II was a far-off conflict. America
watched silently, abstaining from the violence. But the days of
innocence were over. America was under attack.
The Japanese had caught America by surprise and took advantage of an
unprepared nation. And after the smoke cleared on that morning of
madness, 98 Navy planes and 64 Army aircraft were destroyed. Luke's
unit, Patrol Wing One, lost all but three of its 36 aircraft. 2,471
Americans, servicemen, and civilians were killed by this unwarranted
invasion of terror from the skies.
The pride of the United States Navy, the battleships--West Virginia,
California, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, Maryland, Nevada, and Arizona--
were trapped in the harbor. They made easy targets for the Japanese
pilots. The sailors onboard these battle wagons fought with the courage
of entire legions of warriors when they were attacked by a skillful,
fanatical, and tyrannical enemy. All of these fierce U.S. Navy
battleships were sunk or damaged. Their guns, Mr. Speaker, are now
silent.
The hull of the USS Arizona became the sacred graveyard in the
peaceful Pacific for more than 1,177 American sailors and marines. Luke
Trahan and his Navy buddies in Patrol Wing One quickly got organized,
prepared, and waited for two days for the expected land invasion of the
Japanese. It never came. But America was at war.
World War II had long been raging before America officially entered
into the conflict. Spreading from the Pacific to Europe all the way to
Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.
The Japanese, then the Nazis; seemed undefeatable. But even the
Japanese were concerned about the spirit of America. The Japanese
commander of the Pearl Harbor invasion remarked that what Japan had
done was wake a sleeping giant. Millions served in uniform overseas;
millions served on the home front; all sacrificed for the cause of
America. The nation woke from a somber sleep of neutrality and, with
our allies, defeated the tyrants that would rule over the world. That
was a time when Americans put aside all differences and united to
defend freedom in our Nation. When the war was won, over 400,000
Americans had given their lives for this nation.
Until September 11th, this was the deadliest attack on U.S. soil.
``December 7, 1941, a date that will live in infamy,'' were words
spoken by President Franklin D. Roosevelt that became forever embedded
in the minds of patriots across our land, igniting and launching a
nation into the fiery trenches of battle throughout the world.
Those of that Greatest Generation proved that when the peace of this
nation is threatened, our people will stand up and fight back, bringing
the thunder of God upon our enemies. Defending freedom and liberty was
the battle cry of the sailors and soldiers that died 75 years ago at
Pearl Harbor. We must continue to remember December 7th, 1941 and the
Americans who stood tall and kept the flame of America glowing
brightly.
And that's just the way it is.
____________________
TRIBUTE TO DR. BRUCE RICKER
______
HON. DAVID YOUNG
of iowa
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. YOUNG of Iowa. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize and
congratulate Dr. Bruce Ricker, of Mount Ayr, Iowa, for being inducted
into the Mount Ayr Community Schools Hall of Fame.
Dr. Ricker graduated from Mount Ayr Community Schools in 1975, where
he played on two state tournament basketball teams in 1973 and 1975. He
earned his degrees from the University of Iowa and the Iowa College of
Osteopathic Medicine and Health Sciences. After interning and
practicing medicine in Phoenix, Arizona, Dr. Ricker returned to Mount
Ayr in 1997. He practices medicine at the Mount Ayr Medical Clinic and
serves as the Medical Examiner for Ringgold County, Medical Director
for HCI Hospice Care Services, as well as for Clearview Home and Mount
Ayr Health Care Center. In 2003, Dr. Ricker was named Physician of the
Year by the Iowa Osteopathic Medical Association and was presented the
Spirit of Hospice Award by the Iowa Hospice Association.
Mr. Speaker, Dr. Ricker's efforts embody the Iowa spirit and I am
honored to represent him in the United States Congress. I ask that all
of my colleagues in the United States House of Representatives join me
in congratulating Dr. Ricker for his achievements and in wishing him
nothing but continued success.
____________________
RECOGNIZING GARY ELLIS
______
HON. ERIK PAULSEN
of minnesota
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. PAULSEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the
accomplishments of Mr. Gary Ellis. Mr. Ellis is retiring from medical
technology leader Medtronic this month after 27 years of service,
including 11 years as the company's chief financial officer.
Mr. Ellis's leadership and vision dramatically contributed to
Medtronic's financial well-being and the well-being of thousands of
Medtronic employees. During his tenure with the company, Medtronic's
revenue increased from $837 million in 1989 to $28.8 billion in 2016, a
34 times increase. Importantly, he helped oversee the growth of the
company from approximately 7,000 employees in 1989 to more than 88,000
employees today. Mr. Ellis is known for his sound advice, mentorship
and positive outlook, and has provided honest and insightful counsel to
the Medtronic Board of Directors, the chief executive officer, his
peers and his team.
Importantly, as part of Medtronic's Mission to alleviate pain,
restore health and extend life for people around the world, the
company's impact on people's lives grew exponentially during Mr.
Ellis's leadership. In 2005, when Mr. Ellis became chief financial
officer, the company proudly improved the life of someone every 6
seconds. Today, as a result of strong leadership, growth and
innovation, Medtronic technology improves the lives of two people every
single second, or more than 65 million people per year.
In addition, Mr. Ellis has demonstrated his commitment and passion
for community through philanthropic activities and Board service,
including service as Chairman of the American Heart Association Board
in 2007 through 2008, as well as dedicated service on the boards of the
Greater Twin Cities United Way and the Science Museum of Minnesota. He
has also played an active leadership role and contributed many years of
Board service to his local church.
Prior to joining Medtronic in 1989, Mr. Ellis was a senior audit
manager for Price Waterhouse, where, in addition to several other
responsibilities, he managed the Medtronic audit for nearly 10 years.
He
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worked with several large corporate organizations, as well as providing
audit services to numerous non-profit organizations.
Mr. Ellis grew up on a farm in Sac City, Iowa, and originally aspired
to be a math teacher. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in
accounting in 1978 from the University of South Dakota. Above all, Mr.
Ellis is a family man, who cherishes spending time at the lake with his
wife, Sue, their two children, and five grandchildren. Though his
leadership will be sincerely missed, I wish him the best in his
retirement and thank him for everything he has done within the business
community and within the Twin Cities community.
____________________
PERSONAL EXPLANATION
______
HON. ROGER WILLIAMS
of texas
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. WILLIAMS. Mr. Speaker, on Roll Call 593 on final passage of H.R.
6393, the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017, I would
have voted Aye, which is consistent with my position on this
legislation.
____________________
ROUGH RIDGE AND ROCK MOUNTAIN FOREST FIRES
______
HON. DOUG COLLINS
of georgia
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. COLLINS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak about the
Rough Ridge and Rock Mountain forest fires that have recently impacted
Northeast Georgia.
Over the past few months, my district has experienced a severe
drought that at one point led to a rainfall deficit of more than a foot
and especially affected thousands of farmers in Northeast Georgia.
This October, I had the opportunity to learn more about the drought's
repercussions from the Georgia Commissioner of Agriculture, Gary Black,
and about 40 local farmers who have struggled with the historic
drought.
Unfortunately, the effects of the drought went beyond affecting our
farmers, and, as wildfires continued to burn in Rough Ridge and Rock
Mountain, I was deeply concerned.
In fact, the Rough Ridge and Rock Mountain forest fires have each
affected over 20,000 acres of land in Northeast Georgia.
Today, I am grateful to report that the Rough Ridge and Rock Mountain
forest fires have been 95 percent contained. I would like to thank the
firefighters, police, emergency management and medical teams, and many
others who have worked long hours at demanding jobs to ensure the
security and safety of the public during this uncertain time.
Mr. Speaker, I look forward, in the near future, to sharing the good
news that the Rough Ridge and Rock Mountain forest fires have been
completely contained.
____________________
IN RECOGNITION OF PACTV
______
HON. WILLIAM R. KEATING
of massachusetts
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. KEATING. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in recognition of PACTV's 20th
anniversary. PACTV is a non-profit public access television station
that operates six channels whose content is available to over 35,000
households in Duxbury, Kingston, Pembroke and Plymouth, Massachusetts.
This community-based television station, first established in 1996 by
the cable committee and selectmen in Plymouth, was founded with the
idea that community television programming could be vastly improved.
Over the past 20 years, PACTV has flourished and benefitted the
communities it serves. PACTV has provided a state-of-the-art community
multi-media facility and encourages citizens to participate in the
democratic process by providing access to local government coverage and
programming. Further, PACTV provides video production classes, has
meeting spaces and an art gallery open to the public and helps local
non-profits and community service providers to organize and promote
events.
Over the years, PACTV has accumulated a highly qualified staff that
is constantly working with the community and a dedicated board of
directors from both industry and non-profit organizations to bring
greater quality programming to the Commonwealth. To this day, PACTV
continues in the fine tradition of community access television
providing a first amendment forum undiluted by commercial
considerations.
Mr. Speaker, I am proud to honor PACTV on this joyous occasion. I ask
that my colleagues join me in wishing PACTV continued success in
providing high quality television programming.
____________________
HONORING DEBORAH HUNT
______
HON. JOHN R. CARTER
of texas
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. CARTER of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the
distinguished career of Deborah Hunt. With her retirement approaching,
she will soon close out over twenty years of incredible service to her
community and begin the next chapter of her life.
Deborah has fulfilled her duties with dedication and innovation. Her
commitment to public service started in 1994 when she served as Justice
of the Peace in Williamson County. Through the years, she continued to
serve her community through various public positions, including her
appointment to the Board of Tax Professional Examiners by Former
Governor George Bush and later appointed Chair of the Board by Former
Governor Rick Perry.
Deborah is well known throughout the state for paving the way to
modernize her department. She led the implementation of on-line
payments and simplification of tax collections. Her office has served
as a test site for the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles to pilot
upgrades and new systems. Deborah's leadership is this arena has made a
real difference in the lives of Texans.
Deborah's commitment to service and the highest standard of
excellence has not gone unnoticed. Recognized by her colleagues for her
devotion and hard work, she has achieved a long list of accolades,
including Person of the Year as well as the Earl Luna Award, and the
Marilyn Albert Achievement, the highest honor recognized by the Texas
Association of Assessing Officers.
Deborah Hunt's extraordinary commitment to service reflects the best
values of Central Texas. There's no doubt that Williamson County is a
better place because of her. I heartily salute her work and wish her
the best of luck in all her new endeavors.
____________________
12TH ANNUAL OHIO STATEWIDE TRIBUTE TO ROSA PARKS
______
HON. JOYCE BEATTY
of ohio
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mrs. BEATTY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor and celebrate Rosa
Parks, ``the Mother of the Modern Civil Rights Movement.''
On December 1st, we marked the 61st anniversary of Rosa Parks' arrest
for refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery City Bus.
Her defiance sparked the peaceful 381-day Montgomery bus boycott,
leading to the desegregation of our Nation's public transportation
system.
Rosa Parks, though small in stature, embodies the enormous impact one
person can make.
In recognition, 50 years later in 2005, as a member of the Ohio
General Assembly, I spearheaded a bill to designate December 1st Rosa
Parks Day, making Ohio the first State in the Nation to do so.
This year marks the 12th annual tribute to Rosa Parks and I look
forward to joining all Ohioans in celebration tomorrow on December 8th.
In that spirit, today and every day, let us be inspired by Rosa Parks
and never forget that one person can ignite change.
____________________
RECOGNIZING MS. DEEDEE CHOWDHURY
______
HON. GERALD E. CONNOLLY
of virginia
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. CONNOLLY. Mr. Speaker, I rise to congratulate Ms. DeeDee
Chowdhury on her selection as a recipient of the KinderCare Education
Legacy Award.
KinderCare Education is the largest private early childhood education
provider in the US, and plays a critical role in preparing young
children for school. KinderCare Education serves 150,000 children in 39
states and the District of Columbia. Approximately 23 percent of their
children are infants and toddlers. For
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over 40 years, KinderCare Learning Centers have been a place where
every child can learn, explore, and discover in a safe and nurturing
environment in more than 1,400 community-based centers. KinderCare
leads the nation in accredited centers and is passionate about
providing children a sense of discovery while preparing them for
success in school and beyond.
Every year, KinderCare recognizes a select few teachers by naming
them recipients of its Legacy Awards. This year, one of the honorees is
my constituent: Ms. DeeDee Chowdhury. Ms. Chowdhury is an educator at
the Silverbrook KinderCare Learning Center located in Lorton, Virginia.
As a result of winning this prestigious award, Ms. Chowdhury will
receive a $10,000.00 prize and will also travel to the National
Association for the Education of Young Children's Annual Conference.
Ms. Chowdhury is dedicated to educating the youngest members of our
society. Early education has been proven to directly impact future
academic performance as well as economic opportunities for children who
have enrolled in Pre-K programs. Through her commitment and efforts,
she is helping to ensure the future success of not only her students
but of our community. As a parent and former member and Chairman of the
Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, I understand that how the success
of our communities is largely dependent upon the quality of our local
schools, and that the quality of our schools is inextricably linked to
the professionalism and expertise of their teachers.
I have always considered public service to be one of the most noble
of professions and the services provided by our educators are no
exception. I commend Ms. Chowdhury for her service to our children and
the Northern Virginia community. I ask my colleagues to join me in
congratulating her on receiving a 2016 Legacy Award and wishing her
great success in all future endeavors.
____________________
PAMELA GOFF
______
HON. ED PERLMUTTER
of colorado
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. PERLMUTTER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to applaud Pamela Goff for
being recognized by the West Chamber as a 2016 Celebrate Women Honoree.
Celebrate Women Honorees are known for their perseverance,
accomplishments, generosity, and dedication to their passions and their
community.
Pamela Goff has been President and CEO of PG Construction Services,
Inc. for more than 21 years. She is known for her strong community
engagement, willingness to jump right in, and her ability to plan and
execute major projects. Pam obtained her Bachelor's degree in
Accounting from CU Denver and completed her graduate course work in
Management Accounting. She has maintained a CPA license for more than
30 years and also holds a Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA)
certification.
Pam currently serves on the Board of Directors and on the Finance
Committee for LocalWorks in Wheat Ridge, and has been involved in
numerous other committees to support small businesses and the larger
community. Pam was one of the founding members of the Wheat Ridge
Business Association (formerly Enterprise Wheat Ridge) and served as
the past president for four years. Pam has been recognized as a
recipient of the `CPAs Who Make a Difference' Award and has served as
the Grande Parade Marshall for the Annual Wheat Ridge Carnation
Festival.
I extend my deepest congratulations to Pamela Goff for this well-
deserved recognition by the West Chamber.
____________________
RECOGNIZING THE CAREER OF PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY POLICE CHIEF STEPHAN M.
HUDSON
______
HON. GERALD E. CONNOLLY
of virginia
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. CONNOLLY. Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize the career of Prince
William County Police Chief Stephan M. Hudson and to congratulate him
on his retirement following 34-years of dedicated service to county
residents.
Founded on July 1, 1970, the Prince William County Police Department
serves as the primary form of law enforcement for the county and the
towns of Dumfries, Occoquan, Haymarket, and Quantico. At the time of
its founding, the Department had a staff of 52, which included police
officers, commanders, dispatchers, and secretaries, and an operating
budget of $750,000. Today, the Department has grown to more than 845
individuals with an FY16 annual operating budget of $96.6 million. Over
his three-year tenure as the head of the department, Chief Hudson has
increased the number of sworn officers and increased the budget by over
$20 million to better serve the growing community.
In 2013, Stephan M. Hudson was sworn in as the third police chief of
the Prince William County Police Department. Since his installation,
Chief Hudson has stressed the importance of creating a diverse police
force reflective of Prince William County's minority-majority makeup.
Police Chief Hudson has also made increased police contact and
transparency with Prince William County residents one of his top
priorities. In his short tenure, Chief Hudson has done just that. The
Police Department has achieved a 93 percent satisfaction rate in the
community and has made significant strides to increase diversity in the
police force, including in leadership positions. In the past three
years, the department has promoted its first ethnic minority and first
female assistant chiefs. As a strong advocate for police
accountability, Chief Hudson successfully lobbied the Board of County
Supervisors to equip 500 of the department's officers with body
cameras. Later this year, the Prince William County Police Department
will become the largest municipality with officers to don the device
and utilize the technology in the Commonwealth. To preserve the quality
of police services, the Department continues to work on three capital
improvement programs: the Central District Station, the Animal Control
Facility, and the Public Safety Training Center Rifle Range.
Chief Hudson is not only admired by the police department's rank and
file but by county residents for his strong personal ties to the
community. While his childhood was spent in Boston, Massachusetts,
Hudson graduated from Gar-Field High School and has resided in the
county ever since. As a proud resident of Prince William County for the
past 40 years, Chief Hudson and his family are actively engaged in the
community. His wife Roxana is the current principal at Belmont
Elementary School. Together, Chief Hudson and his wife have two
children and three grandchildren who were all born and raised in Prince
William County. Devoted to his faith, Chief Hudson and his family
worship at McLean Bible Church where they travel twice a year to
participate in mission trips to rural Kenyan villages.
Over the span of his career with the Prince William County Police
Department, Chief Hudson has displayed the true meaning of civil
service through his commitment to the rule of law while maintaining
professionalism and diligence in serving the community. His values have
endured the test of time and shaped the present culture of our Police
Department. Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in commending
the 34-year career of Chief Stephan M. Hudson with the Prince William
County Police Department and in thanking him for his tireless service
to our community. As a fearless leader, Chief Hudson rose quickly
through the ranks with the Department. I have full confidence he will
do the same in all future endeavors. I wish Chief Stephan M. Hudson and
his family continued happiness and success in all future ventures.
____________________
TRIBUTE TO MICHELL RICKER
______
HON. DAVID YOUNG
of iowa
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. YOUNG of Iowa. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize and
congratulate Michell Ricker of Mount Ayr, Iowa, for being inducted into
the Mount Ayr Community Schools Hall of Fame.
Michell, a 1975 graduate of Mount Ayr Community Schools, is a
licensed social worker. Upon her return to Mount Ayr after college, she
was employed by Ringgold County Public Health and served as a well-
known community leader and advocate. She is an avid volunteer, holding
a number of positions on community and state boards, including South
Central Iowa Community Fund, Ringgold County Teen Center, the Iowa
Department of Public Health, and the Iowa chapter of International
Cooperating Ministries. In 2014 she was also awarded a Governors
Volunteer Award for her outstanding commitment to helping others.
Mr. Speaker, Michell's efforts embody the Iowa spirit and I am
honored to represent her in the United States Congress. I ask that all
of my colleagues in the United States House of Representatives join me
in congratulating her for this recognition and in wishing her nothing
but continued success.
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